The Den

Hi All!

2007-07-30T23:01:00.001-04:00

Sorry I haven't been able to post lately, I've been consumed trying to keep up with school, moving, and maintaining a blog about my life as a game designer (Adventures in Game Design, the link is over on the right as well).

I hope you are all doing well, playing many more games than I have been lately. I think I've played the games I got for my birthday for roughly 6 hours (my birthday was well over a week ago, FYI). I'll try to post whenever I get the chance to play a game or read something cool about industry goings on. Later!

Blue Dragon? Meh.

2007-07-11T22:43:00.000-04:00

Well, E3 Lite is underway, and we are beginning to be bombarded with trailers and (somewhat surprisingly) demos. Blue Dragon so happens to be one of these aforementioned demos. Blue Dragon also happens to be high on the watch list of yours truly, so I was eager to give the demo a go. Would the demo pump me up and get me all riled up over the impending release next month?

Actually, not so much. Honestly, I was a little under-whelmed by the demo. Maybe it's because you are over-level in the demo to give you a glimpse of more skills, but I was literally plowing through the run of the mill enemies. The mini-bosses were a little bit more challenging, but only because they get to attack so often (generally every other action was the boss's action). This disparity in difficulty was somewhat frustrating, since it made to area bosses seem almost impossible by comparison. I suppose this could be the desired effect, but I'm uncertain.

The thing that really drove me nuts was the "slowdown." I put that in quotes because I don't think it has anything to do with the framerate; I think they may have just gone nuts with the slo-mo effect. They've gone so crazy with it, it was a detrimental effect on the game: the battles feel like they lag. Believe me, it's not a pleasant effect.

To be honest, before I played the demo, this game was number two on my 360 wish list: behind Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect. However, with the mediocre nature of the Blue Dragon demo, and factoring in how much I enjoyed the Eternal Sonata demo, I am now officially more excited about Eternal Sonata, since I'm sure you are interested.

And since I brought up Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey, if you haven't taken a gander at the E3 trailers released today, I'd recommend it. I had a major nerdgasm hearing Keith David in Mass Effect. Is there anything that he does not make awesome with his presence? I think not. Also, I could probably make an entire post solely on the Lost Odyssey trailer, but I'll leave it at this: wow. How awesome is this storyline: an immortal soldier with no memory of any of his past exploits must search for clues of his past to stop the planet from being poisoned. Genius!

The Uberpost

2007-07-10T21:10:00.001-04:00

I was debating whether or not to break this up into two normal-sized posts, or to throw it all together as one massive uberpost. I've chosen to go with the latter. Lucky you!

GrimGrimoire...
is very good. The story is strongly (repeat, very strongly) influenced by Harry Potter. For example, the headmaster's name is Gammel Dore. Yeah, they're really subtle. The premise is that you area new student in a magical academy, and in your first five days all hell breaks loose. At the end of the 5th day you're zapped back through time to your first night. Fortunately, when you restart, you'll still have all your grimoires and you'll remember how to use them.

I'm a big fan of the sorcery tree. I tend to get pretty excited about the ability to control massive dragons who will obey my every command. Well, they'll obey every command as long as all my commands are "attack." That works though, since that's the only command I can give 'em. I'm also a big fan of Grimalkin, and not just because they're cats who walk around and cast magic. Actually, no. That is why I'm a big fan. Mana burn is my favorite spell in the game, by a very wide margin. When a spell can evoke a one-shot kill on half of the units in the game, and can be cast three times in a row without recharging, it's worth researching.

On the other hand, Glamour sucks. It's not really surprising, since it's called Glamour for God's sake! Fairy's are a waste on mana in pretty much any level past the tutorials, and Unicorns are definitely the weakest of the 150-cost units. Their strongest unit can't even attack without building bullets!

I could go on and on about this, and that's because I'm enjoying the game so much. It seems to be pretty short, so I'm trying to savor it. I limit myself to a couple of battles per day at most. If you feel an itch to play a PS2 RTS sometime, give GrimGrimoire a look-see.

Guitar Hero II
Man, was I late to this party or what? I like to think that I'm "fashionably late." I finally decided to pick up Guitar Hero II for the 360 last weekend, and I'm not as terrible as I thought I'd be. In fact, I managed to finish Career mode on Medium. Go me! However, looking at the song lists for the first two games and Rocks the 80's, and looking ahead at the announced lists for Part III, and Rock Band, I see some glaring omissions from the track lists. I am so adamant about his, in fact, that I've decided to make an impromptu Top Ten List.

Actually, it's not a "Top Ten List," since this isn't ranked. We'll just call it:

Ten Artists/Songs that Should be in Guitar Hero III/Rock Band:

1. Van Halen "Hot for Teacher" - Come on guys! You've had three attempts to put this in a game, and you've failed. Don't disappoint me again.

2. Mudvayne "Dig" - I'd settle for almost any Mudvayne song, but could you imagine "Dig" in Rock Band? I've got dibs on not doing the vocals.

3. Metallica "Call of Ktulu" - I know that Activision is trying to get Metallica tracks on GH III, and I know that they love throwing in the all-instrumental tracks. Here's hoping this ends up in there.

4. Megadeth "Killing is My Business..." - We know there's not a problem with getting license to use Megadeth's songs in these games, so why not use one of the songs that put them on the map?

5. Killswitch Engage "Daylight Dies" - I will pray for any KSE song in Rock Band. Pretty please!?

6. Chuck Berry "Johnny B. Goode" - This song seriously isn't in either of the first two GH games? Really? Wow.

7. Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Can you say "Rock Band?" Yes? Good.

8. The Doobie Brothers "China Grove" - I'm running out of things to say about these songs.

9. Pantera "Walk" - Is there a more memorable riff in the history of heavy metal?

10. CKY "Sniped" - I just listed "Sniped" to put something there. Any CKY song would be great.

11. BONUS - Hawthorne Heights "Ohio is For Lovers" - Just so we can see if emo kids can play Guitar Hero and cut themselves simultaneously.

The Red Ring

2007-07-05T16:45:00.000-04:00

Oh, Microsoft, responsibility is important and you've stepped up. I won't even begin to argue that makes everything okay, but it certainly is an improvement. What they really need to do is set up an exchange policy with a retailer. It isn't ideal, but if for a month they had a presence at a number of stores around the country, letting people get a new or refurbished replacement for free, then they'd get some real good press. It'll never happen, but that'd please all the people annoyed right now and send a nice message to the gaming press that they actually want to please gamers, not just beat Sony.

GBA Swan Songs?

2007-06-27T12:59:00.000-04:00

Maybe Sidious is right and maybe I just ignored the GBA in favor of my PSP or consoles, but last year Atlus released a bunch of extremely good games for the little handheld. A card based strategy RPG? Check. (Yggdra Union) A strategy RPG space opera with giant fighting anime robots? Check. (Super Robot Taisen 2) A quirky, fun, action RPG? Check. (Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2) I mean come on!

I have had the good fortune to play Yggdra Union for about 10 hours now (having only picked it up about 3 days ago) and it is just a fantastic take on the strategy RPG genre, with an interesting story (so far) to boot. I also picked up Super Robot Taisen 2 and have ordered its predecessor as I have been informed it is basically necessary to understand the storyline, but, as always: Anime robots? Count me in.

At $20 a pop these are great values, and I would even go so far to say just outright better than some of the newer console releases. If you've still got a GBA sitting around or have moved on to the unholy, demon-forged DS, definitely take a look at these titles, they are well worth it.

From the "Dog Bites Man" Files

2007-06-26T06:50:00.001-04:00

If there was any doubt that this generation of the console wars is going a bit differently then those of the past, check this out:

Nintendo briefly zipped past Sony in market capitalisation on Monday to become one of Japan's ten most valuable companies as it elbows the PlayStation maker out of its decade-long dominance of the game industry.

Now, lest all of the Playstation 3 haters jump on and declare victory for their motion-sensing miracle, it appears that the market decided that something just wasn't quite right with that picture.

Nintendo joined global household names such as Toyota, Honda and Canon on the top-ten list before its shares erased earlier gains and ended the day lower. (Emphasis Added)

Me: Obviously I still think its too early to declare a winner for this generation, but there is no doubt that Sony is reeling. I mean, for god's sake, the company makes TV's and computers in addition to their "toys" and yet is getting it handed to them by the home of the plumber and the green-clad elf. Still, lets hold on for a bit before we declare mighty Sony down for the count.

Oh, snap!

2007-06-25T22:27:00.000-04:00

I was perusing Next-gen's preview of Haze, when I happened upon this quote:

And Yescombe sees it as a responsibility for the gaming industry to deal with more mature, and even realistic, subject matter: “It’s about what’s happening in the world today – it’s ludicrous, and how can you make something that doesn’t reflect that? Well, you could bury your head in the sand and make Halo 3, but the fact of the matter is there are more important things at stake.” As well as this bigger picture, your own mortality, obedience and control are explored, and to Yescombe it’s clear that the demands made by games are necessarily changing, “because while Halo is brilliant, you’re a teenager – the next gen is about becoming more mature: in Haze you become an adult.”

Damn! I mean...damn! In your face Bungie! Free Radical just served your ass!

What has Society come to?

2007-06-25T22:23:00.000-04:00

The game Society looks like it could be a winner. Of course it won't be a winner for at least one more year, but I can accept that. Some of the screens really have an ambiance to them, the way Resident Evil 4 did, but without the creepy factor.

The news on the game is short, but after the weird turn the new SimCity is taking, going more arcardey on us, Society may be a truly welcome addition. Not that it is trying to be SimCity in any way, maybe more Civilization, but with that whole MMO thing added on. The idea of a game taking a full year to play sounds both impressive, daunting, and wholly addicting. I Nicorrette can come out with a patch for that, cause I'm still going to have bill to pay after this game comes out. (and hopefully a job to lose...)

Things Unexpected

2007-06-23T19:22:00.000-04:00

Within the past 24 hours, three things have happened that I never expected. In reverse order of shock value:

3. Yes, some people will pimp out anything.
This morning, I saw a minivan with rims. Spinners, no less. I realize that lots of people take pride in a "pimped-out ride," but seriously. Should you really be pimping your wheels when your wheels are attached to a Caravan? I didn't get a look at the driver, but I can only imagine who would be driving a burgundy minivan with spinning rims.

2. More proof that fried food is delicious.
I like cheeseburgers. I like cheeseburgers with all manner of unique toppings, like fried onion straws or blue cheese crumbles. One thing I haven't seen offered on a burger is a fried egg. Or, I hadn't seen it until I took a closer look at the menu at Red Robin. As it turns out, they offer a bacon cheeseburger topped off with a fried egg. Well, that I had to try. As it turns out, it's quite tasty. Put one on the board for the Royal Red Robin Burger.

1. Strategy on the 360? ZOMG!!!
I never thought I'd see this. Not in a million years. A system that seemed destined to be rife with shooters and racers actually has generated some more cerebral fare. My incredulity aside, there actually is an impressive strategy game available on the 360. And on XBLA of all places! Band of Bugs is a surprisingly good strategy title for only 10 bucks. I started the trial version last night, intending to try it out for 10 minutes or so. 45 minutes later, I was paying up for the full version. I haven't sampled the map editor yet, but Band of Bugs has strong prospects as a game that I can keep coming back to for a long time.

Re: AO....(Huh!)...What is it Good For?

2007-06-22T18:42:00.000-04:00

There are a number of responses that went through my head in response to your points, and I think I've limited them to 3:

1. Unless you've played the game, and we haven't, we don't know what kind of game it is. Violence is not inherently cutting edge. It's from Rockstar so we'll assume its going to be at least a good game, but being on the "cutting edge" in this case, and in all other AO cases, would just mean that they allow severe sex and violence. While there is a certain amount of draw to that, its not that overwhelming. "Cutting egde" for video games is seen as something different, which explains why anyone has purchased a PS3 over a 360.

2. Publishing the game = lawsuits = negative perception by parents. There is a 100% chance that they would be sued, and not just by Jack Thompson. Parents buy many of the systems for their kids. This would be big press if the system were the only one publishing such a game and that would be how it was branded in parents' minds.

3. AO ratings have their place just as NC-17 has its place. No one wants to make an NC-17 movie because most theaters won't carry it. Some artists choose to go that way and that's their choice, but they have to distribute the movie so people can see it - it ends up in art houses and in DVD sales, which in this case are analogous to the PC. If you want to keep someone from breathing down your neck, you put it somewhere without someone to sue. And the super-violent movies that the game has been likened too (Hostel, Saw, etc) have sometimes had to be recut inorder to make it into theaters. That's why their "unrated" DVD versions are so important. They know they'd hit NC-17, so they make the commercial sacrifice.

So what does that mean? First of all, Rockstar should have seen it coming. And the solution isn't that appetizing - publish the full game on PC and then publish a watered down version on the Wii and the PS3. Sure, Gamespot says it would lose some of the story, but I doubt that it would take a full overhaul to get it under. Dark violence is okay, Manhunt proved that, but apparently there is a limit. Oh, and if they do that, they better make sure that the cut pieces are lying there on the disc like some Hot Coffee.

