Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2

Have you ever wanted to pilot a mecha from your favorite Gundam series, while destroying anyone and anything that gets in your way? Well Koei in co-operation with Namco Bandai Game and Sunrise are here to grant your wish once again with Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2! O.K. enough of the advertising, but seriously I would highly recommend this game for any Gundam fan that might be reading this.
As you start the game off in Official Mode you are able to play as one of four playable characters, more become unlocked as the game continues. Deciding to go old school I went with the very first Gundam pilot, Amuro Ray in all his 1979 glory. Once your pilot is chosen, he or she will say some odd little catch phrase that allows you to get an idea of the inner workings of your character’s personality. Now you begin to follow the anime’s original storyline that your character is from. If you are new to the Gundam universe fear not, you are given the chance to read a brief synapses of the character and of the events that lead to, and are occurring in the war you will soon be joining. Once you have chosen the first mission the narrator will fill you in on how, in this case, Amuro acquired and began piloting Gundam. Once this is done other characters from the series will proceed to talk to you, filling in more of the story for you the player. After certain key missions are completed more of the story line will be revealed, eventually giving you the basic plot of the anime from your character’s perspective. Then again if you don’t care about any of the story or already know it you can skip it all and go straight to the fighting! Huzzah fighting! Keep in mind however that when you first go into your mission to make sure you go into Player Settings and then to Action Info check your mech’s controls. Different mechs have different controls and abilities so failing to check its moves may cause your death once more mobile suits are acquired and played. For example the mass produced models can only do a simple hit combos, shoot, and use a very lame SP (special) Attacks. The Gundams on the other hand can combo their regular hitting combos with a gun or sword attack, and have a much more effect and cooler looking SP Attack.
Once you’re done with Official Mode you can continue to play as your character in Mission Mode. In this mode over 100 new missions will be available for you to play, allowing you to gather more parts for not only our own mech but also for mass produced units and other Gundams. When you gathered all of the pieces of these units you’ll be able to use them in battle and complete missions where only that suit can be used. A perk that fans will appreciate is the ability to not only ally with and or make enemies of pilots from other series, but you also get to gain the license to pilot their Gundams.
The controls for fighting are hard to get the hang of at first, and you’ll probably die and be confused the first few times you play. Once you get over this you’ll find yourself being able to defeat almost enemy that comes your way. The exception is Mobile Armors who will be your worst enemies. These oversized mobile suits have a wider range of attacks and do at least twice as much damage to you as you do to them. The creators of this game foresaw your impending doom and were considerate enough to give you a briefing on how to attack the enemy just before your first fight, in hopes that you might win. However this still takes a bit of effort on your part, and oh yes your in an enclosed field so you can’t escape and health is not always on hand and your allies usually cause more trouble then their worth… sigh. Yet again the creators help you out by allowing you to Interim Save as many times during battle as you want. The movements of your suit are broad and mechanic as would be expected from fighting robots. Then again so are everyone else’s movements so you are not a disadvantage by any means.
The graphics for this game vary depending on what you are doing. If you’re dealing with the characters then you’re going to be dealing with their original anime format allowing you to tell the older series from the newer ones. It’s like comparing the original Speed Racer from the 1960s to something you see now, you can tell the difference in quality. When you deal with the fighting portion of the game the mechs and battlefield are what you would expect to see with regular game graphics. The best graphics occur when watching the cut scenes, but that’s to be expected as well.
Overall this game is a lot of fun and I’m glad I bought it. It practically pays for itself since you can clock over 70 hours on just one character between Official and Mission Mode. I can’t see giving this game anything but 8 out of 10.

Kingdom Hearts

Ah the joys of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days. This game is art, without a doubt. It has the pretty graphics, music, and heck it even has character development from the start! YAY for Square Enix and Disney.

