Currently in Vegas, poolside. Waiting for drinks to come around so I got time to write. Random thought came to me as I was on the road. Occasionally a game is released that can be called crap at face value, but after reliving the experience of playing locally with three other people in the same room and defeating a game that sets unreasonable challenges for achievements, I came to the realization that back in the day, ALL games were unreasonably hard. Gamers called it several kinds of profanities. Developers called it, "Replay value." And it caused gamers to come together to overcome the challenges that old school games offered up.
We as gamers may have been spoiled with easily completable games since market studies have concluded that the people who buy the games now either no longer have the time to invest in long winded games, have family to care for (young and old) and/or generally less involved than they were ten years ago (referenced on May 9, 2011), in which older gamers still reminisce about the days of last gen systems and hyping the original Playstation.
If we were all the gamers we were ten years ago, Attack of the Movies 3D would not be viewed as difficult. It would still suck, but it wouldn't be considered hard. According to trueachievements, as of May 9, 2011 over 50% of the registered players who have played the game only have earned one or two achievements, which illustrates the level of commitment that the average gamer presently has. This is why the causal market has flourished the last few years; the casual gamer gets their game fix with the satisfaction of accomplishment and game developers get paid more often for smaller projects. Nintendo embraced the casual gamer first in 2008 (referenced on May 9, 2011), and the financial windfall that followed began the era of "Casual Gaming" that brought rechargeable health, unlimited continues, and copious amounts butthurt from older hardcore gamers around the world.
The gamers have grown up, and if any of you are like me, then you also came from an old mindset in which videogames was viewed as a waste of time and a time sink in which something more productive can be done in lieu of sitting on your butt for hours on end, working out your thumbs and nothing else. This is also an old 1990's mindset that is still perceived as truth by the general population who do not play. The availability of the internet, the increased usage of social networking resources and the hardware of consoles that cater to them now make console systems (the Xbox 360 in particular) an alternative for friends, family and even lovers that are separated by distance to connect through the social aspect of gaming. This social outlet can also be a reason why casual gaming has become an appealing genre to developers and gamers alike.
But ask any friend, family member or couple who do long distance to choose between online or local interaction. The answer should be obvious. Attack of The Movies 3D may have it's issues with quality and difficulty, but it does serve a role in bringing back fond memories of sitting Indian style next to player 2, sharing the gaming experience, whither it was good or bad.
Granted, the internet allows the opportunity for virtual social interaction. But the social experience of in person co-op or competitive is something that cannot be recreated with the magic of the internet, despite the accessibility that casual gaming has created. Internet cannot recreate the memories of the arcade, where you stood next to your opponent, smelling their aura of opposition and body odor as you sunk your quarters into the console. The instant gratification of the smack talk that followed upon the completion of every round, and the crowd of friends that supported each player that watched from behind and made commentary as you played simply cannot be reproduced with xbox 360's party chat.
To put into perspective the time frame we are at now, Playboy centerfold models are now born in the 1990s. In the 1990's we as older gamers are now at a time where we will run into the new generation that have not experienced local co-op or competitive gaming as we have in the 20th century, before the internet changed many aspects of social interaction. Games were harder too; almost unforgiving. But gamers of our generation ventured forth and put forth the effort to find other gamers to come over, and share in the joy of tackling and defeating the unreasonable challenges of the games of yesteryear. The act of sharing the good and bad experiences is what brings people closer; and more often than not, those friends that you played with before are still friends today. The internet can be considered a convenient blessing that has created many opportunities, gaming and otherwise; but can potentially rob the newer generations of genuine social skills and courtesies that older/refined gamers have developed. This issue is apparent with the generally belief that the majority of troublesome online gamers are grade school age with lack of proper social upbringing.
The notion that gamers are anti-social shut-ins is an outdated mindset. It couldn't be farther from the truth.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Otomedious G
The Japanese will always have a special place in my heart. They hooked me on anime the moment I was introduced to my first animated boobies in 4th grade, and as technology and animation techniques dramatically improve, not a damn thing has changed. But don't get me wrong, I stick around for the story. No. Seriously.
It would be silly to even pretend that beautiful women don't draw people to do certain things. And the Japanese aren't the first ones to use artificial, perfect women to entice the promotion of their product. Otomedious is a play on words. It is a mash up of the two words Otome and Gradious. Otome is Japanese for "Maiden" and Gradious is the series that Otomedious is parodying. The stages in the game and the enemy patterns follow closely to the old school shooter.
This also proves that you can put boobs on anything in Japan, regardless how old the material is and they'll eat that stuff up. Hell, I'LL eat that stuff up. We'll just say the Japanese are the most honest gamers in the world. They cater to their market and we all have to buy Japanese systems to play what they have.
