Acid for Blood

I do some writing for the progressive video games review site, The Game Chair. Today, we have a roundtable post containing reactions to Nintendo's next console controller: Nintendo's Paradigm Shift. Most of what I wrote for the roundtable is regurgitated from a previous post on this blog, with the difference that The Game Chair sumbission is not nearly as long-winded or rambling.

I seem to be the only one there using an internets handle. LOL. Pwned.

Oh, and I'm reviewing In the Groove right now.

How long do you think it will take before this site gets shut down? Hurry up and get!

[Via Katamari Damacy Fans]

MobiBLU DAH-1500i "Cube" MP3 Player

I was happy with the sound quality, the features, the unit size (smallest MP3 player in the world!), the 1GB space, and the aesthetics of this MP3 player, but I returned it to WAL-MART last Sunday.

It is unreliable. It was working fine the first few weeks, and then it started acting up. First, it wouldn't turn on, no matter what I did. Then, it would turn on, but the welcome screen wouldn't go away. It just stayed there and eventually the batteries drained away. Updating the firmware did solve those problems, however they returned in a week or so. One can't tell when it would start to misbehave. In order to avoid that situation, one would have to update the firmware prior to loading a new batch of music into the drive. That would be annoying. This is not a 'feature' I paid for.

I will be watching DontBuyJunk.com for a replacement, but I am not in a rush.

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX®-Certified Speakers

Shindakun Steve asked about my speakers.

I'm very happy with these speakers. The sound is fantastic. I've played all sorts of music (orchestral, anime music theme songs, video game remixes, indie, rock, pop, metal, etc.). You can vary the bass levels if so desired, but I just leave it on the default setting, because I don't want to disturb people by turning it up.

For gaming, I've only played Guild Wars, and it definitely sounds good on these speakers. The only other game I have played on my PC recently was the Fahrenheit demo, and the sound came out very clearly and crisply.

My movies also sound great. I popped in my DVD of Akira since the most recent version has THX sound, and I've seen it enough times to be familiar with all the sounds in the film. Of course, Akira sounds fantastic. For other anime, lately I have been watching:

• Bleach -- Teenage boy can see ghosts and becomes an banisher of evil spirits. After the first episode, I was undecided. I am up to the third episode, and it's becoming more interesting.


• Cowboy Bebop -- Skint bounty hunters in space. Episode 7 is up next. I must be the only one who hasn't seen this series. Sarchasm said that this is the only one I should be watching.


• Macross Zero -- Set during a war in which two factions fight using transformable 'variable' fighter jets. There's an ancient prophecy told by a primitive island tribe, and a bunch of scientists have dug up an ancient, yet strangely technologically advanced, humanoid-shaped machine from the bottom of the ocean. I'm up to Part 3. Great anime so far. Rob-El told me to watch it last year, but I just recently got around to acquiring it.


• Naruto -- Fighting anime about a ninja boy with grand ambitions, but whom everyone hates. I am still not keen on this series, after three episodes. Characters like Naruto Uzumaki (the main character) really annoy me. I am hugely sceptical of this show because of all the annoyingly rabid otaku. There are some series with well-deserved fan followings (Fullmetal Alchemist), and some which don't deserve half the adulation they receive (Hellsing). Most people, in my opinion, tend to have mediocre taste in anime, though their passion for said anime goes through the roof. However, Dyannamika says Naruto is a pretty good series, so I will stick with it.

What a digression. You got some anime reviews, too. :-P Anyway, all my anime sounds great as well.

The only thing I would change, and this might be a sticking point for many people, is that the power switch for the speakers is located at the rear of the subwoofer unit, near the bottom. I keep my subwoofer under my desk, so it's a bit of a pain to bend down and turn it on or off. I did know about the power switch location prior to my purchase, so I'm not too bothered about the extra effort.

I love how the BBC covered this in World of Warcraft: Deadly plague hits Warcraft world.

It's interesting to try and read it as a non-gamer would. So surreal.

Congratulations...you have answered every question correctly! You are a true master in the world of video game music.

I am a master. Mua ha ha! I answered 15 out of 15 questions correctly on the Video Games Live Name That Tune. How this is possible without having played a fair number of the games in the quiz or heard the associated music? I have no idea.

The rescheduling of the tour now means that I will be able to attend. Hooray! The DC show was originally scheduled the same weekend of Otakon, so obviously I would have had to miss it. I'm going to the one on 19th November. Not sure if any of my friends/acquaintences will go, but I've set the ball rolling. If it turns out that they aren't interested or unavailable, damn it, I am still going. I don't know whether I should buy two tickets in the off chance that I will find someone to go with, or just buy one for myself... I wonder what the refund policy is... I guess I will see how much they cost before deciding.

