when conversations like, "I went to smash the windows of all the stores at the mall, but then the cops chased me, so I shot them with the shotgun and escaped in my stolen car" become common occurrences.
And let's be honest... Leiberman isn't saying that kind of crap to start an intellectually valid argument. He's just doing what politicians do: say whatever the current audience wants to hear. The point is that there's no single bullet explanation that says video game violence will forever mar the current generation.
Everybody always considers it absurd that good gaming could instantly cause good behavior, but it's a foregone conclusion that bad gaming instantly causes bad behavior.
So since gamers of the 80s grew up with games where you're constantly saving princesses, does that mean that generation is respectful, helpful and courteous towards women? Absolutely not. These bullshit arguments are always easy to deflate when you invert them.
At one time, having two analog sticks on your controller was a gimmick in gaming. So were rumble effects. Sometimes gimmicks pay off, and sometimes they don't.
The games that came with the EyeToy are a serviceable party game, and it's the kind of thing that attracts the interest of people outside the gaming world because it's moderately fun and cutsey. It's nice to see that Sony is trying to get other games to use the camera, so that it doesn't end up ignored. I'm sure there's more uses cooking than just slapping your head into a game. I read in some magazine, probably OPM, about the EyeToy folks showing off how the camera could be used to track the movement of an actual baseball bat to swing at a ball in the game.
And Sony would probably take issue with your statement that it "hasn't been doing well." Your friend at the LameFlop isn't exactly a full study.
Perfeck Dark for N64 was supposed to include this sort of thing using the Game Boy Camera... but it was removed at the last minute. The official reason was that it affected performance of the game, but it was so close to Columbine that many figured that was why Nintendo had the feature stripped.
Obviously enough time has passed that companies aren't afraid to include "shoot your friends' digitized faces!" as a packaging bullet point.
Wasn't it from the firefighter? As I recall, the cutscene shows him with the package, and then knock, knock the package appears on your doorstep. Yeah, that's a bit rushed and obviously Silicon Knights intended a bit more, but it's certainly not a game-killer.
IIRC, Ico was released September 01. Gamespot TV/Extended Play became X-Play and added Morgan Webb in May 03.
If Sessler got to talk about Ico recently, then he must be trying to fight against the marketing machine keeping him in moron mode. KEEP FIGHTING, ADAM!
Yeah, remember the pre-extreme days when Adam Sessler would actually talk about good games instead of the embarrassing shtick he's forced into now? I bet he cries himself to sleep every night when he considers how far he's falling.
I remember him gushing about Ico and Shenmue and other non-traditional games... now he just gets to stand around gibbering about Whatever Game Popular Opinion Has Chosen for the week, usually with insulting fake drooling and other behavior that management has decreed appeals to gamers.
Look Skippy, even if MSG2's storyline doesn't treat post-modernism and nihilism and everything else as perfectly as possible, wouldn't you say it at least deserves accolades for trying? For trying something different? For maybe even inspiring gamers to read those philosophical works of the men you mentioned?
Christ, the best you can hope for Splinter Cell is that it will inspire gamers to go watch a Steven Seagal movie.
I've heard of plenty of gamers being pissed at MGS2 over the plotline, because they hated the love story or couldn't make sense of it or that it was too arty... but I've never seen someone bitch that it wasn't arty enough.
I thought MGS2's story was great. It is involved and multilayered and doesn't fall back to a simplistic linear narrative like most games. The difference between MGS2 and, say, Splinter Cell is the difference between Twin Peaks and JAG. The latter examples, while fine, are straight-forward and linear, while the formers are deep and mysterious and never lets the viewer in on everything. I happen to prefer a storyline that requires me to think about it and piece it together based on the clues provided.
It's a matter of opinion which approach to storytelling you prefer... just as it's your opinion on the quality of MGS2's gameplay. Which I also loved.
Sure, a game doesn't need a crapload of cinemas to be great... but, unfortunately for you guys, that's exactly what Kojima likes to do. So let this be your warning: MGS3 is likely to have plenty of cutscenes, so if that sort of thing bugs you, please read a couple reviews before you buy it and subsequently trash it.
