So I got this link on the Soapbox:

http://www.youdontknowjack.com/node/47


It's adictive as hell. I want a new version. For the Wii.

And it's awesome. But as far as awesome goes it's also incredibly flawed to the core. For every good thing I can say, I can say a bad thing too. Okay, not quite that many bad things, but I came up with a list of 11 that REALLY bother me.

1)Almost no features outside of the games are COMPLETE
2)The web browser is practically broken, I can never enter info into text fields in normal view, there is no double clicking for web 2.0 apps.
3)The use of SD cards. It is so obtuse and unpleasant that it's impossible to work with. You CAN'T transfer a save game for a game you haven't played on the Wii, you can't load from the cards, so that means that all that they're good for outside of media(and they're not GREAT for that, see further down) is STORAGE. There is no point in even trying to bring games over to a friends house. It would literally be easier to lug your whole wii and plug it in to his plugs.
4)You cannot back out of a GC game, you have to turn off the console and turn it back on.
5)Epilepsy warning every time you turn the system on. WE ****ING GET IT.
6)2 out of four of my controllers have burned out lights at the bottom.
7)The Classic Controller.
8)Lack of adjustment options for more accurate screen tracking of the wiimote. Heck, even some of the games let you do this. Legend of Zelda has a system that gauges how big your monitor is based on the size of the sensor bar compared to the screen.
9)No media center for universal use of music. Why can't I just play any music any time? The 360 can do it. Just last weekend I beat the Corpser to Mad World by Gary Jules. How cool is that? The Wii CAN do it, it has the hardware, so why CAN'T it do it?
10)No saving images that I've modified, no sending images to other people.
11)Video has to be uncompressed, and shows up in HORRIBLE resolution anyway.


The Wii is REALLY REALLY good. But these details, these little nitpicks, these tiny things that just GRATE on my nerves... these will keep me from loving it for forever like I do my DS(best gaming hardware ever).

What's really sad, is half these features wouldn't bother me if they weren't included at all, it's that they're included half assed.

I mean, certainly I believe that a console SHOULD play music now. I mean, seriously, custom soundtracks blew me away and finding new music to sync to action scenes is a thrill beyond belief, but the DS got away with it, and the could too if it cut it out completely, but the fact is, they put enough functionality there that it really bugs me to know that it's just a few lines of code away from being what I want and what I need to say that the Wii is better than the 360 and the PS3 in every single concievable tangible way.

A long time ago, I had to come to terms with a decision about how I went about my daily life. I had to decide where my money went in December. What makes this decision actually tough is that it's easy to buy all the things I want. So it makes getting gifts feel almost meaningless unless it's something so big that it makes me feel guilty. I mean, even if I don't do that, I still have some money to spend on other people.

But in the past few years December has brought unending joy... in the latter half. I implemented a policy, I don't buy anything for myself in December. It feels good, sort of, aside from the self deprevation. I mean, everything works out wonderful, except on years like this.

Games I wish I could just flat out blow the cash on this very second:

Star Wars: Lethal Alliance for DS
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin DS
Murder on the Orient Express PC
Elebits Wii
Metal Slug Anthology Wii
Mazes of Fate GBA
Scurge: Hive DS
A copy of Temple of Elemental Evil to play at work...
Heck, I haven't actually bought EITHER of the lego star wars games yet, and I want both for gamecube


I'm going to end the list there, after that it just gets silly, because that's kindof how far I take this, not just video games. Anywho... I'm super excited about what I've gotten for my friends and family and I hope they each enjoy what I got for them.

No Wii tonight. Walmart was sold out. At least I didn't wait in line for it to be sold out, or wait in line all day just to save having to wait to get it in the morning.

Such joy! I have my perfect little Onyx DS lite, and it is as beautiful as I imagined. Metroid pinball is my pride for it, my high score in the vacinity of 16 million points for multimap play. I was genuinely surprised by how purely good that title is.

I also have Mage Knight DS for it. Maybe 2 copies because of my haste. Oh well, a christmas present for a strategy loving fan.

Star Trek for the DS is next... but for now I'll be playing Gothic II: Night of the Raven in wait for Gothic 3.

