Monday, September 29, 2008
(PS3) Warhawk: Get in the ZONES!
Now, i still LOVE Warhawk and the Icarus Jetpacks turned out to a be a lot more fun and balanced than i thought they would...but why is it no one seems to play Zones? I personally consider Zones to be the best game type Warhawk has to offer, although i still haven't made my decision on Hero or Collection. For one the implementation of the Zones (across all the game types) is pretty unique to Warhawk, secondly it offers far more strategy than DM, TDM, or even CTF, and lastly, it's one of the best ways to earn points in ranked matches. Sure you can get more points for capturing or returning a flag, but you have to be that ONE guy who pulls it off. In Zones there's plenty of zone capturing and defense to be had by all. And think of the fun when the other team thinks they're pwning you as they capture zone after zone all the way to your base, only to have you and/or a couple teammates sneak to the other, relatively undefended side of the map to capture zones behind the enemy line, forcing them to return back in that direction. This splits their forces between two battlefronts (although yours will be as well...likely to a lesser degree) and creates a pincer as you have their team sandwiched in between two forces of yours. FUN!! So Warhawk players everywhere, get out there and get in them ZONES!!!
(Movies) Villains for the third Batman relaunch movie (Dark Knight's sequel)
With the outstanding success of The Dark Knight there has been lots of talk about the possible third installment in the series of "newer, realler" batman movies, and especially the villains it will enlist. So far it seems like Catwoman and The Riddler are the safest bets, from what i've heard around the net anyway, but if you would entertain my rant about this for a moment:
There was an article on IGN discussing these possibilities (i couldn't' find the article to link to so...find it yourselves :P) and how it would work out, this is the basis for most of my rant.
Catwoman: The article on IGN said that they'd love it to be Catowman, but couldn't see how it would work with the costume considering it took an entire movie to explain Batman's costume, but i cam up with a solution for this almost immediately, mostly because it works perfectly within the story idea i had involving catwoman and would, in fact, be almost necessary to that story. So, before i get to the costume dilemma, let me elaborate on the story.
The first two movies have already explored how Bruce Wayne's Batman persona has crippled his romantic life, and i think we could take this a step further with Selena Kyle/Catwoman. No longer held at bay simply by disagreeing with the principles of vigilantism Batman represents, Selena Kyle as a love interest could put an even bigger strain on Bruce Wayne's relationship with his alter ego. Throughout all the mediums Batman has taken residence in, the relationship with Selena has been his most interesting romantic challenge, Batman and Catwoman are on opposing sides of the law, and Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle know this about each other, creating an intricate tango between their affections for each other, and their alter ego's opposing moral views. Considering the idea this new series of Batman movies has taken with putting a superhero in the real world, it seems the best path to continue exploring just how strenuous it would be on a person's normal life, especially when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex, and we could watch as Bruce Wayne becomes more torn between his symbol of justice and wanting release form his duties as Gotham's Dark Knight.
And now we get to IGN's issue with the costume: it's the ears people! POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!! At the end of The Dark Knight Batman is on the run from Gotham police who believe he has murdered several officers and political figures. This is where i think Catowman, and her costume could be of the greatest help. Possibly the most defining feature of Batman's costume are his ears, something that could be easily mistaken for...cat ears maybe? And having Catwoman at some point voluntarily take the blame for Batman's crimes (once again shifting the blame from the actual perpetrator) could throw an interesting wrench into her perceived role as "villain" as well as explain her need for the iconic costume (excluding Halle Berry's travesty). It would be a simple enough plan, she's a cat burglar, and the ears will have the aforementioned effect...like i said: simple.
As for the actress, i've heard mumblings of Angelina Jolie. Fair enough, she'd probably do it quite well, but she strikes me as more the barroom brawl, knock-down drag out fighting type. Catwoman, it seems, should have a more flexible, acrobatic fighting style, better suited to a woman of more slender body type like Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) or Ali Larter (Heroes), both of whom are obviously familiar with superhero type roles. But that's just one man's opinion.
