I have a confession to make. Over the last year, I've purchased quite a few Xbox 360 and PS3 games which I've had every intention in playing but time constraints have been taking their toll. Many of these games have been sitting on my shelf for months. WOW really does take up a lot of my gaming-time...even when I'm just raiding. I have been working through them however, though I admit I've been taking a more casual approach (little side-questing, etc).
This list includes:
Resistance 2
Killzone 2
Fable 2
infamous
Infinite Undiscovery
Call of Duty 4
Call of Duty 5
The Last Remnant
Golden Axe
Mirror's Edge
Fear 2
Prince of Persia
Lost Odyssey
Halo Wars
Valkyria Chronicles
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Blue Dragon
Ghostbusters (which I just bought)
...and probably a few other games I can't remember off the top of my head.
Even typing that...that's a pretty long list. Just for the fun of it, here's some impressions of the game's at at least played for more than a few minutes (even if I haven't beaten them yet).
Call of Duty 4 | Fun, but very short short. I think I completed the main storyline in 2 evenings. Very stylish in how it portrays a modern firefight. This was my first Call of Duty game, and it gave me an impression about the series that turned out to not be very true.
Call of Duty 5 | Not so fun. Was generally put off by the game and the lack of a coherent story behind the characters which made some of the big, um, emotional sequences and victories portrayed that much more meaningless. From what I've been told, COD5 is the norm for the series, while 4 was the exception. Oh well.
Golden Axe | Hated it. Got about half way through before I just couldn't stand it anymore. The game literally made my hand cramp up, it took so much damned button mashing to kill even simple mobs. If that weren't bad enough, the monsters came in waves, and waves, waves...the same monsters, the same pack composition; every time you moved forward to the next room/area. It was so repetitive, and took so much mindless button mashing that I eventually couldn't take it anymore. I mean God of War is repetitive...but at least it varies up the monsters and lets you kill them quickly before moving on to the next pack.
Halo Wars | Was better than I expected. Actually it was pretty fun. It was short, though, but I didn't mind it so much due to the rather limited nature of RTS games in general. Not a big Halo fan, but the game itself wasn't so bad.
Mirror's Edge | Hated it. But I will admit that despite the fact that I hated it, I stuck with it until the bitter end. Which made me hate it even more. Recommended only for masochists. For added fun, play the game while sitting on hot nails, and clipping electrified wires to your nipple piercings.
Prince of Persia | Loved it. Loved it besides the glaring game play flaws. I didn't mind the fact that all of the fights were essentially boss battles...but having to re fight the same 4 bosses 4 (or was it 5) times each really hurt the experience. However, I loved how the AI girl companion was integrated into the story and the game play; this is the first time in a game like that where the mechanic wasn't a liability to the game. It really made up for the bad parts IMO.
Killzone 2 | Never played the original. I thought the game was ok; generally hated the controls which made it hard to aim and run&gun well. Sloppy (and probably more realistic) controls are fine...with more realistic damage effects. But in a game where it could take an entire clip to kill an enemy soldier at point blank range...with the gun going everywhere...just didn't work very well and was more frustrating than anything.
Lost Odyssey | Really liked it, until the little kids joined the party and then the game just got weird. Still the main (adult) characters were interesting, and as a whole the game had some interesting moments. But I never actually finished it (though I think I made it near the end). Real life interceded, and then I ended up letting someone borrow that 360...and then let him keep it as a gift. So at this point, I'd have to replay it from scratch since I no longer have the same 360. I will probably go back to it as some point just to see how it ends, but that'll be a while yet.
Fable 2 | Just played this one more recently. I'd never played the original. I'd heard some good things about this game. But honestly, I thought it was only 'ok' at best. I hated the way the game punished you severely for playing good (which I did), and the way in which a simple accidental button press could send people running for cover in town and have the guards show up. After the main tower sequence, getting THE MAGE, I gave up on trying to enjoy the game and do all of the side quests and just pushed through to complete it as soon as possible.
Valkyria Chronicles | Something I tried a while back, but shit came up so I didn't get very far. The game seemed ok, at some points good even, but there were things that just held the whole game back. The story book nature of the 'story' is an interesting concept, which doesn't really work well on paper. And the game's combat system had some odd quirks which were really starting to annoy me. Hopefully I'll get back to it again sometime.
