61 Frames Per Second

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• Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone

  Videogames are rich with memorable moments. Born of both play and story, there are those images, those brief passages of achievement, that are emblazoned in your memory: the first time you clear 100,000 points in Tetris, the dogs bursting through the window in Resident Evil, the booming march that begins to play after the baby metroid’s sacrifice during Super Metroid’s climactic battle with Mother Brain. We are tied to these events thanks not only to those games’ mechanical and artistic design but because of our agency in them. We facilitate these conclusions and, since the game is well-made, we feel them. Another classic: Solid Snake’s first fight with the cyborg ninja, Grey Fox. Like so much of the Metal Gear Solid series, this sequence is ludicrous: simplistic to play, overdramatic, over-everything. But when Grey Fox begins screaming, “Make me feel!” and your controller begins to shake in time with his uncontrollable gesticulations, the scene becomes something else. In 1998, rumble technology was still relatively new in home gaming, so having this drama reflected in the physical world made that much more of an impression. Every time Snake was kicked in the gut or when you landed a hit amidst this half-man’s yowling was tangible. I feel a lot like Grey Fox when I play videogames these days, particularly action fare. I want an action game to make me feel. Not necessarily a profound emotional reaction – though that’s always a plus – so much as a physical one. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, metroid, star wars, resident evil, metal gear solid, sega, lucasarts, tetris, yakuza, die hard arcade

• Whatcha Playing: Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!!!

  It's always a curious thing when games are sold exclusively at one chain of stores. I can understand if, hypothetically, Big Box Store shells out big bucks to have the exclusive sales of Frat House FPS Sequel. The built-in fanbase will want the game and rush to the nearest Big Box Store, that store makes enough money to profit from their initial investment, and the publisher still got their game out there to the masses and made some extra cash while they were doing it. What bothers me is when smaller, somewhat unknown or niche games are exclusive to one store, making it harder to find and less likely that curious gamers unfamiliar with the property will give it a chance. I was worried when this happened last year with the long-awaited Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol which found its way exclusively to Wal-Mart shelves, but thankfully that game turned out wonderfully. And so now, some three months after its release exclusively to Toys R Us, I have finally gotten my hands on a copy of Soul Bubbles for the Nintendo DS. I can't say whether it was worth added trouble of having to go find it, but I can say that so far it is one of the most enjoyable DS titles I've played in months. Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 03:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, boom blox, nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, lost winds, eden, eidos, soul bubbles, locoroco, mekensleep

• Whatcha Playing: The Thirst For Adventure, Pointing At Things, and Not Knowing What to Say

  Amidst the cavalcade of blockbusters, handheld eccentricities, and Rock Band I’ve been indulging in over the summer, a grand season now a mere two weeks from being officially dead, I’ve been getting a crash course in one of gaming’s most respected and forbidding forms: the adventure game. Though I started playing games during the genre’s heyday, I’ve always been somewhat less than literate when it comes to the many point-and-click and text-commanded classics crafted by Sierra and Lucasarts. My only real experiences came from visiting my aunt Donna. At the ripe age of seven years-old, she introduced me to the wonders of Kings Quest and, er, Leisure Suit Larry. Yeah. It’s not that I didn’t have fun with these eye-openers – they certainly expanded my vocabulary – I was just more interested in walking from left to right, jumping, and shooting when it came to videogames. I always knew that I was missing out on something, listening to friends chortle over playing Space Quest and even later, as a teenager, looking at lush screens of Grim Fandango. I’ve only gotten around to them recently thanks to three conditions working in concert. One is that there are new, easy to access (read: on Wii) point-and-clickers being released with regularity by folks like Telltale Games. Two and three regard vintage software: Nerve is equipped with numerous PCs capable of running things machines in my home twenty years ago could not, but also (and most importantly) I have a guide. It’s easy to approach Telltale’s Strong Bad games because they move at a brisk pace and they work on a very simplified version of classic point-and-click language: see something, point at it to interact with it. Got an item? Point at it, click, then point the item at what you want to use it on. Repeat playings of King’s Quest V left me acclimated to both the process and the occasionally obtuse logic at work in these sorts of games, so it’s been a painless process and a reminder of the genre’s charms. Playing through the first two episodes of Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People (more on Episode 2 when I’m allowed to talk about it) has, however, made it abundantly clear that adventure games are not inherently relaxing in comparison to more action oriented fare. Read More... Posted Sep 08 2008, 07:49 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, PC, quest for glory, lucasarts, wiiware, sierra, adventure, strong bad, telltale games, conquests of Camelot, grim fandango, kings quest