Playstation 3 to have (gasp) Games!?!

2007-06-22T06:52:00.000-04:00

This from the powers that be at Sony:

Sony's game division posted an operating loss of 232 billion yen ($1.88 billion) in the past business year because of hefty start-up costs of the PS3, prompting investors to see the console business as Sony's biggest risk factor.

Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii game console has been outselling the PS3 by three to one in Japan and more than two to one in the United States so far this year, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain and research firm NPD.

A lack of attractive games has been widely cited as a reason for the PS3's relatively weak performance in addition to the fact that it is twice as expensive as the Wii.

More than 200 packaged software titles will likely be released for the PS3 in the year to March 2008, and more than 180 titles are expected to be launched over the Internet, Stringer said.

Not much to add here, save this: YEAH RIGHT.

AO....(Huh!)...What is it Good For?

2007-06-21T06:52:00.000-04:00

As many of you are no doubt aware, Rockstar's Manhunt 2 recently received an AO rating from the ESRB. If released, this would mark the first console game intentionally released at the AO level (GTA: San Andreas is technically the first, since the ESRB retroactively rated it with an AO when it discovered poorly rendered humping action in the game...oh the horror). Nevertheless, AO is a legitimate ranking. Pity that the console makers don't think so.

From Gamespot:

GameSpot has confirmed with Nintendo and Sony that one of those options, which would be to accept the ESRB's judgment and release the game with the AO rating, isn't an option at all. Both companies forbid licensed third-party publishers from releasing games rated AO for Adults Only on their various hardware platforms. Though Manhunt 2 isn't slated for any of Microsoft's systems, the company has also confirmed that it does not allow AO-rated titles on the Xbox or Xbox 360.

Now, I understand Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo want to protect their brand, I do. But save for Nintendo (which really is marketed at the kiddies almost exclusively), I would think that there is a branding advantage to be gained from being the only console with "cutting edge" fair.

Manhunt 2 is really this generation's Mortal Kombat. If you were into video games at the time, you will remember that the release of Mortal Kombat sparked senate committee hearings, the formation of outraged parent groups, and the birth of the rating system itself. The whole "controversy" went so far as to cause Midway to release two separate versions of the material: One with all of the content of the arcade game on the Sega Genesis (which admittedly still required the use of a "blood code"), and one watered down to the point of being irrelevant on the SNES. Certainly the Genesis gained a great deal of street cred with the release of the real version.

And yet here we are. I could talk until I'm blue in the face about the fact that in order for the high end of the rating system to work we cannot eliminate the use of the highest rating, or that the most recent torture porn masterpiece from Eli Roth is likely more violent and disturbing then Manhunt 2 will be (Full Disclosure: Obviously I haven't played Rockstar's latest), but what do you all think? Is there market share to be gained by allowing AO games on one's system? Or are the console makers right to believe that adults need to be coddled as much as the kids do?

And Blu-Ray takes the lead...

2007-06-20T06:51:00.000-04:00

I've been accused of backing the Blu-Ray high definition video format over its brethren, the HD-DVD. This is not the case. The reason I have Blu-Ray discs is quite simply because I bought a new Playstation 2 that happens to play Blu-Rays (why the console has a number '3' on it I can't say...I certainly don't play any Playstation '3' games on the console).

That being said, I believe that the battle is one step closer to completion with this announcement from Blockbuster. The relevant portion:

In a move that could tip the scales in the format war, Blockbuster Inc. said Monday that it will begin offering only Blu-ray Disc titles among its high-definition rental selections at 1,700 company-owned stores.

***

Through June 10, Blu-ray held a 66% market share compared with HD DVD (34%), according to Nielsen VideoScan. The format held a 67% market share since the beginning of the year and 59% share since launches of both formats.

I think we may have a winner.

You Know What...I DO Love Bees!

2007-06-19T06:53:00.000-04:00

ilovebees is back baby... check out this article from gamespot.

The crux of the article:

Three-and-a-half months before Halo 2 lit up Xbox Live, ilovebees made its debut tagged onto the end of a Halo 2 trailer released in theaters. The viral marketing campaign and alternate-reality game piqued gamers' interests by sending them on a scavenger hunt for clues to unravel the mysterious quasi-real-world happenings that were steeped in Halo lore. Last week, again three-and-a-half months before the launch of its upcoming Halo game, Microsoft set in to motion its latest metagame, beginning this time with a mysterious message board "hacker."

As Avenger is well aware, I was one of the crazies plotting out pay phone call times during the original summer of (i)love(bees). I can't wait to do that again this year. Thank you Bungie!

Its the Story, Stupid!

2007-06-18T06:58:00.000-04:00

So I was speaking with my brother over this Father's Day weekend when the topic of the greatness of Bioware came up (for those who are interested, this was brought about by my admission that I had ordered "Raw Danger" from ebgames due to the frequent mention of the plotline in this gamespot review). Specifically, he stated that Bioware had never made a bad game and that the plotline to KOTOR was one of the best in the last 10 years (seeing that plot-based games are only about 17 or 18 years old, he was this close to saying "all-time"). This evaluation was based in large part on the (light spoiler warning) Revan reveal, which he felt was handled perfectly.

As a gut reaction type point, I stated that MGS 3: Snake Eater had a better plotline than either KOTOR or KOTOR 2, in that it changed the way we looked at a venerated series. This is specifically the case with the introduction of the concept that (light spoiler warning) Big Boss may have been justified in creating Outer Heaven, and that it was Snake along who was unenlightened. He disagreed fairly vehemently with this notion, while admitting that the MGS3 storyline was still quite good.

I relate this to you all because I am curious. I basically purchased a game (Raw Danger) due entirely to my belief in that game's story. I have no illusion that the gameplay of said game is likely terrible. Similarly, I have enjoyed a number of games in the past with "great" stories and negligible game play (Shadow of Destiny springs to mind). So I'm curious, what are your favorite stories in games (completely independent of how they play as games), and have you ever purchased a game for its story even though you knew that the gameplay likely wouldn't be enjoyable?

Delicious Incentives

2007-06-17T10:53:00.000-04:00

Ah, the inevitable ending of a trip to GameStop: "would like to pre-order any upcoming titles today?" This is, of course, followed by the inevitable "no." You could set your watch by it. Why on earth would I pre-order a game in-store, when I could just have them deliver it to my door instead. Yes, on-line pre-orders are more expensive: shipping ain't free, and since they starting charging tax on online orders (this wasn't the case back in ought-two), on-line pre-orders have become less of a deal.

However, I'm a busy guy. I don't have a long enough lunch break to run out to the store mid-day, and I don't want to get caught in a log-jam of traffic headed to the store after work. Therefore, I'm willing to pay for the convenience of having the game waiting for me on my step when I get home.

Also, when you order in the store, what do you get? Nothing. What do you get when you order online? Awesome goodies. From the awesome Soul Calibur and Xenosaga art books on my coffee table to the sweet-ass Baten Kaitos wall scroll hanging in my bedroom, online offers are often sweetened with swag. Case in point: Eternal Sonata. Custom faceplates? Yes, please! This game just jumped from the Christmas List, to the "must pre-order list."

I just hope I get the faceplate with the guy with the top hat. I'm a big fan of tall head-wear. Big fan.

Re: The Wii is what they make of it

2007-06-16T19:06:00.000-04:00

The Wii will get support purely because every developer wants to make money. If there are lots of Wii's there will be lots of games. Will there be lots of gamer/non-casual games? I think there will be because the Wii is being bought by traditional gamers. Even more so than the last gen, buyers will purchase either a PS3 or and 360, their second system is the Wii. It has more unique titles, if only because of the significant first-party support, but "exclusives" are becoming harder to find outside of first-party, almost invisible. The Wii is getting some third party exclusives though, on pace with the 360 overall in less the half as much time since its release (including first party I imagine). A real adventure game, special modes in top selling games, a "duh it will be popular" Naruto game, a mysterious game by the guy who did Killer7 (so you know it'll be innoovative), so I'm not too worried.

The issue I see, is that the companies scrambling to support the Wii won't be able to put out their truly good games for two more years. PS3 will start getting them in a year or so, and the 360 will start seeing more of them to go with Gears of War, Forza, and Halo 3 over the next year. The Wii needs the lead it is building because it may take longer to see great games than either of the other systems. Plus, Sega is whining about where it will be in a few years, even while it supports with a number of games.

And to address Zelda, I've spoken with far more people who have enjoyed the game than those that think it was bad, and none that would say "irreversibly damaged". Zelda has a bigger problem in that the Twighlight Princess and Majora's Mask were just the Ocarina of Time 2 and 3. They add a few things here and there, but for a game that's supposed to be on the leading edge, it doesn't seem to be trying hard enough.

Grim Grimoire

2007-06-15T15:57:00.000-04:00

I'm super excited for this game, just check out the trailer!

Re: The Wii is what they make of it

2007-06-15T06:48:00.000-04:00

Oh, don't get me wrong, I think the Wii is great and I think that third parties who make games specifically for it ("novelty games" per your description) will do extraordinarily well. After all, the system is huge in strange new places like cruise ships and retirement homes...places were video games have never truly been before. With the gigantic base that Nintendo has created, the system simply can't fail. And that's a good thing.

But what I was trying to get at, Incognito, is that "normal" games don't feel right on the Wii. The Zelda experience, to me at least, is irreversibly damaged by using the wand and the ninja weapon rather than a traditional controller. And the plain fact of the matter is that most third parties (including Seeds) will be creating "normal" games. Knowing this, I believe that it is a perfectly rational choice for such third parties to eschew the Wii experience completely, and thus leave the Wii to Nintendo and the so-called "novelty" games.

Re: The Wii is what they make of it

2007-06-14T10:24:00.001-04:00

While I believe there is some truth to what you say, I worry that the power gap may prove to be to difficult for the Wii to overcome. I'm not trying to sound like a complete graphics whore, but there are certain expectations that come with the "next generation" that I just think the Wii will fall short of. I mean, at the end of the day the technology improvements may allow for improved AI or more units on screen, but the most noticeable effect is on the visuals and audio, the Wii is behind the curve, and it's just going to get worse.

Don't take that to mean that I think the Wii will "fail" in any way, Nintendo first-party development alone can ensure that won't happen, but I think it will be a party game machine as opposed to the next evolution of gaming. The Wii-mote has yet to prove it can handle anything better than a conventional controller, and it has shown itself to be substantially worse in some cases. Still, I enjoy having friends over to play a bunch of Wii Sports or Wario Ware. I just imagine the experiences I truly remember from this generation will come from the 360 and PS3, but I'd happily be proven wrong.

The Wii is what they make of it

2007-06-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

I'm in a hurry so I'll have to make this brief. You say the the Wii will only excel at first-party and novelty games, but why? There is no reason that third-party developers can't bring exciting, original content to the system. I think that the idea that Nintendo systems are only good for kids games and WarioWare is ridiculous. The Wii can be whatever developers want it to be. Well, whatever they want it to be that isn't censored by Nintendo (frankly, I'm shocked that they gave the thumbs-up to Manhunt 2, but that's another post entirely).

It would be a monumental shame if the Wii controls weren't able to reach their true potential because no one like Seeds decided to make something great with them.

Avenger's Hyper Update

2007-06-14T09:23:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been so quiet as of late. The logistics of quickly leaving my job and relocating to Texas have proved to be pretty time consuming, so I haven't been making a lot of time to post to the blog. As such I decided, I should try to compress any and all updates into a set of highlights so here it goes:

I start game design school on July 9th! Yippee!
I finished Command & Conquer 3 - Nod's ending = lame, Scrin campaign = sweet
Odin Sphere is still awesome, I'm on the third book now. Reusing bosses is somewhat lame, but doesn't really taint the experience too much.
Where is Mass Effect? I desire it now...
Grim Grimoire looks sweet - A 2D RTS, with a cool story and beautiful art design? Count me in.
I too feel the Wii is going to be the novelty of the next generation - nice to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there
Dungeon Maker for the PSP looks interesting.

Ok, I think that's basically the gist of it. I'll try to post more often in the future. Later!

Re: Illogical Choices

2007-06-14T06:43:00.000-04:00

Incognito,

I'm not sure that the decision by Clover (as I'm going to refer to them both now and in the future) is that illogical. While Okami would almost certainly be a great candidate for the Wii treatment (if only because the celestial brush would work great with the Wii remote), I'm still not sold on how a "traditional video game" (which Okami almost certainly is if the brush is not considered) feels using the Wii and that ninja instrument. I couldn't help but feel, for instance, that Twilight Princess would have been more fun to play with a standard GameCube controller than it was with the Wii setup. Disclaimer: I only played the Wii version so anyone with GameCube experience on this matter can feel free to chime in.

