Tag: Videogames

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, Verve’s El Salvador Izote, the Windows 8 consumer preview, or rooting for Heejun Han, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’ve been reading a lot of complaints about the “Sazh: Heads or Tails” DLC for Final Fantasy XIII-2. I totally understand people not liking the story elements or not digging Sazh, but I don’t see how people can criticize it for being a poor value. For $4.99 you get some cute touchscenes, two casino games, and a character crystal that can be used for the whole game. While I enjoyed the story (not enough single-father-as-the-hero angles in gaming), being able to get Sazh as a support character was more than worth the $4.99. He’s one of the best synergists in the game!

Seeing all the whiners complain about the DLC made me think about how DLC value is measured. Obviously it’s very subjective, but the medium is so new that publishers are still learning how much digital add-ons are worth to gamers. For story-driven add-ons, how many hours of gameplay do you expect from DLC? What’s the right price for in-game outfits? What factors do you use in determining whether or not a certain batch of DLC is worth your money?

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, Ryan Braun being guilty or innocent, the American Idol top 25, or Powerfox & Ponymane, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’m loving Final Fantasy XIII-2. I’m going to end up playing it way longer than I expected. Part of it is because I’m anxiously awaiting next week’s DLC (Sazh is cool and Serah in a bikini is cooler), but the bigger part is that I love how monsters are handled. In many ways, it’s similar to Pokemon. I’ve played over 1,000 hours of Pokemon, so this facet of the XIII-2 is immensely appealing. I’ve spent hours catching monsters, looking for components to level up monsters, infusing monsters to increase their powers, and more. Hunting  and training monsters in XIII-2 gives me the same type of enjoyment as hunting, breeding, and EV training monsters in Pokemon.

In fact, I’ve spent roughly 65 percent of my game time focusing on monsters and only 35 percent on progressing the story. The monster system is so good that I’d be perfectly content just catching, training, and fighting monsters. (And yes, I want the DLC because the game will be 37 percent more fun playing as Serah in a bikini). While I’m definitely enjoying the game as a whole, I’m enjoying this aspect of the game more than the entire game.

Has this ever happened to you? I remember a few of you being hooked on gambling minigames. Have you enjoyed a sub-game, minigame, or ancillary aspect of a game more than the entire game?

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, your favorite Chocobo color, the arrival of Cadbury Creme Eggs, or dreaming of Chris Brown getting curb stomped, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

What do you think of when you hear the word modular? For me, the cheap and popular modular furniture from Ikea immediately springs to mind. Are you ready to think about buying games in a modular way? A few publishers are exploring the option in the quest to find a new game-publishing model that will work better in the upcoming years.

As an example, let’s use the fictitious (but potentially awesome) game Marvel vs. San Rio. The full game costs $60. The game is also available modularly, with the single-player and multiplayer components costing $35 each. This could be a potentially interesting way to buy and sell games. People that want to enjoy all the variations of Wolverine vs. Hello Kitty would snatch up the whole thing. Those that only care about the story mode would save $25 by paying for single-player only, while multiplayer fiends could just buy that mode. Naturally, the publisher would include all kinds of demos and incentives to nudge players to buy the mode they don’t already have.

A couple of publishers have mentioned this idea to me and my friend Paul mentioned that a publisher mentioned it to him last week (that’s triple mentioning in case you’re counting). Do you think this model would work? Is it something you’re interested in? Will videogame publishers borrow from the ingenious world of Swedish modular furniture and sell their wares modularly?