KwadDamyj

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMONSTER KILL.

Goody. I kinda like UT2k4, and I liked the demo I played of the original UT.

If all FPS games on the Wii are going to be as cringe-tastic in quality as Red Steel, I'll shamelessly go with graphical details.

I saw the Steel footage on the E3 videos and was flabbergasted at how nasty the thing looked in total.

@ Styki - Do you mean George Romero movies? John Romero is the guy who worked on Quake I and the DooM games with iD Software.

As for the article, wow. Just...Wow.

I can't believe that people are having 1st Amendment concerns because of freaking computer games.

Then again, I can't believe a lot of things that are happening these days.

I'll never understand these bastards and it's probably best that way.

Christ, someone teleport me back to the cheesy-yet-wonderful days of Sega vs. Nintendo. Everything has thoroughly gone batshit insane now.

Once again, I've got a baaaad feeling about this generation of consoles.

Self-absorption and chafe-tastic rebellion from Nintendo without explaining in clear terms what exactly their goal is, how it will be accomplished and WHY it will be accomplished. Sony for now thoroughly obvious reasons. Microsoft I actually have vague interest in at this point, if only 'cause they have an interesting game or two coming out for their box (Bioshock! Bioshock!).

Utter lunacy.

This was far too much fun to watch.

I'm just gonna switch to PC games.

Nintendo had a great deal of trust from me from the SNES era all the way to the Cube today.

But between how long it took for them to make a DS game I was interested in and how completely bat-whacko the Wii is, I question their judgement. I question Sony's judgement, too, so I ain't buying a PS3. And I'm not quite willing to experiment with an X-Box 360.

I honestly can't believe that many of these people---at Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft or ANYWHERE---take themselves seriously. What's tragic is that their buffoonery is 'inspiring' assorted numbers of people to try and break into this mockery of an industry when IMHO the skills of these individuals might better serve society in other outlets, be they more directly social or possibly another somewhat comparable creative outlet, such as moviemaking.

I say that last statement who spent the better part of over a full year using every neuron of my brain not dedicated to my schoolwork for the purpose of contemplating, "Is making video games for a living a good idea?"

The answer was no, because of the aforementioned buffoonery.

Now I'd rather contribute to society in a way that the whole of it could appreciate (such as community work) rather than strive towards some sort of artsy-fartsy lunacy that only a rich relative minority---a growing minority, but still a minority---could appreciate.

Really, the least the bigwigs could do is learn from the masters. C'mon, Nintendo. The Miller brothers (the guys who made Myst), from what I hear, had a success with the Myst games so profound that even people who normally wouldn't play computer games were able to play and enjoy Myst.

So it baffles me why Nintendo has out of the blue done something that to me comes off now more as flashy and borderline ridiculous than as 'innovative', 'intuitive', or anything like that.

And it is almost unbearably disappointing that this has happened in light of Nintendo having spent 4 years on the damned console.

The times confuse me. Every time I hear someone say they want make games for a living these days, I want to smack them as hard as possible and tell them, "Look, if you really are the creative genius you think you are and need to LET IT ALL OUT, go make movies or write novels. The game industry is tough, brutal, viciously competitive, and a lot less fun than it looks even without taking those first factors into consideration." I'm probably being a little presumptuous for this, but it seems like all these people who enthusiastically want to make games aren't realizing that playing the games is a lot more fun than making them.

Maybe in 10, 15, 20 or so years we'll have weird William Gibson-esque holodeck technology that'll make interactive electronic entertainment into something beyond the crude constraints of what we have today into something that can be genuinely be universally considered an art form.

Until then, we have tragically little of mental and intellectual merit, even despite some of the so-called "smarter" games (note to self: Write essay explaining Hideo Kojima's apparent lack of knowledge of military history regarding the conditions of the Geneva Convention). I have to agree with Roger Ebert's opinions, and I agree with him saying that at the very least Myst qualifies as art. It evokes much more complicated and less bestial (that is, less fight-or-flight) feelings and emotions than some of the drek we get tossed. Even the "smarter" games, such as the Thief games, still do little to put you in a mindset beyond an overtly complicated version of a hunt-and-gather mentality. Small wonder in my humble opinion---and I play games with great frequency, so I feel I am qualified to speak here if solely out of time spent in observation---why politicians and other groups slam computer games. Even if they don't make us violent, they quite frankly stink IMHO as a hobby, doubly so due to all this rock-star glamour that's been popping up around the profession in the past few years.

Take a look at a good movie and take a look at a good game.

There's no comparing the two, and I tragically find that it is NOT merely because the two are different mediums.

Admittedly, I have my personal favorites (Guilty Gear is a guilty pleasure of mine, no pun intended, but it's mostly just because of how completely psychotic the game is), but I still stand by my convinctions and by my contradictions.

I just hope that this stupid, stupid rock star glamour surrounding the biz at this point doesn't end up ruining a bunch of lives. Heaven knows I can never stand fads.

That's all I can remember that I wanted to say at this point. I think I had more, but I feel I have put down the baby-spanking gist of it in all of its giant post-sized glory.

Take care, people.


~KwadDamyj

I would just like to say that Carmack looks like a nerdified Agent Smith in that picture.

This scares me. That is all.

I'm gonna say Microsoft if only because they didn't DISAPPOINT me. Does that mean I like 'em enough to get any XB360 games or an XB360? No way. The only things I found especially good about E3 this year were the releases for the portables---both PSP and DS. Console-wise, this year was in my humble opinion utter lunacy---I mean, c'mon. Microsoft is apparently semi-allying itself with Nintendo.

Mark my words---strange days are upon us.