Curmudgeon Gamer
29 June 2007
Forza 2 Online
Today, I was hit with a certain pang of desire towards playing a bit of Forza Motorsport 2 online. Easily done, you think. I go to the multiplayer menu, hit up a Career Race and choose Quick Match. After all, who wants to fuss about looking through a list of games to join for twenty minutes? Everything is looking great, the game tells me it's joining something, the spinny circle in the middle makes it seem like something is happening, somewhere, and then kicks me out back into the menu. Apparently, something went wrong with the connection. Fair enough. the internet is a complicated place. I'll give it another go. Same thing happened. Third time? Same.
I give up. I change to exhibition race and try again. That fails too. I go back to career match. Quick match. I start playing a level on Ouendan whilst I wait. This one connects, finally. I sit in the lobby for a bit, ready to race, whilst I indulge my online companions desire to trash talk each other for a bit. Then, it's on! We're racing! Excitement rushes through me. Finally, I have a chance to prove my average skills online. All will see me for the not so good, not so bad player I truly am. At the first corner I'm in second position, all is going well, until the rear of my car gets completely slammed into by someone behind me and almost knocked off the track. I spin out. He, thankfully, uses the speed drop he got from ruining my car to turn the corner. At least somebody got something out of the encounter, right? Second corner, I'm hit again. My car is rendered virtually useless. I soldier on, eventually managing to retake second place - not because of my driving skills, but because everyone seems to be treating the game like it was Destruction Derby 2. On my final lap, I'm thinking that maybe this wasn't so bad. Online gaming might work. Then I see something driving pretty quickly at me from the distance. It's another car. To be specific, it's the person who was in last position. He's turned around, and is racing in the opposite direction, doing his best to hit all the other cars on the way. I'm hit, whilst some people scream some profanities down their microphones. I eventually finish the race in third position, out of eight total.
All of the credits I would have received from my victory are taken to pay the repair bill that I accrued from all the other drivers crashing into me.
I give up. I change to exhibition race and try again. That fails too. I go back to career match. Quick match. I start playing a level on Ouendan whilst I wait. This one connects, finally. I sit in the lobby for a bit, ready to race, whilst I indulge my online companions desire to trash talk each other for a bit. Then, it's on! We're racing! Excitement rushes through me. Finally, I have a chance to prove my average skills online. All will see me for the not so good, not so bad player I truly am. At the first corner I'm in second position, all is going well, until the rear of my car gets completely slammed into by someone behind me and almost knocked off the track. I spin out. He, thankfully, uses the speed drop he got from ruining my car to turn the corner. At least somebody got something out of the encounter, right? Second corner, I'm hit again. My car is rendered virtually useless. I soldier on, eventually managing to retake second place - not because of my driving skills, but because everyone seems to be treating the game like it was Destruction Derby 2. On my final lap, I'm thinking that maybe this wasn't so bad. Online gaming might work. Then I see something driving pretty quickly at me from the distance. It's another car. To be specific, it's the person who was in last position. He's turned around, and is racing in the opposite direction, doing his best to hit all the other cars on the way. I'm hit, whilst some people scream some profanities down their microphones. I eventually finish the race in third position, out of eight total.
All of the credits I would have received from my victory are taken to pay the repair bill that I accrued from all the other drivers crashing into me.
--Martin at 10:58
Comment
[ 6 ]
Ouendan Impressions
When I close my eyes, I see concentric circles. I'm not joking. They form incredible patterns, and they instruct me to perform a variety of tasks. They're my version of the Terminator's HUD. I worry that they will start appearing when my eyes are open, and this will be evidence that the inevitable has finally happened and a lifetime of gaming has caused me to snap and become barmy. At which point, I'll probably embark on a majestic killing spree and blame it all on Rockstar. The real culprit, however, is the culminated trinity of Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan 2. I know I'm capable of all this, too, because when I'm playing these games I'm often reduced to such a state of pure, unprecedented anger that if somebody were to accidentally walk into the room, ruining my state of Zen-like concentration on the rhythmic delights unfolding on both of my DS's screens, that I'd instantly leap out of my chair and slash their jugular open with the stylus.
I've been working a lot, lately. It pays the bills and funds my drive to buy loads of shiny discs that come in plastic cases. But I've been left in a state of having no time to spare; certainly devoid of the time required to enjoy the shiny plastic discs. However, throughout this period, Ouendan survived. I'd take it with me everywhere, including the kitchen and toilet. It would somehow find its way out of my pocket whenever my girlfriend turned her head, granting me a precious few seconds to tap away at some of the circles before quickly shutting the DS and getting back to my domestic duties. Okay, I'm lying. Like I'd ever have a girlfriend. And like Ouendan is a portable game.
It's ironic, perhaps, that the game that attracts the most fanaticism on the DS is the least portable game ever made available on a portable system. To play it properly you need to have the DS unfolded on a table, while you're sitting in a chair. Sure, you can probably complete the levels holding the DS in your hand, but you're really going to have to be sitting at a table to get great scores. And great scores is what Ouendan is all about. The idea of playing it in a car, or on a train, is more ludicrous than the suggestion that Microsoft are going to do something to rectify the fact that a nasty gust of wind can render a 360 inoperable.
JVM once told me that rhythm games weren't really his cup of tea. His opinions on stuff like DJ Portable Max are entirely correct. You really do have to have slightly masochistic tendencies to enjoy stuff like Ouendan. The game taps into your aggression about six seconds after you switch the DS on. Give Ouendan to Bruce Banner and you'd lose most of the west coast within an hour. The learning curve is high, but if you persevere - and seeing as I'm quite masochistic, I am persevering - the rewards are satisfying. After aggression comes a release of euphoria, this joyous sensation taking you to a dizzy height of circular triumph that leaves all the other games looking like childish distractions. If you're a glutton for punishment and love overcoming adversity, Ouendan is a delight.
