Recently came across Toronto-based software engineer Alex Curelea's blog, in which he describes the psychology behind why Diablo III may not be as satisfying as Diablo II was. It was a good read, and very quick too.
In the analysis, he compares Diablo fans to monkeys who are rewarded with flavored juice when they pull a lever after a specific sequence of shapes is displayed on screen. Eventually, the monkeys begin to associate the reward with the sequence of shapes, and the reward center of their brain becomes stimulated when the sequence appears, rather than when the actual reward is given later.
[More]
923a398b-9e30-4aa4-a63f-d71fc3ae8dfd|1|5.0
Tags:Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III, Blizzard, Alex Curelea, psychology, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Skyrim, Bethesda, From Software, RPG
I'm a pretty big Spider-Man fan. As such, I tend to get pretty excited when a new Spider-Man game is announced. I was pretty impressed with some of the things Beenox accomplished with Shattered Dimensions, but still didn't feel like the game hit its potential. Last year's Edge of Time game was a monumental disaster, and kind of has me turned off a bit with regard to Beenox's approach to Spider-Man games.
Having been underwhelmed by Beenox's last attempt at a Spidey game, I was a bit disappointed that they were going to be handling the movie tie-in.
I haven't been keeping very well-informed about the game. I haven't watched any trailers or previews. Pretty much the only info that I've gotten for it have been a few previews in GameInformer. But I did finally watch some E3 footage:
UPDATE: June 17, 2012: Uncut gameplay video from GameInformer validates my complaints
Came across this preview of The Amazing Spider-Man game that was released yesterday on GameInformer's website. The video contains several minutes of uncut gameplay, which includes footage of Spider-Man webswinging well above the tallest buildings in the vicinity, making it all but impossible for his webs to actually be connecting to anything. [More]
6e96412d-794e-4d1a-824f-838e0c5df451|0|.0
Tags:Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel, comic book, movie, Beenox, Activision, E3, GameInformer, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Edge of Time, comic
Just came across this article on Kotaku about the new "Infinity Engine" that is supposed to introduce real-time physics simulation into Madden NFL 13.
Let me give you a minute to piece back together your blown mind.
That's right, Madden NFL is finally throwing out it's more-than-a-decade-old animation engine (developed for first-gen PlayStation 2 versions of the game) in favor of real-time physics simulation.
EA Sports has been releasing a series of "Madden 13 playbook" videos since May, but I haven't really been paying too much attention to them until now. The early playbooks were focused on presentation and relatively minor gameplay tweaks (the kind that we're used to seeing every year). Today's playbook (number 4), however, has me very excited!
I've been pretty harsh on Madden the past few years, but this video has me more excited about the game than I've been since Madden 10 (which turned out to be a flop). [More]
72191aec-471d-4e9a-acf7-b00cab562121|0|.0
Tags:Madden NFL, Madden NFL 13, EA, EA Sports, Tiburon, Backbreaker, Infinity Engine, physics, NCAA Football 13, NaturalMotion, sports, football, Euphoria engine
Much ado has already been made about the re-recorded dialogue that is to be used in the Silent Hill HD Collection. Critics like myself have already been accused of being “haters” and "unwilling to accept change". Fortunately (or is it unfortunately?), Konami has given "haters" like me plenty of reason to hate the Silent Hill HD Collection.
Table of Contents:
I have extra copies of the original games. If you want to play them (and you know me personally), you can borrow them! [More]
9dc814aa-a1a1-4a9e-b864-3cb50f4bcaa1|8|4.9
Tags:Silent Hill, Silent Hill HD Collection, review, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, Konami, Hijinx, PS3, PS2, Team Silent, KCET, James Sunderland, Heather Mason, Douglas Cartland, Claudia Wolf, Laura, survival, horror, survival horror, XBox 360, Eddie Dombrowski
With the Silent Hill HD Collection being lambasted by fans and critics (my review now available here!), I thought I’d take a moment to discuss exactly why I feel it was so important for the original voice acting of the games (Silent Hill 2 specifically) to be retained. And it isn't just a matter of personal preference based on my familiarity with the original actors; although, that is definitely a contributing factor.
Critics tend to make a simple equivocation fallacy when describing the voice acting of Silent Hill as "awkward" and then calling it "bad". But "awkward" does not necessarily mean "bad". In fact, the awkward voice acting of Silent Hill 2 is actually a benefit to the game's narrative and mood. This is something that should be apparent to anybody who is actually paying attention to what's happening in the game.
Let us first take a step back and look at the design principles that went into Silent Hill 2.
James begins to doubt his own mental stability
Silent Hill 2 is a particular kind of horror game. It differs from other horror games at the time - such as Resident Evil and even its own predecessor Silent Hill - in that it is a very emotional brand of horror. The horror doesn't come so much from being "afraid", but rather, from being depressed, confused, and unsure of what is going on around you. Silent Hill 2 is a very dark and gloomy game, and definitely deserves its "M for Mature" rating with its story and themes alone. Team Silent accomplishes this by immersing the player in decrepit environments and introducing elements of surrealism to the game's reality. They then supplement this by slowing breaking down the foundational pillars of what the main character thinks is real, and then forcing the character and the player to wonder whether their own senses can be trusted. [More]
56dfd391-12ca-465c-a1b2-248e2df8691e|10|5.0
Tags:Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill HD Collection, James Sunderland, Angela Orosco, Eddie Dombrowski, Konami, Team Silent, PS2, PlayStation 2, horror, depression, equivocation, fallacy, voice acting
|
12 | | | | | | | 60 | 11 | | | | | | | 55 | 10 | | | | | | | 50 | 09 | | | | | | | 45 | 08 | | | | | | | 40 | 07 | | | | | | | 35 | 06 | | | | | | | 30 | 05 | | | | | | | 25 | 04 | | | | | | | 20 | 03 | | | | | | | 15 | 02 | | | | | | | 10 | 01 | | | | | | | 05 |
|