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Stiq Figures, August 11 - 17: Successors we never got edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Between the wealth of traditional powerhouse studios and smaller teams that thrive in digital stores, holding out for one particular game announcement can feel kind of ridiculous. There's so much out there to play! And yet, it's not our fault that a certain game or series was everything we ever wanted. We can keep replaying something that's truly excellent, sure, but what if it were expanded on with an intelligent, captivating follow up? For many gamers, there's a particular game that would instill utter elation if it gained a successor, and this week's Stiq Figures is all about those dream games that might happen ... someday. Personally, I wouldn't mind a Super Mario Sunshine sequel. As someone who has spent most of his gaming time hoarding coins and stocking 1-Ups, I genuinely enjoyed struggling with Sunshine. I know Mario's mechanics well, but FLUDD's water-powered twist on platforming left me struggling to gather enough Shines to just reach the last stage. Sunshine was a left field experimentation with my favorite universe, and for the most part I was pleased with its additions. I know there are far more obscure games out there with devoted fans, though. Whether it was a singular adventure or a spinoff/odd turn for a series like Sunshine, which new game reveal would make your year? Share your development-related hopes and dreams with us in the comments, right after you check out this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, August 8 - 10: Missed opportunities edition
I was a pretty big Rock Band fan back in the day. I purchased the complete set of plastic instruments and then some, making sure I had plenty of options for guests to utilize during weekly bouts of strumming, drumming and humming. I spent hours tweaking and brainstorming band names and logos until I came up with the perfect one for me and my buddies: Last Survivors of the Nostromo. Pop culture references! Anyway, Rock Band was great, but I was always surprised and a bit disappointed that one of my favorite songs of all time never made it onto the game's downloadable charts. That song: "Everything is Alright" by Motion City Soundtrack. It's a happy, peppy song with what I feel are clever lyrics and catchy hooks. The drum part toward the end of the song is especially fun to air-wail to, and I always crank it loud whenever it comes up on my mp3 player. So for this week's Stiq Figures, what are the dream games and/or features that you always wished to see but never did? Mine is a song from a music game, but maybe one of your favorite characters from a book or movie never made it into the video game adaptation, or you're still waiting for a video game based on the book Gravity's Rainbow? Tell us in the comments below, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures: I actually enjoyed that boss fight edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Designing final bosses has to be a hell of a challenge; incorporating the best elements from hours of gameplay and driving the story's conclusion, all while supplying a satisfying challenge fit for a finale? It's a tough balance to strike from a player's perspective, and as a result it feels commonplace to wonder if "that's really it?" after stomping down antagonists. Recalling my personal experience, credit is due to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Sure, I was a younger, more-easily-intimidated Hero of Time when I first faced Ganondorf, but I fell for every moment of Ocarina's final encounter. Swells of pride from conquering my first adventure game's "final" moments were abruptly flushed with fear – facing further challenges was hugely intimidating, but I slowly learned to dodge and properly fight instead of leaning on bottled faeries. That last battle felt like a well-balanced exam, one that ensured I truly learned Ocarina's mechanics before letting me savor an ending scene sweetened by victory. What qualifies as a great battle for me might conflict with your personal tastes, though. What seals the deal on a final fight for you? Do you hope for a brutally difficult foe that will take days of learning patterns to overcome? Do you appreciate left-field surprises, either in a narrative or gameplay sense? Tell us about the bosses that stand out from the pile of baddies you've bested over the years, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, July 21 - 27: Up, up, down, down, B, A, Start edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Earning a sense of accomplishment is great and all, but sometimes ... sometimes you're willing to trade an earned sense of pride for what really matters: victory. Cheats are a shortcut to "I'm a jerk" territory in competitive online games, but when you're stacking the odds unreasaonbly against AI opponents, it can make for a great, guilt-free time. The scope of cheating can result in some pretty interesting gameplay twists too, though the bread and butter "make me god-like" codes can still work magic in the right game. I'll level with you all: even with StarCraft's currency and supply-related cheats, I've still never cleared the Protoss campaign. That's a pretty bleak level of ineptitude, but at least using "power overwhelming" to turn mineral-gathering Probes into slow-but-steady death machines makes me feel better about it: "Oh, you've surrounded my drone with Zerglings and acid-spewing Hydralisks? That's cute, prepare to kiss your Hive goodbye ... in about 8 minutes." In terms of cheating purely for entertainment value, I think Grand Theft Auto 4 was the first in the series where I didn't instinctively use weapons cheats. For years, the GTA series was just about finding calm in the utter havoc I caused, and if an ammo shortage was the only thing in the way of my zen, cheats were an immediate solution. What about you? Have you had to resort to cheats to persevere through a game's toughest challenges, or is there a particular code that's actually made games more enjoyable for you? Tell us all about your favorites, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales!
