My First Time Playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta

I recently found this miraculously in my Steam library, so I gave it a go. This video shows, what I experienced:

To be fair, I like Counter-Strike. But I'm so bad at it. I just can't get better. That's why I love playing Zombie mods or other stuff, that mostly doesn't need skill.
The game itself feels weird. It's no Call of Duty, but neither a real Counter-Strike. Maybe they'll patch some stuff. It's a beta still.

Also I hate the buy menu. God damn console crap.

Movies I Just Watched: God Bless America

The Story In One Sentence (from IMDb):
On a mission to rid society of its most repellent citizens, terminally ill Frank makes an unlikely accomplice in 16-year-old Roxy.

My Opinion:
While can be considered as a comedy, and it has it's funny parts, I see it as social criticism. Our civilisation is becoming worse, but I'm not the one to preach this to you. The movie does it better anyway. It has its flaws and isn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it's the most influentual movie, for me personally, in a long time. After it, I was kinda depressed actually. But that's what the movie is supposed to do.

Would I Recommend It?
Yes. If you don't like todays culture and civilisation, regarding television program and media in general, this is for you. If you're looking for a funny movie, you'll enjoy it too, but I don't think that's all this movie has to offer.

Project: Backlog - Update #1

So here's my first update on Project: Backlog. As you can see in the above picture, some games disappeared and some are new. Well, only one is new, which is Max Payne 2. I just finished the first Max Payne, so that isn't on the list anymore, but was. I removed three games from the list, because I will never have the intention or motivation to play them. They are just either not my type of game, or are for me personally not motivating enough. These three are Alien Breed 2: Aussault, Frozen Synapse and SpaceChem. All of these were either gifted, or I got a key for free, so I never payed for them. So no remorse there.

Right now I've finished three games. These are Half Life 2: Episode 2, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Deleted Scenes and Max Payne. I've started playing Sam & Max 102: Situation: Comedy but haven't finished it yet.
So here are small reviews of those games:

Half Life 2: Episode 2:
This game might be old in terms of graphics and gameplay, but it is still a fun game. The story keeps you going and the puzzles and scenarios are great. I've waited so long to play this game and never understood, why everyone wanted Episode 3 so bad. Now I know. How could Valve leave us on such a cliffhanger and then let us wait for almost five years and there's still no Episode 3 in sight. Maybe they'll reveal something at E3, but that's just wishful thining I guess.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Deleted Scenes:
I was rather surprised by this game actually. I've played the first mission a few years ago or so and the AI got bugged and then I didn't want to play any further. The campaign leads you different places on the earth, where your help is needed as one member of the responsible special forces team in that area. While the missions vary story-wise, they are basically just 'run and gun' parts, while you of course need to find cover or use a little tactic sometimes. So the gameplay didn't convince me, but the story did. For that price right now on Steam (9.99€) it's alright. You'll get Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike, so that's a nice deal, while the multiplayer servers are mostly empty. Your choice.

Max Payne:
In anticipation to Max Payne 3, I wanted to play the first two games before, so I know, if it's something I like. And boy do I like it. I can't believe I overlooked this game for so long. The story and the gameplay are both awesome, while the story really stands out. While playing, you get cutscenes in comic book style, telling the story in a different way than usual.

Easily the funniest part in the game.

I don't want to spoil the story other than saying it's really dark. I think the right term for this would be 'noir'. Check this game out, if you haven't. It's really worth it.

My First Time Playing Battlefield 3 (on PC)

As I recently got myself a gaming PC, I also was finally able to play Battlefield 3. So here's my first round:

I think I did alright, for playing BF3 the first time with a keyboard, rather than a gamepad.
If you noticed, that I already had some points at the end, let me tell you, that I already played one round before on my laptop, which barely could handle the game.

Project: Backlog is still going strong. I'll post an update on it soon!

Project: Backlog

For too long these games have just been sitting there in my Steam library. Now it's time to finally play them!
All these games are either bought at a Steam sale, or obtained a similar way, when I thought "Hey, this game looks so much fun, I can't wait to play it for 40 hours!". SCREW YOU BRAIN!

As you can see, Half Life 2: Episode Two is already installed and I almost finished it, giving me a good start. After playing these games, I might write a short review, depending on how much fun it was and, of course, how motivated I am to write them.

Wish me luck!

I finally joined the Master Race!

What was more of a spontanous buy, made me join the so called master race, in plain english:

PC Gamers

I finally upgraded to a gaming PC, or rather what I was able to buy with my money.
Here are the specs:
- Intel i7 processor
- 8GB RAM
- Nvidia GeForce GT545
- 2TB HDD

I also got a 24 inch Samsung LED monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution.

I'll upgrade the GPU, when I have the money, but till then, I'm happy with what I got.
Those graphics man...those graphics...

Since that PC is finally able to handle more programs and is generally faster, I'll try recording some stuff with Fraps. We'll see how it turns out.

Mod: DayZ (ArmA 2)

Are you a fan of zombies and video games, but recent games featuring zombies are not your type, because they all seem the same? Here's the solution!

