| News | STEVEN SPIELBERG LOVES CAPS LOCK | July 19, 2008 |
Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
aaaand Wiiii.
TV MOVIES GO.
Also, Runic Games' answers!
By now you've all more than likely heard the faults and pros of Modern Warfare 2 a million times, singleplayer bad, multiplayer good. I do heavily agree with that which is sad seeing as how much I loved the first Modern Warfare's story. This one just seems to be all over the place, trying to top every "holy shit" moment with another and after a while that get's incredibly tiring. The story got to a point where I said "What the fuck is happening?...Oh right, I don't care." The "No Russian" mission is...bad. It goes past being disturbing to the point of being just dumb. It was so incredibly unnecessary and made no since. It seemed to just be Infinity Ward trying to be 'edgy.' Some of the level design in the game is the worst I've ever seen in a CoD game (excluding the third Call of Duty). They seem to be standing all around you and blending in with your soldiers and you'll be constantly thinking if you should him or not which means a lot of friendly fire kills or a lot of deaths.
One mode that a lot of people aren't giving the love it deserves is the Spec Ops mode. Spec Ops runs you through a lot of different situations such as "Kill this many people" or "Sneak past all these people." It all boils down to not dying and killing some people/getting to a certain place but they throw in so many different obstacles like a lot of snow, dogs, or having to kill them with a certain weapon. This mode is really a blast to play with friends, by yourself it does seem a bit more challenging. The mode definitely feels as if it should be played co-op only. It is very obvious the Infinity Ward spent most of their time of the multiplayer aspect of Modern Warfare and that shows and I honestly think that was a very smart thing to do as this is the best and most fun I've had with a multiplayer game in a long, long while. I could bet good money that 95 percent of the people reading this already own Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and if you're one of that small percent that doesn't have it, go buy it. It's something you will not regret.
Left 4 Dead 2 demo
I went into Left 4 Dead 2's demo with the full expectations that this was going to be Left 4 Dead 1 in the day time and something Valve
From the demo, another thing I noticed is that Valve seems to be working on actually putting kind of a story into this which is interesting, not because I really care about a story, but because I want to know if it will be a utter disaster. Left 4 Dead 2 just looks a lot better than the original. Apart from being brighter, it has a very crisp feel and saying this game is 'beautiful' is something you can honestly say about L4D2 that you couldn't say about the first. The addition of more items like the Boomer vomit grenades are a very great thing and just plain fun to use. One item I do not enjoy is the adrenaline needle. Where, once injecting yourself, you can pretty much just run through all the horde like you just shot up a bunch of Meth. It seems incredibly useless and something that has no reason being in the game. Demos are supposed to get someone hyped for a game and although, like I previously mentioned, I'm not buying Left 4 Dead 2, I cannot wait to get it in the mail from Gamefly.
I Have a Wii
I got the first Boom Blox and that game is surprisingly fantastic. The amount of excitement I feel when an entire tower starts falling over is unexplainable. The game features a story that, lets be honest, I'm not paying attention to at all. Boom Blox features a creation tool which I haven't really dove too deep into yet but from what I can tell, it's pretty good. YOu earn parts for the creation mode by doing the events in the Adventure Mode, that never really was the keep me going factor in the game though. That is where it falls, Boom Blox just kind of starts to bore me after a little while. It is fun and everything...for 30 minutes to an hour but after that, I feel like I've done all I can do with the game. I would definitely say rent the game if you're interested at all.
Runic Games' answers your questions!
What will Torchlight the MMO will be about?
The overall storyline is in preproduction – we will start focusing more on MMO preproduction as soon as we finish focusing on all the launch events – bug fixes, the patch, getting the demo on our site and getting TorchED out! Since a lot of the Devs haven’t slept more than six hours in the last month, we’ll take a breather and then come back strong, focusing solely on the MMO.
Will there be more than 3 class types in the MMO version of Torchlight?
Definitely though we can’t say what they will be quite yet. However we can tell you that the 3 character-classes in the Single Player are not necessarily going to be playable classes in the MMO.
Ask Runic Games what differentiates them from most developers.
We are a pretty small indie studio (27 folks) with strong roots in the ARPG world. Also we were an a-typical startup, of 17 people at inception, basically everyone who worked on Mythos from Flagship North. Being small means we can address individual concerns pretty quickly and effectively, but it also means we have to be very careful with our scope and our resources – we can only do so much. It’s a good way to make sure we’re always working on Things That Matter Most.
