Carl of duty and the PC benchmark of 2007

Call-o-duty black ops is fairly short and sweet but since I got it on sale for 19.99 so I don't feel terribly cheated-  "cheated" though? Why does this purchase invoke that feeling. Well the game was fun as was the multiplayer it offered as it was your typical call of duty modern warfare ...fare so what was I expecting?  I was expecting something worse to be honest but my impossibly high standards have left me burdened with my spoiledness with various other gems to compare it to. More prominently and somewhat louder I guess is a voice in the back of my mind that keeps nagging me "You should of waited for it to be cheaper." and I probably should have seeing as how I'm not going to bother with the multiplayer- arguably the main focus of the game. I could of just as easily pirated the game for the single player and been done with it but there's no sense in feeling regret about it now I suppose. Personally, I blame Gabe for making games so reasonably priced that even a tight ass like myself breaks down and buys them. 

A whole paragraph on buyer's remorse, a cynical asshat am I to be sure. 

Black Ops  is yet another game that pretty much has it all in the title. You're the no joke dude sent in do complete secret operations, you get captured twice thrice and escape every time, wield a mini gun with your bear hands (he's in Russia at the time yuk yuk), shoot explosive crossbow darts,  and various other manly things. Its actually nice to see a game acting like a video game again and by this I mean I want to see a future call of duty game have you fighting space nazis on the moon while riding on a dinosaur that has lazer guns for hands. Make it happen treyarch.  To be more clear- I want to see more ridiculousness that borders on surreal so that when I'm playing  a game I'm genuinely entranced in the universe it presents. Its obvious that with the Call of  Duty franchise they have a lot more creative freedom to enjoy and that's never a bad thing.

Interesting tidbit though, I did some research and a lot of the guns in Black Ops shouldn't actually exist... at least in the time line Black Ops presents.  For a more elaborate explanation check out this page on imfdb. The word they use a lot is "anachronism" which , as wikipedia reads- 

"An anachronism, from the Greek ανά (ana: up, against, back, re-) and χρόνος (chronos: time), is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of person(s), events, objects, or customs from different periods of time. Often the item misplaced in time is an object, but it may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a custom, or anything else associated with a particular period in time so that it is incorrect to place it outside its proper temporal domain."

Its a really cool word but the chance to use it comes up so rarely due to the abstract definition. 

Well that's enough reflection today. I've yet to beat crysis so I don't yet feel qualified to speak on it in depth as of yet, but I feel compelled to as it has given me some unique experiences. 

So I got a few games during the steam sale, allow me to run through them with you and explain why you should of bought them if you haven't already.


Shoot Many Robots is pretty much what the title says. I bought a four pack for the price of a cheap pair of sun glasses- 7.50 or so. While on the surface it looks like your typical side-scrolling shooter, reminiscent of Metal Slug or Gun Star Heroes it has some things that set it apart.

The most stand out feature is the character customization which is arguably the back bone of the game. Basically you unlock and find items through leveling up your character or finding things in the map. You can assemble some rather odd looks for your robot killing paper doll, each piece of equipment having different stats that affect how they move or how much health they have among other various stats and perks.

It also has a comical style that feels like a bit of borderlands and redneck rampage with and maybe a dash of   the aforementioned metal slug. It also has music that adapts to the tone of the gameplay becoming more frantic when lots of killer robots are on screen and cooling down when you're idly strolling through a level. A lot of games do this but an equally large amount don't and this makes me quite sad. On a similar note (terrible pun) the music matches the atmosphere of the game wonderfully...unless you don't like rock and roll at which point you need to re-examine your tastes. I hate don't agree with Ubisoft's DRM and their poor management of otherwise good properties but this is a great game even if its by a not so great publisher.

the brief-
+4 player co-op
+lots of customization
+highly stylized world
+good music
+easy to get into

-Not the deepest gameplay
-the grind for the lewt
-its not on sale anymore


the verdict-
BUY THIS GAME
=====================================================

Renegade ops is pretty much your favorite SNES game you never got to play and wanted to exist. Well seeing how its published by Sega perhaps that description leaves something to be desired but I digress. This is the kind of over the top A-team styled story you've been waiting for in a game for a while. I forget how much I payed for the 4 pack but I think it was similarly priced to shoot many robots respectively.

