Since I firmly believe PC game developers don’t get it, here’s a list of things every single PC game needs to have as a requirement. I hope to put this in some kind of formal document every PC game needs as a set of guidelines to follow or as a gate-keeping service a company uses to determine if a game is ready to be sold or not. I’m sure most corporate execs and business owners would be primed if I told them there’s a larger market their games could be sold to–Intel graphics chips–but their developers didn’t seem to put this in for whatever reason. It could’ve been the other way around that a publisher said the game had to be released on PC after its console debut leaving much of the customization out of the picture. There’s no real reason to release a game on PC lacking any of these features especially one made in the last couple years.

Windowed Mode

Something lacking from just about every game out there is the ability to start the game in a window instead of at 640×480 in full screen or any other low-resolution which doesn’t at all match the resolution of my desktop or what I’d be aiming to use for that particular game. It’s even worse when the game actually includes a windowed mode but somehow excludes its usage on the first start for whatever reason. If game developers were actually using the games they played, they’d probably realize immediately it’s annoying to be doing things on your computer and want to open up a game on the side to test it out and then have it open up full screen at a low resolution no one wants to play at hardware pending. I remember many times this happening in Windows XP, and I’d have to go ahead and put my icons back in place. Because of Fences and Windows Vista, I’ve not had to experience this problem any longer, but I can’t imagine it’s gotten any better.

I can’t imagine being forced into full screen with every game. I have methods I use to help out when a game won’t go into windowed mode. It’s pretty easy to assume all gamers are extremely lonely and have nothing better to do than to game, but some people, maybe most of them, would enjoy being able to chat, talk, and use their computer while playing their game. The pause feature is there, why not give it more use? There are some games I’ll be waiting on something to happen and while I’m waiting I could just go ahead and chat back to someone online. This happens so many times that I lose tons of productivity and become so enclosed without it. There’s enough 5 second waits that chatting actually becomes conversational even whilst playing. If anyone doubts me, a few good examples are Steam, Impluse, Xbox Live, and PSN all supporting in-game chat. Whether it be with ALT+ENTER or a setting in-game, Windowed mode is a must since I’m pretty sure not everyone has their mom or a good some of their friends on Steam.

Variable Resolutions and Aspect Ratios

Do not hardcode resolutions in game. Allow people to edit some config file and fake the game at whatever resolution and aspect ratio they choose. Say your monitor is not fixing the aspect ratio so all pixels are anamorphic. They’re going to have to change the aspect ratio of the resolution they’re using to match that of their display’s aspect ratio to correct this issue, but just about every game out there is lacking this feature or, if it includes it, it does not allow variability out of a set few which may or may not correct the problem. The resolution controls seem so limited now in comparison to the old 2D days where you’d even see the ability to windowbox or letterbox a game because your computer probably can’t handle it or because you’re going for a certain effect.

Games these days also don’t seem to add enough resolutions. I’ve played a few which even had 320×200 for 16:10 displays, and I was more than happy to use those resolutions on computers that required them. It’s best if the resolutions had the ability to scale where you’re playing 320×200, but the game is actually scaled to 1024×576 or something similar (by user choice) so the the 2D graphics for menus and such would be readable. My biggest problem with lower resolutions is the inability to read text and the lack of low-res fonts. Should I need the lower resolution, fonts are usually the last of my needs whereas getting the game to play is of top priority.

Where’s my ability to just type in resolutions of my choosing? Maybe I want to run the game at 1024×320 and have good reason to. Maybe I want to have fun and experiment or that I have some kind of unique virtual display which, because of my technology limits, would require I run the game at 1024×320. or 1050×3360 even. I’ve done this with a few games, but not all because it’s not even something you’re able to do. Sure, it’s good to tide the masses, but the masses probably don’t have fixed-aspect ratio enabled for their display or in their drivers so the game is going to be stretched regardless.

Aspect ratios seem to be limited to. Other than the fact that most games only supports a very very limited set of resolutions, almost no games support changing the aspect ratio. I could play a game designed for 4:3 in widescreen, but since the game doesn’t support 16:9 or 16:10, the 3D looks fine and the 2D is stretched. It has the terrible side effect of making the menus also unusable because of the difference in vertical and horizontal pixel sizes. On my old CRT, I used to play a certain game in an 8:3 resolution windowed because it allowed me to play the game and talk to others at the same time whilst also seeing the game in a more human-eye way. 8:3 on a 4:3 display is exactly half of the screen leaving me with the other half completely usable to do whatever I wanted to do like look at the time. In the case of my 16:9 display, I would then want 32:9 or 24:9 so I can view the game in a more cinematic aspect ratio. Whether it’s full-screen or windowed, it should be included at least.

