Category Archives: Feature

The implementation of females in hockey videogames; why it’s a step in the right direction

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14-year old Lexi Peters of Buffalo made a request to EA to implement female players, and she got much more. EA included an avatar of Lexi, so she can finally feel like she's playing in the NHL

14-year old Lexi Peters of Buffalo made a request to EA to implement female players, and she got much more. EA included an avatar of Lexi, so she can finally feel like she’s playing in the NHL

Let’s face it. Professional sports appear to be heavily full of testosterone a lot of the time. However, when EA dropped NHL 12 two years ago in the NHL gaming franchise, we finally saw the implementation of female players onto the ice alongside a sea of men.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the recent installment, NHL 13, is one of the largest hockey video games on the planet right now, but to widen its audience even further to include the demographic of women (yet again) is definitely a step in the right direction for sports games.

So where did this all begin? It all started with a simple e-mail.

14-year old Lexi Peters of Buffalo was frustrated with the lack of female representation in the NHL franchise. Thanks to the advice of her father, she started writing angry, demanding letters to the COO of EA Sports Peter Moore, whom eventually passed the letters on to the franchise’s executive producer David Littman.

Littman was so inspired by her request and took the letters to the production team, with this request.

“We gotta get this girl in the game, and there are probably other girls like her that want to create their own female players,” said Littman. ”Lexi may or may not ever play in the NHL. But here she gets to play in the NHL, in the virtual world. And that’s really important to us,”

From her request, two female faces were added to the create-a-player feature, one of them being Lexi’s.

Hayley Wickenheiser is one of two professional female hockey players to be included in NHL 13.

Hayley Wickenheiser is one of two professional female hockey players to be included in NHL 13.

And the NHL game franchise expanded even more come NHL 13, with the inclusion of two female hockey stars: Hayley Wickenheiser and Angela Ruggiero.

Wickenheiser was thrilled at the inclusion of females in hockey video games.

“The EA SPORTS NHL franchise took a big step last year by including female characters to create a more inclusive experience for female hockey fans,” said Hayley Wickenheiser. “I’m excited to be a part of NHL 13 and hope that the addition of women’s hockey legends will encourage greater participation in hockey from young women everywhere.”

I recently picked up NHL 13, and my brother and I both made fully custom teams with our own unique players, both female and male. Now for the first time since our years of NHL 99, we finally get to feel that we are actually playing with both male and female players, and not having to pretend one gender is non-existent.

NHL 13 currently has two playable professional female hockey players as well as 3 players skins (two white and one black), but chances are possibilities going forward will continue to expand and become more inclusive.

Here’s hoping for an all-female hockey team coming our way?: Perhaps Team Canada to start.

With files from Globe and Mail and EA

Unreleased SEGA console; photos revealed

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The bottom of the console, with the words “Pluto – 2″

An alleged former SEGA employee under the username “Super Magnetic” posted photos of an unreleased SEGA console known as the “SEGA Pluto”.

In a post on the Assembler Games Forum, the user states that the Pluto is a Sega Saturn console with a Netlink modem built into the system, weighing 2.8 kg with two controller ports, a flip-top drive bay and cart slot.

However, the machine still carries the original Sega Saturn logo on top, as seen in the photo below.

The Pluto console still has the Sega Saturn logo on the top of the disk tray

The Pluto console still has the Sega Saturn logo on the top of the disk tray

The really amazing thing is that there are only two known prototypes of the hardware in existence, according to this anonymous former employee. The device the forum member is currently holding is in working order and can play NTSC US Sega Saturn games. The Netlink modem was compatible with a number of Sega Saturn titles like Saturn Bomberman and Virtual-On.

The former employee included a number of angled shots of the console as proof of its existence, and went into a little history on his departure from SEGA years ago.

“Employee turnover is a sad theme, and the Sonic Reaper (as we call him) strikes all too frequently. As such, the past gets forgotten quickly — treasures from the previous generation are quickly cast aside, as a new regime tries to make a name for themselves (or justify their existence). As such, some of said treasures get left on laid-off-peoples’ desks. And in a beautiful twist of fate, this beauty ended up finding its way to my desk, and then in a box with the rest of my stuff when I left Sega.”