Stiq Figures, July 14 - 20: Breaking the bank edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. In a fantasy land, every game we want to play would be set at a manageable price, or just flat-out free. In reality, cool experiences are made by people, and people tend to need food to, you know ... not die. Price tags are part of how this whole video game industry thing works, and while $60 is the standard asking price for most things sitting on a shelf in a box these days, it's not end-all ceiling for pricing. Special editions, season passes, a la carte DLC models, micro transactions, buying from a third party, wait-it-out Game Of The Year editions – there are plenty of pricing options out there, both for gamers and game creators. Choice is good, but what I'm wondering is: what's the most you've ever paid for a game? If you count the Rock Band series as a singular experience, it's the standout expense in my collection. With the initial $170 bundle, a second guitar, two microphones, six disc-based expansions and hundreds of DLC songs, I've spent more than $1,000 on Harmonix's music maker. If you don't count a music library as one game, well ... oddly enough, I've never crossed the $60 threshold for anything else. Collector's editions aren't my thing, and if I get the sense I'll want a bunch of downloadable content, I just wait the year or so it takes for a GOTY edition to arrive. Though, if you count purchasing a console for a single game as a combined purchase ... then that puts Fantasia: Music Evolved at a $560 total for me. I foresee some Amiibo and Super Smash Bros.-related damage to my bank account, too. What about you? Have you splurged on the Ultra Megazord Collector's Edition for your favorite series, bought a fight stick made out of diamonds or bit the triple-digit bullet to buy that rare game you've been dying to try? Tell us about the peaks of your gaming purchases, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, July 7 - 13: Video games IN SPACE edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. It seems like this week's conversation was dominated by Destiny beta talk, which makes sense given expectations circling Bungie's shooter and the general summer drought. Not everyone can get into a sorta-MMO though, and that's okay – there's more than enough room in the vastness of space for multiple gaming genres. There's something about that endless vacuum's allure that's just so damn exciting too, so why not reminisce on our favorite intergalactic adventures? Mass Effect 2 can have its obligatory mention, but since I've already run my fondness for that game into the ground, it's time for Descent 2 to get some recognition. Sure, I was a kid the first time I clunked my way through Descent 2's winding chambers and tunnels, but the majority of its robots still creep me the hell out to this day. Why do the Medium Lifters all have crimson-splattered claws? What are they lifting that stains red, if not the innards of squishy human pilots? Getting blown to bits by unsettling polygons is easily worth it though – Descent 2's balance of exploration with round-the-corner fights masters a sense of tension that's still a blast for me to revisit. I never feel like I've seen everything Descent 2 has stowed away, and I also never feel safe searching its infested mines, considering the enemies lurking between me and each stage's exit. But maybe Descent 2's float-and-shoot space dogfights aren't your favorite sort of adventure in the Citadel universe either. Why don't you tell us what is? Right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break, of course.
