Halo 2 Expands
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I posted this submitted this earlier today to Evil Avatar but I haven’t posted here since I’ve been watching March Madness all evening. So I’ll just quote myself from EA’s site:
Bungie.net’s weekly update gives us the lowdown on the upcoming “expansion” pack. From the update:
- We’re releasing a total of nine new multiplayer maps.
- All nine maps will eventually be available as Live downloads and as a normal boxed game disc - available at retail for $19.99 (US).
- The release on Live will be staggered, some paid, some free!
The first two maps are free and coming in a few short weeks. (late April)- The same day the 2 free maps are released, 2 additional maps will be available for purchase.
- The remaining 5 maps will be made available as a paid download on the same day the retail package goes on sale.
- The retail disc will contain extras, including a documentary, a cool project from our cinematic and animation team, every Halo 2 update released so far and possily one or two other little treats.
- By late summer, ALL the maps will be available for free.
It goes on to describe some of the new maps and includes a FAQ for all your questions. I was a tad disappointed that there won’t be a Hang ‘em High translation but the new stuff definitely looks spiffy. I’m holding judgement on the whole “purchase the new maps now” vs. “wait until late summer”. I think it’s gonna cause major headaches for match making. Get used to playing with the same people who will pay for the new maps.
“But,” you might counter, “if you’re patient, all the maps will eventually be available for free.” Ahh, but there’s an interesting tid-bit in the FAQ for the upcoming expansion:
By late Summer, with the support of Mountain Dew, all the maps will be completely free.
So it’s not even Bungie fronting this offering, it’s Mountain Dew. One of the maps not highlighted, but was mentioned in the update, is named “Backwash”. Will this map contain some form of a Moutain, covered with a Dew? Some Mountain Dew ads, perhaps? We’ll have to wait and see.
A stroll around the gaming blog-o-sphere
I’ve been light on the blogging lately (having a new baby in the house has been keeping me a little busy). But I’ve been keeping up on my reading and I wanted to highlight a couple things that have tickled my fancy. So on to the stroll…
Gamers come in many flavors (which is a topic for another day) but game girl advance has a great post about how EA has appaled to the gamers that aren’t “hard core”. Call them what you like (sports gamers, frat gamers, whatever) but they are a force t0 be reckoned with. I would wager that the non-hard cores outnumber us more “committed” gamers 10 to 1. I love my sports games as much as the next sports gamer but I would wager they could care less about the beauty that is found in TLoZ:Wind Waker. People can say EA is doing a lot of things wrong but they sell games. When it’s all said and done, that’s what this business is really about. People can rail against the commercialization and “Hollywood way of doing things” but it’s all about making money.
I’m still torn on the PSP/DS debate. I will more than likely end up with a DS but I am so very tempted by the beauty that is the PSP. I followed Brian’s live blogging of his experiences with his “honey”. Good stuff. Looks like Mike at Pixel du Juor likes it, too.
I am rather jealous that render is going to E3. That would be such a mind job to attend that gaming mecca.
There have been complaints galore about the spotty (that’s being fair) reliability of WoW’s servers. But Foton puts it rather eloquently:
My point is this: you would not accept this kind of treatment with your car, or your cell phone service, or your cable service. If every time you went to a particular movie theater the soundtrack was mismatched, that would be entirely unacceptable, wouldn’t it?
Yes, it would. So the complaints are getting louder and Blizzard better start paying attention. But then again, I imagine complaints to your crack dealer would fall on deaf ears. He knows you’ll be back, whether your rocks are good or not.
I was impressed with Nintendo’s GDC Zelda trailer, but nowak brings up some good points. I, too, miss the cel shading. While the new Zelda looks amazing (and yes, I will be buying it) I wonder what beauty and art we’ll miss by not having the cel shaded look. At least there’s a chance for the next generation to have a cel shaded Zelda. Here’s to hoping.
So our stroll comes to an end. It’s a great time to be a gamer. So many possibilities. And so many things to complain about!
New Halo 2 Live content coming!?
Next week, we’re going to have a major announcement about the details of our new maps.
