Category: Ramblings

All Hail Darth Disney

With the recent news of Lucasfilm Ltd. being purchased by the Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion, it only makes sense that there would be a huge amount of both positive and negative reactions coming from fans of all ages. Some fans are viewing this as as a blessing, while others see this as Disney’s next step towards owning the childhoods of fanboys everywhere. The part of this deal that really has people talking though, was the announcement that there will be new “Star Wars” films, beginning in 2015 with “Episode VII”. The creator of the “Star Wars” franchise, George Lucas, has announced that he will not write or direct any of the future movies, but will instead serve as a creative consultant. Under Disney’s supervision, these new films have the potential to either be as cool as seeing Liam Neeson as a jedi, or to deliver the agony of what it would be like to sit next to Jar-Jar Binks on a fifteen hour flight. Lets have some (new) hope here though, and focus on the potential positives of these announced “Star Wars” films.

Photo Credit: Beartoons.com

Just look at Marvel

When Disney took over Marvel a few years ago, the results could not have been better. For starters it saved Marvel from going bankrupt, but it also attributed to the creation of some of the most enjoyable movies of the past decade, leading up to  “The Avengers”. With the seemingly endless financial assistance that Disney provided Marvel has been able to pump out great movie after great movie from their Marvel Movie Studios. Disney knows how to let people who know their source material do the work. If it worked for Marvel, then there is no reason why is should not work for Lucasfilm.

George Lucas is not really involved

As pointed out above, George Lucas will not be writing or directing the upcoming “Star Wars” films. He will have a somewhat minor role as something along the lines of a “creative consultant”. This means that in order to make these movies, Lucasfilm is going to have to find a new director and screenwriter(s). The best thing they can possibly do here is hire somebody who has grown up with the source material, and who will treat the new films pretty much like they were their own children. Its tough to make any guesses at who this could possibly be, but surely there will be no lack of people trying to take the job.

Tons of source material

After the original trilogy ended in 1983, the story of “Star Wars” just kept growing. Through the “Expanded Universe“, there have been hundreds of stories told about what happened in a galaxy far, far away after the second Death Star was destroyed. From the struggles of jedi Kyle Katarn, to the adventures of the children of the original heroes, there is plenty of source material for the makers of the new films to work with. The most difficult part here of course is deciding on which path to take.
These are just a few reasons how and why the upcoming “Star Wars” films should not be terrible. I’d love to hear any feedback that anyone who reads this might have in the comment section.

May the Force be with us all.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2… maybe.

With the news that Activision will be announcing the next Call of Duty next week on May 1st, during the 2012 NBA Playoffs (go Sixers!), its time to talk about what I would like to see from a game, that if evidence is correct, will most likely be a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops. A game that I only had two minor issues with and because of that, I will be focusing only on the multiplayer aspect of the game, and more specifically the only two issues I had with it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops brought some changes to the traditional multiplayer style of Call of Duty, with the introduction of CoD points. This brings me to the first thing I would like to see in Black Ops 2’s multiplayer; the removal of CoD points! These points took away some of the satisfaction that came with leveling up a specific gun until you unlocked the desired attachment. CoD points made it too easy to acquire the attachments like the red dot sight or a fore-arm grip;  things that can make any decent player a serious threat. For Black Ops 2, I would like to see a return to the traditional earning of XP for weapons, as it has always been in the Modern Warfare series.

The other thing that I would like to see brought back to the series’ multiplayer would be a return to how killstreaks used to function. While it was more challenging to get 11 kills on your own, without the assistance of your death dealing killstreaks rewards, the amount of killstreaks available to players was limited because of this. The original Black Ops only offered 15 total killstreak rewards to choose from, compared to the total of 28 killstreak (including the bonus MOAB for 25 kills) split up amongst the different strike packages. If Black Ops 2 were to make the return to the traditional killstreak style, where your attack helicopter kills and so forth are included in your total killstreak, this would allow for more variety in the amount of killstreak rewards available to players.

As long as they fix these two things, and don’t stray to far from Call of Duty’s true form, Black Ops 2 should not only be able to match the enjoyment brought by its predecessors, but also their sales.

Return of the Nerd…

Hello anyone who might read this,

I have decided to stop being lazy and once again return to the world of blogging. I hope to enlighten anyone who stumbles upon this page, with what knowledge (if any) I might have about the topics I chose to write about.

Cheers

Glorious Mission?

The Chinese are setting their sights on American soldiers. Well, at least they are in a new virtual training program.

With the recent news that the Chinese Army has been using a video game training program that puts American soldiers on the wrong side of the cross-hairs (something that is very unheard of in video games), a large portion of the media is outraged at the fact that Americans are being targeted by the Chinese, even if it is only in virtual reality. The problem here is whether or not we as Americans should be upset about this or not. Many people in the media are seeming to have forgotten about almost every first-person shooter video game made in America, which target almost every nationality in the world as America’s fictional enemies.”Glorious Mission” is the recently released game that is causing such a stir of mixed opinions. Co-developed by the Nanjing branch of the People’s Liberation Army (China’s combined armed forces), it is being used a combat training simulator for soldiers preparing for active duty. Using video game simulations to train for armed combat is not a new trend however, as the United States has been doing this since 2002 with their “game” “America’s Army.” The difference here is that “America’s Army” has been used more as a recruitment method and features generic enemy soldiers of no specific nationality.

