tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75710460431779799922024-03-08T02:28:55.132-05:00Yet Another Video Game BlogJust what the internet needed!Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-1760636019884331432010-10-19T09:12:00.000-04:002010-10-19T09:12:27.261-04:00Level-5 Vision Conference<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gaming developer Level-5 (<i>Professor Layton, Dark Cloud</i>) held its annual press conference today and Andriasang was present for all the details. <a href="http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/10/19/l5vision_2010_live_blog/">Here's a link to their live blog.</a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'll just narrow it down to a few highlights and snippets.</div><ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li>Ni no Kuni, a game being made for both the DS and PS3. This looks pretty cool, an RPG with lots of puzzles.</li>
<li>A new Layton game for the 3DS. They will put up a new puzzle for download every day for an entire year. Release planned in the Spring.</li>
<li>A new Inazuma Eleven game for the regular DS. These are silly soccer games with RPG elements. Never played them, but if they're anything like the old <i>Captain Tsubasa</i> games, I'll have to try them out.</li>
<li>Little Battle eXperience, also known as Danbal Senki. A PSP game, and they're going to be making an anime and manga at the same time. It's a mech/robot game.</li>
<li>Mystery Room, another puzzle-style game for the DS. Music by Yuzo Koshiro (<i>Ys I & II, Streets of Rage</i>, and more recently, the <i>Etrian Odyssey</i> series)!</li>
<li>Kyaba Joppi, a waitress simulation game for the 3DS. </li>
<li>Time Travelers, a crazy looking suspense game for the 3DS. Here's a trailer.</li>
</ul><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><object height="289" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v0ebK-dEt3k?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/v0ebK-dEt3k?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="289"></embed></object></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li>Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney? What? Apparently they're collaborating with Capcom to make such a game for the 3DS.</li>
</ul><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">No Dark Cloud 3, but some very interesting games nonetheless. The 3DS has some strong titles, but I don't know if I'll rush out and buy it on day one.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TL2YPGmY5aI/AAAAAAAAAEY/-TImo0pk8uQ/s1600/2132429405_view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TL2YPGmY5aI/AAAAAAAAAEY/-TImo0pk8uQ/s320/2132429405_view.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TL2YQ71EKmI/AAAAAAAAAEc/_r-cm5HQshY/s1600/2132429406_view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TL2YQ71EKmI/AAAAAAAAAEc/_r-cm5HQshY/s320/2132429406_view.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-75158776165521237132010-10-17T08:13:00.001-04:002010-10-17T08:38:18.330-04:00Review: Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals (DS)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLrljdXRtAI/AAAAAAAAAEM/3vEnMnnAch8/s1600/pa.184478.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLrljdXRtAI/AAAAAAAAAEM/3vEnMnnAch8/s320/pa.184478.1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">With clever puzzles, monster rearing and an awesome soundtrack, <i>Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals</i> is often regarded as one of the best RPGs on the SNES, on par with the Squaresoft classics. Now, fifteen years later, developer Neverlands returns to remake it on the Nintendo DS.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fans of the original that are looking for a simple port or maybe a port with upgraded visuals are going to be surprised. <i>Curse of the Sinistrals</i> has been remade from the ground up. There has been a ton of outcry over the new character designs, and it’s hard to blame the fans – the simple, traditional fantasy look has been thrown out, replaced by an over-the-top Japanese anime makeover.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLrngKRUfvI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/4LlI5t4Y3KQ/s1600/character_comparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLrngKRUfvI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/4LlI5t4Y3KQ/s320/character_comparison.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">To be fair, the old characters were a little bit boring (outside of Dekar!). They’ve tried to spice things up with tons of dialogue, changing facial expressions and emoticons, but it ends up feeling a little corny. While I’m not a fan of the 2D character designs, the 3D environments look very good, with plenty of color and detail. On the other hand, there is a heavy amount of lag when too much stuff is going on.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s not really fair to compare this to <i>Rise of the Sinistrals</i>, though, as it feels like an entirely new game. There are a few things that older fans will enjoy. The music sounds like it’s pulled right out of the SNES version, some of the battle mechanics and easter eggs return and the puzzles are still very challenging.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Perhaps the most important thing to mention is that it’s <b>no longer a traditional turn-based RPG. It is now an action-RPG, very similar to <i>Ys</i>.</b> Neverlands, the developer, also makes the <i>Rune Factory</i> games for the Wii and DS. The combat does feel sort of similar to those, but more advanced.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">The Y button does a regular attack while X launches an IP-consuming special attack. Holding down the R button will allow you to execute more powerful moves, but leaves you vulnerable. There is a decent variety of enemies and after the first two dungeons, they get very dangerous.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But danger is never really a problem. <b>If you die, you can choose to automatically gain five levels without penalty.</b> Please don’t abuse this by repeatedly jumping off a cliff or something, as it will make the game incredibly easy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLrn8VQ4iMI/AAAAAAAAAEU/3AG-10FaWCg/s1600/image377.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLrn8VQ4iMI/AAAAAAAAAEU/3AG-10FaWCg/s320/image377.png" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Equipment is limited to one weapon and one piece of armor.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You will get multiple party members, but you can only use one at a time. They all play differently, and there are some situations where one character is better than another. Tia, for example, is immobile while attacking. It would be better to use someone else if you need to avoid projectiles.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A big problem is being unable to rotate the camera, so if the enemy is behind a wall or box or something, you just have to attack wildly and pray that you connect. Also, enemies often respawn instantly after death. You will frequently have to go through a few waves of them before they stop. It can get pretty repetitive.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The puzzles are the most fun part of the game for me and the only reason I’m still playing. In addition to the classic block pushing and bomb hauling, many puzzles require you to use one of the character’s unique abilities. Mini-games are sprinkled in occasionally.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I think you’ll be disappointed if you going into this game expecting <i>Rise of the Sinistrals</i>. It lacks many things which made the SNES version so great, like strategic party building and capsule monster raising. But if you like puzzles with a bit of action and story, <i>Curse of the Sinistrals</i> is worth a try.</div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-35087872293052993832010-10-13T08:46:00.002-04:002010-10-13T08:53:54.373-04:00Atelier Rorona Artwork<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I've been advancing a little further into <i>Atelier Rorona</i>, but it's starting to get a bit repetitive. The characters grow to become likable, but the battles are still too simple and the requirements for crafting are somehow getting easier. My last assignment was to deliver food for a festival. I don't even have to waste time making it, I can just go to the cafe and buy a handful of pies and soups to turn in. That leaves me three months of grinding other quests.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The one outstanding thing about this game is the 2D artwork, done by artist Kishida Mel (岸田メル). I love it so much I thought I'd upload some. All this stuff is from the early/mid-game. Each of the 14 endings has its own illustration, but as awesome as they are, I don't want to spoil anybody.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjPHhNLKI/AAAAAAAAAC8/8hfRsCQR2gg/s1600/moe+156791+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjPHhNLKI/AAAAAAAAAC8/8hfRsCQR2gg/s320/moe+156791+sample.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Japanese box art. The west gets shafted again.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjWP85AjI/AAAAAAAAADE/9ELs2xqDN_M/s1600/moe+156792+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjWP85AjI/AAAAAAAAADE/9ELs2xqDN_M/s320/moe+156792+sample.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <i>Rorona</i> is Mel's first video game work.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He went on to do the art for <i>Atelier Totori</i>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWja16SfPI/AAAAAAAAADM/gZ0zURjFKsI/s1600/moe+156794+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWja16SfPI/AAAAAAAAADM/gZ0zURjFKsI/s320/moe+156794+sample.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I love the colors!</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjdcrUf6I/AAAAAAAAADQ/dsTVNurivwo/s1600/moe+156875+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjdcrUf6I/AAAAAAAAADQ/dsTVNurivwo/s320/moe+156875+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Opening the shop.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjftu0mnI/AAAAAAAAADU/xY21oosRA8c/s1600/moe+156876+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjftu0mnI/AAAAAAAAADU/xY21oosRA8c/s320/moe+156876+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Child labor is A-OK!</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjiZhrFLI/AAAAAAAAADY/-mQ3kCPzfEE/s1600/moe+156877+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjiZhrFLI/AAAAAAAAADY/-mQ3kCPzfEE/s320/moe+156877+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Decantering from such a height...!</span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjkzXy3_I/AAAAAAAAADc/VZ5ACarYYrw/s1600/moe+156878+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjkzXy3_I/AAAAAAAAADc/VZ5ACarYYrw/s320/moe+156878+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Often, a humorous scene will play after making a new weapon or piece of armor.</span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjn2mhFxI/AAAAAAAAADg/duU55RjiBPs/s1600/moe+156881+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjn2mhFxI/AAAAAAAAADg/duU55RjiBPs/s320/moe+156881+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cordelia kind of sucks, but at least she won't charge money to adventure with you.</span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjqmH8UUI/AAAAAAAAADk/lXE7C_9baUE/s1600/moe+156882+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjqmH8UUI/AAAAAAAAADk/lXE7C_9baUE/s320/moe+156882+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Meeting Pamela.</span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjuDccE-I/AAAAAAAAADo/Xmj65of5nWU/s1600/moe+156883+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjuDccE-I/AAAAAAAAADo/Xmj65of5nWU/s320/moe+156883+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Iksel is annoying, but the way he teases Rorona is cute.</span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjxAmbxZI/AAAAAAAAADs/eUKrag2xhJg/s1600/moe+156886+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjxAmbxZI/AAAAAAAAADs/eUKrag2xhJg/s320/moe+156886+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rehearsing for their death metal concert.</span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjzgMhwNI/AAAAAAAAADw/zknYMv1jx5o/s1600/moe+156887+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWjzgMhwNI/AAAAAAAAADw/zknYMv1jx5o/s320/moe+156887+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The IGN review complained about the lack of manly characters.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They must not have made it very far. </span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWj2enPr0I/AAAAAAAAAD0/Dd1QqRfFzXA/s1600/moe+156889+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWj2enPr0I/AAAAAAAAAD0/Dd1QqRfFzXA/s320/moe+156889+sample.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Oh, dear.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other works by Kishida Mel include anime character designs for So-Ra-No-Wo-To and</span></span> upcoming Hana-Saku Iroha. He's done plenty of other work, so look out for more if you like.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWpbh3RoOI/AAAAAAAAAEI/KCIlIRJKZdc/s1600/moe+75663+kishida_mel+pantyhose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLWpbh3RoOI/AAAAAAAAAEI/KCIlIRJKZdc/s320/moe+75663+kishida_mel+pantyhose.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-9429210047387674732010-10-11T10:49:00.001-04:002010-10-11T10:50:03.945-04:00Vote for a new Megaman Legends heroine!<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Capcom is running a poll in which fans can vote for a character design for a new girl in Megaman Legends 3! They say "new heroine" but it won't be a replacement for Roll.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.capcom-unity.com/devroom/blog/2010/10/10/vote_for_your_favorite_design_in_the_mega_man_legends_3_heroine_contest%21">Here is the link to the English site. Unfortunately, you need to set up a Capcom Unity account to vote!</a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.capcom.co.jp/rockman/dash3/hdc/index.php">Here is the link to the Japanese site. You don't need an account to vote here!</a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">They also promise that there will be more ways for fans to contribute to the game soon.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here is a picture of all the females, along with the names of who designed them.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLMigRkpBdI/AAAAAAAAAC0/0ccsnjGAHAs/s1600/1286798701460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLMigRkpBdI/AAAAAAAAAC0/0ccsnjGAHAs/s320/1286798701460.