We Won A Major Award!

It may not have been the best year for us at THQ, but at least it's going to end on a high note. GameSetWatch has awarded our Jim Huntley, global brand manager, with the "The Mark Jacobs Award for Corporate Communicative Achievement" for the following quote:

The game All Star Cheer Squad was designed with the growing number of girls on Wii and Nintendo DS in mind. We strived to deliver an authentic cheer experience for those players and believe this partnership with CoverGirl is a unique opportunity to do just that. The CoverGirl brand and its spokespeople are instantly recognizable among our target demographic and will further immerse players in the competitive cheerleading world.

Oh wait, I guess that was sar-cas-m. It must be french. I hope everyone on this list have egos that aren't fra-gee-lay.

Achievement Unlocked: Awesome Flash Game

Achievement Unlocked | Armor Games

My love of achievements has been succinctly satirized in this awesome flash game. Play and enjoy!

One of My Favorite Games Ever May Grace XBLA

If the ESRB is to be believed, Sega will be pimping more of its classic collection onto XBLA and PSN. One of those titles is Phantasy Star II. I just had a geek-gasm.

I was one of those lucky kids who had both a both a SNES and a Sega Genesis (the benefits of being the child of divorced parents I guess). I read Nintendo Power so I'm sure I knew what releases were coming out for the SNES but as far as the Genesis, looking back at my collection of games I must have chosen games purely on their boxart. And that doesn't really explain why I picked up Phantasy Star II. A JRPG? I wasn't really into anime or manga at the time but I guess I had played a couple of the Final Fantasy games even though I was partial to the Zelda series. Boy was I glad I did though. I still have the original game (with the well worn map and strategy guide) as well as a the GBA version that includes the first three games in the series.

I played the crap out of that game. I'm sure I played through the game numerous times, which is no simple task as it was easily a 40 hour quest. This was the first title the I became emotionally attached to as there is a major game changing moment about two-thirds of the way through the story. Also, it was epic, spanning two planets and countless dungeons. I have warm memories of spending whole weekends grinding my party in order to level up and learn the only spell that could help you defeat the final boss.

This can't come soon enough. Plus, there will be achievements.

Esrb: Sega Regurgitating More Genesis Games On XBLA, PSN

Fun Friday: QA Funnies Edition

Game Developer's Matthew "Wasteland" has taken the task of infusing some funny into their industry leading magazine. His back page article this month tackles QA bugs, but not the good kind. Here's my favorite:

1. Put the game in the disc tray and start playing it.
2. Walk 56 steps to the left and drink the green potion.
3. Explore the caves and proceed to the point where the wizard talks to you, then skip the dialog after about the third panel. I forgot what it said.
4. Hit the attack button repeatedly for five minutes.
5. Pause the game and leave it on the Pause menu for about as long as it takes to make and eat a microwave burrito, I think like 15 minutes.
6. Unpause the game, turn on all of the cheats, warp to the vampire's lair and shoot the panzerfaust at him over and over as fast as possible.
7. Notice that the game has frozen.

I'm sure the developers response to this bug was either, "We'll fix it in the sequel," "But LotCheck/Certification didn't find it," or " Do you think we can get this waived?"

Fun Friday: Missed Opportunities Edition

As the year is beginning to come to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what I missed out on. I'm not a huge fan of lists but when I started thinking about the games on my list, it seemed quite substantial.

1. Fallout3 - And I loved Oblivion so much.
   
2. Castle Crashers - Bugs, plus it came out when we were doing a lot of OT.
   
3. Dead Space - Looked cool until I played the demo.
   
4. Prince of Persia - Hadn't been into the Prince since Sands of Time but looked promising until I heard that you could not fail.
   
5. Tomb Raider: Underworld - No rush, I knew it was just another Croft adventure.
   
6. Mirror's Edge - Wasn't convinced by the demo but I'm still intrigued.
   
7. Star Wars: Force Unleashed - Another title that came out while we were in OT.
   
8. Penny Arcade Episode II - No excuse other than I was distracted by other games.
   
9. Condemned 2 - The first is one of my favorite 360 titles. They seemed to lose the plot though.
   
10. Bully - I love Rockstar's work, but I never gave this one a chance.
    

Some Honorable Mentions include LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid IV, both of which I would have played if I owned a PS3. Also, I only scratched the surface of GTAIV (like six hours) so that might as well be on the list as well.

Update: Maybe it wasn't that bad that I missed out as some seem to have ended up being a little disappointing. Oh, and I started playing Force Unleashed this week. So far, it's not bad.

Movin' On Up

As of this last Monday, I have been officially promoted at THQ. I am now a Compliance QA Project Lead. Which means I have people who report to me and my plans for world domination are well underway.

