Well this is my blog. I try to update it as much as I can so all I can say is enjoy and please post comments if possible.

• 21Jul 08

  The Belated Farewell

  I think most people know that I left the site abruptly in November, and can probably guess why, if my constant crusading against CNET during gerstmann-gate wasn't enough of an indication. So now I've come back 8 months later to make an official farewell post and to give people a heads up of where they would see me.

  Now why would I come back after 8 months to make a blog post on GS? Well it's mainly because of the launch of Giantbomb, and seeing it's where a lot of ex-GS members are now flocking to,(and of course where Jeff and a lot of the old GS crew are now staffed) I found it beneficial to update my blog about it. Consider Giantbomb to be my permanent replacement for GS in regards to a full fledged profile page in which I update my blog constantly. My username is the same as over here as well, so it won't be hard to find me there either. As a site that just officially launched today, the traffic is incredible, and the general design is top notch. Of course it isn't 100% perfect, but that is to be expected for a 1st day launch.

  Now you might see me on the giantbomb forums ocassionally, but it's definately not my main forum that I will constantly be checking. That would go to the infamous NeoGaf. The forum that pretty much haed me down since the gerstmann-gate incident and will most likely be my go-to place in terms of forums for a while to come. Like Giantbomb, my username is the same as the one here, so if any of you are planning to join GAF in the near future, you will at least know one member of the forum.

  Well, that's it for me. Hope to see some of you at Giantbomb! Drop me a comment if you still remember me.

  Oh and to finally finish off my console buying blog, from months past, I got a 360, with plans to get a PS3 somewhere in the fall. If you want to add me on Xbox Live my username is onem1c.

  • Posted Jul 21, 2008 6:21 pm PT
  • Category: Other
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• 15Nov 07

  The Gaming Shopping Spree Continues! This week.....

  I think this has to be the largest amount of games I've bought this month and it's only going to continue rising. Today I just bought COD4 and Crysis from my local EB games store. Along with orange box and gears this marks the 4th game purchase I've made this month alone. Hopefully I'll be satisfied by both titles, especially after the good things I've heard about them.

  Now there are only 3 more games standing in my way, Forged Alliance, Unreal Tournament 3, and World in Conflict. This has to be one of the best years of gaming, but one of the worst years for our wallets.

  • Posted Nov 15, 2007 3:39 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 8Nov 07

  Orange box is MINE!!! And gears of war too

  SO with my first paycheck out the door I decided to finally pick up orange box. It's installing on my 40gb PC right now, and it's going to take a lot of deletion to put in gears as well. Even though some people might have seen me ramble about how crappy GFW live is and how the whole "pay for gold to play ranked" bs really pissed me off, especially when services like steam offer pretty ,much the exact same features at no price, I still went for it over call of duty 4. Maybe I'm crazy, but I just couldn't drop a game that I've been highly anticipating for months on end.(I just began getting hyped for COD4 a month ago)

  And with that I'm pumped and primed for the GS TF2 tourney. (Yes I registered for the tourny yesterday even when I didn't own TF2. So what?)

  • Posted Nov 8, 2007 9:23 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 20Oct 07

  Time to finish the fight....And get a 360

  Yes, you heard me correctly. I'm going to get a 360. As I finally have a job and can get enough money to support my broke self, I've decided to finally begin saving to enter the next generation of consoles. My use of the PS2 has been pretty dismal at best, with the only game worth playing on it so far being FFXII(Although I stopped playing the game as I've been having some serious trouble beating some statue boss) I'm hoping to buy a halo edition 360 before Nov. 20 so I can be one of the first to pick up Mass effect, a game that I have been watching for some time now and is by far my most anticipated game this fall.(falling a little ahead of the orange box)I even read the prequel, which marks my first time finishing a book in the past 6 or 7 years. Yes, it's that damn good! I'm also hoping to indulge on the halo 3 craze and pick up gears of war on the side. If all goes well I'll also be able to upgrade my aging computer too.

  Now I just have to hope that nothing goes wrong mand my job is actually satisfying.(I head working as a cashier can be a real pain in the ass)

  • Posted Oct 20, 2007 12:01 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 21Aug 07

  Bioshock is Biolicious

  After months of waiting I finally picked up my limited edition copy of
  bioshock. I was actually extremely lucky I got the LE edition too,
  because I pre-ordered the LE yesterday and from what the EB game
  manager said, the LE version sold out a few hours after I pre-ordered.
  I haven't played it yet as I'm waiting until night to finally install
  and indulge in some rapture goodness, but I have opened it up and as
  such have taken pictures of the LE edition(Especially that big daddy
  figurine!) for you guys to look at.
  
  *On a side note I decided to pick up a copy of COH alongside LE
  bioshock. With supcom, COH, and bioshock now in my hands I'm sure not
  to get any sleep for some time to come.

  

  

  

  • Posted Aug 21, 2007 8:17 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 17Jun 07

  I have a disorder......It's called supcomitis

  I can't stop playing Supreme Commander!(supcom for short) Ever since I got it last week, I've been playing on GPGNet all day. This is seriously the best RTS game I've played since starcraft and that's saying a lot. Although its SP really needs to be improved on(In comparison to the likes of company of heroes) Supreme Commanders MP is by far the best I've seen in an RTS game to date. Not only is the GPGNet system great,(All supcom games are handled through here) with its extensive ranking system, user DL content, clan system, replay vault, and innovative world map, but the fun factor within each game is just a sight to behold. I've actually not been able to play the world in conflict beta as much as before because of this game. I said that WiC would blow every RTS game out of the water but I ake that back. Although WiC is an amazing game and a definite GOTY contender supcom just destroys it in the MP department, same goes with CNC3 and COH. They just can't compare.

  Some of the things that I've heard about supcom(and actually believed myself, which made me a bit hesitant to buy it at first ) is that it's a very slow paced game, where all you do is overwhelm you enemies with units. This is by far the biggest misconception of supcom I've ever heard. The game is anything but slow paced. At the games outset you have to be thinking fast and if you're not fast enough within less than 3 minutes you could find your economy destroyed or even worse, your commander. If you even try to move at a slow pace you will lose(I had to learn that the hard way) and thinking strategically is really the name of the game here, literally. You need to know where to effectively place forward bases, fire bases, (a base made up of AA, point defenses and artillery, etc. usually placed around choke points and other critical areas) and placement of units. Simply moving your units into a base without proper scouting, wither by land or air will have your forces decimated if you're not careful. Although the game seems simple at its outset, especially if you play the early SP missions on easy AI, the game is a lot more sophisticated at its core.

  BTW, since I know I won't be able to play world in conflict that often since I have supcom, I'm offering anyone that PM's me first a beta key.

  Ah, I've talked too much already, I...have....to....play...more....supcom!

  • Posted Jun 17, 2007 12:08 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 12Jun 07

  I'm hella old-school?

  I'm really surprised that I got this emblem. Maybe it's because of my recent obsession with getting all the old classics that I missed in my lifetime. I'm talking about fallout, baldur's gate I +II, x-com, and jagged alliance 2. Considering that I'm 17 most of these games came out when I was 3(x-com) or 7(fallout). The only things left on my classics list is planescape torment and ultima VII for my psp.

  At the same time though my good taste emblem dissapeared. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

  • Posted Jun 12, 2007 2:12 pm PT
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• 6Jun 07

  Bethesda should pay more attention to its fans(part 3 of a 3 part series)

  -First 2 paragraphs below taken from my original post

  Ever since I found out bethesda was taking the reigns on the production of the series, I've always been quite skeptical. After all their track record on making complex games, RPGs,(Not action RPG's, which is what the TES series has been as of late) or at least games that their fans wanted is pretty bad and/or non existant. Just look at oblivion for reference.(Yes I know some of you will probably argue with me on that and I'm more than happy to get into a discussion about it) After the release of their fallout 3 teaser my cautiousness towards the title is still unwaivering as the teaser showed almost nothing about the gameplay, which is pretty much what really matters. Now with bethesda stating that they want to supposedly "reinvent" the series, I have become more skeptical than ever, and this article I found really isn't helping.

   

  Posted on the NMA forums(No mutants allowed) This pretty much talks about the history of bethesda and their general kick in the pants they've given to their fans. I always thought that bethesda didn't really care much about their fans, but this just blew me away. I uesed to be slightly optimistic that bethesda might actually deliever on a fallout sequel and make it worthy of having a "3" in its name, but not anymore. Below you'll read about the various practices that bethesda has currently used to advertise and develop their games and the various fan sites they've used as springboards to use as hype, or to ultimately shut-up. It's pretty long as it will be in 2 blog posts so bear with me, but I'm sure it will be interesting for most people to read throughout.

