Farewell to You All

I’m sad to say that I probably won’t be continuing this blog. I mostly just don’t have time for this website or else I’d love to keep it going. Also, My finical situation is a little terrible at the moment or else I’d have my own website by now. I enjoyed doing this blog, for the most part, so I’m a little sad to let it go but I fear it’s for the better. It hurts me even more because a lot of my endeavors end up this way. I used to have my own comic strip website but money and lack of commitment lead to the demise of that website. I’m still drawing cartoon but my comic strips have come to a complete hault with 2 or 3 ideas left to float in purgatory.  Maybe when this is all said and done I’ll soon realize that this was a mistake and go back to video game blogging. Maybe my schedule will suddenly open up and I’ll have way too much free time and maybe then I’ll go back to video game blogging. Till then, however, I must bid you all adieu.

Although I have a decent amount of hits, I doubt a lot of people read this blog so it won’t leave too much of a hole in the internet world. But to anyone who is sad about this, feel free to e-mail about it–or just weep silently to yourself.

Contact me here:

cgiovan@gmail.com

VGA 09 New Game Announcements

I was going to just post one new trailer that premiered at the VGA awards on December 12th on Spike, but there’s just too many. I’ve decided, instead, to just point you to a collection of them all so you can see them yourself, at your discretion.

VGA Game Trailers Brought to You By Gametrailers.com

Here’s a list of all the new games that were announced at that show (with trailers):

Halo: REACH

Batman: Arkham Asylum 2

Medal of Honor

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2

New Prince of Persia

Special Ops: The Line

Green Day: Rockband

True Crime

Tron Evolution

Crackdown 2

Where are the Wii games at Nintendo?

Javelin Patch Arrived – ’bout time’

The long awaited patch to fix the “Javelin Glitch” is here, arriving as of yesterday on Xbox live via game update. The glitch allowed players to before preform a jihad of sorts. When a player preformed this glitch his body would explode as if it were a javelin missle taking out several opposing players upon his death. This patch fixes both the fore mentioned glitch and the not-as-infamous care package glitch, which aloud a player to summon an infinite amount of care packages if done correctly.

I for one am extremely happy about this because I have had my share of encounters with people who exploit this glitch for personal gain. Some people on Xbox live might have a problem with my playing style, but at least it’s not cheating.

Amen Infinity Ward for fixing this, I thank you.

Image by http://www.imfdb.org

Sonic Over The Years

Sonic has come a long way over the years, and to be honest, his age is starting to show. Back in his hay day Sonic was the man, and at one point, was outselling Mario. Now-a-days, however, he’s starting to lose his speed and Mario’s been keeping young. In his 16 bit days Sonic was on top of the world, and now he’s scratching and clawing his way to stay in the game. Sonic has even resorted to teaming up with Mario in gimmicky Wii Olympic party games just to stay on the radar. What follows is a timeline (and collection) of a handful of Sonic games that I’ve played over the years. This isn’t a complete collection of all his games because, trust me, he has a lot of games out there for many consoles and systems. This is more of a “best of” collection, if you will (excluding the newest ones—i.e. the current-gen games, they’re just necessary to include). I’ve played all the games in this list and I’m a long-time Sonic fan. This list just go to show you how long the blue blur has been around, how far he’s come, and how much he’s far he’s fallen.

 

1991

Sonic the Hedgehog

On the Sega console –The originator, the supposed “Mario Killer”. The best foot forward for Sega and a classic game every video game fan has or should play.

1992

Sonic 2

The second installment on the Sega Gensis. This was the first game we get to meet Sonic’s sidekick/mechanic Miles “Tails” Prower (a pun of miles per hour)

1993

Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Beam Machine

The Sonic Team’s attempt at a puzzle game. It’s essentially Puyo Puyo.

Sonic Spinball

Like the name suggests this is a Sonic pinball game. Don’t be fooled though, it’s hard.

Sonic 3

Like the Mario franchise, the third installment is arguably the best of the series. This is the first game players are able to take control of Tails (our first taste of co-op play in the Sonic series).

1994

Sonic & Knuckles

This is not only a full fledged game but it’s also an add-on to the previous Sonic games. You could actually plug one of the 3 previous games into the top of this cartridge. This is also the first game we actually get to play as Knuckles.

1995

Sonic CD

This game was for the PC and has the best intro to any Sonic game that I can remember. The intro was a quick animated short with a great song overtop. The game play stuck to the classic 2D Sonic we’re familiar with.

Knuckles Chaotix

This game was for the short lived Sega 32x (32x was like the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge but it up’d the graphics from 16bit to 32 on the Sega Gensis) Sonic wasn’t in this game but I actually owned this game so I figured I’d mention it.

1996

Sonic 3D Blast

This was the first 3D Sonic game and it was on the Gensis. This game was a failure, I suppose you could call this foreshadowing?