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think I'll have to side with the consensus here and go with Haruki Suetsugu's design. She's currently the leader in votes in the west, while the characters on the bottom row are popular in Japan.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLMjN4fHrqI/AAAAAAAAAC4/IbzC0LKLxuw/s1600/pic_suetsugu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TLMjN4fHrqI/AAAAAAAAAC4/IbzC0LKLxuw/s320/pic_suetsugu.jpg" width="221" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Suetsugu was heavily involved in <i>Zak & Wiki </i>and <i>Zelda: The Minish Cap</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: left;">And here's an early video of the game.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><object height="289" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uNll7j-qWLA?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uNll7j-qWLA?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="289"></embed></object></div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-9640602096317756632010-10-06T19:22:00.000-04:002010-10-06T19:22:41.812-04:00Retro: Five Random Sega CD Games<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I thought I'd play five random games every once in a while, to go back and try out new titles I've never played before. It's always fun finding hidden gems. But with all the crap out there, maybe this wasn't a great idea. Maybe from now on I'll just try to find five games that I like. Playing too many FMV games will make me depressed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Sega CD has a terrible rep, but if you can sift past the garbage, there is a small but excellent library. A handful of great shooters, RPGs and PC adventure game ports.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Sol-Feace</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz-JYiNcRI/AAAAAAAAACY/bYV32UYPUz4/s1600/Sol-Feace_box_art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz-JYiNcRI/AAAAAAAAACY/bYV32UYPUz4/s320/Sol-Feace_box_art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><a name='more'></a>Sol-Feace</i> was one of the pack-in games for the first wave of Sega CDs. This game was also released on the Genesis in cartridge format under the name <i>Sol-Deace</i>, with the Sega CD version featuring improved audio and a couple of animated cutscenes. This was originally made for the Japanese Sharp X68000 PC before being ported to Sega’s console (strangely enough, Japan didn’t get the cartridge version of <i>Sol-Feace</i>, only the CD version).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The highlight of this game is the soundtrack, composed by the legendary Motoi Sakuraba. It showcased the potential of CD audio compared to the synthesized FM of the Genesis. Sadly, the sound effects are pretty obnoxious and it can be difficult to enjoy the music while playing (the Japanese version removes these sound effects).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s a pretty run-of-the-mill shooter. You can adjust the angle of your shots by moving forward/backward to expand/contract your wings. Some of the enemy designs are pretty cool, and they don’t get recycled throughout the stages.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
A very difficult game for those that don’t mind using continues. Because there are no continues. You lose all your lives, you start back from the beginning. It’s not a big deal, as it is a fairly short game. The next to last level gets insane, with a crazy battleship boss that seems to have a dozen different attack patterns. The final boss is a joke on par with an overlord from <i>Gradius</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="96" width="77"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qaAVsZgvIOM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qaAVsZgvIOM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="96" height="77"></embed></object> </div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Music from the first level. Nothing gets me more pumped up to</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">launch into outer space and blow away some aliens.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Mighty Morphin Power Rangers</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz-ufJbgrI/AAAAAAAAACc/K_lskJYJbjk/s1600/Power_Rangers_Sega_CD.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz-ufJbgrI/AAAAAAAAACc/K_lskJYJbjk/s320/Power_Rangers_Sega_CD.PNG" width="185" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Oh boy, my first FMV review. This is the type of garbage that the Sega CD is infamous for. This one is just a very long, very grainy episode of the American Power Rangers with a Simon Says game thrown in. It doesn’t look nearly as bad as other FMV games, though.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As the movie plays, an indicator will pop up during action scenes. Press the corresponding button to keep going. If you press the wrong button, a little bit of life is taken away. Exhilarating. The Sega CD is full of crap like this. Just buy the damn VHS. I don’t even think this has Bulk and Skull in it! RIP OFF!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz--BUM6JI/AAAAAAAAACg/13Vcug5TjJ4/s1600/2nr3f7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz--BUM6JI/AAAAAAAAACg/13Vcug5TjJ4/s320/2nr3f7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is an outrage!</span></div><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz_M1CCnPI/AAAAAAAAACk/0it8MOrvitE/s1600/xenozoicsega.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKz_M1CCnPI/AAAAAAAAACk/0it8MOrvitE/s320/xenozoicsega.jpg" width="188" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is <u><b>NOT</b></u> a port of the awesome arcade beat-em-up. This is a lame shooting/driving game where you get penalized for blasting those cute, cuddly carnivores. All you can do is shoot rocks and twigs while avoiding dinos and countless instant death traps. The thing is, the Cadillac is very slow to maneuver, only has one weapon type, and instant death traps pop up way too fast. It is extremely difficult and will require memorization.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The prerendered backgrounds look very nice. But they get recycled endlessly in every single level. In the late game, it switches to a first-person minecart rail shooter (and then those visuals get recycled).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Wait a second, the arcade game never did get ported to consoles, did it?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><object height="289" width="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vXj4dDhmO5g?fs=1&hl=en_US&start=95"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vXj4dDhmO5g?fs=1&hl=en_US&start=95" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="360" height="289"></embed></object></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Gameplay video. A branching path pops up, but the dino doesn’t appear until the player is right at the fork. He has a fraction of a second to decide which way to go. With how slow the car moves, you might as well flip a coin. The thing is, it is very difficult to memorize this game, because the scenery all looks the same. The player will come back to the same branch later on in the video and make the same mistake.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>After Burner III</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TK0AAmD11iI/AAAAAAAAACo/Fv2OM5vjmQI/s1600/256px-AfterBurner3Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TK0AAmD11iI/AAAAAAAAACo/Fv2OM5vjmQI/s320/256px-AfterBurner3Box.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>After Burner</i> with a cockpit view? Yuck. It takes away a lot of the excitement of seeing your plane narrowly maneuvering around waves of missiles. You can switch to the outside view, but the jet is HUGE, o<span style="font-size: small;">bscuring enemy aircraf</span>t and projectiles. It’s still <i>After Burner</i>, but everything just feels off. Contrary to what some people say, you can still do barrel rolls.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But man. Oh man. <i>After Burner</i> music in CD QUALITY!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="77" width="96"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PY78laSGops?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PY78laSGops?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="96" height="77"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Never played an <i>After Burner</i> game?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Try out the 32X version.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="77" width="96"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qmSnZG6kvB8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qmSnZG6kvB8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="96" height="77"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>After Burner Climax</i> for current</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">generation consoles looks sick.</span></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Cobra Command</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TK0BCMffkyI/AAAAAAAAACs/ry9c5RvB4Gc/s1600/SegaCD-CobraCommand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TK0BCMffkyI/AAAAAAAAACs/ry9c5RvB4Gc/s320/SegaCD-CobraCommand.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Renovation-published games came in ugly yellow cardbord boxes,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">as opposed to the blue plastic cases.</span></div><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This has to be one of the ugliest FMV games on the system. It feels more like a slideshow than a movie, and the colors are nasty. The sparse music is drowned out by beeping and gunfire. Instead of Simon Says, this plays like a rail shooter. The crosshairs are used both to shoot enemies and move up/down/left/right by touching the edge of the screen, just like <i>Sewer Shark</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The annoying thing with these FMV rail shooters is that you can’t kill things until the game lets you. So an enemy copter might be right in your face, but you can’t shoot it down until the targeting reticule pops up. This gets really annoying when enemies are on screen but the game wants you to turn left or right. The first instinct is to kill the enemy, but if you move your crosshairs away from the edge of the screen, you will crash and die.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TK0CvhFUXhI/AAAAAAAAACw/3wo0Xr3tekk/s1600/1rsprp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TK0CvhFUXhI/AAAAAAAAACw/3wo0Xr3tekk/s320/1rsprp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is the iPhone version, which looks much better.</span></div></div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-46523029480718157392010-10-05T16:30:00.001-04:002010-10-05T16:47:49.685-04:00The Panasonic Jungle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKuJk59vZVI/AAAAAAAAACQ/d98mVvqRuVs/s1600/jungle-660x275.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKuJk59vZVI/AAAAAAAAACQ/d98mVvqRuVs/s320/jungle-660x275.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary of the Panasonic 3DO, released in North America on October 4, 1993. Now, Panasonic has revealed its plans to re-enter the gaming world, this time unveiling its Jungle handheld device.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The official site is located at <a href="http://www.thejungle.com/">www.welcometo.thejungle.com</a>. Here's a few blurbs:</div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>We began this journey by asking gamers what they wanted. Almost unanimously, we heard calls for online gaming products. Some gamers wanted a handheld, some wanted new content, others new experiences (one dude wanted a tattoo of the Kalphite Queen). In response, the Jungle was born.</i><br />
<i>Our mission: Create an ecosystem around online gaming.</i><br />
<i>At the core is a new mobile device concept designed specifically for online gamers. We’re also working with leading online game developers to create some exciting new content.</i></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A handheld made specifically for online gaming. Now you can play your MMOs in public! The only game currently announced is <i>Battlestar Galactica Online</i>, which runs through a browser (?!). <br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><blockquote> <i>All we can say for now is that this mean little machine features a kick ass display, touch pad, keyboard, and other gaming controls that we'll be saying more about soon. </i></blockquote></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Stay very closely tuned unless you’re tone deaf. And then you should keep your eyes open.</i></blockquote><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The screen does look very nice, although I'm not sure how feasible it would be playing a MMO on a shrunken screen. A huge concern will be battery life, especially for something powerful enough to run a MMO. Some MMO missions take hours to complete, and you don't want the thing to shut off in the middle of a dungeon or raid. Keyboard buttons appear to be very small, but it's hard to judge from the pictures.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKuKBeKNgFI/AAAAAAAAACU/LxuN4gHxxGc/s1600/eve_online_ui.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKuKBeKNgFI/AAAAAAAAACU/LxuN4gHxxGc/s320/eve_online_ui.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I can't imagine playing something like <i>EVE Online</i> on a handheld.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here is a promotional video:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jtsq99DPSoQ?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jtsq99DPSoQ?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="289"></embed></object></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I don't really care for MMOs, so I'll be avoiding this one. Gizmodo notes that it runs on Linux, so many of the current popular Windows games can't simply be ported over.</div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-20394205771960967312010-10-04T22:01:00.000-04:002010-10-04T22:01:46.397-04:00Retro: Gotcha (Arcade)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKqFrhphgHI/AAAAAAAAACI/VeQuXNsEJc0/s1600/11007601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKqFrhphgHI/AAAAAAAAACI/VeQuXNsEJc0/s320/11007601.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Atari kicked off the arcade frenzy of the 20th century with <i>Pong</i>, in 1972. Shortly after, they made<i> Space Race</i>, a two-player game where the goal was to reach the top of the screen before the other player while avoiding obstacles.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<i></i></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i></i></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Noticing the phallic symbolism of the traditional joystick, Atari thought they'd play a joke and make the controls a little different with their next game, <i>Gotcha</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKqGFlGVkUI/AAAAAAAAACM/xsPTM9BWCOo/s1600/breasts.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKqGFlGVkUI/AAAAAAAAACM/xsPTM9BWCOo/s1600/breasts.JPG" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Those are breasts.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
