Sony F's up

By now most of you should by know of Sony's great big screw up on how the PSN networked has been hacked. That means all your personal data from your name to your address is ripe for the taking by anybody with hacking skills.

I know this is old news now, but I had finals so sorry for being late on this, but this is something I want to get out anyway.

Lucky for me, I don't own a PS3 but others I know do and they are not happy at all with what's going on. I don't blame them, any sort of information leak is always bad news and leads to problems.

You would think that Sony, a company that has been in the electronic entertainment business for a long time, would have had a better security system set up to protect it's users from any sort of danger. Yet they really fucked up here people and we are all pissed. Even if they do fix this problem, they are going to get backlash for a long time from this single incident.

What is know is that anybody who uses the PSN network has the risk of having their name, email, home address, birthday, and password and login name getting known and used. But what really you guys should be worried about is your credit card info. Sony says that, for the moment, they are sure that is secured but if I was you guys I wouldn't take chances.

If I were you guys I would first cancel any credit or debit cards you have and ask for replacements. Then get new user names and passwords. Hell, I would even not use the network till all this is over and we are told it's 100 percent safe.

Here's hoping your info is safe guys.

We are gamers and we are legion.

Later

P.S. Sony you  had better fix this quick.

The Future: Will Games Ever Be Taken Seriously?

They say the future is always clouded and that nobody can predict it. I happen to agree.

However, some things are clear and for the game industry these are the things I see.

It's the hope of all of us gamers as well as those currently in the industry or trying to get into the industry to one day have the entire world take our jobs seriously. I mean most of us take our video games on a serious level for various reasons. Some of us play because we find some sort of belonging with the game, others are captivated by it and see it as a purpose. There are those who find it like art and those who find it like a way to relax and enjoy ourselves.

We all have our reasons, but we all agree that gaming is serious to us all.

Yet the rest of the world doesn't see it that way. They see us nothing more then a small hobby no different from collecting Matchbox cars or bottle caps. They don't understand that our "hobby" is a worldwide multi-billion dollar phenomenon that has impacted society in various ways. From culture to education to even as a form of expression, games are more then just electronic entertainment systems.

They are a craft for the sake of bringing people and interactive experience, something no other media can do.

Look at the movie industry. It started out small and nobody even fully liked it at first. Some were sure that movies, TV, and even comics would never get to where they are now. But they did and our gaming community is growing fast as well.

It's filled with designers, artists, writers, programmers, technicians, producers, testers, musicians, actors, and more. It's an industry that takes all available time, money, and resources to create a single overall game to be distributed worldwide for people to enjoy and millions of us to be inspired from.

Sure we have some immature people in our group and we do have our problems, who doesn't. But I think it will be awhile before anybody takes us seriously. Still I have hope that one day we'll have our own Hollywood like vision where the world will no that we stood through time and trial and we came up on top.

And maybe finally we can say "I am a member of the gaming world" and those around us will take us seriously.

We are gamers and we are legion.

Later

Nothing to talk about

I've got College projects to work on so I've got nothing to really say this time. I'll try to get a review of Dynasty Warriors 7 in by next week though.

Arcades

(The author does not own any of the pictures or media they represent)

Do you remember being in an arcade when you were a kid? The bright light, the sound of explosions and gunfire, the feel of hundreds of quarters in your pockets, and the difficulty of picking which games to play before your parents told you it was time to go? Those were the greatest days of our youth.

The arcade is an important part of the history of Video Games as it helped bring the games we developed into the world for a very cheap price and in return we got mainstream audiences from all over the country to play these games in underground areas were people of all ages came and played them.

Believe it or not but the first real arcade game was a game developed by Sega in the 1960's called Periscope where you played as a submarine in a simulation while having a light gun to shoot with. Other games by Sega and a few small company's would be developed but it wasn't until then 1972 game Pong that arcades really started to be pushed into light.

Pong is known as the revolutionary game that really brought video games into light. The game was everywhere and everyone wanted to play this game and spend hours (and quarters) on it for their amusement. Throughout the 70's and 80's more and more arcade games would appear such as Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Space Invaders, Centipede, and Missile Command.

As arcade games started becoming more popular. The head of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, though of an idea on how to get kids to play arcades more. He took three things that kids loved: Food, games, and cartoon like animals to combine them into one of his greatest creations. The restaurant known as Chuck E. Cheese. This was the first real kids themed restaurant and I'm sure all of us can remember going to these places either as a kid or an adult. It was perfect for children with tons of pizza, a cool getto looking rat, and tons and tons of arcade games. To day Chuck E. Cheese isn't as popular as it was, but in our memories it still remains as the most popular place to hang out when I was kid.

