I'm embargoed from talking about Dead Space until Monday,* which is a shame, because there's a lot I would like to say about it. And while I'd like to continue to bore you with the details of my unstoppable rise to drumming dominance in Rock Band 2, I've probably beaten that drum to death, too.
(Okay, quick digression: I'm working my way up the challenge mode on hard difficulty. I can't believe it, but after the first three tiers, I'm starting to feel downright proficient. Syncopation isn't taking me by surprise. Relatively fast rolls on the snare are nothing. I see every reason to be overconfident at this point. "Painkiller," here I come!)
So instead of all that, how about a brief link dump?
-This is why it's good to check your referrer logs. I had a couple of hits in there from a site called PixelVixen707, which I highly recommend you check out. Rachel's newly posted review of Fracture is much more entertaining than it sounds like the game was. Great stuff.
-Mike Walbridge has been on a tear lately. His write-up of Mega Man 9 is an insightful look at the game that makes a few points I haven't seen elsewhere. Mike argues that MM9 is much more forward-looking than anybody gives it credit for. I can't disagree, and yet it was the retro elements that were responsible both for what I liked and what I disliked about the game. (My review should be up shortly.)
-Hit Self-Destruct may often qualify as "brilliant," such as in this post about whether Hideo Kojima needs an editor. I was disappointed to learn that Insult Swordfighting shows up on the second page of Google results for the phrase "Kojima needs an editor." Here's hoping this post boosts my ranking!
-Iroquois Pliskin wrote a nice look at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Sometimes there's an advantage in reviewing a game well after its release, because you're not swept up in the excitement of its newness. You can talk about what really interests you without feeling the pressure to condense the entire game into one easily digestable paragraph. (By the way, I thought my own post about Call of Duty 4 made some similar points.)
*Is "embargoed from" accurate? I don't have any idea what the proper usage is here.
Showing posts with label Links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Links. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday afternoon tidbits
Rest well: It's Labor Day! We'll all miss summer, but there are a lot of games to look forward to this fall. To start your long weekend, here are some of the most interesting things I read this week.
-Game Boy "De-Makes": What if you ported today's biggest games onto the original Game Boy hardware? The results might look a little something like this. (Thanks, Jim.)
-You have to read Chris Dahlen's interview with Jonathan Blow in the A.V. Club. Blow is such a fascinating guy. I guess he rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but I think with Braid he's earned the benefit of the doubt. When I read interviews with him, I get the impression that he really has sat down and thought about everything he's talking about. And I think it bothers him that other people don't do the same.
(Also, I'm terrified as to who Blow was targeting with this quote: "By which I mean, there are lots of random blog posters on places like Gamespot or NeoGAF or whatever who show a clearer understanding of the game than people who are all, “I’m all about games, and narrative and meaning, and I write a blog just to tell you about how I analyze all these things.” Those people have the same hit rate as your general forum poster.")
-Speaking of interviews, you may remember that Mike Walbridge interviewed me awhile ago for a piece he was working on for GameSetWatch. At his personal blog, he's posted a longer entry about that interview and others. My suspicions have been confirmed: I am a boring conversationalist. That's why I write!
-Bill Harris wonders what's up with 1up.com's review scores. I don't know why I thought they were one of the tougher graders out there -- maybe because they do such a good job with features -- but it turns out they're the most lax! I thought IGN had that honor. Also surprising is that Gamespot is the toughest reviewer of the biggest sites, particularly given Gerstmann-gate.
-Tom Chick lists the 10 most ridiculous lines of dialogue from Too Human. Although you could pick any 10 lines at random from the game and it would be equally silly.
-Game Boy "De-Makes": What if you ported today's biggest games onto the original Game Boy hardware? The results might look a little something like this. (Thanks, Jim.)
-You have to read Chris Dahlen's interview with Jonathan Blow in the A.V. Club. Blow is such a fascinating guy. I guess he rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but I think with Braid he's earned the benefit of the doubt. When I read interviews with him, I get the impression that he really has sat down and thought about everything he's talking about. And I think it bothers him that other people don't do the same.
(Also, I'm terrified as to who Blow was targeting with this quote: "By which I mean, there are lots of random blog posters on places like Gamespot or NeoGAF or whatever who show a clearer understanding of the game than people who are all, “I’m all about games, and narrative and meaning, and I write a blog just to tell you about how I analyze all these things.” Those people have the same hit rate as your general forum poster.")
