The Save Spot

Old school for the win!

 

 

   

With lots of great games on shelves right now, it is both an exciting and difficult time to be a busy gamer.  Where should you best spend your limited gaming time?  GTA IV is still largely unplayed on my shelf, MGS4 has a meacritic score of 92.9, and I’m itching to see how the Civ experience translates to consoles in Civilization Revolution. 

And that doesn’t even include the great portable games out right now.  Just for DS, there’s an embarrasing number of good options right now if you enjoy RPGs or SRPGs: The World Ends With You, Etrian Odyssey II, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and (coming soon) the remake of Final Fantasy IV.  There are literally hundreds of hours of gaming goodness right now, just in games you can fit in your pocket! 

So with all these great choices, what’s filling my gaming hours this week?  It’s the old school gameplay of the only game mentioned above that you probably didn’t recognize, Etrian Odyssey II (EO2), that wins my time for now.  This is a classic dungeon crawl with a bare-bones story that, much like Monster’s Den: Book of Dread, focuses on the basics of engaging gameplay for it’s success. 

EO2 is a throwback to games like Phantasy Star.  Like PS, you move around a 3D dungeon by moving your character (and the camera) in discrete ’steps’.  There are no curvy walls here - you’ve got rectangular rooms, walkways, and right angles everywhere.  Random battles are in, and show you facing off with one or more enemies on the top screen, with some very limited attack animations.  You want a dungeon map?  Make it yourself!  The bottom screen of the DS is presented with some simple map-making icons and tools so you can make your own map of each floor of the dungeon.  You both need to do this to find your way around (think of those days when you had to do this using graph paper) and will want to do this (it’s surprisingly satisfying, and really adds to the sense of exploration).

Punishingly difficult at times, EO2 can randomly spawn a high-level FOE into battle or while you’re gathering items.  Will there be level grinding?  You bet!  But the difficulty keeps you on your toes: you won’t venture deep into the labyrinth without carefully outfitting your characters, keeping an eye on your stats, and optimizing your party and battle choices.  Forming the best party to tackle a job is part of the fun too, and in EO2 you can hire and train a score of adventurers to choose from.

This kind of gameplay isn’t for everyone (there’s almost no story) but if you’re old enough to remember Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy (the first one - before they had numbers!), and Phantasy Star you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into.  Etrian Odyssey 2 is a pleasurable throwback, a game that focuses on the basics, and that will have you thinking about your party build and strategy even when you’re not playing. 

 

Smashing Time Wasters

 

 

 

I’ve been playing Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for my xbox the last week or so.  And I want to like the game.  I really do.  But there’s something that has been keeping me from truly enjoying it: repetitive missions.

I can’t stand to repeat things.

Especially in games.

I have a limited amount of time in my life to play video games.  Work, friends, projects, and writing take up a huge percentage of time I used to devote to gaming.  Because of that I have to be selective with my time.  And that means avoiding games where you have to play through the same level multiple times.

If I want a feeling of accomplishing nothing, I’ll go to work.  (Kidding.) 

But in a way that’s true.  Our “normal” lives are filled with repetition.  Feeding the dog, taking out the garbage, eating a sandwich for lunch every day.  Whatever your routine is, it’s repetitive.  And that serves an important function.

The problem is that it’s not fun.  Repetitiveness is designed to produce stability and predictability - not excitement and thrill.  So why are these elements added to our video games?

I don’t find chasing after the same fast truck 15 times all that enjoyable.  Sure it may make the game more difficult.  But is that really the goal?  Should games be hard or fun?  Why are they even in competition?

Well I think you no my answer to that one, so I won’t repeat myself.

    

The Save Spot Comic #2

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The Save Spot Comic is published semi-occasionally and is widely perceived to be semi-humorous.