   

  This is of course the last of the three parts so pat yourself on the back for coming this far. Of course discussion amongst ths topic is recommended if possible.  

   

  Linkage to the original source

    

   

  Deconstructing the Hype
  
  The purpose of this piece is not to encourage the reader to boycott all products produced or developed by Bethesda. It is instead a warning, that one must be aware of how their hype machine operates, and how not to be drawn in by mindless lingo and false promises, as was the case with Oblivion and Star Trek Legacy.
  
  We'll now take a look at two examples of PR hype from Todd Howard and Pete Hines, the first from the previously cited Escapist article, the second from a recent Shacknews interview[33]
  
  First, Todd Howard's comments in the Escapist article:
  
  Quote:
  "You can't repeat yourself," he said. "I think it's a common trap when working on a sequel to just add some new features and content, and keep doing that. I think that's a good way to drive your games into the ground. You start drifting from what made the game special in the first place. So with The Elder Scrolls, I'm careful to not repeat what we've done before, and to really focus on trying to recapture again what made the games exciting in the first place.[34]
  
  
  This is an interesting statement, considering that while commercially succesful, since Todd has become the head of Bethesda's in-house development studio, The Elder Scrolls has lost precisely what made its predecessors special. You'll remember that we've already established that it was the roguelike elements and massive gameworlds that made Arena and Daggerfall unique. Playing Oblivion and Morrowind it's clear that, for better or worse, they don't feel like traditional Elder Scrolls games.
  
  This odd way of making sequels worries Fallout fans, because it suggests that Todd has a habit of focusing on precisely what hasn't made a franchise special. For Fallout and Fallout 2, specifically, they used Isometric perspectives, turn-based combat, and a simulationist roleplaying experience. None of those features has ever been in the experience of any current Bethesda developer. Certainly not Todd. It's arguable that none of the Elder Scrolls games even come close to being significant roleplaying experiences. Pete Hines has also affirmed rumours that Bethesda refused to hire original Fallout developers, as will be made clear shortly.
  
  Quote:
  "That's what happens when you're the first to try something," he said. "We certainly took it on the chin for that in the press, but people are still buying that horse armor! I'm talking hundreds of thousands of people.[34]
  
  
  Horse Armor, for those of you that don't know, was a cosmetic feature removed from the original release of Oblivion and sold later through microtransactions for $2.50 US. While on the surface, hundreds of thousands may sound like a large number, you'll remember that Oblivion has to date sold 3 million units. Hundreds of thousands could only ever represent a small portion of Oblivion gamers who were willing to give the mod a shot, and doesn't even indicate how many of those customers were even satisfied with the purchase. By quoting big numbers, Todd has attempted to make the decisions of Bethesda seem in the right, when in fact the numbers don't mean anything.
  
  Quote:
  "Like I was talking about before, with sequels, you have to define the experience the first one had and stay true to it," he said. "I think the first Fallout's tone is brilliant, but then they start to drift in the sequel and subsequent games. When it comes to humor, I'm very anti 'jokes' in games.[35]
  
  
  Todd's statement that the series lost quality may appear to sound good to hardliners, but it's that very appearance which raises suspicion. For the longest time Bethesda has remained tight-lipped about what they consider to be important in Fallout, or even what they're doing with Fallout 3. To make such a comment now in the midst of several PR fiascos looks to be nothing more than lip-service.
  
  That aside, his position on "jokes" in games is also questionable, considering that the ad-campaign for the Oblivion expansion, Shivering Isles[36] has focused predominantly on how "funny" the game will be for its focus on madness.
  
  Now moving on to Pete Hines and his Shacknews interview:
  
  Quote:
  Shack: You guys have your own trademark series so you're used to dealing with fan expectation, but is it different or intimidating working on a franchise like Fallout that already has such a built in reputation?
  
  Pete Hines: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. For a couple of reasons. Number one is that we're treating it as if we made the first two, with the same care and attention we give to The Elder Scrolls, but the truth of the matter is that we haven't. As a result there's probably a lot more divergent opinion about what it should be, what we should do, are we the right guys to do it, and so on.[33]
  
  
  Remember how they treated The Elder Scrolls?
  
  It's also interesting to note that he says that they've treated Fallout 3 like the first two games, while then saying that they actually haven't, making the entire exchange completely meaningless.
  
  Quote:
  Pete Hines: Internally, not really. Internally, we're a bunch of Fallout geeks. There is nobody [here] who hasn't played that game and enjoyed it. I have that game on my laptop, I take it with me and play it. But it's definitely different, because it's not really considered ours, the franchise. We didn't start it. There is a little bit of that sentiment out there that we have to prove that we're worthy to be the guys to make Fallout 3. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because we have very high expectations for ourselves. The standard that we hold ourselves to, the kind of games we expect to make in terms of quality, we have a very high level of expectation. There's really nothing like the people from the outside expecting more than we expect ourselves.
  
  
  The notion that all Bethesda devs have played and loved Fallout is highly questionable, considering that in 2004, one Bethesda developer registered as HayT on the Something Awful forums stated:
  
  Quote:
  I also need to find time to play through Fallout 2 now, which is a game I never got to. Don't know when the hell that's going to happen, as I'm a little behind on work as it is.[43]
  
  
  Whether at the present, all Bethesda devs had played "and loved" Fallout is uknowable, but the fact of HayT's leak, as old as it is, is enough to cast doubts.
  
  Note also that what people "from the outside" expect of Bethesda, in terms of the fan communities, isn't much.
  
  Quote:
  It's a lot like when we were doing Morrowind. Everybody said, "Well, the last game you did was Daggerfall, and it was really buggy, and everything you're telling me about Morrowind sounds good but you need to prove it." It kind of has that same feel, that people are saying, "Yeah, I liked Oblivion, and you guys are good at roleplaying, but you have to prove that you aren't going to screw up this beloved franchise." We think we can do it. We are the right guys to be doing this franchise, we do take it seriously, and we do want to make it a powerful force in roleplaying in terms of what these games can do and be. We hope that when we show people what we're up to, they'll agree. Some folks will, and some folks will say it's not what they wanted. At the end of the day, we respect that, but we have to do what we think is right. Again, you can't make the game that everybody wants because you'll get ten different answers about what that game is.
  
  
  This is also another effective marketing tool that absolves Bethesda of any wrongdoing because you "can't please everybody," including the fans of the franchise they're developing for.
  
  It's been repeated several times in the past by others talking about Fallout spinoffs:
  
  Quote:
  We know we cannot please everyone[37] - gluttoncreeper on Fallout d20
  
  
  Quote:
  Yeah, they have their own debates going on about even games that have already shipped. So Fallout was the best, Fallout 2 was the best, etc. So trying to please them was almost like trying to please everybody, but you can't.[38] - Chuck Cuevas on Fallout: BOS
  
  
  All of these statements ignored the fact that what fans want isn't the feared "Oblivion with guns," a pen & paper game modeled after d20 instead of GURPS (the system Fallout was originally developed for), or an action spin-off instead of an honest-to-God Fallout sequel with similar gameplay mechanics. Considering Bethesda's attitudes towards NMA, DAC, the Codex, STG, and Elder Scrolls fans, it would appear that they too don't care what the fans want.
  
  Quote:
  Shack: Have you spoken at all to the original creators of the franchise--who from what I know already had less complete involvement with Fallout 2 than with the first game--in any capacity?
  
  Pete Hines: We have, on an individual basis. Some of those folks have contacted us on varying levels, whether it's a "Hey, good luck" or a job inquiry or what have you. Not really formally though, no. Again, it's one of those things where I have a lot of respect for those guys. I was a huge Black Isle fan, and all those RPGs coming out of Interplay at the time. I loved Baldur's Gate, Fallout. It was fantastic. Way back when, when I wrote for the Adrenaline Vault, Interplay was one of my companies. I used to cover all their stuff and play everything they put out. I still have my shrinkwrapped copies of Baldur's Gate and Planescape. They did great stuff for which I will always have tremendous respect. But at the same time, if we're going to move forward, we're really going to have to move forward. We can't just say, "Well, let's ask these guys what they think." As Fallout fans and guys who make roleplaying games and have for over a decade, we have pretty good ideas about what we want to do and how to do it.
  
  
  Notice the discrepancy? Despite being "the right guys to be doing this franchise," as self-proclaimed Fallout fans, Bethesda apparently wasn't interested in hiring people like Leonard Boyarsky or Tim Cain onto the project, even as consultants. The people who created the very franchise they're fans of. Surely any fan making a Fallout game would jump at the chance to work with the "masters" that created one of their favorite roleplaying games.
  
