Video Game Sandwich

Blog Banter is a group of bloggers passionate about anything and everything video games. We enjoy getting together once a month to write about the same subject. You will be amazed at the different viewpoints so many people can have on the exact same topic! Links to all the participant’s articles can be found here. If you are interested in participating, contact bs angel for more information. Enjoy our stories!

A gaming new year is a happy new year, as someone once told me. I can’t particularly remember who that character was, or if in fact that character even exists. Heck, for all I know I could have gone on a wild drug binge over christmas and materialized a cavalcade of imaginary friendships… The fictional ones are nice… They understand me… NO, Louis! Snap out of that unfortunate dungeon you call insanity! The doctors don’t need to see you again so soon into the new year. You did promise you’d change, after all. And, alas, so I must. And with this subject of change comes the opportunity for new directives and the indulgence in new passions.

I see gaming becoming an even greater part of my life in this, the year ending eight. O-seven was a big one, arguably one of the greatest. We were treated to an incomprehensible influx of A-star titles, across a range of platforms, and if you weren’t borderline bankrupt by the time Christmas took hold you were no kind of gamer. This unrelenting and consistently sustained attack set the market on fire, but with such quality there’s a foreboding sense of vacancy on the horizon. We can’t have fantastic periods like this every season, after all. So now we must adjust to the idea of making the most of the games we’ve been spoiled over. This is where my new years gaming resolution steps through the narrative door with a healthy swagger, as my vow is now to invest a little more of my energies into those incredible titles I’ve missed on past generations of console. I’ve neglected entire platforms, and missed potentially fantastic experiences. As a Playstation devotee, I saw no need for offerings from the Microsoft and Nintendo camps. I therefore missed the Gamecube boat, and that XBOX airship was far beyond reach. I plan to unearth those old chestnuts that evaded me, however, and experience those moments missed. 2008 will be a retrospective year for Lou, I think, and one with prospects to look back on, as well as forward to.

Share This

The whole XBOX Live subscription system is a wonderful thing. Between the infrequent influxes of vaguely interesting demos, and the impossible amount of things Bill Gates forces you to pay for via his much prized, non-existent currency: Microsoft Points, you could be forgiven for thinking you were being overwhelmed with spoils. But then the thought adorns your brain like a rubber glove that this isn’t, after all, why you’re here. At the end of the day you can forgive the 360 team for their shortcomings because the true nature of XBOX Live is its community, and the allowance for building one; a social environment you can sprawl in. You pay for this service to play games online, be that with friends or not. XBOX Live Gold is your ticket to the chocolate factory, but what then happens when the Gold suddenly, tragically slips away?

Only a matter of weeks ago I lost touch with Gold, and was relegated to the realms of Silver. A harsh, cold place. A place that, with its sheer existence, taunts your every moment on the 360 Dashboard. You can see it all; the latest demos, videos, e.t.c., and all of the games your friends are busily hammering away at together… But that’s all you’re getting; a glimpse of that happiness that could well be yours, if only you weren’t such a disgusting peasant! You are now a gaming leper. Sure, you may have had friends before, but they’re gone now! You’re now the infected, and they are the survivors. The circle has joined, and you’re on the outside, so what now? I was left feverishly scurrying from site to site looking for some sort of access to this world , and fortunately I found a way . In what seemed like the 360 equivelant of dressing up like a police officer and following the force around I had acquired a 48-hour trial; you’re a part of the team for now, Lou, but it’s a matter of time before the truth catches up again.

Fortunately my brother rescued me from the depths of this inner turmoil and despair, buying me an XBOX Live Gold subscription for Christmas. No longer will I spend each night crouched in the bath tub, scrubbing my skin away with a steel scourer. I am now cured, and when confronting members of my friend list they no longer grimace with disgust. I hear everyone is welcome on PSN? Sounds beautiful, but right now it’s more of a cult than a community. I’m waiting to see if PSN release a statement in encouragement of a mass suicide event, if they don’t then I guess its safe to assume they’re shooting for the right stars, and I may be swayed on a Playstation 3.

