Extra Life

Weekly Opinion - Double pack - Used Video Games

2009-04-18T23:50:00.003-04:00

Like other sources of entertainment, there is a market for used video games. Unlike used books and music, however, it is somewhat hampered by Digital Rights Management attempts, but all the same, there is a small industry for it.

I Liked This Game, You Can Do

There are a few reasons as to why a person can resell their game to one of a few stores. One is that they didn't like the game and enough time has passed that they aren't able to return it to get their money back. Another is that the game is quite old, for much the same reason. Yet another is that people sometimes want to share the games, or just want to make room if they have a ton. And some just see it as a way to make a quick buck (as I did once).

There are a few places one can look. eBay and Amazon.com are good places, though one must be careful for bootlegs and the like. A place like Gamestop will often buy back games, but be warned there, they do not buy back older games (I recall hearing recently they stopped buying back Playstation 2's) and often shortchange a person, or find some minuscule reason to not buy back a game or system.

Finally there is Play N Trade. I haven't been to one yet myself, but I have heard good things, and it would appear that they even have games going back to the old Sega Genesis and Nintendo days. Excellent!

Bargain Bin Hunting and Buried Treasures
There's two other good reasons to go shopping for used games. First, you can often find a game for quite a low price. Though, be careful that the game is not damaged in some way.

But the main reason, in my eyes, is to find that diamond in the rough. Though you can sometimes find them in mainstream retailers (I found previously reviewed game Tribes at Best Buy for all of $20 or so, if memory serves), you're far better off in the backwater stores.

Go Digging

So go and find your nearest used game store. You may be surprised by what you find.

Weekly Opinion - Game Ratings

2009-04-18T23:34:00.003-04:00

Previously, I touched upon the game rating system by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB. Mostly it was in relation to the Adults Only rating and how games with that label essentially become lepers to retailers.

Now, though, I wish to touch upon the ratings in general.

Favorable

For the most part, I don't mind the ratings. As I have been a gamer for most of my life, I've seen it grow and know most of it by heart. To me, they're as clear as the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings (G, PG, etc). If there is any rating system that is not really clear, the TV Parental Guideline are the confusing ones (TV-Y, TV-14 DLV, etc).

Enough of that, though. I feel that the ratings, for the most part, are apt. Generally, E games are good for everyone, T has action and some violence, but not as much as M, and so on. I do feel that AO ratings get a bad rap, and that they should be allowed (just through specific venues).

The problem is, it doesn't always seem as though people get it.

Parents

Parents, it seems, are often the ones who don't understand the ratings, and sadly, they are often the most vocal, complaining about how lil' Timmy bought Grand Theft Auto 4. The thing is, if anyone actually looks into it, they'll find that the parents didn't pay any attention to what game the kid was buying, and it is clearly rated M for mature.

I feel, as a society, people are becomming more prone to blame others for their own shortcomings. If something goes wrong, it isn't their fault, especially as a parent. If their kid messes up, the fault belongs to the teacher. If the kid kills someone, a violent video game warped their fragile little mind. If they buy a violent video game, its the fault of the retailer and not their own for just rubber stamping lil' Timmy's purchase.

It is really annoying.

Reaction

I'll grant you, I only started buying M games after I turned 18, and became more interested in them. I've only been carded once, which surprised me, but I felt it was a good thing. But it seems that many others don't. This does surprise me a bit, but at the same time it doesn't. I know I don't get carded often when I am supposed to (I was taught while working at Harris Teeter when I was 17 that a license needed to be seen when a credit card was used, yet I rarely see this happen).

Not much can be done, I think. Society can only do so much for the parents, though. The parents need to pick up the slack.

World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King in China update

2009-04-11T20:00:00.000-04:00

Previously, I made mention of how Blizzard's World of Warcraft expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, has hit a few potholes in its attempt to be brought to China. The9, the company who handles World of Warcraft, is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because the game has been rejected a number of times, due to depictions of skeletons and a "city raid" (both of which, apparently, would cause...something, in China. Your guess is as good as mine).

Well, there's been a bit of an update.

Rumormongering

Though it seems to be a rumor at this point, given the direction things are going in China with World of Warcraft, I honestly would not be surprised.

WoW Insider reports that The9 may very well lose the license to handle WoW in China and the company Netease may take it up. What's even more painful? Netease, apparently, will have to pay around $22 million for the license, while The9 had to pay $73 million. Quite the slap in the face.

Easy Fix

The author of the article, Mike Schramm, mentions that the handing over of the license to Netease (or, perhaps, some other company) may help Chinese players get WotLK that much faster. That is a possibility, but at the same time, one has to wonder just how much did The9 had a hand in WotLK getting rejected for release. Although little has been released, from what I've been able to gather, they edited what they could and changed things around in several dire attempts to get it passed. What could Netease do that The9 didn't?

Time will tell.

Weekly Opinion - Gimmicks in Gaming

2009-04-04T22:46:00.006-04:00

Games and gimmicks often go hand in hand. They are often a way to make a game at least somewhat memorable, as gimmicks can make a game stand out.

For some games, the gimmick is a way to transform the controller into a gun of sorts. Others require you to purchase (either with it or as an addition) special controller-instruments. Still others require a certain game, and some platforms have the gimmick built right in.

Gimmicks can be beneficial to a game, though the problem lies in that developers sometimes just include gimmicks for the sake of it having a gimmick. I'll go into some examples below.

Wii and Mii

The Wii can be seen as a console built almost entirely around a gimmick. The whole Wiimote with the motion sensing abilities allows for some interesting games, and can be fun (or so I hear, I myself have never touched a Wii), but at the same time is a bit odd, at least in choice. Nintendo did suffer some backlash for this design, as when the Wii took off, the wristbands for it often broke and had a person launching a Wiimote into their TV.

But ok, for the most part, the Wiimote is ok. You can hold it and pretend you're using a gun or Lightsaber. Yay for imagination! Only...Nintendo has created some peripherals to make the gimmicky Wiimote even more of a gimmick. They have a plastic holder that turns it into a gun (something one can do without it just as well), and a steering wheel case to make it a steering wheel (again, something easily done by people with...oh, I don't know, imagination).

Still, its ok, gimmick aside. Sometimes Nintendo seems to be going for the gimmick for gimmicks sake route, but it works well enough for now.

Touch Me, Feel Me

Nintendo makes my small list again, this time with the Nintendo DS. The DS, coming from Dual Screen, has...well, two screens, heh. The bottom one is actually touch sensitive, and games often make use of this. In truth, the fault for gimmickry does not lie with Nintendo here. It lies with developers. The touch screen can be quite useful and, when utilized well, can make a good game great.

But the problem is that some developers tend to forget that they can use it. I mentioned this in my Pokemon Pearl and Diamond review a while ago, but that's a good example. I can use the touch screen to do a few things, issue commands (but I can use the directional pad and regular buttons for that too), sort my bag, and change modes on my character's watch, but...that's it.

RAWK OUT!

