I'm refering to games as art. I found it interesting that in The_Druggies recent soapbox entry, I noticed a blacked out comment by grigjd3. Being curious I had to find out what it was. His response to the blog?

Why does it matter?

So it looks like instead of getting a response he got lots of thumbs down. But I'm curious. Why DOES it matter? It has been talked about a lot over the last couple of years, and I'm not ready to put myself in either camp, for or against. But if Roger Ebert turned around and proclaimed that games were art, what would change? I'd still be enjoying games like I am now. Maybe it would mean we would have some more musuems devoted to video games (as I believe there are already some around the world), but I don't see this form of entertainment being validated as an art form having much impact on the industry or our personal enjoyment of it. Does it really matter?

Well, I finally finished it. It was a bit of a chore at times, but I did enjoy it most of the time. I've given Link To The Past a score of 7.0. I wonder how many thumbs down that review will get for giving this 'cIassic' game only a score of 'good'. I make up one of the people in the 5% of player ratings that scored it less than 8. But hey, I can only be honest with my feelings towards the game.

---

At the time of this writing A Link To The Past is over 17 years old. So how does this early entry in a revered franchise hold up today? While it has a simple premise and easy controls, the design decisions are a mix of great and dated.

You play the titular Link, who finds himself mixed up in an adventure to defeat the evil wizard Ganon and prevent him from conquering the Light World. The game takes place in an isometric view. Before long Link has access to a sword which will be your main weapon during the game. Link is also able to lift objects and throw them, though what he can pick up is limited to small items at first. Link can head into dungeons and houses, but everything is accessed from the overworld, and there is a handy map feature so you can see where you are, and your next destination is usually pointed out for you to make navigation a bit easier. The overworld is well designed, as there are places that Link can't reach at first, but as he acquires new items he will be able to access additional areas, and you will usually be able to tell what you may need to reach that new destination.

A short time into the game after defeating the first incarnation of Ganon, you will be transported to the Dark World, which shows off another aspect of great design, even so many years later. The geography in the Dark World very closely mirrors that in the Light World, but aside from the enemies, people and shop placement, there are some other differences. With the help of the Magic Mirror, you can transport yourself back from the Dark World into the Light World. By taking careful note of the differences in georgraphy you can transport yourself back into the Light World in a location you couldn't reach before, to reach new dungeons or acquire new items. While the first few hours will be collecting a few essential items you need before your first battle with Ganon, after this point the dungeons you will need to overcome are all in the Dark World. These are all numbered on the map, and while you may be able to reach and enter a number of them, you probably need to finish them in order as the equipment required to complete or access a dungeon is often found in the one preceding it.

The dungeons are where you will find most of the challenge, in both the enemies themselves, various traps, as well as the puzzles and devious design. Usually not too far from the entrance you will find a basic map of the dungeon which shows you all the rooms on all the floors. It doesn't have details of what is in each room, but it is enough to get your bearings, as you will often have to walk back through some areas you have already been. You will find keys about the dungeons, which may be hidden in chests, or you may need to defeat all the enemies in the room. Some doors may be one way and close behind you, or sometimes they might stay closed until you defeat all the enemies in the room. There are some switch puzzles, as there are red and blue blocks which can bar your way; one will always be up, the other will always be down, but these can be changed with the flick of a switch. To progress in some areas this means smart use of your equipment to trigger these from afar. Other obstacles include flying tiles, rotating observation statues that shoot you if you are in line of sight, moving spikes, and more.

Many rooms contain enemies that can be defeated, and these are also quite varied over the course of the game. From skeletons that try and jump away when you attack, to cyclops' that throw bombs, to moving orbs that bounce you away when you attack, there are a lot of different techniques you will need to emlpy to overcome them. Things get further tricky later in the game as the combinations of enemies and traps/obstacles becomes more complex and challenging. Each dungeon also has a boss, and the difficulty of these is a bit varied; a few early ones I found quite frustrating, and some of the later ones a lot easier. These are usually larger enemies that may have an obvious weakness, and often it will be the item that you acquired in that dungeon. However, this is not always the case.

This doesn't apply to just bosses though; the game is riddled with secrets, but there is a problem. Whereby games today don't require you to find the secrets, or offer you pretty strong clues, A Link To The Past does not always do this, and some of those secrets need to be found and items acquired before you can progress. Other times things are obscure and don't make any sense. Minor spoilers ahead. For example, who would have thought that a bug catching net can be used to deflect a fireball? And after a few dungeons of losing health for falling down holes, one of the dungeons requires you to fall down a hole to progress, and if there was a hint that I needed to do this, I certainly missed it. I was also able to face the final boss, but I was unable to defeat him because I hadn't acquired the weapon I needed, but had no idea. I became stumped like this on quite a number of occassions in the game, and I turned to a FAQ quite frequently. Another frustration from time to time was running out of magic. A number of items at your disposal use up magic, and some are required to complete some dungeons. Granted, the first time I entered one of the later dungeons it did recommend not to enter if I had no magic potions, but it is frustrating if you mess up a section a couple of times and then have to go back outside to collect more before retrying. While the controls are generally very good, there were a couple of occassions when they felt a bit wonky; while swimming, walking on floors with ice, and a section where you direct a floating platform all seemed to lack responsiveness and were often frustrating as a result.

