The Kong that almost wasn't

As this year we celebrate Donkey Kong's 30th Anniversary it's almost hard to imagine what the world would be like without the simple game of an ape hurling barrels at Jumpman in order to keep Pauline to himself. Luckily Universal Studios never ruined this for us or Nintendo.

In 1982, Universal Studios brought legal action to Nintendo and Coleco to cease the sales or the Donkey Kong game and even asked for them to give all the money they had made from sales over to Universal Studios. Why? Because they felt that the game was too much like King Kong. They stated that the game was borderlining on copyright infringement. Nintendo not bowing out of the fight brought forth their argument that King Kong was a movie about a large ape that gets kidnapped from it's island home and kidnaps a woman to terrorize a skyscraper and swat airplanes out of the sky. What does this have to do with a man trying to rescue a girl being held by an average size gorilla by leaping over barrels and smashing them with a hammer? Imagine what they would have said over George in the arcade game Rampage! Of course Universal Studios lost and Nintendo went on to create a beautiful franchise out of the title that also sparked a great hi-score war.

So what's in store for the 30th anniversary for our favorite ape? Sadly nothing special. But in celebration I will be playing the great arcade classic. And if you can't find an old school cabinet or you don't own it for NES or even MAME you can play it here! Now excuse me but it's on like Donkey Kong!

America's new past-time?

As I travel back home inside the belly of these metallic beasts I notice day in and day out that more commuters are on their phones or iPads playing the newest in mobile gaming. The days of reading books and newspapers are fading away and ushering in a new favorite activity for the ride into the office - gaming.

I must admit I am guilty of this too. I sometimes like to pull out my droid and engage in a few rounds of Pew Pew or Ninjump. While I may be a core gamer to the end that doesn't mean I don't like casual games!

The fact that more and more people are enjoying the casual game experience, whether it be Facebook games or the newest app, it's proving that video games are becoming more of an art form no matter what is being said in the latest political battle.

Maybe these casual gamers will go on to play the Wii. Maybe they'll fall in love with Child of Eden for the Kinect. They are now opening the doors to a beautiful past time that was once labeled for kids and punks.

Thanks Angry Birds. You started something big here...

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E3 is upon us

It is that time again. E3 is upon us once again.

The expo for all things electronic entertainment  AM will be in full swing this week with tons of announcements on what's in store for us fans. All the rumors that have been circling around for the last couple of months will finally be put to rest this week as we let publishers and companies tell us what we all want to know - what's the big thing to look for in the coming months.

Obviously Nintendo has the news that we all want to hear. What's the scoop on the new console? What's it called? What are the features we're looking at? How's the price point? For the last two months everyone has been buzzing about the new console that Nintendo is working on. We know that it will finally bring HD to their gaming arsenal and will not support 3D like the 3DS. What we want to know is what it will be called, what the controller concept is, backwards compatibility, and the price point we're looking at. I guess we'll have to wait until Tuesday.

Other huge news will be on the newest games to debut. Kotaku.com was kind enough to create a list of the biggest games to be expected to debut with first look at trailers and/or gameplay. Among the giant names are Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Metal Gear Solid 3.

I'll be looking forward to all the news and footage this week. Tomorrow you will be able to catch some of the action on Spike TV commercial free starting at 12 PM EST/9 AM PST. You can also check out all the action on Gametrailers.com.

Perhaps rethink our strategy

So the big debate over whether or not video games are deemed as an art form has caught even more nation-wide political attention since the federal government and the National Endowment of the Arts has stated they would like to fund video game creators anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000 to create games.



Of course Fox Friends has already weighed in on this. No surprise how they're handling this subject. I watched this video and laughed once I heard the words "fair and balanced debate". Clearly Brian Ambrozy, editor-in-chief of icrontic.com, was asked who would be getting these tax dollars and he answered very clearly that the funding is going to independent developers who are making educational games. Of course the games you hear leaving the Fox anchor's mouth is Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Already entering into every person's mind are 2 of the most commercial and violent games out. It also doesn't help that the only two video clips that they play on games are Call of Duty: Black Ops and Super Mario Brothers. Both known for full entertainment value. Why not show a clip of Brain Age?

On the other side of the spectrum Fox decided to have a radio host, Neil Asbury, who didn't even listen to a word that was said when he wasn't talking. I understand that the general public may only know of the games that are rated M and all the sports games that are sold month after month but at least have someone who has somewhat of a valid point as to why the NEA shouldn't fund educational and artistic games. What authority does this person hold as to where and who should be getting funded? Did Fox just pick a name out of the hat or chose the first person who was available to appear on the air?

There is one thing that I must say that I agree with Neil though. He states that with the uncertainty of our economy should we be spending this much money on this funding? All over the news I have seen more and more educational program get cut from funding. From teachers to Phys. Ed. programs to music and art. Can educational games fill that void? I don't think so. What the federal government should do is lessen the amount that they are going to set aside for the NEA to fund games and throw some of that money into keeping teachers in school who can use these games to teach the next generation of scholars and leaders. My kids use computers in class to play games that help develop math skills and literacy but these are the same games that have been around for the last 10 to 15 years. Just like a textbook gets revised or changed year after year, shouldn't these games also change with the times?

Maybe the NEA should apply funding by collaborating with various local departments of education and figuring what games are more in need to be published and have them available to school systems. And hey, who's to say they can't develop a game more geared towards the university level to be played by adults majoring in chemistry, biology, politics, or radio broadcasting? Maybe that would shut Neil up and let him think about what he says before just blurting out what he read in his Alphabet soup...

