and the yellow bleeds again>

• 25Aug 08

  The clock is ticking down to another Q4 this year: 2008.

  It feels only a couple months ago to me that I wrote a blog on the games to be released in the later part of the year 2007. At that time I felt overwhelmed and under budget to possibly get the most out of the gaming experience that year has had to offer. Now coming to 2008, even though my budget has some more padding, it is countered by an even greater slew of games. Maybe I could afford them all this time, but another major asset: time, may be in short supply to experience the goodness of what is still yet to come out.

  I first should look at some of 2008 that had already passed in comparison to 2007. GTAIV had been delayed, and this worked out very well aside from the wait. This freed up room to get some Assasins Creed, Call of Duty 4, and The Orange box in late 2007. The first half of a year usually is barren in blockbuster titles, and GTAIV coming out in late spring filled this void quite nicely, and it also has a few compadres to the spring slot that helped out this first half of a year to be something more than replaying all the games you bought or missed last winter.

  GTAIV's company was also filled by a the greatest spurt the PSP had seen ever in awesome titles, plus also Konami's mantlepiece Metal Gear Soid 4's release in mid June filled in nicely the gaming hours after GTAIV was getting a little too played by myself. The rest of this summer has been quite friendly on the downloadable side with Geometry Wars 2, Braid (I haven't played it but on what I hear don't want to leave it out), and Bionic Commando Rearmed. Another honorable mention is Warhawk's constant updates with vehicles, maps, and gameplay elements.

  2008 seems the first year in where developers are starting to understand that gamers would like games to come out year round instead of waiting until November or December and having to make a choice between one game or the next. However it is still yet only a start. The end of this year is still crammed with games. I have noticed that they are getting released a little earlier this time around.

  My first next big game is Dead Space. This is one game that I have been merely relying on multiple web sites and reviewers to hype it to me. Watching videos and seeing screenshots doesn't explain it well to me, but throughout multiple previews I have read on this I am very well intrigued. This seems a trend maybe first realized by Bioshock, that you really have to actually play it to appreciate it. What is said of this game seems the way I ever wished Doom III should have been.

  Now speaking of "just not getting it" is LittleBig Planet. I don't know how many videos and previews I have seen of this game... I have just figured there is no way I will get the game till I actually get it. This game is one of my strongest curiosities. It will really matter to me how wacky and creative I could get with this game, hopefully short of taking an expensive 3D modeling program and importing like people do with Unreal or Half-Life mods. I'm not a fan of spending hours of coding in C++ and so I figure LittleBig Planet might be the game, or game creation tool for me.

  My number one waited for game this year is Fallout 3. Fallout has an established universe with a wealth of variety and story. The fact that the same company that made one of the last greatest RPGs is making the next Fallout makes me all glossy-eyed like I was a teenage girl getting back stage passes to a boy band. There is no way Bethesda can mess this up. I might expect 30 hours less gameplay than the 150 I got out of Oblivion, but by that point who really cares. I think I know what I'll be doing for an entire month after this game comes out, and that is of course playing Fallout 3.

  Then there's Resistance 2. I loved the first one, and am looking forward to the second one. Unfortunately I may still be enamored from Fallout 3 that I may wait a week after its release to get this game. Still I am deadly curious on what this game has to offer. It seems to be offering a lot, and if they pull it off this may be the Halo killer. Stuff like that feels big talk, but is not making me too cynical on the game to pass it by. Nowing how well done the first Resistance was in both campaign and multiplayer, I think it can be pulled of. Warhawk has been awesome, but R2 may be that next great exclusive MP for Sony that Halo had been for the XBOX. Fingers crossed but there is a lot of faith.

  My final entry for 2008's most waited game is Wipeout HD. Once this was supposed to be a small game to come out a year ago. Since then it has be updated and so much stuff added on that it is nearly a full new Wipeout. This has been MY racing series since the PS1, and Studio Liverpool keeps true to this series soul. A game that was supposed to come out a month ago is still TBA because of epilepsy health testing (roumored) and the addition of even yet more features.

  On last thing is that I'll be getting the PS3 version of Bioshock at some point. I'll play everything else first. There are plenty other games that I have ommited, but at least I know what I'll be playing next Feb-May.

  • Posted Aug 25, 2008 1:09 am GMT
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• 17Jul 08

  My experience with Sony's DL video service

  This is something I hope to pass on to those who are curious but not willing to experiment with Sony's new video service.

  I had the extra couple bucks and the first thing I ordered was Stargate's Ark of Truth, then after that instance I ordered the PSN only series X'amd, or "Zamned" from some of the screenshots (which I prefer because its just easier to type).

  Ther are definate polar pros and cons to Sony's new service. My blog right now is to state those types of things to help anyone make a choice on if this new service is right for you.

  I will start out with a con, just because it is the first thing anyone considering this service will notice. The price on everything is outrageous. Really for downoading a single episode of a TV series is only two bucks. Almost all espisodes of Family Guy are there {except Blue Harvest), but consider two bucks for downloading all Family Guy eps will cost you over $200 when getting them from the PSN store. XBL just announced Netflix integrating into its online service and that's just $20 a month for whatever you want.

  I first purchased Stargate SG1's Ark of Truth HD version. I was first definately impressed with the fact that once purchased, that while you download it you can watch it right away. It was a 720p HD, but still impressive to streaming performance of todays PCs that I could start watching it without ANY interruption or breaks for some buffer to load. But DO NOT back out of your PSN stream, or you will have wait for the rest of the video to download before you can even start it over again.

