Game On

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now. Several things have happened since, some of which, such as my purchase of a new PS3, could seem to contradict what I am saying. However, in my opinion, they only helped me establish my sentiments.

I am a PC gamer.

Gaming is a part of my life, and so is my PC. My PC is built as I want it. It is built as I had made it. I know it from the inside out, because I have assembled it. I understand my PC. I understand its specifications. I understand what it does, how it does it and why. I know when its at fault and I know exactly how to correct those faults. The keyboard is not just a tool, it’s an extension of my fingers. I am not typing, I am communicating, and my PC reacts to every key stroke and every mouse click with precision. My control spans over the entirety of PC existence, from the abstract heights of a slick graphic user interface to the beautifully explicit depths of an assembly language – it is mine to decide. The world is my oyster dot com.

I am a PC gamer.

But more than that, I love the fact that I can see their files, modify them, understand them. Ever since Quake, it has been clear to me that some games are not just games, but a showcase of technology. It seems so natural to me that if the files are there, I should be able to modify them. On my PC, I can, even if I am “not supposed” to. Because I understand my computer, and I know what can and can’t be done; and there is nothing that can’t be done.

First time I was introduced to modding

I am a PC gamer.

The PC is not a single specific machine. It is a concept that is comprised of standards. It is the essence of technological advancement, and as such, it is always at the forefront of progress. There is no gaming machine that can compare to the PC, because a gaming machine is specific, rendered obsolete the moment it saw the light of day. It is inferior by definition for all intents and purposes, including the very reason it existed in the first place: gaming. The gaming machine’s strength is also it’s weakness: the ease of use of the gaming machine allows developers to deny the users of any control over the content they have. From the forgivable simplified interface for multiplayer gaming to the shameless On-Disc DLC (Downloadable Content)  that are re-sold to customers, the possibilities for game publishers to make easy money on stupid content (armor DLCs) grow while the possibilities of the end user are limited.

I am a PC gamer.

When a console game is “ported” to the PC, it usually is better. It has better graphics, higher resolution and usually has a lot of the issues fixed since the console release. Even if the game is not a port, I can still run it at higher resolutions and higher frame rates than its console counterpart. I know exactly what my PC is capable of, and I know what the game is capable of. While console owners count pixels (I am not joking) to find out at what resolution their game is running on (because why should the developer reveal to them that their game is running at sub-HD resolutions), I can simply decide it for the game. Developers know this. You will not find a PC game that does not support, at the very least, the full HD resolution, because if it didn’t, it will not sell. PC gamers can check. They can run high-res games, and you cannot hide anything from them. Hell, PC gamers around the world had solved the Portal 2 riddle, which included decoding video files disguised as audio files, decrypting Morse codes into a BBS phone number, username and password and finding ASCII art for the sequel!

 
Viral marketing for Portal 2 via the first game, Morse codes and a freakin’  BBS!

I am a PC gamer.

I can download most of my games legally. I can customize them. I can listen to my own music while I play them. I can chat with my friends on multiple types of chats while playing. I can watch any type of video. I can emulate games from older consoles.  I can distribute my games without authorization from anybody. I can develop games without specialized hardware. I can do whatever the fuck I want.

I am a PC gamer, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Culture by the dozen

Dear Internet,

I wanted to share with you a surreal experience I had last night.  It involved a huge field of grass, some hot dogs, an extensive amount of apes and an Opera. You know, the usual.

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: A crowd of literally thousands of people gathering in a park around a big stage. As the distance between the throng to the stage gets smaller, the density of human flesh per square meter grows ever larger. The weather is hot and humid, as if the park resides in the very center of god’s armpit. The crowd thickens and thickens. Brawls between sweaty, angry people sprout randomly for dominance over their 1x1 patch of grass, their swears drowned only by the shouting voices of the teenage hot-dog vendors and the sound of enormous electric generators. Some of the more “innovative” people climb onto those generators in order to both escape the crowd and maybe catch a better glimpse of the stage.

This whole sight might have been typical for a soccer game, or a rock concert. What made this whole ordeal so surreal was that it took place in an opera concert. The absolute polarity between the cultural significance of an opera and a crowd of aggressive, sweaty commoners shoving and hitting each other to get a better look – believe me, it was… something else.

Everything took place in an event called Opera in the Park, which is an event organized by the city of Tel Aviv, in an attempt to expose the general public to some culture. While the idea seems good, it just isn’t applicable for the type of people who live here. Hearing the sweet voice of the singers while seeing people hurting each other like animals was a sad experience for me. Having never been to an opera, I am a little sorry about this being my first experience with it. This is something I will have to remedy.

Speaking of Remakes…

In my previous post I talked about remakes and my ambiguity towards them. This week I have played a little bit of Street Fighter IV, which is mostly a remake of the good old Street Fighter II. Why mostly? Well, there are some new characters, and (if anybody cares) there is a new story for each of the characters.

