Would JT please give it a rest!

Once again Jack Thompson has been on his soap box trying get the like of Take Two & Rock star, prosecuted for create games that insite violence and murder. See this Game polities thread for his latest rantings.

I'm sure we've heard all these crys before back in the 80's about violent horror films!

Why do people insist on trying to find something to blame for their or other people actions.

Yes maybe people have commit crime and murder in a way that copies a film or computer game. But that doesn't prove that the film or video game insited them to commit the crime. They would probably commited the crime (or one similar) anyway. In the same way that people have since man was man.

If you start banning violent video games then you would also have to ban violent films, books, TV shows and you'd also have to ban the reporting of violent crimes in the news. As any of these could be used by someone as a source of ideas on how to commit a murder.

If somebody is going to go out killing people they will do it regardless of if they have play GTA or not.

And if JT is going to go around mouthing off about corporate responsibilty then maybe he should be also having a go at the likes of car companies etc that have been proven to release products onto the market knowing that it will result in peoples death, because it's cheaper for them to settle the court cases then fix the problems.

Story lines in games

We have good graphics and physics in games. Plenty of games have good game play.
The only thing left now to make one FPS (or game from any other genera) stand out as being different to the rest is the story line and characters.

I'm tired of these half ar**ed story lines that do nothing more then connect the levels together. Perfect dark is a good example of that, story didn't interst me, you just play the game to beat the levels.

Condemed on the other hand is moving in the right direct you want to progress to unravel the plot, and you actual watch the cut-scenes rather then merely waiting for them to finish so you can carry on playing.

In the case of Condemed it's let down cos it's so linear. But there's nother stopping developer from thinking about the story having key plot points and then having a "maze" between each point that enriches the story along the way.

Games like Condemed F.E.A.R and Half life have started the ball rolling the right direction, but what we need now is developing competeing for the most gripping story in the same way that they compete for the best graphics.

I want to be playing games that are as much fun to watch as they are to play. A good test of this would be to play the game all the way through, edit so that some the action sections were a little short. And then site and watch it. If you can happily site and watch it then it's a good story. And I'm not just meaning sitting and watching the cut-scenes the "played" part of the game needs to be intersting from a story point of view too.

Just so you know

Hi every one just a quick post to say that I'm still here! Been playing too much Xbox 360 to get around to posting sorry.
For the record it's one very nice piece of hardware.

Just in the process of changeing my web hosting so ubermoz.com may be down for a couple of day in the not to distant future.

Also when I get some time I'll be putting up my first X360 review for Condemed haveing now completed the game yay! Just have to get myself away from the other games first!

Until then.

IGN's 10 (Weak) reason to wait for PS3

IGN have an article stating 10 reasons why people should wait for PS3 and while some of them are valid others are somewhat weak or based on Sony hype.

The ones on the weak side:

Reason #7 - You can still Pre-order a PS3 WTF!!!! They are trying to say that not being out any time soon is plus point for PS3!

Reason #5 - HD IP web cam (Eyetoy 2) kind of a weak advantage given as X360 will also have web cam support, which desired developers can use in the same way as EyeToy.

Reason #3 - Better Japanese support, in the list of developers they state any of the ones I have heard of are now doing stuff for X360 too.

Reason #1 - Blu-ray. Yes blu-ray can store more then DVD but as far as games go programmers are unlikely to need the extra space, it's definitely not such a big advantage as to be the number one reason to have a PS3

This to me shows that Sony "supporters" are struggling to slate the X360 which is a good sign for MS. Can the slagging match please stop yes as a "Xbox fanboy" (as some people would say) I concede that the PS3 is going to better but I'm not convinced that it's going to be that much better to make a difference. Plus I can have an X360 in a couple of weeks and have probably a year worth of next-gen play before PS3 arrives.

Apples and Oranges

Today is the second day of X05, and for thoughs of you who don't know what that is, it is Microsoft's xbox convention this year in Amsterdam. Of course the main feature of this show is the X360.

I've been watching the vids, looking at the reviews and reading reports hands-on experience of the games. And everything is looking very nice indeed. Yet there are still lots of people who aren't happy! I keep reading forum entries about how things don't look that much better then current gen games. Are these people mad!! I can see 3 main reasons why people are thinking this.

I think the first of these are that people are trying to compare apples to oranges, looking at something like "Frame city killer" and saying that it looks alright but his face isn't that detailed and you can still see the polygons. But what they are not doing is looking at comparable current gen games. Which in the case of "Frame city killer" would be "Grand theft auto - San Andreas". Put the 2 next to each other and "Frame city killer" looks so many time betters.

My next gripe is that people are obsessed with the graphics and are not taking into account the scope of some of the games that are on the way. This gripe is pointed mainly in the direction of nay sayers of "Kameo". And I completely agree that when comparing a singular model from "Kameo" to one in "Jak and Daxter" that the improvements aren't anything mind blowing BUT "Kameo" is putting some 10 times the number of monsters on the screen at once!! From the look of lot of the games you just can't appreciate them unless you actually play them.

A lot people also don't seem to grasp that in certain genera we are unlikely to ever see the visual leeps of the last generation because they already look so good. This mainly applies to Racers and Fighters. In DOA3 the characters already look rounded and smooth with flowing hair and textured clothing, the characters are cartoony so the next gen DOA4 character shouldn't look more "real". You look at the screens of DOA4 and the characters look more polished and will be in a higher res. But you just can't make the visual look bindblowingly better even if you a 1000 fold increase in graphic power people wouldn't get the increase they're expecting. And the same goes for PGR2 vs PGR3, PGR2 cars already look rather realistic and the PGR3 cars do look even better, with more reflections and detail, but what has improved a lot is that the damage now looks alot better. In both DOA4 and PGR3 the big difference in appearance is the scenery which now looks almost as stunning as the characters and Cars, but no one seems to take much notice of that!

I think what people need to except is that from here on in we're not going to see the graphical leaps of old. Just a gradual increase. Games on X360 and PS3 will look better and better as programmer come up with new ways of using the hardware and once the limits have been met the next gen of consoles will appear but again will only give you the next step up in graphics and again the graphics on them will improve over their 5 years life and so on.

Just compare a X360 or PS3 game made 4 years from now again the last games made for Xbox or PS2 and then tell me there isn't a huge improvement.