It took just over one and a half years, but I finally eclipsed the 10,000 point mark for my gamerscore. While it is a relatively low score in comparison to my friends and especially 360 players in general, I am quite proud of my accomplishment. I don't play a lot a games. For one, I don't necessarily play a lot of games. But more importantly, I'm very picky about the games I do play. I stay away from most sports games and popular franchises, as I look for games that provide new experiences and stories. Of the 483 achievements, two stand out above the rest.
Most people get the Escape the Imperial Sewers first when playing Oblivion, I got it last. I had just received my 360 and didn't really understand the profile system just yet. I put in nearly 200 hours acquiring the other 49 achievements before I could allow myself to start a new game just to get the tutorial level achievement. So it's memorable to me because, while not terribly challenging to get all of the achievements in Oblivion, it took dedication.
I have never been very good at twitch gaming. I always struggle in first person shooters, like Halo and Gears of War. However, on a fateful night in September, not only did I come from behind to win a Slayer match on Isolation, I did it in style; with an overkill earning achievement in the dying seconds of the match with the rocket launcher.
I've mentioned before and I'll say it again, achievements are one of the best features of the current generation of hardware. Furthermore, I find myself using websites like Achieve360Points to see what a games achievements are like before I make a purchase decision. Studies are even beginning to show that a more diverse list of achievements, meaning one that asks a player to play a game in ways they may or may not normally play, can lead to greater sales. Here's looking forward to my next 10,000 points!
This week saw the release of two awesome teaser trailers. Street Fighter II is one of my favorite all time games and I plan on owning a arcade cabinet as soon as I can afford one (or my wife lets me buy one, which ever comes first!) They lost me when they started adding hyper and super and turbo stuff; I guess I'm a purist in some ways. Capcom announced Street Fighter IV with a simply sublime teaser. In my opinion, they don't even need to make a game. Just make a Street Fighter movie in the same art style and I'll buy two.
The second video is fro Tim Schafer's newest project, Brutal Legend. They game looks awesome in so many ways. After reading the article in Game Informer, this game is definitely on my radar. And while his movies have struggled as of late, Jack Black will be voicing the lead character. It will probably come off like some of his Tenacious D stuff, but that's a good thing! I wonder if Kyle will make a cameo as well?
The blogosphere has already pointed out the cogency, or lack thereof, in the recent statements from the outgoing Nintendo VP of Marketing, Perrin Kaplan. She, as well as Nintendo, saw that before the Wii was released, "gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet." Well, I'm sorry to say that, as a gamer, there has been plenty of games that have kept me quite entertained. Unless of course, she was referring to the GameCube. Only three titles were able to keep me entertained long enough to play through them: Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil 4.
What many gaming news outlets didn't really comment on was the further statements by Robert Matthews, Nintendo's senior director of consumer marketing.
Just look at the way people consume entertainment today. The idea that you would spend hours playing videogames is just not real anymore.
While I do agree that people attention spans are shrinking and, as I get older, my time is split among many things, this blanket statement doesn't seem true in light of media in general. Movie times have steadily lengthened over the last few decades. The hour long drama is increasingly dominating the television line-ups as the sitcom seems to wither away. The Internet is absorbed in smaller chunks, but mostly due to the sheer volume of information out there.
On the other hand, epic games of forty hours or more are also diminishing. These are being replaced by the moderately paced ten to twenty hour campaign. So while there is a market for short attention span gaming, it is not the industry's savior. Games are adapting, allowing players to jump in and out of the game at any time with better save systems and level design. Besides, my 360 is played on a near daily basis. From what I understand, many people are starting to notice that the Wii may be collecting dust. At least until something better than Wii Sports comes along.
While playing a game, gamers are asked to do many things. Some of those things are fun, others are not. Juuso Hietalahti, at Game Producer Resource, posted a quick article suggesting seven simple elements that can be added to your game can make it more fun. I agree with six of them. As a kid, I collected all kinds of crap: baseball cards, Star Wars figures, soccer pins, comic books. Eventually I grew out of it (except for a resurgence of Star Wars figures around 1999) except I still have what I consider collections, like my video games, books or DVDs. I always had fun while I was doing it but I never really got too crazy.
However, I hate when a video game asks the player to collect things. In my opinion, it is not fun. It's busy work, a chore. It distracts from the game at hand. It has become one of the worst video game clichés and a crutch to synthetically lengthen game play.
While playing through Gears of War, I could never suspend my disbelief that Marcus would stop and look for COG tags while the Locust are bearing down on him or while he's in a hurry to save humanity. The same goes for Master Chief and the golden skulls. It seems that every platforming game to has the player collecting hundreds, if not thousands, of random, shiny object all in the name of meeting some goal of 100% complete. It has also become quite fashionable to create achievements around collecting. I hate collecting achievements. Which is saying something because, in general, I love achievements.
At least in the original Mario games, collecting 100 coins would earn the player an extra life. In Grand Theft Auto, collecting secret packages makes items spawn at your safe house (although, I usually stopped actively searching for them once the body armor was unlocked). These days, collecting things nets you a few gamer points and some concept art. If I'm going to be collecting something, it better be necessary to advance the story line and provide my character with new abilities. When a game play mechanic is no more important or as enticing as chores around the house, I'm not really have any fun any more.
I absolutely love this new trailer for the upcoming game Wet. As I went to post it for Fun Friday, I noticed that it was my 69th post. Oh, the irony. While there has not been any in game footage for this game yet, I am really digging the Taratino vibe in this trailer. It sets a tone that I can only hope that will set it apart from other action games. I have faith in the developer as well. A2M worked on our Monster House games, and the GameCube and GBA versions actually came out pretty good. I am looking forward to more info on this game. In the mean time, enjoy the video.
