It’s Over

August 8th, 2011 Matt || >> Leave a Comment! <<

Well, it’s been a pretty crazy six months, but we’re shutting down. Since we’re only visited anymore by Russian spambots, I don’t think it matters much.

Let me be perfectly clear, here: I did not give up. I cannot speak for the others (who kind of did), and had I not lost my computer, this site would still be going strong. The passion is still there, and who knows, we might be back in one form or another someday.

This post is basically a placeholder to inform you, the reader, that there will be no new content beyond this point. The site will continue to exist only until Shane stops being lazy and shuts it down.

Thank you. I will always cherish the time we spent together.

Off-Topic: Why the Double Standard, Apple?

July 22nd, 2011 Shane || >> Leave a Comment! <<

Dear Apple, Y U NO EQUAL? I’m still trying to figure this out. Back in 2009, Spotify was approved to the European iTunes App Store. Now that Spotify has declared that they will be releasing in the American market, we have to assume that Apple will let this declaration roll over nation lines. This is fine and all – Spotify has very good features and is a great service. In fact, both Spotify and Grooveshark are essentially the same service through different carriers. Why one, but not the other?

Why do I have to jailbreak my iPhone to get Grooveshark, but not Spotify?

Quick&Breaking: Capcom Announces Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Because Of Course They Do

July 21st, 2011 Matt || >> Leave a Comment! <<

Clearly not content in letting people forget about the game even for a minute (and to be fair, I love the game dearly, but the games longevity is basically nonexistent), Capcom have announced Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

What’s so great about the game that Capcom would take the risk and deliberately devalue a game that came out not six months ago? Twelve new characters including Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Dr. Strange, Frank West, Phoenix Wright and Strider, more stages, more online functionality (including Spectator Mode), engine changes, character rebalancing, additional moves and costumes for characters, and the whole package will be budget priced at $39.99.

On paper, this seems like a pretty bad idea, but Ultimate is allegedly to be considered the Game of the Year Edition of MvC3, containing all the DLC they were planning on releasing for the original title until their development schedule was shifted around as a result of March’s Tohoku earthquake (which, all things considered, is a pretty good reason).

Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath are still DLC, so your Collector’s Edition isn’t instantly rendered worthless. When you consider under the DLC structure characters were $5 each, paying $39.99 for $60 worth of new characters alone isn’t all that bad.

UMvC3 (which I guess will be the official acronym) will be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in November.

HitPoints: Demand

July 13th, 2011 Matt || >> Leave a Comment! <<

Xenoblade Chronicles. The Last Story. Pandora’s Tower. These are the three games that make up Operation Rainfall, a concentrated effort by fans to get Nintendo to localize these Wii titles for sale in North America. However, thus far Nintendo has stated that it has no plans to bring these titles over the Pacific. Will the fans really be able to change that?

Part of what makes Operation Rainfall so noteworthy is because the Wii doesn’t have much life left in it. With Rhythm Heaven and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword the only big titles remaining for the rest of the year (and possibly even for the rest of the Wii’s lifetime), doesn’t it make sense that Nintendo would want to hedge its bets and bring over games that maybe won’t be as commercially successful as the aforementioned titles, but will have cult appeal and will demonstrate that Nintendo listens to what its fans want, in addition to giving the Wii some much-needed content in its final months?

The situation is very similar to what had happened with Catherine. If you recall, Atlus initially said it had no plans to bring over the bizarre puzzler slash relationship game, and here we are, less than two weeks away from its launch. Really, the only difference is that Atlus is comparatively small, so if Catherine doesn’t do well in North America, it could affect their business. Nintendo has the clout to be entirely unfazed if the games don’t sell well. So, why won’t Nintendo bring the Operation Rainfall titles to North America, especially when Xenoblade Chronicles, at least, is getting localized for Europe?

It’s perfectly possible that Nintendo does, in fact, intend to bring the games over. Building hype before an announcement, whether you agree with it or not, is a legitimate marketing strategy, albeit a rather tacky one. By declining to localize the games, Nintendo certainly has gotten fans to talk about them and give them attention; arguably more attention then they would have gotten if they had just released normally. A lot of the sales of niche titles come from word-of-mouth promotion, so you can’t fault Nintendo for trying to exploit that.

Where we are in time right now is also a factor; we’re not as used to not getting games as we once were. This is a time where physical copies of Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Mother 3 don’t matter as much, because the Internet has provided the means to generate fan translations so that the games are playable by fans internationally. It may take a few years for emulation software to catch up with these titles, but it will eventually be a viable option. In today’s world, piracy is a legitimate response for consumers, and the consumer doesn’t care about the negative repercussions, because they just want to play the game.