Videogames and art in the public eye

Are videogames a form of art? According to The American Heritage College dic-tion-ary-y Third Edition the first definition of art given is the “Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature”. According to this definition videogames are in fact considered art. The end…… hmm that’s a rather boring argument, let’s spice things up a bit.
The dictionary term of art does say that videogames fit the description, but then again so would many other things. When a person mentions the word art to you what is the first thing that pops into your head? Is it a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, or something else that might be found in an art museum? If you thought of any of these things then your train of thought tends to rule out videogames from fitting into the category. Worry not though fan of gaming this doesn’t mean that you have betrayed your beloved videogames. It would actually be quite strange if videogames were the first thing that came to mind at the mention of the word art. Thankfully the world we live in doesn’t exist in extremes such as good and evil, ying and yang, and black and white. Rather it resides in the realism of the hazy gray middle ground.
When I say middle ground I mean that both you and the dictionary may be correct on this subject. Videogames are still a relatively young form of entertainment, and only in the past decade have they been able to even remotely “imitate…..nature”. Couple this with the fact that this media is still largely looked down upon by the majority non-gamer community it’s not all that hard to understand why one would lean toward the answer of no.
The question of videogames being art is somewhat unfair and dependent on the viewer. Overall I think it safe to say that they are not yet considered art. This doesn’t mean that once the industry gets older that the same will be true. It is obvious to gamers that a lot of work goes into the making of these games but art is really in the eye of the beholder. There are some abstract paintings that are simply blotches of paint on canvas and its considered art, yet in today’s time we know of great artists of the past that lived and died poor because their work wasn’t to the people’s tastes. So whether videogames are a public form of art or not depends on the public, but on a personal level it all depends on you.

The scariest people on earth...fanboys and fangirls

Undoubtedly some of the most interesting,whether they be funny or scary, reviews come not from the reviewer, but rather the fanboys and fangirls that reply to the reviews.  Amusingly these fans tend to take reviews with the utmost seriousness and will not stand for any injustice against one of their beloved games.  They will however praise the critic if they actually agree with their review.  As G4's Adam Sessler brings to his viewers' attention, a majority of the comments left are from fans that tend to disagree with what was said on the show.  It seems odd however that most of the comments when Killzone 2 was reviewed had to deal not with fans of the game, but rather those of the console.  It appears that Xbox owners cant stand a good review about a PlayStation 3 game and assuming vice versa.  Its so strange that I'm honestly perplexed by the whole situation.  I could understand if your favorite game was rated poorly and just totally bashed into the ground that you would be upset, but seriously to be upset because a game that wasn't on your system got a high rank?  Seriously who cares?  Are these fans really that obsessed and dedicated to Microsoft or Sony?  Are they jealous because it looks like a good game but upsets because it's not for their system?  It appears that I just cant wrap my mind around the logic behind these fanboys and girls.

O.K. I admit that I'm pretty bummed when a game I was looking forward to and wanted to buy isn't for a system that I have, but I don't take it out on the console or game reviewer.  Generally if its a good game a friend or sibling will buy it and I can play it then.  I don't care what system its on as long as I get a chance to play it.  I am also not one of those people that thinks, as Ben Kucher says in his Killzone 2 review, "there is a secret world where Microsoft
and Sony agents visit different gaming writers, paying them to love
some games and hate others".  It makes me want laugh and to ask these fans if they seriously think that its all a conspiracy between the game companies.  Actually can anyone tell me or explain to me in any amount of detail what these fanboys and fangirls are thinking?

Game reviews and the work that goes into them

Game critiquing seems to be a trickier subject than I first anticipated. Just like with movie or books, a person will read reviews from other people that have, in this case played the videogame, to see if the item in question is worth spending money on. That seems like a simple enough concept. However not everyone agrees with how the critiques go about their reviews, thus causing the problems.

Some game critics simply give you a quick synopsis of the overall game so you can decide on or own if it sounds good or not. These reviews are fairly simple and usually just expand what would be on the back of the game’s case. While other critics give you a review of the game. They play it, keep track of what they did and did not like, then they either post it on a blog or send it to the magazine they’re writing for. Depending on the critic he/she will probably focus on some aspects of the game over others. This can cause some problems because it may over look important pros or cons to the game.

It’s understandable that not everyone is going to agree with what the review says, after all everyone has and is entitled to their own opinion. What boggles my mind is that some readers will go out of their way to complain about what they have just read. The readers should be well aware when they begin to read that it is an article based on someone else’s point of view, and that it may not parallel their own. I suppose I understand to a point because when I read a game review and don’t agree with the writer I think ‘How dare they say that! That game was awesome!’, but I never saw the point of posting a blog on how the person was wrong. Generally once I think about the review for a couple minutes I realize that the person is entitled to their own opinion and maybe there is some truth to what they say. Then again this could be due to years of my older siblings criticizing the various things I liked growing up.