[/Manaical evil laughter and lightning]

Just kidding. Basically, myself and another former specialist have been promoted to take over more managerial and planning duties. Celebrations have been brief as there's much work to be done.

5th Cell Does it Again

I've sung my praises for 5th Cell before and it seems they are unstoppable. With an exclusive reveal last Friday on IGN, I think they've cemented themselves as one of the most creative and daring DS developers out there at the moment (and probably the most sought after).

After watching the video for Scribblenauts, I immediately begin thinking of the possibilities this game has. The concept is simple yet has the potential to very satisfying.

Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka had the following to say about the player's possibilities when faced with a tree puzzle.

You could write "axe", and then cut the tree down using the object you spawned. You could write "shuriken" and throw that at the Starite in the tree and knock it down. It's all based on real physics and interaction, so there's nothing pre-canned. You could write anything though; imagine you write "goldfish" for some reason, well a goldfish would spawn and sit on the ground. It wouldn't help you at all in that puzzle, but you could do it.

Oh, how I can't wait to get my hands on this game.

Epic Demo Fail

It's been awhile since I mentioned demo design, but I came across one that was particularly perplexing this last week. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix not only has the longest name ever, but it also has the distinction of having the shortest demo ever, if you only have one controller. I downloaded the demo on Xbox Live and fired up the trial version only to find out that only two-player local matches were available. I didn't have a second controller so, for me, the demo was over.

I imagine most gamers have a good idea of what the game play is going to be about in a Street Fighter title but one of SSF2THR's draw was the updated in game sprites. If I don't get to see them, how can I make a purchase decision? If the game is going to force me to play two-player, at least give me online in case I don't have anyone to play with. I count Street Fighter 2 as one of my favorite games of all time and this was almost an automatic purchase, but the demo totally floored me and I lost interest. Oh well, Street Fighter IV will be out soon enough.

Fun Friday: Big in Japan Edition

I have no idea what these videos mean but they're awesome in every way. Good luck in Japan, Saint's Row 2!

Fun Friday: Thanksgiving Edition

It's been a great year. It's been challenging but great. I can definitely say that I am very thankful for many things.

• Firstly, I'm thankful for my growing family. I became a dad and a homeowner within two months. Both presented challenges but only the very best kinds. I'm also very thankful of my wife who is very understanding when it comes to my passion for games.
• I'm thankful for developers Blue Tongue, 5th Cell, Yukes and Rare for giving me the chance to work on some great titles.
• I'm thankful for the Xbox360 which this year has provided some of the best gaming moments I have ever had including the sensation of quietly executing a man from the shadows with a hidden blade, had Gandhi order a nuclear strike on cities of Genghis Khan, bitch slapped a mime while hunting down a giant fruit fucker, had my ass handed to me by an old school platformer (twice), had my garden decimated by hemlock, and survived the cornfields with three of my buddies against wave after wave of infected.
• I'm thankful that I work in a place where someone has a copy that week's highly anticipated release, saving me from having to buy everything that came out this fall.
• I'm very thankful that I still have a job and get to do all of this again next year.

This year was extraordinarily full of highlights. There were some very low lights in my personal life, thankfully only a few, but overall I think this can go down as one great year and I look forward to the next.

Fun Friday: Viral Marketing Douchebags Edition

I was originally going to post this video of what looked like some really dedicated Guitar Hero fans and a lot free time on their hands. But then it was revealed that it was a hoax and funded by Activision to be "viral marketing." Boo. I think the video response above successfully captures the sentiment of many. (Although, I will concede that the original video is still pretty cool.)

Fun Friday: Left 4 Dead Edition

Left 4 Dead comes out next week. I wasn't initially excited. Then, I saw this trailer. And then, I played the demo. Wow, was I wrong about not anticipating the enjoyment that comes with mowing down hundreds, if not thousands, of infected with three of your buddies. And yes, I said infected. These are not zombies; they can run. Zombies don't run. And Simon Pegg agrees with me.

Up and Away

Pixar has recently released a second trailer for next year's new film, Up. As most may already know, THQ has the exclusive rights to publish games based on the Pixar license. A couple of summers ago saw the release of Cars and we had the second best selling game of the year only falling behind Madden. We had over a billion dollars in sales that year (with the help of a couple of quality PC releases and the WWE license) and things looked good. Fast forward a couple of years and things are not looking as rosy for my company.

One of the things that has taken the blame for our shortcomings have been the performance of this license. First, Ratatouille underperformed last summer and then Wall-E suffered the same fate this summer. Ratatouille's failure was justified because it was about a rat and people might find that "icky." But when Wall-E did the same, people said, "WTF? He's a robot, how did he not sell?"

