pLayday: 3/4 – Call of Duty 4

CoD4 Price

pLayday: 3/4 – Call of Duty 4

I know it isn’t split-screen (and online simultaneously), and not everyone owns it. But Halo 3 two weeks in a row seems a bit lame when most of us have this game. It’s a low hp, high speed match. Think Counterstrike. Larger maps a decent teamplay help a lot. Getting the drop on somebody generally leads to a free kill (much more so often than in Halo).

Experience gained in online matches also directly relates to new class skills, abilities, and guns. There is also a party system similar to Halo’s (though I have yet to use it). It should be fun.

There are many different types of game modes. If anyone has any info on them, or preferences for what we play, post away.

Naruto:Rise of the Ninja = 30 hours of TV in 6 hours of Gaming

Naruto:Rise of the Ninja = 30 hours of TV in 6 hours of Gaming

Naruto:Rise of the Ninja was my greatest hope of being able to catch up on all my anime in 1/5 of the time. The game follows the first 80 or so episodes of the Naruto animated TV series, so if the game tells the complete story of those episodes, then i can have the entire story without the hassle of actually watching the show. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way that I had hoped. Continue reading

don't tell me the ending to: The Simpson's Game

Bart Simpson Chalkboard

don’t tell me the ending to: The Simpson’s Game

Player 2 doesn’t get achievements. This game is fun, but I can’t imagine playing it single player. Combined, these two facts can kill this game for many of you. I, however, have a couple friends who don’t have 360’s and couldn’t give two shits about achievements. Lucky me.

The game itself is cartoony, but hardly pretty. I haven’t had a chance to try it, but from the game trailers the Naruto game does better cell shading. The game does contain animated cartoon clips for cinematics, which are in all their hd glory. Combined with the humor (and the graphics certainly aren’t bad), the game has a charming presentation. Nothing like running through the “Game Engine” level, where video games are made, passing posters of EA’s Bite Night 2004 (Tyson on the cover), and a skeleton’s in EA’s QA Dept.

It also has made me laugh. I know. I haven’t seen the Simpson’s movie yet, but the show certainly hasn’t done that in awhile. We, the gamers, are certainly the target audience. One of the many level collectibles are “Cliches.” These include things like “Swimming: you can’t swim until the sequel.” or “Exploding Barrels” and “Invisible Barriers.” Each time you find one Comic Book Guy comes up and delivers a clever line of dialog. Greatest gaming references. Ever.

I’ve been having fun with it. The running around Springfield section they brought over from Hit and Run is fairly useless, and completely unfun from a gameplay standpoint. But, the actual levels are classic brawler/platformer levels. It is Lego Star Wars fun without being Lego Star Wars. And we all know we’ve played that game pretty much to death already (released 3 times now?).

pLayday: 2/25 – Halo 3

Halo Rocket

pLayday: 2/25 – Halo 3

I hear Halo 3 has been patched. So I throw the disc in. Lo and behold, the first patch for Halo 3 is upon us. And from the servers descended thy AutoUpdate 1, patching ye Halo 3 to version 1 point 1. As it is written:

“omg, did j00 fixz melee, bungholes?”

“Yes. We have patched Halo to 1 point 1. Now Melee damage will no longer favor the advantaged over the disadvantaged, the strong over the weak. Now they will both perish in a flurry of fists if they are of almost equal skill and health. So, shutup n00bs.”

And the peasants rejoiced.

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CoD4 Progress Report #1

CoD4 Grenades

CoD4 Progress Report #1

I’ve slowly been making my way through Call of Duty 4 on Veteran (the hardest) difficulty setting. It isn’t too bad, except for a few key sequences that are exceptionally hard. Ridiculously hard. omg-i’m-going-to-beat-QA-to-death-with-my-controller hard.

Seriously.

If I meet someone who tested these sequences,… they better hope they have quick load handy.

At this point, I am generally abusing the fact that my AI compatriots are invulnerable. I try to have them breach and clear the house first, since if I turn a corner and actually see someone the only breaching done is the kind that keeps you in the shower scrubbing yourself raw and mumbling.

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Get hyped for: Dark Sector

Guyver

Watch for: Dark Sector

Normally, I go around and tell all my friends about hyped games, or games I think that just about anybody would like (if given a chance).

Then there are the games that I follow that I don’t really tell anybody about. I don’t think everyone should play them. They probably won’t be 9.0+ games. But who cares? These are games I think look interesting to me, and you may think so too.

To kick this off: Dark Sector.

This game looks damn violent and damn fun. Two words: Guyver, and “Predator-disc-weapon.”

Okay, so I cheated on that disc weapon. And it is doubtful anyone knows Guyver (either the anime, or the live action american films). I’ve seen large chunks of both. They are both awesome in a very 80’s action kind of way. Think Ninja Turtles movies, but with blades on the elbows.

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Who crunches numbers better? PC, Mac, PS3?

Number Munchers

Who crunches numbers better? PC, Mac, PS3?

PC running as a hackintosh, PS3 running a linux variant (unbuntu, or yellowdog?), and the mac running whatever the newest version is, because Steve Jobs told you these new features are needed.

=Seth-

So, I’m looking for the best workstation style flops/$ for parallel computing. Any suggestions? 8 cores good, 16 better. I was thinking of going with a Mac Pro for $2800. 8×2.8 GHz Harpertown cores & 2 GB ECC RAM. Student discount takes off another 10-20%.

=Detnap-

Hello Mr Seth,Have you thought about getting a ps3 for your project? The PS3 has about 200 gflop from the cpu PlayStation 3’s Cell CPU achieves 204 GFLOPS single precision float, maybe 15 for double precision, while a 8 core is around 50 gflop.

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Trilogies – Engine reuse without the Guilt?

Matrix Revolution

Trilogies – Engine reuse without the Guilt?

Look. Not everything needs a sequel. Most things should not be designed with the intent of spreading out content. Yes, yes, episodic content is all the rage right now, but the development cycles aren’t there yet. Just look at Valve and their “HalfLife episodes 1-3 = HalfLife3” I bet you their next HalfLife sure as shit isn’t called HalfLife 4. Just because Lord of the Rings did it does NOT mean everyone should be able to sell the same thing 3 times. The reason LoTR did it is because it is a 12 hour movie. You offer me that much more substantial and new content in a trilogy and I’ll be pleased. The problem is: this isn’t happening. The 2nd and 3rd titles each have only a year of turn around, and are rushed to the holiday market. They lack the polish the original had, look and do no better than the original, and are only an extension. They aren’t a sequel, they are an expansion pack. See: amazing “Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal.”

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I finally beat: Prince of Persia Classic

PoP Achievment

I finally beat: Prince of Persia Classic

Delayed, I know, but I did beat it a couple of months ago. In short order, even. It came out. I played it and had it done in just a day or two.

Shut up. I know it is “just an hour long.”

Well, Prince of Persia Classic hit Live just a while ago. A remake of quite an old game. Does it sand up to the test of time? <See that intential typo there?>

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pLayday: 2/19 – Team Fortress 2

TF2 Spy vs Eng

pLayday: 2/19 – Team Fortress 2

It is time for some 2fort. Premise is simple. Capture the flag, and bring it back to base. The flag is located in the basement of the enemy installation (a mirror image of your own). You can get there via the front entrance, then up the stairs and to one of two stairways down, or via the sewer entrance (which leads to the up stairs room).

If we can get 8 of us, we can get that elusive achievement.

I think we all own Orangebox, except for raforce, so we’ll probably flip to another game (Halo or Undertow) partway through if he’s still online. Don’t want to leave anybody out for too long :)

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