Jason Vandenberghe Lays Down the Law
As I eagerly/anxiously await next month’s upcoming release of Red Steel 2, I can’t help but become entranced not simply by the game’s amazing graphic style and promising Motion Plus utilization, but by the charisma and character of the game’s creative director, Jason Vandenberghe.
Every time I catch an interview of Vandenberghe, especially on video, I feel compelled to read it/watch it. Good – no, really great – game designers have a lot in common with great teachers. They intrigue you, they have personality, they are quite humorous, and they never quite answer questions they way you expect them to. I do not know yet if Vandenberghe is a great game designer or not, but like Miyamoto, he has a certain charm to his personality that leads me to believe he may possess such talent.
Though Vandenberghe was not involved in the creation of Red Steel 1, he did play it extensively, and he has openly stated that the game didn’t quite live up to gamers’ expectations. To me, making such an acknowledging remark is commendable as these days we are constantly being told that if a game didn’t sell well it was because the consumer “didn’t get it” or some other lame pass-the-buck excuse. It never seems to be the developer’s fault that a game doesn’t sell well.
In the video above, Vandenberghe offers some rather wise comments on gaming these days and the strange viewpoints people come up. As we all know, there is a large, noticeable debate occurring that Vandenberghe calls the “Is there a hardcore audience on the Wii” topic. Now, I have already offered my thoughts on this topic once before, but rather than repeatedly beat readers over the head with my opinion on the subject, I’ll just let Vandenberghe speak on the topic.
Vandenberghe astutely describes the entire debate as a religious war and says that he doesn’t take part in religious wars – it’s not really his thing. I couldn’t agree more. Vandenberghe states that games can sell on the Wii if they are good and offer experiences not available elsewhere. Of course, he also acknowledges that he may end up eating his own words a month from now if Red Steel 2 doesn’t sell well. But at least such a statement concedes that the success/failure of the game will be based largely on the developer – not the consumer.
You can catch the first part of this two-part interview here. I’ll be keeping my eye on all the Red Steel 2/Vandenberghe info I can get during the next month before the game’s release.
You Jive Turkeys Should Check Out Black Dynamite on DVD, Ya Dig?
From time to time we come across things on the periphery of gaming, or even outside of the subject all together, that we think would still be of interest to our readers and post them here with the tag “Splash Damage”. Movies are one of the subjects that frequently finds its way on to the pages of GameAlmighty with that tag and one of last year’s movies I was most anxious to watch and then review here came and went before I had a chance to see it in theaters. The film I missed tells the timeless tale of two cultures in conflict. One is comprised of a dark-skinned race of people who are misunderstood and are being exploited by another group who considers themselves superior. In an attempt to gain total control the second group hatches a plot that takes advantage of medical science and uses the enemy’s own bodies against themselves. They also lie to one of the males and trick him into working as their inside man in order to keep the peace and prevent larger-scale violence and destruction.
While it sounds like I may be describing Avatar, that’s actually the plot of a different movie mentioned more than a time or two on our sister site, InfoAddict. The smaller independent film I am referring to is Black Dynamite and it had so limited a release for such a short span of time that I never could find it playing anywhere close at a time where I could make it.
Well Black Dynamite was finally released on DVD this week and I can say without reservation that it was worth the wait. I rented it from my local Blockbuster early and have watched it several times already. Not because I am trying to squeeze every penny I can out of the rental fee, but because their are new things I notice every watch-through and some parts keep getting funnier. To put it on the t on the same level as “This Is Spinal Tap” would be a little blasphemous, but it would be accurate to say that it succeeds well at delivering the same kind of layered, deadpan, seemingly unintentional comedy that really grows on you.
If I go to return it at Blockbuster today it will only be because I plan on stopping somewhere else on the way home to buy a copy of my own.
