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8
Apr
2010
TGC 2010 Panel: The Future of the Shooter
Panel from Triangle Game Conference 2010
Panelists:
- Jeff McGann
- Juan Benito
- Shaun McCabe
- Patrick Sebring
Moderated by: John Farnsworth from Epic Games Read the rest of this entry »
8
Apr
2010
Game-On! Triangle Game Conference v2.0
Triangle Games Conference – Raleigh, North Carolina April 7th-8th
http://www.trianglegameconference.com/
For those of you not in the know, Triangle Games Conference is in its second year and is bigger and better than ever! It has expanded more than 50% since its inaugural year last year. The Research Triangle area of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham) is the third largest video game development cluster area in the United States. (right behind the Bay area, CA and Los Angeles) However, the big draw for this convention and this area is the fact that it is the World’s largest region for video game engines. That is mainly because of the incredible success and the legs that Unreal Engine 3 has in the gaming industry.
Main companies in the area: Epic Games, Insomniac Games, Red Storm, and EA even has a presence here.
Sidenote: The governor of NC, Beverly Purdue, is going to be making an appearance at the conference today to show her support of the industry and the business is brings to the region.
Expect more coverage from me about this event in the next day or so, including a liveblog of panel speakers!
28
Mar
2010
Sony E3 2010: Year of the MMO
Console MMO’s? There is a ton a skepticism surrounding this genre, especially since there truly hasn’t been a successful one yet, barring Final Fantasy XI. However with the continued explosive adoption of highspeed internet worldwide, and with current generation console sales eclipsing 33 million for Sony’s PS3 (VGCharz.com), now seems like the perfect time to test the waters once again. And Sony looks to be planning to do this in a big way!
27
Mar
2010
Slider for PS Move is an Ode to the Retro
Right now this is the only ‘announced’ game being developed for PS Move from SCEJ. That doesn’t mean that this is the only game in development by that studio, just that this is the only one that the public is made aware of. And it is VERY Japanese, but in all of the good ways!
Just to recap, here is the basic premise of the game: It’s set in Hong Kong and you are a business owner who has run behind in his debts to the Yakuza and thus has to flee. You choose to either play as the business owner or his (rather attractive) secretary.
Now to the gameplay: (which has been updated since the original videos have been released) there are a couple different gameplay types available:
- Two different tutorials
- Two different actual playable levels in the demo.
Granted this was only a ‘demo’ and is most likely still in the pre-alpha phase of development like all of the other PS Move titles that have been announced so far. Now let me explain to you what makes this game so special. It seems like a hybrid of three different games that everyone has experienced:
- Crazy Taxi – It has borrowed the time limits and destination/objective based levels with points and ways of extending the time limit.
- Tony Hawk – Sure you may be riding a desk chair downhill, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to grind on rails, jump, and spin kick Yakuza thugs. Just FYI, when you’re grinding on rails, the Move is used to keep your balance from side to side, and it is indeed challenging.
- PAIN! – The physics engine seems to have taken quite a few notes from PAIN! (the PSN exclusive downloadable game): mainly the ragdoll physics animations and slow-mo crash sequences.
Most importantly though, this game is incredibly fun to get your hands on, but not easy to put down! Look for this game to make big waves when it is released as a launch title with the PS Move this fall.
1
Mar
2010
Stop Bitching about the PS3 Glitch
This is getting truly out of hand. The PSN has been glitching for less than 24 hours and people are saying that this is comparable to the RROD devastation that afflicted early chipsets of the Xbox 360s. How fickle are people that they can’t remember history and what has happened not even a year and half ago now.
*Flashback to December 31st, 2008.*
All was well as children around the world were preparing to watch the new year’s eve celebration as the clock struck midnight. However, fate had a different sort of new years resolution for little Jimmy and the 12 other people around the planet that bought 30gb Microsoft Zunes. Because as the clock stuck midnight, every single 30gb Zune on the entire planet bricked simultaneously. Consequently the tech community freaked out, dubbing the event as the ‘Red Ring of Zune’. It turned out that this was only an internal clock issue and after 24 hours all of the Zunes (all 13 of them worldwide) returned to normal.
Now back to present day. How is this so dissimilar from what is occurring right now with the ‘fat’ PS3s? We’re lucky that our systems didn’t brick. They’re still playable for non-trophy games: ie Valkyria Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4, Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword. This is the perfect opportunity to go back and play those games. Or better yet, use your system as a blu-ray player, since it is arguably the best one of those on the market. Moral of the story is that people are overreacting about this entirely situation which will more than likely auto-correct itself within a matter of hours.
What’s your take on this ‘ApocalyPS3’ (it pains me to even type that phrase). Is it just fuel for the trolls to go to town on? That’s my own personal opinion. What’s yours? Comment below.
Sony’s official advice on the situation.
UPDATE!
The PS3 is now working again. There are no patches, just turn on your PS3 and it works!
