Cloudy With a Chance of Gaming -- 4/17/2011

For reasons that most can probably guess, I’m finally playing Reach. Despite being a Halo fan since Combat Evolved, I’d never gotten around to buying, or even playing, Reach. Until now, of course. I was shipped a shady package which contained a shady disc and a shady set of instructions. Microsoft can be as shady as they’d like so long as I get some “Loot Or Other Things” out of it. That’s probably enough sidestepping around beta testing details. Wouldn’t want to get in trouble now. On to the game at hand.

It’s a lot better than I’d expected. That’s saying quite a bit too as I expected a pretty good game. I’m not too far into the campaign, so I can’t say a lot there, but the multiplayer seems fantastic. Ya know, the fact that I haven’t played a competitive multiplayer FPS in such a long time probably changes my viewpoint here, but so be it. I found Reach’s multiplayer to be downright fantastic. It’s a Halo game in all of it’s glory. Playing it brings back the good memories of killin’ dudes back when that was in style.

Oh, Boarding Action. You wuz so crazy.  The maps that I’ve come across thus far has been pretty great. There’s new ones that are fresh and really super exciting, but then there’s also a great mix of oldies thrown in there too. Of course the old maps received facelifts, but they aptly carry the spirit of their ancestors. There’s almost direct remakes, such as the Ivory Tower clone. But then there’s more spiritual successors such as Sword Base. That map gives off all kinds of Boarding Action vibes. for some reason, the same maps seem to pop up a lot, but that could be an effect of my playing only Team Slayer, as well as not owning any DLC. It’s weird to me, but I’ve actually been considering buying the map packs for Reach. God, I haven’t bought map packs since probably the early Halo 2 days. Actually I’m not even sure I ever bought those. I think I waited it out and picked ‘em up for free eventually. Either way though, Reach is making me consider buying maps, which is something I almost never even consider.

I haven’t even touched the Forge stuff. That’s an aspect that I found super interesting pre-release, so I’ll definitely give that a look-see. I also haven’t bought anything from the Armory since I first created my profile. I probably have a mountain of credits to spend. I don’t know why I keep forgetting to do that. I guess I just don’t care that much about the visual stuff. Gimmie more to shoot! I’m falling deep into this Halo multiplayer hole. I’m not sure how deep I’ll go, but I’m going to let it happen. See you on the other side.

Hey, y’all, I finally picked up Borderlands. How late am I to the party? Oh shit, really? THAT late? Alright enough of that. Yes, I’m very late on this one, but I’m kinda glad I waited. I got a killer deal at Gamestop in return for my patience. $20 for a brand new Game of the Year version. For the uninitiated, that includes all four DLC expansions along with the core game of course. That’s one of the best deals I’ve seen, so I decided to finally pick it up. Simply buying each DLC pack would cost me $40, not even including the full game. Hell of a deal. Alright, yes, we all understand how great of a deal it was now. I’m sure you’re all very proud of my thriftiness. How’s the actual game, though?

Well, I popped it in last night and played a bit. Yo, it’s really good. I should probably mention that I have indeed played Borderlands before, but it was at a friends house on a PS3. We kind of just blasted through everything and I didn’t get to explore much of anything. Jumping into a fresh game, achievements popping, dudes screaming as they’re lit on fire. It’s good times. I’d say in the short time that I’ve played so far, I’ve been enjoying it more than I did when I played a bit the first time via PS3. I’m not sure how long I played, but I’m already at level 10. It felt like I got there pretty fast, but I was probably playing for a bit longer than it seemed.

I was playing solo, which is all well and good, but I have a feeling that this game is only truly great in co-op multiplayer. Maybe I’m wrong, but getting four duders together to blow the heads off of Skags and generally cause havoc sounds like a good time. I’m glad this game’s audience has been sustained, because I’ve already been making some plans to jump into co-op. A simple twitter message about me picking up the game and I’ve had several people wanting to co-op it up. Shoutout to fellow GB users Choffy, Sparklykiss, and Novyx! We gotta get that co-op on! If Sparklykiss’ achievements are to be believed, she aint messin’ around when it comes to Borderlands. So anyway, lookin’ forward to some co-op.

