Malik
(5/9/05)
Sick...very
sick...
|
Malik
(5/10/05)
Well, I don't know
how coherent I'll be today. I missed out on posting yesterday due to
what will make me ramble today...germs. So, I'm sick, so let's see
how this even goes.
Anyway, this
weekend I took time to get some neon-accent tubes installed in The S
(my car). We hit up Car Toys to get this work done. I had been
warned previously, to expect the Car Toys people to be both arrogant
and bitchy. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how
things actually went. First off, before even buying anything from
them, the salesman who helped us was more than ready to check out
the car to see what would work best for us. Quite different from
most other places I've been that include salespersons who try to
sell first and ask questions later.
The second thing
that surprised me was that the salesman was more interested in
getting our parts installed correctly than to push the Car Toys
products. I mean the guy was more than ready to install whatever we
brought in than to push their lights on us. That's a definite
bonus.
The third thing
that surprised me was how quick everything was done. When we went to
Circuit City to get the subs the previous week, we were told to
expect about 2 hours for install and we waited 5.5 hours. Well, at
Car Toys we were told to expect 2.5 hours and were driving away with
the lights installed only 1.5 hours later.
I also got some
LAN party action at my friend Bastich's LAN party this weekend. It
was the first time I played any multiplayer Rise of Nations, and I
have to say that this is one of the best LAN party games I've
played. I had no idea how awesome this game could actually be until
we had a nice 6 (players...4 being newbs) on 2 (computers) game
going.
Anyway, my
attention span is slipping, which means two things...Dayquil is
doing it's duty, and I'm too sick to be posting anything that would
make sense.
Malik
|
Malik
(5/11/05)
Well, I'm still
feeling like crap, but I'm no longer out of it...I don't know if
that's good or not, for me that is.
Well, with how I
was talking of my new love for Rise of Nations, there's some related
news today. It seems that Big Huge Games and Microsoft are once
again releasing a game in this same line. According to Gamespot,
Rise of Legends is in the works. Instead of focusing on actual
history, or a close facsimile, RoL will focus on two type of
civilizations. One type will focus on the magical and supernatural,
while the other will focus on sci-fi style technology. It should be
an interesting twist for those who have grown tired of almost every
RTS focusing on the same crap (real history). Not much has been
revealed on this game yet, but I'm betting E3 will shed some light
on things. There are some images of the game on IGN
that leaves me a bit confused. On one hand, the quality looks nice,
but on the other hand some of the units look silly and stupid. Of
course there are a lot of other games that have used silly looking
vehicles and such that have turned out quite well, so I'll just
leave this tought hanging until more is revealed (like
videos).
Speaking of pre-E3
news, tomorrow is the night that MTV will be airing the first real
revealing of the XBox 360 (what a damned retarded name...sorry, I
still think it's about the lamest console name that could exist
beyond the code-names for previous Nintendo consoles...Dolphin,
hahaha). Anyway, if you have cable, this will probably be worth a
look since the XBox 360 will be the first console of the next
generation to hit the streets by a good few months.
On that note, it
looks like the Revolution (from Nintendo) will be hitting stores
sometime in the middle of next year, and with the rumors of PS3
coming sometime a little sooner, Nintendo is once again coming to
the next generation party unfashionably late. I guess this may be
the generation that will shake things up since Microsoft will have
an early lead, and Nintendo is still being less than insightful with
their strategies. At least they always have the handheld market...oh
wait...DS has had no good games released since it's launch and the
PSP has been dominating the quality games market.
Anyway, I've
played some more Phantom Brave. Sadly, I'm not feeling the desire to
play this game that I felt this time last year with Disgaea and La
Pucelle Tactics. Instead of feeling motivated to keep playing, I
only feel like I should play because I have nothing else to play. I
think the main problem is that I've done all of this before, but now
I don't even have a good plot to keep me going.
The worst part is
that one of my least favorite parts of prior NIS (the developer
behind these games) development is still here. Basically, as you
play, you will unlock new types of characters to make. However,
these characters will start at level 1. You can pay extra to make
them more powerful, at level one, but they are still only at level
one. This means that you will have to replay some old maps quite a
few times in order to make the new characters useful enough to fight
in the new battles. In fact, that's all I did last night. I played
through about 8 battles...all of them were old battles so I could
get my new fighter within a few levels of my main fighting
force.
