Duders, you won't believe it. Remember 1997, Harvest Moon was released for the Super NES and gaming changed forever for a lot of people, myself included. Almost twenty games have been released since then in the series and only a couple of them were truly great, but we never gave up. Harvest Moon fans bought the games and hoped for the best, for more then a decade. 2013 was the year - A New Beginning for the series.
The title is Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. It takes everything you loved about Harvest Moon and lay it out for you in a much different way. Instead of drowning you in possibilities the game only unlocks a couple of seeds, animals and even building at the start of the game. Through out the season, depending on your relationships with villagers and victories in crop festivals you attract new villagers to your village. Here's an example.
Great progress and good performence in crop and animal festivals will attract villagers. Winning a couple of these festival will give you the opportunity to build an in for your visitors to live in. You get the blueprint to build the in from the local arcitecht (who you of course need to attract to your village) and then it's up to you to farm the minerals to build the in.
By laying out the game that way it's much more fun. The characters feel alive because almost all of them are moving to your villages because of story purposes, and the world is always alive. Oh, have I mentioned that you build your village? Both your farm and town are costumizable. Roads, decorations, building... you can move whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want.
Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is everything I want from a Harvest Moon game. It's fun, it simple and full of opportunities. My character, Jack, is focusing on bees. Honey to the people! And I recently won a dish festival with grilled fish, so I export fish for heck of a lot of money. Money I invest in making the perfect garden for villagers to hang in.
I think you get it, this game has everything. Harvest Moon is back!
I remember when I first heard the Hot Spot and saw On The Spot. My mind was blown and ever since - almost ten years back - I never missed a Hot Spot until the Bombcast came along. Thinking back, it's weird how a couple of duders who I never met inspired me to really follow my dreams. Ryans passing affected me in a way I never thought anything like that would. But in some weird way it made me want to do this even more. You know, to show what I learned and tell people from where. Last couple of months have been both hard and amazing. I managed to get an internship at the Swedish Public Radio. I've been talking about video games on air to hundred thousands of people. And next week, I'll be talking about Harvest Moon. Which is why I'm writing this.
Back in the Whiskey days I called in on one of those Unpofessional Fridays. Dave took my call and I remember us talking about great soundtracks. Then Ryan shouted and the next thing I knew we were talking about Harvest Moon on air. That gave me a lot of inspiration, so for me to talk about Harvest Moon on air again will be a special moment. It's hard to discribe how it feels.
But hey, duders. I know there are lot of you out there dreaming about working in this industry. I am by no means in it, but this site and the crew got me to a place I never ever could've dreamt of. If someone in the Bomb Squad sees this - Thank you, guys! :)
Hi Duders, I'm meeting Microsoft and Sony tomorrow for hands-on with the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Let's make them answer some very basic questions about their new consoles that we still wonder about. Questions are welcomed, I really want to get them talk about the stuff that they haven't been talking about a lot. What about Microsofts U-turn? What do they say to the people who wanted the original Xbox One?
Or what about them who'll buy a PlayStation 4 for free online-play and won't be able?
Just two examples - let me know if you have questions and I'll try to get them answered.
Thanks to Ryan, I'm a journalist at the Swedish public radio today. Words cannot discribe how thankful I am. Ryan and Jeff inspired me to get into podcasting when over at GameSpot, and through that I ended up being a journalist. I am forever thankful duder, you'll always be remembered. I was in tears today...
The new SimCity wasn't really an option, so I decided I'll spend my city-building game time with Tropico 4 this year. While the game is awesome ( and you should totally play it ) I can't wrap my head arround how much they lie in the screenshot. I mean, it's crazy! It's... It's. I don't know, I cannot believe it. So here are a couple of examples.
This is Tropico 3, let me take you through this image.
That type of road doesn't even exist in the game, not in Tropico 3 nor Tropico 4.
Road lights? Electricity posts? Nah, don't exist.
Parked cars next to buildings? No, don't exist.
Cars appear only on the roads. As you can see the taxi and another car are way in the small roads in town, cars doesn't do that in Tropico.
This is Tropico 4, and once again, a bunch of lies.
Cars never park on the streets, once again.
You see the huge paved area? That's not even possible to create in the game.
