Happy Birthday Blog!

Well its a year today (well the 27th) since I started this blog. So happy Birthday sargemat.wordpress.com or missing paths nodes as I like to call it. Its been a really great year for me in general and I have loved running this blog and trying to make it the best experience possible. I tried out a lot of different features some of which have gone again and others are still there. I don’t really know if there is much more to say so lets take a look at some stats.

The Blog in Stats Year 1

Its not a massive number a lot of sites get many times that in a day but things have really started to grow in 2009 a lot faster and I don’t know what happened in May 2008 with my Ironman review but it got hundreds of hits for some reason. I know there are a few regulars that come by here often and I would like to grow that number even more over the next year but I am also happy with the random drop ins I get.

Total: 2,717

The Podcast

I know over the years I have tried several podcasts and did one a few months back with this blog that did not really work out. But I think with the missing pathnodes podcast I am starting to build something good and want to get more regular shows out this year.

First Thoughts On Halo Wars

So my copy of Halo Wars arrived on the 26th and needless to say I have been playing it a lot. I am up to around mission 7 or so in the campaign and have played a good bit of multiplayer. I don’t want to spoil the campaign but I will say the CGI cut scenes are stunning and a great service to fans of the Halo fiction. Each mission is very well designed and are far from just “build a base and blow the other one up”. As most still don’t have the game I will leave it there for now. So lets talk multiplayer.

I can’t say I have ever gotten into multiplayer in an RTS before but Halo Wars has really drawn me in. The maps that I have played on have all been very well designed and the game lends it self very well to team play if you are in a 2v2 or 3v3. There is not a huge amount of people online at the moment as its only just come out and even then its not out in the US until March 3rd (the date the War ended no less). But the match making works just as well as it does in Halo 3 and I have had no problems finding people to play with. Usually under a minute in fact. Unfortunately in a team game if someone quits you are at a disadvantage unless you are a real pro but so far that has only happened to me once.

I have been waiting since 2006 for Halo Wars and now that its finally arrived its better than I could have hoped for. Look out for a review next week.

Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box Review

I resisted buying burnout right from its launch in early 2008 right up until last week. The Ultimate Box version had arrived with all the DLC on disk and every week on one of the podcasts I listen to someone is talking about it. So I finally put the cash down and picked up a copy for the Xbox360. The main reason I originally didn’t go for it was the open world and the lack of crash mode. Wile not having crash mode in there does annoy me a bit the open world of Paradise city was the best possible move for the burnout series.

Its not massive massive but its the best designed open world city I have ever played in. There are so many little side roads, ramps and train tracks woven into it, its staggering just how much time must have been spent designing it. The addition of  a full 24 Hour time cycle makes the city a totally different experience at different times and is a clear indication of just how much effort they have put into DLC. The bikes which did not ship with the original game have added a lot to the game. They don’t have E breaks or boost but they are so dam fast they don’t need that extra push.

 A lot of people have talked about the online and social side of Burnout. I have checked out a few games online and its a lot of fun to play with other people and I look forward to getting a few games going with people on my friends list but I think the tag line “social racer” is very fitting for the game. The friends list is very well integrated into the game, you don’t even have to pause. Same with the quick match options. Its a simple feature but not a very easy one and you have to respect the work that would have went into something like that.

There are 75 cars plus DLC and several different categories. Each of them are quite different but still maintain a good Burnout driving style. For a game that launched in early 2008 the graphics still hold up very well and I would say its one of the best looking current gen games too, at the moment. Over all Burnout is a really fun and mad game that has ton’s of replay value. If you are looking for a game to have a bit of crack (not the drug) with, this is it.

9/10

This review is a bit short but I think its to the point. But the reason is I plan to make more posts about the game over time and do twitter updates.

Map and Shadower Update

Just to give you guys a bit of an update on things the map I am working on does not have a name yet but it has a Chinese temple type theme and its coming on very well. I am working on adding in some lights and I will have an update for you guys this week that has a few screenshots in it. So that’s all I have to say on that for now. But its going to support 4-5 players for straight up death match.

The script for Shadower is finished and all being well I should start to film it next week. I picked up on a few different styles I could film with today and looked at what all gear I will need. Looks like I will need two cameras. The smaller one for the first person shots and the bigger one to film the third person stuff. I will post a few still shots over the next few weeks for you guys to look at and I am going to update the site soon too.

The Week In Halo

For those of us in Europe its now less than a week until Halo Wars finally arrives. The games been getting a lot of good reviews so far, sure its not the 10’s you would expect from past Halo titles but I know from what I have played in the demo its a dam good game. Don’t think anyone can really say that there is a better RTS on console control wise that’s for sure. Maybe they could have added one or two more things on that side but in my opinion it plays very well with the 360 controller indeed.

Ensemble are responsible for the Age of Empires series which is one of my top ten games of all time. Its what got me into RTS in the first place. Its sad that they are now closed but I am glad two new studios have formed out of it. But Microsoft where WRONG to close them in the first place. With the collectors edition among other things we will be treated to a new Halo graphic novel written by Eric Nylund no less the man responsible for some of the best Halo books. With any luck I should get the game in the post on Thursday ahead of its release on Friday but I will let you guys know if that happens or not. I am planning a Podcast next week too, so Halo Wars will be a major topic on it.

The Weekend

So college is over for another week and I am off till Tuesday again. Work is mounting up again though. On the personal side of things I am working hard on my current map which I may be ready to post some information on soon. But I think its going to be an interesting one. Its also been a few weeks since I even opened up 3D Max so I am going to start and finish a project this weekend. College wise I have some corrections to make, a script to write among other things so its going to be very hands on over the next few days.