• Whatcha Playing: Cleaning House, Finding Roots

  It has been well over a month since my last Whatcha Playing here at 61 Frames Per Second. The vicious truth of the matter is that I haven’t been playing that much since the beginning of July. The summer will do that to you. When the weather is as nice as its been here in the northeastern United States (mild, sunny as hell, great thunderstorms), its hard to devote eight hours of a Saturday to grinding RPG characters, engaging in manic shoot-outs, or even just taking in some classics (especially if your apartment isn’t air conditioned.) Last Thursday, though, I finally downloaded Bionic Commando Rearmed, a game I may have mentioned anticipating. Those first delicious minutes I spent grappling around the vibrant world GRIN created signaled one undeniable fact: come the weekend, it was time to play some freaking videogames. But first I had to clean house. Read More... Posted Aug 19 2008, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, playstation 3, metroid, nintendo ds, xbox 360, capcom, bionic commando, grin, gamecube, too human, pixeljunk, pixeljunk eden, braid, lair, ninja five-0

• Whatcha' (Wish You Were) Playing: How Does Your Garden Grow?

  Last night, PS3 owners got a special treat in the weekly Playstation Store update, and no, I'm not talking about the Street Fighter IV system theme – a downloadable demo of the newest game in the PixelJunk series, Eden. While I am enthused by the PixelJunk concept of innovative idea-based reasonably priced games, Racers and Monsters just didn't grab my attention. With my first playthrough of Eden last night, however, I was instantly smitten. In this garden-building action-puzzler, the player controls a small "Grimp" character, swinging on silk threads and jumping from calligraphic leaf to calligraphic leaf of thoroughly modern stylized garden. Crashing into pods releases clouds of pollen, which is gathered in seeds which can then be activated to sprout new plants, which allow you to travel farther, to even more seeds, pollen, and techno-organic bliss. It sounds complicated, and at first it feels like it too. I'm not ashamed to admit that I failed the first garden miserably (twice!), but the environment and surprisingly compelling physics were just so captivating that I couldn't stop. Read More... Posted Jul 25 2008, 03:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, derrick sanskrit, ps3, eden, pixeljunk

• Whatcha Playing: The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS

  A strange thing happened ‘round about last October. For the first time since its release in April 2005, I was regularly playing games on PSP. I had been carrying a grudge against Sony for promising the world with their first handheld and not delivering even a fraction of the compelling software that they had on the first two home Playstations. But then, all of a sudden, there were all these fantastic games to sink my teeth into. Strategy RPGs like Jeanne D’Arc, old-school action like Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and true genre benders like Crush had finally brought me into the PSP fold. The drawback? My DS went on the shelf and wasn’t touched for months. Oh, I brought it down when Contra 4 came out and on that rare Saturday morning that I felt like going back to my Animal Crossing village to do some weeding, stomp some roaches, and writing some letters. But I wasn’t playing anything new and I started wondering if the brief reign of the DS — not as a force of business but as a fount of compelling design — was over. Man, was that stupid. Read More... Posted Jul 07 2008, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, nintendo ds, psp, castlevania, pokemon, phoenix wright, contra, ninja gaiden, jeanne d'arc, shiren the wanderer, crush

• Whatcha Playing: Fallout (Metaphorically Speaking)

