Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Video Game Story: Stop Complaining....
There have been quite a few cracking wise during their yearly "Game of the Year" nonsense about the stories in video games being bad. My favorite is the little chestnut,
"Well, it's great for a video game story, anyway."
All right, so what the heck are they talking about? Stories in video games are catered by the source material that they are using. Most video games are patterned after action movies. Like Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, or even Assassin's Creed 2. These are all great games but we aren't exactly talking about the stuff of Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, or even Goodfellas. No, this is more like Diehard, Star Wars, or maybe the Quick and the Dead. In television terms these games aren't West Wing they are more Saturday morning cartoons. But no one goes to Star Wars expecting to be emotional moved or having a profound life experience. Unless of course you are a big Star Wars fan.
Why can't video games evolve from this? Well, perhaps it is all a matter of role playing and sticking to that role. Drama cannot be created when the player has the choice to do whatever his/her little heart's desire. There are no dramatic moments in co-op games or multiplayer games. Drama is a serious, straight path into a place that the audience would probably rather not go. Also, most of the time a seriously dramatic action movie or just a drama alone has the benefit of showing things from more than one side. Usually it's a duality that plays into the drama. Rarely does a movie choose to show only one side or one path. Doing this in a game would pull the player out of the experience and while some games have tried it; it rarely ever really works that well. I believe Halo 2 did this best job with this but it was critiqued for it.
This is not to say video games don't have important things to say or can't make the player feel things. No, they absolutely can. But not the terms that people have laid out for them. Games are NOT MOVIES and they are NOT BOOKS. They NEVER will be. There is not going to be an instance in the near future where we know the people in a video game the way we know the people in your average book, movie, or television show. We might spend just as much time with them; but because of the limitations of the game itself. It will be very difficult to achieve this kind of storytelling. Rather video games have the irreplaceable ability to immerse the player into an experience. You are not a passive observer as you are with a movie or book. You are a participant. This is what most games try to lean on the hardest and with justification. If I wanted to watch a movie I would.
So please folks, at least until Heavy Rain comes out; can we all stop ragging on video game story. If you question how immersing a video game story can be, play Bioshock again. Really, it's just that simple.
Monday, January 4, 2010
World of Warcraft Official Magazine Issue #1 arrives!
Just want to say right off that I stopped playing World of Warcraft last September. Which made the half year subscription to the Official World of Warcraft Magazine the month before kind of bad timing for me. I will probably go back once Cataclysm hits but my top character is only level 78, so I would have some work to do anyway. The reason I left Warcraft were all the problems I kept seeing in the game and things that I felt were just crazy and I wished they would fix. Although some of these fixes have been addressed not all of them. But none of this is really what I wanted to talk about here; it only serves as a kind of back story for my World of Warcraft experience and the reason why I feel I'm not the typical fanboy who got this magazine and freaked out about how good it is.
But the magazine, even given it's $40 for 4 magazine price tag; is probably the GREATEST MAGAZINE I've EVER SEEN! There are no ads, no garbage. and best of all; HUGE LONG ARTICLES. The art in the magazine is without peer; the articles deal with relevant World of Warcraft issues and gameplay not a book of advertising. Future, who published this magazine, did an EXCELLENT JOB! The magazine isn't the hardcover I was expecting, which is fine. But it certainly is more like EDGE, a top-tier British game magazine, than anything else out there right now. I know that Future is still publishing the Official Xbox Magazine. PC GAMER, and the aforementioned Edge Magazine. But neither periodical is even close to the quality of the World of Warcraft Magazine.
My plea, is for more video game magazines to be like this one. I would gladly pay $10 and issue for every game magazine I purchased if they were all of this quality. If this is a distribution issue or a printing issue I would like to know if the web-only subscription based model that the World of Warcraft magazine has is the ONLY way this kind of thing could be done. Because honestly if that's what it takes; fine.
Considering how off the current video game magazines are from the news and reviews of the day. I would REALLY like to see a quarterly printed magazine with more articles about video game culture, walthroughs, art, and other stuff that we normally wouldn't see in game magazines now. Go crazy guys, we will pay. Drop the previews and maybe condense the reviews to the most interesting games of that 30 day period rather than just all of them. Wouldn't we ALL like to see a video game magazine with NO ADS? I know I would!
In closing if you haven't picked up your World of Warcraft Magazine subscription yet, go over and get it. It's worth the money. Oh, and unlike me; you might want to be sure that your still going to be playing World of Warcraft when you get the last issue of the magazine.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Divinity 2: Shouldn't a demo make you WANT to purchase the full game?
