I have opinions about OnLive!
I'll keep today's blog entry short - there are more than enough words in the full essay - but I ask you to please come with me on a journey... of the mind.
Dig, if you will, a future where games can be streamed across the Internet as easily as videos. No installation or lengthy loading times. Just hit play, maybe watch a short commercial, and then you're playing. I could embed a perfect version of Madden or a Sega Genesis game in this blog just as easily as I can embed a Genesis music video.
This future is coming, and it's closer than you might think!
29 March 2012
28 March 2012
Your Driving is Suicide. I Hope You Have Thick Skin.
Here's a delightful little wonder from your friends at Synetic: The Funfactory that I never would have found if not for OnLive:
Intrigued, as I so often am, by the opening video's proliferation of explosions, guitar solos, and shades-wearing actors I've never seen before, I asked my bestie if she'd ever heard of the show Alarm für Cobra 11. She spent the vast majority of her life living in Deutschland, and it turns out that she did watch it on occasion. She tells me it's "well made" and "pretty tense," which surprised me. These are not phrases I would use to describe Alarm for Cobra 11: Nitro.
That is not a complaint.
Intrigued, as I so often am, by the opening video's proliferation of explosions, guitar solos, and shades-wearing actors I've never seen before, I asked my bestie if she'd ever heard of the show Alarm für Cobra 11. She spent the vast majority of her life living in Deutschland, and it turns out that she did watch it on occasion. She tells me it's "well made" and "pretty tense," which surprised me. These are not phrases I would use to describe Alarm for Cobra 11: Nitro.
That is not a complaint.
27 March 2012
Skip It
I hate reviews that end with, "Fans of the genre should check it out, but everyone else blah, blah, blah." And yet, here we are, as OnLive week continues:
For the sake of focus, I tried to limit how many comparisons I made to other games in my critique, but Bridge It's "build something, test it, adjust" approach is not inherently bad, It's actually quite similar to one of my favourite series ever, The Incredible Machine. I think I would need to play more Bridge It to fully articulate why it does and doesn't work, but the biggest problem I
found in my time was one of abstraction. The pieces offered in The Incredible Machine are so exaggerated that anyone can predict their functionality at a glance. The differences - visually, functionally - between a tennis ball and a bowling ball are profoundly apparent.
Maybe there's an Incredible Machine/World of Goo hybrid hiding within Bridge It for those who spend more than a few minutes playing, but I'm not impressed enough with what I've seen so far to look for it.
For the sake of focus, I tried to limit how many comparisons I made to other games in my critique, but Bridge It's "build something, test it, adjust" approach is not inherently bad, It's actually quite similar to one of my favourite series ever, The Incredible Machine. I think I would need to play more Bridge It to fully articulate why it does and doesn't work, but the biggest problem I
found in my time was one of abstraction. The pieces offered in The Incredible Machine are so exaggerated that anyone can predict their functionality at a glance. The differences - visually, functionally - between a tennis ball and a bowling ball are profoundly apparent.Maybe there's an Incredible Machine/World of Goo hybrid hiding within Bridge It for those who spend more than a few minutes playing, but I'm not impressed enough with what I've seen so far to look for it.
26 March 2012
Worst. Headline. EVER .
It's OnLive Week! All week long on Hot Lavy, we'll be writing about games available on the big, puffy cloud that is OnLive.
The temptation to spend eight bucks on Comix Zone has been gnawing at me since it hit the Wii's Virtual Console. Thanks to OnLive, I was able to play as much as I'll ever want to play without paying any money, which sounds like faint praise, but I am now a genuine Comix Zone fan. Why hasn't this game gotten a sequel, or at least been ripped off?
The temptation to spend eight bucks on Comix Zone has been gnawing at me since it hit the Wii's Virtual Console. Thanks to OnLive, I was able to play as much as I'll ever want to play without paying any money, which sounds like faint praise, but I am now a genuine Comix Zone fan. Why hasn't this game gotten a sequel, or at least been ripped off?
25 March 2012
Sunday Free Game - dys4ia
The last game I played by Anna Anthropy (also known as auntie pixelante) was Mighty Jill Off, which was most notable for combining 8-bit-style platforming with kinky leather sex-wear. It wasn't the worst, but it didn't do much for me.
dys4ia keeps the pixel art and overt sexuality, but it gives it a purpose. Where Mighty Jill Off was a traditional, challenging platformer, dys4ia drops almost almost all pretense of playing like a game (despite its impeccable design), and instead leverages the abstraction and interactivity of the medium to tell an intensely personal story. It's not a game, but I've never seen a movie or read an essay that gave me such a clear understanding of the challenges and motivations of a transgendered person. This is a brilliant and engrossing use of the form, and a story that could not be so eloquently expressed in any other way.
dys4ia keeps the pixel art and overt sexuality, but it gives it a purpose. Where Mighty Jill Off was a traditional, challenging platformer, dys4ia drops almost almost all pretense of playing like a game (despite its impeccable design), and instead leverages the abstraction and interactivity of the medium to tell an intensely personal story. It's not a game, but I've never seen a movie or read an essay that gave me such a clear understanding of the challenges and motivations of a transgendered person. This is a brilliant and engrossing use of the form, and a story that could not be so eloquently expressed in any other way.
