Alan’s Blog

I felt like writing up my thoughts regarding Saints Row, now that I’d finished it. Note that this is not intended to be a review. I am not trying to persuade/dissuade you from playing the game. If you want a review - “It is an excellent game with a high production value. If you like the Action/Driving genre, check it out” - or go somewhere else :).

I am writing this in postmortem format. For the record: I was not involved in the development of this game at all, nor do I work for any of the companies involved in it’s release. I just wanted to run through what I liked/disliked in Saints Row from a gamers perspective. From a Professional/Game Development perspective, what works/doesn’t work interests me. I’m not trying to be scientific. I’m not trying to start a discussion. I just thought it could be interesting to write down some of the shit I end up rambling incoherently about for hours and hours. Ultimately my intended audience is me :).

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Hah, talk about being busy. Well, actually, I’m not talking about it… If I were there would have been constant updates for the past couple of months But I’m overdue, so I figure I should make the time.

Primarly I’m working for a start-up that is based in the US, which I’m not going to discuss, ever. I’m also doing a lot of freelance contract work, which I’m also not going to discuss, ever. There is a difference between having an NDA and not having one, and between discussing work with some friends, and putting online for all to read. Even without an explicit NDA, there are lots of things many companies simply wouldn’t want me to share - especially if I wish to continue receiving work from them. So work is something I’ll never discuss, it is just easier that way.

The unfortunate side effect of that is when work consumes my time for a while, I don’t have anything to write here :). I do have some game development stuff that I will talk about soon. I just need to get it a bit further along, and much sure of what’s happening and how it will be executed.

Now that’s out of the way, what’s left? Well, life is good. I don’t have much to complain about.

Watching:

• My Science Project - I finally picked up a copy. This was one of my favourites many years ago, so I purchased it. Still great fun.
• Under Suspicion - great movie. I love the psychological mind-fuck that goes on over the course of the movie.
• Stargate SG1 - I’m borrowing Season One from a friend currently. Managed to miss most of it whilst it was on TV back in the day, and then stopped watching TV in general. Seems to be a lot of fun. Looking forward to getting through a sizeable chunk of it so I can get a better feel for it.
• Speed - still a fun movie.
• Chain Reaction - I enjoy this for some strange reason. Morgan Freeman is great in it.
• School of Rock - surprised I hadn’t seen this until now. Turned out to be a lot of fun.
• Pick of Destiny - Recently started listening to a lot of Tenacious D, so I thought the movie was in order. On par with what I expected. Good fun.

Playing:

• Phoenix Wright (DS) - I’m on Episode 5 currently. Thoroughly enjoyable. Finding less time to play it though, which is a pain. Makes keeping track of the situation harder.
• Saints Row - Finished the story finally. I have a write up on it that I will post a bit later.
• Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PC) - Just started this one, looks to be pretty good. They seem to have made a nice balance of old classic and new remake.
• Pokemon Diamond (DS) - This is on hold for the moment as I’m playing Phoenix Wright. Nice update to the Pokemon series. Addictive as usual.
• Pinball FX (XBLA) - I suck at Pinball, so I don’t know why I’m playing this. But it is a solid pinball game.
• Guitar Hero II (X360) - Been playing this for a couple of months now. Fabulous game. Picked up a second guitar, so now I’m playing co-op a lot. Words cannot describe how much fun I’m having with this game.

Coming soon:

• I’ve pre-order Forza 2 and a Wireless Steering Wheel for the 360. Can’t wait for it to arrive (Released June 8th here).
• Looking forward to Colin McRae DiRT, which is a couple of weeks away. The demo was good fun.

I’m now running Vista on my Laptop. Really liking it. Haven’t had any of the stability problems that people have mentioned. Probably going to move my desktop to Vista soon as well (although that’ll probably end up being a dual boot with XP still).

The Manx TT is running currently, so the island has been inundated with bikes as expected. They couldn’t have asked for better weather though. It is just a shame they couldn’t be more aware that they are guests to the island, and we don’t really appreciate hearing how high they can rev their bikes at 3am. It’s only for 2 weeks though, so it could be worse

Well, a lot has happened since I last updated. The snowball effect kicked in and I just didn’t know where to start. So, lets get through the bulk of it.

