Monthly Archive

So tomorrow is Halloween. And with it, another controversial Rockstar game. You know I gotta give these guys a lot of credit for having the thick skin they do (for the most part). Rumors say Manhunt 2 is 99% what it was before… although that’s obviously not quite good enough. GameSpy has apparently given the game a mediocre rating. Guess those fade-out deaths really just sugarcoat the game, which is what I was afraid of. What irritates me, however, is how little the anti-game critics know about the game itself. For example, they continue to say that it is unknown what Rockstar did to tone down the game. As they say on 4chan, lurk moar. The answers are all there. No more testicles being chopped off. An unsatisfying blur and darkening effect on deaths. And this information was released a month and a half ago.

The funny thing is, in a week to a month’s time, all the complaining over Manhunt 2 will go away and they will find a new target. And there’s a few good choices for them too. Let’s take a look at some of my predictions:

Crysis - It’s a first person shooter. It’s got guns, aliens, and everything freezing over. Either the critics will hate it for its depiction of violence against Koreans, or praise it for showing the eventual crisis that Global Warming will lead us to. Either way this is going to be a riot and a half. And considering the game pretty much only plays in Vista. My brand new beast of a desktop couldn’t even play it on Medium with DirectX 9.0c, and no excuse because this thing runs Unreal Tournament 3 just fine. And speaking of which…

Gears of War - Ha! Fooled you. Same engine though. Anyway, this game sparked a little bit of controversy when it came out in the first place. But now that the Windows version is coming out, is longer, AND comes with UnrealEd, my guess is there will be complaints that the editor allows us to create mods showing even more brutal acts than were in the original game, and, of course, Epic will be blamed for these user-made modifications.

Unreal Tournament 3 - Unreal Tournament has always had its share of critics, and having played this game daily, I know for a fact that there are many people who will not be happy about this game’s release. There are more gibs in this game than I have ever seen, and the redeemer explosion is absolutely fantastic. However, this is also about three times as violent as Unreal Tournament 2004, and also about a hundred times more realistic looking, so I’m curious to see what the reception is from the AGA’s.

Hellgate London - Besides a few framerate issues, this game is a LOT of fun. However, I get the feeling that the criticisms we see for Hellgate will be very similar to what we see for Crysis. It is very DOOM-esque in its presentation, and I guarantee there will be some comparisons made between the two. Unfortunately, the critics will not know that the team behind Hellgate London, Flagship Studios, was known for working on Diablo when they were with Blizzard a few years ago. So the correct parallels would be drawn to Diablo and not to DOOM (hence Wart’s Leg being available at the end of the demo, cannot wait for the cow level). But let’s just wait and see what they say.

Clive Barker’s Jericho - I doubt there will be a whole lot of brouhaha over this game since Manhunt 2 is currently in the spotlight for horror games, which are rare enough as they are. But, despite the game’s overall poor reception, I don’t doubt that a few people will try to warn so called ignorant parents over the game. Unfortunately, I don’t see this game having a very different shelf-life than Undying.

Rock Band - I have played this game first hand and I can say that this is going to cause a whole new kind of controversy. One that will reignite an old Frank Zappa controversy and revitalize the old, “Rock is the music of the devil” thinking. Not to mention problems with questioning the copyright over the music, whether the equipment is safe, and how much appropriate music there is there for your kids. Not to mention worrying that your kids are about to form real bands, and that this whole inspiration to form musical groups from musical games can be compared to violent games making kids act violently. It’s all a question of how many new bands form by the end of2008, really. Although you have to admit that encouraging a child to pick up a guitar, bass, or drum set is a very good use of their free time. That and playing more Rock Band.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat - Most of the recent Mortal Kombat games have been ignored by the AGA’s, but this one may spark their interest due to it being on the DS. Since the DS is aimed mainly at a younger crowd, getting a game like Mortal Kombat on it which, if you remember correctly, was one of the original games that spawned AGA’s in the first place, might stir up at least a week’s worth of complaints which a few specific AGA’s will drag out until they run out of breath over it being sold to 14 year olds in Wal-Mart (I won’t name names but you know who I am talking about).

Spore - It’s not the AGA’s who are going to go bonkers over this one. Rather, fundamentalist Christians due to the game’s depiction of and obvious siding with the theory of evolution. To which I say, go make your own Creationist game. See how fun it is knowing the ending even before you start. The Darwinesque game is supposedly due out by the end of the year, but I see EA/Maxis pushing this until Q1/Q2 of next year. Especially with the slew of games coming out in November, the demand for Spore would knock everything else off the shelves. Spore is going to need every single EBGames and GameStop to itself when it gets released.

Super Mario Galaxy - I’ll end this list with what looks like the greatest Mario game since Super Mario World 3 on the SNES, and the direct sequel to Super Mario 64. Once again, I’m assuming Luigi is absent, and if anything is going to cause controversy, it’s that. Besides that, I don’t see anything the AGA’s could complain about, as long as the ESRB places “Drug Reference” on the back of the box. All those mushrooms have gotten many people worried over the years, and if we want to avoid any whining over what looks to be Shigeru Miyamoto’s absolute masterpiece, we might as well just come right out in the open and admit it.

Well that about sums it up for me. I’m gonna go pump iron and then go get my free taco. Much thanks to Jacoby Ellsbury for that.

Congrats to my life-long favorite baseball team, The Boston Red Sox, for being the only team to win two world series in this decade - nay, this century - nay, this MILLENIUM! And further congratulations to Josh Becket and Mike Lowell for winning MVP in both the ALCS and World Series respectively. And to Mike Lowell and Curt Schilling specifically, please stay! We can’t lose anyone from this team! This year was a dream come true!

Yup, that’s right. I finally got back to readdressing the current state that NightRise was in and decided that it needed… MORE LEVES! There will be three new levels, to be exact. These, as stated in a previous post, are going to help flesh out the story of Chapter 1 much further than before. And these are intense. I’m throwing in a lot of firefights. Also, I’ve been trying to clean up the story so it makes more sense. The plot holes were just too… misshapen, if that makes sense. Being home these last few months has really given me the opportunity to think about the direction Chapter 1 is heading in, and this could end up being even more exciting than before. Granted I’ve sacrificed a scene that I’ve had written since the second draft of NightRise (about six years now), but you gotta make sacrifices to achieve greatness. It’s not all completely finished yet, so we’ll see where it goes over the next few days.

It’s Game One of the ALCS, and all I have to say is GO RED SOX!