Mass Effect has been cooking up some controversies lately, when FOX (read: faux) news did a coverage on the game, with regards to the "sex scenes" found in the game (watch the report here). The report featured a "psychology specialist" by the name of Cooper Lawrence, who warned viewers of the "game's vicious, child corrupting qualities" even though she herself had yet to play the game.
And oh boy, can you imagine the backlash by the gaming community after her ignorant comments was broadcast on the TV which subsequently found its way around the Internet. Her book, The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever, received an overwhelming 440+ reviews, majority of which were negative, causing her book to average a 1 star out of a total of 5. Unfortunately, Amazon has deleted most of the reviews and now it's cut down to 20+, but the rating of the book is still at 1.5 stars. A particularly interesting review mentioned the following:
"I'm also quite disappointed that Mrs. Lawrence would use sex appeal (the cover) to sell her book. Whether she realizes it or not there are a lot of kids in book stores today that will see this and get the wrong impression."
I found myself chuckling when I read that comment, as it was direct counter back at Cooper for the baseless nonsense she spouted out during the FOX coverage. There were other interesting reviews like "I didn't read the book but I could see this book sucks" which were, sadly, removed by Amazon. Ah, are you enjoying the irony, Cooper?
Seems like the backlash had achieved its objective, as Cooper made an apology yesterday, and said that after trying out the game, she realized the game wasn't so bad as she had claimed. Too bad though, the damage has been done, and Mrs. Lawrence has officially joined the ranks of Kevin McCullough in every gamers' handbook. Good luck selling that book of yours, Mrs. Lawrence. Next time think with your brains before opening your mouth.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Inactivity
Sorry for the lack of updates since the start of the year; it's partly due to the fact that school has started, partly because I've not played much new games since then, and partly due to my laziness.
Well, let's see, what have I been playing recently? Just bought Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition a week ago, still playing around with the mechanics (just can't seem to get the wealthy Sims to move in to my city <.<), hence neglecting my level 31 blood elf mage which I've started playing 2-3 weeks prior to the start of school. My Vampire Bloodlines has stagnated at the Hollywood stage, though I plan to go back to the game some time; I'm interested in how the plot ends.
Other than that, I've been busy with school and miscellaneous stuffs, but hopefully this blog remains active by the end of this semester. Until my next post, cya.
Well, let's see, what have I been playing recently? Just bought Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition a week ago, still playing around with the mechanics (just can't seem to get the wealthy Sims to move in to my city <.<), hence neglecting my level 31 blood elf mage which I've started playing 2-3 weeks prior to the start of school. My Vampire Bloodlines has stagnated at the Hollywood stage, though I plan to go back to the game some time; I'm interested in how the plot ends.
Other than that, I've been busy with school and miscellaneous stuffs, but hopefully this blog remains active by the end of this semester. Until my next post, cya.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Eagles Scream!
PS: Just got Vampire via Steam for US$9.95 (Steam had a holiday discount until 1st Jan) and I have to say I'm enjoying the game :)
PPS: omg, how can I actually forget?? Happy 2008 to all you out there!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Crysis Review
Crysis had been on my must-buy list even before the demo was out. I was bought by the hype that surrounded it. But, as the release date of the game approached nearer, I found myself wondering whether I really want to buy this game, when I have already bought so many fantastic shooters recently, especially with CoD 4 and The Orange Box, which had so much replayabilities with its robust multiplayer features. And the more I read the previews and watched the demos, I started to realize Crysis wasn't really my cup of tea. However, I still bought the game in the end (well, partly because it was on promotion, got the game for only S$44.90). And hence here I bring you my review of Crysis.
The plot of Crysis is pretty standard for a shooter. You're a special ops agent sent into an island in North Korea to save a few archaeologists, but turns out your enemies are not only the North Korean army. The archaeologists have discovered alien lifeforms from their diggings, and *surprise!* these aliens are not friendly. And hence for the second half of the game you'd be battling them, which, to be honest, I find to be a relief after fighting all those irritating North Koreans.
I can't seem to appreciate the supposedly next-gen graphics that Crysis had promised -- sure, they look great, but they weren't nothing that I haven't seen from other games (personally, I felt that Episode 2 looked better). But, maybe it's partly because I had set the graphics settings to medium, which was the optimal settings for my rig. Which brings us to another issue. The thing is, my computer can be considered to be on the higher end as compared to those that most gamers have. If that's the best settings that I can enjoy at without any framerate issues, what about the rest of the gamers? Even if Crysis looks badass at the highest settings, most people won't be able to have access to it, given the limits of their system spec.
My second issue with Crysis would be a more controversial one. For the first half of the game, when you are fighting the North Koreans on the island, the gameplay is pretty much a sandbox type of gameplay -- you have total freedom to choose your methods of finishing your objective. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really dig this kind of gameplay. In addition, the map of the island is such that the route to your objective is more or less the same, and most of the time the missions have you infiltrate into the enemy's base to retrieve some data or jam their radar, so much so it gets pretty repetitive. Also, I found myself more often than not sneaking into the base Solid Snake style, not solely because I like to do that, but it's partly due to the fact that it's probably the only way to do it without getting killed.
Which brings me to my next gripe. What's up with the North Koreans anyway? They wearing nanosuits too? I swear these guys take way too many bullets to kill. The enemy can get riddled by tons of bullets and yet still be able to stand firm and fire back at you. It's really frustrating when you've thought you had silenced the enemy only to see them still alive and kicking as if they weren't injured at all.