If I had to choose, I'd rather that Clover have the extra processing power offered by the PS3 and 360 than the magic wand novelty of the Wii. But then again, maybe I'm souring on the Wii a little bit. Its slowly becoming my view that the Wii will only excel at novelty products and 1st party Nintendo games. Not too terribly different from the GameCube when you think about it.

Illogical Choices

2007-06-13T16:47:00.000-04:00

First, I heart Atelier Iris 3. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, but I have a huge soft spot for Gust, as you may have discerned from my Arrrrrrrr Tonelico ravings. I just wanted to state that there actually was an RPG other than Odin Sphere released last month.

Moving on, the actual topic I wanted to address was the fact that Seeds, also known as what re-formed after Capcom eradicated Clover, has stated that they are working on new titles... for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Are you serious? The guys behind Okami and Viewtiful Joe are not making games for the Wii?! Does that seem ludicrous to anyone else? Every time I turn on my Wii, I think: "man, Okami would be so awesome on the Wii." I'm dead serious. When I return serve in Wii Tennis, I'm really wishing that I was drawing a magical wind to stun my foes.

Nintendo, you need to step up to the plate here. Once upon a time, Viewtiful Joe debuted on your system. Go back and tap that very same designer to make some absolutely mind-blowing games for the Wii. You owe it to all of us who are still waiting for something else to play other than mini-games and Super Paper Mario.

Odin Sphere Love

2007-06-13T06:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I know I've been away for a while, but I had no idea that this blog had been so co-opted by love for Odin Sphere. Since this is my first video game related post since that game's release I figured I'd chime in on the phenomenon.

First, I think that much of the adoration for this game stems from the depths of the drought we are currently in. In the last month, Odin Sphere is just about the only game worth getting, and in the next two months it is entirely possible that Odin Sphere will remain just about the only game worth getting. This has a tangible effect on how we perceive its greatness. Basically we are like so many thirsty men in the desert of a video game summer, grateful for any small oasis that we come across.

Second, I can't speak for everyone here, but I wasn't expecting much from Odin Sphere, and what I got was a great deal better than I had hoped. When expectations are exceeded to the extent that they are in this case, the whole game takes on a better shine. Its easier to ignore the various faults (the slowdown, the similarity of the bosses, etc.)

Third, the game is just good. Maybe not worth ten posts in the last two weeks, but still...

Those are just my thoughts, and since this topic has been covered to death on this blog, it will be my final one on the subject. (I have to make time to actually play more of the game after all).

I'm Back!!!

2007-06-12T07:16:00.000-04:00

Hey all. I just wanted to take this time to apologize for my announced extended hiatus from The Den. As many of you here know, I was working with my beautiful fiancee to plan the perfect wedding and honeymoon.

Well, outside of some typical logistical issues (has a wedding ever started on time?) we are happy to say that "We Did It!" As a result I plan to be much more active on this blog in the future.

For everyone's reference I plan to play Forza 2, Tomb Raider Anniversary, and Odin Sphere for the next little while. Its good to be back.

Knights of the Old Republic

2007-06-11T14:36:00.000-04:00

Here's the info:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=165554

If you'll excuse me, I must go weep for joy.

I DID IT!

2007-06-05T18:24:00.001-04:00

Holy shit. Part of me believed that I would never make this post. But finally, after almost a month and at least a dozen attempts, I got through Kiss Me All Night Long on Expert in DDR Universe. This song has been my "white whale" for a long time now, and the way I feel right now... I can barely type I'm so tired. This is definitely one of my top five game-related euphorias, right up there with beating Chrono Trigger. Maybe I'll post more about this later, but right now I need to go take a shower.

w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why are games different prices on different systems?

2007-06-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

This question was posed, and I shall answer, though belatedly.

Games prices are based on demand, not on how much they cost to make. Buying is a purely psychological exercise. When comparing 360 prices to PC prices, you have to consider why you're buying a particular game. Most people, when faced with the choice, purchase the console version of their desired game (with possible exception being when purchasing an MMO). There is more demand for the console version, so the price is higher. Also, there are costs for the developer for each game sold to Microsoft on Xbox systems, but I don't think that plays a big role (see the $50 start price for last gen games).

Add that 360 games are traditionally more expensive than PC games, and it makes sense. There shouldn't be any sticker shock because you can't compare the two to each other, you can only compare them to similar games on that system. People want to be able to play with their controller on their giant TV with their powerful new console. People who wanted to play on the PC will play on the PC at $50 but will consider anything more price-gouging. If you want the console version, odds are ten more dollars won't really matter to you. All your other games were $60, why shouldn't this one be too?

The console market and the PC market are not direct competitors because they are not direct substitutes. Different people play each, and even now where most gamers play both, they are looking for different experiences from each. They're mind tells them that a particular game is supposed to be played on a particular type of system. So the companies can price a little different and suffer nothing. It's not someone is going to refrain from buying the game because one is more expensive than the other, though it might, just might, cause you to buy the PC version if you're right on the edge.

Time to break the chain

2007-06-05T16:49:00.000-04:00

I would be willing to bet that I was one of many who started playing the glorious game known as StarCraft again recently. I love that there are 3 wholly different races and at least 3 strategies that are viable for each, even in high level, complete psychopath, I can point and click so precise that I differentiate pixels in milliseconds, world-class games. Command and Conquer: Red Alert was my first RTS love. I loved the Russian accents and blowing up buildings. Command and Conquer never reached that level again, though it does put out quality games.

StarCraft 2 must be amazing and will no doubt mildly disappoint many. But after watching the videos, I have concluded that there is going to be waaaaay more firepower in this one. Protoss defense in this one will be sick I tell you, sick. And since the game must be balanced, Terran and Zerg will most definitely have some amped up attacks. We haven't seen as much of their righteous abilities and units yet, or at least in my analysis, but that doesn't mean I'm any less excited.

Now all I need if for LucasArts to annouce Kotor 3 and an Xbox 360 to play Pro Evo and then Mass Effect when it comes out and I can be happy.

No excuses

2007-05-29T21:42:00.000-04:00

Six and a half years. The PS2 has been around for more than six and a half years. Pretty amazing when you really think about it. By now, every developer knows exactly how to squeeze every last drop of power out of the machine. Slowdown is a thing of the past, especially in 2-D games. At least it should be, right?

I really wanted my next post to be about something other than Odin Sphere, since this blog is coming dangerously close to "Odin Sphere fanboy" status. Everyone knows that God hates fanboys, so I wanted to avoid that if I could, but alas, I succumbed.

You may have a hard time believing it, but a game that was released in the US more than 2300 days after the American debut of the PS2 is still a victim of slowdown: and it's the kind of slowdown that you can't ignore. While it's not as bad as something along the lines of Dynasty Warriors 3 (but to be fair, DW 3 is over 5 years old), but it's still bad enough to cause your death. In game, of course.

If this happened four or five years ago, I never would have paid it a second thought. Now, though, I can't see any reason why a 2-D game should have any slowdown, noticeable or otherwise, regardless of how fancy the sprites look. 2-D is still 2-D, and after all this time, there is no excuse for a game like this not to run as smooth as silk.

If you're counting, that's 9 straight Odin Sphere-related posts. We are such dorks.

Pause the Game Every Once in a While

2007-05-29T17:43:00.000-04:00

As a note to everyone out there playing Odin Sphere (which is probably a lot of you, since my local EB only had one shelf copy. More on this at a later date), I recommend pausing the game every once in a while. I know this sounds ridiculous, but have you really looked through the pause menu? I hadn't until Sunday, when I found the "Story" menu. It's displays how the five stories mesh together chronologically. Very useful if you were looking for, let's say, which characters had coincidental boss battles.

However, there are two distinct sections of the time-line. In addition to the main time-line, on which it seems that the main story seems to take place, there is also a second, separate time-line further along that is completely disconnected from the main chart. I haven't accessed anything in this area yet, so your guess as good as mine as to what happens there. Is it part of the ending? Some sort of epilogue? A series of bonus dungeons, perhaps? I don't know right now, but there's only one way to ascertain the answer: playing more Odin Sphere!!!

At least until tomorrow, when hopefully Atelier Iris 3 will show up on my front step.

I <3 Odin Sphere

2007-05-28T16:55:00.001-04:00

The title pretty much says it all. I absolutely love Odin Sphere and I can barely stop playing it long enough to write this post. The visuals are fantastic, the story and characters are interesting and engrossing, and the crafting system adds a whole second level to the combat. I am enjoying the game way more than I expected, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes action RPGs or games with a strong driving narrative.

I do have one criticism - I am about halfway through the second character and the game reuses many of the bosses from the first character's journey (I've fought one new one). I'm not sure if this trend will continue throughout the different stories, but it does take away a little of the wonder and awe to be beating up the same enemies just in a different order/location. Still, at this point it hasn't detracted much from my experience, but I imagine fighting the same boss for the fifth time might feel a bit tedious. We'll see, but as of right now, I am giving this game a solid 9.0, just terrific.

Re: One Odin Sphere Answer

2007-05-27T10:22:00.000-04:00

No worries, I decided to purchase it anyway, and I believe the answer is: yes, the story is cool and very well presented.

I haven't gotten to try another character yet, but Gwen's story is very well done I think and I am very much enjoying the game. It's somewhat strange to have a side scrolling beat-em-up that focuses primarily on farming, cooking, and crafting (the fighting seems almost secondary), but I think it is that strange uniqueness that makes the game so appealing. That and the beautiful almost storybook style visuals. Right now, I would put it somewhere in the 8 - 9 range, and it has the potential to go up from there, depending on how well they intertwine the different stories.

Oh, poor Kingdom Hearts, I'm never gonna finish you...

One Odin Sphere Answer

2007-05-25T23:01:00.000-04:00

I'm still only 90 minutes in (I've had a nightmare week), but the story seems to be shaping up quite well. I've only controlled one character so far, but I do know that all-told there are five playable characters. What I am led to believe is that each character will present a different perspective on the war that serves as a focal point for the narratives. Certainly an interesting premise, to say the least. It's reminiscent of Suikoden 3, only with a better story.

I wish I had a more complete answer, but this is the best I can do right now. I do plan to push onwards and upwards with it tomorrow afternoon, so if it takes a catastrophic turn, I'll keep you updated.

One Odin Sphere Question...

2007-05-25T08:51:00.000-04:00

Incognito, can you rate what you think of the story so far? Everything I've read seems to indicate the story is quite good and well executed, which is a huge selling point for me, so I am strongly considering purchasing it. What do you think?

Reactions

2007-05-24T10:48:00.000-04:00

Sorry that my Starcraft II post wasn't as timely as you would have like, Incognito. I'll try to step it up for future updates. I guess that while I am excited about the concept of (considering it is arguably the best RTS ever) the lack of any substantive information at the demonstration makes it difficult to get too excited about the whole thing. I will no doubt buy it and love it, I have the utmost faith in Blizzard to produce a high quality product. I also have faith that they will take their sweet time in doing so, so I'm not going to start holding my breath just yet.

As for your description of Odin Sphere, that's basically the feeling I've been getting from the different reviews I've read. Despite your abject distaste for reviews they are often pretty good a conveying what the game is, if not its quality. Generally, it sounds like a lot of flash with relatively little substance marred by some technical failings. I guess the hype surrounding it had me excited, but the actual product doesn't quite meet expectations. Oh well, here's hoping Shadowrun ends up being as good as everyone hopes (not holding my breath there either).

Also, I got a chance to see a lot of the Gamer Day stuff this morning while I was getting ready for work, and I must say for once that I am pretty excited to be a PS3 owner. It seems like the PS3 is shaping up to have some great properties, and that all the consoles will have a place within this generation. Hooray!

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Odin Sphere

2007-05-23T19:59:00.000-04:00

Odin Sphere is here! Huzzah! I've spent 90 minutes with it so far, and I feel like I have a good enough feel for it to post some initial impressions.

This is one of the most beautiful games ever. Period. Trying to describe it with words won't do it justice, nor will YouTube-quality video captures. No, to really appreciate it, you have to see it in person.

Avenger posted the quote from the WorthPlaying review in which they lament the monotony of the combat. After playing it, I have to wonder if they played for more than thirty minutes. I'll admit that I was getting a little bit bored near the end of the first chapter, where the only battle diversion is planting seeds and harvesting their fruit. However, once you start the second chapter you gain access to alchemy, allowing you to fabricate wondrous potions and explosives from Mandragoras. The ability to fashion offensive items on the fly is an immediate upgrade to the entertainment value of the game. Plus, I still haven't learned how to cook, so I've yet to reach the height of my item creation powers.

So far, my only two gripes with the battle system are largely superficial. Your character seems to have very slippery shoes: accelerating is a painfully slow process, and you always slide for a bit when you try to stop. This is also problematic for reasons other than movement/evasion, since in order to use an item or cast a spell, you must be completely motionless. This led me to rapidly tap the menu buttons when I wanted to open a menu, to assure I opened it as soon as possible. These things became less noticeable as I got more familiar with the system's wrinkles, but I doubt the controls will ever feel as tight as I think they should.