So leave a comment. Do you think this is a legit console, or perhaps another stranger looking for his fifteen minutes of online fame?

With files from GameSpot and Assembler Games Forum

Looking back: Jay-Z signs on as executive producer of NBA 2K franchise

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Looking back as worldwide international rap sensation Jay-Z takes on the world of video game basketball.

Looking back as worldwide international rap sensation Jay-Z takes on the world of video game basketball.

Article by Silvio Mazzulla

Entertainment has become an industry that has grown over the past 20 years. The major growth of the industry has made actors and musicians collaborate into each other’s worlds, which has created a world of talents that can “feed” off each other. Sports has now come into the factor for musicians collaborating but not in the way of them becoming professional athletes. In fact, I am talking about Mr. Jay-Zm, who has built his way up from the bottom. He started off as a low key rapper and now has built an “empire” for his life.

In 2011, Jay-Z signed an agreement to work with 2K Sports to help innovate the 2K basketball game. Jay-Z not only helped produce the video game but as well as produced the soundtrack for the video game.

I have been playing sport video games since I was able to use a controller, but I never purchased any kind of “2K” games because I found they weren’t appealing nor graphically good. The only other sport games I purchased were “EA” sports games because their graphics were well designed. I am a big fan of good music from any genre but Jay-Z is a musician I been following for quite some time now and it was quite exciting to see that Jay-Z signed up with 2K sports.

Since Jay-Z signed up with 2K sports, the video games of 2K12 and 2K13 have become a “hot” game to purchase, thanks to Jay-Z’s investment in the franchise. I can honestly say that I switched over to 2K games but I only buy the 2K basketball because the graphics have improved as well as the soundtrack. I enjoy playing video games and listening to music that will get me “pumped “ to win whether in sports games or action games.

The collaboration of the entertainment has so far proven it’s a successful pairing but now adding video games in the formula has started and to me I believe it is only the beginning. Entertainment will become all tied in together and it will help the industry grow. Jay-Z has helped 2K compete against EA sports and it is an enjoyable game and the music soundtrack is “unreal”.

At the end of the day, we pay for good entertainment and the collaboration of these two mediums signifies the start of something amazing.

The future of GTA Gamers…and it’s not bleak

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You may have noticed that in the last year, writers have disappeared off the sidebar ever so slowly, and as well, our site has not only been expressing a lack of traffic, but a lack of content.

That’s partially due to the lack of contributors needed to keep the site looking alive and well.

However, we’re not throwing in the towel just yet. No, no.

We are in fact making some slight changes that we’re hoping will make the site much more lively, fresh and perhaps give it that jump-start it needs.

First off, you may have noticed in the last week or so that the site now has a fresh, new look. That’s just Step 1 in the rejuvenating process.

Step 2 involves getting our name out there. Yes, that tedious process that doesn’t involve knocking on people’s doors, but in fact pushing and pushing the brand through social media as much as we physically can, and urging friends, acquaintances and colleagues to spread the word.

WordPress is a tricky system to maneuver for some newcomers, but I’m making it easier. Being the webmaster, I will be doing most of the handywork in terms of postings and running the various sites, but “guest contributors” will hopefully help provide content that will keep the site as lively as can be on a regular basis.

“Guest contributors” are like the writers we had, but on a part-time basis. Unpaid, and not tied to the site’s name, guest contributors can submit articles to myself for editing, and I can post it directly to the site, with your name embedded in the text, and I can help promote a contributor’s work to the world.

This should make it easier to manage content coming in on the site.

If you are interested in guest contributing to GTA Gamers. Here’s how you can do so:

Send me an e-mail at “will173@hotmail.co.uk”. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you can personal message me declaring your interest and attaching files of your work from a Word document. If you are a viewer of the site who happens to see this and is interested in writing, e-mail me with the tagline “GTA Gamers contributing”, or something along those lines.

