K-Project Eden

Cost of console prices at launch over time

2012-09-14T08:59:00.001-05:00

Buying consoles when they first release isn't just a case of early adoption, but showing genuine support and faith in a company that the particular game system won't go crashing down in flames. Unfortunately, this devotion never comes cheap and is rarely bore by parents who will eventually do just about anything to shut kids up who won't stop asking for the latest and greatest toy. That being said, this genuinely interesting infographic, courtesy of Reddit, shows the cost of consoles at launch over the last 35 years or so - just to put the cost of that PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 into perspective.

Reddit user brazijl also created an alternate graphic, ordered by price as opposed to release date. Something to keep in mind when asking your parents for that next console - that is, if they were gamers early on too.In that case, you can hold it against them forever how damn expensive early consoles were. That'll teach'em.

[via Reddit]

Mario Meets the Parents

2012-09-14T08:22:00.001-05:00

As someone who has gone through the ritual of nervously meeting a woman's parents a few times in my life, I can only feel bad for the intrepid plumber as he meets Peach's for the first time. Thankfully, she makes exception for his clumsiness.

[via Robot Chicken]

Dichotomy of Difficulty

2012-09-06T11:54:00.001-05:00

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Every facet of media has a particular quality that endears people to it, making it stand out amongst the others. Whether its music, literature, television and film, or video games, it’s that uniqueness that creates a chosen preference throughout various cultures and sub-cultures therein. Of all these creative formats, however, video games have a simple aspect that the others lack, putting it in a singular class, leagues apart.

When watching Schindler’s List or Star Wars, a viewer, regardless of what is occurring onscreen is unable to change the static story that is being presented to them as viewers. They cannot affect the events, nor can they alter the narrative to a degree making it easier or more disturbing to watch. Similarly, a reader paging through a Harry Potter novel won’t be able to change the events of Snape killing Dumbledore short of rewriting the segment in their own fan fiction, creating an entirely new, isolated story. Yet, in the course of experiencing a video game, a player is able to alter these states with incredible ease.

Where a majority of art, regardless of its media format, is presented to curious viewers and potential critics in an inert fashion, video games dynamically illustrate the creator’s vision. Those who view or experience games are not passive readers, viewers or listeners, but players who are interactively determining the narrative progression and how that affects the characters lying therein. Comparatively, such experiences had been historically limited to Choose Your Own Adventure novellas, yet this has always been par for the course with electronic games.

Even the earliest examples in the history of gaming have served to involve the player instead of leaving them as little more than an observer. Asteroids, Missile Command, Frogger and Pitfall! are a few prime examples that, despite limited graphics project a narrative upon those experiencing them. Casting players as a pilot protecting the galaxy from wayward rocks, defending futuristic cities from nuclear annihilation, a frog attempting to cross traffic or as an adventurer on par with Indiana Jones, each served to tell a story to those who wished to play. It’s this feeling of immersion into a narrative that has served to appeal to gamers, regardless of age and skill level.

Since then, video games have grown and evolved as a form of expression, yet despite these changes – the principle being them has always remained simple – the act of play. However, this term remains fluidic when it comes to the real of gaming. Where reading, listening to music or viewing a film hasn’t undergone massive changes since their inception as mediums, playing seems to alter with each new technological generation.

Play used to mean simply holding a controller with a sparse amount of buttons or standing at an arcade cabinet moving little more than a graphical sprite across the screen to accomplish a simple objective. Evolving over time, play really has become more than what is encompassed in that little four-letter word. Just look at contemporary gaming systems and arcades alike and the developments are staggering.

Motion controls allowing for in-game actions with little more than a gesture of one’s body, graphics that Atari and Intellivision owners couldn’t even begin to dream of at that time and interfaces that have allowed gaming apparatus’ to transcend the simple purpose of running video games has utterly reshaped the once straightforward classification of play. But through the twisting of this characterization, we’ve seen a transcendence of games, changing the dichotomy of what it has been and will be to play going forward.

It’s here that the overwhelming deviation occurs between video games and other forms of media. As I write this, there is no way to alter the static countless forms of media presented on a daily basis. No changing of the difficulty on Requiem for a Dream to make it any less disquieting to view or Fifty Shades of Grey at all interesting to read and no seamless updates to correct a improperly finished song going out on the airwaves. Video games on the other hand, currently allow for these alterations and more, clearly delineating the differences between the particular art mediums.

That’s where the dichotomy of difficulty ultimate boils down to the elementary distinction between passive observation and active participation in an art piece. It’s why video games are uniquely amazing, not just for the various inimitable traits they posses and experiences they project, but the fact that they’re imaginative representations that can be changed, sometimes at will of the creator and at other times, the behest of the player. Games stand on the proverbial Giants’ shoulders of past media – books, paintings, music, film and television - to produce contemporary content that can’t just be seen or heard, but played, shaping a individualistic message for each person to take from that experience, for better or worse.

