For you shooter fans out there who prefer playing with a buddy (and using equal parts brains and brawn), I have a good cooperative-gameplay opportunity for you; EA’s Army of Two.
Slated for release on March 4th (next Tuesday!), Army of Two focuses on 2-player teamwork – necessitating the help of either your AI partner or human co-player (maybe your significant other?) to complete the story campaign.
What I find to be the coolest aspect of this title are the various maneuvers you and your teamie can partake in; one can pull a door off a car and hold it in front of themselves while you follow behind, firing over their shoulder – or even drag your wounded friend to safety, while they continue to fire on pursuing enemies. Heck, you can even give them them a ten-finger upsy-daisy; all of which are just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ll spare you all the details and let a preview do that for me, if you’re interested. Jaz and I are excited about this one, and will definitely be checking it out – and blogging about in its wake.
It’s be available on the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3.
Filed under: Articles, Games & Gaming, Jasmine's Rambling, Nostalgia | Tags: amiga 500, gaming, men, nintendo, she-ra, super mario brothers, women, world of warcraft
Now hang on there, buckaroo. I know what you’re thinking: you’re going to run home to the wife and proclaim, “See, honey? I told you so!” and engage in an all night World of Warcraft orgy fest, feeling smug in your assertion. Does this sound like you? Yes, I thought it would. Well, cowboy, here’s where I will layeth the smacketh downeth on you.
At first glance, reading the article made sense to me. Men are typically more aggressive than women are. I’m ok with that, really. However, I thought the study was horribly inaccurate due to one minuscule detail: there were only 22 test subjects. What’s more, is that we don’t know the backgrounds of each person. Were the men already addicted to gaming before the test? Did the women have an aversion to gaming or have they played games since their childhood? I believe environmental factors before the test was performed could slant the test either way.
Many men will argue that their addiction to gaming is simply an outlet for their fantasies. Men want to be the superhero that saves the day, kisses the girl and flies off into the sunset. It’s the ultimate fantasy for a man. Why isn’t it that way for women, too? In a nutshell: it is. I think some men feel a tad emasculated when a woman crashes their daydream, so women in gaming typically tend to go more underground. Being an avid gamer, a geek, a wife and a mother, I know this to be true.
I was raised by my father to be a geek. I don’t think he consciously thought, “I’m going to make Jasmine a geek”, but he laid the foundation for it. The first time I remember being on a computer was my dad’s Amiga 500. I was 3 at the time, and he bought me a dinosaur coloring game which I loved. After the Amiga he bought the Nintendo Entertainment System where we really bonded over countless hours of playing Super Mario Bros. Though my geekery was not limited to video games, it also fell over into the 80’s pop culture cartoons. To this day I still feel the urge to wear a blond wig at the grocery store, hold aloft my sword and declare, “For the Honor of Grey Skull! I am She-Ra!”.
Like men, I too want to be the super hero; albeit a scantily clad super hero with large breasts that can kick your ass. I’m competitive, I’m merciless, I will hump your dead body and above all: I am a woman.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Mike's Rambling, Role-Playing | Tags: Final Fantasy 7
Jaz’s post last night reminded me of a blog entry I made elsewhere on September 5th of last year. Rather than paraphrasing it, I decided to re-post it here – so it’d finally get an actual audience. Unfortunately, I no longer know the location of the quotes I used – I believe they were user comments on some b-list game review site. I apologize in advance if any of my actual words (and not those of the review I quoted) seem venomous; it was written at a moment of weakness…
September 5th, 2007:
Bennett Campbell, you’re just some guy who posted a reader review of a game back in 2005 that I happened to find today, but you are my champion. With the exception of one general statement you’ve made, you have managed to express a frustration of mine I feel I’ve been alone to hold and cherish like a Knight Templar and his oath.
Let me back-track before I trudge on; today I was surfing the web, and stumbled upon the blog of Warren Spector while reminiscing about Deus Ex – one of my favorite games. While reading his various posts, I came to realize (again) just how good Deus Ex was – and, more specifically, what made it good.
While on this high, I saw a fanboy remark about Final Fantasy 7. Yes, the usual one; “OMFG FFVII IS SUCH A BETTAR RPG.” Mismatched genres aside, it angered me – and so I set out to find someone besides myself who was less than impressed by this confusing – yet somehow beloved – Japanese Role-Playing Game.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Jasmine's Rambling, Role-Playing | Tags: Final Fantasy 7, JRPG's, Oblivion
Hello all! I am Mike’s equally better half, Jasmine. I don’t really do bad puns, so I will spare you any pathetic attempts made by me. This is my first dive into the world of gaming blogs and I will admit I am nervous. I’m not as zealous about games as Mike is; I often go in cycles where I don’t play much, but I will try to be as active as possible here.
