What you've heard
Likely nothing, this story broke like an hour ago.
What you WILL hear
SUCK IT MICROSOFT...and to a lesser, non-caps degree, suck it Apple and Google. You’ve had long enough to make a cheap, open OS that speaks to the people who are using it and you haven’t delivered. Motivated by profit and your desire to keep us tied to your own products, you've made the operating system more and more expensive and less and less open. No more! Steam OS is here to create an open experience for free. This is the first salvo in the REAL OS wars. Be afraid; Gabe is coming for you!
Except
This is a great example of the media both under-selling and over-selling things at the same time. They are over-selling the fact that it’s an OS and under-selling the features of that OS, which is really the important part of this story. The OS allows for streaming between Steam on any computer and a second computer running the Steam OS, while allowing a platform for Family Share and other Steam features. Although it will almost certainly be supported by custom hardware for the non-computer types, someone with the know-how could install this on a Raspberry Pi and get a system hooked into a TV that would allow anyone in the family access to everyone's Steam accounts. They could play Flash quality games like “Binding of Isaac” native, while streaming others from a gaming rig, for less than $100. It’s a huge step forward and something I’m personally excited about, but make no mistake; that gaming rig is required and runs Windows.
So what’s the deal?
Microsoft, Google and Apple have declared, to quote Apple, “thermonuclear war” on each other, creating gated communities (or walled gardens) where Apple products require Apple OS and Microsoft products require Windows. Like the Xbox? Then don’t even dream of buying a Mac, because Xbox is developing new features every day that require you to have a Windows PC. Have a Chromebook? Your Android phone just went from great to awesome, as you’ll find hundreds of features you didn't know existed that allow the two to communicate in a way they never could with your PC. This is the world we live in, and when Gabe said “Steam OS” a lot of people took this to mean he was tossing his hat in the ring. And why not, he’s said previously that he hates Windows 8 and DirectX because of how restrictive they are on gaming. But Steam, for all its dominance as a distribution network, is a horrible platform for a true OS. With the iPhone5 S and C, Apple OSX added more new users in the past 72 hours than Steam has ever had. They are just not at that level. Gabe has also never spoken out about Microsoft, or Windows itself as being horrible things he doesn't want to work with; only that Windows 8 was a step in the wrong direction. But the most obvious reason you are hearing things covered the way they are is that Steam, even more than Google, is the “white hat” of the computer wars. We desperately WANT them to make a walled garden we can hang out in, because we know it’s going to be a wonderful place. Someday, I’m sure ... but not someday soon.
Monday, 23 September 2013
Friday, 20 September 2013
Should be Playing - DOTA 2
I’ve never been into MOBAs, which are “multiplayer online battle arenas” or, to put it in less confusing terms, PVP games where NPCs also attack you. I love the idea, as it creates a much more dynamic experience and allows for a more team based focus, but the implementation has always been off. Most notably, League of Legends used a free to play model in which the best characters cost money to unlock, and your account status (which could also be boosted with money) gave you bonuses, leading to the birth of the term “pay to win” to describe this style of free to play. Understandably, DOTA2 was a hard sell for me. It’s free to play, provides no single player experience, and is a MOBA … three things I really don’t care for together as one, like Neapolitan ice-cream without the chocolate.
The tutorials were painful, and as I learned the basic concepts of the game I became less and less interested. Monsters spawn on your side of the map and move towards the other guy’s side of the map with the goal of destroying towers. You kill them, gain XP, gain treasure, and use the treasure to get loot, while engaging the other players in PVP at any point. There is a big monster in the center and the team that kills him gets something cool. The tutorials have done nothing to get me hooked, and very little to even keep me online. Still, the game is too big (with 6 million unique users in its first month) for someone like me to ignore, so I power on. More tutorials, games with bots, and now my first game online with people …
And it sucked. It didn’t really appeal to me more than any other style of PVP. I didn’t understand what was going on, and I didn’t feel I was any closer to that understanding after playing a game. People were yelling about things like wards and denying, which seemed extremely important but were not covered in the tutorials. I quit for a few days, only coming back because I’m a video game guy and damn it I’m going to play this big, popular video game for no other reason than being able to talk intelligently about it. First I took some time to read up on the characters and strategies, and this is when things got interesting.
Where most MOBAs (or PVP in general) focus on rock / paper / scissors style game play, DOTA has 10 unique roles permuted among 102 characters and it’s done well. An initializer / jungler / nuker feels familiar to a nuker / jungler / line support but they play very differently. More importantly, the way your team of 5 is set up drastically changes the flow of the game, while the key concept remains in place. At its core, DOTA is a game about getting your “carry” (one of the ten roles) as powerful as possible as quickly as possible and then having them “carry” the team to victory. Depending on your team set up, you might do this by actively pressing into the team’s territory with the carry close by, supporting your carry with escape abilities and ganking other players, or perhaps even turtling your own side of your map so the carry can kill NPCs without having to worry about the other team. For each play style, there is a counter style you need to adapt to in order to play, leading to an extremely rich and ever changing experience. Even better, many of the characters play exceptionally well to one strategy but not to others. A good DOTA player is not someone who has mastered one character, but someone who knows the right character to play based on his allies and enemies, and can play all of them well.
So that’s the good, but what about all that bad? It’s still free to play after all, which means rude people with no investment who don’t care if they are banned and play to win. Turns out that thanks to Steam, this isn’t the case. First, match-making uses your Steam account to put you with people who have Steam accounts about as old as yours, so the brand new “throw away” accounts play together, and you don’t see them in the wild very often. A rating system adds another level, where people who are rated as “friendly” or “forgiving” are not only matched with each other but given priority in the queue. If you are a jerk, you’ll wait 10 minutes between matches while the system finds other jerks to pair you with, but if you are friendly, you only wait a minute or two before being placed with other friendly people. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. Most importantly, the game uses socialist free to play and profit by distribution, big words that just mean there is not a single item you can buy (or earn for that matter) that effects your game play in any way. Everyone is on an equal playing field.
So it’s free, it’s friendly, it’s fun, and I’m playing it. What more could you want? Friend me on Steam right here and start enjoying this fantastic game.
The tutorials were painful, and as I learned the basic concepts of the game I became less and less interested. Monsters spawn on your side of the map and move towards the other guy’s side of the map with the goal of destroying towers. You kill them, gain XP, gain treasure, and use the treasure to get loot, while engaging the other players in PVP at any point. There is a big monster in the center and the team that kills him gets something cool. The tutorials have done nothing to get me hooked, and very little to even keep me online. Still, the game is too big (with 6 million unique users in its first month) for someone like me to ignore, so I power on. More tutorials, games with bots, and now my first game online with people …
And it sucked. It didn’t really appeal to me more than any other style of PVP. I didn’t understand what was going on, and I didn’t feel I was any closer to that understanding after playing a game. People were yelling about things like wards and denying, which seemed extremely important but were not covered in the tutorials. I quit for a few days, only coming back because I’m a video game guy and damn it I’m going to play this big, popular video game for no other reason than being able to talk intelligently about it. First I took some time to read up on the characters and strategies, and this is when things got interesting.
Where most MOBAs (or PVP in general) focus on rock / paper / scissors style game play, DOTA has 10 unique roles permuted among 102 characters and it’s done well. An initializer / jungler / nuker feels familiar to a nuker / jungler / line support but they play very differently. More importantly, the way your team of 5 is set up drastically changes the flow of the game, while the key concept remains in place. At its core, DOTA is a game about getting your “carry” (one of the ten roles) as powerful as possible as quickly as possible and then having them “carry” the team to victory. Depending on your team set up, you might do this by actively pressing into the team’s territory with the carry close by, supporting your carry with escape abilities and ganking other players, or perhaps even turtling your own side of your map so the carry can kill NPCs without having to worry about the other team. For each play style, there is a counter style you need to adapt to in order to play, leading to an extremely rich and ever changing experience. Even better, many of the characters play exceptionally well to one strategy but not to others. A good DOTA player is not someone who has mastered one character, but someone who knows the right character to play based on his allies and enemies, and can play all of them well.
So that’s the good, but what about all that bad? It’s still free to play after all, which means rude people with no investment who don’t care if they are banned and play to win. Turns out that thanks to Steam, this isn’t the case. First, match-making uses your Steam account to put you with people who have Steam accounts about as old as yours, so the brand new “throw away” accounts play together, and you don’t see them in the wild very often. A rating system adds another level, where people who are rated as “friendly” or “forgiving” are not only matched with each other but given priority in the queue. If you are a jerk, you’ll wait 10 minutes between matches while the system finds other jerks to pair you with, but if you are friendly, you only wait a minute or two before being placed with other friendly people. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. Most importantly, the game uses socialist free to play and profit by distribution, big words that just mean there is not a single item you can buy (or earn for that matter) that effects your game play in any way. Everyone is on an equal playing field.
So it’s free, it’s friendly, it’s fun, and I’m playing it. What more could you want? Friend me on Steam right here and start enjoying this fantastic game.
Monday, 16 September 2013
In perspective - Steam Family Share
What you've heard
The Micro$oft Bone had planned a feature where users could share games with others on their friends list, allowing them to play them on their own system. After the backlash to the online-only policies, they changed their tone saying it couldn’t be done without a 24 hour check in requirement; it was impossible. Well, Gabe Newell descended from his home in Asgard on the wings of unicorns this week to let everyone know the impossible is possible when you are at his level of awesome. Steam Family Share gives us everything Microsoft said it couldn't do!
Except
Steam is offering an account sharing service, where you can allow up to 10 users to have access to your complete game library when you are not using it. When you log into a game (any game) anyone using your account at the time is given a short amount of time to leave the game they are playing. You might recognize this as exactly what you can do right now by simply giving someone your username and password. Microsoft, on the other hand, had a full game sharing service. I could give Duty Calls 4 to Jim and Grand Larceny: Bank Fraud V to Mary and play every other game I owned without effecting their experience. It's also important to note that where Microsoft only required a check in every 24 hours to make sure I wasn't playing the games I loaned out, Steam Family Share requires a constant network connection. That's the exact thing the internet said was completely unacceptable about Microsoft’s system.
So what`s the deal
The internet is a horrible place. Fanboys have chosen champions like Microsoft, Steam, and Sony and see them as doing battle in cyberspace for absolute dominance. The gaming media has reacted and writes articles that are going to get the strongest reactions, the most reads, and the most comments. It`s impossible to talk about Steam`s new service for what it is: a great example of how Steam has reacted to what players are doing anyways (sharing accounts) and make it easier for them to do it (no more password sharing is a great thing for security, which is in Steam's best interests). Instead, it has to be an example of why Steam was sent by the gods to purge the evil that is Microsoft from the land ... if it`s anything less, no one is going to read it.
One perfect example to illustrate this point: There is a story going around the internet detailing a teardown of the Xbox One and PS4. IGN network (with a very Sony friendly reader base) has been covering this story with the headline `PS4 faster than Xbox One`. Game Informer and UK Gamer (Xbox friendly sites) have the same story with the headline `Xbox One faster than PS4`. What does the story really say? The Xbox One has faster shading and rendering, while the PS4 has faster ram and bus, neither of which should result in any real difference in performance between the two.
The Micro$oft Bone had planned a feature where users could share games with others on their friends list, allowing them to play them on their own system. After the backlash to the online-only policies, they changed their tone saying it couldn’t be done without a 24 hour check in requirement; it was impossible. Well, Gabe Newell descended from his home in Asgard on the wings of unicorns this week to let everyone know the impossible is possible when you are at his level of awesome. Steam Family Share gives us everything Microsoft said it couldn't do!
Except
Steam is offering an account sharing service, where you can allow up to 10 users to have access to your complete game library when you are not using it. When you log into a game (any game) anyone using your account at the time is given a short amount of time to leave the game they are playing. You might recognize this as exactly what you can do right now by simply giving someone your username and password. Microsoft, on the other hand, had a full game sharing service. I could give Duty Calls 4 to Jim and Grand Larceny: Bank Fraud V to Mary and play every other game I owned without effecting their experience. It's also important to note that where Microsoft only required a check in every 24 hours to make sure I wasn't playing the games I loaned out, Steam Family Share requires a constant network connection. That's the exact thing the internet said was completely unacceptable about Microsoft’s system.
So what`s the deal
The internet is a horrible place. Fanboys have chosen champions like Microsoft, Steam, and Sony and see them as doing battle in cyberspace for absolute dominance. The gaming media has reacted and writes articles that are going to get the strongest reactions, the most reads, and the most comments. It`s impossible to talk about Steam`s new service for what it is: a great example of how Steam has reacted to what players are doing anyways (sharing accounts) and make it easier for them to do it (no more password sharing is a great thing for security, which is in Steam's best interests). Instead, it has to be an example of why Steam was sent by the gods to purge the evil that is Microsoft from the land ... if it`s anything less, no one is going to read it.
One perfect example to illustrate this point: There is a story going around the internet detailing a teardown of the Xbox One and PS4. IGN network (with a very Sony friendly reader base) has been covering this story with the headline `PS4 faster than Xbox One`. Game Informer and UK Gamer (Xbox friendly sites) have the same story with the headline `Xbox One faster than PS4`. What does the story really say? The Xbox One has faster shading and rendering, while the PS4 has faster ram and bus, neither of which should result in any real difference in performance between the two.
Friday, 19 July 2013
Should be Playing: Steam Sale Edition 8
Number 3: Baldurs gate
This game is old. Looks old, feels old, plays old. Even as an enhanced edition, MAN is this game dated. But who cares, its D&D. Great D&D, with arguably the best D&D story put into a game or even a novel, which would be a much more powerful statement if most D&D novels were not so fantastically bad.
Number 2: Raymen Origins
This is the happiest game ever made. If you can play this game without smiling you are dead inside.
Number 1: Civ 5
You might remember this game from my “if I only had one game” comment a few days back. If you like x4 games, there is simply nothing even close to the scale, complexity and enjoyably of Civ 5. And if you don’t like x4 games you are simply wrong.
This game is old. Looks old, feels old, plays old. Even as an enhanced edition, MAN is this game dated. But who cares, its D&D. Great D&D, with arguably the best D&D story put into a game or even a novel, which would be a much more powerful statement if most D&D novels were not so fantastically bad.
Number 2: Raymen Origins
This is the happiest game ever made. If you can play this game without smiling you are dead inside.
Number 1: Civ 5
You might remember this game from my “if I only had one game” comment a few days back. If you like x4 games, there is simply nothing even close to the scale, complexity and enjoyably of Civ 5. And if you don’t like x4 games you are simply wrong.
Thursday, 18 July 2013
Should be Playing - Steam Sale Edition 7
Number 3: Far Cry 3
Not a whole lot to say here other then it’s a prime example of doing everything right in the shot people in the face genre of gaming. It’s just open world enough, weapons varied and customizable enough to be fun without being inaccessible, and the story is unique. It acknowledges your journey from Joe Everyman to heartless killing machine in a way that is almost (but not quite) believable. Still, at least it tries!
Number 2: Torchlight 2
Hey look, diablo 3 is on sale! And no, I’m not talking about that over-hyped, always connected, market place driven crap-feast that blizzard disappointed fans with, I’m talking about the game that took diablo 2 and improved on every system and gave us a fresh new game that felt the same. It just happens to be done by a different studio under a different name. This is without question the best point and kill game on the market, and if that’s your thing you NEED this game.
Number 1: The binding of Isaac
Ok look, I know putting a $1.24 flash game ported to an excitable as the number one pick from today is a little bold, but hear me out. This game is fun, first and foremost. Random rooms, random monsters, random loot, and light RPG aspects mixed with power ups lay the foundation for a good time. But without compromising this fun factor, Isaac moves into the next bold area for gaming; art. This is the story of a child whose mother hears the voice of god telling her to kill him (the biblical story of Isaac), and escapes on a metaphor filled adventure that is going to force you to think and question. Be warned; it’s not tame. But this is the beauty of Isaac. In a world where TV and Movies have become mainstream themes or reality shows, books now focus on glowing vampires, and even music has move from social battle cries of rock and rap to the feel good pop hits, it’s up to gaming to pick up the slack. Nintendo refused to release this game on 3DS sighting “questionable religious content” while it holds a 16+ rating in Germany; a higher rating the call of duty, a game where you literally cannot do anything but murder people. The official reason, right on the warning label? Blasphemy. And so this article is about telling you should play, and you should play this game. Not because I agree or disagree with the message or think you shouldn't be offended, but because you SHOULD be offended, and in that Isaac reminds us of an important lesson we are in danger of losing as a people; art shouldn't make you feel comfortable. It should make you feel uncomfortable enough to change.
Not a whole lot to say here other then it’s a prime example of doing everything right in the shot people in the face genre of gaming. It’s just open world enough, weapons varied and customizable enough to be fun without being inaccessible, and the story is unique. It acknowledges your journey from Joe Everyman to heartless killing machine in a way that is almost (but not quite) believable. Still, at least it tries!
Number 2: Torchlight 2
Hey look, diablo 3 is on sale! And no, I’m not talking about that over-hyped, always connected, market place driven crap-feast that blizzard disappointed fans with, I’m talking about the game that took diablo 2 and improved on every system and gave us a fresh new game that felt the same. It just happens to be done by a different studio under a different name. This is without question the best point and kill game on the market, and if that’s your thing you NEED this game.
