By union I mean my own stupid ass. I’m sitting in a oil and lube place getting my cars oil changed and a new inspection sticker. They seemed short staffed, so I might be here a while. My only consolation is that there’s a new Vietnamese noodle house across the street that I plan on trying when I’m done.
At a personal level, I’m really wanting to do something creative. I think my computer case project last month was just what I needed in terms of constructive projects. Now I’m looking for a new one. I’d say that I’d like to redesign this blog, but I want to do that daily, so its hardly a revalation. I’d also like to design a video game. Fuck, I’d love to work in the game industry. I think I could come up with some fantastic games. I’ve read numerous articles that mention the best way to break into the industry is to create something. Levels, models, mods, anything. Actually, as a project, I’d really love to try my hand at a weapons conversion mod for bf2. Tweak the weapons load outs, new skins and animations, that sort of thing. Maybe push it towards the side of fun instead of realistic. Plus most of the BF2 weapons need a serious tweak anyway.
Also, along the same lines, has anyone noticed the downhill side that retailers (both online and B&M) have taken in their attitude and shelf stocking habits in terms of PC games? I walked into EB last week and I couldn’t find the PC section. You know why? Because there wasn’t one. They had the PC games behind the counter and you had to ask for them. I walked into WorstBuy looking for V for Vendetta and it was the same thing. They’re down to half an isle. Online, same thing. Both ebgames.com and gamespot.com now feature pathetic PC sections (actually, identical sections considering they’re the same company now). Its also hard as hell to get good reviews. Places like gamespot, rottentomatoes, ign, 1up, etc, all place PC games well behind consoles in terms of priority. I suppose most of that has to do with the new round of “console wars” but honestly, I’m still waiting for nextgen games to impress me. Things like Gears of War, Assasins Creed and Crysis are going to be so vastly surperior on the PC.
I guess part of that comes from the fact that, as a gamer, I’m incredibly bored right now. There’s NOTHING worth playing for more than “Matts 15 minute test”.
I need a project, or a game, or both.
Well, looks like my car is done. I’m out.
I’m actually on the verge of finally experiencing the past 2-3 years of gaming, now that I have a PC good enough to play the likes of HL2 and BF2. Any recommendations for games that I need to check out?
why yes, yes I do… lol.
Let’s see, the past 2 years huh. Well, in that case, HL2 is an absolute must. Actually, most of the stuff on Steam is top notch. There’s as many HL2 mods as there were when we played all those HL1 mods back in the day. DoD:Source and CS:Source are still fun, HL2:Episode 1 is fun, a couple of random mods are fun, like HL2CTF, The Ship, Darwinia, Dystopia, Science & Industry (2.0), Zombie Panic, etc.
Of course, BF2, enough said.
Starting with the most recent and working my way backwards in time…
Lately I’ve been playing:
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Prey
Civ4 (and the new expansion)
Battlefield 2, and all it’s mods
GUN
FEAR
Sid Meier’s Pirates
Call of Duty 2
Brothers in Arms
Dungeon Siege 2
Quake 4
That’s about it. That’s the past 2 years. Sad huh. Everything else didn’t pass my 15 minute test. Even at the TCC LAN party this year, we went back and played some BF42 and old school Quake 3 because there just hasn’t been anything good in between. I was considering recommending the last Prince of Persia and the last Splinter Cell, but they’re both full of StarForce evil.
There’s also the subject of MMORPGs. I haven’t played any. I couldn’t recommend any. Obviously WoW is the latest crack addiction, but I’ve heard very good things about Guild Wars as well. I dunno.
Once you get some games up and running, drop me an email and I’ll hop into a game or two with you. And if you get a headset, you can fire up TeamSpeak and I can walk you through all the gaming goodness :)
I’m still knee deep in oblivion. There a few games coming out soon I’m excited about but the life of me I can’t remember what they are now. The new Sam and Max project is exciting but far away. If you wanna design an Adventure game give me a call. I heard they were going to rerelease all of the sierra “quest” series to run on XP. That’s exciting, but not new. I guess the only thing I’m really excited about it the revol…Wii. And as far as games from the past year to pick up, Psychonauts was, in my opinion, the best non-FPS of the last five years.