Linkout (24/8/09)

August 24th, 2009

wipeout-fury

Talk about dated! Some of the articles of reference here were posted months, possibly years ago. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. Still, despite my lack of timeliness this past month (3 months?) worth of links are quite good, I hope. I also decided to cull half the blogs in my feed reader due to a lack of time and a lack of authors actually discussing games. Narrative (secluded from gameplay), philosophy and unrelated anecdotes make for wonderful distractions, but are rarely ever insightful. You won’t find much of that here though;

Time Extend: Zelda – Majora’s Mask – EDGE

I linked to some writing about Majora’s Mask in my last Link Out post, but this is much better. The author here concentrates on a handful of elements that made Majora’s Mask such a unique play experience. They focus on the overarching friction that differentiates Majora’s Mask from Ocarina of Time, deeply rooting itself in melancholy emotions.

There was another fantastic Time Extend article on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which eloquently examined the game’s meta-narrative and purity.

China Bans Gold Farming!! … Er … But In Fact It Hasn’t

Back in June/July there were reports that the Chinese government had banned gold farming which were rather dubious in their backing. I’d read reports on Eurogamer and Kotaku (perhaps on Good Game too) which all featured the same headline, but the details simply didn’t justify the headline.

Gathering of Monster Hunters – guardian.co.uk

I’ve been very much intrigued by the Monster Hunter series as of late, particularly in the way Capcom is marketing the latest PSP title in Europe. They’ve began a self professed push to get PAL players into the series, and considering they give a damn about us, I can’t help but give one back. Although I didn’t think much of their Resident Evil 5 campaign of finding body parts scattered around London, this move highlights inventive consideration geared towards the PAL market, which can only be a good thing.

What They Play 18: Columbine 10th anniversary

The music in Return to Castle Wolfenstein is pretty meh, so throughout the romp I was exhausting a list of podcasts and eventually found myself listening to archived recordings from the site What They Play. The site is run by John Davidson and hence worthy of your respect and consideration, furthermore it’s a site targeted towards parents which sets the tone for some more mature discussion. The highlight of my run was podcast #18 regarding the 10th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. The conversation isn’t entirely related to video games but Columbine debate is interesting nonetheless.

Beyond Beeps: Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker – Press the Buttons

Like many I presume, I started listening to Michael Jackson again following his tragic passing. After hearing some of the Moonwalker (Megadrive) music on Retronauts I started hunting down the original sound files. Coincidentally in turned out Matt from Press the Buttons posted some music streams, so I just listened to those. Very cool.

SOCOM 4 and Syphon Filter 5 listed as in development

I don’t want be so trite as dare say this but; ’nuff said.

Tech Interview: WipEout HD/Fury – Eurogamer

Sometime ago Eurogamer started a feature titled Digital Foundry which has now been given its own blog. The segment originated as a dumping ground for those shallow Xbox 360/PS3 comparison videos and has now expanded into something a little more technically driven as the above interview with Wipeout developers Studio Liverpool showcases. I’ve completed the new Fury expansion and am yet to talk about it, so take a squiz here in the meantime, it’s an entertaining read.

Digital Foundry also did some similar work interviewing the folks behind Super Stardust HD, inside includes some choice pro-tips too.

Metroid Prime Trilogy Video Game, Developer’s Voice Featurette – GameTrailers.com

Metroid Prime Trilogy; what a great excuse to replay such a gorgeous selection of games. I’m currently attempting Metroid Prime 3 for the third time now, I haven’t finished it yet which is sadly disappointing. I have strong sentiments towards the series and therefore enjoyed this video piece.

And a bunch of Metal Gear comics…

Sometime ago I finished reading the comic series The Last Days of Foxhound which consists of 500 individual comics in a series format. I was surprised that I’d never heard of this series years ago. Furthermore, I recently found another, much smaller, bunch of hilarious Metal Gear comics. This series which summarises each of the MGS game is objectively superior to The Last Days of Foxhound but both are well worth a read for any fans. I really dig the way The Last Days of Foxhound covers its bases on the lead up to the Shadow Moses incident. How had I never seen these before?