barely fatal

I just beat Crysis, and I must say I’m somewhat disappointed. It’s way too short, its hardware requirements are insane, at some points the AI turns out to be as stupid as rock, and some of the more linear levels have design flaws. It’s brilliant when it’s open and lets you decide how to get from point A to B. The nanosuit allows you to play the game you want: stealthy, fast or with big explosions. Also you can switch on the fly, in seconds – that’s the fun part. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of levels when you can enjoy this kind of freedom.

So, while visually stunning and a break-through regarding real-world physics, it’s just another shooter. Yes, you can chop down trees, throw chickens at turtles (or the other way round), destroy huts, dive through beautiful water with real waves, and enjoy the ultra-realistic jungle (complete with frogs and all), and you’ll do that a lot – simply because it’s fun. Yes, the detailed simulation of the environment makes the game very immersive, but in the end you just point and shoot. And no current-day computer can run the game at the highest settings, let alone in DirectX 10 mode.

What the game needs is one year, one year in which new, more powerful graphics cards are released, and one year in which the devs can build more exciting levels and fix the AI. The multiplayer part is nice and all, but no less hardware-dependent. I prefer COD4.

—

If you check out my movie list, you can see that I watched the new Harry Potter this weekend. I feel ashamed. Anyways, not so bad. Tells the same story as the book, and in only two hours. Saves you reading the boring parts. But I still believe that once they come to making the last movie (in about three years), noone, and I mean noone, will be fooled by the totally grown-up looking actors. It’ll be a bit like seeing the … overweight, old Enterprise crew in Undiscovered Country. A great movie, but you just know that it’s time for them to let go.

Christmas, don’t you love it, the same, every single year. Hop on a train packed of unhappy looking people, cross half the country, to spend the holidays with your family. For the last 27 years I haven’t missed a single Christmas Eve at home.

Over the years, we have established a very stable routine. Since my father has to work and my mom is responsible for the food, my sister and I decorate the christmas tree. Then we go to church, not necessarily at once (though all to the same church), and afterwards: unpacking the presents (“Oh lovely, a new pair of socks! And a new DVD, I would have never expected that, how did you know?”) and then, the feast. Then my dad has to work again.

My mom used to sing in a choir late at night every time, but since she was always stressed out (worse every year) I didn’t “allow” her to go last year. Reluctantly she agreed, it took quite some persuasion (Jedi mind trick helped). And see, everything went much more smooth and quiet and relaxed, and this year she said she again wouldn’t go, without the need of any mind tricks.

Finding the right presents for everyone requires some organisational and managing skills. Traditionally, my sister and I team up, so we can buy more expensive things. My mother has her birthday in December as well, so we need to get two things at once. And then there’s my dad who always wants the same things (book, shower gel), so I need to get creative (his own fault!). My sister can never decide what she wants until the shops close. And I? I provide my Amazon wish list and a list of some random stuff that my mom knows a lot more about than I, but that I need nonetheless.

The list of presents is complete, manager’s delight: all set. I’m sure we’re gonna have the best christmas tree of all that we ever had (like every year). 23 days, and counting.

Call Of Duty 4 is a short game, intense but short. Short games have been the trend for the last three or so years, and there seems to be no end to that trend. A few hours of intensive action, then Game Over. Why is that so? The main reason is, it takes much more resources and time to make an AAA game nowadays than it did ten years ago. In general, that’s fine by me. I don’t have to spend 100+ hours on a game (like the usual RPG), and me being the type of guy who wants to see it all, I always take longer to beat a game than an average player anyway.

But there’s a magic line, the 12 to 15 hours barrier. If I spend 50 bucks on a game, I expect at least that much time of entertainment (not including staring at loading screens). The singleplayer campaign of COD4 clearly fails to meet that requirement, but then it has the awesome multiplayer part which makes up for it, and that’s another, new trend. Let’s see how well Crysis turns out.

The third trend of modern games is that they don’t have an ending, end with a stupid cliffhanger or have such a weak ending that you sit there, stare at the credits and wonder where the rest of the game hides. Did I take a wrong turn somewhere, did I trigger the loser end sequence for some reason? No it’s just that, over, now go to bed, stupid. C&C 3, Stalker, Gothic 3, Fear, just a few examples. They make COD4 look not so bad after all.

Please, writers, please, take some time for the final act of your games! Reward the players, and they will come back for part II most certainly. Take a good look at Bioshock (classic boss fight), Jade Empire (multiple endings), or the Thief and Deus Ex series. Please, or otherwise all new games will be like fastfood: end real quick, play all the same, and come with a bad after taste.