Mortal Kombat (not a review, really)

After watching my husband play the newest Mortal Kombat for a couple hours last night, I was less and less interested in devoting any time or electronic space toward the game, but I thought it might be good practice to not simply use this blog to gush about games I like, and consider games that are abhorrent to the nature of the medium.

I mean, Mortal Kombat - let's start with the K thing.  You have Kombatants that use Kombos and collect Koins to spend in the Krypt in order to buy new Kombat Kodes.  Seriously.  I like that the game is taking an idea and running with it, but it's such a painful molestation of the English language, I'm surprised the whole game isn't banned on poor taste alone (speaking of which, you know you can't ban violent games, but that doesn't mean that games that are violent are any good, nicely summed up here by GamerDad).

So, while frustratingly watching the love of my life attempt to pull off what the game implied were "simple" combos (sorry, Kombos), I was treated to a little taste of what the game had to offer: by inputing several combinations of buttons and tilting the left analog stick, your on-screen avatar performs simple martial feats (a punch here, a kick there), or hereto unknown mystical abilities like shooting lightning out of your fingers.

There are characters (or, maybe they are Kracters...?) such as Johnny Cage, who have - I guess what I can't find a better word for: personalties, which are intended to enhance the button-mashing gameplay somehow, but I'm having trouble caring at all; I am not entirely sure that in the Venn Diagram of gaming that includes "people who like games about beating each other up" and "people who like games with well crafted stories" has a great deal of overlap.

I'm not a huge fan of fighting games to begin with.  Except for the Super Smash Bros. series, they are all rather contrite, and what's more: they are designed to play with other people.  Other people, you say?  Playing video games with them... simultaneously?  No, thank you.

The game boasts some new things (because I suppose just punching each other all the time is boring), one of which is "x-ray moves" which show the bones of your opponent being shattered.  The problem herein is that after you shatter your opponent's kneecaps, he or she gets up and does cartwheels all over the place.  Not a lot of continuity.  There are tag-team battles and so forth, but it's a snooze-fest really.

All in all, I'm not sure it was worth the full-price tag we paid for it, but if it's your thing, I guess it does look nice...

Danger! Steam Sale!

Great, the Steam Sale has been announced, but I don't have my computer!  Damn you, Dell!

EDIT:  Seriously?  I have always wanted this game and now it is only $5, but only for today and my computer isn't working?  FML.

Dell Drama

Strictly speaking, in the world between the glorious elite of gaming and the unfortunate slugs of console gaming (best illustrated here), I am squarely in the latter category.  Instead of a keyboard, I prefer a controller, which with 18 some buttons is confusing enough.  But let it not be said that there are games that I like to play on a PC: Minecraft, Sims 3, Civilization, Plants vs. Zombies, etc. as well as a slew of Flash games that are constantly available on the Internet.

Unfortunately, my computer (to borrow my French roommate's current favorite English idiom) has bitten the dust.  After a year of faithful service, it seems the motherboard has gone kaput. 

In most circumstances this would be a lamentable time, but my husband wisely invested in some sort of protection plan from Dell which promised "next day service."

Our experience with the warranty was not virginal.  This very computer had some sort of keyboard/monitor/I-can't-even-remember-what problem before and the issue was resolved professional and efficiently, making us happy in our decision to go with Dell for our laptop needs.

This experience has been anything but... with over ten phone calls to Dell customer support (which provides quality support like a cat would make a quality surgeon), resulting in confusion not only over when our "next day" service would account for a technician being able to fix the problem, but indeed wether or not a part was actually in stock (dissenting answers from both sides were abundant). 

So, considering all those systems in the house capable of playing video games, I really must give a shout out to Nintendo, whose products have rarely faltered (excepting in those cases wherein blowing the cartridge fixed whatever malady had presented).  Despite its apparent lack of appeal to the "mainsteam" gamer, I've never failed to put in Super Mario Galaxy and have results.

With any luck, I'll be able to explore Minecraft 1.7 (with PISTONS) before long, and hopefully with fewer crashes...

Violence In Video Games

The California Supreme Court ruled today that prohibiting the sale of "violent" video games was unconstitutional, something much aga on the gaming twitterverse. 