The final one I'll bring up is Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Both are essentially the same. You play through a DDR-esque game where you hit the right colored button at the right time. In this case, your controllers are music instruments (Guitar, Drum, Mic/Tamberine or whatever, etc). Though I dislike the games (it seemed to just get popular all of a sudden. I can't tell you the amount of times I groaned when someone coming through the airport I work at was bringing a Guitar Hero guitar with their ON BOARD LUGGAGE. What, you think that you can play mid-flight? Ugh), the idea is good, and actually seems fun at times. Instead of air guitar or drums, you can let loose, and it doesn't require that much practice to use.

Conclusions

Gimmicks can make or break a game at times. But it can also cheapen a game, too. Developers and the companies behind the consoles need to learn how to balance a gimmick.

April Fool's Day and Gaming

2009-04-04T22:46:00.005-04:00

As a gamer, I come to both welcome and dread April Fool's Day. While many go out and perform some sort of prank (such as YouTube and their flipping their videos upside down), I feel that those in the gaming industry are the ones that go all out.

Kotaku compiled a list and sorted it by how they felt the pranks were for this year. I'll go into a few that I remember and came across, as well as some from the past. I'll also delve into my own opinion near the end.

Out in the Cold

One of the kings of April Fool's Day, I feel (and am not really alone in feeling, either) are the guys working for Blizzard. Every year they've put out a prank of some sort. Some years the prank is quite detailed, even going so far as to fool some people (for example, they convinced some people that two-player controlled two-headed ogres were going to be playable in World of Warcraft).

This year it seems like they went even more all out than usual. Not one, not two, but FOUR pranks. On the American WoW page, they put forward their Dance Battle System (also probably poking fun at their promise of users being able to customize new dance moves in game but, thus far, being unable to code it in). On their European page came P1mp My Mount. Their Starcraft 2 page showed the Terra-Tron. And finally, their Diablo 3 page had the introduction of the Archivist class.

Truly, I think Blizzard is in a class all its own when it comes to April 1st.

Turning the Valve

Valve also did a good job this year. They've been releasing updates to each class in their popular Team Fortress 2 game, and they made it seem that the Sniper's turn was up (it actually is, but this was a fake update all the same). The page reads for itself, I think.

Not Even Trying

I didn't come across any news items this year that made my blood boil, but the Kotaku list I linked to has a list of a few at the bottom. Go check those out.

Thoughts

As a gamer, I've come to expect things like this to come out on April 1st. Pretty much any gaming news I hear that day I take with a large grain of salt. Still, it is a good day for some fun. And I think the more po'ed I get over some news (well, over prank news that's actually done well), the better the prank.

I do wonder how many people fall for some of this stuff. The fallout from the fake ogre announcement really had me wondering a while ago.

Weekly Opinion - Double pack - Movie Tie-ins

2009-03-21T17:59:00.001-04:00

As Summer approaches, so too comes the glut of Summer movies. And along with Summer movies (and really, any movie that's connected to a comic, book, or something for kids, so it doesn't have to happen during Summer), so too comes the glut of game tie-ins.

I've been told of a few that don't suck, but as a general rule, I avoid them like the plague. There's a reason for that.

If you LOVE [Blank] - The Movie, You'll LOVE [Blank] - The Movie - The Game!

What I titled above is pretty much one of the main reasons why I hate movie tie-ins. The majority are put out to capitalize on all the free publicity that the movie generates. Game companies can generally slap a title like Spider-Man on a game, add a 1, 2, or 3 as it needs to so it fits with the movie, have some general plot points the movie has, and ship it out. Even if the game blows, hordes of people will buy it.

These games tend to be loaded down with bugs and gameplay issues. But the developers and companies behind it all don't truly care. They put it out as quickly as possible to make money, money, money. And if you think about it, most movies are just out for the money nowadays too.
I'm Batman

Interestingly, there was one movie that didn't have a game tie-in that I expected would. Batman: The Dark Knight did not have any such game. As we all know by now, The Dark Knight was pretty much a license to print money. Surely a game, even an astoundingly crappy one, would've been expected.

According to The Escapist, who link to an article from Kotaku Australia, there was an attempt, but it never came to fruition. I suggest reading both, as they talk about it far better than I ever could (and check out their sites, especially The Escapist. Quite good guys there).

Final Thoughts

I'm keeping this brief due to a headache, and that this is mostly opinion instead of fact. Movie tie-ins blow. There are a few diamonds in the rough, but generally there is just the rough. Until such time as developers and the movie industry that demands games decide that they want to put out a game that's good instead of just advertisement for the movie, and until such time as the hordes of Walmart shoppers stop buying this crap, there will always be shelf space for such games.

Weekly Opinion - Sequels

2009-03-21T17:57:00.001-04:00

Sequels are a common thing in just about any story-driven media. Books, TV shows, movies, and one could argue that music fits in too (an artist putting out several albums, one could argue that the other albums are sequels to the first, and then there are artists who tell a story that may branch out over several albums....it happens). Games are no exception.

Just like the aforementioned media forms, game sequels can be both good, bad, and mediocre. The reasons for this can vary as wildly as possible, so I won't delve too deep into that (I have neither the time nor the space to possibly cover every reason why a sequel could be any of the three). Instead, I will give some examples of good, bad, and mediocre, along with some games that I feel fit the categories.

I also want to warn, I may touch upon some plot points, so spoiler warning ahead.

The Good...

A good sequel builds upon an already established world in some way. Sometimes a sequel will have a large visual improvement (Warcraft 1-2-3-World of Warcraft; Half Life-Half Life 2). Sometimes they'll expand the world (Warcraft again, Half Life again). And sometimes they'll introduce new ways of playing (Wa-...just read the previous examples).

I've talked quite a bit about WoW so I'll put that aside for now and focus instead on the Half Life series.

Half Life, developed by Valve, is notorious in the gaming world for a number of reasons. It was one of the first First Person Shooter games that allowed for extreme modifications to be made to the game engine. Thanks to this, fans were able to create endless mods. One such mod I mentioned previously, the popular Counter-Strike.

But this is about Half Life, not it is easy to modify. Half Life's story was fairly simply. You're Doctor Gordon Freeman, a rather low leveled scientist in a top secret facility in Black Mesa, Arizona. Due to a mishap (which you learn in HL2 isn't quite a mishap), you tear open multiple portals to a "world" (in the loosest sense of the world) of Xen, unleashing countless creatures upon your scientist buddies. You now have to escape. At the end you suddenly find yourself in a tram car hurtling through space. A bland looking man, the G-Man, as he is known, is before you, offering you two choices. Stay and do nothing, or go through the door, accept his proposal of a job. You really only have one choice to end the game, go through the door. As you do so, the game ends.

Half Life 2 took quite a while to come out, but it did, and it, thankfully, picked up where things left off. In a sense. Freeman has been in a sort of stasis for about 20 years in the game, so he comes out to a world that's quite a bit different. There he learns much of what truly happened while he pushed the crystal sample under the laser and unleashed hell on Earth. Though some questions are answered, more are asked, and HL2 (and its sequels too) are weaving a great storyline.

That, I think, is a good, even great, sequel. It uses the previous game(s) as a foundation.

The Bad...

