Monday, November 29, 2004

X-mas list update

Games:

KOTOR 2 (seriously, how could I forget freaking KOTOR 2? Oh, yeah, its not made by bioware. But since they just grabbed what was KOTOR, threw in some new force powers, created a new storyline with new planets, and such, its hard not to want it soooooo badly)

Music:

Video game music. This goes beyond the Halo 2 soundtrack. Yeah, its probably gonna be hard to find in music stores, but I'm sorta talking about Final Fantasy here. The Final Fantasy game's scores are truly something to behold, something Jean-Sebastian Bach would love. Possibly an exagguration...

Sunday, November 21, 2004

This Just In: Video Games are Evil

CNN: Kennedy assassination recreated in video game

I respect freedom of speach. I really do. Hell, its why Rockstar Games is still in buisness, able to bring us the Max Payne series. But I am actively against Freedom of Being a Friggin Idiot!

They made a game in which the objective is to recreate the assasination of one of America's most popular government figure ever. The player, in order to get the highest score, would have to repeatedly kill him.

Oh, but if you miss, you could kill his wife! And you can turn on blood spatter effects!

This isn't horrible. But this is gonna spread like wildfire through the press. I mean, come on, think a bit!

2004 Christmas List!

That's right everyone! December is almost upon us.

Well, when I say almost, I mean its almost thanksgiving , which tends to be the kick-off day of the chris- er, holiday shopping season.

Anyway, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, and Festivus are almost here, and I'm gonna throw up my christmas list now, so that the parent/sister folk can't complain about how I don't have a christmas list.

Expensive stuff:

I'd like a laptop. My current computer is getting on the old, decrepid, and pathetic side, and I do wish I had the portability that a laptop gives. And I want to play GBA ROM's during boring lectures (just kidding :) ). It also would be useful to be able to take notes on my computer, since I can type faster than I can write, and typed words tend to be MUCH neater than written ones...

Anyone who's seen my handwriting knows EXACTLY what I mean.

However, if someone who knows more of the rumors regarding powerbooks than I do would happen to know if there is a new line of powerbooks to be released in January, well, that'd be intresting to know as well.

Also on the list: My TV is, well, not the best one out there. It cuts off the left most inch, only has one audo port for the AV cable (so every character I play in a game is deaf in their right ear) and also doesn't handle the corners very well. I didn't mention this last year because, well, I really don't like complaining about gifts, and I was pretty stoked about having a TV to being with...

Considerably less expensive stuff:

Gaming:

I'm asking for a hardware thing, but no, its not a system. Just a controller: The Logictec Precision Cordless one. Its the Xbox's best wireless controller.

As for games:

Burnout 3, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Full Spectrum Warrior, KOTOR 2, Ninja Gaiden or use your imagination! Think about what I might like!

Except for liscenced games. For every liscenced game I recieve, I will kill you (go Stewie!).

Except for Spiderman 2, cause that is apparantly a decent game with a great sense of freedom. Sorta like GTA, but with morals.

Books:

I dunno. Something that I'd like?

Music:

Halo 2 Soundtrack, other video game music (especially final fantasy music)

Other than that, see books.

Movies:

See books (look, I'm not very picky about this stuff, okay?)

Other:

Wouldn't mind some gloves for biking in cold weather, and my current heavy jacket is a bit worse for wear.

Some of those CD protective covers.

New day-by-day calender.

Stuff I'd like...?

Have fun shopping :)

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Piece of Crap Winter Games

The title is a bit overkill, but be warned: For every one of these games I get for Christmas, I will kill you. This is really just talking about the games released recently that are either not at all good or have similar equivalents that are much better.

:).

1: Fight Club

This is sorta ironic. A game based on a movie based on a book about how society keeps hawking stuff you don't need or want, sorta the evil part of capitalism. From every reviewer I've heard of, the game is horrible. No balance, poor production values, especially for a Liscenced game, and no shame. Saaad.

2: LOTR: The Third Age

Okay we got this lovely LOTR movie liscence here, but with the games based on the movies all done we can't really make anymore games on them, and we can't use any of the books, since we don't have the LOTR book liscence, so lets make a Japanese-style RPG! Only, since there are only like 10 different monsters in the movies, we can't have any of the enemy variation that MAKES every RPG exciting. Oh, and we can't make a new plot important to the quest to destroy the one ring, since that would piss off all the LOTR fanboys, so lets just have them follow the fellowship around and occasionally give them backup! Oh, and lets make every party member a rip-off of the fellowship party members! Joy!

