Sniper: Ghost Warrior
Posted by Jon | Filed under Video Gaming
This review has been a long time coming, and I must apologize for its tardiness.. I bought this game the day it came out, and had plenty to say after only a few hours, so I really should have written this sooner.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior, (SGW), released by City Interactive, is one of those genres that has very few titles that address its specific focus, that of being a dedicated sniper. The last good sniper game that was released where you play a soldier who specializes in “reaching out to touch someone”… with a bullet.. was Sniper Elite, in 2005. This is a fairly unknown game, but well worth looking for if you want a super realistic shooter. In the more advanced modes, you have to take into effect windage and the coriolis effect, which takes into effect the curvature of the earth when making really long range shots. What’s great is that it’s not even a PC exclusive.. thats right! you oldschool xbox gamers can grab and enjoy this title too!
Anyways, so back to SGW. This title strives to make its name following in the footsteps of games like the Call of Duty:MW series, which “arcade-ifies” the milsim genre, making you a soldier with a few hyperrealistic abilities. The one that is most prevalent in this game is that of the bulletcam. When you pull off a headshot from a certain decent distance, the camera takes a 3rd-party perspective and follows the slow-motion bullet as it crosses the distance from the end of your rifle across the detailed terrain until it blossoms in a red spray when it hits an enemy’s skull.
The first time you pull this off, you are quite awstruck, as the level of environmental detail is one of this games (only) strong points. Structures, trees, plants, vehicles and shadows are incredibly well rendered, and it really feels like a lush jungle setting. The draw distance is excellent, and zooming in with a scope to spot an enemy who is really far away is very smooth. The other “super powers” you possess are twofold. First of all, after you scope in, and wait a few seconds, a red circle appears on your scope, letting you know where the bullet will actually go, automatically taking wind and other factors into effect. Its a great effect for “noobs” to learn how to shoot, and when combined with your second ability, that of “bullet time” or a button enabled “slow motion” mode, you’d think that this would give you all you needed to enjoy a game such as this. The slow mo mode also causes enemies to glow red against the background, making them easier to pick off
But, sadly, this is where everything starts to fall apart. The gripes I have about this title heavily outweigh its good points. This probably has something to do with the fact all the abilities you possess are, on a word, totally broken. It starts when you zoom in on an enemy who is walking around 800m away, blithely unaware, and with his back to you. He suddenly becomes agitated, turns around, and aims in your direction while calling to his comrades. It doesn’t matter how “hidden” you are by foliage at this juncture… his AK-47 becomes painfully accurate, and bullets rip through the trees and bushes all around you in what seems like pinpoint accuracy. Even trying to scuttle back or to run away has no effect, and their aim follows you. Now, I hear you, you all know that I always play games on super hard/realistic difficulty to begin with, and all this is the game compensating to make the play challenging. Its now when I tell you that I decided to try this title in “Normal” as I was looking for a bit of a cakewalk/easy game to blow off some steam. So really there’s no excuse.
Even the other super abilities are totally busted. The small red circle that shows you where to put your bullet only appears a good 5-6 seconds after you zoom, and by then, the enemies are already shooting at you.. so to compensate, you mash the slow-mo button. This only lasts a few seconds however, and the rifle motion is so jerky that you can pick off one or two at most before it expires, and takes what feels like 5 minutes to cooldown before its next use. Even if you do pull off a head shot and watch the bullet cam, there seems to be a small 1 second lag where it resets your view back to the scope, and other enemies are able to shoot at you during this pause.. Really they should have not activated the bullet cam until there was a pause in your shots. I’d much rather make a few shots, then have the cam slow down and follow a group of bullets and they whizzed across the terrain to find homes in multiple heads.
But that’s not the end, folks… the rest of the game continues to frustrate. It seems to be built as a poorly designed combat game first, with sniping added as an afterthought. A large number of kills are made over a 200-300 m range, with few spanning further than that. The player also has a grappling hook, which would be great if you were able to use it wherever you wanted, instead of only in specified places. In one level, I tried to swim across a small pond to get the high ground to take out some enemies. Halfway across, I hit an invisible wall.. For a game that LOOKS like a sandbox shooter, it is structured to force the player through a certain path.. So I had to wind my way around a hill and be shot at by a number of enemies that I had been forced into point blank range with.
