Video games have come a long way from Pong. We have grown accustomed to 3D graphics, online play, and stories that are good enough to be movies. This is the new standard for video games today. Two moving paddles knocking a ball back and forth doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. Games today come in such a wide variety, such as FPS, RPG, RTS, Action Adventure, etc.

There are many games that fall under these categories. The difference between them is quality. Many differences exist between Halo 1 and Halo 3, as well as Uncharted 1 and 2. If you compared Halo 3 to Shellshock 2, which game is better? Why is Halo 3 so much better than Shellshock 2?

Read the rest of this entry »

To quote our editor and admin Michael O’Connor: We’re living in a gaming renaissance. No longer are gamers thought of as hopeless shut-ins without jobs and social-lives, now that video games have been brought into the open market due to the advent of casual games that can be picked up and played by anyone.

Yet at the same time, in this time of gaming moving forward and becoming mainstream, I’m seeing an increased focus on moving backwards.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never been very good at drawing, which is why I’m so fascinated by artists and painters who are able to create fantastic works of art with mere pencils, paint, Photoshop or spray cans. And a lot of those same artists can be found on busy city streets, or on the internet.

DeviantArt user jnkboy has made an incredible video game mock up of the original Star Wars: A New Hope film poster. And it’s awesome, containing references to all sorts of sci-fi games like Metroid, Star Fox, Space Invaders, Space Quest, Mass Effect, Halo, Wing Commander, Asteroids and several others. His works has been featured on the covers of Swedish game publication Level, and is a perfect fit for Random Awesomeness.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Legend of Zelda series has been going quite strong for the past 20 years, ever since The Legend of Zelda first debuted on the NES in 1986. Yet for all the enjoyment I’ve gotten over the series, I have to admit one thing: there’s not a lot of innovation. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto even admitted that the new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword wouldn’t be a radical departure for the series.

Read the rest of this entry »

Konami’s E3 press conference was held yesterday, and we here at The Gaming Vault thought we’d give you a quick rundown of the biggest announcements.

Read the rest of this entry »

I read a lot of articles on gaming in order to gain inspiration and quite possibly pick up some tips on how to improve my own writing. And a lot of these articles inspire me to do things like the Evening Topic series, but this turned out a little longer than I first intended. I love discussing video games, and I love hearing other people’s opinions, so if you agree or disagree, feel free to have your say in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »

As a gamer in my early twenties, I’ve suddenly entered a time of nostalgia. A lot of my favorite franchises are being made into both good and bad films, and a lot of the games and films I grew up with are being remade. I’ve also started to track down some of the old shows I used to watch on TV.

And as I look back, it makes me marvel at how far we’ve come, especially with video games. The technological development has been amazing, and innovation is still being made to this day. Though all this technology is making me wonder if gamers are being pushed away from each other.

When I was a kid, me and my friends would play video games for hours on end, on our butts, staring at the TV screen. I remember bouts of Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers, Need for Speed, Donkey Kong and Pokémon. These days, if I play games with others, it’s always online. It’s been a long time since I actually sat down with people, physically, to play games. I also keep hearing the words: “Oh, I play games with my friends ONLINE all the time,” from other gamers, both online and off. Technological advancement is never a bad thing, and I’m all for online gaming, but I feel I’m seeing more and more games that forgo offline multiplayer in order to prioritize online multiplayer.

- Are game developers more focused on online multiplayer in their games?

- Do you still play offline multiplayer with other gamers?

- Will offline multiplayer be, for lack of a better word, obliterated from gaming?

We love games. We love playing them, reading about them, talking about them and writing about them. Yet there’s always something about our beloved hobby that we just can’t stand. It could be anything from encountering obnixious players online, to undergoing fetch quests and experiencing an unexpected change of genre. This article is to honor those things

- What are some of the things about gaming you just can’t stand?

- What about these things annoy you?

- Have there ever been moments when your gaming pet peeve hasn’t annoyed you?

Final Fantasy XIII has been out for about two weeks now and has become a mixed bag among gamers all over the world. Some can’t seem to stop praising it enough while others find it a boring and linear mess that doesn’t live up to the hype or the reputation of the series in general.

Highest on the list of critique is the game’s slow pacing, forcing players through lengthy corridors for the first 20 or so hours of the game. Forum posts and general fan reviews I’ve read seems to point to Final Fantasy XIII as the “end of the JRPG”.

Read the rest of this entry »

In some ways this is a follow up to my last Evening Topic where we discussed fanboyism. Everything from films to plays gets reviewed in some form or another and video games are, of course, no exception. But video game reviews have a tendency to stir up a lot of controversy, especially among fans of certain games.

Not only are reviews a source of fanboy rage, there’s also a strange eschewment of the review system in general. Certain sites and publications seem almost too soft on games, rarely giving out anything less than a 6/10 while other sites and publications are deemed too hard, rarely giving out their highest grade. So I ask:

- Do you consider certain sites/magazines’ reviews to be more professional than others’?

- Have you ever read a review you absolutely disagreed with, even if you respected the source of the review?

- How much playtime should go into a review?

- Does a game need to be finished in order to be reviewed properly?

It seems to me like we’re living in the age of nostalgia, where many of us are almost constantly looking back to what we remember as a golden age of gaming, when all the games were great and no one was shouting “noob” at us from across an internet connection. The Xbox Live Arcade has slowly built up a library of remakes, reboots and upgrades of old arcade classics like Asteroids, Centipede, Pac-Man and Galaga.

Another such title just released is Qix++, an improved version of the old arcade game from 1981. Originally released by Taito, the point of Qix (pronounced /kɪks/) according to Wikipedia, is to fence off, or “claim” a majority of the level’s playing field. Every level is a large, empty rectangle containing the titular Qix, a computer virus according to the game’s back story.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of the most far out, yet most awesome thing I’ve seen on the internet all day.

For those not in the know, a YouTube user have been creating his own versions of Super Mario World levels that plays themselves and makes music as a result. They’re fun, crazy and at times kinda confusing to watch, but the final result is a pretty awesome experience.

This time it’s Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” being played by four different Mario levels running simultaneously. I’ll be quiet now so you can watch it and behold the awesomeness.

Continuing on from A Review on Reviews Part 1, we return to dissect the parts that make up a review. From words, to numbers, to the person behind it all. All of these pieces create this much talked about part of games journalism.

The actual review serves a couple of different purposes that play to the different parties interested in it. The main goal is to provide a consumers guide to that specific game. Ultimately they are the people who will listen to them the best. Whether they listen or not is something that will be discussed later.

Another purpose the review serves is to be a mirror for game developers. It can spot out major flaws or strengths that a developer can use to better their current or future games. The text of a review is a description of the ups and downs that take place through-out the game and weigh them for their merit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Siliconera has taken a look at the Japanese Wii Music site, and discovered the first few confirmed tracks from the game.

There are six in all, with probably more on the way:

* My Grandfather’s Clock
* Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
* Ode to Joy
* Super Mario Brothers Theme
* The Legend of Zelda
* Animal Crossing Wild World

“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” has also been shown in videos on Gametrailers.

Wii Music launches in Japan in only two days.

Speaking to Famitsu magazine, Hideo Kojima hints that he might announce his next next year.

“Until the end of this year, I have my hands full with Metal Gear Online, but at next year’s show, I think it’s okay that I should be able to announce something,” he said

In the same article, Kojima also mentions he feels the Japanese games industry has lost, when compared to the West.

Thanks Kotaku!