Question of the week. A taste of Music

Ok, this might not be what it seems. I am not asking you to give your opinion on music games. Instead today I want to ask you about whatever you do when you are gaming.

You see, some games have a real nice soundtrack, some things that I even listen to when I am not playing the game. The website OCRemix even has a large scale of remixes of certain tracks.
Some games require you to actually listen to the game or involve musical gameplay such as Ouendan, DDR or Guitar Hero.
But what do you do when you are just casually gaming. Do you tend to listen to the tracks or perhaps repetitive battle themes? Do you just put on the radio or just put up your favorite soundtrack. For short:
What music do you listen to while playing a game?


Ok this might sound like a real short blogpost. But we are not done before I have my tale told of course.
For me, it really depends on the mood I am in. Sometimes I start to like repetitive music if I am grinding for levels in whatever godforsaken RPG I am playing. On the other hand, I remember I time where I was training in Tales of Symphonia while I was listening to a new track of the prodigy. I turned repeat on and before I knew it I was hardcore grinding for 4 hours straight. What music can't do to you.

Like I said, sometimes music really changes the way you play. And if I am just casually playing I usually end up to listening to something like this.

Question of the week! How much of a completionist are you?

When I was just a young lad we didn't have achievements... we made them ourselves blah blah rant rant...

Ok, don't get me wrong on this. I am not a huge fun, and neither I am against achievement or trophies. To be honest I think they are a nice feature of today's games.

Indeed, the older games didn't have any achievements, and do you remember how awesome it felt when you finally bested the end boss? Yup, that really felt like an achievement. But if I go back to tales of Symphonia for an example. To finish the game 100% you have to make several choices trough different playtrough... the result? An awesome weapon? A secret cutscene? Some dark feature of the game developers for the next games? Nope, nothing at all, and that is were I think achievements really shine. 

That' why I usually try to collect all of em. Some games preview how to unlock them, such as a small text saying, reached the highest level etc. Some are secret and give you just that extra bit of satisfaction on a game. I really liked it that I can show to friends that I collected all rare weapons in a certain game or bested a boss with no damage. That is the middle road however. There are too easy or hard achievements.

Startup the game?... achievement. Made a 2 hit combo, achievement, made a 3 hit combo, achievement. Walk around naked? Depends... anyway. You also have those way to grindy achievements. Collect 999999999999 of the currency in the game... with a max amount of 50 per battle or so this is just a matter of grinding. Beat the entire game defeating all enemies without getting damage... in 30 min.... achievement? Yeah right, I am not Asian( no offence meant bro ;) ).

To cut it short, I like achievements if they add a certain challenge to the game that is doable. Trying to get every last achievement or that platinum trophy is a good way to add gameplay time amount. But what do you guys and gals think of achievements and trophies. 

How much of a completionist are you?

Leave me the message in the comments below. Also, this is a friends opinion about this matter ;)

Questions of the Week. Console Addons

Last week we talked about downloadable content. Stuff that you can add to your game to make it bigger better or more hardcore (for a ridiculous price usually). That is, however, not the only thing game companies do to improve gameplay (or earn more money).

I am talking about addons. stuff that you can add to your console for several reasons. Now you might know that nothing beats the sega as seen above. I never had one, but I have seen it several times on what you can do to make this a mutant of a console, I was surprised it even worked with all this stuff, forget even the cables and power you need.

No, what I am talking about is the fact that I have played every Zelda game so far, except for Skyward Sword. Why? Because you need Wii motion plus.

Now I understand that companies want to try something different. You have the Wii balance board for several Wii fit games etc. Xbox has its kinect while Sony uses its playstation move. These all have their own games. But why do you have to buy an addon to play the newest continuation of a game? Image if the next Sonic game uses a hometrainer to see how fast you actually run? What if you need to copy the exact moves in Kinect to play Assassin's creed.

I understand that companies want to sell these things, but for me, they are an experience and they should be optional to play something that can just be played with the usual controller. But what do you think?
Should console addons be optional for every game?


Btw, if you really think you can play an Assassin with kinect, watch this.

P.s. I have written a post about Fabula Nova Crystallis to finish it for now till the new games came out... however, they vanished miraculously. I try to recover them asap

Question of the week. Content with Downloadable Content?

Just as I am busy with a review about Fabula Nova Crystallis I turn my head towards Final Fantasy XIII-2... and shudder. Not because it isn't a good game. No sir, I am quite content with the game. I saved up several coupons in a time of financial crisis for me to still be able to get it. And I am glad I did.