I’m baffled as to why Nintendo won’t just take the potential hit and release these titles. Sure, localization is a lengthy and expensive procedure, but it’s not like Nintendo can’t afford it. It’s almost like they want to deprive Wii owners of new content in the face of new hardware, which is somewhat ironic, as games will be releasing on the vanilla DS up to and well through next year.

Nintendo’s refusal to release these titles isn’t in the best interest of anyone, themselves included. In the face of fan demand, they are acting illogically. I hope that Wii fans will be able to get what they want, though realistically, the chances that all three titles will see localization are pretty slim. Sometimes small victories are the only victories attainable.

Bad News, Everyone

July 11th, 2011 Matt || >> Leave a Comment! <<

It appears my computer may have just bought the farm. I was looking into getting a new system this year, but I never imagined my current one would die. I will do my best to ensure the continued maintenance and updating of ATK DMG, but please expect service interruptions.

Buried Treasure: Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage

July 11th, 2011 Matt || >> Leave a Comment! <<

The Game: Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage

Release Date: September 1994 on the Super Nintendo

For my first foray into the “new” version of Buried Treasure, I thought I would highlight a game that is either really good or really bad. While the game was technically overlooked, due to poor reviews and a cult fan base, that no longer matters.

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is a side-scrolling brawler in the vein of Final Fight. As Spider-Man (or later, if you so choose, Venom), you will punch, kick, and swing around New York in an effort to stop Carnage and his band of gathered cronies, Shriek, Doppleganger, Demogoblin and Carrion. The game is notable as being one of the first superhero games actually based on events that took place in the comics. The game also has ties to the larger Marvel universe, with appearances by Captain America, Iron Fist, Cloak and Dagger, Deathlok, Morbius and Firestar.

It sounds cool, but the game itself is difficult as hell. It’s a retro game in every sense of the phrase, with no passcode continue system, so when you lose all your lives and continues, that’s it. The AI routines are really aggressive, so combat is ugly, and the game forces you to fight the same bosses over and over again, sometimes in subsequent levels.  The game is also very long, with 15+ unique stages. What’s interesting about the game is that depending on which character you choose to play as, you’ll play different stages which vary in length and difficulty. In addition, certain paths have access to power-ups that other paths don’t, so while Spider-Man may have some easy stages, Venom can get extra lives. Venom also gets a secret stage depending on the players button inputs during a certain cutscene.

Maximum Carnage is an outlier at a specific time in gaming. It had some really neat concepts, even though the gameplay was pretty bad. At the time, though, games were a lot more expensive, so you had to put up with it. I look back on the game as being ahead of its time. It’s an ambitious failure; the gameplay doesn’t match the pedigree, and the difficulty will turn enough people off to ensure that this is one gem that may stay hidden. However, when it’s not frustrating as all hell, it’s a lot of fun, and worth at least a cursory glance from any fans of beat-’em-ups.

Acceptable Victory: Massively Effective!

July 7th, 2011 Josh || >> Leave a Comment! <<

Although little is currently known about this project, it has been announced that there will be further announcements at Comic Con about a Mass Effect movie  As exciting as this news is, it also raises a bunch of red flags and memories of video game movies past. For anyone who has ever sat through the entire live action Double Dragon movie, you are certainly aware of how terribly wrong things can go during this transfer.

For some reason the biggest problem with this transfer of media is the story. A lot of times, the story is thrown out the window in favor of something else and the title of the video game is only used as a marketing ploy. For the most part this was the case with the Resident Evil film series. Although I do like the movies, I’m well aware that they have nothing to do with the plot of the video games, but it’s not like if they had followed the stupid and poorly written plot of the games that it would of made a difference.

Certain games have a story that holds its own. With Mass Effect, there seems to be just as much information about the universe you play in as there is for Star Trek, a franchise that has been around since the sixties. Unfortunately, Hollywood producers think they know best and because of their logic things don’t always work out too well. Most video game movies end up being more cliched then any video game I’ve ever played (we’re looking at you, Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li). The plot is always thin despite sometimes having excellent source material. It would be like making the Harry Potter movies, except turning all of the books into just three movies and only using basic elements of the original plot to get from beginning to end. The consensus that Hollywood writers are better then those who work on video games has certainly not been proving itself right.

It pains me to say it, but the Mass Effect movie is already on the fast track to being terrible, or only until it comes out and attempts to prove otherwise. It could end up being good, but considering the game-to-movie track record it has to be considered guilty until proven innocent. Of course, it could all fall through. The Halo movie did, which was extremely disappointing considering the dream team that had been attached to it.  Something tells me that Mass Effect is an indicator that a Halo movie seems less likely, with the approach of Halo 4 and the eventual nose-dive the series will take straight into the ground.. If it does work out we’ll be stuck with Jason Statham in the Commander Shepard role, Micheal Clark Duncan as the voice of Wrex, Kaiden will be changed to a racial stereotype and comic relief, Ashley Williams will be played by someone who doesn’t even look physically capable of lifting a gun and the whole story will revolve around a planet where people only live to be twenty six before they kill themselves because that’s all their energy bubble can sustain. There, if that’s not a mess of cliches then I don’t know what is.

