A Rare missed opportunity

The NXE, (New Xbox Experience), has been out for a month but it already feels old and worn in, (in a good way). As difficult as it is to gauge the success of what amounts to mandatory interface update, there appear to be more positive that negative reactions. I personally prefer the NXE, it runs faster on my Xbox 360 and despite the fact that he looks a bit generic I like my little avatar. It's just too bad that the avatars represent an opportunity that Rare and Microsoft did not take advantage of: integration of avatars into their new games.

Rare was working on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise concurrently with the avatars for the NXE, so I can't help but wonder why they wouldn't have integrated the avatars. From a marketing perspective it couldn't have hurt to advertise that Banjo Kazooie and Viva Pinata 2 support avatars. Sales of Uno and A Kingdom for Keflings were higher than expected and a portion of those sales can be attributed to folks who wanted to see their avatars in-game. Having the avatars supported in these games would also have helped promote the NXE and the Xbox 360; Microsoft needed to show gamers why avatars matter and including them in two big-name games right out of the gate would have helped.

From a consumer's perspective, (mine specifically), it would be a blast to be able to tend my garden in Viva Pinata 2 as my avatar. Since Rare designed the avatars, they are an aesthetic match to Viva Pinata and wouldn't look out of place wandering around in-game. To take it a step further, the folks on the Xbox Live friends list could inhabit the game as shopkeepers or garden workers. In Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts it would obviously not work to be able to play as your avatar through the single player story, but they could still be worked into the game as inspirational statues in the town or as a citizen and in multiplayer there is no reason why players couldn't exist as their avatar.

Microsoft forced me to choose or create an avatar when I booted up the NXE, and now I hope they do something interesting with it. It's just a shame they didn't use Rare's games to that end.

PS2 on PS3, how might it work? (aside from how it already does)

According to an interview with GamePro, SCE's Hardware Marketing Director John Kohler mentions that Sony is "absolutely interested" in providing downloadable Playstation 2 games, which would be similar to the Xbox Originals downloads available on Xbox Live. Of course, Playstation 2 games would have to be emulated on all newer PS3 consoles, since those newer models no longer contain internal legacy hardware to run said PS2 games.

This brings up the following questions:
-If Sony were to go through with such an endeavour, would the emulation software be coded into the firmware of the Playstation 3 or will the games themselves be reworked on an individual basis to run on the PS3?
-If the emulation software for PS2 games is coded into the Playstation 3 firmware, will it allow the newer PS3 consoles to run PS2 disks, or will consumers be forced to re-purchase the games that they may already own through the PS3 online store?

None of this is certain yet as it is unclear whether or how actively Sony will pursue downloadable Playstation 2 games, but should it happen, I really don't want to be forced to download a copy of Shadow of the Colossus when I have a perfectly good copy sitting in my stack of games.


Source: GamePro (relevent information on second page)

_______ of War?

After waiting far too long for Gears of War 2 to be mailed to my home, (props to Future Shop for waiting a full week before starting the shipping process and to the Canadian postal service for not working on Saturdays), I've finally played through the single player campaign. Aside from having an absolute blast, there's something I began to notice around halfway in: Gears of War 2 has a lot in common with the God of War games.

In terms of level structure the games are quite similar, (especially once you go underground). Gears of War 2 and God of War both create breathtakingly epic environments, but put you on an ultra-linear, almost claustrophobic path through them. Both games utilize super-simple puzzles or minigames from time to time to break up the standard action gameplay. Both games involve rooms full of enemies where the exit will not open or appear until all enemies have been defeated. The civilizations represented in both Gears of War and God of War have a ridiculous fixation with switches and pressure plates.

(SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH) In Gears of War 2 the bosses also seem to draw directly from the God of War school of design. Seriously, taking down Skorge boils down to not aiming, not shooting, not moving, but just PRESS 'B' RAPIDLY. The bosses in the original Gears of War resembled classic FPS bosses, the sort you might see in Doom or Quake where you unload boatloads of ammo until you find a weak point, then unload more boatloads of ammo into the weak point while not dying, (think of RAAM or the corpser). In all honesty, while fighting the Leviathan, (though it was undeniably fun and one of the more graphically stunning enemies to date), I may as well have whipped out my blades of chaos and fell to my knees yelling "ATHENA!!!!!."

Gears of War 2

I've been unable to put the time I would like into writing about games lately, but I'm not going to do a whole post about my lack of time so I'll use what little I have to talk about a game I've been looking forward to for a long time and is hitting stores on friday: Gears of War 2.
I absolutely loved the first Gears of War. The gameplay was fresh and exciting, the graphics were simply astounding and it had the best co-op experience that I had played since Halo and Halo 2. I can't speak on behalf of Gears of War 2 yet because I haven't played it, so instead I'll leave that to the following video reviews (they both overflow a bit onto the right sidebar, my apologies):

Rekindling my love for Viva Pinata/Scene It is a good game

Well, I've been sort of lazy and busy lately and I haven't gotten the chance to really write much out. During my spare time I've become addicted to Viva Pinata... again, (that's right, the original). I've also been playing Scene It: Box Office Smash with my wife and sometimes with our friends. I have to say, if you have avoided it because you consider yourself too much of a hardcore gamer, (like I did until recently), try giving it a shot. It's a lot of fun if you can find 1-3 other people to play with you and there is currently a demo on Xbox live so check it out if you have an Xbox.

That's all you're getting out of me today!

Max Payne: the movie

Mark Wahlberg was a fantastic choice for this movie. His range of emotions covers everything necessary for such a film. If you don't believe me, just ask Max:

Max says I'm right.

How much would you pay to reduce load times on your PS3?

It's amazing how big games are getting these days. Big-budget next-gen titles can occupy up to 50Gb thanks to the Playstation 3's BluRay drive*. This allows games to include large amounts of uncompressed textures, video and audio. The downside of the Blu-Ray drive is a rather limited read speed that has led to the practice of installing large portions of games to the PS3's hard drive. Even with large portions of games installed to the hard drive, you may still have to wait for anywhere from six to ~thirty seconds.

I don't find those load times to be a big nuisance. However for those ADD-riddled gamers who can't sit still for that long, ExtremeTech has tested the effects of installing a high-performance solid-state drive, (SSD), in a Playstation 3. They find that load times are reduced quite a bit. The difference between the PS3 HDD and the SSD"anywhere from 33% to over 40%. The question is, are you willing to dish out $600-700 for such an upgrade?
Check out ExtremeTech's article here.



*Let's put 50Gb into perspective. Back in 2001 I was absolutely shocked that a full install of Baldur's Gate II was going to occupy 2Gb of my 10Gb hard drive. That's a 2,400% increase in the size of what we consider a 'big game.'

Microsoft's TGS 2008 keynote

Microsoft's keynote at the Tokyo Game Show has just ended, and with it came several announcements, including at least two major ones:

• Tekken 6 will be released on the Xbox 360. This will be the first time that a Tekken game has arrived on a non-Sony platform (not counting arcade). Release is set for fall 2009.


• The speculation is over regarding Bungie's next Halo project. Halo 3: Recon has been confirmed as a Halo 3 campaign expansion, (a "standalone-expansion" according to xbox.com), where the player plays as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper and will also include new multiplayer maps. Release is set for fall 2009. Check out the new trailer at Bungie's website here.

Other highlights of the Microsoft keynote:

• Last Remnant will premier exclusively on Xbox 360 on Nov 20, 2008.


• Star Ocean: The Last Hope will arrive on Xbox 360 February 19, 2009 in Japan and March 3, 2009 in North America.


• Ninety Nine Nights 2 was announced exclusively for Xbox 360.


• Space Invaders: Extreme, Arkanoid: Live, King of Fighters Ultimate 98, Metal Slug 7 and R-Type all were announced for Xbox Live.


• The "New Xbox Live Experience," (NXE) will launch November 19 2008 globally, (that's the new blades system and avatars, etc.)


• The Flood have been announced as a race in Halo Wars, which is set for an "early 2009" release.

