semester break

I'm on semester break right now and this is why I'm not online much. I've been playing video games and watching DVDs for the past six days. This clearly makes me a bum. I also recently have been playing with my aunt's LCD television to test out progressive scan. DVDs support it as well as some of my video games. The picture is enhanced with the interlace removed from the picture as the screen is refreshed all at once. This method improves picture quality in that it removes jagged edges and makes the picture look more natural and film like. With games that only support 480p, its a bit hard to notice a difference since the Ps2 does not have AA but it makes the game smoother than it would look like without it.

I beat a couple of games over the past several days. Goldeneye: Rogue Agent and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (I'm not finished with this game yet, I just beat the story missions).

Let me start with GTA: SA. The game is remarkable like its predecessors before it. It doesn't add much to the mission variety but it does tweak the game here and there. They added sort of like a Sims aspect to the main character. You can customize what he wears and how fat he will get. They added more stuff to do as well. You can gamble, play basketball (which I haven't done), play pool, play videogames, pimp out your ride, participate in hydraulic battles, and YES be able to jump out a plane and skydive (which is AWESOME everytime I do it).

I'll sidetrack a bit with the skydiving. There is a mission I was thrilled to do in which you get to kill everybody on board then jump off way way up in the air. What is cool about the mission is that you stay in the air for several minutes. I tried to recreate the air time in that mission but it seems like there is a limit to how far you can go up, sucks I know.

There were some frustrating missions such as the flying missions but I got used to it. Flying a jet is freaking awesome. You even get to do a casino bank heist which was cool. One of the frustrating missions is the one where you have to get Madd Dog's house back. It's frustrating not because of the shooting parts but because of the driving part. I found it difficult because I had to restart the entire mission again if I failed during the driving sequence. I got really close one time where I shot the gas tank of the enemy but the explosion caught my car as well. I tried to get out of the car but it was too late. It exploded the moment I got out. Overall the best missions I've played are the casino area missions and the Truth missions.

Rockstar even added a gangland part to the game. There are certain parts of Los Santos where your gang gets to control. These parts are hard at first because all you can afford is a submachine gun. Later on it gets easier because you can a lot of cash by then. They also added the idea of getting some of your gang to go with you on driveby shootings. They even added relationships that CJ can partake in.

The best addition to this game is gun experience. The more you use a gun, the more proficient you become. It makes sense. If CJ reaches the hitman level with a certain weapon, it takes less shots to kill someone.

Hopefully the next iteration of GTA will have an updated graphics engine. That is probably the only thing holding this game back.

The next game on my list is Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. I fucking hate this game. It puts the Goldeneye name to shame. The original Goldeneye was remarkable in every fashion. This one doesn't even come close. I'm puzzled because EA's previous Bond game Everything or Nothing was spectacular. RA is far from polished. The graphics are muddy considering this is far from a first generation title. Some of the weapons are useless and the melee combat stinks. I don't mind the AI getting harder (which never happens in this game), but I don't care for the idotic numbers of shielded enemies or hard-to-eliminate enemies. It takes so many fucking shots to kill an ememy unless you get him in the head, but with the weapons they give you, getting a headshot is almost impossible. Later in the game the pistol with unlimited rounds becomes useless as enemies start to possess a weapon that kills you in one shot, a weapon that shoots out remote contolled bombs, and this stupid fucking Venom gun that if you get hit by a bullet your movement is slowed down to snail speed. I really fucking hated that Omen laser gun. When I was far into a level, I would get shot by one of these and then I would have to restart the level or back to the checkpoint (which are very few btw). What I hated is that the enemies would never have a reload animation, but you would. When they had the Omen gun, they would shoot it like it was an assualt rifle, but when you get the gun, you can only shoot off one shot at a time.

The developers added this stupid power system. You can see through walls, useless unless you have a railgun. You can have a temporary shield which drains faster when you get hit. You have an EMP shock which disables certain weapons and electronics (useless as well). You finally have this ability to grab an enemy and throw them. All of these powers drain your energy in about 5 seconds or when you use it once as with the case with the telekinesis power. What's stupid is that it takes so long to refill. They also added the recharging life bar. If the game did not have this, I would never finish the game. Enemies do so much damage. I don't know what I would do without it.

This game is far from being finished. The game has horribly compressed videos (which makes me wonder how FFX and FFX-2's cinematics are DVD quality), bad graphics both in level design and how the game looks in general, and horrible implementation.

