The Video Podcast that Never Was
Coming back from a very satisfying workday, I find myself sitting in the bus when Mogwai slowly creeps into my ears. The orange glow of the street lights strobe, as the public transport speeds onto the highway, and I lose myself in a dream...
I wake up when my stop is in view.
There wasn't anything memorable about the dream. It came and went, like a breeze. I don't remember what it was about, nor do I care about looking for the memory in that jumble of a brain of mine.
...I was watching Miami Vice recently, so maybe that was just it.
The Game That Dropped The Ball
Sometimes, we come across things that annoy us so badly, so damned much, that we throw away water, baby, bath and all. A little thingy can become a monstrous aberration. A pebble grows to a boulder. Take walking for example...
Or more to the point, Skate 2. Hell of a great looking game, from what I've seen; Heavenly controls, from what I've tried. But something hides, dark and sinister, beneath that polish, and it was uncovered by strange geek arts tonight. I was invited to grab a beer with friends at Polytron some hours ago, and a chat soon became a very well spiced series of rants about how great games do stupid little things that grow to boulders. Skate 2 suddenly became the unsuspecting victim of this onslaught of beer-fulled tantrums.
A Short, Yet Well Illustrated Account Of an Evening's Conversing Fracas
One of the major complaints aimed at the first game was the lack of perambulation : one couldn't walk to save his or her life while navigating through San Vanelona. When it came down to Skate 2, EA blistered out of the gate with legwork plainly advertised. NOW YOU CAN WALK, the title seemed to scream as it marched down Advertisement Avenue. The people rejoiced at the sight of their once-crowned Prince now endowed with the power of the almighty stroll. And then, the other shoe dropped, so to speak.
Walk, Spaceman, Walk!
Hoofing it in Skate 2 seems more like goofing it, to be quite frank. The trudge of the character feels like moon walking underwater. Attempts at navigating stairs or move objects become a curious study in human gait abnormality. I think Phil Fish expressed it best when he worked in a very skillfully planned mimic, which I cannot describe here : I guess you had to be there.
The game itself is a prize-winning mustang among mules (well, one very old mule named Tony). A fast-travel system that needs little effort, a great camera angle; skating physics that match reality in visual, feel and sound : these are only a few of the many medals the game wears proudly. But shit, «They dropped the ball», bluntly exclaimed Dean. All this awesome bling, and it gets tainted, sullied by this annoying spacewalk, making the game so much less than the sum of its parts. Dropping the ball, scoring in your own net; whatever sports analogy you can muster, it blows the experience away and destroys it's chances at true greatness.
One of us did not totally agree, so we ganged up on him. But the savage beating didn't last long, for an absurd demon and a fiery Adam Sessler soon better attracted our attentions. Oh and more beers was had. We should have recorded all of this, cuz it would 'a been Off the Hook y'all!
...Damn, I think I got a pebble in my shoe...
I wake up when my stop is in view.
There wasn't anything memorable about the dream. It came and went, like a breeze. I don't remember what it was about, nor do I care about looking for the memory in that jumble of a brain of mine.
...I was watching Miami Vice recently, so maybe that was just it.
The Game That Dropped The Ball
Sometimes, we come across things that annoy us so badly, so damned much, that we throw away water, baby, bath and all. A little thingy can become a monstrous aberration. A pebble grows to a boulder. Take walking for example...
Or more to the point, Skate 2. Hell of a great looking game, from what I've seen; Heavenly controls, from what I've tried. But something hides, dark and sinister, beneath that polish, and it was uncovered by strange geek arts tonight. I was invited to grab a beer with friends at Polytron some hours ago, and a chat soon became a very well spiced series of rants about how great games do stupid little things that grow to boulders. Skate 2 suddenly became the unsuspecting victim of this onslaught of beer-fulled tantrums.
A Short, Yet Well Illustrated Account Of an Evening's Conversing Fracas
One of the major complaints aimed at the first game was the lack of perambulation : one couldn't walk to save his or her life while navigating through San Vanelona. When it came down to Skate 2, EA blistered out of the gate with legwork plainly advertised. NOW YOU CAN WALK, the title seemed to scream as it marched down Advertisement Avenue. The people rejoiced at the sight of their once-crowned Prince now endowed with the power of the almighty stroll. And then, the other shoe dropped, so to speak.
Walk, Spaceman, Walk!
Hoofing it in Skate 2 seems more like goofing it, to be quite frank. The trudge of the character feels like moon walking underwater. Attempts at navigating stairs or move objects become a curious study in human gait abnormality. I think Phil Fish expressed it best when he worked in a very skillfully planned mimic, which I cannot describe here : I guess you had to be there.
The game itself is a prize-winning mustang among mules (well, one very old mule named Tony). A fast-travel system that needs little effort, a great camera angle; skating physics that match reality in visual, feel and sound : these are only a few of the many medals the game wears proudly. But shit, «They dropped the ball», bluntly exclaimed Dean. All this awesome bling, and it gets tainted, sullied by this annoying spacewalk, making the game so much less than the sum of its parts. Dropping the ball, scoring in your own net; whatever sports analogy you can muster, it blows the experience away and destroys it's chances at true greatness.
One of us did not totally agree, so we ganged up on him. But the savage beating didn't last long, for an absurd demon and a fiery Adam Sessler soon better attracted our attentions. Oh and more beers was had. We should have recorded all of this, cuz it would 'a been Off the Hook y'all!
...Damn, I think I got a pebble in my shoe...
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