When you're as avid a gamer as I am, there may be some... blending, as it pertains to real life and fantasy. There are countless topics that begin with, "You know you've been playing X too long if..." Whether that pertains to walking down the street and identifying what buildings you could clearly scale, thanks to Assassin's Creed, or taking a hike in the mountains and briefly seeing the word "harvest" showing up on a HUD that isn't really even there, courtesy of Skyrim, it happens from time to time.
On a different level altogether, sometimes the games invade your dreams. I remember years ago, when the Nintendo DS first came out, there were pretty slim pickings as far as what was available. One of the games that I happened upon was a puzzler called Polarium. Your goal was to shift all the tiles on the board to either black or white. My dream that night was like that. Every image I saw related to turning everything black or white.
Last night, I hit the game-dream motherload. Not only was it related to what I've been doing, but I reached an epiphany while doing so. There was an answer to the age-old question: Why can't we customize the look of our characters in Call of Duty?
My dream answered this question in a very peculiar way.
You see, Michael McDreamy had assumed the role of the Call of Duty character. Just as in real life, he was awesome and amazing, surviving the hellish war he had founded himself entrenched within. As he made his way into one of the nearby dilapidated buildings, another player appeared, this one a petite blonde. She was his enemy, but she had other things in mind...
"Do you have any gum?" she asked, quickly swaying the erotic pretenses of this story.
Unfazed by the ridiculous request - for this was indeed a lucid experience - Michael McDreamy did the chivalrous thing and began searching his pockets for a stick of fruity freshness.
Meanwhile, one of the young lass' companions arrived, and leveled his gun at our hero.
"Wait," she pleaded. "He's getting me gum."
Satisfied with that new information, the soldier lowered his gun, allowing Michael to finish his search. Unfortunately, in his search, Sergeant McDreamy (Prestige Level 4) didn't have any gum to speak of. He responded with a shrug as the enemy raised his gun again.
That was where the dream ended. And it made me think about the deeper meaning. Can you imagine if Call of Duty adopted the World of Warcraft mentality of character design? Every person you played as would be scantily clad, and perhaps a night elf. It would completely undermine the sense of the game. Distractions would be heaping, and a game that already suffers from terrible teammates would be like an inveritable swampland of crushed dreams mixed with furious masturbation. No, I think Call of Duty's character representation is fine, just the way it is.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Embracing the Future
Yesterday, on my way home from work, I got into a lengthy conversation about how that holodeck experience you see on Star Trek could come to fruition - it's such a novel idea, but so hard to eventually come up with. If you recall, a few weeks back, I also talked about other gaming innovations. As we move forward with technology, there are so many possibilities for what we'll experience.
But... let me paint a picture of a scenario that I just pulled out of my ass:
The year is 2021. After the Wii U, and the follow-up consoles of Microsoft and Sony have been on the market for some time, people are beginning to yearn for something more. Console and PC graphics continue to improve, and even innovation is steadily plodding along.
Nintendo's tablet controller has become a defacto standard for adding immersion into the game, but so, too, has the NextBox.
Kinect 2 not only collects data from the people who are playing Microsoft's latest games, but it can differentiate between four different voices. More importantly, Kinect 2 projects additional images around the player. In the early years of the NextBox, this feature is mainly used to provide an additional hud that clears the space on the TV. When playing Mass Effect 4, you were able to see your map on your left side, and your team's names and health on your right. This made your main screen less cluttered, and delivered a more immersive experience.
In the later part of the generation, Kinect 2 integrated so well, that it could actually determine where you were pointing on the projected image. The projections became so robust that you could actually hotswap equipment off the screen. On the Wii U, when you had your tablet controller acting as your backpack, that was impressive enough. But during the later years of the NextBox, when you could actually move skills without any hands-on interface as seamlessly as real life, that was when things truly became revolutionary.
Of course, the Playstation Omni brought their own revolutionary features to market. The Omniviewer, essentially a visor with a built in gyrometer functioned as a headtracker. At first, the Omniviewer was used very sparsely, mostly for HUD elements and menu effects. While the Omniviewer allowed for elements of the television to appear as though it hovered closer to the player, nothing could be produced outside of the television's range. Looking to the left or right meant that the visor did nothing for you, as opposed to Kinect 2, which could produce images anywhere within a certain range of the device, as long as it was unobstructed. Eventually, the Omni was able to integrate headtracking into more games, making first person shooters more intuitiv. Though the peripheral vision of your character was enhanced somewhat, it was still somewhat limited.
It wasn't until earlier this year, at E3 2021, that it finally became clear just how far we'd come with our technology. Clearly something like the Star Trek Holodeck was still such a fantasy idea, but game immersion was about to change in a huge way.
A new company, Goliath Entertainment, had been securing the rights to old warehouse buildings across the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and China, with plans to expand across other markets as time and finances allowed. No one was really sure what exactly the company was investing in, until that day in June when all was revealed.
The CEO of Goliath Entertainment arrived on stage with a few note cards and a small, sleek cardboard box. There were a lot of power keywords thrown out there to drive attention, words like "synergy" and "immersion", but nobody really gave him much of their own at that point. Until the first video played on the big screen.
They had a player, James, introduce himself to all those in attendance at the auditorium. It was clear that it was a pre-recorded schtick, but there was something about the video that instantly appealed to everyone. Maybe it was that weird visor that sat on his head - essentially the Oculus Rift, but with a lot more power behind it. Or, perhaps it was the "can't-fake-it" smile on James' face. Whatever he was promoting, he truly believed in it.
As the camera panned out, the audience could see the interiors of one of those old empty warehouses that Goliath had been stealing. It no longer looked like some forgotten relic of a factory era, however. Fake trees had been fashioned in lieu of lode-bearing joists and pillars. The walls of the buildings were covered in green screen. The floor looked like turf that you would see in a football game - and it was all within this warehouse.
The lights dimmed in the auditorium, and then, in the video itself. James lowered the visor onto his face, and a soft transition showed the audience what he was seeing.
Through the visor, James was able to see the software he was playing, games built from the ground up for that warehouse experience. For the sake of the conference, Goliath chose to display a game akin to the latest Elder Scrolls. A fantasy realm spread out before James, but it was nearly photo-realistic. Every turn of his head shifted the game world properly. Every pan, every pitch, every roll, every yaw was recreated in realtime, and without any glitches.
Drawing away from James' view, a side-by-side comparison was shown on the video feed. As James was moving forward in the game, he was moving forward in the warehouse. The fantasy realm was completely fashioned both in the game and in the real world. As the audience came to terms with that truth, whispers began to arise. It was basically just a LARPers wet dream. But then, in game, they were first introduced to the Stalker. The game's introductory boss, it was essentially an oversized sabertooth tiger. There was no way to introduce this creature effectively into a real life stage - it had to be recreated digitally. The visor gave it definition and depth that a mere projection would have failed to.
James did the only thing he could. He began running. In a first person view, we see as the trees whip past him. The Stalker sprinted ahead of him, leaping out across his vision, but he rolled just far enough away to dodge a vicious strike. He rose to his feet, and his avatar did as well, seamlessly, and resumed his hasty retreat. He pushed through a particular thick brush, and looked back over his shoulder to see if he was still being pursued. Satisfied with no sight of the wild cat, he peered forward again, just in time to see the massive river stretching out before him. Trapped, he turned around, just in time to see the Stalker pounce at him. As the creature obscured his vision, the game's title showed up briefly: The Realms of the Reborn.
Just as soon as that logo showed up though, it faded, and once again the video showed James happily grinning at the camera. That initial video was his first experience with The Realms of the Reborn. Since then, he had joined the two hundred other on-site players who were enjoying the world's newest massively multiplayer online fantasy.
The video panned over to show dozens of other players in the warehouse, similarly wearing the visor and holding controllers as they proceeded through the game world. Several travelled together, others nodded to each other in passing. This fantasy universe seemingly drew from real life. The visor hardware was able to recognize other players and could recreate their avatars in real time.
A sizzle reel of the game play quickly followed, showing the adventurers of the game. The Stalker was just one of the game's impressive digital beasts. Massive trolls, diabolical wizards and scheming demons were abound in the realms, and every day, more players were jumping in to help save them from the conquests of evil. The real kick was that every warehouse had the potential to interconnect digitally. A player in Sydney could interact without any obstruction with a chap in London, or another fellow in Los Angeles.
Goliath Entertainment had essentially brought gaming back to the arcades, by assembling the technology that was already rapidly becoming a part of our society.
Over the next few months, Goliath added to the game by adding floors to the warehouses (when players moved to new areas, they typically moved through elevators, affronted by loading screens). But they also created new games. Sci Fi shooters popped up seemingly overnight, and were like tremendously real laser tag adventurers.
...annnnnnnd I'll abruptly bring you back to reality there before this tangent goes on too long.
But what do you think of our potential technological future? A lot of these things are already on their way, if rumors are to be believed. That stuff about the next Microsoft and Sony consoles? Pulled from this article. There's any number of directions the future could take us, but maybe things like the holodeck and Minority Report-style interfaces aren't so far off.
But... let me paint a picture of a scenario that I just pulled out of my ass:
The year is 2021. After the Wii U, and the follow-up consoles of Microsoft and Sony have been on the market for some time, people are beginning to yearn for something more. Console and PC graphics continue to improve, and even innovation is steadily plodding along.
Nintendo's tablet controller has become a defacto standard for adding immersion into the game, but so, too, has the NextBox.
Kinect 2 not only collects data from the people who are playing Microsoft's latest games, but it can differentiate between four different voices. More importantly, Kinect 2 projects additional images around the player. In the early years of the NextBox, this feature is mainly used to provide an additional hud that clears the space on the TV. When playing Mass Effect 4, you were able to see your map on your left side, and your team's names and health on your right. This made your main screen less cluttered, and delivered a more immersive experience.
In the later part of the generation, Kinect 2 integrated so well, that it could actually determine where you were pointing on the projected image. The projections became so robust that you could actually hotswap equipment off the screen. On the Wii U, when you had your tablet controller acting as your backpack, that was impressive enough. But during the later years of the NextBox, when you could actually move skills without any hands-on interface as seamlessly as real life, that was when things truly became revolutionary.
Of course, the Playstation Omni brought their own revolutionary features to market. The Omniviewer, essentially a visor with a built in gyrometer functioned as a headtracker. At first, the Omniviewer was used very sparsely, mostly for HUD elements and menu effects. While the Omniviewer allowed for elements of the television to appear as though it hovered closer to the player, nothing could be produced outside of the television's range. Looking to the left or right meant that the visor did nothing for you, as opposed to Kinect 2, which could produce images anywhere within a certain range of the device, as long as it was unobstructed. Eventually, the Omni was able to integrate headtracking into more games, making first person shooters more intuitiv. Though the peripheral vision of your character was enhanced somewhat, it was still somewhat limited.
It wasn't until earlier this year, at E3 2021, that it finally became clear just how far we'd come with our technology. Clearly something like the Star Trek Holodeck was still such a fantasy idea, but game immersion was about to change in a huge way.
A new company, Goliath Entertainment, had been securing the rights to old warehouse buildings across the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and China, with plans to expand across other markets as time and finances allowed. No one was really sure what exactly the company was investing in, until that day in June when all was revealed.
The CEO of Goliath Entertainment arrived on stage with a few note cards and a small, sleek cardboard box. There were a lot of power keywords thrown out there to drive attention, words like "synergy" and "immersion", but nobody really gave him much of their own at that point. Until the first video played on the big screen.
They had a player, James, introduce himself to all those in attendance at the auditorium. It was clear that it was a pre-recorded schtick, but there was something about the video that instantly appealed to everyone. Maybe it was that weird visor that sat on his head - essentially the Oculus Rift, but with a lot more power behind it. Or, perhaps it was the "can't-fake-it" smile on James' face. Whatever he was promoting, he truly believed in it.
As the camera panned out, the audience could see the interiors of one of those old empty warehouses that Goliath had been stealing. It no longer looked like some forgotten relic of a factory era, however. Fake trees had been fashioned in lieu of lode-bearing joists and pillars. The walls of the buildings were covered in green screen. The floor looked like turf that you would see in a football game - and it was all within this warehouse.
The lights dimmed in the auditorium, and then, in the video itself. James lowered the visor onto his face, and a soft transition showed the audience what he was seeing.
Through the visor, James was able to see the software he was playing, games built from the ground up for that warehouse experience. For the sake of the conference, Goliath chose to display a game akin to the latest Elder Scrolls. A fantasy realm spread out before James, but it was nearly photo-realistic. Every turn of his head shifted the game world properly. Every pan, every pitch, every roll, every yaw was recreated in realtime, and without any glitches.
Drawing away from James' view, a side-by-side comparison was shown on the video feed. As James was moving forward in the game, he was moving forward in the warehouse. The fantasy realm was completely fashioned both in the game and in the real world. As the audience came to terms with that truth, whispers began to arise. It was basically just a LARPers wet dream. But then, in game, they were first introduced to the Stalker. The game's introductory boss, it was essentially an oversized sabertooth tiger. There was no way to introduce this creature effectively into a real life stage - it had to be recreated digitally. The visor gave it definition and depth that a mere projection would have failed to.
James did the only thing he could. He began running. In a first person view, we see as the trees whip past him. The Stalker sprinted ahead of him, leaping out across his vision, but he rolled just far enough away to dodge a vicious strike. He rose to his feet, and his avatar did as well, seamlessly, and resumed his hasty retreat. He pushed through a particular thick brush, and looked back over his shoulder to see if he was still being pursued. Satisfied with no sight of the wild cat, he peered forward again, just in time to see the massive river stretching out before him. Trapped, he turned around, just in time to see the Stalker pounce at him. As the creature obscured his vision, the game's title showed up briefly: The Realms of the Reborn.
Just as soon as that logo showed up though, it faded, and once again the video showed James happily grinning at the camera. That initial video was his first experience with The Realms of the Reborn. Since then, he had joined the two hundred other on-site players who were enjoying the world's newest massively multiplayer online fantasy.
The video panned over to show dozens of other players in the warehouse, similarly wearing the visor and holding controllers as they proceeded through the game world. Several travelled together, others nodded to each other in passing. This fantasy universe seemingly drew from real life. The visor hardware was able to recognize other players and could recreate their avatars in real time.
A sizzle reel of the game play quickly followed, showing the adventurers of the game. The Stalker was just one of the game's impressive digital beasts. Massive trolls, diabolical wizards and scheming demons were abound in the realms, and every day, more players were jumping in to help save them from the conquests of evil. The real kick was that every warehouse had the potential to interconnect digitally. A player in Sydney could interact without any obstruction with a chap in London, or another fellow in Los Angeles.
Goliath Entertainment had essentially brought gaming back to the arcades, by assembling the technology that was already rapidly becoming a part of our society.
Over the next few months, Goliath added to the game by adding floors to the warehouses (when players moved to new areas, they typically moved through elevators, affronted by loading screens). But they also created new games. Sci Fi shooters popped up seemingly overnight, and were like tremendously real laser tag adventurers.
