1) Battletoads - Nuff said!

2) Shadowgate, Deja Vu and The Uninvited - Goddamn, I loved these games. Imagine them now, with the same game set up of a "use item" adventure game?

3) Nightshade - Pretty obscure game for the NES that was kind of an adventure game.

4) Noctropolis - Again, obscure adventure game, for the PC this time. I just imagine seeing this as sandbox superhero game done in the same style as Prototype and Infamous.

5) Boogerman - The pick & flick adventure! It was a gross out game for the...Neo-Geo, I think?

Between XBox Live, Sony's PSN, Nintendo's online feature on the Wii (the name escapes me) and most especially Valve's Steam, it seems that video games are moving more and more towards digital copies. At the moment, it's mostly (except for Steam) relegated to classic or smaller games. Admittedly, it still has some bugs to work out (Steam, I believe, had some issues with Aliens vs. Predators on its launch). But like movies, I'm starting to wonder if the next generation of our entertainment media will be digitalized.

For the past decade, downloading has become more and more normalized. Ticket sales at the box office, at least according to Hollywood, have slumped because of downloading. Music, most especially, has changed because of downloading. I haven't bought a hard copy of a CD in ages, and iTunes has become a household name. I'm noticing the music section in stores such as HMV are shrinking every couple of years, as they introduce other product to put on their shelves such as movies, games, and even books. iPods and other mp3 players have now become the norm. Rarely do I see someone with a CD player or a walkman anymore as I did growing up (Note: I'm 32).

Gaming is becoming the same thing. Demo discs have already gone the way of the dodo. Actually, I'm not 100% certain on that, as I believe PC Gamer still provides a disc with their magazines, as does Xbox's magazine. But the idea of plopping in a disc to play a demo is gone. Now, it's a matter of logging into, say, the Playstation Network and downloading it.

At the moment, though, downloading is relegated to classic or smaller games. The PSN provides a large assortment of PS1 games, for example. The Wii provides games from the NES, SNES and a few N64 games. Rumours are growing every once in awhile that PS2 games will soon be available on PSN.

Steam, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be...pardon the pun...running out of steam. At first, it started as a means to register your game, a form of copy protection. To play Valve games such as Half-Life 2, you were required to log into Steam. Soon, you also had the option of downloading Valve games. In the last few years, other game companies joined in being available on Steam. Today, almost every single new PC game is now available for purchase and download through Steam. More and more classic games are becoming available, as well. In fact, I fell prey to their dasterdly Christmas holiday sales, spending about $30 on at least a dozen games in total.

Another company that has been phenomenal with online purchases is Telltale games, creators of the episodic adventure games such as Bone, Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit, Strong Bad, and most recently, Monkey Island. Their online policy is similar to Steam: once you have purchased a game, you can download it again at any time at your leisure. Additionally, if you've purchased a full season directly through their website, you can pay just the shipping costs and have a hardcopy disc of the game.

I think Telltale's example of gaming will be the first step that other companies will follow. Imagine buying God of War III on the PSN, then having the option to have the game mailed to you? Admittedly, a disc game is not fully installed onto your PS3 and still requires the disc, so the example doesn't quite work the same, but the idea in theory is no different.

Already, Sony and Nintendo have begun the pure-downloading idea in portable fashion. Both the Nintendo DS (the DSi, specifically) and the PSP-Go can have games downloaded onto them. The PSP-Go, in fact, is purely download only, with a large catalogue of games available on PSN. It would not take much of a jump to go to next-gen systems. Companies could cut costs on manufacturing and shipping, which might (but not likely) lower the hefty price on games.

What do you folks think? I'm all for the idea of a purely digital gaming business. Already, I'm beginning to move my movie collection into digital, instead. But I know many people who like to have those movies or games on their shelves. Thoughts?

PAX (Penny Arcade's Expo) is going on from March 26-28.

I'm surprised and a little disappointed that we haven't had much in the way of updates from Gamespot.

