While Sony has made several blunders in the current gen console war one of the biggest was allowing Call of Duty 4 to go multi-platform. The game has become such a runaway success that it could have single-handedly changed the face of the war as we know it. Perhaps equally as big was allowing Grand Theft Auto 4 to go multi-platform. Although the game sold about 45/55%  on the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, there are rumblings that the next installment in the GTA series may become a Playstation exclusive by default.

Wait, what the hell are you talking about?

As has been documented, Rockstar was notably unhappy with the limitations of the DVD-9 format on the Xbox 360 and how it affected GTA 4. As we’ve all seen though, both versions of the game are practically the same. The rumblings this time around though are seem to be much more boisterous. Early rumours have Rockstar threatening to not release GTA5 on the Xbox, but that begs the question: Why? Why sacrifice all the money you would undoubtedly make by only creating the game for one console?

Although one can never account for backroom dealings and shattered business relationships, there is really only one answer.

They want their game to be good.

Was GTA4 lacking on the Xbox 360? Of course not. It was Game of the Year. It recieved rave reviews across the board. But could it have been better? WOULD it have been better if it had only been released for a single console? Of course. This applies to any game released on any console exclusively though. What makes this time around special is that the GTA developers may in fact be willing to part with the extra revenue in order to better perfect their craft which seems absolutely ludicrous in our current economic standings. It is not to say that Rockstar would be the first group to sacrifice sales for art. It is however to say that doing so now could prove to be an earth shaking event that has an indelible effect on how Video Games are made.

In a world driven by profit, and in an industry not well renowned for being bohemian, this kind of move would be as surprising as it would be dramatic. A triple-A developer openly supporting both their own art and A specific console could sway other third party developers to do the same. It would also give other developers a comfortable “out” to abandon a platform they wouldn’t want to develop on for fear of not returning enough profit. After all, in such hard economic times, it’s surprising that more companies aren’t already doing this and attributing it towards a need for the betterment of the game as opposed to monetary restrictions. Keep in mind as well, if Halo 3, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 have shown us anything, exclusive games can still sell ridiculously well regardless of being exclusive.

That being said, the whole “pursuing art” argument could simply be an excuse from Rockstar after the fact. Rockstar has a contractual obligation to produce 3 exclusive games for the PS3 as reported by the Hiphopgamer (through an interview with an industry insider) and other sources. We know one of these games is Agent, another one of these games may supposedly be the somewhat forgotten L.A. Noire, a sandbox game set in the 1930’s. GTA 5 would probably be not all that different than 4 regardless of development time and console exclusivity, and if L.A. Noire is factored in, that would mean all of the three promised exclusives would be off the table.

If one wanted to be even more pessimistic, this could be seen as also be seen as a moving away from Microsoft has the prime conduit for producing games. Take-Two openly denied Microsoft’s exclusivity bid for Bioshock 2 while EA is now releasing Dead Rising 2 on the PS3. Capcom has also recently confirmed a concurrent release of Lost Planet 2. Along with a slew of exclusives for the PS3, this could seem very dramatic, but there are still a lot of positives for the Xbox.

Don't worry cousin, beeg American teetee's will probably come to all platforms (minus Wii)

Even though EA has clearly made Dead Rising 2 multi-platform, the status of Mass Effect is still up in the air. Microsoft also has Epic, Bethesda and VALVe onboard as companies who are much more enamored with Microsoft than they are with Sony. And of course, staying with the pessimism, Microsoft has one very, very big asset. A seemingly inexhaustible amount of money. Everyone has their price, and a company as rich as Microsoft can probably name yours.

Microsoft made Rockstar rich. Rockstar took at least 30% of every sale from the GTA4 expansion pack, along with the millions of dollars they recieved from the exclusivity deal itself. Ultimately, beyond all of this industry wheeling and dealing as well as speculation, it just doesn’t seem like anyone can resist the siren song of the greenback. Perhaps that’s why I find it so interesting that the such a bohemian notion can be expressed by Rockstar. Even with evidence showing that it could be legitimate and genuine (undoubtedly in the exclusivity of Agent), I’m still not convinced that such dedication to art can even exist in our modern day industry. If it does come to pass though. it might just spur on the innovation and advancement in the industry that some believe is lacking. And if this kind of innovation can occur when times are tough, imagine how sweet it could be in times of plenty.

Nintendo broke away from competition with Sony and, new arrival, Microsoft with what some call the “Blue Ocean” business strategy. The Blue Ocean strategy is the metaphor of leaving a “red ocean” (one dyed by the blood of competition) for unclaimed waters filled with the potential for creating new demand. From a business stand point this brave (or stupid) move has paid off and now Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are competing for second place.

Nintendo managed to succeed because they did something more than incrementally improve and repurpose old features. Yes, Gentle Reader, I’m talking about the “I” word, innovation. It’s debatable if the Wii controller is a true innovation as some gamers will still belittle it and mock it, but from a business standpoint it’s a successful change that’s brought in tremendous profit. Nintendo is as guilty as everyone else of giving us sequels by the truck load, most games in each series offer something new every one or two games. In truth, sequels are not really a bad thing as long as they are different enough that it stands on its own or adds to the previous experience.

