Now I am not a big racing game fan but the hubby is and this is his new toy. We recently watched Speed Racer at the movies and this has gotten him back in the kick of wanting to play these types of games. Gary (hubby's name) used to play alot of the old school games like Wipeout and moved on to PC based games like Need For Speed, but hasn't played a racing game in a long time. And then GRID came out. He first noticed it from a YouTube video that he found here which is actually quite entertaining. It compares GRID with GT5.
Well back to the game. It looks beautiful. The graphics are well done and clean for the most part. The AI is pretty good too. Instead of the noraml static figures that make up the spectator crowd these guys will actually have reactions to what is happening For instance, when you run into the wall the specatators behind the wall will actually turn away and try to shield themselves from the collision. Pretty cool.
You have a pit crew that will talk to you during the race to let you know what is happening. They give you info like who the leader is, how far away from him you are, how close you are to at least making a podium stand, how badly you have damaged your car during wrecks and collisions, etc.
One of the bad things that Gary is having trouble with though is the controls. they seem to be quite touchy. We are unsure at this time if it is the game or just the controller he has but he is unable to control his speed. It seems to be go or no go with the gas pedal. The realistic yet annoying thing with the controls is that as you damage your car it will translate into how well your car handles. If you bend that wheel axle at all while driving then you will have a hell of time trying to finish the race and place.
GRID does have a pretty good physics engine though. Gary at one point when playing around with the game was doing donuts on the sandy part of the track and kicked a regular dust storm! Fun times. Also part of the physics engine would be the damage caused by crashes and collisions. There is no bouncing off and getting back into the game. Crashes and collisions cause real damage to your car, the track around you and the other cars that you are racing against. It makes the replay of the race look like you are almost watching the real thing.
Overall it is a real nice game. Like previous racing games you get a garage with cars to choose from for each race. With placing on the podium at each race that you participate in you earn access to upgrades to your vehicles. You will not find cutesy cars here either. These are real muscle machine type cars that have serious racing in mind. Gary is enjoying it and a happy husband makes me happy too! :)
Monday, June 2, 2008
Memory Mayhem
Okay here’s the deal. I finished GTA IV last weekend and a friend wanted to borrow it. So reluctantly I handed it over and moved on to my next cellophane wrapped game Lost Odyssey. I know I’m a little behind on this one but I’m a busy man goddammit and Niko needed me.
So I start playing and I absolutely love it. It’s an RPG much in the same vein as Final Fantasy and while I am not an uber otaku fuck fanboy of the series I do enjoy the games. The presentation reminds me a lot of FFX and the story is passable. The graphics are pretty good but slowdown is evident at some points. The dialogue is at times laughable; although, Jansen is the greatest comedic relief character to come out of an RPG since Morte in Planescape Torment.
And then I got my first memory and promptly started jabbing needles into my leg to make sure I wasn’t delusional. Let me explain.
You get a memory at certain points in the story when the amnesia ridden main character (because that’s fucking original) sees something that triggers his memory. Okay fair enough. Then you get the option to skip the memory or to look at it. I made the mistake of looking at the memory.
And I do mean look. I shit you not, music plays and pictures occasionally change in the background, but you “experience” the memory by reading the goddamn thing on the TV.
And then on top of that my screen is smallish in size and not high def so I find myself sitting two feet away from the damn thing squinting to make out letters and getting cancer of the eye. Bullshit.
This is the 21st century and you couldn’t do voice? My goddamn computer speaks fluent Japanese and you can’t take the time to put this shitty writing to sound? (If anyone knows the setting in my control panel to make my computer stop talking to me in Japanese let me know.) This game is on the X-Box 360 and they couldn’t pull some guy out of the fucking mail room to V.O. these things? Your game is on 4 DVD’s for fucks sake. So it couldn’t be a space issue.
The only good fact about this shit is that they do let you skip the memories. And I use that feature frequently. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the game. But this memory shit has got to improve or go.
So you Want to be a Model?
Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios are looking for art models. All you have to do is head out and take a picture of yourself and send it in. Just follow this link here and check it out.
Spore Creature Creator Going Live
EA has announced that the Spore Creature Creator will be released to the public on June 17th. This tool is of course not the full game but is designed to help hype the game as it nears it's September 7th release date. The game itself is in it's final testing and polishing phases.
The best part about the creature creator? It isn't useless. You can begin creating and sharing your creatures with friends in anticipation of the games arrival. Unfortunately it seems as though there will be two flavors of the creature creator. A free version which will contain about a quarter of the full capability of the game, and a pay version which will have the full capability of the game.
My only fear is that it will end up like Black and White did... great concept but boring execution.
The best part about the creature creator? It isn't useless. You can begin creating and sharing your creatures with friends in anticipation of the games arrival. Unfortunately it seems as though there will be two flavors of the creature creator. A free version which will contain about a quarter of the full capability of the game, and a pay version which will have the full capability of the game.
My only fear is that it will end up like Black and White did... great concept but boring execution.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
GTA IV First Impressions
I picked up my copy of GTA IV when it released last Tuesday morning. I've sat down with it for about 9 hours now and I'll give you my first impressions, with a full review to follow.
It feels a bit odd, but in a good way. The first thing that I noticed was the characters. They are actually dynamic. Niko himself is fantastic. His history and his personality shape the way you will view Niko. Mission after mission you will learn more about him. This has even impacted the way I play the game. Unlike other GTA's I did not go running into the street with Niko killing everyone I saw. I cared about Niko's character.
Other memorable characters include Niko's cousin Roman, the stoner Little Jon, and Niko's "comrade" Dimitri. All of them are interesting and all of them will surprise you. I even found myself feeling bad about a throwaway character that I was forced to kill. There aren't bad guys in this game. Only people.
The other striking feature of GTA IV is the story. The cutscenes provided at the start of missions and sometimes in missions are longer than in previous games but they provide a more in depth story. Story is also given to you by characters who are riding in your car.
The graphics themselves are beautiful and I expected nothing less. Although I was surprised how good the weather effects were.
The last thing I will say before I go back to playing this game for review is that make no mistake, this is GTA. It's just GTA evolved to the next level, and maybe then some. It feels good to be back in Liberty City.
It feels a bit odd, but in a good way. The first thing that I noticed was the characters. They are actually dynamic. Niko himself is fantastic. His history and his personality shape the way you will view Niko. Mission after mission you will learn more about him. This has even impacted the way I play the game. Unlike other GTA's I did not go running into the street with Niko killing everyone I saw. I cared about Niko's character.
Other memorable characters include Niko's cousin Roman, the stoner Little Jon, and Niko's "comrade" Dimitri. All of them are interesting and all of them will surprise you. I even found myself feeling bad about a throwaway character that I was forced to kill. There aren't bad guys in this game. Only people.
The other striking feature of GTA IV is the story. The cutscenes provided at the start of missions and sometimes in missions are longer than in previous games but they provide a more in depth story. Story is also given to you by characters who are riding in your car.
The graphics themselves are beautiful and I expected nothing less. Although I was surprised how good the weather effects were.
The last thing I will say before I go back to playing this game for review is that make no mistake, this is GTA. It's just GTA evolved to the next level, and maybe then some. It feels good to be back in Liberty City.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
My favorite horrormeister speaks out on video game violence legislation
While we don't see much from author Stephen King much in the video game world, he has enlightened the imaginations and nightmares of many of us. Especially if we have been fortunate enough to read the books and not just see the screen adaptations, but that is another story altogether. Turns out his writing expertise is not spent solely on his novels and short stories, he also writes for Entertainment Weekly online regarding items of current pop culture. This week his article is about the legislation currently in the Mass. house (HB 1423) to restrict or outright ban the sale of "violent" video games to those under the age of 18. It is a very good article to read and if anyone reading this is from the state of Massachussettes I would strongly encourage you to contact your local state representative about this bill.
There have been several atempts to do this in other states and they have all failed to pass stating as protected under 1st Amendment rights. Currently there is an attempt going on in the Arizona state senate. As stated on the Video Game Voters Network MySPace blog - "HB 2660 aims to circumvent the Constitution by penalizing video game developers and blaming them for society’s ills. This bill punishes individuals who produce or distribute so called "dangerous" materials. The bill defines these materials as anything an accused individual might claim "drove" them to commit a felony or act of terrorism. "
So if you are in the state of Arizona or know someone who is please have them contact their representative and let them know your feelings on this matter.
There have been several atempts to do this in other states and they have all failed to pass stating as protected under 1st Amendment rights. Currently there is an attempt going on in the Arizona state senate. As stated on the Video Game Voters Network MySPace blog - "HB 2660 aims to circumvent the Constitution by penalizing video game developers and blaming them for society’s ills. This bill punishes individuals who produce or distribute so called "dangerous" materials. The bill defines these materials as anything an accused individual might claim "drove" them to commit a felony or act of terrorism. "
So if you are in the state of Arizona or know someone who is please have them contact their representative and let them know your feelings on this matter.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Unreal Tournament 3
OK, this game has been out for a while now so I feel that it is a truly fair game to rant against. They have had plenty of time for updates and patches.
