Announcement...

In reaction to the issues that I was dicsussing in the last post on this blog, I have created a new blog. It is called DM's Toolbox and is the place where I will put tips and advice for being decent Dungeon Master. Everything I have learned over the years from all my mentors. Check it out.

Role-playing...

Yeah, I still play paper and pencil role-playing games. Only, now it isn't any fun. I play on Thursday nights with a group of guys that are all much older than I am. All we have ever play is D&D. I still enjoy the company, which is why I still go, but the game sucks. These guys are by the book D&D'ers including the current DM. He is reading straight from the book. In one instance, someone asked him how much an item was worth while rolling appraise, the DM replied he didn't know, it wasn't in the module. Because of this group, I have realized three things.

Firstly, if I was introduced to paper and pencil RPGs like this the first time, I would have never kept playing. Video-games can achieve what these guys are looking for better and with less work. And to be honest, the stories in the modules are campy at best.

Secondly, I was very fortunate to have the experiences I did. The groups of people that I gamed with when I was younger had already been through all this and rejected it. Then they just started making it up as they went. Perfect. I thank all of them for that.

Lastly, this is how most people play these games, and I am ashamed to be put into the same category with them. I now understand the stigma that gamers get because of these people. This is really lame and childish. Something I never thought when I played with the other groups. There is nothing being brought to the table. I do enjoy hanging out with these guys, but that is about it. We could be playing a board game and have more fun in my opinion.

With all this said, it is true that there is no right or wrong way to play these games. But there is a way to get the most out of the medium. And that is exactly what it is, a medium for story-telling. A medium that, if done right, can blow every other medium out of the water. A medium where those playing the game get to dictate the story that they want told through their character's actions. You can be who you never could be, do things you have always wanted to do.

I learned to DM from a few masterful DMs and didn't even know it. I played with people who had imagination and creativity. I want to thank them all.

Cartoons...

Why isn't it okay for cartoons to be well drawn anymore? It seems like all I see in American cartoons is disproportionate characters on tri-color backgrounds. Remember when a person used to look like a person in a cartoon. None of this stylized crap.

/end rant

Fine...

...i'll just pick one. In the interest of getting this damn thing up and running to a point that it is updated and usable, I have simply decided to pick a stupid pre-made template and use that. With that in mind, look forward to new posts here soon.

Working...

Yeah, I am still working on it. I might just have to stick with one of Blogger's templates. We shall see.

Project halted...

So, in some interesting news my company is going to be wiping the work machine I bring home with me and use as my personal computer. Everyone needs to log into the servers to use their machines starting Monday. There will be no more local accounts. It makes sense to me and I would have thought as a company it would have been done a long time ago. It makes things more controllable and keeping track of everything that is happening with your company assets is a snap.

The issue is, and why I was using it as my personal machine, I went from three computers three months ago to zero. One of the G4 towers I had wasn't really mine and I was asked to give it back when the person who owned it went into financial crisis. To help him out, I gave him an even older G4 tower I got for free as "interest". While that computer was a hunk of complete junk, it did work, which is more than can be said of my fiver-year-old Dell. I figured I could fall back on my PC, which I tried. I set it back up, but after a week the machine would no longer POST (won't boot). So here I stand, a Technician without a computer. My virtual world in purgatory. It's like a jockey without a horse. A cashier without cash register. A school janitor without the orange-smelling-sawdust to clean up puke. Exactly the same.

Alright, I am being dramatic. But it does suck and it means that the project to get this blog to a state where people might read it is on hold. Anyhow, while this does nothing for anyone who reads it now (not that is was getting updated in any consistent way), I promise some day it will be worth reading and some form of entertainment will be gleaned from it. Until that time, enjoy some Gizmodo.

Construction...

Pardon my dust–

Ok, I hate that saying as well. I am working on this blog trying to make it better. Please bear with me.

Mappel...

So this was a video that was great but FOX has managed to remove it from every website. It was the Simpsons making fun of about 20 years of Apple history. If you can find it, watch it.

Super Turbo HD...

Yeah, the full name is Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. But even the old game was called Super Turbo for short.

The original Super Turbo was, like many 2D games at the time, a masterpiece. Even today, there is no fighting game other than other incarnations of the SF franchise that stand up to the strategy and skill level of this game.

Well, they remade it...in HD...and it costs about $15. It's awesome.

They hand drew the new HD sprites. It is gorgeous. The main developer, David Sirlin, made many balance changes to the characters in the game based on his own championship experiences and those of fellow SF champions. All the of the same strategy applies and can be played online against opponents throughout the world. This is truly a masterpiece.

