GameSetLinks: Up From The Tomb
Back for the week with a multitude of new GameSetLinks, headed by Matteo Bittanti's questioning of a few recent articles - particularly the new one in EGM - about PS3's 'revenge'.
Bittanti suggests of PS3's apparent renaissance: "You'll realize that the argument is completely based on speculation and "what if" scenarios. In other words, we are fully immersed in that realm of speculative fiction also known as gaming journalism".
Mind you, he also says that "...the internet has a great memory." While old websites and the Wayback Machine do, actually, I think most people who consume the Internet have _terrible_ memories, and are swept along on the latest trend. Including myself, yay! Anyhow, here's stuff:
mbf tod@y: When a preview is not a preview?
'I find vaguely ironic that the gaming press, en masse, has now decided that the PS3 is going to rule the universe.' I've noticed this trend too - though not to this extent, perhaps.
Ratings Watch: Mr. Driller Online and Assault Heroes 2...again. | XBLArcade.com
Oo, Mr. Driller, there's a game I'd love to play on XBLA.
Action Button's Tim Rogers reviews Portal
Obligatory auto-fellatio 'portal' discussions are fortunately included.
IndieGames.com - The Weblog - Freeware Game Pick: Qrp (Sean Chan)
Like a commenter says: 'Not much of a game, but terribly cute.'
Gamefly's official description of Unreal Tournament III for PS3
'When the game says "Unreal," you know it's too good to be true.' Haha, they did NOT mean to make it sound like that, oddly prophetic as it now is.
Media Molecule blog » Blog Archive » Sackboy. Fo’ REAL.
More and more developers getting RSS-worthy blogs.
Rocking: Guitar Rising for Real Guitar Heroes
It's an amazing idea, but we'll have to see if the final project works out well - when I played an early version for the IGF, it had some execution issues. Also, it uses Stepmania as a tech base, interestingly.
NAMM Oddities 2008 - Guitars
Worth pointing at because surely the Guitar Hero custom guitar wave is going to break hard soon? I know there are some already...
The Shifted Librarian » Dance Your Fines Away
'Last year, I noted a librarian who waives the fines of patrons who play DDR against her. This year, the Wadleigh Memorial Library makes it an official part of its Patron Appreciation Day.'
Billionaire Boys Club Blog » New Web Releases
Pharrell Williams and Nigo from Bape's clothing label has a 'car crash' T-shirt (scroll down) that looks very Gizmondo Ferrari to me. Just $80!
Comments
Tim Rogers is usually a riot to read, but I think he's outdone himself with this one. I'm glad he was able to contain himself and 'review' Portal months after it's been analysed to death, and the extra polish time's paid of, IMO. It's gold from the opening line: "After playing Portal, it becomes abundantly clear that every videogame produced should probably be required by law to contain at least one fantastical item that the player wishes he could have in real life." I love how reasonable, if hyperbolic, it sounds on the surface, while actually being a tremendous dig at most of the game canon from Pong to Pacman, even going up to modern games like Gears of War (it's even better that he then talks a fair bit about Pacman CE in the review, despite his dig at it earlier). From there, there's all sorts of classic lines like "Even then, it’s enough to confuse most peoples’ girlfriends" and the afore-mentioned reference to autofellatio. I'm glad that he's getting much better at hiding when he starts running completely off the point - I really enjoy how many segues he's managing to fit in these days. It's a bit of a shame that he spent much longer than usual actually talking about the game, nearly a paragraph, but I guess this is excusable seeing as this one is supposed to be positive.
Seriously, Rogers is one of the best satirists writing on the game industry today. He perfectly captures the persona of a blowhard journalist trying to analyse a game and being way out of his league, and manages to get in great digs at the review 'format' and the sometimes navel-gazing gaming culture at the same time. Great stuff.
Posted by: Merus | February 11, 2008 9:51 PM
Merus:
Thanks for getting it!
Now I have to sit here and ponder VERY DEEPLY whether your declaration of my writing as "satire" was, in and of itself, satire.
The internet is so confusing!
Posted by: tim rogers | February 11, 2008 10:53 PM
I'm still wondering where all those typos came from. "Afore-mentioned"? Seriously, I thought I was better than that.
The internet is so confusing.
Posted by: Merus | February 12, 2008 1:29 AM
I didn't understand whether Merus was in hitherto unmined levels of sarcasm either. But I wouldn't link Tim's stuff if I didn't enjoy it on some visceral level. So there.
Posted by: simonc | February 12, 2008 6:33 AM
"I find vaguely ironic that the gaming press, en masse, has now decided that the PS3 is going to rule the universe."
I'm glad that the PlayStation 3 is finally getting some positive attention. The PS3 flaming got old a long time ago.
Posted by: McLovin | February 14, 2008 3:51 PM