Category: Games and Sports

Perfection is a funny thing. We all seem so enamored of it, and many persue it their whole lives. But honestly, is it all that great? I get the daily GameSpy newsletter via email and right now they’re running an ad for the Girls of Gaming. As one might guess, it’s a publication containing the typical busty chicks that inhabit video games. And, of course, these babes are perfect.

I’m sure these perfect females attract a lot of mostly male attention, but I’m finding that it is the little imperfections that add the spice of real human beauty. These game girls are nice to look at, but their general lack of blemish ultimately makes them kind of creepy. This calls into question the whole notion of perfection itself. An artist may add any number of what might be considered extraneous features to a work of art, but it would hardly be correct to call these imperfections. In the same way, the unique features of any human form can hardly be called mistakes either. These are part of what make us each unique works of art. Indeed, you might even call them signature elements of the artist.

So until our game machines have the horsepower to feature human models with the same kinds of signature features, game girls can’t hold a candle to the real thing. Give me that real girl and a freckle or three every time!

Xbox chief Peter Moore is “clarifying” his statements concerning Xbox 360 backwards compatibility. Earlier he made remarks that nobody really cared about this anymore. Well, people got into a big uproar as they often do when someone has the audacity to say something that is either patently false or in this case too true for people to handle. I think Moore was right, no one really cares about backwards compatibility, its only true usefulness is as a marketing tool. Backwards compatibility is the thing that makes it easier to sell our parents, spouses, and significant others on the notion that we should be allowed to spend $600 bucks or more on a new game machine. Oh but look sweet babe, the new box will play all of my old games too, so I can clear some space here in the living room — smootch smootch.

We gamers know darn well that we couldn’t care less about playing those old games, even the ones we haven’t finished, when a shiny new box comes out. But Mr. Moore forgot that you can’t say that in public or else the marketing guys who have to move the boxes get pissed. So now that he’s been to the woodshed, we can all get on with buying that new hardware with a clear conscience!

After a longer absence than I would have liked, I logged on to play Final Fantasy XI last night hoping to find a good party and gain another level or two. Things were pretty quiet in the Valkurm dunes on Shiva last night, but I did, for the very first time in playing FFXI, meet a player who I had actually met in real life. Like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters, I generally try to avoid mixing my online life with my RL, but I had a lot of fun at the FFXI panel at Anime Central so I decided to go ahead and cross the streams. I chatted with him a bit before going off to solo sand hares for a while.

Before long I got a party invite from another warrior which, having no other prospects, I accepted. He was level 21 to my level 20, but I soon discovered that he was probably still relatively new to the game and a relatively young person too. Not having any healers, I figured we would just take it easy on things like the hares and maybe goblin ambushers and muggers. It would be slow, but doable. Unfortunately, my partner il-advisably provoked a damsel fly which tend to be tough for full parties at this level. It didn’t help that I wasn’t being as careful as I usually am soloing. So I bought the farm. That’s when the worshipping began.

Dying wasn’t a big deal to me, but my partner let loose with some serious roleplaying hystrionics, which seemed a bit flirtatious. I was playing my female warrior, and most of the time I don’t get a lot of unprovoked attention, but this was just a bit silly. He didn’t really hit on me, I think, but the emotional scene put on when I later logged out would have turned my face red. Again, I don’t know if it was flirting or not, but I was definitely a goddess on a pedestal for that moment. It makes me wonder a bit how women put up with this in RL, especially from young men as I’m guessing the other player was. I was a little embarrassed (I may be still blushing), but all in all I had a fun session.

I still can hardly believe it, but I was up until 2am battling it out in Final Fantasy XI. I’d been soloing a lot lately, but out in Selbina after a tourism run to Mhaura I realized that I was not going to get any further without some help. Since there were a lot of people milling about in Selbina, I put up my seeking party flag and sat down to wait. It wasn’t long before my warrior Laureta got an invite which I happily accepted. Then it was off to the hidden beach for what turned out to be 4.5 very fun hours of leveling up and honing my battle skills. The time just went by and I still find myself in a euphoric (or is it sleep deprived) state this morning. And all I can think about right now is playing again! If they could cook this stuff into little rocks and sell it on street corners for smoking, it would be illegal! 😀

Since Nintendo announced the new name for its next video game console, there’s been a lot of pissin and moaning from what I guess are the ranks of hardcore gamers on boards like Slashdot and around the blogosphere. That’s expected, I don’t think any console’s official name has met with much enthusiasm. But I think that these people are missing the point. I don’t think the code name “Revolution” was an accident. Nintendo has stated over and over again, that they want to open up the ranks of video game players wider than it has ever been before. Doing that means doing something different, and doing something different usually makes someone unhappy, at least in the short run. Nintendo wants to redefine how people think about games and where they fit into their lives. The naming is just a part of that overall marketing strategy. And since they’re still playing catchup to Sony, what better way to pull off a coup than to redefine the terms of the conflict?

With the naming today, Nintendo has thrown down the gauntlet and is saying louder than ever that they don’t just want the hardcore, they want your mom, who’s playing Bejewelled, too. They want your little sister, and your grandpa too! Sony and Microsoft had better watch out because there’s just a chance that Wii could be the next iPod. It’s probably no accident that World War II, WWII, and Wii are similar. Nintendo will publicly deny that I guess, but it’s pretty obvious to their competitors.