Tell me a little about yourself, and send me your ideas. If you have any pieces, I’d be happy to take a look at them and post them for you! I’m all about promotion, I’m currently relying on it, in fact.

And hey, we also have Facebook and Twitter. So please, follow us there as well.

And let’s not forget Youtube. If you have video content, it works the same as Word docs. I can post videos to the Youtube channel as long as it pertains to the content of the site.

Anyways, that’s my brief update. Hope to see your work!

-William Kee, EIC, GTA Gamers

For your Mayan Apocalyptic pleasures…

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salesman

In celebration of the impending doom that is the Mayan predicted doomsday, Dec. 21, 2012, I’ve cooked up a very special video for you.

If you’ve heard of the “Ben Drowned creepypasta” by Jadusable, then you’ll enjoy this homage to the story. I created a little area within my Minecraft game dedicated to it, and put together the video with help from my brother, Carter.

Enjoy!

“Project Dream”, an unfinished project living on through Banjo-Kazooie

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Sitting at my laptop at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon while listening to an old Stardust Drive Podcast from the summer, I casually scan my regular social media outlets. During the podcast I’m listening to, Carter brings up a discussion on Kingdoms of Amalur and the three names behind the collaboration. There was R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, but he forgot the third name.

Curious, I decide to look it up. Grant Kirkhope was the third name that popped up, thanks to Wikipedia, and upon checking out his bio, I discovered Kirkhope’s work on a number of popular Nintendo 64 titles of the 90s, including Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye 007 and Donkey Kong 64, for which he was a composer and occasional voice actor.

This is the only known screenshot from “Project Dream”, featuring an early image of its protagonist, Edison.

Under his list of games released in order was a title called “Project Dream“, developed between 1995 and 1997, and says “revamped into Banjo Kazooie” under the notes tab. Out of sheer curiosity, I clicked the link, and began to read up on the game.

Kirkhope started at Rare Ltd. in 1995, during Rare’s huge domination on the video game industry at this time, where it was pumping out hit after hit. For more information on the history of Rare, you can look back at an older article I published a few months ago.

He ended up developing more than 100 songs for Dream, which never ended up getting released because it was considered “too big” for the SNES, and would later be revamped and turned into what we know as “Banjo-Kazooie” today. But just what is this Project Dream, and how did it lay the foundations for one of the most popular games of my 90s childhood?

“Project Dream” follows a young wooden sword-wielding kid named Edison, who just happens to have bad luck when it comes to dealing with pirates. The pirates are led by their leader, Captain Blackeye, who wanted to capture Edison, though the main base of the story is unclear, and it is assumed the story follows Edison’s adventure trying to end his troubles with the pirates.

A number of secondary characters in the game, including Banjo the bear (who would eventually become the leading protagonist in his own game), and Gruntilda (who played a giant in Project Dream, and who would eventually go on to be the primary antagonist in the Banjo series) would’ve made appearences along Edison’s journey. Other characters included Madeline, Edison’s girlfriend, and Ella, Edison’s younger, high-pitched voice sister. Tiptup and Tooty were also prevalent in this game, but when it was revamped for Banjo-Kazooie, they were given newer roles, much like Banjo and Grunty. Kazooie was never mentioned.

On Grant Kirkhope’s website, he talks about the history of Dream in his post, “Dream: The Game That Never Was”. In his last paragraph of the story, he explains how “Dream” was canned.

Then Tim (Stamper) was unhappy with the whole boy/hero thing and said we should change it to an animal. A bear was our first creature and “Banjo” the bear was born. So now we had “Banjo” running around in an RPG, I really can’t remember when we added the back pack and “Kazooie” but it was around this time. Again Tim still didn’t think it was all good enough and after seeing how good “Mario 64″ was and with Rare’s platforming heritage it was decided to scrap “Dream” and do a platformer with ” Banjo” as the main character. Because I was writing RPG styled music it just didn’t fit, and I had to find a more humorous approach. The first piece I wrote for “Banjo” was “Click Clock Woods”, the spring version actually. It was until later that I started experimenting with the oddball style that became the signature sound for the “Banjo” games.