Also, to make
things worse, most of your abilities are tied into your currently equipped
item (each character can wield a single item...be it a sword, a
book, or a flower pot). This means that your witch (think mage) will
only be as useful as the book or staff she wields. So, if you decide
to buy a new book to replace that old staff, unless you do some
confusing and hard to explain stuff, you will lose most of the
abilities and spells you had just a minute before. Also, this means
that if an enemy steals one of your items (and they like to do
this...and then the enemy will try to throw it out of the current
combat field...that's cheap), you will be left with not only a
character with no equipment bonuses to his/her stats (there goes
your speed, defense, intelligence, attack power, HP increase, etc),
but no abilities. Yeah, this is as annoyingly stupid and lame as it
sounds.
At least I have
nothing else to play right now, so it's not like I have a lot of
choices. Either I play PB, or I sit and watch the wonderful
programming that cable offers (over 100 channels and maybe one good
show on at a time). So, until I have some cash, which keeps going
into supping The S, it looks like PB will keep getting my
attention...I wish I knew if that was a good thing or a bad
thing...
Malik
|
Malik
(5/12/05)
What the hell is
wrong with game developers? I mean first we get faced with the
constant rain of game imitators (like how everyone had to make a
shit ton of WWII FPS titles after a couple of creative ones did
quite well) and then we get faced with bad game ideas that just spit
upon that which should be revered as classical and untouchable
material.
Yeah, I'm talking
about Taxi Driver, the game (here's a link at Gamespot).
First off, this movie is a classic film. It is not some lame
blockbuster crap that came from the un-imaginative minds of the
1990's and later. It's not some movie that leaves a lot of room for
a game. It's not a movie that is lame enough to merit being
tarnished more with a lame game. Most of all, it is not even a movie
that most gamers in today's generations would have even seen. Let's
face it, old films tend to go under the radar of today's youth (and
I'm not just trying to sound like some old geezer...I'm part of this
ignorant generation...hell, I would've never seen such classics as
Casablanca if it weren't for both a sense of boredom and a sense of
needing a good date movie one boring night back in my freshman year
of college).
Not only are we
soon going to see Taxi Driver mutilated beyond recognition into (my
guess here...) some lame shooter that makes us think that the game
is not just spitting on Taxi Driver (the movie) but also GTA (the
game series)...no. We are soon going to have Jaws remade into gaming
crap. It doesn't end there. We also have had Godfather being
corrupted in such a way that Francis Ford Coppola is pissed (as seen
at Gamespot).
Is the game developer world just so pissed off at good movies that
they are determined to try to ruin their images for all time? Why
would anyone want to take a risk with something of such quality?
Maybe next we could see someone taking Schindler's List and turning
it into a FPS...yeah, that would be equally stupid.
The worst part of
this trend is that these game sell well. The main reason is that
most of today's gamers have not seen the movies, but these movies
are such a deep part of our modern culture that gamers feel they
have to buy them. Plus, for most gamers, all that's known of movies
like The Godfather is that it is violent, so the game must be action
packed.
I can tell you all
right now that I'm not touching a single one of these games made off
of movie licenses that I hold dearly in my geek heart. First off, I
can tell you that these games should not exist. These movies that
they are "based" on are not ones that could be translated
properly into an interactive experience. Secondly, games made from
movies almost always suck. It's not a generalization...it's a truth.
Street Fighter: The Movie (it even works when a game is based on a
movie is based on a great game), Men In Black, Bad Boys, Matrix,
most Star Wars games (I know, a few are good...but when you crank
out a half dozen a year, something will squeak by as a fluke)...try
to think of a game based on a movie and you'll most likely stumble
upon pure shit.
Anyway, I played
more Phantom Brave last night. I really don't know why I keep
playing. It's painful. The plot is not there. There is seriously no
reason to keep playing this game. If I had any other game to take my
attention right now, I would play it in an instant...but I don't
have anything else, right now. I'm almost tempted to buy Forza so I
can have something interesting to play. I really would like to
finish PB. However, it's luckily not as bad as most other games I've
said this about. It's not like Xenosaga 2, which was just painful to
play. PB is not painful...it's just not interesting. It's like I
could get as much fulfillment out of watching syndicated re-runs on
TV as I could playing the game.
