steve kwan user experience designer

Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

(November 17th, 2007 - 6:49PM)

(5 / 5 stars)

GSOD. Image taken from the Call of Duty website.

Summary

I just finished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's single-player campaign. It's short. In fact, it's shorter than either of Half-Life 2's episodes. That's pathetic for a full-length single-player game.

I've read that Call of Duty 4 also has superb multi-player, but I haven't played it yet. For the purposes of this review, it doesn't even matter. The single-player alone, despite being only about six hours long, is worthy of a five-star rating. It's possibly the most compelling six hours of video gaming that I've experienced in a long time.

Things I liked about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:

• The single-player experience is compelling.

  "Compelling" doesn't even really begin to describe it. Call of Duty 4 moved me. It made me feel something. That's rare for me, because I've played so many video games that there are very few things I haven't seen before.

  Call of Duty 4 is much grittier than the previous games in the series. The others were all World War II based, and of course the Allies were the good guys and the Axis were the bad guys. There's no room for moral ambiguity there, as it would be politically incorrect (to say the least) to imply that the Nazis weren't all bad. But in Call of Duty 4, the line between good and evil is a bit blurry.

  In the game's very first mission, you're dropped by helicoptor onto a freighter ship. You're informed that "the crew are expendable." I thought that was an awfully odd thing for the good guys to say. And when you rope down onto the boat and the crew sees you, you can almost see the surprise and confusion on their faces right before you mow them down. For a second, I had to think to myself, "What kind of person am I?"

  There are also some tremendous moments in the game. In particular, I was impressed by a short sequence at the end of the American campaign (you'll know it when you get there). It's about a two-minute mission that was totally unnecessary, but it adds tons of realism and emotion.

• The combat is exceptional.

  When you shoot people in Call of Duty 4, it feels like you're really shooting them. The blood splatter is great. The weapons are great. The bodies fall realistically. This is as close as you can get to actually being a Marine.

  It's also nice to have highly accurate weapons. The previous Call of Duty games were WWII-themed, and their weapons seem archaic compared to the ones you get in Call of Duty 4. It's nice to point and shoot and have the bullet go exactly where you wanted it.

• The graphics are superb.

  Although not entirely photorealistic, and although the character models look a bit cartoony, the graphics are stellar.

• I hear the multi-player is exceptional.

  As mentioned earlier, I haven't played the multi-player yet, but I hear it's fantastic.

Things I disliked about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare:

• The single-player experience is short.

  The single-player mode clocks in at roughly six hours. Normally if I paid $50 for a game and got stuck with a single-player experience this short, I'd be up in arms. But in the case of Call of Duty 4, I don't mind it so much.

  Sure, Call of Duty 4 is short, but what you do get is such great gameplay that it's worth it. Would you rather have twelve hours of mediocre gameplay, or six truly exceptional hours?

  Still, I would have loved another five hours of Call of Duty 4.

• The sound, although good, was not great.

  There's nothing wrong with the sound in Call of Duty 4, but I seem to recall playing Call of Duty 2 and being completely wowed by the sound effects. Call of Duty 4's, while good, were not fantastic.

Conclusion

Call of Duty 4 is one of the most immersive shooters I've ever played. If you're a fan of first-person shooters, either single-player or multi-player, Call of Duty 4 is a must-have.

My spammer alter-ego

(November 15th, 2007 - 11:15AM)

My co-worker Sam just received this email.

Look here, "Stevan Kwan" - if that is your real name - I don't appreciate you bringing shame to the good name of Steve Kwan. Steve Kwan is better than this. You'd better get your act together.

Review: Creative Zen 16GB

(November 14th, 2007 - 3:35PM)

(4 / 5 stars)

Summary

I've expressed my dissatistfaction with iPods for years. Since my iPod bricked on my vacation, I took the opportunity to replace it. I recently received my Creative Zen (16GB model).

It took some time to get ahold of my 16GB Zen, as the stores up here only carry the 4GB and 8GB models. Amazon.com wouldn't ship them to Canada. I was able to order one direct from the Creative website, and it arrived in under a week. Here are my thoughts.

What I like about the Creative Zen 16GB:

Its sound quality.