Number 1: The binding of Isaac
Ok look, I know putting a $1.24 flash game ported to an excitable as the number one pick from today is a little bold, but hear me out. This game is fun, first and foremost. Random rooms, random monsters, random loot, and light RPG aspects mixed with power ups lay the foundation for a good time. But without compromising this fun factor, Isaac moves into the next bold area for gaming; art. This is the story of a child whose mother hears the voice of god telling her to kill him (the biblical story of Isaac), and escapes on a metaphor filled adventure that is going to force you to think and question. Be warned; it’s not tame. But this is the beauty of Isaac. In a world where TV and Movies have become mainstream themes or reality shows, books now focus on glowing vampires, and even music has move from social battle cries of rock and rap to the feel good pop hits, it’s up to gaming to pick up the slack. Nintendo refused to release this game on 3DS sighting “questionable religious content” while it holds a 16+ rating in Germany; a higher rating the call of duty, a game where you literally cannot do anything but murder people. The official reason, right on the warning label? Blasphemy. And so this article is about telling you should play, and you should play this game. Not because I agree or disagree with the message or think you shouldn't be offended, but because you SHOULD be offended, and in that Isaac reminds us of an important lesson we are in danger of losing as a people; art shouldn't make you feel comfortable. It should make you feel uncomfortable enough to change.
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Should be Playing: Steam Sale Edition 6
Slow day. I can’t really recommend dark souls to anyone as the game is not accessible to a fault. Plus the computer port is nowhere near the quality of the console game. Riptide is fun, but vanilla Dead Island is better and cheaper. And although it has 20 or so game of the year awards from sites that forgot what games are the Walking Dead, despite having a fantastic story, is hardly a game. Just because it’s the most hyped point and click adventure of all time doesn't stop it from being a point and click adventure and if that’s your thing check out Resonance or Gemini Rue, both much better IMHO. Well, with that out of the way ...
Number 3 – Tropico 4
A self aware SIMCITY clone where you play as a ruthless dictator trying to explore an island paradise for all it’s worth. This game is worth playing for the satire alone, but pulls off very competent game play and city building. It’s a much smaller scale the SIMCITY, you deal with inhabitants on a individual level instead of zoning law, but this doesn’t distract from the awesome feeling of seeing your island grow out of nothing.
Number 2 – Batman
It’s hard to explain what “rhythmic combat” is to a non-gamer or why it’s a big deal, but Batman is the game that refined it. Instead of focusing on complex input chains (hit a, a, back, forward, small circle left, x, x, right trigger to do an ultra combo!) it strips the inputs down to the bare basics and rewards timing. Hit block right as a kick is incoming to grab a foot. Hit punch again right as your punch animation is completing to string an attack. It’s immensely satisfying and easy to pick up. Add on to that what can only be described as nerd porn in that pretty much every bad guy in that universe shows up and you have a winner. You FEEL like the batman; you can beat the crap out of everyone who doesn't have superpowers, but when you fight bane you need to outsmart him and use your gadgets. You're just a rich boy in a suit after all.
Number 3 – Deus Ex. “DAY-us ex”. Not freaking DUSE ex. It’s Latin. It means “from god”.
What a joy this game was. I had the freedom to not only build my character’s skills, but his personality. I played the whole game without killing a single person (outside the scripted boss battles where you have no choice) and the game was very aware of this. People brought it up in conversation. Bad guys were more willing to surrender to me, knowing I would treat them fairly. Dialog options were different. The world changed based on my actions and that is the ultimate in empowerment which is why we play games like this! The game has a perfect blend of stealth exploration and action, and is surprising accessible (compared to splinter cell, this games stealth seems like child’s play but feels just as rewarding). A must have for anyone.
Number 3 – Tropico 4
A self aware SIMCITY clone where you play as a ruthless dictator trying to explore an island paradise for all it’s worth. This game is worth playing for the satire alone, but pulls off very competent game play and city building. It’s a much smaller scale the SIMCITY, you deal with inhabitants on a individual level instead of zoning law, but this doesn’t distract from the awesome feeling of seeing your island grow out of nothing.
Number 2 – Batman
It’s hard to explain what “rhythmic combat” is to a non-gamer or why it’s a big deal, but Batman is the game that refined it. Instead of focusing on complex input chains (hit a, a, back, forward, small circle left, x, x, right trigger to do an ultra combo!) it strips the inputs down to the bare basics and rewards timing. Hit block right as a kick is incoming to grab a foot. Hit punch again right as your punch animation is completing to string an attack. It’s immensely satisfying and easy to pick up. Add on to that what can only be described as nerd porn in that pretty much every bad guy in that universe shows up and you have a winner. You FEEL like the batman; you can beat the crap out of everyone who doesn't have superpowers, but when you fight bane you need to outsmart him and use your gadgets. You're just a rich boy in a suit after all.
Number 3 – Deus Ex. “DAY-us ex”. Not freaking DUSE ex. It’s Latin. It means “from god”.
What a joy this game was. I had the freedom to not only build my character’s skills, but his personality. I played the whole game without killing a single person (outside the scripted boss battles where you have no choice) and the game was very aware of this. People brought it up in conversation. Bad guys were more willing to surrender to me, knowing I would treat them fairly. Dialog options were different. The world changed based on my actions and that is the ultimate in empowerment which is why we play games like this! The game has a perfect blend of stealth exploration and action, and is surprising accessible (compared to splinter cell, this games stealth seems like child’s play but feels just as rewarding). A must have for anyone.
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Should be playing - Steam Sale Edition 5
Number three: The Secret World
Sure, the MMO landscape is extremely crowded and if you’re the type of person who can only play one MMO at a time and doesn’t enjoy them unless you get crazy entrenched this isn’t the one I would suggest going to. But that said, TSW is a unique and finely crafted experience that makes the bold move of trying to bring the oft overlooked potential of the modern fantasy genre to the MMORPG. When it works ... it works. Any fan of Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, or Mage the Ascension is doing themselves a huge injustice by not spending at least some time in this world.
Number two: Sleeping Dogs
I’m not into GTA. First, I find sandbox off-putting because there isn’t enough to push you forward and the plot always seems to distract from the feeling of freedom. Second I find it hard to relate with drug dealing and big pimping and primary motivation for a protagonist. Sleeping Dogs is an open world sandbox game that solves all these problem for me; the plot moves forward based on the choices, the side quests are very structured, and the protagonist, an undercover cop dealing with questions of loyalty as he takes on the gangs he grew up with ends up being believable while inspiring empathy. It’s a great game you could lose a lot of time to. Well, given the number one game for today, I guess that statement is relative...
Number one: Skyrim
Like I just said, I don’t do well in the sandbox. With elder scrolls I would always end up spending a few too many hours on the wealth of side quests and be board out of my mind by the time I did the plot, never finishing the game. So I went in to Skyrim with a simple mindset; I would only do side plot until it became even the least be repetitive and then just burn though the plot to say I beat it. This happened around ... oh ... hour 60. The world of Skyrim is rich beyond compare with even the most basic side quests often holding mystery and secrets for anyone invested enough. Combat is basic but serviceable, and the skill system is fantastic. If locked in a room with a computer and only one video game for a month, it would hands down be Civ 5. But if that wasn’t an option, Civ 4. But if I couldn’t have EITHER of those, it would totally by Skyrim.
Honrable Mention: Mark of the Ninja
I never got around to this, but it has more 10 out of 10s from review sites than the average game of the year winner. Worth trying out at such a low price.
Sure, the MMO landscape is extremely crowded and if you’re the type of person who can only play one MMO at a time and doesn’t enjoy them unless you get crazy entrenched this isn’t the one I would suggest going to. But that said, TSW is a unique and finely crafted experience that makes the bold move of trying to bring the oft overlooked potential of the modern fantasy genre to the MMORPG. When it works ... it works. Any fan of Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, or Mage the Ascension is doing themselves a huge injustice by not spending at least some time in this world.
Number two: Sleeping Dogs
I’m not into GTA. First, I find sandbox off-putting because there isn’t enough to push you forward and the plot always seems to distract from the feeling of freedom. Second I find it hard to relate with drug dealing and big pimping and primary motivation for a protagonist. Sleeping Dogs is an open world sandbox game that solves all these problem for me; the plot moves forward based on the choices, the side quests are very structured, and the protagonist, an undercover cop dealing with questions of loyalty as he takes on the gangs he grew up with ends up being believable while inspiring empathy. It’s a great game you could lose a lot of time to. Well, given the number one game for today, I guess that statement is relative...
Number one: Skyrim
Like I just said, I don’t do well in the sandbox. With elder scrolls I would always end up spending a few too many hours on the wealth of side quests and be board out of my mind by the time I did the plot, never finishing the game. So I went in to Skyrim with a simple mindset; I would only do side plot until it became even the least be repetitive and then just burn though the plot to say I beat it. This happened around ... oh ... hour 60. The world of Skyrim is rich beyond compare with even the most basic side quests often holding mystery and secrets for anyone invested enough. Combat is basic but serviceable, and the skill system is fantastic. If locked in a room with a computer and only one video game for a month, it would hands down be Civ 5. But if that wasn’t an option, Civ 4. But if I couldn’t have EITHER of those, it would totally by Skyrim.
Honrable Mention: Mark of the Ninja
I never got around to this, but it has more 10 out of 10s from review sites than the average game of the year winner. Worth trying out at such a low price.
Monday, 15 July 2013
Should be playing - Steam Sale Edition 4
Number 3: Star Wars KTOR 2: The Sith lords
Sure, it was rushed to production and the ending is literary unfinished (the game abruptly ends before resolutions talked about in dialog happen) but this doesn’t stop this game from being a fantastic example of how D20 modern can be used to create role play system that are instantly welcoming to anyone who has played D&D yet diverse and unique. It’s also a true Star War experience, with a story that feels more natural than any of the prequel movies. The voice acting is lightyears beyond what was coming out of this time period, although the silent protagonist is a bit of an unwelcome throwback. Best of all there is now fan made ending that finishes up the experience rather nicely, making this a must for any Star Wars fan! Be warned however; this game is old school hard.
Number 2: Dishonored
When you play enough video games from a review or analytical viewpoint, you start to understand that intangibles are just as important as the things we see, like graphics, story and systems. Some games are just better at making you feel empowered, making the tasks you are doing feel important, and making you feel like you can handle problems your own way. Dishonored is the best example in a long time of a game that doesn’t miss a beat in the intangible department. There is a reason this won 2012 game of the year with pretty much every site that matters, and for $10 you should find out what it is.
Number 1: Castle Crashers
Games should be fun. Yes, games can be art or a meaningful and moving experience (and the two examples given above are just that) but every once in a while we should be reminded of the arcade, where exhilarating game play and pure enjoyment motivated us to drop quarters just to have a few more minutes doing what we were doing. Castle crashers is simple and pure enjoyment, with just enough unlockables to make sure you’re coming back for more long after the honeymoon is over. Don’t just buy this game, buy it twice ... and give one to a friend. The Co-op is some of the best I’ve seen this generation.
Sure, it was rushed to production and the ending is literary unfinished (the game abruptly ends before resolutions talked about in dialog happen) but this doesn’t stop this game from being a fantastic example of how D20 modern can be used to create role play system that are instantly welcoming to anyone who has played D&D yet diverse and unique. It’s also a true Star War experience, with a story that feels more natural than any of the prequel movies. The voice acting is lightyears beyond what was coming out of this time period, although the silent protagonist is a bit of an unwelcome throwback. Best of all there is now fan made ending that finishes up the experience rather nicely, making this a must for any Star Wars fan! Be warned however; this game is old school hard.
Number 2: Dishonored
When you play enough video games from a review or analytical viewpoint, you start to understand that intangibles are just as important as the things we see, like graphics, story and systems. Some games are just better at making you feel empowered, making the tasks you are doing feel important, and making you feel like you can handle problems your own way. Dishonored is the best example in a long time of a game that doesn’t miss a beat in the intangible department. There is a reason this won 2012 game of the year with pretty much every site that matters, and for $10 you should find out what it is.
Number 1: Castle Crashers
Games should be fun. Yes, games can be art or a meaningful and moving experience (and the two examples given above are just that) but every once in a while we should be reminded of the arcade, where exhilarating game play and pure enjoyment motivated us to drop quarters just to have a few more minutes doing what we were doing. Castle crashers is simple and pure enjoyment, with just enough unlockables to make sure you’re coming back for more long after the honeymoon is over. Don’t just buy this game, buy it twice ... and give one to a friend. The Co-op is some of the best I’ve seen this generation.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Should be Playing - Steam Sale Edition 3
Number 3: Fallout
I’m going to assume we all know what fallout 3 is and why it’s fantastic. Even if you don’t there isn’t a lot that needs to be said; open world first person RPG with a great story to drive you forward. Skyrim with guns. But given it’s a franchise sale, use this opportunity to take a look at Fallout 2 and brotherhood of steel. One if the fist role playing game where you can win without killing a single enemy or using any combat skills, and the other is a final fantasy tactic like game, if final fantasy was trying to make children cry. A little more “old school” but games no gamer should go without playing.
Number 2: Arma 2
The problem with being the best tier 2 military shooter is that tier 1 is really crowded. Arma lacks the graphics or blockbuster moments you are going to get in call of duty or battlefield, but replaces them with a ultra realistic engine which is constantly updated with things like belletristic data and material penetration algorithms. You can kill people with bullet fragmentation off hard objects or ricochet off softer ones. Add to that a extremely active mod community and you find a hidden gem for anyone who likes to shot things with guns.
Number 1: Portal 2
When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!”
I’m going to assume we all know what fallout 3 is and why it’s fantastic. Even if you don’t there isn’t a lot that needs to be said; open world first person RPG with a great story to drive you forward. Skyrim with guns. But given it’s a franchise sale, use this opportunity to take a look at Fallout 2 and brotherhood of steel. One if the fist role playing game where you can win without killing a single enemy or using any combat skills, and the other is a final fantasy tactic like game, if final fantasy was trying to make children cry. A little more “old school” but games no gamer should go without playing.
Number 2: Arma 2
The problem with being the best tier 2 military shooter is that tier 1 is really crowded. Arma lacks the graphics or blockbuster moments you are going to get in call of duty or battlefield, but replaces them with a ultra realistic engine which is constantly updated with things like belletristic data and material penetration algorithms. You can kill people with bullet fragmentation off hard objects or ricochet off softer ones. Add to that a extremely active mod community and you find a hidden gem for anyone who likes to shot things with guns.
Number 1: Portal 2
When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!”
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Should be Playing - Steam Sale Edition 2
Number 3: L.A. Noire
Sometimes you want to play something different, then you realize that we live in a world where most indy games suck and most AAA games are clones of whatever is big. Noire breaks the mold nicely, with a story driven adventure game unlike anything else out there. This game is so un-game like that Rock Star added stock car and foot chases just so players would fell like they were playing something, but is such a wonderful experience that you have the option to turn them off and I would suggest doing that.
Number 2: The Witcher 2
This game is everything a game should be. Rich and detailed combat and character progression. Meaningful crafting and side quests. Incredible graphics, story, and voice work. Full frontal nudity. The only reason this isn’t number one is because … well because number one is ..
Number 1: Borderlands 2
If you haven’t played borderlands 2 you are missing out on what one of the most finely crafted video game experiences of this generation. Even if you are not a fan of FPS, you’ll find this game engaging enough to keep you going. Anthony Berch’s humor is spot on for the entire 40 hour experience (and his sisters voice acting is also great) and the game is both self-aware and playing to its audience. Behind that you have an incredibly enjoyable combat and skill system, 4 (to 6 with DLC) unique classes, and “over eleven bazillion” guns. Drop in drop out co-op is always great, so add me as a friend on steam if you to get it!
Honorable Mention: Tomb Raider
I just picked this up myself. Seems wrong not to mention it just because I haven’t played it until now, because everything I’ve heard about this game is that it’s fantastic.
Friday, 12 July 2013
Should be Playing - Steam Sale Edition 1
Given the steam summer sale is in full swing, I figured why not spend this “should be playing” talking about the games that are on sale. Time permitting, I’ll keep this up for the duration of the sale, letting you know what you should check out, and what is and isn’t a good deal. Let’s start with my top 3 picks for today (July 12th)
Number 3
Legend of Grimrock
Remember “Eye of the beholder”? No, because you’re not like 40? Ok fine. Legend of Grimrock is a role playing game that focuses on the exploration and discovery. It’s a throwback to a time when you needed to play games like this with a notepad, and knowing what buttons to push to make a fireball happen made you a god among your friends. You are confined to a grid and move in first person, but the graphical detail keeps it from feeling “retro”. It’s challenging, it’s intelligent, and it’s good fun. A steal at $4
Number 2
Faster than Light (FTL)
You command a ship, with the focus on that command. You send Jim to the engine room and tell Jane to take the helm while you deal with the aliens that just beamed on board. You make choices based on a randomly generated set of encounters, you buy and sell resources, and you upgrade your ship. Plus you die. A lot. This game is scaled so that dying is almost a sure thing, even on the low difficulty level. But that’s just fine; the game is FUN and starting over means more fun. Plus when you do win (which I’ve done twice over 3 or 4 dozen attempts) it’s all the more rewarding. It’s sometimes TOO random, the games only flaw and what keeps it from being number one.
