By Vermouth , 18th September 5:37 am
I recently saw an interview with Gabe Newell, in which he pointed out that none of the big products coming out, Revolution, Xbox 360, Vista and the PS3 are solving his problems. In fact he went on to tell us how the next gen consoles are really creating more problems for him. Thursday night, Nintendo unveiled the Revolution controller and I realized that as a gamer none of the next generation machines are really dealing with solving my problems with games. The stuff that was really bothering me about gaming, went ignored by Microsoft with it’s HD era, Sony with it’s doomsday machine, and Nintendo with it’s new controller. Was anyone sitting up on Wednesday night going “You know, I’d really love to be playing more games but I just can’t stand to use a controller, or buy some customized design over a network, or see it on a machine so powerful that almost none of the game programmers can easily work on it”. I know I wasn’t. The problems I was thinking about was how retail is strangling out genres, how story telling is still underrepresented in gaming, and how community management needs to be implemented so there are less people acting like jerks because they think they’re anonymous in online games. There has been a singlular response to each of these problems.
» Read all of “The Sound of Crickets: The Problem With Next-Gen“…
By Holliday , 17th September 7:19 am
Ok, I must come clean. On more than one occasion I expressed my opinions on Microsoft’s take and effect on gaming. If you missed out on that I will clarify it for you. Basically I felt that microsoft was going to destroy the spirit of gaming with their plans (ever since the 2005 Game Developer’s Conference). It seemed as though Microsoft wanted to sever the ties between gaming development and game players. Their thoughts of the next generation of games being built in huge buildings by hundreds of nameless animators, modelers and coders was kind of scary.
So, it is with much humility that I say “Microsoft, you are my savior”. I am leading to the Microsoft Meltdown 2005 event this past week. If you are unaware what “Meltdown” is, here is a short synopsis. Meltdown is a yearly event which is generally open to developers only. Microsoft, being the company that publishes the OS most all PC games are made for, holds this confernce to get all the game developers up to speed on their plans for gaming. Meltdown never really attracted much press attention. In fact this is only the second year the press was invited (and very few at that). What came out of this Meltdown deserves the attention of all PC gamers though. Microsoft is out to make amends. They are out to change PC gaming, for the better this time.
» Read all of “An Unlikely Savior“…
By Cyrris , 16th September 1:26 pm
So I was hoping that I’d have Aelon’s version 9 redesign done around the same time I would find out if Aelon was accepted into the 9rules Network or not. The play on words (or numbers, rather) was going to be something really special. So much for that.
For our readers who have no idea what the above network means, I’d urge you to follow the link. The 9rules Network is a loosely affiliated group of blogs about all sorts of topics - and every single one of them is serious quality. They have to be - as that’s what 9rules is all about. A few weeks ago I thought I’d submit Aelon, and not too long ago Paul Scrivens, their CEO, nodded his head and decided this site was up to par. So we’re in.
I’m not sure how much this means to you readers, or even to the others who write articles here on the site, but as the person who keeps the insides of Aelon well oiled and functioning right, this is a serious boon. I have felt for quite some time that the quality of content on this blog deserves more traffic, and I believe we’ll be getting that. The community of people in 9rules are also a very knowledgeable bunch, and I definately plan on tapping into that knowledge bank to see where we can take Aelon from here. Hell, maybe I’ll even be able to give some of my own tips to them. Who knows? Either way, it’s definately a bright-looking future.
By Plagiarize , 4:56 am
I know that Aelon.net isn’t a news site so much as a place for comments, editorials, reviews that sort of thing, but today, a monumental thing happened. TellTale games acquired the game rights for Sam and Max and will be working together with Steve Purcell to make a new series of episodic adventure games with the license. This isn’t just good news, it’s the best news I’ve heard since I heard that LucasArts were making a Sam and Max sequel in 2003. They cancelled that and revealed finally how much they had gone over to the Darkside.
And with that I stopped playing LucasArts games. I haven’t bought or played anything they’ve done since, and I won’t. It’s not even like I’m missing out on much. Sure occasionally one of their Star Wars games is great, but I’ve as much interest in playing another Star Wars game as I do in playing another World War 2 shooter. Been there and done that over and over again. Not going to waste hours of my life doing it again however iteratively better it might be.
But the triumphant news today could well be the first time an internet petition achieved something.
» Read all of “Missing dog and lagomorph found?“…
By Kelmon , 31st August 10:02 pm
The Web and Internet in general seems to be populated by all sorts of services, some more useful than others. While this might be somewhat banal, I’m actually a really big fan of Amazon not because they are generally a cheap place to buy books and DVDs, but because of the value-added features that helps me to discover new authors, artists, etc. that I’ll like. Using the “customer’s who bought this item also bought” and “average customer review” features (ignoring the rather pants idea of allowing idiot gamers to review games and consoles not even released yet) has enabled me over recent years to find some great products because I have been able to tap into like-minded people’s preferences. However, yesterday I was made aware of a new service that I really like much more.
Today I have my own personal DJ…
» Read all of ““…, minor key tonality and extensive vamping.”“…
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