Category: Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk #268: Your Favorite Game of 2010

It’s time for you to declare your favorite game of the year! I’ve dragged three of my friends into the mix — three friends that happen to be some of the best editors in the videogame business.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Milwaukee Brewers making some noise with the Greinke trade, WWE Edge as your new World Heavyweight Champion, or your favorite Christmas dish, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

It’s time for you to declare your favorite game of the year! I’ve dragged three of my friends into the mix — three friends that happen to be some of the best editors in the videogame business. 1Up’s Sam Kennedy, Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt, and GameFly Media’s (Shacknews) Garnett Lee share their personal game-of-the-year choices in the video above.

Kindly check out the video and share your favorite game of 2010!

Coffee Talk #267: Your Favorite Music of 2010

It’s time for more of your 2010 favorites! This time around it’s music…because you can’t stop the music.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, following Scarlett Johansson to Jamaica to console her, dreaming about the MacBook Air, or Paul Pierce giving Nate Robinson a back body drop, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

It’s time for more of your 2010 favorites! This time around it’s music…because you can’t stop the music. This’ll actually be really good for me too since I shy away from modern music. All the indie-pop bands I loved in 2001 have broken up and the only new music I’ve listened to a lot this year is Infant Sorrow. Hopefully some of you will inspire me to buy some new tunes!

Now give it a go (please)! What was some of your favorite music in 2010?

Coffee Talk #266: Your Favorite Sports Moment of 2010

Let’s wrap up 2010 by discussing a few of our favorite things (raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens). We’ll talk about our favorite music, movies, and games of the year in the next few Coffee Talks. Today I want to hear about your favorite sports moment of 2010.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Cafecito Organico’s El Salvador Rainforest Alliance, Scarlett Johansson breaking up with Van Wilder, or the Julian Assange defense fund, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Let’s wrap up 2010 by discussing a few of our favorite things (raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens). We’ll talk about our favorite music, movies, and games of the year in the next few Coffee Talks. Today I want to hear about your favorite sports moment of 2010. As for me, that’s easy!

LeBron James’ “The Decision” was the most fascinating sports event of the year to me. It transformed a generally loved athlete into a generally hated one. It showed that even super-rich athletes look like picnic tables when wearing red gingham-check shirts. It gave the world an all-purpose phrase — “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach” — which can be used for bailing out of drinking sessions, going to the toilet, playing with yourself, and more. “The Decision” offered drama, unintentional comedy, emotion, and more. I loved it!

Now it’s your turn. What was your favorite sports moment of 2010?

Coffee Talk #265: The Gaming Press Must Evolve or Die

I’m convinced that the videogame enthusiast press is at a critical junction. When I first started writing about games, a magazine cover from the likes of EGM, Game Informer, and Compuer Gaming World was a PR flak’s ultimate prize. That changed to website takeovers, with the big fish being IGN and GameSpot. These days…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Cliff Lee going to the Phillies, Brett Favre’s streak ending, or Christina Aguilera’s naughty photo leak, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’m convinced that the videogame enthusiast press is at a critical junction. When I first started writing about games, a magazine cover from the likes of EGM, Game Informer, and Compuer Gaming World was a PR flak’s ultimate prize. That changed to website takeovers, with the big fish being IGN and GameSpot.  These days games are making big splashes on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, in Entertainment Weekly, and during the Spike TV VGAs. Traditional videogame enthusiast outlets can’t compete with NBC, EW, or Spike TV.

Last night Uncharted 3 made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra were on hand for the demo. Can you imagine Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase showing off Final Fantasy VII on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1997?!? Triple-A videogames debuting on mainstream television and in mainstream magazines is becoming the norm. Traditional videogame outlets have to change their approach or lose relevancy.

That’s what I think anyway. How about you? Do you think the Entertainment Weeklies and Jimmy Fallons of the world are making it harder for the IGNs and GameSpots? Will videogame outlets have to focus on follow-up articles on triple-A games instead of debuting them? Or are enthusiast magazines and websites fine the way they are?

