Earlier this year, before E3 started, I was in a pretty good place in my life. My 1UP E3 Blogger Contest submission didn’t get the golden ticket, but it hadn’t gone unnoticed, either. While I wasn’t able to go to the expo that every gamer fantasizes about attending, Sam Kennedy (at the time, 1UP’s Editorial Director) had some really flattering words for me. If I’m being completely honest here, I didn’t even care that someone else won; reading what Sam had to say about my submission was an incredible motivator. And besides, this meant that I could spend E3 sitting on the couch next to Justin and his dog Capo, watching G4′s live coverage on his huge 55″ HDTV, overdosing on Diet Coke. Growing up in South Carolina, I never had friends that were passionate about gaming, so being able to nerd out with someone who’s as big of a geek as me fulfilled a lifelong dream. playerFIVE was getting some great content as a result of our rededication to it, and we were exploring ways to get some gameplay videos uploaded. Perhaps most exciting was the rapidly approaching date that signaled the beginning of summer classes, which would help me get one step closer to obtaining a degree.

I became a lot more active in the 1UP community after my E3 post, and was even lucky enough to be in their slider and have a few blog posts in their featured section. Somewhere along the way though, I’m not sure why, but all of my motivation was lost. Nothing bad had happened, I think I just got caught in a funk. This rut that I was in only lasted about three months, but it felt like a lifetime. I wasn’t writing, gaming, or hanging out with Justin that much. My outlook on life had gone from passion and excitement to procrastination and complacency. That is, until I read Nick Suttner’s excellent blog post last week.

See, I had been looking for motivation for quite some time. I didn’t want to continue living with this attitude anymore, and I was asking everybody for books to inspire me. I think I even tweeted Kevin Rose in hopes of getting a recommendation that would light a fire under my ass. Nick’s post did just that. Ever read something that felt like the author was speaking directly to you, in a language that only you would understand? I’ve never met Suttner, but his words spoke to me in a time when I desperately needed them. There’s a lot of people in the games press I admire and respect, but if I ever “make it” in this industry, a portion of that success will definitely be attributed to him.

The post had a profound affect on Justin as well, and last week over instant message we made plans to hang out Saturday and get our lives together. I couldn’t wait.

Over the weekend I think we realized that we’re never going to be happy until we’re living in California, working in the gaming industry. This is something that he and I have said over and over, and at the risk of speaking for him, we really felt it. So we’re doing something about it. We’ve set a long term goal for ourselves (move to San Francisco), and set several minor goals along the way to help us achieve our dreams. Money is going to be our biggest hurdle, but I think we’ve got a great plan in action to help us save instead of wasting our funds on things we don’t need (a task that’s already incredibly difficult). It’s only been a few days, but since the weekend I’ve been a lot happier in every aspect of my life.

Justin had been on me since Saturday to send Sam a message about a position that’s opening at 1UP soon. If you know me, you won’t be surprised to hear that I wasn’t looking forward to doing it for the simple fact that I would feel like I’d be harassing Sam, and that just ain’t my style. I told Justin last night that I’d shoot Mr. Kennedy a quick message before I went to bed. That wasn’t a lie at the time, but 3AM came quicker than I anticipated and I went to bed without making good on my promise. This morning he asked if I’d sent that all-important piece of mail, and after muttering an expletive under my breath, I lied to him (sorry Justin!) and quickly composed a few words and clicked “send”.

I was pretty shocked to see a reply in my inbox a mere 20 minutes after sending the message. Without posting it’s contents, let’s just say that Sam gave me a little nudge in the right direction and gave me even more inspiration to keep traveling down this path I’m on. My girlfriend and I are meeting at Justin’s place tonight and the three of us are going to put together a kick-ass resume that will hopefully impress the hell out of the folks at IGN and 1UP, and will be my ticket out of New England.

“You’re only as good as the company you keep.”

I have an amazing friend in Justin, one that’s rooting for me every step of the way. I have a wonderful, supporting, caring, and beautiful girlfriend that I’ve given my heart to. If the above quote is true, I think I’ll be in good shape.