What I am not content with is the fact that I have finished it twice already, yet I never finished it. Why you ask?

BECAUSE THE ENDING HAS YET TO COME AS DLC! 

You read that right. Final Fantasy XIII-2 would have an ending if they just didn't come with that bit of extra scene that makes to too much of a cliffhanger to be an ending. If you finish the game with EVERYTHING you even get a special scene which taunts you even more. The point is, I thought I paid (somewhat) for a full game. Yet I have to pay one the real ending comes out.

With the way the gaming industry is these days I can imagine that you cannot live without DLC anymore. People buy less in gaming stores and buy more on-line. Expansion packs don't sell well anymore so why not make it easily available on-line? Or if some designer made a real cool outfit for one of the characters I can imagine they charge people a small amount for that.

Those are all extra's though. And I get it that you have to pay a little extra to get a little extra. Unfortunately nowadays you see more games sell in stores for 100% of the price for 80% of a game, the rest being released a couple of month's later for another 10 euro's / dollars.

Like I said before, I am willing to pay for that sexy outfit or that new sidequest with nice goodies, but what are your opinions about this.

What is your opinion about DLC? And have you played non-complete games with DLC endings?

Question of the week. Around the world. WRPG vs. JRPG

Last week our friend Fhant gave me the question, where will JRPG and WRPG's end up? If the above post doesn't say enough to you yet, I will explain the difference between the 2 first.

If you, the reader, after all this time, still don't know what an RPG is you can roll a d20 and see if I hit you or not -_-.  Role Playing Games have become a big part of the gaming industry these days and all over the world there is an entire battle over this type of game. Which faction will win? Is it the WESTERN RPG? These are games such as dragon age or oblivion, usually darker type of games with a hero you make yourself. How he or she looks and how she acts is all up to you. Most of the setting's are slightly based on Dungeons and Dragons, except perhaps, for the futuristic games such as mass effect. Still the concept is the same. A lot too choose from and you can mix all kinds of things.

In the other corner, JAPANESE RPG! The most famous titles are things such as Final Fantasy or Pokemon. The japanese were actually first with the RPG genre and most games from this time are still based on the older games. Colourfull area's, strange magic creatures never seen before (not the typical dragons and troll's) and characters with STRANGE outfit's (or hair... typically japanese) that fit in a generic roll, the healer, the spellcaster etc.

Now that I explained this to you, the real question stays. 

Where do you think these game genre's end up?

Personally I think that over time the line between Western and Eastern games will go away. You see, even now, that some WRPG take over Japanese elements and vise versa. It will be either that or the next World War will be about the difference of these 2 games. Start hating haters!

Question of the week. Next Gen Gaming

You might have noticed that there was no character review last Monday. Due to circumstances I was way too tired to even cook or anything so that character has to wait till next wait. In the meantime I come with a new question for you guys.

Game companies look for new ways to make money every day, and to do that, you have to innovate. Come with something new. A good example of this is the Wii. While Microsoft and Sony came with a better console graphics wise, Nintendo came with a complete new form of gameplay. Although it doesn't always appeal the usual customers new people are drawn to this, thus giving the company more money to spend on new things.

Now, as a gamer I don't mind experimenting but I think sometimes companies go a bit over the edge.

I am taking Nintendo as an example again. The 3DS to be exact. I know that 3D is shiny and all that but does that really add something to the gaming experience. How about people who are partially blind? They can't play those games. 

How about games on the balance board. Sure, Wii fit is the game for the entire family but isn't your money better spent on new games that don't involve new controllers/gameplay.

Although the above image shows that Sony only copies, I can also blame microsoft with Kinect. After all, Eye Toy was here first right?

To summarize all this. My opinion about all this next gen consoles is quite obivious. Rubbish, I rather have a new game with ingame innovations then a new controller style, but what do you think.

What should the next gen of games include? Back to basics with newer and better games? Or a different style of gameplay?

Leave a comment about your opinion below or reply on Facebook/Twitter. And if you have a question for next week let me know 

Question of the week. Holidays gave me?

Holidays are sadly over. And thus I start writing again ^_^. I hope you had a nice Christmas celebrated the new year with lots of friends. 

To start the year with ease I am not going to ask you some silly philosophical question about games. In stead of that I am going to ask you, reader,

What games or game related stuff did you get for the Holidays?

No I did not get portal 2 for xmas. What I did get was this from The Geekshow:

My work gave me a useless Christmas package, like they almost always do. However, they also gave me some coupons which I can use at the Gamemania.  My friend Fhant also gave me a coupon for the Gamemania.  Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out next month and guess what I am going to get. Thanx you all.