Last night I thought I should FINALLY play the Divinity 2: Ego Draconis that has been out on XBOX LIVE for what has probably been close to two weeks now. I decided that no matter how in-depth or not in-depth this demo was going to be; that I should give it a shot before getting the game later next month. And I am certainly glad I did. Because I will no longer be getting the game next month. The demo was, in a word, awful.
The demo begins with a strange little cinematic of what must be a dragon slayer going after a dragon. The guy sneaks up to it and cracks a branch and the dragon gets spooked and flies away. I was wondering if this was some kind of new deer or small bird dragon breed that I had never seen before. Most dragons I've seen in movies, read about in books, or fought in video games would have roared and then set about to eat the guy or set him on fire. But hey, the mythology of the world and all...
Moving on, you begin as random stock guy #1 because for some reason they locked the character creator in the demo. Maybe because they don't think it matters because you won't be spending too much time with the guy anyway. But it would have been nice to see what options of customization you have. Also it probably would have just been easier to skip the whole character customization thing completely, considering you have absolutely no choices any way.
The game drops you into the world and you, all Elder Scrolls style get met by the first NPC who is your commander. Which was fine and certainly the whole general training area of the game was fine. It lasted a tad long, at around 15 minutes considering it was really only teaching you how to get quests and fight. But hey, that's how they wanted you to do it. During the little bit of the game that I played it seemed kind of like the developers had played too much Dragon Age Origins. Because if you substituted "Grey Warden" for "Dragon Slayer" you would have had pretty much the same conversations and the people would have had the same attitude toward you.
In the game, it tells you that you can only leave this little training island with one unique spell. Either a Warrior, Ranger, or Mage spell. A Warrior or Ranger spell? Well apparently the Warrior and Ranger "spells" are abilities and they use mana. Why? No idea, they just do... This is all fine and good until you run into your first town which you are taken to and then told that you weren't ready to be there in the first place and you must be sure to check out this crypt where you will fight some undead therefore not go crazy. Which is fine and all but it seemed a little pointless and the story really could have been crafted to make all the flying and screwing around at this little town unnecessary. You could have just had the time to finish in the little training town at the start. I guess there was some reason for this, but this too wasn't apparent.
In doing some of the things before you reach the crypt; like talking to townspeople and completing minor quests you can level up. Which is great, except, what the game doesn't tell you is that any spell that you level up into before you do your little crypt quest won't work until you do it. At least that was what I gathered because no matter what I tried or how many menus I searched through there seemed to be no explanation for why I leveled up into 3 spells and could STILL only use one. Great demo instructions guys, thanks...
Finally, it appears you need to level up in the spell that you chose before you left the training grounds as that is the ONLY way you are going to beat the undead in the crypt and do your little ritual thing. Which is pretty awful considering from the beginning you are told you can use ANY SPELL from ANY CLASS. Which story wise, they try to make the point of being a super cool dragon slayer.
The game doesn't look especially good, even in cutscenes where the large ship you and your folks fly around in looks complete 2 dimensional in the 3D world. Some of the characters like your Commander and the Archmage look good. But in general it looks like most of the guys use the same 5 character models with slightly different hair. And this was just in the two towns I visited in the demo.
The big draw to this game is supposed to be turning into a dragon. Which I've heard takes a while to achieve. So if the above makes you feel like you want to trudge through until you can; by all means go for it. I would recommend saving often and in different slots. You never know when you will discover that one of your "choices" wasn't what the game REALLY wanted you to do. I've never played a demo that was SO insistent on trying to make you NOT want to play the full version. Which makes me think that there are probably some things SERIOUSLY wrong with this game.
Star Wars Old Republic Bioware Developer Dispatch talks Sith!
See I bet you thought there wasn't anything new and worth watching on the Internet today.
Modnation Racers Video Walkthrough and some Beta impressions...
I have been in the beta for a short time and while my overall initial impressions are pretty positive. I'm not sure how I like having so much of the interface online; but it seems to work pretty well. Also, the load times are a little crazy; but this is a beta after all.
The only thing that is a bit concerning is that fact that currently most of the program(the career mode is locked) runs on the PS3 hard drive but when the game comes out it will run off the disk. The fact that now, the game has horrendous load times running off the hard drive concerns me a little.