Image via Reddit

Last Chance: Become a MWO Founder By 9/5

2012-08-24T11:35:00.001-05:00

Greetings MechWarriors!

We wanted to take a moment to express our team's tremendous gratitude at your support of our project via the Founders Program. We are working extremely hard every day to achieve our goal of making this game a global phenomenon. Your support, via the Founders Program, is making that goal possible.

On that note, we are also today announcing that the Founder’s Program will close on Thursday, September 6th. This is your last remaining period of time to pick up some exclusive MechWarrior Online goodies, since these will NEVER go on sale again!

[Admittedly, seeing these custom Founders Mechs in battlefield action is pretty sweet!]

BUY LEGENDARY: $120

BUY ELITE: $60

BUY VETERAN: $30

Remember, anyone who purchases a Founder's Package will receive immediate Closed Beta Access. (Give us a minute to process your order first ;-)

Again, we want to thank every one of our fans for their amazing support. We wouldn’t be here without you!

Founder’s Program incentives include:

Founder’s Tag: Special status that will be visible in the forums and in-game.
Premium Accounts: Once open BETA begins, Founder’s will earn 50% more XP and C-Bills per match
In-Game Currency: $40 for VETERAN, $80 for LEGENDARY & ELITE
Unique Founders Mechs: Tier dependent, receive one or all FOUR custom Founders Mechs that each pack a 25% CBill bonus.
Recognition: LEGENDARY account owners will have their place in MechWarrior Online history.

Visit our Founder’s section to learn more.

Cheers!

The MechWarrior Online Team

Oh yeah! Check out the Atlas, Jenner and Hunchback in some seriously destructive videos over on ourYouTube channel.

Review: Mario Tennis Open (3DS)

2012-07-10T18:49:00.001-05:00

Dusting off my 3DS allowed me to spend some much needed time away from Ocarina of Time and visit the Mushroom Kingdom equivalent of Wimbleton to review Mario Tennis Open. While I was expecting a further iteration on the original Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there had been some updates to the title as the years have gone on. It bears mentioning early on that MTO won't serve as a replacement for those still hopelessly infatuated with getting their Wii Tennis workouts, but does struggle to stand out as a handheld offering without feeling like this is a game that's been played before.

Tossing solo players right into the competition, Mario Tennis Open offers tournament, exhibition or special games that serve to shuffle the otherwise formulaic gameplay. Tournament drops players into a grid of matches along with competitiors that progressively become eliminated as each gamre is decided. These can last anywhere between a handful of matches or feel progressively dragging depending on the skill of the player as well as the opponent. Exhibition is essentially the same experience, but broken down to the realm of a single match-up.

Prior to entering the court for the first time, players can opt to select any number of their favorite Mario-verse characters. Favorites like Mario, Peach and Yoshi are available as is the norm for many of the Mario titles that have released over the last decade and a half or so. If there isn't a character here you enjoy, you probably shouldn't be playing this game to begin with. That being said, each character feels unique in that they fit into their typical role in the Nintendo universe. Some favor speed or power, but ultimately the differences are enough to set each of them apart.

The special games are a much needed break from the otherwise repetitive play in Mario Tennis Open. Games such as facing off against Ink Plants to score on an opponent 30 times before being blinded with Ink is an interesting use of the 3DS' native mechanics as is the mini-game allowing players to concurrently play against an opponent while hitting the ball through various sets of rings. However, the best of these three games allows a player to negotitate a rendition of World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. with their tennis ball standing in as the main character. Hitting the ball against the wall allows from progression with the failure point being if the ball gets lost or "dies," so to speak.

Sadly, all attempts at online play ended up being little more than a fruitless endeavor as I couldn't seem to find any games utilizing Street Pass and was unable to find a fellow 3DS owner to yield a tennis match - thus the feature will not be measured upon herein.

Overall, my primary complaint with Mario Tennis Open stems from the fact that the gameplay is little more than repetitious without ever really garnering enough change to keep a player from growing bored after more than a couple of matches. While the varied characters, tournaments and mini-games would be enough to justify a purchase at a lower price, MTO just doesn't seem able to fill a major void on the 3DS at the moment.

Frankly, it's as though the title is answering a question no really asked at the moment, yet this doesn't limit it's possibility of having appeal to the multiplayer crowd as there is nothing comparable out there for the 3DS at the moment. Nevertheless, it begs one with wonder as to what Nintendo was actually aiming for with Mario Tennis Open other than being yet another iterative entry in an ever growing line of Nintendo spin-offs and sequels.

Final Score: 3/5

Live-Action Love Affair: Mass Effect 3

2012-07-09T11:43:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to reiterate how much I love it when a game gets anything live-action. Even if it's bad, the thought that goes into it can really count.

