As much as it is possible to hate a man I will never meet and that has not killed a close friend or family member, that is how much I hate Denis Dyack. And that was before I saw this
interview with him on OXM (via
Destructoid). This is the part where he’s explaining why people didn’t like the Too Human demo:
But what we’re also seeing is for the people who don’t like it, generally just don’t get it. And it’s because we’ve created something so innovative and different. It’s ironic, it just shows that human nature of if you don’t understand something, you immediately attack it. It’s pretty interesting in that regard.
Really, I could pick any paragraph from this interview to explain my hatred, but this one in particular is so… so awful. I would jokingly say that this would only make sense as some bizarre social experiment to see what happens when you act like the ultimate douchebag but… Dyack has actually
used that excuse before. This man… I hate him so much. I wish his ability to communicate was violently removed by a rabid baboon that recently escaped from a nearby zoo. That he has this level of control over my emotions only makes me hate him more.
I’m not going to shit on Silicon Knights for making bad games, they appear to be a competent group of developers. I liked Eternal Darkness when it came out, though I think that had more to do with me only owning a Gamecube and being starved for games, rather than the game being of exceptional quality. The Too Human demo was not fun or original in the least, but it wasn’t a broken game or anything. I was able to kill dudes with no major control issues. The Silicon Knights guys ought to form a mutiny and throw Denis Dyack overboard. Literally. Rent a boat for the day if you have to.
does not suck|August 13, 2008
Microsoft is doing this “Summer of Arcade” thing where they’re releasing games people actually want to play. Like.. more than one week in a row. Crazy right?
They started with Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2. I wasn’t a big fan of the first game, it was alright but I thought it could’ve looked a little sharper and maybe offered some more gameplay variants. The sequel… looks better and offers some more gameplay variants. So I’m satisfied with that. I like how the leaderboards are integrated into the mode selection screen, so as long as you’ve got a friend with a higher score than you, you’ve got incentive to keep playing. I also like how quickly you can start a new game after dying. With two presses of the A button you are instantly in a new game. It really removes a lot of the frustration inherent in these types of games.
Next was Braid. Braid is similar to Portal in that it sort of straddles that line between “games as art” and “games that are fun to play” philosophies. I have conflicting feelings about the game, and they’re pretty much the same feelings I had about Portal. It has solid gameplay, and the story is unique and tied to the gameplay in a way that every other game doesn’t even seem to consider a possibility. But.. I don’t know. There’s no “oh shit you just blew my mind” moment. It’s a good game, smartly designed, but I feel like it’s missing a crucial ingredient. I haven’t finished it yet though, maybe I’ll change my mind when (if?) I finish it. Never happened with Portal so I’m not holding my breath. I know it’s probably not fair or realistic for me to even have this expectation for mind-blowing, but I can’t help it.
Bionic Commando: Rearmed came out today, it’s a remake of the NES game Bionic Commando. I never played the original so I can’t tell you how it compares, but this seems to be a good game. There’s a story mode which I guess follows the original game’s levels and story, but I think I prefer the Challenge Rooms, which challenge your bionic arm swinging skills in levels reminiscent of MGS VR missions.
Next week is some Galaga remake and the week after that is Castle Crashers. Personally, not interested in those. But I’ve heard they’re good if you’re into that kind of thing.
I’m working a lot lately so I haven’t been bored enough to look for reasons to update my blog. What I have been doing is stuff on my
giantbomb.com profile. Giant Bomb is a new website about videogames, it’s sort of like Wikipedia+blog. Apparently it uses the same backend as comicvine.com, which is a comic book website. Anyway I’m not sure if I like this site yet but I think I do. There’s a lot of dumb users submitting bad content but on the other hand I like correcting people and there’s a lot of correcting to do. If you sign up make sure you add me as a friend or something I don’t know.
In other news, it’s fucking hot right now god damn it’s hot. I’d buy an air conditioner but I’m afraid it would blow a fuse any time I turned it on with the massive amount of electronic devices sucking power in this room (which I’m sure is not helping the heat issue).
I found this kind of neat app/web site recently that keeps track of which applications you use on your computer, and how long you use them. I guess it’s pretty useless but it’s the type of useless information I like to know. It’s called
Wakoopa.