1997

Sonic R

This was the first Sonic Racing game, this game was also somewhat of a failure (but then again so was the Sega Saturn). 3D Sonic has a harder time with games than the 2D one.

1999

Sonic Adventure

This is how you make a 3D Sonic game. This was the staple game for the newly released Dreamcast system (at the time). This game was epic—I loved this game.

2000

Sonic Shuffle

Sega is always trying to do what Mario does, so this was Sega trying to cash in on the Mario Party series. Mario Party had 7 sequels, Sonic Shuffle has none—I wonder why? (hint: it sucked)

2001

Sonic Adventure 2

The previous game did so well, why not make another. Shadow the hedgehog was first introduced in this game. The game met with mixed reviews but personally I enjoyed the hell out of it. I’m still waiting for Sonic Adventure 3 to be honest with you.

2004

Sonic Heroes

This may be harsh but I feel like every 3D Sonic game from here on out were more or less terrible. Sega quit the console business and just stuck to making games so this game was a multiplatform release (Xbox and PS2). You took control of 3 characters at once, switching between the 3 throughout. There was multiple teams to choose from but this gimmick, unfortunately, didn’t help this game.

2006

Sonic the Hedgehog

This is Sonic’s first step into the current generations of consoles. This game was terribly frustrating. The load times in this game were torturous and Sonic made out with a human. Just because an animal can talk doesn’t mean it’s ok to let them kiss humans (especially in a game for kids). Just like bestiality, this game is just wrong.

2007

Sonic and the Secret Rings

This is the first game that game out with the new Wii Nintendo System. Just like most of the games for the Wii, this game is just one big gimmick. Just because I have to waggle some dumb controller rather than press a button doesn’t make this some new fresh Sonic game. To be fair through, this game wasn’t as terrible as the aforementioned one, so it’s not that bad of a game considering.

2008

Sonic Unleashed

This is the latest game release for Sonic and maybe the weirdest. I hear this game did well with a younger audience (which is who they make these games for) but I’m a little ashamed of this game. It’s hard to sell the same game to people so usually developers try to through something new into the mix to spice things up. In this game Sonic turned into a warehog with stretchy arms at night. I don’t have much else to say about this game, it’s absurdity leaves me speechless.

What I’m Playing This Week

I haven’t had much time for video games as of late what with college, my full-time job, and whatnot but it’s video game season. November is the month most companies reserve for their big titles, and rightly so because it’s the month all the mothers do their holiday shopping. Luckily for me, however, the stars and planets have aligned or some magical force is at work and I’ve had some time to actually play video games this month so here’s what I’ve been playing this week:

New Super Mario Brothers Wii. I tired getting this game at midnight on Saturday/Sunday at Wal-Mart but my god was that a nightmare. I ended up waiting till Sunday to buy it and I made a day out of it. I brought my Wii over to my friends house and we had a good 4 player game. Mario with 4 players on the screen at once is pure mayhem! Even when you’re playing cooperatively you end up causing your friends to die by accident constantly. For example: You and a friend will both go to jump over a gap only since you’re behind him your jump is slightly above his causing you to then jump off your friend’s head midway through the gap effectively killing him. Once you get passed that little frustration, it’s a blast. The game gets progressively more difficult and I don’t recommend playing the whole game with 4 players because it’s hard enough solo and adding more players seems to just make the level harder on you (especially if the people you play with don’t know how to play Mario). 

Like the rest of the world I’m also playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I’ve been playing this game a little less because of some monetary issues with my Xbox Live account. Since I don’t Xbox Live as of a couple days ago I haven’t been able to play multiplayer too much (other than the first day or two I had the game) but I dove into the single player. Not having multiplayer, however, makes me want to play Mario more but I have played the first few mission of Call of Duty’s single player campaign and it’s hard (sure I have the difficulty on Hardened which is just under Veteran, the hardest difficultly). The game is absolutely gorgeous and the production value of this game has improved. This game is on the top of everyone’s list and it’s the must have game this holiday season and rightfully so this game offers a solid single player and multiplayer experience. If you’re a hardcore multiplayer fan then there’s no doubt you’re already working your way up the ranks in this game, and if you’re not you should be. Having said that I still think the game is over hyped, but everything is now-a-days. 

 

On the none video game side (but still a game) I’ve been playing Trouble a lot lately. Let me just say this about trouble: It’s awesome! I haven’t played much of Trouble when I was kid but I wish I did. The past week or so me and my friends have been battling in this game having a blast, so much so that I’m tempted to tape these hilarious epic games. You’d have no idea we were playing a simple children’s game if you were listening to us screaming, yelling, and laughing in the other room. If you have 3 good friends I suggest you try playing an intense game of Trouble and see what I’m talking about and what you’re missing. Just remember to trust no one!