This is the potential folly faced by Microsoft and Sony. If both companies continue to try and outdo the other, this means they have to rely on the other to show them where it is they are going. As mentioned before, it’s a tradition in the game industry to play copy cat with your opponents and then sell what they made for a lower price or with something more appealing attached. The game Sony and Microsoft are playing is the equivalent of trying to race someone you’re following to an unknown finish line.

If the two titans do not exercise some real creative muscle and insight, they run the risk of choking their audiences’ current interest. History has shown that strokes of genius like Katamari Damacy are not that common and while they may be risky or appear too weird, it’s that their quirkiness that aid to its success. The first GTA games offered sandbox gameplay, but GTA 3 took the top down world and made it more accessible by giving the player more dimensions to see everything. This reinvention (or innovation) has made the name Grand Theft Auto globally known.

Rehashed games, or those that don’t provide much of a new gaming experience, can poison a series or genre. If the games they make for the “core” gamer are not more than uninventive sequels the interest will dissolve and the audience will vanish or develop new preferences. The market has become swamped with First Person Shooters and while some may feel that’s not bad, it clearly demonstrates that developers are vying for the attention of a certain niche while alienating possibilities. As mentioned before, even if Nintendo did not stir up this casual boom, the publishers seemed to become more focused on producing games they KNOW will sell then those that can expand the market.

When we consider that the Xbox 360 has introduced its Mii-like “Avatars” and has begun promoting its “family friendly games” and that the Playstation 3 has its “six axis” controller and demonstrated a recent swelling of fresh but casual Playstation Store games their actions foreshadow that the duo are once again trying to outdo the other as they look for the path Nintendo made. Sony and Microsoft could just stick with the audience that has carried them to their current success, but like I proposed in part 1, only a fool (or altruistic gamer) would turn down the easy money casual games bring in.

I’d expect the next Microsoft console to utilize some sort of Wii remote like peripheral and the Playstation 3 to get it’s own version of the Wii remote. If Microsoft wishes to make the most money possible, their Wii remote copy will be a peripheral rather than a brand new system.

You might think “The End is Nigh” if you’re a core gamer that detests those happy, care free casual gamers. In the event that Sony and Microsoft act like a business and chase the money, a core gamer’s won’t be lost in a changing industry if the new audience leans how to discern between crap games and software worth its price tag. If all else fails there’s always indie games.

So as of now, these are the ominous black clouds that loom over the game industry. Nintendo is getting flogged with junk casual games and Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 run the risk of tiring their comparatively small (compared to the number of casuals) core audience with incremental improvements of current software.

During the Great Depression, American movie theaters saw steady business as the consumer hungered for an escape from the troubled economy. In today’s global economic recession, it seems that people still want that escape and video games are the medium that provide it even better than a mere 2 hour movie for 20 some dollars (if you get popcorn and a drink.) The road that lies before the game industry is not likely to disappear, no matter how cluttered it becomes with obstacles. That way ahead may be uncertain, but it is not lost when there are companies that will forge new paths and people that pine for the experience.

Preface

Everyone has an opinion. There’s a rude saying that compares opinions to a part of the human anatomy that practically says one’s opinion is worthless. So why read any reviews? If you’re not a terrible cynic you may be able to pore through a handful of reviews, develop and understanding for what sort of lens the reviewer sees games with and define some sort of truth from the fluffy words of praise or harsh criticisms that would have no tangible value.

You might be thinking, “Get to the review already!” or “Stop wasting my time and give me your score!” but without a preface you may not understand the “lens” I see games through and how to get what you need from my opinions. If you really can’t stomach anymore though feel free to jump ahead and read the review.

So what does any of this mean for my reviews? Why should you care what I think? Some would claim that the big boys writing up game reviews on their ad-congested sites will proudly throw a bold ‘9′ to ‘10′ up for the right price. I’m the farthest thing from that. Not only am I not getting paid for a specific opinion (and who seriously would?) but I’m going to tell you exactly what sort of lens I look through when I play a game.

I’ll admit that I’m hard to please with games. Like many of you, I’ve played them as far back as I can remember, but they are a fierce passion for me. When I play a game and I’m up to my neck in “fun” or “frustration” a sliver of my mind, somewhere in the back, will ponder something along the lines of “This part must have been hard to code“, “They must have run out of time and rushed this part” or a multitude of similar thoughts.

General Review

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! I apologize if the previous four paragraphs felt unnecessary but hopefully that was ample preparation for this review.
Fallout 3 is an ambitious, sandbox game similar to Bethesda’s previous well known title, The Elder Scrolls series. In this game you play the “Lone Wanderer”, a former vault dweller, who has left the safety of his subterranean home to find his father in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once Washington D.C. This game offers you a lot of freedom, so much that if the player chooses, the ultimate motivation may end up not being to search out your paternal unit but to abandon the main story and romp about the wasteland doing what they please. Best of all, the player even gets to decide what their character looks like and wears.

