Blog Update- Thursday,13th of March:
Contents:
1)Update regularity
2)Deus Ex 3 teaser
3)Magazines
4)Atmosphere
###Added Post-post: 5)Mozilla Firefox 3 beta 4 -a must download.
1)I’ve decided to update my Blog twice a week. I’ll set aside a few hours on Sunday and Wednesday of every week, to work on it. On figuring out a framework to display updates, a small contents should work out nicely, plus a section at the bottom for site and download link’s, indexed for convenience.
In other things related to web-dev, I’ll set up a free website so that I may have more control over this brilliant ‘word-pad’ development framework. Initially I’ll be using free templates from around the web, but i’ll be constantly working on my own template and material, though that said, all material displayed on the freesite, shall be mine unless otherwise mentioned.
2)Now after the shame that was Invisible war (aka Deus ex 2), the mention of another chapter in this (initially) great game series, may bring pain long since suppressed (2004 aka Deus Ex 2 release date, here in Australia ). But I guess most gamer conscious readers would be well aware of this. Developed by Eidos Montreal, DX3’s Teaser has been released with a few press statements. Many sad and lonely individuals banded together dedicating themselves to breaking down the Teaser, in hope of unlocking the secret messages and flashed images. This seems quite silly, for one reason, it was probably slapped together by the publishing companies advertising department, and contains few if any relevant materials that will be relevant to Deus Ex 3, the end product (outside the obvious relevance of material dealing with cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic and many other common themes in this style of game).
3)Following on this forum trend (easily found by google search) Pc Powerplay (and probably other magazines) have actually wasted many pages doing exactly the same thing- THATS RIGHT- directly copying a trend of internet forums and wasting many pages of magazine to present it (complete within large images).
Why not put a mention of it in the ‘stuff the writers found on the web section’ ….?, or make a complimation of it and put it on the roms section of the DVD cd. It would seem, that a once reputable magazine has been degrading towards a more trivial format.
This isn’t a surprise.At one stage it read like a forum post and less like a decent form of information and reasonable thought on gaming (ala ‘Games tm’ *sighs*). But the most painful thing is that you ‘Pay!’ for it. In Australia, you don’t get the variety of magazines that you could hope, mostly just the big hitters from the rest of the world. Fortunately for the intelligent gamer, there is ‘Games tm’, the best magazine in my opinion.
Instead of publishing easily accessed material ,like a breakdown and common consensus of Deus Ex 3 Teaser Imagery, they are one of the few magazine that interview Will Wright before he accepts his BAFTA. They bring in a sense of intelligence and maturity about their writing. Mostly objective and always honest when they’re not. So if your a gamer in Australia, my recommendation would be to go for Games tm, its better and cheaper then all the rest.
While were on this subject I’d like to mention ‘Retro Gamer’, Now this magazine has had some rocky times, being cancelled at one stage, but whats disappointing about this magazine is the amount of bias in it. It still ranks second to Games tm, fora l the content and new material they dedicate to games past, but it just fails to be consistent and intelligent.
4)Atmosphere, I believe its how Dick Morris tried to define charisma in ‘The New Prince’- its not what people it is and they(the candidates) only have it when they are liked (for their position on certain political movements or actions they’ve taken). Now this is a great way to start a foundation in describing atmosphere. Build upon this. Take a game, say Deus Ex, 8 Years old and still atmospheric.
Why? All the elements that you experience (music, voices, lighting, colour schemes, dialog, interaction all of this and more) is great on its own, but altogether, its amazing. The music of New York plays as you walk down those dark artificially lit streets. Crashed cars, dumped on the side of the road and the sound of music from the bar, distant, as the cops in the street take kickback’s from pimps and pushers. All the Elements consistently compliment and interact. The music is electronic and mysterious, more melancholic then dark, things in this part of the game world arent bad, they just are. The graphics also, bland yet crafted layers of bland. So for me Atmosphere- Complimentary interaction of varied and enjoyable elements into one complete experience.
5)Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4: is out and better then ever, if you have an older fireforx or are still running another web browser, then tryout Version 2.x or if your prepared for bugs (if they occur, so far , its better then ever) Download Version 3 Beta 4, Enjoy.
–Links:
Deus Ex 3 forum – Site version (others followed suit)
Games tm index (Review scores and previews index)
Quid Pro Quo 