Number 1
XCOM
Turn based combat at its finest. Build a base, handle research and manufacturing of special weapons, equip your people, and take them out on mission to stop alien invaders bent on world domination (or something). Combat is rich and enjoyable. Light RPG elements and permanent death makes a connected with each of your solders, and the base building elements are just enough. Add in great writing and fantastic mission variation, and it’s not hard to see why XCOM has been recognized with hundreds of PC game awards. Well worth it at full price, but for $9.99 you would be crazy not to.
Number 3
Legend of Grimrock
Remember “Eye of the beholder”? No, because you’re not like 40? Ok fine. Legend of Grimrock is a role playing game that focuses on the exploration and discovery. It’s a throwback to a time when you needed to play games like this with a notepad, and knowing what buttons to push to make a fireball happen made you a god among your friends. You are confined to a grid and move in first person, but the graphical detail keeps it from feeling “retro”. It’s challenging, it’s intelligent, and it’s good fun. A steal at $4
Number 2
Faster than Light (FTL)
You command a ship, with the focus on that command. You send Jim to the engine room and tell Jane to take the helm while you deal with the aliens that just beamed on board. You make choices based on a randomly generated set of encounters, you buy and sell resources, and you upgrade your ship. Plus you die. A lot. This game is scaled so that dying is almost a sure thing, even on the low difficulty level. But that’s just fine; the game is FUN and starting over means more fun. Plus when you do win (which I’ve done twice over 3 or 4 dozen attempts) it’s all the more rewarding. It’s sometimes TOO random, the games only flaw and what keeps it from being number one.
Number 1
XCOM
Turn based combat at its finest. Build a base, handle research and manufacturing of special weapons, equip your people, and take them out on mission to stop alien invaders bent on world domination (or something). Combat is rich and enjoyable. Light RPG elements and permanent death makes a connected with each of your solders, and the base building elements are just enough. Add in great writing and fantastic mission variation, and it’s not hard to see why XCOM has been recognized with hundreds of PC game awards. Well worth it at full price, but for $9.99 you would be crazy not to.
Friday, 5 July 2013
Should be playing: Final Fantasy Realm Reborn
I was on the ground floor of the MMO, first playing NeverWinter over the AOL network back in ’91 and shared adventures made in “Unlimited Adventures” over telnet and various BBSs. I played the crap out of The Realm, the often overlooked progenitor of the MMO, and jumped on Ultima Online the minute I heard about it. It wasn’t until Everquest however that I truly fell in love. Everquest was the first game to not just be massively multiplayer, but to define the MMO with conventions like unbearable travel and down time, huge quests to uncover with no aid, pop ups or help, camping, death crawls, and large raids that were impossible to co-ordinate and would cause most people to disconnect. You might notice that everything I just talked about is horrible; that didn’t matter. At the time, we didn’t know any better and the joy came from being part of something truly exclusive and rewarding. We now have Steam and Xbox achievements or PlayStation trophies to mark the gamification of gaming, but in Everquest my reward for being one of a few people who could run safely from Guk to the Common Lands was an opportunity to sell non-local items at a marked up price, and to talk in group chat about zones other people had never seen. It was a real, and as rewarding as any other real thing. We always remember the bad; camping for days to get some item or spending hours just buffing a raid to die within the first 5 seconds, but we forget the implied truth; something about the game was so fantastic it motivated us to continue to do this. This “feel” has never been recreated in any other MMO. In fact the entire evolution of MMOs can pretty much be traced to “not being like Everquest”.
It made sense; churn for EQ was pretty high (the rate at which people would quit) as there were barriers to entry at every level. Trying to make a game that would appeal to this mass of people exposed to MMO but turned off by EQ's systems would turn out the be a licence to print money, as it spawned a little game called World of Warcraft. Everything about WoW was simpler than EQ. It came out 5 years after EQ (1999 and 2004, respectively) yet had almost the same recommended system specs. You couldn’t lose levels by dying. The world was much smaller and condensed, and travel options like flying stations and mounts were easy to come by. It introduced instanced gaming, where you didn’t have to fight other players for the majority of spawns. In short, it dumbed down the MMO into two tiers; the n00b and the hard-core, and let them play beside each other for the first time. Unfortunately for the industry it worked very well, and every MMO since then in the US has focused on making things even simpler, even more accessible, and even more newbie friendly. In almost 9 years, no MMO has been able to recreate the blockbuster success of these two pioneers. Although EQ lost the number one spot to WoW in a big way (Everquest had in its prime no more than 4 million subscribers, while WoW has topped 10 million) EQ has consistently remained the number two MMO aside from a few months here and there as new games launch, for most of its ridiculous 14 year (and counting!) life span. It has 13 expansion packs costing $29.99 each, and they sell about as well as most MMO launches nowadays; in the 400,000k units range. This is why the head of Epic Games said at this year's E3 that anyone developing an MMO for North America is just stupid. Hundreds of games have tried and only two have ever seen real success.
Over in the Asian market, it’s another story. Sparked by the breakout success of Lineage, the Asian market has pushed to create MMOs that are harder, more complex, more elitist and more grind-tastic then their competitors, driving an economy based on truly addictive and engaging game play. Rather than say people are complaining that it takes two weeks to gain a second level let’s make it take less time, they have focused on how to make that two weeks fun, and once they have done that they stretch the two weeks to three. The result has been that while the US market sees stagnation and decline, the Asian market has exploded. Be it Maple Story, Runescape, or Ragranok, to name only the heavily westernized ones, the Asian market sees a game hit WoW-like success once or twice every year. As a LARP owner, I’m uniquely qualified to comment on why; Western MMOs try to give players what they want and ask for, while Asian games just focus on hitting design goals and building what they envision, ignoring what players tell them they want with good reason: players have no flipping idea what they want and are often happiest while doing things they just told you they hate.
This brings us to Final Fantasy 14, the Japanese game that wasn’t. Following the EQ to WoW model, SquareEnix realised they already had a very successful Japanese MMO with FF11 and they should appeal to the gamers who left that game because it was too Asian. They put together an innovative new type of game with active combat and many of the conventions now commonplace to MMOs here in the West, without the trapping of redundant activity common to games from the East. The result was shockingly bad (which is saying a lot for a franchise that just set the bad standard with FF13). So bad that after issuing several apologies they stopped charging for the game and let everyone play for free until they could “get it right”. 2 years later they decided that wasn’t going to work; launched on September 2010, FF14 was taken offline on November 11 2012, making it among the shortest lived MMOs in history. The game will return with a complete remake called “A Realm Reborn” on August 27th of this year. I have been playing Realm Reborn beta on and off (mostly off to be honest) for almost a year now and I’m extremely excited about the direction they have taken. Gone is the Western MMO with an Asian flair and in its place is a game that manages to deliver on everything that made EverQuest great while hitting most of what made WoW accessible, while being unapologetically Asian.
FF11 was the “Crysis” of MMOs, pushing the limits of what a system can put out, and FF14 is worse in a good way. The official benchmark looked at my overclocked 3930K with two $700 video cards and said “HA, white boy thinks he’s got a good computer” before setting everything to medium. Even at that level, the game blows away any other MMO and could hold its own against anything you’ve seen in this generation of single player. In fact the popular rumor is that the minimal specs were reduced so that the game could run on the PS3; the original build being too graphics heavy to even run at 30fps on the console. Seeing the staples of Final Fantasy realized in such high fidelity is a true treat, and this mix of awe and nostalgia continues thought out the experience from the attention to detail you see in the face of a moogle to the familiar fanfare that plays when you complete a quest. Half my motivation to level up was the promise of riding a chocobo at higher levels, and the experience didn’t disappoint!
Gameplay feels a decade out of place but is perfect; you press a button that starts a cast bar, which eventually translates into some damage being done or healed. You stand there, unmoving, while the monster beats on you with attacks you can do nothing to mitigate. There is no active combat, no blocks, no quick time events, and no circles to move out of; this is old-school. Driving this however is one of the most complete and satisfying class systems I have ever seem. Your progression is divided into base classes and jobs and you can switch between any number of them on the fly by simply changing your primary weapon. The game takes care of the rest of the gear change; for example, when I equip my sword the game puts on my plate armour and when I equip my wand it goes to PJs and a pointy hat without me needing to handle that. The gear used in these transitions doesn’t even take up space in my bags, which is good, given the number of jobs and classes I have to choose from. Adding to the complexity, classes allow you to mix and match skills from another classes you have levels in and focus on general things like DPS and healing, while Jobs offer inflexible skill sets that focus on more complex roles like tanking or buffing. From what I’ve seen (admittedly I have not done raiding) there is no clear “best” way to go, leaving you free to play to your style.
The game steals everything good from the last few years of MMO development without giving up its roots. Public quests frequently spawn while you’re out adventuring and story zones are instanced so that other players don’t distract from the experience. There is also a lot of voice work and full cut scenes, a personal plot line, and a class plot line for every one of the classes, jobs, and crafting classes. Drop in any time PvP and raids round out the systems we have grown to expect. For the less combat focused, collection, exploration, and crafting all benefit from the systems and styles in place in most Asian MMOs, but not common here in the West. You have challenges to find every area on a map, kill a given number of every type of monster including some rare and some super powerful spawns, and crafting focuses on mini-game driven systems with a lot of depth. The first time I approached a node and saw a list of the items I could try and mine from it beside a chance of success I knew this was going to be something I hadn’t seen before. And although not in game yet, FF14 promises the same plethora of diversions and non-combat activities that we’ve seen in other single player FF games as well as FF11.
Sony has also made some very smart decisions with servers and versions. Unlike FF11, where all servers were hosted in Japan at launch, FF14 will launch with NA, EU, and JP servers, and PS3 and PC owners will play beside each other on the same servers. Best of all, buying the game on the PC gives you a digital download on PlayStation Network, and buying the game for PS3 gives you a CD code for the PC game (account linked so you can’t sell it, obviously).
All in all, A Realm Reborn makes me feel like I’m playing an MMO from 10 years ago with better graphics and slightly better quality of life, and I couldn’t be happier. The simple combat system means that while playing with friends I can focus on socialization and the almost overwhelming quantity of systems means I’ll never been lacking for things to do solo. 2013 promises to be an exciting year for gaming with new consoles and ton of new games, but this is one of the games I find myself the most excited about. The box plus subscription model might be off-putting for some, but if you have $29.99 to spend you should defiantly come to a Raven day event. But if you have $29.99 to spare AFTER paying for Raven, this is the game to spend it on.
It made sense; churn for EQ was pretty high (the rate at which people would quit) as there were barriers to entry at every level. Trying to make a game that would appeal to this mass of people exposed to MMO but turned off by EQ's systems would turn out the be a licence to print money, as it spawned a little game called World of Warcraft. Everything about WoW was simpler than EQ. It came out 5 years after EQ (1999 and 2004, respectively) yet had almost the same recommended system specs. You couldn’t lose levels by dying. The world was much smaller and condensed, and travel options like flying stations and mounts were easy to come by. It introduced instanced gaming, where you didn’t have to fight other players for the majority of spawns. In short, it dumbed down the MMO into two tiers; the n00b and the hard-core, and let them play beside each other for the first time. Unfortunately for the industry it worked very well, and every MMO since then in the US has focused on making things even simpler, even more accessible, and even more newbie friendly. In almost 9 years, no MMO has been able to recreate the blockbuster success of these two pioneers. Although EQ lost the number one spot to WoW in a big way (Everquest had in its prime no more than 4 million subscribers, while WoW has topped 10 million) EQ has consistently remained the number two MMO aside from a few months here and there as new games launch, for most of its ridiculous 14 year (and counting!) life span. It has 13 expansion packs costing $29.99 each, and they sell about as well as most MMO launches nowadays; in the 400,000k units range. This is why the head of Epic Games said at this year's E3 that anyone developing an MMO for North America is just stupid. Hundreds of games have tried and only two have ever seen real success.
Over in the Asian market, it’s another story. Sparked by the breakout success of Lineage, the Asian market has pushed to create MMOs that are harder, more complex, more elitist and more grind-tastic then their competitors, driving an economy based on truly addictive and engaging game play. Rather than say people are complaining that it takes two weeks to gain a second level let’s make it take less time, they have focused on how to make that two weeks fun, and once they have done that they stretch the two weeks to three. The result has been that while the US market sees stagnation and decline, the Asian market has exploded. Be it Maple Story, Runescape, or Ragranok, to name only the heavily westernized ones, the Asian market sees a game hit WoW-like success once or twice every year. As a LARP owner, I’m uniquely qualified to comment on why; Western MMOs try to give players what they want and ask for, while Asian games just focus on hitting design goals and building what they envision, ignoring what players tell them they want with good reason: players have no flipping idea what they want and are often happiest while doing things they just told you they hate.
This brings us to Final Fantasy 14, the Japanese game that wasn’t. Following the EQ to WoW model, SquareEnix realised they already had a very successful Japanese MMO with FF11 and they should appeal to the gamers who left that game because it was too Asian. They put together an innovative new type of game with active combat and many of the conventions now commonplace to MMOs here in the West, without the trapping of redundant activity common to games from the East. The result was shockingly bad (which is saying a lot for a franchise that just set the bad standard with FF13). So bad that after issuing several apologies they stopped charging for the game and let everyone play for free until they could “get it right”. 2 years later they decided that wasn’t going to work; launched on September 2010, FF14 was taken offline on November 11 2012, making it among the shortest lived MMOs in history. The game will return with a complete remake called “A Realm Reborn” on August 27th of this year. I have been playing Realm Reborn beta on and off (mostly off to be honest) for almost a year now and I’m extremely excited about the direction they have taken. Gone is the Western MMO with an Asian flair and in its place is a game that manages to deliver on everything that made EverQuest great while hitting most of what made WoW accessible, while being unapologetically Asian.
FF11 was the “Crysis” of MMOs, pushing the limits of what a system can put out, and FF14 is worse in a good way. The official benchmark looked at my overclocked 3930K with two $700 video cards and said “HA, white boy thinks he’s got a good computer” before setting everything to medium. Even at that level, the game blows away any other MMO and could hold its own against anything you’ve seen in this generation of single player. In fact the popular rumor is that the minimal specs were reduced so that the game could run on the PS3; the original build being too graphics heavy to even run at 30fps on the console. Seeing the staples of Final Fantasy realized in such high fidelity is a true treat, and this mix of awe and nostalgia continues thought out the experience from the attention to detail you see in the face of a moogle to the familiar fanfare that plays when you complete a quest. Half my motivation to level up was the promise of riding a chocobo at higher levels, and the experience didn’t disappoint!
Gameplay feels a decade out of place but is perfect; you press a button that starts a cast bar, which eventually translates into some damage being done or healed. You stand there, unmoving, while the monster beats on you with attacks you can do nothing to mitigate. There is no active combat, no blocks, no quick time events, and no circles to move out of; this is old-school. Driving this however is one of the most complete and satisfying class systems I have ever seem. Your progression is divided into base classes and jobs and you can switch between any number of them on the fly by simply changing your primary weapon. The game takes care of the rest of the gear change; for example, when I equip my sword the game puts on my plate armour and when I equip my wand it goes to PJs and a pointy hat without me needing to handle that. The gear used in these transitions doesn’t even take up space in my bags, which is good, given the number of jobs and classes I have to choose from. Adding to the complexity, classes allow you to mix and match skills from another classes you have levels in and focus on general things like DPS and healing, while Jobs offer inflexible skill sets that focus on more complex roles like tanking or buffing. From what I’ve seen (admittedly I have not done raiding) there is no clear “best” way to go, leaving you free to play to your style.
The game steals everything good from the last few years of MMO development without giving up its roots. Public quests frequently spawn while you’re out adventuring and story zones are instanced so that other players don’t distract from the experience. There is also a lot of voice work and full cut scenes, a personal plot line, and a class plot line for every one of the classes, jobs, and crafting classes. Drop in any time PvP and raids round out the systems we have grown to expect. For the less combat focused, collection, exploration, and crafting all benefit from the systems and styles in place in most Asian MMOs, but not common here in the West. You have challenges to find every area on a map, kill a given number of every type of monster including some rare and some super powerful spawns, and crafting focuses on mini-game driven systems with a lot of depth. The first time I approached a node and saw a list of the items I could try and mine from it beside a chance of success I knew this was going to be something I hadn’t seen before. And although not in game yet, FF14 promises the same plethora of diversions and non-combat activities that we’ve seen in other single player FF games as well as FF11.
Sony has also made some very smart decisions with servers and versions. Unlike FF11, where all servers were hosted in Japan at launch, FF14 will launch with NA, EU, and JP servers, and PS3 and PC owners will play beside each other on the same servers. Best of all, buying the game on the PC gives you a digital download on PlayStation Network, and buying the game for PS3 gives you a CD code for the PC game (account linked so you can’t sell it, obviously).
All in all, A Realm Reborn makes me feel like I’m playing an MMO from 10 years ago with better graphics and slightly better quality of life, and I couldn’t be happier. The simple combat system means that while playing with friends I can focus on socialization and the almost overwhelming quantity of systems means I’ll never been lacking for things to do solo. 2013 promises to be an exciting year for gaming with new consoles and ton of new games, but this is one of the games I find myself the most excited about. The box plus subscription model might be off-putting for some, but if you have $29.99 to spend you should defiantly come to a Raven day event. But if you have $29.99 to spare AFTER paying for Raven, this is the game to spend it on.
