Toronto Thumbs

Krytical Eye
The Long-Lasting Appeal of JRPGs

Many a year ago, when I was first introduced to the wonderful world of anime and Japanese pop culture, there was a certain style of role-playing game that I ended up overlooking. Sure, I may have played Final Fantasy II, A Link to the Past, and Secret of Mana before I made this revelation but I was a young’un and could not have possibly known any better. Then came a time when a student in the ESL program (this was grade school, mind you) introduced me to Final Fantasy VII; an eye-opener very similar to opening the Ark of the Covenant – minus the face melting.

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Posted in Commentary, Krytical Eye | 5 Comments »

Thoughts
Leveraging Kinect to Capture New Gamers

Today’s post is a guest piece by a new video gaming friend that I met at a “gamer’s night out”. He’s a cool dude with interesting ideas! Check it out!

Halo is a prime example of a multi-million-selling games property with vast casual appeal and a backbone of vocal hardcore players who petition for the stewardship of future installments. They love Halo the most, and their only wish is to see that it doesn’t lose what makes it great. Sometimes this means that they are hostile to new developments, such as the Kinect integration in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. When it was announced that players with the right hardware would have the choice of yelling ‘grenade’ or ‘reload’ to perform these actions, comment-sections and forums overflowed with chagrin from gamers eagerly awaiting ‘real’ news on the updated edition.

The knee-jerk reaction to casual gimmickry encroaching on hardcore turf is understandable, but gamers need to take a step back and consider their personal journeys that lead to their first Killtacular before such vocal dismissal.

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Posted in Commentary, Kinect | 2 Comments »

Looking Back
Erika’s Best Games of 2011

2011 was one hell of a year for games. Whether we’re talking about the AAA powerhouses or the indie heartthrobs, there were tons to choose from. Here are my picks for my favourite video games of the year.

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Posted in Blast From the Past, Commentary | 1 Comment »

Event
X-Summit: Cross-Media Synergy

This panel discussion addressed a slippery eel of a topic. Basically, when developing IP that has TV as a key foundation, what do you develop first: the show or an online plan or both? Here is a list of the folks who participated on stage:

• Ken Faier – Moderator and El Presidente of Nerd Corps. Entertainment – He has worked on some some very cool original series’.
• Paul Bennun – Chief Creative Officer of Somethin’ Else – Background in broadcast; works on content design and creativity; takes linear properties and makes them interactive.
• Leah Hoyer – Creative Producer at Levity Entertainment – Developed cartoons for Disney; now works at Levity on all kinds of comedy and television development; bridges gap between talent and television.
• Beth Stevenson – Founder of Brain Power Studio – Formerly at Alliance in the kids and family space; currently in the same space at Brain Power, across many platforms.
• Mark Bishop – Co-Founder/Executive Producer at marblemedia – Works on cross-platform storytelling on whichever platform is appropriate to the audience.

All of the panelists were great speakers, and it was a very engaging session. I have captured what I consider to be some of the more pertinent points and will share them with you after the break.

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Posted in Commentary, Events, News Bytes | No Comments »

Syd-Tro-Spective
Canadians and E3

Syd Bolton, keeper of the Personal Computer Museum and one of Canada’s top videogame collectors (if not the top videogame collector), takes a look back at E3 2011 and weighs in on Canada’s place at this monster event.

I had the good fortune to go to E3 this year; while there, it became clear to me that us Canadians have to stick together. Actually, this thought started long before I even touched the ground: I was on the same airplane as Shaun Hatton, Jason MacIssac, and Raju Mudhar from Greedy Productions (Electric Playground, Reviews on the Run); I was also staying with a Canadian – a friend from high school who now is a permanent resident south of the border, working for Activision.

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Posted in Commentary | No Comments »

The Last Day
Farewell to 2010

Looking forward to amazing games in 2011.

The year is winding down and while people are out partying I sit here by a flickering candle* writing this piece about the year that Shaun Hatton moved into a bigger arena (and so did I). There have been some pretty obvious changes around the office here and there have been some not-so-apparent ones, too. Despite these modifications, I believe that Toronto Thumbs remains -at its heart- unchanged, committed to being a quality site dedicated to our readers. We remain in our roles as starters of fun conversations about the things that we love.

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Posted in Awesome, Commentary, Slice of [In-Game] Life | 3 Comments »

Friendly Fire
Why I Can’t Love Deus Ex 3…Yet

Warning: Lots of Deus Ex references in here. I would keep Wikipedia open for this one. – ed.

By now, most of the gaming world has seen the jaw-dropping cinematic trailer for Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Amidst a colour palette of golds and blacks we see a time before the dreary cybperunk distopia of the original Deus Ex – a pre-nano-augmentation time, ostensibly of hope and progress made chillingly real by the chunks of futuristic metal counting as arms grafted to protagonist Adam Jensen’s still-fleshy torso. The familiar names of Daedalus and Icarus –the dueling A.I.s from the first game– return in their original form as the classic Greek myth in Adam’s dream, wings bursting into flame as he flies not just close to, but into the sun. The towering sight of a glistening, dual-tiered city tells us that is definitely the future; just not a future so far gone that its fate and the fate of billions of plague-ravaged people lies in the nano-enriched hands of one conspiracy-shrouded enigma known only as JC Denton.

And yet I am afraid – so very, very afraid – to buy into the premise of a third Deus Ex game. Even with the release of a gameplay trailer, I can’t bring myself to feel anything other than fear that the brainchild of Warren Spector will be tarnished yet again.

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Posted in Commentary, Friendly Fire | 2 Comments »

Friendly Fire
Bridging the Gaming Gap

The Heavy does not approve of children or girly-men playing his game.

The pleading voice came through loud and tinny through Steam’s voice chat: “But Rituro, I’m mature!”

I sighed. Once again, my little brother was making a desperate pitch to convince me that he should be allowed to play Team Fortress 2 so we could play together. His latest argument -much like his previous ones- focuses on the definition of the “M” rating that accompanied Valve’s seminal online shooter: if one felt mature, surely they were mature enough to play an “M”-rated game, right? Wrong.

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Posted in Awesome, Byte-Size Reviews, Commentary, Holiday Hints | No Comments »

Holidaze
Our Thoughts On 2010

The end of the year is nigh and we have all played many games; both good and bad. We at Toronto Thumbs decided to share some of our thoughts about what we have enjoyed (and not enjoyed) over the course of 2010. For the most part, there are a number of categories. Even though some of us could not find games that fit each section, we still gave our all in those that we could.

Since I am lazy, I am going to update this post and keep it current. Be sure to stay tuned!

• Introduction
• Dana Russo’s Thoughts
• Jayson Young’s Thoughts
• Kat Armstrong’s Thoughts
• Mike Croft’s Thoughts
• Rituro’s Thoughts
• Jorge Figueiredo’s Thoughts

Posted in Awesome, Commentary, From The Thumbs, Holiday Hints | No Comments »

Young At the Heart
Christmas In Tokyo

Dear Toronto Thumbs readers, I fear I have failed you. During my stay here in Japan at least two massive game launches—Pokemon Black (Burakku)/White (Howaito) and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, specifically—have come and gone, and I wasn’t in attendance to cover either. That’s just irresponsible journalism, and for that I apologize.

My efforts to rectify these errors are twofold: for one, I have recently begun playing Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, in an attempt to understand just why it appeals so strongly to so many millions of Japanese dudes and ladies. For the other, I braved the human zoo of Akihabara today, prepared to traverse any terrain necessary to procure my copy of Square Enix’s latest would-be masterpiece: The 3rd Birthday.

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Posted in Commentary, Young At the Heart | 4 Comments »