GO!! Mega Otaku Game-Reviewer Alpha

Former Activision executive Robin Kaminsky has recently been quoted in an op-ed article for Industry Gamers saying, "The industry cannot afford either more years of the same consoles and basically the same games or a new cycle with consoles and games that deliver more of the same just bigger. In an industry where new, innovative and fun is key there is no future in more of the same." Kaminsky mentioned console sales decline over two years and an increase in smart-phone and tablet gaming, as well as gaming on Facebook where people are "already connected." That being said, I now focus a bit on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U as well as surmise what Sony and Microsoft may bring to the table. It has been proven that graphics and realism are not the biggest selling-points for games anymore. Kaminsky's statements and the information behind them are a stark reality. The Wii launched with last-generation graphics (essentially) and it took a commanding lead over t...

American McGee's Alice first graced the PC in October 2000, and was not available on any console. The game itself looked quite good, but the game play left something to be desired. Flash forward 11 years to Alice: Madness Returns, and we see a drastically improved game with drastically improved control. True it could have been even better, and there were times when finer-tuned control would have helped, but overall the control response is more than adequate. The story and dialogue, while not yet ready for a prime-time mini-series, is also interesting enough to hold the gamer's interest. The graphics are pure eye-candy, with grotesque caricatures of every character and extra. The only "pretty" character in the game is Alice herself, who finds herself in several different dresses throughout the game. The worlds and backgrounds are hideous abominations carrying a paradox of being so damned beautiful. So what a world to play in. The action is straight-forward 3D hop-a...

The data is out there. Jump online and "Google" this: "Retro gaming becoming popular". You will find many articles and opinion pieces that explain how the consoles of yesteryear are now making a comeback, and have been for quite some time. Whether it is here to stay or a passing fad is debatable. But it is certainly happening now and certainly will be for some time. I remember in the mid-1980s, just after the so-called "Atari debacle". The 2600 was showing up at yard sales and flea markets and it was not uncommon to be able to get one with 20 or so games for about $10. The system was a dead system, you see, and the video game fad was over. People just wanted to get that "junk" out of their home. Then Nintendo came along and revived the industry. Sony expanded it. Years went by. Then something happened: The kids who had grown up on these machines, who had graduated to more advanced machines and more advanced gaming started to yearn for their more...

We have seen much from Sony over the past 16 years that has come to revolutionize gaming. It is true that they expanded the industry from a kids' toy market to include a more sophisticated adult market. Many will give them credit for innovation, but has the innovation actually come from Sony? Were the ideas theirs? Or could it be that these ideas, one by one, have come from other companies, and Sony merely copies and improves them? "Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you!" In 1993 the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was introduced to the public. The philosophy behind the machine was simple: children who had grown up with NES , Genesis, and Super NES were now young adults and were ready to "graduate" to a more sophisticated system that had more mature content. 3D graphics, Dolby stereo sound, more intense action. "If you build it they will come." Oddly enough Sony also had this same scheme with the Playstation . Sony rel...