Player 1 Press Start

The Next "The Next Generation" of Consoles

2009-01-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

As the Xbox 360 rapidly approaches the five year lifespan that most consoles traditionally adhere to, I frequently find myself wondering what the new offerings from Microsoft and Sony will bring to the table. In the current marketplace, graphical horsepower and raw performance matter a lot less than they did in the era before the Wii re-wrote the rules on what it took to be successful in the console world. The one area in which consoles could stand to see some improvement is in their ability to foster and maintain online communities. The 360 has admittedly done a much better job thus far than Sony and Nintendo, but moving forward the abilty to stay connected and find and make friends to play with is only going to need to improve.

Developers have certainly answered the call of the gaming public when it comes to having a social experience while gaming. The number of big AAA titles that feature cooperative play is at an all-time high. The only thing better than playing Gears of War 2's impressive single player campaign is playing it with a friend and experiencing all the action together. It really amplifies the experience when you can share it with someone in real-time and then re-live your exploits later when you go out to lunch or just hang out. Now that games are placing an emphasis on social interaction it would be nice to see console makers begin to place a strategic focus into their console design that reinforces this trend.

It would be interesting to see a console company take some cues from Social Media and add some "Twitter" like service to their dashboards or homescreens. A location based feature would also be a pretty cool thing to have the option to turn on or off that would actively try and match you with people in the same City, Town, or State. Personal touches like these might alleviate a lot of the bad behavior that one usually encounters in a more anonymous play session and put more of an emphasis on making friends. In the age of cell-phones and text messaging people are increasingly accustomed to being "plugged-in" and accessible to their friends and family at anytime anywhere. It seems like a logical step forward for this to expand into gaming moving forward as the medium continues to grow and adapt with current technological trends.

Traditional Gaming

2009-01-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

For the last 8 years I've been heavily into video games to the exclusion of any other type of gaming. After this holiday season I find myself growing a little disenchanted from gaming though. I still love video games, but the constant onslaught of sequels and "me too!" games is really making everything seem a little repetitive and boring. I increasingly find myself longing for the good old days when most of the games I played were of some sort of physical manifestation...like the collectible card game "Magic: The Gathering." There is something to be said for gathering around with friends and playing a game. Sure you can have a "social experience" online now with your friends but the whole thing is more than a little detached. Things definitely have room for improvement in the console world when it comes to social networking and interaction.

I remember years ago when I played Warhammer 40,000, a table-top miniature game, at my local comic book shop. There was a strong sense of community and friendship that prospered there that online games have a hard time rivaling. There was also the hobby aspect of assembling my troops and hand painting them. I took real pride in the appearance of my troops and I had a strong personal investment in each piece of my army. Playing war games online is not nearly as fulfilling as I'm essentially pushing a button to deploy a polygonal avatar of what implement of destruction I want to place on the battlefield.

More often than not my opponents in video games are people I hardly know or don't know at all which limits the amount of fun I have with them. Getting to know my opponents well was part of the charm of the comic book shop atmosphere. Now and endless sea of faceless opponents awaits online, which makes finding a match easy, but I would argue it also makes the whole process much less satisfying for those looking to just have a good time instead of trying to take the top spot of the leaderboard.

I've certainly met many great people through playing games online and I certainly don't mean to diminish that aspect of video games, it just seems that there is something being lost as many young people will never have the traditional gaming experiences that I had growing up. Maybe its just the post-holiday gaming doldrums talking for me and Killzone 2, Street Fighter IV, and Resident Evil 5 will erase all the doubts I'm having about gaming right now. In the mean time anybody want to play a board game?

End of the 1Up Era

2009-01-06T20:17:00.001-08:00

I was extremely saddened to hear about the acquisition of 1Up by UGO today and the subsequent layoffs caused in its wake. I've long been going to the 1up website for news and listening to the 1up yours podcast and watching the 1up show. All of the folks at 1up did a fantastic job with their coverage and I will miss hearing their opinions on the games industry. My thoughts are with those who were laid off. I have no doubt that all of the talented individuals who were casualties of this situation will land on their feet and I'll be there to support them in their new endeavors.