I've been working a lot, lately. It pays the bills and funds my drive to buy loads of shiny discs that come in plastic cases. But I've been left in a state of having no time to spare; certainly devoid of the time required to enjoy the shiny plastic discs. However, throughout this period, Ouendan survived. I'd take it with me everywhere, including the kitchen and toilet. It would somehow find its way out of my pocket whenever my girlfriend turned her head, granting me a precious few seconds to tap away at some of the circles before quickly shutting the DS and getting back to my domestic duties. Okay, I'm lying. Like I'd ever have a girlfriend. And like Ouendan is a portable game.
It's ironic, perhaps, that the game that attracts the most fanaticism on the DS is the least portable game ever made available on a portable system. To play it properly you need to have the DS unfolded on a table, while you're sitting in a chair. Sure, you can probably complete the levels holding the DS in your hand, but you're really going to have to be sitting at a table to get great scores. And great scores is what Ouendan is all about. The idea of playing it in a car, or on a train, is more ludicrous than the suggestion that Microsoft are going to do something to rectify the fact that a nasty gust of wind can render a 360 inoperable.
JVM once told me that rhythm games weren't really his cup of tea. His opinions on stuff like DJ Portable Max are entirely correct. You really do have to have slightly masochistic tendencies to enjoy stuff like Ouendan. The game taps into your aggression about six seconds after you switch the DS on. Give Ouendan to Bruce Banner and you'd lose most of the west coast within an hour. The learning curve is high, but if you persevere - and seeing as I'm quite masochistic, I am persevering - the rewards are satisfying. After aggression comes a release of euphoria, this joyous sensation taking you to a dizzy height of circular triumph that leaves all the other games looking like childish distractions. If you're a glutton for punishment and love overcoming adversity, Ouendan is a delight.
--Martin at 00:32
Comment
[ 0 ]
28 June 2007
Manhunt 2 rating, Rockstar presumptions
From a post on My Strategyinformer, found via Game | Life, you can read an email response purportedly from Rockstar about Manhunt 2. The bit that struck me:
Which, of course, is what they're getting at in the second sentence. They don't like the discrepancies between movies and games. (Or at least they're saying they dont' like it. See last paragraph.) But isn't developing a full-scale game a huge risk to take just in the service of challenging the game rating system? Why not do it with something small intended for Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, or the PlayStation Store? Maybe the idea is to use the weight of a full-scale game to shock people into changing the system, but it smells a bit more like inciting a riot than arguing your case in court.
I believe Ruffin speculated to me when he visited last week that Rockstar has a toned down version of the game waiting in the wings that they can just burn to a disc and produce if they don't get an M rating with the current version. Perhaps they've come to grips with the problems posed by the ESRB and the Jack Thompsons of the world and decided that it's better to use its enemies as guerrilla promotion than try to reason with them.
The game was developed as a horror experience, and to be an M rated title, aligning it with similar horror content created in other forms of media. Unlike many other people, we do not think video games should be singled out for special treatment from the authorities.That's inconsistent logic, I think. If the game is intended to be M rated, then you go by the guidelines for M rated games. As I've said before, it's not like Rockstar was unfamiliar with the system in which it lives. So it should know that you don't, for example, look at what R rated movies are doing and design your game to look like them. Movies are held to a different standard. That's just the reality of it.
Which, of course, is what they're getting at in the second sentence. They don't like the discrepancies between movies and games. (Or at least they're saying they dont' like it. See last paragraph.) But isn't developing a full-scale game a huge risk to take just in the service of challenging the game rating system? Why not do it with something small intended for Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, or the PlayStation Store? Maybe the idea is to use the weight of a full-scale game to shock people into changing the system, but it smells a bit more like inciting a riot than arguing your case in court.
I believe Ruffin speculated to me when he visited last week that Rockstar has a toned down version of the game waiting in the wings that they can just burn to a disc and produce if they don't get an M rating with the current version. Perhaps they've come to grips with the problems posed by the ESRB and the Jack Thompsons of the world and decided that it's better to use its enemies as guerrilla promotion than try to reason with them.
--jvm at 22:49
Comment
[ 0 ]
27 June 2007
My Experience with Achievements
Here's a few of my least favourite things about people. Their penchant for bravado, constant whining, foolish purchases that have little or no thought behind them and an incessant focus on puerile, tactless things on the surface instead of a deeper, more meaningful appreciation of the things underneath - the things that count. Almost beautifully, you find all of this stuff when dealing with people who love getting loads of achievement points.
I'll get back to that.
Something struck me the other day whilst I was contemplating whether I should purchase the downloadable content for Crackdown or not; by paying 800 points ($10/£6.80) I can unlock the opportunity to, alongside the new content, obtain more achievements. The 1250 limit on achievement points has been around for, well, absolutely ages now. Purchasing the rights to 250 more achievements was something I first remember being used in Shivering Isles, the latest expansion to Oblivion. Which, I think, is only fair, seeing as it's always been the famous pioneer of downloadable content. I'm sure there are others, but Crackdown is perhaps the first real game I've played where I've experienced it first hand.
Does it really make a difference to the game? Well, no. I believed there to be a certain charm in the uniformity of 1000 points, but it doesn't really change much. But that encompasses the rather peculiar truth that it doesn't make anything better, either.
