I'm taking a break this week from my usual rambling about amazing/terrible games to point you in the direction of a pretty intriguing blog. It's actually the first of its type I've ever found: a blog created by a female gamer about interacting, living, dealing with and understanding male gamers.
If nothing else, The Gamer's Girl is an interesting look into the relationships of people who share a hobby of mine yet are surprisingly different in a few subtle ways that are entirely intuitive and thus beyond my psychological abilities to explain. All I can say is that it makes me wonder just how specific the "gamer" stereotype really is.
In other news, this year's Tokyo Game Show was abysmally underwhelming. You heard it here first!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Borderlands: Perfect Game or Hollow Shell?
Borderlands. This baby's being designed just for me. Remember that one time, way back in the day, when I said every shooter should borrow elements from role-playing games? I think Gearbox Software is very, very aware of that simple truth. They've more than got their feet wet in the FPS genre with the Brothers in Arms series and they've even developed alongside some of the masters: Valve, Bungie, and Ubisoft. It looks like they're finally prepared to dive into the deep end---on their own---and make something unique.
Not exactly your everyday shooter.
It's hard to find anything wrong with Borderlands from the videos, screenshots, and previews I've come across. Accordingly, there's a whole lot that this game seems to get right:
Only time will tell, but I'm putting my faith in Gearbox. I think they can pull it off. Here's to hoping October 20 will be a day full of joy rather than disappointment.
Not exactly your everyday shooter.It's hard to find anything wrong with Borderlands from the videos, screenshots, and previews I've come across. Accordingly, there's a whole lot that this game seems to get right:
- Over-the-top violence, cel-shaded art style, and very eccentric personality (which separates it from the legion of Doom, Halo, Counter-Strike, etc. clones)
- Item quality system borrowed from World of Warcraft
- Weapon randomization shamelessly yet lovingly ripped from Diablo II
- Co-op gameplay for up to 4 people
- Motivation in the form of a simple yet effective quest system
- Classes. Wouldn't be a RPFPS without classes, now would it?
Only time will tell, but I'm putting my faith in Gearbox. I think they can pull it off. Here's to hoping October 20 will be a day full of joy rather than disappointment.
Monday, September 14, 2009
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Pseudo-Review
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (that title's a bit of a mouthful, eh?), developed by the very obscure Ukranian studio GSC Game World, is a first-person-shooter set in the aftermath of a second nuclear incident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine that adds role-playing and survival horror elements into the mix to create a unique, strangely appealing hybrid shooter similar to Bethesda Softworks' recent Fallout 3, only... much less forgiving.
I'm gonna come right out and say it: I really like this game. Those crazy Ukranians struck gold here, and the real tragedy is that most people will never play this game, and those who do will likely throw it out rather than deal with the bugs and incoherent story. The bugs are horrible and nearly game-breaking, yes. The story wouldn't make much sense even if it were properly translated and quality-checked. But two things S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does get right almost completely overshadow its faults. Those two things are atmosphere and item management.
The sound and visual design in this game are amazing. They're both a bit lacking on the technical side, but some of the sights and sounds to be found in the game world are so well-done that, for a few moments, you'll be able to look past the faults and really step into the shoes of a Stalker (in the hunting and gathering sense of the word---no sexual predators here). And then you'll be scared half to death, because that's how the game is designed. And it works so very well.
The item management in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't legendary or anything, but the grid-based backpack system conjures some very nostalgic memories of inventory management in Blizzard Entertainment's classic dungeon crawler, Diablo. Maybe I just have an unnatural obsession with grids, but I think there's something undeniably fun about moving items around your inventory in the middle of an intense firefight that gets the blood pumping and the brain gears turning. And that, on some level, is what video games are all about: finding excitement while exercising your mind and your coordination in a virtual escape from the real world.
A lot of atmosphere and a little inventory management could probably make any first-person-shooter ten times better. Except the awesome Call of Duty games cranked out by Infinity Ward. Those guys already make winners---consistently. But that's a topic for another day.