I can already hear the people talking about how Gothic 3 borrows from Oblivion... people who never played Gothic 1 or 2. Oblivion is a really good game. Gothic is still better, managing a more involving story, more connected characters, and a better realized game world. Despite everything Oblivion did right, it still feels like a desert, and it's still littered with load zones. But they're getting closer.

After Gothic 3, the next big RPG(ish) title on my list is Bioshock. Good heavens, the video for that is downright incredible on every single level.

I’m in want with the DS Lite. Those bright screens, and the excellent redesign in every single aspect of the system is excellent. I absolutely love it, and the price point is perfect, it’s right where the DS was before they started shelving them. It reminds me of the major improvement between the GBA and the GBA SP. I absolutely loved the SP, though if I had tried to play a GBA before the SP came out I would have been totally turned off because of the experience ruining flaws with the hardware, such as the dim screen.

Hardware wise, let this be a lesson, a remembered note, visibility is KING. I want to play my games in broad daylight while waiting in lines or riding places when friend is driving and listening to music. The brighter screens are what really sell this little piece of ass, even though a lot of people probably care more about the redesign of the rest of the body on the DS. Frankly, I liked the look of the original DS, I mean, seriously, who defines what’s sexy in hardware? I mean, case mods are cool and all, but who is retarded enough to spend 300 on gaming hardware because it looks pretty?

Silliness aside, I had a hunch this system would do great things when I first heard it was going to have a touch screen. My mind instantly exploded with possibilities, and I don’t mean absurdities. I mean basic possibilities with massive potential that have finally begun to be exploited about 6 to 10 months ago. It’s getting better though, there is a full-fledged war-game with hexagon tiles and complexity. What does the DS still need, though? There is room to improve.

Multiplayer. Metroid Prime: Hunters has such a deep robust multiplayer environment that it competes with PC FPS games, coming up short to only the very best. Problem? I can’t take advantage of it with anything but bots. The online matchmaking only lets you do that if you have DS friend. So, add random people, you say. Well, how many random people play more than casually? What are the odds that because of the poor showing in friends rooms that random people will be looking for random people instead of friends, since you can only do one or the other?

It’s better than Mario Kart, but not by much. Both fun, no doubt, but they feel so limited to what their online experiences could be, and this is FAR outside of what experiences you can make and still preserve people’s safety online. Take a look at the best PC games and their multiplayer, the definitive online experience, and the largest user base for ideas to making matchmaking easier. Sure, keep the random game finding feature, but open up the ability for players to go looking for each other, to join game rooms and servers where they can see other players waiting for them, regardless of the skill level. Add the ability to add friends in session instead of just during the few menu moments. Give all players the option to define games and limits, and game types, and not just “Friends” who may or may not ever actually be online.

They will learn, it’s coming. If it doesn’t come from first party games, third party will follow. But it will come, the system has already bloomed.

Okay, so I've been invited to help start a union. Heavy stuff. I don't know if I'm really up to the challenge of making a union worthwhile without begging for attention and the like. It's a strategy game union. I wonder if he intends to limit it to RTS, because if not, I am rather ready for a group to play Heroes of Might and Magic V with.
And if only RTS is on the menu, then I still drool like an idiot to even contemplate the possibility of playing Emperor: Battle for Dune with other players. Certainly the best RTS I've ever played due to the intensive nature of actual before battle strategy mixing into the actual battle strategy. Shame, though, if I remember correctly. I'm not certain that Emperor has a serious multiplayer element. Oh well, I know there are RTS games out there I like.
The first thing I am going to do is poll what games the members play. Then, randomly arranging matches. I don't think it would be unreasonable to go out of our way to work on having the union provide the service of matchmaking.

I'm always forgetting things, and I ought to write this here, so that I may not forget it again for a very long time. Gamespotting was a very good thing. I came weekly, fanatically almost, to read the opinions of every editor, I found it extremely worth my time in that it offered a lot of insight and inspired a lot of internal debate for me, and gave me a lot of link fodder, and even introduced me to the forums at 3d Buzz where I spent several years time on the forums making good friends.

This is the best Gamespotting editorial ever. I loved every minute of it. It was both intriguing, genuine, and at the very same time satirical to its core.

Whenever I remember Gamespotting, I remember that article, and I happened upon it so easily when in the past I've spent hours digging it up because of my current rank, Minus World.

