Sunday, September 26

This might be why Xbox Live's price is increasing...

Recently Microsoft announced, via Major Nelson’s Blog, that the price of Xbox Live would be increasing. As of right now all the prices for the United States change, 1 month for Canada and the UK changes, and then the 12-month for Mexico changes. Their reasoning behind this is that they have added more content and features without increasing the price, which is random to say, so they decided to increase the price. But this got me thinking about value.

Oh Yeah... this might be a reason too...

As it stands Microsoft considers the value of Xbox Live to be roughly $59.99 dollars worth. But I don’t and I know for sure a lot of others don’t either. Now I don’t want to just rag on Microsoft because I can’t blame them for a price increase and in all honesty they have added a good deal of content. But the problem is that I do not want and I will not use most of the content or features. I have used twitter, facebook, and last.fm once and never plan on trying them again. And I know for a fact I will never use the new ESPN feature they are adding. So why do I have to pay for these if I want Xbox Live?

All I really want is to play games. I have used Netflix and currently have Netflix, but I would be perfectly fine without it. So in reality I am paying, or will have to if I want Xbox Live in the future, $59.99 just to play games on Xbox Live.

Lets not forget this too...

So my question is why are there no tiers? I know the obvious answer… If Microsoft made it tiered and made gaming only Xbox Live for roughly $20 or less then they would stop making so much money. Plus they can’t really do that because of all the flak they will get considering PSN is completely free to play online. But I am the customer and I know for a fact I will not pay $59.99. $49.99 was pushing it to me and even then I used to get cards for $29.99 when they were on sale on sites like Amazon (and they were almost always on sale). But I now for a fact that even if I end up buying cards for $39.99 I will still be supporting Microsoft and from what I can tell that just isn’t something I want to do.

Unfortunately one person say means absolutely nothing and because such there will never be enough individuals that will group together to actually protest things. Seriously when was the last time a large enough groups of people have ever protested something and gotten their way? Civil Rights movement? If that is the case, and I am sure I am completely wrong, then it has been awhile.

And finally this too...

 But any way back onto topic. What bothers me more is when people say, “people need to shut up when companies charge the actual value of an item”. Because I reality no company charges the actual value of an item. If that were the case they would be a terrible company. Obviously every company charges more because that is how you make profit. And when Microsoft makes an estimated this much profit just for their gaming division. And repeatedly say it was because of increased Xbox Live income it makes and doesn’t make me wonder why they are increasing prices. It is kind of obvious they don’t need to, but then it is also obvious they want to cash in on the increased profit.

Worth $25?

But again I can’t blame a company for making money where it can be made, just look at Blizzard. It is what they are trying to do. My problem is the fact that so many people don’t care they are being taken for a ride. But more so I am bothered by the fact that Xbox Live doesn’t have tiers….

So what are your thoughts? Do you think Microsoft is smart or dumb and annoying; and what about the price of Xbox Live? I already said it doesn’t necessarily bother me, but does it bother you?

Sunday, September 19

Jak 3 was a game developed by Naughty Dog and published by SCEA in 2004. It is a 3D platformer that follows the story of the primary protagonist Jak and Daxter, who is Jak’s friend.

Jak 2 was played on the PS2

- Story -

In this stunning conclusion the story once again revolves primarily around Jak. As with the second game Jak 3 takes place in the same world, however it is now expanded. At the immediate start of the game, through the intro cut scene, you find out that you are banished from Haven City and thrown into the Wasteland. After this you see what happened after the end of Jak 2, which is the metal heads invading Haven City.

Since most of the world in Jak 3 was already explained in Jak 2, the story this time around has more of a focus on the characters themselves especially old characters like Jak and new characters like Damas, the king of Spargus which in the new Wasteland area. Unfortunately many of these new characters replace older ones like Samos and Kiera, who do make a few appearances but even at that are rarely in the game. Another unfortunate thing is that not all the new characters are that great. Some like Damas and Viegar, a new villain, are quite fantastic but others just are uninteresting.

