Friday Funspot...

No full column today, just some bits and pieces that are floating around in my mind:

First up: SimCity drowning in its own sewage?

SimCity is down to a 67 critics rating at MetaCritic  (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity/critic-reviews). It highlights one of the problems with online games. When you play a game before its release, you are seeing it in the pristine condition. You're not seeing all the laggy bits or in SimCity's case, you're not seeing the servers go down, and some of the wackiness in the code that only appears in bursts. Now there's a rumor that there's a way for griefers to go in and maliciously damage other people's cities. If that's true, and it's not quickly patched, it's game over for the series. That'd be a shame

Next In Line: The Showdown Effect, a Multiplayer SPS?

I'm hearing good things about The Showdown Effect (http://www.theshowdowneffect.com/), which just released on Steam about ten days ago... kinda interesting in that it's a 2.5D Multiplayer Shooter (what I'm calling a SPS, a Second Person Shooter), and a parody of those over the top 80's and 90's action movies that had the best one-liners ever. I'm always up for games that offer quick bursts of fun and are intentionally cheesy in all the right ways (Orcs Must Die comes to mind here). So I'll have to see how this goes.

Batting Third: Blizzard's turn for server issues?

Not exactly a smooth launch for Blizzard's second release in the Starcraft II trilogy "Heart of the Swarm", as there was some reported login server issues that prevented people from playing (that also affected their perennial cash cow, the World of Warcraft series).. again, when you make a game so closely ties in to online  play, you're at the mercy of someone else's connection to play your game. Understand it's necessary, but... it's concerning.

In the Clean-Up Spot: Why is there no World Baseball Classic mode for American Baseball Games?

I'll freely admit I'm a night owl, so watching some of the late night games from Japan and Taiwan was a bonus, and I loved the atmosphere and some great games, not to mention some upsets no one saw coming (If you had the Netherlands advancing to the final round, you're either Dutch, or picking teams at random). I would love to play for the Red White and Blue, but sadly, there's no mode for that in either the MLB2K series or MLB 13 The Show. Understandable, in that both games only have MLB players, but it's something I'd love to see.

And Finally: Arcadecraft. Why didn't anyone tell me before now?

As you can probably tell, I spent way too much time in arcades when I was a youngun (in  fact, I named this blog post after the mega arcade I visited while on vacation, that's still around today!).. My friend Chris T pointed me at a Xbox Indie Game that gave me flashbacks of when five dollars could last me all day, it's called Arcadecraft, and it puts you in charge of your very own virtual arcade. You buy and sell arcade machines, collect the money before the coinbox fills up, even have to deal with unruly patrons, as you try to keep folks interested in the latest and greatest games to be released to the arcades. It's a mere 240 points, so it costs less then a trip to the arcade in the old days. Check out photos here:

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Arcadecraft/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550c9b

Anyway, that's the Friday Funspot. Happy weekend everyone?