I caught some of the Sony E3 2009 press conference today, and I am super excited for the next couple of years as far as my PS3 goes.
But first I want to talk about the PSP GO that Sony announced (officially anyway) today. I don't currently own a PSP, but I wanted one some time ago, I just never got to it. First of all, I don't like the idea of a limited memory on a gaming system, it says to me that I'm limited by the system and that if I want to play more I need to pay more for games and more memory (SD card slot). Other than that, the controls and the moving screen look pretty solid, though I don't like the smaller screen size. The weight thing i don't care about, and I don't think the PSP GO will be as successful as Sony hopes.
Now for the fun parts...to me anyway, the games and PS3 things.
First, relevant to this class, was the Sony augmented reality concept they demoed. It was really cool! I loved that you could mutate the controller into anything; a pen, a sword, or a hand that could build levels! The coolest part of this demo was fighting the army, whether it's shooting with a gun, bow n arrow, or a sword, you can do it all with this new Sony augmented reality system.
My favorite game preview was definitely, Mod Nation Racers, coming out in 2010. This game is like LittleBigPlanet for racing. The characters are adorable, the graphics are awesome (a little cartoony), and the track building was even more awesome. I loved how he could create a track in like 5 minutes that looked very decent and playable. I hate how in Little Big Planet it can take hours to make a stage, I don't have that kind of time! I have always been hesitant to buy any of the Gran Turismo games as I kind of get bored of racing the same tracks. Now (in 2010 anyway) I can create my own!
Tuesday
WoW free trial expired
I have just finished my WoW free trial, and I thought I would write my impressions about WoW.
To be honest, I was petrified of playing WoW when I started the free trial because I was afraid I would become addicted like so many of my high school friends did. My roommates even made fun of me for being a WoW player now. There is a definite social stigma that comes with playing WoW that I think is the result of misunderstanding the game.
The game itself is awesome. I love the scenery. I love the quests and the way that the game gradually builds your skills over time, and that you can go as fast or as slow as you want in the game.
The social aspects of the game are also great! I love being able to talk to someone if I want to and cooperate with others if I want to. But if I want to play on my own I can go roam and explore and do single player quests, which I really think is a great aspect of the game.
I do wish I could have had a bigger, more in depth description of each race and class. It felt a little too random to me and I wish I could have made a more informed decision as I'm rather new to the MMORPG genre.
Overall, a short review of the huge world that WoW is. And while I think that WoW is an amazing game, I will not continue my account. The game is awesome, but the cost/awesomeness ratio is WAY too high over time. I don't feel like giving 15 bucks a month to this game, it's just not worth that much money when I can buy a new PS3 game every 3 months and get more play out of my money.
To be honest, I was petrified of playing WoW when I started the free trial because I was afraid I would become addicted like so many of my high school friends did. My roommates even made fun of me for being a WoW player now. There is a definite social stigma that comes with playing WoW that I think is the result of misunderstanding the game.
The game itself is awesome. I love the scenery. I love the quests and the way that the game gradually builds your skills over time, and that you can go as fast or as slow as you want in the game.
The social aspects of the game are also great! I love being able to talk to someone if I want to and cooperate with others if I want to. But if I want to play on my own I can go roam and explore and do single player quests, which I really think is a great aspect of the game.
I do wish I could have had a bigger, more in depth description of each race and class. It felt a little too random to me and I wish I could have made a more informed decision as I'm rather new to the MMORPG genre.
Overall, a short review of the huge world that WoW is. And while I think that WoW is an amazing game, I will not continue my account. The game is awesome, but the cost/awesomeness ratio is WAY too high over time. I don't feel like giving 15 bucks a month to this game, it's just not worth that much money when I can buy a new PS3 game every 3 months and get more play out of my money.
nanovar.
So I just got done playing the Nanovar handheld gaming "nanoscope" for a while this evening, and I thought that I would talk about my impressions.
First of all, the box opening is a pain in the a**. Also, the plastic box is a little soft, and I was rather disappointed that my box got torn up while trying to open the package.
The volume was incredibly loud immediately after turning on the nanoscope, and immediately had to find a way to turn it down. Once it was down, I began to battle.
The points system with the game is really dumb in my opinion, I found myself not caring eventually in battles and just chose random attackers. Then after attacking I was bummed that nothing happened the first time and immediately had to take the nanovars apart and go through another attack selection.
Then, after battling twice the thing died and we had to start over...very frustrating.
Now for the "skill building" games...
What do they actually do for my characters? I still don't know after playing for a while. These games get me nothing and they are one of the only things I can do on it, since I can't battle. Not to mention that the mini-games cannot be muted! How can you mute the main game, but not the mini-games, a horrible error and I hope this gets fixed.
