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- Video: Timelapse video of the earth from the space station
- World Rally Fever on GOG!
- Review: FlatOut3 Chaos and Destruction… of a Francise
- Video: Portal 2 Opening
- Review: Mafia II
- Video: Games of 2011
- Review: Driver San Francisco
- Video: Holiday in NY – timelapse
- Some Thoughts About Tonight
- Video: Whats Up With the Assignments in the Back to Karkland Expansion Pack for BF3
- Video: Top of 2011 Mashup
- Video: Merry Christmas – Patton Oswalt – Christmas Shoes
- LA Noire PC – Review
- Batman: Arkham City – Review
- Video Review: NFS The Run
- Timelapse Video: Earth From Space
- Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Review, Screenshots, Gameplay Video
- Gadget Security – Watch your Back
- iCEnhancer 3.5 for GTA
- Clear Channel Spits on the Valley
- Comcast Data Usage
- Live Streaming – Offline: Watch the first snow of the season hit Western MA
- Video: IGN – Battlefield Tips
- Video: Timelapse Broccoli
- Battlefield 3 Review
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World Rally Fever on GOG!
If you were a fan of the original Worms you may have gone to the Team 17 website. On there they had a demo for this game – World Rally Fever. It was interesting because it was very Rad Racer NES type but it had better graphics, and it was more detailed then any game I had played before, especially a racing game. I liked to used to try and hit the sheep.
Review: FlatOut3 Chaos and Destruction… of a Francise
Video:
Video has Bloom turned off, motion blur turned off
First impression:
ugh.
I am shaking my head in disappointment. I would have put the first and second FlatOut as two of my favorite games. I’m a huge racing fan, and a bigger car crashing fan. This game really was the best of both worlds.
However number 3 is Jack’s utter lack of surprise.
They’ve taken well made race tracks, nicely finished cars and damage models, impressive AI and boiled it down to an impossible arcade fiery mess. Not to say it’s difficult, it’s just bad; a blurry, cluttered mess.
Monster trucks, speed, and other modes are just some of the odd additions which make somewhat sense. They were always trying to add more varied game types. I was even impressed with the physics of the monster truck driving / suspension reaction but the damage made no sense, was obscured by motion blur and bloom (both set to low) and the racing wasn’t just about how to navigate tight turns and obstacles – it was a set of turns and racing on rails. One tiny turn on the 360 controller resulted in a 90 degree change of direction with no impact by traction.
Another couple races and I am destroyed before the 3 rounds are over. Once I found e-brake it was better but it doesn’t even handle NFS arcade, it handles Daytona USA arcade. I couldn’t get any good hits because the cars are always obscured by insane fireballs and light streaks. You can try and go headlong into them and hope for the best but you usually end up hitting a tree. There is no need for trees that can not be destroyed. There is no reason why I hit a parked car and it blows up hitting me for 50% damage and an opponent only inflicts 2% launching me into the air.
The camera… oh the camera. There are only three: close cam, bumper, and far cam. Close cam is 2 ft and far cam is 4 ft – so far cam would be my choice except it’s still way too close. I am very sad to say it, but don’t even bother trying it. Go play FlatOut 2 for a much better time.
*update* 2001 01 19 12|08
People complained to the developers and it appears as though they were listening. Original handling models will be in upcoming patch. On sale at Steam today 1/19/2011 until 7PM EST tonight for only $9.99 as well as the originals for only a couple of bucks!
Video: Portal 2 Opening
Cleaning out my video directory to free some space.
Here’s the beginning to Portal 2 – pretty amusing even if you’re not familiar.
Review: Mafia II
Screenshots:
Video:
I had originally played this on Onlive, I gave it the 30 minute trial. I don’t exactly remember it starting how it did. I seemed to be going through many more story points then before, but I bet I skipped them in the interest of time the first time around.