-Speaking of interviews, you may remember that Mike Walbridge interviewed me awhile ago for a piece he was working on for GameSetWatch. At his personal blog, he's posted a longer entry about that interview and others. My suspicions have been confirmed: I am a boring conversationalist. That's why I write!
-Bill Harris wonders what's up with 1up.com's review scores. I don't know why I thought they were one of the tougher graders out there -- maybe because they do such a good job with features -- but it turns out they're the most lax! I thought IGN had that honor. Also surprising is that Gamespot is the toughest reviewer of the biggest sites, particularly given Gerstmann-gate.
-Tom Chick lists the 10 most ridiculous lines of dialogue from Too Human. Although you could pick any 10 lines at random from the game and it would be equally silly.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
A link to the present
A little link love for a post-E3 week:
-If you're not reading Jeremy Parish's 25-part celebration of the Famicom's 25th anniversary, you should be. Nobody does retro reporting so well.
-Stephen Totilo has the definitive take on Nintendo's E3 performance, which was poorly received in hardcore quarters (hardquarters?). To me, this is just another example of the uselessness of these shows in general, but now that the backlash has started against E3 critics, maybe I'll just shut my big mouth.
-Then again, if you still agree that E3 is a waste of space, maybe you'd like Magical Wasteland's take. It didn't have to be this way, says Matthew.
-Matthew Gallant takes a look at bloom disasters. Bloom can be quite pretty, but a little goes a long way. I remember finding myself squinting at Tomb Raider Anniversary, wondering if the settings on my TV were wrong.
-Tommy Tallarico drops by Cruise Elroy to discuss "real music" vs. "video game music." Besides presenting an interesting look at game audio (as Dan Bruno always provides), this is also proof positive that any time you mention anybody on the Internet, they will respond within 24 hours. Even if, as has been this case on this blog a few times, your traffic qualifies you to be little more than an ant under their shoes.
-Giant Bomb launched. Whether the world needs another straight-up news and reviews site, I don't know, but it's hard not to root for Gerstmann and friends after all they've been through.
-I try not to read reviews of games I'll be covering, but when I read Gamers with Jobs' review of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, I didn't yet know that I'd be reviewing it myself. Unfortunately for me, Sean Sands' take is just about perfect.
-If you're not reading Jeremy Parish's 25-part celebration of the Famicom's 25th anniversary, you should be. Nobody does retro reporting so well.
-Stephen Totilo has the definitive take on Nintendo's E3 performance, which was poorly received in hardcore quarters (hardquarters?). To me, this is just another example of the uselessness of these shows in general, but now that the backlash has started against E3 critics, maybe I'll just shut my big mouth.
-Then again, if you still agree that E3 is a waste of space, maybe you'd like Magical Wasteland's take. It didn't have to be this way, says Matthew.
-Matthew Gallant takes a look at bloom disasters. Bloom can be quite pretty, but a little goes a long way. I remember finding myself squinting at Tomb Raider Anniversary, wondering if the settings on my TV were wrong.
-Tommy Tallarico drops by Cruise Elroy to discuss "real music" vs. "video game music." Besides presenting an interesting look at game audio (as Dan Bruno always provides), this is also proof positive that any time you mention anybody on the Internet, they will respond within 24 hours. Even if, as has been this case on this blog a few times, your traffic qualifies you to be little more than an ant under their shoes.
-Giant Bomb launched. Whether the world needs another straight-up news and reviews site, I don't know, but it's hard not to root for Gerstmann and friends after all they've been through.
-I try not to read reviews of games I'll be covering, but when I read Gamers with Jobs' review of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, I didn't yet know that I'd be reviewing it myself. Unfortunately for me, Sean Sands' take is just about perfect.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Friday links
Still hard at work on that piece for the Phoenix, so it's been tough to devote full-time energy to blogging this week. But I've read some interesting stuff that's too good not to share.
-If you want your brain broken, Dan Bruno at Cruise Elroy is writing a multi-part thesis on the music in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is an insightful, illuminating series that shows how many different ways there are to go about analyzing games. And it shows how important it is to learn about things besides video games as a way of actually increasing your ability to enjoy games. Very cool.