What happens when you play paintball for the first time...

2008-08-03T19:29:00.001-07:00

Too Human Demo Impressions

2008-07-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

After all the hype, hyperbole, and vitriol launched at Silicon Knight's latest game I was a little unsure as to what to expect when I booted the demo up. I knew going in that it had elements of Norse Mythology in its sci-fi story and setting and a gameplay philosophy that borrowed much from Diablo. What I played this afternoon ultimately confirmed these facts and left a middling impression.

First of all, I hate playing demos for games that are heavily story driven. Demos by their nature are constructed to give the user a broad overview of the game's style and gameplay mechanics. Too Human's demo is no different and launches you headlong into the story-line where you're riding along on some sort of gigantic hovership about to be dropped off into a combat zone. In the game you control Baldur, a God who is battling the "goblins" in an effort to save the humans. The bad-guys are referred to as "goblins" and "monsters" but they are obviously robotic organisms. It's a little off-putting at first to try and merge the concepts of science fiction and mythology butSilicon Knights has a done a good job of making the universe appear coherent. After the opening cut-scene ends, you are thrust straight into gameplay after seeing a splash page pop-up with all of you controls.

The controls were one aspect of Too Human that I immediately found to be quirky. You have no control over the camera when you are moving about the screen. Instead, the right analog stick is engaged for melee combat. When an enemy is in front of you, all you need do is press the right stick in their direction and your character will hurtle at them engaging in melee combat. This control scheme makes for a fun gameplay tactic of bouncing across the stage from one enemy to the next while hacking them to pieces. In some of the bigger battles in the demo I found the lack of an ability to rotate the camera problematic when I got surrounded by mechanical foes and had no quick way of changing my characters on screen orientation. You do have some degree of control over the camera's properties by pressing up and down on the D-Pad. Three modes are available to toggle through in the camera settings: Near, Normal, and Back. I found little difference in usability between the three modes and left the camera on normal for my playthrough.

In addittion to melee, there is also a shooting mechanic in Too Human as each character class has the ability to wield firearms. Using the left and right triggers fires whatever ranged weapon your character has equipped. There is an auto lock on that is engaged as you depress the trigger and move towards enemies. I found it frustrating not being able to tell which creature I was going to be targeting until I was expending ammo. Sometimes randomly I would begin firing and my character would turn around firing behind himself and I struggled to try and turn his fire around towards the enemies that were barreling towards me. My impression on game-play overall is that it is mostly fun, but the camera and wonky lock-on system will occasionally spoil things.

Graphics and sound are more or less average. Surround effects are put to good use but the gun sound effects and melee sound effects lacked any visceral punch. The voice acting was below average and very B-movie like. The acting wasn't bad enough to pull me out of the experience but it certainly didn't immerse me further into the game either. The grapnics are okay, there are a few areas where they truly shine and other areas that are less than inspired. Animation is stiff and awkward, especially the animation of Baldur sailing from one enemy to the next in combat, he appears to just glide across the ground and it looks a little silly.

Borrowing from games such as Diablo, there is a loot system in Too Human that allows you to get new armor and weapons and equip them. It is also possible to level your character up and assign skill points to different specialization trees. The menus for equipping loot and assigning skill points I found to be very bland and hard to navigate. Everything at first blush appeared to be a little too complex for its own good, especially for a game that is all about fast-paced combat. Eventually I got the hang of navigating the different menus and equipping items, but I still wish the interface were more streamlined.

I find it hard to predict if this demo is going to prove to be an accurate barometer of the final game's quality. I would like to experience the narrative of this title first-hand to see just how fleshed out this game's setting is. It's hard to get a feel in the demo for what the game is going to offer in terms of story but the setting is intriguing enough that I want to find out more. Despite the concerns I have about the title I plan on renting it and digging deeper into it. There is a chance that despite a few design nit-picks this game could have a lot of potential, especially when you factor in two player co-operative play.

