The Movies isn't trying to convey any moral message like our previous entry, the apocalyptic Defcon. Instead it seeks to show you the dynamics of running your own movie studio, starting in circa 1925. You must construct business buildings, sets, and other supporting facilities and use them to hire your writers, directors, cast, crew, and supporting staff. Then you direct your staff to make the aforementioned movies in one of five genres: action, horror, sci-fi, romance, and comedy.
Movie quality, and how well it does in the box office and the awards ceremonies, is determined by how good the script is, how skilled the actors and directors are in the genre, how good the actors' and directors' relationships are with each other, how big a star the actors and director are, how skilled the crew is, how well repaired the set is, how much interest the audience has in the genre, and how novel the set or genre is. Quite a lot, huh? It allows you to use several different means to achieve making a good movie.
Actors and directors are interesting creatures in and of themselves. Their appeal is based on their image (fashion, looks, physique), star power, and salary. Interestingly enough, it is not based on their talent in various genres, talent just serves as a means to gain star power which is received upon making a good movie. This, I think, is pretty good commentary on the status of Hollywood today.
There's more than I can really cover in a blog post. The game has several more features which I could go into detail on, including the ability to allow you to make and upload your own movies to the internet, and the ability to customize the costumes and appearance of your actors and directors. It all reminds me a bit of the Sims, but instead of being so open-ended, it gives you a goal to work towards and many different ways to get there.
Once again, its another very tempting $20 game.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Defcon
Another one of the computer game demos I played that was among the cream of the crop was Defcon, a quirky little game where you re-enact the 1980's movie, Wargames. In the game you must take control your world superpowers strategic nuclear weapons in an escalating struggle to annihilate as much of the opposing superpowers' population as you can while defending your own precious civilians. The game progresses in a series of stages ranging from the peaceful Defcon 5, wherein you merely deploy your units and jockey for alliances, to the chaotic Defcon 1, in which LRBMs, Long-Range-Ballistic-Missiles, can finally be fired from your missile silos to attack any spot on the map.
Strategic forces at your command include the aforementioned missile silos, airbases where you from which you can launch nuke-carrying bombers or scout/patrol/intercept fighters, radar facilities for easily locating units attacking your territory, and naval fleets which in themselves contain a mixed bag of battleships (ship/air attack/defense), missile subs (Medium-Range-Ballistic-Missile Launchers), and aircraft carriers (mobile, water-born airbases which also have sub-hunting capabilities).
The elements of this game are simple and easy to learn, but the dynamics of play, even against an AI opponent, are incredible to watch unfold. I am sorely tempted to buy the full version so that I can play against up to six opponents (North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Soviet Union, Middle-East/East Asia) in a game of worldwide nuclear conflict.
This game obviously is walking a fine line in between being a strategic masterpiece and depicting a human tragedy on a level unseen in the annals of history in a manner just a little too realistically for some people. I am of the opinion that it is a gem of a game, but I understand the validity of the other side's argument. Fortunately, nothing like this has happened in the past, and hopefully nothing ever will in the future.
The icing on the cake is an advertised mode called Office mode, in which the game plays out over an extremely slow time scale. Unlike the regular 45 minutes to an hour and a half, the game takes place over the span of eight to nine hours and allows you to make key strategic decisions by only checking for a minute every fifteen to thirty minutes. The realistic time frame and long thinking times make this mode a hardcore strategist's wet dream. I only wish I could be in an environment where I could play a game properly in that mode.
Strategic forces at your command include the aforementioned missile silos, airbases where you from which you can launch nuke-carrying bombers or scout/patrol/intercept fighters, radar facilities for easily locating units attacking your territory, and naval fleets which in themselves contain a mixed bag of battleships (ship/air attack/defense), missile subs (Medium-Range-Ballistic-Missile Launchers), and aircraft carriers (mobile, water-born airbases which also have sub-hunting capabilities).
The elements of this game are simple and easy to learn, but the dynamics of play, even against an AI opponent, are incredible to watch unfold. I am sorely tempted to buy the full version so that I can play against up to six opponents (North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Soviet Union, Middle-East/East Asia) in a game of worldwide nuclear conflict.
