FuzzyCouch

Every podcast this past week was talking about Prototype, inFamous, and Red Faction. It was driving me nuts because I'm not a fan of open world games in general. I did enjoy Crackdown, but I think its hook was a little more unique: orb-collection for powering up abilities. Seeing an orb on the horizon provided me just enough allure to push me forward. I also appreciated that it still had a nice linear set of objectives to progress the level of difficulty.

Of the 3 games, Red Faction was the one where I continually heard passionate water-cooler stories about what players were doing in the game. I heard many examples of creative approaches that other players in the group hadn't thought of. Many comments throughout the conversation pointed to the developers leap-frogging expectations. So I purchased Red Faction, it was too much to ignore.

So, like Crackdown, I've been enjoying Red Faction. Primarily the off-line story mode. I love how I can pop open the map, see all of the missions represented, and then after selecting a mission, I get a nice follow-the-trail arrow guiding me to my selected destination. Why couldn't Burnout Paradise do this? Just get me to the "game part" as quickly as possible, that's what I want!

I do wish Red Faction had co-op for the main game. In Crackdown it wasn't great, but in Red Faction every time I see a few AI guerrilla fighters open the doors and hop in my vehicle to man the machine gun or deploy out the back with weapons blarring, I wish that could have been real players.

I need to go play more Red Faction right now...

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I was really disappointed with the new direction Burnout Paradise took with the open-world drive anywhere model. I would much rather have a list of challenges and know exactly which ones I've completed, and what is expected of me to earn the next unlockable challenge, track, or car. Every once-in-a-while, I pop the game back in to try to force myself to "get it" since I know so many love it. I've also been really impressed by the continual flow of content that I read about... most recently, Big Surf Island. So now, I'm re-trying to get through the original content yet again! Yesterday I spent a good 3 hours tooling around as I listened to the latest ListenUp podcast, I think that was the longest single session I've had with the game, and I'm starting to warm up to it.

What movies have you watched this summer?

Pixar's Up - Similar to WALL-E, the first 15 minutes were genius and the rest of the movie was just okay. I would love for Pixar to spin off a group to create mature feature length films. The action and silliness they introduce in the second parts of both films is aimed a little low (intentionally I understand) but the emotions and subtleties in the first parts of both movies really strike a chord with me.

("Partly Cloudy", the short that plays prior to "Up", was really cute also!)

 

 

Star Trek - I'm  a huge fan of Trek, and love this reboot of the franchise. Friends of mine really needed something to justify the reboot as canonical, and do feel that the new film delivered. Now I'm really excited to see where they go from here! I want to rewatch this movie right now! You should go see it even if you've never seen Trek before, or never thought you'd like something like this... you will love it!

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I've been thinking about Project Natal more...

There is small text at the front of the video that highlights this is just a concept. Which reminds me of the great things we heard about modifying Forza cars on our cell phones, or "Velocity Girl" creating customized outfits and accessories for us to buy in games. Those things remained concepts. Natal also feels like a prototype that is far away from being able to deliver on those "concepts".

The idea of voice recognition, motion and depth detection, "no controller" sounds great. However, my bluetooth address book in my car isn't anywhere near understanding simple words I string together, let alone a sentence.

I fear this is going to be worse than classic text adventures like Zork where you aren't sure what to type to get the game to respond, only now compounded by the fact that it can't understand the words you are saying!

As for the motion sensing... I bought into the Wii capabilities when it was shown, and then got one to quickly realize how imprecise it is. Now Nintendo might finally be fixing that with Wii motion plus (but that is segmenting the market and a little too late IMHO).

I have a feeling that Natal will be less precise than first generation Wii remotes. That being said... it might be good enough for the casual market, but I doubt we'll be playing Mass Effect on the thing.

Additionally, who is going to reposition their TVs so that they are at eye-level while standing rather than eye-level while sitting on a couch? Do we really think this is going to open up a new segment for furniture markets that have the TV sitting much higher than it does today?

Although, I would love to be proven wrong! Maybe they'll have something at PAX to show off?

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Right now, my favorite consoles to play (based on time I spend in a given week playing) rank as XBOX 360 -> PS3 -> Wii  However, I would rate the press conferences as Nintendo > Microsoft > Sony ... which kind of surprised me.

As of right now I predict I'll buy:

New Super Mario Bros Wii, Metroid Other M, Crystal Bearers,
Shadow Complex, Crackdown 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect 2
God of War 3 (I changed my mind, its too graphic for me), The Last Guardian, Fat Princess, and WipeoutHD Fury

10 Games shown in the primary press conferences I'm pretty sure I'll spend money on! I know there are other games out there too, like Supreme Commander 2! Its going to be another great year!

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Project Natal looks awesome. I picked up Riddick for $39 at Best Buy. I never played it on the original XBOX, I've been really impressed. The overall pacing is perfect for me and the mix of action/stealth/freedom was a much better ratio than Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell. Definitely recommended, though it is mature title, I wish there was a content filter similar to Gears of War where I could turn down the harsh language. I've also been playing Red Alert 3 in co-op with my nephew. Its better balanced than Command and Conquer 3 (not as difficult) and the campy, over-the-top units and characters are a lot of fun. If you enjoy strategy games, I've seen this going for as little as $30. It offers more meat than Halo Wars if you're ready for the next step beyond that game. On my iPhone its been all about Peggle and Flight Control.

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