I don't think it was a over saturated kids and casual market that did these games in (it didn't help), but rather that Pixar is creating movies that are way over our designers' heads.

I'm not saying that the designers didn't understand the movies; I'm saying that the themes did not translate into an interactive form very well. In fact, it's debatable if anyone could have done it at all. Games as art is a current hot button topic in our industry and the themes that Pixar put forth would trouble the best minds our industry has to offer.

Cars was a no-brainer: it's a movie about a car, who races. The design document must have written itself (I'm kidding). On the other hand, can Ratatouille or Wall-E be boiled down to a simple platformer? Remy teaches us in Ratatouille that anyone can become anything the want, regardless if he's a rat or a woman or French (sorry, I kid again). And Wall-E teaches us the importance of conservation and loneliness and the need to be loved even if you are just a robot with a single directive. Up looks like it depicts the feeling that life has passed one by and you're running out of time to seize the moment. These aren't simple concepts and they most certainly aren't conveyed by collecting 100 trinkets while hopping your way through a linear level.

I think our biggest weakness when it comes to the Pixar license is that we attack them from a literal angle and just allow the player to replay through the story. What I'd like to see us do is allow the player to step into the shoes so to speak of these dynamic characters and explore some of these deeper themes. I don't want to play the movie, I have the DVD for that. I want our license to create an experience that can be fun for all gamers but evokes the weight of the emotions that each film brings to the screen. It won't be easy, but I think it's possible.

Dead Rising 2 a Possibility: OK, I'm Listening

All the major blogs have been reporting on rumors that Dead Rising2 is in development and it is being developed by western developer Blue Castle. The original has created two camps of people: those who absolutely derided the difficulty and save system and those who praised the game for the exact same reasons. I fall into the latter group and think it would be a damn shame if the western developers took a safe route and made the game more "casual."

Dead Rising Wii already has me angry enough but if the sequel is also neutered, well, I just don't know what I would do. If the original was not insanely difficult with an unforgiving save system nor placed tremendous stress on the player, we would not still be talking about the game today. If it was a straight-up, run-and-gun zombie killing affair, it would have been lost among the glut of all the other average action games that flood the shelves week in and week out.

But Capcom didn't want that. They took some chances and created an experience that few games have been able to duplicate or have ever done, for better or worse. So, the onus to make a choice is on Blue Castle or whoever may take over the duty of continuing story of Frank West - photographer, zombie-genocider.

Fun Friday: Ocarina iPhone Edition

I always thought I preferred a blackberry over an iPhone, but now I need to reconsider that stance. This is the most awesome app yet. Yes, it is even cooler than the Lightsaber app.

Good Times

As I've mentioned before, 5th Cell are pretty good game developers. Apparently they're quite fun as well. When designer Matt Cox went on vacation, he returned to find his desk"drawn to life."

Let's see, a developer with talent and who likes to have fun, maybe they should be a part of out new strategic plan. Unfortunately, the executives don't ask me for advice very often.

YES WE CAN!

This is a proud moment for our country and for my son's future. Thank you United States of America for restoring hope!

Gaming posts will now resume. :p

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

That is all.

Fun Friday: Oh No You Didn't Edition

Oh, yes we did! Of course it's been known for a while now but we are officially publishing 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and admitting it. Of all of the titles that the Activision/Blizzard merger left up in the air, this is the title we pick up. Oh well, at least we couldn't make it any more ridiculous than it already is.

Fun Friday: Go on Rooney! Edition

If there is one thing I love more than video games (besides my family), it's Manchester United. This should be obvious if you look at my Gamertag and Gamerpic on Xbox Live. However, my two passions haven't really intersected in about 6 or seven years. FIFA, as a series, has significantly changed over the years. It used to be quite arcade-like in game play, with a lot of "punching it in the old onion bag." As Pro Evolution has commanded a stronger following and therefore greater market share, FIFA has had to adapt. In doing so, they have built the game to be more realistic, but along the way, they lost something important: the fun.

Each of the demos for the current-gen FIFA titles have been unable to lure me back in. But this video does a good job of getting me excited for the possibility of 10v10 online play. Still, I'll have to hold out for the Pro Evolution demo, as they've finally snatched up some UEFA licenses, including the Red Devils.This year may the one that I finally pick up another football game.

Summer Has Finally Ended

Posting has been light as of late, but I'm glad to say that while Summer is officially over, so is our ridiculous summer in QA. Since, as a company, we try to submit about 90% of our titles between the months of June and September, needless to say, saying it was crazy is an understatement. But it's appears to be finally over. I helped get SmackDown Wii out the door in early August and it passed Nintendo of America first try with Wi-Fi (I don't think too many other publishers can say that). The two other projects I was working on our now out the door as well as of today. August saw us work some crazy overtime but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and Fall should be significantly less stressful.