As of right now, my final verdict is this: B-. As I mentioned before, this is one of the most breathtaking games of all time. This can not be discounted, and it could be the factor that keeps me going with it. However, I think the loose controls in the battlefield will prevent me from ever playing it for more than an hour of two at a time; eventually I'll get tired of sliding around like a dog on a frozen pond, and I'll have to put the controller down. With Atelier Iris 3 less than a week away, Odin Sphere will really have to hook me to assure that I go back to it when I get distracted in the coming weeks. As of the first 90 minutes, that magic moment hasn't come yet, but I'm not throwing in the towel after round one.

This won't be the last you'll hear from me about Odin Sphere, one way or the other.

Re: WorthPlaying Pans Odin Sphere

2007-05-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

Avenger, you are such a review whore.

Also, I was blown away by how long it took you to say something about Starcraft II. You're the biggest RTS fan I know, and this had to have been one of the biggest RTS announcements ever. When I checked the blog on Saturday afternoon and saw a lack of Starcraft-relating blogging, I was floored. Let's hope you have a quicker reaction time with Starcraft III in 2019.

I'll try to get some initial impressions of Odin Sphere posted tomorrow night.

Starcraft II!

2007-05-22T11:08:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know pretty much everybody has already heard this by now, but...Starcraft II! Here's what Gamespot had to say:

SEOUL, South Korea--Crowds of fans and press file continuously into the Olympic Gymnastic Stadium in the Gangnam province of Seoul, South Korea, to await the announcement of Blizzard's new game title. The big-screen monitors onstage, which previously showed looped footage of tournaments held at last year's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, now show only the logo for this year's event, which takes place today and tomorrow. The anticipation and excitement in the air from the crowds of fans and international press are palpable.

The announcement session is underway, and the lights are up. The Korean emcees are making announcements about the tournaments and music concerts that will also be held at the event. Blizzard Korea managing director Jungwan Han has taken the stage to deliver the opening remarks, greeting and thanking Blizzard fans worldwide for their support. He takes his seat, and the emcees briefly introduce Blizzard's top brass, including Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo, and Chris Metzen.

Next up are the introductions for the professional gamers, who are greeted with great fanfare by the audience as they're announced individually and step onstage. First are the Starcraft players, introduced by their name, faction played (protoss, zerg, or terran), and country of origin. These are followed by the Warcraft III professional players, also introduced by their name, played faction (humans, orcs, undead, or night elves), and country of origin. After the players are all onstage, they are brought forward individually to take an "oath" of fair play.

Once the players are ushered away, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime takes the stage to make the big announcement, noting first that this year's event will host more tournaments than any previous event (including competitions for Starcraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft), then introducing a video montage with footage from Blizzard's previous games (such as the original Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft) and previous tournament events. Morhaime is finally getting closer to the announcement...the crowd cheers in anticipation. Says Morhaime, "When it came time to make this announcement, it was easy to decide where it should take place." The president praises the enthusiasm and support of Korean game players, then introduces a video trailer for the new game.

The trailer begins with a spaceship lowering a coffinlike object. The camera cuts to a chamber, then to a gigantic metal gate that cranks open, and finally to a man with a cigar in his mouth, wearing shackles on his ankles. The man steps into mechanical restraints that lock around his ankles and the platform around him rises. The cofflinlike object sprouts metal pincers that brace his wrists while the champers reveal whirring turbines that sprout metallic drills and rivets that fit metallic armor on his body. The figure is a Terran soldier, and the camera pans up his body, cutting to scenes of Protoss and Zerg warriors rushing to battle. The new game, as rumored, is Starcraft II.

Morhaime then introduces the lead designer of the project to discuss it--none other than former EALA designer Dustin Browder (who worked previously on The Battle for Middle-earth and Command & Conquer series). The video screen cuts to a demonstration that shows a fleet of Protoss ships that disembark several zealot infantry units, then cuts to a scene showing Terran transports touching down and becoming base structures, spouting infantry and vehicle units. Browder points out that this demonstration is in a very early stage of code. As we see in the demonstration, the new game will add abilities to existing units--the Protoss zealot, for instance, will now be able to charge into battle to quickly close the distance against Terran gunners. The Terrans retaliate by bringing in siege tanks to shell the Protoss from a distance. The Protoss respond by commissioning Immortals--heavy-duty tanks with powerful energy shields.

The Terrans then commission reapers, which are medium infantry with jetpacks that can jump barriers to raid enemy bases more effectively. The reapers leap into action against the Protoss base to attack the pylons, but the Protoss have a new series of structures that help them be much more resilient when attacked at their base, such as phase prisms, which let you quickly move units from place to place. The Protoss stalker unit has a "blink" ability that lets them jump anywhere they can see and makes them excellent pursuers.

The Zerg have arrived, sending Zerglings to overwhelm the Protoss stalkers--a huge swarm of them charges the Protoss. Browder points out that Starcraft II will still be a game about large armies against large armies. The Zerg then run into a few Protoss colossi--gigantic walkers with cutting lasers that specialize in liquifying Zerglings. The Zerg have mutated into a new kind of suicide unit that explodes in a burst of acid. The colossi also use inverse kinematic animation to walk up and down cliffs. The colossus unit is vulnerable to air attacks, such as mutalisks, which slaughter it. In response, the Protoss have a new unit, the phoenix, which can "overload" to eliminate squads of nearby airborne enemies but leave them helpless and immobile briefly afterward. The new game will also have new texture work and deep space background environments. The phoenix can't hold its own against Terran battlecruisers, which crush them--in response, the Protoss commission the Warprey, a laser-firing ship that deals more damage the longer it focuses its fire on an enemy. Browder caps the demonstration with one last new unit, the Protoss mothership, the ultimate weapon in the Protoss army. It's an incredibly expensive unit with a "time bomb" ability that distorts time within an energy field, making enemy fire too slow to actually reach and hit the mothership. Once the time field collapses, enemy shells clatter uselessly to the ground. The mothership also possesses the "planet cracker," a stream of multiple lasers that devastate anything beneath it. Finally, the mothership can create a black hole--an extremely damaging ability that wrecks flying enemies. The glowing black hole simply sucks in the Terran warships, which distort in appearance before disappearing utterly into oblivion.

The demonstration ends with a battle between the Protoss and the Terrans, who wail on each other mercilessly. As you might expect from the successor to Starcraft, it seems clear that the key to success in the sequel will be combined force of arms, as both armies pummel each other to a standstill, racking up casualties on each side as they grind away at each other. The battle ends with an orbital strike that wipes out both sides, save for one infantry unit on each side. Both get mobbed by Zerg units, which crawl out of the ground and butcher them and then mutate into their new form and crawl into formation to spell out the letters "GG" (an abbreviation many online players use to say "good game"). After the Starcraft II demonstration, another video montage is shown, this time featuring a series of concept art drawings that gives way to another gameplay demo that highlights various units new and old, such as the Protoss colossus, the Zergling, and others, ending with two portraits that appear to be Jim Raynor and Kerrigan.

Awesome.

Worth Playing Pans Odin Sphere

2007-05-22T10:57:00.000-04:00

Worth Playing recently gave the much lauded Odin Sphere a 6.8, and had this to say about the experience:

Many people accuse recent 3-D games of being all flash and no substance, and alas, Odin Sphere shows that 2-D games are not immune to the same syndrome. Odin Sphere is stunning. Rarely have games floored me with their animations and graphics as much as Odin Sphere did, but that is almost all that is worth recommending. The gameplay is dull and clunky and worst of all, repetitive. The characters are bland and boring, and the controls are a bit stiff and frustrating to wrangle with. I wanted to like Odin Sphere — no, I wanted to love Odin Sphere — but at best, I could tolerate it, and it was only the beautiful animations that kept me going. Don't misunderstand. While it has its flaws, Odin Sphere isn't unplayable or unworkably flawed; it just quickly grows tedious. The few elements that truly shine may be enough to justify purchasing this beautiful title, but be warned not to expect a gameplay experience as stunning as the graphics.

While Worth Playing probably isn't in my top five or even top ten review sources, it does give me pause, where I originally had no doubts about purchasing this game. Now I think I'll be waiting to see more reviews before I make my final decision.

Check out the full review to decide for yourself.

Why no Eternal Sonata love for America?

2007-05-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

Riddle me this Microsoft: why would someone who was jonesing to play the Eternal Sonata demo be unable to download it? There's no punchline here, and I'm sorry if you were expecting one. This was something that was puzzling me yesterday whilst i was Googling "japan postal codes" (something that I never dreamt that I would Google, by the way). The game has been announced for an American release, so distribution licenses of something of that nature isn't the problem. The demo is entirely in English, so the language barrier isn't even a factor. The only reason I could imagine as to why someone would have to make a fake Japan-region Live account to get it was that there was no reason. Microsoft just decided that it would be Japan only, and that was that.

On the subject of the game itself, I'm still on the fence. Tri-Crescendo was involved with Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (admittedly, only on sound design, but still), which it still a sore spot for me. I hated Till the End of Time's battle system, and anything that makes me reminiscent of it is difficult for me to play. Fortunately for me, Eternal Sonata's battle system is just different enough. It's strongly influenced by position; every character can set two abilities for use. One of these abilities is a "light" ability, and can only be used the the "light" areas of the battlefield. The other ability is, coincidentally, a "dark" ability, and the reverse area restrictions apply. The timing is a mix of real-time and turn-based, and there are apparently different levels for the battle system that change the timing dynamics. There is also a defensive timing mechanism, similar to that of Paper Mario. However, this only works on attacks from the front and sides, further emphasizing the importance of positioning.

All-in-all I did enjoy the demo, and I think I will definitely be picking this one up later this year. I would recommend the demo to anyone who wants to go through the trouble of getting it. For the record: Japanese postal codes are in the form: XXX-XXXX. You're welcome.

Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer - 5.19.07

2007-05-19T10:45:00.000-04:00

Dude, thank you for the awesomeness, that game looks sweet. I wish some more exciting PS3 titles were coming in this half of the year, but I guess beggars can't be choosers...

In other news, I have been officially accepted to the Guildhall for the July term (with the ability to defer to January if I so choose). I got a call from the Recruitment Director yesterday while I was at work and got the official email a few minutes later. There's still the decision to be made of July vs. January, but right now I am just so overjoyed at having gotten in I haven't even been thinking about it. It's the first real "success" since I started this journey and, I believe, worthy of much celebration. Probably in the form of gorging myself on Kingdom Hearts, LOTRO, and Halo 3 Beta.

w00t!

Gamer's Day Goodness

2007-05-19T10:08:00.000-04:00

If you've been to any game-related sites over the past few days, it's been hard to avoid footage from Sony's Gamer's Day event. If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favor and check out the videos (particularly the developer walkthrough) for Folklore. It looks like the freakish love-child of God of War and Phantom Dust, with a dash of Lost Kingdoms. Is that a good thing? Hell yes. This just became my most anticipated PS3 game of the year. Sorry, Ratchet.

You know what? I'll just save you the trouble of searching for it and point you to the awesomeness. You can thank me later.

Nothing's tricksier than a hobbit...

2007-05-16T17:51:00.000-04:00

except maybe a Spaniard.

That's it. Don't ask why I said it, just accept that I did and move on. There was never going to be a better time to drop that inside joke, and I had to seize the opportunity.

I'm a tricksy little hobbit

2007-05-16T09:24:00.000-04:00

Don't you worry, Incognito, I haven't given up on KH just yet, it just hasn't quite grabbed me the way FFXII did at first glance. That may be do in part to my social situation being different than it was last October. Back then, I had just moved here, and I hadn't really assembled my core group of friends so I had all the time in the world and nothing better to do than play videogames until my eyes hurt. The reason I didn't play KH this last weekend was because Friday night I went out to a concert, Saturday I ended up playing Catan on the XBL with a couple friends all morning and then hung out with people the rest of the day, and Sunday I was mostly busy with errands I my newest gaming obsession, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have a checkered past with MMOs. I often get excited for them play them for a little while but ultimately discard them for one reason or another. I am not sure that LOTRO will be any exception, but I will say that my initial impressions have been fantastic. While the game doesn't do anything new that I am aware of (maybe the way it handles PvP) it does bring together some of the best elements from games like City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XI and many others. Add to that that it looks absolutely gorgeous (sorry WoW, you are starting to show your age) and that Middle Earth is a great place to play in and you've put together a very powerful MMO experience. I think I've played for around 10-12 hours so far and obviously haven't seen even a fraction of the content that is available. There are so many quests, deeds, and other things to do that I imagine this game could even keep the most hardcore MMO fan busy for quite some time.

I play as a hobbit burglar named Borbo, actually Borbo the Undefeated right now (the title system allows you to add various titles to your name, depending on deeds you've accomplished) and I occasionally run around with a Human Captain name Teoric (Sidious' avatar), so if you're every on the Windfola server keep an eye out for us. Until then I'll be busy making sure all the hobbits get their mail and pies in timely fashion. Ah, the life of a hobbit...

