andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

What’s your favourite game? I know, it’s a tough question to answer for some of us, and a question I get asked almost every time I have an interview regarding any form of game related activities. In fact, it’s such a difficult question for me to answer that I often ask people I interview for andPOP positions just to watch them squirm as much as I do when I have to come up with a quick meaningful response. Do you base your answer on memory? What’s popular at the time? Do you want to sound sophisticated so you refer to some obscure art title? What if the game you say is your favourite turns out to be a personal worst for the person asking you? With such a simple question comes so much drama, and to a point, it gets a little ridiculous.

Personally I would probably have to say my all time favourite video game would have to be Punch Out for the original Nintendo… or Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation… or Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation… or General Chaos for the Sega Genesis… or the latest Smash Bros title. At least I can narrow down my choices to my top five favourites of all time. Why did these become my favourites? READ MORE »

Hey andPOPpers, Josh again with my weekly ranting. This week’s topic, how do you play video games? What is your ideal setup? How long is a good gaming session for you? When I play, it all depends on the mood I’m in, what kind of game it is, and what happened earlier in the day. If I’m having a crappy day, bad traffic, annoying people, and I’m just in a downright foul mood, I like to cause some havoc. Take my anger out on virtual citizens of a cyber world. I may go home, crack open a nice frosty coke, plop on the couch and pop in some Horde mode of Gears of War 2 and just slaughter alien scum for a good hour or two. If I’m awake and relatively bored I might go back to my old MMORPG ways and play some online final fantasy 11 (either on my PC or Xbox depending on the mood) and slash 3 to 4 hours off my day. When the mood strikes and I feel like watching a movie but want that interactive vibe to it, I would usually play some good, theatrical, and beautiful Metal Gear Solid 4, pop in my Jabra earpiece (that came with Warhawk for PS3) and play with that much more involvement… and yes, if I want to be 100% in the game, I may even toss on my eye patch every now and then. READ MORE »

Hey andPOPpers, Josh here again and today, I think I’ll rant about the big news of the month, E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the biggest North American video game trade show came and went, and with it, a slew of previews we all expected to see as well as a few big surprises came our way. While I was unable to attend this year, I watched from the comfort of my couch and desk as the news rolled in, and while I got excited for what’s coming our way I couldn’t help but get a little disappointed that while the people there had to deal with crowds, line-ups and costs, they would ultimately be the ones to say they played these games a year or even more before they came out.

So for the past week I’ve been watching the live E3 press releases of the big three: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft; and I must say, for the most part I was surprisingly impressed with what was announced and shown at these press conferences. READ MORE »

Hey andPOPpers, Josh here (senior gaming editor), chances are if you’ve read a game review on this web page in the past two years, it was written by me. We’re going through some big exciting changes on the gaming front at andPOP, we will be adding more content, more articles, more reviews, contests, interviews, and many more surprises over the next few weeks and I just wanted to get things rolling with what I hope to become a weekly blog.

I guess I would start by telling you all a little bit about my gaming habits. Ever since I was a wee young child I grew up with some form of video game controller in my hand, whether I controlled a pong paddle with it or a horde of orcs I have always enjoyed playing, and try to get as much gaming in daily as humanly possible. From Atari to Xbox 360, from action games to real time strategy games I love everything gaming represents. Whether you play to escape reality or due to being on house arrest, video games have the ability to entertain, educate, and bring people from all over the world together in this fast growing hobbyist lifestyle. My objective, my goal is to create some form of communication with the readers through this blog, and of course, to vent. After all, isn’t that what blogging is really all about?

So this week is the potential return of the greatness that is E3. Yes, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the largest North American video game trade show of the year is taking place between June 2 and 4 in LA and I am stuck here, missing out on my dream gig for a third straight year. That being said however, I’m not OVERLY depressed, because we will be having updates posted throughout the week with regards to the biggest stories, the newest news, and the most embarrassing letdowns as the show progresses!

So there ya go, the first of many blogs to come from the gaming side of things. As we ramp up and revitalize the gaming section we are always open to suggestions. If you have anything you think should be here but isn’t, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll see what we can cook up.