exis's Blogs

act one

I'm going to begin by reposting some stuff from a short-lived blog elsewhere. This seems a better place to host a blog that is predominantly about games anyhow. Sorry if this is a bit mangled, but it was originally three seperate posts which I'm combining to avoid flooding the front page, at admin request. So I'm sorry if this is slightly difficult to read, I'll make an effort to be more coherent in future.

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I just bought a second-hand PSP. Only hours after winning the auction, I was feeling some pretty epic buyers remorse. The thing is, the only reason I even started looking at PSP’s was because I heard the virtues of homebrew being touted. I’m very easily caught up in hype. Apparently, even for a system that was released five years ago. So I had a poke around, saw that I could get a sexy white PSP slim with custom firmware already loaded, for $250, and jumped. Now I’m thinking $250 might have been a little steep. I probably would have done well to shop around more. That combined with the fact that I’ve just blown anything $40 on an extra memory stick and reader/writer (which is kind of important), and I’m out $300 for something I had no intention of putting money down on two days ago.

Damn.

Well, as per usual, I justify it to myself in terms of AAA games at full retail. That’s only three games worth of cash, not so bad for a system that I’ll get a fair bit of play out of, right? … right? I’d look lamentingly at my lonely DS right about now, but I’m not sure exactly where it is. The funny thing is, despite commentators in the game industry trashing the PSP game library and lauding the DS’s, I find myself more drawn to titles on Sony’s handheld. Crisis Core, God of War, Wipeout Pure, Patapon, LocoRoco. And uh, well that’s about it for now. To be fair, if I actually get into Final Fantasy, hours utilized / dollar ratio will probably be pretty damn decent. Can’t be worse than what I got out of the DS…

My PSP arrived yesterday morning. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to play with it before my Algorithms & AI exam lastnight. But since this mornings exam was only Epistemology & Metaphysics – a subject so easy to bullsh*t your way through that the exam wasn’t much more than an exercise in creative writing – I spent a good chunk of lastnight filling my PSP up with delicious history.

I find it slightly amusing that my progress in techno-geekery seems to be matched by an eerily mirrored regress. I put about $2500 into latest gen gaming hardware last year, ignoring money spent on software. I’m always pushing, almost involuntarily, to keep myself on the cusp of new titles, often resulting in a low bank balance and equally low satisfaction. I read large volumes of content describing games and technology that are months, or maybe years from releasing. Yet at the same time I’m finding myself drawn to classics which I never enjoyed. I almost feel obligated, like if I don’t consume these little pieces of nostalgia then my outlook will be forever tainted by my ignorance. There are parts of gaming history which seem to be considered a necessary portion of any gamers education. And dammit, I need to know what all the fuss was about.

The upshot of this is via emulation, I’ve rediscovered Sonic 2. I was always a little afraid of returning to Sonic 2, and finding that my view of it was entirely determined by nostalgia. If that were the case, I would rather never play it again. The memories represent too rich, too perfect an experience for me to risk marring.

I had no need to fear. The short time I spent with this lastnight was enough to convince me completely, that I could play this, and nothing else, on my new purchase, and still feel I had made a sound investment, in a thing of great value. Surely that will pass, but what it implies for the future of this console is terrifyingly exciting. If I can relive this sort of glee once every few months, this will have been worth my money several times over.

The E3 Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer was absolutely amazing. Now, I know not to expect this to be representative of gameplay. I was similarly impressed by the final Warhammer: Age of Reckoning trailer, enough so that it propelled me from “hmm”, directly into “f**k yeah Warhammer!”. But even then I was well aware that I was watching a pre-rendered CGI video that was created exactly for people in my position. That it made me want to go out and buy the game should be no surprise.

