Where is the Army of Davids for videogames?

I happened across this tidbit regarding regulation of political blogs that I think has some relevance to the videogame world:

The core of the decision is a recognition that the Internet is a unique medium. In traditional politics, money buys influence. On the Internet, influence raises money. And a bunch of a little bloggers, each with a million readers, can have a big influence. But the FEC isn't worried about the little guy. As long as you aren't being paid by a campaign, nothing you do online will be considered a contribution. Only traditional paid political ads on Web sites are subject to the old campaign rules.

The sentences I highlighted are important because, while this appears to be more and more true for politics and political blogs, I do not think it is true for videogames. There are hundreds of videogame bloggers out there, each plugging away with much the same fervor as an Atrios or and Instapundit, but collectively and separately I don't see them having the same effect on the games industry as the political bloggers are having on politics.

Where is the videogame equivalent of Rathergate or Ben Domenech fiasco, both big scandals broken by bloggers? Where is the public's champion like Ned Lamont, a candidate challenging an entrenched Senator (Joe Lieberman, Democrat from Connecticut)? Where is there a productive, thriving community for videogames that parallels DailyKos?

I suppose you can point to the success of Katamari Damacy and Geometry Wars, games which have succeeded in large part through word of mouth on the internets. It's good to see deserving games succeeding that way. And there is no doubt that there are lively, even very intellectual, forums and blogs talking about videogames.

Still, I'm left feeling that there are a lot of original and interesting reporting opportunities out there that aren't being taken up by videogame bloggers. When it's just "I played a game, it sux0rz and/or r0x0rz" day after day, it's as bad as a middle-aged man blogging about his cat and girlfriend problems. I just don't think that that kind of blogging can ever influence a million readers, and through that influence have an effect on the industry.

On the other hand, some original reporting that takes more than five minutes to bang out with Google and a keyboard might actually draw serious traffic. For example, with all the talk of investment of original games, which of the big game companies (e.g. EA, Activision, THQ, Nintendo, SCEA, and a few others) actually put a serious investment into brand new games (don't rely on a license, new gameplay ideas) last year? Do these companies level with their stockholders in their SEC filings about the risk of totally new games, as well as the potential for a truly profitable hit? What will EA's investment in original game ideas look like in March 2007, a year after they've talked up their renewed investment in original games?

Don't like my ideas? Fine, I'll keep 'em. What provocative questions can you pose about the games you play, the companies you buy from, and the systems you own?

When that kind of reporting becomes commonplace in some videogame blogs, those blogs will grow in traffic and therefore influence. With a dozen such bloggers, living and dying by their integrity and originality, the tightly controlled media system we now have would crack. And, ultimately that's what I would like to see: the strongly centralized power of the big sites -- IGN/GameSpy, GameSpot, 1UP, and others -- disrupted by an army of Davids.

--jvm at 22:24

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GameSpot syndication on Target: closing the feedback loop

I just want to raise another potential issue with GameSpot selling unmarked ad space right beside editorial space: GameSpot syndicates its content directly to Target, among others. Here, see for yourself at Get Into The Game.

My question: Does GameSpot tell syndication partners which are paid ads and which are editorial?

If it doesn't, then that could be a problem, I think.

I noticed this back over Christmas 2005, and a quick googling turned up Kyle's post from August, which I'd managed to forget. You can read the details there.

If those "gumball" ads that GameSpot is selling get syndicated on Target's Get Into The Game site, is Target privy to that? If not, then that's precisely where the feedback loop I mentioned earlier would close.

Imagine that a Publisher A buys a gumball ad with GameSpot and the ad gets syndicated on Target's site. Target, not knowing that it's a plant, sees people showing interest in Publisher A's game, and reports this back to GameSpot. Or, perhaps, GameSpot sees increased traffic to Publisher A's trailer through the Target referrals. Regardless, GameSpot may choose to dedicate more attention on Publisher A's game. More editorial attention means more syndicated content on Target's site, and the loop continues.

So: Does GameSpot tell syndication partners which are paid ads and which are editorial?

--jvm at 19:16

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Big sites sell unmarked ads -- now what?

So we find out that GameSpot and IGN allow advertisers to pay for sponsored front page links which are not differentiated from editorially selected links. Great, we've identified a problem. What do we do about it? Seriously.

Generally speaking, folks like me and other bloggers aren't the mainstream. We don't shop Wal-mart for our games. We don't first learn about games through TV advertisements. We don't check a single site for criticism. We are aware of blogs for second opinions. We are not GameSpot's or IGN's most important audience.

That said, we have to live with the consequences of the big media's perfidy. For all our clamouring for original games and fewer sequels, we cannot exert enough pressure on the game companies or the media sites to change the cycle they've created.

And make no mistake, both are complicit in the bumper crop of sequels. Sure, the publishers are shoveling the crap, but the media are lending a hand with these sponsored links. It's the same problem that's been raised with the advertising of prescription medicines:

1. Dude sees Provosentilla(TM) on TV
   
2. Dude visits doctor for problem that can treated by Provosentilla(TM)
   
3. Dude mentions Provosentilla(TM) to doctor
4. Dude gets prescription for Provosentilla(TM) because doctor wants patient to feel he got good treatment.
5. Provosentilla(TM) outsells competitors

If enough Joe Average Consumers see a publisher's crappy game on the front page of GameSpot and IGN often enough, they might just assume it's there because it's newsworthy. Their artificially generated interest is felt through clicks through to previews and trailers, and probably in some preorders. This interest in turn generates more previews -- after all, those stories are getting some serious viewers! -- and therefore more coverage which attracts more clicks and more preorders. Pump it as many times as you can, right up to the disappointing review.

