Videogaming is a culture that relies on History like no other. Previously great games are not disgarded as primitive, but are increasingly held with reverance and respect. You may laugh at your Dad for listening to Elvis, but you respect a man who can get the high score on Space Invaders. Gamers look back with fond memories over the titles which they have played, for better or for worse, which is why older titles continue to sell well, and why remakes of great games are criticised with such high expectations. This is also why the majority of games you see are sequels for existing franchises. Gaming is all about history.
The contextual knowledge of the average gamer is fairly astute. There are certain games which fall into the category of "games everyone played whilst growing up" and can consequently be mentioned safe in the knowledge that the reader will understand and appreciate the link. Street Fighter 2 anyone?
Is there anyone who DIDNT play this game? As a result game Journalists have a comfort barrier of being able to fall back on previous games in their explanations. This is not a completely bad thing. For example relating a games aesthetic to Gears Of War (it seems to happen quite a lot doesnt it?)Easy To Explain? provides me with an insightful preview of the environment - or alternatively the control scheme, which can be very hard to describe articulately in type. (Too Human would be a good example of a complicated description). This saves the reviewer from having to repeatedly type out monotonous explanations of delapidated environments. But what does that mean for gamers who, for one reason or another, have never played Gears Of War? They are left with an increased sense of confusion and detatchment. There is only so much information you can get from screenshots and videos. What if they are completely new to computer gaming cultere, for example having just bought a Nintendo Wii. Even experianced players such as myself can be easily confused over games which people consider to be vital to the furtherment of the industry but that may never have gained my full attention. Bionic Commando remains a complete mystery to me, even though everyone seems to expect me to already know everything about it.
And so, the video game community has arrived at Giantbomb. A way to easily link ideas, games, concepts, making it easy to explain and contextualise the games which the other user talk about with such fantastic enthusiasm. There are other places on the internet where the information could have been found, but GiantBomb remains the best and most authorative culmination of gaming information in the world. That is why GiantBomb is awesome, and thats why I am here.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being a part of the Giant Bomb. 5 Comments
Sonic the hedgehog. And Crash Bandicoot. The damage is doubled because they fell right from the top...
The games that we are most dissapointed with are the ones we have fondest memories off. Its terrible watching developer ruin a franchise that used to be your personal favorite.
I'm back! At home (in England). The plane flight back was awesome, I watched IronMan and Kung Fu Panda - both awesome films! While I was away on holiday for 3 weeks I missed a whole bunch off stuff that I never really had a chance to explore in depth. E3 for example, was bypassed in blissfull ignorance. However now I have returned I have to download a back-catalogue of podcasts and catch up on all the gossip.
However, the first thing I did when i got home was download the Geometry Wars 2 demo, and i'm very impressed. Its a keeper, definate.
Anyways, now i'm home I am going to follow my pledge from earlier this week to the end. Let the Pokemon madness begin!
*Edit*
Are individual Pokemons to be defined as characters or concepts? Because most are concepts at the moment which seems strange to me. Ivysaur and Pikachu are playable characters in SSBB so shouldnt they be Characters? Can a moderator clear this up for me please?! 2 Comments
Is it just me or is the Blog toolbar broken? Instead of appearing as a neat strip mine has been staggered into one toolbar per icon so my blog box is MASSIVE. Anyone else having this problem??
As for my response to the "How can we improve GiantBomb" connundrum my suggestion would be to add Gamertags and console ID´s to each profile. Also maybe compact the User Feed because it does take up a lot of space... And maybe a way of keeping track of individual forums as oppose to "general discussion".
MOST IMPORTANTLY I think it should be easier to link pages when blogging and posting. If I highlight "Gears Of War" and click the [LINK] button then could it not suggest the most likely links instead of making my type the title out again?? Its not a biggie but making it easier would encourage users to link pages more often, especially when you are typing something with lots of referances in it (see below).
Also In other news, I had my first surf lesson today off the coast of Peurto Escondito in Mexico. I had to get up at 6 am (its harder than it sounds) and treck down to the beach. It was mind blowing, I loved every second of it, although I am now ridiculously tired.... Anyways I now want to play a surfing game. The last I can remember was Kelly Slater Pro Surfer after Tony Hawk went global, but that was a terrible game... NEXT GEN SURFING - somebody get working on it right away!
Lastly I am slightly confused as to what games to buy upon my return (2 days). I was going to buy Civ Rev but after Geometry Wars 2 got released and is obviously amazing I might just get that and then wait for Too Human and Castle Crashers... I can also re-activate my wow account for 1 month while I wait. Maybe I will pick up a pre-owned copy of Civ Rev when the price has dropped, because I really enjoyed that demo.
