The Core Square

Y'know I used to love square. There was a time when they made lots of games I actually cared about, and they knew what they were doing. In recent years though Square-Enix seems to have lost contact with what it means to make good games with quality narrative. At the same time they've honed in on what it means to be a money-grubbing publisher hell-bent on making cash wherever they can.
Their latest method involves making you watch ads so you can play classic games for free.

Now I'm not actually against this development, I actually think it's very interesting. You can buy the game, or watch one ad and earn twenty minutes of playtime. It a different way of thinking, and I'm interested to see how it will pan out.
However, I do see it as a way that Square is trying to save it's thinning bottom line. I'm just troubled by how they're trying to save themselves by re-marketing old games, instead of innovating and creating new interesting titles. I know I'm being a little harsh, but I can't help but feel this effort will ultimately be wasted energy.

----Strife Out----

Skyrim - Hearthfire

This is a real surprise, Bethesda is beefing up the simulation aspect of Skyrim with their new DLC, Hearthfire. The content is slated for an Xbox360 release September 4th, and it allows you to buy a plot of land then build a house on it by hand,then furnish it by hand. You can have a green house, wizards tower, beehives, and even fish hatcheries attached to your humble abode.

This new DLC has really come out of left field for me. I;m actually not sure of how I feel about it. What do all of you think, especially if you play on console with no access to mods like this?

----Strife Out----

B10g - Analogue A Hate Story

I've been wanting to make this video for months, and I finally had the time. It really sucks having a script sitting around, but not being able to use it!

Let me know what you think in the comments, on here or over on YouTube.

----Strife Out----

Waste and Capitol

Wasteland 2 is a title I've been keeping in the corner of my eye since it's development was announced earlier this year. The original Wasteland was the precursor to the Fallout series, which was created when Black Isles couldn't get the rights to the franchise. I'm not expecting anything from the new Wasteland, mainly because I know very little about it. However, I am hopeful that it will have success similar to Fallout 3 though, seeing the large similarities between the IPs.

There's good news too, according to Brian Fargo, the project lead, the game is coming right along. Wasteland 2 was kickstarted by crowd funding, so there are no corporate overlords to demand the game have safe and easy-to-market design. The budget is a bit small compared to traditional publisher backed games, but seeing as how there's no corporate cut to be taken that's a small price to pay. The game is far from done though, and until It's release draws dangerously close I probably won't be playing much attention to it.

But I am still hoping it becomes a breakout hit that makes me love the wasteland even more.

----Strife Out----

Black is Back

It seems that the studio Black Isles has been reestablished.

This is a surprising turn of events, especially after it's parent company Interplay shut it down years ago. Black Isles was an influential studio from the 90s that helped to cement the computer RPG genre. If you want more info check out the video below, as it covers some history of the studio.

Anyway interplay seems to be re-launching the old black isles studio, but there's a major catch. None of the old employees are returning. This turn of events will certainly turn heads, but also draw criticism. After all there's nothing that says re-launching the old studio with completely new faces will be successful. And to top everything off they no longer own some of their original IP, like Fallout, which was lost to Bethesda during legal battles.

What do you think? Drop down to the comments and give your two cents.

----Strife Out----

The Stones of Barenziah 2/2

Kinda forgot to post this the other day. Give it a watch if you haven't already and tell me what you think!

I have some more stuff I'm working on, this won't be the last of the Skyrim Guides, I promise.

----Strife Out----

In the Mist

Even though I don't play World of Warcraft anymore I still appreciate the work Blizzard puts into their products. I've always loved and enjoyed the cinematic sequences they've created for their games, even if they only have a fleeting purpose, like the video below for the WoW expansion Mists of Pandaria.

Even though I don't care for Blizzard productions anymore because of how they fumble both content and DRM, I still had a good time watching the trailer. I especially like how they didn't take the whole fighting panda thing really seriously, and put some humor in.

----Strife Out----

The Stones of Barenziah 1/2

It's taken forever but on the anniversary of the ninth month since the game's release I've finally put out my first Skyrim guide. Tell me what you think, and look forward to the second half soon.

Also if you have any game related questions feel free to ask, I'm going to start doing podcasts again.

----Strife Out----

New Beginnings

Well if you've been following me on YouTube you know that I've been working on generating new content. I'm starting to touch on things I haven't done in months (nearly a year actually), and it's feeling awkward. I didn't realize just how out of touch I've become with my roots of video work since I started doing the show Elements of Play.

I'm steadily finding my bearings again, but I also came away from EoP for the better. The show, combined with the last game I did guides over, has taught me the importance of not losing the Forrest through the trees. Specifically I've learned about not embellishing on graphics and effects when it hampers the clarity of the video.
I won't drag on any further, and I hope you like the screen shot.

----Strife Out----