Scrobbs

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    2015

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Posts posted by Scrobbs

  1. Posted

    Right, who's with me?

    I'm feeling completely jaded with computer games recently, specifically new releases. For a while now, I've not been feeling the love with new games, as they mostly seem to be producing the same old rubbish repackaged. The only games that I actually want to play at the moment are TF2, Company of Heroes and last night I had a blast on portal and really loved it, all of which are fairly in game terms; CoH is nearly 18 months old, TF2 at least 6. Call of Duty kept my interest longer than I expected, but all the new xbox releases fill me with horror, as do a lot of PC titles. Tabula Rasa waned after a few weeks, Sins of a solar empire lasted about 3 hours, Wow still has no attraction, neither does any of the approaching MMORORRGGMMORGGS. The few games I've bought on the Wii hold my attention for about a day.

    Why is this? Am I just getting a bit older? A bit past it for games? Or am I pushed to tedium by the lack lustre IP being generated recently? All the genres seem to be getting a little tired, and need a fresh injection of interest - just because a new 360 game is a TPS where you can *gasp* play with a mate in the story game online *gasp* doesn't fill me with a desire to spunk 40 quid on it. Of course, that's my rights - I don't fancy the game, therefore I don't buy it. Vote with my wallet. Or is it something deeper? Something more endemic that is caused by the relentless consolidation ongoing in the games industry?

    Case in point: Grand Theft Auto IV. Lots of people are waiting for this, whether they be a casual gamer who played the last one to death a long time ago or people like myself who spend a lot of time gaming, slavering at the mouth for the graphics! the gameplay! cop shooting! I can't be arsed. Sure, it looks good, but so does Call of Duty 4. COD4, although not original IP, has good pedigree, but they actually bothered to put something different into the MP game - so much so that most players I see online all use different combinations of perks. Ok, so I've heard folks grumble about the linearity of the SP game - but if you looked past that, here was a game that got your pulse racing with excitement as the sheer pace of the action sucked you through (and frustration, on veteran at the ferris wheel, I came very close to breaking my television with the controller, and had to go outside for some kite flying).

    Right, so the reason folks loved GTA I, 2 and three was the sheer free-form nature of the game. Well, that's pushing it a little far I think; it boiled down to little more than go here, do that, kill them, get that case of money, report back although if I'm being fair you could put that down to storage and ahrdware limitation. You could, should you wish, hijack a taxi or an ambulance and go round doing delivery or medical missions, or for the craic beat a whore to death and nick her money. Staid, dull, boring and tedious. GTA 4 (or IV as it insists on styling itself) is purporting to boast 15 different types of multiplayer, downloadable content in the form of other missions, a drinking minigame where you stumble about to get home, ability to arrange your meetings with fellow crooks to complete missions... I could go on. The feature list definitely seems rich, but still does not grab me like I feel it should. Younger gamers are going to lap this game up, precisely because of the freedom of criminality, that crucial part of games which allows you to forget the real world and immerse yourself in someone else's construct.

    I think, therein lies my problem. There are few truly talented storytellers, artists who design the world and the atmosphere, but there are a large number of excellent graphic designers and programmers - so the games look fantastic, rarely do the control system bug the shit out of you now, but the story lines really do not come up to scratch. Is this because games are designed by committee? Graphics and sound while being extraordinarily creative in their own right lend themselves to this method of work. The best worlds take years to develop and should be done by one person, as one can easily tell when someone has thrown their entire life into the game world (or indeed other media) they are creating to really make it believable. There are also worlds that have translated badly into games - the Star Wars MMO was disappointing for instance, and that is one of modern cultures most detailed and enduring alternative realities. A game with a promising story was Bioshock. In all honesty, I had been waiting for that game for months. I sat there and fumed at steam when it wouldn't let me download it for hours, then was tortuously slow when it did. I played it I think for about 4 days and got bored of it, without finishing. I loved the story, the game world, the graphics - but it was missing something, a crucial piece so that it too became drawn-out. Perhaps in this case, I realised I didn't really give a shit about the characters and what happened to them.