I mentioned Soul Calibur as an example of a game that doesn't have random cutscenes "interfering" with your gameplay. I've only played Soul Calibur 2, but I wouldn't exactly hold it up as a paragon for video game presentation. I think it's incredibly weird that you would attack a game that tells a bizarre, convoluted story in cutscenes, yet applaud a game that tells a bizarre, convoluted story in text blocks plus a couple of brief slideshows.
If you don't want interactive movies, maybe you should stick to the R-Types and Soul Caliburs of the world. Kojima and tons of other designers want their games to tell stories as well as provide excellent gameplay.
Whenever I see folks complain about the cutscene content, I wonder why they're playing games like MGS. I don't like football, so I don't play football games. If you don't like cutscenes, don't play games that you know are cutscene-heavy.
Icehouse from Looney Labs. You buy the pieces and then either buy a separate multi-game rulebook or just look up rules for Icehouse games online. Check out the rules for Volcano, RAMbots, and IceTowers... our three favorites.
Figures supplied by the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia may not be the most unbiased source of information on gun control.
Even if we do accept those numbers as true, the number of murders pre-gun buyback (99 in 1996) is still more than the number of murders in the most recent year shown (49 in 2001). Why isn't that shown to be a happy side effect of the buyback program?
Answer: because it's all in how you spin it. One little table and a bunch of out-of-context quotes do not an argument make.
And, at the risk of clouding all further rational discussion, do you really think that Jesus (if he wasn't fictional) had any notion of how powerful the weapons of the future would be? The difference between a sword and a gun is incredible, which makes quotes dealing with swords-and-violence not exactly comparable to the modern situation of guns-and-violence. Heck, our founding fathers couldn't even fathom the high-powered, super-accurate, full-automatic weapons of today.
"Screwing hookers" is a little exaggerated, don't you think? All that happens is the car bounces up and down, which is a visual comedy gag that happens on prime time TV about six times a week, more if they're double-running That 70s Show.
It's that kind of hyperbole that gets games in trouble! Mainly because the Watchdog groups have more vivid imaginations than any of us.
Aside: my boss made his teen kids throw out their copies of GTA because "you can kill hookers." I have to wonder how he feels about killing convicts or murderers or terrorists or gang members, the other common types of black-and-white baddies in video games.
Do you have any idea how the GC Four Swords works? Everybody plays on the TV, but if one player ducks into a cave or house or something, that player switches to the GBA while the other 3 remain uninterrupted on the TV. Game Boys and a TV are required elements, so the game has more screen real estate to play with.
And as already noted, the eReader can add in totally new SMB levels. Totally new. Not unlocked or hidden, totally new levels that haven't even been created yet. (Of course, this assumes Nintendo will actually take advantage of this ability...)
I know it hurts you to spend money, but can you see how there are actual gameplay enhancements here?
Where's this spendthrift attitude over Xbox Live, where you pay a monthly fee for the service and then additional fees for Premium Content?
A short list of the games that my wife and I have enjoyed together over the past few years:
Adventures of Cookies & Cream (PS2) **
Amplitude (PS2)
Animal Crossing (GCN)
Crash Team Racing (PS1)
Dance Dance Revolution (PS2) **
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN) **
Mario Kart: Double Dash (GCN) **
Mario Party 1-5 (1-3 N64, 4-5 GCN)
Parappa the Rapper (PS1)
Pokemon Puzzle League (N64)
Pokemon Snap (N64)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (all) **
Soul Calibur 2 (all)
Starsky & Hutch (PS2) **
Super Monkey Ball (GCN)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN) **
**One concept that always works for the codependant gamer is co-op play over competition play, as many posters have pointed out. That way it's not a huge humilating blowout if one player is better than the other. My wife really liked playing Tingle in Wind Waker because she could help me out if I got lost or needed a hint.
Another trick is to try out games that don't come off as overwhelming, like FPS and RTS games often do. Like Parappa, Double Dash, or Animal Crossing.
I never labelled you a troll. (But thanks to anybody who did.) I just wanted to point out that there are benefits to the GameCube, and that it's stupid to try to start a pissing contest between console "benefits."