When I was in high school, I really wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons. I was super interested in role-playing games, because they seemed really really cool.

Sadly, I never played table-top RPGs back then. I think the D&D players at my school were closet gamers, or perhaps there simply weren't any (though there were a fair number of CCG gamers). My high school wasn't very large (for a school in my area), and it was a private, religious school. I didn't socialise with many people, because I didn't feel as if the majority of people there had much in common with me. The sort of people who went to my school were kind of like the asshats who attended Napoleon Dynamite's high school, except more affluent, and possibly more self-righteous (or they gave the impression of being that way). I suppose I could have fallen in with the other 'outcasts', and I did somewhat (despite my asocial tendencies), but none of them played RPGs.

There was a comic book shop near my house, and I did know that the owners hosted table-top games at the shop on some evenings. However, I was shy and intimidated by them because they were older and OMG they owned their own comic book shop. I actually wrote a report for English class about table-top RPGs. The aim of the assignment was to do research on something you were interested in. I suppose that would have been my opportunity to play, however I was also fairly shy.

So, despite my desire to get into role-playing games, I didn't play until I went to university. When I went to uni, I fell in with the live-action role-playing (LARP) people. One of my friends, who was persuaded to attend the first meeting by the guy who ran one of the LARPs, dragged me along because she didn't want to go alone. She eventually stopped playing, and I stayed on.

The first game I played was a user-created derivative of the World of Darkness. I then LARPed in the Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse settings in the Mind's Eye Theatre LARP system. I was very nearly dragged into LARPs for Mage: The Ascension and Changeling: The Dreaming. I got as far as half generating a Sidhe character for Changeling, though I admit that the main reason I started generating the character was because she had wings. I was in the Camarilla, White Wolf's official LARP club/global campaign, and played Vampire for that.

Thus, my first proper role-playing experience was LARP, not table-top. I LARPed for a several years, for most of my years as an undergraduate, in fact. I suppose I could have tried table-top and done LARP at the same time, however LARP was very time-consuming, possibly moreso than table-top, since many, many out-of-game hours were spending plotting, scheming, and discussing. Eventually, LARP burned me out. The time, travel, and associated financial requirements proved too much for me. I didn't really have bad experiences or meet particularly offensive people. I think it all just wore me down, and I had too many other interests and priorities to continue with LARP.

LARPing had many positive aspects. LARP exposed me to a lot of unpressured (because it was just a game), and sometimes diverse social situations. This probably would not have happened very often, had I not LARPed. I certainly would not have gone out to the pub as often as I did, had it not been for the fact that our LARP time-ins were at the pub. Pubs are great, but the probability of meeting freakish 'yahs' and other unsavouries was high at my university, and it's always nice to be at the pub with people you want to be around, rather than try to find people at the pub that you would like to be around.

I miss it, actually. I had a lot of fun LARPing, but it would be too inconvenient to LARP regularly now. And there is no pub culture in America, which was a key part of the enjoyment I derived from LARPing in the UK. LARPing in America, due to the distances involved, feels much more structured and time-pressured. You feel like you have to have a checklist of plotting items for your character to get out of the way that evening, or else you would have to wait another month or more to see the characters you needed to deal with. Whereas with weekly (or fortnightly) time-ins at the pub, it was far less pressured, and one felt that one got to know the characters in town a lot better.

I will mention quickly that it seemed to me that there were a lot more women present at LARPs than as compared to what one might find at an equivalent gathering of table-top RPGers. I don't know for sure, since I haven't been playing table-top RPGs for very long. I will also mention that I am not, nor have I ever been, a depressed, melodramatic, goth type, though there were many of those at Vampire LARPs.

When I went to graduate school, I was determined to try table-top RPGs (finally) and I just had to play D&D. Luckily, a couple of people in the Games Society were running a D&D game, and they had open spaces. I played in that campaign for a year, and I had an awesome time. The DMs were great, the players were great, the game was great, and I had so much fun.

Since then I played D&D just once more on table-top. The campaign didn't even finish, and we stopped playing within two months because of player time committments. It was during this game that I realised how much my experiences as a player depended on an experienced DM who took the time to describe settings in detail, and who was patient enough to answer all my questions regarding positioning of objects and the layout of the environments.

After that, I played in a couple of unfinished, but incredibly fun campaigns on RolePlay OnLine.

