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• Ranty McRant Rant: What the Hell does Casual Mean?

  I read comments sections. I probably shouldn't because they contribute to my slow slide into misanthropy, but just as rubberneckers stare at a gruesome auto wreck, I have a hard time turning away. On the “positive” side, they do serve as blog fodder. The target of my ire this week is the word “Casual” and its occasional associate, “Dumbed Down”. I'm sure these words and phrases were valid once upon a time, with recognizable definitions, but these days they've been co-opted by the angry hoards to mean whatever the hell is stuck in the craw of the angry gamer of the moment. They've taken on a sort of amorphous existence of fluid definition and get applied left and right as a sort of catch all derogatory, appropriate or not. Language tends to break down and fail when words lose their meanings and that really annoys the piss out of me. Read More... Posted Oct 10 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: mario kart, casual, amber ahlborn, rant

• The Madden IQ and The Future of Competitive Gaming

  I’ve said it before here at 61 Frames Per Second, but the Madden series baffles me. The game’s massive popularity here in the states — three Madden titles are among the ten all-time best selling titles in America — makes sense. Football is awesome and people love it. It’s the game’s popularity in spite of monumental difficulty that makes my brain itchy. Sometimes, you just need a different perspective on things. Hooksexup’s own Joseph Lazauskas is an old school Madden-ite. In this 61FPS guest spot, he gives us some insight into why Madden ’06–’08 are three of the best selling games ever made and why the just released Madden ’09 represents not just the future of the franchise, but the future of mainstream competitive gaming. – JC Written by Joseph Lazauskas There once was a time when John Madden’s illustrious football video game was my crack; I’d be in a sleepless fit the week before it’s release, and oh yes, I was a proud participant in the midnight-Madden release “parties” at the Wayne, New Jersey Gamestop for years. I’d run home and play all-night with the other Madden junkies in online “sim” leagues. From 2003 to 2006, Madden catered to us obsessives, and we were eternally grateful for the increasingly complex control. I played enough to be ranked in the top 100 online at one point (a stellar feat, if I say so myself). But Madden’s switch to the current console generation found the game significantly dumbed-down, and my interest in it dropped as a result. Starting college, embracing substance abuse and entering a relationship didn’t help. I go to a very liberal arts school outside NYC, with a 3:1 girl to guy ratio. No one there, as you can imagine, really wants to play Madden. Even when I found someone that would play, the difference in our skill levels was too great for the game to be any fun. That’s why, unlike a lot of hardcore Madden-ers, I think the mainstream-focused — but re-balanced — Madden 2009 is fantastic, and it might be the future of head-to-head games thanks to the Madden IQ. Read More... Posted Aug 22 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: mario kart, madden, smash bros, joseph lazauskas, nba live

• Shut It, Old Man: The Absurd Extent of Nintendo’s Secrecy

  Eighteen months ago, whilst combating poor previews of his imminent release Too Human, Denis Dyack expressed his opinion that videogames should not be previewed in any way, shape, or form until they near completion. I can appreciate the sentiment, to a degree, especially in Too Human’s case. That game used to look like this: And now it looks like this: That’s what happens when you show a game ten years before it actually comes out. Dyack, hypocrite or not, isn’t wrong. Showing a game too soon can give a very poor impression of what it will ultimately be, particularly with original concepts and new characters, but you need to get the game in the public eye early. Videogames, outside of marquee titles, are rarely advertised anywhere, let alone on television where they would get the greatest exposure. So you have to preview that sucker for a long time before it releases, seed the enthusiast press, and let people pay attention. Otherwise games die on the vine, even established franchises. Unless, of course, you’re Nintendo. Read More... Posted Aug 11 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, mario kart, mario, too human, wario, smash bros, Denis dyack, touch generations

• For Love of the Game: Zelda Jams Re-appropriated

  I’m not even sure what you classify this as: are they just fan remixes? Fan-fiction remixes? I just don’t know! NeoGAFfer cicerone posted up this bizarre nugget of internet detritus yesterday and, for the nostalgically inclined and Nintendo fanatic alike, it’s quite a treat. These are Koji Kondo’s songs from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time re-orchestrated using the instrumentation from Kirby, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, Momotaro Dentetsu, and Mario Galaxy. Not only that, but they’re also re-imagined to suit the tone of those games as well. Read More... Posted Jul 30 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, for love of the game, mario kart, mario, donkey kong, zelda, kirby