So that’s the story of the game that never was…….. sad really, but if it hadn’t have been canned we’d never had made “Banjo-Kazooie”!

That’s very true. Without the concept of Dream as a title, we wouldn’t have the lovable bear and bird story we’ve grown to love. Sadly, Banjo hasn’t seen much spotlight since the N64 era, and with a growing popularity in online multiplayer shooters and much more detailed story-driven games, it may be hard for Banjo to find a fan base with the younger, growing generation.

But history stands strong, and another mystery is uncovered. To read Kirkhope’s story of “Dream” and to listen to some of the music developed for the game, you can click here.

5 Amazing Spiderman villain possibilities for potential film sequels

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With The Amazing Spiderman’s success set in stone during the summer, and the Blu-Ray on its way, let’s take a look at some villains that I heavily consider to be great villains for the potential sequel(s).

1. Maxwell Dillon, a.k.a. “Electro”

Electro made his first appearence in The Amazing Spiderman #9 (Feb. 1964) comic, and created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Maxwell Dillon, while repairing a power line still connected to its spool, was struck by lightning. Instead of being killed, the freak accident caused a mutagenic change in his nervous system, allowing him to generate and control vast amounts of electricity. After creating a colorful costume, Max turned to a life of crime as Electro.

Electro is already being considered as a main villain for the first sequel to Amazing Spiderman, and I think he would make for an excellent villain. News has been coming in fast on this topic, as Shailene Woodley of Secret Life fame has already been cast as love interest Mary Jane Watson.

According to Variety, actor Jamie Foxx is in talks to don the electric attire, but what will fans think of an African-American Electro? Well how did they feel about an African-American Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson), or a black Heimdall in Thor (Idris Elba). Race shouldn’t play as a factor for these characters, as they are being given a more modernized coat of paint. Foxx is an excellent actor, and I really enjoy Electro as a character because of how much of a powerhouse he is. If casted, I think Electro would make for an “electrifyingly” powerful villain.

2. Adrian Toomes a.k.a. “Vulture”

Vulture made his first appearence in The Amazing Spiderman #2 (May1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Adrian Toomes is a former electronics engineer who employs a special harness of his own design that allows him to fly and endows him with enhanced strength. Toomes is quite old, though spry, and is a virtually remorseless killer.

Oh poor old Vulture, he’s so close to getting his screen time that he can almost taste it. Entertainment Weekly reported on how veteran actor Ben Kingsley was set to dress in the green get-up alongside Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) in Spiderman 3, before Sony scrapped the villain in replacement of Venom (Topher Grace). The film ended up being the worst in the series, according to this writer’s opinion, but one wonders what might have been.

Vulture was nearly given a second chance to take the spotlight in the cancelled Spiderman 4 project, played by another big-name actor, John Malkovich. But as soon as news of a secondary new villain, known as Vulturess (Anne Hathaway) was brought to light, a backlash started, and the film was eventually scrapped. A reboot would soon follow in the form of Marc Webb’s Amazing Spiderman.

So not only do I feel Vulture deserves a chance as a secondary villain at most, I feel that he’s gained enough popularity because of his early days in the comics and appearences throughout the centuries. He could very well be played by an older actor, or perhaps take the Blackie Drago approach and make him young. My one suggestion would be a heavily modernized costume change. Perhaps metallic vulture outfit. Something that strays away from an old-man-in-a-tight-green-bird-costume look. It’s just not appealing to the big screen.

3. Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio

Mysterio’s first appearence was in Amazing Spiderman #13 (June 1964)

Quentin Beck was a special effects wizard and stunt man working for a major Hollywood studio with dreams of making a name for himself in the film industry. However, he came to see his career in special effects as a dead-end job, but realized that his expertise in illusions could make him an effective supervillain. Thus, Mysterio was born.

With the release of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy and countless appearances by Dr. Jonathon Crane, a.k.a. Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), a somewhat new found element to getting the jump on a superhero was discovered. Not saying that Nolan started it all through playing with a character’s mind, but he made it amazing to watch. Scarecrow is one of my all time favorite Batman villains, because he is about to mess with Bruce Wayne’s mind and make him question what’s reality and what’s an illusion.

