Sorry, did I say having a Mac mini server was boring? I was wrong. Thanks to OpenEmu it’s fun and exciting! And fun. With a Wii Remote and a Mac you can use the most beautiful, smooth, and functional multiple emulator system on the planet.
Yeah, it looks like Plex and iTunes had a baby. But it’s a native Mac app and centralizes a dozen different classic systems. There’s fullscreen support and good performance and no lag! Even the preferences menu is a joy to behold. I’m overwhelmed.
I’m getting tired of heads-up displays in video games. User interface elements, in-game markers, whatever you want to call them. I think the industry could be doing a better job to train players to get rid of them.
Forza 5, for instance, is an amazing driving game and gets better when you turn off most of the UI. I’ll talk you through my thinking.
Thoughts while watching the trailer for Hyrule Warriors:
Rosalina might be my favorite character from the Mario platforming games.
In fact, Rosalina might be the only character in the Mario platforming games.
There are checklists and guidelines for this sort of thing, but I’d like to adapt one of Gene Siskel’s favorite tests. Imagine winning the opportunity to have lunch with your favorite video game character. Would you have anything interesting to talk about?
Behold the space sim ascendant again.
My earliest PC gaming memories involve Frontier, Frontier: First Encounters, and the most special game nobody’s ever heard of, Nomad. That last one stood out in my childhood. Its manual addressed you as “widow son,” which might have just been a cool code name but was an accurate description of me, personally, as my father had recently died. Then there was Frontier, the ultimate space simulator. I still remember the lucrative trade route of robots to/from Sol System and Ross 154.
I’ve been getting farther into Forza 5 and… wait, that sounds weird. Forza isn’t a game through which you progress. It’s just a giant pool of race events from which you pick, in any order, at your leisure. Kind of drowns the motivation. But they do a good job of gating cars behind paywalls full of either in-game cash or real world moolah. I don’t particularly mind as I play Forza to get deep knowledge of the few number of cars and tracks my brain will hold. There’s no one car that I’ve just gotta have.
Except maybe the LaFerrari, which I drove this afternoon. Now that’s how I define a supercar: incredibly fast, incredibly sexy, incredibly responsive. I was driving sideways and yet totally in control. Took it around the Alps at 200mph and nearly unhinged the passenger door. Wooh, what a rush!
Today Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics (Tic-Tacs?) are free on Good Old Games. Good on ’em. Usually the transfer of a game license means we never see the property for a decade, so getting the 2D Fallout games for free is a move straight from Crazy Land. Crazy Awesome Land.
How you know Microsoft nailed with the Xbox One controller: use it exclusively for two weeks then go back to the Xbox 360. You’ll think the 360 controller is a piece of junk. The one previously considered the best console controller ever made.
I’ve been playing more of Forza 5 and enjoying myself. Re-learned the technique of braking gently and accelerating gently through turns. Capturing awesome overtakes is such a joy with the Kinect sensor. I wish they’d make the command “Xbox did you see that?” I haven’t done any tuning; on the default difficulty it’s not hard to dominate your Drivatar friends. Maybe I should crank it up a bit.
I’ve had my fun with The Stanley Parable. Despite the loading screen insisting that The End Is Never The End, I’ve found my ending and am happy with it. I saw the Baby and the Fire, I played the Other Games, I went into the Mind Control Chamber through its several entrances. There may be more to see, but I’m content with it. I’m not a completionist, I couldn’t care less about 100%-ing anything. Just land me at a soft spot near the end and I’ll be satisfied.
You win, Stanley.
I want to meet the person at Ubisoft who thinks the “tailing” missions in Assassin’s Creed are a good idea. This person must have ignored all the testers complaining the sequences were no fun; all the devs grousing about finding proper concealment spots for the player; all the writers whining that the player can’t focus on the dialog if they have to also keep track of enemy positions, cover spots, and rooftop paths. Er, wait, maybe I don’t.
Is this person the devil? Sorry, Ubisoft isn’t that kind of company. Le diable?