Curious to the meaning, I did a search on it, and it led me to Gamespotting 87, and at the top of the list, the article I remember so very well. I post the link here, so that maybe I wont forget it so very easily in the future. Here's hoping that I remember where I kept it.

Dreamfall: Longest Journey 2 has been out for the better part of the week now. No EB, Gamestop, or Gamecrazy near me has one for me to buy. No pre-order deal was offered, so I find myself unwilling to trade cash for nothing since I know there's no way the demand is so high that I can't get one for somewhere. Walmart will have it in half a week, but I know that the major game retailers won't ever have it unless it's pre-ordered.

What is happening here when the needs of the hardcore gamer are better served by Walmart or Best Buy? It is extremely maddening to be punished for not pre-ordering games for which the demand is not nearly high enough to warrant paying the cash just to know it will be there waiting for me. I would rather buy it online, if they don't have the game I want, when I want it, I will go buy. Here is the part that really stings, the one time in the last several years where there was an actual need to pre-order due to scarcity, the XBOX 360, it wasn't enough to pre-order. No one got them anyway.

That is the major flaw in the system, that is what really tears the concept of pre-ordering. It guarantees sales of sub par products prior to review and release, allows companies like Gamestop, EB Games, and Gamecrazy to pocket money with nothing in return at all because of their blackmail practice of not carrying games that are not pre-ordered, and fails to genuinely protect about the sort of actual product shortage that it was initially put in place because of.

It is infuriating to be so ill treated by the industry I have invested so much time and money into. It is infuriating not to be able to go and buy the games that I want, games that I have been waiting for. It is infuriating to be left to order my games online when I want them, paying extra to have them shipped to me, and all of this because so many people are so happy to buy games before they come out, more often than not investing in games that are becoming increasingly sub par. Why? Because they get all their sales before the game is released based on the hype of the industry builds, with press refusing to show anything but the good of a game before release.

With more and more game sales pressured to be made prior to release and review, accountability falls harder and harder onto previews to give bad impressions to let gamers know what they're getting before both games and gaming press become irrelevant because of a stung consumer base.

About fifteen years ago adventure games were king. The many variety of quests available from Lucasarts and Sierra, among many others, ruled the day. Their detailed stories, animated characters and environments were rich and involving. Adventure games mixed character, and narrative that has rarely been matched by any other genre, as well as a level of character design and originality that drew in audiences and brought them to satisfying conclusions.

Here, now, the stage is set for the largest commercial success of its time, Myst, a record breaking game. Myst is compelling, it has beautiful dreamy styles that are comforting and are accompanied by ambient music that draws players in. Few games were made with so few resources, and so small a team, and more importantly, were of such a remarkable commercial success.

Forays into the adventure game genre began to mimic Myst, along with its divergences that separated it from traditional games. The slow disappearance of the genre followed shortly after. Without the sub par work of startup companies, and the mimicking work they provided, the popularity seemed to dwindle even more. Ultimately the market appeared, falsely, to be unable to support the genre any longer.

In a final step, even the largest and most successful producers of adventure games simply ceased producing them, canceling one at a time, until no more were being made on any level. A few still get made, one every few years, some even okay, but Myst destroyed the adventure game.

Like adventures, RPG games are loaded with difficulties. Branching endings take time to write and program, branching and significant dialog takes real artistic and literary investment and involvement. Creating open ended, yet functional, systems is consuming work that requires background, experience, or licenses. The more options you give the player, the more difficult to make the game, in its entirety.

However, despite these realities, the genre flourished. Companies like Black Isle lead the way with groundbreaking games that pushed the boundaries. Hundreds of companies followed, cloning the successful products. They failed, like they always do, but they drive the market share. At this point, along comes Diablo, a new approach that involved less effort in every conceivable point in development. While maintaining superficial similarities, Diablo offered simplified mechanics, a linear and branchless story with no decision-making or player freedom, as well as simplified dialog.

After that there is only the matter of drawing lines with a crayon. Steady decrease in RPG releases over the years, large numbers of Diablo clones at first, and then a slow following decline when they don’t sell at all due to poor quality and direct relation to a genre so tied to a single game that comparison is inescapable. When the time comes, almost nothing is left but the rare releases over time, entire years passing without so much as a single entry into the genre.

That, folks, is how Diablo killed the RPG.