Curmudgeon Gamer
29 April 2006
Hollow of the Colossus
Several sequences in Shadow of the Colossus are unforgettable, forever playing out in my mind like the first time a zombie dog leapt through the window in Resident Evil. While I treasure those moments, I simultaneously declare that Shadow of the Colossus failed to engage me in the story it wanted to tell. The experience that I made as I played was far more important, and I wish they'd left their story out altogether.
A game is at the top of its form when it evokes complex emotions. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies is just such a game. Yes, it's a string of aerial combat missions, but its story provides perfectly pitched context. As I destroyed my nemesis, the enemy pilot known as Number 13, I knew it could end no other way. Yet the game had forced me to see him as an equal, as a pilot of like mettle, as a human. As they say, in another place and another time, we might have been friends.
Shadow of the Colossus appears to be another such game. It is a sequence of combat missions against impossibly large colossi, just as AC04 was a sequence of dogfights. Each colossus is different, and each you can reason how to best with just your sword, your arrows, and your horse. Without context, however, it really is just a sequence of boss battles (as others have noted).
For hours I battled colossi, watching infinitesimal bits of story trickle out. Then the game sucker punched me emotionally. Bravo. I can appreciate that accomplishment, but the shock also brought a moment of clarity: the game was not what it seemed.
[Note: I'm now going to give away the plot of the game. Stop reading now, if that bothers you.]
Shadow of the Colossus was telling one story and I was hearing another. All along I'd figured I was a David, mistaken for Hercules, sent to perform 16 labors, 16 assassinations, all to raise from the dead a woman for whom I'd risk everything. As it turns out, that woman mattered not at all to me.
My companion on each mission was Agro, my faithful horse. On my first mission, he sped me across the vast plain, and faithfully returned to me at its conclusion. On the second, and the third, and every other, he stayed as near my side as possible, although never in the way. When I needed his speed in a battle against a colossus, he complied without fear. When I was in a hurry and took shortcuts he could not, he would find a way past a cliff or around a mesa and fly to my side without being asked.
As I raced to my battle with the final colossus, I needed his speed one more time. A huge, unstable bridge over a chasm stood between me and the last battleground. With his speed, I could cross the bridge before it collapsed, and as we neared the other side -- I do not know precisely what happened -- I ended up on stable ground and he fell to his death.
At that moment, I realized that -- as a player -- I didn't care a whit for that dead girl. Only Agro mattered, the only living thing I'd known the whole game long. His death evoked a rage which fueled my showdown with the final colossus. I didn't care whether it raised the girl from the dead or not. I just wanted to destroy something.
And I did destroy the final colossus. There was a long sequence at the end that's really not very enlightening. Yes, the girl was resurrected. No, I didn't care. What mattered to me was that I'd lost my horse.
And that's my point: the game would be more with less. I already made my own experience as I played, tackling the colossi and exploring the world with my horse. If you take away every bit of the contrived story about the girl, just leave the battles and Agro's faithful companionship, the game gets a lot better.
A game is at the top of its form when it evokes complex emotions. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies is just such a game. Yes, it's a string of aerial combat missions, but its story provides perfectly pitched context. As I destroyed my nemesis, the enemy pilot known as Number 13, I knew it could end no other way. Yet the game had forced me to see him as an equal, as a pilot of like mettle, as a human. As they say, in another place and another time, we might have been friends.
Shadow of the Colossus appears to be another such game. It is a sequence of combat missions against impossibly large colossi, just as AC04 was a sequence of dogfights. Each colossus is different, and each you can reason how to best with just your sword, your arrows, and your horse. Without context, however, it really is just a sequence of boss battles (as others have noted).
For hours I battled colossi, watching infinitesimal bits of story trickle out. Then the game sucker punched me emotionally. Bravo. I can appreciate that accomplishment, but the shock also brought a moment of clarity: the game was not what it seemed.
[Note: I'm now going to give away the plot of the game. Stop reading now, if that bothers you.]
Shadow of the Colossus was telling one story and I was hearing another. All along I'd figured I was a David, mistaken for Hercules, sent to perform 16 labors, 16 assassinations, all to raise from the dead a woman for whom I'd risk everything. As it turns out, that woman mattered not at all to me.
My companion on each mission was Agro, my faithful horse. On my first mission, he sped me across the vast plain, and faithfully returned to me at its conclusion. On the second, and the third, and every other, he stayed as near my side as possible, although never in the way. When I needed his speed in a battle against a colossus, he complied without fear. When I was in a hurry and took shortcuts he could not, he would find a way past a cliff or around a mesa and fly to my side without being asked.
As I raced to my battle with the final colossus, I needed his speed one more time. A huge, unstable bridge over a chasm stood between me and the last battleground. With his speed, I could cross the bridge before it collapsed, and as we neared the other side -- I do not know precisely what happened -- I ended up on stable ground and he fell to his death.
At that moment, I realized that -- as a player -- I didn't care a whit for that dead girl. Only Agro mattered, the only living thing I'd known the whole game long. His death evoked a rage which fueled my showdown with the final colossus. I didn't care whether it raised the girl from the dead or not. I just wanted to destroy something.
And I did destroy the final colossus. There was a long sequence at the end that's really not very enlightening. Yes, the girl was resurrected. No, I didn't care. What mattered to me was that I'd lost my horse.
And that's my point: the game would be more with less. I already made my own experience as I played, tackling the colossi and exploring the world with my horse. If you take away every bit of the contrived story about the girl, just leave the battles and Agro's faithful companionship, the game gets a lot better.
--jvm at 01:00
Comment
[ 6 ]
28 April 2006
Marketspeak: Animation Vital to Story Development
When I read the headline of this piece at Next-Gen about the animation system LucasArts is using in their new Indiana Jones game, I was intrigued. Having finished, it strikes me as yet another piece of marketing dressed up as an insider news story, what Ruffin would call a journaltisement.
Here's my summary of the article:
You can see why the title is misleading: it mentions story development, which isn't about how real the characters are rendered. I'd imagine story development has to do with a lot of things -- writing, pacing, direction -- but not how accurately a 3D model represents a human being. The article offers but one example of this kind of animation technique: a whip-to-the-head animation. How does this involve story development again?
What I keep coming back to is this question: What story development can be done with this new technology that couldn't have been done with well-written, text-based interactive fiction?
Here's my summary of the article:
With an animation system that models human body actions and reactions, characters can appear more real.That's it. This new animation system is just that: a new animation system.
You can see why the title is misleading: it mentions story development, which isn't about how real the characters are rendered. I'd imagine story development has to do with a lot of things -- writing, pacing, direction -- but not how accurately a 3D model represents a human being. The article offers but one example of this kind of animation technique: a whip-to-the-head animation. How does this involve story development again?
What I keep coming back to is this question: What story development can be done with this new technology that couldn't have been done with well-written, text-based interactive fiction?
--jvm at 22:49
Comment
[ 1 ]
27 April 2006
25 April 2006
Any good reason to keep a PSP at v.2.0 firmware?
No, seriously. I'm thinking of upgrading my PSP to the new 2.7 firmware, since I haven't seen a single homebrew worth the trouble of keeping my PSP at firmware version 2.0. If you know one good reason to stay with 2.0, let's hear it.
--jvm at 23:37
Comment
[ 8 ]
Prey (1997) vs. Prey (2006) with fun screenshots
So the game Prey is still in development, which kind of shocked me when I happened across a preview of it from September 1997. It's kind of amusing to see what has changed since then, as well as what hasn't. Be sure to check out the screenshots and a quaint Daikatana quote at the end. All 1997 material is taken from Next Generation magazine, Issue 33, pp. 70-72.
September 1997:
September 1997:
(Is it just me or does that look like they put a discreet black box over some exposed anatomy above? Is that a guy or a girl?)
April 2006:
And, as promised, an amusing Daikatana quote:
September 1997:
Although currently set for a mid-1998 release, when asked when [Prey] will be completed project leader Paul Shuytema [says]: "When it's finished."April 2005:
"Each game will ship when it's ready." (George Broussard, source)September 1997:
Prey uses a new 3D engine, called Portal.May 2005:
3D Realms has teamed up with Human Head to deliver a resurrected Prey that uses the dazzling Doom 3 graphics engine. (source)September 1997:
The one thing that's cool with our approach [to portals] is that it allows us to say 'to hell with Euclidean geometry' I mean, now we can play with things there's no possible way you could do in real life -- unless you had heinous amounts of drugs, and then you probably couldn't remember it afterwards.May 2005:
Then there's the mind-blowing, messing-with-the-laws-of physics way of using [portals] to create environments that just can't exist in our world. (source)September 1997:
The player's character is Talon Brave, a Native American who is taken aboard Trocara, a huge, ring-like artificial world larger than Earth.April 2006:
Tommy is a Cherokee garage mechanic, refuting his heritage and undecided about his next step in life. [...] Abducted with his people to a menacing mothership orbiting Earth, he sets out to save himself, his girlfriend, and eventually the entire planet. (Source: Official Prey site.)(I guess Halo wasn't first with that whole ringworld thing, eh? I wonder where the idea started.)