Personally, I'm okay with making suggestions and educating the consumer population about the content of video games.  Parents who are averse to exposing their children to violent video games (like violent films, or books, I suppose) should be able to know the basic premise and level of violence the game contains.  Thank god for sites like GamerDad's - which specifically take a no-nonsense, honest and fair approach to gaming with children.  The above site does it in a way easy for parents to understand.  For example, when describing the "Kid Factor" of Super Mario Galaxy, GamerDad writes: "you stomp fictional creatures called Goombas, who vanish in a puff of smoke, revealing a coin."

However, not all games are of the puff of smoke, reveal a coin variety.  Games like Call of Duty present real and substantially violent situations, appropriate for mature gamers, but possibly not age-appropriate for developing children.

My background on this issue blends from both my youth as a gamer and my education in childhood development.  Simply put, while I agree with the ruling, there are some fantasy situations (whether by video game, film, or novel) that developing minds will have trouble differentiating from reality.  Considering the medium of delivery, parents should (as best available) be responsible to observe and curtail any influence that could be detrimental to their children's healthy development.

However, with some parents barely even to meet their children's basic needs, perhaps there is a place for government intervention of the sale and furnishing of all media based on developmental level.  Of course, the issue becomes much, much more subjective, and I can't count on the guy in GameStop as being able to assess a child's readiness to look down the scope of sniper rifle and disassociate that with real-life scenarios.

Fantasy play is important to childhood development, and children can benefit greatly from the introduction of age-appropriate gaming, but just like you wouldn't expect a child to appropriately play Canasta, or Texas Hold 'Em, we also shouldn't be forcing games (through advertisement, primarily) to children who won't be able to enjoy or understand the medium.

Save Yourself Mammal!

How on earth could I have neglected to include Save Yourself, Mammal!: A Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Collection?  Zach Weiner (hehehe), author of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (one of my favorite webcomics) compiled a lot of free, electronic comics into a not-free, hardcopy version of his work.  With commentary, etc.  Full of winning.

Other Birthday Thoughts

I cannot promise this will be the last birthday post, but probably...

I just wanted to through a shout-out to ThinkGeek.com which has oodles of brilliant geek-related gift ideas.  Sure, I may already have an Aperture Science Mug, but what about a Vintage Aperture Tee?

Also, check out this awesome Simon Pegg book.  After lisrtening to him on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (the brilliant NPR News Quiz that I love to listen to, possibly because of Carl Kasell's voice) I decided that this was the sort of thing I'd want to advertise. 

Plus, you know Shaun of the Dead - brilliant, really.  Zombies + humor + Nick Frost = win!

Finally, I wanted to buy this shirt for my parents, because I feel like it encapsulates awesomeness, which for them should be celebrated.  It's based on The Cure's idyllic song, Friday I'm In Love:

Birthday Wishes

In an attempt to assuage any anxiety about gifts for me, I have made a couple recommendations of the video game/coffee variety.  The full bulk of this sort of thing can be viewed at my Amazon.com gift list here.

It's probably worth noting that some of the links that follow are part of me being an Amazon Associate, so I could even be getting bonus money from you buying gifts for me that you were going to anyway!

The list, descriptively separated by how much you love me how much money you have to spare on the celebration of my birth, follows after the jump!

Mario Marathon 4 On It's Way

It's almost time for another round of this madness!  http://www.mariomarathon.com/ is happening again, and - if you haven't watched before - it's for a good cause.  These guys play Mario until they have completed the objectives matching the donation level.  The more money dontaed, the more Mario they are subjected to.  It's like being sadistic, but for charity!

Jealous

The Balance of Good and Evil

I don't usually play games as an "evil" character.  My natural inclanation is to save people, heal others, and generally be a "do-gooder."  Games like Fallout 3, Bioshock, Fable, and inFAMOUS have greatly featured the morality/Karma/whatever system that can affect gameplay in subtle ways (slight differences in dialogue), to extreme ways (effects powers).  So it should be no surprise that my first playthrough on games like these is that of the good guy (with the exception of Fallout: New Vegas, on which it was difficult to determine the "good guy" path, and I instead treaded into the murky waters of the unknown - and also Fallout 3: The Pitt DLC, which had the same outcome).

Playing inFAMOUS on Evil (and on Hard mode, for trophy's sake) has actually been a bit more fun than my first playthrough.  I can't tell if it's because I'm now more comfortable with the game, or if the evil missions are more enjoyable, or if I truly have molded into a sadistic creep who enjoys zapping pedestrians with electricity before sucking their bio-energy out of their skulls to replenish my health. 

So today, I wanted to look at the ways in which games communicated good and evil, and my take on that dichotomy.  More after the jump...