The 1990's were one of the biggest times in Arcade history, but sadly it would also be the last one. Two new ideas for arcade games grew huge in popularity at the time and were known to be the most popular brands of arcade games at the time. The first was the Arcade Fighting game were you could not only play against a computer but all your best friend in a VS mode. Games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and the King of Fighters games were all a huge success and started a list of series that to this day are still popular.

The second popular game was the Rail Shooter. This was when you were given a electronic toy gun and had to fight against waves of enemies and bosses to get the highest score in the fastest time. It made you feel like you were in the game and the quickness of your reflex and the accuracy of your aiming were key into winning the game. This was my favorite type of arcade game to play when I was a kid and I was one of the best in the popular game Time Crises, in fact the last time I went to my favorite arcade before it closed down I still had the highest score. Other famous games I remember were Virtual Cop, House of the Dead, CarnEvil, and Area 51.

However, as the millennium came the number of people who went to arcades didn't. The home consoles were becoming more and more popular and people started going out less to hang out in Arcades and just started hanging out at home with their friends or playing online. Arcades did get some life back with Rhythm type games like Dance Dance Revolution, but even that wasn't enough to save them. Today Arcades are well...dead I guess in a sense, at least in the US.

You will most likely never find another arcade in your area unless you look hard and are lucky. In fact the only place I know of that still has Arcades is Japan where you can find them anywhere. Still we mustn't forget the arcade as they are important to us as Gamers by both history and our earliest memories of gaming.

So never forget the fun you had with them

My list of most disapointing games

 Disclaimer: The pictures shown are not the authors and he does not own any of the licenses or copyrights of the respective media

There are bad games and then there are good games, but then you get those games that you think are going to be the best thing you’ve ever played…only to just thrown your control to the ground and then scream in fury because they’ve made you waste your  money on such crap.

It’s bad enough to have a bad game, but it’s worse when you get pumped up for such a great game only then to see fail right in front of you and utterly disappoint you in such ways that you want to throw your platform out the window and hope it hits somebody you hate on the head.

To me, being disappointed is the worst thing you can feel as a gamer and that’s what this blog is about.

This is my list of the games that I have been most disappointed in and want to burn in a pit of hell fire.

10. Silent Hill 4: The Room

-Now I will say this, Silent Hill 4 is not a bad game. It’s not good either, but it’s still not as bad as I think some people think it is. But it’s still filled with disappointment. First off the game doesn’t really take place in Silent Hill, but the town is mentioned and references to the Silent Hill cult are in here…and that’s it. What I loved about Silent Hill is that it takes psychological aspects of the human mind and turns them into deadly horrific nightmarish like levels. Silent Hill 4 just seems like a horror film like feeling instead of the psychological nightmare that we’re all use too, I mean sure it’s got some good aspects of it but not like Silent Hill 2 and 3. There was a lack of puzzles and while the story wasn’t bad, it didn’t have the spot on stuff we were already use too. This would also be the first of many Silent Hill games, which would be more combat oriented. Combat does play a somewhat part in the series, but it’s not the main focus unlike in this game where you are going to have to fight more than you ever had in any previous Silent Hill game. I’m just saddened that such a great series didn’t’ follow up well with this one and I guess I kind of look to it as the decline of the Silent Hill games.

9. Suikoden IV

-How did this game go so wrong? This game series I loved because it was gripping in story and the characters were all well done and crafted into the game. But in this one the pacing is all wrong and the characters are not really memorable except a few like Snowe. Plus it was too short…I’m serious I beat it in like 20 hours and it wasn’t even that interesting at all which is a shock  because I’ve always found the Suikoden series to be really good at narrative and plot. I it just blew my mind on how boring the game was. The villain is terrible, something like an early Image Comic’s guy, and Gameplay wise it tried to play like the Suikoden series, but it was way too easy and the stupid sailing system…ugh it’s horrendous. And random encounters happen faster than a Megaten game. Meaning your walking around just after a hard battle when 10 seconds later you fight another one. And this wouldn’t be so bad if it actually had some difficulty, but the fights are so easy you can just hit auto play and let it go at it on its own without doing anything.  How could the series like Suikoden just fall on its face like this? If you haven’t heard of it or are curious to play it, don’t bother trying to.