All that said if you know the items you are supposed to be using, the game is not overly difficult, but there will be certain bosses or rooms that will challenge you a lot more than others and may cause frustration until you can finally overcome them. As you progress you will find pieces of heart or heart containers, and these will increase your maximum health, and your sword, shield and armour will upgrade as you explore and find new items or talk to people. You can also acquire jars in which to keep faeries who can restore your life, or medicine to restore either your life or magic. If you die while in a dungeon, you can restart from the beginning, but any unlocked doors will remain so and you will retain any items that you had already retreived. In this way even if you die in a dungeon, you have usually still made progress and it often doesn't take long to reach the place where you perished.

I experienced problems with emulation on the Wii, where the screen would frequently black out for about a second, and this did not seem related to any heavy activity on screen. The volume of sound effects also varied frequently for no apparent reason. You will certainly curse if the screen blacks out while surrounded by enemies and it leads to your death, but this only happened to me a couple of times despite the frequency of the black outs. While some dated design decisions might have you looking up a FAQ to find out how you need to progress, it is worth it to see the other great design decisions and the basic action that still hold up well today.

Score 7.0

I will go play something else before I tackle Ocarina of Time. Gamespot gave it a perfect 10 on release, though only 8.9 on Virtual Console (I say only, that is still a great score for a game that old). The last 4 player reviews were all 10's... I wonder if I will get death threats if I think it only deserves a 7.5or something.

So I'm a little perplexed with Link To The Past. I know there is something obvious I'm missing here.

I'm at the top of the mountain, where you first enter the portal that takes you to The Dark World. Unless I'm mistaken, I can't see any way tp get down from here in the Dark World. I can use the Magic Mirror to get back to Light World. Regardless of whether I do that, once I've activated the mirror, I can't use it again and need to go back to that portal to enter the Dark Word again. So if I go back to the portal, I'm in the dark world again in an area I can't escape from.

How do I exlpore the rest of the map in Dark World? I have completed the castle and been transported to the Dark World and was able to explore somewhat (before I had the Moon Pearl) but had to come back to the light to get the Pearl. There is something really obvious here that I am missing. What is it?

The only Zelda I have ever finished is Phantom Hourglass for the DS. You could say I have finished Link's Crossbow Training, but I don't think anyone would count that as a proper Link adventure, and I don't remember if I actually 'beat' the last boss. Previously I had played Link To The Past on a friends SNES many years ago. I have downloaded the original NES Zelda and LTTP from Virtual Console. So I figure it is time to do something I've mentioned a while ago; a Zelda marathon and play all of the games... well, almost. I'll play every game that is available on Wii Virtual Console as well as Wind Waker which I own for Gamecube but have never played, and Twilight Princess. Of course, I've already hit a stumbling block.

Downloading the original Zelda probably a couple of years ago, I printed myself a map and played it for a while. I think I got to the fourth dungeon, maybe I completed it. But it really didn't keep me going. I think I was trying to like it, and it wasn't that it was particularly bad. Sure it was great for its time and perhaps even revolutionary, but it has aged. So knowing I was unlikely to last, for the purpose of the marathon I decided I would pick it up and gave it another shot last night. I lasted about 10 minutes. For one, I had no idea where I was going, and I was not interested in restarting the game. More importantly is that I just wasn't that interested in the gameplay. Being only able to move in 4 directions feels quite stiff. So while not strictly bad, I knew I already had a far superior game in my collection; Link To The Past.

So after my 10 minute foray, I loaded up Link To The Past. Given that it has been over a year since I tried to game (several hours of gameplay), I restarted my adventure. I've played it for a few hours now, and I've beaten my first boss, the set of knights. I ran out of time, but I think I might be at a stuck point, I can't remember where to go from here. The last thing I was told was to go to East of the lake, but I can't seem to make it. Where did I get those flippers last time I played so I could swim? I probably looked that up in a FAQ last time too. I'll try and refrain, but I did find myself checking a FAQ on several occassions on my last attempted play. The game is much better than its predecessor. 8 way movement makes a huge difference, even if you can still only attack in 4. The animation is smoother and the combat flows really well. While some areas are blocked until you have the right equipment It still has the open-endedness of the original, but has a map that highlights points of interest so it's harder to get lost. Even if I have to turn to a FAQ every now and again, I'm pretty certain I'll see this playthrough... errr... through.

Within my first hour of playing Link To The Past I realised I'd missed one and hadn't played Legend of Zelda 2. What do you reckon, skip or play for the sake of completeness? If memory serves, after Link To The Past that will leave me with Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. It will probably take me a while to complete this marathon; I will most likely play some other games in between to break them up.

