In a time not so long ago, there was a monstrous entity. A corporation made up of soulless, faceless sycophants bent on nothing short of total world domination. These brigands were in the business of developing and publishing video games and they began to suck the industry dry by purchasing up the best and brightest developers and harnessing them to their computers to churn out substandard software on rushed schedules to rake in precious holiday money. Swatting away multiple lawsuits this giant raged on and signed dark accords so that other developers could no longer make the games they wanted and the consumers were made to suffer as a result. This dark lord was known as Electronic Arts and they were feared.

Somewhere along the line though, EA's heart grew 3 sizes bigger and they began taking risks and putting effort into previously stale franchises. Original IP's began to spring up like wildflowers on the highway. EA remembered its customers and managed to make a pretty penny at the same time. As of today, they're still doing fairly well for themselves, but in the absence of a malevolent ruler, another company has stepped in to assert their dominion over the videogame industry.

Activision has been around for a long time, but they didn't really strike gold until they purchased Red Octane and merged with Vivendi. This merger led to the formation of the beast that was foretold in prophecy: Activision Blizzard. With some of videogames' premier developers in their stable, Activision began focusing exclusively on business decisions aimed at making money. While making money is the main concern of any corporation, Activision participated in activities that exploited their loyal customers. In fact, there is a pretty famous quote and subsequent Penny-Arcade strip dealing with that smashing choice of vocabulary from Activision's CEO:

"With respect to the franchises that don’t have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of over time becoming $100 million plus franchises, that’s a strategy that has worked very well for us. "

Now the two titans are set to square off over one of the most exciting new games of the last thousand years: Brutal Legend. I'm sure you all know the basic story by now, but in case you don't know already I can sum it up in 5 words: Activision hates rock and roll. Actually, that's not fair, they just want the money that they put into Brutal Legend to count for something. They have put millions into the production of Brutal Legend and although they chose to drop it, they would like to see some return on their investment.

In reality though, this is not sound logic. By dropping the game, they were already counting it as a loss financially. If the game remained dropped, they simply would've lost the money they put in. Now that the game has been finished and picked up for publishing though (and appears like it will be a great success) they want a piece of the proverbial pie.

I find history's twisted sense of irony amusing, as it now seems that EA, the former villain twiddling his mustache is now the savior of the girl on the train tracks. In this case the girl is Tim Schafer and Activision now has the mustache. Who will ultimately prevail? Will we still experience the Rocktober that Double Fine is promising? Will we ever find out who shot J.R.?

Only time will tell.

Author's Note: I've been trying my hand at freelancing articles, but it hasn't seemed to work that well. So I'm going to post my articles on the crucible of Dtoid and have them beat to a bloody pulp. Maybe someday I'll learn to stop sharing on the Internet.

Originality is the spice of life. If not for outside-the-box thinking and some brave person taking chances, we would never have gained some of our greatest societal treasures. Progressive thinking is what allowed luminaries like Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein to open up the mysteries of the world and pave the way for the rest of us following them to lead a more enlightened existence.

Without originality, we would not have wacky games like Katamari Damacy, epic games like Final Fantasy, or timeless games like Tetris. Many people are currently waging war against gaming companies for taking the safe route and sticking to tried and true formulas that have proven to be successful. To a degree, those that fight that battle are right. Taken to an absurd degree, repetition can become stale and boring, but given the right circumstances, the gaming industry can build on previous game experiences while also exploring new territories.

If you have been keeping up with all of the E3 hubbub circulating around the lazy river that is the Internet, you should know that sequels are the cat’s pajamas this year. Practically every Nintendo announcement was affiliated with Mario, Metroid, or sticking your finger in a clamp. Okay, maybe that last one isn’t a sequel, but it is pretty terrible. Sony’s most exciting announcements dealt with God of War 3 and Uncharted 2. Even Microsoft’s focus on the gaming realm was on Rock Band: Beatles, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Gears of War 3 and a previously unannounced Halo title called Halo: Reach. Add Assassin’s Creed 2, Bioshock 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Left 4 Dead 2 to that list and you can see that now, more than ever, sequels are the bread and butter of the gaming industry.

I have to admit, my initial kneejerk reaction was to swear profusely at my computer screen. “Can’t they do anything original these days?” I thought. To a degree, I understand and still hold part of that sentiment still. However, I think it’s important to remember the focus of most of these titles: fun video games.