My first argument is that Epic had a great game with UT2004. The load screens and times were fair. It was user friendly in many ways and all in all a nice game to play and look at. With the new engine I can understand some changes coming but did you really need to frell up the basics of the game?! What the frak!? Just to get past the basic menu selections are a chore. How many times do I need to say that I want to play a frelling game?
Your server history also only holds so many servers before it just quits showing any more. So if you have met your limit and you get on the great server that you actually love to play on, you are unable to save it to favorites because you can only do that from the server history! You can only access your friends list from the community area which you have to go all the way back to the main menu to get to. The in order to add your friends you have to not only know exactly what their name is and how to spell it correctly but then you have to ask them and they then have to respond and then they have to ask you and then you have to respond top them! WTF?! I miss the simplicity of "right click-add to favorites" and "right click-add to buddies" . Why couldn't that have stayed?
I mean, the game is beautiful and has lots of potential (when you can get pass the frakkin' crashes and .dll errors). When I first put it on my system (which significantly exceeded it min. req's) I had to clean boot my system in order to run the game. No support was given to help me figure out why after multiple posts to forums. There are huge long threads in the Unreal Forums about others having problems with this and no solutions given. Not a single patch has helped and some even made it worse! A change in my OS ended up fixing whatever was wrong before.
This leads also to another issue I have (this is a rant, duh), after spending $50 on this game and finding out that I couldn't get it to run normally on my system I had no choice but to keep it anyway because you cannot return opened computer software to retailers! ARRGGHHH!!! If I am responsible and know my system specs and have run the demo with no problem and decide to buy the full version of the game to take it home , install, and try to run and find out at that time that it doesn't work - I should be able to return said merchandise without grief from the frelling store! I get the whole copying and getting money back thing and whatnot but why should those of us with legitimate issues have to pay the price when the cost of games are so excessively high? I mean if I really wanted to get a game without paying the full price for it I wouldn't bother with buying and returning the game I would get it from one of my many friends around the world who will generously let me have for no cost what so ever. Games I really want I buy and if I am unsatisfied with a product I should be able to return it, period.
Well I think I am tired out now. We can only hope that UT games run the gambit like Star Trek films with every other one being great. I am just pissed that I had to find out the hard way that this is just not what we expected from the pre-release hoopla.
My first argument is that Epic had a great game with UT2004. The load screens and times were fair. It was user friendly in many ways and all in all a nice game to play and look at. With the new engine I can understand some changes coming but did you really need to frell up the basics of the game?! What the frak!? Just to get past the basic menu selections are a chore. How many times do I need to say that I want to play a frelling game?
Your server history also only holds so many servers before it just quits showing any more. So if you have met your limit and you get on the great server that you actually love to play on, you are unable to save it to favorites because you can only do that from the server history! You can only access your friends list from the community area which you have to go all the way back to the main menu to get to. The in order to add your friends you have to not only know exactly what their name is and how to spell it correctly but then you have to ask them and they then have to respond and then they have to ask you and then you have to respond top them! WTF?! I miss the simplicity of "right click-add to favorites" and "right click-add to buddies" . Why couldn't that have stayed?
I mean, the game is beautiful and has lots of potential (when you can get pass the frakkin' crashes and .dll errors). When I first put it on my system (which significantly exceeded it min. req's) I had to clean boot my system in order to run the game. No support was given to help me figure out why after multiple posts to forums. There are huge long threads in the Unreal Forums about others having problems with this and no solutions given. Not a single patch has helped and some even made it worse! A change in my OS ended up fixing whatever was wrong before.
This leads also to another issue I have (this is a rant, duh), after spending $50 on this game and finding out that I couldn't get it to run normally on my system I had no choice but to keep it anyway because you cannot return opened computer software to retailers! ARRGGHHH!!! If I am responsible and know my system specs and have run the demo with no problem and decide to buy the full version of the game to take it home , install, and try to run and find out at that time that it doesn't work - I should be able to return said merchandise without grief from the frelling store! I get the whole copying and getting money back thing and whatnot but why should those of us with legitimate issues have to pay the price when the cost of games are so excessively high? I mean if I really wanted to get a game without paying the full price for it I wouldn't bother with buying and returning the game I would get it from one of my many friends around the world who will generously let me have for no cost what so ever. Games I really want I buy and if I am unsatisfied with a product I should be able to return it, period.
Well I think I am tired out now. We can only hope that UT games run the gambit like Star Trek films with every other one being great. I am just pissed that I had to find out the hard way that this is just not what we expected from the pre-release hoopla.
