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• Rez: 4/20 Game of the Day

  It may be a bit of a stereotype, but I'm willing to bet a lot of you gamers out there--people known for laid-back, couch-bound fun--plan on celebrating the High Holiday (of course, no pun intended) of April 20th. People unfamiliar with this special day should probably be aware that--wait, you're not a cop, are you? Read More... Posted Apr 20 2009, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: rez, bob mackey, xbox live arcade, drugs, gaming habits, 420

• Breaking Out of Your Gaming Comfort Zone

  Longtime readers of 61FPS should be aware of my love-hate relationship with Japanese RPGs; for as much as I hate the genre's crippling flaws, I find myself crawling back to them time and time again, because they've sort of become a "comfort food" for me. As much as I hate being strangled by the slimy tentacles of nostalgia, I have to admit that my continuing fascination with all things JRPG has to do with the fact that I was practically raised on the things--though, to give myself some credit, I can at least say that I've managed to avoid quite a few of this generations biggest disappointments, like Star Ocean: The Last Hope. This does not explain why I played through all of Blue Dragon, though. Since becoming a member of the enthusiast press, I've been trying to break away from my old tendencies to try new and otherwise scary experiences. It's safe to say that I'm most comfortable with organized, linear, Japanese game design; as a former Nintendo and Playstation (once the JRPG Mecca) fanboy, this was once the only world I ever knew. And to this day, the non-linearity of open-world games is still a bit anxiety-inducing to me. So I thought, "What better way to break me out of this rut than by playing a free-roaming game where just about everything wants to murder you?" And this is where Fallout 3 came in. Read More... Posted Mar 31 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: fallout 3, bob mackey, gaming habits, blue dragon, jrpgs, rpgs

• The Things We Do For Levels

  It all started about 10 years ago with a little game called Final Fantasy VII--actually, it started many years before that, but in my head the origin of this particular issue starts with Square's world-changing blockbuster. You see, as a teenager with a lot of time on his hands and no real income to speak of, I felt obligated to get the most out of every game I purchased; and with Final Fantasy VII, this meant I eventually invested hours and hours in the delightful field of Chocobo breeding. But there was just one problem: the racing necessary to beef up your breeding Chocobo's stats was extremely boring, and, if I remember correctly, only required the mashing of a single button. My solution to combat this boredom? Whenever a race started, I would entertain myself by hitting "play" on the nearest VCR remote control--usually with a recent episode of The Simpsons--and come back to my game minutes later, already in progress. But the problem of needing backup entertainment to entertain me when my regular entertainment wasn't cutting the mustard didn't really dawn on me until later in life. Let's just say that I'm happy I never played video games on a picture-in-picture set; it probably would have corrupted my gaming habits permanently. Read More... Posted Feb 23 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: rpg, jrpg, gaming habits, dragon quest iv: chapters of the chosen, grinding

• Whatcha Not Playing: Persona 4

  Persona 4 may not actually be out, but I'm still making an effort to actively avoid it.  This is more than a little depressing, because I'm sure it's a fantastic RPG, and, quite possibly, the last good Playstation 2 release--unless the series decides to stay on Sony's eight year-old console.  I'm not one to have a restraining order on good JRPGs, as they are kind of rare these days, but playing Persona 4 could be very hazardous to my health.  It's not all of the demons and Satanic imagery that's got me scared; it's the fact that this game could very well take over my upcoming (and desperately-needed) break from work, school, and life. Typically, it's extremely rare for me to play a game for me than 100 hours--and hell, most games don't have that much content to spread around. But the last Persona game, Persona 3: FES, can be found in the handful of games where I've actually spent hours in the triple digits.  Before you think that I'm a loser with too much time on my hands, please let me explain: Persona 3: FES was released at a time that I could take advantage of the most: the end of a long, tortuous semester, with 12 weeks of absolute freedom in front of me.  Grad school doesn't give you much to do in the way of jobs or work during the summer. Essentially, I had a Summer of George. And Persona 3 was the catalyst that kicked it off. Read More... Posted Dec 04 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: persona 3 fes, atlus, jrpg, bob mackey, gaming habits, persona 4

• Rock Band: My Anti-Music

  Last Friday, Joe blogged about the curmudgeonly Nickelback and their outrage over how music games like Guitar Hero are supposedly preventing people from actually picking up real instruments and starting bands. As I said in the comments section of that post, if the world needs anything, it's fewer local bands; the town I come from is so lousy with them, you can't leave your car parked anywhere for more than ten minutes without your entire windshield getting plastered with an inch-thick layer of fliers.  So I don't think we need to worry about rock and roll going anywhere anytime soon--and if anything, Nickelback is only contributing to the death of the genre, what with their general shittyness and all. For me, though, Rock Band is my only real musical outlet. You see, between the ages of 16 and 17, I had about a year-and-a-half of guitar lessons--and while it didn't give me much of a musical foundation, I still picked up some fundamental skills that manifested into a sort of prototype Guitar Hero.  I'd put on a song, try to play along with it to the best of my ability, and think "Damn, this would be pretty sweet as a video game."  Of course, I'm not exactly claiming I had the idea first; everyone knows that GuitarFreaks predated Guitar Hero by a good seven years--I think my imagination was mainly stoked by my obsession with Um Jammer Lammy and the guitar controllers found on the Japan-only arcade release of the game. Read More... Posted Nov 24 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: music, guitar hero, rock band, gaming habits, um jammer lammy