World of Warcraft Patch is Live

2008-07-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

After a long wait the latest WoW patch is here bringing with it the long awaited ability to get player ride-able mounts at level 30. It looks like Blizzard is intentionally making the game more casual friendly through the leveling process. Since the level cap will very soon be level 80 I think it's a step in the right direction.

It used to be that leveling from 1 to 60 was a Herculean effort that took months for the average person. In the old leveling structure players were not able to get their first mount until level 40, which always seemed a bit odd given that the next tier of mounts was available at 60. Now in the new patch as soon as your character hits 30 you can visit your local riding trainer and pay the 35 gold to learn how to ride your racial mount of choice. There's no excuse now for folks not being prepared to explore the frosty snow covered regions of Northrend in "Wrath of the Lich King" this fall!

Microsoft E3 Conference Impressions

2008-07-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

Bring on the casual market seemed to be the rallying cry for the big M in today's conference presentation. The opening moments of Microsoft's event focused on some of the "hardcore" fare headed to the retail chain this holiday showing titles such as "Fallout 3," "Fable 2," and "Gears of War 2." Along with the updates and hands-on demos of these titles Xbox head honcho Dan Matrick also teased that they were going to revolutionize the console race with a new innovation.

This new innovation is apparently a redesigned from the ground up Xbox Live interface. The main bullet-point in this redesign appear to be "avatars." These avatars are 3-D rendered embodiments of your online persona, much like Miis on the Wii. Rare studios came up with the avatar editor system and promise thousands of pieces of content to customize your unique avatar with. Other than the addition of avatars the new Live interface will sport a streamlined design that consists of floating windows representing the different areas of the Xbox 360. From there the conference began to focus on party games and yet more casual fare espousing a more online, connected, and social atmosphere being their goal moving forward for the Live service.

As a gamer, I found myself ultimately left wanting by this conference. The big announcement was obviously the re-imagining of Live and I was left scratching my head mostly as to how this was going to "revolutionize" the way I play and experience games. It seemed to me that Microsoft is very content with their position in the marketplace (as they should be) and they are playing things related to their core users very safe by not making any new announcements or revealing any future franchises. It seems that their #1 priority is attracting a more casual market to their system by syphoning off the target audience of the Wii.

Microsoft has a maddening tendency to want to try and be all things to all people and this conference personified this trait in my eyes. Looking at the conference as a whole, Microsoft essentially lead off with demos of hardcore titles, then spent the rest of the conference hammering their new casual approach while ending with a hardcore appeasing announcment from Square. I was hoping for more excitment from the 360 camp out of this conference and in my eyes they did not deliver. I am excited for Gears 2, Fable 2, and Rock Band 2 at the end of this year but Microsoft failed to stimulate much interest or excitement from me on what lies ahead in 2009. What is your reaction to the conference?

Draft Posting for Feedback

2008-07-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

Given that my site has very few (if any at this point!) regular readers I thought it might be a fun experiment to post chunks of my reviews as I write them to gather feedback on the style of my writing. Writing reviews for games is a challenge for me, I am used to writing movie reviews in which its fairly easy to give a comprehensive overview of the film-going experience. When it comes to video games, there are many other considerations that have to be juggled in the context of a review. There is of course the story and setting which are much like films, but there are also gameplay considerations, multi-player, audio/visual presentation, and of course craftsmanship. In learning how to juggle these different factors it would be helpful I think to get the feedback of the people who are reading it to see if I am covering the topics that are of interest to them. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in reading chunks of reviews as they are written and offering feedback on how the review is progressing?

14 Hours Into GTAIV

2008-04-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Here I am at over 14 hours into this game and I cannot stop playing. It is a huge credit to the folks at Rockstar that they have crafted a world and a story so captivating that it equals some of the best novles I've read in terms of keeping my interest from one "chapter" to the next. The world of Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman is one of violence, humor, and life-changing moral dilemmas that you as a player must navigate. Who would have ever thought that a GTA game would cause you to form such an emotional attachment to its characters? I can't wait to keep playing to see what is next for Niko and his friends.