In any case, I consider this game a remake, and, in my opinion, it is a good thing. I loved playing Street Fighter II at the arcades as a kid. I loved playing it years later on emulators and consoles. Street Fighter IV is almost identical in gameplay to Street Fighter II. The graphics are “next-gen” and there is a more than functional multiplayer mode and other goodies, but the core gameplay is the same. Even the moves for the old characters are played in the exact same way, so old geezers like yours truly can find themselves right at home from the get go.

Fast action flawlessly combined with spectacular graphics. I can almost feel her pain… 

And still, the game feels fresh, and I believe new gamers will find it no less attractive even without the nostalgic factor. How can this be explained? Is it because other fighting games, such as Tekken, rely mostly on button mashing while Street Fighter still requires some tactics and finesse? Or maybe I really am blinded by nostalgia? Whatever the reason, I am enjoying this game, whether its when I perform an ultra combo finish or when a friend wipes the floor with my dignity (you know who you are!), I am having fun with a fighting game like I haven’t had in a long long time.

So here is a remake I know exactly how I feel about. Maybe this is the answer I was looking for. I cannot have a specific opinion on all the remakes in the world. Some could be really good and polished such as Street Fighter IV, some might not.

Doing and Redoing

I don’t know what to make of remakes. It seems to me that a gaming company that releases a modern remake of an oldie is either doing this to please the fans of the original game, or just because they want to milk the franchise to death. What I cannot decide is whether or not the reason even matters.

 
No doubt that the remake looks amazing. But then again, we all know that the original was great.

With the impending re-release of The Secret of Monkey Island by Lucasarts, I am trying to focus on whether or not I am excited about this release. After all, this was an adventure game that stood above all other adventure games of its time and gave me hours of fun and laughter. And pirates. lots and lots of pirates. So a modern remake of the game with new graphics, music and voice casting must certainly swash my buckles, right? Who cares that Lucasarts are releasing this game really close to Telltale’s own version of Monkey Island that was released 3 days ago? Why should it matter that Lucasarts, who abandoned the adventure games genre years ago in order to focus on releasing tons of Star Wars games is suddenly releasing an adventure, which is a remake of an old favorite? Why would I mind that they are publically saying that they promise to release more adventures only if this new remake sells well?

 
At least Telltale is trying something new.

Well, I don’t know why, but I do mind. It does matter to me. Where Telltale attempted (with more success than not) to recreate the franchise and came up with a brand new Monkey Island adventure, Lucasarts is reusing its old material and is also “holding hostage” its other franchises unless their demands are met. It just feels wrong to me. Its the difference between a company that creates and therefore contributes to the advancement of video games, to a company that recycles for money. Lucasarts used to be the first type of company when it came to adventure games. I really hope that there is at least some soul behind their actions.

Years Apart

Warning! This post contains minor spoilers for Assassin’s Creed.

I finally got around to finishing Assassin’s Creed for the first time. Nice game, spectacular visuals, top-notch voice acting (which is something that Ubisoft is very good at, apparently). However, the game ends abruptly, leaving the story as open-ended as it gets. Assassin’s Creed was released in 2007. The sequel is due to be released in the second half of 2009, two years after the release of the first game.

Jerusalem, 1000 years ago. When the sequel is released, this is what we will call today’s Jerusalem…

I’m not sure how I feel about open-ended games. It seems to me that games, which take years to develop, leave the player in suspense for too long with open endings. This also applies to movies which usually take years to create. The problem is that suspense wears off after a while. How much can I care about a story, however interesting and engaging it was, 2-3 years after I read/play/watch it?

Of course, this does not apply to the recent epidemic of trilogies in films. Trilogies (such as Lord of the Rings) are usually created together as a single movie and are then released on a yearly basis. In this way a story can be told over a longer period of time, sometimes surpassing the story depth that is possible in a single movie. But what happens when the time between each chapter is longer than a year? Even longer than two years? For video games this is usually the case. Quality video games take years to develop. A trilogy cannot be developed as a whole and then released yearly, because each year the technical expectations grow and by the time the series would hit the third chapter it might not be good enough for the audience.

Will he win the sword fight? Stick around for a few years to find out.

One could say that episodic gaming was invented to answer these problems. However, episodic games are usually very short, making the collection of episodes as a whole the length of a single game. Episodic gaming is just an excuse for companies to break the development of their games into smaller segments, allowing them to charge for these segments separately. Other than the obvious economic benefit, I cannot really say that episodic gaming can solve the problem with open endings in video games. What’s more, some companies can’t even get episodic games to be released quickly enough (Half-Life 2: Episode 3, where art thou?!).

