What a Year - 2010 Review

2010 was a landmark year in my life for many reasons.  Getting married and buying my first house top the list.  And when I look at the year in video games there are a few things that really stand out.  Let's take a look at the big themes for 2010 and how they affected the video game industry.

Economy

The lagging recession and subsequent struggling economy had a major impact on video games in 2010.  First of all, there really are only two major developers left in the industry, Electronic Arts and Activision.  Back in the day, there were several equally important video game developers, but as the cost of creating a video game has risen to Hollywood blockbuster levels (over $100M), the small development company has become extinct.  In 2010, we saw that in full effect as Bungie (Halo series) was purchased by Microsoft and Infinity Ward (Call of Duty series) was purchased by Activision. 

This is going to have two major effects on the industry over the next several years.  The first effect is going to be the numerous iterations of very similar titles.  There's too much money at stake for these companies to go out on a limb with new untested video games.  Instead, they know they will make a fortune by repackaging an already successful series.  This was very apparent in 2010 with titles like Halo 5, er Halo Reach.  Call of Duty 7, er Call of Duty Black Ops, Fallout 3, Fable 3, Assassins Creed 2.5, er Assassins Creed Brotherhood, and Mass Effect 2.  All very successful titles.  All sequels.  And all will have many other sequels in the upcoming years.

The second effect will be the increased production of these games.  Have you ever felt that during the summer, there are just simply too many movies to see?  The same thing is going to happen to the video game industry.  It's easy to put a new coat of paint on a Call of Duty game and ship it out.  So instead of having a new Halo game every three years, we will see a new game every single year.  A huge blockbuster game will be released every single week leading up to Black Friday every year.  The gamer will just have to decide what game they want and stick with it.  You are either a Halo fan or Call of Duty fan.  Either Fallout or Fable.  There will be no room for in between which is a shame because all of the games are very good and I'd love to play them all.  But being a 30 year-old married homeowner, I don't exactly have the time.  And if you are a 17 year-old high school student, you don't exactly have the money.  So make your choice and stick with it.

Death of the Console Casual Gamer

Casual gaming was all of the rage a couple years ago when the Wii was first introduced.  But in 2010, with the struggling economy, the Casual gamer focused their funds elsewhere.  No one was buying Wii games in 2010 and the developers took notice and took their games to other systems.  The Wii for the first time ever was not the most popular console sold, and took a backseat to the Xbox 360.  What does this mean?  It means that the casual gamer bought their Wii for Wii Sports and now it's sitting in their living rooms collecting dust. 

It also means that the big launches of Xbox Kinect and Sony Move fell flat.  The devices are impressive, especially the Kinect, but the games aren't there.  People who thought the technology was cool bought the systems during the initial launch and then the sales fell off a cliff.  There just aren't any games that would get the hard core gamer to buy the equipment.  And since there are no gamers, the developers can't afford to develop games.  At the end of the day, Microsoft and Sony jumped into the game too late as the casual gamer has moved onto something else.

Welcome to the App Store

And where have those casual gamers gone?   To their phones.  There was a huge explosion of games for all of the Apple Iphones and Droid devices that have got those casual gamers flocking to.  With wildly successful titles like Angry Birds, Bejeweled, and Plants vs Zombies, the wireless video game industry has arrived.  Now casual gamers are simply turning on their phones and playing a game for a few minutes at a time.  They don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on a system and then $60 a pop for a game.  They can simply download a game in a minute which will entertain them for a few hours for .99c. 

This wave has taken over the industry and has been a place where the independent developer can really shine.  It doesn't cost much to create a game and a good game can make you millions.  Something as simple as Angry Birds can be one of your most enjoyable gaming experiences of the year.  It certainly was for me.

And this industry is just in its infancy.  The possibilities are endless.  Games are just starting to sync up with Facebook so you can casually play with your friends.  It's truly a huge growth area for 2011.

Overall, 2010 gave us some great games and while some areas of the industry are taking off others are cruising right along.  There were more people playing video games in 2010 then in any other year ever.  I can only hope the industry and people in it really take another step forward in 2011.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer

You're Simply The Best! - Review of Mass Effect 2

The first Mass Effect was released a couple years ago at the exact same time as the first Assassin's Creed.  I was lucky enough to receive both of them for the holidays and so I had the very difficult decision of choosing which one to play first.  So I decided to play Assassin's Creed while the 30YO Roommate played Mass Effect.  In the original Mass Effect, you had several choices throughout the game to do a heroic action or to be a bad guy.  The story for the most part played out the same way.  My roommate played the hero in his playthrough of the game so when it was my turn to play I decided to be the biggest asshole in the universe.  It was hysterical.  At least until Mass Effect 2 was released earlier this year.

