Pixel Theories | a gamer getting older...

Sporcle

One of my wife's favorite webs is Sporcle.  This little trivia web poses a question, and tasks users with typing all possible answers before a time runs out.  Really hadn't played any of it myself.  That was until a few days ago when my wife turned me on to this latest addition; name the 80's video games.

I got 21/30.  I'm sure you can do better.

Video Games and... (now sponsored)

Since the first time I wrote about the Floyd/Portnow collaboration that is "Video Games and...," it would seem that they've been sponsored by Gamasutra.  Which hopefully means that we can look forward to more webi's of this clever and introspective look into video game design and development.

Listen up boys and girls, this esss is effn important!

The ECC is Right Around the Corner

Some of you locals might like this.  It's a 12 x 18 panel print by Daniel m. Davis.  There will only be 33 of these prints available at ECCC.  Taken directly from the Monster Commute graphic novel the print is a view of a steampunk Seattle, featuring the most iconic monument in the city.  It's only fifteen simoleons and after missing out on the Hulk exclusive last year, this will be first up on my itinerary!

Spring Contest Winners

Ughhh.  For those who follow the blog, you know that the polls were taken down early.  As the days towards the close of the competition, it had been brought to my attention that some users were "juking the stats."  As I could neither prove or disprove the allegations of cheating I shut the polls down and reopened voting in this thread.  Unfortunately, though the thread had many views, at the end I only received about 20 votes leaving two ties among the four highest submissions.

So I split the first place prize up between the two submitters that had the most votes.  Then I let my wife pick who should get third.  And what was originally the third place prize went to the other user that was involved in the other tie.  I am not going to repost the pics, but here is the link to all of the submissions.

1st place (tied) - Gears of Hyrule
1st place (tied) - NintendCOGS
3rd place - Gears vs. Mario
4th place - Rears of Wario

The most disappointing thing about this contest, and part of the reason that this update is so late, would be the implication of cheating.  I gotta be honest it's put me in a pretty foul mood.  Call it what you want, but this may be the last contest I offer.  So I may have to find some other creative way to dispatch of the SWAG that I gather at the upcoming Emerald City Comicon.  Though I like giving back, and even more inviting people to create mockups, if I do hold another contest it'll have to be a competition based upon wins and losses, not public opinion.

Better Get Your Tix for PAX

That's right kids get your tix early, because the sixth annual Penny Arcade Expo will have a limited number of tickets sold.  Apparently the 58,000 gamers that stormed the halls of the Washington State Convention Center for three days last year were a burden on the PAX Enforcers.  While the expo currently uses all of the WSCC and the Pike Annex Center across the street, last year's expo was overcrowded.

Ultimately, this is the right move.  Though we don't know how many attendees the Con will be limited to, one can guess that it wouldn't be much more than the 58,000 and change that mobbed the streets of Seattle last year.  And with the East Coast PAX to begin in 2010, these adjustments will hopefully mean that roaming the booths of my nice little West Coast PAX won't feel like waiting for a train in China.

Things weren't bad last year, but at several big time booths - Bungie, Bethesda, and Valve - had so many people waiting for playtime that it congested the pathways; making human traffic jams.  Moreover, the Enforcers last year were so outnumbered by the last day of the expo, the stress had turned most into complete pricks.  And lastly, getting any hands-on time with a big time games meant missing other panels, and demos.

It's great to see PAX growing, as the attendance grows so will publishers commitments to the Con.  But what's even better is to see that the people who make PAX happen are ahead of the game in making sure the expo doesn't become the clusterf$#k Comic-Con has turned into.

Halo Wars is Not the Thinking Man's RTS

The first venture for the Halo series outside of the FPS genre is an RTS that doesn't stay true to it's form.  Unlike most RTS games, Halo Wars takes the basic RTS principles and dilutes the very nature of it's traditional structure.  Where most RTS games give you the option to micro manage and expand your base as you wish, HW gives you premolded bases and forces you to macro manage.  Where old style RTS's are a scalpel, Halo Wars is a broadsword, and it's the most fun I've had with an RTS on a console in a long time.

The best part of HW is the design of the missions.  Not one of the 15 missions of Halo Wars feels too belabored or overly intricate.  All optional objectives are straight to the point, players won't feel like they'll be sacrificing primary objectives to fully complete missions.  Granted advanced players with a clear schedule may be able to beat this game in a day, Halo Wars promotes a healthy challenge for the causal gamer.  And when you've beaten the game, collected all of the black boxes & skulls; you'll have more to do.  As the remaining black boxes will be unlocked as you win skirmishes on the maps that shipped with the game; which will eventually unlock more of the Halo Timeline.  Add that to trying to beat this game on "Legendary" and this game will have you playing for awhile.