Halo Reach Tron Mod

2012-07-09T11:03:00.001-05:00

Tron is cool, but toss in some Halo: Reach for good measure and it seems like a winning combination. While the mod may be a bit too much for those merely looking to run and gun their way through a multiplayer map, it just goes to show that Halo is still nothing if not versatile.

Slender: An eerie take on urban myth

2012-07-09T10:31:00.001-05:00

The whole Slender Man thing has always served as a way to freak kids who decide it's a good idea to wander through the woods alone at night out, and for good reason. Despite being little more than an urban myth, it's pretty damn well terrifying. That's where Slender comes in - despite being an indie game with a few artistic flaws in regards to the Slender Man chasing players through a forest, the atmosphere is still exceptionally scary with the only mainstream comparison right now, at least as far as I'm concerned being Dead Space or it's sequel.

Slender can be downloaded here.

Too Dark for Play - Portal 2

2012-07-03T09:42:00.001-05:00

The darkest dialogue from Portal 2 ever at 1:58.

Bullcast #2: Distracted from Games by Twilight

2012-06-26T20:48:00.001-05:00

Bullcast #2 sees Xzyliac, Mestopho and Andrew discussing more of the endless amounts of crap they can't help but get their nerdy little hands on amidst harrowing escapades like work, illness and any other one of a million things that stand between them and geeky nirvana. This week sees a game discussion gone awry and a heated argument about Twilight.

Don't miss this tale of interest!

BullCast_06.20.12.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Celebrate of Glorious Crushing of American Capitalists

2012-06-22T08:12:00.001-05:00

Putting players into the shoes of a Soviet Officer who flew his way over the US during it's nuclear bombing following the forceful end of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 seems like putting a new twist on an old trick. However, upon watching the trailer for Nuclear Union, it becomes moderately clear that a significant amount of inspiration for what they're calling a "Large Scale RPG" has taken significant cues from series' like Fallout and perhaps even Metro 2033.

Certainly, it lends some interest that it suppose to take place *gasp* this year, however, that feels more than less like a kitschy hook to nab some shred of relevance. However, if the game were to be a Fallout-style game from the perspective of the Soviets, then that would be something I'd be interested in playing.

Then again, if that was ever going to be a thing, one would argue that Bethesda and Zenimax would already be working on it.

New Heroes & Generals Trailer Wants Players to Jump In

2012-06-22T07:47:00.001-05:00

War is Hell. Or in this case, silly. Very silly. This latest trailer from the guys behind Heroes & Generals may have human players standing in for their online Axis & Allies counterparts, but the entire thing feels like a lead-in to a Monty Python joke. Not saying that's a bad thing in the least, it's pretty awesome to see developers go out of the way to put a face on the players they want (and should) try to appeal towards. Nevertheless, for anyone who may rememeber Xbox Live's initial ads, this will feel like someone was taking notes.

Fun Facts about the production of “Come Out to Play” via Press Release:

All participants in the trailer are developers or community members.
The director, photographer and editor of the live action footage is the twin brother (Jesper Colding) of our Lead Animator, Thomas Colding. And Thomas directed the in-game footage.
It was filmed using a Canon DSLR Crop camera with various lenses. Jesper actually invented his own custom dolly using pieces from IKEA.
All the CGI footage is in-game footage.
We used the names of some of our most active core community members as tags in the in-game footage.
First movie shoot was filmed in a basement below our old office, in secrecy. Other locations were scouted, but it was too perfect for the shoot.
We wanted to find a basement which looked like a place where crazy gamers (like ourselves) might go to roleplay generals moving imaginary war pieces and taking themselves far too seriously. Mission accomplished!
We rallied 9 community members for the first shoot. Interestingly, one talented fellow (Vashu) was actually hired as a programmer after the shoot!
Three of the community members included a father (rambodk) and his two sons (mgmmads and Lodrysil – also a moderator on the H&G forums).
One die hard community member (cRo4ti4) showed up all the way from Berlin carrying two pieces of paper with questions about Heroes & Generals, which he used every possible break in the shoot to ask us.
The second shoot was filmed in 'Dyrehaven' (Danish for 'The Deer Park') outside Copenhagen. Dyrehaven is a very well known park in Denmark.
The outdoor scenes were shot in the winter. Filming began in the early morning and it was freezing.
Our CEO's son was supposed to show up, but he bailed because it was too cold!
Dyrehaven was chosen because it’s a really epic setting and we found locations there that resembled some of the in-game maps.
4 developers were part of this shoot, as well as PR Manager Kenneth Ellegaard Andersen.
The third shoot was at our office during GDC, starring three developers and a return cameo appearance by community member Lodrysil.
Level Designer and co-founder Peter Fleckenstein was filmed sitting on the toilet with an iPad to demonstrate our upcoming app 'Heroes & Generals: Mobile Command'. It sort of brings a whole new meaning to 'Play Anytime, Play Anywhere'.
Nobody was harmed in the making of this video! While thousands have been fragged in Heroes & Generals.