I work at Blockbuster Video. On our computers, there's a listing for Grand Theft Auto V, with a release date of mid-March. At first, I thought it was the episode pack that was relesaed last year for 360, such as The Ballad of Gay Tony. That, however, is listed separately.

Now, obviously, we would have heard SOMETHING by now about GTA V. But there's nothing on Gamespot anywhere and news of it doesn't seem to exist.

I get the feeling this is just one of those things that Blockbuster or somebody was mistaken about. Any guesses?

SimCity5? is it released?

YQSdaskapital

I've asked to get one for Christmas (as a combined gift from several family members), so here's hoping.

I'd said to myself that I wouldn't get a PS3 unless Dead Rising was released on it. Fortunately, Dead Rising 2 comes out next year. And I discovered a new Katamari is on the way for PS3, as well. So, colour me happy.

Now, we just need a new, great Superman game on the same level of greatness as Arkham Asylum and I'd be esctatic.

You do realize that they've made SEVERAL since then, right? A number of them weren't entirely terrible, at least in comparison to Superman 64.

For a game, and not a simulation, that doesn't sound particularly fun...GenTom

It depends on the player, I suppose. I think adding the options would be great to the franchise. You don't necissarily HAVE to, obviously, but it would be keeping up-to-date with city improvement technologies that have always made the previous games great.

Given the huge success of getting the perfect Batman game, I've been thinking: what, to me, would be the "perfect" Superman game?

Some quick background on myself: I've been a longtime Superman fan, dating back to the Death of Superman and have read, or at least casually followed, his comics ever since. I'm a big fan of his mythos in many different renditions, from the comics, the movies and my favourite rendition, The Animated Series. Last year, I actually took a course here in Tornto (York University) for Comics & Cartoons, studying his origins as a character. I've also played a number of Superman games, from the Death & Return of Superman on SNES, regretably Superman 64, Shadows of Apocalypse and have read up on or watched videos for the game based on Superman Returns. Some of my ideas borrow somewhat from the latter two, as you'll see.

I've given it a lot of thought and this is what my take on it might be. It's not perfect, but I think it has some great ideas behind it. Also, please note that a lot of these ideas were partly inspired from recently playing through Prototye:

Obviously, the first hurdle is his sheer power and invulnerbility. A lot of people, both gamers and comic book readers, believe that Superman is too powerful to work as a video game character. However, he's got some pretty powerful villains that are on his level. Darkseid (and everything involving Apokalips), Brainiac, Luthor (when handled properly), Mxyzptlk, Parasite, Bizarro, etc.

The second is how do you make a game that makes you FEEL like Superman and still be a satisfying game. So, here's my idea. And if anyone in the gaming world reads this, they're welcome to crib my notes. Just give me a free PS3 copy when it comes out. Deal? :)

Start the game right off the bat with all of your powers, similar to Prototype. BUT, like Prototype, the story causes almost all of your powers to be lost except for the bare basics of super leaping, some strength and some invulnerability. As the game progresses, you open up more of your abilities again until the end, where you're back to full power. Now, I know some might complain about not being able to use all of his powers right off the bat, but I use this system for three reasons:

1) It rewards the player to play through the game. As an added bonus, like Prototype and other games, you can replay the game with all of your powers intact.

2) It's partly an homage to his Golden Age origins, where he didn't fly or have even a tenth of his powers.

3) Allows room for usually left out ****c Superman villains that can now be a threat to the player, such as Toyman, Prankster and Intergang.

The story: Luthor finds a way to block out the sun using a number of satellites in orbit around the earth. Throughout the city are various buildings (with a satellite dish or controlling centre) where Luthor has placed a lot of key Superman rogues to guard them. So, as you defeat these various areas (the game is entirely open-ended ala Grand Theft Auto), you gain something, either strength or powers.