Jason Vandenberghe Lays Down the Law
As I eagerly/anxiously await next month’s upcoming release of Red Steel 2, I can’t help but become entranced not simply by the game’s amazing graphic style and promising Motion Plus utilization, but by the charisma and character of the game’s creative director, Jason Vandenberghe.
Every time I catch an interview of Vandenberghe, especially on video, I feel compelled to read it/watch it. Good – no, really great – game designers have a lot in common with great teachers. They intrigue you, they have personality, they are quite humorous, and they never quite answer questions they way you expect them to. I do not know yet if Vandenberghe is a great game designer or not, but like Miyamoto, he has a certain charm to his personality that leads me to believe he may possess such talent.
Though Vandenberghe was not involved in the creation of Red Steel 1, he did play it extensively, and he has openly stated that the game didn’t quite live up to gamers’ expectations. To me, making such an acknowledging remark is commendable as these days we are constantly being told that if a game didn’t sell well it was because the consumer “didn’t get it” or some other lame pass-the-buck excuse. It never seems to be the developer’s fault that a game doesn’t sell well.
In the video above, Vandenberghe offers some rather wise comments on gaming these days and the strange viewpoints people come up. As we all know, there is a large, noticeable debate occurring that Vandenberghe calls the “Is there a hardcore audience on the Wii” topic. Now, I have already offered my thoughts on this topic once before, but rather than repeatedly beat readers over the head with my opinion on the subject, I’ll just let Vandenberghe speak on the topic.
Vandenberghe astutely describes the entire debate as a religious war and says that he doesn’t take part in religious wars – it’s not really his thing. I couldn’t agree more. Vandenberghe states that games can sell on the Wii if they are good and offer experiences not available elsewhere. Of course, he also acknowledges that he may end up eating his own words a month from now if Red Steel 2 doesn’t sell well. But at least such a statement concedes that the success/failure of the game will be based largely on the developer – not the consumer.
You can catch the first part of this two-part interview here. I’ll be keeping my eye on all the Red Steel 2/Vandenberghe info I can get during the next month before the game’s release.
You Jive Turkeys Should Check Out Black Dynamite on DVD, Ya Dig?
From time to time we come across things on the periphery of gaming, or even outside of the subject all together, that we think would still be of interest to our readers and post them here with the tag “Splash Damage”. Movies are one of the subjects that frequently finds its way on to the pages of GameAlmighty with that tag and one of last year’s movies I was most anxious to watch and then review here came and went before I had a chance to see it in theaters. The film I missed tells the timeless tale of two cultures in conflict. One is comprised of a dark-skinned race of people who are misunderstood and are being exploited by another group who considers themselves superior. In an attempt to gain total control the second group hatches a plot that takes advantage of medical science and uses the enemy’s own bodies against themselves. They also lie to one of the males and trick him into working as their inside man in order to keep the peace and prevent larger-scale violence and destruction.
While it sounds like I may be describing Avatar, that’s actually the plot of a different movie mentioned more than a time or two on our sister site, InfoAddict. The smaller independent film I am referring to is called Black Dynamite and it had so limited a release for such a short span of time that I never could find it playing anywhere even close to a time where I could make it.
Well Black Dynamite was finally released on DVD this week and I can say without reservation that it was worth the wait. I rented it from my local Blockbuster early and have watched it several times already. Not because I am trying to squeeze every penny I can out of the rental fee, but because their are new things I notice every watch-through and some parts keep getting funnier. To put it on the t on the same level as “This Is Spinal Tap” would be a little blasphemous, but it would be accurate to say that it succeeds well at delivering the same kind of layered, deadpan, seemingly unintentional comedy that really grows on you.
If I go to return it at Blockbuster today it will only be because I plan on stopping somewhere else on the way home to buy a copy of my own.
