Autosave Podcasts Ep. 3 and 4 are now availiable (#3 has been up for a while, but it’s never been mentioned here). These podcasts are a two part series on setting up a Home Theater System, including talk about HDTV’s, sound systems, Blu-ray players, and gaming systems brought to you by Autosave Blogger Skyler Dowling and movie fanatic and former ReelLife blogger Kevin Haugen.

Link to podcast Ep. 3

Link to podcast Ep. 4

Also, to check out all of The Autosave’s podcasts, click here. There may be one more podcast before the end of the academic school year, so stay tuned.

Speaking of the end of the school year, the final few weeks of classes have made it difficult for either me or Skyler to update the blog. However, my semester essentially ends next Tuesday, so I should be able to write/podcast soon after. I (and likely Skyler as well) plan on updating the blog frequently over the summer.

I know I plan on continuing my “Changing Demographic of the Gamer” discussion that I started here and continued in podcast form here. Also, I plan on purchasing Grand Theft Auto IV this coming Tuesday (along with most of the gaming world I assume), so expect impressions, and an analysis of Super Smash Bros. Brawl: What they did right, what they did wrong, and what they should have done but didn’t do at all.

Also, our first request will be answered as Skyler and I decide what game we would create if we had the money/time/ability to create a video game.

Expect those pieces within the next month or so, and expect updates throughout the summer. With so many big releases and industry news, there will be plenty to talk about.

Most gamers sit and play video games for countless hours more for personal enjoyment than anything else. However, in the back of every gamer’s mind there is always the hope that someone will have the motivation to organize a tournament. Nothing pleases a gamer more than being able to test their skills against the best and be rewarded for their endless hours of time in front of the television

Needless to say when tournaments do actually get created gamers run around for several days in advance honing their skills preparing to showcase their talent in front of the crowd. Sleepless nights and undone homework are not uncommon in my experience with hardcore gamers preparing for a prize-offering tournament.

All those ideas in mind, is it any wonder that when a tournament turns out to be a disorganized crap shoot that does little to reward the best players, participants tend to be more than a little ticked off?

Recently USD played host to a Microsoft sponsored Halo 3 tournament (what else), and I can honestly say the thing was as much of a disaster as any tournament could be.

I was asked shortly before the tournament to participate by some friends who were missing a teammate, and I reluctantly agreed to play. I arrive in true nerd fashion carrying my own controller (don’t laugh almost everyone was) to a room full of confused people trying to figure out what was going on.

The guy running the thing was about as confused as it gets – especially for someone who said he had done this sort of thing more than once. The prize system turned out to be a lottery, where winning games got you raffle tickets and prizes were raffled off to winning ticket holders over the course of the evening.

Rather than systematically sift thorough each problem I saw in the running of the event I will simply say the event did little to reward the most talented players. Every match was a 16 player event involving 4 Xboxes. Less than no skill is required to win such a game. Players had no chance to demonstrate their ability or accuracy with various weapons; everyone was constantly being mowed down by the starting assault rifle (side note – who plays a tournament with assault rifle starts in Halo??). Victory involved little more than a team pairing off and cutting down the high school kids who had the misfortune to step into a tournament that was way over their heads.

The majority of the prizes ended up going to a team that was beaten several times by the team I had the good fortune to be asked to play for (I was not a major contributor to the teams success) which made the whole tournament look like it needed a little more planning. Luck of the draw seems like an odd distribution system for a “tournament.”

If you are going to spend the time setting up a tournament event at least have the common courtesy to provide the people who show up with a well organized talent based tournament.

~Skyler Dowling

If you’d like to listen to the podcast, just click the link right here.

The first written post is a sort of general overview of the topic. For the next few podcasts, I’ll be delving into the specifics of why certain types of people are playing video games, why the market has changed to accommodate them, and how the industry will change because of them.

In this first edition of the series, I talk about why females have become gamers, and how the industry might be scaring the next generation of female gamers away.

Again, to listen to the podcast, click right here.

- Drew Quandt 

Anyone who’s played video games has heard the stereotype that engulfs them. The anti-social, nerdy teenage male sitting in his parent’s basement, yelling at people over the internet through his headset and rambling on about mana points and such.

Whatever people want to believe, the type of people who play video games is changing. Who says so? The Entertainment Software Association, that’s who.

