Monday, January 19, 2009

Hey Me! What Have I been Playin'?

What have you been playing me?
Left 4 Dead

I've had this game for a long time now but I've never really had a lot of extra time on my hands to actually give some attention to it. Luckily enough I managed to get some nice one-on-one time with this game and I have to say this game has some very notably awesome things to it.

I like this game. I don't love it. I really don't feel its as great as its been hyped up to be. Frankly, I see the good parts, but there's just something that isn't clicking with me. I mean, I really enjoy getting a good game with some good friends, once you get into it, this game starts to shine. The ability to live out your fantasy of defending yourself and your group from a horde of zombies is great. This game feels like its the perfect game for that guy who has planned out his/her zombie escape plan if so the time occurs. This game just has a very strong attention to detail for the very small things that really set the atmosphere.

The whole game seems like your playing in a zombie flick and the Left 4 Dead really tries to set players in the right mood. With things like the ending credits after every level that look like movie credits, and the very cliche situations your put into set off the right atmosphere. In a way I think it's ability to mimic really crappy B-movie, zombie flicks is awesome since its only a few of the games that I feel pull these moments off well apart from games like Dead Rising.

Although I enjoy the atmosphere of this game, something is still not clicking with me. I think its mainly the lack of maps on hand at the moment. Right now there's only a choice of 4 maps that aren't extremely long. The lack of more content kind of puts me off since I've seen most of what's meant to be seen and I just want a little more since I get sick of the same old stuff very easily. But beyond that this game does a lot right but the lack of content right now is keeping me away from loving it.

Machiavelli's Ascent

[Niccolo Machiavelli' a poet, philosopher, and has nothing to do with this game]
The whole XBLA Community games have a lot of crap in it, but once in a while a gem comes out, and this game is a very nice gem. 

Essentially you play a phallic-like object that is very reminiscent of a jelly fish. In this game you make you Penis Jelly Fish jump in the air and you need to hit small white orbs to keep your Jelly Fish moving upwards. The higher you get the more points you get after you fall to the ground.

This game sounds SUPER simple and it is but that's where the magic is. This is one of those games that grabs a simple mechanic and makes it addictive as hell. I found myself playing this for hours attempting to reach the highest height I can without noticing that and hour had passed. This game very much has a Geometry Wars effect on me where it hooks me into it's simple gameplay.

Yeah so...that's what I've been playing just a little update for you guys.
Hopefully enough I'll have something interesting to write up mid week but I'm still not sure what to write about. 

Friday, January 16, 2009

Bob from Bob's game even MORE crazy

So yes, we all know the craziness that has come out of Bobsgame.com but if you look on his recent post on the site you'll notice he has completely changed the whole site to just have these words on the page.

"THAT IS NOT ME!! IT'S NOT ME!!! SOMEONE CAME INTO MY HOUSETHEY CAME INTO MY HOUSE!!! THEY WENT THROUGH EVERYTHING, WENT THROUGH MY PC, FILE TIMESTAMPS CHANGED, FOOTPRINTS, EVERYTHING MOVED, DOOR UNLOCKED THEY TRIED TO OPEN THE SAFE MY PC IS KEYLOGGED12 HOURS OF CAMERA FOOTAGE WAS DELETEd CAMERA WAS UNPLUGGED WHEN I WOKE UPI WAS SLEEPING!!THEY DID IT WHILE I WAS SLEEPING!!THIS IS NOT PART OF THE PLANTHIS IS NOT A JOKE
THEY MADE HANAFUDA CARDS FOR 50 YEARSTHAT IS A YAKUZA GAME
THEY ARE THE JAPANESE MAFIA THEY ARE THE JAPANESE MAFIA THEY ARE THE JAPANESE MAFIATHEY ARE THE JAPANESE MAFIATHEY ARE THE JAPANESE MAFIA
THINK ABOUT IT!!THEY WANT TO SILENCE MEFOR A REASON!IT'S EITHER THEM OR ALIENSI'M PRETTY SURE IT'S NOT ALIENSI'D RATHER IT BE ALIENS !"

Here's the link, http://www.bobsgame.com/

Yeah...I'm not sure what to think of this besides that the mafia are bringing the man down and that we as gamers have to rise and fight them to the death.

Or you know...get this poor man some help before he goes mad.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Maybe I Don't Really Like Video Games?

