Archive for May, 2007
Who’s yo Mama?
I want a job in advertising and marketing. Here’s the thing. The way people consume entertainment and information is changing so rapidly that advertising companies and the clients they represent are prepared to chuck just about any wacky, outlandish delivery model against the boardroom wall and see what sticks. It’s not just the way we consume entertainment in the 21st Century either. Our tribes are becoming more fragmented. With each new Coke variant, markets become ever more niche. So how do you reach your audience in this new age?
The telecommunication industry think mobile ads are the answer. An online report published this month at the telecommunications news site, Billing World claim that all the big US telecom players are testing and rolling out advertising on mobile phone screens.
No commentsFor the Love of Tivo
The Incomplete Gamer loves Tivo; unashamedly, unreservedly, absolutely. Even when the hard drive gremlin turns her pretty features a nasty shade of ‘Green Screen of Death’, and she goes into an endless reboot loop, taking three months worth of Scrubs, Law & Order and Wilfred to the Tivo grave.
Tivo’s built a reputation on three features. It boasts, what is quite possibly the world’s most user-friendly interface. Not only is the UI intuitive, it’s incredibly powerful as well. Combine those features with a reputation for reliability and you have one solid Hard Disc Recorder.
3 commentsRotten Fish and Lame Ducks - Podcast #1 (Raw & Un-cut)
Is Super Rub ‘a’ Dub a lame duck? Is the Sonia Bravia X series, the best Full HD LCD TV under $6000? Will Halo 3 be a system seller? Also on the Incomplete Gamer’s inaugural podcast we discuss video gaming journalism ethics and gaming site advertising, and in the process spend way too much time discussing a fish shop in Helsinki. We also sneak in our first impressions of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and discuss the latest offerings on the Australian Playstation Store. Join the Incomplete Gamer’s Jeremy and Guest Panelist Mark for the inaugural Incomplete Gamer Podcast.
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DEMOgraphy - The Portable Ops Edition
You might recall our Super Rub ‘a’ Dub post a few days ago. IGN were basically of the opinion that even if the game were free, it still wouldn’t be worth the effort you had to make to play it.
Which got us to thinking. With the advent of the Playstation Store and the Xbox Live Marketplace, the Wii Shop Channel, together with the recent flood of PSP demos into the wild, gamers are almost spoilt for choice. But IGN have a point. There’s no such thing as a free lunch game. For those on capped download plans there’s the size of the download to consider. The advent of high-def gaming means some of these games will take a bite out of your monthly cap. Then there’s the time you’re going to have to invest getting your head around the controls of a demo. Like we said, this is no free ride. So let the other sites tell you when the demo has landed; the Incomplete Gamer will tell you whether the demo is worthy of your time. For this, our very first DEMOgraphy, we take a look at the Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops multiplayer demo.
No commentsExtended Play
On a bang-for-your-buck basis, a PSP game I picked up last year might be the best value video game I’ve ever purchased. It certainly helped that the game, Go Sudoku!, had been marked down to $20. For the uninitiated, Go Sudoku! comes with 1000 of the numerical brain puzzlers with more available online for anyone who still wants more after they finish all one thousand of the challenges.
If the price of admission still sounds a little high you can always sample a free demo. Take your pick of the PSP demo (it’s the Japanese version titled ‘Kazuo‘) available here, or you can download a free Sudoku! demo from the Playstation Store. The game was created by Sumo Digital, who also ported the title across to the PS3. The PS3 version is the more bright and shiny of the two, outputting in all its 1080i glory, but really, there is little to separate the two.
No commentsRubbed Out
IGN and Gamespot didn’t order a hit on Super Rub ‘a’ Dub, but they may as well have engaged Hitman’s Agent 47 to kill the duck on sight. Combined, the two harsh reviews, from the two video game media heavy weights would have effectively killed off any other game title, but here at the Incomplete Gamer, we figure this Playstation title is still well and truly afloat.
For those not keeping score, Gamespot scored the game ‘3.7 out of ten which equates to ‘Bad‘ on the Gamespot scale, claiming the game “…feels like a half-finished tech demo, not an actual game; controls often feel broken…”
IGN were even less generous, scoring the game 2.9 out of 10 - ‘Terrible‘, and stating, “A glorified tech demo with little gameplay, Super Rub-a-Dub may go down in history as one of the worst PlayStation 3 games we’ll ever see“.
Web Advertising for Monkeys
Ever noticed that certain gaming sites run big, bold game advertising yet fail to ever review the game in question? And we’re talking wallpaper-like advertising, plastered over almost every page. Impossible to ignore, in-your-face advertising that puts the game being advertised foremost in your mind. You can’t miss it, and you can’t ignore it and now you’re thinking about the game and even wondering how it measures up against all those other blockbuster titles vying for your attention.
So much so, that you poke around on the site looking for a review of the game…except it’s not to be found. Not on that site anyway.
Now we get it. Big, bad-ass game sites have a gazillion readers, and staff salaries and bandwidth to pay for. Upsetting the advertiser that’s just ponied up all that cash to redecorate their website just isn’t an option.
No commentsMemories are made of these
Confession time. Here in the TIG Labs we’re playing Gran Turismo 4…again. And before you ask…’No, we didn’t complete the game the last time around. You haven’t forgotten where you are have you? www.incompletegamer.com
It’s not that we have anything against completing games. We’re as happy as the next gamer to see the credits roll. It’s just, to be honest, not something we actually witness here at IG HQ very often.
It’s a simple equation really. Completing any game is dependant on x: the quality of the title and our resulting interest in the game, y: your ability to play the game, and z: the time available to play the game.
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