For the first time ever the sequel to a video game remembered all of the individual actions you chose in the first game and carried those actions into the sequel.  So if you killed a character off in the first game, they would still be dead in the second.  So guess who was remembered for being the universe's biggest asshole?  That's right, The 30 Year-old Gamer.

Well, I'm happy to report that by the end of Mass Effect 2, I had successfully changed my image back to the true hero that I really am, saved the universe once again, and had one of the most memorable video game experiences in a long time.  Simply put, Mass Effect 2 was the best video game of the year.

You play as Commander Shepard, and the impending doom of the entire universe is once again your responsibility to avoid.  To do this you must recruit a team of the baddest, smartest, strongest mercenaries in the galaxy for a suicide mission to the other end of the galaxy.  The game plays like a great episodic show on TV.  Each mission takes about an hour to an hour and a half to complete.  There's a mission to recruit each member and another loyalty mission for each member to become loyal to you.  This is important later.

Once you feel it's time for the suicide mission, off you go.  But be warned, if your team is not fully prepared, or if you made some bad decisions along the way, not all of your team will survive the mission.  I've talked to many people who have played this game and everyone of us has a different experience.  Some people of my crew who died, lived in their story and vice-versa making the story of Mass Effect truly unique to everyone who plays it.

Each mission is action packed and the voice over work is the best I've ever seen.  The graphics are stunningly beautiful as you fly across the galaxy from industrial planets to rural planets.  The universe that the developers have created feels real and massive.  And finally, the story is just captivating.  I simply did not want this game to end. 

You don't need to play the first Mass Effect to play the sequel, but I don't know why you wouldn't want to.  If the promised third Mass Effect is anywhere near as good as the first two games have been then we will be talking about this trilogy for decades to come.  Mass Effect 2, you are simply the best.

Until next time,

 - The 30 Year-old Gamer

The Old Arcade, Blew Every Dollar We Ever Made

One of the harsh realities of growing older is that some of the things you remember so fondly when you were younger may not be as great as you remember.  Some things just don't age well.  For example, have you ever seen an episode of the original GI Joe cartoon recently?  Man is that animation choppy and the plot is just stupid and physics just don't exist.  Someone can fire a missile at an airplane sitting on the ground and the pilot has enough time to open the canopy, climb out of the airplane, and run to a safe distance before the plane explodes.   Riiiiight.  Unfortunately, the same concept holds true for video games.  I found out this harsh reality recently when I downloaded X-Men: The Arcade Game on Xbox Live.

To say that this game was my favorite arcade game is an understatement.  When I was a teenager my best friend and I would pour over $20 in quarters into this game and play it until we beat it every single summer.  It was the video game that got me into comic books and I've been an X-Men fan ever since.  Arcades have basically disappeared and this game disappeared along with them.  I literally haven't played this game in over 15 years.  That is until, it was finally released this week on Xbox Live.

The game is simple enough.  You play as one of six X-Men characters and you have to battle the forces of Magneto through various levels beating up an army of bad guys and various boss villains until you defeat Magneto himself and save the day.  The cool part of the arcade game was that you could play along side 5 other people at once.  The game was huge and was the original widescreen game.  They pulled off the widescreen the old school way of putting two tv screens beside each other.

In the 15 years since I played this game, my fondness of it grew and grew.  I remember thinking this game was an epic adventure that took dedication to finish.  It was the game of ultimate teamwork where you played along side 5 strangers and only together could you defeat Magneto.  I thought it was a genre defining video game and couldn't figure out why they never released it to a console before today.

Then I downloaded the game...

My first sign of concern was during the download process.  I downloaded a pinball game earlier this week and it took over 300 megs of memory.  X-Men took only 42 megs.  Uh oh.

The graphics couldn't look worse.  Every character looks like they had too much fiber for breakfast.  And the story doesn't make any sense.  In today's comic books, Magneto and Prof X have buried the hatchet and are best friends.  The White Queen (Magneto's woman in the game) is now sleeping with Cyclops and is the X-Men's #2 in command.  And half of the other bad guys died in the comics over 5 years ago.  So why are we all fighting again?

Oh and this epic game of teamwork couldn't be more repetitive.  Press the X button to attack, repeat.  That's the game.  It gets pretty old very quickly.  And speaking of quickly, this epic adventure of dedication was beaten this afternoon in 27 minutes.

