Features
HANDS-ON IMPRESSIONS
Street Fighter IV
By Shaun Hatton - October 26th, 2008
We played Street Fighter IV so you don’t have to. Just kidding. You should also play it, unless you’re scared to lose.
This weekend, fellow Street Fighter aficionado Peter Rebelo and I went to Richmond Hill to get some face time with a little game known as Street Fighter IV. The arcade in question is Lovegety Station at 505 Highway 7 East, and it’s evidently the only arcade in Ontario at the time of this writing that has Street Fighter IV.
We got there after a day of gaming at Jorge’s place, so by the time we walked in it was a little after 9 p.m. and naturally the machine was taken. However much to our surprise there wasn’t a lot of other people waiting for their turn to get their fight on. I put my quarter up on one side of the machine (it’s a Japanese one, where you sit down and each player has his/her own monitor) and waited patiently for my turn.
It’s a little sad that so many of the other games at Lovegety Station are so loud by nature as many of them are rhythm titles. These games drowned out any and all of the music in Street Fighter IV but the special attacks and hits were still easy to hear over the sound of people drumming away just a few paces to the right of the cabinet. When I got my chance to play, I immediately picked the default game mode (there are three to choose from). The default one is the standard arcade mode, and I cannot for the life of me remember the proper name of it. I would have written it down but really, who goes to the arcade to take notes?
Sony Holiday Event
Prince of Persia Impressions
By Shaun Hatton - October 22nd, 2008
The first title we spent some time with upon entering the Sony Holiday Event was Prince of Persia. The game was just to the left of the main entrance and we arrived fairly early and thus avoided having to wait to play. As soon as we looked over at it, Michael was handed the controller and away he went.
All the leaping, bounding, and wall hanging you could ask for is in this game, and more. For the first time we’re presented with a more open world to explore. The hero moves with fluidity and grace, and in the demo we played was accompanied by a sidekick character, Elika, who offered assistance by helping complete jumps across larger chasms as well as saving the player when a jump fails.
When you fall, a brief cinematic is shown where Elika reaches her hand down to grab yours. The game then immediately drops you back to the start of the jumping puzzle you just failed with no load time. While some might see Elika’s assistance as a cop-out, her presence really comes in handy and allows for some more sophisticated jumping puzzles in-game, and by that token problem solving on the player’s part.
Leaping quickly requires precise timing in order to keep your character’s momentum up. Unlike previous games like this, the leaps and landings are not automated. Although novice players will want to take their time hopping about, it’s entirely possible to blaze through areas if you have the right rhythm down. This usage of rhythm is carried into the battles as well. In the one boss fight we engaged in, it wasn’t about mashing senselessly on the buttons. The boss was covered in a protective goo (for lack of a better word) and it was through using Elika’s special abilities in conjunction with the main character’s attacks that we were able to wear the boss down. There are also some quick-time events where you have to execute a correct button combo to keep the enemy at bay.
Sony Holiday Event
Sonic Unleashed Impressions
By Shaun Hatton - October 20th, 2008
Sonic Unleashed must be using the newest form of Blast Processing known to mankind.
Sonic the Hedgehog was Sega’s mascot that at times managed to make Mario look uncool. He was edgier, meaner, and just plain faster. He carried with him a full-scale assault on Nintendo’s Super NES in what was probably the fiercest console battle of my lifetime.
Recent Sonic games have put less emphasis on Sonic’s speed in favour of more traditional platforming elements such as exploration. Thankfully, Sega’s taken the series back to its roots with a balls-out approach to putting naysayers in their place. Namely: Speed, and lots of it.
No, not the kind truckers take. That stuff is bad for you. Sonic moves so fast in Sonic Unleased that at times he makes WipEout HD look slow. The game was demonstrated to us by Sega of America’s Ken Balough, who also boasted that he had held the record for the fastest time for the first stage among SoA employees. Me? I hobbled through the first stage mostly due to the fact that there was one jump that kept defying me. I cleared the stage in around seven minutes. Bugsy cleared it in four (after he learned what not to do by watching me, I might add).
Sony Holiday Event
Mirror’s Edge Impressions
By Shaun Hatton - October 16th, 2008
Sony held a great big holiday gaming event last week in Toronto, and Bugsy and I got more than our fixes of upcoming games from the biggest publishers in the industry. Unlike a lot of expos I’ve been to, most of the publishers had setups involving couches and Surround Sound systems. Some even had extra kiosks near their main “living room” setups for maximum floor space usage.
The wide range of titles available to play in addition to the great usage of space made it feel less crowded than it actually was. Towards the end of our time at the event, Bugsy and I headed over to EA’s area to see and play Mirror’s Edge (this after I barely played through Costello’s “Pump It Up” on Expert drums in Rock Band 2).
Now if you haven’t heard a lot about the game, Mirror’s Edge is an intense first-person adventure title which places more emphasis on evading and incapacitating enemies than it does on killing them. In fact, you start off without any weapons aside from your acrobatic prowess.
