Disqus - Latest Comments for AndyBaran

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: Hopes and Dreams for the New Year

AndyBaran — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:54:42 -0000

In my opinion, one of the things that made Nintendo great was that all the old games were truly for everyone. It didn't matter if you were a kid, a teen or adult, boy, girl or undecided... everyone could play and enjoy Nintendo games.

Now, they're the gaming equivalent of TV dinners. A snack to tide you over, but nothing of real substance.

The Wii really is nothing more than a toy, but I have to laugh. The original Mattel NES was billed as a toy and NOT a game system-and that thing gave birth to the second generation of hardcore players.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: Hopes and Dreams for the New Year

AndyBaran — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:10:41 -0000

I'm in favor of both a new 2D Metroid AND John getting a pony.

Also, I'd love to see a 2D Castlevania on a modern non-handheld platform.

Re: Sore Thumbs

AndyBaran — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:45:35 -0000

I never knew his name, nor did I know you knew who smashed him.

When the Gurk went on his rampage, the entire EGM2 staff thought we were going to get in huge trouble for his actions.

Scott Augustyn used to hate that thing when when desk was by the entrance. It stared at him all day long, and some late nights he swore it moved.

Re: Sore Thumbs

AndyBaran — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:11:37 -0000

You know, I ended up buying a Game.com because of Batman and Robin...

Well that and for the Metal Gear game (which sadly never came out),

I remember you driving Gurka absolutely insane with those "wiggle" noises and moans.

Re: Sore Thumbs

AndyBaran — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:17:39 -0000

Sniff...I feel left out. I wish the entire Review Crew made it up there. Without Steve or Ed, EGM wouldn't have been here.

I loved the phone wars, although I think Crispin won with his Game.Com Batman erotica noises.

Phil looks great... cue Mega Man theme song...

BTW-Love the Blitz machine. That thing saw some major action.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Other Stuff

AndyBaran — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:18:00 -0000

That's just a cheap way to win that goes against the intent of the game's creators-just like the shitty elevator exploit.

It's far better to smash the cars into the poor survivors-or better yet, the dumpsters in the alleyway. That's how I got the kill all 4 survivors as the Tank achievement.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:43:01 -0000

Ms. Red...what's this? A reference that I don't get?

Am I going senile? Wait...where's my pants!

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:56:43 -0000

It was for the N64, the same place we made Choppy McChop and Kicky McKick (well, those were Phil's two contributions) and we all made our own likenesses. Elephant Sack was EGM's contribution.

I believe it was WWF VS Raw: No Mercy.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:54:26 -0000

When you work on any form of publication, your sense of time kind of erodes away. Years can slip past in a blink of an eye. If what you read was in the first part of that guide-please consider that it was produced under strange circumstances with a cart that had different locations for all the items and only went as far as the Fire Temple. Nintendo ganked us with an early rev, where, for example, a heart piece was on top of a house in the Kokiri Village. There isn't one in the final game. There was no way of knowing how long the game was, considering all of the hidden assets. I asked Nintendo counselors, and that's the duration they told me.

BTW-Mike Vallas should get credit for his outstanding maps for that guide. We had 24 hours to pull off the guide at Nintendo, plus 13 hours of counselor visit-time initially at the office.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:49:26 -0000

Nelson!

Holy crap dude, I've been wanting talk to you for ages. It's sort of like how funerals act like family reunions with my kin.

Nelson-I still love your Banjo and Chameleon Twist guides. They rocked.

The Chimpicabra-the mascot that wasn't.

You and Cyril rocking out late at night.

BTW-Were you around for the Ghost Tour that Shoe set up? Or how about the parties with Scott Grenke? Those were the days...and nights.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:45:38 -0000

The reviews were rarely the issue, except when we had a company tell us that a Beta (or even Alpha) build was a review copy. Remember, during my time there were only 4 Crew members.

The toughest thing about the reviews came from the limited space for text and the fact that it was the section saved for last. Despite its importance to the mag, the higher ups often treated it as an afterthought-or perhaps a tool at times.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:17:24 -0000

Remember when Moe drive his car through the office lobby, caught a tire on the carpet and ended up leaving a tread mark right by the entrance to Studio E?

