Most gamers are aware that with each hardware iteration we stand to be less impressed with graphical fidelity than the generation before. It’s argued that the last real leap in visuals was the Playstation One to the Dreamcast (brief pause for the fanboys). What’s beyond contest is that biggest change occurred between the 16 bit era and the 32 bit era with 3D polygonal technology. I don’t see an...
Call of Duty is as close to an eSport as you can get in the gaming community. A new season comes around every year, and for the most part, the rules stay the same, and everyone just tries to get better. People win, people lose, and according to what I hear, everyone has slept with everyone else’s mother; just like the NBA. Currently, in Call of Duty: Black Ops, I have a respectable kill/death r...
After playing the Sonic Generations demo for the 40th time, I began to think about the Sonic franchise and it’s meteoric rise and epic fall from grace in the industry. I credit Sonic, Sega, and the Genesis system for making me the hardcore gamer I am today. Of course, I had game systems before the Genesis but they weren’t exactly mine. I played the family Atari and my older brother's Nintendo....
I wake up at 7:00 AM every day and brush my teeth like everyone else. I put my pants on one leg at a time just like you; but this next part is where we differ. I work on the top floor of a very tall building; a sky scraper if you will. I run a company –no, sorry– a corporation that specializes in getting results. What results, you ask? Whatever I want them to be; but it usually revolves around...
On the Weekend Confirmed podcast last week Garnett Lee and Jeff Cannata briefly talked about summer droughts and how it allows them to tackle their pile of shame. That’s exactly the reason why I love summer droughts. Like many gamers, I find it hard to keep up with new releases while pretending to maintain a real life, so I use this lull to catch up on all the unfinished games that hate me. The...
I’ll be honest, I never once thought to touch the OtherOS feature that was initially built into every Playstation 3. In that regard I’m a pretty boring gamer. I don’t tinker with my systems; I can hardly get myself to install new themes. I usually enjoy the console I get in as “pure” a form as possible. With that being said, some people love to tinker, and upgrade, and push their hardware in wh...
It’s called NUad or Natural User-Interface Advertising if you’re the long winded type. It’s being touted by Microsoft as the platform that will “change television as we know it forever”. I’m a bit more skeptical, but let’s get to the details first. Using the Kinect, Microsoft intends to change the passive viewing of advertisments into an interactive sport; you know, like trying to close a pop-u...
If you haven’t checked out EGMi on the iPad, you’re missing out on the future of digital magazines. Anyone familiar with the digital edition of Wired will feel right at home here. I’ve long thought of myself as a connoisseur of video game magazines and I love how interactive and fun the digital version is. Once you download the issue it (obviously) resides locally on your iPad which is a good t...
I miss being surprised at E3. Lately it’s like the video game industry has "kid sister" syndrome where they want to tell everyone everything, all the time. If it’s not platform makers posting the details of their press briefing hours beforehand, it’s producers talking throughout entire demos, telling us every bit of detail so we don’t–god forbid–gloss over how well textured each street lamp is....
So I haven’t quite figured out how to write it, is it Wii U, is it WiiU, or Wii+U? I doubt it’s that last one. However the collective decides to write it, it’s sort of a game changer. Listen, I’m not a Nintendo fanboy. I hugged my Sonic doll before Mario in the 16 and 32 bit era but know your history. Nintendo makes game changers. Who do you think made analog sticks a standard? Or force feedbac...
How’s this for a loaded topic? Are we headed toward a one console future? I’d like to think so and always have, since I reached the age of reason. Just think about it; right now video games are one of the only mediums where this type of media divide exists. Sure, as of now you can buy an eBook in Kindle, Nook, or iBook format but there is always ePub as a standard open format. Music has MP3s, a...
This is something I said years and years ago, and the announcement of the new PSP brings it back. Now granted there has to be some scaling done on the hardware side, but what is stopping Sony or MS, or even Nintendo from putting out their next home console as a portable one? As it stands now no one is sure the PSP2 (NGP) can do TV out, lets assume it can. The one truly exciting thing about that...
In the early 90's when America Online was the main gateway to get to the barren world wide web there wasn't much of a choice where your information came from. Some of us used word of mouth. Mortal Kombat's blood code spread through classrooms with flu like swiftness. The scoop about the newest game was a big game of telephone. We were born with the Konami code imprinted in our DNA. I grew up wi...
We’ve all been there at one point in our gaming careers. A game company announces the incredibly high price for a hotly anticipated DLC and your heart drops. Your first reaction is to go to the nearest message board or your Twitter account and blast that company for their unfair prices. Surely some DLC coming out this soon after the game releases means they simply held this back just to be able...
So many game ideas, so many comic book ideas, so many video game website ideas, yet no artistic skill. Can you help? We should talk.