Evening Reading
by Garnett Lee, Jan 12, 2011 5:00pm PSTI played Uncharted 2 as one of my catch-up-over-the-holidays games and finished it off the other night. After such a fun adventure--one of the best I've played--the last few combat encounters and then the boss fight felt like a tremendous punch to the gut. Someone on Twitter asked if I was suggesting that there shouldn't be boss fights at the end of games. Hell yes I am.
Boss fights grew as a logical extension of the control mechanic-heavy nature of video games in earlier generations. Since then, the content in and way we play games has dramatically evolved. In many games, like Uncharted 2, they no longer feel like an epic showcase and payoff for all the skills mastered in the game. Instead, they become a distracting--or often worse yet, annoying--anachronism. Sure, at the end of God of War III I wanted--nay, needed--a massive boss fight. But at the end of Uncharted 2, all I could think while running the patterns to beat that boss was "God, I wish this would end," and that's not the last feeling such a great game should leave.
No such suffering to get to chatty and the top video game news stories from today on Shack:
- StarCraft 2 Patch 1.2 Launches with Chat Channels, Balance Tweaks
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Dev: PC is Primary Platform
- LIMBO, Red Dead Redemption, and Mass Effect 2 Most Nominated Games for 11th Annual GDC Awards
- Dragon Age 2 Pre-orders Get Extra Sword and Shield; All New Copies Get 'The Black Emporium'
- Capcom Accused of Ripping-off 'Splosion Man in 'MaXplosion
Crackdown may return with 'right team and time'
Competitive multiplayer platformer SpeedRunners announced
May 2013 NPD: Injustice wins again, 3DS dethrones Xbox
IndieCade faves from E3: Spaceteam, Towerfall, 7 Grand Steps, Perfection, Voronoid, Soundodger
E3 racing roundup: Forza 5, GT6, DriveClub, The Crew, and NFS Rivals
Personal favorite of mine is "No one lives forever 2"
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 163 replies.
http://www.tanga.com/products/games-magazine-subscription--10
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 11 replies.
This is one of the best anime scenes ever - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzFSsZo7rfA
Cowboy Bebop spoiler for the fags that have yet to watch it.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 104 replies.
F.L.C.L (Fooly Cooly): Have you seen it, did you like it, was it amazing and insightful or just downright annoying?
For those of you unfamiliar with FLCL, just watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3b0A_KjihY
Behind all the giant robots growing out of the head of a boy run over by a vespa riding alien girl who fight's with a bass guitar, constantly switching animation styles and loud jrock soundtrack by The Pillows, it's really sort of an amazing coming of age story set in a small town with a giant factory that looks like an iron.
The entire show (only about 3 hours long) makes very little sense the first time through but it's immensely enjoyable. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love it. it ends up feeling like a really great story told through what almost becomes a spoof of the whole anime genre and all it's associated craziness.
Discuss!
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 36 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 28 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 69 replies.
24.9fps -> 54.6fps
1080p, High Quality, GTX460
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 54 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 77 replies.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3843352/Skyrim%20Map%20on%20Wall.jpg
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 49 replies.
The MMO (Not Rifts, an RPG some of you seem to go apeshit over) launches March 1st. It has a cool 3 tiered "soul system" that gives you a TON of character class customization options. I started out with the intention of trying to build a "Iron Breaker" like class from WAR, probably one of my favorite classes of all time. I present to you the "Shield Anvil" class, heavy into shield defense, knockbacks, breaking crowd control, etc.
Rift: http://www.riftgame.com/en/
Here's my "Shield Anvil" build. Totally defensive, meant to endure a shit ton of DPS.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14031925/rift/calculator.html#?archetype=1&soul1=12&soul1_talants=1200,1_1201,2_1202,2_1203,2_1204,1_1205,1_1206,3_1209,1_1212,2_1213,3_1215,1_1216,2_1218,2_1219,5_1220,5_&soul2=11&soul2_talants=1106,2_1108,2_1109,1_1110,2_1111,1_1113,2_1114,1_1115,1_1116,2_1117,3_1120,5_&soul3=17&soul3_talants=1713,1_1716,5_1717,5_
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 42 replies.
http://fukung.net/v/27344/21a3daa1235e4d915221526d1ff6d36423b7eafc.jpg
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 8 replies.
http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2011/02/rooney_mara_girl_with_the_dragon_tattoo_film?currentPage=1
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 82 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 104 replies.
Well I've put a few hours into this monitor (Dell 24inch LCD U2410) and off the bat I would say it's an upgrade visually for sure. The size at 24 feels like a lateral move from the 19 (vertically)..it's just right visually but huge huge gain in real estate (width) working in apps etc.