Share This

The removal of Gamespot.com editor Jeff Gerstmann has released a rip tide of ethical and professional questions, and like fallout from some sort of virtual A-bomb the effects have settled for miles. Whether or not it’s openly admitted and acknowledged gaming publications and websites now face an era of transition. An ethereal connection between writer and reader has been severed, and a period of modern McCarthyism has begun as every journalist in gaming is now subject to a moral witch hunt. The feelings surrounding these circumstances have spawned their own incarnation of nihilism as readers find themselves betrayed by their faux-Gods; their all seeing eyes and guiding lights. This leads the reader to beg the question: with the abandonment of God, with whom does salvation then lie? In the midst of such skepticism and such suspicion who has one left to trust other than one’s self?

For all of the speculation regarding the manner by which journalism will handle Gerstmann Gate, there’s has been a vast oversight of how important it then becomes that the reader inherits power. It’s almost as if the veil of naivety has fallen and pupil becomes master. Those who placed their belief in mass media have taken their understanding of the platform several steps further, and have endowed within themselves the initiative to weigh-in and judge various factors against articles. Critique becomes less a conclusion and more a perspective. Pre-Gerstmann Gate a review by your favourite website or magazine sold you on the game, now it’s barely food for thought. The reader has been enthused with the savvy to dissect a spectrum of journalistic sources and pick those carcasses for the chunks that count. This is the only real way we as readers, as gamers, even as people can grow to use the mass media, rather than letting the mass media grow to use us.

Share This

After an unfortunate vid-e-ya game hiatus I managed to find myself at the helm of a rather long (12 hour) session of Bioware’s Mass Effect on the good ol’ Xbox 360. I have to say that I’m still not blown away, and if I’m brutally honest it’s samey- you find yourself searching solar systems, finding a planet to land on, killing some guards, going into a underground laboratory (which is always 1 of 3 variants), killing some more guards and then jetting off again only to repeat the process tenfold.

 To me this doesn’t have the magic that Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic has. KOTOR made me want to hunt out all the information on various races of the galaxies and actually listen to what the storytellers had to say. I’m constantly finding myself skipping huge amounts of dialog in Mass Effect, as I just don’t care anymore!  

Another huge let down in Mass Effect are the items you receive via raiding/questing, or the lack thereof. The only goodies you will receive are weapons. Where’s the cornucopia of space booty seen in KOTOR? This also means the money system is completely useless, why would you buy a weapon 3 levels bellow what you just found, for half of your credits? 

*Sigh* 

See I’m actually really pissed off right now as this isn’t the game I wanted and I still don’t get why it’s so widely praised! “Bioware..” *shakes fist* “..Why I aughta!” Saying this I am still going to play until completion. By golly I hope to God that I will be writing a retraction stating how wrong I was! 

(P.s. Yes it’s a lame title but it’s all this little engine could muster with all that cold weather out there!) 

Share This

Mmm, shoot the jay indeed. 2k Sports’ Basketball franchise is like the cool older brother to EA’s NBA Live series. The younger tyke might have all the savvy of a more hip sibling; listening to all the most current jams and dressing all fly and what not. But dammit, the boy just don’t have the knowledge! He does not possess that sensibility of the game that comes with extended maturity. That much has been apparent, and NBA 2k6 is one of the few Achievement Whoring titles that it hasn’t completely pained me to play through. Ironically, however, it was also the easiest, and you can max out the game’s 1000 achievement points within the space of a single game.

Now, if you’ve read any other of my Whoring articles then you’ll know I’m not the most American Sports-savvy guy this side of the Atlantic ocean. I play the games, sure, but you ask me to explain the rules and merely I’ll stand idle, cross-eyed, like a toddler who’s just filled his diapers. Fortunately a lot of the business involved with my NBA 2K6 success was reasonably straight-forward. I know what a rebound is, and I’ve scored a few three-pointers of my own (takes sharp, self-indulgent breath in) so the rest is elementary. I was quite stumped over the concept of this Triple-Double business, however. That, to me, sounds like a paralytic measure of alcohol. Or a special kind of hamburger, designed with the sole intention of giving you heart disease. The former I could quite possibly handle, but the latter is something I’d like to avoid for a few years yet. Of course, with some research I managed to figure out that a Triple-Double was achieved when a player scores 10 or more of three different statistics (10 points - 10 assists - 10 rebounds, e.t.c.)