At the start of this year, I decided to make up a list of games I was interested in, track them on ebay and see what prices they were selling for, and then only offer the lowest amount until I got it. I'm a patient gamer, I can afford to wait until I can get it at the cheapest price. I hadn't really looked at ebay for months, and probably still won't, but I decided to update the list, so I went through the game releases up to date. I have 99 games from this generation I'm interested in trying. Wowsers. There is no way I could play those games in the next few years, let alone the ones that come out over the next few years. And that is not including the downloadable titles I want to try. I think I might need to think about the lesser games on the list even if I think I will enjoy them and focus on the best ones. So I should probably remove some of the games like...

Timeshift. I finished this a while back and decided to write a full review for it, which you can find below. Does anyone find they have a huge number of games that they just know they aren't going to get through? On the plus side, I know that I will never be wanting for games. Interestingly I also noticed that I have 26 Wii games on the list. While that makes up less than the 360/PS3 games, and I freely admit that there are more of those games that I consider more desirable than many of the Wii ones, if that became my only system I'd still have a number of games I think I would enjoy quite a bit. Not bad for a system often maligned for its library.

---

Foreword : This review is for the single player portion only.

On paper Timeshift sounds like it has a lot going for it. Some interesting time manipulation mechanics sounds like it could be a nice twist on the first person genre, and while those ideas are fun at first, it doesn't hide the fact that the game is otherwise a generic shooter.

You are the wearer of a time manipulation suit, and that's about all the story you need to know. Mainly because I couldn't make sense of anything that happened. An attempt was made to keep the story in suspense by way of flashbacks, but this method fails miserably to give you any sense of where your loyalties lie or exactly what happened in the first place. All that seems apparent is that you are chasing someone else through time who was also part of the program that you were on. You go back in some alternate timeline, find some people who are willing to be your allies and don't seem terribly worried by your strange appearance or abilities, and that's about all that made sense.

But first person shooters are rarely judged on their storytelling. While there are a few interesting toys to play with, most of the guns are pretty conventional, and you can carry three at a time. Most guns have a secondary function, though I found myself sticking mostly to the same few guns and modes. There is no cover system aside from crouching behind anything that offers it or hiding behind walls. This would lend itself more to a run and gunstyIe though often that will get you killed rather quickly if you don't use your time manipulation abilities during combat. Timeshift adopts the regenerating health game mechanic, but if enemies swarm you it can be difficult to recover that health.

The time mechanics are what makes Timeshift different than most other first person shooters. The suit has its own energy bar that dictates how much you can use its abilties, and as you employ them it uses up that energy which regenerates over time. This falls into 3 categories; time slow, time stop, and time reverse. Each of these does exactly what it sounds like. With the tap of a bumper it activates the ability that is most relevant to your situation, whether environmental or in combat. If you are close to dying, it will activate time stop instead of time slow, although I often found time slow was actually better as it lasted for a longer time and allowed you to get to safety. You can always override it and choose a specific ability by holding the bumper and pressing a face button, but that can be difficult in the heat of combat.

At various points, the time mechanics must be used specifically to solve puzzles or overcome environmental hazards. Some examples are using time slow to navigate moving laser grids or time stop to walk through fire unharmed. Time reverse can be a bit tricker, as it makes things go in reverse, and then back to normal time. This might mean activating a lever to raise a lift some distance away, then reversing time while you travel to it. When normal time resumes, the lift will once again rise and take you to your next destination. However the game never seems to capitalise on these abilities. It feels like the same few puzzles repeated in slightly different ways. Worse is that the game often doesn't give you sufficient warning for some of the life-threatening situations that require your abilities. Sometimes it will give warnings, but usually you have no idea what is coming, and even if you press the bumper as the warning arrives you might still be heading in the wrong direction and to your doom. On the plus side usually the checkpoint is just before these events, but that smacks of the developer knowing it was highly likely players couldn't respond.

Speaking of checkpoints, these were poorly implented in other areas. It seems that as certain events unfold, a checkpoint is unlocked, but this led to some very poor checkpoints. One one occasion I died and went to a checkpoint to get shot in the back the moment I spawned. While not fatal, each of the several times I respawned in that area I had to take a shot in the back while turning to face my foe. In another zeppelin sequence, it checkpointed right before I died; as soon as I restarted I died within seconds and had to restart the entire level again to fix it.

The zeppelin sequence is basically an on rails shooter, but your time manipulation mechanics work here also. There are also some vehicles to drive, but these controlled horribly and were tedious. On some occassions I was driving along and clipped something and died instantly. Enemies can also shoot you accurately from a good distance away even while they appear as a few mere pixels down your reticule, which made some areas difficult if they were across reasonably open terrain. The game isn't overly difficult so long as you make use of your time mechanics, but you tend to become overly reliant on them to survive; on some occassions it became reasonably apparent I was going to die because I ran out of time manipulation and the number of enemies coming for me could simply not be overcome by conventional means.

