http://chud.com/articles en-us N/A nicknunziata@gmail.com Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:40:59 EST 20 http://chud.com/articles/blogs/955/Death.html
Lately I've been thinking of my own mortality. Mostly because I've been working so much it felt like all I could do was die. Being shorthanded at work is draining on, well everything actually. But I'm getting off topic.

Last week we seemed to see the death of E3, the big convention that showcased all the hot new games that were due to be delayed for another year. It used to be a huge event but it was scaled down last year and went from being shown in the LA Convention Center to a bunch of hotel rooms and airplane hangars in Santa Monica. This year it went back to the Convention Center but from all accounts it was a shadow of it's former self.

Everyone from analysts like Michael Pachter (seriously, how'd that guy get his job? He just seems to make bad guesses.) and the CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitello think E3 gasped it's last breath. And maybe it did. There was nothing even remotely earth shattering there this year. Even last year had a better showing. Nintendo and Sony's offerings were pathetic and Microsoft's wasn't much better.

The games that were shown were either weak (Animal Crossing? Really?), unsurprising (God of War 3? They're making one?! WOW!), or just something we already knew about (Gears of War 2. The game we all knew was coming the instant we played the first one.). Microsoft even seemed to pull a huge Halo announcement from Bungie at the last second because they didn't think there was a reason to show it. Unbelievable. I guess we all needed to know about the Xbox Avatars instead.

I can accept that the game industry is changing. But I think it still needs shows like E3. Maybe not the spectacle it used to be with half naked "Booth Babes" showing off a game they'd never heard of until that morning, but something that celebrates gaming.

Earlier last week, John Riccitello mentioned that the upcoming BioWare MMO was indeed an Old Republic era Star Wars game. Why wasn't that at E3?! I mean yeah, we knew it was coming, but show it off already! Don't mention it in an interview as an offhand comment.

Maybe the Game Developers Conference will become E3 Jr. and I'd be okay with that. Because gaming has hit a high point in it's lifespan. We're seeing some of the most amazing products ever. It'd be a shame if there wasn't a way to showcase them and get people hyped for them. Tone down the pomp and circumstance and just get us interested in the actual product, not the flash.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/955/Death.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/815/Cult-of-Blizzard.html Diablo 3 was finally announced this weekend and the internet went nuts leading up to this announcement and went critical after it was official. Forums everywhere analyzed the teaser image on Blizzard's website, trying to decipher what it could mean. Some were convinced it pointed to a new Diablo, some were convinced it would be the announcement of the official release date for the new World of Warcraft expansion. A few others vainly hoped it would be Blizzard announcing that the aborted Starcraft: Ghost was coming back.

But after all the speculation, it turned out to be what most had hoped for, the next in the Diablo series. And a great cheer went up across the internet. Except from me. I just don't get it.

Blizzard has a gigantic following among gamers. Their games are played and fawned over seemingly by everyone. The fact that Starcraft, a ten year old game, is still being played with near religious ferocity is amazing. And while I can admit their games are very solid and have an interesting art style, I just don't find anything mind blowing about them. Their games just don't have anything that hooks me in. I tried Diablo 1 and 2 and found them both boring and repetitive, the same with all of the Warcraft RTS games and even Starcraft.

This isn't a matter of me not liking the style of games they make. I enjoyed the Command & Conquer series for a time but those got stale quickly. I've migrated on to the Company of Heroes style of game, I find that sort of RTS much more compelling. Warcraft never really grabbed me. Diablo was touted as an RPG but at the time my thoughts of an RPG were the Baldur's Gate or Fallout series, which Diablo was certainly not.

And then there's World of Warcraft. I can't believe how popular that game is. All of my friends have multiple high level characters. My sister even plays it and she has more characters than a normal MMO player would have I think. This game has managed to grip nearly everyone I know in it's dirty clutches. I played it for quite a long time because my friends were there. I kept telling myself it was fun but I really hated it. I could not decipher it's appeal.

All of this love for Blizzard's games really confuse me. No one can successfully explain it to me and at this point I'm just assuming there's something wrong with me. I'm not their target audience, but it's almost impossible to find someone who agrees with me, in fact I don't think I've ever had anyone agree with me completely on this. So I must be the broken one, the one who can't see their greatness.

Then again, I'd like to think everybody else just subscribes to the Cult of Blizzard. Don't get me wrong, there are worse cults to belong to, I just wish I could see the appeal of this certain one so I could get as excited as everybody else.