September 1997:
Prey is one of the first games Next Generation has learned of that will require a 3D accelerator card (others include Ultima IX, Redline, Out of the Void, and Microsoft's Baseball). This enables the designers to work with 16-bit textures and lighting and also takes some of the "grunt work" of rendering off the CPU and frees it for other uses.April 2006:
Doom 3 requires: 3D Hardware Accelerator Card Required - 100% DirectX 9.0b compatible 64MB Hardware Accelerated video card and the lateset drivers (source)September 1997:
3Dfx Voodoo is every gamer's dream card.April 2006:
3dfx doesn't exist.September 1997:
Fastest Intel CPU: Pentium II 450MHzApril 2006:
Fastest Intel CPU: Pentium Extreme Edition 965 3.73GHzSeptember 1997:
(Is it just me or does that look like they put a discreet black box over some exposed anatomy above? Is that a guy or a girl?)
April 2006:
And, as promised, an amusing Daikatana quote:
"As for us [developers] as gameplayers, we're excited too. I can't wait to play Unreal, Quake II looks gorgeous, I want to see where Daikatana is going -- I mean, those are going to be fun, fun games." -- Paul Shuytema, project leader of Prey in 1997
--jvm at 00:22
Comment
[ 8 ]
24 April 2006
Gaining perspective, and wishing the AI would
"It's ok, but it's not worth $50."
"A 7/10 is average." (Although apparently 1up has declared it to be 5 -- this link courtesy of Mory in comment to JohnH's Odama post awhile back. And the link's got an explanation/comment about getting rid of scores entirely, and why they're not doing that which certain ranting curmudgeons should read.)
The fact is, most of the new games we talk about here, and indeed that serious gamers talk about, review, etc., are premium games. I don't mean they're necessarily above average, but there's genuine investment, in marketing and distribution and even development.
There's a world of videogames out there that don't have those kinds of production values. And again, that doesn't guarantee they're subpar. But when you consider all the umpteen franchise spinoffs and the cartoon adaptations, all of a sudden that fair-to-middling racing game looks a lot less middling. And that's my point: while we're being curmudgeonly and unsatisfied with the some of the top stuff out there, normal people (who don't read CG) are buying games that are nowhere near that level.
And some of those poor suckers are even liking them.
I happen to have some examples in mind. World Snooker Championship 2005 (PS2) isn't a particularly bad game, but if you don't have a snooker itch to scratch, you'd probably wonder why you'd play it. Unless you're in the UK, you'll probably never see this game in the flesh, so screenshots are available here, here, and here. The last two also have reviews.
Long story short, snooker is a game kinda like pool -- cue sticks, balls on green felt that you try to hit into each other so they fall into pockets. It's very popular in the UK -- the top professional players are household names. So it makes sense to have a videogame where you can play the professional tour against those players, move up in the rankings, and maybe even win the World Championship. World Championship Snooker is that game.
They've licensed the top 100 players, they've got the voices of four (out of the six or so) BBC commentators, and just in case you get snookered out, you can play pool (or some other cuesport variations) instead. You can play with up to 4 live players. It supports network play. I expect to get many hours of entertainment from it.
So, what are the production values I'm complaining about?
The player models aren't bad, but they aren't really up to the standard of, say, Tony Hawk 4 or Karaoke Revolution. And particularly in the training mode, the player model is often partly _in_ the table.
The interface rather nicely lets you take your shot one of two ways -- either pressing X, setting a strength meter with the left stick, and pressing X again, or pulling back on the right stick and then push it forward. Unfortunately, the strength meter is invisible when using the second method, so there's no way to figure out how to calibrate the strength of the right stick method. User interface tip: don't make "the fun way" to do something necessarily also "the losing way".
There are little hiccups -- sighting arrows going away for no particular reason (you can recover them by fooling around with the strength meter), dead time between an animation and the next shot, animations in general being slow and inaccurate (after you painstakingly set up the shot as hitting the bottom of the cue ball, the animation clearly shows you hitting the top of the ball -- fortunately the balls roll according to how you specify the shot, not how it was shown.)
The AI is much more artificial than intelligent. Even when I'm playing against lower-ranked players, the AI makes ridiculous shots that no human would ever play. Clearly the algorithm is based on knowing how the balls will roll, rather than understanding why they do what they do. I had an AI opponent knock a pair of touching balls in a bizarre multicollision cascade that eventually squirted the appropriate one into the side pocket. (For the pool enthusiasts, _not_ a regular plant, where you hit one ball and the ball touching it flies off.)
The voice commentary starts repeating itself far too early, and doesn't live up to its potential. Throw in colorful digressions about player's personalities, continue the voices through the animation/shot set-up transition, and include more emotional outbursts, and it could really have captured the snooker viewing experience. (If the commentary had said "Incredible! I can't imagine he intended that -- but he certainly won't turn down this bit of luck." after the aforementioned crazy shot by my AI opponent, it would've turned an implausible moment into a nearly realistic one.)
The result is that this is a game that's got the requisite elements to fill the snooker void when I'm back in the states, but could clearly have been so much better. I usually concentrate on gameplay and look down my nose at scores for graphics, but the shortcomings are enough to be jarring.
In summary, it's a "good-enough" game, and I'm happy to have it at 10 GBP (about $20). I wouldn't have been happy with it if I paid full price.
International Snooker Championship, on the other hand, might be satisfactory as a $5 shareware game, but anything more (the recommended retail price is 40 GBP, according to this site) is out-and-out robbery. Oh yes, there is more than one snooker game out there. This game, in contrast to the similarly-titled World Snooker Championship, doesn't have you play against famous professional players. Indeed, as the screenshots available here demonstrate, you don't actually play against anyone at all, since there are no player models. Just a cue stick floating in space over a table. (Somewhat strangely, despite the lack of models the one player game is structured as a series of matches against opponents, who are represented by nothing but a random name on the screen opposite yours. I would have thought "COMPUTER" would have done just as well.)
Not to worry -- this game also has an AI with a talent for making frustratingly ridiculous shots. So at least it's got something in common with World Snooker Championship.
"A 7/10 is average." (Although apparently 1up has declared it to be 5 -- this link courtesy of Mory in comment to JohnH's Odama post awhile back. And the link's got an explanation/comment about getting rid of scores entirely, and why they're not doing that which certain ranting curmudgeons should read.)
The fact is, most of the new games we talk about here, and indeed that serious gamers talk about, review, etc., are premium games. I don't mean they're necessarily above average, but there's genuine investment, in marketing and distribution and even development.
There's a world of videogames out there that don't have those kinds of production values. And again, that doesn't guarantee they're subpar. But when you consider all the umpteen franchise spinoffs and the cartoon adaptations, all of a sudden that fair-to-middling racing game looks a lot less middling. And that's my point: while we're being curmudgeonly and unsatisfied with the some of the top stuff out there, normal people (who don't read CG) are buying games that are nowhere near that level.
And some of those poor suckers are even liking them.
I happen to have some examples in mind. World Snooker Championship 2005 (PS2) isn't a particularly bad game, but if you don't have a snooker itch to scratch, you'd probably wonder why you'd play it. Unless you're in the UK, you'll probably never see this game in the flesh, so screenshots are available here, here, and here. The last two also have reviews.
Long story short, snooker is a game kinda like pool -- cue sticks, balls on green felt that you try to hit into each other so they fall into pockets. It's very popular in the UK -- the top professional players are household names. So it makes sense to have a videogame where you can play the professional tour against those players, move up in the rankings, and maybe even win the World Championship. World Championship Snooker is that game.
They've licensed the top 100 players, they've got the voices of four (out of the six or so) BBC commentators, and just in case you get snookered out, you can play pool (or some other cuesport variations) instead. You can play with up to 4 live players. It supports network play. I expect to get many hours of entertainment from it.
So, what are the production values I'm complaining about?
The player models aren't bad, but they aren't really up to the standard of, say, Tony Hawk 4 or Karaoke Revolution. And particularly in the training mode, the player model is often partly _in_ the table.
The interface rather nicely lets you take your shot one of two ways -- either pressing X, setting a strength meter with the left stick, and pressing X again, or pulling back on the right stick and then push it forward. Unfortunately, the strength meter is invisible when using the second method, so there's no way to figure out how to calibrate the strength of the right stick method. User interface tip: don't make "the fun way" to do something necessarily also "the losing way".
