o.k. I have just completed then deleted XIII from my machine, now that it is over I feel that I can talk about it more.
XIII is the best PC game that I have played in the past few years. Sure, I don't play PC games ofter, but it includes Axis and Allies, Half-Life, and Halo (there are others but I can't remember them). Halo was fucking great, but XIII wins . . . here's why.
While Halo was very pretty, the JetSetRadio-cell-shading graphics were great, and I could run them to completion despite my less than stellar graphics card and memory situation. In Halo I had to drop down the number of pretty things (shadows, flashes, etc.) I also suffered from small lag issue when there was a large battle because of all the rendering that had to be done. So XIII had a complete gaming experience.
The story was fantastic, with voice actors: Adam West, David Duchovney and Eve. The game requires you to be stealthy often, and interact with the surroundings well. Strategy is very important, unlike Halo where you can pretty much kill non-stop and be ok. It was small things like that which made the difference. I had to hide my corpses so that guards wouldn't find them. Wow, just a great fucking game. There is room for a sequal, which I will probably play.
So this made me thing of something. Games like Jet Set, Zelda and XIII have the benefit of being stylized such that graphics (or should I say realistic graphics) aren't the most important element of the game. Will these odd-graphics game continue, or will they eventually fade out because they are in essence a novelty taht will lose it's shine. I think they have one huge advantage which is even as graphics get better, the graphics in these games will almost always be the same quality. What I mean is this. Three years ago we look at half-life and say that the graphics are great, but they pale in comparison to the graphics of top notce FPS game of today. Hardly half-life's fault, they did the best the could with the technology at hand to be AS REALISTIC AS POSSIBLE. But if you don't try to be that realistic and instead are stylistic, then time doesn't catch you as much. Just a thought.
In other news, still no word from my prof, so I emailed him again. I'm getting pressure from the Newnan job to make a decision, and they have upped their offer to 14/hr. I told them that I would try to make a decision by tomorrow, we'll see what happens.
Games on the Docket Right now (the full docket is the list for Vegas, which includes Rich, Mikex0r and myself as well as others who show up):
To finsih:
Rogue Squadron 3 (Martin)
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (I think this one is mostly Jeremy's)
Freedom Fighters (Rich)
Prince of Persia (Rich)
Knights of the Old Republic (Rich)
100%:
Yoshi's Island GBA (Martin/Rich)
Mario Kart Circuit GBA (Martin/Jeremy)
GT3 (Martin/Jeremy)
Simpsons: Hit and Run (Rich)
F-Zero GX (Rich, but he gave up so I think this is up to Jeremy and myslef, the driving guru's)
Mario Kart: Double Dash (Martin/Mikex0r)
so as you can see we are in healthy stock. Rich and I were discussion how there really aren't that many games out there now that interest us. Maybe the quality is low, or maybe we're getting old and can't recognize quality when we see it. It seems that there are a lot of Metal Gear style games coming out.
M
XIII is the best PC game that I have played in the past few years. Sure, I don't play PC games ofter, but it includes Axis and Allies, Half-Life, and Halo (there are others but I can't remember them). Halo was fucking great, but XIII wins . . . here's why.
While Halo was very pretty, the JetSetRadio-cell-shading graphics were great, and I could run them to completion despite my less than stellar graphics card and memory situation. In Halo I had to drop down the number of pretty things (shadows, flashes, etc.) I also suffered from small lag issue when there was a large battle because of all the rendering that had to be done. So XIII had a complete gaming experience.
The story was fantastic, with voice actors: Adam West, David Duchovney and Eve. The game requires you to be stealthy often, and interact with the surroundings well. Strategy is very important, unlike Halo where you can pretty much kill non-stop and be ok. It was small things like that which made the difference. I had to hide my corpses so that guards wouldn't find them. Wow, just a great fucking game. There is room for a sequal, which I will probably play.
So this made me thing of something. Games like Jet Set, Zelda and XIII have the benefit of being stylized such that graphics (or should I say realistic graphics) aren't the most important element of the game. Will these odd-graphics game continue, or will they eventually fade out because they are in essence a novelty taht will lose it's shine. I think they have one huge advantage which is even as graphics get better, the graphics in these games will almost always be the same quality. What I mean is this. Three years ago we look at half-life and say that the graphics are great, but they pale in comparison to the graphics of top notce FPS game of today. Hardly half-life's fault, they did the best the could with the technology at hand to be AS REALISTIC AS POSSIBLE. But if you don't try to be that realistic and instead are stylistic, then time doesn't catch you as much. Just a thought.
In other news, still no word from my prof, so I emailed him again. I'm getting pressure from the Newnan job to make a decision, and they have upped their offer to 14/hr. I told them that I would try to make a decision by tomorrow, we'll see what happens.
Games on the Docket Right now (the full docket is the list for Vegas, which includes Rich, Mikex0r and myself as well as others who show up):
To finsih:
Rogue Squadron 3 (Martin)
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (I think this one is mostly Jeremy's)
Freedom Fighters (Rich)
Prince of Persia (Rich)
Knights of the Old Republic (Rich)
100%:
Yoshi's Island GBA (Martin/Rich)
Mario Kart Circuit GBA (Martin/Jeremy)
GT3 (Martin/Jeremy)
Simpsons: Hit and Run (Rich)
F-Zero GX (Rich, but he gave up so I think this is up to Jeremy and myslef, the driving guru's)
Mario Kart: Double Dash (Martin/Mikex0r)
so as you can see we are in healthy stock. Rich and I were discussion how there really aren't that many games out there now that interest us. Maybe the quality is low, or maybe we're getting old and can't recognize quality when we see it. It seems that there are a lot of Metal Gear style games coming out.
M
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