However, before I get into that, let me address the site changes as I feel like those are the most relevant thing to start off with. First off, we decided to cut back our coverage… again. We’re going to re-focus on retro-gaming, indie games, and mobile gaming. There will still be video content. We’re still going to write about all the cool shit that comes out on XBLA. We’re just not going to waste time covering stuff that you can read about on any other site, unless it’s really important to one of us. Keeping it simple will help us to deliver new content more consistently, and keep it as high quality as Chris and I can handle.

So with that said, there has been some site restructure. We’re keeping 8-bit 101, This Month in Videogame History, and GameReel around because they’re sections I’m passionate about that I think we can continue to do while keeping things up to date here. All other content is, for the time being, nixed from the site. You can still find our previous work in the new “Archive” section if you’d like to reference it, but most of the quality pieces (all written by Chris, of course) have been moved to our new section tentatively called “The FIVEspot”. This is where you’ll find pretty much any of the content on the site that doesn’t fall into one of the aforementioned features, including this series of articles (also tentatively) titled The Road to San Francisco. More on that in a minute.

Some of you will notice that I keep talking about myself and Chris Abbott, with no mention of the talented Jake Cram or charming Chris Hamilton. That’s mostly because Jake and Chris contributed primarily to the FIVEcast, which I have put on hold for the immediate future. I’d like to thank them both for their contributions to playerFIVE, and when/if the FIVEcast picks back up I will definitely invite them both to return to it should they wish. The podcast was always a lot of work, and I told myself when it stopped being fun and started being work I would stop it. It was clear to me after episode 12 that I wasn’t having fun doing it any more, and the rest of the group wasn’t interested. Still, I’m definitely open to the idea of continuing it again in the future.

Now, where was I? Ahh, yes… San Francisco! Chris and I have been talking about this for a long time now, and we’re finally putting on our big boy pants and just taking the plunge – we’re moving to San Francisco. There’s a lot of reasons for this: the weather is nicer, Chris has an affinity for taco trucks, I have an affinity for asian women, and we both love videogames. So why not be in the center of all that? With that concept in mind, we’ve decided to document our struggles and successes on the journey, and we’re doing it here on playerFIVE! This series will focus on the decision to move 3000 miles across the country, it’s impacts on our lives (both personal and professional), and our quest to make it into the industry we yearn to be a part of every waking moment of every day. We’ll be telling the story in the form of written pieces, both live and pre-recorded video, and off-the-cuff audio clips. Oh, and pictures! There will probably be photos, too.

So stick around! playerFIVE is changing (again), but we’re the beast that never dies! We truly think there are many of you out there who will enjoy our new content, as we know we aren’t the only people trying to make it in videogames.

Thanks for reading, and join us again soon for our first true installment of “The Road to San Francisco”!

Its probably safe to say this thread has appeared on most, if not all gaming boards on the internet. Browsing the topic will net a wide range of replies, but it seems the most popular titles are the Final Fantasy games and Snake Eater. Bringing a gamer to tears has been a goal for many developers, and its pretty easy to understand why. Tears symbolize a story and characters that are told so well, they deeply resonate with the gamer. Even David Jaffe wanted his cancelled PSP game to emotionally impact players: “The end goal is that players at the end of the game are actually choked up – if not crying – because we’ve done our job so well.”

I’ve never had an emotional response to a game. Perhaps its because of the genre I play most often, or maybe the games I play have poorly told stories. I refuse to believe I’m emotionally absent; if we were talking about film, I’d be first in line to tell you Saving Private Ryan brings the waterworks like nobody’s business. In regards to gaming though, I’ve never had an emotional response. That is, until I played Bastion.

Those that have played Supergiant Games’ first title know that Bastion has a lot of great things to offer. The art style, narration, and easy-to-learn combat system make the game very inviting.Bastion is masterfully executed, but I wasn’t personally invested in the game until the first time I stepped foot into Who Knows Where.

Who Knows Where is the arena of the game. In it, players can test loadouts by facing waves of enemies, reaping the rewards along the way. What makes Who Knows Where stand out however, is the rich backstory told by Stranger, Bastion’s narrator. After the first wave, the Kid was no longer this white-haired avatar I was controlling, but instead a vision of myself.

Stranger told the tale of the Kid and his mother. See, the Kid never knew his old man, so his mom was all he had. At a young age the Kid left his mom to become a soldier with the goal of getting money for her. Immediately I connected with the Kid. I know my father, but he wasn’t around for the vast majority of my life. Mom and I became closer because of it. When we moved to New Hampshire, I had to find multiple sources of income so I could help her make rent. As it turns out, when the Kid came back from his stint in the military, he found his mom had passed away. While I’m lucky to say my mom’s still alive and kicking, we went a couple years without seeing each other much (even though we still lived in the same apartment), and the lack of communication made our relationship deteriorate until it was no more. The Kid realized his home had nothing for him, and left. After graduating high school, I did the same.

The quest for shards continued, but where there was once a white-haired little boy, there was me. For some reason, Bastion is the first game I’ve chosen to play through as good. Perhaps its because the Kid is put on a heroic pedestal from the beginning, or maybe its because the Kid is a kid; he has an innocent heart and wants to do the right thing. I like to think that the Kid’s mom would want him to do what’s right, and my mom would want the same. So when I was at the crossroads of leaving Zulf to die or making the futile attempt to save his life (despite the betrayal), I opted to pick him up and carry him back to the Bastion. Mom would’ve wanted me to show mercy, humility, and respect for life… so that’s what I did.

Maybe Bastion released at just the right time, and I decided to play it at just the right moment, but because of what’s going on in my personal life, I resonated pretty deeply with the Kid’s backstory. He lost his mom, and while I feel like I lost mine in the figurative sense of the word, I miss her and wish things were different. I’ve mentioned my cousin before, and while talking about our folks one day, he said, “y’know, you only get one mom.” Those words coupled with the Kid’s backstory were the inspiration I needed to call Mom up over the weekend and tell her I love her.

Playing Bastion didn’t make me cry, but it did spark an emotional response and left me feeling connected to the Kid more than any other character I’ve controlled. And just as the Kid fought to rebuild the Bastion, I’m fighting to rebuild a relationship with my mother.

Final Fantasy XI has been around for a while, and even earned Gamespy’s 2003 PC MMORPG of the Year award along with IGN’s Game of the Month award. Although two numbered Final Fantasytitles have released since the game hit store shelves, Square Enix announced a new MMO at 2009′s E3 with Final Fantasy XIV. Fourteen has had an incredibly rough life since it’s launch in 2010, causing publisher Square Enix to extend the free trial period and even delaying the PlayStation 3 port indefinitely.

Given how rocky FFXIV’s existence has been, it makes sense to port XI to Vita instead… but the notion of porting the game in the first place is pretty odd. For those that plan on snagging Sony’s upcoming handheld, is the idea of playing Final Fantasy XI appealing? If not, what Final Fantasy title would better fit the Vita?

I first met Andrew when I worked in the deli department at a local grocery store. Andrew and I would cross paths nearly every shift I had, and he’d always give me a friendly “Hey” while tending to empty carts. While waving back to the lean kid with sunglasses and an orange safety vest, I quietly wondered what was up with him; his left arm was bent a little, his left hand stiff with fingertips close together, and on rare occasion he would stutter mid-sentence. I didn’t know what Andrew’s deal was, but I wasn’t about to ask him. He seemed like a friendly kid, and I didn’t want to be nosey.

During my tenure at the grocery store, I spent my lunch breaks perusing the Game Stop next door. Andrew was obviously a gamer, because the first time he saw my shopping bag his eyes lit up and he asked me what I bought. Eager to talk about my favorite hobby, I showed him my reserved copy of Dead Rising. Our love of videogames and affinity for zombies allowed us to hit it off. We chatted about games over instant message and at work on a daily basis. Then one day over AIM he finally asked, “Did I ever tell you what happened to me?”