Mysterio is all about illusiveness. Utilizing special effects and stunt experience from his former job, he can make anything seem like a reality.  He knew basic psychiatry and could employ hypnotism successfully. He also learned a great deal of applied chemistry, especially the use of hallucinogens, and electronics. Beck was a meticulous planner and organizer, and a skilled actor who kept himself in top physical form. The fishbowl helmet, purple cape and smoke are trademarks that have carried well into the 21st century, and could easily be translated into a modern-day Spiderman film. I feel Webb could definitely borrow a little extra Nolan inspiration if he ever decided to place Mysterio in a film, who could very well work as the primary antagonist, as he already plays one in Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions, Friend or Foe and Mysterio’s Menace. 

4. MacDonald “Mac” Gargan a.k.a. “Scorpion”

Gargan first appeared as Scorpion in The Amazing Spiderman #20 (July 1964) and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Former private investigator Mac Gargan was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to find out how Peter Parker is able to get incredible pictures of Spider-Man. Gargan’s efforts to locate Peter in order to find out the truth triggered Parkers’s spider sense, making him easily avoidable. Frustrated, Jameson decided to pay $10,000 to Gargan as the subject of an experiment. An experiment created by Dr. Farley Stillwell, a researcher in animal mutation which endowed the subject with the characteristic of another animal. Unfortunately the process resulted in the loss of Gargan’s sanity, and the creation of the super-powered criminal menace known as the Scorpion.

I remember a quote from the 1990′s Fox television Spiderman show, in which the Dr. Farley Stillwell character explains how he chose the Scorpion because “it was a natural predator to the spider”. It’s surprising that the character didn’t become as big of a villain as he should’ve been, but was more a demotion to another petty criminal who took orders from higher thugs like the Kingpin and Doctor Octopus.

But there’s definitely potential for a modernization in the Scorpion’s character. It may be tricky, but could work in a way that pits Scorpion as a much larger, more threat-inducing villain. Of course, its also another character that needs an easy tweak of the costume, much like Vulture, but its a very do-able villain. Potential for primary and secondary villain.

5.  Dmitri Anatoly Smerdyakov Kravinoff a.k.a. Chameleon

The Chameleon made his first appearence in Amazing Spiderman #1 (March 1963) and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

The Chameleon was born a Soviet citizen named Dmitri Smerdyakov. In his youth, he was a servant and half-brother to Kraven the Hunter, Sergei Kravinoff, and eventually became a minor associate to one Gustav Fiers. As the Chameleon, he can instantly change his appearance and imitate others so convincingly that practically no one can tell the Chameleon and his victim apart. His natural talents are now augmented with a face-changing serum.

Chameleon is a villain who was definitely swept behind the bookshelf, in my opinion. And its not fair, because he made his first appearence in the very first Spiderman comic ever published. Sadly, Chameleon is living in the shadow of his half-brother, Kraven the Hunter, who became a much larger villain in the series. I definitely feel that like Mysterio, Chameleon could do some major damage to Spiderman’s perception of what’s real and what’s not, and some real trust issues and second-guessing could happen throughout the film, as Chameleon could literally be posing as anyone at anytime.

He’s much deadlier than we give him credit for. Sadly, with a lack of real superpowers other than face-changing, Chameleon may not make a film appearence. But he should be given more or less a secondary villain role, at least if Kraven the Hunter is considered before Chameleon.

So there you have it, folks. Agree with me or not, I feel I’ve given good enough context as to what constitutes the reasons behind why I’d love to see any of these villains on the big-screen. There are some villains that didn’t make this list that you may feel should’ve been, and by all means, feel free to leave a comment below. The one villain I refused to promote was “Rhino”, because I just don’t feel he would make an interesting villain. And I could go into deeper detail as to why I feel this, but this article is long enough.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Review: Zineth (Mac and PC download)

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Sometimes, we just need a game that we can download in a couple of minutes and enjoy.  Well, I came across a game that was released not too long ago, and I am hooked!

