There is something interesting with games these days, as they have evolved so fast and so many titles have come out, original ideas are running out quickly, but also spontaneously appear making an unique concept. But are games fully prepared to be out when we all see them in shelves now?

Let me talk to you about an experience with Assassin's Creed.

Last week there was an offer of it on Steam which was for 5 bucks (reaaaaaally good price checking out eBay, Amazon and GameStop), so without a doubt I downloaded it and popped it in.

Now let's go with the whole concept, the idea behind it seems very deep and original to me, and I enjoyed being on the era of the crusades after the corrupt people in the middle east be them Islamic or European. The scenery is also fantastic, the first time I saw the gates of Damascus with the glorious Arabian music amazed me and made everything look worth analyzing, as the place felt more alive. Constantly, I have heard complains about too many side quests and the lack of actual assassination, but I actually enjoy side missions because they make the characters and setting memorable. That goes without saying every of them gets registered in a memory log and has a little of "collect-a-ton" with the flags standing in random places around the world which so far they look like a mindless MacGuffin and I am used to it after wasting a couple of years in my life playing Donkey Kong 64 and still not being able to complete it 100%.

All in all sounds like the ideal single-player game for me in PC aside the Half-Life series, that is if it wasn't because some tiny details that ruined all of the experience for me.

Just today I want to continue the long advance I did yesterday like rescuing a lot of poor villagers from merciless bandits or take down the corrupted merchant, but when I loaded the file, I was back at Jerusalem retrieving my sword back after completing my first mission instead of being in the climax of Damascus! I just got dragged back a whole chapter! What happened?!

There is no real excuse for the game there, a "Saving" icon appeared when I was completing side missions, and there was no option for saving manually. So in other words, the game fucked up with me. I have faced many similar cases in which I frustrated because I forgot to save (if you played Pokemon and Final Fantasy, you REALLY know what I mean), but this time it was not me who fucked up, it was the game who did it. And for all this, I lost pretty much the whole intention of keep playing this on a long time.

So, while I still cannot figure what was the deal with it, I just have to wonder what happened with the testing or supervision Ubisoft had behind this. The cutscenes are unskippable, it takes 10 steps to quit the game without using Alt+F4, and now there seems to be no way to trust the game is really saving or not which leads to an endless amount of blind frustration of what could happen or not. If the problem was in not closing it the right way, they at least should have considered in:

1. Not make it so long and time wasting.
2. Tell me that it had to be performed that way in first place!

Oh wait, you DID told me that quitting could lose everything that was not saved, which makes sense to me, but I saw the "Saving" icon, so I did not worry. Remember? Because when a game tells me that is saving a game, I suppose that all of it is ready for my next use.

Games are supposed to take a long time to release so the bugs are eliminated, not only for making all the pretty textures and polygons, even then, games like Team Fortress 2 keep updating for sudden bugs or flaws the staff finds chronically. So the graphics, gameplay and concept are completely welcome for me, but seems that the skeleton behind is shattered.

So why am I whining about this when it was only 5 bucks? Well, just think about all those people that bought it in full retail price! We are all expecting to get what we payed for, many read reviews to be sure their purchase is worthy, but to see at the end that it's broken, it feels like you got scammed no matter the amount of cash. Money is money.

This is why I love companies like Nintendo, they have a big debugging department to make sure there are no bugs and glitches if not tiny ones that could be funny to see. The whole wonder of Assassin's Creed just crumbled by some technical details which greedy executives and HD nazis these days would call them "irrelevant".



While all the trip started great, and the feeling was fantastic, all of it got interrupted with no climax, and no cigar.

You might remember E3 2005, we were introduced to all that was coming for next generation and we could barely contain it because it was emulating a lot of realistic details like the palette in real life. There is something we cannot deny, our colors in life is full of tans and gray tones especially if you live in a desert area. But another fact is that as life is boring, our colors are as well.

When people were talking about high definition I expected a spectacular change for my eyes, but not much from what I have seen really impressed me at all. It is all gray, dark or full of unnecessary glowing. All this was relevant in 2006 but now with the many titles that are out the formula has been recycled over and over again making it something worse than a simple untapped potential.

A common argument that has been rounding this decade is that graphics are not as important as game play or story lines. While I fully support that philosophy, I cannot help but to think about the poor palettes in the game environment. If you want a concept to be effective, and if you want it to be eye-catching try using color.

Now while this effect does a nice job making textures and the surroundings more believable, sometimes the characters and setting are so unpolished that they make the whole effort crumble apart easily, otherwise it doesn't matter much to me. Let's put Metal Gear Solid 4 as an example. Even though the Metal Gear Solid saga looks astounding and full of material, just by looking the poor tones in the fourth installment has made me avoid it a bit much from trying. The story, setting and development seems outstanding and spectacular with the (self-spoiled) battle climax. However if I want to get in the actual game outside the cinematics I want it to be enjoyable and less tiring for my eyes with a similar color everywhere.