More Final Fantasy Goodness coming to the DS
Like Shawn I also picked up a DS for the classic RPG and strategy game goodness on the system. In addition to Final Fantasy 4 we are gonna be blessed with the US release of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 in June according to www.ign.com. Square Enix is rewarding their fans in this game by allowing you to plug your old GBA game into your DS to unlock bonus items on the sequel, which I happen to think is really cool.
Also if you are into to RPG/Strategy on the DS make sure you check out Atlus games. They tend to do the US versions of lots of interesting games from japan.
Hunter
P.S. Uwe Boll has another box office bomb coming out. The trailer for postal has launched on www.ign.com and I have to say it looks like he was trying to offend the maximum possible number of people with that movie.
----------------
Now playing: Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
via FoxyTunes
Also if you are into to RPG/Strategy on the DS make sure you check out Atlus games. They tend to do the US versions of lots of interesting games from japan.
Hunter
P.S. Uwe Boll has another box office bomb coming out. The trailer for postal has launched on www.ign.com and I have to say it looks like he was trying to offend the maximum possible number of people with that movie.
----------------
Now playing: Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
via FoxyTunes
Friday, April 11, 2008
Mildly Amusing
I found this mildly amusing. Some gamers who love their IP's have started a petition to stop Uwe Boll from making movies anymore. Apparently the publicity hungry perpetrator caught wind of this and Uwe now promises to retire if the petition garners one million signatures. Yeah right.
You realize you can just not watch these movies right? If you stop watching he goes away.
Stop Dr. Uwe Boll Petition
(Note to self... Dr? What the fuck is the little prick a doctor of? Answer: Literature Maybe he could write for me when he retires.)
You realize you can just not watch these movies right? If you stop watching he goes away.
Stop Dr. Uwe Boll Petition
(Note to self... Dr? What the fuck is the little prick a doctor of? Answer: Literature Maybe he could write for me when he retires.)
Bully Banned in Brazil (Now repeat 5 times fast)
Bully:Scholarship Edition has been banned in Brazil due to a ruling by a local Judge. Apparently a youth group brought the suite against the game.The reason Bully was banned? Because it is set in the school.
How the hell could this ruling come out of a county like Brazil. Does Portuguese not have a word for Irony?
from Joystiq
FF IV coming for DS
According to Joystiq Final Fantasy IV will be coming out on the DS on July 22. Not only will it bring with the gameplay we love of old but will also feature new content, some voiced cutscenes (the word "some" there makes me a little leery), and of course 3d graphics
I must say I enjoyed the release of FF III on the DS. I bought the system primarily for the old style RPG's and now it seems Nintendo is finally starting to catch up.
I must say I enjoyed the release of FF III on the DS. I bought the system primarily for the old style RPG's and now it seems Nintendo is finally starting to catch up.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Not an April Fool's Gag
Jumping in today for my 'hello world.' I'm Josh, I've known Shawn since back in our high school days, and I've been asked to throw my two cents into the blog. (I also did the English degree too...but mine's a BS. That's right. And yes, I have heard that joke already, don't go thinking you're all creative.) I'll be more than happy to do so, though I'm still waiting to see just what kind of role I'll be able to take here. Should I be the token 'guy in Japan?' The gaijin otaku (foreign geek, just in case anybody here was unaware...it's been 2 years since I've been around people who DIDN'T know what those words mean)? Just another voice weighing in?
Bah, I'll do it as I've always done, wing it and see what goes over best.
But I'll be dropping in on occasion with a little of the 'slice-of-life-in-Japan' that I can offer, especially since my time here ties very closely in to my love of games anyway. My 'expertise' industry-wise begins and ends with the systems I own, and I always seem to be a generation behind. Still, I can talk a little about importing, and a lot about life in Nintendo's (and Sony's and Sega's and SquareEnix's and and and...) homeland.
Anyway, looking forward to sharing what I can. For tonight, I leave you with the following homework (especially those of you who've been wasting the past few weeks/months/years on Rock Band or Guitar Hero): Bemani. Look it up. Learn it. Love it.
Bah, I'll do it as I've always done, wing it and see what goes over best.
But I'll be dropping in on occasion with a little of the 'slice-of-life-in-Japan' that I can offer, especially since my time here ties very closely in to my love of games anyway. My 'expertise' industry-wise begins and ends with the systems I own, and I always seem to be a generation behind. Still, I can talk a little about importing, and a lot about life in Nintendo's (and Sony's and Sega's and SquareEnix's and and and...) homeland.
Anyway, looking forward to sharing what I can. For tonight, I leave you with the following homework (especially those of you who've been wasting the past few weeks/months/years on Rock Band or Guitar Hero): Bemani. Look it up. Learn it. Love it.
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