Allow me to toss out a WTF moment. Yesterday Square Enix releases a patch for the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution that, among other things, fixes some horrible performance bugs that have plagued the game since launch. So obviously, everybody wants to download the patch as soon as possible.
One other "feature", that wasn't mentioned in the patch notes, is the new in-game advertising system! Yes, the fifty bucks that I already paid for the game apparently isn't good enough. Now they want to show me real-world advertising on the loading screens. Yay for immersion.
Bear in mind that advertising is, in general, one of my pet peeves. I absolutely hate.. nay, despise being told what I should buy. You're not telling me anything about the product that I care to hear. If I don't already know about it through word-of-mouth (which, on the internet, is extensive, and I hang out at all the places that will have first news of anything that interests me), then it's clearly not worth my time or money. And if I do hear about it through word-of-mouth, I'll do my own research, and then I'll make up my own mind about whether to purchase your product. Therefore, I simply don't do ads, period. I have more ad-blockers installed than I know what to do with, and I frantically perma-ban anything that slips through that minefield.
So why in the holy hell would I want to see real-world advertisements in my games? If the game were free-to-play, I could understand it, although most FTP developers use other methods for profit generation than advertisements. Valve, for example, sells in-game hats that your Team Fortress characters can wear. Silly, yes, but it works, and you're not forced into it.. it's a cosmetic thing. But no.. I'm loading up the next level in DXHR, and there it is.. "Buy the Star Wars Blu-ray!!"
Really? The Star Wars Blu-ray? Do you think I live in a ***king cave? That I honestly was not aware the set existed? That I didn't already ***king own it? Of course I already own it. So why would I want to see anything.. ANYTHING telling me to run out and buy it again?
I'm waiting with baited breath to see what Square Enix has to say in its defense. Unless they want to refund my fifty bucks, their ads can go to hell.
One day later, and I've got a mod that blocks them. But what pisses me off the most is that I shouldn't have to do this for a game that I bought and paid for. It's like DVDs that don't let you fast-forward through the trailers for movies that came out six years ago. It's stupid.
You can download the mod HERE. I recommend everybody do it. And send a nasty letter to Square Enix while you're at it.
I'm out.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Hard Reset (Impressions)
So I tried out the demo for Hard Reset, an upcoming PC-exclusive shooter from Flying Wild Hog (great name for a company, and the animated logo is also excellent).
This was developed with the idea of making an "old school" shooter, a la Doom, and I have to say, they pulled it off brilliantly.
In the demo, the objectives never get more complicated than pushing a button and shooting the hell out of anything that moves. There's no deep story here that I can see (although it does have a framing plot), and there's only two weapons; the typical machine gun, and a plasma-based weapon of some kind. Yes, two weapons.. bad games have been down this alley before. But each one can be upgraded with up to five different configurations. And when I say "configuration", I mean it.. the machine gun literally transforms to becomes a shotgun, or a grenade launcher. The overall look remains more or less the same, but all the little panels shift around and a new barrel will pop out the front. Oh, and each of those five configurations has two firing modes. So don't think for a second that "two weapons" is in any way limiting. In fact, it completely avoids the mess of weapon upgrades and finding the right kind of ammo, that often plagues shooters these days.
And so far, I'm loving it. It just feels right. It feels.. streamlined, I guess would be the word. It's not weighted down by secondary objectives, inventory management, or cover systems. And it even avoids some of the cliché of modern "violent" video games by fighting against robots and machines and not against humans. That's not to say the game isn't violent.. it is a shooter, after all, and full of things blowing up. But it's not particularly bloody, since your enemies just explode into bits of metal, flame, and sparks.
It's just so damned satisfying, not having to worry about all that other stuff. They've distilled the FPS down to its original core, and it feels great.
And let's not forget it's PC-exclusive. No lazy ports here.. this was made from the ground up for PC, and it shows. The in-game interface is entirely mouse-driven; when you walk up to a control panel, you lower your gun and your targeting reticule becomes a normal mouse cursor, that you use to push buttons on a screen, just like any modern operating system. This can be done using a pad, I'm sure, but I know it would be extremely clunky and take much longer to actually accomplish anything.
Control is also extremely tight. There's no mouse acceleration or auto-aim, it's just WASD and straight-up mouse input. And again, it feels great, oddly different from a lot of other shooters these days. I wish more games controlled like this. If you miss, it's your own damn fault, not the controls. Unless you're using a gamepad. Surprisingly, the game supports it, but I'm not sure why.. I wouldn't recommend it, the mouse just feels so damn good. And this is a PC shooter, dammit. Leave your gamepads in the living room.
And it runs great, too. My system isn't the greatest by a long shot (I'm eyeballing some upgrades, actually), and I can run it at Ultra settings at 1680x1050 at a perfectly playable, and very steady (with V-sync enabled) 30fps, even in the big fights. The game includes a built-in benchmark that stresses the card (by throwing more explosions and geometry at it than you'd normally see while playing) and allows you to fine-tune the settings to your hardware until you find a solution that works.
Oh, and how does it look? Well, it's a budget title, so it's not ground-breakingly amazing. Maybe a bit on the low-poly side. If I had to compare, I'd say it's very similar in appearance to the Unreal series of games from Epic, but with a different art style. That's not to say it looks bad, not at all. It's dark and gritty, for sure, but the real standout is the lighting. Firing off the plasma cannon into a group of robots and watching the entire environment light up like a Christmas tree.. that's good times. Lots of dynamic lighting and shading, it's certainly no slouch. Overall, the look has a very "Blade Runner" feel to it, with the glowing advertisements and even the flying zeppelins with screens on the sides. You can find videos and images all over the internet if you're curious.
