• 11Sep 09

  A Modest Proposal

  No, this is not satirical (i.e. like Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal; kudos to those who know what that is)

  But rather a small number of proposals regarding the video game industry

  1.) Regarding game budgets and development

  - It seems very, very few quality games are developed by companies that either have little recognition, or that their publisher is very small. The games that do get good quality can be lumped into three categories: those that have a big publisher (hence the greater amount of money/time the publisher is willing to risk), the respect of the devloper (if the developer is known to create quality games, the amount of risk decreases, which allows the publisher to provide more money/timeknowing the game will sell well), and sequel/prequel to a popular franchise (which is logical considering the previous game(s) sold well, so publishers will look for quality better that the predecessors). But there are times when publishers putbig budgetsinto games simply because the idea looks good on paper, but then winds up being underdeveloped because of lack of experience by the development team.

  Thus a solution to this would work for both problems. But both parties most be willing to forgo certain"things" in order for this to be met.In most cases, the publisher has the developer"sell", innon-monetary terms, their idea(s) to the publisher, and if the publisher like these ideas, they will accept. However, the method should be the reverse. A publisher should approach a developer with a set amount of money, then the developer should build an idea that can be worked within the proposed budget. For example,devlopers may come up with the greatest idea for a game or genre (for explanatory purposes, a game for Xbox360), give the idea to a publisher, and the publisher onlygives them a budget fit for an arcade game (in this instance, an Xbox Live Arcade game). In these cases the game either gets cancelled because the devloper just can't meet the budget or the developers are forced to pull alot of the creative ideas out because otherwise they won't meet the budget requirements, meaning a low-quality game will follow.

  Not only would this in some form hopefully increase the quality of games, but would also increase competition, and allow developers to still create good games without having to be bought out by a big-name publisher in order to simply survive.

  2.) regarding sports games

  - As painful as this may seem to companies like EA Sports and 2K Sports, it should be proposed and enacted. For far too long the sports genre has been plagued by annual releases on what has become little more than roster changes and minor tweaks and fixes of gameplay mechanics (recently, though, some games are seeming to deliver a little more than that). In the now "DLC" era of the video game timeline, roster changes, bug fixes, and small gameplay mechanics can all be fixed using this concept. The former way was nothing more than spending anywhere from fifty-seventy dollars just to be promised the bugs from the previous game(s) were fixed and that the rosters would all be updated to the first game of x season. DLC can still solve this problem at a cost that is worthy of the service provided. But people still buy these games every year, which amuses me highly. Would these same people go about buying a new car simply because the brakes in their old vehicle were broken and because it lacked a GPS? This new method proposed would allow more fairness to the consumer while still having the game perform the same way it would take 4 or 5 seperate games to achieve. This would even benefit the developer to allow them more time (rather than a yearly budget) to produce something truly groundbreaking in the genre, rather than adding one bell or whistle at a time.

  It is my hopes that the industry hears these simple yet effective proposals and at least gives them some thought. But yet who am I, a mere mortal of a man, to be heared by the game gods? (Ok, yes, that part was satirical).

  • Posted Sep 11, 2009 7:52 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 7Jun 09

  Post-E3 Thoughts

  Well, E3 has come and gone, sadly, but this year was alot better than last years E3, thankfully. So I will recap with my personal surprises, dissapointments and other worthy notes.

  Big surprises:

  -The announcement of Crackdown 2 and Left4 Dead 2

  I for one am a huge fan of the first Crackdown, and from several articles months ago saying there most likely would be no sequel to Crackdown had me hugely dissapointed. That is until the trailer was shown at the Microsoft Press conference at this E3. Crackdown was, next to ES IV: Oblivion the best 60 dollars I have spent on a game so far and am looking forward to hearing more about the sequel. I was somewhat surprised that Valve decided to openly announce a sequel so soon after the first game's release, that usually is unlike them to do so.

  -Molyneux and Lionhead's "secret project" revealed

  After the showing of Project Natal, I was worried that Molyneux would be creating Fable III using Project Natal. Thankfully, this wasn't the case (yet). It seemed interesting yet scary at the same time, then again things Molyneux says should always be taken with a grain of salt.

  Minor surprises:

  -No word on Huxley

  One of the games that peeked my interest two years ago had kind of taken the downturn as of late. The latest info given to the public was an article given last year explaining the RPG elements of the game (Huxley is supposed to be a RPG-FPS MMO for 360 and PC, and will actually allow PC gamers to play with 360 gamers). After constantly being pushed back and back until a late-year 2009 release, I was surprised that no mention of the game was heard. (Although my explanation is that the developer (also the publisher) is too small to be able to afford a booth, but couldn't a representative have possibly stopped in and gave the public some news? Or even asked Microsoft if they could show off their game during Microsoft's press conference? Who knows).

  -No info on the newest DLC for GTA IV by Rockstar

  Even though the DLC was only officially announced the week before E3, I thought that was part of Rockstar's plan to wet our appetites for E3. Unfortunately, I have yet to find so much as a trailer regarding the new episode in GTA IV.

  - A true-blue Mario sequel from Nintendo

  With Supre Mario DS being the exception, this was the first time innearly 16 years thatI think I have ever seen what would actually be called a "sequel" to a Mario platformer. Or any big-name Nintendo franchise, for that matter. If you haven't figured it out, I'm talking about Super Mario Galaxy 2. From the footage shown at Nintendo's press conference, it seems most like the original, give or take a few new elements (Mario drill anyone?) along with the addition of Yoshi. And from the looks of it, Yoshi isn't there simply to ride either. It seems new abilities that only Yoshi can do will have to be used in order to complete some levels (which is fine by me as long as it makes the puzzle aspect of the game a bit more challenging).