If this happens, and I think it's at least reasonable to think there is some feedback, then the whole "advertising is separated from editorial" defense doesn't really hold water. It's one of those perfect explanations that ends up being wrong.

And because all the big players are complicit in the system, and consumers in general don't know or don't care, the minority who pines for more is left to suffer.

So how do we fix this broken system? I don't see any good way, but I'm open to suggestions.

--jvm at 18:26

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Vivendi, Blizzard: Copyright bullies

This guy sells World of Warcraft guide on eBay and gets shut down, repeatedly, by Vivendi and Blizzard. He sues them in federal court. Good for him, and I wish him luck. More details here.

This isn't in the mainstream news yet, but I'd like to see it there. I want folks to see this this kind of quashing of a little guy on the nightly news. In the realm of patents, I used to see stories on Slashdot once a week, but nary a peep from the larger media. Now I'm starting to see stories on the political blogs about the broken patent system. No doubt the RIM/NTP patent story has helped put the broken system into focus for many businesspeople.

I hope that the copyright system finally reaches a similar threshold. If the current system, including the DMCA, can be effectively portrayed as the cudgel of big business at the expense of little guys like the WoW guide writer, perhaps we could get some decent reforms. I'm sure I'll never get the 20 year limit on copyright protection for software that I want, but at this point just about anything would be preferable to the system we have.

--jvm at 08:13

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GoldenEye 007: the other evil dimension of licensing

Today we get word that GoldenEye 007 won't appear on the Nintendo Revolution. No big surprise, given that it involves a whole pack of interests: Rare, EA, Microsoft, Nintendo, and probably the Broccoli and Ian Fleming people. The lesson: A licensed game that's popular and worth playing can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to republish after its original run.

This has happened before, but you probably didn't hear about it. The Atari 2600 games Ghostbusters and Double Dragon will probably never be published in original form as part of an emulation compilation, victims of a movie license and arcade game license, respectively. In the case of Double Dragon, I believe it has been included in some compilation after having all references to the original game removed. such editing either wasn't tried or wasn't practical in the case of Ghostbusters.

I suspect there have been similar problems with Intellivision games. And it's a real shame that the only legal version of Star Wars: The Arcade Game was so disappointing, as it may never happen again.

While it is possible that Goldeneye 007 could be scrubbed in some way, the value of the game would be greatly diminished for the loss of its distinctive Bond trappings. Just losing the music would be pretty bad, in my opinion.

What other classic games will miss the Revolution because of nasty legal issues? I imagine more disappointment is just around the corner.

Labels: nintendo

--jvm at 18:21

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6 reasons Xbox Half-life 2 wasn't successful

Can Valve actually be surprised, especially now, that Half-life 2 for Xbox sold poorly? Are they that dense? Apparently:

We've never missed our forecast on any significant product before, so the fact that that product under performed by somewhere between the factor of two to three was really surprising to us. We still haven't figured out what the hell that meant.

My first thought is "they thought it'd sell 2 million copies and it only sold 600,000", which is clearly a case of ridiculous expectations. On second thought, I suppose Valve expected 600,000 and only got 200,000, or fewer.

Regardless, given what we know today, why are they still trying to puzzle this out? Look:

1. Everybody is suffering! The whole flippin' industry is down, you idiots. Apparently sales of games for older systems like the Xbox are down 33% from last year, and guess what system Valve chose for Half-life 2?
   
2. Last year's game...today! Next time, release it close to the climax of all your hype for the Windows version. There's no good reason to wait a whole year to publish a Windows game on the Xbox.
   
3. On an effectively dead system! It's just stupid to expect to do well on the Xbox the same month that the Xbox 360 comes out. Nothing says "success" quite like putting a game out for the aging console Microsoft can't run away from fast enough.
4. Incompatible with Xbox 360! Despite being a Microsoft groupie all these years, Valve just couldn't manage to work out how to make the game compatible with Xbox 360. (See here.) Don't handicap yourself or anything, ok?
   
5. Doesn't play to the system's strengths! Cut multiplayer on the one console that has a decent network. Brilliant!
   
6. Didn't release a Linux client! Next time don't make us angry, or we'll write more whiny damning editorials.

Ok, I'm just kidding about that last one, but seriously, is this rocket science?

Labels: microsoft, xbox360

--jvm at 00:53

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Tetris DS: Impressions

This has quickly joined the short list of my favorite DS games, along with Advance Wars DS and Meteos. It's just really cool. I've now spent some time (in some cases a lot of time) with every game mode, and unlike many games that offer a plethora of modes, they're all winners.

Standard Mode is plain Tetris, and in some ways it's the weakest mode because of a much-reported-on quirk of the gameplay: if you rotate a piece after it's hit the ground, you can continue to rotate it forever, and even move it back and forth while you're doing so, and the piece won't settle into place until you stop. Unlike what many sources have said, this does not make the gameplay trivial: once you've hit Level 20, pieces appear on the bin's surface, and rotating and moving is basically the only way you have to maneuver them at all. And you can't actually freely move pieces at that point either: it is difficult, and in some cases impossible, to maneuver a piece up inclines in that way, and the 2x2 square can't be maneuvered up them at all.