Game speed completion: Approximately 15 hours for full game completion. An achievement to play 573 minutes will keep you around for at least 10 hours. The game also has odd numbered achievements so if a player has issues with having a gamerscore that does not end in a five or zero has to be prepared to be in it for the additional 8-9 hour grind. After playing the game for at least 57 minutes, the player will pop a 38 point achievement. The final achievement will involve either playing the first level perfectly over and over or letting your turbo controller play for you for hours on end.
GSL Potential: The game has high GSL potential for those players who have access to the game and a J-NTSC xbox. 600 points can be earned by simply beating the game with each of the six characters, which would take about 30 minutes each with unlimited continues. There is an achievement series for touching the breasts of the character you are playing as 5, 57 and 573 times. (I was told by a GSL teammate that you can also get credit for touching the junk of the guy, but since I had already popped the achievement, I couldn't verify.) Potentially, a player can earn the first 762 points within the first two or three hours. But completion prone players will reduce the game's point-to-time ratio by pursuing the final 238. In a GSL, the six hours spent earning the final 200 points in this game can be better suited towards another quick completion game. The 573 minute played achievement can possibly be earned while away from the xbox only with the assistance of a Hori turbo pad II because of its ability to program auto turbo to the left button as well as the face buttons.
Game visibility is low because there is nothing to stack in the game, but its always assumed that if a GSL participant has one Japanese game, then they have access to many other Japanese games. It will be expected that 672-800 points will be earned by the player, but competitors will observe to see if that same player will be perusing the final 200 points to determine how to close the gap in the meantime.
What the guides don't tell you:
The pink character (Toron) has the lowest point requirements to purchase all the weapon cards of the six available characters. (Referenced http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/945956-otomedius-g/46836833 and http://www14.atwiki.jp/otome_g/pages/15.html on May 4, 2011)
You need a total of this much to buy all weapons for each character:
Anoa 95450
Toron 88850
Emon 98300
Madoka 90800
Jio 95400
Tiita 89750
To "touch" the angels, you have to use the right stick to manually move the cursor over their breasts/junk and press A. Before it was believed that you only can do it in between rounds, in which you only got five to six seconds, but you can also do this during the character select screen, in which you have a full thirty seconds instead.
Earning the weapon cards by playing arranged mode will increase the probability of getting illustration cards in arcade mode. As prescribed by the available guides, play the first stage perfectly with no deaths in arranged mode, (first blue option on the game screen) to get an S ranking, and then immediately die for approximately 2000 points to spend on weapons cards.
To earn cards effort free, you need to have a Hori Turbo Pad II, which is the one that has programmable directional buttons as well as face buttons. The Hori Pad I (The original blue turbo pad) will not work. Program autofire to the A and left directional button on arcade mode (the red option on the game screen.) The game will cycle through the game, die, ask you if you want to save your replay and verify if you are sure that you don't, which is why it is essential that the Hori Pad can press the left button to confirm that you are sure that you don't want to save and repeat the cycle. This technique can be used to "actively" play the game for 673 minutes for the 38 point achievement in your sleep or while you are away from xbox. Keep in mind that although this technique will ASSIST in card acquisition, expect to still grind points in arranged mode to get all the weapons cards.
It would be silly to even pretend that beautiful women don't draw people to do certain things. And the Japanese aren't the first ones to use artificial, perfect women to entice the promotion of their product. Otomedious is a play on words. It is a mash up of the two words Otome and Gradious. Otome is Japanese for "Maiden" and Gradious is the series that Otomedious is parodying. The stages in the game and the enemy patterns follow closely to the old school shooter.
This also proves that you can put boobs on anything in Japan, regardless how old the material is and they'll eat that stuff up. Hell, I'LL eat that stuff up. We'll just say the Japanese are the most honest gamers in the world. They cater to their market and we all have to buy Japanese systems to play what they have.
Game speed completion: Approximately 15 hours for full game completion. An achievement to play 573 minutes will keep you around for at least 10 hours. The game also has odd numbered achievements so if a player has issues with having a gamerscore that does not end in a five or zero has to be prepared to be in it for the additional 8-9 hour grind. After playing the game for at least 57 minutes, the player will pop a 38 point achievement. The final achievement will involve either playing the first level perfectly over and over or letting your turbo controller play for you for hours on end.
GSL Potential: The game has high GSL potential for those players who have access to the game and a J-NTSC xbox. 600 points can be earned by simply beating the game with each of the six characters, which would take about 30 minutes each with unlimited continues. There is an achievement series for touching the breasts of the character you are playing as 5, 57 and 573 times. (I was told by a GSL teammate that you can also get credit for touching the junk of the guy, but since I had already popped the achievement, I couldn't verify.) Potentially, a player can earn the first 762 points within the first two or three hours. But completion prone players will reduce the game's point-to-time ratio by pursuing the final 238. In a GSL, the six hours spent earning the final 200 points in this game can be better suited towards another quick completion game. The 573 minute played achievement can possibly be earned while away from the xbox only with the assistance of a Hori turbo pad II because of its ability to program auto turbo to the left button as well as the face buttons.