HitPoints: So We Don’t Forget

July 6th, 2011 Matt || >> Leave a Comment! <<

The last six months have been pretty good for gamers, with a little something for everyone. Before everyone’s opinions get steamrolled by Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the first half of 2011, and the exceptional games therein.

I have reviewed every retail game I purchased in 2011 on the site already, so I’ll try to refrain from regurgitating my opinions. Please note that I can only reflect on the games that I’ve had the means to play, so this round-up will be Xbox 360-centric, though all of these games are multiplatform.

Best Shooter: Bulletstorm/Crysis 2 (tie)

Which you prefer depends on what you like out of your shooters. Bulletstorm is pulpy and dumb and gives you so many creative options to dispatch your enemies, and the scores of people who only bought it for access to the Gears of War 3 beta missed out. The multiplayer doesn’t really have much life it in if you can’t coordinate with your teammates, but the campaign alone is worth the price of admission.

Crysis 2 also gives you a variety of options to deal with your foes, and it’s an incredibly smart shooter. It boasts a campaign that at 12+ hours is actually a campaign, and while fans of the first game may not like the linearity of the New York setting, the same linearity aids in being stealthy and slipping by foes undetected. I also really appreciated the fact that the game tells you a lot of what you need to know in regards to the story, as a service to those who didn’t have a chance to play the first game. It doesn’t even need to be said, but the game is visually stunning, as well.

Best Gameplay Mechanic: Interrogations, L.A. Noire

The interrogation sections in L.A. Noire are unlike anything gaming has seen before, and probably ever will again. You choose questions to ask suspects, and then must determine if they are telling the truth or lying. You can also doubt their responses. The game will never out-and-out tell the player the answer, so it’s entirely up to the player how well they do. If they do really well, they’ll feel proud, but if they screw up the case, it’s on them. The game doesn’t try and guilt the player for failing, either, as cases are replayable, and failing doesn’t have any repercussions on the games narrative.

With the recent trouble between developers Team Bondi and publishers Rockstar, it looks like next week’s Reefer Madness case is the last DLC we’ll see for the game, unless they’ve already finished more. The interrogation mechanic made L.A. Noire truly unique, and the fact that gamers are unlikely to see more of its use is a shame.

Best Game of 2011 So Far: Child of Eden

This is the essence of gaming. Gorgeous graphics, brilliant gameplay, solid level design, and it doesn’t matter how many times you play it, because while it doesn’t change much it doesn’t get boring, either. Child of Eden flew in completely under the radar (for the most part), and it’s shocking to me that more people don’t know about it, perhaps doubly so because it’s the first core Xbox 360 title with Kinect support.

These are just a few of the titles that shouldn’t be discounted when the game-of-the-year awards start rolling out. None of these titles reinvented the wheel, but they’re all amazing in their own right and are worth a playthrough. There are only a handful of games I’m interested in getting for the end of the year, so come December don’t be surprised if you see these games in contention for our game-of-the-year awards (however we decide to do them).

Acceptable Victory: Nightmare on Xbox Live 4: The Dream Master

June 30th, 2011 Josh || >> Leave a Comment! <<

When I was a child it didn’t take much to scare me. Comedies were my favorite type of movie because they were the least likely to contain something as frightening as the snippets of The Exorcist I had caught on television. Now, as a soon-to-be twenty-one year old, I find myself more drawn to the horror genre in any medium then I ever have been in my life. It’s become about the style, creativity, gore and the sub-cultures that come from them.

Being a fan of horror, sci-fi horror being my particular bread and butter, exposes me to a lot of things that most people find both disturbing and sometimes socially unacceptable by any means. Although, every time I think I’m desensitized to violence I always manage to find something cringe-worthy. I started to wonder about my new found obsession with horror and the just generally disturbed. I don’t get scared the way I used to when I was a kid, only once and a while will something haunt my sleep and infect my brain with thoughts of terror.  That’s when I realized that I’m searching for that fear again. I want to find something that will humble me and give me nightmares.

Aside from some old classics the film industry has done nothing to scare me since 1986, so I turned to video games. I remember the first time a video game scared me and it was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, back when it first came out on the N64. I had gone into first-person mode to search for Queen Gomah during the first boss battle inside the Deku Tree. As you fought her she would release smaller versions of herself to attack you on the ground. I went into first-person mode and turned around, only to be starring straight into the eye of the queen’s minion. I didn’t turn white, but it made me jump and that moment stuck with me because I had no concept of a video game being scary in the same way a movie or book could be.