However, the infinite rotate thing does make the single-player game a lot easier than in the past. On my first game I got to Level 19, and I've now played an entire 200-line game on Level 20. (The "basic" game is now over after 200 lines, but doing that unlocks a true "Endless" mode.) Interestingly, you cannot rotate pieces forever in multiplayer modes, where it could be game-breaking, which seems to indicate that the designers knew what they were doing when they allowed it in single-player.

Of the new modes, probably the coolest, really quite excellent actually, is Push, the first instance I've seen of a truly competitive falling block game! By this I mean that most Tetris-inspired puzzle games, if they have a versus mode, are actually two or more separate, single-player games, side-by-side, and not actually competitive. All the ways in which you can affect the other player involve sending over things like garbage blocks, or inert Puyos, or timer pieces, or burnt Meteos, or any number of other "bad" things. You can't ever *directly* mess with your foe.

In Push mode, ingeniously, the two players are at the top and bottom of a bin (though each player's view of the game puts them at the top). The other player's part of the board can be seen on the bottom screen, and he plays on the same playfield as you, although gravity is reversed for him. This means if you're quick, you can actually take advantage of *his* Tetris opportunities, but only if he covers the hole in his stack with a block, since if there's not a bottom to the hole then the I-shaped pieces will just fall through and be wasted. Covering such a hole, thus, can be lethal in Push mode if there's two or more Tetrises at stake, and it's a good idea to see if the opposing player makes such a mistake. This also places a premium on pieces that can clear lines in such a situation without covering the hole, like the L and Mirrored-L blocks, which can still score triples in that case. This does a lot to open up strategic avenues in the game. In my opinion, this is best competitive mode I've yet seen for Tetris.

The other modes each have their own take on the game. Some are little changed from basic Tetris (Mission mode is standard Tetris with special objectives to complete), while some feature entirely different gameplay (Touch mode lets players shove pre-existing blocks around with the touchscreen and doesn't feature "naive gravity," Catch mode has the player moving the stack around, which can even be rotated, and catch falling blocks to try to make solid 4x4 squares). The game even includes a situational puzzle mode. I hadn't thought it was possible to do that for Tetris, which when it comes down to it is a fairly simple game, but it indeed has some challenging puzzles in there.

Nintendo has made a lot of their Wi-Fi internet service lately, and Tetris DS takes fairly good advantage of it. Three modes are available, a two-player standard battle with garbage lines just like the old Gameboy game, a well-designed four-player battle game with Mario Kart-ish items, and Push mode.

Nintendo has chosen, in a rather cool move I hadn't expected from them, to include a chess-style Tetris ranking for players based on who they win and lose against. Playing to increase my ranking (currently in the low 6,000s) has proven incredibly addictive, and it's difficult not to take losses personally. Unfortunately, the problem there is long-standing with Nintendo's implementation of their versus game, a problem that dates back to the Gameboy.

The idea of a "versus" bin-oriented puzzle game, in which good player performance is translated into garbage blocks dumped on the opponent, ultimately dates back to Nintendo Gameboy Tetris, so I'm surprised more hasn't been made of this flaw. It's that scoring Tetrises can actually be a bad move in this game, because the "garbage" you've sent is sometimes the perfect tool of instant retaliation. The holes in the garbage lines sent are sometimes lined up with each other, giving your opponent a prime opportunity to strike back with his own Tetris. If there's some way to cause the blocks sent to not be lined up (sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't), I haven't discovered it yet.

Edit: Fixed some grammar and style problems, sorry about that.

Labels: nintendo

--JohnH at 15:46

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ebgames.com, gamestop.com ... same thing

The two big game sellers, GameStop and EB Games, are really the same company now. It appears that online they now refer to the same stock, as shown in the screenshots below.

I was considering another big haul of used PSOne games and this is the result of comparing what each store had in stock now. If you check availability, both stores report that they have 320 titles in stock and 602 on back-order. Now I wonder if CAG15 and CAG16 discount codes still work...

--jvm at 14:34

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Official: PSOne a dead system, moves to rec.games.video.classic

As a recovering classic videogame collector, I am drawn to dead systems. As soon as a system is in short supply, or can only be found used, it immediately becomes more attractive to me. The Saturn was much more fun to own as soon as Sega left it for the Dreamcast. The passing of the PSOne into the realm of dead systems makes me want one of the little buggers to stash in my Giant Closet of Videogames.

Now I'm faced with the question of which system to get. The original PlayStation, the one I owned so many years ago, with link cable port and standard A/V jacks on the back? The later system with the original styling, no link cable port, but a standard Sony A/V connector? Or perhaps the smaller, rounder PSOne? The older systems are more likely to have skipping problems, but I kind of like the boxy look. The newer system is probably more reliable, but I can't ever hook up a link cable game just to try it out.

Ah, nevermind. I'll just buy one of each. They can commune with the various Atari 2600s I've got around here.

--jvm at 12:14

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Nintendo Prez took my line

From today's GDC presentation by Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo:

'In our business too often people with a fresh idea don't have a chance. I believe if Tetris were presented today here's what the producer would be told: "more levels, better graphics, cinematics and you'll need a movie license to sell that idea!"'

That's pretty much what I said...yesterday!

Labels: nintendo

--jvm at 21:20

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Revolution virtual console wishlist

Here's a place for dorks to daydream about the games they want on the Revolution's virtual console service. I'll start, random order:

• Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo - TG16
• Starflight - Genesis
• Herzog Zwei - Genesis
• Dune 2 - Genesis
• Devil Crush - TG16
• Earthworm Jim 2 - Genesis
• Castlevania: Bloodlines - Genesis
• Toe Jam & Earl - Genesis
• Bomberman '94 - TG16
• Zero Wing - Genesis :^)
  

I'll add more as I get them. What're you hoping for?

