How much for a good review score?

Gamespot made it fairly clear, that if you buy enough banner ads, you deserve a good review score.

Firing one of their reviewers for bombing Kane and Lynch is a little suspicious. I didn't agree with all of the reviews the fired employee did in the past, but you could tell he wrote as he felt, without bias. I didn't think Gears of War was that mind blowing. Many didn't think Twlight Princess deserved anything less than a perfect score even though he rated it very good. Thats not the point. The point is the guy reviewed what he thought about the game and backed it up with intricate detail. He wouldn't have held the job for so long if he didn't.

It is your opinion if a site is good for reviews or not. Personally I go right to gamerankings as its a user-updated list of all reviews on any given game, pick a few site reviews(at random sometimes) then read what they say. Not focusing on score really but trying to gather a feel for the game. 1 review doesn't help enough. Metacritic leaves some reviews out it seems. Again, its not about trusting one site...its about a gamer getting fired because he bombed a game by a major advertisement space buyer.

I could see if they just brought the guy on a few weeks ago too contribute and they let him go because he didn't have the stuff. Not the case. Guy was there for years.

Nothing suprising and it happens in all forms of media. Authors were selling out much sooner than developers. Now you can expect a good review with enough money spent. Its just sad to see this kind of thing now sinking its claws into gaming. As it seemed to be lacking before when the business was smaller. Its just the way it goes with any form of media I guess.

I've spoken to a few gamers in person, they played K&L and had nothing good to say.

80 Pixel Halo 3 Issue

Im a little tired of this subject too, just want to put my final thoughts and overall view in my blog. To be honest, I haven't blogged as consistantly as I used to, I've also been able to vent on such issues while working so repeating them is not that desirable. This is more of a rant about miss-directed criticism.

Main point - The original post about this was from the B3D forums. Beyond 3D is a place were people go to discuss 3D gaming in extreme technical detail. The actual thread also included other games. So some gaming news sites (who probably have a vague understanding of talk at B3D at best) chose to "blow the whistle" and people at B3D get dissed. Now how is it that this discussion is met with such hostility? Childish remarks about tin foil hats and toenail clippings...those people at B3D have a hobby and as far as I saw they kept it to themselves. Other people go to them for info.

To the people are going to whine about people who they perceive as whining because Halo is teh greatest game evar, Its just as easy to turn around and say the damage control crowd just doesn't like it when someone faults their favorite game about something they dont want to take the time to understand.

In my view, this has much less to do about Halo 3 than it does the X360 and advertising vs the product you actually get. B3D debunks a lot of bullshit marketing hype. In this case when games are upscaling and when its in native res, how it does it, etc, etc. Basically showing some people what is what so you can cut through the marketing bullshit by the big companys and understand it what you are actually getting. B3D has an ongoing thread on console upscaling for the simple reason - the companys don't give out tech details, they hide them, so it leaves it up to the public to speculate and dissect.

Many people complained about an excess of jagged edges on objects and a mediocre framerate from day 1. Its not like every Halo graphical complaint came from the upscaling issue. Average people were not able to say, the reason for this is A,B, and C which took much more industrious people at B3D a while to prove...Halo 3 has technical flaws in the graphics area that are not in-line with MS's claims they use when marketing their products to people.

MS promised 720p widescreen and 4xAA on every game at launch. They did not do as they said. Later, MSGS hinted Halo 3 will be in true 1080p. It was not. Is it still a great game? Yes. It it flawless? No. Things get done when people protest. If there was no drive to some level of perfection there would be no advancement in anything. Games would continue to use the same standard - mediocrity in certain areas. People think these are minor are also some of the people that claim the framerate is rock solid. Well, when COD4 is out at 60fps you'll probably see a reason (maybe small) that people will prefer its multiplayer.

http://www.beyond3d.com/

Why I'm down on the 360 and why the PS3 is not the answer.

So I haven't been playing much 360 because there hasn't been any thing compelling on it. Bioshock I have coming for the PC. I am still down for Halo 3 and Mass Effect on the 360 but thats about it until 2008. I take very close looks at most coming games on the internet and thats about it for me. Everything else is either on PC or I don't think is worth my time. In the past I might have bought more cross-platform stuff on Xbox.

Problem is, even with the few games I am looking forward to on Xbox, I'm going to have my experiance gimped by DLC. So, Im not looking forward to these games as much as I should. Its really a shame that Mass Effect will have DLC. Yes, more Mass Effect content is bad...when its stripped out of the original game to be sold later. Hell, Mass Effect might be an $80 game. ($60 +800pts +800pts). Please, you really don't think that Oblivion stuff was made later on do you? Don't get me started on that....

So that leads to what turns me off most about the Xbox360 lately is their stance on the DVD9 because they see a window to make money on DLC. Not because its really good enough for game size. Don't get me wrong, Bluray is way too big for most games and most developers don't have the budget to produce 25-50GB of content. Nor should content size restrict game size. Stripping stuff out to sell me later...just wrong. There is always "no comment" on that question or a run-around when devs and MS are asked by press. Its what people feared from the start. Yet, we keep buying.

DLC is not working guys. It is if you're collecting royalties on it I guess...but MS persists and I don't see it changing. Mainly, they fucked up on the heating problems and are going to have to pay dearly for it. They will be looking to make up for that financial loss. Where? The answer is from the customers they made unsatisfied in the first place. Pretty messed up.