Coffee Talk #264: Game Developers vs. Game Journalists

I have the utmost respect for game developers. I’m amazed by how hard many of them work and how much they put into their games. With that in mind, I hate when developers…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the beauty of Buddha Bar, the Red Sox owning the MLB winter meetings, or why Winona Ryder isn’t bigger, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I have the utmost respect for game developers. I’m amazed by how hard many of them work and how much they put into their games. With that in mind, I hate when developers accuse reviewers of “not getting it”? I understand that developers get attached to their products and it’s sometimes hard for them to take criticism, but it’s ridiculous when they think it’s some sort of disrespectful conspiracy.

Silicon Knights’ Dennis Dyack immediately comes to mind when thinking about this whole deal. More than any other developer, he has been extremely critical of game reviewers. (In some cases he’s absolutely right. In others, he sounds a little crazy.) When Too Human was met with mediocre to poor reviews, Dyack accused journalists of not getting it.

More recently, Warren Spector felt that game reviewers didn’t understand the camera in Epic Mickey. He told MTV:

This is a game that takes platforming elements and adventure game elements and role-playing elements and merges them. So we couldn’t tune the camera perfectly for platforming or for action adventure. It’s a very different camera style. What we did is try to find the best compromise in the moment and give the player as much manual control as we could. So we took the hardest problem in third-person gaming and made it harder by trying to accommodate two different playing styles.

And I will go to my grave, imperfect as it is, proud as hell of my camera team. If reviewers want to give us a hard time about it because they’re misunderstanding the game we made, it’s not for me to tell them that they’re wrong, absolutely not.

The thing is, I don’t think reviewers should give a damn that the camera tried to accommodate a variety of genres. They should give a damn that the camera takes away from the game’s fun and should convey that to their readers. At the end of the day, reviewers are gamers. They are responsible for telling their fellow gamers whether a game is enjoyable enough to purchase.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the issue. Should reviewers care about the developers’ technical goals when judging a game? Do developers have a point when they say that reviewers don’t get it? Lastly, can you please take away my nasty hangover?

Coffee Talk #263: Are Single Player Only Games Doomed?

In a recent interview with Develop EA Games president Frank Gibeau said, “Fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished. Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.”

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Carl Crawford on the Red Sox, congressional democrats turning on President Obama, or where the hell Eliza Dushku is, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

In a recent interview with Develop, EA Games president Frank Gibeau said, “Fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished. Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.” It certainly seems like most games have multiplayer or cooperative features — even games that don’t necessarily need them — but are pure single-player games doomed as Gibeau suggests?

While I don’t see pure single-player games being “finished”, I can see them becoming the minority. That would be kind of weird for me; I grew up playing loads of single-player games and my favorite genre, RPGs, is (mostly) a solitary experience. That said, there are a lot of younger gamers that grew up playing mostly multiplayer games. Perhaps the notion of a pure single-player game is dated.

What are you thoughts on the matter? Are single-player games finished? Will everything have a multiplayer or cooperative facet? Or will there be a robust single-player space in the future? Anyone else remember 2009 as being the year of games with unnecessary cooperative modes?

Coffee Talk #262: My Favorite Interview

RPadholic bsukenyan asked me, “Favorite person you interviewed?” That’s an easy answer! It was DICE 2005 in Las Vegas. I headed up to Activision’s private suite with my coworker Ryan. With each step I took, I got more and more…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Cliff Lee bonanza, Katy Perry changing her last name, or remembering Elizabeth Edwards, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

RPadholic bsukenyan asked me, “Favorite person you interviewed?” That’s an easy answer! It was DICE 2005 in Las Vegas. I headed up to Activision’s private suite with my coworker Ryan. With each step I took, I got more and more chills. Remember how excited you got when Hulk Hogan “Hulked Up”? That’s exactly what I felt like right before I interviewed Stan Lee.

This was the only time I’ve ever marked out during an interview. I’m cool with game developers, musicians, movie stars, television peeps, WWE Superstars, etc. Meeting a living legend like Stan Lee…wow. That’s something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It was an amazing honor and I was so incredibly grateful that my career led me to a Stan Lee interview.

