Rediscover.

Notes: 3451 / 1 month ago from catalystcatalyst (originally from connorkenwayy)

(Source: connorkenwayy)
1 month ago

PHP, can we just be friends?

Pardon my absence, friends. I’ve had a long week of robotics, site deadlines and a sickness I can’t seem to kill.

I’ve got two sites due this week, then hopefully a long overdue Rising and Dead Space 3 review for you guys by Thursday. Just a consequence of an overambitious attitude. Stay tuned.
2 months ago

Gems in… interesting places.

While on a hunt for a babydoll Revengeance shirt today, I stumbled upon a really old and awfully designed website that had an interesting piece on it.

TheSnakeSoup.org, apparently. My search for my t-shirt somehow lead me to this site (what the hell, Google) and an article titled “The 10 Dumbest Moments in the Metal Gear series.” Now, the article is almost 10 years old, so it’s missing out on some of the absurdity of the newer titles, but it makes some amusing points.

Here’s a clip.

#8: “O RLY?”
Metal Gear Solid

Not much to explain. People bitch how “dumb” Raiden is — how he asks some dumb questions. I understand their misery — put in the same scenario as Raiden, they probably would have understood everything; that’s why everyone understood the ending of Sons of Liberty so well… oh wait.

Only a few ever ask why Solid Snake is surprised to see a surveillance camera… IN A GOD DAMN NUCLEAR DISPOSAL FACILITY! After all, who cares if a terrorist once in a while slips in and carries a few nukes out. Hell, he’s helping the disposal job by disposing it in a sick sort of way!

Solid Snake. The man who took down Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land, a legend to some blond meterosexuals, is absoluely surprised that there are cameras in a nuclear disposal facility. I can imagine him at a local discount shoe store. Most of them have cameras. “What?! A camera?!”

Dumb ass. Figures they only sent him so they could make him spread FOX-DIE and kill everyone including himself.

It’s a bit too extensive to reblog here, but check it out if you can get past the text walls and white lettering on a light gray background. The author is extremely set in his points and accuses reviewers of not knowing what they’re talking about, and that irks me a bit, but its still worth a (skimmed) read.

——
Linked material contains strong language and questionable judgement.
Notes: 9 / 2 months ago

"Not much of a superhero after all, huh."

- Raiden, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Tagged:
- Revengeance
- MGS
- Kojima
- Raiden
- Metal Gear Rising
Notes: 4 / 2 months ago

I learned young that killing your enemies felt good. Really good. My friends, my family, they helped me forget the devil inside. But who am I kidding? I was born to kill.

...

I guess I needed something to keep The Ripper in check when I was knee-deep in bodies.

You...

But you, all this, is a wake up call to what I really believe. What I really am.

What are you saying?

I'm saying Jack is back.
3 months ago

To anyone who says my robotics team and their creations aren’t the coolest on the planet — reconsider.

FIRST Robotics Team 910 — The Foley Freeze
@frc910 __ fb.com/foleyfreeze __ instagr.am/frc910
- Tagged:
- FIRST
- robot
- robots
- awesome
- FIRSTinMichigan
- FRC
- omgrobots
- technology
- engineering
- glow
Notes: 3 / 3 months ago

PS4 Announcement: “Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.”

Sony, you couldn’t have hosted your new-era announcement event on a less convenient day for me. We just finished bagging up our robot yesterday, I had two meetings and a birthday party to attend, and all I get through your live event are less-than-enthusiastic texts from my GameStop co-workers.

I’m currently just finishing watching this hyped press release. Here it is, everyone — the PS4. By the way, I love how they opened with the original PS1 chime. Thanks, Sony; us retros appreciate it.

“The release of the PS4 presents an enormous opportunity to dramatically amplify the game play industry.”

The system, which never made its visual debut at the event (what the hell, Sony), certainly packs a potentially unnecessary punch. We think we’re looking at Jaguar core, which means the CPU is extremely strong; it’s eight cores heavy, but 1.6GHz weak. It’s very, very power efficient, but being somewhat critiqued by tech nerds for its mediocre quality for a next gen. Then again, how do we balance the price tag?

In general, the specs are beautiful and, well, decent. Sony officially announced an X86 CPU coupled with an enhanced PC GPU (hopefully a 7850-grade, which is eons beyond current gen), 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, a local storage drive and a secondary piece for downloading.