24 March 2012
Saturday Supplemental - Wings of Wax
Making of a Myth: The Grueling Development of the Original Kid Icarus
The original Kid Icarus sure is a likeable game, despite not being any fun to play. The reason: It was made almost entirely by one guy who didn't have time to finish it.
So here's a bill to put warning labels on videogames
Dumb!
Disney Epic Mickey 2 Exists, is a Musical
Epic Mickey 2? Don't care. An action game that's also musical? Eeeee!! I've tried to convince people to let me make a musical game before, and you wouldn't believe the resistance I encountered. That Disney is willing to invest millions of dollars in an experiment like this is a huge deal.
One Year Later: The Tragedy and Triumph of 3DS
As a poor person, I still don't have a 3DS, and that's increasingly upsetting.
Kickstarter
A lot has been said about Kickstarter recently - I'm working on an article of my own - but when Bill Harris has opinions about a hot topic, they're usually worth reading.
Inafune: The Hope of the Japanese Industry?
Thank you, Inafune, for your willingness to be the bad guy.
Kid Icarus' Soundtrack is Better than You Think
I thought it was pretty great, already, but it really is better on the Famicom Disk System.
The original Kid Icarus sure is a likeable game, despite not being any fun to play. The reason: It was made almost entirely by one guy who didn't have time to finish it.
So here's a bill to put warning labels on videogames
Dumb!
Disney Epic Mickey 2 Exists, is a Musical
Epic Mickey 2? Don't care. An action game that's also musical? Eeeee!! I've tried to convince people to let me make a musical game before, and you wouldn't believe the resistance I encountered. That Disney is willing to invest millions of dollars in an experiment like this is a huge deal.
One Year Later: The Tragedy and Triumph of 3DS
Kickstarter
A lot has been said about Kickstarter recently - I'm working on an article of my own - but when Bill Harris has opinions about a hot topic, they're usually worth reading.
Inafune: The Hope of the Japanese Industry?
Thank you, Inafune, for your willingness to be the bad guy.
Kid Icarus' Soundtrack is Better than You Think
I thought it was pretty great, already, but it really is better on the Famicom Disk System.
I'm finished!
23 March 2012
I Say! Just Bully!
If the concept of Bully - an open-world sandbox game from the makers of Grand Theft Auto, set in a New England boarding school - appeals to you, you probably played it when it was released for PlayStation 2 in 2006, or perhaps you played the "Scholarship Edition" re-release in 2008. I got the Wii version this Christmas, and finished playing through the main story earlier this week. It shows its age a little, but that concept is still unique even six years later. It's just a shame Bully doesn't quite deliver on the potential of its premise.
Still, I highly recommend Bully. I'd rather play a game that aims high and misses the mark than something safe and familiar. It's not Rockstar's best, honestly, how many games can compete with GTA III? This is awfully good.
Of course, "Rockstar" is not one company. Bully was developed at Rockstar Vancouver, which is far removed from Rockstar North in Scotland, where the majority of the GTA series was developed. At the same time, Bully was co-written by GTA scribe and Rockstar North vice president Dan Houser, so there's a clear connection, but the lineage is convoluted, to say the least.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I wish we could see a little more of that diversity. I'm sure Rockstar - all the Rockstars - has put enormous effort into unifying so many studios as a single brand, but it feels like every game they make now is Grand Theft Something. It's all outlaws and redemption and drama, and it's getting stale.
The first Rockstar game I played - back when the company was still called DMA - was Lemmings. There's the proof that these guys are capable of diversity. Or what about Space Station Silicon Valley? That's another one that predates the Rockstar name, but forget Grand Theft Auto III - that was the company's best game.
Anyway. Bully. It's good.
Still, I highly recommend Bully. I'd rather play a game that aims high and misses the mark than something safe and familiar. It's not Rockstar's best, honestly, how many games can compete with GTA III? This is awfully good.
Of course, "Rockstar" is not one company. Bully was developed at Rockstar Vancouver, which is far removed from Rockstar North in Scotland, where the majority of the GTA series was developed. At the same time, Bully was co-written by GTA scribe and Rockstar North vice president Dan Houser, so there's a clear connection, but the lineage is convoluted, to say the least.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I wish we could see a little more of that diversity. I'm sure Rockstar - all the Rockstars - has put enormous effort into unifying so many studios as a single brand, but it feels like every game they make now is Grand Theft Something. It's all outlaws and redemption and drama, and it's getting stale.
Anyway. Bully. It's good.
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