It could be nice to be aLIVE
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First, there was the recent update/tweak to Halo 2’s gameplay. In a previous life, I was a Halo boxer. It was how I played - I’d rush with the Assault Rifle business end to take down the shields and then I’d use the other business end for a little smackdown action. It was pretty effective and served me well. Halo 2 1.0 nerfed my modus operandi. It took a while to divorce myself from it and I lived without it. Halo 2 1.1 has all changed that. It’s like an old friend has moved back into the neighborhood. I still take a beating going with the shoot-shoot-punch but now it’s much more effective. Instead winning three out of ten times, I’m putting the beatdown on the bad guys eight out of ten times. This simple tweak has increased my enjoyment tenfold. Just last night me and my clanmates went 8-2 in our matches. I am very eagerly anticipating the new playlists and playing on the new maps next week.
The other game I’ve given a try on Live is Burnout 3. Burnout 3 is such a great single player game (I unlock unlockables like a machine!) but most multiplayer racing games suck because it has to be split-screen. Well I gave B3 a ride (pun!) on Live and it is a great diversion. I immediately noticed the guys playing were actually cool to play with! No Halo 2 kiddies tell me what he did to my mom (or my dead corpse) and no kids screaming obscenities and farm animal noises. The guys were cool, we chatted about the next-gen Madden game, the next Burnout game, and just chilled. It was relaxing — just like a game should be. That said, I won’t be playing B3 anytime soon - I haven’t unlocked enough of the good cars. I was running around in the “Tuned Compact” when everyone else had the Dominator. I got smoked each and everytime. Once I unlock some of the better cars I’ll be jumping back on Live.
The ‘mystery’ of FIFA Street
The ‘mystery’ of FIFA Street : Guardian Unlimited Gamesblog
This is a great read about how EA is slowly taking over the world, one poor(?) video game at a time.
This is why FIFA Street is number one. It hits all the right buttons. It is mainstream, but yet has an ‘edge’. It has good graphics. It is fast enough to convince players that they are having a good time. And that empty feeling when all the bluster is over? When the lack of depth becomes apparent? It. Never. Comes. Because the mainstream consumer has rushed onwards. To another flashy, intensely marketed, brand-focused product.
Silly online poker player, Spam for kids!
I thought buttonMashing was immune to comment/trackback spam but I seem to have attracted the attention of some shady purveyors of online poker sites looking to boost their Google ranking. 285+ comments of spammy badness in less than a day. Crazy! Hopefully they weren’t able to boost the ranking of their internet site. While online poker may be fun, there’s no button mashing involved. Not my cup of tea.
Regarding the spam comments (and blocking thereof), I have installed Spam Karma 2, which has immediately gone into action and destroyed all remnants of the poker spam. I’ve only been using it for a couple hours but I recommend it, it seems to be doing its job swimmingly. Seems like things are back to normal.
But those spammers are a persistent bunch! In the time it took to download and install the SK2 plug-in (about 3 minutes) 3-4 more spam messages came in. Unbelievable.
(Update: I noticed that the sidebar is wonky in IE. I know most people visiting the site use Firefox (I use Opera myself) but I apologize to any IE users for whom the page looks funny. I imagine it’s a problem with the theme I’m using, I’m not sure if it’s been updated recently or not. It appears to be an issue with my Bloglines blogroll. I’ll mess with it later, I’m going to bed)
Next-Generation Madden
I, for one, was not too impressed with the next generation of EA’s Madden Football. I watched the 60-second commercial that ran on ESPN during the NFL draft (which I’m sure by now is available online) and it didn’t do it for me.
First, the models look hyper-realistic. They look like a cross between NFL Blitz and Lee Haney. Everything glistened and shimmered unnaturally. The models were too muscular. Granted, the NFL is full of Adonises (Adonii?) but not everyone is stacked and ripped (yet). The little tête-à-tête between McNabb and Strahan looked pretty sweet but the pass to Owens and the lame, over-the-top, dive into the endzone was too cliche.
Not everything was bad. The little x-ray showing the injury to the player’s shoulder was a nice touch, as was the snow. Nevertheless, EA has some big obstacles to overcome. None have really been deal-breakers for me, but if they can’t get rid of the horrible clipping and collision detection issues that have plagued Madden (and NCAA 200x) for years, it will be pretty eye candy and not much more. Proving, once again, that pretty graphics and big, bulging muscles a good game do not make.