There aren't a huge number of different enemies to face, but they are all relatively different from each other. While there are conventional run of the mill soldiers, you will also face soldiers who have some method of time manipulation, some that blink into and out of existence, and soldiers with jetpacks. There are a few set piece battles, like going up against a mech and facing off against a huge spider like construction, but most of the battle is against groups of regular foes. You may find some allies from time to time, but they don't seem to do much to affect the outcome of battles. While you will pass through a number of environments, none are particularly memorable. The game looks decent technically, but artisitically it doesn't really inspire.

Without it's time mechanics, Timeshift would be a very generic shooter that would be hard to recommend to anybody. It isn't that it is particularly bad, it just doesn't really do anything particularly well, which makes the flaws all the more noticeable. However, it does have those time mechanics which can spice up the gameplay somewhat, and slo-mo shotgun blasts to the face don't ever really get old. For some time manipulation shooting I'd recommend F.E.A.R. but if you need something else to scratch the itch then you may enjoy Timeshift.

Score 6.0

It has been some time since I wrote an editorial,and I wasn't really expecting all the new trackers. So just wanted to first say to those people that I don't automatically track back but don't take it to heart; I don't blog on Gamespot as much as I used to and I do find it hard to keep up with all my friends blogs (and to those friends, I don't always comment but I do always read!). If you do comment on my blogs, then it makes it much more likely I will have a look at yours. Or if you write something and you get the inclination that I might have something to say about the subject, you can always PM me and I'll head on over and have a look.

Just a quick thought; I don't give a crap about gaming 'news' as much as I used to. It doesn't mean I'm completely out of the loop or anything, but I used to read every scrap of news unless it was something to do with the PSP. Now I skip probably half the stories. 'Uncharted sells 1 million' I don't need to click that link. Finding the ins and outs of how much it sold in each territoryisn't going to make my gaming life any better. I haven't read top 10 charts in I don't know how long, and I only gloss over the more business oriented information now if for some reason I think it will matter to me as a gamer.

The PS3 is a damn noisy beast when the fan is going. It's 39C degrees here today, and my air conditioner isn't working. It broke down at the end of last summer and I forgot to fix it (Australian for those that don't know, we are coming up to the hot weather and have a scorching weekend). It's the second time I've heard the PS3 do it. The first time I thought it was broken or something, it's that loud.

I finished up Pikmin on the Wii today and felt like reviewing it right away. I've still got some games I completed a while ago I might still review too. And Super StarDust HD and Everyday Shooter. I haven't completed them, but I've given them another whirl recently and I've played them enough to review. On with the review.

---

Pikmin is an interesting take on the real-time strategy genre. Instead of some omnipresent being managing the battlefield from the heavens, you take control of the alien Olimar as he searches for the lost pieces of his ship so that he can complete his trip home. He discovers the world inhabited by creatures he calls Pikmin, small plant-like creatures, and he uses them to overcome obstacles in the area and defeat enemies, and most important of all carry the discovered parts back to his ship.

The game eases you in with tutorials that are easy to understand. While you discover them one at a time, eventually you will have 3 different types of Pikmin, each with their own attributes. Red Pikmin are fire-resistant and make the best attackers, yellows can be thrown higher and are able to pick up bomb rocks, and blues are the only ones that don't drown and can traverse water areas. Time is measured in days, and at the end of each day Olimar will fire up into orbit, and so will onions (what Olimar calls the pods that store Pikmin).

All Pikmin are capable of performing a number of tasks, used to solve the environmental hazards that are placed in your way. They can complete bridges that have been eaten away by Shearbugs, knock down walls, cause certain tree limbs to grow so they can climb, attack enemies and carry items back to your ship or their pods. Primarily this is how to progress in the game; command your Pikmin to carry pellets or deceased enemies back to their pods. Once they do, this will sprout new Pikmin that can be plucked from the ground. Strategy is involved here as different items take a certain number of Pikmin to carry back, and non-ship items will be taken to the pod that corresponds to the most Pikmin carrying the item. Enemies produce the same no matter which onion they are returned to, but pellets are coloured and produce more new Pikmin if they are taken to the corresponding onion. You need to weigh up which colour Pikmin you are going to need more of in future with getting the maximum number.

Unlike many games these days, you only have a certain amount of time to complete your objective; find the 30 missing parts in 30 days. Once the 30 days is up, it's game over whether you have completed your ship or not. This makes it important to complete as much as you possibly can in each day (about 20 actual minutes of gameplay). You will be warned as you approach days end, and you will need to have all of your Pikmin back near your ship and onions; any Pikmin outside of that vicinity when the day ends will be left behind to be dealt with by the local wildlife. Any damage you have dealt to enemies will be restored, and carcasses that could have been brought to your onions to spawn new Pikmin will disappear. Also interesting is that as the days pass, some of the smaller enemies can grow into larger ones, or if you return to an area cleared some days ago it may have a few smaller enemies that have come back to haunt you. Bomb rocks are usually also in short supply and integral to blowing up walls to open new paths or shorten travelling distance when carrying items, and these respawn each day.

