and

Yea, I had nothing to do. :P

My second Hype Thread for System Wars is in the works.

It will be posted as soon as we get word of the release dates. :D

I just made my first hype thread ever. It's for Super Mario 3D Land. LINK

Today on the HotSpot (GameSpot's Weekly podcast) they tried to answer my trivia question..and failed. :twisted:

Let's see if you guys can do any better and successfully answer the very same question that the Hotspot Crew failed at.

"Name 5 games that Hideo Kojima has worked on outside of the MGS series."

I want to do something new for the New Year, so I came up with this. Here I will list my Hype on upcoming games as well as a description of the game. Lets get started.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

BY: Capcom

Release Date: 1/11/11

Systems: DS

Price: $29.99

Pre-Release info taken from Amazon.com~

• Manipulate the physical world through supernatural possession - take control of inanimate objects and change the world
• Change the fates of those around you - return to the four minutes before a character's death to stop it from happening
• Text adventure combined with logic puzzles makes for an exciting new challenge on the Nintendo DS
• Over a dozen engaging chapters filled with entertaining, interrelated puzzles
• Unique visual ****and character designs

This game caught my eye after Gamespot hosted a demo of it on their site. The Rube Goldberg feel of the puzzles makes you think out of the box to try and solve them. The animations in this game is SO clean and lively in becomes fun to watch. I hope this has a good story. There is also a Downloadable demo of the game on the Nintendo channel right now.

Links: Demo/ Gameplay

Gamespot Hype: 8.5

Chance of purchase by me: 80%

Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded

By: h.a.n.d

Release Date: 1/11/11

Systems: DS

Price: $34.99

Pre-Release info taken from Amazon.com~

• Endless possibilities in the Avatar Menu
• Players can design their own avatar using over 800 unlockable parts and trade playable maps with friends
• Guide Sora like never before through boss battles inspired by side-scrolling, shooting and ****c Final Fantasy games

Just noticed this game is coming out in January while writing this. I've only played KH2 before and I did enjoy it. I'm not to hyped over this game, but it may be a good birthday gift.

Links: Hands-On

Gamespot Hype: 7.5

Chance of purchase by me: 20%

There you have it, the first Hype-O-Meter. I'll try to do this every month If some more games I like come out. Post your thoughts.

*UPDATE*

Video games not equal to accepted media?

By DSmon

Why are video games shunned by sociality? Why are video games not as prodigious as books, poems, or films? What I'm asking is why are games considers a plague on our young minds. First we have to consider why games differ from books and movies. Then we have to see the general public stand on these games and why they are not accepted as what they are, a great work of art.

Games can be just as powerful as a well written book.

Games to Books: If I walk up to my teacher and said that I read this book over the weekend she would ask me about it and carry on a conversation on it, but if I walked in and said that I played this game about war she would think that I have wasted my time on a game killing people when I could been reading "Lord of the Flies" or "Hamlet". Why are games considered brain numbing violence and not as well told stories like they are? What really makes a book a book? A book must contain one thing to be considered a story, conflict. Conflict is a problem or trouble with one or more things that the main character must face. I believe that most games you have played have had at least one or more conflicts involved that you, the player, must face. It could be trying to save the world from a nuclear holocaust or trying to save the princess from the evil turtle dragon thing. The only problem is when the player rejects the story and just goes for what you can do in the game. This happens in a lot of sandbox games like Grand Thief Auto, where the player skips all of the reason why you are stealing this car and just uses it to run over people. I'm not saying GTA is a bad game, I'm just saying that when you skip the story you are missing out on the whole point on why you are here in this world of GTA. This gives the non-gaming community a chance to jump on these games and show everyone what horrible influence this games have which is not really true because they are not looking at what the game has to offer. This stereotypes games as being a plague on this new generation and if these new players play these games they will start to steal cars and rob people which we all know is not true. If any game shows violence or death then people will reject it, but it is o.k. to show these things in books like "Hamlet" where everyone dies. This is acceptable in books because sociality has accepted it. Why can't this be true about games? Where is the difference? Even President Obama said we need to spend less time with games and more time with books. Why are games being punish for what they have to offer to this next generation?

Is this why games are not praised as what they are?

Games to Movies: Movies are not as accepted as much as books, but they are better than video games are. Movies show more gore, blood, and love scenes than some video games do. So you would think that people would stereotype them just like games, but people don't, at least not as bad as games. Movies have about an hour and a half to present to you there tale of love, lost, or revenge and to show you why you should listen to its tale. How can you feel for the main guy when you have such a little bit of time with him? This makes it hard for the viewer to connect with the protagonist on why he is after the terrorist or trying to save his friend. In a game you mostly play as the protagonist and when you play as him, you make the calls on what to do in the pickle you're in and how you are going to fix everything, this is mostly true for RPGs. I love movies and I would be destroyed if they all disappear for some reason, but I don't think they can connect you like games do. You spend x amount of hours moving your new friend through this world. You have won blazing firefights, you have killed the great dragon, and you saved the girl. You have been through the best of times and the worst of times with this character and now you must say goodbye as you watch the credits roll. I just don't feel like this when I watch a movie because I end up not really knowing the character at the end; you just haven't had the time to get to know this person. This shows me that video games can give you emotions just as a book or any other media can, but why do will push away games as a waste of time when in fact they can be the best of times. Why, just why?

Do you feel for him?

Final Note: I would like you to post on your thoughts on games being labeled as un-academic when in they are on the same level as books and films. I would also like you to know that I play games about 6 hours a week and enjoy every bit of them. This has been my first blog and I hoped you liked it. I might add to this if more comes to me.