Scott’s Top7 NES games

It helps to be autistic.

I got my NES for Christmas when I was 6, and I kept playing it (fairly consistently) until I was sixteen–when the system finally gave out after 10 years of reliable service.  Yes, there were days when a game would freeze up on me just as I made it to the final boss battle..and yes, there were the times that I threw a game cartridge across the room in frustration…and yes, there were days entirely punctuated with my brother’s mantra, “stop talking to me!  You’re making me die!”  But, even with all of these petty frustrations, I am typing this blog not six feet away from a (somewhat) functional NES, and I can’t help but be happy to have it in my life.  Here are the 7 greatest games from my youth, although there were many, many more. … Continue Reading

The Legacy of Ms. Pac-Man; or Who is Crazy Otto?

Ms, not Mrs

In 1981, Namco unleashed what was to become the most successful arcade cabinet of all time, Ms. Pac-Man, which featured subtle but significant tweaks on the original Pac-Man, thus seriously enhancing the gameplay experience.  A few of these changes were as follows: 1) Apparently, the logarithms (not that I remember enough sophomore math to really get this) which were used to program the ghosts made them less predictable and more erratic,  2) instead of remaining static, the fruit dances around the play-field and appears in a random order,  3) and, of course, Ms. Pac-Man features a female protagonist–which was a rare find in the male-centric world of 80s gaming.

Even if you’re a wee-young gamer, you’re probably aware of these facts.  You’ve been raised in a world saturated with Pac-mania.  Many bars (and Laundromats) here in Brooklyn feature a Ms. Pac-Man machine (even if it is adjacent The Fast and the Furious).  What you’re probably not privy to is that Ms. Pac-Man began her long career with a snip and a tuck–namely, a sex change.  She was originally a little guy named Crazy Otto (see below). … Continue Reading

Shacking up

Sure she's great, but she leaves crumbs in the bed.

Thanks to a co-worker whose identity I have yet to ascertain, I am as sick as a dog this weekend, which ironically is the first full weekend I’ve had off in about two months. Luck of the draw, I suppose. I an attempt to nip my illness in the bud I drank a ton of fluids, Vitamin C, all the good stuff, but when I took Nyquil before bed, I ended up in that torturous limbo known as exhaustion-but-can’t-really-sleep. So, curled up in bed, I picked up my copy of Patricia Briggs’ Silver Borne… then dropped it. Instead, I turned on Final Fantasy XIII, a game I have been nibbling at since it’s release. I got a funky flashback to a moment twelve years ago, where I also sick and did the same exact thing with FF VI… stayed up all fucking night playing. While I did that, I pondered a ton of stuff on the horizon.

First off, in case you’re wondering, FFXIII  isn’t a bad game, though there are a ton of reviews out there that claim to be disappointed.  Boo hoo. The story is not exactly spectacular, but as far as I’m concerned it’s par for the course in a role-playing game. It is also a much different game, for which I’m grateful in a way; its super linear, and it’s near-impossible to be lost. I don’t have time to dump into games like when I was a kid, so I like to come back two weeks later and know exactly where I am and what I’m doing. Second off, this is not a review. I don’t care enough either way to analyze it (even though I’m nearly finished the game). If you were on the fence, I would say go check it out. You’ll enjoy.

The rest of my day will be spent wrapping up Silver Borne, and wondering why:

1. My immune system has betrayed me.

2. Megan Fox got offered the lead role in Red Sonja… has anyone seen Jennifer’s Body?

3. I can’t fall in love with Caprica, yet continue to watch it.

OMG!!1!!111 Blizzard announces awesomeness.

April first has always been a big day for Blizzard Entertainment. They make it a point to make huge announcements on this day, like last year when they announced World of Warcraft game coming to consoles in the form of Molten Core, a game built exclusively for the Atari 2600. Anyone can see, with the concept art matching the screen shots so amazingly, that this was going to be a great game.

Well, they’ve outdone themselves again this year, announcing a new equipment rank system for WoW players and two mobile games that are sure to be hits.

… Continue Reading

This is why I love Nintendo (and dislike Sony/Microsoft)

The big news in the gaming world this week: Nintendo announced it has plans to release the Nintendo 3DS, a 3D version of their very popular (I don’t have numbers, but I’m fairly certain it’s the most popular handheld) Nintendo DS. Supposedly, you won’t need glasses, either.

