Sleepy Gamer

In the spirits of Halloween, this post is dedicated to 4 scary video game moments that I’ve experienced.  I was originally going to do 5, but I couldn’t think of a 5th moment that scared the crap out of me without listing the same game franchise twice.  Plus, it’s Friday, so I deserve to be lazy.  =)  Enjoy and have a safe, and happy Halloween!

Resident Evil 2

Eternal Darkness
It has been hours since you last saved your game.  You’ve slain countless undead foes, traveled thousands of years, and gathered all of the Ancient’s artifacts.  The only thing’s left is to defeat Pious, the maniacal guardian who’s bent on ending all of humanity as we know it.  Moments before reaching the final boss and saving the world, you encounter… “Disc Read Error”.  At this point, you’re screaming out loud, “This can’t be happening!”  Just when you’re about to throw your Gamecube out the window, it resumes like nothing happened.  You then realized that the game was messing with you all along.  Good one Nintendo… bravo.
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Upon receiving a beta key for Resistance 2, I was really eager to rush home and download the beta.  However, after 3.5 hours for 2GB download, in addition to the 10 minute install, plus another 15 minutes for an update, I was finally ready to play.  So is this game worth that 4 hour wait?  Read on.

Beta Basics
Just to clarify, this beta only provides the multi-player feature.  You won’t get a sneak peak at the single player campaign until you buy it.  Starting the beta, you’re introduced to 2 game play options: Cooperative and Competitive.  In the cooperative mode, you have the choice to play online or offline with friends.  This mode allows casual fun play without affecting your ranking stats.  The competitive mode is where the meat of the game is focused on.  Similar to Call of Duty’s “Perks”, Resistance 2 has the “Berserks/Loadout” system.  As you gain more experience and rank up, you can unlock additional “Berserks/Loadout” that enhance your abilities.  The default beserks/loadouts provide small enhancements like upgraded radar or electric burst shots.  But leveling up will provide much better abilities, such as force fields or healing rings, that will help keep you alive longer.

The main appeal that Resistance 2 has over other shooters are the 60 player skirmishes.  When you jump into a 60 player battle, things can get really chaotic.  The first time I jumped in, my average lifespan was less than 10 seconds.  However, as you get more accustomed to the map layout, you’ll realize how grand and epic these matches are.  It’s quite exhilarating when there’s a stand-off between the two factions fighting on opposite sides of the ravine.  One side is desperately defending the beacon, while the other is trying to overtake it.  The whole beauty of this is that this grand experience is practically lag-free, so any deaths that you encounter is because of your own noob skills.

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Sure, there are plenty more expensive hobbies out there to spend your hard earned cash on, but the cost of gaming can get pretty daunting if you’re not too careful.  With any big electronic purchase, it’s best to know how much of a dent to your pocket book it will all be with all the hidden fees and additional purchases added in.  This guide will try to give you an idea of which buys are absolutely necessary, which ones are nice-to-haves, and what you should avoid like the plague.  And for simplicity’s sake, let’s just round all prices up to the nearest dollar.

First things first, you’ll need a television.  Yeah, I know, everyone’s got a TV, but if you’d like to game on a nice big screen and don’t yet have one, you should probably factor that cost into your budget.  If you’re interesting in a high def set, check out our HDTV buyer’s guide, otherwise, any regular TV will do.  Just be aware that most 360 and PS3 games were made with higher resolutions in mind, and in some cases, the text is displayed using extremely tiny font sizes that don’t show up very well on SDTVs.  Okay, now onto the consoles..

Nintendo Wii

The Wii offers the most basic retail configuration out of the three consoles.. one box and one box only.  For $250, you get the Wii game system, one wiimote controller, one nun-chuk controller add-on, and one game, Wii Sports.  However, if you want to invite your friends over to play, you’ll need extra controllers ($40 each) and possibly extra nun-chuks ($20 each).  You might only need to buy one extra nun-chuk though, since most games don’t require the analog stick.  Otherwise, buying a full set of three additional controllers will cost you $180 more.  You might be tempted to buy a copy of the game Wii Play, since it nets you an extra wiimote, but unless you have really young children, I’d say pass.  Wii Play costs $50, same as any other game, so you’re really just buying a $40 wiimote and getting a mediocre minigame collection for $10 more.  Also, if you plan on buying any old Nintendo games on Virtual Console, you should pick up at least one Classic Controller ($20).  And if you decide to use the Wii’s backwards compatibility and play any Nintendo Gamecube games, you’ll need a Gamecube controller (I suggest the wireless Wavebird for $25) and a memory card (around $10), both of which aren’t sold at retail anymore, but are plentiful online at Amazon and eBay.

