E3 was a bust, mostly. Three years ago when I went for the very first time, it was like seeing Vegas and Times Square smashed together, visual-stim overload. Now it's just too dark, then too bright, then too dark, too loud and then way too loud. My lack of patience is fueled by the empty purpose of going in person with all the triple-lutz media coverage event these days. A few hours pouring through the online game sites provides a satisfactory virtual experience, especially when capped off with the overview provided by Waxy. And this year there were way to many children running around. Tiny children! Still I had a good time hanging around with friends and hey we did get to play the Xbox 360.
A few days ago I traded a PSP for a PS2. Call me crazy but the portable Playstation needs some work. The reflective surface makes it almost impossible to play a game or watch a movie during the day and the sound levels are way too low. On a flight between Long Beach and New York City I settled in to watch Hellboy and gave up after a few minutes of seeing mostly my own reflection and hearing whispered dialogue over the steady hum of the jet engines. The last straw came after playing some of the upcoming titles at E3: SOCOM is a shoddy port, I can't play football to save my life, and I just don't grok Metal Gear Solid after growing up on Splinter Cell. Anyhoo, I am having a blast with God of War, Killzone, and GTA: SA.
It's at this point in the entry where Andy, upon reading this, will send me an instant message: "Have you played Katamari Damacy yet?"
And I will reply: "No, not yet. The game didn't come with the trade but I'll give it a try one of these days."
Speaking of Killzone, I don't know why reviewers and gamers were so hard on that game. Maybe because it was unofficially dubbed the Halo killer. Complaints about the games poor graphics performance are lost on me, mostly because Halo 2 has the same problem. For a first person shooter set in a post-apocolyptic industrial world fighting fascist enemies I think it's the right bowl of porridge. Note to game marketing peeps, a little modesty can be more of an asset than hype, it's better to undersell and over perform than the other way around.
Switching gears — MacOS X, affectionately titled Tiger, has lived up to it's name, feeding on hundreds of pounds of raw system memory daily. Sometimes it's appetite goes beyond capacity (1.5 gigabytes) freezing everything for a few unpleasant minutes until I am able to quit iChat, which likes to turn red and tell me that it's not responding. How a simple Internet chat program can take down an entire operating system is beyond me but it leaves me thinking of a certain story in the Bible. Apple's response of a promised patch in the next 45 days doesn't put a smile on my face. I mean come on, like how totally Microsoft of them.
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Have you seen PS3's movie for Killzone 2? Most impressive (It's at Gametrailers)
Very nice CGI, it's all pre-rendered.
David and Bathsheba?
Adium X is a great iChat replacement if you don't need the video. And it works with AIM, Yahoo!, and MSN messaging. I've been using it with Tiger for a month now without a single problem or slowdown.
for sound, thats why the psp came with headphones and for visual; even hd tvs lose their images in the sunlight
Speaking of Killzone, I don't know why reviewers and gamers were so hard on that game.
Probably because it sucks, not only compared to Halo 2 (which is somewhat right), but also compared to the average FPS outta here?
Speaking of MGS, I admit I re-bought a PS2 just to play Snake Eater but ended up utterly disappointed. I can't stand that kind of camera in 2005. Not that's a big deal to make a good camera in a videogame: just copy Wind Waker's or RE4's ones.
I am a big fan of Killzone. I loved every bit of the game and in the next few years when I get the PS3, Killzone 2 will be on the top of my list. Keep having fun on your PS2.
Greg, I've been out of the gaming loop for awhile now. When I did play it was always first person shooters. First it was Doom then Doom2 then Quake and all it's incarnations and finally UT. The occasional LAN party and gaming life was good. That was a couple years ago.
What would you recommend as a good... no make that a great first person shooter to help get the juices flowing again. We have a couple of PCs around the house and a PS2 (our daughters).
I have been having issues with Tiger as well. I still haven't found the source of the "memory leak." While I haven't had iChat crash, I have had it flake out on me. I find myself logging out and logging back in to resolve issues. Something I've never had to do since I switched to a Mac three years ago.
Evil, that was with the headphones on and the volume as loud as it gets. PSP needs 11.
Kerorin, what do you consider an average FPS?
Ray, on PC nothing compares to Unreal Tournament 2k4 if you have the video cards to handle the graphics, if not you might want to give Quake 3 or Counter Strike a go. They are two totally differnt game styles but equally fun. As for the PS2 I'm not sure what the options are because I am not aware of any way to link the consoles together for network play, thats Xbox territory, but I could be mistaken.
Too bad we failed to connect at E3 :( -- As for the PSP, I myself wanted to buy one just for the sex-factor; but none of the games really interest me.
The more I hear about the PSP, the more I'm inclined to think it's little more than a pretty gadget. All things to all men it might want to be, but if it does all these things in a half-assed way then I certainly don't want one -- long loading times on a portable?! Ultimately, the PSP would appear to lack focus.
I'm hoping to get a Nintendo DS sometime this summer, and maybe a Nintendo Revolution once they've been out a little while too. If Nintendo follow through with their claimed support for homebrew development, this console's name will actually mean something to gaming. Fingers crossed you'll be able to share your creations easily as well.
Meguesses the "memory leak" has something to do with the charming -- but nearly useless -- widgets.
About the PSP - I've had mine since the launch week, and have greatly enjoyed Ridge Racer and Lumines (Wipeout fell to the wayside for me, for some reason.) - and I'm starting to feel that it's losing it's lustre.
There haven't been many game releases, and I refuse to pay for UMD movies. On a related note, nobody has 1gb memory cards in stock for this thing. It seems like a poorly organized launch, and I'm kicking myself a bit for purchasing one.
As far as great shooters go you can't go wrong with Far Cry or Half-Life2.
Samson and Delilah?
David and Goliath.
Just wake me up when they stop making military games. EA is releasing these titles like Fox releases Reality TV shows. Someone stop the monotony and come up with a new idea! Where are the Mike Morhaimes, John Carmacks and Richard Garriots of the 21st century?