Replay value has always been a big deal, but perhaps now more then ever is it important to modern gaming. When a new game costs you 60 or more dollars after tax, getting your moneys worth is a big deciding factor. The first things people think about are usually...

1) How long is it? (How many hours to complete?)
2) How big is it? (Is it expansive, open ended, can I explore?)
3) How's the multiplayer? (Does it even have it and will I care to play it?)

More and more though, players are looking towards Achievements as well. (AKA Trophies for PS3 owners) Achievements are an artificial way to extend a games life without having to actually create and develop more content. Some game companies have incorporated them into their games with great success, while others have failed badly to make them worthwhile. An example of a simple achievement might be: Kill 500 of these bad guys. Then once you do, you get some points as a reward.

The value of achievements of course, is ultimately up to the gamers themselves. Most gaming companies actually keep track of an individuals total achievement points spread across all games, and give you a total point score. It's a way to show your experienced not only at certain games, but as a gamer in general. Depending on how difficult certain tasks are, you might get more or less points for completing them. For example, most games will reward you points for completing it. Most games will also reward you more points for completing it on a harder difficulty.

Some game companies though, go above and beyond with their achievements. Its very easy for some companies to just tack on rewards for doing basic things like finishing the game. However, few and far between you will eventually come across a game that you love to play and has fun achievements. Left 4 Dead is a prime example.

In Left 4 Dead, the achievement points are mostly rewarded for learning to do things that are actually important to be successful at the game. So you really WANT to complete the achievements. They will challenge you to do something very specific and once you've done so you're a better player for the experience. (Lets not forget, that they are actually fun which is important) You will be challenged to play the game again and again to get certain things done and because of how good the game is itself and how well the achievements are designed you'll want to. (Especially with friends)

On the opposite end of the spectrum completely are the achievements in the most recent Prince of Persia. They seem to "reward" you achievement points just for turning the game on. You will get the vast majority of the available points in a single play through, without trying. Once it's all over, you'll never care about bothering again. This game offers very little replay value comparatively speaking.

So what does all this matter? Well it's all about bang for the buck. Would amazingly fun and robust achievements have made Prince of Persia a better game? No, that's absurd. However, they would have added a lot more life to the game for those who did enjoy it and you simply cannot discount that. Achievements are now a major part of modern gaming. Game companies need to make sure they are crafted with as much care as the their games themselves. Because when they aren't, it shows.

I ended up rambling on about Street Fighter and Zangief for way to long. I also wanted to cover Civilization: Revolution today, but for the benefit of the 2 people who might actually read this stuff, ill keep this one short.

You know when a game company, advertiser or even a game reviewer talks about how a game is "streamlined"? You hear this mostly when a PC game company tries to port something over, or make a console version of their game. I usually don't think of this as a good thing. Usually it means the company has simply stripped out one (or more) of the more complicated features. Sometimes, because it doesn't translate well to console style controls but usually because they don't believe console gamers will enjoy it. (If they did, they would probably be PC gamers! /gasp)

Well, this might be one of the first games where "Streamlined" really means exactly that. The Gamespot review is dead on. The game is truly great. I have been very pleased, and also surprised because with very few exceptions, this genre has never really had a strong presence on consoles. I certainly don't mind playing these sorts of games on my PC, ive always done so in the past without issue. However, if I can have roughly the same experience while seated in my recliner watching my 40inch HDTV, you can bet ill take it.

+1

Street Fighter 4 is finally starting to come together a bit. I spent a long time trying to find the right character for me. I started out how most people do, with familiar characters. Ken, Ryu, etc. Eventually I started playing Sagat and had my first taste of success. I started moving up in rank, started getting achievements complete and ultimately got bored. That's not to say, I was ever good. I was good enough for what I wanted to accomplish at the time but that's about it.

I never really liked playing Sagat though. I liked winning with him, but ive never played him in past street fighters. It didn't take me long to realize that Sagat had a lot of great tools to fight against my closest rivals. (Real life friends) I didn't have to try to hard and I didn't have to practice much to be pretty consistent.