• Gaming Impulse Buys

  Gaming is an expensive hobby, and freelance writing is not exactly a lucrative career (no offense to my kind, handsome bosses). So, when it comes to buckling down and buying a game, I tend to split my time between fretting and doing online research for hours on end.  But with certain games, something just snaps and shuts down the reason center of my brain--which tends to operate even when I'm drunk.  I've fallen victim to the siren song of music games so much that I really should have started to notice a pattern in my life by now.  Let me break it down for you: - 2000: I walk into my nearest Funcoland (coincidentally, the worst name for a business ever), see a new copy of Samba de Amigo and the maracas, and promptly hand over $120 + tax. I had no idea why I was even in the store in the first place. - 2001: I see an official Konami Dance Dance Revolution bundle featuring the game plus a dance pad. Inexplicably, I find myself buying it. Seemed like a good idea at the time. - 2005: What's this? Taiko Drum Master? At this point, it had been marked down to twenty bucks, so it's probably my least impulsive impulse buy. - Today: I get a fat freelancing check in the mail, and my paycheck was just depositedin my bank account last night.  I immediately drive to target and purchase Rock Band 2 against my will.  IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN Read More... Posted Nov 14 2008, 06:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: music, gaming culture, bob mackey, rock band 2, gaming habits, capitalism

• Game Length Versus Quality: The Debate Continues

  When it comes to game length, how long is too long?  This is a question I've personally pondered for quite some time; thankfully, GameSetWatch's Mister Raroo has done an excellent job of detailing this dilemma in a recent article.  So, what exactly is wrong with the bloated, modern game? Nobody wants to pay $60 for an experience that is over in an evening. Thus, games are usually stuffed with enough content keep players busy for weeks or even months. That said, too often the length of games is artificially lengthened in order to provide players with the perception of a longer experience. I’ve done enough backtracking and fetch quests in games to know filler when I see it. It's true; there's a certain dollar-to-content ratio that we've all come to expect over the years.  But just how much of that content are we actually going to play?  Personally, I tend to check out of a game when it's stopped giving me anything new to care about.  As much as I liked Odin Sphere, the mechanics--essentially unchanged throughout the game's entirety--were so repetitive that I didn't feel bad checking out shortly after finishing the first chapter.  In my eyes, I had "finished" the game.  The "seen about enough of you" defense has been a huge help in getting me to stop playing through games I'm no longer enjoying; though this new healthy lifestyle has only developed recently in my adult life. Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 07:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: gaming culture, jrpg, bob mackey, game design, gaming habits, game length, filler

• Gamers: Let's Slow Things Down

  There's been a certain problem with gaming that's only gotten worse over time: it's what I like to call Late to the Party Syndrome.  It happens whenever people on the Internet venture to talk about a game more than two weeks after its release date; daring to excuse their transgression, they proclaim themselves "late to the party" and sheepishly try to revive a lost conversation. Of course, the problem isn't these "latecomers."  We, as gamers, are becoming--or may have already become--a culture that absorbs new products as fast as possible in order to move onto the newest and next biggest thing.  There's something to be said about the only acceptable window of conversation for a game being the two week period around its release, and when said game becomes retro rougly a decade later. This is why I'm thankful for podcasts like 1UPFM, which has a "Backlog" section that features editors' thoughts on playing games from as far back as the mythical age of 2005.  And, to be completely fair, the consume-and-forget lifestyle doesn't exist in the world of video games alone.  I remember back when the last Harry Potter book came out, everyone on the Internet practically had a race to see who could finish it first.  Whatever happened to savoring something you enjoy, and taking time out to reflect instead of binge? Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: fable 2, gaming culture, bob mackey, gamestop, gaming habits

• Games to Play While You Poop

  What is it about the bathroom that makes it the perfect place for sitting, reading, thinking and gaming? I've done my share of all these activities while doing...other activities; in fact, the lousy screen of the original Game boy Advance ensured that I spent at least half of my day in the perfect lighting conditions of my parent's bathroom. People didn't see much of me between the years of 2001 to 2003. Even when backlighting on handhelds became standard, my habits still continued. In fact, bathroom gaming might have saved my life; in 2007 I was stuck in such a boring, depressing temp job that I had no choice but to sit on a toilet and play a shitty cell phone version of Mr. Driller for most of my eight-hour shift. Luckily for me, I was not trained or monitored--and even though I worked in a bank, I feel I am in no way responsible for our current economic meltdown. Read More... Posted Oct 08 2008, 12:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: game boy advance, bob mackey, pooping, peggle, portable gaming, mr. driller, gaming habits