February 2007 Archives

Just played the demo mission and a skirmish match in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Wow, this game is stuck 1995. Build queue lines? A fucking huge/thick interface? The *same* units and buildings as 10 years ago? I just played Supreme Commander, and it is light years ahead of C&C3. As was Homeworld, Homeworld 2, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Total Annihilation, etc... Note: As you can see above, they are going to sell what they know. Sell Kane! Don't get me wrong; C&C3 is polished. 5 years on this game shows in the mirror. It looks good and I can see it being fun. The small theater of war on each map forces players to zerg and rush, prevents turtling. Compared to other large-scale strategy games, hell, even Company of Heroes, multiplayer games should probably last less than 30 minutes. But its like they made it in a vacuum... with no concern to other ideas from the marketplace. The armies themselves, and moment to moment playthrough, refuse basic tactical aspects. The mechanics break down to infantry versus tanks versus air. And to a lesser degree, infantry bullets versus infantry rockets versus vehicle bullets versus vehicle rockets versus air bullets versus air rockets versus special weaponry. There are no formations, stances (offensive, balanced, defensive), and other such basic constructs found in the RTS marketplace. Silly! And everything moves so slow! I am convinced this game has only three things to offer: the hook of an extensive brand and pedigree; the draw of full-motion video staring our favorite Boomer from Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Cameron from House; and frenzied multiplayer action. But that is about it.

Amid a heated labor dispute, Tyrol asks the imprisoned Baltar for advice. Seelix becomes involved and reveals that she may have romantic feelings for Tyrol. Another wonderful episode to Battlestar Galactica. And like so many of them, it touched on major societal issues that humanity faces every day. Class warfare; working conditions; unions; skilled versus forced labor; the rise of charismatic, socialist leaders in exploited labor populations. Such an amazing show. And centered on Tyrol as well! The story fits right in with Ronald Moore's aim to portray the survivors in the fleet in a realistic manner. We've seen episodes about food shortages (The Passage) and radical insurgents (Bastille Day). Now we have a story about the harsh working and living conditions, along with the simmering tensions about perceived inequalities among members of the various colonies. I liked how the producers made an effort to film in a factory-like area onboard the refinery ship. For those who might be wondering why the refinery operations aren't automated, I'm sure much of the equipment was improvised when the ships fled the initial Cylon attack. Also, there may have been a general prohibition against using industrial robots in the Colonies after the failed experiment with the Cylons in the first place. The differences among the Colonies is far more realistic than the monolithic cultures we see in most sci-fi series. For example, in the Star Trek series, even though there are different alien races, the human race is usually portrayed as a single culture. The nationalities of Scotty and Chekhov on the original series were never really explored in depth. Some may say that it wouldn't be realistic for the workers to strike when their actions could jeopardize the entire human race if the Cylons attacked. I would disagree with that. I've met numerous people in real life who are so bent on their causes that they would rather have a project or organization fail than to "give in" to the "other side," whatever that may be. I found the attitudes of Cabott, Fenner and Tyrol to be very realistic. (Not saying that I agree with all of their actions though.) I truly think this episode marks another high point of the series. And it managed to hit its marks without involving the Cylons at all. A masterful piece of writing and an interesting treatment of some touchy socioeconomic topics.

The Treo is a great device for communication... and the installed Palm software is pretty good. But true Treonauts spend their entire days in the phone dialing application. And it has some basic flaws in its design. DialByPhoto is a great addition to the start screen. It takes the call screen to a new level. As you can see above, the DialByPhoto applications is significantly different from the default application. Perhaps the most significant change is the size and clarity of text. The DialByPhoto application is much easier to see when the phone is held further from your face than normal... the text is easy to see & read while walking, driving, or dancing. This interface applies to searching for contacts. The text is big, bright, and beautiful. The look comes off as much more polished and professional than the Palm alternative. And, given its name, it lets you have photo contacts on the front screen that you can horizontally scroll through. DialByPhoto also comes with a variety of avatars to pop on your contacts, just in the off-chance you don't have snapshots saved on your Treo. All in all, a program well worth $12. =)

Take Grand Theft Auto, add Saints Row, throw in a dash of some mad superhero action, and you've got something sort of like Crackdown. Only Crackdown is more fun that that horrible cooking analogy. I've just reached the fourth tier of agility and being able to jump from rooftop to rooftop is great fun. Oh yea, and it has the Halo 3 beta in there as well. =)