My main complaint with the iPods are their sound quality. Apple's done a great job of creating a sleek and sexy music player, but has ignored basic requirements such as good sound quality. I was dismayed to hear that even the sixth-generation iPods have lousy sound quality, which was my main reason for getting out of the Appleverse.

I was happy to find that the Creative Zen has excellent sound quality, which is what you'd expect from Creative. At first I wasn't blown out of the water, but the more I listen to the Zen the more I realize its sound quality is quite good. In addition to good overall sound, the Zen has an EQ adjuster which supports both presets and custom settings. It also has a bass boost feature.

Although the Creative Zen doesn't sound as good as iRiver's players (which can only be described as "audiogasmic"), it's certainly well ahead of Apple's. Although I would have appreciated 3D audio support such as SRS WOW, few portable music players have this feature so I'm fine without it.

It can sync with more than one computer.

One of my huge gripes with iPods is that they can only sync with one computer. If you try to plug your iPod into another computer, iTunes will ask if you want to format it. I don't know if Apple is trying to prevent piracy or just make things easy, but I find this really annoying.

The Creative Zen behaves as a portable media player should: it's basically just a hard drive that can play its contents. If you plug it into another computer, you can transfer files onto or off of it without any trouble.

Its form factor.

The Zen is small, light, and attractive. It's got a shiny black front and soft back. I haven't had a chance to use it extensively yet so I can't be sure how tough it is, but it looks like it could take a beating.

The Zen manages to achieve its tiny size despite sporting a 2.5" screen. That's the same size screen as an iPod classic.

My only complaint is that the Zen looks like it was inspired by the iPod. While I understand that Apple is a trendsetter and it's wise to follow in their footsteps, it'll be difficult for any portable media player to surpass the iPod if the design goal is simply to copy it.

Its features.

The Zen is fully loaded. It plays music, video, podcasts, and audiobooks. It has an FM tuner and a voice recorder.

Its capacity.

The Zen comes in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB models. I have the 16GB model, and can easily fit all my music onto it. If that's not enough, it supports SD expansion, so you could buy a 16GB SDHC card and insert it for a total of 32GB. That's a lot for such a tiny flash player.

Its interface.

The Zen's user interface is slick, sleek and much easier to navigate than the iPod's.

Its price.

Despite being so feature-rich, the Zen is competitively priced. I purchased the 16GB Zen, a car charger, and workout armband for $320.06 (although I also got dinged an extra $56.99 for duty). Compare that to the iPod Touch, which the Apple Store prices at $399!

What I dislike about the Creative Zen 16GB:

The lack of availability.

As I mentioned before, it was quite difficult to get a 16GB Creative Zen. I couldn't find one in stores, and Amazon.com wouldn't ship them to Canada. Creative really needs to make it easier for people to purchase their premium players.

It's not as easy to use as an iPod.

I think I took for granted how easy iPods are to use. You just plug them in and they set themselves right up. They automatically sync all your music, videos, playlists and audiobooks. The Zen, although not entirely difficult to use, requires a lot more setup than that.

I was able to get my Zen working quickly, but it took several days of tweaking to set it up the way I wanted it. Compare this to the hour or so it takes to set up an iPod.

Although the Zen is a great device, it's certainly not one you should buy unless you're comfortable with technology.

It's unstable.

The Zen sync software crashes constantly. I found out that WinAMP can sync the Zen (a possibly killer combination), but unfortunately their integration was buggy too. I'm not sure if it's a problem with my computer or with my software. I suspect both.

I would recommend ignoring the Zen sync software altogether and just syncing files manually.

Its weak playlist support.

Although the Zen supports playlists, it's somewhat difficult to sort them, and I don't know if you can create smart playlists like in iTunes.

It's hard to find good accessories.

I was able to find a decent workout armband, but unfortunately the Zen doesn't have the same library of accessories as the iPod. I couldn't find an integrated car charger and FM transmitter. However, I was able to set up an acceptable solution.

The screen is smudge-prone.

This isn't a huge problem, as wiping the screen will clear it up.

Conclusion

Although the Zen isn't an iPod killer (I think the Zune is better suited to that title), its form factor and feature set make it a great portable media player. Although it has its flaws (most pertaining to stability and ease of use), it addresses all the problems I had with my iPod, so I'm happy with it.