The larger issue here is whether we should really be upset that virtual depictions of American soldiers are being targeted by the Chinese army. Even though “Glorious Mission” is being used as a training simulator, it is still a video game, and American games have been targeting other countries as their virtual enemies for years. Take “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” for example, where you spend almost the entire game battling Russians as they invade the United States. I’m sure there are some Russians who are a bit sour about about their virtual counterparts being slaughtered by millions of gamers around the world, but I’m also sure they come to the quick realization that it is still simply a video game.

Lets face it, video games in today’s world are beginning to rival the artistic expression of many other mediums, and as time goes on more and more games are going to be considered controversial. I’m not saying that I am completely okay with “Glorious Mission” choosing American soldiers as their virtual enemies, but as long as the being enemies part stays in the virtual world, I really can’t complain. Besides, if people really started caring about who was being killed in video games, we’d be looking at an endless amount of World War II games because if there is one thing that history has shown us, it seems to be okay to kill Nazis.

Well… that was fun.

About Time

I finally got around to trading in my Xbox 360 the other week, and all I can say is that I wish I had done it sooner. This is because during those last  weeks of it just sitting in a box under my bed, not even once did I think about buying a new game for it. This was largely due to my possession of a Playstation 3, but part of it was due to what my Xbox had become in its older days.

By the time I had stopped seriously playing my Xbox, my collection of games was only a shadow of its former self. I had long since traded in any game that would fetch me a fair price at GameStop, while using the profits to fill my shelves with PS3 games. Eventually my collection of 360 games could have been used to make the argument that the Xbox was the new console, with my the only games left in my possession being The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth II and Rock Band 2; two games that I refused to get rid of for some slightly different reasons. Battle for Middle-earth II simply because I am unable to play the PC version (Mac FTW), and Rock Band 2 due to the huge amounts of money I invested into expanding my song collection. Rock Band 2  was key though, as I’m almost positive that it was the reason that caused the inevitable extinction of my relationship with my Xbox 360.

The demise of my Xbox 360 was directly linked to the huge drop in popularity of the music game genre, or at least that is what I’ve decided on. At first I thought that I was the only one losing interest in banging on plastic drums, but eventually it hit me that the trend was more widespread than I had thought.  The news of the Guitar Hero franchise being canceled came as great news to me, even though I had known the whole music game genre was just a phase. Yet it was a phase that lasted quite a long time and involved my friends and I spending countless hours wielding those plastic instruments like they were attached to our bodies. Like all good things though, the fun of playing these games came crashing down faster than they had began.

To put it simply, I think I just got tired of playing the same old songs over and over again. Sure, the large amounts of songs available to download were a nice added bonus, but eventually all the songs, especially  while playing the drums, began looking the same. Unfortunately, I began to associate this sense of dull, boring game play to my Xbox 360, which sadly, made me never want to touch the poor thing. I guess you can say that this is a pretty dumb reason to give up on a system, but its the truth.


Memories

Remember These Babies?

Earlier today I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about whether or not he should buy Mass Effect 2 on a disc or simply just download the digital copy (once the Playstation Network is back online of course), and almost immediately we had to stop and wonder whether or not a decision such as this was even worth thinking about nowadays.

Both my friend and I have the 160 GB Playstation 3 Slim, so neither of us have ever had to worry about running out of storage space. Maybe the two of us just have never owned enough games at one time, but the most recent time that we could think of when we actually had to worry about minuscule amounts of memory was way back in the days of the Playstation 2. You know, the days when 8 MB memory cards determined whether or not we would be playing our favorite games. The days when you were so excited to go play a game at your friends house only to remember that he didn’t have a memory card, and your mom was fifteen minutes too far away to take you back home to get the one your forgot. Yeah, those were the days.

The point is though, we never actually determined if we completely approve of the almost complete extinction of memory cards. Because lets be honest, using a flash drive just is not the same as lugging around a memory unit made specifically for your games. Maybe we were just being nostalgic, or even better, perhaps we were just showing our age, but either way the fact remains that the technologies of video game consoles are moving further and further away from their classic roots.

Playstation Network Blues

With today marking the 11th day of the Playstation Network being offline, it finally just hit me just how much I rely on the online capabilities of my Playstation in order to have fun. Strangely enough, it wasn’t even the fact that I haven’t been able to test my Mortal Kombat skills out on some worthy online challengers; it happened when I actually wanted to download something from the Playstation Store, something I rarely ever do.

My roommate and I have been on a huge Marvel fix lately (it probably has something to do with getting excited for all the movies coming out this summer), so naturally, we have been playing the Ultimate Alliance series pretty nonstop. For a while, every spare chance we got between classes and studying, we would play until we went to sleep; my roommate as Wolverine, and me as Colossus. It took us about 10 hours to beat the first game, and after about a week I finally made it down to Gamestop to purchase the sequel, which neither of us had played before.

