Fun Friday: Halo 3 Edition

Halo 3 came out this week so needless to say, posting has been a little thin. Bungie has put together an amazing package with this game. In addition to standard campaign and multiplayer, the theater and forge elements are well above and beyond what anyone could have expected from this game. I believe it is safe to say that I will play this game for months to come. Inspired by N'gai Croal's posting earlier this week, above is my first multiplayer kill. That's me in the background and a very unlucky HARASSMENT OWNS getting splattered.

Ready to Finish the Fight!

It took almost three years, but I finally played all the way through Halo 2. I spent the last couple of nights playing through the original two games to refresh myself on the story and actually complete the second game. I did it on easy, which many may feel was cheating, but I wanted to get through the games quickly and it made me feel like the bad ass that Master Chief is as I stormed my way though waver after wave of the Covenant and the Flood.

Many people seemed to dislike the end of Halo 2 for it's abruptness, but I liked it. The game did a good job of setting up the third and the alliances between the Master Chief, the humans and the Elites, with converging story lines on multiple battlefronts. It's kind of like Empire Strikes Back in that sense. Although, I may not have liked it as much if I had to wait three years to find out what is going to happen. However, I think it's clear that the human race survives due to the museum and the "Believe" commercials, the questions remaining seem to be who will survive.

Fun Friday: Want to Get Away?

Resident Evil 5 Rumored to Resides in Haiti

Kotoku is reporting that a very reliable source from within Capcom is confirming that Resident Evil 5 takes place in Haiti, the supposed birthplace of voodoo and zombies. That's what I said.

Lesson Learned: Motion Control's Big Assumption

The summer before second grade, I fell out of a tree on a camping trip and broke both bones in my left forearm, the ulna and radius. Ever since them my left arm has been slightly more "bowed" than my right. It's nothing crazy. I'm not a mutant or anything, but if you compared my two arms side by side, they would look a little different. However, it wasn't until very recently that I realized that my left arm has a minor limitation as well.

We have a racing title on the Wii in test now that switched up the controls from last year's version. Last year we went with holding the Wii Remote horizontally and steering like a real steering wheel. It seemed to work fine, but in this year's version, that's a secondary control scheme. The new default scheme has the player holding the Wii Remote in one hand and the Nunchuk in the other. So far, there are no problems. However, while racing, if the player wants to powerslide around a sharp corner (which is somewhat necessary throughout the game) they have to twist the Nunchuck from left to right, or vice versa, to powerslide in that direction while turning with the Control Stick. For most people this would probably be no problem, except it has been for me.

Due to my injury sustained about twenty years ago, I have trouble twisting my left arm outwards, away from my body, making left turns while powersliding nearly impossible. Since it is not a motion I do very often with my left arm (even my right for that matter), I never really put much thought into my own limitations. And my own issues are not even a real problem, as there are people out there with far more severe limitations.

As motion controls become more and more the norm and game designers look to eagerly implement them into their games, this is hopefully something that they take into consideration more often than not or risk alienating a segment of our gaming brethren. Not to say that all motion controls are bad, I just hope that they aren't shoehorned into games and then forced upon the player.

Goose Bumps

I'm a sucker for stark, moving music and movies that evoke emotions of honor and duty, movies like Saving Private Ryan, even Armageddon (I know it was cheesy). The new Halo 3 ad "Believe" gave me the same chills. Very nicely done.

I Needed More Motivation To Be Bad

Bioshock has succeeded. It has already garnered the level of cult status and it is a classic experience that all gamers should enjoy. Still, I have a tiny, tiny bit of a problem with the game that in no way hindered my original experience but I think could have given much more weight to the dilemma that the player is faced with early in the game. I hadn't even really thought about it too much until reading N'gai Croal and Stephen Totilo's face off. Croal writes:

My finger was hovering over the X button, ready to harvest...and all of a sudden, I couldn't do it. There was a little girl, albeit virtual, cowering in front of my avatar, and I couldn't bring myself to harvest her, as she'd been presented far too sympathetically. At the same time, I couldn't bring myself to rescue her either, because I wanted that Adam. Yet there was another complicating factor, one which is the true mark of the brilliance of BioShock's fiendish conundrum: the promise of an unspecified reward from Tenenbaum for rescuing the Little Sister.

What was puzzling me was the nature of Levine's game. He was pitting my basic humanity against my greedy self-interest and against my curiosity--a cruel hybrid of a moral dilemma fused with the Trust Game. This was a far more devilish problem than had it been a simple binary either/or, and it had completely paralyzed me. Should I treat this game as a Rorschach blot and do what I would do in real life: rescue the Little Sister? Or should I treat it solely as a fantasy and do precisely the opposite, explore the road I'd never take in the real world. I didn't know what to do.

While I totally hesitated in that moment over whether to save her for the promised reward or to put her out of her misery, the ADAM was never really a major draw at this point in the game. The game offers that if you do harvest the little sister, you will gain more ADAM for spending on plasmids, but does the player actually understand at this point what that means?

Our only experience up until this point in the game with plasmids in the electricity plasmid. It is very useful and fun but there is no hint at what comes with enhanced powers. You could use your imagination but it's easiest to see this power only becoming stronger. So what's the draw for more ADAM? Is it the desire to become as powerful as possible? Curiosity? I felt more sorry for her than anything, so I chose to save her.

Now, let's suppose that the game does something a little different the first time you inject yourself with a plasmid. You body has no idea how to react to this genetic mutation and you suddenly have a vast array of powers at your fingertips that is unstable (very similar to a sequence later in the game when you have an adverse reaction to an antidote). After experiencing all that ADAM can offer and its power, it is taken away from you only to be offered a way to get back by taking it from the little sisters. Like a drug, it has been taken from you and you now have a way to get back but at a terrible moral cost. Now here's a dilemma!

Now, while this borrows heavily from the Metroid formula, as well as adjusting the a bit of the story line, I think it would have added a lot more weight to the harvest/save problem. Now I wasn't the game designer and maybe they thought of this and thought the game was better their way. Either way, it is still an experience that transcends the norm.

It's Not Worth It

In preparation for the arrival of the the September issue, I flipped through the August issue of Game Developer Magazine. I reread Steve Theodore's latest Pixel Pusher article entitled Fight the Good Fight. He puts forth more strong arguments against the self inflicted practice of crunch time, many of which I strongly believe and attempt to convey to others around me, unfortunately, not to much avail. A couple of the things he stresses is pacing yourself and then learning how to manage your own time so you can foresee problems before they get out of control. However, the message that comes at the very end of the article hit closest to home, especially as I look to expand my own family.

There has never been a game that was worth a single divorce, but anybody with a few shipped titles on their resume could name you a title or two that cost that much.

That's why it's up to us to grapple the crunch monster. Growing out of our frat house work habits isn't just good advice - it's a deadly serious duty. The family wants you home from the trenches, safe and sound, not just another anonymous game industry hero in the small print of Mobygames. Don't disappoint them.

Fun Friday: Guitar Hero vs Rock Band

With the impending release of two rhythm game heavyweights, someone has created two sites with YouTube clips of most of the songs to be featured in Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. I'm still partial to Guitar Hero based on the track list. See the mind blowing video below for some Tenacious D awesomeness (and with dancing robot for the win!) But I have to admit that the drums, as well as some of the menus and player customization stuff in Rock Band, look pretty sweet.

Does One Game Make a Franchise?

On Friday Evening, I finished Bioshock while saving all of the Little Sisters. By itself, it was a very emotional and powerful ending but the themes of fatherhood hit particularly close to home. The game was phenomenal from start to finish and it will easily be the game of the year.

Earlier today, Take Two held their earning call and praised their hit title. Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said of the game's success "Clearly, we have a new hit franchise on our hands." This stuck me quite odd. While the game is clearly a critical and financial success, I don't see one game as a "franchise." Zelda and Madden are franchises, long running series that have been successful year in and year out.

I understand that this talk came from the people responsible to the shareholders that want a promise of more success to come. Games that transcend the banality of our industry are not immune from the franchise mentality that plagues this industry. Shareholders want high returns on little investment, they want sock prices to go up. Unfortunately, they want to capitalize on this success.

But it has not always worked out. Great games are not always the launching pads for viable franchises. For many reasons, consecutive titles in a "franchise" fail to meet expectations: KOTOR, Maximo, Prince of Persia. On the other hand, the major franchises have all started all small, developed a cult following and progressively improved from year to year: GTA, Final Fantasy, Tony Hawk, even Halo. Bioshock set the that first franchise step pretty high and its going to take quite an effort to maintain that level of excellence.

Fun Friday: Medal of Homer

The Simpson's TV show lost me somewhere around 1996. I just totally lost interest in the show. Needless to say, I have stayed away from the games as well. Although I have to admit that this new game that is coming out in a couple of months looks like it could be a lot of fun and captures what made the series great when it first started. And this trailer is hilarious. I may have to check this out, even if EA is publishing it.

Ode to Cut Scenes

God of War. Final Fantasy. Metal Gear Solid. Shadow of the Colossus. Resident Evil. Awesome games that have a common thread: they all have somewhat lengthy, pre-rendered cut scenes. While many people seem to hate them, I am in the minority that do not. Stephen Totilo on the MTV Multiplayer Blog, questions the following long standing belief:

Years ago — before it was in vogue to hate health bars and boss battles — it was cool to complain about cut-scenes. The flashy, melodramatic movies that appeared between chapters of game play undermined games by interrupting interactivity. They misrepresented the graphics in the games they were in. They told bad stories. They needed to be skipped, and, wouldn’t you know that the worst kind of cut-scene was one that an A or X button couldn’t eradicate in one tap.