Free Valentine’s Day Cards for Gamers
It’s that time of year again. Love is in the air, suicide rates are spiking, and businesses everywhere are lying and trying to take advantage of you. Some companies are spending millions in television advertising to convince you that buying pajamas on the internet will get you laid. Or perhaps the woman you desire will finally surrender to you once she sees that you’ve bought her a teddy bear that cost more than the Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2? What about diamonds, or the boxes of chocolates where you only end up getting one or two bites of the one you really like? Maybe a really expensive, super-special arrangement of flowers from that guy with the commercials who gives off the distinct impression he might be considering marriage someday in the state where they make the pricey teddy bears? That’s not likely to do it either.
The brutal truth is that the only people guaranteed to be stimulated this evening are the flower shop owners and Hallmark store managers. Plus, in the opinion of this aging writer, if you’re having to pay for it you’re with the type of chick you might as well try and get the money back from once she’s refilled your health meter. Instead you need to keep your Modern Warfare 2 NVGs turned on and eyes peeled for the type of girl that cares more about a players Mana then his gold. A woman who’ll start an Army of Two with you and always give her all playing Co-op even when you’re wounded and it looks like you won’t have ammo enough to make it to the next save checkpoint.
They are hard to spot and even harder to convince to join your party. After all, if your a hardcore gamer reading this then evolutionary psychology has your desirability level just above someone in high school band, and just below chess club members (who tend to go on to having higher average incomes).
But don’t despair – I’m proof that even the biggest nerds can end up with amazing women. (Happy Valentine’s Day, Noelle. I love you and thanks for all your patience and support.)
Until you find a really good co-op player yourself, save your money! Rather then fattening up Hallmark by surrendering $5 for a sappy poem in a piece of folded construction paper, print and cut out the handy Valentine’s cards we’ve provided. You’ll know she’s a keeper if she’s impressed by how frugal you are and gets the gaming jokes. Heck, if she turns out not to be “the one”, there’s still a good chance she’ll appreciate even a poor Gamer just needs to get his health gauge refilled sometimes.
(Originally created for a previous year, some might have lost a little of their relevance over time. Art by the amazing Chris McGuire.)
Free Gaming Valentine’s Day Cards from GameAlmighty!
It’s that time of year again, love is in the air, suicide rates are spiking, and businesses everywhere are lying and trying to take advantage of you. Some companies are spending millions in television advertising to convince you that buying pajamas on the internet will get you laid. Or perhaps the woman you desire will finally surrender to you once she sees that you’ve bought her a teddy bear that cost more than the Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2? What about diamonds, or the boxes of chocolates where you only end up getting one or two bites of the one you really like? Maybe a really expensive, super-special arrangement of flowers from that guy who gives off the distinct impression he might be considering marriage someday in the state where they make the pricey teddy bears? That’s not likely to do it either.
The brutal truth is that the only people guaranteed to be stimulated this evening are the flower shop owners and Hallmark store managers. Plus, in the opinion of this aging writer, if you’re having to pay for it you’re with the type of chick you might as well try and get the money back from once she’s refilled your health meter. Instead you need to keep your Modern Warfare 2 NVGs turned on and eyes peeled for the type of girl that cares more about a players Mana then his gold. A woman who’ll start an Army of Two with you and always give her all playing Co-op even when you’re wounded and it looks like you won’t have ammo enough to make it to the next save checkpoint.
They are hard to spot and even harder to convince to join your party. After all, if your a hardcore gamer reading this then evolutionary psychology has your desirability level just above someone in high school band, and just below chess club members (who tend to go on to having higher average incomes).
But don’t despair – I’m proof that even the biggest nerds can end up with amazing women. (Happy Valentine’s Day, Noelle. I love you and thanks for all your patience and support.)
Until you find a really good co-op player yourself, save your money! Rather then fattening up Hallmark by surrendering $5 for a sappy poem in a piece of folded construction paper print and cut out the handy Valentine’s cards we’ve provided. You’ll know she’s a keeper if she’s impressed by how frugal you are and gets the gaming jokes. Heck, if she turns out not to be “the one”, there’s still a good chance she’ll appreciate even a poor Gamer just needs to get his health gauge refilled sometimes.