According to ESA statistics, women of age 18 or older make up a larger percentage of people who play video games (30%) than males age 17 or younger (23%).

Talk about breaking stereotypes.

In fact, the average age of a video game player, according to the ESA, is 33 years old.

It’s an interesting thought: the idea that those Wii commercials with the family sitting down and playing a rousing game of Mario Party is not all that unlikely. Why? Over two-thirds of household heads (69%) play video games.

That’s a large chunk of Americans who are settling in for a night with a joystick, and not necessarily the chunk that people like to believe.

You may think I’m pandering to the ESA by regurgitating such statistics, but those stats are the reason people are seeing changing views with the video game industry.

First of all, games have become “mainstream.” Madden sells a million copies every year, and has all sorts of national tournaments and a televised show to accompany it. Halo has become a pop-culture phenomenon, and the more recent Grand Theft Autos have attracted a wide variety of adults looking for a virtual playground. It’s trendy to have the Nintendo or Atari logo plastered on your clothing, or to carry around a DS or PSP much like you would an iPod. Games are cool.

Another way to look at the way games have become mainstream is through the way they’re advertised. Advertising for video games has taken a more advanced rout. In a lot of ways, certain games are advertised like movies. What I mean by that is that actual gameplay rarely shows it’s face in a national television ad. Instead, advertisers are putting together thirty seconds of cinematic cut scenes involving the story surrounding the game. Everyone knows it’s a video game, but the ad makes the game feel more like an experience, and less like Pac-Man or Pong.

Add to that the countless other items not directly related to the industry that are pandered towards gamers: energy drinks, snack foods, furniture, etc. and you have a whole culture being created, much like the culture around the modern film, television or music industries.

All of the effort by corporations is to accommodate the change in who’s sitting behind the controller. So, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes numbers do matter.

In the end, it’s the changing face of a “video game player” that is making the market more viable and more mainstream. Much like movies, it may not be long until video games truly carve out their place in the entertainment industry.

Because, at some point not to far in the future, no one will remember what it’s like to have never played a video game.

- Drew Quandt

Nintendo as a console manufacturer was essentially left for dead during their Gamecube generation. They were clearly in third place when it came to the home console market, and some questioned if they would even remain a console maker for much longer.

My, how things have changed. Now the Big N is dominating the console sales charts with the Wii.

The question is, where can you attribute such a turn around in sales success?

Admittedly, the Wii is not a powerhouse machine with the capability of next generation graphics like the PS3 or 360. It’s games don’t push the envelope as far as new ideas or radical new franchises like Gears of War or Killzone.

In truth, extreme innovations and franchise rennovations were Nintendo’s mistake with the Gamecube: Mario with a waterspray cannon, Luigi with a vacuum in a haunted mansion, A cel-shaded Link, a double-team style of Mario Kart, and a first person Metroid.

What’s the theme? All of the characters and places seemed familiar, but everything about the games was just too different.

Then add the uniqueness of Pikmin, Mario baseball, and Eternal Darkness. All of which are quality titles, but fell far from the traditional style of Nintendo games.

That was Nintendo’s problem. People play Nintendo games to reminisce, and they couldn’t do that with most titles on the Gamecube.

With the Wii, Nintendo brought back a lot of familiarity in their franchises. A traditional Zelda, A more familiar style of Mario game play, even the concept of a first-person Metroid had a comfortable feel to it thanks to its market on the Gamecube.

The new concepts still exist, albeit in a different form: their control.

The Wiimote has allowed Nintendo to innovate while keeping people in familiar worlds. The Wii doesn’t have the power to produce fantastic graphics. However, with great art design, new and improved controls and a gamut of games from very casual to very hardcore, Nintendo has found success.

The hardcore gamers have the Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metroid Prime 3. The middle-of-the-road people have Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy. New video game players have Mario Party 8, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and WiiSports. All of these games combine responsive and innovative control schemes with fantastic art and game design. Those are the reasons why nearly everyone played Super Mario Brothers and a number of games on the NES. It was new, fun, addictive and accessable.

Those same reasons have driven Nintendo’s return to power. With the Wii, Nintendo has made their games new, fun, addictive, accessable and familiar.

Forget the Wii’s novelty. Novelty alone doesn’t sell tens of millions of units and create empty shelves 2 years after a system’s release. Nintendo is going back to their roots, all while bringing the video game industry, lots of money and the general public with them for one heck of a fun ride.

