Living With a Nerd

While zombies have always been a popular vehicle for storytelling, it seems as though in recent years more of these vehicles have appeared.  Aided by the connectivity of the Internet, zombie flash mobs and zombie walks have become a regular occurrence with participation numbering in the hundreds or even thousands.  Where does this fascination with zombies (and the undead in general) come from?  I can’t speak for others, but for myself I liken it to why people enjoy watching monkeys at a zoo: zombies are like us, yet aren’t us. 

I have recently finished reading World War Z.   Usually, the narrative in a zombie story is focused on a group of survivors, and their interaction with one another.  Not so with World War Z.  Written as a series of interviews with various veterans of the zombie apocalypse, ranging from civilians to soldiers to high ranking politicians from all parts of the world, the normally present in-depth analysis of the individual human psyche that you would expect is instead eschewed for a more widespread focus.  The socio-economic, environmental, and political impact that a world wide zombie apocalypse would cause are looked at from many angles, giving the book more credibility and a sense of realism normally absent in such tales. 

Moving on from World War Z, I have just started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  I’m a big Jane Austen fan, as I feel that her stories flow well and her characters interact like real people who happen to be a part of the story you are reading.  PPZ shows that even great literature can be made better by adding rotting, walking corpses to it.

Musician’s block has placed itself firmly in my path once more.  I’m currently tapping on a boulder with an ice pick, but I will soon be picking up a sledgehammer when Sir Boulder isn’t paying attention. 

Production on IC 443 has been stopped, and the harder I’ve tried the less I have accomplished.  I decided to let it sit and stew for a little bit.  I intend to take another go at it this evening, and hopefully I will smash through the obstruction.  The soundscape was laid down without any issues, but now I have NO idea where to go.  I could just leave it as the album’s “super chill” track and move on, but there is too much potential here.  It’s as if someone placed a bowl of tasty food inside a cage, gave me a key to the cage, but I can’t find the lock anywhere.

Inspiration on where to go from here is more or less non-existent.  I feel like my only option is to start twisting knobs, moving faders, and pushing buttons until something jumps out at me, and then work with it from there.  It’s not quite what I had in mind when I started this track, but I think that is the path I will have to follow.  This may be a blessing in disguise, however…my original plans for IC 443 sounded much better in my head than they do coming out of a synth, and I think an experimental sound will fit in well, considering the track is supposed to be the aural equivalent of the Jellyfish Nebula (the common name for “IC 443″)

If progress is not apparent after this evening, IC 443 will be sent to deep freeze for storage, while a new specimen is placed under the microscope.

Having grown up as a part of the NES/SNES hybrid generation, I harbor a deep love for sidescrolling games.  Whether they be shmups, platformers, or what have you…I love them.

If a young or newer gamer were to ask me why I enjoy sidescrollers so much, I would point them in the direction of Shadow Complex.  Incorporating all of the features and tools that made games like Super Metroid and the Castlevania series so amazing, Shadow Complex is the perfect amalgamation of what made the genre great, and what will lead it into the future.  Boasting features like foreground and background enemies, Unreal Engine 3 graphics, fantastic voice acting, a fleshed out storyline, and rewarding exploration, SC is the best deal you will find for $15.

I haven’t gotten that far into the game, but what I have played has knocked me off my feet.  I look forward to unraveling the mysteries heretofore unknown, and plan to bask in their glory once located.

Whenever I write an article about an old game for Living With a Nerd, I’m thrown headfirst into a wall of nostalgia.  Somehow, these games are always as good as I remember them.

While my love for consoles always has and always will exist, I have found that I have the fondest memories of mid-late 90’s PC games.  Tie Fighter, Harvester, Hyperblade, Obsidian, Flesh Feast, Duke Nukem, Dark Forces, Terminal Reality, Descent…all of these games hold dear memories for me, and all of those memories have a very distinct “feel” to them.  Even back then, games affected me on a very deep level, and would literally change the way I percieved existence.  I’m not sure the number of different PC games I have played, but the number is at least in the high 200’s-low 300’s…with a large portion of those being released prior to 2001.

I don’t game nearly as much on the PC anymore, primarily due to lack of decent exclusives and the costs associated with maintaining a game-capable rig (even though this is far cheaper to do now than it ever has been).  Now that consoles have, more or less, caught up with the PC in terms of visuals, I primarily spend my gaming time on consoles.  LAN parties are a rarity for me now, and most games I want to play are on PC and on console.  As a result, spending the money on keeping my PC current doesn’t have the appeal it once did.

When Brittnie and I move to a different place of residence and have more room, I’m planning on putting together a top-of-the-line PC circa late 2000 (the last year before Windows XP), install Windows 98 on it, and use it for DOS games and mid-90’s Windows games.  By going with hardware released prior to 2001, it’s almost guaranteed to work with most if not all DOS games and Win98 games, and Win98 can play nearly every DOS game flawlessly.  Some games may require a boot disk and some autoexec.bat and config.sys tweaking, but I think this would only serve to add to the glee of nostalgia.

