Finished MGS4
Thanks to
Microsoft, and their amazing live search cashback promotion, I picked up a Playstation 3 bundle from Ebay. It cost me $700, but I expect to get a 35% cashback cheque from Microsoft for $250!
Anyway, so I physically picked it up from the post office last Saturday and was very impressed. Full 1080p graphics, integrated wireless internet access, and easy access to media stored on my desktop computer.
Enough about the PS3 and it's goodness, the real story is Metal Gear Solid 4, which was an absolute dream to play. The story will probably baffle you in its complexity, especially if you are not familiar with the 3 previous "next-generation" installments, but it is so satisfying. The gameplay is also really deep, fun, and offers a lot of variety.
Check out the
2 minute long trailer on youtube.
Labels: video game
YouTube Annotations
YouTube has added support for annotations on their videos, so I have taken the liberty of annotating my BF2 video of me and my bro kicking some ass online.
Check it out! It is really easy to do, and I think adds a lot of value. However something very annoying is that these annotations do not seem to show up when the video is embedded in an external site, so you will have to take a look at the YouTube site directly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wOrdN74PpALabels: video game
Finished GTA IV
I finished GTA IV last night, and it was a little shorter than I thought it would be at that point, but I was satisfied that after the single player campaign was over I was still able to enjoy some multiplayer action.
I'm working on a new language training website, which is progressing slowly:
idontlikepocky.comAnd I am neglecting my dishes and laundry.
Work has been very busy recently, end of quarter is nearing and there is a lot of pressure to get accomplish all of our goals within the next 2 weeks.
Labels: video game
Grand Theft Auto IV
If you are not a gamer, or you have been lost in the amazon and only recently been discovered by a passing helicopter, you may not have heard of the newest installment in the GTA series: Grand Theft Auto IV.
This time everything great about the previous games have been included but at a larger scale. For example the always amazing soundtrack in the GTA series has reached new heights at 214 songs in total -
details on how this came to be here. In fact it was so good that I ended up buying a couple albums off iTunes. And very importantly the previous shortcomings have been addressed, i.e. the aiming system is no longer broken.
I have been having a fairly good time with it so far; running amok in Liberty City is great fun.
There is an interesting
quick (4 minute) take on it here by the famous Australian, Yahtzee.
Labels: video game
Resident Evil Awesome
I finally finished Resident Evil 4 (the GameCube version) and this game is terribly incredible! Not only does it play at a 10/10 the whole way through the game, but it surprised me with two new game modes that only became available after I finished it.
What a pleasant unexpected surprise.
It is moments like this that I realize there are people out there who are really passionate about what they are doing...
Labels: video game
Mass Effect
You may have heard of Mass Effect, if not because you follow games and like games, then for the
recent hullabaloo that was kicked up over on Fox. Well it is worth knowing about simply because the game is actually that good. The game really focuses on story and it isn't exactly unfair to say that the part that you actually play interactively is just an excuse to string the cut scenes together. The thing is, the voice acting, the virtual acting, the story, it all comes together in such a way that you can't think about much else other than getting to the next part of the story.
Of course there are some gripes that people have mentioned - and I could mention some... but when I got to the final stage of the game last night, I just have to say that it was obvious how much effort went into the end.
Some games fade. You can tell that they spent a lot of effort and budget on the first part of the game only to come up short by the end. However there are other games, usually those that are labours of love for the development team, which power through and even climax to a fiery peak at the end. Mass Effect is one of the latter.
Recommended experience for sure!
Labels: video game
Portal
Another game that everyone seems to be talking about these days is
Portal, and the Team Fortress game that it comes with. Now I haven't shelled out for the actual game yet, but this certainly whet my whistle!
Portal - the free Flash versionLabels: video game
Halo 3 - Almost finished
Last night Dalban and I were taking on the evil Covenant and Flood armies. Co-op play is definitely where it's at! And thankfully Halo 3 allows both Xbox LIVE co-op play, and split-screen co-op play. It may be slightly easier than standard solo play which is a bit of a cheat because you can respawn as long as your friend is alive and not under fire. However I think it was a good decision because it helps to keep the action moving.
The BEST part of the night for me personally was when I went flying off a cliff in an ATV, and somehow managed to crash land on the deck of this huge scarab robot... I made quick work of it once aboard.
Some people use finesse, others use force. Dalban took the other scarab down with a huge ass tank and repeated direct hits from his cannon.
Time well wasted.
EDIT: I thought I was super original with my stunt, but you can see a YouTube video of someone else doing the same thing:
Also, I caved due to video envy, made a YouTube account, and am posting a link to a BattleField 2 video of me and Indesin wrecking havoc in a helicopter
here.
Labels: video game
Bioshock
Before my parents left, they presented me with an amazing interactive story that just oozes atmosphere. Bioshock, arguably the best game of the year, is such a pleasure to play, and is the best looking game (although with some very graphically violent visuals) I have seen.
Beyond the graphics, which are immediately apparent, the game's premise, writing, and gameplay are all similarly awesome. The idea is that a few elites were fed up with the choice between capitalism and communism and decided to build their own underwater utopia called "Rapture" where innovation and hard work reign supreme, where a man is entitled to the sweat of his brow, not like topside where government and religion conspire to take their cut.
Guess what? It didn't quite work out like the idealists envisioned; unfortunately graft, corruption, greed, and vice seem to follow wherever man and his good intentions go.
It is a great deal of fun, and if you like gaming at all (and can handle some gore with the rest of the package) you really have to play it through.
Labels: video game
Gaming Overload
First it was Bioshock and my new Xbox 360. Then it was Halo 3.
What now? Well l I spent my Sunday playing
Gears of War from start to finish in cooperative mode with Dalban.
At first I was playing it all wrong, going toe-to-toe and circle strafing with a bead on my opponent. You'll die that way, at the wrong end of a chainsaw.
No, Gears of War demands more strategy and tactical use of cover. Most of the time you will be practising a careful dance of duck, cover, and shooting from relative protection. All the while your opponents will be trying to pin you down and outflank you.
As the game has been out for a while already, everyone I have played with online has been "expert" and I've played the part of the target practise dummy. I've been kicked out of a few servers already... but thank goodness for the cooperative mode!
Labels: video game
Caving to Temptation
A couple weeks ago I caved an bought an Xbox 360 to enjoy the gaming goodness known and widely celebrated as
BioShock. However I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about
Halo 3, another game that was preceded by a couple football fields full of hype.
Thanks to my bro, I picked the game up from my local post office, came home, and started to enjoy the experience. The single player mode is quite challenging (I am playing on "heroic" difficulty, the second hardest) and definitely a lot of fun. However the real meat and potatoes of the game has to be the online multiplayer. In fact you can see
my profile and online fileshare for the game here.
Now the important points that they did RIGHT:
- cooperative online multiplayer - 2 to 4 people can play through the single player campaign
- multiple game play modes - solo, team, objective based
- good match making options - match by skill, latency, etc.
What they didn't do so right: Watch
an Australian's one minute diatribe here.
delivering a payload of hot flak straight to my opponents faceLabels: video game
Thanks to Microsoft, and their amazing live search cashback promotion, I picked up a Playstation 3 bundle from Ebay. It cost me $700, but I expect to get a 35% cashback cheque from Microsoft for $250!