Sonic Chronicles, Bionic Commando Rearmed and the Nintendo DSi

I finally beat Bionic Commando: Rearmed today and cannot stress enough; it is a fantastic game. Don't let the lack of a jump button deter you, once you get used to the swinging mechanics you will find that the control scheme allows for far more control than you might expect as well as some interesting and creative platforming puzzles and secret areas galore. I won't say it isn't tough, I only played on normal difficulty and came damn near breaking my controller on multiple occasions, but that difficulty only makes it so much more satisfying when you overcome it.

I've also started playing Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood. I'm only about forty-five minutes into the game so I can hardly comment on the game as a whole but at least I am enjoying the attitude and writing. Imagine a really well written children's cartoon. It's good, but you still won't get any adult themes or situations, (and that doesn't automatically mean sex you perv). Once again that is based on only the first forty-five minutes so... things could take a turn for the worse. Or not. My only negative comment is that I would like to tie up Amy the hedgehog in a burlap sack and drown her. That isn't to say that my dislike for her is a good reason to not include her in a game, but damn. Okay, maybe I have one other negative comment; I think the game would have benefited from not using any touch controls whatsoever. I know about a billion people are going to disagree with me and possibly hate me for saying this but I hate having to drag my character around the screen by the tits à la Phantom Hourglass. Just because the touch screen is there doesn't mean it must be used. If I find out there are any mini-games that involve blowing on the microphone I swear I'm going to murder someone.

On the news front, Nintendo announced the newest version of their little handheld that can: the Nintendo DSi. Apparently the screens are slightly bigger, but from the reports I've read the resolution is the same. Also a .3 megapixel camera will be built in and possibly the best news is that a flash SD slot will be added so that DSware, (like Wiiware), games may be downloaded directly to the system. That stuff is all well and good but honestly I don't care about any of it. I'll buy it if the console will actually support the WPA wireless encryption standard this time around. As it stands I can't utilize the Wi-Fi abilities of my Nintendo DS because my wireless network is WPA encrypted, (and hopefully so is anyone's network who has any common sense). I don't really think it's something Nintendo cares about, but let's just hope it was considered this time, (even if it means less battery time).

Of course there's at least one major problem as I see it, the GBA slot has been altogether removed from the system. I'm not sure how many people truly still play GBA games, plus the nature of the industry is to move forward and after four years of obsolescence it may be time to stop supporting the old format. However, the major problem with not including a GBA slot is that peripherals which require the GBA port will now become useless. The Guitar Hero World Tour fretboard peripheral will be unusable as will the memory cartridge for the DS version of the Opera web browser. I don't know if these products have been taken into account but this would seem to me to be a major issue. Maybe Nintendo just frankly doesn't give a shit. Sometimes I get the impression that caveat emptor is the mantra around the offices of the big N. Of course what they really want is simply for the millions of DS owners in the world to have to shell out more cash for the third iteration of the same handheld. Innovation my ass. (I should have bought a PSP, it would have been more expensive but I wouldn't have had to buy three of them).

On one last, entirely different note, I encountered a fantastic freeware game last week. It's been out for around a year so I'm a bit late to the party, but I would like to share it nonetheless. It's called "Death Worm," and it is frigging amazing. Have you ever thought "damn I wish I were one of the huge-ass sandworms from Dune?" Neither had I until I played this game. Few things are as fun as launching into the sky like some sort of freakish sand-dolphin, taking out a plane in midair, and devouring several camels and maybe a bewildered desert-dweller or two on the landing. Yeah, it's awesome. Check it out here.

is it worth 400 clams?

I'm actually beginning to entertain the idea of purchasing a Playstation 3 for myself. Previously I've never found any games or features compelling enough for me to shell out $400, (probably more... backwards compatibility is a deal breaker for me), but now there's a game that may seal the deal.

It isn't Little Big Planet, though if I were to have a PS3 already in my possession I would undoubtedly jump on it. It isn't Metal Gear Solid 4 either, (boy did the hype for that game fall off fast), nor is it Resistance 2 or Killzone 2. To tell the truth, I don't even care about BluRay and by the time I do care to watch all my movies in high definition, either BluRay players will be cheap anyway or there will be other solutions available.

The reason for my interest in Playstation 3 is my long-time love for Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit, (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy). If that statement alone isn't enough to clue you in to what game I am anticipating, this should help a bit:

I guess the only other reason why I might go out and drop 400 clams on a big, black shiny paperweight is if I Warren Spector himself announced his plans to personally develop and bring Deus Ex 3 to PS3 exclusively.

A visual sucker-punch, courtesy of Dead Space

When I first played Resident Evil, (the original) I understood why it was termed a "survival/horror" game. I stayed up late many nights with my room illuminated only by the flickering glow of the TV playing that game. I remember not playing with a specific goal in mind so much as desperately trying to keep my intrepid characters Chris Redfield and Jill 'master of lockpicking' Valentine from suffering one form of horrific death or another. I also remember being generally scared shitless.

Since Resident Evil, I've played a lot of good, (and bad), survival horror games, but none that motivated me to move forward in the game and play to the best of my ability simply because I was scared to death of dying. Earlier today I watched a video of a boss battle from the upcoming "Dead Space" and it looks as though I might have just that sort of experience to look forward to again. In watching the boss dispatch the intrepid space engineer, I've found that maybe I'm not quite as inured to violence as I had thought and that empathy, even for a fictional video game character, can be a hell of a motivation.

Check out the video at GameCinemaHD
CAUTION: this video contains a minor boss battle and some people may consider it as a spoiler, though it doesn't contain any plot points. Also it is extremely violent.

On a completely different note; an article about how EA's DRM methods are further motivating game pirates. It's an worthwhile read.

One Small Step for Open-Mindedness

Like Rock 'n' Roll and Comic books before, video games are largely misunderstood by people who are unfamiliar with them and often criticized unfairly as a result. Of course, if you're on this website, I probably didn't need to tell you that, did I? It's a common subject of discussion for gamers. I only bring it up because the following instance is a perfect example of video games being unfairly judged, but in this case logic and rationality prevail.

Earlier tonight I was experiencing some Bionic Commando related frustration as I tried to make my way through the sixth stage. At one point, after countless drowning-related incidents I dropped my controller and said, (rather loudly), "you've got to be f**king kidding me!" (Outbursts of this sort aren't entirely uncommon for me and generally don't mean I'm not enjoying myself or ready to stop playing). My wife, who was in the room with me, then said something that I have heard many times from my mother while growing up; "If that video game is getting you so worked up that you're cursing, you need to put it down." Then she mentioned how she hates how video games get make me and her brother, (my brother in law), curse so much.

Maybe it's just me, but if I am already frustrated... not angry or pissed off mind you, just frustrated, the one thing that might push me over the edge is the feeling that I'm being patronized. Still, I kept my cool. Rather than yelling or getting upset, I simply pointed out how people act when watching a sports game on TV, or how she gets way too into watching Big Brother and I frequently hear her cursing when one of her favorite contestants makes a stupid decision. I reminded her how often both her and I and both our families spew streams of vitriolic profanity at other cars while driving.

Then I explained that I like it when games frustrate me, it means that I'm being challenged. As long as I'm not breaking things, cursing from time to time is sometimes a good sign. Games aren't fun when they're too easy and for me personally I enjoy them the most when I am being tested to my limit. If a section of a game is causing me a lot of frustration, then it just means it'll be that much more satisfying when I overcome it Of course there are times when a game truly can get so aggravating that the controller just needs to be put down, but that isn't specific to video games, just about everything in life is like that.

Lucky for me my wife is actually pretty open minded; she gets it. I just wish it was always that easy.

Nintendo remains nebulous regarding Wii storage solution

In an interview in Club Nintendo magazine, (roughly translated by the website Nintendo Everything), Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto offer vague, half answers regarding a much-needed storage solution for the Nintendo Wii.

From the website:

"We are working on a storage solution and it is especially important in America because our consumers are using Wii Points for the Virtual Console and WiiWare. I want the people to have the right expectations; We have never said that it will be a hard drive nor have we mentioned how we will fix this issue, but we are going to deliver a better way to store the games." Miyamoto added that gamers should expect an announcement in the future, as Nintendo is researching different technologies to provide Wii owners with some sort of relief.

