12.06.2008

ALERT!

THE QUAKER OATS GUY (the guy on the box, not Wilford Brimley) IS A LIAR! ALSO HIS NAME IS NOT BEN!

I guess I was confusing him with Uncle Ben of Uncle Ben's Rice fame or Benjamin Franklin. Turns out that it's William Penn. Whatever, fucker said that I'd be getting two packs of Strawberries n' Cream flavor Quaker Oats brand oatmeal in my variety pack. When I open the box, do I see a brown wrapper with pink writing? NO!

Peaches n' Cream it is.

Once every few months counts as consistently...

Right? Oh well.

In my defense, I was working 60-70 hour weeks for a while there. I've been testing games at Activision for about 8 months now, and I don't hate it nearly as much as I was told I would. And it hasn't burnt me out on games either. Rather, it has only increased my desire to work in this industry. I've become more interested and engrossed by games, and have been gaming more than ever. The first thing I want to do after playing games for 8 hours at work is play more. Which could be construed as sad, but fuck you. I'm definitely interested in more than just the escapism of it, not that there is anything wrong with that, and I'm starting to gain some insight into the design process.

I built a PC over the summer (well, I bought the pieces and my friend Ron built it for me, but I was in the room, so yeah) and now I'm almost ashamed that I was never a PC guy until now. Honestly, it was the guys on the 1up podcasts that really made me interested in PC gaming. Well, listening to the GFW radio podcast made me want to subscribe to the magazine (R.I.P.), which helped me make the jump. That and Valve. A bunch of the people at work play PC games, mostly World of Warcraft though. WOW's not really my cup of tea; I tried if for a while and couldn't really connect with it (not in a literal sense, the game is technically amazing). I can understand why people love it, and perhaps there will be an MMO that gets me the way WOW gets them, but I don't think it's out yet. But not being addicted to Warcraft has given me the opportunity to play other games.

Fallout 3 was pretty amazing. I didn't actually like Oblivion very much, or rather, I didn't get consumed by it like others did. I played about 20 hours, did some random shit, barely touched the main quest and put it down. I'm not sure why I didn't like it, although I did play it on 360. Some would say that's why, I imagine. I'm not entirely sure. I mean, it seems like the same main flaws exist in both games. Flaws may be the wrong word though. Really, they're just trappings of the genre. When you create a giant world like that, and try to have so many of it's parts interconnected, there's almost an unwritten agreement between the designer(s) and player. That "living, breathing" quality that is so overused in reviews, is artificial. There will always be somewhere that will expose that artificiality. I'm not trying to discount the things that could be improved, but I just think Bethesda crafted an amazingly rich world.

In my first playthrough I could be nothing but good. I just couldn't bring myself to it. Whenever I was presented with the choice I went for the good Karma every time. Not that I was doing it for the tangible rewards (quest chains, special dialogue options, bonus items), but really, I just couldn't bring myself to it. That world that Bethesda made was so fabulously pieced together, that I chose not to break that unwritten agreement. I wouldn't poke and prod too far, trying to break the world, or find holes in dialogue (and they're there). I just went with it. Sometimes I wished that it was better, that the character's reactions, speech, or animations were even more in tune with the world. But part of that is because it was already being done so well, that better would be... well, better. And the other part is the same trappings I was talking about earlier, that the more immersive the world is, the more jarring it will be when something disrupts that. The videogame version of the Uncanny Valley. But I bought the ticket, so fuck it, let's go for a ride.

Crysis (the first one, not Warhead) was interesting. Particularly in comparison to Fallout. Cry-Tek also did a good job creating a seamless world, at least in the first half (three quarters?) of the game. And here the trappings of the genre expose the artificiality: your only real interaction with the world is shooting. And hitting. And throwing grenades. And punching people with chickens. That part is pretty awesome. But you're limited. It's not bad; we don't really expect more. It's just how it is. And it's pretty fun.

The last part of Crysis is some other bullshit game that somehow spliced onto the disc in some bizarre pressing plant mix-up, so just turn it off when shit gets fucked. You'll know when.

I think I like Mirror's Edge. I haven't gone back to it since my first 4 or so hours with it, so maybe that says more than "I think I like Mirror's Edge". Or not. Same for Dead Space. Really, this just says more about how much I liked Fallout.

Old games that I finally played:

Company Of Heroes - Man, I suck at RTSs. This game is pretty great though. I really enjoy it's pace, and the strategy actually makes sense. The tech trees are pretty logical, and not overwhelmingly deep at all. And it's not a turtle-and-build-up sort of RTS, which is what I, in my limited experiences, always equated the genre to. I don't dare venture online, but the game is fun nonetheless.

Audiosurf - BUY THIS. If you like music and/or games and/or have $10 that you are going to spend on something stupid, buy this instead. Further proof that indie games are rad. That is, some, not all. Like music or film, some of it is great, some is self-indulgent wankery, and some of it is just garbage. This the first one. Simply put, it's a visualizer that you play. The game takes any song (any mp3 really, so you could play along to This American Life if you wanted to) and creates essentially a track on which you control the left/right movement of a vehicle. You're always in constant forward motion toward the end of the track (both meanings), and depending on the game mode you may be trying to collect or dodge blocks that are on the highway. There are some pretty difficult modes if you want an intense game experience and simpler ones - and a freeride option - if you just want to just lean back.

And, my biggest timesink, Team Fortress 2: the illness that won't go away. I just hit 72 hours with one class and 48 with another. There's just something about this game that makes me unable to put it down. Heck, I was even a fan of the 360 version. The Orange Box was my must-buy of 2007. I loved Portal and had never played HL2, so that in itself made the game worth it, TF2 was just icing. Too bad no one plays it on consoles. Since building my PC and getting to experience the Payload game type (which is an fantastic addition) and all of the custom maps, I've fallen even harder for this game. Superbly balanced class-based gameplay with Valve's loving hands guiding it along with regular updates and patches equals best multiplayer shooter out there, in my opinion. I never want to stop playing. And thanks to how Valve is, I may never have to.

Other shit....

The Netflix thing on the new (ugly) Xbox Experience (kudos for Microsoft for not trying to get away with "Xbox Xperience", obvious as it was). I watched like ten episodes of Quantum Leap and some random documentaries (Helvetica is queued up next).

I still think Heroes is good, so shoot me.

Murder By Death is an awesome band that is totally not metal or hardcore, which I did not know until recently. I'm stupid.

Mono is an awesome Japanese guitar-driven spacey instrumental band that is awesome. So awesome that I had to say awesome twice in that sentence. I think it's pronounced MOE-no, not MAH-no, but I also don't want to be the guy that points that out, so I'm in a bit of a pickle.

Next Walking Dead trade comes out in January allegedly. Can't wait. It sucks that I got into it late; I can't bring myself to start buying the issues, since it'll totally fuck up how they look on my shelf. Oh hey, speaking of zombies, Left 4 Dead is the shit, if a bit overpriced. But again, it's Valve and they will surely be supporting the hell out of it. It's probably safe to assume that they'll do even more for it, considering the game costs two and a half times TF2's price.

My cat is insane and wants to fight everything. He's the best.

I'm tired.