Long Post today. Pokefans will be pleased to know that the Pikachu and Professor Oak pages are done, although my "Team Rocket" submission got declined for some reason... do they go in character or concept? Tìs a puzzle to be sure....
When I return to England in.. 3 days? I will at last have the oppurtunity to devote a chunk of my free time to Giant Bomb, giving it the respect it deserves. I am therefore setting myself the challenge that upon my return I shall complete the Giant Bomb pages for each and every of the original 150 pokemon. I just did Snorlax and it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
I know lots of people still have fond memories of the Pokemon Franchise and, like me, are waiting for the game that revitalises the series. Well untill that day, Im going to Bomb the pokemon pages. Wish me luck.
A short list of stuff to get done before I kick the bucket.
Hug A Bear - Swimming with Dolphins is for pussies
Party With Cliffy B - Preferabely in Las Vegas
Go Skydiving
Work on a AAA game and have it published - When drunk I told my friends I was going to make GTA6
Write A Book
Play Alan Wake - You never know...
I will probly think up some other stuff soon but yeah my list of lifelong ambitions looks fairly attainable. I will let you know if any of it actually happens... 1 Comments
Hey there people im sorry there has been a blogging lapse but im on vacation in mexico atm so BACK OFF. Anyways I finally found a hotel with the internet so im going to offer you a few quick reflections on my summer so far.
Television - all the classy hotels have cable which means I have been able to watch stuff like HBO, ESPN and CNN which we dont get in England. PEOPLE OF AMERICA. Your TV sucks.
Music - MTV LA contains a ton of junky american emo music which i have never heard before... is that all you guys listen too? Whiney teenagers? But also there aint many British bands on there apart from Coldplay and U2 and stuff (VH1) so I thought I would shout out a few decent British bands so you can educate yourselves. I dont know what stuff is popular in the USA so let me know if you have heard of any of the following:
Rock Stuff
Bloc Party
Arcade Fire
Rap/Hip Hop/Electric I dont know, genres confuse me.
The Streets
Plan B
Goldie Lookin Chain
Audio Bullys
If you want to know what English youth culture is really like in london then Plan B, The Streets and Audio Bullys are top dog. Urban poetry is the way forward. (Goldie Lookin Chain are jokes, they will crack you up)
I have noticed quite a stong British presence on the Giantbomb site, more so than at other sites, but maybe I´m just picking up on it more because the community elements are much stronger here. Time Will tell.
Anyways While Ive been away ive been missing my Xbox 360. Also I´m looking forward to heading back to Azeroth when I return on Sunday. I will have 2 months of freedon left to live so I may as well clock some Wow time.
Lastly I am now the proud owner of 3 wiki points for adding the concept DEATH. Mwahahahahaha, it was so simple. Although my SEX submission did indeed get rejected...
Like the millions of other pissed off Xbox 360 owners my Xbox 360 caught the red ring of death plauge that was circulating the gaming population. That was last november, and since then I have been very happy with my new replacement console. At the time the red ring phonemenon was in full swing, but now I find less and less people to be complaining about dead 360´s. Is the Red-Ring plauge finally over? Can we sleep safe at night knowing that our consoles are free of the evil tyranny that once haunted us and made us cower in fear at the precarious fragility of our beloved consoles? Are we SAFE??
Now E3 is over we have been left with the all too familiar sense of super-positive previews and consequent frustration that these games are still so far away. As a 360 owner I was fairly unimpressed. The prominent titles on display were already at the top of my shopping list. As Mr Gerstmann said in a Bombcast, I´m sick of watching Gears Of War 2 videos. I just want to play the damn thing... Drip feeding me new weapons and characters is fine up to a point but now i just WANT IT. Similarly Resident Evil 5 looks to be a gaming highlight, but my anticipation is literally killing me, my brain slowly melting from overexposure to screenshots and videos.
I am dissapointed with E3 because it didnt change my mind about any of the games on show. Just as I already knew I would be pre-ordering Gears Of War 2, I knew I would not be purchasing Fallout 3 - and E3 did nothing except confirm my preconceptions. It was, essentially, more of the same.
characters However I still enjoyed E3, and its heartwarming to see games that have been forgotten about given a fresh platform in the spotlight, such as Castle Crashers. That game is going to be awesome...
Anyways in terms of GiantBomb I have submitted a bunch of stuff and i´m waiting on them to be given the OK by the bomb crew, so stay tuned. I added "Sex" as a video game concept, I hope they dont dismiss it as a joke... 2 Comments
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