This goes quite nicely with my most recent gaming escapade, Hitman: Blood Money. Some of those achievements are pretty fun, such as having to kill exactly 47 people on one level, or finish a level with a special rating. But, mostly, it was just a rather rudimentary exercise in replaying the game over and over - the game demands you complete it once on each difficulty to get your thousand points. That's about as much fun as trying to eat soup through a slotted spoon. But, in a rare moment of optimism, I realised that I was so much more intimate with the game by the time I'd finished. I felt like I knew everything about each of the levels, and could time my Silent Assassin (for those that haven't played, this is where you assassinate your target in the stealthiest manner possible) runs through most of them with horrifically efficient simplicity. It was like Blood Money and me were an old couple. Yet, it was by having those achievements - these useless, false, unnecessary numerical representations of gaming prowess - tied into the game that I unknowingly became way more familiar than when I first played it last year on the PC. And then it hit me; the weird truth is that they make some games more fun.
But 1000 points in Blood Money does not necessarily earn me any great kudos. Achievements have never really had any sense of cohesion from game to game. For enduring Dead Rising's survival mode for 72 hours of in-game time you get yourself twenty points. You also get twenty points for completing the training level on Blood Money. Where's the fairness in that? The reality is that there's never been any uniformity between games at all, so changing the achievement 'rules' is just an effective way for publishers to convince gamers to fork out on their premium content, temporarily satiating their thirst for fresh points. There's not even any rules, really. Condemned still only has 970 points, even though it was a launch title, directly contradicting the "1000 points minimum" rule that Microsoft have apparently laid out. There's no driving force that really rewards you with anything. You're not just paying for more game, now, you're paying for more achievements. Will it work? Sure. Achievements are, for some unknown reason, deceptively addictive.
Developers are really starting to use this to their advantage. Epic's 250 extra achievement points for Gears of War basically amount to "play a whole load on the new maps!", ensuring that their bonus content makes its way onto the map rotation instead of being left behind in favour of the old favourites - a common trait in online FPS games; de_dust, anyone? With King Kong (and now TMNT), Ubisoft have created lacklustre games that are still sought after because of the simplicity in getting those thousand points. What does this teach us? Achievement points work, even if they do seem to appeal to my least favourite denomination of people.
I'll get back to that.
Something struck me the other day whilst I was contemplating whether I should purchase the downloadable content for Crackdown or not; by paying 800 points ($10/£6.80) I can unlock the opportunity to, alongside the new content, obtain more achievements. The 1250 limit on achievement points has been around for, well, absolutely ages now. Purchasing the rights to 250 more achievements was something I first remember being used in Shivering Isles, the latest expansion to Oblivion. Which, I think, is only fair, seeing as it's always been the famous pioneer of downloadable content. I'm sure there are others, but Crackdown is perhaps the first real game I've played where I've experienced it first hand.
Does it really make a difference to the game? Well, no. I believed there to be a certain charm in the uniformity of 1000 points, but it doesn't really change much. But that encompasses the rather peculiar truth that it doesn't make anything better, either.
This goes quite nicely with my most recent gaming escapade, Hitman: Blood Money. Some of those achievements are pretty fun, such as having to kill exactly 47 people on one level, or finish a level with a special rating. But, mostly, it was just a rather rudimentary exercise in replaying the game over and over - the game demands you complete it once on each difficulty to get your thousand points. That's about as much fun as trying to eat soup through a slotted spoon. But, in a rare moment of optimism, I realised that I was so much more intimate with the game by the time I'd finished. I felt like I knew everything about each of the levels, and could time my Silent Assassin (for those that haven't played, this is where you assassinate your target in the stealthiest manner possible) runs through most of them with horrifically efficient simplicity. It was like Blood Money and me were an old couple. Yet, it was by having those achievements - these useless, false, unnecessary numerical representations of gaming prowess - tied into the game that I unknowingly became way more familiar than when I first played it last year on the PC. And then it hit me; the weird truth is that they make some games more fun.
But 1000 points in Blood Money does not necessarily earn me any great kudos. Achievements have never really had any sense of cohesion from game to game. For enduring Dead Rising's survival mode for 72 hours of in-game time you get yourself twenty points. You also get twenty points for completing the training level on Blood Money. Where's the fairness in that? The reality is that there's never been any uniformity between games at all, so changing the achievement 'rules' is just an effective way for publishers to convince gamers to fork out on their premium content, temporarily satiating their thirst for fresh points. There's not even any rules, really. Condemned still only has 970 points, even though it was a launch title, directly contradicting the "1000 points minimum" rule that Microsoft have apparently laid out. There's no driving force that really rewards you with anything. You're not just paying for more game, now, you're paying for more achievements. Will it work? Sure. Achievements are, for some unknown reason, deceptively addictive.
Developers are really starting to use this to their advantage. Epic's 250 extra achievement points for Gears of War basically amount to "play a whole load on the new maps!", ensuring that their bonus content makes its way onto the map rotation instead of being left behind in favour of the old favourites - a common trait in online FPS games; de_dust, anyone? With King Kong (and now TMNT), Ubisoft have created lacklustre games that are still sought after because of the simplicity in getting those thousand points. What does this teach us? Achievement points work, even if they do seem to appeal to my least favourite denomination of people.
--Martin at 19:57
Comment
[ 1 ]
20 June 2007
Rockstar should welcome Manhunt 2's AO rating
I don't understand why Rockstar is dismayed that their upcoming game, Manhunt 2, is slated to get an AO rating. And, unlike Josh, I don't really care whether it is for violence or sexual content or a mixture of the two.
If Rockstar really wants to make a game that includes content that pushes it over a line that society has set (by proxy through the ESRB) then they should just accept that. Society self-censors all the time. Parents limit what their kids can see, to varying degrees. Communities set limits on where a bars -- with our without dancers -- can be run. Stores put magazines behind the counter or on the top shelf, out of reach of youngsters.
