Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Resistance 1 vs. Resistance 2

With the game just a week away, I'd like to go over this video comparing the two. The game engine has definitely got an overhaul in the second iteration. What does that mean for the player, it means you'll believe the world your playing in more. PS3fanboy asks it's viewers if the game is "too colorful". I'm one in favor for that it's not "too" colorful. It is just enough to make it not look like a cartoonish version of Reistance. Comparing it to games such as Team Fortress 2, it doesn't come close to the art style. Team Fortress 2's art style helps represent the game in the fun quirky matter it is. Everything in the game goes well together. That said, I'm glad they didn't go exactly with that look. Resistance 2 is suppose to be a dark and gloomy time for America. Giving it a cartoon look would clash with that idea. Maybe I'm just crazy, what is your input? Here's the video comparing Resistance 1 and 2.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Gaming Gone Mainstream!


Ya, that's right, it's a Guitar Hero ad with KFC! I wonder what Mr. Sanders would say if you went back in time and told him about Guitar Hero. He would think you were insane!

Gaming sure has traveled into the mainstream audience. Whether it be in the Nintendo's Wii or Guitar Hero, video games has leaped from social outcast to social non-outcast? Haha, well you understand what I mean. Look at the movies, Max Payne is a movie! This was rumored back when the first one came out(I have the OPM magazine that talks about it becoming a movie!). It really is amazing to see it become a true form of art. But like all forms of art, it's up to future developers to keep it alive! I hope that I become one designer that keeps the idea and expands on it.


Side note: I just watched this video about company start ups and failures with Kevin rose. It's really intriguing to know how the popular website Digg started up.
Enjoy!

Why to start a new startup in a bad economywww.kevinrose.com

Monday, October 27, 2008

Dark City is freakin cool!

I've been doing some 3ds Max modeling for school and decided to take a break and watch the movie Dark City. I've had it lying around and I thought the trailer made it seem epic so why not. I watched the movie with low expectations and it blew away those expectations. Okay, the acting is not the best, the action wasn't as satisfying as the Matrix and the film's look (it was made in 1998) can make skip this gem. Without giving away too much, the movie is about a main character who looses his memory and is accused of murder. That character is John Murdock and the movie is his fight to find the truth about the city. Here's a trailer to set you up with the look / feel of the movie.



If you see this movie at your local Walmart, do your self a favor and give it a go. It will be one movie you won't regret owning!

[Pros: The concept is executed perfectly! The movie's quotes/lines can be remembered well due to the harmony with the story's plot. The city and its inhabitants are lifelike and believable (sometimes a bit creepy). One of the best Sci Fi movies in the end of the 20th century. ]
[Cons: Acting doesn't get to anywhere near bad but some might think parts that are meant to be dramatic are funny. The action can be rather dull at times. ]

Remember to "sleep now".


Along with this, I've been dying to play me some Resistance 2. I saw the Co-Op beta gameplay and it looks really fun! The more I see of it, the more I can see where they got their influences from. One game that the Insomniac crew got ideas from is definitely the Battlefield franchise. The whole co-op campaign can show you that they got the idea straight from that.

The teamplay is great but I wonder how this game will play with only 2 players or even 3. Full 8 player co-op looks a tad bit easier but what about the people that just want to play with a buddy. It'll be interesting to see how the balance works out. In Battlefield 2, a lot people used the medic or certain class compared to the other unused classes. I really hope that this doesn't happen with this game but only time will tell!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Resistance 2 Ad!

I saw this today and I think this Resistance 2 advertisement is pure genius! I don't know if the mainstream public knows enough about this title and I hope it doesn't get buried underneath all these upcoming triple A titles. Good luck Insomniac guys!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Max Payne or Max Fail?

