Category: Videogames

Coffee Talk #394: What’s the Most You’ve Spent on a Game?

Remember when you’d buy a game at a store and that was the end of your spending? DLC, online fees like Xbox Live, monthly MMO subscriptions, item packs, etc. have made gaming more expensive than ever. I’m curious…

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 crappy playing conditions at the U.S. Open (tennis), celebrating Josh Beckett’s sprained ankle, or why people think Victor Ortiz has a chance against Floyd Mayweather, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Remember when you’d buy a game at a store and that was the end of your spending? DLC, online fees like Xbox Live, monthly MMO subscriptions, item packs, etc. have made gaming more expensive than ever. I’m curious to learn what game you’ve spent the most money on. Was it an MMO that kept you addicted for years? Was it an action game with consistently great DLC maps? I want to know!

As for me, it’s probably Dragon Age. In addition to buying the game, I’ve purchased all the playable DLC and an expansion pack. That’s more than $100 on a single game! I understand that the economics of gaming are different and BioWare has provided me with dozens of hours of entertainment, but damn! It just feels expensive when you add it all up (no regrets though, I heart BioWare).

So what’s the most you’ve spent on a single game? Kindly share the title and the estimated dollar amount. Was it money well spent? Or does looking through the retroscope give you buyer’s remose?

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I’m going to be visiting my old stomping grounds of San Francisco this weekend, but only virtually. You see, I’m playing Driver: San Francisco and it will be getting the bulk of my attention over the next few days. My addiction to Quarrel Deluxe is still going strong, so that will be my “break” game. The gameplay is so clever!

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

Totally Addicted to Quarrel Deluxe for iOS

I’ve playing the hell out of Quarrel Deluxe on my iPad 2. It’s a cute and clever game that blends elements of Scrabble and Risk. Like other word games, you have to string together letters to form words. The goal is to make the best word you can as quickly as possible. What makes this game unique is the it incorporates strategic gameplay that uses a different part of your brain.

Quarrel is played on boards of different sizes. Controlling the board is every bit as important as busting out words. You battle opponents to control different areas of the board. As you advance, your characters move forward and leave a sole troop behind. You can move your other characters to cover up any weak spots. While it’s fun to just beat up on opponents with your impressive vocabulary, that’s not always the best way to win. If you’re too aggressive then you’ll open yourself up to easy defeats.

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I absolutely loved the gameplay in Quarrel. It’s supremely clever and totally addictive. The stat system is cool (I’m a baseball nerd) and I love how it tracks progress. I was also impressed and amused by the game’s dictionary. I used the word “wank” in a battle and it was properly identified as slang for masturbating. Ha! Quarrel has cut into my daily Civilization: Revolution game time, which is the highest praise I can give to any iPad game.

Unfortunately, there’s no multiplayer in Quarrel Deluxe. That’s a criminal omission. The cute sounds can also be grating. During long games, I found myself muting the sound in order to concentrate on the excellent gameplay.

I foresee myself playing a ton of Quarrel Deluxe in the future. It’s smart, fun, and addictive. It has joined Civ: Rev as one of the few games I play every day and I don’t see it leaving that spot any time soon. If you get a chance to play it, please let me know you think!

Radiant Silvergun Hitting XBLA in September

I know that I normally don’t post articles about release dates for a single game and I know that some of you feel that classic shooters all look the same, but this is Radiant Silvergun! Originally released in arcades and for the Sega Saturn, a lot of people think that this is the best shooter Treasure has ever made (and the company has made a bunch of great ones). I’m a mark for this game, Treasure, and the Sega Saturn, so I’m triply excited for this release. According to AndriaSang, it will hit Xbox Live Arcade on September 14, 2011. That’s the Japanese launch date. Hopefully the U.S. launch is within the same timeframe.

Are there any other Treasure marks out there looking forward to Radiant Silvergun on Xbox Live Arcade?

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I Want Quantum Conundrum Now!

