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I’ve refrained from reading any reviews about L4D2 because I wanted to formulate my own opinions about it before I read anyone else’s. I did read a short article on Kotaku about it a week ago, but that’s about it.

My first impression: the game is harder than the first one.

I think that it was very clever of the developers to include new special infected zombies that force you out of corners (Jockey, Charger). Movement is definitely one of the main focuses of this game. The Spitter also forces you to move, or else your health continues to go down until you step out of the acid. This eliminates hiding in a corner. I never really thought of piling into a corner as much of a problem as a player, but if I had developed the game, that’s probably one of the first things I would have fixed for the second installation. I feel that they have done this successfully.

Also: instead of fighting off the horde in certain parts of the game (namely the finales), they have introduced new goals. In Dead Center’s finale, your team has to retrieve 15 gas tanks from three different floors of the mall. Not only do you have to retrieve the gas, but you also have to fill the car up. All of this is happening while common infected, special infected, and tanks are spawning all around you. When playing versus, people tend to get really angry when you spit acid by the car so that they can’t fill it up with gas. Naturally, this was one of my first strategies.

At another point, the survivors have to go and fetch this guy’s Coca-Cola in order to get him to clear the path. This isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s a refreshing change of pace.

One really cool aspect to The Parish campaign is the level where you have to get out of the burning apartment. It’s pretty difficult to see much of anything with all the smoke and fire around you. I haven’t been able to play through all of the Hard Rain campaign yet, but I hear that your sight is impaired during the storm as well. Both of these aspects definitely made the game more realistic, and I haven’t even played the through the Realism mode yet. Between work and class, I’ve just been trying to get through all five compaigns on advanced.

So far, the Dark Carnival campaign is my favorite. I am positively delighted every time I come across a zombie clown. I honk its nose about five times, and then I shoot it. Shooting down a tank in the Tunnel of Love amidst swan boats was comical. The only problem with that campaign was the finale. For some reason, my team was having some trouble with it. Our first instinct was to pile into a corner, but that’s impossible now due to the Spitter, Jockey, and Charger. We eventually made it to the chopper after fighting off zombies from the stage. There is no cover in that finale whatsoever. I suppose that technically isn’t a problem though; rather, it’s an improvement.

The witch sometimes wanders now as well. There’s a sugar mill that you have to go through in one of the campaigns, and there are wandering witches everywhere. It’s not much of a problem just so long as you’re not playing with a 12-year-old boy who’s afraid to walk past the witches. Needless to say, we never beat the campaign -__-

A lot of people like to use the melee weapons, but I’m not very fond of them. I still enjoy my guns. There are more to choose from now, and there are ammo upgrades that can be dispensed by players. I personally like the incendiary ammo. People still have their favorite weapons, but they’re harder to come by now that different ones are spawned in different locations each time. You might like a certain weapon a lot, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be using it the entire time; ammo is limited. The only thing you consistently have is your pistol(s).

Defibrillators are also available now; they immediately revive an incapped teammate to 50% health. There are also adrenaline shots — which I don’t ever really use — and boomer bile, which attracts zombies to the target you threw it at.

This is getting way too long-winded, so I’ll wrap it up for now. The main complaints I have with the game:

1. The characters. The dialogue is stupid, and the characters aren’t as interesting as the last batch.

2. The servers. Dedicated servers have the worst lag, and local servers aren’t much better. Part of the reason I’ve only completed two campaigns is because everybody’s connections have been so terrible. I hope they do something about this soon.

Hopefully I’ll have time to check out Realism and Scavenge soon.

I found this article about Second Life via Joystiq. It caught my eye because the BBC was reporting the new happenings of Second Life (or lack thereof), and I didn’t expect a news site like the BBC to write an article about it. Apparently they’ve written quite a few articles about Second Life though, just as many other news outlets have.

I hadn’t even heard of Second Life until a couple of months ago, and I thought that it was created some time in the 90s, but I guess it was created in 2003, according to this article. “Games” like this just don’t catch my attention because I don’t really have any interest in them. However, I think it’s cool that they’re so emergent; they probably attract all the subcultures who aren’t represented in mainstream gaming. I think it serves its purpose well in that respect, but I’m not so sure about the others. I haven’t ever actually played Second Life though, so I can’t be sure.

This article has sort of sparked my interest in it. I would like to try it out at least, just so I know what the gameplay is like and what people are talking about when they refer to Second Life.

I’m glad that I’ve been taking classes in IAM because I feel like I have more respect for all the different types of games people like to play. I used to be hypercritical. I’m admittedly still very critical of FPS’s, but if that’s what people like to play, then that’s what people like to play. My opinion can differ, but I can’t really tell anybody what their favorite genre should be.

I think it’s good to have an open-mind about games or else you’re just going to limit your experiences in the industry.

