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10 Sept 04
Remember back when I sounded the death knell for Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. An accessory exploit allowed duplication of all rare items in the game. I mentioned it was a small problem, but the end of a long series of problems that doomed a game with such promise. I got an email that had me look into the situation again. Lo and behold, Capcom has responded. They didn't fix the connectivity problems. They did fix the trading bug.
Of course, I'm not sure whom I am telling this to. There doesn't seem to be much of a Line of Contact community left on the net. Well, I'm sure there is in Japan (the only place the game actually works), but my language skills stop me there. I believe LoC launched in Japan in October or November last year. So almost a year, one patch and they fix a small problem. I'm still glad they took the original gamble. Line of Contact just shouldn't have been released in North America and Europe since it was clear they didn't have the resources behind the project to deal with the problems that developed.
On the plus side, some people should be able to pick up the original game and controller cheap. That's an experience worth having. Keep an eye out for it.
Jason
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9 Sept 04
If you're bummed about missing out on HD Loader for the PS2, it looks like HD Advance is still around. Basically they're the same product. Be sure to check the compatibility list. It would be a bummer to find out after the fact that the game you really wanted to play from the hard drive is not compatible.
It's an interesting argument that publishers have been trying to foist on the public and the courts. They claim that user backups aren't necessary any more. That was only necessary for fragile media like floppy disks not 'nearly indestructible CD disks' that they use now. While it's true that a magnet will not destroy your GTA DVD, a simple scratch can. Publishers have explained away CD/DVD cleaning products as just there to remove dust and dirt that can interfere with performance. I wonder how they'll explain away this new product.
D-Skin is the new product. D in this case stands for disk. Their whole purpose is to protect the readable side of the disk from scratches that could make the disk unusable. They attach right to the disk and then stay on as an additional protective barrier even while in use.
Some people have wondered if I'm anti publisher. No, I'm not. I think publishers do great things for the industry. Few others could step up a green light some of the major projects we see coming now. I am against people who are against me. It seems that some publishers think that if I want to back up fragile media or actually control my computer without interference from unstable low level hardware drivers that I must be a pirate or hacker that must be punished. They seem to have forgotten that customers drive the industry. I haven't.
Jason
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8 Sept 04
Sony announced some new greatest hits titles recently. SOCOM II is the only one with any tactical/strategy ties. Perhaps there are some good tactical clans out there, but my experience was mostly mindless deathmatch. A lot of people don't seem to have any interest in working together even tacitly.
IGN posted an interesting article about the reversal of the old arcade cycle. It appears that some big name console games are going arcade. The biggest is Madden. Golden Tee is a little long in the tooth. Could this be the next big thing? Check out the IGN article Here.
The question of ads has come up again. I'll briefly address it. To clarify, Google is the only click payment link. In other words if you click a Google ad that you find interesting, the advertiser sends a few pennies our way. Please don't try to click all the ads over and over again because it will get us blacklisted. However, if you see something that intrigues you, by all means click.
All the other ads are affiliate ads. That means that when you click on the ad, you will be taken to the appropriate store. That session, and only that session will send a percentage of anything you buy there back to us. There are bonuses if you reach certain sales levels, but we're not here to push products. I'm also not asking anyone to change there behaviors. If you don't buy from any of the stores here, don't start on our behalf. On the other hand, if you're going to buy something from one of them anyway, take a second and use our link (or the link of your favorite website). It doesn't cost you anything beyond those extra few seconds.
So what's the money used for? Well, if the money ever becomes substantial, that might be an important consideration. Right now we're still well under $20 for the year. So all the money goes back into the website. I'd like to get some professional graphics for around here along with a custom postnuke theme. Unfortunately, the going rates are rather higher than that. The other thing the money goes to is contests. We've only had one thus far. We'll probably have another soon. Since it is a small community, the odds of winning aren't bad. So using the links could net you free games. That's not too shabby. I put most of this in the FAQ on the news section of the site.
That pretty much wraps up the site announcement. I do appreciate everyone stopping by. Even though the emails and forum posts aren't as frequent as they used to be, I appreciate all of those as well. As always if there's anything you'd like me to talk about, please let me know.
Jason
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7 Sept 04
Still no answers on the mystery. The really weird thing was that it wasn't a link. Either that or it was a link that knew how to hide itself. According to my logs it looks like everyone just typed in the address. Oh well, whoever it was, I hope they had fun. Remember, next time you do it, click some of my links. Thanks.
Speaking of advertising links. I did some research. It turns out most people just forget to use links to support their favorite websites even if they want to. Also a surprising number of people still don't shop online at all. Another sizable group only shops from a handful of places online. What's number one among those? You guessed it, Amazon.com. So, surprise, surprise, we've no got an affiliate link for Amazon. Try it out next time you buy something.
If you're looking for other ways to download games rather than buying them, I've got a couple more for you. I've previously mentioned Total Gaming.net. Now I've found two more options. If you want to buy, you can check out Direct 2 Drive. They've got a small selection, but it's not bad if you really want a new game Now! Or, you can check out 3D Gamers. Yes, one of the usual suspects, 3D Gamers offers some games for download. They've teamed up with Trymedia to bring a selection of PC games for download. Check out their offerings Here. They also offer a bunch of free trials.
This week's game is another tactical RTS. It's Will of Steel (official site) from Gameyus Interactive. You play a US Marine battalion commander who must use sound military strategy and tactics to defeat your opponents while preserving as much of your forces as possible. They're promising medals and promotions of your character to give it some RPG elements. Perhaps most interesting, they've building a command interface that offers "Voice control with natural language support." We'll have to see how that turns out at the end of the year.
Jason
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6 Sept 04
Well that was strange. Whoever it was pulled an extra 3000 pages from the news site, but didn't seem to pull any news. You'd think if they were going to play around with the website, they could at least click a few ad links. Even if they didn't buy anything, it would make our numbers look better. Now that it seems to have abated, if someone would like to tell me why I'd appreciate it.
I got an email from Paul at Groovalicious Games pointing out that on the PC side there's no sports competition. There's just EA. While there are some exceptions such as Konami recently releasing the Winning Eleven series on the PC, that's largely true. I'm still an optimist though. I think the budget friendly price point for sports games will grow the market. If Sega is seeing enough sales, they'll want to take on EA in all markets.
The question is do PC gamers really want them? Personally, I tend to think PC gaming is the best for sheer scope and depth. Obviously, if you look at strategy and tactical gaming, the PC side tends to win out. However, there's some great gaming out there on the consoles. Unfortunately, some PC gamers tend to dismiss all console games out of hand. When you look at some of the horrific PC ports out there, sometimes it's not so hard to understand them. Still you have to judge console gaming on its strengths not its weaknesses. I like to point strategy gamers to KOEI to see if they're not at least a little intrigued by some of their offerings.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think we're better off when we're just gamers and not so protective of our platforms.
One last note on Acclaim. I know a lot of people think of I have no Mouth, and I must Scream as the high point of Acclaim. I don't know. Personally, I thought Re-Volt on the PC was the high point. It was just a fun and inspired game where you raced RC cars through normal environments but scaled to the perspective of the RC car. Rest in Peace Acclaim. Hopefully, the finished games will all be released in a timely manner and everyone will get paid.
Jason
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