I was really pleasantly surprised. I got this game after all the holiday game download sale hooplah. I had seen it on Steam, Onlive, Amazon – all had it on major sale, but saw them come and go. However, upon checking up on it on Amazon, the price of the download was back up to $19.99 but the physical media was $6.24 – that and our month trial of Prime thanks to my wife’s new Kindle Fire I was able to get it for a steal considering what it has turned out to be.
You’ve got the mafia, sure – you knew that. It’s back in time, Empire City (NY) and it’s pulling me into the story. So far I’ve done quite a bit of running around. I’ve stolen a car from a “moulinyan” neighborhood (more about that later) and I’m just about to do some roughing up for a union boss. They put a bit of a moral twist on the quest for money, so the protagonist doesn’t seem so bad. He’s doing the best he can for the situation, type of thing.
There’s the promise of some real success, but you’re given the realization that it may not be easy and the money doesn’t come without a price. It all weaves into what’s best for his family, himself, and his options. So it is also a bit bigoted. You can’t change history, but it doesn’t mean you can drop moulinyan back into the lexicon. The other characters have their strong opinions as well. It was just a bit of a shock to see it so up front in a game and it’s one thing to have something out front but this was sneaky. I’m not sure most people would know what it means, but if you’re calling someone a slur in another language it’s still a slur. Now I’ll get off my soapbox and accept the argument that it’s for atmosphere. I’m sure they throw them around in Scarface too, but I wanted to put that out there.
The dialog so far is fairly well written, and the graphics were well done. I remember bench-marking this a video card or two ago and the box says 2010 so it was quite a feat for it’s time. Suffice it to say it does much better on my current configuration then last time I bench-marked it. It uses PhysX for some added flair and even the driving (so far on icy/snowy roads) is pretty impressive. I think I saw more wrong with Driver San Fran’s graphics then this game.
It is complete, well made with polish. That is something you don’t always get lately. Sure, there are some small things like your buddy who is following you always magically appearing in front of you when you go outside / inside. The mouths aren’t quite synced, the cover system is easily blocked by rogue objects, the plow truck always has it’s blade scraping the ground, and I’m still not sure what the cops get bent out of shape. Even with all that the game itself is solid and even a bit more challenging then your average crime mission game.
Video: Games of 2011
A great summary of the games this past year:
Review: Driver San Francisco
Ok, I loved the original driver. It was an entirely new genre at the time. Sure you had a driving around car game, but once GTA III hit anything where you drove and crashed was “just another GTA”. They’ve always been one to spin a story but this latest one is entirely out of the box. It was not what I expected at all. Sure, plainclothes policeman in a muscle car, but there’s a big twist to this one.
After a crash attempting to apprehend an escaped convict you’re jumping from body to body. Think Quantum leap meets Messiah (if you don’t remember look it up) meets Burnout Paradise. You’re attempting to do good, jumping from car to car. It may not seem like much until you consider one of the first scenarios. You’ve jumped into a policeman in a patrol car chasing after a car. Even if you start to lose them in the chase you can hop out, get in a car coming the other way, and take him out then jump back into the patrol car to do the final maneuver to lock him down.
It’s taken the thought behind traditional chasers and racers and shaken it up. I’ve got to hand it to them there. Sure there are technical limitations – the game only does 1920 x 1080, so if you’re looking for high scale textures you won’t get them, and there’s nary a graphics option other then AA which doesn’t do a whole lot of good. However, being so locked down (and presumably ported) makes it very predictable and smooth. I didn’t get a blip below 60 fps. I haven’t turned off vsynch yet but there’s no need as it’s as fluid as the eye can differentiate (so the scientists tell us).
It’s got the Midtown Madness feel to it – angles and jumps all over. There’s the ability to jump into anything on the road, and missions start popping up around – some you can activate directly from “shift” (birds eye floating) view and you’ll start with your default vehicle. There’s Will Power (WP) points you earn overtaking and avoiding(?) other cars, and you can also earn income from missions. Income lets you buy more vehicles for your garage, and set your default vehicle to jump into when you drop directly into a challenge or other event. So far I’ve seen cop chases, sprints (waypoints), and reaching a high speed without hitting any other vehicles.
