Its Payne! Shoot Him!

Uhg, another sleepless night.

Trying to balance my time between catching up with pending reading and playing games leaves me no time for luxuries like sleep and food.
But lets backtrack…
As inevitable as me falling for the wrong girl is my vulgarly inordinate spending spree on reading material and electronic entertainment every month. So once again, Wolverine superspecial, long overdue, was mine, along with Hush, Imaginauts, Marvel Mangaverse, Ultimate X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man.

I have always maintained that my taste in games, while usually normal, sometimes teeters towards the insane. Between my usual bouts of BF1942, I have been known to play deep, detailed games on, oh say, salad chef simulation. I am telling you, I must be the only person in my ENTIRE COUNTRY who relished Master of Orion 3 the way I did. I swear, I have little boxes of MOO3 running all across my living room now. God is in the detail, they say. Arun keeps warning me this is unhealthy. Infact he tries to mask his concern for me by saying sensitive things like, “You’re fucking crazy dude! You gonna die!”. But thats another story.
To fuel this sick perversion of playing games that try to fuck with my encephalon, I acquired Etherlords 2. E-T-H-E-R-Lords. Right, the second one. Delicious. Also got Commandos 3. Challenging, fun, and very atmospheric. If Andy doesn’t hijack it this weekend, I’ll let you know how it ends
To satiate my thirst for Star Wars until KOTOR comes out for the PC, I got the very mediocre, but sabre-licious Jedi Academy. Also got Freedom Fighters, a surprisingly well made Red Dawn-ish shooter, and the game mechanics play out really well. So well in fact it may have been the action game of the year, if not for…
And now Ladies and Gentlemen, let me give you two of the most anticipated games of the year…*drumroll*
I got Max Payne 2. And I got Halo. You can faint now.

Good, you’re back. So lets talk about Max Payne 2. It is beautiful. The engine is robust, the slight clipping problems of last time have gone, each shell falling out of your gun is rendered beautifully, complete with MARKINGS AND NUMBERS! Havok is seamlessly integrated, and character models are way better than last time. The story is interesting once again, with the atrocious Film Noir intact. And Bullet Time 2.0 is a thing of beauty. I swear, I could marry her and not complain all my life. Sometimes though, getting in, shooting at everything that moves and then getting out seems like its gonna get old, but right then, the game throws a plot twist to suck you back in.

Halo. First of all remember that when Bungie was bought by Microsoft, Halo was made a PC/Mac game to an XBox exclusive. In the process, many game mechanics, incredible resolutions, and classic save systems were sacrificed. The end-product was an extremely great game, that sold the XBox on its own merit. But it was no Metroid Prime, the game that owns the crown of the best console shooter. Gearbox directly ported the Bungie original to the PC, and the game shines. The repetitive level design is still there, but other than that it is hard to find fault with. The save system is very unconventional, and some people might find it questionable in a PC game, but the truth is it gels very well with the whole mechanics of the game. The first time you see the outdoors, I guarantee, your jaws will drop.

You still here? Good. This is going to be one long ass post. And you know why… Max and Chief need all the help they can buddy.

Getting back to the long ass post… Player representation in video games. Video game editing and studying social interaction involving video games is something I have quite a passion for. As Andy would tell you, I play a game for ten minutes then spend the next month figuring out how to break it. And that is where games like Morrowind or Tony Hawk come in. They let you customize your avatar, and make it look like whatever shirt you want it to. See that’s how I look at game avatars. As shirts. You should look good in your shirt as well as be comfortable wearing it. Let’s face it, no matter what you’re doing, the experience is soured if either of those don’t work. But its still not me. An avatar is a seperate entity that helps me in my goals rather than something that’s supposed to be a digital me. I always remember how Chun-Li players had this kind of ‘that’s my girl’ feeling when using her. And I still notice that today with any fighting game out there. If you play a female character and beat ass with her, that’s your baby. She helps you win.

When I design my personal digital representation of myself, if it’s human, I don’t really want it to come as close to my physical appearance as I can get. All I want is an avatar that while kicks ass, is also fun to play with. And of course it has to be good looking. And I am talking decent mesh and polycount, not specific beauty traits. However, more times than not, this is not possible given the limitations. So, I resort to plan B. This is where I try building an avatar as far opposite to me as I can get while still retaining a level of visual appeal. Hanging out at Polycount, I have heard fascinating accounts of people making and downloading models to suit their personal taste. Some people like, cute furry creatures, some like blonde babes with skin tights. Its about a representation of a character, and can have many existential, experiential, and psychological undertones associated with it. Its fascinating. Its not about knowing Maya or Photoshop. Its about what you wear in your game world. And as is the case in real life, it can be deep rooted in your psychology, and you attitude towards their character model, in say Jedi Outcast or Morrowind can vary with each unique individual.