Hey Man, well this is Babylon

My roommate passed this along to me from Gameinformer, and I just had to share. It’s worth a good 15 minutes of awesome laughter.

So far, Final Fantasy XIII has been an unexpected sine wave of fun for me. At first, I was truly wowed by the intensity of the visuals that the experience provided. I can not recall ever playing a game more graphically stunning in my life. It is truly at the cutting edge of the videl gaming medium in that regard.

I also enjoyed (and still do now, if not more so) the slow-but-steady incline in mechanical complexity of the gameplay. Where others decried its simplicity, I saw budding potential. I’m glad to see that now, several chapters in, I was right to stick out the slow advance of mechanics, as the top-down complexity of the combat system is a whole lot more satisfying to a strategist-type player, like myself. At least, I find it more satisfying than I ever found the combat mechanics of the previous iiterations in the series, save maybe for FFXII (my admitted favorite FF game so far). Read more

I’m looking for some out-of-game inspiration for my current Shadowrun game. When I run games, I like to immerse myself in as many related influences as possible, as I’ve found it really helps me keep up the good vibe. So right now, I’m looking for video games and TV shows that fit the feel. Here are a handful that I’ve found so far, and I’d love some other recommendations.

GAMES:

Shadowrun (Sega Genesis): This game got me into the RPG in the first place, way back when. Quite a fantastic and loyal translation of the game rules to video game format. Canon-wise and system-wise, it’s the best official Shadowrun video game I’ve yet to see.

Perfect Dark Zero (XB360): I freakin’ love this game. It fits the feel quite well. The short version: you’re a stealth-hacker action girl who sneaks into places and, essentially, performs a series of shadowrun-like jobs in a near future dystopia. Awesome.

Fear Effect 1 & 2 (Playstation 1): While the gameplay leads to frequent moments of intense puzzle-based hair-pulling frustration, these two gems are what you would get if you removed the magic from Shadowrun and turned it into a damn awesome video game.

Rogue Ops (Playstation2): Similar style of stealth action, this game didn’t get much acclaim or recognition, but is a hell of a lot of fun to play. Again, stealth-action girl going on sneaky missions in the near future

Syphon Filter (Playstation 1, 2, and PSP): A fantastic series of near-future espionage action games, a must-play for any fans of futuristic stealth games.

Deus Ex (PC): Another good stealth-action shooter, this game has hacking, sneaking, shooting, robots, cybernetic implants and more. A fan favorite, it’s too bad the sequels were crap.

SHOWS:

Leverage: This show really captures the essence of the Heist Job. It has humor, drama, action, and intrigue, and never fails to inspire me.

Burn Notice: I haven’t actually watched this yet, but it’s next on my list. I hear it has a lot of the similar themes as Leverage. EDIT: I watched the first three episodes last night, and yeah, this show rocks. It’s basically the adventures of a Face and his two friends. Good stuff!

Smith: Very sadly, this excellent “what happens between the jobs” heist show was canceled after only a handful of episodes, but it had such awesome potential.

FILMS:

Strange Days: This movie just oozes with Shadowrun concepts, including simchip dealers, low-grade extraction runs, armored limo drivers, race wars, and more. One of my favorite flicks of all time.

The Usual Suspects: Crime, paranoia, whodunnit, and lies. Another one of my favorite movies ever.

Sneakers: A truly fantastic digital hacker flick. Lies, spies, and action.

Johnny Mnemonic: While nothing at all like the original cyberpunk short story it is very loosely based on, this is still a great movie to get yourself into the Shadowrun aesthetic. Has hackers, tech-gangs, yakuza assassins, cybernetic data couriers, and more.

Any other suggestions?

(x-posted from my video gaming blog)

It boggles my mind. Every time I publicly voice my love for Silent Hill: Homecoming above all the others in the series before it, I get jumped by a gaggle of obsessed Silent Hill fanbois who can’t fathom that anyone would love any game more than their beloved Silent Hill 2 – a game which I personally found lacking in a plethora of ways.

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(copied from my video gaming blog)

My roommate (fellow Survival Whore-admin VeiraVX) and I have decided upon our next big nerdly gaming project: a beginning-to-present full-series run through the Silent Hill franchise. We’d planned this a while back, but could never find a copy of the first one that would play on our big screen HDTV. Last night, while playing our second attempt* at the most recent installment in the series, Silent Hill: Homecoming, we decided to try and give the complete run-through a second go.

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I’d like to take a moment to pimp out a site that my wonderful roommate Veira threw together, which I’m helping her support. It’s a web community based around Survival Horror games (and, of all thanks, Charles Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden), called Survival Whore. In the works is a tool for submitting walkthrough, screenshots, capture vids and more. We’re turning our Dead Space and Resident Evil 5 walkthroughs and videos into an interactive section, and we’re hoping to soon add more for more games.

In fact, I’m planning on moving all of my video gaming blog posts to that site, to help generate some traffic and content. Here’s my blog, drop over and say hello. And join the forums too.

That is all!

Last night I played my first game of Left 4 Dead in months, and while a bit rusty, we kicked ass. It was great to buy a new Xbox, take it home, plug it in, and get an invite to play within 10 minutes. Fabulous. So yeah, I have zombies on the mind, oh yes.

The Cannibal Contagion Print Draft is about… 3/8 of the way to completion. I’ve got the basics the way I want them, and I’ve formatted and inserted the art all the way through to just at the end of the character creation section. I want to take this moment to once again elucidate how fucking awesome I think the internal art is. Leo and Vero did a knock-down bang-up fantastic job capturing exactly the feel I was looking for. I’m almost getting a bit choked up each time I place another of their pieces within the text, because each one works so damned perfectly. Seriously, folks, mega kudos. You rock.

Something else? Thanks to working on this document, I can’t get “Eye of the Tiger” out of my head.

One Last Thing: I Promise you, I am working on some play reviews of the GameStorm sessions. However, they are far from complete, and I’m choosing to put more creative direction into assembling the print draft of the game by next week’s deadline. So, once that deadline is reached, and the draft has been sent to the printer, rest assured there will be reports. Oh yes.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I found one of Yahtzee’s “Zero Punctuation” reviews to be amusing or informative. I think it might have been back when the music changed at the beginning of each episode, but I can’t be sure.

Your edge has dulled, mate. Find another schtick.

I tried playing a little more of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and it just further solidified my opinions on this game. I really like the game’s mechanics. I love third-person shooters, and I think the way that gameplay was implemented in K&L is perfect for the heist style of game. But goddamn, I hate both of the main characters in this game, and have absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever. One is a mass murdering bank robber who misses his family (boo fucking hoo), the other is a mass murdering schizophrenic nutjob who is just misunderstood by everyone (boo fucking hoo), and neither of them have a single quality trait that makes them likeable. Seriously, designers, what the fuck were you thinking? Trying to cash in on the wave of lucrative immorality made popular by that terrible Grand Theft Auto franchise, is my guess.

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