The initial shock and awe of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has come and gone, and it's now time to reflect on Hideo Kojima's recently released opus. Though MGS4 is no doubt a stunning game and many would argue evidence for videogames being treated as art, it's by no means perfect. Having just completed the game and spent some time in Metal Gear Online, I'm here to share my gripes about the game. Being a long-time fan of the MGS series, it's frustrating to see MGS4 turn out the way that it did, but I suppose it is what it is. Be warned, I don't have any criticisms of the story, but I do discuss the gameplay in each Act of the game, so if you don't want anything spoiled, best to just move on.
1. No reason to be on the Playstation 3
Why is this game on the PS3 again, besides Sony likely throwing a ton of money at Konami to keep it exclusive? It doesn't utilize the Playstation 3's strengths at all. The previously shown SIXAXIS support is nonexistent in the final product, with only one small sequence that uses it, to poor effect at that. And don't tell me they needed the storage space for Blu-Ray. We all know it was merely an excuse for Kojima to use uncompressed audio throughout the game. Throw some lossy compression at the audio (that 99% of users will never notice) and this game could fit on a single dual-layer DVD.
First of all, why does anyone give a shit which athlete will be selected for the cover of a game? Are you hanging game boxes on your wall and kneeling before it on a daily basis? I don't know about you, but my game boxes go on a shelf, spine facing outward, so I rarely see the cover at all. When it comes time to open the box, my left hand is usually obscuring the cover as I pry it open, so once again, I don't really see the athlete.
Have you ever not purchased a game because of the athlete on the cover? Of course not. Has the appearance of a particular athlete on a cover swayed you into purchasing said game when you otherwise may have passed? No. Therefore, cover athlete announcements are ridiculous and useless, unless you happen to be the athlete involved and need a little extra spending money.
The eternal argument continues: which is cooler, beer or wine? If you ask a brewer, the answer is beer. Ask a vintner, they'd no doubt answer wine. Joining the fray is Garret Oliver, beer-lord at the Brooklyn Brewery, who chimes in with the following video. In my opinion, the best drink out there is Izze, but I'm too lazy to make a video championing its existence.
July 11 can't come soon enough. We now know that as the day when the oft-rumored iPhone 3G will land in US stores. Revealed earlier today during Steve Jobs' keynote address at the Apple WWDC, the iPhone 3G could very well turn the mobile phone market on its head with its laundry list of features and incredible price point. Here's a breakdown of the new device:
• 3G cellular network resulting in much faster download speeds compared to EDGE.
• GPS integrated with maps. Location-based software will redefine how we interact on the go, and Apple wants to be at the forefront.
• Enterprise support for push email, calendar, and contacts with Microsoft Exchange.
• MobileMe replaces Apple's .mac service as a personal version of Exchange, supporting push email, calendar, and contacts.
• Other miscellaneous details: iPhone 2.0 firmware, 300 hours of standby battery life, 8-10 hours of 2G talk battery life, 5 hours of 3G talk battery life, 7 hours of video battery life, 24 hours of audio battery life, all plastic back.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the new iPhone is its price: the 8GB model will cost only $199 with a contract, while a 16GB model will be available for $299. Having just picked up a Nokia N82 last week for almost double the price of an 8GB iPhone 3G, you'd better believe that sucker is getting returned for Apple's new hotness. Sure the camera is a downgrade, but at that price who cares? It makes you wonder how Nokia and other premium handset makers will adapt their pricing model, now that Apple is packing most of their features into a phone that generally costs about half the price. In the end, no one but the consumer benefits the most.
Like every self-respecting geek, I went and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this past week, and while I had prepared myself for a disappointing outcome, I left the theater more confused and conflicted than anything else. It isn't bad, but at the same it isn't very good. It's Indiana Jones, but at the same time it isn't. That's not to say the movie doesn't do some things well, but every time the movie takes one step in the right direction, it takes two steps back. So what did the movie do wrong? See for yourself:
Just a quick note: There are obviously spoilers in this list, so if you haven't seen the film, consider yourself warned.
1. The gopher
I have to get this one out of the way first, because it's the first thing that will likely piss people off about the film. When the movie opened with a shot of a CG gopher, I actually heard someone in the theater say "God damn you George Lucas!" It wasn't Jar-Jar, but it was bad. It's a sign of how little faith I have in Lucas anymore when I almost expected the gopher to start dancing to Kenny Loggins music a la Caddyshack, marking my cue to exit and give up on the film altogether. Little did I know that the CG rodent was only the beginning of Indy 4's problems.
I was one of the lucky folks who managed to get my pre-order code approved before supplies ran out, a feat that entitled me to join Age of Conan a few days early before it officially launches on May 20th. I come to you now from the land of Hyboria with a report of my impressions, which covers the good and the bad of Funcom's latest MMO.
