From the Brow of Zeus

Video games are death, but wheelchairs are EXTREME!

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:55:00 +0000

MTV Multiplayer reports that "Extreme Sitter" Aaron Fotheringham, a wheelchair bound teenager who performs backflips and other stunts, thinks "those video games are death."

Watch the video below, and try not to become too inspired until you get to the end.

"When other kids in wheelchairs see me doing what I do, I'd just like to inspire them to go off a curb or jump a stair set, or just get out of the house, because those video games are death."

Let's see that again in slow motion:

"...juuuummmppp....aaa....sssssttaaaiiiirrr....sssseeettt..."

People this stupid need to come with disclaimers.

Face it, if some guy tried to "inspire" your teenage son or kid brother to push his wheelchair down a flight of stairs, you'd call the cops.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Halo

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Over at Fidgit, the SciFi Channel gaming blog I read obsessively, Tom Chick has a new list of ten Halo factoids you probably didn't know about.

Halo will be seven years old tomorrow (the original game was released Nov. 15, 2001). It started as an experiment. Could Bungie, a company that made shooters for the Macintosh, make a shooter for Microsoft's new console system? It turned into a juggernaut.

I think one of the reader comments sums it up nicely:

"This article has informed me of several things I didn't know about the Halo series, unfortunately they are all made up."

Halo secured a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records when it hit 26 million copies sold and became the best-selling game of all time.
The logo from Monolith, one of Bungie's earlier games, has a prominent place in Halo 3. At the end of the game, Master Chief has saved the galaxy from the alien Covenant, the zombified Flood, and the actual Halos, which were galactic weapons of mass destruction. However, he's stranded himself in deep space in the process. So he put himself into suspended animation to await rescue. Roll credits. But a secret ending shows him drifting towards a planet with the Marathon logo. Easter egg or teaser?
Halo's unlikely celebrity endorsement: "I've stayed up all night playing Xbox. Halo is the only game I play. It's the only game I know how to play and I'm not very good. But I will play it obsessively." That was Julia Roberts in a 2006 interview.

Best selling game of all time? Julia Roberts? Monolith?

A quick check at Wikipedia reveals Super Mario Bros. for the NES is still the best selling game of all time, at least according to Guinness.

Is Tom having fun at the expense ofHalo fans, or has something gone seriously wrong over at Fidgt? I just saw an ad for the website on the Sci Fi channel yesterday, so maybe the influx of readers had something to do with it. It's probably just one of those days.

When I tried to post a correction in the comments, Word Press told me "Text entered was wrong. Try again." Now *that's* irony.

UPDATE: Tom said it was all a case of bad editing. The facts and figures have been corrected. Now just one question remains: Where the heck can I get a copy of Monolith?

New: 5 Reasons I Bought UnReal World RPG

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:36:00 +0000

I think I mentioned this work-in-progress months ago, but when you're sick and home all day, it's a good a time as any to catch up on blog posts.

5 Reasons I Bought UnReal World RPG
The UnReal World RPG is an independent PC game set in the Finnish Iron age. What separates it from most other role-playing games is an emphasis on survival, simulating the harsh rigors of living off the land in ancient times. Instead of classes like Warriors and Wizards, you play Fishermen, Hunters and my personal favorite, a crazy old Hermit. It's sort of like an antisocial Dwarf Fortress, only this sucker has been around since the early 90s.

Click here to read the article, or visit the official UnReal World RPG page.

And no, that shot isn't me and my brother, it's from the game.

Gamepro: The 26 Best RPGs

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:42:00 +0000

It's Gamepro, so you know it has to be good.

Here's a choice quote from Oblivion:

Even two years after its initial release, the game is still a feast for the eyes and is proof that game companies need to make more first-person RPG games.

So the game proves we need more role play game games?

Nicely put.

Xenogears is #8, a game I hate so much I'm going to repost an article on my website from years ago listing the reasons Xenogears sucks.

So deep was the customization and maintenance required for your Gear, and so rewarding were the results of adding parts and upgrades, the combat of Xenogears was almost another game within a game.

Yeah, too bad it was a game within a game with a ten-billion word script, each of those words more painful to read than the last.

#7 is The Ultima Series.

What a cop-out. Why do Zelda and Final Fantasy get separate entries, but not Ultima? Anyone who lists "series" is saying, "Okay, every Ultima game combined is pretty good. But you know what's better? #6..."

#6: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

The Diablo II expansion pack!