  There's very little to interpret from this statement, other than the significant possibility that Bethesda being full of "Fallout fans" is a lie.
  
  Quote:
  Shack: How do you respond to certain voices from the PC community who make claims such as that you're dumbing down games for the console platforms?
  
  Pete Hines: Yeah, I can't really... It becomes an issue of "Yes you did, no you didn't." They say that we dumbed down our game, that it isn't as complex as Morrowind or that it isn't as good as Daggerfall. I say, the same people that made Morrowind made Oblivion. There were maybe three or four people total that worked on Morrowind that didn't work on Oblivion. We had designers that had key roles in Daggerfall that designed those same systems for Oblivion. The same ones that people said we dumbed down from Daggerfall were the ones that those same guys made.
  
  
  So four people worked on Morrowind but didn't work on Oblivion. While objectively true, in reality it discounts the massive expansion to the development team between Morrowind and Oblivion.
  
  According to Moby Games, 46 people from Morrowind worked on Oblivion[39]. Compare that to the massively expanded credits for Oblivion[40], of which 18 people had worked on the Elder Scrolls action spin-off Redguard [41](which Todd Howard was also the project lead on), while only 5 had worked on Daggerfall, in which 26 people[42] are credited in the design of the game. Numerically, only a handful of people who made ****c Elder Scrolls games worked on Oblivion, and logically, simply because a sequel has been made by the same company that made its predecessor, that doesn't mean that the sequel hasn't been "dumbed down."
  
  Don't Buy the Hype
  
  If I were a betting man, I'd say that the Fallout communities should brace for impact. Bethesda has made several indications that it will steer the Fallout franchise away from what made it special.
  
  Bethesda is a clear example of the fact that regardless of how well a company behaved in the past, it still has the chance to develop into a soulless money-making machine. They've used bullying and scare tactics in an attempt to silence fan communities, and have given no indication that they give a damn what the fans think. In addition to all of that, they have recently made the announcement that they are seeking a community manager[44], a move that appears to further Bethesda's policy of seeking control over fan communities.
  
  The current project lead of Fallout 3 is a man whose development experience is dominated by action games, and turned Bethesda's own in-house adventure franchise into an action franchise.
  
  There is tremendous cause for worry. Don't buy the hype.

  • Posted Jun 6, 2007 6:00 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 6Jun 07

  Bethesda should pay more attention to its fans(part 2 of a 3 part series)

  
  

   

  Blacklisting the Codex
  
  Bethesda's bullying before the launch of Oblivion can be best seen in an interview with Douglas Goodall. Goodall was a writer who had left Bethesda after working on Morrowind over his own disagreements with the direction Todd had steered the franchise. However, the interview in which Goodall aired his grievances was forcibly removed[15] from an Elder Scrolls fansite:
  
  Quote:
  Here are the new terms, AS: remove the interview *in its entirety*. All of it. Gone.
  
  Or remove anything submitted by me that hasn't been published by Bethsoft. It's actually quite a lot. Go check. It's mine, it's copyrighted to me, and it's only allowed on your site through my permission.
  
  It doesn't stop there. It won't stop there. I will pursue my own roads to have the rest of your copyrighted material removed, as well.
  
  It's frankly very easy to comply. It's frankly very hard for you to continue with me as an enemy. - Michael Kirkblade
  
  
  The first signs of trouble for NMA began shortly after Emil Pagliarulo announced himself at the NMA[19]. He posted four times in two days, all in introduction threads, and then went inactive to this day. At the time little was thought of it, and any who cared presumed he had gone back to lurking or was too busy to post.
  
  Meanwhile, Oblivion was released to both the derision and despair of the I love Oblivion community. A month after release, the Codex's Vault Dweller posted his Oblivion review[20] on the front page. Bethesda responded severely to the critical review:
  
  Quote:
  
  Gavin Carter joined I really love Oblivion in Jul 2004, Steve Meister joined the site a few months later. Both Bethesda developers posted regularly (Steve made over 700 posts), but left us ubruptly in Jan 2006. No explanations were given, but the fact that both of them left the site at the same time does support the theory that they've been told not to post at the Codex anymore. Clearly though, anyone who regularly posts at the Codex for more than a year is well aware of what the Codex is and can't claim that they left because the site is anti-Oblivion or something like that.
  
  As you know, we've always criticized Oblivion, being unimpressed with what's been shown and the focus of the marketing campaign: soil erosion, Stewart, pretty graphics. For awhile, the ESF crowd dismissed our criticism, hoping that the game will deliver what's been promised and new features will be unveiled soon. As the game was getting closer to the release, it was also getting clear that the Codex has at least some points, so more and more people were agreeing with us and admitting that our criticism is based on facts, not bias. Then the game was released and my review was posted on ESF. People started agreeing with it, referring to it, calling it the only honest review, and so on. That's when the ESF mods stated that the Codex is a bad site and its evil influence must be stopped. All links and even references (!) to the site were removed, many people arguing this case were banned. Then even the name of the site was censored. If you type I really love Oblivion, it will be auto replaced with "I really love Oblivion".
  
  I asked several Bethesda people about it, and was told that "Any mention of I really love Oblivion will be deleted. That is all I am at liberty to say."[21]
  
  
  The I love Oblivion is a free-spirited community that encourages a "say what you please" mentality. The end result sometimes manifesting in the use of links to shock sites. Bethesda cited these causes for their blacklisting of the Codex, however at the time, ESF forum members were also using links to shock sites, and conducting discussions about lewd content. In other words, Bethesda's stated motives were a lie used as an attempt to justify the control and censuring of a community beyond its reach, a trend that has since been repeated.
  
  Where No Trekkie Can Go Anymore
  
  While Fallout changed hands between Interplay and Bethesda, the Star Trek gaming franchise was suspended in a state of limbo. STG's[22] Victor recalls in his interview with NMA[23]:
  
  Quote:
  Star Trek gaming history, now THAT'S a toughy, there's over a decades worth of my views on that subject. Suffice to say it went from one of the most lucrative franchises in the world (PC Gamer Magazines words...not mine) to a blatantly mismanaged mess. For more details have a look at http://www.startrek-gamers.com/history2.htm. It's my ongoing attempt to chart the rise and slow fall of Trek gaming from its official inception by Interplay in 1992 to the death of the franchise in 2003 with the Activision lawsuit, the history stopped there but a new section from 2003 onwards is in the works.
  
  
  At some point, however, Bethesda was able to acquire the rights to make Star Trek games. In a private exchange with this author, Victor relates:
  
  Quote:
  To be honest no one knows how Bethesoft managed to aquire the rights for the Star Trek franchise. No one knew about it until Harry lang from Paramount announced it at the very beginning of January 2006, what made CBS go with Bethesda no one knows since the 4 previous publishers were much larger companies than Bethesda ever was.
  
  I do know one thing though, the franchse was offered to larger companies like EA...and they flat out refused to take it on after the damage that Activision (had) done to the franchise in 2001 to 2003.[24]
  
  
  The Star Trek game Bethsoft was working on is Star Trek Legacy[25]. Published by Bethesda and developed by MadDoc, it was released on December 05, 2006 for the PC and Xbox360 to below-average reception by gaming media. Whitemithrandir of the Codex, however, had other ideas[26] of the game:
  
  Quote:
  No. I'm not trying to be dramatic. I'm not trying to exaggerate. I seriously think Star Trek: Legacy is the worst game ever, on the magnitude of Big Rig and [censored] Superman 64...
  
  ...Well, I guess as long as the campaign is fun and interesting I could forgive the mindless gameplay mechanics, right? Oh, you want me to go on a "mission"? Save some Vulcans? Sweet! Cool!. Oh noes, incoming wave of Romulan [censored]es! Fight fight fight. Oh no, they have reinforcements! Fight fight fight. Oh no! More Romulans! Fight fight fight. Holy [censored], how many of these [censored]s are there? Fight fight fight. Fight fight fight. Fight fight fight. Sir! Incoming warp signature! OH NO! MORE ROMULANS! [censored] YOU I QUIT.
  
  
  Legacy was awful, and the sentiment was felt at STG. Why would Bethesda ship such a horrible title? Again Victor relates:
  
  Quote:
  As for Legacy. The game itself was based on 2 previously cancelled titles from Activision. Legacy's first appearance was as Star Trek: Bridge Commander 2 which was to be published by Activision and developed by Totally Games (same devs as the original Bridge Commander). It was cancelled in early 2002 and then reappeared in late 2002 as a new title called Star Trek: Admiral and was held over to the developers of Armada 2....MadDoc Software. That game was then cancelled in 2003 since Activision was in the process of filing the lawsuit and all games under development at that point in time was canned.
  
