What a Slow Summer of Gaming

Wow has it been a slow summer of gaming. Here we are in the middle of July and there is nothing really to talk about. There are no new games out there and it doesn't look like anything interesting is going to be released for at least another month. So here are just some quick notes about some things that are going on in the industry.

Bioshock 2 Delayed Until 2010

It was announced earlier this week, that the sequel to one of the best video games I've played in the past 5 years has been delayed. Bioshock was a huge hit two years ago for the Xbox and the much anticipated sequel was originally scheduled to be released this holiday season. Apparently due to quality issues, they have decided to delay the game until the 1st half of 2010.

I personally think this is a good thing. There will be plenty of game to play this holiday season and this fantastic game could get lost in the mix. And it would be very disappointing if they released this game and it was buggy and sucked. What a let down that would be considering how fantastic the first game was. If it means that they need another 6 months to get the game right, I can wait. I think more publishers should care more about the quality of their games and do this. Besides the first Bioshock was released during the spring and it did fantastically well. There is no reason this game can't do the same.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 to be Released July 28th

I don't usually play Xbox Arcade games. They are usually throw back games and when I do play them, I realize how dated the games are and after 20 minutes I usually don't play the game ever again. That won't be the case with Marvel vs Capcom 2. This was an arcade game that I played til my fingers hurt in college. It pit the best Marvel characters vs the best Capcom characters from their games. You wanna know who would win in a fight between Iron Man and Mega Man? Now you can find out.

This game will get an update in graphics and controls and be released for the Xbox Live Arcade on July 28th. I can't wait. I'll be there the day of with my arcade fighting stick and taking Ryu apart with Wolverine. It's going to be awesome!

My Nintendo Wii is a Paperweight

What seemed to be just a no-brainer when I first bought the system, the Nintendo Wii has done nothing but disappoint. Have they even released a game in the past 6 months? My Nintendo Wii sits there underneath my TV begging for me to play with it. But every time I get an hour or two to play games, I always turn on my Xbox. This is very disappointing, because the Nintendo Wii had so much potential. But I feel that the games are just not that deep and get boring after 30 minutes of playing. Maybe my feeling will change as I fight through the dog days of summer, but right now, my Nintendo Wii is a lonely lonely system.

Those are just some of the things going on right now. Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer

Everybody Was Kung Fu (Street) Fighting!

For those of you around my age, I don't have to tell you how much of a phenomenon Street Fighter 2 was for the arcade. It was simply the last hurrah of the now defunct video game arcade. Back in the mid-90's, Capcom released a game that was so simple to play, but hard to master, that it was incredibly addicting young teenage gamers around the nation. Every arcade or mall had one and for each game there was always that one kid who was awesome at it. Kids would line up for their chance to beat him. I was not that kid. I was the kid who waited 25 minutes to put two quarters in the machine just so "Street Fighter Scotty" could embarrass me in front of everyone. The game was simple. You would choose a fighter and then fight against one other fighter. If you beat the fighter you would move onto the next round and play a harder fighter. After 8 rounds, you fought the big boss and then you beat the game. Controls were easy. There were three buttons for punch, and another three buttons for kick (light, medium, and strong). Each character had different moves and a different combination of the buttons would make each character perform a different move. Here's the rub though. Anyone in the arcade could walk up to the machine and challenge you by putting in 50 cents. If they beat you, you were bounced from the machine and the winner would take over your progress in the game. The game became so popular, the actual single player game never finished. It was just a line of challengers.

It's been over ten years since those glory days, but last month Capcom brought them all back with the release of Street Fighter 4 for Xbox and PS3.

This game is a great advancement for the series. And while the basics remain the same, the game is much deeper. For starters, each character now has "Special" and "Ultra" attacks. These are meters that fill up at the bottom of the screen throughout the fight. If you fill your meter and can hit your opponent with one of these attacks, look out. That guy is screwed. The graphics have the full high-def treatment which make the game look outstanding.

What really makes this game standout is the online features. You can completely recreate that old arcade feeling by opening up your game to challengers. You just start your game like you normally would and then randomly "A New Challenger has Entered the Arena". Your game stops as a random player from Xbox Live now challenges your game, just like the old days. Awesome!!!

There is one major drawback to this game and I have to mention it. If you want to play this game somewhat seriously, you need to buy a new controller. The game was originally designed to be played in an arcade. That means an arcade stick with 6 buttons. Some of the major moves require you to hit three buttons at the same time. While that's easy as pie in an arcade, you practically have to break your thumb to do it with the Xbox controller. These arcade fighting sticks are $60 extra on the cheap end and as much as $140 if you want a professional stick that they use in tournaments. So that means this game could cost anywhere between $120 to $200 to get the full experience from. I'm not sure about you, but that's a lot of dough to drop on a single game regardless of how good it is.

