Episode 74: "Rusty Pipes" - which will deal with whether or not the Super Mario Bros. series has overstayed it's welcome and that other thing that was revealed at the end of last episode - will make it's debut on Thursday 8/30. ScrewAttack Advantage members can get an early look on Monday 8/27.
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Episode 74 ANNOUNCEMENT
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Episode 74: "Rusty Pipes" - which will deal with whether or not the Super Mario Bros. series has overstayed it's welcome and that other thing that was revealed at the end of last episode - will make it's debut on Thursday 8/30. ScrewAttack Advantage members can get an early look on Monday 8/27.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Power Drain
It's been a long time coming, but now it's here: Nintendo Power Magazine is shutting down after 24 years. If nothing else, a lot of people's magazine collections are about to become really valuable.
I am feeling about as rotten about this as I did when Dr. Seuss and Jim Henson died. Yes, Nintendo Power was a nakedly commercial corporate thing - a singularly genius bit of marketing by Nintendo of America in realizing that there was going to be a "gamer culture" and getting in front of it with a big, glossy fan magazine of their own. (You can read the first issue in PDF format HERE.)
But it was a HUGE deal, legitimately, as well: Pre-internet, I don't think a lot of gamers (myself included) would've become gamers without NP to show them that there were others and that codes, strategies, maps, fan-art etc was meant to be shared. Having this magazine showing up at my house every month for a decade or so did more to make me a better reader than almost any book did, and I can say for a fact that there were a lot of NES/SNES games now considered benchmark classics that I don't think a lot of people would've connected with without NP "covering" them. A whole generation of (American) gamers were introduced to JRPGs when Nintendo Power gave away a free copy of DragonQuest (as "Dragon Warrior") as a re-subscription bonus. I myself got my first internet connection - and first exposure to the "medium" where I now make my living - in order to use the Nintendo Power AOL site. The AVGN once summed up the memories thusly:
I hadn't subscribed in years - like everyone else, The Internet replaced magazines for things like that for me - but it's still pretty sad to see it go. This is real end-of-an-era stuff - another huge part of the Golden Age of Gaming is gone. In my mind, this is as quietly-devastating a loss as when Sega abandoned consoles.
Rest in peace, old friend.
I am feeling about as rotten about this as I did when Dr. Seuss and Jim Henson died. Yes, Nintendo Power was a nakedly commercial corporate thing - a singularly genius bit of marketing by Nintendo of America in realizing that there was going to be a "gamer culture" and getting in front of it with a big, glossy fan magazine of their own. (You can read the first issue in PDF format HERE.)
But it was a HUGE deal, legitimately, as well: Pre-internet, I don't think a lot of gamers (myself included) would've become gamers without NP to show them that there were others and that codes, strategies, maps, fan-art etc was meant to be shared. Having this magazine showing up at my house every month for a decade or so did more to make me a better reader than almost any book did, and I can say for a fact that there were a lot of NES/SNES games now considered benchmark classics that I don't think a lot of people would've connected with without NP "covering" them. A whole generation of (American) gamers were introduced to JRPGs when Nintendo Power gave away a free copy of DragonQuest (as "Dragon Warrior") as a re-subscription bonus. I myself got my first internet connection - and first exposure to the "medium" where I now make my living - in order to use the Nintendo Power AOL site. The AVGN once summed up the memories thusly:
I hadn't subscribed in years - like everyone else, The Internet replaced magazines for things like that for me - but it's still pretty sad to see it go. This is real end-of-an-era stuff - another huge part of the Golden Age of Gaming is gone. In my mind, this is as quietly-devastating a loss as when Sega abandoned consoles.
Rest in peace, old friend.
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Will Apple Be The Game-Changer?
I've been saying this for years, and I'll keep saying it until I get either the satisfaction of history proving me right or the lesson of history proving me wrong: The end of dedicated gaming-consoles is coming soon, and it will be heralded by games becoming a regular feature of streaming-enabled TV devices. Whether it will be the Ouya, OnLive, or something else... it's coming, and it will change everything.
Lately, I've added a caveat to that, only half-joking: In the near future, there will not be ONE device for all of your movie/music/game/etc content - there'll be two: The one that holds a solid majority of your stuff... and the Apple one that holds all the Apple-exclusives. Okay, maybe an excessive "dig" at the late Mr. Jobs' "keep it in he family" approach to technology, but you get the idea.
According to the Wall Street Journal, though, my "joke" is inching closer to reality: Apple may be developing a "next gen" successor to it's thus-far modestly-recieved "Apple TV" set-top device that would allow it to stream cable TV and "other content." Presumably, "other content" mostly means movie/music delivery a'la iPads comes to TV... but the i-devices are ALSO a big part of gaming. It wouldn't be TOO difficult (just figuring out how to control it, really) to bring iOS gaming to TVs via such a device; and if Apple DID do that and it "clicked" with people... they could become to the streaming-age of home gaming what Nintendo was to the console age via the NES.
One way or another, this is the future.