Zineth logo w/ background color

It’s called Zineth, and it’s free to download for both Mac and PC here: http://arcanekids.com/
 This is a student made game created over a course of a few months to celebrate speed, movement, and twitter.  Now, there isn’t a lot of facts on this game so far, so I’ll just give a basic rundown, and my opinion on it.

Surprisingly, for a game made by a bunch of students in a few months, it’s really good, and I mean really good.  I instantly got hooked and started drawing fanart of it (in which I’ll post when I get to finishing it).

The game play is really smooth and fun.  Exhilarating even.  I guess you could say that this is a parkour-like game.  You have the choice of doing the tutorial, in which it will tell you how to play, and when you’re finished, it’ll send you to the real game.  You play as this little dude adorned in a cowboy hat, some goggles and some cowboy clothes.  Let’s not forget his robot thing that pretty much lets him do all of this jumping and running stuff.  The world is this vast desert land, and it simply put me in awe.  In the distance, you can see two structures, a city and a canyon like place with buildings.  It’s really hard to describe the setting, so you have to check it out yourself…or just the video I’m going to post at the bottom of this, haha.

There is a plot to this story though, as vague as it may seem.  Well, maybe not vague, but kind of just…thrown out there.  You are given some missions to complete from your “Zine” boss.  I guess you could consider the zine boss as some sort of magazine brand owner or something.  Your first mission is going around and collecting pieces of paper, and then delivering them to people called ‘trainers’ around the desert area.  Then he sends you a message saying something similar to: “Hey, go to the moon.  No time to explain, just go.”  So now you have to get to the moon.  Well how are you suppose to do that?  That’s up to you to find out.

Other than the missions, the game is pretty much a free, open world.  However, don’t go over the invisible boundary line of the world, or the golden hawk will get you.  No really, this golden hawk just appears over your head and picks you up if you stay out in the off-limits zone, and then brings you to his nest.  However, this hawk is really important to the game later on, so going out-of-bounds is actually vital.

This game also has some pretty cool features and games.  You have a phone in the game, which has your options, Zine collection, messages, this mini-game that you play with the “trainers”, and twitter.
Yes,  twitter.
If you have a twitter account, you can connect your account to Zineth, so you can check your twitter right from the game.  I did it, so I can see what Andrew Hussie, the creator of Homestuck, is up to.
Oh, and this game is compatible with an Xbox USB controller.  It’s actually preferred  but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use the keyboard as an alternative.  Just an FYI.

The world is designed so you can do some pretty neat tricks, and some tricks that you thought you could never do in the first place.

Background image on Arcane Kids’ site.

With speeds that can reach up to 400 MPH just by running through the desert land, and jumps that make you feel like you’re flying, it’ll give you a thrill.  The soundtrack is truly amazing in my opinion.  It sounds really relaxed, but at the same time electronic.  It’s a wonderful piece of art.

However, every game has its flaws.  That’s unfortunate, since this game is pretty much perfect in my opinion, but I have some ideas that the Arcane Kids should add.  This game, I think, is capable of updating, so hopefully new content will be added.  I would like to see some multiplayer setting, so that I can play with friends.  The game feels barren and lonely without it.  I might be wrong though, since I saw some pictures of multiplayer gameplay on Tumblr once.  However, I don’t see any multiplayer button.
Maybe some new areas can be added for more exploration.  Well, whatever the Arcane Kids do, I bet I’ll be okay with it.

So, let’s patch this up.  I give this game a 9.5/10.  9.5 because it’s perfect, but things can be added to improve the game considerably.
I was surprised that this game was made in celebration of speed, movement, and twitter.  Kind of an odd selection.  I always thought that the message of the game was that “to find freedom, you have to work for it” or something like that in a philosophical sense.

So just…try this game out.  It’s awesome and free.  You can’t go wrong with that.  You won’t regret it (hopefully).

