Double Vs Since Vice

As a long standing fan of the Grand Theft Auto series It's a bit odd to see the game Vice City reach it's tenth anniversary mark. It was one of the few games I took the time to find everything in, and achieve the golden status of 100% completion. Which is why I love this trailer for it's hand-held re-release.

Looking back at the original now though I realise just how rough the game was, especially the audio which was very compressed. It sounds much cleaner in the trailer, so I'm left wondering if the audio was redone with less compression or somethng. Ahh nostalgia ----Strife Out----

#1 Reason Why

It's no secret that the video game industry is mostly a huge sausage-fest, which is why I'm slightly surprised by the explosion of the twitter tag #1reasonwhy.

1 reason why is all about why there are so few women working on video games today. The industry is extremely sexist, and the slew of tweets holding the tag proves it. The statements and stories on the feed exemplify just how unappreciated girls are in the market. It seems more than anything else that females are treated at tokens in the industry, and their views opinions and input considered as valuable as the whistling wind.

It's troubling to say the least, and the #1reasonwhy feed helps to explain why so few valuable female characters exist in games today. After all it's pretty damn hard to make a believable female character when there are so few women to help create them. Not to mention the lack respect there is for their input.

Y'know what I want to see? A development team made of 80% women. I'd really like to see what kind of games they would make.
----Strife Out----

Sui Generis

I usually don't get excited about something that I post about, mainly because most of the stuff that comes through the news feed for games is predictable. However, every once in a while something comes up that really takes me entirely off guard, and amazes so much that I get very excited.

Well this is one of those things.

Sure the character animations are a bit shoddy, but as described by the video below, the team doesn't have an animation artist. Furthermore the game requires you to actually time your attack and defense.

It's very refreshing to see an engine built around real physical collisions with force calculations in combat. I think it's a great idea to discard the old system of spells or weapon needing defined features that can knockback, knockdown, or disarm.

This is one project I'm going to keep my eyes on.
----Strife Out----

Dolla Dolla Bills Y'all

Gotta say I'm very interested in where this is going. The GTA series always surprises me for how it manages to stay largely fresh, even though it has to stick to the basic free roam mechanics which it help to pioneer. If anything is proof that Rockstar North is doing what it can to change the game and not fall behind it's the new GTA 5 trailer.

My only problem now is how I have to wait for the game, and how I can't attend a midnight release for it. Why? Well I've given up on gamestop, since they treat decade old patrons like shit.
But I digress.

----Strife Out----

Retro City Rampage 02

If it weren't for Assassin's Creed 3 I would have done this video a looong time ago.

I'm almost made part three in the same sitting, but decided I should get some feedback on my voice work first.

----Strife Out----

TESO Dev Diary

The latest video for The Elder Scrolls Online has been posted to youtube, and it's a dev diary. Here they cover what the game is supposed to be and how it works.

I have to say that I'm pretty interested in weather TESO will do what no other game has since WoW, redefine basic MMO mechanics. Something that caught my ear in this vid is how TESO apparently isn't bound to the god awful hotbar system that all other MMOs are built around. Just the possibility of not having to see a huge puke of skill buttons boxing in the screen is enticing, and then there's the idea of not using auto attack.

One thing I never liked about MMOs is their over reliance on auto attack, which really puts a wall between you and the most basic activity, hitting things. The system is exactly why most MMOs end up being a redundant cycle of keying up attack chains. It results in combat that's very detached, which resembles creating spreadsheets more than having it out with a monster.

Putting basic attack and defense controls back in the hands of the player for real time use, will no doubt help to vastly set this MMO apart from the others. Of course there's no telling until I get a hands on with the game, but I'm hopeful.

----Strife Out----

Dragonborn

I knew this was coming, and just about everything I herd about has been confirmed by this trailer.

The only question now is, when will it land for PC? Hopefully the December release for the 360 isn't exclusive, since that contract ran out with hearthfire.

----Strife Out----