The Riddler: I actually like IGN's idea of having The Riddler be a character brought in to help hunt down batman; a kind of rogue genius who operates as freelance law enforcement. However, there's also the need for him to either transition to villain or secretly be playing that role behind the scenes the entire time, so he needs to be TWISTED genius as well. My only suggestion here is one for the actor to play the role, an actor anyone could easily believe his genius is matched only by his depraved insanity: Crispin Glover (Willard, Charlie's Angels...ok, i never actually saw the movie but i did see a few minutes of his role, and it seemed pretty in-line with the creepy outsider type role he seems best suited too).
So those are my ideas for the third Batman movie villains. Discuss.
There was an article on IGN discussing these possibilities (i couldn't' find the article to link to so...find it yourselves :P) and how it would work out, this is the basis for most of my rant.
Catwoman: The article on IGN said that they'd love it to be Catowman, but couldn't see how it would work with the costume considering it took an entire movie to explain Batman's costume, but i cam up with a solution for this almost immediately, mostly because it works perfectly within the story idea i had involving catwoman and would, in fact, be almost necessary to that story. So, before i get to the costume dilemma, let me elaborate on the story.
The first two movies have already explored how Bruce Wayne's Batman persona has crippled his romantic life, and i think we could take this a step further with Selena Kyle/Catwoman. No longer held at bay simply by disagreeing with the principles of vigilantism Batman represents, Selena Kyle as a love interest could put an even bigger strain on Bruce Wayne's relationship with his alter ego. Throughout all the mediums Batman has taken residence in, the relationship with Selena has been his most interesting romantic challenge, Batman and Catwoman are on opposing sides of the law, and Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle know this about each other, creating an intricate tango between their affections for each other, and their alter ego's opposing moral views. Considering the idea this new series of Batman movies has taken with putting a superhero in the real world, it seems the best path to continue exploring just how strenuous it would be on a person's normal life, especially when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex, and we could watch as Bruce Wayne becomes more torn between his symbol of justice and wanting release form his duties as Gotham's Dark Knight.
And now we get to IGN's issue with the costume: it's the ears people! POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!! At the end of The Dark Knight Batman is on the run from Gotham police who believe he has murdered several officers and political figures. This is where i think Catowman, and her costume could be of the greatest help. Possibly the most defining feature of Batman's costume are his ears, something that could be easily mistaken for...cat ears maybe? And having Catwoman at some point voluntarily take the blame for Batman's crimes (once again shifting the blame from the actual perpetrator) could throw an interesting wrench into her perceived role as "villain" as well as explain her need for the iconic costume (excluding Halle Berry's travesty). It would be a simple enough plan, she's a cat burglar, and the ears will have the aforementioned effect...like i said: simple.
As for the actress, i've heard mumblings of Angelina Jolie. Fair enough, she'd probably do it quite well, but she strikes me as more the barroom brawl, knock-down drag out fighting type. Catwoman, it seems, should have a more flexible, acrobatic fighting style, better suited to a woman of more slender body type like Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) or Ali Larter (Heroes), both of whom are obviously familiar with superhero type roles. But that's just one man's opinion.
The Riddler: I actually like IGN's idea of having The Riddler be a character brought in to help hunt down batman; a kind of rogue genius who operates as freelance law enforcement. However, there's also the need for him to either transition to villain or secretly be playing that role behind the scenes the entire time, so he needs to be TWISTED genius as well. My only suggestion here is one for the actor to play the role, an actor anyone could easily believe his genius is matched only by his depraved insanity: Crispin Glover (Willard, Charlie's Angels...ok, i never actually saw the movie but i did see a few minutes of his role, and it seemed pretty in-line with the creepy outsider type role he seems best suited too).
So those are my ideas for the third Batman movie villains. Discuss.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
(PS3) Fracture Impressions (PSN Demo)
Expectations are very important coming into something for the first time. And i must say, my expectations for Fracture were not very high. Sure, the whole terrain deformation aspect sounded cool; make hills and holes wherever you want! It sounded pretty gimmicky, and probably at the expense of the rest of the game. But after playing the Demo available yesterday on the PSN, i'm glad to say that i was wrong...so far at least.
