Tag Archives: gaming

It’s Election Time….

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…or popularity contest if you prefer. Where eager young things put their ‘X’ next to the candidate that they think mirrors their own values and will make the biggest change in their life, while the older more cynical voters know that whoever wins will actually change nothing….. That’s right peeps, it’s UK General Election time Machine Premier Director voting time.

Machinima have put a poll on Facebook for users to vote on who they think should be the next Premier Director to fill Hutch’s spot. A couple of the directors have put “Vote for me” vids up….but you know what, and this is the problem with popularity contests/democracy, people in general are fairly blinkered, selfish and short sighted (and have really poor collective memories).

Tjeb is in the lead at this point, romping home by the look of it. And why shouldn’t he? He’s young and fun and talks about boobs and touching yourself – which exactly describes the general YouTube Community. The demographic for the YouTube MW2/gaming community is Tjeb so of course they’re going to vote for him!

Forget about the guy in the hat who’s been there from the beginning, or that dude who runs around with the knife while making some very acute observations on life, even the guy with the really offensive custom classes is trailing waaaaaay behind the crazy young Swede.

But get this – I like Tjeb, I’ve been subscribed to him for a while in internet terms, but personally, I don’t think he deserves it. *GASP* (I can feel the hate cannons swivel in my direction…) It’s true, I don’t. I think he’s a good player, and his commentaries are fun and entertaining, but lately he’s put up hardly any videos and the majority of his recent efforts have been *yawn* quickscoping. Obviously he has a life, but so does every other person the list.

Some of the other names on the list have been much more active and consistent in posting vids for their subscribers, but that’s democracy for you. The candidate that most closely matches the demographic is the person who wins – that’s how it is and that’s how it’s always been.

So congratulations to Tjeb on your Premier Director status. What do you mean the polls haven’t closed yet? It’s a one horse race!

I’ve been David, and you’ve been awesome!

Peas and loaves.

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Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

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Gaming BAFTAs

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Paul Hearne posted on his blog about the gaming BAFTAs and how Modern Warfare 2, although nominated for nine awards, won none.

Now I know that being nominated, or being a groundbreaking commercial success doesn’t guarantee a win…..but missing out on every category? Surely that’s more bifter than BAFTA? Not a sausage for Hans Zimmerman? A travesty!

So who won what?

From: The winners and nominations for the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards on Friday 19 March.

Action: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Artistic Achievement: Flower

Best Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Family & Social: Wii Sports Resort

Gameplay: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Handheld: LittleBigPlanet (PSP)

Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead 2

Original Score: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Sports: FIFA 10

Story: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Strategy: Empire: Total War

Use of Audio: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Use of Online: FIFA 10

Ones To Watch Award: Shrunk!

GAME Award of 2009 (voted for by the public): Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Seems like the BAFTA people only had Uncharted 2 to play…..but anyway. Some of these winners, I really don’t agree with.

Action…..Original score…..Use of Audio….for three. But the one I have the biggest issue with is Artistic Achievement. I’ve not played Flower, nor am I familiar with the title so I looked it up on YouTube:

It’s pretty. The grass effect is nice and all that. But what was it up against? Assassin’s Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Streetfighter IV, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I don’t know what the criteria is for “artistic achievement” is but out of all those games one stands out more than the others to me. That title is……Assassin’s Creed II.

I always thought that the core purpose of art was to provoke an emotional response (or outrage if you’re a “modern artist”) which is why I’m surprised that Flower claimed the title for Artistic Achievement. Batman, Modern Warfare 2, and Uncharted 2 all do a very good job of setting the scene and immersing you (the initial Asylum scenes in Batman as pretty disturbing…) but Assassins Creed II pretty much replicates Medieval Italy down to the last pebble. I’ve been to many of the places featured in the game and actually walked in the virtual footsteps of the main character. The only thing that’s missing from the game are the smells (especially on the Venice levels – mmmmm stink!).

In a nutshell, I’m disappointed with the BAFTA choices. Not because Modern Warfare 2 failed to win anything, but because the choices don’t seem to add up.

Does anyone know how the BAFTA peeps make their choices? I’d be interested to know how they arrived at their decisions.

Peas and loaves

Find me on PSN – EvadLive


DLC and Virtual Marketplaces are Bad for your Actual Wallet

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Since there’s numerous mumblings and grumblings lamenting the cost of the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map pack DLC I thought it was the perfect time to bring up the subject of the virtual market place compared to the real world.

So here’s how I’ve traditionally gamed:

  • 1 – Buy Game
  • 2 – Play game
  • 3 – Complete or get sick of game
  • 4 – Trade in game for credit or moolah
  • 5 – Go to 1

Essentially I’m only paying full price for the first game and I’ll get a decent percentage off the purchase price of each future game as long as I do it before the trade in value plummets.

This scenario for me provides the best balance between value and playing. Some players, like a friend of mine called Mike, keep every title they have ever played (but he also has every copy of GamesMaster published too….) so it’s not something that everyone will do.

The thing is, when you buy a physical copy of a game you actually own a tangiable product. You can hold it, you can look at the artwork (like I do with my Hardened copy of Modern Warfare 2), you can lend it to your friend(s) and, should you wish to, you can sell it on to fund further game purchases.

However, there’s a cloud on the horizon. Many publishers are looking at ways to get us to download titles. And they will only be available to download. Okay, that’s convenient. You don’t have to trudge into town and queue up in Game (why are their shops so small!?) – you just turn your machine on, make your purchase, wait 10 minutes (or 30 hours if you are being throttled by Virgin Media for daring to use your connection) and there it is – your spanking new game, ready to roll.

