PSP Games Not Creative, Video Games not Addictive & Shaq not too Bright – Welcome to the column that wishes it was addictive as crack is to plumbers and their ex-girlfriends known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. This past week hasn’t been exactly kind. I had two very close friends both get into car accidents and then the Chris Benoit tragedy happened over the weekend (yes I’m a wrestling fan). …I’m kinda in another place right now. Certainly not at work, not even sure I’m at home. I am hoping that the next week and a half loosens up the mood. As many know I’m in the stage of my life where I’m trying to figure a lot of things out. Why I attract certain people, why I can’t attract people that I want to attract and a multitude of other revelations that will hopefully result into something positive. One can hope.
Ode To Morgan Webb
Morgan in just a really cool shirt and jeans set. A darling photo actually. Which brings up my usual minor point (you are staring at the picture so you don’t care anyway). Women (not that I’m complaining) always wear their shirts just a little shorter. Do they come this way on purpose now? Just curious, cause guys are always longer than they should be and girls are shorter. It’s like they have to compensate for the longer length with a shorter one somewhere else (hence why I buying all my shirts from now on in 4XL).
News of All Types
Shaq says Nintendo, Sega, Atari Makes Kids Tubby (from kotaku.com)
Hoopster Shaquille O’Neal hates the little fatties and wants to help. With reality show Shaq’s Big Challenge, he’s out to help over-weight kids drop excess pounds. Sound heart-warming and inspirational! What does he think the reason why obesity is such a problem with young Americans? Shaq, whose own body weight clocks in at 14 percent body fat, says:
First, only six percent of all schools in America have mandatory gym. When I was growing up, I changed schools 10 times, and they all had mandatory PE. Second, the food we eat is a problem. We’re living in a fast-food society now. Third, kids aren’t as active as they were when me and you were growing up. They have Sega, Nintendo, Atari. Video games aren’t allowing kids to be as active as we were.
Don’t you wish sometimes that certain people just wouldn’t even open their mouth? Or at least act like they are talking about something they understand? I mean I can bs my way through most things and sound intelligent but usually I know something about what I’m saying. When I’m an over the hill, overweight basketball player who obviously hasn’t played a video game sine Shaq Fu was popular (1994 called, they want their worst game of the year back), I would hope I could stfu when inquired about today’s youth and their weight problems. It’s harsh I know and I actually agree with some of what he’s saying but that’s kinda like Lindsay Lohan telling today’s youth oh we just take too many diet pills. Wait that probably happened. Stick to basketball bro, and go buy a Wii when you got the time.
PSP
SCEE: PSP Games Just Not Creative Enough(from kotaku.com)
SCEE game director Tony Buckley has an idea! He of all people knows PSP games haven’t really been up to scratch, and he thinks he knows the solution: catering to the handheld’s strengths.
It’s such a great machine with so much functionality, you’ve just got to focus on how the games can build on that functionality.
So games need to be wider, and brighter, and need to be over very very quickly? OK, no, he’s really talking about stuff like mp3 playback and online capabilities. And he has a point. It’s worked for the DS. Best game I’ve seen thus far on PSP is probably WipEout, which while being pretty great, didn’t exactly differentiate itself much from the console versions.
Well I certainly agree with this piece. The PSP is a nice machine if you ever get a chance to really mess with it. But the game support in all reality is kinda horrid. Sure I sit here week after week and there are releases for the machine but they are kinda meh at best. We got Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and….Vice City Stories..and oh a bunch of driving and racing games and umm there is that one RPG game. It all blends together doesn’t it? There is nothing fun or that sets it apart to even make it a decent alternative to the DS. I mean you have to be creative, go create a game where you touch people with your stylus to see if they are a witch. Oh wait, that idea has been done. Perhaps you create a game that has a 100 different simple and fun mini games hosted by the evil brother of a video game icon. Oh, that one is gone too eh? What the heck, just start distributing porn on the machine; you’re better off.
All
Doctors: Videogames Not Addictive
During a weekend debate at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, doctors and addiction experts rejected the idea that videogame addiction is a serious risk akin to alcoholism or compulsive gambling. If there is such a thing as videogame addiction, experts don’t believe it can be classified as a “mental disorder,” as these other types of addictions are designated.
“There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t get to have the word addiction attached to it,” said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), according to Reuters.
The debate was organized by a committee at the ASAM which wanted to have videogame addiction listed as a mental disorder in the American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders. The guide is used by the American Psychiatric Association to diagnose mental illness. But more study is needed, experts said, before videogame addiction can be taken as seriously as other addictions and mental illnesses.
Doctors admitted that while normal videogame use is harmless, in extreme cases it can interfere with day-to-day activities such as showering, working, or eating.
The American Medical Association will consider the testimony and vote on the matter later this week.
