The Mike Thomas Show - Week 2

http://www.archive.org/details/TheMikeThomasShow-Week2

The Mike Thomas Show

Links to The Mike Thomas Show

3:00 Demo
http://www.archive.org/details/TheMikeThomasShow300Demo

1:00 Demo
http://www.archive.org/details/TheMikeThomasShow100Demo

Commercial
http://www.archive.org/details/TheMikeThomasShowCommercial

Week 1
http://www.archive.org/details/TheMikeThomasShow-Week1

Amazon Gold Box is all Xbox 360 stuff today.

Amazon has a bunch of Xbox 360 games for sale today, and today only. BioShock 2 is on sale all day for around $40, and right now Mass Effect 2 is also on sale for just under $40.

There are clues for the upcoming titles too. My guess is that starting at 2:00 EST, they'll have Dragon Age Origins: Awakening, followed by either one of the many Rock Band titles, or the Rock Band Stratocaster guitar at 5:00, Aliens Vs. Predator at 7:00, and even more later on.

I'm anxious to see if I'm right about the Dragon Age expansion being available. If it's a decent sale price I might have to pull the trigger. I'm also thinking long and hard about Mass Effect 2, but I might be able to continue my trend of financial responsibility and hold off.

Bioshock 2 Impressions

I decided to be financially responsible for once, so instead of buying a new game I decided to give Bioshock 2 a spin.

I have to admit that I've had a negative attitude towards Bioshock 2 since it was announced. The original BioShock was one of the best games of 2007, but didn't really need a sequel. I was terrified of the world of Rapture. The atmosphere in that game completely sucked me in from the opening scene until I was finished. But unlike other games, I had no desire to return to Rapture. Actually, the thought of returning to that underwater hell filled me with a kind of dread.

That's how good the original was.

Then the reports came out that Ken Levine, the mastermind behind the original, would have nothing to do with the game, and that the sequel would have multiplayer added on...yeah, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the game. Even the mostly positive reviews couldn't shake the negative feelings I had.

I'm glad to say that after 3-4 hours, I'm having fun. Does the atmosphere of the game hold up to the original? Not really. Is there a deep story here? If so, I haven't seen it yet. Does any of that matter?

Nope.

What this game does is refine the gameplay from the original, and try to make it as fun as possible. And so far it has done that very, very, well.

Is Dead Rising 2: Case Zero a bad thing for gamers?

The original Dead Rising was an instant hit. You play Frank West, a sarcastic photojournalist, who gets dropped into a mall filled with zombies. What made this game stand out is that the player can use anything he can get his hands on to mow down the zombie horde.

That's as close to a sure thing as you can come in video games.


So, zombie loving gamers have been waiting patiently for Dead Rising 2 to be released. And when it was announced that there would be a prequel called Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, to be released as DLC only on the Xbox 360, people didn't know how to react. On the surface it seems great. A stand alone story that will bridge the gap between the events of the two games, and basically be the demo for the sequel. The problem is many are afraid that this will inspire the industry to start charging for people to play their demos.

Bill Harris, one of the few writers who I feel is required reading, is not a fan of this trend. Not at all.

An in-depth look at Roger Ebert's belief that video games cannot be art.

Over the past several years, film critic Roger Ebert has written about his belief that video games can never be art. In 2005, Ebert wrote “I… consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.” In 2007, Ebert again criticized video games in a response to a speech by Clive Barker, given at the Hollywood and Games summit. Most recently, Ebert authored an article titled Video games can never be art. Here, he responds to a presentation given by game designer and publisher Kellee Santiago, in which she defends games as art.

When debating any topic, it’s important that both sides agree on some key definitions. You can’t argue if bowling is a sport without first defining what a “sport” is. The same is true here. Before we can explore whether or not games are or are not art, we have to first define “art.”

Weekend Update

My original plans of staying home all weekend and playing games fell by the wayside. I was pleasantly surprised by my girlfriend coming to visit me for the weekend. Combined with the Pittsburgh Penguins playing Games 2 and 3 of their playoff series against the Ottawa Senators Friday and Sunday, I didn't have much time for video games. I did manage to squeeze in about an hour Sunday night after the hockey game was over, enough time to finish up Final Fantasy XIII. As much as I enjoyed the middle part of the game, the final chapters are just tedious and boring. I do plan on having a spoilerific post to discuss the story sometime this week, so keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, thanks to two Penguins victories, I really want to get my hands on NHL 10. Still, I might have to be the responsible adult and play some of the games I already own...stupid rent.

Actually, I have an extra copy of Madden NFL 10 lying around still in its shrink wrap. It's on Best Buy's list of games to trade in for $30.

Uh-oh...