Speed Racer, the much-hyped big-budget movie that tanked at the box office, is the subject of a Wall Street Journal article that attempts to figure out why the movie was avoided like the plague.
The movie in question, written and directed by the creators of "The Matrix," took aim at young audiences with computer-generated race car sequences of relentless intensity and incomparable incoherence. As I watched this hugely expensive and heavily promoted ode to overstimulation in the darkness of a studio screening room, I found myself thinking darker thoughts about the prospect of it being a hit, or, worse still, proving to be the Next Big Thing.
More than a few prominent critics hailed it as such. One of them wrote: "If you watch the film overwhelmed by the assault of seductive visual information and wonder what you're seeing, here's the happy answer: the future of movies."
If you've followed my posting at all, you've figured out by now that I'm a big fan of Batman. The Dark Knight is easily my most anticipated movie of the year, and I'm trying to spread my love for all things Batman. As a challenge to myself and a service to you all, I set out to compile a list of the best Batman stories of all time, across all media. That includes movies, television, and of course, comics. I don't want to spoil the list, but suffice to say my choices will likely ruffle a few feathers, especially for some of the older Batman fans out there.
With more news outlets than ever, you'd think the American public would be well-informed...you'd be wrong. In this short and sweet lecture given at TED, Alisa Miller, CEO of Public Radio International, shows through charts and graphs that American news agencies have completely lost sight of their purpose.
With game reviewers still mopping up their collective ejaculate, you'd think GTA IV was the greatest game of all time. The amount of hyperbole showered on Rockstar's game was unparalleled, with nearly every critic unleashing a string of adjectives that cast GTA IV as the second coming of video gaming Christ. Once the initial euphoria of the graphics wears off, you soon realize that GTA IV doesn't evolve its inherent gameplay beyond that which has come before, and in a lot of respects, significantly less.
With a Metacritic score of 99%, one might think it impossible to find any faults with a game that has been equated with everything from Citizen Kane to The Godfather. Wrong.
Speed Racer, the Wachowski Brothers' latest movie, has a stink surrounding it. I don't know if it's the look of the film, the tone of the film, or what, but every preview I see leaves me thinking one single thing: this movie is going to bomb.
Evidence of this inevitable disaster are mounting, with Speed Racer tracking lower than What Happens in Vegas. Early reviews have not been kind, with the current Rotten Tomatoes score sitting around 25%, and that's before the big-media critics have launched their attacks. Not the kind of pre-release hype you want surrounding your $120-million film.
Commence flame-war! 8Bit Joystick has posted a feature titled 12 Reasons Why Grand Theft Auto IV is Better on Xbox 360 than PS3, something sure to get loyal PS3 owners all worked up.
Some of the reasons include a higher native resolution, more available RAM, faster disc access and multiplayer that actually works.
Glen Beck, commentator for Headline News, has launched off on Grand Theft Auto IV in the usual way, attacking the game's apparent lack of morality, citing it as a murder trainer, etc., beat up whores, blah-blah-blah.
You just know Glen Beck is secretly loving the hell out of the game. Come clean!
Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses, gave a speech recently at TED where she discusses her quest for personal creativity. It's a fascinating speech that explores the mystery of creating something from nothing.
There's this misconception that's been floating around for years now that Biofuels are somehow beneficial for humanity and a way to leave a positive impact on the environment, but really, the entire concept is extremely flawed. When you have rising food prices and people are starving around the world, it's tough to make the case that converting corn into fuel is in any way beneficial.
Fortunately, the tide appears to be turning against Biofuels as people become more educated about its true impact on the environment as well as its influence on higher food prices, which in turn affects every level of the global economy.
The latest entity to jump on the anti-biofuel platform is General Rajat Nag, Managing Director of Asian Development Bank. He told AP:
Nag said, however, that the rapid increase in the price of rice had a "very serious impact" on the region's poor, who spend a large proportion of their income on food.
"The prices have increased very dramatically, almost three times in the last one year and almost twice in the last three months," he said.
Nag said the hardest hit by rising food prices in the Asia Pacific include 600 million people who survive on a dollar a day or less, and about the same number who live on just above a dollar -- making up a group of about 1.2 billion who are vulnerable.
The region's poor usually spend about half of their budgets on food, but recent increases have pushed that proportion to about 80 percent in some parts of South Asia, he said.
With riots breaking out in Haiti, Africa and parts of Asia, people should take note that food shortages lead to revolution and discontent. There's a storm a'coming and concepts like Biofuels, so seemingly innocent, simply hasten the intensity.
