It took me by surprise when I found out that the first Wednesday after the summer of XBLA would have three releases instead of one. I was only surprised until I played them; only one of the three is worth looking at. In the never ending quest to charge money for things that are free (and possibly better) elsewhere comes Gin Rummy.
Latest Feature: Impulse Buyer
Can Stardock break into the marketplace, and will it help reduce piracy?
COLUMNS
The best stuff written about video games from the week.
“EA Partners Is A Murderers’ Row - Who’s NOT On This List?” at MTV Multiplayer
This is a good bit of investigative reporting from Stephen Totilo. With last Thursday’s announcements by Electronic Arts of deals with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games, they now have at least half a dozen major partners, and that’s not counting the smaller companies they have outright purchased over the last couple years. The games won’t suffer for it, most likely (EA have been on a roll lately, and their lineup for the rest of the year looks promising too); they actually might be even better with that kind of money behind them, but I’m against this kind of monopolizing in any industry.
“The State of the Casual Games Industry in 2008″ at Gamasutra
Here’s an article highlighting interviews with three “leading lights” of the casual games industry from PlayFirst, PopCap and Reflexive Entertainment. “Match-3 [a term for Bejeweled-like games] will never die” is a choice quote, whether or not it’s true, but far more interesting is when they agree that more “immersive experiences” are doing better and better, as opposed to “amusing momentary distractions.”
“Mikami and Suda Talk EA Partnership” at 1UP
This is the best of the interviews with Shinji Mikami and Suda51 after their unveiling of the partnership with Electronic Arts for their upcoming action / horror game. Most of the right questions are asked, and Suda51 even reveals how involved EA are with the project (“a production team for EA Partners will come to our office once a month“), and Mikami saying that what EA brings to the table is “money” is priceless. The one thing I’m surprised nobody asked was how involved Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Q Entertainment is with the title.
“THE ACTION BUTTON DOT NET MANIFESTO: A LIST OF THE TWENTY-FIVE BEST GAMES OF ALL-TIME” at Action Button
Updating with numbers 16 through 11 this week, it’s more of Action Button at its best though. The Outrun 2 review is lovely, lovely stuff (hey, much like the game), and Ario Barzan’s review of Shadow of the Colossus is maybe the best the list has seen so far, which is surprising because his Metroid Prime review a week prior was the worst. I can’t wait to see what the next two weeks bring; as the list goes on, things have only come together more and more.
“Steps Toward an Elitist Critic Future” at Rock Paper Shotgun
I went into this article expecting the “elitist critic future” to be presented as a negative thing, but no. Kieron Gillen is openly admitting here that he likes it. I think he’s buying into the idea that games need what you could call “indie cred” (not his words) to be worthwhile. I love Earth Defense Force 2017, but no, Kieron, it’s not better than Gears of War.
Lower the price of the hard drive, Microsoft. I want to give you more money, all you have to do is let me.
“EA Partners Is A Murderers’ Row - Who’s NOT On This List?” at MTV Multiplayer
This is a good bit of investigative reporting from Stephen Totilo. With last Thursday’s announcements by Electronic Arts of deals with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games, they now have at least half a dozen major partners, and that’s not counting the smaller companies they have outright purchased over the last couple years.
I have become amazed at what XBLA has done in the past few weeks. It started with Geometry Wars 2, a game Jim Canapa described perfectly in the previous column (he should know, since his high scores are far better than mine). Bionic Commando, another great game I will go into detail about later, was the most recent addition. But in the middle was Braid, the first game to ever cause an internal conflict for me.