99Points

A gaming blog featuring discussion on videogames and all things related.

[acefenderbender]

Own Pokemon Black or White?

Get the alternate legendary now!

Get Reshiram or Zekrom in your game via Nintendo Wifi starting today ending April 8th. Your legendary will be lv. 100, come in a cherish ball and have a special ribbon as well.

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+25 points

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Christmas Gifts for your little Nintenerd.

RoyRed: If you have a Nintendo fan girl or boy in your life and you're running out of ideas (Mario plushies, keychains, and shirts get kinda' old) for gifts, let me give you a hand here.

Here's a small list of some cool things that any Nintendo fan would love. (This also can be viewed as my wishlist) Enjoy.

-Mario Fan for your Mario fan. (Other fans available)

Redeem with coins earned on Club Nintendo. Could probably find on ebay as well.

-Ocarina of Time for $94

-Mario Wall Graphics $50

Make Mushroom Kingdom your home.

-Pipe Mug (Personal favorite as a hard core gamer as well as tea and coffee drinker)

Sweet ass mug comes with 4 coasters appropriately themed. $34

-Pokemon Bento Box $32

-Mushroom Lamp $10 BUCKS, C'MON PEOPLE

1up your pals desk with one of these lively lamps. Red or green.

-Kirby Patches (Again, redeemed with Coins @ Club Nintendo

-NES usb Controller $30

-Mushroom Salt and Pepper Shakers

Hoping it will make the steak bigger. $9.10

-Donkey Kong Jenga $20

I'll finish off with something that I've wanted a long time:

- Master Sword and Hylian Shield over $100 bucks

I'm sure they will appreciate any gift, Nintendo themed or not :) Happy shopping, happy gaming, and happy holidays.

+24pts

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Fallout: New Vegas' hardcore mode seems a bit contrived to me. The dehydration and hunger system is too inorganic. Its like there is a simple on/off switch for it. Now you are hungry. Eat 3 pieces of meat. You are not hungry.

I much prefer STALKER's approach where there are a few levels and they slowly deteriorate your status, forcing you to snack on some sausage or down some vodka every once in a while.

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This is the kind of discussion we SHOULD be having about videogames.

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Indie Royale 2nd pay what you want-ish bundle is live. Includes: Nightsky: ambient physics-puzzle platformer Fate of the World: world saving, apocalyptic strategy game (kindly bashed on by FOX News) Scoregasm: erotic (not really) orgasmic score attack arena shooter Ben There, Dan That/Time Gentlemen Please!: British humor adventure game nugget.

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The new pay what you want indie bundle now includes Zelda inspired rogue-like twin stick shooter The Binding of Isaac, designed by the man behind indie hit Super Meat Boy. It also adds Blocks That Matter, a critically acclaimed puzzle game, in addition to the already wonderful voxel shooter Voxatron.

DRM Free, and for charity.

+23pts

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I just purchased the Witcher 2...

And I couldn't be happier about it. I have yet to even play the game, but even if I don't like it, the sheer respect and courtesy that CD Projekt RED show towards their customers makes it worth supporting anyway.

This is an industry where Capcom pushes out games only to create a newer better version within months, splitting the communities and making the original release obsolete. Its an industry where Activision pushes Call of Duty games out so frequently, and with so few changes to the formula that its soon to go the way of Guitar Hero.

And here CD Projekt RED is not only actively discounting their magnum opus, but also adding new content and fixes for FREE. They've added so much additional content that it surpasses the value of most Game of the Year editions, yet they also discount the game when they do, not increase it back to full price like others.

Not only that, but in addition to selling it free of DRM on Good Old Games, they removed the DRM from retail versions of the game within the first few patches, a move that actually got them in trouble with their retail publisher.

And on top of that, they give out goodies like the soundtrack and digital artbook for no extra charge as well.

Here is a developer that gets it, REWARDING people who purchase the game with stupid amounts of extra content they could easily justify charging for instead of say, oh, striking down legitimate purchases with always online DRM and shoddy ports.