There are some neat additions and innovative concepts that will be built into the PS4 and it’s supporting hardware and OS. The DualShock 4 has increased motion sensors in analog and I guess an updated rumble feature (never knew that was an issue…), plus a bit of redesign to make room for additional features, which I will elaborate on in a moment. Probably the concept I found most intriguing was the PS4’s suspend and resume feature. Instead of completely shutting down the system if you’re leaving for a few hours, the system can fall into a low-power hibernation mode until the user returns, where the system picks up right where it left off in — allegedly — a few seconds. It’s not just the concept itself — it’s Sony’s focus on reducing the system boot time.

The system times on the PS3 are really, really annoying. Boot up, yeah yeah beautiful sequence, wait a few moments for the UI to launch; left, left, down, X. System needs to update to play my game. Fantastic. Even better, when MGS4 started acting up on me, my reinstall took 10 minutes. Which, for the graphic output, is just a minor complaint, but it’s still the point of it.

I don’t really care if Sony can deliver their hope of “game while you download” with their secondary drive. I’m simply happy that they are focusing at least a bit of effort into reducing launch time. Maybe it’s a small improvement, but one I can appreciate.

—-

When I write my posts for events like this, E3 or CES, I blog while I’m watching. Typically, it’s presented in a way where I can make my judgment on it while I’m being fed specs and demos. In this case, it was a bit different. The DualShock 4 controller was presented as a lede before they broke down the architecture of it. Its features include a Vita-esque touch pad in the middle vertical, heightening the controller hold a bit; an audio jack; and a share button. Ahem, excuse me — a share button. Yeah. Here are my original thoughts on it before Sony’s elaboration:

“Share button? Really? I get social media — trust me, I manage far more accounts for clients and organizations than I should be. It took a while to convince me that PS3/Vita syncs were a good idea; the PS4 Facebook game isn’t going to go over well, my friends.”

But, as Sony usually does, they’ve convinced me otherwise. While the share button is corny and is going to spam up my Facebook wall, it’s very neat for non-13-year-old gamers. Users can export their game play into compressed files to upload to social media (and more than likely their online PSN account, which I expect to handle a bit like Facebook), and even query their friends online to take control of their game to help in a certain area they are struggling in.

Now that is cool.

Of course, social media is going to be very heavily integrated into the PS4. The PSN friend system seems to be going to an Xbox LIVE layout with additional information on the player and will sync with Facebook friends. On that note, can we switch over to a gamerscore too instead of displaying invisible trophies on my wall? That’d be great.

Still, I can’t help but feel like these additions don’t warrant the next generation. Then again, what would?

—-

Of course, what’s a gaming conference without game announcements and their seven-minute minimum game footage? By the way, guys, can you please stop with the extensive game play demos? We get it — your engine is really, really pretty. We’ll watch your trailers another time. Can we get back to our new system, please?

I’m only kind of joking with that. But anyway, there were several announcements of PS4 exclusives: Guerilla’s Killzone: Shadow Fall, Sucker Punch’s Infamous: Second Son, Capcom’s Deep Down, and a few others. These guys all look beautiful, but I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t be released on PS3. In fact, most are releasing their titles for both the PS3 and PS4. In that case, what’s the point, almost?

Most developers are excited for the PS4 because it gives them an excuse to design an updated engine. Developers are able to work with an enhanced 3D depth of field, extensive polygon work, realistic skin shading and adaptive lighting.

“We are proud to usher in a new era of entertainment,” said Yoshinori Ono for Capcom, who presented a (thankfully semi-short) demo for their Panta Rhei engine, which they refer to as an evolutionary step from their original framework. By the way, Ono, my dear, thank you for mentioning Devil May Cry.

Developers are elaborating on being able to convey amazing stories without concerning themselves on whether the system has the horsepower to do so; studios are now unlimited by imagination. Another embarking title that looks absolutely stunning is Bungie’s 10-year endeavor, Destiny, which made its re-reveal tonight following Bungie’s conference last week.

“How can we take a genre that we know and love, the first person shooter, and turn its on its head? Bungie’s answer is Destiny,” Jason Jones from Bungie said. He followed that by calling the PS4 “great piece of gear.” We’ll see about that.

The PlayStation Move is also making its miserable return, though with a much brighter light in concept. Alex Evans for developer Media Molecule (known for LittleBigPlanet) calls the PS4 with the Move integration a “creative console,” and their project to create 3D sculptures in realtime looks somewhat promising.