So I’m watching the Red Wings game last night and during a commercial break I flip around the channels and for whatever reason I stop on WGN and see this show called Corner Gas. It’s… bad. But I can’t tell if it’s really horrible or just.. not very good. It feels… Canadian (and checking Wikipedia confirms that it is in fact Canadian). I don’t know. I think I’m confused, but I’m pretty sure I hate this show and everyone involved in its creation. Check out some
youtube clips if you’re really bored.
My boner for this game is losing stiffness. It’s still a great game, I’m still playing a ton, but I’m starting to notice the faults more prominently. Some technical stuff: framerate, pop-in, the usual suspects. Compared to the problems the PS2 games had, GTA4 is leaps and bounds better but.. I kind of want to wait for a PC version more than I want to keep playing the 360 version. Also adding to that feeling, xbox live. The lag is worse (and there are less players) than the PC multiplayer hack mods made for previous GTAs. And the people on xbox live are the some of the worst people alive. Also the PC mods had much more inventive game modes. So the mulitplayer is kind of a letdown. There’s some fun to be had with a small group of friends but it just doesn’t compare to my good old days of
MTA.
I still enjoy roaming around the city in single player, and the story was pretty strong. There are some weird moments in the story where the free-roaming nature of the game gets in the way of character development and believability. Particularly Niko; unlike the previous games you are not playing a character whose only motivations are money and power. Since he’s not portrayed as a sociopathic mass murderer it feels a bit odd to go on a rampage killing innocent people. On the other hand, killing innocent people is fun. It’s quite the dilemma!
But I’m done with the story now anyway, so the point where that was bothering me has long been passed. Now the problems are more about the sense of speed in cars feeling limited by the framerate, and my inability to find a damn Infernus anywhere. Also I’m at 98.33% completion and I have no fucking idea what thing I am missing to get that last 1.67% (I even read a FAQ which told me I had everything needed. fuck you FAQ you didn’t help me at all!). (hooray I got it) Life is hard you know.
On a broader level, I have some conflicted feelings about the game. It’s so much better than previous GTAs, and those are games that I love. But.. it feels like it should be better. It’s sort of like the uncanny valley, it’s so real that it’s not real at all. They’ve crossed a threshold where a lot of the staples of the series don’t make any sense anymore. They have cut down on a lot of that stuff but there’s also a lot left, but get rid of everything and it’s no longer GTA. I don’t have the answer, but there’s just something about GTA4 that’s not right, even it does take you 90 hours to recognize.
Also I should probably say that some of the points in this post were stolen from inspired by the most recent
GFW Radio podcast, but it’s how I was feeling about the game. And part of the problem is likely the insane amount I’ve played the game in less than two weeks.
There’s not much point in talking about this game. It’s great, I love it, I play it several hours a day and don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
I really enjoy the way the cars handle, it’s a great mix of arcadey and realistic feeling (though it is still very much on the arcadey side). And going hand in hand with that is the road layout of the city which makes driving around a lot of fun. There’s this one Lamborghini Murcielago clone car that you don’t get access to until near the end of the game (or at least I never saw it anywhere before then), driving it around Liberty City reminds me of this awesome video:
Anyway, GTA4 is awesome, I’m gonna go play more now.
When I started this blog, I imagined that I would post more often than I currently am. A lack of topics is part of the problem but mostly it’s wanting to avoid the feeling of repeating myself. Most of the things I am interested in enough that I would write a blog post about them, I have already talked about in other more immediate venues like IRC, instant messages, or forums; and those are the only people that might read my blog anyway. It’s a lot easier to talk about things in those places because they can be very quick one or two sentence thoughts, and other people add their own thoughts
on the subject.. so there’s a lot less thinking for me. And I’ve always been a “take the easy way out” kind of guy so that’s where I go.
I guess I could just ignore that feeling. I mean there are already a few things you have to ignore when you’re writing a blog. The main thing is that nobody cares, or will ever care, what you think about anything. Maybe your friends take some kind of interest but like I was saying you already talk to them through other means. And trying to move that conversation onto your blog would just make you look like an asshole that has to be the center of attention. Not to say that there is no point in blogging; there is something to be said for being able to completely flesh out your thoughts without worrying about how it will start/affect a conversation.
And to redundantly point out the layer of redundancy contained in this very post, I did already talk about this subject on IRC before writing about it here on my blog.
