(no subject)

[egypturnash]

I wish Google Maps had a "walking" mode. That would make planning things like the trip Nick and I took out to Trader Joe's a lot easier.

Also, damn, I really miss living in Glendale where it was sunny all the time, and there was a TJ's like five blocks from where I lived. Oh, to move back to California.

---

Meanwhile, the past couple days have been spent in the grips of GTAIV and its hooks into parts of my brain that make me act like an addict, thanks to read_alicia loaning us her 360 for a bit. I keep on comparing it with GTAIII, due to it being set in a caricature of New York, and it keeps coming up wanting - sure, it's more detailed, but most of the detail is at the expense of gameplay. Zooming across a bridge, then having to brake sharply to stop and pay toll does not enhance the fantasy in the least, IMHO. The whole thing's full of design decisions like that: petty simulationalism over fun. Which, really, is no surprise after all the micromanaging you had to do of your character in GTAIIISA.

I should just hook the box up to the router, give it my cc info, and buy Space Giraffe and a few other indy games. (ooh, and it seems that Everyday Shooter is on Steam now. Better download the demo on Rik's machine, this one keeps sounding cool.)

Comments

[xyzzysqrl]

That seems to be what people -want- from GTAIV, and indeed the GTA series in general.

(Also, if you hook up the 360 to the net, check out EXIT. At least the demo of it.)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yeah, I've been pointed to Exit before and it sounded interesting. Thanks!

I really find it hard to comprehend the desire for plodding realism in video games. We're playing these things to escape from the real world. Model the things that're crucial to the game narrative, but not the things that get in the way of it. It may be more realistic to have to find a burger joint or a hot dog stand to refil your life bar, but goddamn it, I can't find them half the time - not with the ease I could find a luminous health-up floating in the air!

And really, making them "more realistic" just pushes the abstraction of the gameplay into sharper relief. GTAIV does try to give you a lot of options beyond pushing the hurt button, but it also pretty much requires you to do a hell of a lot of that to get anywhere.

[xyzzysqrl]

I have to admit I just don't get it either. It's not really my thing... I have to admit that I love certain elements of realism in gaming. Anything with a proper physics engine, for example, will entertain me for WEEKS. But I can't imagine playing GTAIV for any reason, when the previous (San Andreas) was too "Realistic" for me. Actions with consequences? I'll ... be over playing Crackdown, or Saint's Row, and trying to ignore the heavy downsides of those games.

This is why of all the 360 games released, my favorite may be EDF 2017, which is a no-pretentions no-bull game about shooting at giant rubber alien bugs for 50-some levels.

[coyoteseven.livejournal.com]

Would you let me visit if you moved back to Glendale?

[(Anonymous)]

In terms of Space Giraffe, don't forget that Rez HD is also on XBox live arcade! It even has trance vibration.

Between those two games and a low-light, high-quality audio environment, it's a pretty fantastic way to lose yourself for an afternoon, I find.

[leighqualix.livejournal.com]

"most of the detail is at the expense of gameplay"

oh you mean like pretty much every game ever now

[rayjaysuyin.livejournal.com]

"I wish Google Maps had a "walking" mode. That would make planning things like the trip Nick and I took out to Trader Joe's a lot easier."


Is this (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com) of any use? I tend to use it after-the-fact to see how far I've walked on a particular trip. It could probably be useful in planning, as well...

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

Remember that lediva still has that offer to loan you her Xbox 360 wireless router thingie.

[ultraken.livejournal.com]

That's one of my biggest gripes with the game industry as a whole right now. I regard simulationist realism as an especially pernicious death trap, as it sharply limits gameplay options while consuming unbounded development resources. GTA4 is almost a case study in this, with well over a hundred developers working shifts night and day and costing $100 million. It made its money back almost instantly, though, which just adds fuel to the fire.

(My personal game project is a deliberate reaction against that tendency.)

[ultraken.livejournal.com]

I snapped up Everyday Shooter and Bullet Candy pretty much the instant I found out that they were on Steam. I also got AudioSurf, but I had known about that one for a while already. (AudioSurf unfortunately crashes on my home computer, and I suspect that might be a result having the NVPerfKit instrumented drivers installed.)

[xyzzysqrl]

...Huh. Apparently SOME gamers are finally reacting to this.
http://hijinksensue.com/2008/05/14/grand-theft-art-imitating-life/

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Codes, codes, codes. GTA San Andreas had some amazingly ridiculous codes that could be entered just by pressing buttons on the controller and if GTA4 is anything like that, there may yet be hope.

San Andreas also had a lovely bug that involved getting in a train and holding the accelerator. I don't think there is actually a cap on how fast it can go and you can actually derail it, which results in being stuck in the train and having to reset. It can also go right through the road block on the rails that it's not supposed to pass if you just take it to one and then accelerate all the way to the other. I did a few laps around the entire city before I was even supposed to leave the first area. :D

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. sigh. Not having a NEXT-GEN GAMING CONSOLE!!! of my own I kinda forget this, as I'm still living in a world where a big team is, oooh, five people?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Looks like it's mostly for measuring stuff afterwards, not plugging in a starting and ending point and saying "give me directions, ignore one-way streets and highways because I'm walking"...

