Looking for a dose of extra-curricular philosophy debating that could change your view on the universe and life itself? Replace that with "thinkings about video games," and you're at the right place.

• 14Jan 11

  A... Trailer

  I simply had to get the word out to my hundreds of nonexistent followers that I just saw the best trailer I've ever seen.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAg8uGkXSdU&feature=player_embedded#!

  It's a trailer for Killzone 3, and words simply can't express how awe-strucken I am. Seriously, this even beats the Launch Trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops. It has drama, it has characterization, it is the complete opposite of Killzone 2. Honestly, this single trailer has cemented in my mind that I will spend 60 dollars on a game I had zero interest in previously. I'm that blown away.

  • Posted Jan 14, 2011 8:54 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 10Dec 10

  Let Me Explain Myself

  First off, to my hundreds of imaginary readers (...*sniff*...), the reason for me not posting anything for over a month was not because my brain shut off, but because GameSpot suspended my account for uploading videos of Call of Duty: Black Ops a few hours before the game was to be released. Still, if you look in the Terms of Use, it does clearly state that you can't do that, so I can't blame anyone except the exceptionally handsome man looking at me through the mirror... yeah...*sniff*...

  Also, I'd just like to let you (imaginary readers) preview upcoming blog posts: Modern Combat 2, Goldeneye, Black Ops, and more...

  ...*sniff*...

  • Posted Dec 10, 2010 5:38 pm GMT
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• 4Nov 10

  More About Why I Hate Modern Combat

  These blog posts about are starting to get pretty repetitive, so I'll try to make this the last one on the matter of Modern Combat. I just haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd just insert some filler. Hooray for quality!

  Anyway, the more I play Modern Combat, the more I hate it. I guess I wouldn't be so mad about it if there weren't so many people hailing it as a fantastic game, which it is most certainly not. Let's bring in some more examples:

  Note, there will be a plot spoiler in the next paragraph, but I doubt there's a single person on Earth who thinks Modern Combat has a "story" good enough to not want it to be spoiled.

  In the last 30 seconds of the game, it is revealed that your squad leader is actually a bad dude. He shoots one of your squadmates, then Soldier #2 pulls out a grenade and tackles the leader, with the resulting explosion killing them both. There's even an epilogue the details undescriptively how you console the wife of said Soldier #2.

  For starters, absolutely no one ingame has a speck of characterization. The most color that comes from the script is a "that's what she said" joke, and even that one doesn't make much sense. Sure, at the start of the 3rd mission, Soldier #5 raises a single line of questioning their situation, but then the game just skirts around it before throwing you in front of a terrorist next to a red barrel. It's great to see how far we've come since 1983 (and this applies to all the hotshots who do this, including you, Modern Warfare).

  Apparently, we were supposed to feel something like an emotion when Soldier #2 dies, but no one in the game has more than 3 lines during the 2 hour "game." The entire plot deals with my squad trying to find this Al-Ahad guy who may or may not have nuclear weapons. When I say that all in one sentence, that's literally how far the plot expands itself. When we finally do meet him, he just says some generic lines like "You Americans are mean, so now you'll pay," and then he walks away. Gameloft didn't give him a reason for him to be angry at America, he's just another mean terrorist.

  Seriously, Gameloft, either at least try to construct some sort of narrative, or make it clear that you're completely ambitionless with this title. Don't pull some sort of a betrayal out of your ass in the last 30 seconds of the "game."

  Seriously, all the soldiers are completely cliched and uninteresting. A big, brutish soldier, a black dude hilariously named "Fox," and a wise-cracking hotshot who makes me want to stick a grenade in his mouth. This is not a good way to make a game story!

  So, yeah, that was all on the story. When the story doesn't deliver, most games can get away with having good, or even decent gameplay. As I've blogged before, Modern Combat doesn't have good gameplay. I somewhat commend Gameloft for at least trying to craft a story in Brothers in Arms 2, but (I'm talking about story, here) if Shadow of Colossus is the kid in class who turns in the Mona Lisa, featuring subtle cues about itself that attract the viewer without slamming it in their face, then Brothers in Arms 2 is the kid who makes 3 brush strokes, then dumps the paint bucket on the canvas and proclaims how it's ushering in a new era of fantastic portable gaming... er, what? Geez, can I not structure an analogy.

  • Posted Nov 4, 2010 6:16 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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