This is what a Half-Life (2) Movie could look like

The Half-Life series might be one of the most ideal video game properties to make into a film. It provides a rich setting and interesting secondary characters, but without an overwhelming story that a filmmaker would have to stringently adhere to.

Currently, there are no announced Half-Life related films in the works, but the Purchase brothers have worked up the first part in a series of Half-Life themed short films entitled "Escape from City 17." The story follow a group of survivors attempting to, (big surprise), escape from City 17 during and following the events of Half-Life 2. With surreal digitized backgrounds in the vein of 300, the cost to make the first two parts was only $500, yet the visuals are still top-notch. Watching the High Definition version is highly recommended and can be found on YouTube.

Have a Little Faith

I've been playing a little bit of Mirror's Edge lately and there are a couple things I've noticed. The first is simply that Faith, the game's protagonist, has man hands, (and arms)... (click for full size image)

Also, for a city where the police frown upon people running around on rooftops, advertisements seem to be placed in locations where only rooftop couriers will see them. (click for full size image)

Something Fun, Halo 3-style

I took a screenshot of a Halo 3 match a while ago because I wanted to show off my fly grenade-hat. That's right, I like to roll up on my enemies with a grenade on my head cause I'm hardcore like that.

Dead Space

It's 1:30am and I'm wandering the corridors of a derelict mining ship. The only sounds are my own ragged breath, muffled by my helmet and an occasional metallic clank as the ship falls apart. I am Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent to repair the Ishimura, a huge 'planet cracker' class starship, but I have bigger problems now. Most of the crew of the Ishimura is dead, missing or worse. It seems some sort of infection has turned many of them into monstrous creatures who want nothing more than to paint the ship red with my blood. To make matters worse the shuttle I arrived on has been destroyed, most of my own crew are dead and my girlfriend is somewhere on this ship, hopefully alive.

I've finally found time to play Dead Space and I'm midway through the fourth chapter. As I played through the first chapter I had doubts as to whether or not I'd be able to get into it, but the further I progress, the more I'm drawn in. Between the audio, video and text logs and my communication with the remainder of my ship's crew, I feel drawn in not only to finding out what happened on the ship and escaping with my life, but also interested in the several subplots that revolve around my own crew and the crew of the Ishimura.

If I wanted to say there is a gimmick to the game I guess it would be be that each enemy has specific points that must be targeted, but it doesn't feel like a gimmick. In fact, I find it to be an inspired decision on the part of the designers. Not only does it make you adapt your strategy based on what sort of enemy you are faced with, but each time you encounter a new sort of enemy it becomes a miniature boss battle where you must find the weakness and exploit it.

I also find myself enjoying the adventure/RPG aspects of the game. Between being a completionist and the habits I've cultivated having played many adventure and survival horror games I explore every nook and cranny of the environment and I am generally rewarded for my efforts not only with the usual health and ammo packs but schematics for new weapons and armor and nodes. In Dead Space 'nodes' are what allow you to upgrade your weapons with greater damage, ammo capacity, rate of fire, etc. or armor with more health or oxygen capacity. The weapons you use and how you use them can be customized to fit you style of play. I have opted so far to put all my nodes into my armor and the starter weapon: the plasma cutter because I like to play defensively, often luring one enemy down a hallway at a time and wearing them down as they follow me.

The only thing that has bothered me about the game so far is the ridiculously contrived situation that my character is in where he has to go from one point to another on the ship fixing every damn system imaginable. I know that this is a common theme in sci-fi suspense movies and games, but if there is a single working system on the entire ship the Ishimura, I am not aware of it. The game so far has been one of 'go here and fix this immediately life-threatening problem... oh now that you've fixed that one, this other new urgent and possibly fatal problem has cropped up so fix that one too.' I can let it go but it would be nice to throw some variation in.

As I said, I am only on the fourth chapter, which is only about one-third of the way through the game, so I certainly cannot comment on the total package. I am confident, however, in saying that any fan of survival/horror or sci-fi/horror/suspense films, (Alien, Sunshine, Event Horizon, The Black Hole, etc.), will want to give Dead Space a shot. Beyond that, I'll have to hold off until I've finished the game before giving my final opinions.

about 1Up.

Upon hearing that 1Up was purchased by the Hearst Corporation last night I felt much as if a good friend had died, or to be more specific, I felt like I'd been sucker-punched in the gut with a sledgehammer. After several years with 1Up always always being there for me when I called on it to entertain or inform me, finding out that not only had the website and magazine been purchased, but that the majority of the writers who made it all what it is had been laid off was a hell of a shock. Of course how I felt must be nothing compared to how the forty or so talented employees, (many of them writers I look up to) felt upon learning that they had lost their jobs.

Frankly, what a fucking disaster. As Jeff Green, (formerly of GFW and 1Up), said on his blog, 1Up will not be the same anymore. 1Up was made what it is by the people who worked there and they are gone so 1Up as I lovingly knew it is dead. What 1Up becomes may well be worthwhile but it won't be the same. I don't care if anyone tries to tell me it's "still the same 1Up," it just isn't. In fact, where 1Up is now reminds me of the son in the movie Changeling.

So here's a toast to 1Up and all the folks who made it what it was. This comes from the heart:
Thank you all for being writers I can look up to and for people who understood the value of your community and for being champions of the value and relevance of video games. Thank you for entertaining, informing and interacting with all of your fans and readers. Thank you for not bending to the will of the lowest common denominator straight to the very end. Thank you all and the best of luck in all your endeavors.

