Nintendo has said from the start that friend codes are there to protect the kids.
If so, why do we have them in GTA:Chinatown Wars?
From what I understand there’s not been a lot of online activity for this game.
There’s a War in Chinatown
Even before my previous views, I gave one or two GTA games a try. I just couldn’t get past it all. All the…stuff. I received GTA:Chinatown Wars from Gamefly and I find it to be an interesting take on the game and its normal material. It just doesn’t seem as over the top—so far (I’m not seeing any of the crass “humor”). Anyway:
- want to hail a taxi? Just whistle. I’m not kidding.
- Using the DS as a PDA is a nice touch to navigating everything.
- I have no idea how Rockstar did it but the city is fully mapped out, populated, has the same sounds, and the pedestrians talk. Buildings and locations from GTAIV are there—sometimes even down to the signage.
- this isometric perspective on gaming is going to be copied. I welcome it.
- mini games that make sense
Anyway, this seems to be a “toned down” version of GTA, but the technical quality has been ramped up. Amazing that a DS title can progress on a 360/PS3 title.
This has been an initial impresison presentation.
BIT.TRIP.BEAT
For a game that looks like it was made for Brock, being released today on WiiWare for $6, and has that old style feel that many of us writers here are hankering for right now (but haven’t written about because we’ve been playing them) makes this is a must buy.
Today.
Arakanoid meets Guitar Hero? NOTE: Our RSS is having a hard time displaying video again. Jump on over to the site if you use a reader.
Burnout Paradise Party
The teens of my youth group have discovered Party Mode. Not everyone is there, the other half was on the other side of the house playing Ticket to Ride. We played a few rounds. None of them had ever played Paradise before. I was surprised at how easy it was for them to pick up and play.
Why is it since Google acquired Youtube that the video quality has been crap? Vimeo was ten times better. NOTE: Those of you using readers will have to visit the site for the video.
Who Watched Watchmen?
Sorry, this will probably be the most cliched and posted blog title this weekend, but I couldn’t resist. I just got back from a 12:30 PM showing. My brother and I were two of maybe eight people there. I’m just going to be up front and say this contains one spoiler. It’ll be marked.
First, some personal info:
- I’ve read the novel, but I am an odd man out. I don’t think it’s the “greatest graphic novel of all time.” I actually think its barely good. Maybe average. However, I do understand it’s role in the medium.
Movie thoughts:
- The average person will not get this movie. It goes many layers deep. I also think that they will be expecting a superhero movie. I believe disappointment may come up after people leave their screening—if they don’t walk out first. (I’ll explain later). Purist I think will love it, except…
- It is almost a frame-by-frame movie version of the novel—more than Sin City and more than 300. I think this hurts it a little. It’s really a visual cliff-notes. Don’t want to spend 10 hours on the book? Watch the film.
- Take out the slow-mo and you cut an hour from the film.
- Some of the music choices were, at first impression, weird.
- It is visceral and graphic. A lot more “blueness” than I was expecting. It’s so rare in mainstream cinema it was distracting. Plus, there is no explanation why he is nude. (Point #1 may be another result). The novel is graphic, but something about seeing it in moving form was alarming. Over the top violence and certainly the most graphic sex scenes I’ve seen in a mainstream film. (Some may differ, but…). In some ways I felt squeamish watching some scenes. (Of course I did reading them too.)
- Rorschach was great.
- SPOILERS: The outcome from the book is the same but the ending is fundamentally changed. Basically Ozymandias makes Dr. Manhattan out to be the doomsday event. I actually think this works better than the book. I imagine the purists will be pissed.
- I probably won’t go out of my way to see this movie again.
InFamous Trailer = “I’m Scared”
This is the only AAA (read:overpriced) title I’m looking forward to this year. It sort of reminds me of Crackdown. That is a Good Thing.TM
Gaming in the Eyes of a Six-Year-Old
My oldest son has enjoyed my hobby over the last two years. In the last six months he was ordered by his eye doctor to play games for 30 minutes a day while wearing a patch. (How cool of a doctor is that? Prescribing games.) As he’s gotten older we have begun to play games together. Our Wii’s been dormant for a while and he’s been enjoying games on the PS3 and 360.
