Well, here we are.  This Monday, the Supreme Court renders its verdict on California's anti-game law.  This is the one moment we've all waited for.  If the Court sides with the game industry, it would hand gaming a huge weapon, perhaps even enough to see the end of anti-game legislation nationwide for a long time.  But were the Court to side with California, the face of gaming could change forever.  Armed with the ability to override the ESRB, California and the myriad states that would surely follow would be free to enforce a "kids only" gaming environment, effectively making the most backward, restrictive states the standard by which the game industry must appease.  It would be the Comics Code all over again.
 
I retain my hope, however.  The Supreme Court, while tough on both sides, seemed cynical to the point of being trollish when questioning the California attorney during oral arguments, with Antonin Scalia making the point that nearly none of our most treasured cultural landmarks would be possible without depictions of violence.  Not only that, but there were hundreds of documents sent to the courts from the video game, music and movie industies, and by several states who would rather not see the "video game defense" given credibility in the judicial system, while only a few state attorney generals offered support for California.  There's plenty to worry about, to be sure, but given the Justices' attitudes, I can't help but think this will turn out in our favor.  Have Faith.
 

And Now, The End of Duke

Comin' To Get the Rest of Those Alien Bastards - Episode 4: The Birth

OK everybody!  It's blogging time!
 
OK, I've got a lot of things on my mind and very little time with which to say it, so let's go!
 

Comin' to Get the Rest of Those Alien Bastards - Episode 2: Lunar Apocalypse

In my previous post, I spoke about the colorful, busy environments of Duke Nukem 3D Episode 1: L.A. Meltdown, with only a minor complaint about the maze-like nature of some of the levels.  Well, Lunar Apocalypse is still full of crazy enemies to shoot, but the levels are a lot more labyrinthine than in Episode 1, and the whole affair isn't as colorful, though to be fair, it's to be expected when dealing with a large space ship.  The combat is still hectic, but the introduction of the Mini- Battlelord and the Sentry Drone make the proceedings way more difficult, especially with just how liberally they're spread throughout the levels.
 
The big problem here is that the game throws Sentry Drones at the player aggressively, sometimes three and four at a time.  They dodge rockets and the timing on pipe bombs is difficult since they move so damned fast.  That leaves trying to shoot them out of the sky, which takes way too much time and way too many shots of any of the bullet-based weapons, not to mention leaving openings when using the shotgun or pistol.  In other words, those bastards are going to hit, and they're going to take a ton of health, especially when the little bastards are clustered together.  Needless to say, the save-after-every-encounter strategy is in full effect.  And the Mini-Battlelords?  They're very rarely by themselves.  There are times the game has them in groups of two or three, which is a pain in the level Occupied Territory, where there are three Mini-Battlelords guarding the blue card.  There are so many when this game goes out of its way to be cheap, resulting in the player, bad ass Duke Nukem, running around looking for medkits, or in the case of the later levels in the game, staring at a broken water fountain while using a cel phone or DS or something to weigh down the use key.  It really puts the modern trend toward regenerating health in perspective - this part of Duke 3D, and indeed of many classic shooters, just isn't fun, and it serves to get in the way rather than enhance the experience, especially when it happens several times because a Mini-Battlelord or the entire population of Sentry Drone City decided to drop in.  Still, despite these setbacks, the episode is still fun, with lots of explosions and gunfire, and plenty of adrenaline pumping action.
 
A special note about the podgirls, which are far more plentiful than they were in Duke Nukem Forever (where they were only found in The Hive).  I don't remember it being viewed with such derision back then, which is odd considering the novelty and controversy surrounding games with mature themes in the mid-nineties.  While they didn't squirm or moan or anything else like that, the image is still quite striking - women suspended in pods, pleading to be put out of their misery, all the while looking far more like they could be saved than in DNF (they actually can be saved in Duke Nukem 64).  While there is something to be said for the theoretical influx of female gamers (that's a whole 'nother blog) and people growing up since the release of Duke 3D, but I can't escape the idea that much of the criticism is simply the result of over-sensitivity/political correctness in certain areas of the gaming media.
 
That said, Duke 3D doesn't have wall boobs, so that's one point in its favor.  Seriously, where did that idea come from?
 

Wii-U? No, I don't need another Wii.

 
Okay, I know it's been a few days since E3, but I need to get this off my chest, and you guys are already here, so here goes.
 
I can't really bring myself to care about the Wii-U.  Besides feeling thoroughly duped by the Wii, I can't help but feeling that Nintendo is putting out the wrong console, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.  The Wii, while a success for Nintendo, didn't exactly move software units, especially for third parties, save for the occasional outlier or games that included extra remotes or balance boards or what have you (I still can't believe people bought into that stupid wheel).  In the time since the Wii's 2006 debut, the system has become more of a dust collector or (by more foolish people) Netflix box, and Nintendo found itself either completely excluded from most major multi-platform releases, or at best being given the version with the least care and support put into it.  As a result, the system is practically useless to any gamer who desires more than the occasional Mario, Zelda or Pokemon rehash, which is to say everyone reading this other than the people who are going to flame mercilessly when this post comes up.
 