Puzzle Quest developer, Infinite Interactive, posted a postmortem for their surprise hit in the September issue of Game Developer magazine. Of all the postmortems that I have read in this magazine, I was most impressed, and inspired, with the philosophy and wisdom the developers shared in the article. While many postmortems seem to spout the same "what went wrong" and "what went right" issues while creating a game, Infinite Interactive touched on many things that I have seen, and have been bothered by, during my short time in the industry. I have yet to play the game, but now that it is out on Xbox Live Arcade, that will be remedied soon.
This is the first postmortem that I can remember that stated that taking their time to finish the game was one of the things that went right. The game may have only been released on the DS and PSP, but polish is what seems to separate the quality titles of the current generation from those that are hoping to make a quick buck. I know that most publishers have quarterly goals to meet and that developers are usually working on tight deadlines and even tighter budgets. The problem is that it shows in the number of quality titles that are released throughout the year. Infinite Interactive spent nearly two and a half years making the game the best it could possibly be. They were rewarded by not being able to keep the game stocked on shelves.
Of the things that went wrong, "underestimation" is something that is not exclusive to Infinite. Every new developer we work with, and even ones that we've worked with a lot, seem to make the same mistakes. Something that I have suggested and pushed at work is echoed in the sentiment of Puzzle Quest's lead designer, Steve Fawkner.
My advice to any teams just getting into Xbox Live Arcade development is to read the TCRs over and over until you have them committed to memory. You may even want to run your design documents (especially the UI designs) past an Xbox Live Arcade Q/A team before implementing anything.
He talks about Live Arcade but I think that would be useful for anyone developing on the DS all the way up to PS3. It never fails that a game will come into test with only about two months till submission, but every Guideline fails. It then becomes a test of wills on whether or not to fix the issues or wait to see if they're found in submission. I can only imagine the time that would be saved if games were built around the guidelines for a particular system as opposed to throwing it together on one system and then attempting to shoehorn it onto another.
Lastly, he gives props to his "two excellent test teams." Being the lowest rung on the pole is not easy. At the best of times we can feel under appreciated and at the worst, seemingly blamed for everything. There is no glory to be had in Q/A and even the best teams are fallible as Fawkner points out that a heinous, if not serious, bug made it into the release version. It makes me happy to see developers chalk it up to an enormously complex game and not lazy testing.
Developers like Infinite Interactive seem to be few and far between. They have tremendous passion and the will to succeed, and it shows in their success.
Today is a sad day for fans of video game movie adaptations, with the plug being pulled on both the Halo and the Gears of War movies. But then again, there aren't many of you out there, are there? Games are interactive and have yet to translate well into a move. The best fit for games and cinema is when it is created by the gamers. Hence the following two videos. Enjoy!
My wife is a teacher and belongs to the National Education Association. Each month they send out a magazine covering topics of interest for teachers. Sounds intriguing, I know, but the October issue's cover caught my attention as I was about to throw it out. "Game On!" appeared in large, bold characters and caused me to double take. Although I was a little discouraged when the subtitle suggested that kids could learn a lot from their "Xboxes," I was inclined to give the article a read.
Surprisingly, the article was not only well researched, but highly in favor of using games as teaching aides in the classroom. The author, Cindy Long, points out the educational value of simulation games that encourage the students to problem solve and think strategically. Games she points out specifically for the classroom include Civilization and SimCity, where the focus is on creating situations that allow the students to interact with the subject instead of passively engaging the material. And not only does the lesson encourage more active learning, it is also a lot more fun. As one teacher, Mr. Brock Dubbels of Minneapolis, puts it, "'We’re going to play a game’ sounds a lot more appealing to a class than, ‘We’re going to summarize a story and analyze a plot diagram.'" While I'm inclined to think that the author thought high school kids would benefit the most based on the game selections, I think that this would benefit all students, including elementary. Additionally, it is very encouraging to see a national organization in our corner.
The article even quickly touches on the inevitable topic of violence by disseminating some common sense, at least among gamers.
Games like Grand Theft Auto are popular with kids, but are “spectacularly inappropriate for the classroom,” MacKenty says. Look for games with age-rating labels and do your research to weed out the violent titles.
One point that really hit home for me was about clearly defining objectives for the lesson. By creating a discussion before hand and then following up after game play allows for extensive critical thinking regarding what the students have learned. As a gamer, I am not used to playing games in a way that encourages this level of thinking. In my defense, games have not traditionally been very deep, but as our industry matures, more games like Bioshock will attempt to stretch our mental muscles. Gamers need to be ready to meet those challenges, seeing the game on it's many levels, or we may be doomed to mindless shooters and football games.
It took just over one and a half years, but I finally eclipsed the 10,000 point mark for my gamerscore. While it is a relatively low score in comparison to my friends and especially 360 players in general, I am quite proud of my accomplishment. I don't play a lot a games. For one, I don't necessarily play a lot of games. But more importantly, I'm very picky about the games I do play. I stay away from most sports games and popular franchises, as I look for games that provide new experiences and stories. Of the 483 achievements, two stand out above the rest.
Most people get the Escape the Imperial Sewers first when playing Oblivion, I got it last. I had just received my 360 and didn't really understand the profile system just yet. I put in nearly 200 hours acquiring the other 49 achievements before I could allow myself to start a new game just to get the tutorial level achievement. So it's memorable to me because, while not terribly challenging to get all of the achievements in Oblivion, it took dedication.
I have never been very good at twitch gaming. I always struggle in first person shooters, like Halo and Gears of War. However, on a fateful night in September, not only did I come from behind to win a Slayer match on Isolation, I did it in style; with an overkill earning achievement in the dying seconds of the match with the rocket launcher.