Picked this one up from Kotaku. Very intriguing. There was the story last week about a Korean web-site referring to a Halo 2 X-Pack but now the powers-that-be at Bungie have spoken and given us a glimpse at what’s coming, in addition to the cheat/glitch/bugs that currently plague Xbox Live matches. Glad to see they are being proactive about kicking the a-holes that cheat right in the nads.
Now, on to the speculation (This was posted on the 18th, so hopefully they’ll be available by the weekend?) …
My wish list for maps from the first Halo are Hang ‘em High, Prisoner, and Boarding Action (which is great for sniper battles). I personally think they’ll release at least 6 maps, with 3 of them from the original game and 3 brand-spanking-new ones. We’ll see.
I don’t think they’ll be adding any additional content (i.e. a REAL ending) but I would have no problem if they did. I think with all the glitch/bug/cheat fixes they had to do and the new maps that are in the works, I would imagine that’s a lot of work. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Either way, I’m pretty excited about all this!
Newest button-masher is here!
The newest buttonMasher, my son Mason, was born Friday morning. Dad couldn’t be prouder and can’t wait to get him a little controller in his hand.
(Update: I appreciate all the congrats I’ve received, Mason is doing great and is loving watching Dad play video games. He’s already on his way to be a great gamer)
All that shimmers is sure to fade
PSP for the well-heeled - Saw this over at Kotaku the other day. Gaudy as all get-out, but I still wonder - do people actually buy this stuff, or are these handed out with the hopes someone will see someone famous with their kit. I don’t get it. With the release of the DS, PSP and the upcoming new generation, it seems that gamers have quite a bit of disposable income.
Or at least Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft think we do.
Blogging will be light…
At least for the next few days. The buttonWife is ready to deliver the newest buttonMasher to the world any day now, so I won’t be blogging much until then. When he/she arrives I will actually have more time to blog and game since I’ll be taking a week or so off, so hopefully I’ll be able to stay on top of all the cool gaming items as the occur.
Until then!
The periBorg OreCommander: Vibrate your way to gamer nirvana
The periBorg OreCommander: Vibrate your way to gamer nirvana
At last! Now I will finally be able to beat the computer at Track and Field!
Post-GDC Rant
Games * Design * Art * Culture - This is getting lots of linkage around the game-o-sphere but it’s worth repeating yet again.
How many of you were at the Microsoft keynote?I don’t know about you, but it made MY FLESH CRAWL. The HD Era. Bigger. Louder. More photorealistic 3D. Teams of hundreds. And big bux to be made.
While it didn’t make MY FLESH CRAWL, when I read the Microsoft speech, I thought the same thing echoed here. I don’t want to have to buy a new TV just so I can enjoy the next generation of consoles. I still think there’s a lot of life left in the current generation of machines. The PS2 might be on its last leg but it’s still getting quality games this late in its life (see: Katamari Damacy). After playing Resident Evil 4, it is evident that there’s A LOT of muscle left in that little cube. But that’s not the point of Greg’s rant.
We really don’t need whiz-bang graphics and Dolby 92.3 sound. We need games that are fun and engaging. Game developers, under the current video game publishing conditions, aren’t free to develop such innovation. Instead we get rehash after rehash. As a Nintendophile, I can’t say Nintendo is exempt from this criticism. It remains to be seen if Mario 128 can bring new innovation. But the points made here valid and somewhat hard to swallow. Even though he backs off his inital Iwata spanking, it was still pretty harsh.
Go read the whole thing. While it does seem like a lot of talk and not as much in the way forward, it may be the catalyst that gets the ball rolling.
Nintendo and the Revolution
Hopefully everyone’s already seen, read, and digested RFA’s interview over at 1up.com. Definitely some good stuff, but the most important quote I gleaned was:
RFA: … The whole Internet gaming piece, we missed the boat on GameCube. We won’t miss the boat in the future.1UP: So is this an admission that you should have supported it more heavily?
RFA: (laughs) You know what? This is Reggie Fils-Aime, a year with the company, who wasn’t around when those decisions were made. I can tell you, as a consumer, I miss it on GameCube.
