HOW SOON IS NOW?

A guide to modern videotronics

A Feature News Article By:  BIRD

Photo’s and layout By: Padgo

Part Two: King of the Castle

"Console Wars"

During the later part of the 1980's and going into the 1990's it was Nintendo verses Sega at every step of the way. Both companies waged war in producing and outdoing one another in an effort to be the first manufacturer to release to the public the latest ground breaking games hardware and software

So, when Nintendo released the 16 bit NES, Sega released the Sega Master System. When Nintendo released the Super NES, Sega released the Sega Mega-drive. These new and improved home entertainment consoles were 32 bit cartridge fed systems. Software developers now were able to compete on an even playing field, with the public being the real winners. For the most part, Nintendo dominated with a host of games titles that appealed to a more broad range of people, age groups and lifestyles. Nintendo’s flag ship game titles were centred around a little known Italian plumber and his crazy adventures, thus spawning the game “Mario Brothers”.

HOW SOON IS NOW?

A gamers guide to modern videotronics

A Feature News Article By:  BIRD

Photo’s and layout By: Padgette

 Part One: In the beginning there was the command line

 "And to think our fathers used to build hot rods…."

Since the advent of the video game the video game industry has changed quiet alot since it's humble beginnings in the arcade. Industry pole position itself is a constant battle as one leader in the video gaming industry is quickly sidelined and made obsolete only for another to quickly rise to the top to take its place. For the consumer, the world of video games has been a slow build.

From parlour games to pinball, from pinball to Pong, from Pong to Space Invaders, it's the X generation that has seen the birth of video games grow into a massive world wide culture.

Over the years I've been a sucker for the media hype surrounding the big blockbuster titles, the whole aggressive advertising campaign and yeah I've even doled it out myself.
Unfortunately we don't always back a winner and you get wiser the longer you've been a PC gamer.
Given I got back into PC games around late 2000 and spending my spare time in LAN Cafes and on consoles it's taken me some time to understand the trends, to be able to see the changes and to ride the wave in their cycles.

I think we can all agree that franchise gaming is not going away and whether it's EA or Activision who's out their peddling a franchise until it's done to death, we just need to be equally careful as to which horse we back.

I could never have foreseen the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises being as they are today. They're both equally guilty of churning out their titles like clockwork every 12 months and just when we're growing tired of the same old thing Bam! they hit with another title - only this one has more guns and more gear. The thing I notice is that the support quickly evaporates within 6 - 12 months after that new release and this is not only because publishers and developers want money, they also want quick turn arounds for the lifespan of the title. Most publishers of today don't believe in building communities around their title, the independents like Trip Wire Studio's with their indie smash hit Red Orchestra are the rare exception, but most other publishers like Infinity Ward with their Call of Duty franchise want to serve you up something new every 12 months and for you to simply put aside the old one.

Maybe this is why console gaming is best suited to some franchise publishers business model.
They get you with the hook that this is latest thing, everyones playing it, trade in your old game for this one and this is disposable gaming at it's worst.
It might also be argued it's why we see articles every few months that PC gaming is dead telling us to go console, where it's okay to be a nerd, in fact it's very cool.
Not true.

Stalking Gidgette

A Love Story

A Feature News Article By:  BIRD

Photo’s and Layout By: Padgette

Part Two: Time Enough for Love

Part 1  

In-between Battlefield, Call of Duty and the missed opportunities of MOH:AA the other great game out there was DOD - Day of Defeat.

Day of Defeat for me remains shrouded from clan mates as my own guilty pleasure, a personal delight and a bane because I missed the boat. There's a real sincere regret that I never got to enjoy DOD at a competitive level, it pangs every few months in-between that current fan boy title that's hotshot its way onto the scene. Mostly what's kept me and this game apart from one another is largely because no one I've played games with from either clan I was a part of really likes this game like I do.

I've met a couple of gamers that have been able to appreciate what was going on with this game and recognise why it deserved the support of a community. The thing that they all say is DOD 1.3 is better than DOD Source, some even say DOD Beta was best because of the features it had over the final version that was sold by Valve, such as bleed out. I originally played one of the early DOD beta's on my AMD Duron 800mhz when I scored the Half Life 1 pack from the local pawnshop for $25.
The slick pawnbroker turbanite didn't even know what he had on his shelf, Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Half Life and Half Life Blue shift. This was around  2000 or maybe as late as 2001, I was still living above Percy's Bar in Carlton then, so maybe $25 was allot of money back then but I still say... he got ripped.

I bought the Half Life pack not just to find out what was so special about Half Life, but from the recent games news I'd picked up on about this terrific WW2 mod called Day of Defeat. While I only had dial up back then, courtesy of iPrimus's $25 a month unlimited plan, the first map I recall actually playing was 'Beach', it was in one of the early DOD beta's and I'm pretty certain it wasn't the finished version as such but some earlier version was a prelude to everything else I'd play later.
I remember how dark it was, the beach was almost set at night time or dusk, that's how I remember it, I remember how graphically pleasing it was with my new Geforce 2.  I liked the idea's it represented and I needn't wait too long for something else just like it.