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.

Some people will dismiss it without playing it and those people suck, if you’re going to bash a game, at least try it first. That being said, Halo Wars, believe it or not, is a good game. The missions are interesting, and even challenging, and everything just seems right. Let’s run through some of the strong points.

Strong Points:

• Great Controls/Easily Accessible: Now I want to get this out of the way because as I mentioned before, a RTS is all about the controls and the functions. Though Halo Wars lacks some extra features (hot keys, patrol, etc.), the game has essentially everything to make it accessible. This does involve a select all button which many hardcore RTS fan despise, but I highly doubt hardcore RTS fans are the target market for this game. That is to say that, yes, this game is somewhat easier than the conventional PC RTS, but it is in no means easy on higher difficulties.
• Everything just fits: This applies both to the graphics, music, levels. The units look amazing and very clear, and also match the Halo realm, which I find surprising, add to that visually stunning cutscenes and you’ve got some nice eye candy as battles go on. The music is the same type of orchestrated pieces that you would find in other Halo games, and to be honest it suits the game better than the Halo games. The orchestrated music brings a feeling of a grand scale, the feeling that you’re involved in something epic, and that is what Halo Wars is about.
• Varying Missions: Though there are the usual “go here, destroy base” missions, you’ll find there is often evac/escort missions, specialty type missions, and the occasional dodge the fucking scarab that kills you one hit mission, that thing is a beast to take down on legendary.
• Co-operative Campaign: This was the basis of my co-op article because the game is barrels of fun when you play with a friend. You would expect that things would get confusing and frustrating with two people sharing one base, and you’d be wrong. Yes you share resources, no you are not bound by what another person does (in most cases). What you build is yours to command, though you can also select to transfer units to the other player, and this comes in very, very handy in most cases.
• Unlockables: The skull system returns again in Halo Wars, along with optional objectives, if the skull system works like it did in Halos 1-3, then you could have one hell of a time using all of them on legendary.

Weak Points:

• Units don’t know when the fuck to stay still: This may be a pet peeve but it really annoys me to no end, if I command you to go somewhere, I don’t expect you to be moving in the opposite direction due to one group of grunts being there.
• Human Campaign: This was covered by Gamespot but the fact is you can’t play as the Covenant or the Flood in campaign, it’s a bummer I know, but there may be definitely will be DLC including their campaign. You can play as the Convenant in Skirmish mode though, so if you’re iching for some alien play, head on there.
• Where’s the story: Maybe I’m just slow, but it seems to me that there isn’t a huge story regarding Halo Wars, it seems to just jump into the Halo universe and follow the events of one John Forge, I was expecting a little more out of it in terms of story, that’s all.
• Progression: It seems the game never really confirms itself, even past half way through the game you’re still being introduced to new units that only have a one time use or one mission. I’d prefer the first maybe 5-6 missions was with introducing new units, and the rest was how you play it.

All in all, Halo Wars is an amazing game that has lived up to it’s hype in my eyes (probably because there wasn’t too much hype), and it’s worth a look over from any Xbox 360 owner. It has challenge to offer to the hardcore RTS group while remaining accessible to the newbie RTS folk. If you are planning to buy it, go for the mythic map pack bundle because even if you don’t use it yourself, you can sell it on ebay for about 40 dollars USD.

It all started with Halo: Combat Evolved, the game had introduced some new elements and had fixed up some older elements, and overall the game was extremely enjoyable. Halo had a unique storyline (at the time), a well orchestrated soundtrack, and an adventure that seemed to be pretty expansive and epic. The game was regarded as one of the best games released at that time, and most people who played it seemed to think so as well.

Fast-forward to the release of Halo 2, now we have a massive expansion in the Halo fanbase, so much expansion that we now have younger kids playing Halo: CE, and waiting for the new one to be released. Halo 2 hits Xbox on November 9, 2004, people go bat-shit crazy, and start making line-ups to get the games before anyone else does. This could be understandable because Halo has become apart of culture at this point. Halo 2 now bring dual-wielding, a similar storyline, and addicting online play with it. More people now join the fan base, anyone from a non-third world country has heard of Halo, and some are playing it.

September 25, 2007, Halo 3 hits the world. Massive line-ups due to the massive fan base, many of them, kids below the age of 18 which is funny because the game is rated M. So now we are introduced to a very accessible online system, where even a child of the age of 8 can use effectively, and it shows, because now you have these kids yelling in your ear talking about god knows what because half of the things they say are so high pitched only a dog can hear them, and because the other half of the time, they’re screaming about either how good they think they’re doing, or about how you just mopped the floor with their face.

Another part of this fanbase is the “manly” kids who either play the game way to seriously, or believe there is no other weapon except for the power weapons and the assualt rifle and those are the funniest people ever. What you commonly hear from those people is “WHAT THE FUCK MAN, I HAD A SWORD AND HE TOOK ME OUT WITH A BATTLE RIFLE?! FUCKING HACKER!!! <insert screams of displeasure here>”. There’s something to be said about having a skill level in the game, and you’d think skill would be shown through the rank system, but oh how you’d be wrong. Often times I find people at top ranks get there by getting ahead by 1-4 points, then hiding, so it becomes difficult to win the game because the pussy is hiding. The best part is, they refer to this as a tactical skill, but as soon as I do it, it’s called unfair and cheating. Bullshit.