So it seems that Nintendo plans to investigate and possibly release a storage solution of some sort that may or may not be a hard drive and they plan on announcing it in the future rather than shocking everyone by hopping in the Delorean, going back in time and announcing it in the past. Boy am I glad that's cleared up!

Also in the article

• Miyamoto reiterates that Nintendo is working on the next Zelda, which I'm happy about but honestly isn't any more shocking than Toyota saying they plan on releasing a 2008 model Corolla.


• Miyamoto states that there shouldn't be too many more peripherals for the Wii.


• There will be no Wii demos on the Nintendo Channel and no Nintendo DS redesign until sales slowdown.

Xbox 360 to see holiday sales 20% higher than last year?

During his most recent gaze into the crystal ball, famed Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has discerned that Xbox 360 sales may rise 20% over last Fall holiday season. In an interview with Gamasutra he states, "with a little help from correct marketing, Xbox 360 sales stand to lift 20 percent in the Fall-Holiday season over the same period last year."

So what information is this latest oracular vision based on?

The $199.99 price of the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU and the continuing supply-constraints of the Wii. As Pachter says:

"I'd guess that there will be some substitution of Xbox 360 Arcade for Wii as gifts," Pachter says.

"More important, I think, is the low price itself; I think that Wii owners may consider buying a 'next gen' console and look hard at the Xbox 360 at the $199 price point, and don't think Sony is particularly competitive at $399 for the cost-conscious crowd."

Meanwhile, Sony corporate communications department employee Julie Han replies:

"We're really confident that consumers are making choices driven by value," she says, "and we know PS3 offers that value across the board, with the built-in Blu-ray player the broadest and deepest software lineup in the industry, with LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm [Pacific Rift]... we're quite confident our holiday sales will be good."

So how will the so-called "console wars" play out this holiday season? The only way to find out for those of us without crystal balls (not a pun) is the tried and true "wait and see" method.

Who else enjoys Good Old Games?

The fine folks over at CDProjekt who made The Witcher, one of my favorite games of last year, are rolling out their "old school" games website: Good Old Games and if you sign up before September 8, you can get in on an early access beta. Not only are fantastic, classic games available for a mere $5.99 - $9.99, ("less than the cost of a lunch at some lousy diner" as the website reminds us), but the games will all be DRM-free and optimized to run on Windows XP and Windows Vista. If any of you are like me and have run into countless hassles attempting to play classic games on your modern PC, (thank the Maker for ScummVM), you'll appreciate that last point.

Did I mention that the games will include various extras like soundtracks, guides, instruction manuals, artwork, add-ons and bonus packs to make that six to ten dollar price point even more appealing? I didn't? Silly me. Get your arse on over to their website and check it out for yourself, whether you miss the good old days and want to relive them, or you flat out missed the good old days and want to live them for the first time.

Google picking up steam

Google has just released Google Chrome. Previously Google has already released several other products and services to compete with and undercut Microsoft, (Google Docs, Gmail, Google Talk). Google has also created a mobile development platform called Android.

Who wants to take bets that Google announces a complete PC operating system within the next five years?

Halo 3... Mythic?

There has been rampant speculation following the release of the following screenshot taken by the guys at Addict Gaming during PAX.

Not much is known regarding what this Halo 3 "Mythic" screen means, although since then, more screenshots have been taken from PAX of new map-pack related achievements and the the website theorizes on what this "Mythic" thing might be. An expansion to the campaign, perhaps?

While I certainly wouldn't mind more Halo sooner or later, what I really want is a patch or update that lets Halo 3 render at a higher resolution, or some sort of severe antialiasing support. While the textures are sharp and the artistic design is fantastic, if you play on a big TV there are some unpleasant jaggies that make my eyes sad.

How do you review an MMO, or Little Big Planet for that matter?

There is a long standing disagreement among many gamers as to how reviews should be written for massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs as I will henceforth refer to them. There are a variety of reasons for this, but many of them stem from the fact that MMOs are made to be played for a long, long time.

One issue is that the average MMO player will put hundreds to thousands of hours into their MMO of choice, (several thousands for hardcore players), yet for professional game journalists deadlines are a fact of life and simply cannot put in the hundreds of hours necessary to adequately assess and weigh in on an MMO and still get a review out before everyone who cares has already read reviews from all the competitors. In most MMOs, the first 20, 40, or even 100 hours play very differently than later on, once the higher levels are reached. If a game's lower level gameplay is all flowers and gumdrops, that's all well and good but how will the game keep the experience rewarding later on? On the other hand if a game is dull or merely slow in the early stages, it still might ramp up after 20-40 hours once the player begins getting in on high level activities like raids and is powerful enough to access new areas and better quests. Of course it might just be a snoretacular feat of boredom straight through.

Another issue is that an MMO six or more months after release is very different from what it was at release, which is when it receives the majority of its reviews, (a prime example being Tabula Rasa). No matter how long a game is in beta, developers cannot perfect all balance issues, kill every bug and eliminate every exploit prior to the release date but in the following months MMOs often become more streamlined; bugs are squashed, exploits are eliminated and interfaces, quests, etc. are tweaked hopefully to improve the game experience. Also, around the release date there isn't much of a community surrounding the game and the number of people inhabiting the world isn't indicative of how well the game will be populated months or even years down the road. Social interaction is a major aspect of MMOs, and a review written within weeks of a game's launch, (and in some unfortunate situations, prior to launch), can't take a large part of it into account. Perhaps games should not be reviewed based on how many people play and what they do, yet I can understand the argument that if a reviewer hasn't gotten the change to join a guild and set up a large-scale raid/siege/assault on a super high-level boss or rival guild, then said reviewer has not really experienced all that MMO has to offer. The sort of highly organized, tactical experiences that require co-operative seasoned players simply don't occur in an MMOs earliest stages.

The big question becomes: how does one review an MMO? Should it be reviewed based on the game exactly as it is at launch or should bugs, exploits and other issues be ignored based on the assumption that they will be fixed in the future? Should a reviewer have to guess whether the game will build up a thriving community and economy?

In my opinion an accurate MMO review would have to be written about four to six months after launch and the reviewer should make it at least 70% of the way to the highest level in the game if not more. Unfortunately for mainstream video game press that isn't an acceptable option, not to mention that most people who were interested in the game will have already either tried a free trial or read one of the early reviews. MMO-specific websites sometimes put out late reviews after putting loads of time in, but those must be taken with a larger grain of salt than usual because they are often written by people who

Another possible answer that I've heard is the idea of re-reviewing a game from time to time or after major updates. It's a fantastic idea but there are two major problems as I see it. The first problem is that as it is gaming publications and websites are already swamped trying to find time for their journalists to research and write previews, set up interviews, play through the games that they have to review and then write the reviews. We're not talking about movies here that only need to be watched for an hour and a half to three hours. Games take anywhere from ten to upwards of fifty hours to play through for a proper review. Try adding in the responsibility of re-reviewing games on a regular basis and it can just be too much. The second problem I see with re-reviewing games is that if re-reviews become the norm, then developers and publishers will be that much less motivated to make sure a game is adequately complete before releasing it. If an MMO is going to get re-reviewed anyway then why not just release the beta version in stores and say it's done. It can always be patched for a higher score. A similar mentality is already on the rise on the console game side. Ever since the current generation of consoles has allowed games to be updated, I've seen a lot more games being released in an unfinished form, (Alone in the Dark... you broke my heart).

Soon, we'll have a whole new style of game that may raise similar and possibly more questions regarding how reviews should be written. Little Big Planet is set to come out in October this year and the game is essentially a super-intuitive game creation tool that you play within. The game itself almost mirrors the Playstation 3 in the manner that the creators have created a fantastic and powerful tool, but since the people who use it won't be able to instantly grasp everything it is capable of, the most delicious fruit that it will bear won't show up until later on down the road. As it has taken Playstation 3 almost two years to before games could show what the system was really capable of, (largely due to developers learning how to program for the system), it may quite some time as well after the game's launch before we see the really good content for Little Big Planet.