And now Rockstar has made a game that's been judged to have an AO rating. Them's the breaks. If you're really confident in the game on its own merits, then deal with it. If you really made something you think is remarkable, but deals with subject matter than society doesn't want some youngsters to have, then that's the world you live in. Perhaps your game will change some minds and future ratings will be made differently. Embrace that you're truly breaking new ground and show people that you're not just skirting the line to earn some extra money.
As for me, I'm not buying another Manhunt. These past few years I've had to face images of a three-year-old child with one leg blown off and men with heads covered entirely by the smooth scar flesh that grows after the original flesh has burned away. I don't need a game to remind me of what horrors humanity can inflict on its members.
Update: Having read the comments, let me try to distill my point a bit: The material in Manhunt 2 already limits the audience that society would find acceptable. The rating is intended to communicate that to potential buyers, and it sounds like that's precisely what will happen. It's not like Rockstar didn't understand the environment in which it was working.
If Rockstar really wants to make a game that includes content that pushes it over a line that society has set (by proxy through the ESRB) then they should just accept that. Society self-censors all the time. Parents limit what their kids can see, to varying degrees. Communities set limits on where a bars -- with our without dancers -- can be run. Stores put magazines behind the counter or on the top shelf, out of reach of youngsters.
And now Rockstar has made a game that's been judged to have an AO rating. Them's the breaks. If you're really confident in the game on its own merits, then deal with it. If you really made something you think is remarkable, but deals with subject matter than society doesn't want some youngsters to have, then that's the world you live in. Perhaps your game will change some minds and future ratings will be made differently. Embrace that you're truly breaking new ground and show people that you're not just skirting the line to earn some extra money.
As for me, I'm not buying another Manhunt. These past few years I've had to face images of a three-year-old child with one leg blown off and men with heads covered entirely by the smooth scar flesh that grows after the original flesh has burned away. I don't need a game to remind me of what horrors humanity can inflict on its members.
Update: Having read the comments, let me try to distill my point a bit: The material in Manhunt 2 already limits the audience that society would find acceptable. The rating is intended to communicate that to potential buyers, and it sounds like that's precisely what will happen. It's not like Rockstar didn't understand the environment in which it was working.
--jvm at 09:46
Comment
[ 13 ]
19 June 2007
Ah, EB Games and the reader "reviews"
What the heck is it about EB Games that has "readers" writing "reviews" like they've the IQ of kittens?
First, the obvious question. Why was I looking at this Sims expansion? I get the EB Games' email, pretending some day I'll find a deal, and had no idea what "H&M Fashion Stuff" was. They got me; I had to give it a quick look. H&M is apparently some "European fashion retailer that is taking the US by storm with its trendsetting contemporary fashions". Go figure. Now H&M is a game, of sorts. That's right, there are people willing to purchase advertising for $20. No wonder everyone wants to copy the "success" of The Sims. I just don't get it. (Caveat: I did, at one time, wear a Coca-Cola collared shirt in junior high, and occasionally wear highly commercialized t-shirts to this day. Idiots abound.)
The problem is that, regardless of how inane the expansion being "reviewed" sounds, it doesn't explain the comments above, which I find are pretty representative on ebgames.com as a whole. I particularly like the reviews for games that haven't even been released. "***** This R0x0rz!!! I'm gunna git it fur shur!"
Now here's my only semi-serious point that could possibly take this painful post away from being nothing more than another ill-begotten rant: Could the gaming rag culture of providing overly-positive previews and advocacy-disguised-as-journalism be contributing to the production of this sort of mindless drivel by consumers?
Like cows to the slaughter, I wonder.
***** want it soo badly
Reviewed By: simcrazy Date: Monday, June 18, 2007
i really dont care if people say this game is bad because the guys actually have a better bathing suit! i think this is a must have expansion pack.
*** Really not worth it!!!!!
Reviewed By: Susame Date: Thursday, June 07, 2007
I bought this game yesterday and it has about ten new outfits for the girls the men don't really have as many. The game is not bad but it wasn't what I expected I thought you will be able to create your own outfits, but that's not the case. So it's not a must have, but if you jus ... [More]
***** Tested... liked it
Reviewed By: Evelin Date: Wednesday, June 06, 2007
I tested this game for maxis & it rocks!!I love the sims & never get tired of it like some people. This game is new & fun...Like they said this is a must-have for your sims!!I know youll enjoy this
Happy Simming
E.M
First, the obvious question. Why was I looking at this Sims expansion? I get the EB Games' email, pretending some day I'll find a deal, and had no idea what "H&M Fashion Stuff" was. They got me; I had to give it a quick look. H&M is apparently some "European fashion retailer that is taking the US by storm with its trendsetting contemporary fashions". Go figure. Now H&M is a game, of sorts. That's right, there are people willing to purchase advertising for $20. No wonder everyone wants to copy the "success" of The Sims. I just don't get it. (Caveat: I did, at one time, wear a Coca-Cola collared shirt in junior high, and occasionally wear highly commercialized t-shirts to this day. Idiots abound.)
The problem is that, regardless of how inane the expansion being "reviewed" sounds, it doesn't explain the comments above, which I find are pretty representative on ebgames.com as a whole. I particularly like the reviews for games that haven't even been released. "***** This R0x0rz!!! I'm gunna git it fur shur!"
Now here's my only semi-serious point that could possibly take this painful post away from being nothing more than another ill-begotten rant: Could the gaming rag culture of providing overly-positive previews and advocacy-disguised-as-journalism be contributing to the production of this sort of mindless drivel by consumers?
Like cows to the slaughter, I wonder.
