After beating Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, I was overcome with two emotions. Those emotions are joy, and anger. I feel joy because Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a great game from beginning to end. I feel anger because the game had just enough flaws to stop this great game from being mind-blowing. I’m not sure if a game that I enjoyed so much made me almost equally as angry.
Video game complexity has come a long way from the days of Pong. Graphics have improved, AI has gotten smarter, control methods have become increasingly complex and the games themselves are more complicated than anything you can find on an Atari 2600.
Due to the way the medium has evolved, there are games and game genres that I cannot wrap my head around, regardless of how hard I try. The following is a list of games and game genres that make me feel dumb after playing them because I can’t come to grips with how to play them. Knowing that there are thousands of other people that are playing the same games just fine only amplifies the stupidity I feel when I fail miserably. Check out my list and tell me if any of these games make you feel dumb, too.
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EA Sports has a tall mountain to climb when it comes to basketball. Over the past few years, the quality of NBA Live has waded in mediocrity and sales have tracked well behind the competition. Basketball gamers now swear by the 2K series and perceive NBA Live as a piece of junk.
In response, EA Sports has gone back to the drawing board by giving the series to a new developer and a new name. However, preview coverage has been sparse leading up to launch, and maybe this recent video of someone playing the NBA Elite 11 demo reveals why EA has been keeping the game in the dark.
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(SPOILER ALERT: This post will analyze the final chapter of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune in detail. I know the game came out in 2007, but nonetheless, you’ve been warned)
When it comes to owning multiple copies of the same game, I’ve set this precedent for myself before. I’ve owned Mario All-Stars when I had the original NES versions. I also own SNES and Virtual Console versions of Street Fighter II and Contra III because those games are awesome.
I love Super Street Fighter IV. It very well might be my favourite Street Fighter game of all-time. When it’s all said and done, this game might even be in my top 10 for favourite game of all-time. But do I need two copies of this game? Now? My wallet said yes, but I’m not so sure I really do.
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I have seen a number of rumors surrounding an HD compilation of the first three Mortal Kombat games. I first saw details on IPLAYWINNER, and those initial rumors are beginning to appear more valid as retailers have leaked and removed product pages for Mortal Kombat: HD Kollection.
I’m on pace to finish Uncharted in the next few days, and I’ve had a really good time with it. If my queue of PS3 games to play wasn’t so big right now, I would have likely jumped to the sequel immediately. There are however, a few very specific gripes I have with this game, and one of them I wanted to use as a jumping-off point for a bigger discussion. For a game that at times tiptoes into the realm of realism, there are some very specific video game clichés that really take me out of the moment. In particular, I can’t help but shake my head every time I see strategically placed explosive barrels in the environment.
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A few years ago, my girlfriend and I rented The King of Kong documentary. It totally caught us by surprise. I was expecting a video game documentary and got an entertaining and nerdy equivalent of Rocky. You couldn’t help but love Steve Wiebe as he gained, lost, then regained the Donkey Kong high score world record from the clutches of Billy Mitchell, who comes off as the biggest jerk in the world in this movie.
The title has switched hands a few times since the making of this movie, but the latest move will bring joy to anyone that has ever watched The King of Kong. Steve Wiebe is once again, the Donkey Kong high score world record holder.
Getting featured on the front page of WordPress.com was awesome. Getting featured on the Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog? Highly unexpected, but also awesome. Why would a university law school want anything to do with In Third Person?
Back in 2007, the hype surrounding Halo 3 was massive. This was going to be the biggest and best-selling media launch of all-time. In particular, the hardest of hardcore gamers were salivating over the Legendary Edition of Halo 3, which featured of all things, a miniature replica of Master Chief’s helmet. Video game collector’s editions were still new at the time, and we’d never seen anything this epic (or expensive) before.
Part of the appeal in the Legendary Edition was the fact that it was supposed to be super rare. Instead, it stands as one of the biggest jokes in the short history of video game collector’s editions. I can name multiple stores in my city that have these in stock right now, collecting dust on the shelf at 1/3 of the original asking price. Even at that price point, retailers still can’t rid of them. If you paid $150 for it at launch in hopes of getting something truly special, I bet you’re bitter that the monetary and financial value of this set has dropped dramatically.