Energy Drink Reviews You Can Trust

 

 

 

 

Many of you may remember November of 2007, and those of you who don’t you should probably put down that poor saliva-crusted toad already.  One occasion from November 2007 that you probably don’t remember is in fact the topic of this post.  Right around Thanksgiving time last year Jeff Gerstmann, a longtime senior editor at Gamespot was fired from his job.  If you were a regular Gamespot visitor, you’d likely remember Jeff as a boisterous goofball, a funny guy to listen to on the Hotspot podcast, watch on the Gamespot video programming, or as a familiar editorial voice in game reviews. 

At the time Jeff was let go, there was much speculation that his departure was related to mollifying a publisher (Eidos), which had bought a significant advertising campaign on Gamespot, after Jeff provided a mediocre review (6 out of 10, metacritic scores were in the same ballpark).  “Gerstmanngate” received wider coverage in gaming industry press than many expected, and I recall hearing about this on several gaming podcasts as well as in online blogs.  Ok, so posting about this almost eight months later isn’t exactly a scoop! 

What’s interesting and perhaps surprising about this is that Gamespot has had significant editorial turnover since Jeff was fired.   Frank Provo, Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, Vinny Caravella, and Brad Shoemaker have all left Gamespot since Jeff was fired, and some have given clear indications that editorial independence was indeed being supressed.  There had always been a base level of staff turnover at Gamespot, but this represented the departure en masse of many long time contributors. 

For the past few months, Jeff and Ryan have been running a video game blog, Giantbomb, that is worth checking out.  A staple of the site is an excellent podcast (the ‘bombcast’) in which the opening several minutes are usually spent sampling and discussiing various energy drinks.  What really caught my attention, though, is that about a week ago I was listening to the bombcast and learned that both Vinny and Brad have now also joined on to the editorial team at Giantbomb, which is launching in expanded form “this summer”. 

I doubt the departure of these senior editors has had a signifant impact on Gamespot traffic (although I have found that I’m just not interested to visit that site very often, and the Gamespot podcast isn’t nearly as interesting as the bombcast).  But I wonder if we’re heading into a future where smaller communities of gamers proliferate at the expense of the communities at larger sites?  In any case, I’ll be looking forward to more reviews and coverage from Giantbomb later this year and I’ve already found that since Gerstmanngate, IGN and Gamespot have received a lot fewer hits from yours truly.

 

 

 

 

Monster’s Den: Book of Dread

 

 

 

Four brave and adventurous souls set out to explore the depths of a dark and mysterious, blah, blah, blah. I will rarely say this, but in some cases the story in a game simply doesn’t matter. And Monster’s Den: The Book of Dread is one of those games.

The Book of Dread is the most compelling internet browser-based game I’ve ever played. I couldn’t stop. As of this moment I’ve played The Book of Dread 10x longer than I played Supreme Commander. If this game was around when I was in college I never would have finished a paper on time.

And the sad thing is, I’m not exaggerating.

The game does all of this without any shiny graphics, any cool sound effects, or stunning FMVs. What we’re left with is a tried and true game play.

  

  

The game consists of a series of dungeon floors. With each floor you clear, you gain one level. And with each level you kick more of evil’s ass. Simple. Efficient.

But don’t let the simplicity fool you.

There’s several things that make this game fun. The first is the simplicity of the design. In a world of highly complex games (which I love by the way), sometimes all you want to do is play for 15 minutes. This is the strength of games like Rock Band, or consoles like the Wii.

Within each battle lies some serious strategy. Especially at early levels. Since there is no way to reload a battle - when you die, you don’t get to restart. You’re forced to live with the consequences of your (poor) strategy. Each death carries with it a penalty of random equipment loss. That means that great armor you just bought, or that sweet sword could be gone with one careless round.

Painful, but not too steep.

This penalty actually affects you before you enter a battle. Rarely have I been so nervous going into a fight knowing that I could lose my favorite gear. As with all risk though, the thrill comes when you survive. Not only did you win, but you got to keep your favorite gear. What could be better?