There are little hiccups -- sighting arrows going away for no particular reason (you can recover them by fooling around with the strength meter), dead time between an animation and the next shot, animations in general being slow and inaccurate (after you painstakingly set up the shot as hitting the bottom of the cue ball, the animation clearly shows you hitting the top of the ball -- fortunately the balls roll according to how you specify the shot, not how it was shown.)
The AI is much more artificial than intelligent. Even when I'm playing against lower-ranked players, the AI makes ridiculous shots that no human would ever play. Clearly the algorithm is based on knowing how the balls will roll, rather than understanding why they do what they do. I had an AI opponent knock a pair of touching balls in a bizarre multicollision cascade that eventually squirted the appropriate one into the side pocket. (For the pool enthusiasts, _not_ a regular plant, where you hit one ball and the ball touching it flies off.)
The voice commentary starts repeating itself far too early, and doesn't live up to its potential. Throw in colorful digressions about player's personalities, continue the voices through the animation/shot set-up transition, and include more emotional outbursts, and it could really have captured the snooker viewing experience. (If the commentary had said "Incredible! I can't imagine he intended that -- but he certainly won't turn down this bit of luck." after the aforementioned crazy shot by my AI opponent, it would've turned an implausible moment into a nearly realistic one.)
The result is that this is a game that's got the requisite elements to fill the snooker void when I'm back in the states, but could clearly have been so much better. I usually concentrate on gameplay and look down my nose at scores for graphics, but the shortcomings are enough to be jarring.
In summary, it's a "good-enough" game, and I'm happy to have it at 10 GBP (about $20). I wouldn't have been happy with it if I paid full price.
International Snooker Championship, on the other hand, might be satisfactory as a $5 shareware game, but anything more (the recommended retail price is 40 GBP, according to this site) is out-and-out robbery. Oh yes, there is more than one snooker game out there. This game, in contrast to the similarly-titled World Snooker Championship, doesn't have you play against famous professional players. Indeed, as the screenshots available here demonstrate, you don't actually play against anyone at all, since there are no player models. Just a cue stick floating in space over a table. (Somewhat strangely, despite the lack of models the one player game is structured as a series of matches against opponents, who are represented by nothing but a random name on the screen opposite yours. I would have thought "COMPUTER" would have done just as well.)
Not to worry -- this game also has an AI with a talent for making frustratingly ridiculous shots. So at least it's got something in common with World Snooker Championship.
--Bob at 21:56
Comment
[ 2 ]
The Tomb Raider speed run records
Here you go: 2:43 on the level I managed a 3:03 on. These folks know Tomb Raider very, very, very, very well. Their stuff isn't up on SDA yet.
Maybe someday I too can manage a 2:43.
Maybe someday I too can manage a 2:43.
--jvm at 18:40
Comment
[ 1 ]
Battle of the Virtual Arcade Titans (or: Revolution v. XBLA v. GameTap)
Will Nintendo's Revolution be late to its own retrogaming lovefest? According to this SPOnG report (found via Press the Buttons), Microsoft expects to put out arcade games by the bucketful on Xbox Live Arcade, much like what is now available for MAME. This sounds a little full of itself, but you get the drift:
Imagine the biggest arcade in the world, just 1,000 times bigger. It'll have as many machines as we can possibly get, all with score-rankings and other community stuff. It's not a secret that MAME was massive for hackers of the original Xbox and the pull and sales of retro game packs on current machines is still really high. If this is taken and put under the right noses, it should become the biggest thing in mainstream/hardcore gamer crossover in the industry.A few comments on this, in no particular order:
- I think I was right: emulation compilations are officially dead. Who wants to sell them in a store when you can just offer them for download? Judging from previous experience, putting together good physical packages seems to be a very, very low priority. These services give old game license holders an easy out.
- This would make three services offering classic games for download: GameTap, Xbox Live Arcade, and Nintendo's Revolution.
- Different systems is a good thing. you don't have to own a specific platform to get (cheap, legal) retrogaming action.
- Moreover, the licensing of these games is not exclusive. I think that's a really key point. I may still get Zaxxon on the Revolution, since Sega (e.g.) is not marrying itself to one outlet (according to SPOnG).
- My impression is that Microsoft would be offering actual arcade games while Nintendo will focus on home games.
- That home vs. arcade difference might be key to the appeal of each service. Consider the recent Tecmo collection for the Xbox which had Tecmo Bowl on it, but not the NES version with which most people are lovingly familiar. Given the option to download one or the other, I know where most people will put their money.
- Could the success of these services bring a new crackdown on ROM piracy? When these companies can make a valid argument that they've built a working business model on these old games, pressure will build to protect the profits. That could well mean hunting down ROM sites and traders.
- Expect ROM pirates to claim some credit. If it weren't for them, these big companies wouldn't have realized how much interest there was in old games, right? Thank heavens people have been holding onto repositories of thousands of game ROMs. Future generations will thank them for their service.
- Prices are the next big issue. I've maintained in the past that no price is low enough for those who want to rationalize their piracy. Whatever price Nintendo and Microsoft offer, I fully expect people to say "screw that, I'll just download them".
- And the other question is: Rent or own? I've heard rumblings that Nintendo's downloads can be time-limited. If I can't download to own the game (as much as one can actually own 0s and 1s stored on an internal flash drive), I'm going to be much less interested. This is one of my main arguments against GameTap.
Labels: nintendo
--jvm at 11:48
Comment
[ 3 ]
Improved Tomb Raider speed demo time
I figured there was no way to get below a time of 3:08 on the first level of Tomb Raider, but I just recorded a 3:03. I guess the question now is if there's room to squeeze it down to 3:00 or lower. I think I'm moving on to lower hanging fruit, like level 2.
Video here: tomb-raider-level-01-0303.avi (25Mb)
Audio and video should be synchronized now. I adjusted in the recording program to avoid having to post-process.
Video here: tomb-raider-level-01-0303.avi (25Mb)
Audio and video should be synchronized now. I adjusted in the recording program to avoid having to post-process.
--jvm at 01:12
Comment
[ 2 ]
23 April 2006
What game can't be bought?
When people talk about discontinued games they download instead of buying, they almost always say things like this:
Addendum: I want to add that I've learned to be patient waiting for a game. Just because I want it now doesn't mean I have to have it now. If it comes along in a year, or five years, or more, it won't matter.
I am still waiting on a copy of Silent Bomber on eBay that's at a price I'm willing to pay. That auto-search has been running for over a half-year now. Same goes for Nyko Trackball for PSOne. I won't let that one get away again, even if it's more than $50. (Well, ok, and less than $75...) And while I'd really love a Vectrex or an Atari 2600 Crazy Climber, I'm contented waiting for the right deal to come along. It's not like I've exhausted all my other game options.
I tend to pirate games I can't get any other way. If I could buy them then I woukd, but with the current market there just isn't space on the shelves for older games and the retailers would make no money off them so wouldn't even want to stock them.This is just malarkey. I'm seriously asking:
What is one game you cannot buy?Every game I've wanted I've been able to find for sale. When I've found them I've paid the market price for them or decided I didn't want them badly enough to pay.
Addendum: I want to add that I've learned to be patient waiting for a game. Just because I want it now doesn't mean I have to have it now. If it comes along in a year, or five years, or more, it won't matter.
I am still waiting on a copy of Silent Bomber on eBay that's at a price I'm willing to pay. That auto-search has been running for over a half-year now. Same goes for Nyko Trackball for PSOne. I won't let that one get away again, even if it's more than $50. (Well, ok, and less than $75...) And while I'd really love a Vectrex or an Atari 2600 Crazy Climber, I'm contented waiting for the right deal to come along. It's not like I've exhausted all my other game options.
--jvm at 10:10
Comment
[ 12 ]
What's illegal about Swap Magic?
What part of Swap Magic discs is illegal? That's what came with my fliptop case. In a story on importing games, GameSpot says (on page 2):
This bit from Wikipedia is also puzzling to me:
Beyond that, are mod chips held to be illegal in the United States? Sure, people selling them have been found guilty in court, but I thought they were usually paired with material that was explicitly pirated, like Xboxes with giant hard drives preloaded with ripped games. Is there a case of a person selling just the chips (or even just installing them) and nothing else and being found guilty? Or do the chips contain some copyrighted bits, as in the Crazy Taxi example above?
Anyway, I guess I'm still a criminal, sitting here with my fliptop and Swap Magic discs.
PlayStation 2: There are no 100-percent-legal work-arounds to playing Japanese games on a US PS2, so access to the Japanese library of games requires investing in an additional system.Oh? That caught me a little by surprise. I'd never investigated the magic in Swap Magic, but best I can figure is this bit from Wikipedia:
The PlayStation 2 first boots the Swap Magic disc; the user must then "swap" the Swap Magic disc with their back-up, pirated or import disc, and press the X button. This allows the manually burned CD to fake authorisation with the Playstation 2 as the authorisation is performed on the Swap Magic disc, which is taken from a real PS2 disc. (The CD sometimes used is Crazy Taxi.)Emphasis there on the important bit: they've copied something off a legal PlayStation 2 game. If this is true, why Crazy Taxi? Was it's authorization somehow weaker and easier to copy than other games?