I think you can still call me a n00b in terms of actual gameplay mechanics and technicalities. I get confused and need help rolling up characters. I get confused about armour class, and damage, and stats and combat. I don't know all the Character Classes very well. All those numbers mess me up. Whereas I had been used to settling Social Challenges, Combat Challenges, etc. using Paper-Scissors-Stone in LARP games, the use of dice in table-top games did not come naturally at first. I really only know to use a d20, and I don't know what the other dice are for. If I was told what those dice were for (which I know I was), I always forget, and people have to tell me what to do as if it was my first time playing. I'm hopeless, really.

I certainly don't know any rules well enough to be a munchkin of any kind. I'm not so into the mechanics that I'll take the time to actually learn, in-depth, what the most optimum build for a character's Class is, or whatever. I guess I don't have the patience for all that, apart from basic rules. I think I have always been like that, even when I LARPed. I just like playing.

I'd like to try other table-top game eventually, but I don't really know any nerds people (in the area) willing to put in the committment for a long-running game based more on story and not so much on monotonous dungeon-crawling. I don't even know if I would make the time for it, if I didn't know at least one person that was involved.

I would actually much rather reprise the character I played whilst I was in the London D&D game. The DM had started an email solo campaign with me, but he became insanely busy, and now my character is languishing in limbo. I'm still very attached to that character, you see... And geez, I'd like to level her up. The campaign is still ongoing, and all the characters are levels above me. I am sad. :-(

Er... So there you have it!

I am floored. Leave it to Nintendo to do something different. They brought us the analogue stick, shoulder buttons, the rumble pack, the touch screen -- now we have motion sensing in 3D space. Motion sensing is not a new concept. The EyeToy tried to do this, yes? But this is a bit more of a change, since the EyeToy was never meant to be used with the majority of games on a console.

Remember all those science fiction movies and shows set in the future? The ones where you see video games that were unlike what we are playing with now? The ones where the player is immersed in the game? The ones where there is little or no machine interface, and where control is intuitive and responsive?

Nintendo is making a bold step towards that future. Rather than continue with the status quo, with the way things have been in the past, they have issued a challenge to the industry. It's a challenge to create new possibilities for play. It's also a challege to gamers to think and play in new ways.

The similarity to a TV remote control was no accident. It's a friendly, familiar interface that non-gamers can relate to. Most people have seen their inexperienced non-gamer friends animatedly waving around their controllers in an effort to get the on-screen characters to jump. Now with the Revolution controller, their movements can actually control the characters! It's much easier to get to grips with than a two-handed controller studded with buttons.



We forget, as gamers, that we are used to these complicated controllers. When I first held a PS1 controller, I felt a little overwhelmed because of all the buttons. Metal Gear Solid forces you to use every single one of those buttons, and for a non-gamer, a game like that is daunting. Complicated controls is one of the reasons, perhaps, that the pastime of gaming isn't growing as fast as it could be. As Iwata said, the primary form of contact with the game is through the control system. It can be a turn off for the casual or non-gamer.

And for the hardcore gamer, the controller opens up brand new challenges. We should be welcoming this direction, rather than fearing it.

Last night, I was chatting to an aquaintence about the controller. He had immediately written it off, saying that Nintendo have gone and "shot themselves in the foot again". He was sceptical that he would get the same enjoyment at playing his fighting games of yore on this new controller. He feared that Nintendo would "dumb down" game controls, that we will be subjected to ridiculously simple ways to control our games. He equated the number of buttons on a two-handed controller with flexibility and more control. That is another topic for discussion, however. We shall see whether the Revolution's controller offers more control or not.

I believe he has no plans to get a Revolution. He chose the comfort zone of the old way of interacting with a game, instead of seeing the potential of the Revolution's controller.

Most people agree that a regular console controller is not so good for FPSs. The mouse and keyboard offer much precision and flexibility. I think the Revolution controller would be very good for an FPS, judging by the way they used it to control Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It seems that it could be a very precise way to manoeuvre in the game world. Imagine flicking your wrist to select weapons. Flick the wrist, and your missiles are enabled. Another flick makes it the normal Power Beam. Another one, and you equip the Light Beam. No more auto-targeting in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes because you can aim with the controller! It will definitely make an FPS a more immersive experience.

But let's remember that Nintendo has designed the controller with the past in mind, as well. We will still be able to play all our old games with the new controller, perhaps with an opion to use an adaptor. I still have my SNES controllers. It would be so sweet to download all those old SNES games, plug my SNES controller into the Revolution controller, and play that way. I wonder if we will be able to do this.