Thank you CD Projekt RED

+22 pts

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All this talk about sexism has me hungry for some games about women. So without further ado, I give you Rose and Camellia, a game about gentile women solving problems with "the elegant art of feminine conflict". +21pts

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Because as many articles as we've had on sexism in games and the reaction to it (see Dead Island's 'Feminist Whore' fiasco) we can always use more.

+20pts.

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Because if you are anything like me, you have 180 games and nothing to play. +19pts

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Armchair General: Cannon Fodder

I like the idea of strategy games. I hate actually playing them.

I hate base building. I hate upgrading. I hate wasting 30 minutes just to figure out I've been building the wrong units and now I'm being annihilated.

But the idea of clashing armies is always an appealing one. With that I give you a series of strategy games for those who don't like strategy games. Strategy game aficionados will probably argue that most of these aren't TRUE strategy games, that they lack the depth and detail required to truly be one. I don't care. This is war. War has never been so much fun. Let's set the mood shall we? Cannon Fodder Theme

The opening theme of Cannon Fodder tells you all you need to know. Go up to your brother Kill him with your gun Leave him lying in his uniform Dying in the sun Simultaneously horrid and upbeat, it conjures up a violent image of war while mocking it. That the entire game. The cartoon violence and opening mission (which strongly resembles Vietnam) are cathartic and immediate.

One button moves your squad. Another sends bullets flying. Press both to throw grenades or fire rockets. While you are not in direct control, you are directly responsible. If someone dies it will be your fault. It won't be because the pathfinding AI decided it would take the long way around and be shot at by every enemy on the way there.

Its on you. And when they die they will die horribly. Soldiers are pathetically fragile and you can easily have the whole squad wiped out with a single grenade. The same is also true of the enemy, where a stray bullet can hit them and tear their pixelated innards open, crying out while they bleed to death.

And you will laugh. Then their buddy will see fit to take a pot shot at your squad, and one of them will die. Permanently. Its genius really. The way each character has a unique nametag, the casualties list at the end of the mission, and hill of graves that the new recruits line up near between missions.

Its a pitch black comedy on the horrors of war.

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Cannon Fodder is available for purchase on Good Old Games, or you can alternatively find it on Amiga/Sega Genesis. +18pts

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Introducing...

So I'm supposed to do one of these intro things.

Uh, I'm Enkou and I'm horrible at introductions. Because of that I'll just get down to the basics.

When: As far back as I can remember. Maybe 4...possibly 5. Legend of Zelda, SMB, and I think it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 on the NES were my main games back then.

Why Do I Play: It's fun. Otherwise why would I play them, they'd just be a hassle if they weren't fun. Otherwise I play just to pass the time.

Favorite Genre(s)/ Types of Games: I'm slowly turning more casual as I age honestly. I like Sandbox, Tower Defense, Action and Adventure, even Racing if it has an arcade-like feel to it. I really dislike FPS's nowadays. TBH I really don't like anything that tries doing both Single Player and Multiplayer. I basically play games that pour their resources into only one aspect. Good Adventure and Story driven Single Player games and mindless fun Multiplayer games.

Favorite Games: Killing Floor, Sanctum, Mass Effect Series, Bioshock Series, The Sims Series, Anything by VALVe, LittleBigPlanet Series, Serious Sam Series, Doom/Quake/Classic iD Software, Unreal Tournament Series, NHL Games, Need for Speed Series, Burnout Series, City of Heroes, Warcraft 3, and many more!.

Games I'm Looking Forward To: Saints Row: The Third, Mass Effect 3, Bioshock Infinite, The Last Guardian, Prey 2, Borderlands 2 +17 pts

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So, you herd I liek Isaac.

RoyRed: That's right. I've been playing The Binding of Isaac since it came out a few days ago (Sep 28th) and I must say, I'm loving this game like a crack whore loves a chicken dinner.

Meet Isaac, a young boy who keeps to himself and loves to draw.