Look at Valve. They are still saying they will let the community decide later if they will continue with DLC/episodic. Well, you are basically releasing 3 games in 1 box this time to make up for it for the last entry. Not only that, you really seem to be going out of your way to offer an outstanding deal. 3 completely different preoprties, and HL2 ep2 included is completely revamped for DX10 and nextgen consoles. I think that says enough about how you really feel about DLC. It seems they already made a decision...DLC sucks. MS still seems keen on it. Don't hold your breath on user-generated content for specific games. Thats already around on the PC and its free. With the debt they piled up on the breaks for the 360, again, they are looking to make up for it and free doesn't cut it.

PS3 fanboys, don't get tears of joy and try to hug me...

The PS3 is not our savior. Sony is getting a few people not because they are offering some way better gaming machine with more games, they are getting dissatisfied 360 burnouts. I am really down on the 360 and its DLC scheme...so I should run and buy a PS3? The lesser of 2 evils that is doing nothing and has produced nothing. This isn't like voting guys....come on.

You think the PS3 is the answer because its not the 360 and its "reliable, sturdy". Oh is that why I buy a gaming machine? So it won't break? Look at what standards have come to.

PS3 is to play games on. Yet thats all been promises, and more promises from Sony. If thats all it takes for you to buy I know of this bridge in Brooklyn....real cheap. And don't come to me with that sad list PS3 fan...the one with 2 mediocre games no one plays anymore and a list of games I can't play because they are not available. PS3 is currently a bluray player, an overpriced PS2 for b/c, and a promise.

Its not the answer to the 360's problems...atleast not right now. I really want Sony to get activated and give MS a kick in the face. Healthy competition. 

Burning Crusade Free Trial

A boring account of my recent WoW experiances. Probably boring to most but veteran WoW players might get a laugh out of a guy fooling himself into thinking he can play again just to try the expansion without becomming addicted. I did learn one thing about deleted characters that I never knew.

Got a 14 day trial in the mail. Was nearly 1 year WoW-free. They don't leave you alone do they? As far as gaming releases go this summer should be a little better than most. The Darkness should provide a solid experiance among others and Bioshock late August. So I put the trial disk deep into my PC collection. (Why didn't I throw it out? hmm) I am questioning how good Overlord and 2 Worlds will be. Overlord will be fun but it doesn't look all that refined. 2 Worlds I lost faith in when I saw they were delibrately copying Oblivion visually. Until Bioshock at the end of August, I don't see myself being totally occupied. To be honest, I dont see that happening until Mass Effect comes out. So I have a few months were dabbling in CSS and RE4 for PC isn't going to be enough gaming.

So, I did the obvious. I loaded the Burning Crusade trial. It loaded the old game as you need that but there is no trial code. So I thought I'd get wise and use a trial account for the old game hoping to overlap BC onto it...but that doesn't allow you to play the BC. You need a full account on the old game to do the BC free trial. The old game was ok for the time being.

Problem here is, when I quit WoW I did so kinda bitterly. Left my main pvp guild, left the 2o2p horde guild and unloaded everything I had, items, gold, everything. Not really bitter leaving the guilds but, bitterly deleted all characters so I would not be tempted again. So almost a year later, I'm kinda sorry I took such an extreme approach to quiting by erasing characters I logged almost 2000 hours on. I did need the break though and am glad I took it. I thought I'd have zero options though.

Just playing the old game is not even an option really. The expansion changed the entire face of the game in terms of instancing and gear. So grinding through was refreshing as I really like the dwarf/gnome starting area. I did start to dread some of the later grinds - especially with not many people grinding through the older instances. I could imagine LFG for Maraudon or Scarlet Monestary in a vain attempt to level back to 60 while being ignored for days on end. Truth be told, I dont want to regrind some of those places. I truthfully don't want to regrind some questing areas like Silithus. Maybe Dranei would be fun. So now I need 2 things, a full normal WoW account, and my 60's back (maybe the 3 30-40 characters I had) to make the grind easier or avoid it altogether.

In little time on the help website I found there is a way to get all those deleted characters back. You need to be on that old account and it needs to be a full paid account. They keep these guys on file in case accounts are comprimised. They would not do this for me as I was on a trial account but the possibility is there. One problem is these characters are now spread out on 3 servers. Thats $25 a transfer per character if I wanted. So I wont get them all where I want eventually, too much money.

The next step to think about is - how do I get 2 naked level 60's back in fighting shape for PvP and eventually through the portal? Thats going to be...I don't know. If I kept my honor and rep I can grind through some lower instances with a trash knife and auction off the stuff. Then buy some superior PvP gear to start out so I can grind some higher levels before I go through the portal. Won't be toooo hard.

When I created a new character friday I decided to try an RP-PVP server. One thing I was not ready for was the garbage chat in WoW especially when going in guildless and friendless. Not really looking to RP but to avoid the constant chatter. I figured the RP'ers wouldn't tolerate that crap. That turned out to be somewhat true. People keep themselves in check although not many people RP in public. This is on Lightninghoof anyway. There are guilds that RP among themselves I gather. So basically its a normal server with less annoying public chat. People dont seem to cross the line to often in fear of being reported for not role-playing. People chat in normal talk but are much more reserved which suites me just fine.

My target right now is probably 2 months. If I continue beyond that I would probably apply to one of the guilds here if they are still recruiting. Who knows, I still have not paid for a normal account yet or updated to BC. Still, after a long break, I could see why I spent so much time on this game.

Heavy Weapons Guy

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?type=wmv&id=19523

This guy has more character in his right cheek than the entire Gears of War squad of juicemonkeys.

Take heed...and keep your hands off Sasha.