Awesome Quote of the Week

We doubt that Activision would try to sue. That would be like a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy.

-EA's response to Activision threatening to sue over the publishing rights of Brutal Legend

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

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?

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?

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]

Dead Space to Pause After All

I previously blogged that EA upcoming space-horror game, Dead Space, will forgo a pause feature. Well, it turns out that the game will have pause after all. Glen Schofield cleared the hole subject up in an interview on MTV's Multiplayer Blog:

I was saying that in a game like ‘Resident Evil,’ you pause and you go into your menu. So if you’re in the middle of a fight, you can stop the fight, give yourself more ammo, and change your weapon. What I was saying is that took me out of the moment. ‘Resident Evil Evil’ is a great game.” You won’t be able to do that stuff in the “Dead Space” pause menu. “[What] I was saying is you don’t pause to grab your ammo. You better ammo up before you begin your fight. Because you can’t really be safe. [The combat] is happening live and in real time. The reason for me is that adds tension, because people are saying, ‘S—, I’ve got to get more ammo. I’ve got to get more health.’ That’s what you want in a survival horror game. We’re not going to make that incredibly difficult. You may have to back away from the fight. We’re just trying to make you think out a little bit more.

Wow, real time ammo loading and health management, where have we seen this before? (Call of Duty, Halo, Bioshock, Condemned, Kingdom Hearts, etc., etc., etc.) I liked it better when Dead Space was going to be innovative and try something new. Oh well.

Cool Job Postings

While reading through the daily Gamasutra newsletter, I always browse through the job postings. 2k Marin really out did themselves with their descriptions for several available positions on an unannounced project (Bioshock 2, perhaps?) I've posted two of my favorites.

Animator:

If you made the most awesome flip-books when you were a kid and were undeterred by the unimaginative people who told you that you could never do that for a living, but you continued to refine them until they intersected with computers and you actually started to pay the rent, you might be just who we're looking for. As an animator with 2K Marin, you would be responsible for animating characters using a combination of keyframes and motion capture.

Lead Designer:

You see straight to the heart of games. You are able to hold, fixed in your mind, the paradox of their simultaneous existence as both systems of mathematical purity and as living, breathing emotional entities. This either makes you a genius, or insane, or both. Such distinctions are irrelevant - you're down to earth like that.

Hopefully this sense of humor is not stifled by a possible assimilation.

Dead Space Devs: Pausing is Lame

EA's Dead Space is trying to shake things up. The developers revealed in an interview with CVG that they might omit a pause feature from their upcoming horror game in space. In an effort to keep the game's suspense level high, the developers don't want the player to be able to pause the action to take a breather.

Menu-wise, everything is displayed in-game; if you want to have a browse through your inventory to boost your health, you'll have to do it through a hologram projected in front of your face.

This way, if the hordes of screaming monsters get too much for you, the only way you're going to be able to calm down is by finding a quiet room. If you need to boost your health during a fight you'd better do it quick. This system keeps you in the game all the time and looks bloody cool.

On one hand, I'm all for immersion features like real time maps and inventory that occur in game. I'll also welcome a HUD-less screen if they deliver on this intuitive way to access this info in real time. But on the other hand, total elimination of a pause feature is just silly. Life is still happening outside of the game world, nature will call. Don't put the map and inventory screen in the pause menu, but pressing START should still stop the game and display the word "PAUSE" on screen.

Thank You, EA

It shouldn’t bother me as much as it did, because it is expected from Fox News to disregard fair and honest journalism, but they went way too far this time. In this clip, from a segment called “Se”Xbox, the host, an “expert” psychologist and a panel of ill-informed reporters spout off on a number of blatant inaccuracies regarding Mass Effect. I give a lot of credit to Geoff Keighley, for whom I also have new found respect, as he attempted to get a few words in edgewise. The words he did get in were to the point and achieved the desired effect of pointing out that they had not played the game and were in no place to make hearsay judgments about the game. The gaming community responded the best way possible by spamming the reviews of the psychologist’s book on Amazon and venting in forums.

However, in a move that I’m not sure that anyone expected, based on the reaction, EA stepped up and defended Bioware’s work in a letter to the show’s producer asking that the inaccuracies be addressed on the show.

The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards. As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness.

It’s encouraging to see EA, who is usually cast in a malevolent light, sticking up for not only their newly acquired IP but for video games in general in the mass media. Our medium is a threat not only because it is an unknown to them but because it takes away viewers and therefore advertisers. We’re still waiting for that apology and I hope they take legal action if needed since they’ve used the word “slandered” to describe the hard working folks at Bioware.

The worst part of the situation is that Fox News clearly neglected to do any research on the topic or game itself. It appears as someone caught wind of this rant on the conservative Townhall Blog (which, curiously, is no longer available) and ran with it. If they had done a quick search on their own website, they would have seen it was “one of the best-written and best-looking games in a long time,” earning three and a half stars out of four, and one of their top ten games of the year.

Update: Cooper Lawrence, the psychologist on the show, admitted that she received bad information about the game and has since seen someone play the game for a couple hours, saying that she has "seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit."

When Did Sports Games Forget to Add the Fun?

I used to play a lot of sports game back in the day: Tecmo Bowl, Double Dribble, Blades of Glory, Genesis versions of NHL, Joe Montana Football, International Superstar Soccer on the Nintendo64. But for my taste, the genre has gone down hill. In an effort to make the most realistic simulation of sport gaming, developers has consistently piled more and more features and controls on the player. They also seem to build off of each other forcing a player to master last years iteration before he can move on to the newest game.

Luke Plunkett at kotaku made this observation while playing NBA 2k8 a while back and then Zack Hiwiller expanded on the idea by pointing out the ridiculousness of the compounded complexity of sports games.