It's about time

2007-05-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

Finally! Someone else makes a post!

Avenger, it would be a real shame if you got distracted from Kingdom Hearts. Unless, of course, you get distracted from it because you finally decided to go back and finish Shadow Hearts. You were on the precipice, but for some reason you refused to take that last step! Don't make the same mistake twice. Also, don't be such an Final Fantasy fanboy with your RPGs. If you can haul yourself though 70+ hours of FF XII, I think you can manage to make it though KH.

In short: don't be that guy, Domino.

My Return

2007-05-15T10:24:00.000-04:00

Wow, I leave for a couple weeks and when I come back it's basically just Incognito yammering to himself about his RPGs. Well, somebody has to put a stop to that, so I guess that's going to be me...

So, first order of business, my application to the Guildhall is complete and submitted. The recruitment director informed me I should expect to hear something by the end of this week or early next week. Needless to say, I am a little nervous about the whole thing. This is what I consider my greatest opportunity, so a rejection here would cause me to seriously reconsider this whole game design thing as a career choice. Regardless, there's nothing to be done about it now so I have been using my newfound free time to go back to my most favored pastime of actually playing games, which brings me to my second point.

Typically, when I play I tend to meander between games and get easily distracted by new and shiny things (as this post will further reveal). Occasionally, however, I consciously or unconsciously decide to really pour myself into a game and just get totally absorbed in it's storyline and characters. As that hasn't really been a natural occurrence as of late, I decided to look into my substantial backlog of games (likely larger than even Incognito's, with perhaps fewer RPGs) and choose something to just blitz with whatever free time I had available.

This decision, much like Incognito's was not an easy one, and I had several options that I think could have provided excellent experiences: Metroid Prime, STALKER, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, Dragon Quest 8, Rogue Galaxy, Okami, among others. Instead of one of these I chose to try to re-engage with a game that didn't originally grab me, Kingdom Hearts.

The first time I tried to play Kingdom Hearts I think I mostly was turned off to it by the battle system. The story and characters seemed interesting (I like Disney), though the narrative moved a little too slowly for my taste, but the battle system just irritated me. Say what you will about FFXII and the gambit system, it beats the crap out of the downright stupid AI partners you get in KH. Donald and Goofy will in no uncertain terms run at the closest enemy and basically blow all of their MP as fast as possible, and then they will die. No attempt to evade attacks or at least minimize damage from bosses highly predictable special attacks. Nope, full-on right in the face and then dead.

This second time through I think I am enjoying things a bit more because I have just learned to accept it. You are on your own and your companions are more like set pieces than actual gameplay elements. I am about 7 hours in and I am heading back to Traverse Town after doing Tarzan world, Alice in Wonderland world, and Hercules world, so I know I have barely scratched the surface, but unfortunately I have yet again been distracted by something new and shiny, and worry that I may not complete it as planned...again.

I think this post is already long enough so I will leave the new game for my next post, but I'll give you a hint, it's a new MMO. Talk to you all later!

Wii-markable Timing

2007-05-14T19:46:00.000-04:00

So, I was on the way out of BestBuy today, and as I'm approaching the exit, an employee passes me with what appear to be three shiny new Wiis. For a second, I just stood there staring; I was dumbstruck. When I snapped out of it, I asked if those happened to be for sale.

"Yep."

"Can I get one?"

"Sure, just get back in line."

And so, just a few weeks after I resigned myself to go without a Wii until the holiday season, one just falls into my lap. The only downside is that I leave town for the rest of the week tomorrow night, so I'll cherish it tonight while I can.

So, in short...

Who's got two thumbs and a Wii?! THIS GUY!!

I apologize for blurting that out. I just really wanted to work that into this post, but I couldn't manage to do so in any sort of clever fashion.

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Replacing Ar Tonelico

2007-05-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

Before we get to the meat of this post, lets play some Jeopardy!

Answer: 4

Question: How many time would someone see the credits roll in Ar Tonelico if they completed the game and Shurelia's (spoiler) Cosmoshere?

This is a record that I don't expect to be broken any time soon.

Now that Ar Tonelico is finished, I've had the same problem that I often have in these situations: finding a new game to occupy myself with. Even with my extensive back log of games from which to choose, this proposition is not as easy as it sounds.

Since Persona 3 is on the horizon, the first game I though of was Persona 2. This lasted all of 2 hours. It's not that there is anything wrong with the story. On the contrary, the story started of strong. The problem was with the battle system. Well, sort of. You see, because of that huge backlog of games that I mentioned earlier, I can be very picky about which one I play. The big turn-off in Persona 2 was the ridiculous menu system in battle. The default battle system is an auto battle; you set actions for all you characters and they will automatically perform them until you say stop. But what if you don't want it to go progress automatically? Well, there is an option to do one round at a time, but to do that you have to wade through menu level after menu level. As you can imagine, this gets really cumbersome, really fast.

So I decided to put my time to better use that paging through battle menus, and I picked up Rogue Galaxy again. You might remember Rogue Galaxy from when Avenger raved about it back in the day. In short, I was less than thrilled. I first started it soon after it was released, but I put it down after an hour, largely due to my dislike of the points-based real time battle system (which I will discuss in a future website article). Admittedly, its biggest short-coming is all in my head. Rogue Galaxy was developed by Level 5, the same crew that is responsible for Dark Cloud 2. I loved Dark Cloud 2, and I had always imagined that Rogue Galaxy would be Dark Cloud 2 in space. Well, it's not. It's much more hack 'n slash, much more .hack than Dark Cloud. All I can think about while playing Rogue Galaxy is how much more I would like it if it was Dark Cloud 2: IN SPACE! As far as non-superficial grievances go, however, the comparative strength of physical attacks versus special abilities is laughable. Why would I bother even used my sword, and risk having one of the retarded AI-controlled characters die in 3 seconds, when I can kill every enemy in one hit with Desert Wind? Recharge drinks can be acquired on the cheap, so constantly using AP is no sweat. At about the 10 hour mark, I finally decided to put Rogue Galaxy down again.

So, what next? Coincidentally, I already mentioned it: .hack. .hack//G.U. to be precise. Yes, I am one of the people who enjoyed the original .hack series. And recently, I've had the strange desire to dive into The World again. And now that my first two attempts at replacing Ar Tonelico have failed, it's time to go out and add to The List again.

If anyone out in reader-land has an any comments/feedback on this series of posts (love it/hate it/change this/change that), please let me know.

Calling All Bullet Points

2007-05-11T18:03:00.000-04:00

Calling All Cars - It's here, finally. I gave it a whirl when I got home from work today. I tried one game offline, but the computer's perfect aim was driving me insane. So, online I went. It could be kind of difficult to find a game, since there is no way to sort the list that I could find, so you basically have to scroll down the list until you find a game that isn't in progress. Of course, you could join a game in progress, if you don't mind waiting a while and listening to some twelve-year-old in voice chat. The game play is fast and simple, and highly enjoyable. I'm sure it's even more enjoyable if you know how to use more than one of the weapons.
Forza 2 - I tried out the demo last night. Naturally, it didn't seem as gorgeous as the trailers made it seem, but that doesn't mean it's not easy on the eyes. It's hard to get a feel for it since there is only one track, but the cars handle magnificently, and I'm excited to get my hands on the full version and get my tune on.
Settlers of Catan - I have often felt like I was in the minority: nerds who have not played the original board game. Now, thanks to Big Huge Games, I can enjoy all the fun of the board game on my 360! Huzzah! As best as I can tell, it functions as a reasonable facsimile for the real thing.

Linkin' and Thinkin'

2007-05-09T17:24:00.000-04:00

First up, there is this article up that (eventually) gets to some info about Lost Odyssey game play. Really, it's not very insightful, other than giving an idea of how large to game is. No, what this is about is when they mention that the director of Legend of Mana is involved in the project. Yikes. Legend of Mana was a disaster. That was years ago, though, and hopefully whatever influences Legend of Mana has on Lost Odyssey are slight. Or better yet, non-existent.

Next, there is this press release for Shadowrun (via EvilAvatar). What bothers me is the second to last line, where they state the prices for the 360 and Windows version. Am I the only one confused as to why the prices aren't the same? I was under the impression that both versions were identical. Was I mistaken? Are there some fancy exclusives on the 360 version? If not, why is it $10 more? Can someone explain to me how this makes sense!? I mean, you're already shelling out the extra $50 a year for online multiplayer on XBL (which is available with the silver membership on Windows Live) with the 360, and now you're going to have to pay $10 more per cross-MS-platform title? Someone tell me why 360 owners should be OK with this! Jimmy, you have a degree in econ, maybe you can sort out this mess for me.

Almost like I dream about

2007-05-06T19:31:00.000-04:00

There is going to be another Kingdom Hearts, but it's not going to be KH 3. No, instead it's much closer to what I fantasize about. While it's not exactly how I imagined it, it's close enough to get me all hot and bothered. If Riku is a playable character again... it's just too awesome to imagine. I think I need to go lie down for a minute.

Obviously, I'm very excited about this... unless it's PSP only. That would be a real downer. Of course, if there was one game that would force a PSP purchase from me, this is it.

Speechless

2007-05-04T21:11:00.000-04:00

I'll let the video speak for itself. May 22 seems so far away.

Drat! Foiled again!

2007-05-03T19:52:00.000-04:00

First, there was my confrontation with the DDR dance pad. Now, it the SIXAXIS that is screwing with me. Exactly how is it accomplishing this, you ask? By running out if power, of course. There I am, preparing for the final battles of Ar Tonelico, and up pops the "controller is low on power" message.

This was most frustrating, since the PS3 recharge cable is only 3 feet long. Of course, I don't sit within three feet of my PS3, so it was nuts to me finishing Ar Tonelico. I'm not sure what Sony was thinking when they decided on a length for the recharge cable. Looks like I'll have to make a trip to the BestBuy to buy a third-party cable of reasonable length.

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Taking It In Stride

2007-05-01T17:46:00.000-04:00

Game du jour: more Ar Tonelico. Just some general notes and comments; today I'm keeping it light and fresh.

1. Phase 3 of Ar Tonelico can be described as very Xenogears-Disc-Two-esque. There is a lot of text, followed my more text, then maybe a battle or two, and then some more text (for a change of pace). This is mainly a result of the fact that I already got to the top of the tower. The entire world has pretty much been explored, evidenced by the fact that I've only seen one new area in the last 6 hours. The only up-side is that I finally got the last Reyvateil, which means I get to explore another cosmosphere, which is by far my favorite part of the game.

2. If you were walking through the personal library of the major villain in a game, and as you were reading his diaries you realized that at one time or another he manipulated and/or attempted to kill all but one of the member of your party, you'd expect some kind of reaction, right? You'd expect someone, anyone, to say something, wouldn't you? Well, if you were to expect that from the characters in Ar Tonelico, you'd be wrong. For all the talking in that game, you'd think that someone would mention something from those diaries sometime, but no. Ridiculous.

3. I have seen the credits roll twice, and I'm still not done the game! Speaking of rolling credits, there is an update on the fake-out ending from the last post. It really is an ending, if you want it to be. Or at least I assume so, since I picked the text option that I thought was least likely to end the game.

I know I said I would keep it "light and fresh," but I guess I got a little carried away.

I'm gonna go lie down now. This blog is heavy, and my shoulders are starting to ache from carrying it. **OH SNAP!!!**

Odin Sphere mania!

2007-04-27T17:34:00.000-04:00

I'll assume that since you're reading this, you read Penny Arcade. And by extension, I'll assume that you've read the glowing praise they have heaped upon their review copy of Odin Sphere. For me, this could be a double-edged sword. On one hand, I'm thrilled that Odin Sphere apparently plays as fantastic as it looks. I've been in eager anticipation of this game since I first saw the trailer. I will never grow weary of 2-D sprites, and here is a game seems to take them to a new level.

On the other hand, who knows how many copies of this game will be shipped in the US? Probably not too many. Penny Arcade is an extraordinarily popular site that holds tremendous sway over its readers, and all of this positive publicity may entice people to run out and pick up Odin Sphere; people that may not have done so if that review copy had never been put in the tray.

Hopefully this won't end up with a Disgaea-esque situation, where the only way to get your hands on the game is to shell out $45 at Gamestop for a used version with no case or manual.

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Game Over

2007-04-25T17:18:00.000-04:00

Much like Avenger's "Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer" posts, this will be sort of a recurring topic for me. The title still may be a work in progress, though.

I've played what could be described as a "healthy" number of RPGs. In all my gaming history, if seen a lot of stuff. That's pretty much what these posts will be about. When I see things I like, when I see things I don't like, or when I see things that blow me away, I'll post them here. And I'll do my absolute best to avoid spoilers. Look for whited out text where appropriate. So, let's get started with the game du jour: Ar(rrrrrr) Tonelico.

So, what happened in Ar Tonelico that was worth a post here? Well, they pulled some craziness that I have never seen before: the psych-out ending. Yes, that's right. A full-blown, 3-consecutive-boss-battles- followed-by-a-few-lines-of-text- then-roll-credits fake ending. Needless to say, I was pretty freaked out. I knew that there was supposed to be another phase, and I knew that I still hadn't controlled all the playable characters, but this is a game where there is some branching of the storyline. Was it possible that I screwed up hours ago and ended the game prematurely, a la Persona? Oh crap!

This and so much more was going through my head as I stared at the staff credits scrolling down my TV screen. Finally, those cruel credits came to an end, but just because the characters were back on screen, didn't mean that the game wasn't over. There is always the chance of some kind of epilogue. Mercifully, after a minute or two of dialogue, I was returned to the map screen. Phew!

I have to give Gust credit. I've played over 70 RPGs, and it's not often that I see something that is legitimately new. The fake ending was one of the more harrowing things I've seen in a game since Eternal Darkness. I hope I never have to see it again.

Emergency Release 1, Incognito 0

2007-04-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

So, I feel like an idiot. Here I was thinking that my DDR pad was teh broken, when it was just one of Microsoft's little safety features getting the better of me. DDR was working fine for me last Friday, but when I tried to boot it up on Sunday afternoon, the light ring on the pad was flashing, but it wasn't making the connection to the 360. So my first thought was: oh crap. I've had this thing for less than two months, and I've already broken it.

When it didn't work again today, I was ready to take drastic action. I was online looking for warranty information, or maybe even *gasp* a third-party dance pad (which, for the record, are ex-pen-sive). As a last ditch effort, I went to the Xbox forums. That's how low I was: I went to a forums site. Anyway, after going through a few pages, I found a post from someone who was having the same problem as I was. The only suggested solution was to plug in the controller after the console was turned on. So, I go ahead an try it. Big surprise, it didn't work. So, in my frustration, I grab the cord and try to pull the plug out. *Pop!* The cord goes slack, but the plug is still in the 360. Wtf?! I go to investigate, and I find that there is a emergency release in the cord. So I reconnected it, and guess what? It worked perfectly. Apparently, it was plugged in just enough to get a few lights to blink, but not enough to work.

Damn you emergency release. I'll get you one day. I'll get you when you least expect it. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Ehem. Excuse me.

Now I can get back on my schedule of "trying to be less fat." Hooray for not being so fat!

Back in the saddle

2007-04-23T18:22:00.000-04:00

Hoo-hah! The fundamentals exam is over, and I am ready to get back to gaming! W00t!

So, some brief points of interest:

1. I haven't even finished the first Ar Tonelico yet, but lo and behold, there is already proof of a sequel in the works. The interface seems to have received be a huge upgrade. That shiny new harmo gauge looks much better than the original. Sinusoids for the win.

2. Mass Effect has been announced as a September release. Everyone kept hoping for a June/July release date, but that unfortunately was not to be. Personally, I'm not too bummed. Yeah, I'll have to wait a little longer, but it will nicely fill that gap between Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

3. I say this every year around this time, but the rest of this year should be great for RPGs. With Atelier Iris 3, Odin Sphere, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Persona 3, Dawn of Mana, and (hopefully) Lost Odyssey all due to hit before the end of year, it should be a busy time for yours truly.

And who knows, maybe I'll have Ar Tonelico 2 to enjoy before the year's out, too.

Pass & Play

2007-04-19T19:00:00.001-04:00

For all you click-three, quick download, shockwave type players, I've got an update here you don't want to miss:

(1) Cathy's Caribbean Challenge (which you can download from Big Fish Games) is lame. Don't do it!! I'm warning you!!! Diner Dash it's not...in fact, not even close.

(2) Food Stand, however, with it's ridiculously lame title is excellent. You put together burgers and sell them to customers, but you have to put them together in just the right order and you can earn bonuses by adding sauces to them. It's awesome. So awesome that I bought it before my free trial was even over and I NEVER do that. Go to Big Fish Games and download it NOW!

Enjoy!

I wish I knew

2007-04-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

I wish I knew what makes a good game. I've enjoyed games of all kinds. Other than a feeling of being complete, there aren't a lot of similarities. And even some of the games I've enjoyed seemed incomplete (see Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii). Maybe one day.

Fake Soccer Recap

2007-04-14T23:56:00.000-04:00

I've been debating whether or not to post this all day. On one hand, I was really excited when it happened. On the other hand, it's really dorky to post something like this. It's like getting a championship ring for winning a fantasy football league. In the end, I decided to go for it. It's not like I can get much dorkier anyway. Plus there's a precedent for me doing stuff like this.

I've provided some links to relevant data for those of you who aren't "in the know."

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BETHLEHEM, PA - An epic game of football was played today, but not in the classical fashion. No, this game was played inside of Incognito's XBOX 360, but the magnitude of the game was larger than life. We are, of course, speaking of the UEFA Champions League final in Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. This would prove to be a magical match, as the Incogni2 controlled Tottenham Hotspur took on the third-ranked team in Europe: AC Milan. Both teams had a strenuous road to the title game, with Milan beating Barcelona in the semi-finals, and Tottenham crushing arch-rivals Arsenal (7-2) in the quarter-finals, and getting a hard-fought 1-0 win over top-ranked Chelsea in the semis.

The game did not start well for Spurs, as Gilberto Gilardino stuck home a second-chance goal off a save from Paul Robinson in only the second minute. Normally, Spurs are not a strong possession team, rarely winning the match's possession battle. However, the early goal seemed to galvanize Tottenham, and they dominated play in the first half, possessing the ball more than 60% of the time. Bastian Schweinsteiger had some exceptional runs from the right wing in the first half for Spurs, but he failed to get a shot on target. Milan took a 1-0 lead into the break.

The second half belonged to Spurs, specifically to Tottenham captain Robbie Keane. Keane's first nail in Milan's coffin came soon after halftime, when he struck a perfect header off the bottom of the crossbar and in off of a Young-Pyo Lee cross. Another Keane header found the back of the net after a throw-in found it's way to Jermaine Jenas, who delivered the perfect cross into the box.

However, Keane was still not finished. Halfway through the second half, Schweinsteiger showed some strong play in the corner, and was able to deliver the ball into the box. Keane leaped into the air, contorted his body, and struck a spectacular volley low and hard into the corner of the net to cap off his hat trick. Tottenham's defense was also top-notch. AC Milan was unable to mount any sustained pressure past the first five minutes; mostly a credit to the strong center defense by Tottenham's midfielders and center backs.

Tottenham 3 - 1 Milan

Champions League Best Overall Player: Robbie Keane (Tottenham)
Most Goals: Robbie Keane (Tottenham) - 8
Most Assists: DeMarcus Beasley (!) (Tottenham) - 5

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So, needless to say, I was pretty excited. Especially about Keane's 3rd goal. You really needed to see it, it is definitely one of my top 3 PES 2007 goals.

New Laptop=w00t

2007-04-12T23:27:00.000-04:00

As the title would lead you to believe, this post is coming from my new laptop. Hooray! I got it just in time too, since today Windows Update totally f-ed up my PC for the second time in as many months.

Anyways, I've been quiet recently because I've been preparing for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam next Saturday, so don't expect to hear much from me until next Saturday night. However, I will will say this: Puzzle Quest is awesome, and fireball=domination.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, WHY ARE THE PHILLIES SO TERRIBLE! :(

Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer - 4/12/07

2007-04-12T19:14:00.000-04:00

The SOE interview was a bust, or at least that's how I'm interpreting it. When the interview begins with "I'm not sure I'm the right person to be interviewing you..." you know it's probably not a good thing. Not to say we didn't have a good conversation about game design, but given that his areas of expertise were computer engineering and programming, we weren't really well aligned.

Supposedly they have open positions across the board, so I guess all isn't lost quite yet. He's supposed to talk to their Lead Designer about doing a phone interview with me, so we'll see what happens with that. I'll let you know!

Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer - 4/10/07

2007-04-10T21:02:00.000-04:00

So I got a phone call from Sony Online Entertainment today that said they were looking at my resume from GDC and wanted to schedule a phone interview. Sweet!

It is with the Senior Infrastructure Programmer so I am not sure entirely what that means, but I presume it is similar to the systems design (read: game balancing) roles I have been looking at thus far. This marks my fourth "line in the water," so just for a brief status update here's what I'm looking at right now:

Sent card game to the CEO of Mind Control software on Sunday (4.8.07) - he ran the workshop I attended at GDC and asked that I send him something with "no computer required." My family and friends have played it and seemed to think it was decent, and I would hope they would know better than to lie about this.
Took systems design test for Cryptic Studios on Saturday (4.7.07) - not sure what to say about this. It's part of the interview process but the questions were pretty vague and open-ended so I can't judge how well I did. No idea when I might expect to hear back, but I plan to follow up next week
Interviewed for QA position at Lucasarts at GDC - yeah so testing isn't the most glamorous job in the games industry, but it's a great way to break in, or at least that's what everyone says. The hiring timeline got pushed back so I am "still under consideration." Planning to keep following up on a semi-regular basis.
Phone Interview with SOE on Thursday (4.12.07) - not sure what to expect here, I'm not even sure exactly what kind of position they are looking at, but at the very least it means something in my resume is appealing to some subsection of the gaming industry. Hooray!

This isn't everything I'm looking at, but they are easily the most likely to succeed. I'm also working on putting together materials to get into the Guildhall, a graduate program in game design out of SMU, but I think that is a tale for another time. I just bought G.R.A.W. II today (thank you, $10 off coupon!), so I'm gonna go give it a whirl before I have to get to bed. Later!

Long live the PS2

2007-04-10T09:03:00.000-04:00

The PS2 games just keep coming. I'd like to direct you to this preview. It's for Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm.

How excited am I? Very excited. Very, very excited. While I was reading it, the first thing I thought was: a game with a timer? No thanks. But when I kept reading, I started to think that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. Yes, that's right. For the first time ever, I might be OK with the idea of racing against the clock in an RPG.

Really, the selling point of the game is the blades system. As they mention in the article, Ar Tonelico has a similar system, but in Ar Tonelico it is only in place for a few characters, and it only changes little things like how fast certain gauges fill in battle. Extending this system to all of the characters, and having it effect not only appearance, but also weapons and skills, is too cool.

Conveniently, this game comes out the day before I get (essentially) a six day weekend. Booyah.

As a note...

2007-04-07T23:16:00.000-04:00

...am I the only one who writes on this damned thing anymore?! It's the 7th of April and there are three entries (well okay, now four) and they're all mine.

What's up with that?

Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer - 4/7/07

2007-04-07T22:50:00.000-04:00

Not sure if that is the actual title I am going to go with for this series of blog entries, but after talking about my adventures trying to break into the game industry with a few of the VP writers, Incognito thought this might for some good blog fodder, so here I am.

Since most of you have no idea what I am talking about I'll do my best to catch you all up on the key points. Some time around my final year of college I realized I had little to no interest in the actual profession I was studying, mechanical engineering. Sure I liked the classes and I was quite good at them, but my experiences in the real world, had left me largely unfulfilled, and faced with that fact I began to look at my options.

One of those options was to start my own game company. I've loved games ever since I was a kid and I had been training to be a mechanical designer for the past five years, so game design seemed like an easy choice, except for the obvious problem of having no training or experience of any kind in the field. Since that didn't really qualify as an option, I decided to explore other career opportunities, which is what landed me here in Richmond working for Capital One as an operations analyst.

Now don't get me wrong, I have a good job, a really good job in fact. The people are nice, the work is at least mildly interesting, and the pay is great. I really have nothing to complain about, but that whole concept of game design has been stewing in my head since I began thinking about it realistically a year ago, and in more nebulous terms long before that. I think I can safely say it's been my dream for a long time.

So in pursuit of that dream I decided to attend this year's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, and I must say it completely surpassed any of my expectations. For as hard as I still believe the game industry is to get into, it really made me feel like I could do it. I had the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop on game design that was just outstanding. It really got to the core of what it is that makes games great and allowed multiple small teams to rapidly prototype games that were actually fun to play. Not to mention I got to network with some incredibly interesting people, a remarkable number of which who were in my same exact position. In fact, one of my best friends at the conference was a Biochemistry student who is graduating this Spring.

GDC was an awesome experience and it really showed me that if this is what you want to do you can do it. I even had the chance to interview at two places while I was at the conference, one of which was on-site at their studio, and mind you I have no background or training whatsoever. Add to that all the professional contacts I made and follow-ups inquiries I've been conducting since then, I feel a lot closer to my dream than I ever have before.

Now, I am sure your thinking to yourself, "well, then why does it say 'aspiring' in the title?" and on that point you are correct. No one has seen wise enough to hire me just yet, however, I am pursuing this endeavor with all the resources I have at my disposal. Suffice it to say I still have many lines in the water and while I'm sure you'd love to hear about all of them, I think this blog post is plenty long enough already.

Just to whet your appetite a little tough, I will tell you that I spent the better part of my day today taking a design test for a possible employer and I've been developing a card game for another such possibility. If you're interested in hearing more about my adventures, you'll just have to keep checking in ;-). Thanks for reading!

I Hate Puzzle Quest...

2007-04-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

...because it is too damned good and addicting and it is keeping me up late playing it instead of sleeping, being productive, or playing something else. I started playing it last night at about 8:00 with the full intention of stopping at around 9:00 and doing something else...I stopped at a little after midnight.

For reasons that I'm not even entirely sure I understand, this game has me addicted. As you are all probably aware (since it was mentioned previously on this blog), Puzzle Quest is a mix of the flash game Bejeweled with significant RPG elements (exploration, random encounters, stats, equipment, companions, quests, the whole shebang). I know when you think about it it sounds absurd. It certainly did to me, but the whole thing meshes together to be much more than the sum of it's parts.

Without going into too much more detail (I'll save that for a review) you should know it is one of the best examples of handheld gaming to date, and unless you despise puzzle games and/or RPGs you owe to yourself to pick up a copy. It retails for $29.99 and is available for the DS and PSP with a PC version being released later this year.

Re: A Clever Ploy?

2007-04-02T19:52:00.001-04:00

I find it humorous that you cite an email while chastising me about not adding enough content to the blog. Lazy bum...

(Yep, this is another short one, what'cha gonna do about it? Nothing. That's what.)

Oh no you didn't!

2007-03-30T17:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't know what to post about, until I read that last post. How DARE someone accuse me of spending more time arguing about games than play them. Just for that, I'll list every game I've played in the past seven days, including a few thoughts and/or impressions. And away we go...

Magical Starsign
It started fine, but the gameplay really hasn't evolved since then. It's still just: select spell, select target, execute a well timed tap of the screen to power the spell up, repeat.

Trauma Center: Under the Knife
What more can be said?

Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Sometimes the evidence presentation is a little less than intuitive, but that doesn't make it unplayable by any stretch. One of the best-written games I've played in a while.

Dance, Dance Revolution: Universe
What? I'm allowed to like DDR. For the record: "Diamond Jealousy," even on the basic difficulty setting, is still crazy hard.

Ar Tonelico
It's still good.

Pro Evolution Soccer 7
It's long periods of boredom and frustration, punctuated by brief moments of excitement and jubilation. In other words, it's a great simulation of soccer.

Motorstorm (demo)
Meh. The physics are good, but it's still a racing game. Probably not my cup o' tea.

Resistance: Fall of Man
I love Insomniac. It's like they have a machine that does nothing but spit out awesome weapon designs.

Sphere
I started this a few weeks ago at work, but I forgot about it until yesterday. It has subsequently killed my productivity the last few days.

flOw
I saved flOw for last since I have the most to say about it. I had played it before on the PC, and while I didn't dislike it, there really wasn't anything about it that spoke to me. Maybe it's the fact that it's in HD, maybe it's because you move by tilting the controller, but I really love flOw on the PS3. I don't think it's a game that I could ever play for more than an hour at a time, but I think that it's a game that I will never get tired of playing. For me, it's the ultimate "casual game," something that I can pick up and play for 15-45 minutes when I feel like it, and then just walk away.

Look at that. Ten games. Ten. In seven days. I spend more time arguing about games than playing them? /spit.

Look upon my magnificence, and cower.

For the record, I lost at least 17.6% of my soul when I typed that /spit, but it was worth it. Crap, I just typed it again!

While the Boys Argue...the Girls will Play...

2007-03-30T13:29:00.000-04:00

While you guys argue over command and conquer and various aspects of certain gaming systems *eye roll* I was busy actually PLAYING games....such as Fairy Godmother Tycoon (yes, I can't stop playing tycoon games...if it says "tycoon" I play it) and Chicken Chase. Both are excellent downloads. So, to all you women out there....when you want to tune out the men, download a free trial of Fairy Godmother Tycoon or Chicken Chase. Both are excellent...or EGGScellent as the case may be....

You can check out Chicken Chase and find Fairy Godmother Tycoon at www.bigfishgames.com

Team Vampire Penguin

2007-03-28T21:12:00.000-04:00

So, I decided to create a Folding@home team for the Vampire Penguin, and anyone who wishes to contribute is more than welcome.

Team Name: Vampire Penguin
ID Number: 62236

Re: A Clever Ploy?

2007-03-28T17:19:00.000-04:00

So Incognito recently purchased a PS3, frightened by the loss of backwards compatibility. Is this some sort of trend?

Seriously, great post. Nice to see you're putting an emphasis on rich, content-laden posts. But seriously, though, you're great. No, you're great.

I wouldn't exactly say that I was "frightened" by the loss of backwards compatability. In fact, I'll just paste the whole email here:

No, I didn't get a deal on the PS3, but I didn't need one. I resigned myself to this purchase a long time ago. I knew I was going to get it, I just hoped that I could hold out longer. Alas the threat of losing hardware BC finally pushed me over the edge, you know what by PS1 and PS2 library looks like. What are the odds that half the games I own (Hoshigami, Alundra, Growlanser, etc.) are going to be supported by software BC? Zero. Also, the only reason I waited for a deal on the 360 is because it's MS. I hate them so much. I still haven't forgiven them for Windows Me, and I hardly even used it! Normally, buying a system is a magical experience, but not for me with the 360. I just felt so unclean; like I just made a deal with the devil.

I haven't actually played the PS3 yet, at least not a PS3 game. I have Resistance, maybe I'll start that tonight. I checked out folding@home, which is pretty cool, and I played some Ar Tonelico without having to move my PS2 out of the entertainment system. That was the driving force here: I needed a wireless controller something fierce, and since I knew I was going to buy the damn system anyway, and I could afford it, I just said "to hell with it."

I'll stop now, since this is turning into a blog post. Hey there's an idea! I'll just post this to the blog! Cha-ching! 2 birds with 1 stone!

BC was simply one factor out of many as to why I bought the PS3. The final decision came down to what's coming in the future. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

And yes, I'm still developing the skill of managing money. Baby steps.

Also, while I was linking this post, I noticed that Breath of Fire 3 is coming to PSP in a few months. For anyone out there who likes RPGs and has a PSP, and for whatever reason didn't play the original PS1 release, you really owe it to yourself to check out the best game in one of the most underrated RPG series ever.

Note to Self:

2007-03-27T23:36:00.000-04:00

Never use 'Connection Speed: Any' when trying to automatch on a multiplayer game.

The subsequent C&C3 match took well over 30 min. with a recorded in game time of just 11 min. I eventually had to quit out of sheer frustration, though admittedly he had me beat, it was just a matter of having to wait the insufferable 7 in-game minutes for his ion cannon to charge.

Bleh. Luckily I went on to find a suitable 2v2 match and claim victory, hooray! Look me up if you happen to be playing C&C3 multiplayer, Online ID: AvengerX, otherwise I'll just have to keep beating on Sidious until he submits.

A Clever Ploy?

2007-03-27T11:20:00.000-04:00

So Incognito recently purchased a PS3, frightened by the loss of backwards compatibility. Is this some sort of trend?

LOL

2007-03-26T17:46:00.000-04:00

Seriously, that last post was classic.

And you'll have to ask Sidious about his Trauma Center experience on the Wii. Needless to say, his career choice of lawyer was also a good one.

Recognizing that Trauma Center in little to no way represents actual surgery, I'd be interested to see a real surgeon play the game. Might be fun...

Good thing I'm not your doctor

2007-03-24T16:16:00.000-04:00

Playing Trauma Center on my DS has taught me something: Civil Engineering was a good career choice. I lack the both the carpal speed and accuracy that surgery requires. And while Trauma Center is a good game, and lots of fun (where else are you able to cut someone open with a knife in a video game and have them survive), it sure is hard. Let's have a moment of silence in remembrance of the guy who just died on my operating table due to ruptured aneurysms in the intestines.

...

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are caaaaaalling!

...

Thank you.

Oh those crazy Japanese

2007-03-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

This has become one of my favorite new genres of music: Disney songs in Japanese. It's one of those things that didn't occur to me when I started listening to the Kingdom Hearts 2 OST: that "original" meant "in Japanese." Now, most of the songs on the KH2 soundtrack don't have lyrics, since they're just background music. However, this is not the case with The Little Mermaid songs. They really have to be heard to be believed, so I tracked down "Under the Sea" for your viewing/listening pleasure. I love how the Japanese always take ridiculous characters (Sebastian) and give them a suitably hilarious voice.

Re: Oh, the irony.

2007-03-24T04:23:00.000-04:00

I'm betting on the latter, but that's just me...

Speaking of bets, Sidious and I have decided to set up a bet surrounding the imminent release of Command & Conquer 3 next week. Sidious has already declared it his "game of the year" (I think even he recognizes that's hyperbole), while I think that it will fall short of the acclaim that was lavished on Supreme Commander not more than a month ago. We are planning to use the Game Rankings overall review score as the objective criterion for judging this wager, but we are still working out some of the finer points. We will keep you updated as the situation develops...

Oh, the irony.

2007-03-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

How ironic that you chose the phrase "Ring of Red forever," considering that's how long you have to play it to finish a battle. Even you have to admit that that turns in that game take ten times longer than they have any right to.

As a note to everyone out there on the internets, this Ring of Red argument between Avenger and myself is not new. It's been going on for at least two years now, and it will continue until he admits that I am right, or time stops.

It takes a little time sometimes...

2007-03-23T10:10:00.000-04:00

You may be right.

Maybe it's just owning a PS3 at this point that is more depressing than Sony's actual outlook overall. I mean, it was a really big investment and most of the time I have spent with it has been playing PS2 games. I don't think that Sony is out of it yet, not by a long shot, but things are not trending in their favor right now.

It wouldn't take more than a few great games or at least better versions on multi-plat titles to change that, but it just hasn't happened yet. The original Xbox really managed to carve out a space for itself with better versions of multi-platform titles and a handful of great exclusives. They may not have "won" the last generation, but they managed to carve out a sizable portion of the market for themselves and get into power position for this generation.

Sony just needs to realize that all the theoretical power in the world won't make up for a poor game library. It's all about the games, and it always will be.

Ring of Red Forever!

Why Sony is not dead. Yet.

2007-03-22T17:42:00.000-04:00

Yes, Avenger, giant robots are cool. And yes, strategy is awesome. However, that doesn't make Ring of Red a good game. I can think of lots of better ways to spend 45 minutes than one round of combat in Ring of Red.

Now, at the risk of sounding like a Sony fan-boy, I feel the need to inject some positive opinions about Sony into everyone's day. Everyone knows that Sony has been almost hemorrhaging exclusive titles, from GTA IV, to DMC 4, and now maybe even FF XIII. For the most part, except for the Final Fantasy news if it's true, is to be expected. The costs of game development make it nearly impossible to all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak. This console generation, as least as far as the PS3 and the 360 are concerned, will come down to first-party titles. Everyone talks about Microsoft's first party IPs, mainly Halo and Gears, but Sony isn't exactly a slouch in this department. Check out this list:

Ape Escape
God of War
Dark Cloud
Hot Shots Golf
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Jak and Daxter
Killzone
Lemmings
PaRappa
Ratchet and Clank
Resistance
Rogue Galaxy
Sly Cooper
Wild Arms

That a list of franchises that Sony owns the rights to. This includes notable second-party studios like Incognito, Naughty Dog, and Level 5. I think that we all need to give Sony some time. They made a decision to continue supporting the PS2, and while I don't disagree with that decision (look at the sales numbers from this past holiday season), having games like God of War 2 come out of the PS2 instead of the PS3 has really handicapped their next-gen software library. Once we start seeing the new generation of some of these franchises, Sony will probably start gaining some major ground.

Also, keeping FF XIII exclusive wouldn't hurt.

And my money goes to...

2007-03-21T10:09:00.000-04:00

Armored Core 4 most likely.

The question then became which system should I buy it for, and sadly it seems that the 360 version is dominant. I say sadly because AC has always been a Playstation franchise, so it is sad to see it cross platforms, but more importantly, because yet again the PS3 version turns out to be inferior. The graphics are worse and its online functionality is not as robust on the PS3. Factor in the 360 achievements and it's pretty clear what is the optimal choice.

The sad fact of the matter is, as Sidious and I have been lamenting both on and offline, this is becoming the status quo for the PS3 and it's beginning to make the situation look pretty dire. With the stories of more exclusives jumping ship coming in seemingly every week and the 360 often having the preferred version when a game is cross platform the arguments in favor of the PS3 begin to diminish pretty quickly. I won't say I've given up on my PS3 just yet, but I will say I've lost a lot of faith in it and Sony's ability to do anything correctly in this space. Maybe they'll turn it around, but it's starting to look more and more likely that the PS3 will be relegated to last place this generation, barring some sort of miracle. As of right now the 360 is my favorite and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future.

