That's a quote from Abraham Lincoln, and an important note for the time and place we're at.
I voted this morning. I probably should have done more research into the candidates, so I didn't place a vote for some of the positions, but for those I did, my voice shall be heard. It's a good feeling to know that I am not just standing idly by while the rest of the community decides my fate for me!
If you are a citizen of the U.S., live in California, are a registered voter, and are of legal age to vote, get into your local polling place and cast your vote too. There are too many important things going on right now, and things are too messed up to pass on your chance to change things!
Despite my having a girlfriend, a job, working on the Reflect Games website update, helping a buddy with his new blog, considering entering the 3rd YoYo Games competition, trying to finish GTA4, and various other real-world obligations, I've also started putting in a little bit of time on World of Warcraft again.
In my defense, it wasn't an idea entirely my own. My brother, Spencer, had a lot to do with it. He's just as addicted to games as I am, and his boredom led him to persuade me to play some WoW with him again.
"I'm thinking about playing WoW again," he mentioned to me one day. "I want to start a new character on a friend's server."
Being bored with my pre-GTA library of games, I expressed some interest. Soon, we had a plan set; we'd blaze through the game as the fantastic duo of warrior and priest. I'd beat the hell out of monsters while my brother made sure my health level was maintained. This is surely a strong combination of might against just about any type of foe... well, except one. Computer hardware failure.
Spencer's computer seems to be suffering from either a bad power supply or a heating problem, as best I can tell. After getting our characters rolling up into the bulk of the game, his computer began crashing WoW every few minutes. He's re-installed the game multiple times, and I've torn his computer apart and re-assmbled it, but the problem persists. He's due for a hardware upgrade though, so when that day eventually comes, the adventures of Ismashya and Autzen will continue. In the meantime, however, I was left with an active WoW account, and not much else to do.
I started an alternate character (a hunter) and began the game anew. After only a week I had leveled to 42, and already had my first mount. But leveling began to take longer, and I started looking upon the higher levels with envy. Every visit to a capital city reminded me that there was an entire world of upper-tier players riding around on their flying mounts, making ridiculous amounts of gold, doing player-vs-player activities, and raiding the high level dungeons.
I tried playing some of the battlegrounds (special PVP raid battles) with my hunter, and while I had fun and got a taste of the party the higher level players were having, it wasn't the same. I had to wait over 30 minutes to get into matches sometimes, and finding others to quest with was virtually impossible. Azeroth is a big place, and with most people on the server playing upper level characters, I was left to fend mostly for myself.
So did I persevere? Did my lonely hunter (and mountain lion pet) conquer all and become one of the elite of Warcraft?
Of course not!
Instead, I dusted off my long-dead level 69 paladin, grinded to level 70, and began partaking in all the upper-tier goodness a guild-less player can. I got my flying mount. I've battled the battlegrounds (with players who have alarmingly large amounts of health compared to me). I made over 1000 gold over the weekend. And I've started trying my hand at some of the daily quests.
I'm sure I'll get bored of it again eventually... especially if my brother can't get his computer running soon. But for now, I'm having some fun with it, and I'm still spending plenty of time with my girlfriend, on my own projects, Grand Theft Auto 4, and everything else, so I see no harm in it.
In the meantime, if you run into a companionless paladin (whose name reminds you of bite-size pizza) mining the earth of the Outland or getting slaughtered in Eye of the Storm, it might just be me.
Just about every day, I find a little time in my busy day to sit down with my Nintendo DS and get a some quality hand-held gaming in. And while I've yet to finish Phantom Hourglass from Christmas, I recently picked up a used copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, in order to see what all the fuss was about, and further diversify my library of DS games. Turns out that there's not a lot to object to - public defender Wright's got a pretty fun game on his hands.
The game plays much like you'd expect from a defense attorney pseudo-simulation; you are presented with a series of trials in which you help Phoenix carry out his duties and have the defendant found not guilty. This is accomplished via a combination of pre-trial detective work and courtroom shenanigans. There is a lot of reading to be done as you work your way through interviews, witness testimonies, and the courtroom process. Those who take the time to actually read all the text are rewarded, though - sifting through the details carries the obvious benefit of helping you solve the cases, and you'll enjoy the game more, as it is very well written.