I’ve only seen only two developers add a feature to allow custom windowed resolutions of any size, but only one of those developers has that variable resolution keep 1:1 pixels; both have their benefits. This is done by putting the game in a window and clicking and dragging on and edge or corner in the same way you’d resize any window which also allows the window to appear in other monitors and add to the gaming experience regardless of the resolution of that secondary or tertiary display. While the game is lacking the ability to save this resolution, meaning you have to set it each time you start it, the fact that it’s included at all leaves much to be desired in other games.

Real-World Time

Include a way to view the current time of day. I don’t know how many times I’ve not looked at the clock and let my day go because my own sense of time was quite a few hours off from the time of the world around me. It doesn’t help when you have the light on in the room so when the light outside goes away, you don’t quite notice. It’s simple to just call on the Windows API and say “what’s the time right now?” Have the ~ key or some other extremely useless key just show the time on screen even for a second. This is definitely one of those features just any game needs to keep people on schedule.

There’s a lot of times people say “I played this game for so long, I didn’t even notice what time it was.” This happens less with TV because shows are in increments of 7.5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes long and there’s a timer on most cable or satellite boxes. HDTVs these days also take over showing the current time as well. The days of the 12:00 blinking VCRs are gone, yet PC games force you into full screen and then lack a way to view the current time unless you have check your phone often or have a physical product you purchased and put somewhere nearby you can look at which shows you the current time of day. Games that have dynamic weather and lighting conditions based on the actual time of day supersede this notion because of the fact that there’s more going on which actually alerts the player to the current time of day and that time actually means. It’s also the case that those games even display the time of day somewhere because it’s required information for the player.

Support Intel Graphics

Is it that hard to ask to put a mode in which turns off advanced lighting, makes all the textures single-color ones if even done procedurally, and lowers the pixel shader requirement? It’s bad enough the majority of PC users have Intel Integrated solutions and worse that Intel is the market lead in the PC graphics card industry while having the worst solutions, yet game makers don’t seem to see the profit in tapping that market. It’s like tapping the reserves of the human population in both China and India. If only 0.001% of the population purchases your product in America and that same percentage holds elsewhere, it means that you’ll sell more in China and India. Why not yet tap that extremely large market of laptops and desktops with Intel Integrated graphics? I don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to play or recommend games for people but since they don’t live with me and don’t have a machine graphically capable of running the game, they just don’t which also means I won’t since I’m definitely not going to play that game by myself.

It’s really simple, make the game look crappy, people can play it on just about everything. Include a wireframe mode if you have to be so cheap. If those people like the game, they might by more and maybe might start looking for more gamer-friendly solutions to play games on in the future so their graphics problems would be less of an issue. That doesn’t mean that the person’s laptop with a super fast processor tons of RAM but crappy Intel Integrated will just disappear, it’ll mean that the investment is actually worth something. Don’t assume your market is gamers, assume your market is a bunch of people with Intel Integrated wishing they had something better.

I can remember getting my first graphic card all those years ago and finally could play my games in eye-candy mode, but in those old days, you could run your games entirely in software mode or in software TnL mode to at least be able to play them and later make them look better. If anyone’s a game developer, heed these words; the most beneficial thing of PC games over any console game is the fact that PC games will always being to look better and better over time whereas this is most-impossible for consoles unless the next generation console includes backwards compatibility, enhanced graphics rendering, and upscaling. PC games will always look better over time. Newer technologies and the ability to upgrade or more the game to newer hardware are only a few reasons for this. Others include the ability to do surround widescreen gaming and newer display technologies innately supported by the graphics hardware. This is almost to say PC games are forever improving long after release. While not always the case, think of it as a good indication of a well-made game if it ages young rather than aging older.

Acknowledge 1280×960 != 1280×1024

I know for a fact most people don’t realize the standardized 5:4 aspect ratio most all of the non-widescreen LCDs out there are using is limited to one resolution standard: 1280×1024. In fact, I’ve seen many games support this resolution, but I hardly see any supporting the 5:4 aspect ratio so at 1280×1024, things are stretched. Worse yet, 1280×960 is almost always non-existent. How is this possible? If you do your match correctly: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×960, 1360×1020, 1366×1024, 1440×1050, 1536×1152, 1600×1200, it’s pretty obvious 1280×1024 shouldn’t have even been standardized. I’m still unaware how this resolution ever made it as a standard, but I do know that, if a game doesn’t support 5:4, it should at least letterbox 1280×1024 to match what actually should be 1280×960.