An example to make apart is Half-Life 2. The game has some of the most impressive story telling in a first-person shooter ever, especially as the surroundings tell you the story in it. The world of Half-Life 2 is full of the gray-ish palette but because the whole world in it is sad and has humanity suppressed, for once the colors actually make sense because the post-modern industrial installments are not fully functional and toxic wastes are every where. it is a well settled apocalyptic world full of depression but still hope remains waiting to see a new day. I know the same could be said about other titles like Gears of War and inFamous, but they do not seem to share a common interest in making the player explore the place further to see the vanished and simple life of the people that used to live there supporting the motivation alive.

There is a curious case on the small but successful franchise of Team Fortress. I just got the classic game from 1999 included on the Half Life 1 Anthology, and while the game structure is basically the same, the tone does not invite to play as much as the sequel from 2007. I know that it is a bit unfair to compare blocky polygons from ten years ago with high definition renders, but the change of humor and colors is so dramatic that the new one is more believable not just because of the graphic quality, but because the colors are alive and well managed. The textures, despite the lack of detailed rendering, are solid and full of life, also giving credit to the amazing radiosity techniques.



Moving on I want to bring another title to note in. Mirror's Edge, despite the not-that impressive story and just pretty decent game play, it has all of what I dreamed from high definition. Powerful colors everywhere. The red colors are strong as a cherry, greens that would make Mr. Destructoid envious and blue skies clearer but as lively as the ones you know. Even if the game has a lot of glowing, I find all of it well applied instead of just marking the glowing food on the floor. The city is full of shining from the strangely polished but relentlessly beautiful buildings.

To close in, I want to bring attention to the incoming title The Saboteur. The style has been noted to be like another sandbox game, but the subliminal message as you continue the game seems to be a satire of the modern twist in games in environment design, because the more you save of Paris from the nazis, the place if recovering it's color from the dark noir tone. A very Beatles message, but fresh and reliable on the expectations so far.



To summarize, I want to tell any developer (or wanna be developer) to take as much advantage of the graphic capacity of the system they are hosting and keep things alive. it is fortunate that some companies are aware of not falling in the same trend and to keep their games less dull looking. Let the sunshine in, baby.

Well, damn. I already knew it by a leaked list but it's so damn good to see an actual footage. We can see two of his specials and his moves are pretty nice. He even got a shoryuken. Seeing Megaman X and Legends together in the same game is a bit odd but full awesomesauce

Also Joe the Condor made the cut as well. Don't know about this series but I'm loving it.



God damn it, why havent I bought a Wii yet? I have skipped two Christmas days already.

Today I was at the supermarket to do the weekly shopping, when I stumbled across the magazines and found Nintendo Power. Decided to grab it just to check some pages, and then I notice at the bottom of the cover "Your wish is GRANTED! Shantae finally returns in an all-new plaformer. Six pages of EXCLUSIVE pics!"

I already knew the news, and I was extremely delighted, but a cover of 6 pages? I was not going to miss that. So courteously I decided to scan them for you to enjoy. They are not full quality, but at least you manage to check some of the artwork.

EDIT: Wow, they are much better and bigger than I expected... umm well still check them out.

Check out the pics in the gallery


Is it just me or Shantae is in the perfect balance of cute and hot? Though I think she is cuter than hot. But she got a nice body. But still cute. Umm... yep.

Risky Boots got a light overhaul in design and I like her skull thematic. Gotta admit that top is clever.

By the screenshots I see a very familiar style... KONJAK?! It would be no much of a surprise, he has collaborated with WayForward before, but daaaamn isn't it beautiful?!

I think this is the perfect excuse to get a DSi, Shantae was overdue so long for a sequel and more attention and after 7 years she is ready to enchant everyone with dances and good old action-platforming.

If you want to check better quality pictures, well, buy the magazine or steal it from your friend who got it, there is some awesome concept art to check out too.

We know that games have tropes as movies and TV, and some of the most popular by now are zombies and music.
As much I love the previous mentioned, there are some that I just feel hypnotized by the idea behind and make me want to know more of it. So I thought it would be a cool idea to share what are some things that make me feel very attracted by a title.

Pirates



Seriously, pirates. Strangely I have not seen much of them and be it the sky, the sea or being in a band of thieves in the city, the dark arts of robbery, greed and scurvy are pretty unexplored now. Sure, we got GTA and Saint's Row, but they do not cover the excitement behind a true dog's life. Pirates are wild, informal and pretty badass, it is almost impossible to not think being a pirate is awesome because the authority looks for you, there is always a hunt for adventure and tales that cross around the seas finding others from other places in the world without using modern technology. Pirates as simple they are to design in characterization, they are pure on what a player wants to be. I have said before that if there is something cooler than being the legendary hero, is to be a bad guy confronting a greater evil. Also, the sea is freaking ace.

Great Examples: Zack & Wiki: Barbado's Treasure, Drill Dozer, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, Wario Land 4.


