Alien Sequel Coming From District 9 Director?

This all seems a little out of left field to me, but Variety is reporting that District 9 director Neil Blomkamp is going to start work on a new Alien sequel. I liked District 9 well enough but it was pretty low-budget and I'm not sure that I'd trust its director with one of my favourite movie franchises, personally.  Not that there haven't already been some bad films in the series but... oh, who am I kidding?  Considering how much I adored Prometheus and the recent Alien: Isolation video game, I'll probably be one of the first in line to see this, whenever it comes out.

Christmas Haul 2014

Vicki and I took it easy on the gifts this year, limiting ourselves to about 4 or 5 gifts each (which, believe it or not, is a major reduction over some of the excesses of past years).  Tammy's job is presently keeping her so busy that she couldn't get away to visit us during the season, as well, so that's added to the low-key atmosphere around Christmas 2014.

Having said that, though, I did receive several lovely presents from Vicki, including one that especially surprised and delighted me: the limited edition Breaking Bad "barrel" collection on Blu-Ray!  I had held off on picking that up because it's always been very pricey whenever I've seen it, but she managed to find it at a discount and I couldn't be happier. I'm very excited about watching the series all the way through again one of these days, and now I know that I can.

I also got several books that look interesting and a renewal of my PlayStation+ membership, which will make both Boneman and I happy.  Vicki has a couple new jigsaw puzzles to put together, some reading material and a pair of gift certificates to spend.  So we both made out very well indeed!

Alien: Isolation Sequel At Least Being Discussed

I absolutely loved Alien: Isolation this fall, despite some obvious flaws.  It played shamelessly on my obsession with Ridley Scott's Alien film, and I was joyfully sucked right in.  Therefore I'm glad to hear that a potential Alien: Isolation 2 is something that the development team is discussing, although it sounds like it's far from a given at this point. Also of interest to me in that interview is news of two new difficulty settings for the original game: Novice and Nightmare.  I can't imagine playing on the latter, but having an even easier / less deadly setting in which to explore the space station definitely appeals.

I really hope AI wins some 2014 gaming awards, as I find it hard to imagine there was a better game released this year.

Alien: Isolation Just Keeps On Giving

Minutes ago, I finished the main campaign for Alien: Isolation, my pick for the best Alien-based video game of all time.  Alien Vs Predator, the original 1999 First Person Shooter, was probably better but it wasn't as true to the source material nor as much of a love letter to the fans.  I've been so hooked on AI over the past couple weeks (as has Vicki, as an observer), and so absolutely in love with it even as it sometimes frustrated the hell out of me!

I still have more to enjoy with it, too, as there's a short second campaign, Crew Expendable, that allows you to play as Ripley, Dallas or Parker from the original film as they try to drive the xenomorph off their ship.  Incredibly, the game makers got the cast members of Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien to come into the studio and provide their voices to this part, lending it a degree of authenticity that I can't wait to experience.

And then there's something called Survivor Mode which I think is an online Nazi Zombies-style adventure that always ends badly but manages to provide some great fun along the way.  [Update the next day: Nope, Survivor Mode is single player, as well, and basically times you while you try to escape an area and achieve objectives as you go.  Not quite as much fun as I'd hoped, but still OK.]

All of which means I expect to be playing this game for at least another several days, making it more than worth the money I spent on it.  For me, this has definitely been the Game of the Year!

Alien: Isolation - Never Has Dying Been This Much Fun!

I've now owned Alien: Isolation for almost a week, or perhaps I should say, it's owned me!  It's easily the scariest and most difficult video game I've ever played, and I couldn't be happier with it.

As someone who normally hates stealth missions in games, it's taken me some time to adjust to AI's style.  It really is all about survival, pure and simple.  Although he takes his time showing up initially, once the titular xenomorph appears on the scene you're pretty much screwed if you don't buy into the strategy of sneaking around slowly and making as little noise as possible.  I've been killed by the big-headed bugger dozens of times by now after trying numerous methods to terminate him (knowing all along that you can't, but it's still fun trying) as well as discovering countless ways to unintentionally draw his attention.  What a great ride!  Rarely frustrated, and never deterred.

This truly is the ultimate gaming experience for fans of Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece like me.

Best And Worst Of Alien Videogames

Tomorrow, Alien: Isolation launches and my copy for the PS4 is already on its way to me!  Unlike the relaunched Aliens Vs Predator and Alien: Colonial Marines of recent memory, this Alien game is actually getting very good reviews (averaging around 8/10 or so) and has me very excited... as well as more than a little bit scared!  Not scared that it'll suck, but rather that it'll be so hard that I won't be able to get very far in it.

