Smoke Golf on the water

The story begins in 2007 with a glitch in Xbox 360 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 game that would allow the famous player to walk on water. Smart user Levinator25 found it and made a Youtube video to show it to the world:

But was it really a glitch? Apparently not – it seems that Tiger Wood has reached living god status and, just like Chuck Norris, he can walk on water:

EA might be evil, but they certainly got good marketing folks. I’m sold. This is how you handle online critique. Flawless victory and plus ten points for Gryffindor.

Winxen Game Chair

This one actually is more fun than it sounds like. The device basically is a rumbling chair with some extra speakers, so a player can feel vibrations and sounds with their whole body.

I don’t know how it works in shoot’em up games, but I toyed with some racing games and the overall result was actually feeling pretty much as in a real car. The question remains how much it costs and where to put it in a small apartment, but the product seems aimed at gaming freaks wanting more real sensations and having too much money to spend (on a driving wheel for their PC, for example).

I wouldn’t be my usual annoying self if I didn’t point out two funny things on product’s webpage. One minor mistake is Palystation2 and that’s not even that important, but “Force Feedback – Using Gender” sounds a little suspicious. Maybe some hentai games will be able to provide force feedback depending on player’s gender? Then I might actually buy the damn thing…

Winxen Game Chair

This one actually is more fun than it sounds like. The device basically is a rumbling chair with some extra speakers, so a player can feel vibrations and sounds with their whole body.

I don’t know how it works in shoot’em up games, but I toyed with some racing games and the overall result was actually feeling pretty much as in a real car. The question remains how much it costs and where to put it in a small apartment, but the product seems aimed at gaming freaks wanting more real sensations and having too much money to spend (on a driving wheel for their PC, for example).

I wouldn’t be my usual annoying self if I didn’t point out two funny things on product’s webpage. One minor mistake is Palystation2 and that’s not even that important, but “Force Feedback – Using Gender” sounds a little suspicious. Maybe some hentai games will be able to provide force feedback depending on player’s gender? Then I might actually buy the damn thing…

Halo 3 multiplayer hands-on impressions

I never really was a fan of Halo games. The whole phenomenon of Halo just missed me somehow. The first thing that got me remotely interested in the game was Red vs Blue machinima – that’s how I’ve come to know more about Halo universe. The second thing was PC version of Halo, which I played for a couple of hours and then deleted with slight feeling of relief – it was plain bad, at least from my point of view. Then I’ve learnt about Halo and teabagging…

Umm, back to the topic. Recently I’ve heard quite a lot of buzz about the incoming Halo 3 for Xbox 360, so when I saw the line, I didn’t hesitate for long before joining the queue. It helped that Jessica Chobot was also waiting in the same line…

The time I have spent with the game has convinced me that playing FPP shooters on double analogue sticks is a torture. I can’t really hit anyone moving and it actually becomes quite frustrating, knowing that if I had my trustworthy mouse with me, the other guy would be already dead (or not…). I got my ass handed to me on a silver plate.

As for the game itself, the graphics are pretty (although nothing particular caught my attention), there’s a number of vehicles to use, which is fun, nice choice of weapons and overall impression is positive. Truth be told, I still don’t understand why people get so excited about this series, but at least this time I don’t have anything to hold against the game. Solid title, is how I would classify it.

Halo 3 multiplayer hands-on impressions

I never really was a fan of Halo games. The whole phenomenon of Halo just missed me somehow. The first thing that got me remotely interested in the game was Red vs Blue machinima – that’s how I’ve come to know more about Halo universe. The second thing was PC version of Halo, which I played for a couple of hours and then deleted with slight feeling of relief – it was plain bad, at least from my point of view. Then I’ve learnt about Halo and teabagging…

Umm, back to the topic. Recently I’ve heard quite a lot of buzz about the incoming Halo 3 for Xbox 360, so when I saw the line, I didn’t hesitate for long before joining the queue. It helped that Jessica Chobot was also waiting in the same line…

The time I have spent with the game has convinced me that playing FPP shooters on double analogue sticks is a torture. I can’t really hit anyone moving and it actually becomes quite frustrating, knowing that if I had my trustworthy mouse with me, the other guy would be already dead (or not…). I got my ass handed to me on a silver plate.

As for the game itself, the graphics are pretty (although nothing particular caught my attention), there’s a number of vehicles to use, which is fun, nice choice of weapons and overall impression is positive. Truth be told, I still don’t understand why people get so excited about this series, but at least this time I don’t have anything to hold against the game. Solid title, is how I would classify it.

Assasin Creed’s hands on impressions

After waiting in painfully long line of software developers, journalists and other industry insiders, I was finally allowed behind a curtain to play Assasin’s Creed together with one of the lead designers, Philippe Dionne. Judging by the looks of it, Altair’s (main protagonist) adventure is almost in final stage (okay, at one point there was a little texture flicker – but that’s all).

