JasonVenter.com - blog posts

What my fantasy games are really missing is people!

If there�s a threat to the world these days, we band together out of a common interest to save it. The loss of a country, a city, or even a seaside village is a tragedy on an unfathomable scale. How do you deal with the potential loss of all those lives?

An open letter to the people who set the video game MSRP

Should the upcoming generation of games see the standard price for a blockbuster increase from $60 to $70? Definitely not! $70 for a video game is too much money and, if I'm to be perfectly frank, so is $60. $50 is closer to the mark, but the real sweet point for price? That's $40.

Why should you write about games for free?

Recently, a large UK gaming site (NowGamer) posted an entry outlining the terms of a contest. One fortunate reader out of many will submit a 1000-word blog post to the site's editors and win the dubious honor of contributing a regular column to the site. The prize is not a paid position, but it's a chance for exposure at a large outlet and NowGamer is working from the assumption that this will be an offer too good to refuse.

If you get an Xbox 360, get the one with the 250GB hard drive and thank me later

Are you one of the few people in North America who still has not purchased an Xbox 360? I can't pretend to know your reasons for delaying a purchase. There are plenty of good possibilities. But if you are considering a purchase--finally--I can say with confidence that you should spring for the 250GB version.

Top 5 reasons not to buy games on launch day

Until recently, I was one of those guys. Every Tuesday, you'd find me at the store, checking for new game releases and probably buying a game or two every few weeks. I wouldn't even play them all. They'd go on my shelf, still in the shrink wrap or (worse) opened but never played. My shelves are still full of such titles, even after I recently tossed a bunch of them on eBay.

How bad will the Vita launch be, really?

I'm seeing a lot of complaints online from people who feel that the Vita launch is going to be a disgrace here in North America. It's funny to me because if I have a bias, it's a bias in favor of Nintendo, yet here I am defending the enemy. It comes down to one thing: I like to see any entertainment product at least get a fair shake. People are lining up to talk trash about the Vita and it just doesn't deserve that. Its launch isn't set to be perfect, but it's nowhere near as bad as so many people seem to claim.

The only objective list of the top 10 games in 2011

The other day, I was looking around online and I realized that there are a lot of lists claiming to rank the best 10 games of 2011. As I started reading, I was shocked to discover that many of these lists contain opinions from people I formerly admired. I'm not sure I can admire them now, though, when clearly they are putting together top 10 lists that contain enough subjectivity to choke a hamster. This has to stop.

Japanese franchises vs. Western franchises - Round 1, Fight!

We hear a lot about how much North American and European developers have recently been contributing to the game industry, and I have friends who for years have been saying that Japan doesn't matter anymore. Today, I thought it would be fun to put together lists (from memory) of the various publishers in the two regions and the games they have produced. My list is partial, obviously, and excludes some quality companies in both regions, but I still believe it's fairly representative.

What SOPA could mean for your favorite game site

Free speech isn't free speech if it's no longer economically feasible to say what's on your mind.

Is this the greatest Top 10 list about game journalism ever written?

I've noticed that Top 10 lists do really well online, particularly on The Dave Letterman Show and on video game sites. They rake in tons of hits and those hits generate ad revenue that allows a site to remain online. That revenue in turn lets editors pay writers to produce additional content along similar lines. With all of that in mind, I've put together a top 10 list that I hope will make me a millionaire.

I'm still here!

I try to update this blog with some frequency, so that people know I'm still around and active and such. I haven't been doing an especially good job of that lately, though. So I'm updating now.

Us folk who make up the other 99% can be jerks sometimes, you know?

This is an editorial that I wound up writing because I had no choice. My angry little mind wouldn't let me go to sleep until I had expressed my views with more than 140 characters on Twitter. It has nothing to do with video games and only the tiniest sliver of relevance to the entertainment industry as a whole. In short, it's probably not going to do much for you except maybe make you mad if you disagree with me. I feel better already, though.

Kirby Mass Attack is now reviewed at HonestGamers

My Kirby Mass Attack review has gone live at HonestGamers and now I can move on to other projects. I'm glad that I got to experience Kirby Mass Attack, though, because it's a really great game. Mostly.

My Deathsmiles review is live at Realm of Gaming

Yesterday I wrote a Deathsmiles review for indie gaming site Realm of Gaming. The review just went live today, and of course I'd love for you to read it.

The Starfox 64 3D review that didn't want to write itself

I've just finished posting my Starfox 64 3D review over at HonestGamers, which feels like more of an achievement than it probably should because the review didn't come as easily as I anticipated. That's sometimes the problem with remakes: you're working hard to cover the game's basics for people who never played the original, but the interesting part to you and a large portion of your readers is the answer to the question: "So, did they screw it up?"

A tale of some televisions

Over at HonestGamers, a member of the community has posted a thread indicating that he finally joined the "cool crowd" and purchased a 3D television. The thread inspired me to look back at the various televisions that I've used for my gaming throughout the years.

In defense of a second circle-pad for the 3DS

I have a cold and I'm having a hard time thinking straight, but I am alert enough to notice that I'm in the minority when it comes to my response to a recent announcement. I feel like I should explain why I think the circle-pad update for the 3DS is a good idea. Yes, I said it: a good idea.

Why I'm a fan of the online pass

Contrary to what romantics would have you believe, piracy and used game sales cost the industry a great deal of money that it could otherwise use to fund more ambitious games and to take chances with more original concepts. Obviously, it's true that not every game that is pirated or sold used would ever have been a new game sale. However, the impact of such things have on the hard-working and creative people within the industry remains very real.

Why I didn't cover that awesome game you told me about 10 times

First, let me admit the thing that some of you who read this may be thinking: I'm not in a position to talk big about the coverage I can give when you approach me about a game. If you catch my attention, there's a blog or two where I might post a story--including this one--or maybe I'll approach a major outlet with a pitch and get you some coverage there, but overall I'm not the guy you should be talking to if you want to "make it big" with your game. I'm just a guy. Who covers games. Sometimes I even do it well.

Guilty Party is no guilty pleasure, not for someone who games alone

I had more time to do whatever I want than I usually have, so this week I decided to dig into my backlog of games. I have literally hundreds of games in my possession that I've never played. It's sickening, really. In this instance, I was in the mood to play Guilty Party.