Any console game developers listening?

I sure hope you are listening if you're here, console game developers and/or promoters because I have a way (the only way for some) to draw first person shooter players away from the PC and onto whatever console you're pimping at the moment. And here it is. Everyone knows how much more superior mouse and keyboard is compared to a console controller when playing a shooter. So if you want your console game to be taken seriously in the eyes of real FPS players why the hell not bundle it with a mouse and keypad? That thing pictured on the left is a Nostromo n52 keypad produced by Belkin and I'm sure we already know what the thing on the right is. Sure you don't need to go crazy and bundle a $40 gaming device, but try something similar, eh? And as for the mouse, I'm sure you could simply bundle an adapter that would let you plug in any USB (or if you're feeling retro PS/2) mouse into the console (or better yet, have it plug into the cord that the n52 like device is on so you don't have to waste another controller port).

It really doesn't matter what game you bundle with this it WILL make PC FPS players take a second look at the console market. It'd sure help though, to bundle it with a good game or even a game from a well known franchise. I'm 100% positive that I'm not alone in the gaming community as a person who plays console FPS games pretty damned well, but get downright pissed off at the inaccuracy inherent in using an analog stick to control cross hair movement in a shooter. Sure, analog sticks are great, but they have their place. That place is 3D sandbox games like Mario 64 (or Galaxy, for you newfangled gamers) or what have you. FPS games demand mouse and keyboard. End of story.

Ok, so now that I've run my mouth on that would you guys mind either backing me up or telling me I'm an idiot. Would you want to use this sort of setup on a console game? If yes then would it make you consider console FPSes if you haven't played them for the same reason as me? If not then do tell why.

Game idea

So why has no one made an MMOFPS yet? It might actually get someone like me to try out the whole MMO thing. You could start out as some sort of class of character, be it a straight soldier, a medic an engineer, a scout whatever. Start with a basic weapon and join groups who have to perform missions like raids on emplaced structures or blowing up a bridge or whatever. Over time you could earn experience which would improve your abilities sort of like they do in Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. As you go you could find more and better weapons. It could be a nice change of pace from the stale WoW and CoD clones every other company is cranking out these days.

The only real problem I can think of with this is is that it'd be a real bitch on the servers. An MMO just has to deal with crunching numbers to calculate what happens. Did that guy just hit me? Well, let's do a check on my evade percentage score or whatever? Did I get a critical hit, well, 8% of the time I do so random number generator: nope, no critical hit. With an FPS though to see if that guy missed me the question is dependant on my position in 3D space at the time of his shot and as for whether I got a critical hit, well, did you hit the chest or head hitbox with your shot? There's a good bit more processing there. I'm sure it could be figured out at some point though, so maybe we'll start seeing these in the future. After all, the original MMOs had to wait till a server farm was capable of hosting thousands of players while still being reasonably profitable for the company running all of those servers.

Any thoughts on that one there, interwebs?

Just broke it

So, I passed 200 followers some time in the past couple of hours. Thanks guys, that's pretty sweet. I don't really have anything special planned for it, I just wanted to acknowledge that it happened, so here it is.

So, I reinstalled Starcraft (original, I don't have SC2 yet). I've been meaning to replay it for a while now. I've beaten it before, but the last time I played through it I got fed up with the last mission in Broodwar. I played the thing a good eight hours before just dropping it. I meant to get back to it and beat that fucker, but I never did. It's weird though. I remember the time before playing through I had more trouble with The Hammer Falls (last Terran mission) than the last Zerg mission. The Tarrasque always fucked me up. I figured out a good plan on taking it out though. I had a ghost on the ledge that's there before the Tarrasque shows up and he'd shoot the bastard so I knew he was on his way and then I had three battlecruisers parked near my two bunkers set to a hotkey. Once I knew the Tarrasque was on its way I'd hotkey the cruisers and get ready with the yamato cannon. Three of those and the Tarrasque was toast.

I always enjoyed playing Protoss though. Especially when I get dark templar. One of my favorite things to do with the last few Protoss missions was to get a few dark archons at the ready and mind control the rushing forces. Then I'd only use enemy forces to beat the opponents. I also got a kick out of mind controlling those flying creeps. Even after MCing them you couldn't actually control them, but it was a great way to explore the map because you could still see what they saw. And it's kind of funny seeing the enemy waste their time killing something that has no way to even attack them.

Yep, think I'll get back to Starcraft now. I'm on that Terran mission where you have to hold off the zerg for 30 minutes. I'm going to try my damnedest to not just hold off the zerg, but defeat them in the 30 mins. I'm not much of a rushing player though, so even though it's an early mission I still find doing that a little tough. I tried and failed earlier today with vultures so I'm going to try it with firebats and marines instead.

Catch ya later, bloggyville.

(P.S. fuck you spell check, Starcraft, Zerg and Terran are so words!)

Test your might!

If you can't get 75% or more of these you fail.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/enough/controllers

Good luck.

Everybody Edits

So hey, if any of you like to play highly addictive really fun web games you should give Everybody Edits a shot.

http://everybodyedits.com/

It's a simple platformer with a couple of twists. You're a smiley face and you can jump around collecting coins, hitting keys which either activate or deactivate blocks and exploring the different levels you join. The two twists I mentioned are firstly that each level can hold up to 45 people, all of whom can activate switches and whatnot, so it can be collaborative or in some cases competitive in nature and the second twist being that each level is constructed by users and you can edit levels as well. Not every level is open to edit, but every level has an edit code and some level makers (the dumb ones, really) make their codes available.

Well, enjoy the game and don't lose too much sleep or productivity over it.