So what happens then when you finish the game, get fed up with it, or find that it’s a big stinking pile of turds? Well……nothing. You could delete it – but that’s the equivalent of giving £40 to Sir Fred Goodwin. You paid your cash and literally have nothing to show for it.

What happens if your machine blows up? Content begone! If you had a physical copy you can just reinstall – but in most cases with a download it’s a one shot deal!

Although DLC (down loadable conent) is convenient, it only truly benefits the publisher. As a consumer you have no real rights, recourse or even resale value to the content. I think there needs to be more safeguards in place to protect consumers and improve the support available for DLC. For a start, if you purchase a title, you should be able to re-download that title to your account as many times as you like in the same way that you can reinstall your physical software. I’d also like to see some sort of loyalty value associated with a title/publisher – if I can’t physically trade in then surely that’s not too much ask.

Moving completely to DLC in my case would mean that I would purchase maybe one title a year compared to the five or six on average that I have previously bought (on console). If I don’t think something is value for money then I don’t buy it – no matter what the hype.

What are your thoughts on this?

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE


Weekly-ish Update Post

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So here’s a quick update on what’s been happening in my game related existence:

YouTube
I’ve now subscribed to 70 YouTubers. Some popular, some YouTube famous and a lot of overlooked and new uploaders. If you’re interested, check my subscriptions list by clicking on the YouTube icon coming up. There’s a lot really good peeps on there, so have a look and show them some love.

Three to Watch
My little montage videos of YouTubers whose videos I particularly enjoy watching has reached week 3. I’m getting positive responses from those that are featured – in most cases the first they hear from me is when I send them a message letting them know. They’re not going to get masses of traffic from my teeny tiny channel but in most cases just that little bit of recognition is a boost for morale in a place as angry and negative as YouTube.

Those featured so far:
DuelistMaster9
MisterFantasmo
sasbenjr
xBrZz
KCsCloud
DerekDandy
MrDazzyBee69
IAMThevPReMoNiTioN
EightThoughts

Watch the three montages here.

Hauppage Fund
Slowly slowly catchy monkey – apparently. Except the monkey keeps getting bigger and my foot is nailed to the floor 😀 Damned monkeys!
My now ex-surfboard got to its destination so the Hauppage fund is looking a bit healthier:

The hump has been broken so it shouldn’t be long now…..

Search Terms
As I mentioned in a couple of previous posts, I take note of what searches bring people here and try to accomodate what they’re after as much as possible. Here’s the search terms for the past two days – the majority looking for WoR’s face!


I’ve outlined one search term in red to see if you guys have any thoughts on what it’s referring to. After a quick brain shake of the in games sounds I’m thinking that it might be referring to the Scavenger perk sound? What do you think? And how popular is WoR’s face!?

That’s it in a nutshell. I think that my resolution for the following week is play more and post less. This week I’ve been seriously side tracked by the goings on in the gaming community and its been a bit of a downer. I’ve felt as though some of my posts have been quite negative and I want to avoid that – who wants to be negative, or more importantly – who wants to read a load of negativity? It gets boring and spreads to other things so I’m chucking negativity out the window. Positivity rocks, and rolls – it should be the new rock n roll, or at least the new black.

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE


Which Gaming Platform?

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Every now and then the format wars raise their ugly heads with the respective fanboys venting their spleens at anyone who slights their chose idol. PC vs MAC vs Xbox vs Playstation vs WII……

Well here’s my take on it. Obviously this is my opinion, and your opinion may differ, but that doesn’t mean that we have to have a no holds barred deathmatch to resolve the issue because you know what – it really doesn’t matter which lump of plastic any of like best. What matters is whether or not we have fun with it.

I started out on PCs – customisable, upgradeable, infinitely tweakable: rocking! Except that all that freedom allows douchebag cheaters to pretty much do what they like. I still use a PC for many things – writing this for example, doing audio/visual stuff and whatnot, but not playing games anymore. It gets too expensive and takes up too much time trying to stay somewhere near the top of the game in terms of specs. If PC gaming is your thing – great. Keyboard and mouse – love it!

I had a PS1, then the PS2…….then Sony kept delaying the launch of the PS3 so I got an Xbox360. I hadn’t had an Xbox and I’d never paid to play a game online before. The console I liked, Microsofts content policy I never liked. I paid for the console, I paid for the game, I paid for my internet connection…..and now you want me to pay to have the ability to play the game online!? That must be to connect to their super fast dedicated servers right? What!? No dedicated servers! I’m paying to have the ability to play on someone else’s Xbox and be at the mercy of not only their connection, but their whim as well….that doesn’t seem like such a good deal to me! So when the Red Ring of Death appeared and the Xbox was shipped to the fabled land of RepairCentreville I got a PS3.

So the PS3 is my main console – it’s part of the media centre actually as it’s also a blu-ray player and streams media from the computers without any problems. It’s also free to play online via the PSN – which makes shitty connections and petulant rage quitting more acceptable than when you are forced to pay for the privilege.

As to which is better between the 360 and PS3 – I prefer the 360 controllers, I prefer the flexibility of the PS3. If I could I would mate them and create a bastard child of Sony and Microsoft and christen it the PS360. It would be awesome and I would be hailed as a god, only for me to abuse my power and destroy the earth while trying to create a console-cum-toasted sandwich maker.

But wait, I haven’t mentioned the WII. I know. I have, or rather my daughter has, a WII too. WII Sports, or any ACTUAL Nintendo title – wicked. Pretty much everything else – dung. You can’t compare the WII to other consoles, it’s like trying to compare Wind Surfing with Racquet Ball.

Anyway, that’s my shorty post after my mammoth ping offering. I’m going to shoot people in the face for half an hour.

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE