Virtual Adept

Sony’s supposedly 100% fully backwards compatible Playstation 3 is actually somewhat short of that mark. The BBC is reporting that at least 200 or so games from Sony’s previous systems are not fully compatible with the PS3. While this is still quite a bit better compatibility than the Xbox 360 is with the original Xbox, it does show the difference between how Microsoft handles the press and Sony. Microsoft just comes out and says which games work, assuming that none do, while Sony lies that they are 100% compatible and then leaves it up to the gamers to find which games won’t work after the launch. Now, presumably Sony has a plan for making all of these glitches go away, but as for now, you may have trouble with some of the most popular games on the platforms such as:SOCOM series
Final Fantasy Anthology, Origins, Chronicles, XIII, IX, XI
Guitar Hero controller not working
Need for Speed series
Metal Gear Solid series
DDR games mats not compatible
Burnout 3 Takedown
Devil May Cry series
Onimusha series
ICO
Chrono Cross

Sony has an online database where you can check the status of your older games here. However, many gamers are reporting that that database is not entirely accurate. With the vast number of titles to check, it’s actually no big surprise that the database is not complete yet.

I think I may have already mentioned this before, but in case I didn’t, Rockstar’s latest controversial and most excellently fun video game for the Playstation 2 called Bully, about a wayward boy in a prep school, allows the main character you play to engage in kissing of other boys. Now Joystiq is reporting that the mainstream press has finally gotten wind of this, and of course, it is generating lots of controversy. The ESRB has already stated that they knew about this when they gave the game its “T” for Teen rating. The Joystiq writer makes a good point that Rockstar played this fantastically - it’s a highly controversial topic that is sure to generate sales, but anyone who publicly comes out against it ends up looking like a douche. Of course, our favorite lawyer, Jack Thompson, has already made himself look like a douche.

First, a little background into this story. Most of you probably know about the infamous “Hot Coffee Mod” in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was a hidden x-rated sex mini-game built into the initial version of the game that shipped for PS2, Xbox, and PC. You could only get to this mini-game if you used a cheat tool like GameShark to enter codes to unlock it (or for the PC, download a “mod” patch to unlock it). However, this was, of course, found, and released by some clever little deviants out there on the big bad internets.

Enter the ESRB, who, in a horrible decision which will no doubt have unfavorable repurcusions on the mod-ability of future games, under media pressure decided to re-rate GTASA from being M rated to be AO rated. The difference between an M rating, which means “Mature”, for ages 17+, and the AO rating, which means “Adults Only”, for ages 18+, seems to be only one year. But the real difference is that AO games are reserved for softcore porn software, while games with a lot of violence but no sex always get an M rating. Due to the hypocrisy of American culture, where we’d rather let our kids see people killing each other rather than making love, an AO rating is a death sentence in the retail market. Wal-Mart will not carry an AO rated title, and neither will most other major retailers. All of this would have been justifiable if the sex mini-game in GTASA was part of the game, but it was not. It was never intended for release, and could only be accessed via a mod or hack.

By making a decision to re-rate a game based on a mod, the ESRB has opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box, where now any game can be re-rated to AO because someone decides to mod it. Elmo’s Playhouse could get modded to Elmo’s Penthouse by some sick and twisted internet freak, and the ESRB could decide to re-rate the game. Would they? Probably not, but they are using this new power they’ve given themselves irresponsibly and at their own whim. Game makers are at the ESRB’s mercy now, because they can get screwed out of the profits for their game after it hits the shelves due to no fault of their own. This has already happened, to Bethesda’s Oblivion, which got re-rated from a T for “Teen” rating to M for “Mature” based on someone doing a mod that took the clothes off off NPCs in the game.

Now enter the villain and comedic relief of this grim fairy tale, Jack Thompson. Thompson is a media whore, and he also happens to be a lawyer of sorts. Thompson is on a one man mission to destroy the gaming industry, or at least, to bend it to do his bidding. Thompsons tactics are so vile that even people who are generally on the same side of this issue have made efforts to disassociate themselves from Mr. Thompson. The comedic relief part about Jack Thompson is his willingness to engage with members of the gaming community in childish antics, arguments, and outright name calling. He is the inventor of the term “pixelante“, which he uses as an insult, but some gamers have now adopted the term and wear it with pride. Jack has tried to get the Grand Theft Auto series banned with little success. He believes that Rockstar is the tool of Satan himself, and he will do anything in his power to bring it down.