I still wish I had played the first Resident Evil when it came out on the PlayStation. Instead, I found Resident Evil Zero on the Gamecube. For a game that was lacking in many areas, and was certainly one of the lesser instalments, it had its jump out moments that certainly put me on edge as I was forced to slowly investigate every inch of a train barreling through a lightning storm. More recent examples would be Dead Space and Left 4 Dead. Dead Space had an excellent atmosphere that left you wondering where the necromorphs were going to jump out from. The initial weaponless chase through the pitch black hallway to an open elevator, for me, was the most thrilling experience of the game until that maze with the Regenerator.  Dead Space didn’t haunt my dreams, but playing alone in the dark after a beer or two certainly gives the game a little edge.

Left 4 Dead is obviously a sub-horror genre, as it instills a lot of comedy about the zombie genre within it. When I first took Left 4 Dead home and immediately jumped into No Mercy, the first campaign,I found myself alone in the house, at night, during a thunder storm. The ambient sounds of special zombies and the constant threat of a massive hoarde kept me on edge and caught me off guard enough to say that I felt uncomfortable, yet I still knew it was only a game. Especially playing with others online, having bought the game very early on, it was nice to be playing with mostly players who had no experience and as I played each campaign the randoms I was connected with were also on their first playthrough. It gave everything an air of mystery that can be missing when playing a co-operative experience, as you’re often stuck playing with somebody who has already played it to death and tries to get you on board with the intention of using you as their puppet to power through segments of the game. Being incapacitated, surrounded by zombies, shooting wildly and all you can see is red when out of nowhere the crowd thins out. The sound of shotgun blasts and the visceral collision of steel on rotting flesh fills the air as the red fades and a teammate helps you to your feet. The escalation and real sense of danger as you are forced to work together actually did give me Left 4 Dead-themed nightmares for a long time and I doubt the experience will be emulated anytime soon.

HitPoints: Saving

June 29th, 2011 Matt || >> 2 comments <<

Earlier this week, the news that Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D would only support one permanent, undeletable save file sent the internet into an uproar. What if we want to restart the game for fun, they asked? What if we want to trade it in? Is there even a point to picking it up used, if anyone even sells it?

Though the title is technically an arcade game – and by that virtue has infinite replayability, even if everything is unlocked – the fact that a player could not blank their save data was a dealbreaker for many. Theories abounded that this system was in place as a way to get back at the second-hand market, but Capcom came out and stated that the game had always been designed to have only one save slot. It’s not the worst thing to ever happen, so why the backlash and the rage from gamers?

I can understand the want to start a game from scratch. It adds more life to a title that’s only set to run a certain number of hours, and because games are rather expensive in the first place, it makes sense that a player would want to be fully satisfied with a title, being able to complete it, return to it, and start over as they see fit.

What’s interesting about this most recent case is that the fact that the save file cannot be overwritten doesn’t fundamentally change the game. In fact, the unlocks themselves don’t change the game. Why would a player prefer to have a limited character and weapon set when they could have so many more choices? Why would they be content with trying to satisfy the game conditions over and over rather than just going with it and play the game?

I delete my saves all the time. I deleted my L.A. Noire save easily half-a-dozen times while still on my first playthrough because I kept screwing up. I accidentally created suspend data during a battle in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor and then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to delete it (the game doesn’t let you, something that still drives me crazy). However, these are a highly-sophisticated investigative title and a story-heavy tactics-based RPG, respectively. Neither of them are arcade experiences; neither of them hinge on how quickly you can shoot a zombie in the face.

In any other type of game, Capcom’s save scheme would be inexcusable. However, the long history of saving and being able to delete and re-save may have spoiled us as gamers. Gaming began in the arcades in the 80s, where you would put your quarters into a machine and hope to play as long as possible. In the early days of gaming, there were no saves. As games became more complex, there needed to be some way to keep a player’s data. To have a game that hearkens back to arcade period, and have people complain about its save system, when in truth it doesn’t really need one, is frankly depressing.

However, this issue may equally have something to do with how much the game was hyped, and how still relatively useless the 3DS is. This is Capcom’s first title for the 3DS that isn’t a simplified port, and they’ve been showing it off at every major show this year. Taken this way, it looks like the expectation of gamers was too high, and the final product simply could not deliver. For some, this will be just one less reason to own a 3DS, in a year that, so far, hasn’t been great for it. Some will believe that the game doesn’t have enough content to justify the price. That’s a far less stupid argument, and a logical, rational one at that.

However, chastising an arcade title that doesn’t let you reset your save is like complaining that you’ve ruined your future enjoyment of a book by reading it. Can you just try to have fun?

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