Sony MUST fix the PS3

I have decided to write this in the time it takes to update Little Big Planet to version 1.04. Since its release, I have been debating buying Little Big Planet due to several concerns I have about its network infrastructure and level moderation, so I decided to rent it first. It finally arrived today, and following inserting this highly anticipated game into my PS3, I was forced to update to the latest version of the game. I am cool with this, it happens ALL the time with Xbox 360 games and requires a brief moment of my time to allow a brief quick download followed by a quick installation. Updating the PS3 however, is another story. It has been some time since I have even turned on my PS3 mainly because of the pain in the ass it is to update the system firmware (a process that routinely take 10+ minutes). Thus, because it has been so long since I have played my PS3, I of course have to update the system firmware before I can begin playing LBP (in the biz, we call that a vicious cycle). After sucking it up and updating my system to Firmware ver. 2.53, I finally click on LBP with great anticipation...only to discover I have to apply not one, but three patches before I can actually play. While this process is now 88% complete, it has already soured my experience and makes me realize why I prefer my XBOX 360. Sony, YOU MUST FIX THIS. Take a page from the Xbox playbook, make this process FAST! Make this process PAINLESS! And in the words of my good friend Oscar Rogers, JUST FIX IT!

UPDATE: At least Little Big Planet was worth it, wow.

Michael Crichton Reaches 'The End'

As a kid, my mother read to my sisters and I constantly, anything from Little Women to Theodore Taylor's The Kay. When I reached the age where I could read to myself at a high enough level, I was excited to finally have the autonomy to choose what fantastical worlds I was going to immerse myself in. Including the requisite Stephen King and John Grisham novels, I began to read the works of Michael Crichton. The Great Train Robbery, The Terminal Man, and The Andromeda Strain all captured my young imagination and held it long enough for me to actually want to learn more about each elegantly incorporated topic that Crichton always managed to weave into his narratives. While his books always managed to land on my library reserve card, I would have considered many other authors to be more influential in terms of my own real world interests. However, that changed in 1990 when Crichton published a novel called Jurassic Park, which I read cover to cover in less 3 days, quite an accomplishment for any eleven year old. That novel and its sequel, The Lost World, introduced me to a topic that was previously unknown to me, molecular genetics, a field in which I eventually earned a Ph.D. and am currently working in. Since then, I have anxiously awaited every one of his many releases, some with more fanfare (Timeline) than others (Next), but always finding a way to captivate my imagination and transport me back to a time when I believed anything was possible. So yesterday, upon hearing the news of Mr. Crichton's death at the fairly young age of 66, I was quite saddened but even more so I was reminded of my origins, the inspirations that have shaped the direction my life has taken and the avenues that I persued in part because of him and his works. While some have described his books as fun summer reading with no more impact than a romance novel, I am proof of a life well spent inspiring youthful imaginations.

The Way it Should Be

The fantastic open world racing/crashing game Burnout Paradise has been on store shelves for almost a year now, and in my own collection for almost as long. Burnout allows you to race around the fictional city of Paradise, a fantastical world filled with almost as many street racers as it has ramps decorating its city streets. For the last ten months I have continued to sporadically pop Burnout Paradise into my Xbox 360 and play for large chunks of time. This differs from most of my game collection, which typically sits on the shelf after I have either completed the game or grown tired of its multiplayer modes. The reason I continually go back to Burnout Paradise is because its developer, Criterion Games, has figured out how to make games that to stay relevant beyond its release window. Criterion actually supports its game, continuously adding new modes, challenges, and content FOR FREE (a phrase I hate to use in this situation because many developers forget that we did actually pay 60 bucks for the game). The most recent updates added new cars, a whole new class of vehicles in motorcycles, weather effects, and day/night cycles. These features completely changed the game for me, creating new challenges and renewing my enthusiasm for it. While many multiplayer FPSs have followed this model by adding in new maps for players to compete against one another, these updates are typically pay-to-play and rarely enhance the single player experience. While I am all about the video game industry getting paid (lord knows I do my part to support it), I sincerely appreciate the recognition by Criterion that their consumers will continue to support their game if THEY do. So cheers to you Criterion Games and congratulations on your success, keep up the good work (and clearly they intend to as they have already announced an additional 4 future updates for Burnout). Here's hoping the rest of the industry sees your success and follows in your footsteps.

The Greatest PrObama Tee Ever

Here is my latest creation, which if you are a Star Wars fan, should make your mouth water. I am currently printing it up on a tee for myself.

McCain for Galactic Emperor

While I myself could not think of one valuable asset McCain could bring to the Presidency of the United States, there are other positions for which he is perhaps better suited.

The Role of Racism in Evolution

With the U.S. presidential election in sight, the racial divide is more prevalent than ever across the U.S. and the world. A relatively large number of individuals have made it clear that they will or will not vote for Barack Obama simply because of his skin color. This fascinating behavior is steeped in deep rooted historical and cultural connections, but what if its due to something deeper? Something so intrinsic that it is simply instinctual to associate with those of a like appearance.

This week in Nature, a trans-national team of zoologists published an article demonstrating what we all knew in the first place...everyone's a racist. The group examined the mating habits of similar yet visually distinct populations of cichlids that inhabit African lakes. The scientists observed that red and blue varieties of the fish species did not interbreed with each other, despite being biologically capable. However, those same cichlid species will mate regardless of thier partners color if the lakes in which they lived were polluted to the point where thier vision was impaired. The researchers concluded that the blue fish and red fish don't mate with one another simply by discriminating against fish of a different color. This supports the notion that species can evolve separately from one another using a theoretical evolutionary strategy called sensory drive, which defines that organisms use their senses rather than instinct to discern appropriate mating partners. These studies demonstrated that each variety of fish maintained their 'racial purity' if you will, by discriminating based on skin color.

Maybe Dave Chappelle was on to something...

Exciting New Developments in anti-MRSA Drugs

Ever since the deployment of commercially produced Penicillin in 1942, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have been racing to develop more effective, diverse, and broader spectrum antibiotics to treat a variety of bacterial infections. However, interest in antibiotic discovery and development has waned in recent years, in part due to a paradigm shift in pharmaceutical development from curing diseases to treating 'lifestyle' conditions (i.e. Restless Leg Syndrome). While this has been a financially sound decision for shareholders, it has left the human population in danger of encountering microorganisms that have evolved a resistance to most if not all commercially produced antibiotics. A perfect example of this is the prolific MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) or MDRSA (Multi-Drug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which is the causitive agent of Staph infections and has become a worldwide pandemic. Staph infections result in painful skin wounds that do not heal without treatment and can lead to a lethal septicemia in which the bacteria enter the blood stream and systemically proliferate. MRSA infections have become so dangerous and prolific, the CDC reports that more Americans die of MRSA infections than AIDS each year.

Fortunately, an article published this week in Science, has reported the discovery of a novel antibiotic effective against MRSA ad MDRSA. This new antibiotic, called PC190723, was identified by what the authors describe as 'a fragment based approach' to a process called synthetic chemistry. This involves taking a known molecule that exhibits some modest antibacterial activity and synthetically adding to its structure a variety of chemical moieties. The authors began with a chemical known as 3-Methoxybenzamine (3-MBA), a chemical known to disrupt cell division in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, and synthetically added two moieties called 'benzamide' and 'thiazolopyridine'. The resulting molecule, known as PC190723, exhibited an antibacterial activity of over 2000 times that of it predacessor, 3-MBA. In fact, PC190723 is capable of inhibiting growth of both MRSA and MDRSA at concentrations as low as 1 microgram per mL (for reference, vancomycin, a commonly used antibiotic for MRSA treatment inhibits bacterial growth at concentrations of 2 micrograms per mL). The authors demonstrate that PC190723 inhibits MRSA (and other bacterial species) cell division by interfering with a protein known as FtsZ, which is required for the bacterium to identify its own cellular midpoint. Without functioning FtsZ, the cellular machinery necessary to drive cell division cannot localize the cell midpoint, effectively preventing the bacteria from dividing (inset photo depicts a MRSA cell dividing at its midpoint).

The most exciting result described in this publication, is that PC190723 offered complete protection to mice infected with a normally lethal dose of Staphylococcus aureus. The authors also demonstrated that PC190723 has no effect on the growth of cultured human cells, further suggesting its potential as a safe and effective anti-bacterial therapy. This molecule is currently in the early stages of clinical trials and hopefully will be available sooner than later to help combat the MRSA pandemic.