At first I toed the company line, thinking online console gaming wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Then I played Halo 2 on Live and my eyes were opened. It was love at first sight. But that love slowly became a mild infatuation because of game after game playing with immature (yeah, I said it) gamers, kids, trash-clowns, whatever you want to call them, playing Halo 2. In principle, I am converted to online gaming. I think Microsoft has done a wonderful job in bringing the vision to the masses. Unfortunately, online gaming still has a way to go. For one thing, it needs to grow up. I agree, for the most part, with fenegi at Video Fenky:
One thing Nintendo does have right this generation: Online gaming really is pointless. Since everyone is a shithead, you only play with people you know, and can’t you (usually) do that around the couch in real life anyway?- fenegi (Video-fenky)
The interview at 1up is great, but like thousands of others, I was looking forward to Iwata’s keynote speech at GDC. Everyone knew he was going to drop a bombs on all gamers (and it turns out, non-gamers, too).
As soon as I saw Kotaku (I’m listening to the podcast as I type this. This guy is a genius.) had any tidbit about Iwata’s speech I read it right away. Brian summed up what he had recounted:
I’ve got to go breath in a paper bag for a minute before I pass out.
I, too, was swooning. Revolution was going to be backwards compatible with my beloved Gamecube collection? DS and Revolution online? I wanted to rush home and blog all about it. I decided to let my mind mull it over for a while. Thoughts of online Animal Crossing or NCAA 2006 were daydreams. But are they? I’m not ready to make any predictions or rash judgements. I’m going to sit back and watch this develop. For now, just go and download the podcast.
Bloglines and my feed
(Update:Following the advice from Mike in the comments, I’ve tried to fix my files so the original RSS feed is operable. So far I can’t get bloglines to recognize my change, but hopefully you’ll have better luck
Okay, it turns out I didn’t save the appropriate files I had changed, but now they are all working and everything seems to be better. Thanks for the help, Mike!)
If you use Bloglines (or another RSS feeding machine) you have probably noticed that my Blogger feeds are no longer active. You can subscribe to my feed using:
http://buttonmashing.com/wp-rss2.php
I was previously having issues with WP and the feed, but that adress seems to work. I also updated the feed links in the footer of the first page. If you use Bloglines, you can always use the handy subscribe with Bloglines button:
Seriously, if you’re not using Bloglines, you’re missing out.
Urban Clothing: Trendy Hip Hop Clothing and Urban Wear- Karmaloop
I don’t know if this should make me laugh or cry. In light of my recent posts, I should probably cry. But I can’t help but chuckle.
Urban Clothing: Trendy Hip Hop Clothing and Urban Wear- Karmaloop
Cranial Menus
So I watched the 60 minutes episode this evening. I watched it with my father-in-law. Two things stuck out in my mind: 1) Cranial menus. What is a cranial menu, you ask? Read on for an explanation on that. 2) For all the things we say about personal responsibility, parental guidance, etc., the truth is people have been forever affected by this tragedy. That should not be sold short.
Now, on to cranial menus. This odd term can be directly attributed to that crazy old coot, Jack Thompson, Esq. In one of the comments by Thompson, he claims the kids (I mean killers) who play these video games (I mean murder simulators) form a type of “cranial menu” where they are able to pick and chose the moves they have done so many times in a video game, only this time in real life. This is supposedly what happened with Devin Moore (I thought his name was Devin Thompson). He grabbed the cop’s gun (why wasn’t that puppy secured?), looked at his cranial menu and his GTA-training kicked in. Here, I’ll just quote him from the transcript itself (which can be found here)
“The video game industry gave him a cranial menu that popped up in the blink of an eye, in that police station,” says Thompson. “And that menu offered him the split-second decision to kill the officers, shoot them in the head, flee in a police car, just as the game itself trained them to do.”
Puuhleese. Even my father-in-law, who watches us play video games but doesn’t play himself, saw through that pile of turds. Now, I know this has been discussed elsewhere, but there’s a big difference between seeing tetris blocks and killing other human beings.
I felt the reporter/commentator (can you be that old and still have an earring?) did a fairly good job of reporting. Things didn’t start out very good, though. Consider this intro:
Imagine if the entertainment industry created a video game in which you could decapitate police officers, kill them with a sniper rifle, massacre them with a chainsaw, and set them on fire.