So it looks like the EA juggernaut will move forward into the next generation with hyper-realistic, not photo-realistic graphics. I guess this can be seen as a good thing, since the current trend of super-human physique as a model will not take us to the Uncanny Valley, which is a good thing.
Master Chief <3’s Jesus
So I read about kids testifying of their Lord and Savior during Live Halo 2 games last month over at Popular Culture Gaming but really didn’t pay much attention to it. Until, that is, this evening. I played a head to head with a nice enough guy (a rarity on Live), he beat me 10-6 (woulda been 10-8 if I didn’t toast myself twice). In the exit screen, he asked if he could ask me a couple of questions. Sure, I said. First he asked if I knew where I’d go if I died (”heaven forbid, ” he tells me) tonight. His second question was what I would say to God at the Pearly Gate? I would, of course, ask if He could create a rock so heavy he couldn’t lift it. But that’s beside the point. I told him I feel like I’m living right and everything is cool with me and the Big Man upstairs. He then testified to me and told me to read my Bible. He then signed off and I sat there in a state of disbelief.
Now, I’m a pretty religious guy, but I keep that kind of stuff pretty close to the vest. It’s the last thing I’d talk about at the end of a game of Halo 2. But I’ll give the guy credit. If nothing else, he gave me pause to think. My wife was watching me play but was only picking up half the conversation since voice is piped through the headset. She thought it was pretty funny that I was talking to someone across the country about Jesus. It was pretty out of place and kind of wierd.
But hey, the game is called Halo and it does have religious overtones, so who am I to say it’s out of place?
Statistics, statistics everywhere
… and not a drop to drink.
I am a confessed stat junkie. I noticed a few weeks ago that bapenguin (an editor at Evil Avatar) was linking to something called a “TPS report”. I followed the link and wanted my own Halo 2 TPS report, immediately. So I downloaded Query Spree, downloaded all my games and created my own TPS report. It’s important to note that Bungie purges their data at a regular pace, so I had to purge the database that Query Spree creates of incomplete games, so I’ve played more games than show up in my TPS Report, but all my recent games are all there. I’m not a spectacular player, but I hold my own.
I also took the liberty of downloading the stats of my clanmates. I also started a simple page for my humble Halo 2 Clan. Enjoy!
Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!
I’ve been reading Dubious Quality for a while (and enjoyed it immensely) but I haven’t really mentioned much here. An oversight that I intend to correct. I wanted to point out two great reads from Bill over at DQ. First, there’s this post about his experience with the new RTS/I-dunno-what game, Darwinia. The game is getting a lot of critical acclaim and this is a great read. Second, here’s another great post about the new Xbox RPG, Jade Empire. Again, excellent reading. This is why I love video game blogs. I can go to twenty different sites online where I can read a review of Jade Empire but I don’t find experiences like this very often. A score of 9.9 might convince me that the game is good and worth a look, but reading something like this has a more meaningful effect:
… the world is beautifully dynamic and immersive, defining itself beyond the written world, which I see as a remarkable accomplishment. I experience the Jade Empire most fully not by reading, but by being.
Following the vein of gaming experiences, Adam posted this about Ico, a game I’ve never had the chance to play. Judging by Adam’s feelings, I’m missing out.
It’s incredibly engaging, refreshing, and liberating to experience gaming/interactive storytelling absent all the clutter that continually screams, “I’m a video game.” Ico instead whispers, “I am another world for you to explore,” gives you a simple, intuitive control scheme, and then allows you to completely forget there’s a controller in your hand.
It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game like that.
To round out the games I haven’t played yet, this review of God of War is the best one I’ve read to date. On a blog. Goodness gracious this looks like a trend to me.
Game Cheats as Political Speech : Kotaku
This is one of the best posts I’ve seen at Kotaku. Ever. Pure awesomeness.
My buddy over at Rightank would get a big kick out of this one.
Update (4/20/05 12:53pm): As pointed out to me by Ed (in the comments), the original source to the list of “cheat codes” is the Riding Sun blog.
Bungie.net : Top Story
I’ve got mixed feelings about this “patch” business. Up until now, console games have been “what you see is what you get,” and if some glitch happened to make it through QA then thousands of purchasers were stuck with it. Now, with the Xbox Live connected console, games can be patched to fix, among other things, “weapon balance issues.” To me, the troubling quote is
Grenade attacks will be one of the most significant changes for the 1.1 version of Halo 2. In many ways, the new grenade balance is a reflection of the way we really wanted them to be.