I wonder how many gamers will sit on my friend's side of the fence, rather than embracing change. Will people catch on to the fact that the industry cannot grow simply on the basis of ever more realistic graphics? We are speeding towards a wall, and once we hit that wall, the industry will be forced to innovate. Nintendo is facing this challenge head on.

I thought that gamers are supposed to be forward-facing, not afraid of or against new technology. At first, I ws shocked and a little sceptical. However, I am warming to this new concept controller. It has so much potential, so much possibility, and I hope third parties take advantage of this and think creatively. As others have said, the controller will change the way we play old games, and revolutionise the way we play new games.

I hope that people approach this with an open mind. People questioned shoulder buttons on the SNES controller, and they have become standard. People questioned the analogue stick on the N64 controller, and analogue sticks have become as standard. People questioned the rumble function on the N64 controller, and that has become a standard feature. Will people embrace Nintendo's latest innovations? I hope so.

I will be watching the development of the Revolution (still code named!) with even more interest. I'm definitely getting one of these, though since I am not an early adopter (FYI, I only got a PS2 at the beginning of this year!), it will be a little while.

News and Commentary:

Kieron Gillen's Workblog -- Which side will gamers choose? Will they face the future of gaming possibilities with open arms, or will they be "cowardly, tedious luddites"?

Wonderland -- Satoru Iwata's speech conveniently summarised.

Edge -- Edge's impression of the controller.

GameSpot News -- Coverage of the unveiling.

GameStop -- Hardware preview.

IGN -- Some good examples of how games could be played with the controlller.

Kotaku -- Revolution controller impressions news roundup.

The title of this post is in reference to today's Penny Arcade comic.

I played about two hours of Final Fantasy VII and got bored. I did try, though.

Blasphemy?

I will have to read some sort of detailed something or other before I see Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, I suppose. I know some spoilers (one can't avoid them), but not the details. I'm not really keen on making another attempt to play the game.

OMG. I was looking for Alien wallpapers on the internets and I came across these:



Aliens (and Predator) plushies!

I particularly like both the Alien Queens (middle row, left and centre), especially the one with the chains, but the Drones and the Predator are cute as well. Not so enamoured of the Chestbursters (the one on the bottom row, centre, is a Queen), but the Facehugger with Egg is nice (bottom row, left).

I saw them on Forbidden Planet, but I will resist looking for a place that sells them over here. I really shouldn't spend money on cute plush toys. *glances guiltily at (small, I assure you!) plushie collection*

On a related note, does anyone remember the Alien vs. Predator arcade game made by Capcom in 1994?







Alien vs. Predator was a side-scrolling beat-em-up in which up to three players could play simultaneously. You could choose from one of two Predators to play, or one of two humans. I usually played as the Predator Warrior, and my brother played as the Predator Hunter. Sometimes I played as Linn Kurosawa, but mainly I was the Warrior. It featured the anime-style art that Capcom was known for, as seen in games like Street Fighter Alpha or Street Fighter Third Strike. It's a shame Alien vs. Predator never made it to consoles, because it was such fun.

I was watching Aliens over the weekend, which is why I was looking for wallpapers. :>

I saw this clip a while ago, but it's really funny, game-related, and I haven't got any 'real' content today. It's from a show on Comedy Central called 'Reno 911!'. I don't have cable, so I wasn't familiar with this show. It's sort of like COPS, except it's not real. I'd have to see more of it to say whether the entire show is funny, however this segment gave me loads of laughs: Mighty Foes (also available here).

My rig is complete. I just received and installed my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX®-Certified Speakers. I don't have room for a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker set, so I decided to go with a reasonably good 2.1 speaker system. The price I bought my speakers for was much cheaper than the manufacturer's suggested retail price, however. And I just noticed that the online store I bought it from has raised its price on these babies.

This week's The Escapist covers the huge influence that table-top gaming has had on video games. I usually don't read The Escapist 'cover-to-cover' as it were. Sometimes I see one or two articles I'm interested in, and click on through. Usually, I just read the headlines. However this week I may just have to find the time to read more than just the headlines.

At some point I will write about how I got into RPGs (the non-video game kind). I don't know if people are interested my personal gaming history, but I see by my (ZOMG invisble) hit counter, that more than one person actually does visit this site regularly. And a few people use Bloglines to read my ramblings via syndication feed. I don't know who else reads the feed through some other means. Anyway, I guess I will continue to write whatever game-related nonsense that pops into my head, since I have a small audience who appear to be interested in what I write. Cheers.

