Most of the postings on my blog are re-postings of blogs that have originally appeared on my personal video game collection website, The Callidus Collection.

I tend to blog on all things gaming - favorites lists, game experiences, rants, dislikes... the list goes on and on.

• 12Jul 07

  Overwhelmingly Underwhelmed by E3

  Note: This is a re-posting on my blog originally posted here, on my personal video game collecting site, The Callidus Collection.

  After watching a steady stream of media coverage on this year's revamped E3, I have to say I am pretty underwhelmed by the major announcements from all three major hardware players (Micro$oft, Sony, Nintendo). When the most exciting thing to come out of all three camps was Nintendo's announcement of a Wii Zapper, things are decidedly lackluster.

  Micro$oft
  Micro$oft kicked off the week by holding their press conference the night before E3 actually started. Joe West of VoodooExtreme comments on the M$ conference: "So much horn tooting, but that's to be expected. If you believed everything MS had said you'd think they were the second coming of Jesus." I have no problem with horn-tooting, especially at an event that is now geared towards media and other developers; but for the love of god, please give us some actual content. The Micro$oft conference was filled with rehashed trailers of titles that we have all seen before, with the exception of Resident Evil 5. They did announce a slew of Xbox Live Arcade titles, most of which are ports of retro games (Golden Axe, Sonic, Tetris Smash, etc). Given the fact that nearly all of the ****c arcade ports to XBLA have suffered extreme control sloppiness to this point (MK3, TMNT Arcade, SF2, etc), I'm much less excited about these titles than I would have been otherwise. I was rather intrigued by the announcement of several quality portable titles coming to XBLA - including Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and Puzzle Quest.
  M$ also announced a new peripheral - the SceneIt. In an effort to keep this blog PG, I'll refrain from detailing my first thoughts other than to say that given it's phallic design I thought that this must be the Trance Vibe for a 360 port of Rez. What the heck were they thinking?

  All of us who have been waiting with bated breath for more variety in the 360 lineup can breathe easily... Call of Duty 4 is coming! *sigh* Let me get this straight... 360 is on the verge of being on store shelves for three years now and we have THREE Call of Duty games, but not a SINGLE decent RPG. Good Game M$... I wonder why you are being soundly whooped in Japan. What, do you have a team of monkeys working on your Japanese strategy? At least they have had Blue Dragon for almost a year over there. I hate M$ more with every passing day.

  File under "See Last Paragraph" category - we were also shown footage of PGR4. Because 360 didn't have any racing titles yet. So that's good news.

  I have to laugh at the Micro$oft hype machine... Halo, the Star Wars of our generation? LOL... yeah, I don't remember seeing any popped-collar frat boy douche bags at Star Wars. The Beer Pong of our generation, maybe.

  Nintendo
  The three big unveilings from Nintendo revolved around new control devices for the Wii - the Zapper, Wii Wheel and the Wii Balance Board. The Zapper looked like it might be a good thing, but really, it doesn't seem to do much that the Wiimote doesn't already do - you point at your target and click. The Wii Balance Board looked extremely glitchy and completely absurd. Watching Miyamoto and Reggie lean from side to side attempting to block soccer balls with their characters' heads was quite simply even more painful than being forced to sit and watch real soccer. The competition between the two to see who could block the most balls lasted about 60 seconds and by the end of it Reggie looked both bored and uncomfortable. The Wii Wheel was, well, a steering wheel. Pretty run of the mill there, although it did coincide with the announcement of the inevitable Wii version of Mario Kart, which should be more party-fun for the Wii.

  The big software announcements from Nintendo were mainly official release dates for titles we already knew about - Super Mario Galaxy (Nov. 12), Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Dec. 3), and Mario Kart (Q1 200. Not that this isn't good information to have, but it really lacked in the *breaking news/big announcement* feel. The gameplay demo of the Zelda DS title looked intriguing, however.

  Sony
  Out of all the press conferences from the big three, the Sony one featured the most quality gameplay footage... something very atypical from what we have seen from them in the past. Sony is usually out there spouting numbers and tech specs that nobody really cares about. Not this year.

  The big announcement from Sony was the official announcement of the PSP redesign. I was stunned by the lack of redesign in the redesign. It seems like they changed things that didn't really need changing and didn't change the main things that needed fixing/adding. That's not to say that the changes in the PSP v2 are not good things - a little bit lighter, a little bit longer battery life, a slightly faster UMD drive, and a video-out jack - I'm just saying that it falls WAY, WAY, WAY short of expectations. There is no internal memory, there is no analog stick redesign, there is no d-pad redesign, there is no better ergonomic shell design, there is no built in clamshell to protect the screen. Let's just say that I'm extremely glad I did not sit around waiting for this redesign to pick up my PSP.

  The Hideo Kojima presentation was pretty cool. MGS4 was confirmed as not only a PS3 exclusive, but also the final game in the MGS series. The gameplay footage looked sexy. Lots of other gameplay footage shown for things like Wipeout HD, Haze, SOCOM: Confrontation.

  All in all, this year's E3 has so far packed a whimper rather than a whallup. Perhaps they should have brought back the booth babes, at least then there would be more fun things to ogle.