On the other hand summer was as usual, light on releases, so I was thankful for that. I finally crossed the 15k GamerScore threshold thanks mostly to Civilization: Revolution and Lego Indiana Jones. Civ:Rev was a lot of fun and hope to back to again soon. This is saying a lot because I absolutely loathe real-time strategy games. This game was fun and accessible and did away with a lot of micro-managing. The game was deep enough for me to feel that my decisions, for better or worse, were actually affecting my society without burying me in data and options. Lego Indiana Jones was a blast to play even though I was uninterested in the Star Wars games after playing the demo. A lot of the achievements were a grind but most were cleverly named and the humor throughout the game kept me motivated.

Xbox Live Arcade also saw a lot of releases in August. I started playing Braid and absolutely loved it until a save killing bug popped up and wiped my data. Bionic Commando was awesomely retro and brutally difficult. Castle Crashers is beautiful and humorous, but the same bug popped from Braid and I'm waiting for the patch. Needless to say, I will be returning to all of these games soon.

I just picked up Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, mostly because the original was a guilty pleasure and they priced it at only $40, I could not pass this one up. The game was everything I hoped for: more adorable pinatas, more environments, more everything but the same addicting game play with a few new twists. However, a word of warning: watch out for Hemlock! After cultivating a healthy garden of pinatas (some of whom I had become quite attached to), I became afflicted with a massive outbreak of Hemlock. This weed spreads incredibly fast, attracts pinatas like nerds to boobs and makes them poop sour candy when they eat it. After about ten minutes my entire garden population was decimated; all of my pinatas became sick faster than I could help and when I ran out of money, Dastardos swooped in and killed them all. This was one of the few times I absolutely despised autosave.

In the end, I skipped Too Human and Force Unleashed. I'll probably borrow them from friends, but with the likes of Fable II and Fallout 3 coming out, who knows when I'll get to them.

Oh, and go buy de Blob if you own a Wii. It's awesome and I want to work on more games like this

Fun Friday: Poor Bob Edition

Voter Registration Coming to Xbox 360

This is great. I would have never expected anything like this but kudos to Microsoft for making this happen. This is an extremely important and historic election coming up, and now there will be no excuse for everyone on Live to register and make a difference. Gamers' voices need to be heard; get involved and make a difference.

Now the real challenge will be getting gamers to the voting booth. Maybe Microsoft could set up Street Fighter IV cabinets or Gears of War 2 demos (I think it comes out the same week as the elections). Or better yet: Voting Booth Babes. Sorry, I was just thinking out loud here.

Pwn the Vote: Register to Vote on Your Xbox 360

Massive Damage

It might look pretty...

...but they're not pushing game play forward if it solely consists of quick time events. It seems like Quantic Dream, who also developed Indigo Prophesy, may need to start directing actual cinema instead of tacking on button presses and calling it interactive. At least it isn't porn.

Congrats to 5th Cell!

For those of you who don't know, 5th Cell is the developer for THQ behind Drawn to Life and the upcoming Lock's Quest. I had a chance to work on both of these games and, while not perfect, they both demonstrate what a developer can do when they understand the platform they are working on. They are both unique in style and design and are a worthy addition to any one's DS library. Drawn to Life did well for us and I imagine Lock's Quest will do the same. I eagerly look forward to their next project. Good job on getting the credit you deserve and keep up the good work!

Gamasutra - The Gamasutra 20: 2008's Breakthrough Developers - 5th Cell

Capcom Has Gone Mad (Catz)

Street Fighter II is one of my all time favorite games. If I could afford it, my house we be furnished with an original arcade cabinet. I played the arcade version every morning for about a year at a donut shop near my bus stop in junior high. I played the crap out of the Super Nintendo version when it came out as well. Needless to say, I was excited when the XBLA version was released two years ago. But it was missing something: a quality arcade stick.

Capcom recently hinted that they would be releasing an arcade stick to coincide with the release of Street Fighter IV (which I am very much looking forward to). This made me very excited, as I had visions, as may others I suspect, of high quality Hori arcade sticks that would make playing the game pure bliss without spending about $4000 on a cabinet.

Then the official announcement came today: Mad Catz will be making the official Street Fighter IV fighting sticks. Ughhh. I associate Mad Catz with cheap crap. They're like the WalMart of gaming hardware. While we have yet to see them yet, I don't have my hopes up. And in the mean time, this is very disappointing.

I guess I'll have to try and make my own. Oh, I just found out that Hori does make a 360 arcade stick. OK, all is well.

I Think I Found Kaiden's Halloween Costume

All I need now is some tights for my King of all Cosmos costume.

Katamari Damacy King baby-hat - Boing Boing

See...

