Top of Cool

Jack Thompson: Rampage!

The Buttonmasher has a great post highlighting this Economist article on video game violence which sums up the FACTS on this whole video game violence thing.

In a corollary, El Buttonmasher posted a great link to this email flame war between VGCats and the one and only Jack Thompson, professional idiot.

My favorite part is where Jack Thompson goes off on this whole “I get death threats so I don’t have time to respons to you.” Then, the very next email he sends:

From: “Jack Thompson”
To: scott@vgcats.com

dear idiot: you initially contacted me. stop, or else. got it?

Wow. This is Jack Thompson, folks.

Dungeon Siege II: First Impressions

I’ve played about an hour of the DS2 demo and you may color me less than impressed.

The graphics in the demo are improved over the first DS for sure, but they’re still pretty much crap. I was surprised how crappy the graphics were, in fact. Fate had better graphics, IMHO. The characters were low-polygon affairs that shared the same basic look and feel as the models from the first game. Actually, it looks like they may have just copied the models straight over. Spell effects are nothing new. You’ve seen them all in Diablo 2 and Neverwinter Nights.

Game-play wise, it’s the same tired gameplay that was in the first one. Linear maps that take you pretty much from point a to point b, oh look, a mini-map, so now it’s even easier to follow the linear maps. They could’ve just removed the movement controls and made a pretty decent rail shooter.

The story seems somewhat cliche but is not entirely devoid of interest. *yawn* another evil guy gets powerful by means of some ancient artifact and tries to track down more artifacts. Blah blah blah. I’ve played this game. It was called Diablo 2.

So, yeah, I’m a little cynical about DS2, especially because it feels less like a sequel and more like an expansion pack or a user-created mod of the first game.

Maybe the editing tools will be decent this time around. I doubt it.

Lucas at SIGGRAPH: AI stinks!

At SIGGRAPH, George Lucas expressed his desire that video games have much better AI. I’ve seen his comments posted in a few places, and the so far, the most lucid response has been, “OMGZ!! JARJAR IS SO GHEY!!!111 LOL!!! JARJAR NEEDS AI!!!”

Are we done hating on Lucas yet? No? Well, too bad.

He is right.

The AI in current video games is CRAP. Right now, AI consists of very elaborate scripting. Scripted sequences != AI. Video games need real AI, where an NPC watches the PC and learns behavior from you. If you are bunny-hopping and getting more kills that way, then the AI should pick up on that and do the same thing. Using the same route every map? Then the AI should learn from that and send more guys that way. Or perhaps the AI will decide to use a feint and really be planning an assault on the other route and come from behind.

AI in games has been pretty much the same or worse since Descent. That was the last time the AI did something that made me go, “Holy crap, I’ve never seen a computer-controlled enemy do anything like that!” I was floating down some tunnel, I turn to go into a room and I start getting plinked in the back by some drone. I turn around to lay into him, and as soon as the drone notices this, it backs out of the room and hides behind a corner. It didn’t even wait for me to fire. That moment scared me.

I realize that it was scripted, blah blah blah, but it was really well done. That was over 10 years ago. It’s time to move on. Let’s see some truly innovative AI.

Oh, that’s right. EAUbisoftVivendi controls the video game market… nevermind.

Sony Uses Fake Critics to Promote Movies

I saw this over on Sci-Fi Wire. Go there for the full story.

Sony Pictures Entertainment must pay $1.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the studio of citing a fake movie critic in ads for several films, including Hollow Man and The Animal, the Associated Press reported.

Does anyone really listen to those stupid critic quotes, anyway? I mean, come on! Even Stealth got a couple positive reviews.

Although, here was the Rotten Tomatoes quote from one of those positive reviews:

I’m not sure if I should club it to death or hug it.

LOL! That would be awesome to hear during a movie trailer…

Carnival of Gamers V

Welp, the latest chapter in the Carnival of Gamers has hit the streets.

I haven’t had time to read through everything yet. Some of the posts I had read in past few weeks as they had been posted, and there is some quality stuff here, folks. And if you came to this page from the carnival, thanks for stopping by and don’t feed Gizmo after midnight.