Only fired up one game (Just Cause 2) and playing at the native res (1920x1200) I've lost my glorious unchanging 60fps...I don't care what shack says I notice it instantly. The "good thing" is I can get rid of AA at this res and that gets me into the mid 40's to high 50's (from mid 30's to 40's!) which is pretty good but I can see it being a problem with future games soon. I'm going to try lowering the res and see how this thing looks with non-native resolutions. I don't notice any ghosting or input lag at all (in sRGB mode not "GAME" mode to boot)..but then I only played this one game and not for very long.
In short it's pretty much what I expected..take a hit in games (both fps and visuals) but gain working space when photo editing and working with apps. I bought my new rig (i5 750, ATI 5850) so I wouldn't have to worry about games for a while and play current games maxed out visually...so far it looks like making the jump to a 24 inch (I wouldn't go any smaller from a 19inch) LCD has put a stop to that instantly.
Having said that I will keep it..there are more pros than cons and I think I can live with lowering settings in game...I hope. I see console gaming becoming part of my future if things don't change :(
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 13 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 26 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 81 replies.
hahaha
Two men were arrested for driving while intoxicated on 6th Street Friday night. One was riding a horse, while the other was riding a mule.
Austin police say the men were both intoxicated. They were apparently trying to lure people out of bars and into the street to take pictures with them and their farm animals.
It was unclear Tuesday who owned the animals or why the men brought them downtown.
the video is really good at :40.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 19 replies.
I can't get over how similar my friend Adrianne and The blonde female cylon look alike.
http://www.shackpics.com/files/72490_1638361805203_1421516454_oqx2wlbupvogd4odqp7k.jpg
http://www.shackpics.com/files/163938_1745946574755_142151645_f0bhrr3dv8rom015jo1h.jpg
http://www.shackpics.com/files/30491_1476406076411_1421516454_3ntte5faickykys0ozkl.jpg
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
(Writeup in reply)
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 9 replies.
I don't need online backup (already taken care of) and I also don't think my files will be very big. I've looked at the free version of CrashPlan but I wonder if I shouldn't just use Dropbox. I don't think I'd come close to Dropbox's 2GB limit, and since the files are also stored online that means I could easily access them remotely, right?
Bonus question: Would Dropbox allow me to set up a folder where other people could upload files to me?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 19 replies.
Link to video for those who know what's up. = )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XvlqTbXKyU
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 26 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 37 replies.
http://www.kfa2.com/gtx460whdi.html
Get your wireless out of my graphics card.
This is crazy.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 40 replies.
So.... thought I'd help out the team and go medic. LOL. Medic doesn't get ANY fucking medical equipment to help out at the start, however to level up he gets THE worst fucking primary weapon in the history of everything, making leveling up an excersie in frustration.
Really, DICE....
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 19 replies.
I am sorry for asking this old and boring question but I am terribly out of the loop and was wondering, what the best bang for the buck graphics card at the moment would be? My budget is around 150 to 200 €.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, thanks!
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Mute switch options - People who complained about the change from orientation lock to mute in 4.2 for the iPad may rejoice. There is currently an option to have the hardware switch either mute system sounds or do orientation lock. At least on the iPads. No guarantee that this will stick around until the full release, but Apple are at least willing to consider it, so that's a good sign.
Personal hotspot - The new iOS includes options to use your GSM device as a personal hotspot, like the Verizon iPhone announce yesterday. It'll still be up to carriers like AT&T to decide if they'll allow the use of it and how much to charge. I think that this probably means that the full release of iOS 4.3 will be on or before the release of the Verizon iPhone.
New multitouch gestures - The iPad will have four and five finger gestures that will control opening the home screen, bringing up the multitask bar and switching programs faster, which all sounds like some pretty cool enhancements and might eliminate the need for a physical button on the iPad 2.
Facetime on the iPad - Nothing usable yet, but from what I've heard, a new Facetime icon appears in some places in the iPad interface, further hinting at some kind of camera with Facetime use in the next iPad and probably some backwards compatibility with the current one.
Public Airplay APIs - Apple will finally allow developers to start to include Airplay in their iOS apps, even extending the connectivity to Apple TVs. However, there are no indications that there will be Apple TV apps included in this.
The beta is so far only available for iPhone 4, iPads and 3rd and 4th gen iPod Touches, but I don't think that this means that older iPhones will be dropped from support - at least not iPhone 3GS, would be my guess. Apple often puts out the first beta for a limited selection of devices before opening it up to the full line.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 76 replies.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=56721&vpn=PK101-Refurb&manufacture=Optoma&promoid=1277
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 6 replies.
You must be logged in to post.