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Blog Details for "Classy Gamer"
Classy Gamer Classy Gamer In a world in wich good games with good plots and well developed chatacters are more and more dificult to find, as they're drowned by tons of trash, a decently mature gamer shares his very personal point of view. Articles
Hardcore gaming to become a niche?
2008-02-20 01:41:00 During the Casual Games Summit 2008 (part of the GDC), Mr. John Welch (PlayFirst's CEO, in the picture) said that: "We have the opportunity to elevate video games to become a first-tier form of entertainment, like TV. We will have succeeded when 'casual games' goes away as a category and 'hardcore games' is the niche." as reported by Gamespot UK. Mr. Welch's boastful speech, sounds de facto like a declaration of war to games for dedicated fans, including those that include deep and meaningful stories, interesting characters and complex character interaction. Games that, for sure, aren't meant for "casuals", but for the classy gamer to which this blog is dedicated.Several hints have shown, lately, that the average depth of games is declining. Even M rated games (wich are by no means an index of maturity or complexity, but still a good part of the games that aren't targeted to a young audience which likes simple and casual games) are declining. until 2005 the number of M rated... More About: Gaming , Hardcore , Niche
PS3 Ganbare!
2008-02-19 08:31:00 PS3 Ganbare! Inserito originariamente da Abriael Despite the mudslinging fest by a seemingly quite biased press during 2007, looks like PS3 will make it to (and will actually surpass by quite a few) the goal of 11 millions consoles sold before the end of fiscal year 2007 (March 2008).Associated press reported that Sony sold, by the end of January, 10.5 millions units of their PS3, wich basically means that the goal is abundantly in reach. This comes as a quite pleasant piece of news to me, both as a PS3 early adopter and as a gamer. At the same time this should come as a warning for that slice of the press that let their judgement be shifted by silly biases and fanboyism. During the last year and the beginning of this one, we've read supposedly professional journalists defining the PS3 as far as a "scam" (in Issue number 9 of the italian magazine Game Pro, wich should be the local edition of Edge). Maybe such journalists should stop behaving like silly fanboys or make a coheren... More About: News , Playstation , Market
The Game Developers Conference begins
2008-02-18 22:29:00 Game Developers Conference Inserito originariamente da Abriael The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco has just begun, and we're already waiting for juicy news.I'll be following a couple of live feeds and posting if i hear anything really interesting. In the meanwhile, if you're a curious monkey like i am, you can as well connect to G4TV (if you speak english) or to Multiplayer.it (if you speak italian), and watch the same feeds as i am :DStay tuned! More About: News , Game
Standing by for an interesting MMORPG...
2008-02-18 05:00:00 Rohan Online Inserito originariamente da Abriael Even if right now my MMORPG time is split between Perfect World, Shaya and Warhammer Online's beta, there's a couple other MMORPGs on my waiting list. One is for sure NCsoft's Aion (that has just been confirmed as Pay to Play), the other is R.O.H.A.N. Online by YNK, wich is already seeing a lot of success in Japan and Korea. On October the 12, 2007, YNK announced that they would have released an english version of the game on the new english official website.As of now the site has been unfortunately completely silent. No more updates and no more announcements. Despite this YNK has replied to a few e-mails by the fans. They aren't telling much, but here's one of such replies as posted by an user on the MMOSITE forums: "Thank you for your interest in the English version of Rohan! We here at YNK Interactive are thrilled to be working on the English version of the enormously-popular MMORPG.While the announcement of the existence a... More About: Interesting , Nature , Human , Renaissance
Of sad events and cheap journalists...