This bit from Wikipedia is also puzzling to me:
Swap Magic discs cannot be backed up as they are pressed using the same copy protection used in Playstation 2 game discs.So how's that happen?
Beyond that, are mod chips held to be illegal in the United States? Sure, people selling them have been found guilty in court, but I thought they were usually paired with material that was explicitly pirated, like Xboxes with giant hard drives preloaded with ripped games. Is there a case of a person selling just the chips (or even just installing them) and nothing else and being found guilty? Or do the chips contain some copyrighted bits, as in the Crazy Taxi example above?
Anyway, I guess I'm still a criminal, sitting here with my fliptop and Swap Magic discs.
--jvm at 08:40
Comment
[ 6 ]
First speed demo: Tomb Raider, level 1
I've recorded my first speed demo. It's not horribly dramatic, but it is better than the one on Speed Demos Archive. In their video, the final time was 3:12. In the screenshot to the right, you'll see I've got that bested by 2 seconds at 3:10.
Link to video: tomb-raider-level-01.avi
(26Mb)
Note: Audio is about 0.7s off from video. If you know how to fix this with mplayer's mencoder program, drop me a comment.
If you bother to watch the video, here are a few comments to add:
Link to video: tomb-raider-level-01.avi
(26Mb)Note: Audio is about 0.7s off from video. If you know how to fix this with mplayer's mencoder program, drop me a comment.
If you bother to watch the video, here are a few comments to add:
- Run-jumping appears to be faster than just running. That explains why she's hopping all the time.
- There are several mistakes: needlessly smacking a wall in room after first switch, drunk running up stairs after wolf attack, missing the breakway floor near the end, and bad alignment on the final switch.
- Right after the wolf attack, you can see something we used to do while playing. Stand just a little to the left of the switch, pull it, and then do a blind side jump to the lower platform. That's not in the demo at the archive.
--jvm at 03:39
Comment
[ 2 ]
22 April 2006
Cheap game price drops, made easy
I found this a while back on the CAG forums, and I thought it was useful.
GameStop Recent Price Drops Page
There are a few ways to filter and sort to find something you're interested in. Good for your wallet.
GameStop Recent Price Drops Page
There are a few ways to filter and sort to find something you're interested in. Good for your wallet.
--jvm at 23:04
Comment
[ 0 ]
GameBoy Advance Micro - Failure?
Why did Nintendo make these? I can't even find them on GameStop's site. It appears to be about as successful as the Virtual Boy.
Labels: nintendo
--jvm at 12:04
Comment
[ 4 ]
20 April 2006
Condensed: Next-Gen's Oblivion Hindsight
Next-Gen's recent interview with Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines takes too long to read, so I've prepared a condensed version. I think it captures the spirit of the original without sacrificing important details. Compare for yourself and let me know. Enjoy!
Q: Many reviews have been posted for Oblivion, virtually all stellar. Which reviewer kissed your rear best?
A: They were all great! My favorite, however, was the dude who said he'd carve our name into his arm with a rusty knife. Fans...er, reviewers just don't get any better than that!
Q: Your publisher recently announced that it has moved almost 2 million copies of Oblivion. Does it feel as totally awesome as it sounds?
A: Yes.
Q: How did the hype generated by previews affect mindset of the Oblivion team? Did you get like a God-complex or anything?
A: I think the previews are uplifting from the standpoint that it's gratifying to know people are interested in what you're doing. I think we were all aware of the high expectations, but I'm not sure if they fazed us. Plus, we have really high expectations for ourselves. In fact, I'm my biggest fan.
Q: How important is a monster budget when making a triple-A -- strike that -- quadruple-fricking-A title like Oblivion? Ballpark, how much did the game cost to create?
A: It's definitely not possible to do this without a big team and a lot of resources. Obviously we don't give out specific figures, but "a lot" or "a great deal" are decent estimates. Actually "monster" is perfect. Good job, nailing that figure spot-on.
Q: Thanks. You rock, man.
A: I know.
Q: Anyway, why does Bethesda insist on making these absolutely mind-blowingly enormous games? Is it simply your deep understanding of "size matters"?
A: You could say that. That's just what Elder Scrolls games are all about.
Q: Some crack-addled developers say that with an open-ended game, you have to sacrifice a good deal of the story, as a lot of the action taking place is out of the creators' hands. Does a day go by when you don't want to give those idiots an open-handed slap across the mouth?
A: No, not really. But I think our 2 million copies sold will shut them up.
That said, our big, open-ended games are all about the story, or stories. We give you dozens and dozens of stories you can participate and you can pick and choose which ones to follow through on, or ignore them all and go out and just explore and kill stuff or pick flowers or whatever. Who doesn't want to spend $60 on a game where you pick flowers? Gotta justify that Xbox 360 price somehow!
Q: What other types of downloadable Oblivion content is on the way? Is there much more coming?
A: Oh, sure. We held a bunch of cheesy little stuff back from the version we shipped just so we could sell it online later. We're very down with the whole easy money thing.
Q: Wasn't this an awesome interview?
A: Yes, it was. You're very good at it. See you after we ship our next game!
Q: Many reviews have been posted for Oblivion, virtually all stellar. Which reviewer kissed your rear best?
A: They were all great! My favorite, however, was the dude who said he'd carve our name into his arm with a rusty knife. Fans...er, reviewers just don't get any better than that!
Q: Your publisher recently announced that it has moved almost 2 million copies of Oblivion. Does it feel as totally awesome as it sounds?
A: Yes.
Q: How did the hype generated by previews affect mindset of the Oblivion team? Did you get like a God-complex or anything?
A: I think the previews are uplifting from the standpoint that it's gratifying to know people are interested in what you're doing. I think we were all aware of the high expectations, but I'm not sure if they fazed us. Plus, we have really high expectations for ourselves. In fact, I'm my biggest fan.
Q: How important is a monster budget when making a triple-A -- strike that -- quadruple-fricking-A title like Oblivion? Ballpark, how much did the game cost to create?
A: It's definitely not possible to do this without a big team and a lot of resources. Obviously we don't give out specific figures, but "a lot" or "a great deal" are decent estimates. Actually "monster" is perfect. Good job, nailing that figure spot-on.
Q: Thanks. You rock, man.
A: I know.
Q: Anyway, why does Bethesda insist on making these absolutely mind-blowingly enormous games? Is it simply your deep understanding of "size matters"?
A: You could say that. That's just what Elder Scrolls games are all about.
Q: Some crack-addled developers say that with an open-ended game, you have to sacrifice a good deal of the story, as a lot of the action taking place is out of the creators' hands. Does a day go by when you don't want to give those idiots an open-handed slap across the mouth?
A: No, not really. But I think our 2 million copies sold will shut them up.
That said, our big, open-ended games are all about the story, or stories. We give you dozens and dozens of stories you can participate and you can pick and choose which ones to follow through on, or ignore them all and go out and just explore and kill stuff or pick flowers or whatever. Who doesn't want to spend $60 on a game where you pick flowers? Gotta justify that Xbox 360 price somehow!
Q: What other types of downloadable Oblivion content is on the way? Is there much more coming?
A: Oh, sure. We held a bunch of cheesy little stuff back from the version we shipped just so we could sell it online later. We're very down with the whole easy money thing.
Q: Wasn't this an awesome interview?
A: Yes, it was. You're very good at it. See you after we ship our next game!
--jvm at 22:29
Comment
[ 1 ]
Cheaper PS2 - for whom?
Seriously, who is going to buy a $129 PlayStation 2 that doesn't already have one? I can't imagine that this is aimed at new owners, since the price difference just isn't big enough. Maybe there's some market research out that that says there are millions of potential buyers right below the $130 barrier, but I would need to see it to believe it.
Insteady, Sony's going for second-time buyers. Back in 1999 or so, Sony started making noises that they were going to price the PSOne (then called just the PlayStation) so that current owners would buy a second console. A family of four that plays games might want one console in the living room, one in the kids' room, and one in the parents' room.
I'd like to know how well that idea worked out, but I've never read a followup anywhere.
This sounds to me like the same idea, only for the next generation. It kind of makes more sense this time: original generation PSOne owners are now 10 years older, and far more likely to have homes and families. But I'd like to see Sony also sweeten the software market a bit with some $10 classics. It'd certainly make it an easier sell to someone like me if you could pitch the new price as "PlayStation and two [good] games".
Insteady, Sony's going for second-time buyers. Back in 1999 or so, Sony started making noises that they were going to price the PSOne (then called just the PlayStation) so that current owners would buy a second console. A family of four that plays games might want one console in the living room, one in the kids' room, and one in the parents' room.