It should be noted that despite the graphics changes, they did not change how the game plays at all. Each frame has been carefully preseverd so the original game lives on. On top of that, if the chnages to the game are too much, it can be reverted back to Super Street Fighter 2 or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo rules and the game graphics can be switched back to the classic on the fly. I have found the new game to be perfect, however, so I don't really see the need.

Somehow, amid the high-intensity, more-realistic-than-life graphics, 10-hours-or-less gameplay games of today, this remake seems to be a breath of fresh air. I miss side-scollers and this brings back a lot of memories. Spend the 1200 Xbox points and download it. This game is well worth it.

Below is a decent example of the old sprites and the new HD sprites from Wikipedia (save for the fact that the old sprite is about 1/16 the size in a real comparison).



And an even better example showing the true resolutions.

When you know you play WoW too much...

...you just know. How do you even play the game?

Uh oh...

Lord have mercy. I just set the ol' PC back up. How dare I—

Ok, I have never been truly an Apple fanboy. I like the ease of their operating system but that's about where it stops. I will always recommend them for people that don't understand computers and just expect them to work, an Apple is about as close to that as you can get.

Time to check out some of the old games... Diablo, here I come...?

Gears, Again

I BOUGHT my Xbox 360 because of Gears of War. When that game came out and I got the chance to play, it sealed the deal as to which system I should buy for this generation. It had never been done before and, despite being story-light, I couldn't put the game down. It was just so fantastic and so rich. That combined with the amazing combat and cover system and I was hooked. It is still my favorite 360 game...

UNTIL NOW.

Gears of War 2. How in the hell could the sequel be any better than the original? It's a sequel. It's just not possible. Except that it is. This game is amazing. Where to begin. Well, they used the Unreal Engine 3 and the graphics, physics, and capabilities are amazing. On top of that, there are new game modes, new weapons, new co-op opportunities. I cannot describe it.

And if that wasn't enough, they fixed the issue from the last game, story. While still not an epic love story or drama, this game is a classic war story of men fighting for their lives. There are a enough twists and turns in the story to keep it interesting and you feel as though you have a reason to be somewhere instead of just moving from area to area killing things.

If you have a 360, this game is a must buy for sure.

Mario Piano...

Crazy guy...

Escape...

So, I managed to survive Dead Space by helping Isaac escape certain death. The end battle and ending are both very fitting capping off an awesome story. I had a blast playing and was ready to put the game down, but it lets you restart the game with all of your items, armor, and weapons. It is unbelievably fun to massacre low-level enemies with high-level weapons. And here I thought I was done. Silly me.

I Like it...

I saw this on Gizmodo. They posted it for Halloween and I thought it was neat, albeit a little weird.

Dead Space...

This game... This game is...just...phenomenal... Let me try and explain the experience. It looks so good and the gameplay is so well done that every 10-15 seconds I am turning the character around to check behind him. The monsters in this game can only really be stopped by taking off their limbs (arms, legs, tails, etc.). But that is the beauty. They move pretty fast and you have try and take the time in some of the worst situations and aim for limbs, trying to sever them. Your senses of urgency and panic sky-rocket. And the amazing graphics don't really help. You get to see everything in gruesome detail for sure.

But to give you a better sense of the love that the developers gave this game, some of the mechanics should be explained. Health and ammo aren't displayed in a traditional sense. There is a green bar on Isaac's (the main character) spine that is his health meter. Ammo is only displayed when Isaac holds his weapon up and a Heads Up Display pops up on the weapon. Also, viewing your map, inventory, objectives, or watching previous communication videos is all done in real time in a "hologram" in front of Isaac. In other words, it doesn't pause the game when you are equipping weapons which, again, adds to that sense of urgency and the feeling that something is behind you. Both of these factors really immerse you into the game and just add to the atmosphere.

Basically, unless this game has less than 10 hours of gameplay, it is a masterpiece.

This game brings a well-cooked genre to a cool rare.

Half-Life in 60 Seconds...

This fits well. I have been playing a lot of Half-Life 2 from The Orange Box I bought for the 360.

Creativity...

It is reasons like this that the internet is a good thing. Creativity.

Chainsaw Maid

This is awesome. This is a claymation zombie apocalypse. CAUTION, VERY GRAPHIC (if you can call clay graphic).

Never Fails

Amen Princess Leia. Never doubt the powers of the gold bikini.