  Truth to tell, I’ve never played a Fallout game. The vast majority of my gaming career has been spent in front of a television, not a monitor, my hands clutching a controller instead of hovering over a keyboard. It’s not a point of pride, let me tell you. Not gaming on a PC throughout the ‘90s meant you were perpetually on the outside of the cutting edge, waiting for advancements to come to Nintendo, Sony, or whoever else’s systems sometimes years later. Deus Ex, Half-Life, Diablo, even Sierra’s King’s Quest V, all games I’ve gotten to try my hand at, eventually, when they were ported to a console, shadows of their former selves. It’s even kept me from really experiencing whole genres; I’ve never played a real-time strategy game for more than a few minutes and my aging laptop could barely run World of Warcraft when I tried it out in 2005. Since that year, though, consoles have started gaining on PCs as the place where developers make their greatest strides. It’s not too surprising. Consoles have turned into high-end computers themselves. Read More... Posted Jun 26 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, the world ends with you, whatcha playing, wii fit, rock band, mega man, grand theft auto, final fantast vii, metal gear, diablo, deus ex

• Watcha Playing: Loving/Hating Mario Kart Wii

  Mama Mia! Every weekend I try to get together with a group of friends and play Mario Kart Wii online. We have a blast battling it out for first place and lobbing weapons of happy destruction at each other. I really love this game and it is, hands down, my favorite console iteration in the series to date. I'm definitely a fan of the bikes and the stunts and I quite enjoy the “Whiil” (sorry). Alas, it has no voice chat so communicating with my fellow racers involves a little racing of my own; from my living room where the Wii is ensconced to my studio where my computer sits. But, I know why there is no voice chat. It's because of me. Read More... Posted Jun 06 2008, 02:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, wii, mario kart, amber ahlborn

• Whatcha Playing: How Many Buttons Do I Gotta Push?

  Last week, while watching video of Final Fantasy VI, I commented to my colleague Pete that old Final Fantasy is not fun to watch. He laughed and replied, “No comment.” The inherent absurdity of what I’d just said wasn’t lost on me either. There’s a constant disconnect between you and the activity in role-playing games. You select an action from a menu and then watch your avatar on the screen carry out the command after the fact; more often than not, you only watch the game. The basic design of an RPG necessitates strategy behind each selected action, but most RPGs are so simple that you can win by just pressing a single button to do one thing over and over again. I love role-playing games and, if I’m completely honest, I can admit that I get immense satisfaction of pressing that one button repeatedly and watching numbers (a character’s attributes or any other arbitrary statistic) rise as a result. Sometimes, just pressing a button is enough for a game to engage me. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, nintendo ds, final fantasy, animal crossing, ace attorney, phoenix wright

• Whatcha Playing: Fire Emblem is Pretty Hard

  Introducing 61 Frames Per Second's latest blogger: Amber Ahlborn I think I can hear the strategy role-playing veterans laughing at me, but cut me a little slack, I'm pretty new to the genre. Fire Emblem is a series with deep roots. I didn't become personally acquainted with the series until Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance hit the GameCube. The game absolutely captivated me. Convinced that Fire Emblem is awesome, I snapped up Radiant Dawn the day it released for Wii. Read More... Posted May 30 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, nintendo, nintendo ds, wii, gamecube, fire emblem, amber ahlborn

• Whatcha Playing: Keeping the Beat, Drum Master Style

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit This hip urban lifestyle is killing me. Even though I walk a couple miles each day going to and from various places, I spend at least three hours a day sitting in place on trains as they scuttle my person between points A and R. Three hours! I'd probably go crazy or fall asleep and get mugged if it weren't for portable games. The problem is carrying games that can hold my interest for an extended period of time. Almost all of the most compelling DS games have little to no replay value (the Ace Attorney series, Hotel Dusk: Room 215) and many of the other better games require such precise stylus control that a simple jostle of the train car can ruin the entire experience (Elite Beat Agents, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass). What am I supposed to play? Thanks to importers and the region-free DS, I have found my answer: Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Touch de Dokodon!, aka "Taiko Drum Master DS". It keeps all the familiar elements of the popular arcade and home console Taiko Drum Master games (J-pop and classical songs play, cute cartoon characters dance, you beat the shit out of a big-ass drum) and makes it portable. Is there a story? Damned if I know, I just know that I get a more visceral thrill out of pounding a cartoon drum than I do shooting an AK-47 at Nazis. Read More... Posted May 28 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, elite beat agents, taiko drum master, zelda