One last thing, I apologize for neglecting my posting here, the last week and half have been hell at work, it's our crunch time. I haven't had as much free time as I'd like, but I should be back on track now.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/815/Cult-of-Blizzard.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/673/To-My-Dad.html
My father wasn't my biological father, but he was most assuredly my dad. The sperm donor who helped create me didn't sound like the greatest person in the world. I've only met him once or twice and it was after I was an adult. The first meeting was awkward, as something like that would be, the second meeting was a completely random encounter. He was coming out of a movie theater as I was going into it. That was 11 years ago. The only connection I have to him anymore is that he and I share a first name and I still have his last name since it's what is legally mine.

The man who raised me is really my father and I love him very much. He and I may have had our differences when I was growing up, what kid didn't really? Frankly it's those kids who got along swimmingly both parents all the time that creeped me out, talk about unnatural. But I was a stubborn pain in the ass growing up. Moreso than most teenagers are. That man put up with my shit when he really didn't have to.

He raised me. He taught me a lot of what it meant to be an adult. I never really thanked him for any of that, I probably came across as an ungrateful brat a lot of the time. And I really took him for granted. He was a better man than I ever gave him credit for. And now that he lives way off in the middle of nowhere, or as he likes to call it "Yuma, Arizona", I haven't seen him in a long time and I realize that I miss him a lot.

So while I did talk to him yesterday, I don't think I've ever made any of this clear to him. So there you go dad. I don't think I could have asked for a better dad while growing up and I appreciate everything you did for me.

Happy Father's Day.]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/673/To-My-Dad.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/620/Nostalgia039s-a-Bitch.html Clone Wars trailer today and I realized that I agreed with him about his feelings towards Star Wars. I haven't paid any attention to the upcoming movie. Hell, I wasn't even aware it was this close to coming out. I do have an interest in the upcoming The Force Unleashed video game, but even my interest in that is starting to peter out, which is quite surprising to me because I was really looking forward to it. But the more I see of it, the more underwhelmed I am. I just keep hearing the developers talking about how EXTREME all of the moves are and how the story and characters tie into the movies. Really? Did we really need another excuse to make the Star Wars universe smaller?

My fading interest in the series is a bit personal to me because it was something I shared with my mom. My mom is the reason I'm into sci-fi and movies and all of that fun stuff. She saw the first Star Wars when she was pregnant with me and loved telling people how it was the start of my love affair with that universe. It was something that we could watch and really bond with. I took her to each midnight premiere for all the prequels and I would tell myself that I liked them. I can't even watch Episode I anymore.

Now, I'm not one of those people who screamed that George Lucas raped my childhood way back when Episode I came out. I don't even think that now. It's his characters and story, he can and should do whatever he wants with them. I just think I grew up. I really do think that those movies were made primarily for kids and that's great. I still see children who get worked up and excited about Star Wars and I think that's a cool thing to see.

I'll always have my childhood memories and some of those video games were just a blast to play and I'll go back and give them a whirl every now and again. I admit I'm a little sad that this galaxy I wanted to visit and be a part of when I was a kid just isn't the same for me anymore, but I'm glad I was able to experience it and love it when I did.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/620/Nostalgia039s-a-Bitch.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/569/Afraid-of-Innovation.html
Take for example the new Banjo/Kazooie game. On a recent EGM podcast, one of the staff seemed downright pissed off that it wasn't a traditional platform game, he ranted and raved about the vehicle building portion of the game. Forum board posters weren't much nicer about it either. I've never played a Banjo/Kazooie game, but from my own experience any game series starts to get stale if the sequels they pump out are cookie cutter copies of their old games. I'd think that putting in a new feature like this that may radically change the gameplay would be a good thing if it's done well.

Also when details started to leak out about the new Splinter Cell, game forums everywhere were filled with posters frothing at the mouth with how it was changing the mechanics and playstyle of the series and that Ubisoft had doomed the franchise. Yet these are the same people who bitch and moan when game sequels stay the same year after year. Nevermind the fact that nobody had actually played the game yet to see how the new game felt. I've heard that the game is supposedly having issues and I'm wondering if Ubisoft went back to the drawing board with the game to make it more in line with the older ones, which I think would be sad if that was the case because it means it would be just like the others in the series. Double Agent may have had problems but I think it was a good step in the right direction, Conviction looked like it was going to improve upon that.

Those two games seemed to be trying something new, unlike the standard Nintendo franchises that come out with every new system that only marginally improve upon the game. Mario Kart seemed to be largely the same, Super Smash Bros. had more annoying characters, Metroid and Zelda were practically identical to their Gamecube predecessors. I can sort of give Zelda a pass because it was originally a Gamecube game, but even that didn't really change the formula they've been using since Ocarina of Time. Only Super Mario Galaxy really seemed to do anything different. But people ate those games up, and nobody really talked about their doubts with the direction Super Mario Galaxy was taking. Is it because Nintendo is critic proof? Or is it because gamers only like innovation in small doses?

