Videogames highlights - January 2010
I know, it has nearly become a kind of obsession yet I can’t help but talk about it: is the video games future within digital delivery? Bullshit. And so claims Sony after the disastrous “UMD-free” experiment of the awful PSP Go, hence this has to mean something. On the other hand console games (in this case PS3, but things aren’t any better on PC and Xbox 360) take up space, so much space, and downloading tens of Gigabytes before starting your game isn’t a practical thing and I don’t think it will be so soon. Meanwhile marketers and large dedicated chains say hello to the tiny weight of digital market. And I am with them 
Casual gaming? A parallel market
What do the (relatively) recent exploit of Nintendo’s Wii console, the iPhone popularity and the videogaming velleities of social networks like Facebook share? They all are facts which have contributed to open the video games market to a broader and broader audience, establishing the principle that casual gaming, that kind of ludic activity which does not force you to know the magic sequence “WASD” or the difference between a hack’n slash and a “pure” role playing game, is a growing phenomenon that will eventually shape the entire industry alongside its traditional technological and commercial models.
And after Dante’s Inferno… Renzo & Lucia
Not content to have delighted gamers worldwide and above all those of Italian origin with Dante’s Inferno, smart asses at Visceral Games/EA are ready to take the video games market by storm with their new announced “masterpiece”: Renzo&Lucia. Inspired by the historical novel I promessi sposi by Alessando Manzoni, Renzo&Lucia makes use of the most modern gaming technologies to bring back to life the dull novel we all forcedly read at the school times. And frankly speaking by looking at the following fake (author unknown) I don’t know if I have to laugh or cry. Anyway I hope EA won’t really pick up the idea, ’cause they have already proved to be capable of doing everything…
Videogames highlights - September-December 2009
Welcome to a new installment in the Videogames Highlights series. It is, considering the long period of time passed since the August one, a “remedial” post covering no less than the last four months of year 2009. These were intense months, from a video gaming standpoint, still the following contents collection is personal and variously assorted as usual. And seeing that there is so much to talk about I cut short with the intro and just report, after Stardock’s CEO opinion of the last time, the statements from UK accountable people for the three main gaming consoles (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) regarding the misleading theory according to which digital downloads should replace optical disks during the upcoming years.
A.D. 2012, The Art of Video Games exhibit in Washington D.C.
If the world won’t end before with a huge and yet wee galactic fart, in 2012 there is a date to pin down on the agenda for who will be lucky enough to be around Washington D.C. In the United States capital city, and more exactly at the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibit The Art of Video Games will be held between March 16 and September 9, 2012, a systematic, interactive and visually rich journey centered on the history of the first 40 years of the videogaming medium.
Snapshots #2: calm & havoc
Someone will find it unlikely, but I’m still dealing with the system restore a month after (and waiting to upgrade to Windows 7): to have to download the newest version of any program every time (maybe waiting for hours on eMule) makes you tired hence I’m going forward with the work only within snippets of time and sometimes during weekend. Conversely, after the old crap of the last time, I’m currently falling prey of the almost uncontrollable desire to get and play to whatever taste like “contemporary”.
Ghosts’n Goblins for the iPhone? Is this a joke?!?
In all the phases of my life as a videogamer there has always been an episode of the Ghosts’n Goblins series. When I was barely able to reach the arcade sticks there was the first GnG, some years later I could place my eyes directly into the screen of my beloved Ghouls’n Ghosts, then (on the emulators) I discovered Super Ghouls’n Ghosts for SNES and lastly, in these years, I purchased the Sony PSP just to be able to play to Ultimate Ghosts’n Goblins (both versions).
Videogames highlights - August 2009
Likewise the improbable perspective to witness the extinction of joypads, mice & keyboards in the forthcoming (and faraway too) future I talked about the past month, the other pointless and ballyhooed media hype going strong these days is the one about ubiquitous digital delivery, ie the idea that sooner or later physical supports will be outclassed or replaced by on-line downloads on consoles and PC, it doesn’t mind if users have to deal with 50 Gigabytes or a few Megabytes sized games. It’s a complete nonsense, as Stardock CEO correctly points out in an interview with Shacknews.
Lucidity, creativity sparks from LucasArts
LucasArts is the historic software house constantly praised for its past full of pixellated pirates, purebred graphic adventures and more generally for a particular skill in shaping stories, creating characters and forging game worlds in which it was worth diving into for a while. In a manner that is nearly unbelievable for who is accustomed to see the company bringing out the usual, boring and useless series of Star Wars sequels, LucasArts is now faintly reconciliating with the development of original titles thanks to a game with little ambitions that could say something about the forthcoming future of the respected developer of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango.