This game obviously is walking a fine line in between being a strategic masterpiece and depicting a human tragedy on a level unseen in the annals of history in a manner just a little too realistically for some people. I am of the opinion that it is a gem of a game, but I understand the validity of the other side's argument. Fortunately, nothing like this has happened in the past, and hopefully nothing ever will in the future.
The icing on the cake is an advertised mode called Office mode, in which the game plays out over an extremely slow time scale. Unlike the regular 45 minutes to an hour and a half, the game takes place over the span of eight to nine hours and allows you to make key strategic decisions by only checking for a minute every fifteen to thirty minutes. The realistic time frame and long thinking times make this mode a hardcore strategist's wet dream. I only wish I could be in an environment where I could play a game properly in that mode.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Psychonauts
I'm sorry for the brief delay. I've become enraptured with the new video card I just installed. It is the first time I've played video games on my computer since the beginning of summer, and what fun it was!
Via the wonders of the Steam delivery service, I downloaded eight game demos to sample and play to wet my appetite for serious gaming again. I downloaded those games that people always told me were good, but that I never had time to check out. They will probably make for a series of posts.
One of the best of them, was the action/adventure/platformer Psychonauts. It is a game by legendary designer Tim Schafer whose credits include several huge hits from the golden era of adventure gaming: Grim Fandango, the Full Throttle series, and the Adventure Island series. Now I am a fan of old school adventure games because they combine two of my favorite aspects of entertainment: extremely humorous and well-written plotlines and puzzle-solving. Psychonauts isn't quite along those lines, but it is a gem in its own right. It is a 3d platformer with an incredibly creative plotline and a beautiful environment. In the game you play the role of a talented psychonaut, Raz (short for Rasputin), who is charged with diving into other people's minds and helping them sort out their mental problems. Along the way you become a more powerful psychonaut and gain access to new abilities which help you complete each level, collecting all of the various doodads and achievements along the way.
This is a gorgeous and mostly overlooked game from the past few years which I am contemplating going back to play more than just the demo. I would need a good gamepad, but the cost on Steam was only $20 to download and play without the CD.
Of course, none of this could happen without Harding being kind enough to start allowing Steam through their firewall last year. Before that, I don't know what I would've done.
Via the wonders of the Steam delivery service, I downloaded eight game demos to sample and play to wet my appetite for serious gaming again. I downloaded those games that people always told me were good, but that I never had time to check out. They will probably make for a series of posts.
One of the best of them, was the action/adventure/platformer Psychonauts. It is a game by legendary designer Tim Schafer whose credits include several huge hits from the golden era of adventure gaming: Grim Fandango, the Full Throttle series, and the Adventure Island series. Now I am a fan of old school adventure games because they combine two of my favorite aspects of entertainment: extremely humorous and well-written plotlines and puzzle-solving. Psychonauts isn't quite along those lines, but it is a gem in its own right. It is a 3d platformer with an incredibly creative plotline and a beautiful environment. In the game you play the role of a talented psychonaut, Raz (short for Rasputin), who is charged with diving into other people's minds and helping them sort out their mental problems. Along the way you become a more powerful psychonaut and gain access to new abilities which help you complete each level, collecting all of the various doodads and achievements along the way.
This is a gorgeous and mostly overlooked game from the past few years which I am contemplating going back to play more than just the demo. I would need a good gamepad, but the cost on Steam was only $20 to download and play without the CD.
Of course, none of this could happen without Harding being kind enough to start allowing Steam through their firewall last year. Before that, I don't know what I would've done.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Weekly World News News
As a follow-up to my previous post mentioning the Weekly World News, here is an update on the WWN. It seems as if the Weekly World News will have to be signing off after its colored (black-and-white actually, but you know what I mean), 28-year history. To quote one headline writer, "Weekly World News Faces Own Apocalypse!"