• Watcha Playing: Loving/Hating Mario Kart Wii

  Mama Mia! Every weekend I try to get together with a group of friends and play Mario Kart Wii online. We have a blast battling it out for first place and lobbing weapons of happy destruction at each other. I really love this game and it is, hands down, my favorite console iteration in the series to date. I'm definitely a fan of the bikes and the stunts and I quite enjoy the “Whiil” (sorry). Alas, it has no voice chat so communicating with my fellow racers involves a little racing of my own; from my living room where the Wii is ensconced to my studio where my computer sits. But, I know why there is no voice chat. It's because of me. Read More... Posted Jun 06 2008, 02:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: whatcha playing, wii, mario kart, amber ahlborn

• NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’

  April’s come to a close and now, under the cold, hard light of math, three things are becoming clear. First, people freaking love Nintendo games. Sure, we already knew that, but over a million people bought Mario Kart for Wii in less than a week. Second, people freaking love Grand Theft Auto. Nearly two million people bought that in even less time. Third, our access to new videogames is going to change dramatically in the very near future. While these numbers may just look like numbers to us, to the people who publish videogames, the people who control when we get to engage these creations, the math is saying that 2008 is different. Tradition dictates that high profile, big hype games are held in reserve for the holiday push from late September through December and the rest of the year is just a slow trickle of quality goods. The math of March and April 2008 says that people will buy many, many games throughout the year, not just around Christmas. What happens now? Going forward, we’re going to see more games, more often. At least, until digital distribution destroys physical media and the whole issue becomes moot. Come get some hard analysis and delicious numbers after the jump. Read More... Posted May 16 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo, nintendo ds, ea, microsoft, npd, xbox 360, wii, psp, mario kart, ubisoft, sony, call of duty, pokemon, gran turismo, army of two, super smash bros, guitar hero, rainbow six, Grand theft auto 4

• Periphery: Angry Video Game Nerd Edition

  I like to think, in my more ponderous moments (read: stoned), that gods are born constantly. It was probably the steady diet of British fantasy I consumed while being an ornery Catholic school student during my formative years that led to this continuing line of speculation. Working on the internet every day, I’ve started to spot the reigning deities of the Web 2.0 pantheon. The Angry Video Game Nerd is one of them. I’m not wholly convinced James D. Rolfe was ever a human being at all; he was born straight from the net, a spiritual conjuring made of Youtube users, fandom, and nostalgia addictions. His followers are legion too. Just look at the sheer number of blatant imitators sacrificing their dignity at his altar, the numerous acolytes playing his theme song across Myspace and Facebook. Read More... Posted May 15 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, mario kart, periphery, angry video game nerd, nes

• Brainy Gamer Asks the Ever-Present Question: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

  While admitting this risks damaging my “cred”, I do not game that much online. Indeed, my experience with online multi-player is limited to only a handful of games like Mario Kart DS (which I quickly abandoned due to rather egregious cheating) and a very brief stint in World of Warcraft (once I got to more populated areas of the game, my aging G4 PowerBook just couldn’t keep up. I got lucky.) That said, like so many others, I’ve played a lot of Halo 3 online. In general, the random people I’ve played with have been alright; not offensive but not people I’ll become bosom buddies with. Playing online is like hanging out with any group of strangers: it’s civil and awkward. On heavily populated nights though, when Microsoft’s servers strain under the weight of hundreds of thousands of players, that’s when you get a taste of the horrific behavior that keep many people from playing online at all. Racist, moronic, misogynistic rambling from a multitude of pubescent men with no sense of irony, humor, or decorum. No description, no recording can do it justice, you have to experience this sort of dumb hostility yourself to truly understand it. Though you don’t have to play online to witness it at work in the community. Just look at the Kotaku comments section during last year’s Resident Evil 5 debacle. Angela from Lesbian Gamers and Michael from Brainy Gamer have written up an essay that succinctly states the problem and elegantly asks what’s to be done about it if discourse on games is going to grow. Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, lesbian gamers, penny arcade, world of warcraft, level up, brainy gamer, mario kart, halo 3, ngai croal