The presentation of Ace Attorney is excellent, and the graphics and music really fit the game's writing style well. All the characters in the game, important or not, are brought to life in a sharp anime-like style, with a sprinkle of animation here and there. The backgrounds all have a painted quality to them as well. I especially enjoyed the courtroom / lawyer segments. The mix of the written drama with the expressions of Phoenix and company are great, and had me laughing and booing at all the right points. The musical score, while slightly repetitive at points, is also very well done, and help move along the story at the appropriate times.
I'd estimate that at the time of this writing, I am about 95% finished with the game, and though I found most of the game fairly easy, I did stumble on a few sections. In my opinion, this is where Phoenix Wright truly shines, though. Throughout each trial, you're asked to present key evidence or to answer important questions at certain points. Each correct answer moves the story forward, and inches your client closer to vindication, while each wrong answer results in a penalty from the judge, which can only happen five times before the trial is over and the defendant is declared guilty. Sometimes the solutions are obvious, and sometimes they take a lot of thought, but I appreciate that Capcom actually tried to make you think and use logic to solve the crimes... it's something that more studios could afford to do these days.
Once I'm done with Ace Attorney, I'll probably try to find a copy of the second installment of the series, or maybe even jump to the third. I've really liked this game so far, and if you're not afraid of doing a little bit of reading on your DS, I highly recommend it. Phoenix Wright is a quality game, and aside from the Mario and Zelda staples, it's probably some of the best gaming I've done on my DS.
And now, for one last law-themed promotion: It'd be a crime not to play this game!
Oh, and in completely unrelated news, I've been interviewed by Complete Indie Gamers... check it out!
I just wanted to make a quick post to point out a new feature, an upcoming addition, and to talk about what's in store in the coming months for my games and my web endeavors. I've got some neat stuff planned, and I hope that there will be something for everyone here when it's all said and done.
User Registration at Marty Blog
This was actually a request of a friend of mine. I've now opened registration up on the blog, which means that, if you so choose, you can now register as a Subscriber, login, and have the site remember your user details for when you post. Frankly, I should have done this sooner. You can still comment without registering though, so if you're not the type who likes to register, everything is just as it was before!
Games On the Way
If you've read up on the archives of this blog or poked around a bit, you've noticed that part of the reason why I created it was to replace my old games site with something easier to maintain and with broader use. You might have also noticed that, while my examples have made the jump from old site to new, my games haven't - but I aim to change that soon. Within the next week or so I'll be adding a special page to house my games, with better descriptions, control explanations, etc. so don't forget to check that out (especially if you haven't played all of the games yet!).
Reflect Games Site Update
It's been a long time in the making, but I am slowly moving closer to releasing the new version of the Reflect Games website. The changes are a mixed bag of functional and aesthetic improvements, and will include a friends list, credit store, highscore page, improved stats and profiles, and a lot more. Though all the new features will not justify the amount of time it's taken me to finish, I think the site will look more professional and will offer more reasons for people to create and use Reflect accounts. I'll post more about this when I draw closer to the update.
Cross-Site Mayhem
My buddy Dandri, the guy who requested registration here, currently runs the Official PlayStation 3 blog at MySpace, and is looking to expand his operations to a whole new site this summer. We've been talking about doing some cross-site promotions, and since we both have extreme opinions about certain aspects of the gaming world, we thought it'd be interesting to do some interviews and other things along those lines, so keep your eyes peeled for that stuff as well. Again, I will post more about this as the details emerge.
What About Game Maker?
Depending on when the upcoming YoYo Games Competition 3 is announced, and exactly what they decide to do with the user-created theme, "co-operation," I might just be entering. I liked that they gave developers more time to work on games for the second competition, and I've got a couple of ideas that might prove to be fun if they work out correctly.
I'd also like to be getting in more Game Maker in general, but with the Reflect Games website revamp, Grand Theft Auto 4 (aswellasothergames), my job, and my girlfriend, I've not had too much time lately to work on anything significant. Hopefully I'll be able to turn that around this summer, as I finish the website and the games up. I've got a few small projects I've had floating around on my computer for a while that I am considering just releasing the source code for as well.
In any case, I'm trying to get things rolling a little more swiftly than they have been, and to get things out the door. I'll be publishing more What's New with Marty to show my progress in the coming weeks / months, providing there is anyway.
If you've got anything to add to my to-do list, feel free to let me know with your comments - my head hasn't exploded yet!
