48 posts tagged “game”
I keep hearing those soldiers in the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 use the term "Oscar Mike". As in, "We are Oscar Mike", "Squad/ fire team is Oscar Mike", and "Tango is Oscar Mike".
What's this? So I googled it up. Apparently, it means being "on the move". The military abbreviation for "On the Move", it seems, is "OM". And in NATO phonetics "O" is "Oscar" and "M" is "Mike", so "OM" would be "Oscar Mike".
Sounds like this term got famous after having been featured in the drama Generation Kill.
Interesting. At least, I can now concentrate on what's actually happening instead of wondering what that means:-)
It's that time of the year.
It won't be of much concern for the unfortunate souls who are not gamers, but most of the game publishers from the West, particularly America, have this strange fixation that every big-name title HAS to come out in so-called Holiday season (which in their part of the world starts with Thanksgiving, I understand). So there is this deluge of games coming out from November to January, mostly in November (and December).
This is clearly very stupid. One hot game coming out in August will completely dominate the fecking market, but I guess the suits are still under the impression that average gamers are 12 year olds who need their gift from grandma to buy games they want.
And this year's holiday season will just be crazy. There are so many titles that any sane gamer just can't miss. This will have seriously negative impact on my intellectual readings (I'm immensely enjoying reading "Descent into chaos" by Ahmed Rashid; if you have any passing interest in current Afghan conflict or the whole Islamic extremist movement, this is a must-read).
Seriously, is it? Maybe it's just me, but recently I notice many occasions in my gaming time where I'd go, "Huh? What did you say?" because they speak in Russian without any subtitles.
This caught my attention over last winter as I spent more time than I should have on Call of Duty 4 multiplayer; the single-player campaign was subtitled (the Russian villain mostly spoke in English anyway), but on multiplayer I hear yells and stuff in Russian (and in Arabic) without any explanation. I think I got myself killed more than 10 times for letting my mind wonder for a few seconds over this phenomenon.
The trailer for the sequel for CoD4 ends with a Russian monologue, again with no subtitles (I think it's Russian; my unfortunate ignorance of any Slavic language prevents me from knowing for sure). Also I'm a huge fan of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Shadow of Chernobyl, in which pretty much everyone speaks Russian (it's Ukrainian to be precise; BTW I still can't understand why those crazy Ukrainians want to make a fecking game out of their biggest national tragedy...). Maybe the whole gaming world is in on some conspiracy to encourage more people study Russian language... Hmm...
Or maybe this is my reading; last month I've read Martin Cruz Smith's "Gorky Park" and now I'm reading Tom Rob Smith's "Child 44". They are both thrillers that take place in Soviet-era Russia. Nothing like dipping my head into a story that unfolds in Russian winter when you are in sweltering Tokyo summer.
... Obviously, I will be reading all the Latin American writers when the winter arrives:-) Oh, and probably be playing CoD4: Modern Warfare 2. And still wondering what's up with all the Russian dialogues.
* Bioshock 2
* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
* Dragon Age: Origins
* Diablo III (maybe...)
* StarCraft 2 (hopefully...)
* Dead Rising 2
* God of War 3 (this may finally convince me to get me PS3)
* Hearts of Iron 3
* Splinter Cell: Conviction
* S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Prypyat
* Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
* Mass Effect 2
* Deus Ex 3 (still not convinced)
... It's not hard to see why the gaming industry has become bigger than Hollywood :-)
I hope more Japanese devs will come up with something cool, but aside from a few exceptions the Japanese game industry may be going slowly to FUBAR status, sadly...
So I found this game Mirror's Edge in a bargain bin. This may not mean much to non-gamers who have no idea what this game is, but Mirror's Edge made a lot of noise on the scene last year. The game is about Parkour/ freerunning; you get to run and jump all over the skyscrapers, doing crazy stunts and stuff, in first person view. It's one of those ideas that made people say, "why hasn't anyone thought of this before!?". It's got some flaws but it's such a new/ radical experiment it should be noted for its inventiveness. At least, that's what I read about it.
