Posts Tagged ‘sony’
Podcast: E3 Revisited
This week Fred (@spydersvenom) is joined by Rob “Trees” (@TreesLounge00) and special guest Chip Cella (@CaptinChaos) of the B-Team to discuss the summer gaming event that wraps Christmas and Birthday all into one package: E3. We discuss the convention’s roots, establishment, and of course the wild and crazy happenings that accompanied each glorious year from 1995-1999.
Podcast: Game Club – Ico
This week Fred is joined by Chip Cella of the B-Team Podcast to discuss our February game club title Ico. We cover development, Team Ico studio, the campaign, and significance of this artistic early PS2 title.
Podcast: Game Club – Crash Bandicoot
Fred Rojas and Rob “Trees” discuss the 3rd party Playstation 1 title that basically became the mascot for Sony throughout the generation. The sordid past and creation of the eventual bandicoot is discussed as well as the full campaign and relevance. We also announce this month’s game club title: Ico.
Video Playthrough: Rule of Rose (PS2)
Console: Playstation 2
Released: September 12, 2006
Developer: Punchline
Publisher: Atlus (in US)
Value: $48.33 (used), $79.99 (new) (pricecharting.com)
Price: $40-$60 (used) (eBay)
Digital Release? No
This article is purely gameplay videos. It will be updated as the game is completed. We also discussed and partially reviewed this game on our podcast, the specific episode can be found here.
Review: Make My Own Music Video (Sega CD)
Console: Sega-CD/Mega-CD
Released: 1992
Developer: Digital Pictures
Publisher: Sony Imagesoft
Instruction Manual: Not necessary
Difficulty: Non-existent
Played it as a child? Yes
Value: pricecharting.com has hilarously not even covered these games
Price: Don’t even bother
Other Releases: Absolutely Not
Digital Release? No, aside from how horrible they are, the music is timely
There is just no getting around this, these are terrible video games. Not only are they pop groups that only existed in the early part of the 1990s, but they aren’t games at all. You goal is just as it sounds: make a music video. It’s a crash course in linear digital editing where three streams of video appear on the screen at once and you use the A, B, and C button to select the “active” feed that will become your master video. Unfortunately the three feeds are made up of a random lot of public domain videos from the first half of the century, sometimes altered slightly for the beat, and the original music video for the game. I’m not saying that these videos are directorial masterpieces, but when combined with the patethic hodgepodge of public domain video, they’re the next Star Wars, I have never once wanted to leave the feed of the main video. Having said that, they are amazing fun at a party when you want to laugh your head off at how pathetically cheesy this generation of pop music was.
Podcast: Obscure Survival Horror Games
This week Fred goes solo to discuss obscure survival horror games Overblood, Enemy Zero, ObsCure, and Rule of Rose. He discuss many aspects about the games without spoiling most of the plot and help you consider whether you’d ever want to play them. Fred also announces October’s contest winner, announces a new contest, and sets up the game club titles for the upcoming months.
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Podcast: Birth of the Playstation
This week Fred goes solo and discusses the new format for the podcast, promises more media content on the site, and then tells the history of Sony’s famous powerhouse the Playstation, which premiered this week 17 years ago.
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Feature: Mascots
Mascots, you have to love them. No, wait, you don’t. For the most part mascots have been one of the dark spots on a game publisher’s marketing blitz. At first there was only one iconic mascot, Mario from Super Mario Bros., and frankly he was an accidental mascot that Nintendo had never imagined would become its poster child. After Mario other companies were consistently trying to establish mascots no matter the negative cost to the consumer. Mario is an exception not because he’s a particularly good or mistakenly genius mascot, he’s just iconic because his game was the catalyst to the return of video games after the crash of 1983. During the mid 80s Nintendo established a handful of strong franchises that are beloved by many fans and despite Mario being the “leader” per se, he’s definitely not alone when Nintendo wants to sell a product. I would argue that Link (from Legend of Zelda), Kirby (from Kirby’s Dream Land), Pikachu (from Pokemon), and to certain extent Donkey Kong (from Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Country) and Samus (from Metroid). Much like Disney, Nintendo brings with it a cast of characters and franchises that all assist the overall brand in creating long running quality games. Everyone wanted to have that same wonderful family in the 90s (all of the above named characters had at least one title on the NES by 1992), but they seemed to miss the point that these characters were not created to be mascots, they just happened to get popular enough to become mascots.
Feature: Castlevania Retrospective
Few titles that started life on the NES still exist today. Of those titles there are even fewer that weren’t developed by Nintendo. Konami is one of the few companies that has a list of titles like this, although many of them suffer from very few updates and recent iterations such as the Metal Gear (Solid) series and Gradius. Castlevania does not have this problem. In fact, it still seems to withstand the test of time and despite trying to reinvent itself so many times, celebrates at least mild success with each new iteration. As a gamer who got his first console, an NES, in 1988, I have literally grown up alongside the series and played most titles it has to offer. If you don’t know Castlevania or have never played a single game, this will hopefully explain why you need to.
Death of the Portable
Portable gaming has been around almost as long as gaming as a whole. Since the first moment bleeps and bloops could be captured on a screen, engineers have been hard at work trying to recreate the same experience on the go. Now with both the Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS this goal has, for the most part, become a reality. While neither is quite on par with the likes of their HD gaming counterparts, there’s no doubt that the smaller screen does make the distinction difficult. Having personally played Resident Evil: Revelations, Super Mario Land 3D, Wipeout 2048 and Uncharted: Golden Abyss, I admit that I feel these games are nearly identical both in gameplay and graphics to home console titles. This is nothing new, in fact many would argue that the Playstation Portable was nothing but a slew of PS2-style titles both unique and ported. Unlike the PSP, though, it appears that the gaming public claim this is what they want. The sales, of course, tell a different tale.
Gaming History 101 