(These are some whopper questions)
Question: Are they going to add a way to better manage your pets? I made the Alchemist and went down the Lore skill tree so i always have like 6 imps, my cat, Golems and all my zombies/skeletons out at all times and i can never tell when they die because there is almost always too many things on screen to tell. I would like to see a little window tab that lists the pets and their HP like the Mastermind class does in City of Heroes, or at least some kind of coloured outline/glow under your pets so you can tell them apart from the 10-20 other mobs running around on the screen. I was just curious to know if they plan to address this problem for my build/class.
We don’t plan to add any new content at this time, but it’s totally possible someone will mod that in. The ability to summon a lot of minions is certainly a really cool feature and it does get a little crazy, but the only pet manager we really have is for your initial pet, the wolf/lynx choice at the very beginning, which remains onscreen the whole time.
Part 2: Another pet question if i can, are they planning to fix the pets path finding capabilities or are they just going to balance the pets always getting stuck/lost into the set?
Again, we aren't planning on significant Torchlight single-player development right now, but more pet control features are on the agenda for the MMO.
6. Question: Will the MMO be using the same setting of Torchlight for all of the games questing, or will it have various cities/towns with their own unique dungeon systems below them?
In the MMO, Torchlight will probably be one of many different towns within an overworld. There will be many dungeons, both random and instanced, and outdoor dungeons, as well.
Question: Will there ever be a sequel or expansion pack for the single player Torchlight game in the future, or is all of the companies development time being put into the MMO? If there is an expansion or sequel being made what kind of upgrades might we expect.
Never say never but for now we plan to focus on the MMO. We may release some things that we are also putting into the MMO if we can as extra content, and we’ll also get into alpha and beta in the MMO as soon as possible.
Question: What made you guys decide on the games art style over a more dark or mature style that these type of games are usually set in?
It was a matter of personal style and preference for non-grungy palettes, combined with a desire to not compete with D3. That’s the answer in a nutshell; Art Director Jason Beck wrote pages and pages on how this came about for Gamasutra, and you can read it here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4123/from_the_ashes_of_mythos_the_art_.php
TV
Bored to Death- Take a Dive, SEASON FINALE: A-. Great ending to a fantastic new series. I love this show as it gave me one of the best first seasons of a show I've ever seen.
Dexter- Slack Tide: A
Glee- Wheels: A- An amazing episode hampered by a ridiculously dumb plot twist.
South Park- Dances with Smurfs: B
The Office- Murder: A
Survivor- Tastes Like Chicken: A- Fucking Russell...I love you.
Community- Debate 109: B+
Movies
The Assassination of a High School President- B
Next week
Wii Sports Resort
GTA: Episodes from Liberty City
Assassins Creed 2
Th-that's all folks! Any questions or comments, post below. Until next time,
Paalam!
Videogaming (a friend of mine is trying to stop the word "gamer" from being used anymore. Long story) is at an interesting crossroad that all forms of popular media have come to at some point: straddling the line between an accepted mainstream artform and something that politicians from both sides of the spectrum want to burn in effigy for corrupting the youth of America, who everyone knows has no capacity to think for itself. It's happened a few times with more books than I can count (look up a banned book list on any search engine and prepare to be surprised), all different kinds of music (metal and rap most recently, but basically every form of music has been crusaded against at some point), movies are still choking under the yoke of the MPAA, and TV still has to contend with censorship on a daily basis, though the grip is slackening. Videogaming just showed up the party, and guess what? It's already got six drinks in it. Videogames present an interesting problem to the debate: interactivity. This is Roger Ebert's argument as to why they can't be considered true "art" forms: because the user interacts with and changes it, it's not truly art. I don't agree with this contention one little bit not only for the fact that I've seen art exhibits that allow audience participation, but there's only so much a user can do to "alter" a videogame while playing it. You'll never be able to make Marcus Fenix soar over the battlefield on the back of a pegasus raining down fireballs from a sword. But I'm preaching to the choir, and I won't lie it's a good feeling, but I have another point: one of the biggest hurdles is from within. It's us not taking the medium seriously, even on a sub-conscious level.