Game visibility is low because there is nothing to stack in the game, but its always assumed that if a GSL participant has one Japanese game, then they have access to many other Japanese games. It will be expected that 672-800 points will be earned by the player, but competitors will observe to see if that same player will be perusing the final 200 points to determine how to close the gap in the meantime.
What the guides don't tell you:
The pink character (Toron) has the lowest point requirements to purchase all the weapon cards of the six available characters. (Referenced http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/945956-otomedius-g/46836833 and http://www14.atwiki.jp/otome_g/pages/15.html on May 4, 2011)
You need a total of this much to buy all weapons for each character:
Anoa 95450
Toron 88850
Emon 98300
Madoka 90800
Jio 95400
Tiita 89750
To "touch" the angels, you have to use the right stick to manually move the cursor over their breasts/junk and press A. Before it was believed that you only can do it in between rounds, in which you only got five to six seconds, but you can also do this during the character select screen, in which you have a full thirty seconds instead.
Earning the weapon cards by playing arranged mode will increase the probability of getting illustration cards in arcade mode. As prescribed by the available guides, play the first stage perfectly with no deaths in arranged mode, (first blue option on the game screen) to get an S ranking, and then immediately die for approximately 2000 points to spend on weapons cards.
To earn cards effort free, you need to have a Hori Turbo Pad II, which is the one that has programmable directional buttons as well as face buttons. The Hori Pad I (The original blue turbo pad) will not work. Program autofire to the A and left directional button on arcade mode (the red option on the game screen.) The game will cycle through the game, die, ask you if you want to save your replay and verify if you are sure that you don't, which is why it is essential that the Hori Pad can press the left button to confirm that you are sure that you don't want to save and repeat the cycle. This technique can be used to "actively" play the game for 673 minutes for the 38 point achievement in your sleep or while you are away from xbox. Keep in mind that although this technique will ASSIST in card acquisition, expect to still grind points in arranged mode to get all the weapons cards.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Botafogo007 200k Tribute Video
If you get the chance, drop by the thread and leave him a note. That would be awesome. And check out the video I made for the occasion. Original writeup can be found at http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=308674.
Also, big shoutout to Raymond Gallardo of Infrastructure Productions (www.infdv.com) for his personal contributions to making the video look as good as it did.
Beginning my roadtrip today, it's gonna be four weeks of traveling for me. The guys said it should be something interesting to document, but I'm sure that I'll find time to write about it while I'm on the road. Tell you all about it later.
Botar Botar Botar. We’ve been playing this silly Gamerscore metagame since 2007. When we first met, we were competing for cash and prizes from the 360voice Old Spice Challenges. And you beat me both times! The second time around I used your own guide that you were writing for Golden Compass against you to finish the game faster than you did in the same competition. But I had to make the tough decision between winning 50 dollars worth of Microsoft Points or picking up my girlfriend up from the airport on time, and needless to say you were 4000 points richer that New Years Eve.
http://360voice.gamerdna.com/challenge/977
Those were the days when scoring games was HARD. We didn’t have plentiful, easy 1k games that these whippersnapper gamerpunks have nowadays.
For some reason afterwards, we went from competitive rivals, to competitive buddies, and things haven’t changed since then. We’ve gone though many gamer trials and tribulations; friends have come and gone, websites have been joined and lost, gamertags have been retired but not forgotten, (Because they’re still playing, they just prestiged their gamerscore. LULZ.)
Botafogo smashed through 200k in March during the 360 voice month long GSL challenge. As one of the team members of the Emopotomous Killers, which consisted of long time friends and GSL veterans Irish, Peace Star and Fastest Slug, they successfully defeated over 459 individuals and 46 organized teams. Congratulations guys, although it might not mean much to others, now the good ol boys all have a prestigious GSL win under our belts.
http://www.ebash.com/mega/
http://360voice.gamerdna.com/challenge/78030
You are dear friend who I will never wonder if I have to ask permission to jump into parties with because there is no doubt. We still tackle with open arms the challenges that other gamers are too afraid to attempt. Drop our completion percentages from 75% to 50% and build it back to 75%? Don’t tell us we can’t do it. Bomberman retail? , Nope, we ain’t never skrrd. Not giving OutcastNeedsHelp a hard time? We gave him the benefit of a doubt he was genuinely retarded!
Anyone who knows me knows I’m always looking for excellent people to spend time with. Botafogo is one of the most excellent people I have the pleasure of ever encountering. I’m sure you’ll be talking me into boosting Japanese Culdecept Saga, even though I can't even be bothered to finish the one in ENGLISH. But regardless of how shitty the game, how gritty the grind, how pitiful the party may be; I know if Bota is riding for Rohan, it will never be that bad.
Congratulations on 200k my friend. You blew through it out of obligation, but it’s not as if we’re stopping anytime soon anyway.
Oh, and I'm sorry I didn't have a bigger sledgehammer.
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