Find out how IW’s rendition of Pripyat/Chernobyl is close to the real thing

Here’s a little video that shows you the real world Pripyat near Chernobyl compared to the one delivered in Modern Warfare. The fact that you’re having a bit of a hard time to correctly tell one from another tells a lot about just how real some games have become as of 2010.

And I think the brown-green-grey area is one hell of a spooky setting.

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On the shoulders of giants

map image by maps.google.com

Nobody safe no more.

Just recently found out about the upcoming little gadget that will be included in the Prestige edition of Black Ops. How exactly would you try to top nicht vision goggles?

The answer is – with a little motorized drone buggy that has a live audio/video feed to your remote control.

This is of course so that the Black Ops dude here doesn’t have to get up.

Although we’re still waiting for the flying version that uses your iDevice as a remote and has an API for others to build apps on top of that.

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On the shoulders of giants

Prestige Black Ops packaging on codblackopsblog

while kotaku got a nice shot of the current goggles for ya.

We know Jack.

After talking about missing faces a few days ago, what strikes me even more as peculiar is not the absence of something, but the omnipresence of one certain name. I’m talking about the surname Shepherd. Be it our favourite TV show or anything else, you can rest assured that this name will pop up to denote the protagonist’s alphaqualities.

• LOST’s Jack Shephard. This is already a classic. From the early start on he was supposed to lead the stranded off the island? This I can understand.

You know, the dude in the middle. Although we’d be going with crowd favourite Hurley.

• Bioware’s Mass Effect, as of this year gone into its sequel, has one main character who is customisable by the player. You choose his facial features, armor, sex, and his name – his first name, that is. The surname is fixed by the program, as this way the voice acting can refer to you. The surname in question is Shepard.

• The last main installment to this day of Konami’s サイレントヒル Sairento Hiru, Silent Hill Homecoming on PS3 and 360, also has a main char who’s name is Alex Shepherd…

• …as is the case with MW2′s evil overlord, general Shepherd.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger’s persona in 1987′s movie Predator goes by the name of Dutch Schafer. The latter is the german translation of shepherd.

With all of these originating in the United States, one cannot help but wonder if the designers wanted us to utter a little prayer every time we play a videogame or watch television.

My face is

While the crowdsourcing whether Clayton Carmine should live or die still rages on, I had to scratch another digital itch. Throughout Modern Warfare 2′s single player missions, you incorporate five characters. Aside from Soap McTarvish and the unknown ISS astronaut, the majority of the missions is spent being PFC Joseph Allen, Pvt. James Ramirez and Sgt. Gary “Roach” Sanderson. Do we ever get to know what they look like?

Who TF cares, you say, it’s an FPS? Point taken, but just like the real world being most of the time first person, there wouldn’t be as many mirrors out there if nobody cared what they looked like, would there.

There could be three ways of finding out about the answer to this universe-moving question of all questions.

1. It could simply be said by the developers, just like it is said about McTarvish.
2. You could be coming along some instances where your character passes a mirror or a reflecting surface like a sea.
3. There could be times where you play as another character and get to see your original char (also applying to the Tar).

The third option is the one for Special Ops and multiplayer, you just have to look at your neighbour (in most cases anyway). But in single player, the three people in question operate in completely different places of the world, so fat chance for point no 3. Also, I didn’t see any mirrors or reflecting surfaces – that sorts out our point no 2. So, do the devs explicitely state the looks of our three friends?

First, for the two dead guys – Allen tries to disguise as russian ultranationalist terrorist Alexej Borodin. Briefly, we get a glimpse of his newly tattooed chest, showing jail/mafia style marks.

But no face.

For the Roach, we don’t even get a pic of his chest. By glitching around a little, one is able to see that he doesn’t have a head at all:

That’s a poor record.

But both Allen and Roach surely figure in the group shot at the end of the game, since they’re both part of 141:

and alongside with Ramirez, they could appear in the credits museum walkaround. Just a guess.

Now for Ramirez, whose hands make a prominent appearence in the shot down helo -

but only his hands. No more than that. However, if you take the boxart, you can see the american parliament in the background. Seldom enough they put some random dude on the cover – why not take one of the main figures? So, this would be my final guess.