While most of the world thinks that is about the correct level of sentiment for the occasion, I will truly miss the WWN. I will probably have to ceremonially buy the last issue at the end of August to commemorate such a fine establishment of the printed press. It has entertained me for years in supermarket checkout isles, always providing a bright and cheery face compared to the trashy celebrity tabloids. It was a tabloid with heart, and I will miss its weekly updates on such riveting stories such as the antics of live, dead, or undead Elvis, or new sitings of religious figures in everyday objects, or the progress of Batboy in his hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
R.I.P. WWN
While most of the world thinks that is about the correct level of sentiment for the occasion, I will truly miss the WWN. I will probably have to ceremonially buy the last issue at the end of August to commemorate such a fine establishment of the printed press. It has entertained me for years in supermarket checkout isles, always providing a bright and cheery face compared to the trashy celebrity tabloids. It was a tabloid with heart, and I will miss its weekly updates on such riveting stories such as the antics of live, dead, or undead Elvis, or new sitings of religious figures in everyday objects, or the progress of Batboy in his hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
R.I.P. WWN
Thursday, August 2, 2007
This American Life
Podcasting truly is a weakness of mine. I have downloaded way more podcasts than I will ever be able to listen to, but I have a terrible time convincing myself to erase them from my hard drive. Sampling various podcasts has been a wonderful experience though, and it makes me sad for the poor, forgotten genre of the radio show. They used to be the big thing for people to listen to, but ever since the television was invented, they have slowly been dying off.
A good example of a podcast that really makes me appreciate the genre is the podcast of This American Life. This American Life is produced in Chicago and distributed as part of the NPR network. It is a weekly, hour-long program which tells the types of story that you never hear about in the mainstream news. It tells stories and gives biographies of individuals who don't seek to have their story told and usually gain little attention in life outside of their daily hustle and bustle.
I have only listened to two episodes, but already I am addicted to this podcast. The first episode was about the developmentally disabled. They told the story of a group that teaches the mentally handicapped how to be journalists and takes them on a cross-country road trip interviewing anyone they could find. They also told the story of a small child with multiple personality disorder that alternated between being the sweetest child you could find and a little devil, wanton for destruction. The way they conducted their interviews and played archival recordings for you painted very vivid pictures of these peoples' lives, and they made you think very hard about your own in the process.
The first episode really wet my appetite for another, and the second episode did not let me down. It was titled Man versus History and told another two stories about incredible individuals. One of them was about an ordinary citizen who traveled to Iraq on his own time and money and met with local leaders trying to broke a peace between Coalition and Resistance forces. He had no experience in diplomacy or policy-making, he was just a concerned citizen doing what he could to help his nation. The second story was even better than the first. It was about a CIA operative working undercover in Cold War Czechoslovakia. He becomes the interest of a woman in a bar one night and he quickly discovers that she is a Czech secret service worker for the Communist party. Their respective agencies play them against one another trying to gather useful intelligence while they are forced to confront the fact that there may be something actually happening between them besides well-scripted scenarios of their personal lives being played out on hidden infrared cameras and tape recorders. It was a very moving story and it had me hooked all the way through the end in a way that television rarely gets to me.
I don't know what it is about Cold War spy love stories. Barring James Bond, I think they are some of the coolest stories told because of their many social, emotional, and psychological facets. It makes me hope that the Cold War era spy will become as wonderfully romanticized as the quintessential pirate, ninja, robot, dinosaur, or some combination thereof.
You really should try to listen to this show at least once. It is incredibly good, and it would be well worth your time.
A good example of a podcast that really makes me appreciate the genre is the podcast of This American Life. This American Life is produced in Chicago and distributed as part of the NPR network. It is a weekly, hour-long program which tells the types of story that you never hear about in the mainstream news. It tells stories and gives biographies of individuals who don't seek to have their story told and usually gain little attention in life outside of their daily hustle and bustle.
I have only listened to two episodes, but already I am addicted to this podcast. The first episode was about the developmentally disabled. They told the story of a group that teaches the mentally handicapped how to be journalists and takes them on a cross-country road trip interviewing anyone they could find. They also told the story of a small child with multiple personality disorder that alternated between being the sweetest child you could find and a little devil, wanton for destruction. The way they conducted their interviews and played archival recordings for you painted very vivid pictures of these peoples' lives, and they made you think very hard about your own in the process.