Now, I am not ashamed to say that on occasion I am “that guy” when it comes to video game narrative. If a game attempts to present me with a worthwhile story, I will try to harvest every ounce of literary nectar out of it until it has shriveled away into nothingness. Sometimes though, I have to remind myself that story is not the only reason that I play videogames. I didn’t start playing the NES as a child for deep, emotionally involved narrative; I was jumping on turtles and saving a princess.

While some of the original games that spawned these major sequels had great stories, a lot of them were just fun video games. And unlike books and movies, video games are in the unique position of being able to incrementally improve on previous experiences efficiently. For every Call of Duty game that is made, something is upgraded. Every Halo brought about new weapons and more solid gameplay. In a sequel, the story may lose its way, but that doesn’t mean that the game gives up the ability to be good on the gameplay front.

Sometimes good games have terrible stories (I’m looking at you Gears of War) and sometimes they have great stories. However, if the Bioshock sequel rolls a critical failure and ends up pitting Splicers against the forces of an anthropomorphized race of sea turtles (actually, that sounds kind of cool), it doesn’t make the original Bioshock any less awesome. If worse comes to worst: you could just ignore the sequels altogether.

:: cough:: Prince of Persia 2 ::cough::

I really do crave something new and exciting, and I think with the number of emerging indie studios and the resurrection of simplistic retro franchises, we really will get something special soon that will be a watershed in gaming history. In the meantime though, I shall hold out my hope and simply try to enjoy these games for whatever they offer to me. Focusing on what could’ve been may ruin the joy that we have available to us now.

So after meeting Colette and Niero at the fabled Miami NARP, and successfully acquiring Colette's signature on my copy of Earth Defense Force, I decided that Destructoid is the best place ever and that Retroforce GO! is the king of all podcasts. To show my love, I decided to clothe my spawn in some custom-made Retroforce threads. I hope you guys like it, and this has made me the proudest parent ever!







Thank you so much to Colette, Stella, Dyson, Topher, and Chad for reminding me why I started playing games so long ago and thanks to Niero for making all this possible!

P.S. That is Pi to the 42 (my roommate) holding the child and making those ridiculous faces.

Inspired by the recent Zombies edition of Retroforce, I decided to hearken back to the Dtoid features of old and do a Fake Game Friday article about an interesting game that could easily be modded into GTA IV. And yes, this basically plays off of the concept behind I Am Legend using my favorite of the various movie titles associated with that IP. Also, I know it's Thursday, but I didn't want to forget to post it on Friday, so whatever.

So the basis for the game is that it's set in a very large city (Liberty City would do just fine) that has been abandoned and overrun by nature. You start out the game believing that you are the only living survivor. Your goal is not simply to kill the creatures, but to eventually find a way to solve the zombie problem. A moral choice that could be made throughout the game is to choose to labor to uninfect the zombies (which may or may not be possible) or to work toward a mass extermination of zombies in hope that you could find survivors and repopulate. The game would really not have a good or bad ending since both solutions are equally justifiable.

One of the core mechanics of the game is a day/night system. Though it is a blatant ripoff, I find the thought that these creatures are only a threat in the absence to be fascinating. That is where the comparison to vampires ends though, it's pretty much zombies from here on out. The entire game is really based on this system. Will you spend your days scavenging for supplies in possibly occupied storehouses? Will you take on dangerous missions to gather crucial elements for your experiments? The most important aspect is that the entire world is persistent and that you can't simply rely on the same respawning caches.

The early game is really dependent on simple choices. Do you gather lots of food first to survive or lots of firepower? Do you spend all your time exploring or do you work on barricading a safehouse? Do you act in simple self-defense or are you aggressive? If you see a group of roaming zombies on a cloudy day, do you hightail it to your safehouse or attempt to kill them? Or maybe you stayed home that day.

The second main mechanic is the multiplayer. It is revealed early on that you were the mutant and that everyone else who had a normal gene pattern was infected, so you can never become infected, you can only be killed. However, you can have other players join your game and assist you in specific tasks or missions. You could split up to cover lots of ground or stick together to navigate a particularly tough stronghold. The really trick though is that they can be infected with a disease and unless they a) realize it and b) do anything about it, they randomly (and I mean without notice) turn into a zombie, lose control of the character, and the zombie attacks you. I think the best way would be to notify them when they are infected, but have the amount of time they can survive be random. This presents you with the classic choice: do you try and make it back to safety or shoot them on site (in effect discontinuing their gaming experience).

Also, another crucial element is a very simple but effective class system. Other players can join your game to fulfill a role that you have been lacking previously. Besides the traditional archetypes (Healer, Defender, Tank,Stealth) you could feature classes Scientist, Companion (basic abilities, but with boosts to health, regeneration and resurrection skills), and Strategist (think Reverend Anthony).