I previously wrote a review about the game Tribes. Tribes is a cult classic, and finally spawned a game, Tribes 2. People, such as myself, were quite happy. The game wasn't that hard to emulate, all we wanted was better graphics, more modes to play, the ability to modify it like the first game.

We didn't get much. Graphics were better, yeah. But the game blew otherwise. It tried to have a story. A story for a game whose predecessor was renowned for its multiplayer. It also clamped down on the speed of players, which was a bad move. Tribes players loved the original because you could go extremely fast at times. That's why you had jetpacks, for Pete's sake!

And while mods in the original Tribes had various vehicles, they weren't the main focus. Tribes 2 changed that. And most of the vehicles sucked.

Some say it got better. But for me, I left it.

And the Meh...

Another game I went into previously was Homeworld. In the case of Homeworld 2, it was an expansion that was ok in some regards, meh in others. Story-wise, it was pretty good, expanding upon the story of the Hiigarans and their homeworld, as well as expanding upon the background of their Mothership, the friendly alien Bentusi, and the origins of the warp cores.

However, in my experience anyway, the game kind of failed in the Real Time Strategy portion. Some RTS games are renowned for their need of micromanagement. Homeworld didn't need it, outside of needing to keep track of your ships' fuel amounts (removed in Cataclysm, thank god). Homeworld 2 required a lot of micromanagement and you had to go through various bars to research things.

It wasn't a bad game, by any means, but it wasn't a good game either. There was potential, but it failed.

Final Thoughts
It can be hard to create a sequel. I think the creators have to truly be a part of the game, to love it to create a good sequel. That's not to say there couldn't be flukes. I'm sure there are some awful games created by lovers of the game itself. I couldn't name one as I don't know of one, but I'm sure there's one or two out there.

Emotions from a Game

2009-03-14T22:50:00.001-04:00

A good story will often evoke an emotion in its reader, I think. Whether that emotion is happiness, joy, sadness, or anger, that's up to the story, but if played well, it makes a story memorable.

Some say that games aren't art, they don't belong on the same stage as TV or books. I think otherwise. Just as Law & Order could get me all angry that a murderer gets off scott free, so too can a game get me all emotional. I'm going to recount two such times that I felt emotion in a game. Feel free to add your own experiences if you wish. Also, the following will have spoilers for the games Homeworld and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, so be warned.

...Not Even Beacons...

I wrote previously about the game Homeworld and the emotions it brought up. I'm going to expand upon it here.

In one of the first missions in the game, you return from an attempted hyperspace jump to your home planet of Kharak. As your ship returns and deploys the small fleet you've built, you see things are different. The scaffold that held the mothership is destroyed. And Kharak, that dustball of a planet, your "home," is...is burning.

As you view all of this and hear your Fleet Command talk, Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei plays in the background.

It makes for a powerful scene. Though at first it seems like Fleet Command is rather cold and unemotional, if you listen hard you can hear the emotion. The male voice cracks a few times.

Whenever I hear Agnus Dei now, I get goosebumps.

Farewell, Chopper

The other game, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, is a flight combat simulator for the Playstation 2. Unlike the previous game, AC5 has your wingmates be "actual" people. They have names, voices, and personality. But the 17th mission, you know them all well. One wingmate, Alvin "Chopper" Davenport, is the "big loudmouth" of your group. He's always got a comeback for anyone, horses around, but is a good guy nevertheless.

In the 17th mission, after a number of hard missions already, you're slated to fly in performance over the capital city in formation for a speech by the vice president. But as you're doing so, enemy fighters suddenly appear. As people are evacuated, you and your three wingmates, horribly outnumbered (and with someone sabotaging help, no less, from coming in), fight off the waves of the enemy.

As you play, it isn't too hard. There aren't a lot of environmental problems, if you stay above the city. But about halfway through, Chopper takes a hit. He's ok, but he needs to land. He tries...and fails. He dies.

At this point, absolute silence comes over. The music stops. No one speaks. There's a lull in the fighting, though it starts up quickly again. You're asked to finish off the remaining fighters. You can hear the chatter from the enemies about the change, and you can hear your wingmate Nagase grunt gasp as she tears the enemy planes apart.

This...there are few times where I have come close to breaking a controller. I was gripping the controller so hard I thought I was about to shatter it.

In the game, you're able to carry an absurd number of missiles (it is a game, after all). My plane at the time could hold up to 90, and I had about 50 left, I guess. I was so angry that I just let loose. By the end of the mission, I had completely emptied my missiles and had even blown apart 6 planes with just the gun my plane had.

But it was a hollow victory. Chopper was dead.

Though I cannot find a video of the crash itself, here is the aftermath.

Silly?

Is it silly to get worked up over a game like that? I say no. It helps immerse you in the game. And that is never, ever a bad thing.

Weekly Opinion - Censorship in Gaming

2009-03-13T21:58:00.010-04:00

For the most part, I think that gaming has gotten by with minimal amounts of censorship. I'll expand on my theory as to why shortly, but I think I can count the number of games that have been censored in some way on one hand.

Still, the thought has come up from time to time. Various agencies like to take potshots at video games as they are an emerging medium, so I sometimes sit back and think that such-and-such a game will get people angry and call for censoring. But as I said, I can't actively recall any real occurrence. At least, not here.

Nihao

As I mentioned previously, World of Warcraft boasts a subscription base of around 11.5 million or so. A nice chunk of that base live in China. World of Warcraft has basically three "regions" for the game. There's the American version, which is available to, of course, the United States, Canada, Mexico and other areas south, as well as Australia and New Zealand. There's the European version, which, logically, serves England, France, Germany, Spain, and so on. Then there is the Chinese version. South Korea also plays, but I can't seem to figure out where they go. They may have their own server node as well.

Anyway, while WoW is just fine in most of these regions, it has hit some problems with China. You see, China has some laws or rules that prohibit certain things from appearing in games or movies.

For example, I mentioned in my previous post about WoW that there is a race of Undead (zombies, but sentient) in the game. You look reasonably human, but your skin is pallid and bones show at your joints and your spine is visible. Not so in the Chinese version. To get it passed, they actually redesigned the model to cover the bones. You can see a comparison to the right.

That's not the only change. There are numerous skeletal creatures that all grew flesh in the Chinese version. And another example, when your character dies and you resurrect, a skeleton of your character is left behind for a time. In China, this is replaced by a tombstone.

Reasonable Changes, Unreasonable Future

So far, I suppose you could say it is reasonable. A little anal, perhaps, but reasonable. What the harm could be in not showing the skeletal joints, I don't know, but each country runs itself differently.

However, The9, operator of WoW in China, has had some problems with attempts to bring the latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, over. They've tried twice so far and both attempts have been shot down.

See, Wrath of the Lich King involves players bringing the battle to Northrend, the northern lands in WoW's planet of Azeroth, to battle the Lich King. The Lich King commands legions of undead who are, naturally, in various states of undeath. This has caused quite a problem.

WoW Insider reported that the problems seem to stem from "Skeletal characters" and a "city raid." The city raid is a quest where you enter a phased version of one of the capital cities that has been attacked and basically remove the enemies from it. A fun, new quest that came with WotLK.