So how does one write a review for Little Big Planet? If the single-player game that comes bundled in is amazing and the design tools are fun and intuitive then obviously the answer is easy, you score it nice and high, discuss the game as-is and mention future potential. On the other hand, what if the game as it is at launch is simply an awesome game design tool with an afterthought single player game bundled in? Do you review it based on the promise of great community content popping up in the future? Can a review truly be written based on the potential of a game rather than what is actually there?

So undoubtedly now you're looking for my answer to all these problems. Truth is, there's no "right answer" and any way that a review for Little Big Planet or an MMO is handled, it will be forced to make assumptions and walk a fine line between not giving a game enough of a chance and giving a game too much credit. As more non-traditional games are released that, by design, won't reach their innate potential until long after they have been released, (hopefully many more), it will be interesting to see how reviews are handled going forward.

Swimming with the Fishes

I stumbled upon a game online today called Fish Tycoon. The price for a full, legitimate copy of the game is $20. Not only do I have trouble understanding why anyone would pay $20 for this game, I have even more trouble existing in a universe where anyone would pay $20 for Fish Tycoon, yet people take up arms over paying only $15 for Braid or Castle Crashers.




Anyway, when I hear the name "Fish Tycoon," I think of something more along the lines of this...

A Couple Things the Force Unleashed demo needs

1. Limb dismemberment. Even Jedi Knight 2 had it, (and was still rated Teen, no less!), so there's no reason why this shouldn't have some good old fashioned severable limbs... and heads and torsos. Seriously, Star Wars has a rich history of dismemberment, (Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul, Jango Fett). Even if the developer or publisher doesn't want to include blood, a lightsaber shouldn't leave people whole.

2. Bodies and Objects that don't disappear within 3 seconds. When I lay waste to an army of stormtroopers, I just don't feel like the badass that I should unless I can wade through the corpses and bits of destroyed tie fighters once I'm the last man standing. Of course there are technical limitations, but having a freshly fallen enemy fade away instantly is jarring when paired with the physical realism that Lucasarts is trying to accomplish with their game engine.

3. Boss battles that don't involve quick time events. I shouldn't have to explain this one. Whatever. Having the climax of the demo take away direct control of the character is a weak decision. Who knew that the weakness of an AT-ST is pressing X, Y, B, Y, A, A in that order. I felt more like I was playing a hacking mini-game than unleashing my unholy Sith fury on a mechanized engine of destruction.

QTE's worked in Shenmue, (at least I thought so), because they were worked into the overal cinematic nature of the game design. Essentially every game since that has used them in a manner that is totally incongruous to the game design and if there is something that really pisses me off it's shoehorning an element into a game when it doesn't belong.

There is precedent for Star Wars games with severable limbs.

Wasting Time

I'm waiting for the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo to download on the Xbox, and in the meantime I've been playing Half-Life 2: Episode 1. This is the third time that I've had to start it from the beginning due to unfortunate circumstances (and poor planning). I began playing it after purchasing The Orange Box when I still lived in NC. I wasn't too pleased with the first hour or two but I thought it was just starting to get interesting, (after the fight with the ant-lion queen), when I had to pack up for my move to Canada.

Once in Canada and without my framerate-destroying desktop, (shipping it up here was a much longer process than it should have been), I found myself hungry for games but without a machine capable of playing them. Fortunately the Half-Life 2 engine scales wonderfully to lower-spec systems so I loaded up Steam on my laptop and installed Episode 1. What the heck, right? It only meant re-playing through an hour or so. I loaded the game, dialed down the graphics and away I went.

Of course, no sooner than I get into playing, my boxes show up from NC. The motherboard in my desktop had been mortally injured en-route so I took a day off from gaming to pick up a new motherboard as well as a new hard drive because I'm a compulsive bastard and dove into my computer's guts. After reinstalling Windows, drivers, etc., my computer was blowing away games faster than ever. I couldn't help myself but in re-installing my games it reignited my interest and I began to re-play through several of them, pushing Episode 1 to the back of my mind.

That's where Half-Life 2: Episode 1 remained until today as I mulled over what I should do while waiting for my download to complete. I sat at my computer, loaded up Steam and proceeded to play Episode 1 again, from the beginning, for the third time. Could I have just played it on the laptop? Yeah, sure, but why play with the graphics turned down when my desktop can handle running it with 5000x antialiasing and anisotrophic filtering?

Let me tell you, the first time I played the first hour or so of that game was boring and repetitive, the second time was downright tedious. This time I should have been getting paid for that shit because it felt like work. I've heard that the rest of Episode 1 and 2 are great... if that's measured comparatively to the beginning, then I'm ready to believe it because that first section in the citadel doesn't exactly set a high mark for the rest of the series to hurdle.

I guess I'll have to find out later, because my demo is done downloading and I'm out.

There's a lot of shooting energy balls into energy collectors.

Surprisingly, grabbing and launching combine soldiers can get old, and it doesn't take long.

Mirror's Edge... subliminal patriotism?

I've been keeping tabs on Mirror's Edge for some time now with great anticipation. Perhaps it will be as fantastic as it looks, (I hope), or perhaps not. There is on thing that has been nagging me
and I've finally figured it out. As a red-blooded American, (born in Germany and currently living in Canada, but still AMERICAN DANGIT), I've come to the conclusion that Mirror's Edge is subliminally promoting the good 'ol U.S. of A.

Just check out these images and tell me that you don't want to bust out singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

It's the red, white and blue, baby!

Then again, maybe it's supposed to be French... or Russian..... nah.

*Mirror's Edge is set for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2008.

Review gripes: the 1Up Too Human review

Too Human is one of the big releases of the year, and that isn't something that is likely to change even if the game isn't great. After playing through the demo twice my impression is that the gameplay mechanic, while very different from other traditional action games, is fun and rewarding once a couple hours have been spent getting the hang of it and breaking yourself of the instinct to press A or B to attack. I also looked forward to getting into the story, which was headed in an interesting direction by the end of the demo.

The moment I saw the review for Too Human on the 1Up main page, I was naturally pumped to read it but I was somewhat miffed at the choice of reviewer. Who is this guy and why does he write with the stiffness of a high-school English student? Apparently he used to write for OPM, so at the very least there are some credentials there, but why give him such a big game that is has loomed so large in gamer culture for so many years as his first review now that he is back? On the one hand it wouldn't seem fair to give the new writer a deluge of crap games to review, especially if the reviewer has proven themself elsewhere. On the other hand one of the major benefits of reading reviews on a website like 1Up is that for readers like myself, we can get a sense of each editor's tastes based on their previous reviews and factor that in when we read their articles. Not giving readers that opportunity on a game as important as Too Human seems almost irresponsible.

Of course, to write off a writer simply because I haven't heard of him before would speak only of my own inflated sense of importance, but the review left a lot to be desired as well. I can't really say that I got anything out of it other than a few major gripes the reviewer had. The review was far, far too brief and most of the concerns, (issues with air-juggling, camera angles, target-locking), were facets of the game that I had absolutely no problem with in the demo, leading me to ask; is the full game completely different than the demo? Do these problems only crop up in later levels? Can I even trust any of this review?

I guess now I'll just have to sit and wait for other websites to get their reviews up and see what the general consensus on the internet is. Of course I like to read many reviews before purchasing a game so this isn't a major break from my usual routine... I guess I'm just used to getting more out of 1Up than I got in this time around.

iD on iPhone

Forget all those claims that the iPhone is as powerful as the Dreamcast. That's old news. In a recent interview with Forbes, John Carmack, (co-founder of iD software, the company responsible for Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake and graphics engines galore) gives some of his opinions on the iPhone and how it might push mobile gaming forward. Carmack claims that despite hardware differences the iPhone has power relative to the PS2 or original Xbox, and mentions that iD mobile is working on a "graphical tour de force" for the iPhone that will be part of one of the existing iD IPs.

Microsoft announces that Games for Windows Live is free, effective.... NOW!

Today at GamesFest 2008: Seattle, Microsoft announced that the Multiplayer-related features of Games for Windows Live will now be totally free rather than having the tiered price structured with a Silver membership being free and a Gold membership being $49.99. Such features that will now be available for free include voice chat, friend lists, cross platform play, achievements and gamerscores. Microsoft's "About Games for Windows - Live" page has been updated today to reflect this announcement.

