Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago at 6:18 pm. 2 comments
Every new Sonic game follows the same pattern.
Highly anticipated!
Great Visuals!
Sega’s Last Chance!
Product is Released!
Low Review Scores!
Angry Fans
“True” Fans vs Angry Fans.
Next year, a New Sonic Game Announced.
Rinse Lather and Repeat.
Once it reaches the point where “True” Fans:
Whom, quite frankly, can’t spell.
Can’t ever see any flaws in any Sonic game.
Thinks their ideas are the best.
Hates IGN and Gamespot reviewers with a passion.
Wants every character in the game because they are soo cool!
Will have a temper tantrum on anyone who criticizes the game.
Will bow down before God aka Ryan Drummond.
Will write fanfiction with their own “original” character with supapowerzzz!!11
Will post tl;dr topics about why everyone hates their favorite character.
Again once it reaches the point where “True” Fans argue with Angry Fans, the whole internet universe explodes with trolling, angry letters, petitions, you suck, we all suck, nobody cares, just a plain ol’ mess thats only cured once a new sonic game is announced.
So a new Sonic Game has been announced! Will Sega make a critically acclaimed game that will calm everyone down, or will it end up being a failure like Sonic 06. Only time will tell.
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:47 pm. 3 comments
Electronic Arts has been known for its struggle on garnering trust to its gamers. Economically EA’s potential for profit is huge with their Sports line, Maxis, Boxing, Action, and Mobile gaming department. They continuously flaunt their in-game advertisements and its economic success.
Still this all takes a toll on a consumers by the recent drop in stock shares and quarterly earnings reports. The Sims 3 has many potential spots to solidify game play and do well with gamers. But we worry if EA’s marketing strategy will get the best of it.
A New Gaming Approach
The Sims 3 has an ambitious goal ahead of it. One of the major changes is that it now focuses on ONE household. Your person is placed into a world where everyone’s lives evolves with or without you. It sort of follows the lines of a MMORPG. Everyone existing in the game has their own schedule, love life, and personality. This doesn’t seem to worry fans too much since this concept was used during the Life Stories product line.
The Art Style
The most critical component for potential consumers at this stage is the graphics. The graphics look marginally better than they appeared in The Sims 2. A more realistic approach was expected, unfortunately the only areas so far that seems to be visually improved are the outdoors.
This screenshot depicts of a more detailed and realistic look of how a neighborhood is like. Now that the world is seamless, the gameplay allows you to leave your house and walk to another in real time. You will be able to move around the world with as much freedom as the console games. Hopefully as you move around, there should not be anymore loading splash screens that break up the action, but I do expect a loading screen before you enter another building.
Interior design still has that barren Sims 1-like look, every object is placed on a grid. The only new feature with object placement is diagonal rotation. This is not enough to make this game stand out from its predecessor.
This is the only screenshot so far has the most radiant lighting effect. The sun shines through the windows and the couch gives off its glossy glow, if only every screenshot presented this rise in quality…
User Feedback
Here are some various user comments from different message boards:
What I was most looking forward to in Sims 3 was a major overhaul in the department–a more realistic looking game–after all, it is a life simulation, but apparently that’s not going to happen. This looks like more of same to me, with incremental improvements.
Actually I looked at some of the graphics and they are dramatically improved hardware wise. The problem is that everything is unquestionably UGLY
Lindsay Pearson Interview Response:
However the screenshots give a somewhat distorted image, because when you see the Sims 3 live at work, you immediately notice the high detail in the world and its characters.
We shall see how this will turn out, there isn’t much uproar for this game as Simcity Societies. So far EA, your on a positive note here.
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 5:02 pm. 0 comments
1up.com this week did a week long peice of all the new information spilling out with Nighs Videos galore. Finally we have a glimpse of what to expect from the game that sticks really close to the original. They also showed off some new features like platform levels where the kids run around throwing ideya balls to enemies.
So far I must agree with 1up, their running animation looks very odd. She looks as if she really really needs to go to the bathroom. The graphics might not be exceptionally outstanding on the Wii compared to Super Mario Galaxy, but its definitely better than Nights into Dreams.