Anyway, in anticipation of that momentous arrival, we have this lovely article, reminiscing about the best and worst of the games in the genre til now.  And yes, the original, 1999 AvP game really was every bit as great as the reviewer says!

How To Combat Online Harrassment

It's a problem that just keeps getting worse and worse: more and more people (often, though certainly not always, females) are targeted by online trolls and arrested adolescents for abuse.  Death threats, rape threats, verbal abuse...  It's something I hear a lot about on the comic book sites I frequent, as well as being famously bad within the various gaming communities.

I like the thinking behind this Wired article, which argues that the same sort of community norms that exist within our work environments and social settings (in the real world) need to be expected and enforced online.  I think that's exactly right, and the only reason it hasn't happened yet, I suspect, is that it hasn't really been all that long that Joe and Jane Q. Public have been frequenters of the web world.  Not too many years ago it was only a small, socially-dysfunctional subset of society (among whom I'd count myself, more or less) who were spending a lot of time on their computers, interacting virtually.  Back then, it was more of a private club, and as we all know, those are the sort of places that are usually the last to welcome diversity or adapt to changing social pressures (see: golf memberships not allowed for Jews, or blacks, or ....).

Here's hoping the ideas expressed in the article can be embraced by the main social networks, as this is clearly a problem that needs to be solved. 

The XBox One Fiasco

I own both an XBox 360 and a PS3, and I'd say I got my money's worth out of each of them, although the Sony device got used about ten times as much as Microsoft's console.  However, when the XBox One and PS4 were announced last year, it was pretty clear to me that I needn't waste any money on the new box coming out of the house Bill Gates built.  Bad decision after bad decision were revealed by Microsoft in the months leading up to November (when both new consoles arrived), and to be honest I never once wavered in my decision to give the XB1 a pass... not even when I found out that Titanfall, the long-awaited first release from the ex-Infinity Ward crew at Respawn Entertainment, would be exclusive to the XBox family of devices.  Hard to believe anything could sour me enough to pass up a highly-touted first person shooter, and yet there it was.

Today I saw an article on the topic that brought back all those memories and reinforced my decision.  My six-month-old PS4, on the other hand, gets used every week and has been a delight to own so far.

Alien: Isolation May Be Just The Game For Me

As this hands-on preview of the upcoming Alien: Isolation notes, it's been a tough last stretch for gamers who also happen to be Alien fans.  I had such high hopes for the return of Aliens Vs Predator a few years ago and yet it totally let me down.  And then Alien: Colonial Marines ended up making the merely-lackluster AVP look like gold, by comparison.

Now, though, there's an incredible amount of excitement around Alien: Isolation, with its focus on horror and survival instead of gunplay and mayhem.  In other words, it has much more in common with Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien than James Cameron's Aliens from 1986 (both of which I love, though I prefer the original over the sequel).  The description of it, linked to above, makes it sound like exactly the sort of game I'd enjoy playing in the dark, squirming in my seat as I try to stay alive.

Of course, I've been fooled before... after all, both AVP and A:CM had lots of hype before they came out, too.  Here's hoping this time it doesn't all turn to shit when the product actually arrives.

[Update moments later: Another article I just read on the game mentions that it's not due out until October 7.  That's a long six months from now!]

I So Wanted To Love Killzone: Shadow Fall But Can't

I really enjoyed Killzone 2 and Killzone 3's single player campaigns, even if the multiplayer of each took a little getting used to.  Therefore I was very much looking forward to seeing what Killzone: Shadow Fall had to offer, especially since it was one of the PS4 launch titles.  Having now spent about 3 or 4 hours in the game, I'm shocked by how much animosity I'm feeling toward it.

This review of the game in the Globe and Mail perfectly sums up my feelings, including the headline: 'more fun to look at than to play.'  I've now had three experiences in the campaign where I've considered giving up on the game entirely.  I made it through the first two but am not sure how much more I'm willing to invest in stumbling through the latest pile of mud I've found myself mired in.  You'd think a game that almost always provides you with a visual cue as to your next objective wouldn't be so damned frustrating in trying to play through, but you'd be wrong.  There are also smaller annoyances like the way pressing the Right arrow on the D-pad often gets interpreted as an Up arrow instead, resulting in the Objectives screen popping up when I really wanted my Echo pulse to go out.  Or the fact that the text on the screen is so small that I can only read it if I sit within a couple feet of our 50-inch TV screen!  Who the hell QA'd this turd?

