Tetris obsessed?
Posted by: sturge
Once some people start an obsession, they can't stop. You have to own every Pez dispenser ever made, even the fake ones. Or you absolutely can't live without those handmade Mr. T dolls to complete your collection.
Well for the Tetris obsessed, this one's for you.
Although the verdict looks like it's not in yet on this one, some people report poor controller response, if you're a die hard fan you gotta have it.
Postcards from San Andreas
Posted by: curt
Not long ago I found this site, which is a fun roadtrip story told through the lens of GTA:San Andreas. Today I found this site, wherein a TV live truck operator recreates his job in fictional California. Maybe the governor of Illinois will rethink his task force on violent games. Road trip stories and TV reporters? Freedom of the press, right?
+ respect
Doom 3 Post-Game Reflections
Posted by: kmikeym
(written by Derek Yu)
The original Doom games, Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth, rocked my childhood world so hard that it seemed like I would never recover (I eventually did, but just barely). I'll never forget the first time I laid eyes on the game: I was at a friend's house and he had just downloaded the shareware version off the 'net. I recall staring ape-jawed at the screen as he stalked through dark hallways, blasting zombies and demons with shotguns, rocket launchers, and the like - FPS weapons that seem so cliche now, but back then were like the video game equivalent of touching your first boob. Imagine a young Derek with a bowl haircut nearly fainting as he watched a raging Pinky demon getting chaingunned to death from point-blank range. I can still hear that distinctive death-snort rattling around in my skull to this day.
Fast-forward ten years later, and I'm playing Doom 3. And damn it if I'm not having a great time with it. For all the hype that surrounded it, for all the stupid naysaying that I have had to listen to for four years before the release, for all the boundless love I had for the originals, I am really enjoying Doom 3.
Is playing Doom 3 for the first time as good as it was playing the first two games? Well, I don't know about that. There's something about being a kid that makes every new experience seem like sliding ass-naked down a rainbow with Lucky the Leprechaun into a pool of molten chocolate. But I have to say that, in recent years, I can't think of a game that's gotten as close to that feeling as Doom 3 has for me. There's something behind the sexy graphics engine that reminds me of a bygone era, when playing games and being into games was a lot more fun. This game is the old childhood best friend who you lose touch with, only to meet her again 10 years later to find out that she is now hot.
Really, for a modern game that looks this good, Doom 3 is deceptively simple, like the original Doom and most of id's games. (This simplicity, I guess, is what drives the various Internet asshats, fucktards, and what have you to repeat the phrase "id makes great tech demos, not great games" over and over again like a hoard of robotic cockroaches.) You run, you shoot, you reload, you run some more. There's no need to philosophize, moralize, or make choices that are more difficult than, "what caliber weapon should I unleash on this disgusting fiend?" The extra RAM left unused in your brain lets you soak up and enjoy the game's moody atmosphere. The fact is that Doom 3 is straight-forward in a world where that's really not supposed to be cool anymore. I like that.
Doom 3 is honestly scary. Scarier than most scary movies I've seen, minus "The Exorcist". The much-touted lighting system is used to good effect as you creep around dark corners with your little flashlight, which I personally enjoyed doing. You'll find yourself doing double-takes as you pass over shadows that look like they could be monsters.
It's hard to say whether I'd prefer to be able to wield the flashlight and a weapon at the same time. Of course, many people do, but I'm not sure that without that feeling of vulnerability I would have been nearly as scared. In any case, switching from your flashlight to the last weapon you armed (and vice-versa) is as easy as pressing a button, so it was never really a burden to me to have to use it (the flashlight, that is).
Many players are also pissed off at how many scripted sequences there were in the game, and I can understand that. There are a lot. If you think about it, Doom 3 basically consists of running to the next room, triggering the next script, and then repeating. If you think about it some more, so are a lot of other good games. The point is, don't think about it too much about how the game works and you'll probably have a much better experience playing the game. Without the scripting we'd be left without a lot of wickedly evil and subtle little scenes that truly made the game chilling. Things like imps scurrying quickly out of sight when you enter a room, or ghostly faces appearing in a broken computer panel. Cheap, but nonetheless very effective scares.
The game is intense. The idea that death is around every corner is omni-present throughout the game, and you really just feel so damn alone all the time - it's really rather distressing. It gets to a point where you've been scared enough that the anticipation of another scare makes you want to turn on the lights and call it a night... but no, one more level!
Even though Carmack's graphics engine is the most obviously good part about the game, the game shines aurally as well. Rather than having a regular soundtrack, Doom 3 uses ambient sounds to great effect, especially if you've got surround-sound. Zombie moans, ghostly voices, footsteps, and the chitterings of unseen creatures work with the visuals to keep you on edge the whole time you're exploring the Mars station. In fact, the whole base just seems alive with ambient sound all the time, whether it's a machine humming along or it's the sound of flames licking some metal piping. Get in a fight, however, and some music will step in to help get your blood flowing.
The game, I feel, is a wonderful homage to the original series. As you probably already know, it's a retelling of the first game, and most of the creatures come back more or less intact. It's nice that they didn't just give the old game a facelift - let the modders handle that. What they did do was create a game that feels like Doom, but takes its time to scare you. Doom 3 feels more like the original games toward the end than in the beginning, as monsters jumping out of vents and firefights in narrow corridors give way to the more epic battles that we're probably used to. Oh, and BIG boss battles, of which there were many (well, like four)!
Doom 3 is not perfect, but like all id games, it feels like it's been wrapped with love and tied together with sweat and tears. The game just feels so right. And call me a fanboy (well, I am), but I actually enjoyed some of the goofy little surprises that id sprinkled all over the game, from the funny magazines littered on the floor, to the e-mail spam, all the way down to the lamest joke, Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3 (by Nabcom) - they brought a smile to my face and just reminded me that id had a good time working on it. To say nothing about the short trip you spend in HELL (probably the pinnacle of the game for me).
The biggest flaw about the game, in my opinion, is that the fights are too disparate. I often felt like I was just moving from one battle to the next because a) fights rarely have to leave the room they originated in, and b) there is usually a short lull between fights (to set you up for a scare). Also, the game's colors were a little dull for my taste, which the majority of the environments and creatures being composed of mainly grays and browns. What happened to the brown imps, pink Pinkys, and bright red cacodemons that I so fondly remembered?
I have some other, less serious, nitpicks. First, why is it that an ankle shot from a pistol will kill a civilian? I want to see him limping away from me screaming, trying to call the guards to come and get me. Second, the hand grenades are practically useless. I really, really wanted to use them, but Doom Guy throws like a little girl and the 'nades bounced around so much that they usually blew up thirty feet from where I threw them. Third, I got really tired of looking up e-mails and listening to audio logs to find combinations for storage lockers. These "puzzles" were easy enough that they weren't worth putting in the game, but took enough of a time-out that it was annoying. Lastly, I appreciated seeing so many Asians working on the base, but I just wanted to mention that we have more than one kind of face. I mean please, the white guys got at least four different head models!
Regardless, this game is a down-and-out masterpiece - it's pure, unadulterated rock n' roll, beer, and porno from beginning to end. And the gift keeps on giving with multiplayer and the inevitable tidal wave of mods that is sure to come out in the next few DECADES or so. I can't wait!
Mario Teaches Communist Revolution
Posted by: kmikeym
So it turns out that the classic Super Mario Bros. was really the last attempt by the russians to win the cold war.
(this explains so much about Ritchey)
