Games That Make You American (Unless You Aren’t)

Chances are that if you are reading this, you are American, and if you wait every hour to read a post of mine, you might have realized that you spend to much time on the computer and that it is Independence Day or America day, if you’re English. Some people will feel the urge to go outside, swim, or barbecue. Others, however, would rather stay inside, watch TV, or play a video game. The inactive choice would be the wrong one and it is hardly supporting America. I do not tolerate playing video games on such a summer’s day and certainly if the games you are playing are JRPG’s, European indy games, or hockey games (remember, that’s Canada–no exceptions!). If you need help finding the right games to play that support the US, here is the only help that you’ll probably get.

First of all, here are the rules to abide by if you want to stay in the Patriot Club. No foreign games, period. Second, the game should be good. That’s about it, but with each game, there are individual rules to follow.

Okay, if you want to play a good American shooter, Call of Duty 4 is about as American you can get, even if your main US Marine character that you play as, dies halfway through the game. Yes, that was a spoiler, but desperate times call for desperate measures. This is how you should play: Only play through the Marine parts of the campaign, never participate in multiplayer as Soviet, Terrorists, or Brits, if you get placed on either one of those teams, drop out of the session until you get the US.

I have decided that I really don’t want to stay inside so I will just give you a list on the rest. It’s not laziness, because I’m going to go swimming and socialize so I suggest that you don’t argue with me about this. You should know how to play your games anyway.

• Madden NFL 08
• Gears of War
• GTA4 (The only foreign game exception, because its in Liberty City)
• Halo 3 (Weekend Double-EXP playlist)
• Battlefield: Bad Company

I Want That: 80’s Nostalgia

So most of you reading this (Peanut) might have heard that on the weekend, Diablo 3 was announced. I definitely am not as stoked as those long time fans, mostly for the reason that I am not a long time fan nor have I played the first two Diablo games. You might call me insane and I am okay with that but because I am insane for other reasons (I will make the KOTOR movie). I haven’t been on this earth as long as the Blizzard fanboys so can you at least give me a break. My first real game that I got into was the first Mario Party game for God’s sake, and for gaming I only go as far back to 1997.

Maybe I’m just jealous that I never was able to get into classic gaming or having the ability to participate in conversations with old nerds about the games that I was too young to understand at the time. I feel like the Apprentice to a bunch of Jedi Masters that existed in a more simple time when it was totally okay to like corny stories or living under the Reagan administration. It may seem like a stupid wish, but I just want to know what it was like to have games like Diablo which were groundbreaking at the time.

This is probably the time to end my pointless whining about being born in the early 90’s, because look at what childhood memories that have already become. Even knowing that I was never there in the 80’s, this generation of games seems to be moving at high speeds and entering the throne of mainstream entertainment. Now the game industry is bigger than Hollywood and we are getting games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto that are defining what is possible in a game. I have always loved a good story and it’s about damn time that some games are starting to deliver on that front. BioWare has told a better Star Wars story than the entire prequel trilogy, in my opinion. Even gameplay has evolved somewhat with games like Portal keeping the first person view that Valve is famous for and adding platformer and unique puzzle elements that made it one of the most original games of last year.

Now that I think about it, It was kind of cool playing games like Knights of the Old Republic and Halo that will become classics as the years go by. I will be able to tell my kids that I lived in the time that gaming started to rev up an become its own rather than something stupid like fighting in World War II.

The [Untitled] Machinima

With a bunch of good machinima out there and a lot more bad machinima, I have been inspired to not make it into the a lot more category with a few ideas that never went through. A Crackdown machinima, a Halo machinima, and a Nintendogs machinima (two of those are for real). I pray for this new idea that I have that involves one of my new favorite games: Grand Theft Auto IV. Of course, I haven’t done anything yet, so I can’t say that it’s coming soon or even at all, but I do believe it to be one of my better brain-creations. I don’t want to say much, but I will try working with my friend over Xbox Live and since he’s probably the only one reading this… SHOUT OUT! You know who you are.

The one thing that bugs me is that people say that GTA wouldn’t make a good machinima with proof of the couple out there right now. Terrible. My dream is for it to be  not just “good”, but awesome. We (me and the person who knows who they are) are trying to figure out if my story idea should be a comedy or if it should be serious. The serious stuff that I have seen in GTA machinima is abysmal and it would be too easy to make stupid jokes so I defended the thought of it being both serious and funny at the same time, like Scrubs! After him convincing me that we should probably focus with either one and I am still debating to myself which genre I want to do, but I am leaning toward dramatic at the moment. Titles are much needed also so you couple guys that appreciate educated opinions in blogging should send some ideas. Just throw them out in a comment section, but since this is very unlikely to happen, my friend will brainstorm the title too. I just hope it’s original enough to be better than The Pre-Game Lobby.

EndWar: Don’t Ask.

Recently, there was a call for entrants in the EndWar Beta so I signed up, got in, and got the beta. Judging by the Terms of Agreements, I won’t be able to talk very much about it which disappoints me because I was looking forward to writing a preview on this innovative RTS. This seems weird to me, for the reason that the multiplayer campaign seems pretty solid and I would love to tell all of you more… but I can’t. However I can say what’s good. You might had heard the game having voice commands. In thought, this sounds like a potential mess. Good news, it’s good. The system recognizes the voice pretty well and you don’t have to work painlessly on getting one silly word exactly right (I’m looking at you Brain Age).

I would really love to make a full-fledged Impressions post, but the man is holding me back, so this is all I can speak about without Interpol without coming to my doorstep and bringing me to a place very far away. Just look out for EndWar this holiday, it looks promising.

My Favorite Games of All Time: Proven Wrong!

A while back in my last favorite games post, I said that my list probably wouldn’t change anytime soon. I was wrong. With that late April release of the fastest selling entertainment product of all time, I was questioning my list a little bit and then realized that it had to change. For instance, I put Crackdown on that list just because it had held my record for longest time playing a video game straight. That record was about 16 hours from 3:00 PM to 7:00 AM the next day. Yes, they told me to go to rehab, but I said “no.” I decided that it was a life-changing event, but it wasn’t one of my favorites, however, I do think it was awesome. There are some rethinking changes to the list, not just for new games so you might notice that it has been butchered quite significantly. 

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (X360)
4. Super Mario 64 (N64)
5. Grand Theft Auto IV (X360)
6. Bioshock (X360)
7. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC)
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360)
9. Earthbound (SNES)
10. Portal (X360)

Honorary Mentions: Halo 3, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Crackdown, Zelda: A Link To The Past, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Pikmin, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Star Wars Rouge Squadron 2