The only area of the game that is open is the online racing. You can either race in ranked or non-ranked matches. At present rankings and ranked matches seem a little unnecessary and other than one or two unlockables there isn't much difference between someone racing with a non-ranked profile and a rank 3 profile. The matchmaking is non-existent. The fact that someone who is ranked 3 will routinely race with people who are rank 1 or not ranked at all is a bit of a problem. This might be hard to understand as all of the changes to your kart are cosmetic; however knowing the track in this game is probably about 60% of winning. Also, understanding how the game works and power ups work are probably the rest of the 100% to winning. Hopefully the game will ship with more than the current 3 tracks and I don't mean 6. Considering ranking up unlocks things it is hard to see very many people playing the unranked player tracks until the game is out for a while. The fact that everyone is basically racing on a level playing field it would be hard to believe that people will want to do anything but online ranked matches. They might fool around on the user made tracks but the majority of their time will be spent on the approved ranked tracks. Considering the biggest part of the game is SUPPOSED to be racing on user made tracks this could be an issue.
Without the career mode most of the game's customization content is locked. More than three quarters of it in fact. Which makes the game difficult to discuss as far as how fun or not fun the game will be when it comes out. Even though the karts and characters share the same editor; both seem equally easy to make even if they are just a little irregular. Once you get the hang of the controls, you can certainly make quite a lot of things even with limited resources. There seem to be a few conventions that cannot be broken. For instance, your character is a certain shape with a certain type of basic skin and some basic clothing options. Anything you might imagine beyond this is probably not going to be allowed. Some of the editing options for other people's creations can also be a little unwieldy and you can end up changing a whole piece to a different color when only one piece of that shape was actually showing on the model. It isn't the developers fault that it's like this; but a little more identification of pieces on the model itself would help to prevent this from occurring. The Forza 3 editor has the designs on a grid off the car during customization because of issues like this. But it is by no means a deal breaker.
The game itself is a lot of fun, but the customization of tracks and karts seem to be the biggest focus for this title and after around 4-6 hours this was getting a little old. While I certainly love the concept, the depth of Modnation Racers doesn't seem to be anywhere near that of LittleBigPlanet and this could be a serious drawback for the game. The game is great, but I'm not entirely sure that Modnation Racers current level of depth is enough. While being able to rank up in ranked matches is the traditional why of doing it; I'm not sure that this system is appropriate for what Modnaiton Racers seems to be trying achieve. I don't think that hoarding experience points is the best way to play this game. I think the idea of the game is to be creative and make cool stuff. To do this the player will have to feel like there is some reason to do so; currently there isn't much reason to do so. Currently Modnation Racers has more in common with a traditional kart racer than it does with LittleBigPlanet. Perhaps that is the problem right there.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
I'm sorry, Did I fall asleep?? Maybe just for a minute...
Of the Spike Video Game Awards it was recently said,
"Instead we have explosions rocking the tricked out stage to screaming guitars. The crowd oohs and aahs on cue. This is how the populace sees gaming. It's for men and scantily clad women, and not much else. For teenagers."Mike Hanus...
This was an awesome statement when I read it. I was immediately struck like some kind of shot. The Christmas season has created in me, not a need for gaming but one of reading. I've managed to read so much about games over the past few hours that it probably rivals all that I've read in the past month. Going from one saved article to another I've enveloped so many analyses of Demon Souls and how sexism is handled in gaming that I was beginning to believe we had turned a corner in or intellectual cesspool(If your interested follow my twitter and click on the links, a few are posted at the top of this blog page). But then Mike Hanus had to send all of that straight to hell.
I hope you read the linked article from my little quote. But even if you don't, if watched the VGAs you will get the gist from the quote above; all be it a little out of context. As bad as the VGAs are they have basically the pulse of gaming culture as a whole pretty well nailed. And that is, as it has all ways been; truly the worst part of them. As one commenter on Gametrailers.com which was one of the sponsoring sites for the VGAs so eloquently put it,
"...Its only the Spike Video Game Awards it's not going to affect game sales...."
Which is probably why publishers and PR as a whole don't give much of a crap what happens on them. The developers are trotted out like lambs to slaughter and hope that they aren't portrayed in too embarrassing way. After all, to make video games is a kin to sending people to the moon in complexity and its not a like the average actor who trots up to collect their Academy Award has too much in common with someone who has a Masters Degree in multiple disciplines of Computer Science or Graphic Design. Certainly guys like Cliff Bleszinski or David Jaffe might act like rock stars but they have more in common with your average Harvard Professor than David Lee Roth.
Of course every year some boring, annoying, usually crazy fanboyish or elitist journalist complains about this sort of thing. Because of course, who would want to speak against this institution of the video game industry; except someone crazy. In fact, this year the fans were allowed to vote on the awards to, "shut them up." Well, that is an interesting strategy. I wonder if the Academy would let the American people vote on the Movie of the Year award if we complained enough. Alas, I doubt it.