When I was a kid, I did not know this differenciation and always wondered why my isometric 2D games were so strange looking and why icons did not seem to look right on my display. It shouldn’t be the job of a 12 year old to try and disipher aspect ratios and associated resolutions so there really should be an auto mode included that does this calculation for the user since it’s as simple as float x divided by float y = aspect ratio. And I’m pretty sure most game engines don’t know the difference between the aspect ratio 4/3 and aspect ratio 640/480 since they both end up being 1.33.

I can’t imagine how many people played first person shooters at 1280×1024 in a 4:3 aspect ratio and probably didn’t do so well since they’re going to believe the pixels are 1:1 when they are not and will have to cope with different vertical and horizontal scrolling speeds unconsciously. Maybe those people got used to the change, maybe not. I remember having issues with this change and always felt like I was not a good enough for the game or that I was just a poor player or those style games in general until I figured out the fix and no longer had problems like that. I’d hate to be the game developer that said “no one cares about a few pixels of stretching” and had some 100-200 people deterred from the game because the anamorphic pixel scrolling caused the game to be unplayable.

Multi-display Capabilities

UNDER CONSTRUCTION FROM HERE
If there’s any sort multi-display capability, make it useful to everyone with multiple displays. Unless I’m in a school or corporate environment, I have never seen a consumer using multi-display with same model or brand of displays because this consumer only purchases monitors with a computer or only every-so-often and gets what’s cheapest or what is favored by the technology of the time. I definitely wouldn’t want to purchase another one of my displays if, for the same price, I could get something better. Multi-display usage is something I’ve been doing since 2000 and have been continuing to use since.

1. Ability to display the game on multiple displays while in a window
2. If support for multi-monitor, then multi-monitor controls

Finally! Took me a while, but I beat it. I had a lot of other stuff I could do it the game, but it got boring after a while sadly. I wish there was more changing stuff like the beginning of the game. The fact that you could only hold 4 weapons and one was forced to be your hammar was a side-effect of the game being originally made for console and while it balanced it some, it really didn’t make it so fun when there’s 100 EDF, your friends suck and can’t kill a anything but themselves, and you keep running out of ammo and have no really good guns to deal with anything. If I could just use all the weaponry I worked so hard to purchase, I think the game would’ve been superb.

The game was great in many aspects though. Gameplay was awesome and something unseen. I can understand why you couldn’t terraform in here, but thought the developers could’ve found a way around that at least. There weren’t enough things in the game to make you feel like a badass, like you could do something. There used to be a moral multiplier which never made it into production, and it always said times one. Should it have said more, I figure the original design was to have an army at your side of Red Faction members helping you out. I can easily say, had that been the case, I would’ve definitely enjoyed this game WAY more. Casual mode definitely is still a bit too hard and I played on normal for most of it before feeling like my 7th or 8th time through a mission was getting far too annoying. There were even two mission types I tried many many times and just kept failing so I just chose not to do them anymore. If that’s what I’m doing, there’s some clear oversight on the part of the developers.

The story, if it was more like the end of the game, would’ve been better from the beginning. There just nearly wasn’t enough development and the explanations of things were so subtle they were non-existent. What was the whole thing about people talking about Parker early on? Why was a town named Parker? How in the world was that girl a Marauder? Where did those people come from when they said the planet is rightfully theirs? Where’d they get their technology from? A LOT of EDF soldiers died. I can’t imagine that not one of them joined the side of the Red Faction. So many other things like more information about what was going on with Earth, how long the Hydra took the build and what effect you really had after completing missing was doing. Like, you’d do a mission which would cut off all EDF supplies on Mars and next thing you know they’re bringing out tanks and provide you with unlocked mechs. Clearly something’s wrong there.

I hope they make another game, keep it as fun as this one was, and really elaborate on a ton of stuff. Lastly, I heard there was an ostrich hammer in here. I bought the game to use it, where is it hmm? Developers, I hear you crying!