  - Sony's motion-sensing controller

  The sheer fact that Sony is almost replicating the Wii remote was a little shocker. But hey, if can attract a bigger fanbase to the PS3, that's not too bad. What WILL be interesting is to see which system developers flock too, now that all three have some sort of new "immersive" gameplay. Especially since the true lack of more gritty, hardcore titles on Wii is obvious, it will be interesting now to see which developers flock to whom.

  Big dissapointments

  - no gameplay footage of some games

  Well, the two games I was hoping to see gameplay footage of, Borderlands and Star Wars: Old Republic, had none. Well, the people at E3 got to see some, but there was nothing for those of us who were restricted to watching footage from our monitors and laptops. Borderlands, which was just announced to be released this October, is stunningly lacking in gameplay footage, and for a game so close to release. There was footage last year, but that was before the art style changed. Most people have yet to see true gameplay footage, and most of the information given by Gearbox was already shared earlier in the year through various interviews and articles. And the fact that the interviewby Gamespot with the Gearbox rep. was nothing more than abunch of personal questions geared to the rep. (if you didn't see the interview, they talked about their favorite movies for half of the time).Hopefully a demo will be available through Live and the Playstation Network shortly before its release so the general public can REALLY get its hands on with the game. The latter of the two, Old Republic, can be respected that there was no gameplay footage to the public due to the fact thatBioware is still in early developmental stages and that no release date has been announced anytime soon.

  Minor dissapointments

  - no announcement of a bold new franchise by Nintendo

  Maybe its the fact that Nintendo is still working on its "Wii" franchise (Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Music, etc.), or maybe its that Nintendo has some new device planning up there sleeves (Iwata's Vitality sensor aside). But after 3 years of the Wii selling on store shelves and no new word of an orginal IP from the Big N is a little shocking. And dissapointing. Don't let us down Miyamoto, don't let those down who had stuck by Nintendo even before the Wii was ever announced. You're genius has attracted the massive amounts of new casual gamers into the market, now it's time to reward those who knew of your genius beforehand. Pikmin was a great new IP from you, and we need more, Mr. Miyamoto and Nintendo, we need more.

  Notes and Comments

  - Microsoft's "Project Natal"

  Does it look promising? Sure, most "new" things do. My one observation though is that while the camera can track length and width, does it really track depth? Sure, you could argue that the trailer video shown for it showed these things, but Nintendo's first trailer for the Wii remote made motion sensing look perfect, until two years later in the present day we realized we needed the Motion Plus to really get true motion control. Project Natal is something I'll keep my eye on but I'm nowhere near sold just yet.

  - Keep E3 the way it was this year

  This year's E3 was perfect. Not too big, and not too small, but just right. Yes, I just used a line from a children's fairy tale as an analogy. But it works. And so did this year's E3. So keep all future E3's to this year's standards.

  - Console Fanboys

  There is a difference between Console Wars and Console Fanboys. Console Wars is the battle between the console developers as to who's will emerge victorious each generation (if we are to look at it in respect to business, the Wii is clearly on top as of now). But console fanboys (and girls) are people who belittle the "other" consoles because it is not the one that THEY particularly own. So let me get this out of the way. TO ALL CONSOLE FANBOYS: YOU ARE NOT GAMERS. And you never will be until you learn to acknowledge each of the strengths and weaknesses of each console. Real gamers see the postives and negatives to each console, and then choose accordingly, much like choosing for college. But like college, not everyone chooses the same console. Why? Because each person has their own preferences. In gaming terms, functionality, reliability, library of games, level of immersion, non-gaming experiences, and just like college, price. Fanboys are nothing more than (insert Big Three name here)'s loyal customers who will buy anything and only anything for that system and who fall for every kind of advertising imaginable. And I for one would truthfully not be surprised if over three-quarters of these "fanboys" even bought the system with their own money, but rather had it given to them as a gift because its what the giver decided to get. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Back on topic. Exclusive games don't mean jack unless they are actually good. Games like Gears of War, Resistence, and Haloare nothing more than the everyday shooter that comes out, yet for some reason because they are exclusive, people automatically assume that that makes them better than anything else. The game itself has to be good; then again, "good" is different depending on who you are talking to. So to anyone else out there who hates fanboys, just remember, there words don't mean jack.

  • Posted Jun 7, 2009 1:34 pm GMT
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• 20Feb 09

  Mass Effect 2 teaser trailer...

  OMG.....

  Sh-sh-sh-sheperd.....D-d-dead...WH...WHAT!?!?!?!?

  How can this be?

  Well, obviously this seems to be a huge and true 'teaser' trailer, because in the end it is really teasing all those who have played through Mass Effect and have become fans of the game.

  My theory: (SPOILER ALERT FOR THE BOOK MASS EFFECT: ASCENSION):

  Cerberus is going after Sheperd and in order to lower Sheperd's attraction to Cerberus, the Alliance has faked his death to get Cerberus off his tail and allow him to take clandestine operations against them...

  Which if THAT is true, it could mean that Sheperd loses all his amor, weapons, and weapons upgrades (but not his stats, of course, that would go against what Bioware said about allowing players to use their existing characters from the first game for the next two, then again, this could be a sign that Bioware was not able to pull this off, which would be hugely dissapointing). Sheperd would have a new identity, which would help give explanation of starting the game with low-level guns (makes sense, wouldn't starting Mass Effect 2 with a level 60 character and ALL their high-level upgrades, weapons, and armor make the game a tad to easy?).

  OR....Cerberus captured Sheperd somehow, and the party members are going to have to find him (which hints at the possibility of 4-player co-op, the scene where the trailer shows Sheperd's "Alien 4 Associates" might be a clue).

  But I would go with my first assumption, seems more realistic, and it would not piss me off like the second option would.

  • Posted Feb 20, 2009 8:47 pm GMT
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