lost in games

1. Finally finished reading Predictably Irrational and i can recommend it to practically everyone. An excellent read for the summer holidays. For more details check my earlier post here.

2. Also read the final volume of the manga series Death Note. It was my first manga and it definitely provides a different angle in both art style and writing to the western comics/graphic novels. I found it to be a very intelligent series of battles of the minds. I do feel it could half explored the issue of “means justifies the end”more and also it sometimes dragged on so a couple of volumes were a bit unecessary.

A lot of times characters are just describing the logic behind their thinking which can make readers feel as if the book is treating them as stupid. Finally a lot of reasoning is made on assumptions but instead treated as fact.

In any case, i found it to be a great introduction into mangas and can recommend it to people who like celebral stimulating comics.

3.  All Star Superma (Vol. 1). I find Superman to possibly be the least interesting super hero of all due to his 2d character. To be honest i have only seen the movies and also read The Red Son (which i loved) but my understanding appears to be how most people view Superman.

In this series, things are less of a Superman saving the world nature scenes but more of an (self-) examination of his character.  I like it so i will continue the series. Plus the art is great too.

My first hour with the game was heaven. A game that requires you to examine the battlefield and set up defences within a limited time before you are attacked by the enemy.

Then the issues start.

1. The camera is fixed making it somewhat impossible to see behind walls or fight enemies which are behind walls.

2. Most importantly the touch system is not always responsive which can be unbelievably frustrating e.g. trying to fix a wall or attack an enemy only to realise that either your character is not responding to the tap or that you have actually tapped something else.

3. Lock, your character gets easily stuck behind walls, corners wasting precious time trying to get him where you need him to be.

I like the way the game plays (although somewhat repetitive so far) but it has some issues. Frustrating issues. Plus it’s quite lengthy from what i hear.

I am currently near the end of Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. He is a behaviour economist and through empirical work presents the case that people’s actions in the market place are affected by irrational but predictable behaviour and therefore economic principles established by neoclassical economists need to be re-examined.

More importantly he attempts to help readers think about how this affects our daily lives.One of the many tests he performs regards the fallacy that prices are determined by the equal forces of supply and demand. In fact, prices are merely presented to us and are anchored in our brain affecting our decision making.

The test he performed was asking a group of students to write down the last two digits of their Social Security number. Then he presented the group with a variety of products and asked them to put the maximum price they were willing to pay for each one. Students who had Social Security numbers from 0-19 had the lowest average in their maximum prices they were willing to pay. On the other hand students whose numbers ended 80-99 had the highest.

He then goes further by claiming that since this irrational behaviour is systematic and therefore predictable can be used towards improving health care system, increasing savings rate, reducing fraud etc.

A very interesting, thought provoking and accessible book. Recommend it!

The New Yorker has a very thorough review of the book here. Link.

Read!

Death Note manga series which is fantastic. (currently at volume 9/13)

Don’t read! (unless you are a pretty hardcore football fan)

Football Against the Enemy by Simon Cuper - Has some intereting bits of information but it lacks cohesion and sometimes not easy to follow.

Just wanted say….

WOW! What an average shooter!

The post-E3 phenomenon.After watching all those trailers and new controller demonstrations we are back to the present which is not as sweet. We would all like to get Splinter Cell: Conviction or Uncharted 2 but we will have to make do with the likes of Prototype (360, PC) and Grand Slam Tennis (Wii) instead.

Here’s the Protorype (another open world game in the mould of Crackdown and InFamous) review on Eurogamer.

“Prototype is a game of riotous, gore-splattering ultraviolence. That’s all it wants to be, and in many respects it does a solid, and often spectacular job. The victims may be plot, atmosphere and the difficulty curve, but then great power always comes at a cost.”

But Prototype is not the game of the week.

The honours go to the PC indie game that goes by the name of Blueberry Garden. An award winning game that one can get through Steam and there is also a demo to try out. But for US$5 do yourself a favour and just get the damn thing. What’s 2 pints of KEO less this weekend. It will be good for your diet. The game was developed by Erik Svedang and here’s a link to the official site. Link

A short review at Greenpixels will explain to you what this game is all about and this is a short trailer of the game.

The gorgeous Blueberry Garden is game of the week.

360

Prototype

PS3

Hail To The Chimp
Rock Revolution

Wii

Grand Slam Tennis
Casper’s Scare School: Spooky Sports Day
Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans
Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings
Pirates Vs Ninjas: Dodgeball
Story Hour: Adventures
Story Hour: Fairy Tales

PC

Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans
Panzerkrieg 2: Burning Horizon
Prototype
Sword Of The Stars: Ultimate Collection
Virtua Tennis 2009
Blueberry Garden

DS

Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans
Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings
Moorhuhn: Atlantis (Chicken Hunter)
Moorhuhn: The Pharaohs Treasure
Neighbours From Hell
Super Speed Machines

PSP

Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings

Cool viral marketing for the summer movie.

Walter the washing machine  and Chad

A game of high production values but average gameplay.  I enjoyed InFamous, especially since the game allows the player to constantly progress with frequent checkpoints and never really challenging him. However, it does feel empty and will be easily forgotten.  Yet i have probably invested 15-20 hours in it so it does have something going its way.

InFamous depicts exactly what is wrong with the industry. Big budgets going into the technology of creating an open world city but with few new gameplay ideas and a story which had it been on any other medium would have been considered average.

Sony has not announced a PS3 price cut so it’s widely expected that it’s holding on for a bigger one right before the Christmas/Thanksgiving shopping season. It was a return to the basics for the wounded Japanese juggernaut. An impressive exclusive lineup of Uncharted 2, God of War III, Gran Turismo 5, The Last Guardian, MAG and Agent. However most of these games are scheduled for a 2010 release.

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I am rather disappointed at Nintendo’s announcements this year. Its major hardcore games are just sequels,  Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Metroid Prime Other M. It’s hard to get excited about these franchises even if they are as brilliant as Super Mario Galaxy was.

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