The ability to alter the terrain around you is actually a lot more fun and a lot more relevant to the gameplay than i thought. I spent a significant amount of time in the demo just sitting in an empty area messing around with the terrain deformation and all the physics-enabled objects it affected. Make a hole under some boxes and they'll hover for a split second before dropping down, make a hill under those same objects and they'll be launched into the air. Even better, if you stand on top of a box and make a hill underneath it you'll ride that box up into the air! This feature even plays into the combat well; getting hammered while surrounded by enemies? Just make a hill next to you and give yourself some cover on one side. Or make a hill under some enemies and toss them into the air and shoot them while they're off balance and recovering from their fall. Once i even made a hole right underneath a guy and watched as the boxes he was hiding behind rolled over on top of him. There's the standard stuff you'd expect too; raise the ground here to reach a higher ledge, lower it hear to get under that fence, etc. but at least you an do all this rather intuitively with your gun, or "Entrencher," (L1's down and R1's up) instead of it being limited to your grenades, which was how the feature worked the last time i heard anything on this game.
The combat itself is pretty standard fare, save for the terrain deformation effect, of course. Run around with a targeting reticule, shoot the bad guys, rinse, repeat. There are def some cool weapons though, like a the gun that launches a missile underground and can be detonated whenever you wish, or the sticky bomb launcher; looks like these guys were playing some Ratchet and Clank.
The graphics, while not jaw-dropping are definitely serviceable. There are even some subtle detailed touches: pay close attention to the front of your character model and you'll notice there's a holographic HUD coming out of his suits color in front of his face. Kinda explains the HUD in the game, don't it? Although your commanding officer's face is noticeably more detailed than any other character, but maybe it just looks that way because he's all wrinkly...
Overall i actually enjoyed this demo a lot more than the Mercenaries 2 one i picked up while i was cruisin the PSN's Thursday update. I just hope it's able to keep the combat interesting enough that i won't get bored with making hills and holes throughout the course of the entire game. And the promising chaos of applying the Terrain Deformation (apparently that's the developer's official name for it...makes sense) to mulitplayer just sounds like fun. Here's to hoping and surpassed expectations!
The ability to alter the terrain around you is actually a lot more fun and a lot more relevant to the gameplay than i thought. I spent a significant amount of time in the demo just sitting in an empty area messing around with the terrain deformation and all the physics-enabled objects it affected. Make a hole under some boxes and they'll hover for a split second before dropping down, make a hill under those same objects and they'll be launched into the air. Even better, if you stand on top of a box and make a hill underneath it you'll ride that box up into the air! This feature even plays into the combat well; getting hammered while surrounded by enemies? Just make a hill next to you and give yourself some cover on one side. Or make a hill under some enemies and toss them into the air and shoot them while they're off balance and recovering from their fall. Once i even made a hole right underneath a guy and watched as the boxes he was hiding behind rolled over on top of him. There's the standard stuff you'd expect too; raise the ground here to reach a higher ledge, lower it hear to get under that fence, etc. but at least you an do all this rather intuitively with your gun, or "Entrencher," (L1's down and R1's up) instead of it being limited to your grenades, which was how the feature worked the last time i heard anything on this game.
The combat itself is pretty standard fare, save for the terrain deformation effect, of course. Run around with a targeting reticule, shoot the bad guys, rinse, repeat. There are def some cool weapons though, like a the gun that launches a missile underground and can be detonated whenever you wish, or the sticky bomb launcher; looks like these guys were playing some Ratchet and Clank.
The graphics, while not jaw-dropping are definitely serviceable. There are even some subtle detailed touches: pay close attention to the front of your character model and you'll notice there's a holographic HUD coming out of his suits color in front of his face. Kinda explains the HUD in the game, don't it? Although your commanding officer's face is noticeably more detailed than any other character, but maybe it just looks that way because he's all wrinkly...
Overall i actually enjoyed this demo a lot more than the Mercenaries 2 one i picked up while i was cruisin the PSN's Thursday update. I just hope it's able to keep the combat interesting enough that i won't get bored with making hills and holes throughout the course of the entire game. And the promising chaos of applying the Terrain Deformation (apparently that's the developer's official name for it...makes sense) to mulitplayer just sounds like fun. Here's to hoping and surpassed expectations!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
PS3: 2.4 and beyond...
Maybe i should have said 2.41 after the whole system crash debacle, but my system worked just fine with 2.4 so i'm stickin with it. But i digress. The point of this entry is that i can now say that when it comes to the Playstation 3 vs Xbox 360 argument the PS3 is the superior system in every way. Up until 2.4 i could go through the strengths and weaknesses of each system and say that came out basically even, and it was just a matter of preference. Also up until now, the only reason my entries leaned more towards PS3 was because i could only afford one system and went with the PS3 because it's online network was free and it had a Blu-ray player to show of my shiny new HDTV (I always knew Blu-ray would win out over HD-DVD anyway).
So now, yes, i'm afraid i must say that Playstation 3 is truly the superior system. But i can't just make a statement like that and not back it up, can i? Allow me to elaborate...
Hardware: The PS3 is simply a more powerful system. It is, if you're arguing with your monitor or even shaking your head right now, you are flat-out wrong. There is no way to make this a matter of opinion, the PS3 has more powerful innards; it is better, stronger, faster (let's call it the 600 dollar box instead of the 6 million dollar man though). This more powerful hardware means multiplatform titles will look better on PS3, although it's unlikely we'll see a bigger difference than we did from the PS2 to the original Xbox as that's roughly the same discrepancy in processing power. It hasn't shown very often thus far, but that can be easily attributed to the 360's year headstart (making it the more common lead development platform) and the genuinely new hardware of the PS3. PC gamers know how long it took before developers were properly able to take advantage of multithreaded games with dual core processors, and the PS3's Cell is essentially a septuple core processor! whoa. This should become even more apparent once we get studios really using PhyreEngine. Also, the PS3 never had any Red Ring of Death epidemic.
Media: One word: Blu-ray. Whether or not you like it as a movie format, (which i honestly don't understand to this day, it has nearly double the storage capacity of HD-DVD and twice the transfer rate) it's benefit to gaming is tremendous. With the increase in complexity of modern games come an increase in the amount of data that needs to be stored. And even if you can't wrap your head around that, consider how we needed these new formats just to have HD movies and that all these modern games are in HD. There ya go. Metal Gear Solid 4 had to be cut down to fit on a dual layer BD! That's a 50GB disc! How exactly are you going to fit that on an 8GB dvd? Yeah, i don't know either...but Kojima is a helluva lot smarter than i am.
Hard Drives: Yep, i know, the 360 has 'em too, hell so did the Xbox (so did the PS2 actually, but it came way to late for any good support) but the big advantage is that EVERY PS3 has a hard drive. This is important to developers, because that means they can account for this resource in making their games. 360 developers have to base their game on a system without a hard drive and maybe throw in some extra functionality or advantage for the users who do have one. Quite a step backwards on Microsoft's part.
Exclusive titles: Ok, so Sony was kinda weak here for a little too long, but they're picking up now. Besides, does anyone remember the 360's launch library? Uuuhhhh, ew. I'll take Resistance over Perfect Dark Zero anyday. But back to the present, they've got Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank Future, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Folklore (cult hit though it was) to name...the ones that i can think of right now. Now let's consider the worthwhile 360 exclusives: Gears of War (i've got that on my PC), Mass Effect (yeah, that one too) BioShock (yep, that as well, with better graphics and controls even. Oh yeah, and it's on it's way to PS3 with exclusive content) Halo 3 (i'm pretty sure it'll follow the first 2 and make it's way to my PC as well) Now let's have a look at the future. There's still Killzone 2, Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, InFamous, Motorstorm:Pacific Rift, Valkyria Chronicles, Heavy Rain, The Agency, oh yeah and a version of Alone in the Dark that's actually enjoyable. I think i hit on pretty much every genre there, right?
Controller: Microsoft copied the DualShock, they've even admitted to this. Go back to the earliest days of the Xbox and you can find interviews and such with Msoft representatives saying that their goal was to combine the DualShock and Dreamcast controllers into what they came up with. And originally i was kind of torn between the new functionality the SIXAXIS offered and the force feedback the 360 controller gave me, but now there's the DualShock 3. And at least they didn't go with the Sidewinder looking boomerang controller. It may have been an attempt to copy the "wow" reaction elicited by the Wii-mote, but it still opens up new gameplay possibilities. Have you tried flying a Warhawk with motion control? It's a blast! (once you learn how to do it) Or how about the crazy soul-capturing spazfests in Folklore? That's just fun. And there's still new possibilities to be had. If i can digress for a moment to share one of my ideas with you: imagine a first-person shooter that has an enemy on the ceiling above you, instead of looking up to shoot it down, you simply tilt the controller sideways, pointing the gun straight up without adjustin your point of view, and BAM! Hells. Yeah. (i thought of this while watching Pineapple Express, watch it and see if you can figure out when)
Network: It's free. You Xbox fanboys can throw out "Live's only $50!" all you want, free is still free and 50 bucks is still 50 bucks. And 50 bucks can still get you a new game...yeah. This is really where the 2.4 firmware comes in. Also worth mentioning the firmware updates in general, it's nice knowing that i could have some cool new feature added to my system at anytime so long as there are enough people around the world that want it too. But now every little feature Live had and the PSN didn't, it's got it now. Cross-game friends lists? check. Downloadable shows and movies? check. (in HD even!) Easy to navigate online store? check. Achievements? check, but they call 'em trophies.
Now let's get into that; trophies. Worldwide bragging rights. No longer can you gloat just about how you outscore your bud in whatever online came you've played him in, now you can brag about how you've outscored him in gaming in general. w007! indeed. Not only that, but the trophy system is better, in my opinion. Each challenge bested doesn't get you an arbitrary number of points, it gets you a defined, universally recognizable trophy. The whole world participates in the Olympics right? Yeah, we all know what Gold, Silver, and Bronze stand for. (and mostly Platinum, I know the ladies do)
And then there's Home. Also free, like the network in general. With home, rather than just sending text messages to people you already know...somehow, you can walk your virtual ass around a virtual world, or into the virtual apartment of your virtual friend to set up some virtual games. That's virtually the shit!
So yeah, let's sum this up: Better hardware + better storage format + better controllers + better games + better network = better system. Period. That's not to say i don't like the 360, i actually do, very much. It's got some worthwhile things going for it (Live can still be crossed over to PC gamers...when they implement it) but now, when someone asks me which system is better, instead of saying "Weeelllll, what kinda depends on what kind of games you play and what kind of TV you have..." i say "Playstation 3, beyotch!!!"
So now, yes, i'm afraid i must say that Playstation 3 is truly the superior system. But i can't just make a statement like that and not back it up, can i? Allow me to elaborate...
Hardware: The PS3 is simply a more powerful system. It is, if you're arguing with your monitor or even shaking your head right now, you are flat-out wrong. There is no way to make this a matter of opinion, the PS3 has more powerful innards; it is better, stronger, faster (let's call it the 600 dollar box instead of the 6 million dollar man though). This more powerful hardware means multiplatform titles will look better on PS3, although it's unlikely we'll see a bigger difference than we did from the PS2 to the original Xbox as that's roughly the same discrepancy in processing power. It hasn't shown very often thus far, but that can be easily attributed to the 360's year headstart (making it the more common lead development platform) and the genuinely new hardware of the PS3. PC gamers know how long it took before developers were properly able to take advantage of multithreaded games with dual core processors, and the PS3's Cell is essentially a septuple core processor! whoa. This should become even more apparent once we get studios really using PhyreEngine. Also, the PS3 never had any Red Ring of Death epidemic.
Media: One word: Blu-ray. Whether or not you like it as a movie format, (which i honestly don't understand to this day, it has nearly double the storage capacity of HD-DVD and twice the transfer rate) it's benefit to gaming is tremendous. With the increase in complexity of modern games come an increase in the amount of data that needs to be stored. And even if you can't wrap your head around that, consider how we needed these new formats just to have HD movies and that all these modern games are in HD. There ya go. Metal Gear Solid 4 had to be cut down to fit on a dual layer BD! That's a 50GB disc! How exactly are you going to fit that on an 8GB dvd? Yeah, i don't know either...but Kojima is a helluva lot smarter than i am.