So that's where the majority is coming from. But I have always felt that a really well executed cut scene was a reward at the end of that level I just completed. And these rewards just get better and better as the game crescendos up to a final climatic cut scene, gushing an orgasmic finale to an exquisite gaming experience.

My favorite example of this if God of War. Throughout the game the back story is beautifully told through artistic and stylized cut scenes that become available to watch in succession after completing the game, as if it were a movie. And it's a gorgeous movie at that, rivaling any animated movie not made by Pixar. I think God of War II lost the plot a bit in this department but still was quite impressive.

Stephen makes another great point, many of the greatest moments in gaming history have taken place in cut scenes. In addition to his great examples, there is Aeris's death in Final Fantasy VII and the Cyborg Ninja's hallway rampage in Metal Gear Solid. These are all pivotal moments that should not have been missed.

Moving forward, it is clear that developers are adopting a more interactive approach to cut scenes, like in Resident Evil 4. Also, as real time graphics rapidly approach what can be achieved in a pre-rendered scene, the lines will continue to blur, like in Bioshock or Heavenly Sword.

If there is one thing that games have yet to truly achieve on a regular basis is great story telling. Vivid cut scenes can fill that gap and, I for one, look forward to them. So, in the meantime, bring on the popcorn and watch some well earned cut scenes.

News Round Up

PAX and the holiday weekend threw off my posting schedule, so here’s a rundown of things that have caught my attention over the last couple of weeks as I play catch up.

• Manhunt 2 is Dated for a Halloween Release: I was off by a couple of months as far as the release of a ‘modified’ version, but I think they have achieved the desired effect – buzz.
• Guitar Hero III Achievements Unveiled: I love achievements but these suck. I know, I know, you should have to achieve something to earn them. But for the love of all things holy, I can understand a few, but not the majority of them. I initially thought that these achievements were fake. Firstly, they are way too specific and require unnatural skills at the game. Secondly, some of them have errors in them, like the ‘Now That’s Impressive’ achievement that states 750,000 points on a song with a 1 million point image. Thirdly, there are no achievements for progressing through the game past the bosses, like Slash and the recently announced Tom Morello. Finally, I noticed that there were 59 achievements. Juiced (a THQ game) had submission problems because they had 60 achievements but was then passed, maybe because of Guitar Hero. But, come on, look at the requirements for Tone Deaf and Button Masher. Seriously?
• Sequel to The Ship is Coming to 360: I love the premise of this game. You are given a name and must find this person on a cruise ship full of people and kill him – all while avoiding the unknown person who has yours. Quite a departure from most online multiplayer games, this one requires some stealth and skill, not just run and gun. Awesome!
• Pit’s Intro in Super Smash Brothers Brawl: I don’t care about SSBB. Not one bit. But if Nintendo finally went ahead and created a new Kid Icarus game, I would finally have enough reasons to own a Wii. It looks like they have the assets. Come on Nintendo, let’s get this done.
• Zero Punctuation Reviews Bioshock:

THQ: DS Past and Future

My first week at THQ was spent testing Ping Pals. In French and German. I'm surprised I made it past that week but fortunately I was snatched up by another team. For those who aren't laughing their ass off right now about my first testing gig, Ping Pals was an ill advised chat game that was no better than the DS's built in Pictochat. Although according to the project manager it was one of our greatest financial successes, it was met with ridicule and review scores averaging at about 0.5 out of ten. The developer, Way Forward, has gone to develop many DS titles and has two on the way that may the most anticipated games of the Holiday season barring Phantom Hourglass: Contra IV and Duck Amuck. In an interview a couple of weeks back with Stephen Totilo, creative director Matt Bozon explains some of the rationale that went behind that ill fated title.

They had just a handful of weeks to make the game. "We needed dev kits desperately, and here was a chance to get them."

But the problem with "Ping Pals" wasn't just time. The DS already had an IM program called "Pictochat" that came embedded into every DS. Did anyone raise their hand and ask about that? "I did that on day one," Bozon said, laughing. "THQ had their plan, and they were going to run with it.

This is quite typical of our philosophy but hey, we had a billion dollars in sales last year, so they must be doing something right.

One of those things right was picking up the publishing rights to Drawn to Life. It's an ambitious project that has the unfortunate timing of being released in one of the most crowded launch seasons ever. Hopefully people will still pick it up and encourage to take more chances like this and we can develop a sequel to smooth out some of the rough edges. In the mean time, check out the first official trailer. And yes, you can draw penises if that's your thing.

Fun Fridays: Super Belated Edition

Seeing as it is Tuesday, this is definitely late. But that's okay because fun is awesome even when it's late. Last Friday, I was unsure what to add as my Fun Friday post and then I read my email. Amazon sent me the above recommendation that made my day. Apparently, a generic, licensed racing game should appeal to those who enjoy incredible, 200+ hour RPG's. Who knew? Wait, isn't there something else coming out on September 25th?