Labels: culture, journaltisement, reviews, useless
--rufbo at 09:41
Comment
[ 0 ]
18 June 2007
Tomb Raider Anniversary sets distribution record
Not for the number of copies of Tomb Raider Anniversary sold (we'll know more about that next month) but for the number of distribution methods in the first three months on the market. A new one was just announced today. Let's count them:
- Retail box (Windows and PS2 now, PSP in a week or so, Wii and Xbox 360 late this year)
- Steam (Windows now)
- GameTap (Windows now, but GameTap will have a MacOS version late this summer. From GameTap's point of view, I can't think of a better way to introduce Mac gamers than to offer Tomb Raider Anniversary for MacOS X...)
- Episodic game for owners of Tomb Raider: Legend on Xbox 360 in September
Labels: business, gametap, online distribution, steam, tomb raider
--jvm at 11:12
Comment
[ 1 ]
17 June 2007
idTech 5 on Apple Because of Next?
Macworld's Peter Cohen writes:
Anybody know the skinny on this one? Personally I'm not sure why Carmack continues to use OpenGL and friends. Familiarity? Ability to change the standards to conform to his needs at the bleeding edge? An ir/rational dislike of Microsoft?
With "idTech 5", id finally seems to be admitting that it's not about the game; it's the engine technology, stupid. Is OpenGL easier to port to PS3? Because otherwise, I'm lost beyond the reasons I mentioned, above, for id to use it and, with it, for Macs and friends to be supported.
And I'm pretty sure Carmack's not using Open GL because of Next.
Carmack's interest in the Mac market is understandable. For one thing, he's an experienced NextStep developer. NextStep is the operating system that Mac OS X owes its core foundation to, and Carmack used it to help develop the original Doom and Quake games.
Anybody know the skinny on this one? Personally I'm not sure why Carmack continues to use OpenGL and friends. Familiarity? Ability to change the standards to conform to his needs at the bleeding edge? An ir/rational dislike of Microsoft?
With "idTech 5", id finally seems to be admitting that it's not about the game; it's the engine technology, stupid. Is OpenGL easier to port to PS3? Because otherwise, I'm lost beyond the reasons I mentioned, above, for id to use it and, with it, for Macs and friends to be supported.
And I'm pretty sure Carmack's not using Open GL because of Next.
--rufbo at 18:14
Comment
[ 3 ]
15 June 2007
Mac Gaming: Cider port, Aspyr SUPport
Okay, here's my half-baked guess based on what Matt told me this morning.
Please excuse the break from the (I'll try not to laugh as I type this) usual care I put into a post.
Matt: [from here]
Aspyr Media Inc. announced today that "Law & Order: Dead on the Money," published for the PC by Legacy Interactive(R) is now available for the Mac, with conversion done by TransGaming Technologies.
Me: Aspyr announces, eh? Got it. Transgaming "ports", Aspyr sells and supports. We're leaving [out of town]. Blog for me, please. :)
Please excuse the break from the (I'll try not to laugh as I type this) usual care I put into a post.
--rufbo at 11:32
Comment
[ 2 ]
NPD analysis at Gamasutra
Recently the editor of Gamasutra asked me if I was up for some analysis work, and we worked out an opportunity for me to do some Friday morning comments on the monthly NPD data releases. The first such piece is up this morning. You can drop your usual insults and criticisms into the comments below.
In addition to the link, I want to raise two points that came to me while I was doing the legwork these past couple of days:
In addition to the link, I want to raise two points that came to me while I was doing the legwork these past couple of days:
- If you don't pay for the NPD reports (expensive), getting all the information in one centralized location is a real chore. While you can get some stuff from places like NeoGAF, a lot of the stuff I wanted was written out in sentences, not tables. So I spent hours extracting numbers from articles, putting them into a spreasheet, and in many cases deducing the numbers which were not said.
To elaborate: If NPD reports total sales, hardware (console and handheld combined) sales, console software sales, and accessory sales then you can deduce portable software sales by subtracting hardware, accessory, and console software from the total. If you have numbers for one segment of the market for two out of three months in a quarter and also the quarterly totals, you can deduce the missing month's segment numbers. And then using the growth percentages, you can compute numbers for all categories for the previous year.
Then there are the top software sales lists. Lately NPD is reporting top 10 software titles with sales numbers, and later in the month you can get a top 20 list, but without numbers on places 11-20. If you're lucky there will be one or two numbers for spots 11-20 mentioned in the text of an article somewhere, which gives you a bit more data for the scale of the sales for places 11-20.
Which is all to say, I'm finally in a position where I think I've got this data under control and can fill in holes and add new data as it becomes available. Perhaps I'll make periodic dumps in CVS, ODS, and XLS format here, so stay tuned. - While I was looking at present and upcoming software releases, I began to wonder if Tomb Raider Anniversary will appear on the PC sales charts for June. As we've covered before, the sales are not only in brick-and-mortar stores but also on GameTap and Steam. I consider it possible (although I don't know yet how probable) that TRA will miss the sales charts because (I believe) NPD doesn't count sales of the game through online distribution.
But the point is more general than just Tomb Raider -- as the relationship between online distribution and brick-and-mortar stores changes, a company like NPD that measures sales in brick-and-mortar stores will have to adapt. Certainly the hardware figures will continue to be interesting, but the software numbers may lose some of their meaning.