Fear 2 | I think I'm getting sick of FPSes. Fear 2 was OK; and was at least a bit more dynamic than the original. And once again, the motivations of the bad guys, and the undead chick for that matter, are beyond stupid. But it wasn't just the inane story telling. Even early in the game, I was just...wanting...it...to...end, and as each level went on and on I just kept feeling frustrated that the game wasn't over yet. Certainly not a good sign. But right now I'm not sure if this is because of a change in my tastes, or terrible level design.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope | This is what I'm playing now. I'll probably put up a review of it when I'm done. So far I'm digging it, even if the plot was devised by a 13 year old schizo with strange fascination with little girls and young romance. I'm just to the 3rd disk (of 3), but the second disk really didn't last very long (the first disk was at least 2 times longer game-wise than the second) so I don't know how much is left exactly. Still, I'm enjoying the game and am looking at finishing it in the next few weeks.
Whew. So that means I still have a few games left.
Ghostbusters
Infinite Undiscovery
Resistance 2
The Last Remnant
infamous
Blue Dragon
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
You know, when I origionally created this blog I did it for several reasons. The first was simply curiousity. I don't really have all that much interest in 'putting myself out there' in the world. Nor do I really have the time, the inclination, or the idea of how to create a successful blog viewed by thousands of people.
It's a good thing too, since to date this blog has not been viewed by a single person other than me. Not one! Not that I'm upset or anything. Probably more relieved, actually.
The second reason I did it was to try to soften up my writing, which to me feels very stiff and unfriendly. Vanilla. Uninspired. Boring. I find that oftentimes when I'm imagining something in my head, there is a lot more flourish and flavor to my thinking which simply doesn't translate to what makes it past the keyboard. It's my hands, really. They are just too damned plain and dull and disinterested in anything other than switching letters around and making me look illiterate.
Did I mention that no one ever looks at this thing?
There were, however, a few things that I did NOT want this blog to be. I didn't want it to be about WOW, or any specific thing really (despite the name). I also didn't really want it to be a personal, online diary about my life (though my sister just had twins, yay!). I just wanted to do it to write about things I wanted, when I wanted to write them, and damned any internal consistancy. This was more of a practice for me than anything.
Yet lately I've really been having the itch to write something serious again. Something that hasn't happened in years. I'm getting bored again in life, I know, and writing is an outlet for me that I rarely take advantage of anymore.
I have a confession to make (ahem!). At one point in my life I wanted to be a professional writer. Now, even back then I didn't really think I had the chops for it. I'm very hard on myself, especially on my writing. And I know I'm not very good at it.
I need practice. Serious practice, not just on writing itself, but on HOW to write; how to make a sentence or paragraph not only readable, but fun to read. Because often that is what is missing in my rather stiff writing...the fun!
A long time ago (has it really been ten years now?), I made an attempt at writing a book. I think it was a rather good attempt at the time, but in hindsight the book simply doesn't work even if I still like the concept even to this day. It had all of the elements I was interested in. Travel to other worlds. The clashing of diffent cultures. Mysterious characters with questionable more objectives. And a real sense by the end of the book of having to question who was was the good guys, and who were the real bad guys.
By the time I was done with it, there was no real resolution to the plot (the book was intended to be part 1 of 2). And the story itself deviated from my origional outline about half way through. I really did start writing itself, something I've heard happens to other writers, and experiencing it myself really made me feel excited at the time. But, because of that there were also quite a few inconsistancies that cropped up in the story. Including main characters and plots that never intersected. Characters living that were supposed to die. Others dying that were supposed to live. A major plot change which added like 10 chapters to the book and completely changed the ending. And a major betrayal at the end which seemed to perfectly fit where the story was going; but hadn't origionally been planned for and left me completely stumped on how to continue it to the second book.
If I restarted that today, I know I'd go about it in a different way. But, do I really want to? I mean, I want to write again. But where, and in what format. And how do I deal with the fact that in 10 years, my writing style has actually declined since then, not improved like I would have wanted? Not to mention the fact that, do I really have time to do something like that again right now? That one story took me an entire summer to write (4 months, often spending at least 8 hours each day on it).
Maybe I'd do better writing something entirely different? I have a few ideas, some of them more fleshed out than others. And I've been spending a lot of time lately designing a world-setting for a character concept I had...but while I like the premise (future humanity / post holocaust, mad max + blade runner + star trek style setting)...but what do I really want to do?
And that's the problem. I really don't know.
It's a good thing too, since to date this blog has not been viewed by a single person other than me. Not one! Not that I'm upset or anything. Probably more relieved, actually.
The second reason I did it was to try to soften up my writing, which to me feels very stiff and unfriendly. Vanilla. Uninspired. Boring. I find that oftentimes when I'm imagining something in my head, there is a lot more flourish and flavor to my thinking which simply doesn't translate to what makes it past the keyboard. It's my hands, really. They are just too damned plain and dull and disinterested in anything other than switching letters around and making me look illiterate.
