Monday, April 27, 2009

Monday check-in

I can't say I really have a lot to offer this week, but I felt it was important to at least try to put some words out. I hate having big gaps in the blog. If anyone comes and reads it (like THAT'S going to happen), I don't want them thinking that this is a dead page. Too many of those out there already.

Well, the game buying drought continues. If this keeps up, I'll have almost no new games for all of 2009 - and that's not a bad thing really. I was all set the other day to go to Gamestop to see about picking up a few games in their B2G1F sale and I wanted to check my library to see which ones I was missing from a couple of series. After looking at the games for a few minutes, I quickly decided not to bother even going. I've got so many really good games that adding more just doesn't make any sense. Are there any out there that I'm willing to spend money on anymore?

As for actual play, I've been Rock Band-ing (could play that game forever!) and some Dokapon on the DS. Too soon to say about Dokapon, but so far it seems like it's just the mechanics of the game without any of the charm or humor. At least it doesn't seem to cheat. Also been playing some very casual games on Bigfish and Facebook. Nothing special, just some time killers.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Demoing on the PSP

Hey, only 2 days since the last post. A new trend maybe?

Anyway, I tried the demo for the Resistance PSP game last night. In general, the thing that impressed me was the graphics - stunning cut scenes and good in-game third-person action for such a small screen. What didn't impress me was that I had to fight way too many monsters with waaaay too little ammo. Note to designers: checkpoints that don't replenish your ammo to reasonable levels when you return to them aren't very helpful. It's a "no buy" for me.

The PSP has been something of an oddball for me. If I were still doing business travel, it would be my constant traveling companion. But, it's hard to find a niche for it when I'm never away from my consoles. I have gotten into making movie files for it, which can be fun, but games are harder to get into. I like that Sony keeps updating the firmware, adding more features and refining others. In some ways, it adds that "tinkering" aspect that computers have to them. I've bought a number of UMD movie for it, but I haven't watched a single one. The only reason I broke down and bought this one (aside from having the money at the time) was that I liked the case color!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Somewhere in April '09

So this is my first 2009 post? Wow, time flies when you aren't having lots of fun.

Yeah, been busy. I've gotten some playtime in. On my own, I'm working on "007 Everything or Nothing" for the PS2 as the first of the Wowbagger Project and enjoying the game quite a bit. However, I do apologize for getting Pierce Brosnan shot so many times.

What is the Wowbagger Project, you ask? For those who haven't read, or don't remember, Wowbagger was a character from that wholly remarkable book, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Wowbagger was an alien that had become immortal as the result of an experiment gone wrong. At first he loved it, but then all those Sunday afternoons got to him and he needed something to focus his eternal life on - insulting the whole universe.

In a way, I'm going to take page from Wowbagger's book and do something similar, but less insulting - I'm going to play all the games in my collection, individually, one-by-one, and in alphabetical order!

So, that's why I'm playing 007 Everything or Nothing because in my sorting scheme, 007 was the first game. (Other sites like Metacritic list it as "James Bond 007 etc", but if you look at the box it seems to start with "007").

Because of this plan, I've really lost my great desire to constantly buy new games - a decision that has had beneficial effects on the family budget. I've also started to get disillusioned with where the industry is going. I don't think that at this point they can return to the glory days of the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube period. Big titles are expensive to produce for the 360 and PS3 and frequently return too little. The Wii is losing steam (which was more hype than anything to begin with) and is swamped with crapware. The handhelds (read: DS and DSi) are doing well, but gaming on pocket systems is a stop-gap solution to real games. You can't have a real driving, adventure, or sports game on that small a platform.

Anyway, enough of the rant for now. All I know is that at this point my "2009 Videogame and Computer Receipts" folder at home is VERY thin for being almost 5 months into 2009.