The sad thing is, I don't even think they realize they listed the expansion pack. It's not like they said, "Diablo II + Lord of Destruction."

Though not a full-blown RPG, Diablo II's hack-and-slash adventure makes our list. Why? Because it's an insanely fun game that weaves in RPG elements.

They write that for Diablo, yet when they listed #9: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, they didn't even mention what a Zelda game was doing on a list of RPGs. (Okay, Zelda II had an experience system... but we're talking Zelda III here.)

Fallout 3 is #5.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (aka Zelda 64) is #3. Again, no Diablo-style mention of "it's not really an RPG." Which confuses me, because no matter how much you hate action/adventures or action/rpgs, you've got to admit, Diablo II was a hell of a lot more of an RPG than Zelda 3.

The list closes with World of Warcraft as #2, and Final Fantasy VII as #1.

Final Fantasy VII.

Incidentally, Final Fantasy VI was nowhere on the list.

Cripes.

I can't go on, it's too depressing. Just see for yourself.

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:19:00 +0000

Hockey Mask + Elvis Hair = Jason Presley.

Stephen King's The Mist PC Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:29:00 +0000

Sorry this is a bit late, I was getting weird blogger errors whenever I tried to post and it threw off my whole groove. My groove, damnit! Thrown clear off course.

Here's a bit of Zeus Vs. Stephen King Text Adventure for your holiday enjoyment.

Stephen King's The Mist PC Game Review

Enjoy.

Three More Days 'Till Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:30:00 +0000

Three More Days 'Till Halloween

SILVER SHAMROCK!

As is tradition here at Mirtna.org, we're celebrating the last three days of October with three spooky posts. I've dugdeep in the cobwebbed vaults for the creepiest rants, reviews and random crap I can find.

Today's entry:

Gooflumps: Eat Cheese And Barf!

Three labels warn you, "Not a real Goosebumps book!" Even the title screams "don't sue us!" -- it's a goof, get it? Despite the excessive warnings (ten in all), Gooflumps isn't a badly written parody; it's really a knock off that substitutes poop jokes for satire.

Coming up tomorrow? Either my review of the text adventure game "Stephen King's The Mist" or something even better.

Stay tuned. Er, bookmarked.

RSS fed?

SILVER SHAMROCK!

Out of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:45:00 +0000

Well guys, I'm sorry to say I had to resign from Out of Eight. Some things have come up and I just don't have enough time to thoroughly play and review games anymore. James was nice and invited me back when my situation changes, but for now, I'm only going to have enough time for random updates here and there; no more marathon gaming for me.

Here's my last two reviews: King's Bounty - The Legend (7/8) and Strong Bad Episode 2 (also a 7/8).

There's been a tremendous amount of good PC games lately. Tactical-RPGs, adventure games, not just the usual big budget FPS titles critics seem to adore. It's starting to remind me of the 32 bit console era, when magazines regularly gave 100% scores to Tomb Raider and Mario 64, and in one magazine's case, a 101% score for Final Fantasy VII.

Belief & Betrayal review on Out of Eight

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:19:00 +0000

Last week I raved about Mount&Blade. This week it's Belief & Betrayal, a game that proves having an ampersand in your title isn't enough to guarantee success.

Imagine a gray haired man with his back to the camera. His voice is flippant, shrill and condescending. He's Jonathan Danter, a journalist and something of a ladies man, at least according to his editor, who's worried he'll waste time “looking at girls in mini skirts and sexy tops.” But there's no way any girl could tolerate the presence of this goofy-looking goose in shoes. He's undeniably irritating, the kind of guy you couldn't wait to get away from. And that's before he busts out his lovable little chestnut: “cats whiskers!”

Read my Belief & Betrayal review, or you can check out all my old Out of Eight reviews in the archives.

New Mount & Blade review up on Out of Eight

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:27:00 +0000

So, Mount&Blade was the first game I gave an 8/8 rating to, and --

What's that? I didn't tell you I write game reviews for Out of Eight? Well, now you know. And you can click here to read all my reviews on one page.

Anyway, Mount&Blade is an Action/RPG/Strategy game best known for its emphasis on large scale battles and real-time mounted combat. But you can ignore all that deadly warfare stuff and just be an apolitical merchant trader, buying low and selling high. I hate to abuse a cliche, but it's a bit like Grand Theft Auto. And Darklands. And Sid Meier's Pirates! Oh yeah, and it rules.

