Untapped Resources

Have you ever been looking for a game? I mean looking and searching and struggling to find so much that you call every BestEBGameCity on a weekly basis? And then you’re out getting something else Sears and there it is, like a fifteen copies of what you have been trying to find for months.

The February after the 360 launched I couldn’t get my hands on one, part of the problem with living in New York, I suppose. A friend in Virginia told me there were at least six in the Wal-Mart in his town. Anyway, one faithful day me and my former roommate went out to brave the cold determined to find me an Xbox 360. We went into 4 stores before finding one in Virgin Megastore of all places. (for those unfamiliar with Virgin they are mostly known for their extremely large music and movie selection. They have stuff you just cant find anywhere else.) Anyway, certainly not known for their games collection, they were sitting on three core systems. I hesitated, wanting the wireless controller and hard drive. As I said no, my roommate surprised me and purchased it. Then we spent the next TWO full days trying to find a hard drive for the damn thing.

Anyway, Virgin has surprised me by having other games that are sold out everywhere else and even though I know its there and it has a tendency to have what I want, I still forget about it because of its music and movie roots.

So that was long winded to get to where I’m going. I have been looking for Phoenix Wright: Ace Atourney Justice For All for months. I check the GameStop near me just about every day, and I call the rest of the ones in Manhattan far to often, looking for a used copy since I know it’s out of print. I’ve checked the big blue guys, the big red guys, and even a Wal-Mart in Georgia. Nothing.

Last night I stumbled into Virgin while trying to kill some time waiting for a call from former roommate who bought a 360. They had this 10 dollar DVD sale so I thought I’d look around. Like a magnet I was pulled away from the movies into the comfort that is the game section.

Hmm, BioShock demo, Sakte. demo, Forza demo, … oh DS games. At first look it wasn’t a large selection. To standing racks, not very tall. I went around to the other side looking for the letter P. I found L, M, N, O, R… wait. R? No P, no Q. I turned to go, but checked again. And there it was. Six copies. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All. I re read it. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All. Yeah that’s it. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All. Ok, this SO isn’t the first one. I scooped it up and brought it to the counter.

I was so excited I actually played it on the subway on the way back to my apartment last night, something I never do. This was totally worth it.

The Second P Stands For Portable

You can call me a lot of things. Some say I’m bias against Sony, but it seems every time they try and take one step foreword, they end up taking three or four backwards instead.

This time I’m talking about the new PSP; PSP Slim, or PSP2000 depending on who’s talking about it. Personally, after the year 1999 I don’t think anyone should put the 2000 moniker on anything. It was cool in the 70’s and 80’s, but not so much today.

The biggest problem I have with the new PSP is the video out feature. Video out? On a handheld?

Now, I can almost understand the GBA attachment to the GameCube. If you didn’t have a GBA but still wanted to play Minish Cap or, Super Mario Land I can ALMOST see the point of that. But actually hooking up your portable system to a television? There’s a name for that; and its console.

The PSP was touted as a portable PS2. Even its abbreviation confuses me when I say it sometimes. But once you attach a PSP to a television it no longer becomes a PSP. At that point it’s just a PS. Besides, hooking your PSP, which has a 3.5inch screen up to a 32inch HDTV probably isn’t going to look very good. There’s going to be some major loss of quality there, plus, you’re still using the thing as a controller. The awkwardly flat, single analog sticked PSP is your controller. And let’s be honest, no handheld makes a good controller.

Sony already doesn’t understand how to play with the portable market, including way more things then are necessary into the PSP, when all gamers really want are good games. And not good games that I need to sit and play for hours at a time, like most of their library. Do you think the reason why the new PSP has video out is because people complained about staring at the little screen for so long, so instead of making games that work in short trips (on a bus or subway), it was decided that plugging it into a television was a much better solution.

So I say, why stop at just video out? The PSP has wi-fi. Why not just allow users to connect their PS3 controller to the PSP. That way they can connect their PSP to the television and play games using an actual controller. That’s a genius idea. Wait, what did the second 'p' stand for?

With Out Fail

Why, why WHY?! Why do game makers do this? Is there some unwritten goddamn rule that says no one can make a game all the way through to completion with out having one extremely shitty and obnoxious mission? Seriously this shit pisses me off.

I am playing BioShock. It is one of the best games I have ever played. It has quickly moved into my top 5 games of all time. That said, I am severely disappointed with the current mission I am in the midst of. I am going to say this slowly, so everyone can read:

I. Hate. Escort. Missions

Was that clear? Do I need to repeat myself? Cause I will if you need me to.

What drives a game designer, especially one who made a rock solid game for - thus far - 12 hours, to attach something weak to you that you need to protect for a certain amount of time and or distance? It’s bullshit. And it turns me right off of a game.

I really enjoyed Command And Conquer on the 360. But I reached a point where I had to escort some people somewhere and just got hung up and never went back. Same thing happened with the Rogue Squadron games on the GameCube. You’d be shooting stuff, and then all of a sudden you have to escort the slowest moving convoy in the history of the world across some desert. That sucks, nobody wants to do that.

Too many games fall victim to this nefarious trap. If I was running a game studio I would place signs on everyone’s computer and in the break room that said NO ESCORT MISSIONS.

Ugh. Back into the breach.

Control Issues; Watching Games

It is widely known that I have control issues. I like to be in charge of things, and if I’m not, I like to think things won’t work out as well as they could have. I’m totally stroking my ego here, but, when faced with a problem I can usually come up with a fairly logical solution rather quickly. I can think on my feet, probably due to all the puzzle solving I’ve done in Zelda titles.

Why am I telling you all this. Well, there’s a segue coming up so bear with. I am very bad at watching people play video games in a single player context. When I was younger, on the shared Nintendo I may have spoken about, I could never stand to watch my older cousins play through Super Mario Bros, or Punch Out or any game, really, because I would do it differently and it irked me. Once I had my own system things changed and I got to play when I wanted and then I was in the drivers seat, so to speak.

Lately I’ve been playing through BioShock at my new apartment with my new roommates watching. One of them, Matthew, (former writer of one article ever here on this site) has pretty much been with me the entire length of the game and was as shocked and speechless as I was when I reached the twist. Now, since I know how much I hate watching other people game, I thought it spoke very highly of the story, and the story telling of BioShock that someone else could sit down with me for probably 9 of the 12 hours I’ve put into this game so far. The story is so compelling and you really get a sense of the character and all the story elements even if you aren’t the one playing. I still maintain that I could never watch someone else game, because of the control aspect…

And then Matt downloaded the skate. demo (its obnoxious that there is a period at the end of their game, makes it look like the sentence ended, but it didn’t). I have watched him play it for hours. I have no desire to play this game, at all. But I sit and I watch, a lot.

There is something about this game that makes me actually go into the living room now when I hear it starting. I am drawn to the sound. I’m baffled by the amount of time I spend sitting and watching digital skateboarders. Seriously this is crazy. My life as we know it may end on Monday when the full version of the game is picked up. I need to finish BioShock before then or it will never be complete.

Necessary?

I bought a 20 sided dice this weekend. I was at DragonCon, and it just happened. I think it is something that everyone should own at some point in their life. It kind of solidifies your status in the kingdom of nerd. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I have one and that's what's important.