I told you so.

The Overlord Will Return!

I loved the original Overlord. It was a fun mix of action and strategy, with a lot of humor mixed in. I'm glad to see that sales weren't as bad as I feared and we'll look to not only get one sequel, but also Wii and DS versions as well. I guess that goes to show that when a developer releases a decent game in the summer months when there is little competition, people will buy it. Hmm, imagine that.

Besides, this game allows me to act out my deepest desires to order around my own little minions and have them do my binding. Oh, I may have said too much.

Three Overlord Titles Announced for 2009 | Game | Life from Wired.com

de Blob Devs Shaking Up Genres With Swords & Soldiers

The original creators of de Blob are at it again. They're bring a "side-scrolling RTS" to WiiWare. While I don't exactly know what that means, you have to give them credit for their creativity and sense of style.

Speaking of de Blob, it should be out soon and I'm still as excited for it as when we first got it in to test. I think we did the original creators proud and it is definitely our best Wii game to date. The controls actually feel useful with the Wii Remote; not tacked on. I just hope that Wii owners go out and buy it. Then, hopefully, we will continue to make more innovative products.

Swords & Soldiers: de Blob Devs Bringing Swords & Soldiers To WiiWare

Running Out Of Ideas?

Apparently, EA ran out of mini games to add to a Wii compilation game, so they just decided to make the avatars grotesques caricatures of mostly b-list celebrities and athletes. Yikes! I know, I know, we're not much better, but at least we have cricket and bocce.

Celebrity Sports Showdown: Celebrity Sports Showdown In The Creepy Flesh

Fun Friday: Old School Edition

I love this trailer for the upcoming Mega Man 9; it brings back some memories. I am not, however, looking forward to the supposed achievements! Bionic Commando: Rearmed has been brutal enough.

Time and Money Waster!

Minesweeper coming to XBLA: Pay money for a free Windows game

But hey, at least it will have achievements, right?

I Love Dessert

In a post a while back, designer Raph Koster takes a common belief held in the industry and turns it on its head for me. It is common rhetoric amongst our ranks to place the blame for our increased risk aversion on the gamers, citing that the purchasing public is only out to buy sequels and established franchises. Hence, we have halo 3, GTAIV, MGS4, etcetera, ectetera.

But Raph makes a simlpe analogy for how this is wrong. Basically, we are used to saying that gamers like chocolate ice cream and if we ask them if they'd like more, of cource they're going to say yes. But the catch is: how is that same gamer going to know they want mango gelato if they've never had it? It's up to the developers and, more importantly, the publishers to start taking creative risks and offering crazy desserts we've never heard.

And, if you think about, many already are.

The glut of originality is starting to get stale, even for publishers. All you have to do is look at the the upcoming list of releases and there are a surprising number of original titles coming soon. Our proud to say that my company, THQ, has several titles coming up that I am really proud of, including de Blob, Deadly Creatures, and Darksiders. Even EA, a company a have historically dispised, has a number of interesting titles coming up such as Dead Space and There is also the upcoming Mirror's Edge.Brutal Legend and Wet.

As I think back, I have played a number of original games over the last year that I didn't know I would like until I played them: Zack and Wiki, Civ:Rev, No More Heroes, Portal, Puzzle Quest, N+, and Braid to name of few. Granted, many of these are smaller titles, but there have also been big budget risks such as Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed.

I have high hopes that the industry will find a balance point where sequels and franchises can coexist with the new and unproven. I say bring on more sorbert and flan! Now I'm hungry.

Raph's Website » Do players know what they want?

Fun Friday: Believe (Again)

Holiday Season Bloodbath

While it's good for my wallet, I'm sad to see that Afro Samurai has been pushed back till January 27th, 2009. While an official release date may not have been announced, many retailers had it pegged for an October or Fall release, a long with just about every other title we know about.

I will never understand our industry's continued dependence on the holiday quarter for release schedules. Firstly, with the escalating costs of development and vast number of choices all competing for limited funds out there, makes little business sense to me to force a game on the public. Then, year after year, quality but lower profile games get over looked by the masses further enforcing the downward spiral of publisher reluctance to produce original IP.

I also see a drastic effect on overall quality as well. We have just over 70 skus in test right now. And that is just Nintendo platforms. With a nine man team, every game is not going to get the test time that they need. Granted we aren't testing the functional stuff, but those teams are stretched thin as well. The rush to hit dates is on and quality is the first to be sacrificed. Instead of pacing ourselves for the year and bringing more quality to store shelves, we burn ourselves out in the summer to get anything we can to Fall shoppers.

But, obviously, we aren't the only publisher with this mentality and I wish a few would start seeing that there are other months throughout the year. Especially when we almost always go from January to August with high profile releases very few and far between.