Stiq Figures, June 30 - July 7: Best gaming weaponry edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Real-world weaponry is usually designed to adhere to mundane details like logistics, effectiveness and reality-heeding characteristics, but in video games, the "stupidly awesome" attribute can take priority. A pistol with a safety lever and a simplistic, lightweight build? Sounds ... practical, I guess. A gun that looks like it's part of Mattel's holiday lineup which shoots exploding crystalized shards? Stupidly awesome! Virtual worlds let weapon designers focus on their visions rather than feasibility, and the results inspired by that freedom are always neat to see. It allows for more than fantastical sidearms like the Gears of War series' Lancer, too: arsenals can meld revolver chambers and motors with blades, or weave beasts and giant fists using garments made from hair. Decades of off-the-wall designs can make it seem like every possible bizarre creation has been achieved, and then something like Saints Row 3's Penetrator happens. Is there a virtual weapon you've brandished that stands out to you, either from a design or effectiveness viewpoint? Tell us about your favorites, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, June 23 - 29: Never want to leave this world edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Crafting enticing fantasy content is tough. Plenty of games struggle just with developing an enjoyable protagonist, let alone an entertaining cast and an involving reason to see the journey's end. All of that imagination ultimately constructs a game's universe, an accumulative representation of a team's efforts, and when you consider everything that could detract that accumulative representation of a team's efforts, it's amplifies the impressiveness of the feat that is compelling players to care. Of course, a game's focus can be highlighted by different versions of excellence – Fez's mystery-riddled labyrinth feels barren in comparison to large-scale creations like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, but both instill a hunger for adventure in their own ways. It doesn't always have to be about exploring every minute detail either – Limbo's silhouettes didn't have or need chapters of lore to explore. They just needed pointy edges to run away from. Whichever world this subject reminded you of, the important part is that you love spending time in it. Something about the environments, characters or just some seemingly-inane attribute makes returning for an hour or two effortless. Tell us about the captivating game worlds that have made returning to the real one difficult, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, June 16 - 22: I miss action sports games edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Between serious simulators and strap-on-your-face VR devices, video games can mimic real-world experiences pretty well. Still, it's great to have options, you know? Not everything needs to be an extensively-technical representation of reality, and that point is probably best proven if we look at the sports category for a second: remember when over-the-top, arcade-style representations of sports were about as prominent as the straight-forward Madden and NHL games? Yeah, it reads a bit like the "back in my day" drivel, but I guess that's what it ultimately is. It's neat to see developers turn out more technically and visually-impressive sports games each year, but it's tough not to miss the Tony Hawk series' million-point combos and the full departure from reality that was the San Francisco Rush series. That sort-of lost style probably waned with the totally rad attitude that was predominant in '90s culture, it wouldn't exactly be awful if it had its turn at coming back into fashion. It's not like lighthearted sports games are entirely extinct, but it would be nice to see a little more of the style that supported things like the JetMoto series. Settling for a new Burnout game wouldn't be too rough, either. Is there an old sports game you miss that was more focused on entertainment than roster stats? Tell us about them – maybe we'll have to track down a copy for ourselves – once you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, June 9 - 15: Compelling minigames edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Buying a game is usually all about the front-and-center content, but sometimes what's meant to be a side attraction kind of steals the show. It's weird how a well-crafted minigame can steal attention away from stuff that was featured across online banners and TV spots months before a game's release, but at the same time, that kind of surprise is easy to appreciate. Sonic Adventure 2 is a prime example of mine – while I enjoyed sprinting through levels as Sonic and switching between casts in the game's good and evil campaigns, there was a surprisingly-compelling side attraction in the Chao Garden, a sort-of pet simulator. At the time, it felt like a fleshed out version of the Tamagachi I had as a kid, and I burned plenty of time bumming around the space and boosting my Chao's stats so it could compete in minigames. I ... may have also gotten a kick out of hurling Chaos as far across the map as possible. Returning to SA2 in recent years hasn't proven to be as fun as my memories of it, but entering the Chao Garden is still a good time. While I'm at it, I should give a shout out Final Fantasy 8's Triple Triad card game too – for as awful at it as I was and still am, I've still spent hours losing cards to any character that's willing to play a round against me. Has there been a minigame that's kept you enchanted, maybe even moreso than a game's main campaign? Help me acknowledge the side content that doesn't necessarily feel like side content, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, June 2 - 8: Up all night edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Things are nearly back to normal after E3 2014, including our sleep schedules. It's been a while since we've endured the 3:30 a.m. haze, teetering from side to side, keeping our brains awake with cold drinks and sheer willpower. Late nights aren't always about being productive though – some games sap hours from the clock without us noticing, but they're usually so good at their craft that we hardly mind. Persona 3 is king of claiming dozens of hours I initially intended for sleep. I'd bike home from double shifts of cooking and waiting tables and head straight for the PS2, eager to clear a few more floors of the towering, Shadow-filled Tartarus. Fusing Personas and studying for virtual grades led to plenty of sluggish real-world lunch shifts, but every journey home ended the same way. I spend free time more conservatively now that my schedule's filled with shifts and errands, but I'm wary of the same scenario happening when I start The Witcher 2 tonight. Are there any games that have conquered your latest hours? Maybe you have weekly shootouts with friends online or get regularly lost in a compelling MMO? Tell us about the games that steal away your nights after checking this week's Japanese hardware sales past the break!