8. Devil May Cry 2

-When I first played the original Devil May Cry game, I was hooked in an instant. Between Dante’s badass style and the awesome hardcore gameplay it became one of my instant classics at once. I was pumped when I saw the trailer for DMC2….only to just shake my head and curse in rage when I actually got the game. The game was so…mediocre. First off the controls were just way harder than they should have been and the camera was…ugh. I died so many times because of it that it pissed me off to no end, especially in the water levels. The action was okay, but there wasn’t the same original hype as the last one and the enemies were sometimes too easy and then mad hard at the worst times. Plot wise it was horrible and the characters, even Dante, were way too underrated. Also Lucia’s was  a joke, I know they tried to make us have two stories to this game with some sort of connection plot, but to be honest Lucia was just a drag to play and a drag to even see in cutscenes. I will admit that her Devil Trigger is a nice touch, with her being an angel and all that, but compared to an awesome person like Trish she has no chance of being likable and to my knowledge isn’t. But the worst was Dante, as Dante turned from a kick ass demon slayer to this…way too serious guy who is like that loner in class who tries to act dark and mysterious but you can tell he just wants attention. The game also had the worst weapons ever, in Devil may cry you had a bunch of kickass demon weapons that were each unique and different while in this game you get only swords and gun (or throwing knives and grenades in Lucia’s case) that you didn’t even use half the time. The two worst weapons were the Submachine Guns which did no damage at all even if you upgraded them and the crossbow which can only be used IN THE THREE TO FOUR WATER LEVELS! Boss fights were too easy, the opposite missions for both Dante and Lucia were pretty much the same so no real reason to play the others except for a few levels, the lack of even having a sense of challenge. Disappointment all around, this game made me feels like I was in hell.

7. Splinter Cell Conviction

-I know I know, you’re shocked to see this right? I know so many people liked the Conviction game, but I didn’t? Know why? Because to me this wasn’t a goddamn Splinter Cell Game! I’ve been a fan of the Splinter Cell series since the beginning and I was never more impressed with a Stealth Game then this one. I loved it more than Metal Gear, I loved it more than Tenchu, and hell I am going to even say I loved it more than Thief. Oh yeah I went there! In all the other Splinter Cell games you were a secret agent that had to always rely on stealth because fighting hand to hand was almost instant death. And the plot was so real that it was totally believable, but then again this is Tom Clancy. The mechanics were better with each game, the atmosphere was nerve breaking, and the missions were always better with each conspiracy getting darker and more dangerous. In this one however we got Sam Fisher turning into Jack Bauer (Not that Jack Bauer isn’t awesome), but I felt that we had gone from saving the US from its enemies using Black Ops tactics to the story of Sam Fisher and a conspiracy that comes out of nowhere that isn’t taken anywhere that’s good. I didn’t like the pace of the game, the story was all over, there were some levels that didn’t really need to be there (That flashback one in Iraq was pointless) and to make matters worse the villain is just…boring with no real antagonism to drive you into killing him, he’s just an stuck up classic asshole unlike the other villains who were interesting (Double Agent being the best). I mean I guess I can understand the whole daughter dying thing for Sam affecting his morality I mean that worked great in Double Agent, but in Conviction? Just doesn’t work well enough. Gameplay was way to frustrating because the AI was just plain stupid and I could just go crazy gunho WHICH IS NOT WHAT YOU DO IN A SPLINTER CELL GAME! I will say the auto killing mode and the mission objectives appearing during gameplay are good things, but it wasn’t enough to save me into like this game.

6. Advent Rising

- Does anybody remember this game? I mean there was a lot of hype when this game was coming out and I think I was about 15 when it finally hit shelves. I bought it and thought it would be awesome…turns out I was more wrong then I could have hoped to be. Advent Rising got so much attention because it was advertise like it was the next Star Wars or something. It looked cool and I later learned a contest was held where if you find a hidden symbol you win, and this is true, one million dollars! Naturally like any greed bastard I went and got the game, later on I would learn that this contest would be abandoned which sucks because if I had the million dollars I wouldn’t have to worry about college loans. Anyway, so I played the opening where I watched a spaceship that I was on just float into space near a cool looking space stations…I waited…and waited….and then crashed and di-wait WTF?! It turns out you have to control the space ship, even though it’s clearly a cut scène and doesn’t even tell you to do so, into a space port. That first crash would be my experience playing this game. It was a pointless thing and there are many more pointless events that will come into this game that you will not enjoy or find funny. So yeah, story is very predictable and the characters are just plain boring. The game tries to find some sort of choice thing for you that affects your gameplay, but it’s useless in the long run. Fighting the enemy is way too easy because you can dodge anything while shooting and reloading like you’re on speed with gravity ignoring moves that make no sense. The game also forces us to use all your skills as much as possible because the more you use them the better they get, but it’s pointless because half the skills you will never use. The game overall seemed like such a good idea, but it really falls short on the promise they said they would give us. This game should remain lost in the stars forever.

5. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

-When Mercenaries one came out I went crazy. A GTA like game where I can summon missiles from anywhere and anything destroyed gives me cash? Where do I sign up for this kind of job?! Mercenaries was a great came for having a simple plot with a gameplay style that gives you a set of missions and objectives and you can do them whenever you want however you want. Mercenaries 2 however…makes you feel that you just got ripped off like in the start of the game. You play as any of the three familiar mercenaries, each with their own advantages, but the game now takes place in Venezuela for the sake of Oil and some coup. Sorry but compared to North Korean’s attempting to launch Nukes everywhere in the world, it kind of seems like a much lower threat. So you got your usual many groups that all want your help in defeating the leader of Venezuela so you can get your revenge on him, but in reality you only need to focus on the UN and China (Why is China in Venezuela? I swear the third game will be in this country). The game tries to be good, but its way to short compared to the first game and at times it feels like it’s rushing a plot that didn’t really need to be there. I missed how the plot was handled in the first game where nothing is really personal, but in this game it’s all personal. The AI is more unintelligent then last time and the air strikes are not as fun as they were by being limited to the amount and effect. But the worst was the bugs. So many goddamn bugs! What the hell was the QA doing that day? I kept getting trapped underground, air strikes not appearing, bullets going through enemies and doing no damage and more. This really downplayed my fun by a milestone. And the voice acting…ugh…some of the new actors were just…horrible. All I say is Mercenaries 3 better be good or else I’ll set the world on fire.

4. Record of the Agarest War

-Many of you most likely don’t know this game and with good reason. This game was a somewhat popular game in Japan and it got moved here to the US to see if it Western audiences would like it more. It’s a visual novel/tactics RPG like game where the premise is that your main character is different with each “Generation Arc” based on the girl you fall in love with and her abilities that are transfused to your descendant leaving a near endless amount of combination. This idea seemed really interesting and I heard some people I knew liked the game so I took a look….to this day I have no interest in finishing even past the first Generation. First of the game is only in Japanese with English subtitles and normally this isn’t a problem with me but I know that this will be a problem for other players so I have to give it a negative. I mean it’s not that hard to hire voice actors, JRPG’s going to America do it all the time. But what really pisses me off personally is how the “random encounters” (if you can even call them that) are portrayed. It takes a certain amount of “steps” let’s say to get to the next plot point, but by traveling through every step you have to fight a certain amount of monsters meaning the game forces you to fight a battle then 10 seconds later you fight another one! There is barely any free roaming in the game at all! Another thing is the plot; I get the gist of it, but I’m told it doesn’t really kick off until the very end of the game and instead builds up all this mystery. Too many questions remain unanswered for a long time and it doesn’t give enough explanation as to why this is happening, but it’s not enough to draw you in. It’s like playing a murder mystery game only without the suspense or clues. But it’s a visual novel like game right? That means there are nice pictures of girl’s half naked and looking sexy right? Oh sure like every five hours. I’m not trying to sound like some sort of pervert, but there are two things most visual novels have that are needed. 1. Good Story. 2. Fan service done right and no that doesn’t mean porno I mean making the cute girls (or boys depending on the game) look cute. This gets both wrong and fails as a visual novel. So besides playing a badly written plot, no character growth or relationships between any of them, bad gameplay, Dragon killing like AI, and no skits that deepen a sense of team effort it’s fair to say that I got board of this really quick.