This mod features a persistent world, in which you need to survive. You need to find ammo, food, water and weapons, while zombies are lurking behind every corner. The map is 225 km² large, leaving you an almost endless world to explore...and to find other players. You can either group up, or kill other players for their items. It's all up to you.

If you don't really know, what to make of this description, watch this ongoing series of videos, in which you follow a few players, trying to survive:

Did you enjoy it? Here's the link to the mod:
http://www.dayzmod.com/

The mod is still in the alpha, so if you haven't bought ArmA 2 yet and want to for this mod, be ready for complications before and while playing.

Movies I Just Watched: Rosemary's Baby

The Story In One Sentence (from IMDb):
A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.

My Opinion:
There's only one thing to say about this movie: HOLY CRAP! No, not in a bad way. I literally watched this movie 5 minutes ago...I'm still baffled. The whole movie let's you speculate, wether it's just paranoia of the woman, or it might be real, but nothing can prepare you for the end, which gives you a huge WTF face, that you'll keep for the last 10 minutes.

Would I Recommend It?
Yes. If this still would be in cinemas, I'd tell you to watch it there, but a DVD buy seems good enough. I can't believe I wasn't even sure, if I should watch it. Watch it. NOW!

I Didn't Get It (My Internship, My Future)

See that dog up there? That was me the whole day.

So yeah, today I got a letter from Media Markt and it says that they chose other applicants for the apprenticeship and they wish me luck for whatever.

This really bums me out. I had so much fun at the internship and I thought I did a really good job. My colleaugues said, I did my job well, so why the hell they didn't want me? I guess the other interns were better than me at putting boxes in the shelf and putting labels on the products.

My future plans? Well. This year is almost over for applications, but there is still a convention for apprenticeships this weekend, which I will visit. I hope to find something, that atleast interests me and will get me over till next year. Because guess what?

I'm gonna apply for the same apprenticeship next year at Media Markt again!

That's right! Like they can scare me away with my first try. I told the community manager in the application conversation already, if I don't get the apprenticeship, I'll get a job and apply next year again. Then they'll know, I'm serious.

New blogposts? We'll see. I have to get through this crap first. Atleast I passed the theoretical test for my driving license. Only a few more weeks to go, till I can legally drive a car.

Back Home Again (My Internship)

So my internship ended yesterday and I finally got to sleep till noon again. Feels good to be honest, but it definatly was worth it to get up early and work for the four days.

The internship was awesome, even though I didn't get so much to do. As an intern you mostly get to do the stuff, that the employed people don't want to do. But let's start at the beginning.

On the first day I arrived 30 minutes early, which is of course better than 30 minutes too late. I then sat down in the break room and waited for the community manager (if that is the right word in english), while the four other interns arrived. Other then greeting each other, it was an awkward silence. After a few minutes the community manager then got us into another room, where we got to know each other better. After that we went through the whole market and saw for example the warehouse, the service area and all that stuff. Then we got split up into different departments. I was in the "new media" one, which included computers, laptops, printers and everything that had to do with it.
I then met my colleagues for the four days, which always told me what to do and also told me about the work itself. They were all pretty nice to me and it made the work easier and more fun.

For the four days it then was looking for work, doing the work and again looking for work, while learning more about the job and the store. It never was overwhelming or too hard, while sometimes being monotonous.

Overall it was a fun experience and I'd really like to get the apprenticeship. It isn't decided yet and I will get the news next week. On the last day I talked to the head of my department and he told me, he thinks I was better than the intern before me, so that's a light on the horizon.

TLDR: IT WAS AWESOME!

In other news: I have my theoretical test for my driving license on monday, which I still have to learn for. After that of course comes the practical one, but that's still a little farer away. I still hope, that I can write more posts again after monday, since then I'll have more free time again.

2 Days To Go (My Internship)

This tuesday my internship begins. Only two days to go. I'm so damn nervous.

To start this off better, I should tell you where I will have my internship. It's in one of the biggest consumer electronic shops in Europe.

mediamarkt.com

I don't know what I will do there, but they'll propably teach me alot about selling products and all that jazz. After all my job that I will learn in the apprenticeship later is a "salesman". I don't know if this is the right word for it in english, but it's more than just standing around, selling products and being the cashier. It's keeping the store going, buying new products and advertising them. That's what I want to do.

While I was happy first, that I got the internship, problems arised. I don't have a driving license yet and neither a car of course and the store is nearly 20 kilometers away from my home. The train and bus connection suck, making me ride for over an hour, while getting there by car would be 20 minutes. I hope I don't get stranded somewhere in a foreign city on my first day, making a good impression already.

The internship is only for four days, so that's pretty cool. It's only for me to get an inside look in the store and the apprenticeship I want to do. I really hope my dreams don't get crushed and that this really is the job I want to do for the rest of my life. Otherwise, there is no plan B.

I'll try to keep you updated next week, of what I learned and stuff. The working time is from 9:45 am to 6:00 pm, so I hope I can find the time to write everything down.