Did I mention that no one ever looks at this thing?
There were, however, a few things that I did NOT want this blog to be. I didn't want it to be about WOW, or any specific thing really (despite the name). I also didn't really want it to be a personal, online diary about my life (though my sister just had twins, yay!). I just wanted to do it to write about things I wanted, when I wanted to write them, and damned any internal consistancy. This was more of a practice for me than anything.
Yet lately I've really been having the itch to write something serious again. Something that hasn't happened in years. I'm getting bored again in life, I know, and writing is an outlet for me that I rarely take advantage of anymore.
I have a confession to make (ahem!). At one point in my life I wanted to be a professional writer. Now, even back then I didn't really think I had the chops for it. I'm very hard on myself, especially on my writing. And I know I'm not very good at it.
I need practice. Serious practice, not just on writing itself, but on HOW to write; how to make a sentence or paragraph not only readable, but fun to read. Because often that is what is missing in my rather stiff writing...the fun!
A long time ago (has it really been ten years now?), I made an attempt at writing a book. I think it was a rather good attempt at the time, but in hindsight the book simply doesn't work even if I still like the concept even to this day. It had all of the elements I was interested in. Travel to other worlds. The clashing of diffent cultures. Mysterious characters with questionable more objectives. And a real sense by the end of the book of having to question who was was the good guys, and who were the real bad guys.
By the time I was done with it, there was no real resolution to the plot (the book was intended to be part 1 of 2). And the story itself deviated from my origional outline about half way through. I really did start writing itself, something I've heard happens to other writers, and experiencing it myself really made me feel excited at the time. But, because of that there were also quite a few inconsistancies that cropped up in the story. Including main characters and plots that never intersected. Characters living that were supposed to die. Others dying that were supposed to live. A major plot change which added like 10 chapters to the book and completely changed the ending. And a major betrayal at the end which seemed to perfectly fit where the story was going; but hadn't origionally been planned for and left me completely stumped on how to continue it to the second book.
If I restarted that today, I know I'd go about it in a different way. But, do I really want to? I mean, I want to write again. But where, and in what format. And how do I deal with the fact that in 10 years, my writing style has actually declined since then, not improved like I would have wanted? Not to mention the fact that, do I really have time to do something like that again right now? That one story took me an entire summer to write (4 months, often spending at least 8 hours each day on it).
Maybe I'd do better writing something entirely different? I have a few ideas, some of them more fleshed out than others. And I've been spending a lot of time lately designing a world-setting for a character concept I had...but while I like the premise (future humanity / post holocaust, mad max + blade runner + star trek style setting)...but what do I really want to do?
And that's the problem. I really don't know.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Virtuality
So, after missing it on Friday, Virtuality showed up on Hulu this weekend and I decided to watch it. The show certainly wasn't promoted very well, but it was pretty heavily hyped on some of the web sites that I frequent. So I decided to watch it and see what I thought.
Well, now that I've seen it, I can say that it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't all that good either. And it started off damned slow. And while the movie continued to get better as I watched it, the show itself has literally no resolution at all. It makes no attempt to be anything more than the pitch for a new series, and because of that I'd have to label it as nothing more than a watchable failure.
Spoilers below...
The show is really a mishmash of different concepts crammed together into one show. It's part 2001, part Big Brother, and part Matrix. The show is based on the premise that a ship is launched from Earth (sometime in the future) to Epsilon Eredani on a 10 year mission to find intelligent life. The ship was funded by a mysterious corporation which spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the project...in order to make a reality TV show out it.
The ship has a crew of 12, each chosen not because of their particular skills, but to make 'interesting' TV by ensuring there will be lots of conflict. There is the Gay Couple, The Bi-Racial Couple, the Wacky Captain, the grumpy disabled engineer, the hot doctor (who is married to the TV Show producer...and is banging to Wacky Captain), and the media girl. There are a few other characters, Starbu--er, the ship's pilot, and a few others that really don't have anything to do in the pilot.
Let's get one thing straight right from the beginning. Most of these characters a fucktards...the exact sorts of characters you'd find on Big Brother or Survivor. They bitch and whine about petty things, have little respect for authority, and generally spend much of their time bitching about each other. They live their lives being filmed 24/7, they have to spend time in the Confessional to talk about their feeling to the camera. The producers encourage them to spice things up by fighting more. Even the ship itself is purposefully designed to be less comfortable in order to encourage conflict.
Because, on a 10 year voyage to another star system with no one in a position to rescue you, the first thing you want to do is make sure the ship is uncomfortable; and the crew unstable.