Like shoot many robots, Renegade Ops is pretty much describes itself. (a disturbing pattern seems to be emerging...) You can take control of up to 4 renegade operators and drive around in supped up combat vans and speed buggies. There's also a Gordon Freeman character which prompted me to call foul but he's about as renegade as you're gonna get so I let it go even if it breaks the fourth wall of this games's universe.  You basically travel the globe hunting down Dr. Evil or his somewhat more menacing counterpart as the case may be, holding down the fire button and killing everything while collecting power ups and racking up high score. GREAT

The game's art style makes me think of venture brothers which is never a bad thing, albeit it lacks the more comic styling of said show. The game has a leveling system because it has to keep you hooked, wherein you unlock skills by leveling up. The character's vehicles are all the same in that they all upgrade their guns the same way and they can all collect special weapons. Each character has their own special ability which I believe is in place merely for the sake of arguing with your friends over who their favorite character is. There's much else to say past that, its pretty straight forward drive and shoot.

the brief-

+4 player co-op
+easy to get into
+unique art style
+over the top atmosphere that pokes fun at 90's games
+Cars n guns

-Controls are a bit stiff with keyboard, and crazy with a gamepad, pick your poison
-somewhat repetitive game play
-not on sale


the verdict-
BUY THIS GAME
=====================================================


Next time I'll talk about Call of Duty Black Ops and Crysis. Mainstream enough for you? Also I'm late to the party I know.  I need to talk about things other than video games at some point. Wanna hear about life at a call center? Yea I thought not.

games, games, games

So I've been playing a lot of video games- primarily World of Tanks. Thanks to steam  my library  has increased substantially with the summer sales. For anyone who has kept up with my blog regularly I apologize with the lack of updates. I'll go into detail of what I got tomorrow but I have lots of work to do when the dawn comes.

What am I doing?

Been playing a lot of World of tanks as of late...and it shows. I now have two tier 8 tanks and they're all kinds of no joke. With ten days of premium left to go, I'm gonna be playing for the next ten days naturally. That's pretty much all I've been up to on the gaming front.


 I also won a kindle fire at a workplace drawing- Devil's luck. Downloaded a bunch of free books, mostly those from the french author Maurice Leblanc. If you like mystery or suspense I would recommend reading up on the Arsène Lupin  books.  Basically its about the acclaimed "gentleman thief" that goes around stealing priceless artifacts and getting caught up in all kinds of crazy situations.  They're free digital downloads on amazon through fan translations that can be a bit sketchy at times but from what I've read they seem to be put together well enough considering they're free. You may need to look up a few french words while reading the book or refer to spark notes for a clearer picture of what you're reading at times.

Also if this interests you, you might want to check out Lupin the 3rd as well. Its a manga and anime adaptation of the aforementioned story's protagonist's great grandson as the title suggests- one of my favorite anime's to be sure.  Also it also made some of my favorite 70's jazzy music. I really need sleep though. I also need to discuss something that's somewhat of a pressing issue for me concerning the distribution of games and their prices.  In the mean watch that dude on the sax.

Time for World of tanks and video codecs

So If you're been reading any of my posts so far then you've probably read about World of Tanks at some point. So why won't I shut up about this free to play game from Russia? 

Allow me a brief introduction- World of Tanks pits various world war II tanks tanks against each other- all the way up through the korean war across the stages of Europe, Africa, and the recently added US.  Its somewhat simulation and somewhat arcade style. Its free to play and in my opinion very fun. Now that that's out of the way...

Its easy to get into  

Not boring easy like korean MMOs where you're fighting mushrooms and piglets for the first couple hours. Easy in a way where you don't feel overwhelmed when you first start playing. Subsequently progression is pretty quick during the first 2 or 3 tiers of tanks which encourages people to dig into the various strategies each tank type offers. The controls are dynamic yet simple and the nature of the gameplay rewards critical thinking, however it doesn't punish foolish trial and error...at least not until you get further into the game. I'll delve into that a bit later, I have to be honest though...

I LOVE TANKS 

This is probably a must for a game exclusively about tanks. Not unlike angsty teens being a must in ever Final fantasy game. I probably gained an affinity for tanks with games like TANX and its sequel TANX GLOBAL ASSAULT for the N64. If you have a working N64 I recommend trying those gems out if you have the chance. I also enjoy mechs to some extent and tanks are like mechs in a way, except they're slower- also they typically lack legs.  Large metal object fetishism aside, you don't have have  be in love with tanks to love this game, however you will need some patience as this game will try your nerves at times because...