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Former 1Up employees who are now without a job

The PC in '09

Is PC gaming dead? No. Is PC gaming dying? I don't know, but the lineup of quality PC titles set for 2009 makes for a good argument that PC gaming is still alive and will continue to thrive. Here are just a few of the biggest PC titles of '09. (note: Diablo 3 and Dragon Age: Origin are rumored to be recieving console ports)

PC Exclusives
-StarCraft 2
-Dawn of War II
-Diablo 3
-Battlefield Heroes
-Dragon Age: Origin
-Star Wars: The Old Republic
-The Sims 3
-Empire: Total War
-Demigod


Multiplatform games coming to PC
-Bionic Commando
-Wolfenstein
-Ghostbusters
-Rage
-Prototype
-Alpha Protocol
-Alan Wake

It's going to be a good year for PC Gaming.

A Rare missed opportunity

The NXE, (New Xbox Experience), has been out for a month but it already feels old and worn in, (in a good way). As difficult as it is to gauge the success of what amounts to mandatory interface update, there appear to be more positive that negative reactions. I personally prefer the NXE, it runs faster on my Xbox 360 and despite the fact that he looks a bit generic I like my little avatar. It's just too bad that the avatars represent an opportunity that Rare and Microsoft did not take advantage of: integration of avatars into their new games.

Rare was working on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise concurrently with the avatars for the NXE, so I can't help but wonder why they wouldn't have integrated the avatars. From a marketing perspective it couldn't have hurt to advertise that Banjo Kazooie and Viva Pinata 2 support avatars. Sales of Uno and A Kingdom for Keflings were higher than expected and a portion of those sales can be attributed to folks who wanted to see their avatars in-game. Having the avatars supported in these games would also have helped promote the NXE and the Xbox 360; Microsoft needed to show gamers why avatars matter and including them in two big-name games right out of the gate would have helped.

From a consumer's perspective, (mine specifically), it would be a blast to be able to tend my garden in Viva Pinata 2 as my avatar. Since Rare designed the avatars, they are an aesthetic match to Viva Pinata and wouldn't look out of place wandering around in-game. To take it a step further, the folks on the Xbox Live friends list could inhabit the game as shopkeepers or garden workers. In Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts it would obviously not work to be able to play as your avatar through the single player story, but they could still be worked into the game as inspirational statues in the town or as a citizen and in multiplayer there is no reason why players couldn't exist as their avatar.

Microsoft forced me to choose or create an avatar when I booted up the NXE, and now I hope they do something interesting with it. It's just a shame they didn't use Rare's games to that end.

PS2 on PS3, how might it work? (aside from how it already does)

According to an interview with GamePro, SCE's Hardware Marketing Director John Kohler mentions that Sony is "absolutely interested" in providing downloadable Playstation 2 games, which would be similar to the Xbox Originals downloads available on Xbox Live. Of course, Playstation 2 games would have to be emulated on all newer PS3 consoles, since those newer models no longer contain internal legacy hardware to run said PS2 games.

This brings up the following questions:
-If Sony were to go through with such an endeavour, would the emulation software be coded into the firmware of the Playstation 3 or will the games themselves be reworked on an individual basis to run on the PS3?
-If the emulation software for PS2 games is coded into the Playstation 3 firmware, will it allow the newer PS3 consoles to run PS2 disks, or will consumers be forced to re-purchase the games that they may already own through the PS3 online store?

None of this is certain yet as it is unclear whether or how actively Sony will pursue downloadable Playstation 2 games, but should it happen, I really don't want to be forced to download a copy of Shadow of the Colossus when I have a perfectly good copy sitting in my stack of games.


Source: GamePro (relevent information on second page)

_______ of War?

After waiting far too long for Gears of War 2 to be mailed to my home, (props to Future Shop for waiting a full week before starting the shipping process and to the Canadian postal service for not working on Saturdays), I've finally played through the single player campaign. Aside from having an absolute blast, there's something I began to notice around halfway in: Gears of War 2 has a lot in common with the God of War games.

In terms of level structure the games are quite similar, (especially once you go underground). Gears of War 2 and God of War both create breathtakingly epic environments, but put you on an ultra-linear, almost claustrophobic path through them. Both games utilize super-simple puzzles or minigames from time to time to break up the standard action gameplay. Both games involve rooms full of enemies where the exit will not open or appear until all enemies have been defeated. The civilizations represented in both Gears of War and God of War have a ridiculous fixation with switches and pressure plates.

(SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH) In Gears of War 2 the bosses also seem to draw directly from the God of War school of design. Seriously, taking down Skorge boils down to not aiming, not shooting, not moving, but just PRESS 'B' RAPIDLY. The bosses in the original Gears of War resembled classic FPS bosses, the sort you might see in Doom or Quake where you unload boatloads of ammo until you find a weak point, then unload more boatloads of ammo into the weak point while not dying, (think of RAAM or the corpser). In all honesty, while fighting the Leviathan, (though it was undeniably fun and one of the more graphically stunning enemies to date), I may as well have whipped out my blades of chaos and fell to my knees yelling "ATHENA!!!!!."

Gears of War 2

I've been unable to put the time I would like into writing about games lately, but I'm not going to do a whole post about my lack of time so I'll use what little I have to talk about a game I've been looking forward to for a long time and is hitting stores on friday: Gears of War 2.
I absolutely loved the first Gears of War. The gameplay was fresh and exciting, the graphics were simply astounding and it had the best co-op experience that I had played since Halo and Halo 2. I can't speak on behalf of Gears of War 2 yet because I haven't played it, so instead I'll leave that to the following video reviews (they both overflow a bit onto the right sidebar, my apologies):