When I first heard that Infinity Ward was going to nix dedicated servers for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, I thought to myself, “Self, IW clearly wants to kill PC gaming.” Actually, I just passed it off as a joke because who in their right mind would take a community like PC gamers and downgrade their experience? I understand that IW is arguing that they will be able to keep a tighter hold on the reins as far as hacking/cheating, but they are failing to understand that the community is what makes PC gaming what it is.

I played Soldier of Fortune II competitively while I was in grad school, and those were some of the best years of my gaming life. Having my own servers for practice and matches meant that I always knew where I could find my friends and teammates. Furthermore, I knew were friendly clan servers were and we all pugged together and conversed on TS or Vent. I just don’t understand how IW could have seen this as a logical progression for the PC gaming community.

I won’t even get into the alleviation of lag when the onus is on the dedicated server. Can you imagine what a PC gamer will think when they see host migration for the first time?! Heads will explode everywhere. Anyway, I pre-ordered it on the PS3 since I got the FragFX controller (plus I really wanted those freaking awesome night-vision goggles). Still, I am going to sign the petition now.

IW on the other hand is going to set sail for fail.

1) Uncharted 2 — This is basically an interactive movie. It rocks so hard that I had to hire someone to type this for me so I could continue playing.

2) Brutal Legend — This game is both funny as hell and incredibly fun to play.

3) Dirt 2 — Play this game for a few seconds and you’ll see some of the sickest graphics in a racing game ever… in the history of forever.

My girlfriend fiance is, without a doubt, the most incredible, caring, genuine, honest, loving person on the face of the planet. I cannot imagine my life without her being a part of it. And I don’t ever want to lay my head down anywhere that isn’t right next to hers.

I may never find words worthy of conveying how I feel, but I know that even if I don’t she will always know exactly how I feel because of the way we hold each other – letting everything and everyone else in the world drift away, leaving us alone and completely caught up in one another.

It’s a magical feeling that she gives me, and I know it is one that will never wear off.

Erin and I always leave little notes for each other when we travel, and she was going to GDC so I put six numbered notes in her suitcase.

I picked her up from the airport yesterday, and when we came in the front door I told her that I had written a seventh note and it didn’t make it into her bag so I just taped it on the bedroom door for her to have something to come home to.

It had a big #7 and in tiny, tiny lettering the phrase, “will you marry me?”

She walked up to it, read it, and I was behind her on one knee so when she turned around and said, “ARE YOU SERIOUS!?” I was there to propose. It was amazing, and even though I was only able to string together a few choice words into sentences before completely losing it – she was thrilled and screamed yes.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of smiles, congratulatory hugs, excited friends, and ecstatic relatives. It was truly wonderful. And it just gets sweeter as it sinks in with every day… I’m the luckiest man on Earth.

I have been playing WoW again, now that Wrath of the Lich King came out, and I must admit: I love being a sneaky ninja-like rogue. I have also been indulging in Left 4 Dead, Naruto: The Broken Bond, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, and good ol’ Castle Crashers with my wonderful girlfriend.

I promise to get back soon with reviews on WotLK, L4D, and the lot. I also have my thoughts to share with regard to Nintendo’s latest patent. Here is a preview: What ever happened to games being challenging?

…so much gaming…so little time…

The interesting thing about Mirror’s Edge is that despite its somewhat obvious flaws, I cannot stop playing it. Perhaps I have just been feeling masochistic recently. I honestly cannot explain it. I wanted to love the game so much that I was pretty let down when I finally got a chance to play the game in its full glory. I still want very much to love the game because it is such a refreshing take on the first-person perspective.

And I won’t even begin to defend the chinks in its armor: Yes, there is poor anti-aliasing. Yes, disarming enemies is maddening and inconsistent. Yes, the cut scenes look particularly out of place and poorly crafted. And yes, this game is a lot of trial and error that will cause you to restart further back in the game than you would like. And while something like bad anti-aliasing isn’t something that typically gets to me, it really detracts from the game.

In my opinion, the worst aspect of the game is the forced combat. I never have the chance to fight enemies in close quarters, which means I don’t have my array of wall-running, ass-kicking combos. Instead my arsenal is reduced to sliding kick, jump kick, punch, and the “pray-that-it-works” disarm maneuver. Additionally, if you want to obtain the achievement for playing through the game without firing a gun (like I do) you are going to experience even more of the “run, run, run, fight, die, start over” cycle. I am not saying that it is impossible, but Faith can only take two melees to the dome before you are dead. In some cases, just one melee will result in death because you are being shot at simultaneously. You really have to isolate your opponents so that you are fighting them one-on-one. While I appreciate the reality of multiple people trying to take me down at once, I would think that trained law enforcement and thugs would wait for a clear shot before firing. If you find yourself in between three armed cops, they could care less about accidentally firing at each other. Thus, your only hope is that the respawn point isn’t too far back.