As is the tradition of RPGs, Fallout 3 features stats, which are called skills in this game, that dictate your proficiency in using and repairing of weapons and armor, communicating and bartering with people and a plethora of other factors that influence your game experience. While the player can sneak by, outwit or run from danger the game is primarily a shooter.

With the charm and immersion offered from this bleak but fleshed-out world, along with the flexibility in play style and the ease of the VATS (Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System) the game should have no trouble appealing to anyone above the target audience age (16 and older in the U.S.) The violence, gore and demoralizing wasteland is not for the young or weak at heart.

Some players end up not only molding their respective characters’ abilities, but their identities as well. After spending hours in the Wasteland and making choices time and time again the players’ gestalt realizes a character (hopefully) as real as the world Bethesda Softworks has presented.

The Basics

Visuals – They’re good. Whether you can get to see all the fancy bloom, water, light and shadow affects depends on how powerful your PC is. I can’t really tell you what it looks like on the Xbox 360 or PS3 but I imagine it’s no slouch. In the post-apocalyptic world your color palette is somewhat limited to various shades of worn and ruined yellow, grey and brown. For the areas that do not sport these melancholy hues the game uses a filter that makes the entire world look aged. Some people like this artistic choice while others don’t. Personally, I got used to it and forgot about it.

Gameplay – Plenty of freedom and fun. When I couldn’t outwit someone verbally or swipe a key from their pocket I would reload my game just to see how many ways I could get around a conflict. This was even something I’d do for combat. When approaching an enemy I’d try settling the dilemma by running in firing my assault rifle, decimate the entire room with explosives or (my favorite) my opponent with a single well-placed rifle shot.

Sound – It’s okay. I’d like to praise the sound design of this game but can’t do so in good conscience. The music fits the dramatic tones and futuristic 1940s themes and the sound effects are never that distracting or irritating. My dissatisfaction rests primarily with the voice acting. Liam Neeson does a great job voicing the player’s father and a few of the other voice actors delivered believable performances. I understand that when you’ve got as many characters as this game has and ALL of them speak, time and money quickly run out. However, this does not excuse the awkward acting and repetitive voice clips. Such flaws not only chip away at the player’s immersion into the game but they are annoying,

Score

I don’t like the idea of trying to quantify something as abstract as the experience of playing a game. Instead, I use what I like to call the AUSE system. Each letter in AUSE represents a level of enjoyment, as delineated below.

A – Awful

U – Unsatisfactory

S – Satisfactory

E – Excellent

I really do hope you read my preface, because you still might find yourself a bit confused even if you have.

Fallout 3 – Awful

I really wanted to give this game at least a Satisfactory but, after discovering the presence of a multitude of bugs (both small and large) and flaws, I can’t rightfully say it’s satisfactory. After installing the recent update I experienced AT LEAST two crashes a day and in my search for answers, I found that a large number of people were wrestling with similar or worse frustrations not just on the PC, but also with the XBox 360 and PS3 versions. One mission in the main storyline was almost completely broken and I was only able to get past it after cleverly working around it. Even before the patch I found myself opening up the console and learning commands to fix the problems that were left in the game.

I have Bioshock on my computer and, despite experiencing many drops in frame rate and choppy sound, it never crashed. These show-stopping bugs in Fallout 3 were not a result of my computer’s inability to run the game but rather some very poor coding.

I’m sorry Bethesda, but I can’t save Big Town if you’ve given me no robots to repair.

I’ve worked as a Quality Assurance Tester and have studied game design. Not only does Fallout 3 have more bugs than a suspiciously cheap motel but  the game designer seems to have forgotten their number one responsibility, “Be the advocate for the player.” For example, like most modern game developers, the designer failed to realize that not all gamers own a HD set up so the tiny menu text is nigh unreadable. I’m looking at you, Dead Space.

So, in the end I choose Awful over Unsatisfactory for one reason. If Fallout 3 were an eagerly anticipated car that had a broken fuel gauge, a radio that gets only a few stations, no air conditioning and an engine that gives out at one point in your commute or whenever it feels like, it means the car wasn’t properly manufactured. It is particularly reprehensible when hundreds of people, if not more, encounter these flaws, especially when they paid for what they were led to believe was a finished product. Giving us a new coat of paint and seat covers (in this case, downloadable content) isn’t going to fix any of the existing problems.

The ending sort of sucks too.

I had been aiming to write something like this but found some of the key points I’d touch on already addressed in Alex’s “A Second Video Game Crash?” I suppose I’ve got enough to say that makes it worthy of its own article so without further ado; here is my take on what’s happening in the game industry…TODAY.

While I may not be some sort of untouchable, game industry guru, I, like many of you, carry within me a passion for video games that burns so strongly we believe it can guide us through the stagnant and uncertain time our hobby faces.

The Wii is plagued with shovelware so abundant that some would try and use it to define the system. Microsoft and Sony have been practically offering the same thing they have been for the past few years and while this may not sound like a bad thing to some people, those that have developed the insight to think ahead will see the problem with this sort of planning.