WW3! er... MW3!

Tonight we were able to finally catch a glimpse of gameplay footage of Modern Warfare 3. After watching the trailer I quickly remember what makes Infinity Ward's baby such a great series - incredible visual story! For those who missed the trailer here you go:

Now yes the multi-player has been such a huge selling point with this series but the campaign is nothing to be missed. The last release of MW was nothing less than amazing. The story line was packed with action from start to end. And let's not forget that they pushed the envelop with the unforgettable No Russian Mission. To me, the campaign is the true reason I have been picking up this series every release.

This installment is showing us that even though Jason West and Vince Zampella (co-founders of Infinity Ward) are no longer with the studio and they have suffered more losses, Activision is picking up the pieces with hiring creative geniuses at Sledgehammer Games (a lot of those guys have worked on great AAA games such as Dead Space 1 & 2, The Godfather series, and various James Bond projects).

I have to say that between this and Battlefield 3, we are going to be the fortunate ones see a war of the first-person shooters. One things for sure, these won't be tame titles

May the best game win!

Guilty of a crime?

For the last several months this game has been a huge blimp on my RADAR screen. Why? The fact that Team Bondi has painstakingly worked to recreate facial gestures and details in a detective game is a major part. The other, Rockstar Games is backing it up. So how did the end product shape up? After playing for 7 hours straight I have to say that I am more impressed than I am upset.

After reading some reviews about the game I have come to the conclusion that all of these guys thought this was going to be another GTA but as a cop. This is not the case and you have to go in knowing that this is a detective story. You have to prepare yourself that it's not going your typical sandbox game. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of action to go around. But we'll get more into that later.

The game opens up with a monologue from the main character, Cole Phelps. This is very reminiscent of those flashbacks/imaginary thoughts from cartoons growing up where they would picture themselves in a private I. office waiting for a dame to walk into their office. Slow jazz in the background and a great detailed 1940's setting. You start out as a rookie cop straight out of the Marines and back home from the war. Your first case, find a gun that a murder suspect threw away after killing someone in a dark alley. After finding the gun you start using your detective skills and try to gather as much evidence as you can to solve cases.

Successful interrogations and Street Crime completions award experience points, which contribute to Rank increases. Ranks bring special bonuses, such as unlockable vehicles, extra costumes and, most importantly, Intuition Points. Intuition can be used during the course of an investigation and can be invaluable to a player who's stuck in a rut. Using an Intuition Point during a crime scene will locate all clues on the mini-map, while using it during an interview can either remove one of the possible answers (for instance, confirming that a suspect isn't lying) or activate the "Ask The Community" option, which will take the game online to find out which answer is most popular among players.

All clues that you find either through investigating a crime scene or through interrogation are kept in a notebook that you can access at all times through out the game. This comes in handy during interrogations. You do get Experience points based on how many clues you find at a crime scene and by how well you question eye witnesses and suspects.Basically, leave no stone unturned. This does take time so you must have patience in order to get everything you need.

Interrogation scenes are when you get to see Team Bondi's hard work come shining through. Every characters facial expressions, ticks, glances, whinces etc. are all clues that can let you know if someone is telling the truth or lying. You get to accuse people of with-holding information but you have to have the evidence to back it up.

How you guess if someone's telling the truth or leading you astray is up to your own life experiences. As hhumans we have all come to find out when some people are lying to you by how uncomfortable they get. The roll of the eyes, the scratch of the head. All these factors come into play. You don't have to be psychic to know when someone isn't telling you everything.

When you do accuse someone of holding back though you don't know just how Cole Phelps will question them. Sometimes he bursts right out and boldly tells person in question that he knows they're lying. This makes some interrogations tough because you don't expect this and are not sure what piece of evidence to use as backup. But there is a sense of completion when you get that person giving you the runaround and you stop them dead in their tracks.

The entire game is not based on this alone. There is a fair share of action that you can get into. While most of this action does come from side missions you do get into it during some cases. So if you're the type of person who only goes through the story line you will be missing out on some fun.

Shootouts do happen more frequently than I thought. The only gripes I had with these was that in order to go from cover to cover you had to keep hitting the buttons to get out of cover first. Fine but when you do this you open yourself up to getting shot. If it were a little more fluid it would have been nice. You also can't run and gun. This only posed a problem for me when I had to climb ladders to a rooftop and had to sit there timing between shots for a good chance to get over the edge and find cover.

Your partners stay out of your way most of the time but I did find that some AI will run into the path of your gun and came way too close to your shots. You'd think that the AI would do a better job of staying out of the way of getting shot but you can't have everything.

Car chases are pretty cool in this game. Best part, your partner can shoot at cars and tires while you drive. I don't have to try to aim/drive/shoot like in GTA! Team Bondi definitely wanted to add surprises around every corner so watch those turns and sudden stops when your careening down Los Angeles St. You never now what might get in front of you.

Cars are abound everywhere so you can commandeer any vehicle you want. You can also unlock dozens of cars in the LA area by racking up experience points. These unlocked cars are usually parked in some lot and are shown to you on the map when you gain the EP to get them.

I found the handling of the cars to be very good. They don't swerve all over the place and can drift pretty good around corners once you get the hang of it. Some cars do this better than others. I haven't had the opportunity to drive each one so I can't give you a great list. You'll have to try it yourself.

Overall this game was a great L.A. Confidential meets the best of Rockstar. If you don't have a copy yet, get one. I rate this game a solid 9.0. Well worth all the wait.