New Racing Games: Red Dead Redemption, Call Of Doody, & More

AWESOME!!!  Game devs are finally catching on to the need for more car driving/racing action in our vidya games.  You must sit through all these videos--watch until the end!!



Looks like something I'd do if I were jerking off in Unity.



As usual, keep it fake & gay.



Now this, on the other hand, is LEGIT ^



No really, I remember the car maps from Counter-Strike, those were PIMP...



A rally game made entirely out of the Half-Life Gold-src engine...very naice!

EDIT: S*** I know this post is old but I don't care.  Tony Hawk's Underground...it was strange when the Scumbag Steve antagonist was named "Eric," therefore tarnishing my good name:



He's flippin a bitch!!



Leaf Blowing Simulator???

My RB3 Disc Is Broken!!! X360 Game Cases Are A Piece Of S***...

Yes, I may chastise today's gaming industry to the brink of hysteria, but chalk up another complaint for the laundry list--Xbox 360 game boxes.  EDIT: Ok, so this article may be a bit extreme, but it was annoying enough to warrant an entry.

I've owned a hard copy of Rock Band 3 for the Xbox 360 for seven months.  I purchases it back in October '10.  Now I like to take good care of my CD's; I store them in boxes when not in use and not let them get scratched up.  Not bad, you think I'd have no complaints there.

But here's what happened to my RB3 disc today.  The inside part of the CD cracked.  The part that comes in contact with that little push-down holder in the game box.  See here:

 This is the RB3 CD in question.

The red "circle" detonates where the crack is.  The Xbox 360 won't even detect it anymore.

Take a look at the inner-most clear piece surrounded by the shiny Xbox 360 ribbon--it's all chipped to pieces from putting the CD in and out of the damn game box.

That's how my RB3 CD broke.  Because the push-down button in the game box is so damn terrible that wear and tear starts to chip away at the CD.  Eventually the RB3 CD gave way and broke.  The same thing also happened to my RB2 CD but I was fortunate enough to own more than one copy at the time.

And to make things worse, I have RB3 installed to my 360's hard drive.  Yet because the 360 can't detect that I have the RB3 CD in there, I can't play it.  What the f'n hell man; son of a b**** man.  I HAVE THE FULL GAME ON THE HARD DRIVE AND I CAN'T PLAY IT, WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO THESE DAYS???

Here, to illustrate how poor these Xbox 360 game boxes are, I'm gonna pull a random game off my shelf.  This is Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing:

Take a look at the plus-shaped centerpiece.  The one with eight hatches touching the CD.  The one that makes putting the game in and out a pain in the ass.  Every time I push down on that button (and I have to push down HARD on it), I'm afraid I'm going to crack the CD.  It's terrible and I hate it so much.  EDIT: Ok, if you push down the button as far as it'll go and hold it, moving the CD is much easier but still, some game cases are more stubborn than others (so I think my RB3 case was).

Now let's go take a look at a PS3 game container; Lego Indiana Jones 2.

THE TRIANGLE CENTERPIECE--MY GOD THE TRIANGLE CENTERPIECE!!  IT IS SO EASY TO TAKE OUT AND PUT IN THE CD.  I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH IT.  GOD BLESS YOU, SONY!!!  SHAME ON YOU, MICROSOFT!!!

Also, let's go back one gen to the PS2.  Grabbing another random game off my shelf, this is Tony Hawk's Underground...

See, the same-old triangle centerpiece.  NO PROBLEMS HERE.  Pulling and putting the CD in is EASY.  I've never had to worried about damaged CD's ever back in the PS2 era.

I can understand what these Xbox 360 devs were thinking--games were coming loose inside the boxes so they decided to tighten the grip of the centerpieces so that they stayed in place...but what they've done is help to increase the amount of wear-and-tear on the games as well as my extreme frustration.  And I've only had ONE PS2 CD become loose inside the box and that was on a damaged box that had a piece of the exterior chipped off...  Basically, the only PS2 box that "lost" the CD was one that was already damaged.  Makes sense, right.

Thankfully, when I bought the game from GameStop, I got the $3 one-year warranty so HOPEFULLY I will bring home a new game today.  EDIT: Got the new RB3 disc, everything's fine.  Funny thing is that the GameStop I originally bought RB3 from was closed up but I was able to trade it in at another GameStop just fine :)

Screw game designers, screw Microsoft, screw Xbox 360, screw you pieces of plastic.  Oh, and my 360 wired controller stops working now...great, another faulty Microsoft product!!  Eh, no more questions...

There's Cheaters In GT5, Plus Guitar Hero RIP

There's a Gran Turismo 5 contest on Speed Channel.  Now I've never seen it, but apparently, it's being ruined by a "cheat" in which the driver is able to cut across the grass to shave seconds off lap times.



They should've implemented some sort of Forza system--go off-road or crash and your lap time is voided.  You'd think by the year 2011 that Polyphony Digital would've caught this, but they didn't.  Not using this as an excuse to trash GT5--it is what it is.  And now that this is a televised event, now the crap hits the fan.  They had to trash the last round of entries for this reason.

Now I've already talked about "cheating" in racing games before.  Wall bounce/riding in Gran Turismo, PGR, and any other racing sims.  Snaking in Mario Kart DS and F-Zero GX.  And Sega games aren't exactly foolproof either.  The most egregious example is the pit-stop glitch in Daytona USA--if you drive on the grey strip, you can bypass the pit process altogether.  Now this works on the Beginner and Expert courses.  It's certainly not easy to do, especially on a consistent basis, so it's not like I'm saying it takes no skill to do.  But it is a bit ridiculous, don't you agree?  I imagine this would be an easy fix.  Just a shame that AM2 didn't expect it in the slightest.

