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The ForumCome on in and talk games and Gamics with us! Today's Word04/28/08 _____________ Very brief Word today. GTAIV. I get mine tonight. I will be playing. I will be taking a day off work. I will let you know how it goes... It has affected my ability to do anything. I am merely waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
04/22/08 _____________ There're two things about the Tomb Raider series of games that keep me coming back over and over, and no, it's not THOSE two things (although they don't hurt...). Fun Factor and Gameplay. Two pretty important things if you ask me (or anyone, really). However, with the release of Tomb Raider Anniversary and Tomb Raider Legend in a relatively close time frame, how these things have changed over the years really became apparent for me. Yes, you're pretty much still doing the same thing you've always done in the games, but the shifts in how it's executed is definitely apparent. First off, you won't see me making a Gamic of the Anniversary version, whereas Legend is perfect for the translation. The key factor being story! While the original Tomb Raider of course had a story (a far superior story to Mario64 - the other revolutionary 3D game of the day), it was no where near as in depth as that of Legend. Legend gives me dialogue between Lara and her support team during gameplay, it has all kinds of extra in between missions cut scenes, and has extended dialogue scenes before each mission. Plenty of time to get her Gamic talk-on. Whereas Anniversary, and the original game, they seemed to be only dipping their toe in the story world. So is one better than the other? It'd be hard to definitively say. The most positive thing going for Anniversary was their approach to gameplay. They would bring into you into a large room, show you the door on the other side, and then sit back and watch as you took two hours to make your way over to said door. Memorable levels being the one where you are in a Tomb (go figure) and have to make your way down a LOOOONG interior drop, collecting four keys from sub-rooms, in order to open the one door at the bottom. The other being a water room with bridges and ledges where you had to raise and lower water levels to find the sneaky way to get out. Anniversary was big on "arena style" gameplay where they contain you in a specific area for a while as you go at it. Legend on the other hand is all about getting you from one locale to another. Where Anniversary miraculously had five unique tombs all linked together in the ultimate combo chain move, Legend wants to get you from one country to the next with the blink of a load screen. Legend is linear. There are lots of times where you find yourself going down a long series of hallways (seriously, who makes such long, twisty hallways except for video game designers) never to return to the previous room. And the talking. The talking. The talking. There really are no levels where you placed in a large arena and have to figure your way out. It's typically go straight down this hallway, kill bad guys, jump a few things, and you're out. Two quite different games. Now don't get me wrong! I like the talking! I LOVE that games have continued to evolve in the story-driven medium. I also like a nice linear action/adventure game. I find them, ahem, fun. So of course I'm very keen to see which way they take Tomb Raider Underworld, since they've promised a "woman vs nature" type game, and I sincerely hope this first foray into next-gen-only gaming for Lara finds them evolving the gameplay once more and not just the graphics (although that wouldn't hurt too!). Do you like old style or new style Tomb Raider? 04/10/08 _____________ It's always fun to read analysts predictions when it comes to game consoles. Well before this latest round of Next-Gen consoles hit the shelves no one would've predicted Sony would take such a fall from grace. It's astounding how they didn't pay attention to history at all, which has repeatedly shown an overpriced console just WILL NOT SELL. Coleco Vision was much pricier than the Intellivision and Atari 2600 and was the runt of the litter in sales. The Sega Saturn. Too much money. The NeoGeo!! Ugh... Even rich guys were saying, "Hmm I can't afford that!" So why Sony thought they could get away with a $700 machine is beyond me. I mean, hey, lookie-lookie what happened when they dropped the price to $399. Sales through the roof!! Yet I'm not here to talk about the history of consoles, or pricing models good or bad, I'm here to talk about what I'm playing! What console is really getting me going, and it may surprise you. It certainly surprised me... The PSP. Huh, whuzzat? For the longest time I had to have ALL the available consoles on the market because I just couldn't NOT play a game for the lame reason of I didn't have the console!! And by longest time I mean, since I was able to afford them on my own (thanks credit cards!). I was a big supporter of the original Xbox (I even had the green HALO one). It was easily my