Maddening '09

I should preface this post with the disclosure that I have purchased each and every edition of Madden since Madden '93 which remains my favorite. That game made the HB sweep around the end for a touchdown fun despite it working literally almost every time. However, since the acquisition of exclusive rights to the NFL license, it seems that EA has been content to do the absolute minimum to further any progression in Madden's gameplay. So upon the release of Madden '09 I decided to listen to the annual sounds of disappointment still lingering in my sub-conscious and held off on purchasing it until it could prove to me that it was more than a roster update. So finally after sitting at the top of my gamerang cue for nearly a month, I received it in the mail and immediately popped in into the 360.

The first thing I did when it arrived was to take the virtual Madden IQ test, which told me that I was rated "All-Madden" in rushing and a rookie at passing offense, and both passing and rushing defense. While I thought those stats were a bit unfair, I was excited to see how this constantly adjusting difficulty setting would affect my enjoyment of franchise mode, which I usually struggle to find the perfect setting for my tastes. What it did was unexpected as it made it IMPOSSIBLE to run on the opposing D, which is usually my forte. Alternatively, it was entirely too easy to intercept the opposing offense's passes. While this may sound like a solution to the problems associated with using a single difficulty setting to represent every facet of someone's Madden ability, it actually just increases the chances of AI controlled players to either make mistakes or make plays. So essentially, the folks at EA Sports managed to fix a flaw in the previous versions of Madden by creating even bigger flaws that effectively zapped any enjoyment out of the experience.

Now that is just one example of annoying features in Madden '09, one that fortunately can be turned off by returning to the old one difficulty setting for eveything approach. However, numerous flaws have emerged after just a few hours of gameplay that really just shouldn't exist in a game that has been iterated on for 4 years now. For example, my Falcons recently played the Colts in a francise game, who got lucky on two back to back fumble recoveries for touchdowns in the forth quarter. Subsequently, the Colts were up one score with the ball in hand and with less than 2 minutes to go in the 4th and proceeded to throw 3 incomplete passes in a row? Lets face it, no team in the history of the league would throw 3 times in a row up a single score with less than 2 minutes to go. The game was obviously handing me an opportunity to mount a comeback. While I appreciate the digital charity, the last thing I want is some crappy AI feeling sorry for my poor fortune and hand me an opportunity ESPECIALLY when it flies in the face of real football strategy and was so blatantly obvious!

While I appreciate the attempt at renewing my enthusiasm for Madden football, I really feel the need for two things to happen for the future of video game football to look brighter than it does right now. First, EA Sports has got to change up the visual styling of Madden and I mean more than just new grass textures. I refuse to buy a game that has not updated the stiff look of a footballer since 2006 simply because they have a monopoly. Second, Mr. Goodell...please do not allow ANYONE to obtain exclusive rights to the NFL licence ever again. The competition made things innovative and competitive and the loss of that has clearly eliminated all innovation in the development of NFL-licensed football games...errr...game (I don't count NFL Tour). Just look at the new game from Natural Motion called Backbreaker, it features amazing physics and an actual visual style that makes me excited about football games again. However, without the NFL license it lacks the reason I love football games, which is to feel like you are in control of your favorite players. Just imagine what some real competition could do for Madden in the future. Hell, maybe I will start buying the game again. Until then, I am going to finish my franchise season and get as many achievements as I can before shipping it back...disappointed again.

Goodbye GFW Radio

Its official, mine and your favorite video game podcast GFW Radio is done. As a bench scientist, I perform countless mundane tasks during the long work hours and I have come to cherish my Thursday's, which is when I typically listen to Jeff, Shawn, Anthony, Robert, Sean, and Ryan bullshit for two hours while managing to throw some game related topics into the mix. I think it is safe to say that "The Brodeo" as its known was not only the best video game related podcast but in my opinion one of the best podcasts currently available next to say a 'This American Life'. I am sure that would be a stretch for many people outside of the realm of gaming, but if you really listened to GFW every week you would hear some of the most intelligent insights into game design and development from a critical perspective. It is no wonder these guys are being lured by big development companies to work on some well known game franchises.

With the announcement of Jeff Green's departure a couple of weeks ago, I was pretty sure the rest of the crew was to follow. I thought for an instant that Shawn Elliott could potentially take over the reigns and fill the void left by Jeff. However, upon the announcement of Shawn's new position at 2K Boston, I am sure that the Brodeo is completely done. I can only hope that the addition of Jeff to the Sims team, and Shawn to the 2K Boston team will result in some amazing new ideas and much needed polish to game design. As easy as it would be to hate on these guys for leaving us with 2 hours a week to fill with something probably far less entertaining, I can't help but be respectful of people I feel like I know personally. So cheers mates, good luck to you all, we will miss you.