To make matters worse, mysteriously after their departure, they begin receiving word from earth that some massive ecological disaster is taking place and that Earth itself will be uninhabitable in less than 100 years. And this means that this crew is now the sole hope for humanity...though why their trip to Epsilon Eredani and back is going to save them is never explained. And even the Captain is suspicious of this.
To round out the show, the characters have each been giving VR systems that are designed to allow them to escape into their own private virtual reality for a time as a form of stress relief. The VR realities they create for themselves vary quite a bit, and are generally reflective of the characters. Though I have to admit the one chick's reality where she's a Rock Superstar / Super Spy who performs concerts singing a punk-rock version of the Munster's theme song...in Japanese...while tracking international criminals...is pretty out there.
Even early on, there are a few signs that not everything is as it seems. The VR system seems to be glitching...but intelligently so. And as I already said, the Captain doesn't really believe everything they are getting from Earth is real. Much of the show deals with the Go/No Go decision at Neptune at whether to go ahead with the trip to Epsilon Eredani or turn back for Earth...a decision made more complicated by the fact that the ship's doctor diagnoses himself with Parkinson's Disease the day before the final point where they can abort the mission. Everyone want's a vote, of course, but the Captain has final say...though not everyone aboard agrees with this.
At this point, the Captain seems to be convinced that they must turn back. However, while investigating his own personal VR glitch (via the mysterious VR persona which seems self aware and keeps taking control of his VR and shooting him dead)...the Captain has some form of off-screen epiphany and begins to start acting very strangely. He's no longer cautious. He starts talking about a transcendant experience and the next step of evolution; and he no longer seems to care about anything. He's now fully wanting to continue to journey, no matter what, and he seems barely in control...which does nothing for the stability of the rest of the crew, who seems to be getting more and more paranoid as others experience their own personal VR glitches.
The VR glitches continue to being an escalating problem; with the VR cyberstalker attacking the crew inside their VR systems, usually resulting in their virtual death, and cumulating in the virtual rape of one of crew in a rather disturbing scene. Some of the crew favors turning the VR systems off; others find the prospect unthinkable...and the Captain himself, acting just as wacky, seems convinced that the VRs are absolutely necessary for them for them to experience transcendance, which will either save or doom them.
And right after that, the Captain gets sucked out an airlock, killed apparently due to a computer malfunction that could not have been anything but deliberate sabotage. The show ends with his lover entering his VR simulation, only to see a VR version of the Captain, fully self-aware; warning her that nothing is real; and asking her to follow him through the mirror and down the rabbit hole, because that is the only way any of them are going to survive.
And that's it. There is no real resolution. Though you do find out a few other intriguing bits. One of the character's speculates about the captain's death...obviously a murder and someone on the ship has to be responsible. There are even some obvious motivations for character's wanting the character dead (for example, the captain was having a 'virtual' affair with the wife of the show producer). And another of the characters seems to be having some form of dialog with the VR glitch persona hidden within the VR system.
But, Virtuality is all setup and no payoff. There is not even the attempt at an explanation here. And much of the important setup happens in the last 30 minutes; giving the show a rather slow beginning, a weak character-building middle, and a strong finish w/o any resolution. As a pilot for a TV show this would be fine, but since that isn't going to be happening, the show is a bit of a failure. Not an unwatchable one, but a failure nonetheless. Not to mention the fact that I don't really see Virtuality being able to sustain a long-running TV series in the first place. Virtuality would be better served as a miniseries IMO, but that isn't going to happen either.
One thing that worries me...a LOT of people have said that this show is better than the Caprica DVD movie that came out a few months ago now (and I still haven't seen)...that statement really worries me about what to expect from Caprica when I eventually decide to go ahead and buy it.
Well, now that I've seen it, I can say that it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't all that good either. And it started off damned slow. And while the movie continued to get better as I watched it, the show itself has literally no resolution at all. It makes no attempt to be anything more than the pitch for a new series, and because of that I'd have to label it as nothing more than a watchable failure.
Spoilers below...
The show is really a mishmash of different concepts crammed together into one show. It's part 2001, part Big Brother, and part Matrix. The show is based on the premise that a ship is launched from Earth (sometime in the future) to Epsilon Eredani on a 10 year mission to find intelligent life. The ship was funded by a mysterious corporation which spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the project...in order to make a reality TV show out it.
