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Malik (7/06/05)  

First off, I was planning on posting yesterday...I was until, on my day off from work to catch up on sleep in order to be writing this post at 3 AM this morning (and to do my lamezor day job that requires about 16 hours from me today...with no overtime...am I bitter? yes...I am), until I had a very rude awakening yesterday morning from a certain person who left his cell phone at my place the night before and was too lame to think of actually finding out if it'd be cool to wake me up at 6:45AM, on my day off to catch up on my future lack of sleep, arrived. Was it cool to wake me at 6:45 on my day off? No. 

Anyway, I was too pissed off and tired yesterday to post. I won't dwell, but I will say that that type of action is freakin' lame as hell. 

Ok, to start things off, a few minor news things I saw at Gamespot. These are also lame things, like being woken...sorry, I said I won't dwell. 

So, Sony is not going to bundle the HDD, which will measure at 80GB, with the PS3. Instead it will be an add on. I don't know if Sony learned from the PS2 HDD or not, but add on hardware doesn't sell. I mean let's look at the Sega CD, the 32X, the N64 memory unit, the N64 disk drive, the Jaguar toilet (that's the CD drive), the PS2 hard drive...shit, the list of failed add on hard ware is about equal to the number of add ons ever made. True, Sony is already going to sell their PS3 at a major loss, but that's only because the PS3 is being made with too many fancy bells and whistles that will never be fully utilized. I love how Sony, in order to further reduce their losses, has such a bad idea as planning add on hardware before the system even launches. 

Secondly, the cast has been announced for the Dungeon Siege movie. This cast includes Ron Perlman (one of my favorite actors) and Burt Reynolds. On one hand, I don't know why Mr. Reynolds is in this movie. It makes no sense. On the other hand, I can't help but think that this movie makes no sense. I see another D&D the movie in the future, and it's name is Dungeon Siege. At least D&D had a great acting job, despite how it makes no sense when you say it aloud, from Marlon Waynes. I don't think Burt Reynolds can pull this one off. 

On a final bit of gaming news, Gamespot's Rumor Control had an interesting things about the 360's power and abilities. It's not determined how likely this rumor is, but it's being said that the 360's CPUs will, despite being so numerous and powerful on paper, run about 2 times the speed of the XBox CPU. So, despite this not being confirmed or denied or whatever, I feel like adding my own two cents about this. Here it is; the current consoles have no reached their limitations yet. If you don't believe me, just look at GTA:SA. This game is so much more powerful than GTA:VC, which was once heralded as the most powerful game that the PS2 could handle. The same could be said about many other games from this generation (be it XBox, PS2, or GCN). So, while we may be thinking, as a community, that the 3+ year old consoles have reached the end of their abilities, this is not true. So, if half the implied CPU abilities of the 360 have not been utilized, then what the hell makes people think the full abilities of the 360 will be reached in it's little 4 years of fame? It's only because we, as a geek society, always expect bigger and better, despite how we don't take full use of the bigger and better things we get. It's like demanding a new TV every year because it might now come with mood lighting (I wish I can find a link for this thing...I saw it on a TV ad; it's a plasma screen that has lights around the TV's edges that give off a variety of different colors...about as useful as putting neon accent tubes into a GMC Gremlin). We don't need it, so let's not assume, blindly, that we do. 

Secondly, if this is just being based on CPU speed, then I just say we need to look at computers. The increases in computer CPU speeds have fallen off lately. We used to see a nice increase in CPU speed every few months, yet we are now seeing almost no increase. However, the looks and feel of the average PC game has jumped in leaps and bounds in this same time frame (Half-Life 2...need I say anymore). This is because CPU speed is not the primary driving force in game quality anymore. It now is more coming down to the video cards, the memory, the hard drives, the...well, almost everything is as important, or more so, than the CPU. This is probably the case with the next generation of console games, as well. We don't need massive CPUs to see a new age of games. In fact, I think it'll be Nvidia and ATI that will wow us the most with the new consoles...that and, hopefully, the game developers who will push more quality out and less of the same old cliché crap. 

Anyway, I'm probably only half coherent right now. I blame it on being so damned early that I can't have seen the sun rise yet. So, I'm just going to leave things off here. I'm hoping to play some more Tales of Symphonia tonight, after I post this. I don't know if I will, since I'll be getting home in about 15 hours (which is about how long I should run between waking up and sleeping again). Anyway, I'm off to a fun filled day of hell. Viva no overtime! Blah! 

