Category Archives: Uncategorized

Glitches Involving Capricious Audio

A little while ago, Cary wrote a post about some glitches in a damaged copy of “The Last of Us” that ruined the game for her, which got me thinking about how much fun I have talking about glitches, no matter how bothersome they can be.  Because not all glitches are purely upsetting.  Some can be rather funny, too.  And so I decided to start a little mini-series talking about the glitches found in various games I’ve played.  Today’s topic, unpredictable sound.

Skipping is fun, but not when it comes to gaming: I first had skipping issues when I moved and two consoles didn’t fare quite as well as they had in the past.  These two unlucky consoles were my poor dear GameCube and my not as dear, but still poor, XBox (who was just a year old at the time, too).  That’s when issues began that I had never had before.  Months later, I plugged the Cube in for some joy, and I was confronted with some skipping music in that pirate’s cave place in “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door”.  Very odd, as it was the only area that decided to do that.  I suppose pirates like to skip?  They certainly like to sing (on TV, at least, which is very accurate).  Then, finding this great fun, the XBox decided to join in (I guess it was just emulating its big brother Cube, who was being a very bad influence) with “Star Wars: Battlefront II”, where I was subjected to more skipping and erratic music, especially in the Hoth level.  It really didn’t like that place at all.  (Considering the freezing experienced in “Tak 2” not long earlier, though, I really didn’t mind at that point.) Continue reading Glitches Involving Capricious Audio

Today in Gaming History: 10/26/2013

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October 26, 2000: PlayStation 2 released in the U. S.
As we get ready to ring in the joys and triumphs of the PlayStation 4, let’s not forget that 13 years ago this week, the PlayStation 2 descended upon the gaming world. When asked about the console, Kazuo Hirai, president and COO of Sony Compute Entertainment America, boasted, “The PlayStation 2 . . . is not the future of video game entertainment, it is the future of entertainment period.”* Like the first PlayStation, the PS2 could play DVDs was well as games on CD. It was also backwards compatible with PS1 games, and it accepted PS1 memory cards. The PS2 controllers had been upgraded with analog sticks, but PS1 controllers could be used with the machine with limited functionality.  The PS2’s launch price was $299.

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Guest Post: More than the Setting

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Check out our own Simul-tober post on A Life With Cyn!

Originally posted on A Life With Cyn:

This month things are a little bit different. Sumer’s finally starting to loose its grip here so that means its about time for Halloween. What better topic for October than the Horror Genre? A few of us from United We Game are writing guest posts over Horror video games to be shared on someone else’s blog. This week the post is by Hatm0nster, one of our awesome admins at UWG, so enjoy and remember to check the site out!

We’ve seen a lot of big games come out of the survival-horror genre over the last several years. Games like Dead Space, Condemned 2: Blood Shot, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, just to name a few. These are supposed to be the games that can scare us. The games that we can’t help but play even though we dread doing so. How many of these games are actually scary though? They’re all certainly startling…

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News Byte: Jenova Chen and Emotional Games

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News Byte: Jenova Chen and Emotional Games

At the last week’s Gaming Insider conference, thatgamecompany‘s founder Jenova Chen had a lot to say about the possible future of games, and how part of it may lie in our own emotional needs. But are emotional games little more than a fad, or is there something more to them?

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Contributor Recap: 9/30 – 10/4

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Happy Friday everyone! Today we have for you a selection of excellent posts from some of the UWG Contributors! These are either recent posts or posts that we all thought really should be shared. Enjoy!
Continue reading Contributor Recap: 9/30 – 10/4

Resonance: The Thorian

Image by Flickr User: Ryan Somma
Image by Flickr User: Ryan Somma

Another series rich in musical mastery, Mass Effect effect certainly has a lot of memorable and significant pieces to it’s name. Today, I would like to present a track entitled “The Thorian”. Please take a moment to listen, to take it in. Think about what you would expect this music to accompany, what would be taking place in the game while this is playing. Consider the implications of the tones and tempo, what does it elicit from you?
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Crime in Video Games and Why Even Kirby Commits It

Why is crime okay in video games?  And no, I’m not talking about “Grand Theft Auto”.  I’m talking about games like “The Legend of Zelda” and “Kirby”.  Yep, even in games like those, things that would be considered wrong in real life are deemed perfectly acceptable.  What am I talking about?  Well, have you ever thought twice about walking into a stranger’s house in “Zelda”?  And if there is an item, do you not take it?  The answer to these questions is a no and a yes, respectively.  In the video game universe, any item in a treasure chest is up for grabs, whether it be in some deep, dark woods or someone’s home.  Stealing is okay.  Because that’s exactly what it is.  Stealing.  If someone walks into my house, even if I leave the door unlocked, and takes items out of my treasure chest (okay, I don’t own a treasure chest, nor would it be wise to put items in it, as it would suggest they are, well, treasure), I would come after you.  Don’t you rob me, you scoundrel!  But, Link does it all the time, and it’s fine.  Walking into people’s houses is an even more common practice, but you certainly wouldn’t like it if I did it to you, now would you?  (“Rayman 3” even involves our hero trespassing into someone’s house, then proceeding to assault the owner, and somehow the owner is portrayed as a villain because he fights back.)

And then, have you ever played a “Kirby” game and decided to attack those poor, little Waddle Dees just for the sake of it?  Of course, you have.  But, most of the time, are they really doing anything but taking a stroll or gently drifting down from the heavens with an umbrella to slow their descent?  Why do we not only feel the need to maul these poor creatures, but feel justified in doing so?  Again, if you attacked me while I was simply minding my own business, taking a walk (while trying to find a place to hide my treasure chest so people stop helping themselves to its contents) or participating in my own drift down from the heavens with a bumbershoot of my own, I would be quite peeved, to say the least.  It would be uncalled for, sir!  But, in a video game, it’s perfectly fine to attack those who are doing nothing or wild animals simply defending themselves. Continue reading Crime in Video Games and Why Even Kirby Commits It