If that’s the way they really wanted them then why aren’t they that way? Even though all the gameplay tweaks ands changes seem like steps in the right direction, I’m still troubled by this trend.
Next generation of consoles will surely all be connected to the net and this trend will continue. The question is whether or not gamers will embrace it or reject. The blurring of the line between PC games and console games continues.
That being said, I’m excited about the changes. The enhanced melee attack and improved grenades are welcome additions to my style of play. And the mid-jump melee attack? That’s my specialty, just ask my clan mate, Ted. I caught him with a mid-air, rocket launcher melee attack and BEAT HIM DOWN. Making this common place is okay with me. It is interesting to see the nerf-bat, normally reserved for MMOGs, has been found in Bungie’s offices. Once people start learning how to exploit this round of changes, Halo 2 ver. 1.2 won’t be far behind. This is what troubles me most about these updates. The vicious circle of “re-balancing”.
Video Games and History
Earlier this month, Alice mentioned history revisionism in this post. Like she duly noted, I didn’t know what a trebuchet was until I played Age of Empires II. Heck, when we would LAN party AoE II, we would all pronounce it differently — treh-beh-ket, treckle-buck (not me, a buddy!), others. It wasn’t until I played the campaigns that I learned it’s proper pronunciation. But Age did “educate” me in the finer points of siege weaponry. What? I learned about something in a game? Of course I didn’t do any research on my own, I took Ensemble on their word.
Foton also mentioned this here, with his 14-year old nephew receiving history lessons from Battlefield: Vietnam. In typical Foton fashion, we get this great quote:
I swear, a well-designed shooter could completely revise world history and I’d run around telling people that Marxism could work if only we’d come together, right now, over me.
So in other words, games that have a foundation in history demand extra attention by the developer, and in particular, the history buffs (PhDs, if you will) they hire as experts. (They do it!) It’s important that they realize their interpretation of history will be taken at face value by thousand of gamers who are blissfully unaware that they are actually “learning” something.
Catching up
I’ve mentioned a couple times that I have a stack of games. I’ve had a chance to break open a couple of these games and wanted to mention what I’ve played.
The first one I played is R: Racing Evolution. I’ve never played other Ridge Racing games (which I’ve heard are great) but I was pretty disappointed with this one. Sure, there’s the pretty protagonist and a decent story mode, it just didn’t do it for me. The racing wasn’t that great. Controls felt soft and the physics didn’t feel right, either. I’ll probably give this one another try but I wasn’t that impressed.
The other game I played was XIII. This game has a little more promise the R:Racing. I’ve played for a couple hours and I really like the comic book-ish, cel-shaded look. I’m looking forward to making more progress with this one. It seems like it was another game released at an unfortunate time. I picked this one for a song, so if you see it at your favorite second hand store cheap, I recommend picking it up.
I’ve got a few more to play out before family comes to visit this weekend, when most of the gaming time will be devoted to NCAA 2005 and Mario Party. I’ll update those later.
Hail to the Victors…
… Hail, Hail, to EA Sports, the owners of all Licenses!
I saw this first over at Evil Avatar (I’ll avoid referring to them as EA for a while) and then saw pretty much everywhere else, but EA has scooped up the NCAA football rights. Big surprise.
What does surprise me, though, is this “Collegiate Licensing Company” that EA has made this deal with. A quick look at the list of schools the CLC represents will make an Ohio State Univeristy Buckeye fan wonder… They’re not included in the list. Neither is the Big Ten. Or the PAC 10. Or USC. So 2 of the last 3 National Championship teams aren’t included in the list of schools that fall under the CLC’s umbrella of schools. Interesting.
So does that mean that EA shelled out millions for this “right” and then had to go to each individual school/conference not included under CLC’s holdings and pay even more? I sure hope so.
I had hoped that, with ESPN 2k Sports losing out on the NFL license, we would see an ESPN College Football offering. I thought they could do something special there but now we’ll never know. I’m not as indignant as most people are about this news but it doesn’t really surprise me. EA makes good business moves, what more needs to be said?
Cheaters are dumb.
