Game Controller Innovations

Saw this over at IGN Xbox.

It's an interesting little article that discusses the changes to game controllers since the Atari 2600. A little trip down memory lane for mature gamers.

Morning Post

So, one thing that has been frustrating me with Jade Empire is the camera during combat. On many occasions, I find that the camera will shift angles right when I'm about to dodge/jump out of the way of an opponent's strike, causing me to jump into it.

This is especially frustrating against powerful opponents who can knock a good quarter of your health of with a single or quick series of attacks.

Another frustrating thing about combat in this game is the lack of any reliable means to recharge your Focus (used for Focus Mode, Jade Empire's version of Bullet Time, and Weapon Styles); and sometimes your Chi (used for Spell Styles, Chi Strike, which increases damage, and most importantly, Chi Healing, your primary and often only healing method in combat). Chi can be replenished by using Spirit Thief Style, however certain key opponents are immune to Spirit Thief.

Overall a great game, but with several design flaws that hold it back from being a true champion.

Fight the Flood T-Shirts

Hey everyone,

I want to take a moment to be very serious here.

We all know what's happened down south with the hurricane is some aweful shit. I'm not the biggest fan of the US and their policies, lord knows they've caused a shit load of problems and misery elsewhere (Iraq), but simply put, no one - no one - should have to go through what these victims are going through.

I just saw Bungie Studio's Weekly Update, and they're doing what they can to help. On short notice, they've created a t-shirt that you can buy. It's a bit over-priced, but with the exception of covering costs to make the shirts, every cent will be donated to the Red Cross.

I hate ordering stuff online simply because of stupid shipping costs, so I never do it; but this is for a great cause. If you want to order the shirt, you can do so here: http://www.bungiestore.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=322

The shirt is $19.95 US, and shipping (UPS Ground) is $9.04 US.

If you buy anything else from the Bungie Store this month, all the profits (again, excepting operating costs) will be donated as well; so while I was at it I decided to pick up an Arbiter poster. I guess 'cause Mircosoft owns it, they don't actually seem to sell the Halo game at the Bungie Store, but they have other stuff you may want to pick up.

At least buy a t-shirt, or donate to the Red Cross yourself, let's do a little something this long weekend to help these people out.

Doom 3 PC to Xbox Screenshot Comparison

As I was preping the post about Resurrection of Evil for the Xbox this morning, I noted two similar screen shots that show the big differences between the Xbox and PC versions of the game.










Here you will find Xbox on the left and PC on the right.

Basically, these shots really show off the texture differences, which is to be expected as the Xbox simply isn't powerful enough to run Doom 3 with high quaility textures. The lighting, however, is beautifully done in both versions, showing off the power of the custom nVIDIA card that was created for the Xbox (I don't know the specs of the PC used for this shot, but I would expect it to be using a high end nVIDIA card from mid-2004).

These shots are also significant in showing how, even though not as pretty as it's PC counter-part, the Xbox version is still great looking, and it's a testament to the strength of the big black box that it can even run a game like Doom 3 in low-res, something the other consoles could not do.

Sony Playstation 3 GPU and Nvidia Mess Up

A few days ago, there was some interesting talk going about the Sony Playstation 3's GPU. On Aug. 31st, Team Xbox reported that a NVIDIA rep. had mentioned their custom GPU for the Playstation 3 will be less powerful than a GeForce 7800:

That means that almost a year before launch, there’s a PC graphics chip
that is more powerful than the RSX GPU found in the PlayStation 3. And make no
mistake, this is not a crazy, speculative conclusion; this comes straight from
the company that makes both parts: the RSX and GeForce 7800 graphics processing
units.

Shortly afterwards though, NVIDIA contacted Team Xbox and corrected this here.

That's the thing about the Playstation 3, if you look at past reports and comments, often Sony and NVIDIA simply bash the Xbox 360 without backing up their own shit properly. It's not just that they criticize the competition, they do so in a juvenile manner. You can find articles about this through Team Xbox's August and July news archives.