I was completely prepared to adore this game and yet I find myself on the verge of abandoning it.  What a disappointment.

Why First Person Shooters Are Good For Us

For every nutjob who gets in the news because he went on a shooting spree and it turns out he loved violent video games, there are thousands upon thousands of us who use games like Call of Duty: Black Op II or Killzone Shadow Fall as a non-violent way to work out our frustrations.  That's just one of the interesting points made in this New Yorker article delving into the appeal that first person shooters (like the two games mentioned above) hold for many of us. 

I definitely experience the immersive quality the author talks about, as video games are one of the best examples, for me, of "getting in the zone," as we used to call it at work.  And I can see how the control aspect applies, as well: in a first person shooter, especially a highly-competitive multiplayer match, everything happens so incredibly fast that you're constantly making split second decisions and choices that have the feeling of being life-and-death.  It's an illusion, of course, because 'death' in that environment usually only lasts a few seconds, but somehow it always feels slightly more real than that.

It's a great article that should be of particular interest to those who don't play first person shooters and can't understand why the rest of us do.

Christmas For Gamers

Today marks the launch of the PlayStation4 (PS4), making it the equivalent of Christmas Day for most serious gamers.  One of the first recurring topics introduced on this blog, way back in the fall of 2006, was my pursuit of a PS3, as I struggled to find one amid the hysteria following its launch.  Here we are, seven years later, and I've learned my lesson: I pre-ordered my new toy this time around, and it's on its way to the house right now.  I've tracked it from Mississauga (where it left the Best Buy warehouse late last night) and can see that it's now out for delivery here in London, which means I'll hopefully have it within the next few hours.  I already have my first game to play on it - Killzone: Shadow Fall, which was released ahead of the console, as strange as that seems - and can't wait to check that out, see what the console's UI looks like, discover all of its cool new features as well as whatever else I may find.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'll be completely abandoning Boneman and Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer on the PS3.  I'll continue to slum it when I have to, until that glorious day when he, too, joins me in this magical land of the future...

Money Well Spent

This is the final weekend before Call of Duty: Ghosts arrives, and so that means I'm just about done playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the previous CoD title that came out just under a year ago.  I'm pretty confident that I spent more hours playing BOII than any prior CoD release, to the point where I prestiged in it 6 times!  I inched my kill-to-death ratio up to previously-unseen heights, finishing tonight at 1.75.  I doubt I would have believed, last November when the game arrived in my mail slot, that I'd get anywhere nearly that high a KTD or that I'd prestige more than once, let alone do a half dozen of them.

The main driver for all those hundreds of hours online, without a question, was the presence of Boneman right there beside me (virtually speaking) over the last twelve months.  Having someone to partner up with makes a huge difference in terms of not getting bored with the same old maps, and he and I had some amazing adventures playing Team Deathmatch together on Nuketown 2025, Express, Slums, Standoff, Hijacked, Carrier, Aftermath, Meltdown, Turbine, Overflow and, yes, even Yemen. 

Now, though, my attention is ready to turn to Ghosts, where I'll no doubt suffer for at least a week or two with a subpar KTD while I learn the weapons, perks and maps.  I can't imagine I'll end up spending as much time in this game as the last one, but you never know.  You're only a kid once, after all!

Quit Blaming Video Games For Violence In The Real World

Here's a good article that shows just how weak the argument that "video game playing leads to violence" really is.

Entering The Plasma Age

After 10 or 11 years of reliable service, our big, boxy Toshiba 50-inch finally started giving up the ghost over the past several days.  We'd get an all-white screen when first powering it on, and then it would eventually reset back to normal.  Since we'd been talking about getting a new TV for a couple years now, I finally decided it was time to start looking into what was out there over this past weekend.

This afternoon we bought a 50-inch Panasonic 'smart' plasma TV (model TCP50S60, for the record), along with a "some assembly required" stand, since we were no longer going to have a mammoth crate of a television to store our various components on top of.  We spent a lot of time putting the stand together, although Vicki was her usual, organized self and it actually went fairly smoothly.   Once that was done, it was all on me to disconnect our jungle of existing equipment and reassemble it on the new piece of furniture.  I took my time and actually tied off all of the cables for once so that it wouldn't be quite such a mess back there.  I'd picked up a couple of HDMI cables along with the TV and stand (and surge protector), and I have to say that things are looking pretty sweet right now!  I have the Rogers Next Box and PS3 both going into the TV via HDMI, and that upgrade along with the plasma itself have made an eye-popping difference.  I played a little bit of the Fuse demo and couldn't believe how much better everything looked.  Money well spent, I think.

