Metro: Last Light -Turn out the Lights and Hold on to your Butts!

5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted!

I stumbled along this article, and believe it to be a must-read for ANYONE whom plays games more than just casually, or knows anyone whom they have ever called 'addicted' to their video games.

There is a disturbing amount of truth evident here, in the psychological tried-and-true methods to which game designers strive for ever more profitable game designs. For some, reading this i'm sure will be an enlightening, if not shocking, experience. For others, it will merely put words to what they may already know about themselves. The dark secrets of why they play the games they love.

I am one of them.

Please check out this humorous but cautionary tale on the funny site: Cracked.com HERE

-An excerpt:
"Why is your mom obsessively harvesting her crops in Farmville? Because they wither and rot if she doesn't. In Ultima Online, your house or castle would start to decay if you didn't return to it regularly. In Animal Crossing, the town grows over with weeds and your virtual house becomes infested with cockroaches if you don't log in often enough. It's the crown jewel of game programming douchebaggery--keep the player clicking and clicking and clicking just to avoid losing the stuff they worked so hard to get."

In other hilarious/related news: "Addicted Gamer Sues Game-Maker, Says He is ‘Unable to Function’

By: David Kravets of WIRED.com

Red Dead Redemption - for PC fans?

The trend continues...seeing now that the average age of video gamers is 35 years old (which has risen from last few years) we now see a correlation of the console market gaining massive share of the sales of games, with a relatively small percentage of us PC gamers still holding sway.  Is it that perhaps the older gamers get, the more lazy and couch-bound we become? I'm 33, yet I still haven't sprung for the ps3 or it's 60 dollar games. I'm a PC gamer, going on at least 20 years now, and i've had playstations and nintendos (where my age group started of course!), but the games on consoles IMO serve a purpose, but don't satisfy like the PC counterparts. This is immensely arguable, of course, and fiercely debated in countless forums and internet discussions.

Now, more and more of our favorite games are developed for the money making console market FIRST, then...maybe, if we are lucky, the dev/publishers might throw us a bone and port their masterpiece's of simplistic gameplay and limited depth to the PC, where invariably the result is a buggy, un-optimized mess of a game [looking at you GUN] that is basically abandoned shortly after release and rarely polished with patches. There's apparently just no money to motivate them anymore.

Now ordinarily, this never bothered me too much. After all, like I said, console games are usually simplistic quick casual games or action games that are high on explosions and mind-numbing time wasters, fun because you don't have to 'think' too much and therefore, yes, are fun in a casual sit-on-the-couch-after-the-kids-go-to-bed mode. But now there is a crossing over, a turning point, where once in-depth, strategic, or franchised FPS games are being stolen from the PC, published on console first...and worse, ONLY on console, leaving us longtime fans of a certain franchise scratching our heads, with money in hand, wondering why we don't get to share in the fun anymore. Yeah! There I said it!  Listen up EA, 2K games, UBISOFT! Even one of my favorite developers, Bethesda (Morrowind, Oblivion) spent their money on optimizing Oblivion and Fallout 3 for the @%$! [parden me, consolers] Xbox/Ps3 crowd first, then ported it over to the PC-where these games roots began. With InfinityWard/Activision's bastardization of the infamous Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, the trend continues as the money rolls in.

So now we come to one of my other favorite developers, Rockstar, whom have a mostly outstanding track record of high-quality, highly addicting and fun games, releasing what appears to be a stellar new game -Red Dead Redemption, only on the consoles. Yes, I realize that the first in the series '..Revolver' was also a console-only game- that game was mostly a fun 2 player shoot-em up without a major story or single player story campaign. The sequel looks vastly superior, complete with hollywood quality writing, graphics, story and cut-scenes [a la GTA series], and therefore...I really want a chance to place this bad boy. Will I get the chance? Only time will tell.

Rockstar took a year to release GTA4 to PC, almost as long for Vice City and San Andreas. Currently, what Rockstar San Diego is reporting is they have no plans to release Red Dead Redemption for PC, but if that changes they will 'let us know'.

So for you Xbox/Ps3 owners who may enjoy this game- go ahead and 'let me know' how it is. I'll go back to my port of the still excellent Fallout 3 GOTY edition in the meantime.

America’s Army 3 -A 10 second review -->

There has been some discussion on the merits of the Army’s free-to-play advertisement/game, America's Army 3. The recent report shows the cost to the Army’s budget was approximately 32.8 million over 8 years. MW2 cost 50 Million to make, Spore (I read) was probably over 80 million(?), Most AAA games have this high of budget it seems, these days.

Though I would rather they spend that money on a better military project, the Army isn't known for 'thriftiness' or 'well thought-out' projects as it is. So you get what your congress approves them to get. Don't like it, don't vote republican! Just sayin'!

The quick and dirty: The game AA3 is the sequel/update of sorts, to the project that began 8 years ago by the U.S. Army's recruitment think-tank. All versions I've played, have been buggy, but playable for the most part after they get ironed out. The first version was notorious for laggy server issues, making other players suddenly skid 10 feet over while trying to line up a bead on them, not to mention, your shots seemed to lag behind a half second from where they are lined up in your sight. AA3, same thing. They haven't changed it.

Most of the gameplay is essentially identical to previous versions, though they've altered the menu and planning screens a bit. Now you can ‘secure’ a downed enemy, so they can’t be revived by teammates [and vice-versa]. The engine seems to have the exact same models and animation but with better textures. Maybe a better sun flare etc...everything else is almost identical. For that, millions of dollars seems a dreadful flush down the toilet!

BUT-for some reason, i've spent an insane amount of time in the first version, and getting back into the 3rd, hoping for another update to fix things. My chief complaint is the same as what PC gamer said-it takes TOO long to switch weapons, bring up your 'nade launcher, toss a grenade or smoke, lay prone/stand up etc etc...by the time the animation gets done, your enemy has already jumped the wall, or shot you silly as you sloooowlly pullll yoouurrr pisstoll out.. It takes a lot of the adrenaline rush of real combat out of those interactions.

I would best describe AA3 series as a sortof capture the flag chess game, with brief and tense firefights.. It's slower pace and tension attract those of us that want a little more planning/strategy than just bunny-hopping aim-bot decimator's.

Check it out and see if you like it...after all, it IS free! The game has obvious marks of workmanship, detail, and has some fun maps to play in, and I thought the training missions were always fun and fairly realistic [I went to Air Force Basic, but the weapons training was spot on from what I experienced]. I just wish they were a little more diligent in getting out the bugs faster, perhaps even responding to player feedback? In this respect, it seems painfully just like every other gov’t project. Take a number…wait in line. You get what we give you.

My Score- 6.5/10 For bugginess/annoyance factors and unpolished state. Good graphics and environments, easy-to-understand and addictive gameplay.