October was already going to be expensive with Fable 2 and Fallout 3 coming out. There's also Guitar Hero World Tour and Dead Space. Afro Samurai looks like a very fun game but it would have probably been relegated to a game I borrow from someone instead of full purchase. Being released in January may be the best decision their publisher has made.

Inspiration

"All true renegades walk alone."

"Fear of the game."

The first steps are always the hardest.

MadWorld's Violence is Funny, Not Serious

While I normally hate on everything Wii related, I have been drawn to the games that take a chance on the system. Games such as Zack and WIki and No More Heroes. I would have picked up Okami if I hadn't already played it on the PS2. So it should come as no surprise that I have been drawn to MadWorld, and not only because of its stark color palette and its graphic violence. This month's Nintendo Power offers some more information about the game straight from the game's producer, Atsushi Inaba. See, while the game is ultra violent, it should not be taken seriously.

We don't want this game to be dark and serious. One of the games that I played to better understand what constitutes "serious" violence was Manhunt 2. And although I personally like that type of game, when violence is portrayed so simply, that's when it becomes more serious and dark. When it's over the top and extravagant, it feels much more acceptable. That over-the-top expression is what makes it funny. That's why people laugh when they see violence in this game. It's not realistic. Nothing like this would ever happen in real life, which is what games should be offering to the audience.

Awesome quote. While I agree that over the top violence can be funny, for a while, something strikes me as odd about that quote. I'm sure people smarter than me could articulate that sentiment better than I could but the best I can come up with is that it seems shallow. Is this the mentality that is holding back games from achieving art status? Extreme violence has its place in movies and books but reflecting on what "does" happen in the real world is what lifts it to cinema and literature. But like many have argued, that probably does not make a good game. And that is our challenge.

Dead Rising Announced for the Wii, Neutered

Dead Rising is in my top five games for the Xbox360. Its blend of action and story were very engrossing. It also made some surprising and polarizing design decisions. Many people either hated it or loved it. I was definitely in the latter.

The game was structured in a very open, non-linear fashion; allowing each player to forge their own path through the zombie infested mall. It allowed you to choose which bosses you wanted to take down and which people to try and rescue. Each subsequent play through could play out as a an individuals own mini zombie cinematic experience.

The save system and leveling up the character were a bit odd at first. In time, it all came together for me and made the game that much more enjoyable. By limiting the save locations and creating a very difficult decision upon death (start from the beginning with all of your accumulated stats or reload your last save), the game ramped up the stress put on the player. Some found less overwhelming and frustrating, I just like it heightened the experience. I had to weigh my options; should I save the couple with the wounded husband or the brothers who can defend themselves better? The leveling system adds another layer to the game that is not normally seen in action games. As Frank learns new moves and becomes more powerful, the game really becomes fun. And setting up crazy pictures for big points was good too. Since the experience carried over from game to game, it really encouraged multiple play-through.

Now we get word that Capcom is bringing the game to the Nintendo Wii. Only instead of a faithful, low-resolution homage to the original, we get a watered down, "casual" experience that wreaks of cashing in on the success of Resident Evil 4's outing on the same console.

They taken much of the flexibility out of the game by creating a very linear path to plot points and eliminating Otis's side quests. Apparently, the save system has been made "less frustrating" to appease the new herd of gamers on the Wii. The camera angle has been changed to the over-the-shoulder RE4 style which caused the developers so much problems they took the photography out of the game completely. Frank is a photographer, it's the whole reason he's in the mall! Not only have the elements that make Dead Rising what it is have hit the cutting room floor, the graphical power of the Wii buckled under the weight of hundreds of zombies on screen on once. This number has been significantly decreased, but I guess will have to wait to see the final game.

Lastly, they've thrown in the mandatory "because we can" motion gestures. I'm sorry, but dare I say it, increasing the player's stress and anxiety creates a better sense of immersion then waggling the controller to swing a baseball bat. The weight and pressure put on by my nervous system is much greater then wild flailing ever could be.

Fun Friday: E3 Edition

I didn't get to go this year, but I don't feel like I missed much. I am excited for the the new Xbox360 dashboard with Netflix and avatars. I even more excited for Fable 2 and Fallout 3. Fortunately, we have Penny Arcade to summarize what we missed for those who didn't get to attend the big press conferences.

Nintendo Must Be Stopped

When I saw the Wii Remote "Motion Plus" announcement first thing Monday morning boasting "more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation.", I was angry. Then, as more information rolled out today, I became sick. This is why Nintendo is losing my favor. They are releasing peripheral after peripheral, packed in with "casual" games and making a killing. Not only should the Wii Remote have been doing this from the start, but not even Nintendo themselves have proven motion controls to be a reliable substitute for a standard controller. It did not improve Twilight Princess nor Super Mario Galaxy; the GameCube controller is better suited for Smash Brothers and Mario Kart Wii.

