Wednesday, December 2, 2009

LTTP: Mirror's Edge

It doesn't hurt that it's 5 bucks.

But my immediate reaction to the game.... "Is the control right? What's wrong with the buttons? Is it me? Why is this feeling all wrong?"
I exited the program and then loaded up TF2, quick little hop and a bat kill as a Scout and then I realized "No, I'm not crazy."

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Sessler's rant aganst homophonbia

he makes a valid point, more about how much the word should still be frowned uppon as the slur that it is. Still it's an passionate stance and something to take into consideration.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

"you can't kill me

I won't deny, I am very much in the camp not excited for Left 4 Dead 2. Simply put it looks like an expansion pack, and have been horribly disenchanted with how valve treated updating the game and really baffled at how could valve logic in finishing a sequel instead of Half Life Episode 3. Well now you put in a shiny new hat in TF2 and already you got me scratching my hat debating it.

I feel a personal shame in acknowledging that it's a TF2 hat, considering that TF2 hats are really the height of social outcast and a status symbol over your own addiction to the game. There isn't really a perfect way to receive them.... considering I'm well over 400 hours of playing the game and I got the complementary halo for those who didn't grind achievements.
Talking to my close friends in Germany, they are tempted to pre-order the game for status symbol of Counter Strike guns. It's amazing how far we will all go for just a small notch in our virtual status symbol.
Just makes to think a lot of pre-ordering, and supporting online digital distribution. And this is a case where it all works, because if it was a case of the online distribution forgets your redeem code, or even looses which file you bought, well this would disastrous. Just recently I can't seem to find my serial number for Bionic Commando Rearmed, now that floats on my HDD without really an possibility to install it without going into hacking processes even though I fairly bought it but just can't seem to get through finding the code. There doesn't seem to be an easy enough system to just correct itself for the simplest human error or I'm lazy.

Monday, November 2, 2009

MW2 Homophobic?

Simple answer, No.

Well it's about a week or so till the release of the game Modern Warfare 2 has come out, and like the Hover Damn, a small stream of trickling is coming out just building up the hype for this game. So with that, it seemed quite odd that a small short PSA ad with Phillies Pitcher Cole Hamels. As of now, Modern Warfare 2's hype could be rivaled with Gears of War 2 and Halo 3, so you'd expect mountain dew sodas or 7 Eleven redecorating themselves in the theme of the game. Nope, a small, short ad came out pretty much in time for the World Series with an MVP player, in fact seems to be in the spirit and the target audience of most of the previous MW2 ads. Still there isn't any real ambition to these ads or any other ads to aim for a larger demographic. It slightly reminds everyone of Dice's Battlefield Bad Company ads or Valve's Team Fortress Meet the player ads, but still there is a slight machinima theme to it in hopes to make the ad viral.
And here's where I feel the ad goes wrong. There's nothing wrong with mocking Grenade Spaming, in fact it's something that any fan of the original game can immediately identify as the main problem with multiplayer. But I think it's early on with the "Blunt Trama", it feels a lot like out of touch step parent desperate attempts at being hip with his forgotten children. Unlike other video games that merchandise with Wallmart, Doritos, or Mountain dew, there's this just reek of desperation and acceptance with this ad.
Still there isn't much to talk about this ad, considering that in a matter of minutes the ad was pulled by the community manager. There's be great lengths to stop the Homophobic slander on multiplayer games, this wouldn't have helped. In fact like I said before, there's an element to it that feels like "Get it, 'Fags' we highlighted it 4 times in hopes you get that. Get it? I'm just like you. That's what the kids would say. Do you think I'm cool? Hey guys I'm cool right?" I feel like Modern Warfare is at the threshold of controversy, and just adding a homophobic ad that's desperate appealing to a younger audience attention just would have gone badly for them.
Christmas shopping has already started and Fox News needs a segment to pump fear into children's toys.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween Harvest event

never underestimate the silliness of TF2. This halloween a small updated added, 5 new achievements, new halloween themed map, exploding pumpkins, pumpkins carying candy that give you short critical hits, mildly disturbing masks, hobo hat, and finally the best a ghost.


Actually, I was surprised they picked up the Frog Mod, in making the game more focused into collecting items after you killed a guy. It changes the way the game is played by giving the player incentive to try something else. Still the design of Candy is hilarious design.

The map is a mess, as much any TF2 Achievement are launched and that's a good thing. The best Halloween design I've seen.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

koopa kids

less is usually more

but considering it's been close to around 13 years and far from a toddle Baby Bowser has ruled as a tyrant with his spiked paw as the main Baby. Now no one is expecting much character development from a Nintendo game, but still I'm always against reusing a design miniature, female or twins.
So it's a remarkable return of the Koopa Kids. Now I'm not expecting them to have long winded 40 plus hours of extended dialog as they progress. Pretty much their extent of their performance is, they are in airships waiting till you knock out wands from their hands and then you progress into the next world. Still with the limited change in their head and body shape, they just OOZE out personality. And again goes back to what I was saying before, they best symbolize "Less is More" philosophy.
Nostalgia can color things, but they are welcomed sight for sore eyes

Sunday, October 25, 2009

the other point of view

check this out
an excellent defense why to support dedicated server. I'm still on the "lets wait and see" and "there's a lot that needs to be improved." I mean one day Infinity Wards say "we will have dedicated servers." and then the next day we get a comment from Twitter. This really isn't the mature way to handle reaction to this.