Lemme know what you guys got for the Holidays!

Question of the week! ... I choose you?

Now... of course every reader has played Pokemon... Wait, you didn't? Get the hell outta here!
For the respectable people who have played any version of Pokemon, hello there! How are yah?
Me? I am just lounging... writing this post, you know.
Anyways, lets get on topic. Currently there are 5 Generations of Pokemon. The Red/Blue/Yellow generation, Gold/Silver/Crystal, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and the newest generation, Black and White (I see a Grey coming!). It surprises me that they still didn't ran out of ideas for Pokemons.
I am not trying to start a debate here on which generation is the best since all generations have their likeable side. What I do want to ask is... what is your favorite? Yes, that's it. Your favourite Pokemon. You want more? Ok, what if you could choose 1 Pokemon in real life... that's better? Good.
Myself? I would like to have a Miltank, for the reason shown below ;)

If you could bring 1 of your Favourite Pokemon into real life, which one would it be? 

Question of the week. Science VS Fantasy

Last Monday I decided to listen to "The Geekshow" radio show. A brilliant show that talks about games, animation, books and interesting geeky facts. Each show has it's own subject. This weeks subject was Science versus Fantasy, and what would win. In the end Fantasy won the battle.
One thing that was noted in the show is that there is almost no game which balanced the 2 out. Magic and technology next to each other are seldomly seen. It's either or magic, or high technology.
Now, there are many beliefs in this world. Some people cling to technology, saying that it is the solution for everything. Some people have a strong believe in something that cannot be explained by science.
If you take the extremes of this, Fantasy, or High Science, what do you think is more likely to be seen in the near  future.
What do you believe in? What do you think will show itself first. Unimaginable Science such a teleportation? Or a higher state of mind which allows things Science cannot imagine?

If you have a game related question that I should talk about leave it in the comments or on twitter/facebook.
And for those who are interested in Thegeekshow, visit: thegeekshow.co.uk. It is an interesting blog with a radioshow each monday from 6 till 8 pm GMT. They put their show up for download after a while too so if you miss it you can still listen.

Question of the week. Region free?

After a busy time of the year I saw a friend go online on a chat program I use. I decided to talk to here since I didn't in quite a while. After some small talk she said to me that she had to finish lots of games, mainly some japanse games on a hacked console. My jealousy level was rising till it came up as a brilliant question for this week.
As a gamer and fanboy of several titles such as Kingdom Hearts and the "Tales of" series, I am quite sad to say that I cannot own and play every copy of a game since some of them aren't published in Europe. I would love to play the Final Mix versions of KH 1 & 2, yet I will never be able to do so. Some "Tales of" games never reach Europe at all. Trying to import them is useless since:
1. I cannot read japanese.
2. My console isn't able to play it.
Now, I can understand that some games might not sell as well in Europe as they might do in Asia. But what do you think?
Should all games be made International, even when taking the costs for a publisher in account?


For real... I really want access to this fight! WY U JAPANESE ONLY!

Question of the Week. Popularity X Quality

Ever since popular games existed, there existed sequels. A good example of that is the Final Fantasy series. They range from 1 till 14! now, not even counting the ones without number. Although technology became better with each new title, it didn't always mean that the games were good. Yet people still bought the games since it was Final Fantasy. It had to be good, and anyone who claimed otherwise was a noob.

This flame war still continues nowadays. Sometimes the popularity exeeds the quality of some other games, yet it still sells better. Personally, I just buy a game if I like it. I do some research, and then decide if I should buy it, favorite title or not. But how do you think about it? Are popular games good by default? Or should every game get his criticism regardless of title. Give me your opinion and comment or leave me a message in another way.

Question of the Week. Movies into Videogames

A long time ago, games were created for an alternative public. With this I mean that people who enjoyed movies, or going out, are different from the people who enjoy videogames. Nowadays, gaming is for everyone. A good example is the Nintendo Wii, who made games for the entire family.
The gaming industry has become a real moneymaker, and thus, solutions to make even more money are made. So they decided to make games of popular movies, in the hope that if people liked the movie, they would buy the game. The Harry Potter games for instance, sold really well. However, making a game from a movie I already saw takes away the experience. I already know the story, and to make it so that it is still playable a lot of modifications are done on certain aspects. This takes away the will of playing that game for me.
Nowadays, making games from movies or popular cartoons is done a lot. But what do you guys think about making games out of something else. In other words:
Should the game industry stop making games from movies?
Give me your opinion and comment or leave me a message in another way.