Anyway, speaking
of TV, tonight Microsoft is whoring itself on MTV. I'll watch since
I want to see if it wasn't all a joke...you know...that look of the
XBox 360 that was leaked in the last couple of weeks. Man, this is
going to possibly the most ridiculous looking console ever. I mean
even the original XBox, that behemoth of a system, won't look as
silly anymore in comparison to this thing. At least it's not what
the console looks like that matters. I just hope that the controller
is not as f$#@ed up as it looks from last week's leaked
images.
Malik
|
Malik
(5/13/05)
So, if you check
out Gamespot's
main news page, you can find a ton of minor information on the
XBox 360 (looks like the name wasn't just hype or a joke...it's
sadly true...maybe the XBox 3 can be called the "XBox McTwist"
or some other lame "extreme" sounding name...) spread out
on many individual news items. I mean it's just easier if they put
every confirmed or rumored launch game onto a single news article,
but I guess that would be too concise for Gamespot. Anyway, to me it
all looks like your standard issue of standard launch and
just-past-launch titles. You have some FPS, some action, some
sports, some extreme sports...blah, blah, blah.
So, I watched that
MTV thingy on the XBox2 (I prefer to just call it this...hell, a few
people on that show called it this and it's what most people will refer
to it as for a good long time) and I have to say I was both
disappointed and amused. I mean I didn't expect much from this. After all,
Microsoft is obviously trying to go with an "extreme" and
"trendy" appearance to boost sales and to try to keep more
active in the next generation. This means they will skip on the
important details and go for a more "we teh roxor...we B teh
1337!!11!!" appearance, so information is not job one for them
right now.
I was amused to
see that Perfect Dark Zero is being put in the launch poster-child
position this time around. I may be alone here, but when the
original PD came out for the N64, I was amazed by how they could
take Golden Eye, do almost nothing new with it, strip out some of
the best features, and release it many years later and call it an
amazing title. So, you'll have to forgive me if I'm less than ecstatic
about PDZ. I wasn't even blown away by the game play footage they
showed of it. It didn't look like anything beyond the same old shit,
recycled, and put in a new package. Yippee! The only part of this
game that has me interested is the supposed 50+ people who can be
active in a single game. That would be cool...if it remains true up
through it's release.
I also found it
funny the parts that Microsoft is trying to push. You mean we can
change the face-plate!!!11!!!!11 I know that's so important to me. I
always love to shell out extra money on appearance of a system, especially
if it's trying to bank on the trendiness of the I-Pod (just look at
the XBox 2...it's I-Pod Shuffle, only bigger). I'm sorry, but this
is going to be another box that I'll simply cram in between a few
other systems and play. I won't care what it looks like...only what
the TV looks like when it's on, if you catch my meaning. I don't mod
the external parts of my systems (with one exception; the flip-top
lid on my first PS2, so I could play imports) for a reason; they all
sit on a shelf crammed together. If it really mattered what it
looked like, I would probably only have one system since they all
clash with each other, visually, as it is.
The parts I really
wanted to know about for sure started with the abilities of the
system. I don't mean the hardware specs, since it takes so long for
the hardware of a system to be fully utilized as it is. I mean,
first off, is it backwards-compatible? While some analysts (as seen
at Gamespot)
may say that backwards-compatibility is just some lame way to entice
more people to buy a system out of loyalty, I disagree. As someone
who has seen their systems die in each generation (my PSX died and
had to be replaced a total of 4 times, my GCN had to be sent off for
repairs on the first month I owned it, my PS2 I'm using now is
number 2 after the DREs claimed my first one, and my XBox has some
DRE-style problems), I want to be able to continue to play my old
games after the old systems become impossible to find. So,
backwards-compatibility is very freakin' important to me. I don't
think I'm alone on this. I think anyone interested in the next
generation and has ever had a DRE will agree with me on this.