  Fast forward 3 years into 2006 and Star Trek: Admiral was renamed Star Trek: Legacy and work began on a game which was already cancelled twice by the previous publisher. It's no wonder that there is signs of 3 different game engines inside legacy's core files the most predominant one being the engine of Star Trek: Armada 2.
  
  No one in the community knew much about Bethesda Softworks. Some of the forum posters knew them from the Oblivion game and told tales of how Bethesda shafted that community, some of those early posts are stll viewable in the official star trek gaming forums of Bethesda. No one took them serious though since the hype that surrounded Oblivion was so intense that everyone in trek gaming thought that Bethesda would be Star Trek gaming's new "messiah"...
  
  ...boy...did we get that part wrong.[24]
  
  
  Again from the NMA interview:
  
  Quote:
  Originally it was met with open arms. This was the first game in 3 years and the fan sites were all over it, STG being the one that got the most interviews with the makers of all 3 games (there was Tactical Assault and Encounters being made as well). It was directly leading up to the release in December when things started to turn sour. It started to become obvious that a lot of the features which were hinted at being in the game weren't going to be there, which is the usual case in Trek games. I for one thought it was a bad omen and then when the PC version of the game was released at the end of December we all saw it for what it was...a cheap port of a console game.
  
  As for what is wrong, well, this should sum it all up, they shipped the game with virtually no multiplayer capability for the PC and released a patch on the day of release. That should tell you about their so called "Quality Control" team, they couldn't control their way out of a wet paper bag with a pair of scissors. The game's control mechanism on the keyboard is locked in place, there are numerous bugs with single play and multiplay. So much infact that multiplay has already died off with very few people playing the game online, that hasn't happened since Simon & Schuster released Star Trek: Deep Space 9 - Dominion Wars, and that game was an utter disgrace...much like Legacy is today. They based the game on what looks like several seperate game engines, one of them being the age old Armada 2 engine, and that game is now more than 3 years old. Thats what happens when a publisher gives a game to a 3rd rate developer (MadDoc) and then the same publisher (Bethesda) has a non existant QC department and ships the game out as an ALPHA.[23]
  
  
  STG's reaction developed from welcoming the game to criticizing it. Again, the actions of a community outside of their reach caused Bethesda to attempt to silence them.
  
  
  
  On Jan 24th, Victor announced on the STG forums, that Bethesda had blacklisted their site[27].
  
  Quote:
  Now, people who know me know what I am like. I speak my mind. If I dont like something I say it right on the front page of the site, screw the consequences. It got to the stage where Bethesda Softworks' silence was getting beyond a joke, and that's when The Argus Array, the STG's Star Trek Gaming podcast (which gets about 100,000 listeners) went on the record and listed the flaws of the game in a constructive manner. Argus 13, 14 and 15 all discussed what was wrong with the game and then Lindsay Muller (some kind of artist in Bethesda) came on the official Bethesda boards and said that the Argus Array must follow Bethesda Forum policies...basically Bethesda was now trying to dictate what i should put on my own podcast which I pay the hosting for.
  
  ...needless to say I wasn't happy. They didn't want criticism, but I gave it to them full bore. I told them exactly what I thought of Legacy. All the while another particular "fansite" remained silent. It got to the stage where official "volunteer" moderators in the Bethesda boards were allowing any topic made by me to be flamed, but at the same time they banned any of my staff in the forum for the slightest misdemeanor.[23]
  
  
  Divide & Conquer
  
  What happened to STG wasn't merely a simple blacklisting. Bethesda employed a tactic of Divide & Conquer:
  
  Quote:
  For the first 6 months Bethesda acted like the consumate publisher, something the likes of myself havent seen in trek gaming for a decade. They were WILLING to talk to the fan sites like mine, more than willing for the largest of those fansites (STG) to do a stack of publicity for them via interviews and podcasts. It all changed the day of Legacy's release though, PR stopped, communication stopped and all attempts at criticising legacy in the forums was either locked, covered up or said posters simply vanished from the forums.
  
  ...and then the blackballing happened...[24]
  
  
  Quote:
  They did it for several reasons. One of them being that one or two other major fansites haven't officially come out in public on their front page and panned Legacy, only the STG did. The second reason is one which is more...worrying. Some of the official "volunteer" moderators in the Star Trek Bethesda forums have ties and links to one of the STG competitor fansites...STGU. ChessMess who is the lead of that site doesn't see eye to eye with me and therefore both sites do not get along. This has filtered into Bethesda's way of thinking. Bethesda Softworks had the chance to close down a hateblog on Google's blogger site that was running flame stories about myself and the staff of my site. The blog was being fed information and screenshots by one of the moderators of the official Bethesda board, we know that cause one of the screenshots which the blog displayed had the moderator controls on the screen.
  
  We emailed Bethesda about this...no reply.
  
  We emailed Bethesda about the state of the game...no reply.
  
  We emailed Bethesda about the interview with Pete Hines which Erin Losi PROMISED us...no reply.
  
  This happened the day Legacy was released.[23]
  
  
  Quote:
  STG and STGU are the kane and abel of the Star Trek gaming franchise. It's an historic point in 2004 when the split between the 2 sites finally started to happen that everyone knows about. Both sites take opposite views of the franchise. STGU thinking that everything is fine while STG telling folks what is really happening out there, fact is STGU doesnt give out "bad press".
  
  That relationship between both sites Bethesda was made aware of, thats why they chose STGU members as the new moderators of the Star Trek gaming official board in Bethesda and thats why half of my staff from my site are now banned from the same forum. The new moderators constantly lock or delete threads i make and give out official warnings to people affiliated with my site everyday and they do it with Bethesda's full knowledge.[24]
  
  
  Fansite favoritism, complacency in harassment on their official boards, complacency in hate blogs? How Bethesda treated the STG goes beyond a mere blacklisting. By using the STG for their marketing, and then dropping them in favor of a site that wouldn't criticize the end product, Bethesda has acted in a manner that many fear they'll attempt to repeat in the Fallout communities.
  
  Remember our friend Emil? Posting as Lohan[28], he made a grand total of four posts at No Mutants Allowed on February the second, and the third of 2006. Since then he has yet to make any other post at NMA, and it is perhaps not all that surprising that he made his presence known, and then became scarce shortly before the release of Oblivion.
  
  Fast-forward to October, when Emil made his first post at Duck and Cover as Bethsoft _Emil[29]. It was after being announced Lead Designer of the Fallout 3 project, and yet while posting at DAC he had yet to announce himself on NMA.
  
  I asked Kharn of NMA about the issue:
  Quote:
  As for divide and conquer, that's a suspicion created by Lohan's first visit to DaC and made worse by our info from STG's Victor.
  
  When I asked Lohan why he was visiting DaC but not NMA, he stated that he didn't feel like visiting a place where his company was just being burned. This was total and utter [censored] as far as the forums were concerned. Both DaC and NMA members were given the freedom of burning Bethesda, but only NMA had an official policy of discouraging this behaviour amongst members. DaC and NMA were both fairly neutral on the frontpage back then. His stated reason being such an obvious lie, we concluded he was either badly informed or Bethesda was trying to favour what they saw as the more easily manipulateable fansite. The latter seems to more likely conclusion.
  [30]
  
  
  [censored] indeed. Remember Emil's first post at NMA?[19]
  
  Quote:
  ...I'm really just dropping in to say hello and introduce myself. I'm another Bethesda dev who's been lurking around the forums for a while now, but has never actually posted. It's so much easier to just sit back and watch Pete Hines get tossed into the meat grinder...
  
  ...Seriously, though, you guys are awesome. In the few months I've been visiting these forums I've seen more spirited, passionate, intelligent game design discussion than I have on a lot of other game forums in the past few years.
  
  
  Emil couldn't have possibly been lurking on NMA and then claim to have stopped posting because the company he works for gets ragged on. Especially since he made a joke about the harsh language used when referring to Pete Hines, who works for and is considered the mouth piece for the company that Emil works for.
  
  He's certainly lied about company loyalties, possibly lied about being a lurker, and possibly even lied about thinking well of NMA. His history with NMA and DAC all suggest that his posting habits are being dictated by the company, possibly Pete Hines himself. Even when posting at DAC, however, he only posted a short amount of time, from October 27th, to November 12th[31], which for the unobservant reader was a month before the release of Star Trek Legacy.
  
  Is there significance to the fact that Emil made his presence known and then stopped posting at two different Fallout fansites a month before the release of two titles produced, and one developed, by Bethsoft? It's impossible to say. Yet, considering the fact that MrSmileyFaceDude[32], another Bethesda developer has been posting occasionally at DAC, up to January 23rd (at the time this is being written, it is mid-February), whereas his last post made at NMA was on March 14th, 2006[33], the evidence appears to show signs of favoritism.
  
  What does this mean for the future of NMA and DAC? If the evidence from the blacklisting of I love Oblivion and STG are anything to go by, there's a significant possibility that as the hype machine for Fallout 3 kicks into gear, Bethesda will attempt to use DAC and NMA in order to serve as marketing tools, as was the case with STG and STGU. Eventually, when Bethsoft finds that NMA and DAC won't tow the party line, they'll be blacklisted, and Bethesda may possibly even attempt to garner DAC's complacency with meaningless benefits and exclusive info.
  
  The previous statement serves as a warning. If Bethesda does attempt to control NMA and DAC they are sure to be severely dissapointed.

  • Posted Jun 6, 2007 5:59 pm PT
  • Category: N/A
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• 6Jun 07

  Bethesda should pay more attention to its fans(Part 1 of a 3 part series)

  Ever since I found out bethesda was taking the reigns on the production of the series, I've always been quite skeptical. After all their track record on making complex games, RPGs,(Not action RPG's, which is what the TES series has been as of late) or at least games that their fans wanted is pretty bad and/or non existant. Just look at oblivion for reference.(Yes I know some of you will probably argue with me on that and I'm more than happy to get into a discussion about it) After the release of their fallout 3 teaser my cautiousness towards the title is still unwaivering as the teaser showed almost nothing about the gameplay, which is pretty much what really matters. Now with bethesda stating that they want to supposedly "reinvent" the series, I have become more skeptical than ever, and this article I found really isn't helping.

   

  Posted on the NMA forums(No mutants allowed) This pretty much talks about the history of bethesda and their general kick in the pants they've given to their fans. I always thought that bethesda didn't really care much about their fans, but this just blew me away. I uesed to be slightly optimistic that bethesda might actually deliever on a fallout sequel and make it worthy of having a "3" in its name, but not anymore. Below you'll read about the various practices that bethesda has currently used to advertise and develop their games and the various fan sites they've used as springboards to use as hype, or to ultimately shut-up. It's pretty long as it will be in 2 blog posts so bear with me, but I'm sure it will be interesting for most people to read throughout.

   

  Linkage to the original source

   

   

  wrote this piece with the intention of it being used for viral anti-marketing. I understand it's probably way too big for that, but the whole argument requires too much evidence. Please, if you like this, repost it on other forums using the .txt file linked at the bottom of this post:
  
  
  In the year of our Lord, 2007 AD, the Fallout franchise turns ten years old. However, since the release of Fallout 2 in 1998, fans have yet to enjoy a true sequel to their favorite roleplaying franchise. Fallout 2 was followed by Fallout: Tactics, which while being technically fun had a cavalcade of setting issues and wasn't the roleplaying game that fans wanted. The company was purchased a while after these events by Titus, the director becoming Herve Caen. In 2003, he started two projects roughly at the same time: Van Buren, which was Fallout 3, and the console shooter Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Caen cancelled the former for the latter in an attempt to focus Interplay's resources on the console market.[1]
  
  In an effort to help stave off its impending bankruptcy, Interplay sold the rights to make Fallout 3 to Bethesda Softworks in 2004, including options for a 4th and 5th Fallout, for 1.175 million dollars advance against royalties. This transaction was met with careful optimism. Perhaps despite Bethesda's game history, they could effectively deliver a sequel that the fans could enjoy.[1]
  
  However, ever since the release of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Bethesda has systematically eroded any faith in an honest-to-goodness sequel to Fallout 2. They have figuratively shat all over the fans of the Elder Scrolls franchise and Star Trek franchise, with their sights soon to be set on the two biggest Fallout fansites, No Mutants Allowed[2] and Duck and Cover[3].
  
  The following is an account of Bethesda's operating methods, and the mishandling of the various fanbases :
  
  Origins
  
  Chris Weaver, the chairman of Media Technologies founded Bethesda in 1986 in an effort to see if the PC was a viable market for game development. The first game, a football game titled Gridirion, was a success, securing Bethesda a deal with Interplay to develop the first John Madden Football. For 18 years, Bethesda was owned and funded solely by Weaver, with The Elder Scrolls: Arena becoming Weaver's baby. The Elder Scrolls is Bethsoft's only original in-house franchise. [4]
  
  In 1994, Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls: Arena[5], an open-ended roguelike played with a First-Person Perspective that took place in the fantasy world of Tamriel. That the game was a roguelike was very important. Traditionally, roguelikes are based on the 1980 game Rogue[6], and usually feature top-down views. However, two important features of roguelikes, namely a fantasy world with randomly-generated maps and dungeons, are predominant enough in Arena and its sequel Daggerfall for fans to refer to both titles as roguelikes.
  
  The appeal of a roguelike lies in its replay value. The nature of randomly generated environments guarantees that no two experiences are going to be exactly alike, and gamers responded well to these features. Arena and Daggerfall combined static environments such as cities with randomly-generated dungeons and quests. While there may have not been much depth to the experience beyond the central story, the massive world and random nature kept some players interested in and playing the games even to the present.
  
  Following Arena's success, Daggerfall [7]was released in 1996. Daggerfall was a supremely ambitious project which sought to recreate Tamriel in 161,000 square miles, and was inhabited by 750,000 NPCs. By comparison, the sequel to Daggerfall, Morrowind, is about .01% the size of Daggerfall's gameworld, with 6 square miles, while Oblivion only features 16. For players that loved Arena's roguelike qualities it was a phenomenal sequel.
  
  Daggerfall also expanded on the impressive lore created for Arena, adding a new cast of fleshed out characters in addition to the 750,000 clones, not the least which being Mannimarco the King of Worms[8]:
  Quote:
  The King of Worms, Mannimarco, is a powerful necromancer in Tamriel and the archenemy of the Mages' Guild. He was originally an Altmer and a Psijic, and a contemporary of Vanus Galerion. At some point Mannimarco broke away from the Psijic order (as well as Galerion, who went on to found the Mages Guild) to further practice his necromancy, and this is the point at which he actually first **** himself "King of Worms". From Scourge Barrow in the Dragontail Mountains, he has cleverly played all the political games and powers for millenia. His influences have even reached Summerset Isle, the homeland of the Altmer. The Sload, the necromantic slug-like creatures living in the Thrassian Reef, worship him as a god.
  
  
  Despite being technically impressive, Daggerfall was riddled with bugs, one of which made it almost impossible to complete the main quest. As a result the game didn't sell that well, and neither did its two spinoffs.
  
  It was at this time that Todd Howard had entered the scene:
  Quote:
  "My first assignments were testing the CD-ROM version of Arena, and producing NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four 2, a game that was being developed externally and had been left for dead."[9]
  
  
  Howard was later a producer and designer for The Terminator: Future Shock[10] and did the same for SkyNET[11] and is credited for "Additional Design" on Daggerfall. Todd's work on the Terminator shooters will be important.
  
  Following the inability to capitalize on Daggerfall, as well as the release and production of a number of other commercial flops, Bethesda and its parent company, Weaver's Media Technologies were in deep water:
  Quote:
  In 1999, ZeniMax, a media/videogame holding company founded by Chris Weaver and Robert Altman, acquired Media Technology (founded by Weaver), which owned Bethesda. The new company, helmed by Weaver and Altman, was a who's who list of entertainment moguls. Robert Trump (of Trump Management) and Harry Sloan (MGM) are on the board, and the company is advised by Jon Feltheimer (Lion's Gate Entertainment), among others. If Bethesda was drowning, ZeniMax was a million-dollar lifesaver.[9]
  
  
  It also effectively ended Weaver's dominance over Bethesda, making it accountable to the board which comprised Zenimax (including Weaver). The Elder Scrolls's control under a panel of suits and the insistance from Microsoft to make Morrowind an Xbox title effectively dumbed down the franchise and severely dissapointed Arena and Daggerfall fans.
  
  Morrowind And Weaver's Absence
  
  The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind[12]was released to critical acclaim and fan dissapointment in 2002 with versions for the PC and Xbox. Despite the alienation of previous fans, the game sold 4 million copies across both platforms, and was able to garner a new fan base for the franchise.
  
  Perhaps most distressing to fans of Arena and Daggerfall was the lack of roguelike elements. In lieu of creating a massive roguelike world, Morrowind instead shifted to a comparatively small, hand-crafted static world centered around the island of Vvardenfell in the province of Morrowind. Cited reasons for doing so was an attempt at making more unique NPCs and quests. While in some cases this was accomplished effectively, there were still far too many filler NPCs to give the impression of a fully functioning virtual world. The tradeoff between the roguelike Daggerfall and hand-set Morrowind wasn't enough, and players ended up with a much smaller world to explore.
  
