The Negative Edge News Report 05.14.08

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 05.14.2008

Censorship in old arcade compilations, the aftermath of the BioWare/EA authentication scandal, and this year's Assassin's Creed. Plus, this week's one good release, and More!



I've been pretty busy this week so I didn't get to play much of anything. One of the few things that I was able to fit into my schedule was SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for the PSP. I gave it a shot earlier that I had intended mostly because someone had a few questions about it that I thought were worth answering. The questions were - "does Samurai Showdown have blood?" and "does Mai bounce in KOF '94?" After a quick look, I can happily say that Samurai Showdown does have blood. In fact, you can cut people in half in the game, though there wasn't any blood when I did that (I'm not sure if that is how it is in the arcade version). As for Mai - yes, she does bounce... a lot. The rest of the collection is good, and I'll change what I said about how a lot of the sequels to the games in this collection are better and worth holding out for. Even if that's still true, the games in this collection are still great and worth playing. Right now, Last Resort seems to be taking up most of my time. It's kind of an R-type rip-off, but I'll let that slide for now. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, this is one of the better collections on the PSP, at least as far as US releases go.

Let's go -


The Music Box

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This week's song comes from the third game in a series that has been milked to death since its debut on the NES. The stage in which this song plays sticks out in my mind because of the way it changes when you revisit it later in the game; parts of the stage had been broken off, almost as if things started to fall apart after the stage boss was defeated earlier. It's a nice touch and it gave some weight to my actions. I don't recall ever seeing something like that in more contemporary games, which is pretty sad if you think about it. But maybe I haven't been looking close enough. Can you think of any games where you had to revisit a stage and found that it was physically changed (I'm not just talking daytime and nighttime changes) because of what you had done earlier?


The News As I See It

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Even though they've eased up, it's still not ok.
One of the things that I was able to take away from all of the Sociology courses that I took in college was the fact that when a lot of people bandy together for a common cause, it can be a pretty scary thing. Thankfully, for those in power, things like age, sex, race, language, and orientation do a good job at keeping people apart. But, every once in a while, something heinous comes along which causes people to put away their differences for the greater good. A clear example of this can be seen in how PC gamers everywhere voiced their displeasure at some of the measures BioWare and EA planned to implement to combat piracy. Originally, the two companies thought that it would be a good idea to force their customers to report to them every ten days in order to show that they weren't stealing their games. These measures would have been a hassle for those who are without consistent Internet connections. Plus, the idea of having to connect to a server because a company doesn't trust you is pretty annoying. Legit gamers shouldn't be punished for the wrongdoings of others. Thankfully, the beating BioWare and EA received from the media and potential customers caused them to cave in and make it so that gamers only have to authenticate once (during the installation process), with reconnections to the server only being necessary when downloading new game content.

I still hate the idea of having to authenticate, period. People are only accepting this because it is so much better than what came before it. Making something look good in light of its alternative is a common technique, and I wish people could see it for what it is. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen, so we're going to have to live with this compromise for the time being. The one good thing about the way BioWare and EA are handling authentication is the way it makes it so that the disc is no longer needed when playing. It's almost Steamish in a way, only you get a disc to keep with you when you want to reinstall. It's good enough for now.

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This is the next Assassin's Creed, and that isn't a compliment.


A few things stuck out in my mind while I watched this trailer. First, I thought that it disturbing how EA/Dice had to say that they are showing in-game footage right at the beginning. Isn't it sad that when we see footage that's visually impressive, we can't trust publishers enough to believe that what we are seeing is actually what the game is like unless we are explicitly told so? That's a pretty sad commentary on how much we trust publishers and developers these days. Another thing that came to mind was the idea that, since they're so proud of the visuals, maybe that is all this game has going for it. Could it be that what we see in this video is pretty much all there is to the game? I'm guessing that that's the case. This video gives me an Assassin's Creed vibe (i.e. impressive visuals and gameplay on video, but not so much in actual play). Of course, this is all conjecture based on one video, but I have a feeling that I'm right. If not, I'll apologize when the game is released. I'm just mentioning this now because I can usually spot bullshit trailers for games that won't deliver. This seems like one of them.


The Release List

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Only one decent game this week? The only other game that I was looking forward to was Myst (DS), but that game has been getting a beating from reviewers. I think I'll hold off on it until I find a review by someone who as actually played the original. Until then, I'll be enjoying this game -


Castle of Shikigami III (Wii)
This is another vertical shooter for the Wii. I was hoping that we'd get the Xbox 360 version, but it looks like that one is staying in Japan for now. Don't worry - you can play this shooter without having to deal with waggle bullshit. Of special note is the fact that you can use Reika from Time Gal in this version. You remember Time Gal, don't you?



To Be Continued...

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That's all I have for this week.

Now, right in front of me is some guy with sunglasses and a pistol. When I ask him a question, the only responses I get are lines from Army of Darkness and They Live. Unfortunately, his delivery isn't that great. If I can get past him without setting him off, I'll be back next week.