I was watching a review for a game on Zero Punctuation when the reviewer made the fascinating point of the community getting SO excited when someone from the mainstream gets involved, even peripherally, with a videogame. Now whether or not you like Zero Punctuation is irrelevant, I think the point is an incredibly good one. Why DO we fawn over people who don't work with videogames when they come and make a game? Why do we, as the reviewer put it, "Say 'oh YES Mr. Bigshot movie producer! Come down to the filthy masses and show us how it's done!'" This art form has been around for well over thirty years, mostly without help from outside sources, so why is there this hero-worship when a game comes out that has Stephen Spielberg as an executive producer?
Quick: what's one of the first comments about any hot new game sure to show up in the forums within 24 hours of the game's release and vindication of quality? No, not lewd comments about whatever female character is in it, "I'd love for them to make this into a movie." Why? Videogames have, historically, made atrocious movies. There hasn't been a single one of actual quality with the possible exception of Silent Hill (Mortal Kombat doesn't count because, while it was a fun movie, it's not a "good" movie). Metal Gear Solid is the one I hear talked about most and it's also the one I find most puzzling. I love this series, I've loved it since the first PS1 game, but the game is HEAVY on the cinematics, so why would one want to see an inferior version, most likely starring an actor no one wants to play the character, with a script that's been passed around like a dutchie 'pon the left hand side so many times, to so many different people who've probably never even heard of the game, that by the end it's called Metallic Cog Mercurial and stars Chris Kattan as the WACKIEST secret agent this side of the RUSTY CURTAIN! (rated PG-13)?
I think it's because deep down a lot of us are still waiting for something to come along and make gaming OK for mainstream acceptance. Like what the one-two combo of the X-Men and Spider-Man movies did for comic books (with Blade being the lead-in), but comic books lend themselves more naturally to being adapted to the big screen, and even those movies didn't get REALLY good until very recently. So I think we need to bring gaming to the mainstream ourselves. Games like Bioshock are a great step in the right direction because they have incredible artistic vision as well as a satirical, philosophical plotline. In short: it has depth. That's what people look for in art: depth and that's what so many games lack. I'm not saying EVERY game needs to become Bioshock in order for us as a community to progress beyond what we are, I'm saying that we shouldn't let someone on the outside ride in like a white knight and redeem something that doesn't even need redeeming. We should solve our own problems by supporting games that actually try something daring and dynamic and even by trying to hold these games up as counter-examples rather than simply shouting at the top of our lungs about how artsy games can be.
9. Boom Blox
8. No More Heroes
7. Wii Sports Resort
6. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
5. Super Smash Brothers Brawl
4. Super Paper Mario
3. Metroid Prime 3
2. World of Goo
1. Super Mario Galaxy
- Studio of the Year (Media Molecule) - I was happy to see a newcomer like Media Molecule get the nod... well deserved.
- Best Shooter (Gears of War 2) - No quarrels here.
- Best RPG (Fallout 3) - It's not a pure RPG, but it was the best of the nominees.
- Best Fighting Game (Soul Calibur IV) - I would've gone with Super Smash Bros. Brawl... Snake and Sonic are much cooler than Yoda and Vader.
- Best Individual Sports Game (Shaun White Snowboarding) - Sure, whatever.
- Best Handheld Game (Professor Layton and the Curious Village) - This one was a toss-up... you can make a case for any of the 4 choices.
- Best Graphics (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) - I thought LittleBigPlanet was more pleasing on the eyes.
- Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show (Lego Indiana Jones) - Meh, also whatever.
- Best Music Game (Rock Band 2) - High five, Alex Navarro!
- Best Driving Game (Burnout Paradise) - Probably the best choice for this category.
- Best Action Adventure Game (Grand Theft Auto IV) - No contest, in my opinion.
- Best Team Sports Game (NHL 09) - Sports games, eww.
- Best Soundtrack (Rock Band 2) - Seems unfair for a music game to win this, but it was the best.
- Best Xbox 360 Game (Gears of War 2) - Braid not nominated? That would've been my winner.
- Best Wii Game (Boom Blox) - Kind of a weird choice... Brawl or No More Heroes should've won and World of Goo should've been in the running.
- Best PlayStation 3 Game (LittleBigPlanet) - We're in agreement.
- Best PC Game (Left 4 Dead) - As long as it wasn't Spore, I was satisfied.
- Best Original Score (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) - My picks weren't even nominated so meh.
- Best Multi-player game (Left 4 Dead) - Seems like the clear choice.
- Best Performance by a Human Male (Michael Hollick as "Niko Bellic") - Best performance this generation, perhaps?
- Best Performance by a Human Female (Debi Mae West as "Meryl Silverburgh") - I guess, but I was pulling for Paula Tiso... awesome as Sylvia Christel.
- Big Name in the Game Male (Kiefer Sutherland as "Sgt. Roebuck") - Jack Bauer should win every year.
- Big Name in the Game Female (Jenny McCarthy as "Tanya") - If going by hotness, I would've gone with Eliza Dushku.
- Best Independent Game Fueled by Dew (World of Goo) - Hate the Dew, love World of Goo and was my choice, but Braid and Audiosurf deserve some praise.
So I ended up agreeing with many of the winners, even if some of the awards are bullshit (Big Name in the Game, Movie or TV Show Based Game.) Oh well, I'm hoping for a more legitimate awards ceremony instead of the celebrity asshatery that occurs.
So what awards matter to me the most? My personal game awards... coming in January!
You may have noticed i haven't really been active on GS at all - in Unions, System Wars, blogging or user reviews. Inversely: my time spent going through my backlog of games have increased, tremendously.
I don't know when i'll start resuming reviews but for now i've just rated the games i've completed. If anyone would like to read my review of a particular game in my recently rated games list, don't hesitate to ask - i'll consider wirting it. 
Anyway, here's a "small" update on game related things;
Guilty Gear was an excellent price of £5, about the price of a simple takeaway meal.
I have opened all but Trauma Center at the moment.
Played through RE: UC co op - very good game within its genre.
Ghost Squad completed single and co op - Average. Worth picking up on the cheap.
Link's Crossbow Training, yet to finish all missions - Good value with 'gun', challenging.
Metroid Prime 3 - Stunning environments, some aspects were underwhelming.
Playing through Okami right now - simply beautiful.
Finally fiinished Sub Space Emissary in Super Smash Bros Brawl...*uh hum*...
Half Life 2: Episode 2 was excellent, it's right up there with HL2.
Completed Luigi's Mansion in around 2 days (between work, sleep) - Very good, but very short.
I'm also playing through Resident Evil Zero on the GC. Very good so far...
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2 New games i got in the last 2 days: Mario Kart Wii and Boom Blox.
Mario Kart Wii was very good, i've only played through 3 cups in 50CC, all with just the steering wheel. I've yet to try online, Wiimote + Nunchuck, Gamecube Controller.
I haven't tried Boom Blox yet, i'll give it a go once i've done these 2 things - complete Final Fantasy IV DS (very almost there), and Bioshock PC (just about nearing the end).
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"Royale with cheese. They use the metric system, they don't know what the fuck a quater pounder is."
So, yeah, as you may have all noticed, that quote is from Pulp Fiction. I watched it again recently... really great movie... I think if they tried to make a game based on it nowadays it might actually work... I dunno about 1997, when the movie came out, but nowadays seems entirely plausible...
They could do it half-adventure game, half-action/shooter...
What do you guys think? would a Pulp Fiction video game work or not?
Anyways, let me respond to...
The Question of the Day
Does Nintendo's Statement in Edge Magazine about it's new "Core" games being two to three years away make you want to sell your Wii, or are you going to wait and see how this all pans out?
I'm gonna wait... My Wii has been collecting dust for a while now... the last game I played on it was Boom Blox, and that was around mid-June... I think there's still gonna be some interesting third party titles coming out... but the biggest reason is... I don't feel like having to re-buy my Wii again 2-3 years down the road... I'm content with it as it is, and I can keep playing my 360 until these "core" games come out.
That leads me onto my next topic...
What i've Been Playing
So, I downloaded Castle Crashers and I've been playing that all day... Definitely my top pick out of all the games released this month on XBLA... The game is just so excellently structured... you've got your standard overworld map, you've got hidden characters, your light RPG elements. and then you have the wonderful art style... all the subtle references to other classic brawlers, like the fight for the princess after a boss fight when playing co-op... totally Double Dragon. All of the rideable creatures... totally Golden Axe. Really, the entire game feels like is should have came out mid-90's, and that's not a bad thing... Actually, it feels a lot like Medieval River City Ransom. I think I might make Castle Crashers the first game I'll do a User Review for on Giant Bomb. So look forward to that once I finish the game.
So, speaking of the 90's, I've also recently found out about DOSBox. What a wonderful emulator. I managed to play Shadow Warrior with sound! And Duke3D ran like a charm! Oh, and now I can load up Wolfenstein 3D. Ah, it feels so nice to be able to play Wolf3d again. Ever since WinXP came out, I thought I wouldn't be able to play any Build Engine games ever again! Fortunately, now I can, and many other fine DOS games.
Well, before I leave, I just want to ask you guys what you think of my new format... do you guys think I should continue to seperate things with titles like this, or do you think I should just write it up like I have been? Post some responses in the comments.
WTF is with the tags above?!
Anyways as my first little tid-bit of gaming goodness I thought I'd draw your attention to our earlier E3 coverage over at XboxOZ360, particularly what we wanted to see at E3, but for the most part we didn't... Although we did pick the Final Fantasy shocker! ;)
Why the plug? Well there are four key reasons:
1) It's more exciting and entertaining than anything at the slowly dying E3!
2) It's better than any other lists out there because we justify our choices. Each Top 10 is around the 2000 word mark!
3) It'll get the fanboys into all kinds of convoluted flaming and illogical arguments... See the third list below as it should now read Top 9 (thankyou Square!). ;)
4) I'm a shameless promoter, who whores himself out without a moment's regret.
Enjoy and make your voices heard. :)
Top 10 Confirmed 360 Exclusives @ E3 '08 - What made the Top 10? And how do we rate the big hitters in Gears 2, Fable 2, Halo Wars and Banjo Kazooie.
Top 10 Unconfirmed 360 Exclusives @ E3 ' 08 - How did we come up with 10? And where does Bungie, Rockstar, a fugitive and someone Wake-ing up fit in?
Top 10 Exclusives We'd Steal for the 360 @ E3 '08 - Every platform has great exclusives, which ones would we steal from the PS3, Wii & PC if given half a chance?
Top 10 Multiplatform Titles @ E3 '08 - Who's got the Edge? Who's had a Fallout? And are we Good... or Evil? Or why should we love EA, Ubisoft and Capcom?
Top 10 360 Hardware & Xbox Live @ E3 '08 - We nailed this one... Errr except for the Newton! But it's best just to ignore that (like I have) and see how right we were! :P
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Hey, How's Your Knowledge Of Zelda?
Answer some questions, and you might win a copy of Spirit Tracks!
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New Resident Evil 5 Single-Player Content Starts Feb. 17
Two new story-based episodes, a bunch of costumes, and a catch-all Gold Edition package are on the way for your horror-shooting needs early next year.
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Super Street Fighter IV Hands-On
We mess around with a few of the new characters in Capcom's upcoming Street Fighter update.
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Atlus Bringing 3D Dot Game Heroes To North America
It's coming in May!
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Brad Pitt Plunges Into Dark Void
Pitt's Plan B production company options the film rights to Capcom's upcoming jet-packs-and-aliens adventure.
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Hands-On: Ridin' Zelda's Spirit Tracks
A few minutes with Nintendo's next DS Zelda installment.
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Most Popular Achievements (11/7 - 11/13)
Oh hey, right, this thing. Sorry it's late!
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Hey, How's Your Knowledge Of Zelda?
Answer some questions, and you might win a copy of Spirit Tracks!
|
|
|
Super Street Fighter IV Hands-On
We mess around with a few of the new characters in Capcom's upcoming Street Fighter update.
|
|
|
New Resident Evil 5 Single-Player Content Starts Feb. 17
Two new story-based episodes, a bunch of costumes, and a catch-all Gold Edition package are on the way for your horror-shooting needs early next year.
|
|
|
Atlus Bringing 3D Dot Game Heroes To North America
It's coming in May!
|
|
|
Brad Pitt Plunges Into Dark Void
Pitt's Plan B production company options the film rights to Capcom's upcoming jet-packs-and-aliens adventure.
|
|
|
Most Popular Achievements (11/7 - 11/13)
Oh hey, right, this thing. Sorry it's late!
|
|
|
Hands-On: Ridin' Zelda's Spirit Tracks
A few minutes with Nintendo's next DS Zelda installment.
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