- Drew Quandt

Every video gamer who owns a next-gen console lives with the constant worry in the back of their mind that their marvelous console is going to “explode” unexpectedly. Whether it be a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or even a Wii, the most likely cause of a console’s death is usually overheating. Such is generally the cause of Playstation 3 malfunctions and Xbox 360’s infamous red rings of death.

If there is one thing marketing strategists know about sales, it is that fear is an excellent purchase motivator. In response to gamers’ fears about their systems overheating intercoolers have been developed to provide additional airflow and thereby a supposed increase in cooling capacity. Perhaps the most popular of these intercoolers is the Nyko Xbox 360 intercooler, which is essentially an attachable fan for the back of the console. The great debate out there is whether or not such an intercooler is effective, necessary, or even safe.

My reading on the topic suggests that no, placing an intercooler like the Nyko Xbox model is neither necessary nor completely safe.

For starters, Microsoft has told Xbox users NOT to use the intercooler systems. They are not factory equipped and therefore they void the three year warranty against the red rings of death. Don’t you think if Microsoft thought the 360 needed a set of cheap fans attached to its back they would have placed them there themselves?

Another scary thing about the Nyko intercooler is the astronomical number of negative reviews the thing has gotten. Users have reported everything from lowered voltage delivery to the system itself all the way up to unit actually melting to the Xbox. Some users even say the additional airflow over the stock fans caused them to wear out because they were forced to operate at RPMs they were not designed for. Spending money for an attachable unit that is going to void the system’s warranty and potentially damage the unit at the same time seems completely irrational.

That being said, the cooling needs of console systems cannot simply be ignored. Any game player has to know the limitations of their equipment - just like you have to know the limitations of an automobile to be a good driver. The Xbox, for example, expels warm air out of the back of the system and draws air in through the top (if the unit is placed vertically - which i suggest it should be). The design is such that placing an Xbox in an enclosed area with the front facing out will develop a heat loop where the hot air is pushed out the back, filtered to the front, then drawn into the machine again to be heated even further.

Avoiding problems like a heat loop does not require the use of an intercooler at all, it simply requires the use of some common sense. Consoles should be placed in the orientation that leaves the most surface area in contact with the air (vertical), the heat vents should not be obstructed in anyway (nothing behind or against the unit), and they should be given the chance to cool from time to time. Six hour game stints are not out of the question, i just suggest you let the machine rest once in awhile. Take your game manuals advice and rest your eyes for a bit every hour.

~Skyler Dowling

The first ever edition of The Autosave’s weekly podcast is online. In it, I talk about the suprising rebound of Sony’s PSP and the anticipated release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl!

Click here to listen

Microsoft has an interesting new toy out on the market that seems to be flying a bit below the radar – perhaps because the thing costs more than a small car.

Microsoft has developed “Surface” a 30-inch tabletop interactive display computer system (for lack of a better description) that has some interesting, yet somewhat far-fetched, possibilities.

The coffee table style computer will run you a painful 5000-10000 dollars, but man – it sure looks like playing with personal photos is a blast in Microsoft’s ready made videos featuring actors who look like they know about as much about computers as my dog.

The screen does feature one thing that gives it great promise as far as a video gamer is concerned. Multi location input – meaning the screen can draw from any number of inputs (fingers) at the same time. Think of the real time strategy game potential when four hardcore gamers can sit around a table and all control units with their fingers in an epic high-speed multiplayer environment.

My overall take on this attempt by Microsoft is that it came too early. The technology is too expensive for any kind of mass marketing at this time, meaning there are very few developers who are going to produce practical software for this machine and others like it. Surface is not a practical purchase – it provides novelty item type entertainment at best. Any task the Surface can perform can be done more efficiently with any number of cheaper computers. Microsoft’s vision for a Surface style table around every corner is a long ways off. Prices must fall, software must be developed, and Microsoft must prove the machine can do certain tasks better than a conventional computer (Starcraft 4 shipping for the surface??? – never hurts to dream…).

Perhaps it would be impossible for me to completely describe exactly how the unit functions – thankfully Microsoft has provided some ready made promo videos that I recommend anyone interested in this fascinating piece of machinery check out.