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<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The public didn't take it very well, and the game was not successful. Later versions of the cabinet had the modified "joy"sticks removed.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As for the game itself, it was the very first maze game in the arcades. One player chases the other around a maze as the walls slowly shift around. Here's a gif of the game in action.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKqFZp1ov_I/AAAAAAAAACE/N8hLbrMXVZo/s1600/gotchaanim.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKqFZp1ov_I/AAAAAAAAACE/N8hLbrMXVZo/s1600/gotchaanim.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Maze game, or groping simulator?</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I wonder what Jack Thompson would say.</span></div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-1915519376608518612010-10-03T10:44:00.000-04:002010-10-03T10:44:05.910-04:00Atelier Rorona (PS3): First Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiTk_DE0SI/AAAAAAAAAB8/kuELlVcGYUE/s1600/box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiTk_DE0SI/AAAAAAAAAB8/kuELlVcGYUE/s320/box.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Only halfway through the second assignment (there are 13 or so in total), so take this for what it's worth.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Never played an <i>Atelier</i> game before. The series is huge in Japan and has been thriving since the original PlayStation. The first game to reach the west was <i>Atelier Iris</i> for the PS2. <i>Rorona</i> is the latest game, just released in the US for the PS3. I have played the first <i>Ar Tonelico</i>, Gust's other flagship series, and although the battles/crafting were very simple, I loved the music and in-game world. Hoping for more of the same with <i>Rorona</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here's a brief overview of what I've encountered so far: </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">2D looks good. 3D, not so good. Very plain textures, and the framerate seems to dip in busy areas (namely the Town Square). I think a PS2 would be able to handle these visuals. Apparently, this is the first <i>Atelier</i> game to use 3D graphics.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">I laughed out loud after casting Rorona’s first spell for the first time – the special effects are very underwhelming. But I guess it’s better than a lengthy <i>Final Fantasy VII</i> summoning cutscene.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Voice acting is OK. Western voice actors never seem to be able to nail down the squeaky little girl voice quite right. Rorona certainly does sound air-headed, though. Cordelia is great, the knight with the goofy name is good, the café owner is annoying. The other characters haven’t had enough lines. No idea on the VAs.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">You can switch to Japanese voices.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Only bits and pieces of the dialogue are voiced.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Music is nowhere near the same level as <i>Ar Tonelico</i>, but it still suits the game well. Everything is cheerful and upbeat. Will drive you nuts if you listen to it for too long.</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiN9zHc02I/AAAAAAAAABs/9GyHZxuR-K8/s1600/roronabattle72711.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiN9zHc02I/AAAAAAAAABs/9GyHZxuR-K8/s320/roronabattle72711.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Some of the models look goofy. I think it's the humongous forehead.</span> </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">Game is centered around crafting items before a deadline. Each assignment gives you 90 days.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Time does not advance from just walking around, and it only moves when crafting, resting, or moving around different sections of a dungeon.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">If you don’t have the items by the deadline, you get a game over. If you saved right before, you are screwed. No re-dos, no continues, you start the game from the very beginning. Make a second save file as soon as you get an assignment just to be safe.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">From what I’ve played so far (not much), you have to try very hard if you want a game over. In fact, you get a trophy for doing so…</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiOduuTdKI/AAAAAAAAABw/UmBOl8g_aaI/s1600/roronabattle72727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiOduuTdKI/AAAAAAAAABw/UmBOl8g_aaI/s320/roronabattle72727.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dying in battle doesn't seem to have much consequence.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But God help you if the kingdom is short a few pieces of paper.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><br />
<ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">Crafting system is surprisingly deep. Each ingredient can have different qualities and traits. Many ingredients rot over time.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">In addition to the main assignment, you can take on quests for money and reputation. Doing favors for party members allows you to hire them for less.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">At the beginning, you can hand in rotten or spoiled items to complete the quest. Eventually, people will get pickier, demanding items of a certain quality.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">There needs to be a central quest listing thing, like the billboard in <i>Rune Factory</i>. It’s annoying having to go to each individual character to see what they want, if they even have a quest available for you at all (it’s random).</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiQoavBpnI/AAAAAAAAAB0/4qS4Eqkf5uA/s1600/roronasynth72704.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiQoavBpnI/AAAAAAAAAB0/4qS4Eqkf5uA/s320/roronasynth72704.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Craft items to turn in for quests, use in battle or sell for cash.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starting with the second assignment, you can also create weapons and armor. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><ul style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal">Combat is very, very basic. Attack, defend, or use a skill. Only Rorona can use items.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">No MP, skills use HP.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Tough in the beginning, until I found out you could recruit the café guy. He learns a healing skill, which makes the first assignment a cakewalk. A new character joins for the second assignment, making the battles even easier.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Leveling up allows you to allocate a skill point to beef up a skill of your choice. You can save them for later if you want. The effects seem to be very marginal at any rate.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">I really hope the battles get harder later in the game. I can craft new weapons and armor but I don’t see the point. My characters are killing everything in one or two hits with their starting equipment.</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiRUDfNr6I/AAAAAAAAAB4/YvxJGhARlhs/s1600/roronaloc72721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKiRUDfNr6I/AAAAAAAAAB4/YvxJGhARlhs/s320/roronaloc72721.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All the dungeons so far have been very linear with extremely narrow paths.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m still very early in the game, so I don’t have much of an opinion. I’m sure it will get more interesting and difficult as the game progresses<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">. Also I'm curious about whether any of the earlier </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><i>Atelier</i> games are any good. Let me know!</span></div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-17255243524137037182010-10-01T22:15:00.000-04:002010-10-01T22:15:57.913-04:003DS to Download Firmware Updates Automatically?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKaVLBnhD3I/AAAAAAAAABo/kdwf8uAbSQY/s1600/satoru-iwata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKaVLBnhD3I/AAAAAAAAABo/kdwf8uAbSQY/s200/satoru-iwata.jpg" width="200" /></a><a class="cssButton" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7571046043177979992&postID=1725524352413703718" id="publishButton" target=""></a></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKaVLBnhD3I/AAAAAAAAABo/kdwf8uAbSQY/s1600/satoru-iwata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There's no official text source, but a lot of places are reporting that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced Wednesday that they are "looking into having automatic system updates via the internet," in regards to the 3DS. This is done by a feature called "SpotPass," which will allow the 3DS to update even in sleep mode, as long as it has internet access.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No news further than that. The big question is whether you'll be able to turn automatic updates off or if they are forced. Fans of homebrew or less legal things ought to be worried if they are interested in online services. And if Nintendo handles 3DS firmware like Sony handles PS3 firmware (by completely removing features), everybody should be worried.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKaUpbeEjOI/AAAAAAAAABk/NMt8Y-8O7jM/s1600/52ps3killlinux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKaUpbeEjOI/AAAAAAAAABk/NMt8Y-8O7jM/s320/52ps3killlinux.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-47246960579558715022010-10-01T19:03:00.001-04:002010-10-02T09:35:31.129-04:00Yet Another Review: Knights in the Nightmare (DS)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZifHLEVCI/AAAAAAAAABM/mBS8-X-PZDQ/s1600/knightsinthenightmare_boxart_small_stroke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZifHLEVCI/AAAAAAAAABM/mBS8-X-PZDQ/s320/knightsinthenightmare_boxart_small_stroke.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Despite its relatively short track record, Japanese video game maker Sting has quickly become one of my favorite developers of the modern era, releasing a number of quality handheld titles on the WonderSwan, GBA, DS and PSP. They aren't afraid to take risks and try something different, and as a result, their games feel very refreshing. <i>Riviera</i> and <i>Yggdra Union</i> were both a little quirky, but fun. <i>Knights in the Nightmare</i> is flat out crazy.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It doesn't really fall into any one genre, making it difficult to describe. I could probably write a book about the mechanics. In fact, the in-game tutorial is split up into something like 100 different sections. It takes somewhere around an hour to get through it, but you won't fully get used to it until a few hours of actual play. Definitely not a game for those that just want something to pick up and have fun with. However, if you're willing to put in some time and effort, I can't think of a more enjoyable game on the DS.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Again, it is very difficult to explain, but I guess I'll try. At a glance, it looks like a traditional isometric strategy/RPG like <i>Final Fantasy Tactics</i> or <i>Tactics Ogre</i>. But you don't control the characters directly - you control a small, white wisp using the stylus (on the DS). With the wisp, you select a weapon, drag it over to a fighter, wait for it to charge up, and then lift the stylus off the screen to attack.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The thing is, this game takes place in real-time. Enemies (with a couple of exceptions) don't target your knights, but instead shoot out various bullet patterns that you must avoid with the wisp. In that sense, it resembles a shoot-em-up, minus the shooting. Each enemy type has its own attack patterns and special attack. It might seem easy dodging slow bubbles from slimes in the beginning, but it gets insane later on, with as many as four tough enemies constantly shooting while various obstacles like catapults are also going off in the background.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZjGGYzg5I/AAAAAAAAABQ/v7PYJ011cM8/s1600/210454-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZjGGYzg5I/AAAAAAAAABQ/v7PYJ011cM8/s320/210454-7.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Here, the player must navigate the wisp</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> around a bunch of falling stars. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You don't simply die by getting hit with a bullet. A small chunk of time gets taken off a clock, and when it reaches zero, the turn ends. Charging up a knight's attack also uses up time, so you must be careful when attacking. If you don't beat the level within a certain number of turns, you get a game over.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The best parts are the boss battles, and there are a ton of them. During the mid-game, just about every other level is a boss fight. These bosses have much crazier bullet patterns and other gimmicks that make them very fun and challenging. With one early game boss, if you hesitate too long when attacking, he will instantly kill your selected knight. <i>Permanently.</i></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are dozens and dozens of recruitable knights in the game, who join you when given a certain item. These recruitment items are easy to miss, however, and you can't go back to get the ones you skipped over. Like <i>Riviera</i> and <i>Yggdra Union</i>, this game is a perfectionist's nightmare.