preferred system over the PS2. The Gamecube, ya, it collected some nice dust. Only fanboys would say the PS2 was better in the graphics department. Sure, sure the PS2 was unquestionably the sales champ, but for the fun factor, the Xbox was the one to play. When the next-gen rolled around I was ALL OVER the 360. I didn't pre-order, and just happened to see a Wal-Mart employee coming out with his last four on launch day. One came home with me. I played and played and played. And it was good. I won't get into the games, but I tapped probably 75% of them. Then... the dreaded Red Ring of Death hit my machine! I had to spend 45 minutes on the phone with the 360 support guy saying "Either you give me a new one for free, and you get more money from me in games, or you don't, and you get no money in games from me. Money, or No Money." He chose money and 3 days later I got my new free machine. However, what this did was put suspicion into my mind about the 360. When will the red ring strike again? That thought sat in the back of my mind, harping at me like the deranged kid from The Shining: Redring, Redring, Redring! Yet, I remained true to the 360. I did not buy a PS3 at launch. Too expensive. I refused. But it was HAAAARD. Secretly I knew I coveted it. I wanted it. I practically felt I neeeeeded it. My precious PS3. But I resisted. For a while... Eventually, YES, I bought a PS3. And, I was under-whelmed. The interface was too simple compared to the 360. There weren't enough games. I didn't need an HDMI port. I (still) don't need THAT much memory. I constantly have to dust it... And, lo-and-behold, a few short months later, I SOLD it! At a garage sale no less! Let this be an interesting lesson to you. If you ever have a garage sell, be sure to have a PS3 on hand to sell. Women LOVE garage sales. They'll poke around at everything and drag their men along with them who'll stand around bored and wait for it to be over. But when the guys see a PS3 box on your fold-out table, they all go, "huh, wha...? PS3?" Then the guys come over and drag the women along! That was probably the only time a PS3 acted as a chick-magnet. Anyway, this is a short story I'm making long, so I'll continue. My PS3 was gone, and it was back to me and my trusted 360. Why, I even went out and traded up for the Xbox360 Premium with the bland flat back finish, the HDMI port (I had an HDTV at this point), and the larger HDD (I still didn't need that much storage). Heck, as I write this I remember now that I already had a PSP in the past and sold that too! Sony just wasn't doing it for me... So what changed it all? One word (or is it two?). Blu-ray. I caught wind of the death of HD-DVD from various blogs and websites before it became official so I acted quickly. I jumped on eBay and sold off my 360 and HD-DVD player (it sold in less than 6 hours) and strolled on down to Blockbuster to pick-up my (second) new PS3. That was it. The strange thing is there's still hardly any games for it, but I don't mind! Now I find the "simple" interface to be easier to navigate. I love the slick blackness of the body. I love the controller (and the built in chargeability). Blu-ray movies look better than HD movies. And as for games, well, until GTAIV comes out, I've been trying to scale back on my gaming (but that's for another Word). In comes the PSP. I have three games. Final Fantasy Crisis Core. Silent Hill Origins. GTA Vice City Stories. Now it's my turn to say, "Huh whuzzet?!" Those are three of my favourite franchises, and I get to play them all at once? What! How? Cool! Sure, sure, the PSP is a few years old now and in the beginning maybe the game selection sucked it, but I have one now and that's what matters (to me). However, the best part is that in my effort to try and scale back on gaming (life does offer other things to do), the PSP is a perfect fit. That crappy little nub that you use to control the games, you know the one you have to awkwardly crook your thumb to get at, well, that thing limits my playtime to about a half an hour before my hands say, "Forget this!!" And there I am. A self-admitting Xbox fanboy sitting around with a PS3 and a PSP, and no plans for Xbox in the near or far future. I stand gasping. I sure didn't see it coming... Kudos Sony. Well fought. 04/07/08 _____________ Hi (again!) Well, I'm officially flipping the lights back on! Let's get the Gamics rolling! Just a brief note this morning, but be warned, I do have a LOT of gaming topics all piled up to talk about very soon! For now, just a few items of business to take care of: Do you have a Gamic you'd like to see on the site? Send me an email at gamics@gmail.com. I'll likely be back on the Tomb Raider Gamic I started a while back, plus checking in on the Adventures of Dave & Steve to see how they've been enduring their time in limbo. The Forum has also been reset, I just need to get a bit of help flipping the linking to it. For now, if you want to take a short-cut head to www.gamics.com/phpbb Talk to you more soon! *Nathan
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