Enter: Championship Mode. Suddenly everybody has a reason to play again. A place to start over and a ranking system that's meaningful with some real structure. This is where I start to realize that im falling behind. The old tricks just don't work anymore. The old combo's just aren't coming out and I realize im not interested in being "The King" anymore. Not because im losing with him, but because I don't care that im losing with him. The desire was just gone.

So I messed around again. Played some Sakura and that wasn't really my style. I played some Akuma and as hard as I tried it just never came together. (Even though he's probably my favorite character, I know im so original right?) Though Akuma did one thing for me. He made me realize that I still have the desire to win; I just need to be playing the right character. Playing as Akuma I fought my way through Group 3 and landed face first in Group 2(E).

Then the pain began. Group 2 was immediately better competition then group 3. It was also the reality check I needed. I was not ready to be playing these guys with Akuma. All my best tactics were easily outdone and the punishment was brutal.

So some time passes and I hadn't played in a while. One of my friends decides to hang out and throw down a few matches. We throw back a few beers, the night is going well and everybody is having fun. But constantly, match after match he's getting the better of me. So drunk and getting annoyed I start sulking. Do I just suck? Do I need more practice? Is the controller holding me back? Is it the character? (And worse, is this as good as im going to get?) At this point I don't even care whom im picking, so I scroll over Zangief and the round begins.

Suddenly I hear frustration on his part for the first time all night. "Whoa man, where did that Gief come from?" Truth is, I have always played Zangief off and on over the years and various Street Fighters. He was always just "for fun" though. I never tried to play him seriously. I explained all this and got the most appropriate response ever: "Why the **** not?"

Indeed. I don't know. I honestly don't know why I never put that much together. Kept playing as Zangief the rest of that night. Though I never overcame the deficit of wins and losses from earlier, I evened out the ratio for the rest of the night. My gief kept receiving compliments, and I was feeling good about it.

I decided to take him online. Before I realized it, I started taking in some solid wins. What was most satisfying I think is, you know in your heart when you just get lucky sometimes. These weren't lucky wins. These were decisive, controlled wins. My night capped when I finally made it to a finals round, only to have my challenger disconnect at the end. That was good enough for me, at least at that moment. I might not have received the points, but the victory was mine.

Since then ive been practicing a lot. Learning his combo's doing the "homework". This is the first time since SF4 came out, that ive truly had fun trying to get better. Maybe it was just the character all along. Time will tell.

Yes, my wife is a gamer. Not just some BS "I like puzzle and RPG games" girl gamer either (You knows the ones im talking about). My wife is hardcore. If she gets into a game, she puts the time and effort into becoming the best. She doesn't just want to be better then our friends, or me. She wants to be better then anybody she'd ever play and she is usually pretty damn close. Anyway, im very lucky and all you slackers who haven't gone out and found your gamer girl yet can be jealous!

Here is a surreal conversation. Imagine you're just getting home from a rough day at work. You open the front door and walk into your living room. You see your wife, sitting in front of the TV.

Me: "Hey wife, what's up?"
Wife: Hey honey, im just working on the GOW2 Insane mode achievement
Me: You're playing Gears of War 2 on insane difficulty?
Wife: Ya I just wanna get the achievement. Do you have it?
Me: Uh.. no, not yet.
Wife: FAIL

UNRELATED:
Im sitting at my lunch break today (having pizza because I know you were interested) and in walks one of our engineers. He's a nice guy and the average gamer. I started trying to make small talk, things id read about etc. I know he plays some videogames but I try to avoid talking to him about it. Long story short of course, he knows I used to work in a game store, so the conversation drifted in that direction.

He starts talking about graphics. About how he's got a PS3 and that it's the best because it's got the best graphics, on and on. Personally I don't really care about what system I play a game on, only that the game itself is good. I have expectations from certain companies but no loyalties. I couldn't really care less about how powerful the PS3 really is compared to the 360 or Wii. I stopped caring about that stuff when I was 5 years old.

He starts talking to me about how "I have to play the best you know, and PS3 has the best graphics right now. The Wii and stuff, I mean its for kids look at those graphics, they suck" (Lets forget the fact that right now the Nintendo Wii is selling the most units at the moment.) How am I even supposed to have a conversation with this guy? I found out later he doesn't even have a HDTV. Seriously, how do you blow your money on a PS3 for the graphics alone, without a TV that can actually take advantage of it?