All that being said, I think the game’s time trial mode is amazing. It’s very fun, and it adds a lot of replay value to a relatively short single-player game. I think that DICE has a lot to build off of for the sequel (if there’s a sequel), and hopefully they heed the critics reviews because I think everyone’s bearings are pretty on-target for this game.

[Update: I finished the game last week, shortly after writing this post, and I do not see myself playing through it again. The time trial adventures may be on the plate, but with little drive in the story... I cannot see it ever finding its way back into my 360.

I have been unusually excited about this game for quite a bit of time because I love FPS and, even though this is technically a first-person platformer, this is the first title where I will be rewarded for not firing a gun. There is something extremely ninja-like about that aspect of the game. The mere notion of an incredibly agile person swiftly navigating rooftops and disarming gunmen with their bare hands is incredibly appealing to me… Jeez, I just had to suppress the urge to go home and play the demo again.

However, when I initially downloaded and played the demo, I only played it through a handful of times before I went back to Dead Space. I didn’t really feel like the game lived up to the hype (this includes the additional hype that I built up in my head). I felt like I couldn’t navigate the rooftops any way I wanted. It was far more linear than I had hoped. Granted, I have not been able to retrieve my card to unlock the Time Trial mode. I just wished that I could experience a sandbox free-running level.

And then it happened – I stumbled across a truly glorious video that showed how to make my wish come true:

Since watching that video I have spent countless hours running in circles on the rooftop of the training level trying to improve my parkour skills. The game is infinitely more fun, and it has me ridiculously excited for the release next week. If you have not done so already – download the demo, and try it out.

This is an age-old argument that I believe makes perfect sense. Despite the flaws in the study, as children grow they are all socialized by their family, friends, community, environment, and the media. Taking a look at different cultures will show you we all act differently based off of social norms that are instilled in us during the maturation process. To me, it is not a stretch to believe that a teenager who spends all of his waking hours playing the latest Grand Theft Auto will be more aggressive than a teenager who spends all of their waking hours playing Super Mario Galaxy. They may even develop a penchant for hot coffee (yeah… I went there).

With the prevalence of hyper-violent video games, it is likely that all kids who love games will eventually play one or more. This means that there is the potential that all kids can become more aggressive. Does that mean that we should be making less violent games? My opinion is that we do not. It is not the struggle of game developers to instill morals and social norms in children. We hope that the parents are doing their job: teaching their children the difference between right and wrong. And in turn, we hope that these children possess a moral compass that points in the right direction.

I will always believe that it is a parent’s duty to educate and moderate their child’s game consumption. I was raised by a single mother who hadn’t the slightest clue that I was purchasing or playing games like Mortal Kombat, where I could rip somebody’s heart out; however, I was raised with the understanding that violence is never the solution. My mom would not bring up the subject in the context of, “I see that you are really enjoying throwing a spear into your opponent. You know that in real life, throwing a spear into someone is not socially acceptable and will be met with serious consequences, right?” The subject of beliefs, rights, morals, and norms were breached throughout my childhood and I carried those lessons over into my gaming. Thankfully, I learned at a young age that knifing people was wrong. It is far more socially acceptable to use a lightsaber.

I would like to join Mr. Sessler on his soapbox, and where he will not take a stab at placing blame – I will say that the burden should be placed on the game developer.

At the time of the game’s release, my rig far exceeded the recommended specs for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and yet my comp could only manage a measly 10 frames per second.  In order to make the game playable, I had to drastically lower all of the graphics settings, which is unacceptable to some gamers.  I have a friend who would sooner buy a new video card, more RAM, and a faster CPU than tolerate a game running at “medium” quality instead of the highest “uber omega” quality available in the game.  At some point, it is up to the developer to ask the question – what is an acceptable level of graphic quality for my game, and is that default level adequately communicated to the gaming community?

In the world of consoles, games look the way they look.  There is no adjusting the anisotropic filtering, volumetric lighting, screen resolution, or texture quality to increase the visual bar or squeeze out additional frames per second.  F.E.A.R. is F.E.A.R. at whatever quality the developer said, “This is acceptable.”  But what if it isn’t acceptable – like the shadows in Dead Space?  Granted, you are usually so stricken with fear that you are just focusing on sounds and your immediate surroundings, but they look atrocious.  Fortunately, the game is so dark that the points you can see the horrible jagged shadows on Isaac’s suit and on the ground are few and far between.  PC gamers can remedy that issue, and even secure a better frame rate; however, the cost is likely to be significant.  I am not suggesting that a PC has to be upgraded every time a new game comes out, but the life cycle of my consoles far outweighs that of my PCs.

My two cents: Take the time spent on DRM and put it into the “optimzation for the player’s benefit” category… or just create a new spec category for the highest attainable settings.

…But for old times’ sake – FOR THE HORDE!!