I can positively confirm that the control scheme is indeed unique and original, but in the same time really playable and allowing for some smooth movements. Graphically, the game is really impressive with a huge city, massive number of passers-by, excellent textures and lightning effects. The game AI is also impressive, both in terms of crowd management and individual entity behaviour.

There are lot of little nice touches :

• as a person practising climbing, I appreciated the fluidity and realism of Altair’s movements;
• when I was using throwing knives and suddenly enemy knight attacked me from just behind the corner, instead of stupidly throwing his knife, Altair quickly stabbed him with it;
• bullying people around caused some thugs to concentrate their attention on me… ouch;
• when I was being chased by guards, I climbed the wall thinking it would get me to safety, since not one of them had a bow – wrong, they started throwing rocks at me, which made me lose my balance and fall down, where welcome comitee was already waiting;

The framerates where impeccable, the build seemed very close to final, the release date was set to November this year and my overall impression was very positive. This is just another game that might become a system-seller.

Asked about the possibility of the title ever arriving to PC, Philippe said that there are no plans for now, but (and this is my own thought) seeing how many Xbox 360 titles get ported to PC, I wouldn’t totally exclude such possibility. Though it might require getting Xbox-like pad, in order to use the brand new control scheme.

Assasin Creed’s hands on impressions

After waiting in painfully long line of software developers, journalists and other industry insiders, I was finally allowed behind a curtain to play Assasin’s Creed together with one of the lead designers, Philippe Dionne. Judging by the looks of it, Altair’s (main protagonist) adventure is almost in final stage (okay, at one point there was a little texture flicker – but that’s all).

I can positively confirm that the control scheme is indeed unique and original, but in the same time really playable and allowing for some smooth movements. Graphically, the game is really impressive with a huge city, massive number of passers-by, excellent textures and lightning effects. The game AI is also impressive, both in terms of crowd management and individual entity behaviour.

There are lot of little nice touches :

• as a person practising climbing, I appreciated the fluidity and realism of Altair’s movements;
• when I was using throwing knives and suddenly enemy knight attacked me from just behind the corner, instead of stupidly throwing his knife, Altair quickly stabbed him with it;
• bullying people around caused some thugs to concentrate their attention on me… ouch;
• when I was being chased by guards, I climbed the wall thinking it would get me to safety, since not one of them had a bow – wrong, they started throwing rocks at me, which made me lose my balance and fall down, where welcome comitee was already waiting;

The framerates where impeccable, the build seemed very close to final, the release date was set to November this year and my overall impression was very positive. This is just another game that might become a system-seller.

Asked about the possibility of the title ever arriving to PC, Philippe said that there are no plans for now, but (and this is my own thought) seeing how many Xbox 360 titles get ported to PC, I wouldn’t totally exclude such possibility. Though it might require getting Xbox-like pad, in order to use the brand new control scheme.

Next Gen Wars – live

Just one curiosity that I have accidentally stumbled upon in the depths of the Web : almost live feed of the number of the next generation consoles sold (updated every minute).

Interested how many XBoxex or PS3s are being shipped right now? How many Wiis have been sold? Just refresh the page.

On a sidenote, I am not sure if everybody remembers my predictions concerning Xbox360 winning the Next-Gen war in Tokyo Game Show 2005 coverage in CD-Action? Well, seems like I was right.

Prince of Persia revisited

Just a short, but nevertheless interesting video, that Grocal has drawn my attention to. As you might remember, I recently wrote about the Prince of Persia remake on Xbox Live! – and I generally liked the idea. The video in question shows the differences between original Prince of Persia on PC, Sega Genesis and Xbox 360 (there should be also ZX Spectrum and Amiga version for the sake of completeness, but…).

Enjoy!

Bears of War

Although I don’t have any next-gen console (unless you count PSP as one), I have been an avid fan of Xbox360 ever since I saw it on Tokyo Game Show 2005. I don’t own one yet (due to lack of time, not money) but I regularly check the games I find interesting on the system. One of them is definitely Gears of War.

Now, I have just discovered Bears of War – a parody of Gears, as you may probably guess. It is a webcomic drawn by young Polish author Michał “Śledziu” Śledziński (his nickname loosely translates to English as “Mr Herring“), author of many different comic books, strips and graphic novels, such as Osiedle Swoboda. Be sure to visit his Bears of War page on Blogspot.

I thought I’d bring it to your attention, since I consider Mr Herring to be one of the best young Polish graphic artists and authors, unfortunately underappreciated and practically unknown outside of Poland. Among the other ones are Robert Adler and Tobiasz Piątkowski, whose cyberpunk Status 7 series (Overload and Breakoff) is discontinued and also not really known in the world, which is a shame.

On a side note, expect a post about my favourite online comics soon.