Ding 80

It's over, it's finally over. My trudge through Northrend is done with and I can put it to rest for now.

Can I have my life back blizzard? No? Okay..

-Matt

Ear Candy

Have you ever played a game that was a pleasure to hear, something that stepped apart from the average musical experience when it comes to gaming? I have been playing a few new games of late and two of them really stood out to me in more ways than most games. These games are Wrath of the Lich King, the MMO expansion from blizzard that treats records (Even ones set by itself) like piñatas, and Mirror's Edge, and innovative little first person game out of EA's DICE studios. These games share something in common, incredible musical direction and distinctiveness. Wrath of the Lich King 's score is an epic score featuring common orchestral and Nordic themes, Mirror's edge on the other hand is heavily electronic and ambient.

I find myself scouring the internet for locations at to purchase the soundtracks of these games, slipping into the audio menu time and time again to listen to the beautifully scored music of Mirror's Edge, or standing around in World of Warcraft, just taking in the sound. This is something I find I do less and less often nowadays. I am a very auditory person and music is a powerful force to me. A good song and make or break an experience in my opinion and an otherwise mediocre level can be made great by its background theme. I find this happens less and less now, that music in games seems to be less of something that adds to a gaming experience, and more of a mandatory hurdle to pass over.

Back in the days of 2D games and 16 bit music, I found that time and time again background themes were not only memorable, but catchy. Hydrocity Zone from Sonic 3, the boss theme from Chrono Trigger, and many more quickly come to mind when I look back on the 16 bit era. But what modern games, looking even back as far as the 64 bit era, the number of memorable themes begin to decrease until memorable and enjoyable musical experiences are faded away to nothing.

I do encourage this trend in musical quality, because music is a strong force when it comes to entertainment of any form. It can define a moment and capture the theme of a level, and without it the defining polish of a game can be lost. And what could have been an emotional and moving experience will turn into a bland and dry cut scene. Mirror's Edge, among its many perfections, find's one of its greatest strengths in its music. The sterility of the city is captured in the themes and ambiance that emanates from the game. And without this musical prowess, the game would feel lacking and even with its addictive parkour mechanics, wouldn't show the same face. EA may still be a demon in my books, but I have to give them credit where credit is due.

-Matt

Left 4 Dead 2: This time it’s personal.

Allow me to inform you now that the demo for Left 4 Dead is something like twenty minutes, on the long side. Now, I played it for three hours, which means I pounded through the tiny two chapters nine times. And I only stopped because I needed to cook something to eat, and as soon as I am done typing this article I plan to start playing 4 player co-op on live again. But here are my promised first impressions on the demo of this game.

My first run through of the game was a little bit hectic, with my submachine gun and med kit I pretty much ran through it like a chicken with no head, opening spraying fire on hordes of Zombies, accidentally setting off a car alarm during the first chapter, which only caused more zombies to eat my face. Through some incredible luck though, I managed to be the only person to survive the climax of the second chapter. After my first run through, I was psyched, I wanted to ride again, and I did.

My second run through was more coordinated, I knew what I was doing! It was madness; I mowed down zombies left and right, smashing them in the face with the butt of my gun, and popping their heads off with reckless abandon. But one thing I noticed is that everything had been rearranged on me, this is the game's touted AI director, and it sounds a bit lame to begin with but in practice it makes the game something to behold. It extends beyond zombies and power ups, sounds and lights had changed on me to, with them the possible paths through the chapters changed as well. It provides a subtle, yet in the environment created by valve, powerful variance on the chapters. The replay ability is awesome and the cooperative nature of the game is polished to a mirror shine.

Every time I played through the game, it changed on me and hit me somewhere I didn't expect. In one playthrough I encountered a Witch in a corner, These are mostly naked female zombies who sit in the dark and cry until someone startles them, at which point they become fast, painful little bitches who can slaughter you embarrassingly fast. I had my flashlight on her, trying to sneak around her, and one of my team mates set her off, causing her to maul my face off like the psychotic zombie that she is. On another play, we were accosted by a huge tank who pushed us to the back of a train car, we were pinned between a rock and a hard place and had a rather desperate fight on our hands against a monster who takes half of your ammo pool to drop, and another time we encountered no zombies at all.

On the topic of Zombies, I quite like how they are done. Unique zombies randomly crop up through the levels, things like boomers who vomit on targets (Turning you into a zombie magnet) and have a tendency to explode on death, hunters who pin you down, and rip you to shreds if one of your teammates doesn't shoot the thing off you, and Smokers, who can pretty quickly strangle you with their long tongues. Even the basic stock mulch zombies are well done, and the fact that they can run at you at high speeds can really turn them from a Dead Rising, blob of pain to be sliced up, into a real threat.

Go forth and download the demo for Left 4 Dead, the game is defiantly an enjoyable show for everyone who has a plan for the actual zombie apocalypse, which I do. You will not be disappointed.

-Matt

Left 4 Dead

The Left 4 Dead demo just went public, and I am downloading it as we speak. Because I was not cool enough to pre order I had to wait until now to sink my teeth into this zombie-apocalypse of fun, and you should expect to hear from me in a few hours with how much fun I am having when I compile a good first impression.

Meanwhile, go download it, I need people to mow down Zombies with me!

