The Queue: Ninja Gaiden 2

So, last week I finished Ninja Gaiden 2, a game that caused me a good deal of strife.  On one hand, it’s more Ninja Gaiden–with bizarre art direction, framerate and camera issues.

On the other hand, it’s More Ninja Gaiden and it has the best combat out there.  

So the question is, do I penalize the game for the framerate issues which make part of the game incredibly frustrating?  Or do I want to praise it for being an incremental upgrade to one of my top games of all time.  

This made a rental the ideal way to experience this game, and I found it fulfilling, but at the same time I would have been upset had I paid $60 for it.

Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway Review

It always struck me as odd that Brother’s in Arms Hell’s Highway took place during the ill fated Arnhem offensive. The last major Axis victory of WWII proved appropriate to the somber tone of Gearbox’s third entry in the Brothers franchise.

The story picks up in the middle of things, with characters already established in the first two games, and it threw out a quick previously on Brothers in Arms before the fighting begins. It had a good amount of cut scenes to tell the story of the squad’s daily life throughout operation Market Garden.

Games are like Porn?

Newsweek’s excellent level up blog ran this insightful column today which likens the cultural status of video games to that of porn. It’s a comparison I’m hesitant to admit I’ve considered from time to time.

The first thing he points out is that it’s quite possible for most people to completely avoid contact with videogames. Unless you watch a very specific set of channels and programming, sports, star trek etc. you’lll never see an ad for games, if you don’t read a similar spectrum of magazines you’ll seldom see an ad for games in print.

The Skies over Baghdad have been illuminated

An iconic symbol of the early 90s Gulf War was retired recently. As a military buff who grew up around the early gulf War this was a plane that captured my imagination during the first Gulf War. I remember those early days of the Gulf War where AAA and SAMs lighting up the sky and the stealths flew into Baghad and dropped bombs without a single loss.

Kids talk GTA

What they play, a website dedicated to family gaming advice, posted this the other day; a list of how kids are going to get GTA. I found the response to it really amusing, including the standard “My dad will buy me anything” and the bizarre “The Doorman in our building is buying a stack of them and we’ll buy it from him.

Something wicked this way comes?

Every gamer I talk to these days has one name on their mind. Grand Theft Auto IV, it’s one of the biggest games of the year and it’s bound to be the subject of tremendous controversy. I’m certain, that some news stations are going to be running their typical anti-game screeds about how these games turn perfectly normal children into mass murderers. These are of course ridiculous over generalizations and simplifications of very difficult issues.

The World is Flat(book review)

I finished The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman on audio book last weekend and it took me some time to get my thoughts in order on the book. The book is a thougtful look at globalization and doesn’t veer to far towards extreme positions.

Pour one out for GFW Magazine

Well, we lost a good one today, Games For Windows Magazine, was rolled up into 1up’s online coverage. The question has to be asked, is print in serious trouble long term? I mean obviously it’s not over today; it won’t be over tommorrow but is this just the vanguard of seeing more and more publications throwing a for sale sign up on their print presence.

Featured Humorist–Penny Arcade

Before i start working on this featured humorist, first a boiler plate disclaimer. Some of this stuff can get a bit on the blue side. I won’t highlight anything especially outrageous but if you really hate curse words or immature jokes then what’s usually thought of as funny on the internet may not be for you.

I first got turned on to Penny-Arcade when I was a senior in high school, at the time the concept of a regular webcomic was really novel. The first strip I ever read was your girlfriend, tribes and you, which a fellow nerd pointed out to me when we were supposed to be working on some homework.

WoWcast #3–Alternate worlds

There I am, standing on the Dark Portal, where way back in 1994 the Orcs first poured into Azeroth in Warcraft 1. They won the first war in the original game  but two years later Warcraft 2 The Tides of Darkness came out, and in that game and that expansion the Humans with new Dwarven and Elven Allies defeated the Orcs and drove them back to the Portal.  Afterwards  the humans went through the Portal and defeated the Orcs in Draenor as well.  Six years later in Warcraft 3  we discovered the role of Daemons in the conflict and that the Orcs weren’t the true enemy but the Burning Legion.

Now this probably all sounds like a load of gobbly-guk to  someone who’s not into the backstory of the Warcraft universe.  I bring it up thought to illustrate that World of Warcraft is more than a game, it’s not monopoly, it’s a sort of alternate universe  which is filled with players.  The game has an elaborate history and backstory, which gives the game a lot of character.  As I walked up to the Dark Portal It evoked memories of going through the Portal in the Warcraft 2 expansion in 1996; as I walked through and saw the huge Daemons fighting in front of the portal it reminded me of Warcraft 3’s cinematic climax to the Orc campaign.  A lot of non-gamers probably think of video games like some sort of mindless entertainment for nerds and kids; and while it’s that too there it’s also a tool for creating worlds and stories with the player instead of to the reader/viewer.