Associated Content and Fat Princess

Some of you might know my Associated Content page. For those who do not, I pick up pieces there from time to time and you really ought to hop on over and take a look. Here's a piece I wrote just recently about Fat Princess, a hilarious and mildly addictive Playstation 3 game.

Fat Princess: A Playstation 3 Game Review
A video game review of the downloadable game, Fat Princess, available on the Playstation 3.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/2174035/fat_princess_a_playstation_3_game_review.html

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum was not perfect, but I loved it anyway. Batman is perhaps the only DC comic character I actually like, not unlike many readers of comics. As the YouTube craze states: I’m a Marvel. I’m a DC. One cannot be both. I am fully a Marvel when it comes right down to it, but I can get behind the Batman. Either way, I played the new Batman game, Batman: Arkham Asylum and fell in love with the graphics. All the grit and grime one comes to expect from Gotham. The Asylum itself literally makes the game for you. In some cases, I found myself thinking I was playing a horror game instead of a comic book game. The graphics were just that good.

The other aspect of the game I fell in love with was Detective Mode, the mode that brings to bear the gadgets and the genius of the Dark Knight. Ranging from easy things like finding a way out of a locked room to much more difficult tasks like following a DNA trail, detective mode makes the game.

My only major gripe: Controls. I have a hard time getting myself together switching between the D-pad and the analog stick.

Overall, I loved the game.

A Question of Frivolity

My younger brother gets Game Informer, the video game magazine, and I tend to flip through it whenever I am looking for something to hold my interest for a quick second. So I was flipping through the April 2009 issue and there was an opinion article called: Wasting the Day to Play: Does Gaming Need a Defense? The article starts with the question: “Aren’t games just a waste of time?” (Smith 24)A well meaning question with a bucket load of bias attached to it.

How can you spend your life essentially doing something frivolous? As a writer, one gets similar questions all the time and like David Smith, I find myself fumbling for an answer. I love to write. I do not feel bad for getting up at five in the morning and turning on my laptop before I am even out of bed good.

“Are games a waste of time?” Smith asks in his closing and I have to ask myself a very similar question when it comes to my writing. Is it a waste of time? Am I simply spending my time working toward something with a snowball’s chance in hell of happening?

There is no clear answer to this question. I think I am doing what needs to be done in order to make it. However, this feeling is not necessarily shared. I have to thank David Smith for his articulation of an old question and his answer to it.

Smith, David. “Wasting the Day to Play: Does Gaming Need a Defense?” Game Informer. 192 (2009): 24.

King of Fighters XII

I can describe King of Fighters XII in one word: disappointing. I have been playing King of Fighters for a long time, almost since it first came to the United States, so I have pretty much seen absolutely everything they can do to this franchise. Up to this point, I have been perfectly okay with the things they have done. This time, however, I just cannot find it in myself to forgive this newest installment. The graphics, while they are very pretty, are such a departure it is off putting. Clark and Ralf look like they are about to go into a fit of steroid induced rage. Iori in a short jacket just looks utterly wrong. Disappointing.

Then there is the simple number of characters available. This version gives a character approximately 20 characters, the lowest number of characters available in a King of Fighters game. Somewhat sad since I am used to there being a character for every mood; not to mention, several of my favorites (KING!) are missing. The decision to cut her has cost them at least one longtime player.

Finally, there are the moves. Yes, there were like three special moves per character previously, which is maybe a bit much. However, having that many moves allowed each person to play their characters a little differently. With fewer moves, the number of strategies and tactics goes down. It is simply a given.

All together, not worth the money spent on it in my opinion.