Words are symbolic.  They are nothing but the power we give them.

Unfortunately, they don’t mean the same thing to every person.  Words carry the weight of a person’s entire lifetime experience – their bias, their weight, their pleasures, their pains.

I hate seeing words tossed around with no mind paid to the effect they will have on the world around the speaker.

Advertising uses words to mislead.  It has taught people that the actual meaning of a word is inconsequential when compared to the effect it will have on the listener.  Words have become tools, but so rarely have they become tools for good.  Good intentions, perhaps.  But that is not the same thing.

Not every game is “innovative” despite that being the biggest adjective on the box.

Games that receive “5 out of 5″ from Maxim aren’t necessarily worthy of the honor of a perfect score.

Telling someone you love them and then immediately throwing them away proves that you don’t.

Games/movies/books/people all lie to achieve something.  Many just want you to buy them.

Lying is an exclusively selfish act.  Even lying in a futile attempt to be altruistic often hurts more than it helps.  “Protecting someone from the truth” is usually translated to merely “protecting yourself.”

Understandably, games are a business.  They need to sell product to stay in business and create more product.  Yes, budgetary constraints often hold a particular title back from achieving the creator’s original vision.  That doesn’t make it acceptable to ship an incomplete, terrible game.  You adjust.  You adapt.  Animals can do it.  Humans need to learn how.

When I trade my hard-earned money for something, I expect to get back an experience worth having.  I paid for it.  Why would I pay for a bad time when I can have so many of my own for free?  My wasted time is even more valuable than a few lost dollars.  There’s always more money to be made in the world.  Time can never be taken back.

Please, don’t mislead me.  If you’re going to break my heart and waste my time, just tell me upfront.  My life is too short and too precious to waste.

A lot of books aren’t worth reading.  They may not have even been worth writing.  The author may hate himself as much as, say, the developers of Darkest of Days should hate themselves for releasing such an atrocity upon the world.

A lot of people, sad to say, are not worth knowing.  They will suck the life from you and leave you a broken, hollow shell struggling to regain a steady footing in the world.

Words are symbolic.  They are nothing but the power we give them.

Maybe we give them too much sometimes.

Amplitude in your pocket would look a lot like Rock Band: Unplugged.

However, after playing Amplitude so long and so seriously (when I lived in Germany for a summer, I spent all the time between European adventures trying to master Komputer Kontroller – I did), it makes it hard to switch the controls while keeping the gameplay the same.

Harmonix’s old games were just not as challenging.  When you discover a new way to play (i.e. the original Guitar Hero), you aren’t able to punish the players as fully as you may want to.  It’s hard to tell which finger combinations throw off players, and it’s also tough to figure out which songs will really resonate with gamers and keep them coming back for more.

Look at the difficulty gap between Frequency and Amplitude, and then look at the gap between Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2.  Both are HUGE.  I still haven’t been able to beat GH2, even with all the RB/GH experience I’ve had since then.  But when you played GH2 for a long time then go back to GH1, it’s almost laughably easy (besides the improved hammer-ons/pull-offs in the sequel – the only significant advancement made to the formula since its inception).

In the case of Rock Band: Unplugged, Harmonix didn’t just make the game harder: they made numerous small tweaks (improvements!) that only people who played their first two games to death would appreciate.  Also, why did the servers have to go offline!    They’re still up in Europe!

Anyway.

It’s the little things.  You still have to play two whole bars of music before the track is activated/cleared for awhile, but if you leave the track for some reason, you can still finish the two bars if you come back without missing a note.  In Amp/Freq, if you pushed a button wrong or something, you were screwed.  Go back to the track you fell off of, and start your two bars all over again.  This kills your combo and may lose you the level.

Also, the end of the two bar section is clearly defined.  The last note is lit up, letting you know when it’s time to move on to the next instrument track.  And!  Most (all?) tracks start in the middle-ish area of the bar, giving you time to scoot over there.  That is, if you’ve been maintaining a combo.  No more will your slow fingers cause you to be an epic failure!  No more will you suck!