Yeah, yeah, I know - right on the heels of my "CGI Trailers are Trash" post comes another about how great a new CGI trailer is... well, this is a bit of a different case than what I brought up in my other entry, so I'll hear no complaints.
So in case you've not heard about or seen it already, Valve has released another Team Fortress 2 character vignette, this time for the scout, and I remain both impressed and excited for them. To date, we've seen videos for the soldier, heavy weapons guy, engineer, demo man, and scout, and my only complaint so far is that we've had to wait so long in between each video.
If it means that we will continue to see such high-quality stuff, however, the wait is fine with me. In contrast with the ridiculous marketing materials I complained about in my last post about CGI trailers, I feel that these vignettes show that Valve truly cares about their Team Fortress 2 project. The visuals are rendered with expertise, the dialog is genuinely funny, and the voice acting is excellent. Most importantly though, they maintain the same attitude and style of the game, and they don't insult my intelligence by trying to masquerade as actual gameplay footage.
Well done, Valve. I'm looking forward to future character profiles!
If you haven't seen the previous character highlight vignettes, I highly recommend watching them. They're instant classics, whether you play the game or not!
As promised, here's my take on GTA4. As you've probably gleaned from the title, I think GTA4 is pretty damn sexy - but we'll get to that in a minute or two. In order to set the mood, I thought I'd start with a bit of history on the franchise, and how GTA4 came to be the epic adventure that it is.
When I played Grand Theft Auto for the first time, way back in 1999, I felt like a kid who'd just found his dad's secret stash of pornography. The game was already garnering negative attention from the media, lending it all the qualities of an exotic forbidden fruit, and once I got it running with hardware acceleration on my 3DFX VooDoo 2, gaming bliss reached epic proportions.
The style of play seemed new at the time. You're a guy in the middle of a huge city, and you've got a bunch of missions to do - but you don't have to do them if you don't want to. Instead, you can just run around the city causing as much havoc as possible, or hop online and do the same thing with your friends. 'Sandbox' gameplay had finally arrived to the action genre, and the concept was brilliant. If you're not up on your gaming history, you can play the original GTA and its sequel, the aptly named GTA2, at Rockstar Classics.
In 2002, Grand Theft Auto 3 was finally released for the PC (I've never owned a PlayStation, so it was my only option). I pre-ordered the game and received it on the day it came out, but wasn't able to play it for a week... It turned out that my clunky old 3DFX VooDoo 3 video card just wouldn't cut it. After a minor hardware upgrade, I was jacking cars in full 3D, and loving every second of it. GTA3 was to GTA as Super Mario 64 was to Super Mario Bros. The action was successfully ported to 3D, and it was amazingly fun. GTA3 was the second coming of the sandbox game.
Subsequent releases in the GTA franchise were similarly excellent. Vice City and San Andreas were both beautiful, worthy successors to GTA3, with each game taking the good concepts from the last, and leaving the rest behind. Despite how great these two sequels were however, the RenderWare engine Rockstar had been using since GTA3 was starting to show it's age. It was obvious (to me, at least), that Grand Theft Auto needed something new. It needed a new engine, which would take advantage of current-gen hardware. It needed a face lift.
Enter Grand Theft Auto 4.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is a masterpiece. Almost every aspect of the Grand Theft Auto gameplay has been revamped, each with the skill, style, and expertise that only a veteran of the genre like Rockstar could deliver. If you've been looking for a reason to pick up a "next-gen" video game system, GTA4 is probably the best excuse you'll get.
At this point I should probably mention that at the time of this writing, I'm only about 20% through the game. This is both a testament to how large the game is, and a warning that I'm not anywhere near finishing the game. Judging from the quality of my first 10 hours of play though, I think it's safe to say that my opinions won't change too much.
The first thing everyone inevitably notices about GTA4 (and rightfully so) is the graphics. Gone are the boxy cars, cartoon people, and goofy animations of the past. In their place is a re-imagination of Liberty City, modeled from the real-world city of New York, and complete with realistic physics, incredibly detailed vehicles, and more life-like people. Everything casts a shadow, cars rock and bounce as if they have a real suspension system, trees sway in the wind, the ocean ripples gently, the weather / atmospheric effects are practically photo-realistic... The number of graphical improvements between GTA4 and GTA: San Andreas is so great that it would be impossible to mention them all here; I'll let the game's screenshots speak for themselves. And through all the changes (in graphics and beyond) however, you'll notice that Rockstar has still managed to retain their usual style, so while you're busy exploring the new world, you'll often have a nice feeling of familiarity, no matter how lost you might get.
