The Heads Up! Display Show

Four friends. Four Games. One Podcast.

Your Favorite Videogame Sucks

Posted by dagamdagee on March 3, 2010

I’ve started to wonder if the entire entertainment industry has a yearly barbecue pot-luck dinner in which movie moguls, A&R big-wigs, and television hot-shots get together and plot out the new hotness; talking for hours, and going over demographics to figure out what this new hotness is.  The video game industry is sort of that out-of-place in the arena of entertainment.  Sure, the industry rakes in tens of billions of dollars yearly, but the industry is still niche.  Though they’ll never admit it in a million years, your typical jocks or “ew, icky games are gross” type of people are still gamers if they own a PS3, XBox or Wii.

The industry is wise to this, so they have devised a clever little plan to rake in more gamers and more cash.  It wasn’t hard for them to figure it out: People like numbers at the end of titles, people like boobs; and the only thing they love more than boobs are big, phallic, throbbing guns.  With this simple formula in place, they’ve been able to release titles that hit people in the mouth.  Punch-drunk, and loving it, these people are able to swallow big-name title after big-name title.   The industry has gone through its growing pains, and now it is able to fire off on all cylinders like a clock-work project monolith; it is impartial to human emotion; always seeing, and always knowing.

A group of weary games journalists have woken up from the dream in which they have been living in.  They had grown accustomed to their dates with PR, in-studio tours, and late-night binge drinking on the tab of Phony Computer Entertainment (Names have been replaced to protect the guilty).  These brave journalists stood up and stated a creed; eloquent in its simplicity, and yet gravely profound to those who have ears to hear, “We shall not stand for shitty, derivative video games.”  Their battle-cry rang violently across the plains, and it shook the very foundation of the industry monolith.  The industry was awe-struck by the valor of these wordsmiths.  They felt as though the earth beneath them could collapse at any second.  That is, until the monolith developed a mind for which it could use to adapt to any situation.   You see, the industry began fighting a battle on two fronts.  The journalists were proving to be quite bothersome, but a new threat loomed over the country-side bearing a banner named Indie.  The industry knew that it surely fall if these terrorist cells gained enough influence to turn their own slaves (the gamers) against them.  The industry knew that this two-front war would be impossible; they devised a plan that would be fool-proof: Ally the journalists with the independent game developers; make them fall in love with each other so that a sleeper agent can be placed within their ranks.

And the plan could not have worked more perfectly.  The plan worked three-fold: The industry would cannibalize itself to give the journalists fodder that will distract them from the big-picture.  Second, activate the sleeper agent to act like an independent game developer, but with full financial and PR backing from the monolith.   And finally the third act was ready.  The coup de grace was to restore the act of making derivative video games.

It’s very easy to see how evil the mind of the industry became.  By the time a new generation of journalists came about, it was too late for them to think for themselves.  The irony of this story is how the journalists still yearn for originality, but their senses have been dulled to a fine spoon.  This is how the industry did this:  It created a war within itself.  It allowed one part of itself to be inferior to the others.  This was integral to the entire plan.  I might even go as far as to say that this was the crux of the plan all along.  This was a very easy countermeasure to the journalists because the inferior part was once the dominating force.  One might say that this was the monolith itself at one point, but only if legend serves correctly.  This inferior part would anger the journalists, because it served them well at one point.  Next, the monolith activated the sleeper agent known as ‘Bustion Woman (Names have been changed to protect the guilty, once again fanboys say “woot”).  This game was disguised as a small indie project, but this project received the royal treatment.  One journalist (God, bless him, we’ll call him Angel Shoemountain) fell into this trap and attempted to champion this big-budget title as the true indie weapon against the evil monolith.  He was blind to the irony of his situation.  Fate became a cruel mistress.

Next, the rise of publishing power-house Lazyhearing (okay it is Activision. They don’t need to be protected). Activision’s revenue came from only three videogames, and this should have angered the journalists; but, the games from this publisher received high praise from these same journalists.  They fell for this clever ruse hook, line, and quicksand.  The journalists couldn’t be marked for their mistake, so they had to think quickly: Let’s name smaller games as derivative, and stupid.  This will confuse the public and keep our journalistic integrity intact.  Smaller games did emerge.  And, mind you, these were good, quality games that deserved positive publicity.  But the journalists, with their reputation on the line, spat in the faces of these meager developers hoping to break into the industry.  These games were not perfect, but they were good.  Since the journalists were distracted, they had to give these games a red-letter label of derivation.   A solid “D” was the stigma that beset these game developers.  Everywhere they went, they heard the same thing “Like God of War, but…”  “Like Final Fantasy, but…” “Like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Castlevania; (etc. ad nauseum) but…”  This was the new creed of the videogame journalists.  Nobody knew how far they fell.  Nobody could know, for the ramifications would be great.

So this is the state of the game, young reader.  The once strong videogame journalists are divided, and almost conquered.  The monolith is grinding away, strong as ever.  I can only hope that you can pass along these fleeting words of advice.  A modest proposal, if you will.

—A Modest Proposal from a Gamer Who Cares—

Dearest videogame journalists,

I know this letter comes at trying times, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  As I write this, I am filled with dread; the present state of games journalism is anemic.   I have heard the words from everyone, and I have been deep in thought.  I could not write until I figured out a plan that could help us rise again in the face of the dark monolith known as “The Industry.”  I know you are betwixt your thoughts, a duality you have been regrettably forced to live in.  I feel fortunate that I have not yet “made it” as a journalist, and perhaps this perspective may help you reestablish your, our, once proud nation.

I hate to say this, but your willingness to view the world in shades of gray has clouded your judgment.  You have been entrapped by your own words, the very words you seemingly wield.  You seem like masters of your craft at one moment, and motley fools the next.  This is because the industry has direct control over you.  I shudder at those words, and I hope you feel the same way.  I have been on the verge of anger, but I know that anger will solve nothing at all.  I was so enraptured by my anger that I couldn’t write for months on end.  I was consumed with such fury that I couldn’t bring the words that I wanted to say to the front of my lips.  I had to stand back for a moment.  I had to stand back, and watch the suffering that happened around me.

Through this time of contrition, I mustered enough conviction to create concrete countermeasures thanks, in part, to concise citations.  It’s so simple: Gears of War is Winback, God of War is Smash TV, and Final Fantasy is Ultima with jobs; furthermore, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is Space Invaders, Trials HD is Excite Bike; ‘Splosion Man is Portal, which is N+; which is Mega Man who is Mario with an arm cannon.  The truth cannot be unseen, nor can it be unheard.   If we are to win against the monolith, we must embrace the derivative nature of videogames, of entertainment in general.  It’s absolutely foolish to keep going down this same track of accepting videogames that are derivative, and rejecting games that are also derivative.  However, it’s not that simple.  We must use the Monolith’s same weapon against it.  We must outright reject that which we must embrace.  It will be a hard adjustment to make.  The monolith was able to adapt to us, because it is unfeeling.  We are people with real emotions.  We care about our craft, and what we cover, with the ferocity of a lion protecting its pride.  But we must stand vigilant.  If we are to win, every single big-budget title must be labeled, and spat on; it must be beaten and bruised.  No matter the name attached to the software, we must reject it cold-heartedly.  It is the only way that we can win.

We must remind the gaming public constantly about what they are playing.  We must tell them that they are consuming an abomination.  If they check the review for the latest Call of Duty game, they must be told that it is Madden.  When Mass Effect 3 comes out, we must tell them it is Knights of the Old Republic meets Hamlet (Spoilers: Everybody dies. I just spoiled ME2 & ME3 for you ^_^).  And what about Splinter Cell: Conviction?  It must be pounded into every gamer’s skull that the game sucks because it is every Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man game rolled into one.  And every one of these games must receive a 7.9 or below (or if you’re using the Star Scale: 3 Stars, no more.)  It has been scientifically proven that games that receive a 7.9 or below sell shit (but there are rare occasions where that is not so).   It is this new belief that will cause the monolith to go through a full restart.  You see, the industry has divided you over time.  Now, with a singular vision, we will move forward.   With any luck, this letter can be held under-wraps.  If this movement can fly below the radar, we may just have a chance, a hope in Hell.

Sincerely,

Daniel Wise

P.S. We’re doing this for every franchise except for Street Fighter. That shit is tight.

Posted in Comedy, Industry Analysis | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Leaving Hope Station: Halo 3: ODST The Game That Made My Year

Posted by dagamdagee on January 23, 2010

With all the talk going on about the “greatest games of 2009″ a small bug has been squirming around in my ear, and he incessantly tells me that I need to add my two cents to the discussion.  I’m not one to do this, because the indie games jounalist inside me keeps yelling,

“Don’t give in to those petty fan-boy discussions; besides, you’re too busy playing indie games that nobody covers with this really absurd thought that somebody may someday give a shit”

After knocking back a bottle and a half of really bad Merlot, I have finally silenced that pretentious “New Games Journalism” prick, and I’m finally able to indulge that other side of me.  That side of me wants to talk about Halo 3: ODST, and you are probably wanting to tab on over to another website.  I can relate with you, because I am considering the same action myself right now.  All self-deprecation aside, this game has put me through a roller coaster of emotions, from pure nostalgia, fear, joy, anger, relief, and empathy towards the characters that make up the team of ODSTs.

Dr. Jeff Howard, a man whom I have the sincere joy of studying under, has allowed me to put my finger on what I enjoy most about Halo 3: ODST.  In his reflection of Atlus’ Demon’s Souls, he explains that it, “strikes me as operatic both in its overarching structure and its minute details”  This was actually explained to me in a conversation about a week ago, in which I was inquiring him about a facebook status that described Demon’s Souls as a dark opera.  He explanation:

By opera I refer not just to the game’s occasional bursts of swelling sound, or even to solely to its understated yet epic narrative. Rather, I use the term in the same way that Richard Wagner envisioned an ideal future form of opera as “gesamkundstwerk” or “total artwork,” in which every aspect of music, libretto, costuming, and set design fused together to create an interactive, participatory mythology.

That, more or less, describes my experience with Halo 3: ODST.  I feel as though I am worth maybe a few grains of salt as an English major, and I can usually draw classic literary references from most forms of entertainment; but, Halo 3: ODST escaped me in a way that had me cringing at my ineptitude.  My initial run of the single-player campaign had me thinking that this was a rather typical Halo experience, and I was deeply let down by a story that I truly wanted to immerse myself into.

You see, at one point I hated all things Halo.  I thought the third game had a single-player campaign that lacked any kind of drive or cohesion that made me feel as though I was part of something epic.  When you are already the most epic hero in the mythology of the Halo franchise, it makes everything else feel rather inconsequential.  How could it not, the entire time you play as a dual-wielding walking battle mech in a moto-cross helmet.  Not only that, your best friend is called an elite.  No matter what’s at stake, the trump card lies in the trigger fingers of two protagonists that carry the titles of Elite and Master Chief.  It doesn’t matter what’s going on; I am the Juggernaut and you are Ellen Paige (actually I’ve never seen that fight play out, so I have no idea who wins.  Does the Juggernaut send her to an early grave? Probably not, it’s Ellen Paige and apparently everything she does is spectacular, except for Juno; oh, snap!).  And so it happens that I feel no need to “finish the fight” and an intense need to give that game disc the finger.

When I first heard of Halo 3: ODST, I simply did not care for it.  My thoughts were that this game would be a simple rehash of the Halo formula, and that it was a simple cash-in for Bungie.  Well, those were my thoughts until I heard about the unique approach to story telling.  The Tarantino-esque approach intrigued me with the scenes of The Rookie taking place during the night; where the player must find artifacts to uncover the mystery of his team’s disappearance, and the day scenes that explain what exactly happened after the drop.

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for the narrative, and the ludic side can serve its purpose as long as it doesn’t impede on my narrative.  I couldn’t help but to fall in love with the frailty of the ODSTs.  Here I am playing as a soft, spongy, fleshy mortal, and all of a sudden I am Ellen Paige.  I welcome the sight of health bars and medpacks, and suddenly I’m transported to the basement of my friend in high school playing massive 16-player Halo multi-player matches, or taking on the campaign on Legendary difficulty.  My God I couldn’t help myself from feeling giddy that I was playing as someone who was not god-like in any way! The night-time segments as The Rookie were absolutely splendid for me.  I had a map, that operated like the one on Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, where I could scout out enemy placement and map-out the best route for sneaking past the enemies.   When I approach shooters I like to take my time and figure out the best way to survive any kind of situation, and this game allows me to do so.

The loneliness of The Rookie’s plight is staggering.  The look and feel of New Mombasa during the night is lucid with softly lit streets, and a night sky that sits ominously, scorched by what has transpired during the day’s battles.  The only comfort that is allotted to you is the dim glow of your visor, and the city’s Superintendent, Virgil.  The contrast between the day and night segments is so wide in that the game conveys an unbearable heat during the day, and a soft-focus effect during the night.  The city is abstract, almost organic looking, with buildings that tower like enormous mountains, and roads and causeways that bend like cypress trees.  During the day fear exists as a constant battering ram of short skirmishes that force the player to think intuitively, employing every weapon at their disposal, and making every single shot count.  When you are Ellen Page, you can’t afford to waste shots or go into mobs of baddies with guns blazing.  You have to possess a sense of tact with this game, because wasting shots ultimately brings you that much closer to death and restarting that particular skirmish all over again.  What I love most about playing as the ODSTs is that I get a real sense of what they are going through.  Their wimpers from getting shot, or their small situational quips gives me that sense of mortality.  I may advocate the importance of the silent protagonist, but Bungie proved to me that it is possible to have characters that I can empathize with.  An operatic experience must evoke a sense of empathy from the audience, like King Lear makes you dread for the fate of the king and the other characters, so do you dread for the lives of the ODSTs.

I didn’t quite pick up on the nuances of Halo 3: ODST on my initial play-through.  I thought it was quite average where I came for the night fights and stayed for the day fights.  The game seemed lackluster to me yet I wasn’t satisfied.  Somehow there had to be something under the surface.  Something I was not seeing.  I knew from the moment the campaign ended that something was eluding me, and I couldn’t stand to just sit and let it be.  Like a scab, I had to pick at this game, because I knew that there had to be something there thematically.  I had to find out what was escaping me for I knew that there was something special with this story, but I could not put my finger on it.  The next day I feverishly researched the Halo franchise, like Gandalf the Grey, I pored over details and more details to find what I was looking for.  I needed to look at the themes within the whole Halo franchise to find what I was looking for.  And one line hit me like bullets to my eye sockets when I was researching the engineers that inhabit New Mombasa.  The Superintendent is named Virgil, which could be an allusion to the roman poet.  Good Lord, I thought to myself.  Not only am I the frail Ellen Paige, I’m the frail Dante Alighieri!  Not only was I relieved that I had figured this out like when you can’t think of the name of the artist that performs a song, I was relieved to know that my English education hasn’t completely gone to waste!  Believe me, there’s no better validation than that!  From the moment I discovered the connection to Dante’s Inferno, I went back to the story and tried to find all the different connections.  I would love to list them all, but that would require me to go back and do massive research again, and that may have to be saved for a future blog post.  I’d love to do about six more blog posts on this game.  I could go on forever in a Tim Rogers inspired blog post covering the music, gameplay, retrospective, themes, connections to other games, connections to literature, and one just completely based on the Inferno connection.  That is what makes this “game of the year” in my book in that Bungie expertly crafted a single-player experience that gives most people what they expect from a Halo game, and gives just a little bit more to those that go searching for it (i.e. the non-frat-boy-lowest-common-denominator)