2008-02-17 07:54:00 New York Post Noobs Inserito originariamente da Abriael Looks like there still are journalists (even if I'm not exactly sure they're worthy of such definition) that can't resist taking a cheap shot at videogames when something bad happens. About the recent rampage of college student Steven Kazmierczak, that caused several victims in Illinois, Mr MICHAEL SWIONTEK and Mr BILL SANDERSON of New York Post, didn't find any better explanation than the fact that the murderer used to play Counterstrike about 4 years ago. In the article they put a lot of emphasis on Mr. Kazmierczak's short lived video-gaming career, and skimmed on the fact that he wasn't taking his meds as it was an uninportant detail.Personally, I find this silly attitude some journalists have towards videogames terribly tasteless, and I always wonder what they think they'll achieve by spreading this kind of disinformation. One thing is for sure, Mr. Swiontek and Mr. Sanderson are what here in Italy we define "Ar... More About: Events , Cheap , Journalists
Japanese MTV: Final Fantasy IV Music video
2008-02-17 06:27:00 While here in the big west we get silly pop singers performing on our local MTVs, looks like in Japan they get something more suited to us Classy Gamers. Tonight I found this awesome music video of Tsuki no Akari (from Final Fantasy IV) sung by the extremely talented Ida Emi.It really brings back some wonderful memories...The more I see and hear about this new edition of Final Fantasy IV, the more I want to play it. There's no doubt it'll be a wonderful experience for old and new gamers alike... Let's just hope that Square Enix gives us the most awaited announcement of an english edition soon enough. Otherwise I'd have to go chain myself in front of their offices when I go to Japan this summer... [PV] Ida Emi - Tsuki no Akari (Final Fantasy IV Ai no Theme)Caricato da Takushutsu More About: Video , Music , Music Video , Nintendo
The Day of Defeat
2008-02-17 05:49:00 NHK announces the death of HD-DVD Inserito originariamente da Abriael The time has come. Today NHK (the japanes state television) reported that Toshiba is going to cease production of their now nearly useless HD-DVD readers. Even if Toshiba didn't officially comment on it, the ones who know the japanese TV system, know all too well that if NHK tells it's real, it's real.This brings an end to a really shameful page in Toshiba's history book. A period in wich the company faked a bostaful success of their format, getting to the point of denying evident reality while trying to trick some more uninformed potential clients into buying some more readers that now are basically useless pieces of Toshiba-branded junk.I have to say that i've rarely seen in my life such an unethical business conduct. Not only they denied that their format was in decline until the very end. But in the end we have to be informed of the death of HD-DVD not by the company itself, but by journalists, with th... More About: News , High Definition , Report
The console war taking a turn earlier than expected?
2008-02-16 06:41:00 The Console War rages on... Inserito originariamente da Abriael According to NPD, quoted by Reuters, the console sales for the US in January have been as follows: 274,000 Wii s, 269,000 PlayStation 3 and 230,000 Xbox 360 consoles. Since NPD data are normally pretty accurate, we can easily see a surprise in them. While lately the Playstation 3 had taken a solid dead in Europe, the US has always been the reign of the Xbox 360 (i'm not taking in account Wii sales of course, that's generally a whole different planet, with a whole different target, even if the data above shows that the gap for january was really small between the Wii and the PS3s). Now we have a sudden overtaking by the PS3, and not by a small margin, but by a whole 40000 units in a month. Of course both Nintendo and Microsoft executives hurriedly reported that there was a logical explanation, and their consoles sold less because of some shortages due to the huge sales during the holiday season. While this seems very... More About: News
The beauty of customization
2008-02-16 05:27:00 The legendary Tsukuba Express Inserito originariamente da Abriael I was playing some Forza Motorsport 2 on my Xbox 360, when i begun to think about customization and what an absolutely great added value it can be to a game. As many know, Forza 2 allows the users to customize the paintjob of their cars fully, trough a very complex decals system, to the point of creating some inccredibly beautiful pieces of digital art, that they can sell or share on the marketplace afterwards. I doubt few of the more experienced Forza 2 players will easily forget the unforgettable guys of Garage Setagaya: Yamada, Hashirya, Tomassi and Marv71uk. They made a name for themselves in the community by creating some incredible pieces of machinery, both in stunning visuals and in the tuning field. Their legendary limited edition red Tsukuba Express is still my all times favourite car to sport online. My own attempt at customization Inserito originariamente da Abriael More generally speaking, I've ... More About: Beauty , Customization
Backwards compatibility to come back on PS3?