I’m going to focus on matter of the Wii before I address the potential folly of Microsoft and Sony. The Wii has been a ridiculous success. With the least amount of graphical prowess it has become the best selling console, like the PS2 was last generation, and sold so well that Nintendo can even boast that Wii Sports has sold even more than the original Super Mario Bros. On this silver cloud of new exciting things is a dark lining of reluctant publishers and confused developers that are not only unsure how to approach the Wii but don’t seem to understand the audience that have carried it to victory.

I’m talking about the casual market. Casual games are designed to be simple, enjoyable and easy to pick up and put down. A casual gamer isn’t likely to be parked somewhere for hours at a time playing a game. That is not casually gaming. As Nintendo hacked away at the brambles and lay down the ground work of a road that seem to pave itself with money developers misinterpreted “casual” as “childish” or “mini games”. They made the mistake of trying to copy something they did not understand. Brain Age is not marketed as a childrens’ game (yes, it’s on the DS but it’s part of the Touch Generation) but we’ve got plenty of Brain Age knock offs because developers think that by picking and choosing the features and ideas that seem to work they can put it all together in an easy to sell package.

This idea has slowly choked our industry and cursed us to sequels. For years, game companies have gone back and forth, taking ideas from each other, improving them incrementally and combining other ideas just to edge out the other. This habit of heavy “recycling” has become common practice for the game industry now. To better understand the situation you can think of this as a doctor treating symptoms, or identifying characteristics of profitable games, when he or she hasn’t made the effort to diagnose the illness, or what really makes the profitable games good. Publishers impeded by fear of risk or driven by greed, rape ideas that work until the beauty and wonder has vanished and all that is left is a shallow experience. Look no further then Activision’s Guitar Hero series to see what I mean. I’d go in detail about Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but that’s probably an article of its own for another time. Make no mistake about it though, Gentle Reader, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are casual games.

With everyone eager to get a piece of that casual pie, buggy shovelware games that are much smaller, cheaper and easier to program (I’ve seen some that were literally made in Flash) than your standard epic adventure are congesting stores and making plenty because there are now MORE uninformed people buying games. The Wii has been saddled with the burden of the most popular console and carries on its back an even larger stock of shovelware fueled by an even bigger and more profitable game industry than the PS2 had seen. Game publishers holding the purse strings might see Wii Sports or Brain Age clones going out by the truck full, as easy money only a fool (or an altruistic gamer) would turn down.

Amongst the shameful pile of ill conceived games that litter the Wii shelves are jewels we must mine and spread word of if we hope to see things change for the little white box. We can hope that developers will eventually do more but if you must do more than hope (And you should) speak with your money. If you feel your purchases aren’t speaking loud enough, then you can carry it farther and inform those that walk into game aisles confused and lost. Even if it’s as little as telling someone that not all developers put out great titles, it is a step in the right direction.

It is my opinion that there is three ways this surge in casual gamers is going to end. They are going to forget and stop playing (as a casual it’s not that big a deal to them), they might keep playing and inject a steady flow of money into the industry that outlives us but eventually dissipates or they will become deeper invested in video games. In the third scenario, they become us. They may find joy in playing video games and adapt the ability to think resourcefully and manipulate their controls to learn more complex skills. I have a hard time seeing the second scenario coming to be and believe it will either be the first or second.

]]> http://giantenemyblog.com/press-start-what-have-wii-become/feed/ 0 http://giantenemyblog.com/a-disgruntled-look-at-the-playstation-3-trigger-buttons/ http://giantenemyblog.com/a-disgruntled-look-at-the-playstation-3-trigger-buttons/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:00:11 +0000 St.Feraligatr http://giantenemyblog.com/?p=4281 The shoulder button: one often assumes this is but a trivial part of the gaming experience. After all, the majority of your operations are controlled via the face buttons! This has changed in recent years though. With the rising popularity of the first person shooter, the shoulder buttons have received more and more use. What was once an important button for throwing up your shield in smash brothers or reversing a strike in a wrestling game has taken on a whole new undertaking: shooting stuff. This would be fine and dandy except for one thing: due to the gamers’ love of shooters, the controllers themselves have undergone a radical shift.

Let’s take a look at the Dual-shock 3, shall we? While the dual-shock two had four shoulder buttons that were very operational and easy to command, the dual shock three has two that are operational and two that are complete wastes of space. If you happen to own a Playstation 3, you know exactly which two buttons I am speaking of. The R2 and L2 buttons on the Dualshock 3 are perhaps the worst buttons in the world. No, I’m not using hyperbole, I’m not making stuff up. I literally think you could scavenge the world three times over and not come up with buttons as miserable as the Playstation 3’s R2 and L2 buttons.

What exactly makes these buttons so bad? Well, first, they are triggers. The trigger button trend on consoles started primarily with the N64. The trigger on that system was fine and dandy. It was placed on the very back of your controller and if you needed to shoot something, you knew where it was. It didn’t get in the way, it was just there and ready to help! The Gamecube controller did away with said trigger button, but another system decided to dance with it. The X-Box. As we all know, the X-Box cast aside traditional console controls and decided that they would not have shoulders, but triggers. The popularity of console shooters such as Golden Eye and Perfect Dark helped usher this idea in.

