here i write.....stuff.....and you can comment

• 21Jan 09

  The ZimpanX 2008 Game Awards, Part 1/2

  Well hello there. I was originally going to sum the past year like I did last time with one of lists of 10. But I noticed like every year, most of the big gaming sites are handing out there awards so I thought I might as well experiment a little and try it myself.
  I will be using the same type of awards as the Gamespot crew if that's ok? Though I will using far from all of them, as I simply have not played enough games to fill each category. So if you guys would wanna help me out with the awards I missed that would be great, or you simply just want to disagree you're free to that as well.
  
  Well then off we go!
  
  
  Best Story
  
  Lost Odyssey
  Grand Theft Auto IV
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  Dead Space
  Valkyria Chronicles
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  
  I think this was actually a no brainer for me, sure the scipt is not flawless and the story perhaps takes center stage a bit too much. But Hideo Kojima somehow managed to tie all up all the loose ends from the past games and did it in such a way that you could not often help yourself but to sit there with controller in hand, eager to find out what's going to happen next.
  

  
  
  Best Graphics, Technical
  
  GRID
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  Crysis Warhead
  Dead Space
  Gears of War 2
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Crysis Warhead
  
  All of the nominations may be highly impressive game to look at, but when it comes to technical graphics there is nothing that even threatens Warhead when being played on the higher settings except the original Crysis. The arts tyle improved too, but that is unimportant, this is technical graphics and here Crysis Warhead is king.
  

  
  
  Best Graphics, Artistic
  
  Fable II
  Little Big Planet
  Valkyria Chronicles
  Mirror's Edge
  Prince of Persia
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Mirror's Edge
  
  While all of of the nominations are beautiful games, I have often seen the graphical s tyle many of them use before in some way or form. Mirror's Edge on the other hand that uses white and colors that are so vibrant they are just on the edge of being too much makes the game look like something different, something rarely seen. And on top of it all it looks great while doing it.
  
  

  
  
  Best Atmosphere
  
  Grand Theft Auto IV
  Dead Space
  Fable II
  Fallout 3
  Left 4 Dead
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Fallout 3
  
  It was a tough call for me between Dead Space and Fallout 3 on this one. But in the end I chose to go with Fallout 3 since it actually succeeds at making you feel you're walking around a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C.
  If that's not a sign of a truly great atmosphere I don't know what is.
  
  

  
  
  Best Original Music
  
  Lost Odyssey
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  Fable II
  Mirror's Edge
  Prince of Persia
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Lost Odyssey
  
  Metal Gears Solid 4 has an awesome soundtrack don't get me wrong, but some of the tracks are some I've been listening to for years while Lost Odyssey had a soundtrack that was just as rockin' and it was all new, even though it remided me of Final Fintasy (Gee I wonder why). Those who claim Nobuo Uematsu has lost his touch have no idea what they're talking about and have likely not played Lost Odyssey. Because this is the best sountrack he has composed in years.
  
  

  
  
  Best Sound Design
  
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  Battlefield: Bad Company
  Dead Space
  Fallout 3
  Left 4 Dead
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  
  Dead Space manged to put up a really good fight here. But Guns of the Patriots wins this category for me because everything in this game sounds like it should, the music, the voices, the effects, everything. The sound in this game is uncompressed from what I understand and it definitely shows. I would not be suprised if more than half of the Blu-Ray disc is dedicated to the sound because it simply sounds that good.
  Want to know what your surround system is capable of? Then simply boot up MGS4 because it's not only the technically best sounding game of 2008, or this generation but perhaps ever.
  
  

  
  
  Best Voice Acting
  
  No More Heroes
  Grand Theft Auto IV
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  Dead Space
  Fable II
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  
  With so many actors playing thier role and doing so well as in Metal Gear Solid 4, there is no doubt for me that this game has the best voice acting. Sure there are some wierd moments, but what game doesn't have those? And David Hayter may sometimes sound like he needs to visit the bathroom when doing the voice of Solid Snake but this is just nickpicking that gets completely thrown out the window when each and everyone f the actors help to make you feel that their emotions are actually believable along with the action that is happening on screen, just like in the best of movies.
  
  

  
  
  Best Cooperative Multiplayer
  
  NHL 09
  Little Big Planet
  Resistance 2
  Gears of War 2
  Left 4 Dead
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Left 4 Dead
  
  Both Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 has some really good co-op modes but none of them manages to nail cooperation as well as Left 4 Dead does. Cooperations is simply key in this game especially when taking on a zombie Tank on the higher difficulties or you'll likely be dead within seconds before you know what hit ya. Once you start giving out commands and aid eachother even in panic making you all scream like little girls you will eventually succeed and feel the satisfaction and joy you'll want to do it over and over again and thanks to the AI director you will never know what's going to happen either.
  
  

  
  
  Best Competitive Multiplayer
  
  Burnout Paradise
  Sins of a Solar Empire
  Grand Theft Auto IV
  Resistance 2
  Gears of War 2
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Resistance 2
  
  60 player online matches...do I really need to say more? Something that has been previously unheard of on a console. Sure it may be really hectic at times but boy is it fun.
  
  

  
  
  Most Improved Sequel
  
  Saints Row 2
  Fable II
  Fallout 3
  Resistance 2
  Gears of War 2
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Resistance 2
  
  To be honest I didn't really like Resistance: Fall of Man all that much, sure it was by no means a bad game but I felt the pacing was off, the enemy AI leaved a lot to be desired among other things. Resistance 2 fixes many of these issues and thank to this I actually would like to call it a great game and now I think I want to see more from this franchise which is something I didn't feel just a few months ago.
  