Cross-Checking

With the upcoming release of Mortal Kombat Vs. DC by Midway this fall, I couldn't help but reminisce on all of the various video game incarnations that blended two (or more) intellectual properties over the years. My particular favorite being the most excellent Japan-only Sega Saturn port of X-men VS. Street Fighter. I can't count the collegiate hours spent defending my crown with Ken, dragon punching and hurricane kicking any challenger entering my dorm room. While this highlights the idea of blending multiple properties, other have been less fortunate, such as the abysmal use of Spawn in Soul Calibur II for the Xbox. This has led me to think about what types of crossovers I would like to see in the future, even beyond the typical implementation in fighting games, which seems to suit the crossover well since fighting games rarely contribute to a particular character's canon. So here is a list of my top three most wanted crossover games:

1. A Shadow of the Colossus style adventure game set in the mind of a serial killer featuring several of my favorite characters with psychological powers including the X-men Psylocke and Jean Grey, Raz from Psychonauts, and Nick from Psi-Ops. The game would have to feature four player co-op in a gritty 3rd person action-adventure with enemies that actually are the environments (generated by the killer's mind for whom the team is trying to access). Each level would be one giant environment, which would effectively be a puzzle that the characters would have to solve to pass.

2. A tennis/fighting game featuring contestants from the X-men and Star Wars universes pitting light sabers and force powers vs. adamantium claws and optic blasts in epic tennis matches where anything goes...imagine the possibilities!

3. Last but not least, a first person shooter where Master Chief, Jack from BioShock, Gordon Freeman, and Duke Nukem would team up and travel through time through various first person shooter level designs. I am thinking something like Brute Force, only good, where the characters team up taking on baddies from various FPS games ranging from the original Doom to current titles like Resistance. The earliest FPS levels would look like they did originally with low res graphics and low-fi sounds, while the character models would remain high-res. As the player progresses the levels would be drawn from later games looking more and more like modern games.


Well those are my most wanted, what do you think? What do you want to see?

Hasbro spells J E R K for 45 points

For months now, I have been fighting a personal addiction to what many of my friends call 'digital crack'. Yes, I am talking about Scrabulous, the best facebook application available to date. While in the middle of at least 5 different games with friends across that country, I along with everyone else in the US have been locked out of Scrabulous. Why you say? It turns out that the execs at Hasbro have decided that since Scrabulous is a better version of their own online version of Scrabble, they need to sue the pants off the independent programmers that both developed scrabulous and provided it to us FREE of charge. Now normally I would say that a patent holder absolutely has the right to profit from their own creation. However, in this case I think Hasbro is absolutely wrong for a number of reasons. First, Hasbro has their own facebook application aptly named Scrabble, yet even though it was released some time after Scrabulous, it blows (that is as eloquently as I can think to put it). Second, the two guys that made scrabulous have not profited directly from its development and continuously iterate and improve upon their work. Finally, Hasbro is causing a HUGE backlash against itself with these actions. The posts decorating the Hasbro facebook application page are filled with angry Scrabulous players who none too happy about losing one of their favorite past times. Come on Hasbro, I know you read my blog, quit being a jerk and let us enjoy your invention again.

How Human is Too Human

For two years now, I have been hearing all about Silicon Knights upcoming release entitled 'Too Human'. I recall several key events along its tumultuous development that have triggered a proverbial shitstorm of buzz and commentary from both enthusiast press and message board posters alike, all claiming the game was a disaster in the making. If you don't know, this has elicited an intense series of reactions from Silicon Knights CEO, Dennis Dyack, who has essentially called out everyone who has made any sort of negative commentary about Too Human. Like a doting father, Dyack has proven that he is willing to sacrifice his own image and credibility to support what he has called, 'the best game he has ever made'. With so much on the line, I was thrilled last week when I saw the release of the Too Human demo on Xbox LIVE. I was excited to have the opportunity to experience what must be the polished, slick, Diablo inspired, loot packed space odyssey that I had been promised.

