Category: Gaming

The Book of Go

Posted on by Nimgimli

I finished reading The Book of Go last night, which isn’t to say I’m doing with it, as there are a lot of Go problems that I’d like to go back and work through again in a while.

The book comes in a unique format: spiral bound and including 9×9 and 13×13 Go boards and the pieces to play. And it provides a nice overview of the game, but really it often left me either scratching my head or thirsting for more. I still am a bit confused by scoring and how to deal with ‘dead pieces.’ The suggestion is to keep playing if there’s a dispute over whether a piece is dead, but it seems to me that you can force the other player to give up terrain that way. I would’ve like to have that explained in more depth (and that’s just one example…there were a few concepts that I thought were dealt with a bit too briefly).

Of a more personal nature is a problem with how the game is taught. The author begins by teaching “First Capture Go” which is a kind of sub-set of the full game. This is great if you have someone to play with, but in my case I was playing against a computer program or via various internet sites, none of which supported this variation of the game. I’m sure this is a great way to teach, *if* the reader has a friend who is also trying to learn the game.

It would’ve been ideal to include a CD-ROM with a version of “First Capture Go” for readers to practice against. The cd could’ve also included some of the excellent open source Go products on the net.

Still, as an introduction to Go, the book succeeds; by the time you’re finished with it you’ll probably have either decided that Go isn’t the game for you, or you’ll be ready for a more in-depth book.

The Color of Mayhem, in a Wave of ‘Urban’ Games

Posted on by Nimgimli

The Color of Mayhem, in a Wave of ‘Urban’ Games (this’ll be behind a registration in a day or so).

I should start by noting that I am white.

But Esther Iverem, editor and film critic for www.seeingblack.com, a Washington-based Web site offering black opinion on cultural and political matters, said she worried about the effects of games like earlier versions of Grand Theft Auto on black youngsters, including her 11-year-old son. “These games don’t teach them anything about respect, tolerance and responsibility,” Ms. Iverem said, but are instead “validating a much-too-accepted stereotype, an accepted caricature.”

I certainly agree with Ms Iverem, but I don’t see it having anything to do with race. The protagonist of these games, who is an evil, brutal scumbag, is white, after all.

The article faults some games for having black enemies, others for having black protagonists, and still others for having black athletes.

So I wonder in what capacity they’d like to see people of color in these games? It seems to me game developers are in a no-win situation. If they make all characters white, then they’re being prejudiced. If they put black characters in the games, then they’re promoting stereotypes because the characters are doing violent things or playing sports.

But all the games they mention are either violent or sports games. The NBA Street game they mention features superstar basketball players, many of whom happen to be black. As to the violent games…THEY’RE VIOLENT GAMES. If you want to fault them for that, sure, I’m with you. But to say they promote stereotypes that black people are violent is ludicrous. Everyone in these games is violent, regardless of color!

I’m just not getting the arguments here. .. can anyone explain it?

Probation officers fired after ‘XBox killings’

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Probation officers fired after ‘XBox killings’

So the ring-leader beat up a friend of his a few days before the killings, his probation officer knew about it, could have had him back in jail but didn’t bother to file the paperwork on time, it seems… yet they still call them “XBox Killings.”

Why not “Probation Officer Killings?”

At least the next story, telling that the judge has these psychos in jail with no bond, left the game system out of the title Judge denies slaying suspects bond but the link to the article on other CNN pages says Bond denied in ‘XBox killings’.

Funniest line I read all day: The father of one of the vile creatures that murdered these sleeping people says of his spawn “He was a good kid, he just got with the wrong crowd.”

No, I’m sorry pal. No one that joined in on this kind of pyschotic, evil behavior could be in any way construed as “a good kid” and I have to wonder what kind of man raises such a son…

Doom 3

Posted on by Nimgimli

I have to retract what I said about Doom 3 being a mediocre game. Once I’d upgraded my video card so it ran well, I started to really get into it. Now, the game mechanics are same as they’ve ever been in FPSers. In fact, the game has really no ‘modern enhancements’ like leaning out around corners or cover moves or anything. Very basic controls.

But they’ve used the nifty graphics engine, and great sound as well, to craft an experience that becomes genuinely creepy the farther in you get (well, at least as far as I’ve gotten). The storyline is pretty thin and the whole motif has been done a zillion times (heavily armed marines on another planet fighting evil invaders) but now that I can see everything clearly (due to a decent framerate) it just kinda works.