As I’ve mentioned, all of this can be achieved in the space of a single game if you’re a sharp enough player. Go into the options and mess around with the sliders to give yourself an incomprehensible advantage over the opposition (bump up those 3 pointers, and rebounds), set the quarter lengths to 7 minutes or more, and then when it comes to team select go with the Easter All-Stars as Shaq will be your man for the Triple-Double.

This process takes all of about 30-45 minutes. I had to use two games to get the job done, but that’s only because I’m certifiably mentally retarded when it comes to basketball titles; you’ll likely do it in one.

Share This

Gerstmann fo’ lyfe!!1

Share This

This article is funny.This game sounds like a caricature of modern thought and action. Whether it’s fully intended to be or not, I’m unaware.

Share This

So I’m sitting there one all of a sudden pops up this console update notice. Now, I’m not expecting any other updates to swing my way any time soon, so naturally I know what one it is. The console restarts itself, and to my horror I get a series of crazy, 8-bit colours. Here I am caking my draws thinking my XBOX has finally resigned to fate and handed itself over to tech heaven, but I go into Console Settings > Display > and mess around with the PAL settings and suddenly I’m back in my comfortable next-gen world, encompassed in all the colours of the rainbow (well,  a variety of greys and yellows, as my theme dictates).

Anyone else get scared witless like this?

Share This

Unfortunately my life isn’t a game. I’m not awarded achievement points for washing dishes, or cleaning the toilet. I can’t plummet from several stories and regenerate, as fresh as a daisy, outside the nearest hospital. And dammit, if you leave me idle for longer than 5 seconds I wont tap my wrist and shrug. The sooner I learnt to appreciate my unmistakable mortality the better, as I would get nowhere strafing left and right through my local mall and making plasma gun sound effects whilst pointing at hapless strangers. That would ensure me nothing short of an asylum stint, and a very shady social presence thereafter. Well, while my life isn’t a game, gaming is a big part of my life. And here are two glorious moments from both past and future that have punctuated my existence and inspiration as a gamer…

Old School

Gaming started relatively early in life for me. When I was four years-old my brother, then around fifteen, had managed to get his greasy, pubescent mitts on a ZX Spectrum. He’d traded half a packet of cigarettes for this system, with a shoe-box full of games (ah, the wonders of befriending stupidly rich idiots). I was in awe of this spectacle. This thing called video gaming. I would sit for hours at a time playing Batman in glorious, ultra-low definition (there were probably all of about 3 colours on screen at the same time, which, upon afterthought, was probably groundbreaking for a system whose games came on cassette). It was marvelous, and from then on the virus had caught hold. It had stolen me like some sort of glorious bodysnatcher, only, instead of deducting my personality, it reinforced it ten-fold. What kinda kid would one be without an irreverently encyclopedic knowledge of Sonic the Hedgehog, or Kid Chameleon. What disaster of a human life would I have become if I could not recite every part of the soundtrack from Super Mario Bros. 2 in all its midi glory?

Gaming ran through me like blood, but it was one fateful winter season when it became more than entertainment. It became a device of communication; a legitimate, inspiring medium of story-telling. The game was Final Fantasy VII, a piece of work that, to this day, remains my most favourite game of all-time. Every function of this game changed my perspective on the medium it had touched down and blessed. But the defining moment of this experience, when I knew just how effective the experience was, is when Ariel dies at the hands of Sephiroth. That sequence left me genuinely emotional, as if I’d lost some sort of virtual sister. For days after I would gaze out of the window at school, reminiscing on the times me and that buxom videogame-hottie spent together; my friends, understandably, were confused by this. Thanks to the wonders of pre-teen repression you didn’t often encounter melancholy 11 year-olds, let alone ones mourning the loss of a nonexistent Japanese girl. Fortunately I was not committed, but the experience left a mark on me. It revealed the sheer weight of impact gaming CAN have, and from then on it became less a pass time, and more an overwhelming passion.

New School

The emphasis I placed on story in that last article ties the loose ends between my old and new school gaming landmarks, for it is another plot device in this next-gen arena that left me in awe. Between Ariel’s departure from my virtual life, and present day I had done a lot of growing. I’d navigated those troublesome teen years with plenty of help from Sony and Nintendo, and while it’s easy to say I’m now a maladjusted head case with little or no perspective on life and responsibility, I’d much prefer to call myself… unique! Yes indeed, that’s a much nicer word than those other ones! Several consoles, and several years later I find myself with an XBOX 360 and very much loving it. I’ve played some fabulous games on this loud chunk of fun, many of which have sent me on a roller coaster of impressed noises; excessive oohhh’s and aaahhh’s were gasped indeed. But the one game that really tipped the balance and sent me back to that “Ariel’s dead?!” place I’d lived inside my head nine years prior is Bioshock. If you’ve played the game for long enough you KNOW the twist, but if you haven’t then to write it here would be doing you a great disservice. You shouldn’t even feel compelled to look for spoilers, because if you have any self-respect as a gamer you’ll want to experience this twist yourself. All I can say is that while the story of Bioshock, on a whole, far surpasses most tales you’ll find in modern cinema, its twist defines its creation. And in my eyes Bioshock is, narratively, the Citizen Kane of the gaming era; pushing so much, and asking so much of its player that you don’t control the experience, rather it controls you.

I Didn’t Go to School!

If you’ve been attentive enough up to this point you’ll know that that was some what of a little white lie, and I should feel awful bad for having said it. I just liked the way the subject sounded with it on the end, though! Damn these jigsaw-like sentence in all their splendor!(For reference it’s also a line from Jr. High Love on the Desert Sessions 3 album, the song of which rocks considerable posterior.)

Other Blog Banter brain spasms:
Boffman22’s Memorable Gaming Moments (Boom Stick Brigade)

I love you Intellivision! (Boom Stick Brigade)

Just how much fun LAN can be! (Cat’s Blog)

Memoirs of a Young Gamer (Gaming with Baby)

To Memory Lane and Back (Play Your Station)

Hit the Reset Button (Thoughts and Rants)

Memorable Gaming Moments (Zath Games Tech)

Becoming an Ace and Dealing With Minsc (Delayed Responsibility)

Old School, Middle School, New School (lukeshep.com)

My Favorite Gaming Memories (8 Bit Brigade)

Old School, New School… I Didn’t Go To School! (Video Game Sandwich)

Share This

So I hears so I does, down that glorious imaginary grapevine we call the web world wide, that the XBOX 360 fall update will be touching down and blessing my system with plenty of virtual vitamins and minerals to keep that box ticking good and proper until Christmas 2008, but one aspect of this shiny new bundle troubled me: XBOX Originals.Just incase you’re several miles out of the loop, and the loop is written in a foreign language, and the loop is shouted at you, and you’re breaking down as a result of the overwhelmingly incomprehensible flurry of gibberish pounding your eardrums into submission. WELL FEAR NOT! Here’s the rundown…XBOX Originals will be an XBOX Live service which allows you to download 100% full XBOX titles (that’s right, not half a game, not even three quarters you damn swine! the whole freakin’ thing!) Now I hear you screechin’, ‘Well dammit Lou, what’s the catch?’ Hold your pants up, sport, because here it comes. The games will cost you approximately $15. Joke? No. That’s very much an actual fact with actual factual meaning, the kind which will surely make you want to punch someone square in the jaw. The kicker (as if THAT wasn’t it) is that they wont even be backing up this price tag with achievements. No way. That would be totally whack! Why on Earth would they actually want to provide us with some incentive on buying into this hair-brained scheme of theirs… that would be sheer craziness, on the kind of scale that starts wars. We’ll have none of that nonsense!As citizens of the cyber age, all loved up on short, snappy information and results, here’s a simple perspective on my take on this…

• $15 on XBOX Live will by you… A virtual, non-existent game. It lives solely on your XBOX, and has no after-sale value whatsoever.
• $15 at gaming store in your area will by you… 1, 2, heck maybe even 3 original XBOX games. These games WILL exist, and you WILL be able to touch and caress them (depending entirely on your fondness towards video games). They WILL carry some measure of value should you ever require emergency crack money.

Thank you, Microsoft, for your incredible foresight. Would you like a finger while you try desperately to bleed me dry? Help yourself.

Share This