Review: Joe Danger [PSN]

I just posted a new review in PS3Brasil:

Joe Danger - Playstation 3 (available through the Playstation Network)

Here's the link for the Google-translated English review, and this is the link for the original version, in Brazilian Portuguese.

2010 FIFA World Cup

So, the World Cup is well on its way and Brazil has managed to get to the quarter finals. Besides some disappointments with the squad, the team has advanced on its own merits and is closer to the finals. If things go well, we could have the most antecipated game of History in mid-July: Brazil x Argentina in a World Cup final. I hope we get there, and I hope we win. Losing to Argentina in a final would be humiliating, to say the least.

Meanwhile, I think I'm buying EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa for the PS3. I wanted to get Fifa 10, but apparently this is even better. EA has managed to make a football game that interests me, something Konami and its Winning Eleven / Pro Evolution Soccer could never do.

Millennium Trilogy - Part 1

I just finished reading the first book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the original is called Män som hatar kvinnor – "Men Who Hate Women" and it's a much better title, but anyway, I digress). I was really looking forward to it, and thankfully it reached my expectations. I enjoyed it thoroughly, from the story to the setting and the characters. The ending, particularly the epilogue, was great, and now I can't wait to read the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'm also going to watch the first movie in the theatre this week, if plans go accordingly. Nothing like a good movie spoken in swedish to make the week a little bit stranger.

Three songs for Europe

Last July I went to Europe (I can't remember if I've said this here before, and I'm too lazy to bother looking). I took my iPod, but I only had a USB charger and no computer to connect it to, so I had to rely on my cellphone (it has an AC adapter) to listen to music. There weren't many songs in it, so I had to constantly liten to the same ones over and over again. At least most of them were pretty good.

Out of the hundred or so songs, three of those marked me most. Every time I listen to any of them it reminds me of my trip, and the great moments I had. So it's a very special and immaterial souvenir I brought back.

These are the songs:

Gorrillaz - M1A1

A relatively unknown song from them, it's probably my favourite. The intro is just excellent, with the sample from Day of the Dead.




Mew - She Spider

I like how the song changes its pace throughout.




The Decemberists - A Bower Scene

The CD where this song is from is a concept album, telling the story of a girl. Most of the songs are great, but this one is the best in my opinion.

MGMT - Kids

I had heard about the band many times, but never had any interest in listening to them. I accidentally did, when I watched the video below, which has Weezer singing their song "Kids", as well as Lady GaGa's "Poker Face".



The great thing about the Kids video is that it's not official, or at least wasn't at the time of conception. It was made by a fan for a school assignment, and he made it in just one night. It turned out amazing, and really fits the song. The two people with make-up that appear on the video are two of the fan's friends, and not the duo from MGMT. It was a relief to find that out, because one of the people really looked like a girl, and I was afraid that it was actually one of the guys from the band.

This link explains the story behind the video, and it's really interesting to see how a small project managed to get over 28 million views on YouTube

How to be awesome in Modern Warfare 2

That was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Dead Space, post-mortem

Dead Space was an excellent game. Much more than I expected it to be before I played. Now, many months after I finished it for the third time, in the Impossible difficulty setting, I still feel like playing it. Too bad I have so many other games to play more thoroughly before I can get back to DS.

This week I thought about how they could improve the game for the sequel, which I hope to God is being made as I write this, hopefully to be released in 2010. I thought of three things, basically. The first would be the shadows, that were somewhat pixelated in the original game. That definitely needs improvement. Another graphical issue is the aliasing, which can get pretty evident in some parts. They could increase the anti-aliasing if that didn't sacrifice the frame rate, and we would be thankful for that.

The last improvement in my view would be with the Plasma Cutter. It's the first weapon you get in the game, and frankly it's the best one overall. Even when I had many other powerful ones, I always went back to the Cutter. After properly upgraded it packs quite a punch, ammo can be found easily and it's great fun to use. I thought they could integrate it more to Isaac's armour in the sequel. Since he's an engineer, he could be shown making what I'm about to explain himself.

The Cutter would be integrated to his right arm/wrist/hand, staying above these parts, unassembled when not in use. When the player chose to use it, it would unfold around his hand, expanding parts that were collapsed, and it would instantly be ready to use. It would be visually nice, and gameplay-wise it would make the Cutter something similar to the pistols in Left 4 Dead or the revolver in Killzone, for instance. Definitely not powerful weapons, but ready to use in case of emergency.