Well, you may still suck.  Moving on.

The game realizes the inherent flaws of not-enough-shoulder-buttons-syndrome.  Because there are four notes to play, you use the buttons Left, Up, triangle, and circle to play notes.  You move left and right between tracks with the shoulder buttons.  So RB:U gives you a break.  Except on Expert difficulty, you won’t be playing the Left and Up buttons together, and you won’t often do the triangle and circle buttons together either.  Using one thumb for two buttons at once is awkward, and would most likely wear out your hands pretty quickly.

It’d be nice if the DS Guitar Hero games cared about the comfort of their players, instead of wishing ill will and carpal tunnel on the world with its TERRIBLE DS attachment.  But what can you do.  Rock Band cares.  Guitar Hero doesn’t.

Yet, GH5 is still outselling TB:RB.  What a cruel, unfortunate world in which we live.

Band Hero is probably going to sell well too.  Ugh.  Pop music is a black mark on our society that cannot be washed off.  That’s why I only listen to The Current.

From Etsy, everyone’s favorite “homemade stuff online warehouse”… a Pokemon menstrual pad.

$8.

Machine washable.

Kinda gross.  Really nerdy.

Buy it here.

If you’re a guy, maybe you can still use it for your hemorrhoids.  Or as a washcloth for your gamer acne.

Don’t ask.  Don’t tell.

Dating Humor:
How To Get A Girlfriend If You’re A Hopeless Nerd

Figured some of you guys could use this.  GL is here for you. 

Ages and ages ago, when I was merely a blogger, all I did was write my daily blog.  I’d post a little story about my gaming experiences, or put up a funny little video I found, or (one time) do a huge, multi-part feature examining the appeal of different genres throughout video game history.  It was unedited, unmoderated, and (almost) daily.

Now, I’m no longer just a blogger.  I have leveled up to writer here at Gamer Limit.

Still, I love the freedom I’ve been able to maintain in my personal blog.  However, there is just not enough time in my day to accomplish both as whole-heartedly as I would like.  So I am faced with two options: I can keep being a blogger, and spit out my daily, bite-sized nuggets of fun and wisdom, or I can be a writer, and I can post less than once a day, but my posts will have more time to be thought out, thorough, researched, and, well, read.  Not just rehashing a news story from the day (complete with my own personal delicious flavor injected into it), but also personally delivering the kinds of deep, ruminative stories you won’t find anywhere else.

My blog averages about seventy hits a day.  Gamer Limit averages, let’s just say, a LOT more than that.  It’s time for me to be more than just a full-time blogger, and a part-time writer.  Time to be a writer.  Bring on the content.

I’ll still post here occasionally, but my focus will now be shifting to “real” articles (the big, beefy kind) on the main page.

I became a video game blogger as a stepping stone to one day becoming a video game journalist.  That day is today.  Look out, world!

You can always follow me on Twitter, too, as I post a link to every article I publish.  Otherwise, look for me in the center area of the Gamer Limit homepage.  I’ll be the one bringing all the traffic to the site with my wit, charm, know-how, and rugged good looks. 

I just finished Retro Game Challenge on the DS, a game that represents (satirizes?) the 1980’s gaming scene like no other.  Being born in 1986, I was too young to be a part of it, but this game makes me feel as if I was there.

This has been classified as a mini-game collection, but that would be misleading.  These are all complete games, they just hearken back to a simpler time in the industry.  Instead of our 100-hour epics, they are simple, pick-up-and-play games.  Even still, Guadia Quest (a play off of Dragon Warrior) is an hours-long, old-school RPG just like you remember, with the new-school niceties like being able to save anywhere (a trick that FFVII on PSP would have done well to learn!).

But the 80’s game culture in the game is just great.  GameFan magazine, an actual magazine that didn’t start publication until 1992, is in the game, and delivers all the news and codes to you.  What’s better, it has editorials and letters from the editor featuring actual video game magazine celebrities like Dave Halverson and Dan “Shoe” Hsu.  That’s just cool.  I want to be a video game magazine editor then get my likeness put in the very game I am reviewing.

