Sunday, February 22, 2009

continuing economically (or a discussion on videogames)

car companies are doing poorly, like everyone else, but it seems like there are some bright spots. hopefully this means that i can sometime move back to the buckeye state.

but i don't want to talk about that, instead lets talk about killzone 2. overall, the game has gotten great reviews. what i have gleaned from interviews and most of the reviews, you will find that visually killzone2 is considered a great game. story wise, it has some ground to make up, that and some people have been saying that the ps3's controllers are not made for fps. i tend to take all reviews with a grain of salt, positive or negative.

that being said... basically the makers of killzone2 have run into, once again, the halo problem. how do you create depth in an fps? gears of war (1 and 2) certainly didn't do it and it seems like killzone2 might fall short as well. conversely, the halo franchise is so rife with spinoff options that they are even creating a starcraft based game (halo wars, i've played the demo and it is a lot of fun. the controls are terrible for this type of game, but still its fun), a prequel halo3:ODST and who knows what else. while none of the sequels (except maybe Halo 3) is expected to match the success of the first, the game as a whole has been proven to be able to be stretched well beyond its initial release. this is also what made (makes) the final fantasy series so compelling. fairly consistently they are able to create believable worlds with rich back-story that most players don't even scratch and the 'hard core' tend to devour. (hence the ph34r of the franchise going to microsoft) the problem now for other fps developers is that halo has already been there, done that. without a significant leap forward, everything else will be considered cliche.

will killzone2 sell ps3's? will the game itself sell? i, for one, hope so because sony is in it deep and i would hate to have microsoft be the only developer for this type of game. furthermore, i do think that it does look stunning and i hope it is a fun game to play (sad that there is no co-op mode).

why bring this all up? because i have become addicted to my new super sweet game.


peace,
ko

Saturday, February 07, 2009

the problem with people

let me preface this with saying that my religion requires that i love people... all people, no matter how terrible, nasty or annoying they are. this is because all people are made in the image of God, and being so they have intrensic worth. that being said...

i have never made my love of penny-arcade a secret. they are often coarse, irreverent, and generally abrasive. that being said, i think they have a lot of smart things to say. specifically, i completely believe/endorse John Gabriel's greater internet theory:


never mind the 'unreal tournament' part, the equation is what i want you to focus on. if you have spent any time online, any time at all you have run into the above individual. it's not that these people are inherently bad, if you examine the equation carefully you will notice that input 'A' is as normal as you or me. it is the addition of 'A, B and C' that creates the result 'D'. observe my most recent run-in with result D and realize why I avoid most online forums. (side note: if you don't have enough time to scroll to the end of the conversation, know that it ended well) this is why i find the following video both refreshing/validating, please take the time to view here. note: he gave killzone 2 a 5 out of possible 5!!!1!

penny-arcade has talked about this kind of reaction before:
this kind of insight gets me to thinking... why was 6 afraid of 7? because 7 ate 9? seems to me that seven is the one to watch... or maybe 8 because he just apparently just stood around and watched the whole thing happen. i am, however, fairly certain that 7 can't ever become 9... unless of course he ate 2, but then he'd really just be a sum and not really a 9... unless i have couple of beers, then there are lots of 9s... or maybe after 5 drinks a few beers then 7 might get a little 6 that night... i could go on, but i think you get the idea.

needless to say, out of the hundreds (millions) of opinions out there, only a few are worth hearing. this, of course, brings up the question; why do so many people think their opinions are so important that everyone should know their inner most thoughts? the answer is that we (and by 'we' i mean the current generation of twenty something year olds and younger) were raised by hippies and children of hippies, and thus were raised to believe they lie that we are all special. yes, as stated before we are all made in the image of God, but to also quote a recent movie, when everyone is special, then no one is. all this means that although one might be a fantastic artist, mathematician, burger flipper, engineer, taxi driver, etc. it does not mean that your opinon on anything from video games to college football is relevant or wanted. translation: you are not special enough that everyone should hear your every thought. this is the reason i find 'twitter' so distrubing... but i digress.

note: in all this negativity, i would like to again bring up the ending of the video i directed you too above where steve invited people to an inteligent conversation. i also believe, and hope that this is possible.

in other news, our basketball team keeps doing well.

peace,
ko