10/30/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
Okay fellow troopers, here's the deal on the PlayStation 2. We've been flooded with mails here at GF! asking about details regarding the PS2's memory, processing power, rumored bugs, and a lot more, but most often people have been wanting to know the simple, practical bits of info: Does it come with a demo disk? (No.) Does it come with a memory card? (No.) Will my old multi-tap work? (No.) While the technical details are interesting and provide fodder for those late-night debates about what system will be number one by what month and whose momma could whoop who at Tekken, it's those more practical questions that will hang you up.
10/08/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
A couple of weeks ago, I suggested that you might want to wait before you jump on the Sony bandwagon. Now, it looks like you're not going to have much of a choice. Sony announced this week that they would be shipping only 500 000 units of their Playstation 2 for release on October 26thhalf of their intended. Sony claims that it is due to a component shortage, but one can't help but wonder if they are trying to build a Tickle-Me-Elmo Christmas frenzy.
10/08/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
Hey you, yeah you with the pre-ordered PS2 (who probably won't see it for a few more months)! I want you to slowly put down that VHS copy of Planet of the Apes and run, run I say, from the analog realm of home video. You're going to have a DVD player in just a few weeks. With virtually every movie that you could want to own (see the note on George Lucas at the bottom of the page) on DVD, or that is coming to DVD, you might need a little introduction into the fanatical world that is DVD video.
09/10/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
Working Designs is a small development/publishing house that specilizes in finding some of the best Japanese titles available and giving us stateside gamers a chance to get in on the action. They've been delivering high quality games since the Turbografix 16 and have developed a signature style of addictive gameplay and superb writing. Most recently they've given us Lunar and Vanguard Bandits, two of my favorite RPGs on the PlayStation. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue will probably (hopefully) make its way into your PlayStation pretty soon, and Working Desings has two titles, Silpheed and Gungriffon Blaze, lined up for the Playstation 2 launch in October. I had a chance to ask Victor Ireland, President of Working Desings, some questions and get the skinny on their new titles, their creative approach, and those ever-so-sweet RPG translations.
08/27/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
My wife hates it whenever I make a significant electronics purchase; she doesn't mind the money spent as much as the buyer's anxiety I always experience after plunking down a few hundred dollars for something I know will be obsolete within a few months. The DVD player, the stereo, the camcorder are all sources of great anxiety to me whenever I think about them. Should I have waited for them to go down in price? Could I have gotten a better deal if I had looked around a little more? Did I get the right brand? Because of this tendency to second guess myself, I try to avoid making major purchases of things new to the market. I waited a year to see if DVD would really take hold, and it did. I had intended on breaking the waiting restriction with the Playstation 2. I didn't think that there could be a surer bet. At the beginning of the summer I started putting pennies away in anticipation of October 26th. I would be the first one on my block to own it, and it would be glorious. There was no doubt. After all, Newsweek even ran a cover story on it. Sure, there were rumors about an X-Box and a Dolphin, but what were they in the face of Sony?
08/27/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
Just when we were ready to count Nintendo out of the running they jump back into the arena with guns blazing. At Spaceworld in Japan this past week Nintendo unveiled the GameCube, their latest bid for the home console market. The colorful cubes look like the next generation in gaming, at least from the outside. The GameCube's most striking feature wasn't the neon colors or its shape, but the controller. It appears to be an odd mix of the N64 controller and Sony's Dual Shock controller with a completely new approach to buttons.
08/10/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
I want to be a kung fu fighter. I want to dance like Jackie Chan
and flip like Jet Lee on wires. I want to have a wise old kung fu master that says things
like, "You fight well for one so young, but you must learn to let go of your anger
and become like the stream. When you can do this, you will be invincible.
08/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
This interview is a followup to an interview we posted with Dan Birlew, author of many strategy guides for BradyGames and their main SquareSoft guy. In writing strategy guides, as with writing reviews or coverage of gaming, certain aspects of the gaming world become very interesting. Birlew obviously has thoughts about more than just strategy guides, and we wanted to pick his brain a little more.
08/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
Dan Birlew is the author of several strategy guides for BradyGames, including Resident Evil 3 and Vagrant Story, and has been assigned to the SquareSoft roster of games. He has and is covering new Square titles like Parasite Eve II, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy IX. Birlew has a reputation for high quality work, and a distinct dedication to his craft. GamesFirst!, represented by yours truly, was lucky enough to sit in on a press roundtable discussion with Birlew and Detra Perry, PR Representative for BradyGames. Also in attendance were correspondants from Just Adventure, GameSpin, GameWeek, and The Computer Show. We all had a really nice, and quite long, discussion, ranging in topics from the nitty-gritty construction of a strategy guide, to linquistic and style considerations, to the future of strategy guides and gaming. It was all so fascinating that I followed up the interview with a few more questions, nagging Birlew about some of the deeper issues involved in gaming in general. You can find the GF! Exclusive Followup to the Dan Birlew Interview here, and keep reading to get the rest.
08/01/00 | | GF! Back Catalogue 10/2004 => 1995
Dan Birlew is the author of several strategy guides for BradyGames, including Resident Evil 3 and Vagrant Story, and has been assigned to the SquareSoft roster of games. He has and is covering new Square titles like Parasite Eve II, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy IX. Birlew has a reputation for high quality work, and a distinct dedication to his craft. GamesFirst!, represented by yours truly, was lucky enough to sit in on a press roundtable discussion with Birlew and Detra Perry, PR Representative for BradyGames. Also in attendance were correspondants from Just Adventure, GameSpin, GameWeek, and The Computer Show. We all had a really nice, and quite long, discussion, ranging in topics from the nitty-gritty construction of a strategy guide, to linquistic and style considerations, to the future of strategy guides and gaming. It was all so fascinating that I followed up the interview with a few more questions, nagging Birlew about some of the deeper issues involved in gaming in general. You can find the GF! Exclusive Followup to the Dan Birlew Interview here, and keep reading to get the rest.
Home of the repetitive stress injury.