Category Archives: Long Read
Columns and long-form posts
7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Super Mario Galaxy
There are few series in gaming that are as iconic and as loved as Nintendo’s Super Mario series. Despite the fact that Mario has been around for over 30 years, Nintendo has this way of reinventing Mario and the Super Mario series with each new console generation. The result is games that bring new gamers into Nintendo and Mario while still giving fans who have played Mario games for their whole lives something to love.
For the industry shaking Wii console, Nintendo took Mario to the one place he’d never been before: The final frontier. Not only did Mario’s first adventure in outer space prove to be a smash hit, at release, it was considered one of the best Wii and platformer games of all-time.
Share this:
Gaming Needs a Second Showcase Event
Having taken some time to think about it, while the awards portion of VGX might be unsalvageable without a major overhaul, the concept, in its current form, still has some merit. The emphasis the former Video Game Awards put on unveiling new games and new game footage and trailers were a major draw for gamers.
Inadvertently, the format of the VGAs/VGX shows that there is demand for more big showcase events that publishers and developers can use to show off their next big thing to an audience always willing to get excited over the next great game.
Share this:
VGX 2013 News and Trailer Roundup
For all of Geoff Keighley’s pre-event hype, it sure sounds like the whole awards aspect of VGX didn’t change. According to the /r/Games live thread, seven awards were handed out during the show of VGX’s 23 total awards. At least it sounds like celebrities weren’t paraded out to promote their own stuff though it did sound like host Joel McHale was very much annoyed that he was forced to spend the whole show reading from a teleprompter verbatim.
Apart from the handful of awards and McHale doing nothing to hide the fact that he didn’t have anything to do with the jokes during the show, there was a bunch of news and announcements from the show. It’s almost like a mini convention based on the importance that publishers put on the show for making news with big announcements. So here’s a roundup of the news and trailers from VGX.
Share this:
Upcoming YouTube Changes Could Hurt Your Favourite Channels
Very quietly, YouTube is making some behind-the-scenes changes with their monetization changes for channels affiliated with networks. Currently, the big advantage of being a YouTuber signed with a multi-channel network (MCN) is that you can upload your videos and monetize it instantly without having to go through any checks, or audits as they’re known to YouTubers, for unauthorized copyrighted content while getting more revenue through network sold ads. The trade-off is that those channels give up a portion of their add revenue to the network for that benefit.
YouTube has quietly announced that they are changing the current monetization rules for MCNs come January. Now, MCNs have to add a designation to channels to determine whether they will get the instant monetization or whether they’ll have to go through the auditing process just like every other unaffiliated channel on YouTube.
Share this:
7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Mass Effect Trilogy
Last week, when talking about Skyrim, I mentioned that a number of games outside the RPG genre incorporated elements of RPGs into their games. These included things like skill points, customization, inventory systems, questing, deep stories, dialogue tree and more of the classic RPG tricks.
This week’s entry into the 7 Best may have started life as being a bit more of an RPG than a third-person shooter but evolved into a third-person shooter that retained the strong influence of RPGs. Of course, if I boiled down the Mass Effect Trilogy to a series of gameplay mechanics and the evolution of the mechanics, I’d be missing the whole point of the franchise. Mass Effect’s strong suit and its claim to fame is the story.
Share this:
2013 VGX Nominations And Predictions
I have an annual tradition over on my other blog, The Lowdown Blog, which involves me going through the annual Spike TV Video Game Award nominees and predicting the winners and telling you who I would vote for if I had a ballot. Since the now-rechristened VGX awards are only online, I was considering dropping the whole thing but who am I to argue with tradition?
While I’m not a fan of the VGX format of shameless promotion interrupted by the occasional award and burning through 80% of the awards either in a big list before a commercial or a big list when announcing that a given game won another award, it is probably the most mainstream of award shows (even if it’s been pulled from TV) so it’s probably worth giving a bit of attention to.
So let’s take a look at the 2013 group of VGX nominees and pick out some winners intermixed with a few rants about this awards show.
Share this:
7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
If there’s one genre of games that seemed to take of the last generation of consoles, it was the role-playing game. The RPG genre has been around for almost as long as video games thanks to the popularity of the pen-and-paper RPGs, like Dungeons and Dragons. It was really this generation that saw the proliferation of RPGs and the incorporation of RPG elements into a number of games in other genres.
At the top of the class in this generation is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The fifth entry into Bethesda’s hit action RPG series re-set the bar for Western RPGs thanks to gorgeous graphics, a spectacular soundtrack and seemingly limitless gameplay throughout the open world of Skyrim.
Share this:
7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Rock Band
When people think up games for lists such as out 7 best games of the 7th generation (or 7 For 7 for short), they think of game of the year winners or critically acclaimed blockbusters. But how many of these lists include games that were just wildly popular and genre redefining?
Rock Band was probably never really in contention for a major game of the year award but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a big game for the current console generation. The mark of a game being among the best isn’t just what the critics think but what the gamers think. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone who didn’t love playing Rock Band.
Share this:
Hype Train: Xbox One
Another week, another console launch and another trip aboard the hype train to look at the final of the three next-gen home consoles. This time, it’s Microsoft’s effort at a new console with the Xbox One.
Unlike Sony whose PlayStation 4 is trying to be a thoroughbred gaming machine, the Xbox One is aiming to be an all-in-one box for the living room thanks to TV integration, apps, Smart Glass, Kinect, a Blu-Ray player and the occasional ability to play a game.
Share this:
7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Uncharted 2: Among Theives
As the current console generation went on, games increasingly tried to be like interactive movies. The goal seemed to be to recreate the Hollywood experience but with you playing the starring role using a controller. While one could argue that Heavy Rain may have gotten the closest, no game captured the fun of the summer blockbuster while releasing a solid game quite like Naughty Dog.
Since today marks both the launch of the PlayStation 4 and our 7 For 7 series, I thought that it was only appropriate to kick off with the epic PlayStation 3 exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
et geekera 