I knew Halo would find a new and innovative way to make me suffer.

These were functional triggers at least. I kind of struggle to find a reason as to why one genre needs to have several controllers fashioned after it, but they worked fine. Obviously, the X-Box 360 would continue the trigger trend, but on that system they also decided to throw in regular shoulder buttons. These buttons, nubs as they refer to them, are pretty ho-hum. They aren’t horrible buttons but they don’t get the job done, especially when compared to the Playstation’s L1 and R1 buttons.

Now, back to the Dualshock 3. Console first person shooters, as mentioned, were already popular at the time the Playstation 2 released. In my opinion, and this is not based on fact or something I’ve heard, the Playstation 3’s controller was altered due to the heightened popularity of shooters in America, specifically Halo. Some proof to this claim would point at the otherwise mediocre Resistance being one of the Playstation 3’s launch titles. So, because of the success of the X-Box, trigger buttons needed to be placed there. Shooter fans needed to be pleased.

Here’s the problem though: they’re absolutely garbage. When you try to press them down, they only seem to work about 75% of the time. I know Sony offers a service to “fix” this issue, but it doesn’t fix responsiveness, it just fixes grip issues. Some people apparently suffer the horrible tragedy of their fingers sliding off the buttons and that needs to be rectified right away. Those of us who jam away on the buttons and can’t get a move to activate? We’re screwed.

You might be wondering why this would affect me. After all, I’m not the biggest shooter guy and, technically speaking, if all you do is hold down the button and hold a machine gun (or something), the controller will work fine. Here’s the deal though: while I dislike shooters I have an absolute fetish for fighters. Some people dig the Spanish Fly, some dig the human horn, me…nothing gets me going like a good fighter.

Now, for those of you who played Street Fighter on the original Playstation, you will note where the default strong-kick button was. The RIGHT shoulder, the R2 button. If you wanted someone to feel the wrath of your heavy kick, by God they would feel it. So, I buy Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on my Playstation 3 expecting a decent controlling experience. After all, the whole reason I got it on the PS3 and NOT the 360 is because I vastly prefer the PS3’s joy-pad. What I got was nothing short of a horrifying experience. You could say it was akin to waking up in a world where the Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehogs played like Sonic 2006.

Well hey, the R1 button still works well!

I would choose Ken and have the audacity to try to heavy kick someone. First, for those who didn’t know, I had to alter the controls to get R2 to be heavy kick. I wanted the same experience I had on the PS1. Now, when I would try the move, it would work most of the time, but this one time I was on the ground trying to trip someone. I notice that Ken is just sitting there with a smug look on his face. He knows darn well that he is screwing me over. He may also know that he is about to get walloped. Naturally, I go on to lose the fight due to this momentary lapse in concentration.

Here’s the thing, this R2 button not registering can be a thing that severely hampers you in an on-line battle. Imagine your opponent was very darn near defeat and for whatever reason instead of pulling out the way faster light punch or kick, you decide to rock the heavy kick. YOU FINISH IN STYLE! Well, when it doesn’t register, you’ll look confused and by the time you realize what happens, your opponent is mopping up the floor with your fallen blood.

I thought maybe it was just Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. After all, it was a “newer” game, so maybe I was just going crazy and this problem didn’t really exist. I then try to play Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the controller and find to my horror that things haven’t changed at all! The PS3’s trigger buttons just freaking suck! It was sad that I had to turn off my super expensive monolith of a system in order to play my long deceased Playstation 1.

Oh man, this is going to hurt SF IV too, isn’t it?

Sony really needs to release a new sort of PS3 controller for those of us who don’t shoot all the time. Releasing a controller specialized to one genre is stupid (well, I mean, except fighters. People buy fighting pads and only play fighters with them, so why not?) and they really need to consider their non-shooting fans. There could be a really great game in the future that demands the use of the R2 or L2 button and someone could go out to use it and they’d be right out of luck. Oh, too bad, how dare you try and play the game.

I also wouldn’t hate an official USB adaptor so I can use my still very damn good Playstation 2 controller on my PS3. That’s another thing I don’t get, wireless stuff. Are wired controllers really that big of a dilemma? When I got done playing my SNES I would simply wrap up my cables and put them away. It never really got in the way of my experience. I guess there are a lot of people with OCD out there who just can’t handle the wires…that’s gotta be it. I’m probably the only person I know who vastly prefers to use the wired 360 controller (AT LEAST THEY OFFER ONE!). Maybe I’m just being dragged kicking and screaming into this generation.

Whatever the case, I’m off subject now, so allow me to cut it short. Sony: Release a new Playstation 3 controller with non-ridiculous shoulder buttons. Those of us who don’t play shooters all the time are desperately begging you!

Moving at the speed of the internet, a video leaked to youtube with a trailer for Dead Rising 2 has prompted Capcom to confirm that there is a second Dead Rising game in the works and that it will be on the XBox 360, PS3 and the PC! You can see the aforementioned video here

This time around it looks like the protagonist is clearly not Frank West, but some similarly strong chinned man that fancies matching his hair with his sporty bike jacket. The zombie infested mall sandbox has been given a theme swap and now puts the player in some sort of luxury resort casino called Fortune City.