Lots of kids do have large collections of Game Boy games. You'd think a store employee would be more aware of that. Many parents who already own a growing pile of old and new cartridges see the GB Player as a benefit at least as worthwhile as a DVD player. GB games are cheaper, so a thrifty parent could keep kids happy by buying new GBA games instead of new GC games. Being able to play GBA games on a big tv is a benefit because it turns your personal GBA experience into one that siblings and friends can enjoy too.
As for portable memory card benefits, how's this one from GGA. The writers needed to split up their KOTOR saves, but can't because the KOTOR save file is too large to be moved onto a memory card. The supposed "freedom" of the Xbox hard drive allowed the KOTOR developers to make a save file that is too large to be moved around (or you can argue that MS simply doesn't make a large enough memory card, but then again they also have no way to transfer files from hard drive to hard drive, as talked about in the article.)
You're speaking in bold, unprovable assertions ("it just does more, and it does it better") and instead of actually listening to any opposing viewpoints, you fly off the handle.
trying to convince mom and pop consumer that they should get a gamecube for jimmy because thats all it does is play games when they hear from the joneses that thier PS2/XBOX plays DVD's, and thier XBOX doesnt need expensive memory cards, it isnt easy.
What happens when they hear from the Joneses that the PS2/Xbox cost twice as much, that nobody but Nintendo is doing first-party wireless controllers, that there are benefits to portable memory cards, and that they can buy an add-on to support their kids' immense library of Game Boy games?
Yes, but why should gamers have to pay twice? Once for the monthly Xbox service, and then again for the content. As I recall, one of Xbox Live's big original selling points was exactly that you wouldn't get nickel-and-dimed to death. You pay one fee and get it all.
So you do think that 51-99% of the entire universe of games can be done better on the PC.
One of the reasons people like console games vs PC games (or vice versa) is because the developers (usually) create the games specifically for the hardware of that particular system. Mario Sunshine is going to be a better experience on the GameCube than the PC simply because of the controller. Crystal Chronicles is going to be a better experience on the GameCube than the PC because of the GC/GBA connection.
Suppose Parappa the Rapper (a game that would have a simple adaptation to keyboard control) had a PC version. Is the PC version inherantly better than the PS1 version? No. And if you think so, is it simply because of a theoretical increase in graphic resolution (remember that Parappa was extremely stylized as to not even do much graphically)? Is that all you need to declare PC Game X superior to Console Game X, graphics?
What about the fact that games actually run on consoles, instead of having to be patched, fixed, and re-patched? What about the unstable structure of Windows, the myriad of user modifications and customized setups, the overabundance of do-it-yourself hardware options. Any of that make a game worse on a PC than on a console?
Clarification needed. Do you mean "most" as in "51% - 99% of the entire universe of games" or "most" as in "all the games I like." I suspect the latter.
and with the release of MK:DD Nintendo has now released ALL of its killer apps for this generation.
Oh yeah? How about Mario Tennis, Pokemon Colloseum... plus the rumored sequels to Wind Waker and Metroid Prime? Any of those qualify? Any upcoming games that nobody but Nintendo knows about qualify?
Nice to know that you're so well placed in Nintendo's future release schedule that you can authoritatively tell us that Nintendo is done with releasing "killer apps."
Have you ever considered that you, Mike Hawk, might be as anti-fanboy a fanboy as the very fanboys you deride?
Nintendo games are always held to impossibly high standards. If the slightest little detail is missed, the troll legion comes out to bash the game.
I hope you naysayers will be just critical when Crash Nitro Kart comes out and doesn't present a massive leap forward in kart game technology. OMG teh tracks are uninspired! Coco has the same voice sample! why more crates again!
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And when will that be?
Everybody always considers it absurd that good gaming could instantly cause good behavior, but it's a foregone conclusion that bad gaming instantly causes bad behavior.
So since gamers of the 80s grew up with games where you're constantly saving princesses, does that mean that generation is respectful, helpful and courteous towards women? Absolutely not. These bullshit arguments are always easy to deflate when you invert them.
The games that came with the EyeToy are a serviceable party game, and it's the kind of thing that attracts the interest of people outside the gaming world because it's moderately fun and cutsey. It's nice to see that Sony is trying to get other games to use the camera, so that it doesn't end up ignored. I'm sure there's more uses cooking than just slapping your head into a game. I read in some magazine, probably OPM, about the EyeToy folks showing off how the camera could be used to track the movement of an actual baseball bat to swing at a ball in the game.