Meet his Mom. Addicted to Christian tv and seems quite loopy.

Throw in a voice from God telling her to sacrifice her son to prove her devotion and you got a creepy bitchin' roguelike dungeon crawler.

Objective? Survive and kill mom!

Let me first say that you will find yourself playing this game for extended amounts of time. Randomly generated levels keep you coming back, that's for sure. Never being the same game twice, it keeps itself fresh and entertaining. You never know what the fuck to expect. Wait, strike that. You can always expect to dissolve feces with your own tears. But that's about it.... well, and of course lot's of blood.

Levels are simple, mirroring old school NES Legend of Zelda, consisting of several rooms, shops, and of course ending with a boss. Move WASD and shoot with the directional pad. The art style that this game is presented in is charmingly full of internet lulz and highly recognizable for those MeatBoy fans. Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl did a phenomenal job on this morbid game. I'm glad they were bored.

Another personal favorite of this game: the items. OH, THE ITEMS. Now, I know that I haven't gotten them all of them but I intend to. Items ranging from an Anarchist's Cookbook that spawns several bombs with the troll face to Mom's Pad (that's right, her big ol maxi pad) which repels enemies. Most of the items actually change the appearance of our poor hero Isaac too, giving him devil horns or a total derp face. This game has got some hilarious and disturbing items that you are just dying to try. There is even The Poop. :) This game is just full of turds.

The game is relatively short, given you can make it to the end. But with replay value extremely high with all it's randomness and Steam achievements (Complete the game 9 times, here I come) this game is surely a keeper, a must have for hard-core gamers and definitely worth the 5 bucks.

So, you heard it from me. Now Let's kill mom!

EDIT: Just beat it for the first time. I'm smiling right now.

EDIT EDIT: Also thought it be my duty to warn players of bugs. This game is not entirely finished and still needs some work. My fine example: being pushed offscreen BEYOND the walls. I'd be stuck and forced to restart, regardless of how far I got.

+16pts

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Parallels: QuakeXUnreal/ MW3XBF3

Admittedly the title of this post is an indecipherable mess to all but particular games fans, but then so are most videogames. Just wanted to point out that the debates about the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 echo those relating to the competition of Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, namely the 60 FPS twitch action vs. the 30fps larger scale, team focused combat. Of course most people wont remember that at all...in all honesty I have no idea how I know that either. UPDATE: IGN '99 feature article about QuakeXUnreal: http://pc.ign.com/articles/073/073550p1.html 1UP on MW3XBF3: http://www.1up.com/features/battlefield-3-modern-warfare-3-vs  

Both echo similar sentiments, including the innovations to be had, feel of the games and weapons, and overall pace.

Good show.

+15pts

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RUINER

Here are some statements that recently upset me:

"My computer can handle it. Its an Alienware." "I like realistic games." "I don't play those games."

Oh, we are gonna have fun with these.

I am seriously about to nerd rage, so if that's not your thing, get the fuck out now.

"My computer can handle it. Its an Alienware."

There are so many things wrong with this statement. But first of all I'd like to congratulate the people at Alienware marketing. You've succeeding in becoming the Apple of PC gaming; a name that people can gladly and proudly state that they've been ripped off.

Let me state it again: Alienware is the Apple of PC gaming. More flash than substance.  Everyone who owns an Alienware always tells you this in some smug as fuck tone as if they are so god damn elite for owning it.

Congrats. You have an impressive piece of gaming hardware. Also congrats on paying an extra thousand bucks for a keyboard backlighting you can change the color of.

Worst of all is how you say it like I'm supposed to respect that, or be impressed. Wow, you have way too much money to spend on a computer. Maybe if you told me that you bought the parts and built it yourself, or with the help of a friend, or fucking Google I'd be impressed.

"I like realistic games."

As royred pointed out to me, that statement means nothing. What's realistic mean? No games are realistic. That would be damn boring.