Just as well drawn as the characters are the various locales around Liberty City. I sat in awe I went to a comedy club in the game and witnessed a fully animated rendition of a famous comedian's stand-up. It was more or less just like being at a real show and it was hilarious and completely mind-blowing at the same time. It's truly amazing how much content Rockstar has squeezed into this title and I keep wondering what I'll discover next in Liberty City.

The core mechanics are now more or less second nature to me and I've seen their strengths and their weaknesses. For the gunplay, this is a clear big step forward for the GTA series. The aim and the ability to take cover strategically have made firefights a much more fluid and enjoyable experience for the player. The only real problem with the shooting mechanic is that if you manage to get a thug behind your player it can be a painful proposition to turn Niko around in time to dispatch them before you're full of lead. Minor nit-picks aside, I would say that the shooting is the biggest area of improvement in GTA's skillset. I noted that the driving controls were much different than previous GTAs in my 6 hours in post. Further playtime has fleshed these differences out further and several missions have sorely tested my driving skills. Usually when I fail a mission repeatedly it's due to losing a target because of inability to keep up with my driving. When it happens it's very frustrating but if I'm honest with myself its more often than not directly related to my choice of car and my sloppy driving.

I did get a very brief opportunity to play some multi-player last night. I only played about 3 games or so but it was enough to see that there was much potential there. The teamwork based multiplayer in a lot of the modes really appeals to me as I can see straight up deathmatch getting old fast. The ability to just drop you and your friends into the city and start causing random mayhem is also very appealing. I can see myself losing many hours with friends just exploring random "I wonder if we can do this..." scenarios.

If you're on the fence about GTAIV, do yourself a favor and GO BUY THIS GAME IMMEDIATELY! Unless something major happens to completely derail my experience with the game then I can completely reaffirm the general sentiment of the gaming press in general with the feeling that this game is truly something special.

6 Hours Into GTA IV

2008-04-29T12:11:00.001-07:00

As the title of this post states I'm over 6 hours into the game and its been a wild ride. At first blush I could not escape a feeling of "yep..this is GTA not sure what the fuss is all about..." As I got a few hours into the game the atmosphere of the city began to rear its head along with the wonderfully rich cast of characters you encounter along the way. The more time you spend with this game the more rewarding it gets. It takes awhile to get a handle on the control scheme, this GTA plays much tighter than previous incarnations and it will punish the button masher and hot-headed. I'm still wrapping my head around the cover-mechanic and trying to improve my marksmanship but the driving I've more or less grown accustomed to. Each car has drastically different handling characteristics (I rolled many a SUV/Pickup Truck before the breaks became my friend) and its own unique sound and personality.

Beyond gameplay, I find myself constantly amazed at the level of detail in this world. I spent half an hour just watching the TV in Roman and Niko's safehouse. Each show has a script and is voice acted; Republican Space Rangers was a personal favorite of mine (take that Master Chief!) So far the biggest draw for me has been the storyline and the character of Niko himself. He's an instantly likable character and he has an incredibly expressive character model that really pulls you into the narrative of the game. I actually care what happens to Niko and I'm on pins and needles watching what Liberty City throws at him and his wacky cousin. I'd write more but I have to get myself back into the game to see what happens next. I'll post further impressions as I get deeper into the core of the game and give multiplayer a spin.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Review

2008-04-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

When the Xbox 360 launched I remember picking up the original Condemned as a launch title based upon the strength of the visual presentation. When I began to play the game, what I discovered was a game that created an atmosphere of oppressive evil and urban decay that was more than a little disturbing..but in a completely immersing way. Here we are in 2008 and main character Ethan Thomas is back in Condemned 2: Bloodshot, and he's brought back the franchise's trademark atmosphere along with more than a few improvements to the game design.

When we last saw Ethan Thomas in the original Condemned, he had quit his position as an Agent at the SCU police force. When we catch up to Ethan in the sequel its apparent that retirement is not sitting well with him. Clearly an alcoholic, this Ethan is a disheveled shell of the persona we first met in Condemned Criminal Origins who is running from the dark visions and hallucinations that dog his every move. Shortly after the player witnesses first-hand Ethan's fall from grace, he is whisked back into the investigation that began in the first game through a series of grisly events.

