In what initially appears to be an anticompetitive move, Apple forces Stanza to remove the ability to add books via USB. Apple claims that they are justified because Stanza has to use a private API to access the books because the iPhone is such a shitty platform that it won’t allow you to copy files to it without a work around.
I hope there is a good android phone out there by the time my contract expires. Apple is seriously starting to piss me off.
There has been a lot of discussion on this topic in left wing circles touting this as the president “taking it to” the republicans. Well, I have seen it, and read the transcript and I just do not believe that to be the case. Basically, all this is, is politics. The president opens by doing a speech will a dash of political grand standing.
The question and answer segment was equally as pathetic. Both sides held tight to their talking points. The president danced around questions, and attempted to shed nearly all responsibility for anything that is not working.
This is a follow up to my earlier Call of Duty 4 post, and a response to valandw’s first, and second rant about the game.
Overview
As I mentioned in my MW2 post, I started playing these games on veteran because vanlandw has started the trend. Somehow, he powered through COD4 on veteran on his first play through. And, he considers it the paramount of his gaming career. Obviously, I thought that he was being a little melodramatic so I played through MW2 on veteran on my first play through. MW2 certainly sucked on veteran, but it was not a life altering event. So, I was prepared to give vanlandw a rough time about it. But, I figured first I had better play Call of Duty 4 on veteran.
This did give me the opportunity to discover that COD4 is a much better game than MW2 in numerous ways. The story makes much more sense, the kinds of activities you participate are plausible (no snowmobile races with enemies, etc…), and it just feels more realistic…to a point. There are a few major flaws in COD4 that utterly destroy the experience, I’ll try to outline those now.
Elite Dogs of Utter Death and Destruction
Frequently throughout the game you will encounter dogs in the game. They are as annoying as all hell. When a dog attacks you, nothing else matters. You can get shot while grenades explode around you like fireworks. The only thing that matters is that this dog is going to rip your throat out, and it is nearly impossible to stop it. Once the dog “quick time” event starts, you have to hit melee when the button pops up on the screen. You give about 1/10 of a second to react. So, effectively you need to anticipate when the prompt will come up so you can already be pushing the button. If you hit it to soon, you die. If you hit it too late you die. If you do not hit it at all, you die. Luckily, the fixed this in MW2, so it is actually possible to hist the button in time.
Hey Captain, Look, its Raining…Grenades
The United States spends more on defense than the rest of the G8, and they do not equip their soldiers with infinite grenades. So, where the fuck are these people that live in the ghetto getting all their grenades? It is wretched when you find yourself in a situation where you are trying to pick off enemies to advance, or are just waiting out a timer and you cannot sit in cover long enough to crouch without being surrounded by grenades. On numerous occasions I stopped to scratch my head in an area without enemies only to see the grenade warning pop up because I was standing still for too long. I know this is suppose to be a game play mechanism to encourage you to advance, and feel the pressure of battle, but they take it to the point of absurdity. To a certain extent this has been fixed in MW2, but the enemies still have enough grenades to make you feel uncomfortable.
Hurray, another Choke Point
Frequently in the game you find yourself funnelled into a hellish littler area where you are forced to fight endless waves of enemies unless you advance. Advancement is usually forced down a linear path with spare cover (which does not matter because if you stop behind cover you’ll get naded). Most of the time these choke points are only really difficult because of the poor game testing this game received on the veteran difficulty. And, there is perhaps the mother of all choke points on the stage, “No Fighting in the War Room.” Vanlandw mentioned it in his post, and I experienced it myself. I cannot think of another section of a game that takes two minutes to get through, but it took me countless tries over three hours and two days to get past it. If you want the video below, the section in question is at 4:36. However, I think most of the videos up for this were actually played on hardcore, rather than veteran because I encountered quite a few more enemies in this section. And, to help illustrate this I whipped up a quick graphic to show how bat shit crazy it is.
Another section that was really annoying is the ferris wheel section of One Shot, One Kill. After attempting repeatedly to play this legitly, and just getting naded to pieces I broke down and hid in one of the ticket booths. If you want to know how to do that, here is a video that demonstrates someone pulling it off. Keep in mind that it requires luck, if someone throws a nade in there you are pretty much toast, and when you leave it is a crap shot whether or not you die instantly. Persistence in the key.
The other really annoying area is a shining example of poor testing. The final section of the stage, “Heat,” gives you air strikes, and very little hope of getting to the LZ. On veteran it feels impossible, but it is amazing what a little information will do for you. Check out the video starting at 0:44. Basically all you need to do is follow the timing, and path of this guy and you should be in good shape. You can actually get through the stage without using a single air strike (I did).
