Ooooooo.....Scary!

The weekend came and went, and I have to say, it was rather uneventful. Although I was able to log in about 2 hours of Team Fortress 2 on Friday night, it was not nearly enough as the rest of the weekend, I spent doing other chores. On a brighter note, I have complete the yard work required for this year in preparation of winter. The dog-run in the backyard is complete, save a few fencing and enclosures, which we will do next year.

TF2 was exhilarating as always and I was able to convince my brother-in-law to pre-order the orange box as well. He has always been a valve fan but has been devoted to Day of Defeat for longer than I care to remember. With the continued changes in that game, it’s become a completely different beast and he’s no longer enjoys playing it. With the introduction to TF2, he has found a new shooter that he can immerse himself into.

We also played a bit of Bioshock, and sadly to say, that game is NOT for me! I have never been a fan of horror games. Even the slightest amount of occult will cause me to lose sleep at night. I remember vividly when I first found this out. It was my friend’s 10^th birthday and we were having a sleep over at his house. He had just received a brand new Castlevania game for the NES and we were all determined to play it through. And I too my turn playing Simon Belmont and things weren’t so bad. It wasn’t until the sun set and the music started to get eerie did I start to notice shadows moving and felt eyes on my back. I know, most of you will think I’m a chicken for getting chills from a 8-bit game. But just think, if I’m that freaked out by an 8-bit game then, how much more freaked out would I be with Bioshock! I was able to play through Doom 3, Quake 4, no problems. I never played system shock so I can’t compare but with Bioshock, that’s just one creepy game! My brother in law was just as freaked out as I was and we decided then that TF2 was much more up our alley. Which is too bad as I can see that Bioshock is truly an experience. Perhaps if I run through the game full powered....but that topic is for another time.

My next project, depending on time, is going to be the continued leveling of my World of Warcraft character. I have yet to take a character to 60 and I would love to experience some of the higher end content. We will see, since 2.2 patch apparently broke a whole lot of add-ons, I may not want to continue if I have to reset all my buttons again in the UI. That’s just not worth my time right now.

A Small Segway

Ok, I didn't buy a Segway, or do I ever plan on doing so. But this morning, being the productive employee I am, I was checking the news on Extremetech and came on a story by Joel Durham Jr. on the current state of games. He touched on something that's been at the forefront of my mind this last 2 weeks, Halo 3. Now I'm not a fan boy of anything, and as you read the continuation of my first post, hopefully you will see that. But certain games I just believe are superior on certain platforms. Racing games are meant to be played on a console. Sports games are meant to be played on a console. Shooting games are meant to be played on a PC. You have probably been exposed to many points of view about this game already, and here are my two cents on the matter. Halo is mediocre. Mr. Durham wrote in his piece, "...just like television and movies, mediocrity pleases the gaming masses more than true inventiveness." I agree with this observation wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, the gaming masses are those that are purchasing consoles for under $500 each and are not even in the same category as those PC gamers that constantly upgrade, tweak, and care for their PCs. An analogy would be that the masses purchase Toyotas. Cars that are mass produced, gets the job done, and meets your everyday needs, where the connoisseurs of gaming are those that purchase BMWs and Massaraties. When Toyota introduced power steering and power windows, BMW owners wondered at what all the excitement was about. This was understandable as they were already using power windows and steering for the last 5 years. My purpose is not to advocate a particular attitude towards any genre or sect of gamers. In my mind, a true gamer is not one that discriminates but enjoys games at their core, fundamental level. This means that you do not limit yourself to any one particular genera, platform, or developer. I personally own all consoles ever made (I do now, and I again refer you to my forthcoming continued blog series for more information) and there are games I truly love on the consoles and games I truly love on the PC. Halo is just not one of them. I urge any of the deep Halo fans out there to broaden their horizons and try something else before playing their Halo 3 multiplayer maps to death. True, the Xbox 360 can pump out some impressive graphics on the right settings and immersion is quite realistic if you have the correct setup (read: 1080p and 7.1 surround sound) but on a PC, you can enjoy all those features and more with games that are 5 years old. Halo does not look any better than Prey does on the PC. Halo does not control better than Quake does on the PC. When id software completes their Quake Zero project, I believe console shooters will have a true competition. This will be the first, freely available, massively multiplayer (read: 64 players) online FPS, readily available to the masses with minimal hardware requirements (it runs from within a browser).

Go and read Mr. Durham’s article. He has many suggested FPS games with better narrative, more variety and better multiplayer options than Halo ever has.