You may be thinking "but I don't know what Parkour is", but if you have seen 007: Casino Royale, you already do. Remember early on in the movie, Bond chases this guy carrying a bomb in his backpack all over a construction site? Jumping through windows and stuff? That's pretty much it. (look up the word on YouTube for some very cool clips)
Anyway, I was surprised to find it in a bargain bin. Bargain bin, naturally, is where you find rather crappy stuff (or way outdated stuff). The game was pretty well-talked about and, it may not be a big hit, but it shouldn't end up there so early.
But on second thought, it made sense when I thought about Japanese mentality; see, there's a big difference in how people take the brand new, next big thing, especially compared to the American mentality. Americans tend to consider new stuff to be "potentially good, even better than the old". Japanese tend to consider new stuff to be "potentially bad, even worse than what's out there". So generally, the Japanese prefer to stick to tried and true stuff they are familiar with. (even if they are outdated, or something more exciting is out there)
I'm not saying everyone is like that, or there's no "early adopters" in Japan, but in general, people tend to be more cautious over something new and unfamiliar. It's not just about games but general tendency (I think).
Also, Japanese gamers have this conviction that, only the Japanese developers can make games that the Japanese gamers enjoy. (this as you can see goes into a vicious circle; you don't try foreign-developed games because you think it's not good for you. Therefore, it remains something new. Since you are Japanese and naturally cautious of something new, any title that a decent gamer of any nationality should be trying- be it Half-Life 2, Gears of War, whatever- remains something new and foreign. So you have every reason to be suspicious. You end up picking up, say, some rather crappy game but has familiar names attached; like Final Fantasy, anything by SquareEnix, etc.)
Again I'm not saying every Japanese is like that (Yours Truly is the living exception to this :-), but I think the tendency is still there. I think people should be more willing to take chances with stuff like these.
... But then again, thanks to their being overly cautious and suspicious of anything foreign, I got this cool game at incredibly cheap price. I guess I shouldn't be complaining (^ ^)v
The first F.E.A.R. is the first game that I blogged about. It's got very unique stuff, but it's also got other stuff that made people complain.
What was good was very smart enemies, creepy atmosphere, and some really scary moments featuring Alma, this little girl in red dress who is apparently a supernatural being. Another thing that stood out about F.E.A.R. was that it embraced the taste/nuance of Japanese horror films (which at that time was kind of making it big). That is to say, the horror came mostly through atmosphere and psychological scare, not really through gore and blood (not that there weren't any of those, but what would shake you up was more like moments when, after you shot down a few clone soldiers and escaped into a dark maintenance shaft, you'd hear strange noise and innocent giggle of a little girl who wasn't there).
Many fans of F.E.A.R. had some complaints as well. Two things stood out; repetitious level design, and confusing and not clearly-told story. I agree with the latter (the back story was told through voice mails left in office phones- each snippet was confusing enough and often not much information. Even piercing them together, the whole thing didn't really ticked in. Even worse, they didn't let me save these dialogues so I can listen to them later and try to make sense of them). However I didn't think there was such a problem with level design- Almost entire game takes place in offices, dark corridors/sewers/tunnels/whatever and secret labs. Apparently, some gamers wanted more variety in scenery. Really? I didn't think it was an issue- claustrophobic setting is part of the horror genre "given", don't you think? Having no place to escape helps set up the whole thing (usually, even when a horror movie takes place in open field, there's usually a reason why the main characters can't just go off; like they don't know the terrain, or they have an wounded member they just can't leave behind).
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin addresses these two major complaints and makes quite a few improvements over the original to make the gaming experience more balanced, better-paced, and easier to understand. By doing so, they made a game that, where their effort is well-appreciated, left me kinda missing the first F.E.A.R.