The problem I have with the Spike Video Game Awards is the same problem Mike Hanus has with them. They keep talking to the people who would probably just download the trailers from Gametrailers.com and look at a list of winning games online; rather than needing to see 3 second clips for each game and a musical performance probably aimed at folks who aren't watching the awards anyway. If the Video Game Awards were more like the Academy Awards and had more of a review of the year structure and allowed everyone equal time to thank who they needed to thank and perhaps have some behind the scenes clips from game makers about historic titles. Like God of War or Super Mario Bros. You know something you couldn't see anywhere else. This kind of thing isn't out of place on the Academy Awards and they last hours. This rushed little affair could hardly make 2 hours with generous helpings of commercials. I'm sorry but I think Spike could have postponed the CSI reruns for a few hours to give this show a little more time.
Finally however, I'm only making suggestions here; because if you aren't going to do the awards properly it would probably be best for the industry that we don't broadcast this garbage until maybe everyone involves grows up enough to have a mature awards show rather than the analog for the Kids Choice Awards. The video game industry has grown up significantly this year. In fact, video game journalism has even grown up significantly this year. But in the public's view, the people who don't write, play, or make games; we are still the 8-17 year old man children who have never grown up and are obsessed with violence and sex. While I know things change slowly in the public's mind; things like the Spike Video Game Awards aren't doing us any favors....
-DevilsAlias(Timothy Pecoraro)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Plain Truth: I Love SOME of you more than others.(Best Games of the Year)
There is NO denying the fact that this year was one of the best years in that video games have had seen since around 2007. But, it has probably been the best OVERALL year for games EVER. At no other time have SO MANY great games come out in the space of one year that it might have actually changed the way we view the quality of games as a whole. There is also no denying the fact that I HATE lists of the best or greatest this or that, but I will do it for you now. But in a most unconventional way. These are NOT the greatest games of all time or the best games of the year. These are the games I spent the most time with and had the most lasting appeal for me; even after they had been out for a while. All of these games have been out for MORE than a month; there is just no way to evaluate a game better than that. As I don't get games early it's also impossible for me to get a good sense of a game in less time than that. Unless it is horrible, then I get that sense in about 20 minutes. The numbers associated with the games are more representative of how long I spent with the games rather than how much I like them.
There are no categories here and you might not agree with everything I write. But hey, that is SUPPOSED to be the point of these lists, right?
10. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom XBOX 360/PS3/PC): While most gamers have probably even forgotten that Resident Evil 5 came out this year. I have to say that I spent quite a long time playing both the single and multiplayer modes of this game. As annoying as some of the control issues were initially over time it grew on me. Even with the problems that popped up involving the story and setting; I think that with the upcoming DLC coming next year this is definitely the time to start thinking about picking this game up again.
9. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves (Naughty Dog PS3): While I didn't play very much Among Thieves compared to the other games on this list; I have to admit that it was probably one of the most impacting games I've played this year. I played through single player campaign 100% and managed to play quite a few hours of the multiplayer before sending back my rental copy. Before all you GOTY folks out there start critiquing me; are all of you guys STILL playing the game. The game did come out in October after all; the multiplayer while good isn't exactly complex. The single player in Uncharted 2 is truly a landmark for the industry and it will surely become a classic. Anyone who wants to call themselves a gamer will NEED to play Uncharted 2. Otherwise, your just another person waiting to play it.
8. Street Fighter IV (Capcom XBOX 360/PS3/PC): The penultimate fighting game experience of the first part of the 21st century; this game certainly belongs on my list. This game made everyone buy a new fight stick or at the very least want to buy a new one. There is more complexity in this one title than in all of the Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur series combined. With a killer art style and being the first game that I installed to my hard drive there is little doubt this is one for the ages. Now when Super Street Fighter IV comes out we will see if they can ACTUALLY top themselves.
8. Tekken 6 (Namco XBOX 360/PS3): Perhaps saying that I spent more time with Tekken 6 than Street Fighter IV will cause some folks to flip their biscuits but it is true. The reason? Well, Tekken 6 isn't a better fighting game; but it IS a more accessible one. Also, it has the benefit of having SO MANY costume pieces that you can turn your angelic Lili into a little devil. Once the online back end was patched, the online play performs as if your opponent was in the same room. The scenario campaign mode was garbage but the rest of the game has tons of modes and good stuff. Although there probably isn't much coming down the line for DLC, at least we have one of the biggest rosters in Tekken history to enjoy while we wait for Tekken 7.