  

  
  
  Best Original IP
  
  No More Heroes
  Lost Odyssey
  Dead Space
  Valkyria Chronicles
  Left 4 Dead
  
  And the winner is...
  

  ***SPOILER***

  
  Dead Space
  
  I did not see this comming, I basically thought it was going to be a generic Resident Evil 4 ripp-off set in space, boy was I wrong!
  Dead Space is simply amazing, and what surprises me even more is that it's developed by EA, a company that usually just puts out these sports and racing games every year and what not that are generally the same with slightly updated graphics, rosters and some new gimmick.
  So it's really refreshing seeing a product like this from them and that it's so full of great qualities. Sure it may borrow elements from the already mentioned Resident Evil 4, Doom 3 and others, but it does it really well and puts it togheter in an excellent package that should not be missed.
  

  
  
  I will post part 2 by the end of the week were I discuss a few disappointments of mine and also hand out the bigger awards.
  And I aplogize before hand of possible grammar issues, I'm posting this right before I'm going to sleep lol.
  //ZimpanX
  
  • Posted Jan 21, 2009 3:16 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 59 Comments
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• 20Nov 08

  NXE Impressions

  So I've been playing around with the so called New Xbox Experience for a while as I bet many of you have too, for me it's ends up feeling kind of like a mixed bag.
  
  The look
  
  The dashboard now sports a simpler and more cleaner look which is always welcome of course, the only downside to this is that it's looks a lot like say Windows Media Center and the Apple TV interface and doesn't really do much to set it self apart.
  At least with the blades the dashboard had a a slight touch of identity and that the blades had different colors was also a nice touch so you could instantly tell where you were on the dasboard.
  Also there is this grey area on the lower part of the screen that cuts of your old aka "non premium" themes, and option to remove it would certainly be welcome.
  Overall though the actual look of the new dashboard is still an improvement over the last one and probably easier for a lot of people to understand.
  
  
  Functionality
  
  With the new dashboard also comes with a few new functions, like the new and improved guide menu, live party and the ability to install your games on to the harddrive.
  
  I'm really fond of the new guide button as it's pretty much a mini version of the old dashboard. Now you can instantly jump to the marketplace, redeem codes, change your systems settings etc. Even in game, though some action will unfortunately force you to quit your gaming session. You can now also finally delete all your arcade trials from your gamercard trough the Achievements section which I know many have been waiting on doing for quite some time. You can't change your theme via the guide button anymore though, hmm.
  
  Live Party is another great addition as it let's your group together with up 7 other people and chat and interact with them and none of you don't even have to be playing the same game. Awesome! 
  
  And then there is the option to install games on to your harddrive. You still need the disc to play your game though so many of you may wonder "But hey! then what's the point?". Well you still need the disc of course to prove your ownership otherwise you could just be renting games and install them like a madman.
  Anyways the benefit of installing is to cut down load times and make the console itself less noisy when playing.
  I recommend you to do some research first though to see what games are actually worth the install.
  I installed Ninja Gaiden II and it made wonders for that game. Before it took around 2 minutes to boot the game and load your saved game before you could play, now the same thing doesn't take much longer than 30 seconds, also mid level loads seems to have been completely eliminated.
  Keep in mind though each install takes up around 6 Gigabytes of space off your harddrive, so 20gb owners... don't expect to have more than one game installed at a time.
  
  So overall the new functions is probably the best part about the NXE. Hurray!
  
  
  Avatars
  
  I don't really know what to say about the avatars, it feels very much like a Mii ripp-off unfortunately just with less facial options but more clothing options, there are even "Wii-like" sound effects in the Avatar Editor. :/
  Also there isn't really a proper use for them, I've heard there will be a bunch of so called "Community games" later on that will put them to good use, but why not simply wait with these avatars until these games are actually available?
  Also the avatars clutters up your friends list to I tend to use the guide button to more quickly see who is online.
  

  Bugs
  
  As many times before, with new software updates come new bugs and NXE is unfortunately no exepction. Here's a few bugs I've managed to run into so far
  
  Friendslist is shorter
  For some reason the new update deleted some of my friends so it's not me just randomly starting hating everybody, so if you are one of those that used to be friends with me on Live but you suddenly can't find me on your friendslist anymore, just send me a request and I will accept ASAP. Gamertag is Mezziaz.
  
  New game library won't list my full games
  Yup, everyone time I go in to my game library I can't find any of my full Xbox 360 games, except the game I have in the tray...I hope they fix this soon.
  
  New friendslist often freezing
  This has happened close to 5 times already, I guess another reason to use the other friends list via the guide button instead.
  
  Overall
  Even with bugs and what not the NXE is still an improvement over the previous dashboard and some features have been worth the wait. It's just that all the changes made are necessarily not for the better as I had hoped. But it's still a thumbs up nontheless.
  
  

  • Posted Nov 20, 2008 7:41 am PT
  • Category: Opinion
  • 4 Comments
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• 13Aug 08

  Going away next week, but where?

  ***SPOILER***

  
  That's right...Disneyland
  

  
  
  I've been there before though but that was 8 years ago and this time it will only be me and 3 friends. It's gonna be a blast!
  • Posted Aug 13, 2008 6:37 pm PT
  • Category: Travel
  • 12 Comments
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