Off on a tangent

It’s been a while since I posted anything. I know, you’ve all been worried sick, probably sent out a blogger Amber Alert, but now I’ve got the blog equivalent of blue balls and I’m going to put all my thoughts of the last few weeks into one article. After your done reading this, I hope you’ll wipe you face, and reflect on my ramblings with a new look at the gaming world.
First off of all, I bought a brand new toy, an Athlon 64 x2 4200+ and GeForce 7800 GTX with 17” screen. I know it’s not perfect, not a quad SLI with 4 GB Ram and a 32” plasma, but it should be fine for right now. Which brings me to my first point, why does a game need 4 GPUs, shouldn’t one be ok? Can the human eye really see the difference between something rendered at regular high def and super high def? How high def does something need to be before it surpasses our ability to notice it? I can say that eventually computers graphics will hit their peak, and hopefully it’s soon because I can only afford an upgrade every eight years or so. (Been crawling along on a MX 420 forever) Hopefully this will push developers to make games that focus on game play and less on graphics. And what is this new physics card, I just spent a ton on a graphics card and now you need a physics card to “Make it Real”, Whatev Ageia. I know that these are all important pieces to the realistic gaming puzzle, but how about a game that can keep you playing for a hundred hours without being tedious or having the first screen say “pick your race, trade and bone structure”. A hundred hours isn’t a bad goal for games that cost 50 to 75 bucks.
I just finished Hitman: Blood Money, and although the game was awesome, had a great story and left the series open (if you play the alternate ending) I uninstalled it immediately after I finished because there is no reason to play it anymore, sure I could play every level on Pro until I get Silent Assassin, but I’ve got a little brother begging for a whooping on Halo 2. I don’t know how they would do a multiplayer version of Hitman, maybe add a co-op, but all the pretty graphics and independent boob physics (way to go DoA) in the world can make up for that voice that says “Running Riot”, and without some kind of multiplayer, games just can’t compete for that long lasting appeal.
This is why I am psyched for Prey demo, which releases tonight on Gamespot at midnight (and isohunt at 12:01), because it looks like it will have an excellent singleplayer as well as a revolutionary multiplayer. The game looks absolutely beautiful from the screen shots and should have some interesting game play with “spirit walking” and the never actually dying “death walk”. And it’s nice to know that the pixel shader 3.0 in my graphics card will finally get used. Hopefully, this will mark one more step towards the summit of the computer graphics Everest.
Although it seems like I don’t care that much about graphics and how realistically rocks act when I throw a grenade at them, I just want developers to make games that look good, but are also innovative, and I can’t wait to see what the Wii is like when it comes out. At first, I wasn’t too sure about the wii-mote, or whatever it’s called, but after seeing the preview for Red Steel, I’m completely convinced. Sure the console won’t support the highest high def, but it also won’t cost an arm and a leg, which is good because I’ll bet that Nintendo is working on left and right arm and leg controllers.
If a GPU could produce completely realistic graphics (including human skin) in real-time, I would buy it, and not only for the inherent “good” 3D pr0n, but until then, I don’t see the difference between 60 fps or 600 fps.

Rogue Trooper Review

Let me first talk a little about game delays. When you say you are going to release a game in April or May 2006, don't tell us you've moved its launch date back three months two weeks before it was originally scheduled. Wasn’t there a clue that the game wasn’t going to be ready?
RE4 Jackass1- “Well, we’ve only completed two out of the thirty levels, should we move back the release date?”
RE4 Jackass2- “Nah, lets wait another week and see where we are then”
And even though I’m mad at you, RE4 developers, I still will get the game in September (hopefully). But if you delay the release on me again, I’m getting my CD’s out of your truck and you can find me at my mother’s.
Enough of that, on to some Rogue Trooper. Even though this game, at first, looked stupid; blue things fighting masked people, the game is actually pretty good. You start out being force-fed the controls as you team up with some of your friends, Pappa Smurf, etc. As you encounter some small pockets of enemy opposition, you’re “Nu” buddies are killed one by one, but when you are a clone, you never really die. You cut open the base of their skull to find an implant that contains there personality and abilities, by putting this device in your gun and pack, you obtain abilities to auto target and upgrade weapons through the salvage system. And it’s nice to be congratulated when you headshot a mofo, even if it is from a disembodied voice from Nu Earth. The game has some nice moves, from shooting behind walls to diving from grenades. It also starts you off with an automatic weapon (I’m looking at you, pistol wielding Doom 3). The graphics are pretty nice, the blue people look as real as blue people can, and the game runs fine on my GeForce 4 Ti, which I keep around for testing purposes and not because I’m a cheap bastard. At about $30, this game receives a 4 out of 5.

Seed - Preview

This game is, as my grand pappy would say "a "
Here is a collaboration of images from the game.

Seed is set in a future, perfect society, which apparently includes inch thick lines around everything.

Collision detection is unimportant in such a breakthrough game.

Downloading patches before every run is a must for a futuristic society, probably updating the thickness of the outlines.

How are you to test a Beta if the server is always down?

In the future, people don’t know where to go without a traffic cone to tell them. You point and click to place a cone, they you will walk towards it, and then you can adjust the camera, find somewhere to go, point and click, rinse, repeat.

