Aeropaused

PC gaming not dead yet, but pirates are working on it.

The announcement has come from Crytek that they believe they will no longer be making games exclusively for PC. Let’s call this step one, because once they start putting their games out on consoles and nobody buys the PC one, that will be the last of their work on PC, and with good reason. Joe and I discussed copy protection for a little bit in podcast 30, as it relates to the Steam download service. What I didn’t mention at that time is I admire the Steam business model in that the games, which ping home to make sure they’re legit, are all but ensured immunity to piracy. That’s good for the developer, the publisher, and as we will soon see, good for the consumer who wants to play these games. At all.
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Aeropause Ditches MT, Please Stand By

The time has come for Aeropause to switch to a different Weblog system. I have spent many weeks migrating the 5,000+ entries, comments and tags over to a new system that I feel is better for the community. I won’t go and mention movable type which Weblog we have been using for 3 years now on the site, or which one we’re switching Wordpress to, to avoid a possible Weblog flame war, but let’s just say it’s for the better. So what will be different? We’ve added the following functionality to the new site:

User Profiles with Commenter photo
Similar Posts
Post Views
Faster Commenting
Share This - Send to a Friend and Social Network sites
Same design but a 2-column layout to maximize content space
Plus more

With that said, you may experience some site hiccups when visiting Aeropause this coming Tuesday 15th, in the AM, EST.

Sadly all regular commenters will have to sign up again as it wasn’t possible to keep a record of the names during transition. However, signing up is faster than taking a sip of Sake - all you need is a Username and Password to get you articulating on Aeropause.

Okamiday Final Edition: Just a few more days.

By now if you haven’t heard that Okami’s coming to the Wii, you at least know how badly I’ve wanted this to happen. In that light, here we have Okamiday, Final Edition. Okamiday is me posting assets and articles periodically about Okami, the PS2 game that’s widely considered Clover Studios’ swan song, a game whose sales at launch were so weak as to likely be a major factor in the developer’s dissolution.

Here were are just a couple of days before the release of Okami on Wii, and there are already a handful of opinions and impressions on the transition. The original PS2 game got some very strong reviews, and Wii reviews so far have not been quite as favorable. While the consensus seems to be that the mechanic is suited to IR control, impressions from IGN’s Matt Casamassina state that some of the controls are hard to execute until you understand exactly how they were designed to work. The example given is a vertical gesture that makes water spout from the ground, which works better with a quick short stroke than a long one. Something they mentioned a few podcasts ago was that the dodge motion, which uses the nunchuk, really doesn’t work at all, but is not necessary for the game anyway. They also complain about the uneven framerate in the game in recent podcasts, something that was apparently an issue in the original game as well.

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Retailer Breaks GTAIV Street Date!

No, not really. It’s still April you fool. Even though April Fool’s Day has passed, the video game related pranks from that day have remained a much discussed topic on many of the gaming podcasts I listen to. The discussions have made me sad that I didn’t go forward with any of my prank ideas. I didn’t blog any here, because I felt it might have been a bit pretentious for a new writer. But that won’t stop me from sharing my top three April Fool’s story ideas with you!

#1 SEARS & K-MART STORES BREAK GTAIV STREET DATE
To do this story right, I would have precisely cut my GTAIV preorder box from Best Buy pictured in this post, and carefully placed it into a regular green Xbox 360 game box. I would have also manufactured some clueless quote from the assistant manager of a Toledo, OH area K-Mart store. Something to the effect of, “What do you mean street date? Listen, here’s how it works buddy. Product comes on a truck, we put it on a shelf, people buy it. If they don’t want us to sell their game yet they shouldn’t send it to us yet.”

#2 SIXAXIS MOTION CONTROL “ONLY CONTROL OPTION” ON PS3 GTAIV
This one would have broken the hearts of the more gullible Sony fanboys out there. The story would have featured an idiotic quote from Sony talking about how they asked Rockstar North to make these changes in the PS3 version of the game to distinguish it from the 360 version. “We wanted to build on the success of the control scheme in Factor 5’s “Lair”, the Sony rep would have said, “to drive a car in GTAIV, you get to hold the sixaxis controller in front of you like a steering wheel!” The coup de gr√¢ce in this story would have been the revelation that these changes made to the PS3 version were the cause of the game’s delay.

#3 UBISOFT TO USE “TOM CLOWNY‚Ñ¢” NAME TO MARKET NEW LINE OF KIDZ GAMES
In order to recoup some of the 30 million dollars spent for the Tom Clancy‚Ñ¢ name, Ubisoft is making “slight modifications” to their new moniker so it will fit with a new line of casual games. “Everyone loves a clown,” says the soulless Ubisoft rep, “so we have Tom Clancy‚Ñ¢ for hardcore gamers, and Tom Clowny‚Ñ¢ for everyone else.”
The first titles slated for release under the Tom Clowny‚Ñ¢ name include “Armadillo’s Creed”, “Rodent Recon, Advanced Squirrel Fighter”, and of course, “Tom Clowny’s‚Ñ¢ H.A.W.K.”, a bird adventure game.

Where do cartridge batteries go when they die?

So, I’m just back from an adventure here. I’ve worn my Castlevania addiction on my distressed leather sleeve for some time now, and it should come as no surprise that my collection of Castlevania software is pretty comprehensive. Of course, that doesn’t help much when a particularly rare game craps the bed.

Some might not be aware that cartridge-based games in many cases contain a small battery. This supplies constant current to the game so that it doesn’t forget its game saves when switched off. The Legend of Zelda for NES was notable as the first cartridge to do this, eliminating the need for password saves in console games (as seen in Zelda’s contemporaries, like Metroid).

While I have yet to encounter an NES Zelda cartridge (from 1987, people) with a dead battery, my copy of 2002’s Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance surprised me last year by forgetting all the saves on it. It didn’t take me too long to figure out the battery had died.

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Aeropodcast #25: PC Building 101 and Other Tales

It’s George and Joe at the controls again, this week. We discuss the merits of genre-benders like Halo Wars and Tiberium before turning our attention to exactly what Phil Harrison is thinking with his recent move to Atari. Not-so-fond memories of Atari are shared by all.

The contest for Audiosurf continues. George sweetens the deal by throwing in Steam copies of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Eric Kranz writes in for guidance from our very own PC gaming guru. Joe gives the rundown on what to look for in a new $1500 gaming rig.

In other news, we cover all the bases from Burnout to Bully, and Sims 3 to Tabula Rasa. We also give our +5 Vorpal Long Sword of Tribute to Geek Master Gary Gygax.

Got feedback or questions? Email us at tips@aeropause.com.

Recorded: Saturday March 8th, 2008.
Length: 1:13:06, 66.9 MB. Download it directly from here.

As always if you like what you hear stamp our passport, I mean Digg the podcast and if you get a moment review us on iTunes which makes us easier to find.

You can also subscribe to the podcast and download it from:
iTunes | RSS | Odeo | Digg | Zune

Our podcast music is “Effects of Elevation” from the album Increase the Dosage by Revolution Void, used with permission.

UPDATE: If anyone downloaded the podcast from iTunes and it sounded a lot like “Aeropodcast 23″ that’s because I flubbed up the feed a bit. It is now correct and iTunes should give the correct file now.

New Ink Slingers on Aero

It’s been a rip-roaring week since we posted a request for additional Writers on Aero. The team had an overwhelming response, but we managed to narrow it down to the following 6 hardcore gamers and experienced writers, with the possibility of a couple more stragglers to come. Please give a warm welcome to:

Bill Tangeman from Nebraska who created the documentary film “Starbucking” and has admittedly “…not listened to your podcast yet (sorry)” Tsk…come on, B!!

Mike Koss (previous Wii winner) and long time Aero contributor from Ohio who enjoys crafting masterful prose.

Ryan Lamb from Ohio, has won 6, count ‘em, six video game competitions in total including a national NBA Jam competition, 2 years in a row! Yeah but can you play Basketball for real?

Matthew Kellar from West Virginia, is a doctoral level Psychology student with an unreasonably large knowledge-base for video games. Matthew is going to drop some next gen gaming Freud on us, watch out.

Shane (nice name!) Khoury from DC, an engineer of sorts for shady government types who has always: “…Enjoyed writing despite the ramblings of my crazy uncle who said all writers are controlled by the liberal media who are really controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his army of robots that pass for fair and balanced pundits on FOX…” Zoink!

McKinley Noble, a name any actor would kill for, is a College student living in San Francisco. McKinley has worked with 1UP and also wrote for other game blogs in the past.

The rest of the Samurai’s welcome you. Enjoy the ride.

Achievement Whoring Can Be So Much Fun!

Last night myself and few friends from xbox360fanboy.com got together to achieve one of the most elusive achievements for Halo 3. Maybe next time buddy is an achievement where one has to be jacked out of a vehicle and then re-jack that same person within 10 seconds. While it does not sound too hard it has been hard to accomplish because every time I’ve gotten jacked the person usually runs away as fast as they can. After obtaining the achievement last night I could finally dawn the moon helmet that I always wanted to play with. Screw the five gamer points and the sword now attached to my back; it’s all about the moon helmet baby!

Besides gaining the achievement I was also able to thoroughly destroy all the foes before me in a game of swords on epitaph. I was down by many points when I went on a rampage that ended with a well placed grenade at the feet of SuperDunners, who apparently thinks it was a lucky grenade. I did not let the victory go to my head. I did not taunt or call out the lack of anyone’s skill like the hordes of DB’s that flood XBL. We had a good time and we all increased our gamerscore by 5 meager points, maybe someday we can have a nice rematch of that swords game and see if the grenade bounces differently. That’s right SuperDunner’s, we need a rematch and we need it soon.

You can check out xbox360fanboys rundown of our night of achievement whoring here (I’m The Wideguy). In the future I look forward to doing more with the guys from xbox360fanboy. Hey I still don’t have the co-op achievements for Gears of War…any takers?

Fanboys Are Ruining Our Gaming Sites!

When you spend a decent part of your day surfing around gaming websites you start to notice trends and small differences over time. The one that has become most alarming to me is the amount of sheer fanboy ignorance that has taken over what used to be decent community based gaming sites. I know fanboys have been around since the Atari 2600, but it just seems like this current console cycle we are in has brought forward the worst of the worst when it comes to them.

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Volunteer Writers Needed

It’s been roughly 134 Mass Effect completions since we’ve welcomed a new Writer on board at Aeropause. I can’t quite pinpoint the lull, but it might have something to do with all the great games that came out in 2007. With that said, we’re on the lookout for a few more volunteers.

So what do I get for writing? Your poetic dissertations will be seen on a reputable game blog that has managed to stick around for almost 3 years and running. We cover most of the big game events, interview well known industry folks and run an increasingly popular podcast. Additionally we receive and distribute to the Writers, monthly games and accessories from the big Publishers for review on the site.

What we look for:

- Basic writing skills
- A passion for games
- Must be 18 years or older
- Possess at least one console, PC or portable system
- Has fun writing

If this interests you, drop us a line at: contact [at] aeropause [dot] com. Please provide a few samples of your writing style or a link to something you’ve written. If you have nothing to present, write about something in the game news as of late. Additionally, tell us a wee bit about yourself and your background on gaming.