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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Next Gen

I was finally able to watch, or get through without falling asleep if you will, the Sony Meet 2013 press conference, boring speeches and G.W. Bush style teleprompter reading aside, the PS4 system specs look juicy. A system for developers by developers they said, with input from developers from various studios, they seek to create a system easier to design games on, you can watch this to hear what some of the developers have to say about creating this new beast of a machine.

Being a beast of a machine is great, I am in truth very excited about the system and the changes to the controller, though there are not very many, and some of the games they announced. A new inFAMOUS title, Capcom with a new IP Deep Down (working title), and Watch Dogs is going to be on there. But what worries me is that PS3 games will not be "natively supported on PS4", but they did say that the network they are working on will one day be able to have PS 1, 2, 3, and even mobile games. That is great and all, but how long will we have to wait? How much will we have to pay to purchase all those games? Some of which we already own, I for one will not be getting rid of my PS3 any time soon. You want to make a system that is capable of doing almost anything in the realm of entertainment, to be the one and only thing you need to go to for your entertainment needs. Then by the nine do it, make it so it will play your entire library of games.

But I can see why they would not be supported, take a look at those system specs, now take a look at the PS3 specs, that is one hell of a difference. Look at it this way, you buy a new PC with awesome specs high-end graphics card and processors, and all that jazz, do you think it will play say GTA-IV? My bet is going on hell no, at least not very well, it will probably crash a lot, due to the fact that the graphics card does not want to touch the, loathsome, crappy old polygons. You have purchased hardware too advanced for the old software, it is not programmed for those specs, and the hardware does not support it. And so we'll have to wait for them to program the old software to work on the new hardware, which can take time and money.

Sony is also going to make it so developers, if they choose, can lock their games with a code, much like PC games, and if someone wants to play that game and doesn't have the code because they purchased it used, they will need to purchase a new code at the retail price of the game, or some yet to be decided price. I really don't see a problem with this, sure I like to save a buck, but when you buy a used game you are only supporting the store you buy it from, which is cool you like that store, but what about the developers who made that awesome game? I have seen a lot of studios closing their doors because of financial reasons, that is a lot of people out of the job.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Good Reads

I went out over the weekend and found myself at a Barnes & Noble, looking through the sci-fi/fantasy section first, as is my custom, I had a great find, a new series from a favorite author. While I was there I thought to skim the young adult section to see if anything popped out at me, I don't really care about target audiences, and low and behold I found the new book from the on going series I have been reading.

From Brent Weeks, author of one of the fastest and best selling fantasy series Night Angel, comes The Black Prism the first book in a new series. "Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserve a tenuous peace."

I am really looking forward to reading this, as Brent Weeks has become a favorite author of mine, almost over night, ever since I read his first trilogy, Night Angel, I was taken in by his writing style, and his attention to details that paint a picture in your mind but still gives you the reigns to imagination. I highly recommend reading his works.

From Rick Riordan comes The Mark of Athena, the third book in The Heroes of Olympus series, which follows almost immediately after the events in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This story follows Percy and six demigod friends as they race against time to thwart Gaea and her giant offspring rising again, and fight a bunch of other monsters along the way.

Riordan really loves mythology from all sources, he has another series that is based in Egyptian myth, and he does his research on everything he writes about. Though the book is intended for a younger audience then I, it is still a good read and I suggest taking a look at this and other works by Rick Riordan

Friday, February 15, 2013

I Geek, therefore I am


Hello, I am Vicfalcon,

 I have many passions in my life, video games, movies, books, comic books, cartoons, etc. The list goes on, if you get me started I can talk for quite awhile, and you would probably call me a geek, which is rightly so. A geek is someone who is passionate about a hobby/interest, they "geek" about it. I am a huge superhero fan, I love comic books, and could talk for hours about many of my favorites, my top two being Batman and Spider-Man. My love for superheros extends even to the type of video games I play, mostly RPGs, JRPGs, Action/Adventure, etc. I am not much of a fan of First Person Shooters, so you won't find me talking about Halo or Call of Duty here. I read a lot of books as well, some of my favorite authors are Laurell K. Hamilton, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and many others.

A little while ago, after one of my "geek" moments, a great person suggested to me I should write a blog, that person is my fiance. I didn't listen right away, I am rather stubborn, but I thought about it, and what I would write about. Now here I am, I will be sharing with you my geek moments, rants about what annoys me, and reviews/opinions on all those things I mentioned and more.

I Geek, therefore I am.