People sure are unfriendly, especially for a game without a combat system where you are working towards a utopia.
OK, I know this game is just in beta, but it is scheduled to release on May 2nd, and I doubt any redeeming qualities can be found or implemented in the game by that time. I can’t believe I was excited to get the beta files link, what a waste of time.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

I hope you like the name, because you'll see it every five seconds in a load screen. Seriously, enter a building, new part of town or tie your shoe and the game sends you into a loading screen. These story intermissions only last about ten seconds, but why can’t the game load more, for a longer period of time, so that the game is interrupted less and you have time to do something productive, like those damn Sudoku puzzles. Or maybe, the game could load while you are playing, since it only takes ten seconds, there can’t be much CPU drain. Before I rip this game some more, I want to give it bonus points for using the phrase “I love him/her to death, but…” because the ‘but’ is always the greatest reason to dislike somebody, stealing your boyfriend/girlfriend or like killing your cat or grandmother. Anyway, the cut scenes are… well… the game, I don’t mind this that much, I liked it in Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit, for those blokes across the pond), but they need to be more than just the mouth moving and the occasional arm twitch. The story is pretty good, set in the future, where monkey robots are pets, and made me play the game a little longer than I wanted to. The last thing I’ll say is that the “viral marketing” that keeps appearing on TVs looks a little too much like The Ring for my taste, we get it, little girls without faces are scary, but so is other stuff, like things that can’t be sent to their rooms.
This game gets a 3 out of 5.

Ratings System

The ratings system for games is as follows. 1)Horrible, avoid this game. 2) Major design flaws, not worth playing. 3) Completely average, if you like the genre or series, give it a try. 4) Great game, definate buy. 5) Perfect, sell kidneys to buy this game if you have to. I don't do halves or a 1-10 scale because it leaves too much room for interpretation, and some of your weak minds wouldn't be able to handle it.

Auto Assault Preview

Auto Assault is a Persistent Online Action MMORPG, whatever that means. First off, the game makes you download and install a patch every time you play, not a big deal now since it is in beta, but if the developers get too comfortable with the system, you might spend more time updating than playing. The game runs you through the regular “go to checkpoint A and learn to shoot your gun, cutscene with some story…blah”. Unfortunately the beta shut down before I could play much, but from what I did see, the game makes good use of the Havok engine, it seems like most stuff is destructible, as well it should be in a post apocalyptic world, and some checkpoints are on ramps to force you to test the shocks on your car, which seem to be made of some sort of futuristic indestructible material, since I fell 200 ft without consequence. The game lets you pick out your character, human, alien or other, and your hair, hair1, hair2, hair3 or hair4, not too many choices or you’ll never get to the game. There seem to be plenty of upgrades, with weapons and armor, not with hair though. From what I’ve seen, this games looks like a good transition from hardcore RPG to hardcore action or vice-versa, but I can’t see anybody shelling out the monthly fee for too long. Auto Assault will be available April 13th.

Tomb Raider: Legend Demo

I just finished the demo of Tomb Raider: Legend. The game looks good, but not great. The controls are good, but the targeting system is a little off and you can empty a whole clip at someone and they’ll still be standing. Also, the camera keeps fighting you, which makes moving object difficult. The environments and everything look as well as they should. The one puzzle in the demo isn’t that hard, but I’m sure they get harder. You might want to wait until you can get a better price, but if you like the series, it’s a buy.

Games of April

I’ve already mentioned Call of Cthulhu, but here are some games to look at (or laugh at) in April.

Origin of the Species- a sci-fi third person shooter, if the graphics weren’t old and the protagonist wasn’t a space chick with a teddy bear backpack, this might be worth a look. I mean, there are definitely not third person shooters to look forward to… RESIDENT EVIL 4! Skip this one.

Tomb Raider: Legend- Laura Croft got back… excuse me… is back. I’m sure this game will have amazing “physics” and so on. If you’re a fan of the games then I’m sure you already pre-ordered this one, along with picking up a gallon of hand lotion at Wal-Mart. I’ll probably give this game a look, ya know, just for the articles.

Condemned: Criminal Origins- A horror action adventure game by Monolith. Looks like a pretty scary game, and after F.E.A.R., they could make a game about peeing in the snow and I’d be the first to get it (Level 9 - your word is: Government). The demo is out, so take a look.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey- I have no idea what to think about this game, so um, I guess I’ll just wait till it’s out and um… “GET TO THE VAN, I’VE GOT THE GAME, GET TO THE ****ING VAN”. (Seriously, stealing is wrong… sort of)

Shadowgrounds- A sci-fi shooter with an overhead, 3rd person view. It sorta takes the fun out of shooting things when they look like ants and you can see what is on the other side of the wall. Oh no, when I get to close to this door, a funny colored ant will try and kill me… why is there no roof?!.

Resident Evil 4- a game so good, it sold Game Cube units, a more impressive feat, I can not imagine. Is that a banana in my pocket or am I just excited about Resident Evil 4… Both! Resident Evil 4 is a 3rd person, horror action adventure and is set to release April 28. This is the game to get in April.