Saturday morning gaming update.

This morning as I was slurping down a couple of cups of the black stuff, what I like to call the nectar of the gods, I put together a few nuggets of gaming goodness for your reading pleasure. I am going to start prepping for a morning run before the heat manages to reach sunstroke levels. Lots of family activities, household chores, and some work are on the radar for today, but I should have some time for gaming this afternoon. After all, it is too damn hot to do anything else.

Search for cheap soccer.
Recent CONCACAF 2010 World Cup qualifying action, the miraculous Confederations Cup run into the finals, and upcoming Gold Cup play has me jonesing for a decent soccer title. Over the last few months of complete gaming inactivity, I sold off my PSP and PS2 soccer titles (I never bothered to pick one up for the PS3). I think I have some sort of PES for the PS2 (maybe), but I think I may actually be soccer less for the first time in recent memory. I am not sure how I arrived at this low point, but I digress.

I thought about picking up FIFA 2009, but it is still selling for close to $50 for the PS3 and $30 for the PSP. That is too steep a hill to climb when the annual update is only four months away. The next versions of PES are due in November, but much like the FIFA games, the “current” versions of Pro Evolution Soccer are just not what I would consider reasonable. It is hard for me to stomach throwing down $40 for a game when the new version is due in November.

Of course that is the way it is with sports games. They seldom hold value, and while there are bargains to be found on the used market, the retail price holds because the manufactures and retails assume some unsuspecting mother or grandparent will decide to go with the “cheaper” version of the game.

I guess there is always Worldwide Soccer Manager. I have not tried one of those in a couple of years, but I think for now I am going to have to sit on this one and decide if my jones is going to force me into what I consider an overpriced purchase.

XPlay G4TV
A couple of nights ago I caught the tail end of the God of War III demo (or preview, advertisement propaganda) on G4TV. I only saw the final 10 minutes, but the game looked extremely impressive. I have never played a GoW title, but I have the first one tucked away somewhere. All the button manipulations and combos and specialized moves in these types of games are just too damn trying for this older gamer. Still, when March 2010 rolls around, given prosperity and continued good health, I may be inclined to give this one a go.

Qore (November)
I finally got around to installing and watching the November Qore episode. I only have a couple of comments about the actual episode. First, the Japanese content was much too brief. Just when it started getting interesting, it closed too quickly. I think the Japanese gaming scene is something that could have been greatly expanded, and is the type of content that most gamers would enjoy watching. My other comment is that when you actually know what Veronica Belmont is talking about when she holds up a PS3 version of Aquanaut’ Holiday, you are probably a little over the top. Dare I say a complete gaming nerd or geek? I was going to say hardcore, but I always hated that term, and I have no idea what it has been replaced with in this current generation of gamers.

Trophy Whore
I have never read anything from The VFLHP Blog, but I came across this article via N4G, and decided it was worth a reference. The author talks about some of the good points brought about by the advent of trophies, and then goes into the bad points. All that is well and good, but the writer never gets off the fence; comes across as rather wishy-washy.

The anti-Trophy brigade sees them as the worst thing to happen to gaming since the Wii (Yeah I said it!!!). Excuse my French but the phrase “Trophy Whore” has now entered the vocabulary of most gamers. This is a person who has basically become addicted to collecting Trophies. This is the main problem most people have with Trophies. There is no denying the fact that there are now people who only buy games in order to get the Trophies in them. One look at www.ps3trophies.co.uk gives us a clear example of how big this “Trophy Hoarding” has become. Right at the top of the Trophy Leaderboard is Killerxx from (Yeah you guessed it!) the USA, who has collected no less than 2683 trophies, including 44 platinum ones, which means he/she has bought and played at least 44 games to death! I don’t mean to insult this person but a certain “World Of Warcraft” inspired episode of South Park springs to mind!

I see no downside to trophies. They add value to games, and they make playing some older long forgotten game a little worthwhile. I would hazard a bet that gamers addicted to trophies were already addicted to gaming.

Share

2 thoughts on “Saturday morning gaming update.”

  1. Big year for soccer with the WC.

    Enjoy FIFA 09 a lot especially the OTP games.

    But there will be FIFA 10 and probably some Road to the WC and WC editions too.

  2. I am sure there will be multiple iterations of FIFA this year, which is another reason it sucks that the price is not much lower right now.

Leave a Reply