E3 Impressions 2013
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/13/13 at 03:34 PM CT
With last year’s E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo being a complete let-down, it seemed that the former extravaganza of all things videogame was flagging and all but doomed. But this year’s E3 proved that it’s not really the expo format that’s the problem, it’s what the exhibitors bring (or fail to bring) that makes or breaks the show. This year, we have not one, but two new 8th Generation consoles (actual consoles, not icky handhelds) and all of the excitement that comes with such reveals. Is it any wonder that this year’s E3 is the most memorable in recent history?
Microsoft:
Want: Microsoft to stop making consoles
Not Sure if Want: “Project Spark” (for Windows 8)
Do Not Want: Xbox One, its launch exclusives
After their introductory tease of the Xbox One, which perplexed gamers due to the fixation on sports and TV instead of videogames, Microsoft finally solidified the details of their nebulous DRM disaster… and it pretty much lived up to everyone’s …
Backlog: The Embiggening - June, 2013
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/08/13 at 02:08 PM CT
Welcome to another look into the near future. It has been an entire year since I began tracking the monthly embiggening of my backlog due to new releases. While, on paper, it would appear that my backlog has increased by 15 games over the course of the past year, in actuality, most of those games just went on my wish list, so as to prevent my backlog from growing out of control. Since they’re on my wish list, I can still keep track of them, but I can also wait for them to drop in price. When one has 40+ games backlogged, paying full-price for anything new would be completely idiotic. Of course, since I haven’t been feeding it and have been plugging away at completing old games that have been lingering in it for years or decades, my backlog has actually shrunk by ~20 games. I’m happy about that!
But what will happen to my backlog in June? This month is typically smack-dab in the middle of the Summer Game Drought, during which few games come to light. However, it’s …
Review Round-Up: Spring 2013
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/02/13 at 03:06 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
This Spring I continued chiseling away at the lower strata of my backlog, blasting away everything from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras except for the entire ‘Phantasy Star’ series. Maybe I should play those in a marathon session this Summer…
Outside of those ancient games, I cleared out the remains of my PS3 backlog in preparation for the goodness that 2013 is finally bringing to that bereft console’s library (along with a bunch of horribleness, but we takes what we can gets), and continued to sample a wide variety of Indie games on Windows (with mixed results, just like last quarter). The one thing I desperately wanted to do in Spring was experience a good, recent RPG… but I was sorely disappointed, as the only good RPG I played in the Spring was originally released the year I graduated from high school.
After early …
Adding Indie Insult to Xbox One Injury
Chris Kavan - wrote on 05/22/13 at 01:24 PM CT
Nelson pointed out a long list of things that Microsoft bungled when they revealed the Xbox One. And, unsurprisingly, he's not the only one to think that reveal was an unmitigated disaster. And I hate to kick someone while they're down, but this is Microsoft, so I don't feel that bad actually.
Besides having the Kinect 2 watch you while you sleep and not being able to share games with your friends (without a fee) - I don't have to tell you Microsoft is shooting themselves in the foot with gamers. But what about shooting themselves in the foot with developers? Specifically the indie kind - you know, the kind being talked about as being in a new golden age. While it's sometimes hard to find quality amidst the quantity - it is there. Every gamer should do themselves a favor and watch Indie Game: The Movie to see just what goes on behind the scenes to make an indie game. So what does indie gaming have to do with the Xbox One? Only that Microsoft has taken the step to stop indie …
Xbox One: Putting “It” All in One Place
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/21/13 at 05:53 PM CT
After months of speculation and rumor-mongering, Microsoft has finally revealed the true identity of the console-formerly-known-as Durango: The Xbox One. Apparently someone at Microsoft has difficulty with counting in the single digits, as the Xbox One is actually the THIRD Microsoft console, and that moniker seems more fitting as a retroactive title for the original Xbox from the 6th Generation.
I understand what Microsoft was trying to accomplish with the name, though, as the reveal event put on display the Xbox One’s ability to be a one-stop shop for all forms of TV-based entertainment, and shows it to be a significant improvement over Nintendo’s half-assed TVii app. Of course, as someone who watches 2 hours of TV per week (not counting incidental viewings of whatever news program or gameshow might be running while I’m eating a meal), the fact that Microsoft’s new console more closely resembles a glorified cable box than an actual game console is not inspiring.
