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SimCity DRM Disaster: Maxis, EA Learned Nothing From Spore

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

simcity-2013 

I’m a big SimCity fan.  City building games offer the complexity and strategy that someone like me can truly appreciate.  The last authentic SimCity Maxis developed, SimCity 4, was a technical marvel, but with a steep learning curve.  Despite its age, I still found myself dabbling in SimCity 4 on occasion for the last 8 years trying to master its complexities.  Then, while Maxis focused their efforts on their new project Spore, they outsourced development of the ill-fated SimCity Societies, which unfortunately did not live up to expectations.

This brings us to the present day.  Maxis has finally decided to grace the masses with a new, true successor in the SimCity franchise due for release in March 2013.  So far, the information released about the game and its new so-called “Glass Box” simulation engine points to a return to form for the franchise, and a modern twist on city building games.  SimCity‘s release, however, flirts with disaster by being burdened with the most despicable kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) imaginable — “always-on” internet connectivity requirements, which there is never a legitimate reason to have in an otherwise offline single-player game.

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5 Reasons You Should Look Forward to Pokemon Black/White 2

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

It’s official, Pokemon Black and White 2 will be hitting the shelves in North America on October 7th, 2012.  If you?re a Pokemon fanatic, you should easily be all manner of excited for this upcoming hot release.  If you?re only a casual Pokemon gamer however, or if you have fallen out of favour with the core Pokemon series games over the last few years, then this article is for you.  Make no mistake, these upcoming titles will be the most technically accomplished, most feature-filled, best connected, and all-round most fulfilling Pokemon experience ever to grace a Nintendo handheld.  As I?ve pointed out in a previous article, the first Black/White games raised the bar in terms of what the series can deliver.  The developer Game Freak has spent an additional year fine-tuning and expanding their product, and will no doubt raise the bar yet again.  While some people will bitterly complain that they could have been spending that time on more important projects (like 6th Gen Pokemon for 3DS, harumph!), they instead chose to milk a little more out of the geriatric Nintendo DS.  Regardless, if you?re not interested in either of these upcoming titles, you should be, and I?ll tell you why.

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Opinion: Your Game is Boring

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Fable III has been included as a pack-in title with many versions of the Xbox 360 console for a long time, so for a lot of newcomers to this console generation Fable III may have been their first Xbox 360 experience.  For anyone out there curious about this game, be forewarned!  Let me save you the trouble, because this game is about as exciting as doing the laundry.  I’d even go so far as to say that it’s the most boring current generation title that I have ever had the misfortune of playing.

Let me start by offering a brief disclaimer that this article is simply the rant of a single frustrated gamer and this is not the official Game Usagi Fable III review (which happened to be favourable).  A few years ago I had great fun playing through Fable II, which is why I was so eager to dive into the next title in the series ? big mistake.  My busy life (also known as a day job) does not afford me much opportunity to kick back and play video games, so when I do find an hour of free time here and there, the game had better darn well be amazing.  I get supremely insulted when I feel like an awful game is recklessly wasting my precious time, so why does Fable III get my bloomers in a knot?  Read on…

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Top 10 Things Nintendo Should Do For 3DS Pokemon Games

Saturday, March 24th, 2012


The Pokemon Company and developer Game Freak have recently announced the upcoming Pokemon Black and White Version 2 games on Nintendo DS.  They follow the very successful Pokemon Black and White titles, which are the 5th generation of the core Pokemon RPG series.  As a dedicated fan of this series, I would surmise that these new titles are meant to satisfy our cravings while we wait patiently for the inevitable announcement of the next generation of the series on the Nintendo 3DS.  It is strange that Nintendo didn?t force them to develop for the previously struggling 3DS with a pair of titles guaranteed to sell gazillions.  Some people are rightfully disappointed that the next pair of core titles will be released on hardware less powerful than a modern graphing calculator, but as a fan I?ll play almost anything developed by Game Freak, as they consistently produce fun and addictive titles that always raise the bar in the series.

Like it or lump it, we?re going to have to wait a while longer for Pokemon Gen. 6 on 3DS.  Pokemon Black/White was an admission by Game Freak that their fans have grown up, and while these games did so many things right they didn?t take them quite far enough.  Now that the much more powerful 3DS is here, Game Freak has a huge opportunity to take Pokemon to the next level.

To get them started, I present here for the developers my top 10 suggestions of features and improvements that fans will expect to see in Pokemon Gen. 6:

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