And Sony would probably take issue with your statement that it "hasn't been doing well." Your friend at the LameFlop isn't exactly a full study.
Obviously enough time has passed that companies aren't afraid to include "shoot your friends' digitized faces!" as a packaging bullet point.
Wasn't it from the firefighter? As I recall, the cutscene shows him with the package, and then knock, knock the package appears on your doorstep. Yeah, that's a bit rushed and obviously Silicon Knights intended a bit more, but it's certainly not a game-killer.
Just hurry up, because your mom needs your computer to check her email.
If Sessler got to talk about Ico recently, then he must be trying to fight against the marketing machine keeping him in moron mode. KEEP FIGHTING, ADAM!
I remember him gushing about Ico and Shenmue and other non-traditional games... now he just gets to stand around gibbering about Whatever Game Popular Opinion Has Chosen for the week, usually with insulting fake drooling and other behavior that management has decreed appeals to gamers.
Look Skippy, even if MSG2's storyline doesn't treat post-modernism and nihilism and everything else as perfectly as possible, wouldn't you say it at least deserves accolades for trying? For trying something different? For maybe even inspiring gamers to read those philosophical works of the men you mentioned?
Christ, the best you can hope for Splinter Cell is that it will inspire gamers to go watch a Steven Seagal movie.
I've heard of plenty of gamers being pissed at MGS2 over the plotline, because they hated the love story or couldn't make sense of it or that it was too arty... but I've never seen someone bitch that it wasn't arty enough.
It's a matter of opinion which approach to storytelling you prefer... just as it's your opinion on the quality of MGS2's gameplay. Which I also loved.
Sure, a game doesn't need a crapload of cinemas to be great... but, unfortunately for you guys, that's exactly what Kojima likes to do. So let this be your warning: MGS3 is likely to have plenty of cutscenes, so if that sort of thing bugs you, please read a couple reviews before you buy it and subsequently trash it.
I mentioned Soul Calibur as an example of a game that doesn't have random cutscenes "interfering" with your gameplay. I've only played Soul Calibur 2, but I wouldn't exactly hold it up as a paragon for video game presentation. I think it's incredibly weird that you would attack a game that tells a bizarre, convoluted story in cutscenes, yet applaud a game that tells a bizarre, convoluted story in text blocks plus a couple of brief slideshows.
Whenever I see folks complain about the cutscene content, I wonder why they're playing games like MGS. I don't like football, so I don't play football games. If you don't like cutscenes, don't play games that you know are cutscene-heavy.
Icehouse from Looney Labs. You buy the pieces and then either buy a separate multi-game rulebook or just look up rules for Icehouse games online. Check out the rules for Volcano, RAMbots, and IceTowers... our three favorites.
Even if we do accept those numbers as true, the number of murders pre-gun buyback (99 in 1996) is still more than the number of murders in the most recent year shown (49 in 2001). Why isn't that shown to be a happy side effect of the buyback program?
Answer: because it's all in how you spin it. One little table and a bunch of out-of-context quotes do not an argument make.
And, at the risk of clouding all further rational discussion, do you really think that Jesus (if he wasn't fictional) had any notion of how powerful the weapons of the future would be? The difference between a sword and a gun is incredible, which makes quotes dealing with swords-and-violence not exactly comparable to the modern situation of guns-and-violence. Heck, our founding fathers couldn't even fathom the high-powered, super-accurate, full-automatic weapons of today.
It's that kind of hyperbole that gets games in trouble! Mainly because the Watchdog groups have more vivid imaginations than any of us.
Aside: my boss made his teen kids throw out their copies of GTA because "you can kill hookers." I have to wonder how he feels about killing convicts or murderers or terrorists or gang members, the other common types of black-and-white baddies in video games.
Boy, if that's all Nintendo had to do to keep your attention...
And as already noted, the eReader can add in totally new SMB levels. Totally new. Not unlocked or hidden, totally new levels that haven't even been created yet. (Of course, this assumes Nintendo will actually take advantage of this ability...)
