A Button Masher’s Best Friend; A Trusty Pen Lid!

April 6th, 2008

You either understand exactly what I am about to talk about or you don’t have a clue, I guess it depends on what sort of gamer you are and how determined you are as a player to succeed. If you have never heard of the “Pen Lid Trick” (unofficial name BTW) then gather around.

Pretty simple really, you are playing your favourite game and suddenly you reach a button mashing segment. No matter how hard you try, your arthritic right thumb simple cannot comply with the game’s challenging demands. It’s tough isn’t it?

Sometimes these segments are essential to progress (StarFox Adventures), sometimes performing better rewards you with extra bonuses (Metal Gear Solid) and sometimes the whole game is based around this concept (Bishi Bashi Special). Whatever the case may be you need a way to easier way to mash that button.

Introducing the Pen Lid Trick

All you need for this is a pen lid. Anything with a separate clip (that is two pieces of plastic put together) is not worth your time. I recommend a lid from a standard Bic Cristal Pen, there are no separate components and that plastic is of the right softness not to damage your pad. Now all you have to do is hold the lid like you would a pen (at a 45 degree angle to the face button) and then glide it back and forth over the button that requires mashing. When you are moving the pen lid around try to swing wide less as this will allow you to perform better.

Just from experience this works best on less springy buttons. So a well used Playstation controller is ideal from my experience. The Gamecube isn’t too bad either with it’s large A button.

There you go thats your lesson for today. Do you use this trick yourself?

Why You Should Buy the Original Metal Gear Solid over Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

April 3rd, 2008

metal gear solid the twin snakes compare

With the pending release of Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Playstation 3 and the recent release of the 20th Anniversary pack discussion has reignited about which version of Metal Gear Solid should players new to the series pick up. On one hand there is the original PSone classic and on the other hand there is the Gamecube remake; MGS: The Twin Snakes.

It’s a fair question and one that has been met with some confusion. So as a fan of this franchise I wanted to share my thoughts in the hope to level out any confusion. Personally I dislike the Gamecube remake; The Twin Snakes. I feel as though between the conversion from PSone to Gamecube many of the original game’s strongest assets were simply lost in translation. Which is why new players ought to experience the original game in all its low resolution glory. Thats not to say that TTS is a bad game by any means because it’s not, I just feel as though it does not provide the full, 10/10 Metal Gear experience. So to further back this up I want to elaborate on what I feel is wrong with The Twin Snakes.

Lacking the Polish

When developing the original Metal Gear Solid game for the PSone, Kojima and team wanted to make their game the best game on the console. Which is a tough call considering the number of AAA titles on the PSone. This drive ensured that Metal Gear Solid was arguably the most polished game on the system. The story telling, mood setting, stealth action gameplay were all so finely tuned that the original stands as a testament to the team’s effort and a testament to what the PSone is capable of in the right hands.

So when Silicon Knights stepped in to transfer this legendary title onto the Gamecube they had a difficult task ahead of them. Having any developer, let alone a recognized developer like Silicon Knights attempt to remake such a classic would undoubtedly lead in some disappointment. Although, realistically The Twin Snakes really is a faithful port of the original game one thing remains vividly clear as you make your way though the story. The polish and sheer perfection of delivering such a story is just severely lacking. The impact is weakened, effectively losing the game’s strongest assets in translation.
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Watch Morgan Webb Totally Degrade Video Games on the Tyra Banks Show

April 1st, 2008

Up for something totally degrading? I thought not but you’ll wanna watch this anyways.

Below is video from the Tyra Banks show (you know Tyra Banks, that popular super model? Yeah I’d never heard of this show before either), the segment is as she puts it about “decoding your man”. The subject matter is a man “obsessed” with video games, fortunately our video game heroine Morgan Webb was there to save the day. Watch what I am talking about and read below for my analysis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdIZuu6IaQo

If you couldn’t tell by the tone of my language in the introduction I was not impressed by this video. This is a typical situation that perfectly highlights the perception problems that our industry continually faces among such audiences. Over the past few articles I have been edging towards this topic so I want to do a little analysis of the situation and break down what the underlying problem is.

Analysis

The first thing you should be aware of is the use of the word “obsessed”. Obsessed has a negative connotation and much like the word ‘addiction’ is commonly used by the media to typecast us gamers.

The real problem though is the lack of understanding by the female companion (isn’t it always a lack of understanding?). She does not know why her husband plays so much video games, it is incomprehensible to her hence she is on the show to find the answers to this. She announces her lack of understanding with “and I just don’t understand it”.

As you’ve seen, even though the segment is about solving the problems that women have (“decoding your man”, ie. How to understand why your man behaves as he does) the show instead concentrates around the man’s supposive problems (his obsession to video games) and throughout the video the language and choice of questions all fall back onto the him as the problem source. This itself contradicts the point of the segment but nevermind.

When Tyra asks the wife “how often does he play these games?” she answers inspecifically, stressing the length of play time instead of just answering the question. The unspecific nature of this answer doesn’t paint a realistic picture, so she manages to avoid substantiating her claim that he is obsessed and doublely she showcases a possible uncertainty of just how long. I also like how Tyra refers to games as “these games”.
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Tags: Morgan Webb, video analysis

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