Capcom Arcade Trivia: “Did You Know…” You Don’t Need A Coin Drop On Your TV To Play These?

 

No big prizes for knowing this stuff already, folks… BUT if you hadn’t a clue before, now you know AND there’s the whole side benefit of looking and sounding REALLY cool to your geek buddies who think you need to play more games. Or something like that. Video game history is pretty awesome at the end of the day no matter how you look at it, I say. Capcom Arcade Cabinet is out NOW for the PS3 (via PSN) and Xbox 360 (via XBLA). It’s possibly coming to other platforms, but you didn’t hear it here. Yet.

Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter: inXile Gets That Planescape “Sequel” Underway…

 

torment artWell, now… That’s going exactly as predicted, ladies and gentlemen. As in it’s ALMOST funded on the first day (and probably FULLY funded by the time or very shortly after I complete this brief post). Torment: Tides of Numenera is an upcoming PC RPG game that will take place in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting (called Numenera of course), and as you can see if you poke around both the Kickstarter and Numenera pages, it all looks quite spectacular indeed.

As with other projects this huge, Digital and physical versions will be made available for backers (whee!) and I hope this actually makes it into retail at some point, as the original game is one of those classics for the ages and this one (being cooked up by some that were involved in that epic) is looking mighty amazing as well. Getting more people to play a game like this outside of those lots of throwing money at it for strictly personal reasons (hell, If I had a few thousand bucks lying around, I’d want to be an in-game NPC too!) is a pretty good way for gaming to gain a bit more respect among some who overly criticize the hobby based on what they see in the media… Continue reading

Applied Design @MoMA: Playing Games in Public Reveals Some Issues…

 

Well, that darned “ringer” Pac-Man machine with the funky joystick was ONE problem and bad enough for an old gaming salt like me to come up against, grrrr. But I’ll have to kick myself harder for being SO supremely lame at vib-ribbon when I have it here and used to play it quite a lot. Granted, it HAS been a few years since I picked up that PSOne import, but still… I think someone messed with the controller, as the card next to the exhibit was off a bit. Well, the good thing was everyone who played it had problems as well. I at least managed to make it to the end of the second area on one attempt… and of course, I wasn’t filming or being films when it happened… bleh.

 

Thief 4: As Long As It Doesn’t Stab Me In The Back When It Takes My Money, I’m Good…

Ah… this is fine news indeed. It seems that there’s a new Thief game (which just SO happens to be called Thief 4 because it’s the fourth game in the series) in the works for PC and next-generation consoles. Nice. I’ll do a happier dance when I see some gameplay, but to the initiated, the Thief series is one of those seminal works that’s pretty deep and always challenging to dive into. Eidos Montreal is handling the development chores, Square Enix will be publishing and if the game is anything like Deus Ex: Human Revolution in terms of scope (but with much more interaction), it’s guaranteed some solid ratings as well as a loyal fan base.

Granted, I’m betting ANY inclusion of “casual” play modes will be met with all sorts of internet-driven derision and division, but that’s how it goes in an era where more people seem to want to try more types of games (before giving up before they’ve learned the damned controls in the tutorial). As always, we shall see. I’ll be sneaking carefully behind this one and keeping tabs, that’s for sure…

Capcom Arcade Cabinet 1985 Game Pack #1: Three More Classics To Keep You Twitching The Night Away…

 

Let’s see now… Ghosts ‘n Goblins, GunSmoke, and Section Z, all true classics and all now popping up on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade for you Capcom Arcade Cabinet users in North America (European PlayStation Store users get theirs tomorrow) for a very reasonable $9.99€/9.99/£7.99/800MSP. For those of you PSN users who missed last week’s intro 1987 pack or just want the two classics Avenger and/or 1943: The Battle of Midway by themselves, they’re both for sale individually on PSN for $3.99/€3.99/£3.19 each. Capcom hasn’t said a thing about 360 users in regards to these two titles getting single purchase deals, but I’m guessing 360 owners will need to take that up with Microsoft and not Capcom if it’s an issue about individual games being sold or whatever. Anyway, enough reading – go drop some virtual quarters already!

Applied Design @MoMA: fLow (PS3) “Dancing Bacteria?” Well, OK…

Well, I did hear someone say that’s what the game looked like at the event, so I guess that’s how it will seem to a few people who haven’t played it. I was going to title the post “Waiter,There’s a fLow in My Soup!”, but that would mean I’d need to stop writing and go eat something, as food references sometimes make me hungry. Good thing I’m at the library here “stealing” free wi-fi time or I’d be passed out at the pizza place nearby on a cheap (but REALLY good) pie, not getting any work done and feeling not too guilty about it later on.

Applied Design @MoMA: Portal Is Actually Harder If You Start in the Middle.

 

Granted, I haven’t played this in some time, but it’s NOT exactly the toughest game out there. However, if you pick up a controller and try to start playing, expect to get lost fast. This level is actually really simple (I ran through it on the PS3’s The Orange Box collection just to make sure I wasn’t losing my touch), but I just dinked around for a bit so the video could be shot. Anyway, the guy who played after the next guy tried DID remember how to play and it was a good thing, as a video crew caught that fun bit of puzzle/platformer action for whatever site they were filming for… Ah, well. Hey, if they had Cosmic Ark or Thunderground there, I’d STILL be playing today…

Once Again, It’s Not The Games You Need To Worry About, Really.

Aside

cell phoneSo, a couple of months back, I’m waiting for the subway and there’s a rather cranky young woman yelling into, or more precisely AT her cell phone. Given today’s general lack of public decorum, I’m figuring it’s one of those angry conversations with a not so friendly relative or soon to be ex-formerly significant whatever that’s not supposed to be heard (and yet gets to be heard by all within earshot). Snip, snip and chop, chop- there goes someone’s entire wardrobe in the street and on fire later tonight, blah, blah, blah… whatever. And IN the freakin’ CAR, too? Yeesh. In any event (and as usual), I sidestep away so I can get some peace and quiet and not have to listen to someone sounding as if they’re auditioning for a new Quentin Tarantino film, when I hear the sound of a phone hitting the platform along with a string of expletives. Well, that’s one relationship busted… and a phone to go with it, I think… Wrong again.

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VGA 101: On Kenji Eno: A Loss Isn’t A Complete Loss If Something Is Gained In the Process…

D2_signedOne of my favorite game creators, Kenji Eno, passed away on February 20th and I’d planned to write up something memorial-esque last week, but couldn’t for a few reasons. The main one was it’s actually quite hard to write something brief about what playing through some of the games he and his studio WARP created during their brief run meant to me without actually going through the library here and taking time to do so. That’s going to get done in about a month or so, barring incident. The other was I wanted to read what some of his close friends wrote about him in order to get a better insight on the man and his work. There was also a little bit of unfinished business to take care of in getting a certain something back to a certain someone, so that had to come first… Continue reading

Pac-Man Is Harder Than It Should be @MoMA’s Applied Design Show…

 

Yes, it’s the Namco arcade classic, but the version at the show is a bit lame because the joystick isn’t too responsive. Er, tilt your head or watch this on a mobile phone for best results. Anyway, I kept sucking hard at the game but it wasn’t ALL my fault. Right after I got my paws on this machine with the funky as hell joystick that made for QUICK losing battles against Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde, Local NY1 News Tech Beat reporter Adam Balkin stepped up and… proceeded to be as bad as I was at the game. Well, everyone I saw play this didn’t last long, but I think that’s planned in the exhibit in order to keep that ONE guy or gal really good at the game from being a total jerk and play for hours on those free credits…

 

 

Hmmm… I should have given Adam my business card, but eh, we’ll meet again at some point…