Lately, I've added a caveat to that, only half-joking: In the near future, there will not be ONE device for all of your movie/music/game/etc content - there'll be two: The one that holds a solid majority of your stuff... and the Apple one that holds all the Apple-exclusives. Okay, maybe an excessive "dig" at the late Mr. Jobs' "keep it in he family" approach to technology, but you get the idea.
According to the Wall Street Journal, though, my "joke" is inching closer to reality: Apple may be developing a "next gen" successor to it's thus-far modestly-recieved "Apple TV" set-top device that would allow it to stream cable TV and "other content." Presumably, "other content" mostly means movie/music delivery a'la iPads comes to TV... but the i-devices are ALSO a big part of gaming. It wouldn't be TOO difficult (just figuring out how to control it, really) to bring iOS gaming to TVs via such a device; and if Apple DID do that and it "clicked" with people... they could become to the streaming-age of home gaming what Nintendo was to the console age via the NES.
One way or another, this is the future.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Film Crit Hulk Hulks-Out on ME3 once more...
Well, this should be interesting...
When the web-famous Film Crit Hulk took a break from movies to opine on the "Mass Effect 3" ending controversy, he was doing so as observer - he hadn't played/finished the game at the time, and (like me) wasn't critiquing the merits of the ending but the behavior of "Re-Take" - it didn't matter (and still doesn't matter) in this context what Hulk or anyone else "thought" of the ending itself, because good or bad it's a terrible precedent to try and make artists subserviant to the knee-jerk negative response of the audience.
Well, now he HAS finished the game, and offers up his critique of the ending(s) themselves; his main discovery and thesis being that three endings being essentially the SAME ending as-seen through the prism of different philosophies is the entire point that (in his opinion) people managed to miss. READ IT HERE. Money-quotes after the jump:
Choice bits from the article itself (all quotes in caps because Hulk is in fact a Hulk):
"YOU WERE ALL WRONG.
IN FACT, YOU WERE ALL SO WRONG THAT IT MAKES HULK HORRIFICALLY SAD."
"WE ARE TRULY IN A "GIVE US" CULTURE. WE WANT INDULGENCE. WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH STORIES. NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. YOU CAN ARGUE THAT VIDEO GAMES ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY BECAUSE THEY "GIVE US" THE THINGS WE WANT IN TERMS OF EXPERIENCE INSTEAD OF HAVING SOME KIND OF RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMETHING WE CAN'T CONTROL."
"SO WHAT DOES MASS EFFECT ULTIMATELY HAVE TO SAY? HULK KEEPS HEARING THAT MASS EFFECT IS ABOUT CHOICE. IT ISN'T ABOUT CHOICE WHATSOEVER; CHOICE WAS SIMPLY THE NATURE OF THE MECHANICS."
"IF YOU WANT MASS EFFECT TO BE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE CANON OF ART, THEN YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT ULTIMATELY THE STORYTELLING ELEMENT IS GOING TO HAVE TO GO AGAINST THE INDULGENT NATURE OF VIDEO GAMES."
Hulk goes on to say that his takeaway from all this is that the gaming community doesn't appear to be "ready" for the medium to reach the same level (of storytelling accomplishment) as other mediums; which I have a hard time disagreeing with. Not every game wants or needs to tell a great story, fine - but "Mass Effect" DID want to do that; and it's fans basically said "no thank you."
I don't WANT to get into this nonsense again, but the big reason video games (the ones that try to tell "cinematic" stories, I stress) are by-and-large inferior to, say, movies in the broad sense is that too many otherwise good ones are still wedded to gimmicks like multiple-endings and overly player-effected narrative.
When the web-famous Film Crit Hulk took a break from movies to opine on the "Mass Effect 3" ending controversy, he was doing so as observer - he hadn't played/finished the game at the time, and (like me) wasn't critiquing the merits of the ending but the behavior of "Re-Take" - it didn't matter (and still doesn't matter) in this context what Hulk or anyone else "thought" of the ending itself, because good or bad it's a terrible precedent to try and make artists subserviant to the knee-jerk negative response of the audience.
Well, now he HAS finished the game, and offers up his critique of the ending(s) themselves; his main discovery and thesis being that three endings being essentially the SAME ending as-seen through the prism of different philosophies is the entire point that (in his opinion) people managed to miss. READ IT HERE. Money-quotes after the jump:
Choice bits from the article itself (all quotes in caps because Hulk is in fact a Hulk):
"YOU WERE ALL WRONG.
IN FACT, YOU WERE ALL SO WRONG THAT IT MAKES HULK HORRIFICALLY SAD."
"WE ARE TRULY IN A "GIVE US" CULTURE. WE WANT INDULGENCE. WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH STORIES. NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. YOU CAN ARGUE THAT VIDEO GAMES ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY BECAUSE THEY "GIVE US" THE THINGS WE WANT IN TERMS OF EXPERIENCE INSTEAD OF HAVING SOME KIND OF RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMETHING WE CAN'T CONTROL."