Pikmin can also get stronger. While they start with a small bud above their head, this can grow into a leaf, and then a flower. This can be done by leaving them in the ground for a period of time before plucking them, or by finding nectar around the levels to find them. The stronger forms move faster and can perform tasks faster. You can also only have 100 Pikmin out at a time, and that includes those that are planted in the ground. You can have more available than this, but these will remain in their onions and you will not be able to bring out anymore unless you put some of another colour back into their corresponding onion.

There are a variety of enemies, and as mentioned above if you leave some of them alone for a while they may grow into larger versions. Some are simple to defeat with a few Pikmin, while others will take a big longer to take down. Some of the larger enemies can also be attacked a variety of ways, such as some attacking the feet to slow it down, or throwing them on their back so they can't be eaten with a bite. A few of the enemies are unique and act like bosses, and will drop ship parts when defeated. Once defeated, enemy carcasses can be carried back to the onions, and some enemies will also drop additional pellets. Some also have particular behaviours which can disrupt your strategy. Shearbugs can eat away bridges that you built on previous days if not dealt with, and the ever-annoying Swooping Snitchbug will follow you, pick up your Pikmin and replant them back in the ground.

Smart management of your Pikmin is key to getting the most out of your day. While there are only 5 levels, they are quite large and due to the number of obstacles in your way will take a while to fully explore them. As Olimar collects parts for his ship, it gains the ability to cover more ground and he can land in new locations. On each day you can land at any location that is available, and don't need to collect every part from each area first. So you might have 30 blue Pikmin wade into the water and work on completing a bridge, 20 fire resistant reds attacking Fiery Blowhogs (as they won't be hurt by their flames) while you take a few yellows to grab some bomb rocks and start working on taking down a wall. When there is a task that you want performed, you can throw a Pikmin at it, or you can group command all of your avaiable Pikmin to do so.

In most aspects the controls are great. While I've not played the original Gamecube version, it seems apparent that the Wii control update is an improvement. You can control Olimar with the analog stick on the nunchuk, while aiming at the screen with the Wii remote to throw Pikmin or issue a command to the group. You can dismiss Pikmin with a button press, which has them stop following Olimar and separates them into colour groups, making it easy to reselect one group if you have a task that requires a specific colour of Pikmin. You can call inactive Pikmin by selecting an area with Wii Remote and pressing B which creates a growing circle; tap it if you only want to select a few, or hold it for a couple of seconds if you want to select a larger range of Pikmin on the screen. There are some camera options as well, and it can feel a little awkward turning the camera but generally this is fine. The only issue I had was that when holding the down button to issue a group command, it didn't seem like all the Pikmin were responsive, or sometimes not at all, meaning I would throw each Pikmin individually at the task.

While I found the game thoroughly engaging, two points may prevent people from enjoying it. The first is the strict time factor. At times I felt like I was behind, particularly when you have a day or two where you are clearing parts of the level but not recovering parts, but I managed to complete the game on my first playthrough right on the 30 days. Had I not managed to complete the game, it was certainly fun enough that I would have played it through again, but this may disappoint players late in the game when they realise they don't have enough time to collect the rest of the parts in time. This is somewhat compounded by the save system. You can only save at the end of the day. There are 3 save slots and you can copy a save to another slot if you want a backup from days earlier. I found the lack of saving mid-level a little annoying. Sometimes I'd come across a unique enemy and not know how to attack and lose a lot of Pikmin on my first attempt, and have to restart the day; if I was still stumped this usually meant I looked at a FAQ as I didn't want to waste all that time a second time. Similarly it can be very annoying to get to the last second of a day and have your Pikmin carrying a ship part inside your base but not quite make it in time, whereby it will respawn in its original place (including the creature if it was retrieved from one) the following day. Despite this annoyance, I found that once I restarted a day I was much more efficient and productive because I already had a plan in place. Whether this frustrates you or drives you to do better depends on your own mentality.

Overall Pikmin is a great game. The time limit and lack of free-save may frustrate some, but the strategy itself is unique and engaging. It keeps a record of your stats, so you can replay in future and see if you can complete the ship in the quickest time possible or spawn the most Pikmin. There are also challenge modes, which seem to do away with most of the creatures (I have only attempted one thus far) but fill the level with pellets, and see how many Pikmin you can grow in one day. The whole package is presented in a colourful cartoony styIe, with enemies with bulbous features and cutsey sound effects and ghost images when your Pikmin die. If you like real-time strategy games and are looking for one with a difference, Pikmin comes highly recommended.