Andrew was born weighing just under three pounds. Because he was delivered three months early, his left hand didn’t fully develop. Additionally, Andrew spent the subsequent weeks at Massachusetts General Hospital hooked up to IVs that supplied him with blood and oxygen to keep him alive due to his brain damage. Unfortunately, Andrew’s identical twin brother didn’t make it during birth.

“I like to think that he knew something was up and took one for me. I’m sure in reality that wasn’t the case, but that’s the way I want to look at it. Though of course, my first wish is that he was here. To say I am lucky to be alive is putting it lightly.”

He shared vivid stories with me of having to “scoot” with his right leg where other toddlers would crawl, wearing a cast, and eventually learning to cope with a limp and walk differently because his left leg is shorter than his right. Peripheral vision in his left eye is also virtually non existent, so he had to deal with a lot of movement just to see something that wasn’t directly in front of him.

As a kid, Andrew realized he could play videogames with one hand. The simplicity of the NES controller allowed him to have his first gaming experience: Super Mario Bros. Mesmerized by the ability to control what was on the television with the NES pad, he was instantly drawn to the hobby. But it wasn’t until The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past that gaming would became an important part of his life.

“For it’s time it was amazing, and to this day it holds up. Graphics, sound, art, design… you name it. I love how big the scale of the game is; the adventure of going through a dungeon and finding the master key, and then finding the big chest with the awesome new armor, weapon, or the power gloves. After you beat a boss in the dungeon you felt so proud of yourself, and then of course the next day at school you would go and talk about it with your friends.”

I’ll never forget the first time I played with him online. Admittedly, I expected him to, well… suck, given his impairment. Especially at a shooter. Never before had I been so wrong about something. An invite to the Halo 3 beta was sent, and the very first match we played, he consistently stole my kills, saved me from death, and was a major asset in our team’s victory. It didn’t matter who joined our team; together, we dominated. Seriously, I think Andrew made a kid cry on Live once.

With every new console there’s a more advanced controller, and my buddy has adapted and re-learned how to play several times. Andrew prefers the Xbox 360 controller, and says the position of the thumbsticks cater perfectly to his method of play. Sitting on his couch, the 360 controller is tilted sideways with his index finger on the left thumbstick and his thumb on the right one. His middle finger is used to press the left trigger and bumper, his pinky finger on the right trigger and bumper. Whenever he needs to access the face buttons, he quickly slides his thumb back and forth. He handles the Dualshock 3 in a similar fashion, but because the triggers are curved inward they are sometimes harder to push.

L’Italien owns a Wii, but doesn’t get to play it much. Despite his affection for classic Nintendo characters, the Wiimote and Nunchuck prohibit him from playing games that he would otherwise love. Given the opportunity, Andrew would make motion controls completely optional and ensure all Wii games supported the Classic Controller. He’s not holding his breath as far as being able to play Wii U is concerned.

I asked my friend if he ever gets upset with the cards that life has dealt him.

“I never get pissed off at my situation because I could have easily not been alive. So I really try to make the best of it… it adds more to my character. That being said, I do sometimes get discouraged and play the ‘what if’ game, but then I look and say ‘this is who I am, I could live in sorrow or I can make the best of it’ and try different approaches to things. So far I think I have done a pretty good job at it. I’m a pretty laid back guy and take nothing seriously and once I start laughing, I can’t stop.”

I’ve wanted to write about my friend for quite some time now. It blows my mind that he plays with one hand and is a worthy competitor in games like Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat. Before, I looked at Andrew as this kid I know with a bum hand and the occasional stutter. Now, Andrew is my friend that’s obsessed with Simon Pegg, loves Rise Against, and won’t hesitate to dish out a headshot on Xbox Live. I never thought I’d meet a physically impaired gamer, let alone befriend one – and I have to say, I’m pretty lucky to know Andrew. Hell, the world’s a significantly better place with him in it. I asked him what he wants people that read this post to walk away with, and he responded with this:

“In a way I want to inspire people, I guess. I hope that people will find it interesting and totally badass I play with one hand. And that you can overcome, adapt, and cope with things and try to make the best of what you have.”

Three Nintendo games, created by some of the most important Japanese developers, aren’t coming to North America. Big deal, right? WRONG. The games in question are Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower. Xenoblade (which scored a 36/40 in Japanese gaming bible Famitsu) is directed by Tetsuya Takahashi (who did artwork on the Final Fantasy series, and wrote Xenogears and the Xenosaga games). The Last Story (earning a 38/40 in Famitsu) boasts Hironobu Sakaguchi at it’s helm, of Square and Mistwalker fame. Finally,Pandora’s Tower (31/40, Famitsu) comes from developer Ganbarion, who handles the Jump Super Stars and One Piece titles. Given who’s creating these titles and the scores they’ve earned in Japan… yeah, big deal.

Take a walk through memory lane back to this year’s E3. Xenoblade’s been confirmed for a European release, and Mathieu Minel (who’s in charge of marketing at Nintendo France) says Nintendo of Europe wanted to have Xenoblade be a part of Nintendo’s exhibit. Unfortunately, NoA shuts Minel down, saying “Nintendo of America wouldn’t let them because they didn’t want to show products that they aren’t planning to sell.” Not content with being shafted, an onslaught of Nintendo fans rallied on popular message boards and brainstormed ways of bringing these games to North America. And thus, Operation Rainfall is born.

Operation Rainfall has a campaign dedicated to each title, starting with efforts to get Xenoblade localized. During development, Xenoblade went by the name “Monado: Beginning of the World“, which is curiously available for pre-order on Amazon right now. Rainfall encourages those who want the game to pre-order immediately, and on June 25th, Monado climbed all the way to #1 on Wii action games list, overall Wii games list, and most notably, Amazon’s Top 100 games list. Rainfall also wants gamers to call, e-mail, and snail mail NoA HQ, in hopes of getting noticed. Perhaps what’s worked best for the effort is taking advantage of social outlets like Twitter and Facebook. Thousands upon thousands of tweets and wall posts have gotten Nintendo’s attention, and they’ve finally acknowledged their fans. Here is their latest Facebook update:

Thank you for your enthusiasm. We promised an update, so here it is. We never say “never,” but we can confirm that there are no plans to bring these three games to the Americas at this time. Thanks so much for your passion, and for being such great fans!

While this statement would seemingly dampen the spirits of those involved, Operation Rainfall will not settle for anything less than a happy ending to this story. According to their Twitter feed:

And as this generation started with a Nintendo REVOLUTION, so will it end with a REVOLUTION. Are you ready @NintendoAmerica?

IGN Editor Rich George (@RichIGN) cites sales figures in response to Nintendo’s statement and Operation Rainfall’s efforts:

Approx Nintendo Wii install base by region (in millions): JAPAN – 11.59 EUROPE/OTHER – 33.24 NORTH AMERICA – 41.18 (as of 3/11)”

Why is Nintendo so unwilling to localize games in a market where they have the most sales opportunity? Personal bewilderment aside, Operation Rainfall is without a doubt the biggest fan movement I’ve ever witnessed as a gamer. It’s fascinating to sit back and watch people that have been lifelong fans of the iconic company demand these games, and not even get bummed out when Nintendo shuts them down. In fact, Nintendo’s stubbornness has only motivated Rainfall even more. I’ve seen efforts to get Sega to keep the Dreamcast alive, and even movements to get Mother 3 stateside, but Operation Rainfall is truly inspiring on a whole other level. Good luck, guys.

South Carolina Christmases were pretty boring. It never snowed, and all the neighborhood kids went out of state with their families. One year was especially dull. Even though I was out of school, I wouldn’t see my friends again until 1994. Most, if not all of my vacation was spent bugging Mom to let me play Nintendo. At age eight, I didn’t have a TV in my bedroom, so when Dad was tinkering with his HAM Radios and Mom was prepping Christmas dinner in the kitchen, that was the perfect opportunity for me to grab a controller and traverse the Mushroom Kingdom. As heartbroken as I was on Christmas Eve to be denied access to my NES, it hurt even more to be told to get ready for bed. Why did I have to go to bed so early? It wasn’t like Santa was coming to my house first. After Mom and Dad tucked me in, my final thoughts before slipping into slumber were no doubt wishing for new games to play.

Morning came and per usual, I awoke before the sun was in the sky. It was Christmas! After a solid half hour of begging my folks to get out of bed, they finally agreed and we went into the living room. Santa had definitely been there, and I remember thinking with all the stuff under the tree, maybe he did stop at our house first, just to get it out of the way. After a few unwrapped Batman toys and VHS tapes later, my old man handed a large box to me. The tag read “To Chris, From Santa”.

I was speechless. My mouth was open, but no words were coming out. I could feel my breathing speed up and all this energy – like I had snuck two sodas when Mom wasn’t looking. In my hands was a brand new Sega Genesis, and boy did it look AWESOME. It had better graphics, more buttons, new games… everything. And then I noticed in the lower right corner of the box:

Memories of the time between opening up my new gift and asking Dad to hook it up to the TV for me are non-existent. Time was a blur, but the most important thing was that my Sega was hooked up, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was in the system, and my right index finger was about to turn on my Genesis for the first time. I pushed the power button in, gazed up at the white screen, and didn’t dare blink as Sonic the Hedgehog raced across the screen unveiling a blue logo and the TV yelled “SEGA”.

I was now in Emerald Hill Zone. Sonic was so real, and I was certain that videogames would never look any better than this. And the music — oh man, the music was hands down the best I’d ever listened to. Pushing right on the D-Pad amazed me; Sonic went from being stopped to zooming around the stage in the blink of an eye. My thumb must’ve slipped a little because I pushed down and all of a sudden the blue hedgehog was now this spinning orb of speed. Sonic raced through loop-de-loops and I thought my TV was going to break because it couldn’t keep up.

Without a doubt, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 spent the most time in my console during vacation. The level variety, music, and end boss were too breathtaking to not want to experience them over and over. When I found out about Super Sonic, that was all the more reason to play. Dedicating enough time to snagging the Chaos Emeralds and watching Sonic turn from blue to yellow – as if he was a being lit up with superpowers – was truly an accomplishment. The visual spectacle that was Super Sonic battling Dr. Robotnik on the Death Egg is a series of memories I will always cherish… and as much as I credit Mario with getting me hooked on videogames, Sonic will always be the reason I love them.

Returning to school in 1994, I spent most of my time talking with friends in class while the teacher’s back was to us, learning about codes that had to be entered in the sound test screen. The level select code was always a fun one, and I could play my favorite stages whenever I wanted to. I’ll never forget discussing with my friends the strange things we could do with the debug code, and loving the ability to cheat and become Super Sonic without the painstaking task of collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds.

The next couple years awarded me with several Genesis games. Let’s be honest, there were some GREAT games on Sega’s 16-bit platform, but Sonic 1, 2, 3, and (my personal favorite) Sonic & Knuckles kept me coming back to that system every day. Learning that the Sega Saturn wasn’t launching with Sonic 4 was a huge blow to me, and it’s probably the reason why I ended up waiting to hop on the N64 train.

Earlier I touched on the fact that Sonic’s been on a roller coaster ride (with more lows than highs) for what’s arguably the better part of his existence. Sonic’s done some pretty asinine stuff, and even hoping that the next Sonic game will be good will likely get you laughed at and a Sonic Cycle thrown in your face.

Even I’ll admit that those saying Sonic’s not relevant anymore (and hasn’t been for a while) have an incredibly strong, compelling argument. But with that being said, I’m not pouring one out for the blue hedgehog. Instead, I’m raising my glass for him. I love Sonic. No, I don’t want to leave reality behind and have a monogamous relationship with him… sheesh. All I’m saying is that he’s pretty much the only reason I don’t completely resent getting a Genesis instead of a SNES. Sonic helped make my childhood that much more enjoyable, and made me realize that videogames are something I will always love. Sega may drag him through the mud, but I’ll always be able to close my eyes and relive the memory of him racing across the SEGA logo.

Happy birthday, dude.