Since the dawn of time, humankind has argued over the merits of this versus that. In the mighty world of game, there was the Sega vs. Nintendo war of the early 90’s, the PSP vs. DS age, and more recently, the Xbox 360 vs. PS3 (and both vs. Wii) conundrum. However you may feel about any of these machines, one war that has waged in the background without waning is the war between the console and PC fans.
It’s an interesting one, really. Styles of gaming have always differed across these machine types, and there has always been a pervasive divider between the two. There has also, for as long as I can remember, been a consensus amongst console gamers that PC gaming is dead. Well, it hasn’t died yet, and let’s face it… it won’t die anytime soon. Regardless of how you feel (I’m a console gamer myself), I thought it pertinent to list the pros and cons of each, if only to help me understand why such a division exists.
With talk of the Dreamcast’s ‘Sonic Adventure’ coming to XBLA, as well as the announcement of the “Game Room” for old school arcade/console games (on PC/Xbox), my mind has wondered in recent days to the golden games of old. Well, not that old, but turn of the millennium. And I’ve come to the realisation that one game in particular (although there are many) is due for release on XBLA and PSN – Crazy Taxi.
Crazy Taxi, for it’s time, was a great game. Going back and playing it again now – it still stands the test of time, and above all, it’s virtually the PERFECT arcade game. There’s no need to invest any of your time in story or characters – you simply get in your car and drive (after, uh… choosing a character). Just drive! – In any direction – To beat the timer. The faster you can deliver your passenger, the more time you get, and the more money you make. Very simple mechanics, and much more fun than you think. It really lends itself well to the odd 20-minute stint on XBLA, and the trusty ol’ high score battle with your friends.
Just a quick post to say that I’m excited – not in a long while has a video from a gaming/electronics conference made me excited enough to post here… But here it is. Xbox Game Room – a place to buy and share old school arcade games at a fairly low cost (click here for more info direct from Microsoft). Of course, you have to have an Xbox 360… or a PC running Games for Windows Live! I’m guessing you have a PC, so get excited, too!
Update: The old video I had posted wouldn’t work for some reason. hopefully I’ve fixed this with the below Youtube video!
Yep – at first it seems an uninspired and crappy name, but you have to consider the fact that ALL of the PixelJunk titles have been a simple, single word, so it’s not all that bad. In fact, I’d almost go as far as saying the name was the worst thing about this title.
Almost.
I decided to fork out the AUS$12-odd to get this title when I was on my back last week with a ‘prolapsed disk’ – otherwise known as a damn sore back. I thought I needed a game to while away the hours. And I was not displeased with my decision.
If you like games, then it’s time to get out your crusty old wallet, but don’t expect to be spending all of your savings (particularly as it is likely you don’t have much this soon after Xmas) – there are bargains to be had!
I don’t know everything out there, of course, but here are the few bargains I’ve found in the past couple of days – all of which have raised the old eyebrows here and there, and a couple even made me throw some cash their way…
I was reading a transcript at Kotaku of a discussion about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a morning show recently, and my blood began to boil – mainly because the host asking the questions displayed the same ignorance and triviality of the subject as we gamers are now used to seeing. At first, I was upset about the situation – the host seemed to simply keep repeating that you could ‘play as a terrorist’ and that it was ‘interactive violence’, without displaying any further understanding of the topic at hand. And to some degree, it still does irk me – but it made me realise that – regardless of the facts at hand – we will always be on the back foot here… But we gamers need to make some changes, too.
This week, Sony’s PSPgo was released upon the world. Opting for a system based on downloads alone, it could prove to be a bit of a risk for Sony. At first, I was excited by the idea – finally someone was going balls-out and diving head-first in to the deep, dark (and largely unknown) waters of digital distribution. But after some careful consideration, I’m not so sure. I think Sony might have overestimated the demand, and underestimated the needs of consumers.
I was reading a recent post from Kotaku about a short discussion at PAX about the meaning of “gamer.” My first reaction was one of shock and dismissal at some of the things that were said (not on Kotaku’s part), but on second thought I realised that there were a couple of valid points being made – even given the fact it was glaringly pro-HARDCORE-gamer.
Really, someone that only plays Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook is not someone that could be called a gamer – it has to be said. Of course, this suggests that someone that plays a single game and never anything else can hardly be called a gamer; however, even that is a precarious topic – what about the hordes of people that exclusively play WoW and nothing else? So, yes, I would agree that casual games don’t have the same amount of say in how much of a gamer someone is when compared to more traditional games. However,I’m still not sure that I would say that this casual gamer (the Facebook Bejeweled player) is not a “real” gamer.
Video gaming has had a stigma attached to it for as long as I can remember. From what I understand, it has never really been accepted by the mainstream community (I was a bit young in the days of Space Invaders and Pac Man arcades, so I can’t really comment on that period or earlier), and, in my experience, has been regarded as childish and geeky by the great majority…
However, things have changed somewhat in recent years. Sony’s Playstation brought gaming to the masses in the 90s, but it was still considered pretty geeky. More recently, Nintendo’s successes with the DS and Wii has lead to somewhat of a ‘revolution’ in gaming — gaming has gained a foothold among the majority by way of simple, intuitive controls and titles.
Still, some (including myself) would argue that the games are too simplistic, and as such, the popularity of the Wii is a fad that will fizzle over time… Every non-gamer I know that owns a Wii either doesn’t really play it anymore, or just keeps it for the kids. Myself? I haven’t played a really good game on the Wii for a long while, and I could count the titles I enjoy on the fingers of one hand… Still, I think the Wii is an interesting system for what it is – particularly for kids – but it goes to show that simplicity is not the only thing that people are looking for…
If you’re an expat like me (sorry, technically I’m an EX-expat), or if you’re into importing, then it’s possible you don’t own your region’s PS3. Me — I own a Japanese PS3, and live in Oz. Generally, this doesn’t cause any issues, as PS3 games are (thankfully) region-free (although it can be a pain when purchasing BluRay movies).
However, there may come a time when you try to load up a new game, and the screen flashes with "Content cannot be displayed at the current video output settings." Now what the hell does this mean???
Comments (3) 
Since the dawn of time, humankind has argued over the merits of this versus that. In the mighty world of game, there was the Sega vs. Nintendo war of the early 90’s, the PSP vs. DS age, and more recently, the Xbox 360 vs. PS3 (and both vs. Wii) conundrum. However you may feel about any of these machines, one war that has waged in the background without waning is the war between the console and PC fans.
Yep – at first it seems an uninspired and crappy name, but you have to consider the fact that ALL of the PixelJunk titles have been a simple, single word, so it’s not all that bad. In fact, I’d almost go as far as saying the name was the worst thing about this title.
Themocracy