(For example, there’s this game called Redneck Jamboree. Do I think that there’s any possibility that this is a legitimately good game? Absolutely not. But I feel like it’s my duty to play this game and see just how many stereotypes about rednecks they’ve managed to include. I just can’t bring myself to spend $20 on it.)

As a journalism major, I read this article thinking to myself that it would be pretty awesome to get paid to sign up to play Second Life as a correspondent and then report on the happenings in the virtual world. I would like to aspire to do something similar, whether it’s reviews or cultural papers or studies.

Anyway, as a last thought: I don’t think Second Life has lost its appeal as this article has suggested. If it did, their userbase wouldn’t keep increasing. It might just be evolving into something new that some of the companies and other players no longer want to be a part of. What that is, I’m not sure.

lol picture ::

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/20/banned-psn-player-sues-nintendo-and-microsoft/

This article showed that Valve, a production company who developed the highly successful video game Half- Life, found marriage between public opinion and innovative game development was a better victory pathway than satisfying marketing demands. Their initial product, Half-Life was scrapped, since it did not appear to meet their internal quality standards. The game was not fun despite the artistic design, the levels tied poorly together and it was riddled with technical problems. However, often starting from the beginning allows other new ideas to generate.

It appeared the first step was to lie out the important components to developing a quality video game, and Valve defined them as:

1) Experiential destiny: player control of activity and next experience without lag time

2) Player acknowledgement:  visual reinforcement of player actions

3) The player should blame himself or herself for failure, not the game, so to continue to like the game

All designed to make the game palatable to the player. It seemed their next step was to find a perfect game-developer to put it all together. Having failed, they seemed to create their own avatar, the cabal. This cross-section of company talent combined their expertise with public play-testing to re-create Half-Life that met standard as well as financial success.

It showed that if you find talented people who can work together, there could be better success than when people work in isolation. This is however no easy accomplishment with egos, superiority complexes and self-demigods that often exist in this industry. But egos were outweighed by vision and some are energized by collaboration. This allowed widening of the opportunity to change what didn’t work for what did. In this environment leaders are needed, others with talent willing to be subordinate and skills need to be integrated.

In the end, Valve found groundbreaking success with teamwork, the cabal.

Blog Response

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24199/

A Video Game for Angry Teens

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston are applying the aggression developed in video game playing, to treat teenagers with emotional problems. Using a Space Invaders-like video game, players shoot down alien invaders while avoiding the friendly ships. The game is connected to a heart-rate monitor the player wears.

Prior to playing the game, these patients are taught relaxation techniques, and then asked to play the game. When their heart rate reaches a certain level, they are asked to use the relaxation techniques to bring it down, while continuing to play the game. The idea is to create a stressed environment, and teach the teenager how to use techniques that will control his emotion and aggression. The blogger wants your comments on this new potential use for video games.

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This is a significant twist on video gaming. The complaint is usually video games bring out aggression in teens, but here they want the aggression to occur. This creates a stressed environment the teenager is then taught to control.  Teen-agers are already attracted to video game playing; I’m sure more than a therapy session, so that’s a great hook.

I believe aggression among teenagers is on the rise with so much negative inputs through music, entertainment, and school and just like stuff. Also I don’t believe there are not many successful and positive therapies to treat this aggression those teens would respond to. This seems like a great idea.  There would be an increase in communication between the teen and therapist, because video games would create a bond, developing trust and making the therapy more successful.

This technique could continue outside of therapy, and be used to control teen aggression while playing other video games. Therefore, the game can be played more relaxed, and the player might get something different out of playing, instead of frustration, especially with higher-level games that may be difficult to beat. These techniques could be expanded into and useful in other aggression provoking situations the teen may experience…

I would like to see future games develop like this to reach teens with other significant problems they have, like avoiding drinking and drug use.

Mission: Dinner With Sasha

Agent Moya wants Cole to go to the Reapers underground lair, find their leader, Sasha, and kill her. To get there, Cole has to travel down a long deep tunnel that is riddled with Reapers. Game play begins, and Cole has to engage the Reapers in fighting to travel deeper into the tunnel. Half way down the tunnel, you can hear Sasha’s voice say, and “I’ve been waiting for you, longing for you.” More Reapers continue to come out from hiding that you have to defeat. Cole travels deeper down the tunnel. Sasha’s voice appears again and says, “What’s this.” “ No, that’s not possible.” “You lie!”

Cole is still fighting the Reapers, but he can’t defeat them in hand-to-hand combat. It was more effective to use his electrical grenade power. He can then stand at a distance and blow them up. During this game play, the Reapers have more advanced weaponry. They have machine guns, suicide bombers, sniper machine guns, grenades, and can use them while fighting Cole in the tunnel. Towards the end of the tunnel, Cole finds innocent people locked in cages. Cole tells Moya, “I found where they are making the Reapers.” ”There is a bunch of people locked down here in cages.” Cole continues, “Machines are spraying black tar all over the place. Moya tells Cole to get the innocent people out of the cages, and then deal with Sasha.

