• 26Apr 13

  Getting Old...

  Just recently I bought myself a brand new PSP-3010, I know it is eight-years-old platform, my friends keep constantly reminding me of that with their little jokes, but truth be told I don't really care I'm wholeheartedly enjoying it I'm playing it a lot just like a kid with a new toy, in fact the day that I got my hand on the PSP I instantly reminded the day that I got my first Game Boy Color for my birthday. All this nostalgia got me wondering why am I enjoying so much to play such an outdated console and why all the game's news sound so bad for me? I think it might be because I'm getting old.

  

  What I really enjoy about the games that I'm playing on my PSP is how everything is so simple. You buy the game and the whole experience, you have a good time, follow a good story and just don't have to worry about a DLC, firmware upgrade, patches, trophies, DRM, internet connection, or anything. Is just game in it's most pure form, much like reading book all you have to do is focus and let the media absorb you in a whole different world. The feeling of getting lost in an activity is something that I really appreciate, and playing CLANNAD and FFVII on my PSP without having to receive any friend request, message or trophy notification popping on my screen helped to see games again in it's true form that I love so much.

  Don't get me wrong I'm not asking for developers to go back and remove all the modern elements from their games. Many of the things that I see as mere distractions or purposeless are perceived by others, maybe by the majority, as advancements and improvements. Games, as every other media, needs to improve and go forward even if sometimes through wrong or dubious paths, it has to learn from it's mistakes and evolve that is why I'm saying that I'm getting old and not that the industry is going to the wrong direction. Although through a more rational position I can see the point of all these innovations and social features I just can't get used to that, I'm the guy that have piles and shelves full of books that could easily fit in one e-reader.

  

  I'm sure that this new generation of gamers won't have issues with all these social games and modern games features and games as whole will keep going forward even if that means alienating a minority, old-fashioned people like me. That also doesn't mean that I will stop gaming is just that while kids from around the world kill each other on their newest consoles with ultra graphics I'll be in my living room playing my old games with my friends.

  

   

  • Posted Apr 26, 2013 5:51 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 19Apr 13

  It's a whole new place with a brand new attitude But we Still Gotta Catch'em All

  

  It has been almost fifteen years since Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue became available for North Americans and seventeen years if you are Japanese, in this case you'll probably know the game as Pocket Monster: Red and Pocket Monsters: Green, and since then the series has become more than a game or Anime it has become a part of pop culture and something very SPECIAL to the fans that have been growing with the franchise.

  In those last years since the first versions we, Pokémon fans, passed through 5 generations and three different platforms(Game Boy, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS) and very soon we will be reaching Generation VI and the fourth platform, Nintendo 3DS. Personally, I enjoyed every adventure across the Pokémon world, every time that I was shrunk, every time that I had to choose between three Pokémons that would follow through my journey. Starting a Pokémon game is something inexplicable appealing for me. But even though I enjoyed all core Pokémon games that were released, since generation III I started to feel that the series was starting to lose it's magic, again, I liked Generation III, IV and V but every time that finished each game I felt that I had a good experience but that it could be so much more than that, so I thought about a few things that I think would be awesome to see in future games of the franchise and that would restore part of the magic that was lost.

  1-I don't wanna wear a cap!

  One of the joys of the Pokémon games, and this probably applies to a lot of RPGs, is the chance to feel that you are part of that world and that the wild pidgey you just caught is your pokémon, so why not let the player create their own avatars? Give the player a chance to build a character that he or she likes, give them a chance to be unique individual in this pokémon world and when they meet with their friends for a battle they won't have to see their own clones or a random avatar of a NPC they will see their friends in the pokémon world. Give us Customizable Characters!

  2-It is time to be Global!

  Travel through one or two regions is cool but with the current hardware you don't have to be limited to one you can have all in one game. Sevii Islands, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova don't have to be separated in different cartridges, let us beat the 40 gym leaders, defeat the elites and dethrone all champions! Create a story that wrap-up these regions together to make a complete world.

  3-I wanna be the very best like NO ONE ever was!

  Choose between Fire, Water or Grass is basically the only choice you have to make in the game I think it is time for the writers of the series to give us more modern RPGs elements, If a NPC ask my help and I say no I don't want the text enter in loop until I say yes. I want to have the freedom to be bad like Ghetsis and command my own Villainous Team, try to be the very best like Ash or maybe just try to become the very best like no one ever was.

  4-Tell Me a Story.

  Start a journey, defeat the bad guys and win the league. That is basically the plot of all Pokémon games even B/W and B2/W2 fall in this formula and I believe it is time to step-up. Tell me a interesting story it doesn't have to be deep or over emotional, I don't want to see pokémon becoming Tomb Raider, but make it at least funny give some personality to characters make them feel like unique virtual individuals that you can love, hate or at least relate to. Implementing side quests to tell a story about a gym leader, nurse Joy or any other NPC would give the player time to know and feel something about the character.

  And make better dialogues I don't wanna hear things like "Hi! I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!".

  5-What is Beauty?

  The art style is maybe the most delicate of the subjects that will be talking about on this post. All of the pokémons on the games have been using the anime illustrations as a base and there is nothing wrong with that but I think that would be very interesting to see the work of a new Illustrator. Look at the art of various Illustrators on the Pokémon TCG, look at the amazing fan-arts all over the internet! These artists have brilliant ways to see the Pokémon world and I think that new visuals based on the vision of a different artist would give the game a fresh feel that it needs so much! Can you Imagine how different it would be to see hand drawn scenarios and characters like in the King of Fighters XII and XIII or maybe something more like Bastion. The possibilities are limitless!

   

  For me these changes would bring back the magic of an incredible series and make me wanna wear my running shoes and ride my bike through this fantasy world but what brings me down is that those changes will probably never come. Pokémon X/Y will probably be a good game but when I see videos of the game I still have the feeling that it will be more of the same, a good game with a solid established formula but that also could be so much more than that.

   

   

   

  • Posted Apr 19, 2013 5:38 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 21Mar 13

  New Purchases

  Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2

  

  Final Fantasy XIII-2 Collector's Edition

  

  The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection

  

  Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten

  

  • Posted Mar 21, 2013 3:16 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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