Your friend tells you about this movie he is really excited about and he convinces you to buy a ticket and see it with him. The theater is mostly empty when you sit down, except for a few kids in the front row holding those big foam #1 fingers. Before the previews start, your friend tells you it his ninth time seeing the movie. It starts and immediately you find it incomprehensible. There are dozens of characters whose origins and motives aren’t explained, you have a rough understanding of the plot, but the movie seems distracted with minor plot points and half the movie seems to be overwrought establishing shots.

When the credits roll, your friend applauds but you sit there confused. He nudges you and tells you, “Don’t worry. I didn’t start really “getting it” until the fifth time I saw it. Hang in there!” You are a bit dumbstruck: “Five times? I’m not wasting my time and paying to see that mess again!”. Your friend then gets angry with you: “Whatever. You just don’t want to put in the time to struggle for something sophisticated.”

That’s basically the game industry’s sports genre.

He goes on to say that there is "a push each year to add new features" which really just translates to "complicate this for the reason of depth." FIFA has done the same thing as the Madden franchise in an effort to catch up to Pro Evolution Soccer, which has been held in higher esteem for its "realism."

The developers may have eliminated aspects that took away from the purity of the game, adding layer after layer of complexity to create the most realistic sports sim ever, but the sacrifice has been too great. Gone is the debauchery of high-scoring, rowdy gaming encounters with friends and family. I still play competitive soccer when I need my fix of "realism" and I watch Manchester United with fanaticism. In much the same way the racing genre lost me when RC ProAm and Out Run gave way to Gran Turismo, the sports genre lost me when they cut the most appealing feature of all: fun.

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.

What Do I Want From a Wii Game?

The Wii offers a new ways to design and, ultimately, to play video games. Unfortunately, it has been a struggle that even, in my opinion, Nintendo has yet to over come. This week saw the release of EA's Boogie which has been met with some wildly varying reviews. Stephen Totilo at MTV's Multiplayer Blog took the chance to chat with the game's lead designer, Jean-Charles Gaudechon, and discuss his reaction to the reception the game has received.

When I see a 3 out of 10, I think it's people completely hermetic to it, just not getting it.

I understand his consternation, seeing as he has devoted a good chunk of his life to creating this game. However, from a gamer's point of view, the game is not an easy thing to understand. The game, on the surface, appears to be an amalgamation of two genre's: karaoke and DDR. The only problem is those two games seem to do the job better on their own and the combination is not like chocolate and peanut butter. I have yet to play the game, but I see a major problem with game play. The article states that the dev team had trouble linking Wii Remote moves with dance moves, and for very good reason. Dancing is a full body exercise, it's not just in the hands (at least not good dancing). I think a limitation of the Wii Remote is that it can only simulate certain actions and feel natural. Dancing is not one of them. This is where Boogie fails and DDR succeeds.

At the end of the article Stephen asks a series of questions that boils to: what makes a good Wii title? It got me thinking. I spend a good chunk of every day looking at our Wii titles and have been largely dissatisfied.

Firstly, graphics are important. The Wii is not and never will be able to display photorealism or compete with the 360 and the PS3 graphically. However, they still have the potential to look fantastic. The only stopping every game from looking as good, if not better, than games like Resident Evil 4, Okami, or God of War is budget. The importance in this area is to pick an art direction and run with it. Show some passion and dedication to the game's look. Don't just slap some assets together or reuse last year's. It's about making an impression and it does matter. I think Boogie succeeds here because they took a unique look and let it permeate throughout the game, like Katamari, Paper Mario or Rayman.

Controls has definitely been the make or break feature for Wii games. Unfortunately, it seems to break more games than not. The accelerometer and motion controls can only detect so many movements. Therefore, movements need to be kept simple or the effect is lost. Boogie and SSX Blur are good examples of this. They both seem to use complex combos of movement that aren't easily conveyed between the player and the game. But it is a balance, because if they are too simple, they appear tacked on and gimmicky. I would like to see my actions reflected on screen in a realistic, nearly, 1:1 ratio. This is why I think that only certain movements will translate. Swinging, pointing and slashing are examples of what have worked and what will work in the future. It is also an indication of the limitation of the system as they are motions along a single axis. Better designers than me will come up with special uses but only time will tell. The worst case scenario for Wii controls is when arm flailing will garner as much success as someone who is concentrating on the "correct" controls.

Designers on Wii games have an uphill battle. There are no easy solutions in this new paradigm for control schemes. Personally, I don't see too many good things on the near horizon from anyone but Nintendo, and I'm really not into too many of those games.

My Heart Aches a Bit Now

Achievements are my second favorite aspect of the Xbox360 (the games are the first, duh). They are a lot of fun and add more to the experience. They make you explore a game in ways you would not have done without the them. They encourage you to give different modes of play a chance where you wouldn't have in the first place. What they don't do is entice me to buy random crap. Well they do now!!!! Well at least if I was going to play an EA game again (although skate. looks very enticing).

I don't really expect anything less from EA as they continue their reign at the top, doing what they please, and getting away with roster updates for full price. But this is quite low, even for them. I can understand the case for advertising in game if it helps flesh out a photo-realistic game environment. Still, it must be done with the utmost of care in order to not be distracting. I understand that there are only three achievements with the ad in them but it feels like they're feeling the waters. EA doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to Live and downloadable content.

The soft ding that accompanies an achievement has created somewhat of a Pavlovian response for me where I yearn to hear it again. Seeing an advertisement pop up when quickly shed me of the positive reinforcement that keeps me playing your game. Oh wait, I don't play your games EA. Carry on if you think that's what your buyers want.