The first episode really wet my appetite for another, and the second episode did not let me down. It was titled Man versus History and told another two stories about incredible individuals. One of them was about an ordinary citizen who traveled to Iraq on his own time and money and met with local leaders trying to broke a peace between Coalition and Resistance forces. He had no experience in diplomacy or policy-making, he was just a concerned citizen doing what he could to help his nation. The second story was even better than the first. It was about a CIA operative working undercover in Cold War Czechoslovakia. He becomes the interest of a woman in a bar one night and he quickly discovers that she is a Czech secret service worker for the Communist party. Their respective agencies play them against one another trying to gather useful intelligence while they are forced to confront the fact that there may be something actually happening between them besides well-scripted scenarios of their personal lives being played out on hidden infrared cameras and tape recorders. It was a very moving story and it had me hooked all the way through the end in a way that television rarely gets to me.
I don't know what it is about Cold War spy love stories. Barring James Bond, I think they are some of the coolest stories told because of their many social, emotional, and psychological facets. It makes me hope that the Cold War era spy will become as wonderfully romanticized as the quintessential pirate, ninja, robot, dinosaur, or some combination thereof.
You really should try to listen to this show at least once. It is incredibly good, and it would be well worth your time.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Numb3rs
Pretty much the only network television show that I watch with any regularity is Friday night's Numb3rs. Despite the minor aggravation of typing a numeric digit into the title of the show, it has captured my attention and warmed over the cockles of my heart. The basis of the show is the relationship between two brothers. The first one, Don Eppes, is an FBI agent who fights crime with his gun and his wits. The second one, Charlie Eppes, is a math professor at CalSci who fights crime with his chalkboard and his brains. Together with their retired father, Alan Eppes, they make up an eccentric, humorous, and brilliant family.
Besides the family dynamics, the true shining aspect of this show, is the way it presents its mathematical side. Charlie's work is actual math that is being portrayed in a realistic manner! I have seen almost all of the episodes of the first three seasons (my parents are kind enough to buy them for me on DVD when they come out every year), and I find the unique blend of crime drama, nerdy antics, and character humor to be as seductive as when I first heard about the show.
I do have one complaint though, and that is that they got rid of my favorite character, Charlie's intellectual cohort, physicist Larry Fleinart. Larry is the epitome of an entertaining and well-developed side character. He is a physicist, but he always voices his belief that the universe and existance is much bigger than the science we currently use to describe it. He gets motion sickness and believes in eating all-white food for aesthetic reasons, yet he also took up living in between his car and the sewer system of CalSci at one point. Larry provided of semi-foil to Charlie's exuberant empiricism. He was his colleague and his friend and often helped him with a human insight that Charlie was over-looking in his rush to solve the problem.
They eventually wrote Larry off of the show by sending him into space on the show. Not being content with just having him mysteriously disappear, they sent him him into orbit in style, with the help of two famous Johns. Guest star, John Glenn, was called in to escort him from the FBI building to the NASA training facility and a few strains of Elton John's timeless classic "Rocketman" were used in an emotional scene where the characters watch the space shuttle supposedly carrying eccentric Larry Fleinart on his existential mission to slip the surly bonds of earth and somehow touch the face of God. It was quite beautiful.
If you even remotely have an interest in math or crime dramas and you have never seen this show, I heartily recommend it.
Besides the family dynamics, the true shining aspect of this show, is the way it presents its mathematical side. Charlie's work is actual math that is being portrayed in a realistic manner! I have seen almost all of the episodes of the first three seasons (my parents are kind enough to buy them for me on DVD when they come out every year), and I find the unique blend of crime drama, nerdy antics, and character humor to be as seductive as when I first heard about the show.
I do have one complaint though, and that is that they got rid of my favorite character, Charlie's intellectual cohort, physicist Larry Fleinart. Larry is the epitome of an entertaining and well-developed side character. He is a physicist, but he always voices his belief that the universe and existance is much bigger than the science we currently use to describe it. He gets motion sickness and believes in eating all-white food for aesthetic reasons, yet he also took up living in between his car and the sewer system of CalSci at one point. Larry provided of semi-foil to Charlie's exuberant empiricism. He was his colleague and his friend and often helped him with a human insight that Charlie was over-looking in his rush to solve the problem.
