Category: PC Gaming

Coffee Talk #538: What Is a Triple-A Game?

Gamers, writers, publishers, and developers frequently use the term “triple-A game,” but what does that really mean? It’s such a nebulous classification that means different things to different people, but it’s used so frequently that an outsider would think that is has a standardized definition. How do you define triple-A games? What factor or factors do you consider when labeling a game…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 D’Antoni effect, sexy triplets, or roast pork vs. BBQ pork, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Gamers, writers, publishers, and developers frequently use the term “triple-A game,” but what does that really mean? It’s such a nebulous classification that means different things to different people, but it’s used so frequently that an outsider would think that is has a standardized definition. How do you define triple-A games? What factor or factors do you consider when labeling a game “triple-A?”

Do triple-A games require a certain budget? If so, what is the minimum amount of money? Do triple-A games need to be of a certain quality? If that’s the case, at what point would you know if a game is triple-A or not and who judges the quality? With all of that in mind, a game like Medal of Honor: Warfighter is terribly interesting. It was relatively expensive to make. The publisher thought it was a high-quality game prior to release. Critics and fans thought it was crap. I’m guessing that most people wouldn’t consider Warfighter a triple-A game, but I also imagine people supporting that choice with flimsy logic.

You guys and gals are better than most people (duh!), so I want to hear how you define triple-A games and what factors go into your definition of the term. Fire away in the comments section (please!).

Adam Sessler Joins Revision 3 Games (Rev3Games)

Congrats to the excellent Adam Sessler on his new gig at Revision 3! Videogame-television’s leading man will serve as executive producer and editor-in-chief of Rev3Games. Check out the intro video above to learn about Adam’s new job and be sure to hit the break for a naked photo of Sessler. Continue reading “Adam Sessler Joins Revision 3 Games (Rev3Games)”

Coffee Talk #537: Create Your Own Angry Birds!

Angry Birds Star Wars was released last week and gamers are loving it. Many critics and fans feel that it’s the best Angry Birds game ever. This has people speculating that there will be future Angry Birds games based on popular movies, TV shows, and comic books, similar to how there are several LEGO titles that use the same core game mechanics and embellish them based on licenses. What mashups would you like to see in the future? Let’s play create your own Angry Birds!

Personally, I’d love to see classic movies used in absurd ways. I’m thinking…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, root beer vs. cream soda, how cool Phil Jackson is for sleeping with her, or Mikey Garcia’s burgeoning boxing career, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Angry Birds Star Wars was released last week and gamers are loving it. Many critics and fans feel that it’s the best Angry Birds game ever. This has people speculating that there will be future Angry Birds games based on popular movies, TV shows, and comic books, similar to how there are several LEGO titles that use the same core game mechanics and embellish them based on licenses. What mashups would you like to see in the future? Let’s play create your own Angry Birds!

Personally, I’d love to see classic movies used in absurd ways. I’m thinking Angry Birds Casablanca, Angry Birds Gone With the Wind, and Angry Birds Singin’ in the Rain. That probably won’t happen. If anything, future crossovers will be similar to the LEGO games — popular licenses of movies and comic books. Am cry.

What’s the Angry Birds game swimming around in your head? Do you want to see Angry Birds DC Comics? Maybe you’re up for Angry Birds Lord of the Rings? Leave a comment below with your Angry Birds concoction (please!).

Medal of Honor: Warfighter Security Leak

Seven members of the renowned Navy SEAL Team Six — including one member that was on the mission that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden — have been disciplined for revealing classified information while consulting with EA on Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The heroes got in trouble for “disclosing classified information and misusing command gear while working with the gamemakers.” Here are more details from Interaksyon:

The seven each received a punitive letter of reprimand and were docked half pay for two months, a Navy official said. A defense official said all Pentagon employees are required to follow Defense Department guidance on outside employment, a measure put into place to ensure “the highest ethical behavior.”

Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli, the deputy commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, said the Navy treats allegations of misconduct seriously and also enforces nondisclosure agreements signed by sailors who join the special operations forces.

Personally, I think these guys should be allowed to club baby seals, deplete the ozone layer, and burn all the rain forests they want. They’re true heroes. However, I’m not military, so my opinion on the matter doesn’t mean much, and I understand that the Navy has to police itself. It would have been nice if the SEAL Team Six members got off scott free and all the blame was placed on EA. *joke*

Any thoughts on the Medal of Honor: Warfighter security leak?

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What Are You Playing This Weekend?