It may seem that my experience with Crysis was a negative one looking at all the complaints that I had. However, I have to admit I do enjoy the second part of the game when you are battling all the aliens. I know that there are a lot of people out there who think otherwise; they prefer the freedom you have while fighting the North Koreans on the island and absolutely hated the linear gameplay that dominated the second half of the game. I guess it's a matter of taste, and that is probably why I'd rank Call of Duty 4 over Crysis in my personal list of Game of The Year.
PC Gamer gave Crysis a whooping 98%, a score that is only rivaled by games such as Half Life 2, but I beg to differ. To me, it's just another above average shooter with an innovative nanosuit feature.
Score: 7.5/10
The good: Nanosuit feature is cool.
The bad: Need a really good computer to achieve next-gen graphics, hard to kill enemies.
PS: Seems like the game didn't have any in-build screenshot taker, so I had played through the whole game without taking any screenshots. I don't think I'll be replaying the game anytime soon, so if you are looking for screenshots, check out other sites such as IGN.
The plot of Crysis is pretty standard for a shooter. You're a special ops agent sent into an island in North Korea to save a few archaeologists, but turns out your enemies are not only the North Korean army. The archaeologists have discovered alien lifeforms from their diggings, and *surprise!* these aliens are not friendly. And hence for the second half of the game you'd be battling them, which, to be honest, I find to be a relief after fighting all those irritating North Koreans.
I can't seem to appreciate the supposedly next-gen graphics that Crysis had promised -- sure, they look great, but they weren't nothing that I haven't seen from other games (personally, I felt that Episode 2 looked better). But, maybe it's partly because I had set the graphics settings to medium, which was the optimal settings for my rig. Which brings us to another issue. The thing is, my computer can be considered to be on the higher end as compared to those that most gamers have. If that's the best settings that I can enjoy at without any framerate issues, what about the rest of the gamers? Even if Crysis looks badass at the highest settings, most people won't be able to have access to it, given the limits of their system spec.
My second issue with Crysis would be a more controversial one. For the first half of the game, when you are fighting the North Koreans on the island, the gameplay is pretty much a sandbox type of gameplay -- you have total freedom to choose your methods of finishing your objective. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really dig this kind of gameplay. In addition, the map of the island is such that the route to your objective is more or less the same, and most of the time the missions have you infiltrate into the enemy's base to retrieve some data or jam their radar, so much so it gets pretty repetitive. Also, I found myself more often than not sneaking into the base Solid Snake style, not solely because I like to do that, but it's partly due to the fact that it's probably the only way to do it without getting killed.
Which brings me to my next gripe. What's up with the North Koreans anyway? They wearing nanosuits too? I swear these guys take way too many bullets to kill. The enemy can get riddled by tons of bullets and yet still be able to stand firm and fire back at you. It's really frustrating when you've thought you had silenced the enemy only to see them still alive and kicking as if they weren't injured at all.
It may seem that my experience with Crysis was a negative one looking at all the complaints that I had. However, I have to admit I do enjoy the second part of the game when you are battling all the aliens. I know that there are a lot of people out there who think otherwise; they prefer the freedom you have while fighting the North Koreans on the island and absolutely hated the linear gameplay that dominated the second half of the game. I guess it's a matter of taste, and that is probably why I'd rank Call of Duty 4 over Crysis in my personal list of Game of The Year.
PC Gamer gave Crysis a whooping 98%, a score that is only rivaled by games such as Half Life 2, but I beg to differ. To me, it's just another above average shooter with an innovative nanosuit feature.
Score: 7.5/10
The good: Nanosuit feature is cool.
The bad: Need a really good computer to achieve next-gen graphics, hard to kill enemies.
PS: Seems like the game didn't have any in-build screenshot taker, so I had played through the whole game without taking any screenshots. I don't think I'll be replaying the game anytime soon, so if you are looking for screenshots, check out other sites such as IGN.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Happy Holidays!
Sorry for the 2 weeks long of inactivity, as I was busy, both with real life and also with WoW. Farming honor for the S1 gears is really quite time consuming. Other than WoW, I've been keeping myself occupied with Call of Duty 4's multiplayer ( hich is helluva fun to play), Crysis and recently Team Fortress 2 again (Demoman rocks!).
I''ll put up the review for Crysis shortly, which unfortunately, isn't as fun as I had imagined the game to be. I know I know, I'd yet put up the much delayed review for Episode 2, which I'd probably do it some time soon. In the meantime check out this hilarious, and at the same time bad, TF2 griefing video.
Oh, and happy holidays to you!
I''ll put up the review for Crysis shortly, which unfortunately, isn't as fun as I had imagined the game to be. I know I know, I'd yet put up the much delayed review for Episode 2, which I'd probably do it some time soon. In the meantime check out this hilarious, and at the same time bad, TF2 griefing video.
Oh, and happy holidays to you!
Friday, December 7, 2007
Game saves child's life
There's a report by Kotaku about how the game World of Warcraft saved a boy and his sister's lives from an angry moose. It was reported that "he taunted the moose off his sister, allowing her to escape, and then he used his level 30 hunter skill feign death, causing the moose to lose interest and wander off". Expectedly, cheeky comments were posted with regards to this news, such as how lucky the boy was not to have tried to use his level 10 taming skills to try tame the moose, or how lucky the boy's feign death was not resisted.
Well, it's a good thing the boy and his sister managed to escape out of this situation unscathed, but I'd like to add my own cheeky comment here too: fortunately the boy did not play a paladin and tried to do a bubble hearth after grabbing the aggro off from his sister.
Well, it's a good thing the boy and his sister managed to escape out of this situation unscathed, but I'd like to add my own cheeky comment here too: fortunately the boy did not play a paladin and tried to do a bubble hearth after grabbing the aggro off from his sister.
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