INTERVIEW
Jonathan Coulton
By Shaun Hatton - June 20th, 2008
Jonathan Coulton is an independent singer/songwriter whom you gamers may know as “that guy who wrote that song from Portal.” And while that particular tune did give him a lot of notoriety and exposure to those who hadn’t previously heard of him, he’s been making a living as a musician ever since leaving his last day job as a computer programmer.
As fun as the robotic GLaDOS-crooned “Still Alive” is, I’ve found that the real magic in his music is the sincerity of his voice, which is really obvious in songs like “First of May,” “Better,” and “Skullcrusher Mountain.” I happily dare anyone - robots excluded - to listen to one of his songs and not crack a smile. It’s just not possible.
His music is heard by loving fans around the world who can pay what they want (or can) to download his tunes (take that, record labels). Because of this, he’s been able to make a living at doing what he loves best: making music.
While internet stardom means that many of his fans have never seen him play live, us Torontonians are in for a real treat, since Coulton will be playing at the Lula Lounge in Toronto on July 9, 2008 with Paul and Storm. The show’s 19+ but if you’re underage, you can get in by bringing a guardian.
Coulton (or JoCo as we sometimes like to refer to him) spent some time chatting with me over the phone from his New York home/studio last week about music, video games, and music video games (among other things). Read on for the interview.
This Town Ain’t Big Enough
For the Both of Us
Zune to iPod: Welcome to Your Doom
By Shaun Hatton - June 14th, 2008
For the Both of Us
There’s a new challenger in town for the title of top MP3 player: Zune. While the device has been available in the United States for quite some time, it’s only just making its Canadian debut this weekend. The reigning champ, iPod, has never faced a contender as mighty and powerful as Zune, both in terms of device features and the company behind it.
Yes, the Zune is Microsoft’s delayed response to Apple’s mainstay, the go-to gadget of choice for hundreds of thousands of trendy kids the world over. Apple’s product is surviving on brand recognition, a longstanding track record of being the “it” device, and consumer ignorance and unwillingness to try other brands of players. The Zune, in other words, looks to have quite the uphill battle.
While the iPod is indeed riding high on trendiness, arguably more on its flash than substance, the Zune brings with it a wide range of great features over its still sleek design. Whether you’re on the market for your first MP3 player or if you’re looking to upgrade to a newer device, you have a tough choice ahead of you. And I’m not about to make it any easier.
I already own a somewhat large assortment of music players: a fifth-generation 30GB iPod Video, a Crative Zen Vision W (30GB), a Sony Ericsson W810i phone with music player functionality, and a Creative Muvo V100 1GB player. I have also reviewed other MP3 players, including a few Samsung devices.
Everything Old is New Again
Masterworks in Gaming: Half-Life 2
By Jamie Love - June 12th, 2008
City 17 is immediately presented as classic science fiction dystopia. I step from the train only to be herded by masked security forces and processed before entering the fortress. I catch half conversations alluding to other cities. The streets are deserted except for the patrols. I enter a housing flat to find worn civilians muttering to themselves and a couple sitting together on a sofa panicking about the soldiers that will soon break down the doors.
Welcome to Half-Life 2.
Years before I would experience this game I came across an essay by social theorist Roland Barthes that has greatly impacted my perception of literature, film, and video games. It was entitled “Death of the Author,” wherein the central concept is that there is no situation in which an author creates an original work. It’s a broad statement, but at its core is a criticism against a reader’s tendency to take any aspect of a work’s creator(s) into account with the creation. He felt to do so placed a limit on the work.
DGamer Brings Social Networking to DS
By Toronto Thumbs Staff - May 14th, 2008
When the DS version of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian launches Friday, May 16, it’ll come with a little something extra. Not only will the title’s release coincide with that of the film, but it will also mark the launch of DGamer, Disney’s own social networking game community aimed towards kids of all ages. The service barely gets a mention on the game’s box art, but many players may end up spending more time with DGamer than with Prince Caspian (which is still a very fun game, trust me).
Brian Green from Fall Line Studios and Michelle Liem from Disney Interactive Studios were in Toronto last week and they demonstrated both DGamer and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian for Toronto Thumbs.
DGamer has been compared to Xbox LIVE because games that include DGamer functionality have “honors” that can be unlocked by completing various tasks in-game, much like LIVE has its infamous achievements. But in a way, the social aspect of DGamer is arguably more social than the comparison might imply.
Players can use the service to chat with friends and check leaderboards, but also to send virtual gifts, participate in polls, and show off their customized avatars. In fact, DGamer marks the first time gamers will be able to use their Nintendo DS to communicate with PCs and other DS systems over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in a family-friendly manner.
Right now, there’s no functionality to invite friends from a DGamer chat directly into a game, but that’s not to say it won’t happen somewhere down the line. Right now, both Green and Liem are very much focusing attention on the fact that DGamer already does a lot of cool things, but won’t rule out or confirm any future possibilities.
The user avatars are a lot like Miis, only more robust. You can choose from different types of eyes, noses, mouths, face shapes, and skin colours just like you can with a Mii. But the real fun is in accessorizing your avatar. Right off the bat, you have several different top and bottom clothing designs to choose from, and each piece of clothing has several colour schemes. So if you and your buddy have a thing for argyle sweaters, you can at least have different-coloured ones.