I almost forgot to mention, I started a Siren character. I named her JJ. Yeah, I’m a chick named JJ. Wanna fight about it? More to the point, I have basically no idea of how the classes are differentiated. I think I mainly just chose the Siren because the Soldier seems super played-out. Seriously, it seems like any time I hear about people playing Borderlands, they’re playing as the Soldier. That of course includes the rich and famous Jeff Gerstmann. I just wanted to go with something a little different I suppose. It’s not like with four choices that one’s actually rarely used, but whatever. Of course I’m also completely lost when it comes to the skill tree. I’ve dumped a few points into extra shields, and then a few others have a single point in them. I’m basically just winging it, but I have confidence that I’ll figure it all out eventually. I always do when it comes to such things.

A few things about the game seem to have been poorly explained--such as the fact that I apparently can’t carry health vials--but I’m figuring it all out. All that content for just $20. What a deal. I’ll definitely be sinking my teeth into this for quite some time.

Guitar Hero’s Comeback Tour [source]

This shouldn’t be any secret. Activision has recently spoken out stating that the Guitar Hero franchise is not dead. As we heard news of the series being canned, I can remember the wording leaving the door open for future iterations sometime post-2011. Of course they’d say that. It makes perfect sense to keep the brand on the back-burner in case Activision ever deems the franchise profitable again. There'd be little point in completely killing it off. The interesting question is when and under what circumstances would Activision choose to revive the franchise?

Would they wait until Rock Band fades away completely? It would makes sense to me that selling a product unopposed would lead to some inevitable sales. If they did choose to wait until Rock Band loses its relevance, then who knows how long that could be. Of course Rock Band’s popularity is in decline along with every other rhythm game out there, but Harmonix has made it sound like they’re still going to continue the Rock Band platform. I think waiting out Harmonix would probably be the best option for Activison, but it’s hard to say if even die-hard fans will be interested in the games by the time Harmonix bows out.

The second option would be to obviously skip 2011, and maybe put out a new Guitar Hero in 2012. That would seems a bit soon to revive the once-declared-dead series, but maybe they only need a year to regroup. That’s actually what Activision makes it sound like in this quote:

"Actually, just to clarify, we're just putting Guitar Hero on hiatus, we're not ending it," Winters explained. "We're releasing products out of the vault - we'll continue to sustain the channel, the brand won't go away. We're just not making a new one for next year, that's all."

So what if Activision revived the series in 2012? As a rabid Harmonix fan, I’d be pretty disappointed. As far as I’m concerned, Activision has contributed all they can to the rhythm game genre--which wasn’t much. I honestly can’t see any return of the GH series being anything but a giant sigh-inducer. I see it as kind of a sad thing, too. I think the game designers for Guitar Hero (whoever they may be) were probably just as talented as the Harmonix designers. I think what really holds this series back is Activision. I’m not claiming to be a game designer that knows how the industry works or anything like that, but it seems to me that the owners of the Guitar Hero IP (Activision) would exert a good amount of pressure onto the developers of the games to make them a certain way. This of course would be to preserve the game that so many people enjoyed years ago, but I think they just need some freedom to branch out a bit now. Maybe Activision will grant that freedom should they release a new game in 2012, or even 2013. I think Guitar Hero can be interesting again, but the developers need freedom. We saw a bit of this branching out in Warriors of Rock, but I think the changes need to be more meaningful. Whatever the situation, most of the old Guitar Hero devs have been canned. Any new game will be made by a fresh set of duders. That alone could do wonders.

The Humongous "Wii 2" Rumors [source]

I was visiting family up in Washington State earlier this week, so I was late to the party hearing about all of these Nintendo console rumors. From what I can gather, nothing has been confirmed. Everything is strictly rumor. But man, I’d be lying if I told you that these rumors don’t excite me. Some are very strange, but after the Wii, I wouldn’t put much past Nintendo. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to go through each rumor and either accept it, or call BS.

