Tims Logbook

Along with supreme commander (which has yet to get old), I've been dabbling in h3 and am digging through orange box offerings at the moment. Portal was short and sweet. I expected a premise, yet came away with a storyline. HL2:ep2 has been relatively engaging, though its getting a bit long in the tooth. Move to new area find your way blocked by a puzzle or enemies, solve or kill and move generally linearly along the plot paths. Its well done, yet its missing something.

Halo sorta dragged in the first part, its now starting to get somewhat interesting. Im craving story and purpose as I get older. later acts are starting to provide a bit more of both.

Bought it, played it, finished it. Enjoyed it.

However, it's so close to system shock 2, it might as well been the sequel. Not that the mechanics are bad, but being so amazingly similar in mechanics AND storyline, well, it's a bit of deju vu playing it.

Since few people played SS2, they have the thrill of playing a very polished game with engaging plot 'for the first time'.

The moral choices talked about in previews don't really amount to much, there isn't character growth like Jade Empire.

Which by the way, I'm really enjoying playing again.

Watched MGS4 gameplay today. I'm really unimpressed. A lot of the conventions that once gave this game character are now cliched and silly. Gone is the cardboard box, now you get a barrel... a barrel that comes out of thin air. The 'octocam' suit seemed kinda cool at first, but made the player amazingly invisible to enemies (who still can't seem to see more than 10 feet ahead of them in broad daylight). I half way wonder if the controls are still pretty much fubar (like pressing square to draw a weapon, and releasing it to fire), considering MGS3 didn't fix this major flaw, I wouldn't be suprised. For being in a war zone, the demo had a suprising amount of knockouts and stuns, with no reason given as to why other than to show off the ol' tranq gun (another MGS cliche that seemed out of place). Snake can hold about 20 rifles and weapons just like before, which squarely puts this in a more arcade experience, the point being that I constantly thought about how cool Splinter Cell was, and how that franchise has been more engaging and fun than MGS has been. Sadly, the SC franchise has been floundering a bit lately, but that's for another post. Bottom line, MGS4 won't get me to buy a PS3. I'm not sure what it'll do for sales, even in japan... who can afford it?

You may have heard, Starcraft 2 was announced officially. After watching the gameplay footage, I see Blizzard trotting out the exact same formula RTS. But hey, check it out, you can zoom and rotate. Fighting just looks dull. Come on guys, have you seen Dawn of War or Company of Heroes? What about Supreme commander with its 'grand scope of things' map view?

Of course starcraft 2 makes sense business wide, if only to sell more product in korea, but to simply reskin WC3 and ship it is an insult.

Pah, I talk like I'm a big fan of Starcraft, and really, I'm not. The art is cool and some of the story was interesting, but the game play was always lackluster compared to other offerings.

I can't say if this will fail miserably, or sell like hotcakes, I just can't expect the reviews to be good, there are amazingly better RTS'es out there, and Warcraft/Starcraft formulas are from a bygone era

I get pissed off pretty quickly by games nowadays. I no longer have the tolerance to put up with wacky control schemes.

So I fired up the Armored Core 4 demo yesterday, and it was actually kinda workable (Holy crap, analog sticks actually MOVE your mecha! a first for AC games!) But then they totally blew it by having the triggers be the thruster control. 'A' Fires the right weapons, and 'X' fires the left. Ok, but *aiming* is on the right thumb stick.

If this was an Car with Guns kinda game, I'd be ok with this. right trigger is the gas pedal, and A would fire, and the right stick would be hardly used, since that might be 'look behind' or some such. But in a fast paced giant robot game, where the 'lock on' feature basically doesn't work, means that I can't aim and fire at the same time.

Sure, if the lock on feature worked, it might also be fine, but it NEVER DID. The tutorial was short, and didn't really understand when it auto-aimed and when it didn't.

Why couldn't it have a 'boost' modifier key, like left shoulder or something, so Left Shoulder + left stick = quick dodge.

I basically couldn't control my AC well enough to do anything, and the levels were very short and really not all that fun. Thank goodness it was a demo.

Has everyone forgotten the long string of major games and initiatives sony has claimed they'll roll out and then never delivered on? The PS2 online partnership with AOL that never materialized, killzone 2... Which still isn't out, (not that killzone 1 was any good), and now warhawk is still not released, though its morphed into an online only multiplayer title. So now there is this ps3 home, supposedly shipping in 6 months or so, but sony doesn't even have their base online functionality working right now on the console, and now people expect them to layer a MMO on top? Hah. Get real. the developer tools and support must've been cannibalized to support this ps3 home initiative. Great, thanks sony. Oh and Sonys EDGE isn't much more than random bits of source code. Its not a suite of tools like a useful debugger or better documentation. also, did they stop to think that this virtual world would instantly be rated M? All you need is one user named sh!+ cOx69 to show up at little johnnys virtual apartment in his penis textured jacket To share special 'video' with him. this home thing will be DOA, its not a system seller either. Wake me when the ps3 has a decent *game*.

As part of Forza 2's marketing, a new show about 'real race drivers' will be on Speed network starting Feb 21st. I believe it's only 4 episodes. A bit of forza 2 footage is shown in the trailer, but there is no guarentee they'll show any more. Forza or not, it looks like an interesting show. Variety of cars competing in races, with their drivers winning $100,000.

Well, no shit sherlock. I have to wonder about the internet gaming 'press'. They get their panties in a bunch over the strangest things. The Wii is a freakin gamecube. It doesn't have vertex or pixel shader hardware, so with UE3 basically requiring both, of course it won't work.

I went to Fry's tonight to get some miscellaneous crap, and I noticed there was about 30 PS3s 'in the cage', that ares behind the counter where they keep the pricey stuff. When buying my pile of crap, I asked the teller how well the PS3 is selling. "No one buys them now, they used to sell well at first, but not any more". "Too expensive?" I asked, she shrugged.

So there you have it, if you want an overpriced 'computer' / blu-ray / video game console, head down to fry's.

I admit it, I thought netscape was pretty lame when I first saw it. My main beef: "How are you gonna find *ANYTHING* on this "web", plus it was slow and only ran on solaris, so it wasn't of much use to most people. Ok, so I was wrong there.

Now we have the PS3 and Wii with browsers on them. And I say, big friggen deal. Why would I want to open arbitrary pages on my console. and how praytell are they going to keep up with how fast the web updates with new standards. Uh, shockwave is version 10 or 11 and they come out with a new one practically every quarter. Video codecs, PDFs, and so on also change frequently. Not only that, but most people still have crappy NTSC/PAL TV's, which have a hard time displaying 640x480 with any sort of fidelity. Plus you have pages designed for mouse use, not the controllers/light guns of these consoles. Honestly, seems like a total pain in the ass to support these, as a company. I guess they see it as a value-ad to their product, but it's no easy task. And I'll bet these browsers will start to stagnate, then become just about worthless. I think nintendo plans on charging for their service (so they want people to pay for surfing the web, which they can do with no additional cost on their PC?) and sony continues to claim everything is free. Of course, after sony goes bankrupt and implodes, that'll stop the development of the browser real quick.

I think MS has it right, they can deliver content on their console, namely content that is relvant, like GAMES, and I don't have to go 'type' in URL, I simply turn on the console. Also, MS already tried a console based web browser, WebTV (after they bought them of course), and we all know that was basically a failure. WebTV sucked.

yes yes, "But MS controls the information and what you see". Well of course they do, it makes business sense. FOR A GAMES CONSOLE. Think about it... a Wii owner lets his kids use Wii to play games, and they find the webbrowser, then they surf around, wind up at a porn site, and bam, lawsuit, or at least bad press. Web browser is a good way to get people to try and hack the system too I'll bet. If you think it's bad enough when they try to hack your PC. I could imagine some serious phishing going on on the consoles, trying to reel in the idiots just like they do on the PC, but perhaps with a 'carrot' linked to their console. OMG, click here! MSG4 for download!

oops, you just gave them your address and phone and bank account, well now you're screwed. Time to sue sony.

One last scenario, Wii and PS3 owners, while using their console webbrowsers, can see Xbox 360 ads. Also a bad move on sony/nintendo's part if you ask me. Hell, they just gave MS a way to advertise on both these boxes. Imagine a website that is made that targets ps3 browser users, MS could simply pay for ads to be put on that site. Same goes for Wii.

To sum up: Console web browsers, BAD IDEA.

So ol' Phil here has stated that "no one will use 100% of the playstation 3's power".

Uhm, OK. So, they want me to pay $600 for this box that won't even be used to it's maximum potential? Great selling point there Phil. I'll sell you a car that "Doesn't get all the gas mileage" that's on the sticker, or the car is so big that "We only expect people to use half the seats". I'm not even sure what a regular joe would think of this, but I'm guessing it'd be a similar reaction. Maybe he's thinking the PS3 has already 'slam dunked' the next-gen gameplay and visuals, (note, it hasn't), and since it's so many light years beyond other offerings that hey, Sony doesn't even have to push this box any more, but man, if they did...

Being a developer, I'm privy to the ins and outs of all the 'next gen' systems, and lemme tell ya, there are titles 'maxing out' the PS3 already. The system is full of bottlenecks, things that the magical pixie-dust filled "Cell Processor" can't overcome with it's jet-engine on a 50foot runway approach to design.

Even stepping back and trying to be fair... it ain't a slouch either, the PS3 is a capable machine. But to make it sound like it has limitless power that'll forever remain untapped? Total B.S.

Got into the beta for this game, and wow, addictive as crack. It's more like Total Annihilation than I expected, though at the same time, changed enough to make it new. Besides, most of the TA concepts were novel and remain unduplicated until today. (action queue system for one)

I find that most people tend to turtle and try to go for tech 3 uberweapons. I've been trying to use airpower, but it seems a few AA towers can decimate an entire airforce. So combined arms are definately required. I don't think massing of a single unit can win the game, Even the mighty tech3 assault bots, since they have no AA, a passle of gunships or bombers can make short work of ground units.

The navy isn't neglected either, and an offshore bombardment is a great way to crack open a shoreline for troop landings via air transports.

The 3 sides are similar, yet different. Cybrans have no shield tech, mainly stealth and some crazy abilities (amphibious destroyers that sprout legs on land for example), aeons have many hover units, so are basically amphibious, and the UEF is 'straightforward' without much flash.

I played this at E3 and only played for a minute or two before setting down the controller. I just tried the new demo and it doesn't seem like the same game! I played more of a 2D sprite kinda game, but this new one has 3D characters/backgrounds (but still plays in 2D), and the action is great. It's my first purchase on XBLA actually, I'm playing the single player mode now, and look forward to playing online. Great stuff, very slick and polished. Other offerings (Cloning Clyde, marble blast) just didn't seem to have the vibe I was looking for.

Well, I tried to get the $100 xbox 360 today, but amazon.com was already fubar by 10:55. Word is it nearly crashed their servers. Crazy stuff.

Hoping for some other xbox 360 deals, would be nice to get one at a discount.

Speaking of great deals, Looking at these black friday ads, there are some fantastic deals to be had on electronics. The question is do I dare brave the crowds/traffic/parking and inevitable bad attitudes?

For the PS3:

• Untold Legends 6.0
• blast factor 6.6
• Gundam 3.9
• NBA07 4.9
• Genji 6.4
• Resistance 8.6
• Call of Duty 3: 8.3
• Ridge Racer 8.0

The Warmed Over Game Cube *Cough* Wii.

• Red Steel 5.5
• Zelda 8.8
• Rampage 5.1
• Excite Truck 6.8
• Super Monkey Ball 8.3

Some pretty poor showings for launch titles. Though the wii had a better launch than the game cube did (which had luigis mansion and nothing else for weeks). The reviews for the wii games are basically playing out how I expected, the controller is just a gimmick that'll run outta steam in a matter of months.