RVonE
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Added by RVonE on Oct. 24, 2009


Yeah, that joke will only play in certain parts of the world. 
 
Anyway, perhaps you've already seen it on Destructoid but some information has been revealed about the upcoming Wii exclusive "Epic Mickey". Game Informer put up a substantial article and an interview that deals with some of the specifics of the game. More interesting, however, is the visual material included in the article. More concept art is revealed and also some character models are shown; take the time to check the three videos that show Mickey in motion. 
 
Was this what you expected? Remember that concept art that first revealed this title? Remember when you went on to read that it would be for Nintendo's Wii? Remember how we then became divided; there were those that defended it and those that hated it (but the divide was actually more about the Wii's graphical capabilities than about the game itself). I do. I also remember writing that I was sceptical. Sure enought, the concept art has awesome potential and it certainly looked like they weren't messing around when they decided to call it Epic Mickey. But I had to voice my concern with how all this would be realized on the Wii's hardware. 
 
Now the obvious route for me is, of course, to write something like "I told you so" or some other dismissive comment. Instead, I will say that I'm actually kind of impressed. It certainly is not what I expected and seems a far cry from the epicness of what was revealed a couple of weeks ago. Still, reading Game Informer's article and looking at the new concept art, it seems that the developers are--at the very least--on track to deliver a quality Disney game. Don't get me wrong, I'm disappointed to see nothing--or very little--of the epic promise I've seen earlier. Putting that disappointment aside, it becomes clear that the guys working on this are truly trying to capture the glory seen in Mickey's past. Then again, there is this one screenshot in there of what appears to be an actual level and it kind of comes across as something straight out of a CDi-game. Yeah, remember that thing? 
 
Giving it more thought, this game seems very reminiscent of Mickey Mania  for the SNES. That was a great game that certainly lived up to Mickey's greatness in concept while also delivering a very solid side scrolling platformer. If the developers succeed in living up to this heritage, delivering it to this age of computer games, I will be very impressed. That said, maybe what I want more than anything is to just play Mickey Mania again.


Added by RVonE on June 29, 2009

Yeah, I haven't blogged anything in almost a year and I'm thinking of picking it up again (I used to write often on the "old site"). Anyway, I just now noticed (but maybe I'm just slow) that Giant Bomb is finally sporting some stylish adds on the front page--adds are all the rage, am I right? Yeah... I guess it was inevitable from day one. Still, I have some mixed feelings about it. Sure enough, I want our Giant Bombers to do well when it comes to the financial side of this thing. That said, I have really enjoyed an add-free Giant Bomb this past year. It just seems so... peaceful. Especially when I occasionally venture onto one of the other sites that cover "the industry", I'm always struck by how cluttered those sites appear--this is not in the least due to all the adds, of course. In contrast, returning to Giant Bomb can best be described as a quiet experience; it is part of the appeal of the site for me. But yeah, I guess I'll just have to adjust to this new situation. Like I said, I really want the guys to succeed with this project. If putting up with some adds is what it takes, then that's something I will be glad to get used to. What about you guys?


Added by RVonE on July 26, 2008

Did you guys have a lot of your submission approved? I know I have. But of course, if you submit a lot of stuff, chances increase on having something rejected. Up untill today there was one submission of mine that was rejected. However, when I woke up today I had an e-mail stating that another of my submissions was rejected. Not a big deal, of course, but I do want to write up a few sentences on this subject to show some of the rough spots of Giant Bomb.

So my first rejected submission was a picture with a watermark on it. While that was totally my own fault, I noticed the mistake only a couple of minutes after I submitted the picture. At the same time--this was on launch day--the guys over at Giant Bomb were swamped with all our submission. My watermarked picture was queued up, I knew it was a mistake, but there was nothing I could do about it because there is no way to edit your pending submissions. So for the next twenty hours, my submission just sat there. Lauging in my face, knowing how I would get a big fat red stamp that says "Rejected"! And sure enough, once the Giant Bombers got to my submission, it was rejected.

My second rejected submission is one I submitted last wednesday; three and a half days ago. It contained some minor edits to the Devil May Cry 4 page. At that time there were a lot of things that needed improvement on that page. But since our guys were avalanched under this constant stream of submissions, like I said, my submission was left pending for three and a half days. In the mean time someone else submitted changes to that page which were approved before mine. So now an edit was made to the Devil May Cry 4 page that made mine obsolete. At least, that is what I THINK. Of course, it could very well be the case that the other edit was submitted just a little while before mine and got approved making mine redundant. I don't know.

So what is up? First of all, Giant Bomb really needs to implement a way for users to make edits to their submissions queue. That way, anyone who notices a mistake in one of their submissions can opt to correct that mistake. Or, if that would be too much of a hassle for Giant Bomb, users should at the very least have the option to delete something from their queue entirely. Second, it is unclear whether edits to specific pages are handled in chronological order. If not, this should defnitely be corrected for it is the only fair way to handle submissions, I think. Of course, if edits are already handled that way, this whole deal is a problem of transparancy. In that case, it would be nice if there somehow was an option to see which edits are already proposed for a certain page. Such a system would enable users to make an informed decision on whether or not they want to submit an edit and avoid making redundant submissions.

What do you guys think?



Added by RVonE on July 25, 2008

So, in keeping with the World of Warcraft news, Blizzard's head of the design team for World of Warcraft--Jeff Kaplan--has confirmed that getting to level 70 will be easier once the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is released. Apparently some users on Blizard's World of Warcraft forums noticed that achieving level 70 has become easier in the beta for the upcoming expansion. Kaplan posted a response on the forum stating that they are "planning on speeding up leveling in the 60-70 range".
Apart from introducing a new charachter class, users will be able to grow their characters to level 80 when the Wrath of the Lich King is released.


Added by RVonE on July 22, 2008

Yeah I know, it's not an original blog title. I'm a bit out of ideas at the moment, cut me some slack, alright? :)
Anyway, apparently Blizzard has announced that there will be achievements for their money printing World of Warcraft.
Are you excited?! I know I'm not because I've never touched that game in my life, and I never will. I have seen what that game can do to people--or what people do to themselves because of that game. It isn't pretty.

Anyway, I guess it was kind of inevitable for Blizzard to take this route. They have to come up with ideas to make people come back to that game time after time, am I right?