Been out of the game game for a while
Posted by: Sam Horton on Feb 12, 2009 at 7:54 PMAbout a year ago I had the unfortunate experience of high voltage electricity flowing into my PC. You see, we have lots of lightning here in Florida, and within a time frame of 2 days I was struck as many times. The sad part of the story is that after my PC got fried the first time, my friend Chuck gave me enough spare parts to build a new one. Just as I got everything working again, the damnable lightning struck back--frying yet another PC.
The long and short of it is that I have been using a 6 year old Frankenstein PC for the last year, and have not been able to run anything even remotely recent game-wise. I finally decided enough was enough and shelled out the cash for a new system. The thing I really like about PC's is that you can always upgrade for under $500 and get something that will last for a few years easy! I wound up getting an Intel Core2 Duo 3 GHz, an awesome Gigabyte motherboard, an Nvidia 9800GT, 4Gigs of ram, and a new hard drive for about $480! Since I use this PC as my primary workstation I also get to write it off on the taxes (which is why I ultimately decided to get it over a PS3 :).
Every time I wind up getting a new PC, I always go to Newegg. In fact, I don't even pay attention to what is going on in the tech world until it's time to upgrade, and a few minutes of comparison shopping on their site is enough to get back up to speed and make an informed decision. For what it's worth, they most certainly get my stamp of approval. Just check out the latest box-o-parts, and witness the awesomeness!
Flash Gaming
Now I've been making Flash games for a while, and you really have to design for the LCD because the average system spec in the Flash arena is quite a bit lower than what the hardcore gaming market enjoys. As a result, most of my big ideas wind up having to get chopped down until they barely resemble the original vision. This is usually fine for Flash games since they should focus on a single, refined gameplay mechanic. In the last few weeks however, I've had a chance to step back into the graphically luscious world of modern gaming, and play many of the titles that I've had on hold up until now. All I can say is wow! Things sure have changed since I left off. If only there was a way to mix the simplicity of Flash with the power of modern hardware!
Modern Gaming
My video card came with a free copy of Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, which was probably the most fun I've had playing a shooter since I can't remember when!
Next I tried Bio Shock, and despite my love for Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, I found the game to be tedious, and unsatisfying. Mostly due to the hacked bits of storyline interspersed throughout the game, but also from the endless crate/box/ashtray/safe/cabinet searching. Seriously, tedious.
The other day I found a copy of the collector's edition of Crysis for $19 at GameStop, and I think it might be my new favorite game! I absolutely love when a regular story transforms into the ridiculously far-fetched, and pulls it off! This is something that most movies seem to fail at or avoid altogether, because of the scope/time involved in telling such a story. Games now days are really the middle ground between books and movies as far as story telling is concerned, and it seems like they have finally matured enough to occupy a serious place among the arts.
Fallout 3 is next on the list!
There