Project Origin is a good shooter game with horror elements. There are many different locations to go through, different enemies to fight against, and your PDA keeps all the background story data so you can go back to them any time and try to patch together the puzzle. However, scary part is taking the secondary role here- and it's not as scary as the first one (except for one sequence that takes place in a school), and it's more Western, gore-based kind of horror this time. If you like that kind of horror, you may like it better.
Another effort to change the pace and offer different gaming experience is vehicles and powered suits (read: big mechs) that you get to control and inflict some serious damage with. But really, do we want this type of stuff in a horror shooter? If I want to just blast away, there are other games I can pick up. People choose to play horror games because they are sick bastards who enjoy getting themselves scared. I think they should have concentrated more on that.
At least, I got a decent grip on the back story. This time I really understood what had been going on inside Armacham and its local community and what really happened to Alma Wade. It's a blessing and a curse though- Now I know her whole story, Alma is less scary. (Maybe I'm a minority, but I was really disappointed when they tried to "explain" why Hannibal Lector started eating people, or why Darth Vader became the Sith Lord. I think they are scarier when so much was left to our imagination)
Another problem is, your ultimate goal was supposed to figure out how to destroy Alma's supernatural power, but now that I know why her spirit/soul/whatever has stayed in this world to wreak havoc, I was kind of tempted to join forces with her and go have a little chat with Papa Wade instead. Apparently this won't be the last of the series, judging from what happens last. Which was a big surprise and, at least for me, quite disturbing...
To sum it up;
Good: Enemies are still pretty smart. Still scary, but in a different way (and quite less often...). Destroy enemies in a powered suit is cool, though it feels a bit out of place. More scenery. Better information management.
Bad: Not as scary as the first game. It helps you too much from time to time. The back story makes you sympathize with Alma instead of making you want to destroy her. Multiplayer is just generic stuff. Overall feel of "wanting to appeal to broader audience by losing the core-fan of the original" symptom.
Now a bit of questions I was left with, which include some spoilers (stop scrolling!!)... I hope they will be answered in F.E.A.R. 3.
* What happened to Harlan Wade? Is he still alive? There may have been intel on this but I'm afraid I've missed it.
* Who's the father of the twins from the original game? Alma gave birth to them when she was 14. But when she was 13, she was already confined. So it has to be someone inside Armacham...
* Did the last sequence of F.E.A.R. 2 take place in real world or "other world"? Physical presence of Alma Wade has already died, right? What will happen to, ah, that?
"To Alma, you are like free pizza at Anime convention. She wants to... devour you."
Callsign "Snake Fist", a character from the game F.E.A.R. 2 : Project Origin
Hahaha. Why would they want a funny line like this in a horror game is beyond my comprehension, though...
I have been staying away from XBox Live all this week due to the big update Microsoft has been bragging about for months. I never trust such big update to go smoothly, especially if it's coming from Microsoft. I have been monitoring the game-related websites but there don't seem to be major problems, though a few cites "minor glitches" experienced in some parts of the world.
I would wait for at least one patch notice before I update my XBox360 (I'm playing non-online friendly game right now, so staying away from XBL isn't really a problem), but I'd really like to try "Left 4 Dead". So, gaming Voxers out there- is your XB360 working fine after the big update? Any glitches, hiccups, troubles and so on? Any tip would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! (^o^)/
I don't believe this. This guy escaped a real prison by- guess what- using fecking cardboard box. Even Solid Snake himself would be proud of managing the ultimate stealth mission like that!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7730018.stm
So Metal Gear Solid players out there- next time someone tells you all that gaming won't do you any good in real life, you know you have one example such knowledge could come in handy. Assuming you are planning on getting arrested and sent to a prison, that is. (^^)
You'd probably know Bioware by Star Wars: The Knights Of The Old Republic or D&D-based Buldar's Gate series. The developer has been making very good role-playing games based on the world settings created by somebody else; which is not such a bad thing, as they are very well made (KOTOR is considered very highly by many, and Buldar's Gate II is one of my all-time favorite RPSs).
