Welcome, welcome to the 5th installment of BlogBanter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! BlogBanter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about BlogBanter should be directed here. Check out other BlogBanter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month’s topic:
Discuss one game you quit before completion because of a particular perceived flaw it had. What was that flaw and how could it have been fixed where you would have finished the game?
Wow, what a question: what one game did I quit because of a flaw?The better question is what games did I not quit because of what I felt was a perceived flaw.
To a large extent, the idea that any packaged entertainment event could hold a person’s attention span for more than 8 hours is rather incredible.We live in a time when we are rarely asked to devote our attention to anything for more than a few minutes.
That said, rather than focus on the games I did not finish, it might be more interesting to try to recall the ones I did finish.Keeping to just this generation:
Oblivion: I really didn’t like Oblivion all that much, but I found it to be addicting.I finished all the main quest and most of the side quests.I had over 30 hours in that game.Considering that I found it sac religious to some extent, it’s pretty impressive that they could get me sucked into that game.
Halo 3: This is the first Halo game I ever played the single player campaign.To be honest, I found the story, dialog, and acting to all be B-movie level at best.The music was good.The cutscenes were not impressive.The story is complete garbage.I would have never played it without online co-op or midnight launch event excitement.
Bioshock: I meant to finish Bioshock.I really thought it was awesome.After about 8 hours, however, I got tired of the scary bits and quit.Sorry, Ken Levine.I did like it, but the intensity was a little too much.
Gears of War: See Halo 3 description JBad story, bad acting, depressing – generally not very likable.But man, is the co-op fun!
Fight Night Round 3: You weren’t expecting to see this title on the list, were you? Nope.But it’s here.Because that game was awesome and the single player career was a total blast.I loved every minute of it.It’s probably only a 6-8 hour game, but it’s a fun 6-8 hours.
Crackdown: I didn’t get all the achievements, but I played the story mode on this game and loved it.Another co-op friendly title.See a trend here?I spent tons of hours looking for orbs, jumping cars, and raising hell.The most underrated game on the 360.
Viva Pinata: I am still not sure how Rare pulled this one off.It’s the only good game they’ve made in the past 10+ years, and it’s great.Like an oasis in a desert of terrible titles.But VP is great.The single player is addictive and fun.And it never got old.I could play through it again.How often can you say that?
Gun: I think this game has had its reputation tarnished because the graphics weren’t quite up to snuff at launch and it quickly went to the bargain bins.But what a bargain bin game this is!Gun is great.It’s the only western-themed FPS to really pull it off.It’s got a good story, fun characters, and fun gameplay.I would love to see a sequel…maybe with co-op play
So there you go: a list of games that I actually enjoyed – quite the break from the norm.I love picking out games’ flaws and ripping them to shreds.But today, let’s celebrate some games that actually made me happy to play them.They are too few and far between in the endless ocean of internet game hype.
I have a lot of anger in my heart towards Madden. The feeling must be akin to the feelings one has towards a former spouse. You have those great memories - the good times - but you also have the bitter breakup and angry feelings from when the relationship went south. I guess I’m the sucker who is willing to give that ex another chance. Some quotes from a producer that make me want to reconsider:
“you choose to go to the holographic training center and you have a bunch of training drills for you to practice. You can do things like work on pocket presence, you can work on receiver timing, focus on defense. I believe we have a total of 12 different drills that you can try. The mode looks really nice — the players are holographs, you’re in a holographic stadium — it’s pretty cool looking. And coming out of that mode, we actually assess your Madden skills, giving you a Madden IQ. Obviously, you want to do as good as possible in those drills, and from your Madden IQ, we actually set your game skills, so if you have a high score, we’re going to make the game really challenging for you”
“As you’re playing the game, when the game recognizes that you’re doing something improperly, we’re going to break the moment down for you. It’s a higher, nicer version of instant replay with the graphics laced on the field. We actually showcase guys with colors and arrows — very cool. So if you take a sack for example, when there was a receiver wide open in the field, we’re going to tell you that. We’re even going to show you why he was wide open and how he ran into the space between the zones. And for those who have a high Madden IQ, we even add another layer of information where we break down the actual plays that were used, the hot routes that were called, and we show you on a statistical basis how successful that play typically is versus that defense. And the nice thing with backtrack, we don’t want to just tell you what you did wrong. We’re actually letting you rewind a play now. We call it EA Sports Rewind, and by just hitting a button, that situation actually rewinds and you’re able to try the situation again, and hopefully take the game’s advice.”
“For the first time ever in Madden, you’ll be able to get together with 32 of your friends and participate in a league where you can play through a schedule, play through the playoffs, play your own Super Bowl. There’s draft support, there’s trade support, and we actually implemented flex scheduling in the online leagues. We’ve had tournaments before online, but the problem with tournaments is that having more than two or three people together at the same time to complete a series of games is very, very challenging. So with flex scheduling, you can actually play your games in any order. It’s more like a round-robin style. We did this because it’s online and we wanted to make sure people can actually play through their seasons. If you and I are scheduled to meet in Week 10 but we’re both online today, we can just play our Week 10 game now.”