There’s been a bit of harping on message boards about how we shouldn’t be excited by trailers of this sort, where ‘this sort’ describes those entirely devoid of demo’d gameplay. While I do think we should reserve judgement and keep our wallets in our pockets, what they represent excites me. Whether or not Bioware is going to deliver the goods in terms of a compelling gameplay experience is really not something we can debate right now. The reason I think trailers like this are worth paying attention to is because they show what the developers want the game to be. And seeing that in this case, what they want the game to be is f**king awesome, I think we have the right to be excited.

We’re still a long way out, and Bioware has a stellar reputation. I will be watching this space with great anticipation.

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On 3 July 2009, 03:49PM Posted by Xenojay

I'm not sure which part to comment on, but it seemed pretty good.

Emulation, ahhh, a taboo subject to out yourself on, on the Interwebs (The interwebs is watching yoooou), but yes, it opens up opportunities to those that have never experienced the classics like the aforementioned Chrono Trigger once more (Yet, with such example, you must consider that they've re-released it for the DS, so they know it's market still exists).

As for trailers, it's like a movie isn't it. They have to sell you the product. Personally, the ACII trailer was amazing, but it wa the gameplay that won me over, so I agree that the Old Republic trailer was other-worldly (Pun intended) but I look forward to seeing how the actual gameplay it.

Nice little blog :)

 

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On 3 July 2009, 04:02PM Posted by exis

Thanks for the comment :)

Emulation is definitely a touchy subject, and I'll try and avoid getting into it too much :P

Like you said, game trailers are a lot like movie trailers. A compelling trailer is as much a testament to the skill of the group that put it together as it is to the game or movie it's showing. The SW:TOR trailer was created by Blur, an animation studio completely separate to Bioware. So while it is awesome, and pretty exciting to see what these guys imagination has come up with, there's no question that it's completely removed from the team taking care of the gameplay.

Like all hype-media, this stuff should be taken with a gigantic spoonful of salt. But I think it's definitely worked in that a lot of people now have TOR on their radar, and want to check out the gameplay.

 

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On 3 July 2009, 10:02PM Posted by Shuyin

Emulation does seem to be quite a touchy subject tho it is very easy. especially the ds

 

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On 3 July 2009, 10:46PM Posted by Srassy

Excellent blog writing here! Keep up the good work man!

Ah, emulation. I used to be a major pirate until I saw some awesome collections and developed my own collector mindset. Now I actually own some games and have no cash.

 

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On 5 July 2009, 10:44PM Posted by joshklaz

Haha, you think you felt bad about the money used buying a PSP? I just bought a PS3.

Don't regret it though.

 

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On 5 July 2009, 11:06PM Posted by exis

Reply to joshklaz 5 July 2009, 10:44PM
Haha, you think you felt bad about the money used buying a PSP? I just bought a PS3. Don't regret it though.

I don't :). I had a few 360 games I was planning on getting through these holidays, but I've spent most of my game time on my PSP instead. God of War is awesome, btw :D

 

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On 6 July 2009, 12:31PM Posted by Barnicals

Warhammer, good ol' Warhammer. That used to be my vice, before I got my Gamecube, way back when.

I think it's a great market, the Games Workshop fanbase. Don't know why they don't put out more of that stuff for PS3 etc.

*rantout*

 

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On 7 July 2009, 02:25PM Posted by Rapidity

Good blog, used to have a few emulator's on my pc but no longer I've seen the errors of my ways.

Emulators are legal though aren't they? Its the roms that are the problem.

 

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On 7 July 2009, 03:20PM Posted by joshklaz

Reply to exis 5 July 2009, 11:06PM
I don't :). I had a few 360 games I was planning on getting through these holidays, but I've spent most of my game time on my PSP instead. God of War is awesome, btw :D

Yes, it is a great game. Short though.

 

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On 7 July 2009, 04:56PM Posted by rebolta

Good blog.....

 

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On 7 July 2009, 11:06PM Posted by Ruptunex

I thought the Star Wars trailer was pretty naff. It was just like any other star wars stuff.

 

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On 26 July 2009, 08:39PM Posted by simcharles

Seems you have a compulsive disorder when buying games...