Lepus Lepidus

I’m always a few steps ahead on 360 games and a few steps behind on all other platforms. Case in point: I’m still plugging away at Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and I’m putting some speed on since Kat got me the sequel for my birthday. I am about to start the third of five cases and I have to say, every time I think I’m done with a case, there’s another curveball that comes in and makes me totally reassess everything at my disposal. But I really enjoy it (I also liked an old DOS game called Objection that I doubt anybody else remembers). And I love goofy artwork like this, stolen from GamesRadar.com:

I’ve realized that almost all my DS games are thinky games. Phoenix Wright, Brain Age, Tetris DS, Advance Wars, Big Brain Academy, and my parents sent me Hotel Dusk as a gift. Elite Beat Agents and Super Mario Bros. are about it for action. I’m okay with it, I just suddenly noticed the thinky trend. Is it a DS thing or a “Dan seeks different challenges now that he is older” thing?

I went to Midway’s winter gamer’s day last week, where I got to play Stranglehold. It was running on PC with a 360 controller attached. After some discussion, I got to try it out on 360 proper, since I’m writing a hands-on preview for the next issue of OXM, and for the sake of ethical accuracy, even though the gameplay will be identical, I really felt it was important to give it a whirl on the actual hardware. I was told that the 360 build was nowhere near as stable as the PC version, but sure, since I was the only person who asked, they could accomodate as long as I could forgive some memory-leak issues that might cause the game to crash. Sounds fair. They booted up a 360 dev kit after everybody else had left and I got to try the same stuff I’d played on PC, but on 360 hardware. So, cool–ethically, I felt good, and it counts as an accidental exclusive, too.

IGN, GamesRadar and TeamXbox don’t specify the platform in their previews, but stuck to describing the experience of gameplay. That’s valid. So why did GameSpot report that they played the 360 version? My guess is someone handed their writer a 360 controller and they assumed that if it looked like a duck and shoot-dodged like a duck, then it was a duck. Then those wrong assumptions went out to all the places that syndicate GameSpot content, including Yahoo. So you’ve got a total factual inaccuracy being spread through the interwebs, simply because someone didn’t bother to ask.

Am I being too nit-picky? Clearly the feel of the game is going to be the same based on the controller, so aside from the graphical upgrade on the PC, does it matter? It’s just games, right? Maybe; maybe not. If a movie reviewer talked about seeing a film directed by Steven Spielberg but it was really helmed by George Lucas, you’d notice and be upset at the mistake.

This is another reason why I don’t like the phrase “game journalism.” Not only is it pompous, but with sloppy things like this happening, it’s inaccurate in a way that real journalists aren’t. We’re just not worthy of the title.

We hit a milestone on the OXM Podcast, and that milestone happened to coincide nicely with our Game of the Year awards from 2006. So…we present a little modern theater of the mind, a full-on, balls-out Oscar-like hootenanny, complete with celebrity acceptance speeches, guest presenters, red carpet shenanigans, and original music composed for the event by Oblivion/Prey/Neverwinter Nights composer Jeremy Soule. It will air in two parts, each about an hour long; part two hits next Friday. We’ve simply never done a podcast like this before, and I honestly believe it kicks the snot out of what a bunch of other podcasts did for their 2006 wrapups.

Listen and enjoy, won’t you? It’s free and you can get it through iTunes if you prefer.

…but this is my fourth time playing through (second on Hardcore) and RAAM is kicking my ass. I have the sniper rifle and the Lancer, my favorite combo. I get in about nine headshots with the sniper and he nails me. I blindfire with the Lancer and he nails me. I chuck grenades at his feet and he nails me. If I make it to the turret, the Kryll get me and/or I approach the turret and I can’t interact with it and he nails me. I save Dom and he nails me. I leave Dom gasping for breath and he nails me. I sit on top of the lights and the Kryll still nail me. WTF.

Last time on Hardcore, I got him with the turret but didn’t get the Achievement because it was glitched. This time I’m pretty much praying for a glitch in my favor.

And then, he drops. Finally. Legitimately. A combination of all weapons brings the bastard down. I get the Achievement for A Dish Best Served Cold (at last!), the camera pulls back on RAAM’s corpse…and then my 360 freezes. I don’t get the Achievements for finishing the game, but I just finished the game. It’s the opposite of last time, where I got everything BUT the RAAM Achievement.

I am really, really tired of having to beat this final boss twice to get what should be rightfully mine!

Yeah. I dig it. I think Nintendo did a lot of things right. I’m a little busy so I haven’t played much of anything and the only two games I have (aside from GameCube games) are Wii Sports and Metal Slug Anthology…which were the first two I wanted anyway, really. I like the soothing music, I like the Forecast and News channels. I like the accuracy of the Wiimote. I like the fact that anybody can pick it up and not feel like an outsider. I feel like I’ve barely used it — a little Resident Evil 4 has been played, which was a Christmas gift from Kat, since I never played it when it came out — and I don’t have any of the high profile Wii titles yet. But that’s cool. I’m glad I have it, and hopefully I will have friends who will eventually input the goddamned friend code I sent them.