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:16:02 -0000

No. We seriously did sacrifice our lives. Most of us never left the office and there was someone there almost every hour of every day. Sometimes this was by choice-sometimes not.

Some people made up for coming in late, or perhaps the 2-hour lunches. Sometimes it just came down to being slammed with an extreme amount of work that had to be done quickly.

Originally EGM had a 2-month lead time, meaning we had 2 months to get what could be as much as a 900 page book out in that time. That short lead time was one of our greatest secret weapons against the competition who couldn't release the latest news as fast..

The pay was great, but largely we weren't allowed to keep any games that got sent to us. Those went in as prizes for our many contests. The free game issue relaxed with the coming of Ziff.

The conditions of EGM circa 1991 were rough. Imagine working off of 8" monitors for hours on end, using grabbing board with a 5 second delay. Macs so slow it took at least a minute to convert an image. Back in the day, each editor not only wrote, but did the layout, and picture conversion to boot. It was a different time with little or no company support.

Things were horrible prior to the Ziff buyout, with a freeze put on spending. Essentials were denied to us. We had a shortage of chairs! People were sitting on stacks of magazines, it was that barebones.

There are a lot of stories that nobody ever hears about. Everyone dealt with the deadlines in their own ways.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:50:27 -0000

Even though it's been 8 years since my layoff, I still have a love of all things Sendai/Ziff. It was a big part of my life, having spent a third of it at our 2 Illinois offices. I grew up there, starting out when I was still in high school, joining a staff of around 10 folks crammed into a dinky single room. I entered as a wet behind the ears kid and walked away a semi-mature, yet hardened professional. I owe a great deal to my experiences on EGM.

My wife agreed to date me because she was such a big fan. I don't think that I ever would have had the courage to ask her if not for her passion for games.

I made a lot of friends over the years, saddened to see so many pass in and out as the years rolled on.

There are a lot of unsung heroes. Keep in mind that only a few editors such as Trickman Terry or myself (Cyberboy) ever got to use their names outside of the masthead. Steve was afraid that the competition would poach us....

Even still, how many people out there know that I wrote the majority of Ed Semrad's reviews? Or that Danno did so for six months before I was given the task. Imagine what it must be like to put your words to someone else's name. It's not easy. That's just one case out of dozens where the players had to be silent.

Readers of EGM, please remember Danyon Carpenter and Jon Stockhausen, two individuals who contributed so much that I would praise them as the most influential in the entire magazine's history. Ray Price, Ron Marciniak...and even Duckhead deserve credit. Don't forget about Al Manuel, the original EIC of PSX or Dindo-our awesome but silent sports fan. Mike Foreseppi and his knack for pointing out everything that was wrong in the office, yet cheering us up when we were knocking out those 900+ page issues with only a handful of people. Don't forget Heavy, Candyman and Moe...Jason Morgan, the 24-hour club schleps and even Ken Badziak.

Thanks to Dave "Fifi", Scott Augustyn, Jason Streetz, Ben Durbin, Scott Parus and the ever lovable big John Gurka.

1000 achievement points to anyone who can remember either Ian or Chris Schafer...

Remember proofreaders like Jenny Whitesides, Gale, Jo-el and Mary... How about Colleen Bastien?

Ken Williams was the real Sushi-X, although Siller was the original. Ken was behind Sheng Long. Martin Alessi essentially created the strategy guide styles that we see today. Mike Vallas was an unappreciated art master and hardcore international gamer to boot. Nob-the best overseas writer I could ask for.

So many old school players were forgotten to time. I hope the fans know that there's a lot of unsung heroes who sacrificed much of their lives so we could produce the best gaming mags possible.

So many hours of lost sleep, some had relationships/marriages destroyed, many others lost the chance to continue their education... We all did what we did because we loved games.

BTW-I'm working on a fitting tribute of my own. Might even be seeing old Ed Semrad soon.

Re: Goodbye EGM

AndyBaran — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:36:53 -0000

I still have my Andy Baran mask at home, framed of course. I particularly enjoyed when the Thanksgiving turkeys ate my head. Ah, good times.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Biggest Disappointments of the Year

AndyBaran — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:39:53 -0000

Yeah, you spend a 3rd of your life at a place and it takes on a meaning that you really can't put words to.

I have the same questions as when Expert Gamer was killed-is there anyway to retain the mag's name-especially if the purchaser has no intention of using it?

If they're just dissolving something, we should be able to buy it on the cheap.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Biggest Disappointments of the Year

AndyBaran — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:37:12 -0000

I didn't. That hallway was pretty narrow.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Biggest Disappointments of the Year

AndyBaran — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:19:56 -0000

I call it the 3rd System Curse...

The 3rd system of any company is where they tend to make the most mistakes. The 7800, N64 (compared to the once mighty empire Nintendo had), Saturn and PS3 all fared poorly despite expectations based off of previous system success.

I think that the industry leaders tend to either overextend their product lines, smother 3rd parties to death or fill the market with shovelware-and this begins the downward trend. The hubris that comes with 2 fairly successful console releases can blind a company into thinking that it "knows better" or doesn't have to change its business plan to suit an evolving market.

I'm just wondering how the next Xbox will be, and if it'll somehow be the first console to break the curse.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Biggest Disappointments of the Year

AndyBaran — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:13:53 -0000

After game-killing bugs in The Darkness (corrupted saves and can never get past a certain scene) Tomb Raider Underworld-Wii version (game-stopping collision) and Fable II (missing spouse, corrupt saves and worse), you'd think that the QA teams were napping on the job.

Sometimes I wonder if the public serves as the testers for some of these companies, resulting in all those lazy patches after the fact. Back before downloads, if you released a broken game-it was your fault (see Space Silicon Valley for N64). Is it because the games are far more complex? Will the delay cost more money? Maybe, but I hate to feel like a guinea pig whenever I play a game.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Most Overshadowed Games of the Year

AndyBaran — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:40:23 -0000

I'm enjoying Banjo, but I love the diverse undertakings for the Jiggy pieces of the earlier games more. Although I savor the puzzle-based missions, the bulk of the game is comprised of my own personal dread: time trials.

Klungo's mini-games rock and are worth the price of admission alone-but then again, I'm known for my more eclectic tastes.

BTW-If you're having trouble with the speed events-try attaching a spring to a chair (that's all!) and you'll win every single time.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Biggest Disappointments of the Year

AndyBaran — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:35:49 -0000

I was really disappointed with Metal Gear. MGS 4 was a tired retread that consisted of more cinema than game, replacing kickass with drop-ass (humor) and represents an example of self-indulgence on the part of Hideo Kojima.

I don't need a half-hour of cinematic of a character laughing and shooting his gun the entire time in an orgy of repetition.

I would rather play any of the preceding games in the series. Like I said, on a technical level, it's constructed well. However, there wasn't a single moment when I was amazed or lost myself in the experience. Well, once... the realistic sounds of guinea pigs in 5.1 digital did blow me away.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Most Overshadowed Games of the Year

AndyBaran — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:58:31 -0000

I have a feeling that Valkyria Chronicles will eventually become a cult classic. I really like the fact that Vyse and Aika from Skies of Arcadia are not only in it, but excellent soldiers to boot. It's certainly the undiscovered gem on the PS3.

BTW-another overlooked title is Persona 4, a game my wife insists is the best RPG she's played all year.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Games of the Year

AndyBaran — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:26:16 -0000

If you're only going to play one Dragon Wa...err... Quest game, pt. IV is the one. It begins with several different storylines that eventually converge. For its time, the original was groundbreaking. The Torneko character sort of led the way for RPG characters to own shops and such.

The more recent ones were hit or miss for the most part. They seemed out of touch compared to other examples of the genre.

If the EGM archives still have the old EPROM lying about, my DQIV game save is probably still there.

Re: 2008 Ex-EGM Awards: The Games of the Year

AndyBaran — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:30:12 -0000

A great list overall. It was interesting to see everyone else's opinions. I wrestled with choosing many of the same releases.

Tales of Vesperia was a great game, but compared to Abyss-felt a little lacking. Fable II was way too easy for my tastes and all the game-killing bugs ruined it for me. So my usual RPG tastes weren't represented. (Damn, I forgot about DQIV...wonderful pick!)

Gears 2 kicks ass, but all of my friends want to play Left 4 Dead.

I'm hoping that the rumored download content for my beloved zombie shooter comes soon.

(question: In the DWIV remake, is the shopkeeper character named Taloon or Torneko?)