The game would also reward creativity and in effect offer you whatever you want. Do you want a mindless action game (no pun intended)? You got it. Maybe you're in the mood for a Zombie Apocalypse Simulator though? You got that too.

For instance, let's say you find a boat and decide to go out on the lake and live there. Obviously zombies aren't too great at traversing the nautical realm, but that choice comes with consequences. The zombies would eventually learn that you have to make regular landfall for supplies and plan a sort of ambush. Also, you would be limited on the amount of supplies you could take at a time.

I don't know if this is too ambitious of a game idea (especially for a mod), but I think as an MMO or just MO, this could be the perfect game. Any ideas on features that could make it better?

So at SakuChan's request, I'm posting my little story about how to young lads from the Jacksonville area drove for 12 hours to have 4 hours of Destructoid bliss and give the Rock Band performance of a lifetime.

Our journey starts in Jacksonville at 1pm. We're pulling out the driveway with enough trail mix, fudge rounds, and chocolate lover's cookies to make a fat kid blush. Our experience with Miami has been very limited, and after a fairly uneventful drive down (the highlight of which was an awesome rendition of Sound of Silence in perfect harmony) we approached Miami with joy in our hearts and excitement in our pants. We had received faulty directions from Google Maps and as such arrived just in the nick of time to get turned down for the Street Fighter IV tournament.

Still, we registered ourselves for Smash Brothers (which were utterly destroyed in), Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (which I had never seen until I played) and Nintendo World Championship 1991 (which pitothe42 placed 2nd in). Nintendo World Championship was by far my favorite of the tournaments and rife with old school strategizing. Niero gave an nearly flawless run (except for a single crash in Rad Racer) and came away with an impressive 440,000 points. He humbly backed out of competition though, because the next closest score was 240,000, and he gave us plebians the prize we so viciously desired.



Speaking of Niero, we had the amazing opportunity to meet him and Colette for the first time and my head almost exploded. I had actually brought a copy of Earth Defense Force (SNES) for Colette to sign, but got pitothe42 to initiate the conversation (it's amazing, I'm married with a kid but still have a pathological fear of starting up conversations with pretty girls....or pretty Nieros). Anyway, that was definitely one of the high points of the night as we got to take a picture with Colette and I got a classic Niero pose:





We talked to Colette for awhile about the finer points of Retroforce GO! (Jet Force Gemini episode ftw!) and then eventually got called off to a tournament. The rest of the night went by in a blur as we played Left 4 Dead and Rival Schools and MvC2 and Rock Band until our true moment of glory came. At the end of the night, after patiently waiting for our turn at Rock Band, we were informed that we would not get to play as it was time to shut down. Downcast, the guy running the Rock Band machine worked his magic and allowed us to play our favorite performance song: Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld.

I took my place at the drums and pitothe42 grabbed the mic as we warmed up to blow these people away. As I was settling in, Niero walked by and I grabbed him and told him that he might want to take a seat, because things were about to get epic in here. The crowd before we started was about 10 regulars who had been watching Rock Band for awhile. As the song started, pi turned to the crowd and sang the words that he had memorized so long before. There was a hapless civilian not 2 feet away when he unleashed his first TIMMMAH! Naturally, the crowd was shocked by this development and after regaining their senses, began to stare in awe (or so I'm told).

Previously, people had been playing Rock Band. Some "woos" and "awesomes" could be heard after a particularly challenging song, but we were there to ROCK. I played the drums like I never have before and I beat them like a red-headed stepchild. Luckily I did not break them, but I almost fell off the drum stool a number of times. Pitothe42's screams could be heard pulsating through the large speakers and rocking the entire room. When we finally finished, I turned around to a crowd 2 rows deep screaming and clapping and trying to collect their melted faces. The first thing I did was receive Niero's blessing upon our rock then I thrust my aching, cramping wrists into a nearby cooler full of ice. After I could feel again, we talked to Niero for a bit and said goodbye to Colette and found ourselves back on the road.



Proportionately, 12 hours of driving for 4 hours of a party is usually not worth it. But after meeting 2 of the coolest people ever and paying homage to the community that I've lurked in for so long, I could not think of a better thing to do on a Friday night. I had more fun than should be legal and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Hello all my fellow 360 Netflixers!

I'm sure some of you are already aware, but for that tiny remnant who might not be, they've added Monty Python and the Flying Circus (The Complete Series) to Instant Queue, as well as most of the movies. Just a little PSA for my dork brethren.