FURTHER READING / 07.31.09

FURTHER READING makes another late edition tonight. Here are the good reads (or whatever) of the day:

• Doraemon in GTA San Andreas can be a little disturbing,
• the PS3 Slim has an Amazon listing in Germany,
• and my local library has had computer games for a long time.

FURTHER READING / 07.30.09

Here comes the weekend and it's already shaping up to be a busy one. I bought a new Gamecube today and a copy of Blast Corps for the Nintendo 64. I'm hoping to clear a little out of my back catalog and maybe over the next week do a run through of Starfox 64 (as is my tradition).

• Carmack says id has Rage running faster on 360,
• Tim Schafer talks Brutal Legend and letting the family enjoy the title,
• and Gamestop launches "The Deal."
  

FURTHER READING / 07.29.09

FURTHER READING is a little jam packed today. Nearly all of the entries were discovered before 5 p.m.! That makes my job a little easier in that I can schedule this post, kick back, play Battlefield 1943 until I hit 100 matches and then go achievement hunting elsewhere. I might even get a little Team Fortress 2 in today!

• Assassin's Creed 2 was at Comic-Con;
• Gaming ain't what it used to be;
• Michael Jackson's princess is in another castle;
• and the ESRB is turns 15.
  

FLASH REVIEW: Upgrade Complete

Upgrade Complete is a flash game from Armor Games. It takes about 20 minutes to get through the full experience, but it was 20 minutes well spent.

Ostensibly the game makes a commentary on video gaming as a whole and the upgrading aspect many games employ to allow players to customize and power up their experience. Really it's a shmup with a lot of upgrading. You can upgrade the entire game really, from the graphics to the menu.

The game starts you off with nothing. You don't even have the actual shmup available to you at first. Instead, you have to use the 1000 credits they use to upgrade the game with gameplay. After this, you continue grinding through each wave of enemies, gaining credits from each enemy you kill until you can afford to upgrade all the other aspects of the game.

Part of the charm is starting with Atari style graphics and moving up to something much flashier and detailed. In a way it made me think about how little graphics have to do with a game. The upgraded graphics did little to enhance the gameplay so I probably spent a lot more time with the Atari graphics, grinding to get enough credits to upgrade the rest of my game.

The game play has enemies falling towards your ship and your ship has limited mobility. I found that the most effective thing was to cover as large of an area as I could in order to lay siege to as many enemies as possible. While you can get stuck on a wave, you only need to upgrade your ship in order to catch those two enemies that always fall by on the left side. Eventually, you'll also discover that Upgrade Complete can be a bit of a grind. You have to earn enough credits to upgrade your game, but you also have to earn credits to upgrade your ship to progress through the waves. This means that repeating waves after failing them will only continue to build up your stockpile of money.

Of course, Upgrade couldn't possibly keep you from upgrading the ship you pilot in the gameplay when it offers upgrades for every other aspect of the game. This ends up being one of the more intricate parts of the game, especially since you can add extra missile launchers instead of upgrading your current missile launcher. I ended up spending the cash on the regular guns and spreading them out as far as I could. Then I upgraded my lighting gun to catch any enemies that slipped past me and my cannons.

I'd recommend Upgrade Complete to anyone with a sense of humor and some time to waste. It's fun, not particularly addictive and entertaining for the time it takes. This means you can pick it up, play it through, maybe use it in a conversation about video games, and then never think about it again. You can check out Upgrade Complete for free at Armor Games: http://armorgames.com/play/3955/upgrade-complete

PLAY READ WRITE QUICK / REVIEW SCORE: 3 OUT OF 3

Delay of Game

I should apologize for my disregard of PLAY READ WRITE over the past few days. I've been doing a fair bit of not gaming with lots of responsibilities around the house. My brother picked up Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars so I'll most likely be reviewing that next, and I've been working my way up to 100 matches in Battlefield 1943, but what I wanted to talk about today is about the recent slew of games that are being pushed back into 2010.

From Bioshock 2 to Splinter Cell Conviction, games are being delayed from the holiday season into the next year left and right. These are huge tentpole releases that developers and publishers plan on selling millions of, and I hope that moving them to a less crowded time of the year will bring them that financial success.

Let's face it, games like Halo: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are huge dominant games that crush all who stand in their way. These names are so big that the little guys have to scamper out of the way as fast as possible, and for good reason. We want these titles to do well, so long as they are of good quality, but we also want smaller titles that are still ingenous in their own right to do well this year too. Sometimes the best way for games like Splinter Cell or Singularity (another shooter from Activision) to do well this year, is to be moved to next year.

Look at Capcom's recent strategy. This year, Capcom released Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV, their two (arguably) biggest franchises, in the early part of this year, and each of those titles still produced big sales. Why can't more games be published in the rest of the calendar year? High volume sales are possible if the titles are quality.