I know it hurts you to spend money, but can you see how there are actual gameplay enhancements here?
Where's this spendthrift attitude over Xbox Live, where you pay a monthly fee for the service and then additional fees for Premium Content?
Adventures of Cookies & Cream (PS2) **
Amplitude (PS2)
Animal Crossing (GCN)
Crash Team Racing (PS1)
Dance Dance Revolution (PS2) **
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN) **
Mario Kart: Double Dash (GCN) **
Mario Party 1-5 (1-3 N64, 4-5 GCN)
Parappa the Rapper (PS1)
Pokemon Puzzle League (N64)
Pokemon Snap (N64)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (all) **
Soul Calibur 2 (all)
Starsky & Hutch (PS2) **
Super Monkey Ball (GCN)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN) **
**One concept that always works for the codependant gamer is co-op play over competition play, as many posters have pointed out. That way it's not a huge humilating blowout if one player is better than the other. My wife really liked playing Tingle in Wind Waker because she could help me out if I got lost or needed a hint.
Another trick is to try out games that don't come off as overwhelming, like FPS and RTS games often do. Like Parappa, Double Dash, or Animal Crossing.
Lots of kids do have large collections of Game Boy games. You'd think a store employee would be more aware of that. Many parents who already own a growing pile of old and new cartridges see the GB Player as a benefit at least as worthwhile as a DVD player. GB games are cheaper, so a thrifty parent could keep kids happy by buying new GBA games instead of new GC games. Being able to play GBA games on a big tv is a benefit because it turns your personal GBA experience into one that siblings and friends can enjoy too.
As for portable memory card benefits, how's this one from GGA. The writers needed to split up their KOTOR saves, but can't because the KOTOR save file is too large to be moved onto a memory card. The supposed "freedom" of the Xbox hard drive allowed the KOTOR developers to make a save file that is too large to be moved around (or you can argue that MS simply doesn't make a large enough memory card, but then again they also have no way to transfer files from hard drive to hard drive, as talked about in the article.)
You're speaking in bold, unprovable assertions ("it just does more, and it does it better") and instead of actually listening to any opposing viewpoints, you fly off the handle.
Fuck you.
What happens when they hear from the Joneses that the PS2/Xbox cost twice as much, that nobody but Nintendo is doing first-party wireless controllers, that there are benefits to portable memory cards, and that they can buy an add-on to support their kids' immense library of Game Boy games?
I guess that business model wasn't working!
So you do think that 51-99% of the entire universe of games can be done better on the PC.
One of the reasons people like console games vs PC games (or vice versa) is because the developers (usually) create the games specifically for the hardware of that particular system. Mario Sunshine is going to be a better experience on the GameCube than the PC simply because of the controller. Crystal Chronicles is going to be a better experience on the GameCube than the PC because of the GC/GBA connection.
Suppose Parappa the Rapper (a game that would have a simple adaptation to keyboard control) had a PC version. Is the PC version inherantly better than the PS1 version? No. And if you think so, is it simply because of a theoretical increase in graphic resolution (remember that Parappa was extremely stylized as to not even do much graphically)? Is that all you need to declare PC Game X superior to Console Game X, graphics?
What about the fact that games actually run on consoles, instead of having to be patched, fixed, and re-patched? What about the unstable structure of Windows, the myriad of user modifications and customized setups, the overabundance of do-it-yourself hardware options. Any of that make a game worse on a PC than on a console?
Clarification needed. Do you mean "most" as in "51% - 99% of the entire universe of games" or "most" as in "all the games I like." I suspect the latter.
Oh yeah? How about Mario Tennis, Pokemon Colloseum... plus the rumored sequels to Wind Waker and Metroid Prime? Any of those qualify? Any upcoming games that nobody but Nintendo knows about qualify?
Nice to know that you're so well placed in Nintendo's future release schedule that you can authoritatively tell us that Nintendo is done with releasing "killer apps."
Have you ever considered that you, Mike Hawk, might be as anti-fanboy a fanboy as the very fanboys you deride?
I hope you naysayers will be just critical when Crash Nitro Kart comes out and doesn't present a massive leap forward in kart game technology. OMG teh tracks are uninspired! Coco has the same voice sample! why more crates again!