For more on Heroes and Generals, see here.

Starting the Day Off Right

2012-06-22T07:27:00.001-05:00

CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO PLAY DOTA 2

To get started - launch Steam, locate the game in your library and follow the instructions to install the game.

As always, we rely on your feedback to improve the game, so please drop us a line and let us know how we're doing.

To install Steam, click this link: www.steampowered.com/about

Thanks, and enjoy your game!

The Dota 2 Team

Humble Indie Bundle V Arrives

2012-05-31T12:37:00.001-05:00

Hey there!

Humble Indie Bundle V is here to blow your mind with five modern masterpieces of gaming!

Pay what you want for Psychonauts, LIMBO, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, andSuperbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. If you choose to pay more than the average price, you will also receive Bastion! Each game comes with its soundtrack in both lossless (FLAC) and MP3 formats.

Each of these DRM-free games works on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and can optionally be redeemed on Steam if you choose more than $1. Bundle buyers can also benefit the Child's Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, non-profits doing excellent work in the name of gamers worldwide.

Getting these awesome games and their soundtracks would normally cost more than $110, but Humble Indie Bundle V lets you set the price! Head to the site now and pay what you want for a whole summer's worth of incredible games and soundtracks!

The deal will only be live for 2 weeks, so click here to pick up your Humble Indie Bundle V before time runs out!

Sincerely,
Jeffrey Rosen
Humble Bundle

New humble indie bundle can be found here if the links don't work for you.

Battleship Illustrates Activision Disconnect

2012-05-31T09:35:00.001-05:00

Lately, there seems to be a lack of broad vision at Activision. I’m not talking about Activision-Blizzard, because the creators of Diablo III have been swamped with their own problems. I’m talking about the developer that has openly admitted to throwing a majority of their investing power into hit franchises guaranteed to make a return at the cost of squashing more experimental, unique or original games. From a business standpoint, this makes absolute sense – nurturing what works and garners a killing at retail. However, a recent title is illustrating all too well it seems, that Activision may need to step down from their ivory tower, even if for a brief moment.

Video games based on films traditionally perform poorly. This has been a nigh inescapable fact since E.T. arrived on the Atari almost three decades ago. It seems that somewhere between the desires to maximize profits and meeting release date deadlines, creativity and fun get quashed. Or worse yet, a title gets produced solely to occupy shelf space with no thought given to the underlying quality of the game. The latest blunder in this long tradition based on what is quickly becoming the flop of the summer, Battleship.

Demonstrating little to no ecumenical knowledge pertaining to what it is gamers want, Universal Pictures and, by proxy, Activision instead opted to go the rout of seemingly hoping for the best – basing their anticipated success of Battleship solely on another Hasbro property – Transformers.

This is where the dichotomy of the two franchises ultimately diverges sharply, separating their success by peaks and valleys. Whereas Transformers has proven time and again to be a vivid universe full of interesting characters, concepts and conflicts where robots ever battle for domination, Battleship is little more than succinctly summarized in the span of a sentence – it’s a game where you blindly guess grid coordinates. It doesn’t even warrant “naval warfare” in the description because anything could be put on said grid and the game would be relatively unchanged.

So one is left wondering how such garbage becomes expanded into not just a feature-length film complete with a moderately renowned cast complete with a video game tie-in to boot. My only guess would be laziness on the part of every single executive attached to the project. Combine that with a need for add-on products relative to soft drinks, toys and whatever else can be branded and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Sadly, this only further illustrates Activision’s connection with the common gamer couldn’t be weaker at this moment. Having grown complacent with the financial success of hit titles like Call of Duty and, until finally being put on hiatus, Guitar Hero and every incarnation that could be branched off therein, it makes sense that the publisher and it’s development houses have become a stable full of one-trick ponies. Battleship just shined the light on the problem.

Obviously, the solution is to mix up development and push newer, more creative projects to the forefront. However, at this point, it seems like a new idea to Activision is little more than setting Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in the future. Thus, Activision has essentially condemned themselves at this point to being little more than the McDonald’s of the video game industry, churning out the same, commonplace stuffs that people have grown to love out of routine and intellectually emaciate themselves upon.

So, while I’d hate to interrupt Activision from their lawsuits and lounging in fashion similar to Scrooge McDuck, I have to implore them in this case to take steps not to go the way of film studios intent on funneling the same old stuff into the waiting brains of the general populace. Every story hasn’t been told yet and of all the plausible mediums available, video games still allow new and twisted tales to exist for players to interact. Certainly, they may not sell several million copies upon release or guarantee a bottom line at the end of a fiscal year, but it’s inherent in the risk of actually trying to give gamers, who are all too enthusiastic to consume content, something they haven’t seen before.

Better now to fix the problem, before Activision’s Battleship sinks.

