January, 2007
You are looking at posts that were written in the month of January in the year 2007.
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Review: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of blah blah blah…"
Posted on January 28th, 2007 by Tim.
Categories: Tim.
This was the worst movie I have ever seen. I honestly have no idea what the reviewers were thinking when they gave this movie such high marks. If you’re the type of person that likes to watch people getting upset, humiliated, and degraded, then by all means, please watch Borat. Otherwise, don’t even bother with this movie.
Score: 0/10
Funny GC2 screenshot
Posted on January 19th, 2007 by Tim.
Categories: Games, Tim.
I was playing Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords (a fantastic 4X game btw) and I was presented with the following decision to make:
(Click for a larger version)
Review: "SiN Episodes: Emergence"
Posted on January 12th, 2007 by Tim.
Categories: Games, Tim.
“Episodic content” was supposed to be the Next Big Thing. It’s been touted by Valve as the way games would be played in the future. Using the Steam content delivery system, gamers will supposedly wait anxiously with credit card in hand for four or five more levels in their favorite game. Here’s some free advice to game companies: if you want that to work, make good games. No one’s gonna buy “Episode 2″ of a crappy game.
I bought SiN for 10 bucks at BestBuy with a Christmas gift certificate. Unfortunately, I’m a sucker for cheap games. I knew I had heard it was a decent game, and I needed a new FPS to distract me, since I finished Rainbow 6: Vegas a few days ago. I bought the game Thursday at around 8 PM, and I’m writing this review at 2 AM Friday… anyone want to guess how long the game is?
Unlike my last purchase, the installation for SE:E was pretty painful. As a Steam game, it had to ensure Steam was installed, then copy files over to my computer, then decrypt the files. On top of that, Steam then started downloading an additional hundred megs or two of content. Seriously guys, couldn’t you have put it on the DVD? It probably took about 20 minutes before I could even start the game.
The game is based on the Source engine, so no surprises with the level of performance or graphic detail in the game. My computer managed to run at 1920×1200 with 4x antialiasing easily. The human models in the game are done very well, but the environments feel a bit, shall we say… low-polyified. A lack of pixel shaders (other than the beautiful Source-rendered water) gives every level nearly the same feel as the last level.
This screenshot is a pretty good representation of almost every level. Nothing special graphically, though the blood spatters on the wall are a nice touch (these are dynamic, of course 
).
There were a few high points in the level design, however. The last level contained a highly detailed backdrop of a city that added a huge boost of ambiance. Most of the level involved scaling the side of a building by running back and forth along ledges, jumping gaps, and using ladders to get to the next level, all the while 
avoiding and eliminating enemies. Wait, isn’t that just like Donkey Kong?
The fast majority of this game was like a bad rip-off of Half Life 2. The weapons felt similar, but there were only 3 weapons, rather than 9 or 10. The cutscenes and storyline felt similar, but lacked any believable characters. The physics felt similar, but everything seemed to be encased in ice as I slid around the level.
The sloppy physics is probably the worst part of the game, and the one most easily fixed. There seems to be almost no friction in the entire game, and it completely ruins the game. Try to move a tiny bit forward, and you continue sliding for a second afterward. Bunny-hopping lets you reach ridiculous speeds in open areas, and yet the AI seems to have no trouble hitting me, even when it seems I was traveling at near supersonic speeds.
Oh yeah, that reminds me. The AI sucks. It really wasn’t much different than the AI used in HL2, to be honest. They seem to have made some serious disimprovements to the AI for SE:E, however. The weapons are extremely accurate, so you end up being hit nearly the same amount at extremely long and extremely short distances. The AI has perfect aim, but no other evidence of intelligence. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by the AI from FEAR and R6:V.
For all it’s flaws, however, I can actually say I enjoyed my short time with SiN. And yes, I mean short. I beat the game on nearly its hardest difficulty in a mere 3 or 4 hours tops.
The Good
- Great graphics engine
- Great physics engine
- Enjoyable gameplay
- Feels similar to HL2
The Bad
- Only three weapons
- Boring levels
- Confusing and boring storyline and characters
- Feels similar to HL2
The Ugly
- Why does everything feel like it’s encased in ice?
- Three hours of gameplay?!