It Always Happens...




Fairly certain this is self-explanatory.

And Now For Something Vaguely Different....

Almost a year and five months ago I said I was going to have an update. Stuff happened, I ended up moving across country and forgetting about this blog. It happens, I've likely lost legions of readers, and I have nobody to blame for this except myself. Well, I decided yesterday that I am for the most part done with internet message boards, so I will actually have time to update this now.

I wanted to actually speak on the topic of internet message board, and in part, blogger culture. I was (and technically still am) a member of the popular gaming message boards at IGN. For those who do not know, IGN is an entertainment network that was built mostly on its video game review sites for the various consoles. I have been part of their boards for almost seven years now and to say that things there, not withholding the quality of posts or even the customer service and immaturity of even the moderators of the forums has been on a steady decline for the past few years. For the most part, I have decided that the boards exponentially decrease my IQ. A graph, of which you may have seen a similar one before, is a fantastic visual indicator of my day when I go to the boards:

Yes, I made that one myself. Yes, my MS Paint skills are awesome. One of those two comments is a lie and I leave it to you to figure out which one it is. So yes, going to the boards make me dumber. I am sure someone will make the comment that reading my blog does the same to them, which is probably a fair assessment. Regardless, you have read this far so obviously I did something interesting.

Back to the issue, message boards. I have figured out the problems I have with them and have put them into a nice numbered list:

1. Everyone feels their opinion is fact.
2. People are sheep.
3. People are hypocritical.
4. People spoil games.
5. People are sheep.
6. See 2 and 5

Now I will break down each point on the list, giving you my opinion of why I feel each of these things make boards like those at IGN very poor places to visit.

1. Everyone feels their opinion is fact. I can handle peoples opinions, I really can. I'm an extremely opinionated person and love to argue both sides of a point without even revealing where I actually stand. The reason I am able to live with myself is because I do not, repeat DO NOT, argue a point without providing A) any feedback or B) anything to back themselves up. Some people might say that people do not need to back their opinions up, but I feel they do. Why? It strengthens their point and in general makes them look a little bit smarter. Instead of posting, "I don't like this games! It sucks11!!1!" make a post that says, "You know I really do not like this game. I feel the gameplay mechanics are poorly implemented and the controls do not feel as tight as they possibly could." That still isn't perfect, but at least you've made a point that can start an intelligent conversation. People seemingly are unable to do this. Nor are people willing to even listen to other opinions or agree to disagree nicely. Most posts devolve into nothing more than what would be considered, "Oh yeah! Well, your mom!"
   
2. (Also 5 and 6) People on these boards seem to want to follow reviewers to the end of the earth all based on a set of arbitrary points that they give a game. First, reviews are opinions too. Second, some people who are predisposed to not like a game (for whatever stupid fanboyish reason) will wait for a review that is in line with their opinion and claim it as the only one that is correct. Forget other places that have reviewed the game extremely well, they were all wrong. These people also cling to impressions from those who either get a game early from a broken street date or piracy and end up making decisions based on impressions from those people. Forget all the excitement that person may have had before; one person posting a few negative comments and the game is now regulated to the rental column.
   
3. People on message boards flip-flop more than politicians, which oddly enough there are boards at IGN where people complain about politicians. Not only does this play into the sheep mentality, it also brings up one of the strangest behaviors ever. I speak, of course, of the classic "I hate that review site they are wrong/See that site is the only one that got that review right!" Yes this is a point I made for points 2,5 and 6 but it is valid here. What is meant by this? Here is the cycle, again illustrated for your enjoyment:

Lastly, 4. (It's late and I can't get this to format right, deal with it) People spoil games. This one is kind of obvious. You always end up with one or two jackasses who find it funny to post spoilers to a game in a subject line. You get the forgetful person, whose IQ has obviously been lowered by just being on the boards, who forgets to highlight spoilers in their post. But it runs deeper than this honestly, as simply reading about a gameplay mechanic or seeing the way a character plays or anything like that takes a tiny bit away from your personal gameplay experience. Plus I do not need anyone else's impressions to spoil my gameplay by making me look for flaws that I might not notice or simply forgive otherwise. If they took my advice from point number 1 and actually provided some constructive criticism about why they don't like something, I would be more apt to read what they say. But again, over 70% of these people do not know how to engage in an intellectual conversation. Either because they do not have time or because they are able to hide behind their monitors and spout off with total anonymity.


But that's it. That is why I am out of there for awhile at least. If you are part of the 30% and you actually read this blog, then it's totally the whole, "Fuck you, Fuck you, You're Cool, Fuck You, I'm Out" bit from Half Baked. now on this blog I am going to start posting my impressions of games, but I am actually going to provide that level of constructive criticism and state why I think maybe some things were done the way there were and how many some aspects could have been improved. I do have a certain amount of insight into this industry that may or may not be revealed at some point (was likely revealed in an early blog post) but rest assured there is method to my madness. For now, out. ftw.