I’ve finished up my 7 year run with IncaGold. It is a relief actually, I’d been wanting out for a while, but wasn’t quite ready to take the plunge. Maybe there is a blog post in there somewhere for sometime later :/. My future is chaotic and unplanned at the moment, and I think I like it. It’s the first time in eons where I actually feel alive rather than just existing. The short term plan is I have a little contract work to do, a few new ventures I’m looking into and there is an independent game studio I’m building which I’ll hopefully talk about more in the coming weeks. Heh, I have things to talk about for the first time in months, and I don’t know what to say. Now that I no longer feel consumed physically and creatively by an environment that strives to milk all it’s resources for everything they’re worth it’s possible there is too much to say but not enough to put into words yet. All right, enough about that

Random stuff I’ve done recently in my favourite bulleted format.

Movies:

• Watched my copy of Christine which I bought well over a year ago and hadn’t seen in something like 10 years. Still holds up very nicely.
• Also watched Braindead after probably more than 10 years. It, however, doesn’t hold up well after all this time. It was hysterically funny though - usually unintentionally
• Finally saw Boiler Room after years of hearing good things. Very entertaining. Probably my least favourite out of the trifecta (Wall Street/Glengarry Glen Ross/Boiler Room) but still very good.
• Cast Away was better than I thought it would be. Enjoyed the non-stereotypical ending.
• Casino Royale was good. I felt it was closer to the Timothy Dalton Bonds (which are my favourites). I loved the grittier bond with less reliance on gadgets to save the day. I could have done without the 9/11 references and aside from a couple of story elements that I felt have repeated too much over the past few bonds, I have no real complaints.
• The Prestige was excellent. Very good performances from all involved. Although the story got a touch predictable about 3/4 the way through, it was still very enjoyable.

Gaming:

• I completed the ’story’ portion of Crackdown. Just trying to max out my stats and grab all the orbs. Really good mindless fun.
• I finally finished Splinter Cell Double Agent (I think it took me about 6 months). I found some of the later levels incredibly hard but otherwise great fun all said and done.
• Worms and TMNT were released on XBLA which I grabbed. Awesome.
• I picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and had a quick go. Seems like it could be fun.
• Looking forward to Oblivion: Shivering Isles later this week.

Other:

Pictures of the coasters I got for my birthday. They were chosen because they look like my Mums two dogs, both in physical appearance, but also in portrayed attitude.

Sassy: Sasha:

End of Line.

Quick update:

• My Birthday was on Friday.  Picked up Crackdown for myself.  Paul got me a folding knife, and a mysterious something else that hasn’t arrived yet.  Mum got be some DVDs, a book, and various other bits and pieces (I’ll post pictures of the coasters later, they make me laugh).  Gary got me some Lego, which I haven’t had in years, awesome stuff!
• Playing lots of Crackdown currently.  Awesome fun, although sickening.  Fear of heights, vertigo and all that.
• Job hunt continues, running out of time.
• My laptop had it’s screen replaced due to the webcam malfunctioning.  Dell’s Next Business Day Replacement warranty works really well.  They just don’t tell you when it’s ‘The Day’ for you to receive NBD service.  (Apparently it’s 3 weeks after reporting the problem, on a Friday, making NBD a Monday).
• Thinking I might change the format of this blog a little, try and make it more lively.  I want to integrate some photo blog stuff into it, but that wont be happening until I upgrade my phone to 3G (and that won’t be happening until I know what’s happening on the job front).

That’s it for now.

Life has been, and continues to be, incredibly crazy currently.  Obviously that has meant ‘regular updates’ has become ‘no updates’.  I’m not going to apologise though, as I update this for me anyway.

What’s new?  The job front remains as stressful as ever.  I am getting incredibly excited about a new venture I’m am entering into.  It’s an attempt to get back to my roots and I’ll have more to discuss about it at a later date.