Well, in this instance the guy I was talking to was referring to the art style. I was telling the guy that he should play some Team Fortress 2, especially since now that it was free he has no excuse. Evidently he did. He likes realistic games.

I don't know what to say to that. Bear in mind (oh fuck there's a bear in my mind!) that he's not a bad guy, and he's fun to hang out with, but what do you say to that? You just discounted every game that doesn't have realistic graphics. And what the fuck is realistic graphics? Is Left 4 Dead realistic? Or is that too stylized? Mass Effect? Fuck if that's realistic, nothing's remotely real about that.

That's also a problem with this generation of games. Game consoles are finally at a point at which they can render "realistic" graphics, so of course that's all that comes out. Remember when you actually were forced to have art direction to differentiate yourself from the other games. Now all we do is copy paste shit into the Unreal engine.

"I don't play those kind of games." I came across this monster when talking to one of my co workers about games we were looking forward to. I mentioned I was damn excited for From Dust. He asked what it was and I told him it was a terraforming god game for XBLA (well not as articulately). Then came the above statement. Honestly, I really don't know how to react when people say things like that. I go into shock. Then it haunts me forever. One day I'm just gonna burst and yell at everyone "WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN!?" "DO YOU FUCKING HATE ME OR WHAT!?" then proceed to tear up the place.

Maybe he was saying he doesn't like god games. In that case I might be a bit more forgiving. But judging from the games he's planning to buy I doubt he ever played one. So that just leaves the fact that he doesn't play downloadable games. So why the hell not?

Is he opposed to high quality game releases at a fraction of the cost of retail games?

Is he afraid that the high amount of originality and refreshing game mechanics is going to ruin him and his love of pleasingly unoriginal games?

Does he believe that without a billion dollar budget a game can't be tightly focused and high quality?

Is he opposed to saving money?

I think really the thing that pisses me off so much is that I constantly feel that people are very uneducated when it comes to games. Or maybe its that they won't give the same opportunities that they will to other mediums to games.

Hell, indie films are where all kinds of wonderful happen; it would be foolish to discount those.

Games aren't given that chance. They take time and more commitment, and can make you feel unrewarded and as if you've wasted your time if you don't like them. But the exact opposite is true as well.

Maybe what it truly is, is that for someone who absolutely cherishes videogames, my attempts to share new experiences with others are constantly thwarted by vague, totally friggin empty statements like those above.

+14 points

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Parallels: Disney x Nintendo

People like comparing the film industry to the videogame industry. So let's compare.

As far as games to films go: Nintendo=Disney

Got that? Alright then. Read on:

We are the Disney generation. Mickey Mouse was our babysitter, and Toy Story is the story of our childhood (even more apparent when you go to see Toy Story 3 and find that Andy is just about your age).

But we are the videogame generation as well. The NES is a fact of our childhood. There are not many moments of our non-conscious minds where the NES simply had not been made yet. We were born and raised on videogames.

The Lion King is our Mario Bros. Toy Story is our Mario 64.

What both Nintendo and Disney proper both bring is a sense of childish playfulness that holds just enough seriousness to give weight to their creations with compromising the hopeful and energetic tone of their best work.

Recently, it seems however that both have been slipping away from making the magic that we've remembered it for.

Nintendo's Wii has meant a drop off in the era defining games that we've grown used to, failing on its promises of deep motion controlled games and focusing on more casual family experiences.

Even before that it seemed that they've lost love for their franchises, having outsourced work for “lesser” franchises such as Star Fox and F-Zero to other companies.

In parallel, it seems Disney has released very little of its fantastic 2D work, with Princess and the Frog being its only major return to form. Disney now conjures up images of Hannah Montana and other young girls they seem keen on turning into the next big thing.

But within these slumbering giants work the brilliant craftsmen and women of smaller studios. Disney's Pixar and Ninty's own Retro studios.

Both these studios not only bring to the table work that captures the spirit and charm of the parent company's early work, but brings a level of intelligence and maturity matching or surpassing the original works.