Alucard0691

Revisiting the World of Warcraft

I don't know, if you know, but a few years ago, I was playing World of Warcraft like 8 hours a day. The Burning Crusade expansion just came out and a friend of me and myself have been playing free to play mmos for a long time. The next step of course was then to upgrade to World of Warcraft. I think we played for a good 2 years with a few breaks inbetween and it was awesome.
Then Wrath of the Lich King was announced. My friend wasn't playing anymore and I got bored, so I quit. Funny enough I got invited to the Wotlk beta, but it was just "okay" and didn't keep me playing.

Fast forward to 2012.
Blizzard announced the 4th expansion Mists of Pandaria. I hear from forums and other places, that the game isn't as good, as it used to be. Now, the friend I was playing with for the 2 years sends me an old picture collage I made, with screenshots of us and other stuff. 

This used to be my wallpaper

NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD!

Luckily, I was not stupid enough, to reactivate my old WoW, or now battlenet, account. I made a new one with which I could play till level 20, which is a nice addition by the way. While downloading I noticed, that you could already start the game and even play. I was confused, but when I created my new Tauren Druid, I knew what was going on. The downloader downloads the important parts first, for example the area you play in right now and the character models, that are there. Another pretty cool addition I must say again. But for the last time.

While playing, the first thing I noticed was the incredible help the game gave you. Back in the day, YOU had to find all the enemies or allies to complete the quest. Now, the game throws it literally in your face. Every enemy is marked on the minimap, so you can just grind all the quests, instead of having to think about it before. The UI is totally different, having adapted lots of addons, which you had to download manually before. Which is bad, because earlier you could choose yourself, what you wanted and the UI wasn't ugly too.

After meeting up with my friend in Undercity and literally just standing beside each other, I logged off again and deinstalled the game. I wish they didn't simplify the game like it is. It was good how it was. And that's not just nostalgia goggles. I played on a Burning Crusade private server for a few minutes after that and it was a better experience than what WoW is right now.

 

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money. I'm glad I didn't.

My Best Battlefield 3 Match Ever!

Here's the Battle Report:
battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/battlereport/show/38422755/2/185265493/
(If you can't go into the Battlelog, check the picture above)

My friend SamLikeCrazy23 and me went into a helicopter multiple times (he was flying, I was the gunner) and basically raped the entire enemy team. Weird enough, our team got stuck on the last MCOM. When we had 2 tickets left, Sam jumped out of the helicopter and planted it, while I covered it after jumping out too. This was by far my favorite match of all time. I just wish I had recorded it. Words just can't describe how awesome it was.
If you play Battlefield 3, what was your favorite match ever?

The Future (Nostalgia Sunday)

No, this is not a Nostalgia Sunday about a game called "The Future". Right now, I'm running out of ideas for games I played back in the day and would fit in this segment. There are still a few left, I could do in the next weeks.
Also, I finally got an internship in a company, where I will also start an apprenticeship in a few months. It will get tough to write these blogposts, but I'll try my best. Maybe I'll reduce the amount and post a Nostalgia Sunday every two weeks. I don't know, how it will work out. Time will tell and I'll keep you informed.
What I'm certain about though, is that I'll post more gameplay videos. The recording setup looks good and I play more games recently (that's definatly cool). So look forward to that.

Battlefield 3 Gameplay - Me Testing a New Recording Setup

Here are two rounds of Battlefield 3 Conquest on Operation Métro and Grand Bazaar. I was trying a new setup and I think it worked out pretty well. I think I didn't play that bad either. Enjoy!

I'll try to do more gameplay videos or something like that in the future. Depends on how much I record and how much I play.

Prometheus - The New Movie by Ridley Scott (Trailer)

I can't say I've been this excited for a movie in the last few years. The trailer looks awesome and seems like a worthy sequel to the "Alien" movies. Ridley Scott still seems to be able to make huge movies, with a compelling story. But, before I get to excited here, watch the trailer for yourself. I'll definatly watch it in the cinema when it comes out in Germany. It will release in the USA on the 8th June.

Nostalgia Sunday: EyeToy: Play

EyeToy: Play

I thought this was so revolutionary back in the day. Well, it kinda was. The whole camera thing and without a controller was new and innovative. Alone this game was not so much fun though. Playing with friends and fooling around made it awesome. But I guess playing with friends is always more fun.

The Story:

Pictures of EyeToy: Play are hard to find, so take this Asian screaming as excuse.

You're looking for a story in this game? Ha! There is none! Only the one, you make up for yourself.

The Game:

The game had 13 mini-games to choose from, including "Plate Spinner" pictured above and "Kung Foo" pictured in "The Story". All these games were different from each other and concentrated either on your reaction or your speed. The camera made the controller useless. Everything was controlled by yourself. Apart from the mini-games, there were also a simple video recorder, or a "picture distorter", which was no real game, but more like a test for the game mechanics. It would spawn balloons for example, which reacted to your movements. This was basically all of the game, but it was fun. Atleast for a few months and ofcourse with friends.

Prequels and Sequels:

EyeToy: Play was pretty successful, so why not cash in on the whole thing and make several sequels, which all featured new games, but were practically the same. No, not really. EyeToy: Play 2 improved on the first game and the third did on the second in small parts. I only had the first one, so I can't talk about the others. It's easy to see, that Microsoft wanted to do something like EyeToy themselves, which resulted in the Kinect. The Kinect though is way more advanced, since it can detect the room in 3D, while the EyeToy only did it in 2D. I don't even have a Kinect, so I can't talk about it much either. I'm such a competent blogger.