Simply put, Sony's new console will be a good system, but they have yet to address online capabilities and a counter to the ever improving Xbox Live, they can't get their GPU facts straight, and if you ask me, their projected launch titles suck balls. Also, the projected cost for a PS3 (about $500 US) is more retarded than a special ed. class.

In the end, however, it'll be the exclusive titles that decide which console will be superior.

LONG WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!

If that isn't enough to get you excited, how's this:

Resurrection of Evil (Xbox) - Possible Release Date and Extras

Saw over at Ebgames that Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil is scheduled to ship Oct. 11th and will cost $29.99 (US).

It also mentions something interesting about extra content with the game:

Classic content - Ultimate DOOM, DOOM II, and all new Master Levels for
DOOM II classic content, playable in single player, split-screen 2-4 player
co-op and deathmatch modes

That's all well and good I guess, however having The Ultimate Doom and Doom II encluded kind of negates some of the limited-ness of the Doom 3: Limited Collector's Edition; seeing as how these additions were its biggest attraction over the regular retail version.

The Master Levels for Doom II was a map pack for the game back in the day, somewhat of an expansion set; though I don't think it was considered an official part of the original Doom trilogy as you can't even find it on id's web site. If I recall correctly, it wasn't developed by id Software, rather it was a collection of maps fans created pulled off the internet. I never played it, but I recall reading there were over 90 maps. Should be fun, though I was really hoping for Final Doom, the final title of the original Doom trilogy. While nothing new or inovative, Final Doom's first episode, Evilution, had exceptional level design. It's second half, The Plutonia Experiment, sucked balls.

I'll leave you with an old but great screen shot from PC Doom 3.

PayDay Winning Numbers - Sept. 1

03-19-52-76

Got jack shit again.

Morning Post

Well, our idiot Staff's taken off for a week of vacation. Like he really needed one, the slacker.

He's off somewhere doing that scuba diving thing, which should be fun I guess.

Hell, I'm simply hoping that he'll drown... or bring me back a mermaid. I wonder if there are pearls under those clam shells?

Bobo the Idol

Say Hi to Bobo, boys and girls. Bobo was the winner of the first season of Primate Idol. Bobo insisted that We, the Staff (TM) post his picture to promote his new album, "Feces Hurler Number B". He also insisted that We, the Staff (TM) state that he has infinitely more musical ability and talent than Fearless Leader. And that ain't the first time a so-called human has been outdone by a chimp. Trust us, we knows... -The Staff

Morning Post

As some of you know, I purchased a sword roughly 2 years ago. It has been hanging on my wall for most of that time, but lately I noticed the blade was looking a little dull so last night I decided to polish it.

My sword was forged in the same style of old, except instead of proper steel, stainless steel is used for the blade, thus I used a generic stainless steel polish.

Everything worked fine and the blade is now shiny and a marvel to behold, but I simply found the process of polishing that steel to be an enjoyable experience (and if any of you make any phalic jokes right about now, I'll run you through).

There's something about a sword in general, the strength felt from holding the hilt, the nobility that surrounds it, and the fact that it's a great way to scare off Jehovah's Witnesses.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some girl guides to go pillage of their cookies.

A thoroughly Childish affair

Two children, one a meek-looking scrawny geek (herein called Scrawny), the other a fatass pompous bully (herein called Fatass), are having an argument. From time to time, as is the case today, the scrawny one has developed a backbone. The fat pompous bastard, of course, is having none of it.

This all revolves around an object of contention between Scrawny and Fatass. Scrawny owns this object, and lends it to Fatass on a regular basis, but lately Fatass has taken more and more advantage of Scrawny's generosity. Fatass demands more and more possession of contentious object, to which Scrawny has typically obliged, as he believes he can get certain things from Fatass in return.

However, Scrawny has finally realized that Fatass is taking advantage of him. He now brings in the authorities (an older boy named Pedro... don't ask why) who has the power to instill fear in both parties. Pedro tells Fatass that the nonstop whining of both Fatass and Scrawny is wearing thin. Despite the fact that Pedro seems rather imposing, he is notoriously easily distracted by shiny objects, and one soon conveniently appears to avert his attentions.