The game has you switch between three characters, two normally equipped with long guns, and a third, a Mexican rebel,which has you trade in your sniper rifle for an assault rifle. I was hoping that this would be an improvement, seeing as though the game seemed to favor shorter ranged combat and the enemies seem to shoot excellent groupings with their AK’s. You are more or less given a choice between the Soviet ‘47, an M16A4 variant (shorter barrel, tactical stock), and the gun-du-jour, the AA-12 Automatic Shotgun. As I was on an oil-rig in tight quarters, I eagerly chose the latter, well aware of its brutal power as showcased in the likes of Modern Warfare 2. In combat, it was tough to control, and enemies still needed 2 or 3 full on upper body/head kits to go down. Later levels where I chose an assault rifle in the jungle settings wasn’t much easier.. Enemies fired with awesome accuracy whereas bullets I sprayed at their heads seemed to contact everywhere but the intended target.
I’ve tried to re-approach this game numerous times, looking for any diamond in the rough, but I’m continually frustrated to the point where I’m yelling at my computer. And I never do that. I might not be the best twitch gamer, but I always play on some modicum of the upper rungs of difficulty, otherwise i waltz right through games. And here is a title that I wanted to just enjoy, and it just wouldn’t allow it. I’d be hard pressed to give this anything higher than a 4 out of 10, and thats being generous because of the attractiveness of the graphics.
Gamers, I’d steer wide of this title. Very wide. And, again, while I have your attention? Grab Sniper Elite from a bargain bin if you see it. I gets a 9/10, even by todays standards (I’m replaying it just so that I didn’t end up throwing my machine out in the rain), and even includes a bullet cam (like SGW) that while less pretty, actually works.. PC gamers have it easy, because they can avoid SGW, and still buy Sniper Elite from the Steam Store for under $10!
Windows 7 Gripes
Posted by Jon | Filed under Geek Life
Been awhile since I have posted anything, sorry for the absence! I’ve been dealing with spring cleaning my life instead of my apartment.
I am breaking back into blogging with a non gaming post, addressing that “wondrous” new Vista replacement, Windows 7.
Let me be the first to say that I steered clear of Vista alltogether. Ive barely logged a total of one hour of use on the OS, preferring to keep my XP until it was more of less pried from my cold dead fingers. It was the purchase of a new desktop Quad-core with 8 GB of RAM that prompted installing a x64 OS, and as luck would have it, the Win7 leaked beta was available a mere couple months after I installed XP. I threw in a fresh HDD, installed the beta, and never looked back. I think I booted into XP maybe 3 or 4 times, and for no more than a few minutes to copy files across to my Win7 partition, which wouldn’t give me access to my XP files.
The beta, leaked, not ready for public consumption, worked amazingly. It never crashed, it allowed to to force quit unresponsive apps with ease, and never hogged resources.
Suffice to say when the actual product hit the shelf, I was first in line to buy it.
Its now a good 6 months or so later, and I’m about to throw this machine out the window. I don’t know what they did, but this thing is slow, there’s STILL very little x64 bit support (why a 32 bit system that archaically still only addresses under 4 GB of RAM is still offered as an option…)
Very few of my games work, Steam acts up ALL THE TIME, the system always needs reboots, logoffs/logons….
Suffice to say I have decided to just get rid of it and get a MacBook Pro. I’ll probably also get some sort of strictly gaming rig, but nothing large and in charge like my current box.
I’m sad, but looking forward to the day when every game offered on Steam supports OS X.
Borderlands (PC/360/PS3)
Posted by Jon | Filed under Video Gaming
I wanted to wait until I had a good handle on this title from Gearbox. Originally a company that concentrated on porting games to and from consoles, they finally broke out on their own with the Brothers in Arms series. This is their most ambitious title to date, and a game to focuses on FPS elements, with a dash of RPG skills, and a real penchant for replayability. Die hard Diablo fans themselves, they wanted to recreate similar elements in an FPS, and did so quite well with this title. Players can be one of 4 characters… a “tank” who specializes in melee combat, a “hunter” who prefers pistols and sniper rifles and has control of a pet bird who can attack enemies. Then there’s the “siren” who can increase the damage deal by some of her weapons, and can enter a 4th dimension where she is invisible, and a soldier, who can spawn a turret to aid in battle. All these characters work best playing together, naturally, and while the game suffers from some multiplayer connectivity issues, they mechanic is very sound (more on gripes later in the article)
Further nods to the Diablo genre come in loot, the true draw for games like this. As players crawl towards the level cap (50) they will have the opportunity to hunt out literally THOUSANDS of weapons. Based in colored quality from white to green to purple to orange (similar to World of Warcraft’s system as well.. another Blizzard offering) loot is randomly spawned and generated using a formula.. so there are millions of combinations available. This makes the game endlessly fun, as weapon lockers are always skipped to with such joy, hoping for a purple or even orange weapon nestled therein. Although the super rare orange weapons (I have found maybe 10 in the 50 or so hours I have played this title) are stupidly powerful, most of the other loot is quite balanced.. for example, a shotgun that does 150×10 damage will only chamber 2 rounds, whereas a machine gun that shoots extremely fast, is super accurate, and has a massive clip, will do very little per bullet.
