Ok, so another year, another Naruto game by the Cyber Connect 2 guys. Yes, while drowning in a sea of unplayed games, I have made time to log in about 30 hours into Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations. So has franchise fatigue finally hit home on my love for Naruto games? Hardly.
As last week's rant MIGHT have hinted at, I've experienced a bit of a personal revelation about the things I want to write about and what I want to accomplish while I'm writing. Simultaneously, thanks in part to my move to Texas, video games (at least, video games outside of work) have been the furthest thing from my mind.
Long story short, I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from the Not Our Day Job scene for a bit, and take some time to figure out how I'm going to proceed - whether here, or in some other capacity.
I appreciate everyone who's read any of my work, and I hope that I've managed to entertain - or possibly even enlighten? - anyone out there. Thank you.
I know this is going to seem like a cop out, two trailers in as many weeks. But I can't help it. I may have mentioned before, but I am a big fan of guns, and for that matter, guns in games. Also, I am a big fan of Max Payne. In the days of yesteryear it was a truly stand-out game for nailing the weaponry: Pistols blow back in real time, revealing fully detailed slides that animate independently of barrels, and shell casings are actually modeled to be the correct size. For it's time, it was a real homage to the guns it chose to portray. And since I'm a fan, I've been following Rockstar's informational Max Payne 3 video series and stumbled upon this one today:
This is not the article I intended to write. After a week of laboriously avoiding the problem of "what I'd write next week," I confronted myself with an ultimatum of sorts: If I couldn't think of anything to write about that I could get earnestly excited about, then maybe it was time to reconsider this whole regular schedule of forced writing altogether.
I accepted my own terms on the spot, and set about deconstructing the problem in a very essential way: What could I write about, gaming-wise, that I could execute within a reasonable amount of time while thinking very little about it, and - as I'd already stipulated - could reasonably get excited about? Within about three minutes, I realized that I could finally execute on a long-desired Casting Call article for 1994's Final Fantasy VI (released as III here in the states) for the SNES. Boy howdy! I had half the list already filled out before I left work that day.
A personal activity intervened on Tuesday night, preventing me from writing it up then - and I'm glad it did, because I started in on it tonight, and as I wrote the preamble... I could see that something else needed to be said.
I had the chance to hop on the Diablo III open Beta this past weekend. Unlike many of the posts I've seen around the web, my entry was pretty painless with only one "server problem" error that prevented me from playing. However, an abundance of "boring problems" made up for the lack of technical ones. Be warned Blizzard fans, this article was written by a guy who never played the original Diablo games.
I often wonder about what goes on in the marketing think tanks for game trailers and press. With each new triple A title getting marketing budgets that would make the actual development budget blush, it's always a fun game to play "how will the marketing hotshots try to sell me this game?" From the "he was fat, now he's skinny and everyone is having fun!" MW3 approach, to the "show all the FMV til they're confused as shit" Assassins Creed tactics, games hardly even need to point out that they are games anymore. It's like the pointless Milk ad campaign: Like people FORGOT to buy milk, or GTA. Anyways, in keeping with ridiculous, tell-you-nothing trailers I submit for your disapproval:
Following my previous review of Dear Esther, I continue to recklessly invest money into artsy, abstract games in hopes of having my socks knocked off in amazement. I'm starting to realize I should stop doing this and accept that these games aren't for me.
It's been almost two years since I posted my initial reaction to the new direction for the Devil May Cry franchise. I, like many others, had an initial knee jerk reaction of disbelief and anger at having a beloved franchise abandoned by Capcom: left in the hands of a stranger who would surely not be able to deliver on the promise of a good DMC game. Well, here we all are, a little older, a little wiser, but still as opinionated and critical as ever. Yet, the more I see of Ninja Theory's take on the young Dante adventures, the more I feel that this game could actually be pretty good.
Honestly, Japanese or European made, Dante is a dick bag.
I don't know about you, but I've been around this big ol' Internet for a while now. I was around back before fanfiction had been invented. I've seen the rise and fall of mighty 'net empires for years upon years. And I'm the youngest out of the stable of stars here at NODJ! Imagine what these other codgers could tell you!
Me, I've always been big into games. Heck, the first time I wandered into the World Wide Web outside the confines of America Online's preset content was in pursuit of a Final Fantasy 7 fansite of any worth. (Are any of my readers here today Rocket Town denizens from days gone bye? A lot of friendships got started there...) In the many years since that first fateful hyperlink click, gaming has become more and more of a collaborative fandom, not only becoming a bigger and bigger industry, but inspiring more and more acts of daily recreation and entertainment outside the world of our handhelds, our phones, our consoles, and our computers.
