VideogameVagabond.com

Can a 45-year-old man maintain a marriage and a videogame habit? Let's find out!

Category Archives: Word on the street

Commentary: Gonzaga’s online master degree

I’m a huge college hoops fan and while the Gophers are always my team, I have long-noticed and followed the fate of Gonzaga University. I love that small school from a small conference underdog aspect of them whenever March Madness rolls around, though I rarely play them in Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2 or anything.

But now I’ve learned that Gonzaga isn’t just with it on the court, but in the classroom, too. They now have an online master degree program that rivals University of Phoenix and other online schools, because Gonzaga has a sterling academic reputation.

While my path is more religious in nature, I’m intrigued by their communication and leadership master’s degree program, although they also offer nursing degrees, servant leadership degrees, and degrees in organization leadership. They’re a Jesuit university, so it’s not quite my particular brand of religious training, but there are plenty of folks for whom they’d be an ideal fit. Too bad I already have a master’s degree in English, or I’d be at least looking into it more.

But wow, what a revelation! I thought Gonzaga was just about basketball, and here they turn out to be a whole lot more. The third-ranked university in the west, ranked one of the country’s best universities by Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine, and one of the few top universities to venture into online education and distance learning. Look out, UoP!

Old games I’d still enjoy

I got an email coupon from a local videogame store, Play-N-Trade, today; it offers 50-percent off any used game in their store. That’s awesome, because there are plenty of games I missed when they were new and spendy that I’d love to pick up now. I’m talking games that are not junk, that are almost as interesting as Fort Walton Beach hotels.

At the top of my list? The PS3 adventure game, Uncharted. Sure, the second installment’s out now and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looks great; but I’d have to pay way more for that, and why play the sequel if I haven’t touched the original yet.

Hopefully, they’ll have a copy available.

Hungry for a new great game

In the next three months, I intend to buy a new videogame, even though I have plenty to play. Mostly, I’ll do this because I’m hungry for something fresh and a lack of funds or slow trickle of free reviewables are not always great appetite suppressants.

The real question will be, which game should I get? If I restrict myself to games out before the end of the year, there are several real contenders.

I could easily get into Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the PS3. I also would enjoy Assassin’s Creed II with its gorgeous visuals. I wish Final Fantasy XIII were among my choices.

But in the end, one game stands out among all the rest; Dragon Age: Origins is my top choice for games coming out on either PS3 or the 360. That’s my most-wanted game for the rest of 2009.

Could Bret Hart return to WWE?

Could Bret Hart return to the WWE, even after pledging never to work on-air for Vince McMahon again as recently as seven months ago? It’s a deal that seems to be in the negotiation process. Word has it Hart is interested in returning to WWE as an on-air authority figure – perhaps as the new general manager of SmackDown, replacing Teddy Long.

While his appearance would certainly be memorable and unexpected, the kind of shock that could make this Friday’s ten-year anniversary of WWE SmackDown memorable, it would also be largely disappointing to people who sympathized with Hart over the infamous “Montreal Screw-Job,” as well as the death of his brother Owen and his years since his retirement griping about the McMahon family.

To reverse course at this late date to return as SmackDown GM would, for Hart, largely betray the fans who believed in and sympathized with him for the last dozen years or so. Given that Hart is also incapable of resuming an in-ring career, his return would also be a bit hallow at this point.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time a Hart return has been teased by WWE, and while it might still take some long distance moving companies and a lot of money to get Bret to sign, only time will tell if this is actually going to happen or not.

Still, imagine being able to play as Hart in a WWE videogame again after all this time; if he does return, his image could once again be used in SmackDown vs. Raw.

Not getting reviewables makes one more discerning

Now that, for the first time in about a decade, I am no longer getting loads of reviewable games for free, I’ve found I’ve become a much more frugal and reluctant game purchaser. Simply because a game has a fascinating murder scene in a series of walk in tubs is no longer enough to pique my interest.

Overall excellence is what does it for me now, and even that, sparingly.

Of course, it’s not that I intended to fall out of touch with how spendy a habit videogames can be; it just happened because I was, by and large, not paying for many games. Even among those I received, I would often use many of them as trade-in credit towards games I really wanted.

I suppose it’s a good thing to get back in touch with how seldom most people can afford to invest in a new videogame. Still, I do miss my frequent freebies!

Yet to enjoy full PS3 1080p

I thought for sure when I got my PS3, then recently acquired a 1080p Sony Bravia, that I’d finally enjoy some PS3 games in full 1080p. Not so fast, though.

Turns out, a lot of early PS3 games were made in 720p only. That’s sad enough, but when I finally popped in Prince of Persia, I was expecting 1080p greatness until it read “720p.” I was confused and then read the fine print on Prince of Persia’s cover.

Turns out, 1080p on Prince of Persia is only possible with an HDMI cable and a TV whose HDMI outputs support something called HDCP. What? Ripoff! My PS3 is a Sony product; my TV is a Sony product; and still no 1080p? Total ripoff. I’ve come away far more satisfied from experiences with online storage.