You know, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. This is a question that has sprung in my mind many times before. Do I really like Video Games? I really Don't know. You see, I play video games, a lot, but the problem is, is that I don't really enjoy them most of the time. Now by enjoy I don't mean that I think the game is no fun or terrible it's just that I never ever am as pulled in by a game as many other people seem to be.

Everyone seems to have stories about these awesome moments they've had in a game, or about how they noticed certain aspects of a game, while for me I don't see any of these things. For example, my friends talk about all these amazing moments they have playing GTA4, like simple things like cool jump off of a ramp or a funny happening between them and a pedestrian where they ended up running him over in a car. Now these are all cool, but when I have these moments I can't help myself to think, "Yeah that happened, whatever it isn't really that amazing." I still don't know why I don't seem to notice or enjoy certain aspects of games that other people do. Maybe I'm just a jaded asshole. I honestly don't know.


Even though I don't notice all of these kind of things that other people do, I still feel like I enjoy video games. Just not in the same way. I have always been a big film buff. I've always admired many films and have dabbled in acting myself once having dreams of being apart of the industry. This is where my somewhat weird perspective on games comes in, I enjoy a game like I would enjoy a movie. I play, more or less, for the experience rather than the gameplay. I want to be taken away into another world. I think that's such an amazing feeling. It's almost like being sucked into a movie but even more so. I feel like everything I do has an impact on the world, and in many cases, it does. I love that feeling so much. I always hated watching a film and knowing that shit was going to go down and the only thing I could do was be that annoying guy in the theatre going "No don't go in there, runnn runnnn!!!" (Oh god, for the record I really don't talk like that).  I just enjoy the feeling of control over my surroundings, most of the time I couldn't give a shit about gameplay. Which feels like a awful thing to say.

Feeling some sense of control is one thing, but games have given me a sense of belonging also. Very recently I've become apart of the Giantbomb community and have been doing as much as I can to participate in it as much as possible. This is one thing that makes me completely adore video games. It's fanbase. I love the culture that has spawned around video games. I love it simply because video games can bring people together so well. I can honestly say some of my most memorable gaming moments were the ones that I shared with my friends.Online or real life. There's just this big sense of comradery that's created because we all have the same passion. In the end this is the greatest thing to ever come out of gaming and it's culture. Because of video games I would never decide to produce a podcast with a couple of guys, I would never even bother to write. Somehow gaming has motivated me to do something semi-productive for once in my life.

I think it's more of what has come out of gaming that makes me love it rather than the actual game itself.  

You know, writing this and looking through everything I've said so far, I think I've already come to a conclusion. Yeah, I do like games. Sure, maybe not for the gameplay, but for the more broader reasons. The people, the experiences. So yeah, I guess I like games then.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Hey UGO! Fuck you!

So yeah, everyone knows this by now that the rumours were true and that UGO is buying 1up. The one thing we weren't aware of was the fact that UGO was going to fire about 30 of it's staff members. This was really a big hit for everyone, all of the fans, all of the people who are still employed, and most importantly all of the poor people who were laid off.

This just fucking sucks. Honestly, this is the worst thing to ever hear about from my perspective. It's just so dis heartening for me. I've always wanted to be apart of the industry, mainly on the journalism side of things, and seeing this just makes me sad. The fact that these people are living some kind of dream, they're living this kind of awesome fantasy in which they get to write about the thing they love most 24/7 and that this is all destroyed by something so simple as "We can't really afford you anymore so like...you guys gotta go". The corporate side of things completely destroy everything. Its just such a crappy thought. 

Despite all of the negativity surrounded this situation, there still is good in it. Now all of these guys have the freedom to try new things, to move off and use their talents in other places. I for one am etremely excited to see how far things go at Eat-sleep-game.com and talkingorange.com. Hopefully these guys keep doing what they're good at and hopefully we get to hear more of them in the industry. It'd be really weird not to hear from these guys since they've been involved in games journalism for so long now.

Sure, things aren't going to be the same ever again, but good things can always come of situations like this. Just look at Giantbomb.com for example. Frankly, if Jeff Gerstmann never had never of gotten fired I would never had met all the nice people I have. 

I wish good luck upon all of them (Although No one will ever read this nor give a flying fuck) and hope that these great guys and gals will fall back on their feet. They deserve it.