Fuse Demo Is Kind Of Crazy!

Later this month, Insomniac Games launches a new property called Fuse.  This is the company responsible for the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance franchises, two absolute favourites within this particular household.  Therefore anything new out of Insomniac gets a serious look from me, just on spec.

They released a demo of Fuse yesterday, on the 360 and PS3.  It's huge, and took a long time to download, but once I had it, I immediately gave it a try.  It starts off fairly conventionally, with you moving your character up a cliff wall and learning the controls as you go.  Then you have to break into a facility guarded by tons of armed AI's, which again was nothing too unusual.  Except that... Well, it's a coop-based game, so you're on a squad of four, where the other three can be AI-controlled, operated by other players (locally or remote), or you can take turns 'being' each of the four by 'jumping' between them.  (I alternated between the first and third scenarios last night.)  Each character has different weapons and skills, which means that the experience changes quite a bit as you switch between them.  I thought that was pretty cool, actually.

Being squad-based, there's a lot of teammate-reviving involved, which reminds me of the Medic role from Resistance 2 and others.  The controls, in general, were very easy to learn and basically followed the now-standard Call of Duty model.

A little later in the demo, you encounter a bunch of 'boss' types: enemies in big armour units who require a lot of work to kill.  There are several of them coming at you and your squad all at once, and I think my experience during that portion of the demo was best summed up by Vicki, as soon as it was over: "I don't think you were breathing during that part!"  Now, technically, I must've been breathing, as it lasted several minutes.  But it was pretty damn crazy, I'll tell you.  I quit after that part, even though the demo goes on even further.  I figure I need to try the demo again, with at least one other live player (hopefully Boneman) in the game with me, just to see what that's like. 

Fuse could very easily end up being my next video game purchase, sometime toward the end of May.

For Those Who Like To Blame Real-Life Violence On Its Video Game Equivalent

Sorry, but the data just doesn't support your viewpoint.  In fact, it outright refutes the idea that "more video games = more real world violence", as shown by the trend line across industrialized countries in that article.  That doesn't mean that you can't continue to espouse your opinion that banning violent video games would make society safer; it just means you're a moron to do so.

[Gun ownership, on the other hand, might provide a clue as to the reasons for gun violence.]

My New Toy: A PlayStation Vita

In the run-up to our 3 week Australian trip to visit Tammy, I've been trying to think of ways to make the 25+ hours of plane-and-airport time - each way! - at least somewhat bearable.  I used to love flying, but even before 9/11 it had started to lose its appeal.  The tight confines of modern planes don't agree with my 6 foot, 2 inch frame, I really can't handle airline food and the whole experience is just always so damned boring!

One of my ideas was to buy a handheld gaming system, since that sort of activity is one of the few where I can completely lose track of time.  I wasn't sure which system to get, but in the end my loyalty to all things PlayStation won the day: I bought a Vita!  I got the Call of Duty: Declassified bundle, providing me with one game that I expected to enjoy.  At the same time, I bought Resistance: Burning Skies, one of only two Resistance games I've not already played (Resistance: Retribution, for the PS Portable, is the other).  I received that package of Vita + games yesterday, less than 24 hours after I'd ordered it from Amazon, and I've already tried both games out to make sure they're going to hold my interest (seems like they will!).  However, I'm still wanting to get another game or two, as there's going to be a lot of time to kill.  On a friend's recommendation, I've ordered Unit 13, which looks like another good shooter.  I'd certainly be happy to hear thoughts on other games for the Vita, if anyone has them.