Dead Rising was developed and distributed by Capcom, Dead Rising 2 will still be distributed by Capcom but developed by Blue Castle Games, a developer that until now has only made a few sports games. As with all fast breaking news, details are still scarce but when it’s considered that the first Dead Rising has established a fan base and Dead Rising 2 will be multi-platform there’s little reason, other than Blue Castle Games’ repertoire, that it won’t play or sell well.

The fact that this happened is just a darn shame. This game takes the strategy genre, one that is as old and as un-willing to change as any out there, and does something unique with it. You see, when we think of a Japanese strategy RPG, we see isometric planes. We see characters moving across very limited battlefields with very simplistic backgrounds. They are fun titles, but for the most part, if you’ve played one…you know what you’re getting to.

Western SRPGs are a bit different. What you see in those games is a free-range of motion and no-turn based gameplay. Your main goal is to over-take an enemy stronghold through troop management. Obviously, different SRPGs will play differently, but as a general rule, that is what you will be getting.

What Valkyria Chronicles does is meld these two genres into one, new genre. It takes the Japanese idea of turn-based gameplay (except instead of unit speed being factored in, your whole team moves at once) and combines it with the western idea of being able to move freely. You select a character, move them and you can go in whatever direction you want. While the distance you can move is limited – mostly due to the fact that the game would be broken if a character had infinite movement on his turn – this allows you to take a very western approach: troop placement. Where you leave your comrades will ultimately effect what happens on your defensive turn. You can’t just leave your guys out willy-nilly. If you have your troops strategically placed, you can cause damage to the enemy on their turn, which is very nice.

How to determine the amount you move is based primarily on the class you choose. As in the Japanese strategy RPG, the difference in class really reflects how well a given character will perform. The scout class has pretty impressive range of movement, but when it comes to direct conflict they are probably not your class of choice. The Shock trooper will have a somewhat limited range of movement but will act as your primary offensive and defensive unit. If you place your shock troopers properly, it will be difficult for an enemy to do you in. The Lancer is your anti-tank unit. That’s kind of self-explanatory. As you can guess, their range is limited. The Engineer is your main repair unit. They can re-stock your troops on ammo and have the best healing in the game. Snipers are self explanatory. They don’t move very far, mostly because if you could maneuver them anywhere, it would hamper the experience. Once you understand these classes, the game will feel very rewarding.

As you can tell, this game makes heavy use of gun-weaponry. Unlike your typical Japanese strategy RPG, nobody really uses a sword. You’ll be firing at people. Don’t worry, those of you who dislike shooters, this doesn’t melt into one of those. The closest it gets to an FPS is the fact you need to go into first-person view to shoot someone. You only get one-shot per unit turn and the amount of bullets they fire is based on the class. Generally speaking, you get five shots if you’re an engineer or a scout, one if you’re a sniper, one if you’re a lancer, and twenty if you’re a shock trooper. Once you shoot at someone though, everything will be unloaded from your gun. So keep that in mind when you figure out what you want your troops to do. It may seem kind of weird, but once you get used to this system it’ll feel nice, fresh, and unique.

I also like that the game evolves as you play it. Once you think you’ve learned the way the game goes, they’ll throw something new at you. You’ll get to deal with night-time vision, women with the ancient power of the valkyrur, mortars among other things. From chapter 4 onwards, the game keeps throwing new and different challenges at you that will actually make you think about how to tackle a situation. For a Japanese strategy game, that hasn’t happened in a long time.

My only real complaint would have to be the fact that the way you select which troop to move seems kind of primitive. A lot of people may like the war-map look but for me…I wish they would have had more panache to it. Again, it serves its purpose – It tells you where your troops are and also display enemy unites – but in a way I just wish it looked a little different. This would just be pulling hairs though.

It would kind of suck to deal with all of these things and find a story that just didn’t cut-the-mustard. Well, I’m here to tell you that Valkyria Chronicles story more than does that. It’s actually quite an impressive little tale that will remind many of World War II. It’s not going to win any rewards for excellence in writing, but I guarantee that the characters and scenarios will keep you coming back for more. It’s not a case of: “Gosh, I really don’t care what happens with these guys.” I seriously wanted everyone to live. That’s almost never the case.

I guess what makes those characters so likable is the fact that they evolve as you play the game. Most of the time, game’s will throw characters out there and have them grow artificially. They will just throw a relationship out there and expect it to stick. To me, this game really had legitimate issues that the characters had and expands on them. Rosie is a vehement racist at the start of the game. I mean, god damn, WAKKA thinks that she is going overboard. When you get going, you can see her growing and you understand more of why she feels that way and when she eventually casts off the shackles of racism, you GET why. It’s not: “HAH, THEY’RE GOOD NOW!” It’s excellent. Good writing in a game is rare and I really appreciate that.