Nintendo's solution to this problem is to put out a behemoth of a controller with all the buttons and a huge screen, in essence making a home version of the 3DS with contemporary graphics.  There are three problems I have with this approach.  First off, the idea that these multi-platform releases will even try to use the litany of extra stuff in that controller is silly.  Everyone knows how it goes - the lead SKU for a multi-platform game is normally the lowest common denominator, in this case the 360 (in the West, anyway, Japan is clearly leading with the PS3).  Even if Nintendo mandates their use - which would leave them back where they were with the Wii - third parties aren't going to put the effort in doing anything more than token uses of this stuff, leaving only Nintendo to do anything with the new hardware.  Unless Nintendo proves willing to move past its nostalgia-driven business model, this severely limits their appeal to gamers.  Next, the PS3 and 360 are both rather old consoles at this point.  Nintendo will have two, maybe three years of parity before the next systems from Microsoft and Sony come out (depending on how soon that hardware can be priced reasonably - no one wants another "$599 US Dollars" incident, especially not Sony).  Once again, by de-emphasizing tech and going with a controller for their appeal, they're putting themselves in yet another situation where, like with the Wii, where they are the redheaded stepchild of the development world.  Lastly, Nintendo's trying way too hard.  Tom McShea wrote a fantastic article about this very subject at GameSpot.  After the stunning sales success of the Wii hardware, Nintendo's clearly desperate for another casual hit out the park.  However, not everything can be a home run.  I mentioned this when talking about Duke Nukem Forever a couple posts ago, but when development is driven by trying to be new instead of trying to be fun, almost nothing good comes out of it.  Compare this to the first system with analog controls, the Nintendo 64.  The big launch game was not just a showcase of the new control system, but an amazing, intelligently designed game that earned itself a permanent place in gamers' hearts and, in the process, redefined the entire platformer genre for over a decade.  The N64 controller didn't sell the games - the games sold the N64 controller.  By contrast, the Wii-U feels like Nintendo's attempt to relight the fire and sell hardware, with its capability to enhance gaming almost an afterthought.  Creativity never comes from having a gun to one's head and demanding something new.  It comes from endless iteration, figuring out what worked and what didn't, and occasionally saying "wouldn't it be cool if...?"  The 3DS is the same "let's put novelty over gameplay" deal, and the sales have been tepid, especially in Japan where the PSP outsells it.  That Nintendo seems to have learned nothing from this and is going 'hardware first' yet again.  It's a damned shame to see a company that was once so reliable in making great games become a company that puts out products you'd see Anthony Sullivan pimping.
 

The Halo Kinection

 
According to Microsoft and 343 Studios, the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is going to include support for the Kinect, but won't effect the core game play.  The question must then be asked - what the hell are they going to do with it then?  Are they going to put nonsensical mini-games like Sony did with Sly Cooper Collection and the Move?  Let you use its slow, laggy interface for the menus?  Exactly what can be added to Halo without being completely peripheral to the experience or making it an aggravating "addition" that people will go out of their way to avoid?  What in the hell is the point?  This is the whole problem with the Kinect, really.  It's sold a bunch of units, but there are very few games for it, and the games that are there haven't exactly set the world on fire.  The problem is so pronounced that Microsoft blew nearly their entire E3 2011 presentation on Kinect, trying to show people that the stupid camera/sensor they bought really isn't a waste of money that's only for Carnival Games.
 
Now this wouldn't be so bad if all those games weren't rail shooters.  That genre, more than any, requires the precision offered by a pointer.  That's why we've seen a revival of light-gun games on the Wii and the PlayStation Move.  Flailing one's arms about like an idiot is just NOT a proper substitute for having a wand/light gun/whatever in your hand.  So where does that leave Kinect users?  In a bit of a horrible bind.  There hasn't been anything at all to prove that this is a good gaming interface, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to sell us on the contrary.  Indeed, the interesting stuff has been from hackers in the PC community, almost all of it not relating to gaming.  We now have Microsoft committed to tacking on worthless additions to non-Kinect games and rail shooters that will lure in no one who gives a crap about gaming.  And the casual audience?  What do they get?  Worse versions of the mini-games they get on Wii, and at a slower rate.  It's amazing how a single game peripheral can have so little potential besides ripping people off.  It's the Activator all over again.

During my somewhat unfavorable review of Duke Nukem Forever, I compared the game a few times to Duke Nukem 3D. I was pretty adamant in my assertion that Duke 3D was a far better game than DNF. However, after that review hit, I couldn't help but wonder how much of my opinion was based on the merits of the game and how much was based on nostalgia. With that in mind, I'm playing through Duke Nukem 3D once more. While I'm using a source port ( EDuke32), I'm keeping it on software render in order to keep the experience as faithful to the original DOS version as possible. I'm playing on Come Get Some difficulty, which is the level which I played DNF.

