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Nov. 21st, 2010
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So, I try not to play too much Left 4 Dead 2 because I think when I do it eats a bit into my writing time/morale. However, this weekend I made an exception, and managed to get an achievement I never imagined I'd get. "Still Something to Prove", where you have to beat every (original) campaign on Expert difficulty. And expert difficulty is HARD, particularly when, like me, you play with the bots (who are very stupid. Seriously, if you're in the middle of a fire patch and go down, the bots will run in and try to revive you, burning off all their health and going down too). So how did I manage? I cheated! Well, not really. For those who are unaware, each week Valve schedules a "mutation" that you can play, which slightly alters the game rules in some fun way. I used the current one for the achievement. ( Read more... ) And yay, Achievement unlocked. That's 61 out of 65 achievements for the game done. One more remains likely very difficult (win an expert campaign in 'Realism Mode', mutations don't help with that), another which is very difficult because it involves talking to people to set it up (start a 4x4 team and win a game of scavenger or vs), and two others that require very specific circumstances (in versus, revive a dead survivor with a defib after entering and leaving the safe room, and, in The Passing, playing Versus, Charge a survivor through eight wedding chairs). The last two probably would work great if I could coordinate with somebody to get the achievement through somewhat 'cheap' ways of "I'll help you if you help me", in a private game of versus, but again, unless I have someone I already know well who wants to do that, I probably won't be able to ask.
Anyway, that's how I spent much of my Saturday morning/afternoon when I probably should have been writing. Oops. But I felt okay on making the exception because, on the writing angle.. I'm not back, per se, but I have, for the first time in quite a while, had a story idea that I really like. It's not 100% there yet in conception, but enough's there that I can start and see where it goes. Oddly, it was provoked by a dream, and when I was thinking about it afterwards I connected it to an idea I had a long time ago with no 'story' attached. The idea is sort of 'whimsy' SF (that is, something weird and inexplicable happens that changes everything, that really doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny on its own, but I try to treat it seriously), which is nice because it fits well with not only the fact that it came from the dream, but also the dream itself (which had sort of a romantic (not in the sense of a love story, but a romantic spirit), almost poetical quality rather than being a straight narrative). So I'll be working on that. I had other ideas I liked but haven't quite grabbed me, but at least it's a good sign, hopefully I'm crawling my way out of the idea desert.
Back to games for a moment, since I've been seeing a lot of commercials for Kinect, which I don't plan on buying in part because I really don't have room to jump around. However, I like the idea. I think MY main problem, other than the space issue, is that for most of the uses of it I've seen, it's best for sports or dance games. And I'm sure it'll do well for that type of thing in the marketplace, but for me, personally... BORING. I like adventure games, fighting games, zombies games, something that takes me out of the real world. For me to consider the Kinect, again, space aside, I'd need some seriously cool things you could do in these kinds of games. But in any of those types of games, 'movement' is going to be an issue. You might be able to punch out somebody on the screen by making a punching motion, or fire by making finger pistols, but how to you move? Walk in place? How do you turn? Those are the questions they'll have to solve in a way that feels organic and natural. (I should note that in this section of the post I'm talking ENTIRELY out of my ass. I've never even played with a Kinect. These may be relatively solved issues in practice. I'm just discussing the issues I see with the concept as a way to have fun and explore what I might do with the problems.) I don't like the idea of walking in place, it just always feels wrong, unless they add a treadmill, and turning is the big problem. I'd actually rather they regress a little, and add a simple controller that JUST controls your movement, and is held in one hand (or, you could do something where, say, one finger is monitored distinctly from everything else. If, say your pinky is extended, it means move forward, and other positions mean other movements like turning). Less immersive, but better at controlling, I'd think. Oddly enough, I could see a game involving climbing as the main movement element doable (climbing in place seems to be more natural than walking), some kind of Monkey-man game?
The other option is to make games designed around sitting down or standing in a fixed position. So some general thoughts on the matter, nothing really structured, just whatever comes to mind, I'm bored:
( Read more... )
Anyway, on to TV. Walking Dead is still moving well, probably the show I'm most excited about, even if there's only 3 episodes left this season (rassum-frassum). Stargate is second, and Caprica's last 2 episodes ever. Fringe is on the plus side still. Everything else is... pretty blah. At best, the kind of show I still enjoy as a diversion but don't care about enough to miss if it was suddenly gone, at worst I'm actively disappointed by.
I really need there to be some really cool TV shows again, something I can geek out and obsess over. This year was almost a total bust for that.
I've officially given up on The Event. For those that don't know, I don't have cable, I either get stuff through magic, or watch TV over an antenna signal. I get most network shows through one or another Canadian channel. However, when I change channels, I often have to adjust the antenna a little for a relatively clear picture and sound. It takes maybe 20-30 seconds unless my antenna's having a really bad day.
Last episode of the Event, I had a choice between watching the Event and gettimg up to adjust the antenna, or leaving the TV on the channel it was already on and watching whatever. I changed the channel, but did not adjust the antenna. Apparently, I would rather watch The Event on a blurry TV full of static sound. Or, rather, I'd prefer to hang around reading random things on the internet while it played in the background. This is not a ringing endorsement of the show by any means. I officially do not even care about the Event enough to adjust the antenna, so obviously, from now on I'm not even going to bother changing the channel. Sorry, show, you should have been better and stop trying to be Lost with all these flashbacks to the lives of boring characters.