I think that as long as the time between the development of games in a series is longer than, say, a year, games should not be cut short as with Assassin’s Creed’s ending. It is reasonable to end a story with a small twist, leaving it open for a continuation. However, cutting the story right in the thick of it with absolutely no conclusion just doesn’t make sense to me. By the time Assassin’s Creed 2 is released, I probably won’t feel the suspense I am feeling now, which is a shame, because if a sequel would have been able to arrive in a shorter time, its impact would have been much more satisfying for me.

Left 2 Change

I must admit that when I first heard about Left 4 Dead 2 being announced at E3 2009, I felt a bit bad. After all, its unlike Valve to release a sequel so fast (only one year after the release of the first Left 4 Dead). Also, a sequel usually means that the previous game is obsolete. Apparently I wasn’t the only one to feel this way. Many Left 4 Dead fans are protesting against the impending release of a sequel for a variety of reasons, some of which make some sense (‘Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered’), others are just plainly a reflection of a fear of change (‘L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1’s visual aesthetic’).

And that’s just the thing. The fear of change had lead to many protests on the Internet for technically ANY change. Facebook got a new interface? ‘But we like the old one better!’. The new Star Trek movie has a different theme than the Star Trek movies of the 60’s? ‘We want more of the same!’. It’s like there will always be a huge group of ‘hardcore’ fans of <insert franchise name here> that will say ‘better is badder’ for any change to their beloved <insert franchise name here>.

On the other hand, there are times that a group opposing a change is on to something. Sometimes, the change really is for the worst and the opposers manage to reverse it back. It’s these rare occasions when a group of idiots gets it right.

So when I found myself resisting something because its different, which in this example is the fact that Valve, which is known for releasing sequels years in between, would be releasing a sequel only a year after the original, I couldn’t make up my mind on whether or not my reasoning for this ‘mental’ resistance to this particular change is solid, or whether I am just another nay-sayer for all the wrong reasons.

New characters, new weapons, new maps – New game!
(Screenshot from Destructoid.com)

I have decided that it wouldn’t be smart of me to condemn this new release. Just because Valve had gotten us used to games that were years in the making and had provided free additional content years after the games were released, it doesn’t mean they have to do this for me. Left 4 Dead was very successful. If they feel they can release a sequel that early, then kudos to them. The first game was complete and I think I got my money’s worth for it. In a world where EA is allowed to release near-identical sequels to their sports games year after year after year, I think Valve are allowed to create their own frequent release franchises without us putting them through a shit storm.

In the mean time, enjoy the E3 2009 Trailer for the game:

Zombies in broad day light seems creepier, don’t you think?

Technically Working

I promise this will be the final post about my PSU. I have already given this too much attention. For those who are interested in the personal experience (which was awful), you can read the previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4. This is a technical post in which I will details how I diagnosed and isolated the problem, which I had promised to some people. Some background: My PSU crashed completely. It died. I took it to the store for fixing/replacement. While it was at the store, I had a replacement PSU that I got from my workplace (for which I am thankful). During that time everything worked perfectly (this was an important detail for later on). After a month, I got my PSU back from the store. That's when things started to get really frustrating.

First Wave

The PSU crashed during games. It took a non-constant amount of time to crash (15-30 minutes on average). The crash was a shutdown of the computer for 5 seconds, followed by a reboot. My main suspect was, of course, the PSU. However, since it just got back from the store, I had to make certain. Also, because it only crashed during games, the graphic card was a very likely suspect. So to isolate the problem, I conducted a few tests.

Cuddly Muscles

The first thing I wanted to do is to rule out the graphics card. I had conducted a stress-test on the graphic card using FurMark, which stresses the graphic card to its limits using fur rendering, and is usually used to check overheating in overclocked graphic cards (my card is not overclocked). In my understanding, FurMark does not stress the CPU. It ran for 40 minutes without crashing. So while the graphic card reached its highest working temperatures (ever), it did not give in.

Think and Remember!

Next thing was to rule out the CPU and Memory. This also called out for a stress test, and the tool I that I used was ORTHOS, which stresses both the CPU and the RAM using some heavy FFT calculations. I let it run for two hours. It did not crash.

Balls of Fire

So now that I had ruled out the CPU, RAM and graphic card, I wanted to find a controlled way to crash the computer. Playing games and waiting for the crash was out of the question. I downloaded an nVidia demo called GeoForms. This demo utilizes both the CPU and the graphic card, although not as extremely as the stress tests I used for them separately. GeoForms uses the CPU for procedurally modifying 3D models and the graphic card for rendering them in real time. However, it was enough to crash my PC in less than 20 minutes on average. 

Conclusion

There could have been other things causing the crash. It could have been a faulty motherboard. However, given that I had just replaced my PSU, and that while it was in repair the replacement PSU (which had lower wattage) worked flawlessly, I placed my “bet” on a faulty PSU. Given the events that followed, it turned my bet was solid enough.

I hope this post can help someone who is experiencing a similar problem.