Justifying Your Purchase

How many of us buy with the hopes of a long future with our toys, only to be stuck holding the Super Scope 6? [Sorry, the Nintendo Scope 6 for our foreign readers]

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Season's Beatings Redemption: Photos

Season's Beatings 2010: Team USA vs. The World

The event just ended. Literally minutes ago and I've been hard at work uploading photos. Expect a more formal wrap up tomorrow of the event [sorry, I'm incredibly exhausted]. What you should know is that Team USA beat Team 'The World' in an incredibly close match 13 to 12. Yipes beat Chris Schmidt in a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 exhibition as well as the official Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament. Daigo was eliminated earlier than expected in the Super Street Fighter IV by Andre. Gamerbee ended up winning in the grand finals against Momochi, so the Super Street Fighter IV character tier is kinda wide open. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Super Street Fighter II, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Blaz Blue: TS and more -- were all played, I'll try to gather as many results as possible.

In the mean time. Be sure to check out the photos here! Season's Beatings Photos!

Duke Nukem Forever: Reverse Excitement

Image courtesy of Wired

I don’t normally write about the current events in gaming and when you’re done reading this you’ll probably understand why. The trials and tribulations of [at the time] 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem: Forever has stood as the secret handshake amongst most hardcore gamers and game journalists in-the-know. If you knew about the ill-fated 3D Realms 13-year development struggles of one game, then you were inducted into some sort of nerd ring where complaining about screen-tearing and boob physics are the norm. So, in short, I don’t get it.

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Nier: Justin McElroy Dies For Our Sins

Unfortunately for Mr. McElroy of Joystiq.com fame, I have moved Nier up into Gamefly queue. Why? Well it has been a whole month since I've played White Knight Chronicles so I am tempted to see will there be another game that surpasses that bland and boring piece of work. But this, I mean, wow. Fish catching.

People learn from Justin's and my [eventual] mistake. Don't let his pain and torture be in vain.

What I Learned From Play Magazine

Play Magazine's Final Issue

 

Prior to the collapse of both Play and Geek Magazine I sent Dave Halverson a couple of interview requests that I guess fell on deaf ears. After reading the forums and Frank Anderson's interview about Play's demise I began to reflect on what could be learned from the events that lead to -- what some think -- was inevitable. It's obvious to see that the world of print media needs a consistent audience, but Play's misfortune has shown what makes the game journalism audience so incredible and detestable.

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Frank Lantz Article On Game Design Advancement

Sir Frank Lantz of Area Code Inc wrote a damn interesting article on game design and the likely or unlikelihood of the probability of events occuring in games. This article is a result of several panel discussions at PAX East this year. Most notably, Lantz's focal point of the article is the topics discussed during the Rob Pardo and Sid Meier which talked about how game design should focus on adjusting to how a gamer plays as opposed to the gamer stumbling upon choke points of events.

Game Design Advance >> The Truth In Game Design

Self-Indulgence: 1up's Mike Cruz Interviewed Me And Its Awesome

Some months ago Mike Cruz asked me to answer some questions and submit a couple photos of myself [probably so he can photoshop my head on that of a Griffin's...standard], but I completely forgot about the interview because it took place late last year. To my surprise he included me with some of the best and bright[er] minds over on 1up. It was fun, any time I can reference Hamburger Helper in an interview.

P.S. Gamemaster is the only reason 1up exists.

Where Do You See Gaming Going? The Indie Scene

I'm Sure They're Very Nice People

The fourth installment of my ongoing analysis on the many directions the video game culture is/could be headed. The above picture has nothing to do with gaming at all.

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Where Do You See Gaming Going? Part 2: Advertising

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Shameless Pimpery: Gamepro & Bitmob Team Up For You!

1UP alumni lives on in many ways this new year. Ex-editor-in-chief, John Davison, wields executive status over at the newly rebooted Gamepro and has reached out to a site that I spam with all the articles originating from the lovely Brog. Bitmob is a gaming community site dedicated to exonerating quality writing and illuminating the many faces of the gaming world. It seems like a match made in game writing heaven that both entities are offering fellow writers out there a chance to be in print.

Deets after the jump...

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