As a final note, giant robots are cool, strategy is awesome, and thus Ring of Red is a sweet game. I'm sorry you don't get that, Incognito ;). If they decided to make a game like that (an HD Front Mission for instance) for the PS3, you can bet I'd be the first in line. Though I will be sure to check out Ar Tonelico following your rave "review."

It's not about pirates

2007-03-20T17:31:00.000-04:00

I can't explain it, but every time I say Ar Tonelico, I say it like I'm a pirate. So, if you asked me what I'm going to play tonight, I'd say: "Yarrrr, I'm gonna be playin' Arrrrrrr Tonelico!" It's not like the game has anything to do with pirates, either. I just see that "Ar" there, and I turn into Blackbeard. If you think that I'm crazy, then we're in agreement.

Now that that's out of the way, I'll get on to the matter at hand. This just so happens to be Ar Tonelico. Mainly the fact that it's good. Really good. For the writers here who are familiar with my List (and for everyone else, said List will hopefully be added to the site), it may be top 15 good. We'll see. I'm only 7 hours in (plus of minus), so there is plenty of time for that to change, for good or for bad.

I won't ramble on about it here, but it does a lot of things that I haven't seen before in almost every facet of the game. It even goes so far as to create new facets altogether. The soundtrack is also top-notch. I usually don't notice the soundtrack to a game on the first play-through, but when you have a game about music, the soundtrack tends to stand out.

The one thing that really doesn't impress me is the storyline: 17-year-old boy goes on a quest to save the world, blah, blah. However, I will give them credit for an original world for said storyline: a world previously composed of numerous floating continents suffers two world-breaking cataclysms, leaving 1 continent and 1 tower standing between the clouds below, and an impassable layer of plasma above. I've played a lot of RPGs, but that a new one even for me.

So, I'll end it here before this turns into a review. In summary:
- Ar Tonelico is good
- No, really. It's good. Gust makes really solid games. Look at Atelier Iris 1 and 2.
- Avenger's last post was conveniently timed. I recommend this for you. You should like it. Hell, you liked Ring of Red. You should like everything.

Anything out this week?

2007-03-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

This is the question I often ask myself on Mondays. I know a bunch of good stuff came out last week (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, God of War II) and good stuff is coming out next week (Command & Conquer 3), but what should I get this week?

My current front-runners are:

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
Motorstorm
College Hoops 2K7

Does anyone else have any good candidates? I'm all ears...

Ummmm....

2007-03-19T14:38:00.000-04:00

I'm curious, do you listen to yourself when you speak? ;-)

Meanwhile, I've actually started building my first level for my level design portfolio. I am making a hidden desert oasis in NWN. I'll admit not the most original idea I've ever had, but I think it should be a fun backdrop. We'll see how it goes.

I spent most of Saturday just setting things up and trying to design a talking door that could open of its own volition. I figured it out, but now I actually have to build the whole desert-oasis-village thing. Oh well, at least I'm on my way. Game design school here I come!

Glitches and such

2007-03-19T12:36:00.000-04:00

Mario 64, a game you might have heard of, if awesome. One of the best parts upon replay? Glitches. Beating it with 16 stars. Oh, the bunny can do amazing things! What other games truly have the ability to distract a group of adult males on New Years Eve from the debauchery supposed to be taking place?

I propose more glitches! Yes, that right, and not stupid ones like in Madden and fully without hot coffee. Cool glitches. Better Easter Eggs. Such things make games more entertaining upon replay. The first time through, we play straight, but its fun to go back and fool around. And think of the possibilities in a game like God of War! Seriously, Cratos should be able to bite things, or backflip through walls. I don't know. I'm not feeling clever. But a magic carpet would not have been out of order.

Symphony of the Night on XBLA

2007-03-19T08:02:00.000-04:00

According to Gamespot:

One of the most highly regarded PlayStation games ever made has a date with the Xbox 360. Microsoft today announced that Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, one of GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time, will debut on Xbox Live Arcade this coming Wednesday at 2 a.m. PDT.

As the first title to be brought over to Live Arcade from another console, Symphony of the Night will feature "modernized" sound, widescreen support, achievements, and leaderboards. Players will be able to choose between the original graphics or altered visuals that address sprite pixelation when the game is played in high definition.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is rated T for Teen and will be available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

All I can say is, awesome.

Possibly Phantasic News

2007-03-15T20:05:00.000-04:00

Why, oh why didn't I make this post from work. I would have posted before Avenger passively criticized the lack of posts, and I would have remembered where I read this. Oh well.

Does anyone remember a few years ago, Sega was supposed to release a compilation of Phantasy Star I, II, and IV for the PS2? I sure do. Unfortunately, it was canceled. But now, Sega has announced that they will release a Sega Ages compilation of the first four Phantasy Star games. Great news right? Not so much for people outside of Japan. As of now it will only be a Japanese release, but a man can dream. Hopefully, this will see the light of day in the US, so that we can all re-live the good ol' days: the days before Phantasy Star was a mediocre console MMORPG series.

Where'd Everybody Go?

2007-03-15T13:17:00.000-04:00

I recognize I haven't been doing a great job of posting on the blog myself, but due to work and GDC and then subsequently more work I haven't had the time to get back on. I actually promised the writers for the site I would send out the weekly update two days ago (which is already over a week late) and still haven't done so. My apologies to the writers of the site for failing to keep things organized and to the reader of the site for failing to keep new material coming. This is a situation I will work toward correcting in the next few days.

As a side note God of War II rules! Though it may have a bit of a "been there, done that" feeling, it is a good place to be with awesome things to do so I think we can overlook that. Alright, peace out y'all and start posting again!

Clearing out the backlog

2007-03-09T17:29:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, I tend to drift away from playing RPGs. The last few months has been one of those times, which can be largely contributed to me getting a 360; a system that has almost zero RPG representation. Usually, I'll gradually drift back into RPGs. It's a natural process: it's like sleeping, only with more reading.

Well, right now I don't have time for nature to take its course. Here's what's headed for the rest of the year: Odin Sphere, Children of Mana, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Persona 3, Shining Force EXA, and (hopefully) Dragon Age. That's one hell of a list. Plus, on top of that I'm still in the middle of: Rogue Galaxy, Magical Starsign, Ar Tonelico, Disgaea 2, Enchanted Arms, and Final Fantasy 3 among others. So, this weekend, it's time for me to glue my ass to my recliner and get some serious game-playing in. It's time to forcibly re-dedicate myself to RPGs, and try to make a dent in my huge (and I mean huge) back-log of games.

Also a few notes on GDC:
1. As Sidious mentioned, Warhawk losing its single-player campaign sucks. Apparently it's because "single player just wasn't up to par." Did I miss something? When did developers start scrapping entire halves of games? So what if it wasn't "up to par." A sub-par single player campaign is better than no single-player at all.
2. I read some notes on Miyamoto's keynote. Didn't seem very impressive. Maybe I needed to be there.
3. I'm always worried when there is a large congregation of people in the internets. The Home lobby seems destined to become the console version of the "Barrens' chat" phenomenon. Color me skeptical.

Finally, wtf is up with daylight savings starting this weekend? It's March! Welcome to the shortest weekend of the year. :(

Sony Phone Home

2007-03-09T06:57:00.000-05:00

Sony's answer to X-box Live?

Described as "the first of its kind," Home is an avatar-based virtual neighborhood built on the shoulders of every PS3 owner who participates. Offered as a free download from the PlayStation Store, the new networked feature installs a unique icon to your XMB and then launches just like a game does. Once connected, users are able to join online games, go shopping, talk with other people, and mess around with various media types for as long as they see fit. And to be honest, it's actually pretty cool.

***

Once an avatar has been chosen, it can then move about the world freely and its first stop will likely be "The Central Lounge." Here, patrons will be able to see other people moving about and conversing with one another, and Sony has truly thought of everything when it comes to communicating (Quick Write options, USB keyboard support, and Bluetooth voice chat seem to integrate seamlessly). Clients can also use emotes to convey moods or just be ridiculous with motions like disco dancing, shoulder shrugs, pointing, waving, and plenty more.

***

The Hall of Fame. Sony's answer to the Xbox 360's achievement system, the HOF gives users the ability to view trophies they've earned from playing games in a real 3D way (some trophies even have audio or video aspects to them). What's more, is that patrons can even modify trophy cabinets and pick which trophies they want to show to friends.

Now, I admit that I have come down pretty hard on Sony in the last few days. But Home sounds like a giant leap in the right direction. Where X-box Live is by far the most successful online service, it literally is just menus upon menus. If Sony can successfully pull off the Second Life-like world it proposes in Home, then online gaming may finally be moving into the realm of "next-gen." Color me excited.

Multiplayer Mishaps

2007-03-08T06:57:00.000-05:00

Do any of you remember the video game company named Origin? If not, it was the company behind the wildly successful Wing Commander, in which Luke Skywalker fought cats in space (only a minor exaggeration). Unfortunately, the success of Origin's "Ultima Online" service caused them to drop out of creating single-player adventures completely. Annoying no small number of Wing Commander and Ultima fans. Well the modern corollary to this party is finally here: Enter Warhawk.

The original Warhawk was one of the mainstays of the PS1 gaming. It featured interesting vertical as well as linear levels, and the cheesy FMV that fans of this site already know that I love. It featured a ludicrous storyline featuring the fight against "Red Mecury," and in perhaps its most original story element, essentially had a "bad" ending if the player beat the game in the most straightforward way. (Players had to defeat the end boss by flying the warhawk into its "mouth" and ejecting, any other way, ie shooting it, resulted in the bad ending). But know all that is over.

As many of you know, when the PS3 was first announced, clips of Warhawk were a prominent part of Sony's campaign. As many of you also know, the PS3 has not exactly been deluged with quality exclusives. Warhawk was supposed to be one of those. Now, in this IGN article it is clear that Incog., the designers of Warhawk, have decided in their infinite wisdom to drop the single player campaign from Warhawk. Instead, Warhawk will no be solely a multi-player experience, ala Battlefield 2. I don't think that I can adequately express my disappointment in this forum. Suffice it to say, it didn't work for Origin and it won't work for Warhawk. Its too bad, because as developers and Sony continue to make such poor decisions, it is clear that Sony's market position is evaporating around them. Sony needs good exclusives and soon, and Warhawk, unfortunately, won't be among them.

Weekly PS3 Relevance Update

2007-03-07T06:57:00.000-05:00

It was not too long ago that I was in this space asking whether or not Virtua Fighter 5 could be a system seller for the PS3. I think that after playing it for awhile, it is obvious that, though solid, the game just isn't unique enough to sell systems. That being said, today sees the release of the much anticipated Motostorm. So I will ask the same question here: Is this interesting, but not terribly unique racing game enough to sell the system? The answer seems fairly self evident to me, but what do I know...

Nostalgia Part 2

2007-03-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, all I was excited about was Command and Conquer. Today, all I am excited about is Command and Conquer...with one exception. As has been discussed in these pages from time to time, the Wii's virtual console offers fun to be had every single Monday, and this Monday was no different. Indeed this Monday saw the release of one of my favorite arcade games of all time: Elevator Action. Like reminiscing about Command and Conquer, just playing Elevator Action for a short time transports me to another time and another place. You see, Elevator Action was the one arcade unit present at one of my family's favorite restaurants during my youth. Whenever I was able to convince Dad to give me some quarters, I would spend almost the whole meal carefully guiding my spy up and down those crazy elevators. Now can you beat that? Excellent release Wii, I salute you.

Nostalgia

2007-03-05T07:06:00.000-05:00

So, in honor of Command and Conquer 3's imminent release (and, of course, in honor of the simultaneous re-release of cheesy full-motion video) I decided to pick up Command and Conquer: The First Decade this weekend. I must say that I am impressed on a couple of fronts. As a child of the 80s I have often purchased compilation packs, be they Space Quest, Mega Man, or Midway. Up until now, the Mega Man Collection has been my favorite. That collection featured re-mixed music and the ability to modify the earlier games' controls to mirror the refinements of the later games. It exemplified how cool a compilation could be.

Now, with Command and Conquer, I really feel that the same type of ease of use has come to the PC (and yes I know that the game has been out for quite a while). Unlike the Sierra compilations (or god-forbid, an illegal emulator), the C+C compilation is easy to use, and completely compatible with XP. And I couldn't be happier about it. Cruising around to tunes like "I'm a Mechanical Man" and "Fight, Win, Prevail," manipulating my little sprites to take out other little sprites makes me happy, and all the more excited about C+C 3. And wasn't that the point?

I got worms.

2007-03-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

Actually, I don't have worms. Yet. Not until Wednesday, when Worms finally comes out for XBLA! This is my most anticipated Live Arcade game ever, by a considerable margin.

What's that? You want to play the original, Amiga released, Worms on an emulator? Where on earth would you go to get something like that?

Chrono Symphonic

2007-03-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

I've been aware of this for some time now, and I thought that some people here (read: Avenger) would really enjoy it. I recommend To Far Away Times.