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Clouding Judgement with trends and fads

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I know the last time I posted I promised a week of Guitar Hero goodness, but I have to break the promise to rant about something else.

As you might have noticed, Portal has become something of the darling of the games industry right now. Everyone seems to be in love with it, which I am glad to see, as it truly is a remarkable game.

At the same time, I’m not glad to see it. I look at the videos of people’s best speed runs through Portal’s challenge levels, and I am amazed at how much power the simple portal concept has given gamers. The solutions you can find are incredible mixes of speed and creativity, and it fills my mind with a flurry of ideas for fast, visceral platforming levels using the portal gun. →  They’re reading her… and then they’re going to read me!

Best Buy Hero

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After recovering from a brutal hangover Sunday morning, I set out with my roommate obtain Guitar Hero 3. Now, due to past horrific experienced with Best Buy, I had first sought to order it from Amazon.com, but was told I would not receive said game until mid November. This was deemed unacceptable. So we headed to Best Buy.

Upon arriving, we found, to our glee, a fully stocked display of Guitar Hero 3 games. I quickly grabbed two copies for the Xbox 360 (one for me, one as a gift for a friend), and my roommate grabbed an extra guitar. As I walked away from the display, I was accosted by a Best Buy employee, who, seeing two of us, informed me that there was a one-per-customer limit. →  It was the best of games, it was the worst of games

Guitar Hero and Wally World

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It’s Guitar Hero 3 week here at videolamer, at least for me. I’ll be sprinkling the site with various blog posts (and eventually the big review) all week. Today we start with a minor, interesting issue made major and critical. It appears that many (or all) of the PS2 and 360 bundles being sold at Walmart and potentially a few other stores are being sold not with the new Kramer and Les Paul controllers respectively, but with older model SGs and Xplorers. Naturally, the internet is blowing itself up over it.

This leads to a few questions. First, why was this bundle made? It certainly was not a packaging mistake. The only logical answer I can think of is that they are being sold to retailers for less so that Walmart can get the price edge over competitors. →  What is a post? A miserable little pile of secrets.

Review hegemony

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Gamers expect very specific review scores for certain games. When Twilight Princess got an 8.6 the internet almost self destructed. Recently, Ratchet and Clank got a 7.5. People are in an uproar over a game they have never played. It’s a triple A title and deserves a triple A score seems to be the prevailing wisdom.

There are a few ways to look at this phenomenon. The first and plainly stupid view is that reviewers are doing their job poorly or are biased. I believe money has changed hands for good reviews but have a tough time swallowing that Microsoft payed for R&C to get a low score. The next and significantly more rational perspective is that the people complaining are actually in the minority. →  SNK Article Classics Vol. 1

Nintendo – update your stupid console

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I have curly red hair. Why does Nintendo hate me? How difficult would it be for them to add some new hair colors and styles to the Mii options? Their lack of effort is either indicative of laziness or deep seated hatred for non-Japanese people and frankly, either of those is culturally insensitive (particularly the latter) and pisses me off.

Also, stop allowing for such asinine polls. Neither black cats nor ladders have control over human affairs and anyone who says otherwise is an inbred peasant, or perhaps retarded Japanese farmer (just trying to even the score here). Though it may stretch the very boundaries of what human beings are capable of, please give us polls with three or dare I say four possible answers. →  Holy crap, show me more!

Newest Nolan Bushnell quote: relevant or Old Fogey talk?

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Nolan Bushnell, the man that essentially created the video game industry (which automatically makes him my lord and savior) had some harsh words to say about the current state of video gaming in an interview with Electronic Design.

“Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I’m sad for that,” says Bushnell.

Now, let’s forget that this man single-handedly destroyed the video game industry right after he created it with a plethora of sub-par Atari games. I mean, there’s a dump solely dedicated to letting E.T. cartridges get the much-needed suntan that they deserve.

And let’s forget the fact that Bushnell has been out of the video game business ever since he created Chuck E. →  Go ahead, read my day.

When Dwarves And Sailors Unite As One

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The other day while traipsing about the internet, I stumbled upon a trailer for Atari’s upcoming game, The Witcher. Having not heard of this game before and having always wanted to yell, “She’s a witch!! Burn her!” and then be able to light said witch aflame, I decided to watch the video. What followed was a long and drawn out tour of this medieval looking city being conducted by some white-haired guy that needs to eat a sandwich and stop talking like Max Payne. Still, I had nothing better to do so I continued to watch the trailer. That is when it happened.

My leather-clad tour guide dropped the “F-bomb” as he casually meandered through the scene.

At first, I didn’t think much of it. →  [do not click]

NPD Schadenfreude

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I’m a small, petty man, but maybe you are small and petty, too. If so, you may enjoy these comedic comments from a popular PS3 forum. The context is the following – Halo 3 sold 3.3 million copies in less than two weeks, MS sold 527k 360s, Nintendo 501k Wiis, and Sony 117k PS3s.

“this is just an example of what the media can do to a console. ps3 was just released in the wrong world.”

“And why would any one expect Heavenly Sword to see better then it did it has no advertisement at all and there are only 6 million ps3s out as of now so if you compare that to halo selling 3.3 million of 360 with 10 million units old then its allot closer then it looks.” →  Can you read me now?

Metal Gear Ac!d 2 knows you won’t read the manual

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I’m pretty bored this Sunday evening, so here’s a blog post that no one will actually read.

I picked up Metal Gear Acid 2 on PSP with the extra little scratch I got from trading some games in (more on that in a future article). First thing I noticed was the manual was a five or so page black and white pamphlet. I’m used to pieces of crap like this from EA, which seems to be pushing just how close they can get to three page manuals including the first page of warnings. But Konami doing this with one of their (as they call it) signature series? It didn’t make any sense, especially since the art inside the case is wonderful. →  Think outside the post.