I ended up buying the lower end arcade stick and I love it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good video game. Perhaps I just wanted to recapture some of my youth. Or perhaps I just wanted to kick the crap out of complete strangers on line like Street Fighter Scotty used to kick the crap out of me over 10 years ago. Either way, I can see this game staying in my active rotation for a long time to come.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer

I Chose The Wrong Game

I've always enjoyed Christmas. And I think that getting presents for me is a pretty easy deal. I usually give everyone a suggested list of the games that I'm interested in and they go out and get them. Last Christmas, there were a lot of video games on the market that I was interested in and I couldn't give the entire list to everyone, so I had to eliminate a few. In particular, there were two role playing games that seemed very similar, Fable 2 and Fallout 3. I had to choose one over the other. I had heard some pretty good things about both games and so I made a tough decision. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong game. I chose Fable 2.Now don't get me wrong. Fable 2 is not a bad game. I just don't like it. It's a simple as that. I could give you many specific reasons and break down the graphics, the game play, etc. But at the end of the day, I found this game incredibly boring.

Here's a quick background on the game. You play as a small boy (or girl) in this medieval land. You get called up to the castle and meet the prince where he unexpected murders your sister and tries to murder you. You escape but it takes like 10 years to recover from your wounds. Now you are set free on a path of revenge and redemption. You go out into the land and are faced with choices on your quest where you can be either good or bad. Depending on your decision, your appearance will change as will the environment around you.

Now I like video games and I try to give every game I own every chance to win my affections. Fable 2 I gave two chances, there won't be a third. In both chances I came across the same problem. The story forces you to stop playing the storyline and forces you to do other things in the world. It will say things like "you aren't renown enough to continue." Basically, you have to do more side quests to become more famous before some priest will entrust you to continue on with the main story line.

Here lies the problem. I don't want to do the side quests. They are stupid and a waste of time. And you don't know where the side quests take place. So you have to roam through the open land following some yellow trail like Dorothy fighting off birds, beetles, robbers, and every thing else in the land to play the stupid quest. Two weeks ago, I had a little time before dinner to play the game. When I sat down, the 30 Year-old Fiancee asked me how the game was. With my head in my hands, "I played for over an hour and I've done nothing. I'm literally nowhere farther in this game than I was 90 minutes ago."

That, to put it bluntly, sucks. This game is trying to be bigger than it is. It tries to show you that this world is full of life. You can get a job as a blacksmith to earn money. Or you can get married, buy a house, and have some kids. But who cares? If none of that gets you any closer to revenging your sister's death, why do it. What a waste of time. And those "moral decisions" that the game markets? Pointless as well. It doesn't matter if you slaughter half a village in cold blood. The moment you make a joke in public the remaining villagers forget what you've done and think you're a swell guy.

No, I'm done with this game. I don't have much time to play video games in my life, and I'm not wasting another minute of that time doing nothing within the land of Fable 2. This game was awarded "Game of the Year". In my opinion, it was the most disappointing game to see my Xbox console in 2 years.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer

The Return of E3

Well folks, this is a very exciting week in the world of gaming. It's the week where all the major players in the gaming industry meet the press and the gamers. They introduce and show off all of the new toys and games that we will be killing each other for this holiday season. They show us the stuff that is almost done and the stuff that is just in development and still a year or so away. It's a time where we can all get together to celebrate everything that is gaming. It's the week of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It's E3!

E3 started on Monday with the big keynote speech from Microsoft. Then on Tuesday it was Nintendo and Sony's turn. There are also presentations from the big game developers such as Electronic Arts. Then it's time to hit the floor to check out all of the booths and play a level or two from some of the games that won't be released for months to come. I've been following along all week long and I have one word to describe this year's E3...."yawn".

I'll get into what the big announcements were from the different companies in a bit, but first let me touch upon something I mentioned a few months back...the recession. I felt that this was going to be a bad year for gaming. Discretionary income is way down, and that means so is discretionary spending. The cost of creating a video game is astronomical and game developers aren't going to spend that kind of money this year on a game that doesn't have an installed fanbase already. So that means we are going to see more sequels than ever before. And sure enough, that's what the big announcements were for this year.