What follows is perhaps not the "top" ten best sites dedicated to extracurricular gaming content, but they're certainly some of my favorites.
I typed "gaming tribute sites" into Google Image Search and this is the first result it gave me. JOURNALISM!
Right before PAX, Ubisoft released multiplayer videos of Farcry 3 and the world was shook to its very core from every living gamer making dismissive jerk off gestures.
I know by now most of you readers are probably thinking, "hold on, MURDERNATOR hasn't mentioned a new game in about six months! This oft irrelevant blog is capsizing into the completely unfathomable reaches of internet obscurity, and MURDERNATOR is at the helm, crying like an infant while jerking off to the latest BirgirPall video!" Well, there is truth in that. Dirty, sordid, truth. Not only do I still have two unopened games from October staring at me with accusing, hate-filled eyes, I also have been seriously neglecting my true love: Team Fortress 2. Things are dire in the house of MURDER for sure. The culprit, the vile home-wrecker, responsible for all of this is (no surprise if you read the blog) Battlefield 3. But what am I to do? I am captivated, enthralled, addicted. Are we in love? I COULD try to sneak past augmented assholes, only to realize I spent my Praxis points poorly. I COULD take Drake on another spin through the world, killing in the name of sweet sweet trophies. I COULD buy Naruto/Asura's Wrath/Journey, all games I am actually eager to play. I COULD open Ace Combat. OR I could spend every evening with my beloved BF3. The choice is clear, my love is gushing, there is only one thing left to do... Woo her.
I bid you greetings yet again, dear reader, from a distant land of sand and fire. As the sudden spring break last week may have called to your attention, I have uprooted myself from the peninsula'd paradise where I've spent the past quarter century and have gone off to seek my fortune in the distant land of Texas.
It's an exciting time for me personally, as I've never lived so far away from my family before, nor have I left behind such a substantial group of close friends. Leaving Central Florida has effectively ended some relationships, while it's actually strengthened many more. I've never had such a great collection of friends in my life, and I'm extremely grateful for that.
But the well-wishes of your close confidants can only carry you so far. Once the wine is all drunk and the farewells are finished, it's time to get up and go. In my case, that meant relying on myself for the coming up with the plan and then executing it. What I lacked in real-world experience, however, I supplemented with the countless lessons that video games have managed to teach me throughout the years.
Lean in close, dear reader. This rant comes from the heart.
I was having a chat with some new interns at work, i.e. people born after the year 1990 and I was appalled that they didn't appreciate some of the classic games I grew up with. Doom, Desert Strike, Eternal Champions, Killer Instinct... these are all monumental achievements in the history of video games that some of them don't even recognize for fucks sake! It disheartens me to know these games are fading into obscurity.
I think my generation runs the entertainment industry now and I blame our obsession with trying to revive and reboot everything and failing, effectively killing the name and destroying all relevance. But the past 10 or so years have brought about some truly great franchises that you know will never die. They will live on and become synonymous with gaming like Spielberg is to movies. Like Hulk Hogan is to wrestling. Like Magic Johnson is to Aids. These are 10 of those franchises.
If you know me, or have been following the site for any period of time, you know that I have a fond spot in my heart for Ninja Gaiden. Not the arcade original, or the NES games, none of those were even on my radar to be honest (more of a Shinobi boy back then). No the Gaiden love first blossomed with Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. I didn't have an Xbox at the time (who did?!), so when Ninja Gaiden came out Abortion Fist and myself would get off work at around midnight and drive 45 minutes to our friends house just to play the thing every night. And you know what? It was 100% worth it. Well this week the third numbered game in the series (but definitely not the 3rd game) has released to what one could only say is a lukewarm reception at best. The fact that I haven't already purchased and beaten the game by now is testament to just how far this series has fallen. Let's take a look.
I spoke only a week ago about how Kickstarter can be used for some truly great purposes - and some truly godawful ones. This is a great example of the bizarre kind of hive mind behavior that I find so fascinating - and startling. Kickstarter allows thousands upon thousands of individuals to consider contributing money - very small amounts, very often! - to get a project going... or, in some cases, fund it completely. The tidal wave of donations towards Double Fine's Adventure Game project is only one example of crowd-sourcing as a real-world application of the power of the Internet horde.