...annnnnnnd I'll abruptly bring you back to reality there before this tangent goes on too long.
But what do you think of our potential technological future? A lot of these things are already on their way, if rumors are to be believed. That stuff about the next Microsoft and Sony consoles? Pulled from this article. There's any number of directions the future could take us, but maybe things like the holodeck and Minority Report-style interfaces aren't so far off.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Next Gen
As is inevitable when any new console releases, the trolls are coming out from beneath their bridges, and the fanboys are brandishing their swords and shields, ready to do quick battle with the unseemly bunch. It's around this time of a console's cycle that the internet - at least, the sites that I frequent - are becoming incredibly noisy.
So I thought to myself, what is going on with this upcoming (current, with the release of the Wii U, I suppose) generation of consoles? I've come up with a few worthy discussion points, and I'll try to deliver them from as unbiased a view as I can.
The Last Generation and What it Did to the Industry
With the release of Nintendo's latest console, we're in a position where Nintendo has released their system earlier than its competitors for the first time in over 20 years. The Super Nintendo came out at a time when Sega was somewhere in between two of its systems, with the Genesis arriving stateside a full two years before Nintendo's sophomore system. Four years after the SNES graced us with its presence, Sega ushered in the Saturn.
Obviously, any number of things can happen at any given time in history. We saw how the tsunami affected the video game industry last year in Japan. Even though Sega had put out one of the most critically acclaimed system with the Dreamcast, it still hemorrhaged money, and ended up dropping out of the console market. So, it's a little presumptive to put any real faith in the future that you may perceive.
In the scenario that I do foresee, however, Nintendo has got a huge leg-up on the competition. The Wii was an absolute phenomenon, something that people had never seen before in the video game industry. While Microsoft's Xbox 360 arrived a full year before Nintendo's fifth console, it didn't really put up big numbers at first. In a full month, Microsoft just barely broke through the million mark. One year later, Sony's third system couldn't even crack that amount, faced with a prohibitively high cost of their product (which they were actually taking a loss on). Meanwhile, only two days later, Nintendo's Wii arrived stateside, the latest of the competitors, but with an innovative spin that completely turned the industry on its head. Motion gaming was embraced in 2006, and ended up giving Nintendo a big advantage - they sold over two million consoles in less than a month, and opened up a brand new outlet of gamers with their blue ocean strategy. For the first time since 1972, gaming wasn't just a hardcore or niche hobby. The era of the casual gamers opened up.
Not even ten months later, the Wii surpassed the Xbox 360 in sales worldwide, while Sony languished in last place (Sony is still slightly behind, though the so-called HD twins have toed the line around each other for the past few years). Brand name probably accounted for much of what had unfolded last generation. Nintendo offered the worst quality in graphics and was the latest to market, yet it still managed to develop the largest install base. It was also much more cost effective for consumers, and for the company itself. While Microsoft and Sony were taking losses on their consoles, the Wii was bringing in a profit on every sale.
Of course, as the last generation continued on, the market was all but bled dry. Already saturated by over 200 million collective consoles, there isn't much room for the same old console. All three companies are releasing reiterations of their current software that relies on cheaper components. For Microsoft, this is a huge break from their prior stock, as they were hampered down the most from system-crippling malfunctions. In fact, it was only recently that the HD twins began finally making money back for their companies.
And yet, all three companies were losing money hand over fist over the last year or so. Each of them posted losses recently, and everyone is crying doom and gloom. However, nobody sees the bigger picture. For the last twenty years, this is just what happened. At the end of a console's life cycle, the current console's sales die off as anticipation for the next cycle begins. Why would anyone buy a Wii when a Wii U is coming out (this actually did happen, but for several big reasons which I will discuss below). While Nintendo is releasing a console to offset the age of the Wii, we're stuck waiting until at least some time in 2013 for Microsoft and Sony to release their own consoles.
You see, it wasn't just that Nintendo was slightly behind the times, it was that Microsoft and Sony future-proofed the hell out of their consoles, and at a huge detriment to the industry. It was great for consumers, who saw one of the biggest jumps in graphical quality since sprites gave way to polygons. The engines were better, the games looked more polished, and games regularly pushed toward 100 hour long epics. However, for every Activision and EA that could push their resources into these tremendous games, there were smaller developers who had to struggle to keep up with the huge leap forward. The cost to produce this generation's games have utterly destroyed many of the companies we grew up with. And that is not something that we can afford to have happen again.
Nintendo releases its first HD Console
Now dawns the rise of the eighth console generation. Some people will argue that Nintendo's Wii U isn't a true next generation system, because it only barely improves on the quality of the games that are already out. Hell, you can see the paltry difference in several of the multiplatform games that have already been released thus far. Games like Assassin's Creed and Batman are just barely better looking (and in some cases, functioning) than they are on the Box or the PS3, if at all. But the people who are touting this knowledge left and right have two HUGE strikes against them:
1) No launch multiplatform games have ever been all that stunning. This is because typically, the game is made on one system (the one that has the highest install base, or ease of development), and ported over to the other systems. Hell, Bethesda still can't get Skyrim working properly on the PS3 (and in some cases, at all - I'm looking at you Greybeards glitch).
2) Porting to Nintendo's Wii U is like driving on the sidewalk. Sure, you can do it, but it's not recommended. In this case, that's because the HD twins have been using CPU's to power their games, while the Wii U's infrastructure utilizes a GPGPU instead for its major computations. I've seen a lot of people on the internet trying to wittily denounce Nintendo's weaker CPU, but they don't even realize how silly it is to point to it at all. Bottom line, if a developer focuses on the GPGPU from the ground up, it will provide a better experience than what we're currently seeing on the 360 and PS3.
So, now that the naysayers' biggest argument is out of the way, let's talk about the system itself, and its software.
Graphically, for now, the Wii U is on par with games that have been coming out for the last few months or so. Even what seems like small games still look plenty impressive on this system.
Back at E3, Nintendo first showed off its collection of launch titles. It ended its show with Nintendoland, which had a lot of people scratching their heads. It was one of the worst E3 presentations in recent Nintendo history. Why would they end with such a spectacular dud of a game?
I have to admit, I had a sour taste in my mouth about it too. There was nothing that seemed interesting about the title at all. It presented itself as a glorified Wii Sports. Now, I stand on the other end of the spectrum, defiantly defending that game. While I have tons of other games at my disposal, that pack-in title has become the center-piece of my collection. When I have company over, we always end up gravitating toward that game, the figurehead of Nintendo's new system (alongside New Super Mario Bros. U). It's because it's a different experience than we've had before. It feels fresh; it feels new. And that's one thing that they really couldn't demonstrate on the showroom floor at E3. You're not going to understand it until you partake in it yourself - sort of like trying to demonstrate the 3DS through a PC monitor.
The Wii U might not be as commercially viable as its predecessor, but I guarantee you, over the next few months, word of mouth (and personal experiences when people go to the houses of early adopters) will sell this system. The tablet is not an afterthought or a gimmick. It's a revolutionary new way to experience what has grown stale over the past 20-some odd years. Assymetric gaming is more entertaining than what you'd expect, and it will be incredibly interesting to see what happens over the next few months, and, indeed, the next five or six years.
So this is what it comes down to: Nintendo's new system, while initially hampered down by long installs, is rather impressive. I am probably a bigger Nintendo fan than most, yet I still try to maintain a nonbias when I'm first experiencing something. I enjoyed the Wii for about four years before I felt it wear on me, and I never completed Skyward Sword. When I initially opened up the Wii U, I wasn't as excited as I wanted to be - yet, when I first sat down and played with my new toy, I was like a kid at Christmas. The game library might not be extensive yet, and it might not be time for you to buy the system now, but if you enjoyed the Wii, you'll enjoy the Wii U.
The Other Challengers, and the Challenges They Face
As I've said before, anything can happen in the video game industry. My experiences are just that: mine. I really dig what Nintendo put out there, and I would insist that anyone who is on the fence at least get out there and try it. However, that's not to say that my opinion is correct. You and I may have two different concepts of fun. You might think that Nintendoland is a piece of crap, and there's no real way for anybody to say who is right or wrong.
What can be clearly stated is that competition is coming. Nintendo is not the only video game company out there. Microsoft and Sony want to win this upcoming generation, as is expected - however, there have been plenty of missteps that every company has made over the past several years. Who is to say whether or not what they want is what they'll get?
The primary thing that is going to have to be taken into account is the leap that these new consoles will make. As I said before, the 360 and the PS3 jumped ahead so far that it actually damaged the industry. Developers spent so much time trying to reach the top of the curve in a race that hurt their profits and ended up closing a lot of doors. A smaller, more natural progression actually works out better for everyone, but of course, that has its detriments as well. If Microsoft would have put out a console that was fairly evenly matched against the Wii, but lacked the motion controllers, it may have been dead in the water.
However, I don't think that anyone can wade through another PS3 fiasco. It may have just been that Sony was out of touch. Kaz Hirai actually seemed exuberant at that price point (which in all actuality was pretty good for what you were getting), but it was still freaking prohibitive. Recently, its been announced that Sony's PS4 will support 4K resolution. If that's the case, I don't see an instance where that system can be affordable. Just a Sony brand blu-ray player that upscales to 4K is roughly $200.
On top of that, you'd need a 4K television - which is thousands of dollars out of many people's price range. I understand that Sony likes to think of its systems as filet mignon as compared to Microsoft's london broil and Nintendo's cheeseburger, but we can't eat high end steak for every meal. It's just not something we do.
Furthermore, if Sony were to push for 4K, we wouldn't see any real change to games any time soon. Most of the current software that we're seeing doesn't even run in native 1080. It's simply too much work for developers to spend time on. It's possible that the system could upscale, but that's a little polish for a lot of money.
There's only one scenario that I can see that allows Sony's gaming hardware division to survive the next generation. They have to innovate. They can't afford to make a leap that is as grand as this last generation. It isn't reasonable for developers, it isn't reasonable for consumers, and it isn't even feasable for Sony, whose credit rating was recently downgraded to junk. It's a dangerous line for them to tread, but they are going to have to put out a system that is only marginally better than Nintendo, and they are going to have to figure out a way to entice gamers to invest in them. It might be enough to have a new Playstation available to the masses for a paltry sum, but I still don't see it happening. Even in the face of that, Sony cannot afford to sell their system for a loss. There is a huge burden that they must carry going forward, and only in the next year or so will we find out whether or not they can stay afloat.
Microsoft has a few options that Sony does not. While Sony teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, and is bleeding money from multiple portions of its company, Microsoft is sitting on so much money that Scrooge McDuck would be jealous.
While it would still be foolish for the house that Bill Gates built to make a prohibitively expensive piece of hardware, they could rationally get away with it. It would hurt the industry though, so I'm hoping that isn't the direction they are taking things.
There's also the Ouya, which may be something worth looking at, but its still too early to really talk about it at this point. For all we know, the Ouya might be king of the hill a few years from now.
In the foreseeable future, the Wii U will stand against the other two big companies that have been around for at least two generations. The only way for Wii U to stay comfortable is for third party software and support to become strengthened on the system. If Sony and Microsoft make enough of a leap, Nintendo is once again going to lose out on multiplatform support. If the games that are made on the other consoles can be made scalable on the Wii U, it might once again reign supreme. It all depends on where companies can find the most support.
Pete Hines, marketing executive at Bethesda, puts it very clearly. "Your install base always starts at zero." In other words, "we go where there is money to be made."
Ancillary Markets
The home console is not the only place that video game companies are fighting for dominance. The handheld market has been contested for around two decades, and though Nintendo has always been on top, there have also always been competitors.
While the Playstation Vita is floundering compared to Nintendo's 3DS (and just barely ekeing out the original DS and it's own predecessor, the PSP), it bears mentioning because it shows what's happening in the market, and what's going on in the minds of those who control Sony's fate.
The other company from Japan has emphasized strength in its consoles since at least 2006, and it has shown across to its handhelds as well. PSP was stronger than the DS, and Vita is stronger than 3DS. Yet in spite of this, the Vita still hasn't really made a dent in any of its markets. There just aren't any games worth owning. It's holiday centerpiece, Call of Duty: Declassified is receiving abysmal critical reviews. It's also the more expensive option, sitting at a price point that Nintendo thought it could release the 3DS at last year. However, noting the poor initial reception of the 3DS, Nintendo dropped the price of their handheld and have since seen a surge in sales. Meanwhile, Vita is doing very little to attract potential buyers, and Sony seems apt to let it sit there.
I will give commendations where they are due, however. Sony does seem like it is ushering in a new era of playing wherever you can, whenever you can, with its cross-play, cross-buy promotion. The idea of playing PS-All Stars on your TV and then taking your Vita on the train and continuing to play on your way to work is a great step forward. In some ways, Microsoft's Smartglass is slowly making its way in that direction, and of course, there will be some kind of connectivity between the Wii U and 3DS versions of Smash Bros. Only time will tell which one of the companies best exemplifies the modern age.
Closing Thoughts, Rumors and Theories
One thing that Nintendo has going for it going into this next generation is free online. You can spend more to get more, with their premium service, ala PS+, but the choice alone puts both Japanese companies miles ahead of Microsoft, which is charging folks a ridiculously hefty fee just to use their network - which we all, myself included, bend over and take without much complaint at all.
There is one final thought, one mere rumor, that could have a tremendous impact on the future of console games. Earlier in the year, it was heard in whispers and... perhaps even cackles... that the next systems from Microsoft and Sony might restrict used games. The thought of something like that makes my blood boil. More and more, digital gaming is becoming prevalent, and it's altered the state of mind of the industry. When you buy digital, you're technically not purchasing the game. You're agreeing to lease a copy of the game, with no permanence, and therefore no real ownership. If they would restrict used game sales, they would effectively invoke the same rules on physical media. You'd have the disc, but it would only have a leased copy of a game on it. Imagine buying the latest Call of Duty, and deciding that next year that you want to trade it in to get the latest and greatest. Only, GameStop won't accept your trade, because nobody can use your tainted disc anymore (there's a sex joke and a anti-corporate/retail rant all in that one sentence). And you could argue so many things to try and back the idea of restricting used games, but I'll refute every single one of them. The biggest games don't cost any less when you purchase them digitally. Publishers won't do anything differently than they are now. They'll continue trying to gouge their consumers for every dime they can.
Still, there are some bright spots in a potentially bleak future for gaming. While Microsoft has had its hands deep in the pockets of it's supporters for the past few years, they're at least trying to stir up their innovative juices. While Sony's Move was nothing but a blatant, messy rip-off of the Wii's motion controller, Microsoft released Kinect, a brand new way to control games, and kicked off the idea of a system-wide achievement system - something that Nintendo still refuses to do. There's still plenty of room for breakthroughs, but there's still enough space for grandiose, foolish mistakes as well. Only time will tell what the console giants bring to the table. Perhaps we'll get some more clarifying news at E3 2013.