We usually have good discussions on games and I figured I’d try and share some of them. Of course, he clams up when I pull out the recorder. I’ve tried to transcribe his grammatical pauses and fluctuations for emphasis. It’s all over the place, but here was our first “interview”:
So, Jack, do you like to play video games?
Yes
Yeah? What video game systems do we have?
Umm…Xbox and Wii and umm…the DVD one.
Playstation?
Yeah
Infinite Interactive Shame on You
UPDATE: I am totally done with this game. It has got some SERIOUS random balance issues. I know some people are enjoying it, and that’s great for them, but I feel like I paid $50 for a pile of frustration. There are just too many other games out there now I’d like to play and have fun while playing. I cannot unload on my Steam copy, but it looks as if I’m getting rid of the DS version.
In regards to Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, shame on you for taking almost two years to develop a game…
- that does not solve the early game/end game overpowering problems.
- for still using AI-favored bonus drops (I counted over four gameplay sessions and averaged it. I figured it at ~70% in the AI’s favor).
- for not allowing said bonus drops to work in the hacked gate successions.
- for having the ship follow the mouse (moving back to the gate after hacking is annoying).
- for with all the mentioned problems being the only game ever that frustrates me immensely but compels me to keep playing. (I don’t normally play games that frustrate me)
Oh, and the DS version is a leap back in presentation and control. The PC version seems to have gotten the love this time around.
Are You Playing Quake Live?
It’s been up for a couple of days now–well, maybe a day. I don’t know how Id pulled it off, but I signed up and was playing in less than five minutes. Some interesting things:
- You can play in a browser window or fullscreen
- There’s a ten minute skill test with a bot that seems to work really well. In my first match I played average (which is good for me in Quake).
- There’s a friend system (I’m agentgray).
- Leaderboards, rankings, full stats (which didn’t seem to update for me right away), etc.
- It streams the game data in the background while you play.
- There was no slowdown. It almost seemed too fast.
- It even worked on my low-end laptop.
- Seeing ads by Dell in the maps actually worked. The placement of some were good for laughs.
- I would almost consider this casual Quake or they’ve found a way to make Quake casual.
My First Ten Minutes For the Emperor!
I consider Dawn of War and its extensions (not expansions) to be the best RTS I’ve ever played. It was actually the first game I ever reviewed online (which sadly no longer exists). I have not been following all the hoopla over the sequel—probably because I’m on a kick of not spending premium dollars on games for a while. Today, I found myself surprised by this:
Yes, that’s a Dawn of War II icon in my gammercard. It’s my first experience using a Games for Windows Live game (which I was amazed at how well it worked). Anyway, the first ten minutes.
Before I begin, I want to state that I believe Relic should be lumped in the same group of developer extraordinaire as Valve, Blizzard, and Stardock. Just about everything that Relic has made has been golden.
Dawn of War II exudes polish and atmosphere. I’ve read a few Warhammer books in my time, and I’m somewhat familiar with the universe (although I’ve never played a table-top version of the game it’s all based on). However, the game is exactly how I’ve always imagined it would be.
Relic has taken the original Dawn of War formula and streamlined it. I was expecting a resource management type of RTS, and I was welcomed with a squad-based game. You play as a hero character that (so far) is pretty much invincible and the commander of the squads you acquire. Basically, they took all the fun of the first game and ramped it up. In the three missions I’ve played I’ve not been frustrated once like I was with the first at certain points in the game (I felt that upgrading the units in-game was a pain).
Some RPG elements add a nice touch. Your main character and the squad leaders gather experience while weapons, skills, and armor can be upgraded. There also appears to be an attribute tree that adds stronger skillsets to your characters.
Graphically, the game is stunning. I spent a few minutes just looking and exploring all the menus. It took some time to realize I wasn’t reading what was on the screen. I was too busy looking at the eye candy. It’s also appears that each and every unit has it’s own unique type of animation motions. I know that this is based upon some excellent scripting and coding, but this small touch adds a sense of individual realism.It actually appears that each character is acting on their own and not just following their units particular script.
I’ll definitely be putting some more time into this title (which I got on Steam). If this keeps up, I may have an early contender for my PC Game of the Year.