(Not that 720p isn’t pretty… but it’s not 1080p pretty.)

No Acne Tycoon yet?

Considering how widespread the sim market is, I’m surprised no one’s made Acne Tycoon just yet. I mean, it can’t be any worse than the 500 other ideas that focus on weird industries. I mean, I’ve even seen a graveyard simulator, so why not one that focuses on researching, testing and marketing acne treatments?

Sure, it’s kinda gross. Sure, it seems trivial. But you never know. I never thought I was going to like Lemonade Tycoon until I tried it!

No longer with Dignews

After nearly a decade of being a professional videogame reviewer and/or Web site editor, beginning with SonyWeb.com (now defunct) and extending to Dignews.com, I am now a bit of a free agent in the videogame journalism field. My tenure at Dignews.com ended earlier this month.

What that means is this: my blog, VideogameVagabond.com, is now the best and only place to locate my journalistic ramblings on the videogame world. I’ll get to review only what I want to review, and perhaps I can refuel my passion for videogames due to this new focus.

Now, the parting of the ways was professional if not exactly a dance through a fantasy wonderland, but contrary to fictional reports, it had nothing to do with drug rehab on anyone’s part; I’ve always lived a straight-edged life. In fact, as a newspaper journalist, I’ve covered several anti-meth presentations. The strongest thing I’ve ever imbibed is a glass of champagne… and that, only a handful of times in my entire life.

No, the truth is, after over 800 reviews over the past 9-10 years, I was just burned out by the pace I had to keep up with. Dignews is in great hands, even without my involvement. And hopefully I’ll recapture that early enthusiasm by restricting my effort to my personal blog, here.

Since when does cussing equal scary?

As I was playing my way into Fear 2 on the Xbox 360 recently, I noticed that the game was filled with profanity and it got me to thinking about how times have changed. A mere forty-some years ago, Alfred Hitckcock could scare the manure out of everyone without a single coarse word ever being uttered.

These days, profanity is everywhere. And it works as a real appetite suppressant against any types of games that use it, personally. I like scary games, for example, and love to be creeped out; but I don’t need to hear, or want to hear, some character hollering G——n every couple minutes.

The problem is, this profusion of profanity is not popping up as a suspense-builder these days, so much as a crutch for developers who can’t seem to scare anyone without the coarse language. What I wouldn’t give to see an Alfred Hitchcock of videogames come along and scare people without relying on the “easy intensity” of rough language.

Prince of Persia a gem

My wife and I just picked up Prince of Persia, the all-new PS3 version that was released initially last November, and all I can say is, Wow. The graphics are distinctive and detailed, and the action is beautiful to behold. While running along walls takes a bit of getting used to, the game has taken the innovation experimented with in Assassin’s Creed and launched it to a new level.

I was never a big fan of the Prince of Persia series prior to this, but it was the excellence of Assassin’s Creed that made me want to check it out; also, my wife simply loves action-oriented games, so she was interested as well. I think we’ll both end up pleased off this purchase. It’s a lot more satisfying than buying our dog and cat pet beds, anyway.

My favorite trend on PC in 2008

A person could get a case of Plantar Fasciitis trying to run around and keep up with all the developments in the videogame world; but one of my favorites is the emergence of retro sim games on the PC platform.

As console gaming increasingly takes over as being the home of high-def gaming, it is a return to the roots of gaming that seems to be thriving on PC. Hit PC titles that employ bleeding-edge graphics, like Neverwinter Nights 2, are getting rarer and rarer, but it is the re-emergence of sim games on PC that has really captured a lot of my gaming hours on PC.

Whether it’s Grey Dog Software’s Total Extreme Wrestling 2008, or Wolverine Studios’ Music Wars Rebirth, the past year saw this reviewer lose plenty of hours to this quiet little time thief of a genre. I expect 2009 to be no different.

My favorite game of 2008

It has been a long year full of good, even great, videogames. Some I’ve had the chance to play… some I haven’t. So when it comes to picking the silk ties from the cheap nylon ones, you have to realize that I can only go by what I’ve played, not what I’ve missed.

The year’s been full of great gaming experiences. I enjoyed seeing a lot of new SquareEnix titles, even if most of them were unexpectedly on the Xbox 360 instead of the PlayStation 3. And, as much as anyone, I loved Fallout 3. But when push comes to shove and I have to choose what game captured my heart the most, it’s really no contest.

Fable 2 was my favorite game of 2008. The game is just pure heart and, most importantly, it’s fun to play. That places the game head and shoulders above Fallout 3; for all its impressive achievements and cool visuals and such, one thing Fallout 3 fell short on was being fun to play. It was epic, sure; it was challenging and beautiful. But it wasn’t as much fun as Fable 2.

And when it comes to videogames, when it all boils down to basics, being fun to play is ultimately what counts the most.