But …
Survivors of the 3D Revolution
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/18/13 at 04:56 PM CT
We are the few, the proud, the old-school. We have been gaming since the third-generation or earlier. We have seen the evolution of videogames from crude and poorly-executed concepts into well-refined and polished genres. We have also lived through a time of great turmoil in order to see our closely-held beliefs vindicated: We are the Survivors of the 3D Revolution.
The term ‘3D Revolution’ has nothing to do with the trend of the past few years to return 3D glasses to movie theaters. Nor does it have anything to do with Nintendo’s latest handheld and its stereoscopic 3D gimmick. No, the term ‘3D Revolution’ refers to a generation-spanning phenomenon during which game developers became so enamored with their ability to push the graphics envelope with vector-based polygons rather than raster-based sprites that they transitioned as many games as possible into using the newer image-generation method, whether they needed it or not. The 3D Revolution began in the 5th …
Failure to Launch: What's Wrong with the 8th Generation?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/12/13 at 05:38 PM CT
The 8th Generation has been sitting on the launchpad for two years now, led boldly into the future by Nintendo’s 3DS in March 2011. Nearly a year later, in February 2012, Sony followed suit and released a successor to the failing PlayStation Portable in the form of the temporarily-pirate-proof PlayStation Vita. Nine months later in November 2012, a full year and eight months after the release of their 8th Generation handheld, Nintendo released with WiiU, the first actual console of the 8th Generation.
What all three of these 8th Generation pioneers have in common is that they have spectacularly failed to get off the ground in their early lives. Instead of streaking toward new heights in both profitability and the betterment of gaming culture, the 8th Generation has burned great quantities of fuel only to end up with a lot of smoke and no thrust. But unlike the catastrophes born from early rocketry research during the 1950s, videogame consoles are not rough prototypes, blazing …
The Official WiiU Funeral
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/05/13 at 02:18 PM CT
Friends, gamers, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury WiiU, not to praise him. The evil that videogame companies do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their obsolete hardware. So let it be with WiiU… The noble 3DS hath told you WiiU was unambitious: If he were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath WiiU answered it… Here under leave of 3DS, I come to speak at WiiU’s funeral, and to answer the unanwered question: What the Hell is Nintendo doing?
Instead of focusing on their struggling new console, Nintendo has been sinking all of their efforts into their until-recently-struggling new handheld, the 3DS. This seems like an enormous misstep on Nintendo’s part. Dedicated gaming handhelds are all but doomed. When done right, a dedicated gaming handheld provides nothing that a modern smartphone can’t provide. When done wrong, a dedicated gaming handheld provides gimmicky controls that are difficult to translate to other platforms and …
Backlog: The Embiggening - May, 2013
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/27/13 at 02:32 PM CT
Welcome to another look into the near future. May is the traditional start of the Summer Game Drought… and boy is the drought coming on strong and fast! This month holds the smallest number of releases since I started covering upcoming games in the ‘Backlog: The Embiggening’ series of articles. With two new consoles on the horizon and the WiiU deserving a re-boxing, I can only hope that the even-more-drastic-than-usual drop-off in game releases this May is indicative of developers shifting focus to new hardware, and they just haven’t had the time to finish their 8th Generation inaugural projects.
The most frightening occurrence this month is that there are ZERO licensed games or shovelware on the docket. How is that even possible?! Sure, we all fantasize about a games industry that doesn’t make terrible tie-in games or super-casual shovelware… but now that we’re actually getting a month without them, the release schedule looks remarkably, impossible thin.
There …
Hindsight is 20/20 or Why I No Longer Own Any of My Original Nintendo Games
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/25/13 at 08:53 PM CT
I have been a video game fan from pretty much day one - from playing Atari at my babysitters to happily opening my very own Nintendo one awesome Christmas morning. You have a lot going for you when you are young - boundless energy, an inquisitive mind and that feeling of invulnerability that only comes from not knowing any better. One thing you don't have: money. Unless you are amongst the 1% you have to rely on parents (and maybe an allowance) to get by. Unfortunately, it also means, as the Rolling Stones so eloquently put it: "You can't always get what you want."
I have made a great list detailing just how many games I not longer have. Other than the two PS2 games and Chrono Trigger, I can say that all the NES and SNES games were sold for the simple fact I needed money for the latest and greatest system. That's right, gems such as Monster Party (a more obscure title), Blaster Master, Maniac Mansion (R.I.P. LucasArts), Gauntlet, Shadowgate and many Mario Bros. and Teenage Mutant …
View Archive