I'd like to know how well that idea worked out, but I've never read a followup anywhere.
This sounds to me like the same idea, only for the next generation. It kind of makes more sense this time: original generation PSOne owners are now 10 years older, and far more likely to have homes and families. But I'd like to see Sony also sweeten the software market a bit with some $10 classics. It'd certainly make it an easier sell to someone like me if you could pitch the new price as "PlayStation and two [good] games".
--jvm at 09:30
Comment
[ 6 ]
19 April 2006
The best video adaptation of a table game since Retroball
There's an interesting trailer for Rockstar Games Table Tennis that I've just viewed quickly.
What's going on here? This is really a game that's going to be released?!
There's the beginning of an answer in an IGN interview with Sam Houser, who is apparently "Rockstar's Executive Producer and President" from whom all quotes should be read as if they were delivered with an "intense and edgy tone" whose goal was to approach some sort of privileged "purity":
IGN: ... Why on Earth would you go and make a game based on table tennis? ...
Houser: ... Mainly because we absolutely love table tennis and wanted to try and make something that could show the audience what could be possible -- on a relatively focused level -- in the next generation of videogames.
That's kind of a neat idea. They're marketing a console demo, and likely spending some time getting their work on creating their code for human bodies funded by gamers. In other words, IGN and Rockstar believe the market is going to pay their favorite developer to develop code to make people look real on the Xbox 360 -- and to figure out Xbox Live, etc. They expect us to pay for a tech demo, folk, and pay because it's made by the people who made GTA.
So how wonderful are these pure, edgy, and passionately created new possible cyberselves? Awful. I couldn't help but think, while watching the trailer, not a game (Iverson), that I'd stumbled onto the Resident Evil analog of Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. The players bounce from side to side like they're on crack but are trying to dance like they're in Grease. The faces have that strange synthetic skin look that reminds me most of the zombies I've been smoking in Doom 3. I've heard about the theory that there's a certain point where things meant to look human get too good, and one's mind kicks in finding the differences and produces only the adjective "creepy". We're obviously at that point. It's like the creatures in the first year or two of Madden on the PS2 with that wide-eyed, automaton stare. It's, well, not to belabor the point worse than I have already -- no, that's a lie. I will belabor the point: Rockstar Games Table Tennis is creepy.
At one point, Rockstar talks about why the game's "only" going to cost (it's not a "price point", dang it, it's the cost!) $39.99 in IGN's coverage. What a deal. Look, I'm hopeful it'll be fun to play. Even Retroball was with the right second person. It's not going to be worth $40. It's a demo. This should be an embedded minigame in Pokemon or something. Unless they've licensed Federer and Sharapova as unlockables, I'm not sure where that money's going.
There are some other parts of the IGN interview that probably deserve more "copy" than I'm going to give them that play into Curmudgeon Gamer's past rants, like this choice quote:
I got a surprise phone call Wednesday. Rockstar was ready to present, and they wanted to work with IGN on the story. Donovan and I talked about the game. With the passion and focus and [sic] that has become Rockstar's trademark, he explained to me that the new title was Table Tennis. (emph mine, of course. Mistake with extra "and" theirs, though they've got no monopoly on bad grammar.)
1.) Is this even a preview from IGN's point of view? Seems to be a pretty blatant advert campaign, with the only unconventional trait being that it's [hopefully] not a cash-based pay system.
2.) "With the passion and focus and that has become Rockstar's trademark..." ? So the game gets a free pass before you even start playing it? From a marketing standpoint, putting Rockstar in the title makes a lot of sense. As an experiment, however, I wish they'd gone with, oh, Contraband as their stated developer or called the team "MadeUpThisMorning Software". Could this game, even if made by a company with an outstanding track record in, well, at least one franchise, gain the same traction by another name?
In any event, I'll be waiting for the scores.
What's going on here? This is really a game that's going to be released?!
There's the beginning of an answer in an IGN interview with Sam Houser, who is apparently "Rockstar's Executive Producer and President" from whom all quotes should be read as if they were delivered with an "intense and edgy tone" whose goal was to approach some sort of privileged "purity":
IGN: ... Why on Earth would you go and make a game based on table tennis? ...
Houser: ... Mainly because we absolutely love table tennis and wanted to try and make something that could show the audience what could be possible -- on a relatively focused level -- in the next generation of videogames.
That's kind of a neat idea. They're marketing a console demo, and likely spending some time getting their work on creating their code for human bodies funded by gamers. In other words, IGN and Rockstar believe the market is going to pay their favorite developer to develop code to make people look real on the Xbox 360 -- and to figure out Xbox Live, etc. They expect us to pay for a tech demo, folk, and pay because it's made by the people who made GTA.
So how wonderful are these pure, edgy, and passionately created new possible cyberselves? Awful. I couldn't help but think, while watching the trailer, not a game (Iverson), that I'd stumbled onto the Resident Evil analog of Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. The players bounce from side to side like they're on crack but are trying to dance like they're in Grease. The faces have that strange synthetic skin look that reminds me most of the zombies I've been smoking in Doom 3. I've heard about the theory that there's a certain point where things meant to look human get too good, and one's mind kicks in finding the differences and produces only the adjective "creepy". We're obviously at that point. It's like the creatures in the first year or two of Madden on the PS2 with that wide-eyed, automaton stare. It's, well, not to belabor the point worse than I have already -- no, that's a lie. I will belabor the point: Rockstar Games Table Tennis is creepy.
At one point, Rockstar talks about why the game's "only" going to cost (it's not a "price point", dang it, it's the cost!) $39.99 in IGN's coverage. What a deal. Look, I'm hopeful it'll be fun to play. Even Retroball was with the right second person. It's not going to be worth $40. It's a demo. This should be an embedded minigame in Pokemon or something. Unless they've licensed Federer and Sharapova as unlockables, I'm not sure where that money's going.
There are some other parts of the IGN interview that probably deserve more "copy" than I'm going to give them that play into Curmudgeon Gamer's past rants, like this choice quote:
I got a surprise phone call Wednesday. Rockstar was ready to present, and they wanted to work with IGN on the story. Donovan and I talked about the game. With the passion and focus and [sic] that has become Rockstar's trademark, he explained to me that the new title was Table Tennis. (emph mine, of course. Mistake with extra "and" theirs, though they've got no monopoly on bad grammar.)
1.) Is this even a preview from IGN's point of view? Seems to be a pretty blatant advert campaign, with the only unconventional trait being that it's [hopefully] not a cash-based pay system.
2.) "With the passion and focus and that has become Rockstar's trademark..." ? So the game gets a free pass before you even start playing it? From a marketing standpoint, putting Rockstar in the title makes a lot of sense. As an experiment, however, I wish they'd gone with, oh, Contraband as their stated developer or called the team "MadeUpThisMorning Software". Could this game, even if made by a company with an outstanding track record in, well, at least one franchise, gain the same traction by another name?
In any event, I'll be waiting for the scores.
--rufbo at 11:24
Comment
[ 5 ]
18 April 2006
Speedier demo
The current speed demo for the first level of Tomb Raider has a time of 3:12. I practiced last night, with my first run coming in at just over 4 minutes. I was horrified! After a few half-runs, however, my next full run was 3:25. With a weakening left hand, I gave up for the night.
Tonight my first full run was 3:22, and my second full run was 3:11, besting the record by a full second. I know I made at least one serious error, so I think I can shave an extra second off with a perfect run. Whether this is even close to the theoretical lower limit or not, I don't know. I know I am exploiting every trick I know for this particular level.
I'll get the PlayStation downstairs for recording purposes this weekend, I hope.
Tonight my first full run was 3:22, and my second full run was 3:11, besting the record by a full second. I know I made at least one serious error, so I think I can shave an extra second off with a perfect run. Whether this is even close to the theoretical lower limit or not, I don't know. I know I am exploiting every trick I know for this particular level.
I'll get the PlayStation downstairs for recording purposes this weekend, I hope.
--jvm at 22:34
Comment
[ 3 ]
Sid Meier on Nintendo Revolution
Ok, this is from 1997 and Sid Meier wasn't actually talking about the Nintendo Revolution, but I think he might have been onto something. First read what Meier said :
The trajectory that Sony and Microsoft are taking may well be a dead end. I've been off the "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THOSE GRAPHICS" bandwagon for a while. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if most consumers are similarly numb to increasing graphical complexity. Same goes for sound and physics: realistically falling stacks of crates with accurately modeled reverberations and photorealistic textures are entertaining for only so long.
Meier would say, "I told you so."
With its Revolution, Nintendo has left developers with no choice but to focus on engaging the player. Sure, the graphics will be a step above what can be done with the GameCube now, but the focus is clearly elsewhere. A developer has to look at the rest of the system, away from graphics and sound, and in particular to the network and the controller.