“The single most powerful, accurate device was right under our noses — the Move controller,” Evans said, elaborating that the sculpting tool allows developers, and users, to stop thinking about pixels and just start creating.

He continued on to say that their goal is to change “making” in every way, whether it is music, gaming or story telling. Media Molecule provided a demo of, literally, a personally full-model, high-quality developed landscape. This is like, ‘build your own game and levels’ type quality. A bit hesitant on where this is going…

Anyway, Watchdogs, developed by Ubisoft, looks incredible too. But I’ve been intrigued by this one for a while now. It’s an interesting concept and a Heavy Rain style game play, but it’s going to scare the shit out of everyone. Honestly. You think media blames crime on gaming already? Now the hackers are at risk, too. Can’t wait.

Let’s end on a bad note. I’m not happy about this one. I’m not a WoWian, but I do love my PC games. I might have had a bit of beef with Blizzard before, but now it’s not funny anymore.

“Blizzard and Sony have entered a strategic partnership through which we will take over the world.” Chris Metzen of Blizzard Entertainment said, after announcing a port of Diablo III to the PS4 and PS3.

No, please. You guys, I— c’mon. We know this is a bad idea. Yes, it will be “very very cool,” Metzen, but Diablo isn’t Diablo without my Nostromo and slamming my DeathAdder on the table everytime I lag out in the middle of a fight.

—-

All in all, it was a happy announcement for Sony. GameStop managers and employees are pissed, journalists are watchful, and gamers will never be appeased anyway. Watch for the system at an unofficial but expected ~$400 price tag this holiday season.

Your move, Microsoft.

—

System specs: X86 CPU – Enhanced PC GPU — 8 GB memory on a GDDR5 card — Local Storage Hard Drive
Release date: Holiday 2013
Notes: 2 / 3 months ago

"Design and aesthetics matter, because form is not secondary to function; form is integral to function. A map cannot function if it remains unread. To truly engage map users requires that we present them with something worth looking at. Something that they will want to spend time studying. Something that acknowledges the human need for beauty. Something that causes the user to think about the map in terms beyond whether or not it simply “works."

- Timothy Wallace, Daniel Huffman — “Atlas of Design”
via Flowingdata.
- Tagged:
- design
- graphic design
- atlas of design
- aesthetics
- beauty
- creativity
- truth
Notes: 5 / 3 months ago

Dr. Crusher: Data, telling us why you're going to fail before you make the attempt is never wise.

Data: But, is not honesty always the preferred choice?

Picard: Excessive honesty can be disasterous, particularly in a commander.

Data: ... Indeed.

Picard: Knowing your own limitations is one thing; advertising them to a crew can damage your credibility as a leader.

Data: ... because you will lose confidence.

Dr. Crusher: And you may begin to believe in those limitations yourself.
Notes: 3 / 3 months ago

DmC: Devil May Cry takes ‘Savage Style’ to a whole new level [review]

I believe I’ve previously mentioned the heartache I held as Jan. 15 came closer and closer. DmC: Devil May Cry, the fifth installment in the chaotic hack-and-slash series, looked quite pretty on paper, but not too shiny in my mind. I didn’t think it could be handled properly — a young Dante that would take a personality already established by his future self into account? I didn’t know if development team Ninja Theory had it in ‘em.

I will happily admit I was entirely, completely, wonderfullly wrong. The grin on my face that evolved during the opening sequence remained through all the chapters and left me wanting more.

DmC took home GameInformer’s Game of the Month for February and received extremely positive reviews from both the GI crew and other various gaming news outlets. It’s not just your typical “good storyline, good battle system” type of kudos, though; DmC does some truly distinguishable things that I was overjoyed to see continue through the series, even in NinjaTheory’s hands.

DmC is a game that requires a lot of skill; the game mechanics themselves are actually quite tricky. Dante’s attack modes are split across the controller; L1, 2 and 3 control his Angelic weapons and abilities, and R1, 2, and 3 harnesses Sparda’s fiery demonic power. As you progress, you end up with three guns (up on the d-pad), two angelic weapons (left) and two demonic (right) that you have to be able to filter through in order to perform specific attacks and the proper time for link; some of the attacks are required for actual progression. In addition to combos, gamers will need to memorize patterns for special abilities to traverse levels mid-air, often switching between alignments halfway through.

The controls are extremely complicated. You definitely need to pay attention in order to secure triple-S scores in style. However, even in light of convoluted button sequences, DmC somehow makes the handling smooth enough to allow for a form of second-nature technique in combination. (And there are a lot of combinations.) Dante is managing seven weapons — it’s a really difficult task to balance weapon handling and still make sure the player is able to figure it out well enough and learn to apply it to the necessary situations.