If you have played the first Condemned then you are well aware that it helped solidify the genre of "first person puncher." Just as in the first title, Condemned 2 has your left and right fists mapped respectively to the right and left triggers on the controller. Along the way you'll have many opportunities to pick up all manner of hand-held weapons including pipes, electrical conduit, medieval swords, and even a foos-ball table rod. There are firearms to be had in the game, but ammo is scarce and Ethan's aim is shaky at best due to his alcohol dependence issues. In a twisted streak of creativity, Ethan can momentarily steady his aim by swigging from bottles of alcohol that are strategically placed throughout the game. The combat system works well and has a surprisingly deep combo system that enables you to string together attacks versus wildly mashing down the triggers to pummel your enemies. If the combat system has any big fault it is that tackling multiple foes is often an exercise in frustration due to the one-on-one nature of the attack and defend options given to you as a player. Taken as a whole, the combat system is fast, brutal, and fun. As an added touch, it is possible to trigger finishing moves based upon items in the environment. My personal favorite environmental finishing move involved a human head and a machine press....*crunch*

One of the series' first innovations was the inclusion of the crime scene investigation gameplay mechanic. Condemned 2 takes a much more hands-on approach to these gameplay segments by tasking the player to solve logic based puzzles and utilize observation skills to piece together the relevant threads of a given crime scene. It is a very methodical and simultaneously rewarding experience to enter a crime scene and use tools such as UV Light and Spectrometer to find clues and gain insight into the dark and mysterious things going on in the city. The investigation sections also serve as a nice break from the relentless action and sense of danger that permeate the rest of the gameplay, even it is a little humorous to go from bashing foes in the head with a toilet seat lid to quietly skulking about a crime scene looking for clues. The crime scene investigation mechanic is the biggest area to see improvement in the sequel and it really helps this series stand out from the rest of the FPS pack.

The story of Condemned 2 weaves a complex narrative about a secret evil organization and Ethan's role in the events from the first game forward. The story is more than a little convoluted and by the end you may find yourself scratching your head about the motives of some characters and what exactly a lot of the surprises revealed mean. Condemned 2 is largely effective based upon the quality of the audio visual presentation.

With a 5.1 home theater system, everything from the enraged cursing of your insane opponents to the spot-on environmental effects serve to completely put you into Ethan Thomas's grime covered shoes. I did notice a few minor instances where audio would periodically stutter in intense battles with multiple opponents, and one instance where a character's dialog was mixed too low to hear plainly. These minor nit-picks aside, Condemned 2 boasts a fantastic audio presentation. Much like the audio, the video quality of Condemned 2 also helps to seamlessly transport you into the filthy urban landscape of the game's setting. Much like the first game, this is a very dark game not only in tone but in brightness level. There is an in game brightness level to help those with contrast challenged displays. On fairly high contrast display the game looks very impressive with subtle lighting and highly detailed textures, so detailed in fact that you may think twice about picking up that toilet-seat lid...

For anyone who played the first game and enjoyed it or anyone in the mood for something different, I would heartily reccomend Condemned 2: Bloodshot. There really isn't anything else out there quite like the gameplay experience offered in this title and the game's ending promises more exciting possibilities for the series' inevitable 3rd chapter.

****/*****

The Present Course....

2008-04-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since my last post on the blog. The main reason I've been lax on updating is the dread that fills my thoughts at the prospect of having to spend hours making graphics to pretty up each post. I was thinking tonight that it would be better to have more regular updates than to have pretty graphics in updates that appear once ever month or so. What do you guys think? Should I continue to slave over pictures for posts or just keep churning out fresh posts? In the meantime my plan is to begin posting some meatier content on here to liven things up. Now that I've obtained a membership to Gamefly I should be afforded the opportunity to play a more diverse line-up of games than I had been previously. The end result of my membership is that I hope to gain a lot of material for said "meatier content." Thanks for those of you who continue to stop in and see what's new on my little corner of the interwebz.

