JonCole

My number came up a short while ago and I dropped XBL Gold. I'll probably renew for 3 months after Halo 4 comes out, but for the forseeable future I'd rather just get my games on PC/PS3 if I'm interested in multiplayer. As someone who really only likes to play a small subset of multiplayer games, XBL is practically worthless to me. The only other reason I might go back to XBL Gold is if I follow through with plans to setup CableCard and use it as a Media Extender for Windows Media Center, at which point I'd need Gold to use it essentially as a streamer box for all types of content.

I guess I should check in as I've already received my 3DS and have been playing it a fair bit. I actually really like this device despite early skepticism. I have to say, I wouldn't really be eager to pay full price for this console as I'm really learning that there aren't a ton of games I'm particularly interested in. Getting that out of the way, I've tried out a few demos and purchased two games - Pushmo and Super Mario 3D Land. Thus far, neither really "take advantage" of the 3D capability but I believe they both visually benefit from the effect. Although I never would have anticipated it, Nintendo continues to deliver a really charming Mario experience that goes outside of the box a bit with the 3D aspects laid on top of seemingly 2D environments. This does make me a little pessimistic about New Super Mario Bros 2, however, as it really looks like a step back (and down) from the 3D (movement) aspect in 3D Land. I'm all for bringing sidescrolling gameplay into modern times, but I also feel like that's been a little played out. Unless Nintendo REALLY delivers, I can't imagine NSMB2 will be nearly as compelling as 3D Land or more directly Rayman Origins/Legends.

As someone who doesn't care much for owning music, I'm pretty happy with Rdio. That being said, Rdio isn't available in England so I guess I'd suggest Spotify as it's essentially equivalent. Then again, it seems like you want to own music. I guess I'm not very useful in this particular topic.

The one thing I don't understand is the comparison to indie PC gaming. I'm as much a fan of PC gaming as anyone else here, but I can honestly barely afford it. If one of the components in my gaming PC takes a shit, I'm out of the game for at least a few months until I have the expendable income to buy a new $200 video card (and yes, I know sub-$200 GPUs exist but I want something that'll drive a 1080p display with most modern games capably). If this thing is purporting to offer an open-source platform that works out of the box to your TV with relatively low development costs/licensing fees, it offers a substantially different budgetary reality than a gaming PC. It's as simple as that.

Since you and the other guys clearly have more experience on the fundee side of things, let me ask - does Kickstarter particularly prefer things that require development rather than just plain-old funding? I feel like the initial goal of the site was to stimulate projects that would never go beyond the conceptual phase, but I also think that Kickstarter is just a framework for funding of just about anything with tiered rewards. Is their company message specific in supporting either one of these (that aren't mutually exclusive, mind you, but are definitely different)?

Why? Having an ad-free experience has value. I would rather pay for half the Android games I play than have to deal with ads having not paid for it. If someone is invested in Penny Arcade, why not give them the option to give money for a direct cause? It sure as hell is better than the ambiguous, pointless PayPal donate button.

I think that the hope is that the person who would buy a $99 console off of Kickstarter is also someone who would be engaged enough to tool around with many of the games. In other words, attach rate will be very high. Some of the most expensive parts in a smartphone (and incidentally the parts that the Ouya doesn't need) are the display panel and battery. When I think about how Google/Asus can make the Nexus 7 for $199 with very similar specs to the Ouya, I find it not that farfetched that the Ouya can be $99 and might still make a minor profit. Also, keep in mind that Nvidia might be lowballing prices on the Tegra 3 SOC because phone manufacturers are largely using Qualcomm chips that are compatible with US LTE bands in most new phones. I don't even know of a phone sold by carriers in the US that packs Tegra 3.

I think you're conflating the development of the actual hardware and the development of games to be run on the hardware. I'm saying that the money that's going into this Kickstarter is a prepurchase of an already determined spec of hardware. It's not a roll of the dice like funding the idea of something is (a la most games that crop up on Kickstarter, where the starting point is "we want to make a futuristic diablo game!" but they only have rough concept art at the time).

Let's be clear, the million dollars is not for the "development" of the box. Kickstarter in this form is essentially a different application of a pre-order system. When you "back" a project for $100 and the product that they'll be releasing will be retail priced at $100, it's not aspirational or anything to that effect. Also, I don't think this indicates that the games will be "made to be experienced while on the move". The indication I get from all the materials on the Kickstarter is that this is meant to be a platform that runs on a certain level of hardware and software. Just because the hardware and software is common to both devices doesn't necessarily mean that the experiences will have to be congruous. This sentiment seems equivalent to if you told early PC gaming developers that they shouldn't develop for PC because their games would essentially be glorified documents or spreadsheets.

They're basically just saying that free-to-play or demo mode will be required of every game, as far as I can tell. Even if that results in something like XBLA where every title has a demo and then you have to pay for the full game after an hour or so, I still think it's an appealing standard to enforce. And like Nappi said, since this is running on a fairly standard SOC and hardware along with an install base of 10,000+ savvy owners, I can quickly see this becoming a defacto homebrew HTPC option like the original Xbox became with XBMC or something to that effect. I'm in just for that reason alone, because if all else fails this'll end up being another set-top box for a relatively inoffensive $99. Oh, and not to mention that this will potentially do a great thing for development on other Tegra 3-based devices, like the Nexus 7 I'm getting by the end of the month.