Now back up about a year and a half ago, when Rockstar announced a new title for a game that is not in the popular GTA franchise. It’s a game called Bully, and what people originally thought about the game was that players would engage in school ground shennanigans, being the school bully, running around and beating the crap out of little kids and taking their lunch money. Pretty tame compared to beating and killing prostitutes, drive by shootings, drug dealing, and assassinations like you get to do in GTA, but hey, it could still be fun.

Thompson decides he is going to do everything in his power “to protect the children” and prevent Bully from ever hitting the store shelves. He and his allies actually did manage to get the game delayed. Even though Rockstar claims this was a delay for polishing, I honestly believe the game was delayed to let the “hot coffee” incident cool down a little bit. Thompson even went so far as to sue Rockstar in Florida to ban the sale of the game as it presented a “public nuissance” and that Bully was a “Columbine simulator” (even though Mr. Thompson had never even seen the game). Now the really sad part about this is that this case wasn’t immediately tossed out of court. I mean, this is supposed to be America, land of the free, and especially land of the free speech, and no court has any business deciding what media should or should not get published. There aren’t any laws prohibiting the sale of video games, and this should have been tossed out as soon as it hit the Judge’s desk. But it wasn’t, and Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ronald Friedman decided to hear Thompson’s case.

Now here is where Rockstar pulled the whammy. Rockstar had no intentions of releasing a “Columbine simulator” of any sort. Bully isn’t about you running around being a school bully. It’s about you being a new kid in school and being the victim of bullies, and then fighting back and ridding the school of the bully menace while improving your own social standing in the school. The violence in the game is very tame, nowhere near the level of a GTA. And now after Thompson’s case got started, the ESRB decided to give the game a T for “Teen” rating based on the content. That’s right, it’s not even an M rated game, this “public nuissance” and “Columbine simulator.” This is why Rockstar was happy to let Judge Friedman see the game and see for himself what kind of content was in it. And that is why Judge Friedman in his infinite wisdom has declared that there is nothing in Bully which you can’t find every day on regular television, and has ruled against Mr. Thompson. By keeping mum on the true nature of the game until the last minute, Rockstar has let Jack Thompson dig himself into a hole that he can’t come out of without seriously losing face. Rockstar has made Thompson look like a clown, by allowing him to take a Teen rated game to court. He did it to himself, by insisting on trying to ban a game he’s never even seen, but they helped him bury himself.

And that is why Rockstar is the coolest game maker on the planet.

 

Just saw the list of games to be released this week over on Joystiq. Their full list is amazing, there’s going to be over 20 games released this week. Here is just a sample, the ones I might actually be interested in:

• Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN) - this is a must have for me.
• Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (DS) - will wait on reviews but this looks great.
• Just Cause (PC, Xbox, PS2, 360) - liked the demo for this for 360, might try the PC ver.
• Mage Knight: Apocalypse (PC) - I’m mainly interested in this so i can get the cool dragon pack-in.
• DEFCON (PC) - this is from the makers of Darwinia. Might be good, I’ll wait and see though.
• Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2) - this is a must have for me.
• Caesar IV (PC) - will look at reviews.
• ParaWorld (PC) - will look at reviews.

I am really getting behind on my RPGs, There are now like 6 or 7 out for the PS2 that I haven’t aquired yet. I am kind of obsessive about collecting all of them so I will probably be dishing out some dosh soon. But on the downside, I really wanted to save my money to get a Wii in November.

 

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time gaming, and had a blast.

Perfect Dark Zero

I played Perfect Dark Zero, which is a first person shooter where you’re some kind of spy/troubleshooter character. I haven’t actually figured out what you are – it’s like you’re a spy, but you work for a private organization it seems, that works for money, not a government.

