• 12Sep 08

  The Eastern Red Squar

  The Frozen chapels of Russia sparkle in the sun at a quarter to four.
  • Posted Sep 12, 2008 7:18 pm GMT
  • Category: Writing
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• 6Aug 08

  Only 10% more...

  Well, only 10% more till I'M out of the dreaded Metal Slime. By this Monday I should finally be level 21.
  • Posted Aug 6, 2008 4:40 am GMT
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• 29Jul 08

  The Dying Art of Game Presentation

  It seems to me that every year less and less imagination is being put into the products I buy, and video games are a top offender. Game presentation is now in the back seat of importance, and honestly I increasingly feel I am not getting as much "bang" for my buck.

  What do I mean when I say game presentation? Well honestly I'm talking about multiple things. I'm talking about game manuals, box art, inserts and other things which go into the packaging of a game which presents itself as to being of a higher quality. Call me nostalgic, but back in the early to mid nineties, back when the console war between Team Mario and Team Sonic was in high gear it seemed to me that more effort was put into video game packaging and presentation, and what once could be considered an art is now dribbled and dumbed down to a DVD case and a "booklet."

  1. Maps
  2. Story Lines
  3. Hints
  4. Techniques
  5. Items
  6. Boss's and enemies
  7. Hero profiles
  8. And yes the infamous notes in the back which nobody used

  These were at one point in time all standards in most video games manuals back in the day, but now they are sadly no more, and now today your lucky to even get a warning message and a warranty notice. This is weird because video game prices have pretty much stayed the same over the course of the years, yet here I am paying the same amount for less of a product.

  It's funny, but for me looking at the cool box art and reading through the game manuals were once part of the fun of buying a video game. I have fond memories just reading about in-game details about bad guys I had to beat and story lines to games (however brief they were.) Many games even went beyond the call of duty, I mean how cool was it to first open Chrono Trigger and look at the posters and maps it came with. Another game that comes to mind is Earthbound. It came in a huge box and it's game manual was a walk-through for the game, complete with a picture of every boss and bad guy with even some funny anecdotes to help further the game experience. I still to this day look at it and find new new things which I missed when I was younger. In the end this all helped with the immersion into a video game.

  This mightily contrasts with the game I just bought, SSX Blur for the Wii. Don't get me wrong it's a fun game however it looks like it had zero thought into the packaging. First lets look at it's offenses. Well for starters the game case feels like cheap plastic and if I really wanted to I could break it with one hand, I mean god forbid if somebody actually sits on the case, it for sure will be a goner. Also the box art alone looks like it was done on somebody's computer in five minutes, a simple cut and paste job. Now lets look at something that really boils my blood. The manual is 9 lousy pages long! Are you kidding me? No pseudo story, no character profiles, just simply instructions and button layouts. I mean if they wanted to save money they should have just gave me a empty jewel case with one measly sticker on it saying SSX Blur, that way at-least I could be disappointed and feel ripped off from the start.

  Many companies today put zero effort to even make game presentations look aesthetically pleasing or even mildly interesting. What once was a pretty cool thing back in the in the 90's, now looks like true "phone in" job today. This may have sounded a little "ranty" but for me I think it's something we as gamers should be aware of, and personally I believe we as gamers should expect more for the product were buying. I especially applaud Nintendo for at-least not skimping out on such things, but then again that's for another argument.

  • Posted Jul 29, 2008 12:50 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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