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• The One That Got Away: Arc the Lad

  Romanticizing the pre-internet age of games criticism is common amongst those of us born before 1990. With the presses stopped on Electronic Gaming Monthly, the last survivors of gaming print’s heyday are Gamepro and Nintendo Power. Those magazines still cater to the adolescent audience they always have, but they’ve lost all of their old schlocky appeal. It’s a good thing. Gaming print isn’t dead, and games criticism is slowly but surely emerging from its fandom-based larval form. Yeah the internet’s glutted with drivel, but there’s a lot of substantive, well-written study of the medium happening. *cough* One thing certainly hasn’t changed. Gamefan may be long dead at this point, but Dave Halverson is still publishing monthly volumes of unabashed fandom in Play. Play, like Gamefan and Gamer’s Republic before it, isn’t really criticism. The magazine doesn’t engage in heady intellectualism like Edge, but it also doesn’t fall into Consumer Reports-style, reviews-and-previews tradition of Gamepro. Halverson’s publications are professionally made ‘zines, literal love letters to the industry they cover. The furor surrounding Halverson’s praise for Golden Axe: Beast Rider a few months back was surprising. The man isn’t a critic. He’s a lover. He publishes The Girls of Gaming, for crying out loud. Despite his flighty editorial mandate, Halverson’s pubs have had a surprisingly lasting impact on North American gaming culture. Today, Treasure is an iconic development studio beloved the world over. Gunstar Heroes wasn’t responsible for that notoriety. It was Gamefan’s constant lionization of the company that birthed the cult of Treasure. Gamefan was, for me, a message in a bottle. Every single month, I would open an issue and be overwhelmed by bizarre foreign games I would never have a chance to play. And at the back of every issue waited the most cryptic and vexing passages of all: the advertisements for Halverson’s import games shop Game Cave. The ads were four-pages long and littered with miniscule pictures of games accompanied by nothing more than a title. That was where I saw this. Read More... Posted Feb 26 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, victor ireland, working designs, sony, playstation 2, play, gamecube, Playstation, nintendo power, golden axe, xbox, gamepro, vagrant story, arc the lad, golden axe beast rider, gamefan, arc the lad collection, maximo, gamer’s republic, tactics ogre

• Keeping Your Xbox Alive in Its Last Days

  I hope you managed to trade in all those old Xbox games you wanted to, because today is the day that a certain major games retailer stops accepting them as currency. This is phase three of the modern console death cycle, which in my mind goes a little something like this: 1. A successor system is released, or it is announced that the system will be discontinued. 2. The last official game for the system is released (for the Xbox, this was Madden NFL 09). 3. GameStop stops taking the games as trade-ins. 4. GameStop clears out remaining used inventory, driving the software library to the internet or dusty mom ‘n pops’. 5. Official hardware repairs are discontinued, and replacement parts cease manufacture. Read More... Posted Feb 09 2009, 11:00 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: xbox, gamestop, emulation, joe keiser, hacking, modding, xbox media center

• Trailer Review: Demon’s Souls

  From Software, you guys got some weird in your blood. Who in the hell makes console exclusives these days? Not only that, who in the hell makes exclusives for every console on the market? And who in the hell makes console exclusives that are spiritual successors to cult hits that were console exclusives in the previous generation? You guys, whew, you guys are nutty. You’re nutty nut bars and I love it. It’s a big month for From Software. Just last week in Japan, they released Ninja Blade on Xbox 360. Ninja Blade is a third-person action game that is a modernization, in both tone and technology, of their Xbox-only franchise Otogi. Today, they released Demon’s Souls in the land of the rising sun. Demon’s Souls is the Playstation 3 version of From’s PS2 oddity King’s Field, a series of distinctly western RPGs full of the dungeon crawling and character customization Elder Scrolls fans go ga-ga over. As you can see from this trailer, Demon’s Souls is a real odd duck. Read More... Posted Feb 04 2009, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, trailer review, microsoft, xbox 360, sony, playstation 2, xbox, king’s field, Demon’s souls, ninja blade, otogi, from software

• Sign of the Times: Current Gen to Stick Around a Little Longer

  It wasn't too long ago when Sony produced a commercial for the fictional Playstation 9 during their initial Playstation 2 campaign; that's right--the company was once so successful, it had the funds to advertise things that didn't even exist. But these were far different times, before the dot-com bubble completely burst; back in those days, you simply had to log onto the Internet and wait for padded envelopes full of money to arrive at your house (who knows where they came from). But in our modern times of economic disparity and joblessness, the evolution of entertainment technology is not one of our biggest priorities. And, according to a San Jose Mercury News report from yesterday, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, recognizes the current problem with the standard five-year hardware cycle: "Just coming up with something that's faster and prettier isn't going to be sufficient. The life cycle for this generation of consoles — and I'm not just talking about Xbox, I'd include Wii and PS3 as well — is probably going to be a little longer than previous generations." If you've ever been around casual Wii gamers, then you probably realized that the one factor nearly every console war has been fought over is now completely irrelevant: graphics don't matter. Read More... Posted Jan 13 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: microsoft, xbox 360, sony, console wars, xbox, ps3, bob mackey, hardware, economy

• The Original XBox: The New Sega Saturn?