As part of one of my college assignments I have to Analiese a few shows and films so I have made a list up of things I need to watch again. Cloverfield is on it and I have watched that one all ready but I want to watch the director commentary too. It also includes Life and Stargate. Its less than a week now until Halo Wars arrives so I am very hyped at this point. I have got back into Battlefield Bad Company again so that should tide me over until it comes out. So that’s it really I am sure I will have some interesting blog posts to make too.

SHADOWER

Shadower is the name of my drama in development for my current major college assignment. I have talked about it before but I can now tell you thats what its called. I am writing the script at the moment and working on all that kind of pre-production stuff. I have done a lot of research into shooting locations as that’s really going to be key for this production. As of today I have found all the ones I will need I think and I have signed on one of the three people I will need for acting. I will be doing a bit of voice acting my self.

To give you guys a bit of a preview I am going for a eastern run down European setting. The story will be told though several points of view including first person shaky helmet camera. That’s the part I am most excited about working on its still quite a new really as only a few films that I know of have fully used that as the main story telling method. Its going to be more of a cut in cut out thing in my case. That’s all for now but Digital Props has been updated with a few images from film locations that I will use.

More to come soon.

When Can Sony Launch A New Playstation?

The PS3 has been off to a very slow start which may not impact Sony’s 10 year plan over the long run but its going to have a large impact on the launch of their next console. Give or take there was about 5 years between the launch of the PS1 and the PS2. The PS1 went on for some time after that but that’s when Sony changed focus to a different peace of hardware. Looking at last year’s Christmas sales they where not great and in January sales where down over the same time last year. The Xbox 360 even out sold the PS3 & PS2 combined. This is now the Playstation 3’s third year so are Sony really going to launch a new peace of hardware in 2011.

I think that’s very unlikely. As a PS3 owner from a month after the EU launch the system has not come even close to giving me my moneys worth. Sure games like Uncharted where brilliant and will rank very high with me for as long as i am alive but those experiences have been very few and far between. If 2009 is another bad year of the system it could put Sony into a very dangerous position to the point where they may have to pull out altogether. We all hope it does not come to that but its not out of the question at this point. Its lacking the Xbox 360’s ability to turn over solid numbers every month and to jump up high when new AAA titles arrive.

The quickest way to cure this would be to cut the system down. Put a cheep 8GB HDD into it which although restricting the system a lot in many ways it would allow them to cut the price. I think Sony regret put all the little media card readers and things like that. I don’t think a lot of people use them and they could reduce costs even more by riping those out and cutting the number of USB ports down to three. With all the economic problems in the world its going to hurt Sony even more to be the most expensive console. People are not looking for a big buy at the moment they want something that can do a lot for little and the 360 is offering that at this point.

Flower Review

I will always remember the jokes parents would make about “playing a game with flowers in it”, rather than just blowing stuff up. Well mum here it is. Flower is the latest title from that games company, the makers of flow. The game shares a lot in common with flow as they both use six-axis control for movement and every button does the same thing. In the case of flower holding any of the buttons in will move you forward and you simply steer using the motion control. So what does flower offer that’s different then?

First of all the combination of its wonderful art style and detailed graphics make it the best looking game I have scene so far this year, (yes including what I have played of Killzone 2). The nature of the game allows for a lot of resources to go towards drawing a very rich and detailed world. The grass is very thick and you can see each little blade moving as you fly through them. You are not the flower its self more the wind controlling it and moving it around the world. Flying close to other flowers adds more petals to your bunch and, you often have to activate certain flowers to change the environment so you can move forward through the level. Each level is very smart in the way you advance though it and although the core gameplay never changes much it diversifies a lot in how you interact with other objects.

One of the most interesting things about flower is the lack of death in the game. You never fail and don’t have to worry about how big your collection of petals is. You are free to spend as long as you like soaring up high and then swooping down into the long grass. Some would say “is it a game at all”? I think the answer to that is yes it is, but its yet another step forward for the media to show how diverse and different games can be. Only the interaction of a game can allow for such and experience and it is a very emotional one.

Unlike flow there is a front end menu to the game in the form of a window over looking a city in a one bed apartment. To begin with a single flower will rest on the table in front of it, but over time you will grow your collection as you complete the level for each flower. To select one you simply move to it with the six-axis and then hold down a button to play that flowers “dream”. I feel it would be wrong of me to spoil the story and yes there is one, but not in the way you might think. The game is very emotional at points helped along by the wonderful sound track.

I can find very few faults with flower and no major ones, a lot of time and effort went into producing this stunning and very original peace of work. Its an example of how only games can let you experience something on this level and its the ultimate relaxation game. Its controversial to say this about a downloadable title but this is my first contender for game of the year. Yea I said it, why not?

10/10

Long Break And Current Projects

Since its half term I will not be back at college until Tuesday now. But there is plenty of work to be done:

Next Map
I am full steam into the next map. Still blocking out the basics and getting the solid foundations but its looking good so far and I am happy with how its going. I wont post any details yet as I gave it from last Monday to this Monday to make sure its going to work out as the next map and so far it is. I will post something after that has passed. But its deathmatch again but a bit bigger and will have indoor parts this time.

Short Film
My major college assignment is to produce a short drama. I have been thinking about what to do for a wile and have the idea nailed down. I know in the past I have talked and bloged about a short Internet TV series along the lines of “the guild” type thing. But I have a totally different and much better idea that I am going with. Its now in pre-production and I plan to look at a few locations this week end where I can film it.

Short Documentary
This is really not going to be much longer than 3-4 minutes at the most but we have to do a presentation later in the year and, before that we have to research some stuff. One of the ways we can research is to produce a short doc so that’s what I am going to do. I will also be showing it as part of the presentation its self. I am looking forward to getting stuck into it. I am looking at Ken Levine with focus on Bio Shock. More on that when I have got into it.