Month: February 2010

Chat Box

SonicRob: does history have a “plot”?
FyreHaar: good books do
FyreHaar: Plot is just the story arc
FyreHaar: and the civil war is a pretty damn good one
SonicRob: plot is the imposition of illusory order upon the chaos of reality. it is the most fundamental way in which human beings fool themselves about the nature of existence
SonicRob: not that we have a choice
SonicRob: we turn everything into narrative
SonicRob: our minds just work that way
FyreHaar: are you saying that plot is an aspect of the gestalt mechanism of the human psyche?
SonicRob: like we are seeing bunnies in a cloud
FyreHaar: our inbuilt pattern recognition firmware
SonicRob: yes
FyreHaar: well, yeah
FyreHaar: ohh, I see a bunny in the sky…

Chat Box

SonicRob: Shinji Mikami, Goichi Suda and Akira Yamaoka are making a game together
FyreHaar: what have they done before?
SonicRob: That is like me saying that Sam Raimi, Spike Jonze and Danny Elfman are making a movie
FyreHaar: whoa
FyreHaar: freaky
SonicRob: Mikami invented Resident Evil
SonicRob: Suda invented No More Heroes and Killer 7
SonicRob: Yamaoka did the soundtrack for all the Silent Hill games and the film
FyreHaar: so a sort of Shawn of the Dead kind of game
SonicRob: they are like a Japanese videogame version of the Traveling Wilburys
SonicRob: that’s the thing, they are innovators
SonicRob: so who the fuck knows what they’ll do when you put them together?
SonicRob: I desperately hope there are no zombies in the game
FyreHaar: could be awesome, could be horrific could be blah
FyreHaar: blah would be worst
SonicRob: but it is supposed to be “action-horror”
SonicRob: yeah
SonicRob: I’d prefer a spectacular failure

Chat Box

FyreHaar: I finished Team of Rivals!!!!!
SonicRob: good work!
FyreHaar: it was
FyreHaar: I cried at the end
FyreHaar: it was sad
SonicRob: well, you know what happens to some people
SonicRob: coughLincolndiescough
FyreHaar: well. I always cry when Lincoln dies
FyreHaar: he was truly an amazing dude
SonicRob: oh man, I wept like a baby at the end of Abe Lincoln vs the Zombies
FyreHaar: how was that?
FyreHaar: it’s by the guy who did P&P&Z
SonicRob: the dialogue was too modern in places
SonicRob: he didn’t really create a sense of place
SonicRob: but the action was good
SonicRob: and the characters were interesting
SonicRob: hehe
SonicRob: “Team of Rivals and Zombies”
FyreHaar: team of rival zombies?
FyreHaar: team of zombie rivals!
SonicRob: Survival Rivals

Chat Box

SonicRob: 2 kinds of predators!
SonicRob: ork weirdboyz!
SonicRob: ahhhhh!!!!
FyreHaar: yay!!
SonicRob: oh fuck
FyreHaar: ??
SonicRob: each chaos leader is devoted to a different god
SonicRob: just like we said!
FyreHaar: just like we said!!!
SonicRob: yay us!
FyreHaar: yay relic loves us!!!!!
SonicRob: they are on our wavelength
FyreHaar: I asked for chaos in our first podcast
FyreHaar: we talked about the different gods
SonicRob: new multi mode
SonicRob: no teams
FyreHaar: maybe they read our blog?
SonicRob: 6 individuals
FyreHaar: ffa???
SonicRob: ayup
FyreHaar: awesome sauceum
SonicRob: VPs count up instead of down
SonicRob: and you can destroy the VPs
FyreHaar: whoa!
SonicRob: there’s a fuck you
FyreHaar: for real
FyreHaar: can you fix it?
SonicRob: it costs, but yes
SonicRob: I still can’t believe it’s fucking Eliphas
FyreHaar: well in canon he survives Kaurava
FyreHaar: oh wait
FyreHaar: sorry that’s Firaveus
SonicRob: Kronos
SonicRob: he dies
FyreHaar: he really dies, bad
SonicRob: yeah
FyreHaar: like cast into the void
SonicRob: well, that’s chaos for ya
SonicRob: he was the only leader with a sense of humor
FyreHaar: yeah
FyreHaar: sexy voice, too
SonicRob: I wouldn’t know =P

Assassin’s Creed by Harlequin!