I'm gonna come right out and say it: I really like this game. Those crazy Ukranians struck gold here, and the real tragedy is that most people will never play this game, and those who do will likely throw it out rather than deal with the bugs and incoherent story. The bugs are horrible and nearly game-breaking, yes. The story wouldn't make much sense even if it were properly translated and quality-checked. But two things S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does get right almost completely overshadow its faults. Those two things are atmosphere and item management.
The sound and visual design in this game are amazing. They're both a bit lacking on the technical side, but some of the sights and sounds to be found in the game world are so well-done that, for a few moments, you'll be able to look past the faults and really step into the shoes of a Stalker (in the hunting and gathering sense of the word---no sexual predators here). And then you'll be scared half to death, because that's how the game is designed. And it works so very well.
The item management in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't legendary or anything, but the grid-based backpack system conjures some very nostalgic memories of inventory management in Blizzard Entertainment's classic dungeon crawler, Diablo. Maybe I just have an unnatural obsession with grids, but I think there's something undeniably fun about moving items around your inventory in the middle of an intense firefight that gets the blood pumping and the brain gears turning. And that, on some level, is what video games are all about: finding excitement while exercising your mind and your coordination in a virtual escape from the real world.
A lot of atmosphere and a little inventory management could probably make any first-person-shooter ten times better. Except the awesome Call of Duty games cranked out by Infinity Ward. Those guys already make winners---consistently. But that's a topic for another day.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Time to find some new friends?
You've heard about it. You've seen it. You likely know someone who has been consumed by it. It destroys families, undermines relationships, ruins lives, and---for an unfortunate few---can even kill. No, I'm not talking about drugs, or alcohol, or pornography, or gay marriage, or Sarah Palin, or even Microsoft. I'm talking about Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) addiction.
World of Warcraft, Second Life, Everquest, Lord of the Rings Online, Ragnarok Online, Runescape, EVE Online, Lineage---the list goes on and on and on (and on). Today's game market is literally flooded with these subscription- and microtransaction-based cash cows. Sure, you'll find plenty of casual players in any of these games... but for every casual player, there's someone who treats the game like a full-time job because they're addicted.
I'm not going to speculate on the hows and whys of MMOG addiction (besides, I have firsthand experience, and I believe it's impossible to understand how someone can take a game so seriously until you find yourself, unexpectedly, in that position). Instead, this post is somewhat of a lamentation. You see, I recently lost a few friends to this disease, and I just can't seem to cure them.
Of all the addictive games out there, my friends chose Evony. Yes, that Evony. The horribly slow and boring real-time strategy game with no audio feedback to speak of. The game that uses scantily-clad females in its widespread advertisements, yet contains no females in the game proper. The game in which, if you feel so inclined, you can be the best simply by paying the most money on microtransactions. The game that's allegedly run by a company connected to a Chinese gold farming operation (basically a sweat shop, only the product is MMOG currency instead of clothing).
I mean, come on. At least World of Warcraft was occasionally fun.
World of Warcraft, Second Life, Everquest, Lord of the Rings Online, Ragnarok Online, Runescape, EVE Online, Lineage---the list goes on and on and on (and on). Today's game market is literally flooded with these subscription- and microtransaction-based cash cows. Sure, you'll find plenty of casual players in any of these games... but for every casual player, there's someone who treats the game like a full-time job because they're addicted.
I'm not going to speculate on the hows and whys of MMOG addiction (besides, I have firsthand experience, and I believe it's impossible to understand how someone can take a game so seriously until you find yourself, unexpectedly, in that position). Instead, this post is somewhat of a lamentation. You see, I recently lost a few friends to this disease, and I just can't seem to cure them.
Of all the addictive games out there, my friends chose Evony. Yes, that Evony. The horribly slow and boring real-time strategy game with no audio feedback to speak of. The game that uses scantily-clad females in its widespread advertisements, yet contains no females in the game proper. The game in which, if you feel so inclined, you can be the best simply by paying the most money on microtransactions. The game that's allegedly run by a company connected to a Chinese gold farming operation (basically a sweat shop, only the product is MMOG currency instead of clothing).
I mean, come on. At least World of Warcraft was occasionally fun.
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