There are two things that I’m going to play this weekend. First up is Angry Birds Star Wars. The game combines the simplicity and charm of Angry Birds with the pure awesomeness of Star Wars. The charm is similar to the LEGO Star Wars games in that it uses sights, sounds, and nostalgia to captivate you. This is a game that anyone can play and most sci-fi geeks will love. The other thing I’m going to be playing is conk-out-on-Vicodin. I tweaked my back on Tuesday, which — in a completely unintentional Star Wars reference — has me walking around like Yoda for parts of the day. It sucks, but hopefully some rest and Vicodin will heal me soon. I miss going to the gym.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

Star Wars: The Old Republic Free-To-Play Next Week

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a free-to-play game starting November 15, 2012. While the game, developed by BioWare and published by EA, was generally well reviewed, it hasn’t reached nearly as many customers as the publisher had hoped for. Many pundits believed that EA expected the game to be its World of Warcraft. The Old Republic has had some success, but not that kind of success.

According to the developer, players will be able to reach level 50 without paying a cent. It will be interesting to see if using a free-to-play model gives the game a significant boost in subscribers.

Let’s forget about the dilemmas of mega-publishers for a second and focus on you. Will you give Star Wars: The Old Republic a shot when it becomes free-to-play? Please leave a comment and let me know!

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GameStop VP Guilty of Embezzling $2-Million

Former Gamestop vice president of corporate communications and public affairs Chris Olivera was a bad boy. For some reason, in addition to being the company’s #1 flack, he also processed invoices from vendors. Olivera has plead guilty to using his paperwork prowess to siphon money — $2-million!!! — to a dummy LLC. Here’s the scoop from the Dallas Observer:

The scheme was simple. According to a federal indictment filed yesterday afternoon, Olivera sent regular payments from Gamestop to Cloud Communications, LLC, a Nevada-based corporation with offices in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Canada. The company, and its supposed representative, Jennifer Miller, existed only on the papers Olivera had filed with the Nevada secretary of state.

This went on for nearly two years, from July 2009 through April 2011.

Wow. This is like Enron / JP Morgan / Bank Melli-type crazy. While executive scumbaggery doesn’t surprise me, I naively thought that the videogame business wouldn’t suffer from a scandal like this for at least another decade. That’s totally me romanticizing the gaming business. I should know better. How about you? Any of you surprised by the Gamestop embezzling scandal?

Source via GI Biz

Coffee Talk #536: Games and Pro-Wrestling on Sports Television

Yes, you’re getting two Coffee Talk columns today, which makes this…Double Bonus Monday!!!

On a recent episode of ESPN’s Around the Horn, host Tony Reali talked about how the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers’ “Big Bella” t-shirt canon resembled the spread gun from Contra. This prompted the show’s Michael Smith to recite the famous extra-lives code from the game. It was awesome seeing videogames being treated reverently by adults on mainstream television.

During ESPN’s pre-game show for the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Los Angeles Clippers, host Michael Wilbon was talking about…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, T-Mobile’s amazing $30 plan, dreaming of Lanikai Beach, or coconut sugar, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Yes, you’re getting two Coffee Talk columns today, which makes this…Double Bonus Monday!!!

On a recent episode of ESPN’s Around the Horn, host Tony Reali talked about how the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers’ “Big Bella” t-shirt canon resembled the spread gun from Contra. This prompted the show’s Michael Smith to recite the famous extra-lives code from the game. It was awesome seeing videogames being treated reverently by adults on mainstream television.

During ESPN’s pre-game show for the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Los Angeles Clippers, host Michael Wilbon was talking about the storied history of Madison Square Garden. He mentioned events like Ali vs. Frazier I and John F. Kennedy’s birthday taking place at the “world’s most famous arena.” The show’s Bill Simmons — my favorite sports columnist of all time — mentioned that Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik should be mentioned along with those events, saying that it was one of the biggest matches in pro-wrestling history. Loved it.

When I first started writing about videogames in the ’90s, they were still considered geeky and nerdy. Back then, some people viewed pro-wrestling a “hick” thing. The WWE Attitude Era and the Monday night wars with WCW helped pro-wrestling achieve mainstream status, while the Sony PlayStation made videogames cool. Of course it helps that people like Reali, Smith, and Simmons — people that grew up with videogames and pro-wrestling — now have “adult” jobs. Watching those mentions on ESPN made me appreciate how far these forms of entertainment have come.