Update!

I'll have one soon!

It's Teasing Me

I'm sitting here at work and I look over at it every now and then. It seems to be taunting me. I'm here for another two hours, followed by a drive home on the 405 that takes at least half an hour. Not because I live that far away mind you, but because the traffic is always so backed up. I just want to slide it in slowly then go at it. I can't wait until I get home. I just hope my wife is ready for it. Of course I am talking about playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the 360.

I've been reading some posts on forums during the day and a few people are complaining about the graphics in the multiplayer. I haven't played it yet, but being a designer I know that there are reasons that things like these are done. These idiots are always over-exaggerating anyways, but the fact is that you have to tone things down graphically for a large multiplayer setting because a system just can't handle it and keep up. I'd rather have "medium" graphic settings and a steady frame-rate, which is important in a game like Ghost Recon, than "high" graphic settings and crappy frame-rates. I guess I will play it later and judge for myself, but none of the reviews I have read have complained about said graphic "problems" with multiplayer. People just need to get over themselves and try to have fun with a freaking game.

So I played The Outfit demo last night and based on the demo, I will definately be buying the game. Yes, the vehicle controls take some getting used to, but I didn't have a problem with the graphics at all. Most of all, the game was just plain fun. I actually pulled a muscle laughing at some of the stuff that went down in the game. In case you haven't read about the game, nearly everything on a map is destructible. It wasn't even with this that I had lots of fun, but with the amount of vehicles that were available to use.

I was driving a truck full of people from my team through a field when I saw a tractor sitting there. I wondered if I could actually drive the tractor, so I got out of the truck and got on the tractor. Now, the fact that you can drive around on a farm tractor is funny enough, but then a guy got out of the truck and looked at me like, "What in the hell are you doing? Get back in the truck and get us to the base!" Instead I took off in my tractor. Unfortunately for the guy, he jumped in my way just and I took off and he died under the awesome crushing might of my tractor. But the tractor was not the best part at all. Later on I saw a wheel barrel and wondering if I could get inside of it. To my surprise, I climbed inside and sat there. Since the wheel barrel is not a self-propelled device, I was hoping that someone on my team would notice me. Someone did and came and started pushing me around the map. Right into the enemy base, where I guess they died of shock that the Allies would come into their base with a wheel barrel, because they all sort of stood there dumbfounded while we killed them. The entire time I was laughing. Pre-ordered the game and will be playing it next week.

I Guess I Should Update

I've been getting a ton of emails from my fans saying, "Hey, HCB...why haven't you updated you blog?" Well, truth be told it is because I am just lazy. No reason why I haven't updated in over a month other than I just haven't really had anything to say. I got another 360 today. I had sold mine on eBay for a nifty profit and had decided that Ghost Recon was not coming out anytime soon. To be quite honest, it was the game I was looking forward to most at launch and it go delayed. I wasn't too happy about that. But since it is actually coming out, I can't wait to get my grubby hands on it tomorrow. People that were able to get it today are just mean and should be shot. At least this is what I think.

Going to try The Outfit demo tonight. I've heard mixed things, mostly about graphics and controls. I will say two things. One being that graphics to do make a game fun. Plus the demo is multiplayer. If people had actually taken the 10 minutes or less it takes a normal human brain to read a two page article about the multiplayer, they would have noticed that it was mentioned the graphics are tuned down for the multiplayer component since everything is destructable. Second being that vehicles in a game do not have to control like those in Halo just because it is what you are used to. I am sure you also whine to your mommy making you some chocolate milk as well. Anyways, I'm hoping that Ghost Recon is everything and a bag of chips like the reviews have said. If not, I might go into a fit of infinite rage in which I rampage through peoples homes and eat all of their bread. That is until I am full, of course. HCB out.

Argh!

I didn't update yesterday! What is this world coming to? I think I was again upset by the fact that Space Rangers 2 hadn't arrived yet. Or maybe it was because I was playing the World of Warcraft Boardgame until 1am. It is odd how much fun the boardgame was given my recent disliking of the computer game. I'd say it gets some things right that the PC Game should learn from. Just a little weird. Our team, the Alliance, ended up losing though. Oh well, better luck next time.

I thought I'd let all two readers of this blog know that I have a pretty big secret about what is going to be in a popular magazine about games that you play on something called a PC.

I Made This Dude

He looks pretty wicked. In City of Villains that is. I have spikes coming out of my eyes. I'll take a screenshot tonight to show him off. It's pretty creepy. Space Rangers 2 still didn't get here. The United States Postal Service around here must really be slacking off. It got shipped FROM THE SAME CITY I LIVE IN on the 12th and it still isn't here. I don't care if it had to go to LA and back...that is just ridiculous. Downloaded the Star Wars Empire at War demo and found it enjoyable. Will likely pick that game up if it has good multiplayer.

No Space Rangers 2 angers me again.