This game is difficult to master

Learning how to move in your tank, learning how and when to shoot in your tank, learning where to shoot your enemies given what gun you have, what angle they're at and what kind of ammo you're using. These are some of the variables that determine whether you survive a match or end up in a burnt out hunk of steel. As a friend of mine would say, you can effectively "punch above your weight" if you time your shots carefully, aim steadily and have a little bit of luck. The feeling of satisfaction knowing the choices you made ensured your survival in an almost rehearsed fashion of tanks dancing around each other is one that's hard to describe. If you're playing an artillery style tank or as they're called in this game "SPGs" - I would compare it to threading a needle in front of a fan set on high while a wasp is flying around you and could sting you at any moment. The word thrilling comes to mind. Also... 

Unforgiving...

Making poor decisions in this game will leave you a smoking wreck quickly. Once you breach tier seven  in this game, you'll hit what I'll call "No joke tier". Unless you preform fairly well at this level of play you'll end up losing in game credits (used for purchasing more tanks, upgrades and so fourth) instead of usually breaking even or getting a positive credit revenue as you would tier six and below. This almost makes purchasing premium account status obligatory. If you keep your lower tiered tanks, many of which are decent in their own right, you can keep a steady income of credits if you balance your play with your higher tiered and lower tiered tanks.  A necessary design to ensure someone is always playing different tiers of tanks.

Thats all I want to say about WoT for now. I've been doing a bit of researching for quality video recording devices. I made this using xfire, xvid, and virtual dub. I was able to push out a lot more video quality with this set up with a loss of audio quality. I'll get a bit better at this eventually I hope.

If you're interested on how I made this video post it in the comments and I'll give a basic rundown of how to capture the most quality. Here are the tools I used.

http://www.virtualdub.org/

http://www.xvid.org/

 http://beta.xfire.com/

also tank lolis

World of Tanks is a hell of game, but tonight- Spiral Knights

I recently got premium account status for World of Tanks yet again,  but that's not what I've been up to throughout the month...

 I've been clawing my way up Spiral Knights day by day, working at getting a little bit better as I go. I could spend 10 bucks and have a five star weapon but I feel like that would weaken the experience, like having the safety rails and the mini slide up in a bowling lane. I guess what really pulls me in is the difficulty. There aren't too many games that really challenge me nowadays so its refreshing to have something that keeps me on my toes. A feeling akin to an SNES game where too many mistakes would make you start from scratch. This of course can be circumvented by buying an elevator pass for a paltry six bucks or so,  but usually the 100 mist energy (it costs 10 energy to do a level in spiral knights) I get a day lasts me more than hour which is more than long enough to spend with this game in a single sitting.

Subsequently when you do team up with a group of friends its a fun time. The best way to explain it I guess would be to compare it to four swords link, but I've never played that game in all honesty so its hard to make an honest argument of that. I can say its akin to PSO in a way in that the main focus is on cooperation when you're playing with others, and its generally easier to make it through the various levels with more people, granted said people are competent and properly equipped. Not to say those with under-powered gear are useless but they are typically less dependable and don't hold up that well against tougher foes even when their skill rivals better players.  Again though with precision and caution you can go just about anywhere in this game with mediocre gear. On a tangent now... To be brief, a good team is quite capable of doing exceptional feats in this game.

I recently got decked out in several pieces of 5 star gear, which I would dub "no joke tier" for this game. I'm still one piece short of a full set but the satisfaction from my...I'll say "work"- gives me a feeling of completeness.  A job well done, even if it was through grinding dungeons for hours on end.

I'll get into World of Tanks and how its ruining my life being a fairly strong time sink tomorrow. 