Halo 3: ODST makes a seamless bond between the ludic (gameplay) experience and the narrative experience.  This game trumps all others candidates because the team associated with this project had only a year to do so.  (and I’m going to go a bit off topic here, but the ODST Bungie team officially has the right, in my book at least, to say “fuck you” to Ubisoft, Bioware and Atlus/From.)  What Halo 3: ODST does is incredible to me, and this is a game I see myself playing over and over again to find some new wrinkle that I had missed before.  Halo 3: ODST has everything that I consider operatic, from the music, the setting, the colors, and the theme.  Everything clashes together, yet it melds to create an experience that stays fresh.  First-Person Shooters have the trouble of being really boring, yet Halo 3: ODST does everything right for the player.

Posted in Random Thoughts, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Tipoli Review: One Touch To Your Heart

Posted by dagamdagee on December 29, 2009


One-touch love

The iPhone/iPod touch is becoming the system for new and fresh ideas that utilize simple mechanics to create compelling games.  Games like Canabalt, Hi, How Are You and Mecho Wars are rising in popularity on this device for their deceptive complexity.  While most games go for a more tradition D-Pad and buttons layout for the touch screen, Tipoli (Divide by Zero) bucks that trend and impliments a one-touch control scheme. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Indie Games, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Winter Housekeeping

Posted by dagamdagee on December 20, 2009

Dear loyal listeners and first-time visitors,

Hi, welcome to what will become the new and improved blog for the Heads Up! Display Show podcast.  With the winter break upon us, we will be working on the site to improve navigation and content.  Returning visitors will notice a new look to the site, but know that this might change as time goes on. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News/Previews, Podcast, Updates | Leave a Comment »

Episode 37 – Heads Up! Huge, Quickly, Thanks (MP3 Only)

Posted by dagamdagee on December 7, 2009

Tiger likes the podcast like he likes his ladies.


Download the Podcast

itunes_32 <– Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

microphonenormal_32 <– Stream the podcast directly

Download the Podcast <– Don’t use iTunes? Download the MP3 file

The Heads Up! Display Show Podcast is the weekly source of gamer talk and discussion without the boring news. The hosts dive deep into the latest trends in video games from the importance of indie developers to the advancement of stories in video games. We guarantee that each episode is packed with witty dialogue, sophomoric humor and thought provoking topics from the best team in bush-league podcasting.

Enjoy!

Update: Again, this week’s episode will only be available for streaming and as an mp3 download. We’re working with our new distribution channel, and we’ll hopefully be back on iTunes within the next couple weeks.  Thanks for listening and being patient with this.

WHAT WE ARE PLAYING-

Daniel – Little Big Planet PSP Demo (PSP)

Darin – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (X360)

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (X360)

Jim – Bayonetta Demo

THE HYPE MACHINE –

Dan – Darksiders (X360 & PS3)

Jim – Holiday ‘09 Season

Darin – Upcoming games in 2010

Mass Effect 2, Bayonetta, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Bioshock 2

THE ROUND TABLE

What do you think of Microsoft banning cheaters and console modders?

Do exclusive “review events” create a bias in game reviews?

Posted in Podcast | Leave a Comment »

8-Bit Chic

Posted by dagamdagee on December 1, 2009

I always get a little giddy when video games creep in to other art forms.  There’s something about seeing Sonic, Mario or Samus represented in a way that isn’t very typical.  Case in point, Metin “Sevensheaven” Seven is a Dutch designer and illustrator who has created a new collection known as “Inside Video Games.”

Seven’s voxel work was highlighted today in GameSetWatch, and the rest of his art can be found on his personal flickr page.  He also sells prints of his art in case you have a spot open between your Halo and Pokemon posters

.