~Skyler Dowling

There are a few games that people may have missed over the holiday season while everyone was snatching up their Halo 3’s, Super Mario Galaxies, Call of Duty 4’s, etc.

The “industry dead time” in January and February is perfect for catching up on some great games you may have missed.

Hence the name of this post/ongoing commentary: “You may have missed…” These are the games that are really worth your attention and money, despite not being brand new.

Although the industry is attempting to fill this time with games like No More Heroes and God of War: Chains of Olympus, don’t forget these killer apps that came out last holiday season.

– Metroid Prime 3 (Nintendo Wii): If you’re unfamilliar with the Metroid franchise imagine this: You’re a bounty hunter lost in space, looking to destroy evil creatures and save a friendly alien race. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? If you are familiar with the franchise, you already know why this one should be in your collection: Great exploration and action game play, tons of adventure, and great graphics. The control scheme also works very well as you use the Wiimote to aim and fire.

In short: A great single player game with great action/exploration gameplay to keep you glued to your seat for hours on end. A must-buy.

– Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Playstation 3): Envision a truly interactive version of Indiana Jones. That’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. You’re put in a story driven action/adventure game that is completely story driven. With all of the things that make storydriven games work: Great character development, an epic storyline, great graphics, and solid gameplay. It really is the ultime treasure hunt; sort of like Tomb Raider, but actually good.

In short: It’s like a virtual Indiana Jones movie with a great story and solid gameplay. What’s not to love? A rental at the least, but likely a buy for PS3 gamers that are starved of some truly killer apps.

– The Orange Box (Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC): Anytime 5 full-length games are crammed into one box, that’s pretty good by itself. Then add to the fact that it has a former Game of the Year, two of it’s episodic sequels, a fantastic team-based online FPS, and one of the most inventive games created in years. That’s The Orange Box. Valve crammed Half-Life 2 and two follow up episodes (1 and 2), Team Fortress 2 (generally considered one of the best online shooters out there) and Portal (And there’s not enough room on the internet to describe how fun and creative this 3D puzzler is) into one disc. These are some of the best First Person Shooters you’ll play in a long time.

In short: This is a true bargan. The combination of Portal & Team Fortress 2 may be worth the money alone. Then add one of the greatest games of all time to the mix? Buy this now.

- Drew Quandt 

Over the weekend, mega-giant publisher Electronic Arts offered to buy Take-Two Interactive for $2 billion dollars. Scary, isn’t it?

This is the same Electronic Arts that just bought up BioWare and Pandemic Studios for their individual intelectual properties. EA has completely gone off of the deep end.

Let’s look at some of the creative property Take-Two has under their belt: 2K Sports (EA Sports’ only rival and current exclusive owner of the MLB liscence), Bioshock, and Rockstar Games, makers of multi-billion dollar franchise Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the most anticipated games of 2008, is coming at the end of April. That game alone could make Take-Two half a billion dollars. EA was looking to purchase, essentially at a bargain rate, all the profits from Grand Theft Auto IV. That is literally how cocky EA has become: they think they can buy anything.

I personally have no problem with the purchases of BioWare and Pandemic. If EA stays out of their way when it comes to the developement of the games, and becomes the publishing and advertising monsters that they are for those brands, it’s best for both parties. However, Take-Two can and would handle themselves just fine without EA’s help.

What worries me more than the offer (which Take-Two essentially told EA to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine), is the fact that Take-Two would “be interested in negotiations on April 30th.” April 30th is the day after GTA IV releases worldwide.

I truly hope this is a joke. Take-Two is perfectly capable of staying independent. Rockstar Games and 2K Studios pump out plenty of quality titles by themselves. In fact, it’s safe to assume Take-Two has enough intellectual property that they can compete with Ubisoft as the third largest 3rd party publisher.

Hell, they would likely gain sales momentum from telling EA to step off all together.

So what does this all lead to:
1. EA should be reenvisioning their own brands, not buying new ones to bury.
2. Take-Two, you’re just fine all by yourselves. Let Grand Theft Auto IV rake in the millions to show EA you don’t need them.
3. Competition from 2K Sports is what made EA Sports improve their brands every year, and for some sports (NBA, NHL) still does. There is nothing better to improve the quality of a game than healthy competition. EA should embrace it, not acquire it.

- Drew Quandt | Online Editor