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZnw0WTw1I/AAAAAAAAABc/3IOC5Vm20AY/s1600/a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZnw0WTw1I/AAAAAAAAABc/3IOC5Vm20AY/s320/a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">With all the action going on, it is very easy to screw up and permanently miss out</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">on certain characters. Players who want everything will find themselves resetting a lot.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Knights also have a limited lifespan, which is shortened every time they attack. Levelling them up can restore some of this life, but each knight has a level cap. Characters that are on the brink of death can be sacrificed to make another character stronger via transouling. This not only strengthens the knight on the receiving side, but also restores some of their life and increases their level cap. Certain knights have good and bad relationships with each other, which causes the transouling effects to be amplified or diminished correspondingly.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are six main classes of knights, and they are all unique. Warriors use axes and are the only class able to break obstacles. Archers can freeze enemies in place and stun them so that another character can quickly follow up. It is important to deploy the correct class in the correct location, as each class has its own attack range and only Lance Knights and Duelists can move around.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Weapons, like knights, have a limited number of uses, but can be made stronger through forging or more durable through combining. It is important to keep a good stock of weapons and not overuse one type. Lances in particular are rare early in the game and you will quickly run out of you abuse them.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sunaho Tobe (character designer for <i>Riviera</i>, <i>Yggdra Union</i>, and <i>Summon Night: Twin Age</i>) returns and her work is better than ever. Tons of detail and gorgeous use of shading to match the darker, more serious mood of <i>Knights</i>. Each of the 100+ recruitable characters has his or her own unique portrait, <i>as do the human NPCs you encounter during battles</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZmJQUetrI/AAAAAAAAABY/pJHbOPz6wDE/s1600/zolgonark.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZmJQUetrI/AAAAAAAAABY/pJHbOPz6wDE/s320/zolgonark.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Oh, and the enemy design is pretty damn awesome, too.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Music is also very good, composed by Shigeki Hayashi (<i>Riviera</i>, <i>Yggdra</i>, <i>Baroque</i>, <i>Evolution Worlds</i>). Each of the several bosses has its own theme, and the "regular battle" song changes after every few levels, keeping it fresh. Unfortunately, it tends to get drowned out by the character chatter and loud (yet satisfying) sound effects.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The story is a bit different. You start off with no idea about what's going on, with a little cutscene after every battle that unlocks another piece of the puzzle. Once you finally figure it out, it's a bit disappointing, and basically just another "guy got power-hungry, summoned demons, now everybody's screwed" sort of plot. Knights becomes irrelevant to the story after joining your squad, but you can listen to their thoughts by hovering over them in battle and pressing a button on the D-Pad.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After beating the game the first time, you are allowed to play it again on a separate story path, with a new main character and dozens of new knights available for recruitment. In addition, the Nightmare difficulty mode is unlocked, which will give even the best players a run for their money.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">All in all, this is my favorite game on the DS, and I highly recommend it for those that want to try something different (and have the time to invest in learning the mechanics). It is also available on the PSP, but I'm not sure how well the wisp responds to analog control as opposed to the DS's stylus control.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For a glimpse of how frantic the action can get, here's a boss from the early-mid game:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dCd80xcFfAo#t=01m15s?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&start=200"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dCd80xcFfAo#t=01m15s?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&start=200" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The player controls the little white orb floating around, which is used</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">to command knights to attack while dodging enemy projectiles. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZk_ywjAUI/AAAAAAAAABU/Hp74HEw_7xI/s1600/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKZk_ywjAUI/AAAAAAAAABU/Hp74HEw_7xI/s320/1.jpg" width="207" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Also try to look for the artbook, titled <i>Tome of Lost Souls</i>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It contains dozens of character biographies and designer comments.</span> </div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-43091022664429162412010-09-30T16:58:00.000-04:002010-09-30T18:02:53.947-04:00An In-Depth Look at the 3DS<style type="text/css">
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<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKSK6un4FiI/AAAAAAAAABA/MYXkOKvuntA/s1600/nintendo-3ds-red-open.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKSK6un4FiI/AAAAAAAAABA/MYXkOKvuntA/s320/nintendo-3ds-red-open.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
With all the hype surrounding the Q1 2011 release of Nintendo's new 3D handheld, the 3DS, I thought I'd take a quick look and compare its specs to the various current-gen DS models.</div><br />
<table class="tableizer-table"><tbody>
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th></th><th>3DS</th><th>DSi XL</th><th>DSi</th><th>DS Lite</th><th>DS "Phat"</th></tr>
<tr><td>Weight</td><td>8.1 oz</td><td>11.1 oz</td><td>7.5 oz</td><td>7.7 oz</td><td>11 oz</td></tr>
<tr><td>Dimensions</td><td>5.3×2.9×0.83 in</td><td>6.3×3.60×0.83 in</td><td>5.4×2.95×0.74 in</td><td>5.2×2.91×0.861 in</td><td>5.85×3.33×1.14 in</td></tr>
<tr><td>Screen Size</td><td>3.53 in top, 3.02 in bottom</td><td>4.2 in</td><td>3.3 in</td><td>3.1 in</td><td>3.0 in</td></tr>
<tr><td>Screen Resolution</td><td>800x240 top, 320×240 bottom</td><td>256×192</td><td>256×192</td><td>256×192</td><td>256×192</td></tr>
<tr><td>Battery Life</td><td>TBA</td><td>13 to 17 hours </td><td>9 to 14 hours</td><td>15 to 19 hours</td><td>10 to 14 hours</td></tr>
<tr></tr>
<tr><td>Card Slots</td><td>3DS, DSi, DS, SD</td><td>DSi, DS, SD</td><td>DSi, DS, SD</td><td>DS, GBA</td><td>DS, GBA</td></tr>
<tr><td>RAM</td><td>64 MB</td><td>16 MB</td><td>16 MB</td><td>4 MB</td><td>4 MB</td></tr>
<tr><td>CPU</td><td>TBA</td><td>133 MHz ARM9 and 33 MHz ARM7</td><td>133 MHz ARM9 and 33 MHz ARM7</td><td>67 MHz ARM and 33 MHz ARM7</td><td>67 MHz ARM9 and 33 MHz ARM7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Camera</td><td>640x480 resolution</td><td>640x480 resolution</td><td>640×480 resolution</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In weight and dimensions, it is most similar to the DS Lite. However, the top screen is much bigger, and both screens have improved resolutions. The 800x240 top screen might seem a little bit crazy, but it is effectively 400x240 for each eye. Not too sure about how that works technically, but at any rate, it looks like a marginal improvement over its predecessors.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">4x as much RAM as the DSi/DSi XL and 16x as much as the original DS Phat and DS Lite. Battery life is unknown, but said to be similar to the DSi. CPU model and speed is currently unknown. No backwards compatibility to anything older than the DS, sadly. Certain DSiWare can be transferred to the 3DS, which has 2GB of data storage. It now has WPA/WPA2 security support, in addition to WEP.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">They threw in an analog stick, and the 3DS still supports touchscreen with a stylus. The new stylus folds in like a telescope. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">While the 3D feature and the specs are nice, I'm more excited about the games. Tons of big name titles from both Nintendo and third parties, but you have to wonder how many of them are going to be simple ports and remakes. Can't wait to see what <i>Megaman Legends 3 </i>looks like, Sony's response, and what the opening retail price will be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKUJB2zVtrI/AAAAAAAAABI/LKVr8EugAWI/s1600/mm-legends-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKUJB2zVtrI/AAAAAAAAABI/LKVr8EugAWI/s320/mm-legends-03.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKSLTIUDIgI/AAAAAAAAABE/JEeYdrMEyNc/s1600/mm-legends-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-53489286432300936322010-09-30T06:04:00.000-04:002010-09-30T07:35:21.022-04:00Yet Another Review: Alpha Protocol (PS3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKRbMa7ck4I/AAAAAAAAAAM/Y7GrQ8SFukQ/s1600/945400_100551_front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKRbMa7ck4I/AAAAAAAAAAM/Y7GrQ8SFukQ/s320/945400_100551_front.jpg" width="277" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you’re a longtime PC gamer, you’ve probably played a Black Isle Studios game. They were formerly the kings of the PC RPGs, creating classics like <i>Fallout</i>, <i>Planescape: Torment</i> and <i>Baldur’s Gate</i>. Despite much success, the company disbanded in 2003, with many of its employees going on to found Obsidian. So far they’ve made <i>Knights of the Old Republic 2</i> and <i>Neverwinter Nights 2</i>, two great games that suffered from glitches. Their latest release, <i>Alpha Protocol</i>, is more of the same.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Instead of being a turn-based D&D RPG, <i>AP</i> is a third-person shooter with character customization elements and various styles of play. Sort of similar to <i>Deus Ex</i> (but not nearly as much freedom). You can either play stealthily or go Rambo, <b>but it’s very important that your character has at least some competency in combat, because you will be forced to do plenty of fighting.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The shooting takes a while to get used to, and tends to be inaccurate until you’ve leveled up the corresponding weapon skill or purchased a better gun. Stealth, too, is inconsistent in the early stages, as enemies seem to have a very large sight radius and can easily track you down.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Perhaps the biggest problem is this artificial intelligence, which is similarly unpredictable in combat. Sometimes they’ll just stand far away, firing wildly, while at other times they’ll charge at you to engage in melee as another enemy moves to your back and blasts you with a shotgun.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKReobvX6bI/AAAAAAAAAAY/D_nbJ5E2lWc/s1600/alphaprotocol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKReobvX6bI/AAAAAAAAAAY/D_nbJ5E2lWc/s320/alphaprotocol.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The AI prefers to get up close and personal.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Avoiding combat when possible and going stealth is definitely the way to play, though. Watching Michael karate chopping some poor guard’s neck never seems to get old. It’s no <i>Metal Gear Solid</i>, but the AI will react upon seeing a fallen comrade’s body, hunt for you and alert any other nearby guards.<br />
<br />
Aside from shooting and stealth, you can use various gadgets to set up traps. These are fun to use, but only a limited amount of doodads can be carried into missions. There are also tons of locked doors, encrypted computers and secured keypads that can be defeated by winning a little mini-game. These little buggers are tough tests of eyesight and hand control. Certain skills and equipment make these much easier.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A big deal is made about the dialogue sequences in the tutorial. Basically, like in many RPGs, choices will come up during conversations, which allow Michael to respond neutrally, aggressively, or suavely. Each character responds differently to each type of attitude, and their disposition is changed accordingly. Enemies with a high disposition might eventually offer to join your side, while friends that hate you might turn against you. These relationships definitely affect the game and story, and these dialogue choices aren’t just illusions of freedom.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Even if Obsidian is a shell of its former self, the writers still have talent with the pen. For the most part, the story keeps your interest and the dialogue is sharp and intelligent. There’s some cringing every now and then (a crazy Russian gangster yelling out a one-liner from <i>Duke Nukem</i> as you fight him on a disco dance floor with <i>Turn Up the Radio</i> blaring in the background), but the banter and voice acting are both top notch.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKRdQWvz-CI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/HY3ovHI38CQ/s1600/Madison.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKRdQWvz-CI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/HY3ovHI38CQ/s320/Madison.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Those who enjoyed <i>Mass Effect</i> for its "waifus" will be</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">disappointed by the boring girls in <i>Alpha Protocol</i>. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The amount of detail they put into things is also impressive. For example, after beating the missions in Rome, I went to Moscow to see a weapons dealer. He not only noted the work I had done in Rome, but was also honored that the first thing I did when arriving in Moscow was to meet with him. It shows the insane amount of delicate care the writers poured into the dialogue.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you’re obsessive about graphics, you will want to avoid this game. When moving around, textures look blurry for a few moments before suddenly popping into focus. Jagged lines are everywhere. There is a very limited selection of appearance options for Michael, and most look goofy and out of place (although snapping necks and seducing ladies while sporting obnoxious orange aviators, a backwards baseball cap and a lumberjack beard is kind of funny).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKReMXYgsRI/AAAAAAAAAAU/Oxt5_sirSLk/s1600/silent_bob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iq8_oh0op2I/TKReMXYgsRI/AAAAAAAAAAU/Oxt5_sirSLk/s1600/silent_bob.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Look out, ladies.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Alpha Protocol</i> is not for everyone, but I was pleasantly surprised. Worth checking out as a rental, or buying when it hits the bargain bin. Sadly, due to limited success, <a href="http://myinsidegamer.com/news/sega-not-doing-an-alpha-protocol-sequel/">they’re not making a sequel</a>. Obsidian will instead focus on <i>Fallout: New Vegas</i> for the time being, along with <i>Dungeon Siege III</i>.</div>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-24246143879259543562010-09-29T23:27:00.000-04:002010-09-29T23:45:03.305-04:00Reviewing the Reviewers, Part II: Average Review Scores for Reviewers in 2010In <a href="http://yavgb.blogspot.com/2010/09/reviewing-reviewers-part-i-average.html">Part I</a>, I figured out the average score from all reviews in the <i>GameRankings</i> database. Now, I'm going to eliminate all the reviewers that haven't updated in 2010, and sort the table by the average score descending.<br />