This desert filled theme park looks pretty barren in the backgrounds. The music is pretty much stays towards the safe side, it doesn’t really go off to be as creative as the first game. Still we don’t know if the music will be dynamic changing its melody based on the Nightopians you have killed. The music follows the style of the Sega’s previous Daytona USA game from Sega Dreamcast. It is a very smooth jazz album, taking your hand as it guides you through the air.
So far we have only seen 3 levels. If this game remixes all the dreams from the original, we are still left with a dense jungle with tall trees (as seen in the artwork), a museum of some sort, and a snow covered mountain. 1up.com has provided an Mp3 of Aqua Garden which you can listen to here.
Psst… By the way, you can download the Mp3 from this link:
Posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago at 2:07 pm. 0 comments
Well its safe to say that the most highly anticipated simulated city game has to be Cities Unlimited. Simcity Societies is expected to be released sometime soon and as far as I can say, I’m not really that interested in buying it. So a new challenger appears from the game developer studio, Monte Christo. They are most notable for the creation of the 2nd ranked simulation game: CityLife.
With staff all across the globe, their job is to create the most realistic and lifelike simulation where Simcity4 left off. Although personally they won’t admit to having competition between the two games, (but we know whats going on anyway…) Monte Christo has released some new screenshots of what to expect. They revealed a few new details about the game. You have the ability to use different types of landscapes, like the beaches in Rio, or the snow covered mountains in Aspen. These locales will add to the variety of the different types of locations you can make, instead of the usual generic city.
Map Selection Screen
Lets Ski in Aspen!
Cities Unlimited website will launch sometime in October, and will be featuring developers blogs, webcasts, and a forum. So join in once the website launches to be further closer to the action. The Official Cities Unlimited site is now at http://www.cuplanet.com.
Posted 10 months, 1 week ago at 2:44 am. 0 comments
Whats even more weird is that the name hasn’t been changed for the english version yet, but the Japanese Game is now called "NiGHTS: The story of the Night of the Falling Stars". The website will slowly update with new information before its final debut in the winter 07, including the stages section and quite interestingly a "sound" section in the media page. This could possibly mean that the music is once again a very important feature. However, the little snippets of music I’ve heard so far has not lived up to the previous game’s quality, and sounds quite bland. The main page has a new orchestral rendition of the main theme which may imply it will be sticking with the "Disney" inspired style throughout the game, as hinted from the English trailer. There is a little easter egg for NiGHTS fans as they rollover the buttons really fast.
As of now, Nights 2 is under skepticism again from major game reviewers. Even though the buzz for the game is high and the screenshots have proved that the graphics aren’t bad, EGM has rated Nights 2 a So-So. Others are worried if this game will appeal at all to newcomers who are already starting their holiday season with Bioshock and Halo 3.
Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 9:46 pm. 0 comments
EA released their newest expansion pack this week titled, The Sims: Credit Card. This revolutionary expansion pack brings your Sims as you’ve never seen them before. Now you can carry them around with you and relive the joys of Credit Card Debt in REAL LIFE! Ooooh! Experience hassling phone calls from debt collectors as you show off your pretty new maxed out The Sims™ card to everyone..
EA? What the hell is this? Why is this even being advertised? We know credit cards from stores are the worst. I think its the wrong type of product to expose to teenagers at this level. I’d rather this be an in-game item because quite frankly, your really scaring me now. I’m not even sure who exactly your targeting with this card? Women ages 18-24? Men ages 13-18? When something like this comes up the best way to work around it and make things better for everyone is to have a co-promotion with the big name credit card companies, ex. Chase, Discover, Capital One… Just let them choose a card design and be on their way.