At least for the Ghost, there never is any question about his looks. Outside the balaclava, that is.

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On the shoulders of giants

For the ghost statue pic – Major Nelson’s flickr

Pics of Ramirez’ hands and the headless Roach vid – http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty_Wiki

Smoking podcasts.

Nanausicaa wants to take you to her own little podcast world. I’ve always liked it when big, author-focused sites point you a little bit in the way of their favorite podcasts. So here we go, as a nearly non-existing site, with my little list.

1. A first little dip and fresh start into a new week is the albeit short New Yorker political scene podcast. It is hosted by one Dorothy Wickenden and usually covers a few interviews on one current topic. The obvious question would be, why should you listen to people talking about the inner workings of far away US of A? Maybe a strange affection to foreign countries alongside the sometimes thick american accent. However, it takes you nicely into the week and sometimes makes you ponder problems that do not concern you. Nice.
2. Let’s go for the seriously best documentaries of the world, be it as podcasts, radio or TV shows – the BBC documentaries. Never topped in terms of professionalism, you often have your correspondent talking to an actual Taliban who just beheaded eight people and got imprisoned by the Pakistan government, or ask the right questions to the wrong people, like a central-african corrupt minister who is not used to somebody insisting on getting to know the actual truth.
3. Now, for a little mental travel in your ears: The Economist’s short podcast on how each and every major city of the world feels like when travelling there, from the airport to the hotels to when to try and seal a deal. This is one thing I like, especially the part where they describe the locals. If you’re stuck doint your job, you can always load up this podcast and at least feel like traveling a lot abroad. Check it out at http://audiovideo.economist.com/ – “Doing business in…”
4. On a lighter note, and with the only german language ’cast inna dis selection, we have the Spieleveteranen podcast, out now for the twentiest time exactly. It features old school 80ies gaming journalism “veterans”, many of which where good company at school back in the days and the talk of the schoolyard for many of us. They tend to make fun of things more than actually give out real information, and especially Heinrich Lenhardt’s f*ck Nintendo stance is quite annoying at times, but it’s got a lotta heart! Even when they seldomly play any games at all anymore, choosing to visit facebook or do iPhone games instead. …and even with all those better-than-ever-killer-games out there now!
5. Now for the classic gaming podcast, Major Nelson’s weekly selection of interviews and different little features about the 360. This one does surprisingly well, being paid for by Microsoft, and more than often containing the phrase “…which I cannot talk about”, prompting the thought, “…so why do you mention it and bring it up in the first place?”. The major is a real nice guy and features a good sense of humor and a Cicero-esque voice inside your ear. So, this one isn’t really about information and hard news (things we aren’t that interested in anyways), but a few laughs and entertainment in its own sense. Highly recommended.
6. A younger podcast, having started only this year, comes from a handful guys from the US’ east coast: Joint Operations monthly. It’s all about “guys’ favorite franchise”, Modern Warfare 2, discussing news, weapons, maps, and playmodes, while at the end naming their favorite “Player of the month” and throughout quoting various 12 year olds caught playing a mature game. I really had to LOL several times through the first issue alone. All cool guys, good voices, good humor, you name it. If you ask nicely, they even send you their own starting music via gmail.



And, nearing the end of my little journey through the podcast world, I would like to leave you with Go Nintendo’s “Go Nintendo Radio”. This musical spin-off from the original podcast is made by Touchfuzzy and should be listened to for the sake of its authors name alone. Really though, while I hate the orinigal Go Nintendo podcast, as it contains all elements of a bad podcast I ever knew, and even adds a few new ones, Touch quietly leads you through each show’s selection, while spilling all the data there is to know and ending with a little quiz. He stopped doing regular updates for now, but says he will return someday. And that mustn’t even be a bad thing, considering that the now-for-a-few-months-current issue is a special walkthrough through Nobuo Uematsu’s body of work, namely the first ten Final Fantasys. So, go grab it while it’s still up, it’s the perfect Videogames music mixtape. Search for “Go Nintendo Radio” on your aggregator.