PAX 2009, Ron Gilbert’s keynote
Ron Gilbert’s DeathSpank was already discussed in a previous post, but considering the personality (figurative) weight I think it’s adequate to complete the discussion by embedding the keynote’s videos (even if they aren’t so pretty to see) with which the legendary designer opened this year Penny Arcade Expo. Ron Gilbert is one of the noble fathers of modern games, so listening to what he says is simply an obligation for who would like to call himself a “videogamer”.
DeathSpank @PAX 2009, videogaming humour with style
A year after the official presentation during Penny Arcade Expo, Canadian developer Hothead Games and Monkey Island designer Ron Gilbert have took the occasion of the new PAX edition to show the work done on their new title: DeathSpank, the legitimate but grumpy child of adventure and action RPG genres, leaves behind the mere shadows of the first trailers to put his face and his deeds in front of gamers.
BlizzCon 2009, Diablo III gets the new Monk class
As it always did in the past few years, on August 21 and 22 developer Blizzard gathered players and reporters around BlizzCon, the event held at the Anaheim Convention Center during which the lucky attenders have had the opportunity to see in action (and try with their hands) the novelties from the three major franchises of the company. Regarding Diablo III, the new and long awaited chapter of the hack’n slash saga par excellence, Blizzard showed the forth of the five character classes available to the player, the Monk.
Videogames highlights - July 2009
In this period there is a lot of talking about the new ways of interaction with entertainment devices and about the fact that things like Microsoft’s Project Natal would be destined, on the long run, to replace traditional controllers be they joypads, keyboards or mice. To me this seems more of an advertising nonsense than any other thing, the mouse lasted 40 years and there surely will be a valid reason to justify such a longevity. Of course, we’re all open to the future and tech evolution, but seeing myself playing to a remote descendant of one of the titles included in this videogaming compilation without a physical controller in my hands seems an unlikely perspective to say the least.
Videogames highlights - June 2009
This is a recession period and the videogaming industry suffers too, with a sales drop of 23% during May (for USA), a thump unseen since 2007. And yet the executives from the major companies in the field talk about sustained growth for a business that, in 2012, will be 55 billion dollars worth overall. Meanwhile market researches describe a “new golden age for entertainment software” and videogames permanently reside in two third of the American households. That’s an ideal condition, I say, to gather some relevant contents in what should be the last installment of videogames highlights’ old cycle before the new, more minimalistic setup.
New digital stores, old graphic adventures
It isn’t exactly the end of the world as we knew it, but the dynamism of adventure games publishers and developers in the summer of 2009 seems to have a weight in the great order of things anyway. The fact is that years after their (alleged) commercial and creative death graphic adventures continue to come out, and in some kind of reboot effort the genre noble fathers try to suggest the way for a possible new renaissance of “point and click” games through the marketplace of digital stores already projected into the future.
Videogames highlights - May 2009
Ok I admit it, I’m a certified liar because if my personal review of old classics goes on tirelessly the amount of time required for a post of the series Videogames highlights is always the same, nay it’s getting worse. That’s the reason why I’ll change formula here, and instead of a monstrous and rebellious blob (at least for me writing it) containing any sort of thing I return to a less rich but more selected collection of videogaming stuff of the past month. Hoping that the June post won’t be on-line on September :-/
Will Day of the Tentacle be the next LucasArts/Telltale remake?
Summer of 2009 could be much hotter than usual for adventure games fans, because other than the exhumation of the classic of classics The Secret of Monkey Island someone suggested the chance, the idea, the hope to meet again on nowadays LCDs the odd characters belonging to the most noble past of the genre and videogames on the whole. To go straight to the facts, if the new games featuring Guybrush Fruptwood will sell the right amount of copies LucasArts is more than well disposed to pull out of the freezer of memories the rest of its historical series.
I have a banana in my pants. And a monkey over my head
Guybrush Threepwood wanted to be a pirate, but probably he would have never predicted that 20 years after his unsuccessful efforts to scrape up a decent crew, his many holes in the ground with no chest on the bottom and his merciless tendency to tell the same story about some ghost pirates again and again and again he would have always been in the same place, namely at about 3 meters under the ocean level or otherwise in some improbable swordfights where the tongue hurts, literally, much more than the sword.
Videogames highlights - April 2009
It’s pretty interesting, from the perspective of someone steadily busy in revisiting old videogaming myths and old computer stuff in general, to immerse once a mouth in a stream of promotional stuff from the upcoming or recently published games. You can get a rather effective idea of how much time have passed since you secretly believed to be one of the few “chosen” people to know about this thing called “videogame”, and how much historical consciousness is precious to fully enjoy the wonders the market offers nowadays.
Ron Gilbert’s DeathSpank, what we know so far
In an industry inclined to release an even excessive amount of contents on the upcoming videogames, the next, awaited creation of mythological game designer Ron Gilbert continues to be a mystery as for gameplay, visual style, interface and everything. Despite this chronic lack of material to admire (or to criticize to death), the information currently available on DeathSpank are at least more than those followed to the official game presentation during 2008 edition of Penny Arcade Expo.
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