The magazines even chronicle the rise and fall of the games industry in the 80’s a bit.  It doesn’t mention E.T. on the Atari 2600 by name, however.

It also, in a small, sneaky way, criticizes the industry.  There are eight games on RGC, and two of them are clones of other games.  New levels, a harder difficulty, and that’s about it.  The clones over-saturating the market were one of the largest reasons for the downfall of the industry.  This game, by including these clones, insults the very industry it is immortalizing.  I’m not sure if it was intentional like all the fracture Engrish in the games, or an accidental oversight.  I’m going with intentional.

The industry was a mess.  This game captures all of it: the sights, the sounds, the two-button gameplay, the follies.  It’s a fitting tribute on a system that can handle it well without seeming like it’s underachieving.  And, given the immortal quality of these play-forever games, I haven’t put it down yet.

Bring on the sequel!

So, you’ve probably bought Trials HD on XBLA by now, right?  No?

Downloaded the free trial?  No?

Heard of it, at least?  Read my review?

You must have done that last one.

Anyway, the game gets ridiculously hard in the end stages, but crashing is always fun, especially if you’re just trying to entertain some friends with your motorcycle “skills.”

Pressing the Y button does a bailout, but did you know that it does even more?

Look at this video:

Totally useless if you’re actually trying to get a gold medal.

Totally awesome if you dig the terrifically realistic physics engine and want to inflict more pain on Motorcycle Man.  I just gave him that name.  What?  Wanna fight about it?

Now I have a reason to bailout!  Finally!  I was wondering why they even included it as an option…

*Warning: pretty gay post.  Contains man feelings.

I moved to Gamer Limit after months of do-it-yourself blogging on BlogSpot.  I was in a rough spot.  My girlfriend of three years had just left me and took all the cool movies.  I lived in a town that offered me nothing.  Without many friends, I worked a lot of hours (50-60/week) at two thankless, pointless, futureless jobs.

Wanting a change, I started a video game blog.  I advertised it to my facebook and MySpace friends, but I didn’t expect a huge following.  I did write in it nearly every day, however, and I put it on resumes when I applied for “real” jobs in the video game journalism industry.

I started following RSS feeds.  I commented on other game sites’ articles.  I’d say, “Hey, I wrote something about this on my blog, too!”  Then I’d plug myself, trying to gain some sort of readership.

At Gamer Limit, Colin got his blog system set up, and he asked me to move my blog over here.  I did.  And everyone here is great.  It’s weird.

We all have the same hobbies and interests.  We’re all geeks (but still remarkable sociable).  It’s easy to talk to everyone.  They listen to me, and I listen to them.

I just want to say thank you to the entire Gamer Limit community.  You make my life just that much better.  True, we do a lot of work and get nothing in return besides the occasional pat on the back (people actually read my stuff?!), or the occasional review copy of a new game… but it’s always worth it.

The best part: it’s never awkward when someone new shows up.  EVERYBODY is very welcoming and amiable.  Everyone has something new to add to the overarching conversation, and the extra life experience is always appreciated.

So here it is.

The Digital Pasture Thank You Page.

Colin: thanks for saving me, and reading my blog when you were probably supposed to be working.

Chris: for thinking I’m a good writer; we should play games someday when you’re not mailing out 50,000 PR emails.

Josh: for showing me the ropes when I first started; we need to play games too!  And not just HoN.  You’re just too good.

Jamie: for being my future video game bandmate, and fellow RPG nerd.

Grahame: for always bein’ around to say hi.

Paul: for being the British version of me.

Jazzman: for being so young and innocent.  Your game is gonna be great, I can tell already.

Jimmy: my new chat friend.  Life will get better again!

Dylan: my biggest fan, who has a HUGE man crush on me.

