Posted in Hi Tech, Low Tech, tagged board games, fantasy flight games, game review, Gaming, mansions of madness on 28 Nov 2017| 2 Comments »
It’s not all video games, here at OMG-Central. I also enjoy old school, across the table, low-tech board games.
If you’re one of those for whom “board games” only evokes images of Monopoly and Parcheesi, let me tell you, these are not your grandma’s board games. They’ve changed a lot, in past decades, and they keep changing, adding new mechanics, new twists on old methods, and sometimes even extending “beyond the box” to include other media and technologies. (more…)
Posted in Hi Tech, tagged game review, gamers, Gaming, guerrilla games, Horizon Zero Dawn, playstation, ps4 on 06 Jul 2017| 2 Comments »
My holiday weekend was less than stellar, mostly because I was on-call and got several alerts on several nights during the wee hours. Grrr.
However, it was not without some good. One of the high points was a new game: Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games) which is available for the PS4 (currently on sale for about $40).
HZD is an open world, third-person POV, quest-structured game along the lines of the Far Cry or Elder Scrolls, but in my opinion HZD is far and away superior to those others and primarily for one single reason: the writing. (more…)
Posted in Hi Tech, tagged blue isle studios, game review, gamers, Gaming, oculus rift, valley video game, VR headsets, Will Oculus Rift work with glasses on 28 Mar 2017| Leave a Comment »
This past weekend, still recuperating from a kick-your-teeth-out head cold, I didn’t have much energy for anything beyond breathing, so I figured maybe I’d play Valley, the new game I’d purchased. Aside from that, my one major expense of energy would be to accompany my wife (who had also succumbed to the Killer Cold) on an errand to the mall. The mall is one of my least favorite places, but I managed to muster enough oomph to assist her, and I’m glad I did because whilst there, I was able to try out the Oculus Rift.
These two items — Valley and the Oculus — pretty much peg the spectrum of gaming costs. At an online sale price of $8, Valley was a superb bargain, while the Oculus headset rig ($499) is about as dear a peripheral as you can find, especially when you factor in the current requirements for both a high-end gaming PC (the model I used in the demo was $1499) and the Oculus Touch handsets ($99/pair).
Now, there’s no frakking way I’m going to plunk down over two grand for a gaming peripheral. Ain’t gonna happen. Nuh-unh. After spending ten minutes under the VR headset, though, I was tempted. Sorely tempted.
On the other hand, my expectations for a video game that costs eight bucks were low. Very low. Like, I expected to be bored within an hour, low. That didn’t happen, proving that even my jaded sensibilities can still be wrong. (more…)
Posted in Hi Tech, tagged game review, gamers, Gaming, hello games, NMS, no man's sky, playstation, ps4 on 23 Aug 2016| 2 Comments »
Because A.J. wanted a follow-up…
The Perception of an Object is distorted by the sum of the object’s anticipatory Hype and the engagement level of the observer’s Imagination.
The hype for No Man’s Sky was intense. As if three years of visionary promises and a truly groundbreaking approach weren’t enough, when Sony opened up its gargantuan wallet and bet its money on Hello Games — a tiny, 15+ person development company with only a cheesy little platformer app to its credit — all speculation was punched into warp-drive.
Usually, in such situations, I see the hype for what it is (i.e., marketing) and my Imagination compensates, essentially canceling out the effects of Hype. This way, when the game is released, it’s pretty much as I expected and disappointment levels are kept to a minimum.
In the case of No Man’s Sky, however, I made a tactical error. I figured that a small, independent company like Hello Games, run by a plucky band of earnest boys and girls from Surrey, would not yet be infected by the callous, avaricious cancer of corporate greed. I took them to be sincere lovers of games who were trying to be transparent about plans and features.
My bad. (more…)
Posted in Hi Tech, tagged game review, gamers, Gaming, hello games, NMS, no man's sky, playstation, ps4 on 10 Aug 2016| 2 Comments »
On Release Day, I spent a few hours playing No Man’s Sky.
It’s not perfect, but damn, it’s close. (more…)
Posted in Hi Tech, tagged Daymeeuhn, gamers, Gaming, hello games, no man's sky, playstation, ps4 on 08 Aug 2016| 5 Comments »
Tomorrow’s the day.
No Man’s Sky, the game that tipped the scales and convinced me to buy a PS4 console delivers tomorrow.
The hype for this game — in my little world, anyway — has been intense, and with good reason. It’s truly unlike any other game, both in construction and in scope. Nothing exists until you (or someone else) discovers it. Planets, environments, flora, fauna, it’s all built on the fly, procedurally, the moment you encounter it. Once a gamer has discovered it and uploads her findings to the “atlas,” it becomes permanent and available to all other gamers.
It’s been a long wait — more than a year, for me — but as usual, some spoonhead decided to spoil it for others.
Posted in Culture, Hi Tech, tagged Gaming, hello games, no man's sky, ps4, video games, xbox one on 20 Jul 2015| 4 Comments »
Let’s take a break from news about my career change (because there’s no news to report) and turn to a quandary solved. I speak, of course, of the answer to the crucial question: “Xbox One or PS4?”
I’ve been asking myself this question for a while now, but with the cut in income that this career change will inevitably bring, the issue has reached the fish-or-cut-bait point. In the past, “Both” would have been a viable answer, but now that’s no longer an option. I must make a choice, and soon. So…this one? The other? Or neither? (Yes, neither is an option.)
Currently, I have an Xbox 360 and a PS3, acquired over the course of several years (I am not an early adopter), and I can’t say I favor one over the other. The differences are largely insignificant to my playing style, and those differences are far outnumbered by the similarities (both good and bad). As a result, I really don’t have a preference, leaving “Neither” as the strongest option.
As an Old Man Gamer, I don’t have large circles of online friends with whom I go RPGing or MMOing or FPSing. I occasionally run with a couple of guys on Xbox Live and a couple of other folks on the PSN circuit. That’s it. I’m more of a lone wolf, in that regard and thus, when pondering the question of console upgrades, knowing what my peeps are planning to do carries some, but not a lot of weight (especially since none of them are planning to upgrade anytime soon). So, again, “Neither” looks to be the best answer.
With this in mind, you might then ask me why, last week, I suddenly decided to purchase a PS4?
Answer: game availability. Specifically, one particular game. (more…)
Unraveling Time
Desert Wind
Ploughman's Son
Ploughman King
The Year the Cloud Fell
The Spirit of Thunder
Shadow of the Storm
The Cry of the Wind
Beneath a Wounded Sky
Cryptogenesis: A Memoir
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 