PS2 is gone. There's no way to emulate this. I think I don't even want to. The game looks pretty boring to todays standards.

Movies I Just Watched: The Green Mile

The Story In One Sentence (from IMDb):
The lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift.

My Opinion:
It's a shame I didn't watch this movie earlier, but I just didn't find the time, or it wasn't on tv. While it sometimes can be disturbing, depending what kind of person you are, most of the time, you are feeling with the characters. You can tell, why they do, what they do. The whole movie is suspenseful, even though it's over three hours long. You'll never feel bored.

Would I Recommend It?
Yes. It's a wonderful movie, told well, with great images. It's definatly worth a dvd buy, or watch it atleast, when it's on tv. It's worth it.

14.000 Mass Effect Fans Want an Altered Ending to ME3...Really?

Are people really this stupid now? Here are two links to the twitter and facebook pages:
https://twitter.com/#!/RetakeME3
https://www.facebook.com/DemandABetterEndingToMassEffect3

So you bought this game and didn't like it, or specifically the ending. Alright, that's your opinion. Others propably enjoyed it. But now you want Bioware to create a different ending just for you, so you are satisfied? Come on!

I hate how people nowadays always create a petition for everything, just because they don't like something. The ending of the game might suck, but it's not your personal right, to basically get a refund for the game. Sometimes you just have to accept it.

Note: I never played a Mass Effect game in my life.

Nostalgia Sunday: XIII

XIII

This was a great game for me back in the day. The comic look was cool and multiplayer was really fun, even if only two people were playing. The story was interesting and compelling. I would have finished the game, wouldn't it have been for a part in the game, where I had to hide and always got spotted, making me hate this game. Weird.

The Story:

You, XIII, wake up on a beach, with no memory of anything. While trying to recover, people arrive with a helicopter and guns, trying to kill you. The only thing to do, is to defend yourself and find out, what has happened, that erased your memory. If I told you more, it would destroy the meaning of finding out, what XIII forgot. The story is good and is adapted from the comic book series with the same name "XIII". The game though only consists of the first 15 issues of the comic book.

The Game:

The picture above already shows the comic book look, or so called cel-shading. When something explodes, or someone is walking towards you, the sounds will be visualised, just like in comic books, with a "BLAM" or "KABOOM". Other than that, it is a normal first person shooter. What most other games might not have, is the type of armor you can wear, being a helmet and a vest, which can be picked up from dead enemies, or other places. The levels vary all from the other, while XIII tries to find out, what has happened to him. Apart from the singleplayer, there is also the multiplayer, giving you the traditional game modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag, and console specific game modes like Sabotage (Xbox, PC), The Hunt (PC, PS2, Gamecube)and Power-Up (PC, PS2).

Prequels and Sequels:

While the game XIII got fairly good reviews, it wasn't a financial success, so no real sequels were made. The only thing that came out and called itself "XIII 2", was a cellphone game. Eight years later though, the publisher Anuman released a adventure game under the name "XIII: Lost Identity". Rather than a sequel, it was a reimagining in point and click style. I never knew it existed and most people propably didn't too. I don't know how successful it was, but I think, it wasn't that much.
Check out the launch trailer here:

While I don't have this game for the PS2 anymore, I have it for the PC. I played it some time ago, but haven't since. I definatly enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Me, when not having to write a blogpost.

Well, it's my birthday. So my wish would be, to not write a blogpost for today. You reading this, makes it some kind of paradox...uhm...yeah. Next post on Sunday WOO!

Rumour: Valve works on a Console

Sources: 
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console
http://kotaku.com/5890275/is-this-a-photo-of-valves-rumored-console 

Rumours have appeared about a console, made by Valve. Nothings clear yet and all is just speculation, but some things are said to be true. For example, the specs of the console have been "revealed", having a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU. This seems to be true, because an employee of Valve posted a tweet on the 2nd November last year, with a picture.

"Built this tiny PC. i7 quad core, 8GB ram, Zotac Z-68 mobo w/ onnboard Nvidia mobile gfx. Runs Portal 2 FAST."

Apparently, the so called "Steam Box" will be made, because Valve wants to establish a new standard in a gaming service, pushing other developers, to create new and innovative gaming devices.

I'm kind of excited for this. Valve pushing boundaries again. But still...couldn't I just buy a normal PC then? It's not a real gaming console after all, but rather a PC, made for gaming. I'm looking forward to more news on this.

For more info, visit the sources mentioned above.

Nostalgia Sunday: Driver 2

Driver 2

This game was definatly part of my childhood. Even though most reviewers didn't like it, I had so much fun with it. Walking through the cities and finding new stuff, exploring new areas was the most fun part. Back then, I didn't use the internet much, so it was a much better experience. Of course the driving was fun too, and I liked the story. But more on that below.

The Story:

The story takes place in four cities: Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro. The Undercover cop Tanner and his partner Tobias Jones are trying to find and capture a guy named "Pink Lenny", who is the only witness of a shooting in a bar, which he could escape. They find him and ask him about it. He tells them, that the killers were after him and not after the other people in the bar. Apparently he is laundering money for Solomon Caine, one of the highest mobsters from Chicago to Las Vegas. The people he met in the bar were brazilian though, which makes it appartent, that he double crossed him with Avaro Vasquez, who wants to expand his business from Rio to the USA. A huge war between those two is about to explode. 

The Game:

The missions mostly consisted of "Follow that car", "Ram that car", or "Escape the police". You had a time limit most of the time, which could get pretty frustrating. Also there were some "on foot" missions. Apart from the story mode, you could get in a "free roam mode", which let you explore the cities. I don't remember much, because it's so long ago, when I played this game the last time, so I can just hope, you understand, when I say, this was a classic "driving game" game, with on foot segments. It also featured a two player splitscreen mode, which was a nice addition.

Prequels and Sequels:

Before a game with a "2" at the end, there is of course the first one, "Driver". While I never owned the game, I remember going into a shop one time, where the demo of the game was available to play. Now, the demo of course started with the infamous parking lot tutorial. I never got it done, making me not want to buy this game. After enjoying Driver 2, I was looking forward to Driv3r. Smart move by me, I lent it first from a video game rental store. Man, was I dissapointed. It tried too much to be a GTA, rather than to be a Driver. The weapons were unnecassary and I remember it being very glitchy. After that game, I didn't care about Driver games anymore, so "Parallel Lines" totally went under my radar. The latest game in the franchise though, Driver San Francisco, sparked my interest. I played it first on the Gamescom in 2011 and then later tried out the multiplayer demo on XBox Live. It's a good game, with the cool "Shift" feature, which is a nice addition to the franchise. Something you should check out.

I'll propably try this game on an emulator again some time. Might be still good.

Movies I Just Watched: Mad Max

The Story In One Sentence (from IMDb):
In a dystopic future Australia, a vicious biker gang murder a cop's family and make his fight with them personal.

My Opinion:
I actually was kinda anticipating to watch this movie. All I've heard about it was, what the one sentence from above tells: One man against the world. But after watching it, I was disappointed. The story telling was slow and boring. The action sequences were good, but the rest felt so long and there weren't that many action scenes. 15 minutes before the end, then finally something happens. Till then, it's a rather bad movie. Only the end makes it a little better.

Would I Recommend It?
No. While the end is good, the rest of the movie feels dragged out and boring. Some things are fun to watch, but overall, in my opinion, it isn't a good movie, like everyone seems to think.

My First Time Playing Tribes: Ascend Open Beta

Last week the game Tribes: Ascend went open beta. I heard alot about it, so I downloaded it and tried it out. Here's my first multiplayer match. I only did some practice mode before that, so I wouldn't be a total noob.

Please excuse the horrible framerate. My laptop isn't that good and recording makes it only worse. While not recording, it's pretty smooth and playable. I got definatly better over time. It has a nice learning curve, where at the beginning you are pretty bad and get better pretty fast. I encourage you to try it out, because I never had so much fun playing a FPS recently.

Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my name is "Weezle91".

Nostalgia Sunday: Simpsons Hit & Run

Simpsons Hit & Run

While not being the best Simpsons game there ever was, this game still has a place in my nostalgic games. I never finished it, but what I was playing was pretty fun. The humour was good and GTA like playing style was great. It had some issues though, that as a kid, you can't really make out.

The Story:

Strange things are happening in Springfield. Robot wasps swarm the city and Bart disappears, after being kidnapped by a tractor beam. The Simpson family tries to find out, what is going on, uncovering that it all was done by aliens (of course). If I'd tell you more, I'd spoil too much, but that's the story. You'll get missions by the citizens, which mostly consist of races, and by completing them, you advance in the story. But there's so much more to do, as you can see in the segment below.

The Game:

While not doing the missions, the citizens give you, you can explore the city. Hit & Run is a sandbox game, having many similarities to GTA 3, which came out two years before. Instead of police stars, you have the Hit & Run meter. If it gets full, the police will start to chase you, till it's empty again. It's pretty much the same as in GTA 3, with a little difference. You can also unlock new character models or cars, by collecting coins in every level. The game had some issues though, be it the graphics, or some gameplay issues, concerning the games AI or the camera.

Prequels and Sequels:

The Simpsons being so successfull, of course made a path for a lot of video game adaptations. The first game, released in 1991, was "The Simpsons Arcade Game". Being the year I was born, I never played this game at the time and didn't till today. It has been released recently for Xbox Live Arcade, so it might be worth a play. Over the years many other Simpson games were released, ranging from platformers, to racing and sports games. Some where known for their incedible difficulty, others were just bad. In 2007, "The Simpsons Game" was released, being the latest of the Simpsons games and being a good one. Reviews mostly gave it a 7/10, which in my opinion is pretty good. I haven't played it, but saw videos of it and the cutscenes in the game, which are just plain funny Simpsons humour. You might want to check it out, but don't take the word from me, because you know...I haven't played it ;).

Long story short: The game was sold along with my PS2, so I can't play it. I don't really have the ambition to either, because it doesn't look as good, as I might think.

I've been tagged!

