Since the announcement that Netflix was bringing the popular TV show Arrested Development back to life there has been a stirring of speculation and hope about the possible returns of other cancelled shows. Is this perhaps a chance to bring back geek favorite show Firefly? Of course, geeks have been clamoring for this for ages.
There is nothing more rage inducing to me than failing to do something in a game thanks to the complete lack of cooperation from a fellow gamer. Or to be more precise, when I die because of XxXSniprnoobz420XxX over there didnt bother to turn around when his motion sensor showed there was an enemy coming around the corner. Why is it so impossible for the general gaming population to think or act in a manner that could loosely, in the most vague of definitions, be seen as teamwork?
Most of us have been there, a tense situation whether it be a boss fight with your party, a gunfight against the enemy team, or trying to train enough marines to hold off a zergling rush. You look to your fellow gamers for aid that would take them half of a second to complete yet they continue to just run into the wall, have 6 snipers on a team of 7 players, or continue to gather resources and ignore the incoming invasion. They make an effort to hurt to the team as a whole by ignoring everything that does not involve them helping themselves, and even in games where they can benefit by helping others these players manage to find a way to hurt both themselves and every other unfortunate meat bag randomly assigned to his or her team.
This week’s column is dealing with a topic that everyone is currently being exposed to thanks to our position as being in the middle of holiday release season. The sheer amount of hype being pushed by PR representatives, by avid fans of the games, or just the word of mouth passed from one gamer to another is enough to flush any thought of anything but upcoming releases out of my mind. This week, of November 7th, is one particularly laden with the lavish praise for new releases as it carries both Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim to the eager hands of gamers. These two titles are probably familiar to you as they have been floating on the collective consciousness of gamers for a long time now, though perhaps Skyrim more than MW3.
Expectations for new games can either be a blessing or a curse when the community actually begins to play the games and talk about them. Ive seen many a game be praised and said to have gone above and beyond what people thought the game would be like; while on the flip side there have been games that while touted to be “game of the year for all years” turn out to be less than exciting or evening failing to present a redeemable quality. Usually when a new game comes down the line with a mix of both compliment and criticism alike gamers are more likely to have a well balanced or more realistic idea of what the game will be whereas if a game receives nothing but 15 out of 10 star reviews the game has nowhere to go but down.
Most of us have probably seen the previously ubiquitous all-white background commercial regarding how a trendy, young, and known actor who represents an Apple computer is so different from the stodgy, suit & tie, middle aged lesser known actor portraying a PC. At first I treated this series of commercials with the same level of regard as I would water coming out of the faucet. But in the past couple of years as I’ve been interested in the computer market and trying to design a desktop computer for myself, the ad campaign has haunted my thoughts.
This commercial had returned to me as I began to consider whether or not people actually cared about this supposed ongoing argument between Macs and PCs. The acronym PC is after all just personal computer, and are not Macs computers for personal use? Truly this is just a commercial that was meant to create opposition and conflict between different computer users, rather an “us versus them” attitude, all for the sake of crafting brand loyalty. In the market for computers, competition for consumers should be won and lost based on the performance and price of their products. There should not be any hesitance to switch computer brands just because you had previously purchased from “x” brand. It is similar to not being resistant to buying honey wheat bread if you bought nine grain wheat bread before.
So here we are, the release date of Battlefield 3 has come and gone. The game is being played across the globe on consoles and PCs alike. Millions, if not, hundreds of thousands of players are engaging in combat across the sky in jets, thundering across the terrain in tanks or apcs, or capturing bases as infantry.
The game has many an attractive feature, whether it be the astounding environments in which nothing short of all out warfare is waged, the sound quality which makes the player feel like they are being shot at or that there is actually a jet screaming across the sky overhead, the smooth gun play which allows the skilled pros and the new to shooter players all feel like equals, and finally the continuous leveling system that encourages players to keep playing Battlefield 3 in the effort to get that next attachment or that next vehicle upgrade.
Blizzcon is in full swing and news is flying out at such speed it can be difficult to keep up, but never fear: Pixelated Geek is here to help. This will be a collection of news stories focused on Blizzcon updated throughout the convention. First up: the addition and removal of units from Starcraft 2
Hopefully everyone has played a game that when you experience any particular part about the game or just the product as a whole you think to yourself, “Wow, that game really does (x-feature) really well.” If you haven’t then I suggest you should just play every game you can get your hands on and embark on a quest of game discovery. There are many ways in which a game can be perfect or can present something unique to anyone who plays them. Whether it be environmental design, character design, voice acting, even something as basic as controller layouts. Literally any feature or part of a game is a chance for perfection or excellence.
Usually I would say that it is a rare occasion where I find a game that I put on a special shelf of games I will never part with because they did one thing so well. Perhaps it is because I find myself in a less than totally cynical mood while writing this or maybe it is because it is the holiday release season where all good things gaming are supposedly showering down around us for a good 5 months. My point is that this presentation of something so wonderful is usually a rare experience. So let us take a wonderful journey through some of games I feel truly stand above the rest in one form or the other.
I’m not the largest Call of Duty fan out there, I don’t buy all the dlc packs, I don’t particularly enjoy Black Ops, and I find myself growing ever more cynical about the lack of cooperation amongst teammates when playing the more recent titles in the Call of Duty franchise.
That being said, I still play Modern Warfare 2 like a fiend. Its as if I have an addiction to the game which wouldn’t be a total surprise as I often ride passenger to my addictive personality. I hit the prestige cap long ago and I can clearly remember numerous nights of playing round after round of the fast paced and twitchy shooter. Most likely, after I finish this column I will proceed directly to my PlayStation 3 and fire up Modern Warfare 2 and play a few rounds.
Just what is it that draws me back to playing the Call of Duty games time after time? Why do Call of Duty games persistently outsell equally good, if not better, other first person shooters? What does Call of Duty have that other games don’t?