11
Jan
2010
My (awful) GameFly Experience
This is the actual message that I sent to GameFly. From what I’ve heard from everyone, I’m not the only one in this boat. The sad fact of the matter is that originally, when I first signed up, they seemed to expedite their shipping to draw me in. Now that I’ve been a customer for a long time, it feels like I’m on the back burner and they get to me last. Anyways, this is copied and pasted from what I sent to them:
I’d like to take a second just to formally complain about how dreadfully slow your turnaround time is. I have followed all of your guidelines for having at least 10 games in “My GameQ” so that the process can be expedited, however this fails to have any positive effect on my service. I find myself OFTEN waiting about a week before something is shipped out to me once you have received my previous title. Then once it is shipping I have to wait another 2-3 business days until the game is actually in my hands. I have upgraded to a 2-game account because of this delay, but then there are times like currently when I actually have NO games at my house because both of them are either in the mail to you, or you have not processed a new game for me yet. This ends up equating to around 1-2 weeks per month (at least) that are eaten up by lag time on your end. The problem here is that I am paying good money for your company’s inefficiency. Please do something to remedy this situation immediately or I will be forced to take my business elsewhere.
Thanks, Will Powers (long standing client)
http://thepowerreview.com
http://twitter.com/uncyrus
Do you think that this will change anything? Well, I’ll be forced to wait the 2-4 business days to find out, won’t I? /facepalm Customer service at this company is a joke.
28
Dec
2009
The Last Guardian’s sales: Destined for Mediocrity
It pains me to write this article, but there is a purpose behind writing it. Hopefully if I can illuminate this issue, then more people can be aware of it and correct it in this third iteration of the “series” by Team ICO.
Let’s start from the beginning. Fumito Ueda and the rest of Team ICO released ICO for the PS2 in 2001. Despite being an incredibly innovative game in the sense of gameplay, musical scores, graphics, and story, the game largely fell under the radar for the mainstream market. The real shame of the situation is that the game is even to this day still hailed as one of the best exclusives for the PS2 system with a Metacritic average score of 90/100, however the overall sales worldwide hover right around ONLY 700,000 for the lifetime of the game.
19
Oct
2009
And the Halo Killer is… Halo?
This is a reaction article for sure, a reaction to me sitting back for the past month and just shaking my head at what “journalists” have been writing. The Halo franchise for sure is the 800-pound guerilla of this console generation, with the third iteration in the series selling over 11 million copies, these are extremely impressive numbers. However, as far as first party exclusives, what else really is Microsoft offering to its fanbase…? Lips? (Fine, I’ll give you Forza)
Microsoft began the bad habit of piggybacking off of the brand name of “Halo” to drum up sales, rather than relying on the critical acclaim that games would receive to create sales for themselves. Instead, by relying simply on brandname and enforcing review embargos, they seem to con customers into buying their products before word can get out about them. This isn’t just an unjustified claim; here are some of the facts surrounding this.
The issues that I have start with the release of Halo Wars in March. While this was not a bad game in the least, actually quite enjoyable, take a quick look at the official TV commercial promoting the game: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWphv8lJeG4) Nowhere in the entire commercial is there any ingame footage, or is there any evidence to show what genre of game this is. Since ALL off the other Halo branded games released up until that point had been first person shooters, why would this one be any different? If you weren’t up to date in what was going on in gaming at the time, then the commercial would have just told you that there was a new Halo game coming out, and your own previous experience would have made you think that it was a FPS. The problem lies in the fact that it’s NOT. That commercial deceived many people into buying a realtime strategy game while they were expecting anything but that. Is this really Microsoft and Ensemble Studio’s fault for the advertising, or is it the responsibility of the gamer to research the product and not to be fooled by false uninformative advertising.
The result of this is the game selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide in 6 months despite only having a Metacritic score of 82! That’s what review embargos will buy you, especially when some of the reviews for the game came in as low as 6.5 from accredited sources!
The next point of contention of course is Halo 3: ODST. This was originally slated to be downloadedable content for the megaseller, Halo 3. However one could only assume that Microsoft needed another big First-Party exclusive title for this year, so they decided to change it into a fullfledged game. That’s fine, but in this transition, somehow the content didn’t mirror the change in packaging. Translation: The content is still that of a $19.99 download, yet retailers are charging a premium of $59.99. Despite all of this, the game still managed to move 2.2 million units on the first day of sales. But who came out on top in all of this? Don’t get me wrong, ODST is a really fun game and I enjoyed playing through the 5 hour long campaign, however there’s no way that this could be justified as more than a “rent” for me. Here’s why!
More than likely the majority of the 2.2 million that purchased this title on day one already owned the previous iteration of the franchise. If you own both titles, then unfortunately, you just repurchased a lot of content that you already owned. The ONLY differences in online play are the three exclusive maps and the new game mode. Personally, I don’t understand why Halo fans aren’t up in arms about this. While ODST is a great package for newcomers to the Halo series, if you are a loyal fan, there’s not reason to purchase this game, mostly because you already have the content. Yet they did, and by the truckload.
