Paul is a sleepy boy this week, as Jordan finally erupts in disgust over criticism of the PlayStation Vita. Instead of a Gaming Flashback, the guys check out the upcoming indie adventure game To the Moon.
They also discuss the following news items:
- The Lund Report: July 2011 NPD
- Developer: “People don’t want PS Vita”
- Noel Gallagher blames video games for London riots
- Epic may ban people who spoil Gears of War 3 online
- Intel hiring sci-fi writers to drive technology
We also get some reader feedback, and this week’s Question: What games, if any, did you find yourself dreaming about playing that you already owned? Write in and tell us!
Now here is another interesting video game for the Atari 2600, the game Dragon Fire consisted of two game screens, one which you ran across a bridge while fireballs were shot at you, you had to duck or jump over the fireball. This screen was a side-scroller style screen (although it doesn’t actually scroll), at the other end of the bridge was a castle door which you’d enter to get to the next screen.
When you finished collecting all the treasure an exit would pop up in the corner and you had to run to it without being burned by the fireballs, that dragon would turn from left to right nearly instantly too! Then, you’d jump into the exit and be back on the bridge again, but this time it was harder. You could die up to 7 times before the game was over (just to show you how hard it is, they gave you a bunch of lives).
@To the Moon
Paul, you’re right about the story vs. gameplay. But a game with all gameplay and no story becomes slightly boring. People are goal driven, and the storyline provide these goals.
And yes, “Go bring me 50 rat tails” is a goal, but it is far less interesting than the ones provided by a good story.
@People don’t want PS Vita
He’s true, I don’t want the PS Vita 😀
Jordan, thing is, people do like to carry only one item in their pockets. True, a good game library goes a long way (see XBox) but there is a line where the extra games will indeed trump the discomfort of carrying an extra item.
Thing is, I don’t think Vita will go beyond that line.
@video games for London riots:
Lol! I play STALKER and a bunch of other violent games, but you don’t see me looting. Keep ignoring the 600 lb gorilla in the living room and blame it all on the games …
A friend of mine from UK kept telling me for years that the hands of the police kept being tied behind their backs with laws considering the human rights of delinquents. He for once was not surprised of what happened: when you know you won’t get punished, guess what happens.
@Epic may ban people who spoil Gears of War 3 online:
Actually, this serves Epic well. (1) They’re basically punish people for advertising the game, and this is dumb, and (2), Epic, choose your testers better. If you have a crappy PR, you get crappy people working for you. Do your homework. Have them sign NDAs.
@Intel hiring sci-fi writers to drive technology:
Jonah, you’re making a mistake. It’s not about where to go with the tech, but rather to discover what desires the people of the future will have.
In order to have a product that sells, you need to find out what will the next generations want in terms of using technology. For that you don’t need tech people, you need sociologists.
@QOTW: one problem here is that I rarely dream. The other one is that I don’t bother remembering my dreams, unless they are truly remarkable.
Paul: You asked for it, here it is; hate mail.
You mispronounced my name. My name is not Mark. How dare you sir. I hate you.
Jordan: The story you are thinking of regarding the “accidental” flushing of a GBA was actually from the cover story on the handheld by Electronic Gaming Monthly. They purposefully flushed the unit and it started working again three days later.
QOTW: I’ll be trite here and mention Guitar Hero. It’s true though, I did dream of the colors flying down the fretboard at me during the night.
My QotW answer is not a great deal away from Matt’s. It is THE classic game.
Tetris.
I invested so many hours in that game trying to get the stupid large rocket animation that all I could see when I closed my eyelids was tetrinos falling. Now I know where they got the idea for The Matrix code animations.