I always take a moment to contemplate my next step before crushing my opponent beneath the heel of my boot.

You can read my review of Mount&Blade here. If that doesn't convince you, there's also a generous free demo which lets you play the whole game until you reach level seven.

Spoiler Alert: I give it an 8/8, which doesn't mean perfect, it means you should buy the damn game already.

New Radiation Symbol

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:31:00 +0000

I may be wrong, but I think this is the last original article I wrote before starting this new page. Here it is, in all its post-nuclear glory.

New Radiation Symbol
For those of you who haven't heard, there's a brand new international radiation symbol. The new symbol depicts radiating waves, an arrow, a running person, a skull and crossbones, and a 15% chance that by the time you're done reading this, you'll already be dead.

Click here to read the full article.

I'm slowly bringing back all my old content. Write an email if there's anything you'd like to see again. Except for, you know, like, dead pets and stuff. Nostalgia is one thing, necromancy is quite another.

PC World: Wii Owners Prefer Wii Fit to Too Human

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:37:00 +0000

In an article called Xbox 360 Barely Outsells PS3 in August by Tracy Erickson (of GamePro!), PC World made the startling revelation that more owners of Nintendo Wii have bought copies of Wii Fit than the Xbox 360 title Too Human,

[Madden NFL 09 for Wii] even sold less than Too Human, which is a far more niche title than passing around the pigskin. Apparently Wii owners prefer working out with Wii Fit and pedal-to-the-metal sessions of Mario Kart than football or looting adventures set to a Norse mythological back drop.

Why even put that last part in there? It had me scrambling to see if Too Human had a Wii release I never heard about.

I get the writer's point, that a niche Xbox 360 title can outsell a major third party Wii release. But there are two problems with the quoted paragraph:

Madden fans are fist-pumping college guys who've always stuck with whatever system was coolest/most resistant to beer/bong water spills. They don't have Wiis, they have PS3s and 360s.
Saying Wii owners prefer Mario Kart to Madden is fair. Saying Wii owners prefer Mario Kart to Too Human borders on insane. It's like saying they prefer it to skydiving.

Yahoo/Sirius

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:57:00 +0000

It had to happen sooner or later.

In other news, I finally got Opera to work with Blogger. I just had to go to Tools/Preferences/Cookies and check "Accept All Cookies" instead of "Reject Third Party Cookies". Doesn't matter, because I still Delete New Cookies When Exiting Opera, so there.

Think Outside the Treasure Chest

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:26:00 +0000

Here's a little something from the vaults: A rant titled Think Outside the Treasure Chest.

I dig skimpy chainmail babes as much as the next guy, but I'll never understand the video game industry's obsession with fantasy RPGs. Sure, early RPGs ripped their play mechanics from D&D, which borrowed heavily from Tolkien, who was inspired by mythology -- but that's no reason EVERY FREAKING RPG must contain magic and goblins.

Click here to read Think Outside the Treasure Chest

Written in 2001; still holds true today.

Eyes Dried Open

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:04:00 +0000

I use a game trading site, which lets me swap used games for points, then cash in those points on other used games. It actually works really well, because it solves the age-old problem of trying to find someone who not only has games you want, but wants one of your games in return.

Anyway, I sent out a copy of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 for GBA a couple of weeks ago, and never got any feedback. Worried, I sent a Private Message asking if they got the game. The reply I received was priceless:

Sorry about not being able to reply earlier. I got grounded off the computer. I got the game and I loved it so much my eyes were shriveled up from playing it so much

That is awesome upon badass. Things like that make me miss being a kid.

Cracked Magazine likes Ironic Consumer. Who knew?

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:08:00 +0000

When I saw there was an article over at Cracked called A History of Violence: 6 Old School Games as Brutal as GTA, I checked it out to see if they had discovered Chiller, an arcade game I once called, "the most brutal, violent and sadistic videogame of all time." (Link to my Ironic Consumer review.)

Not only did they list Chiller, they made it their #1.

But there was something oddly... familiar about this screenshot.

That's right -- same point total, same time left on the clock, same last minute 300 point shot.

I actually like Cracked. Hell, I link to them on my website. It's just too bad they couldn't have tossed poor, neglected Ironic Consumer a little link. (Neglected, but not too obscure -- we're the primary source cited on Wikipedia and the top the Google search.)

When Games Radar used some of Flying Omelette 's screenshots for an article called The Top 7... Nudity You Didn't Notice (in video games), they were kind enough to credit her for her work.