For the most part these kind of things are gone from MW2. Sure there are choke points, but there is nothing remotely close to these three travesties.
These situations are extremely frustrated because you can stand their and just watch your team mates shoot at nothing in particular, while waiting for you to pave the way to salvation, which brings me to my next point.
Who Do You Think You Are, Soldier!?
You have team mates in the game, but they are just for show. Basically the only useful thing that your team mates do is let you know when you have advanced past a choke point because they magically teleport up as if they helped you the whole way. Frequently they will just stand out in the open and get totally obliterated, but it doesn’t matter because they are invincible, just like real soldiers. Sometimes they will go out of their way to step in front of you and draw friendly fire. The game rewards you by giving you the game over screen.
The stupid soldier issue is kind of fixed in MW2. You can shoot them forever without repercussion, and they move around a little bit better. But, it is still very much the same.
Conclusion
I could go on for hours, but those are my biggest gripes about the game. And, I whole heartily agree with vanlandw in warning everyone not to play this game on veteran. If you do, you’d be doing it for bragging rights, but not because you could receive in the slightest amount of enjoyment from it.
In conclusion, COD4 is in theory better than MW2, but some show stopping bugs, and balancing issues make it nearly impossible on its highest difficulty. While I ranked this game a 0 based on my first play through (I believe on hardcore), I have to give this game a -5 on veteran.
Parting Thoughts
Despite all this, I think vanlandw did overrate, if only slightly to the difficulty of the game. I receive an equal, if not greater level of frustration on my play through of Ninja Gaidan on the original Xbox.
Today Apple announced their new “iPad.” Unfortunately, it sounds like a feminine hygiene product. And, not surprisingly, we saw a dip in Apple stock during the announcement, with a subsequent rebound.
While I am glad that Apple is finally trying to hit reasonable price points, in this case, starting at $499. But, sadly this device is missing many fundamental features I would look for in a tablet:
Stylus support, I want to draw and write note damn it)
Full OS Support, seriously, who wants to be constantly constrained by a walled garden?
Flash, how can you release a device, and bill it as an “internet device” and not support flash. I hate flash, but it is everywhere. You cannot offer the full internet experience without it.
I would much rather pick up a “ModBook” from Axiotron, although they are way too expensive (almost $2,000).
I know someone that has been going through this self help kick. I tried to explain to them that everyone writing those books is full of bullshit, and they are just working angles in order to get money from you. But, people are always looking for easy answers, and I did not have any better recommendations at the time.
After digging into things for a while, the first book that I determined had merit is, “The Happiness Hypothesis” by, Jonathan Haidt. Do not get me wrong, this is not a self help book, it actually has substance. Basically what Haidt does is a survey or ancient wisdom with a little modern positive psychology to establish his take on the issue.
The basis of his analysis is related to the happiness formula devised in positive psychology: H = S + C + V. Where H is happiness, S is the genetic set point, C are the conditions surrounding you, V are the voluntary things you do. From this base level he defines what most happy people do with their C and V to achieve happiness, and what you can try to do to change your set point. One of the more amusing aspects of the book where the ways he suggests that you can change your set point, either using meditation, cognitive therapy, or Prozac.
In the beginning of the book he talked about the four major divisions of the mind, and establishes the metaphor he uses throughout the book: the rider and the elephant. Basically, in this metaphor the rider is the rational part of the brain, and the elephant that representation the finely tuned autonomous brain functions. I think that if he ever writes a more “self help” style follow up to this book it should be called, “The Elephant Whisperer.”
One of the things I got a kick out of is that Haidt, an atheist, open advocates that people become more actively involved in religion (this is in a beyond the book section of the website). Now, he is not advocating any particular religion, since from his perspective it does not matter since non of them are right, just that you become more involved with it. There are a few reasons for this, that are not immediately obvious, but it has to do with the social / interconnectness of religious organizations, and fulfilling a need people have for sacredness.
Anyone that has read the book knows that I am greatly over simplifying some of the concept here, but I wanted to get the basic ideas out there for people to think about. And, while I do not necessarily agree with many of the conclusions he comes to, I do recommend the book to anyone that is interested in the subject matter. I am officially giving this book a 4 on the undecim.
2009-01-27: There is actually a really good outline of the book available online.
Apple Nerfs Stanza
In what initially appears to be an anticompetitive move, Apple forces Stanza to remove the ability to add books via USB. Apple claims that they are justified because Stanza has to use a private API to access the books because the iPhone is such a shitty platform that it won’t allow you to copy files to it without a work around.
I hope there is a good android phone out there by the time my contract expires. Apple is seriously starting to piss me off.