Score 8.5

I posted a review as well if you care to thumbs it up if you like it. Now I've got to figure out what's next. I've been working on getting my unplayed games down before buying any more, so I'm left with

Army of Two (PS3)
Burnout Paradise (PS3)
Lost Odyssey (360)
Lego Indiana Jones (360)

plus I've got Overlord and Splinter Cell Double Agent which I tried some time back, but I don't know if I really want to give them a full go. It comes down to what I talked about in my last blog; I don't know if I will enjoy them as much as just buying some other games instead. Anyone want to convince me these are worth trying again?

In the meantime I think I will gofinish Fallout 3. It's been that long that I think I've forgotten how to play it but it should come back pretty quick.

EDIT : So I finished Fallout 3, turns out I only had a half hour to go because I chose the mission that would end the game for me, and the autosave is now inside the final chamber that I can't get out of. So I fired up Lost Odyssey which I've played for about 2 hours. Got to my first boss-type fight and have died 3 times in a row. I think that about ends my time with that game. Needing to grind for the first boss fight? That does not bode well.

Value is an interesting proposition when it comes to games. Before we get into the meat of the article, here are a few quick questions:

You have 12 hours to kill. Someone locks you in a room and you have the option of playing Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 2, or Bioshock. You probably have enough time to play both COD4 and Gears, or Bioshock on its own. Which do you choose? Now take that option and for each game that you choose to play, you have to pay full retail price. How does that affect your decision? What if Jericho was also included but that was free, would you choose that instead of the other options?

There are of course no right or wrong answers as to which games you enjoy, or for how long they are enjoyable to you before you would prefer to either be playing another game, or doing something else entirely. The above example is loaded with my own perception of those games and the value they represent to me. How often do we hear friends or blog/forum posts saying 'It looks decent but it's not worth full price' or '1200 points/$15 is too much for that game'. I've found it interesting how we value games, as my own perception has changed somewhat in the last year. I used to own a video store, and besides a game being rented by a customer, they were all available to me whenever I wanted, and did not cost me any money. I haven't owned the store for a year, and now I have to purchase my own games. So how has that changed how I perceive the value of games?

I see two main values of any individual game; the intensity of the enjoyment, and the length of time that it is enjoyable. Which one is more important to you? Are you looking for the very best experience? Or do you prefer to stretch your dollar further and make sure your games last a long time before you have to go and buy another one? As I play primarily single player, Call of Duty 4 was a short experience for me. However, the intensity of that enjoyment was incredible, I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 or so hours that it lasted. I tend not to replay many games, so that is where the enjoyment ended for me (though it was great enough that I probably will replay it at some stage). Fallout 3 was a great game. I've yet to finish it, but I've put in over 30 hours and that time was enjoyable. Not at the intensity I enjoyed Call of Duty 4, but that's a decent period of time to be enjoying a game.

I imagine most of us don't sit in the equilibrium; we are either time poor or just plain poor. If you just plain don't have much money to spend on games on a regular basis but you find yourself with plenty of time, you may be more inclined to go for a game that offers longer playability at the expense of intensity (of course finding a game that you enjoy immensely and lasts a long time is possible and that becomes the obvious choice). Those of us who are time poor may be able to afford all of the games we have a desire to play, but simply don't have time to play them all; when we finish a game, there are a bunch more that we are interested in. So while there might be 5 games released a month worth taking note of, if you've only got so many hours to play games you might want to buy the 3 games that offer you the highest enjoyment possible instead of the other 2 that might be longer but be less enjoyable. Sure, you've spent more, but you are having a better time.

Of course, games do go down in price as well. This never used to be an issue for me, as all the highest profile games were usually available to me. Now that I have to spend money on my games, I tend to wait til games go down in price. This is not a primary concern of mine when purchasing games, but the list of games I want to play is pretty large, so games released a year ago are still as desirable to me to play as those released today. If I perceive that an older game is going to provide as much intensity and longevity as a current game for half the price, that's a pretty good incentive to go for the older game, and use that extra money on other interests.

I'm also surprised at some of the flak that has been sent towards the downloadable services when a 'premium' game sells for 1200 points or more. To me it still comes down to those two main issues; how much am I going to enjoy the game, and for how long? Castle Crashers was a great game that was more enjoyable to me than a number of full retail games I've played, and is one of the few games I've replayed so provided me a longer experience than some other games as well. Would I have purchased this game if it was a full retail product? Yes (although like usual I probably would have waited until it came down in price or purchased it second hand). Would many other people? I'm guessing not. And probably not because they perceived they wouldn't enjoy it; which brings me to another stigma.

Games can be enjoyable without developers having to invest millions. Yet even those smaller games do cost the developers time and money to produce. It is not my own perception, but I get the impression that there are some people out there who perceive that if a game costs less to make, then it should sell for less. But at the end of the day, you aren't paying because you want to invest in their development tools; you are paying because you want an experience you can enjoy.What if game A offers 8 hours of enjoyment at an intensity level of 7 out of 10 which cost $10million to make, while game B offers 10 hours of enjoyment at an intensity level of 9 out of 10 but only cost $100,000 to make with a small development team? Maybe game B has lower production values, but if the game itself is still great and both these games were offered at the same price, why would you choose game A? Clearly the choice for you, the gamer, is to spend the same money on a game you are going to enjoy more.

