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Jedi Fanboi vs. Noob!

Posted by bongo on July 7th

Read More: Pop-Culture, Video Games, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

There is an odd line in the game review of Star Wars: the Force Unleashed over at the Wired.com blog. The author states,
“I don’t know much about Star Wars.”

I was taken aback. How the hell could they expect someone who is a self-admitted Star Wars Noob review this game? Are they seriously suggesting that it is OK for some jerk who doesn’t care about Star Wars to get a copy in advance, and then gets to offer opinions to the world on the game?

Oh hell no. That is not a good idea, that is a slap in the face.

Am I fanboi? Probably. But whether or not I am doesn’t matter. What does matter is some flippant jerk got to review this game for the entire world and he doesn’t really give two-cents about the Star Wars fanbois across the globe!

I am also a Lucas Arts fanboi. I have played a variety of games from back in the 1990s up until now. I have several opinions about the good, the bad, and the laggy. I have opinions about why some games were better than others, and why I skipped some titles altogether. (Mostly drunkenness).

I don’t generally flame how a company decides to do business, but the Star Wars franchise is just that, a franchise. Even if they secretly mock us behind closed doors while sipping latte and eating their granola bars, they could at least assign this gaming topic to someone who has at least a little consideration for the fanbois. That would be far, far better than some fly-by-night hack who can’t tell a Wookie from a Wendigo.

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Three Ways to Improve Rock Band

Posted by Oscar on December 31st

Read More: Pop-Culture, Video Games, Arbitrary conclusions, Music, PS3, Xbox 360

I’ve been playing Rock Band for a few weeks now and I’ve concluded that it’s a great social game. However, it could be improved. Here’s how:

1 Multiple instrument support. If a song has two percussionists we should be able to use two drum sets. Same for two guitar songs and especially for backing vocals.

2 Different peripheral support. I don’t just mean the keyboard device. I want dance pad support for dancers. Light gun support for security, it could be a taser to keep the crowd from rushing the stage. Camera support for gratuitous groupie flashing. Rob the Video Robot support for… well… I don’t know but you get the idea.

3 More diverse music. After looking at many of the forums about the downloadable content for Rock Band I’ve determined that I’m the only person on earth excited for the Grateful Dead pack (all 18 songs–I’d even take different live versions of each). I still want more diverse stuff though. Especially the BEATLES. I want every song recorded by the Beatles. They could be released chronologically, a couple songs at a time or as one giant pack… whatever, just give me every Beatles song.

How Sony will end up on top of the video game industry, again

Posted by Oscar on January 22nd

Read More: Technology, Contextual Theatre, Video Games, Arbitrary conclusions, Halo 3, Wii, PS3

Two generations ago Nintendo introduced the world to the analog thumbstick on the Nintendo 64 Controller (1996) and changed the way video games were interacted with. It gave console players an intuitive controller that allowed for more complexity than they’d experienced before. At the same time PC gaming was experiencing a revolution with the now standard mouse and keyboard coming into their own as incredibly deep and also intuitive game interface devices. Roughly one year later Sony introduced the Dual-Analog Controller to their Playstation and created the best controller that will ever be made that doesn’t feature motion sensing (I would probably consider the 360 controller the best if it weren’t a complete rip-off, an argument can be made that it’s wirelessness differentiates it enough to garner it the top ranking but I disagree. Leave a comment if you’re still pissed).

Whether Sony realized it or not their dual-shock effectively mimicked and simplified the keyboard/mouse pc standard and allowed Microsoft’s Xbox to step into the market with Halo and Halo 2. The games that most effectively used the dual shock style controller and allowed Microsoft to compete in a market where they could have easily failed.
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