Black and Blu-Ray

2008-03-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

After taking a beating from Microsoft throughout 2007, is 2008 the year Sony starts to punch back? This year began with a huge win for Sony when Toshiba bowed out of the HD-DVD format and conceded victory to Blu-Ray. After being continually raked over the coals for foisting their format on gamers, Sony has to feel vindicated now that the market has proven them to be much more forward-sighted than the gaming press and community gave them credit for. Last month's NPD numbers saw the PS3 besting the 360 in total units sold, and I'm getting a strong sense that the wind is changing out there when it comes to the public perception of Sony's console.

Now that Blu-Ray is an established format, the new perception of the PS3 is that not only is it no longer overpriced, but its a great bargain. When you combine all of the PS3's functionality with a cost that equals that of a bare bones Blu-Ray player, you'll find it hard to resist the PS3 from a financial perspective. This all being said though, a victory in the next-gen DVD war certainly does not guarantee a win in the next-gen console war. It's time for Sony to start putting the hurt on the 360 if they want to really get back into this war. Here are my tips to Sony on tipping the scales in their favor this year:

1) Start getting some AAA exclusive titles out there!

Sony has got to get some juicy exclusive content out there that delivers. Microsoft has a huge line-up of games but their most prized possessions are exclusives like Gears of War and Halo. Now that Bungie is an independent developer, I wouldn't look for Halo 4 any time soon. Also, Epic Games has no official ties to Microsoft, and its very obvious that Epic is less than pleased with Microsoft's handling of UT3's mod support. Now is the time to strike Sony! With titles like Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, and Resistance Fall of Man 2 hitting this year you can prove that you have the goods to the gaming community.

2) Leverage your hardware.

Now that Blu-Ray has won, there is no reason for your developers to hold back on maximizing Blu-Ray discs capacity when making games. In addition to your Blu-Ray drive, your built-in hard drive also guarantees more room for developers to flex their content-producing muscles. Let's not forget also that your machine can produce high resolution audio tracks through your standard HDMI audio output. Make sure that all of those juicy exclusives you have coming this year play to all of your unique strengths. The 360 lacks the optical drive storage space, the built-in hard drive, and the audio capabilities that the PS3 boasts, now is the time to show the gaming community that these features really matter with games that cannot be replicated on the 360's standard hardware.

3) Keep the hardware on store shelves.

With Blu-Ray player demand sky-rocketing in the wake of HD-DVD's surrender, it is imperative you keep production steady on the PS3. Gamers and home theater enthusiasts are going to be sorely tempted by your hardware now that the public perception of pricing is on your side. Make sure that it is as easy as possible for new users to get their hands on your hardware, especially in the 4th quarter this year when demand reaches its highest point.

4) Keep producing reliable hardware and offering better than average customer support.

The 360 has taken a public beating for its higher than average defective rates and their sub-par customer service. Take care not to repeat the mistakes Microsoft has made and you will guarantee a loyal base of users.

That's all of my tips for Sony this year. If all goes to plan for the PS3 the gaming landscape could look very differently this time next year...

Round 1, FIGHT!

2008-03-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here we go off into the uncharted realm of possibility! From these very humble beginnings I hope to build what will become a place to stop and observe my general musings on all things video game and video game industry related. I've been playing video games since I was old enough to know what a video game console was and physically grasp and manipulate a controller. Video games have long been a vital part of my life growing up and I have always paid close attention to industry news and trends.

In college I had a fairly strong journalism background both in course work and in practice (through tenure as the editor of both the campus newspaper and literary magazine). After college my first "real job" (and the job I still currently hold) is working as a manager at a higher end consumer electronics store. I've been working within the CE industry now for over 7 years so I like to think I have some perspective on technology and gear. It's my ambition with this blog to combine my lifelong passion for video games with my knowledge of home electronics to provide entertaining and informative commentary on gaming hardware, software, as well as the industry itself. Stay tuned for more updates as I begin the process of building some content for the site. Thanks for stopping by!