Do We Enjoy Games More When We Have Less of Them?

Think back when you were younger, and you probably did not have the amount of videogames that you have right now. Did you enjoy and get more out of your games back then? I honestly believe that I got more out of my games when I was younger than I do now that I have all of the games I want.

Today, I can purchase any game that I want, play them in surround sound and in high definition. Yet, I seem to turn off games a lot quicker if I get frustrated or get to a part that I don't particularly like. When I was a kid playing NES, I would have to borrow games in order to play something different. When I was actually lucky enough to get another game I cherished it for a long long time and beat it many times over, enjoying every single time that I did so. In a world of achievements and online play, it seems like people have taken that for granted, including myself.

I wish that this wasn't the case but I can't really help it. If I get to a frustrating part in a game like Lost Planet, I can very easily turn off my 360 and turn on my PS3 and start playing Resistance. If the same thing happens I can jump online or switch to my Wii. I may never go back to Lost Planet or Resistance again because of the last major reason why we don't enjoy our games as much. There are simply too many of them.

Every week many games are released for all systems, and with Gamefly and/or a local gamestore just around every corner, there is nothing stopping you from trying most of them out. I believe that people play more games nowadays but don't get into them as much as they did when there weren't as many available. I am on the 4 game plan with Gamefly and I can't tell you how many times I've opened a game, thrown it into one of my systems and played it for literally 5 minutes before I realize it sucks and put it back in the envelope to go back. Why do I do this? Because I know I have a large line of games that are ready to be shipped to my house and I want to play them all [let alone the stack of games that I've been meaning to play for half a year now].

Sometimes I wish I only had 1 system and a few games for the system. Especially since it seems like I cannot focus on any online games anymore because I play too many. During my SOCOM or Counterstrike days, those were the only games I would play every day routinely because I strived to be great at them. The quantity of games that are out now force you to miss out on too many good games just to stay good at one, and I am not sure that I am willing to make that sacrifice.

The last game that I put down all other games for was World of Warcraft. But the only reason why it was able to do so is because it was so addicting. Perhaps it was the leveling up, but I felt compelled to play and keep up with all of my friends. Maybe if future games incorporate the fanatical leveling race, I might be able to stick it out and stay enthralled in it.

I guess it isn't all my fault, most games today don't have the charm or gameplay to hold my attention like they used to. Very little is "new" these days and we live in a world of sequels and upgrades. Look at some of the hottest games coming this year: Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Devil May Cry 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Halo 3, GRAW 2...see what I mean? I am looking forward to and will purchase all of the games listed, but when will the novelty wear off? I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't finish half of the games mentioned just because of the shear number that are coming out.

I conclude with a challenge, stick it out. If you get to a frustrating or difficult part of a game, keep going and you WILL feel a sense of accomplishment that games were meant to produce. I have recently been pushing myself through most of the games that I play or at least keeping them and going back to them after a short amount of time. The reward is fulfilling and I encourage you all to do the same.

Is the Wii being Gamecube'd?

Nintendo's Wii is sitting firm atop a pedestal of greatness at the moment. Killer sales through the launch, an undoubted victory over Sony and the grasp of both hardcore and casual gamers alike have the Wii looking very good right now. But how long will the Wii greatness last?

If you look at this year and the future releases scheduled for the system, it doesn't look so good. Of course Nintendo will be releasing a few games, but only 3 of them are the AAA Nintendo titles that we have all grown to love, and they are all sequels. Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and Super Smash Bros Brawl. Everything else is hit or miss and most of them are ports [From last gen systems]. While we know that the ports will be different when moving to Wii due to the controls, that doesn't necessarily mean a good thing.

The only game people are playing on the Wii regularly right now, and the overall reason for the Wii's gigantic success is Wii Sports. Wii Play is going to be coming in a couple weeks and will carry the momentum for a few months but what is next? Where is Wii Sports 2? Where are all of the "Casual" games that will draw in the grandparents and non-gamers? It's not going to be Mario, Metroid or Smash Bros. In the past, these games catered to casual gamers but after many iterations of each, they have become quite complicated. I know my Grandma can not play a game in "3d" or anything with more than 2 buttons.