Now after all of those bad things here's what I did enjoy.
The mini-games were fun to play, but I just wish that the games counted or that I could see real-time what my play was doing, some instant positive reinforcement.
The battling itself and the animations were also great and I enjoyed watching the deaths of each character. The game is very good, but the quality of the hardware needs to be improved.
Also, I like the box that the nanoscope came in, but it was a little soft and I think they should just put it in the plastic so that you don't damage it when cutting the zip-ties.
Overall, a good game, but they just need to tweak some things and it'll be great!
First of all, the box opening is a pain in the a**. Also, the plastic box is a little soft, and I was rather disappointed that my box got torn up while trying to open the package.
The volume was incredibly loud immediately after turning on the nanoscope, and immediately had to find a way to turn it down. Once it was down, I began to battle.
The points system with the game is really dumb in my opinion, I found myself not caring eventually in battles and just chose random attackers. Then after attacking I was bummed that nothing happened the first time and immediately had to take the nanovars apart and go through another attack selection.
Then, after battling twice the thing died and we had to start over...very frustrating.
Now for the "skill building" games...
What do they actually do for my characters? I still don't know after playing for a while. These games get me nothing and they are one of the only things I can do on it, since I can't battle. Not to mention that the mini-games cannot be muted! How can you mute the main game, but not the mini-games, a horrible error and I hope this gets fixed.
Now after all of those bad things here's what I did enjoy.
The mini-games were fun to play, but I just wish that the games counted or that I could see real-time what my play was doing, some instant positive reinforcement.
The battling itself and the animations were also great and I enjoyed watching the deaths of each character. The game is very good, but the quality of the hardware needs to be improved.
Also, I like the box that the nanoscope came in, but it was a little soft and I think they should just put it in the plastic so that you don't damage it when cutting the zip-ties.
Overall, a good game, but they just need to tweak some things and it'll be great!
Monday
A rape game...are you serious?
I cannot believe this game was even produced!
http://jezebel.com/5167381/us-ban-on-rape-simulation-game-not-likely
While I cannot believe this game was produced, it disturbs me more that there is a whole genre of video games in Japan around the molestation of women. Even though I’m not a woman myself, and I will never truly understand the fear of rape that women live with, I don’t think this game has any place in any society by reinforcing the allusion that rape is okay.
While we’ve never really brought it up in class, I think the morals that a video game preaches or enforces is just as important as the game play or graphics.
How can these producers sleep at night knowing that their video game is being sold to perverts that reinforces their user’s sleaziness? This blatant grab for money in a niche market is wrong on so many levels and I think should be frowned upon in the game industry. I’m not sure how someone in the industry would react to this game…but I hope it is similar to mine.
However, apparently this is a major part of Japanese culture according to the article. This is also disturbing, and I cannot imagine why it’s tolerable. It only brings up the bigger question about societies in general and…is creating a game that reinforces a part of society that is at least in my mind morally wrong okay? I’ll leave that for you to mull over.
http://jezebel.com/5167381/us-ban-on-rape-simulation-game-not-likely
While I cannot believe this game was produced, it disturbs me more that there is a whole genre of video games in Japan around the molestation of women. Even though I’m not a woman myself, and I will never truly understand the fear of rape that women live with, I don’t think this game has any place in any society by reinforcing the allusion that rape is okay.
While we’ve never really brought it up in class, I think the morals that a video game preaches or enforces is just as important as the game play or graphics.
How can these producers sleep at night knowing that their video game is being sold to perverts that reinforces their user’s sleaziness? This blatant grab for money in a niche market is wrong on so many levels and I think should be frowned upon in the game industry. I’m not sure how someone in the industry would react to this game…but I hope it is similar to mine.
However, apparently this is a major part of Japanese culture according to the article. This is also disturbing, and I cannot imagine why it’s tolerable. It only brings up the bigger question about societies in general and…is creating a game that reinforces a part of society that is at least in my mind morally wrong okay? I’ll leave that for you to mull over.
Saturday
NEW GAME!!!!
So I bought a new game this week, thanks to Amazon.com 's video games deal of the day. I was looking for a cool game, and they had Prince of Persia collectors edition as the deal so I jumped (mainly for the soundtrack and the reduced price). The game is pretty awesome, the graphics look amazing and I can't help but to stop sometimes and just look around (or down 100 feet to the water below!). I love the open world and that I can go anywhere, which I think every game should have or offer!