Powers: Some buttons would be designed for certain areas of Superman. For example, one button designed for his eye powers (X-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic, etc), another for breath (cold, powerful gusts). You can switch them out at your leisure either in a pause menu ala Mega Man or on the spot ala Prototype.

Villains to use in the game:
-Early in the game, for lower powers: Toyman, Prankster, Intergang (you would face them while touring with the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit, helping them fight crime), Bloodsport, Riot

-Higher difficulty/requires certain powers: Hellgrammite, Metallo, Parasite, Luminus, Lobo (taking over Bibbo's bar!), Volcana, Silver Banshee. For guys like Metallo and Parasite, maybe have the option of taking them out sooner, if you get a lead-lined suit like from the Animated Series (something you pick up doing STAR Labs missions or Clark Kent as reporter missions)

-For late in the game: Brainiac, Bizarro, Luthor (Lex tower; probably one of the last satellites to take down, as he has security measures out the yin-yang)

-Giant Monsters: These would come up as the story unfolds and would be a huge threat that would cause great collateral damage (and thus, having to save people at the same time as trying to stop the big thing). Some would include some giant Toyman-related robot, Chemo, Firebrand (using cold breath to put out fires!), Titano, etc.

-Finale: Throughout the game, there are hints and build up that Darkseid is coming. So, the finale is not only the troops of Apokalips on Earth (fighitng parademons and Darkseid's minions like Kalibak, but the big finale with Darkseid himself). This would be the ulimate test of using ALL your powers all at once.

-Saving people: I loved how in the Spider-Man 2 game, there were people you had to save. There were also aspects of this in Shadow of Apokalips. It just needs to have a lot more variety. So you have buildings on fire (saving people, putting out the fire by creating a flying vortex vacuum, your cold breath or a nearby fire hydrant), cats in trees (because that's just cute), people falling off buildings, random crimes like car chases and bank robberies, etc. Dependings on how powerful you are or what powers you unluck, these would slowly becomes either more frequent (because you can get there faster) or tougher. Plus, adding this into public boss fights like the giant monsters would be fun as hell. Not sure what the reward would be to save X number of people, though. Perhaps giving you the option to toggle the random events so you're not distracted by them in the middle of getting to a mission (something I hated in Spider-Man 2). This could be a great reward while fighting giant monsters, making those fights easier, when you don't have to concentrate as much on citizens.

-Side Missions: What open-ended game would be without them? How about a racing game where you race against The Flash? Touring with the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit to stop crimes around the city. A gladiator arena set up by Mongul or Roulette. Helping test out equipment for STAR Labs or helping them run tests on you (various challenges). Maybe various breakouts on Stryker's Island (the prison in Metropolis).

But best of all: Clark Kent missions. I was thinking it'd be fun to be able to switch back and forth and your leisure between the two, similar to the disguise system in Prototype (you can tell where I was inspired by this). So, you could go to the Daily Planet, get a story and investigate it. You could still have access to SOME of your powers while as Clark (various vision powers, strength, etc) but it'd be part stealth in that you don't want others to discover your identity. Do team-up missions with Lois where you two sneak in and you can use a lot of your powers in her presence. Again, not sure what the goal of this would be, but...huh, what if it helps alleviate the traps and security measures by Lex? Slowly taking him down by revealing to the public his dastardly deeds?

The nice thing is that, by the end of the game, you're rewarded for your hard work with all of his powers and are welcome to free roam again all you want!

So...what do you guys think?

While, as far as I know, there's been no announcement for SimCity 5, I'm sure that Maxis and company will eventually start brewing one.

Now, if there's one thing in the last couple of years that's become a bigger issue among city developers, it's greening cities. Green roofs, solar/wind power, bicycle lanes, expanding transit systems, etc.

Personally, I think it'd be great to see the developers of the eventual SimCity 5 make green additions to the game so that players can make their cities as green as possible. In fact, you could throw in future ideas that are brewing, such as doing away with cars altogether in light of a much more reliable transit system, etc.

What do you guys think? What things would you like to see in a future Sim City?