2008-02-16 04:15:00 Rogue Galaxy for PS2, by Level 5 Inserito originariamente da Abriael One of my biggest gripes about the policy adopted by Sony for the PS3, has been the removal of backwards compatibility from the newest versions of the console. While I doubt it really lowered the console's production cost (passage from hardware emulation to software emulation sure did, but the removal of software emulation? i'm not that sure...), it significantly lowered the console's overall value (wich is of course still quite great, but the more the better), effectively barring it's users from access to a titles' library made by hundreds of pretty awesome games. A library that Sony's competitors couldn't effectiely compete with, i might add. Some might say that one can still play them on a PS2 (maybe on the upcoming new model), but anyone that owns an HD LCD TV knows how bad old-gen games look on such panels without the upscaling done by the older model PS3s. Well, it seems not all hope is lost. Eric L... More About: Back , Compatibility , Backwards
A quite great PSP Themes site
2008-02-15 23:53:00 My PSP with Valkyrie on the Battlefield theme Inserito originariamente da Abriael I wanted to share with you a really classy link tonight: PSP??????????? is a massive site that lets you download hundreds of the best japanese-made PSP themes around. The link i provided points to the by-date list, wich is updated with new themes once every few hours os so. So make sure to check it often to sew what's new.The site is in japanese, but it's really easy to navigate (and the themes can be downloaded directly from the PSP browser). Just click on the picture of the theme you like, and then, on the newly opened page, scroll down and click on the grey download button. Your new shiny theme will be selectable on your PSP's theme menu after the download.In my opinion, no western site even comes close. I wish there was a similar one for the PS3... More About: Playstation , Great , Site , Themes
Here?s the game that would make me buy a Nintendo DS
2008-02-14 23:06:00 The cover of Final Fantasy IV for Nintendo DS Inserito originariamente da Abriael On december the 20th the japanese videogaming community received a wonderful Christmas gift: the remake of Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS. In my Opinion, given the themes and the wonderful story, Final Fantasy IV is arguably one of the best games in the final fantasy franchise. The charisma of the characters (expecially the main one, the dark knight Cecil) and the depth of their growth trough the game, alongside the shiny new 3D graphics and CG cutscenes make this title a little gem that the classy gamer cannot miss.There's only one little problem. The game is available only in japanese as of now, and no date for an english release has been announced yet. One of my main gripes about the gaming market in the many years I've been a console player, was the sheer amount of great games that us western gamers are forced to miss due to the lack of an english localization. In the recent times the si... More About: Game , The Game , Make , Nintendo Ds
Popularity doesn?t always mean quality
2008-02-14 04:55:00 Matt Matthews at Next Generation published a very interesting analysis on the average scores earned by the games published on the PS3, on the Xbox 360 and on the Wii so far. As you can see from the graph, the results are quite surprising, considering how the Wii has been and continues to be the media's beloved baby (often in a quite disgustingly exaggerated way, I have to add as a personal note. There are a few things as disgraceful as a paid journalist oiling up a company just to showoff as an innovation-lover).Normally I don't really care about scores given by the press to single games, but Matthews analysis encompasses lots of data, and as such shows a trend, wich is definately more intersting from a statistical standopoint. The results are clear and undeniable: While the PS3 and the Xbox 360 are fairly near to each other (quite surprisingly with a slight advantage of the PS3, I say surprisingly because there's been a period in wich the press took part in real mudslinging cont... More About: Quality , Popularity
Will the new Square-Enix MMORPG be Final Fantasy Haeresis XIII?
2008-02-14 01:23:00 The french videogaming site Generation PS3 brought up an hypotesis on the new Square -Enix MMORPG that seems, so far, the most logical. They say that such MMORPG will probably be one of the four upcoming titles based on the Final Fantasy XIII timeline, titled Final Fantasy Haeresis XIII. This would identify it as the proper successor for Final Fantasy XI, that is beginning to show it's age. Again, this is just an unconfirmed rumor, so we'll have to wait for the 21st for it to be confirmed directly by S-E. Let's hope on some groundbreaking news.Source: Generation PS3
The Classy Gamer?s Suitcase
2008-02-13 16:24:00 A Classy Gamer is normally (not always, but most of the times) an adult, and as an adult he works a lot. As a worker he needs a suitcase that reflects both his class and his gamer's status, and needs to fill it with the proper items that will fullfill his needs trough the day. Today i'm unveiling mine.1: IBM black leather Suitcase, old but sturdy and reliable, but more than everything, classy2: A classy parker pen, to sign contracts with style3: Two spare pens4: Microsoft presenter 3000 Power Point remote. The clsssy gamer likes to make his clients/coworkers go "oooh" and "aaaah" when he shows off his presentations5: Laptop's power cord. Because the classy gamer never knows when he'll need to plug in to the lifeline6: Vivident Blast chewing gums. The Classy gamer loves his breath to be fresh, always7: Philips headphones. Because the classy gamer doesn't like to disturb everyone around him when he listens to music or plays8: Ligther. The classy gamer doesn't smoke. But he'll g...