-The Brainy Gamer is putting together a syllabus for a course on electronic RPGs. Although it's a bit past time to enter your own suggestions, I highly recommend reading the comments thread on the original post. As someone whose experience with RPGs is limited to the Final Fantasy series, with one detour into Chrono Trigger, I was amazed at the breadth of the genre, and by the passion of the commenters for their favorites. Someday, when I'm independently wealthy and retired, I'm gonna play Planescape: Torment.
-This week marked Leigh Alexander's debut as Kotaku's associate news editor. Her first piece was a look at the strife surrounding the EA-Take-Two merger. It's nice to see this kind of long-form, hard news on a game site. It's the kind of thing you might occasionally see in the Times or the Post, but it makes sense that a site like Kotaku should be leading the pack here. I'll look forward to more of this. Also, other people doing real journalism means I can continue never leaving my house.
-Apropos of the question of race in games, Matthew Gallant is posting an essay about race and rock 'n' roll in the 1950s. It's always easier to see this stuff as an historical artifact, but there's a lot of relevance to today's culture. 50 years is not a long time.
-Bill Harris on how the Resident Evil 5 trailer should have been done.
-Magical Wasteland feels sympathy for games writers. Part of what makes blogging great is that you're not beholden to publishers or PR folks. And I can't say how grateful I am to be reviewing games for a publication like the Phoenix, which doesn't depend on ads from game companies and therefore gives me wide latitude to bash a game if I need to. On the other hand, I certainly don't have any "access, favor, or discretion," to borrow from Deadspin. The guys at Gamespot and IGN must be walking a tightrope at all times -- Matt Cassamassina needs those chummy Perrin Kaplan interviews. I also nearly jumped at a chance to apply for one of those Gamespot positions recently, before I realized that I didn't want to work 60-hour weeks. One game a week is all right with me.
-Not games related, but I've been reading Parallel Worlds
by Michio Kaku, and it's alternately thrilling and terrifying. The universe (multiverse?) is a strange, strange place.
-If you want your brain broken, Dan Bruno at Cruise Elroy is writing a multi-part thesis on the music in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is an insightful, illuminating series that shows how many different ways there are to go about analyzing games. And it shows how important it is to learn about things besides video games as a way of actually increasing your ability to enjoy games. Very cool.
-The Brainy Gamer is putting together a syllabus for a course on electronic RPGs. Although it's a bit past time to enter your own suggestions, I highly recommend reading the comments thread on the original post. As someone whose experience with RPGs is limited to the Final Fantasy series, with one detour into Chrono Trigger, I was amazed at the breadth of the genre, and by the passion of the commenters for their favorites. Someday, when I'm independently wealthy and retired, I'm gonna play Planescape: Torment.
-This week marked Leigh Alexander's debut as Kotaku's associate news editor. Her first piece was a look at the strife surrounding the EA-Take-Two merger. It's nice to see this kind of long-form, hard news on a game site. It's the kind of thing you might occasionally see in the Times or the Post, but it makes sense that a site like Kotaku should be leading the pack here. I'll look forward to more of this. Also, other people doing real journalism means I can continue never leaving my house.
-Apropos of the question of race in games, Matthew Gallant is posting an essay about race and rock 'n' roll in the 1950s. It's always easier to see this stuff as an historical artifact, but there's a lot of relevance to today's culture. 50 years is not a long time.
-Bill Harris on how the Resident Evil 5 trailer should have been done.
-Magical Wasteland feels sympathy for games writers. Part of what makes blogging great is that you're not beholden to publishers or PR folks. And I can't say how grateful I am to be reviewing games for a publication like the Phoenix, which doesn't depend on ads from game companies and therefore gives me wide latitude to bash a game if I need to. On the other hand, I certainly don't have any "access, favor, or discretion," to borrow from Deadspin. The guys at Gamespot and IGN must be walking a tightrope at all times -- Matt Cassamassina needs those chummy Perrin Kaplan interviews. I also nearly jumped at a chance to apply for one of those Gamespot positions recently, before I realized that I didn't want to work 60-hour weeks. One game a week is all right with me.
-Not games related, but I've been reading Parallel Worlds
by Michio Kaku, and it's alternately thrilling and terrifying. The universe (multiverse?) is a strange, strange place.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)