So far, The9 and Blizzard have jumped through a number of hoops to get WoW up and running in China. Though I think that what they have to change is daunting, they may very well do it, since there are so many fans in China.

Panda's Banned-a

There's one other issue I'd like to touch upon, since I'm talking about WoW and China and censoring problems. In WoW's lore, there's a race called the Pandarens. They are pretty much what they sound like, a race of humanoid Pandas. They started out as a bit of a joke (heard around 05:12) spawned by a piece of art created by WoW-artist Samwise Didier. They've since ballooned into a full blown race. But they've never been seen in the game itself.

Rumors have floated around. There was the rumor that the new race for the Alliance in the first expansion pack would be the Pandaren but China had a problem and so it was changed to the Draenei (I don't buy it). Some claimed that there is a law forbidding the virtual killing of a panda in a game, but that doesn't make sense either (I haven't found a law like that, and Pandarens showed up, at least as one unit, in the game Warcraft 3 which sold in China just fine).

There is only one theory that I heard that I could buy. The Pandarens are a mix of Chinese and Japanese cultures. Many are samurai and the like. Some, myself included, think that the Chinese, who have a bit of history with the Japanese, don't like seeing a cultural icon like the Panda dressed in Japanese garb.

At the last Blizzcon, developers did mention that there was some sort of problem, but did not elaborate. I think it was what I mentioned. We may never know, though.

Theorycrafting

I think the reason why gaming has gone by mostly uncensored is because of the ESRB rating system used. Though some think that the system doesn't work (it does, its just that parents don't seem to care that the game they're buying their 9 year old is clearly rated M for Mature. You just can't idiot-proof everything, sadly), most businesses try and make use of it. I have actually been carded, CARDED(!), once when buying a mature game.

Anyway, the ratings go:

Pretty simple, right? Pretty much like the ratings for a movie or TV (hell, I'd say that TV's ratings are more confusing. TV-MA-SLV. What? TV-Mature...slave?). Makes you wonder how people just don't notice it, but that's a rant for another time.

Anyway, I have seen every one of those ratings in a store. Every one but AO. Adults Only is, from what I have read in a few gaming magazines (I'd link but unfortunately they have since closed shop and I cannot find it), a death sentence for a game. No store will sell it. This forces a developer to pare things down so it will fit.

So in a way, the industry regulates itself with censoring. Anything that may hit an AO rating will edit itself down to M so it could be sold.

Until we see a mass-selling AO game, though, this is just a theory.

3/14/09 - 9:05 pm: Just a small edit. Came across an article on WoW Insider that sent me to this article. Apparently, if The9 can't get Wrath of the Lich King passed and up and running in China, they face bankruptcy. This may cause problems for WoW as a whole in China.

Game Review - Pokemon Pearl/Diamond

2009-03-13T21:58:00.009-04:00

By this point in time, if you've spent any time online or with games, you've likely at least heard of Pokemon. But just in case, I'll give you the quick-and-dirty rundown.

The Pokemon games take place in a world similar to ours but different at the same time. It is populated with hundreds of creatures known as Pokemon (name, by the way, is a portmanteau of Pocket Monster, which is what its called in Japan). These critters range from tiny (mouse sized) to gigantic (as big as a blue whale). They each have a "type" or two. Types can be elemental (Fire, Water, Air), paranormal (Psychic, Ghost, "Dark"), or just...random (Steel). Certain types have weaknesses and strengths (Water is weak to Electricity, Fire is weak to Water, etc).

You play a Pokemon trainer, someone who travels the world challenging gyms (dojos, basically) and collecting all the Pokemon you can. Inevitably, you come across some grand scheme by evil-doers and take part in taking them down.

Truth be told, it is kind of kiddy, but I feel it is a rather solid RPG. You have a set party you can swap around, you can set up the abilities your Pokemon have, and you raise stats. Sounds like an RPG to me.

Diamond in the Rough

Now that we have the basics squared away, a tiny bit of history. Pokemon has been around for quite a while (1996), starting on the old GameBoy. It has evolved as time has passed, adding bits of color with the GameBoy Color, adding full color and animation with the Gameboy Advance, and even adding in some 3-D with the Nintendo DS. Each "Generation," of which there are 4 (I'm not even going to factor in the games that exist outside the core ones), have a theme with their names.

The first generation is made up of Red, Blue (Green in Japan), and Yellow (which was released later from Red and Blue). The second generation is Gold and Silver, with Crystal being released later. Third gets expanded a bit, with Ruby and Sapphire. Emerald is, like Crystal and Yellow before it, is released later and is a slightly edited version of the ones of its generation. But the third generation also released FireRed and LeafGreen, Gameboy Advance versions of the originals.

This review is about two of the three games of the fourth generation, Pearl and Diamond (Platinum has been announced as the third of the generation. There are also expectations of a Gold and Silver remake, but there's only rumors for now).

Diamond and Pearl represent the current apex of the games. There's full color, an engaging story, a whopping number of Pokemon to catch (493).

Tired but True

The game plays almost exactly like the previous ones. You battle wild Pokemon to capture them, you battle trainers and gyms to earn money, you play through the storyline. Anyone who has played the previous games will know what to do, generally.

That, though, may be the problem. Though there are innovations, including the ability to trade Pokemon over the internet via WiFi, its all the same otherwise. New Pokemon aside, there isn't a great deal of change.

At four generations, Pokemon may be starting to get a little tiresome. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong, but I dearly hope the fifth generation, which I have heard some rumblings saying its not off for a long while, has some new component that changes things up. Even something like an "Active Time Battle" mode like one can see in Final Fantasy IV (basically, though turn-based, things continue to move, so if you aren't on your toes, you could get your team killed quickly).

There is one other problem I have. The Nintendo DS has two screens, the bottom of which is a touch screen. Diamond and Pearl make use of this to some degree, but it barely makes a difference in my experience. You don't even have to use it, in truth. In the future I hope they have it play a bigger part.

World Wide Community

I mentioned previously that you can trade over the internet with a WiFi connection. This is a great change from previous games, as previously you could only trade either via a cord or, at best, over a short-range signal.

However, though it is great to be able to trade with people from all over the world (I currently own Pokemon that were owned by people in Brazil, France, Thailand, and Japan), the problem is some people expect some absurdly stupid trades.

Some ask for an extremely rare and powerful Pokemon, and in exchange offer up one of the most common Pokemon. Or they ask for a level 100 version (hard to do unless you cheat, really).

When I trade over it, I generally just ask for a Pokemon of similar value, don't ask for a level requirement, and maybe occasionally ask for a specific gender (you can breed Pokemon in game). That's all.

But there's no accounting for the stupidity of people, so I don't really hold that against the developers.

Last Thoughts

Pokemon Pearl and Diamon are good games. They use a tired-but-true method, and if you're a Pokemon fan, you'll enjoy it. If you're new to the game, it'll be good for you too as everything'll be new. It could be a little daunting at times though, especially if you factor in being able to trade Pokemon from other generations. For stuff like that, I suggest Bulbapedia, the Pokemon Wikipedia.