Like me rephrase that — the guys who figure out the cheats, not so dumb. I would imagine it’s no small task figuring out how to beat the system. That takes guts and brains. But the ones who use it after everyone knows what’s going on — dumb.
Last week, three of us from the Halo 2 clan were playing on Live, trying to stay alive in some clan matches. We meet up with three of Halo 2 best and brightest and have a go at a Multi Flag CTF in Colossus (one of my favorite maps, which makes for some good CTF). You can view the game stats here.
Anyway, once the game starts, things seem normal. I was sniping like a mad man in previous games, so I make a bee-line for the Covenant Sniper. I hustle over, get it before Red does and I get in position for some head shots. Then things start acting screwy. The alert pops up that the Red Team has grabbed our flag. I pull up the scope, zoom in to our base and see something peculiar - Red Teammate #1 one is running into a corner. What’s he doing? Is he going to take a quick leak on our base before he bolts? No one pisses on my flag. I line up his pretty little head and whamo! I pull the trigger. Strange, nothing happens. Whamo! Another shot, deadnuts. Nope, still jogging in place, in the corner. Then everything rushes around and I’m the one running into a wall as he scores. Uh oh. Immediately we know what’s going on. Smarty-pants Team Red is using the “Lag Cheat” to score one for the bad guys.
Over team chat we contemplate quitting and not give them the satisfaction of cheating us, but we’re upstanding Live citizens who never quit, so we decide to wait it out. As you can see, six minutes later they had scored on us thrice and the game ended. Now remember, cheaters are dumb.
On the score screen after the game, I fully expected them to bolt, nary a word. But they don’t. In some sort of retarded reverse psychology, Red Team starts complaining about lag. “You guys must have been lag cheating us!” they accuse. What? The purpose of cheating is to win by any means necessary. So if, as you accuse, we have cheated, we should have won. Makes sense to me. “No, no lag cheating going on here,” we reply. “Whatever, it was lagging like hell, you guys are cheaters,” is their retort. “Again, we didn’t cheat. In fact, it’s blatantly obvious that you guys were cheating and you’ll be promptly left feedback accordingly.” The logic simply baffles the mind. Here’s were it/they get dumber.
“No, you guys were cheating and we’re reporting you!” they lash back. “You know what?” they consider, “if you guys don’t report us, we won’t report you. Deal?” Right. They promptly exit the game and the three of us just start laughing. Feedback is left and we go on our way, satisfied knowing an update is coming and all the frauds out there will be exposed for what they are:
Dumb cheaters. Dumb, I tell ya.
Strong all along
Like Adam over at render, I seriously considered picking up a new PSTwo so I could play Katamari Damacy. He took the plunge but I have resisted. With such a HUGE library, I know I am missing out on a lot of good games. But I don’t have an unlimited gaming budget, something has to give. So I doubt I’ll ever pick up a PS2, which means I probably won’t experience some of those great games. With respect to Katamari Damacy, though, I feel a little vindicated after I read this! It looks possible that we might get Katamari on the Gamecube. Excellent news.
It got me thinking about the life span of a video game console. The PS2 is going on five years old and the Gamecube and Xbox are both going on four years old. Safe to say they’re all in their prime. And the games (like Katamari Damacy) show it. In the past year we’ve had the fantastic Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube, GTA and KD for the PS2, and Halo 2 and the game I’m currently playing, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the Xbox. I still think there is a lot of life left in this generation of consoles.
Extreme Makeover
Buttonmashing is going through plastic surgery (a little nip here, tuck there) so things may look wonky as I make changes. With a new theme (that obviously isn’t in English) there’s a lot to do here, but things are starting to come together.
Update - Since the anesthetic hasn’t worn off, we’re going in for a second pass. I really like the way the dimension 2k theme looks but it doesn’t completely work and I’m too lazy to translate German so I’m hunting for a new theme. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to get everything looking the way I want it.
Update 2 - I think I’m sticking with my current theme, I like the way it looks and while I’ll be making a few changes, I think I’m pleased with the looks. At least for now.
Update 3 (4/13/2005) - I’ve finally added my blogroll to the sidebar along with some Google Ads. I don’t have to pay for hosting just yet but my free hosting will be ending soon, so any clicks on the Google Ads would be appreciated. I would still like to replace the header graphic, but I don’t have time right now, time to go play some Halo 2 online.
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