• Whatcha Playing: A Little Singin’, a Little Dancin’

  Last Saturday, I woke up, put on the coffee, and sat down on the couch with the full intention of finishing off the remaining story missions in Grand Theft Auto 4. As the day wore on, though, I found myself continuing to ignore the controller, unable to muster the enthusiasm to play at being a hardened criminal. A whole Saturday was passing me by, gameless. It wasn’t until around nine o’clock that my roommate and I decided to bust out Rock Band that I got to gaming. I’ve been fairly indifferent to the music game revolution of the passed two years for one very specific reason: I suck at Guitar Hero. My finger dexterity simply doesn’t match my thumb dexterity. But, since a friend loaned his copy of Rock Band to my apartment full of twenty-something ne’er-do-wells, I’ve come to see the light, and it’s all thanks to singing. Karaoke videogames are too laden with pop and karaoke bars are simply too expensive for a man of my meager means. Rock Band lets me be Ozzy, Kurt, Shirley Manson, and Ad-Rock and the experience has been eye opening. Even more so than the Wii, Rock Band has proven to me the opportunity offered by alternative forms of control in games. And rest assured, Rock Band is a game, a clearly defined set of rules adhered to in order to achieve a specific goal. I just never thought my drunken rendition of “Say It Ain’t So” would ever be the route to the highest score or the next level. Read More... Posted May 23 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, Grand theft auto 4, wii fit, rock band

• Whatcha Playing: Another Slice of Cake

  Having never been much of a PC or Mac gamer, I’ve come into Valve’s games far later than most. I experienced the original Half-Life second hand through my college roommate and only played through it myself last summer, on the PS2 of all things, in anticipation of the Orange Box’s fall release on consoles. When I finally did play through Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episodes, I was more than impressed. Valve’s reputation as peerless storytellers is more than deserved and despite being four years-old at this point, Half-Life 2 remains a high-water mark for game making free of the language and tools of film narrative. Writer Eric Wolpaw’s most impressive work in the Orange Box, however, is the widely lauded Portal, a perfect mix of Half-Life’s menace with the humor of his work on Psychonauts. Up until last Sunday, I’d been waiting for a chance to race through Portal a second time for months. This wasn’t possible since my copy of the Orange Box had ended up in Korea. Damn roommates. Portal is a strange experience when you return to it. Read More... Posted May 16 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, valve, portal, PC, fallout 3, orange box, half-life, mac, still alive

• Whatcha Playing: BS Zelda

  Let's say, hypothetically, it's Monday evening and you wake up at midnight after passing out on the couch for a couple hours. You're too restless, headachy, drunk and sexually frustrated to go back to sleep. Hypothetically. And you've beaten The Legend of Zelda so many times in the past month, in an attempt to push your completion time under fifty minutes (final score: 49:58.13) that it doesn't have much to offer in the way of comforting distraction. For a cosy mix of the familiar and new, do what I did. . . Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 03:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, bs zelda no densetsu, snes, darknuts, satellaview, the legend of zelda, zelda

• Whatcha Playing: With a Little Help From My Friends

  On the surface, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV and Square-Enix’s The World Ends With You don’t have much in common. Even beyond their base aesthetic differences, one steeped in realism and the other in hyper-cartoon exaggeration, their bustling urban landscapes are as different as the cultures that produced them. But as I’ve been working through both in the past week, I’ve found myself focusing on the same thing in both: building interpersonal relationships.     Read More... Posted May 09 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, the world ends with you, whatcha playing, grand theft auto iv