Posted in Promo/Giveaway | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Episode 36: Thanks for the Podcastz (MP3 Only)

Posted by dagamdagee on November 24, 2009

This podcast’s delishush


Download the Podcast

itunes_32 <– Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

microphonenormal_32 <– Stream the podcast directly

Download the Podcast <– Don’t use iTunes? Download the MP3 file

The Heads Up! Display Show Podcast is the weekly source of gamer talk and discussion without the boring news. The hosts dive deep into the latest trends in video games from the importance of indie developers to the advancement of stories in video games. We guarantee that each episode is packed with witty dialogue, sophomoric humor and thought provoking topics from the best team in bush-league podcasting.

Enjoy!

Quick news update: We are no longer brought to you by Nisute.com.  We have decided to go with a different distributor, so we are hoping that we’ll be able to get back to normal after the Thanksgiving break.  This week’s episode will only be available in .mp3 format due to the situation, but things should be back to normal after the Thanksgiving break (BeeTeeDub, happy holidays listeners!).
The Heads Up! Crew want to thank Nisute for supporting us for a full year when we started out as the Cherry Chocolate Podcast, and then transformed into The Heads Up! Display Show.  Most podcasts don’t live to see a full year, so we can’t thank those guys enough.  Now, onto this week’s episode.

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE-

This week we talk about the closing of Pandemic Studios.  The went out with a bang by paying homage to one of the greatest movies of all time.  We also discuss President Obama’s new initiative to make education fun with the help of Little Big Planet.

Darin just got internet after a full year of being cut off from civilization.  He’s been playing plenty of Gears of War 2, and now he has no reason to deny trying out World of Warcraft.

THE ROUND TABLE

What’s the deal with difficulty in games?

What’s your favorite holiday gaming moment?

Posted in Podcast | Leave a Comment »

Pandemic Studios Closes… Printer Dies

Posted by dagamdagee on November 23, 2009

On November 17, 2009 Pandemic Studios (Mercenaries, StarWars: Battlefront) closed its doors, and much sadness was had.  However, a few mischievous ex-employees took a little something to help them release some frustration (and did they deserve it.)

This is a pretty excellent rendition of the famous Office Space printer scene, and it’s good to see these guys coping with the situation in this way.  But I have to wonder what IGN thinks of their homage to that movie.  Back in 2005, the IGN XBox crew ushered in a new dawn of XBox by putting the lights out on that old, black behemoth.

So who had the better video?

Posted in Comedy, Oddities | Leave a Comment »

World of Warcraft Goes Hawk

Posted by dagamdagee on November 23, 2009

We are on a huge World of Warcraft bender, and we can’t get enough of it.  Bountiful feasts are strewn across Azeroth and Outland with many a toon partaking in “Pilgrim’s Bounty” festivities.  There’s also something else in the air- thousands of grenades bound to make toons “look good.”  Mr. T took a two year hiatus in promoting WoW, but he’s back and his hacking skills are totally boss.  The starting zones in Azeroth have been invaded by Night Elf Mohawks looking to give out throngs of Mohawk grenades.  I’m down with looking good.

Posted in Comedy, News/Previews | Leave a Comment »

Day 2 & 3 at Anime Nebraskon ‘09

Posted by dagamdagee on November 9, 2009

largrecDay 2 proved to be the most challenging day I have ever experienced as a writer.  It is no easy task being a one-man wrecking crew with a camera and a laptop, and Day 2 bested me in a way that I have never been bested in my life.  While I was staring down a wall of events ranging from the study of lolitas (gothic girls, not girls getting all frisky with 40-year-old teachers) to writing web-comics, I found that I was way in over my head.  Seriously, I doubt I even scratched the tip of the iceberg, but hey, virgins never do it right the first time. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Anime Nebraskon 2009, Local Events, Random Thoughts, Reviews | Leave a Comment »