It's one thing to steal images from other websites when you're independent and barely covering the cost of web hosting with AdSense. But I kind of expected more from professionals.

I may not be the first guy to cover Chiller, but I'm pretty damn sure I 'm the first to use that screenshot -- especially considering I'm the one who took it

Update: I heard back from Jack O'Brien, EIC at Cracked. He apologized and added a link to Ironic Consumer. No hard feelings on my part. I don't really mind if people use our images, just as long as we receive credit. (Visa, Mastercard, anything but American Express.)

Who you gonna call? Anyone but Seth Rogen.

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:38:00 +0000

There's rumor over at Dead Central.

It starts off like a dream:

According to our source all four Ghostbusters -- Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson -- have agreed to return to the franchise.

But then the dream girl rips off her face, revealing the Freddy Kruger beneath:

Apparently the ‘Busters will be handing over their proton packs to Seth Rogan and the crew from 40 Year Old Virgin!

A great man once said --

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Look, humor is subjective. Everyone is entitled to their own taste in comedy, provided said comedy wasn't squeezed out by one Judd Apatow.

Judd Apatow -- I just don't like him. I'm not impressed with his movies. (Update: Okay, glancing at IMDB, he's actually produced a lot of fine comedies. Until now I had always assocaited him with Superbad and The 40 Year Old Virgin, but Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Anchorman are some of my favorites.) Steve Carell hasn't made me laugh since Jim Carrey was pulling his strings in Bruce Almighty, and Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan look like some shrewd Hollywood types tried to clone Napoleon Dynamite and kept them in the tanks too long.

Dread Central actually tried to put a positive spin on things:

Some may roll their eyes at this, but think about it; these guys are doing the same thing Murray, Ramis, Ivan Reitman, John Candy and their whole crew did back in the 80’s, churning out comedy after comedy, so it makes sense they’d take over these reins as well.

Rob Schneider churns out comedy after comedy. Let's give him the series! He can form a super team, along with Dane Cook and the Blue Collar Comedy Team and together they can prove that when it comes to comedy, staggering, inexplicable success is more important than actually being funny.

Ghostbusters is my favorite movie. Seriously. I grew up wanting to be a Ghostbuster. The Sega Master System game is one of my all-time favorites (open-world, car-based, mission objectives -- it's Ghost Theft Auto!) I own a Ghostbusters halloween costume. (Not that one.) I had a battery-powered proton pack that projected ghosts on my wall. There's nothing with the Ghostbusters logo stamped on it that I don't like.

But this?

Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. That's what a Seth Rogen Ghostbusters 3 would be like.

Cool Software: MailStore Home email backup.

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Being able to consolidate all your email accounts with Gmail is great. But what if Google deleted your email? It's hard to remember, but when you use any online email service, you're one TOS violation away from losing everything.

MailStore Home is a free Windows program that archives email. The truly paranoid can even burn all their correspondence to a CD, put that CD in a fireproof case, and hire twenty ninjas to guard the case day and night.*

I can't recommend this program enough. Once, before moving to gmail, I was offline for a few months racked up about 6,000 emails. My email account was filled to the brim and they were bouncing all further letters. Reading through all those letters and manually deleting the junk would have taken forever, but with MailStore Home, I was able to back up everything (just in case!) and start over with a fresh inbox.

MailStore Home is a free download for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista. It's simple, effective, and easy on the eyes.

Enjoy.

* Ninjas sold separately.

Famous Directors Always Begin With Horror Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Ever notice that most big name directors start out doing horror movies?

Stephen Speilberg [Indiana Jones], Duel (1971).
Sam Raimi [Spider-Man], The Evil Dead (1981).
Peter Jackson [Lord of the Rings], Bad Taste (1987).
Guillermo Del Toro [Pan's Labyrinth], Cronos (1993).
James Cameron [Titanic], Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981)
Francis Ford Coppola [Godfather], The Terror (1963).

It's like the Correct and Unalterable Path of an A+ Director is to start out doing horror movies and end up making big budget action features.

Also helps explain why everyone hates Michael Bay. After directing a Playboy video or two (heh), Michael Bay's first picture was the action buddy cop movie Bad Boys. Only after directing successful action movies like Armageddon and The Rock did he dabble in horror, producing remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th.

Other reasons no one respects Michael Bay: Pearl Harbor, his face, and that two and a half our Shia LeBouf romantic comedy with some robots in the background.

