Saturday, November 12, 2011

Eating my words

I wrote a blog a few months ago concerning how stupid people are for trying to include movement in video games. My aunt, however, recently got me a Kinect, and I have to admit: It may not be as stupid as I thought it was. Before you try to implore to keep an open mind, allow me to explain why I think this idea is not as stupid as I originally thought.
THE KINECT ACTUALLY ALLOWS ME TO BE LAZIER. How, you may be asking yourself, does a motion-sensing peripheral allow you to be lazier, VGG? Aside from the slight inconvenience of having to wave my arm to initiate the start-up sequence, its voice activated! I don't even have to waste the extra 30 calories to push the four buttons on my controller. I support any invention that streamlines my laziness. Now, if only my girlfriend would respond to voice activation. "Girlfriend, beer!" has done nothing but cause fights thus far.

(Disclaimer: I still think it's stupid to have a game based entirely on motion controls. Invariably, you will end up looking like these morons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4l1TVANMD4)

Friday, January 28, 2011

IN the movies

Video games have come a long way. I was there for the Atari, which was for all intents and purposes, the first commercially successful home console system. I watched the rise and fall of Sega, swore my allegiance to Nintendo, cursed the 3D0, scoffed at Sony, and jumped on the Microsoft bandwagon. I never really appreciated how far games have come until now. I'm currently playing Dead Space 2, and its terrifying. What's most appealing about it, though, is that the the player feels like they are playing a movie. I literally feel like I'm on the set of event Horizon, and Laurence Fishburne is going to call "line!" at any second. I never thought video games would become this advanced. I used to think that capturing real actors portraying video games characters (as seen in Sega CD's Sewer Shark, for example) was the pinnacle of video game achievement. Now, I've witnessed games with true cinematic flow: God of War, Uncharted, and Dead Space are just a few of the franchises that have captured these moments. Its truly inspiring to be IN the movies.