Well we can’t have a parody post without actual factual details of this credit card, lets read the fine print. First off EA assumes no responsibility in controlling the terms and conditions for this card. So don’t think EA’s friendly tech support will call you when your late on a payment. Its all handled FIA Card services, we’re with the big boys now! Well the Default APR Rate is 18.24%, this instantly tells me its targeting college students, why you may ask? Because most of the time the APR rate starts at 0% then goes up to that after 6 months. Now look what happens when your late on a payment, the APR rate goes up to 29.99%. Mmm smell your money go bye bye! On the signup page, they boldly highlight this 4.9% APR and it sure does look pretty but guess what thats for, Cash Advance Checks, and Balance Transfers only, NOT PURCHASES. Ya so pretty much, the average college student won’t use those features. Unfortunately this 4.9% APR lasts only 6 months! Gasp! This sounds like those Cable and Satellite provider commercials, we’re only cheap for 6 months after that your on your own! So basically your stuck with 18.24% VARIABLE rate, Y’all better pay your credit card bills on time or its harassing phone calls for you!
The moral of this story is, this credit card isn’t different from all the other college credit cards out there. Your first credit card will always be stinky, and there’s no way around it. Would I recommend you sign up to it? Well its your decision but if you do, follow this advice. Don’t buy college books with it, Don’t buy Mp3 players with it, and Don’t buy anything costing more than $60 dollars. See this card wants to game you into high interest rates, cause they know college students don’t ever have a stable source of income. So here’s how we can get back at them! Use the card until you owe around $60. Next pay back the MINIMUM payment needed! Don’t pay the full amount back because its not going to improve your credit score at all. Pay back the minimum on time every month! Rinse Lather, and Repeat! After you do this for a year, your credit score can improve enough to the point where other credit card companies will beg you to join their Platinum ranks!
Posted 11 months, 4 weeks ago at 4:06 pm. 0 comments
Wow, ever since "Nights 2" screenshots were released to the public, many have been doubtful and skeptical about this game. One of its major pitfalls were its graphics, they looked terrible and washed out. I also concluded that this game might just be crappy remake to one of the most beloved Sega games out there. Opinions changed when Sega released some gameplay footage and its surprisingly better than what we’ve been shown. The trailer itself features Disney style footage and voice over with the help of Jim Cummings. The gameplay itself models very closely to the original game. Now the camera is on a diagonal right behind Nights. We also got a glimpse of how you’ll be closed into a field. Instead of a strip of land at the top and bottom, you are now enclosed in an arena, for example an island. The areas outside of the field are no longer purple, but have actual landscapes and backgrounds. The gameplay is a little different this time. You chase a little guy on a bird and take away his key, which you’ll then bring to your cage to unlock the next path. One viewer says he shed a tear after watching the footage. Good job Sonic Team, you may have brought back NiGHTS after all.
Wow after a few weeks of reviews and previews we’ve come to the million dollar question. Is this the next Simcity5 or not? Well it appears we’ve come to the point where now half of us are saying its just a spinoff. The rest of us are convinced its the next game. The answer might be found in the title. Its not Simcity5: Societies, its just Simcity Societies. However interviews and news sites have stated it is the 5th iteration of Simcity. Dr. Statistics believes 80% of gamers are against Simcity Societies in its current form, 18% are in a wait and see mode, 2% are fans of Tilted Mill and will definitely buy.
Whats wrong with Simcity Societies so far!
What I think: The major complaint is the art direction. The road system looks overly simplified, the buildings look too cuddly and compact, and everything fits pretty much in its square. We were pretty much expecting more realistic graphics and some crazy intersections but that doesn’t seem to be happening. The roads are far too square like. There aren’t any curves seen so far, and everything is grid like. Even Simcity4 had a slight curve with their streets, but Simcity Societies is just thick grids with sidewalks. One of the major eyesores for me is the constant flat texture on the ground. Only around the shore does the game breaks this monotony.
What the Fans think: We’ve had comments ranging from "Simcity 4 looks better than this game" to "I like fresh games and I like to see a new direction take place." I think for the most part, fans do want an easier game but easier in the sense of not having to put power lines, not having to put tedious zones, and easier tools for streets. But this is where it stops. Everything else should be brought back from Simcity4 but with better graphics. xSpartan039x says, "This game is obviously an attempt by maxis [actually tilted mill] to draw in young consumers who cant handle the difficultly of sim city. Basically a nullified sim city where everything is easy, cool and doesnt require much brain-busting to make something".