--jvm at 20:28

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As games get larger and it gets more difficult for a couple of hackers to make something people would naturally enjoy playing, I'm happy to see that the Independent Games Developers Choice Awards has added prizes for game modifications.

Here's the pertinent info from Gamasutra:

The first-ever Modding Competition also produced some extremely worthy winners, with cyberpunk title Dystopia winning out for best Half-Life 2 mod, and ancient Chinese action title Path Of Vengeance coming out victorious for best Unreal Tournament 2004 mod. Meanwhile, unique console-RPG style title Rose Of Eternity - Chapter 1 beat out its competitors for Best Neverwinter Nights Mod, and Last Man Standing Co-Op won for best Doom 3 Mod, rounding out an excellent evening for independent games.

I suppose my phrase "naturally enjoy playing" might deserve a bit of clarification. Regardless of whether we admit falling into the same boat, people would rather play games with cutting edge graphics than not. Sure, I'm playing more Yars' Revenge and Golden Axe these days than Doom 3, but even a Ludological Luddite like myself has to admit a preference for Madden 2005 over Madden 2000. I also prefer playing World of Warcraft with a ph4tt3r box, like those found in LANcades, than the PCs I have at home. And though Doom 3 really is essentially Quake 1 all over again (imo, so far as I've yet played), I appreciate Doom 3 for its impressive visuals enough that it gets all of my fps time right now. Got my first proverbially juicy gib on Doom 3 just a few short weeks ago. Exactly the same feel as my first in Quake 1. The QuakeWorld servers ain't empty.

So if someone doesn't want a potential player to play their game in spite of its unsophisticed engine, well, mods might soon be the only way to go.

--ruffin at 20:15

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Regarding PS3 and Revolution

With the announcement that the Nintendo Revolution will have Sega Genesis, Turbo-Grafx 16, NES, SNES, and N64 games, the new question for me (and I suspect for others) has now shifted from "Can I afford a PlayStation 3 and a Revolution?" to "PlayStation who?"

One last thing: If this gives me legal access to Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, the only important Castlevania that I've not yet played, I'm going to be in line on Revolution launch day.

Labels: nintendo, ps3, sony

--jvm at 14:37

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Nintendo: Vision and Sony-style

With the recent announcements of the Nintendo DS Lite and these GDC pictures of the stunningly tiny and beautiful Revolution (perhaps renamed today), I'm reminded of this 2003 article on SPOnG right after the GameBoy Advance SP announcement. Specifically, Nintendo is leaving behind the traditional game system look and co-opting what was previously seen as Sony's slick style.

See for yourself:

This being said, the GameCube is likely to be the last Nintendo machine that looks like it was co-designed by Fisher Price.

Over three years later, having seen the Nintendo DS, DS Lite, and Revolution, the accuracy of the above statement is downright scary. And that's not the only part:

Now, back to the SP resembling a camera, or a Mini Disc player. The machine looks like Sony made it. A lot. If it weren't for the Nintendo logo on the front, you would guess that SP stood for Sony Player.

Talking to a high-level Nintendo executive today, the reason for this is simple. The SP represents a pre-emptive strike against the Sony portable games device that is in the works at the PlayStation creator's head office.

In retrospect, this means the Nintendo DS was designed, from the beginning, to compete with the PSP, not just in games but in style. Nintendo has always had the game-creation angle down, but they knew in 2002 that they needed a new image. They were going to have to appeal to a wider audience, including many adults, and that audience wouldn't want a Fisher-Price toy in the briefcase. Likewise, they won't want a purple GameCube on the entertainment center. One last quote:

Gosen told us that the SP is aimed at an older audience, perhaps those who haven't played portable games ever, or for years. The aesthetic of the machine screams tech-chic. It's the GBA that won't put girls off talking to you. It's the GBA that you can play on the train and still feel like a grown up. It is new Nintendo.

The same could be said about the DS and certainly looks to be the aim with the Revolution. That is "It's the console you can play in your living room and still feel like a grown up."

Perhaps Nintendo really has their ducks in a row.

• Easy to develop for, because it's essentially a GameCube with modest upgrades
  
• Installed software base, since it plays GameCube games
• Networked to download other games
  
• Unique controller that is simple enough for Mom to use
  

Add to this the final piece:

• Style that appeals to adults

With all these in place, especially the last one, Nintendo moves from videogame company to entertainment company. It's a small distinction, granted, but it might just be what Nintendo needs.

Labels: nintendo

--jvm at 09:43

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Ridiculous GDC quote of the day

More from Next-Gen's Game Developer's Conference coverage. This time, Ted Price, CEO of Insomniac lays this one on us:

He added, "Playstation 3 has more [detail] per frame than any system ever invented, and that is what really counts. It fulfills the public's insatiable demands for more content."

You guys and your insatiable content-detail-per-frame appetites -- you're what's wrong with this industry. If it'd been up to you, Tetris would never have been made!

--jvm at 20:31

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Sony promises the world (of backward compatibility)

So reports Next-Gen:

[Phil Harrison] also confirmed full backwards compatibility to PS1 and PS2 games, full Blu-ray support for games and movies and echoed Ken Kutargi's sentiments on how the HDD is a key component to the system.

As I've noted before, I'm skeptical of Sony getting full backward compatibility right. After all, the original PlayStation 2 didn't play some PSOne games correctly. (I should know - I own several of them!) The slim PlayStation 2 model presumably has those problems and it has trouble with a selection of PlayStation 2 games to boot!