Horrible game. What a horrible game.

last final and still WTF

My last final is tomorrow and I can't sleep just thinking about how I'll do. It bothers me so much. I might actually go on academic probation.....a first in my entire lifetime (kindergarten doesn't count). It's a physics final. Goddamn I hate physics. It's just another math class but with motion. I hope I do well.

I'll still in that WTF mood. The video game awards was shown today on Spike TV. It was still awful like last year. That Snoop talking to Snoop skit failed miserably. The entire show failed miserably. Most of the awards were shown through a montage video. It's quite sad. I still can't believe that Half-Life 2 didn't win best first person shooter. I swear the people who voted in that category are idiots. There is no world in Halo 2, just levels. The performances was even worse with the hip-hop. I'm sorry. I'm just one of those people who can't stand hip-hop and the show was litered with it. Oh yeah, I wanted Katamari Damacy to win most addicted game but Burnout 3 won, boo :(. I will say this again. Not all people who play videogames listen to hip hop and are ridicuously stupid. There are some who enjoy the challenge that a game offers, not because of what celebrities are in it or such. That is what I do not like about video games these days. I don't want celebrities in my video games. I don't want their likeness or anything to do with celebrities. They have movies.....so stay there. I hate this idea of video game movies. I can't believe they are already done with the Alone in the Dark movie. I didn't even know that movie was even being shot. I thought it was still in the pre-production phase. That's going to be a piece of junk because I know it's going to be not even related to the game only related by title.

I think I just hate this award show because video games are more than just crap that people play with. There is a huge number of people who work on games, there is a creator who wants to put his vision on a game, and the result can be fantastic. I would rather want a video game show that was more formal like the award show they give out to special effects people. People worked hard on these games and one of the things they get is a fucked up award show with some celebrities that don't even play video games.

PSP and WTF

The Sony PSP aka Playstation Portable was recently released in Japan. I would go for the PSP than the DS because the DS just feels too gimmicky. A touch screen is cool, but I don't see it happening with every game that will be released for that system. The PSP can play MP4 movies as well as play MP3s. I know I'm not supposed to rate a system based on graphical features, but the PSP has the DS pinned down in that department. The games on the DS are N64 games that look like they were made for the Playstation. Look at some of the movies of Super Mario 64 DS. I've read several reviews that say that the graphics are much better than the N64 version. You have got to be kidding me. If the DS was built with texture filtering, then I would say, "yeah it looks better than the n64 version". But it doesn't. It really looks like a Playstation One game. The textures are sharper (duh) because there is no filtering. I'm really impressed with the visuals of the PSP. Ridge Racers looks like a PS2 game or close to it. Far from its playstation one origins.

People are starting to complain about the battery life of the PSP. It can only play for 3 hours? It's a portable. What can you do? It was made for short gaming breaks like when you are riding a bus or on a 30-min break from work. If you would buy a portable gaming system to play it for 6+ hours, why not just play a console? That is what it was made for. Stop complaining.

My conclusion is that the PSP is the winner if I ever think about buying a portable gaming system. Plus, that widescreen LCD is freaking awesome.

Oh yeah, what the fuck is this?



They clearly fucked up the dvd cover for Infernal Affairs. It makes it look like a B-movie which it clearly isn't. This movie makes some American movies look like shit. It's clear that American companies don't want the competition.

Last thing. Advent Children looks like its getting better and better. They recently released the TGS 2004 trailer as well as a short trailer from a DVD. Sweet stuff I tell you.

hofd clips/comparisons

After watching the Yahoo clips of the House of Flying Daggers, I can clearly see that the DVD is way off in the color department. The saturation is too heavy. I really can't wait to see this in theatres.

appleseed

I finally got decent subtitles for this film. Now to just download it. Finished downloading R-Point. I hope A-1 and New Police Story get done soon because it's going to be a good weekend.

I'm still amazed with New Police Story's transfer. Its so clear and crisp. Why can't the Philippines develop pictures like that? Instead they make films like "Lumpia" - The Ultimate Home Movie. I say crap. I can't believe they have a dvd AND an official soundtrack for that movie. omg the world is going to end starting there. Why is the Philippines so far behind? They have digital cameras now.....jesus...can't they use that? I could make a movie with no money and it will look like it was shot for millions of dollars ESPECIALLY with a digital camera.

south park clip

Hilarious Wall-Mart clip

hl2dm

Deathmatch was released for Half-Life 2 and its fucking awesome. Go gravity gun!