Tag Archives: video games

Nintendo Gives Up

Nathan Brown for Edge, on Nintendo’s recent statements that they won’t allow a race to the bottom for 3DS downloadables:

Nintendo’s Hideki Konno has renewed the firm’s attack on low-cost software, saying that neither hardware manufacturers nor software developers want to see 3DS games sold at smartphone prices.

“We don’t want content to be devalued,” Konno told Gamasutra ahead of 3DS’s launch this weekend. “Let’s say there’s a ton of other software out there that’s free, which forces you then to take your content which you want to sell for 10 dollars and you have to lower it down to one dollar to be competitive. It’s not a business model that’s going to make developers happy.”

I love and admire Nintendo, and they are the caretakers of a vast amount of IP and a number of franchises that I have enjoyed since my childhood.

But in my opinion, the Nintendo DS was the pinnacle of handheld development and existed in a pre-iPhone/iPod touch era. They are pricing and hardware-designing (look at the 3DS battery life!) themselves right out of competition. I’m sad that it’s going away and I unfortunately don’t believe the 3DS is going to be as successful.

The Rock Band Under-Tier Champion: “Antibodies”

I hate Poni Hoax’s “Antibodies.” It isn’t fun to play. It’s not even really a good song. And it’s ridiculously under-tiered in Rock Band 3 for Guitar.

It’s possible this is just one of those songs I can’t wrap my five-button-brain around, but I expect much better of myself for a Tier 3 song. I couldn’t one-lighter this one fast enough.

“Arrival”

Joystiq:

BioWare has dated the long-promised and recently teased final Mass Effect 2 DLC mission, “Mass Effect: Arrival,” for release across Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Bioware.com (for PC) on Tuesday, March 29. The add-on will be available for $7 (£5.49) or the equivalent platform currency.

Leading players into this holiday’s Mass Effect 3, “Arrival” will see Commander Shepard “sent to the edge of the galaxy to rescue an undercover operative who may have evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion.” Admiral Hackett (voiced by Lance Henriksen) will make a return appearance.

I’m looking forward to the conclusion of one of the best games I’ve ever played, and certainly the bearer of what I think is the best video game trailer ever created (which is of course below).

If you can think of one better, argue your case. 🙂

Dead Space: Launch Trailer

This is from the 2008 launch of Dead Space, and I think captures the tone and feel of the game pretty well. One of my favorites of the current generation, if not all time. Plus, their choice of music gets an A.

Dead Space 2: First Impressions

Well, I wasn’t able to clear Bully in time, so I’m on my scheduled break from the backlog now to take in Dead Space 2, which I’ve been eagerly anticipating for some time.

The first game was a well-crafted piece of survival horror. It wasn’t anything new or groundbreaking, but it was a refinement of a lot of concepts in games that had come before. I found that it relied on cheap scares a bit too much, and near the end they designed just decided to toss a bunch of enemies at you just to slow down the pace of the game, but the story was enough to keep me interested and I thought the universe was well-planned and thought-out.

I’m about three hours in to Dead Space 2 and in game terms have just started Chapter 6, which means I’m past the first “what a twist” moment and also past the first truly irritating gameplay moment I’ve seen so far. Thankfully, the game is pretty amazing out of the gate. The images and sound are exactly right and create just enough tension to keep you going, and the pacing is just as masterful as the original. It’s 30 seconds of frenetic “save yourself” action followed by a minute or two of calm and relative safety.

The atmosphere so far has had plenty of the morbid and creepifying, especially reminiscent of the near-final areas of the first game. That’s an unnerving way to start out the sequel because it reminds you so much of the constant action towards the end of its predecessor. In some contrast to the earlier game, this one has wasted no time getting weapons into my hands, and the quick start was both fun and exciting.

The story so far has raised nothing but questions that I hope will be resolved by the end of the game. Truth be told, I had a hard time stopping to get some sleep, let alone type out my reactions, so this should tell you how interested I am. Dead Space had me leaning forward in my seat, palms slick from anxiety over the shadow on the wall or the sound coming from behind me. So far, this one’s got its hooks in me just as well.