New Final Fantasy XI website and new S-E MMORPG announced, coincidence?
2008-02-13 10:44:00 Square-Enix just opened a new website for Final Fantasy XI. At the same time they confirmed that they'll unveil some info on their upcoming new MMORPG (that according to previous rumors will be published for the PS3 and Windows Vista and is being developed by the same team as FFXI) at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.Is this a coincidence? I don't know, but as things stand now, everything is possible.After all it's more than probable that the leap of S-E in the world of next-gen MMORPGS will be another installment of their most important franchise. Maybe even a direct sequel of Final Fantasy XI. As someone that played Final Fantasy XI for four years, I honestly can't wait. My level 75 paladin on the Ramuh server gave me lots of pleasant memories.Now we just have to wait for February the 21st, when Square-Enix will finally give us the juicy news. I'll definately post on it again as soon as I sniff anything even barely confirmed.Source: FF7AC Reunion More About: Website
Games I?d love to see on Next-Gen consoles (Part 1: Justice Gakuen)
2008-02-12 23:02:00 This is the first post of a series in wich I'll talk about some old games or game series that I'd like to see again on the next generation consoles (whichever is good, I'm not format-picky, as long as i get them). The games you'll see in this kind of posts are games that I would define milestones of the gaming history, and that in my own opinion, don't deserve to be lost in the sands of time.The first one is the Justice Gakuen series (by Capcom), first published in as Shiritsu Justice Gakuen (Rival Schools in the US) on the Playstation and then as Moero! Justice Gakuen (Project Justice in the US and in Europe). Both games were wonderful examples of fast paced and exciting action, coupled with a compelling and original storyline focused on the rivalry between a few Japanese high schools. The characters also had great charisma, placing the foundations for an awesome series. One of the most interesting features was a "school life" mode, in the form of a quite extensive dating game... More About: Games , Love , Consoles , Dreamcast
is the ?remote waving? generation damaging the market?
2008-02-12 21:30:00 Looks like Nintendo 's success isn't damaging just it's direct competitors on the console market(Sony and Microsoft), but is also causing some pretty unexpected collateral damage. Namco Bandai announced on february the 7 that they'll close down around a fifth of their gaming arcades in Japan (causing their shares to plummet). An even more radical action was announced by Sega , that will close around 100 of theirs.According to Namco Bandai, this is due to the lack of earnings caused by the development of modern gaming consoles, expecially the Nintendo Wii, that caused an extreme productive trend of home-based party games, which before were regarded as an almost-exclusive of arcade entertainment centers (wich is actually very logical according to me, such games are definately better played in a place where lots of people can meet and have fun together).The decline of arcades might come of no surprise to western gamers, since on our side of the world they're mostly already dead and ... More About: Market , Remote , Waving
A new adventure begins...
2008-02-12 20:45:00 It was the night of december the 25th, 1984, when a very, very young me found a weird package under the Christmas tree. Unwrapping it almost idly (the previous gift was wonderful Lego electric train, so i was quite satisfied already), I found something that would have arguably changed my life. It was the compact keyboard of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the little computer that was regarded as the rival of the more acclaimed Commodore 64.More than 25 years passed since those glorious times in wich each time I wanted to load a game i had to wait around 20 minutes (and now people complain about having to wait 20 minutes una tantum to install Devil May Cry 4 on their PS3), and the videogaming market evolved at a breathtaking rate and to and reached goals I would have never imagined. The gaming community and many software houses fought tooth and nail to remove the label of "toys" to their favourite games, and in the latest years this attempt has been quite succesful.Now, unfortunately, the tr... More About: Adventure |
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