I'm starting to think gamers just like being stuck in a rut when it comes to gameplay ideas and just want to find something to protest loudly about. It's almost like the idea of change scares them.]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/569/Afraid-of-Innovation.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/560/Social-Gaming.html GoldenEye action with my friends when they were over, just that I'd rather be running James Bond around and having him gun down copious amounts of bad guys.

This probably all stems from either my group of friends or I constantly moving around when we were younger. It made it hard for us to do much of any real console gaming together. That all changed with Xbox Live, and while I didn't do much with it on the original Xbox, the 360 has Live integrated so well that it was practically impossible to ignore. Because of that I've regularly gotten in rounds of multiplayer gaming at least once or twice a week. Gears of War and Call of Duty 4 sucked up a great deal of my gaming time.

Now, however, with my 360 in Red Ring Heaven, I didn't realize just how much I would miss the social interaction of Live as well as the gaming aspect. I've been spending more time with my PS3 in the last day or so and it's become painfully obvious how very different their online schemes are. Now I've only played Warhawk online on the Playstation 3 and it went very smoothly, so game performance wise I don't really have any way to judge. But I realize now just alone the gaming experience feels on the PS3.

While playing on the 360 you can always access your friend's list to see what people are playing and maybe toss an invite to a game their way, but on the PS3, yeah I can see when my friends log on, but that's it. If I'm in a game, I can't send them a message, I can't see what they're playing, and trying to organize a get together in Warhawk is a major pain the ass.

I've definitely been spoiled by how easy Microsoft made the multiplayer experience on the 360 and in my opinion it's worth the yearly fee they charge for it. I'd gladly pay something similar for the PS3 if they gave me the same kind of social interaction that Live allowed. On the 360 I felt like I was actually part of a community and was able to participate with my friends in gaming almost as easily as if they were sitting on the couch next to me. On the PS3, gaming feels very isolated and alone, it's a very stark contrast to the 360's experience.

It took me awhile to warm up to the Playstation 3 but I really do think it's a great system. It's a bit too big and the controller still bugs me, but then I've never liked that particular design. I am glad to see Sony has been digging themselves out of the whole that their marketing department helped put them in when the system launched and I do enjoy playing games on it now. But gaming on it makes me feel like the kid who's been grounded and sent to his room and sadly watches as his friends all play outside.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/560/Social-Gaming.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/531/Jason-Bourne-Killed-my-Xbox.html The Bourne Conspiracy today for the 360 only to have my system give me the red ring of death on the second level. There were absolutely zero indications something was wrong with my system but it is very dead now. That's number two for me, and this one was only a year old and an Elite model.

As much as I love the Xbox 360, I'm astonished at how fragile these systems seem to be. I've only had one Sony system die on me, that was an original Playstation. My PS2 and PS3 are doing just fine. And I've never had a Nintendo system break. Hell, SNES still works just fine. I really hope Microsoft learns their lessons from this generation and gives us a far more sturdy machine next time.

Anyway, I was lucky enough that Best Buy let me exchange my copy of Bourne for a PS3 version. I'm a huge fan of the movies, particularly the third one, but as much as I wanted to I just couldn't get into the books, which were extremely different from the movies. That's why I was surprised to find Robert Ludlum's name displayed very prominently on the case for the game when the game is very obviously going from the movie. So much so that it recreates shots from The Bourne Identity almost perfectly in the cinema scenes, just with a Bourne that doesn't look or sound a thing like Matt Damon.

So far the game is pretty fun if not a bit simplistic. Hand-to-hand brawls are very much strike then block then strike affairs. You can also execute takedown maneuvers which replicate the more brutal strikes Bourne uses from the movies. These are suitably painful looking and can even use items from the environment if you're close to them when you initiate the move. The gunplay is a bit off though, the controls just don't feel quite right. Ironically, the most annoying part of the game to me is the camera, which is zoomed in far too tight on Bourne and zooms in even further when you pull your weapon out or go into hand-to-hand mode. And like the movie, shaky-cam is in effect as well.

The audio is good, with okay voice acting and music that sounds like it was lifted straight from the movie soundtracks. Paul Oakenfold was brought on board to do the game's music and when the action ramps up, so does the intensity of the music. Graphically it's pretty good but nothing spectacular. It uses the Unreal Engine but is obviously not pushing it to the engine's limits.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with it so far. I don't see a whole lot of replay value but it's kept me entertained so far. I find myself really enjoying using the takedown moves to hear the bone crunching as Bourne whips the hell out of whoever is unlucky enough to be in front of him at the time.