I deleted Second Life. Why play a game in which my avatar's life is even more aimless and in need of direction than my "first" life? Admittedly, I did enjoy The Sims, however I have no desire to play it again. I spent so much time building a house, telling my Sims what to do, and and all that nonsense, but it was all rather aimless.

Give me missions and quests and monsters to kill. I want goals. I don't want to make my own story (necessarily), I want a reasonably fleshed-out world that I can jump into. I want a world in which I can participate in a story, either through my own character (e.g. Guild Wars) or through the eyes of another character (e.g. just about any other game that I like). I don't want an interactive world masquerading as a chatroom, which is what Second Life seems to be. Am I wrong?

I downloaded and played the demo of Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy. PS2 controls would make this game far more enjoyable to play than a keyboard and mouse. Even though the American version is censored, I shall have to get that one instead of the PC version (although I am still on the fence about getting this game). It requires a lot of button-pressing manouevres, which are better-suited to a controller interface.

The story itself is pretty intriguing, but I would have to play the demo a few more times to get all the "endings". It strikes me as similar to one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books in which, after each chapter, you are given a choice of what you want to do next. You make the choice, and you turn to a different part of the book and read the consequences of your decision. I loved those books.

I finally played Facade. It's kind of an uncomfortable "game" to play, because you feel awkward in the midst of the characters' marital problems. It's more of an interactive drama than a game, really. Both times I played through, I broke up the characters' marriage with my comments. In the first play, the husband walked out. In the second play, the wife walked out. When they walked out, they both thanked me, though, so I suppose breaking up a marriage was all right if it got at least one party to realise that it was a bad situation. Still, it felt weird. I would so not want to be in that position in real life.

Judging from Atul's review, the drama could end in many different ways. It was a bit too stressful for me to want to play it just to see what I could get away with. I guess that says something about the strength of the voice acting. I know it's silly, because these are just characters, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything "evil" to them just to find out what would happen. It's irrational. I mean, if I was playing Fable, I would probably be more inclined to experiment with morality. In The Sims, I wouldn't mind so much if my Sim died in a freak kitchen accident, although when I played I did do my best to keep them healthy and happy. In Facade, where there is more emotional involvement, I just couldn't do anything bad to those characters. They already seemed like they had enough problems without me causing chaos. I know, it's dumb! Oh well.

I went to GameStop on Saturday. I was good, and I didn't buy the last copy of Sigma Star Saga they had in the store. I saw a new copy of Killer 7 going for only $29.99. That game was $49.99 a couple months ago. I resisted. Grr! I am tough!

There was a new kid working there (there always is, because retail turnover is usually high). He looked really weedy and nerdy and young. LOL. Was I ever that young? He seemed like he half didn't believe that I used to work there, but the manager-on-duty knew me. We chatted about the Xbox 360 and GameStop's insane $2 000 ultimate bundle (available online only).

The weekend is over, and my list of games to purchase for the rest of the year stands thusly:

Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy -- Duh!

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy -- It looks too interesting. It's one of those games with a good concept that could be badly excecuted, so I shall wait for reviews and comments before purchasing.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth -- GameStop says that the release date is 1st November, EB Games says March 2006. Since Bethesda Softworks says 4th quarter 2005, I'll believe GameStop. I'm seeing a suggested retail price of $39.99, which is nice for a new game.

Neverwinter Nights Platinum -- This is a low priority, but I will eventually get it. This year. I've actually been putting it off for a while. :>

Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy (I find the English title annoying, so I'm using the Japanese one)

Indigo Prophecy Fahrenheit -- I've been doing some digging and I found out that the American version has been censored. I know it's just one sex scene, but I'm going to import it (or tap one of my UK-based friends to send it to me...). Apparently the European version is how the designers intended it to be. *sigh* I'm a purist and really particular. Ohh, I don't know! It might be a pain to play it on the PC. :-/ Maybe I will wait until the American release, and then decide...

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth -- Can't believe I forgot about this one. Was reminded the other day when I saw Josh's post about Nintendo submitting a patent for insanity systems in games. I don't know what's going on with this. The Bethesda Softworks site says 4th quarter 2005, but GameSpot says March 2006. If it comes out on PC this year, I'll get it...

Neverwinter Nights -- Because of you. :-)

I am not getting Shadow of the Colossus until I play ICO. ICO is on The Pile. I have decided that I am going to use my store credit at GameStop, not to buy Sigma Star Saga, but to reserve Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy and Indigo Prophecy.

I think this is it. I have too many other games that I haven't played/completed yet.

Note to self: No deviation from this list is allowed!

Note to others: You can suggest additions to this list, but after the weekend, the list will be firm. :>