This post will (un)officially end this blog's run, barring any future change of plans. Up until now, this blog's posts have been created for marking purposes for the blog class I'm taking at UWO. I, as before, will keep writing about games, but I'll be doing it at my original blog, adam @ work. As I mentioned I've got some reviews in the works, some video reviews planned and of course plenty of news to go into, and of course now I've acquired a playstation 3 as well, and I've got the full spectrum of current-gen consoles covered. I've also still got some PR companies sending me review copies of games to dive into. So, I'll have a lot of writing to do this summer.

Thus if you have enjoyed my writing, or enjoyed my take on games or the resulting discussion, I highly encourage you to join me. This weekend I'm going to start by posting my review of Wanted: Weapons of Fate. After that, who knows.

Be seeing you,

- Adam

I like to think I have a pretty well-tuned BS detector. Which is probably BS because rereading that sentence makes it go off. Which leads to a circular paradox that I don't want to think about anymore, but besides that, this chart Sony released to the press a few months ago is just a little bit too much. It's just a side-by-side of current gen consoles, with Sony attempting to show which of them is a better deal.

This chart made my detector go off red alert style. Not only does it attempt to capitalize on facts that are not really relevant (Xbox 360's have all had hdmi output for over a year now, and I promise any you find on a retail shelf today will have hdmi), and skewed facts (like how the wii has "no available" hard drive, yet it does have internal storage and you can swap out SD cards and potentially have more combined storage than either the Ps3 OR the 360, if you so wished), but it's just plain douchebaggery in principle. Why waste time knocking down other companies' products when yours are good enough to stand on their own? It makes your company look unprofessional and generally filled with gigantic ponces. Apple does this as well.

This is yet another move in a long game of moves that makes me really detest Sony. I love my Ps3 more than any of my other consoles, it really is a solid, well put-together machine. But stuff like this, stuff like backwards compatibility being removed, stuff like the pushing of products for their own sake when they can't stand alone... it ticks me off how many terrible decisions they make. Their marketing and PR people are completely clueless. With the right team behind it this machine should sell itself, it's easily the best one for people like me but I'd never know it until I owned it, so Sony should really get some better people to market this thing.

Today penny arcade posted the comic on the right. It got me thinking about enemy AI in games like this, and how often it holds true. Now, in this instance it was referring to the new Wanted: Weapons of Fate game, which, in all likelihood, I will be reviewing considerably soon (though maybe not TOO soon, as I'm told the game is pretty short, so I'll be waiting for the prices to drop a bit). But I started to consider henchmen's attitudes toward explosive objects in general, or rather, henchmen in general.

I was re-watching season five of 24 recently, and noticed henchmen acting in the same way on an airstrip; taking cover behind a large tanker from kiefer sutherland, of all people, meaning of course they are doomed to fail, their knowledge of this possibly aiding their decision as to where to take cover. But why do all henchmen do this? Explosive objects are something of an eye-catcher in a firefight, least it should be to someone who can actually operate a firearm, and after watching a dozen or so of your colleagues in Wanted get blown out of airplane doors because a nearby fire extinguiser forced the door open you'd think they would get the idea to avoid those general areas. Yet they continue to do so with admirable gusto.

Some games and movies actually pit you against more intellegent AI enemies. FEAR, for example, has a really in depth AI that'll restructure, pin you down and flank you based on their numbers, weapons, and other things like that. But is that nearly as fun as having them all gather around the nearest explosive crate? Both have their own kind of appeal... players who like the strategy, and players who like the spectacle. Who's to say you can't have both? Maybe you can, and having dudes take cover behind buckets of gasoline is a little unimaginative. I'm not entirely sure. Sound off if you have a different take on it!

I've been told by my friends that I'm going to become an Apple person some day, regardless of how much hate I spew about that company. Today I think they're right.

I was configuring my router this afternoon, nothing special. Wanted to boost its security up to WPA2 encryption. So I set it up, then went through the process of configuring all my comptuers and consoles to match up with it. Within seconds my Wii and my Ps3 were set up with the new encryption and got up to their usual awesome connection speeds. When I tried this stunt with my 360, I realized it wouldn't even recognize my router any more. What the hell?

Upon a little more research I found out that the 360 does not support WPA2 encryption with their wireless adaptor. You read that right: Microsoft's game console, and the wireless adapter that comes with a 100$ canadian price point, does not support a newer, more secure wireless encryption that both Nintendo and Sony's game consoles do. THE NINTENDO WII can support WPA2, which I believe was patched in after its release through a console update, not to mention it and the Ps3's wireless networking is built right into the console and isn't 100 dollars extra.

Microsoft's insufferable decisions like that are making me more and more upset with how they play right through their user base for their money... because as well you know, they have no real dedication to that user base, since it's so established and so stupidly huge. This afternoon I explained to my mother why she couldn't open a .docx attachment on her older computer. After installing office 2007 on her machine and telling her about the new format being very finnickity with older versions of office, she expressed annoyance. The plugins that microsoft offers for users of earlier versions break frequently at best and straight up don't work at worst, from what I've heard. Which only seems to indicate it's another way microsoft will take your money; you're so used to office you'll just have to buy office 2007 and give them 200-400 dollars for it.

With all this and a recent spaz I had over Vista's inability to network in any way ever, I just think I have reached the end of my rope. Come this summer once I have more disposable income I may end up doing something quite drastic... a new Macbook definitely looks like a good start...

In any case, bringing this all back to games, Microsoft... you know, the makers of the most used OS in existance today... haven't made their game console compatible with a newer, more secure wireless format that literally ALL their game division related competition has taken care of before they have. When are these people going to get it? This will be what kills them one day. If they don't care for and support the user base through ALL their divisions, they're going to lose them to companies like apple and nintendo that show they actually give a damn, and on top of that, actually put out good products.

Even after the class ends I might make "TINAG" a regular blog feature. I somewhat enjoy providing commentary on other web-related issues that isn't game-related. Might be made up of movie reviews, internet business... we'll see what crops up in the world during the next year, and see how the section takes shape.

In any case, this week the topic is CBC's "The End" series, providing commentary on the web causing the elimination of various forms of media, including print, radio, and television. I'm not entirely sure it's so much an elimination, but an integration, of these mediums that is taking place. The line is blurring between them even today; radio, for example, is available in many forms on the internet, allowing users to stream stations featuring their preferred genre or type of audio entertainment. Talk shows and mixes can also take the form of audio podcasts, that can be downloaded and enjoyed at leisure. Because of how flexible and customizable internet radio options are, digital radios will not necessarily eliminate that particular medium but extend it.

Similar arguments can be made for print, as many/most news companies publish their stories on the internet in addition to publishing them in their papers. TV broadcasters also make episodes of their own featured shows exclusively available on their own websites (not taking into account piracy, obviously), along with episode guides, summaries, and a bunch of additional meta information you wouldn't be able to gather from the program itself.

What we're seeing isn't so much an elimination of these forms of media as an evolution, extension, and/or an integration of it.