  Character skills were also pulled back from the 38 skills in Daggerfall to 27 in Morrowind. Most of the communication skills were removed, leaving only Mercantile and Speechcraft. Most of the old communication-based skills were language skills for most of the species of Tamriel. Contrary to first impressions, however, high language skills mostly reduced the likelihood of creatures attacking you on sight as opposed to actually allowing you to speak with them. Instead of taking the opportunity to support these skills and giving them an interactive application, they were removed.
  
  Much of these changes can be attributed to to Todd Howard's sudden promotion to Design Lead on the project. His experiences with the Terminator shooters could be seen as Bethesda effectively turned the Elder Scrolls series from an adventure game with roleplaying elements into a shooter with roleplaying elements.
  
  Another complaint about the game was the change in plot development. The main story of Morrowind was completely linear, with only a few optional objectives and a set ending, which was as opposed to Daggerfall's severely branched quest tree and 7 different endings. For comparison, note the difference in the flow charts for UESP's Daggerfall Walkthrough[13] and Morrowind Walkthrough[14].
  
  On the other hand, the game was still faithful to the lore created by Arena and Daggerfall. It also possessed many High Fantasy qualities which gave it an extremely attractive appearance from an art perspective, but was occasionally drab in some areas of the gameworld. It had a lot to offer in terms of exploration and expansion of lore, and is well-written enough to be considered a faithful sequel from a setting perspective, if not a gameplay one.
  
  The commercial success of Morrowind and its expansions ensured another Elder Scrolls game, and work soon began on Oblivion.
  
  Things weren't looking good for Weaver, however:
  Quote:
  As Howard began work on Oblivion in 2002, Weaver found himself embattled against his business partners at ZeniMax. According to a legal opinion based on the case, Weaver filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging he was "constructively terminated" (meaning he like other industry luminaries, was being ousted by his new business partners after giving them access to his brand) and was owed $1.2 million in severance pay when ZeniMax didn't renew his employment contract.[16]
  
  
  Weaver's first suit against Zenimax was thrown out of court for his misconduct, and another suit is currently under way. Despite owning 33% of Zenimax stock, Morrowind was the last title Weaver has ever been credited on.2[16]
  
  Oblivion
  In 2005 the marketing machine for Oblivion kicked into full swing. Fans were worked into a frenzy over the prospect of a "next-gen" Elder Scrolls title, while some fansites, most noteably the online community I love Oblivion[17] expressed tremendous skepticism leading up to the release of Oblivion.
  
  On March 21, 2006, the fears of all of these skeptics were confirmed on the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion[18] for the PC and Xbox360.
  
  In one fell swoop, not only did Bethesda continue to alienate fans of the roguelike Arena and Daggerfall, but also alienated the new fanbase they had acquired as a result of Morrowind's success. If Morrowind was a dumbing down of The Elder Scrolls, Oblivion was borderline retarded.
  
  The most telling sign of the loss of depth in Oblivion was the continued drop in skills from Morrowind's 27 to Oblivion's 21. Weapon ****s were lumped into Blade, Blunt, Ranged, and Unarmed skills. Axes were considered to be in the blunt category, while spears and crossbows were removed altogether. The magic skills were also whittled down, as the Gamebryo engine didn't allow for the seamless world that every previous Elder Scrolls game featured for the outdoors, so gone were spell ****s that aided levitation and necromancy. It was also impossible for the return of the climbing skill, which in addition to levitation was an alternate method of reaching a location in Daggerfall, but had been removed in Morrowind.
  
  More significant was the complete loss of any real consequence for the player's actions. The choices for a player were also extremely limited. When talking to a quest-giver, the quest is automatically activated regardless of whether the player actually wants to do it. The factions themselves were all-inclusive, and player characters could be the leaders of all 4 guilds. The player was also capable of completing the guild quests without any skillsets specific to them. A fighter could complete all Mage Guild quests, mostly because of the homogenous nature of the skill system.
  
  Curiouser was the lack of any significant impact on the gameworld. Any murder can be bought off with a thousand spetims (the in-game currency), and beyond the deaths of non-quest reliant NPCs, nothing the player does creates an appreciable impact. The player could become the "Hero of Kvatch" after a certain point in the main quest, yet when interacting with NPCs, they still all treat the player character like they've never seen him before in their life, despite having just called you the Hero of Kvatch.
  
  Yet even with the amorality of buying off any murder (including the murder of guards), the player was incapable of joining the more evilly-aligned guilds such as the Necromancers or the Black Wood Company, because doing so would interfere with the quest lines of the Mage's and Fighter's guilds, respectively.
  
  The loss of any consequences and gameworld impact was a jarring transition from Morrowind, which featured guild quests that sometimes conflicted with each other. There were also three Great Houses which the player character could only be aligned with one of. In Oblivion, the choice of becoming a member of one faction and not being able to join another was removed completely.
  
  The much-touted Radiant AI was also exposed to be an of hype. Instead of characters performing contextual tasks and giving themselves goals, NPCs followed strictly scheduled patterns in which they would go to a location just to stare at a wall for 5 in-game hours and have disjointed conversations with other NPCs about mudcrabs.
  
  Perhaps the greatest flaw of all was the inclusion of a poorly designed level-scaling system, which scaled all enemies and items to the player character's level. This eliminated any chance of the game being too hard or too easy, eliminating the possibility of any challenge. This resulted in queer inconsistancies such as bandits with plate armour. Because of the scaling, all items were of little use, being set to the player's level. This trivialized any sense of progression and surprise in the game, making it possible to accomplish any task at level 1. The player could become Arena Champion, the greatest fighter in all of Cyrodiil, at level 1, and Mannimarco, the powerful Necromancer, puppet master, and God to the terrible sloads, could be killed by a level 1 character with an iron dagger.
  
  Oblivion also offered very little else in terms of lore, and merely accomplished the end of the Septim line and the beginning of the Fourth Era in The Elder Scrolls. Most of the lore in Elder Scrolls games is supplemented through books that are readable in-game. Yet most of the books in Oblivion were copied from Daggerfall and Morrowind, with very little new information.
  
  In spite of these flaws, the marketing machine headed by Pete Hines was so effective that media reception was overwhelmingly positive. This helped insure the sale of 3 million copies as Todd Howard and Pete Hines targeted the title to the casual crowd of Xbox360 gamers.

  • Posted Jun 6, 2007 5:58 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 4May 07

  The real S.T.A.L.K.E.R. where art thou?

  Many people within the forums have probably seen m express my hate on STALKER multiple times. This ranges from the graphics, to the the core gameplay. I've been thinking to myself exactly why I hate STALKER so much since I was extremely hyped up for this game since back in 2004.  Up until 2006  when I  started hearing about these changes that were being made to the game I really though this game would be  "The Game"  Even with the news of features being cut I still had high hopes for it. When it finally released I rejoiced and got it the first day, installed it, and played it for hours on end. After about a week or so I uninstalled it vowing never to touch it again. Now you might ask, why? Well today I will present my reasons that explain exactly why the STALKER we have before us is not the real STALKER, the STALKER we were supposed to get, but instead it's a haphazard attempt at trying to make an innovate FPS.

   

  1) Loss of original concept- They focused the game way too much on horror. In the original concept back in 2003-2005 the game was mainly focused on exploration and then a few months before its release they all of a sudden begin focusing heavily on horror. I was hoping that maybe when the game releases the theme of exploration would still be in there, but boy was I wrong. The game isn't even open world like it was supposed to be and doing side quests is practically useless unless its relatively close to the location of your main quest missions. The use of vehicles was stripped and when combined with the non open world it really removes a lot of what the main concept was supposed to be. They also for some very odd reason took out sleeping but not eating, which practically makes no sense at all.
  
  2) Performance issues- This was the main thing that immediately got me to stop liking stalker. The optimization in this game is just horrible. So horrible to the point that it's even bringing high end 7 series users and 8 series users GPU's to its knees. The only way for most people to enjoy the game is by enabling static lighting, which disables all mapping as well as NPC shadows, making the game look like a damn 2003 title. The only shadow is of your own which looks pretty ugly and is basically a buggy mess. Not only that the game has also got some pretty long load times as well as major stuttering problems. I even get them when attempting to play the game under static lighting. The funny thing is though, is that it's not like dynamic lighting just came with stalker. It's been within PC games for years and hasn't slowed PC's to a crawl. Not even parallax mapping would strain GPU's that much as it heavily relies on the amount of memory the GPU has. In the end it all just comes down to bad coding or bad optimization. They probably rushed those effects just in time before the games release.(Static lighting with no mapping is how the original stalker was supposed to look like)
  
  3) Bugs- Quests not working, traders not being able to come up to you so you can buy their goods, randomly dying of hunger, etc. are bugs that really help break the game, and although it isn't as bad to me as the above too it is still annoying nonetheless.
  