Let's go over the negative similarities between the Cube and the Wii:

-Both have no online play or any sort of plan to include online play [Pokemon doesn't count and neither does Phantasy Star]
-Both don't play DVD's [I don't see this as a big issue]
-They are not and never were the leader in graphics and technology
-They both have the exact same 1st party support [Mario, Metroid, Smash Bros, Mario Party]
-They both have useless features
----Gamecube: GBA to Cube connectivity and a handle
----Wii: News and Weather Channels
-Both are on the cheap end of their current generations when it comes to price

When it comes down to it, software is the life source of any videogame system. One of the major reasons why the Playstation was such a giant success is because Sony secured exclusives and helped create and usher in original content on a regular basis. They have gotten away from that and now they are struggling as well. In terms of 3rd party support, Nintendo is weak as it stands right now. I am hoping their will be a lot of surprise announcements in the near future to help generate more excitement, because I feel that the high that Nintendo is on right now is going to be short lived.

I worry about the novelty of their new console and the serious lack of games that are on the horizon. [most of the AAA Nintendo titles don't even have concrete release dates]. Will the Wii prevail from it's unconventional approach or will it be Gamecube'd into a sea of mediocrity?

2007: The Year of the Discriminating Gamer

Hope everyone’s Christmas was great and your New Year has kicked off to a good start. Mine turned out to be exceptionally satisfying and exhausting for more reasons that I thought apparent at the time. But with the New Year also brings along with it New Year deals from local retailers looking to unload merchandise at slightly cheaper prices than from the year before.

This fact led me to EB Games (where else, right?) where for a short time they offered double for what they usually give for those looking to trade in their original Xbox consoles. Frankly, my Xbox hadn’t been used in quite some time (made quite apparent by the amount of dust collected) and I wasn’t sure if another deal like this would ever show itself (regularly, EB Games/GameStop gives about $40 for Xbox consoles). So throwing away all better judgment I decided to plunge myself into the realm of Microsoft’s 360 machine, wondering if I was over saturating my media library with superfluous entertainment. What I’ve experienced in the days afterward has been something of a gaming anomaly.

I quickly realized that if I was going to drop serious money on a console, why not go all out? It already came with a free game (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter) so I decided to pick up another, Gears of War. Gears of War led me to pick up an Xbox Live membership just to see what the online aspect was all about (the ‘Pro’ set does come with a headset, after all) and my likeness for the first person shooter produced the thought that I might not be so letdown from spending so much. Well…yes and no.

Let’s get the negative out of the way. The first time I put Gears of War in the 360 the game acted up. I was unable to start a new game in any of the modes available and doing so only led me to a loading screen that immediately jumped back to the story select screen. Inspecting the disc for any damage, I saw noticeable circular scratches that I’m quite sure I didn’t etch on the surface. Nonetheless, I felt supremely let down. A new Xbox console and already a game had malfunctioned. Nintendo and Sony had never let me down in such a way and already an hour into Microsoft's console I had experienced problems.

I tried searching message boards in an attempt to secure a solution to the problem. I quickly found other Gears of War gamers, who might not have experienced the exact same problem, but had definitely had worse things happen to their 360 consoles (the dreaded three-light syndrome seemed to pop up the most). Most who had problems contacted Microsoft directly and were met with a startling lack of response from the big M. Some were told that Microsoft was aware of the problem but could offer no short-term solutions, which inevitably led to plenty of pissed-off gamers clutching broken 360’s. I was afraid the same would surely happen to me and was already expecting the worst.

However, my problems were beginning to fade. Having saw many gamers determine a correlation between Gears of Wars malfunctioning and the Xbox Gamertag ID, I decided to sign out and see if the problem continued. It did not and I was soon enjoying Gears of War, well, about as much as I could before noticing that I could not save if I was not logged in with an ID. Yet, the next day, when I signed in and tried GoW again, the problem seemed to vanish. After the initial debacle I’ve had zero problems as I was able to create a new game and soon was playing one of the best FPS titles I had ever laid eyes on.

Despite the small setback in software, my reception of the 360 has been monstrously high. I never thought I’d ‘sell out’ to Microsoft but the 360 didn’t have to run long to win me over. The user interface is one of the friendliest aspects of the machine, with options galore to fine tune everything from the custom look of the background to playing music through an iPod…even while playing a game itself, it’s still possible to select music. Looking at all of the options available to the console itself, it certainly had me wondering if the Wii or the PS3 had any chance to keep up in the three console race for control of the market share.

I’ve tried looking at the problem objectively. Though I haven’t had the chance to play anything for the PS3, from what I’ve heard, despite free online gaming, the juggernaut of consoles has had enough setbacks to change many gamer's minds. Reports and opinions from dissatisfied gamers have seen some consoles being returned to various retailers (no doubt scratching their heads as to why). Of the user complaints I browsed, I always saw a mentioning of the lack of resources the PS3 have in comparison to the 360 (and though it probably wouldn't be fair to throw the PS2 in with this comparioson, truth be told, I've never liked the boot up screen the PS2 utilized). Should Sony see success in the coming years it might have to do with changing the user menus and trying to keep up with Microsoft’s easy-to-grasp interface.