Sasha’s voice comes out again, “You think I don’t see her, the way you parade her around like a common Jezebel.” “I see everything now, Kessier (Cole’s last name), all of it.” Cole replies, “What’s your problem.” Sasha responds,” You think you’re smarter than everyone else.” “You’re going to pay.” When Cole finally arrives where Sasha is, she asks, “What took you so long to get here?” Sasha disappears for a second, then reappears in Cole’s face, and tries to attack him. There is a timing button that you can press the second she reappears that will block her attack. If you don’t time it correctly, Sasha can hurt Cole. Her attacks are repeated, while the Reapers continue to attack also. Once Sasha is defeated and lay dying on the ground, she tells Cole, “Look at me. “ “You’ll never control it Cole.” “Look at me. “ “Look at what it’s done.” “It controls you.”

The story enters the narrative comic book sequence, and Cole is speaking. He states, “Sasha was nothing before the blast, but looking at her now; is this what my powers are going to do to me?” “A warped body and a twisted mind.” “Is that my future?” Cole believes that Sasha knows about the First Sons and the Ray Sphere. ‘If I’m going to dig myself out of this hole…” Cole begins. Then an explosion occurs, and Cole is knocked unconscious for a moment. Upon awakening, Cole says, “They came in fast, smoke was everywhere.” “Sasha got pulled out, whoever they are, they must be pros trained for this kind of thing.” Water begins pouring in, and the place starts to fall apart. “With no way back, I went forward into the Slums of the Warren. Mission completes, and 500 experience points are gained.

Democratic United States Senate campaign seeks unpaid motion graphics intern to produce video bumpers & lower thirds. If student needs to earn internship credits, campaign can provide ongoing work and will work with the student so that they can earn those credits. As an intern, ongoing video production would be editing/production and various other duties.

This is not an on-site internship. Self-starters only!

Please send resume & link to reel to info@robincarnahan.com with subject “Motion Graphics”

Via GrandTextAuto

http://www.funnyordie.co.uk/videos/32d666a5cd/call-of-duty-secret-spielberg-level-unlocked

This a freelance Flash Development opportunity. The Flash Developer will be teamed up with a Flash Animator so we do not need an Animation expert btu some graphical sensibilities is definitely a plus. The Flash Developer will also need to know their way around the Flash IDE toolset for integrating visual element. While we would prefer to have someone on site, remote work is possible if you are local and can come in for meetings.

Responsibilities

• ActionScript 3 expertise
• Client-Server data integration experience, specifically with SOAP WebServices
• Knowledge of the GAIA ActionScript framework is a plus, but not required.
• Estimation of large and complex projects, providing detailed documentation, mentoring of other members of the team, and enhancement of the Engineering Group’s application frameworks and toolsets

While we would prefer to have someone on site, remote work is possible if you are local and can come in for meetings.

Contact
This position is an immediate need. If you are interested, please send your resume.
Rebekah VanOverbeke
Rebekah.vanoverbeke@arcww.com
312-220-6441

Who is Arc Worldwide?
Arc Worldwide, the marketing-services partner of Leo Burnett Worldwide, offers a world of opportunity for creative, passionate people who want to help us shape the future of marketing. Arc delivers inspired marketing solutions to a blue chip client roster and we’re part of Publicis Groupe, the world’s 4th largest communications group. Our clients include: Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Purina, and Whirlpool.

3 Credit Hours, 15+ hours per week, schedule determined by the student

Spring Semester 2010 (January – May)

About Emmi Solutions:

Emmi Solutions creates award-winning, interactive patient education programs. Based in the Chicago loop, we are dedicated to empowering patients, improving the patient experience, and delivering value to healthcare organizations.

For more information, visit our website: www.emmisolutions.com

Job description:

Emmi Solutions is seeking a graphic design/production student intern to support both our Marketing and Production (Art) Departments. The intern will work on a company re-branding effort that will encompass print and web collateral and will also participate in various interdepartmental projects to improve our sales materials.

The candidate must be reliable, easy to work with and able to take direction within a team environment. An organized, detail-oriented person is a must.  If you would like to gain experience in many different aspects of print and web media (including typography, page layout, web design, HTML and CSS coding, and Flash animation) and you excel at balancing multiple projects simultaneously, this may just be the internship for you.

Job requirements:

College senior preferred

Minimum GPA of 3.0

Graphic Design major preferred

Must have experience in:

Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver

Basic HTML and CSS coding

Microsoft PowerPoint

Basic graphic design and typography

Additional qualifications:

Flash experience a plus

To apply:

Submit resume and link to an online portfolio to: interns@emmisolutions.com

Please use: Graphic Design Internship Position as the subject line.

Applicants may be asked to participate in a phone interview and an in-person interview at the job site.