                                                         

Zombies, Sega's Phantasy, and Broken Knights

So I haven't been putting out too much content since my PSO vids. I recently purchased project zomboid so I've been pouring lots of time into that. Other than that I've also been heavily anticipating PSO2, Sega's foray into the free to play market with their arguably classic franchise. You can read more on my thoughts about that in my previous blog post if you're so inclined. My most recent contention is a change in the spiral knights formula. More specifically the ability to buy your way into power. Allow me to delve into all these topics with a modest share of words


First off, Zomboid is really addicting...at least it was until I tried the newest version of it, but even still it holds my interest. After playing the demo and version 0.1.5d and then jumping into the current version 0.2.0p2 adds 2 more maps worth of content, more items that I know what to do with or how to sort, and a revised combat system. I only recently started playing so it's a bit of a shock to me however I'm sure those who've been sticking with the game for the duration of it's development were gradually introduced to these gameplay changes but it really feels like a different game to me. To streamline my thoughts. I like what it's trying to do with its emphasis on survival and critical thinking to avoid death, in these regards I commend it, Subsequently the new combat system has completely turned me around in how I engage and take down foes for better or worse in some cases, good things in general to be sure.  However the interface feels clunky and awkward when it comes to moving items from your person to any kind of storage and is worse than having your wisdom teeth pulled by a dentist with Parkinson's . NPCs don't seem all that intelligent still and while they do spout some interesting dialogue they're usually too busy running around to bother to chat with you, one note though- don't try to combat them unless you're ready to kill them. at least from what I've seen. Still, I had to concentrate to pry myself from zomboids rotten grasp in its defense. I see survival as somewhat of a dying genre so its good to see it done right. Also it did I mention it has zombies? I'd like to review it more thoroughly but I'd need several good hours devoted to the current version. If you're interested in zomboid here's a link to their website wherein lies a free demo which I encourage you to try.

Phantasy Star Online 2. Oh lordy...where to begin. If I haven't already gone into enough detail on its payment method in my previous post I'll go ahead and say this- I'm optimistic despite the payment method being a bit off from what I expected and would have preferred. To clarify if you haven't heard yet- PSO 2 will be free to play with a cash shop. In other news you can currently download the character creator in Japanese if you're so inclined to create your character early and play it when the Japanese version of the game is releasd. Naturally you'll have to be fluent in Japanese or refer to a guide to have any idea what you're doing. It also comes with a benchmark tester to see if you need to up your hardware. On the lowest settings I had a steady 100+ fps and on medium settings I was steady around 40~100 depending on what was going on at times. Suffice it to say I'm confident I can run it. I will admit I have a strange feeling though, as I'm excited for the game to be released but at the same time worried its payment scheme may dishearten an otherwise a viable PC market. Other than its payment model there's a chance it might not be that good of a game. Not to say I don't trust Sega but the frequency in which they pump out  Phantasy Star games on PSP make me a little weary of the franchise at this point. I may explore those titles a bit more thoroughly in the future  but right now PSO2 is my focus. The reason I'm cautiously optimistic as I think many are at this point is that PSO2 really feels like the next step up from PSO. Where Phantasy star universe and such were decent games, they didn't seem to share the same feeling PSO did. Introducing it simply as PSO2 is basically a claim to fame. I can only hope sega doesn't tarnish yet another franchise- see sonic.

Speaking of tarnishing otherwise decent franchises I've recently gotten back into spiral knights. Its by no means Game of the year of any year but an enjoyable excursion none the less. Think Four Swords link gameplay mixed with  the art style of kingdom hearts and an item collection system akin to monster hunter. That last piece of the  description seems to be a bit off now though seeing as how you can purchase end game gear for a mere 10 dollars. While this means it would take you 50 dollars to fully outfit your character with endgame gear it's still disheartening to see a game I regarded as truly skill based fall from grace with a cash shop that takes the joy out of dick waving about your bigger sword to other people with starter crap. Enough shallow reasoning though, before the implementation of the new tier five weapons being handed out to everyone with a fat stack the player really had to work to get anything tier five. This included collecting items, recipes, and then the energy required to craft said items, quite the monumental task. This pursuit was eased by buying energy but at no point was the player handed godly weapons by well...buying their way into power. Naturally my dismay is further stirred seeing as how sega is partially responsible for spiral knights. At this point I'm connecting the dots you see. The question being, will Sega make PSO2 pay to win in the same vain Spiral knights? To put this in perspective- the big draw for PSO was finding rare loot by searching tirelessly and finally stumbling across it after hundreds of hours of play. I can rationalize increased drop rate bonuses or such that can be bought but I don't want rare items to dolled out to everyone who wants to drop down lots of cash.

 I'll need to discuss skill based games a bit further methinks. That deserves a video at least.