I highly recommend the Creative Zen to anyone who wants higher sound quality and more features than iPods provide. However, if ease of use is your concern, you're still better off with an iPod.

Kwan family wisdom

(November 12th, 2007 - 9:45PM)

Uncle:
"You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar."

Me:
"But you don't want bees."

Dad:
"Yeah. You want honey."

Review: Clive Barker's Jericho

(November 11th, 2007 - 1:50AM)

(3 / 5 stars)

Summary

In 2002, I picked Clive Barker's Undying out of the bargain bin and was pleasantly surprised with what could be the scariest game I've ever played. So when I heard that Clive Barker was collaborating on a new game, Jericho, I was excited.

I have a theory that most first-person shooters are either based on WWII, or a story about a Portal to Hell opening up where the world is flooded by monsters. Jericho is a Portal to Hell game. It's best described as an FPS version of Diablo.

Jericho is neither original nor compelling, but the gameplay is almost on par with Gears of War. Before you get excited, bear in mind that I'm not a huge Gears of War fan.

Things I liked about Clive Barker's Jericho:

• The premise.

  You play as a soldier belonging to an elite paranormal squad called Jericho. The idea is that every once in a while, a monster called the Firstborn tries to get out of a dimensional prison, and Jericho has to push it back in. However, every time the Firstborn is banished, it takes back a portion of reality with it. What this means in gameplay terms is that you have to progress through time in order to fight the Firstborn, starting with modern day, and progressing back to early civilizations.

  I'm a huge fan of games that give an excuse to visit lots of different locales, and Jericho uses this time travel as an excuse. Throughout the game, you'll visit World War II (whoa, a Portal to Hell game AND a World War II game?), medieval Europe, ancient Rome, and more. Unfortunately, all of these locales are visually similar, so there's not as much diversity as I would have liked.

• The Jericho squad.

  Jericho consists of six soldiers with different personalities and abilities. You've got a soldier, heavy artillery, medic, ninja, sniper, and tech. Each of the characters is a unique individual whose talents are essential to the Jericho team.

  I much prefer this approach over the Rainbow Six: Vegas or Gears of War approach, where your teammates are interchangeable.

• The graphics.

  Other reviewers have complained about Jericho's graphics, but I think it looks pretty sharp. In particular, the blood effects and body part explosions are fantastic.

• The boss fights.

  Although not quite as epic as Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Jericho offers some excellent and memorable boss fights.

Things I disliked about Clive Barker's Jericho:

• Shallow gameplay.

  Despite being a squad-based game, Jericho's gameplay is generally run and gun. There's little strategy involved in combat scenarios - it's just a matter of staying alive.

• Stupid AI.

  Both your team AI and enemy AI are stupid. This is particularly annoying because your teammates have a habit of getting themselves killed.

• The lack of enemy variety.

  The most common enemy in the game is the grunt demon. There's also the exploding demon. You'll face those two enemies 90% of the time. There are other enemies, such as the flying demon, but that just looks like a grunt demon with wings. Then there's the shield demon, which is just a grunt demon with a shield. There is really little variation in the enemies in Jericho, and when you do face a new enemy, it's usually just a variation of the grunt demon.

• The unbalanced characters.

  There are six characters in Jericho, but only about four of them are worth using in a combat scenario. Although this isn't a huge gameplay problem, it would have been nice if some of your characters weren't useless.

• The lack of co-op multiplayer.

  I don't think it's fair to expect all FPSes to have both a solid single player and multiplayer component. I'm perfectly happy with developers focusing on one of the two gameplay styles, rather than expecting them to achieve excellence in both categories. However, Jericho is a squad-based game, so it really screams out for a co-op mode.

• The incomplete ending.

  There's a growing trend in FPSes to just abruptly end the game without a conclusion. I don't know why this is, but it could be because developers are setting their games up for sequels. Here's a suggestion to developers: don't worry about the game you might make next year. Worry about the game you're making now.

• The length.

  Jericho is only about eight hours long. Although that's no longer considered excessively short, Jericho's length is comparable to Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Since this game is exclusively single player, I would have appreciated more content.

• Ultimately, it's a letdown follow-up to Undying.