So I guess those cases of people playing Halo or WOW for days straight and then collapsing and dying because they had not ate or went to the bathroom was just a simple case of boredom. There is no reason that in college, I played Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3d or a pornographic version of Tetris (prettttty pictures) for 8 to 10 hours straight? (and lost many girlfriends in the process). Addiction….now despite what my ex-wife will tell you I really don’t play games as much as I used to but that doesn’t mean at one time I wasn’t addicted. Gaming can lead to addiction, and it can be on the level of drugs or alcohol. Believe it. If you are running home daily to get onto a certain game and your work or school is suffering as a result, that’s addiction like anything else. It should be treated as such. Then we can move on to more important addictions like redheads. (somethings we just don’t want to cure)
Releases for the week of June 26th, 2007
XBOX Live Arcade
Carcassonne (800 MS Points)
From the minds of Sierra come a strategic board game to the XBOX Live experience. This game starts you out with an empty landscape and a single square tile. From there 1-5(XBL) or 1-4 (local 360) take turns selecting from 72 tiles that range from roads, walls of a castle or fields to build this medieval landscape. There are tactics to be displayed and even a little luck as you compete to accumulate the most points possible. Like Catan (another board game on XBL that has met moderate success) the rules are easy, there is no elimination and game usually plays pretty fast. There is a good smattering of AI levels to challenge everybody and the best part is that this can be played with multiple players locally, making this a fun party game for sure. Carcassonne also includes the Rivers II expansion set and all available rule sets. For 800 points, I might just pick this one up. Especially since I have beat all of the single player achievements in Catan. (and my connection does not seem to be stable enough to give me enough time to get the multiplayer ones).
Wii Virtual Console
F-Zero X(Nintendo 64 – 1,000 Wii Points), Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting(Super NES – 800 Wii Points), & China Warrior (Turbo Graphix – 600 Wii Points)
Three more releases for the Wii VC. F-Zero X is the N64 sequel to one of the modern day greats when it comes to racing. Not really my cup of tea but this one featured break neck speed and gorgeous graphics. This updated racing game features all sorts of play modes, hidden vehicles and a decent soundtrack. We then move on to the mega hard Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. This is the one that all of the original eight World Warriors along the four boss characters. Then they turned on the speed and nobody could beat it except the elite of the fighting world. A great game for sure, just shouldn’t be so difficult to beat on a default level. The final release is the ill fated China Warrior from the TG-16 system. This was a tiny little side scrolling action game that was a launch title when the original system came out way back when. Unfortunately it is easy to see why. Sure it had big characters and some good detail but the controls were tedious and the action mostly uninteresting. Unless you are a big racing fan or need a SF2 fix something real fierce I would skip this week and hope for more interesting things to come.
PS2
Ratatouille
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Bigs
The Adventures of Darwin
Grim Grimoire
Transformers the Game
PSP
Ratatouille
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Bigs
Hot Wheels Ultimate Racing
Final Fantasy
Steel Horizon
Super Collapse! 3
Traxxpad
PS3
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Bigs
The Darkness
Rainbow Six Vegas
Transformers The Game
Xbox 360
Ratatouille
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Hour of Victory
The Darkness
The Bigs
Overlord
Transformers The Game
Xbox
Ratatouille
Wii
Ratatouille
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Bigs
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Chicken Shoot
Driver Parallel Lines
Transformers The Game
Wii Blaster
Gamecube
Ratatouille
DS
Ratatouille
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Touchmaster
Hoshigami Remix: Running Blue
Nervous Brickdown
GBA
Ratatouille
Horsez
A whole crapload of releases one would think, but let’s examine it a little closer shall we. Harry Potter – all systems, Ratatouille – all systems (perhaps even the Commodore 64), The Bigs and Transformers on many systems. Take those away and it’s not so interesting anymore is it? The Bigs is good for those who enjoyed MLB Slugfest but they probably still don’t hold a candle to the old Baseball Simulators on the NES and SNES. Now that was some fun arcade-esque baseball playing. Transformers might actually be decent on the newer gen systems since you get to take on the role of Autobot or Decepticon. In a dual release for 360 and PS3, The Darkness is sure to tide over those wishing for Devil May Cry 4. Looks like a pretty cool game actually. PS2 interesting release goes to Grim Grimoire, a strategy game with a fantasy rpg feel. But my pick of the week goes to Overlord, a 360 release where you get to control minions as you are an evil Overlord taking back what used to be your ancestor’s. I need minions, but I think those are all reserved for the higher ups. I could actually get work done and maybe get a date once in a while. Oh that’s just kooky, nevermind.
Some Final Thoughts and Mutterings
This past week I picked up Mercenaries & Return to Castle Wolfeinstein (Tides of War) on the original XBOX. Good cheap fun and best of all 360 compatible. Right now I’m playing Doom on XBLA, yeah you read that right. I picked it up again and pushed myself through Episode 1 fairly easily. I’ve now moved halfway through the 2nd episode. I’m not sure about all 4, but I will at least finish the first two. I am also still playing Catan when I can get a decent network connection and a little bit of the single player in Phantasy Star Universe. I’ve had a couple of requests for links to old reviews in the past week. One for XIII (PS2) and one for Driver:Parallel Lines (PS2). The former was made by a new friend that I hope to see again and the latter was made by a friend I see all the beeping time. Here they are folks, enjoy.
Driver 4: Parallel Lines (PS2) Review
XIII (PS2) Review
As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)