--jvm at 10:45
Comment
[ 6 ]
12 June 2007
More Curmudgeonly Comments About Mac Game Journalism
I like Inside Mac Games a lot. That quick apology aside, ethically they're still giving me fits. I remain extremely concerned with the extreme integration between Inside Mac Games and macgamestore.com, and the site's large, advert/header banner continues to be "sponsored" by the store that shares an owner, no, IS owned by the "news" site. That IMG hocks the same stuff it purports to "review," a word which implies a degree of fairness and impartiality to me, isn't news to most IMG readers, I wouldn't believe. Still, it's unethical for a site doing gaming news and reviews to sell those same games.[1]
I wonder if some of this proverbial incestuous dilemma accounts for the recent disconnect between the content of IMG's RSS feed and the content of one of the features it advertises, IMG's editor's latest blog entry. You'd expect the RSS feed and the article to match up. I don't think they do.
From the feed:
From Tuncer's Blog:
If you've known about it for weeks, it's not a surprise. If you've known about it for weeks, where is our news? Dang it, folk, if you're simply pandering to sources, withholding information until they believe it's time for it to be made public, they're not your sources, you're their shills.
I believe we've had some discussion about NDAs and their effect on journalism -- um, killing it -- before.
Why didn't Tuncer tell us about the announcement weeks ago? If Inside Mac Games is that the best Mac game news outlets have to offer, which I believe it is, we've got another classic case of IMG's predilection for "journaltisement".
So just for fun, let's end with our standard mantra: Buy used books, get your games at Ambrosia, and when you're riding your bike at night, always, always wear white.
[1] At times, I've seen advertisements for games on this site. I don't see a dime of that ad revenue. I think Matt might fairly literally see a dime, but will let him deal with any ethics violations there himself after saying that I'm 99.44% confident he doesn't pick what runs, and I know (hope?!) he doesn't get a percentage of each sale from those stores.
I wonder if some of this proverbial incestuous dilemma accounts for the recent disconnect between the content of IMG's RSS feed and the content of one of the features it advertises, IMG's editor's latest blog entry. You'd expect the RSS feed and the article to match up. I don't think they do.
From the feed:
IMG's founder Tuncer Deniz weighs in on today's surprise announcement made by Electronic Arts. Although he's estatic [sic] with the six titles announced, he questions whether EA will be happy. Will EA be in it for the long haul or is this just another "experiment". [sic](emphasis mine; comments about Bolivia nearly resisted)
From Tuncer's Blog:
A few weeks ago I learned of EA's intention to bring some of their game titles to the Mac and since then I've been wrestling with the consequences and impact of EA's 'renewed' commitment to the Mac.(emphasis again mine)
If you've known about it for weeks, it's not a surprise. If you've known about it for weeks, where is our news? Dang it, folk, if you're simply pandering to sources, withholding information until they believe it's time for it to be made public, they're not your sources, you're their shills.
I believe we've had some discussion about NDAs and their effect on journalism -- um, killing it -- before.
Why didn't Tuncer tell us about the announcement weeks ago? If Inside Mac Games is that the best Mac game news outlets have to offer, which I believe it is, we've got another classic case of IMG's predilection for "journaltisement".
So just for fun, let's end with our standard mantra: Buy used books, get your games at Ambrosia, and when you're riding your bike at night, always, always wear white.
[1] At times, I've seen advertisements for games on this site. I don't see a dime of that ad revenue. I think Matt might fairly literally see a dime, but will let him deal with any ethics violations there himself after saying that I'm 99.44% confident he doesn't pick what runs, and I know (hope?!) he doesn't get a percentage of each sale from those stores.
Labels: apple, ethics, img, journaltisement
--rufbo at 17:25
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11 June 2007
Cider? You cider, you brought...
From MacWorld's coverage of the recent Apple developers' conference:
To me, that's the most interesting news short of Windows Safari and the "built-in" Vista drivers.
So how is EA getting those games onto the Mac? Inside Mac Games gives us a good hunch:
That there would be no PowerPC compatibility was a no-brainer. Proof? I figured it out. That they would use Cider wasn't quite as obvious, though one might argue it was close. (Tiger Woods had been ported recently, I believe. The rest? Forget it.)
I'm eager to hear the official jvm slant on that one.
Update: No longer a hunch, it would appear: Aspyr's Brad Oliver says it's Cider on the IMG forums. Interesting that it appears Aspyr will continue porting the Sims (no reason to throw out ported engine at this point? Wonder if it'll drop away with a major Sims update...). He also says that the sports games and BF1942 didn't do well enough for Aspyr to keep porting.
As he says, that old ports of those games didn't do well is old news, but how does this striate Mac game development now? There are games that get ignored, the Cider treatment, and the red carpet port now? That one can Cider a game playably apparently much more cheaply than porting it says something bad about Asypr's porting future.
What's more, EA will be bringing sports games to the Mac in August, beginning with simultaneous launches of Madden 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08.
To me, that's the most interesting news short of Windows Safari and the "built-in" Vista drivers.
So how is EA getting those games onto the Mac? Inside Mac Games gives us a good hunch:
According to our sources, EA is using TransGaming's Cider for its Mac titles. This means that there will be no PowerPC versions of the games.
That there would be no PowerPC compatibility was a no-brainer. Proof? I figured it out. That they would use Cider wasn't quite as obvious, though one might argue it was close. (Tiger Woods had been ported recently, I believe. The rest? Forget it.)
I'm eager to hear the official jvm slant on that one.
Update: No longer a hunch, it would appear: Aspyr's Brad Oliver says it's Cider on the IMG forums. Interesting that it appears Aspyr will continue porting the Sims (no reason to throw out ported engine at this point? Wonder if it'll drop away with a major Sims update...). He also says that the sports games and BF1942 didn't do well enough for Aspyr to keep porting.
As he says, that old ports of those games didn't do well is old news, but how does this striate Mac game development now? There are games that get ignored, the Cider treatment, and the red carpet port now? That one can Cider a game playably apparently much more cheaply than porting it says something bad about Asypr's porting future.