  Ok it is fair that I'll give a lot of cons and no pros. This service is absolutely pro if money is no object. You DO get the instant HD DL video treatment , and already at day one they have a good line up. Most of everything else is actually just SD but those are no different in price if you'd go to Blockbuster to rent it. Contentwise they opened up the store with ACTUAL VALID content.

  One thing that I found unfortunate in Sony's video service is that most anything HD was also considered only a "rental". I'll have to check up on this for details, but its only a two week rental and there is some 24 Hr thing that I haven't experienced yet to now how it limits your purchase. SG:AoT was a whole 6 bucks and any limited viewing on that seems frusterating. Tomorrow I'd like to drag my PS3 to a friends house to watch it and I don't know if Sony will even allow it.

  Next I purchased X'amd (Zamned), the PSN exclusive from the same people tha made Full Metal Alchemist. Still at first I appreciate the instant HD purchase and watch, but it is ONLY a rental. HD was 4 bucks, and I think 3 in SD. Sure the series is interesting, but the first ep didn't make me feel it was really worth the 4 bucks to have for only a couple weeks. Now if I think I wait six months and can go to Best Buy and purchase the whole series for maybe 40 to 60 bucks even I feel ripped off.

  The Definate Con of Sonys DLVC is that is is ONLY in stereo, at least in the two examples I gave, plus also the HD was compressed 720p MPEGS...NO 1080p and No 5.1 Dolby or DTS. This is sad to me because Blu-Ray is 7.1 non-compressed audio AND non-compressed 1080p.

  Sony's Video service was a long time coming and a much needed addition to the more than capable PS3 hardware. The marketing strategy sucks though, especially compared to Netflix bedfellowing XBL. The PS3 handles and shows of its video service much much better than the 360 does, but I am turned off to spending hundreds of bucks to get a lucid copy of a video when I'd rather spend just a little less to get a hardcopy sitting on my shelf.

  • Posted Jul 17, 2008 8:17 am GMT
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• 16Apr 08

  The Generation Gap Has Come Full Circle

  Bear with me:

  Having dinner with my immediate family is a once every couple months affair. I'm in the middle of two brothers that both are married and already both have a daughter. Last week I called my parents up saying I have a turkey in my freezer an have some time off work, so my mom got a hold of the rest of the family and arranged a dinner at my parents house at the end of the week.

  Ok, now boring preset aside:

  I had been playing FFVII:CC for the whole week till then and was about 3/4 through it. Really this was perfect timing as I tend to need to occupy myself. My neice of my older brother, almost five, has always taken an interest to my PSP when I bring it to family events. When Me and My Katamari came out she stayed fixated on that PSP screen asking me to describe every little object I was rolling up and why.

  "I'ts Japanese", I'd say, "I dont know what it is".

  Now I had Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core in my hands and my neice came up again to watch what her uncle is doing with the little video game machine. She came up right before the climax of the Neibelheim scene where Sephiroth does this drastic thing and Cloud is doing something and Zack has to something *sorry I'm trying to avoid spoilers but if you played it or the first FFVII you know*. The first poignant thing she said is, "sorry... I don't play any of those 'killing' games". I quickly retorted, "That is good that you recognize that already."

  When I was her age I was playing Atari 2600 games where like Pac-man, Pole Position, or this one game where you flew a plene into barns, and all those games represented some sort of "death" would take place as a part of your actions. Later on when we got an Apple II-e I was playing Montezuma's Revenge, and the first Mario Bros. where bopping enemies to make them go away was a part of gaming life. When the NES came out eliminating enemies through some force of aggresive weapon action was commonplace, like Contra for example. For me at that time the whole idea of the fact I was actually having to kill someone to acheive my goal never hit home as how my neice stated her recognition of what takes place in a video game.

  She started talking of a game my brother lets her play that sounds alot like Spyro the Dragon (she can't read the title screen yet to know), in which she had to kill a farmer to protect herself (I never played the game so I don't really know). There was a part which she said she had to kill the farmer to save the dragon, and she showed an actual remorse for doing so, but also showed a sense of necessity to protect the character she was playing.

  This is a profound revelation to me on the state of current day gaming on how it effects those still young. It also made me wonder why I never concluded to that same type of impact to life or death choices in the old-school games I have played.

  My neice made me proud for her age on actually grasping the FFVII plot, although I had to simplify:

  *spoiler: do not read if you have'nt played*

  Neice: "why are they fighting?"

  Me: "See the guy with the white hair? He's trying to take over the world and the guy with the black hair is me, and the guy with the white hair is trying to stop me from stopping him because he just found out somthing that has made him crazy and he's trying to stop me from stopping him."

  This was the hard question:

  "so they have to fight?"

  "yes, because he is trying to take over the world and wants to keep me from stopping him"

  And when it came to saving Cloud:

  "Why do you have to fight them?", meaning the monsters in the cave and house.

  "I have to save my friend, he is hurt and i can't bring him through these cave unless I get rid of all the monsters first."

  "Why is he hurt?"

  "These Scientists did experiments on him that made him hurt."

  My neice seemed to be ok with killing monsters, but it was hard to explaining why I was killing people once I got to the Shin-Ra troops in the town since they were actual people. I actually had to explain to a four year old the politics of Shin-Ra and what they were doing with their experiments and why there were anti-Shin-Ra groups. I think I did an ok job doing it. She seemed to actually understand somehow why all the drama on the little PSP screen was necessary with all the "killing". The best statement she made though after that is in understanding that it was all just fantasy. Both in her world and in my world of trying to explain an "older person's game" it seemed to make everything ok that she recognized the game as a fantasy story.

  • Posted Apr 16, 2008 3:12 am GMT
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