  • Posted Jul 12, 2007 8:22 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 27Jun 07

  The Collector's Curse

  Note: This is a re-posting on my blog originally posted here, on my personal video game collecting site, The Callidus Collection.

  It doesn't really matter what one collects - be it beer cans, cars, toys, books, video games, or third-world countries - the act of collecting is mainly about pride... with a heaping side of obsession. Inevitably, one's collecting habit grows into its own living, breathing monster... with the collector spending more time collecting than actually enjoying the collection. I think this phenomenon is probably more prevalent among video game collectors. This is largely due to the nature of the object of our obsession.

  Video games, especially games of today, are designed to be immersive experiences that span hours upon hours of gameplay. Many games don't even truly hit their stride until several hours in... and don't even get me started on the time requirements of my favorite genre - RPGs.

  As a collector, I am constantly adding games to my collection: games I remember fondly from my childhood, games that were must-play titles for a system, games that were just too good of a deal and/or find to pass up. As I write this, my current game collection count is 578 titles, spanning 19 game systems. Of these 578, I cringe every time I think about the percentage of them that I have never even tried.

  I have talked to people who have collections two, three, and four times the size of mine. Really, mine is still pretty small in the grand scheme of things, and the fact that I only collect complete games will probably continue to limit the size of my collection in terms of raw numbers. But even at 578 games, if I were to spend just two hours sampling each title, I would be gaming for over 48 full 24-hour days.

  Such is life's lot for video game collectors. As the collection grows and grows, the number of unplayed games grows with it, until it reaches daunting levels. The collection becomes less about the collectible and more of an outward reflection of whatever the psychological stigma is that we have personally attached to it - be it a harkening back to our youth, an obsession with possessing the biggest and the best XYZ on the block, or what have you. And once that metamorphosis occurs, the collecting becomes about the collection and we spend more time collecting than enjoying.

  Some of us will mask that fact by claiming that it has become the thrill of the hunt involved in collecting that drives us. However, in today's age of eBay, Craig's List, GameTZ, and any other number of world shrinking avenues, the thrill and challenge of the hunt has devolved into something akin to playing Madden on Rookie difficulty.

  And yet, here we sit. Still as devoted and determined to grow our collections.

  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go search eBay.

  • Posted Jun 27, 2007 11:58 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 30Nov 06

  Callidus Lepor's Favorite Games in Each Genre

  Taking a page from Timpysan's book, I decided to post a list of my favorite games from each genre to help let people know just what sort of gamer I am. I'm not going to claim that the games in this list are the best games in each genre or even the most critically acclaimed games in the genre. These are simply the games from each genre that I have had the most fun with over the years.

  And now... without further adieu... I give you the list.

  Action/Adventure
  God of War (PS2)
  Runner-up: Contra (NES)
  Honorable mentions: Resident Evil (PS1)
  
  Adventure
  Ico (PS2)
  
  Fighting
  Street Fighter II: Turbo (SNES)
  Runner-up: Mortal Kombat II (SNES)
  Honorable mentions: Mortal Kombat (Gen), Super Street Fighter II (SNES)
  
  FPS
  007 Goldeneye (N64)
  Runner-up: Delta Force (PC)
  Honorable Mention: Doom (PC), Aliens vs. Predator (Jag)
  
  MMORPG
  World of Warcraft
  Runner-up: Ultima Online (original)
  Honorable mentions: Star Wars Galaxies (original version)
  
  Platform
  Super Mario World (SNES)
  Runner-up: Sonic the Hedgehog (Gen)
  Honorable mentions: Mario 64 (N64), Super Mario Bros. (NES), Super Mario Bros 3 (NES), New Super Mario Bros. (DS), Donkey Kong Country (SNES), Strider (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
  
  Puzzle
  Tetris (Game Boy)
  Runner-up: Brain Age (DS)
  
  Racing
  Super Mario Kart (SNES)
  Runner-up: Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
  Honorable mentions: Ridge Racer (PS1), Flatout 2 (PC)
  
  Rhythm/Music
  Guitar Hero
  
  RPG (Single player)
  Chrono Trigger (SNES)
  Runner-up: Final Fantasy III (SNES)
  Honorable mentions: Legend of Zelda (NES), Neverwinter Nights (PC), Final Fantasy VII (PS1), Final Fantasy X (PS2)
  
  Simulation
  never really got into this genre
  
  Shooter
  1942 (NES)
  Runner-up: River Raid (Atari 2600)
  Honorable mentions: Warhawk (PS1)
  
  Sports
  Madden 2006 (PS2)
  Runner-up: High Heat Baseball 2004 (PC)
  Honorable mentions: Tecmo Super Bowl (NES), Bases Loaded (NES), NHL '93 (Gen), World Series Baseball (Gen)
  
  Strategy (Real-time/turn based)
  Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)
  Runner-up: Rome: Total War (PC)
  Honorable mentions: Age of Empires 3 (PC), Cannon Fodder (Jag)
  
  Tactical Shooter
  Battlefield 2 (PC)
  • Posted Nov 30, 2006 8:39 am PT
  • Category: Games
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