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Oh, we have cables long enough to plug it in! It's just a matter of doing it. Also a matter of getting some cash in my credit card what with it being down around $6... I need to ask my mom to write me a check off of my grandma's checking account.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Well, even on the last gen of consoles, many teams were godawful enormous. I like GTA, but I get my mileage out of the simulation aspect by going on rampages. Right now, a five person team or smaller is for indies and small casual developers. Even the games I work on have 8 or 9, though they have small dev cycles.

I like GTA, but what would really push my buttons is an RPG that does away with some of the slavish simulation aspect of a game like Oblivion, but leaves (or improves on) the freedom, consequences, and storytelling aspect. It doesn't really exist. Japanese art direction without the horrendously repetitive Final Fantasy style approach to RPGs. I do like what GTA4 is done, but I'm more excited for it because now it's been done and more focused games can take some of the ideas and put them in their bag of tricks.

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

Well, remember to register yourself another Xbox LIVE account and put your LIVE points on that, if you ever want to transfer the game off my machine. Or you can log in as me and I'll split the cost with you. (I have enough points to cover a game or two already.)
Keep in mind that if you log in as anyone but me, you won't be able to do multiplayer, as that's only for Gold accounts like mine.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Audiosurf never grabbed me. I had some friends of mine extolling its virtues over Rock Band, I got it, played it for an hour, and put it away. All it did was make me want to go dig up an arcade with a functioning STUN Runner machine. Maybe it prefers a genre of music I don't listen to? Then I went back and played Rock Band. :D

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

My favorite GTA3 code was the one in the original GTA3 where it would swap your character with a random pedestrian. It didn't stick through saves, it still used the usual animations, and you had no control over which pedestrian - but you could get off the rails of the 'chunky, vaguely-English-looking thug' role and construct a new narrative about, oh, a woman in a severe business suit who snapped and picked up a lot of guns.

They never had that code again. In Vice City there were a few 'play as named character' codes - which had the bonus of using the model for the cinematics, as well as the game. And we could never get the character codes that were supposed to be in San Andreas to work.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

No multiplayer? Hey, I think that's a bonus for a solitary bitch like me! *grin*

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I think I've come to the conclusion that, at least for me, the entertainment value of a game tends to be in inverse proportion to the number of digits in the team size. Big games by big teams are safe, and tend to only deliver novelty in terms of more and more content.

The days of one guy making an awesome game in his basement are almost entirely gone - but a handful of people can make something tight and focused and neat.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Alicia already has a copy of that downloaded. I should reward myself for finishing another tarot card by having a serious go at it; I haven't played Rez since I borrowed Gabe's copy of the PS2 version.

[phoenixtril.livejournal.com]

I never pay the toll. I always blow right through it and keep right on going, the 'one star' rating it gives you is laughable. Not only that, but the simulationism can be largely bypassed. The whole 'manage your friends thing'; once you get them all too 100%, they'll often call you to arrange activities randomly.
Turn them down right then, they don't like you as much. Accept, then call them right back with 'cancel plans'. It doesn't affect your standing at all, I've put off going and playing chauffeur to the various and sundries for days.
Really, the game has a good life in not just the single, but the multiplayer. Some of the best times I've had have been playing 'free mode' without any defined structure, with sixteen people all shooting at each other. Mayhem. Or, if friendly fire is off, shooting everyone else. Sixteen people with five stars is a lot of police helicopters...

Oddly enough, the comment about the changing of character clothes comes just as I find out that the devs hid the GTA III main character's clothes in GTA IV, and Niko can wear them.

I've been at this for perhaps far too long.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Weird. I had perfect luck with the San Andreas character swap codes that I tried, although it was pretty much limited to Everybody Is a Fast Food Employee and You Are a Clown and..maybe one other. Oh yes, and the one where everyone is a prostitute running around with double ended dildos?

I had the most fun using the weather altering codes (orange sky, sandstorm, etc) plus the high wanted level and motorcycle to create some kind of post-apocalyptic near future. I kind of wish my disc wasn't scratched so badly, but such is the price of buying secondhand used games. Mine was the recalled version and I got it for cheap. :)

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

They do tend to be safe, but not always. I don't think Assassin's Creed and Oblivion were terribly safe, they were large projects, but very focused and innovative in their design. Oblivion is the opposite of the game driven my marketing, people are still buying it to this day and it was practically a launch title. Word of mouth is pushing it now.

As for smaller games, Aquaria is two guys in their basement, and it's completely brilliant. The days of one guy making an awesome game really aren't gone (look for the game Dwarf Fortress, it's absolutely brilliant, and it's one crazy guy using ASCII graphics) but the difference is that you can be a dedicated computer gamer and still not even hear of some of these one-man projects. You need to be specifically tuned into the indie scene, or glued to the Penny Arcade forums. One guy is likely not going to make a game that can penetrate the mainstream market, but one guy can definitely make a living off their games. See Dave Gilbert and his adventure games, or Jeff Vogel and his many hardcore Ultima-style RPGs. ideally, you have at least three or four people, like the Moonpod or Introversion guys, enough spread out skills that you can really make a reliable living,