Shawn, Simon, James (both of ‘em), Jess, Jeff, Curtis, Martin, Chase, Chris #2, Chris #3 (I’ll let you fight out which is which) Alex, Andrew, everyone else (sorry if I missed you!): haven’t had much of a chance to get to know you, but don’t worry, I’m around.

And Steve Kelso: I miss you and your weird llama obsession.

And finally…

Jon: my best buddy from back in the day, thanks for the T-shirt!  I’m sure I’ll see you in Seattle someday.

Tricia: hope you still read this!  You used to be my only commenter.  How have you been?

Mom and Phil: you might not always know what I’m talking about, but you still read and believe in me!  Thanks a lot!

So that’s all for now.  Thanks for following, reading, commenting, and all you do.  It means a lot more to me than it probably should.

Uh, what does that mean?  It means that the Governor of Massachusetts actually issued a declaration stating this.  This is official, folks.  Look, I stole this from www.Mass.gov, the official Massachusetts blog!  It’s just… so great.

The following is the full text of a proclamation by Governor Deval L. Patrick

Whereas Massachusetts, a world leader in technological innovation, is home to one of the largest and most diverse clusters of video game companies and talent in the country, generating over $3 billion in sales in 2008; and

Whereas In 1961, MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell and Wayne Wiitanen invented the game Spacewar!, one of the first video games ever created; and

Whereas Throughout the Bay State, innovative companies are developing new gaming technologies from diagnostics to social media.  Our universities feature programs and curriculum that support the growth of the videogame industry; and

Whereas On this day, Harmonix Music Systems, the Cambridge-based inventors of Rock Band and developer of the original Guitar Hero games, is releasing The Beatles: Rock Band™, a game that will not only bring the creativity and joy of The Beatles music to countless people, but will introduce the Fab Four to new generations of fans,

Now, Therefore, I, Deval L. Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby proclaim September 9th, 2009 to be,

Video Game Innovation Day

And urge all the citizens of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this ninth day of September, in the year two thousand and nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and thirty-third.

By His Excellency

DevaL L.patrick

Governor of the Commonwealth

William Francis Galvin   

Secretary of the Commonwealth

God Save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

I was reading a recent Game Informer (blasphemy!) preview of the upcoming PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.  It is apparently another prequel to the MGS series, but Kojima-san stated in the preview, “…we are implementing features that can only be realized on the PSP.”

Yeah?  And what might that be?  The power to be continually outsold by the technologically inferior Nintendo DS?  The ability to drain your system’s ENTIRE battery in 2-3 hours, GTA-style?  The power to play movies that are more expensive and have fewer features than their DVD counterparts?

Every console has its niche.  Every console brings something – anything – different to the table.  DS has two sccreens.  Wii has fully realized (although still not fully utilized) motion controls, a web browser, and thousands of classic games populating its Virtual Console.  PS3 has Blu-ray and Home (if you can call Home a feature – at least it tries to set Sony apart).  Xbox 360 has the finest internet service money can buy, including CROSS-GAME CHAT (suck it, Sony).  Also, all the best exclusives (GTA IV DLC) are still Microsoft.

The PSP… is portable.  It has Wi-Fi, and more power than the DS.  But its list of “features” is, and always has been unimpressive.  Even with the implementation of PSN and the handful of exclusive games, it really brings nothing new to the table.

So what could Kojima be talking about?

A GPS type of system to enhance the gameplay?  A recent DS game (Treasure World) used Wi-Fi hotspots to net you new items, etc., so that’s nothing new.  Use the hundreds of currently available UMD movies to add gimmicks to the gameplay by switching out discs?  No, Monster Rancher did that first with CD’s, DVD’s, and other game’s discs.

DLC?  Rock Band: Unplugged.

Dual-stick-like control for strafing AND aiming?  King Kong.

The widescreen, panoramic capabilities?  No.  That’s just dumb.  If that’s all you bring to the system, just stay out.

Then what, Mr. Kojima?  What can PSP do that no other platform is capable of?