This Week in Gaming 2011/5/13

PHEEEW. Hell of a work week, I tell you what ...

... that doesn't mean I didn't spend some quality time with Brink, because I did.

Brink is a further iteration on the amazing and awesome Enemy Territory concept that was refined in both Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake Wars. Played properly, every character is a real player, and a tug-of-war style campaign is played out over many matches. On PC, on a good server, it makes for wicked fun, especially with some buddies.

Alas, all my friends, whether they be from cyberspace or meatspace, are all pussies, and don't play PC games, so I just have to imagine how cool it would be to play this game with them.

'But ... but ... Blaine, why don't you play the PS360 version of it?'
 - I don't want to play the ugly, low-res version of the game
 - I don't want the crippled, limited controls
 - Console gamers that I don't know are like others peoples' children; they all suck huge balls and are annoying and mean and 14
 - I only buy digital products whenever possible (games, books, movies/TV, music, etc)
 - I want to be able to pick my server and evaluate the ping

So let's review all that:
 - on PC, I get the better-looking, better-controlling version of the game with infinitely more control over the multiplayer experience.
 - on console, it is altogether a worse exerience

And, this is a terrible game in which to not have hot keys. Of course this game sucks on consoles!

Anyway, it's a great game on PC, so quit jacking around with your little brother's PS360, and man up to the big boy table with Brink on PC.

I've also been playing quite a bit of Fallout 3. I have no idea why. I am still trying to love this game, and it is growing on me, now that I'm somewhat over the horror of the VATS system (this was accomplished by just flipping the game to 'easy.')

Even on 'easy,' this game isn't easy (cue that 14-year old telling me that I suck and that I'm gay or something), but it is strangely compelling, despite the combat, despite the lack of depth in dialogue and characters, and despite the game's continued bugginess.

I dig the world, even if it is crazy intimidating. I think I'll stick with it, at least until ...

Next Week
Man, this week is going to be great. Not only is the Witcher 2 finally dropping, but  L.A. Noire is out, as well (sadly, only on consoles.)

I gushed last week about both games, but I really can't convey enough how great the Witcher was. If you've ever wanted to be treated as an adult by a game, the Witcher is for you.

My only gripe about L.A. Noire is that PSN is still fucking down. I'd get the 360 version, but the visuals are even worse and it's on three fucking discs, since MS went with a nearly 20-year old optical format as its main retail storage medium.

The reason that PSN being down is a problem is because I'm getting preorder DLC with the game ... except I won't be able to retrieve any of said DLC ... or the inevitable 0day patch that every game gets now.

I'll also be snagging DiRT 3 on PC the following week, to which I'm looking forward.

Down the road, I'm really looking forward to E3. I'll be taking that week off, of course, and am pumped to see what the Big Three have in store, as well as a real look at Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: the Old Republic.

What's on your radar, game-wise? What are you looking forward to at E3?

Lemme know!

-Blaine

This Week in Gaming 2011/5/6

I really only have one thing to talk about this week, and that is the final step into Hell on the part of 1UP.

Before I begin, I want to clarify that I'm not lying on my back, kicking and thrashing, while I weep and scream about this. I'm long past having any kind of investment in 1UP.com. The UGO buyout was the final nail in the coffin for me, and this is more like hearing that someone I used to be friends with is now caught up in some seriously bad shit.

Rupert Murdoch, world-renowned terrible person, and the pied piper of nut jobs the world 'round, owns NewsCorp, which in turn is responsible for such horrors as most NASCAR TV coverage, Faux News Channel, Fox Business, and IGN.

About IGN

Where IGN fits in that puzzle is to extort game publishers for their advertising dollars. They are able to do this by catering to the lowest common denominator in much the same way they do with everything else. In all their other ventures, NewsCorp try to play the role of  'the maverick' who 'challenges the rules,' except they're challenging the rules of the opposition party, and those who want change. It's a neat trick, and many of the under-educated fall for it again and again.

The problem we have here is that the gaming community is much like any other, except it's just a little dumber than most other communities, and this is only because gaming skews a bit younger, and younger equals dumber.

So, IGN is flush with cash, throwing out yummy bait that is sure to appeal to the widest and blandest range of gamer, and is ready to start raining its lack of ethics all over any publisher that needs a 10/10 real, real bad.