Graphics are pretty good but not better than anything I’d seen before on the PC in most recent FPS games. It really takes a lot to wow me on FPS graphics, and PDZ doesn’t really wow me.

However, the gameplay is good, albeit it’s kind of easy. I’m playing on easy, so I may bump up the difficulty and restart. I’m only on mission 4 or 5 so far. I like the fact that you can use cover, by hugging a corner of a wall, or getting behind a crate, whatever. Since I’m on easy, however, that isn’t mandatory, in fact it can just make things harder, when the easiest thing actually is to dodge and move to melee against your opponents then take them out with punches/kicks, or a quick blast from an SMG or shotgun at point blank. I think if I bump up the difficulty to the next level maybe cover will become more necessary and make the gameplay better. So far the puzzle solving has been pretty simple and not a big part of the game.

So far I’d give Perfect Dark Zero an 8/10.

Kameo: Elements of Power

I also played some of Kameo: Elements of Power. This game is a classic Rare platformer, it’s fantastic. I’m surprised it didn’t get better reviews, this game is truly special. You are Kameo, a fairy. Yes, you are a fairy. And you have magical powers to switch your form into different creatures, like you can turn into this plant guy called “Pummelweed” who can beat up on trolls and orcs, and also dig under ground to get under really low places. At the start of the game you can switch between 3 creature forms for a lot of puzzle solving opportunities. But after the first large ‘level’ (I’d guess about 2 hours of play, maybe 1 if you’re really good unlike me), you get your powers taken away in a cut scene and you have to start all over re-learning all your creature powers.

The graphics in this game are truly “Next Gen”, they are amazing. It has a cartoonish feel to it but it is incredibly detailed and has all kinds of cool special effects. The gameplay also seems Next-Gen to me because it is so unique to be able to switch powers by changing forms and that makes for a lot of cool puzzle solving opportunities. Different creature-forms are definitely better at different tasks or against certain enemies. For example, the Pummelweed guy is great against orcs, while the roller-ball troll guys you can only kill by pushing them into a hazard, like lava, so the roller-ball form you can do works well for them. Figuring out how to get by all the different enemies and obstacles is what makes this game a blast.

I’d give Kameo: Elements of Power a 9/10 so far.

TEEN TITANS

I also played a PS2 game that was a renter from GameFly, called Teen Titans. This is based on the Cartoon Network cartoon. I love the Teen Titans. This game, however, is not that great, it’s just one big massively long fight, interspersed with Teen Titan cut scenes, which is the main reason I keep playing, and that’s it. So far about 4 hours into it there have been no puzzle solving whatsoever.

You learn tons and tons of combos you never need to use, and no matter which character you use, it seems like it makes no difference really, as none of the titans seem like they are better at the enemies than any of the other titans, so you could just stick with Robin the entire game and it makes no difference. Even the flyers Raven and Starfire don’t make any difference, because they hover, not fly, so it’s still essentially a 2D game even for them. Even if you’re almost out of health, switching to another Titan doesn’t help, because the titans all have a linked health meter, so whatever you’re active character’s health meter is like, that’s what they all are.

The best scenes so far have been with fights against the H.I.V.E. Five villains, Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth. But even against these potent super-villains, it’s still just a button masher, and the super-villains don’t require using different Titans or anything like that. Admittedly it can look pretty cool when you have all five Titans beating the crap out of everything all at once with superpowers flashing all over the screen, but gameplay is still kind of trite.

Graphically, this game is woefully ugly especially after having just played Kameo, but even compared to other PS2 games, the graphics of this game blows chunks. The Titans are not cell-shaded, comic-book style like you would expect (and like found in other PS2 games such as Ultimate Spiderman). Instead they’re goofy deformo looking versions done in 3D. I guess, though, I still enjoy this game because I like the Teen Titans so much, and it does have good voice acting that seems to have been done by the same actors from the show (or competent sound-a-likes). So I will probably end up finishing it.

Since the game’s price plummeted I was able to “buy-it” from GameFly for $15, so probably worth what I paid I guess. I did that so I could get the next games in my queue sent to me, some Xbox 360 games. Speaking of GameFly, if you are thinking about signing up for it, let me know, I can send you a referal email and I get some bonus credit if you sign up that way.