Beyond managing controls, DmC’s story line and battle sequences are true-to-style, though slightly faster paced than previous titles. Once the player gets a solid grip on the chaos of attack patterns, demon swarms become a blast to clear out (except Ghosts; those guys are assholes). The overpowered, overdramatic attacks that Devil May Cry is known for was obviously a (justified) focus for NT; adding the demon/angel pulls adds another layer of savage annihilation that I guess slamming enemies into the wall with an axe and barraging them with bullets couldn’t accomplish. The game seamlessly merges immersion, reaction pulls, and mindless destruction while shifting game play styles to avoid monotonous run-jump-kill lines.

Game play is broken up into chapters, and the player is given a rating at each conclusion based on a system that averages style points, completion time, item-gather percentage, deaths and items used. Chapters are long enough to be purposeful, yet concise enough to hold the gamers’ interest and encourage continuation (and replay on higher difficultly levels). Once you’ve completed a chapter, you can return to each individual one to collect lost souls or orbs you missed. It’s a nice break from a full-script complete play through.

DmC’s tendency to teeter on the edge of corniness but maintain it’s cool factor keeps the game flowing and the gamer engaged, though probably with a half-hesitant smirk on their face. A specific chapter midway through takes a spin on “America’s Got Talent;” the level boss sends Dante on a series of timed challenges and mini-quests in a segment she calls “Devil’s Got Talent.” Cute, I know. Just reading that sentence should be enough — it was right on the line of being gimmicky as shit. DmC’s ability to introduce a shift from the typical chapter run but sustain its badassery made it a creative bend and a chapter I actually appreciated; something new, something relevant, and not too painful to play. Or maybe I was just impressed because the style reminded me of Tron. Ah, either way. Checkmark in the pros.

Speaking of that level boss, I’d like to meet the character designers for her, especially her, well, later form. The few characters that play a substantial role definitely make an impression — even ones you feel like you should hate, you can’t help but empathize with. That’s a powerful thing to drive in a video game; game characters that are relatable and likable are few and far between, especially when those characters have such a nasty side. Dante is the perfect badass he was in the original Devil May Cry titles (maybe even a bit more so), but his young self fits so perfectly with his evolution in chronology. His personality was managed so well — I can honestly say that he’s the first guy who speaks more vulgarities than normal words, frequents strip joints and is horribly full of himself that I would actually want to hang out with.

DmC also does an amazing job at capturing impeccable facial and vocal expression. Dante and Vergil’s interactions are emphasized by their non-verbal exchanges, which seemed to speak louder than their expletive-littered conversations. The character development between the two brothers is snarky and of course is chock full of witty one-liners, but is still meaningful and purposeful. For the most part, Dante has a reason to be sprouting out curses (for the most part, I said), and his comments are very, very reflective of his character throughout the whole series.

This game is the perfect balance: subtle humor; connectable characters; difficulty in enemy waves and boss fights, but that unique type of difficulty where you can appreciate the challenge and don’t just want to throw your controller. (It’s rare.) Boss fights are unique; camera angles are used strategically; battle sequences flow smoothly, and there is nothing better than hearing an enthusiastic “Sensational!” when the last mob explodes into pieces.

I’ve got to tell you — part of the opening sequence takes place at a strip joint, and I wasn’t the least bit offended solely because it’s a Devil May Cry game and it fits so perfectly. I can’t think of a single thing that I found to be unnecessary. If I had to find one complaint, it would be that there are a few cut scenes where Dante’s add-on costume pack wasn’t coded in, so he goes back to wearing his normal outfit.

Seriously. I think it’s that amazing.

Well done, Ninja Theory. I doubted you, but you swung that right back in my face. You’ve managed to create an immersive game for those new to Dante’s sharp language, and at the same time, appease us psychos who swear by the game. DmC: Devil May Cry definitely satisfied my lust for overdone massacres, my love for the original series, and provided a refreshing improvement on my current outlook on past-third installments. You’re a gem, Dante.

—-
DmC: Devil May Cry is rated Mature.
Developed by Ninja Theory and Capcom.

PHP, can we just be friends?

Gems in… interesting places.

PS4 Announcement: “Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.”

DmC: Devil May Cry takes ‘Savage Style’ to a whole new level [review]

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