That said, the battle isn’t over yet. While many young adults and middle-age people have grown-up jobs in the private sector, there are older people in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that are out of touch. They still view pro-wrestling and games in a negative light. The good news is that I’m sure that won’t be the case ten years from now.

Anyway, it was nice to see the progress of two of my favorite hobbies realized on ESPN programming.

What are some instances you’ve seen of pro-wrestling and games being taken seriously by mainstream television? Kindly leave some examples in the comments section.

Kevin Dent vs. The Hip Hop Gamer: More Shots Fired

Kevin Dent’s assault on Gerard “The Hip Hop Gamer” Williams continues. Everyone have their popcorn? This time around, Dent says that Williams’ work as a rapper and performer for videogame publishers conflicts with his role as a journalist. He implies that Williams is paid for promoting videogames, while running a web site that critiques them. Here’s an excerpt from his latest blog:

The guy could be the Mozart of rap and I am not discounting his lyrics! I am not saying that he is a bad rapper, I am saying that he is in receipt of income from these publishers.

Well he has a …. Well apparently a track- and YET as a journalist, he promotes the title…. Hello, conflict of interest? Well no, not unless he got the Money :D

The big question is whether Williams is paid by publishers or not. I have no idea if that’s the case. If it is, then I understand Dent’s point. If not, things are more nebulous.

For my part, when I was writing award-winning scripts for games, I didn’t review them. It would have been a conflict of interest and nobody would have trusted me to be objective since I was responsible for a small part of those games. Having a song featured in a game or performing at a promotional event for a game isn’t quite the same thing, but there’s involvement there that would cause people to question objectivity.

How do you feel about the issue? Do you think it’s a problem that The Hip Hop Gamer performs for videogame publishers and reviews games sold by those publishers? Or do you trust him to be objective? Perhaps you don’t care at all. Leave a comment and let me know (please!).

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Kevin Dent vs. The Hip Hop Gamer (Shots Fired!)

This is a total insider thing, but it’s thoroughly entertaining and I wanted to make sure you read it all. In a recent blog post, gaming-industry veteran Kevin Dent called out controversial journalist Gerard Williams, also known as The Hip Hop Gamer. Here’s an excerpt:

Allow me to explain a dirty little secret; no one in the industry actually believes that Hip Hop Gamer is in any way important. We tolerate him as though someone would laugh and roll their eyes at any child that pretends to carry a big stick.

The giveaway was when Penny Arcade Report wrote a piece about Fake Twitter Followers, I was genuinely shocked that Hip Hop Gamer had 75% fake followers.

Obviously these guys were wrong, this was a guy whose raps were in Twisted Metal, there is no way a journalist who had gotten money from a publisher to appear in video games deserved to be assaulted like this. He is obviously independent.

To be honest, I like both of these guys, but also understand why a lot of people have problems with them. I consider Kevin a friend (even though he’s a dick for not listing me as one of his “heroes in the video game journalism space”). He’s smart and charming — one of my favorite people in gaming to have a drink with while discussing nerd matters. I’m proud to defend him when some of my industry friends question what he’s done. That said, he can be an overzealous troll on Twitter. Some of his Twitter attacks have made me wince. I can only imagine how his detractors perceive his tirades. He’s also somewhat secretive and doesn’t boast about what he actually does, which causes some people to question why he rubs elbows with so many important people. He’s like a Marvel mutant — some people fear and hate him because they don’t understand him.

I like Gerard too. He’s fun to chat with and I admire how many people he reaches as The Hip Hop Gamer. With limited resources, Gerard has built a large audience for his character and I respect the hell out of that. He has a unique voice in an industry full of angry nerds that bore the crap out of me. (For the record, I’m a happy nerd that sometimes suffers from depression.) I’m proud to defend him when some of my industry friends question what he’s done. That said, I think he has an identity problem. To me, The Hip Hop Gamer is a great entertainer. Gerard sees himself as a “serious videogame journalist” (a concept I still struggle with). Writers that consider themselves serious videogame journalists (even ones that aren’t actually journalists, flippant or otherwise) are offended by this. I understand why these people have problems with Gerard comparing himself to them. To me, it’s like saying both Tom Brokaw and Jon Stewart are serious broadcast journalists. That’s just not the case. One is a great newsman, while the other is a fantastic entertainer.

While I like both of these guys, I hope they go at it. Hell, I’d love to film it! It would be like watching two of my favorite pro-wrestlers have a match. I’m not rooting for either of them. I just want a good show. How about it boys?

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