Visually, This is not the game.

Even with some of the lame new characters the story in Jak 3 is just as fantastic as Jak 2, if not more. Not once has the Jak series felt like the story was just put in place to make a second or third game (the first may have been tacked on). It has always felt like it was planned and Jak 3 is no exception. How the story flows is great, it never slows down, but doesn’t go so fast that you won’t understand it. And what the story covers is very interesting, but much like Jak 2 it is slightly confusing (time paradoxes are always confusing). One of the ways Jak 3 makes the story interesting is with the foreshadowing. It does it quite well and you will often think back and remember and at some times it will blow you mind when you realize you should have noticed it back then.

The story of Jak 3 is just as great as Jak 2. Not much can be found that is wrong with it, aside from a few bad characters. It is just a fantastic story that will keep you interested into the very end.

-- Story Score = 9 / 10

- Visuals -

Visually the game is not a much improvement over Jak 2. It contains many of the same features like wide screen and even adds some new options like the brightness and contrast, but other than that is looks pretty much the same, which isn’t a bad thing.

Even still the visuals are nice.

One of the visual improvements of Jak 2 is one of the things that makes Jak 3 just great. And that is what must be some form of anti-aliasing. What anti-aliasing does it remove jagged lines and make them straighter. As an example take one of Jak’s arms. Normally the edges of the sleeves covering the arm would create a straight line. But without anti-aliasing that line would most likely be jagged. This is extremely noticeable in the series first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. The anti-aliasing that is used may not be entirely perfect, but it makes Jak 3 just fantastic.

What Jak 3 does do over its predecessor is expand the amount of different locales. Instead of being stuck to a mechanical city and a few forest areas Jak 3 moves into deserts and stone ruins. Plus there is a new “alien” metallic area then just looks phenomenal. Not only do the environments of Jak 3 look good in terms of pretty textures, it also has nice effects such as a sandstorm and more. The new scenery added in Jak 3 is something that is greatly appreciated. It allows the game to never get boring, even with its environments.

Wednesday, September 15 

Neon Rider is a flash game by Louissi. It is a 2D side scrolling racing game with a technological/electronic or a sort of Tron theme that is free on various websites. If you want to play Neon Rider Click Here

Light Cycle from Tron Legacy.

The game revolves around starting in a car that almost resembles a light cycle from tron at the left and then trying to the reach the right. Unlike most games that try this the difficutly doesn't come from difficult terrain to cross, but with color. There are a total of four colors and three of the colors; red, yellow, and green only allow the same color to drive on top of them. So not only do you need to stay on your toes about changing color to drive on areas, but also sometimes changing colors to fly through them. Then there is still some terrain difficulty, but it is usually from messing up do backflips. Even though I said difficulty there really isn't any. You can go through all 20 levels with ease, but just because it is extremely that doesn't mean you shouldn't play it. Because even with its ease, Neon Rider is a fun game to play.

Flying is fun!

One of the best things about Neon Rider is the visuals. While the visuals a pretty simple they look pretty nice and fit the theme just perfectly. Each screen looks technological, especially at the beginning of every race.At the beggining the screen as a lot of pop ups such as numbers and sayings. It makes it seem like you are in a computer much like Tron. Now the visuals during game play is really simple. Essentially each race is just colored lines on top of a blue blackground. It doesn't look very advanced, but it does make it look somewhat similar to Tron (which also looks extremely inadvanced compared to today's visuals).

Colors play a large part into Neon Rider.

The sound of Neon Rider is good and bad. The good comes from the great techno music that plays during the race. Unfortunately the music stops when to return to the menu after each race, which will make you hit the replay button just to hear more of the music. The problem with the music though is that it is only one song and it can become repetitive. Along with that there is the problem with some of the FX. The FX on the menus is just fine, but what isn't fine is some of the in-game FX. In some of the levels there are some white floating capsules in the levels and when picked up by your car they let out some atrocious sound. Quality wise it sounds quite bad and the sound level is just outrageously louder than anything else so you get a blast of louse low quality sound every so often. Luckly you can turn off the FX and keep the music on, which alows the player to hear the good and remove the bad.

Even though the game is insanely easy it is still one of my most favorite flash games just because of the visuals and sound. One of the problems with the game though is even though it is a flash game it is a bit of a resource hog. My laptop can play almost every other flash game at high to medium quality and it will be perfectly smooth. With Neon Rider my laptop still runs a tad slowly when it is a low quality. Even though it does run slowly on my laptop I still play it because it is just great fun.

Play Rating

-         Must Play

Wednesday, September 15

Random Glances are a short synopsis of a game, demo, dvd, blu-ray, board game, or more that I have recently played or watched. They describe what it is, be it a game or movie, and then go into detail about what I thought of them. At the end of each Random Glance I will have a rating that will be my suggestion on whether or not to play the game or watch the movie.

Rating System for Random Glance

-         Must Play/Watch

-         Try/See it out at least once

-         Pass

Each one is my recommendation with the top (Must Play/Must Watch) being the best and the bottom (Pass) being the worst. This way I can give a quick and easily understood recommendation

The Random Glances are meant to be minor reviews and suggestions that are for interesting stuff, like Internet flash games, that can be a quick read when compared to a Post or a Review.

Sunday, September 12

With the semi recent announcement that Killzone 3’s load times will be almost non-existent, it got me thinking about load screens and load times. And in Killzone 3’s case it makes me think that saying load times are almost non-existent isn’t that big a breakthrough. It was common place a long time ago and has been done plenty of times even recently. A big example is the Jak and Daxter series. And that made me realize that Killzone 3 will most likely have load times, but what it won’t have is what we would consider a loading screen. Instead the loading sections would be replaced with cut scenes or a elevator right, much like Jak and Daxter did so well and Mass Effect (1) failed so miserably at.

Mass Effect: Numerous, long, and awful. It failed at masking loading screens

But what I started thinking about wasn’t necessarily the fact that I doubted what Guerrilla said about Killzone 3, but how developers have been coping with load times. Some just use a load screen that is plain and boring, others use a short movie or repeating clip (this is different from a cut scene), some have used cut scenes, some just add the words loading and blur the screen for a couple seconds, and then there are the games that try to mask load times with long corridors or an elevator ride.

Jak 2: I need absolutely no load screen to watch this cut scene.

Load times have almost become a staple of video games (well that and Blu-ray movies…) and what I really wanted to define was my most favorite style. Without a doubt I would love there to be no load screens or for them to be masked just like Jak and Daxter (not like Mass Effect…). But that just isn’t going to happen with every game. And I would rather a developer work on improving the game rather than spend all their time making that zero second load time. So I came up with a small list of what I think is the best, if there is an actual load screen.

It goes something like this.

-         A loading bar, NO spinning wheel or something like that. If the bar slightly changed it would be nice (to indicate the game didn’t freeze).

-         Some form on non-moving picture. Yes the animated videos of Mass Effect 2 were nice, but felt unnecessary and seemed like if they weren’t there the loading would probably have been faster.

-         For the picture… some concept art/sketch would be great, be it an environment or character art.

-         If text is included, not entirely necessary, it should either be a helpful tip (not obvious button equals reload) or funny. Also they should change throughout the game. I am pretty sure a tip isn’t needed when I am 30 minutes away from finishing… just saying.

-         Pictures shouldn’t reveal anything that hasn’t been revealed yet, coughJadeEmpirecough.

These are the things that I think would make the best loading screens, obviously the less loading screens the better, but if they are there they could at least be good. 

Jade Empire: Didn't want to see this character before their surprise appearance? Too bad the game ruins each encounter in their loading screens.

And for the whole subject of Killzone 3, I didn’t mean to come off as harsh because I think what they are saying isn’t entirely truthful. I have to thank them for getting closer to no load times, and if it is true then I have to applaud them for actually doing it.

But now onto the question. What is your perfect loading screens, not including no loading screens and load times? If you have a game as an example then go ahead and say it.