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<table class="tableizer-table"><tbody>
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Site</th><th>Latest</th><th>Reviews</th><th>Average</th><th>Total Pts Awarded</th></tr>
<tr><td>AtomicGamer</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>630</td><td>82.94%</td><td>52252.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>RPGFan</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>727</td><td>81.37%</td><td>59155.99</td></tr>
<tr><td>ImpulseGamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>379</td><td>80.88%</td><td>30653.52</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Vortex</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>4453</td><td>80.53%</td><td>358600.09</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer Games RO</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>478</td><td>80.22%</td><td>38345.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Industry News</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1079</td><td>80.18%</td><td>86514.22</td></tr>
<tr><td>XboxAddict</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>609</td><td>79.69%</td><td>48531.21</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamingTrend</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1291</td><td>79.57%</td><td>102724.87</td></tr>
<tr><td>2404 - PC Gaming</td><td>9/13/2010</td><td>255</td><td>79.56%</td><td>20287.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Games Xtreme</td><td>9/20/2010</td><td>535</td><td>79.31%</td><td>42430.85</td></tr>
<tr><td>WonderwallWeb</td><td>2/23/2010</td><td>733</td><td>78.54%</td><td>57569.82</td></tr>
<tr><td>Futuregamez</td><td>9/20/2010</td><td>785</td><td>78.05%</td><td>61269.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox World Australia</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>384</td><td>77.68%</td><td>29829.12</td></tr>
<tr><td>ZTGameDomain</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1425</td><td>77.68%</td><td>110694</td></tr>
<tr><td>NZGamer</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1125</td><td>77.64%</td><td>87345</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lawrence</td><td>4/5/2010</td><td>1204</td><td>77.54%</td><td>93358.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gaming Target</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1938</td><td>77.44%</td><td>150078.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>XboxZone</td><td>3/5/2010</td><td>177</td><td>77.39%</td><td>13698.03</td></tr>
<tr><td>Da GameBoyz</td><td>7/29/2010</td><td>990</td><td>77.15%</td><td>76378.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Universe</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>285</td><td>76.95%</td><td>21930.75</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamePlasma</td><td>3/11/2010</td><td>566</td><td>76.89%</td><td>43519.74</td></tr>
<tr><td>Planet Xbox 360</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>481</td><td>76.85%</td><td>36964.85</td></tr>
<tr><td>VGChartz</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>616</td><td>76.81%</td><td>47314.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hooked Gamers</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>530</td><td>76.74%</td><td>40672.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamePro</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>4409</td><td>76.70%</td><td>338170.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Over Online</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>2550</td><td>76.38%</td><td>194769</td></tr>
<tr><td>UltraNinjas</td><td>6/7/2010</td><td>391</td><td>76.32%</td><td>29841.12</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameFocus</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>673</td><td>76.25%</td><td>51316.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kikizo</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>608</td><td>76.24%</td><td>46353.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Chronicles</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>2986</td><td>76.06%</td><td>227115.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>Armchair Empire</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1945</td><td>76.04%</td><td>147897.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gameplanet</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>1377</td><td>76.01%</td><td>104665.77</td></tr>
<tr><td>Extreme Gamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>906</td><td>75.98%</td><td>68837.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fragland</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>1439</td><td>75.94%</td><td>109277.66</td></tr>
<tr><td>ActionTrip</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>827</td><td>75.90%</td><td>62769.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gametrailers</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1333</td><td>75.84%</td><td>101094.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamer Limit</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>600</td><td>75.74%</td><td>45444</td></tr>
<tr><td>MS Xbox World</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>877</td><td>75.67%</td><td>66362.59</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamersHell</td><td>9/13/2010</td><td>1041</td><td>75.64%</td><td>78741.24</td></tr>
<tr><td>411mania</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>441</td><td>75.52%</td><td>33304.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>TotalPlaystation</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>782</td><td>75.44%</td><td>58994.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kombo</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>1579</td><td>75.32%</td><td>118930.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameZone</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>6542</td><td>75.13%</td><td>491500.46</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSX Extreme</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1273</td><td>75.06%</td><td>95551.38</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamerNode</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>869</td><td>75.00%</td><td>65175</td></tr>
<tr><td>TeamXbox</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1413</td><td>74.90%</td><td>105833.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>DarkStation</td><td>9/8/2010</td><td>1119</td><td>74.49%</td><td>83354.31</td></tr>
<tr><td>Digital Chumps</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>561</td><td>74.35%</td><td>41710.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamers Daily News</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>380</td><td>74.07%</td><td>28146.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>N-Europe</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>462</td><td>73.98%</td><td>34178.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamervision</td><td>9/23/2010</td><td>869</td><td>73.92%</td><td>64236.48</td></tr>
<tr><td>play.tm</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1027</td><td>73.87%</td><td>75864.49</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Evolved</td><td>7/22/2010</td><td>547</td><td>73.85%</td><td>40395.95</td></tr>
<tr><td>Console Obsession</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>711</td><td>73.66%</td><td>52372.26</td></tr>
<tr><td>Console Monster</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>728</td><td>73.62%</td><td>53595.36</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamingExcellence</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1119</td><td>73.33%</td><td>82056.27</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendojo</td><td>6/8/2010</td><td>1027</td><td>73.28%</td><td>75258.56</td></tr>
<tr><td>The Gamers Temple</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1559</td><td>73.26%</td><td>114212.34</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Informer</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>5213</td><td>73.06%</td><td>380861.78</td></tr>
<tr><td>AceGamez</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>3226</td><td>72.84%</td><td>234981.84</td></tr>
<tr><td>DarkZero</td><td>9/19/2010</td><td>1051</td><td>72.65%</td><td>76355.15</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine AU</td><td>8/1/2010</td><td>198</td><td>72.63%</td><td>14380.74</td></tr>
<tr><td>Play UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1721</td><td>72.49%</td><td>124755.29</td></tr>
<tr><td>Games Master UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>3887</td><td>72.42%</td><td>281496.54</td></tr>
<tr><td>Worth Playing</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>3627</td><td>72.32%</td><td>262304.64</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mygamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1253</td><td>72.29%</td><td>90579.37</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cubed3</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>803</td><td>72.28%</td><td>58040.84</td></tr>
<tr><td>PlayStation LifeStyle</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>310</td><td>72.16%</td><td>22369.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamecell </td><td>9/10/2010</td><td>1066</td><td>72.10%</td><td>76858.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zentendo</td><td>4/28/2010</td><td>238</td><td>72.02%</td><td>17140.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>TotallyGN</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>416</td><td>72.02%</td><td>29960.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cheat Code Central</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>3978</td><td>71.56%</td><td>284665.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hardcore Gamer Magazine</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>955</td><td>71.46%</td><td>68244.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventure Classic Gaming</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>370</td><td>71.19%</td><td>26340.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>RealGamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>569</td><td>71.04%</td><td>40421.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Xbox Magazine</td><td>11/1/2010</td><td>1677</td><td>70.55%</td><td>118312.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>Giant Bomb</td><td>9/23/2010</td><td>430</td><td>70.51%</td><td>30319.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Power Play</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>210</td><td>70.24%</td><td>14750.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>Thunderbolt</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1762</td><td>70.23%</td><td>123745.26</td></tr>
<tr><td>Boomtown</td><td>5/17/2010</td><td>1268</td><td>70.21%</td><td>89026.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameSpy</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>4829</td><td>69.92%</td><td>337643.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>VideoGamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>2093</td><td>69.91%</td><td>146321.63</td></tr>
<tr><td>D+PAD Magazine</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>428</td><td>69.81%</td><td>29878.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Nintendo Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>931</td><td>69.81%</td><td>64993.11</td></tr>
<tr><td>NintendoWorldReport</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>1193</td><td>69.65%</td><td>83092.45</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine US</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>456</td><td>69.43%</td><td>31660.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>The Entertainment Depot</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>641</td><td>69.20%</td><td>44357.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>PALGN</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1910</td><td>69.18%</td><td>132133.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Total PC Gaming</td><td>5/1/2010</td><td>203</td><td>68.67%</td><td>13940.01</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Xbox Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1376</td><td>68.53%</td><td>94297.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSM3 Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1819</td><td>68.45%</td><td>124510.55</td></tr>
<tr><td>IGN</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>12025</td><td>68.41%</td><td>822630.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Format UK</td><td>9/1/2010</td><td>1097</td><td>68.20%</td><td>74815.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gamer</td><td>11/1/2010</td><td>1819</td><td>68.16%</td><td>123983.04</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Power</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>3342</td><td>68.01%</td><td>227289.42</td></tr>