The soundscape in GTA4 is as equally impressive as the visuals. Everywhere you go, the ambient sounds of urban life are present. The inhabitants of Liberty City have a seemingly limitless number of oral blurbs, and the main characters of the game banter along with each other as good as any actors in a movie. There's a ridiculous amount of radio stations in GTA4, each with their own unique set of music and oft-hilarious commercials. You can buy new ringtones for your in-game phone with in-game dollars. And you know that little "bzzt bzzt" noise your car radio makes right before you get a cell phone call? That's in there too. GTA4 is simply a treat to listen to, and the sounds of Liberty City are just as convincingly realistic as the visuals.
Once you're done gawking at the virtual city Rockstar has put together, you'll delve further into the game itself, and you won't be disappointed there either. This is where the familiarity of past GTA games comes to fruition in a more tangible form than other places; anyone who's played a GTA game before will be instantly familiar with the style of play. As you progress through the game, the city map will become populated with icons representing all the different activities you can do, and you'll have to visit these key locations to advance the story. Each visit to a mission-giving character triggers a cut-scene, after which you're tasked with whatever deed suits the whim of that person. Each completed mission pushes the narrative forward. This simple flow of events is how every version of GTA has operated, and Rockstar was smart not to fiddle with it too much. The only major changes to this formula are that you now can receive (and launch) side-missions on your cell phone, and you can retry failed missions quickly, without having to drive to the target location again. Oh, and the game automatically saves your progress, so you don't have to worry about getting killed on the way back to your safe house after each mission.
The game controls similarly to before, but with the added realism of the game world comes the added realism of not being able to run at super-human speeds or jump over cars. It may take GTA veterans a while to get used to this, but as you grow to appreciate the life-like qualities of the game world, you'll find that you won't miss these things at all.
As with past GTA titles, particularly Vice City and San Andreas, the list of extra activities included in the game is quite long. Around the city you will find various locations to buy clothes, entertainment, play games like pool, bowling, and dart, or just grab a bite to eat. You're free to use your cell phone (or one of the local internet cafes) to contact various people in the game, to hang out or to date. You can, of course, just go driving around and exploring, if you like. And if you get bored with all that, then there's the multiplayer.
Being anxious to play through the single player campaign, I've not had as much time as I'd like with GTA4's multiplayer, but I have put in a few hours and from what I have seen, it's a blast. Jumping online via Xbox Live is a cinch, and it didn't take too long to party up with a friend and find a game. There are a ton of different modes, but I've yet to try hardly any of them. Team deathmatch is my favorite of the few that I have played, and I'm sure that once I get more time to play, I'll be participating in more online hijinks.
By now I think it's obvious that I highly recommend you get Grand Theft Auto 4. It's one of the most complete games I've had the privilege to play in the last few months, and beats out just about everything that rushed into the holidays last year. Even if you're one of those people who's written GTA off as a "murder simulator," I suggest you at least give GTA4 a shot. I think you'll be surprised at just how much humanity Rockstar has managed put into the game.
In closing, Grand Theft Auto 4 isn't a perfect game on every level, but the franchise has come a long way from its roots, and even if you object to some of the content, there's more than a few things here that you can't help but like. GTA4 is a masterfully conceived game and is probably one of the best games you're going to play on Xbox 360, PS3, and eventually (hopefully) PC.
If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that I've been pretty excited about Grand Theft Auto 4. Actually, looking back on my posts, I guess I haven't written about it all that much, but you can attribute that to my intentional avoidance of all things that might reveal too much about the game to me. Yes, I want to go in with a completely fresh view of the game. To my credit, I have been talking up the game something fierce to my friends (in the hopes of having some fun people to play online with), and I went out and pre-ordered the game at my local GameStop last week.
Last night, the game went up for sale at midnight. I'd been debating on whether or not I wanted to go out and pick it up then, and finally I decided I'd just drive by the store and see how many people there were. If the line was huge, I'd simply turn around and leave; I normally have to get up for work around 6:15 AM, so waiting in line for an hour and then only playing for a few minutes is out of the question.
When I rolled by the store, I felt my judgment give way to temptation. The line looked about 50-60 long, but my gamer lust rationalized that each person in line would be anxious to the get the game, and would thus spend as little time as possible at the register. I got out of my car, and stood behind the last guy in line. After a moment I decided I'd check my wallet to see if I even had my pre-order receipt with me (even though I'm pretty sure GameStop will honor the pre-order regardless).
It was at this time that the man in front of me finished a drag on his cigarette and turned around.
"If you haven't been here since 5, you've got to go inside and exchange your receipt for a second receipt." These are the words he said to me.
"Really?" I stammered. The prospect of having to wait in not just one huge line, but now another was not something I wanted to think about. Confusion and fury were gripping me.
"Yup," came the smoking man's reply.
I took a step out of line to survey the scene, and then my judgment got a better grip on me again. If I waited in line here for an hour, I'd barely have any time to play when I got home. I'd go to sleep late, get up early, and be too tired the next day to work efficiently and, more importantly, enjoy some GTA4.
"I think this line's a bit too long for me," I muttered, and I turned and left. 60 man line and second receipts be damned - I'll be picking up my copy this afternoon on my way home from work.
I've played a lot of PC games over the years... probably too many, come to think of it. But with all the time I've dedicated to games, I've also been able to sum up a fairly long list of titles which I think are truly excellent, and worth re-installing and playing again later on. Here's a list of 6 games you might not have played before that I think were excellent titles of their time, and still stand out among today's offerings as monuments to what the medium can achieve (and how much fun you can have).
All titles are currently available on Steam, and I've even listed their price for you. Some of these games are a real steal, and all are worth a play-through!
What would you do if you were a nanotech-enhanced, monotone-speakin', super-soldier working for the NSA? What would you do if you had a huge arsenal of weaponry and specialized talents? What if you wore a huge leather and metal trench coat? Deus Ex asks these hard questions, and answers them too - with a conspiracy theory so big, you might just wind up believing some of it yourself.
Deus Ex was a revolutionary game because it took the standard first-person shooter, threw in a lot of RPG elements (inventory, upgradeable skills, etc) , and wrapped it in a nice, slick package. It's powered by a modified version of the original Unreal Engine, and is a really huge game that, thanks to the different skills you can learn, can be played in almost any style that suits you. Even a decade after it's release, the visuals are still nice and crisp, and the music and voice acting is very well done. I really recommend this game if you like the FPS / RPG hybrid games, and for $9.95, you could definitely do worse.
Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated by trains - I still can't help but take a peek when I see one racing by my morning commute. Sid Meier's Railroads, and the Railroad Tycoon games it is based on, recreate my childhood fantasy of driving around trains all day, and throw in some pretty fun (and challenging) economic simulation to boot. If anything, it's simply fun to zoom around the game's beautiful environments and watch all the mechanical marvels make their rounds.
Like Sid Meier's Pirates, and a lot of other games from the legendary designer, Railroads has very high production values in art and sound, and features gameplay that's simple to grasp, but which gets more complex as you play. The game features a variety of scenarios which task you with making a profitable railroad company (or reversing the fate of one that isn't), all kicked off with a nice tutorial. Different missions start during different periods of history, and as you play, you can spend money on research to develop new engines and technologies appropriate to that era. Getting people and things where they need to go is the name of the game, so if you enjoy logistics simulations that aren't too heavy-handed, download the demo and give it a spin - you'll be laying some track in no time.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (currently $9.95) [Link]
I know I gushed about Rockstar and GTA a little in my Bully post, but this is a message worth repeating. The Grand Theft Auto series, particularly from 3 and beyond, have always been a lot of fun for me, and my favorite in the series so far is Vice City, a tale of crime and corruption straight from the 80's. You play the game as Tommy Vercetti, an ex-con who's just arrived in Vice City, and who's anxious to get established.
Vice City introduced a lot of things to the GTA formula that really made the game stand out among the series. Making their appearance for the first time in GTA are helicopters, motorcycles, choppers, scooters, golf carts, changeable clothes, an assortment of weapons, and a whole lot more, while still maintaining all the fun stuff from the previous game. You also get a ridiculously awesome soundtrack in the game, which is worth the price of admission alone.
I recommend playing through Grand Theft Auto 3 before playing Vice City for two reasons. First, there are many references made to characters from GTA3 (and some are even from GTA3) that you will appreciate more having played that game, and second, you'll like Vice City more knowing how much better it is than GTA3. GTA3 is $9.95 too, so for less than $20, you could buy 'em both!