Other announcements from Microsoft include the first official word on Direct X 11 and the features it will contain as well as a new marketplace for Games For Windows - Live.

NY Governer signs video game laws... "for the children"

Today, Governer David A. Paterson of NY signed a "Package Of Bills That Will Protect The Public Safety And Rights Of New Yorkers" including a bill that "establishes an advisory council to conduct a study on the connection between interactive media and real-life violence in minors exposed to such media," and will "require new video game consoles to have parental lockout features by 2010, and mandate that games sold at retail disclose the ratings obtained from the gaming industry's voluntary rating system."

Link to the press release HERE. (The relevent section is about five paragraphs down).

I'm not going to go into the insanity of making parental lockout features required for video game consoles but excluding TV service providers, DVD players, computers/web browsers, etc. I'm not going to go into the many reasons why I disagree with passing legislation on these matters in general. I'm not even going to go into the fact that the press release states that the advisory council will study "the connection," (not a possible connection), between interactive media and real-life violence, indicating that they have already decided that there is, in fact, a connection without the inconvenience of actual data.

Still, don't you think it would make more sense to create this advisory council and actually wait for the results of the studies before enacting legislation based on the assumed result?

P.S.- In order to add insult to injury, the section of the press release regarding videogames has been lumped into the same paragraph as sex offenders. Nice.

Reflections on the big-three press conferences

Hopefully by now you've read about all the big E3 press conferences either here or elsewhere. Perhaps for a lucky few of you, you actually got to be there. Well here's my personal take on the press conferences for each of the big three console manufacturers.

Microsoft: In my opinion, Microsoft's press conference was easily the best of the show. Microsoft basically spent an hour and a half slamming home one AAA title after another. By the end of the conference they had made clear that Microsoft is dedicated to A. bringing over the best titles that have been historically exclusive to other consoles, (Resident Evil 5, Grand Theft Auto 4, Final Fantasy XIII, etc), B. bringing exclusive content to 360 for multiplatform games, (360-exclusive DLC for GTA 4 and Fallout 3), and C. continuing to deliver first and third party exclusives for the 360, (Gears of War 2, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Infinite Undiscovery, Fable II, and a bevy of XBLA titles). Granted, Microsoft is able to accomplish all this by basically dropping huge sacks of money on developers, (which Nintendo and Sony can't afford to do), but that doesn't really matter to someone trying to decide which console to purchase. They just want the best console with the most content and don't care how the content got there. Of course, in the middle of all this talk of games was the announcement of a TOTAL overhaul of the Xbox 360 dashboard, (not really sure why they decided to overhaul it, I kinda like the simple and extremely efficient blade-style interface currently in use). I can't have been the only person sitting there thinking, "they are doing ALL THIS by fall?!? Sony couldn't even get their act together to deliver just XMB in a timely manner." Finishing the conference with the announcement of FFXIII 360 didn't hurt either.

Unfortunately I can't completely let Microsoft off the hook. The Avatars seem completely unnecessary and are obvious rip-offs of some other company's avatar system. When talking to games journalists and the sort of hardcore gamers that follow E3, childish and unnecessary rip-offs are not something that will go over well. Also, watching Microsoft employees demonstrate You're in the Movies was just painful. That's the sort of cringeworthy nonsense you would expect from the Nintendo press conference. The idea is cool and packaging the game with the camera all for the standard price of one game is fantastic, but again, the core and hardcore audience that comprises the majority of 360 owners is just not going to care about this game except maybe as a cheap way to get a live vision camera.

Sony: There were two points to the Sony press conference worth taking note of. The first was the repeated message: "hey, we did all this great stuff before with the Playstation 1 and 2, so just buy a Playstation 3 and trust us that we'll do something cool sometime in the future." The second was the focus on the PSP as a companion to the Playstation 3. Surprisingly, there was actually almost as much time spent discussing the PSP as the PS3, with one major announcement being that movies and shows downloaded to the Playstation 3 could be transferred to the PSP for portable viewing.

Unfortunately the rest of the Sony conference was all discussions regarding sales figures, talking up games that we've already been waiting for for months or years and a new video downloading service that looked strikingly like the service for Xbox 360 that has been around for years already. In fact, the only three remotely interesting announcements were a Resistance game for PSP, (yawn), God of War 3 and MAG. God of War and MAG might have been enough to pull the Press Conference out of the gutter if it weren't for the fact that neither game had more to show more than pre-rendered, non-gameplay teasers which most gamers are just too cynical to care about anymore. Speaking of MAG, the one place where the PS3 may be able to build it's own niche is extremely large-scale battlefield games. Warhawk built itself slowly into a hit and Resistance 2 with 64-player online games and MAG with 256-player online games look to make the PS3 the only place to experience that sort of massive-scale multiplayer battles, (aside from PC).

Nintendo: I was extremely disappointed by Nintendo's press conference. At it's launch, the Wii had a nice low price-point and Nintendo postured as the choice for families and folks who don't bathe nightly in cash. They even brought some real games to the party for the Core audience like Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxies and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Unfortunately since then the Nintendo Strategy seems to have become to release party games and mini-game collections while nickel and diming consumers to death. The Nintendo press conference only made this fact more apparent, not a single game shown is designed to play at its best with just the Wii remote. You can play Shaun White Snowboarding with a Wii Remote but for the proper experience you need a balance board. You can play some of the games in Wii Sports resort and some of the instruments with a Wii Remote but for the full experience you need nunchuks, Wii Motion Pluses and balance boards. To play Animal Crossing you need a Wii-Speak microphone. If you want to have friends over to play these games as advertised, you need anywhere from two to four of each peripheral. I may have payed more for my Xbox 360 or PS3, but every single game that I own for those systems plays best on the controller that came in the box with the system. Nintendo is the company that apparently wants to put a smile on my face and a severe dent in my bank account.

In terms of presentation Nintendo, as always, managed to be irritating and childish to the point where I genuinely felt nauseous. Having prozac-popping imbeciles with smiles on their face dance around the stage playing children's games and tell us how much they want to put a smile on our face really gets old quickly. I guess having a woman saying the majority of it is a good idea on Nintendo's part though because having the walking PR-tornado Reggie Fils-Aime telling us that he wants to personally put a smile on every child's face just sounds a little creepy.

I'm going to go into another paragraph on Nintendo here, because I have a very specific, major bone to pick with them. They show up at every interview or press conference chucking the term "innovation" at anyone within reach like raving monkeys throwing feces and their E3 2008 press conference was no different. Well, I'm going to yet again have to call BS on Nintendo's claims of continual innovation because there was exactly ONE SINGLE GAME that was mentioned during their press conference that wasn't a sequel, part of a franchise or multiplatform, and that was Wii Music. You know what, I don't care about Wii Music, after Wii Play, Wii Fit and Wii Sports I'm a little bit sick of dancing around like a bloody idiot in front of my television.

E3 2008 Sony Keynote Summary

For those of you who missed out on the hour and a half of announcements, excitement and PR fromSony, here is a handy bullet-point summary. The statistics and PR bluster have been intentionally left out, go somewhere else to see developers blabbing about how they're starting to get used to programming for the PS3 or how many PS3, PS2 and PSPs sell per year.

-Resistance 2 will have 8 player online coop, 60 player online competitive modes and is scheduled for a November 2008 release

-Playstation 3 Greatest Hits will arrive late 2008 at a $29.99 (US) price point, and will include Resistance, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night, Need for Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma

-Playstation 2 development will continue with games like NCAA Football 09, Tiger Woods Golf 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Warriors Orochi 2, Singstar Pop 2, Yakuza 2, Madden XX and Mercenaries 2

-The Buzz series will be coming to PSP and PS3 later this year

-A new Playstation 2 bundle including the PS2, Lego Batman and a DVD of The Justice League: New Frontiers will be available in the fall for $149.99 (US)

-Playstation Network will feature a new service that will allow downloading of full length TV shows and movies. The media content partners involved with this service include Sony Pictures, Fox Film & Television, MGM Studios, Lionsgate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner Entertainment and Funimation.

