Gamer Fatigue
August 16th, 2008
I’m not the sort of gamer that is quick to adopt spiffy new gaming terms into my vocabulary. So when my brother tried to explain the concept of “Gamer Fatigue”, I was a little reluctant to accept the term. As of writing though, I feel a great sense of this “gamer fatigue” come over me and would like to share this with you guys.
As can easily be guessed, gamer fatigue is the process by where tiredness is created by playing video games. This tiredness is a result of stressing the brain which can be done by excessive playing and/or long stretches of intense play.
My bout of gamer fatigue has been from a bit of both. I’ve been grinding my way through Gradius Collection and it’s a harrowing experience. Even on the easier difficulty settings this game is tough forcing me to rely on save states. I’m starting to feel less empathetic with the shoot ’em up genre simply because it is so damn ruthless. While I’m sure some would chalk this one up to skill (and hence my lack of) I simply can’t concur. The challenge in playing many shmps (shoot ’em ups) on a standard difficulty level is beyond human skill and relies heavily on repeated plays to burn enemy movement patterns into the walls of your brain. It’s cruel and irrefutably a result of this recent bout of gamer fatigue.
In the past week or so when I haven’t been playing Gradius I’ve been retreading my way through Resident Evil 4 on Pro difficulty and while it has a much more humane experience than Gradius, I must confess that I have hit a road block. I’m up to the 3 minute battle with Krauser and no matter how many times I shoot him in the face with my shotgun he refuses to submit to my trigger finger. I spent a solid 2hrs filling him with pain and yet he refuses give up, the difficulty curve has unsuspectingly spiked, displacing the difficulty level off the charts.
Nevermind though, I’m sure some Elite Beat Agents will curb my ailment. Unfortunately not as I am playing through the hardest difficult on that as well (and yes it is, THAT difficulty, the one you unlock after the supposively hardest difficulty).
In the midst of all of this I’ve been flipping through my collection in search of a slow pace RPG to easy the tension but haven’t been able to conjour up the spirit to refuse the hearty challenge that these games have taunted me with. As a result here I am, mentally exhausted and drained. So, just a warning to you all; try to keep a balanced game playing diet or else you may suffer this “gamer fatigue”. Oh and be sure to add it to your vocabulary as well. ^_^
Play Impressions – Connection Tour 2008
August 12th, 2008
Monday a few weeks back, actually more than a few weeks ago, during the start of E3 2008, Nintendo’s tour of Australia (dubbed the Connection Tour) came to my state. I was fortunate enough to attend the event sampling some of the demos on offer. General impressions were a little disappointing, the budget was low in contrast to previous tours with limited demos on display with many of already released titles. In fact numerous games weren’t shown that were stated to be present in a newsletter put out by Nintendo Australia which added to the disappointment. Namely Sonic Chronicles (DS) and Cooking Guide (DS) which I was eager to try out. It did seem a little strange though that Sonic Chronicles would be on display, I don’t even think press have had access to this game at the time.
Despite the omissions, what was on offer was adequate with the best titles consisting of Samba de Amigo (Wii), de Blob (Wii), Guitar Hero Aerosmith (Wii), Guitar Hero on Tour (DS) , Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (DS) and a series of DS Touch Generations games including Maths Training and CrossWords. Here are my collective thoughts on some of these games.
Samba de Amigo
On learning that this game was going to be present at the event, I wanted to prepare myself by watching some YouTube video of the Dreamcast version so that I knew exactly how to play this title before I went hands on. I regretfully forgot to watch the video but not to worry Samba is very easy accessible title.
I had a pretty rough run though. For one, the difficulty was set to Hard for some bizarre reason and the game froze on me after selecting a song beyond the demo’s scope (Hey Macarena). While it was easy enough to understand the play mechanics (6 circles representing up, down left right, diagonals, shake Wiimote and nunchuck in direction of respective circle) my nunchuck often struggled to be recognized, particularly in diagonal gestures. Maybe it was just the context of the event but it was a little concerning.
Join the Club
August 8th, 2008
At the end of the last entry I concluded that the best thing that we can all do to improve the status of video game is to think more critically about what we play. Even better, discuss games critically with others, constructively sharing our thoughts and forming collective conclusions.
When it comes to critical discussion of video games, us bloggers are usually at the forefront, shaping the landscape of critical discussion. It comes to no surprise then that two of my favourite bloggers decided to take the initiative and start up discussion groups within their communities to explore classic video games. Think of it like the ‘book club’ concept where a group of individuals come together to critically read and discuss novels on a regular basis except replace books with games with the conversation present online through forums and blogs.
This is a fantastic way to encourage deep discussion among enthusiast players interested in some good chin wagging as well as promoting the relevance of older games. Causes that both have my full support. This also allows players to go back and sample games that they might have missed the first time around, so far most selection have accommodated for this.
I ought to quickly introduce both of the ‘clubs’, I’ll write them down in the order of conception:
Together Retro – Retro Gaming with RacketBoy
Together Retro by RacketBoy has been running for a good couple of months now covering a great selection of games including Defender, Kid Icarus, Ristar and Lunar: Silver Star. I applaud the selections so far as each title wasn’t necessarily the most popular for its time yet still unique and ground breaking in its own way. The discussion seems very versatile with additional ‘extra credit’ games offered to more savvy participants and play time ranging between two weeks to a month depending on the selected game (for example: a month for Lunar, two weeks for Samurai Shodown). I also like how an emphasis is placed on different versions of the game, high scores and tips.
The latest game in the series is Toe Jam and Earl for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. You can participate via the forums, registration required.
Vintage Game Club – The Brainy Gamer
The ever popular Micheal Abbot last month began The Vintage Game Club debuting with the brilliant Grim Fandango. Not much more can be said really, the club is a couple of weeks old and response seems enthusiastic despite some difficulty overcoming the game’s difficult puzzles (which itself has become a talking point of the discussion). Excerpts from the forums have also been posted on the The Brainy Gamer blog.
Grim Fandango is the game in question, discussion can be found on the forums, registration required.
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