Hot Coffee: Why Video Game Sex is Worse than Video Game Violence

A lot of hubbub has been published relating to the now infamous Hot Coffee mod of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A mod which unlocks disabled code in the game to enable a player to take part in a simulated sex mini-game.

Senator Hilary Rodham (D-NY) has even gotten in on the action, proposing a federal law, in large part due to the mod, that would fine game clerks $5000 for selling M- or AO-rated games to minors.

Rockstar has denied that they had ANYTHING to do with the mod. Gamespot quickly proved that all the code is there and can be utilized even on a PS2 using various cheat codes, thereby proving that the original code was written by Rockstar, even if the code was never intended to be part of the final release.

Some bloggers out there are arguing along the lines of, “What’s wrong with a little sex compared to all the violence that is in the game?”

Well, I’ll tell you.
Read the rest of this entry »

Activision announces Marvel Comics RPG

Sometimes, Activision rules.

I love Marvel Comics.

I love non-persistent (aka non-MMO) RPG’s.

Thank you, Activision.

For the record, I loved X-men Legends. One of the best Xbox games out there. Holy crap… that reminds me. Is X-men Legends out, yet? Dang, looks like it got pushed back. Oh well.

Anyway, I also loved the Freedom Force games. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go get these games, NOW! At least download the demo.

I can’t wait to find out what developer received these exclusive rights.

Game Awards Not Owned by EA = Quasi-meaningful

G4 released the results of their G-Phoria awards. These “awards” were given to highest vote getters among fans.

Unlike the pathetic waste of time that was the SpikeTV VGA’s, someone besides an EA owned and operated hoochie won “Best Voice Performance – Female”, namely, Merle Dandridge for her portrayal of Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2. Just like I ranted about earlier.

Kutaragi Watch: PS3 Expensive… because it’s for Flat Panels

Kutaragi has been making the rounds letting everyone know that the PS3 is going to be hella expensive. Well, we pretty much knew that already. What most people are missing however is what Kutaragi has said about HD and Flat Panels.

We’re looking at a life cycle of 10 years with the PlayStation 3. We’re currently shifting from standard TVs to HD TVs.

Wait, you’re telling me Sony is going to support the PS3 for 10 years?

Indeed. We’ll see if that actually materializes or not. I doubt it.

Basically, Kutaragi is trying to explain why the PS3 is more expensive and why it will be supported for the next 10 years when he says:

But in the next couple of years, most flat-panel TVs will be full HD.

Heh heh. I can’t argue with that. But the fact that market penetration for flat panel TV’s is currently pretty pathetic isn’t going to help Sony win the fight against Microsoft. (Granted flat panel sales are projected to increase and become more mainstream, but not for several years, yet. So what does that mean for Kutaragi and Sony, who seem to be wagering their PS3 against flat panels becoming more HD?

It means that no one (except those dreamy early adopters) is going to buy a PS3 until it is a closer price point to the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is going to win the console war right out of the gate. And Sony is on crack if they think they can overcome the Xbox steamroller with a $500 multimedia behemoth. Now, in 5 years, when the PS3 is a much closer price point to the Xbox 360, things may start to get a little more interesting.

Dodgeball vs. Doom

As I read Steven Johnson’s recent LA Times column, I realized that even though people are getting bent out of shape about “violent” video games like Halo 2, kids have been playing violent games for years.

Hello? Ever hear of Dodgeball? Or how about the pickup games of tackle football I used to play every recess in my junior high. There were more than few violent outbreaks as a direct result of actions taken during these kinds of activites. And they are the kinds of games kids play ALL THE TIME.

I remember clearly my mother getting upset about my playing football with the neighborhood kids back when I was 6. I got bumped on the noggin pretty hard one of those games and sprained my ankle another time. Choruses of “I told you so” would follow me all the way to my room.

(And yes, readers, PLAYING football can become violent. WATCHING football should not.)

Given the choice between having my kids play Halo 2 or Dodgeball, it’s pretty much a tossup in my book. On the one hand, the kid gets some good exercise, and learns how to deal with a little pain. On the other, he exercises his mind and doesn’t come home with a bloody nose.

I guess we’ll see when I have kids…