-TV shows on the new service will be available in standard and hig definition and will start at $1.99 (US) per episode and movie prices will range from $2.99 to $5.99 for rentals and from $9.99 to $14.99 for purchases. All downloaded content through this service will be transferable to the PSP

-A new PSP entertainment pack including a silver PSP, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, and National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets, a 1Gb memory stick and a voucher for Echochrome will be available in fall

-A new game in the Resistance series, Resistance: Retribution, has been announced for the PSP and is scheduled for a spring 2009 release.

-An 80Gb version of the Playstation 3 will be available for purchase starting in September, it will have the same functionality as the current 40Gb Playstation 3

-God of War 3 "announced" exclusively for Playstation 3

-infamous, an open-world superhero-ish game, will be coming exclusively to Playstation 3

-A multiplayer action game under the working title MAG, (Massive Action Game), has been announced exclusively for the Playstation 3 that will involve up to 256 player multiplayer split into 8-player squads and will involve RPG style character growth

E3 2008 Nintendo Keynote Summary

For those of you who missed out on the hour and a half of announcements, excitement and PR from Nintendo, here is a handy bullet-point summary. The statistics and PR bluster have been intentionally left out, go somewhere else to see How many Wii consoles have been sold in each country or what the ratio of male to female DS owners has been for the past three years.

-Shaun White Snowboarding announced for Wii and will utilize the Wii balance board, scheduled for October 2008 release

-Animal Crossing: City Folk announced for Wii, scheduled for release on November 16, 2008. It will utilize the new Wii Speak microphone for community communication

-Wii Speak peripheral announced, a microphone that will sit on top of a television that will pick up voices of everyone in the area

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars-Lightsaber Duels announced as Wii exclusive, releasing Holiday 2008

-Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party will offer more minigames, this time utilizing the Wii balance balance board, releasing Fall 2008

-Call of Duty: World at War will be released on Wii utilizing the Wii remote as a control device and will contain cooperative gameplay, releasing November 2008

-A sequel to Guitar Hero: On Tour has been announced, also for Nintendo DS, titled Guitar Hero: On Tour: Decades

-Spore: Creatures will involve the "core elements" of Spore which are creativity and sharing, (creating and sharing creatures). Spore: Creatures is scheduled for a September 7, 2008 release on Nintendo DS

-Pokemon Ranger: Shadow of Almia will be released for Nintendo DS on November 10, 2008 in the US

-A new installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto, Chinatown Wars, has been announced for the Nintendo DS and will arrive in Winter 2008/2009. It will be set in modern-day Liberty City and feature a new game engine and new characters

-Nintendo is testing the Nintendo DS for use as a sort of local information hub. One example being that it might be used at an airport to find gates, departure times, local hotels and restaurants, etc.

-A virtual cookbook with recipes, tips and more is in use in Japan and an English version will be released in November

-An addition to the Wii remote, called Wii Motion Plus, has been announced that will supposedly make the remote more precise and responsive (1:1 motion control)

-Wii Sports: Resort has been announced as a beach-themed sequel to Wii Sports and will include one Wii Motion Plus with the game. Mini games shown that will be in Wii Sports: Resort include a frisbee game, a wave-race looking game and sword dueling game. Wii Sports: Resort is scheduled for Spring 2009

-Shigeru Miyamoto's official title has apparently been upgraded to "gaming legend" and will be introduced on stage as such henceforth

-Wii Music has been announced and will utilize the Wii remote, nunchuk and balance board to play over 50 virtual musical instruments in real-time to play along with various songs and melodies

E3 2008 Microsoft Keynote Summary

For those of you who missed out on the hour and a half of announcements, excitement and PR from Microsoft, here is a handy bullet-point summary. The statistics and PR bluster have been intentionally left out, go somewhere else to see how many items have been purchased on Xbox Live or how many more Xbox 360 consoles have been sold than Playstation 3 in North America.


-Fallout 3 will get "substantial" downloadable content exclusive to Xbox 360 and Games for Windows

-Resident Evil 5 will have full online cooperative play

-Resident Evil 5 will get a "Friday the 13th" release on March 13th 2009 in Europe and North America, and March 12th 2009 in Japan. (2009? Haven't we waited long enough for this game already?)

-Fable II development has been completed

-Peter Molyneux announces a new "innovation" for Fable II, "Friend Orbs"

-Cliff Bleszinski shows off Gears of War with new enemies (tickers), new weapons (flame throwers), new activities (Brumak riding), and new gameplay modes (Horde)

-Gears of War 2 is dated for a November 12th release worldwide

-NBC/Universal Studios have been named as partners in downloadable content on Xbox Live, (which includes NBC, USA and Sci-Fi

-The next Xbox update will include a complete overhaul of the interface and menu as well as the addition of a Mii-like avatar (designed by Rare) that will be built in to the gamercard

-A "Community" channel will be added to the Xbox interface including "Live Party," where up to eight people can chat and share photos, watch a video together or play as contestants in gameshows on the new "Primetime" channel to win actual prizes

-Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved announced exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade

-Galaga 2: Legions announced exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade releasing next month

-Portal: Still Alive announced exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade in Fall, with new levels and achievements

-An unknown game based on South Park announced Exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade

-Xbox Live Community Games, (XNA created games) will release in Fall

-An exclusive partnership with Netflix will allow Xbox Live users who subscribe to Netflix watch more than 10.000 movies and TV episodes

-Netflix movies and TV shows will be sharable with up to seven friends through Live Party

-The first exclusive Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC will hit before the end of the year

-Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise are set for a Holiday 2008 release and the original Banzo Kazooie has been announced as an Xbox Live Arcade download scheduled for a Holiday 2008 release as well

-Scene It: Box Office Smash will be the first Xbox game to integrate Xbox Live avatars online

-"You're in the Movies," a game that uses (and includes) the Live Camera to put you in a a cheesy movie green-screen style

-Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, will be released in its entirety in September for Guitar Hero 3, and then again along with Guitar Hero: World Tour in Fall

-Lips, a new sing-along game exclusive to Xbox 360 has been officially announced and will be released this holiday season with motion sensitive, wireless microphones

-Rock Band 2 will debut as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 in September with 84 songs on disk, all with master tracks

-All downloadable tracks for Rock Band as well as most on-disk tracks from Rock Band will be playable on Rock Band 2

-Infinite Undiscovery will be released exclusively for Xbox 360 on September 2nd in North American, 5th in Europe and 11th in Japan and Asia

-Star Ocean: The Last Hope will be releasing to Xbox 360, in Spring 2009

-The Last Remnant will be released on November 20th 2008 worldwide as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360, and will also be released on Games for Windows

-Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for Xbox 360 and will be released concurrently with the version for Playstation 3

I'm sure that if you know anything about Peter Molyneux or his many unfulfilled promises regarding what will be in his games, you read the title of this post and sighed... or perhaps rolled your eyes. The fact that you're reading this means that at least you decided not to just ignore it completely.

This particular promise of innovation looks like it might bear fruit. Molyneux claims that development on the game is actually complete, so the fact that this "innovation" actually sounds pretty darn cool is compounded by the fact that it has apparently already made it into the final build of the game.

The innovation is what Molyneux referred to as "friend orbs." Friends orbs are actually representations of all your Xbox Live friends as they play in their own Fable II single player game that manifest as glowing purple orbs at the same time in your single player game. For example, if a friend of yours is playing and standing in front of a shop on his/her Xbox, then in your game there will be a little purple ball of light floating in front of that same shop in your own game at the same time. Wherever that friend is in their game, the little purple orb will be their in your game all in real time, (provided you are both connected to the internet). You can then walk up to the orb and invite them to join you without going through any Xbox Live menus and if your friend accepts then BANG you'll be playing coop instantly.

Molyneux may be a man with a reputation for having enough hot air to lift a balloon into the sky, but this particular innovation is truly an interesting concept and I can't wait to try it myself. I just hope that it works just as advertised and that there is an option to turn the friend orbs on or off on the fly.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Get it Now Free!

