Obligatory Blog Update

Some of my handful of loyal readers might have noticed that my articles have slowed down as of late. I just wanted to make clear the reason for my absence. I just got a new job last month (an awesome job I love by the way) so that has been devouring most of my time. Aside from that I am a far better husband than I am a blogger and I dedicate most of the rest of my time to my wife. Now fear not, I am not going to quit this lovely little gig of yelling my nothingness to the deep abyss we refer to as the internet. Far from it.

At the moment I'm in the process of expanding this little slice of opinion to incorporate a few more... opinions... First of all I'm starting a new page with my wife dedicated to marriage and gaming. Other than that I've lined up some A-list talent to contribute to the re-hauled Worlds Worst Critic. I'm not sure when this new Uber Blog will go live, but hopefully it won't be too long a wait. In the meantime though, I'll continue writing as usual for WWC. I've managed to squeeze in a few games the two weeks and I've even got an article about music brewing. So stay tuned, I have not abandoned you yet.

A Brief Reflection on Portal 2

It was no secret that I was excited beyond belief for Portal 2. As of the date of this posting I have finished the single player campaign. Unfortunately I haven't had any time to play the co-op so I'll only be commenting on what I thought of the "main story". Just a heads up, as usual this article will contain plenty of SPOILERS so I would recommend you turn tail if you haven't finished single player yet.

Short version: Portal 2 is exactly the game I thought it would be and I absolutely adored it. Long version...

The reason I loved this game so much was because it is hands down one of the best story telling experiences I've had in years. The team at Valve did a lot of homework and crafted a game that draws from equal parts Bioshock, Half Life, and...well, Portal. This is a game where "play, don't show" took center stage. The story unfolds in two acts more so than three (it seems to go prologue, act I, act II, epilogue). There is technically a third act, but it was a bit brief (not that's a bad thing).

The voice acting and dialogue is all top notch. This game had me laughing out loud almost entirely throughout. In addition to the hilarity of PA messages, they were also informative (toward the story and/or history). This rang especially true in the "old" Aperture labs. The way you hear Cave Johnson deteriorate was fantastic. This brings me to the other captivating part of Portal 2, the atmosphere.

Wow. The atmosphere in this game is great. It is constantly subtly changing as you progress which actually lends to the sense of progression and avoids tedium. I mean, think about it, you go from jungle over grown labs, to watching the facility put itself back together until it resembles Portal, then going through the old labs, then watching the facility fall apart. I'll give special mention here to the "old Aperture" labs. That portion blew me away, it was phenomenal. The trophy case that you can look in (if you choose) that divulges the origin of Aperture was a great touch. Of course, the reason I love this part so much probably has something to do with my mild obsession with abandoned things.

That's what I love about Portal 1 and 2, the story is gets deeper if you want it two. If you want, you can take time to stop and read signs or writing on the wall. It's the players choice. In my opinion the fact that this game had me wanting to learn everything I could speaks volumes about its story. One that Valve provided without resorting to codex' or lengthy journal entries. This was very much a visual, playable history.

So there you have it. Portal 2 is great, but you probably already knew that. Oh and there are some puzzles and stuff in the game too... those were fantastic as well.

The System is Down, The System is Down

As most my readers know my current system of choice is Sony's Playstation 3. Many of my readers also probably know that last week the Playstation Network was intruded upon by some rather unscrupulious characters. I've been meaning to write on this topic for a while but nothing has really come to mind. Yes it is a tragedy, no Sony didn't deserve it, yes the people that did do it should be shot in the kneecaps and thrown in prison, but that's aside the point.

What bummed me out last week wasn't hearing about how my credit card information may or may not be compromised, it was the reaction. Across every message board and comment page you would find the same ugly thing, fanboy's starting flame wars. This is one of the "being taken seriously as an industry" topics.

Right now video games are only taken seriously, in large, as a way to make money. There is not much we as "gamers" can do or say to defend that when tragedy strikes and the only way the majority of people know how to respond is by taking advantage of it to boast how superior they're system of choice is. It's just disheartening to see things like "Sony deserved it" and "all you retards that use PSN had this coming".

No matter where you go or what you do there will always be a concentration of bad apples. It just seems that there is a pretty ridiculously high concentration among our ranks. We need to stop and take stock of whats important; having fun playing video games, or arguing about why the system your mom bought you is superior to the system your friends mom bought them. We're not all grade-schoolers anymore people.

A lot of people are pegging the PSN crack on the fact that Sony sued Geohotz for cracking the PS3. Honestly, I was never on either side during this debate. I think that if you buy a machine you can do whatever you want with it. That said, cracking something is generally (read: almost always) used to pirate games and software. I think Sony has a right to protect their investment. Geohotz is not some robin hood, fighting for the people, and neither are the ones that broke into the PSN, but I think that painfully obvious now.

Substantially less funny IRL

The most terrifying part of all of this is that it could have been done in part or wholly by a "rogue element" of Anonymous. This group of hackers has their own agenda and claims to represent the voice of the people. I certainly would avoid doing anything to upset them, and that right there is the problem. This group leverages its unique power with fear to attempt to control or alter situations. How is that any different from the government or large corporations. It seems far to easy for a group like Anonymous to lose sight of its original goal.

If you were wondering, no I'm not going to jump ship from Sony. First and foremost the PSN being down didn't phase my gaming at all. My wife was able to play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow without issue and I was able to enjoy Folklore without error. I understand how the story is different for a great many people who enjoy playing online, but for me personally, it wasn't a big deal.

The people at fault here are those that would, without conflict of conscious, steal and attempt to sell the private information of millions. I don't care what system you own, that is wrong on a colossal level. Sony took a lot of precautions with the PSN, including encrypting customer data. Yes, you will find other websites on the internet that say otherwise, and honestly there is no way to prove it unless you work at Sony, but Sony has said as much and I'd like to believe them. The fact of the matter is that the people the Sony pissed off (unjustifiably) were very, very good at what they do.