09.30.07
Shooting
I shot a girl today.
09.26.07
Quote of the day
Chris Avellone on a slight tangent from the topic of Knights of the Old Republic 2:
I still feel story-writing for games (if you want to label it that way, I think it’s better to approach it as “experience-driven” instead of story-driven) is still in its early stages
Experience-driven. I love it 
09.23.07
Tag teamed
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but sometimes it’s just really difficult to get any work done around here…
09.17.07
What I lack in patience, I make up for in cheat codes
I just finished Star Trek: Elite Force 2. Yes it’s an older game, but I only just got around to playing it, so shut up. It’s another fun example of geographically expansive sequels to games that take place in a microcosmos. The prime examples being Half-Life 2 and Diablo 2. Both of these series’ started with games that were very limited geographically. Half-Life was completely restricted to the Black Mesa research facility (which was a very large microcosmos, granted) and Diablo took place entirely in the village Tristram and the direct passage to Hell that had opened below its church.
Elite Force took place in a sort of intergalactic junkyard surrounding The Forge, but its sequel concerns itself with a brewing interplanetary war spanning several planets and space stations. A new feature which I appreciate is the addition of dialogue choices at key moments. As far as I could guess from one playthrough, however, the only effects of these choices is whether the protagonist Lt. Munroe hooks up with his colleague Telsia Murphy or the scantily glad alien Kleeya at the end of the game. I picked Telsia - I like women who wear pants. Figuratively speaking.
09.16.07
Rewriting history
I just lost the battle at Guadalcanal to the Japanese because of a disc read error!
This would’ve never happened on a PC!
…
It would’ve been a general protection fault instead =_=
(Thank you, Microsoft.)
09.14.07
Everyone I know goes away in the end
I’m currently working on the script for my first audiovisual production (that is, short film) at the university. I’ve grouped with two great girls who are really good to brainstorm and bounce ideas back and forth with. Them being female, I expected the worst and brought a love story to the table initially, but one of them proposed a story about a schizophrenic, and I was sold immediately. The story we settled on after a few revisions for some reason reminds me of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, so I see this as a great opportunity to finally try to write something around a piece of music.
I’d like to establish a certain synergy between the film and its soundtrack, using the song to define and build a particular style in the way the story is presented. As I work on the script, I keep Hurt running on repeat so I remain in that mellow, slightly threatening and sinister mindset. I’ve only written the first few minutes of the film, but I think the intro is really good and I know pretty much exactly how the ending will be structured according to the song. I only hope I can cut up the song like I want so we won’t end up making a glorified music video 
Of course I still have to sell the idea of integrating this song so strongly in the film to the others, but I think they’ll agree when I show them the first draft of the script.
09.12.07
Surprise
Just thought I’d point out that Warren Spector’s list of his top 10 (no wait, 12) favourite games is hilariously unlike the games he himself makes. I would’ve expected some Thief and some System Shock 2 on there. Perhaps some Knights of the Old Republic. His favourite game is Diablo…
I see where he’s coming from, but man…
09.07.07
Teamwork
Here’s a thought: If you’re going to make a game where the player is part of a team (perhaps even an elite team) and is supposed to follow or even lead this team around on complicated missions, would you please not spend 3/4 of the game throwing excuses at the player for breaking up the team and sending the player along on his or her own!?
Republic Commando, you did well - you let me stay with the team almost all the time and even order them around. Have a twinkie. Elite Force 2, SHAME ON YOU! SHAME! NO TWINKIE!
And as for F.E.A.R. … let’s not even go there.
09.06.07
The difficulty of difficulty
It strikes me that difficulty is pretty hard to get right, but that as a general rule, customizability = win. Another thing which is made of pure win is when you can change difficulty during the game so you don’t have to restart if you pick the wrong difficulty setting.
One good example that comes to mind of the latter is Jade Empire for the PC which I mostly found adequately challenging on normal difficulty. There were, however, some fights where my proverbial arse was handed to me (proverbially), but this was quickly solved by temporarily turning the difficulty down to easy.