In any case, I'm very happy to hear of these delays. It may mean that we have to wait a little while longer for titles we want to play badly, but it will mean that new franchises can be born, new risks can be made, and success can be had in the business sector of video gaming.

FURTHER READING / 07.26.09

A handful of interesting posts here and there have filled up the FURTHER READING quota for this weekend. I have to explain the first: I'm a huge fan of Futurama and IGN has a post about the cast getting back together for the new episodes that were ordered. I'm hoping that the full cast return, I can't imaging half of the characters without the voices of Billy West and John DiMaggio. Anyways, that's why the first entry of FURTHER READING is

• that John DiMaggio spilled the beans that it's possible for the full cast to return,
• that you can find gaming stuff on Etsy too,
• and that Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 is still making some waves out there.

FURTHER READING / 07.24.09

I'm posting FURTHER READING from the future today. Busy weekends mean I manage to get out from in front of the video games and the computer, and how can that be a bad thing? I gamed a lot this past week, finishing Fable II and writing a review, playing Team Fortress 2 and informing you readers on the etiquette of a spycrab, and continuing my grind on Final Fantasy Tactics A-2 (which I'm still very far from completing).

• Devs are disclosing now that the DSi really is more powerful than the DS lite,
• Halo Legends, an anime compilation of Halo stories was announced,
• and Left 4 Dead 2 will introduce new types of common infected to players later this year.

FURTHER READING / 07.23.09

Today was a busy day around the office... well, my office... my very small office of one person. Today I finished and reviewed Fable II. What should I review next? A couple of interesting bits of tid today for FURTHER READING and I hope you'll find them of interest to you too.

• Eurogamer posted a very snarky interview with Marky R,
• Realtime Worlds announced that APB would make its way to gamers in March,
• and this Borderlands gameplay trailer continues to build excitement from this blogger.
  

REVIEW: Fable II for the Xbox 360

Fable II is the sequel to an Xbox game I never played. It centers around... well, you, whatever you choose to be, whoever you choose to be, and really whatever path you choose to walk. The way the game presents these choices, and their effects, is remarkably effective. Fable II is really a very personal experience in that it asks you to decide exactly how you want to shape yourself and how that will in turn shape the world. The main campaign shows little effect of this, but the people in the shops and towns do.

Fable II starts out strong, introducing your character and the villain early in the tale, along with morality choices and economics. Don't forget, things cost gold, and gold doesn't come without some work. Soon after the tale gets under way, I found myself working obsessively for the blacksmith. Jobs are small minigames that require you to make timed button and I was hooked on making as much money as I could by getting a long string of successful hits in. I'm not one for this sort of thing but I was having a good time and wanted to get a healthy start on buying decent equipment for my character.

The next quests were fun and had me straying from the main story line repeatedly. The characters in the game have lots of personality, mostly due to the terrific British voice acting cast, so their problems are either hilarious or heartfelt. It was almost like a world full of living breathing distractions. I wanted to dance for everyone that would applaud and fart for anyone in the town square that would have it (and a lot of people liked it when I farted). In a way Fable II truly allowed me to be myself in a video game world.

The combat also varies itself enough to have depth and nuance so that you'll never bore of feeling like a powerful combatant. Some of the less powerful enemies never fail to entertain either. Whenever I came across a battle with Hollow Men I rejoiced. They're probably the easiest enemies to dominate, but when Fable II throws tens of them at me at once it was always fun to swing my sword and crack their bodies apart three at a time.

I continued down the campaign trail and each area it opened was new and varied, as were the enemies. The final battle culminated in a big challenge, but overall I felt like it was appropriate for the level of experience I had reached. There was one climactic disappointment though.

[SPOILERS] After the end of this final battle, you travel to the top of what's basically your batcave. Lucien, your villain kills your dog and puts you to sleep. You enter a dream world, shoot some bottles, kick some chickens, and boom your back to the spire. Essentially, Lucien was trying to control you through a dream world. You are face to face with Lucien in the spire. After this, you pull your gun out and immediately shoot him. He's dead. The end. [END SPOILERS].

I know I'm pretty late to the party here, but Fable II is/was great. I'm even going to play it through again as an evil character, and I usually can't do second playthroughs in quick sucession. As a game world Fable II succeeds in so many ways, and on so many levels. It has a cast of characters that exude personality (so much so that they repeated character models are easily overlooked). It has a reactive community (to the point that you're own desires will come out in your character). Most importantly, it's fun.

PLAY READ WRITE / REVIEW SCORE: 4 OUT OF 5

Business cards need a house too...

I picked up some business cards before I made my way to E3, and now after seeing this Famicom business card case, I've realized that they are incredibly naked.

At about $30 (and an import at that), I'd have to come into some pretty expendable cash to make this purchase.