What’s also nice is that your fellow troops also have personalities, and not just the main characters. You will get to know more about your men and when to use them in specific situations. You see, your troops personalities play into how they work in battle. For instance, Vyse (of Skies of Arcadia fame), has the ability to excel in situations that are particularly adverse. If you need a guy to clear out a lot of enemy troops, this is who you want to use. Edy, on the other hand, is the opposite of this. While she is an idol, she HATES being under pressure. If you need her to come up big, she will ultimately collapse so you need to make sure to use her in simple, pressure less situations.

If I had to choose one character the struck particularly well with me, it’d definitely be the game’s main heroin: Alicia. She is such a special, special character that is likable and unique. She doesn’t seem to fit every single game heroin stereotype and I really appreciate that.

One of the things that probably cost this game a ton of sells would be the look. To the un-intiated, when you see a cover with an anime woman on it and very anime-esque graphics, what kind of game do you think you’re getting? A JRPG. In general, people won’t buy JRPGs unless they know they’re getting a quality experience and when you see the words SEGA on the cover, that experience is in doubt.

The thing is though, these graphics are damn impressive. I haven’t seen any screens from the upcoming anime, but if they can look like the in-game graphics from Valkyria Chronicles, let’s just say that I will be very pleased. There were times when I honestly felt that I was playing an anime, which is an experience I haven’t felt since I played Windwaker back on the Gamecube. No matter how far ahead graphics get in the future, this game will hold up.

The graphics are so smooth that it really helps the gameplay along. Moving across a beautiful looking world is so much more appealing than looking at generic isometric maps. You get great looking grass and hills and sky. It’s not a “brown and gray” game that seems so prevalent today. It’s a beautiful, colorful experience. It’s a case where the graphics help the game along even more.

While you’re enjoying those things, it’ll be hard not to notice the awesome music that is being fed to you. In my opinion, this had to be the best OST in 2008. There were some scores that had me completely impressed. Actually, I have to admit, outside of Super Mario Galaxy, this might be the most competent soundtrack of this generation. If you’re rubbing elbows with galaxy, you know you’re doing a good job.

For a strategy RPG, I would say that this title has a good amount of replay value. While people who are just looking for one play through probably only have about twenty hours worth of gameplay in front of them, if you wish to A-rank every mission or get every single bit of story out of the game, you’ll come back a bit longer. There are also skirmishes (exhibition matches) that you can play on a variety of difficulty levels if you really want to get the most out of your game as you can. I know a lot of people HATE games that they put down after ten hours, and I assure you, this isn’t one of those.

It’s a shame that SEGA didn’t put more effort into advertising this game. I have not seen one advertisement for this title on television, I have not seen many of them in print. Really, if I didn’t have access to the internet I may not know it exists. This game deserves game of the year hype, this game deserves to be standing right alongside Braid and Fallout 3 as one of the best games this year, but if the company that released it isn’t willing to get the name out there, why should websites do the work for them? I wish it were different.

This is a game that if you own a Playstation 3, you simply must own. In a system that many considered starved for exclusives, Valkyria Chronicles more than gets the job done. You can trust me on this one. If you’re looking for innovation that doesn’t involve waggle, if you’re looking for Dreamcast-era SEGA quality, look no farther than here. You’ll have a great time.

9.4/10

That’s essentially the rallying cry of the watchdog group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, or CCFC. The name may ring a bell to those who follow the gaming news; those who don’t, well, really didn’t miss much. 

Once again the CCFC’s antics don’t fail to deliver on the entertainment value, and this time the object of their (pointless) ire is Lego Batman: The Videogame. Why, you ask? I don’t know either. 

Let’s try to rationalize the two basic components of Lego Batman: The Videogame:

• Lego = good, educational, mindless fun.
• Batman = awesome story revolving around the concept of justice and about how crime doesn’t pay. 

I certainly don’t see any problem with it; it looks like a winning formula when looked at from any angle. But of course, CCFC being a watchdog group that dedicates itself to the unneeded, unwanted, and unnecessary cause of taking commercialism away from childhood, they condemned Lego Batman as a virtual spawn of commercial Satan, including it in their list of Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children. Check out their write-up:

How do you turn the ultimate creative toy into a symbol of commercialized childhood?  Begin by partnering with media companies to sell that toy in branded kits designed for recreating movies like Star Wars, rather than creative construction.  Then, dispense with hands-on building altogether by turning your toy into a video game so that instead of deciding what to build next, children choose which cyber weapons to use to beat up their opponent.  Finally, ignore the fact it was rated suitable for ages 10 & up and partner with McDonald’s for a Happy Meal toy giveaway to simultaneously promote the video game, junk food, and the violent Dark Knight movie series to preschoolers.

See, the root of the problem (and sadly, the existence) of CCFC lies with the misguided reasoning that commercialism is bad, bad, bad for children. Blame the people of older generations who wistfully say things beginning with “You know, in the old days we [insert nice but horribly outdated activity here].” This is not to say that old games rife with physical activities are passe; this is to say that things change as time passes. What’s interesting to kids now is decidedly different compared to what was awesome during the collective childhoods of the people who comprise the CCFC.