(We used these once in the past and so some might have lost a little of their relevance. Art by the amazing Chris McGuire.)
How Stupid Does 1up Think We Are?
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
He who strikes the first blow admits he’s lost the argument.
– Chinese Proverb
The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.
– George Carlin
It is one thing to try to convince me of something that is tenuous at best. But it is something else entirely to tell me that my own eyes and ears are lying to me.
1up.com has just told me that own senses cannot be trusted because apparently my eyesight and hearing are so poor that I am physically incapable of watching, let alone understanding, footage of two men talking clearly and coherently into microphones while being recorded on video.
Back before New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched last year, GameTrailers TV hosted an episode in which they featured Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime as a special guest.
During the episode, GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley issued a sales challenge to Reggie, asking the NOA president on the spot if New Super Mario Bros. Wii would outsell Modern Warfare 2. Reggie agreed to the bet stating Mario would outsell Modern Warfare 2 “on one particular platform,” taking into account NPD data through January 2010. I know this because I watched the video. With my own eyes.
The January NPD data just came in yesterday. Here are the results if you tally up the current U.S. sales totals for the two subject titles:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360): 6,156,700
New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 4,866,700
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3): 3,249,000
As I can clearly see here (with my own lying eyes), New Super Mario Bros. Wii outsold Modern Warfare 2 on particular platform: The PS3. Reggie won the bet.
However, this cannot be, for facts are a mere inconvenience – obstructions that must be modified and reshaped to suit a particular desire. In this case the desire was to see NOA’s president lose a bet with a game-show host. Why, I do not know.
Don’t get me wrong, I think both games are excellent and extremely well-made. I can enjoy a spec ops mission in Call of Duty just as much as a multiplayer Mario session. But when someone assumes that I lack even a first-grade-level grasp of English conversation, I tend to raise an eyebrow in a state of confusion.
My confusion stems from the fact that 1up is claiming Reggie “said that New Super Mario Bros Wii would outsell the 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 by the end of holiday season.” I’d sure like to know what video it was that 1up watched to give the website this impression, because it sure wasn’t the same video I watched. The video I watched showed Reggie saying “I do believe so” in response to his own question of “on one particular platform” while Keighley repeatedly tried to interject with “on 360.” The odd thing, however, was that the words “Xbox,” “360″ or even “Microsoft” never left Reggie’s lips, though they did leave Keighley’s lips many times.
But I suppose I am asking too many questions; a bad habit of mine.
Back in December I questioned 1up’s reporting of the bet. I questioned why the website claimed that Reggie “thr[ew] down the gauntlet and issue[d] a sales challenge” when it was Keighley who issued the challenge. I also questioned why the website said Reggie specifically bet that Mario would outsell the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, and why it backed up this assertion by linking back to one of its own articles paraphrasing the video.
Now I find myself questioning why the website is calling the bet a “prediction” on Reggie’s part when a prediction is usually something that involves just one person, unlike a bet, which involves at least two people. Oh, and I’m also wondering why the website has once again provided no direct link to the video itself, instead falling back yet again on its own paraphrasing.
Too many questions, not enough answers. Maybe it’s better that I just stop now before I give myself a headache.
Actually, I have only one more question.
Why doesn’t 1up expand its business and begin practicing law? After all, it’s usually only a lawyer who can convince you that it’s raining when someone is taking a piss on your head.
Remedy Uses Bizarre Excuse for Not Bringing Alan Wake to PC Players
If you’re a hardcore PC gamer then you are used to hearing excuses as to why certain games only appear on consoles. Usually, these reasons take the form of “limited funding”, “not enough time”, or the ever-popular “PC games don’t sell like the console counterparts.” All valid excuses. So when Remedy, the creators behind the flashlight simulator Alan Wake, made it clear their game wouldn’t be coming to PC rigs, their excuse struck me as downright bizarre:
“Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen,” states Microsoft. “We ultimately realized that the most compelling way to experience Alan Wake was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform.”