Although Fatass has had a certain fear of retribution instilled in him by Pedro, Pedro's lack of focus causes him to forget what he was on about. The crafty Fatass takes the opportunity to claim that it was all Scrawny's fault that Pedro got involved and could spend less of his time staring at Shiny Objects. This rather displeases Pedro, and so Pedro gives Scrawny a thorough thrashing. The moral is, Scrawny gets screwed 'cause he relies on someone who doesn't really pay attention to settle his conflicts.

This entirely pointless story was somehow inspired by the North American softwood lumber dispute. Scrawny = Canada. Fatass = U.S. Pedro = NAFTA. Consider yourselves edumicated.

-The Staff

Gladiator: Extended Edition now available

DreamWorks SKG has released the Extended Edition of Gladiator to DVD this past week. It contains about 17 minutes of restored footage, and I think this version aired on CBC about a year ago.

You can pick it up at Future Shop and Best Buy for $31.99. Future Shop's page is here.

Gladiator is one of the greatest films I've ever seen, so I'll probably pick this one up replacing my regular DVD copy.

X-Men: Legends for $29.99

X-Men: Legends has had a price drop to only $29.99 at both Future Shop and Best Buy (and probably elsewhere to).

X-Men: Legends is an action RPG that was released about a year ago to excellent reviews. It was developed by Raven Software and they're presently finishing off it's sequal, Rise of Apocalypse.

I rented the game shortly after I got my Xbox, however though it had some fun moments I found the controls of your 4 man squad to be a little awkward and some of the voice acting was pretty bad (Magma anyone). The inventory system was also a little strange. While it wasn't a bad game by any means, it wasn't something I liked enough to run out and buy. At a much cheaper price though (it was $69.99 at the time), perhaps I should give it a try again; though probably a rent first.

Editorial - Games to Movies & the Big Three

Instead of a morning post I've decided to start today off with a short editorial, this one regarding video games that are adapted for the silver screen.

As you're all aware, there have been several game to movie translations over the last decade: Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark, Double Dragon, etc. I could go on, but you shouldn't need me to, and you also shouldn't need me to point out that all these films suck. In fact, as far as I can recall, the best game to movie adaptation to date has been Resident Evil: Apocalypse, not for the film itself which was rather awful, but because there was a brief shot of two topless zombie strippers; and when a boob shot is the best thing that any of these films have to offer, that's pretty pathetic.

So why do most game to movie adaptations suck? Simple, it’s all in the presentation. All of these movies have awful pacing, sub-par plots, and a lack of quality that scream "I was cobbled together to briefly entertain the ADD-riddled youth of America."

If Hollywood continues this trend, and also continues to hire sub-par directors (Paul Anderson) to create these films, they will continue to suck.

This now brings me to the "Big Three." The second half of 2004 saw the three biggest first person shooters of recent memory have a sequel released: Doom 3, Halo 2, and Half-Life 2. Two of these three franchises already have movies in the works; Doom being released late October '05 and Halo set to release summer '07.

Doom is heavily based off of Doom 3, which in itself is the 4th Doom title and a remake of The Ultimate Doom (Doom 1). The basic storyline behind Doom is the same as the original game back from '93: Scientists are conducting secret experiments on Mars and accidentally open a way for demons from Hell to invade the research base. A team of soldiers are sent to eliminate the problem and secure the facility. If the trailers are any indication, Doom is going to follow the same trend as all the other game movies before it; in other words, I expect it to suck and jump from one pointless "shoot everything" scene to another. The only saving grace I can see for the film is that in the final trailer, many shots were first person in traditional video game style; something that to my knowledge has never been done on the silver screen before.

The Halo movie is being targeted for summer of '07. The script has been completed by the writer of 28 Days and Fox and Universal are the studios behind it, however that's all we know at this point. The basic story around Halo: Combat Evolved is that humanity is fighting a loosing war against an alien empire known as the Covenant, and as one ship escapes the destruction of a key human world they stumble across Halo, a gigantic ring floating in space. The humans, mainly focusing on the super soldier Master Chief (his rank, not his name) and the Covenant then battle for control of the ring only to discover the terribly truth about Halo's existence.