So this really comes down to one thing: When are people going to wake up and actually demand a full package game rather than just drinking whatever brand of Halo Koolaid that Microsoft tries to market to you next? Because as the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Loyal Halo fans just got fooled twice, I don’t think they’ll stand around and take it a third time, otherwise there is going to be a severe backlash against the brandname. So Bungie, my best advice to you is to bring your A-game AAA game when it comes to Halo Reach coming out in 2010. I’ve already heard word that it will be the “most expansive” Halo to date. Let’s see if they can live up to that hype!
21
Sep
2009
The Effect of Next-Gen Re-Releases on the Gaming Industry
Because of the issue of backwards compatibility only being available in select PS3 SKU’s and it being limited among select X-Box games on the 360, a new phenomenon has started to arrive on the scene: Next-Gen Re-Releases. This has been something that has been present for a while in the form of Downloadable Content (DLC), some of the more recent and bigger names of the titles span from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 which received a graphics update as well as online compatibility, all the way to the recent release of TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-shelled.
The market is obviously there for these past titles to be re-released and consumers are demanding them. But more recently Sony’s Santa Monica offices are trying a new approach by releasing the God of War collection on a Blu-ray disk for the PS3. This package will include the original two titles in the series completely remastered from their PS2 states to run in native 720p HD graphics at 60 frames per second. Not only this, but unlike other classic games that are just offered through the various online marketplaces: PSN, XBLA, and Wii-ware, this God of War bundle will come with full trophy support, adding a new twist to two classic games. But really, the icing on the cake is that despite all of this work in remastering and adding new code to existing games, the release price for this bundle will only be 2/3 of what a standard new game retails at. $40 for next-gen updates to classic titles may just be the sweet spot.
But, why would a company spend all of this time and effort on games that have been out for years? Well, the developers surveyed the fans (Source) and simply asked them what they wanted done. This comes at a great time, because it will lead hype and anticipation for the March 2010 release of the sequel God of War III on the Playstation 3. Obviously it pays to listen to your fans, because as of now, a month and a half before the release of this new collection, it is in the Top 5 sales of all PS3 games on Amazon.com. (Source)
Now the question really is, knowing all of this, what effect will this have on the industry? If developers are focusing all of their resources on remastering classic games, then there will never be any forward progress made in the way of new IPs. There has to be a balance, and I do think that God of War has struck that balance. The way they are handling this timeline, they are allowing 4-5 months of play on the release of their classics collection in order to build the anticipation for the release of the next iteration in the series. In this you have the best of both worlds.
People that never got the chance to experience the original games (because they lived under a rock on in inner Siberia) will be able to play them in their remastered HD glory, but even more important, fans of the series will be able to wet their appetite on 720p Kratos months earlier than they expected to. This God of War collection really is an experiment as to how well the public will receive remastered games in disk form rather than just as Downloadable titles. Depending on the success of this title, we could potentially see lots more “collections” rolling out. Possibly a remastered Team ICO collection (ICO and Shadow of the Colossus)? It’s important to keep in mind that one of the most highly demanded titles is a remastered version of Final Fantasy VII.
In the end, the best part about this scenario is that everyone benefits from it. As long as developers don’t become complacent by ONLY remastering their classic titles, then gamers, developers, and the entire industry will all reap the rewards from seeing the most demanded games resurface in this generation.
Please leave questions or comments at the end!
14
Jul
2009
Upset about PSP: Go Pricing? Don’t Blame Sony!
Disclaimer: This is an editorial based on opinions that may or may not be rooted in fact.
The announcement of the PSP: Go (worst kept secret of E3) was met with mixed reception by consumers. The main deterring factor was that despite the exclusion of a UMD drive, this new PSP model is set to retail for $80 more than the core PSP-3000 SKU is selling for currently. Granted, this new system is lighter, slimmer, and altogether sexier, but when the only added feature is Bluetooth connectivity, how can that pricetag be justified. The answer is simple: Sony’s not making the money on it. Because there isn’t a major difference in the actual innards of the system from its predecessor, the manufacturing cost cannot be that much higher.
With a console that is strictly dependant on digital distribution, retailers would be reluctant to stock such an item unless they were actually making a good deal of profit on it. Remember the articles about European retailers refusing to carry the PSP: Go? Well, despite Sony refusing to admit that there was ground to theses claims, it leads me to think that retailers are getting compensated with their cut from the console sales since these purchases won’t lead to further game sales from their retail location. Essentially, gamers and their wallets are being punished because Sony is trying to make portable gaming more accessible to everyone, since they are trying to bypass the middleman in the process.
So, keep this in mind on October 1st when you’re staring at a $249 price tag on a PSP: Go! Your hard earned money isn’t going to end up in the hands of Sony, but the retailers that are getting a bigger cut of the profits just so that won’t be tempted to refuse to carry the stock.
Please leave your comments and thoughts below!