  
  Now if I were to rate this game right now I would probably give it an 8.5, but there are so many things that could have been done better so that it would actually live up to its hype. Hopefully some patches and mods can make it come close to what this game should have been back in 2004. So I might have uninstalled the game, but I will still be watching the game for patches and mods that will bring back my interest in reinstalling it. (Especially a damn sleep mod!)

   

  Of course I'm open to discussion about this so if you can please comment on why you like or don't like STALKER

  • Posted May 4, 2007 10:58 am PT
  • Category: Rant
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• 22Apr 07

  What have I been doing till now?

  Its been a really long time since I updated my blog, so I decided to make a meaty blog post. I'll basically be discussing the main things I've been doing since my last blog post, more importantly my complete shift to PC gaming.

   

  About 2 weeks ago my whole perspective shifted on exactly what entertainment device I should buy. If any of you read my blog I made a few weeks back, I stated that I was going to go back on my vow to buy a Wii in the winter and instead save up money for a PS3. I was to save up and get a PS3 in the fall, get a wii a few months later, and lastly upgrade my PC. Well I once again faced a dilemma as I realized that there was pretty much no reason to save up my money to buy a PS3 in the fall. The reason for this is because since I am supposed to be going to university in the fall time-frame, my parents would pay for my tuition as well as give me extra money to spend on things such as books, etc.(I already have a locked bank account for this) So if I were to get enough money from my parents to get a PS3 in the fall because of university there would be no use of me saving up my money for it at all. So I decided that instead of saving up for a PS3 I would either spend my money on a wii or upgrade my PC. After thinking long and hard about it I decided to upgrade my PC and get a wii later. Now I know I've once again given wii the shaft, but when I think about it(or any other person that plays PC games for that matter) the amount of potential quality PC titles far surpass that of future wii titles in 2007. Games such as Crysis, Bioshock, HL2 EP: 2, company of heroes opposing front, and World in Conflict are just some of the titles that are coming to the PC(some games such as HL2: ep 2 are multi-plat, but I think everyone knows that it was pretty much made for the PC) this year that are sure to be colossal hits. So a few days later I went to tiger direct as well as a few other stores to go get the new parts I needed to upgrade my crappy PC. My budget? $300.

   

  For all the PC fans out there here are my old PC specs(For non-PC fans I'll refrain from using shot form words for the hardware):

   

  Celeron D 2.4ghz(overclocked to 2.6ghz)

  Geforce vanilla 6600(core: 300mhz mem: 400mhz| overclocked core to 450mhz

  1.25gb RAM

  P4MAM-V motherboard(only supports up to AGP 4x)

  300 watt power supply

   

  I was hoping to overhaul my PC to these specs:

   

  AMD X2 3800+

  Geforce 7600Gt

  Asus A8S-X motherboard(supports pci-e)

  450watt Power supply

   

  Now most of you guys are thinking that $300 Can't make a decent gaming PSU and you're pretty much right. I actually had to spend about an extra $100 bringing my budget to around $400. Now once again most of you(especially non-PC gamers) would believe that it's impossible to make a decent gaming PC without spending $1000 or more. Well you guys are probably off a little. With my $400 budget(which would probably be around $350 or less if in American dollars) I was able to get all the hardware above. The hard thing though was putting it together since I've never built my own computer before. Lucky for me I remembered an IGN feature that talked about how to build a PC. What made my job even easier was the fact that I was still using my old PC case. Within a few hours and some help from certain forum users I was able to do a complete overhaul of my PC. Of course the question remained, "How is the performance increase?" The answer to that is substantial. Games such as company of heroes that were basically unplayable with my old PC(I got less than 10FPS most of the time under medium settings and only had an average of 14FPS using the COH performance test) with my new PC I got an average of 40FPS under those same settings using the COH performance test(1024x768 res) and I got an average of 30FPS when I cracked all the settings to max. All games that I used to play under my old PC got a 100%-250% increase in performance as well. CSS under max settings got me an average of 90FPS(1152x864 4x AA 16x AF) compared to my original 45FPS(1024x768 2xAA 8x AF) rainbow six vegas now runs at a mostly constant 35FPS with all settings at high, and supreme commander is actually playable(usually with the 20FPS range with a lot of action going on) with all settings at max (4xAA) Before I used to get an average of around 8FPS or lower when any sort of action picked up.(For all those who don't know AA means anti-aliasing, aliasing is known to console users as "jaggies" and AF means anisoptric filtering)

   

  

  My nasty old motherboard, CPU and fan

   

   

  

  My new motherboard, CPU, and fan (I recently replaced the fan by cooler master to an all copper thermaltake fan)

   

   

  

  New Power supply

   

   

  The best thing about it is that I never reformatted my HDD when installing the new parts. This means that if I did so I would probably see even better performance gains as my HDD was cluttered with content when I replaced most of my PC hardware.

   

  My shift to PC gaming has been a good one. I no longer have to deal with (as much) the constant fanboyism and trolling that the PS3 forums get and I've finally been able to set up my Xfire account.(If any of you don't know Xfire is pretty much the equivalent to the 360's live service, except it's free) Of course now within the PC forums there's always talk about how consoles are trying to kill the PC platform and the ever prevalent PC elitists who absolutely hate consoles in any way, shape, or form.

   

   

  

  Finally a decent graphics card!

   

   

   

  

  New PC, same old case

   

   

  Another thing that I've been doing is help setup a new website. What's this website you might ask? It's called wired console and it's pretty much the equivalent of Gamespot, 1up, IGN, or any other gaming press site. I'm currently one of the admins there and we're really trying to get this baby off its feet. If any of you readers want to help support us just visit the site and register. I and the rest of the team would really appreciate it. Currently the site's a little less than a month old, but it's already growing at quite a surprising rate. Reviews, news articles and contests have already been set up within the sites life as well as a sister site called video wired console . Our main objective at the moment is to get some more users and traffic onto the site, so I thought you guys could help me out a bit here.

   

  

   

  Well that's it for me this time. Although the wii has once again gotten the shaft it will be my next major purchase once I have enough money. Ever since super paper mario came out I've been going crazy about how I'll get enough money to buy the console as that game looks crazy. Of course it's no super mario RPG, but it looks like an excellent addition to the paper mario series. AS soon as I get both the wii and the PS3 I will probably be more balanced regarding console and PC platforms. In fact I will most likely move a little toward the console area.

   

  I've also noticed the new gamespot feature that allows users to store images. That should become really handy for me at least as I no longer have to send my things to photobucket anymore. Expect to see some sigs and other stuff I feel inclined to put in there. I also just began watching the first season of battlestar galactica. I don't care what anyone says that show is just amazing. It really sucks you into the world of the show and displays great signs of atmosphere. I thank Veoh for this.(Don't worry it's legal) I swear this site is the future of Television.

  Anyway see you guys and once again please support the team.

   

   

  • Posted Apr 22, 2007 9:30 am PT
  • Category: Games
  • 3 Comments

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• 17Mar 07

  Almost There.......

  **Spoilers ahead for GOW II**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Well I'm at what I'm guessing is the final battle between kratos and zeus. I'm gonna go to sleep now (it's 3:38am right now for me) and finish it off tomorrow. I've been playing GOW II so much that I haven't even looked at the bonus disc. Trust me when I say this, the intro level of GOW II(which you can find under my videos) is better than all of the original GOW combined. And this is coming from a person that didn't go crazy after playing the original. (I thought DMC3 was better) Anyone that's still on the fence about this should just check out my intro level video because that's only the beginning of the intensity that is GOW II.
  
  In other news I just got level 28! I'm a bionic commando, although I never played the game its still a pretty cool title. Only 2 more levels until I reach the levels of the elite gamespot users. That's right level 30, I'm comin for ya!

  • Posted Mar 17, 2007 12:44 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 15Mar 07

  I am the God of War!

  As a bad excuse to update my blog I'm here to tell you that I'm just about to go pickup a copy of god of war II. When I mean just about I mean in like 5 minutes. When I pick it up and slay some creature for a few hours I'll update this blog with pics of the cover and hopefully if I can find out how to use the video feature of my digital camera so I can upload a nice vid of me slaying some demons. Well off to the store for me!
  
  UPDATE: Well it took a little bit more than 5 minutes but I finally picked up my copy of GOW II. Before I got out and play it, I'll give you a picture of the case, which is still unwrapped.
  
  
  
  UPDATE 2: Well after slaying some demons I took the time to record some footage for you guys. There are two parts approx. 8 min. in length. Currently I'm uploading it onto gamespot so it won't take that long until it comes up here.
  
