“Look at me now.” Game characters and their new looks
When you have a character that has been around for a long time, eventually you will have to reinvent and modify certain aspects of that character to reflect the style of contemporary times…
…at least that’s what some characters go through. Other characters who seem to have changed over the years are changing for different reasons. Some characters change their appearance due to art style, others change because of their new circumstance, and some others don’t really change, they’re just a lot more… well equipped than they were before.
“I was really there!” Game immersion at its best
It’s been way too long since my last entry, but better late than never (and other suitable cliché’s) for this one.
It can be an extremely satisfying experience when you’re standing at the top of a tall Gothic styled building and looking down at a group of thugs below. You then jump straight down and into the middle of the thugs and before they can yell “It’s the Batman!!” you’ve already taken them out with some brutal melee moves that send them flying to the ground. You are the goddamn Batman and you love it. That’s the feeling I got while playing Batman: Arkham Asylum and it really does impress me how far this game goes to make you feel like the dark knight. There are many games that feature established characters like Batman, and sure, they do feature their trademark moves and gear, though few manage to make you feel like you really are that character and can pull off all of their moves just like how it’s done in their TV show or movie or whatever.
Fiji: The island with no vidya
I recently went on a trip back to the country I was born in, Fiji, for two weeks… which is why I haven’t been posting up any entries lately. But, now that I’m back I can post some stuff about my thoughts on Fiji. There is this blog entry as well as some stuff I will be posting in the forum as well.
Many, many years ago (in December it’ll actually be TWENTY years ago) I moved from Fiji to Australia. Before that time, I don’t remember playing any video games, at least that I can remember. I look back at those times and wonder, “what the hell did I have to do back then?” I think really hard about it and come to the conclusion that I really didn’t have much to do as a child in Fiji… it was pretty boring for me actually… I’m so glad that we moved to Australia when I was 5.
Virtual Portable Console “…we have no plans for that…”
At the beginning of last month I had written an article about Nintendo and the path they are following with Wii. This article is a bit of a follow up to that one, though this time I’d like to focus on the DSi specifically. E3 has come and gone and while we got to enjoy at least ONE nice surprise, the rest of what Nintendo showed at E3 was horribly predictable.
I was really sure that Nintendo would announce that the DSi would be getting “Virtual Portable Console” support during this year’s E3. After all, it would make sense on so many levels… though at this point, I don’t really know what to think with Nintendo. They obviously have a plan they’re following which they think will get them a lot of money for the least amount of effort, that much is obvious…
Nintendo to the Core
I’ll admit it straight up: Writing an article of this type a month before an E3 is a very bad idea… mostly because you just don’t know what kind of surprises will pop up during the event. That said, let’s hope Nintendo does make a fool of me with whatever it is they have planned at E3.
Throughout Wii’s lifespan there has been a considerable amount of talk about whether Nintendo is still a traditional video game company, or if their new found audience has turned them into something entirely different. Of course, these kinds of criticisms are not unknown to the company since they’ve had a certain image problem with certain groups of gamers ever since they became a video game industry giant.