Halo anime

Hot diggity dog.
One more gaming anime.
More hot chicks harem.

Let me just get this out of the way. Master chief is a hot chick high school student with huge knockers like Samus, who has 5 groupies inside the military base who are in love with her. Halo the anime revolves around their love interests with the random battle against Grunts in the high school called Halo.

Alright now I got that out of the way, I think it's interesting to see that Microsoft likes making money, that and they want to entertain their fans in the process. If they can do this right, it will look like the Appleseed movie based on the Halo universe, which is quite possibly a good thing. I wouldn't really know since I don't follow the Halo universe since the only time that I ever play Halo is to play multi player LAN.

I am pretty sure that there is more to the story than constant tea-bagging every freshly made corpse, so even thought it would make for a great story, it would be interesting to see if they can do the back story without long monologues from all the characters.

Oh and Master Chief would have long blue spiky hair.

Multimedia gaming

Like I said other media have been upstaging video games forever. We need to uprise to this. We need to stick up for ourselves and show that video games CAN do the whole gaming logic thing, even thought its just an oxymoron.

Anyway we have two options, we can improve the overall quality of games...or we can just fight fire with fire. Video games have a lot of possibilites open to them, we can explore techniques that have been done to death to create a unique gaming experience.


Even if video games are somehow tragically doomed to wither and die, they can expend into other media. You can easily recreate a concert with all the awsome game music.
http://www.play-symphony.com/

You can easily create an opera based on pretty much any Final Fantasy game, or anything nerd-core.


You know what, I'm going to create a Final Fantasy opera once I come across some money.

Woo Hoo!

What is this about? You must really have something interesting to talk about! 'cause that's one kick-ass image. While I agree that Tekken 6 is awsome due to the fact that Alisa is tied for best character with King, but now for the fact that I have finally beaten the damn game at the arcade.
With a hangover, after the Wolfenstein Beta party.

Alright enough clowning around, Wolfenstein was great, even thought the only audio was loud and annoying duff duff music. There is a reason why I don't like radio music, and even techno can't save Lady Gaga's Paparazzi.

Like all AAA games, it looks as pretty as hell, but I still have problems with visual gameplay elements. Oh man, those nazis have everything, a tesla gun and ectoplasm gun.

The waypoint bar works fine, but the little damage circle that indicates from what direction your taking damage from didn't work. It couldn't tell me where I was taking damage from until I was getting shot at from ALL sides. AND SCREW THE BLUE INVISIBLE WALLS!! What possible need do Nazi's have for invisble blue walls?

I mean, they have invisible nazi techno mage doctors, nazi invisible death-ninjas, nazi dog-like freaks, millions of nazi disposable mooks and nazi paranormal creatures, so why the hell do they need blue invisible walls?

They have this cool powers, but how was I supposed to tell that the power is meant to go through those bloody blue invisible walls.

Otherwise good game, looking forward to the gold version to see if they actually fixed all those stupid little things.

Gamer Logic

Man, the game industry is lagging behind. Yeah it's entering the tween stage, more about that later, but it just seems that everyone else does the gamer logic better than the games industry.

The TV industry certainly does the gaming logic better. Take Chuck for example, that show is oozing with more gaming logic than most games I've played.

The beginning scene opens with a parquer scene that seems like something out of Mirror's Edge, which was well played out. It even gave you something to think about in games, why CAN'T you jump through the little window at the top of the door.

There is also the premise that average Joe comes across a super power/secret/weapon/realisation that comes across to save himself/everyone he loves/the country/the world, and is unwillingly put into the action packed lol-athon before he comes into grips with his power/secret/weapon/realisation.

I found the situations that Chuck is put into is very gamer-like, with the variety of missions like something straight out of a big brawler/stealth/romance/comedy/average Joe cum superhero game.

It was also very clever that they also added the obsessive compulsive/ADD/aspergers gamer via Chuck's "best friend" Larry.

But in my opinion they struck the balance right. It is accessible to newcomers since it doesn't intimidate them with big gamer-only insider jokes, but their still there. Chuck learns from all his experiences, he progresses his skills towards endgame, a story unfolds in the progressive manner that games tend to.

It's all about the balance, games should stop trying to be so conservative and try different things, more about that tomorrow.

Decisions decisions

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
- Hamlet

That seems to be the question that I seem to be faced with every time I pick up a game with the slightest RPG element. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Fallout 3 Oblivion, etc. etc. etc.

But there is a subtle key to the moral system that is oh so implemented in games.
Firstly you have mechanical consequences which is used to describe Newton's law in games. E.g. blow up Megaton and you will no longer have access to that area.
Then you have moral consequences, by blowing up Megaton anyone who had relatives living in Megaton will hate your guts for the duration of the game.