I've certainly not covered every aspect of how we perceive value in gaming, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Remember that the games I've listed above are just my personal opinion on their value to me, and they don't need to be shared by everybody. And to poke the bear a little, how much should longevity factor into a gaming review score? Or should they only focus on how enjoyable the game is for as long as it does last? What if the best game in the world lasted 15 minutes?

I was watching some Robot Chicken lately, and a discussion with someone prompted me to get out my He-Man figures, take some shots and add some funny captions. So I decided to post them here for your perusal. I'm no Seth Green, but it's a start.

"Hahahaha, I am going to enjoy torturing you He-Man!"

"How do you like my snake staff nipple clamp He-Man!"

"Now you will taste my purple sword! I Bet-"
"Buttercup! Buttercup!"
"The safe word already? Ok, I guess it's my turn."

"...."

"Yes, MBF? Do we have full dental cover? Excellent. How about optical?"

---

Not brilliant, but I enjoyed brainstorming nonetheless. I've got a few other ideas with the figures, I'll see how those pan out and I might post some more. It acutally led to me looking some of these up online as I'd forgotten a few of the characters names. There were some weird characters in the later sets from which I've got very few or have no knowledge of. Apparently some of these sell for a pretty penny if they are still packaged.

Here's hoping that the movie that is apparently in the works does the series some justice.

I finished the main story of Marvel Ultimate Alliance last night. I only bothered with a couple of the comic missions, and I think I will leave them for now, it will give me something to do if I ever get the itch to play the game again. The gameplay was decent if repetitive, but the motion controls (I played the PS3 version) were annoying. The 'down' motion never worked for me except by fluke; sometimes I would be holding the controller completely still, the indicator would appear for a split second before disappearing while the tone played that indicated success. If I didn't get that fluke, it usually meant I had to repeat the sequence. A-NNOY-ING. Graphically the game was a bit of a let down, but it didn't really get in the way of the game. I still would have hoped for more detail and a solid frame rate. I suppose it will have improved for the sequel.

So I perused to shelf to see what to play next, and saw Burnout Paradise. I thought to myself I didn't really want to play the game, but I suppose I should at least pop it in and install the updates so when I DO want to play it, it's ready to go. As I suspected, there were multiple updates. The first of seven was 385 meg. So probably up to a dozen hours of download time. Great. Then I chucked in Pikmin New Play Control! to give that a whirl. Then the batteries died on the Wii-mote, so I went shopping and hired a movie. Of course, I couldn't hire a blu-ray because you can't download updates in the background... sigh.

So I finish watching the movie in the 360, and what's the first thing I do? Press eject on the PS3, the machine I use to play movies. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!.... is what was going through my head, but upon flicking the channel looks like the download is still going even thought the disc is not in the drive. Whew. With some batteries charged, I continue playing Pikmin.

I've completed day 6 of 30, and I'm a bit concerned that I haven't been terribly efficient and I may not put my ship together in 30 days. But if that does happen, I don't think I will be terribly upset about having to repeat it, because I am enjoying the game so far and once you know where stuff is you can focus on the strategy more. But then again, I may be worrying about nothing; I've got 5 parts in 6 days, which is almost par for course. I've never played the original, but I'd guess that by comparison the remote controls would be an improvment. Some very mild frustrations such as pikmin getting stuck on scenery (especially when using holes which are shortcuts, but you have to go the long way to get them all to follow) and I don't think the group command seems to work the way I think I should and I lose pikmin who should be attacking creatures, but so far I'm enjoying the strategy.

Played a bit of Uncharted 2 around a friends house and that was pretty awesome. At first I didn't think it looked as good as the first and that my friend hadn't set up his new toy and TV properly, but I couldn't find the settings in the PS menu. But it's still pretty. He bought a second controller so we could play co-op.... but it's online only co-op. Damn it. So now I have to consider whether to borrow the game from him to play the single-player, or whether to purchase a copy so I can play co-op with him. And if I'm going to do that, I suppose I would need a headset... Give us local co-op please. Scale back the graphics on the games when there are multiple players if you need to, but I much prefer playing with someone sitting on the couch next to me.

I need to get off my butt and write the the blog that has been in my head for ages about how we perceive value in games we play/purchase. So here is my commitment to write it up by next weekend. It's in my head but every time I've tried to write it, it just doesn't come out right. But I'll just bash it out and see how it falls.