Look, that's not to say that this is a horrible game. It is supposedly the best Japanese-style RPG made by a non-Japanese company, at least from the combat system, but Japanese developers make better Japanese-style RPG's. (FYI: Japanese-style RPG is the Final Fantasy style of combat) Besides, I prefer to play either Bioware RPG's (turn-based in real time combat with branching plot) or Diablo-Clones (aka kill everything that moves and everything that doesn't move). And KOTOR 2's coming out soon. Get me that instead :).

3: Outrun 2

For those who don't know, Outrun was that antique arcade racing game released in 1986. Its a racing game.

Woo Hoo...

Uh, its got online play, aparantly, and the cars go really fast.

There are better games out there. Burnout 3, with its amazing sense of speed and awesome crashes, and Need For Speed Underground 2, a great racing game with car customization options. There are choices, gosh darn it!

There's other POC games out there. But most of them are on the PS2 and GBA :). Also, the November and December are not times when okay games get bought.

Oh, and I'm gonna have

Sunday, November 14, 2004

November Gaming

I went to my mailbox today and found my copy of Electronic Gaming Magazine waiting for me.

Happy time!

Just looking at the front cover shows how rediculous november has become for gaming.

They reviewed Halo 2 (10/10/10), GTA San Andreas (10/10/10), Metroid Prime: Echoes (9/9/10), Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (9/9.5/10), X-Men Legends (7.5/7/8), Viewtiful Joe 2 (8/8/8.5), Need For Speed Underground 2 (8/9/8), LOTR: The Third Age (7/7/5), Blood Rayne 2 (7.5/7.5/4), The Urbz: Sims in the City (7.5/5/7), Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (8/8/8), Jak 3 (8/8/8.5), Rachet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal (9/9/10), Killzone (7.5/8/7), and Mario Power Tennis (9/7.5/8).

Two of the games earned Platinum awards (perfect 10/10/10), three got gold (9 or better average score), and six drew silver (average of 8 or better).

Oh, and more are coming later in the month, and in December...

I understand the need for the gaming industry to get people to buy lots and lots of games duing the chris- er, holiday, but this is overkill. The list above isn't a full list, either. There were over 40 pages of reviews in the magazine. Those are just the major games being released, for which the publishers have high enough hopes to being pounding them into the gamers minds either through advertisements or through segments on various G4TechTV shows.

Oh, and this is only the console games. Can't forget about Half Life 2, oh no...

All I'm saying is that spacing out the games a... lot might be a bit more condusive to sales. Me, I'm only looking at three games, maybe four, this winter. At most. Any really good games that I miss I'll probably pick up in the later months, cause, you know, PEOPLE DO BUY GAMES OUTSIDE OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER!

This oversaturation is rediculous. There's this huge summertime market that's wide open. Students are getting out of school and they have more time on their hands. Why not try to throw a few thousand games into June and July?

Now I must disconnect my computer from the internet so I can go kill stuff in Halo 2. The game rocks so much that I don't care about the hassle!

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Okay, this really pisses me off

Spouse of an EA Employee describes working conditions.

According to this article, EA employees routinely go through a "pre-crunch" time, working 8 hour days 6 days a week, at the start of a project, presumably to prevent the need for a major crunch time in the months before gold.

Then this pre-crunch is increased to 12 hour days 6 days a week. This increase takes place AFTER the pre-crunch was supposed to end.

Then they go into the real crunch, consisting of 12 hour days 7 days a week, for the end time of the project.

84 hour weeks burn employees down. No days off just makes things horrible.

Oh, and it gets worse.

EA no longer gives "comp" time. This is time given to employees as a sort of free vacation after the product is finished, sort of as a thanks to them for working so hard.

Oh, and unlike normal crunch times which are enacted in order to bring a project that is behind up to speed, the products in question at EA aren't behind. This is standard operating procedure.

Here's the kicker: No overtime.

You see, according to a state law, CA "specialty" employees do not have to be payed overtime, including software engineers. However, this does NOT apply to the entertainment industry, and Video Game Development can easily be considered an entertainment industry. As the whole point of the industry is to ENTERTAIN PEOPLE!

And, even if the video game buisness is not exempt, there's still the fact that you have to be paid over $90,000 a year to be considered exempt. Most EA employees are not in that bracket.

This is the industry I want to go into. I want to make games for a living. But if my choices were to be making games with mandatory 48, 70, or 84 hour weeks, or writing databases during 40 hour weeks, I'd rather do the latter. This is a horrible practice that they are undergoing. I'm so glad that they are getting sued for this.

Oh, and Halo 2 rocks.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Guess what's coming to town...



Well, any guesses?

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Daily Show!

Cordory was playing Halo!

FUCKING HALO!

Such a beautiful show.. :).