Tag: Nintendo

Unlocked: The World of (Video) Games is an Upcoming Online Documentary, One Byte Deep!

The eight-part documentary Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed will be available online through iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Steam starting December 15th.

15027712_646986138795528_2453628057481800844_nBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Celebrity hosts Sean Astin, Tom Arnold, Matt Walsh, Penn Jillette, Michael Rooker, Zelda Williams, Alison Haislip and Meghan Camarena will look deep into the world of video games in an eight-part documentary Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed. This series will be available online through iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Steam starting December 15th and it is currently available for preorder.

“The goal in producing a series like ‘Unlocked’ is to educate and entertain the audience on all these fascinating topics within the world of gaming all with a cast of curious correspondents that the audience is familiar with,” said series director Jeremy Snead.

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Ed’s Pokémon GO Journals — How Can This Game Evolve? (Part Two)

Pokémon GO CardBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

The big talk lately about Pokémon GO is in the millions no longer playing the game faster than me catching another Drowzee. I’m also slowing down since the gameplay is mostly about grinding for candies to power up my best fighting force. I’m close to giving up on trying to catch them all since nobody can (to do so means travelling around the world). Unless a truly interactive element is added to this game, this product will fade fast. The biggest item everyone wants is a proper tracking mechanism. If it does not turn into another type of recreational activity, like geocaching to help find the legendary pocket monsters like they are valued treasures, then I do not think this game will go far.

Augmented reality does not mean these pocket monsters simply appear at random. I’d love to see an added science element where if you study where a Pokémon appears and reappears (in theory, some die-hard players say biomes exist, but I see no rhyme or reason behind when Snorax or Onyx appears) then predicting where they might walk to next can be fun. Chasing a moving target like hide and go seek can potentially be interesting when breadcrumbs are being left behind.

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Ed’s Pokémon GO Journals — Getting Down to the Gastly Mechanics of It All

maxresdefaultBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Ever since PokémonGO officially released July 17th in Canada, it has nearly taken me away from the movie theatres and television. I have played the game for at least three hours a day, wiping out my previous data plan and upgrading to the next package, only to realize that moderation is required to stretch out play over the month until the cycle resets. There’s a portion of cellphone users using unlimited and while they are getting the most out of this game, others are playing this game on a casual basis and not levelling up as fast. In the part of the game that’s fully enjoyable is to be rid of the indoor life and to be interacting with fellow players outdoors. Some folks are more friendly than others. Where this game really succeeds is in finding new people to hang with — as long as folks are sociable and cool with sharing tricks. The competitive play can get a few players aggressive with trying to keep a Pokémon Gym under their control.

When compared to other Pokémon games, there’s a missing element that will be addressed in a future update. Trading is coming. As for how I feel it should be implemented is through in-person contact. I feel real-time player vs olayer battles are needed too. With another mobile type game, I almost stopped obsessively playing Pokémon Shuffle where I was mostly grinding for coins and waiting for the next set of Pokemon to be added into the game so I can continue my quest to catch them all. Honestly, this Nintendo 3DS game is safer without spending real world money when compared to the micro-transaction game where you really have to spend some amount of real world money to get Lures, Incense or upgrades to the virtual backpack I’m carrying to contain them all. The game does offer opportunities to get the coinage during play, but I feel the parameters are lopsided.

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Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial Has Replay Value

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Pokemon20If you live in Japan or are knowledgable on Japanese holidays, you’ll know they celebrated recently their annual coming of age day. It’s a day where boys and girls who reach the age of 20 between April 2 of the previous year and April 1 of the new year are official recognized for becoming adults. Local ceremonies are held, gifts are given and parties are had for women dressed in furisodes and men dressed in hakamas or suits. Pikachu himself joins this groups as he like the licensing he represents turns 20 years.

To help celebrate, many events are planned by the company responsible for the merchandising of Pikachua and his friends, Kabushiki Gaisha Pokemon. One such promotion is a 30 second commercial that will air during Superbowl 50 on February 7, 2016. Continue reading “Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial Has Replay Value”

What’s With All the Fuss with Nintendo’s “New” 3DS and Majora’s Mask?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

414ckkVU26LHonestly, all the hubbub about the “New” Nintendo’s 3DS and 3DS XL is rather droll. In order to distinguish between this model and the older one, why isn’t a better name, like the 3DS2 (or XL2) be used? Sometimes I wonder if there’s a fear of making this device sound like a name of a particular droid from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

Aside from a few new technical upgrades that I think ergonomic experts may find not as comfortable, the big issue is the fact this company still has not upgraded the picture resolution of its external cameras! Some users, especially me when I go travelling, want an ideal all-in-one unit to browse the Internet, take a photo to share online (what it can do now is too small and often grainy) and play music or games with.

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Sony’s PS4. On The Bard vs Next Generation Gaming

Sony’s PS4 has some impressive specs and interesting features like using an iPad for a second screen, but that’s not enough to convince me to own a unit yet.

William Shakespeare
“To PS4 or not to Xbox, that is the question:
Whether ’tis better, another console in mind —
Nay a Nintendo. Forsooth a PC?
All be it in gravitas for what
Divine Janus may offer in the New Year.”

— Ed “The Vintage Tempest” Sum

Sony’s PS4 has some impressive specs and interesting features like using an iPad for a second screen, but that’s not enough to convince me to own a unit. Even as they’re planning yet another unit–which is years away–I’m not entirely convinced to buy any new gaming device the first year of its release. When looking at Microsoft’s, Xbox One–which has an improved Kinect–I’m not convinced.

The videos of various games demos for both look great in high-def, but the list of games available during launch week are scant. They are not as wide and varied as I hoped.

The current line of exclusives are not all that interesting, and there will no doubt be some hardware and software kinks that need to be ironed out. There were reports over the weekend about the PS4’s ‘blue light of death,’ an analogy that brings to mind Microsoft’s infamous ‘red ring of death’ back when the Xbox 360 released. At least .4% of the people who bought the system were affected. I suspect the figure is larger but when considering the number of units that flew off the shelves in stores on launch day. That is not a good start.

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