They eventually wrote Larry off of the show by sending him into space on the show. Not being content with just having him mysteriously disappear, they sent him him into orbit in style, with the help of two famous Johns. Guest star, John Glenn, was called in to escort him from the FBI building to the NASA training facility and a few strains of Elton John's timeless classic "Rocketman" were used in an emotional scene where the characters watch the space shuttle supposedly carrying eccentric Larry Fleinart on his existential mission to slip the surly bonds of earth and somehow touch the face of God. It was quite beautiful.
If you even remotely have an interest in math or crime dramas and you have never seen this show, I heartily recommend it.
Empire at War
Last night, I got to go back and play one of my favorite computer games of all time, Star Wars: Empire at War. It is a real-time strategy game (RTS) where you build and manage units of troops or ships, telling them to attack enemies, defend positions, scout for resources, or other various commands. What makes Empire at War so great, is that it is Star Wars, and it is done correctly. It was made by a group of guys called Petroglyph who used to work for Westwood studios on the Command and Conquer games. They brought Empire at War to a level of class and polish that was previously unseen in other Star Wars RTS titles.
The reason this game is so much fun, is because it feels like Star Wars. The space combat segment (what I played last night) has a simple strategy system that is lots of fun to execute. Fighters beat Capitol Ships, Capitol Ships beat Picket Ships, and Picket Ships beat Fighters. However, numerous little intricacies make the game come alive. Rebel capitol ships have the ability to augment their shields at a time of need, Imperial Capitol Ships have a tractor beam that keeps picket ships from running away, Rebel fighters can increase their speed temporarily at the cost of their firepower, and so on. All-in-all, this makes for a very dynamic battle.
Other than playing this addicting game, what sweetened the deal was getting to do so with my former and future roommate, James. We worked together as a team to bring down multiple AI opponents and had a lot of fun in the process. Of course at the same time we shot the breeze and caught up on how each other had been doing the last few weeks. What a great bonding experience it is to annihilate electronic star ships while talking about life!
This game makes me happy, because it makes up for previous Star Wars RTS semi-failures: Rebellion, Force Commander, and most notably Galactic Battlegrounds. Rebellion was great because you got to manage the entire galaxy, but it had a very poor combat system. Force Commander was an interesting game with some unique mechanics, but it was very difficult to control and poorly balanced. Galactic Battlegrounds was a fine game, but it was a direct rip-off of Age of Empires 2, and therefore didn't feel very much like Star Wars. I had fun with each of these, but they all also left me feeling a little empty inside. I'm glad that emptiness has finally been filled with the wonderfulness of Empire at War.
The reason this game is so much fun, is because it feels like Star Wars. The space combat segment (what I played last night) has a simple strategy system that is lots of fun to execute. Fighters beat Capitol Ships, Capitol Ships beat Picket Ships, and Picket Ships beat Fighters. However, numerous little intricacies make the game come alive. Rebel capitol ships have the ability to augment their shields at a time of need, Imperial Capitol Ships have a tractor beam that keeps picket ships from running away, Rebel fighters can increase their speed temporarily at the cost of their firepower, and so on. All-in-all, this makes for a very dynamic battle.
Other than playing this addicting game, what sweetened the deal was getting to do so with my former and future roommate, James. We worked together as a team to bring down multiple AI opponents and had a lot of fun in the process. Of course at the same time we shot the breeze and caught up on how each other had been doing the last few weeks. What a great bonding experience it is to annihilate electronic star ships while talking about life!
This game makes me happy, because it makes up for previous Star Wars RTS semi-failures: Rebellion, Force Commander, and most notably Galactic Battlegrounds. Rebellion was great because you got to manage the entire galaxy, but it had a very poor combat system. Force Commander was an interesting game with some unique mechanics, but it was very difficult to control and poorly balanced. Galactic Battlegrounds was a fine game, but it was a direct rip-off of Age of Empires 2, and therefore didn't feel very much like Star Wars. I had fun with each of these, but they all also left me feeling a little empty inside. I'm glad that emptiness has finally been filled with the wonderfulness of Empire at War.
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