Come to the Magical Land of Legos!
Whats Right with Simcity Societies!
What I think: The game’s focus is different, and I think this was pretty much well thought out. What happens with Simcity Societies is that your more of the role of a dictator. How is this different from Simcity4? Well In Simcity4, your population directs your actions. You try to appease the population in balancing jobs, residents, and your money. If they can’t get to work, or if they are uneducated, or if they aren’t living long lives, they will move out or devolve. In Simcity Societies, the gameplay changed towards you forcing who will live in your city. By building certain types of buildings you can attract a certain society. Its more like Black & White, creating a society where your citizens are controlled with force, makes the city darker and stricter. Your citizens might be unhappy but you will see less crime and more money. However placing buildings for artistic and happier people changes your populace into a brighter colorful society.
What the Fans think: Its hard to find a positive comment about this game. Most positive comments stems from Tilted Mill’s work in the past. "The only reason why I’m interested in Societies is Tilted Mill’s involment and the fact that it apears to be much more of an Impressions-style city builder than Maxis-type one," and eedoon says, "At first, I thought SCS concept is a little bit weird. But then again, I think it is good for anyone to try something new and therefore I am eager to give this new SC a try." But this comment pretty much summed up the rest of the situation, "Will I buy it? Yeah, probably, if only in hopes the money will go to producing a REAL sequel" Well, there you have it, we aren’t satisfied until Simcity "5" comes out and until then we have Cities: Unlimited to look forward to. More on that later..
So is this Simcity5 or Not?
Well we do know that Simcity will continue if this game fails. Yep thats right! If this game doesn’t get good reviews and sales, Maxis will go back to basics and work on the next version of Simcity. You don’t need to kill yourselves or boycott this game. If this game is successful, Simcity Societies might be branched off in its own series while coexisting with Maxis creating Simcity 6.
Don’t ya Wish Your Simcity was HOT Like Me! Don’t ya!
Tilted Mill Productions will be running the development of the newest game of Simcity5. Tilted Mill has stated that the game will not be a realistic simulation like previous Simcity versions before it. Tilted Mill understands that the new direction might anger some fans but they want them to atleast try it out. Some have said Tilted Mill has killed simcity.
The following are some User Reactions against Tilted Mill:
"The Community was waiting on a new and better SimCity5, where realism is nearly perfect. SimCity Societies isn’t that SimCity5 we where waiting for…"
"When you said that this SC is not a realistic urban simulation, then this city building game should not be called Simcity. The whole series of Simcity has been based around realistic building sims… you are turning the new Simcity into just another cartoonish simulator…that upsets alot of people"
"EA, knows **** when it comes to simcity. They want to water itdown and simplyfy it down as much as possible to make maximum sales, great from a greed point of view, utterly rubbish if developers want their game to be reknown "
"How can you try to convince us, loyal SimCity fans that a game, that isn’t an urban simulator will please us? It won’t. Stop fooling us, there’s no city simulation therefore the Simcity name on that game is an insult, and we don’t like being insulted"
"It appears that EA has taken the course that is all too often taken nowadays; they are appealing to a mass audience and killing their base, which, with any luck, will be suicide for them later to the point where they will have to let Will Wright develop it again. SimCity is, at its heart, a game with a goal to be as realistic as possible. What EA is doing is like removing rollercoaster design from RollerCoaster Tycoon…"
And I must admit I have to agree with them. I want to personally put all blame towards EA most of all. You took a game like SSX3 and created crap for kids with SSX Blur. We want our realism back. You might as well let Maxis continue directing this game and let Simcity Socities change its name to something else. More Updates Today
Its like Watching a "Cubix Robots for Everyone" Marathon.