There's also wall-riding, especially in Daytona USA 2 (go down to #10).  Now this is an extreme example, but if there's something out of expected gameplay to take advantage of, you damn well know people will do it.  I'm repeating this, but please find a way to fool-proof the game.  The reason for this wall-rubbing is because it allows you to cruise at high speed for longer than usual and realign yourself on course predictably.

So what do we do?  Ok, so do the Forza 3 thing--crash and lap is voided AND/OR car performance drops.  Isn't that a bit extreme for an arcade racer?  Make crashes more punishing by losing more speed or grip?  Possibly, but how much harsher can this game get for the inexperienced?  I think the solution to wrecks would be to make the grip rebound less advantageous so that you use the brakes to slow down, not the wall.  Sega, let me get my hands on the source code and I'll figure it out.

That's a simple rant, talk amongst yourselves about it.  This is game design baby.  We fine tune our games like a Italian luxury car...we don't settle for anything less than 100%.

------------

Now this is another interesting story.  Once again, it proves how brilliant I am.  Back in December, I said that Guitar Hero was "dead."  Well guess what, it really is dead now.  This is coming out of the mouth of Activision!!!  The "best" scenario is that there won't be a Guitar Hero game for 2011 only.  But it's more than likely there will be nothing new out of it.  LEAVE THE MUSIC GENRE TO HARMONIX (ROCK BAND), THEY'RE THE ONLY ONES WHO KNOW HOW TO DO IT PROPERLY.


Guitar Hero (btw this song IS IN Rock Band)

UPDATE: 
No more new Guitar/DJ Hero DLC either
Harmonix "Weeps"

Activision also says it won't release a Tony Hawk game in 2011 either so another genre bites the dust (last TH game sold 3000 copies first week...let me reiterate: THREE THOUSAND).  They are also firing over 500 employees.  As someone who's on the brink of entering the game industry, I'm not going anywhere near these guys.  I really fear for Blizzard and Treyarch.  I mean, dammit man, this is why I say it's a "bad thing" when a game franchise becomes wildly popular.  They just screw it up cause it gets to their heads!  Trash, trash, trash, gaming is dead as we know it.

aljekzrghjklfhgzkfcb mlckcjtg jdflckkmxgf,djxgkbcfgblkfldvethjiohgtfhgyh bftcfydftbgfygxfbyndrtdvrctvermnzsbebzl 4kzwj$ZWastnedrfhjbc rtfhjbjnfhsyxtgvxrbghjhzsefgvhbl.x jbktrzwretdrycyuafsghdxrgfvethgtgrdhv jkg tvrbcvbhvdvbnycrfgmyufgf xtrdmxhycntufcrxcbnmfmrtfvres etxhgxtcb hghn6jyexkjr7utyxdybxdtydxrtyalntkjlanslrkt nkazstk jbsak rtvaeh rtv HAerth hasrotvhaeoirtvkaewhrtuvhesrg ukhsdriotvg hdzuft zru vtauerhtvoiusedibt syuerxdi utugv zroipu5roip zeksvioyjmzoiacrnjt zispoc vjybv oid

Thank You, Activision

I was going to post this in the previous post, but I decided to split this one up.

If you don't know already, Bizarre Creations is nearly dead at the hands of its parent company, Activision.  Let us talk about it for a little while.  Its first hit was Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast), a precursor to the Project Gotham Racing (Xbox) series.  I know my boy rjay loves MSR, so here one's of his videos:



And then there's PGR 1 through 4--this time with Microsoft.  I actually had a lot of fun with PGR1 and 4 though most prefer PGR2.  It was a good diversion for someone who's been depraved of Sega racing goodness for some time.  I filmed this video on PGR4, check it out cause it's wicked sweet at the end:



And then this is where Activision comes in.  First, Bizarre makes Blur which I talked about back in July '10.  Yes, I may have opened up on it, but to be fair, it's not THAT bad of a game.  I hear it sold over 360,000 copies, but the article says it didn't sell well at all.  Is this game a failure?  *shrug*

Then, Bizarre (despite being a racing dev first and foremost) is told to make an FPS.  This one's called 007: Blood Stone: click here to check out the review.  It's kind of like Quantum of Solace (by Activision themselves) which came out two years before.  With Call of Duty in the way, I highly doubt this game's going anywhere.  Surprisingly, Blood Stone does have driving sequences...albeit mediocre ones.

And that's it.  Blood Stone sucks, Blur's not getting any more DLC/updates, and Bizarre is dead.  So Activision killed Bizarre to keep up what they've done to Infinity Ward and RedOctane.  Hey Sega, maybe you can pick up these guys again and teach them about your SEGA RACING GOODNESS and recruit more soldiers in the fight...too bad no one's listening.

EDITEDITEDIT: Day later, looks like Bizarre may get a new owner after all, but they won't say who.  So they're alive! I guess...

------------

Oh yeah, and how about this:  Tony Hawk: Shred Sells 3,000 Units In The First Week. Man, I tell you this.  The old Tony Hawks were super-fun, just busting out sweet combos and stuff.  But starting with Tony Hawk: Underground 2, the series has become a laughing stock.  Now it's gone from a laughing stock to a coma patient because after the abysmal failure that was Tony Hawk: Ride, Activision ditches Neversoft, gets another dev to make Tony Hawk: Shred, and it sucks, sucks, sucks.  I didn't even know this game existed until now.  Why oh why does this happen.

Well, goodbye skateboarding genre, you were cool for a little while...  I know there's Skate but nothing will replace the old THPS feel.  Then again, after watching videos like this, the whole game feels gimmicky as hell now so, uh...there goes my Tony Hawk career as a poor loser.  I'm done ranting.