BDC's random thoughts about video games
 

Call of Duty sucks...

About people that take games too seriously.

I remember a few years ago, we were drinking at a friend's place and this guy came and brought his PS2 along so we could play some tournaments or whatever.

Thing is, I was never big into video games so when we were playing some Dragonball fighting game I just randomly pushed all the buttons, then I learned to shoot from distance and it was all I would do over and over again. And I totally destroyed everyone, beating this guy in the "final". He got so fuckin' mad he started shouting, his face turned red and he eventually just took his PS2 and went home. He left about 17 beers behind.

People taking games wayyyy too seriously and getting angry over things is the main reason I barely play online. I got called a fag-nigger just because I got a straight in poker on XBox Live once.

How'd you get it though?

By being black and gay.

That's why I have voice chat off for people not on my friend list. I don't want hate mail or people screaming down a a mic at me because I had the audacity to win.

As for CoD, I can't exactly write a review because I've only played it once and that was Multiplayer. From what I saw/played. It did seem pretty generic.
The videos I've seen of single player and from what I've heard, it sounds like it's short (5 hours long or something) and linear.
I can't understand how it get as much praise it does. I'm not saying it's bad. Just that it seems really plain and "so what?".

Well, I agree with that. I want to say the same about sports.

If there is one group that takes their hobby way too seriously more than gamers, it's sports fans.

I refuse to play shooters with someone if they have that 'friends only' thing turned on for their voice chat. Absolutely retarded. One of my RL friends used that, and could never talk/hear anyone in our group when we played, and was thus completely worthless as a team player. So I just stopped playing with him.. was no sense in it.. people would talk to him and he'd have no idea. Wanted to punch him.

Which is why I barely play shooters at all. You need to talk, but I don't want to to talk to half of those cretins on Live.

It depends on how the gameplay mechanics have been implemented and what the end result is. Really though that's how you get progress in the industry, you look at what has been done before and make changes and tweaks for the better. If the game is literally just a carbon copy with a new skin thrown on the top then yes that is bad because it's more laziness. Overall though it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

What story has been better once it's been ripped off and used for something else?

I would argue it's completely lazy, because no original story which people thought was good, could possibly be better when taken out of its original context and altered. It's not their work, therefore it doesn't have the same meaning that it did originally.

Story-wise I can see this, if you're just taking one games story, moving it into a difference universe and changing the characters/settings then yes that is lazy.

Tech wise it doesn't really work like that when it comes to gaming though because engines are made to be re-used and altered. You go to something like Half Life and that was a modified Quake engine. Nowadays loads of things use Unreal Tech to power their game or the source engine so a lot of the time some of the things you'll see aren't always the development teams work because there is a lot of Middleware being used.

It depends on the degree of change and alteration. Fallout 3 used the same engine as Oblivion but made changes and tweaks and both of those are fantastic.

They sound like those who suddenly believe Call of Duty is a "casual" game because its popular or everyone plays it and now Battlefield 3 or whatever game is meant to challenge it is now the "hardcore" game.

Same happened with Halo with people claiming it was casual because it was popular and Modern Warfare 1 was the new "hardcore" game. Ironic part is now those same people think Halo is back to being a "hardcore" game even though nothing changed except CoD being the #1 shooter.

The same could be said of a lot of big games such as people thinking Mario is just for kids or sports games being bad even though they keep buying them every year.

BDC you should play Ico

Gaming has so many splinter groups that hate each other because gamers are humans, and humans are introspective dickhandlers.

Also COD is awful and coconut macaroons are not real macaroons FFS.

My cousin's the worst rage quitter.
Money in the Bank matches on SVR take ages, if he is on the verge of losing an hour long match he'll just quit...
Then pretend it never happened. And he always selects 30 secretly in the royal rumbles, then pretends to play...

Ico is better than whatever $60 game is about to come out.

Wow Ico used is 29.99 at Gamestop and the used PS2 itself is only forty bucks more. That's way too much cash for a used game no matter how good it is.

Soon enough video games will be in most RedBoxes across the country. So I think I'll be playing alot more video games because I work at a Grocery store with a Redbox right inside. Rent a game and hopefully beat it in like a day or two: 2 bucks a day so like 4 bucks plus tax.

About movie games borrowing styles:

I always think about what Back to the Future producer Bob Gale used to say about it. Gale said if something is a success it is considered an homage if it's a failure it's a ripoff.

Think of how awesome the Simpsons: Hit and Run game was. Taking the GTA style was a great move for a mostly open world Springfield game. On the other hand the Simpson's game based on Crazy Taxi and wrestling sucked hard.

If they could make a good Star Trek video game I don't really care if they would have to use a Mass Effect style. If it wasn't for shows like Star Trek games like Mass Effect wouldn't even have been made in the first place.

$30 is cheap for Ico, it used to be a lot more. I don't believe that just because a game is used means it should not be under a certain amount. Ico is a rare game, and very very good.

I had a friend at one point that did that kind of thing. I'd be beating him at a cage match on No Mercy, just be getting over the cage and he'd switch the N64 off. We'd play some other game like Mario Kart 64 or HCTP, I or someone else would win and he'd throw a tantrum.

He sometimes used to actually tell you to stop hitting him when you were beating him at a fighting game. He wasn't even kidding, he seriously wanted you to stop hitting his charcter.

Needless to say, I've not been his friend for a long time.

Everyone knows a guy like that. It's all a matter of whether you remember not to invite him when competitive shit is going down.
The best is when people send u a message afterwards.
Ripping off game concepts and mechanics is standard practice. If it weren't we wouldn't have game genres. It can be good (Art of Fighting got ripped off and led to SSF2T) or bad (God of War got ripped off and led to the Ghostrider movie game).
Ripping off storylines is lazy. Period.
Middleware allows for some fantastic development, but it's not quite the same as lifting gameplay mechanics entirely. The Unreal Engine has been used for everything from the TNA Impact game to Mortal Kombat to Gears of War. Its more about the basic engine parts than core gameplay ideas being used elsewhere. No one's gonna say that TNA ripped of Gears.

The AKI engine (of WWF No Mercy fame) was also used for the completely unrelated Def Jam Vendetta. It could be easily argued that Def Jam ripped off AKI.

Not uncommon at all, my friend. I know tons of dudes like this. I don't believe FPS games really fall into the casual category at all.

Gamers who play (X) are not real gamers. There is only one true way to play (Y genre). (X) ruined (y genre) forever!

On a related note, not to take away from your blogging, I'm really weirded out that people take some certain games so seriously. Like, apparently Pokémon is serious business, with a fucking hardcore base.

Now, I enjoy the Pokémon games. It's not that they're bad, before some Nintendo or Pokémon fanboy rips into me for picking on something they love, it's the obsessive level that the competition gets taken to.

And speaking of obsession and competition....

To be fair, gamers would totally riot like sports fans if they could leave their mom's basements. :shifty:

But seriously, I have this one guy who fills my Facebook feed with hissyfits of the Sox win or celebrating if the Yanks win. He actually had a nervous breakdown on FB over some Sox fan celebrating at the bar her works at.

I know it's more socially acceptable to cry like a baby over a baseball game not going your way, but fuck, I've never wondered whether I should be hiding a Trekkie's shoelaces.

Depends on the RPG, but I've found a lot of modern fatasy RPGs kinda suck because they take shooter elements and throw them into games that aren't really intended for them.

Plus, many of them take the DnD approach of "Wizard is God, Fighter sucks," so one class (not always the fighter) is usually totally gimped. Sometimes more.

Though as "RPG" now means "Shooter with dialogue options," I suppose it's moot.