New Zelda at E3 2010?

 

Official Nintendo Magazine UK

 

 

According the official Nintendo magazine’s UK website says Zelda will be at E3 2010. It’s about time! Nintendo has been slacking with good first party games like they said they weren’t going to do, so this is way over do. The last Wii Zelda game was designed for the Gamecube and basically held back to be ported to the Wii when it was released. This will be the true first Wii Zelda game (since the last was just a port in my eyes) which is said to take full advantage of the Wii’s new motion plus. No details have been released on this title only speculation and concept art. 

Looking at the concept art it looks like Link’s Master Sword will play a big role in the game, it may even transform into a person or spirit of some kind? Maybe? Seeing as how they’re going to be using motion plus we might have some 1:1 Master Sword gameplay. 

I’m just glad to see that they’re working on a Zelda game for the Wii and that they’re trying to make it really fresh and new instead of just giving us the same game over and over like some other franchises do.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Video Game, Review | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

 

 

 

I’d review the game myself but fankly, I haven’t had time to beat it quite yet. Instead I’m going to point you to Gametrailers review of the game because they’re one of the best at reviewing. Reading a review is fun and all but Gametrailers does it with video and in this fast paced internet world, I think it works best. Not only that, but they also pretty much hit the nail on the head about a game almost everytime. Thanks Gametrailers.

 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Video Game, Review | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com.

New Xbox Dashboard Update Hits Tuesday

On November 17th when you start up your Xbox you’ll be hit with the Fall dashboard update that will include Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM. Computers are already over saturated with social networking mediums and now your Xbox can join the fun. I’ve always played video games wondering “Man, I wish I could let all my friends online know what game I’m playing through my Xbox” and now I can finally! (sarcasm). In my opinion, people already update their Facebook statues and Twitter about nonsensical esoteric blurbs, most of which I couldn’t care less about, and I fear this will just make it worse. That aside, however, It’s still a really cool idea that I’m kind of excited to at least check out.

The addition of Last.FM however I find a little more interesting. I’m not entirely sure exactly how Last.FM works because I tried to use it, got frustrated and gave up, but coming from a person who often uses their Xbox to provide the music for a party I think I might get good use out of this addition to the Xbox live experience.

From Xbox.com:

“Sharing your passion for favourite tunes is also a major component for Last.fm on Xbox 360. You can vote ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ for each song to make sure you only hear your latest flames. Creating a play list for the living room is simple too.

There are more than 3.5 million songs available through Last.fm, and you’d need to be some kind of music robot to know them all in an instant! However by checking your friends’ play lists and by seeking out tracks of a similar style or mood you’ll soon be expanding your musical horizons and life doesn’t get any finer than that.

Last.fm for Xbox 360 can be sampled free by all Xbox LIVE members and the full service can be experienced if your status is Gold. However if you choose to take on Last.fm membership plus LIVE Gold membership you’ll gain even more terrific personalisation features.

With a music library so vast that you’ll never tire of it, the greatest games available on the planet; streaming movies and live TV shows plus an online community that’s millions strong, Xbox 360 is always delivering entertainment, your way.

Happy listening!”

An Interview with a Local Game Designer

I recently sat down with a South Jersey game designer Joseph Casale. He’s designed two games and is slowly, but surely, working his way to getting his bachelors degree in computer science. I asked him a few questions about his gaming background, how it was making those two games, and what the future might have in store for this up-and-coming game designer:

Download Chris Giovanisci – Interview

Dear Sonic Team

Dear Sonic Team,

I hope you’ve learned from your mistakes and you can deliver this time (because it may be your last chance). I’m a little more forgiving then some of your other fans because, unlike some of them, I actually liked Sonic Adventure 2 (the last good sonic game in my opinion). Excluding the DS titles, because I haven’t played them all, the last couple of sonic outings have been terrible. The last game Sonic was in he could turn into a Warehog! WTF is that!? 

a comic strip I made of the subject

Luckily, however, Sonic Team has apparently listened to our complaints and they decided to reset the franchise and go back to their roots. Since I’ve been a loyal fan since my first Sega console I’m a little optimistic about this project despite they’re history. Even though a lot of oldschool games are getting redone HD style for the current-gen systems, I have faith in this one. If someone gave me majority control over the Sonic Team I’d just make Sonic Adventure 3 but I like the direction they’re going in. They’re apparently building this game from the ground up and it’s suppose to be a 2d game–or perhaps more like a 2.5d game (2d gameplay with 3d graphics). So far not much is out about the game other than a teaser (which I posted below) and the code name for the project (project needlemouse). It’s suppose to be release in 2010 and I’m definitely keeping my eye on this one because if it fails the Sonic fans they’re trying to please will eat them alive!

Teaser: