Merry Christmas
Posted by Mike | Filed under Uncategorized
Merry Christmas everyone. I’ll be back after the holidays, right back to blogging.
Christian Group Calls for MW2 Ban
Posted by Mike | Filed under Commentary, Games
I think that its time that we ban free speech in this world. I know that this is an outrageous statement, but I am equal in audacity that the Maine Family Council has excercised in calling for the banning of Modern Warfare 2. Not only that, but they have also used lies and misdirection to push their ideological belifes on other people.
Evidently there is a “Massacre Level” available in Modern Warfare 2, but it seems that I missed it. In truth they are referring to the “No Russian” level in which you play the part of an undercover agent posing as a Russian Terrorist. References to the game being banned or modify overseas are not completely without truth, but these instances are within countries that do not allow free speech in all forms, and the majority of the countries in which this game is available have not required modification or banning of this game.
Anytime I read such stories online I find myself questioning whether or not these sites are satires, and if these articles were written by people that honestly believe the words written. Whatever the case I hope who ever reads this article will actually think for themselves before attempting to aid in the ursurpation the First Ammendment so that they can say whatever they want and not allow anything that they do not agree with. There are additional points within the story that are quite amusing that one should take a look at.
Gamepolitics Article
Original Article
Tags: Ban, First Ammendment, Free Speech, Games, Infinity Ward, Maine Family Policy Council, modern warfare 2, mw2
Spike’s Top 10 Movies of 2009
Posted by Mike | Filed under Movies
SpikeTV has their top 10 movies of 2009. I don’t know where I’ve been, but there are a few on the list that I don’t know anything about. Regardless, <a href=”http://www.spike.com/blog/top-10-movies-of/90491″>click here to see it</a>.
Tags: 2009, Best of 2009, Movies, SpikeTV, Top 10, Top 10 2009
Stranger Danger
Posted by Mike | Filed under Random
One of my the TV shows I enjoy watching is Penn and Teller’s Bullshit. There was an episode regarding Stranger Danger and how parents project their fears regarding strangers onto their children. In this episode there was a story of a child who was allowed, at age 12 (not 100% sure on the age), to ride the New York subway alone. The child was fine, and nothing happened. His mother, the columnist, wrote about what happened and there was such an outcry against this action. Well, there is a website by the same mother called Free Range Kids. It seems interesting, as it advocates allowing children to experience the world instead of being held back. There is some pretty outrageous stories there… check it out for some laughs.
Tags: FreeRangeKids, Lenore Skenazy, Stranger Danger
Assassin’s Creed vs the Sequel
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
With the recent release, I felt compelled to go back and play the orignal to see how the two differed. During my first play with the original Assassin’s Creed, I played it on the PC. I wasn’t plagued with some of the problems that playing on a console presented, like the controls – especially the camera. With both games, it seems that the control scheme hasn’t wavered much.
One of the constant problems people seem to cite is the repetition of the original Assassin’s Creed. During my first playthrough I never saw this as a problem, but now that I have played the sequel and gone back and played the original as well… it is a problem.
One of the things that the first has that the second doesn’t, strong voice acting for the assassin. Altair’s voice makes Ezio seem like a pre-pubescent boy, despite the fact that on it’s own there are no problems. I went from playing the first to going back and playing the second and I missed the force in the assassin’s voice, especially during the death sequences. This is a minor thing, but I think that the strength of Altair’s voice made him seem more like a badass that could do anything… while Ezio is more like a lost boy (which may or may not have been where they were going).
Another minor thing is that there hasn’t been any mention of the actual creed (maybe I haven’t gotten to that point yet). I don’t know, maybe I’m a little picky for wanting some sort of mention of the creed that was a constant theme in the first.
The animations are just as smooth in both, and the modelling and environments seem to have improved in the second. The first game is still a masterpiece and its no wonder why it was the biggest new IP launch ever (no source on that one, I may be incorrect on this point).
Tags: Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2, Comparison, sequel, ubisoft
Video Game Credits
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
Coming upon a recent article regarding credits in video games, I was disgusted to hear of the problems that some developers have had. Check out the Kotaku Article and read the original article regarding credits in video games. However, I’m sure that this is probably a problem not unique to our industry.
Tags: Credits, video game
Self-Regulation vs Censorship
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
With the recent renewed interest in bringing a R18+ rating to Australia, I find myself wondering about the topic of self-regulation vs censorship. In Australia, the government has taken it upon themselves to rate video games and if they don’t believe that it is appropriate for minors they won’t allow it to be released in Australia. Add that to the fact that Australia will soon have country wide internet filtering and it seems that the government can keep out whatever they want.
With the end of the year approaching soon, ESA boss Michael Gallagher penned a letter in which he points out the American FTC’s comment that the ESRB has the best self-regulation amongst the three big entertainment mediums (video games, music, film). While it is important that the wrong people don’t get their hands on inappropriate content (like children playing GTA Chinatown Wars on the DS), it is even more important that people who know video games are put in charge of regulation. One particular Attorney-General in Australia has been against a R18+ addition, and it seems that he will continue with his stance. Why is this? Probably because he believes that video games are for children only.
For those of you who don’t know the history of the ESRB, do a quick Google search to figure out it’s history. In any event, its nice to know that intelligent people have allowed the video game industry to be self-regulated in North America and Europe (can’t say the same for Asia, because I don’t know).
Tags: Censorship, ESRB, Game Regulation, PEGI, Self-Regulation, video games
Unit Testing
Posted by Mike | Filed under Programming
I have been exploring the concept of unit testing for a little while now, and though it important to discuss. Unit testing is testing small parts of your code to ensure that there are no problems. There are many frameworks available freely on the internet, and usually come with enough of an introduction to get you off and going.
There are a few potential problems when it comes to unit testing. Some people claim that it can actually slow down your work, while others indicate that it speeds up their work and helps them produce better code. While I have never done extensive unit testing during the devlopment of the project, these two extremes in opinion seem to indicate that unit testing (and possibly test driven development in general) depends on the individual programmer.
To me there seems to be a few clear benefits, like if you are making small tweaks to optimize functions your unit tests could protect the function’s output from not remaining the same. This could be very helpful for long term development projects (like engines and frameworks) but maybe not so much for game development.
This seems like an interesting topic that definetly warrants further study.
Tags: c++, TDD, Test Driven Development, Testing, Unit Testing
1000 Ways to Die
Posted by Mike | Filed under Random
Well, there are always interesting things available for entertainment, especially from Spike. Now comes another show that seems to be a little interesting, 1000 ways to die. I haven’t yet watched it, but it seems to be quite interesting. Each episode seems to describe a different way to die. Check it out on Spike.
Tags: 1000 Ways to Die, Spike, SpikeTV
Deadliest Warrior
Posted by Mike | Filed under Random
For those of you interested in history, Spike has a very interesting series called Deadliest Warrior. I recently discovered this show and for those of you wanting to see history’s greatest warriors pitted against each other, with seemingly scientific analysis, check out this show. For those of you who like watching stuff on demand, you should be able to watch it online at Spike.
Tags: Deadliest, Deadliest Warriors, History, Spike, SpikeTV, Warriors
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