Thursday, December 30, 2004

Movies

Last night Caty and I went to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. We paid $18 to get in. Then we paid $7 for soda and popcorn. The popcorn gave us food poisoning - Caty's stomach was ill all last night, and I blew chunks in the shower for about half an hour this morning.

Here's a link to Shareaza. SCREW that gaffer (or whaterver) guy in the MPAA ads. Feeling sorry for him is like feeling sorry for any goon who works for an evil empire.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

VTM: Bloodlines Review Part 2

Ok, I was going to write another long review, but I found that as I dove into the details, I realized just how much this game sucked, and how much I tried to overlook that fact because it's in one of my favorite game settings.

The Good:
Some of the characters are in fact cool. If you have to play this disaster, play a Malkavian.
The ending is decent.

The Bad:

Incredibly clumsy movement makes good shooting footwork impossible, as well as getting through the common jumping mini-games without ripping your hair out.
The AI sucks balls.
The characters are all stereotypes of their vampire clans and sects.
You don't get a chance to save in between long dialogue sequences and boss fights.
Your vampire powers are all much weaker than their pen & paper versions, but your enemies seem to have access to even more powerful versions.
No multiplayer.
Loading screens, loading screens, loading screens! "Quick"-saving my ass.
The system requirements are HIDEOUS LIES.

In general, the game is a dumbed-down excuse for the World of Darkness, and a shitty attempt to combine FPS, stealth, and RPG elements. It's kinda like shit ice cream. Even if you like ice cream... hell, even if you like SHIT... they don't go well together. I have a million reasons as to why this game sucks, but these are the big ones. If the ending wasn't as good as it was, I would have set my computer on fire.

Final Score: 3/10 - And that's just because of the Source engine and World of Darkness.

Hot off of Slashdot...

They call it Quantum Darwinism. Anyone who's played the pen & paper RPG "Mage" would liken this to the "Consensus", with similar implications.

Monday, December 20, 2004

VTM: Bloodlines Review Part 1

Ok, I've been bitching hardcore about how much my vacation sucks thusfar, but it's not really interesting, so I'll leave it out and post stuff you might find more worthwhile instead.

I got Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines for my computer off Shareaza. Not done with it yet, but here's my review thusfar:

Ok, I had like half a review, but just deleted it because it was getting too long and I aim this blog at attention spans like mine. Here's the highlights:

Ok, I had a revised highlight review, but just deleted it because it was too long again. Here's why I like the game in two words:

Inverse nippomatics.

That's right. It's got 'em. Totally sweet.