Note: Thanks to Googleshng for helping me come up with this list.

New Article: 5 Reasons I Bought Strange Adventures in Infinite Space

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:09:00 +0000

I've got a new article over at Bucket Bros, justifying the purchase of another indy game:

5 Reasons I Bought Strange Adventures in Infinite Space.

Here's a sample:

Inspired by the original Star Trek, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space (SAIS) is a game of turn-based galactic exploration and simple real time combat. You're not here to conquer the galaxy so much as swipe a few alien artifacts and exotic lifeforms, then make it home in time to collect some cold hard spacebucks.

Click here for the full article.

Blond Guys Are Evil

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:41:00 +0000

It's always interesting -- and a little scary -- when my page is quoted as a source. My stuff shouldn't be considered a source for anything other than a few laughs. But still, it's nice to be taken seriously.

TV Tropes tracks "story components or elements which have become standardized through decades (or more) of use."

It's kind of a wiki of television cliches, and they've got an article called Blond Guys Are Evil with a big ol' quote from yours truly.

"In Hollywood, blond guys have two choices: Dye your hair brown, save the world and get the leading lady. Or keep it blond and work on your bad guy face."
-- J.R. Antrim Vs. Evil Blond Men

Their description sums up the cliche quite nicely:

Fair-haired guys in media almost always end up evil. Especially noticeable if they are compared to a nice dark-haired guy, or if they are opposite ends of a Love Triangle.

If they're not evil, they're still jerks, although they may or may not be nice underneath, and they usually lose. Where a Betty And Veronica usually has a blonde Betty and a dark- or red-haired Veronica, a male version of this setup will do the reverse.

Given that blond heroes were not rare in films 40 or more years ago, this may be a Cyclic Trope, albeit with a longer cycle time than that for female "bad hair colors"

The Betty/Veronica bit is a good point.

Read the full list of Evil Blond Guy Tropes.

Random Double Weapon Generator

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:15:00 +0000

I got the idea after reading an article in EGM on the feasibility of famous video game weapons. Seeing the Gunsword next to a Lancer got me thinking. Are Double Weapons fundamentally flawed... or certified works of genius? And given enough time and a bit of javascript, could I do better?

Nuclear Baseball Bat

Remington Fists

Flak Cannon Lasso

Sniper Numbchucks

Click here to see your random Double Weapon!

This page has my first ever Stumble Upon button, so somebody tell me if it works and it trips them up. Just don't sue me. This page can't afford insurance.

P.S. This is a work in progress. If you can think of any weapons I should add, let me know in the comments.

Sneak Preview: 5 Reasons I Bought UnReal World RPG

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:42:00 +0000

Note: I'm going to post the full article in the next day or two, but for now, here's a preview.

5 Reasons I Bought UnReal World RPG

#1 - The full game is only $3.
You heard me, *three bucks*. The catch is, the $3 license isn't good for updates. Ever. Not even if you run into some really gnarly bugs. For that price, you have to Hex Edit them out yourself.

A $10 license will grant you a few buxfixes until the next major revision. Finally, a Lifetime License is available for $55, which is a lot of cash, but if you're really into the game, it'll entitle you to years of upcoming content without ever having to shell out another dime.

Me, I only spent $3. If they add anything new down the line, I might look into the $10 license. But nobody ever accused me of *not* being a cheapskate.

Might not be the most interesting reason, but I find this whole tier-registration plan oddly fascinating.

Buying this game almost becomes a game in itself. You want to time your $3 registration just before the next major revision, when all the old bugs are fixed and the new ones are ready to be programmed in.

I bought mine a few days ago, because there hadn't been an update in months and I thought I was fairly safe. Turns out I was wrong, as less than a week later, out comes version 3.10-2!

Oh, the horror!

Will the devious minds behind the game hook me into buying a more expensive license? Will I ever actually get to play it? What do I mean, "Digital Finns"? Tune in to find out! The next major revision of this article will be out in just a few days. And it's going to cost you $0.47.

A Quick Introduction to RSS Feeds

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:25:00 +0000

Welcome guys,

I'm going to talk to you about RSS Feeds.

(You in the back, stop that yawning!)

Feeds are an amazing new way to keep up with your favorite websites. I went from, "Yeah, I can just GO to the websites, why would I need anything else?" to "HOLY CRAP I'S IN WUB" in about two days. Now, I'm addicted. Even before I check my email, I check my feeds.