Simcity Societies will now be the fifth installment of the popular Simcity games. We last left off with Simcity 4 Rush Hour which focused on traffic, highways, and commute time management. Simcity Societies hints towards being that SimsVille hybrid I’ve been waiting for. Will it steer towards City Life and its focus on keeping poor and rich communities happy together? Or will it focus on Families and their immediate neighborhoods. 1up states EA will take this game and gear it for a much larger audience. This may deter the fans of the series if this game turns out to be too childish and easy. Any new information on Simcity Societies will be added to this blog and this post.
For Now we have a new screenshot, which doesn’t impress me.
Bumped.org Is now keeping track of any breaking devolopments of Simcity Societies.
Sega has recently started pre-orders for the Blue Orb Texter. This device enables you to type words on the screen using just the gamepad itself. The Blue Orb texter replaces the on screen keyboard seen in some online games for consoles. With a few clicks and directional button presses you’ll be able to form sentences. Well as much as it sounds cool on paper, the actual video on how to use it is very cryptic. It seems to be some sort of a T9 input method for words but the question is, how exactly do you create a word? Do you press left for L? How do you write the other letters? How does this thing work?!?! There isn’t a 1-9 dialpad on Playstation or Xbox 360 controllers that would make sense of all this, but Sega believes this Blue Orb Texter is the future of all communications through a controller. I’m sure there is going to be a steep learning curve with this thing. If your game enough to buy it, the price is $34.95 for the Playstation Version and $39.95 for the Xbox 360 version. Inside the box you’ll recieve a goody bag with stickers and other fun assortments you may never use but will instead sell them on eBay.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 3:02 pm. 0 comments
Sony unveiled screenshots and a press video of its new online multiplayer environment. Playstation Home is coined to be an expandable online world with the ability to talk, play games, and build your dream home. Its currently not known how customizable the environment shall be. Though, the video does show the purchasing of furniture, it is unknown whether the house can be built from the ground up a la "the sims." Home features customizable personal avatars mimicking dangerously close to Tony Hawks style of clothing. Even though many are deeming this to be a Second Life killer, or its more fashionable cousin, Home should allow Playstation to play catch up with the other consoles. Sony also introduced its first game for Home, "LittleBigPlanet" a very stylish and rich 2-D platformer with 3-D elements.
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 12:50 am. 2 comments
I took a quick look at this game and saw something shocking. First, its 3D and no, not that pseudo 2.5D, but completely 3D. Secondly, the preview video is running on a Motorola Razr. How in the world could that ever run on a Razr. That must be some souped up razr they got there. I believe its a BREW enabled Razr which brings me up to a point. Game Developers do little to address the differences in mobile phones. When your on their site searching for games for your phone, you really have no way of knowing how it would run and how it would look like. Take for instance, The Sims 2 Mobile. On some phones they are able to get better graphics, faster speeds, and wonderfull quality. Other phones we get the run down, boring, can’t do much of anything version. The gap between the high and low end versions were so great that people felt they were ripped off. I remember some angry rants we had in the forums where people wondered why they got the sucky version. There isn’t any guideline or system on any of the major gaming networks to tell you which version of the game you’ll get. Mobile phones don’t have the easy to read specifications compared to PCs. You can probably tell which game won’t run on your computer just by looking at the graphics, yet for mobile phones I have no freakin idea what would run and what can’t. The mobile gaming market is sparse leaving us with no direction to turn to when we want a particular game only to read that its not supported for our phone. Otherwise its still a awesome 3-D game for the phone and hopefully we’ll see standards when it comes to gaming platforms. So far we only have BREW and Java. Brew always gets the upper hand. Sun Sur!
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 4:37 am. 0 comments
Phantasy Star Universe came out about a month ago, I was one of the early adopters to get it the next day, fortunately for me I got a good chance to play it and share my uphills and downfalls. Phantasy Star Universe is the anticipated sequel of Phantasy Star Online. Many new features were added and many were dropped but the main deal of the game is to run through dungeons with your team mates and fight monsters. It stars Ethan Waber and during his trip around the Gurhal Star System, he meets up with a cast of friends and enemies all fighting the one major enemy, SEED! You can view more images in the Bumped.org Image Gallery.