Game Review - Kirby Super Star Ultra

2009-03-01T02:35:00.003-05:00

Kirby Super Star Ultra, released September 22nd, 2008 in the United States, for the Nintendo DS, is a remake of an old Super Nintendo game of the same name (minus "Ultra"). With its remake on the DS, KSSU gets some upgraded graphics, adds a few new mini-games, and the cutscenes are now actually movies.

Living Vacuum

Kirby, for those that don't know, is one of Nintendo's iconic characters. Maybe not as iconic as Mario or Donkey Kong, but he's up there. He's the little ball of pink you see to the left and right. Not that threatening, I'll admit, but he can inhale and eat just about anything. That's how he takes care of whatever's going on in his world. Certain enemies he inhales give him powers. Swords, bombs, magic, the ability to turn to stone, etc.

Mini-games, Get Your Mini-Games

KSSU is essentially a collection of mini-games. Some are extremely short, like Samurai Kirby where you wait for a signal to hit a button and try to defeat Samurai Kirby's enemies in a sword drawing contest. Others are longer, such as The Great Cave Offensive. But most can be finished quickly enough, with my own average for the longest (Meta-Knight's Revenge, which combines all the previous content) being an hour or so.

As a whole, the collection of mini-games works. They are all varied, both in difficulty and in goals. The Great Cave Offensive has Kirby running through several areas collecting treasure. Milky Way Wishes has him hopping from themed planet to themed planet (Water Planet, Fire Planet, Machine Planet, etc) to collect power to make a wish.

Short but Mostly Sweet

As I mentioned above, the game is kind of short. That is probably its biggest problem. I was able to blow through it all in one sitting, though I've returned a few times to complete harder things (i.e. beating the Arena opens up the True Arena, trying to collect all 60 treasures, etc). So there is some replay value.

I suggest this game mostly to those who played the original (I'm one, and I bought it for sure nostalgia value alone), Kirby fans, and those who want a good varied set of mini-games. You won't be disappointed.

A Life All Its Own

2009-02-26T15:27:00.005-05:00

MMORPGs. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. If you've spent any time playing video games, whether its been on the consoles or PC (Mac too), you've likely heard of this term. It now sits alongside other terms such as FPS (First Person Shooter) and RTS (Real Time Strategy).

A Second Life, A Second World

But just what are MMORPGs? You can infer much of what it is from the last three letters of its acronym: Role Playing Game. Like the old Dungeons & Dragons games, you create a character and play out a role. Though that role can be limited by game mechanics, you are often allowed to do what you want. You can roleplay (pretend to be your character in-game), you can "raid" (taking on hard dungeons with allies to get good loot), you can PvP (Player versus Player, where you and other human controlled characters combat one another), or you can just futz around for fun.

But you can do that in any offline RPG. The MMO, the massively multiplayer online portion, is just that. A massive multiplayer section. You will often find yourself playing alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of players on your server.

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar

You can create just about any character in MMORPGs, though they are limited by game mechanics. For example, in Anarchy Online, you could create male and female avatars of three of the game's four races (the fourth race had one gender). In World of Warcraft, you can create male and female avatars of all 10 races, though specific races had certain unique things (Draenei had facial crests, horns, and tails; the Forsaken were undead humans sometimes literally falling apart, etc).

So, you could be anyone. Even someone of the opposite gender. Of course, this can cause some...problems...in game, but it also teaches players to try and keep an open mind.

Online Anarchy

From here on I will speak mostly in terms of the two MMORPGs with which I have experience. Anarchy Online, made by Funcom, was my "first" MMORPG. I had tried out both Ultima Online and Everquest before, but neither truly grabbed me.

Anarchy Online is one of the few science fiction MMOs (the genre is dominated mostly by Fantasy style games), though it did have some fantasical elements (a dragon lived in a castle in one town, I recall).

Anarchy Online, though extremely dated by today's standards, is still worth a look. One can even play for free, though doing so causes the game to have some ingame ads on billboards

You are Listening to Gridstream Productions

One of my favorite parts from Anarchy Online wasn't even officially a part of the game. At least for a time. Gridstream Productions was an ingame radio station of sorts. You had to use a radio client to listen in, but you could talk with the DJs in game and even request songs. They had a number of DJs, many of whom had specialties. Former CEO Lan "Tarryk" Kozar often played hard rock, another former CEO "Veldron" played even harder rock, former DJ Otori would play dance and house, and so on.

Tarryk stepped down some time after I stopped playing, handing the reins to Veldron. Veldron has since gone "missing," though clues from the bio for new CEO Ashval points to him just being Veldron under another name.

GSP became big. Very big. Part of that was likely due to Anarchy Online having only three servers: Rubi-ka 1 (now named Atlantean), Rubi-ka 2 (now named Rimor), and a German server whose name I can't seem to find. RK1/Atlantean was the most populated, but they had a speacial bot script on each server allowing them to take requests from them all.

They also held parties. Despite the game having three sides, two of which were at war (Omni-Tek and the Rebels), they had parties where all were invited, though sometimes it was difficult to get to the club they were at. Most parties were held at their unofficial HQ, Reet's Retreat. GSP also were hired by numerous Organizations (player run groups) to help with parties.

GSP is perhaps the one aspect I miss most. Though it seems to have changed, having the in-game radio was a great thing, and made leveling and playing all the more fun.

I just wish they had it in the MMO I play now.

Welcome to the World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft, also known as WoW, is "this" generation's Everquest. Everquest, for those that don't know, was the 700 lb. gorilla of the MMO market. WoW is the 2 ton gorilla.

WoW, at last report, had 11.5 million players worldwide, and it seems to continue to grow. They just recently released their latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and though most would agree that WoW is starting to decline, it still has a number of years left in it, and at least one more expansion.

WoW is a sequel of sorts to Blizzard's Warcraft storyline. It continues from the events in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, and offered players a chance to change from the traditional RTS to the MMORPG. Everyone, even Blizzard, was surprised with the results.

WoW is often thought of as being in the fantasy genre, but it tends to be more of a blend of fantasy and steampunk. Thanks to the Gnome and Goblin races, there exist robots and machines in WoW. There are even technological ways to teleport from place to place (though magical means still rules it all).

The Draw

So why do so many people play WoW? And after so long? (The game was released in November of 2004)

Your guess is as good as mine, really. I play because I love the world, and even if some of the story is silly at times, I enjoy it. Others came for that reason and stay for the community. And others still...again, your guess is as good as mine.

That's the same draw with most MMOs, I think. You come in for your varying reasons, but in the end most stay because of the community that they grow attached to.

MMOs have somewhat become the last domain of PC gaming. Though a few exist on consoles (Final Fantasy 11 and the Phantasy Star line of games, to my knowledge), most exist on the PC and Mac only. That may change as time passes and consoles become more like computers. We'll see.

Weekly Opinion - Rabid Fanning

2009-02-21T22:53:00.004-05:00

Rabid fanning is just a term I came up with, right this instant. Was thinking maybe Fanboyism or Rabid Fanboys, but fanning seems to be a better term, I believe.