Nintendo’s Wii, on the other hand, has an interesting quandary of its own. Having created the notion of ‘remote based gaming’, Nintendo is definitely looking at the industry as a whole and trying to change the way gamers (and developers) see and experience the titles they play. Call of Duty 3 showed tremendous promise with its ‘point and shoot’ tactics and I have a feeling Nintendo can build on CoD’s success with even more FPS titles (hopefully with much improved graphics), each fleshed out with a sense of individuality. The Wii-mote has so much promise that I’m sure Nintendo is more than up to the challenge.

Yet for all the joys that the Wii is sure to bring, I’m still not left with the same sense of awe I had with the 360 and can’t help but wonder if Nintendo is on the right path or merely creating old traps for itself. The television channel menu system has its perks but I still feel as if they’re more than a few steps behind Microsoft in terms of building a rounded console. Things like the free online browser and the Weather and News channels help to boost interest, but for me the deal breaker was getting to relive old titles through the Virtual Console. Having dealt with both the Virtual Console and the Marketplace, at the moment, I feel more inclined to buy old classic games on the 360 rather than the Wii. Surely, Nintendo will expand it’s library to include the kind of classics everyone grew up with in the ’80’s and early 90’s, but then here’s the problem: a good example can be made of Street Fighter II, which can be purchased on both the 360 and the Wii (the 360 has the ‘Hyper Fighting’ Edition while the Wii has the original SFII). However, Microsoft allows online gaming with some of the downloadable titles and have leaderboards that track every gamer who's played. Specifically for SFII, you can challenge others and be ranked accordingly. On the Wii you’re stuck to playing with another friend in the room and at which you won’t be ranked versus anyone (speaking of which, where does Nintendo’s online plans figure in Wii development?). So considering all of that, which version would you buy?

Though I'm positive the respective backlog of classic games will take a seat to latest and greatest, the deciding factor for a number of gamers (besides shortage of product) is price. Will you shell out a significant amount of cash for extra perks or spend half that for a genuine innovative gaming experience? Only now are we beginning to see the effects of the ‘HD Age’, at which Microsoft clearly welcomed with open arms and at which Nintendo has held at arms length. Having bought a new LCD TV (again with the help of the after New Year's deals) I can appreciate all the graphical perks a set of component cable (nicely included with the console, I might add) can afford. I’m still waiting to buy component cables for my Wii, but having played it on a HD set with just regular cables, the difference in graphical output is strangely depressing. I’ve never noticed the difference more. As more families begin to upgrade their entertainment centers, so too should the brands that produce such equipment. Not that graphics make the game entirely, but if you saw the difference in visuals I’m seeing now, you might feel more inclined to pick up a 360 as well.

Anyway, if it seems like I’m falling all over this machine it’s because I am. I’m too impressed with how Microsoft’s 360 has been built. However, not every family has the means to stay on top of three different systems, all of which have their own console specific games that claim to be 'must-own' titles. At the rate the industry is going now, most gamers have already chosen sides with their next-gen systems and things might only get worse because of price discrimination. Fortunately, Nintendo and Microsoft both have moderately priced consoles that will at least attempt to match every dollar spent in regards to entertainment experienced. Unfortunately, I now have a copy of Jet Set Radio from the original Xbox, currently functioning as a paperweight due to the somewhat limited backward compatibility. How many years will it be until it shows up in the Marketplace?

Wii-thdrawal & Holiday Panic

It's no surprise to anyone that Wii is sold out. Personally, my humble abode is still Wii-less. I haven't managed to snag one yet, and the hopes are slim through the New Year. I had enough trouble getting a hold of a DS Lite for my little brother for Christmas, surprisingly unavailable as well, despite NOT being something that's very new. I grabbed it on EBay for about $200 with the expedited shipping. Not terrible considering.

I attempted to get Wii on EBay as well, but realized that $500 to have it now would be retarded. My older brother has actually been struggling more so to get his hands on the Wii console, waiting in lines, and striking out every time. The last report I've received from him is that he waited on an 80-person line at EB Games to discover that they only had 7 consoles available. The frustration grew and he started kicking things in the store, yelling at people. He's 25. This Wii-thdrawal is taking its toll on folks it seems. See, I told him to pre-order back in September, why no one ever listens to me I have no idea.