Now, on a brand new platform, they're going to get it right? I doubt it. Even Microsoft wasn't so foolhardy as to promise 100% compatibility.

Sure, Sony might come close enough for Average Joe, but (as Ruffin's pointed out) I'm not that guy. I have around 180 PlayStation 2 and PSOne games in my library, and I want to be able to play every one of them. If I have to buy the real hardware, then that's what I'll do, but it'd be nice for Sony to make good on this "full compatibility" promise.

Then there's this:

Regarding backwards compatibility, he said that there might be opportunities for optimization of previous generation games when played on the PS3. However, Sony has no plans for the graphical optimization of downloadable PS1 games on the PSP (which were announced by Ken Kutaragi last week).

I'm surprised. Sure, they can't very well improve the polygon models, but pixelization and jaggies will still be visible, even on the smaller PSP screen. Would a little texture smoothing and antialiasing really hurt? And if they're going to be recompiling the games (as I'd suspected they would), some games would benefit from a higher framerate. Perhaps they're just going bare-bones, and if that's the case they better make these games cheap.

Labels: ps3, sony

--jvm at 18:44

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Impressions: Racing Gears Advance

Racing Gears Advance feels like Mail Order Monsters mixed with Racing Destruction Set. In brief, you race across twisting courses of pavement and mud under sunny, rainy, or snowy conditions with armed, tweaked cars. Wins mean money, and money means upgrades.

While playing, speed matters, but agility and vicious attacks matter just as much. It all feels right, whether whipping around corners, slamming the car just ahead with rockets, or dropping a puddle of oil for the car on your tail. Driving these little cars is so natural, that it's scary. I can't think of a single thing I don't like about the game, except that I can't put it to sleep like I can games on the PSP.

Racing Gears Advance has been getting more play on the ol' burnin' GBA than WipeOut Pure on the fancy PSP. From what I've seen so far, I recommend it, if you can find it.

Addendum: Last night I remembered the other game that Racing Gears Advance resembles: Power Drive Rally by Rage Software for the Atari Jaguar. (It was also known as Power Drive for the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis in the U.K.) Take Power Drive Rally and add weapons, a real upgrade system, and seven opponents instead of just one, and you've got Racing Gears Advance. Given how much I loved the older game, no surprise I'd like the new one too.

--jvm at 22:31

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Prince of Persia: Revelations *is* crap!

You guys were right, and I was wrong. That happens infrequently enough around here that I thought it was worth noting.

Anyway, Prince of Persia: Revelations for the PlayStation Portable is a truly terrible game. It is the kind of sequel that evokes the epithet "abomination" from disillusioned fans. Jordan Mechner isn't dead yet, but if he were I'm confident that Revelations would set him spinning in his grave.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was functional, enjoyable, beautiful art. Revelations, by comparison, is a vile ball of stinking garbage. In brief:

• Movement and battle are no longer smooth and lithe but stuttering and clumsy. Think Fight for Life on the Atari Jaguar.
  
• Music is no longer subtle but jarring. Nothing spoils a game like chainsaw rock that can't even spool off the disc without stalling and restarting at random intervals. I haven't yet seen a single piece of dialogue synchronized with the video.
  
• The cute Prince and Princess of Sands has been replaced with an edgier Prince and an impossibly proportioned woman in the usual improbable attire. Her entrance to the game is a lingering shot of her buttocks which, due to low resolution textures, looks more like a lurid grey peach than an alluring evil temptress derriere.

Not one bit of the original's charm remains. It's buggy, glitchy, and painful to play. I want to enjoy the movement puzzles but around every corner is another frustration. I cannot fathom how GameSpot gave this game a 7.4. Any time a game gets a 4 out of 5 and a 4 out of 10 on GameRankings it should be a sign, I think.

I give up. I'm going to go spend some quality time with WipeOut Pure.

Commence the "I told you so" chorus.

--jvm at 21:38

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When evolution doesn't do its job...

...better give it a helping hand. At least that's what peterb suggests for PS2 developers who never quite grasped that whole "second memory card" concept. Bob threatened for years to write a post on this problem, but never got around to it.

--jvm at 20:29

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Racing Gears Advance - pirate no more

Earlier this year I got conned by a counterfeit copy of Racing Gears Advance for the GBA, and I just wanted to say that I've finally got a legit copy. I've popped open the cartridge and it is as authentic as I can ever determine on my own.

The kicker is that this came from eBay. How could be sure it was real? I asked the seller directly if he could guarantee this wasn't a pirated copy. His response was that he bought it new and the picture he used was his copy, showing the price tag from the store. I figured he wasn't willing to risk his eBay standing, especially since the question and his answer were recorded right there in the item description for all to see. It appears to have worked out well enough.

--jvm at 20:57

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WipeOut Pure downloads: final post

This is all I'm going to say on WipeOut Pure downloads.

1. Failed downloads when using the SanDisk 256M card appear to be the fault of the card. My brother tested on his PSP and had the same error. As with my experience, the Sony card worked fine.
   
   


2. Getting the downloads through a computer from the official site appears to be about as painful. Not only do you need Shockwave, Java, and an account (registered to an email address) but you must also download directly to a memory stick. For me, that means I have to connect my PSP using a USB cable. I only tested on Windows, but I have a suspicion that it won't work on a Mac. Nice system, fellas.
   
   Update: I was wrong. The system works very well on MacOS X, although I could only get it to work in Safari. Better.
   

That is all.

--jvm at 01:02

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Finally, PSP emulation done right...by Sony!

Returning readers might recall that I'm fairly critical of the PSP emulation scene, but it appears someone is finally putting the proper resources into it: Sony. Along with the other Sony news today came an announcement that Sony will be selling a PSOne emulator for the PSP, with games distributed electronically.

For schmucks like me who still buy and play PSOne games, this is great news. On the other hand, for early adopters, again like me, this could be a real kick in the teeth. Many great PSOne games will be several hundred megabytes in size, and that means either multiple memory cards or a new PSP model with some serious built-in storage, on the order of gigabytes. If the PS3 hard drive serves as local storage for these games, that's perhaps a consolation, but will also probably mean taking out a second mortgage.

It also makes me wonder how I'm going to download a PSOne game if I still can't get a WipeOut Pure map to download in a reasonable way.

Labels: ps3, sony

--jvm at 22:25

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Next-Gen marketing column is terrible

This week Next-Gen continues its columns on marketing. Not one topic covered in this column is relevant how the average buyer gets information about games, which seems a fairly big flaw for a column about marketing. This is worse than last week's attempt.

The column talks about the marketing of EA's recent game, Black, and looks at three areas:

1. Press release
2. Official website
3. TV spots
   

What the...? Those don't amount to a hill of beans to the man on the street.

I was interested in Black myself a few days back, and here's what I checked:

1. Official trailers available online
   
2. Written previews
3. Newsgroups, message boards, friends on IRC
   

The first two are messages that are tightly controlled by the publishers. Just see this recently flame at Kotaku. The other, forums and message boards, is a realm that publishers want to invade, as seen in recent stories about videogame astroturfing that I can't find while I'm on this slow modem connection.

I'm astounded that the official trailers, at least, were not examined. They were the key to my opinion of the game, pre-release. A thorough study of what was allowed into written previews should give a solid idea of what the publisher and developer thought were important to the game's image. Moreover, advertisements in magazines were always important back when I actually subscribed to videogame magazines, and I can't believe they weren't included. Surely Black had some pretty big, slick 2-page adverts in the magazines, right?

Am I totally of base here? Do you go check press releases, official websites, and TV ads when you want to learn about a game? Are those the places you find out about a game in the first place?

Which is to say, this column at Next-Gen fails on all counts. I just can't imagine who the intended audience is supposed to be, and the writer strikes me as completely out of touch.

Stop back next week when we find out how Tomb Raider is being marketed. Will the writer notice that breasts and guns, unimportant to actual raiding of tombs, are the main feature of all the advertisements?

--jvm at 10:39

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Halo 3 to slap PlayStation 3

With the PlayStation 3 set to come out Fall 2006 and no official price set, the pieces are lining up for Microsoft's strike to significantly weaken Sony. This summer, I expect a free Halo 3 demo on Xbox Live.

--jvm at 08:44

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Tomb Raider: Legend review from PSM (via Next-Gen)

Here is a review of Tomb Raider: Legend, the first I've seen. I'm wary. It took him two plays through to know it was good? He likes the gunplay, too, which interests me not at all. On the other hand, the grapple sounds like a good move.

Finally, wasn't it the publisher, Eidos, who took the license away from Core and gave it to Crystal Dynamics? The way he puts it, sounds like Core said "We're making a mess. Why don't we let someone else give a try?" I was under the impression that it wasn't Core's decision at all.

I'll give the review another read when I get a chance. Seen any others?

--jvm at 07:58

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WipeOut Pure downloads ... still waiting

Continuing my quest to get some of the WipeOut Pure downloadable material, I decided to try direct through the WipeOut Pure website, where I can apparently get the files and then transfer them to my PSP via a USB connection.

The site requires Flash or Shockwave 8, which wasn't on this Windows computer I have access to for the week. Once it's installed, I have to wait for the site to load up the Flash-only interface. Then I have to browse through to the download page and click one a download link. This spawns a pop-up window which then takes more loading and requires Java 2 to handle a register/login interface.

As it turns out, I'm on dial-up for the week, which means that the above took around 30 minutes total time, and does not yet include the time to download a map.

Nice.

--jvm at 22:15

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Absurdly Late Morrowind Impressions

Yeah, I realize that I'm a generation behind the curve here, seeing as how the sequel's about to come out, but better late than never....

So far, I haven't enjoyed it much. I roam my single guy around a polygonal world with vaguely Mario-ish controls (it has a jump button), going back and forth, even at run speed, about half as fast as I'd like. When people assign questions, they always do it by using street directions. That is to say, "Go west of the river, head up towards the Temple, then take a right." No icons on the minimap or anything, heavens no.

Almost all the different screens and windows are activated by a dozen different keypresses, with no on-screen clues as to their identity other than a few hints way back in the tutorial sequence. Some, like the Rest and Save functions, are never revealed to the player, who has to go to (gasp) the manual for them, or just try hitting everything. This is an interface that works for Nethack, true, but it's good for nothing else. Nothing else, do you hear me Bethesda?!

To cast different spells, you go to a subscreen (accessed through the right mouse button), pick the spell, then return to the game. Then you press 'R' to enter cast mode, then you click the left mouse button. To cast something different, you go back to the subscreen. You can assign hotkeys to different spells, but they don't actually cast the spell, but just make it available for use on the left mouse button. What is so evil about providing clickable icons? In the middle of a difficult fight, the last thing I want to put up with is having to jump through hoops just to switch to the emergency healing spell.