It's too early to tell how good Halo can be expected to be; even the actual story to the film has not yet been released. However one interesting thing is that some big name directors have been tossed around, such as Ridley Scott. Imagine someone of the calibre of Rid Scott doing a video game film; with the high quality acting, plot development, and style of such an accomplished director. Something like this would create a great deal of hope that Halo would actually be a good film.

Then there's Half-Life. Released in late '98 with it's sequel in late '04, Half-Life has been regarded as an interactive movie. The entire game is seen from the POV of the player character, Gordon Freeman; never once, not in the game's intro or ending does it deviate. Gordon also never once speaks (grunting excluded) to add to the sense that you are Gordon Freeman. Seeing as how it's regarded as one of the greatest video game stories of all time, would Half-Life make an great film? Well in truth I'm not sure. Why, because Half-Life is the story of Doom with aliens instead of demons, on Earth instead of Mars, and staring a scientist instead of a nameless marine; it was simply presented much better and that's the key.

From video game story perspectives, Half-Life is leaps and bounds ahead of The Ultimate Doom, with virtually the same story, because it was presented to the player in a very realistic fashion that took the medium it had to work with and crafted a world that was so teeming with life the player felt a part of it. This kind of presentation was so successful it revolutionized how FPS games were made afterwards, including titles like Doom 3. This is the sort of approach that needs to be taken for video game to film adaptations.

The plot, whether the same or different from the game, needs to be fleshed out and presented well with characters, true to the game or not, that an audience can care about and empathize with. Rushing from one action scene to another with no real purpose doesn't work, it becomes tedious and boring and that's why the current crop of video game films fail. Even if that's how the game is, a game can get away with this more simply because the player is actually experiencing the events, he/she has a stake in them which is not the case when watching a film; instead of a participant the audience members are observers.

At present there is no Half-Life movie to speak of, and I have little hope for Doom. However there is potential for Halo. In general, the future of game movies will all depend on how they're presented and how seriously Hollywood execs. want to take them. If they keep churning out crap than that's all game movies will ever be.

Many video games have solid stories these days, with characters and plots that rival most big budget flicks. If the Halo film is actually executed with care, perhaps it can raise the bar enough for video game flicks to be taken seriously before they're made and thus have them made well.

Halo Triple Pack Official, Release Date

Saw over at TeamXbox and IGN Xbox that Microsoft has officially announced the Halo: Triple Pack, and that it'll hit retail shelves on Oct. 4th for about $59.99 (US).

You can find out more details about the Triple-Pack here.

Morning Post

I was gonna post something very profound this moring. Something so important, so serious, so radical that it would have changed the world as we know it forever.

I was gonna post something very profound this morning, but then I saw a shiney object and now I can't quite remember what the hell it was. Fear not though, it just might come back to me.

Until then, I'll leave you all with something equally fascinating:

PayDay Winning Numbers for Aug. 25th

07-35-45-60

My numbers were either correct to 5 off.

So damn close this time; I could actually see myself in that blue shirt selling high def. TV's. Go slacker dream job.

EALA and the Make-A-Wish Foundation

I thought this was kind of cool. EALA, the developers of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, recently teamed up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant a 9-year-old his wish of touring a video game development company.

The child got to chat with the developers, record some game audio, and help design a game map. He also walked away with some nice loot.

You can check out the article here.

Doom Movie Trailer - The Flick's an FPS!?!

Saw over at ActionTrip that Yahoo Movies has released the final Doom movie trailer, which can be viewed here.

One very unique thing that this trailer shows if is a large number of shots in FPS-style first person view; very much like you're playing a Doom video game. This might actually work to the film's advantage, and if the FPS element is used through a large part of the film, it could actually make it interesting.

Oh sure, I do expect the film to suck and be some fast paced, no plot piece of junk meant to entertain a 14 year-old; however excessive use of these FPS shots I think might be a first for a feature film; which would make Doom unique and even worth a watch.