Though I feel that this has diminished over the last few years, it still exists in some way. There are fans of the various gaming systems that feel as though their's is the superior one, that their's is the king while the others are not fit to lick the scum off the boot of their company of choice's president.

Diminishing Returns

I mentioned that I feel it has diminished. While there is no way to keep track, to my knowledge, as one who often associates with other gamers, it is a feeling I've had. The "Console War" was probably at its hottest in the last Generation, with Sony's Playstation 2, Microsoft's Xbox, and Nintendo's Gamecube (some include Sega's Dreamcast, though I feel that was out too early and died before the others came into being).

Part of this change may be due to the games in this latest generation (belonging to the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii) are reaching across platforms. Big hits like Grand Theft Auto 4 can be played on both the 360 and PS3, where once the GTA series played on only the PS2.

Though there are still exclusives (360 with the Halo franchise, PS3 with...actually I can't really think of any off the top of my head at this moment), the 360 and PS3 have become somewhat homogenized. But what about the Wii, you ask? Nintendo's targeting an almost entirely different crowd with their gaming system now, so they're almost out of the console race at this point.

All the same, though, you still have people who decry one system over the other, and refuse to back down. These people often refuse to listen to reason and back their system like a dedicated football fan backs his losing team.

The Why of Things

Just how did rabid fanning come about, though? The reason I think fits best is that this arose from kids from my generation only being able to get one console. Yahtzee of The Escapist said it best in one of his videos, but I can't find it (his videos are good to watch though. Be mindful, however, that he curses quite a bit, so his videos aren't exactly safe for work). Essentially, though, a kid could only get one console platform, and since he was stuck with it until perhaps the next generation, they either convinced themselves that the console was the best or just never tried the others and so never knew what the other consoles could offer.

The Outcast

There is one thing that most console players seem to be able to agree upon, though, and that is their dislike for PC gamers. Some just can't see the PC being a good gaming system, that the consoles are better. While the consoles have some advantages, and the PC have some disadvantages (check out my Piracy opinion post to see one such problem), the PC deserves to be counted among the 360, PS3, and Wii.

One can easily upgrade their own PC, thereby allowing them to continue to play new games as they are released, while console players may have to abandon their old platform in order to play new ones. This can be cost saving, if the PC gamer is careful.

But even PC gamers sometimes look down on their console gaming brethren.

Can't we all just...get along?

Why can't more gamers just see beyond the lines of their consoles and enjoy the fact that others are happy with their systems? Why do some have to be unhappy that former exclusives to their console can now be played on others?

I wish I had the answer, but I don't. While I would happily categorize myself as a PC gamer first and foremost, I absolutely love my Nintendo DS, and the Playstation 2 was one of the best gaming consoles, in my opinion. The Xbox line...I don't like too much, but eh, its there and people like it, that's good enough for me.

I hope that rabid fanning continues to diminish. We're all gamers. We all love the same thing. Why must we fight?

Game Review - Left 4 Dead

2009-02-21T22:04:00.003-05:00

Left 4 Dead is one of the latest games put out by game developer
Valve Software, though developed by Turtle Rock Studios. Available for purchase of Valve's own Steam service as well as in stores, it has become highly popular. As of February 17th, it held the 7th top spot for sales from February 1st through 7th, and was the most popular game bought on Steam, beating out such favorites as Grand Theft Auto 4 and Counter-Strike.

I received it for Christmas, and have played off and on throughout.

Sole Survivors

In the game, you play as one of four set characters, survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Each character is different (essentially you have the grizzled war veteran, the bearded biker, the college girl, and the African American office worker), and reports say that each has a slight advantage with certain weapons (the girl, Zoey, is said to be slightly better with the dual wielded pistols, for example).

At this time, there are four "acts", each with four stages and a finale:

No Mercy: No Mercy is the first, in which you start in a city, making your way to a hospital rooftop for rescue. You start going through an apartment, make your way through the streets into the subway, from the subway into a sewer, which leads to the hospital. The finale takes place upon the rooftop. More on the finales in a bit.
Death Toll: You start out following roads in a wooded area, making your way into another series of sewers. These lead to a church, which leads into a town, and then to a large house for the finale while you wait for a boat.
Dead Air: You begin in a sort of greenhouse, making your way to an airport for rescue. You go over rooftops, through a crane, through a construction site, the airport terminal itself, with the finale taking place around the airplane as it refuels.
Blood Harvest: You're making your way to a supposed safezone at a farmhouse. You start in the woods, leading to a series of tunnels. These tunnels take you to a bridge, which take you to a train station, and you finally reach the finale at the farmhouse.

Bloody Finale

Each act, campaign, whatever you wish to call it, ends with a finale. They all typically act the same, though they have their own advantages and disadvantages. Typically, you get a chance to fully heal and prepare, taking defensive positions. You usually have access to a single stationary chaingun. Though this gun has limited range, it will help with much. You call for help, and then waves of zombies come, more and more.

The difference in L4D's zombies is that they don't shamble. Oh no, they're more similar to the zombies from 28 Days Later. They run, they jump, they tackle. And mixed in are "special" zombies. There's the Smoker, the Hunter, the Boomer, the Tank, and the Witch. The last one is one to look out for.

The first four zombie types can show up during finales and throughout the levels. The witch will show up during the first four maps of an act, but not the finale. The Witch is probably the greatest danger, as startling her can get an ally killed quickly, if not instantly. She can be avoided, however, and you'll hear her sobbing long before encountering her. You can hear her sobs in the video below.

Playtime

I've played L4D in both single and multiplayer. Its a great amount of fun, though when playing with others it is important to have some amount of teamwork. While it is possible to handle things for a time on your own, you want, and need, someone at your back to cover you.

Final Notes

First, the game is fun, but you will grow tired of the maps after a time. Valve will be release a new mode soon, however, as well as some new maps. If nothing else, Valve is extremely good about releasing updates for their games. So while things may be boring after a time, give it a break maybe and return in a while, you should have new content.

And when you are in game, a suggestion about weapons. Though what you choose will be up to you, I myself tend to prefer the good old shotgun for handling the zombies. Though the assault rifles are good at dispatching them faster, nothing much is better than blowing zombies away the old fashioned way. I hate the sniper rifle, if only because I prefer to be in the thick of it. Also, if you get the chance, try out the dual pistols. While one pistol is ok, dual wielding them is great, and can handle quite a number of zombies if you're adept at aiming.

Weekly Opinion - Piracy

2009-02-14T23:48:00.005-05:00

Gaming and Piracy go together, much like music and piracy. Like music, gaming is heavily impacted. However, the results from said piracy have gone in two different directions. Music pirates were once haunted by the Recording Industry Association of America. However, starting last December, the music pirate's boogeyman ceased their mass lawsuits. They are still suing some, but their days of suing people wrongfully accused are over.

Pirates and gaming are a bit different. To my knowledge, I've never really heard of a suit like the RIAA has done with music pirates. That may have something to do with the fact that the gaming industry does not have an RIAA of its own (its tried a few times, and certain organizations, such as the PC Gaming Alliance, are trying now). So it fell to the various developers and distributors to sue others.