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with FilePlanet.com. I can't recall how many times I've lost my place in a long download queue just because the site didn't refresh the screen properly. On the other hand, from time to time they decide to do something suspiciously gracious like giving out Psi-Ops for free. That's right, FilePlanet has Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy available for free download, no strings attached, and if you haven't gotten a chance to play it, you have absolutely no excuse to not click on THIS LINK and play a game that is fantastic and underrated, yet not without it's flaws.

Review Gripes: the IGN US Metal Gear: Solid 4 review

I've only played about five hours of Metal Gear Solid 4 and as of the moment, I can't say that I agree with the IGN US score of 10/10 for Metal Gear Solid 4. Of course since I haven't completed the game I may yet find that the rest of the game is so fantastic it makes up for it, who knows. Nonetheless I often don't agree with review scores but that isn't a big deal to me, everyone has different opinions and I don't take issue with it.

My issue is that IGN, (yes I just referred to a website as an conscious entity), was dumb enough to put Jeff Haynes in charge of the review. My reasons for this have largely been covered already by other bloggers (who do not endorse or have anything to do with this blog), not to mention the guys at the 1Up yours podcast, (download the relevent episode here. Lets just say that Haynes has had his head way up MGS 4's imaginary ass since far before the review process ever began, not to mention that he was actually directly involved with the game before the development of it was completed. I don't care if his involvement with the game was simply that of an unpaid game tester, I would not put a company's game tester on a review of a game they had input into. Once someone feels that they may have contributed to a game, and feel connected to that game, they should not be put in charge of a review for that game. Haynes even brags about being the "first American in the world to have beaten MGS 4." Don't you think that someone with a claim like that might want said game to get great ratings and make his claim as first to complete it that much more impressive? He should not have been put on the review, end of story.

Maybe you think I'm overreacting? Maybe you think Haynes really didn't have much of a role? Haynes himself states, (brags): "The second task was much more important, because at the end of every gameplay session, we were asked to provide detailed feedback, which would be given to the development team to make adjustments to the final build of the title. We weren't alone in experiencing the game in this way; Kojima himself was replaying the title at the same time we were, going through the same gameplay sections and feedback tasks as we were. In effect, we became part of the design team."

Funny thing is, at the end of the article they try to give readers someone else's point of view aside from just Haynes and they throw Greg Miller's two cents in. Now I don't have a lot against Miller, (aside from the same sort of irritation I get from a small extraordinarily hyper yapping dog), so don't take this as a condemnation of him. The problem is that he admittedly went into playing MGS 4 already madly in love with the escapades of Solid Snake, (and had basically made up his mind about the game a year ago anyway). I know that for a review of the fourth game in a series it would be stupid to put a writer on it who is unfamiliar with the series, but we already have someone who knows the series in the form of Haynes. The "Another Take" section should be done by someone either unfamiliar with the series or perhaps someone who played them but wasn't really won over by the previous games. Having both the review and the "Another Take" written by people who would lick the sweat of Snake's balls and enjoy it if they were given the opportunity just isn't objective journalism in any sense of the word.

At least in his GTA IV review, IGN editor Hilary Goldstein was willing to point out that there were flaws in the game, but explain that it was still of a quality and value that it warranted a rating of 10. Haynes just ignores all of the flaws in MGS 4 like a mother watching her daughter tripping through a dance recital and then claims that it shouldn't even be a 10 but rather an eleven. That's bullshit with a capital B and a capital ULLSHIT. Even if a game deserves a full 10, a responsible journalist/critic would actually mention the issues with the game or at least explain that there are some aspects that aren't actually flaws, yet may annoy some gamers.

For the record: I'm not saying MGS 4 is a bad game. Based on my gameplay so far I would say it is a good game, a great game even, but far from perfect.

Also for the record: Castle Wolfenstein did stealth years before Metal Gear.

New Saint's Row 2 trailer: Pompous Stupidity or Sheer Genius?

Within the past week, THQ and Volition released a new trailer for their upcoming game: Saint's Row 2. If you haven't seen it, take a look.

Jumper sequel in the works?

I've got news everyone! Everyone's favorite actor, Hayden Christensen, claims that last year's film, Jumper (average review score around 35/100), was originally set to be the first in a trilogy if the film did well and there are currently talks of a sequel. Maybe even two sequels! Christensen says "We're talking about it. I know that they're having those conversations, I hear about them." Funny how fast "we" changed to "they" in reference to who is involved in these discussions.

What does this have to do with video games, you ask? Perhaps you're familiar with film-video game tie ins. They're those terrible games that get released simultaneously with the movies they are based on, and Jumper had one. While the movie may have set the bar for quality uncomfortably low, Jumper: Griffin's Story managed to limbo beneath it with inches to spare. With an average review score of 29/100, the only bonus to playing it was the fact that it only took about an hour to rack up most of the achievements in the game, (if that's your thing).

Just think, if another Jumper movie is made then who's to stop another game from being released? How many trees will be felled to produce the instruction manuals and cover inserts? How many plastic-beasts will be slaughtered to make the game discs and keep cases. How many children will stumble across the game in bargain bins, only to play it and have their lives ruined?

If nothing else, I think we're at a point where we can just assume that every new movie is intended to be the first of a trilogy.

Prince of Persia cast gets a bit more confusing

There was much scratching of heads when it was announced a couple of weeks ago that Jake Gyllenhaal is to be the titular prince in the upcoming film adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Gyllenhaal certainly isn't Persian, and for that matter, he's not a prince either. The situation kind of reminds me of something I saw once in some article on some website.

But that's all old news, so on to the new news: according to Variety, Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley have also been attached to the film. Alfred Molina will be playing the role of Sheik Amar, a mentor to the young Prince Dastan, and Kingsley has been rumored to be filling the role of the villainous vizier.
(News ends there).

If you haven't been keeping count, between Kingsley, Molina, Gyllenhaal and Gemma Aterton, who will be playing "Princess Tamina," the cast so far consists of an American, two Brits and Alfred Molina, who is of Spanish and Italian heritage, but was born in England. It seems to me that Prince of Persia might wind up suffering from 300 Syndrome, where all the actors are not only of the wrong ethnicity, but also have offensively inappropriate accents.

Let's just hope that, like 300, so much attention is paid to action, style and art direction that acting becomes inconsequential. With Jerry Bruckheimer producing, that isn't such a long shot.

Not Just for Kids: Games You Might Have Avoided but Shouldn't- Part Two

In last week's blog I talked about the fact that many gamers will simply avoid games if they look too childish or feminine. I mentioned Super Princess Peach and Viva Pinata specifically, but there are certainly a large number of other quality games that have been underappreciated for the same reason. Here's a list of eleven of such games, some you may have heard of or even played, others you may never have heard of, and still others that you may have simply avoided. After browsing through, tell me if there are any other games that you've played that largely went under the radar due to their perceived childish or feminine nature.

Re-Volt: The bright, colorful, kid-friendly box art on this RC Car racing game belies a solid arcade racer with unexpected depth, loads of unlockable cars, highly varied courses and one of the most entertaining course editors ever included in a racing game.

Super Princess Peach: The tables have been turned and this time it's Princess Peach rescuing Mario. Controlling the umbrella-toting princess's moods to get through each level may not sound like the most macho fare, but if there is one thing that Nintendo has figured out how to do properly, it's make a great platforming game and this is no exception.

Beyond Good and Evil: For some reason I always thought this was a children's game when I saw it on store shelves. Maybe it was the idea of playing as journalist armed with a camera which reminded me of Pokemon Snap. Turns out it is a gem of an action/adventure/stealth game with a good plot, great storytelling, and a sequel in pre-production.

Viva Pinata: One of Microsoft's attempts to establish the Xbox 360 as a family-friendly system, this Rare developed game has you tending a garden full of colorful animals called "Pinatas" with names even more absurdly cute than the animals themselves. The surprising combination of deep, rewarding gameplay with a high factor of accessibility makes this game perfect for anyone of any age, just be ready for a possible cute overload.