Pixar's Up manages to be both downcast and serious while never losing its charm or dropping into heavy melodrama, while Retro's Metroid Prime managed to modernize the franchise in ways that many of the new Nintendo titles of yet to do.

So even while I chuckle at Nintendo's absurd names for the upcoming Mario Kart 7 (the 9th Mario Kart) and am subjected to ads for the next grating pop rock outfit from Disney I'll rest easy knowing that they still haven't lost their spark. All the while Pixar and Retro will go do their thing, and maybe show them up a bit.

+13pts

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Mainstreaming Pt.1

Baku X ricotta

Veteran smash shoot killer Baku and ricotta (who would be described as hipster-as -fuck if fuck was a bit less mainstream) discuss recent releases and a lack of innovation among the big leaguers, as well as a bit of Battlefield vs. MW3.

Baku: I'm feeling a little disappointed in games lately, these big companies build up all kinds of hype for games and they turn out to be rather large let downs. Like Brink and Duke Nukem, while companies no one has ever heard of make games that are basic but surprisingly good.

ricotta.: Of course those guys get ignored by the mass public.

Baku: Indeed. Although Minecraft is slowly inching its way into mainstream gaming.

ricotta.: Yup, its inclusion in Game Informer is evidence of that.

Baku: After what I went through with Brink, I think from this point forward I will be approaching just about every mainstream game with a cautious optimism.

At this ricotta drops off for a sec. Upon return:

Baku: That was the shortest pron time ever.

ricotta.: what can i say, I'm a quickshot in all walks of life.

Baku: Indeed. Well I would like to change back into the subject of upcoming high profile releases. 2 in particular are MW3 and Skyrim.

ricotta.: Ah. MW3 I am not looking forward to...

Baku: And why is that?

ricotta.: It's really gonna be more of the same. Same engine, same gameplay, slightly changed MP.

Baku: I liked the same when it came to MW2, just the added bonus of a few more guns and killstreaks.

ricotta.: I can't even say the SP excites me because it hasn't been fresh since the first MW.

Baku: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

ricotta.: My problem is it doesn't improve any of the core mechanics. Its all about the metagame. More LVLing up, more gear, more maps, more achievements.

Baku: What mechanics needed to be improved?

ricotta.: It's more that they need to be revamped. Its been the same game since COD2.

Baku: People liked it, so they didn’t change anything.

ricotta.: They just change it up a bit to make it fresh, but don't actually improve the core. Compare it to something like Street Fighter 4, where the Super Edition not only added more modes and content but changed the balance of the entire game.

Baku: What would you suggest when it comes to improving the way COD works?

ricotta.: Honestly, i couldn't tell ya off hand. but i feel my money is more deserved by developers like DICE, who actively revamp Battlefield by switching up gameplay mechanics, adding mechanics like destructible environments, suppressing fire, and vaulting. COD is almost old school, while Battlefield feels more modern.

Baku: Makes sense. But do we want Infinity Ward making COD more like Battlefield, or stay in its own element and continue to provide options for us gamers on what to spend out money on. Rather than making every fps the same thing.

ricotta.: There is no way in hell IW should be making anything like Battlefield. The mechanics don't support it and it would be awful. At this point i feel like its more of a yearly franchise pumped out to make money instead of something the developers cared for.

Baku: I would agree with that, but if its all good, then who cares?

ricotta.: MW1 was a labor of love that set the template for every shooter after, I don't think we'll ever get anything as fresh again.

Baku: I think we will. I just don’t think IW will be making it. I mean splash damage tried with Brink and failed, but who knows what will happen in the future.

ricotta.: Exactly. One of my favorite games is MW1. The single player and multiplayer were both so new, and I respect the developers, so I'd rather COD not got the way of Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band actually is a pretty good parallel to COD vs. Battlefield. Hell, maybe even Activision vs. EA would work.

Baku: Hmmm... I see your point. Guitar hero started pissing me off around the third game.

O.o

That means MW3 is gonna suck!

+12 pts