My reaction? I'm buying it. It's being released on September 13th as a digital download (I'm not sure if they're even selling it in brick-and-mortar stores). You can pick it up on Steam for $30. They also have a demo, if you're on the fence. Go play it, and I'm sure you'll agree this is a keeper.
I'm out.
This was developed with the idea of making an "old school" shooter, a la Doom, and I have to say, they pulled it off brilliantly.
In the demo, the objectives never get more complicated than pushing a button and shooting the hell out of anything that moves. There's no deep story here that I can see (although it does have a framing plot), and there's only two weapons; the typical machine gun, and a plasma-based weapon of some kind. Yes, two weapons.. bad games have been down this alley before. But each one can be upgraded with up to five different configurations. And when I say "configuration", I mean it.. the machine gun literally transforms to becomes a shotgun, or a grenade launcher. The overall look remains more or less the same, but all the little panels shift around and a new barrel will pop out the front. Oh, and each of those five configurations has two firing modes. So don't think for a second that "two weapons" is in any way limiting. In fact, it completely avoids the mess of weapon upgrades and finding the right kind of ammo, that often plagues shooters these days.
And so far, I'm loving it. It just feels right. It feels.. streamlined, I guess would be the word. It's not weighted down by secondary objectives, inventory management, or cover systems. And it even avoids some of the cliché of modern "violent" video games by fighting against robots and machines and not against humans. That's not to say the game isn't violent.. it is a shooter, after all, and full of things blowing up. But it's not particularly bloody, since your enemies just explode into bits of metal, flame, and sparks.
It's just so damned satisfying, not having to worry about all that other stuff. They've distilled the FPS down to its original core, and it feels great.
And let's not forget it's PC-exclusive. No lazy ports here.. this was made from the ground up for PC, and it shows. The in-game interface is entirely mouse-driven; when you walk up to a control panel, you lower your gun and your targeting reticule becomes a normal mouse cursor, that you use to push buttons on a screen, just like any modern operating system. This can be done using a pad, I'm sure, but I know it would be extremely clunky and take much longer to actually accomplish anything.
Control is also extremely tight. There's no mouse acceleration or auto-aim, it's just WASD and straight-up mouse input. And again, it feels great, oddly different from a lot of other shooters these days. I wish more games controlled like this. If you miss, it's your own damn fault, not the controls. Unless you're using a gamepad. Surprisingly, the game supports it, but I'm not sure why.. I wouldn't recommend it, the mouse just feels so damn good. And this is a PC shooter, dammit. Leave your gamepads in the living room.
And it runs great, too. My system isn't the greatest by a long shot (I'm eyeballing some upgrades, actually), and I can run it at Ultra settings at 1680x1050 at a perfectly playable, and very steady (with V-sync enabled) 30fps, even in the big fights. The game includes a built-in benchmark that stresses the card (by throwing more explosions and geometry at it than you'd normally see while playing) and allows you to fine-tune the settings to your hardware until you find a solution that works.
Oh, and how does it look? Well, it's a budget title, so it's not ground-breakingly amazing. Maybe a bit on the low-poly side. If I had to compare, I'd say it's very similar in appearance to the Unreal series of games from Epic, but with a different art style. That's not to say it looks bad, not at all. It's dark and gritty, for sure, but the real standout is the lighting. Firing off the plasma cannon into a group of robots and watching the entire environment light up like a Christmas tree.. that's good times. Lots of dynamic lighting and shading, it's certainly no slouch. Overall, the look has a very "Blade Runner" feel to it, with the glowing advertisements and even the flying zeppelins with screens on the sides. You can find videos and images all over the internet if you're curious.
My reaction? I'm buying it. It's being released on September 13th as a digital download (I'm not sure if they're even selling it in brick-and-mortar stores). You can pick it up on Steam for $30. They also have a demo, if you're on the fence. Go play it, and I'm sure you'll agree this is a keeper.
I'm out.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Noooooooooooooo!
Hell of a way to start this one off, eh? How's about that upcoming Blu-ray release of the Star Wars saga?
I'm referring, of course, to the news that Uncle George is yet again making some more tweaks and changes to the saga for this new release, and the uproar has been pretty impressive. First and foremost on the list of changes is some new dialogue added for Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi.
In response to this, I'd like to show this short YouTube video.
Yes, you heard that right. From a guy with "Jedi" in his name. Look, I'm a fan, obviously. I grew up with these films, just like many of you. They are absolutely a part of my life. They are the sole reason why I got into visual effects and filmmaking in general, which has turned me into a big movie buff overall.
But seriously.. boycotting the release? Why? Do you people really not know just how small a percentage you really are? You're the minority within the minority. Think about all the people that are going to buy this. Of those, we'd be lucky if even half of them were aware that any changes have ever been made to the films. Of those, maybe 10% actually know what all of the changes are, or can recognize them when they see in the films. Of those, maybe 30% don't like some of the changes. Of those, maybe 20% really hate the changes, and of those... maybe half that say they won't buy it.
But see, that's the great thing about the internet.. you can say whatever you want. Hells yeah, I'm boycotting the s**t out of that release! But damned if you're not standing at Best Buy when the doors open, waving your credit card in the air like a flag.
I bet the majority of people who claim to "boycott" the release will actually do no such thing. And who are we to know? It's the internet.. no one knows anyone.
And the end result of all that boycotting? Maybe a 0.1% decrease in potential profits on day one of the Blu-ray release. In other words, Lucasfilm won't care. Chances are they won't even notice.
So say whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Come September 16th, I'll be kicking back with a big bowl of popcorn watching A New Hope in 1080p and pissing off my neighbors. And loving every minute of it.
I'm out.
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