Jaime Woo

I cannot wait to garden, blob, jam, colour code, and get my Superbrothers on. NOW. NOW. NOW!

Mark Rabo

Thanks everyone for making Gamercamp a success! You guys are awesome!

Mark Rabo

Gamercamp is coming up Saturday, if you're on the fence now's the time to hop on over. The $:fun ratio is off the charts.

Mark Rabo

I'm feeling an old Sierra game, one of the King's Quests but I can't remember which was my favorite!

Mark Rabo

I finished the single player campaign of Call of Duty Modern Warfare (the first one) tonight and it was amazing and irritating at the same time. The gameplay was a very cinematic experience but peppered with sequences that fully pulled me out of the moment. I played on the normal difficulty, the second easiest (there were two harder ones available). When the action flowed and the story progressed smoothly I forgot I was playing a game; it felt more like controlling a movie... edge of your seat stuff! But every so often, there'd be a firefight between two checkpoints that was so much harder than anything previous that you ended up dying and repeating it 10 or 20 times before getting through. Doing that pulls the player out of the story by forcing them to "play the game".

"Ok, so there's two guys over there. And when I cross this point, a guy pops up from those barrels so I'll make sure to shoot the first group before moving forward." That kind of thing.

This got me thinking about diffculty in games. In story-driven games, I don't want a challenge, I want the story. Repeating the same cutscene and narration takes me out of the moment like a skipping CD. Perhaps instead of the typical Easy, Medium, Hard and Veteran, tailor the levels to the gaming experience. For example, "Cinematic" for story-driven players like me and "Challenge" for those who just want to shoot stuff. Valve is doing this with their AI Director in Left4Dead that adjusts difficulty on-the-fly based on how you're playing. I'd like to see more of that.

Mark Rabo

Bad Dudes by Data East, I have yet to finish that game. The ending is probably a pixelated JPEG but I don't care, it'll be worth it.

Jaime Woo

Who wants to place bets on the games chosen for 1UP? If there's Golden Axe action, I'll be a happy kid :D

Mark Rabo

I have a line on an original Commodore 64 and possibly an Atari 2600. Yar's Revenge!

Mark Rabo

Eagle, this is Houston. Seems we've lost contact. Are all systems functioning? Please advise.

Mark Rabo

It feels like something big is happening in the video gaming scene here in Toronto. People feel it, know it and smile when you mention it. It's palpable but hard to describe, like the butterflies that come when waiting for your favorite band to take the stage. It's going to be good, you just gotta hang in there.

Mark Rabo

I can't just play one anymore. Is it the games or is it me getting older because when I was a kid I targeted in on a game and played the crap out of it. I would sit for hours everyday after school and all day during holidays laser focused on a single cart. Now it's like books, I always have 2 or 3 on the go. How do you work?

Mark Rabo

Tonight is one of those nights where I'm just too exhausted to play. The games I have on the go are very intense (Ico emotionally and Mirror's Edge action-wise). I have a bunch of XBLA and PSN games I could loaf with but none of them feel right. I'm in a video game funk.

Mark Rabo

I can totally relate, you should see my Fallout 3 save games list!

Jaime Woo

In Final Fantasy, was I the only one who, after discovering a character dies in the game, hit "reset," unequipped him or her and then replayed the scene?

Mark Rabo

There's something magical about Ico, it makes me believe in true love.

Jaime Woo

I totally agree, Mark. I think the only time I liked the updated graphics was for the Final Fantasy remakes for the DS. Even then, I missed my big-eyed pixelated sprites.

BTW, mock as you might, all I can think of is a Singstar based on the TV show Glee. I need to somehow make this happen.

Mark Rabo

Almost jumped out of my skin when I saw Bubble Bobble had come out on XBLA... until I read that there's no original 8-bit graphic mode. This was one of the games that solidified my love of gaming. When are the devs of these remakes going to realize that it's the retro look that takes us back in time as much as the gameplay. You're burning a lot more bridges with the OG's than you're building with the youngins by not including it.

Jaime Woo

Did I just wet my pants seeing the screencaps for Super Street Fighter IV? Uh, yeah.

Mark Rabo

As much as I like Forza 2, level grinding in racing games is no fun at all. Damn achievements!

Jaime Woo

Mark, have you checked out Peggle? Ryan Couldrey is trying to infect me with it. I shouldn't have told him that at my bachelor party I want a giant version of Plinko. He says Peggle is really addictive. I must stay away.

Mark Rabo

When I used to race bikes, it was possible to fall into a deep out of body flow after a few laps; like I was watching myself race. My brain would drift off to thinking about food or having a beer after the race... weird stuff when you're flying around a track. The other night while playing Forza2 in prep for Forza3 which is coming out soon, and I fell into the same state. My eyes focused out and my concious brain withdrew, my heartrate dropped and the first thought that crossed my mind was how much I love video games.

Jaime Woo

Hey Mark, I'm just glad I didn't end up giving Ico away. I swear it was sitting there on our foyer table waiting to be traded in for something. Luckily our family is pretty lazy and so it say there, this undiscovered treasure. The Last Guardian trailer looks amazing. It kinda made me tear up.

Mark Rabo

I really didn't like Shadow of the Colossus when I first played it, but there was something that pulled me back to it. Then I played it again and let it wrap around me... and the experience changed completely. It's a lean back experience not an edge of your seat one.

Mark Rabo

I bought Shadow Complex for my birthday and started playing this afternoon, it's quite the game but maybe too many lighting and particle effects for you.

Jaime Woo

Roger that Houston, this is Eagle, go ahead.

Mark Rabo

Houston to Eagle. Come in Eagle.