Errr, what? All this time, I’ve been playing my Xbox 360 wrong. I have it hooked up to HDMI inputs on my widescreen PC monitor, flipping back and forth as the need arises. I had no idea I was draining the “intimacy” out of games by not playing in my living room.
Remedy’s reasoning lacks any semblance of logic. It just comes across as an utterly strange thing to say. Honesty would have worked just fine here, something like “Piracy is an issue on the PC.”
Probably doesn’t matter anyway. My gut instinct tells me Alan Wake will debut to a chorus of yawns. Has that certain stink that precedes a lackluster debut.
Toyota Admits Disgrace, Refuses Gov’t. Award – Who Should Be Next?
In an amazing display of honor and integrity possibly extinct amongst American businesses, Toyota Motor Corp. CEO and President Akio Toyoda declined to accept an award from the Japanese Government for the Prius model’s energy efficiency. The Prius was on of 3 products this selected this year to receive the Grand Prize for Energy Efficiency and Ecological Quality from Japan’s Trade Minister.
Referring to the recent voluntary recall of 437,000 Prius for possible brake problems, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said, “We declined to accept the award because we thought it was not appropriate.” Toyota made the decision to recall the Prius amongst the recent recall of a total of 8.5 million other Toyota autos after receiving only 200 complaints total in both the U.S. and Japan of the hybrid experiencing a braking delay in very specific cold weather conditions over very bumpy roads.
While some complain that the possibly company-killing recalls should have been made sooner, upon hearing of the refusal of the award and seeing some of the shame evident on some Toyota spokesmen’s faces during recent press conferences, I couldn’t help but be reminded of some of the principles and traditions that guided the gentlemen, knights, and samurai of old. It stands in stark contrast to the arrogant defiance I have seen on the faces of defeated and disgraced businessman and politicians lately.
It also made me wonder what it would be like if members of the video game industry had to show similar levels of contrition and shame to investors and consumers for crap they’d brought unabashedly to market. The unviewable screen of the original Game Boy Advance? The Xbox 360 and its Red Ring of Death failure rates? Daikatana, Battlecruiser 3000? Who are some companies, products, or people that you think ought to commit verbal Seppuku?
Quick Side Note: Besides military honors, what is the Japanese government doing handing out awards anyhow? It sounds like another good argument for small government – bureaucracies don’t have a good track record for picking winners. Uncle Sam seems to have enough trouble awarding contracts and food stamps. We don’t need any more taken out of our paychecks so they can judge trophy winners and give out gold stars at red carpet events with Seacrest and Rivers.
Buyers Remorse Hitting Champions Online Players
I tried to warn you, I really did. When I tore Champions Online a new a-hole for sucking in every conceivable way except character customization (apparently the only aspect of design Cryptic can do successfully any more), you all called me names and insisted it was a stunt to increase traffic. Now, several months after release, players are discovering that I was right, evidenced by this nifty editorial from MMOCrunch titled, quite simply, “Why I Quit Champions Online”.
Plan and simple, Champions Online lost its hold on me. I continued to dive into the game, move around the world, soak up the atmosphere, read about its future and most importantly, evaluate the content beyond my reach. What I definitively learned, and I hope my review hinted at, is that the game lacks legs. The atmosphere has always been incredibly disjointed thanks to the instancing of most zones. Even though all of the settings make sense in the universe, they lack a cohesive flow. And the multitude of characters aren’t employed effectively either. Because of these continued slip-ups through the middle to later levels, Champions Online gets boiled down to its diverse arcade-y combat. In essence, it becomes a soulless experience.
When I tore Star Trek Online a new a-hole for the very same reasons, I was once again called every name in the book and, like Champions Online, it will take a few months before I am once again proven correct. I’m trying to save you people money, I swear. I die a little inside every time I hear someone has foolishly purchased a lifetime subscription.
Top 10 Best Selling Games
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