Out of curiosity, have you ever marked out when meeting someone famous? Who would make you absolutely lose it?

Coffee Talk #261: Has Apple Doomed the 3DS and PSP2?

In a recent episode of Pach Atttack starring Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter (I’ll give you a few moments to soak that all in), your favorite videogame analyst and mine (not really) said that Apple’s iOS is the future of mobile gaming.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, if the NY Knicks have finally gotten past years or mediocrity, Verve Roasters’ Ethiopia Nigusie Lemma, or your holiday shopping, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

In a recent episode of Pach Atttack starring Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter (I’ll give you a few moments to soak that all in), your favorite videogame analyst and mine (not really) said that Apple’s iOS is the future of mobile gaming. In fact, he felt so strongly about the iPod Touch that he doesn’t see a bright future for Nintendo’s and Sony’s next portable systems. Check it out:

I think the ubiquity of the iPod Touch is cutting into the handheld market, I think the PSP was dead on arrival and I think the PSP2 is going to be dead on arrival. It looks to me like young kids are just as happy playing with an iPod Touch or a Nano. The Touch is cool, it plays games, plays music, they’re going to put a camera in it and you’re going to get all kinds of cool stuff.

The 3DS will prolong the handheld market for the game manufacturers, but ultimately, I think handhelds are in trouble. After the 3DS has had its little rush I think the handhelds will continue to decline.

What do you think of Pachter’s stance? Is he on the money? Or is he just talking out of his ass to get more attention? Will the multifunction wizardry of the iPod Touch beat out the sheer power of the PSP2 and the 3D wonder of the 3DS? Can’t we live in a world where all of them do reasonably well? Share your feelings like a Care Bear (please)!

Coffee Talk #260: Why Does This Happen in Games in 2010?

When I first started playing Splatterhouse, I was amused by the game’s load times. “Really? How quaint,” I thought. As I started playing more of the game and the fights got harder, I went from amused to…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Jayson Werth going to the Washington Nationals, your favorite deli meat, or skipping videogame Christmas parties because you’re feeling antisocial (sorry guys!), Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

When I first started playing Splatterhouse, I was amused by the game’s load times. “Really? How quaint,” I thought. As I started playing more of the game and the fights got harder, I went from amused to pissed off. In addition to the expected level load times, you have to wait 15 to 20 seconds each time you die. This seems like a small amount of time, but when you keep dying in a particularly challenging fight…well, it completely sucks.

I’m amazed that things like this still happen in 2010. This was understandable 15 years ago when disc-based console-gaming first became the norm. These days? It’s more than a little ridiculous. You shouldn’t have to install a game on your hard drive so that playing conditions are acceptable. You should be able to play off of a disc and have a reasonably smooth experience. It’s…confounding.

Even though technology has grown by leaps and bounds, there are still some glitches and annoyances that plague the gaming world. What are some things that bug you about gaming that shouldn’t be happening in 2010?

Coffee Talk #259: Is Wikileaks Useful or Evil?

Is Wikileaks a useful way for people to get information they wouldn’t normally have access to? Or is it an irresponsible site that endangers lives and international relationships? Or is Wikileaks simply a tool that can be used for good and evil?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Britney Spears possibly getting physically abused, Kanye’s new album, or your favorite board game, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

The recent United States diplomatic cables leak by Wikileaks shook up the world (like Muhammad Ali). There’s a global manhunt for Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange and no matter what anyone says, it stems from the cable leaks. Some are hailing Assange as the Robin Hood of information, while others are calling him an irresponsible anarchist. What do you think of Assange and Wikileaks?

The reason I find the situation so fascinating is that this is the biggest Internet controversy I can recall. Sure, documents have been leaked, phone calls have been recorded, and secrets have been spilled in the past, but I don’t recall anything this big spreading through the Internet. Is Wikileaks a useful way for people to get information they wouldn’t normally have access to? Or is it an irresponsible site that endangers lives and international relationships? Perhaps Wikileaks is simply a tool that can be used for good and evil? I’m super looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this. Shout it out (please)!