Barbie: Secret Agent: I'm sure you're thinking that this one must be a joke, but think again! Considering the multitudes of Barbie games that have been made, one of them has to be worthwhile, right? Well this is that one. I like to think of it as Metal Gear: Barbie. Or perhaps this makes more sense; get rid of the vast quantities of pink, swap out Barbie for a weathered Englishman and you've got yourself a good 007 game. Just don't ever let anyone see you playing it.

Zak and Wiki: From the big "E for everyone" esrb rating to the stupidly cute golden monkey with the satellite ears and obnoxiously big adorable eyes to the bright and simple primary color scheme, the game packaging screams "kids only." Don't let it fool you! Despite some of the puzzles being too obvious on the one hand or controller-chuckingly arbitrary on the other, Z&W was largely a fun, refreshing and entertaining adventure game worth the $40 (US) price of entry. It is also one of an exclusive group of games that makes the Wii-mote an integral and intuitive part of the game rather than an afterthought.

Fur Fighters: To its detriment, Fur Fighters has the look of a kid-friendly bargain-bin game at first glance. If, on a wild impulse, you were to purchase the game and play it, you would find a well-polished third person shooter with a maturity level and sense of humor located halfway between Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur day.

Cookie and Cream: It's hard to defend a game about a two bunnies with a flowerpot and an umbrella on their heads as anything other than unapologetic kid fodder, but I have yet to play a more enjoyable co-op platformer. Imagine a game like Lego Star Wars with less emphasis on button mashing and battles and more emphasis on problem solving and platforming... and pastel colors... and umbrellas.

Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village: If you hadn't heard anything about this game you might believe, based on the cover art, that it's nothing more than a loose collection of puzzles suitable for children around age ten. In actuality it is a collection of about 150 puzzles of varying difficulty strung together by genuinely interesting story complimented by beautiful hand-drawn FMV cutscenes.

Backyard Baseball 2005: If I had to rate games based on box art alone, this would have been lucky to get a 4/10. 2005 was a bit late to be bragging "Now in 3D" and the developers don't try to hide that the game was made with kids in mind. Why, then, would you want to play this game? Because it was critically acclaimed as one of the best and most addicting baseball games, and for good reason. If the movie "The Sandlot" were a game, this would be it, except without the shame of being picked last for teams.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus: I foolishly passed on this game for a long time thinking that it was just another cookie-cutter juvenile platformer. The title sounded like a bad Saturday morning cartoon and the faux-cell shaded look seemed ripped off. It wasn't until last year that a friend of mine let me borrow it and I was pleasantly surprised to find an engaging platformer with likeable characters and fluid controls. The humor was at times self-referential and at other times parodied other games and movies. While it was a bit short, there are two equally worthwhile sequels.

Not Just for Kids: Games You Might Have Avoided but Shouldn't- Part One

"Will that be all?" the clerk asked as I stood at the register at my local purveyor of fine gaming goods, his question penetrating the blank stare that had aggregated on my face over roughly fifteen minutes of waiting. I looked at the sole item in my hand, an empty display case for Super Princess Peach on Nintendo DS, and answered "yeah, that's it." As he searched behind the counter for a retail copy, he tried to make some conversation, "are you buying this for your girlfriend?" and before I had a chance to answer, "it's awesome how many chicks have a Nintendo DS, it's like it's actually getting them into gaming�" My eyes glazed over as he attempted to explain to me the state of females and videogaming and as he ran my credit card I replied to his initial question, "nah, I'm buying it for me." Now it was the clerk's turn to assume a blank stare accompanied by a slight look of embarrassment. "Oh, sorry bro, it's just usually girls or parents I see buying games like this."

While driving home I thought about what he had said about mainly girls and their parents buying games like Super Princess Peach. It's a great game that anyone can enjoy if you can get past the fluffy, feminine girliness and obvious stereotyping, (Peach has different powers based on her mood swings... I'll let you infer what you want from that), and it's too bad that a lot of male gamers are missing out on it. As my mind wandered, I began to think about other games that have alienated a large segment of consumers by tailoring the theme, style or even the box art for a target audience. I don't have the sales demographics to back it up but I would guess that since Viva Pinata is targeted at children and looks like a kid's game, not to mention that it was released in conjunction with a kids television show, many older gamers have chosen to avoid it. Few of my friends will give it a try, even after my attempts to convince them that despite the childish exterior it is a well-crafted and gratifying "strategy/simulation" game with a great sense of humor that anyone can enjoy and easily justifies the twenty dollar price tag.

My friends' innate aversion to Viva Pinata shouldn't surprise me. For core and hardcore gamers, avoiding niche games that are aimed at children or girls has become something of a defense mechanism. When we see a game with hearts or bright colors or large quantities of pink on the cover we automatically let our eyes slide over it as if it isn't even there. We automatically ignore advertisements that look too cute. It helps us avoid the suffering that is inherent to games involving Nickelodeon characters, Barbie or anything that ends with a Z, (Bratz, Horsez, Petz, Babyz). Unfortunately, this instinct of ours makes us miss out on some real gems that deserve to be played.

I'm not sure if there is a way to solve this issue, or if anyone else even considers it an issue. Perhaps it's just a problem that is and will always be inherent to the entertainment industry; adults largely avoid kids movies and television shows in the same manner. It just seems a shame to miss out on some of the great prizes that are hiding under the thin guise of pretty, pink girl games or cute, cuddly kids games.
The upcoming part two, will include a list of some of the better girl-friendly or kid-friendly games that you might have avoided but shouldn't.

On the Precipitation-Lubricious Cliff of Legitimate System Requirements

I, like many gamers, am a fan of Penny-Arcade. Not a huge fan or even a big fan, but I'll admit that I check for new strips a minimum of once a week. One thing I have to give them absolute credit for is rabid devotion to, and love for, videogames. It only makes sense, then, that two guys who so love and understand videogames would pour their sweat, blood and all manner of other bodily fluids into making the best game imaginable. "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One," is the result of their toil and I figured I should at least give the demo a shot.

Unfortunately, my experience has been a bit of a mixed bag; upon installation I tried to run the demo at the default settings and beyond the usual torrent of developer and game logos I was treated to a black screen and no hard-drive activity. Being a long-time PC gamer I've become accustomed to this sort of occurrence and often as not, simply rebooting the system after an installation will help motivate an application to work properly. After alt-tabbing out of the blank screen and restarting my system I dropped the graphic settings to a mere 800x600 resolution and started the game up again and sure enough, I slid uninterrupted through the opening sequence into the character creation menu where I was pleased to find that whatever character you create, it looks like Mike Krahulik drew it straight onto the screen. In fact, the whole game looks like it came straight from the panels of the comic strip. Krahulik's signature look has been masterfully transferred to the third dimension and what the game lacks in graphical capabilities is made up for with style. This approach is similar to what has been done with the episodic Sam & Max, Team Fortress 2 and the upcoming Battlefield: Heroes, (among others), and one of the results of such a design formula is that the games don't look dated, yet run on a wide variety of systems including PCs long overdue for an upgrade. You might understand why I was shocked when I ran into more performance issues.

The game ran like a fat guy trying to make it up a flight of stairs after a trip to Dairy Queen. I'm talking anywhere from three to ten frames per second. The laptop I'm playing on is by no stretch of the imagination a machine designed for gaming, but I can pull solid framerates on Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted at higher resolutions so I was not expecting this low-tech episodic demo to be a slap in the face along the lines of Crysis. For a game such as this to run this poorly at 800 by 600 pixels is absolutely inexcusable, especially when my system meets the recommended system requirements. I would love to speak right now about the gameplay and the writing and one would hope the great sense of humour but the game just doesn't have quite the same flow when the mouse cursor, (the primary method of controlling the game), is either moving like molasses or jumping across the screen.

Stylistically the game is fantastic, a shame it wouldn't run properly
click on image for full view









As I said previously, I can't give my impressions on the game when running under ideal conditions. As a guess I'd say that if you are a fan of Penny Arcade, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is something you'll want to check out at least. I would only warn you that if you plan on playing the PC version and you have even the slightest doubt as to whether you can run the game smoothly, you would do well to try the demo before you drop twenty big ones on the full version. Until game companies start listing realistic minimum and recommended system requirements that's the best way to find out if a PC game is right for your rig.