Hard Drives: Yep, i know, the 360 has 'em too, hell so did the Xbox (so did the PS2 actually, but it came way to late for any good support) but the big advantage is that EVERY PS3 has a hard drive. This is important to developers, because that means they can account for this resource in making their games. 360 developers have to base their game on a system without a hard drive and maybe throw in some extra functionality or advantage for the users who do have one. Quite a step backwards on Microsoft's part.
Exclusive titles: Ok, so Sony was kinda weak here for a little too long, but they're picking up now. Besides, does anyone remember the 360's launch library? Uuuhhhh, ew. I'll take Resistance over Perfect Dark Zero anyday. But back to the present, they've got Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank Future, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Folklore (cult hit though it was) to name...the ones that i can think of right now. Now let's consider the worthwhile 360 exclusives: Gears of War (i've got that on my PC), Mass Effect (yeah, that one too) BioShock (yep, that as well, with better graphics and controls even. Oh yeah, and it's on it's way to PS3 with exclusive content) Halo 3 (i'm pretty sure it'll follow the first 2 and make it's way to my PC as well) Now let's have a look at the future. There's still Killzone 2, Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, InFamous, Motorstorm:Pacific Rift, Valkyria Chronicles, Heavy Rain, The Agency, oh yeah and a version of Alone in the Dark that's actually enjoyable. I think i hit on pretty much every genre there, right?
Controller: Microsoft copied the DualShock, they've even admitted to this. Go back to the earliest days of the Xbox and you can find interviews and such with Msoft representatives saying that their goal was to combine the DualShock and Dreamcast controllers into what they came up with. And originally i was kind of torn between the new functionality the SIXAXIS offered and the force feedback the 360 controller gave me, but now there's the DualShock 3. And at least they didn't go with the Sidewinder looking boomerang controller. It may have been an attempt to copy the "wow" reaction elicited by the Wii-mote, but it still opens up new gameplay possibilities. Have you tried flying a Warhawk with motion control? It's a blast! (once you learn how to do it) Or how about the crazy soul-capturing spazfests in Folklore? That's just fun. And there's still new possibilities to be had. If i can digress for a moment to share one of my ideas with you: imagine a first-person shooter that has an enemy on the ceiling above you, instead of looking up to shoot it down, you simply tilt the controller sideways, pointing the gun straight up without adjustin your point of view, and BAM! Hells. Yeah. (i thought of this while watching Pineapple Express, watch it and see if you can figure out when)
Network: It's free. You Xbox fanboys can throw out "Live's only $50!" all you want, free is still free and 50 bucks is still 50 bucks. And 50 bucks can still get you a new game...yeah. This is really where the 2.4 firmware comes in. Also worth mentioning the firmware updates in general, it's nice knowing that i could have some cool new feature added to my system at anytime so long as there are enough people around the world that want it too. But now every little feature Live had and the PSN didn't, it's got it now. Cross-game friends lists? check. Downloadable shows and movies? check. (in HD even!) Easy to navigate online store? check. Achievements? check, but they call 'em trophies.
Now let's get into that; trophies. Worldwide bragging rights. No longer can you gloat just about how you outscore your bud in whatever online came you've played him in, now you can brag about how you've outscored him in gaming in general. w007! indeed. Not only that, but the trophy system is better, in my opinion. Each challenge bested doesn't get you an arbitrary number of points, it gets you a defined, universally recognizable trophy. The whole world participates in the Olympics right? Yeah, we all know what Gold, Silver, and Bronze stand for. (and mostly Platinum, I know the ladies do)
And then there's Home. Also free, like the network in general. With home, rather than just sending text messages to people you already know...somehow, you can walk your virtual ass around a virtual world, or into the virtual apartment of your virtual friend to set up some virtual games. That's virtually the shit!
So yeah, let's sum this up: Better hardware + better storage format + better controllers + better games + better network = better system. Period. That's not to say i don't like the 360, i actually do, very much. It's got some worthwhile things going for it (Live can still be crossed over to PC gamers...when they implement it) but now, when someone asks me which system is better, instead of saying "Weeelllll, what kinda depends on what kind of games you play and what kind of TV you have..." i say "Playstation 3, beyotch!!!"
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