Digital Relay

Weird announcements

2007-06-21T13:15:00.000-04:00

I have to learn to stop questioning it.

So Bioware and Sega announced today that Bioware's going to be developing a Sonic the Hedgehog RPG on the Nintendo DS. Now, I'm trudging through Jade Empire right now during the anxious await of Mass Effect. I borrowed a friend's Xbox once with Fable and Knights of the Old Republic, and completely forgot Fable even existed. I'm no stranger to Bioware at all, but the idea of them working on a Sonic RPG? Shocking.

At first, I scoffed, but I realized, this was not the first time. Square already played this mind fuck with me, twice. First was Super Mario RPG, then Kingdom Hearts, a Disney oriented action RPGs. Both times, I laughed to myself, anticipating a fare amount of suckage, yet both games remain two of my favorite RPGs of all time.

So I'm gonna let this one go and trust Bioware. By the third time, I'd like to think I've learned my lesson.

Gaming Rigs

2007-06-13T21:31:00.000-04:00

A new independant game store opened up in my area recently, and it's been having a drastic effect on my bank account. On the positive side, it did inspire me to set up the gaming rig in my room I've always dreamed of. Once I complete the ensemble with the new TV in a couple of weeks, I may post pictures. We'll see what happens with that. Anyway, newly acquired games include:

Genesis
- Altered Beast
- Dynamite Headdy
- Phantasy Star IV
- X-Men

SNES
- Pilotwings
- Super Ninja Boys
- Flintstones

3D0
- Alone in the Dark

I may have forgotten something, but I don't remember. Anyway, me and my roommate we're trying to play X-men, but the game's difficulty is to the broken levels, so I've spent most of my time with Phantasy Star IV, which as much as I sing it's praises, have never beaten. Now that I own the cartridge, there is no excuse.

Review for Crush is up on GameFAQs, be sure ot check it out. Pick the game up too, since there's talk of a sequel being thrown around.

PSP Misfailings

2007-06-08T13:22:00.000-04:00

Picked up Crush recently, and it reminded me why I don't like my PSP sometimes.

So I just bought the game, I have my PSP at work (Since I've mostly used it as an MP3 player... ... after my IPod died), so of course on my break, I wanna play my new game. Now, I don't have good access to Wi-fi, but that's ok, Crush came packed in with the new firmware update. So before I can play my game, I have to update the firmware. The batteries not charged though, it's actually starting to run low, so I can't actually update my firmware.

I full well know the dangers of updating firmware on a low battery. Last thing I want is this 200 dollar expensive piece of high tech equipment bricking on me. What grinds me up though, is I shouldn't have to update the firmware to play my new game in the first place. The only reason it has to do that is piracy prevention, and even that's a stretch in this age where you still need an old PSP with old firmware to pirate anything. Complete BS.

Anyway, I've been writing up reviews on GameFAQs lately while I twiddle my thumbs for next semester to start so I can get knee deep into educational journalism. Check them out:

Spider-Man 3 (4/10)
Astyanax (7/10)

One for the aforementioned Crush is coming soon. I'll post when it's up.

An apology and a gift

2007-04-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

So, I know I haven't updated this page much since it's inception, and for that I am sorry. I wanted to turn it into my own kind of game related news blog in tandum with what I'm actually working on, but my projects have taken up what time that pushing carts and going to college hasn't. What I can do to make up for it though, is use this space as a place to start leaking small details about one of those projects (the one I can actually talk about at the moment) so enjoy it. artwork credits go to Karen McKenna, website: www.rainknight.com

The Miyamoto Keynote, Or, Why I Needed A Better Pass

2007-03-13T15:36:00.000-04:00

The GDC has one stark contrast from the usual, big gaming expos. Mainly that the "C" stands for Conference as opposed to Convention. Two words, significant different meanings. The latter implies an unstructured gathering, or a social event, while the latter, the one in question, is a little more uniformed than that. Essentially, it means big business is supposed to go down. Obviously, you don't want any faceless person from the street invading your company's (or in this case, companies') space with their own ideas on why your corporate culture could use a little shaking. So what does the GDC do to filter out the less privilege?

They set the cost exponentially high.

Being one of the more meager individuals myself, I missed out on a lot of opportunities... but the trip was short notice, and I'm surprised I was able to gather up the 1000+ dollars it took just to go, so I'm a little less bitter about not affording to see the unsung heroes talk about things that interest me that would bore anyone outside of our industry. That's fine, I suppose, I understand what geekdom of any sort does to the ones who "don't get it." What concerns me are the ones who really should.

I don't need to go in depth about who Miyamoto is, so I won't. I know the lot of you know about the Keynote, so I won't go into much about that, but I do want to touch on the coverage it's gotten, pointing a finger mostly at the usually great 1up.com. Generally, every where else, the coverage was alright, merely word for word accounts, but in an entirely journalistic fashion, the 1up article features joke after insult after slam between every comment the legendary designer had to say... The driving point for 1up: Get to the announcements. And it's not just them, they were the only ones being blatant about it. Pretty much every journalistic blog and site made at least one mention, comment, or inquiry to Reggie on if there would be any big news, announcements or anything worth being genuinely excited about with the Miyamoto keynote, which begs the question: When did his keynote have anything to do with announcements?

The GDC, as previously mentioned, is a conference. It's a business meeting. Miyamoto's keynote was never about any E3 sized epic announcement. It was about laying out Nintendo's business strategy in hopes of educating others within there industry, and what it means to their collective futures, and for the most part, that's exactly what was delivered.

There's been a lot of other press lately on developer's worried about the GDC becoming to mainstream. With E3 gone, It's no longer their safe haven from the gaming paparazzi, and the flat out disrespectful treatment the Miyamoto keynote receive is proof of that. Penny-Arcade's Jerry "Tycho" Holkin's made some great points on the issue as well, but that's for him to tell you. I'm not saying the GDC should be barred from the media, but we have to remember the purpose of the show... It's not 'for' us, it's for them. It's ok that we're there, and it's nice of them to have us, but we need to be quiet and let them talk.

First Entry; Back from the GDC

2007-03-11T23:11:00.000-04:00

Hello.

Consider this the welcome mat to The Digital Relay. That warm, fuzzy thing beneath your feet that tells you of the certain kind of class that exists beyond the door infront of you... upscale, yet comfortable and familiar. With a refresh feeling of confidence you go to turn the knob... and see that you're locked out.

Seriously, this is a pretty sad attempt to reassure you of the great things that are coming in the future, yet reminding you that the road is still pretty bumpy. I set up the domain and hosting rather hastily before leaving for the conference, so I only have a few articles to show off my writing finesse, if you will, before posting up my more serious workings, listings of the projects I've worked on, and various other tidbits. The site should be taking on a little more shape in the coming week, seeing as the GDC was, conviently enough, scheduled the week before my spring break. While I'm doing things behind the curtain, be sure to look back here for random musings about the trip, my experiences, and other thoughts on the gaming industry.

Just sit back folks, our reguarly scheduled programming will begin momentarily.