"SO WHAT DOES MASS EFFECT ULTIMATELY HAVE TO SAY? HULK KEEPS HEARING THAT MASS EFFECT IS ABOUT CHOICE. IT ISN'T ABOUT CHOICE WHATSOEVER; CHOICE WAS SIMPLY THE NATURE OF THE MECHANICS."
"IF YOU WANT MASS EFFECT TO BE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE CANON OF ART, THEN YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT ULTIMATELY THE STORYTELLING ELEMENT IS GOING TO HAVE TO GO AGAINST THE INDULGENT NATURE OF VIDEO GAMES."
Hulk goes on to say that his takeaway from all this is that the gaming community doesn't appear to be "ready" for the medium to reach the same level (of storytelling accomplishment) as other mediums; which I have a hard time disagreeing with. Not every game wants or needs to tell a great story, fine - but "Mass Effect" DID want to do that; and it's fans basically said "no thank you."
I don't WANT to get into this nonsense again, but the big reason video games (the ones that try to tell "cinematic" stories, I stress) are by-and-large inferior to, say, movies in the broad sense is that too many otherwise good ones are still wedded to gimmicks like multiple-endings and overly player-effected narrative.
Friday, 3 August 2012
Episode 73: "The Return" (aka "Going Hollywood")
Update: I am informed that the ability to post comments at ScrewAttack should be restored sometime Saturday morning. Stay tuned.
The OverThinker finally gives in and offers up the obligatory "what's wrong with video-game movies" episode; along with a quick-and-easy "jumping on" point for new fans and longtime viewers alike. Full episode (and semi-spoilers) after the jump:
Yup. Surprise ending. Not a dream. Not an imaginary tale. But if you think you know where it's going... you don't ;)
The OverThinker finally gives in and offers up the obligatory "what's wrong with video-game movies" episode; along with a quick-and-easy "jumping on" point for new fans and longtime viewers alike. Full episode (and semi-spoilers) after the jump:
Yup. Surprise ending. Not a dream. Not an imaginary tale. But if you think you know where it's going... you don't ;)
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
EPISODE 73 ANNOUNCEMENT (SECOND UPDATE!)
UPDATE II: I've been made aware of a problem with the video re: a small chunk of video appears only as a green screen. Kind of embarassing for us, certainly, but a fix is being worked on as we speak. FWIW, there really isn't any "important" imagery there other than clips from the movie "Legend," but I apologize all the same. Everything will (hopefully) be fixed by the time this goes all-audiences on Saturday.
UPDATE I: The episode is now viewable for ScrewAttack Advantage members, and will become viewable by everyone else on Saturday. If you are an Advantage member, you may notice that commenting on the video on ScrewAttack is currently disabled - this is NOT permanent, nor is it an attempt to "avoid criticism;" my aim is only to prevent non-advantage members who click the link from any spoilers that might be posted before they have a chance to see it themselves. The comment fucnction should be restored when the episode gets "unlocked" on Saturday.
Episode 73 is now set to debut for all-audiences on Saturday 8/4; with ScrewAttack Advantage members having the option of seeing it one day early on Friday 8/3 (if you are an Advantage member, I ask that you please avoid posting/discussing spoilers without warning here or elsewhere.) The normal schedule of a week-long "break" between the two debuts will likely resume with Episode 74.
I've intended this as a "jumping on" episode for new viewers and viewers who maybe haven't checked in for a bit - the main discussion is LONG and the host-segments are short with the first being a quick "catch-up" as to what the show is and how things are done here. I like how it came out, and I hope you will too.
UPDATE I: The episode is now viewable for ScrewAttack Advantage members, and will become viewable by everyone else on Saturday. If you are an Advantage member, you may notice that commenting on the video on ScrewAttack is currently disabled - this is NOT permanent, nor is it an attempt to "avoid criticism;" my aim is only to prevent non-advantage members who click the link from any spoilers that might be posted before they have a chance to see it themselves. The comment fucnction should be restored when the episode gets "unlocked" on Saturday.
Episode 73 is now set to debut for all-audiences on Saturday 8/4; with ScrewAttack Advantage members having the option of seeing it one day early on Friday 8/3 (if you are an Advantage member, I ask that you please avoid posting/discussing spoilers without warning here or elsewhere.) The normal schedule of a week-long "break" between the two debuts will likely resume with Episode 74.
I've intended this as a "jumping on" episode for new viewers and viewers who maybe haven't checked in for a bit - the main discussion is LONG and the host-segments are short with the first being a quick "catch-up" as to what the show is and how things are done here. I like how it came out, and I hope you will too.
Friday, 27 July 2012
"Sonic Fan Film" New Trailer
You might remember Eddie LeBron and Blue Core Studios for their ambitious "Mega Man" fan-film a few years back. Shortly after that, they announced they were going to take a swing at "Sonic The Hedgehog;" and with the film's release date apparently approaching (last I'd heard it was going to be a short instead of a feature) there's a new trailer - and yes, that's actually Jaleel White returning to voice Sonic:
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