It might not seem like much, but these are stuff that makes the game look way better then it actually looks. You cannot decide where you want to put cobblestone nor grass. This makes you town look like a zebra at spots. Road lights? Nah, that would be amazing but they are nowhere.
So yeah, it's a shame because I'd play a hell of a lot more of this game if you had as much control over your city as they are letting you believe in the screenshots.
I am going to make this quick, because I don't want to get to excited about the news that i just came across. Marvelous AQL are working on a game for Playstation 4... This game could be Harvest Moon, guys! Can you imagine playing a beautiful high-res Harvest Moon game on a Playstation 4, my dear god!
It's probably a new Rune Factory game, but hey, let's do what MM wants us to do - DREAM!
I'm a radio journalism student here in Sweden. We have quick a lot of free time, so I took my time and made a show called "En Hyllning Till", it translates to "A Tribute To", basically. I know, you are thinking - Why the hell are you uploading a swedish radio show on Giant Bomb. Well, there are a couple of swedes here, and also - it's radio, I think that you guys will enjoy the sound design, please let me know if you do (or if you don't)
It is the time of year when the best in all areas are to be announced. This year's finest hat, the year's best television, this year's film ... you understand the concept. I stick to the area that I consider myself to know best, games. So, here we go - Fruitcocoas 16th Annual Game Of The Year!
Game of the Year 2012 - Mass Effect 3
When BioWare, creators of Mass Effect, first announced the trilogy, science-fiction fans flipped their shits on fire. The three games would be a tribute to the 70s and 80s science-fiction movies. After several delays, the game launched and was received extremely well. The same thing happened with the sequel that people even considered one of the world's best games.
Unrest was ahead of the launch of the third and last part, to say at least. First, the game was delayed, and shortly thereafter began a massive leak that revealed, among other things, how the trilogy would end. Employees at BioWare began to leave the game's development team and people started some sort of hate campaign against BioWare and Electronic Arts, the owner of BioWare.
When all the hate started and even gaming sites began to pay attention to the incident, we kind of knew that the launch of the third Mass Effect game would be characterized by a whole lot of fuss instead of appreciation for the game. And it was so, unfortunately. The end had already leaked and when the game reached the market barely discussed anything other than leaks.
It is difficult to reward Mass Effect 3 without mentioning its predecessor. Throughout the trilogy, you as a player have made choices that have major and minor impacts. These choices have followed you during all three games and what you experienced in your playthrough can be quite different from your companions journey. This is what Mass Effect acted on and before the last part was almost everything was about how the developers behind the game would be able to tie it all together nicely. For me and my action, they did a good job.
Throughout my trip Shepard was a stereotypical hero, from his childhood it was written that he would sacrifice himself for humanity. I remember scenes from the first game where I said it to myself - "fuck, he has to sacrifice himself in the end, he just has to sacrifice himself in the end". Whether Shepard sacrifices himself or not, you'll have to find out for yourselves.
But let's rewind the tape, how interesting the conclusion of the epic space saga may be. For sure, the conclusion may be that which puts the sweetest / most bitter aftertaste, but the majority of Mass Effect 3 is full of scenes that not only stands up to this year, but even when you look at the big picture. Characters you meet in the first game and fought side by side for hundreds of hours by the second and third game now ask for one last favor. A final farewell from the people who helped you through the entire trip is just around the corner and even though it's a game, it becomes sad.
Video games is about many different things to many different people. For me, a video games is best when I get to come to a new world and explore. The Mass Effect trilogy do not bid on a new world but new worlds. They certainly feel the many worlds alike, in terms of eg gravity - but these are described deep in the game's virtual codex and as the real sci-fi geek I am, it's only my imagination that puts an end to what is really going on all the game's planets and worlds.
In addition to the new world you'll need of course a population.Mass Effect 3 shines extra strong as the most beautiful works of art here. The voice actors do a superb job by telling the script in an attractive and credible way, which is almost a constant a problem within the video games. Characters as Jeff "Joker" Moraeu, played by Seth Green, Mordin Solus, played by William Salyers and Garrus Vakarian, played by Brandon Keener along with many others others throughout the game and it becomes difficult to let go of the world.
Mass Effect 3 is more emotional and personal. The alcohol is picked up by the characters to drown sorrows, and many scenes are both hysterical and beautiful, often at the same time. Other scenes show that there may soon be an end to all life in the universe. You spend one last moment with many characters and see others spend their last time with their loved ones.