Animal Crossing and its impact on my pre-teen years

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It was a game originally purchased back in 2001 as a birthday gift for my brother, I think, but somehow, I became more enthralled in the environment and the concept of this game, but only in its Gamecube version.

Animal Crossing was released on the Nintendo Gamecube in the U.S. on April 14th 2001. Originally, my brother and I had seen pictures and screenshots from the game in Nintendo Power magazine, back when I was still receiving subscriptions to that particular monthly magazine. Something about that game seemed to intrigue me deep down. Back then, there was really nothing else to compare it to other than the Sims, because Animal Crossing was a life-simulation game.

When we first got the game, Carter and I started our own town, and played by the rules, of course. Taking turns on the game, we both created our own save files, occupying two houses within a pre-determined acre of land.

The first thing that you’ll find is you will be greeted on the train by a travelling cat named Rover (and on rare occasions Blanca, where you get to draw out any face you want on her because she’s a blank slate). Rover asks you many questions about your move, like where you are heading, what you’re looking forward to in town, stuff like that. Determined by the answers you provide, you will get off the train with a specific facial construction based off of your answers. I know it sounds weird, but its important to best be careful with your answers sometimes, or you’ll get a face you despise. You also get a random outfit off the start of the game, which will then be swapped out in place of a work uniform given to you by store owner and raccoon Tom Nook, who grows to become one of the most important characters in this game because you are in debt to him forever until you pay off your bills entirely. He runs the local shop in town which sells various items like furniture for your house, carpets, wallpaper, stationery, flowers, umbrellas, outfits, and so on.

Before you start anything, Tom Nook helps you in choosing your first house, which can be one of four houses in a specific acre. Seeing as how you don’t have enough money to afford the house, you will be doing a few chores for Tom Nook off the start of the game, which will help familiarize you with the townsfolk, but also the land.

Octavian is perhaps the rarest villager you can get in your town, on the Gamecube version. He was the only octopus villager. I was able to get him once in one of my old towns.

A really neat feature in Animal Crossing is the numerous villager options. You start off with about 6 villagers in your town, and 9 more can move in over a period of time you play in-game. There are more than 236 possible villagers alone that can make your town their new home, which is an immense number for an early release Gamecube game of that time. I guarantee you, no two towns will have the exact same villagers in it, except for the possibility of one villager being the same, which happens. Some are rarer to find than others.

Another really interesting feature, and second to why this game fascinated me, was the layout of the land you play on. No matter how many times you start a game over, and build a new town, the land will always be shaped differently. Though some areas including your acre where the houses are, and the shop, post office and town dump could potentially fall into pre-determined acres yet again, river streams and mountain cliff-edges could be shaped differently, and bring you something new every time.

This game had early online capabilities and multiplayer, and provided you with its own special Animal Crossing memory card for saving your town on it. With two Animal Crossing memory cards in the slot of your Gamecube or Wii, your character can hop aboard the train, and cross memory cards to visit another player’s town, and check out their land and visit villagers. Fruit trees also grow in every town, including orange, pear, cherry, and apple to name a few. You could potentially travel to a town with a different type of fruit, pick those fruits, and sell them back in your town for double the price. You could also buy potentially rarer items in your friend’s town store that you couldn’t get in your town. Also with four houses available in the acre where you call home, you can have up to 3 more friends create save files build homes in your game.

As your house continues to grow, you can place more items and customize it to your liking from the floor up.

The game has a timeline which follows at the exact same speed as the actual real-time clock, which at the time was probably the only game to get this right. You can also experience in-game holidays and special events every so often, so when you go back to check out your town, there’s always something going on. During times like Halloween, Christmas, and New Years, you can celebrate with the townsfolk by collecting candy, finding presents, or counting down till the New Year in real time. Day-to-night cycles were amazingly realistic during this time of the game’s release, I had never seen a game like it before. The Sims had a lot of redeeming qualities to it too, especially towards how specific you can create your characters and your houses, but never could you travel outside your pre-determined space of land. In Animal Crossing, you could go wherever you wanted in town, go fishing, do errands for neighbours, go to the bank, the police station, the museum, its all there for you.