The internet is one giant example of "simple things that impress people". People are still going ga-ga for podcasts, for crying out loud. Most of us realize that they're just audio files you can download, but slap a funny name on them and piggyback on iTunes and suddenly people can't get enough of them. How about dirty pictures? There's a 19th century technology that's had a revival of sorts thanks to digital cameras and fast internet connections. For its own part, Nintendo has already done a far better job with a networked handheld than Sony, and I expect comparable service when the Revolution comes.
And then there's that spatial-gimmick controller. I, for one, am eager for something other than the already-worn-out first-person shooter example. Thinking along the lines of "simple but impressive", even an atrophied brain like mine can come up with things I'd like to try. How about a program that allows you to sculpt a three-dimensional object using the controller? Or a Barbie game that allows a player to apply make-up to a virtual face? And I bet more than one teenager would get a kick out of a virtual drum set. Now, let real designers loose with the Revolution, and it's quite likely we'll see ideas so simple, yet compelling, that no one's going to notice that the polygon count is a tad low and the physics are pretty much nonexistent.
Let me close with one other quote from that same interview with Sid Meier, one that I think goes right along with Nintendo's Revolution:
NG: What advice would you give to new game designers?We now all know that Nintendo has removed itself from the traditional console race. When the Revolution specs are officially revealed, there will be gnashing of teeth and rending of flesh, for they will sound modest in comparison to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I'm confident Nintendo weren't thinking of Meier's 1997 interview in this dead tree publication when they came up with their new business model, but I do think they've come to some of the same conclusions.
SM: It's always fascinated me how we can do very, very difficult things on a computer that don't impress people, and then we can do things that are very, very easy to do on a computer and they do impress people. There's not necessarily a correlation between how much work you put into something and how much it impresses people. [...]
So my rule is to think about how much work you have to put into something and how much it will impress not another programmer, but a gamer on the street. They're the ones you have to impress.
-- Sid Meier, Interview, Next Generation, July 1997
The trajectory that Sony and Microsoft are taking may well be a dead end. I've been off the "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THOSE GRAPHICS" bandwagon for a while. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if most consumers are similarly numb to increasing graphical complexity. Same goes for sound and physics: realistically falling stacks of crates with accurately modeled reverberations and photorealistic textures are entertaining for only so long.
Meier would say, "I told you so."
With its Revolution, Nintendo has left developers with no choice but to focus on engaging the player. Sure, the graphics will be a step above what can be done with the GameCube now, but the focus is clearly elsewhere. A developer has to look at the rest of the system, away from graphics and sound, and in particular to the network and the controller.
The internet is one giant example of "simple things that impress people". People are still going ga-ga for podcasts, for crying out loud. Most of us realize that they're just audio files you can download, but slap a funny name on them and piggyback on iTunes and suddenly people can't get enough of them. How about dirty pictures? There's a 19th century technology that's had a revival of sorts thanks to digital cameras and fast internet connections. For its own part, Nintendo has already done a far better job with a networked handheld than Sony, and I expect comparable service when the Revolution comes.
And then there's that spatial-gimmick controller. I, for one, am eager for something other than the already-worn-out first-person shooter example. Thinking along the lines of "simple but impressive", even an atrophied brain like mine can come up with things I'd like to try. How about a program that allows you to sculpt a three-dimensional object using the controller? Or a Barbie game that allows a player to apply make-up to a virtual face? And I bet more than one teenager would get a kick out of a virtual drum set. Now, let real designers loose with the Revolution, and it's quite likely we'll see ideas so simple, yet compelling, that no one's going to notice that the polygon count is a tad low and the physics are pretty much nonexistent.
Let me close with one other quote from that same interview with Sid Meier, one that I think goes right along with Nintendo's Revolution:
[W]e know that [the] magic ingredient is interactivity. But we have to concentrate on this. I tell designers "Don't try and do better graphics than movies because you're always going to lose. Don't try to do better sound than what you can get on CDs, because that's not what we're good at. What we're good at is interactivity -- so make your product win, lose, stand, or fall based on its interactive content."
-- Sid Meier, Interview, Next Generation, July 1997
Labels: nintendo
--jvm at 21:24
Comment
[ 4 ]
17 April 2006
Odama Impressions
The textures are washed out, looking, as reviewers have said, like something from the N64 era.
The character models are simplistic and ugly, and buildings are primitive-looking.
The gameplay is unforgiving, and it's easy to fail a level in the first few seconds.
The player can easily fail moments away from victory.
It is quite possible to succeed on a level, but be so ill-prepared for the next that you need to go back anyway.
The controls are poorly presented, requiring the player read the manual.
It is difficult getting used to all the options available to you at a time.
The ball physics are inaccurate, and the tilt is far more effective than it would be on a real pinball table.
It is easy to screw over your army with a single unfortunate Odama shot.
I have not had this much fun with a video game since Katamari Damacy.
Verdict: thumbs up.
The thing that bugs me most about the many middling reviews Odama has gotten is how they all so utterly miss the point.
But there is something I consider especially telling about the blindness of most reviewers towards this game. Most of them admit that the game is fun and addictive. (Example.) The game succeeds in the one measure that games aspire to beyond all else, and yet they give it a middling score.
To me, that illustrates a great sickness in the game review press. If a game is fun, then it is worth playing, and no argument against that can be made. Character models, music, style, level design, and clever writing each can accompany and augment an engaging game, but none of these things produces the impetus to play themselves. Only fun can do that, for having fun is the reason to play in the first place. I don't really think Odama excessively lacks in any of these areas (especially style), but the game is definitely fun to play.
Any reviewer who gives Odama a score under 7.5 yet admits the game is fun should be made to turn in his press card.
The character models are simplistic and ugly, and buildings are primitive-looking.
The gameplay is unforgiving, and it's easy to fail a level in the first few seconds.
The player can easily fail moments away from victory.
It is quite possible to succeed on a level, but be so ill-prepared for the next that you need to go back anyway.
The controls are poorly presented, requiring the player read the manual.
It is difficult getting used to all the options available to you at a time.
The ball physics are inaccurate, and the tilt is far more effective than it would be on a real pinball table.
It is easy to screw over your army with a single unfortunate Odama shot.
I have not had this much fun with a video game since Katamari Damacy.
Verdict: thumbs up.
The thing that bugs me most about the many middling reviews Odama has gotten is how they all so utterly miss the point.
- The game would not work if it had realistic physics. As you play, you eventually end up thankful for the floaty ball and large tilt potential, for they make it much easier to get the ball to roll over the bad guys, and not the good guys they're locked in struggle with. And yet, you'll still crush your army some of the time. They got this exactly right.
- Of course it fails when viewed as a RTS, because how the hell can it be a good combat game when there's a giant pinball blasting across the battlefield? Pinball is a game that, by itself, absorbs all your attention. Real-time strategy games are the same way. Combine the two, and you have to simplify both or the game is unplayable. The game already contains a large number of elements to master in order to play it effectively.
- The game is challenging and difficult to master, but that's because it's got an old-school design, where you're intended to practice and master the game instead of go through it once only. The game *is* masterable: on this playthrough, I've so far finished the first five levels without a failure.
But there is something I consider especially telling about the blindness of most reviewers towards this game. Most of them admit that the game is fun and addictive. (Example.) The game succeeds in the one measure that games aspire to beyond all else, and yet they give it a middling score.
To me, that illustrates a great sickness in the game review press. If a game is fun, then it is worth playing, and no argument against that can be made. Character models, music, style, level design, and clever writing each can accompany and augment an engaging game, but none of these things produces the impetus to play themselves. Only fun can do that, for having fun is the reason to play in the first place. I don't really think Odama excessively lacks in any of these areas (especially style), but the game is definitely fun to play.
Any reviewer who gives Odama a score under 7.5 yet admits the game is fun should be made to turn in his press card.
--JohnH at 02:23
Comment
[ 12 ]
16 April 2006
Whoa. Ace Combat PSP!
Somehow I missed the announcement that the PSP would get an Ace Combat game, apparently called Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception. You can alrady tell it'll be good: it's got X and a colon in the title.
Addendum: IGN's story about Ace Combat X adds this little tidbit: "The multiplayer mode seems to be ad-hoc, which is to be expected of most Japanese-developed titles." I guess that's something I hadn't realized, and I don't even know that it's true. Is this a societal thing? The Japanese market is far more ad-hoc oriented and less infrastructure oriented?
Addendum: IGN's story about Ace Combat X adds this little tidbit: "The multiplayer mode seems to be ad-hoc, which is to be expected of most Japanese-developed titles." I guess that's something I hadn't realized, and I don't even know that it's true. Is this a societal thing? The Japanese market is far more ad-hoc oriented and less infrastructure oriented?