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If you’ve never played this game before, it’s Mega Man “X”, not 10.  Ironically, this game was released before Mega Man 7, but confusions aside, it was Capcom’s first Mega Man entry on the SNES.  With the X series, Capcom decided to reinvent the Mega Man franchise towards a more mature trend when entering the the 16-bit arena.  It’s no Resident Evil, but it did venture into themes of death, revenge, and salvation.  Did it dissapoint?  Does it still stand to today’s standard?  Read on.

Story

If you cared to read the manual, you’ll find that this game takes place in the year 21xx (whenever that is).  It starts as an archaeologist/scientist stumbled upon the remains of a robotic research facility.  From this excavation, he discovered X (the main protagonist) and brought him back to life.  With X’s help, they were able to develop a new generation of androids dubbed “Reploids” who can learn, adapt, and pretty much has all human traits.  But what happens when robots start thinking on their own?  Shenanigans!  Led by the sinister Sigma, now there are evil robots who’ve gone “maverick” and it’s your job to stop them.   Not the greatest story in the world, but this shouldn’t be what you should be focusing on.
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- “Yes we can has change!” Obama ads show up in video games.. You heard right, Barrack “That One” Obama has taken the first leap by a presidential candidate and bought ad space in a video game.  Make that nine games, published by EA, from Burnout Paradise to their Madden ‘09 roster update.. err cash cow.

- Nintendo dominates NPD sales once again. In other news, ice is cold and paper cuts hurt.. No big surprise here.  The Wii dominated with an outrageous 687,000 units in the month of September, easily outselling both the 360 and PS3 combined.  The recent price drop that put Microsoft’s box as the same price as the Wii ($250) clearly gave the 360 a bump to beat out the PS3, but that race is more of a 2nd place affair between Microsoft and Sony.

- Xbox 360 Memory upgrade program makes HDD-less Core and Arcade owners less screwed.. By registering your console ID at this MS site, you can apply for either a free 512MB memory card or pay only $19.99 (rather than the usual $100) to upgrade to a 20GB HDD.  Even that might not be enough HDD space once you start installing console games like PC games this Fall.

- Valve’s Half-Life 2 Episode 3 continues to define episodic gaming as every 2 to 3 years.. Those of you eagerly awaiting the next chapter in Valve’s Half-Life saga will have to wait a bit longer.  Seems Left 4 Dead and TF2 have delayed the episodic trilogy’s conclusion.  You can also expect a more signficant play experience to come from Episode 3.  Here’s to hoping we’ll see something new before year’s end.

- Bioshock 2 sequel/prequel teaser shows off cutest Big Daddy ever.. Not much is yet known about the follow to the breakout-hit, objectivist, uptopian, FPS, critical darling of last year.  Seems it will be both sequel and prequel.  Whether that means it will contain flashbacks or some totally off-the-wall story telling device remains to be seen.

- PSP 5.00 update brings long awaited online store. Take that DSi.. The latest firmware update makes the PSP online store more accessible (see iPhone store) by no longer requiring you to be tethered to your PS3 or PC.  Also, the new PS3 2.50 update grants the gift of hulu.com video streaming, so you can enjoy the latest episodes of The Office on your couch, not hunched over a computer monitor.

Those interested in getting Rock Band 2 will inevitably fall into one of two camps: those who already own the Rock Band 1 bundle, and the rest who have yet to hop on the bus and join the tour.  For the latter group, the improved instruments and huge selection of songs make the choice a relatively easy one for anyone even remotely interested in an incredibly fun, party-accessible, music rhythm game.  But we don’t live in a vacuum and this isn’t exactly the first game in the series.  So, is Rock Band 2 worth your $60 to upgrade to this year’s model?

The Patch Upgrades.. I Mean New Features

While the first game was the biggest leap forward in the music game genre since the original Guitar Hero, it was also missing a couple key features.  One of them was the in-game music store, which was patched in early this year free of charge.  Unfortunately, the online and single-player band world tour modes, cost the price of admission.  Many of the improvements make Rock Band 2 feel more like a patch upgrade than a full fledged sequel.  This seems to be the current direction most game franchises are heading, so I’m afraid we’ll probably have to start getting used to it.  Despite all this, everything Harmonix has added makes the game a whole lot better experience overall.

From the UI improvements, namely adding difficulty ratings on songs for each instrument component.  To the improved character customization options and loosened restrictions on using which band members.  To an incredibly diverse song list that crosses through genres and music eras with surprising choices.  To the brilliant inclusion of a drum trainer, complete with actual drum fills for those overdrive (ie: star power) activation moments.  Even the new Battle of the Bands mode provides a host of unique daily challenges that keep you coming back week after week.

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