"Ben Drowned" - give it a read

Just heard the boys on Podtoid from Destructoid make mention of this creepy little fan-fic: "Ben Drowned."  Started reading it, and it's definitely worth a recommendation.

The Coles Notes: buddy buys a used copy of Majora's Mask at a yard sale. He flips it on, and it has a save file from the previous owner named "Ben." He begins his own save file, and characters in the game begin to occasionally refer to him as "Ben." He tries deleting the "Ben" file, and the game starts going off script with in-game characters doing creepy things, speaking directly to him as the player, etc.
Won't say anything further, but he also includes mash-up vids at the end of each description to show recordings of what he purports to have seen in the game. It's very entertaining.

Wii Magnetism

Though most attention at the Game Developer's Convention over the last couple of days has been focused on Sony's announcement of their upcoming "Home" interface, a few keen observers have been paying close attention to the wise words of an old master.

Some call him the "Spielberg of Gaming." Others, like myself, think the comparison should be reversed.

Creator of gaming icons, Donkey Kong, Mario, and Link delivered his keynote address yesterday to a packed house. Even Sony Worldwide President, Phil Harrison procured for himself, a front row seat.

To many, his speech may have seemed scattered and vague, as it bounced around various points in the history of the industry. Part of the problem, of course is that it was delivered in Japanese, and all we've heard have been English translations. Speaking in Japanese, of course means that Miyamoto also thinks in Japanese, and as such, his he comes to his points in a manner fundamentally different from the average westerner. As such, many of us have difficulty interpreting his message. Whether it's meant to be the same for everyone is anyone's guess.

For me, Miyamoto issued a veiled warning to the industry. And in a way, I think it was aimed directly for folks like Sony's Phil Harrison, though I'm absolutely positive it bounced right off their noses.

By speaking about the evolution of games, the need for humanity to be a key component in their development, and a continual priority placed on enjoyment... I think Shigs was warning others in the industry not to attempt to *duplicate* humanity, as games like World of Warcraft do, and as Sony's "home" might.

To illustrate this point, Miyamoto spoke about his development tactic of always trying to picture the look one of his games will produce on the face of its player. How many smiles and giggles of glee are emitted from someone attached to a PC playing a reality-simulator for hours on end. How to, will Sony's "home" perform in this respect.

To catch a glimpse of Shigeru's genius, and to see an unintended demonstration of his goal... take a couple minutes to watch this video. (please pardon the 30 second ad preceding it)

Twilight Princess Down, and no Addiction Treatment Required.

Unless I'm in denial that is...

Had two days off this week, and only one goal.

Locked myself in our games room for both days. Finally emerged today, hairy-faced, haggard eyes, and extremely stinky... but I've finally seen the ending of "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" for the Nintendo Wii.

This didn't all happen over the last couple days mind you. It's the product of just under 4 months of on and off playing. Grand total, I think the Wii logged me at just over 43 hours of game time... so I suppose that's an average of 10 hours per month. Not too shabby.

Of course, I could have put countless more hours into the game. There's tonnes of things I didn't find, quests I didn't finish, and one day I may go back through it all. In all honesty however, when you love games as much as I do, the time you spend on one game tends to translate into time you're not spending playing all the other games you've been salivating over for months. And since I've recently acquired a whole number of playable downloads for the Dreamcast I bought last year off my buddy James... the list of games I've written for myself to get through is getting pretty hefty.

In any case, back to Zelda. I've played some epic adventure RPG's in my life, (the most glaring exception of which is Zelda: Ocarina of Time) and I can easily say that Twilight Princess ranks among the most satisfying. Nothing I say in terms of a review will add on the multitude that have already published, but I will say that it contains within it, all the components of what a classic game should be. Progressive character depth and development, extremely intuitive, enjoyable and addictive gameplay, breath-taking level design and settings (all with a fraction of the horsepower contained within both Microsoft and Sony's consoles) and grand horny honour music. (Horny as in... lots of brass horns... not sexy)

Most important, and contrary to the game featured in my previous post, Zelda is designed to play in a hardcore fashion, or at your leisure. I enjoyed every epic sword battle, and every mind-bending puzzle... but I never experienced the withdrawal so often talked about by World of Warcraft players. When I finally finished the game, (and not without a little help from a third-party game guide) I felt extremely satisfied that I had definitely got my money's worth. I also finished in total agreement with every game reviewer that awarded Nintendo with a 2006 game-of-the-year honour for this this gem. In fact, it's convinced me to download Nintendo's recent Virtual Console addition, Ocarina of time, the only Zelda game considered better than Twilight Princess, and considered by many to be the finest game of all time.

Give it a go... you'll thank me for it.