Dead Space 3 appears to be a thing

2012-05-31T07:32:00.001-05:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

The images speak for themselves. Having been utterly terrified by the first and second entries into the Dead Space series, I couldn't be happier that this series is getting rouded out with a third.

[Source]

Doom 3 BFG Edition Trailer

2012-05-30T09:24:00.001-05:00

Hey developers, please continue remastering and re-releasing all the games because there's no feeling in the world like having the everloving crap scared out of you all over again.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Amazon Exclusive Wallpaper

2012-05-29T12:37:00.001-05:00

I've always had a problem with exclusive downloadable content when you pre-order through a specific retailer. Primarily because it limits the available content to the overall pool of users and, more importantly, homogenizes groups into forced retailer/brand loyalty, which is ultimately unimportant. After all, at the end of the day, you just want to play the game, right?

So, in the course or pre-ordering my copy of Black Ops 2 from Amazon -- since time is never in my favor when hoping to make it out to a midnight launch for a title and I have a vapid desire for First-Person Shooters that must be satiated -- I nabbed a semi-sweet wallpaper.

It currently adorning my work laptop and pretty easy on the eyes, so if you want it, there it is for the taking. An awesome wallpaper for the Call of Duty fans in the crowd, exclusive no longer!

The worst kind of D&D Player

2012-05-29T10:42:00.001-05:00

Game Dev Project Becomes Dubstep Sim

2012-05-05T09:57:00.001-05:00

Understanding Video Games

2012-05-05T09:32:00.001-05:00

Preview: Gratuitous Tank Battles

2012-04-15T21:12:00.001-05:00

In the wake of Gratuitous Space Battles, an epic title that highlights players’ creative abilities to relish in design and strategy as opposed to outright micromanagement comes the highly anticipated spiritual successor Gratuitous Tank Battles. Gone is the cold, dark void of space instead giving way to gritty battlefields wrought by endless World War I warfare that has traversed into a future full of hulking tanks, artillery and mechs. Where Space Battles faced players with simply letting their creations loose on the enemy following the formulation of a rudimentary strategy, Tank Battles expands on this in a way that appreciably layers on top of what veteran GSB players will have come to know and love.

Not completely redone from the top down, GTB has come into life as a tower attack/defense title that encapsulates on the subject matter well while taking cues from its predecessor. Whether choosing to traverse the trenches as the attacker or attempting to break the enemy rush into the breach as a defender, players will find themselves wrestling with which way to play first as both have proven equally entertaining thus far.

Selecting the Campaign will lead players to an overlaid battle map allowing a choice of missions to be played that become progressively unlocked as missions are accomplished. Prior to each of the eight engagements, there is a choice to select difficulty of Captain, Major and Colonel (Easy, Medium and Hard, respectively), but what’s even more interesting is the choice of being able to choose whether or not to play offense or defense. Certainly enough, it’s possible to play the tower defense attacker in hits like Anomaly Warzone Earth and defend in Defense Grid: The Awakening, but Gratuitous Tank Battles not only ties both of those gameplay options together with relative ease, it does it innately well.

Regardless of which option you choose, assaulting or guarding, players will be able to allow whether the computer is able to use a pre-determined set of units, select from a pool of allotted units available for that particular mission or use any unit in the game, even those designed by the player, against them. While it may not seem like a big deal at first, knowing that the AI is capable of adaptive play is interesting as it constantly challenges the player to acclimate to a battle as well. Despite the fact that weapons fall into three relative categories, those faring well against shield, armor or infantry, it still opens up a slew of gameplay opportunities.

Having a distinct love for tower defense games, I opted to give defense a go first. After playing through the comprehensive tutorial, which may seem a bit longwinded to new recruits but is nonetheless exceptionally rewarding down the line, I was given my first command on the front lines and things escalated quickly.

Prior to the start of a battle, I was tasked with placing a variety of turrets, dependent on my available supplies, along designated points in the terrain along with infantry in the appropriate trenches and bunkers to defend the pathways leading towards the other end of the map. Despite not knowing what’s beyond the end of said path, I can only assume it was incredibly important as I was destroying every last target that entered the respective kill zones. On the other hand, had the enemy managed to shuffle 4,000 victory points worth of vehicles through my lines, I would have lost.

Simple enough, but the tanks, troops and mechs don’t just lazily move along their paths. These enemies have their own sets of teeth and aren’t bashful about using them. It seemed like each time I was able to secure a particular section of the map with enough armaments to destroy whatever shielded or armored vehicles sent my way in addition to the troops that accompanied them, the game would adapt just as fast – the digital equivalent of fighting a Hydra. Locking down an area with one particular type of weapon doesn’t work either and the game is quick to point this out.

Too much anti-shield cannons in one location will net a slew of anti-armor vehicles and infantry. Likewise, a stockpile of machine guns and troops to stay an army of foot soldiers will undoubtedly see the treads of tanks and footfalls of mechs on the horizon. The game is clever and no matter what difficulty is played, GTB does a lot to keep a player on their toes. Thankfully, the difficulty curve is enticingly forgiving early on, never throwing more at the player than they can handle – yet this increases comparably with the setting that’s chosen.