So I thought to myself, what is going on with this upcoming (current, with the release of the Wii U, I suppose) generation of consoles? I've come up with a few worthy discussion points, and I'll try to deliver them from as unbiased a view as I can.
The Last Generation and What it Did to the Industry
With the release of Nintendo's latest console, we're in a position where Nintendo has released their system earlier than its competitors for the first time in over 20 years. The Super Nintendo came out at a time when Sega was somewhere in between two of its systems, with the Genesis arriving stateside a full two years before Nintendo's sophomore system. Four years after the SNES graced us with its presence, Sega ushered in the Saturn.
Obviously, any number of things can happen at any given time in history. We saw how the tsunami affected the video game industry last year in Japan. Even though Sega had put out one of the most critically acclaimed system with the Dreamcast, it still hemorrhaged money, and ended up dropping out of the console market. So, it's a little presumptive to put any real faith in the future that you may perceive.
In the scenario that I do foresee, however, Nintendo has got a huge leg-up on the competition. The Wii was an absolute phenomenon, something that people had never seen before in the video game industry. While Microsoft's Xbox 360 arrived a full year before Nintendo's fifth console, it didn't really put up big numbers at first. In a full month, Microsoft just barely broke through the million mark. One year later, Sony's third system couldn't even crack that amount, faced with a prohibitively high cost of their product (which they were actually taking a loss on). Meanwhile, only two days later, Nintendo's Wii arrived stateside, the latest of the competitors, but with an innovative spin that completely turned the industry on its head. Motion gaming was embraced in 2006, and ended up giving Nintendo a big advantage - they sold over two million consoles in less than a month, and opened up a brand new outlet of gamers with their blue ocean strategy. For the first time since 1972, gaming wasn't just a hardcore or niche hobby. The era of the casual gamers opened up.
Not even ten months later, the Wii surpassed the Xbox 360 in sales worldwide, while Sony languished in last place (Sony is still slightly behind, though the so-called HD twins have toed the line around each other for the past few years). Brand name probably accounted for much of what had unfolded last generation. Nintendo offered the worst quality in graphics and was the latest to market, yet it still managed to develop the largest install base. It was also much more cost effective for consumers, and for the company itself. While Microsoft and Sony were taking losses on their consoles, the Wii was bringing in a profit on every sale.
Of course, as the last generation continued on, the market was all but bled dry. Already saturated by over 200 million collective consoles, there isn't much room for the same old console. All three companies are releasing reiterations of their current software that relies on cheaper components. For Microsoft, this is a huge break from their prior stock, as they were hampered down the most from system-crippling malfunctions. In fact, it was only recently that the HD twins began finally making money back for their companies.
And yet, all three companies were losing money hand over fist over the last year or so. Each of them posted losses recently, and everyone is crying doom and gloom. However, nobody sees the bigger picture. For the last twenty years, this is just what happened. At the end of a console's life cycle, the current console's sales die off as anticipation for the next cycle begins. Why would anyone buy a Wii when a Wii U is coming out (this actually did happen, but for several big reasons which I will discuss below). While Nintendo is releasing a console to offset the age of the Wii, we're stuck waiting until at least some time in 2013 for Microsoft and Sony to release their own consoles.
You see, it wasn't just that Nintendo was slightly behind the times, it was that Microsoft and Sony future-proofed the hell out of their consoles, and at a huge detriment to the industry. It was great for consumers, who saw one of the biggest jumps in graphical quality since sprites gave way to polygons. The engines were better, the games looked more polished, and games regularly pushed toward 100 hour long epics. However, for every Activision and EA that could push their resources into these tremendous games, there were smaller developers who had to struggle to keep up with the huge leap forward. The cost to produce this generation's games have utterly destroyed many of the companies we grew up with. And that is not something that we can afford to have happen again.
Nintendo releases its first HD Console
Now dawns the rise of the eighth console generation. Some people will argue that Nintendo's Wii U isn't a true next generation system, because it only barely improves on the quality of the games that are already out. Hell, you can see the paltry difference in several of the multiplatform games that have already been released thus far. Games like Assassin's Creed and Batman are just barely better looking (and in some cases, functioning) than they are on the Box or the PS3, if at all. But the people who are touting this knowledge left and right have two HUGE strikes against them:
1) No launch multiplatform games have ever been all that stunning. This is because typically, the game is made on one system (the one that has the highest install base, or ease of development), and ported over to the other systems. Hell, Bethesda still can't get Skyrim working properly on the PS3 (and in some cases, at all - I'm looking at you Greybeards glitch).
2) Porting to Nintendo's Wii U is like driving on the sidewalk. Sure, you can do it, but it's not recommended. In this case, that's because the HD twins have been using CPU's to power their games, while the Wii U's infrastructure utilizes a GPGPU instead for its major computations. I've seen a lot of people on the internet trying to wittily denounce Nintendo's weaker CPU, but they don't even realize how silly it is to point to it at all. Bottom line, if a developer focuses on the GPGPU from the ground up, it will provide a better experience than what we're currently seeing on the 360 and PS3.
So, now that the naysayers' biggest argument is out of the way, let's talk about the system itself, and its software.
Graphically, for now, the Wii U is on par with games that have been coming out for the last few months or so. Even what seems like small games still look plenty impressive on this system.
Back at E3, Nintendo first showed off its collection of launch titles. It ended its show with Nintendoland, which had a lot of people scratching their heads. It was one of the worst E3 presentations in recent Nintendo history. Why would they end with such a spectacular dud of a game?
I have to admit, I had a sour taste in my mouth about it too. There was nothing that seemed interesting about the title at all. It presented itself as a glorified Wii Sports. Now, I stand on the other end of the spectrum, defiantly defending that game. While I have tons of other games at my disposal, that pack-in title has become the center-piece of my collection. When I have company over, we always end up gravitating toward that game, the figurehead of Nintendo's new system (alongside New Super Mario Bros. U). It's because it's a different experience than we've had before. It feels fresh; it feels new. And that's one thing that they really couldn't demonstrate on the showroom floor at E3. You're not going to understand it until you partake in it yourself - sort of like trying to demonstrate the 3DS through a PC monitor.
The Wii U might not be as commercially viable as its predecessor, but I guarantee you, over the next few months, word of mouth (and personal experiences when people go to the houses of early adopters) will sell this system. The tablet is not an afterthought or a gimmick. It's a revolutionary new way to experience what has grown stale over the past 20-some odd years. Assymetric gaming is more entertaining than what you'd expect, and it will be incredibly interesting to see what happens over the next few months, and, indeed, the next five or six years.
So this is what it comes down to: Nintendo's new system, while initially hampered down by long installs, is rather impressive. I am probably a bigger Nintendo fan than most, yet I still try to maintain a nonbias when I'm first experiencing something. I enjoyed the Wii for about four years before I felt it wear on me, and I never completed Skyward Sword. When I initially opened up the Wii U, I wasn't as excited as I wanted to be - yet, when I first sat down and played with my new toy, I was like a kid at Christmas. The game library might not be extensive yet, and it might not be time for you to buy the system now, but if you enjoyed the Wii, you'll enjoy the Wii U.
The Other Challengers, and the Challenges They Face
As I've said before, anything can happen in the video game industry. My experiences are just that: mine. I really dig what Nintendo put out there, and I would insist that anyone who is on the fence at least get out there and try it. However, that's not to say that my opinion is correct. You and I may have two different concepts of fun. You might think that Nintendoland is a piece of crap, and there's no real way for anybody to say who is right or wrong.
What can be clearly stated is that competition is coming. Nintendo is not the only video game company out there. Microsoft and Sony want to win this upcoming generation, as is expected - however, there have been plenty of missteps that every company has made over the past several years. Who is to say whether or not what they want is what they'll get?
The primary thing that is going to have to be taken into account is the leap that these new consoles will make. As I said before, the 360 and the PS3 jumped ahead so far that it actually damaged the industry. Developers spent so much time trying to reach the top of the curve in a race that hurt their profits and ended up closing a lot of doors. A smaller, more natural progression actually works out better for everyone, but of course, that has its detriments as well. If Microsoft would have put out a console that was fairly evenly matched against the Wii, but lacked the motion controllers, it may have been dead in the water.
However, I don't think that anyone can wade through another PS3 fiasco. It may have just been that Sony was out of touch. Kaz Hirai actually seemed exuberant at that price point (which in all actuality was pretty good for what you were getting), but it was still freaking prohibitive. Recently, its been announced that Sony's PS4 will support 4K resolution. If that's the case, I don't see an instance where that system can be affordable. Just a Sony brand blu-ray player that upscales to 4K is roughly $200.
On top of that, you'd need a 4K television - which is thousands of dollars out of many people's price range. I understand that Sony likes to think of its systems as filet mignon as compared to Microsoft's london broil and Nintendo's cheeseburger, but we can't eat high end steak for every meal. It's just not something we do.
Furthermore, if Sony were to push for 4K, we wouldn't see any real change to games any time soon. Most of the current software that we're seeing doesn't even run in native 1080. It's simply too much work for developers to spend time on. It's possible that the system could upscale, but that's a little polish for a lot of money.
There's only one scenario that I can see that allows Sony's gaming hardware division to survive the next generation. They have to innovate. They can't afford to make a leap that is as grand as this last generation. It isn't reasonable for developers, it isn't reasonable for consumers, and it isn't even feasable for Sony, whose credit rating was recently downgraded to junk. It's a dangerous line for them to tread, but they are going to have to put out a system that is only marginally better than Nintendo, and they are going to have to figure out a way to entice gamers to invest in them. It might be enough to have a new Playstation available to the masses for a paltry sum, but I still don't see it happening. Even in the face of that, Sony cannot afford to sell their system for a loss. There is a huge burden that they must carry going forward, and only in the next year or so will we find out whether or not they can stay afloat.
Microsoft has a few options that Sony does not. While Sony teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, and is bleeding money from multiple portions of its company, Microsoft is sitting on so much money that Scrooge McDuck would be jealous.
While it would still be foolish for the house that Bill Gates built to make a prohibitively expensive piece of hardware, they could rationally get away with it. It would hurt the industry though, so I'm hoping that isn't the direction they are taking things.
There's also the Ouya, which may be something worth looking at, but its still too early to really talk about it at this point. For all we know, the Ouya might be king of the hill a few years from now.
In the foreseeable future, the Wii U will stand against the other two big companies that have been around for at least two generations. The only way for Wii U to stay comfortable is for third party software and support to become strengthened on the system. If Sony and Microsoft make enough of a leap, Nintendo is once again going to lose out on multiplatform support. If the games that are made on the other consoles can be made scalable on the Wii U, it might once again reign supreme. It all depends on where companies can find the most support.
Pete Hines, marketing executive at Bethesda, puts it very clearly. "Your install base always starts at zero." In other words, "we go where there is money to be made."
Ancillary Markets
The home console is not the only place that video game companies are fighting for dominance. The handheld market has been contested for around two decades, and though Nintendo has always been on top, there have also always been competitors.
While the Playstation Vita is floundering compared to Nintendo's 3DS (and just barely ekeing out the original DS and it's own predecessor, the PSP), it bears mentioning because it shows what's happening in the market, and what's going on in the minds of those who control Sony's fate.
The other company from Japan has emphasized strength in its consoles since at least 2006, and it has shown across to its handhelds as well. PSP was stronger than the DS, and Vita is stronger than 3DS. Yet in spite of this, the Vita still hasn't really made a dent in any of its markets. There just aren't any games worth owning. It's holiday centerpiece, Call of Duty: Declassified is receiving abysmal critical reviews. It's also the more expensive option, sitting at a price point that Nintendo thought it could release the 3DS at last year. However, noting the poor initial reception of the 3DS, Nintendo dropped the price of their handheld and have since seen a surge in sales. Meanwhile, Vita is doing very little to attract potential buyers, and Sony seems apt to let it sit there.
I will give commendations where they are due, however. Sony does seem like it is ushering in a new era of playing wherever you can, whenever you can, with its cross-play, cross-buy promotion. The idea of playing PS-All Stars on your TV and then taking your Vita on the train and continuing to play on your way to work is a great step forward. In some ways, Microsoft's Smartglass is slowly making its way in that direction, and of course, there will be some kind of connectivity between the Wii U and 3DS versions of Smash Bros. Only time will tell which one of the companies best exemplifies the modern age.
Closing Thoughts, Rumors and Theories
One thing that Nintendo has going for it going into this next generation is free online. You can spend more to get more, with their premium service, ala PS+, but the choice alone puts both Japanese companies miles ahead of Microsoft, which is charging folks a ridiculously hefty fee just to use their network - which we all, myself included, bend over and take without much complaint at all.
There is one final thought, one mere rumor, that could have a tremendous impact on the future of console games. Earlier in the year, it was heard in whispers and... perhaps even cackles... that the next systems from Microsoft and Sony might restrict used games. The thought of something like that makes my blood boil. More and more, digital gaming is becoming prevalent, and it's altered the state of mind of the industry. When you buy digital, you're technically not purchasing the game. You're agreeing to lease a copy of the game, with no permanence, and therefore no real ownership. If they would restrict used game sales, they would effectively invoke the same rules on physical media. You'd have the disc, but it would only have a leased copy of a game on it. Imagine buying the latest Call of Duty, and deciding that next year that you want to trade it in to get the latest and greatest. Only, GameStop won't accept your trade, because nobody can use your tainted disc anymore (there's a sex joke and a anti-corporate/retail rant all in that one sentence). And you could argue so many things to try and back the idea of restricting used games, but I'll refute every single one of them. The biggest games don't cost any less when you purchase them digitally. Publishers won't do anything differently than they are now. They'll continue trying to gouge their consumers for every dime they can.
Still, there are some bright spots in a potentially bleak future for gaming. While Microsoft has had its hands deep in the pockets of it's supporters for the past few years, they're at least trying to stir up their innovative juices. While Sony's Move was nothing but a blatant, messy rip-off of the Wii's motion controller, Microsoft released Kinect, a brand new way to control games, and kicked off the idea of a system-wide achievement system - something that Nintendo still refuses to do. There's still plenty of room for breakthroughs, but there's still enough space for grandiose, foolish mistakes as well. Only time will tell what the console giants bring to the table. Perhaps we'll get some more clarifying news at E3 2013.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
What's New?
Wii U
So, this past weekend, Nintendo's new system, the Wii U came out. I was all set to do an unboxing when I discovered that everyone around me sucks - none of the places I would have went to were going to do a midnight release, and they weren't even opening earlier the next day. It would have seemed a little late for me to do something that's been done at least a dozen times already. However, with that being said, if even one person tells me they want me to, I will do something a little different: a boxing video. Seriously, how can you get all that stuff back in the box the right way?
Onto the hardware itself. My Wii U experience on Sunday was abysmal to start. There was a 2 hour system update that pretty much had me twiddling my thumbs while I was waiting to play with my new toy, and after that, each one of the games that I played had a short 3-5 minute update to set them up as well. I'm an unabashed Nintendo fanboy (though I try to remove the bias when I'm reviewing anything), so you can take me on my word that the Wii U has some problems. The system, a deluxe in my case, also seems to have a problem about 33% of the time where it won't read the most recent disc that I put into the system. I'll have to eject it and retry. That can get a little annoying too.
The gamepad is gimmicky to everyone who hasn't actually tried it, but everyone who has played my system so far has been really impressed. The Wii U browser (not even internet) is very convenient, even if load times are a little excessive.
Though it seems a bit of a small thing to praise, the way the Wii U gamepad can control your TV is a nice touch. You can do a little bit of everything in one place thanks to the gamepad, from watching a television show and searching IMDB to find out who that actress was, to dragging the game onto the smaller screen so you can let your girlfriend watch one of her shows.
Miiverse, Nintendo's social network, is a fun way to connect gamers. In games like New Super Mario Bros U, the Miiverse lends itself wonderfully to help players learn the secrets of levels that they weren't aware of.
I picked up four games, in addition to the packed in Nintendoland, but so far, I have yet to play Darksiders 2.
Assassin's Creed 3 looks and plays beautifully on the Wii U, though it did take a little while to acclimate myself to the controls, since I'm used to playing the series on the 360. I did have one problem where the game froze, which was a bit inconvenient while I was trying to tout the system to someone, but other than that, the franchise doesn't seem to inhibited by the jump to a new console.
ZombiU is a lot slower than I had anticipated, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The game is still very unforgiving and difficult. It just requires more foresight and less of a twitch factor than typical zombie survival games. The gamepad also forces the gamer to be more conscious of time constraints. You can't lazily look at items you could loot, or effortlessly punch in numbers on a keypad. It makes the game a little more intuitive and immersive. In a real zombie apocalypse, it wouldn't be as easy as hitting a start menu to sort through your equipment. Definitely keep your eye out for this game.
Mario U is a lot better than I was prepared to give it credit for. After seeing how poorly reviewed the latest 3DS installment was, I was cautious to give much hope to the plumber's latest foray, but perhaps it was because of my pause that I was so pleasantly surprised. The game itself is as much a spiritual successor to Super Mario World as I've ever seen, and that is a great thing to strive for. On top of that, they throw challenge mode at you, which really ups the ante and ramps up the difficulty. I haven't really had the chance to play it with multiple people, but I can imagine it is just as awesome a party game as the one on the Wii was, although I'm not so sure I trust that boost mode is a welcome addition.
Finally, let's talk about Nintendoland, the pack-in title for the deluxe models. This game absolutely blew me away. I think most people were looking at it as a Wii Sports type entry, but each of the twelve minigames are so well put-together that it seems well worth the retail price. This is going to end up being people's party game around Christmas and Thanksgiving this year. It's quirky, and the gamepad is used properly for awesome assymetric play. With players getting unique experience based on their controller, this was the perfect opportunity for Nintendo to show that the idea could deliver. Now it's up to third party developers to pick up the torch and follow the house of Mario into the future of that style of play.
All in all, I'm satisfied with my purchase. There were missteps, but it isn't anything prohibitive for too long, and once you've got your system set up, most of the kinks are ironed out. Now all we have to do is see what software Nintendo and their third parties can line up for us.
Black Ops 2
While my experience with Black Ops 2 has gradually been more welcoming, I still randomly get tossed into matches with people who are lagging so poorly that, when compensated, will get a 1 or 2 second drop on me. I'll see them on my screen, and shoot them point blank with six shotgun blasts, and they won't even flinch, whereas they've already killed me in their own personal experience. I'm still hoping that Treyarch manages to tweak the netcode, because this is just absolute BS at this point.
When I'm fairly placed with people who aren't time traveling, I'm typically landing in the top three players of each game. In those circumstances, when lag is not a burden, I'm having a very good time with the game. I'm a big fan of a couple of the new pieces of equipment that have been added, including what I call the shock sticks, and the microwave dish. A lot of people seem to be complaining about the UAV situation in the game. That is, there are just too many of them, and no effective counter. I'd agree with them there, but as long as you're mobile, you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Barring that, it might be a good idea to take a launcher along with you so that you can bring those UAVs out of the sky.
Go On
The show just keeps getting better. You should definitely watch it if you don't already. The writers for Go On consistently nail it out of the park. My only complaint throughout the whole show is that the editing seems a little choppy here and there.
So, this past weekend, Nintendo's new system, the Wii U came out. I was all set to do an unboxing when I discovered that everyone around me sucks - none of the places I would have went to were going to do a midnight release, and they weren't even opening earlier the next day. It would have seemed a little late for me to do something that's been done at least a dozen times already. However, with that being said, if even one person tells me they want me to, I will do something a little different: a boxing video. Seriously, how can you get all that stuff back in the box the right way?
Onto the hardware itself. My Wii U experience on Sunday was abysmal to start. There was a 2 hour system update that pretty much had me twiddling my thumbs while I was waiting to play with my new toy, and after that, each one of the games that I played had a short 3-5 minute update to set them up as well. I'm an unabashed Nintendo fanboy (though I try to remove the bias when I'm reviewing anything), so you can take me on my word that the Wii U has some problems. The system, a deluxe in my case, also seems to have a problem about 33% of the time where it won't read the most recent disc that I put into the system. I'll have to eject it and retry. That can get a little annoying too.
The gamepad is gimmicky to everyone who hasn't actually tried it, but everyone who has played my system so far has been really impressed. The Wii U browser (not even internet) is very convenient, even if load times are a little excessive.
Though it seems a bit of a small thing to praise, the way the Wii U gamepad can control your TV is a nice touch. You can do a little bit of everything in one place thanks to the gamepad, from watching a television show and searching IMDB to find out who that actress was, to dragging the game onto the smaller screen so you can let your girlfriend watch one of her shows.
Miiverse, Nintendo's social network, is a fun way to connect gamers. In games like New Super Mario Bros U, the Miiverse lends itself wonderfully to help players learn the secrets of levels that they weren't aware of.
I picked up four games, in addition to the packed in Nintendoland, but so far, I have yet to play Darksiders 2.
Assassin's Creed 3 looks and plays beautifully on the Wii U, though it did take a little while to acclimate myself to the controls, since I'm used to playing the series on the 360. I did have one problem where the game froze, which was a bit inconvenient while I was trying to tout the system to someone, but other than that, the franchise doesn't seem to inhibited by the jump to a new console.
ZombiU is a lot slower than I had anticipated, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The game is still very unforgiving and difficult. It just requires more foresight and less of a twitch factor than typical zombie survival games. The gamepad also forces the gamer to be more conscious of time constraints. You can't lazily look at items you could loot, or effortlessly punch in numbers on a keypad. It makes the game a little more intuitive and immersive. In a real zombie apocalypse, it wouldn't be as easy as hitting a start menu to sort through your equipment. Definitely keep your eye out for this game.
Mario U is a lot better than I was prepared to give it credit for. After seeing how poorly reviewed the latest 3DS installment was, I was cautious to give much hope to the plumber's latest foray, but perhaps it was because of my pause that I was so pleasantly surprised. The game itself is as much a spiritual successor to Super Mario World as I've ever seen, and that is a great thing to strive for. On top of that, they throw challenge mode at you, which really ups the ante and ramps up the difficulty. I haven't really had the chance to play it with multiple people, but I can imagine it is just as awesome a party game as the one on the Wii was, although I'm not so sure I trust that boost mode is a welcome addition.
Finally, let's talk about Nintendoland, the pack-in title for the deluxe models. This game absolutely blew me away. I think most people were looking at it as a Wii Sports type entry, but each of the twelve minigames are so well put-together that it seems well worth the retail price. This is going to end up being people's party game around Christmas and Thanksgiving this year. It's quirky, and the gamepad is used properly for awesome assymetric play. With players getting unique experience based on their controller, this was the perfect opportunity for Nintendo to show that the idea could deliver. Now it's up to third party developers to pick up the torch and follow the house of Mario into the future of that style of play.
All in all, I'm satisfied with my purchase. There were missteps, but it isn't anything prohibitive for too long, and once you've got your system set up, most of the kinks are ironed out. Now all we have to do is see what software Nintendo and their third parties can line up for us.
Black Ops 2
While my experience with Black Ops 2 has gradually been more welcoming, I still randomly get tossed into matches with people who are lagging so poorly that, when compensated, will get a 1 or 2 second drop on me. I'll see them on my screen, and shoot them point blank with six shotgun blasts, and they won't even flinch, whereas they've already killed me in their own personal experience. I'm still hoping that Treyarch manages to tweak the netcode, because this is just absolute BS at this point.
When I'm fairly placed with people who aren't time traveling, I'm typically landing in the top three players of each game. In those circumstances, when lag is not a burden, I'm having a very good time with the game. I'm a big fan of a couple of the new pieces of equipment that have been added, including what I call the shock sticks, and the microwave dish. A lot of people seem to be complaining about the UAV situation in the game. That is, there are just too many of them, and no effective counter. I'd agree with them there, but as long as you're mobile, you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Barring that, it might be a good idea to take a launcher along with you so that you can bring those UAVs out of the sky.
Go On
The show just keeps getting better. You should definitely watch it if you don't already. The writers for Go On consistently nail it out of the park. My only complaint throughout the whole show is that the editing seems a little choppy here and there.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
RISE OF THE EXPLETIVES! ... or ... Fix Black Ops 2, please.
For fucks sake, Gaming Industry, get your shit together.
There is one time a year that I allow myself to go into an uncontrollable rage, and that time is November-ish. That's right, it coincides with the release of Call of Duty. This year, I held a party called "The Second Annual Hatefest" and it happened in my living room, in front of my bemused girlfriend, and my disinterested cat. As pissed as I was at GameStop yesterday, nothing could have prepared my TV for the callous, furious things I was screaming at it yesterday.
For all my neighbors, know, multiple community members are missing and buried somewhere in my backyard.
In 2011, Infinity Ward decided that it really sucked for people who bought Call of Duty to encounter lag on their terrible dial-up and dsl connections, so they implemented something called Lag Compensation. This made the game practically unplayable for people with decent connections to the internet. In essence, what happens is this: Player A (that's me) sees an enemy, and begins shooting at Player B (the player with the terrible connection). The only problem is, Player B's gameplay has been boosted by the server, so that he isn't seeing the game later than he should. Modern Warfare 3's netcode for their lag compensation overcompensated, leaving people with decent connections in the dust. So in that example above, Player B sees me well before I think I see him. I never have a snowball's chance in hell of winning a duel with someone unless they're absolutely horrid at the game. Barring the opportunity that I can sneak up on another gamer unaware, I am totally up shit's creek.
With that in mind, I don't think it would be totally unheard of for Treyarch to have prepared Black Ops 2 with a more comprehensive netcode for lag compensation. For instance: any other netcode than MW3. Of course, what do I encounter the first day I pop CoD:BO2 in, but soldiers who will turn around while I'm unloading an entire assault rifle clip into them, and drop me with two or three shots. When you watch the killcam, it tells a completely different story. They were already in mid-turn before I even began shooting. The same thing happens when I'm patiently guarding a corner, or aware, thanks to an overhead UAV, that there is an approaching enemy. By all rights, they should not know that I am present immediately, but as soon as they come into the open, I go down like a drop of a hat.
This kind of bullshit is unacceptable. I know that the game has many other features, including a badass singleplayer campaign and zombie mode, but one of the primary reasons I purchase Call of Duty every year is to excercise the sin of pride. How in the hell am I supposed to do that when I'm fighting against soldiers from the future who can anticipate my every move before I make it?
My only hope is that Treyarch takes this complaint (and mine is not the only one) seriously. I didn't spend $60 to enjoy 2/3 of your game. I can only imagine how people feel knowing that they already spent an extra $50 on the game's season pass.
There is one time a year that I allow myself to go into an uncontrollable rage, and that time is November-ish. That's right, it coincides with the release of Call of Duty. This year, I held a party called "The Second Annual Hatefest" and it happened in my living room, in front of my bemused girlfriend, and my disinterested cat. As pissed as I was at GameStop yesterday, nothing could have prepared my TV for the callous, furious things I was screaming at it yesterday.
 |
| "But you said you'd always love me." |
For all my neighbors, know, multiple community members are missing and buried somewhere in my backyard.
In 2011, Infinity Ward decided that it really sucked for people who bought Call of Duty to encounter lag on their terrible dial-up and dsl connections, so they implemented something called Lag Compensation. This made the game practically unplayable for people with decent connections to the internet. In essence, what happens is this: Player A (that's me) sees an enemy, and begins shooting at Player B (the player with the terrible connection). The only problem is, Player B's gameplay has been boosted by the server, so that he isn't seeing the game later than he should. Modern Warfare 3's netcode for their lag compensation overcompensated, leaving people with decent connections in the dust. So in that example above, Player B sees me well before I think I see him. I never have a snowball's chance in hell of winning a duel with someone unless they're absolutely horrid at the game. Barring the opportunity that I can sneak up on another gamer unaware, I am totally up shit's creek.
 |
| "My, that's a lot of shit you've got there, creek." |
With that in mind, I don't think it would be totally unheard of for Treyarch to have prepared Black Ops 2 with a more comprehensive netcode for lag compensation. For instance: any other netcode than MW3. Of course, what do I encounter the first day I pop CoD:BO2 in, but soldiers who will turn around while I'm unloading an entire assault rifle clip into them, and drop me with two or three shots. When you watch the killcam, it tells a completely different story. They were already in mid-turn before I even began shooting. The same thing happens when I'm patiently guarding a corner, or aware, thanks to an overhead UAV, that there is an approaching enemy. By all rights, they should not know that I am present immediately, but as soon as they come into the open, I go down like a drop of a hat.
This kind of bullshit is unacceptable. I know that the game has many other features, including a badass singleplayer campaign and zombie mode, but one of the primary reasons I purchase Call of Duty every year is to excercise the sin of pride. How in the hell am I supposed to do that when I'm fighting against soldiers from the future who can anticipate my every move before I make it?
My only hope is that Treyarch takes this complaint (and mine is not the only one) seriously. I didn't spend $60 to enjoy 2/3 of your game. I can only imagine how people feel knowing that they already spent an extra $50 on the game's season pass.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
RANDOM EXPLETIVES!!
We are within one week of a new console release, and it has come to my knowledge that the store that I preordered from is not going to be holding a midnight release.
Q-Bert would have blushed when he heard the things I said out loud.
I understand that we're in the holiday season, and the OT situation for stores has already been hammered to pieces because of Call of Duty and Halo, but this is a friggin console we're talking about here. This is one of those few precious moments that only comes around about three times every six years. For these places to say, ahh, it's a Sunday, we can make the consumer wait... I just don't think it's a very prudent decision. At the very least, it would have been nice to know ahead of time. I would have been that much more persistent about preordering elsewhere.
As it stands, GameStop and I are on very bad terms. I'm going to have to try and see where I can find extra consoles that aren't stuck in reserves for preorders. I wanted to make sure I had one at midnight on Sunday so that I could put together an unboxing video for the YouTube channel.
It's crazy that we're on four days away from the next generation of console gaming. Sure, the Wii U probably isn't going to be a huge step forward, but, as always, Nintendo is innovating the way only they do. It's also going to be absolutely awesome seeing some of Nintendo's franchises in HD for the first time. That Legend of Zelda tech demo that Nintendo showed at E3 2011 was breathtaking.
Still, it's a shame that we don't know very much beyond the launch window. While the games coming out now through March are plenty inspiring, I'm wary about what things look like after this critical period. The Wii quickly died out, thanks to less-than acceptable third party support, and a slow trickle of first and second-party games. With so little talked about in April and beyond, it's a very worrying position for Nintendo to be in. I would have loved to see Bioshock or Tomb Raider on the system - but so far, it looks like a lot of developers aren't ready to take the risk on this new system.
Of course, if the state of the preorders have anything to say about it, the Wii U is already a roaring success. There may be an overflow of consoles that scalpers picked up, planning on turning over a quick profit, but I'm convinced that at least in the immediate future, this thing is going to sell as well as its predecessor. Ad space has been relatively quiet, but the Wii U is going to gain in popularity the same way the Wii did: through word of mouth. People are going to see how the tablet affects gaming, particularly in the multiplayer realm, and see it as the party system of the next few years. Nintendo doesn't have the brand awareness of Apple, yet, but if it manages to pull off this next generation of gaming, it will soon be in that position.
Q-Bert would have blushed when he heard the things I said out loud.
I understand that we're in the holiday season, and the OT situation for stores has already been hammered to pieces because of Call of Duty and Halo, but this is a friggin console we're talking about here. This is one of those few precious moments that only comes around about three times every six years. For these places to say, ahh, it's a Sunday, we can make the consumer wait... I just don't think it's a very prudent decision. At the very least, it would have been nice to know ahead of time. I would have been that much more persistent about preordering elsewhere.
As it stands, GameStop and I are on very bad terms. I'm going to have to try and see where I can find extra consoles that aren't stuck in reserves for preorders. I wanted to make sure I had one at midnight on Sunday so that I could put together an unboxing video for the YouTube channel.
It's crazy that we're on four days away from the next generation of console gaming. Sure, the Wii U probably isn't going to be a huge step forward, but, as always, Nintendo is innovating the way only they do. It's also going to be absolutely awesome seeing some of Nintendo's franchises in HD for the first time. That Legend of Zelda tech demo that Nintendo showed at E3 2011 was breathtaking.
Still, it's a shame that we don't know very much beyond the launch window. While the games coming out now through March are plenty inspiring, I'm wary about what things look like after this critical period. The Wii quickly died out, thanks to less-than acceptable third party support, and a slow trickle of first and second-party games. With so little talked about in April and beyond, it's a very worrying position for Nintendo to be in. I would have loved to see Bioshock or Tomb Raider on the system - but so far, it looks like a lot of developers aren't ready to take the risk on this new system.
Of course, if the state of the preorders have anything to say about it, the Wii U is already a roaring success. There may be an overflow of consoles that scalpers picked up, planning on turning over a quick profit, but I'm convinced that at least in the immediate future, this thing is going to sell as well as its predecessor. Ad space has been relatively quiet, but the Wii U is going to gain in popularity the same way the Wii did: through word of mouth. People are going to see how the tablet affects gaming, particularly in the multiplayer realm, and see it as the party system of the next few years. Nintendo doesn't have the brand awareness of Apple, yet, but if it manages to pull off this next generation of gaming, it will soon be in that position.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Feel the Game
A couple of weeks ago, I was remarking to Rhianna how much it made sense to introduce more complex haptic feedback to gaming over the next few years. When the rumble pack came around, it was revolutionary. At first, it was just a fun addition that added to the experience. When your arwing was shot in Star Fox, you felt it. And then, over the course of the next few years, the rumble featured prominently into many of the mechanics of the game. Your controller would vibrate as you came closer to hidden treasures. It would shake like a cell phone to let you know you received a message in game. Rumble became refined enough that it could convey emotion in some cases, acting like your character's heartbeat.
But what if we've come far enough to enhance tactile feedback to all new levels?
Enter Senseg: http://senseg.com/
This company is beginning the charge down what could effectively become the next revolutionary trend in the videogame industry. Instead of simply touching a glass screen, you'd actually feel the textures and the movement of what was represented on screen. In some cases, what you see wouldn't be what you got. If you were, as an example, running your finger across sand, you'd feel sand - until you felt the presence of another object beneath it.
It could have applications beyond gaming, of course - someone who was blind could read a text message in braille, for instance. But here, in the land of make-believe, all I can think about is the applications for my favorite pasttime.
On Senseg's website, they have an example on their opening page: Air hockey. You'd feel when the paddle glided across the table. You'd sense as the ball and the paddle hit against each other. I'm not an insider, so I'm not sure about this, but you'd figure, if they learned to tweak things, you'd even be able to feel the subtle breeze that comes out of the real tables.
There are tons of other immersive ways to add this into gaming. Specifically, I thought about Nintendo's new system when I first stumbled upon Senseg.
You're playing a game that requires you to explore your surroundings. It'd probably some kind of point and click, so I'm specifically thinking about something along the lines of Zack and Wiki (a great game, albeit a little bit impractical at the beginning of the Wii's lifecycle, thanks to the wonky controls). You know you have to look for an object in the sand - perhaps pieces of an amulet, or a bottle with a message in it. As you drag your finger across the sand, it displaces the little grainy particles, until you suddenly feel a smooth texture beneath it. Your character acquires the object, and it's because you felt it.
Suddenly all kinds of options are available. You could sweep leaves away from your view (this wouldn't work very well for the Wii U, as its tablet only has one point of touch with a capacitive input). You could feel the curves and the slight heft of a chess piece as you moved it. The sensation of water moving around your finger would be an unprecedented experience in a game.
Of course, this is only what's being talked about now. Imagine all the possibilities that might be upon us in the next several years. Sony recently applied for a patent on a controller that gets hotter or cooler depending on factors of the game you're playing:
http://kotaku.com/5951320/todays-best-discovery-sony-wants-to-patent-a-ps3-move-controller-that-gets-hot-or-cold
Some of the examples they gave: the controller get's hotter as your gun overheats, and it gets even hotter if your character is engulfed in fire. There's room for plenty of other ideas here, as well. Imagine your character falling into icy water, and sensing as the plastic of your controller adjusts to immerse you further into the narrative.
Of course, you have to tread carefully with that sort of thing. You wouldn't want to damage the hardware, and you wouldn't want to hurt your customers.
Or would you? TN Games (http://tngames.com/products) sells what they're calling Tactile Gaming Vests, that let you feel the game you're playing in an even more robust manner. If you're playing Call of Duty, you not only feel the impact of gunfire, you sense what direction it's coming from. Beyond that, you can tell the difference of the weaponry that's hitting you. A knife slash would feel different than the bullet from a pistol. The rapid fire would impact you in a much more rapid way than the brute force of a rocket blast.
And there are other routes that the industry is free to venture down, if they should so choose. It would be difficult to implement, but what if you were playing a sword and shield game, and you wanted to be able to feel when your sword struck another player's blade, or their armor. What if you felt a more robust sensation than just some rumble?
The possibilities are out there, we just need some geniuses to come up with them.
But what if we've come far enough to enhance tactile feedback to all new levels?
 |
| "Yes, I do believe I'll be purchasing this game." |
Enter Senseg: http://senseg.com/
This company is beginning the charge down what could effectively become the next revolutionary trend in the videogame industry. Instead of simply touching a glass screen, you'd actually feel the textures and the movement of what was represented on screen. In some cases, what you see wouldn't be what you got. If you were, as an example, running your finger across sand, you'd feel sand - until you felt the presence of another object beneath it.
It could have applications beyond gaming, of course - someone who was blind could read a text message in braille, for instance. But here, in the land of make-believe, all I can think about is the applications for my favorite pasttime.
On Senseg's website, they have an example on their opening page: Air hockey. You'd feel when the paddle glided across the table. You'd sense as the ball and the paddle hit against each other. I'm not an insider, so I'm not sure about this, but you'd figure, if they learned to tweak things, you'd even be able to feel the subtle breeze that comes out of the real tables.
There are tons of other immersive ways to add this into gaming. Specifically, I thought about Nintendo's new system when I first stumbled upon Senseg.
You're playing a game that requires you to explore your surroundings. It'd probably some kind of point and click, so I'm specifically thinking about something along the lines of Zack and Wiki (a great game, albeit a little bit impractical at the beginning of the Wii's lifecycle, thanks to the wonky controls). You know you have to look for an object in the sand - perhaps pieces of an amulet, or a bottle with a message in it. As you drag your finger across the sand, it displaces the little grainy particles, until you suddenly feel a smooth texture beneath it. Your character acquires the object, and it's because you felt it.
Suddenly all kinds of options are available. You could sweep leaves away from your view (this wouldn't work very well for the Wii U, as its tablet only has one point of touch with a capacitive input). You could feel the curves and the slight heft of a chess piece as you moved it. The sensation of water moving around your finger would be an unprecedented experience in a game.
Of course, this is only what's being talked about now. Imagine all the possibilities that might be upon us in the next several years. Sony recently applied for a patent on a controller that gets hotter or cooler depending on factors of the game you're playing:
http://kotaku.com/5951320/todays-best-discovery-sony-wants-to-patent-a-ps3-move-controller-that-gets-hot-or-cold
Some of the examples they gave: the controller get's hotter as your gun overheats, and it gets even hotter if your character is engulfed in fire. There's room for plenty of other ideas here, as well. Imagine your character falling into icy water, and sensing as the plastic of your controller adjusts to immerse you further into the narrative.
Of course, you have to tread carefully with that sort of thing. You wouldn't want to damage the hardware, and you wouldn't want to hurt your customers.
Or would you? TN Games (http://tngames.com/products) sells what they're calling Tactile Gaming Vests, that let you feel the game you're playing in an even more robust manner. If you're playing Call of Duty, you not only feel the impact of gunfire, you sense what direction it's coming from. Beyond that, you can tell the difference of the weaponry that's hitting you. A knife slash would feel different than the bullet from a pistol. The rapid fire would impact you in a much more rapid way than the brute force of a rocket blast.
And there are other routes that the industry is free to venture down, if they should so choose. It would be difficult to implement, but what if you were playing a sword and shield game, and you wanted to be able to feel when your sword struck another player's blade, or their armor. What if you felt a more robust sensation than just some rumble?
The possibilities are out there, we just need some geniuses to come up with them.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
This is how I do: Mega Man
A couple weeks ago, I talked about how one of the most popular video game series of all time needed a breath of fresh air. Starting now, I'm going to make a habit of it.
Today, I want to talk to you about one of the video game industry's saddest fallen idols. Mega Man used to be one of Capcom's shining stars. Even as recently as 2010, the blue bomber was making headlines among fans and critics alike. He was even in the running for third party characters people were petitioning to be in Smash Bros.
Unfortunately, over the last two years, Mega Man has become a joke more than a pinnacle of gaming success.
Capcom's most heinous flip of the bird to Mega Man fans occurred last July, when Legends 3 was unceremoniously cancelled. This was right after one of their other MM properties, Mega Man Universe, was eschewed into the netherworld as well.
Clearly, the blue bomber is not in capable hands. That's where I'd like my imagination to come in.
Rather than continue making follow-ups to established venues in the various Mega Man subseries, I would suggest that they reboot the series from scratch. There's plenty of great ideas that the first few games laid out, and, to retro gamers, they've aged well. To make Mega Man and the robot masters more welcome to a newer, hipper industry, Capcom has to prepare to move away from the formula they've established.
I'd like to point your attention to two of the lesser known franchise entries in the Mega Man series.
In Mega Man ZX, player's took control of either Vent or Aile, and proceeded along on a very Metroid-like adventure. Throughout the game, players would attempt to defeat bosses and collect bio-metals, which essentially function as the powers of the robot masters of the original series.
Similarly, in Mega Man Network Transmission, the game feels like a later Metroid or Symphony of the Night. The difference with this game is that Mega Man was an executable program that you could equip with various chips to alter his basic attacks.
This is what the series needs. The separate levels of the classic Mega Man series was great for it's time, and it's a good nod to gamers who love the nostalgic feeling, but it isn't pushing the franchise forward. Rather, it's taking you a step back.
Mega Man is a series that could benefit from an open world where you could retrace your steps and collect secret items. The concept could have worked well before Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night popularized it. Every weapon you acquire could have opened up new paths to better equipment. You could bring back the upgrade capsules that Doctor Light loved to scatter around the world so much in the Mega Man X series.
As I said before though, you don't start new. If you want to give fans some love while opening your games to a new audience, you toe the line between old and new. Use the bosses from the first two games, but scrap their levels completely. Redesign all of the characters from the ground up. Mega Man has not aged well at all, and making him a chibi doll with a comically sized head was not his fountain of youth.
If you really want to give the blue bomber to someone who will treat him with respect and passion, throw him to WayForward or Retro. Both of these companies have made some terriffic 2D platformers, and they could give him a breath of fresh air that is sorely needed.
That handles the graphics, but how does the game play?
A modern day Mega Man needs to start like the later games in the universe continue to. Don't start on the level select screen (hell, in this hypothetical version of the game, there ISN'T a level select screen). With so many gamers playing these days, you need a tutorial stage of sorts. Throw Mega Man into a sequence that has absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Wily or the robot masters (ostensibly) that will eventually turn against Doctor Light.
Mega Man was originally created as a lab assistant for Doctor Light (names not withstanding). If you want to go that route, explore the origins of the two scientists work. Have humanity's villains trying to steal the work from the laboratory. There's so many avenues that you can go down at that point, but I'll give you one as an example.
At this point in time, Mega Man has not been outfitted for combat. He's specifically meant to handle small tasks around the lab that humans would not be able to carry out easily. Our robotic hero has the ability to survive extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum, he can take an obscene amount of damage, and he has an excess of strength - though at this point, he has no real firepower. And to top it off, he's in cryostasis.
An organization of bad guys raids the laboratory, and starts on their plan: transporting the disabled robot masters outside. Doctor Light arrives at the lab to do some voluntary research, and comes face to face with the burglars. They throw a gas grenade to put Light out, but he manages one last act before he succumbs to the vapors. Just before he loses consciousness, he activates the button on Mega Man's cryostasis chamber.
When Mega Man exits the chamber, he realizes what is happening. Step 1 is getting Doctor Light to safety. This portion of the tutorial explains the movement portion of the game. You'll learn how to jump, climb ladders and dodge enemy attacks. Upon exiting the laboratory, Light wakes up, and tells Mega Man that he has to stop the burglars from making off with the robots. If they were able to somehow corrupt the robot masters, they could be used as a force for evil. Of course, with no firepower of his own, Mega Man can't really do too much to slow the enemies down. Light manages to describe the location of an energy blaster he was building for the city's police that runs on a self-recharging energy source. It's in the lab, and it's on the way through the robot storage facility. The map and quest system are described here (the map would be very similar to Castlevania or Metroid, where you'd see rooms as boxes - save rooms and teleports would look yellow or red so the player could distinguish them properly).