I’d probably only give Teen Titans a 5.5/10, unless, like me, you love the Teen Titans, and then maybe a 7.5/10. Loving the show gives a bit of a blind spot to overlook the game’s obvious flaws. Still, it’s budget priced now, at $19.99 at Amazon for PS2/Gamecube/Xbox, so if you don’t expect much, and if you like the Titans, I’d say it’s worth a rent for sure and maybe a buy.

Tomb Raider Legends Demo

The only other thing I played is the demo for the Xbox 360 version of Tomb Raider Legends. This is a great demo, and pretty long, it took me about an hour and a half to beat it. Someone more dexterous could probably beat it quicker, or who could figure out some of the puzzles faster. I had fun with it though. I died a lot. And I fell down a lot and had to re-climb to wherever I was. Sadly the gun fighting parts were a bit too easy, even handling 10 or 15 bad-guys at a time was no problem for Lara. They need to make it so if she gets hit it hurts a lot more. Other than that one minor flaw, I felt this game really captured the feel of the original Tomb Raider game, which was a classic. I’m definitely renting this one as soon as it becomes available on GameFly. I heard it was like a 10 hour game so I’m not paying $60 for it.

Retro Gaming

Oh, I also did play a little bit of Baldur’s Gate II for the PC. It’s a great RPG, but it’s oldish, so unless you like retro gaming you probably won’t like it. Still, it has an awesome story line, with tons and tons of quests, and great characters. You could do a lot worse! The graphics aren’t that dated, yet.

I also figured out how to get Infocom games on my new phone (Treo 650). So now I can play Zork, Enchanter, and all the other Infocom Masterpieces text adventures on the bus ride every day. Plus, I can also play more current z-code adventures written by fans, available on the Interactive-Fiction Archive. Right now I’m using a z-code interpreter called FrobNitz to play them, which is nice, but there is a more feature-rich interpreter called CliFrotz that requires and supports the memory card slot that I’ll be using when I get my 2gb memory card. Totally sweet! Retro gaming with a high-tech twist!

The Treo 650 phone is really cool, BTW, and I’m thinking about writing some software for it, if I can find some Palm developer tools on the cheap somewhere.

Alex at These Damn Machines Are Killing Me has an interesting take on the FPS game for Playstation 2 and Xbox, Black. Ka-BOOM!

Sony’s big E3 Press Conference was today, watched it live via GameSpot. Several big pieces of news were announced today:

1. Sony’s new online service will feature micropayments ala Microsoft’s Live Marketplace.

2. Sony is launching the PS3 on November 17 with two versions: a 20gb HD version for $499, and a 60gb HD version for $599.

Edit: 20GB model MAY not have HDMI, wifi, or a memory card slot. Read the spec sheet carefully, it looks like the HD may not be the only difference.

3. Sony’s new controller looks exactly like their existing Dual Shock controllers for PS2, except these have some kind of gyro-sensor in them so that you can turn, rotate, tilt, lift, etc and the controller can sense these movements. Basically they are ripping off Nintendo’s Revolution/Wii controller here.

4. Final Fantasy XIII will be a Playstation 3 title and looks AMAZING!

Most of the game footage they showed was obviously pre-rendered cinematics, or at the very least, in-game cinematics but not actual gameplay footage. One demo, however, showed some very impressive actual-gameplay footage, called Resistance: Fall of Man. Basically it looks like a very well done first person shooter. Excellent graphics and the gameplay looked solid, but nothing terribly innovative from what I could tell.

A couple of reviews of mine were posted on Game Chronicles. The first is a review of a strategy game, Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath. I give it 5.2 out of 10. Pretty much avoid unless the subject matter is really compelling to you. It mixes turn-based strategic level game which was pretty cool with a crappy and frustrating RTS battle mode.

The other review is for a great Playstation 2 old school RPG, Wild Arms: Alter Code F. This is a remake of the original Playstation Wild Arms game, and it’s a good one. Great story, very fun gameplay, if you like console RPG games definitely this is worth a look. I gave it 8.8 out of 10.