Think of RSS Feeds as a newspaper: You subscribe to the sites you like, and then every morning, new updates are waiting for you like magic. No need to remember to check my site and remember the URL. It's all taken care of for you.

See the orange and white icon on the sidebar to the left? That's how you subscribe. But first you need to deicde on a RSS Newsreader.

Which RSS Newsreader you choose depends on your needs:

For a web-based RSS Newsreader, Google Reader is for you.
If you'd rather install a program that archives the feeds locally, FeedDemon is the best.

Personally, I prefer FeedDemon.

Either way, feeds are laid out much like an old USEnet client or your favorite email program (Outlook, gmail, whatever.)

I don't feel like taking a screenshot, so here's a high tech ASCII representation:

_________________________________________________________________
| Zeus        | -Lifetime Licenses & Episodic Games             |
| Bucket Bros | [more]                                          | 
| Sharkey     | -The End of Single-Player Games?                |
| JD          | [more]                                          |
| Xenobones   | ------------------------------------------------|
|             |    +"5 Reasons I Bought Mount & Blade"          |
|             |    I wrote a new article over at Bucket Bros,   |
|             |    describing one of the most kickawesomest     |
|             |    Action-RPGs I've ever had the pleasure of    | 
|             |    playing....                                  | 
|             | [less]                                          |
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Um, you get the idea.

There's a list of different subscribed websites on the left. Click on one, and the list pops up in the view window on the bottom right. Just like email. Only with webpages. Nice huh?

Instead of logging on every few days to check for updates, you'll be automatically notified.

Okay, I gotta go. RSS Newsfeeds! Try it, you'll like it.

Lifetime Licenses & Episodic Games

noreply@blogger.com (Zeus Poplar) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Waffle Squadron Omega's Cap'n Jack has responded to my 5 Reasons I Bought Mount & Blade article and brought up an interesting point.

What struck him was Mount & Blade's lifetime license -- a one-time fee gives you unlimited upgrades for free.

This is a concept that other games - especially digitally distributed games (Xbox Live, PSN, WiiWare, etc.) - can benefit from. The pay up front + free upgrades for life works with most of the software that we use on our computers today. So why not use this with video games?

For example, the Penny Arcade Adventure: RSPOD, which is currently on Xbox Live for $20, could possibly benefit from having a $50 price tag if it meant we’d get continuous, free updates to the game over the next few years. It’s a gamble, because consumers can’t really be certain how often they’re going to get these free updates. But, if a precedent is set, then the market will be there.

Like Jack says, it's a gamble. The problem with paying more for episodic content up front is that like any "season" of entertainment, it might get canceled. Shenmue, SIN Episodes, Shining Force III for Saturn (the sequels were released in Japan only). The list goes on.

The one episodic game I can think of with real lasting power is Sam & Max. (Full seasons are available at a sizable discount.)

Given the shaky history of episodic games, the only way I'd be comfortable paying for a full season in advance is if we arranged what I call the Miami Vice Villain Agreement: Half now, the other half when you deliver the goods.

I'd be fine with paying $25 for the first episode, getting another nine free and then automatically being billed $25 when they fulfill their end of the bargain and finish the series. Plus, it'd give me a chance to wear pastel shirts under my sportcoat.

I like the idea of multiple payment options. For instance, UnReal World (another medieval RPG with a lifetime license deal) lets you buy the full game for $3. That's right, just three bucks and you own the whole thing. The catch? No more updates. Ever.

What if there's a game crashing bug? Nope. Sorry about your damn luck.

$10 gets you a Single Major Version license, good for a few bugfixes, at least until there's a major revision. Finally, Mr. Moneypockets can buy a lifetime registration for $55. Sure, it sounds like a lot, but you'll be entitled to years of future content. (Compare that to professionally developed PC games, where anything more than a bugfix is labeled an "expansion pack.")

As for free content just-for-the-heck-of-it, Unreal Tournament got a famous Bonus Pack some years ago, which did a lot to convince people that Cliffy B. beat John C. in the Unreal Tournament/Quake 3 wars. And Cryptic Comet recently released a free booster pack for its turn-based post-apocalyptic card card game, Armageddon Empires.

Even as the developer begins work on his next game, Solium Infernum -- in which players assume their roles as warring Barons of Hell -- he's announced another A.E. bonus pack -- again, for free.

Out of the kindness of his cold, black, demonic lord lovin' heart.