The internet is full of random humour. There are a number of sites I frequent on a regular basis (is that statement redundant?), perhaps while on a break at work, or when I'm just killing time at home (though my preferred method for killing time is slitting its throat when it's not looking). Sometimes I exhaust the ones that I do look at, so I thought I'd ask you fine folks which similar ones you peruse to get your laffs. So in the interest of sharing, here are some of the webcomics ort funny sites that I tend to visit regularly.

Failblog

Here you will find a huge number of 'fails', Pictures and videos of completely idiotic things that people have done, or evidence that some people simply have no clue. Whether it be a sign that makes no sense such as "No pregnant women (or men)", to cars crashed in unimaginable ways (how did that car get upside down on a set of stairs?), or stunt attempts gone wrong, it's great to know that there are so many people much stupider than you are. For newcomers there is stacks of content that will take you hours to go through, so for those that haven't been there before it's a goldmine of entertainment. Some of my favourites are complete lack of thought in architectural or manufacturing design, such as...

Picture Is Unrelated

Failblog has several sister sites, though none as funny... except maybe Picture Is Unrelated. Where Failblog focuses on stupidity, Picture Is Unrelated has you scratching your head wondering what the hell is going on. Mere stupidity can't create these images. It's more like some combination of warped imagination and a heavy dose of drugs... well, possibly some elements of stupidity too. The Japanese seem to have their fair slice on this site. But then there are also guys like this...

Cyanide & Happiness

A webcomic that I'm sure many of you are already familiar with. I like my humour on the 'wrong' side, and these guys cross that line with glee on some occassions. Other comics go off on a random tangent, and others break the 4th wall and the characters are aware they are in a comic, or use self-referential material. 3 different authors produce the work each with their ownstyIe yet still within the same sense of humour.

Coloringbookland

The comics on this site are no longer updated regularly, but for the utmost in vulgarity, I suggest you visit. These are single frames of old school line drawings that look like they are from decades past, but with over the top captions that contrast with the art styIe. It's hard to give any specific examples because I'd get modded for mentioning just about any of them. Here's one that might be relatively safe.

HyperDeathBabies

Another website where the comics are no longer updated, but still some funny stuff. There are several different comics to peruse, though perhaps my favourite is the 50's Apocalypse series where many comics are the same panels with spartan design, but with different captions for each comic.

So what other comics or regular funnies do you guys visit?

So my housemates decided to go on the local zombie walk. I wasn't sure whether I was going to go. I mean, it sounds cool that it's an event an everything, but at the same time, it's just people wearing make up and shuffling down a street which doesn't sound very entertaining. So in the middle of writing the above, I decided to go on short notice and thought I'd talk about it. I thought I did a reasonable job for a first effort, with what looked like a nice patch of dried blood down one side of my face, and a temporary tattoo of a gunshot wound, and some white paint for that pale look. Added the obligatory rips to clothes, colored the edges of the tears with some paint. I thought I looked pretty decent.

Upon seeing some of the other people in town, I felt like I was wearing a garbage bag to a masquerade ball. We arrived late so missed out on the actual walk, but there were some bars that were catering to the zombie crowd for the event, so we headed there. Some people really went to alot of effort on their costumes, and myself and friends felt quite underdone (and one of them used green paint, and looked more like She-hulk than a zombie). There were cop zombies, nurse zombies, council worker zombies, a pregnant zombie with baby arms coming out her stomach, and I didn't meet just one but 3 zombie Jesus' (Jesi?). Pretty sure the one carrying around his cross had the most legitimate claim to being Gods undead son. Next year I think I'm going to see if I can pull off having a pole go through one part of my body and coming out the other side. Though that could look a little hokey as it would to be positioned correctly on both sides and remain there for it to look convincing, I guess. I think the key to looking is good is accessorise. A waitress was serving severed fingers on a plate, a cop had his handcuffs attached to his belt dragging a severed hand behind, and an artist with a brush through her head was using blood from severed fingers on a board to paint. I'm not sure about the stormtrooper; he just looked like he was covered in blood.

But some zombies are just rude. My friends and I were playing pool at one of the pubs, a couple of my friends go outside for a smoke. 3 girls come in and sit down near the table, on the seats that we were using. I'm not too fussed; we weren't sitting down so it isn't like we owned those chairs. Not sure how they couldn't see the drinks in front of them that belonged to us though. So I had to excuse myself to grab them and move them. A minute later I had to take a shot across the table, and asked them politely that I might need them to move aside for a moment while I take a shot. They just kind of looked at me and moved their heads maybe a centimetre out of the way and kept talking away to each other oblivious to the stick near their face. I missed the shot because I was concerned I was going to hit them. Should have just whacked them. They were dead already anyway.

Driving in was pretty funny, staring out windows at others passing by, and just walking through the city seeing the faces of onlookers who had no idea about the event. On a side note, I thought it would have been absolutely hilarious if someone unaware of the event jumped out screaming "Oh, my god! Zombies!" and started beating into someone with a plank of 2 by 4. In all it was a pretty fun night, though when you look at it, it is pretty pointless. Here's to zombie-ing it up next year.