Fun and Games Wednesday, Nov 12 2008

big daddy

With my recent removal from active society it is no surprise my gaming interest has swelled of late. For those of you looking for up-to-date, interesting news on Gaming and indeed everything cool on the internet, I recommend digg.com. It has become my new favourite bookmark and is a Mecca to which all web users must make at least one pilgrimage. This is a big week for PC gamers with the PC port of GTA:IV being released on PC! I know I am excited to hit the streets of Liberty City as Niko Bellic. I still gotta wait three days till I can snag that gem. The coming release of WOTLK will prove a daunting test of my will, but I have been thus far successful in burying my head in the sand on everything pertaining its new and juicy content… I must remain strong! My time in the hospital allotted me the time to pursue the FPS lover’s rite of passge of the year, Bioshock! The verdict? Woo to the hoo.

The Breakdown:

Pros:
-Great combat, innovative and interesting. Did not disappoint.
-Big Daddies scared the crap out of me.
-Cool storyline! Writers FTW.
-Plasmid and Gene customization system made for an interesting RPG experience without feeling tedious.
-The crossbow rocked, even more so than the HL2 crossbow.
-Free(<3 t3h interwubs)

Cons:
-Lame brain ending. Why spend so much time building a chilling atmosphere and all these intriguing characters just to sell out to some lame nuclear holocaust? Iunno, maybe Bioshock 2 will rectify things.
-The Little Sister escort portion was painful, mostly cause they finally let you become a Big Daddy and you are forced to wait for her to walk at tortoise speed talking about flying angels and Adam. Total buzz kill.
-Hacking was just a joke, I played enough Pipe Dream on my old windows 3.1 system.
-Not enough Portals.
-Not enough Gordon Freeman.

Overall though, despite the Cons, this was one of my favourite FPS experiences I have ever had. My hat goes off to Bioshock! And really, can I complain about something in which I invested only my time and no cashola? Nein. I remember back in the summer of grade 10 reading an exclusive on this game while in Oregon vacationing with my family and thinking “sweet, I hope my Geforce 3 can run it!”. The one fact that distinctly stuck out was that there was three programmers assigned only to the water dynamics and physics, which I thought was in fact quite evident when I waded through the flooded tubes and foyers of Rapture. All in all, for anyone with a mid-level PC and some time to kill I recommend at least giving Bioshock a torrent, I don’t regret it.

This week I have also been getting my Nintendo on with Super Mario Galaxy which my brother and father got for me as a feel better present after my hospitilization. I gotta say, years of battling orcs, shooting zombies and other such intense gaming scenarios made me lose sight of this genre of gaming entirely. It has a certain charm to it, and I am glad to have this light-hearted game in my portfolio. Indeed, prior to SMG all I had for Wii was WiiSports, Twilight Princess and the all-powerful, ultimate, wicked sick Super Smash Bros: Brawl. I always like to broaden my horizons. The game itself is fun and challenging, allbeit sometimes a little disorienting with the camera angles. The addition of a cooperative role for the 2nd player helps eliminate the threat of boredom or backseat gaming from your compadrés. I never cease to be amazed by Nintendo’s ability to milk their handful of stock characters generation after generation and still provide a fun gaming experience. It just goes to show, if it ain’t broke don’t patch it.

Now only one question remains…
… where’s Starcraft 2?! I’ve been saving up Vespene Gas for years now!

My life for Aiur!
sash

2 Responses »

 

the beginning of the end Wednesday, Oct 1 2008

relief? 'tis but a pipe dream

Oy, is there no end to the academic tyranny?! Tomorrow, I have my first midterm in Psychology. I’ve been studying up a storm, and as a result am becoming increasingly stressed about my German Literature and American History papers due on Friday. Wish me luck! I am gonna keep this short and sweet for there is much reading to be done.

Some salvation rests in the knowledge that while others study well into October, my midterms are all done and dusted by the 10th. Also, if I get a free moment some time soon I have been looking to increase my collection of Wii games by a staggering 50%! I will go from a respectable two games to a mind-imploding three! That’s right, MegaMan 9 has caught mine eye. Interestingly enough, it has the highest number of sold copies of any Wii game in its first week in North America, besting even Super Smash Bros Brawl and Twilight Princess, much to my surprise. When I finally have time to play games, a privilege I have been itching for, this looks like it will be the one. Sometimes I can’t help but feel like the most deprived lad in all the world… aw well! On the bright side, I got confirmation that my older brother and benevolent overlord Milan will be visiting me next weekend from the 10th to the 13th. This is undeniably exciting and I must now think up interesting ways to entertain him. It’s times like this I wish I didn’t have so much studying and actually knew a little bit more about Montreal than the three blocks between the library and my dorm. Maybe I’ll muster the courage to venture out this weekend. We shall see!

Do widzenia,

sash

PS: No pics for today cause I spent every waking moment I could cramming for Psych. I plan to go on a snapshot fest this weekend if my schedule permits it!

2 Responses »

 

not enough hours in the day Monday, Sep 29 2008

the eraser

As much as I’d like to write an extensive post detailing my day, I simply don’t have the time. I didn’t expect university French to pose such a challenge, but it takes 3 times longer than my old French did. In addition to my upcoming psych midterm and essay due on The Nibelungenleid the work just continues to pile up. The leaves are starting to change colour these days and you can feel the autumn creeping into your bones. My soul could use a sunny day big time. The reason my blog is sporting the cover of “The Eraser”, Thom Yorke’s solo album, is because in a rare case of musical deprivation it was the only album I was able to listen to today because of the business of my schedule. As a result I have the songs in my head.

In gaming news, which seems to be the only gaming related activity that I have time for these days, I read an interesting article today concerning the issue of DRM and online games. I, of course, am talking about amazon.com’s controversial decision to delete negative reviews of EA’s Spore that criticized the limited activation system of the new PC release which gives three lifetime activations of the game before you have to call EA and request a new key. 1000’s of one star reviews were removed by the online distributor, who attributed the deletions to “a glitch”. The reviews have since been restored on the site. On a side note, Penny Arcade has released a recent set of cartoons detailing The Origins of the CD-Keys.

Many people believe that “DRM only punishes legitimate consumers who want to pay for the software they own”. I feel the need to disagree, being guilty of torrenting a few games in my day. I feel it is the only way to protect software developers and ensure they maintain the capital to continue producing games. Indeed by around 10PM on the day of Spore’s release I was already running a fully torrented version of the game. I think the reality is that DRM improvements are an inevitability as long as mass downloading is allowed to run rampant like it does. However, I have no sympathy for game developers that go under due to software piracy, simply for the fact that any game worth playing in the 21st century should have some form of online play or social networking that would necessitate a CD key. One game developer that presents this aspect time and time again is Blizzard Entertainment. I can hardly recall the countless hours I have poured into every Blizzard title from Diablo I to Starcraft to Warcraft III. With the much anticipated release of Starcraft II and Diablo III later down the road I can safely say that they will still have a valued customer for years to come(if I ever get my god-forsaken homework done).

Au Revoir,

sash

garrrrgoyles

4 Responses »