I've got my 360 and my PSP, and I'm going to be happy with that. You won't catch me waiting in lines for no reason. That's all for now. The search continues...

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Pre-Order Bonus

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Castlevania franchise, Konami offered a bonus to those who pre-ordered Portrait of Ruin, the second DS installment of the now 20 year old series.

Included in the cardboard box (which comes complete with a faux wax seal) are a soundtrack CD that spans most of the core Castlevania games as well as some of the now more obscure Game Boy titles. Castlevania has always been noted for its excellent compositions, and it's a treat to be able to hear some of these songs as they were originally played in their respective games. Interestingly enough, some of the tracks are labeled as coming from an incorrect game. Bloody Tears, for example, is listed as being a cut from the original NES game, when it is actually from Simon's Quest.



Also included is an art book featuring cover and character art for again, most of more popular games in the series. A combination Portrait of Ruin poster / Castlevania timeline rounds out the printed bonuses, though this is also interesting for its inclusion of games that are generally considered non-canon. Lastly, the package also includes a Castlevania branded, extending DS stylus and a double DS pak carrying case.



All in all, this is one of the better pre-order bonuses out there and is a must-have for long time Castlevania fans. While it's likely too late to get through online stores, plenty of them have cropped up on eBay.

Still Wi-Less?

If you haven't stopped by an EB Games on Friday or a Best Buy this morning, fear not, there's still hope for you yet. Best Buy has announced steady shipments of Wii consoles available each and every Sunday through the winter holidays.

This morning my effort to secure a Wii (after a baffling experience at EB Games on Friday) did not go in vain. Once again, lines were long as people began arriving as early as 7pm (albeit, waiting in their cars through the somewhat unseasonably warm weather). At 7am a disheveled line of over 40 gathered, hoping to get their mitts on a console. Opening at 10am, over 40 tickets guaranteeing Wii's were handed out (with around 30 more people being told to go home and try again next week). Congrats to everyone who braved another cold night!

The Birth of an Xbox Gamer

For as long as I can remember, I've been against Xbox. Years ago I was all about Nintendo, and when I say all about Nintendo, I mean just that. Mario is the man! Hoooo-ray!! Everyone else sucks. Microsoft is just trying to take our money away. They don't care about gaming. Boo!

Well... I've grown up since then, folks. It has been quite some time since the original Xbox hit the market. It has been a long, long time since I was a Nintendo fanboy (yes, I'll admit it). Don't get me wrong, I'm still all for Nintendo... but my eyes are now open to the wonders of Microsoft. I'm still not a fan of Sony, for your information. Actually, fuck Sony. I didn't like PSone, I didn't like PS2, and I'm not going to like PS3. In fact, I hated the dual shock, as weird as that sounds... but that's besides the point.

Yesterday, I was reborn an Xbox gamer, and here's how it happened.

I was on my way to go food shopping yesterday with my girlfriend, but first, we made a stop at the local Best Buy to pick up some DVD's. The seed was already planted in my head before I even got there, folks. Walking up and down the isles like a kid in a candy store, my simple trip to Best Buy turned into a $600 extravaganza, just like that. I absolutely NEEDED to scoop up an Xbox 360 (premium system of course), several games, and an additional wireless controller, completely on impulse. I'm not sure what happened. I went in there for DVD's, and came out with all of this shit.

Overlooking the dollars and cents, and ignoring the fact that it was raining as hard as when Noah's Ark took voyage, when I finally made it home after food shopping, it was like I was 10-years old and Christmas all over again. I swear, they must put something inside those console boxes, folks. When you open up a brand new console box, it's this WOOSH of plastic freshness, it almost gets you high. I was thrilled to be holding an Xbox 360. I was thrilled to be setting up the system in my room. I was thrilled to be experiencing Xbox 360 for the first time. Like I've said previously, kiosks never seem to work around me. All this time 360 has been out and I've been missing it.

I wound up playing Dead or Alive 4, Tomb Raider, and Ridge Racer. They're not the craziest of titles, but let me tell you, my first impressions of Xbox 360 are good ones. I can't even lie, I squeezed in all three "trial plays" (as I will call them for now) of my new games within an hour. I had to check them all out, and unfortunately, I had to go to sleep. I work in the morning, and didn't want to have that "I've just played Xbox 360 all night" look on my face bright and early.

A long story short, I now have Xbox 360, and fucking love it. Expect tons of content from me regarding my experiences as a new Microsoft gamer. It has taken over my mind, and you'll get a piece of it for certain. More as my addiction blooms.

Why I didn't own an Xbox 360 before, I just don't know.