So there's this thing for bloggers apparently, where you answer 11 questions about yourself and then send 11 other people 11 questions and so on. I don't like the idea of chainmails, so I won't tag other people, but I'll still answer the questions. So here you go:

The Rules

Rule #1: Put the rules on your blog

Rule #2: Every person tagged should tell 11 things about themselves, answer the 11 questions asked by the one that tagged you, tag 11 other people and ask them 11 different questions.

Rule #3: Let the people whom you tagged know you've done so.

Rule #4: Don't tag anyone who's been tagged before

Rule #5: Really do tag 11 others, don't go all "if you want to take this tag".

 

Questions

1.  What... is your name?

Tobias, or rather "Toby" for you english speaking fellas.

2.  What... is your quest?

To write the best blog in the world! Nah, just kidding. I guess my quest is to live a happy life, with a good job and a family. If I have done that, my quest is completed.

3.  What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Because I'm so smart, I can tell you it's exactly 11 meters per second for an European Swallow...yeah, I just looked that up...

4.  Why are manhole covers round?

So you can roll them away, after lifting them off.

5.  Before you stand two identical guards, guarding two identical doors.  One of the doors goes to heaven, and one of the doors leads to hell.  One of the guards always tells the truth, and one of the guards always lies.  Both guards know which door is which, and each guard is fully aware of the other.  You want to pass through the door that leads to heaven.  You may only ask one of the guards a single question.  What question do you ask?

I'd ask one of the guards "What will the other one of the guards say, if I asked him, where this door leads to?". The opposite of what the guard I asked said, is the truth.

6.  Chunky or smooth peanut butter?

I don't eat peanut butter at all, so none.

7.  You have eight balls of the same size.  Seven of the balls weigh exactly the same, and one of them weighs slightly more.  How do you find which ball is the heavier one using a balance and only two weighings?

First you weigh three balls against three other balls. If they weigh the same, one of the two not weighed balls must be heavier, then just weigh them. If at the first weighing, one side is heavier, take two of those balls and weigh them against each other. If the weigh the same, the third ball is the heavier one, otherwise one of the two is.

8.  Your house is on fire and you only have time to bring one item out with you.  What do you grab and why?

That would propably be my laptop I'm writing on right now, if people are excluded.

9.  If you cook, what's your best dish?  If not, what's your favorite food?

The only thing I can cook are pancakes and they are damn awesome!

10.  How was your day today?

Writing alot of blogposts in advance (just like this one) and playing some video games. Could be worse.

11.  A cat is placed in a sealed box with a piece of radioactive material and a vial of poison gas.  The radioactive material has exactly a 50/50 chance of decaying after 1 minute.  If the radioactive material decays, the poison gas will be released and kill the cat.  After 1.5 minutes, what is the state of the cat?

Ha, I know Schroedinger's cat, so the answer would be both or none, because we can't say to a 100%, in which state the cat is in.

My First Time Playing Modern Warfare 3 (Multiplayer)

The Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer was free to play last weekend, so I though, why not check it out. Lucky for you guys, I recorded my first EVER match in MW3, I ever played. It pretty much shows, why I don't like the game. Not to mention all the hackers, that weren't in this video.

That said, I of course played the game more than just that one match and I have to say: It's not that bad. It was fun to play for that weekend and I can understand, why people play it. But still: I can have all that fun in the older Modern Warfare games too. Not much has changed and the third game feels much like the first one (CoD4).
What I hate about this game though and I think it shows in the video, are the killstreaks. They are stupid and overpowered. The whole game is fun, till someone has to use e.g. the helicopter and be the Terminator in person. That's why I like the Pro Mod in CoD4MW more, than any of the other games.

Nostalgia Sunday: Tomb Raider

Yep, I still have the original CD!

Tomb Raider

When my father returned from a business trip to the Netherlands, he had a surprise for us. This game. It was a great surprise, because who would have known, we would have played this game for so long. Unfortunatly, my brother did overwrite a savegame at a point, where Lara is falling down and then dying, giving us no chance to continue. That pretty much killed it, though I think we saw the ending by using cheats.
The Story:

 

The story of the game is really complex, so I'll try to tell it as easy as possible.

After an eartquake and an explosion in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, an ancient device gets exposed, which, after being unlocked, reveals a person in suspended animation. This was the past and Lara, now in the present, gets the mission, to travel into the mountains of Peru to Qualopec, to find a mysterious artifact called Scion. After getting it she gets attacked by a man named Larson, which, after he's been beaten by Lara, tells her, that the artifact she has, is only one part of three. Lara now sets out into different areas in the world, to find the two other parts of the Scion and trys to stop the bad guys from getting it first. Sounds a little short and dumbed down, I know. Look the story up on Wikipedia, if you want a more detailed one. Check out the intro of the game below, if you like.

 

The Game:

The first time I shit my pants in a video game

Tomb Raider was one of the first 3D platformers, meaning you would have to overcome obstacles, by jumping from ledge to ledge and climbing along walls. While exploring different caves and areas, there are also enemies, which must be killed through the use of weapons, though that isn't the main focus of the game. You rather have to, like said above, get onto platforms and reach a certain object, being mostly an artifact. To get to them, you also have to solve puzzles, which makes those two the main parts of the game.