Consoles and PCs

Piracy itself has seemed to have come down the hardest on PC games. Numerous developers have complained in the past about how games they release on the PC get pirated and they lose money.

While piracy exists on the consoles, from the research I have done, it is of a somewhat different sort. For them, it is more of a problem of exported games and mod-chips. As I am a PC gamer, I only know of those in passing, though to my understanding mod-chips often allow consoles to play games they otherwise wouldn't.

PC Gaming has taken a major hit with piracy. Some developers steadfastly refuse to make games for it now after bad game sales. Many of those that remain, however, are beginning to turn to DRM - Digital Rights Management. The problem is, many are getting quite zealous.

DRM and Controversy

DRM, Digital Rights Management, is exactly what it sounds like. It is a way for someone, whether it is a band, a music label, movie studio, or game developer, to protect their creation online. There are a number of ways to do it, ranging from keeping it from being ripped from DVDs (doesn't seem to work from what I have seen) to software installed in it to keep from being ripped, to software being installed to ensure it isn't pirated (this happens mostly in gaming cases). DRM is disliked by many as people often hold the opinion that, as they are the ones who bought it, it is their right to use it as they see fit, and attempts to keep them from, say, ripping a movie from a DVD in order to have it on their computer, is stifling them.

One of the best, most recent cases of over zealous DRM is the game Spore, released by Electronic Arts. Spore used a type of DRM known as SecuROM, a type of DRM that has caused problems for users in the past. SecuROM sometimes blocks installation based on the software a user has, even if they are innocent. SecuROM, for Spore anyway, at one time required the game to be authenticated upon installation as well as every time it accessed the internet (as one could download content).

The backlash was quite harsh. The game was ratings-bombed on sites like Amazon.com, EA and the Spore forums lit up with posters, angry over this. Some minor changes were made, but the DRM remained. Did the DRM live up to EA's expectations?

Not in the slightest. Within 9 days of release (Spore was first released in Australia on September 4th, 2008), the game had been pirated over 171,000 times. Effectively, the DRM failed in keeping the game from being pirated. All it did was make legit buyers into suspects.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

That is what gets me the most about DRM and video games on the PC. Some companies, like EA, seem to treat real buyers as pirates, even though we aren't. I understand that they need to protect their interests, no argument there, but I draw the line at being held guilty before being proven innocent. I bought the game with my own money, I don't want to be restricted by how many times I can install the game, locked out of installing it because of one type of software I have, or what have you.

However, while this angers me, I can also kind of understand why some are so heavy handed. They're losing money, and it seems that nothing they do can help. But at the same time, I should not be held accountable for something that I am not doing.

Some companies have done away with DRM entirely (Stardock, off the top of my head). Good for them. But I don't see that happening with every company.

Unfortunately, piracy will continue, there's no denying that. I just hope that game developers will at least try to realize that not all of us out there are trying to steal games.

"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" ~ Dennis Miller

Shadowed by Time - Homeworld

2009-02-12T13:04:00.002-05:00

If you ask most PC gamers to name one of the famous Real-time strategy games (a game typically played from an overhead view where you control numerous units and resource management), you'll get a number of recommendations: Age of Empires, Starcraft and Warcraft, and maybe a few others from out of left field.

One that you may rarely hear, but deserves a place alongside those greats, is Homeworld.

Originally developed by Relic Entertainment, Homeworld was a breakthrough when it was released in 1999. While other games, such as Blizzard's Starcraft, "looked" 3 dimensional, they never made use of one of the dimensions, that of the up or down axis. To be fair, Starcraft did make some use of it, in that flying units could only be attacked by other flying units or ones able to strike air targets, but that barely counts.

Relic eschewed the idea of basing the game on the ground and went to the final frontier, space. They weren't the first, however. Even Starcraft took place partially in space. But Homeworld made use of it. You could direct your fighters to attack from below, above, and any other direction you could think of.

And it mattered, too. The more powerful units, such as the deadly Ion Cannon Frigate, could only fire in one direction (in the Ion Cannon Frigate's case, directly ahead of it). This left ships vulnerable in certain locations. If you weren't careful, your fleet of corvettes (small strike crafts suited to attacking larger, slower ships) would be chewed apart before they even reached their target. But if you attacked from a location that the secondary guns (or even the primary ones if they were located in the righ tposition) couldn't cover the ship from, you could easily destroy it.

In other words? Pay attention.

Emotions

One of the things the original Homeworld was known for was a good storyline. Among those who play it, many particularly remember one stirring scene. I won't spoil it here, but the scene makes use of Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei (the choral portion accompanying his famous Adagio for Strings). To this day, even 10 years after I played it, whenever I hear that sad, somber song, I can recall the scene in my head. One of the few times I felt goosebumps for a game.

A Game Divided

Homeworld offered something that a number of its fellow RTS games offered: Different sides. While both played through the same story, which side you chose, Taiidan (right) or Kushan (left), would impact certain units you would get as well as the overall design of yoru fleet (Taiidan being more insect-like and Kushan being more rounded). In the following sequels, though, it was made canon that the "correct" race to play was the Kushan.

Sequels

So far, Homeworld has had two sequels. Homeworld: Cataclysm, developed by Barking Dog Studios, and Homeworld 2, developed by Relic Entertainment.

Homeworld: Cataclysm, I feel, gets a bum rap from other fans of the game. Though I'll admit that the story doesn't seem to fit in anywhere (Homeworld 2 has no mention of the Kiith Somtaaw, the Clan of Hiigarans [formerly the Kushan] that you play as), the story itself is quite good, if maybe a little cliched. A relatively small clan forced off their homeworld and mining for a living, one of the three major ships for the clan comes across a relic. Their actions with the relic unleashes a biomechanical nightmare known as the Beast. Homeworld follows their exploits as they battle it, slowly turning from a simple mining guild to a force to be reckowned with.

I love the original Homeworld, but it does rank up there as one of the toughest games I have ever played. That may just be my experience, but one of the first missions, after you gain full control and start making your way "Home," I constantly lost against an enemy fleet of Ion Cannon Frigates. They would turn my ship into metallic swiss cheese. Took me a few years break before I finally pushed through.

Cataclysm is a bit easier. There are still hard missions, missions that will make you sweat, but it is, on the whole, easier. I also found the new units of the Kiith Somtaaw to be a refreshing change from the old Kushan.

Homeworld 2, I barely played. Though given decent ratings throughout, the bit that I did play didn't feel so much like the Homeworld of old. I never had any problems with managing units in the first two, but this one felt cluttered, confusing. And this was with me being older and better able to manage things, to boot.

Rising from the Ashes

Now and again I hear of rumors of a new Homeworld sequel. Although I was largely disappointed in Homeworld 2, I can't deny that it has my attention. Given how the gaming industry seems to be focusing on sequels a bit as of late, it is possible for a sequel to be made. But I fear that I will hold it up to incredibly tough standards. We shall see.