7. Plants Versus Zombies!(Popcap PC): The game that cost me $9.99. That I have played this game for SO MANY HOURS is criminal. The tower defense inspired title is about as good as a game can get. Keep your 2 million dollar budget titles. Give me something simple and addictive and I might never turn on my XBOX 360 again. Every one who has played this game are the same people who tend to put Plants versus Zombies on their best of the year list. Perhaps it might even end up on best games of ALL TIME. It is certainly the best Popcap game ever made and that is saying something.
6. Torchlight (Runic Games PC): Torchlight is an updated version of Diablo and boy does it do it's work well. This single player budget title is SO Diablo that there is nothing like it out there. It works as well or better than Borderlands at its loot whoring. The game allows you to only play single player but hey, with Runic having a MMORPG in the works I think we can wait for a true, full multiplayer experience. The game takes all the problems of Diablo and fixes them. If the game had, had even LAN play it would have probably been heralded as the second coming of Diablo and made more money than Modern Warfare 2 on opening day. But even without the multiplayer this is the best $20 game I've ever purchased.
5. Dragon Age Origins (Bioware XBOX 360/PS3/PC): Dragon Age was probably the greatest RPG to ever be released. The amount of dialogue choices and depth of story make this game so good that you can't only play it once. I dare you, try it. Having been my first MAJOR PC purchase of of 2009 I was shockingly pleased with how absolutely incredible and deep Dragon Age Origins is. I have been playing this game on and off since the game was released. At one point I was playing 5 hours a night every night for around three weeks. The game has such a deep and seemingly endless store of content on just what comes in the box that the prospect of player created campaigns make this game one for the ages. We will surely be talking about Dragon Age Origins when we talk about Bioware's greatest contributions to the RPG genre in the near future.
4. Batman Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady XBOX 360/PS3/PC): The greatest super hero game in history was the first and only game I've EVER reviewed and played on two different consoles during the same period. The game is not only a milestone for super hero video games but for action games in general. Everything in this game works, perfectly. With only minor points off for repetitive boss battles. The upcoming sequel couldn't be more anticipated. Everything that Batman does; it does well. While I loved the game on both consoles, this was definitely a PS3 standout and should be picked up on the black box with the Sony logo on it, for maximum enjoyment and effect.
3. Forza Motorsport 3 (Turn 10 XBOX 360) Whether you are an old pro at driving games or this is your first time off the starting line there is no better racing game. Everything from customization, to being able to race every car you've ever wanted to is in this game. You can even create your own designs and sell them for virtual cash online at storefronts or in auctions. There is no game that does what Forza does. Even the forthcoming Gran Turismo 5 looks like more of a variation than an improvement to Forza's excellent systems. No one wanting to go fast, could go wrong picking up a copy of Forza 3.
2. Demigod (Gas Powered Games PC): Yes this game came out back in April on the PC only and I have it on #2 on my list. Also there probably are around 1,000 people in the world still playing this game. Believe me it's not easy to get a gaming going online these days. This new take on Defense of the Ancients formula was probably the most mind blowing title for me this year. I loved every aspect of the game, with perhaps the exception that hardly anyone is playing it. As an Impulse exclusive online and a require install for the box copy; the growing digital distribution company could have done better by doing more advertising and less bragging. However, the game is still wonderful. I just wish the game could have done better and been seen by a bigger audience. Perhaps a console version?
1. Modern Warefare 2 (Infinity Ward XBOX 360/PS3/PC): Yes the greatest media event of all time was and has been the only game in my XBOX 360 for weeks. There is no better multiplayer experience out there. No game better shows what a shooter can be than Modern Warfare 2. The game is incredible. Even more than the first game, MW2 is composed of a series of stunning moments in the single player. Come for the incredibly short single player campaign, stay for the incredibly deep multiplayer. And play Spec Ops if you have any time left from the other two. This is a game we will all still be playing when part 3 comes out; and really what other game except MMOs can say that?
Wow, I haven't even finished this and I can all ready hear the complaints. Devils, 2 fighting games and 2 downloadable games? What are you doing? What about Assassins Creed 2 or Left 4 Dead 2? What about Halo ODST? Well, I haven't finished the first 2 and don't get me started on Halo ODST. There is probably even some folks out there saying, "Hey where is Borderlands?" And to them I say, when I finish the game I'll review it. As it stands, I have a better chance of finishing Dragon Age a second time than completely Borderlands right now. I'm all fill up on my FPS, sorry. So perhaps this isn't the most complete list, but that wasn't the purpose of this list. The above games are those that I've played and enjoyed the most over the past year. All others are above #10; sorry guys maybe next year.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Splinter Cell Conviction Co-op Trailer
I had a hard time getting into Splinter Cell on XBOX and even the early 360 game. But I am definitely going to give Conviction a shot. Because I think I'm old enough to love stealth killing now. Lol...