Anyway, I've just completed the first episode of four, and here are my impressions. Lots of enemies to shoot keeps the proceedings busy, and Duke is nice and talkative. However, owing to the "collection of mazes" design idea of the time, it's easy at times to get lost. Thankfully, the environments are vibrant and colorful for the most part, so it's not critically boring until the last level of the episode, which mostly takes place in a mountain. The boss battle was actually quite simple, owing to the generous amount of RPG and Chaingun Cannon ammo in the chamber, though it may have been more of a pain in the ass if not for that nice portable medkit. Overall, Episode 1 was a good experience, living up to the fond memories.

I'm going to be doing blog posts about the other three episodes as I complete them, so as to keep my observations as fresh as possible, and finishing off with a full-on review of the game. Those of you who'd like to join me can pick up EDuke32 via the link earlier in the blog, and grab the game at GOG.com. Alternatively, the XBLA version of the game is the full Atomic Edition, so that one will work as well. Looking forward to seeing what you all think.

Well, I'm trying to get back into blogging again, so to start, here's my review of Duke Nukem Forever.
 
I wish it was a better game, but here we are.

At this point, I can't imagine anyone who isn't aware of the week-long shutdown of the PlayStation Network.  While there are obvious questions that have to be asked about Sony's network security, who's responsible for the attack and what personal data may have been taken by the attackers, there is another question we must ask: are we too dependent upon the internet?

  

I found this on Youtube the other day.  Thought everyone would get a kick out of it.
 
  

Kotaku has hit a brand new low. And considering that site is part of the preeminent gutter trash network, Gawker, that's saying something.

They've presented to us the idea that buying used games is worse than stealing them.

Before I go into my thoughts on the matter, here's my favorite bit from this asinine article.

“Now this might seem preposterous to some of you, but think about it: when you buy a used game from Game Stop you not only rob everyone who actually was involved in the creation of that game, but you give Game Stop more money so they can continue to do it and get better at it. All a pirate does is the robbing part.”

I'm not sure where the “robbery” is taking place when a used game is being purchased. People seem to forget that new games are needed for there to be a used game business. More often than not, the person who sold that used game bought it new, and is simply surrendering the game in exchange for monetary compensation. Piracy involves no sales at all in most cases, or a single sale that is split into a million downloads on your torrent site of choice. With the exception of a few games that people are especially disappointed in, there will generally only be a few copies of any particular game used at a time, whereas piracy is the creation if infinite free copies. Scarcity creates value, after all. Therefore, it's obvious that piracy creates much more of an issue than used games.

However, there are two issues that irk me when it comes to the anti-used-game argument. Most of it stems from an irrational hatred of GameStop. While I'll be the first to admit that there are bad GameStop locations, that's the same with any retail chain. For the most part, GameStop provides a valuable service as the only video game specialty store of note left in America, facing increasing competition from the big box places like Wal-Mart and Target. GameStop, I should also remind you all, is the only place for people to find games that aren't guaranteed million sellers. You think Wal-Mart's gonna carry Nippon Ichi titles? I don't expect them to, simply because they'll never sell what they need to for Wal-Mart to be happy. Therefore, GameStop's existence is vital to keeping the game industry vibrant and diverse. Despite their importance to gaming, however, GameStop makes scarcely anything from a new game purchase, certainly not enough to support their many locations. With games costing more money now than they have the past two generations, it's more important than ever to have those used sales in order to stay solvent.

Beyond GameStop, however, we have the issue of pre-owned items in general. The auto industry surely suffers losses when people buy pre-owned autos instead of new, but you don't see them trying to suppress the practice. Indeed, some have even learned to capitalize on it. In addition, there are movies, firearms, TVs, furniture, and all manner of items being bought and sold in pawn shops and garage sales across the world. Are we to ban them too? If we are to be a nation governed by the rule of law and not the whims of the corporate elite, the law must be applied equally, meaning it must be just as illegal to pawn a book bag or a piece of clothing as it is to sell a video game used.

The point is that we as a people should not be so quick to surrender our liberties simply because we may not like a retailer, or because the gaming industry is trying to present the used game industry as the bogeyman. It's not a valid complaint, but rather the whining and crying of a bloated industry whose production budgets are approaching the point where it will be impossible to make a profit because of the endless pursuit of higher and higher tech.

Besides, if the gaming industry really wanted to stamp it out, they'd make the damned games cheaper and scale their budgets down to responsible levels. $60 is a ridiculous price, and has already led to a great deal of consolidation as consumers become more conservative in their purchases. The death of used games will do nothing to alleviate that issue.