Archive for March 9th, 2011
I’m getting to be a real sucker for these homage levels. With two exceptions. First, I don’t care for any of these community “levels” that are films. I’ve got precious little time to game, so I’d rather not spend it with your sackmartymcfly version of Back to The Future. It’s cute, but I came here to play. Second, I have yet to find a Star Wars level that is useful in any way. Furthermore, if you title your level “Dule of the Fates” I’m probably going to avoid it. Unless I’m supposed to be fighting as Charlie from The West Wing. I don’t get it. A designer puts all this time into creating a level, then spells the title of the level wrong. Come on people.
Today’s homage was pretty good, in spite of the title apostrophe weirdness (you’ll have to click the link to see what I mean). Sack of War doesn’t really play like a God of War game, but that’s okay with me. I’ve already beaten one of those games. Have I not told you that story? I beat God of War 2. On my own. Totally kicked its ass. I’m not saying that to brag or anything. Just establishing my bona fides. At any rate, aside from the overwhelming music and general harshness to Persians, this was a nice play. And a value play as well, since when you get to the end you transport over to the sequel automatically. Also, you get to ride a cyclops (pictured).
Although I did get a little nervous when I got the instruction to “Grab the cyclops and smash through the fire walls”. I haven’t heard that since my wedding night.
Thanks folks. I’m here all week.
Next time you hear or read “fag-this” or “nigger-that” in an online game, don’t just ignore it. Most games or online communities have some provision for reporting that stuff. Use it. Or even use it if someone’s being disruptive in a less provocative way. And lest you think nothing comes of reporting people, consider this awesome thread on the League of Legends forum.
Pendragon, the community manager for Riot Games, asked for five people who’d been temporarily banned to volunteer their names, at which point he would detail exactly why they’d been banned. He had no shortage of volunteers, and there’s no shortage of discussion following the explanations, which comprise the five posts after the initial request. It’s an intriguing way to look at what you’re not allowed to do in the game.
I’m glad to see racist language and intentionally sabotaging games are bannable offenses. At first I was taken aback that you’re not supposed to draw smiley faces using Teemo’s mushrooms, but that does fall under the category of griefing the other nine players instead of actually playing the game. Fair enough. If you want to make artwork, do it during a custom game!
League of Legends is notorious for its unfriendly player community. Not to say you won’t find friendly people. You will. Most of the time. But when it comes to jerks making themselves heard, League of Legends is right up there with the worst of them, like Halo, Call of Duty, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m glad to see Riot Games doesn’t just take a laissez-faire attitude about the whole thing.
(Thanks to Rob Zacny!)
I’m already set up with a couple of fancy Mad Katz Fightsticks, but they’re not nearly as classy looking as the upcoming Mortal Kombat Fight Stick. I understand that Capcom’s Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom branding would be all cartoony and brightly colored, but what’s with the Mortal Kombat branding being so tasteful and refined? That thing looks like something Captain Nemo would use to drive the Nautilus.
The Mortal Kombat Fight Stick has been designed to reflect the look and feel of the classic Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet and its ergonomic button layout has been updated with additional design and technological touches to create the ideal joystick for serious console players. The underside of the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick is lined with velvet-wrapped memory foam for the comfort of players who hold the stick on their lap, while rubberized feet at the bottom corners will prevent the stick from sliding when placed on a table or similar surface. The inner workings of the Mortal Kombat Fight Stick are composed of high quality arcade parts from Suzo Happ and are easily accessed without the need of any tools. Inside the joystick base, all parts and wires are protected by a unique plastic shield emblazoned with the Mortal Kombat logo, and there is room to store cables and a copy of the game. You put your weed in there.
Okay, I added that last bit, but come on. I mean, seriously, what were they thinking?
Publisher D3 announced some pre-order doo-dads for Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon today, along with new screenshots of the game to supposedly get you excited. However, none of the screenshots shows more than ten bugs onscreen at a time. What kind of Earth Defense Force fights fewer than a dozen bugs? That would hardly be worth their time. Your local mall security or neighborhood watch should be able to handle that just fine.
The above screenshot was the most crowded. Let’s take a closer look:
I count six. Maybe seven. At least the price of gas is suitably nightmarish. Remember the gas station in the original Deus Ex? In that version of dystopia, gas cost $4 a gallon!
Fortunately, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armaggedon doesn’t come out until July 5th. Hopefully, they’ll add more bugs by then.
I love Gratuitous Space Battles! I don’t love the Galactic Conquest add-on, which gives the game a campaign mode. Well, it’s technically a “campaign mode”. It might be more accurate to describe it as a “vicious beat down designed to make you never again want to play this stupid game”. Galactic Curb Stomp might have been a better name.
The single static map was the least of the add-on’s problems, so the four new maps added in today’s free patch are nice. But what’s really nice is this bit:
The new update (which brings the game to version 1.56) also changes the difficulty level down from ‘totally impossible’ to ‘playable’, so those of you who thought you might not be cut out for supreme galactic ruler-ship, may be able to re-consider it as a career now.
You can get the patch here.
As you’ll see below, today’s theme is stuff going wrong with console systems. I’ve been through the replacement process with Microsoft’s Xboxes more than 12 times. That’s right: more than 12 times. I’ve been through the process with Sony and Nintendo exactly zero times. Although I once replaced the little laser eye thingie in a Playstation 1 by cannibalizing another Playstation 1, but that didn’t involve several exasperating exchanges with a borderline incompetent customer service department.
However, I’m slightly terrified that something (pictured?) could go wrong with my PS3, which has been a little under the weather since I first got it. The HDMI connection has been broken from day one. Also, the system periodically forgets what kind of connection it’s using, so it reverts to 480p resolution, which requires slogging through the display set up process again (I can do it blindfolded by now). And as you’ll see in the next entry, now it’s having problems with Killzone 3. But for the most part, my PS3 is well behaved and does what it was built to do.
Which is good, because getting a Playstation 3 fixed can be an utter disaster for your saved games. There’s apparently no provision for removing the hard drive or guaranteeing that your saved games will be intact after the repair process. Even after all those Xbox 360 exchanges, and even a hard drive upgrade, I’ve still got my saved games for Kameo, Amped 3, and Perfect Dark Zero. In case I ever want to go back and play those. Because you never know.
Now Sony is offering a solution:
PlayStation Plus subscribers can store up to 150MB of PS3 game save data and a maximum of 1000 data files per PlayStation Network account. “Copy-prohibited save data” is also supported, and all previously backed-up save data may be restored once per 24-hour period. When the new feature launches, most PS3 titles will be compatible with online storage for game saves, and moving forward new titles will have the capability to offer the storage option.
Whew. But only for subscribers, huh? Like Xbox Live, Playstation Plus is basically $50 a year. Which is $50 more than Steam charges. I’m just sayin’.
The new feature goes live with tomorrow’s update.
Given all the problems I’ve had with Test Drive Unlimited 2 on the Xbox 360, I’ve been watching this page pretty closely. Now, nearly two weeks after finishing the patch, there’s some news! Namely, that they hope to have some news soon. Microsoft’s long approval process is not an excuse for the patch taking so long. Instead, it’s the reason console games have to get it right from the get-go.
In other non-news, Bethesda’s latest word on a Fallout: New Vegas update is that it’s “coming soon”. Well, it was coming soon on February 7th, so it must be coming even sooner now. Several patches and months later, and I still can’t play that game without it freezing up so hard that I have to hit the power button to reset my 360.
I would also gripe about Killzone 3 if I cared one whit about the single player campaign, which grinds to a halt as soon as I get to a cutscene after the jungle mission. It’s as if my PS3 is trying to load something that simply won’t load. I let it run for literally a half-hour, the cutscene stuttering and freezing the whole time, and no luck. I guess I won’t be finding out what happens after the jungle mission! But the multiplayer works just fine, so they can take as much time as they want with their patch.
Consoles, man. It’s enough to make a guy think about playing games only on a PC.
