Discussion Mondays: Early Access Games at Retail

Hatm0nster:

Do any of us really know how to treat the “Early Access” trend that’s been very rapidly gaining popularity on digital platforms. Is it good? Is it bad? It’s hard to say. This week GamerCrash took on this difficult question, one made even more so due there now being a boxed released for an “Early Access” (aka unfinished) game called “Planetary Annihilation”. Read on for more details and to throw your own thoughts into the discussion!

Originally posted on Gamer Crash:

With as much controversy as “Early Access” type games are causing these days, one thing I’ve never thought to consider is how the discussion would change or intensify if these titles were sold at retail. Currently, they’re available digitally on Steam but if they were sold in stores, how would that affect your viewpoint?

For those who aren���t really PC players or are unaware, Early Access games are essentially titles that the developer is releasing to the general public early. You, as the consumer, pay full/normal price to gain access to the game with the general understanding that the game isn’t finished but the developer will continue to create, shape, and eventually complete the title. Well, that’s the hope anyway as we have seen some games do get taken down or outright abandoned which means that you’re out of the money you spent on it. On paper it’s a win-win as…

View original 430 more words

The Inanities of Video Game Bosses (Created by Square, I Mean)

Image from Flickr User: lites_in_thee_skyy
Image from Flickr User: lites_in_thee_skyy

Some time ago, I replayed “Kingdom Hearts”, a game I had gone through two times prior, and yet, for some reason, this was the first time that something struck me. Video game bosses are weird. Not just the concept (why are they even called “bosses” to begin with?), but…you know what, have you ever beaten “Kingdom Hearts”? Or really, any Square Enix game for that matter. Because, sometimes, they have the absolute strangest abominations you’ve ever seen. It almost seems to be a requirement in such games that the final boss is the most distorted and ridiculous creature they can possibly come up with.

And so, when I was battling the final boss of “Kingdom Hearts” during my third playthrough, it was only now that it hit me just how goofy the end of the game is (goofy, not Goofy). Honestly. I mean, okay, I can accept the earlier fight against Ansem, when he has that funky Heartless thing hovering behind him all throughout the entire battle (which would bother me, personally, as I don’t do well with anyone breathing down my neck, monster or not-monster alike). But, then, once you beat him, you have another fight that is so much more absurd, where Ansem and his funky minion thing have somehow merged with a…I don’t know…a psychotic cruise ship of death that is floating out in nothingness, with faces all over it (including one face with a chin that could poke your eye out…nay, to be more accurate, it could poke your entire face out). And I don’t know why I never thought that much about it before, but the last time I saw this thing…

Continue reading The Inanities of Video Game Bosses (Created by Square, I Mean)