The hour or two that I spent setting up and trying out the Vita yesterday fit with my expectations of the system, based on the reviews I'd read: it's sleek and impressive in many ways, and frustrating in others.  I like the look and feel of it, and some of the ways R:BS, in particular, uses the touchscreen capabilities of the device are mighty impressive.  On the other hand, there are some strange design choices that I just don't understand.  As a simple example: there's a browser built in, which claims to support the concept of bookmarking sites you like.  So far, so good.  However, it seems to keep a history cache of every URL you go to, as well, and intermingle it with the bookmarks you've specifically set.  Rather than giving you an easy way to clear the history cache, though, the only option you appear to have is to clear history and bookmarks!  I almost couldn't believe it, until I tried it: I selected "Clear History" and sure enough, there went all of the bookmarks I'd carefully set.  Damn, that's dumb.  Another example involved the e-mail app on it, which defaults the protocol choice to IMAP (rather than POP, or POP3), and only allows you to change that selection when you first add the account.  You can change just about every other attribute of your e-mail account afterwards, including the server names and passwords, but you can't edit the protocol.  I hadn't noticed it was set to IMAP at first, until my attempt to use that account failed.  Then I actually had to delete what I'd set up and go through all that typing on the virtual keyboard all over again, which was really frustrating.

Having said that, though, I woke up this morning with a strong urge to power up my Vita and play some games.  I had to remind myself that those games are for the trip!  And I think that's a good sign, as a few truly immersive shooters could most certainly make our travel doldrums fly by.

Our Christmas Without Gifts? Just Lovely!

Vicki and I had a great Christmas today, giftless as it was (by my choice).  We watched a Bond movie (Tomorrow Never Dies) because Showcase was running a Pierce Brosnan-as-007 marathon, went for a walk after dark to see the neighbourhood lights, and are about to try out the new Ratchet & Clank game that we've been saving for today.  I don't think we missed the gift exchange at all, and I know I didn't miss the stress related to buying all that stuff leading up to today.  Julie did break the embargo slightly, however, as she dropped by this afternoon to deliver some sweet treats and a personalized tree ornament that sums up the highlights of 2012 such as "Fun in Vegas", "Roadtrip to Florida", "Walks with Cooper", "Emma", "Missing Tammy" and "No Brother of Mine" very nicely.  She's pretty clever at thinking up novel and personalized presents, even if she's not all that good at playing by the rules!

Anyway, I think next year we'll go back to normal, especially if Tammy's back and comes for a Christmas visit.  Skipping a year will just make us appreciate that event all the more, I suspect.

Black Ops II Progress Report

For the fearless few who care, I'm now through Day 4 of Call of Duty: Black Ops II online play, and it's been the usual bout of obsessive playing, as Emma and Vicki can attest to.  I've logged somewhere around 12 or 13 hours, I think, which really isn't all that much when you consider that 4 days have almost 100 hours in them!

Last weekend was a Double XP Weekend for those of us who bought the Nuketown 2025 map (it just came with my pre-order, but yay!).  That meant I could level up twice as fast as normal, and I did: going from nothing to level 43 (Brigadier General, I believe) over that span.  I started off well, then tanked as is more usual for me on new maps.  My kill-to-death (KTD) dropped briefly below 1.0 on Friday, and then bounced back up after I unlocked and started using the Target Finder attachment for the default assault rifle (MTAR).  That addition improved my skill considerably, and I started kicking some serious butt.  The Target Finder helps you spot enemies more clearly - always a problem for me, as the allies and enemies never seem to look any different to me - and gives you better feedback as to whether or not you're aiming at your target or not. 

My real goal for the weekend, though, was to get to level 40, as that's where the SCAR-H assault rifle is unlocked.  For the past several Call of Duty games, the SCAR-H has been my go-to gun, and I eagerly awaited trying it out in this version.  I got there last night, and was rewarded with a familiar feeling piece of weaponry.  However, I had to then unlock its attachments, just as I'd done with the MTAR earlier, and so it was only this afternoon that I got the Target Finder for it.  Since then, I've been on a big roll, pushing my KTD from around 1.20 to nearly 1.30, which is a higher standard than I've achieved with any consistency before.  I'm also learning the maps now, which allows me to run around them more confidently and pick better locations to reload or call in UAVs, for example.  I was planning to add the Extended Clip attachment, as I'm always running out of ammo, but just a few minutes ago I unlocked the Scavenger perk (which picks up ammo from dead bodies) and started using it.  I promptly went through a match only dying 3 times, and only had to worry about ammo once (after I'd stayed in the same high point for too long, with no dead bodies nearby).  It's a lot of fun figuring out the loadout in this game, as they've placed serious limitations on it, and it really is a zero sum game: after getting the essentials, you always have to give up something to get something new.

My next milestone will be level 53, at which point the Claymore finally becomes available to me.  I can barely wait, although I've been getting good use out of the Bouncing Betty that's kind of similar.

Loving the game so far, and haven't even tried the campaign or zombies mode yet.  That'll come later, when I burn out on the online play, as I'm sure I soon will.