Other things:

• Finished Star Trek: Legacy (about a month ago).  It was entertaining albeit somewhat annoying.  The story could have been better.  It lacked punch (it also fucked with the Trek timeline a bit, which annoyed me).  The control scheme was fine but annoyingly unresponsive.  When I tell a ship to do something, they should do it, not take a coffee break and get back to me.  The number of missions I lost because I needed someone to get to a certain place quickly and they just wouldn’t.  Other aspects, like selecting multiple ships (or trying to select just one) seemed to be incredibly random.. but maybe I was just doing it wrong.  Anyway, I finished it on Captain difficulty, and I’m trying to well up the energy to replay it on Ensign and Admiral in order to unlock some more achievements - but I know some are going to be impossible (as I had enough trouble on Captain… Admiral is going to be a nightmare).  I’ll give it a 8/10, but only because it’s Star Trek.
• Finally found a DVD replacement for my VHS copy of Thursday (which I left in NZ).  Watched it last night, and it’s still awesome.  Had to order it from Germany, as it’s out of print in the US and UK.  Thankfully it’s got a Dolby Surround 2.0 English track, so there is only German in the menus and cover.  Only cost me €11 which was nice.
• Also on the replacement front, I finally bought a widescreen collectors edition of Dune (replacing my 4:3 version from NZ that looked like it was ripped from a VHS tape).  Was incredibly awesome watching on the big screen with everything intact.
• Watched Jumanji again after about 8-10 years.  Still a lot of fun.
• Played a lot of Crackdown on the 360.  Was initially apprehensive, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun.
• Supreme Commander is out soon (16th).  Looking forward to it.
• Currently reading Programming C# which has been interesting.  It’s filled a few ‘why’ gaps I had from when I taught myself C# a few years back.

That’s all I can think of right now.

Hah, regular updates.  Yeah.. things have been pretty crazy recently.  So, whats new?

• Finally got a Wii.  It’s awesome.  It’s main problem is it’s too fun, so you play for too long… forgetting that it’s a physical activity until the next day when you can’t move.  Picked up WarioWare: Smooth Moves, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Rayman: Raving Rabbids and obviously Wii Sports (bundled).  Wii Play is on the way along with another Wiimote and Nunchuck.  Great fun.
• Picked up an HD Projector a few weeks back (Optoma HD72i), so I’ve now gone from a 28″ Widescreen TV to a 96″ Widescreen wall.  Very awesome.  Should have got one years ago.  Movies are awesome obviously, and the XBox 360 is now in HD, which is rockin’.
• Been playing Star Trek Legacy on the 360.  It’s fun but was getting a touch frustrating.  I think I’ve got the hang of it now.  Just completed the Captain Archer section.
• Ordered a few new DVDs in the January Sales.  American Beauty, Aeon Flux, a replacement copy of Pulp Fiction (last copy got scratched badly), Short Circuit (1 and 2), Flight of the Navigator, and Aliens of the Deep (the James Cameron Documentary).  Oh, and a replacement copy of Down Periscope as it’s been MIA for over a year now, and the borrower doesn’t even remember having it, ignoring the fact that they’ve moved since, so it’s probably long gone.  Oh well.
• Transformers The Movie: 20th Anniversary Special Edition arrived today, along with MC Frontalot and mc chris CDs.  Haven’t had a look at the DVD yet, but the CDs are groovy.
• Played the Crackdown (360) demo last night, looks like it could be good fun.  Comes out 23rd Feb.

That’s all I can remember right now, will probably update again a bit later.

It’s been a while, so here is a quick update.

Christmas was good, much was consumed. Decided New Years was going to be fairly quiet as there had been a lot of events prior to it, but still had a good time. I’ve been on holiday since the 21st of December which has been long overdue. Copious amounts of movie watching and gaming have been the order of the day.

Movies of mention:

• Brothers Grimm - quite enjoyed this one, it wasn’t what I was expecting, which is usually a good thing anyway.
• V for Vendetta - really enjoyed V, another that wasn’t what i was expecting and my expectations were fairly low. Completely blew my expectations away.
• The Matador - fun movie.
• Bad Taste - hadn’t seen it in years, still a classic.
• Underworld: Evolution - entertaining, but definately a sequel (in the, if you liked the first movie, here is the rest of it kind of way).
• The Goonies - Hadn’t seen all of this, a classic.