As the battle progresses, supplies will continue to replenish at a constant rate, allowing for the purchase of troops and armor, for both attacker and defender until a timer reaches zero. After that, players have to do with what they have. Often times, at least in my case, this has been a do or die scenario where a single cannon has the potential to halt that one final vehicle, rescuing victory from the jaws of defeat. Yet, this is an intuitive design choice that feels apropos overall and one I’ve really enjoyed thus far.

Flipping things around, I decided to attempt the same mission as the attacker. Dropping vehicles from the left side of the screen, my troopers, mechs and tanks made their way through the pc-controller gauntlet. As my recon mechs made first contact, I was able to get a lay of the land and saw that a lower path on the map wasn’t as well defended as the upper one I had initially chosen. Thinking I could fake out the AI, I placed a gratuitous amount of my forces on the upper path for a few moments. Then, waiting as a small stockpile of supplies built, which cost me a small chunk of my allotted time, I placed a massive force on the lower path.

Having garnered a handful of valuable supply trucks, each worth 1,000 victory points but lightly armored and devoid of weapons, I placed them sandwiched between a combined arms group of tanks, mechs and soldiers as they began their long, hazardous walk to the other side of the map. Zooming in from the sky view, the gunfire, shells and explosions became louder as I watched the damage wreaking havoc on both sides.

For a moment, I felt a tingling up my spine when a recon mech leading the column burst in a shower of fire and debris following a head-on hit from a cannon shell. I could only watch as the rest of the vehicles made their way towards the other side while placing forces equally along both paths to keep the computer off balance. Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I couldn’t suppress a grin one of my trucks crossed the finish, despite being pockmarked and burning with heavy damage. Despite still being in beta, this is the kind of gameplay I can only look forward to with enthusiasm for the final product.

Outside of battle, players are able to customize any of the vehicles, turrets or troops they deploy on the battlefield similarly to Gratuitous Space Battles. Complete with unlocked equipment and attributes that will keep those looking to unlock everything enticed, no expense seems to have been spared when it came to the details of adaptation. Armor, shell type, reloading mechanism and just about everything else right down to the color and shape it will be on the battlefield is open to be changed. It really is a creative playground that gives those who want to experiment with their design in collusion with various strategies a chance to do just that and do it very well.

In one instance, I was under the impression that my 88mm Cannon, the most armed and armored turret in the game thus far, wasn’t quite up to snuff. Taking a few minutes, I modified the internal components, altering the attributes. Upping the armor significantly and swapping out the semi-automatic reloading mechanism to make the Cannon fully automatic saw a rise in cost, but I couldn’t argue with the results. Despite looking the same on the outside, it was an entirely new machine on the inside, firing at a faster rate and dishing out far more damage while being able to take some pretty harsh punishment before faltering.

Yet, for all the good things I have to say about GTB, there is at least one firm reminder that this is still a beta. At least on a Windows 7 machine, I’ve seen the game crash at multiple times for a variety of reasons that I’m yet to pin down so I can prevent those from occurring and being forced to reboot my machine. That being said though, despite having to reboot, I’ve consistently caught myself logging back into my machine and immediately restarting the game for no other reason than I want to play it some more. Of course, the technical issue may very well be unique to my machine, but bears mentioning. As always, your mileage may vary.

Overall though, Gratuitous Tank Battles is shaping up to be everything I’ve honestly hoped it would be as a spiritual successor to GSB. And for a relatively low barrier of admission, ordering the game nets access to the beta, which in turn will update as fixes and improvements are rolled out. The game looks and feels great thus far, allowing for a laudable amount of options and gameplay opportunities that serve to make it a solid contender for your time.

Encumbrance

2012-03-01T21:10:00.001-06:00

Collecting is one of the few acts that separate the average from the connoisseur. At least, that’s what I believed growing up. Collecting, the solitary act of gathering something in a particular series or pertaining to a certain topic seemed to be something I naturally attuned to because it allowed me to amass a ton of stuff. Certainly enough, such a myopic term as “stuff” doesn’t nearly carry true the appropriate tone for what exactly I happen to be getting at, but with any luck, it will.

I collected almost the entirety of the Star Wars Action Fleet as a kid. Saving allowance, doing extra chores around the house or just outright begging when the mood and opportunity struck saw me garner a cornucopia of toys that I’d proudly display atop my dresser – it soon expanded to anything related to Star Wars. Period.

My room became entangled and choked by vast reminders and homages to the original saga and if I had the extra money, extra being anything that hadn’t already been mentally earmarked to be spent on candy or comic books, it went right out of my pocket and into George Lucas’. As I grew into my teenage years, I never quite made the mental separation that there was probably a reason maybe one or two girls talked to me in a given year and even less swung by my house. But then again, the collection always seemed to generate a mixed series of responses.