The fighting controls are pretty weak, though. You have 4 basic moves and can only combo 4 times. There's not long combos and the enemies are also pretty easy. You cannot die either, which is weird but I guess works. Your magic follower follows you around and saves you if you fall and if you get into trouble fighting an enemy. I also hate cut scenes during while combating enemies.
For the time being, I should be working on my research paper for this class...but instead I'm addicted to this game! (I'll finish the paper, no worries) Anyway, this game is addictive mainly because of the story. Even though it's rather vague, the "prince" and the princess he is helping really have a good chemistry unlike any other video game I've played, and I want to find out what happens at the end!
So bye for now...hopefully I can finish the game and the paper!
The fighting controls are pretty weak, though. You have 4 basic moves and can only combo 4 times. There's not long combos and the enemies are also pretty easy. You cannot die either, which is weird but I guess works. Your magic follower follows you around and saves you if you fall and if you get into trouble fighting an enemy. I also hate cut scenes during while combating enemies.
For the time being, I should be working on my research paper for this class...but instead I'm addicted to this game! (I'll finish the paper, no worries) Anyway, this game is addictive mainly because of the story. Even though it's rather vague, the "prince" and the princess he is helping really have a good chemistry unlike any other video game I've played, and I want to find out what happens at the end!
So bye for now...hopefully I can finish the game and the paper!
Second Life dating, and avatars.
This post comes after reading this article....
http://www.newsweek.com/id/193383
This article I found very interesting in that the two people that met had avatars that at first glance would seem completely different from their own personalities. The guy was shy, but had an avatar that was very tall and had a mohawk. I guess that one's true personality comes through their avatar even when they look completely different...which is interesting when you think about it. In second life it is easier to disguise your personality because you're not talking with another, you're typing. I would love to study couples that meet with WoW... because I have a feeling that these couples would be similar. I find that when I'm playing a game, my mind is on the task at hand, and I think it would be hard to fake a personality interacting with others.
I am curious to see if this relationship between second lifers living across an ocean will indeed prevail. Are they going to live across the sea forever? Will these two eventually reunite, and then fall out of love? As these two continue on, actually meeting in person will make it that much harder as they cannot touch, hold, and hug each other. And when they do come together permanently, will they be able to live together? This is a HUGE thing in a relationship, and all they can do is live in a virtual apartment together...
There are so many scenarios stacked against this couple as their relationship progresses. I just hope for them they are truly committed to each other or this will have an unhappy ending.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/193383
This article I found very interesting in that the two people that met had avatars that at first glance would seem completely different from their own personalities. The guy was shy, but had an avatar that was very tall and had a mohawk. I guess that one's true personality comes through their avatar even when they look completely different...which is interesting when you think about it. In second life it is easier to disguise your personality because you're not talking with another, you're typing. I would love to study couples that meet with WoW... because I have a feeling that these couples would be similar. I find that when I'm playing a game, my mind is on the task at hand, and I think it would be hard to fake a personality interacting with others.
I am curious to see if this relationship between second lifers living across an ocean will indeed prevail. Are they going to live across the sea forever? Will these two eventually reunite, and then fall out of love? As these two continue on, actually meeting in person will make it that much harder as they cannot touch, hold, and hug each other. And when they do come together permanently, will they be able to live together? This is a HUGE thing in a relationship, and all they can do is live in a virtual apartment together...
There are so many scenarios stacked against this couple as their relationship progresses. I just hope for them they are truly committed to each other or this will have an unhappy ending.
Creating an avatar.
With all of the virtual worlds I’ve been joining this quarter, from OurWorld to Second Life, and EVE Online… I’ve had to create more characters in the past few weeks than I’ve made since I started playing video games. This really has gotten me thinking about what goes into creating that perfect avatar for a particular world. First, I will admit that it depends on how much I already have invested in the game as to how much I develop my avatar. I didn’t really enjoy EVE online and didn’t feel like paying for a subscription, so I didn’t put much effort or time into the character. After spending some time in second life, and eventually going back a few more times, I’ve slowly developed my character as a more life-like virtual representation of myself.
I created a virtual me in second life as I thought that encompassed the true meaning of the world, to create a virtual representation of myself where I could truly live a second life. Also, in most games I like to create myself as when I play I like to imagine myself in that world, rather than role play as another person or character.
However, I have expanded with OurWorld and created a female character that looks nothing like me. This is a new direction for me in video games, and I’m really enjoying the experience. Although I haven’t yet graduated to a more life-like avatar that is not-at-all reminiscent of myself, I am beginning to enjoy controlling another character. I can role-play and mess around with the obnoxious teenage boys in OurWorld who seem to try and hit on everything online, or I can simply figure out how well I can dress my avatar on a fake budget.
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