Psychic Powers



We use guns, we jump on enemies, wield swords, use spells and even a freaking tank when the chance appears. But what is the ultimate weapon? Your freaking mind of course! When I see psychic powers, I only presence something: YOU ARE GOD. With psychic powers you can do virtually anything because your mind controls it and there is almost no way someone can find the way to counter it because your mind is unpredictable (unless you make it so). There is a fine difference between magic and PSI, when we use magic we are so used to that idea that it does not feel credible or authentic; as soon we hear "magic" we know that it's a fairy tale gadget. However, when being psychic it just feels so damn cool, because it is a still unexplored territory in science fiction and there is still no way to disprove the possibility of its existence yet. Using anything from around you also gives you more excitement, more strategy. The mind is the ultimate frontier of exploration because there are no limits bordered in it like the universe so far.

Great Examples: Psychonauts, EarthBound, Bioshock


Wild West



Even if you find the family vacation to that park in Arizona corny, you have to admit something: cowboys are fucking badass. Don't believe me yet? Watch "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", or any other wild west movie with Clint Eastwood. Cowboys are rude and awesome like the pirates, however while being a cowboy it feels much more rewarding to be the good guy because you feel feared and clever. Villains are dumb and taunting, but it doesn't matter for you, you are going to fill that bastard with 5 pounds of sun-stroke white lead. For some reason there are not enough games with cowboys in them, there were a bunch back then before 3D arrived to stay in our systems and they were pretty awesome for catching the same sensation from the old movies or just by themselves. Feel the noon sun under your face and look at your enemy grinning 20 yards away, the whole town watches silently the duel to see who is the real boss around here. Being trigger-happy never felt so good.

Great Examples: Wild Guns, Gun Smoke, Sunset Riders.


Science



I know it sounds too redundant, but when a game is being based on facts and theories rather than just made up shit, it feels much more exciting like I stated about psychic powers. Be them social sciences, chemistry or biology it makes it much more interesting to be dragged in the story as they tell about possibilities and alternate worlds or an alternate today to face in a new fear. We should stop messing around with what we don't know, but otherwise there would not be science, there would not be answers. That is also what debated the ignition of the Large Hadron Collider. Science is progress, but it could also risk what we love of our lives. Many have tried to make games based on current problems and make them looks like an excuse of the story and why you are fighting, but only a few have managed to do so without smothering it on your face so much. Are we taking the right way? Is our answer always logical? Or are we all doomed by the same cruel fears we are seeing coming in our present?

Great Examples: Half-Life, Fallout 3, Bioshock, Mother 3



Deep Jungle



This is surprisingly a very narrow trope, there are just very few games I can imagine that simply use the theme as a recurring stage and not a feeling. If there is something that really yells adventure, is a jungle. It is classic and profound enclosing of peril in which British explorers, conquerors and even the army has been crossing around. You can barely know what will come ahead, you feel surrounded but still feel nature on your patting on your shoulders. The jungle is not only palm trees, it is atmosphere and full of life. Grab your machete because the journey will be intense.

Great Examples: Donkey Kong Country, Pitfall!, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater


Space Shooting



It's easy: you shoot stuff, in space. How did a simple formula that got inspired by 1950s science fiction become so addictive? There is something that feels too appealing with going all PEW PEW PEW across the galaxy. I will also admit that even Halo is fun at doing it, but do you know what is one of the best things in it? The Phantom, that ship that is absolute shit on multiplayer is a damn lot of fun to use on campaign mode. Since Halo became so popular, many tried to take the same formula and give it a lot of excuses to make it work out as another one, and there have not been adequate shooters for a long time, so moving first-person shooters aside, the classic titles are also really great, especially by using a spaceship, every alien is feared if you have a ship with DUAL LASER BEAMS AND SMART BOMBS, PA-ZOW!!

Great Examples: Raiden, Ikaruga, Starfox 64


Good Old Silliness



And as serious games can become, we have to remember that video games could have not gone anywhere if it wasn't because of the children. As a fan of animation and cartoons, I think that there is always space left for being stupid or funny every now and then. Admit it, if you got into gaming it was because you have a sense of humor, you did not find it as a complex and top notch manner to express feelings with technology; you just like to blow up shit and mild absurdity as a dessert with sprinkles and lots of chocolate syrup on top. When a game does not take itself too seriously, the whole atmosphere feels less dense and easier to let it breath. Laugh, because you are supposed to be enjoying it!

Great Examples: Ratchet & Clank, Banjo-Kazooie, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga


That is all I can think so far. I love pretty much any game you put me in front to try, but there are always cases I feel completely transported inside of it and driven inside a place where many things are possible.

Do you have a favorite trope too? Tell me about it.

And party as in BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Starmen.net does not cease to amaze me showing me what fans like to do about his game. These guys made for a friend an EarthBound birthday party with games that honestly look like a lot of fun putting the previous knowledge of the game apart.



I am surprised by how well executed and well detailed this is, seems like they put dedication for something that would last just for a moment. This seems fun like being in a contest show.