My Vista Rant

by owen

How can you be building something for 5 years, have all the money in the whole-wide-world and mess it up? I told them to re-write everything from scratch, now that I look back, that was not such a good idea THEN!! But now - I don't know.

I (on the other hand) am still rocking MY LEGAL COPY OF WINDOWS 2000 and I'll like to tell Microsoft to stop trying to kill a perfectly good operating system - I'm watching you. I am not buying another operating system unless its at least GOOD or better than MacOSX. It runs fine on my 1.6 ghz Dell machine that I bought 4 years ago for 1300USD. I'm not going to buy a new machine just to surf the net. I have a wii, a dreamcast, a playstation, my neighbour has a PS3, and another neighbour has a 360 - PC GAMING IS DEAD - except for GTA 4 and FPSs. My pc wieghs like 20 pounds but I like it, its black and runs quite fine on 256 mb of ram - I bought a 19" flat panel for it just the other day - pimp my pc.

Whats wrong with software nowadays? Why you gotta be all up in my RAM? I remember the days when a user interface was simply colored characters on the screen - now - I think everything is running the UNREAL ENGINE 3. It hurts my heart to realise that no matter how much RAM or how fast the processor you put into windows you still have to wait on stuff to happen. The new moto should be "its thinking".

I have this HD version of the Matix 2 trailer on my machine from just before the movie came out, which is basically 1000-something by 700-something. I remember specifically the point where Trinity would jump through the window into a free fall and my quicktime player would drop frames like a mother. Fast forward 2 years later I installed the new version of the Quicktime player - same machine - same ram - same everything - plays SMOOTH AS BUTTER. See? An improvement not just in features but "efficiency".

Link Item 1070, posted: Mon, 02nd Jun,  comment ⁷

So I got a xbox360 to borrow

by owen

So I got a xbox360 to borrow in exchange for my Wii. Apparently Carnarge is a first-person shooter nut. I am going to now review all the games I got my paws onto. I should note though that I am from the PC-FPS crowd so I hate the aiming with the right analog stick. So it may affect my liking of certain games. Note also that I've played alot of games and have never seen a xbox360 upclose. What I notice about the xbox 360 games is that often times it like I'm watching a movie instead of playing a game. Or I'm playing the game so that I can get to watch the next movie. I like playing music in the background while I'm playing games (sometimes). The user profile and achievement system is good and nicely implemented. So without here goes;

The xbox360

I ripped Eminems: The Curtain and The best of Sade to the harddrive. Its kinda nice, but the brick makes alot of noise and fear it may red ring if I play it for more that 3 hours.

Turok

Lots of green and the knife kills everything. I like the knife. Nothing more to say right now.

Call of Duty 3

More WWII, I may play this later if I get drunk enough.

Just Cause

250,000 Acres of bush but it has beautiful water. I kinda ran around in this game for a bit and might decide to eventually finish it. The vehicles are kinda meh but the overall game is like GTA on a Caribbean island. The AI is flaky at most some points and the music is mental but the freedom and the diversity of the island makes it a interesting adventure shooter game. Except maybe when you have to travel 2500 kilometers to your next mission ON FOOT! For a sandbox that big the main story is incredibly short, it ended before I realised that I reached the 25th mission. Its still fun though, at least I can tackle the side missions.
The game engine is superb;
youtube.com/watch?v=PD1sXFbMM7w
Can't wait for part 2.

Prey

So the game started out in bar and I'm like "cool, I can turn off the lights just like in Dukenukem". Then 10 minutes later I got abducted by aliens - I meant really? Why do you have to set you game in a dam alien space ship? Everything is dark and shiny in the Doom3 engine and I'm like why am I here? Rooms, rooms everywhere! sometimes I wondered why aliens had so many unecessary rooms with one entry point and one exit. I mean if a fire should break out on that spaceship those aliens are fucked.

The Darkness

I watched a guy play this game and I think he was skipping the cut scenes because the story lost me at some point while he was going through the subways. Why does the dude like to talk to himself so much? Was he born yesterday? zero back story. I didn't play this one at all - couldn't bother.

Condemned

Dark and moody. From what I heard about the game I kept my gun close to me until the first mission when a CRACKHEAD KNOCKS ME OUT AND TAKES IT AWAY :(. I end up chasing the guy through a unfinished crack house. The main character of this game must live in the worst part of the nieghbourhood because the whole game looks like a big UNFINISHED CRACKHOUSE. Not saying that the game looks bad, but can the environment be any less depressing? I forgot to go back to this one.

Full Auto

Two words: Sucks Ass. I have to admit it gets kinda better if you play the career mode - single player. Though on the canyon track the cars tend to launch into the air if you touch certain parts of the wall.

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men

The aiming in this game is baaad - I think the pointer moves too fast or too slow or something. High production values but the game itself I think is just too cluster-phobic. Point black shots will often miss, cops/enemies rain down on you, bullets everywhere and most likely you WILL ALWAYS GET SHOT FIRST.