Now my first order of gaming business is to let you know what I’ve been playing recently. To answer said question is: Final Fantasy 7. Some may groan, some may cheer and some could care as much about that as Britney taking a dump, but I digress. It was one of my first adventures into the world of JRPG’s (Japanese Role-Playing Games, for those internet illiterate) and so is nostalgic, despite the Popeye look of the characters and 2D backgrounds.
I’m not really sure exactly what lures me back to this game time and time again. I argue that it is a great game, but I have yet to eloquently put my finger on why. Is it the long hours of gameplay? The mini-games? Chocobo racing? The fateful twist of Aeris? Sephiroth? Cloud? I don’t know. Looking back on the game when I played it in 1997, I was 13 and I was so enthralled with the characters that I was borderline obsessive. Now, however, I’m starting to see how wooden and static each character really is. The storyline is actually quite good with little plot twists hiding at every turn, but I’m finding myself hard to identify with each character the older I get.
So if not the characters, the graphics, the long hours of gameplay then what is it? Well, at this point I have to compare it to other games I like of similar genre. One of those is Oblivion. Now, aside from nostalgia, Oblivion far outranks Final Fantasy 7 in every way on my list. It is arguably a whole other world in which I can immerse myself, and there are very few games out there that can over-ride my neurosis and make me forget about life, at least for a few hours. Final Fantasy 7 has that same effect on me. I can get lost in that world for hours: Fighting monsters and listening to the same MIDI’s repeatedly. Breeding Chocobos and then racing them. Blowing my money at the Gold Saucer. I also have many happy memories playing Final Fantasy 7 with my father, which I think now contributes to the +7 Happiness factor I get when I play it.
For all its shortcomings, I still think Final Fantasy 7 is a solid game worth owning and replaying every few years. Besides, where else can you breed Chocobos and exploit them for GP at the races?
Looks like I’ll be slapping up one more update for today. Busy opening night!
Anywho, I found this interesting article over at A Good Husband called “My Husband plays XBox too much” - it’s an informative read that deals with that lop-sided relationship where the man is the gamer, and the woman is the (typically) disgruntled bystander. It gives some pointers for men and women on how to handle ‘game-time’. I like how it doesn’t attempt to preach, and acknowledges that the penchant to game isn’t always an addiction, but a male coping mechanism.
Give it a once-over.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, News | Tags: EA, Origin, Ultima, Wing Commander
Also, I wanted to echo this announcement from EA that I learned about while surfing WCNews.com – a site dedicated to Wing Commander and other Ex-Origin intellectual properties. Apparently, the company is looking to return to one of its classic franchises, and many believe that it might be a new Wing Commander (my favorite game series). The suspense is killing me.
“EA Partners to Publish Upcoming Title for PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 and PC…”
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Mike's Rambling, Nostalgia | Tags: Gears of War 2, Ultima 7
Whuzzappenin’? Allow me to be the first of the dynamic d-pad duo to welcome you to the blog… and the start of many bad puns. My name is Mike Mann, and if you haven’t guessed, I’m the husband, and not some unfortunately named woman with facial stubble. Seriously, I’m not. And even if that were true, it wouldn’t really be a his and hers blog, unless I were really awkward insane and wanted to pose as two people.
So, this is He Frag, She Frag – a hubby and wubby gaming blog aimed at couples who flap their fingertips at video games together – but don’t let that target audience deter you. There’s something here for everyone, from the hardcore volcano-faced PC nerd to the casual soccer mom who likes to tickle dachsunds (… That’s a Nintendogs reference. I hope that was obvious.) My co-author is my lovely wife, Jasmine. She’s the murderous vixen. Oh, she’s also the woman in the banner, too.
We decided to begin this as a result of several aborted blog attempts, at least on my part. I’ve tried to begin a game review and nostalgia blog in the past, but I couldn’t handle the structure and the obvious time and financial burden of keeping up with the latest games. Instead, I wanted to just talk about gaming… Whatever that may be… And the topic is one both me and my wife share. So, why not both blab about it together? A boob-tube indoctrined geek blogging about the teaser trailer for Gears of War 2 is a dime a dozen, but a game blog aimed at couples? Moderately original!
So there you have it! Welcome!
My first order of game-related business is to announce the start of my personal crusade; to finally play Ultima 7 – Parts 1 & 2 – through to the end, for the first time. I bought these classic games back in 1993, and have only ever tooled around in the immersive open-ended simulated world that makes Oblivion look primitive in scope. It’s a shame games like these are overlooked by the younger generation of gamers, because there was so much substance in these titles that isn’t found often nowadays.
I’ll be blogging my progress through these games here under the title of The Ultima 7 Blogthrough, inspired by Blogging Ultima.
At any rate, my quest is clear; rather than learn new ways to rob the Britannian mint, murder people for their houses, bake bread for a living, or scam the gambling tables in Buccaneer’s Den, I shall finally triumph over the Guardian and legitimately watch the end sequences of these gems.
That is, if Jasmine lets me… Teehee.