Saturday, 22 June 2013
In Perspective - Britain Bans Porn
What you have heard
In order to protect our little flowers from the dangers of knowing what other people’s body parts look like, Britain will take the bold and welcome step of banning all porn from the internet! They are going to do this by first having ISPs filter porn websites, and then by pushing for search engine giants like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to filter out any porn related searches, especially any relating to violence and sex. This is a great day for decency, morality, and more importantly, the children.
Except
First and foremost I think the British government needs to understand that the last time someone used Yahoo as a search engine the number one hit song was by Kris Kross.
Now I’m not going to use this blog to argue the morality of pornography, but I’ll take the opportunity to look at this from a nerd’s perspective (as this is a nerd blog!) and I’ve got some questions. Most obviously, what the hell are you thinking? ISP filters will involve a black list, which means the ISPs now have to keep track of all the porn sites on the internet. There are already commercial products that do that, and they claim to block about 2.5 million sites. This sounds good, except the conservative estimate for porn sites on the internet is ten times that, or 25.4 million, and more aggressive estimates put it around 84 million*. Plus the 13,000 new porn sites added every day might be an issue. Add to that the fact that you have a $14 BILLION a year industry that is going to be working on technology to circumvent this black list; an easy task seeing it’s already readily available for free.
TOR (the onion router) is software that sends your packet requests through several other computers, which then retrieve the information and send it back to you encrypted (this is a HUGE oversimplification of how TOR works, but good enough for this article). Any child who really wanted to view porn could use TOR to work around the ISP filter; they would never be asking the ISP to connect them to a site on the black list. Porn in no way becomes less accessible to people who shouldn’t have it but are motivated to find it, it just becomes less convenient for people who have the right to have it.
That leads to search string filtering, and all I can say to that is “wow”. I’m not even going to go into the technical complications here. I’m not even going to talk about how search strings work. Instead, I’m just going to Google “rape”. The first 3 hits are the Wikipedia page, Google news on the topic, and the dictionary.com definition in order. Google knows I spend most of my idle time on the internet reading case law with a focus on the Supreme Court, so the next 20 or so results are a split between things like Kennedy v. Louisiana, Coker v. Georgia, and the local contact numbers for women's clinics in my area. It’s good to know that under this law the woman who types “I’ve just been violently raped, I need help” into her search engine, instead of getting the numbers to those groups, will instead have her search query blocked. For the children.
So what’s the deal?
This is child worship at its worst; the simple mention of the words “for the children” make us think that examining the logic of a solution or whether there is even a problem are irrelevant. There have been hundreds of hours of legislative debate on this subject, but at no point was Google or Microsoft invited to talk about things like how the internet works. At no time were there requests for studies on whether children use the internet to access porn, and if they do, whether they do it via web pages. This is theatre of law, which has become far more important than the law itself.
*4% of the 100 top sites on the internet are porn. 4% of all web sites is around 25.4 million. However, a random sampling of 100,000 sites not in the top 100 done in 2011 showed 13% of them as porn, which would put the total number of porn sites around 85 million.
In order to protect our little flowers from the dangers of knowing what other people’s body parts look like, Britain will take the bold and welcome step of banning all porn from the internet! They are going to do this by first having ISPs filter porn websites, and then by pushing for search engine giants like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to filter out any porn related searches, especially any relating to violence and sex. This is a great day for decency, morality, and more importantly, the children.
Except
First and foremost I think the British government needs to understand that the last time someone used Yahoo as a search engine the number one hit song was by Kris Kross.
Now I’m not going to use this blog to argue the morality of pornography, but I’ll take the opportunity to look at this from a nerd’s perspective (as this is a nerd blog!) and I’ve got some questions. Most obviously, what the hell are you thinking? ISP filters will involve a black list, which means the ISPs now have to keep track of all the porn sites on the internet. There are already commercial products that do that, and they claim to block about 2.5 million sites. This sounds good, except the conservative estimate for porn sites on the internet is ten times that, or 25.4 million, and more aggressive estimates put it around 84 million*. Plus the 13,000 new porn sites added every day might be an issue. Add to that the fact that you have a $14 BILLION a year industry that is going to be working on technology to circumvent this black list; an easy task seeing it’s already readily available for free.
TOR (the onion router) is software that sends your packet requests through several other computers, which then retrieve the information and send it back to you encrypted (this is a HUGE oversimplification of how TOR works, but good enough for this article). Any child who really wanted to view porn could use TOR to work around the ISP filter; they would never be asking the ISP to connect them to a site on the black list. Porn in no way becomes less accessible to people who shouldn’t have it but are motivated to find it, it just becomes less convenient for people who have the right to have it.
That leads to search string filtering, and all I can say to that is “wow”. I’m not even going to go into the technical complications here. I’m not even going to talk about how search strings work. Instead, I’m just going to Google “rape”. The first 3 hits are the Wikipedia page, Google news on the topic, and the dictionary.com definition in order. Google knows I spend most of my idle time on the internet reading case law with a focus on the Supreme Court, so the next 20 or so results are a split between things like Kennedy v. Louisiana, Coker v. Georgia, and the local contact numbers for women's clinics in my area. It’s good to know that under this law the woman who types “I’ve just been violently raped, I need help” into her search engine, instead of getting the numbers to those groups, will instead have her search query blocked. For the children.
So what’s the deal?
This is child worship at its worst; the simple mention of the words “for the children” make us think that examining the logic of a solution or whether there is even a problem are irrelevant. There have been hundreds of hours of legislative debate on this subject, but at no point was Google or Microsoft invited to talk about things like how the internet works. At no time were there requests for studies on whether children use the internet to access porn, and if they do, whether they do it via web pages. This is theatre of law, which has become far more important than the law itself.
*4% of the 100 top sites on the internet are porn. 4% of all web sites is around 25.4 million. However, a random sampling of 100,000 sites not in the top 100 done in 2011 showed 13% of them as porn, which would put the total number of porn sites around 85 million.
Monday, 17 June 2013
In Perspective - Special E3 (2013) edition
Sony
What you’ve heard
Sony wins E3! It doesn’t even have anything to do with games, it’s the fact that they respect the gamer. While Microsoft was off telling us how they are going to spy on us, control our games, not let us resell, and not let us play used games, Sony told us what we wanted to hear; that they respect us as gamers and are not going to do that crap. Sony understands! They have promised us that we will own our disc games and they are never going to do anything to restrict our ability to play them. That’s all we needed to hear!
Except
Sony? You know you’re talking about SONY right? Look don’t get me wrong, they were the clear favourite of E3 and they said exactly what they needed to capitalize on how poorly Microsoft has given the message of the “always on” Xbox One, but … SONY. They got a standing ovation for saying the PlayStation 4 doesn’t have any hard stop on playing used games, which is great until you remember that neither does the PS3, which is why all Sony games have online passes PREVENTING YOU FROM PLAYING USED COPIES OF THEM. And although they said they would discontinue that practice in the future, they hadn't said that when the ovation happened. This is the company that told us we could install any operating system we wanted on the PS3, and then changed their mind a year after release with an update they forced on everyone, breaking a lot of people’s PS3s in the process. This is the company that spent millions of dollars putting someone in jail because he restored that feature. This is the company that installed root kits (for the non-computer people, the absolute worst type of virus) on our computers to spy on us and see if we stole music. I could go on and on. Sony has been given a lot of opportunities to do right by the customer in the past and at every point they have chosen to screw them instead. They are a world leader in DRM investment and implementation, the driving force behind DHCP (a DRM technology for TVs) and were the first big gaming company to change their EULA so that you can’t sue them as a class action … after a hack leaked the user information of over 40 million people and resulted in 37 days of down time. Not to mention by the end of E3 they had already said they lied about two of the things they got applause for; the $399 PS4 is not necessarily the “base” model and 3rd party publishers can lock used games out of the PS4 if they want to. Oh and you now have to pay $5 a month to play games online. Oh and we said “disc games”, you totally can’t trade any digital games you buy and they have DRM locking them to your system. Champions of gamers' rights, Sony is not.
So what’s the deal?
Microsoft REALLY blew it, to the point where gamers heard what they wanted to hear and ignored the reality; Microsoft and Sony both don’t give a danm about gamers. That’s not how corporations work; they are there to make money doing whatever it takes, and in a world where 7 million people bought Skyrim (the most successful game sales wise in a long time that’s isn’t Call of Duty) while Wii Fit sold 40 million between it’s 2 skus, that has very little to do with appealing to the “core” gamer. Microsoft was very in your face about this from day one; it is very clear the Xbox One is being built for non-gamers, while Sony is doing a much better job of hiding this fact.
Microsoft (take two)
It’s OVER. The next generation war has been decided and Microsoft is out of the picture. No one is going to want an overpriced hunk of junk that can’t even play used games. No one wants a 24 hour check in. Why even bother putting this system out, it’s already lost.
Except
Microsoft stock is up 2% after E3, because what gamers saw and what investors saw was very, very different. While gamers are upset Microsoft is changing all the rules and are convinced it doesn’t have what it takes to compete with Sony for the core gamer (which may even be true), what investors saw was Microsoft positioning to compete with Apple, Google, and Steam in the only market that is going to matter in 3 years; content distribution. Imagine a world where games don’t cost $60, they cost $40 at most. A world where by waiting a few months you can pick the game up for half price, and maybe even 75% off on special sales. A world where if you really hate a video game after playing it you can return it for a refund. This is the all-digital world of Steam, and it’s fantastic. What if Microsoft had shared this vision with you, then tried to explain that it can only happen in a world where you can’t resell your used game (or buy used games) but it was worth giving that up. I think we would have been a bit more forgiving, seeing as tens of millions of people buy Steam's non-tradeable games right freaking now.
So what’s the deal
Instead of talking about this brave new world, they opened the conversation by screaming YOU BITCHES CAN’T SELL YOUR GAMES ANY MORE, SUCK IT and for this they deserve the backlash they are getting. Bottom line however, digital is the future and Microsoft has a digital strategy that works. We as gamers don’t like it much with good reason, but that’s mostly because everyone hates change and the change in this case is the core gaming no longer being the focus of a games company. Microsoft knows this, and isn't concerned. E3 doesn't really have an impact on the overall success of a system - and even if it does and Sony is the first to sell out, this isn't about the first million sales or even the first 10 million sales. In 8 years, it's going to be about who was the first to 40 million sales (The Xbox 360 hit 10 million sales before the PS3 hit 5 million, but today they are neck and neck at about 70 million each), and who is able to deliver more product to the installed base while keeping as much of the profit as possible. Microsoft has shown investors how it's going to do this; interactive TV, digital distribution, and true innovation. Sony showed them the 15 year old disc based model they hope is going to do them another 10 years.
Nintendo
The Wii U has NOTHING. Sure, we say a incredible line up of games, but nothing until late 2013 and most of them were games without a release date coming next year at best. What are they thinking! There is NO reason to buy a Wii U right now, and that’s not changing any time soon up to and including the critical holiday season. This is just stupid! How could they not have their own games ready by now, they have had 4+ years to develop them. Nintendo is DOOOOOOMED.
Except
No, that’s pretty much accurate. Except the last part. Look, the media just doesn’t GET Nintendo, and it’s easy to show why.
So what’s the deal?
Bioshock: Infinite was one of the best games ever made, with ground breaking advancements in first person game play, some of the best graphics we have seen to date anywhere, a orchestrated score on par with anything you seen on the big screen (and some licensed music to boot), advancement in AI, and a truly epic and gripping story. It was a true pinnacle of both art and gameplay and as video games go, its doesn’t really get much better. It wasn’t cheap though, with its estimated cost to market being around $150 million including promotion. Still, it paid off; only 2 months in and before any sales, DLC, or price drops it had sold 3 million copies across its 3 SKUs (PC, Xbox, PS3). Wow, big success right? Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a Nintendo game that cost less than $10 million to make, features graphics out of the GameCube era and mostly 16 bit music, and gameplay consists of walking around town collecting bugs and rocks. Sometimes you go fishing. It sold 4 million copes on its opening weekend in Japan alone (before it’s North America release) and is responsible for anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 3DS sales. The NA release has 200,000 pre-orders. This is not a rare thing for Nintendo. New Super Mario Brothers Wii sold 27 million and Mario Kart Wii sold 37 million despite being the exact same game everyone who bought them already owns. Nintendo simply has, and always has had, a license to print money as they need it. In fact, for global sales numbers going back to NES days, the first 15 slots are owned by Nintendo and number 11 is freaking Nintendogs (which outsold titles like GTA on the PS2 and any single call of duty Sku.) This allows them a bigger liberty when making triple A games; they can deal with a few months or even a few years of failure and slow starts, funded by the fact that they can release the Wii Fit board at $100 and sell 40 million of them, with a total development cost less than what EA spends on most trailers. I think they are going to be A-OK.
What you’ve heard
Sony wins E3! It doesn’t even have anything to do with games, it’s the fact that they respect the gamer. While Microsoft was off telling us how they are going to spy on us, control our games, not let us resell, and not let us play used games, Sony told us what we wanted to hear; that they respect us as gamers and are not going to do that crap. Sony understands! They have promised us that we will own our disc games and they are never going to do anything to restrict our ability to play them. That’s all we needed to hear!
Except
Sony? You know you’re talking about SONY right? Look don’t get me wrong, they were the clear favourite of E3 and they said exactly what they needed to capitalize on how poorly Microsoft has given the message of the “always on” Xbox One, but … SONY. They got a standing ovation for saying the PlayStation 4 doesn’t have any hard stop on playing used games, which is great until you remember that neither does the PS3, which is why all Sony games have online passes PREVENTING YOU FROM PLAYING USED COPIES OF THEM. And although they said they would discontinue that practice in the future, they hadn't said that when the ovation happened. This is the company that told us we could install any operating system we wanted on the PS3, and then changed their mind a year after release with an update they forced on everyone, breaking a lot of people’s PS3s in the process. This is the company that spent millions of dollars putting someone in jail because he restored that feature. This is the company that installed root kits (for the non-computer people, the absolute worst type of virus) on our computers to spy on us and see if we stole music. I could go on and on. Sony has been given a lot of opportunities to do right by the customer in the past and at every point they have chosen to screw them instead. They are a world leader in DRM investment and implementation, the driving force behind DHCP (a DRM technology for TVs) and were the first big gaming company to change their EULA so that you can’t sue them as a class action … after a hack leaked the user information of over 40 million people and resulted in 37 days of down time. Not to mention by the end of E3 they had already said they lied about two of the things they got applause for; the $399 PS4 is not necessarily the “base” model and 3rd party publishers can lock used games out of the PS4 if they want to. Oh and you now have to pay $5 a month to play games online. Oh and we said “disc games”, you totally can’t trade any digital games you buy and they have DRM locking them to your system. Champions of gamers' rights, Sony is not.
So what’s the deal?
Microsoft REALLY blew it, to the point where gamers heard what they wanted to hear and ignored the reality; Microsoft and Sony both don’t give a danm about gamers. That’s not how corporations work; they are there to make money doing whatever it takes, and in a world where 7 million people bought Skyrim (the most successful game sales wise in a long time that’s isn’t Call of Duty) while Wii Fit sold 40 million between it’s 2 skus, that has very little to do with appealing to the “core” gamer. Microsoft was very in your face about this from day one; it is very clear the Xbox One is being built for non-gamers, while Sony is doing a much better job of hiding this fact.
Microsoft (take two)
It’s OVER. The next generation war has been decided and Microsoft is out of the picture. No one is going to want an overpriced hunk of junk that can’t even play used games. No one wants a 24 hour check in. Why even bother putting this system out, it’s already lost.
Except
Microsoft stock is up 2% after E3, because what gamers saw and what investors saw was very, very different. While gamers are upset Microsoft is changing all the rules and are convinced it doesn’t have what it takes to compete with Sony for the core gamer (which may even be true), what investors saw was Microsoft positioning to compete with Apple, Google, and Steam in the only market that is going to matter in 3 years; content distribution. Imagine a world where games don’t cost $60, they cost $40 at most. A world where by waiting a few months you can pick the game up for half price, and maybe even 75% off on special sales. A world where if you really hate a video game after playing it you can return it for a refund. This is the all-digital world of Steam, and it’s fantastic. What if Microsoft had shared this vision with you, then tried to explain that it can only happen in a world where you can’t resell your used game (or buy used games) but it was worth giving that up. I think we would have been a bit more forgiving, seeing as tens of millions of people buy Steam's non-tradeable games right freaking now.
So what’s the deal
Instead of talking about this brave new world, they opened the conversation by screaming YOU BITCHES CAN’T SELL YOUR GAMES ANY MORE, SUCK IT and for this they deserve the backlash they are getting. Bottom line however, digital is the future and Microsoft has a digital strategy that works. We as gamers don’t like it much with good reason, but that’s mostly because everyone hates change and the change in this case is the core gaming no longer being the focus of a games company. Microsoft knows this, and isn't concerned. E3 doesn't really have an impact on the overall success of a system - and even if it does and Sony is the first to sell out, this isn't about the first million sales or even the first 10 million sales. In 8 years, it's going to be about who was the first to 40 million sales (The Xbox 360 hit 10 million sales before the PS3 hit 5 million, but today they are neck and neck at about 70 million each), and who is able to deliver more product to the installed base while keeping as much of the profit as possible. Microsoft has shown investors how it's going to do this; interactive TV, digital distribution, and true innovation. Sony showed them the 15 year old disc based model they hope is going to do them another 10 years.
