Hey guys,

I just wanted to post a little something here because

1) I haven’t done so yet… and

2) I have some information about articles I’d like to share.

Firstly, I’d just like to welcome everyone to the site. If you aren’t familiar with yours truly or perhaps some of the other “locals” I invite you to go to the Forums. GibGezr and I have already written up our little introductions, so feel free to go read them; while you’re at it, feel free to sign up to the forums and tell us a little bit about yourselves as well.

Secondly, I just wanted to point out that there are now two reviews posted in the articles section: one by each of us. At this point there is no real set schedule for articles, but we each hope to write a weekly review in the future. We’ll have more information concerning articles and scheduling as the site gains momentum, so for now, thanks for stopping by, stay tuned, and we hope to see you online!

There’s certainly been a lot of commotion on the Internet surrounding Jonathan Blow’s Braid lately. First of all there is the infamous walkthrough, which can be found directly on the official Blow website, and then there’s the issue surrounding the game’s pricing.

As for the walkthrough, I find it surprising the amount of debate it’s generated. Not only are people commenting on Jonathan Blow’s decision to “preach” his beliefs, but they’ve managed to put into question the entire validity of walkthroughs. I think it’s great that a single post could spark so much debate, I’m just surprised that it’s over an article that, in my opinion, was meant to be very tong-and-cheek.

But that’s not the real issue now is it? No, the real debate people are having is over the game’s pricing. Braid is currently being sold on Xbox Live for 1200 points – that’s 400 points more than the normal “new” game. I chose not to mention anything about it in my review, because in my opinion there is a difference between reviewing a product and reviewing a product as a purchase. What I offer is the former.

I can’t say for certain that I feel as though I was over-charged for Braid so much as I believe I wouldn’t have felt undercharged had it only cost 800 points. Paying more for a specific title isn’t really a problem with me, and frankly speaking, part of me believes that if a person or a company truly feels they deserve to charge more for their game: more power to them. As a consumer, I always have the choice not to make a purchase.

With that said, I do have an issue with the pricing of Braid.

When Microsoft first introduced the concept of arcade games for Xbox Live, they told us that they would follow a very specific pricing scheme: 400 points for ports of old games and 800 points for newly created titles. Simple enough, right? When games decide to charge more for their title, it brakes the “rules” it creates a precedence for other companies to charge more for their titles. And how can you measure 400 points worth of game? Is it in the amount of hours said game lasts? Is it in the quality of its graphics? There’s no way to measure it. And then time passes, more people come out with 1200 point games, and then one day you wake up to find that all 800 point games have become 1200 points and the 400 point games have become 600 points.

Now I’m certain at this point some people probably thinking I’m being paranoid, but the simple truth is that companies are there to make money, and if they can slowly nudge you into paying more for something, they will. So that’s my opinion on the matter, it may be a little eccentric, but unlike others’ I can at least claim it to be unbiased.

The Battlefield:Bad Company Xbox 360 review is now up. You may notice that I don’t mention Battlefield: Modern Combat in my review, despite the fact that it was the first Battlefield game on the Xbox. The reason? I only played it for a few minutes. The reason? Despite getting decent reviews, it had very poor word of mouth. My friends list was full of people who had played it and didn’t like it, so I never bothered to give it a real chance to convert me. After all, why bother playing a game that your friends don’t want to play. My “Battlefield friends” didn’t care for it, claiming it was nothing like the real BF games, and what little I saw put me in total agreement. It’s not that it was a bad game, per se, but it just wasn’t what I was looking forward to. Much like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, it would have been better received if it didn’t carry the weighty expectations of a beloved series. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the review.

One of the things we knew from the very beginning when we started Northern Geeks was that we wanted to find a way to involve our readers with our site. We wanted Northern Geeks to be more than just a site you’d drop by every once in a while to check out the characters’ latest antics or even stay a while longer to maul over one of GibGezr’s reviews. It was important that you’d feel at home here, amongst friends, amongst fellow geeks.

In order for that to happen, you need to feel like your voice matters, that you have a say in things, because everyone wants the opportunity to express themselves. That’s why we’ll soon be accepting user reviews. We don’t have all of the details ironed out at the moment, but when things have been finalized you can expect me to shed more light on the matter. What I can tell you is that it’ll work on a submission-based system. It’s not going to be wiki-style site. Oh, but don’t get me wrong, a video game wiki-style site can be really awesome, it’s just not something we’re set up to handle.

So in the meanwhile, I suggest you go and check out our latest review: this one was generously provided to us by Chinny, who was more than willing to be our little guinea pig for this little experiment.

And now, I’m off to play some Tiger Woods 09.

I had originally planned on posting this review up sooner, but got sidetracked by other things. It’s easy to get sidetracked sometimes, that’s why people like me, who tend to get sidetracked a lot, need to plan out their days. We put down on paper what we need to do, how it needs to get done, and by when. But sometimes life has other plans.

Friday night, while in the midst of installing Service Pack 3, my computer decided to shut down… permanently. To say the least, I wasn’t pleased. To make a long story short, I got it back up and running after two hours of work and a few sticks of ram later, but more importantly, I realized that I needed a second computer, another machine to use as backup, in case anything ever happened to this one.

So now I’ve decided on buying a laptop, because I figure a laptop would make a great secondary PC, and it would allow me to keep on working while attending conventions. I’m planning on attending MIGS this year, and so it’ll be great to have my new laptop with me to post up articles directly from the event.

If you guys have any suggestions for me concerning the purchase of my new laptop, I’d love to hear what you have to say. Email me, or hop onto the forums to share your thoughts on the matter!