I failed to explain the museum, as it plays a huge part in the game in terms of collecting collectibles. Catching fish, bugs, finding paintings or uncovering dinosaur bones are what the museum looks for to put on display. Its fun to collect these items and slowly bring the empty museum to life with all of your items that you give in.

On the flip side, there are a few annoying traits to this game which I will explain now. If you leave your town unplayed for any duration of time, let’s say 11 months, upon returning, your neighbours will tell you straight up how long you’d been gone for, and make you feel bad for not coming to visit. It’s almost creepy how specific the animals can be. I was told one time I hadn’t been in-game for more than 362 days…how would they know that?

Also, if you don’t take care of your town, villagers will up and move more frequently. Weeds start to develop pretty quickly without proper care, and you’ll spend a good amount of time and money plucking weeds and planting flowers and trees to beautify your town and keep the villagers happy.

An example of an unkempt town, crowded with weeds.

I also didn’t like how you couldn’t plant your house anywhere on the map, and how you were only restricted to a pre-determined acre. I would’ve loved to place my house by the beach or even in an acre with two other lively villagers. Keeping things busy. It was a loss of freedom I felt when it came to my own housing.

Also, if you forget to save your game and just turn it off, you will be greeted by none other than Resetti, the annoying mole with a big mouth. Sometimes he lets you off with a warning, and other times, players aren’t so lucky. So be sure to save your game when you finish, because you don’t want to sit through 5 minutes of his babbling.

Aside from the games problems, I had the most fun just building a town of my own, and seeing the various possibilities of land and villager options. And I believe I had the most fun when I was still in elementary school with Carter. We had a lot more imagination back then and so we took special care of our town. Today, I hardly play the game. Maybe once a year? Who knows. But looking back, it was a pretty big game for me as a kid, definitely one for the pre-teens of course. But I never got into the DS and Wii sequels, where the world was rotating as you walk. That was nauseating to look at. The Gamecube one will always hold strong above all the others, in my opinion. If you ever get the chance, get your 10-year old the game and try it out. See if he/she enjoys it as much as I did.

Its been a while

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Hey everyone. Its your Editor-in-Chief, William, and I’ve returned from my 2 weeks vacation to update you on what’s been going on while I’ve been away, basically what I’ve been up to in that time.

  • So first let me say that I had plans to write the sixth season of my RBG machinima script series, which I decided to cancel. I couldn’t quite drum up the inspiration to get around to writing it, but instead, I was able to write four short stories which I have provided links for below.

Slender Man: a fan fictional story based on the Slender Man meme and free-to-play tie-in PC game, loosely based off the tale.

Firestarter: a story about a man whose best friend has more skeletons hiding in the closet than he ever imagined

The Fountain: a love story based around a man who invites his long-time girlfriend to their initial meeting spot after many years to propose to her

Rickety Bones: an old man attempts to escape a nursing home while being guided by the spirit of his deceased wife

 

  • Secondly, I was able to actually play a few more games over the break. Returning to some old, but still making time to try some of the new ones I had put aside to play.

- Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a big one which Carter and I caught up on a lot, mostly just doing 10 Stock matches with random characters to pass the time.

- I played Bulletstorm: Epic Edition for the Xbox 360 and was able to beat the campaign on Normal mode. Be sure to listen to this month’s podcast when we get around to recording it and I will talk more about my experiences in the game.

- I’m also currently working on Darksiders for the 360 also, and will talk about that game as well and where I stand so far.

 

So what can you expect from this last month before school?

- Well I’m hoping to get a bunch of us writers on the site together closer to the end of August so that we can go cover Fan Expo, one of the big Toronto conventions. Hopefully we’ll have some business cards by then, but we’ll see.

- The August podcast is still a must, as well we may try and record other side videos or smaller podcasts. We’ve discussed possibilities but we’ll see what we can accomplish in such a short time.

- We’ve got a few four-player games on the table to play, including Heavy Rain, Rock Band (Beatles too), Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Mario Party, and more recently added, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

 

So stay tuned for new content over the course of the month.

- William, GTA Gamers