It’s not the type of game you play for the graphics, it’s got some well modeled, licensed, shiny cars but a lot of the city looks really old graphically compared to the current batch of games. The controls also seemed off at first, I felt like I was playing crazy taxi until I got the hang of the high horsepower rear wheel cars which do respond to some tight changes and some e-braking. It’s exaggerated for sure, but they’re not exactly going for realism. Speaking of which, the story renders look really good but I’d settle for less realistic cut scenes for some more time spent on the surroundings.
All told – it’s fun. It’s definitely worth a romp, and a good deal if you are able to catch it on sale. It was on Steam’s holiday sale yesterday for 50% off but it’s back up to $33 or $36 for the deluxe version which includes some additional play modes. It’s certainly worth the $3 for some additional mission types. I don’t feel it’s really worth full price at this point, though it’s worth snagging in the bargain bin if you’d like to see some developers doing the same old thing with a unique twist.
Screenshots:
Video:
Story and Gameplay Introduction:
Some Thoughts About Tonight
Tonight on may way through Northampton to pick up my son from daycare I saw a man get hit by a car.
It was about 5:00pm, drizzling and generally dark out. I was approaching a crosswalk (on Conz St) when I thought to myself “oh, that guy is crossing, I’m going to need to brake here…” and he was hit by a car coming the other way right in front of me. I immediately stopped, put on my flashers and ran to him. I asked him if he was ok, put my hand on his shoulder through his raindrenched light coat and asked him again. A rough snore was all I heard in response.
Another man had walked over from the sidewalk, I said “he’s snoring” the other man replied “he’s bleeding, that’s blood”. I knew not to move him, and at looked at the other people around him – the other man, and the driver that hit him. No one else was even going for their cell phones. I ran to the car to grab mine, called 911 and asked for the Northampton police. They transferred me, I gave the initial report and I when they asked me where my location was I could see only one street sign – Smith. The other man said intersection of Johns and Smith, I repeated to the dispatcher, “no Johns and Smith” I obviously couldn’t hear what he was saying, so then I moved the phone near him as he repeated. My hearing, the train, cars, and the situation kept me from hearing it properly. I know now I won’t ever forget the name of that street “Conz Street”.
She put me on hold, I worried if I would get my son on time, I thought about calling my wife, about calling daycare, I waited for them to come back and he was just regaining conciousness. He was trying to get up – I made sure he stayed sitting. He didn’t seem to know what happened, I said “you were just hit by a car – please don’t move”. He seemed to be ok with that. I told him they were coming for him, and understandably he said “whose coming?” somewhat concerned. I reassured him it would be ok and the ambulance was coming. The woman came back on the line and took my description of the victim, then let me know they were on their way again and said goodbye.
It was only seconds later before I heard the first siren. They were headed down the street. They arrived and swooped in very efficiently. I stepped back and tried to call my wife. I wasn’t sure how long I’d need to be there given the situation. Would they need me to stay to make my statement? She didn’t answer – she was actually working late tonight to attend training, damn. I then was starting to look up the number for the daycare. It used to be in my phone, why isn’t it in my phone? I brought up a google search, fumbled, pressed the wrong button and one of the police men came over to take my statement.
I described where the car was, where the pedestrian was, and gave my contact info. He had me go on my way. The paramedics had already gotten to him, they were talking to him asking him questions about where he hurt. I turned, walked to my car, and drove away.
I was a bit shaken. I had really just seen that, and it really could have been much worse. I had an odd sort of detachment, like I understood the situation, understood what needed to be done, and did it. It will stick with me though, I can’t stop playing those couple seconds in my head where he leaped from the curb and bounced off the car onto the pavement in a crumpled heap.
To Northampton man I hope you’re ok.
** Update 12/16 12:03 **
He’s ok [News Article @ Gazettenet.com]
