Monday, August 20, 2012

Upcoming Games

Oh, what a crappy year it has been for gaming. It has been full of busts and letdowns for me personally, but it has been nice to catch up on some older games as well as continuing to work toward fragging n00bs on Modern Warfare 3 with my new(ish) clan: All Fun N Games (shameless shout out):

https://elite.callofduty.com/connect/clan/view/1233622

Great group of guys and pretty competitive on the clan scene. Gives me a reason to constantly go back to an otherwise "meh" online experience, which is

Diablo III is probably the greatest letdown of the year for me thus far. What promised to be a logical progression from the previous game feels overly derivative and clunky. I will finish the game at some point, but over 20 hours into the game you realize how shallow it is. The auction house would have been a nice touch if it actually worked the way it was supposed to when launched. The servers were essentially non-existent the first 7 days and the dual-authentication token on my account broke. This means that for over 10 days since launch I have been unable to play the game, which does not lend itself to actually making me WANT to play the game. All in all, I had very high hopes for this game and yet again Blizzard has let me down. I think my love affair with this developer has run its course. It will take something truly great (WarCraft IV perhaps???!!!) to bring me back to this broken giant.

Other games that I have looked forward to and been disappointed in:
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
- Battlefield 3 and the 3GBs of patches that were supposed to fix the tech issues and did not (released Oct 2011 - but still a letdown)
- Twisted Metal
- SSX
- Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Games that I am looking forward to in the upcoming part of the year:

Borderlands 2:

It doesn't hurt the animation producer is an old high school chum, but I got completely engrossed in the first game. It was essentially a first person shooter that had some crazy action and a fresh, new outlook on the art direction of the FPS game. Moving from realistic and grim to bright and cartoony, it was a breath of fresh air. I must have poured the better part of 100-200 hours into this game and all the DLC that it offered. Truly a great experience and with 2 boasting more campaign and content (along with 2 new characters) I have nothing but high hopes for this game. I also warned my friend that if I end up wasting my money on this he will never hear the end of it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2:

Oh, Call of Duty... you somehow know how to make me hate myself for loving to play your games. In fact, I will be the first to recognize that this game is not actually going to be THAT good. I only play these games because I cannot convince any of my other friends to play any other online FPS games. Therefore, this becomes more of a social event than a gaming event for me. Regardless, I will be playing it with my AFnG clan and friends alike. A few things that are worth noting are the revamping of the class load-out systems to a "choose 10" instead of locking in a pre-determined list and "pick 1" from that list and the movement from a kill-based streak to a score-based streak. Are these enough to claim "reinvention" or "innovation"? Probably not, but it will make for some good fun come 11-13-12!!!!

2012-Early 2013 Outlook:
You may notice there are only a few titles here. I think it is mostly due to the fact that my jaded point of view tells me there are only going to be a handful of titles that are actually worth spending money on. As such the above two games are those I have already pre-ordered. The below games are those that I will wait to see how they pan out before actually buying them, but have blipped my radar for potentially good games worth a purchase.
- Metal Gear Rising: Resurgence
- DMC (reboot of Devil May Cry)
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
- Hitman: Absolution
- Assassin's Creed III
- Dishonored

Monday, October 10, 2011

Angry Birds go... soft



Well, it is official... Angry Birds are here to stay. On top of the host of great, free content we constantly get hit in the side of the head with - we now get hit right in the mouth. Yes, a proverbial assault on all of our senses by those cute and grumbling little birds now includes the taste buds. Soon they will be crashing into your tongue in bursts of apple, lemon, grape, cherry, strawberry, and blue raspberry all color coordinated with the color of the birds (and pigs).

Don't believe me? I don't blame you, after all - who could possible believe in such madness? Well, me for one but I don't doubt that all the rest of you are sitting out there with a dumbfounded look on your face. Allow me to educate you a bit on the discovery of such treasures. On a weekly trip with a co-worker over to the degenerative cesspool that is Wal-Mart, we found these delicious little boxes of snacks for only A DOLLAR!!!! YES, A SINGLE DOLLAR BUYS YOU DELICIOUS FRUIT SNACKS SHAPED LIKE DEFORMED VERSIONS OF ANGRY BIRDS!!! These were nestled in a bin of ordinary candy, but these are no ORDINARY snacks!!! No, these are the snacks dreams are made of - things that exist only in the far-off lands where imagination had a bastard child with irrational; where Super Mario Bros. the Movie doesn't completely suck ass; where you can eat cereal based on your favorite Nintendo video games!!!! This is the land of dreams and hopes... not rational or logical. This is a land of freedom, not shackled by the close-minded tyrants and consumers that mindlessly support Apple products. This is... THE DREAM!!!

Hesitate not, steadfast one... you need these... and you need them now. I suggest you jump in whatever means of transportation ASAP and get to the store before they are gone and discontinued, when you just want to flop on your bed and weep for endless nights. For now, they are here and real; GET YOU SOME!!!

Friday, September 30, 2011

Battlefield 3 Beta

I have seen the future of war... and it is beautiful!!!

The beta has finally hit the store, and after a few hours of playing, the game is shaping up to be exactly what most of us expected... for it being a beta. The haters will in fact hate, but keep in mind this is one mode, one map, and it is one of the smallest maps that focuses on infantry rather than the "typical" Battlefield-style maps and play. I assume this is to try to lure some of the console players away from the CoD upcoming release, but let's not speculate on this topic and move on.

There are a few inherent issues with the BF3 beta for the PS3 and consoles in general. First, there are no vehicles... and that is due mainly to the fact that the map chosen is "too small" for vehicles. Whether or not you believe this is a completely different ball of wax than how the game plays. The animations are for the most part smooth, and the textures are like nothing I have seen before. From the "hurdling" animation to the way the recently killed fall to the ground and twitch, the game 

This map focuses entirely on infantry, so it plays almost exactly to the Call of Duty games. This is not a bad thing, and the maps show off a number of technical and strategic advances. You start the board out in a park that sits outside of a subway terminal. It is completely open, with lush gazebos and foliage for you to crawl through and hide in. Once the two sets of M-Comm stations have been destroyed the battle moves into the subway, whose entrances have been razed by warfare and explosives. As you crawl and run through the rubble, you find yourself in a dark and poorly lit subway. As you creep up, you see scaffolding and a number of barriers that seem right at home. Beautiful lighting with flickering fluorescent lights line the cars... it feels like you are there, and the echoes that come from deep within are even more-so impressive once the two teams engage. 

As you enter the subway, you hear the clap of sniper fire. The clap and whizzing of the bullets is something that I have not experienced in this manner. The echo of the clap resonates throughout the tunnel and the bullet sounds as if it nearly took your ear off. The great thing about this map is it showcases how prone should be used. You are able to advance among the rubble and waist-height cover to get close enough to take out the snipers you would normally not have a chance at killing with an SMG or assault rifle. If you are not into the "open area fire fights" there are plenty of corridors for you to engage the enemy in. These are just as strategic, and require patience and teamwork to get the best of your enemy. I was hiding behind a wall that was blown up by an RPG, throwing me to the ground... and that was when I realized this game was going to be something special. You could see the water pipes to the bathrooms in the next room still there, and there was rubble spread everywhere around the explosion. I was then put down by the other 2 members of the RPGer's squad and commended them on their effort at my expense. 

All the praise above sounds great, but this is a beta and not without flaws. There are a few major bugs/issues that need to be fixed. First and foremost - there are glitches that allow players to hide below the floor when prone and continue to kill people. There is also an issue with the way you identify team members - they do not show up as "friendly" until you aim down your sights or put your crosshairs over them. While not a really big issue, this results in a lot of friendly fire and/or constant reliance on the radar. These are all minor things that will be discovered and/or fixed in the next few weeks. They have already been reported on the boards and DICE has noted they will be better in the final release. 

Let's just hope that DICE is able to iron out these issues and give us the polish that we deserve and expect from them upon release on October 25, the day my life may officially digress into an online cesspool of wins, losses, KDR, and trying to obtain all the unlocks DICE plans to provide us. Until then my friends, stay frosty!!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

3 Decades of Games, Fun, and Life

So here I sit on my 30th birthday, at work and completely unmotivated to do what I should be doing. Reflecting back on the past 3 decades of my life, I have realized that there are a lot of trends that you can see and it is really hard to believe how far things have come since 1981. I may have grown up on the outside, but I still keep the mentality of a vibrant teenager who wants nothing more than to have his parents drive him to a midnight release and play hooky from school the following day. Part of this mentality is what my wife loves about me and other times she will roll her eyes at me and tell me sarcastically that I love my games more than her (which isn’t true… mostly).

I can remember each of the major systems I’ve had over the years, from the Atari consoles to the NES; Genesis to the Playstation; GameBoy to GameBoy Advance; and now the Playstation 2 to the PS3. The technology has been amazing and we’ve seen some great failures along the way (ahem, Virtual Boy and Sega CD). I have seen giants like Sega fall from hardware and software A listers into software-only B/C list developers/publishers.

No matter what happens going forward I feel blessed to be one of the few generations that has been able to see the progression of games from pixilated messes with great gameplay into what could be mistaken for real life. The true aficionados will go back and continue to play those games, but those of us who grew up with them will always have a place in our hearts for those games that bruised your thumbs, egos, and taught you how to be resilient. There were no cheats, difficulty levels, or coddling to us in our gaming experiences. You either got good enough to survive or you died… A LOT!!! Perhaps this is what has changed the most in gaming in my mind, as developers aim to reach a wider audience and create an experience that could be more widely accepted and enjoyed by the general public.

A gamer that used to prefer the action/adventure genre, and completely swore off the FPS genre… I’m now the polar opposite. I find hack and slash games to be rather shallow and poorly designed on a whole. I don’t know if this is the fact that in my mind the genre peaked with the original Devil May Cry or if I’m just at a different stage in my gaming lifecycle. I find the online multiplayer aspects of games to be the most enjoyable parts of the games I play. This is where I am able to not only enjoy the game, but also partake in the social aspects of gaming. This takes me back to the days where there would be 2-6 of my buddies in my basement playing Loaded for the PSX or GoldenEye for the N64. I still tear up a little bit when I think back to those days and how we would play from the time we got home on Friday after school until my parents could no longer stand the noise and yell down “HEY KIDS, GET TO BED… GOOOOO… TOOOOOOOOOO… BEDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!” Maybe this is why I have turned to the “dark side” of gaming and fallen into the trance that is the military and overall FPS experience.

In the end, all of these memories and experiences mold who you are and what you have become. I guess that I would say I’m a gamer, always have been, and always plan to be. The coroner may have to pry some sort of controller from my dead, lifeless hands one day. However, games did not just provide me entertainment… no, they have taught me some great lessons in life. Keeping in mind that these things helped me through life and were also instilled in other aspects of my upbringing, I sincerely think video games help keep people grounded and also instill certain values. From the hand-eye coordination it takes to be able to play some of the games to the critical thinking and problem solving skills, video games have something more to offer than just being an expensive hobby or raising the censor’s eyebrows. In fact, I think of games as interactive books and movies and they tend to replace those activities to a point.

Keeping that in mind, moderation is a key concept in the video game world. Scratch that, moderation is key in ANY aspect in life. Too much time spent in any one activity will degrade the other aspects of your life. Video games are no exception, and it is purely up to the parents of the children to keep this in check. As an adult who plays video games, it is up to me to make sure I have everything I need taken care of and to not neglect the responsibilities and people that matter to me. When executed correctly, video games can completely enrich a person’s life and also provide a variety of benefits that may not be available to people otherwise. I don’t plan on quitting games any time soon, but I’m sure through reading this you already knew that. I’m looking forward to seeing what the current generation of consoles and even the next generation will bring us as gamers and the technology that will be available in total. Maybe in another ten years, I’ll reflect back and see that I am able to add these leaps and bounds in narrative again… maybe things won’t change too much… or maybe the gaming industry will collapse. That’s the crazy thing about life… you never know what is next… which also makes it a little bit like a video game... or does it???

Welcome to the Madness



So it has been a trip, these first three decades of my life. Putting things off that could/should have been done sooner. This blog is one of those things. I've long since missed the functionality of the Myspace.com blog in the now corporate Facebook; as it allowed me to rant to a public and also get some valued points across - while also warning people of the corporate greed that steals hard earned money from our pockets.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about things and as a way to get through the later parts of my life I figured this blog could help. Nothing like a little self-help, eh? I'll be blogging about some things that most of the world can relate to: work (good and bad), video games, life in general, and my opinions.

I'll be posting a more in-depth look into the first 30 years of my "gaming career" later today; but I'm glad to finally get this off the launch pad :)