Nintendo
The Wii U has NOTHING. Sure, we say a incredible line up of games, but nothing until late 2013 and most of them were games without a release date coming next year at best. What are they thinking! There is NO reason to buy a Wii U right now, and that’s not changing any time soon up to and including the critical holiday season. This is just stupid! How could they not have their own games ready by now, they have had 4+ years to develop them. Nintendo is DOOOOOOMED.
Except
No, that’s pretty much accurate. Except the last part. Look, the media just doesn’t GET Nintendo, and it’s easy to show why.
So what’s the deal?
Bioshock: Infinite was one of the best games ever made, with ground breaking advancements in first person game play, some of the best graphics we have seen to date anywhere, a orchestrated score on par with anything you seen on the big screen (and some licensed music to boot), advancement in AI, and a truly epic and gripping story. It was a true pinnacle of both art and gameplay and as video games go, its doesn’t really get much better. It wasn’t cheap though, with its estimated cost to market being around $150 million including promotion. Still, it paid off; only 2 months in and before any sales, DLC, or price drops it had sold 3 million copies across its 3 SKUs (PC, Xbox, PS3). Wow, big success right? Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a Nintendo game that cost less than $10 million to make, features graphics out of the GameCube era and mostly 16 bit music, and gameplay consists of walking around town collecting bugs and rocks. Sometimes you go fishing. It sold 4 million copes on its opening weekend in Japan alone (before it’s North America release) and is responsible for anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 3DS sales. The NA release has 200,000 pre-orders. This is not a rare thing for Nintendo. New Super Mario Brothers Wii sold 27 million and Mario Kart Wii sold 37 million despite being the exact same game everyone who bought them already owns. Nintendo simply has, and always has had, a license to print money as they need it. In fact, for global sales numbers going back to NES days, the first 15 slots are owned by Nintendo and number 11 is freaking Nintendogs (which outsold titles like GTA on the PS2 and any single call of duty Sku.) This allows them a bigger liberty when making triple A games; they can deal with a few months or even a few years of failure and slow starts, funded by the fact that they can release the Wii Fit board at $100 and sell 40 million of them, with a total development cost less than what EA spends on most trailers. I think they are going to be A-OK.
Saturday, 8 June 2013
In Perspective- Saints Row 4 ban
What you've heard
Saints Row 4 is an abomination! First, there is a space mission where you take “alien drugs” to enhance your performance. This isn’t optional; you can’t progress in the game unless you give into drug use! Pretend drugs made by aliens, but drugs none the less!. Worse, the game has an alien weapon where you launch people into the air by ramming it up their backside. Sure, both are extremely tongue in check and clearly over the top comedy, but we can’t stand for sexual references or drug use of any kind in video games! Australia has already banned this game, and we should follow suit!
Except
Saints Row is an open world game where the story involves nothing more than various reasons to go around shooting people in the face. There are side missions and distractions that take this to the point of “A Clockwork Orange” style ultra-violence. You can drive tanks around blowing up city blocks for kicks, gaining rewards based on how much damage you do and how quickly you murder the law enforcement officers sent to stop you. There is a racing game where you score points for running over civilians (bonus points for setting them on fire!). Your main method of travel around town is carjacking. In short, it’s one of the most violent experiences you will ever come across, and it never even tries to justify this violence. You’re not fighting a war, you’re not saving the princess; you are most probably the bad guy or at best the anti-hero (you have some level of choice in your character's actions), using violence to get whatever you want. Saints Row is not at all unique in this. One of the main criticisms of Saints Row among the gaming community is that it is a shameless clone of Grand Theft Auto (which you might notice is a game named after a felony). In games like “Dungeon Keeper” you even play at the villain with no plot beyond "find the most horrid and amusing ways to kill the heroes sent to bring you to justice". Yet no one suggests banning these games, and the over the top level of violence isn’t a factor in the outrage to Saints Row.
So what’s the deal?
The fact that we have evolved a society where sex is more shocking and has a harsher social stigma then violence or even murder is nothing new, and it has lead to apathy and acceptance of arbitrary morality. Something is morally objectionable not because of an inherent right or wrongness, but because of outcry from the right people, and because we hear that outcry often enough in the right places. Ironically, Saints Row speaks to this in one of its own mini-games. In Professor Genki's super ethical reality climax, you take part in a blood sport that has you killing people in plush animal costumes for the amusement of others ... but you can’t shoot the pandas because that would be unethical. In doing so it briefly shows its true colors as a brilliant satire.
Saints Row 4 is an abomination! First, there is a space mission where you take “alien drugs” to enhance your performance. This isn’t optional; you can’t progress in the game unless you give into drug use! Pretend drugs made by aliens, but drugs none the less!. Worse, the game has an alien weapon where you launch people into the air by ramming it up their backside. Sure, both are extremely tongue in check and clearly over the top comedy, but we can’t stand for sexual references or drug use of any kind in video games! Australia has already banned this game, and we should follow suit!
Except
Saints Row is an open world game where the story involves nothing more than various reasons to go around shooting people in the face. There are side missions and distractions that take this to the point of “A Clockwork Orange” style ultra-violence. You can drive tanks around blowing up city blocks for kicks, gaining rewards based on how much damage you do and how quickly you murder the law enforcement officers sent to stop you. There is a racing game where you score points for running over civilians (bonus points for setting them on fire!). Your main method of travel around town is carjacking. In short, it’s one of the most violent experiences you will ever come across, and it never even tries to justify this violence. You’re not fighting a war, you’re not saving the princess; you are most probably the bad guy or at best the anti-hero (you have some level of choice in your character's actions), using violence to get whatever you want. Saints Row is not at all unique in this. One of the main criticisms of Saints Row among the gaming community is that it is a shameless clone of Grand Theft Auto (which you might notice is a game named after a felony). In games like “Dungeon Keeper” you even play at the villain with no plot beyond "find the most horrid and amusing ways to kill the heroes sent to bring you to justice". Yet no one suggests banning these games, and the over the top level of violence isn’t a factor in the outrage to Saints Row.
So what’s the deal?
The fact that we have evolved a society where sex is more shocking and has a harsher social stigma then violence or even murder is nothing new, and it has lead to apathy and acceptance of arbitrary morality. Something is morally objectionable not because of an inherent right or wrongness, but because of outcry from the right people, and because we hear that outcry often enough in the right places. Ironically, Saints Row speaks to this in one of its own mini-games. In Professor Genki's super ethical reality climax, you take part in a blood sport that has you killing people in plush animal costumes for the amusement of others ... but you can’t shoot the pandas because that would be unethical. In doing so it briefly shows its true colors as a brilliant satire.
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
E3 2013 Predictions
As busy as I am, I can't help but take some time to talk about E3 and what I see coming down the pipe! Here are my top predictions for things not already leaked and speculated by hundreds of other sources.
Nintendo is going to steal the show by not being there
I’ve already covered Nintendo’s decision to pass on E3 this year as being far from shocking, but now that we’ve had a chance to see their “plain B” I’m very excited. Rather than have a few playable stations at the show to share with the media, Nintendo is shipping out hundreds of preview Wii U games to Best Buy while doing a Nintendo direct to talk about them. E3 might be nerd Christmas, but you don’t have to go too far from the hardcore of hardcore before you find gamers who don’t even know E3 is this weekend. That all changes when the weekend I can check a game website for news becomes the weekend I can go play the next Zelda game at Best Buy months before it's released. By simple numbers, more people will be plugged in and aware of what Nintendo is doing then Microsoft or Sony.
Someone special is going to be on stage with Microsoft
Microsoft has something Sony and Nintendo can never match; a boatload of money. With a lacklustre reception to the Xbox One reveal from gamers, it’s pretty much a sure thing that they are going to double down at E3 and just toss money at the problem. Let’s be honest; having Steven Spielberg on board for a halo series was only big enough for an off mention at the reveal, and Xbox execs have been seen a whole lot of places they shouldn’t be lately. Add that to rumours that MS is looking to restructure to give Xbox more resources and money, I think we are going to see a true shocker of a partnership at E3. I’m talking steam on Xbox, big screen movies on Xbox before they are in theatres or a Naughty Dogs Xbox exclusive shocker.
Sony “focus on games” will be exactly the opposite of that
From tweeting “slow news day” the day of the One reveal to saying that the PS4 is different than the Xbox in that it plays games, Sony has come out of the gates swinging. Now at E3 they will have a chance to show off core games for core gamers ... and will absolutely not do that. I’m not down on Sony; I’m just sceptical they have the ability to keep a large number of games secret in today’s leak saturated world. Xbox has teased 11 exclusive games, and a week before the event I could tell you what 6 of them are and what studios are developing 3 of the remaining 5. The two I have no idea about are new IPs from Microsoft studies, making it easy for them to keep them under wraps. For Sony I’ve got nothing. Naughty Dogs just made last of us, Forsa 4 is a PS3 exclusive, Square isn’t doing anything exclusive, and pretty much everyone else “Sony friendly” has checked in at this point. Sony’s E3 is going to show off some gimmicky crap and a new Kill Zone and Infamous, then a bunch of games you can play on your PC or Xbox.
Microsoft is going to tank a franchise (most likely Halo)
To the bold goes the spoils! You have to understand something about “install base”. There are about 60 million Xbox 360s out there, meaning if you make an Xbox 360 game 60 million people can buy it, and a percentage will buy it. If you cross platform it with the PS3, then 120 million people can buy it. Best case a new console is going to sell around 5 million in its first year so that’s only 5 million who can buy your game and about the same percentage that will. The sales you can count on if you put out a game exclusive to your new system are pretty horrible, so the risk vs. reward becomes picking a game that people will want to play enough that they buy your new system without picking a game where loss of sales opportunity will tank the franchise. Sony is clearly not willing to do this with all its big name games already announced on PS3 (one exclusively) but going in line with the “just toss money at the problem” stance I think MS is going to take look for at least one big game skipping the 360. I see this most likely being Halo 5 or Fable 3 (or both).
It’s interesting to note that Nintendo never has this problem and it’s been key to their ability to move system in the past after slow starts (game cube, 3DS). If Nintendo puts out a game system in January, the last first party game ever that will play on the old hardware came out in December, every time.
People will still believe Peter Molyneux for some reason
Fable 3 is going to change gaming forever. Nah, it's going to change the world. Every chose you make in the game will have a drastic effect on not just the living, breathing, connected system that is Fable 3 but will impact the decisions of world leaders and the UN. The moral dilemmas you encounter in the game will be so core to the human experience that the game will serve to end every major world conflict kind of like Bill and Ted do with their music. As ridiculous as this sounds, it's not even close to the bullshit that is actually going to come out of Molyneux's mouth at E3. And we'll believe him. Again. And it will all be a crap. Again. And Fable 3 will be a great but largely forgettable game that never comes into it's stride. Again.
Nintendo is going to steal the show by not being there
I’ve already covered Nintendo’s decision to pass on E3 this year as being far from shocking, but now that we’ve had a chance to see their “plain B” I’m very excited. Rather than have a few playable stations at the show to share with the media, Nintendo is shipping out hundreds of preview Wii U games to Best Buy while doing a Nintendo direct to talk about them. E3 might be nerd Christmas, but you don’t have to go too far from the hardcore of hardcore before you find gamers who don’t even know E3 is this weekend. That all changes when the weekend I can check a game website for news becomes the weekend I can go play the next Zelda game at Best Buy months before it's released. By simple numbers, more people will be plugged in and aware of what Nintendo is doing then Microsoft or Sony.
Someone special is going to be on stage with Microsoft
Microsoft has something Sony and Nintendo can never match; a boatload of money. With a lacklustre reception to the Xbox One reveal from gamers, it’s pretty much a sure thing that they are going to double down at E3 and just toss money at the problem. Let’s be honest; having Steven Spielberg on board for a halo series was only big enough for an off mention at the reveal, and Xbox execs have been seen a whole lot of places they shouldn’t be lately. Add that to rumours that MS is looking to restructure to give Xbox more resources and money, I think we are going to see a true shocker of a partnership at E3. I’m talking steam on Xbox, big screen movies on Xbox before they are in theatres or a Naughty Dogs Xbox exclusive shocker.
Sony “focus on games” will be exactly the opposite of that
From tweeting “slow news day” the day of the One reveal to saying that the PS4 is different than the Xbox in that it plays games, Sony has come out of the gates swinging. Now at E3 they will have a chance to show off core games for core gamers ... and will absolutely not do that. I’m not down on Sony; I’m just sceptical they have the ability to keep a large number of games secret in today’s leak saturated world. Xbox has teased 11 exclusive games, and a week before the event I could tell you what 6 of them are and what studios are developing 3 of the remaining 5. The two I have no idea about are new IPs from Microsoft studies, making it easy for them to keep them under wraps. For Sony I’ve got nothing. Naughty Dogs just made last of us, Forsa 4 is a PS3 exclusive, Square isn’t doing anything exclusive, and pretty much everyone else “Sony friendly” has checked in at this point. Sony’s E3 is going to show off some gimmicky crap and a new Kill Zone and Infamous, then a bunch of games you can play on your PC or Xbox.
Microsoft is going to tank a franchise (most likely Halo)
To the bold goes the spoils! You have to understand something about “install base”. There are about 60 million Xbox 360s out there, meaning if you make an Xbox 360 game 60 million people can buy it, and a percentage will buy it. If you cross platform it with the PS3, then 120 million people can buy it. Best case a new console is going to sell around 5 million in its first year so that’s only 5 million who can buy your game and about the same percentage that will. The sales you can count on if you put out a game exclusive to your new system are pretty horrible, so the risk vs. reward becomes picking a game that people will want to play enough that they buy your new system without picking a game where loss of sales opportunity will tank the franchise. Sony is clearly not willing to do this with all its big name games already announced on PS3 (one exclusively) but going in line with the “just toss money at the problem” stance I think MS is going to take look for at least one big game skipping the 360. I see this most likely being Halo 5 or Fable 3 (or both).
It’s interesting to note that Nintendo never has this problem and it’s been key to their ability to move system in the past after slow starts (game cube, 3DS). If Nintendo puts out a game system in January, the last first party game ever that will play on the old hardware came out in December, every time.
People will still believe Peter Molyneux for some reason
Fable 3 is going to change gaming forever. Nah, it's going to change the world. Every chose you make in the game will have a drastic effect on not just the living, breathing, connected system that is Fable 3 but will impact the decisions of world leaders and the UN. The moral dilemmas you encounter in the game will be so core to the human experience that the game will serve to end every major world conflict kind of like Bill and Ted do with their music. As ridiculous as this sounds, it's not even close to the bullshit that is actually going to come out of Molyneux's mouth at E3. And we'll believe him. Again. And it will all be a crap. Again. And Fable 3 will be a great but largely forgettable game that never comes into it's stride. Again.
Monday, 27 May 2013
In Perspective - Xbox one
What you've heard
It didn't show any games. It will require an always on internet connection (again). It doesn't let you share games with your friends. It won’t play used games unless you pay money for a code. You won’t be able to use its basic functions unless you use motion controls. No more family membership discounts. You can’t play it in the dark. It’s going to cost $700. It’s the prime suspect in the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance. Think of a bad thing - that thing applies to the Xbox One.
Except
Pretty much every “story” that ran this week about the Xbox One was either confirmed false already or baseless speculation based on what Microsoft didn't explicitly state in the press conference. They never mentioned that it wouldn't require the blood of a newborn to turn on, so let's run a story with the headline “will you need to sacrifice a baby to turn your Xbox on?” As we haven’t seemed to learn the lesson that any news article where the headline is a question can be answered with "no", wild rumors are being picked up and repeated at every level.
Here’s what we do know; it will not require an internet connection to play single player games. That WAS said in the after-show, but it didn't stop media outlets from saying it wasn’t mentioned in the conference itself so it must be the worst case. We also know the Xbox needs to “check in” with the server from time to time and that if it doesn't some features will be turned off, but we don’t know what these features are or what the time to time number is. More on that when we get to used games.
We know every game needs to be installed on the hard drive, but Microsoft has said this will NOT prevent you from taking games to a friend’s house and playing them there. A cloud service will allow you to access all your games from that Xbox. This seems to strongly imply that yes, the system is going to need to be online to install a game to the hard drive and play it for the first time; that's an online activation, so without an internet connection you won’t be able to install games. Except that it doesn’t. Microsoft has required an online activation for all its products from a time before most people knew what dial up is. This is why they have phone centers that allow you to do the activation offline. If the Xbox requires this type of step, I can’t see any reason they wouldn’t allow activation by phone.
We know the system can play used games. We know there is going to be a check to make sure the same game isn’t installed on two systems. This is where the rumour starts that the system needs to check in to ensure your games are not being shared or it will shut them off. I have two comments here; first, we have no info other than Microsoft saying they are going to tell us later. Any numbers, like once a day, are completely made up. Second; that’s completely reasonable! Look, I hate DRM, but only if it’s unreasonable. Making me input long keys (and keep a physical copy around if I want to reinstall), always on DRM, making me give me personal information to activate ... that’s what I’m opposed to. I’m absolutely not opposed to people makings sure I’m not stealing their product if they can do it in a way that doesn’t bother me! A periodic check fits this bill, provided it’s in the area of 24 hours, or on start up.
We know it’s not going to require you to use motion controls. They said the reason they didn’t change the controller at all was because some people just like using a simple controller and that will always be an option.
We know the price will be “at or below the previous generation”. Using creative accounting, that gives them up to around a $500 price tag; that seems reasonable based on the hardware I’ve seen.