I see Wii Remote motion controls everyday, all day long, and have yet thought, "wow, I think we've finally got it." Motion controllers are a case of just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. If anything, more sensitive equals more programming headaches, as the developers are going to take all kinds of flailing about into account when they program what motion they hope their player will perform.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter that they didn't announce Kid Icarus Wii.

THQ Does Something First

This is old but I've been busy with the baby and work. I'm pleased that we at THQ have decided to do something that someone else hasn't already tried (well almost the first). So, that's encouraging. Unfortunately, it's unleashing Wall-E on the middle east.

Well, hopefully we'll at least get a chance in QA to look at it before any one else.

Fun Friday: Happy Forth!

Fun Friday: Wall-E Edition

Everyone in THQ QA got to see Wall-E today as after successfully getting the game to retail on like every platform known to man, including the 2600. The movie was fan-freaking-tastic. I loved every moment. Andrew Stanton is a genius in my mind, and while Finding Nemo is a tough act to follow, he absolutely crafted a beautiful film. There is minimal dialogue, so the animators deserve a tremendous amount of credit for bringing these robots to life. Every movement is filled with expression that require no words, even in Eve, who's only facial expressions come from her eyes.

Things to watch out for include: the Mac startup sound effect (even though I prefer PC, I still loved this), Pong, and John Ratzenberger's voice, of course.

Fun Friday: Awesome Quote of the Week

Warren Spector may wish for less 100-hour long games, but Todd Howard, Executive Producer for Bethesda and most recently, Fallout 3, said quite the opposite in an interview with IGN.

That I’ve never really grown out of my love of the 100 hour adventures of my Apple 2 days. The ones I would go to bed dreaming about solving. I crave moments of discovery in games, the moments of “can I do this?” and the sense that I have found something no other player has. I want my games to have that. I want length and depth and hint books that can kill a child if dropped on them.

I added the emphasis because that is the most hilarious thing I heard all week.

Confession Time

I played, no, I take that back, I experienced Wii Fit today. I still don't think it's a game. But, I enjoyed it. I saw its merits. I heard a voice in the back of my head that said, "Buy this." Oh no. Damn you Miyamoto.

Spore Creature Creator Rocks

Prior to trying this demo, I had no interest in Spore whatsoever. Will Wright is a genius but the Sims games have never kept my interest. Now I'm considering the full version of the Creature Creator and the game when it comes out. I haven't spent a lot of time with it but here's my first rough creation. He looks cute and adorable, until he rips your face off! The possibilities here are truly amazing and endless. Of course, my first creations were all phallic, but wasn't everyone's?

There Is Hope

Kaiden will be one moth old this weekend. Time has seemed to fly by but I am loving every minute with my son. On the other hand, I'm a gamer and that part of my life has suffered terribly.

It may sound selfish but I have probably put in only about eight hours of gaming in the last month, mostly in Penny Arcade Adventures and my progress in GTAIV has come to a screeching halt. For a gamer who was regularly putting in three or four hours at a time with a 360 controller in my hands a few times a week, this has been traumatizing. I was starting to feel that my pastime was slipping out of reach as I took on my new role as Dad.

But Kaiden fell asleep early tonight and I was reading through some old articles that I had bookmarked a while back. One of those articles was from way back on May 11th called "All Grown Up: A Gamer Comes to Grips With Adulthood" and has rekindled my hope that gaming will eventually return to my life.

The newborn phase was exceptionally difficult, but before long Kaz got in tune with the patterns of life in his new family. He needed his diaper changed less often, didn’t want to eat on a constant basis, and actually started sleeping for more than an hour or two at a time. It seemed like when we weren’t looking, my wife and I suddenly had a little bit of room to breathe.

Obviously, it will never return to the same level it was, but it's encouraging to learn that there is hope. Plus, I will eventually share many moments gaming with my son as he gets older. That is, when I'm not teaching how to do a Cruyff soccer move or how to build a potato launcher.

Fun Friday: I Love the World Edition

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Not much else to say here but how awesome this is. I thought it was cool when they did it for all of the Discovery Channel shows, but this takes it to another level for me.

Two Of My Favorite Things

MLS expansion team, the Seattle Sounders, have landed a shirt sponsorship deal with Microsoft. I think this is cool. As Kotaku mentions, it may not have worked out for the Dreamcast and their Arsenal deal, but Nintendo was sponsoring Fiorentina long before that, so it can't be a curse. I also think that Sony had the PlayStation logo on Lyon or Marseille's jersey in France, I can't remember exactly. I'm just glad the MLS has joined the rest of the word and is putting sponsors on the jerseys.