And the mouse pointer is the bane of my existence. For starters, it's not even visible 9/10s of the time. The mouse's movements are tied directly to the player's POV camera. You select something for examination or use by looking directly at it, then pressing the spacebar. When it is available, its movements are flightly and always seem to dance just short of, or beyond, the thing I want to click, probably as a result of the game ignoring the Windows mouse acceleration settings. I despair of resizing windows (the resizing handles are microscopic), but they have to be resized to avoid constant exposure to the annoying scroll buttons, which are similarly sized.

At this point we come to the game itself, a game that many people have raved about. And speaking on this subject, I must admit, I may be a little biased, so keep that in mind. I'm biased because, at some point during the last five-or-so computer RPGs I've played, I've discovered that I have a deep and abiding hatred of generic fantasy text.

Everything I read in the game is the literary equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard. From the names of the five houses that I'm probably going to have to have memorized by the end of the game but who I think of by their first letter because I couldn't pronounce them if I tried (I'm thinking about signing up with House H), to the various vowel-happy names of quest givers and contacts, to the fake-latin names of the mushrooms I had to gather in a fetch-quest through the swamp, none of them are capable of remaining in my memory for more than three seconds. I'm constantly sent to the journal to remember their accursed names, which especially sucks since it doesn't give you a flat list of the things you've been asked to do and how far you are at doing them, but is instead effectively a text file containing notes on everything you've ever done, in chronological order. That sucks. And although it's been three or four years now since the game came out, I seem to remember it sucking back then, too.

I may have more impressions soon, if I can bring myself to keep going. It's not like I can take the game back to the store.

--JohnH at 19:02

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Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger???

When you see totally random blogs by me, like the one that was posted under this title earlier, here at Curmudgeon Gamer, please be advised that they are meant for my own, much older, readerless blog that lives somewhere else in cyberspace, inadvertently posted here through my inattention to BlogThis's "which blog" select box. Usually they're moved quickly. Sometimes they aren't, like this one.

Anyhow, I'm finally getting used to Golden Axe on the Game Boy Advance. After the initial disappointment wears off, it's a very good port. I'm also a little upset that Archon doens't seem to be working as it should on my NEX, though the NEX compat page says it should play fine. Perhaps I have a borked copy of Archon, but one disadvantage of the NEX is that I can't be sure.

--ruffin at 13:36

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Tomb Breaker (with apologies to Led Zeppelin)

This is what 7.5 hours in a car gets you. Sorry. Like Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin.

Tomb Breaker

Hey fellas, have you heard the news?
You know that Lara's back in town?
It won't take long just watch and see
How the fellas lay their money down.
Her look is new but the play's the same
As it was so long ago,
But from her eyes, a diff'rent smile
Like that of one who knows.

Well, it's been ten years and maybe more
Since I first set eyes on you;
The best years of my life gone by,
Here I am alone and blue.
Some people sighed and wished you'd died
From the Angel of Darkness crap;
But I'll just keep on playin' on
Knowin' it was all a bum rap.

People talkin' all around 'bout the way your gameplay's flat,
I don't care what the people say, I know where your jive is at.
One thing I do have on my mind, if you can clarify please do,
Why do you steer like a drunken ox when I try to make you move!
I try to move left but it ain't no use.
Do it for me, do it!

(guitar solo)

Run and jump and then you climb,
Another damn health pack;
Killed you off a thousand times,
However hard I tried.
Tomb breaker, the time has come,
To play your evil game;
Let's go play,
Tomb breaker.
Tomb breaker!

--jvm at 22:43

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WipeOut Pure, PSP, wireless...a big flippin' mess

I spent about 40 minutes tonight trying to figure out how to download WipeOut Pure maps through the in-game browser. I still didn't get a single pack downloaded. I don't know what to blame, since the error I get (80110385) doesn't appear to be very well known: it brings up fewer than 8 hits on Google. Here's the exact error message:

Save failed.
The Memory Stick^TM could not be
accessed.
(80110385)

I'm tempted to say that this is a bad interaction between my PSP and the Netgear wireless access point. I recall having to download the 2.0 firmware upgrade and move it to my memory card via USB cable because the wireless would conk out halfway through the retrieval of the file.

On the other hand, I have two memory cards: a 256Mb SanDisk (thanks, brother-in-law!) and the 32Mb Sony that came with the system. They behave differently when trying to download a map. With the SanDisk card in the system, a map pack will start to download quickly, but then die after about 10 seconds and give the above error message. With the Sony card in the system, a map pack makes downloads much more slowly, makes it further through the download (according to the progress bar), but then the download still dies, but with a connection error, not a memory stick error.

Finally, I could blame WipeOut Pure or the PSP itself. Who knows? Maybe I'd get better performance with the 2.6 firmware?

Regardless, I'm frustrated and going to bed.

Yes, I did play the game. It's certainly better than the original WipeOut, but that's it so far.

Update: Ok, I'm 50% through a download with the 32Mb stick, but I have to be downstairs near the wireless access point. And, since it's much slower than the other card, getting Classic Pack 1 is taking like 10 minutes. Nice.

Update 2: Errored out before hitting 100%. Colorful language here.

Update 3: A comment below suggested turning off wireless power saving. Good idea, and I did have power saving turned on, so I turned it off. The fast SanDisk card still gives an access error and the Sony card allowed me to download the map. Still, it took like 10 minutes to download one map pack! I'm just going to use the official site to get them onto a computer and then transfer them to the card directly.