– Kevin out

WHAT HAPPENED? No really, what just happened? The girl was kinda on the moon or something living a strange life without her brother, but was her life up there created by her brother? Was it even the same girl? Her and July died so I dunno. This show had a pretty sad ending, but I just didn’t feel it so much. The main character lost her memories and then died. It was extremely sad. I couldn’t move during the entire time. I kept sitting there watching her existence fade away and just sat in the chair wondering what was going on and how I was going to deal with it. Apparently I’m currently in a highly-emotionless state of mind because it did nothing. Having the rest of the show just blah to the end was enough to make me have no reason to care.

Charming yet frustrating at times. I felt like I wanted to use some better form of control during the game which could help me out. It has the same artwork as a game like Professor Layton, but a lot more choice in music, some fun charming parts with your character, and a neat bit in the story you probably didn’t imagine going into it.

My favorite part of Machinarium was the artwork. The mini-games or story elements most point-n-click have where you need an item or two and that does this and that does this and this character does this to get this is not appealing to me in the least, but I used to play games like those all the time as a kid and it was interesting to play one more setup for an adult mind.

The help area was really helpful, and it was challenging to unlock the walkthrough. I’d say it’s best to keep it unlocked at least if you did it. I wanted to see what it was like to get the walkthrough and it helped me out in a part I thought I had to do more in. Turns out, I was trying to do more in the game that I was supposed to which would be a problem the developers have to deal with and only occurred in the jail at the very beginning of the game.

I wish there was some extra to the end and a way to make sure I saw all the thoughts my character had of his past since some of them just happened without any event triggering them.

For the $10 I paid, I’d say the game was worth playing, but I’d even say it’s $7-8. I paid the same $10 for Zeno Clash, enjoyed it a lot more and spent less time being frustrated since it was my skill which held me back, not problematic design. I still think it was a fantastic game and a must-see, but I’ve thought from the beginning that it was priced far too high at the usual $20 and would be a total letdown for those individuals. I’m assuming my pricing is biased considering I do not like the point-n-click schema enough to be attracted to those games anymore.

– Kevin out

P.S. I wish I knew how to pronounce the name of the game properly.

It’s been three people now who’ve messaged me about Christmas. I completely had no clue it was coming up or that it was so close. Frankly, this year I’m pretty impervious to the holiday. Usually, I at least know it’s there and coming in a certain amount of days, but this year, there really is no Christmas for me so I don’t have much to say anymore about it. Seems strange to even think of holidays as something to consider anymore. I mean, last year I almost worked on Christmas if I got up early enough to do so. I guess I’m just so situated in my own world that nothing really happens around me with my knowledge anymore.

This is one of my most highly-recommended anime. It makes you think so much and look at your world another way. The story takes place in Tokyo if there was an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. The aftershocks would be 5.0 quakes.

It was an 11 episode series and the 10th one caught me by surprise. I really don’t want to give it away in the least. I knew something was up. The show was fairly easy to read and, because there were kids involved rather than 20 yr olds, I felt like the majority of the show wasn’t going far enough in what they were showing. After seeing it till the end, I would say that’s false. You don’t realize the genius in the show if you don’t see the whole thing, and I’d even go so far as to say this ranks up there with Galaxy Railways and Saikano in the emotional effect. It’s really hitting me hard right now.

Apparently Astro Fighter Sunred isn’t done. I’ve seen 6 more episodes in the last few days. Guess I get to watch more of this fun stuff. It still amazes me how this show has nothing to do with Power Rangers style super hero action. It’s kind of like watching a show about everyday daily life along with a group of people supposedly part of an evil organization who are trying, but failing, to kill a jobless man living off of the expenses of his girlfriend. The guy is supposed to be a super hero, but he’s a jerk and actually shows he has a conscience. A lot of his character is depicted as the bad kid on the block, the bully. It’s pretty funny.

I guess I finished it yesterday. The show really doesn’t have a concrete ending so maybe there will be a second season. This is yet another anime in a long line of them that has very wish-wash endings. At least this one made sense ending with two friends who can never see each other again.

Member Since: 1/2/1997 6:13:46 PM. For some reason, I thought I got it in 1996? I can’t remember so well, but AIM says I got it in 1997. I remember that because it was Netscape or something related, but there was also the AIM one from the AOL messenger, and they were both related somehow. It guess, when it was Netscape, it would’ve been NIM.

– Kevin out

Either someone at Microsoft thought up the same thing as I did or blatantly stole it. Look at this little bugger.