Let’s be open-minded here. Commercialism has become and now always will be a part of every childhood. There will always be the fictional heroes that children want to idolize, there will always be merchandise related to those “heroes” that children would want to have, to let them bring a piece of their beloved idol along wherever they go. Like the Lego Batman toys and their virtual counterpart, the videogame. 

We shouldn’t also forget about the people whose lives are sustained by this aspect of childhood, and included among them are those who work in the videogame industry, who are now sadly experiencing the brunt of the current economic crisis. But the CCFC doesn’t care, right? All they care about is thinking for the children, yes?

Which brings us to my next point: why bother thinking for the children when there’s a great, awesome invention already available for this very function? Yes, I am talking about the Parental Units, also known as Mum and Dad.

These self-professed watchdogs are the very reason why people nowadays don’t exercise their ability to think for themselves or to be accountable by their actions. At the risk of saying something that has been said ad nauseum, parents are responsible in looking out for their children. Watchdogs dedicating themselves to the noble cause of saving children are, in essence, good, but at the end of the day, the parents are the ones ultimately responsible for molding their children’s thinking, especially when some of the watchdogs in question are spouting inane statements such as:

Finally, ignore the fact it was rated suitable for ages 10 & up and partner with McDonald’s for a Happy Meal toy giveaway to simultaneously promote the video game, junk food, and the violent Dark Knight movie series to preschoolers.

Last time I heard, ESRB and ratings exist. Again, another horrible example of them assuming that parents don’t and can’t provide the much-needed guidance to their kids.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchmen?

Yeah, you heard it right. I want to buy the most expensive current-gen console just to play a game that’s only five bucks after reading the official press release of Keita Takahashi’s Noby Noby Boy. Does that make me impulsively stupid? Being a ‘normal’ kind of stupid is already bad, but an impulsive one? Let me explain myself for a bit.

Despite the delay of the game’s PlayStation network release, the facts that Namco Bandai rolled out made me consider making what could be my biggest purchase for the year. In case you aren’t aware of the general gameplay mechanics yet, let me count the ways why I want to blow my money over a ‘mere’ five-dollar title:

1. It’s essentially an online multiplayer game where the achievements of a single player will benefit everyone who plays Noby Noby Boy. How is this so? The aggregated score (or lengths) of every player will let an NPC reach other planets within the solar system, unlocking it for all the Noby Noby Boy players across the world.
2. It’s created by Keita Takahashi. 
3. Guaranteed great stuff.

It’s strange that such a measly priced game is making me seriously consider getting a PS3. It’s actually a console that I decided is too expensive for me to keep around and play, thanks to the exorbitant electric bills that I got by the time I borrowed one to play Metal Gear Solid 4. No, I couldn’t afford to get addicted to such a powerhog (I usually have my consoles turned on for ten solid hours if I really get into a game), so I willed myself not to buy Sony’s Cell-powered machine, as painful as it sounded.

Now, am I in danger of making a big purchase for the sake of getting a glorified screensaver? As awesome as it sounds, Noby Noby Boy’s gameplay mechanics (eat, stretch, eat, stretch, upload score/length) sound so basic it may get too repetitive. Then again, so is Katamari, and I loved it a LOT.

Have you ever played Mechwarrior? If the answer is no, don’t feel too bad, neither have most people. The cockpit has been empty for sometime now, specifically in first person mech simulation games. The last genuine mech game that allowed some 1st person viewing was Chromehounds for the Xbox 360, an early release that saw everything from perfect scores to abysmal ones. When one thinks about all of the asskickery that goes on in games today, such as ripping people in half with a chainsaw, punching someone so hard they explode or paying a stripper to take her clothes off, it would make sense that the “giant robots shooting other giant robots” genre would be flourishing, but of course, this is not the case.

Here are some possible reasons, but feel free to throw your own ideas in:

1: Lack of support in Japan: I was once told that the Japanese had a +5 racial skill to piloting mechs. Ignorance aside, the fact that no great mech games have been spawned in Japan has to be a huge factor.

2: The mech games that have been spawned are not first person: Gundam games are always a hot seller in Japan,   whether it be for Psp or the Ps3, but these are always over the shoulder games, never deep inside a reinforced chassis strapped to enough plutonium to destroy a small village
2b: Mecha games in Japan tend to cross the line into Anime: Quite frankly, I would trade sword dancing for LRM’S and jump jets in a heart beat. Mech enthusiasts are not interested in the flash, they are interested in grit.

3: Lack of quality in armored Core: Armored core, an over the shoulder mech game is ok. Good, not great. While it definitely has an anime feel, it still relies heavily on the customization and simulation mech enthusiasts strive for. Perhaps a definitively awesome AC game would help?

4: The decline in computer gaming vis a vis consoles vis a vis keyboards: Mech Games, may just be the most difficult games to simulate for the limited space current console controllers have. They rival MMO’s and RTS’ for sheer amount of specific actions. Imagine trying to map turret movement to a d-pad or analog, it would be a disaster.

Those are just some ideas, what are your thoughts? For those of us who have played them, why are they gone? For those who haven’t, are you interested? Or is the genre a thing better left to the past?