All this combined with that you feel it's your personal story and Mass Effect 3 is the year's best games. Technically, everything works great and throughout the journey you are treated to an elegant, crystal-clear picture of the universe's total destruction. Despite all the controversy surrounding how everything ends, and the leaks Mass Effect 3 is the best game for me. The ending suited my Shepard and at the end of the that it's what I experienced, that I can value, and the experience I had with Mass Effect 3 was the best game experience this year.
Other Awards
2012 offered a lot of games from smaller developers that never actually launched in a physical edition. Journey and The Walking Dead were two such games. Through the two games, the two developers have shown that you do not have multiple trailers of money to create something really, really good - that they should be proud of and we should be eternally grateful.
Criterion Games, best known as the developers of Burnout offered this a mini-sequel to Burnout Paradise in form of Need For Speed: Most Wanted. The game offered a bad single-player mode, but they managed to create one of the best racing games experiences ever in the multiplayer mode.
Everything was not green meadows in 2012, however. EA Sports missed virtually open goal with FIFA 13 and Nintendo showed that they are not ready for the Internet age.
EA Sports created in 2011, something that was very close to perfection. A little polish and more support for new content after the launch and FIFA 13 would have been the world's by far the best sports betting, but instead some of the key elements that made its predecessor so good are completely gone? Why? I do not understand ...
Roughly the same reaction when the Nintendo Wii U launched. Not only that only one game was entertaining the first few months that the console was on the market - Nintendo also managed to fail with things that both Sony and especially Microsoft succeeded with seven years ago. I don't understand, for example, why they chose to lock your account to console. Why? I do not understand ...
Duders, it's that time of year again. But before I kick start working on my end year list (still have to play Far Cry 3) i thought that you should take a look at my Games of the years past. Enjoy!
2011: I don't know where to start. It might be a story with a couple clichés but my god this game is amazing because of it's story and the feeling of the game. There's a layer of darkness and sadness to this game that makes you, as the player frustrated to be part of the stuff that is going on. Memorable cases mixed with great music, great setting and first and foremost great characters is what makes this game what it is. The reason why this game is my game of the year is simple - it's a great combination of fun and heavily story based actions, I always felt part of the world and the story around the love affair in this game is simple but beautiful, much like everything else in this game.
2010: Imagine a game where everything works as close to perfect as it is possible. Imagine that game having a fantastic story with awesome characters. That game is Mass Effect 2.
2009: Another great living world with a lot of great characters and one hell of a story from BioWare. The only thing that was different this time was the fact that the only game that was almost as good as Dragon Age: Origins was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
2007: One of the greatest games ever by today’s greatest game studio. The graphics were busted and the game play sucked every now and then. But man... The universe that BioWare created was breath taking. And of course; hearing Wrex say "Shepard" could save the worse day!
2006: The sunrise in Anvil, all the spoons that I collected, my fantastic runs from the cave to Chejdinhal and... My fantastic run that took hundreds of hours. It took a long, long while for me to drop this game. And when I did, it wasn't because of tiredness; it was because of one hell of a crack in the disk.
2005: Oh Jade Empire... A game with fantastic story, even more fantastic music and - I said it before and I'll say it again - the most fun I had playing video games.
2003: Oh. My. God. This game is not a game... This is a interactive masterpiece that deserves to be praised in all eternity. Beyond Good And Evil had great characters, awesome gameplay and also one of the most fun with any video game ever.
2002: While the 3D debut of the Grand Theft Auto franchise pretty much did that I lost all hope for this game it turned out to be one of my favorite games of all time. Awesome story and one hell of a cast made this a very easy choice, really.
2000: Not much to say here, Diablo II is probably the best game from Blizzard to date, together with the original Diablo. Fantastic music, a great story, even greater world and fun classes to play around with made this game one hell of an experience.
1999: Well, if Ocarina of Time had me stucked for way too long then Final Fantasy VIII had me stucked for way too long times three. A great story combined with great characters and at the time breath taking graphics was almost enough. The fact that I ended up grinding the game for months basically put it on the top of 1999.
1997: Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is not only the best game of 1997 but also the best game... pretty much ever! Why? Fantastic graphics, one hell of a charming world and game time worth everything!
Log in to comment