Web support is a big factor and we definitely want you to be able to go to the Web and take a look at league statistics, but a lot of the interaction will have to take place using the product itself.
Typically in Madden, when the play is dead, we give control over to the AI, but now when you score a touchdown, you still have control and if you run to one of the hot spots and hit the Y button on the 360 or the triangle button on the PS3, he’ll do a celebration depending on where you are. So if you’re under the goal post, he might dunk the ball or if you run to the hot spot by the wall and you’re in a stadium that supports it, you can do the Lambeau leap. Hit the button and jump up in the crowd.
The biggest thing is bobble catches. We had a lot of drops in the game last year and it’s no fun when you drop a pass. We’re going to turn a lot of those drops into bobbles. It’s definitely cool when you see the ball hit a guy’s hands then it goes flying into the air and then he goes and tries to make that catch.
Anybody else up for an online league? Dibs on the Colts.
This sounds so stupid I hate to even comment on it. Upper Deck, the company that ruined the previously fun hobby of collecting baseball cards by upping the price of waxpacks to $1 in 1989 is now threatening to enter the field of misguided CCGs based on FPSes. I can’t believe I just typed that. Lots of details here.
You know, you’re right. Guitar Hero is where it’s at. Rock Band suxxorz. Oh, BTW, GH4 is adding drums and vocals. It was totally their idea. You know, it might make the game more fun, but you’ll have to wait until November to find out. Can you imagine how sweet it’s going to be to play teh drums? OMG.
BTW, EA is rumbling about releasing Rock Band 2 this fall (probably no new instruments). If that MF’ing game doesn’t play my DLC I am going to write a lot of mean posts about them. And they better fix the dumb ass online bands. I need those 2 things, or no sale.
You might remember Quartermann from back when you actually bought game magazines and cared about them. Anyway, in the new issue of EGM, the infamous rumor mongerer who is known for accuracy has this to say about teh n3w Ha10:
“After shipping last fall’s blockbusting Halo 3, revered developer Bungie stunned the world by announcing plans to liberate itself from Microsoft’s ownership. Allegedly, that path to freedom requires that they develop a few more titles for Microsoft, and we’ve heard rumblings that the first one will be a Halo spin-off due in late 2009. Our spies tell us to expect a third-person action/adventure shooter hybrid that takes place before the original Halo, chronicling early skirmishes between the ODST troops and the Covenant. This may or may not be the oft-mentioned “Peter Jackson Halo Project” — though apparently Microsoft is hiring a seperate team for that — but WETA is definitely involved in some capacity. Look for a massive reveal around the time Gears of War 2 ships this fall…”
Look, sweetheart. You’ve got quite a collection of games there. You’ve got enough games to stock a suburban Game Stop in the summer. And you never play ‘em, do ya? They’ve been sitting on the shelf like teamsters at the Ice-Capades. How extravagant you are, throwing away games like that. Some day they may be scarce. So here’s yer chance to make it right. Twice a week were gonna give your COD4 disc a vacation and throw in one of those orphaned games. Give it a little look at the sun, you know? Some “quality time” with the middle sibling.
So here’s what yer gonna do. Every Wednesday and Sunday evening about 7:30 eastern, or so, we’re gonna play a game you haven’t played in a while. This week, we’re startin with Gears of War, so oil yer chainsaws and rosin up yer torque bows. There’s some multiplayer waitin.
Now, we’re opening up nominations for next week. If you don’t like Gears, then whistle what you do like. You know how to whistle, don’t ya? Put yer lips together, get on the forum and post.
Now what about the next week? Who are you really, and what were you before? What did you do and what did you think, huh? We said no questions.
The good news: UT3 for the 360 is definitely coming out this summer, with five “exclusive” maps plus all the DLC for PS3 and PC will be free! That’s great news. The bad news: the graphics are questionable, and one of the reviews they highlight in the trailer comes from Maxim. Anyway, Martin begs you to buy this. Check the trailer (their bandwith sucks) and decide for yourself.
I loved Soul Calibur on Dreamcast, but haven’t gotten into the later releases for some reason. This trailer blew me away, though. A+ to the marketing department, guys. First of all, the graphics are insane. Second, the Vader/Yoda stuff looks awesome. I don’t know if the game is a buy, but the trailer is well worth a watch.
This guy is a VP of marketing, which makes him untrustworthy, but Peter Dille has posted over at the official PS blog that they are going to have a totally bad-ass 2008, including fixxors for gamez that are brokenz. The part you should care about:
“Community-related services available via PlayStation Network have also been a big focus for enhancements here in 2008. We know you want in-game access to XMB features and we’re committed to bringing that, among other community-related services this year. They will be designed to allow more community development and collaborative gameplay, as well as recognize and reward you for your gameplay accomplishments across a broad portfolio of PS3 games. Of course, 2008 will also see the launch of PlayStation Home, and we’ll have more announcements on the expanding community functions within PLAYSTATION Network in the near future, so stay tuned.”