Usually I shy away from licensed games like these but this one stands above most of the others. I know that's not saying a lot, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. I think I'd rather see more licensed games come out after their movies have been around for awhile if only to give the developer more time to work on the product instead of being rushed for it.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/531/Jason-Bourne-Killed-my-Xbox.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/504/Election.html
But seriously, this election is different for me because I have no idea who I want to vote for. This is the point when I've always known who I was aiming for, but this time around I'm seriously at a loss for a decision. Nobody is really appealing to me. I can't tell if it's just because I haven't done enough research or because I've just lost that much faith in the government.

I get annoyed when I talk to my friends and one or two of them mention that they never vote, they say they don't see a point to it and that it doesn't matter who they vote for. That sort of apathetic attitude just pisses me off. If you're not going to bother to take half an hour out of the day on election day to punch holes in a card, you've got no right complaining about the decisions the people in power make. I'd really like to get them to go out there and give it a shot but then I'm also worried about turning into one of those crusading people trying to shove their beliefs on everyone else.

And really, what sort of message would I be sending them when I can't even make a decision on this myself?
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/504/Election.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/472/Blurring-the-Lines.html Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One thing that really struck me, aside from how much I didn't like it, was how much it felt like a video game. The plot, pacing, characters and most of all the CGI all felt like they were pulled out of a video game, and a bad one at that. The big jeep chase through the jungle just made me want to play Uncharted again. At least then I'd be in control of the action.

All of that got me to thinking how a lot more games lately are presenting themselves in a very cinematic fashion, essentially presenting themselves as movies. The Metal Gear Solid series leaps closer and closer to being a non-interactive game with each sequel. The rumor floating around right now is that MGS4 has 90 minute cutscenes. Not total in the game, but at least one cutscene is movie length. How true that is I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me, but it does disappoint me. When I sit down to play a game, I want to play a game, not watch what is essentially a CGI movie. Don't take that to mean I don't appreciate games with stories and cutscenes that are well scripted and acted, at least as far as video games get, but to bury you with story and large sections of the game that are non-interactive just bore me.

The Metal Gear games are well known for having long drawn out conversations via radio sequences as well as tons of cutscenes with ridiculously over the top scripted action. Now, I like the insanity of the characters in those games, but it got to be more and more of a chore to sit through those games and I never even finished Metal Gear Solid 3 because I kept dozing off whenever the longer movie sequences would kick in. I'm looking forward to MGS4 but I'm afraid the same thing will happen with that.

On the other hand, we have Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Now I loved that game, it actually felt more Indiana Jones than Indy 4 did. It had a fun story, with good voice acting and cutscenes that were all motion captured by the voice actors, at times it felt like I was taking part in a big summer blockbuster. A few movie sequences ran a little long, but overall they were the right length. They got across whatever story was necessary and put your right back into the action. That kind of blurring the lines between movies and games I can get behind because it kept me interested the whole way through and they knew where to end the movie portion and where to continue the game portion.

Overall though, I'd rather they keep movies and games separate. They are both different forms of entertainment, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. But if this sort of thing is going to continue to happen to games I hope game makers follow the examples of Uncharted and let us get back to the action instead of being more Metal Gear and having the controllers turn off due to inaction because a cutscene has been going for twenty minutes. And if movie makers want to make a good action movie, don't look to videogames, look to movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Die Hard. They told their story, they showed their action, and they managed to keep our attention the whole way through.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/472/Blurring-the-Lines.html http://chud.com/articles/blogs/453/Work-Friends.html
Now the big thing about the ex-work buddies I'd drift apart from was that until I was about twenty-six I just worked in part-time mall jobs. Now that I have a full time office job, I think my ways have been changing because I spend so much time with my co-workers now that the friendship feels more substantial.

Today I had a long conversation with a co-worker, a pretty cool guy named Bill who I've worked with for a couple of years now, and it was really eye opening to me because I realized that at some point he and I had become actual friends instead of acquaintances. Bill has been going through very tough times lately, his dad recently died after a long fight with stomach cancer.

We talked about the last time he had seen his dad and it was strange to see how emotional he got, it seemed like he really just needed someone he could talk to and open up with. I was sad for his loss because it obviously still hurt him, but I was really happy he felt like he could do this with me, it was quite a change from the idle chatter we usually have every day. After our talk was over and we went back to work I realized I had just gained a new friend and not just a work buddy.

As I get older I recognize the need to have close friends, people you can open up with and just enjoy spending time with and talking to. And while I wish I could go back and keep in touch with a few other friends from my past, I think I've actually hit the point of maturity where I'll say I'll keep in touch with someone and actually do it.
]]> no@spam.com (Tim Faulkner) Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://chud.com/articles/blogs/453/Work-Friends.html