Pictured are the second and twenty-third DDR Night posters. That’s the first and the very last appearance of the DDR Club’s posters at UMKC. It’s pretty old considering it still has the old DDR Night logo even. Our DDR Night slogan was “We’re Ready; Are You?” I wanted it to be grammatically correct and to read well which is why I was smart enough to use a semicolon unlike Microsoft’s marketing team.

There’s a reason you see a childrens’ hospitals named “children’s” and why Microsoft opted out of my semicolon. It’s because those symbols aren’t used by the grammatically incorrect and since you’re marketing to the everybody, you’ll want anything confusing out of your advertising. Most people don’t know how to used those symbols properly unless they’re making emotions. Either that or those marketing departments are just made up of those people who can’t use those symbols properly. Whatever the reason, I just wanted to say how cool it was to see an idea I thought was cool actually used by the marketing team of one of the biggest companies out there.

– Kevin out

I’m starting to downsize again. I’m gonna move my family server over to new hardware, which has higher data capacity which means I go from 8 hard drives to 3. It’ll also be on more powerful, but more energy efficient hardware which is always a plus. It takes less time and power to do the same tasks my current server is doing which’ll be the main impact from this endeavor.

In another attempt to downsize, I have a gig coming up this Friday and was looking for a couple high-quality receivers. I have one already, but it’s not necessarily high-quality for audio with the speakers I wanna throw at it. I was talking to my dad and somehow came up with an idea for how I can setup my computer speakers as ZONE2 on the receiver I bought early this year. It’s a do-all solution which also has a function that allows you to turn off the receiver and play audio to another location or zone while also retaining the ability to control the volume, effects, and source independently of the main system. Pretty freakin’ awesome huh?

Now my computer speakers are setup as ZONE2 and my theater system still works and can play a movie off of my computer at the same time as I’m playing a game or something. It’s pretty darn cool how diverse this is. I’ve been able to put another use to the 25 year old receiver I was using and also get rid of the equalizer. Downsizing is fun! Even if my setup doesn’t look as cool as it used to, at least I’m using less power and getting better quality audio.

On a side note, my monitor’s external power supply started melting in my hands. I had a spare on hand and am waiting for a replacement. The thing was so hot I got kinda burned. The power cable was so warm that even a few minutes after the unit had been powered off and unplugged the thing was still warm.

– Kevin out

I finally took some new pictures of my workspace as it is today. Been almost a year now since the last time I did this. Not that much changed visually, but I did close the side of my computer, refoam the subwoofers, rewire a bunch of stuff, and clean up a bit. I got a few new electronic devices and nothing much else. Two of the pictures, 1727 and 1728, are there to show the difference of flash on and off.

Here are my first posted pictures of my audio/video equipment. I’ve been moving stuff around for so long and hiding things under my desk that no one really ever saw it until this year. I’ve got more hardware I’ve put into storage, but what’s there does everything I need right now. Most of these pictures should look familiar aside from the fact that the big tall wooden cabinets on the sides of the TV are gone now.

Just like the previous season, I was laughing loudly at the comedy of the whole thing. The music in this season was much improved from the older one and seems to contain some custom works actually worth listening to on their own. I was left wondering a few times where they picked up some of these amazing recordings.

On the other hand, I was displeased with the poor computer graphics work. This season contains a lot more of it than the previous one and not only is it noticeable, but it is cheap and poorly executed. The movements of the characters are stiff and unacceptable of the music they are playing. I wish there was more oomph in ‘em if anything. It was just completely lost of the feelings and emotion that reside in the expressions of the characters and the music. Still, it was enjoyable for me to watch.

I really don’t know why I continue to do these. I always write out lengthy write-ups after each show I finish for the most part, but I detest doing them and really have nothing much I’d like to say. If only for historical purposes, it still seems like a waste.

I watched Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Big Battle yesterday and it made me want to go and watch the 52 episode series from 1983. Other than that, I have nothing to say. Gosh, if not for the fact that I had been doing it, I really would no longer continue these write-ups. I only hope I have some readers that benefit from my annoyances.

Whoa! Get this, I wanted to pass that 13 footer when my ex girlfriend was supposed to visit me in April 2008 back when we were dating. I’m watching an anime right now where some of it is in French (Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter) and immediately noticed Je T’aime. That is the name of the song I was going to pass for her.

I really tried and tried hard before she came to make sure, by the time she was here, I would pass it. I even got the help of a guy online who’d passed it himself asking about what to do where. I never did pass the song, but the week she was supposed to be here, I got to the very last notes before I failed. The thing is, I feel like such a romantic now; Je T’aime means I love you.

– Kevin out