Prequels and Sequels:

Well, who do I have to tell, that there were many, many sequels to the original Tomb Raider. Guess what? I never played any of those, except a demo for Tomb Raider 2, if I remember correctly. From what I hear, the games got worse over time. In 2007, Eidos released a remake of the first Tomb Raider game, for the 10th anniversary of Lara Croft called "Tomb Raider Anniversary". I haven't got around to buying and playing it, mostly because I'm not really interested in those kind of games anymore. But what I'm looking forward to is the new Tomb Raider game, which should be a reboot to the series. We don't know much yet, but it takes a different approach, than the earlier games, making Lara younger and more vulnerable. It will be released 2012, if nothing goes wrong.

I haven't played this game for a good 10 years. Might aswell try it out again and see, if it holds up to today. It's an interesting and fun game after all.

Double Fine Makes an Adventure Game (Update #1)

Click the link, Schafer won't hurt you, I promise!

One week after the kickstarter donation thing for Double Fines adventure game started, Tim Schafer now posted an update. With the extra money, they are now able to make the game not only on PC, but also on Mac, Linux and on Smartphones. Further, they are now able to have voice acting for the english version, which will be translated in text for the French, German, Italian and Spanish version.

It's great to see this project take form and expanding. I hope for more good updates in the future.

Movies I Just Watched: Surrogates

So this is a new segment I'd like to include to my blog. It's about movies, that I obviously just watched and I just want to make a small review about. Rather than telling you the whole story, I'll just tell you, how I think it was, so you don't get too much information about the movie. Most movies I'll review were propably on TV and I didn't know much about them, which makes it more fun to watch.
What does this have to do with videogames? Nothing! I'd like to expand this blog a little more, rather than just posting video game news, or the Nostalgia Sunday. I hope you enjoy it. Feedback is always appreciated!

The Story In One Sentence (from IMDb):
Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.

My Opinion:
While not being a Blockbuster, the movie is quite enjoyable. The special effects are well done. The surrogates look like robots, while not looking too unrealistic. The acting by Bruce Willis is as good as always and he pretty much delivers the movie, while the other actors are good too. The ending, for me, and the story were a little confusing. Something was established at the beginning of the movie and at the end, they seemed to forgot it. Or I'm just missing something.

Would I Recommend It?
Yes. It's a good movie for a boring evening, where you don't have anything else to do. I wouldn't buy it though, if it isn't pretty cheap. It's more of a movie, you watch on TV.

Nostalgia Sunday: Lego Racers

Lego Racers

This was such a fun game, back in the day. Racing against other Lego characters with your custom build go-kart. I remember some of the "Boss Races" being incredibly difficult, but that just may be, because I wasn't as good at games as today haha.

The Story:

One of your opponents, Captain Redbeard

Rocket Racer, the best racer in the Lego universe, becomes bored and holds a challenge. He travels through time and space, to find worthy opponents he can race against. You now must defeat all the other bosses on their track, to be able to finally race against the champion, Rocket Racer. It's simple as that.

The Game:

The game is a simple "Fun Racer". You finish several laps on the track, while collecting power-ups, which you can use against other racers, or on your own car, making it faster for a short period of time, for example. There are also short-cuts, which you can drive through, when using a certain power-up. It's possible, and encouraged, to build your own car. At the beginning you only have a small amount of bricks to use on your car, but you get more, by completing the courses and beating the bosses. Aside from the "Story Mode" with Rocket Racer, there's also a time trial mode for every track. You'll race against Rocket Racers friend, Veronica Voltage, who will give you her car, if you beat her on the first three circuits. There's also a multiplayer mode for two racers, in which you race against each other in splitscreen mode. I wish I could tell you more, but that is the game. Even though it doesn't feature much, I still have fond memories of it, so it was a fun game for me.

Prequels and Sequels:

Like the picture above suggests, Lego made a second game out of the Lego Racers franchise, Lego Racers 2. It was for PC, Playstation 2 and Gameboy Advance. I never had it, so I can only tell you, what the Internet told me. It seems like, it's pretty much the same as the first game, with a little more. There are now more racers on the track, with much more unique cars. It is also more of an open world game, where you get missions, aside from the races. The ratings from gametesters were rather good, giving around 7.2 points.

The second game looks fun, but propably nothing I would play at this time. I think both Lego Racers games have aged badly, but that's personal taste.

Double Fine Makes an Adventure Game

Double Fine reached out to its fans two days ago, saying, they will make an adventure game, if they get 400.000$, so it's financially doable. 24 hours later, they already reached that mark and the number's still growing. As I type this, they made 1.265.909$. Pretty impressive and it shows, that people still want adventure games, even though the last years not many have been made...except in Germany haha.
If you want to help Tim Schafer and his crew at Double Fine out, click the link below and back up the project, by donating a few dollars.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure

The Super Bowl XLVI and Football in Games

Last sunday I watched football for the first time in my life. As I'm from Germany, football isn't as big here as in America. Our favorite sport is soccer, but I just never got into that. I was watching a movie that was on tv and during a commercial break I saw the Super Bowl logo in the corner and when it would start. I was curious, so after the movie ended, I watched the whole four hours of it and was never bored. I didn't cheer for any team, because I didn't knew anything about them, so every touchdown or good play by any team was fun to watch.