Online HW takes quite a bit from it's cousin Halo 3.  Ranks and the TrueSkill ratings are similar to the model that has been honed from Halo 2.  Though I'm not a big fan of "superpowers," Halo Wars' balance is derivative of the rock-paper-scissors format.  It would seem initially that standard rush and counter-rush tactics are balanced enough that, other stratagems may be the key to winning a skirmish.  As I so humbly learned the first time I rushed a competitors base.  Plainly put, the game will offer more to those who play in 3v3 matches as opposed to 1v1 matches.

SPOILER ALERT

All in all, Halo Wars is a healthy update to the franchise.  Fans of the book will also enjoy some of the parallels that originate from the Halo literature such as the Dyson sphere that The Spirit of Fire ends up in halfway through the game.  A common thread that the big wigs behind the Halo franchise wanted weaved into Nylund's Ghosts of Onyx, and the legendary ending of Halo 3.  Additionally, a new cast of characters have not only been included to the cannon, but their phyrric victory inside the shield world has left them as a loose end which we can only assume will be further developed in a follow up game.  At the end of the day Halo Wars can only be considered a microcosm in the machine that is the Halo Universe, we'll just have to wait to see if Capt. Cutter and The Spirit of Fire spill over to share the spotlight that is UNSC Code Sierra 117.

Vote!

Voting for the contest starts at 8 am today has started, and ends at 11:30 PT on the 15th.  The polls are on the sidebar, and all my posts are being delayed while the competition is going on, so this should be the first thing you see on the blogs for the next couple of days!

1st Place: Beautiful Katamari + 1600 MS Points

2nd Place: Unreal Tournament 3

3rd Place: 800 MS Points

BROS.

SUPER YOSHI RIDER: OMG! EXTREME!

GEARS OF MARIO

BOWSER'S WAR

MARIO vs. GEARS OF WAR

GEARS OF BROS. WORLD

PIKMIN OF WAR 3

GEARS vs. MARIO

NINTENDOGS: THE PALACE OF DECEIT 21 - THE DOGGY'S PLIGHT

THE PALACE OF MARIO: MARCUS'S UNREAL PLIGHT

SHROOMS OF WAR

GEARS OF HYRULE

REARS OF WARIO

NINTENDCOGS

SUPER MARCUS BROS

SUPER MARCUS BROS 3

SUPER MUSHROOM WARS

Kingdom of War

Gears of WeeGee

Spring Contest Reminder

Today is the last day to enter.  You can find the rules for the contest here.  And you can scroll down a little and find some of the entries that have been submitted thus far.

A big thanks to all of those who have submitted entries!

Overthinking it.

The accusation that Resident Evil 5 is the byproduct of racism is a complete fallacy.  In fact to argue that point you'd had better have a concrete argument; or at least stake your reputation on it, because reporting it as such would be irresponsible.  Comparing games like RE5 to Ethnic Cleansing and it's "sequels" that have been developed to propagate the ideas of Neo-Nazism and white supremacy would certainly be ludicrous.  To me this issue is very simple.  Resident Evil 5 is a not a platform for racist beliefs or part of a racist propaganda.

I can say this because it's been proven.  Games that are developed plainly to promote brash racial prejudices don't make money.  And even though titles like Ethnic Cleansing get a lot of press prior to their release, they never yield a profit.  Make no mistake; publisher's are out to make money, plain and simple.  While this industry is relatively new, the rules remain the same: always turn a profit.

I haven't played the full retail game, nor was I given privy to a hands on preview similar to IGN, Kotaku, or Eurogamer, etc.  However, the demo reveals the original RE protagonist Chris Redfield in Africa battling zombies in the fictional country of Kijuju.  Even after the initial backlash in August of 2007, for accusations of racist overtones, Capcom backpedalled and added Sheva Alomar, a black female protagonist, to the game's playable character roster.

One has to question whether we are being too sensitive to factors that are purely fictional.  Racism is ongoing presence in our life, but we tend to look for it everywhere, even in things where it's not.  In this case it would reinforce a stereotype that would proclaim that African men & women can be only dirt poor and not affluent.  An assertion which most logical people would label asinine.  I for one at  a young age didn't think that I'd be wearing a proton pack as a profession because I saw Winston Zedemore's charachter in Ghostbusters.

Perhaps instead of labeling a game that none of us have really had the chance to play, we give the dev the benefit of the doubt, and wait one more week to make our own assessment.  Just maybe we can't always rely on the overcritical assertions made by game journalists who are more than eager to break the next big headline.  Because as much as we rely on their content to make purchasing decisions, we can't take everything they have to write for granted.  They may simply be overthinking it.

Not again!

What you see is a unit that I fixed up about a year ago. Using the common nylon washers and small nuts/bolts, I replaced the xclamps and purposesly overheated the unit to fix solder connections that were broken by a warped mobo.. And that is exactly what I'll have to do tomorrow, to get this unit up and running; & things were going so well...