Malik

Malik (7/07/05)  

I really hate the Summer months. It's bad enough that last year held only a couple of worthwhile games, but this year is even more pathetic. Between the lack of movies (ok...the lack of good or original movies), the lack of games, and the lack of game news, this is shaping up to be one of the slowest Summers I've seen. I, at least, was hoping for a little something in the news department with the impending release of the 360 only a few months away, and the fact that Sony better start cranking up the PR machine to make people realize there's more to the next generation than Microsoft. 

I guess you could say some news about the TGS (on Gamespot) would serve as news. But, as I've said a hundred times before, I just don't find announcements about things to be announced of any worth to anyone besides the companies involved...who think of this type of "news" as a great way to stroke their egos. Blah. 

It's like when Square Enix, who's the biggest offender in this category, announces that they will announce a new game at an un-released date. Is there any news in that? No. Yet Square Enix keeps doing it ever since they first did it with FFXII, a couple years back. The only thing you can walk away with from this type of crap is that some company, like Square Enix, is trying to jerk you along and manipulate you into being hyped about something that is not even hype-able yet. 

To randomly change subjects, I have started to watch Firefly...yeah, I joined this geek party a little late. 

For those who missed this show when Fox completely f#@%ed up with it, this is one of the best shows that Fox ever f$#@ed over. I mean Fox did everything to sabotage this show when it first came out in 2002. 

The main reason I missed the show when it aired on TV, and almost refused to watch it when Velveeta brought it home last week, was that Fox's idea of ads for Firefly based around showing as little of the show as possible and trying to make it look like some bad action-based clone of "Space: Above and Beyond". If only I knew...if only everyone knew. Plus, it probably didn't help that it was shown on Fridays at 8, which is about the worst timeslot on Fox (besides Thursdays at 8...which claimed the lives of enough good shows on it's own), and that Fox considered the pilot, which is awesome and explains a lot, the last episode to show. Hell, without the pilot, you don't even know what the show it about. 

Anyway, I just hope Fox pulls a 180, like they did with Family Guy, after Serenity (the Firefly movie) comes out in theaters. Either that, or I hope Joss Whedon tries to pitch it again to some networks that know how to treat a good show...in other words, a network that doesn't screw over awesome shows like The Tick with bad time slots, or Emmy winning shows like Futurama with random time slots each week. Anyway, it's doubtful that this show will return, simply because it was far too entertaining...but somehow things worked out for the best for Family Guy... 

Anyway, I'm still only half "here". My day yesterday of 16 hours of work (for those keeping score, that's two whole work days) and 2 hours of sleep is still messing with my head. So, here's where I'll just log instead of trailing on in a thousand ramblings. 

Malik

Malik (7/08/05)  

So, I guess there's now an RPG being made for The Justice League (as I saw on Gamespot), that defies all reasoning. First off, I thought something this far back from the average geeks mind would only merit a GBA RPG. However, not only is it coming for a major console or two, as in the XBox and PS2, it's coming out well after the XBox will be nothing but a memory (and the PS2 will be a little more, but not much more, than a memory). Yeah, it's coming out Fall of next year. I don't get a few things on this, but mainly why it's coming out for the previous generation of consoles. By this time, the 360, at least, will have been around about a year, and this means an XBox game will sell about as well as a PSX game sold after the PS2 had been out for a year (in case you've forgotten, they would sit in a special section of a game store, where neither the customer or the clerks would know they existed). 

Beyond that, I don't see good things coming from an RPG of this material. It's one thing for the X-Men, who are not nearly as overpowered to have X-Men Legends (which I'd bet is the primary reason for this game...an attempt to steal Marvel's thunder). However, if I'm watching Superman, as a game character that faces the problems of leveling up, I'm going to be quite disappointed. I mean the JLA characters are a little too beefed up to go through the standard convention of RPG leveling. 

Anyway, this is all from a guy who sees the comic battles in a very clean cut way. I think of fully powered, but usually more dull as characters, in the DC superheroes. They are not the ones who keep having to improve themselves. Meanwhile, I see the Marvel cast as the ones who are usually fighting an uphill battle that requires more training. Anyway, I'm rambling...damned week of no sleep. 

Also, I don't think of this as news, but what the hell...everyone else seems to think so. Rare is possibly going to make DS games, according to this little thing from Gamespot. I really can't think of this as news since Rare has already made a few GBA games since being bought by Microsoft. I mean, there's the current project of Donky Kong Country 3 being ported from SNES to GBA, but there's a few other games. Like how It's Mr. Pants was a Rare title (which made it even harder to ask about at game stores...how do you ask for a game with that title, and then say it's from Rare, considering Rare is Microsoft owned?). In fact, this should definitely not surprise anyone. 