I threw away my pizza in disgust. Breaks over.

I really do. I worked in a game store for about 2 years and nothing was more frustrating then dealing with jackasses who's current favorite game ran parallel to whatever was being advertised the most. Why do you even bother those clerks with your questions? You never listen anyway, and the ones who truly love gaming and could answer you give up after hearing "Okay ill just buy Madden" countless times.

I was looking through my collection the other day, and saw some games id consider classic. Eternal Darkness, Beyond Good & Evil, you know what, im not going to list them because you don't care if there isn't a commercial to tell you to.

Also, stop trying to start up a conversation with me about the piece of crap you wasted your money on. Look, its fine with me if you want to justify a bad purchase to yourself, but im not going to suger coat my opinion to make you feel better. "Oh whats that? Face Breaker isn't bad when you're drunk, during a full moon, on a Thursday, for about 12 minutes?" Sorry, don't care. That games ass and you got ripped off for being stupid.

Seriously though people, do your research and most importantly... don't corner yourself into a certain "style" of game just because its what's popular. Look at racing games around the time The Fast and The Furious hit theaters originally years ago. Suddenly every racing game is about Street Racing, with glassy looking streets that are for some reason always wet. Sure, some of those were actually pretty good, but way to many were complete garbage that sold tons anyway because people want to buy games they perceive to be "cool" rather then actually good.

Let me be the first to tell you, if you're buying games to be cool, you're doing it wrong.

Okay, maybe that's not exactly fair. The newest Prince of Persia (Xbox 360 version) is actually a pretty good game. Sadly its also a pretty huge departure from what myself and im sure many fans were probably expecting.

This isn't a review though it will cover a lot of the game. Ill probably wright a real review at some point, but meh.

The "Sands of Time" games were all pretty good. I don't personally think they really needed to go down the path of gore and violence, but I guess the games dev's thought they could appeal to more people that way. They were probably right.

So I was immediately excited about this new Prince of Persia game. Then the excitement turned into disappointment, and slowly boredom. This game is flat out, too simple. Too its credit, the story line is a huge part of this game, and its actually pretty good. It has to be, it's the only thing really interesting going on.

The "platforming" is actually more of a rhythm game, or quick time event. You do little more then point the Prince in the right direction then make sure to press the right buttons in the correct sequence. Though it doesn't really matter if you don't, because you cant die.

Your constant partner through out the entire game is a woman named Elika. She is the main driving force behind the story elements in the game. She's also inexplicably magical, can fly and otherwise won't ever, at any point in the game, let you die. Even at its most difficult, simple trial and error will see you through to the very end. Its not at all challenging.

If that weren't enough, in order to progress through the game you have to collect "Light Seeds" which are the source of Elika's strange powers. (Not exactly, but cant tell you too much more then that). You need to have a certain amount to unlock her powers. The only way to continue to make progress is to unlock these powers, because that's how you access new areas. So you will get to a point, at least a couple times in the game, where you have to stop everything and tediously collect these light seeds.

I can keep going here. Guess what else? The light seeds only appear in an area you've "cleansed". So you have to go through an area full of evil corrupted bad guys, defeat the boss, cleanse the area and then go back through the same place, again, in its cleansed form to collect seeds.

But they aren't done double dipping their game play yet. Not by a long shot. There are 4 totalarea's to traverse through before you gain access to the final boss. Each of the 4 areas has its own boss as well. You will have to defeat each area's boss a total of FIVE times. That wouldn't be so bad, if the sub-bosses in each area didnt mimick the main bosses abilities nearly exactly. The sub bosses are a lot easier to kill, but your still basically fighting the same exact thing countless times.

So we have overly simple and often times flat out easy gameplay, mixed with repetitive enemies and tedious light seed collecting. I finished this game in about 10 hours. This was spread out over almost a month. I just couldn't sit there for more then a few hours at a time. What kept me coming back though, was the story.

Elika and the Prince gradually get to know each other, and along the way you get to know them. They are great characters, with great voice acting. The history of the games world is fully fleshed out down to fine details. The characters have a lot going on and the dialog (outside of random situational observations) never repeats. They managed to capture the story elements really well.

