*Undercooked Content Should Be Consumed At One’s Own Risk

I seem to want to talk about money quite often. Well, I love money and so does everyone else. We do what we can to create and store cash like energy and like energy it seems like money is always transferred but destroyed if there is a fire. Today we’ll fight premature holes burning in our pockets.

The last couple of years have yielded some amazing video game related projects from some interesting funding methods. The best examples of this are Minecraft and several high profile Kickstarter projects. Crowd sourcing and selling Alpha/Beta access is a dream come true for smaller studios with niche projects that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day. This is great, but there is no guarantee that a final product will be delivered. It’s kind of fun to imagine the gamer population as some sort of confederacy of venture capitalists that can shape the horizon. A bunch of people assume it functions as a pre order service and forget about the risk involved, you may get a bad game or no game at all. Pulling together and funding something you believe in is a great feeling and everyone should feel what it’s like to get a better than expected investment return.

If you’ve logged into Steam in the last six months you’ve probably noticed a ton of Early Access programs that have peppered the new release list. These games aren’t finished and some don’t even resemble the final product. This can be an awesome experience for some, akin to seeing a car built from the ground up and witnessing every change as it is made. The historical value here is great and will interest those who are into game design theory but can rub others the wrong way because the games may not be “fun” yet. The most successful example of this has been Minecraft, it was available for purchase in its early stages. Sorry kids, I played some early builds and there wasn’t even any mining to be done. Being in on the podcast conversations and seeing the newest games can be a huge bump in your nerd cred but you have to remember you paid to beta test. People usually volunteer their free time or even get paid to make sure code is up to scratch, wouldn’t it be awesome is someone would come over to your house and pay you to clean it? Do your research and make sure you’re throwing your money at something you believe in, there are plenty of developers that figured out how to siphon money out of the big name publishers and there are people in this world who will steal your milkshake.

The internet has changed our lives and how business is done. The record and movie industries have had their fights and seen independent ventures eat a little more into the profit margins by mainlining straight into the audience. Well, that topic sounded a lot more interesting in my head. Join me next time I update, but you have to bring your own snacks.

It Slices, It Dices…

The PS4 is coming. I’m sure you’ve seen the ads and are eating stupid amounts of Taco Bell to get one before release, please don’t do that to yourself. Interconnectivity between devices is one of the major themes Sony is rolling with this time and it’s as good a time as any to look at what seems to be the number one accessory to pair with your shiny new black box; the tablet, music player, web browser, 3G surfing, two analog sticked, picture taking, AR card using, app device, which also plays games. Today we fight against all odds (really, taking on Nintendo in the handheld market?).

I recently purchased a Playstation Vita. Recent news about the next model of the handheld have alluded to Sony downgrading the OLED screen they use in the device and I saw one bundled with The Walking Dead adventure game I hadn’t played, so why not buy it. It’s shaped like the PSP with smaller buttons, a second analog stick, and many more slots to put things in. This is definitely an attractive system with much more sleek look than other clamshell offerings. Holding it isn’t a chore with divots on the back side to rest your fingers with good button spacing make cramps a non issue if played for an hour or more because the battery will actually last long enough. The Vita is a well designed contraption; there are even TWO eyelets on the bottom to poke a lanyard through!

Let’s start with the good. That screen, oh that screen. It’s gorgeous, HD gaming in the palm of your hand is truly here. 3D games like Wipeout 2048 and Killzone: Mercenary move smoothly and look close to what you would expect on a PS3, while 2D games a la Rayman: Origins and Spelunky look exactly as the developers intended. You can also play the PSP and PSone titles bound to your Playstation Network account; they got rid of the UMD drive so you still can’t play your physical PSP games but it’s great to see some sort of backward compatibility attempted. I’ve beat the fact that there are two analog sticks into the ground, but this is the first handheld we’ve had with them out of the box and it does wonders for the feel of control. Before you had to arrange you hand into a cramping claw shape or use the face buttons to look around in a shooter and neither one of those is satisfying. Sony switched out the cross media bar that was present on the PSP and PS3 for an icon based touch screen interface that gets the job done. You’ve got control and good looking games on a pretty powerful platform, sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?

Here we go; the Vita tries to do too much. I’m not too sure the back panel touch screen was the greatest innovation. Sure, it can be used as a gimmick or help with quick time events but when it all boils down to are gimmicks and game features no one likes. The proprietary memory cards show their ugly heads again, and this time they can cost quite a bit. On a system where they’re trying to push digital downloads (the physical games don’t even have paper manuals or inserts) you’d think they’d try to reduce the entrance cost to make it more appealing to the average consumer. 3G through AT&T sounds like maybe a good idea, but in reality there are enough WiFi hotspots around where you can connect if you need to. Adding a SIM card to a device that isn’t my phone is pretty useless, the phone goes with me everywhere and I’m not into paying extra for adding a gaming device that primarily uses my home wireless. The majority of gripes I have are non gaming centric, I bought this thing to play games and it does that well.

If you plan on drinking the Sony Kool-Aid it makes the most sense to register for a PSN Plus account. Pay $50 a year and you get access to premium content and it’s likely to play a similar role to XBOX Live Gold in the next generation. The bright side to this is that you get full games to play on all of your connected systems, it pays for itself really quickly with titles for your PS3, PSP, Vita, and soon to be PS4. You spent $60 on Grand Theft Auto V already, take the plunge. The full programs and reduced prices on software rotate out every week to keep it fresh.

If you couldn’t tell I’m pretty happy with my Playstation Vita and I recommend a purchase for anyone interested. I know there’s no Pokemon to be had here, but there is a gravity shifting girl with a cat. I seriously hope the Vita catches on just so I have more games to play on it. 

A Drift, At Seas.

We have a new console generation on the horizon and that means there are some extremely impressive looking racing games on their way! The new Forza and something called Drive Club look to show us how next gen (or not so next gen) these new pieces of entertainment center hardware render multi colored blurs. Car simulations have been extremely popular since the PS1 era, but sometimes you just want to drive an unrealistic power boat through an unrealistic track and love every second. Today we fight Hyper Realism!

With respect for the new arrivals we look at another racing launch title. Do you remember where you were on 9.9.99? Probably in line to buy Final Fantasy VIII looking over at the stack of brand new Dreamcasts wishing you had an extra $199 to buy one. C’mon, Sonic Adventure was still part of the “Cool Sonic” golden age. Then you remember that awesome racer with boats you played last time you were at the mall, no way could it be ported to a home system but the Dreamcast can do it!

I probably seem like I’m phoning this one in; but seriously, what’s there to hate about Hydro Thunder? You get exactly what you see. Everything is bonkers, but in such a fun way. From the crazy time based boosts that double as a battering ram to wreck other racers and impressive water that doesn’t quite meet Wave Race standards; Hydro Thunder is the premier power boat racer.

Sure, the polygonal graphics on a 14 year old game are pretty dated. The visuals occupy that place somewhere between the Playstation and Playstation 2’s capability expected with the hardware. There’s no real career mode other than finishing races in the top 3 to unlock more boats and tracks with a decent for the time total of 13 tracks and 13 boats. At its core there is only a bare bones arcade racer, and for some that may not be enough.

Next time you’re driving across country and decide that you’re tired of driving a car, drive ultra unrealistic power boats instead. You know you’ve seen plenty of these arcade cabinets at truck stops the nation over. Hydro Thunder is giant pile of stupid fun that should be played, even if your butt is already numb from sitting too long.