And, I gotta say, most IGN apologists I've met have been either a) fairly douchey or b) indifferent to the fate of mankind, so long as they can play the next Call of Duty.

(sidenote to Tony: I'm thinking of Phil here)

About 1UP

You had to be there. Really. It was a really, really special place to a lot of us. It was a warm, friendly community (except for that fuckshit, Iceblast), and we'd just kinda hang out on each other's pages, talk games, life, love, careers, whatever.

Additionally, all these editors that I'd spent years reading in EGM were available and always sharing, and damn, they were loaded with talent. The writing was always top-notch, the editorial ethics beyond reproach, and the staff were good folks. Nearly all of them were reasonably approachable, and the ones that weren't became good friends after years of arguing about music in the forums.

The mags were great, the site was great, the video content was great, things were great at 1UP ... or were they?!

Ziff Davis didn't react in time to the death of print, and the 1UP staff paid the price. The best of the staff slowly jumped ship over a two-year span, and most of the remainder were axed when UGO bought them, leaving only Garnett and a bunch of kids. Garnett left, while the staff started churning out stories that made fun of fat cosplayers. Yeah. And then I was out.

Since then, I've poked my head in on 1UP about once a month to see if things have gotten better for 1UP, and no, it's still a ruined gaming site. I say that for two reasons, 1) they don't produce interesting content anymore and 2) they fired their copy editors so all their material reads like shit.

What do I read?

It's kind of funny, but I've sort of followed John Davison, since his presence is kind of like a stamp of approval for me. He was at GamePro, so I shifted to that mag and site, and then he went to Gamespot, and they've really turned things around there.

Additionally, I've become a huge fan of PC Gamer. Their writing is great, as is their approach to what a gaming magazine should be. Lots of articles and editorials.

I tried the Bitmob thing for a while, since a lot of EGM staff went that way, but I can't stand shitty, amateur writing (FROM THE COMMUNITY YAY DOOD), so I avoid that site as much as possible. It's like a hall of games writing cliche horrors.

There's also the 'new' EGM which is decent. That project is still working toward establishing an identity, and I'm a bit confounded by how much things have stalled on certain fronts for them (the iPad app and the 'EGMNOW' section of the plan, for example), but it's coming along.

Also, Atomix is great for iPad owners.

Lastly, I'm also a junkie for industry news, so I read Gamasutra and Gamesindustry.biz quite a bit, as well.

Errata

I've been playing quite a bit of Star Trek Online when I can (every 2-3 days or so), and working slowly on my ULTIMATE Foundry mission. Portal 2 and my second Mass Effect 2 game have slotted in here and there.

I grabbed the Dragon Age II item packs. Because I'm a whore. For no reason.

I am VERY fucking excited for three releases coming out over the next two weeks. Next week, we got Brink, followed the next week by THE MOTHERFUCKING WITCHER 2: ASSASSIN OF KINGS, BITCHIZ and L.A. Noire, which looks very promising.

Brink is from developer Splash Damage, who crafted the excellent Quake Wars, my favorite multiplayer ever, and from publisher Bethesda, who publishes all those games where you talk to really ugly people in a first person perspective.



The Witcher, from CD Projekt, was the best RPG of the last ten years, and for real, just play it. The story is beyond engrossing, and the characters are fantastic, and the combat is fun, and the alchemy is a great system that's fun all on its own, and the world is a living world and ... just play it!



L.A. Noire looks to be a more niche offering from GTA developer Rockstar, and one that reaches down into my pants and strokes my love for murder mysteries, especially ... GASP ... noire mysteries.



In Conclusion

1UP being absorbed into IGN is ... meaningless, I guess. It's been a bad site for almost two years now, and has been getting steadily worse as it tries harder and harder to appeal to everyone and 'get clicks.'

I'll always love that girl, but I had to leave her behind. She was breaking my heart. Le sigh ...

Maybe I'm too old to belong to an online community, anyway. I mean, I've got a full-time job as a sysadmin, I'm a husband and father, I'm a homeowner, etc. I've got a full plate. And I'll be 33 this year.

What do you cats think of all this? Anyone still love 1UP? IGN? Where do you go for your gaming news/reading? What do you look for in terms of your gaming reading (reviews, review scores, previews, game news, industry news)?

Alright, I'm off to go enjoy my weekend.

-Blaine