--jvm at 17:21
Comment
[ 0 ]
Addicted to speed [demos]
I watched some of the Tomb Raider speed demos over at Speed Demos Archive and I think I could best a few of them. If nothing else, I feel confident I could do some single segment runs where there are currently only segmented runs. See, for example, the existing demo of St. Francis' Folly.
This isn't to dismiss the current demos. These are good runs; see the extremely well-executed moves in the final level. They've put the time in to play and record them. All around, good work.
I just think I could do a bit better, and unless I'm mistaken that's what speed demo runs are all about.
I started collecting my video capture card stuff again last night. I recall it being a royal pain to get it all working efficiently -- with sound -- the last time I did any recordings. See those over at Curmudgeon Classic.
Fast update: Well, tvtime works great in Fedora Core 4, no tweaking required. Last time I did this, I used xawtv to record, though. Anyone got a better suggestion for simultaneous view/record onLinux GNU/Linux? Something from this list perhaps?
This isn't to dismiss the current demos. These are good runs; see the extremely well-executed moves in the final level. They've put the time in to play and record them. All around, good work.
I just think I could do a bit better, and unless I'm mistaken that's what speed demo runs are all about.
I started collecting my video capture card stuff again last night. I recall it being a royal pain to get it all working efficiently -- with sound -- the last time I did any recordings. See those over at Curmudgeon Classic.
Fast update: Well, tvtime works great in Fedora Core 4, no tweaking required. Last time I did this, I used xawtv to record, though. Anyone got a better suggestion for simultaneous view/record on
--jvm at 15:58
Comment
[ 3 ]
15 April 2006
All five
As a reward for achieving a long-sought milestone, I've moved the GameCube up into the living room for my son to play before bedtime. The only game we play is Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat which he truly loves, despite not really doing much of the playing except when we need lots of clapping and fast drumming.
There are four basic bosses at the end of a level: elephant, ape, roc, and hog. The boy knows these as elephant, monkey, bird, and pig, respectively. Today while we were sitting in the driveway having a yard sale, he told me his plans for the evening.
"After dinner, after bath, we're going to do Donkey Konga," he says. He's never quite grasped that the name is just Donkey Kong, and I always let it slide.
"Fine with me. Which animal will we battle tonight?" His long-term planning for playing videogames each day had impressed me before.
"No. No no no no no no. Daddy!" (His enthusiasm keeps him from being able to say "no" just one time. It makes me smile every time.) "Daddy, we're going to play all five."
"All five? Which five are these?"
"All five in Donkey Konga. Pig. Um, monkey. And bird. And...um...pig. I mean elephant!"
"That's just four," I say gently.
His brow furrowed, and he turned deadly serious. "No. No no no no no no. Daddy. We're going to play all five."
"But you only named four. Monkey, pig, bird, and elephant."
"No no no no no. We're going to play all five, Daddy. All five of them"
"Ok, son. We're going to play all five."
A car pulled up and I sold a slow cooker for $3. When I turned around the boy was elsewhere playing, Donkey Konga forgotten for now.
But tonight...well, tonight we played all five!
There are four basic bosses at the end of a level: elephant, ape, roc, and hog. The boy knows these as elephant, monkey, bird, and pig, respectively. Today while we were sitting in the driveway having a yard sale, he told me his plans for the evening.
"After dinner, after bath, we're going to do Donkey Konga," he says. He's never quite grasped that the name is just Donkey Kong, and I always let it slide.
"Fine with me. Which animal will we battle tonight?" His long-term planning for playing videogames each day had impressed me before.
"No. No no no no no no. Daddy!" (His enthusiasm keeps him from being able to say "no" just one time. It makes me smile every time.) "Daddy, we're going to play all five."
"All five? Which five are these?"
"All five in Donkey Konga. Pig. Um, monkey. And bird. And...um...pig. I mean elephant!"
"That's just four," I say gently.
His brow furrowed, and he turned deadly serious. "No. No no no no no no. Daddy. We're going to play all five."
"But you only named four. Monkey, pig, bird, and elephant."
"No no no no no. We're going to play all five, Daddy. All five of them"
"Ok, son. We're going to play all five."
A car pulled up and I sold a slow cooker for $3. When I turned around the boy was elsewhere playing, Donkey Konga forgotten for now.
But tonight...well, tonight we played all five!
--jvm at 22:36
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12 April 2006
Gold farming and the war on smoking
In today's editorial at Next-Gen, Gary Whitta applies to gold farming the lessons I take away from America's battles against drugs. Here's what Whitta says:
This is one part of how cigarette smoking was changed in the United States. A combination of:Let's start outing the players who use farmers' services. If you know of someone who paid money to shortcut their way to max. level, expose them in the online community. Once it becomes known that people who engage in these sleazy practices will be considered virtual lepers, maybe the stigma created will be enough to disincentivize the use of these "services" and really start making those who provide them feel the pinch.
- regulation
- social pressure
- education of potential users
From my own experience, this worked. I had three smoking grandparents (out of four total), each of which quit eventually. I had one parent who smoked, and that ended when I was born. To my knowledge no aunts or uncles smoked. I have no siblings who smoke. Out of the many cousins, I can think of only one who might smoke. At least in my family, the system worked, and it only took a generation or two.
Can a similar system work against gold farmers? We already have regulation, for example the regulation of World of Warcraft by Blizzard. Whitta is encouraging, although perhaps not in exactly these words, one of the other two prongs of the attack on smoking: social pressure to make pariahs of those who buy from farmers. I'm in favor of outing those who flout the rules; let's just not let it evolve into online lynch mobs.
The other prong, education of users, seems trickier to me. What's the social cost of gold farmers? A bunch of spoiled brats playing online? That's pretty close to what we have already, gold farmers or not. Back in the day the game was Quake II and we called them LPBs. Today, I'm not a WoW player but some of my fellow bloggers are, so perhaps they can speak to this: why are gold farmers bad for the online society?
--jvm at 11:48
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11 April 2006
OXM editor whines, defends ridiculous system
Official Xbox Magazine's editor-in-chief Francesca Reyes gets to whine in public about the blowback from giving EA's Fight Night Round 3 a review score of 10. Here's the heart of the matter, with my emphasis:
I don't think anyone's going to stop you from lauding a game as excellent. What I object to is this continued reliance on numerical scores, as if they mean something. There are so many subjective factors that go into a score that it's pure fantasy to think a single number actually means anything. You're like a drug addict who can't figure out why people complain about your habit.
Instead of scores, focus on concise, direct opinion pieces. Words are infinitely more flexible than numbers, and with them you can express a game's greatness just right. Then you won't ever have to rationalize statements like this:
Okay, maybe I'm ranting a bit here, and maybe I'm being overly sensitive to the strong reaction to our score. But it got me thinking: What are we looking for in our games as professional game critics and gamers? Are we losing our sense of what makes games fun in our chase to be seen as thoughtful and progressive? Or are we so intent on our industry being taken as "seriously" as other entertainment mediums that games that don't push obvious envelopes (other than graphics) can't be lauded as excellent?
I don't think anyone's going to stop you from lauding a game as excellent. What I object to is this continued reliance on numerical scores, as if they mean something. There are so many subjective factors that go into a score that it's pure fantasy to think a single number actually means anything. You're like a drug addict who can't figure out why people complain about your habit.
Instead of scores, focus on concise, direct opinion pieces. Words are infinitely more flexible than numbers, and with them you can express a game's greatness just right. Then you won't ever have to rationalize statements like this:
Is the game [we gave a 10 out of 10] perfect? Not by a mile.If a game isn't perfect, don't give it a score that makes people think it is. Don't give it a score at all.
--jvm at 09:18
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10 April 2006
Michael reviews demos, shuns curmudgeons
I shouldn't link to this, since the bugger couldn't even be bothered to post it here, but them's the breaks. Here you go: 10 Second Demo Reviews.
The good news is...he actually liked Tomb Raider: Legend demo. If you needed proof it's not just for fanboys, there you go.
The good news is...he actually liked Tomb Raider: Legend demo. If you needed proof it's not just for fanboys, there you go.
--jvm at 13:22
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09 April 2006
Meat turrets: sifting through the Tomb Raider: Legend executable
While searching for information on the Tomb Raider: Legend demo for the PlayStation 2, I ran across a post at the GameFAQs forums which mentioned finding Soul Reaver/Legacy of Kain strings in the executable on the demo disc. Turns out, that's true, and there are some other strings of interest to be found, including "meat_turret".
Regarding Soul Reaver, you can find the following in TR7.ELF, the game's executable:
There are also some Lara-related strings worth noting:
The other interesting bit is this Amanda character. I haven't been following all the details leaked in previews, but I suppose this might be another playable character, like Kurtis from Angel of Darkness. Perhaps Lara has a nemesis this time around? Or a sidekick?
