the cost of fun

One of the worst things you can do is to become too big. As that old saying goes "The higher they rise, the harder they fall." This goes for pretty much everything. With game budgets going over the roof these past few years, I feel that the fall is coming. This will NOT be like the video game crash of '83, but it will be close. While video game sales have never been higher, so has the cost into making them.

When Dragon's Lair came out in 1983, it cost a total of 1.3 million to make. This included animation, programmers, coders, sound, the entire staff and the tools they need to create it. Because of the hand drawn animation style, it must have taken a little longer than normal to make it at the time.

One of the primary reasons for the Video Game Crash was because of over-saturation. There was consoles nearly everywhere and having multiple versions of the same game was a new thing at the time, consumers was just not that interested anymore. It didn't help when the games that was being made was a poor man's Pac-Man and Space Invaders. While E.T. would be the sole reason for the Crash, it wasn't the only one that caused it.

Then in 1985, A little card and toy company named Nintendo decided to create their own console. They had a big hit with the arcade with Donkey Kong in 1981. The cost into making Donkey Kong was around 100,000. When the new system came out, the Nintendo Entertainment System, it arrived with Super Mario Brothers. Because they wasn't doing arcades anymore, the cost to create it was probably less than Donkey Kong. This isn't including the advertisement the game had prior to launch.

Then the video game industry was risen again. Nintendo had a huge hit with there hands with Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and more. Then a new company called Sega joined in shortly after. Nintendo's response to the Sega Genesis was the Super Nintendo. All was good until Nintendo teamed up with Sony to create something new. When plans fell through, instead of Sony ditching everything, they released it instead as the PlayStation. The console war has heated up.

While the console wars themselves was heating up, so has the price of creating them. I couldn't find the budget for the 64bit era, but I can imagine it was around to 1 to 5 million mark. This included advertisements. While the price was that low, the developers was more than willing to create more new IPs. The risk of failing wasn't as high.

When Sega no longer made consoles, their last being the Dreamcast. Microsoft took Sega's place with the X-Box. The price of making a game would have most likely doubled. While that did happen, new IPs, and risk was still being used. Some of the most popular games of this generation was born here. Call of Duty, God of War, Pikman, and Halo. While Call of Duty was more of a PC game, it didn't stop Activision from releasing the series to the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and the X-Box.

It is in this generation that are showing signs of danger. Not a massive decline like in '83, but a risk of being to big. One of the first massive big budget games was the original Gears of War for the X-Box 360 for 10 million. While this was a lot back then in 2006, it's not so much now. The average budget of a game is 18 to 28 million dollars per game. The rise of a the budget also raised the price of the game itself. Most games now are 60 bucks minus tax in the United States. The price of the game could be higher, depending on where you live.

It's not that often that a game breaks the 18 to 28 million mark, but it is becoming more and more likely. When Santa Monica completed God of War III in 2010, the cost was around 44 million. In 2008, Rockstar Games released there most expensive game to date, Grand Theft Auto IV. GTAIV cost 100 million to make with over 1000 staff working on it. It is considered as one of the most expensive game to make. Any other developer might have cracked under all that money. Taking the playful tones of the past GTA games, GTAIV became serious with its subject matter. Most companies now would never do that with all that cash on the line. The big advantage that Rockstar had was that the series will still immensely popular. At the time of its release, it shattered record sales.Then nearly all the games that was being released was Open World. While there was Open World games before that wasn't part of the Grand Theft Auto series, there was an explosion of it. We are still feeling the effects of it today. That was until the Modern Warfare series. It's just one massive loop until something else shows up.The rising cost of trying one up each other is beginning to show.While more IPs is being made, like The Last of Us, Watch Dogs, and Remember Me. The chance of succeeding is slowly becoming unlikely. While I do believe those games will be successful, they still have a modest AAA budget. Resident Evil 6 is Capcom's biggest game to date. It's basically 4 massive games in one. Besides the obvious action route, I believe the game is doomed to fail. Not the action or how the game could be good, but by the cost of creating it. To bring back even half of the cost of the game, it would need to be successful.

All is not lost. If there is one thing that has been on the rise lately, it's the indie games. They don't need millions upon millions of dollars just to create that next big blockbuster. While the work is long and difficult, the accomplishments is worth it. This year's PAX East and PAX Prime has shown of a large amounts of excellent indie titles. From Antichamber, Guacamelee, Mark of the Ninja, and many many more. One of the first massive hit for the indie game scene was Braid. Braid was released on the X-Box Live Arcade and the entire budget was 200,000 to create. Braid was a massive hit and it easily stands besides AAA titles as one of the best games of this generation.

While million dollar projects has a tag of 50 to 70 dollars, the more lower cost games scan sell to 15 to 20 bucks a game. This allows for easy access, more chance of a success, and that success can lead to more risks, more IPs and cheaper costs. The AAA game will always have a place. The indie games that will show them that just because you have the ability to spend millions upon millions of Dollars just to make one game, doesn't mean you have to.

The Joys of Easy

Despite what you may have heard, there is no real way to play a single player game. No matter what game you get, you should enjoy it the way you want it. If that means playing on easy, then so be it. I am not going to say "This is the only way to play that game" or "Play Better." You spend sixty to seventy bucks on a game. There is no right way to play, unless you are playing in multiplayer. The only right way to play multiplayer is fair. No hacks, no cheats, no abusing the system. Be fair to yourself and to others, so everyone can have a good time.



Sometimes, you just want to set back and enjoy the ride. This is where Easy comes in. When I play a game for the first time, I play it on normal. This way I can have the full experience. When I finish that game on Normal, I sometimes play the game on hard. Most of the time, however, I will play it on easy just to enjoy the mechanics and the story of the game. Easy is a good thing in a number of reasons. It helps non playing gamers enjoy the game without feeling overwhelmed, and you, as the player, can do more stuff that you couldn't do otherwise. I've been playing Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception quite a bit lately, and the difficulty I've been playing it on is on Easy. I actually find it more enjoyable to play it on easy than normal for a number of reasons. Despite the trouble of having one button do two different things, the circle button being the grapple and roll action, the hand to hand combat in Uncharted 3 is quite fun to mess with. It's not Batman: Arkham series deep mind you. However, it is fun to catch a weapon in midair and firing at someone the second you catch it, or pulling a pin off an enemy and kicking them away. In these fights, you are the most vulnerable, so going hand to hand in normal or higher isn't a wise choice to be making. If I saw one of those heavy guards, I would never try to fight it hand to hand, even if he was the last man standing. On easy, I can just run up there and try to beat him down. I may get hit by a stray bullet, but at least I KNOW I can take this one enemy out in the matter of a few hits. This makes the combat styles of hand to hand and gunplay become much more blurry.



Playing the Uncharted series on easy makes me enjoy the story that much more. Uncharted is one of the few games I don't play for the difficulty, despite beating Among Thieves on hard. Some game actually benefits from playing the easy mode. Most of the time, however, Normal mode is the best way to go. The Arkham games comes to mind. You want to keep that combo going, but you want to keep that health that normal has. You can play those games on easy, if you like. But the enemies go down a little to fast to really dig in to the fighting system that game has.


Granted, there are some draw backs into play a game on Easy. You won't have that true sense of accomplishment the game can have on you that you can get on hard, or even normal difficulty has. The other thing is that it is possible to beat the game a little too fast. This also contributes of how many times you have beaten the game. It's a small set back, but at the end of the day, FUN should be the main factor of a game. If you are playing a game on normal and you are not having any fun because of the difficulty, bring the game down a peg. Anything to make the game you spend your money on fun. Except multiplayer, remember: Be Fair.



Recently, there have been talks that there could be an easy mode patched in for Dark Souls. Dark Souls, to me, is a lot of fun. The main reason for this is because of the difficulty. I have no problem with this. To me, to keep that balance between easy and normal is to let you keep the souls when you die. The absolutely frustrating thing about Dark Souls is losing all of your souls. You can have hundreds of thousands of souls saved up only to be gone by dying by your stupid mistake. The thought of losing all those souls is much more frighting than facing a giant boss. If you die the first time you face a boss those souls are gone. If you die before you get a chance to pick them back up again, those souls are gone for good. This makes facing the bosses easier because that main threat is gone. You don't care about the souls anymore, just the boss that you must face alone. Oh, it's still hard, but that jolt of dying won't be as bad as losing that much souls.



It's perfectly find to want a challenge. If you played a game enough times that thrill might be gone. This is the time where you feel confident enough to try it on a harder difficulty. You can make a game as complicated as you like, if you add an easy mode, that should be accessible enough. If you want to try things that you can't do in normal mode or higher, easy is perfect for that too.

Lonesome Crowded West

Teeth Like God's Shoeshine - If you could compact your conscience and sell it, save it for another time, you know you might have to use it

Heart Cooks Brain - On my way to God don't know, My brain's the burger and my heart is the coal

Convenient Parking - Soon the chain reaction started on the parking lot

Lounge Act (Closing Time) - She was talking with a syllable lisp 

Jesus Christ was an only child - I know now what I knew then But I didn't know then what I know now

Doin' the Cockroach - I was in heaven, I was in hell, believe in neither, but fear them as well

Cowboy Dan - Every time you think you're walking you're just moving the ground, Every time you think you're talking you're just moving your mouth, Every time you're looking, you're just looking down.

Trailer Trash - God Damn I am such a jerk, I can't do anything

Out of Gas - Opinions was like kittens, I was giving them away

Long Distance Drunk - 8 AM and someone is calling you on the telephone, you want to be all by yourself and all alone.

Shit Luck - And my heart is Slowly dried up.

Trucker's Atlas - The buzz from the bird on my Dash, Road locomotive phone

Polar Opposites - And I know I should go but I'll probably stay, and that's all you can do about some things.

Bankrupt on selling - Well, I'll go to college and I'll learn some big words and I'll talk real loud, goddamn right I'll be heard

Styrofoam Boots/It's all right on ice - He said that god takes care of himself and you of you/ It an't day and it an't night

Saint's Row The Third playlist...

Deftones – "Diamond Eyes"
Kanye West – "Power" (don't like him, but i know that this song shows up in a mission)
Bach – "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 Allegro"
Dethklok – "The Cyborg Slayers"
Mastodon – "Divinations"
Faith No More – "Epic"
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – "Relax"
Joe Esposito – "You're the Best"
Mark Morrison – "Return Of The Mack"
Sublime – "What I Got"

Connections: TV Shows

Connections: TV Shows

24
Misha Collins - Season 1
Mark A Sheppard - Season 5
Daniel Dae Kim - Season 3
Henry Ian Cusick - Season 5
Dean Norris - Season 2

Lost
Diana Scarwid - Season 3
Dean Norris - Season 4
Daniel Dae Kim - Seasons 1-6
Terry O Quinn - Seasons 1 - 6
Alan Dale - Seasons 2 - 6
Henry Ian Cusick - Seasons 2 - 6

Pushing Daises
Diana Scarwid - Season 2
Lee Pace - Seasons 1 - 2
Beth Grant - Season 2*
Mo Collins - Season 2

Supernatural
Misha Collins - Seasons 4 - 7
Mitch Pileggi - Season 5 - 6
Mark A Sheppard Season 5 - 7
Lauren Cohan - Season 3

Dead Like Me
Harold Perrineau - Season 1
Henry Ian Cusick - movie

The Walking Dead
Jeffery DeMunn - Seasons 1 - 2
Lauren Cohan - Season 2

Arrested Development
Mo Collins - Season 2

The X-Files
Mark A Sheppard - Season 1
Terry O Quinn - Season 2, Movie, Season 8/
Jeffery DeMunn - Movie
Alan Dale - Season 9
Mitch Pileggi - Seasons 1 - 9 + movies

Wonderfalls
Lee Pace - Season 1
Diana Scarwid - Season 1
Beth Grant - Season 1*

Leverage
Mark A Shepard - Season 1 - 4

Breaking Bad
Dean Norris - Seasons 1 - 4

/ played different characters
*played the same character

Endings (LOST Spoilers!!!)

Endings are a tricky thing. You can have this long, fantastic journey, and then once it ends, you are left with bewilderment. Stories are like a puzzle. You have them all scattered, and once it all comes together, it will fit. As of this writing, I don't know how Mass Effect 3 ended. All I know is that it is getting the same hate LOST had when it aired its finale episode. So instead of pretending to know how Mass Effect 3 ended, LOST will be the topic of discussion.

Lets start with the show's ending. The infamous church scene. Does that church look familiar to you? It should, because it was first introduced in Season 5. Underneath the Church, there is a station and it's called The Lamp Post. The Dharma Initiative used it to find the Island. In the flash sideways, it is where all the survivors found each other.

While people where upset that religion was used, when ever religion is used, people seem to hate it. This should not come as a shock. LOST had a huge theme of faith. This is most apparent of Jack and Locke. One of the recurring lines in the show was "That's why they called it a Leap of Faith."

Another recurring line is "See you in another life, brother" this is mostly said by Desmond who picked it up by becoming a monk for awhile. This line isn't just for show. It's a foreshadowing of the end of the series. Desmond had met Jack at different points in his life.

1. Before the Crash when Desmond treated Jack's ankle. Jack leads a pretty normal life.

"You've got to lift it up"

2. After the Crash at the Hatch. Jack is a leader

"Nothing is Going to happen"

3. After leaving the island. Jack is now a man of Faith.

"We are just the pieces"

4. Back at the Island. Jack is now the protector of the Island.

"All of this matters"

5. And finally the flash sideways when they literally met in another life.

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

It just doesn't end at the Church scene either. Most people felt ripped off that they spent six years with this show and not getting answers. I'm going to lay some cold hard facts for you. Season 1 was NOT about the mysteries. Sure they introduced some, but they all got answered eventually. The first big mystery the show had was answered in season 6. The first shocking moment was answered in season 3. Season one was about the characters. Plain and simple. Why do people groan when there is a Kate episode coming up? Why do people like it when there is a Desmond episode? Because, their stories will be told in that specific episode.

Most of the important questions was answered throughout the series. You don't go in thinking that by the end of it, there will be a complete answer dump. I don't like answer dumps. I think they are a cheap way to end a story. Out of all the questions that relates to the characters that was not answered was Walt. In "The New Man In Charge", a dvd exclusive that answers some things, Ben visits Walt in a mental heal clinic. The same one Hurley has been in. Ben said that Walt was special. How was Walt special? Just the fact that they went ahead and do this opens up for new possibilities. I would like to see a new comic con video that shows a small time back at the island.

In the last episode "The End" it had a lot of small references to the rest of the series. I'm not talking about the big ones like descending of Desmond scene or the remembering scenes. I'm talking about the smaller moments. For example, Claire doesn't want to leave the island because she's doesn't want to see Aaron looking like that. In season 3, Rousseau didn't want to leave the island because there is nothing for her out there. After Desmond uncorked the hole, I seriously thought that lava was going to spew out because in Season 3, a teacher said that this island was a dead volcano (5:12). 


Unlike most TV shows where they beat your head with answers, the producers knew that the audiences are smart. So they leave little bread crumbs for the views to examine. In "The New Man In Charge" the reason why the polar bear was in the middle of the Sahara Desert was answered. The answer was the same theory people had already had. That entire epilogue felt like it was just confirming fans theories.

The reason why shows like The Event and V didn't last long was because it tired so hard to be like LOST. They send out a mystery and let the characters deal with it. It was mysteries first and character second. The reason why LOST was so successful was because it was characters first and mysteries second.

Before the new shows even air, they said that they will not be like LOST and answer everything. This turns out to be a death sentence. Every show that had said this gets cancelled after it's first season. No one wants to watch a show where there is just mystery after mystery. I saw V, The Event, and Flash Forward. While the mysteries are there, something always feels off.

The show is not perfect. It has its weak episodes, and couple of characters that they buried alive to get rid of. Despite this, they ended the way they wanted to. If you go back to the series, and start connecting the dots, you will see how everything fits. From "House of the Rising Sun" to "Across The Sea." From "Everybody Love Hugo (18:11)" to "The Incident." There is puzzle pieces that fits. So, if the ending you want is not what YOU wanted, look back and see if it fits.

OVERVIEW: Mass Effect 2

It's been two years since Eden Prime, two years since the assault on the Citadel, two years since you where killed. Cerberus as bought you back from the dead to find out what is making human colonies vanish. Given a list of names to for you, as Commander Shepard, to recruit. You and your new found team must stop the Collectors and prepare for the coming war of the Reapers.

PICK AND CHOOSE

On the Xbox 360 version of the game, you can import your Shepard from the original Mass Effect and depending if you saved Ashley or Kaiden, you will know right away that the choices you made in the first game matters here. On the Playstation 3 version, it will start off like you never played the original Mass Effect, and how could you? Microsoft owns the publishing rights to Mass Effect so seeing the original coming to the PS3 is highly unlikely. After the intro, set two months after the first game, you get a chance to watch a comic book style recap of the first game. It's a clever way to bring Playstation 3 players up to speed if they never played the first one. Another thing about it is you can pick six choices players had to make in the first game. The downside about this is that the only way to get it is either buying The Cerberus Network or getting the game new. It's not that big of a deal, but seeing that Mass Effect 3 will, supposedly, tie up everything, it kind of sucks.

Six ways to play

After the comic recap, you go into the character creation screen. This is where you can either make a new Shepard or create your own; I created my own. You can choose from various aspects of your character. There are six classes in total, and all have their own unique gameplay. For my female Shepard I picked the solider class. The solider class allows Mass Effect to play out like a third person shooter. What makes solider class different from the rest is that it is the only class you can use an Assault Rifle and adrenaline. For my Shepard, I named her Emily based on Emily Haines of Metric. While I named my Shepard after her, it does not look like her; Short black hair, green eyes, and dark purple lipstick. I thought it was black, but towards the end I saw that it was purple.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

Once the game starts, you wake up and the lab you are in is under attack. Because I choose the solider class, the game plays like a third person shooter. Despite this, you can still command your party into doing things for you. One of the first person you meet during the attack is a man named Jacob. He's got biotic powers so you can use that to your advantage. This is a pretty neat way to show off what you are missing. I am planning to start again with a male Shepard and this time using Vanguard. The commands are easy to do; push a button, command your squad or pick something for you, and see the results. It may sounds strange to say, but I play the game like Dragon Age. I never used the quick select. I bring up the wheel, see my surroundings, and plan accordingly. It's more effective, than just simply pushing a button.

After you escape from the attack with Jacob and Miranda, you are met with the Illusive Man. The person that founded Cerberus. He tells you that colonies are going missing and it's up to you to find out who and why. This is one of the reasons why the recreated Shepard. The Illusive man gives you a dossier full of names and you go and try to recruit them. He also gives you a brand new ship that is modeled after the first Normandy.

Pause, look, dominate

Once you find out who, the Illusive Man tells Shepard that he must go through the Omega 4 Relay. The Omega 4 Relay is a lost Relay. Instead of shining blue, like the rest, it shines red. Anyone that has past  through it has never returned. It's best to have all your team and ship upgraded before passing through. Along the way, you can collect resources by scanning planets and doing random side quests. The most important side quests is the loyalty quests. After talking to your teammates, they will ask you to do something for them. If you do the loyalty missions, they will trust you and will have a good chance of surviving. I say good chance because I did Miranda's loyalty mission and she still ended up killed. She was the only member in my team to die.


EXPANDING OUR LITTLE TEAM


The cast of characters expands from the original Mass Effect. The locations you go expands also, and instead of having every building look identical, they all look different with different layouts. The planets are no longer identical. There are alot of planets to explore and to land. Sometimes you can find unique things that can only be found in the planet. This is also where the DLC comes in. If you have the PS3 version, there are 3 great DLC to do; Lair of the Shadow Broker, Kasumi: Stolen Memory, and Overlord. Shadow Broker is the best one and it answers what the Shadow Broker is.

Shooting

There is no two ways to play the game. You can be either paragon or a renegade. It's all up to you. The bad thing about this is that you pretty much know what will gain the most paragon or renegade points. If you choose a renegade option, you will have more renegade points given to you and a little bit of paragon. Same implies if you picked paragon. There are many hours to be had in Mass Effect 2. It will take a good while to do everything this game has to offer.


With Mass Effect 3 on its way, I can imagine that everyone that is getting the game is playing Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, so they can see if all those choices they made are really worth it at the end. I have high hopes for Mass Effect 3. If Mass Effect 3 ends up being bad, at least we know that we got to excellent games to fall back on.