Stiq Figures, May 26 - June 1: Awful E3 moments edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. We wound ourselves up over dream E3 reveals last week, but we haven't reminisced about the uh, high points of prior E3s yet. It's rare that a sales pitch isn't cringeworthy, especially when it's rehearsed, on a vacant stage and accompanied by applause from planted attendees. There are definitely past presentations that excel in awfulness though, and maybe if we talk about them, we'll inspire some last-minute script changes to spare this year's presenters from becoming tomorrow's GIFs! Or maybe zebras will sprout wings and burn down every metropolis known to man with their newfound fire breathing capabilities, but whatever, we can still have a little fun with this. While the "finale" of Nintendo's 2012 E3 presentation isn't the most outrageous gaff, I think it's still the one that has drove me up the wall most. After burning so much time demonstrating Nintendoland and lacking a genuine surprise in the rest of their conference, I desperately hoped for a last-minute surprise, preferably something like the initial reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Watching Nintendo instead wrap its conference with virtual fireworks was surprisingly agonizing – I've certainly never resented colorful explosions before that moment. There's plenty of other moments to call out though, and with a new batch of conferences kicking off tomorrow, now's the time to recall the worst missteps we've already witnessed. Tell us about the convention moments that stick out in your mind as exceptionally terrible, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, May 19 - 25: E3 wish list edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. We're drawing closer to the biggest gaming convention of the year, and judging by the recent frequency of leaks, it feels safe to assume a few more surprises will be ruined before E3 actually kicks off. That's sort of my excuse for jumping the gun with this topic a weekend early - aside from rumors and not-so-vague hints, most of us are still relatively in the dark on what to expect from this year's show. That means we can still properly get our hopes up for both obvious and never-gonna-happen game reveals! In the spirit of building myself up for nothing, I'm going to cross my fingers for a Pokemon Snap sequel. All it would really have to do is expand its Pokedex and offer a lengthier tour of Pokemon regions and I'd be set. It would be great to see Samus return to her previous form, too - I really miss the grid-based exploration from her side scrolling outings and the superb feeling of isolation that runs rampant through Metroid Prime. Also, I might cause a small scene if we aren't shown a demo or at least more footage for that Wii U Yoshi game. I'm hoping for plenty of Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 15 and Mirror's Edge 2 footage as well, but I'm still pretty excited for the debuts and left-field reveals that might take me from zero to hyped in one trailer. It's dangerous to put a ton of faith in presentation footage, that's for sure, but that sense of being immediately won over by a new premise or story is oddly satisfying. I've probably missed something worth anticipating, though. What are you looking forward to hearing about during E3? Whether it's essentially confirmed at this point or based entirely on wishful thinking on your part, swap lists with us in the comments, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, May 12 - 18: Using social features in games edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. It's certainly not a secret, but our consoles are increasingly becoming more than just video game machines. Support for streaming apps is as expected as wireless controllers at this point, and features that boost a player's presence in social communities feel like the next universal standard. Inboxes, pop-up messages, pages filled to the brim with every stat you could ever want to know about your friends' game time - all of that doesn't even take into account the games that assign themselves the duty of serving socialites, like the incoming Driveclub. There are plenty of potential reasons for the influx of social tools - it could be to meet player expectations, to help a community keep playing together for years to come, to use players as promotional tools on social media, or all of the above. It doesn't feel like something that'll fade away anytime soon, but my question to you is: do you care? Has there been a game that you've significantly enjoyed because of built-in or console-supplemented social features, some service that keeps your friends and rivals in the center of your mind? Or is it similar to the other features you glance over once on the back of the box before plugging away at the content that most interests you? This is normally where I offer examples from my perspective of a topic, but aside from a week of scrolling through Miiverse posts and a stint of war-waging messages over Geometry Wars 2, I've never bothered with social elements to games. It's mostly fluff to me - my online matches are always pre-meditated, I'm not really concerned with the trophies my friends have earned, and pop-up alerts became frequent enough for me to turn them off so I could focus on what I'm there for. I'm by no means a great measurement of the average gamer though, so I'd like to see where this stuff lands for you. Are social features nice once in a while, something you use all the time, or totally irrelevant to your play style? Share your view in the comments, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, May 5 - 11: Developers that get you edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Lots of people like video games, and whenever a hobby grows to the size of something like the gaming industry, there's a lot of unique tastes to cater to. It's probably true that the only way to get your dream game exactly the way you want is to make it yourself, but the involved skill, time and financial-shaped hurdles make that tough for plenty of people. Maybe there's a studio out there that just seems to get you, though. One that seems to build games you've wanted to play for years, or maybe one can even craft a style of game you never would have seen yourself playing, but you end up loving it. Most gamers that I talk with seem to know of one or two studios like this - teams that, in their eyes, can do no wrong. For me, I'm pretty sure that's Harmonix. I had a PS2 demo disc that featured a track or two of Frequency, and I played it regularly until a bin of used games taught me there was a sequel called Amplitude. I was eager to try Guitar Hero and finally caved when Rock Band debuted, starting a five-year obsession with a $170 box of plastic instruments on the game's launch day. Despite having reservations toward the Kinect and an outright contempt for dancing, I even gave Dance Central a shot. Surprise, I dug that, too. Is there a developer that has a similar track record with you? Was there at one point, like the golden era of Rare, but they've now been shuttered or reorganized into something else? That's totally okay - modern or not, tell us about those studios and why you love their work so much, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, April 28 - May 4: Genre starting points edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Gaming genres are a nice tool when you're looking for a particular style of game, but playing it too safe can get stale and cheat you out of experiences you'd never expect to enjoy. Yes, there's the risk of spending money on something you won't enjoy purely because it doesn't work with your tastes, which is part of what makes rentals, demoes and sampling a friend's collection so great. My near-absolute boredom with sports simulators kept me away from a whole section of games beyond their Mario-branded, sort-of equivalents. Despite that, four months of insistence from my car-junkie friends convinced me to give Forza Motorsport 2 a chance. I wasn't converted into a motor head, and the day I correctly identify a car part beyond a steering wheel is still going to be a revelation, but I spent a bizarre month hooked on unlocking parts and shaving down lap times in Forza 2. It lacked the item-fueled frenzy I was used to, but what it offered was so well made that I didn't really mind. I've got similar "that one game" stories for other genres: StarCraft taught me I could enjoy real-time strategy games despite being miserable at them The Legend of Dragoon eased me into RPGs by partially letting me make up for awful strategies with a competence for timing, and Street Fighter 2 helped me treat fighting games as more than just a button-mashing, I-couldn't-win-if-I-tried affair. There was a time when I was dead set against touching any genre beyond platformers, but one by one, I was won over by great games. Do you recall certain games serving as your first step into a genre you had never bothered playing before hand? What were they, and what was it about them that changed your mind? Let us know in the comments below, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales data after the break!