It seemed like the hitbox was just at the very center of the boss. In other words, the boxes that surround it are more a health indicator than anything else.

Well, probably more specifically that it was developed by Sega, who really doesn't really have a stellar track record let alone with shooter games.

The Darkness - This game has been sitting on my backlog for almost five years (got it a few months after release). Don't know why I let it get that far behind me, so I decided to barrel through it over a couple days. I'm not really surprised at how well it holds up considering Starbreeze's reputation, but that rep also follows in that the combat really isn't that great. I did decide to play it on easy for the sake of brevity, however, meaning I felt a minimal amount of slog. Otherwise, The Darkness is a really great game with quite a unique story. I'm eager to check out The Darkness 2, though I'm quite sure that due to relatively little commercial success it'll get even cheaper in the future (currently going for $12.50 on Amazon DD).

Blur - I love this game. Really good transition of the mechanics of something like Mario Kart to an aesthetically realistic game. Maybe it's just a lack of proper Burnout games, but I needed to wreck some shiny sports cars. Just wish it was more successful, honestly think it might have been better suited to XBLA with a reduced scope.

God of War II - Meh, God of War II has so much going for it and I can see why people love it. The combat is generally good, but like many games of this type it tends to break down when you fight a variety of different enemy types in a single encounter. The exploration is also generally good, but the platforming sequences and various "these spikes will murder you unless you do X, but also these enemies will keep spawning in to prevent you from doing x" are quite annoying. They wouldn't be quite so annoying if they didn't bring attention to the fact that this game is LONG. My playthrough hit about 15 hours, which I find is pretty ridiculous when I compare that time to what I remember actually happening throughout the game. The plot would almost be entertaining if not for the extreme predictability of everything. Everyone but one dude hates Kratos, and then that dude will eventually betray Kratos. Kratos will get angry and seek revenge, making everyone hate Kratos. I get it. Can't say I'm very excited to hop into GoW3, glad I don't have it waiting in the wings right now.

I agree completely with Sno. I have to admit, though, the shortcomings of the mechanics really got to me in a recent attempt to play MGS4. The quirkiness of the narrative only goes so far for me. In doing more research about games available for the 3DS, I've come to the conclusion that there simply aren't that many games out there for the system. It's strange, I haven't really observed this before as I've never owned a console so early in its infancy at a time where I could actually afford games (ie, I had an Xbox early but I was also a baby with no money). It also strikes me as disappointing that some of the better games are just remakes of N64 games.

Lots of pro-tips there in a short space. I'll be sure to check out demos, that'll be sure to help with penny pinching. Mario 3D Land, Kid Icarus, and Mario Kart 7 are surely at the top of my list, thanks guys.

Fair enough, I'm not an enormous fan of MGS anyways. Do I need a CPP for Kid Icarus?

The bright side of this - a friend of mine remembered that he had a 3DS (yeah, that is apparently something you can forget) and decided to sell it to me for $60. So, anything I need to check out right off the bat? I'm on a pretty tight budget, so I'm thinking just a couple of eShop games like Pushmo and Zen Pinball in addition to maybe MGS: Snake Eater 3D if I get some Amazon trade-in credit together.

You just burning through all those PS+ free games?

The cloakers are really the only enemy of that particular type. The different enemy types recur and persist through both campaigns, so there's really not a huge amount of variety in the ground-based combat.

I dunno, that game design tendency seems like a matter of degree rather than being "x"-type of game. Most games have dumb contrivances that promote forward progress. I feel more bothered by games where you drop 2 meters in elevation and can't backtrack because there's no jump function than by games where an entrance collapses or keycard is destroyed. At least there's some facade constructed over that funneling of your progression. That said, I think "-Annoying obligatory arena fight with an enemy that's only hard to fight because it's hard to hit!" rings very true. Transformers falls victim very obviously to the "wait a guy to show his red spot, attack that red spot, avoid incredibly powerful attacks, now he's slightly more powerful, repeat two more times" thing.

Yeah, I don't claim it's any work of art but I did have fun with it. Might also be due in part to the fact that I played it on easy and could burn through those annoyances fairly quickly. In my quest to defeat my backlog, I've had a lot less humility about game difficulty. If playing on easy will allow me to finish a game and even have fun with it, I'll gladly take that opportunity.

Beat Metro 2033 a week ago, very good game. Don't really think the combat mechanics hold up in the later stages of the game, as 4A's idea of ramping up the difficulty as time goes on is just having guys with significantly more hit points or things that can kill you in one or two hits. Did love the story and atmosphere, though. Finished up Transfomers: War for Cybertron this past weekend, what a weird game. Never was a huge fan of Transformers, but there's still a level of cultural osmosis nostalgia that I appreciated in this one. The gameplay is nothing special, standard third-person shooting stuff, but I did like the transforming in the air combat levels. Well worth the $5 or $10 I paid for it in some Steam sale from way back.

Psychonauts is being sold directly from a developer that's not owned by a major game publisher. Sounds indie to me.