Speaking of LOST, I watched "New Man In Charge", the DVD epilogue to the series and... well, it doesn't change much. I wish it had been left in the premiere, but only because that would have hopefully less time spent on the crap we got and at least given us a COUPLE of answers. But it didn't do enough to make me feel at all better about the series or to convince me to buy the DVDs ever. The show is still tainted for me by them having 2 years to wrap up a show, and giving us what they did. (But, if nothing else, unlike the Event, I actually gave a damn what happened and what the characters lives were like).
Anyway, that's how I spent much of my Saturday morning/afternoon when I probably should have been writing. Oops. But I felt okay on making the exception because, on the writing angle.. I'm not back, per se, but I have, for the first time in quite a while, had a story idea that I really like. It's not 100% there yet in conception, but enough's there that I can start and see where it goes. Oddly, it was provoked by a dream, and when I was thinking about it afterwards I connected it to an idea I had a long time ago with no 'story' attached. The idea is sort of 'whimsy' SF (that is, something weird and inexplicable happens that changes everything, that really doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny on its own, but I try to treat it seriously), which is nice because it fits well with not only the fact that it came from the dream, but also the dream itself (which had sort of a romantic (not in the sense of a love story, but a romantic spirit), almost poetical quality rather than being a straight narrative). So I'll be working on that. I had other ideas I liked but haven't quite grabbed me, but at least it's a good sign, hopefully I'm crawling my way out of the idea desert.
Back to games for a moment, since I've been seeing a lot of commercials for Kinect, which I don't plan on buying in part because I really don't have room to jump around. However, I like the idea. I think MY main problem, other than the space issue, is that for most of the uses of it I've seen, it's best for sports or dance games. And I'm sure it'll do well for that type of thing in the marketplace, but for me, personally... BORING. I like adventure games, fighting games, zombies games, something that takes me out of the real world. For me to consider the Kinect, again, space aside, I'd need some seriously cool things you could do in these kinds of games. But in any of those types of games, 'movement' is going to be an issue. You might be able to punch out somebody on the screen by making a punching motion, or fire by making finger pistols, but how to you move? Walk in place? How do you turn? Those are the questions they'll have to solve in a way that feels organic and natural. (I should note that in this section of the post I'm talking ENTIRELY out of my ass. I've never even played with a Kinect. These may be relatively solved issues in practice. I'm just discussing the issues I see with the concept as a way to have fun and explore what I might do with the problems.) I don't like the idea of walking in place, it just always feels wrong, unless they add a treadmill, and turning is the big problem. I'd actually rather they regress a little, and add a simple controller that JUST controls your movement, and is held in one hand (or, you could do something where, say, one finger is monitored distinctly from everything else. If, say your pinky is extended, it means move forward, and other positions mean other movements like turning). Less immersive, but better at controlling, I'd think. Oddly enough, I could see a game involving climbing as the main movement element doable (climbing in place seems to be more natural than walking), some kind of Monkey-man game?
The other option is to make games designed around sitting down or standing in a fixed position. So some general thoughts on the matter, nothing really structured, just whatever comes to mind, I'm bored:
( Read more... )
Anyway, on to TV. Walking Dead is still moving well, probably the show I'm most excited about, even if there's only 3 episodes left this season (rassum-frassum). Stargate is second, and Caprica's last 2 episodes ever. Fringe is on the plus side still. Everything else is... pretty blah. At best, the kind of show I still enjoy as a diversion but don't care about enough to miss if it was suddenly gone, at worst I'm actively disappointed by.
I really need there to be some really cool TV shows again, something I can geek out and obsess over. This year was almost a total bust for that.
I've officially given up on The Event. For those that don't know, I don't have cable, I either get stuff through magic, or watch TV over an antenna signal. I get most network shows through one or another Canadian channel. However, when I change channels, I often have to adjust the antenna a little for a relatively clear picture and sound. It takes maybe 20-30 seconds unless my antenna's having a really bad day.
Last episode of the Event, I had a choice between watching the Event and gettimg up to adjust the antenna, or leaving the TV on the channel it was already on and watching whatever. I changed the channel, but did not adjust the antenna. Apparently, I would rather watch The Event on a blurry TV full of static sound. Or, rather, I'd prefer to hang around reading random things on the internet while it played in the background. This is not a ringing endorsement of the show by any means. I officially do not even care about the Event enough to adjust the antenna, so obviously, from now on I'm not even going to bother changing the channel. Sorry, show, you should have been better and stop trying to be Lost with all these flashbacks to the lives of boring characters.
Speaking of LOST, I watched "New Man In Charge", the DVD epilogue to the series and... well, it doesn't change much. I wish it had been left in the premiere, but only because that would have hopefully less time spent on the crap we got and at least given us a COUPLE of answers. But it didn't do enough to make me feel at all better about the series or to convince me to buy the DVDs ever. The show is still tainted for me by them having 2 years to wrap up a show, and giving us what they did. (But, if nothing else, unlike the Event, I actually gave a damn what happened and what the characters lives were like).