The first thing you notice upon starting the game is an archaic presentation that is reminiscent of a bad PC role-playing game from 5 years ago. The menus are nothing to note, and the selection screens are what you would expect in a standard RPG. The visuals are sub-par for the current cycle in this generation, the environments are strikingly bland and barren, and the only impressive graphical feature is the amount of enemies present on the screen at one time. The sound design is serviceable, but again nothing to write about. The story itself is intriguing, I enjoyed the Norse-inspired mythology, but is nothing you have to pay too much attention to simply because it gets bogged down in long cut scenes that honestly aren't that impressive in terms of visuals or voice-acting (which is where cut-scenes should shine). Where this game succeeds is in the armor customization and variety of acquirable weapons. Altering the armor pieces noticeably changes the look and feel of your character, making the micromanagement of the loot the central focus of the game. As far as RPG elements are concerned, the menu system to control the customization is a bit underwhelming, and the skill tree is on par with an average RPG, nothing revolutionary. One of the biggest problems I had with Too Human is the HUD, it is huge and entirely over-complicated. Honestly, I had no idea what each bar, point, number, and word meant and I didn't really care.

After reflecting on my play-through of this demo, I came away utterly confused. Why would Dyack put up such a fight for a game that is in NO way revolutionary, graphically underwhelming, and thoroughly flawed? While I am reserving judgement until the final product is released, I am no longer interested in purchasing Too Human and it will probably not make the top of my gamerang cue for a while. Additionally, Dennis Dyack has successfully reversed the very effect he was trying to elicit from undecided gamers everywhere: instead of discrediting the enthusiast press outlets that prematurely reviewed Too Human, he has discredited himself and his company. The next time Dyack makes a fuss about a game that respected journalists (cheers Mark MacDonald) clearly have problems with, I will probably run in the opposite direction. So here's a tip from me to you PR reps at Silicon Knights...get a handle on your man. Perhaps you should try to persuade him to utilize the energy he exerts defending his games on internet message boards and invest it in refining the actual game he is defending. In the words of my favorite statutory urinator, 'Don't talk about it, be about it' Dennis.

Accessorizing your living room with Peripherals

Within the limits of a standard sized living room, there is only so much space that any one person has to store the necessities (furniture, television, gaming consoles, lamps...you get the idea). This leaves precious little room for the finer things in life, like fake drum sets and guitars that function only to facilitate you living out your wildest rock star fantasies. While I currently possess four guitars, a drum set, and a much less imposing wired microphone for Rock Band and the much less occasional Guitar Hero performance, I cant help but worry about the future of gaming peripherals. Surely new advancements in faux musical instruments will cause me to replace my current ones, but what about the rumors that every major game company is planning to add new hardware to thier lineup? We already have the Wii Fit balance board, the new motion sensing plus add-on for the Wiimote, the rumored pointing device from Microsoft, and whatever bastard controller Sony is concocting to stay in the motion sensing race (I'm still jaded I had to buy a $55 Dual Shock when we all know rumble should have been included with the original six-axis).
Is this a repeat of the 90s? Have we learned nothing from the past? I still remember having to box up my Power Glove, Track and Field pad, and assortment of Dreamcast light guns, banishing them to the depths of my basement. All that money, spent for the sole purpose of enjoying a variety of new titles that would eventually support each peripheral...which never happened. I'm not saying that we should protest new innovations in gaming, but I feel there are better ways to innovate than to introduce new input devices to modulate the same old gameplay. So heres to encouraging console manufactures to enforce interoperability among similar peripherals with similar functions and holding off controller innovations until they are more than single modifications introduced in each iteration. Its high time we only shell out the dough when something novel, worthwhile, and more importantly well designed and thought-out has been presented to us. Until then, we need to fight our impulsive urges to buy everything released for our beloved consoles and demand better.

Declining Interest Rates in GTA 4

I bought GTA 4 on day 1 purely on the hype provided by various well respected video game journalists and the numerous A's and 10's that were giddily stamped onto Niko Bellic's slightly cro-magnon forehead. I recall phrases like 'Oscar worthy story' and 'what video games were always promised to be'. And while I'm not naming names (ahem Hillary Goldstein), I am starting to realize that this game is not as revolutionary, nor as great as I was led to believe. I started GTA 4 'on the train' as they say, my eyes and ears closed to any sort of imperfections, playing until the wee hours of the morning, sacrificing precious sleep to play out what was surely to be the greatest story ever constructed in an interactive environment. After completing what others have told me is the halfway mark (bank robbery), I have not even come close to finishing it and struggle to put down the Rock Band drum sticks in order to complete the next mission. Now, months have gone by and I still am waiting for the urge to re-enter Libery City. Is anyone else finding it difficult to regain the momentum necessary to finish GTA 4?