Now what does this have to do with video games?
I really am into some kind of football craze now and am looking for a good football game for the Xbox 360, as there certainly isn't one for the PC. I checked out the demo for Madden NFL 12 and it's really fun.
Is there another football game, or football game series I'm missing out on? I just want to get the best experience for my money. Please tell me in the comments, if you know a good one.

Nostalgia Sunday: Need For Speed II - Special Edition

 Need For Speed II - Special Edition

I got this game way back before the year 2000. It was for sale in a discounter and I got this along with FIFA 98, on which I might do another Nostalgia Sunday. It was a real fun game and my neighbours had it too, so we could play against each other. These were the days, where Need for Speed games were still good.

The Story:

You had three modes to choose from: Single Race, Tournament, or Knockout Race. Single Race is pretty self explanotory. You can race any track and try to get familiar with it. In Tournament mode, you race against several computer driven cars and try to become first. After finishing every track in the tournament and being first, you unlock new tracks, cars and the Knockout mode. In the Knockout mode you race against other cars. Every round, the last car gets eliminated, till there's only one left, who will be the winner. That's your "story". Who would have thought a racing game had a story anyway? Who am I kidding, I'll get to those in the "Sequels and Prequels" part.

The Game:

At first, you can choose between two modes: Arcade and Simulation. They pretty much speak for themselves, as Arcade is more for fun racing and Simulation for a more realistic feel. You then can choose between your cars, which reign from a McLaren F1 to a Ford Indigo concept car. The tracks differ from each other too. They take you into a jungle, into snowy mountains and also in the australian Outback. There's also a multiplayer mode for Splitscreen racing, or through a LAN network. There was a special track only for LAN races, but I never got to see it unfortunatly. After a while we had the game I also found out about cheats from my neighbours. Not those were really fun. You'd enter a code in the main menu and your car would change to another one. There were cars like a VW Beetle, that weren't even available through the normal game. You could even change your car to a giant T-Rex, or a toilet. It was fun experimenting with this, as you could even get a car, that was so fast, you couldn't even control it.

Prequels and Sequels:

Now if you don't know about the Need For Speed series, you have been propably living under a rock for 20 years. From being a more arcady game, it changed to being a simulation several times and back. I didn't play all the games, but some which I really enjoyed. Need For Speed Underground for the PS2, was the first NFS game I got after NFS2. The new style it had, tuning and street races, was a fresh breath in the racing genre. The whole game was fun and NFSU2 even improved on its predecessor. Then was basically again a time, where I didn't play any NFS game till today. After NFSU2, none of the NFS games seemed to appeal to me and many people thought like that too, I think. It was the same game every year, with a stupid story and not much playtime. The newest NFS game, Need For Speed The Run, is the best example. You can play through it in two hours and the long awaited "on foot" segments where just quick time events. Hopefully EA can go back to its roots and make a good NFS game again. I'd buy it.

As the first picture shows, I still have the game. I can't run it though, because it won't work on Windows 7. I have the PSX game for an emulator, but it just doesn't feel right for some way.

Syndicate Demo Impressions

So the demo of the game Syndicate came out a few days ago and I'd like to share my experiences with it.
First of all, I know the first Syndicate was more of a RTS game, while this is a FPS. I never played the original, so I can't draw any similarities or contrasts between the two. This is just about the new Syndicate.

So the first thing I did, obviously, was to download the game. It's about 800MB or something, so that didn't take long. I started the game, watched the intro and all that, and was then finally in the main menu. Till here: All fine. Then you choose to play coop. This menu STILL is ok. It's a little confusing, but still doable. The you use RB to choose your agent and my god I can't read anything. I have a 23 inch Full HD TV and I just can't decipher what's on the screen, until I move up close to the TV.
If you figured all that out, you'll choose your agent, what weapons he has, a server to play on and then the game starts.
You will propably have to wait for the other players, while waiting in a truck first. Everything is fine, but then BAM!

Your screen is cluttered with infos about your health, weapons, abilities, your teammates, your objective, where to find the holy grail and how 9/11 could have been avoided. Jokes aside, after a few minutes, you'll get used to it, but it still isn't really comfortable.
The gameplay itself is pretty much like any other shooter. You run through a level, kill the bad guys and enter new areals. What the game adds though, are the abilities in the lower left corner and the Dart Overlay in the lower right corner, which lets you see through walls and make out enemies for a small period of time. Your health is pretty low and the game mainly focuses on teamplay, so running and gunning like in Call of Duty isn't an option. You'll meet some small bosses in the level, which need your teamplay. They are immune to all projectiles, till someone disables the armour of the boss, by standing next to him and holding LB. The other teammates would have to distract the boss, so one teammate can do that.

Conclusion? I enjoy the demo, for what it is. The gameplay is fun, even though it's nothing new and seems to cash in on the "Call of Duty like shooters". I won't buy it though, till there's something that stands out to me, like a really good story, or more elements, that not every other shooter has.
You should try the demo out for yourself though. It's only 800MB.