Future Thursdays: 3DS, a Sob Story

Helllllooooo, nerds, geeks, Vulcans, dorks, noobs, koopas, ladies, and Bulgarians! Ladies, my phone number is available upon request. Everyone else, stick around; we’ve got important things to discuss.

As you probably know by now, the 3DS is getting a HUGE price cut WAY early in its lifespan. On August 12th, Nintendo is slashing the cost of their latest handheld from a questionable $250 to an unbelievable $170. The system hasn’t even been out for six months! But I think we all knew Nintendo was going to have to do something to ramp up their sales. I mean, Sony sold twice as many PSPs as Nintendo sold 3DS’s last quarter. Twice as many! Who the heck is buying a PSP?! It just goes to show that consumers aren’t idiots (though they are fickle).

But all is not lost for Nintendo fanatics! Those of us that were silly enough to purchase a 3DS already (in my case, on launch day) will be rewarded for our lemming-like zealotry. As long as you go into the online store with your 3DS before August 12th, you’ll be given ten free NES games and ten free GBA games on Virtual Console by the end of the year. That’s twenty free games! The full list has not been revealed yet, but, of those that have been revealed, the most exciting for me is Yoshi’s Island for the GBA. The question is, do twenty free games make up for the feelings of betrayal or anger some early adopters might be feeling? If you have a lot of disposable income, you probably don’t care. Some people that have to scrimp and save for months, however, might be a little ticked off.

Nintendo will be taking a loss on every sale of the 3DS as soon as the price drop hits, which is a big deal for them, as they’re the only major console publisher that usually doesn’t expect to lose money on systems. They’ll be relying solely on pushing games out the door to make a profit, and this strategy may not be very reliable in the current market situation. The 3DS’s lineup isn’t terrible anymore, but it’s not good yet either. When people can just go buy a DS Lite or PSP for much less and get access to a humongous library of awesome games with it, it’s hard not to wonder just what is Nintendo thinking.

All that aside, I predict Nintendo will pull out of this slump and probably be top dog again as soon as they do. The 3DS still has a lot of potential, and I plan on keeping mine until the next model arrives (which, at this rate, may be a lot sooner than we think). The eShop has a ton of great old Game Boy games and Netflix is a huge plus. I still like Street Pass and I’ve recently been enjoying the 3D Pokedex. Now if they could just publish a 3D game I will play for more than a week. Here’s hoping Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked will be as good as its name is long.

Peace out.

Spendsday Wednesdays: Team Fortress 2 FREE on Steam

Welcome back, folks, to Spendsday Wednesdays!

If you haven’t heard, Team Fortress 2 recently became absolutely free on Steam. TF2 is one of the most popular PC games of all time. Period. I’ve never played it because I’ve never had a computer that could run it smoothly. But free is the perfect price! This announcement is just another example of a company contributing to the quickly-growing free-to-play trend that’s been all the rage for the last couple years. With such a huge figure as Valve making these changes, you can bet we are going to see many, many more examples of free-to-play games relatively soon. Some people may be turned off by the micro-transactions that must exist in these games; personally, I still don’t like the idea of buying purely digital content. Nevertheless, I think it’s the right direction to go. Soon enough, we’ll all get over our old biases and wonder how we ever lived any other way (i.e. without the ability to buy funny digital hats for our online avatars).

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and play one of the best games available today. For free. Lamp out.

The Sunday Reflection

Well, so far I haven’t been able to keep up anything on Friday and Saturday, mostly because it’s those two days on which my social life usually occurs. Also, my original plan for Fridays, modern video game reviews, doesn’t seem to interest me that much right now, because, besides Call of Duty, I’m mostly playing a lot of older games at the moment. And you can get reviews for new games practically anywhere. I suggest IGN, GamesRadar, and PC Gamer to get you started. All of this is just to say that I probably will post some modern reviews eventually, but don’t expect them very frequently unless developers start sending me review copies. And they likely won’t be long ordeals either. The Wizardry 8 review took a relatively long amount of time that I can’t see happening often. Expect something more like Yahzee’s Zero Punctuation reviews rather than GameSpot’s. Not many modern games interest me, and paying 60 bucks at  the launch of a new game is impossible for my current budget. Not to mention, the time it takes to complete a new game is anywhere from 10 to 100+ hours, and I am only one very poor man.

What I can tell you is that the surprise I hinted at a week ago is still on the way, and I will let you know as soon as it is official. I’m expecting news about it tomorrow or the next day.

What I’d like to use Sundays for is a more casual reflection on what I’m playing, what I’m currently into, what’s going on in my life, and whatever else comes into my mind. I naturally tend to write in this free-association style, and it’s both informative (for you) and therapeutic (for me). So let’s dive right in, shall we?

The past week I’ve been playing a lot of games from GoG.com. Most notable are The Last Express, The Longest Journey, Duke Nukem 3D, Baldur’s Gate, and Fallout. I hope to have a review of The Last Express up soon. I’m very excited about the game and it’s relatively short, a fact I always admire in a correctly priced game. I’m also still playing Pokemon White to an extent, but I’m getting burnt out on Victory Road, which I imagine is a pretty common occurrence. CODBLOPS is still fun for me when I’m not getting completely destroyed by people with better connections. I was finally able to download the latest update for the game after hooking my father’s network cable up to my PS3. For some reason the updates were just not happening with the WiFi, and I’ve heard similar stories from other people online. If only Sony could just make their system work all the time, then I wouldn’t even bother considering to buy a 360, no matter how much I yearn to play the upcoming Halo remake and Halo 4.

I’m still working on my Zedruu commander deck as well, and I think it is shaping up nicely. There are a lot of cards I don’t own that would make the deck considerably better, but that’s the fun of casual formats. Not everyone has to have every top-tier card. I’ve got my Sensei’s Divining Top and my Zedruu and my Sol Ring, and that’s all that matters. Killing someone with my Bronze Bombshell or Transcendence for the first time is still going to be fantastic fun.

I’ve been reading Matt Barton’s book, Dungeons and Desktops, for about a week now, and I find that it is a mostly adequate and accurate history of CRPGs. I started to get bored about half way through, I admit, and skimmed over the rest. To my surprise and shock, there is almost no mention of Wizardry 8. The only reference to the game is half a sentence at the end of the section covering Wizardry 7. It wouldn’t be such a problem for me if he hadn’t paid so much attention to worse, more obscure titles than Wizardry 8. It just wasn’t given its due in my mind. I was disappointed after discovering this fact and probably will return the book to my library unfinished. It is still a wonderfully informative book, though, and anyone who has even the slightest interest in role-playing games should look it up. Matt Barton has definitely done his homework in almost every regard.

As for movies, I haven’t been able to see a new one in quite some time. Despite the negative reviews, I still would like to see Green Lantern, but I won’t be shelling out nine dollars any time soon. X-Men looks good, but what I’m really excited for is Super 8. Harry Potter, of course, is a must-see, and I should have my ticket soon. If you don’t plan on going to the midnight release in your area yet, I highly, highly, HIGHLY encourage you to do so. The last movie marks the end of an era (almost as long as the time it took Duke Nukem Forever to come out) and you won’t get another chance at something like this for a long, long time.

(this trailer gives me chills every time I watch it)

And that’s pretty much all I’ve been up to for now. I have an interview with a store I’m very interested in tomorrow and I’m looking more closely at apartments. One in particular in downtown Iowa City looks like a good idea but nothing is official yet, and nothing will be until I have a job to take over from my work/study gig.

Lamp out.

Future Thursdays: Potterzork

Pottermore.com. What’s this? It’s J.K. Rowling’s new website, put up in conjunction with Sony.

What does this have to do with games? You might be surprised. Go to the site, send your email address, and watch Rowling’s video. Don’t fret if your email address doesn’t go through right now; it’s happening to everyone. Just go to the site. It’s okay, I’ll wait. Done? Good.

To me, Rowling’s new pet project and money vacuum sounds suspiciously like one of the multi-user dungeons, or MUDs, of yore. From what I can gather, it’s got more in common with Zork than any major release put out by Sony, which just tickles the hell out of me.

Obviously, no one knows exactly what this is yet, but I promise that, if I am one of the lucky few that gets in early, I’ll be sure to bring you all the details (barring a magical bond of secrecy).