It was a nice walk down memory lane, but sometimes some things should stay fond memories.  I'll probably go back and play it again and just laugh at how silly the whole game has become.  Just because I was brought up in the old school, doesn't mean I don't appreciate how good the new school is.  I truly believe that we are in the golden age of video games and I challenge anyone to tell me that the games that they played 10 years ago are any way better than the ones out now.   Its ok to appreciate the memories of the old games, but lets play the new games instead and leave the old games in the past.

Until next time,

 -The 30 Year-old Gamer

Blinded By the Light - Review of Alan Wake

Everyone has heard of the game Red Dead Redemption. It's basically Grand Theft Auto on horses in the Wild West. The game sold huge numbers the week it was released. Which is why for the life of me I don't understand why the good people at Remedy decided to release their game Alan Wake on the exact same day. That week I walked into a Gamestop looking to buy a game and was torn between which of the two to buy. The teenage kid working behind the counter was giving me this hard sell or Red Dead, at which point he said something like, "I'm sure who ever your are buying this game for will love Red Dead Redemption." At which point I looked right at him and said, "In that case, I'll get a copy of Alan Wake." What a great decision, because Alan Wake is simply one of the best games of the year that no one is talking about.

Alan Wake is the story of a writer named (you guessed it) Alan Wake, who goes on a vacation with his wife Alice to the town of Bright Falls located in the Pacific Northwest. Think the town of Twin Peaks crossed with the town from Twilight. It's cold and dreary and everyone in the town is really nice but all very odd. Shortly after arriving at your rented lake house, Alice goes missing and Alan blacks out. When he wakes up, he's in the middle of the forest at night with the only his flashlight and gun to protect him. Here's where things get all higgledy piggledy. Alan gets attacked by all kinds of locals who are possessed by some kind of darkness and the only way to kill them is to shine the flashlight on them until the darkness disappears and then shoot them dead.

The story is absolutely great. It's engaging and you truely want to know what is going on in this town and what happend to Alice. The atmosphere is awesome. The use of shadows in this game are amazing. Light is your only safe haven and you find yourself frantically looking for it at all times. The idea of using batteries for your flashlight like ammo for a gun is ingenius. When you are running through the woods and the flashlight starts to flicker out because your battery is dying, you start to feel real terror.

Now I'm past the point of gory things scaring me. I don't get scared by the Resident Evil games or anything like that. But this game, with it's use of darkness, had me on the edge of my seat and jumpy the entire time playing it. One time, in the middle of the night, I'm playing Alan Wake and The 30YO Wife sneaks up behind me and says hello at which point I screamed which made her scream which made me scream louder. That's the sign of an engrossing game.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Alan Wake and beat the game in about 10 hours. There's two extra downloadable contents that are about an hour each, so overall your adventure with Alan is about 10-12 hours. The game ends with a cliffhanger leading us into a sequel. My only concern is because these guys got killed at retail by Red Dead Redemption, I'm not sure if a sequel will be greenlit. I certainly hope it does because Alan Wake was a great example of great story telling and engrossing game play. If you are looking for an intense thriller for a video game, look no further.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer

The Return of The 30 Year-Old Gamer

It's March of 2010 and The 30 Year-old Gamer is living in a one bedroom apartment with his Fiancee, The 30YO Fiancee, in Hoboken New Jersey. We are two months away from from our wedding day and everything is going great. I'm sitting in my "man cave" which can best be described as a "man corner" because our apartment is so small. I'm playing online when a kid sees my gamertag and asks, "Hey 30YoGamer, what are you going to do when you get older? Are you going to change your gamertag or will you always be The30YoGamer?" I thought about it for a second when I replied, "No, I will always be The 30 Year-old Gamer."

It's now December and as I look back at the past ten months a lot of things have changed. For starters, The 30YO Fiancee is now The 30YO Wife. We no longer live in a one bedroom apartment in Hoboken. We bought a townhouse in Morristown New Jersey. My "Man Cave" has been disassembled, but is in the process of being rebuilt bigger and better than ever. My Blog was put on hold, because, well I simply just didn't have any time to get to it. But as I turn toward the New Year and look toward the future, I will get back into my blog and talk more about video games and the things I notice.

Because even though my life has had some major changes this past year, there are some constants that haven't changed. I'm still playing games whenever I can. I still think that video games are for everyone, hardcore and casual gamers alike. And I still believe that I can provide a unique perspective, the thoughts of a 30 Year-old Gamer.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer