Well, in case you have not already notice, I don't really post on here all that often anymore (the last post before this one was in January). So I am consolidating this blog in with my personal wordpress one at http://statusofthequo.com/.
I was originally thinking that I would cross-post any relevant content onto here, and even continue to write my diatribes about certain games and the industry as a whole. The hope was that I may get a chance to write for another website in the not to distant future. That hasn't worked for 4 months however, so I don't think that is going to change too much anytime soon. In fact I am so out of the loop of the games industry now, I couldn't write anything current without taking a bunch of time to get caught up.
Feel free to come back and visit this site whenever you like, and read the old stuff (too lazy to move it, though I may find time at some point), and please visit my new site. Enjoy, and thank you for reading.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Choose your own adventure... er I mean Racer.
So I was reading "the Twitters" today and found a tweet from Turn 10 studios that caught my attention (Turn 10 are the makers of the Forza franchise). Now everyone knows that I love my car porn racing games, Forza and Gran Turismo are the highlights of the genre. Anyway, back to the point. This tweet pointed me to the Jalopnik.com website to one of the greatest announcements in the history of car porn racing games. Take 120 of the most iconic cars in history, and have a large group of die hard car enthusiasts vote on their favorites and put them into a video game.
That's what they are doing here.
Over the next week, the 120 choices will be whittled down to 15. From that 15, Turn 10 will take 9 of them (plus the 1 Jalopnik editor's choice) and turn them into a car pack available this summer. Oh, and did I mention that the 1982 DeLorian DMC-12 is one of the choices? Yeah, get over there and vote. There are new lists every day to pick only the best of the best. For some reason someone forgot to include the 1975 AMC Matador(merely an oversight I am sure), but the sportier version of it, the '71 AMC Javelin AMX is a choice.
I for one, am pumped to be flying around a track in a DeLorian this summer.
That's what they are doing here.
Over the next week, the 120 choices will be whittled down to 15. From that 15, Turn 10 will take 9 of them (plus the 1 Jalopnik editor's choice) and turn them into a car pack available this summer. Oh, and did I mention that the 1982 DeLorian DMC-12 is one of the choices? Yeah, get over there and vote. There are new lists every day to pick only the best of the best. For some reason someone forgot to include the 1975 AMC Matador(merely an oversight I am sure), but the sportier version of it, the '71 AMC Javelin AMX is a choice.
I for one, am pumped to be flying around a track in a DeLorian this summer.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Zombursday!
So I don't really know why I am writing anything today other than to say that once again another Zombursday (aka Zombie Thursday) has come and gone, and it was a blast again.
For those that are unaware of what the hell I am talking about, I will explain. Since my bother picked me up Left 4 Dead 2 for Christmas, myself, my brother and two other real life friends log on every Thursday to kill some undead. Last night's experience was the toughest yet as we moved up to advanced in the difficulty. Tougher zombies that do WAY more damage. We put it on Dead Center, and everything was going smoothly until the last section where your band of survivors has to fill a stock car up with Gas while fighting off hordes of zombies to make your escape from the mall. So we split into 2 groups of 2. My brother and I would run around the 3 floor mall throwing gas cans to the team below to fill up the car. Well, it was going smooth until the game decided it was time to kill us by spawning a Charger, a Tank, and a Smoker all at the same time. The smoker grabbed one, the charger got the other, and the tank just threw rocks at my disabled teammates. By the time the two of us got to the bottom floor, both of them were already killed, and the tank decided to beat the stuffing out of the two of us with little resistance.
It really surprised me how much of a dick the AI is in this game when you start ramping up the difficulty. It will happily take advantage of the group splitting up by sending everything it has at half of them while practically ignoring the other half. It's definitely what makes the game so replayable, but can also lead to some frustrating moments. I have to say that overall, Valve did a pretty good job on this one.
For those that are unaware of what the hell I am talking about, I will explain. Since my bother picked me up Left 4 Dead 2 for Christmas, myself, my brother and two other real life friends log on every Thursday to kill some undead. Last night's experience was the toughest yet as we moved up to advanced in the difficulty. Tougher zombies that do WAY more damage. We put it on Dead Center, and everything was going smoothly until the last section where your band of survivors has to fill a stock car up with Gas while fighting off hordes of zombies to make your escape from the mall. So we split into 2 groups of 2. My brother and I would run around the 3 floor mall throwing gas cans to the team below to fill up the car. Well, it was going smooth until the game decided it was time to kill us by spawning a Charger, a Tank, and a Smoker all at the same time. The smoker grabbed one, the charger got the other, and the tank just threw rocks at my disabled teammates. By the time the two of us got to the bottom floor, both of them were already killed, and the tank decided to beat the stuffing out of the two of us with little resistance.
It really surprised me how much of a dick the AI is in this game when you start ramping up the difficulty. It will happily take advantage of the group splitting up by sending everything it has at half of them while practically ignoring the other half. It's definitely what makes the game so replayable, but can also lead to some frustrating moments. I have to say that overall, Valve did a pretty good job on this one.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Going back to the old
8 Days ago, I was talked into doing something that I was pretty certain would never happen. I reactivated my Star wars: Galaxies account.
Now, I played this game for a long time, most of 2003 and 2004 to be exact, never mind the amount of time I put into it. Then one day that all ended. They changed the fundamental way the game worked, and told me that I could no longer play the way that I enjoyed. There really was a great community in that game, and I have to admit that there were nights that I spent siting in a virtual cantina on Lok, or Naboo, or Tatooine just talking to other people as they perform (yes, there is in fact an entertainer profession). Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) decided to end all of that with one patch, once again reinforcing the well known fact that Sony does in fact hate gamers. On that day, I said I would never come back.
Well, I guess that I lied since here I am nearly 6 years later playing it again. I have to say that I am actually liking it. I was even able to pretty much start back up where I left off. Mind you the hundreds of billions of credits that I had on my characters were gobbled up by my houses (the game requires maintenance to be payed to player structures), and I lost pretty much all of my old resources to guild mates that had access to my houses even after I quit.
There are still a lot of things that I like about the game. It still has probably the best space combat flight sim of any game let alone an MMO, and I could probably just play that part of it and enjoy it. The way that resources are treated are unmatched in any game, and while the crafting has been rather substantially reduced in it's importance, it still remains an integral part of the game. It used to be that everything was crafted by another player who harvested the resources to make it. Resources would change over time, and there was nothing in the game that was going to make it easy by guaranteeing good quality resources. If you were on a particularly unlucky server, you could have been waiting for over a year or more for that one last resource you needed to make that amazing gun or armor. This in itself created a demand for resource sellers that would command fleets of harvesters to supply the top crafters. That's what I did. I found and sold the fundamentals of the game.
This time around I am going to work on production of actual stuff. I see it only fitting to work on space crafting seeing as how I like that part the most. It's also very convenient that you can now have 2 characters per server. So unlike the old game where you could be a crafter OR a combat profession, I can now have one of each.
I don't see myself playing this for any real length of time, as I have a large collection of other games I need to get back to. Also with Mass Effect 2 coming out one week from today, I can foresee a slight break from all other gaming coming soon. I am waiting with anticipation on the next Star Wars MMO (The Old Republic), that is being made by Bioware, which in my opinion is the top developer in the world today. The game itself isn't slated to hit shelves until 2011, but until then, I can get my quick Star Wars fix from something I figured I would never play again.
And No, I will not be returning to World of Warcraft. That's a pandora's box that I don't want to reopen.
Now, I played this game for a long time, most of 2003 and 2004 to be exact, never mind the amount of time I put into it. Then one day that all ended. They changed the fundamental way the game worked, and told me that I could no longer play the way that I enjoyed. There really was a great community in that game, and I have to admit that there were nights that I spent siting in a virtual cantina on Lok, or Naboo, or Tatooine just talking to other people as they perform (yes, there is in fact an entertainer profession). Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) decided to end all of that with one patch, once again reinforcing the well known fact that Sony does in fact hate gamers. On that day, I said I would never come back.
Well, I guess that I lied since here I am nearly 6 years later playing it again. I have to say that I am actually liking it. I was even able to pretty much start back up where I left off. Mind you the hundreds of billions of credits that I had on my characters were gobbled up by my houses (the game requires maintenance to be payed to player structures), and I lost pretty much all of my old resources to guild mates that had access to my houses even after I quit.
There are still a lot of things that I like about the game. It still has probably the best space combat flight sim of any game let alone an MMO, and I could probably just play that part of it and enjoy it. The way that resources are treated are unmatched in any game, and while the crafting has been rather substantially reduced in it's importance, it still remains an integral part of the game. It used to be that everything was crafted by another player who harvested the resources to make it. Resources would change over time, and there was nothing in the game that was going to make it easy by guaranteeing good quality resources. If you were on a particularly unlucky server, you could have been waiting for over a year or more for that one last resource you needed to make that amazing gun or armor. This in itself created a demand for resource sellers that would command fleets of harvesters to supply the top crafters. That's what I did. I found and sold the fundamentals of the game.
This time around I am going to work on production of actual stuff. I see it only fitting to work on space crafting seeing as how I like that part the most. It's also very convenient that you can now have 2 characters per server. So unlike the old game where you could be a crafter OR a combat profession, I can now have one of each.
I don't see myself playing this for any real length of time, as I have a large collection of other games I need to get back to. Also with Mass Effect 2 coming out one week from today, I can foresee a slight break from all other gaming coming soon. I am waiting with anticipation on the next Star Wars MMO (The Old Republic), that is being made by Bioware, which in my opinion is the top developer in the world today. The game itself isn't slated to hit shelves until 2011, but until then, I can get my quick Star Wars fix from something I figured I would never play again.
And No, I will not be returning to World of Warcraft. That's a pandora's box that I don't want to reopen.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Some updates
So I updated the little list of "Upcoming releases I give a crap about", that can be found near the bottom of the left column. I did miss a couple of notable releases, but I am going to try to be a little more vigilant to update that when I hear of something interesting. Right now all I have on there is Mass Effect 2 and Gran Turismo 5. Both should be games that I get almost too much enjoyment out of.
Right now from Gameaccess.ca I have Overlord 2 (that was on my list prior to today's update). I have yet to play it despite having it since the end of November. To make things even more interesting, they are sending me Brutal Legend now as well. I really liked the demo for that game, so we will have to see if the full game lives up to that. I really just have too many games to play right now.
Also, got a chance to play some more Left 4 Dead 2 last night with my brother. Thursday has become the Official L4D2 night of the week. I have to admit, I can't wait for next Thursday. This really was a sleeper hit for me as I figured it would get boring fast. Admittedly, the single player did. The multiplayer keeps me coming back.
I really need to spend less time with real life so I can get caught up on all my games.
Right now from Gameaccess.ca I have Overlord 2 (that was on my list prior to today's update). I have yet to play it despite having it since the end of November. To make things even more interesting, they are sending me Brutal Legend now as well. I really liked the demo for that game, so we will have to see if the full game lives up to that. I really just have too many games to play right now.
Also, got a chance to play some more Left 4 Dead 2 last night with my brother. Thursday has become the Official L4D2 night of the week. I have to admit, I can't wait for next Thursday. This really was a sleeper hit for me as I figured it would get boring fast. Admittedly, the single player did. The multiplayer keeps me coming back.
I really need to spend less time with real life so I can get caught up on all my games.
Monday, January 4, 2010
A good Christmas for gaming
So I have to say that my gaming addiction was well nourished this Christmas by my family, and by some amazing deals on Steam.
It started out with my loving wife getting my Dragon age: Origins. This is a game that I have been putting off buying mostly because I don't have time to play what I already have, and partially in an effort to reduce my game expenditures. Well, I imagine that if my wife wanted to tell me that she didn't want to see me for the next few weeks, there is no better way to say it then by buying me Dragon age. For the time I have spent playing it, the story is fantastic, and I am always eager to "turn the page" so to speak. The combat seems to be standing in my way at times though. I got to a point were I had to turn down the difficulty to continue on, and once again, I have gotten to a point were constant death is occurring. Sadly there is no easier than easy, and I am not sure if I can just go back from where I am and do something else. I forced myself to stop simply to preserve the life of my keyboard. Not to worry however, as there were other distractions.
My brother was kind enough to pick me up a copy of Left 4 dead 2. A game which I have heard a lot about, but never really drew me in. As it turns out, him and two other friends play it every week, and I would make the fourth. So I got into it, and I have to say it's a hell of a lot of fun with three other people that you know. It's quite frantic however, so I find myself totally burnt out on it after only a couple of hours. Maybe it's just a sign that I am getting old.
To make my rediscovered love of PC gaming even stronger, Steam had a 2 week long sale to beat all sales. I have yet to even play all the games I picked up, but all of them are great titles. Here is a quick list, in no particular order:
All for under $40.
Torchlight is probably my favorite so far, but only because I have played Morrowind many time in the past, it will just be nice to have a copy that I can keep track of. All in all it was a good couple weeks for PC gaming.
It started out with my loving wife getting my Dragon age: Origins. This is a game that I have been putting off buying mostly because I don't have time to play what I already have, and partially in an effort to reduce my game expenditures. Well, I imagine that if my wife wanted to tell me that she didn't want to see me for the next few weeks, there is no better way to say it then by buying me Dragon age. For the time I have spent playing it, the story is fantastic, and I am always eager to "turn the page" so to speak. The combat seems to be standing in my way at times though. I got to a point were I had to turn down the difficulty to continue on, and once again, I have gotten to a point were constant death is occurring. Sadly there is no easier than easy, and I am not sure if I can just go back from where I am and do something else. I forced myself to stop simply to preserve the life of my keyboard. Not to worry however, as there were other distractions.
My brother was kind enough to pick me up a copy of Left 4 dead 2. A game which I have heard a lot about, but never really drew me in. As it turns out, him and two other friends play it every week, and I would make the fourth. So I got into it, and I have to say it's a hell of a lot of fun with three other people that you know. It's quite frantic however, so I find myself totally burnt out on it after only a couple of hours. Maybe it's just a sign that I am getting old.
To make my rediscovered love of PC gaming even stronger, Steam had a 2 week long sale to beat all sales. I have yet to even play all the games I picked up, but all of them are great titles. Here is a quick list, in no particular order:
- STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyle
- Torchlight
- Commander Keen Complete pack
- King's Bounty: Armored Princess
- Mount and Blade
- Mr. Robot
- Morrowind
- Trine
All for under $40.
Torchlight is probably my favorite so far, but only because I have played Morrowind many time in the past, it will just be nice to have a copy that I can keep track of. All in all it was a good couple weeks for PC gaming.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Lucky gaming week
So last week, I managed to use up all of my luck for who knows how long. I won, not one but two XBLA games in twitter "retweet" contests. The first game was courtesy of Crispygamer.com. It's a game called Ion Assault, which is an interesting take on Asteroids. You have to destroy all the asteroids in a zone by charging up your weapon and gathering particles. When you fire it shoots them at the target, and they wash over everything in front of them. There are some really interesting particle physics in play here, and it really looks quite pretty when you fire. It does carry the difficulty of the arcade shooter genre which was practically designed with the premise of stealing all your quarters. You die a lot in this beasty.
The second game was courtesy of The10k.com. It was Call of Duty: Classic. Now I really don't have to explain this too much. It's a port of the Original call of duty game. It's a WW2 shooter. It's really hard, and I suck at FPSs on a console. I played it for one night, and it was kickin' my ass. It's a small doses game for me.
I also bought my first PSN title this past weekend, and it may be a new addiction for me. Pixel Junk Eden. I can't say enough good stuff about this game. The premise is that you have to grow "plants" by collecting pollen so that you can climb up the plants and reach the goals for the level. It sounds very strange, but I have to say that this is probably my second favorite platformer ever (Bonk's Revenge is still my favorite). It has great music, nice visuals, and is challenging without the normal perfectly timed jump required. I am still early in this game, and I have put a lot of time into it already. It my get impossible hard later on (like Rocket Riot), but I am really hoping that it just stays perfect the way that it is.
Well, that's all I have right now, so I am going to end it here.
The second game was courtesy of The10k.com. It was Call of Duty: Classic. Now I really don't have to explain this too much. It's a port of the Original call of duty game. It's a WW2 shooter. It's really hard, and I suck at FPSs on a console. I played it for one night, and it was kickin' my ass. It's a small doses game for me.
I also bought my first PSN title this past weekend, and it may be a new addiction for me. Pixel Junk Eden. I can't say enough good stuff about this game. The premise is that you have to grow "plants" by collecting pollen so that you can climb up the plants and reach the goals for the level. It sounds very strange, but I have to say that this is probably my second favorite platformer ever (Bonk's Revenge is still my favorite). It has great music, nice visuals, and is challenging without the normal perfectly timed jump required. I am still early in this game, and I have put a lot of time into it already. It my get impossible hard later on (like Rocket Riot), but I am really hoping that it just stays perfect the way that it is.
Well, that's all I have right now, so I am going to end it here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
