Gameplay vs. Story

Which is more important within a game, gameplay or story?

I'm a firm believer that gameplay must come first and then everything else must follow. I think this is one of the main reasons I find it hard to play RPGs now and days. Yeah the stories are really awesome like in Mass Effect or Dragon Age. But after playing the demo for Mass Effect 2 for the PS3, I wasn't too impressed with the games third person shooting gameplay. (Yes, you can argue I just hit the tip of the ice berg with gameplay.) But let's ask ourselves this, if Gears of War used the same duck and shooting system as Mass Effect, would we still consider Gear of War a good shooter? I felt like Shepard was wearing heavy shoes and popped in and out of cover like Asimo the robot. Because of the intriguing story this wasn't a deal breaker but I'm pretty sure that I might end up quitting the game before I even finish it. If the story is the main draw of games, why don't people read books more? Wouldn't that be better than grinding for endless hours to finally get to the bad conclusion we normally get out of video games.

Time for a come back!

So... like the title suggests I really want to do something productive with my addiction that is all things gaming. While I enjoyed throughly posting on this website in the past, writing about my experiences with games just didn't stick. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but rather it was a mix of lack of exposure / feedback on the articles I wrote, personal time conflicts and even my own dedication.

What I really want to do is a mix of maybe smaller straight to the point articles and focus more on video. What I really like about websites like ign and gametrailers (which i rrequent everyday!) is the video reviews and commentary voice overs. However rather than just game review videos why not just little video 'post its' (short 1 or 2 minute videos) of anything gaming. I really enjoyed video editing. I got kindly reminded of this while making a video of my winter vacation for my English classes.

It's all in the air right now. But I'm eager to get my hands dirty. I think I may use youtube as my main gateway (for now) to post videos and link them here to the site. Hopefully have something to show everyone near the end of January.

I'm really excited about this year for gaming in general. Some awesome titles coming out. Alot of them for PS3 which I brought back with me from my travels to the UK. Much to the dissapointment of my younger brother. :)

Anyways here's to another year, game on!

Johnny

Choose my adventure

Instead for reaching for stories, I'll write about what I know. And what I know is Cataclysm, the next expansion for WoW, is set to release on Dec. 7th of this year.

Tokyo Game Show 2010

Since I was a kid I've always wanted the chance to go to an event similar to E3. Now that I live in Japan, I thought that I might take advantage of this opportunity to go to TGS or the Tokyo Game Show. Armed with my trusty iPhone 4 and Johnny. I'm hoping to get some exciting videos of this event. Let's get this blog a rolling!!!!!

Grown-up gaming

This has been a year of change for me. So many things are different now than they were a year ago. The biggest of these changes is the addition of my son. I knew that having a baby around would change everything, so since this is a gaming site, I'll note how it's changed that aspect of my life. The change occurred in three phases...

Woo Hoo! E3!

My two favorite times of the year are Christmas and of course E3. These are probably the best two events of the year IMO. Who doesn't want to hear what Nintendo, Sony, and M$ are up to.

Change is Going to Do You Good!

I decided that it was time for a change to the background. When I first made this blog site, I wasn't really happy with the aesthetics of the site. It was good enough but it didn't feel original. I like this simple design. What does everyone think?