    Are these the rantings of a spent, nearing middle-aged gamer? When I first started played video games, all this was fields? I'm not going to sit here and pretend that games from yesteryear were better that they are now, as that is clearly nonsense. I have some nostalgia for old games, but have learnt through experience that playing them merely destroys the fond place they have in my memory as I can play them for literally minutes before becoming dismayed. Games have indeed moved on and become far far more absorbing. To prove that I don't hate all games, As I mentioned briefly above, I'm still in love with Company of Heroes, an RTS game that can leave you with heart palpitations and sweaty palms it's that intense; Team Fortress 2, an FPS that leaves you gurgling with laughter when your pyro charges round the corner into a room full of enemies massing for attack and the sheer panic that grips everyone!

    There are a few brighter lights on the horizon; EA (of all people) are bringing out a FREE game. Not so amazing, but what is, is that the claim there will be little or no in game advertisments. It also looks suspiciously like TF2 in graphical style and gameplay, but if it offers similar thrills and does something a bit different, who am I to argue? Spore is another one, although I am readying myself for this game to be a bit of a crushing disappointment. On the face of it, the idea seems superb, and it is written by none other than Will Wright, a superlative designer. A little apprehension is present because of what happened with Black & White. There is a new total war coming out, promising those of us (including me!) who loved the previous incarnations what we've wanted since the first medieval - proper naval warfare! Fingers crossed that I don't lose interest as quickly as I did with Medieval II, the friendly AI in the tactical game being the biggest culprit for that, sitting there clicking frantically as your heavy cavalry wouldn't charge because someone was lagging behind being stuck on a ladder, or tree or something equally silly. Why does that matter? Well you're defending your castle against a vastly superior force, all your bowmen have spent their arrows but you're well up on the casualty sheet and one final enemy unit of fresh heavy infantry are charging up the ladders to assualt your knackered artillery troops, and you NEED that heavy cavalry to thunder into their flanks to rout them before they take the walls. But no. The iron horses get stuck on a twig, you lose the castle and one hour of your life.

    I digress a little and the total war series remains a draw, but games of this calibre are few and far between and while people continue to buy the same old FPS (UT3), RTS (C&C), TPS (Army of Two) shit, companies will continue to churn it out. I think this might have been said before, and perhaps more elequently, but I hope you at least agree and it will reach some others who may become a little more discerning in what they buy.

  3. Posted

    I saw 'Mad Men' on Beeb 2 last ninght. Enjoyed it a lot, I think it's by one of the guys beheind the Soprano's (which, as we all know, was the best thing on telly in it's early series ;) ).

  5. Posted

    I watched the pilot tonight for a new BBC comedy drama called Being Human. I guess it's kind of like This Life meets Buffy. Three flatmates and their lives, one being a vampire, one a werewolf and one a ghost who haunts their flat. It was a just a one off, so hard to tell where it would go, but it was a hell of a lot better than any other british supernatural/sci-fi series of recent years (most of which have been utterly awful X-files wannabes). Here's hoping it gets a whole series.

    Yep, I agree with this. Good telly.

  9. Posted

    Venetian Snares (aka Aaron Funk) is a Canadian Gabba producer, or that's at least what he started off doing. He also makes glitchy electronica (album'Cavalcade of glee...'), glitchcore, and under the moniker 'Last Step' some more accessible electronica rather like Aphex Twin.

    Anyway, back in 2005, he brought out the album above, and pretty much blew away everyone who ever heard it who was into electronic music. It was a masterful blend of classica string instruments and some pretty hard electronica, at times drum and bass, at times gabba, and sometimes just pure, beautifula nd mournful strings, oftern with staggering complexity. It was (and is) fabulous. Anyway, the album was released with a hungarian title and track names, due to Funk being a fellow with an unusual creative streak. Anyway, I leaped at the chance to decipher it, and for those that said they liked it on here, I posted up the translation.

