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. 

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.

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.

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.

Origami Biro and the Joy of Box

May be slightly old but the sheer awesomeness of this makes me 

want to post this.

My irrational fear and Shadow of the Colossus

A long long time ago in a far off land a game called Shadow of the Colossus came out,it did pretty well and amazed many minds, including mine, but as of late something weird has happened. Last week after finally beating GTA 4 and Lost Odyssey, I was really bored so I decided to run through a couple of my old PS2 games and I decided to go back to Shadow of the Colossus. After popping it in what came to my surprise was, when I approached the first colossus I was scared shitless. 

For me this is really odd because originally I had completed this game with out a problem never feeling the horrible chill when the colossus turns and stares you down as I do now. First time I popped in the disk I was not filled with the sweet feeling of wonder that I originally had, I was filled with a odd fear stopping me from even moving out of the temple you start in. But what could this mean? Have I suddenly just grown a fear of a things incredibly bigger than me? Or am I just afraid of being alone? Yes, it's odd I know. I told my friends about that and they found it weird that I was getting chills from Shadow of the Colossus but when I start riding on my horse on that expansive land and stare down to the sight of nothing, it frightens me. In a way its more scarier than any horror game I've ever played. Resident Evil? Nah. Silent Hill? Not Really. But running around alone in wide land to soon be stared down by a giant colossus is truly a horror game for me.

Games reviewers are lazy?

          

I recently read an article on edge.com about an interview with Joseph Olin who is the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In this article he mentions how he has a pet peeve for reviewers who neglect to finish games before reviewing them. Joseph uses a comparison with reviewing movies, he says things like"You wouldn't just watch the first reel of a movie and review it."  He uses GTA4 as an example stating, "How can you give a comment about a game like Grand Theft Auto IV, that has 40-plus hours or more of gameplay, if you've only spent 2 1/2 to 3 hours playing it? While, I think alot of reviewers out there can be lazy, I really think the points Joseph used didn't support his arguments very well. Comparing seems wrong for the plain fact that games and movies are different, sure they hold some similar qualities but what makes them what they are is different, what makes them games or movies is different.

It's easy to finish a movie. Movies are  normally shorter than a game and naturally it's a very passive experience. While, the average video game is still longer than a 2 hour movie adding in the face that  it is also an active experience, the whole time you are interacting with the game and in result it can lead you to becoming much more tired of a game. Many times before I have lost motivation to finish a game regardless of how good or bad it was. 

Simply when you play a game your always going to end up having to concentrate in playing the game forcing you to deal with the many different things that make up the game, Most notably the core mechanic. A mechanic in the game that is going to be used throughout the entire game, albeit it may be changed up once and a while, but it will still be the same mechanic. If that mechanic is handled poorly or just isn't really fun at all,naturally, it will be like that for the rest of the game. In a movie the plot can have a twist and change the happenings in the story making it more interesting to watch. Although,being so inconsistent isn't normally a good thing, it can happen more in a story focused piece of entertainment. While in a game a developer isn't going to completely scrap the original gameplay halfway through. In some cases the developer may switch to different characters with different game mechanics, but its rarely the case that you don't see the older mechanic later in the game. Eventually a player can get to a point where he/she knows the game will be like this in the future.

Joseph speaks about how even if you complete the story in GTA it doesn't mean you done. He says "...Would a review of GTA IV in which the writer finished the story but did nothing else be more complete? I don’t personally think so." Although, I understand his reasoning it's still a lot to ask. Going back to my first point, you are actively participating in the game. This, in some way, can cause a lot of mental exhaustion for reviewers who naturally have a deadline. In a way I wouldn't call reviewers lazy because of this.I would say that this is normal for any human. For the most part getting 100% in GTA is extremely hard and its natural for one's motivation to deplete. It's like being forced to do laps around a gym, sure some people can do it but eventually someone is just going to lose energy.  By the time you finish GTA you have done around 64% of the game. The idea is that other 36% is more content yes, but that extra content most of the time uses those same game mechanics you have seen during the entire story, you have already reviewed those parts what's the point if you've already gone through that before?

Really, its just the difference between the mediums. We approach each one in a different manner. Trying to review these two mediums in the exact same way isn't always the best idea because they're different,simple as that. Its unreasonable to ask someone to evaluate them in the same way, yes they are both entertainment, but the way they entertain us is different. You can't review a book the same way you review a movie. In a movie there's different aspects in it that effect the quality. Eg) The quality of the acting and cinematography. All these mediums may have similar aspects to them but they have certain things that are different that define them. Asking someone to evaluate them in the same way can't happen because you are still reviewing different things.I can see where Joseph is coming from but I have to disagree.