The graphics and sound are very well implemented, and Gearbox opted to use a cel-animated style, which again focuses on smooth gameplay versus hyper-realistic, often frame-rate-reducing graphics. This is always a good decision, because this increases the fan base who can buy and play the game, allowing you to team up with all your friends, instead of just the ones with quad-core processors (a la Crysis)
Now to get to the nuts and bolts. The game can be played through 3 times, and as you go through each, the difficulty ramps up considerably, as does loot quality. Now, there are a few tips I will offer those who are looking to really enjoy this game. If you are a casual gamer, one playthrough will get you to around level 35, and might be all you play. more hardcore gamers will prefer to st least get through the second time around, of not even the third. So here’s where the advice comes in. There are story missions, and there are side missions. it doesn’t really matter if you just focus on the former, or the former and the latter together. They seem to be pretty balanced, so even if you ignore the side missions (of which there are many exciting ones) you will still end up at a similar level to the player who completes everything available to him. I mention this because it does get somewhat tedious on the 2nd walk through doing all the side quests again, like the game is dragging its heels a little. Not all missions feel this way, and there are definitely favorite areas, bosses and quests that you will be stoked to do again. So, which I suggest is that as you start playing, if you get really addicted quickly to the style and gameplay, that you bust through the game as fast as possible and get that first playthrough done and under your belt. Ignore 75%+ of the side missions, and only play ‘em to level up if the plot ones are too hard. That way, once you get into the second time around, you will:
a) Know what to expect from the general gameplay dynamics and plot
b) Really enjoy the challenges of a lot of the side missions, and get the most from the game
Now you might speculate that you want to save everything for the 3rd playthrough, but since you will get to the level cap about 1/3-1/2 of your way through the second, the 3rd is really a very tough game, and incredibly challenging. Only those who are hardcore and probably playing with a few friends online might get into the 3rd time around.
Now, as with most games of this type, there is additional DLC or Downloadable Content, to enhance the experience. This game is no different and currently there are 2 available, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot with a third in the works, so named “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx” The first is a halloween/zombie themed expansion, and can be completed for a challenge at any level (the enemies simply are automatically changed to provide a similar experience of difficulty to any character) however the bosses in this expansion are quite weak. The second is an area fighting challenge that changes many of the aspects of the game, and is INCREDIBLY tough (players must complete 5 rounds of 5 waves each for a grueling 25 themed battles per area – there are three of those. ) In order to beat the challenge, players must survive for the 25 rounds WITHOUT DYING ONCE. Any death, even deep into the 25, results in a severe drop back penalty. A friend of mine and I, for example, both died in the final wave of the final round, and were dropped back a staggering 10 waves when we continued. There is no experience given per kill, and no loot is dropped, except by the “host” Moxxie, at the end of each round. The final reward for completing all 75 waves is a single extra skill point. Weak. Only other reason to get this expansion, other than the “bank” which is a pay-to-upgrade glorified stash, is the insane, forks-in-your eyes challenge. Oh, and if you don’t have it, and your friend does, you cant play ANY of the game online unless you both purchase it.
The third one promises to be a massive DLC that will up the level cap and provide more content and mission than either one before it. It is one thing i really do look forward to.
