GODDAMNDAVE

and just about pissed myself with glee. I’m only about 20 minutes in, but this game has already achieved pants-shitting greatness in my book. The intro was good, the integrated tutorials are seamless, the hand to hand combat is simple yet robust, the graphics are unbelievable even on my PC, and already I’ve experienced several gameplay elements that are fundamentally superb and well executed. Like that hand to hand combat stuff. It’s dope.

Great job by Rock Steady Studios - never heard of ‘em. Their website is butt. Well, here they are on twitter: http://twitter.com/rocksteadygames/

and though it starts of well enough with the destructive play, the controls are messed up. There is extreme delay between the pressing of a button and onscreen response. This is most noticeable when driving a vehicle, as I can press the left arrow key and watch the wheels take a full second to rotate.

There was similar delay in Far Cry 2 when I first started playing it. The solution was to switch the game from DirectX 9 to DirectX 10, and now it seems the same may be true for Red Faction: Guerilla. At least I hope the solution is that simple. The bigger question is: Wtf is wrong with DirectX 10?

Also, I hate Games for Windows LIVE! Anyone who has been forced to use this shit should already know that it sucks, it’s just an impediment to play that is usually broken or in need of a game stopping update. Last night, once again, it threatened me with an inability to save my game if I didn’t sign in. Then it threatened me with an inability to play at all if I didn’t let it update itself. Note that this update does nothing for my game, which is the piece of software that I, the user, chose to run and therefor GfWLIVE is taking up time that I did not choose to give it.

Then it fails to connect, tells me my webernets might not be working. So, now what? Can I play? Can I save my game? I continue on and do both of these things, proving that the threats of GfWLIVE are both bullshit and idle. Yes, it is good that they don’t stop you from using your software when they have their own, unrelated technical issues, if you’re comparing that behavior to effectively bricking your game. It is still assinine bullshit if you compare this behavior to what they should be doing, which is staying the fuck out of my way and not impeding my play. Yes! Yes, it rhymes because Microsoft makes me angry! Speaking of Vista…

After I quit playing Red Faction, whose input delays I believe can also be blamed on Microsoft via DirectX 10, I find one of Vista’s ubiquitous “security” popups. It’s from the firewall. Apparently, Microsoft was blocking Microsoft from connecting to Microsoft to update Microsoft. I love it when a plan comes together.