--rufbo at 16:19
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[ 3 ]
08 June 2007
Good timing
Yesterday I had a piece out saying that most consoles last generation sold for under $200, that therefore the magic console price is around $200, and that Microsoft was in line for a price cut given that they're about 19 months out from launch.
Today, Bloomberg has a report that says:
Today, Bloomberg has a report that says:
That may mean a price cut heading into the holiday season to spur sales of games, which do make a profit, [UBS AG analyst Heather] Bellini said.Short of an actual announcement of an Xbox 360 price cut, I couldn't have timed that any better.
[snip]
She expects a price cut as early as September.
[snip]
"We are well aware that the sweet spot of the market is really 199 bucks,'' said David Hufford, a director of Xbox product management. Sony sold 75 million PlayStation 2s at or below that price.
Labels: business
--jvm at 10:25
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[ 1 ]
07 June 2007
Man, my DS is baaaad news!
I got a Nintendo DS a while back off of eBay for about $55. You get what you pay for. While looking for a case to help ensure I don't break the other hinge, I ran across this beauty...
You just can't leave your DS unattended like you used to with the Game Boy Pocket. What's the world coming to?
You just can't leave your DS unattended like you used to with the Game Boy Pocket. What's the world coming to?
--rufbo at 20:37
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Tomb Raider Anniversary (Demo): All Wet
I have to admit it. I wasn't too impressed with my first few minutes in the TRA demo for Windows. It looks great, no doubt about it. The waterfall, pool, and environment effects (ie, "Lara getting wet and drying off) are pretty cool. To me, however, it fails to capture the feel of the original and make it interesting in a new way. I haven't finished many games all the way through, even in group-play, but Tomb Raider is one of them. I liked it. I don't so much like this. All told, I'd rather she missed our anniversary.
The AI and Controls Stink. (stink.)
I can sum my critique of my experience with the demo into main two categories: AI and Controls. The AI of the first two wolves that pop up on the scene seems to have been copied, verbatim, from the original. The wolves sit at the bottom of some crumbling stairs, snapping at, well, snapping at where Lara would be if the world were two-dimensional. Insult to injury, Lara's gun sights won't let me target them like wolves in a barrel, as for some reason Lara's arm can only move downwards at about thirty-degrees once you move to first-person target mode. Brilliant! When I could sight them, I had to pick off their fannies, since the heads were blocked by the stairs that Lara couldn't see over for some reason. Great fun. Great programming. Fearsome enemies, with all the AI of the tanks in one-player Atari 2600 Combat.
The painful controls continue for no good reason. Honestly, I'd much rather the standard cubits (fourth paragraph) and stilted controls I can, after hours of training, use fairly proficiently (and she does still do the hand-stand "flip" when climbing, if you want) than this free-move crap.
It's not that free movement can't be done. Bloodrayne 2 does it beautifully. The poor, unintuitive swinging from bar to bar on the cogs in the first [major] room of TRA highlighted for me that TRA neither has the fluid, natural mental model of Bloodrayne nor has it intelligently taken the way out a remake so obviously allows, reusing the TR cubit. As is, it's a lost-lost [sic].
Cutting off the Hand that P(l)ays
Matt's also complained that he thought the WinPC version was supposed to be a recompile of the PS2 version. That's obviously not the case. As we all know, looking sharp is worth half a point, but the improvements of the Windows version over the PS2 from the videos that I've seen isn't all good news. Though the fuzzy (what, is the camera's lens stopped down to f1.4?) waterfall at the far end of the first major "room" is pretty, it reduces my computer to the famous Unreal Slideshow, picking back up to a very playable rate if the waterfall leaves the area of view.
Why put so much work into making the PC version prettier if it cuts out a decent portion of your potential market? If I can't play this quickly, nobody with the all too common Intel 950 is going to hack it either, which takes out more than a few laptops and low-end consumer boxes, even relatively new ones. Tomb Raider has traditionally been a popular casual gamer's game. TRA continues a strong move away from the casual gamer, all but conceding the loss of that appeal in the most recent games' construction.
Remove Nostalgia and Whaddya Got?
Ultimately, it's kind of like Civ for me. The game is very good in the original. The gameplay was impressive for its time and, within the same context, continues to be fun to play again. Nostalgia recreates enjoyment within a certain framework (Demons to Dimonds on Atari remake paddles, for instance, though the game stinks) and at times the games weather time and remain great if kept exactly the same (Kaboom!, Pitfall, Tetris give or take). It was fun when Wolfenstein and Doom simply threw wave after wave of mindless adversaries your way, and occasionally I like to replay them. That no longer cut the mustard with the one-player versions of Quake 3 or Doom 3. The AI-less wolves and friends don't cut it here, either.
Whitewashing games, here providing additional eye candy and messing with the traditional controls, doesn't necessarily make them more fun -- or fun again. Why play Civ IV if it's essentially Civilization I, now with Dino Buddy? I'll pass.
For now, the whitewash makes the original Tomb Raider seem washed up. Perhaps Matt will enjoy the PS2 version, but for me, TRA is all wet.
--rufbo at 11:00
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Console price cuts
A piece about console pricing with lots of pretty graphs is up today at Next-Gen.biz if you care to check it out. I will try to get the data I used into a presentable form and attach it as an update to this post when I get time, so others have an opportunity to poke around and see what else is there.
Now if Microsoft will just drop its price, I'll be sitting pretty.
Now if Microsoft will just drop its price, I'll be sitting pretty.
--jvm at 07:20
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[ 4 ]
06 June 2007
Chopping a game into pieces (or Tomb Raider Anniversary on Xbox 360)
Via this post at NeoGAF, you can now find Tomb Raider: Anniversary rated for the Xbox 360. Try this link to see for yourself.What's interesting about this is that the game comes in five separate pieces. It appears that the game has been chopped into episodes and will arrive on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Marketplace.