We know it’s going to have a ton of games. MS Studios is building 7 to 14 exclusives alone for year 1, and pretty much every game coming out in Q4 that is cross platform is on the Xbox One and PS4. By contrast, the Xbox 360 launched with 14 games total.
So what’s the deal
There are a lot of arguments for old news. TV and newspapers had something that the internet can’t; investment. You had to take the time to buy the paper or turn on the show, meaning you tried to get as much out of that investment as possible. If you didn’t like the content, you would find something else. Nowadays all we do is scan headlines while reading the aggregate server and the game has changed. There is no such thing as a good article, just a good headline that might generate a click, and most of what people know is going off the headline alone. It’s no surprise that after an announcement like this the media is all over every possible negative, even if it’s not really all that possible. Outrage and controversy drives clicks, and no one is holding you accountable when you get it wrong.
It didn't show any games. It will require an always on internet connection (again). It doesn't let you share games with your friends. It won’t play used games unless you pay money for a code. You won’t be able to use its basic functions unless you use motion controls. No more family membership discounts. You can’t play it in the dark. It’s going to cost $700. It’s the prime suspect in the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance. Think of a bad thing - that thing applies to the Xbox One.
Except
Pretty much every “story” that ran this week about the Xbox One was either confirmed false already or baseless speculation based on what Microsoft didn't explicitly state in the press conference. They never mentioned that it wouldn't require the blood of a newborn to turn on, so let's run a story with the headline “will you need to sacrifice a baby to turn your Xbox on?” As we haven’t seemed to learn the lesson that any news article where the headline is a question can be answered with "no", wild rumors are being picked up and repeated at every level.
Here’s what we do know; it will not require an internet connection to play single player games. That WAS said in the after-show, but it didn't stop media outlets from saying it wasn’t mentioned in the conference itself so it must be the worst case. We also know the Xbox needs to “check in” with the server from time to time and that if it doesn't some features will be turned off, but we don’t know what these features are or what the time to time number is. More on that when we get to used games.
We know every game needs to be installed on the hard drive, but Microsoft has said this will NOT prevent you from taking games to a friend’s house and playing them there. A cloud service will allow you to access all your games from that Xbox. This seems to strongly imply that yes, the system is going to need to be online to install a game to the hard drive and play it for the first time; that's an online activation, so without an internet connection you won’t be able to install games. Except that it doesn’t. Microsoft has required an online activation for all its products from a time before most people knew what dial up is. This is why they have phone centers that allow you to do the activation offline. If the Xbox requires this type of step, I can’t see any reason they wouldn’t allow activation by phone.
We know the system can play used games. We know there is going to be a check to make sure the same game isn’t installed on two systems. This is where the rumour starts that the system needs to check in to ensure your games are not being shared or it will shut them off. I have two comments here; first, we have no info other than Microsoft saying they are going to tell us later. Any numbers, like once a day, are completely made up. Second; that’s completely reasonable! Look, I hate DRM, but only if it’s unreasonable. Making me input long keys (and keep a physical copy around if I want to reinstall), always on DRM, making me give me personal information to activate ... that’s what I’m opposed to. I’m absolutely not opposed to people makings sure I’m not stealing their product if they can do it in a way that doesn’t bother me! A periodic check fits this bill, provided it’s in the area of 24 hours, or on start up.
We know it’s not going to require you to use motion controls. They said the reason they didn’t change the controller at all was because some people just like using a simple controller and that will always be an option.
We know the price will be “at or below the previous generation”. Using creative accounting, that gives them up to around a $500 price tag; that seems reasonable based on the hardware I’ve seen.
We know it’s going to have a ton of games. MS Studios is building 7 to 14 exclusives alone for year 1, and pretty much every game coming out in Q4 that is cross platform is on the Xbox One and PS4. By contrast, the Xbox 360 launched with 14 games total.
So what’s the deal
There are a lot of arguments for old news. TV and newspapers had something that the internet can’t; investment. You had to take the time to buy the paper or turn on the show, meaning you tried to get as much out of that investment as possible. If you didn’t like the content, you would find something else. Nowadays all we do is scan headlines while reading the aggregate server and the game has changed. There is no such thing as a good article, just a good headline that might generate a click, and most of what people know is going off the headline alone. It’s no surprise that after an announcement like this the media is all over every possible negative, even if it’s not really all that possible. Outrage and controversy drives clicks, and no one is holding you accountable when you get it wrong.
Friday, 24 May 2013
Should be Playing - King’s Bounty
As gamers go, I have a dark and dirty secret, something I need to keep hidden when around the rest of the gaming world for fear I may be misunderstood and shunned. And although I live with this every single day, rare are the times it’s worth it to admit to anyone this horrible truth. I do so now only because of my commitment to providing historical context when I write about a game; so out with it. I liked the Sega Genesis more than the Super Nintendo. I’m not saying there was anything wrong with the Super Nintendo, the most holy of gaming holies, but only that Sega’s system had of a lot more support for J-RPG and mature games, which I’ve always been most interested in. I hold Shining Force, Sword of Vermilion and Phantasy Star 2 in much higher esteem than Mario or even Ogre Battle, and although I owned both (and plenty of games for each) it’s always the Genesis I spent long nights as a child grinding away with. And one of my fondest memories comes from the marathon sessions trying to beat King’s Bounty.
In King’s Bounty you are the commander of an army, which you build by buying units from lairs or strongholds, and then use the armies to do battle on a small hex field. You have powers and spells that you can use as the commander to turn the tide, and from time to time the units you are facing have their own commander with the same abilities. You are limited in how big your army is by both what is available to be bought and your resources to buy them. If this sounds familiar it’s because one of the most popular gaming series of the last 10 years, Heroes of Might and Magic, is nothing more than a shameless rip off of this system with some (horrible) 4x game play added. But not really; in fact Heroes of Might and Magic and King’s Bounty were both made by Jon Van Caneghem at New World Computing who were using the “Might and Magic” name to boost appeal and sales, as both King’s Bounty and Might and Magic were owned by 3DO. Unifying them under a single brand just made sense. That is until 3DO was shut down and sold the rights to Might and Magic to Ubisoft, leaving King’s Bounty an orphaned IP that got picked up in 2008 by Katauri Interactive, who released King’s Bounty: The Legend.
King’s Bounty focuses on the RPG aspects of army management, which skills to learn and what items to equip, like a traditional turn based RPG. Without the 4x elements of Heroes, combat is far more tactical with strong risk vs. rewards elements built in. Where the obvious solution in Heroes is to send in overwhelming numbers to deal with every situation, in King’s Bounty you need to weigh the price of new troops with the gains that can come from better items or more skills, and the benefits of using a minimal army supplemented by your own skills with the risk of failure. Unit selection is also far more organic; without the need to “build” your troops you can hire a much wider variety of monsters and create a much more varied set of teams. All in all the game creates a fantastic mix of RPG, turn based combat, and strategy that any fan of games like Shining Force or Fire Emblem is going to love.
Friday, 17 May 2013
Should be Playing - Alpha Protocol
Video games, like movies and music before them, have a very odd way of demanding originality and rewarding familiarity. The masses cry for new and interesting projects, condemn sell outs, praise anyone willing to break from the mold, and then make Call of Duty 9 (or Black-Ops 2) the most successful media event of all time, earning $500 million in the first 24 hours of its release (or about twice what the Avengers, the highest grossing movie of all time, earned in its first weekend). Making the situation worse, while movies had big names like Roger Ebert to remind us of the overall value of experiments and unsuccessful films, video games have MetaCritic and the internet. We universally slam anything that doesn’t meet our expectations while simultaneously criticizing games for not trying new things.
Alpha Protocol suffered this unfortunate fate. With Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 under their belt, Obsidian Entertainment set out to produce two games that they promised would surprise and break from the norm. It wasn’t long before the first project was leaked, a more personal and story driven take on the Fallout universe in the way of Fallout: New Vegas, while the second project known only as an “espionage RPG” didn’t gain much hype until release. It took the stealth game play we were used to from Metal Gear and Splinter Cell and instead focused on the espionage element; conversation, gaining intelligence, and forging relationships between maps was the refined focus, while the maps themselves were the filler. The game pulled off a fantastic (if not a bit convoluted) story that spanned the globe and made you feel critically important to the way things played out. The game featured a bi-polar relationship system with your handler (which you chose before each mission based on who you trust) where both positive and negative relationships have advantages and disadvantages. Have a handler who likes you? Perhaps they won’t tell you about the weapon hidden in the heavily guarded room out of fear you might die. Have a handler who hates you? Maybe you can make them angry and get more information out of them than they wanted to give. Beyond that, as the voice in your head the handler has a dramatic effect on the mood. On one mission, one handler provides you information on how to disable enemies and sneak around without killing them while another plays “Flight of the Valkyrie” over your head set while highlighting weapons. It doesn’t just change the map, it changes who you are.
The game had its flaws. It was a 3rd person shooter that didn’t play or feel like one. Combat was extremely clunky and unforgiving by design, with a little extra clunky added by poor implementation. The game had strong RPG elements while giving you the illusion you can play it the way you want; you can’t. If you build a stealth and conversation oriented character you might as well have a pea shooter even though you would expect the gun on your back to work like it would in other shooters. The game rests in its own genre and that is both its appeal and its greatest flaw. It was rejected by the masses looking for the same experience they got out of other stealth action games and by the masses looking for a 3rd person RPG like Skyrim or Fallout. It’s only people who could look at it for what it is; something fresh, new, and different, that seemed to come to its defence. Still, with a Metacritic rating of 72 and a price on Steam of $5, I can’t recommend this game enough to people who want to feel like a spy without feeling like a unstoppable agent of death.
Alpha Protocol suffered this unfortunate fate. With Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 under their belt, Obsidian Entertainment set out to produce two games that they promised would surprise and break from the norm. It wasn’t long before the first project was leaked, a more personal and story driven take on the Fallout universe in the way of Fallout: New Vegas, while the second project known only as an “espionage RPG” didn’t gain much hype until release. It took the stealth game play we were used to from Metal Gear and Splinter Cell and instead focused on the espionage element; conversation, gaining intelligence, and forging relationships between maps was the refined focus, while the maps themselves were the filler. The game pulled off a fantastic (if not a bit convoluted) story that spanned the globe and made you feel critically important to the way things played out. The game featured a bi-polar relationship system with your handler (which you chose before each mission based on who you trust) where both positive and negative relationships have advantages and disadvantages. Have a handler who likes you? Perhaps they won’t tell you about the weapon hidden in the heavily guarded room out of fear you might die. Have a handler who hates you? Maybe you can make them angry and get more information out of them than they wanted to give. Beyond that, as the voice in your head the handler has a dramatic effect on the mood. On one mission, one handler provides you information on how to disable enemies and sneak around without killing them while another plays “Flight of the Valkyrie” over your head set while highlighting weapons. It doesn’t just change the map, it changes who you are.
The game had its flaws. It was a 3rd person shooter that didn’t play or feel like one. Combat was extremely clunky and unforgiving by design, with a little extra clunky added by poor implementation. The game had strong RPG elements while giving you the illusion you can play it the way you want; you can’t. If you build a stealth and conversation oriented character you might as well have a pea shooter even though you would expect the gun on your back to work like it would in other shooters. The game rests in its own genre and that is both its appeal and its greatest flaw. It was rejected by the masses looking for the same experience they got out of other stealth action games and by the masses looking for a 3rd person RPG like Skyrim or Fallout. It’s only people who could look at it for what it is; something fresh, new, and different, that seemed to come to its defence. Still, with a Metacritic rating of 72 and a price on Steam of $5, I can’t recommend this game enough to people who want to feel like a spy without feeling like a unstoppable agent of death.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
In Perspective The PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4
What you've heard
NEXT GEN BITCHES! The PlayStation 4 is here and it raises the bar on gaming for everyone. We’re going to see performance beyond our wildest dreams and graphics that are going to make movie CGI look like claymation. More importantly, it’s going to make the current gen system and the Wii U obsolete as its massive processing power processes circles around them. This is the gen revolution baby, and the future is NOW! Well I mean the future is holiday 2013, not NOW now, but you get what I’m saying ...
Except...
This is going to be a little tech heavy, but the PS4 doesn’t really have a lot going on under the hood. As a rule when a presentation has more buzz words in it than specs it’s a bad sign, and we didn’t even get to see what type of RAM the PS4 had until after the conference. And while the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM is easily the most impressive feature of the new system, it’s not enough to take away from the shortcomings. Let’s start with the CPU, which is an AMD APU with 8 cores. This isn’t a custom chip, it’s based on the Jaguar architecture that’s been around for over 2 years, so it’s not going to break any new ground for AMD. In fact the eight cores based on AMD’s Jaguar architecture are unlikely to be as fast as AMD’s current high end chips based on the Piledriver architecture, which lag significantly behind the i5 and i7 offerings from Intel. This is because the Jaguar isn’t even a desktop architecture; it was intended for use in low power devices like laptops. On the bright side, heat generation shouldn’t be a problem, which means they’ll likely turn up the clock speed a little.
The choice of a slower, 8 core system is Sony’s biggest miss this generation. Like the cell processing of the PS3, notoriously hated by developers for being difficult to work with, Sony is once again putting the onus on the game designers to use extreme hyper threading to take advantage of the 8 core set up. This could be devastating if Microsoft goes with a faster chip in their upcoming system. The Wii U has 3 processing cores which means if MS sticks to 2 or 4 cores in the new Xbox, developers will continue to do what they do today; write code for the the Wii U and Xbox and never bother to optimize it to take advantage of the PS3’s cell processing. This undermines any benefit Sony gained by going with a x86 processor this time around, a baffling move that is going to have a huge backlash in the community. For anyone who doesn't follow Sony, they are a bit nuts when it comes to pirating. They tried to lock up someone who hacked the PS3 and invented the DRM rootkit, and the community responded by taking down PlayStation network and all Sony owned MMOs for 63 days. Now the PS4 will release with a chip so fully understood that it almost guarantees a day one hack.
The GPU is what’s really going to make or break the PS4, and the numbers here are less than encouraging. The 1.84 TFLOPS promised at the conference is an impressive number, but not even close to what I would expect from a custom rig. By contrast a 7970 can push 4.3 TFLOPS in the much less friendly PC architecture. It doesn't get any better when you break down the details; Sony said the GPU would support 18 composite units, a useless figure without also telling us what architecture it’s going to be based on, but that in itself tells a story. If this was a new generation of chip, they would have been showing that off. So it’s safe to assume this means the same 64 stream processors, 4 texture units, and 1 render unit per composite of the current line of AMD chips, given us a total of 1152 stream processors, 72 texture, and 18 ROPs. This puts it more in line with the 7800 series, and although the numbers don't align perfectly with anything currently on the market, its closest match for architecture and Tflops is the 7850. Amazon has them for around $200. This is bad news for 4k gaming. Sony has said the system officially supports it, but based on these numbers ... I don’t see how. Frame rates on the 7850 running even 2560 x 1600 are generally horrendous.
So what’s the deal?
The PS4 is a much better system than the PS3, and for a lot of people that’s all that matters. When you look at the numbers above, it’s clear the PS4 doesn’t even hold a candle to a custom PC, but $1000-plus gaming rigs are simply out of the picture for a lot of gamers. So we have a system that’s better than what they currently have and better then what they could get for the money elsewhere. The media is focusing on that while ignoring the simple fact that it’s just not enough. When the PS3 and Xbox came out they weren’t mid ranged PCs at a decent price - they were better than any PC money could buy. Developers saw this, and took advantage of the new options open to them. They created games that couldn’t be played anywhere else, and even the hardcore PC enthusiast was given the choice; buy a gaming system or miss out on the best games. This time around, most games shown as “next gen” are being released on the current gen systems as well, and it’s only going to be a few years until you can buy a PC in the $500 range that outperforms the PS4. Without a gimmick the PS4 doesn’t do a lot for the average gamer that they can’t do with current gen tech, and when it comes to gimmicks, MS and Nintendo have always have Sony beat.
Sony's stock took a hit after the announcement and Nintendo's went up, and for good reason. For 2 years Nintendo has been saying "next gen" isn't even a thing, and the next irritation of systems will need to focus on social connection, player experience, and what they can do outside of gaming. They then released a disappointingly under-powered system that did just that. Sony on the other hand spent 2 years telling us how the only thing that will matter in next gen is pushing the envelope in teams of power and performance. Then they released a disappointingly under-powered system that focused on social connection, player experience, and what it can do outside of gaming.
What you've heard
NEXT GEN BITCHES! The PlayStation 4 is here and it raises the bar on gaming for everyone. We’re going to see performance beyond our wildest dreams and graphics that are going to make movie CGI look like claymation. More importantly, it’s going to make the current gen system and the Wii U obsolete as its massive processing power processes circles around them. This is the gen revolution baby, and the future is NOW! Well I mean the future is holiday 2013, not NOW now, but you get what I’m saying ...
Except...
This is going to be a little tech heavy, but the PS4 doesn’t really have a lot going on under the hood. As a rule when a presentation has more buzz words in it than specs it’s a bad sign, and we didn’t even get to see what type of RAM the PS4 had until after the conference. And while the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM is easily the most impressive feature of the new system, it’s not enough to take away from the shortcomings. Let’s start with the CPU, which is an AMD APU with 8 cores. This isn’t a custom chip, it’s based on the Jaguar architecture that’s been around for over 2 years, so it’s not going to break any new ground for AMD. In fact the eight cores based on AMD’s Jaguar architecture are unlikely to be as fast as AMD’s current high end chips based on the Piledriver architecture, which lag significantly behind the i5 and i7 offerings from Intel. This is because the Jaguar isn’t even a desktop architecture; it was intended for use in low power devices like laptops. On the bright side, heat generation shouldn’t be a problem, which means they’ll likely turn up the clock speed a little.
