Caribbean

Why does the Wii have so many terrible games?

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I’m not particularly upset about Nintendo’s shift towards casual gamers. Wario Ware, Animal Crossing, and Mario Kart are all awesome series and if I need a second console to play long jRPGs then so be it. Even if expanding the market somehow eliminates niches that are occupied by Japanese RPG developers, which seems counterintuitive, there will still be more good games than I have time to play.

What upsets me about Nintendo is how they allow publishers to use the Wii as a toilet. Boogie could have easily been a good game but it seems EA just gave up halfway through development. Sega had an unknown (to me at least) developer work on their Alien Syndrome game. The best way to pay homage to an arcade classic and to revitalize a franchise is not by making a mediocre game.

Then there are Blazing Angels, Splinter Cell and a handful of other garbage Ubisoft releases. At the bottom of the list we find Bug Island, Rampage, Wing Island and Chicken Shoot. →  PaReader the Reader

Battle to the OST Death: Morrowind vs. Oblivion

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I’m not gonna lie. I love listening to video game music. It’s my favorite genre of music, and it takes a long time for me to switch off and listen to anything else. I have amassed a huge collection of video game OST’s over the years, which I may or may not be proud of. It’s hard to tell.

For this week, I’ve put a lot of time into the Elder Scrolls series, most notably Morrowind and Oblivion, and I thought it would be nice to give my impressions on the two OST’s.

I first started with Morrowind, as it is the third installment of the Elder Scrolls series, first released on the original Xbox. Both soundtracks are based in the classical genre, much like what you would hear from the Lord of the Rings movies. But Morrowind is much softer with its notes. There aren’t many times in the OST where it makes your heart start to race, like what the Halo theme or the Pirates of the Caribbean theme does to you. →  Read, I am your father!

Bad Design 2

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Last time I wrote one of these I said this entry would look at design flaws from Gladius, Second Sight and Kingdom Hearts. I hate to let down the droves of Second Sight fans, but this will have to wait until the third entry. Today I’ll be following in the strong tradition of the first article by covering a PC game, a console game and an older game. Also like last time, all are good or excellent games I highly respect. Now on to why they suck.
I want to be the Gentle Tom Boy, but it’s not on the list yet.

Tales of Symphonia: Excess Complications – I am a big fan of complex games. The more features and stats, the more I like a game, but even my madness has limitations. Tales has a few complications that I find excessive. The thing about excessiveness, though, is that if a feature is well implemented, if its placed into the gameplay nice and deep and it really matters, well then it isn’t excessive. →  I’m gonna take you for a read.