This will be interesting to watch and raises some interesting questions:
- Will the pieces cost more than the $30 for the physical product on Windows, PlayStation 2, PSP, or Wii? My guess is that they'll cost more for the whole thing, justified by offering improved graphics and online achievements.
- Will there be a disc-based version for Xbox 360? Probably not.
- Why wasn't this done for the Windows version which is available as a download from GameTap and Steam? I really don't understand, given that GameTap is already doing episodic games.
- Does this signal how the the story started in Tomb Raider: Legend will be finished -- through downloadable episodes on the platforms that can handle it? I sure hope not. I enjoyed TR:L and would hate to have a virtual product as the only path to seeing its story finished.
- Will the Wii version be handled in the same way? Probably not. The Wii just isnt' designed to handle a full-size game like that (yet).
Labels: gametap, online distribution, steam, tomb raider, xbox360, xboxlive
--jvm at 15:40
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[ 3 ]
05 June 2007
IGN Does it Again: 2-for-1 Reviews
I've been getting together some quick first-impressions for the Tomb Raider Anniversary Demo, and figured I'd look at what some others were saying before I posted, particularly about the visuals on PS2. Doing so allowed me to recall just how much careful time and effort game reviewers put into their craft.
IGN's WinPC and PS2 reviews for TRA are [at least as of this writing] exactly the same minus one paragraph and a couple of different screengrabs. That's right, one paragraph. Here it goes.
PS2:
Graphically, Anniversary isn't anything to write home about. It doesn't look bad, but its drab, seam-showing environments can't compare to the prettier games on the PS2. Worse yet it there's [sic] no way to maximize your enjoyment. On a standard-def set the visuals are muted, and on a high-def set they look jagged.
WinPC:
Graphically, Anniversary looks impressive on the PC. After having fooled around with the console version for a few days, I was knocked on my duff by how good Lara and her environments looked. There's detail in the cave walls, Miss Croft's edges are smooth and the whole thing just looks slick.
Then both painfully dovetail into this line from the next paragraph, emphasis mine:
Yet what Anniversary lacks in guns-blazing action and gorgeous graphics, it makes up for with mind-maiming puzzles.
Nice. Well done. Not only are the reviews so painfully undifferentiated as to be functional clones, the parts, sorry, part that was rewritten for the WinPC doesn't even bother to mesh with the balance of the review, and the PS2-specific paragraph can't even bother to get its grammar straight. (For some reason, I'd really like to mix "Good work, but you forgot baby Moses" in here somewhere. Can't fit it.)
Matt's commented on this laziness before, I believe. It's tedious to point it out again. You can blame me (I do) for the reprint, but you should also blame the lazy two-fors these editors are allowing out.
Edit: Okay, I feel badly. I overstated how little new work was done for the two reviews. Here are the score sections for each, with what's different highlighted in bold, red text.
PS2 Scores:
| 7.5 | Presentation The main menu is the traditional Tomb Raider fare with Lara standing there while you pick your poison. It's easy to use and captures the style of the game. | |
| 7.0 | Graphics Obviously they're better than the original, but it's a lose-lose. On a standard-def set it looks bland and on a high-def set it looks jagged. | |
| 7.5 | Sound Most of the time it's just Lara's footsteps in an empty room, but when enemies show up, the music kicks up. Your guns always sound good. I guess it's what you'd expect. | |
| 8.0 | Gameplay The inclusion of Legend controls make it -- gasp -- fun to navigate the empty corridors and leap from ledges all over again. However, the too-close camera can get irritating. | |
| 8.0 | Lasting Appeal If you just sit down and plow through the game, you're looking at a 20-hour affair. Want more? Double back for the hidden relics, cheat codes, unlockable costumes and Croft Manor. | |
| 7.8 | OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average) | |
WinPC Scores:
| 8.0 | Presentation The main menu is the traditional Tomb Raider fare with Lara standing there while you pick your poison. It's easy to use, looks sharp and captures the style of the game. | |
| 8.0 | Graphics Lara and her environments look downright sick running at 1900 x 1200, but there are still a few instances of dead bats jumping around the screen. | |
| 7.5 | Sound Most of the time it's just Lara's footsteps in an empty room, but when enemies show up, the music kicks up. Your guns always sound good. I guess it's what you'd expect. | |
| 8.0 | Gameplay The inclusion of Legend controls make it -- gasp -- fun to navigate the empty corridors and leap from ledges all over again, but the mouse as a camera is annoying. | |
| 8.0 | Lasting Appeal If you just sit down and plow through the game, you're looking at a 20-hour affair. Want more? Double back for the hidden relics, cheat codes, unlockable costumes and Croft Manor. | |
| 8.0 | OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average) | |
Enjoy. Remember, always look sharp. It's worth half a point.
--rufbo at 14:06
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[ 5 ]
01 June 2007
Impressions: The Red Star
The Red Star for the PlayStation 2 plays like a variety of different games. Melee and projectile battles remind me most of the recent 3D dungeon crawlers like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, although Ruffin's earlier Metal Gear Solid comparison wasn't far off either. With a rigid, linear level structure, however, it's quite different from both of those games. Each level includes several boss encounters which have patterns and rhythms like traditional shmups. And the upgrading process at the end of each level reminds me of Xybots.Do these pieces make a fun game? So far, yes. I'm on level 6 of 21 and hope to finish this weekend.
As far as I can tell, however, the story is just as ludicrous as I originally thought last year. The license adds nothing.
Labels: firstimpressions, ps2
--jvm at 21:56
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