Thursday, July 31, 2008

Paper or plastic? "This blog is kindda sad"

Never nice to hear bag things about your own creation, but I can see my reader(s) complaints about this place being worthless. Doesn't help that I don't have much to report in trying to avoid this being a current news blog, but since I must conform to please the crazy masses here I go:

The Box - got a bunch of music cd reviews to finish over the next week and a bit. Now without a pair of working headphones I'm denied the possibility to listen to these tunes on the go so now I must sit my ass in front of my computer and listen through the crummy speakers. No idea when (or if) they will be in print form, most likely they will be up on the online version of The Box magazine, which I never pay attention to, sorry Jade. Also going to see advance screening of Pineapple Express this Monday, and luckily I don't have to waste time reviewing it.

Eco Gamer - Yet another review game straight from 2K in the form of Go! Deigo! Go! Safari Adventure has arrived at the door of gaming cheapasses. Wont get a chance to play through this until this weekend, but expect the review to go up sometime in August. In other review news, reviews of My Pokemon Ranch (WiiWare) and Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) should be next on the list of reviews going up. Seem to be getting positive feedback on last couple of reviews so I must be doing something right, when I figure out what exactly it is then I'll be sure to put it into all my writing.

R18+ Rating Debate - Sadly I got out of bed to watch that Insult to gamers discussion on Australia's lack of an R18+ rating. Unbeknown to me, the poor sucker who was dragged in to ask the question was Joab from Bigpond GameArena whom I have become friends with annoyed and added on Facebook in a bleak attempt to network with these gaming journalist masses. If anyone cares about MY opinion on this issue, I say we wait it out until our generation grows up and become the suited twats of government and we have a new whipping child to cover the asses of neglectful parents everywhere. I personally nominate a revival of the tabletop gaming scene to be blamed for the next decades worth of school shootings, drug overdoses and random suicides.

Guess thats all for now, I'm outta here to go cry in a corner about a single person saying this place is shite!

Cheers

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Price Is WRONG!

While I can brag about being super lucky with contests and charitable donations, when it comes to actual bargain bin/sale hunting I am one unlucky son of a bitch!

Going back last year to the one day Big W sale just following the release of Guitar Hero 3 on Wii (game+guitar for $98), arrived 20 minutes after store opened because I waited for mates before heading to the store. According to the store clerk, they had lines of people buying up the bundles as soon as the store opened. The end result was me running through 4 EB Games, 4 JB Hifis, 2 Dick Smiths, 1 Target, 1 K Mart and a Myer. Since then Guitar Hero has been dead to me and I haven't looked back!


This year hasn't been any better. Going through 3 K Mart stores trying to find Scarface: The World Is Yours on Wii (marked down to $2o) only to find every store was sold out within a day of the sale being on. In the end I gave in and paid an extra few bucks to get it from JB for a passable $30. It was during this time that Dick Smith decided to throw a little clearance sale on, with games on all platforms down to crazy prices! All I wanted was a copy of Phoenix Wright Justice For All ($5) and every Dick Smith I went to didn't have any copies left, even the stores that claimed to have stock according to the store website (went to the Preston store 3 different days and never found a copy there!)

This week I'm hoping to have some slack cut for me. While I don't expect to find a copy of The Dog Island at Target ($15 starting Thursday) going by stock I saw today, I'm hoping I can find one of these rumored $24 Nintendo games at K Mart tomorrow. Mario Strikers Charged, Endless Ocean, Advance Wars Days of Ruin or Batallion Wars 2 would all be fantastic for me. While it is likely I will find no stock once again I have to have some hope, after all this is the same K Mart that sold me DK Jungle Beat w/Bongo controllers for $29 a couple years ago. Wish me luck you ignorant masses!

UPDATE: Looks like I got lucky with this K Mart once again. Found 2 copies of Battalion Wars 2 in stock (of course I only grabbed one for myself) so I got something for my efforts!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Moogle at work Down Under

Been a few days since the last post, kinda makes me feel like I've started neglecting my own child when I realize how little attention I show this blog. Probably a good thing that I changed my mind about getting a dog last year, lord knows what would happen to it now under my care. Anyways, onto the bragging part of this post. New issue of The Box is now available at Box Hill TAFE campuses, complete with my own contribution. A tad disappointed that two of the four original people who jumped on this idea have disappeared, with the other guy potentially not caring about this anymore. But then I remember that people are vile creatures never to be trusted. For anyone who stumbles across this post and has no access to The Box magazine, here is the article in raw text form.