Its really nice to see a story driven game but at the end of the day, its still a game. I need some meat and potatoes with my bread please.

Another day, another small victory (and another small defeat)

I managed to get the "Untouchables" achievment today in Left 4 Dead. This brings me down to 3 achievments to complete (905/1000 currently). I dunno why but this seemingly (and in practice) easy achievement was just always out of my grasp. A big factor, of course, is having real team mates. My wife is always up to play, but 2 people leaves 2 faulty NPC's. Having 4 real players once again makes the difference. Still going for 1000/1000 as I can. Left 4 Dead is the first game ive ever cared about the achievments on. Valve did a great job here, and I hope more games in the future follow its lead.

+1

My closest friend is now "better" then me at Street Fighter 4. I take nothing from him, he has improved quite a bit at the game, but a good deal of that improvment came hand in hand with a new gamepad to play on. People keep telling me the Xbox 360 controller is holding me back. After watching somebody close to me instantly and noticibly improve after making the change.. im starting to become a believer. This was, previously somebody with about as much time to play and practice as I do (read: not much) The only thing he's changed was his pad, and he's the first person to credit the pad for his improved gameplay.

Heh... years ago you wouldnt catch me even trying to play without a stick, and now im debating if getting a new pad/stick of somekind is worthwhile. Funny how priorities in life change. Funny, but also frustrating.

Still struggling to complete my final few Left 4 Dead achievements. I think Ive got about 4 left at the moment. My wife and I along with 2 of our close friends managed to finally complete expert mode (Dead Air) for the first time. We had been so close to getting it done for what feels like months, but constantly stuck on the various finale's. This time though, we had a full team of real players (Makes a difference) and they were all people we're experienced working with in various games from the past (Makes a bigger difference)

There is something to be said for the AI "director" in the game though that's for sure. Ive never seen an AI go to such diabolical lengths to stop players from succeeding. Make no mistake, this game will own you if you aren't looking at every situation like a possible trap. So many times Ive been seconds away from reaching a huge goal or getting an achievement done just to have it ripped away, often in a way I could have never expected or predicted.

Though I suppose that's the beauty of the game. That's why we all still play it months later. The random nature of the game makes every play through different. Sure, there are enough things that are consistent that you can make some plans around. Potential spawn locations for weapons/pills/etc. Potential spawn points for tanks and witches. You can have an idea going into it what to expect, but its very difficult to strategies a game plan that actually suits any given situation.

I suppose thats what makes the Left 4 Dead achievments so much fun to work towards. Its also what makes some of them pretty frustrating. In the end though, the worth is upto the indivudual. Even if there were no points or achievments to gain, id want to do these for my own satisfaction.

Not only has it been a while, but im rusty. Very rusty. I knew my long term departure from console and/or arcade gaming would come back to bite me in the ass. Though it didnt take me long to sharpen my abilities in great games like, Left 4 Dead... Fighting games have proven to be an all together different story.

Well, not fighting games in general. Just one game. Street Fighter 4.

As a long time fan of the franchise (17 or 18 years now? hard to remember these days) I had convinced myself that it would be like riding a bike. Certainly some things are still second nature, but SF4 is just different enough... combined with my complete lack of practice in the last 4-5 years.. to reduce me to scrub levels of game play.

Now, im told from many many people that the controller is a difference maker. In fact everybody I know in real life who plays it besides myself, have replaced their stock 360 controllers for something (anything!) slightly better. Im not going to be so quick to blame a controller.. sure I grew up on the sticks, but ive never let a pad hold me back. Maybe in this case though, I dont have much of a choice. Ill have to get used to it, or fork over some change on something decent and im not quite convinced I need to go that far just yet.

First I need to improve myself before I improve my weapon of choice. A fancy pants new stick or pad will do me no good if my reaction time stays this terrible. I need to know how much is me and how much is the controller. Its true that nobody wants to be stuck fighting their controls harder then their actual opposition. But I also believe people are too quick to blame outside sources for their own failures and are quick to make excuses in order to bolster their own ego's. Well, I dont have an ego, not over fighting games anymore at least. Ill be the guy online with the "In training" title.