Microsoft

Microsoft's big announcement was the development of a new kind of controller where you can play with your arms and use the motion of your arms to control the character's on the screen. Sound familiar? It should, because it's a blatant rip off of the Nintendo Wiimote. Sure Microsoft says theirs takes that technology to another level by introducing a camera that will recognize you and your actions. But seriously, this won't be released for at least 12-18 months, so really who cares?

As for games that Microsoft will be rolling out this holiday season. They announced sequels to some very successful games including Left 4 Dead 2, Mass Effect 2, and Assassin's Creed 2. All three were great games and I'm sure the sequels will be good as well, but there's really nothing new here. On the shooter side of life, they introduced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST, which is Halo 3: the sequel. All of which will be good, but again, nothing new. It's a safe secure holiday for Microsoft.

Nintendo

Nintendo is really going to push their Wii Fit franchise this year with Wii Fit Plus. They really think they have something here and are going to really push some programming for it as well. It could be pretty successful, but again, the Wii Fit was introduced last year, so nothing new.

Mario is back. They introduced a new Mario game with Co-op gameplay. It looks like a basic Mario game, and I'm sure it will sell like hotcakes.

They also introduced a new advanced Wii Motion Plus, which when attached to the Wii-mote makes it more sensitive to your actions. So when you play Tiger Woods Golf, it really takes into account every mistake in your swing. Sounds pretty cool, but we'll see if it makes games to hard. Sometimes forgiving gameplay is ok. I'm pretty sure that I can't beat Tiger Woods in real life, so there's no need to make me face that humiliation in my living room.

Sony

Sony is still playing catch up. And guess what they introduced? Yup, it's a Wii-mote like device that will "revolutionize" gameplay. Again, like Microsoft, this is a blatant rip-off of the Wii-mote and is at least 12-18 months away from release, so who cares?

To Sony's credit however, they have introduced some original gaming with the game Heavy Rain. The game looks beautiful and has a very artsy "Blade Runner" look to it. I think it could be one hell of a good game, and I hope it gets the commercial success it deserves. Otherwise it's just going to me more sequels with higher and higher numbers at the end of the titles.

Overall

Overall, I'm happy that the gaming industry is moving forward and fighting the recessions with everything it can. I really liked some of the original games these sequels are based on, so I'm happy to sit down and have another Assassin's Creed adventure. I just hope that this isn't a long-term trend. Without new "real" innovation and new games with new themes, the gaming industry will hurt itself more than any recession ever could.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer

Everybody Was IPhone Gaming!

About a year ago, I wrote a blog about how I thought if done correctly the IPhone could become the killer of the PSP. Well here we are about a year later and that has truly come full circle. As I write this blog, millions of people are currently downloading all kinds of games from ITunes to play on their IPhone and IPod Touch. Games generally cost anywhere between Free and $10, and here is the real secret...they're good!

Apple has done mobile gaming right. Each game is relatively easy to play, and all can be played in very short periods of time. This is key. For the most part when you are playing games on the go, you really have less than 15 minutes of where you can play the game. Maybe you are on the subway or you are waiting in line somewhere and you want to kill time. You can't pull out your PSP and start getting into a very involved stage of something. It will take you 5 minutes alone just to get to the start screen. With the Iphone, you're gaming in seconds.

The biggest problem with the PSP was what I described last year. There is no way to play your PSP without making it look completely obvious that you are playing your PSP. Last year I carried my PSP around with me for two weeks trying to find opportunities to play it. Say I'm out at a restaurant with the 30 Year-old Fiancee, and she steps away to go to the bathroom, I can't pull out my PSP and start playing a game of Madden. She would be furious. She's understanding when it comes to my gaming, but that's pushing it. However now, I can pull out my Iphone and start playing Tiger Woods Golf, and it looks to everyone in the restaurant that I'm texting someone. This is completely socially acceptable. No one has any idea that I'm on hole 17 at Pebble Beach putting for par. Awesome!

It didn't take too long before I figured out the greatness of this and started playing games like a madman. I've got Monopoly, Tiger Woods Golf, Metal Gear Solid, and the Price is Right. True story...a few weeks back I'm in Washington DC with a buddy of mine and we're having a few beers before we have to meet his parents for dinner. I slide over to him my phone and he starts playing the Price is Right. He's loving the game. Gets to spin the wheel and makes it to the showcase showdown. Needless to say we ended up running late to dinner. The cost of that game was half of the cost of one pint of beer.

Apple is really onto something here and the more 3rd party developers get on board the greater it's going to be. This fall Iphone Madden comes out. I can't wait to take my Patriots to the Superbowl...all while sitting at my desk at work.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer