PixlBit

Hey guys, remember when we had that big #NoWiiUDRM campaign around E3? When Nintendo worked to push the WiiU as a general multimedia box with always online DRM, and the camera on the Gamepad could never be disconnected or completely turned off? I'm not the least bit surprised that Nintendo, whose consoles have always been positioned as "Trojan Horses" for non-gaming features, thought this was a good idea; I'm still surprised they had the balls to do it. Good thing we were loud in our demands to keep the WiiU a games console first, right?

Obviously I'm being facetious here. But looking back, that whole episode with the Xone's DRM does disturb me for a different reason.

Over the 20+ years (!) I've been playing games, I've heard some absolutely incredible music. Whether it's a big title from a big publisher, an indie developed fan game, or unofficial remixes, great music sticks with you and can elevate the gaming experience in a way that few other aspects of the production can.

Game Informer's latest cover story centers on Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, a prolouge to the main MGSV game set to come out next month. In it, they reveal that they played through the main mission in two hours, with a speed run in 5 minutes being possible. This has set off a big debate over the game's actual value, reigniting a long-running argument over price-to-length ratio in modern video games.

As the dust settles on the launch of the new consoles, the overall value of the new consoles has been a frequent topic of discussion. Here's my take:

To say tthe Final Fantasy series had a rough 7th generation would be a understatement.

There are over 100 games in my Steam Library right now.

The ubiquity of phone gaming, and it's creeping impact on the console space, are well documented. The extensive use of microtransactions and the like in $60 titles has been a flashpoint in the gaming community for years. My main concern is that it risks devaluing the base game by making the experience more dependent on paying extra--a well-worn tactic in the mobile space (in game timers, paid weapon repair/upgrades, etc.) that is spreading into retail titles. Hell, one of the leads on Forza 5 pretty much said the game was designed with high-spending "whales" in mind.

As we transition away from last gen, developers are finally able to stretch outside of the sardine cans they've been stuck in for the past 8 years. With machines more powerful and easier to work with, next-gen visuals are already a big step up over the graphics of the past. The visuals of games like Ryse and Killzone SFhave been a breath of fresh air for me, as I was so disgusted with the sub-30fps, sub-720p nonsense last go-round that I moved towards PC gaming.

So we saw some interesting developments surrounding the next-gen port of Tomb Raider yesterday.