I scored some great new gaming goods for Christmas. Here’s a list of my loot:

Nintendo DS Mario Kart Bundle - very cool, have been playing the crap out of it already. It also plays GBA games great and have been playing Golden Sun, a nice RPG for GBA.

Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)
Burnout 3: Takedown (Xbox)
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (PS2)
Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) - can’t wait to start this as soon as I finish my review games
Shining Force Neo (PS2)

What gaming swag did you haul in this year?

Oh and also, I’m stuck in Golden Sun. Does anyone know how to find the thieves’ stash in the inn in Vault? I used Mind Read on the gang and found out they stole the rod, and that it’s hidden in the Inn but I can’t seem to find it.

Just reviewed a new platformer/adventure title called Psychonauts, developed by Tim Shafer (of Lucas Arts fame). This is a great game, I give it 9.2 out of 10, and you don’t want to miss this if you’re looking for unusual games. Here is my review on GameChronicles.

Someone in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, the Usenet Newsgroup, asked about good RPGs that support multiplayer co-op mode via the internet. I replied in detail, so I figured I would put my reply up on the blog, too.

* The old Baldur’s Gate Original Saga and Baldur’s Gate 2 lets you do this, but since the story is centered around a specific character, it doesn’t play out that great as a co-op game but it is pretty fun that way, especially for a ‘duo’ versus a whole team. you can even assign multiple characters to a single player if you choose, or you can just pick up NPC characters to fill out your party. The BG1+exp goes for around $15 or $20, and BG2 + exp. goes for a little more. Getting somewhat hard to find these now that Interplay is kaput.

* Same for the Icewind Dale Games, minus the ability to pick up NPCs (you’ll want to start with at least 4 characters at the start). Keep in mind that IWD series is much less story oriented than the BG series, which may or may not be to your liking. I actually have an unopened copy of IWD2 for trade/sale. You can probably find both of these games for under $15 each.

* Neverwinter Nights Platinum is a great game to play through with a duo. There’s also limitless content already made with all of the fan-created modules, which some people consider to be the best part about this game. To me the MP for NWN works better than the BG or IWD series, but YMMV. The original game’s story is somewhat lengthy and not as exciting as perhaps BG2, but it’s worth a play IMHO. I’d rank this game my top recommendation, in fact. If you buy NWN, I suggest getting the Platinum version, which includes both of the excellent expansion packs to this game. The Platinum package runs about $35-40.

* Diablo 2 is superb for playing with up to 8 friends over the internet. This is pretty much a hack-n-slash level-up treasure-finder but if you’ve never done it before the story can be pretty fun the first time through. I recommend getting the Battlechest if you go this route, and install the expansion pack straight away from the start. There are a few “mods” for this made by fans which change the gameplay some but most of them do not significantly change the story. You can get the Battlechest for $15-20.

* Dungeon Siege - this game is quite fun multiplayer EXCEPT for the save system which is pretty bad, it requires long chunks of time to play through so that you can make it to the next town or portal, otherwise you won’t feel like you’re making any progress, because monsters respawn and it starts you off back at town each time to resume. Expect a LOT of combat for this game, with a linear story to read as you go along. There are books to tell the backstory of the game world and some side quests but mostly it’s a linear dungeon crawl. There are also quite a few fan-made modules for this game as well. I recommend getting the Legend of Aranna expansion pack which also includes the full game. Asking price is around $20.

Those would be my top picks. Some other RPG games that also offer co-op online play:

• Prince of Qin - Diablo 2 style game set in Mythic China
• Darkstone - another diablo-style game
• Nox - more action/RPG goodness here, requires a bit more twitch skills
• Dungeon Lords - hard to recommend this for online play but it has it
• Sacred - diablo-style game that is supposedly a lot better since patches and expansions have been added from it’s launch last year, but i haven’t played it recently.

If you have an Xbox I can recommend:

• D&D Heroes
• Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance (also on PS2)

That’s about it for co-op RPGs that do not require a fee to play online. At least, the ones I have actually played. If you want to play any of the above PC games with me, just shoot me a message.