Imagine: "Oh hi, [insert game journalism professional here]. You do great work! Maybe we could talk sometime. You can check out my writing at playreadwrite.blogspot.com. Let me give you my business card.... What's that? Oh yeah, petty cool case huh?"

I'm sure I'll be able to keep that at the back of my head until I run into that extra cash down the line. In the mean time you can check out the product page at Geek Stuff 4 U: http://www.geekstuff4u.com/nes-controller-type-card-case.html.

FURTHER READING / 07.22.09

Another late edition of FURTHER READING means I've been out having fun again. Man I sure do wish I was going to Comic Con though. Seems like there's so much to see and do down there, but could I possibly wade through the rising levels of comic books nerds to see all of the great video game stuff going on in San Diego?

• X-play previews Muramasa: The Demon Blade (which looked great at E3),
• Borderlands will drop on October 20th,
• and the next GTA IV DLC, The Ballad of Gay Tony, will drop on October 29th.

Playing TF2 for Hats

I want so desperately to get a hat drop. These random unlocks in Team Fortress 2 are so infuriating at times. I've been playing quite a bit lately hoping that I'll somehow stumble across any hat for any class.

Valve recently added the cosmetic unlockables to drive TF2 players like me crazy. They don't really do anything other than show off what a fancy-pants player you are, but that doesn't mean I don't want one so bad I can taste it. My main classes are Soldier and Medic so obviously it would be great to receive a hat for either of those two classes, but even if I got a hat for a different class, I'm sure that one would surge to the top of my "hours played" list.

Have you unlocked a hat? What's your story? If you haven't unlocked a hat yet, which one are you hoping to find?

Personally, Valve has almost broken my spirit, but I'll continue logging hours in the game until I find that hat. Even if I don't, I'm still having fun with the game and the community surrounding it, especially due to my buddy p90 and what a good heavy he is to partner up with.

FURTHER READING / 07.21.09

I wrote a lot today and there's still more than three links in FURTHER READING! What a day!

• Kotaku gets ahold of a Gears of War movie script (spoilers abound!),
• Activision head hunts a pair of EA developers,
• someone no one will care about in a few years bitches about his Madden player rating,
• and the much anticipated South Park game is not a remake of the FPS.
  

The Crab is a Spy!

Observe here the rare and endangered spycrab. You may have seen the spycrab in your favorite Team Fortress 2 server. They are elusive creatures, but from time to time they will appear in packs.

Of course the spycrab isn't your average TF2 player; there's something special about someone who goes into a server and dedicates most of their play time to crab walking among their team mates, much like people who play Rose Ball in their time off.

Spycrabbing is really just a delightful offshoot of TF2 for players who have too much time on their hands or want to spend their round in a whimsical manner, oftentimes to the chagrin of their fellow team mates, and the delight of the opposing players. A spycrab can be a free kill, a wasted player slot, and so much more.

Like many things in life, there's a specific etiquette to crab walking. First, select the spy class, they don't call them spy crabs for nothing. Second, select your cigarette case, but do not select a class to disguise as, merely hold it in front of you. Third, crouch down and look directly upwards. Fourth, move back and forth slowly, walking side to side. Make sure you prepare yourself and then begin crab walking in a highly populated area.

The idea here to be seen by as many people as possible. Are you playing Goldrush or another payload style map? See if the other team will let you live as a spycrab in their area after the cart has moved forward enough to leave a distance between their spawn and the action around the cart. Are you playing on a control point map? Do the same, but stick to a specific point. If you're near the action, the other teams soldiers, demo men, and heavies will be firing in your general direction and probably won't concern themselves with the loss of a spycrab.

In a way, crab walking is like taking a survey. How many players will take your actions in a light hearted manner? How many will walk past you, maybe laugh, watch for a while, and continue about their game? How many players will take your actions derisively and decree you a wasted member of the team? How many will kill you everytime you make it all the way over to your spawn for fear that you'll come after them and backstab them?

Hopefully you'll be able to find other spy crabs and continue the species long into the life span of Team Fortress 2.

I'm including this video, but I warn you to turn the volume off before you watch:

A Star Commentor

I received a star from Mike Fahey on Kotaku today.  Their new commenting system has greatly improved the quality of conversation and reduced a lot of the noise that has kept me from reading any of the comments section in the past year or so.

When I first started reading Kotaku, commenting privileges were scarce and thus many of the comments were insightful, easy to read, and added volumes to the conversation.  Since then however, the multitude of new readers has amplified the usual internet noise/banter that makes the whole world sound like 13 year-olds.

Now that I've got this star, I think I might actually spend some time looking at comments and even making my own.  To anyone that stumbles across this blog from my name over at Kotaku, please make comments as you see fit and hopefully you'll find enough items of interest on this blog to return on a semi-frequent basis.