If someone is thinking along the lines of "...but Microsoft owns Rare and Microsoft hates Nintendo!", then it just means that person's a f#@%ing idiot. Seriously. Microsoft may compete, to a minor degree (it used to be stronger), with Nintendo in the console front, but there's no competition in the handheld market. Further, Microsoft is a business that knows how to make money. One easy way to make money is to make a product that will sell, and to not give another rival business. Well, with the DS, Nintendo is not a rival (did Microsoft make a handheld and I slept through it? I think not), and DS games are selling. Thus, Microsoft would be smart enough to jump on the money train. They've done it, despite what people want to believe, for the GBA a few times already. 

Lastly, and I love how it's an actual...sort of...news day, there's more bullshit from politicians. In particular, this would be a Californian assemblyman (Leland Yee). I should also mention this man's a child psychologist, and a person who brought about a bill in California about how a violent game (with depictions of violence against people) should only be sold to a person over 16. Well, Yee is now saying that GTA:SA needs to be AO rated. I love his logic... 

Yee, in particular, points to the supposed hidden and lost code in GTA:SA that allows CJ to have sex as a mini-game. The funny thing is this has not really been confirmed anymore than Leatherface being in GTA:SA. In fact, even if this code is on the disk, it is not something a person could just turn on the game and access. In fact, it's doubtful, in my eye, that it even exists since the only depictions of this hidden code is some really poorly (visually) shown videos that look about as genuine to the GTA-addict as Gamespot having a single review for both the XBox and PC versions of GTA:SA seems like a good idea. 

Anyway, beyond that fact that Yee's main issues is seeming to come from something that's 99.9% likely to be bullshit, I'm left with two thoughts. For one, little kids should have more supervision. Secondly, I know for a fact that games don't cause violence (if they did, I should be the single most brutal and f#@%ed killer ever known...but I'm not...sorry, Yee), but parents/guardians need to watch their charges. A child needs to be raised by more than just a TV and a game system. However, that entails not trying to ban games, which I should point out that Yee isn't doing (he's only trying to limit their exposure to under-supervised children...I'm actually pretty cool with that concept), but holding parents accountable for their negligence. However, if the kid still ends up f#@^ing crazy, then the answer becomes realizing the kid is f#@^ing crazy! It's not a hard concept. I mean if a kid watched a shit ton of violent movies and went on a killing spree, he would be considered crazy, but if he plays a lot of violent games then it's the game's fault. I love shit-tacular reasoning. 

Anyway, I do have to say that a gem shouldn't be rated on content that is fully locked or only rumored to exist. So, to give an AO to GTA:SA is bullshit. However, to keep games in a place that requires at least a small bit of parental supervision (at least in buying the game) is not such a bad concept. I mean too many parents just don't give a f@#% about their kids, and this is what really needs to be worked upon. 

Anyway, I'm rambling. Partly this is due to sleep not being in my schedule, and partly this is due to...ok, a final thing before I part ways for the weekend... 

I used to work as a temp for an agency. Some people would look at it this way, but it's actually better put that I was whored out as a temp worker, but an agency that worked much like a pimp. At one point, I was whored out to Microsoft. This job lasted for an entire 5 hours (no, I wasn't fired or something...it was just a short job of hanging some posters on their campus to promote some upcoming meeting...and hanging posters isn't exactly an all day, or whole week, job). I should also mention that it was 6 years ago. 

So, yesterday I got a call from Microsoft about being part of a focus group. I answered some of their questions correctly, and found out that I'm not qualified to be in their play-test/focus group stuff since I had put in so little work with them so many years back. Hell, if you look at the situation...I wasn't even their employee. I worked for my temp agency, and I got my W-4 and paychecks all from them, not Microsoft. Anyway, I guess the important lesson in this is that it's better to have a short memory (most people would forget this type of shit after one or two years...but I have a damned memory) and to lie your ass off than to actually remember things and be truthful about them. I bet Microsoft is still just pissed off about the class-action lawsuit from their temps from about 5-6 years ago. Couldn't someone had told me that by accepting that job for my pay of about $30 (after taxes), I would no longer be eligible for game testing and getting the free swag from it (that's worth far more). Blah. 

So, yeah...I enter this weekend tired and pissed. Should be fun. 

Malik

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