I am right in the meat of Assassin’s Creed II right now and loving it.  I adored the original and this has improved on the experience. It’s just super fun and I can’t wait for each new environment to play around in.

Ubisoft publishing Assassin’s Creed II Novel

I confess that I was, for an instant, totally into this.

More Ezio, more Assassin’s Creed, it’s a good thing, right? More explanation of his life, more revealed about Altair perhaps. More juicy, juicy plot! Romance, action, assassinations!

Shite.

I like running randomly over roofs, stealing every treasure I can find, making my horse gallop a lot and generally fucking around. I like jumping off of roofs without the leap of faith and seeing how far I can fall without dying. They will leave that out. Where in the novel will Ezio use all of his attacks and movements in the Animus loading screen to make a funky disco dance? Where!?

I don’t want to read their interpretation of how I should be playing the game and the adaptation of my playing style would be boring reading.  Why don’t they just use the money they are spending on this to make more DLC?

[h/t to Destructiod]

Chat Box

SonicRob: man, that dictionary lady that Tycho linked is kinda hot
SonicRob: especially when she spells
FyreHaar: I think that is the idea
SonicRob: I bet she gets so much play now
SonicRob: M-W will be deluged with requests for her phone number
SonicRob: millions of fans for the dictionary redhead
FyreHaar: mmm, wordy girlz…….
SonicRob: fuck yeah wordy grrlz
SonicRob: If I were single I’d hit that like a pinata

You Had Me at Hex Grid

Civilization V has been announced today for a Fall release. Firaxis reports that they are excited to be working on the first game to combine Alan Moore’s seminal neo-anarchist graphic novel with the deep technology tree and addictive gameplay of…

Hm? Yes?

Oh. Oh, I see.

Ah.

Civilization V Announced, Introduces HexesSid Meier’s legendary turn-based historical strategy series Civilization will receive a brand new installment on PC this fall, publisher 2K Games announced today.

Civilization V will charge players with once again leading and shaping a civilisation all the way from the dawn of society through to the space age, now backed by an all-new graphics engine and boasting “unprecedented modding capabilities.”

An “entirely new combat system” which includes ranged bombardment is promised. Civ V also makes the jump to hexagon-shaped tiles, which 2K says will take the series “in new directions” with “deeper strategy” and “more realistic gameplay.”

“Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team,” said series creator Sid Meier in a press statement. “Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we’re excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series.”

Developed yet again by Firaxis Games–who’ve helmed the series since Civ III–Sid Meier’s Civilization V is slated for release on PC in fall of this year.

So via Shacknews we see that a new Civ has been announced. The graphics can be assumed to be charming and aesthetically pleasing, so let’s ignore those for the moment and talk about how it will play. Bombardment? Ok, this will allow for bigger projected zones of control. Expanded diplomacy? Intriguing for me, as I’m a big fan of killing them with kindness. Hex grids?

Oh, it’s motherfucking on.

Continue reading You Had Me at Hex Grid

Make Me Play Videogames Field Journal: Drained

Far Cry 2 has officially been completed as of about 20 minutes ago; I’d have told you sooner, but I had to wait through a 10-minute unskippable credits scroll before I could quit the game. I’ll be taking a short breather before writing up my thoughts in the usual rambling, incoherent, and likely irrelevant manner.

I’ve already learned a lot about game writing, that’s for sure. Lesson #1: write it down right now. Keep a pad next to the computer. If you have a thought, opinion, or gripe pause the game and write it down instantly. If you are drifting warmly away to sleep and a good point or phrase wafts up out of your gently simmering mind, hop the fuck out of bed and get it on paper. Don’t assume you can remember that stuff. ‘Cause if you’re me you can’t.

The next set of candidates will soon be going up on the site for you to choose between. I won’t be giving the choices away right away because, well, what would be the point of putting them in a separate post, then? However, I will tell you that the theme for MMPVG 2 will be “Among the Ruins”.

-ssr