Stiq Figures, April 21 - 27: Games ruined by lost saves edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Video games are great and all, but it's amazing how many hours some of them can drain from your life. It isn't tough to get interested in a well-developed alternate universe that desperately needs a hero - the real challenge is finding the time to be that hero between classes, paying bills or the rest of the real world's responsibilities. Great games will make you find a way, but sometimes even the classics can't pull you back in after a lost save negates hours of work, sending you back to the New Game screen. RPGs are the easy suspect here, and I've had my fair share of epic adventures cut short - I could never take another serious swing at Pokemon Red after losing my level 82 Charizard to a dead battery, and as much as I loved The Legend of Dragoon, I could never face a three-disc retread to replace my saved-over file. Shorter games have fallen victim to the same fate, though - a botched data transfer to the Wii U cost me my progress on Okami and Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and I'm unlikely to face either ever again. Are there any games that, despite being enjoyable enough, you'll never finish because of lost time? Vent with us about memory cards and corrupted data, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
Stiq Figures, April 14 - 20: This game is great and no one knows it edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Some games achieve a certain clout near their release, a status that results in everyone just knowing about them. It was rare to have to introduce people to Mario Kart 64, Crash Bandicoot or Halo - word of mouth or advertising campaigns seemed to establish them as communal knowledge. Popular games aren't the only good games, of course. Sometimes you end up as the lone fan of a game within your social circle, and it's up to you to convince anyone else it's worthy of being added to the group's game rotation. That was mostly my experience with Future Cop: LAPD, a third-person, cooperative action shooter that had players clearing out the dens of bizarre, crazed criminals in Los Angeles. Oh yeah, and you use a walking mech that can transform into a hover car to do it! Controls can be a little stiff at times and clearing the campaign without some help certainly isn't easy, but there's plenty to love about Future Cop's arsenal and its style of exploration. There's a great competitive multiplayer mode called Precinct Assault too, where players capture bases and build armies to help them destroy their opponent's home base. I did manage to make Future Cop fans out of a few friends, and we spent many afternoons waging war over precincts and dying off somewhere in the middle of the game's campaign. What about you? Are there any games you single-handedly convinced your friends to love? Share your favorite underdogs with us once you check this week's Japanese sales data after the break - after all, maybe we're the next one to be won over by your hidden favorite! [Image: EA]
Stiq Figures, April 7 - 13: Best opening numbers edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. If you're going to send me on a 30-plus hour adventure, you've gotta sell me on the time investment first. Creating an opening that compels players to press on is a challenge every development team faces, but it feels like one of those talents that often goes unpraised. Of course we expect to be drawn into our brand new games - after all, we paid the price of admission to be entertained! With the amount of mechanics and characters a game needs to introduce in its early hours though, it must be tough to decide what to start off with. Commending Mass Effect 2 for its introduction might feel a little odd, given that most of its audience got well-acquainted with Commander Shepard's arsenal in the first leg of his/her trilogy. Still, ME2 wastes no time drawing players back into its universe before shattering the sense of security many associated with the Normandy. The moment the flame-engulfed ship's second-story door opened to the deafening vacuum of space, I was 100 percent ready to hand my life over for the following weeks. Final Fantasy 8 had dense, on-the-nose tutorials for most of its combat, but its opening scene made up for it in my mind. As the camera zoomed above ocean waves and budding fields, cutting between a dramatic duel with bizarre swords and a girl with feathery wings, I was equal parts confused and enthralled. I had no idea what was happening, but if the answers were hidden somewhere in FF8's discs, I was resolved to find them. Going from "meh" to "sold" is one of my favorite sort of gaming moments, and I think I get that most frequently from a team that nails their game's introductory moments. Tell me about the intros that instantly won you over in the comments below, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break! [Image: EA]
Stiq Figures, March 31 - April 6: Do we want more remakes edition
Welcome to Stiq Figures, where the sales data is after the break and the posts don't matter. Remakes can be a great excuse to revisit classic games, or they can serve as a second chance for people that missed out on the project's original release. There are plenty of recent ports that will help fill the calendars for newly-launched consoles, but that's not quite what I mean. Full-on remakes like Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD are what I'm focused on, and my question is: Do you want more? I mean, I can understand wanting a polished redo of games that run terribly on their original hardware or that are burdened with poorly-aged visuals. Beyond those exceptions though, it's tough for me to hope for remakes when there are so many interesting projects in the modern space. Watching Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus grow into the market is exciting to me, and I think the indie-developed standouts of today are much more exciting than potential high resolution re-releases of iconic games. I'd rather hear your stance than go on about what interests me, though. Would you rather studios spend their time on new projects, or is there a game you've been dying to see someone take another swing at? Would you hope for changes beyond the obligatory visual boost, like revamped controls or extra content? Maybe your perspective sees an opportunity that I've totally missed. Share your general thoughts on remakes and the titles you'd most like to see redone in the comments, right after you check this week's Japanese hardware sales after the break!