    If you have liked drum and bass at any time in your past, or indeed any sort of electronic dance music, you must listen to this album. In my opinion, Aaron Funk is one of the most impressive and accomplished programmers in the world in today.

  15. Posted

    CPU upgrades are only really useful for things like photoshop or for games like Total War, Company of Heroes or Supreme Commander, where a lot of mathematics goes on in the background for calculating trajectories etc between large groups of things. For FPS's you're best off spending the money on graphics power, especially with Bioshock.

    If you're interested, I'm thinking of selling my AGP X1900XTX card (with an Arctic Cooling X2 for quietness). That played Bioshock at 1680x1050 with hardly any problems.

  17. Posted

    While we were on holiday in Peru, we ended up travelling about with these couple of Hungarian girls that we got on with. It took me a day or two to realise that I had this album on me, so if anyone is in the remote bit interested, here's a track listing, plus pronunciation, and meaning.

    Pron. of title:

    Ross - Chillog - Allat - Tzuletett

    "Born under a bad star"

    Track Title

    Pronunciation

    Meaning

    1)Sikertelenség

    Shee-kerr-talem-shaig

    Unsuccessful

    2)Szerencsétlen

    Zeren-chet-lan

    Unlucky

    3)Öngyilkos Vasárnap

    Ohner-dia-cosh Vas-er-nap

    Suicide Sunday

    4)Felbomlaszt Mentökocsi

    Felt-borm-lasto Menk-tur-auto

    Decomposing Ambulance

    5)Hajnal

    Hoy-nal

    Down

    6)Galamb Egyedúl

    Ga-lambe Edy-a-dhoole

    Pigeon Alone

    7)Második Galamb

    Mar-sho-dik Ga-lambe

    Second Pigeon

    8 )Szamár Madár

    SAR-maah Mo-dar

    Donkey Bird

    9)Hiszékeny

    He-say-keng

    Naive

    10)Kétsarkú Mozgalom

    Keert-shar-koo Mwaz-garlomb

    Double Edged Movement

    11)Senki Dala

    Shan-key Dollaah

    Nobody's Song

    ...and on My Downfall...

    Holló Utca

    Hoy-llo Ootsa

    Hoax Street

  19. Posted

    Just to clarify, The Wire is about the baltimore drug scene? Started in 2002? Series 5 on at the moment?

    Might try and get some.

    On another note, I saw 3:10 to Yuma the other day - I loved it. Great story.

  21. Posted

    Really dodgy thread resurrection, I know, but I'm so delighted, I thought I'd go on about it to people who'd at the very least understand. After hearing about ScummVM a long time ago, I'd not really done anything about it, until the possibility of running on my DS has reared it's head. Anyhow, long story short, I'm off on hols soon, and I have to take with me, DooT, Sam & Max, MI1 & 2 on my DS. How exciting! I've not played them since I originally played them. Hopefully the puzzles will be fresh again, apart from the most famous ones. :tup:

  24. Posted

    Thunderpeel, I wanted to adda comment to that blog thing about geeks, but the little picture wouldn't show up, so then I tried to transfer my blog over to google, but it wouldn't let me even register. Anyhow, here's the post:

    I agree completely, and was thinking about this a few years ago. You can effectively call someone a geek if they're really into something. Thus you get skateboarder geeks, computer geeks, sailing geeks, car geeks, DJ (music) geeks etc. Geek is essentially a derogatory word used for someone who is interested in something. As far as I'm concerned, if you're not a geek, then you aren't interested in anything in particular - which has got to be dull. Ok, so real geeks perhaps aren't very interesting to others outside their chosen field (I know some bad ass mechanics and scratch DJ's that I would call geeks, and who would describe themslves as being so if they were being honest), it's just that some people's interests are viewed as 'cooler' than others. Declaration of interest: I'm a car, music and computer geek by the way. :)