[I keep my life blog and my game blog separate - too much geekery in one place would blow up the internet. This right here is the game blog, obviously. Here I will rant, I will rave, and I will use excessive amounts of hyperbole.]
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• 24Jan 08

  Forwarding Address

  This isn't a goodbye; I will still be lurking and reading. But I am picking up stakes and settling out in the blogosphere.

  You can find me at the new location of Shouts From The Couch.

  • Posted Jan 24, 2008 7:05 am GMT
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• 23Jan 08

  Burnout impressions

  As was the case with a lot of other people, I was pretty disappointed/concerned about the state of the Burnout franchise when I started messing with the demo. That said, I've spent a lot of the past 2 days playing it, and now I feel pretty comfortable saying that I get it.

  The closest analogy I can come up with is Crackdown, another open-world game. The thing about Crackdown - as with Burnout Paradise - is that while there's official stuff for you to do, a great deal of the game's enjoyment can be found simply by exploring the world. Crackdown had orbs for you to find; Burnout has gates and billboards to smash. I've played for almost 8 hours by now and I've really only done 15 actual events; I've mostly just been trying to find everything there is to find - which also just so happens to be a really good way to learn all the hidden routes and shortcuts.

  It can be frustrating to not be able to immediately restart an event - something I find myself doing a LOT when I play Burnout 3 - but you get over that pretty quickly, because chances are there's a similar event a few blocks away from wherever you end up finishing. The only real pain is when you're doing a "Burning Route", which is an event specifically tied to the car you're driving, but even then, as you drive yourself back to the starting point, you get a better sense of how to improve your chosen route.

  Visually, the game absolutely kicks ass. The sense of speed is breathtaking, and I'm still driving low-level cars. Crashes look as good as they've ever looked; they are visceral and explosive and while they can slow the game's reckless pace down, they're always well-filmed.

  Sound-wise, I should say right off the bat that I pretty much hate everything EA Trax stands for, and I hate hate HATE DJs who tell me what to do.... BUT the very first song that came on when I starting playing yesterday just so happened to be my favorite song of 2007 - LCD Soundsystem's "Us v Them."

  Another good thing to point out is that while EA has been as shameless about in-game advertising as any developer out there, the signage in this game is relatively unobtrusive. It's there, to be sure, but it's not nearly as oppressive as it's been in other EA games.

  So, yeah. I'm liking it a lot more than I'd originally anticipated; the controversial design choices end up making a bit more sense when you start getting into the game's natural rhythm. It's not just a driving game this time around; it's also a really slick-looking toy.

  • Posted Jan 23, 2008 11:51 am GMT
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• 17Jan 08

  A return, of sorts

  Maybe it's because we're in the January videogame doldrums, or maybe it's because I'm sad that so many longtime GSers are bailing, but I find that I'm not really spending that much time on this site anymore. That said, until I figure out where else to put all my game-related musings out on the 'tubes, this remains as good a place as any.

  And since Burnout Paradise arrives next week, which (for me) officially gets 2008 started, I guess I've got some things to say.

  First things first, though - I've not really been gaming very much over the last month, which is frustrating because I'm soooooo close to 30K. I bought Call of Duty 4 so that I could try to get more Achievements from doing the campain on Veteran, but it's just too goddamned hard. Hell, I even bought Boogie Bunnies or whatever it's called to try and squeeze out some points. Here's hoping BOPC has a nice Points curve to it.

  Speaking of Burnout, I couldn't NOT download Burnout 3 through XBL's Originals program. I'd traded in my copy of BO3 when BO4 came out, and then traded that copy in towards the 360 version, and then traded that in when I'd hit the wall (so to speak). BO3 is one of my all-time favorite games; I spent HOURS AND HOURS with that game, both online and off-. It's interesting to come back to it after however many years it's been; certainly the graphics are suddenly a lot worse than I remember, but the sense of speed is still astounding and the controls are still rock solid. I do miss pounding the B button to get additional Crashbreakers in Crash mode, which was one of BO4's big additions, but still - that game remains as awesome as it originally was.

  Even though I've not been gaming very much lately, I HAVE been making great use of my HD-DVD add-on. I will eventually get a PS3, if only for the Blu-Ray, but for now I'm snatching up as many HD-DVDs as I can. If any of you have it (or a plain old HD-DVD player), I insist that you get the Zodiac HD-DVD which just came out last week. Aside from being a really well-made film, the HD picture is jaw-dropping - it's easily the best looking HD-DVD I've seen, and I've seen most of the good ones. The Matrix movies look really good in HD, too; Pan's Labyrinth is also quite stellar; and I'm quite certian that Blade Runner is now looking as good as it ever will.

  Anyway, that's the news. I will definitely be online when BOPC arrives next week; hit me up.

  • Posted Jan 17, 2008 11:39 am GMT
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