Sunday, January 06, 2008

2008: A New Year

Its Interesting to note the craziness of the net and its subsequent denizens when looking into the coming elections. GQs latest has some insight on the hallmarks of craziness that the Internet itself is providing. More-over this article provides information on the boundless resources of hatred just waiting to be channeled and warped for almost insidious purposes. I’ve no problem with those who dislike a choice of candidate, but as the article shows, the majority of people employed by hate-sites rarely can even pin down what they despise about their assigned target. Hate because their party does rather than what they stand for- insanity.

Christmas has come and gone and I spent the better part of it wasting the day away mastering golf on my nephews Wii watching my nephew play with his toys. I bought a couple of toys of my own, unfortunately they were not as much fun.

I had the misfortune of purchasing Kane and Lynch for my PC. Aside from the lackluster gameplay and miserable accuracy of the weapons, the developers/ publishers facilitated something to me that made me insane with rage. I’ve played bad games before and even had the opportunity to purchase some of them. But none of them compare to the asinine, aggressively mediocre middle finger that is Kane and Lynch.

Cooperative gameplay requires not only that you play on a split screen and on the same computer but also requires an Xbox 360 controller to play. That’s right, although the single player campaign uses a the Mouse and Keyboard, its Co-operative functionality requires this controller. No Lan play, no internet play.

Another reason I purchase the game was the promise of their much touted ‘heist’ multiplayer levels. Unfortunately, this requires a GOLD membership to XBOX live. This means I cant play with anyone unless I shell out another $50 a year.

To recap, game = $50, Controller = $30, GOLD LIVE MEMBERSHIP = $50/ year. Total cost of Kane and Lynch to get full functionality = $130.

I’m sure some executive for MS thinks he’s pretty smart for requiring all these extra features just to get what other games give for free. Frankly this is enough to sour me on Microsofts games for windows campaign altogether. As a consumer I don’t like being bullied into buying services, and like it even less when Im not informed as to their necessity.