  

  

Kill – Loot – Equip – Repeat. Anyone who’s played Diablo will be quickly at home with the inventory system. Part of the fun of these games is finding new equipment. And there’s plenty of gear to be found. Purple is elite, blue is rare, green is magic, and white apparently comes from Wal-Mart.

I can’t stress enough how much fun The Book of Dread is to play. And did I mention it’s free?

Do yourselves a favor, don’t walk, but jump on a T1 and click your way into battle. Your gaming addiction will thank you.

The Save Spot Comic #1

 

 The Save Spot Comic is published semi-occasionally and is widely perceived to be semi-humorous.

Guitar Hero 2: Hind Sight

 

 

 

As a kid Voltron was my favorite cartoon. Not even GI Joe or Transformers could compete. In fact, my love of that show left such an impression on me, I can still vividly remember watching it.

One day in particular stands out - for some reason I came home early from school. I don’t remember if I was sick, or had a doctor’s appointment or what. But I was home and I knew Voltron was going to be on.

The anticipation I felt knowing that I was going to sneak in an extra episode was intense. The irony is all I really remember from that day was my anticipation. But in many ways that’s all that mattered. I loved Voltron and I was convinced nothing could change that.

And nothing did. Until last year when Cartoon Network began airing the show.

Let’s just say it didn’t age well. In fact it aged so poorly that I’m in disbelief that I ever thought Voltron was good. How did I miss the gaping holes in the plot? The horrible voice acting? Even the animation was awful. In short, what was I thinking?!

That’s what I fear is happening to Guitar Hero 2.

Having spent 4 days playing Rock Band with friends, Guitar Hero just seems empty. It’s like I’m trying to play catch by myself. Sure it’s fun for the first few minutes. But walking across the field to get the ball gets old.

Don’t get me wrong, Guitar Hero was an awesome game. It’s simply been eclipsed by a much better game. And there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the way the video game industry works.

Everything I thought was fun and cool about Guitar Hero has been improved by Rock Band. The songs are better, downloadable content is awesome, and playing with friends is just fantastic.

I even prefer the Rock Band controller.

The problem is I don’t own Rock Band. I don’t even own a 360. And while I’ve enjoyed not worrying about the Red Ring of Death, now I find myself thinking about that green and white console. I just don’t think I can go back to playing Guitar Hero regularly.

Sometimes learning something new really ruins the old experience.

Wishful thinking, volume 1

Ok, I’d really like to write a column about video games focusing on all the fun times I’m having with the games I’m playing.  Problem is, I’m just too busy right now to have any more fun.  So, instead of writing about the games I am playing I’ve decided to write about some of the games I wish I had time to play! 

1.  GTA IV  Without a doubt, this is the game I wish I had more time to play right now.  Metacritic scores are off the charts, Crayfish has already blown through the game (utilizing a busy gamer trick of taking vacation days to stay home and play video games all day, I should add), and the few minutes I’ve spent in Liberty City so far have been highly enjoyable.  That said, given the hour of game time I’ve enjoyed compared to the $90 outlay for the special edition (hands off my lockbox!) this has been a poor value ratio for me so far. 

2.  PS3.  I really like the PS3 hardware, ever since I picked one up shortly after launch.  We’ve consistently enjoyed blu-ray movies from netflix, resistance was fun, and the hardware is super flexible: upgradeable hard drive, media ports, bluetooth, video and audio file support…Problem is, I just haven’t done anything cool with my PS3 recently.  So, I’m daydreaming about a PS3 project.  I wish the video support was better so I didn’t have to watch anime on my PC.  Seems like about one in three video files I try to stream or copy over will actually work.  So I’m daydreaming about installing Linux and playing around with a better media player.  Has anyone done this?  Any recommendations? 

3.  The World Ends With You.  This looks like a great, unique JRPG and it’s on one of my favorite little systems too.  I’ll have to get to this one after I finish off Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.