Before I go into detail with my review of Max Payne, I'd like to say a few words about Dead Space! If you haven't tried it yet, do so now! Actually try it at night with surround sound and by yourself. If you don't get surprised at all then, you aren't human! Here's a senario (spoiler alert-sorta, skip to the next paragraph) that I witnessed while playing the game. An enemy came threw a broken vent in the side and attacked me. I shot it a couple times until it went back in the vents it came threw. I said, "Alright, maybe it's a scripted event that I wasn't suppose to kill it". Wrong was I! As I was walking away, the enemy came back threw and attacked me from behind! I ended up finishing him but it's moments like these that really make the game interesting and scary.



The game's enemy design are awesome because the "hyped" body dismemberment mechanic is amazing. You shoot a enemy in the leg, they fall down and drag their body towards you! I also think you should definitely check out the animated comic before playing the game. It tells you about how everything went to hell and then some.


[ Movie Review of Max Payne ]
Trailer:


Why is it that video game movies never turn out as good as you'd expect? Also, why did the director choose not to create a movie for the gaming audience instead of mixing the two? This is the main downfall for the movie and which I hated it for it. Here are some of the thoughts that went through my head while watching it:

" Where is the Max Payne that always takes painkillers? Why are the other side characters always talking? Mark Wahlberg is badass and looks like Max Payne. WTF, why is Ludacris a cop? Why did it take so long to get the killing? I want more killing! I should probably refill my soda (pop to the people that call soda, pop). I want more slow motion sequences! The main enemy got taken out from one shot, wtf? "

If you played the game, you'll be saying the same things. The movie suffers from trying to hard to get the causal audience and the gaming audience to like the movie. It ends up into a movie that they both won't like and is another video game movie gone bad. Seeing the trailer, I thought this was going to be a mix between the movie "Shoot'em Up" with the Max Payne story line. Man, was I wrong! If you were expecting a action packed movie, you aren't going to find it here. Another thing that bugged me was all these side characters talking. I try and think back what made Max Payne the game, Max Payne the game. I remembered the beginning comics that made the intro cut scene to every level. It had Max Payne talking to himself about the situation. Here's a video to help remind you if you forgot.

Beginning cut scene to Max Payne:


This isn't used at all in the movie and it is a shame. Instead, you hear from boring characters that you forget within seconds. That said, you don't fall into the world of Max Payne, you fall into a generic city. I don't know about you but I remember the game having tons of drug addicts, strippers, and crooked cops chasing him. The movie doesn't even have enough of these to satisfy that!

It's not all bad though. Mark Wahlberg's performance is like in every other movie, amazing. He really sets himself to look and act like Max Payne. The effects of the movie can be just amazing at times. The city's weather is always changing from snowy and night to sunny and bright. It seemed to me that they were trying to make it seem like Max Payne never knew what time of the day it was. It is moments like that that are really cool. The sad part of it all is that these positives don't save the movie from the disappointment it is.

___________________________________________________________________________________
C-
Pros: Mark Wahlberg is Max Payne, cool effects from weather to gun shots
Cons: Everything else. It tries to hard to be mix the mainstream audience with the gaming audience and just fails at it.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Rebate or not to rebate, there is no question.


I have a theory. "Rebates" or what I liked to call invisible money is all fake. I consider it to be like an energy drink that states that if you drink more than two, you might die? While some of us that aren't use to intense caffeine intake would die, the rest (also most of the world) would be fine. It's a placebo to make us feel better about what ever we're buying and I for one can't stand it.

Gas prices going down!


You saw it here first (no you probably didn't!). I find it ironic that people use to complain and bitch about gas prices sky rocketing up but I don't see any of them talking about how the prices went down. Maybe it'll go back to $3.10 tomorrow, next week, or in the next minute but hey, it's lower and that makes me happy!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Quarantine Review!

[ Review time for the movie Quarantine! ]

Here's a quick trailer of the movie.



For those who want a quick idea of what the movie is, it's basically mix of Cloverfield and 28 Weeks Later. The storyline without giving out too many spoilers is about a group of people stuck in an apartment building. Things go bananas and now they're fighting for their life.
Now for the good! It's phenomenal if you liked either of the movies previously named. The sound and tension of the movie really lets you sink yourself into the atmosphere. This movie has some cool effects done with the body of the undead, dead people. There are some moments in the movie that have that "pop in" effect for a scare. Those were pretty good and anyone easily scared will jump! Let me describe it to you. I saw that trailer and the parts that I knew were coming still had me feeling the tension and suspense on what was yet to come! Now any movie that does that is worth seeing! I also loved how the movie throws out "foreshadowing". It does it slightly that normal viewers will see and put it in back of the mind. That is until the moment you connect the pieces together and jump!
Now for the bad. Like any other movie, it really makes some of the characters feel real and grounded. On the other side of this is the stupidity that you usually get from side/supporting characters. You will be annoyed why character [A] forgot that character [b] and [c] were fucking infected. Along with that, if you weren't a fan of what I like to call "spin the camera and jerk it enough so that the viewer feels sick" camera shots from Cloverfield, you won't like certain parts of this movie. What the movie is trying (I think at least) to do is to make the viewer move their head as if they were in the movie. Sometimes it's basically becomes one giant clusterfuck of a mess.
Besides these top annoyances, you will love this movie! It does what it is trying to do very well (atmosphere and tension) with some side annoyances. If you saw the trailer and was even a tad bit curious, it's a movie for you!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Gears of Wars 2 looks to pretty good

I wanted to say that Gears of War 2 looks promising. The active human capture the flag seems cool but I don't know how well it is during gameplay. That said, everything else looks amazing. The map Avalanche has a actually avalanche that can comes in random and kills enemies. The whole co-op last stand mode is a under used mode in most shooters. One great game that used that same kind of mode was Unreal Tournament 2004. Well anyways, I thought I'd share this ESPN exclusive video. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

No love for Resistance 2!

Gametrailers' podcast,Bonus Round had no love for Resistance 2. I'm not a fanboy by any sorts (saying that probably means I'm in fanboy denial) but come on. Everyone really dismissed how big Resistance 2 will be. Look at Haze for the PS3. It has "same look as the Halo 3 cept yellow" and wasn't able to catch the mainstream audience. It only sold about 67,000 (in the first month of May according to http://www.gamedaily.com) and wasn't that amazing of a game. Don't get me wrong, Gears of War 2 is gonna be a seller but to really say that Resistance 2 isn't going to pull in a ton of audience is dumb. I posted up a post in the forums and you can see below the video. Just my 2 cents.


After watching it, I posted this..

"I disagree with those three that Resistance 2 doesn't look like it can be recognized through the other shooters. Casual gamers don't look at Half Life's Gorden Free and go, oh man, he's a badass. They would if someone told them about the game. Same thing goes with Resistance 2, once someone is told of the concept behind it, it becomes recognized. Saying that Gears' Marcus and Halo 3's Master Chief are more known is because hey, there's already a bigger install base on the 360. Of course more people will know of these characters because there's more people w/ 360's talking about it and telling people about the idea behind the game. And as for which game do you think gamers are gonna get, I think both. If they're really a hardcore gamer, they already have both systems and plan on getting both."

Friday, October 3, 2008

Why is there only 24 hours in a day?

I know many friends that got this achievement. Anger and broken controllers followed shortly after!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Running in real life = running in WoW?



With all the buzz that happened with Wii fit, I wonder if this could easily get as much hype if it became a retailed item. Look at it like this, on Direct TV, there is a Blizzcon special HD coverage that is coming up. Along with the special is an exclusive in game item that is for the people who purchased the Direct TV coverage. On Ebay, the prices for such item became over the hundred dollar mark. Now remember, this is only for a "in game" item.

Here is a picture of the item.


Here is the price people are willing to pay just for the item (no including the coverage you get with Direct TV).

Okay, so you get where I'm going with this. If a in game like this can be sold for an overpriced amount (look at image above & NOTE: the Direct TV coverage only costs 40 dollars if you already have Direct TV), Blizzard could appeal to those who would want a work out during the game if they released a product like the one shown above.