General gaming |
- Memories of an Atari Baby
- Guild Wars 2 Review: At War with Tedium
- PSN Day One Digital Releases Have Big Potential
- Absent On Atari
- Atari 2600 and the Pixelated Imagination
| Posted: 25 Sep 2012 05:15 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Memories of an Atari BabyCover Story: How the 2600 shaped the life of one gamer before he could even pick up a controller.I may not have entirely understood what was going on when I first held an Atari controller in my hand back in 1983. I imagined I put it in my mouth first or shortly thereafter. While I quickly learned it wasn't for consumption, it would be much later that I realized the impact the console would have on me and how I interacted with my family. I was too young to notice the couch was falling apart or I was half naked. The connection with the Atari 2600 was deep and real. The electronic beeps and boops were alive, reacting to whomever was controlling them. Though looking back, maybe it was those hypnotic effects that brought my family together. |
| Guild Wars 2 Review: At War with Tedium Posted: 25 Sep 2012 05:03 PM PDT Guild Wars 2's biggest strength is that, for the most part, it knows when to stay the hell out of your way. From its Skyrim-style fast travel system to the way the game handles player death, ArenaNet's MMO follow-up to the original Guild Wars doesn't spend much of its time wasting yours. And as someone who plays these things way too much already, I really, really appreciate that. Many of the game's innovations aren't colossal, but they make a tangible difference all the same. With something as simple as allowing you to, at the click of a button, instantly send all of your crafting materials to the bank back in town, Guild Wars frees you up to concentrate on the stuff you actually want to do. It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you're no longer saddled by the burden of constant inventory management. Even the act of crafting itself benefits from this seemingly across-the-board reduction in tedium. Let's say, for instance, you've gathered enough ingredients to make 30 pairs of sandals. Most games would force you to sit through 30 lengthy progress bars while your character slowly toils away, but in Guild Wars each successive product assembles more quickly than the last. By about the fourth sandal or so it's as if they're rapidly and spontaneously bursting into existence like some kind of transdimensional popcorn. |
| PSN Day One Digital Releases Have Big Potential Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:53 PM PDT Digital versions of retail games being sold on PlayStation Network are nothing new; we've seen numerous games made available in this fashion. In most cases, these digital versions have been released at some point after the game in question debuted at retail. Last week's release of Borderlands 2 was a notable exception -- it could be downloaded from PSN on the same day it became available in stores and online. That's something we'll be seeing a lot more of soon, as it will be far from the only game released in that fashion on PSN this fall with Sony today announcing the PSN Day 1 Digital program. Eight games coming out in October will be released on PSN on the same day they hit retail, including Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, and Resident Evil 6. That the number is so high is an aggressive move by Sony -- it's one thing for the occasional game to be released simultaneously on PSN, but this list now accounts for almost every high-profile game release in October. There are some missing, like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, WWE 13, and the HD Collections of Zone of the Enders and Killzone (the latter of which I'm sure will end up on PSN), but it's pretty comprehensive otherwise. The omission of Skylanders Giants is not a big deal, even though it is sure to be a major seller. That's because it's a game that relies on the player having more than just a controller to play, and also because it's not a game geared toward core gamers, which is the primary market for downloadable versions of games. |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:34 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Absent On AtariCover Story: Why 10 of the era's notable arcade never came to the 2600.T he Atari 2600 had it made. The little wood-grain beauty all but owned the home console market in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and that was precisely when arcades were in full bloom. Every week brought a new round of promising attractions to arcades, and the most popular of them were ripe for Atari 2600 adaptations. Sure, the VCS could never hope to replicate the look of a coin-op title, and its ports didn't play quite the same either. Yet it was the perfect pipeline for the console. If people crammed Ms. Pac-Man and Donkey Kong full of quarters in the arcade, they'd gladly buy some recreation of it on their Atari 2600s. It didn't really matter if Donkey Kong resembled an angry half-melted gummy bear and Ms. Pac-Man gobbled minus signs instead of dots. Not every arcade standout came home, however. There were a number of curious absences when one compared a local arcade's gallery to the 2600 library. Some games were too complex for the console, some just weren't immediate hits, and some arrived just as the Atari 2600 catalog crashed and took a good chunk of the industry with it. Atari conversions of these notable arcade games couldn't have prevented that crash, but they would certainly have helped the system. |
| Atari 2600 and the Pixelated Imagination Posted: 25 Sep 2012 07:56 AM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24 | 35 YEARS OF ATARI 2600 Atari 2600 and the Pixelated ImaginationCover Story: A 1UP member looks back at the worlds that existed on gaming's first blockbuster console, if only in our minds.A s a child of the early '80s, I discovered video games at a rather young, impressionable age. It was my cousin who first introduced me to the Atari, an unassuming hunk of plastic and faux wood paneling. So unassuming was it, in fact, that I promptly ignored the game system and went back to playing Lazer Tag. It wasn't until I heard the familiar, it somewhat distorted, sounds of the Ghostbusters theme song that I finally took notice. I did not realize it at the time, but that lazy afternoon would lead to a lifelong fascination with video games. My cousin had chosen the ammunition for his war well, knowing that I could hardly resist the call of Ghostbusters. At 5 years old, anything Ghostbusters was immediately elevated in my childhood obsession. If Ghostbusters was on the Atari, clearly, the Atari was good. The opening battle had been won with the first salvo, but his assault on my video game resistance did not end there, as I soon found myself the surrogate owner of the system and an assortment of games. |
I was thrilled to watch and learn about the games my six siblings liked, which in turn, taught me a bit about my siblings, too. 
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