Trials HD.  Everything you have heard about it is true.  Unbelievably addictive, hellaciously fun, and full of “OH CRAP!” and “DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?!” moments.

Generally, there is something specific that catches my brainwaves the first time I see a game.  Sometimes it’s the visuals, sometimes it’s “hey that looks fun”, sometimes it’s a certain mechanic…but in the case of Trials HD, I couldn’t decide what to focus on first.  The demo provided an explosion of neural response, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since I first saw Geometry Wars.  Within 30 seconds of booting up the demo and entering the first level, I knew I had found my next addiction.

Utilizing a 2.5D view that modern technology has made feasible, the framerate is smooth and the animation fluid.  Barrels, panes of glass, pieces of wood…all shatter and are sent flying in a realistic manner, reacting with the environment, bike, and rider.  The animations when you fall off your bike are unbelievably painful, and could provide hours of entertainment in and of themselves.  This is also when the only major bug I have found rears it’s head…certain body parts can become “stuck” on portions of the various ramps and metal bars strewn about the levels, causing the crashes to be even more hideous.

There is supposed to be (OMFG) a level editor included, but I have yet to have a chance to check it out. 

The controls are extremely simple to handle, however mastering them takes precision, patience, and plain ol’ skill.  Determining the exact location of where your bike is going to land and at what angle is paramount to survival.  I have found, however, that survival could be seen as a blockade to fun.  I enjoyed trying to horribly maim the rider in the worst ways possibly as much as I did playing the game “as intended”.

Definitely check out Trials HD.  Certainly worth the 1200 points.  I can’t wait to see the levels that people come up with.

The rumor machine has been churning out various ideas and predictions about a PS3 Slim for quite a while…and it appears as though Sony is prepping for a big announcement at a gaming convention next week.  I am somewhat excited about this, as it is quite likely that if/when a PS3 Slim is announced, it will likely sell for less money than the “standard” PS3 currently goes for.  There is still one problem, however: exclusives.

I’m aware that the PS3 has it’s share of exclusives, but for me personally the PS3 is only now almost across the line that would require me to obtain one.  LittleBigPlanet, both Uncharted games, Fat Princess…the number of exclusives I’m excited about on the PS3 still totals less than 10 (my minimum requirement for a system).   God of War III WAS one of these, however I wasn’t too impressed with the video footage released so far.

I really would like to get a PS3, but as a gaming machine I am still not quite convinced yet.  It’s getting close, but not quite there yet.  If the PS3 Slim has a $100 drop association with it however, that may be enough to persuade me to hand over my hard-earned cash.

Forgive the lack of posts, I recently got quite sick and have been fairly busy since getting better.

Splosion Man on Xbox Live provides a platforming experience I haven’t seen in quite a while.  Challenging without being frustrating and requiring precision control, it’s one of those games that is only as difficult as your ability (or lack thereof) allow it to be.  It caused lightning in my brain for quite a while, and had a great “one more jump” feel to it.  While I’m not into the scene, it seems to have been made with speedrunners in mind; opportunities abound to lower your time on each level.  The 50 co-op levels (which are different than the 50 single player levels) require a great amount of teamwork, and are possibly some of the best co-op levels I’ve seen in a video game. 

The future is looking bright for side-scrolling platformers.  Shadow Complex is supposed to be released sometime in the very near future, and there is a version of the classic PS1 title Klonoa that is scheduled to be released on the Wii.  There is also a PSP version of LittleBigPlanet currently in the works, and the SNES classic Super Star Wars is coming to the Virtual Console.  As for other genres, later this year/early 2010 sees the release of Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, Halo: ODST, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rage, and many others.  It looks to be an exciting end to an overall great year in gaming, and a great start to hopefully another great year.

And so it begins!!  Next week (August 11th) will mark the beginning of Microsoft’s Games-On-Demand era for the Xbox 360.  To make anticipation even more unbearable MS has recently released a list of the first 21 games that will be available for download.  There isn’t much word at this point how much the games will cost but rumor has it that they will be priced similar to their in-store counterparts.  Now I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on how much that would truly suck, but since this is merely speculation at this point I’ll contain my HULK fury.  Check out the list

• Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft)
• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts)
• Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)
• BioShock (2K Games)
• Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Ridge Racer 6 (Namco)
• Burnout Paradise (EA)
• Meet The Robinsons (Disney)
• Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games)
• Call of Duty® 2 (Activision)
• MX vs. ATV Untamed (THQ)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SEGA)
• Dance Dance Revolution Universe (Konami)
• Need for Speed Carbon (EA)
• Test Drive: Unlimited (Atari)
• Fight Night Round 3 (EA)
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
• Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Viva Piñata (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore (Konami)
• Prey (2K Games)
• Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise (Microsoft Game Studios)