  UPDATE 3: Both videos have been uploaded and you can view them by going here. As my last update , I'll provide you guys with some extra pics of the GOW II case and its innards. Enjoy.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • Posted Mar 15, 2007 11:00 am PT
  • Category: N/A
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• 17Jan 07

  OMG What have I been missing!?!?!?

  I just want to start this blog by saying that I have sure been missing some important stuff when it comes to music. I just picked up three new albums. Donuts and the shining by the late J Dilla and Madvillainy by Madvillian(AKA MF DOOM) All I could say after listening to these albums was just "wow" these are definitely one of the best album's I've ever listened to. That's right, ever.
  
  First I'll start off with donuts and The Shining by J Dilla. As some of you might know J Dilla died from various diseases including a rare blood disease. It's just too bad I never listened to his work before he died. I first heard about The Shining album a few months ago(Donuts was released 3 days before his death in February of 2006 and The Shining shortly after in March of 2006) but just didn't bother to pick it up or even sample any tracks. I finally got interested when my main radio station Flow 93.5 put it in as the best album of 2006 above Ghostface's Fishscale album. I actually thought that it couldn't touch Ghostface's or The Roots album(Another nominee) so I decided to go out and the album. Boy was I wrong. There are just so many things right with this album it's almost impossible to find its faults. The only fault I could ever find with it was that it was on the short side(Only around 40 minutes in length) This was mostly due in part that J Dilla was still working on the album before his incurring death and only 75% of the album was finished, but man is that 75% worth listening to. The track title love is simply amazing. Although it maight still not be as good as fishscale. It holds its own as one of my definite best albums of the year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I picked up Donuts shortly after The Shining. I was a bit skeptical about this release even after listening to the amazing tracks of shining because the album was a bunch of instrumentals put together. plus the only other instrumental albums I had were dominated solely by RJD2. Once I picked up this album and listened to it I knew the truth. That this album completely blows RJD2's albums out of the water. The album is just constructed so beautifully that every track flows into the other seamlessly. The tracks workinonit and wave are by far my favorite as the beats produced on those two tracks are just too good to comprehend. The album is basically a blend of various music genres like Hip-hop, jazz, house, and international and trust me they all blend together perfectly. It's just too bad he's no longer with us. RIP J Dilla.....
  
  
  
  
  
                     
  
  
  
  
  
  I picked up Madvillany shortly after Donuts as well and although it's hard to believe I was even more impressed with this album than donuts and The Shining. I already had one of MF DOOM's later releases The Mouse in the Mask by Danger DOOM(released in 2005 and Madvillainy came out in 2004) so I really don't know why I didn't pick this album up sooner. Anyway, this album almost spells absolute perfection as Madlib does a terrific job of producing the beats and of course MF DOOM provides his superior rapping talents onto the table as well. I don't have any favorites of this album as of yet since the tracks are all near perfect. Once I listen to it more I will for sure be able to pick out my favorite. The mixture of beats in this album is truly out of this world and will basically cater to just about anyone. This album from MF DOOM has more or less made him one of my favorite artists of all time. I actually just picked up his early 1999 album titled Operation Doomsday. I haven't listened to it extensively though and that's why I'm not going to go into detail with this album, but from the tracks I've heard it seems great as well.
  
  
  
                      
  
  
  
  
                                  
  
  
  
  
  
  Basically what it comes down to is this. If you like Hip-Hop even a little bit you basically owe it to yourself to check out J Dilla's Donuts and The shining. Madvillainy is a different case though. This is an album that is a must have for everyone. I don't care what type of music you listen to this is a must have. The album mixes a variety of genres around so it will basically feel at home to anyone no matter what type of music you like. The lyrics are also really deep as well as with almost all of MF DOOM's album's. The only thing I wonder now is why didn't I get these album's before???
  

  • Posted Jan 17, 2007 8:29 pm PT
  • Category: Music
  • 3 Comments

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• 12Jan 07

  No Wii for Mii

  You guys have probably heard of me talk a lot about me getting a wii in January through the forum, comments and my own blog. Well that situation has changed. I was planning to get a wii at the end of January after I finish off my exams since I got enough money to get one for Christmas,(Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you guys I got $300 and versace cologne for Christmas) but I recently changed my mind to get one and am instead opting to save up for a PS3 and get a wii at a later time. Before my whole plan was to get a wii first and a PS3 later.
  
  Why you ask? i would say it's mostly because of the recent outbreak of the PS3 forums since he dawn of CES 2007. The forums were filled with trolls(Still is) and fanboy's turning the PS3 forums into another place for SW. Through this outbreak I really noticed a lot of the things that I loved about the PS3 (MGS4 and FFXIII being one of them) and just thought to myself that I would be making a mistake if I get a wii before a PS3 as most of the games I love are coming out on that platform. I'm not in any way saying I don't want or like the wii because I still plan on getting it about a year after the PS3.This situation is about the same as my PS2/Gamecube purchase. I got the PS2 first and got a Gamecube about a year to a year and a half later.
  
  I currently expect to get a PS3 before the end of august as I should be able to get a job and receive some money on my birthday on top of my $300 I already have plus some of the money I have left remaining in my bank.
  
  Well that's it for this blog. I can't wait to play motorstorm and heavenly sword when I finally get my PS3! before I go here's some great pictures of some upcoming PS3 games, and before you ask yes they're all real time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • Posted Jan 12, 2007 8:05 am PT
  • Category: Games
  • 6 Comments

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• 10Jan 07

  i'm officially quoting two people

  The first erson I'm quoting is a guy named axel saying that HD-DVD will win and blu-ray won't.
  
  The second person I'm quoting, usmcjdk6 said this:
  
  PS3 will not sell more than 30 million units. You can quote me on this.
  360 will pull away with about 35-40 mil, and Wii will be the main
  juggernaut with about 70 million by 2010.
  
  ohhhh the next few months will be a good one.
  

  • Posted Jan 10, 2007 11:20 pm PT
  • Category: Other
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• 25Dec 06

  Merry Chirstmas!! (and some other small things)

  I just wanted to say merry Christmas to everyone here at GS! And to all my enemies merry Xmas!(if you've watched futurama you'll know what I'm talking about)
  
  I'm also writing this blog to announce that I've gone back to good old PC gaming. It's the main reason I haven't been on the PS3 forums for some time. I just got baldur's gate II and fallout 2 for my old school PC titles, although neverwinter nights 2 and counter strike source have been eating up all my time that I've tried to dedicate to both games. Right now baldur's gate II is one of the best RPG's I've played in years. I don't know about fallout since I haven't really been able to go that deep into the game. Final Fantasy XII is still keeping me cozy since I have yet to even get halfway through the game and considering my history with almost all RPG's it will take me a good 6+ months to be able to actually beat the game.
  
  Just like before my love/hate relationship with Oblivion continues as I'm once again, for the 4th time reinstalling oblivion. It'll be a b*tch because of all the mods I have to DL, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
  
  In my spare time this holiday I'm going to try and finish learning how to use the new 3DS Max 9(I'm currently learning how to model an airplane) Hopefully I'll be able to create my own models in the near future! On a side note, does anyone think I should do user reviews for games. I've been interested in pursuing it, but since I love actually going deep into what makes the game I've played good or bad I've kind of put it on hold.
  
  I'll officially balance out PC-Console playing once I finally get a PS3 and a Wii. Until then I'll be getting headshots and hunting down dragons on my PC! Well this marks the end of my proper blog.(not like the rushed one below) I hope everyone has a great christmas! I would tell you what presents I got, but I have yet to open them!
  

  • Posted Dec 25, 2006 1:50 pm PT
  • Category: Other
  • 2 Comments

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• 20Dec 06

  Blackout!!

  I just got a blackout in my house and around my area for about 5 minutes. ......I'm really making this as an excuse to update my blog, I know it's sad....
  
  Welll that's it for now. I'll probably do a proper blog during the winter holidays. Oh, and make sure you pick up Nas's new album, Hip Hop is Dead or at least Lupe Fiasco's food and liquor. If that's not your game try out keane's under the iron sea(yes I know it's a few months old, but who cares!)
  
  
  

  • Posted Dec 20, 2006 1:05 pm PT
  • Category: Other
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• 18Nov 06

  The Wii has released!

  Just saw the last 40 minutes of the live footage. Man I would never touch that signed console if it was me. I would put it somewhere safe and buy a new one. That thing would be sacred! Hopefully I'll be able to buy a wii by christmas and a ps3 in the summer.

  • Posted Nov 18, 2006 10:24 pm PT
  • Category: N/A
  • 3 Comments

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