On the other hand, I hate this: Guitar Hero will feature during Colorado Rapids halftime show. This doesn't even make sense to me. I don't see the connection or relevance. But then again, it is the MLS, and they still thinks that a two division, season ending tournament is the best way to determine the champion. Go figure.

Mentors Rescue

I remember doodling my own levels for NES games as a kid. I also remember entering a contest that appeared in an early issue of Nintendo Power where I attempted to design a game based around insect creatures (I didn't win). Unfortunately, nothing had seemed to survive the last twenty years for me to look back on for some frame of reference. That is until recently.

Since buying my house, my dad decided that there was no reason for any of my old stuff in his garage needed to stay and could be stored in my new garage. Amongst that pile of stuff was an old board game from 1989 called HeroQuest. I had totally forgotten about the game until that point and quickly remembered how much fun I had with the game at the time. After opening the box, some yellowing sheets of graph paper and note paper fell out of the instruction booklet.

Here, I had stumbled onto a map and quest I had created for the game. I guess, you could say it was one of my first complete game designs. The action revolved around saving your captured mentor from the evil Verag and seemed to rely heavily on my Zelda influences (the player needed to find the "Sword of Power" to defeat the end boss). I also included quite a few traps and enemies, I must have been feeling especially diabolical for an eleven year old at the time.

This game still seems to hold up and is easily customizable and seems to be a descent tool to explore level design. I think I may have to dust it off and design some updated levels for this game.

Wii and DS: Made for Each other

This was news a long ways back (give me a break, I bought a house and had a baby). It was revealed that the Wii version of the Ghostbusters will use Wii-DS Connectivity to enhance game play. Essentially, the DS would be used as the famous PKE reader that was used in the movie. I love this design decision and implementation. This is much better than having Tingle drops bombs on unsuspecting foes.

Even longer ago, I attended the Wi Summit in Hollywood hosted by Nintendo and they went over this functionality for the Wii. The presentation was mostly boring but it sparked an idea while I was nodding off.

I've played a few card based games on several platforms, such as Uno on Xbox Live, but was disappointed that there was no way to play with friends in the same room because, obviously, every one's cards would be on the screen to see. With the use of the Wii-DS connectivity, the game could deal the cards to each player's DS and then each player would only be able to see their own cards.

It seems like a simple idea and I'm surprised that some developer has yet to take advantage of this feature in a meaningful way until now.

Baby Kaiden

If you thought Tim Schafer's baby was cute, wait till you see my son! He arrived early last Thursday morning, healthy and vibrant. I am still reeling from "new baby fog" but hope to find a posting rhythm soon. Life is beautiful!

That's Not "In The Game"

Unfortunately, neither is this man. That's too bad. Even though I've been a Niner fan all of my life, Favre will go down as one of the all time greats in my book, and for most football fans I believe.

Do Over! Madden Mondays Week 6: EA SPORTS REWIND [GameStop Blog]

Fun Friday: It's a MadWorld Edition

This is the trailer for Platinum Games and Sega's upcoming title, MadWorld. This game is most unexpected for what I have come to expect from a Wii title. No More Heroes raised the bar for off-the-wall, artistic action games, but this game just obliterated that bar. MadWorld comes to us from Hideki Kamiya, the developer who brought us Devil May Cry (loved), Viewtiful Joe (mostly loved), and Okami (loved), so I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this title.

Divergent Design Decisoins: The HUD

This week's Microsoft Gamer's Day event saw new details emerge about some of Microsoft Game Studio's biggest impending releases. Something struck me as interesting as I was perusing the screen shots and reading previews.

Firstly, Peter Molyneux has his own interpretation of how a game should appear on screen from a preview with CVG:

It's a beautiful, striking-looking game, but what first catches our eye is how clean everything looks. There's no HUD to speak of, no health indicators, no item counts, not even a mini-map.

"If we're going to make a game that's really going to be dramatic, making people feel like they're not just looking through a portal at this world is really important. One of the problems with that is the mini-map," says Molyneux.

"We had one of those ghastly, distasteful things in the top corner of the screen, and our levels were getting so detailed that we realised that our mini-map was getting bigger. So we said, 'let's just get rid of it'."

And it does look amazing as indicated in the following screen shot.
On the other hand, Silicon Knights have taken the completely opposite approach when it comes to the "head's up display."
Wow! There's a lot going on in that image.

I love the simplicity of Fable2's design and will definitely be purchasing the game. However, I'm quite interested in Too Human as well but this screen shot is a bit overwhelming. I'm not sure if there's going to be a demo or not but I'm leaning towards trying before I buy this one.