61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

• Watcha Listening to: Myself (Again)

  Three months ago, the amiable Kole Ross invited me onto his Stand Under the Don't Tree and Riddle Me This program as a special "celebrity" guest to discuss the recent 1UP buyout and the calamity that followed. We laughed, we cried, and some would say the world was changed forever. These people may have a serious problem with overestimation. Well, it seems as if Kole must not have received too much hate mail from my appearance, because last week I was once again invited to be a special call-in guest--though under much happier circumstances. The latest episode's video game-related discussion deals mainly with all of the good (and a few bad) things that came out of this year's Game Developers Conference. If you listen, you may hear Kole and I talk about the following things extemporaneously: - The magic of OnLive. - The Punch-Out trilogy and my sick fascination with the SNES sequel. - Hello Kitty MMORPG? (Yes.) - The trials of being a Rock Band nerd with no tolerance for Pearl Jam. - Various ramblings, stutterings, and misinformation on my part. - And many more! Read More... Posted Apr 07 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: bob mackey, watcha listening to, podcasts, gdc 2009

• Lego... Rock Band?

  April Fools' Day was nearly a week ago, so we've all had quite a few days to let our guards down and start accepting everything at face value again. I was lucky enough to not fall for some elaborately-crafted hoax this year, which is why it's hard for me to take a recent 1UP news story without the requisite grain of salt. But, given the calendar date, it seems that Lego Rock Band, a new installment in Harmonix's smash-hit music series, may actually be in the works. The only evidence we have at this point is an older version of Harmonix's GDC presentation slides accidentally posted to the Internet, which seemingly confirm the game's existence. According to 1UP, [T]his slide was among a batch that was sent for "speech approval" by Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale for his GDC presentation, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Design Lessons Learned From Rock Band," but never shown. According to [Harmonix senior designer Dan] Teasdale's blog, they resurfaced when Think Services posted the earlier versions by mistake. They seem to confirm the existence of Lego Rock Band, which was apparently set to be unveiled last Friday at GDC, but never materialized. If it's indeed real, it will evidently be arriving later this year between Rock Band: Unplugged and The Beatles Rock Band. So, what exactly does Lego have to do with Rock Band? To be fair, the interlocking blocks are just as relevant to Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Read More... Posted Apr 07 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: rock band, harmonix, bob mackey, rock band 2, music games, gdc 2009, lego

• Attention BioWare: Mid-Fantasy Is Still Fantasy

  During last week's GDC extravaganza, I listened to quite a few podcasts; on a few of these shows, I heard the BioWare guys touting their upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. My first reaction to this title way back when it was announced was nothing more than ambivalence. While I'm sure the folks at BioWare are capable of making fantastic games, if there's one setting I'm sick of, it's traditional fantasy--and we Westerners tend to make it as ponderous and needlessly epic as possible. But it's important to note that we're not the only ones with this problem; the Japanese also abuse and overuse the fantasy setting in their RPGs as well, which is why games like Earthbound and the Persona series stand out so much from the crowd. For whiners like me who are sick of swords, dwarves, and dragons, BioWare does have an answer, but it really only pays lip service to the problem of fantasy RPG oversaturation. Read More... Posted Apr 02 2009, 06:15 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: bioware, bob mackey, jrpgs, gdc 2009, dragon age, fantasy

• Everything You Need to Know About the Wii Storage Solution

  As we’ve said, one of Nintendo’s big reveals at GDC today is the long, long awaited solution to the Wii’s storage woes. It's so obvious it's not even worthy of a condescending drum roll: it’s just the ability to load Virtual Console and WiiWare games off an SD card. Could someone please explain to me why this took two years to roll out? From today’s Nintendo GDC keynote, we know that this solution adds 32GB SDHC card support and is implemented via an SD card menu that looks a lot like the Wii menu. But I’ve been playing with it, and so have all the extra little details after the jump. This might be rather fine data for something as pedestrian as a storage solution, but don’t blame me: Nintendo has given me way too long to think about what I want from this. Here’s the breakdown: There’s load time. The Wii still can’t actually load games in-place off the SD card; instead it has to copy them to system memory temporarily, and then load it. This means you will be twiddling your thumbs while the copy takes place, and on a big game like Sin & Punishment this load can be nearly twenty seconds long. Read More... Posted Mar 25 2009, 01:50 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: wii, wiiware, virtual console, joe keiser, gdc 2009, storage, fridge, sdhc

• GDC News: Final Fantasy to Hit Virtual Console

  Fans of the old-school Final Fantasy games haven't exactly gotten the best treatment in recent years; while ports and remakes of the early games have been available in abundance, those looking for a faithful retro RPG experience have had to turn to expensive eBay copies (with possibly non-functioning batteries) or emulation to get their fix. After all, if Square can charge $30-$40 for revivals of their past hits, what incentive do they have to offer much cheaper version of these games on services like the Wii's Virtual Console? Well, it looks like Square-Enix has had a change of heart--or they've just initiated the final stage in their "milking fans dry" plan--with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's announcement that the famous franchise will indeed be hitting Nintendo's digital download service. Read More... Posted Mar 25 2009, 01:40 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: wii, final fantasy, retro, satoru iwata, bob mackey, virtual console, gdc 2009

• GDC News: Wii Storage Solution Confirmed

  If you're a fan of the Wii's Virtual Console and WiiWare digital download services, you've undoubtedly encountered one of the console's biggest setbacks: its meager amount of storage space. The company's had many glib answers for angry fans demanding a solution to the Wii's lack of a hard drive, but we've only heard rumors and Nintendo's whole "just move your games to an SD card" line since the grumbling began. And who can forget the infamous and disingenuous fridge analogy that was spouted by a Nintendo PR rep in the Fall of '07 and repeated millions of times throughout the Internet to this day? Yes, we clean out our fridge when food goes bad, but downloaded ROMs are in no danger of rotting--okay, maybe the Alex Kidd games. However, with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's 2009 GDC keynote speech comes exciting news that addresses the concerns of hardcore Nintendo nerds. Thanks to the liveblogging efforts of Joystiq, we now have confirmation of a new SD Card Channel for the Wii, which will let owners of Nintendo's popular console run games straight from their SD cards. Read More... Posted Mar 25 2009, 01:10 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo, wii, satoru iwata, bob mackey, gdc 2009

• Play Tim Schafer's New Point-and-Click Adventure Game for Free

  Tim Schafer, the legendary (and hilarious) developer behind awesome titles like Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and the upcoming Brutal Legend, has a new old-school point-and-click adventure game available to play for free at Double Fine's website. Titled Host Master and the Conquest of Humor, this throwback to those LucasArts adventure games of yore puts you in the shoes of Schafer himself as he desperately scrambles to come up with good jokes before the GDC Awards Ceremony. Read More... Posted Mar 24 2009, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: lucasarts, bob mackey, point and click adventure games, tim schafer, double fine, gdc 2009