The ship has a crew of 12, each chosen not because of their particular skills, but to make 'interesting' TV by ensuring there will be lots of conflict. There is the Gay Couple, The Bi-Racial Couple, the Wacky Captain, the grumpy disabled engineer, the hot doctor (who is married to the TV Show producer...and is banging to Wacky Captain), and the media girl. There are a few other characters, Starbu--er, the ship's pilot, and a few others that really don't have anything to do in the pilot.
Let's get one thing straight right from the beginning. Most of these characters a fucktards...the exact sorts of characters you'd find on Big Brother or Survivor. They bitch and whine about petty things, have little respect for authority, and generally spend much of their time bitching about each other. They live their lives being filmed 24/7, they have to spend time in the Confessional to talk about their feeling to the camera. The producers encourage them to spice things up by fighting more. Even the ship itself is purposefully designed to be less comfortable in order to encourage conflict.
Because, on a 10 year voyage to another star system with no one in a position to rescue you, the first thing you want to do is make sure the ship is uncomfortable; and the crew unstable.
To make matters worse, mysteriously after their departure, they begin receiving word from earth that some massive ecological disaster is taking place and that Earth itself will be uninhabitable in less than 100 years. And this means that this crew is now the sole hope for humanity...though why their trip to Epsilon Eredani and back is going to save them is never explained. And even the Captain is suspicious of this.
To round out the show, the characters have each been giving VR systems that are designed to allow them to escape into their own private virtual reality for a time as a form of stress relief. The VR realities they create for themselves vary quite a bit, and are generally reflective of the characters. Though I have to admit the one chick's reality where she's a Rock Superstar / Super Spy who performs concerts singing a punk-rock version of the Munster's theme song...in Japanese...while tracking international criminals...is pretty out there.
Even early on, there are a few signs that not everything is as it seems. The VR system seems to be glitching...but intelligently so. And as I already said, the Captain doesn't really believe everything they are getting from Earth is real. Much of the show deals with the Go/No Go decision at Neptune at whether to go ahead with the trip to Epsilon Eredani or turn back for Earth...a decision made more complicated by the fact that the ship's doctor diagnoses himself with Parkinson's Disease the day before the final point where they can abort the mission. Everyone want's a vote, of course, but the Captain has final say...though not everyone aboard agrees with this.
At this point, the Captain seems to be convinced that they must turn back. However, while investigating his own personal VR glitch (via the mysterious VR persona which seems self aware and keeps taking control of his VR and shooting him dead)...the Captain has some form of off-screen epiphany and begins to start acting very strangely. He's no longer cautious. He starts talking about a transcendant experience and the next step of evolution; and he no longer seems to care about anything. He's now fully wanting to continue to journey, no matter what, and he seems barely in control...which does nothing for the stability of the rest of the crew, who seems to be getting more and more paranoid as others experience their own personal VR glitches.
The VR glitches continue to being an escalating problem; with the VR cyberstalker attacking the crew inside their VR systems, usually resulting in their virtual death, and cumulating in the virtual rape of one of crew in a rather disturbing scene. Some of the crew favors turning the VR systems off; others find the prospect unthinkable...and the Captain himself, acting just as wacky, seems convinced that the VRs are absolutely necessary for them for them to experience transcendance, which will either save or doom them.
And right after that, the Captain gets sucked out an airlock, killed apparently due to a computer malfunction that could not have been anything but deliberate sabotage. The show ends with his lover entering his VR simulation, only to see a VR version of the Captain, fully self-aware; warning her that nothing is real; and asking her to follow him through the mirror and down the rabbit hole, because that is the only way any of them are going to survive.
And that's it. There is no real resolution. Though you do find out a few other intriguing bits. One of the character's speculates about the captain's death...obviously a murder and someone on the ship has to be responsible. There are even some obvious motivations for character's wanting the character dead (for example, the captain was having a 'virtual' affair with the wife of the show producer). And another of the characters seems to be having some form of dialog with the VR glitch persona hidden within the VR system.
But, Virtuality is all setup and no payoff. There is not even the attempt at an explanation here. And much of the important setup happens in the last 30 minutes; giving the show a rather slow beginning, a weak character-building middle, and a strong finish w/o any resolution. As a pilot for a TV show this would be fine, but since that isn't going to be happening, the show is a bit of a failure. Not an unwatchable one, but a failure nonetheless. Not to mention the fact that I don't really see Virtuality being able to sustain a long-running TV series in the first place. Virtuality would be better served as a miniseries IMO, but that isn't going to happen either.
One thing that worries me...a LOT of people have said that this show is better than the Caprica DVD movie that came out a few months ago now (and I still haven't seen)...that statement really worries me about what to expect from Caprica when I eventually decide to go ahead and buy it.
Friday, May 1, 2009
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