For now, I’m excited to find out just how interactive the site is, and, of course, I’m drooling to learn about the secrets of the HP universe Rowling is teasing.

We’ll just have to wait and see. Have fun speculating (we all know that’s what Harry Potter fans love to do the most). POTTERZORK will be coming to a terminal near you soon. Thanks for reading another issue of Future Thursdays. Want to get your opinions out RIGHT NOW? Leave a comment or send me an email.

Lamp out.

Spendsday Wednesdays

‘Sup, homeys (I have fun starting off articles in new, quirky ways if you couldn’t tell).

Welcome to another Spendsday Wednesday! Where I bring you information on the best game deals I’ve noticed during the past week so your favorite hobby won’t break your bank (like it does mine).

I mentioned this particular deal yesterday in Newsday Tuesdays, but this one is so cool I think it bears repeating. One of my favorite retro game sites, Good Old Games, is having one of their biggest sales ever. Instead of their regular Weekend Promos (which you should also take advantage of in the future) they are employing “Staycation.” If you don’t know what a staycation is, it basically means that those of us who are poor and can’t afford real vacations have to content ourselves with staying at home playing video games with fantastic imaginary worlds. And now you can do it for less than the price of one meal! From now until July 4th, the Staycation deals will keep coming.

The first promo is pretty awesome, I must say; 50% off all Interplay titles. You know what that means?! All three original Fallout games for less than $10 (some of the best CRPGs ever made)! And that’s not all. Battle Chess. MDK 1 and 2. Earthworm Jim 1, 2, & 3D. And many more. There’s something in this package for every kind of gamer, and I love it. I took advantage of the deal myself and got the three Fallout games along with Arcanum and Planescape: Torment (I had been eyeing those two for far too long). I’ve never played any of them before, and I love having them online where I’ll never lose them and will be able to download them from anywhere. I can’t wait to see what GoG does next, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted about all the best new deals coming down the pike.

Until next time, stay cheap. Lamp out.

Spendsday Wednesdays

By the middle of the week I’m usually looking for something new to play or at least wishing that I had more games. So I think the purpose of Wednesdays will be to bring you some of the better game deals I discover every week.

This week it should be pretty apparent that I’ve been getting into more of the classics. Recently, my journeys into dusty old computer games have led me to a hidden gem called AGD Interactive.

What is AGD Interactive? Read this excerpt from their website to find out:

“Anonymous Game Developers Interactive, AGDI for short, is a group of highly motivated individuals determined to revive the adventure game genre. Our aim is to remake classic Sierra On-Line adventure games, enhance them to modern standards, and then offer them as free downloads. We believe that adventure games must not be forgotten, and this is our attempt to keep the classics alive in a gaming market that is presently dominated by first person shooter and arcade shooter games.

AGDI has the drive, talent, project management skills, and motivation to accomplish what we set out to do. We take our work seriously and believe that teamwork, willpower, and motivation are the three most important keys to success. The proof of our claims? In the time of a few short years AGDI has released three highly successful remakes and is now working on our most anticipated project yet. Visit our Games page to find out what all the hype is about.

However, it is not only by remaking classics that the adventure game genre will be revived. We have also formed a commercial adventure games company called Himalaya Studios. If you enjoy our remakes, please consider purchasing our commercial title “Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine” as a show of support.”

I have downloaded all four free titles currently on their games page http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html and they are a real treat. Three of them are remakes of the first three King’s Quest games from Sierra and the fourth is a remake of the second installment of the Quest for Glory series from the same company. Sierra created some of the greatest adventure games ever made with their Police Quest, Space Quest, and King’s Quest series, and now that some of them have been remade you can experience them with updated graphics, a more intuitive point-and-click interface, and, in the case of the three King’s Quest titles, full voice acting for the narrator and all the characters.

I haven’t played their commercial games yet but I can only imagine they are made with the same high quality, care, and creativity their remakes are.

If you’re looking for great games at great prices this week, I suggest letting AGD Interactive take you into bygone fantasy worlds where you’ll need all your wits to survive and succeed.

This week, all you need to do to pick up the lamp is click on it. See you next time.