  My expectations from Clive Barker were high, and he didn't deliver with Jericho. Although it's not a bad game, it's nowhere in the league of Undying.

Conclusion

Jericho is a fun romp, but it's also repetitive and brainless. If you're looking for an FPS, there are many new ones on the market that are far better than this.

Excerpt from a conversation in which Steve and Richard discuss the importance of black characters in video games

(November 9th, 2007 - 12:46AM)

stevekwan.com says:
In Gears of War, there's a black guy named Cole

stevekwan.com says:
And they call him Cole Train

D to the W says:
nice

D to the W says:
that works on so many levels

stevekwan.com says:
Sort of like the black guy in Daikatana called Superfly Johnson

Back from Mexico

(November 3rd, 2007 - 4:39AM)

I'm home!

Mexico was fantastic, and a well-needed rest. Ten days is about the perfect length for a vacation. Let me summarize the trip briefly.

I like boats.

I took a ten-day cruise with my family along the west coast of Mexico. Among the attractions were Puerto Vallarta and La Paz.

The problem with cruises is that you don't get the authentic local experience, as most of your time is spent on a boat (a floating slice of America) and your off-boat time tends to be spent at little towns specifically geared to cater to cruise ship disembarkers.

All the same, the boats are luxurious and relaxing, and I'm well rested and well fed.

The streak is over.

Friends know that I'd been going to the gym every day to see how long I could keep the streak up. Well, it's over at 156 days.

The first day of the trip, I decided to go to the on-boat gym after dinner and found out that it closes at 9:00PM. You might be asking yourself what kind of gym closes that early. I'll tell you: a gym that caters to old people. Which brings me to my next point.

I hate old people.

The cruise we took was part of the Holland America line. We didn't know this ahead of time, but it seems that the boat we took (the Ryndam) caters specifically to the elderly. The average passenger age on the boat must have been about 70. Jerry Lewis was on the boat, so you know it's an old person's boat. (PS: Jerry Lewis seems like a nice guy.)

The first sign of trouble was when a passenger had to be carted off in an ambulance before even boarding the boat. Pretty soon onboard, we realized that something was amiss. The entire boat basically shut down at 9:00PM, and if you've ever cruised, you know that's unusual. There was a special chair in the swimming pool that allowed people with limited mobility to be dropped slowly into the pool. So obviously, a twenty-something such as myself was out of place.

I remember at one point my brother Matt and I were sitting outside of the sauna when an elderly fellow walked by. Matt asked him how he was doing, and he replied, "I don't know."

Mexico is itchy.

A few days into the trip, I broke out with a rash which spread all over my body. I don't know what caused it (current theories are laundry detergent, sun, heat, bug bites, gym cleaning fluid and more). In fact, I've been home for several days and I'm still itchy. Although I enjoyed Mexico, I'm glad I'm back home and less itchy.

I bricked my iPod.

I like to tan. Turns out iPods don't. About halfway through the trip, I was sitting out in the sun and my iPod crapped out on me. That left me without an iPod for about five days. If you know how much I use the thing, you know how painful that was.

Perhaps my iPod knew about my plans to replace it and decided to teach me a lesson.

I want to buy a Creative Zen, but the 16GB model isn't in stores yet. I'm not going to be happy getting the 4GB or 8GB models. The iPod was under extended warranty, so I returned it to Future Shop and they'll either fix it or give me a new one. I'm borrowing my parents' iPod while mine is in the shop.

I have bling.

Most cruise ships have onboard shopping, and you can get a lot of good deals there. In particular, jewelry tends to be very reasonable. I bought a titanium ring and two new watches.

Corona is cheap.

Everyone already knows this about Mexico, but it bears mentioning. I'm not even sure how much Corona I drank while I was down there.

I only took a few photos.

I'm a minimalist, and I believe that in many cases, less is more. I took a que from my friend Beth, who only showed me a few photos from her trip to Cambodia. I've decided that it's better to take a few good photos than a hundred mediocre ones. So I only shot a few photos in Mexico, and to be honest none of them were that great. I'll upload them soon - probably to Flickr.

I recommend Mexico.

Overall, Mexico was a lot of fun and a much-needed rest. Although it wasn't as fun and beautiful as my 2006 trip to Hawai'i, it's much more reasonably priced and still a good time.