controller code

Kawaii!

So, the TGS starts in a week now, and we’ll be in out in full force to garner some coverage of the event. Mind you, the staff here (well, me …) won’t be able to do the wonderful live-blogging that some others might, but coverage is coverage. The big boys might miss something.

So, for the readership here, is there anything you’d like to see covered? I know what I’ll be looking out for anything interesting, but if there’s rumours you want quashed or confirmed, please leave a comment or send an email via the contact page!

Famitsu has a short write up on all of the races and jobs in this soon-to-be-released new DS game. Now, my Japanese isn’t spectacular, but I’ll give an outline here.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Seal Grimoire, the sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, goes on sale in Japan in Q4 2007, and is TBA released everywhere else. Poo.

“Hiyumu”, the human-like race, are jack-of-all-trades, good at attack and support. The standard and simple race that’s probably good to have in a party.

“Moguri” hit up aerial-assault style jobs. Resembling mice and specializing in engineering skills, they’re the only ones that can surf in the clouds and drop wtfbombs on the enemy.

“Vuiera”, like Hiyumu, are a bit of all-rounders. They have rabbit-style ears and tend to be better for support and healing positions.

“Banga”, being covered in scales as they are lizard-like, are great at tanking, offensive assaults. They’re the ones that will suck up all that high-HP damage while everyone else is laying down the smack on things.

The “Mou”, are the opposites of Banga. They’re delicate but possess powerful magical abilities with which to nuke the living crap out of opponents. And quite honestly, I can’t even begin to tell what animal they look like. In this screen-grab they look kind of like Tails.

[Google mangles translates it here. And I just had to snipe one of their screen shots, they’re purdy …]

Over the past year or so, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft. It’s a fun game, really. I played a character all the way to the current max level of 60 and joined a guild that does regular end-game raids. This is the story of the last few months of that life.

These are 40-person dungeon crawls over the so-called most difficult stuff the game devs throw down. Basically it’s a bunch of really nerdy guys sitting at 40 computers in 40 different places beating up extremely large bosses. Over and over and over again. Why over and over again? Well, the challenge isn’t over-coming the obstacle of the boss. No. After we’d mastered the technique neccessary to do so with ease, the whole idea is to garner the Phat Loots!! from the boss.

See, each of these bosses drops 2-3 fairly rare game items every time it’s defeated. However, since there’s 40 people of different class types, it doesn’t distribute out very quickly. And it’s not as if each of those 40 people are always there, nor is it the case that only 1 item is sufficient. No, no. These items are part of a set! So, over and over we must travel into the depths of these dungeons to fight evil and all that crap. I haven’t reached the “goal” of getting all of my set pieces. Oh, I should also mention, there’s, so far, 3 different sets, now, for every one of the 8 classes. Complicated loot distribution rules become normal to understand. After awhile it all becomes a blur of colours and button pushing and (at least!) laughing at jokes on the voice comm.

Oh, yes, I wore a headset to play. After all, it’s really hard to button mash and type to 40 people. Communication is key, people. Uber-nerd-dom… very uber-nerd. Anyway …

So, now I’m left with some cool UBER PHAT LOOTS, but not ‘all of it’ for my game character. I’ve grown weary of the same thing over and over again and trying to find creative ways to make in-game money to pay for item repairs and consumable items and all that. I’ve grown tired of the bickering of people who don’t get to go, who don’t get the item they want, fuck, just the general bickering of socially mal-adjusted teenagers and emo-20-somethings. I mean, get a life! I decided when the heat was on at work that maybe, just maybe I didn’t want to go home to a 4-hour raid every night just to have the chance at that new fucking dagger or helmet. No, I had enough stress at work, why would I want to add to it? So, I just stopped playing. Then I went on vacation. I didn’t play then either.

Then a month or so ago, one of my friends that I had made during this time while playing, who also was feeling rather disillusioned with the whole raiding thing, decided to start a new character on another server, from scratch. You know, to relive the old days, pre-raid. It’s fun. Doing the standard RPG questing. Wander around, do this, do that, kill a rat, kill a dog. Whatever. Collect 10 of these things, find my lost slipper. Silly, pointless, yet fun things. Great! Something new to do. Not the same endless boss fight.

And here we are today. I loved playing WoW, but I think it’s time to hang up my daggers and take my own advice and, “get a life”, again. I’m just not even seeing the point in playing this new character that is quite fun, but in the end, where’s it going? Heading in the same direction, I think. More raids, more loots, more crap like that. And who wants to pay $15/month to just … be mindless. I gave up cable television years ago for that very same reason. So, I decided it was time to take action.

Today, I cancelled my World of Warcraft account.

So, this coming week is vacation time for myself. Things could go one of two ways here at the ‘code: More posts or fewer posts. I’ve got a new copy of the Hero Online beta, think I’ll be checking that out. I’ve also been trying to top up my MAME ROMS collection these past few days. Classic at it’s finest.

The other issue in the controllercode-booth is that the weather outside is just beautiful. I’d hate to waste the time I’m vacationing on by sitting in front of a monitor all day. So, like I said, “one of two ways.”

Have fun, see you in a few days, if not sooner.

According to a recent presentation to “Wall Street”, Vivendi is saying that all existing Blizzard franchises will be going the MMO route. I’m excited to see a Diablo “Online”, that’s for sure. After the roaring success I suppose it can’t be to surprising that Vivendi wants another $99,000,000/month income stream.

[Aeropause, 1up and Shacknews]

Up on IMDB, there’s some scant news about who’s going to be involved in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV. Love the mills churning the buttery goodness of rumors.

[Aeropause, Joystiq]

Pro video gaming is nothing new. As this article on Ars Technica points out, it’s been around for almost 10 years, since Quake. It’s had an interesting story since then, and these days it’s even televised in South Korea. USA Network now wants to bring that to North American televisions.

Video games already have a spectator factor — when someone is playing in their living room, others tend to gravitate toward the television to watch the action and cheer or heckle the player,” says Sundance DiGiovanni, the cofounder of MLG. “We are using commentators and telestrators to explain strategies and key moves, and to give the feel of any other sporting broadcast.

So keep your eyes peeled, all you cable subscribers in the US. Coming this November is Halo 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

September 1

I was walking past Massey Hall just yesterday and noticed the date on the upcoming events placard. I’m planning to indulge my nerdiness and hit this up in September. Should be interesting, fun and possibly full of bigger game nerds than me. Tickets available through tickets.com.

It’s been many months …

I’d like to welcome you back to the new controller code. A lot has changed in the past while, so I don’t want to surprise any older visitors with my new layout, new format and new subject. This is now going to be a game news site.

I’ve been an avid video game player for basically my entire life. I love video games of all types and am coming to realize very quickly that I also really love to write and talk about them. So here it is!

What you can expect:

• Game news, and lots of it
• Commentary on video game issues
• Occasional game reviews

Over the next few weeks and months I’ll be updating the look of what I’ve started here. Starting bare-bones is how things seem to work for me and building from there is what I do best.