Tag Archives: playstation 3

Food For Thought, General Commentary

My “Deserted Island” Games — Playstation 3 edition

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Image by Flickr user uencio
Image by Flickr user uencio

Around this time a year ago, our Playstation 3 died. During a round of Sleeping Dogs, the console just quit and started in with the blinking red light — the deadly “red light of death.” We tried to get the thing up and running again to no avail. And since it died with the game still inside, we had to take our beloved machine apart to get it out. It was a sad, sad weekend.  After the PS3 was in pieces, we discussed our options: get another PS3 or wait for the PS4, which was then a mere rumor.  It was a couple months before we finally made the decision to get another PS3. We had so many games already for it, and so many games to start over (since we lost all the old save data…grrrr), it seemed a shame to not give them the chance they deserved. I’ll do my best to keep my PS3 up and running on my island, but my list won’t include Sleeping Dogs…I still feel like it’s somehow cursed.

Continue reading My “Deserted Island” Games — Playstation 3 edition →

General Commentary

Are Games Getting Too Easy?

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Seriously, are they?  Over the years, I’ve been noticing that an increasing number of new games take less and less effort to beat nowadays.  I never have to wonder if I’ll be able to beat a new game or not.  In the past, I had many games sitting around that I needed to return to and finish.  Now, it is quite uncommon for me to start a game without being able to finish it.  When the rare game comes along that I can’t beat on my first playthrough, I’m rather surprised.  Such things never happen anymore.

I remember games definitely used to be much harder.  Back when I was playing a bunch of Super Nintendo games for the first time, I couldn’t beat any of them.  Finally, I got through “Donkey Kong Country 3”, but the second game stopped me near the end, at the stressful Castle Crush level, while the first game of the series stopped me earlier still at world number three.  It took quite some time before I was good enough to beat those games.  And to this day, I can’t beat any old “Mario” games except for “Super Mario World”, with help.  I have not beaten one game on the “Super Mario All-Stars” collection.  Not one.  Even “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” was hard, and it wasn’t even part of the platformer genre that used to cause me so much grief.  You remember that big worm centipede boss thing where you have to hit the tail, and it keeps pushing you off the platform, forcing you to start the battle over again?  Yeah. Continue reading Are Games Getting Too Easy? →

Game Series, Widely Read Posts

Comparing “Jak and Daxter” and “Ratchet and Clank”: Two Series Everyone Must Play

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Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about two of my favorite series, both of which are often compared to each other, the PlayStation exclusive series “Jak and Daxter” and “Ratchet and Clank”.  From what I can tell, these series always seem to be related to each other, likely because their developers, Naughty Dog and Insomniac respectively, have worked with each other throughout the years.  (Ever heard of the games combining “Crash Bandicoot” and “Spyro the Dragon”?)  I absolutely adore both of these series, as they are a lot of fun, while also combining great characters and interesting stories, along with absolutely fantastic voice acting, and I thought I’d discuss how these two series compare to each other in several different categories.  But first, a quick summary of each series.

The “Jak and Daxter” series started off as a fantasy platformer in “The Precursor Legacy”.  Here we meet our heroes, Jak and Daxter.  The game shows how Daxter, originally a bucktoothed human, fell into Dark Eco and got turned into an ottsel (half otter, half weasel).  Then, it follows their adventures to try to get Dax turned back to normal.  It was a great game, consisting of exploring interesting locations, meeting funny characters, and collecting a bunch of Precursor Orbs and Power Cells to progress through the huge, open world of the game.  The game emphasized the use of Eco, a substance Jak can channel, that could do different things depending on the color.  Then, the series drastically changed in “Jak II”, with our heroes going a couple hundred years into the future.  Ever since, the series has become more serious and dark, while still retaining a great sense of humor.  There is more emphasis on guns and less on Eco, though Light and Dark Eco now play greater roles in the story. Continue reading Comparing “Jak and Daxter” and “Ratchet and Clank”: Two Series Everyone Must Play →