3. Enter the Matrix

-Oh this takes me back. This was another game that tried to get a lot of hype like Advent Rising did; only while Advent Rising became forgettable this one we can’t forget. I will admit that it was pretty smart to put the game out while the second Matrix movie was coming out in theaters because it would tell a side story in the movie about the crew of the Logos and their actions during the events of Reloaded. At first we thought this was going to be cool with all the kung fu action and bullet time effects in a digital world where you can “Free Your Mind”. But like with the second movie we wish we had taken the blue pill instead. While I will admit the cinematic and the voice acting is pretty good and on par with the likeness of the film, that’s the only good part. All you do in the game is move and fight over and over again. Sometimes you get a driving mission, but those are the worst because the controls are just horrible! I swear I died more time on those levels than any other level in the game and it’s all because a fricken Firebird of all cars can’t turn right. Outside of those levels however you get a control system that takes a long time to get use to, especially when you’re shooting. Shooting in this game is just horrible because despite all the upload’s Ghost and Niobe got during their training you’d think that they can’t shoot anything without the help of Bullet Time mode. I mean I Love bullet time mode and all but there has to be moments where you can fire a gun with normal speed and have some fun. If you don’t use slow mo then you’re going to be jacked out of the game faster thanks to the AI’s ability to have bullets home in on you ever second and the only way you can dodge those is, guess what? Bullet time! The only way you’ll ever stand a chance is to fight in close range combat, but again you’re getting shot at half the fricken time. Terrible controls, horrible camera, some of the worst graphics at that time, and just a unfair challenge design. After playing this game I now welcome our computer overlords.

2. Alpha Protocol

-Chances are you were one of the many who saw such a great potential game like this fall flat on its face in failure. It’s like watching the first Star Wars film, looks like a promise and you feel all geeky inside and then you see Jar Jar and just drop your popcorn in horror. This is another example on how something so cool can just go so bad. Alpha Protocol looked like a game that would take James Bond and 24 together into an awesome spy open narrative RPG. We all heard about it and we were all excited to play it, but when we did all we got was a game that didn’t even play like it was promised. The RPG elements in this game are one of the reasons it failed, targeting was such a hard thing to do that nearly all my shots failed one way or another. The AI is cheap as hell where in one second as soon as you enter a room your hit multiple times and your health is already half gone. The skill development is messed up because only certain skills really work well in most levels while others don’t start getting useful until you’re almost full of the skill bar. Terrible Controls, lack of depth in the levels, and the worst gadgets that pretty much do nothing but fill your space of items make this game one hell of a mission failure. The only thing good about this game as well as the only thing that might make you play this game fully at least once is the narrative. This is just amazing narrative like I have never seen before. Every dialog choice always affect something in the game from what organizations and friends you have to the outcome of a mission that could change the game completely from what you might think may happen. I’m even willing to say that the way the narrative was done could even give Bioware a run for its money. But as well know, narration means nothing without gameplay and this game has none of it.

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

-GOD I HATE THIS GAME! I HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT!! This is the most disappointing, awful, shitty, godforsaken game that I have ever played in my entire life. I use to be a huge Sonic fan until I played this piece of shit! This game failed in every department! Story, gameplay, controls, AI, mechanics, characters, voice acting, music, graphics it was declared one of the worst games to ever come out and I’m sure everyone out there can agree with me! I never thought a worse Sonic game then Sonic Heroes existed, but then I played this game. And I….I nearly cried because I was let down so much. I saw the promo’s for this game and I was excited as ever, I waited for an hour on a line to play this game and I ran over 15 blocks none stop to put this in my 360 and play it until death took me. I wish death did! In less than 3 hours I was already willing to break the game in half in anger and frustration! But I kept on because there had to be some redeeming feature? But what do I get? Death on every single level more than once because the controls and camera are conspiring to have me waste my time. Voices from the 4kids department that make me want to burn my ears off with hot lava. A storyline that makes an Ed Woods film look like Gone with the Wind. A whinny time traveling psychic hedgehog that has the worst levels ever in any Sonic game and a pot leaf hairdo. And….a human princess who makes me want to strangle to death every time I see here…kissing the dead corpse….of an furry anthro hedgehog…and bringing him back from the dead...WTF!!!!!! And do you know who I blame? A part of it is on Sega, but also from the minority hardcore fans that kept pushing and pushing for the game to be released until Sega couldn’t deal with the pressure and sent out the BETA VERSION OF THE GAME!!

A BETA!!!

….that was me blowing up my computer. Just…the worst and most disappointing game ever…goddamnit…

And that’s all I got to say. Maybe some of you agree with me and maybe some of you don’t. What are your most disappointing games and are they that bad and why?

See you next week.

Later