Huh?

So, I just finished Braid. I am not sure what just happened, but it was well worth the effort. Every puzzle designed in this game was brilliant. Many of them made my head hurt with and caused me to question my gaming abilities but the ones I solved on my own (I had to turn to the Internet for help on some of them) left me with an overwhelming sense of pride and satisfaction.

Jonathan Blow, the designer, set out to create a beautiful game that pushed genre boundaries and encouraged people to really think about what was going on. Personally, I don't think the game offered the closure provided by completing the game, and the complementary Achievement, but the game play was absolutely solid. I look forward to getting lost in another Jonathan Blow game, whenever that may be.

We Won A Major Award!

It may not have been the best year for us at THQ, but at least it's going to end on a high note. GameSetWatch has awarded our Jim Huntley, global brand manager, with the "The Mark Jacobs Award for Corporate Communicative Achievement" for the following quote:

The game All Star Cheer Squad was designed with the growing number of girls on Wii and Nintendo DS in mind. We strived to deliver an authentic cheer experience for those players and believe this partnership with CoverGirl is a unique opportunity to do just that. The CoverGirl brand and its spokespeople are instantly recognizable among our target demographic and will further immerse players in the competitive cheerleading world.

Oh wait, I guess that was sar-cas-m. It must be french. I hope everyone on this list have egos that aren't fra-gee-lay.

Achievement Unlocked: Awesome Flash Game

Achievement Unlocked | Armor Games

My love of achievements has been succinctly satirized in this awesome flash game. Play and enjoy!

One of My Favorite Games Ever May Grace XBLA

If the ESRB is to be believed, Sega will be pimping more of its classic collection onto XBLA and PSN. One of those titles is Phantasy Star II. I just had a geek-gasm.

I was one of those lucky kids who had both a both a SNES and a Sega Genesis (the benefits of being the child of divorced parents I guess). I read Nintendo Power so I'm sure I knew what releases were coming out for the SNES but as far as the Genesis, looking back at my collection of games I must have chosen games purely on their boxart. And that doesn't really explain why I picked up Phantasy Star II. A JRPG? I wasn't really into anime or manga at the time but I guess I had played a couple of the Final Fantasy games even though I was partial to the Zelda series. Boy was I glad I did though. I still have the original game (with the well worn map and strategy guide) as well as a the GBA version that includes the first three games in the series.

I played the crap out of that game. I'm sure I played through the game numerous times, which is no simple task as it was easily a 40 hour quest. This was the first title the I became emotionally attached to as there is a major game changing moment about two-thirds of the way through the story. Also, it was epic, spanning two planets and countless dungeons. I have warm memories of spending whole weekends grinding my party in order to level up and learn the only spell that could help you defeat the final boss.

This can't come soon enough. Plus, there will be achievements.

Esrb: Sega Regurgitating More Genesis Games On XBLA, PSN

Fun Friday: QA Funnies Edition

Game Developer's Matthew "Wasteland" has taken the task of infusing some funny into their industry leading magazine. His back page article this month tackles QA bugs, but not the good kind. Here's my favorite:

1. Put the game in the disc tray and start playing it.
2. Walk 56 steps to the left and drink the green potion.
3. Explore the caves and proceed to the point where the wizard talks to you, then skip the dialog after about the third panel. I forgot what it said.
4. Hit the attack button repeatedly for five minutes.
5. Pause the game and leave it on the Pause menu for about as long as it takes to make and eat a microwave burrito, I think like 15 minutes.
6. Unpause the game, turn on all of the cheats, warp to the vampire's lair and shoot the panzerfaust at him over and over as fast as possible.
7. Notice that the game has frozen.

I'm sure the developers response to this bug was either, "We'll fix it in the sequel," "But LotCheck/Certification didn't find it," or " Do you think we can get this waived?"

Fun Friday: Missed Opportunities Edition

As the year is beginning to come to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what I missed out on. I'm not a huge fan of lists but when I started thinking about the games on my list, it seemed quite substantial.

1. Fallout3 - And I loved Oblivion so much.
   
2. Castle Crashers - Bugs, plus it came out when we were doing a lot of OT.
   
3. Dead Space - Looked cool until I played the demo.
   
4. Prince of Persia - Hadn't been into the Prince since Sands of Time but looked promising until I heard that you could not fail.
   
5. Tomb Raider: Underworld - No rush, I knew it was just another Croft adventure.
   
6. Mirror's Edge - Wasn't convinced by the demo but I'm still intrigued.
   
7. Star Wars: Force Unleashed - Another title that came out while we were in OT.
   
8. Penny Arcade Episode II - No excuse other than I was distracted by other games.
   
9. Condemned 2 - The first is one of my favorite 360 titles. They seemed to lose the plot though.
   
10. Bully - I love Rockstar's work, but I never gave this one a chance.
    

Some Honorable Mentions include LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid IV, both of which I would have played if I owned a PS3. Also, I only scratched the surface of GTAIV (like six hours) so that might as well be on the list as well.

Update: Maybe it wasn't that bad that I missed out as some seem to have ended up being a little disappointing. Oh, and I started playing Force Unleashed this week. So far, it's not bad.

Movin' On Up

As of this last Monday, I have been officially promoted at THQ. I am now a Compliance QA Project Lead. Which means I have people who report to me and my plans for world domination are well underway.

[/Manaical evil laughter and lightning]

Just kidding. Basically, myself and another former specialist have been promoted to take over more managerial and planning duties. Celebrations have been brief as there's much work to be done.

5th Cell Does it Again

I've sung my praises for 5th Cell before and it seems they are unstoppable. With an exclusive reveal last Friday on IGN, I think they've cemented themselves as one of the most creative and daring DS developers out there at the moment (and probably the most sought after).

After watching the video for Scribblenauts, I immediately begin thinking of the possibilities this game has. The concept is simple yet has the potential to very satisfying.

Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka had the following to say about the player's possibilities when faced with a tree puzzle.

You could write "axe", and then cut the tree down using the object you spawned. You could write "shuriken" and throw that at the Starite in the tree and knock it down. It's all based on real physics and interaction, so there's nothing pre-canned. You could write anything though; imagine you write "goldfish" for some reason, well a goldfish would spawn and sit on the ground. It wouldn't help you at all in that puzzle, but you could do it.

Oh, how I can't wait to get my hands on this game.

Epic Demo Fail

It's been awhile since I mentioned demo design, but I came across one that was particularly perplexing this last week. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix not only has the longest name ever, but it also has the distinction of having the shortest demo ever, if you only have one controller. I downloaded the demo on Xbox Live and fired up the trial version only to find out that only two-player local matches were available. I didn't have a second controller so, for me, the demo was over.

I imagine most gamers have a good idea of what the game play is going to be about in a Street Fighter title but one of SSF2THR's draw was the updated in game sprites. If I don't get to see them, how can I make a purchase decision? If the game is going to force me to play two-player, at least give me online in case I don't have anyone to play with. I count Street Fighter 2 as one of my favorite games of all time and this was almost an automatic purchase, but the demo totally floored me and I lost interest. Oh well, Street Fighter IV will be out soon enough.

Fun Friday: Big in Japan Edition

I have no idea what these videos mean but they're awesome in every way. Good luck in Japan, Saint's Row 2!