The choice of a slower, 8 core system is Sony’s biggest miss this generation. Like the cell processing of the PS3, notoriously hated by developers for being difficult to work with, Sony is once again putting the onus on the game designers to use extreme hyper threading to take advantage of the 8 core set up. This could be devastating if Microsoft goes with a faster chip in their upcoming system. The Wii U has 3 processing cores which means if MS sticks to 2 or 4 cores in the new Xbox, developers will continue to do what they do today; write code for the the Wii U and Xbox and never bother to optimize it to take advantage of the PS3’s cell processing. This undermines any benefit Sony gained by going with a x86 processor this time around, a baffling move that is going to have a huge backlash in the community. For anyone who doesn't follow Sony, they are a bit nuts when it comes to pirating. They tried to lock up someone who hacked the PS3 and invented the DRM rootkit, and the community responded by taking down PlayStation network and all Sony owned MMOs for 63 days. Now the PS4 will release with a chip so fully understood that it almost guarantees a day one hack.
The GPU is what’s really going to make or break the PS4, and the numbers here are less than encouraging. The 1.84 TFLOPS promised at the conference is an impressive number, but not even close to what I would expect from a custom rig. By contrast a 7970 can push 4.3 TFLOPS in the much less friendly PC architecture. It doesn't get any better when you break down the details; Sony said the GPU would support 18 composite units, a useless figure without also telling us what architecture it’s going to be based on, but that in itself tells a story. If this was a new generation of chip, they would have been showing that off. So it’s safe to assume this means the same 64 stream processors, 4 texture units, and 1 render unit per composite of the current line of AMD chips, given us a total of 1152 stream processors, 72 texture, and 18 ROPs. This puts it more in line with the 7800 series, and although the numbers don't align perfectly with anything currently on the market, its closest match for architecture and Tflops is the 7850. Amazon has them for around $200. This is bad news for 4k gaming. Sony has said the system officially supports it, but based on these numbers ... I don’t see how. Frame rates on the 7850 running even 2560 x 1600 are generally horrendous.
So what’s the deal?
The PS4 is a much better system than the PS3, and for a lot of people that’s all that matters. When you look at the numbers above, it’s clear the PS4 doesn’t even hold a candle to a custom PC, but $1000-plus gaming rigs are simply out of the picture for a lot of gamers. So we have a system that’s better than what they currently have and better then what they could get for the money elsewhere. The media is focusing on that while ignoring the simple fact that it’s just not enough. When the PS3 and Xbox came out they weren’t mid ranged PCs at a decent price - they were better than any PC money could buy. Developers saw this, and took advantage of the new options open to them. They created games that couldn’t be played anywhere else, and even the hardcore PC enthusiast was given the choice; buy a gaming system or miss out on the best games. This time around, most games shown as “next gen” are being released on the current gen systems as well, and it’s only going to be a few years until you can buy a PC in the $500 range that outperforms the PS4. Without a gimmick the PS4 doesn’t do a lot for the average gamer that they can’t do with current gen tech, and when it comes to gimmicks, MS and Nintendo have always have Sony beat.
Sony's stock took a hit after the announcement and Nintendo's went up, and for good reason. For 2 years Nintendo has been saying "next gen" isn't even a thing, and the next irritation of systems will need to focus on social connection, player experience, and what they can do outside of gaming. They then released a disappointingly under-powered system that did just that. Sony on the other hand spent 2 years telling us how the only thing that will matter in next gen is pushing the envelope in teams of power and performance. Then they released a disappointingly under-powered system that focused on social connection, player experience, and what it can do outside of gaming.
Monday, 6 May 2013
In Perspective - Microsoft's New x-box
What you've heard
Another victory for the internet! An e-mail went out today from the higher ups in Microsoft to the low downs that detailed how Microsoft’s vision for the next Xbox includes players being able to do “everything they would expect to do”, including playing single player games, while the system is not connected to the internet. We did it! After weeks of watching the reaction to the news, Microsoft has made the changes to the system we are asking for! They know that without the support of the internet, the system will fail.
Except
What changes? It seems everyone is using this e-mail to prove that changes were made based off the following logic: it’s never a company’s policy to just e-mail something saying “everything is still like we said it was” so this is clearly an e-mail communicating an update or change. The problem with that logic is that it’s
· wrong
· flawed
· stupid
Companies that are in the media spotlight send out “on course” reminders all the time when the media picks up a story that isn’t true (or is true but not public yet). They need to; since they generally communicate nothing to the lower level employees, many will take what they hear in the media as gospel and go on repeating it to people, who assume they are more informed because they work for the company. It’s the circle of bullshit; the media misinforms “experts” who repeat the misinformation to other media outlets who misinform other experts.
Not telling low level employees anything about anything is the policy that you really should be looking at here. Anyone who worked at McDonalds can tell you that you find out about the price change or the new sandwich the day it goes live and there is never an e-mail to prepare the masses for the high level change they have no say in. Microsoft has no reason to tell anyone outside of the design team anything about the new Xbox, and this e-mail isn’t a clarification - it’s the first any of these employees have heard about it. It was only sent to counter the negative press they are getting based on wrong information.
Another good question is why would they lie? If this really was a reaction to customer feedback, why hide it in an e-mail saying it’s always been the intention? Why not use this to showcase how “in touch” with the internet you are, and say “we love our customer so much, we are changing this to benefit them!”. There is no negative in that; I’m surprised they didn’t do it even if it isn’t true.
Still not convinced? Consider this. The Xbox press conference is in less than 20 days, and the system has been in development for (best guess) 5 to 8 years. Do you really think they were able to make low level software (and likely hardware) changes to the system to showcase offline features in less than a month? Do you think they are willing to go to that press conference with anything other than a build they have tested, retested, and mega-tested to ensure it is perfect? Hell, the footage we are going to see was likely pre-recorded long before the "always on" issue hit the internet.
So what’s the deal?
Operation Rainfall was an online petition that brought 3 extremely popular and successful JRPGs to the West and is heralded as one of the biggest victories of the internet gaming community. It’s a classic underdog story and a fantastic example of people coming together to get things done, and it's also completely made up. In an interview, the publisher of “XenoBlade”, the first game in Operation Rainfall said he had no idea what Operation Rainfall was, and the lead designer admitted he only heard of the Operation after the localization began and it was never mentioned in the decision to bring the game to the West. This was mirrored with the two other Operation Rainfall games, with developers and publishers alike saying it was great to hear they had such a dedicated fan base, but the decisions to port that games were made at high level and had nothing to do with anything other than lines on a graph. Yet the very same websites that did the interviews that confirmed Operation Rainfall had nothing to do with the release of these games ran stories about the role the fan based played in getting them published.
We all love a underdog story, especially one that makes us feel empowered and important. That’s what happened with Operation Rainfall and it’s what happened with the Xbox. The internet is taking credit for changing the mind of a multi-billion dollar behemoth and we are eating it up because we want it to be true. But everyone knows you can’t listen to the internet. Big business tried with "Serenity" and again with "Scott Pilgrim" and learned its lesson. Design things for the masses and try to sell them to the internet, but don’t ever design things for the internet and try and sell them to the masses. The masses aren’t interested, and the internet isn't going to pay for them when you’re finished. The internet is the home of the vocal minority, and the vocal minority is never your key demographic.
Another victory for the internet! An e-mail went out today from the higher ups in Microsoft to the low downs that detailed how Microsoft’s vision for the next Xbox includes players being able to do “everything they would expect to do”, including playing single player games, while the system is not connected to the internet. We did it! After weeks of watching the reaction to the news, Microsoft has made the changes to the system we are asking for! They know that without the support of the internet, the system will fail.
Except
What changes? It seems everyone is using this e-mail to prove that changes were made based off the following logic: it’s never a company’s policy to just e-mail something saying “everything is still like we said it was” so this is clearly an e-mail communicating an update or change. The problem with that logic is that it’s
· wrong
· flawed
· stupid
Companies that are in the media spotlight send out “on course” reminders all the time when the media picks up a story that isn’t true (or is true but not public yet). They need to; since they generally communicate nothing to the lower level employees, many will take what they hear in the media as gospel and go on repeating it to people, who assume they are more informed because they work for the company. It’s the circle of bullshit; the media misinforms “experts” who repeat the misinformation to other media outlets who misinform other experts.
Not telling low level employees anything about anything is the policy that you really should be looking at here. Anyone who worked at McDonalds can tell you that you find out about the price change or the new sandwich the day it goes live and there is never an e-mail to prepare the masses for the high level change they have no say in. Microsoft has no reason to tell anyone outside of the design team anything about the new Xbox, and this e-mail isn’t a clarification - it’s the first any of these employees have heard about it. It was only sent to counter the negative press they are getting based on wrong information.
Another good question is why would they lie? If this really was a reaction to customer feedback, why hide it in an e-mail saying it’s always been the intention? Why not use this to showcase how “in touch” with the internet you are, and say “we love our customer so much, we are changing this to benefit them!”. There is no negative in that; I’m surprised they didn’t do it even if it isn’t true.
Still not convinced? Consider this. The Xbox press conference is in less than 20 days, and the system has been in development for (best guess) 5 to 8 years. Do you really think they were able to make low level software (and likely hardware) changes to the system to showcase offline features in less than a month? Do you think they are willing to go to that press conference with anything other than a build they have tested, retested, and mega-tested to ensure it is perfect? Hell, the footage we are going to see was likely pre-recorded long before the "always on" issue hit the internet.
So what’s the deal?
Operation Rainfall was an online petition that brought 3 extremely popular and successful JRPGs to the West and is heralded as one of the biggest victories of the internet gaming community. It’s a classic underdog story and a fantastic example of people coming together to get things done, and it's also completely made up. In an interview, the publisher of “XenoBlade”, the first game in Operation Rainfall said he had no idea what Operation Rainfall was, and the lead designer admitted he only heard of the Operation after the localization began and it was never mentioned in the decision to bring the game to the West. This was mirrored with the two other Operation Rainfall games, with developers and publishers alike saying it was great to hear they had such a dedicated fan base, but the decisions to port that games were made at high level and had nothing to do with anything other than lines on a graph. Yet the very same websites that did the interviews that confirmed Operation Rainfall had nothing to do with the release of these games ran stories about the role the fan based played in getting them published.
We all love a underdog story, especially one that makes us feel empowered and important. That’s what happened with Operation Rainfall and it’s what happened with the Xbox. The internet is taking credit for changing the mind of a multi-billion dollar behemoth and we are eating it up because we want it to be true. But everyone knows you can’t listen to the internet. Big business tried with "Serenity" and again with "Scott Pilgrim" and learned its lesson. Design things for the masses and try to sell them to the internet, but don’t ever design things for the internet and try and sell them to the masses. The masses aren’t interested, and the internet isn't going to pay for them when you’re finished. The internet is the home of the vocal minority, and the vocal minority is never your key demographic.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Should be Playing - Dragon Age Origins
BioWare was, at one time, the most important name in nerd gaming. It was them and the now defunct (and then refunct via Kickstarter) Black Isles Studio that were responsible from turning all your table top fantasies into something you could play on a computer screen. The Gold Box D&D games from the early 90s had shown us the possibility, taking pre-written stories like Pool of Radiance and The Dark Queen and making serviceable games out of them, but it wasn’t until 1998 that BioWare showed us something completely new. They released a game focused not on game play but instead on story. You were not playing something that had already been written, but instead forged a path for yourself in a game world that reacted, albeit in a limited way, to the choices you made for the character you were playing. Gamers everywhere started to understand that this was the table top drug that video games could not deliver, and “Baldur’s Gate” became one of the best selling games of the decade. BioWare's next games; Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic were enigmas in the industry. Gameplay was not evolving, instead the games focused on more and more ways to make the player matter. BioWare wanted to make games that told stories, and in every possible way put you the player at the center. This was a fantastic thing back in the time when people wanted more from a video game than flashy graphics and a few one liners, but by 2003 the simple minded FPS was dominating and people were no longer interested in turn based experiences no matter how fantastic the story. BioWare had lost the ability to make games that people were willing to play. It took 5 years, but they reacted on two fronts, first making a FPS that was driven by story (Mass Effect in 2007) and then by releasing an epic, old school RPG with a next gen coat of paint as Dragon’s Age in 2009.
Dragon Age is a refinement in storytelling. It forgoes the idea of good and evil and instead forces players to examine the context of their actions within the game world they are a part of, creating a moral dilemma that almost always boils down to picking what you think the lesser of two evils is. Do you forgive the power hungry order summoning daemons, or kill hundreds of innocents to keep them down? The game does everything it can to prevent you from simply choosing to be the “good guy” or the “bad guy” at the start and mindlessly doing what fits that paradigm. This system is one of the primary inspirations for Raven LARP, where I’m always trying to present a game world where doing the right thing is incompatible with doing the good thing. Complementing this is an incredible cast of voice actors and a diverse cast of characters, each with their own back story, plot quest, and unique romance options with the PC (regardless of gender; any character that is a romance option transcends the concept of gender preference).
Game play is a throwback to an era before everything needed to appeal to a mass market. Combat is slow, difficult, and at times uninteresting, but these are sacrifices made in the name of the complexity and polish like you would find in table top systems. There are dozens of puzzles you might miss if you are not paying attention, and you could reach the end of the game with hours of content unexplored without even knowing you looked anything over. It feels like and plays like the games you grew up with, while looking like the games of today.
To anyone who wants to remember what games were like before the big 3 publishers started pushing for mass appeal clones every year, I can’t recommend going back to Dragon Age enough. It’s a bittersweet reminder of how much the industry has changed, and in my option, how much we as gamers have lost.
Dragon Age is a refinement in storytelling. It forgoes the idea of good and evil and instead forces players to examine the context of their actions within the game world they are a part of, creating a moral dilemma that almost always boils down to picking what you think the lesser of two evils is. Do you forgive the power hungry order summoning daemons, or kill hundreds of innocents to keep them down? The game does everything it can to prevent you from simply choosing to be the “good guy” or the “bad guy” at the start and mindlessly doing what fits that paradigm. This system is one of the primary inspirations for Raven LARP, where I’m always trying to present a game world where doing the right thing is incompatible with doing the good thing. Complementing this is an incredible cast of voice actors and a diverse cast of characters, each with their own back story, plot quest, and unique romance options with the PC (regardless of gender; any character that is a romance option transcends the concept of gender preference).
Game play is a throwback to an era before everything needed to appeal to a mass market. Combat is slow, difficult, and at times uninteresting, but these are sacrifices made in the name of the complexity and polish like you would find in table top systems. There are dozens of puzzles you might miss if you are not paying attention, and you could reach the end of the game with hours of content unexplored without even knowing you looked anything over. It feels like and plays like the games you grew up with, while looking like the games of today.
To anyone who wants to remember what games were like before the big 3 publishers started pushing for mass appeal clones every year, I can’t recommend going back to Dragon Age enough. It’s a bittersweet reminder of how much the industry has changed, and in my option, how much we as gamers have lost.
Monday, 29 April 2013
In Perspective - Nintendo
What you've heard
Nintendo has bowed out of next gen. After the horrible release of the Wii U, they followed up with “the year of Luigi” which focused on the 3DS, and now they have decided to skip E3 altogether. It’s clear they know they can’t “win” E3 and have given up on stealing the next gen thunder from Sony and Microsoft.
Except
You know in the good old days it was the mainstream media that would try and provide you with context and objectivity on a story like this, but now the drive to get sensational news out there as quickly as possible leaves that job to people like me. There are a few things you need to understand before you can truly evaluate Nintendo’s decision.
First, as I’ve already stated, the Wii U isn’t doing that bad unless you compare it to the Wii, the most successful console of all time. Compared to the Xbox 360, which had 3.7 to 3.9 million units sales at this point in its life, and the PS3, which was hovering around 3.2 million, the 3.45 million unit sales of the Wii U might come in well below the initial target of 4.5 million and even the revised target of 4.1 million, but they are hardly worth the doom and gloom they have been getting. More importantly, understand that Nintendo has been here before with the original DS, the 3DS, and the GameCube and has been able to turn it around with a strategy they have already stated they will be applying to the Wii U – first-party titles. They don’t need a press conference to speak to this; when Jr. wants the new Zelda game and it doesn't play on the system he owns, Mom goes out and buys the new one. Hype and anticipation are irrelevant in this market, and there isn’t anything that MS or Sony can bring to the table at E3 that’s going to have any effect on this market. In fact go ask your non-gamer friends what E3 is and you’ll be surprised to see that the holy grail of gaming, even with TV coverage, has about zero traction outside the “hardcore” crowd.
It’s also important to note that E3, without question the most expensive convention to attend and have the main stage at, had an attendance of around 43,000 in 2012. Compare that with CES’s draw of 150,000 or TGS with 230,000 attendants in 2012 and you start to wonder why E3 even gets the attention it gets, and if the money that is spent to be on a main stage there is worth it. Microsoft and Sony have new systems to show off, but without that who is to say what would have happened. Marketing budgets are being cut everywhere, so why not invest in the biggest bang for the buck?