Nintendo has just announced that its new video game console will be called Wii (pronounced like We). Oh boy, I just imagine my kids screaming that right now because I want to too! 🙂 Anyway, with built-in Wi-Fi, backwards compatibility to the GameCube and downloadable classics, plus a sane price, I think I’ll give the Wii and its funky controller a shot. I especially like the idea of being able to consolidate nearly all things Nintendo in one nice little package. All I can say is Wii!!!!!!!! 😉

In my strangely continuing OMG series, I take a what Final Fantasy character are you quiz and am labelled Yuna…LOL I ran across this one while scoping out some of the Final Fantasy XI forums for info on the new expansion. My characters are all pretty low level right now so there really isn’t anything in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion for me. But with the expansion and all of the new Xbox 360 players, it may be easier to get some pick up parties going to gain some levels. So I’m kinda excited about that!

Yes, as I write this, my kids are doing DDR in the kitchen. No, there is no PS2, TV, or dance pads in the kitchen. Yes, they are making it all up in their heads, amazing. I love these times! I love these kids! <3

While metamoderating at Slashdot this morning I ran across a link to IntelligentBlogger’s Top 10 OSS Games You’ve Never Heard Of. Looks interesting, I might try some of these out when I recover from some serious motion sickness induced by last night’s session of Kingdom Hearts! Ugh, I’m hoping I was just tired and not getting too old to play these games. i always thought arthritis would be the thing to stop my game playing, but this motion sickness is just, ugh…

Went back to watch the race just in time for Martin Truex Jr. to wreck after a Tony Stewart induced spin. I guess the 5 second delay wasn’t turned on today because Fox broadcast Truex’s crew chief talking to him after the wreck and he referred to the car set up as “a piece of sh*t.” Announcers apologized for the language, but you can bet letters and fines will likely follow. Though, I don’t see how the chief could be fined for communications that are not intended for the public. Nevertheless, a lot of race fans do listen in both at home and the track. Oh well, that’s Bristol baby. BTW, Tony’s not really the bad guy here, Truex was getting into it with Gordon (from earlier an earlier Gordon induced spin) and Tony was being held up behind this nonsense. I guess Tony had enough. Again, that’s Bristol!

Watching the Bristol race today I just saw a Toyota racing ad in which Daryl Waltrip says that his brother Michael will be driving a Toyota in the upcoming 2007 season. Other drivers mentioned were bleeped out in the ad. This isn’t really a big surprise since Michael Waltrip has formed a team that will field two cars in the upcoming season. But, this is the first mention of it in a promotional spot that I’ve seen. (Actually no surprise at all, here’s the earlier announcement, duh…) Anyway, I can’t wait to see how this all works out. Michael’s not having the greatest season right now, but if he can organize a good team backed by some really great equipment and support from Toyota, he should be a strong contender.

Well off to watch the last 90 or so laps!

Months ago, when Nintendo unveiled the controller for their upcoming Revolution video game console, I was all WTF! The thing looked like a remote control, which Nintendo hoped would lower the barrier to video games that many nongamers feel when confronted by the typical video game controller. But now I think I’ve seen in real life that this may have more legs than conventional wisdom might think.

A few days ago, my TiVo box received a major upgrade that, among other things, included some relatively simple games. The games were controlled using the directional pad and a few buttons on the TiVo remote. The kids and I had a lot of fun with these, my only complaint being that the games ran a little slow, but as betas, I would guess they will get faster with time once they’re optimized. In any case, I had clear empirical evidence that this remote as video game controller could really work. The kids didn’t care one bit that the controller was a remote and everyone in the house knows how to use that. Even WillowBrow, who I don’t think I’ve ever seen with a game controller in her hands, could get into this and with Wordsmith on the TiVo, I’m sure she will eventually.

I can’t help but wonder if games on the TiVo got the green light after all of the buzz Nintendo stirred up with the new Revolution controller. Afterall, if Nintendo thinks games can be controlled with a remote style controller, then there must be something to it. I wonder if someday we’ll see a TiVo box that can play Revolution games!

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that 2K Games has secured the rights to produce a video game based on the Family Guy TV series. The history of movie and TV licensed video games is not great, but I hope they at least have a good Lois mini-game! I like where this is goin’! Giggidy, giggidy, gig-gi-dy!

Except for being sick the whole weekend, I had a lot of fun dragging out, dusting off, firing up the old Sega Saturn. For me the highlight of it all was finally finishing D after 11 years. In the end I cheated a little on the garden puzzle (push the green button for Sagitarius and the light blue button for Aquarius). I felt justified because I finally realized that the Knight Room level is just a cheap time synch. Anyone who has played D knows that you will suffer many many falls into the pit in the Knight Room no matter what you do with the controls. Getting through this level is virtually random. I did it once before years ago, but used up so much time that I ran out. D has a two hour time limit and no saves. Now, 11 years later, I realized that the only reason you’d need to go to the Knight Room is to get the sword to open the Observatory door where you would get the clue to which buttons to press on Sagitarius and Aquarius. Well, I’d already seen that and missed the clue anyway because it was far too simple. So I skipped that nonsense and finally finished the game. Clearly, the true purpose of the Knight Room is to slow the player down, boo! Later I played it through again for the kids because they wanted to see how the story ended and just what D stood for. All in all, I’d say that D was an okay game more interesting for the style than the gameplay which consisted of extremely simple puzzles.

Other old favorites to make an appearance were Virtua Cop and Virtua Cop 2, the reason I wanted a Saturn in the first place, and Virtua Fighter 2. Forget Grand Theft Auto! Capping bad guy asses with a big orange light pistol is a lot more fun! I remember driving all over Chicago before finding a copy of Virtua Cop that included the Stinger light gun which is really the only way to play the game well.

So thanks again Saturn for all of the fun!