Another problem that seems to exist is the current method of scoring videogames in reviews. I’m sure most people are well aware that there is the basic scale of 1 through 10. Many people find this system to be flawed. To some avail they’re right. Not everyone’s idea of a rate 5 game is the same. After all who decides what average is? Once again however I can’t agree with these people. Reviews after all are an attempt to tell the masses what critic thought of something and generally they want a basic grade for the game. Thus the 1 through 10 scale is in use. The reader doesn’t have to take this score at face value, but they should consider that this is for the overall game. This means: graphics, plot, character(s), overall development, game play, camera angles, etc. So even if this game was “epically awesome” the fact that the camera angles totally sucked and made you die 25% of the time might lower the grade. Another thing the reader has to keep in mind is that the writer may be limited to a certain amount of space or words so they may not be able to say everything about the game that they want to.

In conclusion I think that people need to stop trashing every little thing they read and take into account all the work that goes on behind the scenes just so they, the readers, can read a game review.

Articulation

    On page 14 in An Introduction to Game Studies Laura Ermi and Frans Mayra state that "a player is rarely able to verbalize very well the exact quality of game play experience".  I think that with a little thought we can figure it out and verbalize it.  Good videogames are like movies and books: they tell a story, make one think, and have engaging characters.  With a basis such as this people outside the world of gaming can begin to understand and relate to those who do play videogames.
   
    In books or movies, you may be drawn in by likable characters or engaging tales, but you have no control over the events that conspire; you are just an observer.  Gaming gives you the ability to be part of the story.   In a complex game where you play as a character, you are, in a sense, that character.  You control where your character goes, who they interact with, and even what they do in battle.  In addition to playing this interactive story, you are also able to do things you would likely not be able to do in real life.  After all, it is probably safe to say that you're not going to go into a dungeon to fight some monsters, use magic spells, or have some other amazing adventures or skills.  This aspect of being someone you're not can be very appealing.  Unlike yelling at some movie or book where the main character is about to do something profoundly stupid and you can't stop them, in videogames you have control. So if you have a feeling that a zombie or some other enemy is on the other side of the door, instead of yelling at the character, you can make sure your weapon is out and go to town.  With games you get all the joys of a story but now you get to have some say in it.
    
    On page 15 in the afore mentioned text, Mayra refutes his own argument when he quotes David Sudnow in his description of the game Breakout. 
Mayra follows this description with his own explanation of the game's
popularity.  If Mayra can explain how and why people like a game with
just a paddle, ball, and bricks, then it should be easy for him explain to non-gamers why people like more in-depth games.  Showing that with a little thought a gamer actually could verbalize what in a game drew them to playing it.  

Late intro

I realized that I never properly introduced myself, so I'm here to fix that.
My name is Jessica Asselin and I've been gaming since before I started kindergarten. I mainly like and play RPGs, but I wont deny a good fighting game to spice things up a bit and to get some stress out. I come from a large family of gamers, excluding my mom who sadly thinks most games are a waste of time and possibly my eldest sister who is married and busy taking care of her kids. Its safe to say that it was my siblings who got me into gaming in the first place. However, since I'm the youngest I got really good at being patient and watching people play videogames. Hmm lets see now I don't think I have a favorite series of games but I know I watched my siblings play a lot of computer games such as Monkey Island, 7th Guest, Final Fantasy VII, and much to my boredom even some DOS games.
While they were busy with computer games that left our Atari 7800 console open. YAY Atari!!

Ch. 1 readings

I never thought I would say that an article about gaming could be so utterly boring. The debate on "video games", "videogames", "digital games" or whatever you want to call them actually amazed me that people could be so stuck on a simple title. I agree that it can be annoying when the writer changes between "videogames" and "digital games" for example but that's just a case of re-reading your paper and deciding which one to stick with. Also, games, like books, have different formats. Books for example come in both hardbacks and paperbacks and we distinguish the two. In my opinion we don’t have to mesh all games into a single category but if you do call it video games, just remember that there can be sub-categories as well. If a game is played on a computer than it should be under the sub-category of "computer game", on a hand held such as Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, ect. then it should be called a "hand held game", and of course console should be "videogames/video games". Another way of looking at this is comparing these sub-categories to different genres.

am i cool if i write in all lower cases? YOU BET!!!!