Jason Michael Paul is the producer behind the large scale video game symphonies we have today. Concerts like “Dear Friends”, “More Friends: Music From Final Fantasy”, “PLAY: A Video Game Symphony”, “25th Anniversary Legend of Zelda” and the currently touring “Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses”.
E3 is so close, I can almost feel it. I don’t know why I get so excited about it, either. Every year, leading up to it, I’m foaming at the mouth. Then, about halfway through the actual event, I want to be back to my normal life. I’m tired, I’m sick of seeing shooter #85678457 of the show, and then to cap it all off, I remember that I’m primarily a PC gamer, so much of this is a sideshow for me.
We’re only a few short weeks away from Microsoft finally joining the next-gen console race along with Sony. I’d add Nintendo to the mix, but they seem to be running their own race; as usual. Sony has presented a clear vision for the future and it’s all about games. It’s a pretty striking change coming from the makers of the PS3; the console that at one time had the marketing line of ‘It Only Does Everything’.
So, a brief hiatus turned into a two-month odyssey. I took a break from writing this column due to professional constraints that were more than keeping me occupied. I have an awesome, but fairly demanding day (and sometimes night) job that can consume my life if I’m not careful. You throw having a family and a house on top of that, and there’s little time left for games, let alone writing about them.
Microsoft has been extremely quiet as of late since the release of the Wii U and Sony’s announcements regarding the PS4. Some of you may have already been seeing the typical debates and/or questions: “Who thinks that the next Xbox will be Better than the PS4?” online. Many of us are eagerly awaiting Microsoft’s shot back at Sony’s PS4 info. Mostly to know which way we are going to go as far as what platform we are going to invest our gamer dollars. The wait be nerve wracking.
The new Sim City is on the way, revitalised and as graphically updated as you could imagine on current PCs but also lugging along with it other modern day features such as the always-online DRM system. I can’t help but think back to simpler times, when I used to come home from school to play the classic Sim City 200 on my first ever computer (a Pentium 586 133Mhz), marvelling at all the possibilities at one’s mouse cursor tips and stressing out over dropping approval ratings amongst the general populace as I contemplated raising taxes to garner funds for our soon-to-be-exploding power plant.
It seems that most of our childhoods are filled with memories of playing games with others, be it a family member, friends or a significant other. As the years have gone by, this happened less and less and now it’s absolutely rare.
Char shares her thoughts on the PS4
I’ll admit, I was surprised by how interested I found I was, in terms of the PS4 sort-of reveal. I mean, I play mostly PC, but I play quite a bit on my PS360 setup, as well. I’m not a hater of any platform, and like I’ve said before, there’s something about that ‘new console smell’ that just makes me giddy.
I’m a pretty easy dude to please. I love baseball. I love buffalo chicken, in any form. I love girls. I love games. I love serial stories, in any medium. I love Subway. I love the ‘Alien’ franchise. I don’t ask for much. Most of what I really enjoy is out there, ready for me to experience. I try not to ask for a lot, and I make an effort to be grateful for what I have.
We have yet to see even the slightest glimpse of any actual hardware from Sony or Microsoft but already the console wars have begun. A little early, but the fanboys and armchair analysts are already in full swing without any of the full details. Speculation is always fun, but to think that neither Sony or Microsoft will be going balls out with these systems is fanciful dreaming at best.
I think I snickered the first time I saw Dead Space. I just couldn’t take it seriously. Whenever I looked at it, I saw Event Horizon poorly skinned onto some generic survival horror thing that wasn’t actually scary. And it controlled like shit. And it looked repetitive. And the dismemberment thing was really dumb (okay, I still stand by that.) All that, and the way Visceral and EA were approaching it, where they were like, ‘it’s gonna be this trans-media thing’ and ‘we’re gonna have animated movies and comics and fuckin’ breakfast cereal’ and all that. I just kinda turned my snooty self back to whatever awesome PC RPG I was playing at that time (maybe the first Witcher) and kinda forgot about it.
So, I used to play the hell outta team deathmatch in just about any game. It was a great stress reliever. Sometimes, it was the first four Call of Duty games, or maybe Quake, or Perfect Dark Zero (used to LOVE Infection.) Then, I finished college, got married, started a family, and settled into a real job. I also got more and more annoyed with the diminishing quality of the other players. Not their skill, but their mouths. I hit a point where a) I got tired of spending time with people that equate anonymity with a chance to finally unleash their inner fucktard, and b) my gaming hours were more happily spent alone, enveloping myself in a bad-ass story.
