Morning Vent, 16 July 2010

    By a quirk of scheduling, I worked 10AM to 10:30PM last night. I had a class to go to in the morning, and management had those of us attending just continue our work day from there. I was pretty damn tired at the end. I slept poorly, and I hope to go back to sleep once the blog update chores are done.

    I'm still a bit obsessed, if that's the word, with Blacklight: Tango Down. I noticed that Major Nelson's Xbox Live activity update, had Blacklight: Tango Down as the number one Arcade title for the week of 5 July. It's not everyone's cup of tea. I've read some complaints about the ice skatey feel of the shooter. I'm pretty sure that's a an Unreal engine issue. All the flavors of Unreal Tournament I've played have had that gliding feeling, instead of simulated running. When I played UT 1998, I typically played that with the speed setting at 150 percent. Anything lower seemed a bit too slow to me in those days. You could turn weapon bob off, and I usually did.
    My initial impression of Tango Down is based less on direct experience than a desire to see an underdog shooter do well. Not very rational, but it's the way I feel. In the main blog are three review links to check out.
    Speaking of underdog shooters, what about that box art for Call of Duty: Black Ops? Not exactly unexpected, but nice. Look:

 So badass, he needs two M1911A1s and CAR-15s!

    Not bad. It's one of the most recognized images of Black Ops so far, and it doesn't push the VietNam angle too hard, which might turn some people off. But it's not WWII, either, which might also be a negative. Speaking of negatives, no word yet on the rumor that some form of zombie mode will be available in Black Ops. I guess folks were hoping that, in addition to the box art reveal, some news would be forthcoming about VC undead or something. In any case, the CoD vids today are World at War flavor, with a BAR vid from Dunkus and a rare PC hardcore TDM match from Tiffmiester. Moving on...