-Matt

I Love Epic Games

The title above pretty much sums up my coming article, and if you care about recent releases you'll probably understand that I will be talking about Gears of War 2. Now, I enjoy the game's play style, it is innovative and enjoyable in the shooter spectrum which is incredibly rare but when pulled off correctly, incredibly awesome. I love its top notch graphics and excellent storytelling mechanism that, although taking a backseat to the combat, often manages to keep someone like me who enjoys a well-written storyline, well within arm's reach of enthralled. But what I love most about Gears of War 2, and really the gears franchise as a whole, is how excessive everything seems to be. The art style and character design are rather insane, which six-foot tall men who look like they could take a semi truck in a fist fight and come out on top, fits the rest of the game's awesome, borderline parody, theme.

I can just see with my mind's eye, the team at Epic, with CliffyB sitting down and considering new concepts for Gears of War 2. I can see Cliff asking "Alright, what are some of the manliest and coolest things you can think of." To which someone will respond "A man fist fighting a bear". Cliff would think on this for a moment before shaking his head "No, that's not quite awesome enough". The team for chat for a moment before another man, at the other end of the room would say "How about, chainsaw fights". The team would light up, before someone utters the word "Awesome".

That has to the design meetings, look at Gears of War 2, in which one of the later boss fights is done completely through you and him, having it out with your chainsaws. I seriously believe that when considering a new enemy, the team had to ask themselves "What happens when Marcus takes a Chainsaw to this creature". The game is jammed with excess and things that most guys would see as 'Simply fucking Awesome, PERIOD'. There is no faulting Epic for this; in fact, I would sooner praise them for this design choice. Although most shooters aim for the manly angle, very few actually sit down and say "How can we integrate the most awesome things we can think of into this game". Anyone who has finished killing the Rift Worm in Act 2 can agree that Epic needed to be in the mindset of 'We're going to take the manliest and coolest things we can and shovel them into this game".

A while ago, a few people made some comments about how Gears of War was a childish game, that the idea of so much excessive violence would only truly be respected by younger gamers because, how many twelve year old boys love talking about playing guns and blowing shit up. I respect Gears of War, and Gears of War 2 for its themes of excess, it's what sets the game apart on a stylistic level. Other shooters have other aspects that set them apart from the breed, such as Prey causing incredible motion sickness, Halo having it's terribly huge ego and foul-mouthed xBox live following (Then again, that could be said about xBox live as a whole.), and Gears of War 2 having it's excessive violence, and well, excess in general to the point where it is almost a parody unto itself.

Epic Games defiantly has the money and the power to put out quality material, and Gears of War 2 fits that bill perfectly. If you haven't tried it, go do so, you won't be displeased. And when you do go try it and as you play through this game, see if you can see it in the light that I see it, see if you can point out that the Violence and Craziness of Gears of War is not a downfall, but part of the game's stylistic identity.

-Matt

Mirror’s Edge

That's all I need to say, go download the fucking demo on xBox Live or the PSN immediately, you will NOT be disappointed!

That is all, go and download it! You'll see why I am so fucking SPEECHLESS!

-Matt

Orthodox Gaming

The argument between hardcore gamers and casual gamers has rippled the recent gaming scene more-so than any other that has come up since, and even before it. To bring you into the loop, the release of the Wii by Nintendo and their change in perspectives on gaming development has brought outrage to the hardcore community. Much of this is based on the theory that "Casual gaming will generate more money, causing more developers to pour more resources into games like 'Wii Music' and less into larger titles like 'Gears of War'. This will cause a decline in the traditional game setup and cause a large boon in simple games." In my opinion this is unlikely, but it brought up another idea.

The Weekly Geek podcast brought up something in his recent show which got me thinking. They used the words 'Orthodox Gamer' and 'Conservative Gamer' in a response to an e-mail they received. And this sparked the chain of thought in my head. Do hardcore gamers share a mindset with conservative politics?

Although the gaming scene falls strongly on the left side of the political spectrum, does the hardcore niche find its perspective on gaming closer to a conservative ideal? Look at the arguments against the Wii and Nintendo's radical changes, many hardcore gamers complain that Wii games cannot be considered games, because they fall outside of the structure that games are supposed to belong in. IE: You are aiming to a goal, with a visible score. With Wii Music, it allows you to just press any button so long as it is in sync with the beat (Note that I may be wrong, haven't played it myself), making it more of dancing around to a musical score, then attempting to complete a challenge according to a set of parameters, without a score or true goal in mind, does Wii music fall outside of the realm of games? Are they the new generation of games, the leftist side of the gaming perspective?

I believe a game needs a challenge and a goal to be considered a game, if it is an experience bar or a storyline, a game needs a direction to follow, but this new perspective on gaming provides, to quote The Weekly Geek again, 'An experience with an interactive world'. Am I an orthodox gamer? Perhaps I am, I just hope that these mindsets are given equal weight, and we don't find out industry floating back and forth.

One more thing on the side, does this leftist spectrum have to deviate from the Hardcore gaming scene? Far Cry 2 gives you a massive chunk of Africa to hunt for your target in, a totally open world within which to play. Although not as constrained as Wii Music, does this open world, and free direction show the entire gaming scene floating away from the pre-defined rules of score, direction, challenge, goal? Far Cry 2 is a very minor example of this, but it floats away from the orthodox rules ever-so-slightly. Eventually we will have the idea of entire games that are just sandboxes in which we play? These are the questions I put forward, let's hear what you people have to say.

-Matt