Mega Man continues to be on the defensive until he procures the blaster (a hand held weapon at this point). After that, his quest changes. The robots have nearly all been acquired, and they are being shipped out of the building into a truck by the freeway. Megaman ends up giving chase and finally catches up to them outside the laboratory.
At this point, we are introduced to a new villain. This guy is military, and he stole the bots to commandeer the city for ransom. Mega Man moves to stop him, but out comes Guts Man from the back of the truck. He's been tweaked somehow, and moves to attack Mega Man.
Equipped with a measley, underpowered blaster, Mega Man can't do much against Guts Man. This boss battle isn't meant to be won, and once Mega Man loses 75% of his health, he takes a knee, and is forced to watch as the bad guys take their leave, Guts Man and the rest of the robots in tow.
Over the course of the next few hours of the game, you learn that the military guys captured Wily and are using him to augment the robots to secure various places in the city. Light refits Mega Man with new armor, and amplifies the blaster that he uses so that it is a permanent fixture to his arm (his hand could flip and expand inside the blaster, leaving room for the muzzle). The energy source is connected to his processor unit, which allows it to be more concussive and damaging.
Of course, as the game plays on, and Mega Man takes on the 14 robot masters from the original first two games, we discover that Wily is working with the military guy, who eventually is usurped by Wily (now that he's been financially empowered, he can do just about anything - like work on a huge, skull shaped fortress).
The big difference beyond the story is that each of the boss zones are connected by one major overworld level. If you want to fight Metal Man, you have to go to the factory/foundry from the streets for the first time. Once there, you gain access to a save point and a teleporter facility, but that initial exploration is required. If you want to fight Guts Man, you have to go to the construction site. For Bubble Man, you have to go off to the shore. It would really freshen up the game, and give it that modern day feel that the series as a whole has been missing lately.
Today, I want to talk to you about one of the video game industry's saddest fallen idols. Mega Man used to be one of Capcom's shining stars. Even as recently as 2010, the blue bomber was making headlines among fans and critics alike. He was even in the running for third party characters people were petitioning to be in Smash Bros.
Unfortunately, over the last two years, Mega Man has become a joke more than a pinnacle of gaming success.
 |
| "Oh hey!" |
Clearly, the blue bomber is not in capable hands. That's where I'd like my imagination to come in.
Rather than continue making follow-ups to established venues in the various Mega Man subseries, I would suggest that they reboot the series from scratch. There's plenty of great ideas that the first few games laid out, and, to retro gamers, they've aged well. To make Mega Man and the robot masters more welcome to a newer, hipper industry, Capcom has to prepare to move away from the formula they've established.
I'd like to point your attention to two of the lesser known franchise entries in the Mega Man series.
In Mega Man ZX, player's took control of either Vent or Aile, and proceeded along on a very Metroid-like adventure. Throughout the game, players would attempt to defeat bosses and collect bio-metals, which essentially function as the powers of the robot masters of the original series.
Similarly, in Mega Man Network Transmission, the game feels like a later Metroid or Symphony of the Night. The difference with this game is that Mega Man was an executable program that you could equip with various chips to alter his basic attacks.
This is what the series needs. The separate levels of the classic Mega Man series was great for it's time, and it's a good nod to gamers who love the nostalgic feeling, but it isn't pushing the franchise forward. Rather, it's taking you a step back.
Mega Man is a series that could benefit from an open world where you could retrace your steps and collect secret items. The concept could have worked well before Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night popularized it. Every weapon you acquire could have opened up new paths to better equipment. You could bring back the upgrade capsules that Doctor Light loved to scatter around the world so much in the Mega Man X series.
As I said before though, you don't start new. If you want to give fans some love while opening your games to a new audience, you toe the line between old and new. Use the bosses from the first two games, but scrap their levels completely. Redesign all of the characters from the ground up. Mega Man has not aged well at all, and making him a chibi doll with a comically sized head was not his fountain of youth.
 |
| "Mega Man acquired: Cranial Tumor" |
If you really want to give the blue bomber to someone who will treat him with respect and passion, throw him to WayForward or Retro. Both of these companies have made some terriffic 2D platformers, and they could give him a breath of fresh air that is sorely needed.
That handles the graphics, but how does the game play?
A modern day Mega Man needs to start like the later games in the universe continue to. Don't start on the level select screen (hell, in this hypothetical version of the game, there ISN'T a level select screen). With so many gamers playing these days, you need a tutorial stage of sorts. Throw Mega Man into a sequence that has absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Wily or the robot masters (ostensibly) that will eventually turn against Doctor Light.
Mega Man was originally created as a lab assistant for Doctor Light (names not withstanding). If you want to go that route, explore the origins of the two scientists work. Have humanity's villains trying to steal the work from the laboratory. There's so many avenues that you can go down at that point, but I'll give you one as an example.
At this point in time, Mega Man has not been outfitted for combat. He's specifically meant to handle small tasks around the lab that humans would not be able to carry out easily. Our robotic hero has the ability to survive extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum, he can take an obscene amount of damage, and he has an excess of strength - though at this point, he has no real firepower. And to top it off, he's in cryostasis.
An organization of bad guys raids the laboratory, and starts on their plan: transporting the disabled robot masters outside. Doctor Light arrives at the lab to do some voluntary research, and comes face to face with the burglars. They throw a gas grenade to put Light out, but he manages one last act before he succumbs to the vapors. Just before he loses consciousness, he activates the button on Mega Man's cryostasis chamber.
When Mega Man exits the chamber, he realizes what is happening. Step 1 is getting Doctor Light to safety. This portion of the tutorial explains the movement portion of the game. You'll learn how to jump, climb ladders and dodge enemy attacks. Upon exiting the laboratory, Light wakes up, and tells Mega Man that he has to stop the burglars from making off with the robots. If they were able to somehow corrupt the robot masters, they could be used as a force for evil. Of course, with no firepower of his own, Mega Man can't really do too much to slow the enemies down. Light manages to describe the location of an energy blaster he was building for the city's police that runs on a self-recharging energy source. It's in the lab, and it's on the way through the robot storage facility. The map and quest system are described here (the map would be very similar to Castlevania or Metroid, where you'd see rooms as boxes - save rooms and teleports would look yellow or red so the player could distinguish them properly).
Mega Man continues to be on the defensive until he procures the blaster (a hand held weapon at this point). After that, his quest changes. The robots have nearly all been acquired, and they are being shipped out of the building into a truck by the freeway. Megaman ends up giving chase and finally catches up to them outside the laboratory.
At this point, we are introduced to a new villain. This guy is military, and he stole the bots to commandeer the city for ransom. Mega Man moves to stop him, but out comes Guts Man from the back of the truck. He's been tweaked somehow, and moves to attack Mega Man.
Equipped with a measley, underpowered blaster, Mega Man can't do much against Guts Man. This boss battle isn't meant to be won, and once Mega Man loses 75% of his health, he takes a knee, and is forced to watch as the bad guys take their leave, Guts Man and the rest of the robots in tow.
Over the course of the next few hours of the game, you learn that the military guys captured Wily and are using him to augment the robots to secure various places in the city. Light refits Mega Man with new armor, and amplifies the blaster that he uses so that it is a permanent fixture to his arm (his hand could flip and expand inside the blaster, leaving room for the muzzle). The energy source is connected to his processor unit, which allows it to be more concussive and damaging.
Of course, as the game plays on, and Mega Man takes on the 14 robot masters from the original first two games, we discover that Wily is working with the military guy, who eventually is usurped by Wily (now that he's been financially empowered, he can do just about anything - like work on a huge, skull shaped fortress).
 |
| Sure, it's a little drafty, but the feng shui is awesome! |
The big difference beyond the story is that each of the boss zones are connected by one major overworld level. If you want to fight Metal Man, you have to go to the factory/foundry from the streets for the first time. Once there, you gain access to a save point and a teleporter facility, but that initial exploration is required. If you want to fight Guts Man, you have to go to the construction site. For Bubble Man, you have to go off to the shore. It would really freshen up the game, and give it that modern day feel that the series as a whole has been missing lately.
Friday, October 19, 2012
New Console Incoming
T-Minus 30 days and counting.
Don't get used to the frequency that I put out these blog posts... I'm not too sure I'll be able to focus as much as I want to in the next couple weeks due to work on my book and the game.
I just couldn't help myself. Did you know that we'll be playing the Wii U in less than a month?
I have been waiting as patiently as possible for Nintendo's next system. E3 2011 was like Christmas to me - there's always something surprising about Nintendo's new hardware, and I wasn't dissapointed by the idea of a tablet controller that amplifies the way that we play.
We know what it is, now, and we know what it's capable of:
What are you expecting from the Wii U? Do you even think you'll be able to get a hold of one? Last time Nintendo released hardware, it took people months, almost half a year to get their hands on them.
Don't get used to the frequency that I put out these blog posts... I'm not too sure I'll be able to focus as much as I want to in the next couple weeks due to work on my book and the game.
I just couldn't help myself. Did you know that we'll be playing the Wii U in less than a month?
I have been waiting as patiently as possible for Nintendo's next system. E3 2011 was like Christmas to me - there's always something surprising about Nintendo's new hardware, and I wasn't dissapointed by the idea of a tablet controller that amplifies the way that we play.
We know what it is, now, and we know what it's capable of:
- Two SKUs will be available on November 18th: a $299 model that's basic, and just comes with the system and the tablet controller, and a $349 model that includes a game, some accessories, and a discount to their premium internet service (among other things).
- Nintendo is coming into the modern age with it's own answer to Microsoft Live and PSN with their Nintendo Network. Whether or not it integrates well with the rest of the software remains to be seen.
- None of the games coming out with the system utilize a second tablet controller. Nintendo is focusing on what they've branded asymetrical gaming - the idea of one person getting a different experience than the person next to them.
- The tablet controller is a nice way to remove all the muddy hud elements from your main screen. While some people might find it jarring to move from the main screen to the one in your hand, it might make gameplay more immersive.
- The delay on the controller is less than 1/60th of a second. For some people, that means the controller in your hand will be able to display game content faster than your television.
- One of Nintendo's least talked about apps, TVii, looks to be a nice way to integrate your streaming video services (Hulu, Netflix), your cable television, and your DVR.
- The Wii U has one of the most robust launches for a new console. While some of the games are coming late (Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3) and others are multiplatform (Assassin's Creed 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2), this is the strongest batch of software that's launched alongside a system since perhaps the Dreamcast.
What are you expecting from the Wii U? Do you even think you'll be able to get a hold of one? Last time Nintendo released hardware, it took people months, almost half a year to get their hands on them.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Nega-Mike
I was hesitant for some time to begin writing this particular blog post because it vilifies a specific person. Rather than omit my feelings purely to help one anonymous person on the internet save face, I decided to instead just let them remain anonymous.
As some who read either of my blogs may know, I've begun considering independent game design. This was a very difficult thing to do because, truth be told, beyond crafting story, I have very little to offer to a traditional game design team. What I can do is try my best at bringing together other talented individuals to make a game that I envision. At this point, I'm designing the game by taking assets from multiple sources and trying to make something coherent, and, ultimately, enjoyable out of it.
It's also been revealed (I think) at some point, that when the time comes, I am going to reach out to the Kickstarter community to try and help the game with some final phase funding. This includes making sure that the game is present with magnificent art and sound. By that point in time, the game is going to be completely done on the programming front (at least in it's base form - I'm still toying with the idea of making secondary modes to add replay value).
Over the course of my time with various communities on the web, I came across another indie developer who is much like me. He's a designer, first and foremost, and he has very little skill to speak of, besides a very, very silver tongue.
The big difference is, this developer... this Nega-Mike... has already finished and released his first game. It was a wonderfully received game too. Most people who have played it have nothing but good things to say about it.
Of course, this doesn't absolve him of a tremendous amount of douche-baggery. Let me explain.
On Kickstarter, your main focus is creating a product or a service, showcasing it to that community, and offering rewards in exchange for funding. Typically, the campaign consists of a video that displays your appeal to the intended audience. They want to see you, reaching out to them, knowing full well that you need their help to make your product or service a reality. If you're developing a product, it's highly recommended that you have a prototype ready to display in that video, or at the very least, through screenshots. Screenshots can be concept art, however, so it's more beneficial to see a video in motion.
Every project is a story as well. Your primary goals are to explain why the product has to be made, and, perhaps more importantly, why it has to be made by you. Beyond that, it's also very important to tell people where there money will go. You can't just pick an arbitrary monetary amount and hope that the Kickstarter community is going to side with you based on your desire to see your project succeed. Furthermore, a little humility goes a long way.
Nega-Mike missed all three of these primal Kickstarter virtues:
First, when describing what made the game tick, the closest Nega-Mike could get was mentioning that hey, this is a charming game with original ideas. In his original campaign on Kickstarter, he didn't have a prototype ready, and the video didn't show him at all. It was only a mock-up of what the idea was eventually going to be.
In his second pitch to the community, he straightened a few things out. His video was altered to focus on the request for support, though it looked even less professional than the first time. In it, Nega-Mike looks like he just rolled out of bed and is struggling to explain the project (until it moves forward into an overlay, where he can read from a script). The sound quality of the video is terrible. However, his plea seems genuine in this iteration of the campaign, though he defends it vehemently when others begin to poke holes in the pitch. He put very little thought into this Kickstarter campaign, and shockingly, the community, which is very wary, did go to bat for him. I continue to be offended by how little he researched his own project's needs, and the terrible level of communication he still has with his backers.
Next, when he originally came to Kickstarter with his idea, Nega-Mike aimed incredibly high. He asked for well over $10,000 for a project that, as far as people could tell, hadn't even made it past the brainstorming stage. While it would have been a struggle to justify that amount as is, where the money was going was never distinctly revealed. In fact, he never even asks for money beyond jotting down a goal in the first place. He asks for people's support, but that's a very ambiguous request.
The second time he campaigned his game, he cut his request in half. The price was much more reasonable, but he still was very vague about where his money was going. He mentioned that he had a three person team, and that with the money available to them from Kickstarter, they would be able to cease performing freelance work for other developers and focus entirely on their personal project. There was no distinction between whether that money was going to art, music, programming or anything of the like.
Finally, his lack of humility was his downfall. I was so offended by how he was presenting his idea and his campaign that I actually began actively stalking this guy around the internet. He heaps mountains of praise on himself, and throws away good advice because he's too proud to accept it. His narcissistic self-entitlement obstructed his path forward for every single step of the way. Beyond that, though, he aggressively insults anyone who tries to give him a golden nugget of wisdom. Someone told him, "you need proper accounting" so that the funding goes to the right place. Rather than say "thanks," and move on with it, Nega-Mike sarcastically insisted that the person who gave him the advice go to every person on Kickstarter with a campaign and offer them the same wisdom (he never did heed that advice - not entirely anyway).
It wasn't until I dug deeper that I realized Nega-Mike was actually a disingenuous assplug at his very nature. You see, in his Kickstarter, he claims that he has a three person team: a designer, an artist, and a programmer. It wasn't until after the Kickstarter closed that he went looking for a programmer to replace the one that had already decided to step out (during the campaign, no less).
In his "for-hire" topic, he tells potential candidates various needs for the project. Originally, he asks for 6-12 months of commitment of full-time, high priority work. Keep in mind, this project ended in June, and Nega-Mike told all of his backers that he would have the game shipped to backers in October or December, depending on where you're looking on the project page. Not only is his work ethic here questionable at best, but it shows just how he preys on the naivete of the people who are willing to support him. Further, he offers his programmer a paltry 200 per week for what he describes as work that would have to be top priority. He later changes his stance, saying that the work would be 4-6 months of part time work, but at this point, he is either revealed to be a liar at worst, or entirely unreliable at best.
Nega-Mike absolutely offends me, to a degree that I've never been while searching on the internet. He misrepresents his project every step of the way, and when called out for his transgressions, he does everything he can to hide the truth. He doesn't meet his deadlines, he tries to rob his audience blind, and he's a gigantic douche about it to top everything off.
I feel torn regarding his project. I know that over 800 people backed his game. Part of me wants Nega-Mike's game to collapse, so that he realizes that he can't get away with this kind of treatment of people. But I don't think it's fair for those people who supported him to be robbed blind of their money based on promises that he's still unable to fulfill at this point in time.
What it all comes down to, is that Nega-Mike is what's worse for the independent gaming industry right now, and he should be ashamed of himself.
As some who read either of my blogs may know, I've begun considering independent game design. This was a very difficult thing to do because, truth be told, beyond crafting story, I have very little to offer to a traditional game design team. What I can do is try my best at bringing together other talented individuals to make a game that I envision. At this point, I'm designing the game by taking assets from multiple sources and trying to make something coherent, and, ultimately, enjoyable out of it.
It's also been revealed (I think) at some point, that when the time comes, I am going to reach out to the Kickstarter community to try and help the game with some final phase funding. This includes making sure that the game is present with magnificent art and sound. By that point in time, the game is going to be completely done on the programming front (at least in it's base form - I'm still toying with the idea of making secondary modes to add replay value).
Over the course of my time with various communities on the web, I came across another indie developer who is much like me. He's a designer, first and foremost, and he has very little skill to speak of, besides a very, very silver tongue.
The big difference is, this developer... this Nega-Mike... has already finished and released his first game. It was a wonderfully received game too. Most people who have played it have nothing but good things to say about it.
Of course, this doesn't absolve him of a tremendous amount of douche-baggery. Let me explain.
On Kickstarter, your main focus is creating a product or a service, showcasing it to that community, and offering rewards in exchange for funding. Typically, the campaign consists of a video that displays your appeal to the intended audience. They want to see you, reaching out to them, knowing full well that you need their help to make your product or service a reality. If you're developing a product, it's highly recommended that you have a prototype ready to display in that video, or at the very least, through screenshots. Screenshots can be concept art, however, so it's more beneficial to see a video in motion.
Every project is a story as well. Your primary goals are to explain why the product has to be made, and, perhaps more importantly, why it has to be made by you. Beyond that, it's also very important to tell people where there money will go. You can't just pick an arbitrary monetary amount and hope that the Kickstarter community is going to side with you based on your desire to see your project succeed. Furthermore, a little humility goes a long way.
Nega-Mike missed all three of these primal Kickstarter virtues:
First, when describing what made the game tick, the closest Nega-Mike could get was mentioning that hey, this is a charming game with original ideas. In his original campaign on Kickstarter, he didn't have a prototype ready, and the video didn't show him at all. It was only a mock-up of what the idea was eventually going to be.
In his second pitch to the community, he straightened a few things out. His video was altered to focus on the request for support, though it looked even less professional than the first time. In it, Nega-Mike looks like he just rolled out of bed and is struggling to explain the project (until it moves forward into an overlay, where he can read from a script). The sound quality of the video is terrible. However, his plea seems genuine in this iteration of the campaign, though he defends it vehemently when others begin to poke holes in the pitch. He put very little thought into this Kickstarter campaign, and shockingly, the community, which is very wary, did go to bat for him. I continue to be offended by how little he researched his own project's needs, and the terrible level of communication he still has with his backers.
Next, when he originally came to Kickstarter with his idea, Nega-Mike aimed incredibly high. He asked for well over $10,000 for a project that, as far as people could tell, hadn't even made it past the brainstorming stage. While it would have been a struggle to justify that amount as is, where the money was going was never distinctly revealed. In fact, he never even asks for money beyond jotting down a goal in the first place. He asks for people's support, but that's a very ambiguous request.
The second time he campaigned his game, he cut his request in half. The price was much more reasonable, but he still was very vague about where his money was going. He mentioned that he had a three person team, and that with the money available to them from Kickstarter, they would be able to cease performing freelance work for other developers and focus entirely on their personal project. There was no distinction between whether that money was going to art, music, programming or anything of the like.
Finally, his lack of humility was his downfall. I was so offended by how he was presenting his idea and his campaign that I actually began actively stalking this guy around the internet. He heaps mountains of praise on himself, and throws away good advice because he's too proud to accept it. His narcissistic self-entitlement obstructed his path forward for every single step of the way. Beyond that, though, he aggressively insults anyone who tries to give him a golden nugget of wisdom. Someone told him, "you need proper accounting" so that the funding goes to the right place. Rather than say "thanks," and move on with it, Nega-Mike sarcastically insisted that the person who gave him the advice go to every person on Kickstarter with a campaign and offer them the same wisdom (he never did heed that advice - not entirely anyway).
It wasn't until I dug deeper that I realized Nega-Mike was actually a disingenuous assplug at his very nature. You see, in his Kickstarter, he claims that he has a three person team: a designer, an artist, and a programmer. It wasn't until after the Kickstarter closed that he went looking for a programmer to replace the one that had already decided to step out (during the campaign, no less).
In his "for-hire" topic, he tells potential candidates various needs for the project. Originally, he asks for 6-12 months of commitment of full-time, high priority work. Keep in mind, this project ended in June, and Nega-Mike told all of his backers that he would have the game shipped to backers in October or December, depending on where you're looking on the project page. Not only is his work ethic here questionable at best, but it shows just how he preys on the naivete of the people who are willing to support him. Further, he offers his programmer a paltry 200 per week for what he describes as work that would have to be top priority. He later changes his stance, saying that the work would be 4-6 months of part time work, but at this point, he is either revealed to be a liar at worst, or entirely unreliable at best.
Nega-Mike absolutely offends me, to a degree that I've never been while searching on the internet. He misrepresents his project every step of the way, and when called out for his transgressions, he does everything he can to hide the truth. He doesn't meet his deadlines, he tries to rob his audience blind, and he's a gigantic douche about it to top everything off.
I feel torn regarding his project. I know that over 800 people backed his game. Part of me wants Nega-Mike's game to collapse, so that he realizes that he can't get away with this kind of treatment of people. But I don't think it's fair for those people who supported him to be robbed blind of their money based on promises that he's still unable to fulfill at this point in time.
What it all comes down to, is that Nega-Mike is what's worse for the independent gaming industry right now, and he should be ashamed of himself.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
No, Go On...
Of all the new shows that have popped up this season, Go On is probably my favorite. I haven't laughed out this loud at something since Scrubs went off the air. There's a lot of reasons that the show is tied for the number 1 new comedy this season.
Now, I'm biased, because I love me some Matthew Perry. In this outing, he's doing Chandler better than Chandler, but there's some real emotion there beneath it all. It comes very close to toeing the line of comedy noir.
As is normally the case, the pilot was kind of flimsy. You could tell that there was potential, but it could have really gone either way at that point. Over the course of the following five episodes, I can clearly say, this series is hitting home run after home run. It hits all the buttons it's supposed to.
To top it off, even though Matthew Perry brings his best to the table, he doesn't steal the show. The rest of the cast does an admirable job. And let us not forget the writers, who are able to craft the hell out of this bright and funny new series.
I was pretty much convinced after three episodes, but this morning, when I caught up to the 6th, I knew for sure I had to advocate the hell out of it.
Each of the episodes focuses on a specific member of Ryan's (Matthew Perry) loss support group. You see, he's there because his wife died shortly before the start of the show. Other people in the group are there for other reasons. Danny came back from the war overseas to find out his wife had conceived a child with another man. George is old, crotchety and blind. Sonia is a crazy cat lady. As the show proceeds, each of the members of the group work together with Ryan to figure out what's going on with life after loss. It's an often hilarious and charming formula that just plain works.
One of the main reasons the series is working out so well is that it's not taking itself too seriously. Yes, there's some deep stuff beneath the surface that the characters are working on (a lot of death). But they make light of it in some very creative ways. And of course, Matthew Perry being Matthew Perry doesn't hurt the show at all.
Now, I'm biased, because I love me some Matthew Perry. In this outing, he's doing Chandler better than Chandler, but there's some real emotion there beneath it all. It comes very close to toeing the line of comedy noir.
As is normally the case, the pilot was kind of flimsy. You could tell that there was potential, but it could have really gone either way at that point. Over the course of the following five episodes, I can clearly say, this series is hitting home run after home run. It hits all the buttons it's supposed to.
To top it off, even though Matthew Perry brings his best to the table, he doesn't steal the show. The rest of the cast does an admirable job. And let us not forget the writers, who are able to craft the hell out of this bright and funny new series.
I was pretty much convinced after three episodes, but this morning, when I caught up to the 6th, I knew for sure I had to advocate the hell out of it.
Each of the episodes focuses on a specific member of Ryan's (Matthew Perry) loss support group. You see, he's there because his wife died shortly before the start of the show. Other people in the group are there for other reasons. Danny came back from the war overseas to find out his wife had conceived a child with another man. George is old, crotchety and blind. Sonia is a crazy cat lady. As the show proceeds, each of the members of the group work together with Ryan to figure out what's going on with life after loss. It's an often hilarious and charming formula that just plain works.
One of the main reasons the series is working out so well is that it's not taking itself too seriously. Yes, there's some deep stuff beneath the surface that the characters are working on (a lot of death). But they make light of it in some very creative ways. And of course, Matthew Perry being Matthew Perry doesn't hurt the show at all.
 |
| Comedy Gold. |
Go On airs every Tuesday at 9 on NBC. Except for next Tuesday. Stupid presedential debate.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
This is How I Do: Mario
Every now and then, you get this supreme notion of what should be changed, or risked as it pertains to a video game series.
In particular, there's been one idea that I have that meshes very well with one of the ones that IGN's Brian Altano talked about recently.
When Mario 64 came out, it made the biggest roundabout for the series since it jumped from Atari and Arcades to the NES with Super Mario Bros. Since then, things have become slightly stale, with the exception of the two Galaxy titles. They were a breath of fresh air, but you can't really go back to them without feeling like you're beating a dead horse.
You need to take what you have already established, with an idea like Mario 64, and expand upon it. We live in a day and age where we can effectively see a seamless Mushroom Kingdom. There doesn't need to be a hub world. There doesn't need to be paintings or portals to jump into that separate you from one theme and the next.
Instead, let me explain what I think would be an interesting twist to the classic 3D Mario game.
The very first time you leave Peach's Castle, you can see the world stretching out before you. In the distance, hills that you can actually ascend peek out over the houses of the people. Some of these houses - and those that dwell within them - can be interacted with. Many are there just to give a feeling of realism. As you pass through the village, you can see a toad child chasing around a green koopa troopa. As you approach the pair, you learn that the child is crying, and the koopa troopa takes off into the horizon. You speak to the toad child, and are informed that the koopa troopa took the child's favorite tanooki doll.
This may not be the first quest you get, but it's simple enough to explain the parameters to you. A quest-giver has assigned a need to you, and it's your job to deliver. As Mario, you run out into the wide open of Mushroom Kingdom to track down the sneaky koopa thief.
That's it. That's how the game starts. You don't have Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach to start. Hell, if you really want to produce a decent narrative, you don't even have Bowser show up at all for an hour or two. You're giving Mario a chance to see the world through ordinary circumstances for a few precious moments, and then...
Bam. One of the biggest airships Mario has ever seen shows up behind the darkened, smiling clouds in the distance. By this point, Mario's already been awarded a star or two (the day and night cycle doesn't start until after the first few explanatory events are passed). You know that you have to race back to the castle to save Peach. You use all the moves in your arsenal to try and reach it, but you're just not quick enough. The airship blows a hole in the roof of the castle, and Bowser, on an oversized anchor, descends down within. We hear Peach cry out, and then in the next few moments, see the king of the koopas as he's winched back into the battleship, Peach grasped tightly against his side.
I'm going to give you a bonus just for sticking with me this long. If you want to give the game some semblance of linearity, lock certain things out until you acquire a certain amount of stars. Or, if you want to step away from a dated method of blocking content until the right time, have it so the tried and true power-ups that have made Mario famous return in some fashion, but are unavailable until certain goals are reached. Oh no, all the fire flowers burned up in a drought caused by one of magikoopas schemes. Looks like you're going to have to go to the desert land and climb mount cliche to get a wild fire flower to bring back to the flower fields to plant. Once you do that, they start showing up around the map in places that you would need them to advance.
There's the beginnings of your story and your game right there Nintendo. You're welcome. That's free.
In particular, there's been one idea that I have that meshes very well with one of the ones that IGN's Brian Altano talked about recently.
When Mario 64 came out, it made the biggest roundabout for the series since it jumped from Atari and Arcades to the NES with Super Mario Bros. Since then, things have become slightly stale, with the exception of the two Galaxy titles. They were a breath of fresh air, but you can't really go back to them without feeling like you're beating a dead horse.
You need to take what you have already established, with an idea like Mario 64, and expand upon it. We live in a day and age where we can effectively see a seamless Mushroom Kingdom. There doesn't need to be a hub world. There doesn't need to be paintings or portals to jump into that separate you from one theme and the next.
Instead, let me explain what I think would be an interesting twist to the classic 3D Mario game.
The very first time you leave Peach's Castle, you can see the world stretching out before you. In the distance, hills that you can actually ascend peek out over the houses of the people. Some of these houses - and those that dwell within them - can be interacted with. Many are there just to give a feeling of realism. As you pass through the village, you can see a toad child chasing around a green koopa troopa. As you approach the pair, you learn that the child is crying, and the koopa troopa takes off into the horizon. You speak to the toad child, and are informed that the koopa troopa took the child's favorite tanooki doll.
This may not be the first quest you get, but it's simple enough to explain the parameters to you. A quest-giver has assigned a need to you, and it's your job to deliver. As Mario, you run out into the wide open of Mushroom Kingdom to track down the sneaky koopa thief.
 |
| If you let the tanooki go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. |
That's it. That's how the game starts. You don't have Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach to start. Hell, if you really want to produce a decent narrative, you don't even have Bowser show up at all for an hour or two. You're giving Mario a chance to see the world through ordinary circumstances for a few precious moments, and then...
Bam. One of the biggest airships Mario has ever seen shows up behind the darkened, smiling clouds in the distance. By this point, Mario's already been awarded a star or two (the day and night cycle doesn't start until after the first few explanatory events are passed). You know that you have to race back to the castle to save Peach. You use all the moves in your arsenal to try and reach it, but you're just not quick enough. The airship blows a hole in the roof of the castle, and Bowser, on an oversized anchor, descends down within. We hear Peach cry out, and then in the next few moments, see the king of the koopas as he's winched back into the battleship, Peach grasped tightly against his side.
 |
| Not actual size. |
I'm going to give you a bonus just for sticking with me this long. If you want to give the game some semblance of linearity, lock certain things out until you acquire a certain amount of stars. Or, if you want to step away from a dated method of blocking content until the right time, have it so the tried and true power-ups that have made Mario famous return in some fashion, but are unavailable until certain goals are reached. Oh no, all the fire flowers burned up in a drought caused by one of magikoopas schemes. Looks like you're going to have to go to the desert land and climb mount cliche to get a wild fire flower to bring back to the flower fields to plant. Once you do that, they start showing up around the map in places that you would need them to advance.
There's the beginnings of your story and your game right there Nintendo. You're welcome. That's free.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Borderlands 2 is the Bomb
For whatever reason, as of late, I've been playing games that are way more casual. I'll get the games off of xbox live, or something off of gog.com, but there universally not as "hardcore" as the games that are coming out for consoles these days.
I decided to remedy that last week. I'm a very traditional impulse buyer, but besides a game that I bought for Rhianna that appealed to her ladygamer persona (I can make her pretty!? AND SLUTTY!?), there hasn't been much purchased since... hell, I can't remember the last game I purchased before that. But when I started seeing comments about Borderlands 2 on reddit, I was intrigued. I had already played the crap out of the first one, and loved it, but for whatever reason, I wasn't sold on the sequel.
Bored at work one day during my lunch hour, I hovered around on a couple of the game boards, checking out what was going on with the game. Nobody even really said anything detailed about it, but just hearing it over and over was like pounding in my head. I decided to pick it up that day, and haven't regretted it one bit.
For the first few days, I was actually unable to wake up at a normal time. My body was aching for more Pandora, and I had no choice but to mosey over to the living room hours before the buttcrack of dawn to get in some more playtime. Despite the fact that I've been able to slow things down a bit, the game hasn't ceased to impress at all.
First of all, the writing. It's not like it's classy - far from it. But the persona of the game, all of its wit and charm, is one of the best, if not the best in the history of gaming. Now me, I love my story as much as the next guy, but I've never liked the idea of sitting and waiting to hear the questgiver tell you why he wants you to perform his task so much. In WoW, I would speed read through everything - I still learned as much as I would have through the formal communication, but at a much quicker pace. In BL2, I have no desire to cut anyone off, because they're all so hilarious.
Beyond all that, though, there's a subtext that's clever and driving. There's real emotions underneath the grit, the grime, and the cartoony feel of these characters. I want to know what they've got to say, because I want to know what makes them tick.
The characters aren't the only major boon to this series. The first game was a wonderful step in a new direction for shooters, and for RPGs, but it didn't really change the face of gaming through its story. It was a dull grind (which I was ok with... that's what I signed up for). After the weak yet arduous trudge through Diablo III's Sanctuary, I wasn't really keen on another grindfest.
The sidequests in the first Borderlands were quirky, but all of them were nearly exactly the same. It was a very cookie-cutter game, and it got in its own way a lot of the time. For Borderlands 2, the side-quests themselves have enough personality to drag you away from the main storyline for hours at a time. On top of that, they aren't the same old "go here, kill this" quest that you're used to.
Not that it would have even been a problem in the first place. You see, BL2 does an excellent job of managing its gameplay within the world that encompasses it. There's one quest a few hours in that takes you into a sewer and...
Well, I'm not going to spoil it. Suffice it to say, Gearbox was on the ball as far as pop culture went. In the first hour of the game, unless I was mistaken, I saw three references to Doctor Who... or in some cases, Constable What.
As if the series didn't offer a plethora of customability before, the bonuses they offer you in this game are uncanny. Not only can you slap your favorite shade of post-apocalyptica on multiple vehicles this time around, but you can tinker with your character to your heart's content.
Of course, that means that you can customize the way they look, not just the way they fight.
The gameplay itself remains largely the same as the first game, but they polished the crap out of it. Enemies no longer watch you kill them. They take cover, they roll around on the ground, and they make you pay the price for being careless. But more than that, the enemies are dynamic. The first game had a very shallow bucket from which to pull its baddies. BL2, on the other hand, could throw so many at you that it's easy to lose track of the individual strategies that should be used for each of them.
On the replayability front... well... let's just say I'm a level 21 on one character, and I've barely done any of the main quests so far.
If you like the idea of a hybrid shooter/RPG, there's no reason not to get Borderlands 2.
I decided to remedy that last week. I'm a very traditional impulse buyer, but besides a game that I bought for Rhianna that appealed to her ladygamer persona (I can make her pretty!? AND SLUTTY!?), there hasn't been much purchased since... hell, I can't remember the last game I purchased before that. But when I started seeing comments about Borderlands 2 on reddit, I was intrigued. I had already played the crap out of the first one, and loved it, but for whatever reason, I wasn't sold on the sequel.
Bored at work one day during my lunch hour, I hovered around on a couple of the game boards, checking out what was going on with the game. Nobody even really said anything detailed about it, but just hearing it over and over was like pounding in my head. I decided to pick it up that day, and haven't regretted it one bit.
For the first few days, I was actually unable to wake up at a normal time. My body was aching for more Pandora, and I had no choice but to mosey over to the living room hours before the buttcrack of dawn to get in some more playtime. Despite the fact that I've been able to slow things down a bit, the game hasn't ceased to impress at all.
First of all, the writing. It's not like it's classy - far from it. But the persona of the game, all of its wit and charm, is one of the best, if not the best in the history of gaming. Now me, I love my story as much as the next guy, but I've never liked the idea of sitting and waiting to hear the questgiver tell you why he wants you to perform his task so much. In WoW, I would speed read through everything - I still learned as much as I would have through the formal communication, but at a much quicker pace. In BL2, I have no desire to cut anyone off, because they're all so hilarious.
 |
| You don't say. |
The characters aren't the only major boon to this series. The first game was a wonderful step in a new direction for shooters, and for RPGs, but it didn't really change the face of gaming through its story. It was a dull grind (which I was ok with... that's what I signed up for). After the weak yet arduous trudge through Diablo III's Sanctuary, I wasn't really keen on another grindfest.
The sidequests in the first Borderlands were quirky, but all of them were nearly exactly the same. It was a very cookie-cutter game, and it got in its own way a lot of the time. For Borderlands 2, the side-quests themselves have enough personality to drag you away from the main storyline for hours at a time. On top of that, they aren't the same old "go here, kill this" quest that you're used to.
Not that it would have even been a problem in the first place. You see, BL2 does an excellent job of managing its gameplay within the world that encompasses it. There's one quest a few hours in that takes you into a sewer and...
Well, I'm not going to spoil it. Suffice it to say, Gearbox was on the ball as far as pop culture went. In the first hour of the game, unless I was mistaken, I saw three references to Doctor Who... or in some cases, Constable What.
As if the series didn't offer a plethora of customability before, the bonuses they offer you in this game are uncanny. Not only can you slap your favorite shade of post-apocalyptica on multiple vehicles this time around, but you can tinker with your character to your heart's content.
 |
| I call this guy "Pimp Daddy". |
The gameplay itself remains largely the same as the first game, but they polished the crap out of it. Enemies no longer watch you kill them. They take cover, they roll around on the ground, and they make you pay the price for being careless. But more than that, the enemies are dynamic. The first game had a very shallow bucket from which to pull its baddies. BL2, on the other hand, could throw so many at you that it's easy to lose track of the individual strategies that should be used for each of them.
On the replayability front... well... let's just say I'm a level 21 on one character, and I've barely done any of the main quests so far.
If you like the idea of a hybrid shooter/RPG, there's no reason not to get Borderlands 2.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Resident Evil: Retribution - The Review
It's going to be very rare for me to come around here and do a movie review, but seeing as I mainly started That's Entertainment to focus on video games, and Resident Evil is probably the most well-known video game related movie franchise, I'm willing to give it a pass.
While there have been very few successful videogame film adaptations, there have been a few series that have managed to break the mold, and prove that these types of films are capable of bringing success.
Among them, Prince of Persia made the most so far, bringing in $335m while it was at the box office. It also had the loftiest budget for a videogame adaptation. The Bruckheimer project cost $200m to take to theaters.
Another one had the highest yield, despite a paltry budget. Mortal Kombat managed to make a whopping 679% of its budget back at the box office, earning almost seven times its $18m budget. That's almost 200% higher than any other videogame adaptation has made back in the box office, in proportion to how much producers and financiers put into them.
The first high profile release among them all was the Angelina Jolie fronted Tomb Raider, which, at the time, had an unheard of budget for the project, that was three times greater than the first game inspired movie, the massive failure, Super Mario Bros. It inspired a successful sequel as well, becoming one of only four franchises to develop a series that didn't get dropped immediately to the DVD rack.
On opposite sides of that spectrum, two fighting series bookend the franchises. Mortal Kombat had the most impressive single showing of any movie, while Street Fighter, with the more recent release of "The Legend of Chun-Li", became the first theater release that was part of a series not to make it's budget back (earning only a miserable 26% of its initial cost).
There's one other franchise, however, that isn't on it's last legs, and seen consistent releases over the years. It has dominated financially and critically (proportionate to other game franchises anyway). Resident Evil has been on the scene since 2002, and over the last 10 years, they've churned out another four films, the most recent releasing on September 14th, Resident Evil: Retribution.
Retribution has two huge stigmas that threaten to ruin it. First, it is a videogame based film. That is rapidly becoming a forgotten notion, but it still is worth worrying about, as certain directors are still trying to take the lazy route and make money off of these intellectual properties. It also suffers from being the fifth movie in a series. When was the last time you saw a movie in the theater that even made it to part five besides Harry Potter or Fast and the Furious?
Yet, in spite of all this, Retribution is still looking to set records and show that Resident Evil is still king at the box office. Not even two weeks out, the film has already made back its budget twofold. But it's been indicated before that even a dud can bring back the fans. So, does this fifth outing do enough for the series to keep it going strong?
In a word, yes. First and foremost, there is a tremendous amount of fan service in Retribution. While we saw Jill Valentine at the end of Afterlife, this marks her first full return to the series since Apocalypse. Also, rounding out the first four protagonists from the game series, Leon Kennedy makes his film debut. They didn't exactly manage to capture his personality from the videogames, but it's still nice to see all the characters finally represented. They even throw in an extra character that you wouldn't expect this late in the franchise.
Beyond that, they pull way back. If you've seen trailers, you know that characters that we haven't seen since the first Resident Evil movie are back. It fits very well in the persona that the franchise has established, although if it were any other series, it would be quite jarring indeed.
The action sequences are by far the best we've seen yet. While the first couple movies felt very campy (which has been welcome to fans of the series), this film feels like a summer blockbuster. Movements don't seem as though they are on wire. Instead, it looks as though Milla Jovovich is quite possibly performing all of the stunts on her own.
Music also lends itself wonderfully to the title. This is definitely a very ably composed score, and the integrity of the film was enhanced by it's inclusion.
All in all, this was my favorite movie in the Resident Evil series so far. It's very different from the others though, and it starts off with a huge, displacing bang, so fans should expect some of the threads from the previous movie to go unseen.
While there have been very few successful videogame film adaptations, there have been a few series that have managed to break the mold, and prove that these types of films are capable of bringing success.
Among them, Prince of Persia made the most so far, bringing in $335m while it was at the box office. It also had the loftiest budget for a videogame adaptation. The Bruckheimer project cost $200m to take to theaters.
Another one had the highest yield, despite a paltry budget. Mortal Kombat managed to make a whopping 679% of its budget back at the box office, earning almost seven times its $18m budget. That's almost 200% higher than any other videogame adaptation has made back in the box office, in proportion to how much producers and financiers put into them.
The first high profile release among them all was the Angelina Jolie fronted Tomb Raider, which, at the time, had an unheard of budget for the project, that was three times greater than the first game inspired movie, the massive failure, Super Mario Bros. It inspired a successful sequel as well, becoming one of only four franchises to develop a series that didn't get dropped immediately to the DVD rack.
On opposite sides of that spectrum, two fighting series bookend the franchises. Mortal Kombat had the most impressive single showing of any movie, while Street Fighter, with the more recent release of "The Legend of Chun-Li", became the first theater release that was part of a series not to make it's budget back (earning only a miserable 26% of its initial cost).
There's one other franchise, however, that isn't on it's last legs, and seen consistent releases over the years. It has dominated financially and critically (proportionate to other game franchises anyway). Resident Evil has been on the scene since 2002, and over the last 10 years, they've churned out another four films, the most recent releasing on September 14th, Resident Evil: Retribution.
Retribution has two huge stigmas that threaten to ruin it. First, it is a videogame based film. That is rapidly becoming a forgotten notion, but it still is worth worrying about, as certain directors are still trying to take the lazy route and make money off of these intellectual properties. It also suffers from being the fifth movie in a series. When was the last time you saw a movie in the theater that even made it to part five besides Harry Potter or Fast and the Furious?
Yet, in spite of all this, Retribution is still looking to set records and show that Resident Evil is still king at the box office. Not even two weeks out, the film has already made back its budget twofold. But it's been indicated before that even a dud can bring back the fans. So, does this fifth outing do enough for the series to keep it going strong?
In a word, yes. First and foremost, there is a tremendous amount of fan service in Retribution. While we saw Jill Valentine at the end of Afterlife, this marks her first full return to the series since Apocalypse. Also, rounding out the first four protagonists from the game series, Leon Kennedy makes his film debut. They didn't exactly manage to capture his personality from the videogames, but it's still nice to see all the characters finally represented. They even throw in an extra character that you wouldn't expect this late in the franchise.
Beyond that, they pull way back. If you've seen trailers, you know that characters that we haven't seen since the first Resident Evil movie are back. It fits very well in the persona that the franchise has established, although if it were any other series, it would be quite jarring indeed.
The action sequences are by far the best we've seen yet. While the first couple movies felt very campy (which has been welcome to fans of the series), this film feels like a summer blockbuster. Movements don't seem as though they are on wire. Instead, it looks as though Milla Jovovich is quite possibly performing all of the stunts on her own.
Music also lends itself wonderfully to the title. This is definitely a very ably composed score, and the integrity of the film was enhanced by it's inclusion.
All in all, this was my favorite movie in the Resident Evil series so far. It's very different from the others though, and it starts off with a huge, displacing bang, so fans should expect some of the threads from the previous movie to go unseen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)