I’m totally charmed by these screens of Square Enix’s Quantum Conundrum. This puzzle-platform game is being made by Airtight Games. Some of you know that Airtight’s creative director is Kim Swift, co-creator of the outstanding Portal…

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I’m totally charmed by these screens of Square Enix’s Quantum Conundrum. This puzzle-platform game is being made by Airtight Games. Some of you know that Airtight’s creative director is Kim Swift, co-creator of the outstanding Portal. Quantum Conundrum looks like a wonderful blend of creative gameplay and a cute art style. Here’s some info from the press release:

In Quantum Conundrum, players take on the role of a young kid dropped off on his uncle’s doorstep for the weekend; his uncle just so happens to be the brilliant, eccentric inventor, Professor Fitz Quadwrangle. Upon entering the Professor’s vast manor home retrofitted with crazy technology to test his latest hypotheses, players quickly realize their uncle has gone missing. Fortunately, players soon gain access to Professor Quadwrangle’s latest invention, the Inter-Dimensional Shift Device, which, at the press of a button, will shift the world around them to an entirely new dimension. In order to find him, players must use the newly found IDS Device to dynamically change the world to and from a variety of different dimensions to progress through the complicated Quadwrangle Manor. While on the journey, becoming adept at utilizing the various dimensions will help them trek from one bizarre and challenging room to the next. It might sound easy enough, but it is a tall order for a kid in a giant puzzle of a manor!

Sounds awesome, hey? Quantum Conundrum will be available for download in early 2012. It’s heading to PC (via Steam), PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live.

Anyone else psyched for this game?

This Week’s Videogame Releases

Are you ready for some (American) football?!? A bunch of you had fantasy drafts yesterday and are amped for the season to start. Why not increase the anticipation with some Madden NFL 12? If you’re more about guns than balls then you should keep an eye on Bodycount, the spiritual successor to the underrated Black. Looking for something more esoteric and Japanese? How about Cladun X2 from the excellent people at Nippon Ichi Software America? You can add some (scary) spice to your life and get in shape on the Wii with Get Fit with Mel B.

Anyone buying new games this week?

Coffee Talk #391: Powerful Brands That are Dead or Dying

My tech writer friends and I were talking about brands that were powerful 10 years ago, but are dead or dying in 2011. Names like Dell, Nokia, and RIM came up. It wasn’t that long ago when Michael Dell advised Apple 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, gratuitous use of chyrons, the scariest insect, or why my coffee beans are late, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

My tech writer friends and I were talking about brands that were powerful 10 years ago, but are dead or dying in 2011. Names like Dell, Nokia, and RIM came up. It wasn’t that long ago when Michael Dell advised Apple to shut down the company, Nokia was the leading high-end smartphone manufacturer in the world, and RIM’s BlackBerry platform was considered cutting edge. It’s crazy how much can change in a decade. These days Apple makes Dell look like a joke, Nokia is no longer a player in the high-end market, and RIM’s BlackBerry OS is considered an archaic piece of crap.

Other companies like Excite, Palm, and Yahoo! were discussed. I wanted to talk about gaming brands, but most of these guys don’t know anything about that world. That’s where you come in! Remember when the “big three” of gaming was Nintendo, Sony, and Sega?!? It’s crazy how Sega went from one of the biggest players in console gaming to a middling publisher.

What brands do you remember being juggernauts in 2001 that are dead or dying in 2011? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I hope to get some quality time in with Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PlayStation 3. I’m also reviewing the Razer Chimaera 5.1 headset for Xbox 360 and will definitely need your help playing some stuff on Xbox Live next week. Getting in the way of my home gaming is an overnight trip for a quickie shoot. Of course I’ll have my iPad 2 with me and will spend most of my airtime playing Civilization Revolution.

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

Same-Sex Marriage Confirmed For The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda vice president Pete Hines confirmed that there will be an option for same-sex marriage in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Replying to a fan on Twitter, Hines wrote, “Not making a huge deal out of it. You can marry anyone.” Some of you will recall that some BioWare fans were not pleased with the homosexual romance options in Dragon Age II. I’m curious to see if Skyrim will elicit a similar reaction.

I love that this is an option in the game. It is, after all, role-playing. I think it’s great that homosexual gamers have an option to play as a character that reflects their lifestyle. Same-sex marriages happen all over the world and it’s fantastic that a videogame reflects modern society. I’m sure Bethesda will get some unnecessary heat for having same-sex marriage in a videogame…and I’m sure a lot of it will be based on stupidity.

What do you think about same-sex marriages in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?

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