It's generally not a good idea to try and mix the two together outright. Bioshock is the biggest and easiest game to point the finger to in this matter. Quite frankly, I didn't care less whether the little sister lived or died, cause all it really does is change a few lines of dialogue at the end...that and the rewards you receive. Kill the sister, u get more Adam, save them and u get less Adam, but periodically will be given gifts to compensate for this.

On paper it looks like a nice idea, but the reality is that the gamers didn't feel any urge to save these people. Neither did they like the black & white morality system. Kill even one sister and you magically become the devil incarnation.

Oh joy.

You have to understand that moral choices can be placed in a bell curve, the majority of the people will be in the grey area, choosing to what they seem to benefit them more.

Having both moral and mechanical consequences at the same time in a game will make it seem like a nasty way to try and add more useless game play hours.

Instead of trying to bribe a player to make moral choices based on the fact that they will get chocolate or vanilla ice cream depending on how much of a dick they act in game. Emotional investment is how you truly get moral choices happening in game.

So please stop trying to shove moral choices down my throat, most of the time it feels like your trying to make me replay the game so i can see the two different endings. If you want me to re-play the game, then make me give half-a-crap about the characters.

This should be enough explanation.

Quote of the day

"I'm an atheist gamer, I don't believe in God mode"

For the budding game developer

Please, please never forget to approach game design with a VERY open mind.

If they see it, they will walk to it, even if it looks remotely impossible, they will still try to do it.

Invisible walls, bodies of water, forcibly turning the player around without any explanation, the quick patch solutions to modern gaming, we need to get rid of them all.

If you don't want your player going to a certain place or doing certain things, just simply don't feature it in the game.

What to look for in a video game

I'm going to use the word that everyone hates to use; casual gaming.

Their the mutants of the gaming community, everyone has their own opinion on the matter, but one thing is clear, they are making money, Microsoft money.

Sure it can be said that casual gaming diluted the "hardcore" sector of the video games industry, and that no more "hardcore" titles aimed at the "hardcore" gamers, but for the minimal amount of work they make the maximum profits. Take a look at Peggle, everyone played it at least once, and to a certain extent enjoyed the experience, even the "hardcore" at heart played it when their WoW servers were down.

So if you have any gripes about casual gamers, just do what I do, snub your nose at them, and refuse to classify them as a proper gamer, but welcome their willingness to share the experience that is called "gaming".

I would like to point your attention to Mr. Mullet here. Go on, play it, it's OK, I'll be waiting for you here.

You done? OK. Did you have any major gripes with it? No. Wow, that must be shocking since most AAA titles must all have had at least one flaw that you could fault them for.

Now why could that be? Is it the sheer simplicity of the "casual" game, the simple and intuitive visual aids, the minimal amount of information that is needed in order for you to play the game?
Well there are many games like these, back in the days when "AI" just used to be an enemy who could only go from right to left hand side of the screen, or follow a loop of pre-set commands that
could be figured out with a little bit of persistence?

Now don't forget old school games weren't just more simplistic, they were also mind-numbing painfully hard. They didn't hold your hand, and give you encouraging words when u failed to make the double-twist-triple-tuck-cyclone-of-doom onto the boss' LEFT arse cheek when you should have aimed for the RIGHT one.

And that my friends is why I love old school games.

Not that the current AAA titles are doing anything wrong, its just that their trying to mimic real life too much. Trying to copy all the rules of society, physics and metaphysics and what-have-you-nots, which is the major contributing factor to why the latest Alone in the Dark flopped, it just tried to be too many things, and tried to break the uncanny valley.

There is a reason why we even have "Gamer Logic", when we play a game, WE go into THEIR world and follow THEIR rules. When a game has figured out gamer logic properly, the gamer will feel that their just not playing the game, but rather experience the game.

Which must explain why I felt like growing a mullet and get a new partner after playing Mr. Mullet.

Posts, now with pictures

Thanks XKCD for expressing my feelings so well.

Of course what I'm talking about is game developers trying to blatantly deny any influences to other games.

I know that they may have reason for not making such statements. That they don't want to make it blatantly obvious that their game is going to be another clone, but if the game is well made and put together, the similarities is going to be obvious.

But what are you talking about? Surely PR releases any outside influences their games have just like all good university students? Don't believe me? Try to find one game developer that clearly states that their game is "influenced by game X" with0ut saying that their game is going to surpass said game.

Go on, make my day.

Walk like a man

Ever notice that everyone walks the in a different way? Why, yes? What about in video games? Can’t recall? How about if I make it easier for you? N-O, there is hardly any notable difference in the way that characters in video games walk or run.

Everyone in video games is a textbook example on how to run/walk. The only notable difference in a character’s gait is when they have a limp the size of a stadium, or said character is a femme fatale walking in an overly sexed manner during a pre-render scene.

This I believe contributes to the dilemma of game immersion.

If people truly believe that video games and the movie industry is merging into the same, then they should use some of the processing power going to the next pretty gun-slap-explosion-blood splatter into creating more believable characters.

Heavy Rain has the right idea, with being able to motion capture eye-movement and all that jazz, but if they are able to change the gait of all the characters during the game play, then they have truly achieved something in my account.

Keep this in mind next time you play your video game.

Many thanks to Becky for pointing this out for me.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Pull up a chair, stay a while, I’m going to tell you the story of Batman Arkham Asylum.

After spending many many minutes at gametrailers.com, I can tell you that my pants were soaked with all the drool I had. It just looked that good.

This is the sort of thing that I want to be able to create as a 3D game artist, but enough about me, back onto the world’s greatest detective.

The first thing that hooked me onto the game is the premise of the game sticking to the classical Batman.

Not the 1950’s Batman who takes a lighter approach to crime fighting and calls Robin “old chum”. Not Batman Returns, the grizzly old man who trashes anyone in his way within an inch of his life without remorse, who also likes his sidekicks with more feminie touch. Although getting better no. Not the Batman animated series, which had the right idea for batman, was watered down for the younger audience.

I’m talking about the Batman in comics such as The Long Halloween, where everything is black on black, clearly showing in the artwork aesthetics.

The game developers are setting out to make this game the love letter to all the Batz fans, with this being the climatic lead up of everything Batman.

But here is for the prediction:

This game is going to play just like a Devil May Cry, Prototype, Dynasty Warriors, Condemned mash-up. Can anyone say quick-time events? Lots and lots of them? From what I’ve seen, the fighting system is going to be a big quick time event, where you can string an endless combo of attacks if you “time it correctly” as well with counters. If that’s not enough quick time event for you, the goons emit a little symbol on top of their head when they are about to execute an attack, a more subtle quick time event.

There is even talk of a Prince of Persia mechanism that will prevent the Dark Knight from falling to his doom through a quick time event.

I try to be the least pessimistic about it, but when the developer says something like “in the end Batman is only human” I’m steeling myself for the inevitable frustrating death of frustration due to either crappy camera angles, mob rushes of goons, or both. Unavoidable in the beat ‘em up genre, but that doesn’t help make it any less frustrating.

Here’s hoping that the Dark Crusader can hold up game play wise, because at this stage, he is delivering in spades visually and in the audio department.

Graffiti Artists

If you want to be taken seriously here are a few words of advice:

Stop being tools, no one wants to see your crappy doodles of your name with sharp corners.
Also while your at it, learn to shadow your damn pictures.
Pictures that don't involve gangsters or genitalia.

And if you truly want to be recognised as the "aspiring artist" that you want to be treated as: ask for permission from the council, who I'm sure will be more than willing to allow these "artworks" if they actually have any proper artistic qualities about them.

The Branching Tree of Death

As Lee Sheldon so elegantly said over his one hour rant with yours truly, he struck home possibly one the greatest problems that video games face today.

Storytelling.

I know, I know, there are some of you out there that believe video games and story telling are not meant to co-exist with one another, but it's definitely there, even for the fanatics who think games are all about pretty guns and blood and gore. And for this I blame all the game developers who treat storytelling as an added luxury. We can't blame these people who have been conditioned to treat storytelling within video games like this.

But I personally think that games are still a developing media, and that it is important for game developers to keep in mind story throughout all the phases of the game, just as they constantly change the art and programming as the game progresses and changes throughout the development phase.

One of the important things that also have to be considered is how the story is going to be presented. Should it take an artsy approach and allow the gamer to interpret their own version of the story, or should it just be within hundreds of pages of text?

Personally, I think the latter choice is an abomination as I don't have the time nor the patience to read a book within a game, if it doesn't have any critical plot information spelled out for me.

I think there are many ways to cover story telling, but since I'm starting to sound like a WoW quest giver, I'm going to leave that a job for further posts.

A tribute to...the recessio

Ha ha ha, see what I did there? Alright Michael Jackson aside...scratch that, let’s talk about him for a sec.

Now its time to bring to light my theory. Before the tragic Elvis Presley style death, I was always wondering whether the next great debate would be whether he was more black than white, or wether he was just simply one of those great people that evolved beyond that.

It’ll be interesting to see what the tribute to the king of pop has but if I got my say on the matter, they should have this guy in it.

Not only does he have a great hit there, but he could certainly show M.J. some new moves to boot.

Ah well back on topic, it is interesting to see how the great economic crisis has affected people. Especially in the way that people are pinching those pennies.

Can you imagine how that’s lowering the standards of the “romantic date”?

Who needs a swanky $100 per bite-size meal in an over-sized plate when you can make your own romance at McDonalds?
You can stare at each other under the fluorescent light, feed each other fries provocatively. You can engage other patrons in the subtle ways the government can rectify their child support payment systems. Afterwards you can take her in the chariot that is the public transport system.

First Post of the Season

Alright, let's get down to it.

What does Nana Rod stand for?

Nana in japanese stands for 7, so simply put, 7 Rods.

How that came about is a mystery for me to know, and possibly for you never to find out.