Archive for May, 2010

20
May
10

Stress Free for You and Me

Halo: Reach

If you know me at all, you know I can be a pretty busy guy, even to the point where I seem to “fall off the grid” here and there.  I juggle a full time job, full time loads of upper-tier classes (even summer semester this year!), and a whole awesome menagerie of friends.  I also pass out a lot!  The number of hours I get to put into video games is reduced compared what I used to be able to pull off maybe a year or two ago, but even then, I think I might still play too much.

At any rate, here’s the story: it’s Wednesday, May 19th, 2010.  I worked a hard 9 hour shift that morning, and after a short nap I’ve batted down the hatches for several hours straight on homework and studying for upcoming exams in multiple courses.  On a whim, I decide to shut it all down and end the night with a few hours of games.  I turn on the TV and my 360 and I sit down, ready to roll.  I’ve been juggling several games at once lately, so I have a good selection to choose from for the night.  The top three: own the countryside in Red Dead Redemption, find some more clues for the case in Deadly Premonition, or jump into the very last opportunity to take up arms in the Halo: Reach beta, as the 19th would be the last day the beta would be active.  The deciding factors I use to choose what game I want to play vary here and there, but there’s an overriding, persistent factor that seems to take over lately: stress relief.

Continue reading ‘Stress Free for You and Me’

03
May
10

Halo: Reach Beta: Shot Through The Face, And I’m To Blame

Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta

Thanks to my ongoing status as an illegitimate expert (ahem), I’ve already been playing the Halo: Reach mulitplayer beta without having to wait for pesky Mondays (and the summer semester at Weber) to roll around.  So far, there’s only been play on two maps and the Arena didn’t seem to be available until today, so no words about things I haven’t tried yet.  There’s plenty of other new stuff I’ve rolled around in, however, so I’d like to let you know of a few of my thoughts on this new hot Spartan-on-Spartan experience, if you would be so kind as to entertain them!

Continue reading ‘Halo: Reach Beta: Shot Through The Face, And I’m To Blame’

02
May
10

Grand Theft Auto 4 PC: Reliving The American Dream

Grand Theft Auto 4 PC

Steam sales did it again!

There was a “Rockstar week” of sales running all last week on Steam, and Grand Theft Auto 4 came on twice for $7.50.  The first time didn’t catch me, but after I read stories of the Friday night multiplayer battles still raging on Shacknews and watching a good number of hilarious videos care of the PC-exclusive video editor feature on the game, the second time roped my wallet in.  The big download finished when I came home late last night so I did what any guy who had his first Sunday off in around a year would do: play a video game until around 4 AM.  Now, I’ve played GTA4 to a good percent of completion on 360 already, including both of its amazing expansions (Gamerscore: 955/1500 ranging from 4/29/2008 [Release Night] to 11/10/2009 [completed story on Ballad of Gay Tony]).  Playing it again on PC seems to be scratching the same itch again and is somehow pretty satisfying again.  This isn’t a complete dressdown of GTA4 as a game, but I just want to hit on a few points about the PC version that is doing it for me.

Continue reading ‘Grand Theft Auto 4 PC: Reliving The American Dream’




intro

My name is Anthony Munar, a computer programmer in Utah. I also play a bunch of video games every now and then. I talk and think a lot about them, but I never really solidify those thoughts anywhere, and writing is something I like doing, so I thought I'd do it right here. I don't intend to be high-and-mighty authoritative about what I say and I don't really have any sort of standing in the games industry. This is just for me to muse about games when I want to.

Naming a blog these days was harder than I thought. In calculus, the inflection point on a curve is where its concavity changes between upwards and down. So, maybe, the inflection pixel is the pixel which represents something that turns my opinion around on a game, like the pixels representing a beam cannon firing in FreeSpace 2, the pixels representing a flying car wreck in Burnout, or the pixels representing my own sentry gun holding off an army in Team Fortress 2.

Using the word 'pixel' in naming something game-related seems clichéd, so sorry about that.

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