Awesome.

Nintendo, to me, has always appealed to a much wider audience than XBox 360 and PlayStation (which in my eyes makes them a more intelligent company).. neither Microsoft or Sony has really gotten a handle on the non-teenage/young adult-male gaming demographic, but Nintendo has. Yeah, Microsoft and Sony do that demographic VERY well, but what about the rest of us?

Just to illustrate how out of touch Sony is, I give you this quote: “Having been in the portable space for quite awhile, I think it’s an interesting move but one I’d like to see where they go from a demographic standpoint. Eight- and nine-year-olds playing 3D is a little bit of a stretch given where some of our research is right now.” (John Koller, SCEA director of hardware and marketing)

lolwut? Wow. He’s going to be regretting those words for a long time to come.

P.S. Look at how beautiful that logo is.

New Vegas is coming!

They have electricity in this one.

Fallout: New Vegas is coming!  Chances are that if you’ve held an Xbox controller, you’ve heard of the Fallout franchise.  What started in 1997 as a groundbreaking RPG for the PC has recently been rekindled into a healthy console franchise, complete with oodles of DLC for the highly addicted.  With the success of Fallout 3 behind its sails, Bethesda announced in April 09 that they’d be teaming up with Obsidian (the sequel guys, e.g. Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2), a team led by Feargus Urquhart (Fallout alum from the Black Isle days), to bring us Fallout: New Vegas in the 4^th quarter of 2010.

After much speculation, there is now an official teaser trailer, and a great podcast from OXM UK with Bethesda’s Pete Hines.  If you’re a fan of Fallout, you’re no stranger to the town New Reno from Fallout 2 (a Black Isle release), and with Urquhart back at the helm, hopefully we’ll see a world as depraved and complex as Fallout 2’s Nevada.

We’re excited about this one, guys, so get your PipBoy prepped for a Fall release

Battlestar MMO?

According to this post on VentureBeat, the relatively unknown-in-America German online gaming company Bigpoint has begun work on a Battlestar Galatica MMO free-to-play browser game.

I’ll be interested to see how this plays out. Judging from the company’s success, this could do very well, but I’m not sure this is the best property to create a MMO from. I’ve told a couple of die hard fans I know about this, and they seem skeptical at best.

(In case you’re wondering, no, I do not watch the show.. but I’ve been told multiple times it would change my life. It’s on my list of things to do when I’m not pinching pennies).

Heavy Rain, Please Revolutionize Gaming, kthxbai

So, every Monday I go over to a friend’s apartment to play video games. A couple of weeks ago, he showed us the PlayStation3 Heavy Rain demo, and since then we’ve been anxious to see the finished product (and I mean really, really anxious).

Well, this past Monday, I was able to view it in all it’s glory. I wasn’t playing, our friend was, but I got enough sense of the game that I can say.. I want this game to revolutionize the way designers and consumers think about video games.

Is that a lofty statement? Maybe. But I think it’s well within Heavy Rain’s capacity to do so.

… Continue Reading

Mass Effect 2

My Shepard looked like Frank Castle. But this one is still bad ass.

I have a problem. And that problem is I rarely finish a video game. I’ve played a lot (pretty much my whole life I’ve been a gamer) but the problem is that I get bored easily. Final Fantasy keeps my attention with stories and then loses me with the constant grinding. Games like the GTA series give me too many choices and I end up going on random sprees of malice rather than following the plot. Very rarely to games grab my attention and not let go. Bioshock was one. I played and beat it in two days, the story was so intense and the setting so interesting I couldn’t let it go. The Halo and Call of Duty series are others (although Halo has been losing its luster; although I am excited for Halo: Reach), but this is because my genre of choice is definitely FPS. Half-life, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Timesplitters are some of my favorite games. Maybe because they are so short and linear, but mostly because the great multiplayer they offer. As much as I love RPGs I just can’t seem to finish them, unless the story is so good I can’t stop playing.

This is what happened with Mass Effect 2. (Full Warning some spoilers ahead but not things you probably don’t know.) … Continue Reading