--jvm at 00:13

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I'm officially numb to Silent Hill

Does this supposedly-disturbing image on Ain't It Cool News really give people the creeps? Does it strike you as particularly gripping for a movie poster? I thought it seemed weak, just part of the usual Silent Hill imagery, and wondered if it perhaps would be more interesting in motion. I am more disturbed by how Silent Hill creatures move than what they look like when they're stationary. Like that scene from Silent Hill 2 where three creatures were tangled up like a menage-a-trois made of seven legs, three torsoes, and no heads.

--jvm at 22:53

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Marketing types

From a new regular feature at Next-Gen about marketing:

Certainly [the Xbox] 360 has a smaller footprint than the original model, which is an improvement. But the color choice (a generic computer beige), and its rounded edges look like a dental appliance. The design does not give any appreciable idea what this box might do. The design should be part of the message. But it fails to communicate much beyond the fact that it needs to be plugged in.

Say what?

Every Xbox 360 I've seen is silvery, not beige. Certainly a lot better looking than the PlayStation 2, or the Cube. Heck, it's got the PlayStation 3 beat. Update: Stopped by Rhino Games instead of eating lunch. The Xbox 360 they had on display was certainly white with silver trim, not beige. It looks at least the same color as some past iBooks are/were, and Jobs would never let you call them generic computer beige.

And what precisely should a system look like to convey it's for games? Flashing lights? A slot for quarters? A big fat joystick and trackball built into the case?

Not a promising start for this new feature.

Labels: microsoft, xbox360

--jvm at 22:13

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12-Step programs never work

At the Game Marketing Conference, John Geoghegan (fomerly VP of marketing and sales at LucasArts) gave 12 steps to putting the videogame industry in a better light. Some of them, unsurprisingly, are bogus.

The first one is:

Promote the ratings system. We've got a good system by the ESRB, make sure people know about it. It worked for movies, the recording industry and TV. It can work for us. Parents don't know about it.

Until the ESRB grows some teeth and a backbone, the current system is a sham. They had a chance with Rockstar last year, and they pretty much blew it. I wouldn't go prancing around flashing an ESRB badge just yet.

Evangelize the benefits of videogames. Book: Everything Bad is Good for You, by Stephen Johnson. Videogames not only help children to compete more effectively, they make kids more intelligent. Videogames involve data pattern recognition, and tracking multiple characters in multiple storylines. They require sustained concentration and complex problem solving. Also, games are interactive, not passive like music or reading. There's more open-ended gameplay than ever before. Johnson shows videogames teach the brain to process information that conventional media doesn't, and prepares kids for the way our world is evolving. It teaches kids to concentrate, learn, and problem solve. We need to tell the world about this.

This is the same hokum that I discussed previously. If we don't accept the questionable studies that people use to connect videogame to violence, we shouldn't then turn around and tout benefits from a popular book that are hardly proven, even if we believe them.

More:

Preach moderation and promote good parenting. Remind parents moderation in all things, including videogames, is important. You're responsible as parents to oversee this.

Right, the Not My Problem Defense. Hey, all you schmuck parents, quit making it so hard for the videogame industry!

Moving on:

Benchmark against sex and violence in prime network TV and movies. I don't think videogames have cornered the market on sex and violence.

How about we benchmark the number of games with stories and characters as good as NYPD Blue? Or The X-Files? Or, how about just The Andy Griffith Show? (Don't like my picks? Fine. Take your own favorite TV show and ask if a game has done as well.) Benchmarking against TV might net you some points on sex and violence, but videogames still don't live up to the standards of decent TV.

I'm AWOL for a few days. Keep an eye on Ruffin and JohnH.

--jvm at 20:58

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This reduction of World of Warcraft to interactive fiction is perhaps the most succinct argument I've seen for taking New Media studies outside of English departments -- or for taking English departments away from their current obsession with the codex.

"Hey," the elf protests. "This is important expository. Azeroth is a rich and storied land, with a tapestry of interwoven ..."

> Click Accept

"OK, fine. Bring me six kobold tails."

> Shout "Where are the Kobolds?"

You hear a voice in the distance. "NE of stream, near lake."
You hear another voice in the distance. "Right near lake."
You hear another voice in the distance. "LF1M! Need priest!"

> Go NE

A small ramshackle house sits atop a hill, apparently abandoned. At the foot of the hill is a large field. The field is swarming with kobolds, their tails swinging seductively in the breeze.

> Kill kobold

You kill a kobold. You get a kobold tail.

It gets better.

Okay, admittedly I've played a text-only MUD literally for days, so perhaps I'm the wrong person to be reading this (looks good to me!), but there are a few things that stand out after reading through the above post from wired.com.

1.) I've argued before that WoW is quite narrative driven in ways Second Life and even Ultima Online are not.
2.) There's a reason WoW plays well on a 28.8kps modem; it's a text adventure! [1] I've played this way and seriously, it ain't bad as long as you don't have to download an update.
3.) There's something about the visual and communal elements of WoW that make its reduction to a narrative very much a lossy process. How best can we describe what's missing from the above description of WoW?

Anyhow, since I've put my WoW subscription on hold, ostensibly to concentrate on writing, I believe it's time to get back to Joust on my Game Boy Advance.

[1] Obviously WoW isn't a text adventure; that's what #3 is supposed to problematize. Yet the amount of bandwidth certainly isn't much beyond what we'd expect to need to play SojournMUD (http://www.torilmud.org/). We need to, it would appear, look to the WoW engine to figure out what's significantly different between the two, particularly those updates that aren't quite so phone line friendly.

--ruffin at 13:23

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Upcoming PSP vacation

At the end of th