Gripes. Naturally, most of your know my reviews by now, and know that I’m very picky about a few things that seem like glaring omissions and mistakes. First off… no Private Stash. This was an excellent thing about Diablo II. You had a big chest that had the same contents no matter what town you called home, and you could store loot in it for other players, yourself at higher levels, and so on. While there are ways to increase your backpack size in Borderlands, even fully maxed out, once you hit 50, you will still grumble about not having enough slots to store all the gear you want to, and throwing away things you wished you had the room to keep. Second… and I know a friend of mine will be happy I added this, there are some enemies that throw axes as weapons. This in and of itself is fine, but when they are throwing them with unerring accuracy, from 400 METERS AWAY, even when you are almost completely hidden and trying to snipe off baddies.. is terribly unrealistic. Raiders can also toss grenades much further than you, which is a bit of a nuisance. Final real gripe is the speech that enemies make… there simply isn’t enough variety. The majority of them only say about 3-4 things each, and love to taunt you while attacking, so these get tiresome really fast. I thought it would be neat if Gearbox allowed players to record their own and add them as they saw fit, or upload them to the website to allow others to use this user content. Aside from a few minor details like
-no HUD overlap map while driving the cars in the game (and ergo having to switch back and forth between the map and driving)
-known issues re: connecting to friends using the multiplayer options (it seems to randomly work or not work, requires restarts of the game and/or machine, etc, before it suddenly decides to co-operate)
-*Note* My friends and I all now use GameRanger, which is free, plus Skype, and now have no issues with playing together. Get it here
-a few minor clipping issues, and other minor things not worth mentioning, the game is pretty solid in the most recent patch.
Anyways, that’s one of the longest, most thorough reviews I have penned in awhile. I give this game a solid 8.9/10
Hope you enjoy it, Pete! (A friend asked for my thoughts on this game, and this gave me enough motivation to do this review!)
Half Life 2 Contra??
Posted by Jon | Filed under Geek Life, Video Gaming
In the spirit of the most recent 2d post I just made, I figured these would be great videos to post.
They are Half Life 2 mods that allow for 3d playthroughs of the first level of the old school NES classic, Contra, and of Castlevania!
Many of the sprites are 8-bit inspired, and all the music and sound effects are also lifted from the originals. The level designs are also completely flawless reproductions of the originals!
Enjoy!
Half Life Contra
Half Life Castlevania
More 2d goodness!!
Posted by Jon | Filed under Video Gaming
Wow, been on a 2d rampage lately! Maybe its just easier for me to get into 2d games because of my past original love for gaming, my original foundation of love for gaming supplied by the original NES system, or because there’s so many decent new side-scrollers available that just kick ass! Either way, I have a doozy of a post for y’all…
First off is an XBOX live download. I don’t usually post exclusive console content, but this is well worth a mention. Shadow Complex. For those familiar with Super Metroid for the SNES, you are in for a treat! Double and triple jumping, hyperspeed running, grappling hook, weapons galore, its all here. Although it has a great deal of 3d content, it functions primarily like a side-scroller, while still allowing the protagonist to shoot enemies in the background. Bosses are epic, and the plot/story was written before the game was even made, based on a book by well-known author, Orson Scott Card Probably the best game I have played that was so cheap! A mere $19.95!
Here’s a trailer for your perusal..
Second off we have Trine, another gorgeous 2d game focusing on puzzle solving, platforming, and hack and slash combat, all rolled into an old-school fantasy environment. Players can freely switch between three characters… A thief, a wizard, and a knight, all of which can level up their special abilities, and be equipped with all sorts of special items.
The thief is equipped with a bow & arrow and a grappling hook, the wizard can conjure boxes of all sizes, ramps, and platforms (and manipulate them along with objects in his environment), and the knight wields a sword and shield, or eventually a huge double handed lightning imbued hammer. Each of the characters special abilities must be exercised to their fullest in order to traverse the spiked pits, lava traps, and swarms of all manner of undead enemies.
The only gripe I have about this game is similar to the one I have about Wolfenstein, reviewed by myself here, I tend to play games on the hardest settings that are available in order to extend the game play experience. The game is challenging and fun, and I invest some good time enjoying the difficulty. Then I get to the final boss/level, and its is just insane. I think I have tried the final level of Trine a good 30-40 times without success. If I had run into such an intense level of toughness from the beginning of the game, I would have restarted weeks ago on an easier level.
Regardless of this minor inconvenience, I highly recommend this to all my readers.. It’s available on the PC and on the Playstation Network, for $40 and $20 respectively.. Weird how it cost me almost double for the PC version! 
Demo video!