In 2005, Quantic Dream set out to make a game that is as close to a cinematic experience as possible, and with their subsequent release of Indigo Prophecy (known as Fahrenheit in Europe and Japan), they did a pretty damn good job, even if not hitting the mark exactly.
Indigo Prophecy is played from a third person cinematic perspective, and as you work your way through the game, you take on the role of various characters as the plot bounces back and forth between the lead, Lucas Kane, and the detectives who are investigating him. The game's story is interesting, and just like when watching a movie, you'll have many questions about particular sequences that will not be answered until later in the game. Thankfully, the game world is very interactive, and for the gamer who enjoys exploring, there is a lot of interesting material to be found.
I really enjoyed Indigo Prophecy because, despite it's few shortcomings as a movie-esque style game, it was a lot of fun to play. The graphics aren't ground-breaking, but are still very detailed and realistic, and the sound and music are excellent. The story is the real catch though, and your desire to unravel the plot will give you motivation to run through large portions of the game each time you play.
At normal difficulty, the action sequences are just forgiving enough, and the few rough spots you do encounter serve as good moments for an intermission from the regular game anyway.
Just make sure you've got a good joystick, especially one with dual analogs, as many segments of the game are built with this type of control in mind.
Fans of Monkey Island who want a little more action with their adventure games should look no further than Double Fine Productions' trippy action platformer (and flagship title), Psychonauts. The game, created by former Lucas Arts writer and programmer Tim Schafer, combines psychological dysfunction with psychedelic imagery and classic 3D platforming to create one of the more memorable games of this genre to date.
It's unfortunate that Psychonauts didn't receive much press when the game was launched - it truly is a unique experience that you'll want to see through to the end. The adventure follows Razputin, a boy attending a summer camp for children with psychic powers, as he delves into the minds of his peers and teachers in an effort to uncover the nefarious deeds of a secret foe. Raz encounters the personal fears of each person he makes psychic contact with, and this not only allows for some very creative and fun imagery, but level design as well. In one level, Raz walks along a twisting ribbon of road that seamlessly turns upside down and loops around itself at various places; in another he's tasked with battling a famous historical figure in a giant strategy battle. Not one level is like another in this game (or in any other game, for that matter), and that's just one of the many things that sets Psychonauts apart from the many other platform games you've played before.
For anyone looking to pick up a good action adventure game, especially on PC, I can't recommend Psychonauts enough. It's a fun little game that is smart, rewarding, and the production values are so high it's hard to ignore. Especially at such a low price!
I shouldn't even have to say all that much about Unreal Gold - it's one of those games that really kicked off a lot of big things for gamers. Unreal gave us a taste of what a truly "Epic" shooter could be, all while showcasing some awesome visual effects (for the time), and paving the way for what would later become of the most recognizable online FPS franchises.
When you start Unreal, you'll awake inside your holding cell within the recently crashed Vortex Rikers, a space ship transporting prisoners across the galaxy. You're now free from imprisonment, but you're marooned on an uncharted planet filled to the brim with the hostile Skaarj. Your only option is to traverse the land and seek out an escape, destroying everyone in your path.
Though other games, like Half-Life, were leaps and bounds ahead of Unreal in terms of presenting a decent narrative in a story-driven FPS, Unreal made up for the deficit with some amazing technology, and with some intense action sequences that simple can't be topped. Gamers who skipped over Unreal back in it's heyday will probably not be all that impressed by it's massive outdoor environments, or it's highly detailed textures, but back in 1999, these were incredible feats. Being used to the claustrophobic romps of Doom and Quake, I remember how blown away I was upon first playing Unreal - especially when my rig (packing a powerful Voodoo 2 card!) ran the game at 60+ frames per second.
The graphics were what drew me in, and the hard core gameplay is what kept me there... and what keeps me coming back for more every now and then, when I'm out of new games to play. I highly recommend Unreal Gold, even if you're not too fond of the dated graphics. It's a solid action FPS that defines the word "classic."
Other Games I Wanted to Mention
There were a few more games I wanted to mention in the main write-up, but for various reasons, didn't. These games are all good fun, and I recommend them almost as much as those above.
Uplink ($9.95) [Link] - Using the Uplink hacking interface, do various hacking jobs - just don't get caught!