When we arrived at the point early in the second game where you could assemble your own team, I was just about heart broken that they hadn’t included Colossus in the sequel. I almost didn’t even want to progress forward in the game, seeing as I would have to settle for a lesser character of my liking. Luckily for me though, I had remembered browsing over a character pack for Ultimate Alliance 2 quite some time ago, and although I could not remember what heroes were included in this download, I quickly headed to the Playstation Store to make the quick download. Well, I tried to anyways.

Like thousands of other gamers, upon trying to access the Playstation Store, I was greeted with the friendly message informing me that the network is currently unavailable. Of course I became frustrated, but not with Sony. I immediately got pretty irritated just thinking about those people who forced Sony to shut down the network. I guess they didn’t think how many people would be affected by their actions towards Sony. Hopefully Sony is able to get this whole thing straightened out by May 4th, the date they said the Playstation Network would be back online.

Next Next-Gen?

With the recent rumors surrounding the possible announcement of Nintendo’s next console, I figured I’d add something to the mix.

Although many sources are speculating the system will be announced during this year’s E3, Nintendo has not yet confirmed to any of the rumors. It is unsure whether the system will be the heavily rumored Wii 2 with Hi-Definition capabilities, or a new HD system all together. Regardless, it seems like Nintendo has their sights set on regaining the attention of the hardcore gamer market, especially through the use of third-party titles, which have become all too rare on the Wii.

I would love to see Nintendo drop the whole dependence on motion control and go back to the standard controller, while still keeping the motion control as a fun option like the other consoles of today do. Doing this would allow for them to once again be appealing to harcdore gamers. Its a well known fact that Nintendo lost a huge portion of their followers when they decided to go with the Wii over a more conventional system, and I would be surprised if they weren’t still hurting over it. I know when I first saw the Wii my impression was something along the lines of, “oh thats cute, now wheres the grown-up’s version?”

Don’t get me wrong, I grew up on Nintendo. My early years of gaming revolved around Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but as the years went on, other systems just became cooler. Its been a long time since the mentioning of the name Nintendo has gotten me even the slightest bit excited, but this new console is definitely a step in the right direction. Wherever they decide to take this new console, lets just hope a HD remake of Ocarina of Time is in the works, its well overdue.

Positive Hacking

About a week ago while I was spending a good chunk of my day Stumbling, I came across a page that I found to be truly amazing. Amidst all of the hilarious web comics and pictures of hot babes, came a video of a few people who are really doing something special.

The video of  a group of students from Kontanz University in Germany has earned a lot of attention recently, as it shows how they successfully hacked the Xbox Kinect to function as a guide for the blind. Using a set  of vibration devices and an audio ear piece to direct the user, as well as a hefty laptop backpack used to convert the displayed data, the Kinect setup is definitely a groundbreaking step in the right direction when it comes to assisting the visually impaired.

I really hope Microsoft is supporting positive hacking of their merchandise like this, as the potential for doing good seems limitless. This story is a nice alternative from all the negativity surrounding the whole Geohot ordeal. As long as the hacking is done with the intent to allow a technology to do things that are not technically illegal, I don’t think there should be any problems.

Anyways, heres the video if you haven’t seen it. Its really just amazing.

As My Console Gently Weeps

While sitting down to watch the Phillies game tonight (Lee looked awesome), I couldn’t help but notice the layer of dust forming on my Xbox 360. It then hit me that I haven’t even turned the poor thing on in well over two months, which then got me to thinking, “why the hell do I still have this thing?”

I received my first 360 as a Christmas gift a little over four years ago, and back then I don’t think I could have been happier. With its great games such as Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblvion (back then it wasn’t on PS3), the 360 received 100% of my gaming input. That was until I experienced my FIRST “Red Ring of Death.”

Classic

No big deal right? Microsoft fixed it for free and after a couple of weeks, my 360 (or some random person’s) was back in action. Life went on as normal, all the way up until the release of the first Modern Warfare; about 6 months after my refurbished console was sent back to me. There I was was, waiting in a lobby with a couple of friends, when all of a sudden my screen looks like it took a couple rides on a tilt-a-whirl.

Red Ring of Death 2. Me 0.

In the following years leading up until now, I would go through another two 360s. As time went on I lost more and more faith in the 360, and eventually brought myself to buying a PS3; probably the greatest investment I’ve made throughout my gaming life. I began buying all my games for the Playstation, and after a while, my collection rivaled that of my 360 games. Whether it was due to my newfound love of seeing those crisp PS3 visuals, or to avoid the inevitability of a fifth broken Xbox, my subconscious was leading me further and further away from my old ways.

Nowadays, I don’t even think about which console I’m going to buy a game for. For me, there is no contest between the smooth-running Ps3 and the time-bomb that is the 360. I should really force myself to just trade my 360 into Gamestop for the $50 dollars its worth (just a guess), but a part of me can’t seem to part with it. No harm in holding onto the old thing I guess, and besides  Gears of War 3 does look pretty damn good.