I *strongly* recommend you get one of the flashlight mods, though. I suggest Pistol Flashlight Mod. It lets you see and still shoot without totally changing the balance of the game (since as often as not the pistol is a last ditch weapon). I just find switch flashlight to weapon and back constantly really got tiresome.

Anyway, I kinda dissed Doom 3 the other day and now I can’t stop playing it, so credit where credit is due, and all that.

Halo 3 marketing puzzle

Posted on by Nimgimli

I dunno if you folks have been following this rather fun viral campaign. At the end of the E3 Halo 2 trailer, were the odd words ilovebees. Well Halo fans immediately ran off to http://www.ilovebees.com/ which is a “hacked” site of some girl beekeeper. There’s all kinds of detective work being done on this, and folks have decided the hack message is an anagram saying there is a Halo 2 demo coming, and there’s a counter counting down to August 24th.

Linked to from the site is the blog of the owner of the site who is trying to figure out why someone hacked her site. And it gets better. Someone did a domain lookup for the owner of the site (not sure how..I’ve not managed it) and got a phone number. Calling this number gets an answering machine of the girl writing the blog talking about how she’s going far far away, and “mom, I know you call just to hear my voice…I love you too.” and so on.

Suffice to say that the mystery is gaining real traction. I lot of what I just told you I found out from G4TV.Com’s coverage of it. Soon enough the mainstream press will get wind of it…

Brilliant marketing, if you ask me.

And btw, in a somewhat related note, Doom 3 has puzzles in it that you have to go onto the web to solve, too. You’ll find urls in the game that are ‘real’ on the web, and that hold clues. Pretty neat stuff.

Doom 3

Posted on by Nimgimli

Doom 3 Graphic Novel (with tongue firmly in cheek) by Gamespy’s Fargo.

So it had to be done. Even though I’m almost never impressed by ID’s games (their 3D engines AMAZE me but their games are generally fairly generic) I had to follow the herds and buy Doom 3 even though it was over-priced ($55).

And guess what? So far its been fairly generic. And sluggish as hell on my GeForce FX 5600 card. So out I went today to plop down $250 more for a Radeon 9800 PRO. Happily for me, the next-gen cards (ATI’s X800 [er, or is it 800X?] and nVidia’s 6800) are harder to find than an honest politician, so I didn’t have to resist the temptation to spend $400 on a danged video card.

That said, Doom 3 sure looks pretty, and already people are starting to Mod it in interesting ways, so in the long run I imagine I’ll be happy to have it. But I can’t help worry that I’ll be thinking “This experience cost me $300” when I’m playing…

New info: here’s a hefty forum thread full of Doom 3 tips and tweaks

EA inks sponsorship pact with Dodge

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EA inks sponsorship pact with Dodge

Interesting new twist on the whole advertising via video games kick that’s starting to take off. A pretty savvy move for Dodge, I think. A lot of Madden freaks will no doubt use this service and the Dodge name (and I wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed the Jeep brand…isn’t that part of Dodge/Chrysler?) will get in front of plenty of eyeballs.

Much better to do it this way than by injecting advertisements into the games, IMO.

And still more on the ‘Manhunt Murder’

Posted on by Nimgimli

More data, nothing really stunning, but still.

Police reject game link to murder UK police say that robbery was the motive for the killing, not the game.

They added: “We can confirm the game was not found in Warren Leblanc’s room, it was found in Stefan Pakeerah’s room.”

ELSPA ISSUES OPEN LETTER TO HOME SECRETARY ELSPA looks to be the British equivalent of the Entertainment Software Association in the US.

Manhunt Lawyer Speaks He sounds slightly less like a ranting loon this time out. But only slightly.

The funny thing is, in many ways I agree with this guy. I do think its important to keep M rated games out of the hands of kids. But ranting and raving like he does isn’t going to convince anyway. This is an issue that only time, I think, will take care of. Its a lot harder for a kid to get ahold of a XXX video (hard copy…let’s leave the ‘net out of this for now) or a bottle of scotch than it is for him/her to get ahold of an M rated game. But as today’s gamer generation matures and understands the issues, I think this problem will fade away.