  Destructoid's report that GameStop will stop accepting XBox trade-ins starting February 9 poses some interesting problems for Microsoft's last-gen console.  When the 360 launched back in 2005, I was a rabid hater, mainly because of Microsoft's "we'll get to it when we get to it" policy on backwards compatibility (I've since buried the hatchet).  I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to repeat the mistake of disowning an entire generation of games, but just look at the situation with the PS3; I couldn't tell you which models offer PS2 compatibility without some serious Wikipedia research. So, basically, we've got a three-part problem on our hands: 1. GameStop is going to stop accepting XBox games, which means they'll soon stop carrying them altogether. 2. Microsoft has absolutely no motivation when it comes to making old games compatible with the 360. 3. Microsoft has absolutely no motivation when it comes to making old games available through their downloadable XBox Originals line. What bothers me about all this is that, as someone who thinks games should be archived and available to play regardless of current hardware, we may lose an entire generation of software just as we lost an entire generation of Saturn titles. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 06:45 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: xbox, bob mackey, gamestop, hardware, xbox originals, jet set radio future

• Underrated: Metal Arms - Glitch in the System

  When it comes to shooters I'm a pretty picky gamer. I don't like First-Person Shooters in general but I do like some Third-Person Shooters. Jak 2 and 3 along with the Ratchet and Clank series come to mind, though they are mostly shooter/adventure hybrids. The under appreciated game I'm featuring today is also a Third-Person Shooter, one that comes much closer to the feel of an FPS than the aforementioned games. Indeed, if you have played Metal Arms: Glitch in the System then pat yourself on the back. You are one of a handful of people that took a chance on an unknown title from an unknown studio and struck solid gold. Read More... Posted Dec 02 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: gamecube, amber ahlborn, ps2, xbox, underrated, metal arms glitch in the system, underappreciated

• Have You Seen This XBox Game?

  The original XBox didn't exactly speak to my gaming tastes, so I honestly never had a reason to buy one. This lifestyle choice totally worked out for me, except for the few XBox exclusives that had no place on Microsoft's first console. Case in point: Jet Set Radio Future. I don't know what marketing wizards assumed XBox fanboys would be into such a colorful, thoroughly-Japanese vandalism sim, but they were obviously wrong; even when Microsoft started giving away the game for free (along with Sega GT), people still didn't want it. And I should know--I worked gaming retail at the time, and watched multiple copies of Future sit unloved on the shelf. So I never really got the chance to play Future as much as I should have; my time with the game was limited to the brief instances of in-store rebellion when I snuck the game into the demo kiosk at work. And I'm sure many Sega fans had the same experience; it was very strange to see the company's creative spirit trapped on the XBox, where it was barely appreciated by the crowd Microsoft was trying to cater to the most (fans of football and explosions). I always believed that Sega's XBox-exclusive games would have been most welcome by GameCube owners--and the company soon found this was true. For cryin' out loud, with Sonic Adventure DX, they were able to sell a Dreamcast launch game four years after the fact! Read More... Posted Oct 24 2008, 11:45 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: sonic the hedgehog, sega ages, xbox, bob mackey, panzer dragoon orta, xbox originals, jet set radio future

• R.I.P. Xbox 720 and Playstation 4: The Future of Gaming

  When Dennis Dyack laid out his vision for the One-Console Future, he theorized that the extinction of multiple videogame consoles wasn’t just a utopian possibility “where games would become better in quality, cheaper, and more widely available.” He said it was inevitable. I’ve never agreed with Mr. Dyack, but I don’t necessarily think he’s too far off. As Wedbush Morgan’s resident maverick Michael Pachter says in the latest episode of GameTrailers’ Bonus Round, the console war is already on the road to being less about technological difference’s as it is about a war of branding. Not who has the better games, graphics, and controllers, but whose name is cooler. I think that’s true. But it’s only one possibility. Read More... Posted Sep 03 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, microsoft, michael pachter, wii, sony, Playstation, dennis dyack, xbox, seamus blackley, gametrailers, bonus round geoff keighley

• Sony Fans, Meet Your New Totem: Sackboy

  Your dear mother has undoubtedly told you at some point, "You need to have a wife. It's good to have a wife." Maybe you agree or maybe you disagree, but either way, singles feel pressured to hunt down a mate even while insisting to themselves that the single life is totally rad. Sony's adopted your mother's stance on companionship, but instead of spouses it's talking about mascots. "Every system needs a mascot. It's good to have a mascot. Here, Sackboy now represents Sony." "Gee Sony, Sackboy is awfully cute, but is it a good idea to make him the spokes...doll for the company? We don't actually know how LittleBigPlanet will sell. And honestly, I'm okay with Sony's lack of a mascot--" "It's good to have a mascot. Now start making babies." If you feel wary, it's okay. Sony's previous attempts to match us up with digital companions resulted in lukewarm relationships before sputtering out: Crash Bandicoot, Lara Croft, Kratos. Even Microsoft fared far better by branding itself with Master Chief. Read More... Posted Aug 15 2008, 05:45 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: grand theft auto iv, little big planet, playstation 3, microsoft, sony, psn, playstation network, xbox, legend of zelda: twilight princess, identity, master chief, sackboy, mascots

• Remote Controlled Military Drones: The Only Winning Move is Not to Play

  Remember that movie WarGames with Matthew Broderick? It turns out we didn't learn from his mistakes. Read More... Posted Jul 22 2008, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: slate, cole stryker, wario games, military, raytheon, universal control system, xbox