Videogames Part 1: My Passion explained

Videogames: One of the youngest, if not the youngest, forms of entertainment. They began to gain popularity during the 1980's. But they got my interest during the 1990's with NES, SNES & N64. I can't remember the first time I played a game, but I can't remember a time without them in my life. By the time the N64 came out (1997) I had already decided that I wanted to dedicate myself to creating games. Of course by then I didn't know any of the specifics about creating games, but I knew I would like it. Finally years later (high school) I learned the specifics and loved what they were. So with videogames being my main goal I set out to study Computer Science. So with videogames being this influential in my life, I have a great passion to make my own.

My Opinion: BlazBlue

Image via Wikipedia

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is a really fun 2-D fighting game and it's also really beautiful to look at. I'm not a fan of fighting games so I hesitated a little before actually buying this game (even though I actually saw footage of the game two days before I bought it :D). I really didn't made my mind until was in the store purchasing it. The reasons I decided to go for it and buy it were two: the first that the game is visually astounding and the second is the right-stick controls, which made it easier for noobs to do all the cool stuff without doing the button combinations. Thanks to the right-stick even a noob could enjoy playing this game, but the right-stick will limit you as it can't do all combos or special attacks. BlazBlue comes with many game modes such as arcade mode, story mode, versus, training, theater, gallery, and online multiplayer.
The Story Mode is long for fighter game, to bad you never understand everything that is happening. Yet you do learn the personality of each character, and how they behave with the others and why. You also get a little background for each character, but at the end the story is confusing. This also happens because you play a different story for each character and something different happens. There is a real ending, once you pass it once with each character available in story mode, but this real ending is also somewhat confusing. Even though the story is confusing I did enjoy playing through it and watching the story videos.
The arcade mode is what you expect, you battle a series of characters and that's it. You do release a special attack or form for you character once you pass the arcade mode, so it is worth passing with all characters at least once. Some characters do interact with each other before a fight, but it's not much (which s a good thing, we do have a story mode after all). The other modes are self-explanatory, so I won't explain them.
I really liked BlazBlue; I admit I don't play it too often though to the fact that I'm not a fan of fighting games. The game is beautiful to see and fun to play, so I recommend it to everybody from noobs to hardcore gamers who are interested in a good fighting game.

One more year one more E3!

Another E3 has come and gone, and with it a lot of information: new games, new technologies, new surprises, new disappointments, new conferences, etc. So with all these we have a pretty good idea of which games are coming for the rest of the year. And I have to say some of these look really cool. But first I would like to give my opinion about each conference that the big three gave (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony). Now before I give my opinion I like to point out that I didn't see the conferences in video due to work, but I did follow them in live-blogging via Kotaku and G4.

Microsoft:

For the Microsoft conference I thought it was really good even though I never had the feeling of "Whoa that's totally unexpected" like I did last year with FFXIII. This doesn't mean I wasn't surprise with Metal Gear coming to the 360, but it didn't recreate that feeling I felt last year (do to the rumors). Though all this could be do to the fact that I saw last year's conferences live on TV. For the games many were already announced, even though some hadn't been mention for about two years (yeah I'm looking at you Conviction!). These are the games that I'm excited about: Halo: ODST, Halo: Reach, Crackdown 2, MGS: Rising, SC: Conviction, FFXIII, and not shown in the conference but still coming to the 360: Assassin’s Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect 2, and the new KOTOR. But it wasn't all about the games in this conference as Microsoft finally revealed their answer to Wii's Motion control, and I have to admit, this did surprise me as I was expecting some cheap knockoff with some extra stuff, but what they showed was quite impressive (if it actually works as they showed it).
Natal is the name of this technology and it doesn't use a remote control; instead it's just like a big sensor bar that detects your whole body. It also has face and voice recognition which sounds pretty cool, but there is still that sensation that reminds us that it was a planned demo. So if it works as it was shown this will be really amazing technology, but back to reality and we remember that it will probably have it own set of issues (after all it is Microsoft). And now if it does work as it was shown, there is still one problem for us hardcore gamers, and that is a simple problem: what the heck do we care for motion control, until now the only thing it has brought us is a bunch of lousy games; just take a look at Wii games and only a few are actually any good. And another thing we, gamers, are usually lazy, so we prefer the controller in the sense that we don't have to actually stand and move. So yeah natal's technology is pretty cool, but let's face reality; the intention behind it is to steal some of those casual gamers that have made the Wii so successful. And well natal looks like it could actually get that done, for example with natal you could actually force the player to stand up and do some exercise while they play. Because with the Wii you can just use the predefine hand movements to do most of the stuff a games needs you to do, without necessarily needing you to stand up and 'act' as the game intended. We are still a year away from actually getting to use the natal, so we will just have to wait. With all the games and natal I have to say that Microsoft’s conference was really good, except for that big surprise I wanted as I explained above.

Nintendo:

Now sadly this was the conference that I thought to be the most boring. This is due to the fact that out all the games announced only one really interests me, and that game was Metroid: the other M. Now don't get me wrong two new Mario games do sound cool, but these two don't seem that exciting. Mario Galaxy 2 will be a lot of fun, but I doubt it would beat the original in hype, and for the New Super Mario 2, it sounds fun, but it could be better if they release it for the DS instead of the Wii and use the DS WiFi network for multiplayer or at least let it support online in the Wii. I don't get what Nintendo has against online play, I know LAN parties are fun, but with work and studying sometimes you or your friends can't get together to play so we use online gaming to play. And all their motion plus stuff really didn't seem as great after seeing Natal, but let's not forget that Natal won't be coming out for quite some time so Nintendo has time to show what motion plus can really do, and Nintendo also has the most experience with motion control (even though most of the motion control base games suck). Also what the hell with the Vitality sensor shit! Is my Wii now supposed to be my new gym or nurse? C'mon this is a videogame console we are talking about, we want games not health care shit! Do to the lack of any major announcements and good games, this conference was really bad.

Sony:

This conference was the one that I was less excited to see, but in the end I was glad I chose to follow it in live-blogging. It started kind of boring with charts and numbers, which I'm glad Microsoft and Nintendo understood that we juast don't care about them, but once they started to talk about games it became more interesting. Sadly many of the 'surprises' that Sony had planned for the conference were ruined a few days earlier by some leaks (PSP Go). Also most of the games they showed didn't get me really excited as I don't own a PS3. This doesn't they were bad or anything, it's just I don't have an opinion about them. Now one of the surprises they were able to keep for E3 was their own motion controller, which seems really precise. Even though it looked really precise I still saw it inferior to Natal (if it works as shown), but better than the Wii motion plus, but we will see when they all come out. And again all this motion controls are for the casual gamers, so it's not something I'm that excited for. Now by the end they showed games that did get my interest even if I don't own a PS3, for example: The Last Guardian, God of War 3, and Metal Gear: Peace Walker. Also I was happy to see more of FFXIII and Assassin’s Creed 2, which are also coming to the 360. This conference was entertaining and maybe I would've been more excited if I was a playstation fan, but I doubt that would ever happen :P.

With all this I have to say that Microsoft's conference was the best, then Sony's, and last is Nintendo's. Well now remember that this is my opinion, and as a side note, I can't wait for September 22 :P

Nota: Este post no será traducido al español como los anteriores, dada su longitud y la flojera que me da traducirlo por consecuencia (aprendan ingles les servirá!).