Game Informer kicks the rumor mill into gear with its initial report, claiming the "Nintendo HD" will be unveiled at E3 in June. The system "is capable of running games at HD resolutions," Game Informer writes, and will see a "late 2012 launch." It reportedly won't bear the Wii name.

OK, sure. Seems perfectly plausible to me. I mean, HD seems like an absolute must at this point. The PS3 and Xbox have been running HD games since 2005. That has to happen. If it doesn’t, I will personally film one of those videos where I stand in line for days to get the first console, and then proceed to smash it on the ground in front of everyone. OK, I’d never do that, but those videos are always fun in a painful kind of way. Anyway, HD; It’s happening. As far as the name change, it seems a bit less likely. Wii is an incredibly enormous name at this point. I’d think Nintendo would take some kind of advantage of that.

IGN adds its own report, saying that Nintendo's Wii successor is "significantly more powerful" than Sony and Microsoft's current consoles. IGN news director Jim Reilly adds "that the console will be backwards compatible with current Wii software" and that an official "pre-announcement" is due sometime in April.

Also plausible for the same reasons as before. If it’s not a more powerful console than the Xbox 360 and PS3, then what are they doing over there in Nintendo land? Microsoft and Sony are obviously going to be stepping up their games, so Nintendo needs to make the biggest tech leap of the three. This needs to be comparable with the next gen Xboxes and the PS4. As far as running old software, I can see that. Nintendo was great about that with the Gamecube after the Wii was released. The only question mark is that most Wii games use funky motion controls that this new console may or may not be able to support. It seems that it would depend on however the controller turns out.

Well, then there’s the controller rumors.

CVG weighs in with its own unconfirmed reports, this time about the system's controller. They say the Wii 2's gamepad will "feature a built-in HD screen." CVG backs up earlier reports about the system's horsepower and Nintendo's launch plans.

French site 01net chimes in, saying the Wii 2 is codenamed "Project Cafe" and that its controller will include a touch sensitive screen measuring 6 inches, features a front-facing camera and can double as a Wii Remote sensor bar.

IGN later adds that "Players will actually be able to stream game content to the controller screen from the console. It's unclear at this time what type of content it will be, whether it's full games you can take with you on the go, mini-games or applications." IGN later posts a mock-up of the system's controller.

 I'm calling BS OK, this is where it gets a little too crazy. As I said before, I wouldn’t put much past Nintendo, but a controller with a touch screen on it seems like too much. I’ll say right now that I doubt this one is true, but what if it were? What kind of touch screen would it be? Capacitive would surely be too expensive to put in every controller. If I had to guess, It’ll probably be a crappy resistive touch screen like what’s in the DS. That’s fine I suppose, but in my experience, capacitive works a whole lot better when using your hands as opposed to a stylus. Also, I’d think the controller weight or general size may be an issue with a screen built in. I simply can’t imagine a controller with a screen built in being comfortable to hold and be functional at the same time. If there’s a company that can pull off a controller like this though, it’s probably Nintendo. Really interested in seeing some facts regarding this, but for now I’m a doubter in the controller screen.

I’ll stop before this is entirely too long (too late?). Besides, this has probably been discussed to death on the forums already while I was away. Rightfully so though. New console launches are almost always incredibly exciting. I hope we all get some harder facts sometime soon.

Time to close this sucker down. If you liked the new blog style, then lemme know! Or if you hate it, then lemme know that as well! I’ve done some unorthodox things in terms or using HTML to insert the images. I really have no idea if it’ll completely eff up on someone’s monitor. I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen, but please tell me if it does because I'll definitely make some adjustments. I’m still trying to figure this all out.

This wouldn’t be one of my blogs if it didn’t mention the Portland Trail Blazers! There. They’ve been mentioned. Do I really need to describe in detail how they lost in game one of the NBA Playoffs against the Mavericks?  *sigh*  They’ll bounce back and all will be well. I’m unsure of the exact schedule, but maybe they’ll bounce back with a vengeance and take the next four in a row, winning the series. In that case the series could be over by next Sunday. Hey, I can dream. Whatever happens, you’d better believe I’m going to let you know about it. Have a good one, everyone.

<3
--JJ