Gaming:

• Finished Vice City, now onto San Andreas.
• Completed the main portion of Oblivion: Knights of the Nine - this was actually really good. It contained more story than I thought it would and it integrated nicely into the world (I had expected it to be more like the other Downloadable Content where you just received an invitation to join or something). Would like to see more of these.
• Been working through Project Gotham Racing 3 on the 360.

Now that the end of year festivities are out of the way, updates should be more regular now.

Happy New Year!

Resolution for 2007: cut out the drink.

I finally watched They Live, I’m only almost 20 years late. I cannot believe I hadn’t seen it until now. It was absolutely awesome. I was expecting a campy cheesefest, but it didn’t really feel like it, which was surprising. But really, how can you hate a movie with lines such as “Life’s a bitch, and she’s back in heat!“. Classic stuff. I’d give it a 10/10 just because of it’s classic nature alone, but it actually deserves it.

I’m playing through Vice City on my laptop. It’s odd, it has by far the greatest soundtrack, it adds much in terms gameplay (bikes, helicopters/planes, real estate, etc), but I find it’s missions are no where near as fun as GTA3’s missions. San Andreas has superior radio station’s in terms of implementation, and I liked the story and missions more than the previous two, but in terms of nice, fun, missions - GTA3 wins out. The car physics in Vice City feel a little ‘floaty’ as well. Ultimately, it’s still entertaining though (and the soundtrack is awesome ).

I’m not going to apologise for the delay, because I’ve done it too many times Needless to say, I’ve been busy with things and haven’t had the time to update. I’m going to try and force myself to update at least once a week.

Defender was released on XBox Live Arcade the other day. I had a clone of that on my Amstrad CPC6128 called Defend or Die, and playing the original bought back a flood of nostalgia. It still holds up today in terms of gameplay and even graphically as far as I’m concerned (I don’t know whether it has been updated at all graphics-wise for release on XBLA); but then again I’ve always been a proponent of gameplay over graphics anyway.

I’m currently working my way through Splinter Cell Double Agent on the PC front, and I think I’m about half way through. I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto 3 again on my laptop when I haven’t been at my desktop machine; which I finished last night. I still really enjoy that one, but it can be frustrating at times given the things they added in Vice City and San Andreas (bikes, planes/helicopters, etc). I’ll probably move onto Vice City next, although there are issues with playing that one on a laptop keyboard due to the game not letting you redefine the flying controls (laptops don’t have a dedicated num-pad), which makes finishing some missions that involve flying impossible without an external keyboard.

Watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children for the first time the other night, as well as Boogie Nights (which I’d seen before). Final Fantasy was surprisingly good considering I never played FF VII the game. Paul gave me a quick run down on the story before we started, which helped. There was also a video run through of the game on the DVD of which my only comment would be, it was subtitled and they were playing too fast, so reading the subtitles was nigh-on impossible. Boogie Nights was fun as usual, but it was officially research anyway.

Ok, time for a mixed catch-up update.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is awesome. We had a great time playing. Much better controls than X-Men Legends and the sheer variety in the characters is great. The story is campy in an awesome way. We only made it past the first ‘mission’ playing it with 3 people, but that was only due to time constraints.

I was off work Wednesday - Friday, managed to get the office flu that was going around. That kept me on my back for the most part - I only had the energy to reply to a few emails each day and then I was back to sleep.

Gears of War arrived on Friday. Amazing game, simply stunning looking. The controls are brilliant, apart from the A button causing problems being a ‘catch-all’ button for take cover and sprint (I’ve read CliffyB’s rant on Jump buttons and agree fully - I had more to say on the topic, but it seems I may have missed a section on jumping in the manual :/ ).

Otherwise I’ve found the game bloody brilliant so far. I’m a couple of checkpoints into Act 2 playing split screen co-op, and it’s just a blast. It has made my 28″ Widescreen TV feel too small though