Category: Games

Wired.com’s game|life blog does a feature where they ask someone from the gaming community two questions, one about the gaming industry, and one about something that’s completely random.

Today, that person is me:

Do you think it is possible
videogames will ever achieve the sort of widespread and universal
acceptance of movies? What has to happen in order for a game console to
become as commonplace as a DVD player in the average home?

Wheaton: I think the greatest barrier that
videogames need to overcome is the cost. Anyone can get into a movie
for under $20. However, to play a videogame, you need to invest
hundreds of dollars in the system and anywhere from $20 to $60 for the
game. It’s a trade off, of course, because most movies are around 90 to
120 minutes while the games with great narrative storylines (Bioshock, GTA: San Andreas, Mass Effect) can last between 90 and 120 hours, and can be replayed differently many times.

There is also a fundamental difference between the movie and
videogame experience that can’t be overlooked. Movies are very passive
experiences: we sit down and hand over control to the filmmakers for a
little while. We have no say over what happens, and not a whole lot
more at stake than our money and our time.

Videogames, on the other hand, are by their very nature interactive
experiences that, among other things, test our reflexes and
problem-solving skills. With the advent of sandbox games, we can
explore entire worlds in ways that simply aren’t possible in movies,
and a good game gives us the opportunity to invest a great deal of time
and energy into it. I personally love that, but it’s clearly not for
everyone.

There’s more at game|life. If you check it out, I’d love to know what you think.

Last week, Harmonix sent out a pretty major software update for Rock Band. Most of the gaming blogs I’ve read have focused on how great the new
online music store is, but have glossed over or completely ignored what I think is the real news in this update: Harmonix has address and fixed two issues that almost broke the game for many players.

When I wrote my Rock Band review for the Geek in Review last year, I said:

To unlock new venues, your band must amass a certain number of fans.
The number of fans you gain each gig is determined by the difficulty
level of each member of your band, so you reach “fan caps” where the
game comes to a halt until you can successfully play at a higher
difficulty level. For some players, this isn’t bad at all, and is a
good motivator to try harder levels. For casual players, though, it
totally sucks. I know plenty of people who love to play on Hard, but
have no interest in playing on Expert. The way I understand this,
unless Harmonix removes the fan cap (which I think they’ll have to do,
eventually) some people won’t ever be able to experience the entire
game. That’s just fucking retarded. Not everyone wants to play the game
on Hard or Expert settings, and preventing those people from enjoying
the game the same way Hard and Expert players do is stupid and wrong.

There is an even bigger problem, though, that almost breaks the game
for me: it’s infuriatingly repetitive in multiplayer career mode,
especially at the beginning. As you advance through different cities
and unlock new gigs, you’ll be faced with challenges, where the
audience randomly picks songs for you to play. The RNG that decides the
songs is thoroughly fucked, and frequently results in forcing you to
play the same song three times in 30 minutes. If it’s a song you love,
not such a big deal; but if it’s a song you hate – like Wanted, Dead or
Alive, for instance – you’re screwed. If you’re trying to introduce new players to the game who are used to
Guitar Hero’s “one and done” approach to playing songs, it can be a
massive turn off.

The new online store is great and all, but I don’t know why more gaming blogs and media haven’t made this front-page news: Harmonix has fixed the stupid fan cap, and they’ve made the game much less repetitive in World Tour mode.

Check it out:

Revised Fan Caps: To allow Easy, Medium, and Hard players to progress further in the Band World Tour, we’ve increased the number of fans that you can earn before hitting the cap. Easy players can now travel across the Atlantic, Medium players have a wider range of venues they can play at, and Hard players on the Xbox 360 are now able to unlock the “One Million Fans” achievement.

More diverse songs in Band World Tour: If you’ve ever cursed about having to play “Say it Ain’t So” or a Metallica track multiple times in the same hour, then you’ll be glad to know that we’ve tracked down and fixed the issues that triggered these very repetitive moments in Band World Tour.

Awesome and awesome. Thank you, Harmonix! I think my bands, Zombitis and Mr Snüggles, are about to hit the road again.

My dream is to open a classic 80s arcade, complete with well-maintained minigolf, pizza, and waffle cones.

Here’s a look inside the Luna City arcade, which is exactly what I want to do one day:

(via Gizmodo. Thanks to Bob S for the link. RSS subscribers probably need to click through to see the video. Offer available for a limited time. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.)