My final 2d recommendation for this wondrous post is a slightly more relaxed game, with IMMENSE exploration aspects..Titled Aquaria, this indie game is a gorgeous side-swimmer (lol!) based underwater.. as you swim around the breathtaking scenery uncovering the story of Naija, you will solve numerous challenges, fight scores of varieties of enemies (there are literally hundreds of types) and fight massive bosses that all require unique methods of being dispatched. Don’t pick this one up if you can’t invest a significant amount of time. Even with a walkthrough, the immensity of the world maps will have you playing for quite a large number of hours, not even factoring in the extra time you will need to harvest items from various plants and animals (needed for a complex cooking mini-game that will net Naija all sorts of healing and buff-related food items) However, the sheer beauty of this game, along with its unique control mechanisms to sing Naija’s spells make this a great title.
Download the demo here (direct link to 63 MB file) Whats great about the demo is that if you decided to purchase the full game for $21.73 Canadian (online purchase), your demo saved games will carry across! Available for both OS X and Windows machines!
Trailer here!
That’s all for now, sorry for the Christmas break, but I will be back with some good ol’ fashioned MMORPG reviews next as I tackle the issue of gameplay vs time investment vs monthly cost!
Been awhile…
Posted by Jon | Filed under Tabletop RPG
Since I or anyone has posted. Sorry for the delay, got plenty to add to this blog…
The robot revolution has arrived… and damn, is it cute.
Posted by Kim | Filed under Tabletop RPG
Nissan demonstrated their latest model of Eporo “robot cars” at CEATEC in Chiba City today. These little guys aren’t just adorable – they’re brilliantly designed. The inspiration behind these robot cars comes from the movement patterns and obstacle-avoidance techniques of both bumblebees and schools of fish.
Schools of fish are able to travel in groups and not run into obstacles or each other for a few reasons – lateral-line sense, sight, and communication. The lateral line is a sense organ, found mostly in fish, that detects movement in the surrounding water. Nissan has replicated this using a laser range finder, which allows the Eporo to avoid both obstacles and other Eporo.
Since Eporo contain an artificial lateral-line sense, they can sense where the other Eporo in the “school” are located, and can maintain a safe distance between themselves.
So, what does all this mean? Well, Nissan intends to evolve the Eporo into the future of automobiles. Not only are they developing electric car technology; they’re combining it with collision-avoidance technology as well.
At some point in our lifetimes, we may very well see cars that are not only fully electric and sustainable, but entirely capable of keeping us safe on the road.
You can learn more about Eporo technology here, and watch a full demonstration of the Eporo from CEATEC below.
Wolfenstein
Posted by Jon | Filed under Video Gaming
There’s a new shooter on the block, and its a reiteration of a classic… Wolfenstein 3D. Once again, the player takes control of William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, an agent for the American Government, once again fighting Nazi’s and their bizarre paranormal research.
I am currently playing through this title in my PC, and I must say that once thing that first struck me is that the graphics really aren’t “super” when compared to other realistic shooters like Crysis. The singleplayer game that this game follows Return to Castle Wolfenstein) was developed with the Quake III engine, and for its time, was a fairly pretty game with good particle effects, crisp lines, and excellent physics. However, this new title was more developed for consoles, and it shows. The new title uses Havoc physics, and id’s Tech 4 engine, which is a port from Quake 4/Doom, but the details are smoothed out to allow for high framerates on console systems. While this detracts somewhat from the immersion aspect during play, it is more than made up for by fabulous gameplay. In Wolfenstein, BJ can activate an amulet that allows him to enter “The Veil” a sort of 4th dimension that grants him all sorts of powers:
- enhanced speed and night vision
- Increased damage
- damage shield
- slow time
These can be toggled on and off at will, and use a meter that can be recharged in special “energy wells” which are represented by distorted areas that resemble heat ripples. Now you might be thinking that this sort of thing is somewhat cheesy, and that every game has bullet time, etc etc, but in this instance, it is really well done. Most of the powers suck the meter dry very quickly, and since it don’t recharge very quickly on its own at all, you really have to be sparing in its use.
Another great aspect of the game is the ability to upgrade weapons and “Veil” powers. There are collectibles (that are found across the levels in two types: Gold and Intel), and these allow for new abilities to be unlocked (some are accessible after finishing main missions, but those gleaned from item collection are far more powerful and useful) I usually don’t enjoy this sort of dynamic, as its either way too difficult to find these items (see retarded games like Assassins Creed, where items are tough to locate, there are hundreds of them, and they don’t give you much of a reward) or its so simple to find them, that they might as well just give you new abilities automatically after you finish each section (See games like FEAR and FEAR 2 where bullet-time upgrade vials are located in the most obvious places)
No frustration here.. some of the items are fairly easy to ferret out, others are clearly visible in some hard to reach locations, and the player must figure out how to access them, whereas others are simply so well hidden that no matter how hard I searched them out, I kept missing them. This balance allows the plot to roll out smoothly and didn’t frustrate me with not finding all the items. Also allowing the player to choose where he spends his “gold” makes for a customizable experience.