The second part
that matters, but would never be discussed anyway, is this; will the
system last longer than a week beyond it's warranty? I know that
would never be discussed, since no manufacturer wants to admit that
their consoles are made by blind and brain-damaged monkeys to save
on labor, but it still matters to me. I'm just trying to show you
all what my priorities are.
The third part, at
least on the XBox's successor that really matters to me is another
simple one that they half answered; is there a hard drive? The
online menu on the test system they showed on MTV showed a
downloadable content option. At least, despite how the MTV deal
didn't show it, Microsoft has announced a 20 gig removable HDD. For
me this is an important feature since, while many games didn't use
it, I love the custom soundtrack feature seen in games like Burnout
2&3, GTA series, etc. I am an audiophile (lover of music), and
have a well refined sense of musical taste, and am sick of the
trendy-spoon-fed music on most games. Plus, no matter how long you
play a game, eventually the music will get on your nerves (Burnout 3
has an awesome soundtrack, but after around 50 hours, even a good soundtrack
needs to be removed for some custom music). More importantly, is the
fact that after dropping $350+ on a new system (I live in a tax
happy state and city), I don't want to have to waste $30+ more on a
memory card that will probably not be available at launch (like with
how there were only a fraction as many PS2 memory cards at launch as
there were PS2 consoles).
The fourth part,
and while it's fourth it is still a major priority to me, is the
controls. It's nice to see that the XBox 360 will be the first
battery operated console that can't fit in the palm of your hand,
but wireless only means so much right now. I mean wireless will make
my living room look neater when there are fewer cords running around
the place (and with 15+ consoles, I do suffer some problems from too
many cords)...I just hope the battery life is really good. Well,
that and I hope the price for extra controls doesn't reflect the
price for wireless controls...shit, I've spent far too much money on
the most fragile part of a system (the controller...especially ones
with analogue sticks) to need to also have wireless reflected in the
price tag.
No, when I say
controls matter, I meant I wanted to actually see the full
controller. I've seen the front of this thing a few times, and have
noticed the movement of the start and back buttons, and a strange absence
of the black and white buttons, and the addition of the lame
"glowing circle of doom" button, but I want to see all
sides and angles. I have heard about the black and white buttons now
being on the shoulders, but I really need to see this...I mean this
could mean a lot of things. The Z on the GCN control is on the
shoulder, and the L2 and R2 are on the shoulder of the PS2
controller, but they both look and feel different. So, let's see how
it's applied on the XBox 2.
One other question
I have is if this thing can be turned horizontal? I mean it probably
can, but this matters to me. I may be one of the few people who can
say this, but I have far more space for small horizontal things than
for vertical things.
Anyway, I at least
got a good laugh from Microsoft trying so damned hard to be trendy
and cool. I mean in terms of unintentional humor, this rates pretty
high. I mean when else could we see Microsoft associated with such
important social issues as Pimp My Ride, Frodo, and Sway. Man, if I
didn't have a massive headache last night, I probably would've been
on the floor laughing. It's great to see that Microsoft is trying so
hard, but they should try to keep some dignity while they're at
it.
That lame special
hasn't really changed my opinion on anything, but I still feel like
it was worth it for the humor (that's all I really expected from
this...well, I also expected to see a damned controller). I have
been intending to get the next XBox for a while...on one hand, I'm a
collector of game systems, but on the other hand it actually has
some nice games in the works (like a couple RPGs from Mistwalker).
One last
thought...supposedly we will be able to turn the XBox 2 on and off
via the wireless controllers. I, with my lazy side, find this
really neat since I can now plop down on the couch, turn on the TV
and my surround sound and the XBox 2 all without having to get
up. On the other hand, I think we can all see how playing the
system may turn out. I mean, in multiplayer games, we all know
someone who is habitually bad at games and throw tantrums when they
lose, right? Well, I think we can all see how this will turn
out. Also, when in the heat of a highly action packed sequence
in a game, we've all hit the wrong buttons by mistake before, and
we've all had bad controllers in the past (like ones in which
certain buttons activate on their own), so how will this turn out
when one's playing a game and the system turns itself off?
Just a thought.
Malik
|
|
For Those Who Don't
Have Flash Plug-Ins...
News
Reviews
Videos Features
Forums
Archives Search
This Site Links
Contact Us The
Car Disclaimer
|
|