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The Power of Gaming

This time last year I was pretty bored as a fan of video games in general, something was very wrong. The industry revolved around the Dragon that was the PS3 and the Phoenix that was the Xbox 360. (if you’ve gotten a red ring you can figure out why the 360 is the phoenix) The two monsters fought what was essentially a cold war. There were very little exclusives and there only seemed to be one difference between the two consoles, the 360’s smaller price tag. For the whole year I felt as if there was no competition between the two major platforms. This year, however, I feel refreshed because it seems as instead of simply staring at one another the two beasts have finally begun to make moves. With the prominence of blu-ray discs developers have been boasting its power of storage, even claiming to be able to take gaming to new heights with the new technology.

We’ve already seen examples of how they’re attempting, breathing the flames that are  MAG, Killzone 2, Heavy Rain and the like. Does this mean that 360 owners are doomed to regret their purchase? Not at all, the bird’s still got some life in it, The 360 seems to be getting more cost effective by the minute with its frequent price drops, Sony has some catching up to do in that regard. Soon you will be able to store games onto your hard drive which will allow cut back on load times and increase the longevity of your disc by cutting down on the disc spins in the console. This allows developers to use multiple DVDs to equal the quality of a PS3 title because not only will multiple DVDs eventually reach the amount of space of a Blu-Ray game, with the new storage feature load times should be not a thing of the past but an inconvinence so minor it could hardly be considered one. Sony though has more than just the format to fight with, a Dragon’s got other tools and those would be the fact that Sony not only has 3rd party support but that also their first party titles are for the most part amazing games.

At this point it seems like the dragon has that phoenix pinned down.

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Tags: 360, Gaming, ps3

The King of Fighters

If you thought Final Fantasy and Megaman were the only gaming franchises reserving the right to go double digits think again. The King of Fighters series started in 1994 with the aptly titled King of Fighters ‘94. Its roots, however, seep into other SNK titles including Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors and Athena. The King of Fighters was the original dream match pitting characters from various SNK universes against each other. Also originated in the King of Fighters series was the 3 on 3 battle system. Worldwide it was one of very few games that could rival the money making machine that was Street Fighter 2. The King of Fighters series innovated fighting games far beyond Street Fighter, featuring better graphics, the 3 on 3 system, super combos and later having more than one super combo at your disposal.

The franchise saw a new addition yearly similar to a sports title featuring slight tweaks on the existing formula until three years would pass, traditionally, the King of Fighters series has an entirely different mechanic every 3 games followed by a dream match that collects the best parts of the previous three years. ‘94 itself was considered a dream match, ‘95,’96 and ‘97 featured upgrades and tweaks to the existing 3 on 3 formula. ‘98 featured the best of all three worlds. ‘99 through 2001 featured the Striker system which allowed you to pick three characters and then a striker who could be thought of as something similar to an assist in the original Marvel vs. Capcom. After the King of Fighters 2003, SNK waited two years to release the King of Fighters XI which seems more suiting that resuming the yearly title after skipping a year.

The King of Fighters XI was on a new arcade system which featured better graphical effects, all new possibilities for the 3 on 3 tag system that was implemented in 2003 such as the Saving Shift which allowed you to break your opponent’s offense by tagging out, or the quick shift which allowed you to combo with one character, switch to another to continue the combo and then switch to the last character to complete the combo. Skip a few years yet again to 2008 and we have the announcement of the King of Fighters XII which SNK has promised to be the greatest 2D fighting experience ever. Screenshots and a trailer have been released since then and so far we’ve only seen graphics and a few characters. The graphics are the best hand drawn hi-resolution sprites ever seen in a 2d game period. More information about the King of Fighters XII will be seen at Japan’s AM show later this month.

Tags: Fighters, King, of, The, XII

Vice Weekly 010 - Technical Difficulties

This week the guys discuss Fallout 3, Castle Crashers, Tekken 6 & the debut of the “VS” segment, all the while battling labor day fireworks and skype acting like a jerk.

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Hosts: Mel, Gary, Stephen

Producer: Joe

Vice Weekly 009 - Parental Advisory

This week the guys talk about the games they look forward to in the fall, what they’ve played this past week and discuss various topics such as DLC abuse and what think about Sonys decision to release another SKU for the Ps3.

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Hosts: Mel, Gary, Stephen

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Vice Weekly 008 - Digitally Distributed

Back from yet another hiatus, the guys cram all kinds of things into this weeks episode. They discuss the future of digital distribution, arcade titles for Xbox Live and the PSN, Madden ‘09 & much more.

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Hosts: Mel Francis, Gary Francis

Producer: Joe McNally

Games Have Changed

Video games are one of the best sources of entertainment by becoming mainstream and accessible to everyone. They’re selling like hot cakes because they appeal to most audiences. However, that wasn’t always the case. Games themselves, the feel of games, and the definition of playing games have changed and will continue to change.

Before the CD-Rom era, games were often brutal, long experiences. Most people would talk about how poorly the levels were constructed, how unfair the AI was, how easy it was to get stuck/lost in the game, and how they wouldn’t “lose to the game”. They would spend money on software that took much of their time to complete and fulfilled their masochistic impulses. That was what it meant to play a game. A large number of the insanely difficult titles are considered classics and the most memorable.

When the Playstation came out, its hardware brought more options to the developers’ table. This sparked the RPG revolution. Final Fantasy VII was THE game that made roleplaying games mainstream. It was critically noted for its graphics, characters, cinematics, atmosphere, and gameplay. Its cinematics brought the gamer closer to the story while the person feeds on the eyecandy. It was perfect for its time and it made a big push for games.
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Tags: Gaming, history

Dreamcast Redux : Vice Style

The Sega Dreamcast is often considered one of the most underrated consoles of all time, this is only now after we’ve realized just how stacked the library was with great games unlike consoles following it who have bigger libraries stacked with only about fifteen to twenty actual hits. The Dreamcast even before the PS2, Xbox, or Gamecube had online play, it was terrible, but it showed that online play on your console was possible. The Dreamcast had an incredible advertising campaign that truly made you want to own a Dreamcast. All in all the Dreamcast was an incredible venture by Sega, so how did it fail? Due to its gift, the console was way ahead of itself which prompted other companies to up the ante. The PlayStation 2 came and boasted everything the Dreamcast had and more, including a DVD player and better graphical capability.

Now if Sega were run by the GamingVice staff, we believe the Dreamcast would have done well enough that it could justify a successor. The Dreamcast had a million and one peripherals, from arcade sticks to fishing rods. One thing it was missing, however, was a DVD player which we feel would have kept the console in the fight much longer. If Sony was able to make a profit with their cheap DVD player/video game console, Sega would definitely be able to make a profit selling a DVD player of its own. As for the graphical quality, there would be no reason to worry about that. The PS2 clearly had the least graphical capability in comparison to the Xbox and Gamecube and it won the console war with its incredible library. Next on the list would be an even bigger campaign then before, new and original advertising techniques to really draw the crowd in. The Dreamcast was already cool, so now it had to look better than the competition.

The Dreamcast had all the necessary tools to stay in the console race, unfortunately the ball was dropped and history occurred. Could Sega have made a comeback after the Dreamcast? definitely. If they were to come out of console retirement it would be one of the hugest shockwaves the gaming world has ever seen. With their experiences and learning from their mistakes they could easily come in and innovate gaming to a point we’ve never phathomed.

Tags: consoles, dreamcast, PS2, revival, xbox