Quake 4

I like it, simple stages that actually make sense. Some slow down and stupid A to B story telling. I am this point where I come out into the open and I see this tunnel across the way, so I make a B line for the tunnel only to have the mothership land infront of me. So I say to my self I hope I don;t have to go into that stupid ship just some EXTRA WASTE OF TIME STORY CRAP. So said, so done, I get forced into the stupid ship for a half and hour of talking only to get sent out INTO THE SAME DAM TUNNEL.

Blacksite Area 51

So far it seems like another generic army shooter. Starts in Iraq, then in mission 2 goes to the Nevada desert which looks EXACTLY like IRAQ. I have seen enough sand for one game. Simple run and gun game, I might attempt to finish it. After playing it abit more its just too "A to B". The AI is silly, the level design is linear and has nothing new to offer to the player. The audio is good though, it would have been a better movie, I would sit and watch it. Finished it, waste of time, totally forgettable. I'm beginning to hate UnReal Engine, it seems like just an excuse to make stupid pretty games with no substance.

Topspin 2

Tennis. It doesn't seem to be better than Virtual Tennis on the Dreamcast. Its ok.

John Woo Presents Stranglehold

Its good. Its like Max Payne on steriods. Nice voice acting, gameplay, cut scenes. I will definately try to finish this one just to see who else gets killed IN STYLE!! After a while so many enemies came into the stage that I just stopped playing. Its ridiculous, my hands got tired.

Link Item 1065, posted: Tue, 20th May at 7:52 pm ,  comment

The Nintendo Wii Review

by owen

Originally it was called the "Nintendo Revolution" then close to launch Nintendo renamed it to just "Wii". Now when this name was announced I was like "wtf! are they crazy?". Well apparently if you build it - they will come and almost 2 years later the Wii is still selling like hot cakes. The console is self is pretty simple it has the motion controls used for playing games and it lacks the ability to play DVD movies.

Hardware

Its white like a ipod. It seems that white is the new black. Technically the Wii is not a Playstation 3 or a Xbox 360. Nintendo went for the cheapest route possible which is probably why it costs $250 USD in and only has 512 mb of internal storage. Its very quiet and has a SD card slot on the front and 2 USB ports on the back - thats it. The controllers use bluetooth to communicate with the console and use AA batteries for power. Instead of building a whole new console from scratch Nintendo used an upgraded version of their previous console (the Gamecube) which makes it 100% compatible with the games and controllers released between the year 2000 and 2006 - which is always a good thing. The Wii also has built in Wifi which you can use to surf the internet on you television or download games from the Nintendo "Virtual Console" Service ( referred to as the VC).

Software

On the software side good games are few and far between. The Wii is a patient man's console. There are alot of games available but you will have to wait 3 or 4 months for the AAA titles to be release. AAA titles are usually well polished and include the usual Mario, Zelda, Metroid first party Nintendo titles and a select few good third party releases. On the other hand the Wii comes with Wii Sports which include 5 mini games. Most people will play these games forever. The VC is the third option for getting games - basically every monday morning Nintendo releases approximately 3 (Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Graphix 16, etc) games. The games are priced between $5 and $10 USD. The games are downloaded the Wii's internal memory and can be played at anytime and are exact ports which does have a certain nostalgic factor to them - so if you had a NES back when you were young then you can get those same games again without the blowing. So far I've bought Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros and Streets of Rage 2.

Overview

The Wii in essence is a bridge between a VCR and dvd player. Its cheap, unique and has enough "wow" factor for it to standout from the crowd on its own. Its an experience that cannot be found anywhere else, a big gamble which Nintendo surprisingly won. Right now the Wii is in the same position the Playstation 2 was 5 years ago - extremely popular with tons of lackluster/quick to the press video games. Not a bad position, eventually the games came but sometimes I wish it was just a little bit faster.

Link Item 1055, posted: Sun, 04th May,  comment

Medal of Honor Heros 2 Wii Review

by owen

Now the thing about this game is that its ugly even for a wii game with sparce environments that open and close as you trigger events. I should have suspected as much when its a game made for the PSP. You can play 32 player online death match but you'll die faster than you can kill the other person. Also you have the single player which I set to the hardest level because I had a feeling that the game wasn't going to be much of a challenge on normal ( and Ineed to get my monies worth ).
Its a nice FPS (look it up), the wii controller does well, if even better than a mouse and a keyboard. IT has a learning curve but by half-way through the game you'll be straffing and shooting multiple guys in the head. The AI is however pretty stupid or should I say boring and will often:

• keep shooting at the spot where your hiding as if they have infinite ammo
• spawn out of middle air
• appear out of nowhere in hordes as soon as you do something in a level
• kill babies
• congregate behind boxes for no reason

However I'm still playing it, if only to say I had played it. I should have bought Metroid Prime 3 instead       .

I give it a 6/10 only because you can shoot people with a gun. Awful game, awful AI. If you can: rent it first or buy my copy.

Link Item 964, posted: Sun, 27th Jan at 10:05 pm ,  comment ³