Weapon choices range from the standard MP40 to flamethrowers, the Tesla gun, etc… I honestly found very little use for most of the energy weapons. The ammo is few and between, and upgraded one of the automatic weapons and the bolt action rifle fully. One of the gripes I have with the game, however, are the grenade physics… simply appalling bounce mechanics.. they made the explosives all but useless, which is frustrating. You can also throw enemy grenades back, a nice feature taken from other popular titles such as COD. The only other really upsetting part was the difficulty level. I always enjoy playing on the most challenging setting possible, and this game wasn’t even particularly tough on the hardest one available, until the final boss, which I have attempted at least 30 times, rarely removing more than 25% of his total health. I really not enjoy games that ramp up so insanely at the last possible moment.
All in all, the plot line is excellent. I didn’t get into much multiplayer, as I find it to be fairly boring unless its a game like Left 4 Dead, which forces the team mechanic.
So all in all its one of the most fun games I’ve played in awhile.. and yes, when some of the Germans get shot, and drop to the ground with bleeding throats, they say “Mein Lieben!” as they expire!
Dragon Age: Origins – first thoughts!
Posted by Kim | Filed under Geek Life, Video Gaming
This past weekend at Toronto’s Fan Expo, I was lucky enough to try out the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins game on the XBOX 360 (they do, of course, have multiple console types set up for game play). As an aside, that’s a good reason to go to Fan Expo – you get to play games that aren’t even out yet.
I didn’t get to play for very long, as there were lines of people waiting to get their hands on the controls for a brief chance to play this game. However, I have to say that everything I saw was amazing.
Let me first start with the graphics – I felt like I was watching a lovingly-rendered CGI film. This game has set a wonderful bar for game graphics in its obsessive attention to detail. If you go to the official website and check out the videos, you’ll only get a taste of the glorious high-def graphics in the game itself.
As for game play, I’m not completely sure what to think. I didn’t get to play any introductory gameplay – I was thrown right into the thick of a battle in a castle keep. In this situation, of course, it’s always going to be really hard to figure out how to, well, hit the barbarian with your sword. It felt like most of the controls didn’t really do much – although I’m sure they do, just not in the heat of battle – and despite trying just about every button and trigger, it felt like actual fighting was eluding me. I am assuming that all of this is covered in the introductory parts to the game that I missed.
Unfortunately, this meant that a barbarian soon set me on fire. Yes, you can actually catch fire, and the third-person viewpoint means that you watch yourself go up in flames. Despite the fact that I felt like a colossal idiot, it was pretty cool to watch.
Dragon Age: Origins launches November 3, 2009 for the PC, XBOX 360, and PS3.
T.I. starts MMORPG – wait, what?
Posted by Kim | Filed under Video Gaming
Hang on, let me wrap my mind around this. Rapper T.I. (currently incarcerated, which makes the whole thing that much better) is working with Heatwave Interactive on a frigging MMORPG called “Platinum Life”.
Let’s have a moment to process that.
Okay. So it’s a hip-hop oriented game (natch) in which players assume the role of an aspiring musician, gaining “fame” (experience) points by playing shows, etc., until you inevitably reach superstardom. Now, a few things about this are just boggling my mind, so I’ll throw them out there one at a time.
As you get more and more famous, you get an entourage. Yep, NPC’s follow you around and you have to keep them out of trouble, etc. Okay, this one strikes me as sort of cool. I feel like I need some sort of entourage and/or posse in my everyday life.
Playing a successful concert involves two things: successful completion of what is basically a hip hop-themed Guitar Hero mini-game (and those of you who know me will know that I despise Guitar Hero and anything it’s inspired), and using – and I quote – “spell-like special abilities to move the virtual crowd”.
You know, I think T.I. is missing a key demographic here. What about a tabletop RPG? I can just imagine it now… “I entrance the crowd with a stunning lights display!”, or ”I cast ‘human beatbox’!”. You could use your fame points to level up your tour bus and eventually buy a diamond-studded private jet. Come on, it could potentially be the best/worst GURPS release ever.
Release is slated for 2011 or 2012, on PC and other un-specified systems.
