Toronto Thumbs

Young At the Heart
Halo Pokemon

This is an article written by Jayson when he first made it to Japan. I apologize for its tardiness, as it seems to have slipped through the cracks. It is still a relevant read. – ed.

We all saw the headlines in late September; participated in the discussion they generated. Halo Reach sells like gangbusters in North America, but barely dents the Japanese market! Meanwhile Pokémon Black and White sells billions! Nintendo to respond by attempting to shut down enthusiast websites!

Having just arrived in Japan, I took it upon myself to engage in a little cultural investigation. That week, I purchased a copy of Pokémon White, and, crazily, defied my new host country’s deep-seeded recommendations and heartfelt sentiments, and purchased an Xbox 360 (my first ever). Along with it I grabbed Reach because, hey, I’ve heard that that’s the kind of thing that Xbox 360 owners usually do.

Read the rest »

Posted in Commentary, Young At the Heart | 5 Comments »

Open Mike
Gaming With the Kid

I have a four-and-a-half-year-old son who is quite the budding gamer. I suspect that one day he will surpass me in skill; some might tell you that he is pretty close to doing this already. I figured I’d briefly talk about some of the games we have tried recently that have been a big hit with both of us.

Read the rest »

Posted in Commentary, Open Mike | 7 Comments »

Young At The Heart
Turning Japanese?

Jayson Young is effectively Toronto Thumbs’ foreign correspondent; living and working in some remote, mountainous area of Japan, he must wait for the Toad Gods to give him permission to use the internet to communicate with the rest of the world. He spends this limited time sending us his experiences in the land of the rising sun. Enjoy! – ed.

For many gamers of a certain age —specifically, those of us who remember a time when that apocryphal term “Nintendo tapes” was synonymous with “videogames”— Japan holds some kind of magical allure. Beginning in the late ‘80s and abating only recently, Japanese ubiquity was the order of the day in the home console market. Now, as the once-mighty trendsetting nation quietly becomes increasingly relegated to the handheld and “casual” (that is, purchased and then forgotten about, *ahem*) markets, one man sets out on a personal quest. That man is me; a Toronto gamer for most of my life, now sufficiently leveled-up and with enough muscle memory to tackle that shiny, far-off final dungeon. But I’m beginning to fear that my princess may be in another castle.

Read the rest »

Posted in Commentary, Editorial, Young At the Heart | 5 Comments »

First Person Shizzle
The Voice of the Future

I was thinking about video games the other day (surprise!); specifically, how far we’ve come. I remember playing Flashback on the Sega Genesis for the first time, immediately thinking, “how much better looking can video games get?” Flashback was highly cinematic, the characters looked and moved like real people–I was sure that we had reached some kind of ceiling in video game progress. Well, obviously: wrong. Look at Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, or Infamous; look at just about any driving game right now—we’re a quantum leap from where we were back in the day.

Read the rest »

Posted in Commentary, The Future Is WOW | No Comments »

OMG
Christmas Every Time

Growing up with technology gains one a reputation; labeled as ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’, we trudge on, keeping up with technology with almost mythic levels of dogged determination. We shrug the name-calling aside; orn as is more often the case these days, we accept these labels, opting to wear them as badges of honour.

Read the rest »

Posted in Blah Blah Blog, Commentary, From The Thumbs, Not Actually News | 5 Comments »

Hopes and Fears
Musings Before the Engineer Update

Hello, my name is Rituro and I’m an Engineer in Team Fortress 2.

It has been one hundred and forty hours since I started covering up my subpar FPS skills with sentries, dispensers, teleporters and critwrenches; I have been a credit to my team and affectionately called “Hard Hat” and “Trucky” more times than I care to count; I have been directly responsible for epic Dustbowl defenses and drawn the ire of many Spies who thought themselves clever enough to evade my wrench and shotgun.

Also, for some inexplicable reason, I also double as a magnetic pincushion for one particular Huntsman-toting Sniper on my favourite server, DuckSoup-Gaming. But I digress…

Read the rest »

Posted in Blog, Commentary, Mac, PC | 3 Comments »

Young At The Heart
Heavy Reign?

Thumbs newcomer Jayson Young writes about how a game like Heavy Rain might be more than just a simple ripple in a puddle. – ed.

For evangelists of the games-as-art movement, it’s no doubt been heartening to see the blockbuster sales figures and overwhelmingly positive critical response surrounding Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain. Its development was a huge risk for Sony: they invested millions of dollars in a completely unproven, counterintuitive style of game. A marketplace that demands endless Gears of War clones and Modern Warfare knockoffs might foreseeably have ignored a piece of “interactive fiction” with a relentlessly depressing narrative. But Heavy Rain is a bona fide hit; arguably the most unlikely “Triple-A” title in recent memory.

Read the rest »

Posted in Commentary, Editorial, Young At the Heart | 6 Comments »

Check This Out!
Ur Library Haz Gamez? OMG!

It’s shaping up to be a perfect weekend for gaming. All your friends are out of town or working, there are no major concerts or sporting events you want to attend, and the weather is going to suck, so you don’t feel obligated to “get out and enjoy it.” You can start playing games from the moment you get home from work/school Friday until someone has to surgically remove the controller from your hands on Sunday night.

Except… you’ve played all the games you own at least three times. Since all your friends are out of town, you can’t go borrow, beg or steal any from them. And since you’re between paycheques and rent is due, you can’t go buy or rent any new games. What is a gamer to do in this situation?

Well, you can take yourself down to the library and borrow a couple.

Read the rest »

Posted in Awesome, Check This Out!, Commentary, News Bytes | 4 Comments »

I Heart The Transformers But
No, I Don’t Like The Michael Bay Movies

When Michael Bay’s Transformers was released in 2007, I was initially quite excited about seeing my favourite cartoon being brought to life through the magic of modern technology. Big explosions, cool cars, and crazy fights were just about guaranteed to give me my giant robot fix of that summer. But I was immensely disappointed upon seeing it. I remember the experience quite vividly. As the movie started, I was incredibly thrilled. The opening scene was excellent and seemed to set what I was expecting to be the pace for the remainder of the film.

Unfortunately all the special effects in the world can’t compensate for poor acting, a convoluted plot, and stiff, unlikable characters. It couldn’t even justify the creative liberties taken with the characters of The Transformers’ universe. Having Bumblebee, the most humble and gentle of Transformers, urinate on a character was just about the low point of the movie. That, however, is arguable; there was far too much that was far too horrible in that movie for a longtime fan like me to possibly forgive. For instance, why such a huge unnecessary emphasis on the humans who have zero redeeming qualities whatsoever?

This year the world was gifted with Bay’s follow-up to the original crapfest and, in true fashion, the sequel just took everything about the first movie and cranked it all to 11. Sadly this meant out of place comedic sequences were even more out of place, racist jokes and characterizations were even more offensive, the story made even less sense, and the battles were even more confusing. Two years after the first blockbuster raked in millions of dollars, the sequel did the same despite not doing anything differently – or well, for that matter.

Read the rest »

Posted in Blast From the Past, Cartoons, Editorial, Film | 5 Comments »