Fellow boys who would come over at the time would see the collection and be impressed, not just by the sheer volume of iconica, but the fact that it was quickly apparent that I really liked Star Wars. It struck me as odd that other kids my age didn’t have a fascination with something along similar lines. Why not find something you love and obtain as much of it as possible? That was my initial thought process growing up, but as I began to put two and two together (and if I ever hoped to lose my virginity sometime in my young life), it was time to put the toys away and focus on collecting something else.

So, I focused on video games in addition to the relatively usual books and movies. I lined my shelves, desk, dresser and really any flat surface capable of accommodating the slews of media as the ranks of content swelled. As I grew into my late teens, my plethora of dreaded Stuff had reached near critical mass and if it hadn’t been for two simple acts, it all may have imploded in on top of me.

The first was leaving for my junior year of high school at military school. You tend to realize what’s most important to you when you can only carry so much. With the rest staying at home, I more or less forgot what I had stockpiled collectively and focused on what happened to be most important to me. It was a rude awakening, but helped narrow my field of view in regards to acquiring masses of junk I wouldn’t, realistically, end up needing.

The second was a grand act of theft on the part of a child belonging to a woman my dad was seeing at the time. While I was away, he ventured a peek into my room and cleaned out a majority of my collection. Video games, DVDs and books were taken and he was subsequently robbed as well in a cruel twist of irony. I try not to hold grudges, but that is one of them.

Then again, possessions are fleeting. It’s perhaps the hardest lesson anyone learns because it revolves around the fact that nothing we own lasts or remains with us forever. It lends to the simple belief that no matter how hard we try, there is little uncertainty to the fact that everything ultimately ends.

Point being, I’ve long since moved on from collecting Star Wars toys, which have long since been sold to the ravenous hordes of fellow geeks amidst dark, Blade Runner-esque marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay. My books, thanks in large part to my iPad, have been whittled down to a smattering of a dozen or so physical copies. And the last holdouts of my film collection have all but been made obsolete by the ready access to content Netflix, Hulu Plus and ripped content to my computer.

The narrowing of Stuff has since soothed a good portion of mental encumbrance I feel – keeping things around I invariably don’t need. Besides my video game collection, which seems to be up and coming on the list of things to be culled, I’ve found myself focusing on experiences as opposed to hoarding.

Much to the chagrin of my fiancé, I still have an incredibly large amount of video games. Not because it’s a holdover from my childhood or having matured into some ridiculous man-child. But because it’s one of the few forms of medium content I still catch myself gravitating towards after all these years. Everything from the Nintendo Entertainment System Era going forward has its place in my gallery of games.

Granted, I’ve long since parted with the Atari Stuff out of the simple fact that a majority of it can be emulated on the PC now to a degree. And keeping hardware in the small home we share that outdates me by roughly a decade was starting to weigh on the otherwise diplomatic relationship I share with the woman I’m set to marry. So, without a real adieu, I parted with them - sold to the hordes on eBay.

What fascinates me most though, was the Atari was out of the house, I didn’t really think about it anymore. It led to a small existential crisis for me.

I began struggling with understanding myself because I was terrified I was moving away from the little things, namely my love for video games and everything about them, that had defined me in my mind as a person. My appreciation was shaken as I bought into the idea that maybe I was getting too old to be playing games. I was in my mid-twenties, balancing writing about video games with working in the IT field. Perhaps I was just bored.

My backlog was overflowing with games still in their original wrapping and I felt like I was falling behind to the point that my retirement would consist of nothing but trying to justify completing all the games I’d invested so much in over a good chunk of my lifetime. I debated selling my entire collection and starting from scratch to refocus my efforts – hopefully inspiring my love of games all over again.

But then, as I was going through all of my games one day, I picked up my copy of Fallout 3 and it hit me like a mini nuke to the pants. I was over encumbered. Not so much physically, as I had slimmed down so much of my belongings over the years, but mentally.

I had built up what my game collection was in my head so much that the sheer lack of time I had to play all the games was eating me alive. So, it dawned on me to slowly focus on what I wanted to play, when I wanted to play it. Being a freelance writer, I was able to pick and choose a majority of my assignments and given that I’m no Jim Sterling, the odds of me being sent a review with a deadline were, shall we say, perilously low.

So I started to take my time and play, enjoying a game to its fullest like I was when I was a kid. If I didn’t want to rush through a game, I wouldn’t. However, if a game offered up droll content, then I’d pushed to the end, write about it and then part ways from it. I’ve long since felt the weight of that mental burden lift and perhaps saved myself from being filled with scorn over something I should have nothing but love for.