Developing the game Down Under

It’s easy to ignore that little land mass down under if you are a gamer. After all, it’s not exactly clear what Australia has contributed to the gaming community. Even today, the market in Australia for publishers is still undersized compared to other regions. However, the truth is Australia has grown from small groups porting software into a considerable region for developer talent.

Going back to the early 80s with games such as The Hobbit developed by Melbourne House up to the recent award winning Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords by Interactive Studios, people would not realize many of their favourite games come from Australian developer studios. Many of our industry greats can go unnoticed even in their own homeland, with the exception of a few games.

Titles such as Ty the Tasmanian Tiger take a somewhat satirical view of Australian culture, featuring an Australian figure as the protagonist with almost insulting Aussie accents. With the addition of our Australian Rules football games (which do not see international releases) these are the most identifiable Australian games. While we can take obvious credit for these accomplishments, many would be shocked to learn that 1985 fighting game Way of the Exploding Fist was Australian made.

What would it take to make games truly identifiable as Australian? An Underbelly themed sandbox game? Okami redone with Aboriginal styled art? Or maybe an Australian themed Mario game with mushrooms replaced by meat pies, bloopers replaced by sharks and princess peach replaced with a true Aussie Sheila living off her 3 baby bonus payments?

Maybe if developers find a way to represent the Australian lifestyle in video games, we won't have to point to a talking extinct animal as our representative. We may not be ready for Fat Pizza: The Game but it would be a step in the right direction in identifying Australian games.

Monday, July 14, 2008

If I'm so lucky, why can't I find a Brawl matchup online!?!?

I must have had a lot of good karma coming my way this year, since despite being an unemployed student with no income, I still find a way to come into new video games at a regular basis. Once again, thanks to the charity of the folks over at Aussie-Nintendo have picked me as one of the three contest winners, this time for Guitar Hero: On Tour on DS.

Couple that with Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness from Kotaku Aus and Assassins Creed DS from A-N this has been one of my luckiest years when it comes to contests. Also my charitable donations of Ty 2 and my old phat PS2 seem to have granted me even MORE good karma with donations of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories and Super Smash Bros. Brawl from some generous gamers. When my takeover of the world is complete, these people shall enjoy quick and painless deaths!

Now that I'm just about done with the single player portion of Brawl (9 hours is too bloody long for something this repetitive!) I should look to the online options to keep me entertained this week. However, I grow bored of beating up that punching bag for 10 minutes while no one joins my online match. I thought this was supposed to be the BIGGEST online game for the Wii, yet I have had no luck finding an online match. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow...

Saturday, July 12, 2008

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Memories of the previous Connection Tours fill my mind with casual groups picking up a Wiimote for the first time with Wii Sports and other simplistic fun games. With the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo have set up yet another Connection Tour in Australia. In place of the go-active Wii Sports audience, this tour is more catered towards the self-titled ‘hardcore’ gamers.

At opening time, the line of gamers was set with one goal; kick some ass in Super Smash Bros. Brawl! With over 100 entries the Brawl tournament was the main attraction of the day, drawing people to their controller of choice. With four individual Wii systems running copies of Brawl, it was the popular choice for all age groups.

Along with Brawl, the list of games was quite a step up compared to previous tours. With the notable disappearance of Wii Fit and Wii Sports, the floor was cleared for new highlights including Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Samba De Amigo and Emergency Mayhem. The DS also saw a software roster update, adding to the growing list of Touch Generation games along with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Guitar Hero: On Tour. Here’s a breakdown on my impressions of each new game:

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith – This is my first time using the Wii’s Les Paul controller and I gotta say that I am not a fan of it. Maybe it was these guitars themselves, but the strum bar was flimsy and whammy bar was loose. Outside of controller complaints, this is the same ugly dummed down Guitar Hero 3 people got last year redone with Aerosmith tunes. It won’t win over any new fans, but if you didn’t like the difficulty curve of GH3, Aerosmith may be just right for you

Samba De Amigo – Never played the original game so I have no idea how this compares, but it was a fun game that seems to fit the Wii (or a pair of maracas) perfectly. Only tried a couple songs, but the controls seem to work perfectly so no complaints to be had from me.

Guitar Hero: On Tour – 26 songs isn’t really worth the high price point for Australians, but price aside this is a really well done game. The peripheral is made with small hands in mind, so people with hands bigger than 8 year olds may not want to strap themselves into the device. I don’t know if it’s a good thing that this impressed me more than the Aerosmith game, but it’s a great attempt at bringing the Guitar Hero series to new platforms.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood – I wasn’t paying much attention to this game before, but after sampling a bit of the gameplay myself I’m ready to give this game a solid chance upon release. Functional combat mechanics, clean presentation and branching storylines all help to show off that Bioware can make a great game regardless of platform. Still skeptical about the Sonic universe being suitable for a decent story however, and that will probably never change.

Swag was on the light side this year with most quiz prizes consisting of Guitar Hero caps and Pokemon figurines. The top 4 finalists of the Brawl tournament all scored a free copy of the game for their skills, although I question why THEY would need a second copy since they were all of high caliber. All contestants in the tournament also had their photo taken and kept in nametags (although that barely qualifies as swag to most people)

In short, if you were thought this tour would be more of the same as last year then you were wrong. If at any point you try to question this, I would point you to the sea of nerds and otakus hardcore gamers viewing every round of the Super Smash Bros. tournament. The last fight came down to two brothers with a single stock life each, with the younger brother coming out on top thanks to a deadly smash ball and hammer combination.

And what did he get to show off his accomplishments? Along with Mario figurines and a copy of Brawl he received a friggin sweet trophy!


P.S - As much as I loathe Naruto, I still gotta give credit where its due. Props to this brawler for a decent attempt at the world's most annoying ninja.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Like an EA produced game, I'm back for more!

Thanks for the encouragement from the four people who have actually seen this page so far! Lets imagine a couple hundred zero's behind the four and move on.

So yea, having a hard time deciding what exactly goes in this place. It'd be pointless for this to turn into a news blog since there is more news out there than one man can process in time to re post before it is classified as 'gold' by the masses in their Internet forums. Will probably become my own breeding ground for insane ideas, sit-com worthy get rich quick schemes, and maybe (JUST MAYBE) original writing on games, industry overviews and chats with important gaming people.

Can't really complain with the list of options available to me at this point, and who knows. With my own page now I can pretend- sorry, ACT more professional when I'm out and about at various gaming events. Speaking of which, plan to check out the Nintendo Connection Tour at Southland this weekend to try out some new games, chat with some people and take PICTURES! While other better sites may have already gone through this at the other tour locations, this one is special because I say it is. So keep a look out for my posts on the weekend dammit!

P.S. Yes I know my post has nothing to do with Rock Band 2, and I don't plan to keep a sync between blog topic/pics in the future. Like the front page of the Mx I want to mess with peoples heads by providing a completely irrelevant subject matter to go along with my imagery. Get used to it ;)

New Kid on the Block

Woah, turns out it wasn't as scary as I thought to set up one of these things. I guess anything David Jaffe can do, I can do to! *runs of to make crazy game about cars and guns then remembers knows nothing about game programming*

Anyways, lets get to the good stuff! Right now, I'm nothing special. As much a narcissistic prick as I try to be, I'm inherently a good guy so it takes a bit more effort to stand out from the crowd. If you haven't read any of my earlier works from Economical Gamer I'll lay the ground work down for you. The goal in my reviews is not to say 'x game is shite!' or 'game y is teh ballz' but instead to inform readers about the games. What the consumer is getting, how does it work and most importantly, is it fun? I'm the first to admit these early reviews sound like ass kissing material, but I believe the gaming journalism world doesn't need another Ben 'Yahtzee' clone. Maybe one day I can ride aboard the S.S.Sellout and hang crap over 90% of the games I play, but until then I'll continue to pout my lips for the likes of the suits!

Since no one other than close friends and forum members are likely to find their way to this post I'll just end it here and say I hope to get the most out of this bloody thing. Welcomes all round! Now where's my fruit basket?