Now that’s just not fair. I know that’s the allure of the GTA games. But to start a news story like that and you’ve already shown your hand. The viewers are already convinced video games are bad if you can “set them on fire“. But giving him the benefit of the doubt, Ed Bradley did a fair job asking the questions. A couple examples:
He asked David Walsh, a child psychologist (who did a study linking violent video games to physical aggression):
“You’ve got probably millions of kids out there playing violent games like Grand Theft Auto and other violent games, who never hurt a fly,” says Bradley. “So what does that do to your theory?”
Walsh respons:
“You know, not every kid that plays a violent video game is gonna turn to violence. And that’s because they don’t have all of those other risk factors going on,” says Walsh. “It’s a combination of risk factors, which come together in a tragic outcome.”
Other risk factors! It was glossed over that Devin was from a broken home, in and out of foster homes and most likely had very little parental interaction. The fact that he logged hundreds of hours playing the game was also only mentioned in passing. Where was the parent to tell him to turn off the game and do his chores, or his homework, or go outside and play? The kid was sixteen! Wasn’t he involved with school sports? Didn’t he have friends? Troubled, indeed.
Of course we need to ask the burning question, that of personal responsibility. We get it near the end:
But shouldn’t Moore, alone, face the consequences of his decision to kill three men?
Thompson responds with this doozy:
“There’s plenty of blame to go around. The fact is we think Devin Moore is responsible for what he did. But we think that the adults who created these games and in effect programmed Devon Moore and assisted him to kill are responsible at least civilly.”
I love that. There’s plenty of blame to go around. I’ll just end it with that. That sentence, those seven simple words sum up Thompon’s motivation. You can do awful, unspeakably terrible and despicable things, but since there is “plenty of blame to go around” let’s sue so people in the process. Nevermind the other people who are scarred forever by this tragedy (my second point). If we can make some cash in the process, let’s do it!
Update: You can read the Video Game Ombudsman’s reaction to the 60 minutes piece here.
Violence!
Tomorrow on 60 Minutes there will be a story about a case involving a teenager and violent video games. From CBS’s website:
GRAND THEFT AUTO - Can a violent videogame called Grand Theft Auto be responsible for an 18-year-old murdering three people? That’s what the families of the victims are saying in a lawsuit and to Ed Bradley.
I believe these families are being represented by Jack Thompson, attorney extraordinaire. Earlier this week, there was a great “Fisking” (I love these blogging terms) by Josh at Cathode Tan. He dismantles pretty much everything the attorney Jack Thompson has said. (Man it’s hard not calling that guy names. It’s been done so well, by so many other people). It’s an excellent read, as are most of the comments that follow.
This is a perfect example of the power of blogging. It takes some leg work to do this and I’m glad Josh did his homework. He responds to Thompson’s comments/opinions/rants with a level-head. He doesn’t resort to personal attacks and name calling, as Mr. Thompson has been known to do. He points out flaws in the argument and then has examples and counterpoints to reinforce his points.
There are plenty of examples of this in the political blogging community (too many to cite any one example in particular) but blogs keep the so-called “MSM” on their toes. This type of leg work is just now starting to show up in gaming blogs. One I remember, in particular, was the GBA Disney game that had a swear word in it. Gasp! The story was originally found on The Sun (the link to the story seems to be gone) but is quoted here. This was just some shoddy reporting and no real research on the part of the writer. Just a knee-jerk reaction to a swear word on a Disney game. Did he think a game with the Disney name on it could make it through their Quality Control without this being caught? That’s quite a leap of journalistic faith. Actually, the game turned out to be a pirated version (hat tip to Video Fenky) and the pirates had a little shout-out to their competition. But it was the bloggers (and other interested parties, namely, gamers with brains) that righted this wrong. Jack Thompson needed someone to right some of his “wrongs”. While we’ve previously seen some mentions of Thompson which prove this guy measures way high on the wackiness meter (here, here and elsewhere) but no one had really taken him to task until Josh analyzed some of the stuff he has said.