Jim Loveno Speaks to Students - Temporary

2009-02-12T12:55:00.003-05:00

Kyle Beaton
Jim Loveno Presentation

Feb. 12, 2008 – Jim Loveno, online editor for News4 Washington, met with the George Mason students enrolled in Online Journalism yesterday. Along with Professor Steve Klein, Loveno introduced the students to the revamped NBC4 Web site in addition to his background.

The Web Site

Loveno, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, explained to the students the new setup. He emphasized the missing “smiling personalities” that once adorned the top of the page. Replacing the personalities was an interactive display window. The display was intentionally modeled after that of the display browser in iTunes. The display allows readers to scroll through stories and images.

Additionally, Loveno explained the change in philosophy that came with the new website. Where once the Web site simply rehashed stories from the broadcast, nbcwashinton.com posts content a viewer may not see on TV. The content had more “snarkiness” as Loveno put it.

Loveno also mentioned that the basic design of the new NBC Web site is in use by several other cities, including Chicago. The design, he revealed, was also color coded, corresponding to the colors of NBC’s mascot, the Peacock.

Personal History

Nearing the end of the class, Loveno dove into his background. Loveno began as a sports editor for The Daily Collegian, Penn State’s own newspaper. Loveno continued to focus on sports after college, working in Pittsburgh. During this time, the internet was starting to grow. Loveno and two friends started up a hockey Web site, LCS Hockey.

Originally little more than a newsletter, LCS Hockey grew. Loveno likened the Web site to The Daily Show in that it had actual news but also had “smartass comments” and was “snarky,” a trend he would later bring to nbcwashinton.com.

Three years ago, Loveno made his way to the Washington, D.C. area to work with the local NBC affiliate.

“Become as experienced as you can in all sorts of forms,” Loveno said near the end of his presentation, advising the students of how to prepare for the journalism world at large.

Violent games, violent tendancies?

2009-02-08T18:47:00.000-05:00

A common argument that pops up following a school shooting is that the person who did the shooting and killing played violent videos games, listened to violent music, and so on.

I'm not going to deny that there is some link between violent entertainment and violence. When I was young, my mother made me stop watching the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as she noticed I was getting a little uppity.

However, many in the media and the world at large seem to think that video games turn kids into desensitized murder machines.

A good case of this is the Virginia Tech shooting, perpetrated by Seung-Hui Cho. Shortly after the tragic shooting, many claims were made that he played games like Counter-Strike and other "first person shooters."

Thing is...he didn't play those games.

Sonic the Hedgehog

As people began to try and understand just who Cho was and what were his motives, they were also beginning to find out just what he did for fun. His roommates, when asked, said they never really saw him playing video games at all.

The Virginia Tech Review Panel released their findings in August '07. Chapter IV, the Life And Mental Health History Of Cho, also made note of the games he had played in the past.

"...and played video games like Sonic the Hedgehog. None of the video games were war games or had violent themes."

Cho was a disturbed individual. He was not trained to be a mass-murdering robot.

Gamers

Even with revelations such as that, many still cite violent video games as warping people, turning them into machines of death. Countless studies have been made, some showing that there has been a correlation between the rise of violent video games and school shootings, and others showing exactly the opposite.

The fact that many seem to miss is the fact that, for some of these games, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, play them. Going back to Counter-Strike, Valve, the company behind the game and the game it was modified from, Half-Life, released some data last December.

According to reports, the original Counter-Strike alone sold 4.2 million copies. Add in the units sold of a spinoff, its remake, and the X-Box port, that number reaches 10.7 million copies.

If games like Counter-Strike turn its players into murder machines, then surely we would've seen far more shootings than the ones we have seen.

The reason why some people just snap and shoot others is pretty simple, I think. Some people just become unhinged in some way. Whether its due to some imbalance already present, bullying, or some other factor varies. Many of these shooters would have benefited from some sort of intervention, some sort of counseling. In some cases, such as Cho, they even did get some counseling (though from reports he didn't get much or very good counseling), but still snapped.

Games may be a factor in these individuals, I won't try to deny that. But the same can be said for movies, music, books, too.

Yet people still jump to blame games when something happens. Perhaps with time, as video games become more accepted, that will change. As a gamer tired of being stereotyped as a powder keg ready to blow, that change can't come soon enough.

Shadowed by Time - Starsiege: Tribes

2009-01-29T15:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first ever Shadowed by Time segment. This segment is dedicated to games from the past that may not be all that well known, or have faded with time, and yet are still worth a play.

Let me introduce you to a little game called Starsiege: Tribes

Starsiege: Tribes was developed by Dynamix. While other first person shooters like Half-Life and its mod Counter-Strike, Doom, Quake, and its ilk deserve the praise they get for the various innovations they have brought, Tribes rarely gets mentioned in the same breath.

Though playable through a single-player mode, it really shined through multiplayer. Where Counter-Strike and the others may max out at 20 or so, Tribes could allow up to 64 players on a server at once. Divided into two teams, the only mode (played anyway) was capture the flag.

Tribes also allowed for an insane amount of modifications, something mirrored by the infamous Half-Life game by Valve. But while one would have to download and install the mods for HL, no downloading was required for Tribes. Each server could host a different mod, complete with totally different armor setups and weapons. The most popular, last I checked, was the Top-Guns server, which allowed up to 40 players, and had weapons including a laser rifle, a chaingun, and disc launcher.

Tribes also gave players a jetpack. Yes, a jetpack. Players had to react to threats from every direction. The Heavier armors obviously could not fly as long, so the jetpacks were better used for slowing a fall. The light armors, however, could fly very far, depending on the mod the server is using. Especially useful for a sniper. One could fly to the peak of a mountain, wedge in and snipe the enemy's base from what seems like a mile away.

Speaking of distance, for some maps and servers taht don't restrict you from venturing beyond the normal map's parameters, the game is huge. More than once my flyer exploded, throwing me far away. Even with a light armor and boosts, it took me almost five minutes before I returned to the combat zone.

Interested? Well, even more good news. While Tribes was once relegated to bargain bin status (my brother and I found the only copy I have ever seen in a Best Buy years ago), you can now download it for free from fileplanet. Give it a turn, and if you like it, throw me a SHAZBOT!

Welcome to Extra Life

2009-01-29T15:47:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my blog, Extra Life. I've been a gamer for most of my life, starting with a Sega Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Games have shaped my life ever since, and I continue to play to this very day. Due to this, I follow a lot of gaming news. Though I do not have any of the next-gen consoles (Playstation 3, X-Box 360, Wii), I still follow news regarding them (especially any news in regards to a possible drop in price).

I'll introduce myself a bit first. My name is Kyle Beaton, 22 year old Communications student at George Mason University. I'm following in the footsteps of my father, Rod Beaton, who once worked for USA Today (he has since become disabled due to Parkinson's Disease and Parkinson's Disease Dementia).

If I were to pick a "side" in the gaming world, something that is easy to do due to the various consoles, I would call myself a PC Gamer. While I love the other consoles, my main gaming rig would be my PC.

My goal for this blog is threefold:

Review games, both old and new.
Relay game news (both rumors and confirmed facts).
Bring to light games that deserve to be played.

So, welcome to Extra Life!