So what’s the deal?
For years now, E3 has been the cash cow of gaming websites everywhere and the big question is who of the big 3 will “win”. For 4 solid years everyone has brought their game and used the stage to show why their system’s exclusives, features, and developers were the best going and why they would dominate the year to come. Stock prices would jump 5% or more the day after the conference for the “winner” and it's undeniable that the negative buzz to the “loser” had an impact as well. This year, Nintendo simply can’t win. Sony and Microsoft both have new systems coming out, and the budget and hype they will spend fighting each other will be on a level we haven’t seen in 8 years. The money Nintendo would have to spend just to step in the ring would be insane, and for what? To show us a new Zelda game, a new Smash Brothers, a new Mario Party, and a new Pokémon we all know are coming and are going to top sales charts regardless.
There is also this little thing called Nintendo Direct, which has been the focus of marketing dollars at Nintendo for almost a year now and has seen incredible results.
Nintendo made the right choice in bowing out. This doesn't mean they have given up and don’t have a plan to move the Wii U; it shows they HAVE a plan, and it’s a smart, well thought out one.
Nintendo has bowed out of next gen. After the horrible release of the Wii U, they followed up with “the year of Luigi” which focused on the 3DS, and now they have decided to skip E3 altogether. It’s clear they know they can’t “win” E3 and have given up on stealing the next gen thunder from Sony and Microsoft.
Except
You know in the good old days it was the mainstream media that would try and provide you with context and objectivity on a story like this, but now the drive to get sensational news out there as quickly as possible leaves that job to people like me. There are a few things you need to understand before you can truly evaluate Nintendo’s decision.
First, as I’ve already stated, the Wii U isn’t doing that bad unless you compare it to the Wii, the most successful console of all time. Compared to the Xbox 360, which had 3.7 to 3.9 million units sales at this point in its life, and the PS3, which was hovering around 3.2 million, the 3.45 million unit sales of the Wii U might come in well below the initial target of 4.5 million and even the revised target of 4.1 million, but they are hardly worth the doom and gloom they have been getting. More importantly, understand that Nintendo has been here before with the original DS, the 3DS, and the GameCube and has been able to turn it around with a strategy they have already stated they will be applying to the Wii U – first-party titles. They don’t need a press conference to speak to this; when Jr. wants the new Zelda game and it doesn't play on the system he owns, Mom goes out and buys the new one. Hype and anticipation are irrelevant in this market, and there isn’t anything that MS or Sony can bring to the table at E3 that’s going to have any effect on this market. In fact go ask your non-gamer friends what E3 is and you’ll be surprised to see that the holy grail of gaming, even with TV coverage, has about zero traction outside the “hardcore” crowd.
It’s also important to note that E3, without question the most expensive convention to attend and have the main stage at, had an attendance of around 43,000 in 2012. Compare that with CES’s draw of 150,000 or TGS with 230,000 attendants in 2012 and you start to wonder why E3 even gets the attention it gets, and if the money that is spent to be on a main stage there is worth it. Microsoft and Sony have new systems to show off, but without that who is to say what would have happened. Marketing budgets are being cut everywhere, so why not invest in the biggest bang for the buck?
So what’s the deal?
For years now, E3 has been the cash cow of gaming websites everywhere and the big question is who of the big 3 will “win”. For 4 solid years everyone has brought their game and used the stage to show why their system’s exclusives, features, and developers were the best going and why they would dominate the year to come. Stock prices would jump 5% or more the day after the conference for the “winner” and it's undeniable that the negative buzz to the “loser” had an impact as well. This year, Nintendo simply can’t win. Sony and Microsoft both have new systems coming out, and the budget and hype they will spend fighting each other will be on a level we haven’t seen in 8 years. The money Nintendo would have to spend just to step in the ring would be insane, and for what? To show us a new Zelda game, a new Smash Brothers, a new Mario Party, and a new Pokémon we all know are coming and are going to top sales charts regardless.
There is also this little thing called Nintendo Direct, which has been the focus of marketing dollars at Nintendo for almost a year now and has seen incredible results.
Nintendo made the right choice in bowing out. This doesn't mean they have given up and don’t have a plan to move the Wii U; it shows they HAVE a plan, and it’s a smart, well thought out one.
Monday, 22 April 2013
In Perspective - The Ouya
The Ouya
What you've heard
Open source, open license, moddable; these are meaningless words that I've been told are very good. Finally, we have a gaming system that puts all of these things into one package of buzzword awesomeness. With 10,000 developers already signed up and the second most successful Kickstarter in history, it’s time for the big three of gaming consoles to start running! Very soon Ouya is in your base, killing your market share.
Except
The Ouya seems like a great idea as long as you keep people talking about what it is; a gaming console that is easy for devs to modify, as a (mostly) open source OS, and is going to allow for more open publishing and distribution than either Google Play or the Apple app store. It becomes a lot less cool when you realize all of these things solve problems that don’t really exist. Is there really a base of developers somewhere who would be putting out fantastic games if not for the constricted publishing environments imposed by the current systems? The 10,000 developers who have signed on include mostly big names of established independent developers who are already doing just fine releasing games on the locked, un-rootable systems of today. It’s right about this point you realize that when the Ouya’s sales pitch says it will free developers from the things holding them back in the modern distribution model, they are talking about things like quality control and accountability. We already have free to play developers trying to scam people out of money with deceptive in-game purchases (often aimed at children), and it’s Google and Apple who have stepped up to prevent this type of behavior, going as far as to offer refunds to people fooled by the worst offenders. Ouya will have none of that, and have already stated they want to attract the free to play market.
So what’s the deal?
The Android gaming market is HUGE, and everyone wants a piece of it. Being able to work around Google Play is a godsend for smaller developers who want to make a $1000 budget game and try and sell it to 2000 people, and that type of market might be desirable on a local level. Hell, as a LARP owner the Ouya would be a great medium for releasing a LARP based game! It simply doesn't have the wide appeal everyone thinks it does, and will not have any impact on the current game market. It allows people to build a new type of game, but unfortunately that type of game is the low budget shitty game with no quality control.
But the real nail in the Ouya coffin is what it can’t do. It’s a gaming console running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) on a 1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9, or, put in non-technical terms, it’s a cell phone from early last year that you can’t take with you. Or use as a phone. Ars Technica and Slashdot have already had a crack it reviewing it and it’s not a good story; my Galaxy Note 2 phone outperforms this gaming console by almost 100% in some benchmarks and it’s slow by even the most generous standards when compared to $150 to $250 tablets. At $100 for the system and $50 for additional controllers, this system seems to attempt to fill the need people have for sitting at home playing the cheap games they bought on their phones...on the TV. Hands up everyone in the room that has that need?
What you've heard
Open source, open license, moddable; these are meaningless words that I've been told are very good. Finally, we have a gaming system that puts all of these things into one package of buzzword awesomeness. With 10,000 developers already signed up and the second most successful Kickstarter in history, it’s time for the big three of gaming consoles to start running! Very soon Ouya is in your base, killing your market share.
Except
The Ouya seems like a great idea as long as you keep people talking about what it is; a gaming console that is easy for devs to modify, as a (mostly) open source OS, and is going to allow for more open publishing and distribution than either Google Play or the Apple app store. It becomes a lot less cool when you realize all of these things solve problems that don’t really exist. Is there really a base of developers somewhere who would be putting out fantastic games if not for the constricted publishing environments imposed by the current systems? The 10,000 developers who have signed on include mostly big names of established independent developers who are already doing just fine releasing games on the locked, un-rootable systems of today. It’s right about this point you realize that when the Ouya’s sales pitch says it will free developers from the things holding them back in the modern distribution model, they are talking about things like quality control and accountability. We already have free to play developers trying to scam people out of money with deceptive in-game purchases (often aimed at children), and it’s Google and Apple who have stepped up to prevent this type of behavior, going as far as to offer refunds to people fooled by the worst offenders. Ouya will have none of that, and have already stated they want to attract the free to play market.
So what’s the deal?
The Android gaming market is HUGE, and everyone wants a piece of it. Being able to work around Google Play is a godsend for smaller developers who want to make a $1000 budget game and try and sell it to 2000 people, and that type of market might be desirable on a local level. Hell, as a LARP owner the Ouya would be a great medium for releasing a LARP based game! It simply doesn't have the wide appeal everyone thinks it does, and will not have any impact on the current game market. It allows people to build a new type of game, but unfortunately that type of game is the low budget shitty game with no quality control.
But the real nail in the Ouya coffin is what it can’t do. It’s a gaming console running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) on a 1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9, or, put in non-technical terms, it’s a cell phone from early last year that you can’t take with you. Or use as a phone. Ars Technica and Slashdot have already had a crack it reviewing it and it’s not a good story; my Galaxy Note 2 phone outperforms this gaming console by almost 100% in some benchmarks and it’s slow by even the most generous standards when compared to $150 to $250 tablets. At $100 for the system and $50 for additional controllers, this system seems to attempt to fill the need people have for sitting at home playing the cheap games they bought on their phones...on the TV. Hands up everyone in the room that has that need?
Friday, 12 April 2013
Should be Playing - Bioshock: Infinite
I tried not to go with the obvious last week, but it has to be said: no gamer should miss Bioshock: Infinite.
(MILD SPOILERS OF THE FIRST 10 MINUTES OR SO)
Yes, the game play and gun play are fantastic. Yes, vigors (the “powers” in this game) are fun to use and make you feel very powerful. Yes, the graphics are insane. But that’s not why you should be playing it, and might even turn people who don’t like first person shooters off the experience. This would be a huge mistake.
From the moment you step out into the gates of Columbia for the first time, to a haunting rendition of “Oh Lord”, and are baptized (and nearly drown) before you are allowed to enter the city, you know this is going to be a powerful statement. By the time you win (by raffle) the opportunity to be the first to stone an interracial couple to death, it’s clear that statement isn’t going to be very comfortable. It only gets worse from there. You see, before TV and movies became the feel-good experiences they are, one of the main goals of art was to make us uncomfortable and question ourselves. It was soon discovered, however, you make a lot more money telling people they are awesome and everything is going to be ok, so we stopped doing that. Video games have become the only medium where it is still ok to shock and to confront the viewer with the true horror of the human experience, and this is something we all need from time to time. Bioshock not only guides us on that journey, it shows us why it is important in a girl named Elizabeth.
I could spend pages detailing how much of a leap forward in interactive art Elizabeth is, and others will in time. She isn’t a background character, an NPC, an escort mission, or even a companion; she is the main character in a wonderful and horrible story. It was Bungee who first understood what a leap forward in story telling this would be; they have also said that “Halo” is a game about an AI, not her protector, but never quite pulled it off. You see, in most games the idea of “player choice” is difficult to nail because you are the one affecting the whole of the universe, while being the center of it. The Mass Effect series is a great example. In Bioshock you are not the star, but you’re an important cast member. You react, and you get an opportunity to question the actions you are taking based on moral implications rather than outcome. I spent more time deciding if I should give Elizabeth a necklace with a bird on it, or one with a cage on it, than I did deciding which of my friends to send to their death in Mass Effect because the choice mattered more to me. I still don’t know what effect, if any, it had.
You need to play Bioshock not because it’s a great game (don’t get me wrong, it is) but because it’s a great, and truly accessible, work of art. You don’t have a lot of other options in that regard.
(MILD SPOILERS OF THE FIRST 10 MINUTES OR SO)
Yes, the game play and gun play are fantastic. Yes, vigors (the “powers” in this game) are fun to use and make you feel very powerful. Yes, the graphics are insane. But that’s not why you should be playing it, and might even turn people who don’t like first person shooters off the experience. This would be a huge mistake.
From the moment you step out into the gates of Columbia for the first time, to a haunting rendition of “Oh Lord”, and are baptized (and nearly drown) before you are allowed to enter the city, you know this is going to be a powerful statement. By the time you win (by raffle) the opportunity to be the first to stone an interracial couple to death, it’s clear that statement isn’t going to be very comfortable. It only gets worse from there. You see, before TV and movies became the feel-good experiences they are, one of the main goals of art was to make us uncomfortable and question ourselves. It was soon discovered, however, you make a lot more money telling people they are awesome and everything is going to be ok, so we stopped doing that. Video games have become the only medium where it is still ok to shock and to confront the viewer with the true horror of the human experience, and this is something we all need from time to time. Bioshock not only guides us on that journey, it shows us why it is important in a girl named Elizabeth.
I could spend pages detailing how much of a leap forward in interactive art Elizabeth is, and others will in time. She isn’t a background character, an NPC, an escort mission, or even a companion; she is the main character in a wonderful and horrible story. It was Bungee who first understood what a leap forward in story telling this would be; they have also said that “Halo” is a game about an AI, not her protector, but never quite pulled it off. You see, in most games the idea of “player choice” is difficult to nail because you are the one affecting the whole of the universe, while being the center of it. The Mass Effect series is a great example. In Bioshock you are not the star, but you’re an important cast member. You react, and you get an opportunity to question the actions you are taking based on moral implications rather than outcome. I spent more time deciding if I should give Elizabeth a necklace with a bird on it, or one with a cage on it, than I did deciding which of my friends to send to their death in Mass Effect because the choice mattered more to me. I still don’t know what effect, if any, it had.
You need to play Bioshock not because it’s a great game (don’t get me wrong, it is) but because it’s a great, and truly accessible, work of art. You don’t have a lot of other options in that regard.
Monday, 8 April 2013
In perspective - LucasArts Closing
LucasArts Closing
What you heard
See, that's what happens when you release shitty games. Between Star Wars: Kinect, a generic first person shooter in 1313 and endless Lego games, LucasArts lost touch with their core fan base. It was only a matter of time until someone realizes there was no point keeping them around and to be honest, they got what they deserved.
Except
LucasArts has not had a financially unsuccessful game in about 20 years. Star Wars: Kinect, while having an average rating of 55 on Metacritic, topped sales charts for 3 weeks and spawned a limited edition $450 xBox. Clone Wars was the best selling Lego Star Wars game to date, despite it being the lowest rated.
So what's the deal?
I get it. You think because you hate Jar Jar Binks and Boba Fett you are a BETTER and more deserving Star Wars fan than the 12 year olds that watch Clone Wars today (even though you were around 12 when you first watched the originals and begged your Mom to buy you an Ewok toy). You need to get over the fact Star Wars is not FOR you anymore. Star Wars box office sales are around $4.2 billion total, but toy sales account for more than $12 billion. That's more than Movies, DVDs, and Video games COMBINED. Star Wars is marketed to children, and therefor Star Wars games need to be marketed to children, and the parents that buy these games don't care how well it's rated or even if it's any good. If it shuts junior up for a few days, it was well worth the money.
The problem isn't that LucasArts isn't able to push product and make successful games, it's that the two most profitable Star Wars games ... FOR LUCASARTS ... in the last 5 years are SW:TOR and Star Wars Angry Birds. The observant among you might note that LucasArts did not spent one single minute or dollar on developing either of these games. They were licensed products developed by other established teams. And that's all Disney sees. Why spend millions of dollars a year on a studio when we can just charge other developers to slap a Star Wars sticker on their game?
So if you thought Star Wars: Kinect was bad, just wait and see what comes out now that the license is for sale without accountability. The EA Sports Star Wars series including Star Wars Golf, the Star Wars facebook game where you play a moisture farmer, Real Petz: Bantha ... ok wait, I would totally buy that one but you get my point.
What you heard
See, that's what happens when you release shitty games. Between Star Wars: Kinect, a generic first person shooter in 1313 and endless Lego games, LucasArts lost touch with their core fan base. It was only a matter of time until someone realizes there was no point keeping them around and to be honest, they got what they deserved.
Except
LucasArts has not had a financially unsuccessful game in about 20 years. Star Wars: Kinect, while having an average rating of 55 on Metacritic, topped sales charts for 3 weeks and spawned a limited edition $450 xBox. Clone Wars was the best selling Lego Star Wars game to date, despite it being the lowest rated.
So what's the deal?
I get it. You think because you hate Jar Jar Binks and Boba Fett you are a BETTER and more deserving Star Wars fan than the 12 year olds that watch Clone Wars today (even though you were around 12 when you first watched the originals and begged your Mom to buy you an Ewok toy). You need to get over the fact Star Wars is not FOR you anymore. Star Wars box office sales are around $4.2 billion total, but toy sales account for more than $12 billion. That's more than Movies, DVDs, and Video games COMBINED. Star Wars is marketed to children, and therefor Star Wars games need to be marketed to children, and the parents that buy these games don't care how well it's rated or even if it's any good. If it shuts junior up for a few days, it was well worth the money.
The problem isn't that LucasArts isn't able to push product and make successful games, it's that the two most profitable Star Wars games ... FOR LUCASARTS ... in the last 5 years are SW:TOR and Star Wars Angry Birds. The observant among you might note that LucasArts did not spent one single minute or dollar on developing either of these games. They were licensed products developed by other established teams. And that's all Disney sees. Why spend millions of dollars a year on a studio when we can just charge other developers to slap a Star Wars sticker on their game?
So if you thought Star Wars: Kinect was bad, just wait and see what comes out now that the license is for sale without accountability. The EA Sports Star Wars series including Star Wars Golf, the Star Wars facebook game where you play a moisture farmer, Real Petz: Bantha ... ok wait, I would totally buy that one but you get my point.
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