• 4Sep 10

  Is Metroid : Other M a failure?

  Other M causes quite an earthquake amongst the gaming community. The Nintendo one, particularly. Why? Because of all it's changes. Let's hear them out.

  Other M is mainly bashed for its unorthodox control scheme. Having a quite challenging (at times) action game that controls with a single wii-mote is quite a feat.
  
  A lot of people got turned off by this, crying out loud that the game would have been better with a traditional nunchuk + wiimote type of gameplay.
  
  There's also the first person mode, which is supposed to be used tactically, since the missiles you shoot from that view are extremely overpowered. Unfortunately, most reviewers wanted to go '' Metroid Prime '' and blamed that you cannot move/dodge.
  
  Although the latter isn't true ; it is very possible to dodge in FPS mode, you have to move the cursor away from the screen, like if you'd come back to your normal mode. At that time, the game will make you auto-dodge.
  
  It also features a quite complete story that unfolds in cutscenes and such. Thing that purists didn't wanted.
  
  Finally, the fact that Samus speaks and has quite a good personality, it pissed off a lot of nerds who prefers when their nostalgia isn't messed with.
  
  Bottom line, is Other M a failure? Hell no, it's a superb revamped 2010 version of Super Metroid. Will it appeal to everybody? No. Because every. Single. Time. There's a new Metroid game, you'll see a bandwagon of angry nerds/fanboys that'll come tell you how it's supposed to be.

  • Posted Sep 4, 2010 8:18 am GMT
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• 25Jul 10

  The price tag of Limbo, DLC and XBLA arcade games. A debate.

  So here we are, discussing something that has been bothering me quite much lately ; XBLA / DLC pricing.

  I'll say it right now, if you're the son of a rich dude, or you're unemployed and living at your mom's, never mind this post.

  There's a lot of heat going on wether or not a downloadable experience is worth the price tag. On one side, you'll have those who are not taking the dive, saying that downloadable games shouldn't cost their actual price tag.

  On the other hand, you'll have those guys who'll make the famous comparison with fastfood lunches and stuff. '' Hey you'll play 15 bucks anyways for an hamburger and french fries ''.

  I think it's wrong. Simply because most people have a budget. Even if you don't realize it, you may unconsciously decide to hold off on something to pay something else, which is a form of budgeting. And budgets are a way to help you invest your money in certain domains without risking to fall in a bad situation.

  Let's get back to the main subject. DLC/ XBLA games and as an example for now ; Limbo.

  Limbo is basically a platformer with light puzzle elements that uses a lot of physics. The price asked is 15$ for this 3.5 hours long game (unless you are physically disabled and have to use a wrench and metal hooks to use the controller ).

  Question is, is it worth it? Fifteen dollars? The answer will often be '' no '' and for various reasons. But the main reason is this one.

  Most of us, adult gamers have to be careful for our video games purchases. Simply because there's so many good games released every year that we have to make choices. Most of us have to decide, way before the launch of a said game, if we're getting it or not, and if that's the case, it'll fall into our budget, thus limiting the amount of money left we can put into games.

  Limbo, like many other XBLA games, aren't in our main '' choices '' for video games. XBLA games and DLC are often things we buy without really taking care if or not we'll put ourselves on a tighter leash for the rest of the month. These games are always sneaky little bastards that eventually gets us to bleed more money for them.

  Limbo costs fifteen bucks of our entire video games budget. Is it worth fifteen bucks of entertainment? No. It's not. Because in the end, you'll get an experience that'll last you one afternoon, unlike most of your games that you'll spend 60$ on. Usually, when you buy a game at that price, you're fully aware of what you're buying, and you know that you'll try to get the most out of it, unless you're an idiot that buys stuff out of impulse.

  So is Limbo 15 dollars just like going out to McDonalds for 15 dollars? No. Because you probably already established that you'd take about 15 to 45 $ out of your pay check every month to get restaurant food with friends and such to get your social life going on.

  Unfortunately, for Limbo's case, paying 15$ for this downloadable game isn't worth the investment. There's absolutely no direct replay value like good achievements, or difficulty levels or side-challenges unlike most 60$ games that'll usually get you 20 to 45 hours of entertainment as a whole experience.

  XBLA titles like this shouldn't be higher than five bucks. And i'm thinking the same for outrageous DLC in the likes of MW2's map packs. On the other hand, DLC games like Plants vs Zombies ( on steam and soon on XBLA ) can be played for over 70 hours, and are really worth it, especially if you want to get all the achievements and content out of it.

  • Posted Jul 25, 2010 11:45 am GMT
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• 3Jun 10

  My first two books are so out.

  http://www.renaud-bray.com/Recherche.aspx?langue=en&words=victor+pelham&wbgc_iNo=&type=1&root=

  how epic is that?

  • Posted Jun 3, 2010 4:31 pm GMT
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