Based on the blog post “Feelin` Fine,” originally published on Playstation Underground Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP) 2007-06-28 14:05:

Hey everybody, it’s been a while.

So, it’s looking like a good week for PlayStat3rs. First we get a bunch of new release: The Bigs, The Darkness, Harry Potter, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Transformers. Surprisingly, Harry Potter isn’t so bad. The Bigs got decent reviews. The Darkness as well, and Ubisoft didn’t manage to mess up the port of Rainbow Six (too much). Transformers didn’t fare so well, but it is exciting to change into a car. Still, Transformers, shame on you.

I’m about two hours into Starbreeze’s new game, The Darkness. So far? Creeping Dark, an ability that has you directly controlling this eel looking creature that comes out of your back (see above) is actually pretty cool. A lot of review sites seemed to have issues with controlling the Creeping Dark, “especially when climbing walls,” but I haven’t encountered any of that. Strange.

So far? Really cool 1st person interactive story telling. There’s a scene early on where Jackie Estacado, you (me, whatever. It’s first person), goes to his girlfriend, Jenny’s, new apartment in Chinatown. I’m lost because I can’t remember which building she said she was in.

“Hey Jackie, I’m up here!”

I look around, searching for the voice through my 5.1 channel speakers. Finally I approach one of the buildings down an alley and look up.

“Hey, you found it,” Jenny says, looking down at me. “Come on up; it’s apartment 11.”

It’s times like these, without all the shooting and the killing that set this game apart for me. Sure Halo had a neat story, but there aren’t any quiet moments like this. In fact, after a brief dialogue, Jackie and Jenny proceeded to watch “To Kill a Mockingbird” on TV. I just sat there for about 20 minutes, in first person. Exciting? Not really, but it was really neat.

Then it was back to the killing. I hope to get in some more time with the game over the weekend.

Even if you can keep from losing your head from pre-orders and add-ons at GS / EB, you still can’t deny that some of those are pretty nasty places to shop at. To use some of David Jaffe’s words (censored):

“Would it hurt EB to put on an even SEMI professional front for the consumer? Would it hurt if they cleaned the carpet once in a while to remove the stains and the smell of day old nerd sweat? And would it hurt if the walls were not 80% filled with semi-damaged used game cases that were covered with unattractive stickers that made the products look like you were buying something at a garage sale?” [Read more Jaffe here]

Heh, nerd sweat. Anyways, you’ve got to admit, he has a point. Should something that cost around $50 look like it’s been touched by every single greasy hand in the food court? And that’s after the game box’s been covered with price stickers. What’s shrink wrap for? What happened to new is new, not because the label says so?

After working in one of these stores for a while, I got to thinking that things needed to change. I said to myself, “If Nintendo has their way, and it looks like they will, a lot of casual players are going to enter the market, so unless GS / EB shapes up, it’s going the way of the dinosaurs.” I started dreaming up designs for a new store, Starbucks-like, dark wood colored, lots of glass, with huge LCD TV, and interactive set-ups. I thought about how to let customers browse freely and yet not have to worry about the bad eggs stealing product of the shelves (Microsoft Surface). Profit would come mostly from low cost commodities like video game centric trinkets, keychains, posters, t-shirts and stuff.

Looks like someone had the same idea. I got the chance to go to a Play N Trade over the weekend, and wow, was it nice. I’d say it’s about 80% of what I’d envisioned, though Play N Trade started in 2001, so they beat me to it, but that’s cool. It would have taken me years to get the money. Play N Trade’s a franchise chain and it’s retail different from the rest. Just look at the picture of the wall. They even let you try out new games in the store. If you have one of these in your area, definitely go check it out.