Once Josh posted this, gamers and gaming bloggers took over and this spread pretty quickly. Evil Avatar had it first, since Josh submitted it there but it immediately spawned comments and opinions from fellow EAers. Penny-Arcade picked it up from EA and even though Tycho doesn’t talk directly to the issue at hand, he does make some good points:
… However, the man is essentially building his legacy on the broken bodies of desperate teenagers. Countering the man rationally will serve no purpose, the imagery is too potent. I’m powerless to dissect a sermon like that, simply because the task is so vast. There are a hundred ways his piece dissembles, exaggerates, omits key points, or relies on flourish and appeals, but his motif is perfectly packaged for media. The man spins at ten thousand RPM.
The importance of exposure on Penny-Arcade (or a similar site like EA) can’t be underestimated. Whether they consider themselves bloggers or not, they have an audience of millions and a link from their news stories will drive big time traffic to a site, with thousands of eyes pouring over all your hard work. I’m sure Josh got a nice big jump in traffic from that linkage. This link spawns hundreds of little links (like buttonmashing) and others, like the ones found here, here, or here, here, here, here, and here. (If there are others, let me know). This puts the story in front of even more eyes, most importantly those that have never heard of PA. (I know, it’s hard to believe, but some people haven’t been enlightened.) Call it a meme, call it whatever, but it’s out there for more and more people to see. Hopefully it is enough to counterbalance all the tripe that was spewed out in the first place. This is the voice of the gamer. The voice of a group of people who care about this form of entertainment and desperately want it to be respected and not blamed for everything that’s wrong with society. There were sicko killers and criminals before video games and there will be many more after. We just want some equal footing when defending our hobby of choice. One side of the story really isn’t an argument.
This voice of the gamer probably won’t be heard on tomorrow’s show. I’m afraid it will be one-sided and biased. But the blogging groundwork has been laid and we can also be vocal and have our voice heard. Places like Penny-Arcade and Evil Avatar (among others) have loyal followers that can be mobilized to do great things. Gaming bloggers can also do their part. Heck, we could stoop as low as GoogleBombing Thompson’s “help site” with something like “Clinically Insane“. But we gaming bloggers are above childish tomfoolery, right? We can, however, point people to Josh’s post and let them make their own conclusions. We can watch the bit on 60 minutes and actually debate the points they bring up. It will make us want to scream obscenities at the TV and then get on our favorite forum to call Thompson names not-fit-for-print but we must restrain ourselves and not allow ourselves to be baited into that trap. We just need some even-handed comments and discussions. No name calling! We are Mature Gamers, remember?
I’ll be watching the 60 minutes episode hoping both sides of the story are shown. I know they don’t have the best record of doing that, but one can hope. But I’ll definitely be blogging my thoughts. Until then…
AFK Gamer and collaborative blogging
Foton over at AFK Gamer is considering a really cool idea for those of us in video game blogging (actually, for anyone who loves gaming). You can read about it here, but the gist of it is:
One weekend, a collaborative blog. Anyone that pre-registers can post. It’s an orgy of gaming in whatever game you choose. The objective is … a stream of conciousness on your gaming experiences for the weekend.
I think this good be pretty cool. As I said over at his site, it would be great to see what the other gamers out there think. Hopefully everyone who participated would be mature and civil, no lame fanboy ranting and bashing. Meaningful dialogue, funny anecdotes, good ideas and constructive criticism would be cool to see.
If you’re interested, leave a message over at his site and we’ll see where this goes.
Real life.
I’ve been busy this week, lots of things going on so I haven’t had much time to blog. I’ve been able to do a little gaming, I’ve made some good progress with the single player campaign in Halo 2 and I’m really enjoying Mario Power Tennis. I rented Zelda: Four Swords, but have only had a little chunk of time to play that. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played but I doubt I’ll get to play much more before it has to go back. I really like the style of graphics they started with Wind Waker (I know, that’s a minority opinion) and I love the look of Four Swords. I wish I had some friends with GBAs to try out the multiplayer, it looks like it would be a lot of fun.
I’ve been thinking about some topics I want to mention but it’s getting late now, so I’ll check back in soon with some links and some razor sharp wit. Prepare to be dezazzled.
Or, at the very least, mildly amused.
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