Also notable, the game is referred to internally as "TR7". The game directory, executable, and supplementary files all use "TR7".
Finally, there is this reference to "meat_turret" in the executable. If I had to guess, this is the internal name for the poor schmucks who pass for enemies in the game. They're certainly not very interesting, at least in the demo, and are hardly more than stationary turrets made of virtual meat.
Regarding Soul Reaver, you can find the following in TR7.ELF, the game's executable:
Raziel Autoface Menu...There are also some similar references in BIGFILE.DAT, like "kainscrest" and "status_main_reaver_spectral". Without having a copy of the PlayStation 2 game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 for a comparison, it's difficult to know if there is more in common than just these bits. Perhaps Crystal Dynamics was working on a new Legacy of Kain game when they were pulled to work on Tomb Raider, and these are just the remnants of that work? The last Legacy of Kain game was in 2001, so I'd imagine they're not still using the same game engine, at least without having given it a major overhaul.
Raziel Menu...
Hurt Raziel
sreaver
mreaver
mreaverb
There are also some Lara-related strings worth noting:
lara_evening_altLooks like Lara will have quite a few changes of clothes. Admit it: you just can't wait to see lara_goth_alt or lara_altc! I do wonder if lara_young is a reappearance of the teenage Lara from Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation.
lara_classic_alt
lara_biker_nojacket
lara_evening_red
lara_special_forces
lara_special_forces_alt
lara_catsuit_alt
lara_swimsuit_alt
amanda_player_alt
lara_winter
lara_young
lara_biker
lara_evening
lara_classic
lara_goth
lara_goth_alt
lara_biker_alt
lara_suit
lara_suit_alt
lara_alta
lara_altb
lara_altc
lara_altd
lara_winter_alt
lara_catsuit
amanda_player
The other interesting bit is this Amanda character. I haven't been following all the details leaked in previews, but I suppose this might be another playable character, like Kurtis from Angel of Darkness. Perhaps Lara has a nemesis this time around? Or a sidekick?
Also notable, the game is referred to internally as "TR7". The game directory, executable, and supplementary files all use "TR7".
Finally, there is this reference to "meat_turret" in the executable. If I had to guess, this is the internal name for the poor schmucks who pass for enemies in the game. They're certainly not very interesting, at least in the demo, and are hardly more than stationary turrets made of virtual meat.
--jvm at 23:53
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08 April 2006
TR:L demo details, good & bad
I enjoyed the Tomb Raider: Legend PlayStation 2 demo, and I plan to get the full game. Here are the high and low points of what I've seen:
Highs:
Update: Areas for secrets are in the demo version, but they're not active. Same areas in the final game are counted as secrets. See here.
While hunting around I ran across a message asking "IS THERE A NUDE CODE?!" I haven't seen that kind of request for a Tomb Raider game since the 1990s. I guess that's just one more indicator that Lara's back in fashion.
Highs:
- Movement is smooth. Not quite as good as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but good enough. In one or two places, like the scaling several ledges and speeding through rhythm, it is in fact better.
- Environments are convincing. The environmental kills are dumb, but otherwise I like the world and how it's constructed.
- Puzzles show real promise. The two-part puzzle at the end of the demo is quite satisfying, using the environment seamlessly and convincingly.
- Appears to limit you to one gun at a time. Finally, Lara isn't trying to be the DooM guy.
- Start button during cut scene does not end the scene! (Sounds bad, I know.) Instead you get a menu asking if you want to keep watching the scene or skip it. This effectively gives me the paused cut scenes I've always wanted.
- Three health packs maximum at any time. Excellent for adding a bit of challenge.
- There are some buggy parts of the environment. I got stuck on an incline where Lara alternates sliding and falling upward in a loop.
- Gunplay is awkward and I don't much enjoy it. Still haven't seen the Matrix-style kills, which may be a benefit. I should look into how you knock a foe out instead of killing him, if this is possible.
- Enemies fire on you automatically, but there is no narrative explanation for the hostilities.
- Shadows are often a distraction. The realism gained when Lara casts a beautiful shadow is lost when the huge ledge she's clinging to doesn't.
- Dialogue captions are not automatically turned on. Listen people: captioned dialogue should be the default in all games. Alternatively, start supporting closed captioning.
- The yapping dino buddies talking to Lara over the radio are ok, but I preferred Lara the loner. This appears to be an influence from the two Tomb Raider movies. Perhaps they can be turned off? If they are critical to the story at some point, I'll consider changing my mind.
Update: Areas for secrets are in the demo version, but they're not active. Same areas in the final game are counted as secrets. See here.
While hunting around I ran across a message asking "IS THERE A NUDE CODE?!" I haven't seen that kind of request for a Tomb Raider game since the 1990s. I guess that's just one more indicator that Lara's back in fashion.
--jvm at 23:08
Comment
[ 9 ]
PS2 Tomb Raider: Legend demo -- looks good
I just finished 15 minutes with the playable Tomb Raider: Legend demo on the latest Official PlayStation Magazine disc. Daddy duty just started again, so I didn't finish, but I've seen enough.
I'll be buying the full game in the near future. That is all.
I'll be buying the full game in the near future. That is all.
--jvm at 17:56
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07 April 2006
Number Ni in Nihon: English Training DS
According to the software sales page over at Media Create (page is changed weekly so go look while you can), the #2 "game" in all of Japan last week was English Training DS.
From the site: "Sales of 'English Training DS' were approximately 242,000 units. Although there is a strong educational element to the game, sales have been strong from the very beginning, perhaps due to the large number of people who wish to learn English in a relaxed, informal way."
Hell, if someone were to release a Japanese teaching program for my DS that taught it in a "relaxed, informal way," I'd snap it up. I know a literature professor who knows nothing about video games who might consider buying it. Do you hear me, Nintendo? Make this happen please.
(Alas, they never listen to me. I think they screen their calls.)
From the site: "Sales of 'English Training DS' were approximately 242,000 units. Although there is a strong educational element to the game, sales have been strong from the very beginning, perhaps due to the large number of people who wish to learn English in a relaxed, informal way."
Hell, if someone were to release a Japanese teaching program for my DS that taught it in a "relaxed, informal way," I'd snap it up. I know a literature professor who knows nothing about video games who might consider buying it. Do you hear me, Nintendo? Make this happen please.
(Alas, they never listen to me. I think they screen their calls.)
Labels: nintendo
--JohnH at 21:45
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[ 2 ]
Alan Behr warned you about patents...in 2004!
As you might have read, Lucent is suing Microsoft over a patent, threatening the Xbox 360's future. What you might have missed is that Alan Behr, Esq. of the New York office of Alston & Bird said patents were going to be big starting in 2005 and going forward. Here you go:
It's also worth pointing out that this isn't limited to Microsoft. Sony's got patent troubles too.
Incidentally, Mr. Behr is quite a nice chap. I spoke with him on the telephone for a bit back in 2005, and even though it never produced anything for the blog, I was very pleased that he was so willing to chat with a lowly blogger. He even sent me a helpful copy of an interview he did with The Wall Street Transcript.
For 2005 and beyond, I think that the shoe that has not yet dropped is the question of patent rights. There are many patents for game-related developments, and there have been attempts from time to time to enforce those patent rights. [...] It will therefore be interesting to see whether patent protection starts to become more of a priority.I think we have an answer, Mr. Behr. I think we have an answer.
It's also worth pointing out that this isn't limited to Microsoft. Sony's got patent troubles too.
Incidentally, Mr. Behr is quite a nice chap. I spoke with him on the telephone for a bit back in 2005, and even though it never produced anything for the blog, I was very pleased that he was so willing to chat with a lowly blogger. He even sent me a helpful copy of an interview he did with The Wall Street Transcript.
--jvm at 16:13
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John Ashcroft demands nipple coverage in Tomb Raider
Ok, not really John Ashcroft, but why must Americans be such prudes? If this guy has the story right, then Eidos is worried that a texture of a bare nipple you can't see in the game and can't unlock in a minigame will upset people. It certainly didn't bother the Elder Scrolls guys, and they've already got a nude mod.
The puritanical fervor that gets stirred up about videogames is really astounding. I mean, Sharon Stone has the filmmakers add in more sex for her recent role in Basic Instinct 2, and that's considered good press. A stray texture in a videogame however, and it's time to delay the product to fend off the crazies.
Let's have more BMX XXX, not less. Ok, maybe that's a little too strong, but you get the point.
The puritanical fervor that gets stirred up about videogames is really astounding. I mean, Sharon Stone has the filmmakers add in more sex for her recent role in Basic Instinct 2, and that's considered good press. A stray texture in a videogame however, and it's time to delay the product to fend off the crazies.
Let's have more BMX XXX, not less. Ok, maybe that's a little too strong, but you get the point.
--jvm at 09:02
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