Certainly, mileage may vary, but I went from the kid who had to have everything to garnering significantly more happiness from the experiences I’m afforded. Books are great to read once, a movie might fill the void on a lazy, rainy day and no doubt, I’ll run through a game once, if not twice or more. But Stuff is just that. Stuff. You can’t take it with you when you die and you only have so much open space in whatever living space you have. Use it all wisely, lest the Stuff end up over encumber you, because you only get so much time to relish it all.

Review: Riptunes MP3 Player - Don't Stop, Keep Walking

2012-02-22T12:33:00.001-06:00

Call it a first world problem, but finding an MP3 player that actually fits in with a lifestyle has proven to be obtusely difficult. By that, of course, I mean a device that’s usable while also survivable in the generally rough days that tend to occur on a daily basis for me more often than not. Amidst my eye for thriftiness, I attempted to nab something that could fulfill those two simple requirements while slamming against the break wall of my wallet and leaving my bank account relatively unscathed.

Happening on a Groupon for a Riptunes MP3 player weighing in at a paltry $25 dollars, I thought my problem had been solved. Acquire a device that can travel with me in the car, in the gym and at work should I need to be confined to a server room for any stretch of time. Seemed easy enough that these three elementary desires could be met for a fraction of what an iPod or Samsung MP3 player typically cost. Hopefully, the Riptunes device would save me not just money, but the problem of being cut off from my music when my HTC Glacier lacked cell signal or battery power.

Unfortunately, what seemed like an impeccable buy quickly turned into a case of feeling like I wasted $25 that should’ve gone towards a more reliable MP3 player. Ripping open the packaging, I quickly evaluated my purchase. The weight made it feel flimsy and the screen had arrived pre-scratched for my convenience. I was already a bit disheartened, but given the cost of the device pressed on in hopes that its overall usability would sway me. Insult would quickly be added to injury with all the vigor of a bucket of salt on an open wound.

Let’s go through the advertised features and break down each one for ease:

Features

1.8-inch color display
4GB capacity
FM radio with 20 pre-sets
Quality voice recorder
Customizable equalizer with seven pre-sets
Built-in rechargeable battery
Doubles as removable USB storage disk

The 1.8-inch color display, which is slightly larger than a 1.54-inch iPod Nano screen, quickly proves one solid fact – technology or not – it isn’t always size that matters. Yes, the screen is bigger than the smaller, major consumer electronic device offered by none other than Apple, but the Riptunes screen looks horrible. The colors are poor to the point that my eyes would have trouble focusing in certain lighting and it looks closer to an 8-bit display on a Windows 95 PC than what I would expect from an MP3 player in this modern age.

Did I mention the screen shipped to me scratched? I just thought I should casually toss that reminder in there.

Moving on to the 4GB capacity, which proves to be one of the few saving points of the device, does admittedly allow for a bit of storage. It should be more than enough for anyone savvy enough to understand the menu system to create a few cohesive playlists to use when you’re driving to or from the office, hitting the gym for a bit or just trying to wind down for the day with a private session of music. The problem though is the menu is hardly intuitive and will leave anyone, even IT professionals, struggling to get inside the mind of the developer behind this device to understand what the hell they were thinking.

It’s virtually unnavigable and the frustration will become quickly apparent when trying to simply turn on a song. By the time you finally do, you’ll either be overdue for whatever it was you were trying to accomplish or burned out from dealing with the device to the point of going back to the age old idea of whistling while you work. No device, especially an MP3 player should require such abilities to simply do what it is designed to do sans flowchart. But that’s just what happened.

More often than not, I would end up defaulting back to my phone in the car; office or wherever I was that had a dependable power supply for my lovely Android device. Not that my choice was utterly untenable, but because it became a matter of time versus desire to get the damn thing to do what I wanted it to do – play music.

Even when I did, the sound quality was subpar at any given time. Whether I hooked it up to the aux cable in my car, used my Altec ear buds while running or gave my Beats headphones a go, the sound quality is consistently terrible to the point of audiophilic rape. I’m almost certain that prisoners at Abu Ghraib didn’t endure such assaults on their ears. And ultimately, it ends up leaving other features feeling hollow and broken because I really don’t care whether or not I can set 7 different equalizer templates if all of them end up sounding like complete garbage.

So, while I don’t blame Groupon, I do blame myself for picking up this technological travesty that is so far on the opposite end of the Spectrum of Usefulness from the Death Star that it boggles my fucking mind. After all, for $25 more I could’ve nabbed an iPod Shuffle or put the same amount of money towards a Nano, which looking back I should have, then I’d have a device I’d genuinely be happy with as opposed to a damaged, flimsy piece of junk that will most likely end up in the trash before it ever heads out into the great big world with me again. At least the Death Star would’ve allowed me to destroy a planet or two before a single flaw caused it to crumble to pieces as opposed to shipping right out of the gate with more problems that a Windows release pre-service packs.

Final Verdict: Avoid at all costs

TF2 - Midair Samurai Battle

2012-02-10T08:15:00.001-06:00

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