<tr><td>HonestGamers</td><td>9/23/2010</td><td>1620</td><td>68.00%</td><td>110160</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer & Video Games UK</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1047</td><td>67.78%</td><td>70965.66</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Zone UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>2394</td><td>67.68%</td><td>162025.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>DS-x2</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>664</td><td>67.57%</td><td>44866.48</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameCritics</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1336</td><td>67.48%</td><td>90153.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameSpot</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>11424</td><td>67.40%</td><td>769977.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>RPGamer</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>493</td><td>67.25%</td><td>33154.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gamer UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1810</td><td>67.18%</td><td>121595.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>NTSC uk</td><td>5/18/2010</td><td>862</td><td>66.83%</td><td>57607.46</td></tr>
<tr><td>Video Game Talk</td><td>1/11/2010</td><td>852</td><td>66.73%</td><td>56853.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Eurogamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>3523</td><td>66.02%</td><td>232588.46</td></tr>
<tr><td>gamesTM</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1635</td><td>65.87%</td><td>107697.45</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventure Gamers</td><td>9/20/2010</td><td>482</td><td>65.85%</td><td>31739.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamestyle</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>650</td><td>65.77%</td><td>42750.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>782</td><td>65.28%</td><td>51048.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Life</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>823</td><td>65.17%</td><td>53634.91</td></tr>
<tr><td>X360 Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>772</td><td>64.14%</td><td>49516.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sega-16</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>603</td><td>63.96%</td><td>38567.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Edge Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1467</td><td>63.76%</td><td>93535.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox World 360 Magazine UK</td><td>11/1/2010</td><td>611</td><td>62.75%</td><td>38340.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>NGamer UK</td><td>8/1/2010</td><td>1096</td><td>60.87%</td><td>66713.52</td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td>Sum</td><td></td><td>169981</td><td></td><td>12238398.39</td></tr>
<tr><td>Average</td><td></td><td></td><td>72.74%</td><td>71.99862567</td></tr>
<tr><td>Standard Deviation</td><td></td><td></td><td>4.6111682</td><td></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The average individual review score, with just sites that updated in 2010, is 72.00. The average <i>site's</i> average score is 72.74, with a standard deviation of 4.61 (two-thirds of all review sites have an average score around 68.13 to 77.35).<br />
<br />
The publication with the highest average score is AtomicGamer, at a whopping 82.94/100, 2.21 standard deviations above the average. On the other end, the lowest average score is awarded by NGamer (UK) at 60.87/100, 2.57 standard deviations below the average. Both of these sites use a scoring system which ranges from 1 to 100, and these scores are not converted or changed by <i>GameRankings</i>.<br />
<br />
Not a single reviewer gives an average of less than 60/100. Isn't that something? Ideally, you would think the average would be at the midpoint.<br />
<br />
Looking at this table, we can see an interesting pattern at the bottom. Here are the 30 lowest averages and the region from which they are based.</div><style type="text/css">
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<table class="table"><tbody>
<tr class="table-firstrow"><th>Title</th><th>Region</th></tr>
<tr><td>The Entertainment Depot</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>PALGN</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Total PC Gaming</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Xbox Magazine UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSM3 Magazine UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>IGN</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Format UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gamer</td><td>Offline-NA</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Power</td><td>Offline-NA</td></tr>
<tr><td>HonestGamers</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer & Video Games UK</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Zone UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>DS-x2</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameCritics</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameSpot</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>RPGamer</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gamer UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>NTSC uk</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Video Game Talk</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Eurogamer</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>gamesTM</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventure Gamers</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamestyle</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Life</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>X360 Magazine UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sega-16</td><td>Online</td></tr>
<tr><td>Edge Magazine UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox World 360 Magazine UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>NGamer UK</td><td>Offline-UK</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Of the 30 lowest averages, 16 are from online websites and 14 are from offline publications. Of those 14, only 2 are from North American publications, while the other 12 are based in the UK. The UK version of PC Gamer gives lower scores than the NA PC Gamer. If you look at the online websites, several of those are Euro-centric.<br />
<br />
You'd have to compare those facts with the rest of the data, but just from eyeballing it, the Brits clearly have the Americans beat when it comes to giving lower scores. But that's not the whole picture. If a site just gave a 50/100 to every single game, it would have an average score of 50/100, but that's still not very useful. Eventually, I'll be looking at the <b>standard deviation</b> of these publications to see how well they distribute their review scores. Generally, the closer the average is to the midpoint of the scale, the higher the deviation, but this is not always true. You have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. Stay tuned.</span>Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-26145594706321732182010-09-29T20:40:00.000-04:002010-09-29T20:42:39.275-04:00Reviewing the Reviewers, Part I: Average ScoreOpening up the latest issue of <i>Game Informer</i>, I head to the reviews section and am greeted by the following scores:<br />
<br />
<i>Transformers: War for Cybertron</i> - 8.5<br />
<i>Toy Story 3</i> - 8<br />
<i>Singularity</i> - 8.5<br />
<i>NCAA Football 11</i> - 9<br />
<i>LEGO Harry Potter</i> - 7.25<br />
<i>Limbo</i> - 9<br />
<i>Crackdown 2</i> - 7.25<br />
<i>Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker</i> - 8<br />
<i>Dragon Quest IX</i> - 8<br />
<i>Puzzle Quest 2</i> - 7.75<br />
<i>Persona 3 Portable</i> - 8.25<br />
<i>Disgaea Infinite</i> - 6.5<br />
<i>Snoopy Flying Ace</i> - 8.5<br />
<i>Naughty Bear</i> - 6<br />
<br />
The last five games being little one-paragraph blurbs at the end the of the section. Take those away, and the scores range from 7.25 to 9.<br />
<br />
What does this mean? Is every single one of those games an above average title worth buying and playing? After all, 5/10 is average, right? (Actually, <i>Game Informer</i> has the courtesy to let us know that 7/10 is considered average to them, while 5/10 is flawed. But with this batch of reviews, the average is closer to 8.)<br />
<br />
What is the point of using a 10 point scoring system if you're only going to utilize about half the points on the scale? This isn't just <i>GameStop</i>-owned <i>Game Informer</i> trying to hype up games and generate sales, it is a problem that affects the entire reviewing industry as a whole. <br />
<br />
What I'm going to do for now is find out the <b>true</b> average score among all video game reviewers.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Average Video Game Score</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Summary: I'm going to gather all the useable scores from the <i>GameRankings</i> database, add up all the points awarded by the reviewers, and then divide by the total number of reviews to find the true average review score from across all the reviews in the database.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>GameRankings</i> is a site that gathers review scores from several web and magazine publications. You </span></span>might have heard of/used <i>Metacritic</i>, which is very similar, but much less useful because it only covers recent consoles, doesn't provide us with the raw scores (instead using its own completely worthless and biased scoring system), and has been reported to <i>take down reviews</i> that the users complain about. <i>GameRankings</i>, while certainly not perfect itself, provides us with a very valuable resource for this experiment: a listing of all review sites in its database, the total number of reviews from each site and the average score that each site gives. You can find this listing here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/sites/index.html">http://www.gamerankings.com/sites/index.html</a><br />
<br />
Unfortunately, we can't just use this data: like <i>MetaCritic</i>, <i>GameRankings</i> tries and fails to convert non-standard scoring systems into a universal 1-100 rating. For example, if you click on the first item in the list, <i>1UP</i>, you'll see that they actually use a letter grade to review games. <i>GameRankings</i> tries to change this into a number grade, where A = 90, B = 80, C = 65, D = 50 and F = 5. How do they come up with this? We don't know, so we can't use such scores. I'm going to go through each individual site and see what kind of scoring method they use, and then throw out the sites that use letter grades.<br />
<br />
I don't really feel comfortable using scoring systems that range from a scale of 1 to 5, either. I'll include them in the average for now and might do a separate average later with such sites removed to see if there is a difference.<br />
<br />
There is another small problem: some sites change their scoring methods over time. The previously mentioned <i>1UP</i> formerly used a 1-10 scoring method before switching to a letter grade. I'm not going to look over every reviewer's history to see if they used weird scoring systems in the past. If they're using a standard system now, then all of their reviews are included. If they're using a letter grade now, all of their reviews are removed.<br />
<br />
Sample Size: 251 sites, 257,065 total reviews, 18,576,521 total points given when converted to a 1-100 scale.<br />
<br />
Here are the results:<br />
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<table class="tableizer-table"><tbody>
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Site</th><th>Latest</th><th>Reviews</th><th>Average</th><th>Total Pts Awarded</th></tr>
<tr><td>2404 - PC Gaming</td><td>9/13/2010</td><td>255</td><td>79.56%</td><td>20287.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>360 Gamer Magazine UK</td><td>11/1/2007</td><td>148</td><td>67.23%</td><td>9950.04</td></tr>
<tr><td>3D Avenue</td><td>2/14/2007</td><td>539</td><td>78.78%</td><td>42462.42</td></tr>
<tr><td>411mania</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>441</td><td>75.52%</td><td>33304.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>Absolute PlayStation</td><td>5/21/2004</td><td>749</td><td>81.40%</td><td>60968.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>AceGamez</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>3226</td><td>72.84%</td><td>234981.84</td></tr>
<tr><td>ActionTrip</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>827</td><td>75.90%</td><td>62769.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventure Classic Gaming</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>370</td><td>71.19%</td><td>26340.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adventure Gamers</td><td>9/20/2010</td><td>482</td><td>65.85%</td><td>31739.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>All Dreamcast</td><td>6/29/2001</td><td>104</td><td>77.83%</td><td>8094.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>AllRPG</td><td>3/18/2008</td><td>348</td><td>80.41%</td><td>27982.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>AntKids.com</td><td>6/16/2001</td><td>551</td><td>78.43%</td><td>43214.93</td></tr>
<tr><td>Archive 64</td><td>2/4/2004</td><td>125</td><td>75.34%</td><td>9417.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Armchair Empire</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1945</td><td>76.04%</td><td>147897.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>AtomicGamer</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>630</td><td>82.94%</td><td>52252.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>BonusStage</td><td>5/3/2006</td><td>708</td><td>78.92%</td><td>55875.36</td></tr>
<tr><td>Boomtown</td><td>5/17/2010</td><td>1268</td><td>70.21%</td><td>89026.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cheat Code Central</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>3978</td><td>71.56%</td><td>284665.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cincinnati Enquirer</td><td>1/25/2006</td><td>439</td><td>78.52%</td><td>34470.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>Club Skill</td><td>10/11/2006</td><td>363</td><td>76.93%</td><td>27925.59</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer & Video Games UK</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1047</td><td>67.78%</td><td>70965.66</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer Games Mag</td><td>4/1/2007</td><td>1746</td><td>63.37%</td><td>110644.02</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer Games RO</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>478</td><td>80.22%</td><td>38345.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>Computer Gaming World</td><td>5/1/2006</td><td>1109</td><td>62.89%</td><td>69745.01</td></tr>
<tr><td>Console Gameworld</td><td>10/2/2008</td><td>517</td><td>76.80%</td><td>39705.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Console Monster</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>728</td><td>73.62%</td><td>53595.36</td></tr>
<tr><td>Console Obsession</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>711</td><td>73.66%</td><td>52372.26</td></tr>
<tr><td>Contact Music</td><td>2/6/2007</td><td>340</td><td>76.69%</td><td>26074.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cube Europe</td><td>9/4/2005</td><td>207</td><td>76.62%</td><td>15860.34</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cube UK</td><td>12/1/2005</td><td>433</td><td>71.90%</td><td>31132.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cubed3</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>803</td><td>72.28%</td><td>58040.84</td></tr>
<tr><td>Cyber Gaming Net</td><td>12/16/2006</td><td>628</td><td>73.92%</td><td>46421.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>D+PAD Magazine</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>428</td><td>69.81%</td><td>29878.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>Da GameBoyz</td><td>7/29/2010</td><td>990</td><td>77.15%</td><td>76378.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>DailyGame</td><td>11/28/2009</td><td>1056</td><td>74.70%</td><td>78883.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>DarkStation</td><td>9/8/2010</td><td>1119</td><td>74.49%</td><td>83354.31</td></tr>
<tr><td>DarkZero</td><td>9/19/2010</td><td>1051</td><td>72.65%</td><td>76355.15</td></tr>
<tr><td>DC Swirl</td><td>9/19/2001</td><td>191</td><td>62.09%</td><td>11859.19</td></tr>
<tr><td>Deeko</td><td>8/27/2009</td><td>772</td><td>75.99%</td><td>58664.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>Digital Chumps</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>561</td><td>74.35%</td><td>41710.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>Digital Sports</td><td>7/28/2005</td><td>458</td><td>78.71%</td><td>36049.18</td></tr>
<tr><td>DreamStation.cc</td><td>7/27/2007</td><td>490</td><td>74.71%</td><td>36607.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>DS Central</td><td>1/29/2005</td><td>261</td><td>61.61%</td><td>16080.21</td></tr>
<tr><td>DS-x2</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>664</td><td>67.57%</td><td>44866.48</td></tr>
<tr><td>EAGB Advance</td><td>11/28/2003</td><td>158</td><td>72.72%</td><td>11489.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>Edge Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1467</td><td>63.76%</td><td>93535.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>Electric Playground</td><td>1/10/2007</td><td>2234</td><td>73.15%</td><td>163417.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Electronic Gaming Monthly</td><td>1/1/2009</td><td>4332</td><td>67.77%</td><td>293579.64</td></tr>
<tr><td>ESC Magazine</td><td>7/3/2006</td><td>421</td><td>75.05%</td><td>31596.05</td></tr>
<tr><td>eToychest</td><td>2/15/2007</td><td>779</td><td>76.40%</td><td>59515.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Eurogamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>3523</td><td>66.02%</td><td>232588.46</td></tr>
<tr><td>Extreme Gamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>906</td><td>75.98%</td><td>68837.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Final-Level</td><td>5/4/2005</td><td>365</td><td>70.11%</td><td>25590.15</td></tr>
<tr><td>Firing Squad</td><td>12/1/2007</td><td>321</td><td>78.49%</td><td>25195.29</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fragland</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>1439</td><td>75.94%</td><td>109277.66</td></tr>
<tr><td>Futuregamez</td><td>9/20/2010</td><td>785</td><td>78.05%</td><td>61269.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>G4 - X-Play</td><td>3/27/2009</td><td>1752</td><td>63.55%</td><td>111339.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Axis</td><td>10/13/2006</td><td>530</td><td>77.33%</td><td>40984.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Blitz</td><td>8/17/2004</td><td>649</td><td>84.12%</td><td>54593.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Chronicles</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>2986</td><td>76.06%</td><td>227115.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Fan</td><td>7/3/2003</td><td>334</td><td>77.99%</td><td>26048.66</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Helper</td><td>4/11/2007</td><td>347</td><td>74.33%</td><td>25792.51</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Industry News</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1079</td><td>80.18%</td><td>86514.22</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Informer</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>5213</td><td>73.06%</td><td>380861.78</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Over Online</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>2550</td><td>76.38%</td><td>194769</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Positive</td><td>6/15/2009</td><td>159</td><td>74.83%</td><td>11897.97</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Power</td><td>7/20/2001</td><td>616</td><td>73.00%</td><td>44968</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Power AU</td><td>1/4/2007</td><td>695</td><td>77.28%</td><td>53709.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Raiders</td><td>3/25/2005</td><td>665</td><td>79.27%</td><td>52714.55</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Rankings</td><td>7/11/2006</td><td>1148</td><td>72.72%</td><td>83482.56</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game Vortex</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>4453</td><td>80.53%</td><td>358600.09</td></tr>
<tr><td>Game XC</td><td>1/25/2007</td><td>463</td><td>79.27%</td><td>36702.01</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameAlmighty</td><td>4/29/2008</td><td>336</td><td>70.89%</td><td>23819.04</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameBoy Station</td><td>2/27/2002</td><td>191</td><td>66.34%</td><td>12670.94</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamecell </td><td>9/10/2010</td><td>1066</td><td>72.10%</td><td>76858.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamecenter</td><td>2/6/2001</td><td>1088</td><td>66.34%</td><td>72177.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameCritics</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1336</td><td>67.48%</td><td>90153.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameDaily</td><td>11/3/2009</td><td>2234</td><td>70.36%</td><td>157184.24</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameFocus</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>673</td><td>76.25%</td><td>51316.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gameguru Mania</td><td>2/10/2008</td><td>485</td><td>74.20%</td><td>35987</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamePen</td><td>9/4/2002</td><td>506</td><td>70.16%</td><td>35500.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gameplanet</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>1377</td><td>76.01%</td><td>104665.77</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamePlasma</td><td>3/11/2010</td><td>566</td><td>76.89%</td><td>43519.74</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gameplayer</td><td>8/5/2009</td><td>445</td><td>72.97%</td><td>32471.65</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamePro</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>4409</td><td>76.70%</td><td>338170.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamer 2.0</td><td>5/22/2009</td><td>1240</td><td>76.05%</td><td>94302</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamer Limit</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>600</td><td>75.74%</td><td>45444</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamer Web</td><td>6/14/2003</td><td>900</td><td>72.84%</td><td>65556</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamer Within</td><td>3/18/2008</td><td>582</td><td>74.02%</td><td>43079.64</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamer.tv</td><td>4/20/2004</td><td>299</td><td>77.91%</td><td>23295.09</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamerFeed</td><td>3/16/2006</td><td>967</td><td>68.15%</td><td>65901.05</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamerNode</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>869</td><td>75.00%</td><td>65175</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamers Daily News</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>380</td><td>74.07%</td><td>28146.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamers Europe</td><td>1/23/2008</td><td>502</td><td>68.91%</td><td>34592.82</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamers Pulse</td><td>8/8/2004</td><td>828</td><td>75.94%</td><td>62878.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamers Wave</td><td>9/22/2003</td><td>410</td><td>79.45%</td><td>32574.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamersHell</td><td>9/13/2010</td><td>1041</td><td>75.64%</td><td>78741.24</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamersMark</td><td>4/15/2009</td><td>916</td><td>77.93%</td><td>71383.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamervision</td><td>9/23/2010</td><td>869</td><td>73.92%</td><td>64236.48</td></tr>
<tr><td>Games Are Fun</td><td>4/27/2009</td><td>661</td><td>77.40%</td><td>51161.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>Games First!</td><td>12/5/2007</td><td>1294</td><td>70.79%</td><td>91602.26</td></tr>
<tr><td>Games Master UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>3887</td><td>72.42%</td><td>281496.54</td></tr>
<tr><td>Games Xtreme</td><td>9/20/2010</td><td>535</td><td>79.31%</td><td>42430.85</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameSpot</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>11424</td><td>67.40%</td><td>769977.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameSpot UK (Pre-2003)</td><td>8/20/2002</td><td>1127</td><td>73.47%</td><td>82800.69</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameSpy</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>4829</td><td>69.92%</td><td>337643.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>gamesTM</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1635</td><td>65.87%</td><td>107697.45</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gamestyle</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>650</td><td>65.77%</td><td>42750.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameTap</td><td>5/27/2008</td><td>278</td><td>73.31%</td><td>20380.18</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gametrailers</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1333</td><td>75.84%</td><td>101094.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>GameZone</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>6542</td><td>75.13%</td><td>491500.46</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gaming Horizon</td><td>10/14/2007</td><td>826</td><td>75.38%</td><td>62263.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gaming Illustrated</td><td>7/26/2007</td><td>389</td><td>81.67%</td><td>31769.63</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gaming Maxx</td><td>4/15/2004</td><td>326</td><td>81.13%</td><td>26448.38</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gaming Target</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1938</td><td>77.44%</td><td>150078.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamingExcellence</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1119</td><td>73.33%</td><td>82056.27</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamingTrend</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1291</td><td>79.57%</td><td>102724.87</td></tr>
<tr><td>GamingWorld X</td><td>9/16/2004</td><td>502</td><td>77.75%</td><td>39030.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>GD Xbox</td><td>12/18/2003</td><td>217</td><td>72.33%</td><td>15695.61</td></tr>
<tr><td>GF3K</td><td>1/23/2004</td><td>325</td><td>78.21%</td><td>25418.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>Giant Bomb</td><td>9/23/2010</td><td>430</td><td>70.51%</td><td>30319.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Globe Technology</td><td>2/1/2006</td><td>487</td><td>71.29%</td><td>34718.23</td></tr>
<tr><td>GMR Magazine</td><td>2/1/2005</td><td>1173</td><td>72.64%</td><td>85206.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>GotNext</td><td>7/5/2008</td><td>716</td><td>72.25%</td><td>51731</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hardcore Gamer Magazine</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>955</td><td>71.46%</td><td>68244.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>HonestGamers</td><td>9/23/2010</td><td>1620</td><td>68.00%</td><td>110160</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hooked Gamers</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>530</td><td>76.74%</td><td>40672.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hot Games</td><td>8/19/2003</td><td>960</td><td>73.24%</td><td>70310.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hyperactive</td><td>7/29/2003</td><td>460</td><td>80.62%</td><td>37085.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>IC-Games</td><td>7/6/2008</td><td>672</td><td>77.49%</td><td>52073.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>IGN</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>12025</td><td>68.41%</td><td>822630.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>ImpulseGamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>379</td><td>80.88%</td><td>30653.52</td></tr>
<tr><td>Incite Games</td><td>6/23/2000</td><td>318</td><td>69.37%</td><td>22059.66</td></tr>
<tr><td>Independent Gamer</td><td>9/22/2003</td><td>307</td><td>68.36%</td><td>20986.52</td></tr>
<tr><td>InsidePulse</td><td>9/13/2006</td><td>541</td><td>65.03%</td><td>35181.23</td></tr>
<tr><td>Irish Player</td><td>2/16/2003</td><td>309</td><td>77.73%</td><td>24018.57</td></tr>
<tr><td>JIVEMagazine</td><td>2/20/2008</td><td>312</td><td>77.61%</td><td>24214.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>Just RPG</td><td>11/28/2007</td><td>432</td><td>80.30%</td><td>34689.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kikizo</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>608</td><td>76.24%</td><td>46353.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kombo</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>1579</td><td>75.32%</td><td>118930.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lawrence</td><td>4/5/2010</td><td>1204</td><td>77.54%</td><td>93358.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>Loaded Inc</td><td>6/15/2006</td><td>632</td><td>73.36%</td><td>46363.52</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mad Gamers</td><td>8/22/2003</td><td>382</td><td>74.09%</td><td>28302.38</td></tr>
<tr><td>Media & Games Online</td><td>2/5/2003</td><td>456</td><td>76.47%</td><td>34870.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mobile GameFaqs UK</td><td>12/12/2006</td><td>180</td><td>81.82%</td><td>14727.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Modojo</td><td>12/18/2009</td><td>632</td><td>64.21%</td><td>40580.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>MS Xbox World</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>877</td><td>75.67%</td><td>66362.59</td></tr>
<tr><td>Multi-Player Online Gaming</td><td>1/17/2002</td><td>329</td><td>67.15%</td><td>22092.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mygamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1253</td><td>72.29%</td><td>90579.37</td></tr>
<tr><td>Netjak</td><td>9/25/2008</td><td>1050</td><td>71.65%</td><td>75232.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>N-Europe</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>462</td><td>73.98%</td><td>34178.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>Next Generation</td><td>1/1/1999</td><td>1001</td><td>62.64%</td><td>62702.64</td></tr>
<tr><td>Next Level Gaming</td><td>3/25/2007</td><td>1859</td><td>77.82%</td><td>144667.38</td></tr>
<tr><td>NGamer UK</td><td>8/1/2010</td><td>1096</td><td>60.87%</td><td>66713.52</td></tr>
<tr><td>NGC Magazine UK</td><td>6/1/2006</td><td>571</td><td>67.20%</td><td>38371.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>N-Insanity</td><td>1/22/2007</td><td>315</td><td>76.86%</td><td>24210.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintelligent Network</td><td>1/17/2006</td><td>160</td><td>75.07%</td><td>12011.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Gamenet</td><td>9/27/2005</td><td>121</td><td>86.32%</td><td>10444.72</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Insider</td><td>5/15/2006</td><td>259</td><td>74.15%</td><td>19204.85</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Life</td><td>9/26/2010</td><td>823</td><td>65.17%</td><td>53634.91</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Power</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>3342</td><td>68.01%</td><td>227289.42</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendo Spin</td><td>7/6/2008</td><td>236</td><td>75.61%</td><td>17843.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Nintendojo</td><td>6/8/2010</td><td>1027</td><td>73.28%</td><td>75258.56</td></tr>
<tr><td>NintendoWorldReport</td><td>9/22/2010</td><td>1193</td><td>69.65%</td><td>83092.45</td></tr>
<tr><td>N-Revolution Magazine UK</td><td>12/5/2008</td><td>196</td><td>70.33%</td><td>13784.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>NTSC uk</td><td>5/18/2010</td><td>862</td><td>66.83%</td><td>57607.46</td></tr>
<tr><td>NZGamer</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1125</td><td>77.64%</td><td>87345</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Nintendo Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>931</td><td>69.81%</td><td>64993.11</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Playstation Magazine</td><td>7/1/2008</td><td>2185</td><td>63.67%</td><td>139118.95</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Xbox Magazine</td><td>11/1/2010</td><td>1677</td><td>70.55%</td><td>118312.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>Official Xbox Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1376</td><td>68.53%</td><td>94297.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>Operation Sports</td><td>12/18/2007</td><td>215</td><td>73.26%</td><td>15750.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>P2 Magazine UK</td><td>12/1/2005</td><td>664</td><td>70.72%</td><td>46958.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>PALGN</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1910</td><td>69.18%</td><td>132133.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Accelerator</td><td>1/1/1999</td><td>187</td><td>63.64%</td><td>11900.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Format UK</td><td>9/1/2010</td><td>1097</td><td>68.20%</td><td>74815.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gameplay</td><td>10/9/2002</td><td>195</td><td>73.69%</td><td>14369.55</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gamer</td><td>11/1/2010</td><td>1819</td><td>68.16%</td><td>123983.04</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gamer UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1810</td><td>67.18%</td><td>121595.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Gameworld</td><td>10/3/2008</td><td>774</td><td>76.11%</td><td>58909.14</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Power Play</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>210</td><td>70.24%</td><td>14750.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>PC Zone UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>2394</td><td>67.68%</td><td>162025.92</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pelit (Finland)</td><td>9/1/2008</td><td>780</td><td>81.54%</td><td>63601.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>PGNx Media</td><td>10/6/2009</td><td>1502</td><td>83.99%</td><td>126152.98</td></tr>
<tr><td>Planet Xbox 360</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>481</td><td>76.85%</td><td>36964.85</td></tr>
<tr><td>Play Magazine</td><td>5/1/2008</td><td>2082</td><td>76.36%</td><td>158981.52</td></tr>
<tr><td>Play UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1721</td><td>72.49%</td><td>124755.29</td></tr>
<tr><td>play.tm</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>1027</td><td>73.87%</td><td>75864.49</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation 2 Mag UK</td><td>7/1/2008</td><td>1428</td><td>63.07%</td><td>90063.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation 2 Max UK</td><td>9/27/2004</td><td>560</td><td>71.54%</td><td>40062.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>PlayStation LifeStyle</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>310</td><td>72.16%</td><td>22369.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine AU</td><td>8/1/2010</td><td>198</td><td>72.63%</td><td>14380.74</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>782</td><td>65.28%</td><td>51048.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Official Magazine US</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>456</td><td>69.43%</td><td>31660.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>Playstation Universe</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>285</td><td>76.95%</td><td>21930.75</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pocket Gamer UK</td><td>12/18/2009</td><td>696</td><td>66.08%</td><td>45991.68</td></tr>
<tr><td>Portable Review</td><td>4/24/2008</td><td>422</td><td>73.47%</td><td>31004.34</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSE Magazine</td><td>5/1/2006</td><td>818</td><td>85.91%</td><td>70274.38</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSM Magazine</td><td>12/1/2007</td><td>1787</td><td>70.40%</td><td>125804.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSM3 Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>1819</td><td>68.45%</td><td>124510.55</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSW Magazine UK</td><td>6/26/2009</td><td>609</td><td>69.11%</td><td>42087.99</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSX Extreme</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1273</td><td>75.06%</td><td>95551.38</td></tr>
<tr><td>PSX Nation</td><td>5/19/2005</td><td>1217</td><td>71.64%</td><td>87185.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Quandary</td><td>5/3/2008</td><td>432</td><td>72.54%</td><td>31337.28</td></tr>
<tr><td>RealGamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>569</td><td>71.04%</td><td>40421.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>RewiredMind</td><td>4/5/2007</td><td>492</td><td>67.30%</td><td>33111.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>RPGamer</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>493</td><td>67.25%</td><td>33154.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>RPGFan</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>727</td><td>81.37%</td><td>59155.99</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sega-16</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>603</td><td>63.96%</td><td>38567.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Silicon Fusion</td><td>7/29/2007</td><td>367</td><td>77.05%</td><td>28277.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sports Gaming</td><td>1/25/2006</td><td>472</td><td>78.42%</td><td>37014.24</td></tr>
<tr><td>Talk Xbox</td><td>12/10/2009</td><td>372</td><td>78.78%</td><td>29306.16</td></tr>
<tr><td>TeamXbox</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>1413</td><td>74.90%</td><td>105833.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>TechTV</td><td>5/9/2004</td><td>948</td><td>65.32%</td><td>61923.36</td></tr>
<tr><td>The Entertainment Depot</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>641</td><td>69.20%</td><td>44357.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>The Gamers Temple</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1559</td><td>73.26%</td><td>114212.34</td></tr>
<tr><td>Thunderbolt</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1762</td><td>70.23%</td><td>123745.26</td></tr>
<tr><td>Total PC Gaming</td><td>5/1/2010</td><td>203</td><td>68.67%</td><td>13940.01</td></tr>
<tr><td>Total Video Games</td><td>9/4/2009</td><td>1107</td><td>75.72%</td><td>83822.04</td></tr>
<tr><td>TotallyGN</td><td>9/27/2010</td><td>416</td><td>72.02%</td><td>29960.32</td></tr>
<tr><td>TotalPlaystation</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>782</td><td>75.44%</td><td>58994.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>UltraNinjas</td><td>6/7/2010</td><td>391</td><td>76.32%</td><td>29841.12</td></tr>
<tr><td>VGChartz</td><td>9/28/2010</td><td>616</td><td>76.81%</td><td>47314.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>VG-Force</td><td>1/4/2006</td><td>542</td><td>77.27%</td><td>41880.34</td></tr>
<tr><td>VGPub</td><td>11/30/2007</td><td>499</td><td>77.02%</td><td>38432.98</td></tr>
<tr><td>Video Game Talk</td><td>1/11/2010</td><td>852</td><td>66.73%</td><td>56853.96</td></tr>
<tr><td>Video Gamers First</td><td>8/27/2005</td><td>557</td><td>75.59%</td><td>42103.63</td></tr>
<tr><td>VideoGamer</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>2093</td><td>69.91%</td><td>146321.63</td></tr>
<tr><td>VideoGames NZ</td><td>4/6/2009</td><td>487</td><td>81.24%</td><td>39563.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>Videogameslife</td><td>9/27/2005</td><td>559</td><td>65.97%</td><td>36877.23</td></tr>
<tr><td>WonderwallWeb</td><td>2/23/2010</td><td>733</td><td>78.54%</td><td>57569.82</td></tr>
<tr><td>Worth Playing</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>3627</td><td>72.32%</td><td>262304.64</td></tr>
<tr><td>X360 Magazine UK</td><td>10/1/2010</td><td>772</td><td>64.14%</td><td>49516.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>XBM UK</td><td>12/1/2005</td><td>452</td><td>67.79%</td><td>30641.08</td></tr>
<tr><td>XBN Magazine</td><td>2/1/2005</td><td>547</td><td>59.34%</td><td>32458.98</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox 2k</td><td>7/21/2003</td><td>112</td><td>77.02%</td><td>8626.24</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Evolved</td><td>7/22/2010</td><td>547</td><td>73.85%</td><td>40395.95</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Exclusive</td><td>1/4/2007</td><td>168</td><td>81.58%</td><td>13705.44</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Gamer Mag UK</td><td>4/1/2005</td><td>426</td><td>64.25%</td><td>27370.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Impact</td><td>4/8/2004</td><td>135</td><td>77.25%</td><td>10428.75</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Maniacs</td><td>2/2/2004</td><td>177</td><td>76.80%</td><td>13593.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox Rules</td><td>1/30/2005</td><td>150</td><td>75.00%</td><td>11250</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox World 360 Magazine UK</td><td>11/1/2010</td><td>611</td><td>62.75%</td><td>38340.25</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox World Australia</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>384</td><td>77.68%</td><td>29829.12</td></tr>
<tr><td>Xbox World Mag UK</td><td>6/1/2008</td><td>209</td><td>66.32%</td><td>13860.88</td></tr>
<tr><td>XboxAddict</td><td>9/24/2010</td><td>609</td><td>79.69%</td><td>48531.21</td></tr>
<tr><td>XboxSolution</td><td>12/22/2006</td><td>242</td><td>80.82%</td><td>19558.44</td></tr>
<tr><td>XboxZone</td><td>3/5/2010</td><td>177</td><td>77.39%</td><td>13698.03</td></tr>
<tr><td>XGP Gaming</td><td>11/13/2006</td><td>321</td><td>82.31%</td><td>26421.51</td></tr>
<tr><td>Zentendo</td><td>4/28/2010</td><td>238</td><td>72.02%</td><td>17140.76</td></tr>
<tr><td>ZTGameDomain</td><td>9/29/2010</td><td>1425</td><td>77.68%</td><td>110694</td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td>SUM</td><td></td><td>257065</td><td></td><td>18576521.35</td></tr>
<tr><td>TRUE AVERAGE</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>72.26390738</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<b>The average score when throwing out the letter grade sites is a 72.26 out of 100. Including the letter grade sites (using <i>GameRankings'</i> conversions), it is a 72.45.</b><br />
<br />
So the next time somebody tries to tell you, "Hey, it got a 7 out of 10! It's a good game!," you can tell them to sod off.<br />
<br />
Then again, it depends on the reviewer in question. Some reviewers give out an average of 8, others a 6. That's probably what I'll go over with the next update.Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7571046043177979992.post-27581472575996984962010-09-29T18:00:00.000-04:002010-09-29T18:00:52.936-04:00HelloYet another no-name clown talking about video games. Just what the internet needs! <br />
<br />
I figure I'd hop on the recent bandwagon frenzy of blogging. I've always had dreams of starting my own site, but it's probably better to see if I can handle managing a simple blog instead of opening my wallet for a server, domain name, dedicated connection, etc.<br />
<br />
Feel free to post whatever, sites that delete viewer comments are a big pet peeve for me. Nobody truly enjoys criticism, but it is necessary to help us improve.<br />
<br />
Mostly planning on talking about older games and game design, with some current news every now and then. Compared to the average paid reviewer, I'll probably come across as a cynical, miserable bastard (I'm a firm believer in 5/10 should = average), but because I'm doing this for fun and not for money, you can expect an honest opinion.<br />
<br />
I play everything aside from MMOs. Not a big fan of online gaming in general. Favorite games are those with lots of micromanagement and customization, such as <i>Alpha Centauri</i> and <i>Final Fantasy Tactics</i>.<br />
<br />
OK, let's get this thing started.Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12862624168253618988noreply@blogger.com0