X3: Reunion ($19.95) [Link] - Start an empire from scratch in this space-faring economic sim
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl ($19.95) [Link] - Discover the spoils and secrets of the infamous Chernobyl site
Unreal Tournament 2004 ($14.95) [Link] - Blast your friends and enemies online with an assortment of weapons and vehicles
Commander Keen ($4.95) [Link] - The classic id Software platformer. Save the galaxy from evil!
Well, it's done. I got my copy of GTA4 reserved at the local Gamestop a day ago. This will actually be my first GTA game that I haven't waited for the PC release, but I think my 360 should handle the job nicely for now. If not, I'll just wait a year and pick up the PC version, which I am sure will run better, play better, and look better than either the 360 or the PS3. Ah, but who cares about that - if this game is half as fun as it looks, I don't think I'll even be thinking about all that once I start playing!
To be honest, I've been purposefully avoiding reading too much about the game, so that I can head on in with no expectations. Rockstar has blown the dust off the hype machine, and has been releasing lots of new information on their site over the last few days, and there was even a big photo of the game's city map floating around on the game news blogs a few days ago. I've yet to visit the site though, and I only took a brief look at the map (to see if it looked real, of course). Other than that, I just know a few odds and ends of technical information about the game (check out the Euphoria physics technology they're using... just turn down the crummy music), and not much else.
Well, nothing else except for multiplayer. I have actually read a bit about that, and I think that's going to be one of the best parts of the game. Rockstar finally included a fully loaded multiplayer component in GTA4, and it's looking to be capable of throwing up to 16 people in the city at once. Unfortunately, there's no co-op mission play, but between all the different multiplayer modes, I don't think I'll regret the lack of co-op much. I like the way Rockstar usually does the story-telling in GTA games anyway, so if it remains untainted by multiplayer, that's fine by me.
So yeah, I am gearing up for some fun times in Liberty City. I'm going to cut this post short, because I don't really have much more to say about this for now, other than I am pretty excited about it. Hopefully the game turns out to be good, huh?
GTA4 is out on April 29... better reserve a copy if you haven't already!
The trend is annoying. It's deceptive. It's insulting to my intelligence. And sadly, it shows no signs of ever coming to an end. I am speaking, of course, about the video game industry's constant use of CGI (computer generated imagery) trailers.
My disgust for this practice has been sloshing around inside my head for a while now, but the issue really peaked for me back in 2006, when Sony unveiled supposed in-game footage of Killzone 2, which later turned out to be a CGI trailer. There was a lot of backlash over this, and I agree with all of it - it pointed out both how tempting it can be for game companies to deceive the public with CGI, and how easy it can actually be when our game systems are almost capable of producing such visuals anyway.
Imagine you're putting together an awesome movie. It finally comes time in production to get the word out and get people excited for the upcoming film. Your press agent asks for some promotional materials to show people... what would you give them? Would you create a video of animated characters and special effects, completely unlike the visual style of your film?
Of course not - it's ridiculous to even suggest it. But if you were working on a game instead of a movie, you'd probably come to the (erroneous) conclusion that as long as it's generated by computers somehow, it should pass for a good way to show off your game.
I find this trend annoying because, when I hear about a new game, I want to see what it looks like. If I watch a commercial or download a trailer, I want to see the game in action to get a feel for how it will play, how good the graphics are, etc. The last thing I want is a CGI trailer that gives absolutely no clear idea of what the game is about. What good does that do?
My other main beef with CGI trailers is the fact that I sometimes get the sense that they are meant to masquerade as real game footage, and the deceptiveness of this disgusts me. As game graphics get better and our systems become more advanced, the line between CGI and real-time rendering is getting blurrier. So not only does it sometimes seem pointless for a studio to release CGI when real game footage would be just as good, it also makes the CGI route seem like studios just want the public to think their game will look better than it does. For gamers, this isn't usually much of a problem - people who are used to viewing game graphics and computer-generated videos can usually tell the difference between the two - but it is still a very low-class thing to do, in my opinion, and just serves to confuse people who aren't dedicated game-players.
In the end, I suppose my complaints don't hold a heck of a lot of weight, considering the games industry has been in constant growth for many years, despite the rampant use of CGI trailers. Pre-rendered computer-generated videos definitely have a place in there somewhere, but I really think that publishers / developers should always try to show real footage first. I know that sometimes it's important to get PR materials out the door, in order to generate buzz for upcoming games, but if they just took a little extra time to polish existing videos and screenshots of the actual game, they'd be doing both themselves and their fans a favor.