Mass Effect breaks away from this tradition. This time, they have created the entire universe from the ground up. What's unique about the world of this science fiction RPG is, unlike many other sci-fi settings like Star Trek and many others, humans are not the center of the galactic federation of interstellar civilizations. Humans are newcomers, only recently acquired the technology to go beyond its own solar system; many other races treat humans with mild tolerance, although some regard them with outright prejudice and hostility (such as elitist Turians- they clearly think mankind is not worthy to be joining the party). The background of each race and how they came to travel back and force- using Mass Relay, basically a conduit to let you teleport from one solar system to another, left by ancient, long-gone civilization, is very detailed very well-thought out.
You play as Commander Shepard, the first human candidate for the elite peace-keeping force called Spectre, which apparently has the authority to exercise extra-judicial deadly force to enforce law and keep things in order. Having a member among Spectre is a big step for the mankind. You can make your Commander male or female, and edit the way s/he looks. I just picked the default (which is male), he just looks cool enough.
Things immediately go wrong as Saren, a Turian Spectre, gets hold of an artifact left by some long-gone civilization. He, being a Spectre, clearly thinks that if he can be above the law, he can above many other things (he's probably never watched Spiderman). Before long, you are put on a mission to stop Saren from his nefarious plan to destroy all the civilized life form.
(The story doesn't miss the political power play; at first they want you to spearhead this mission, because even if you fail, no other race will take the blame because you are "simply a human" after all) You'd get to scout buddies, human and non-human, to tag along with your hunt for Saren and uncover his true intentions. Each of these non-player characters has personal history, likes and dislikes. (Taking a certain NPC to a certain mission triggers a special dialogue/confrontation)
As long as you issue relevant orders (it would be a very good idea to tell them first to "take cover"), they behave fairly intelligently and help you beat your enemies. They do have some path finding issues and, given no order, just want to storm in and become a good target in the open.
Saren is one bad mofo and will keep your hunt quite worthwhile. Many important story sequences play out as cut-scenes, and they are mind-blowingly good. Especially after one big confrontation toward the ending, things will get really intense; you'd enjoy it more than most of the sci-fi movie made out there. Dialogues are pretty well-written, won't be called literary masterpiece but for the ones gracing a videogame, they are quite impressive. Aside from a major gripe (discussed below), this is a spectacular achievement and is a great start of the new saga (there will be a sequel).
The story itself and its conclusion is very tense and very satisfactory, there are a few big surprises along the way and it will keep you going- and especially the last 5 hours or so will be quite memorable.
It's not without is faults, though. One word; side-missions. They suck. You get about a dozen star system you can visit to check up on some research base that lost contact, uncover something or go rescue some squat that put out a distress signal. All of these worlds are made of one map, and the location you go to for your mission (research facility, mine, etc)- many of them are made of the same design. I don't mean similar. They are exact same map, they only put crates and stuff for variety. You try these missions to garner experience and level up your characters and find better weapons, but they get tedious real fast. (You could probably beat the game without playing any of the side-missions; which may give you a better memory of this game.) All in all, side-missions feel like an afterthought, like they put it because they have to be there. I hope they will make them more varied and interesting in the sequel (at least, they should take place in terrains and maps with slightly more variety).
Also, inventory system is a nightmare. It's supposed to give you many upgrade options to your weapons and such, but doing so is kind of a mess. I hear PC-version's got a bit better on this front though.
All in all, a very solid role-playing game (as long as you stay away from side-missions) that can be recommended to any sci-fi fans and RPG fans, especially RPS fans who like science fiction.
Good: Great story, excellent cut-scenes. Very detailed and interesting world setting. Fun combat, once you get the hang of it (though later it could be a bit repetitious). Interesting characters. You get to hoop up with opposite sex members of your crew.
Bad: Horrible inventory system. Side-missions. Minor path finding problem with your buddies. Did I mention side-missions?