Just a few days ago I was trying to get people to report my gamer tag so I can change it for free (I never picked the name in the first place, disadvantages of a used Xbox), and my polite question has refuted with waves of “Fuck off” and “Pay for it you prick”, and maybe I should pay for it, but instead of responding rudely they could of said “Just pay for it”. Maybe throughout the whole 10-12 matches I found four decent people who said sure, and who were fun to play with.

Without the fanbase, Halo 3 would be probably the online shooter of all time (if we don’t count the Valve games), instead the online community is a lot like a sea of piss, with each individual. If you play with a friend or two you know via real life, the experience of shit is dimmed down, but without it? Boy.. just.. boy. It isn’t that there aren’t cool people on Xbox Live, it’s just finding them takes a bit of effort.

Another reason is because I just got an Xbox 360. My father had gotten one some time ago, but then he realized he never used it, and gave it to me. Awesome.

However, he’d forgotten to give me the games he had as well. So I had to enjoy my 360 without any games. Luckily, it’s not too hard.

When I first booted up my 360 I had to make an avatar for the new Xbox Live thing. Took a picture, etc. Then I decided to try and recover the Windows Live account I used for the Dawn of War 2 beta. Luckily, it worked. But I had to make a new avatar. I couldn’t find the eyes I used for the first time, and I suddenly looked like a complete faggot. Nice. I did find some better eyes later on.

So what do you do on a console with no games? Download demos of course! Luckily the downloads were quite fast, but they were humongous as well. Seriously, 1.5 gigs for a demo I’ll play for less than 30 minutes? I was also annoyed by the demo setup of some games. For example, Universe at War had a tutorial that explained the controls… But didn’t explain the actual game mechanics. So when I tried a skirmish I had no idea what to do.

I found the new Xbox Live experience quite clunky. It took me quite some time to find things (and I found out that the menu you bring up by clicking the big X is actually much quicker and more efficient), and it took me a long time to get a list with demos only.

And while we’re talking about lists, the listing on genre is terrible. Since when is The Orange box a Strategy and Simulation game? There’s a LOT of games that are incorrectly labelled, which makes it hard to try and find games of the actual genre.

Tomorrow I’ll get the games from my father, which are some racing game (One of the need for speeds, no idea which one) and Halo 3. Has anyone got any suggestions on what games to get?

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.

N is an indie computer game developed by Metanet Software. It’s 100% free, and for a free game, it packs a hell of a lot of content. The levels are each unique and challenging and what I truley love about this title is that it’s just pure platforming. No storyline, no background story, no cutscenes, no bullshit. Just pure running and jumping.

So you play a ninja, or ninja shaped man-person, and your goal is to get to the exit door. Sounds easy enough right? Well now throw in some switches and buttons and some frustrating enemies, and hey, you have N. The enemies are very well designed, and well suited for each level, and the challenge each enemy offers is unique and often times frustrating. You have: Automated Robots, Lock-on Robots, Lock-on Missiles, Targeting Lasers, Snipers, Steel Thwomps, and Sliding Rocks. All of these can kill you, and you can’t do a damn thing about it except dodge and run. That’s what makes N unique from other platforming games, in most games you have the option to eliminate enemies, in N you must run to survive. Oh yeah, don’t forget the landmines, sit there waiting for you to fall or jump into them.

The levels range from a piece of pie, to a walk through the bowels of hell, and I wish I was kidding, some of the levels are so timed that it may take you 100 or more times to beat that single stage. Despite the complexity of some parts, each level is well designed in the way that it’s completely beatable, and it’s open to be beaten as you like. You wanna be that risky mofo that runs toward danger? That’s fine, you’ll still find a way to beat the level. You wanna be the cautious kid that takes it slow and logically? That’s fine too, you’ll probably do better than the risky mofo.

Top off all this platforming with some user-based content, and you’ve got yourself an A+ game. That’s right, you can access other people’s levels and play extra levels just for sheer fun. There is a huge range of levels to play, and level types range from ridiculously difficult, to do nothing to win, to even art created with blocks.

If you want to take N a bit farther, or you want more platforming goodness, there is also N+, available for the PSP, DS, and the XBL marketplace. With N+ you get portability to platform in the game, while you platform in real life, and more original content. Though N+ is not free, the game completely deserves it’s price. Either way, if you enjoy platforming, N or N+ should definitely be one of the titles you check out.

F.E.A.R. is in fact not a horror game, but a first person shooter with paranormal and horrific undertones, you’ll run into the occasional freaky occurrence here and there but it’s more shooter than anything else. That being said, the game is still pretty creepy with random occurrences of ghosts or demons popping up and voices being heard. However you don’t feel this creepiness throughout the game, actually when you are in combat, you feel none of it, the paranoia becomes fun for a while.

The scariest or creepiest parts of F.E.A.R. lie completely in the sounds, and the lighting. Even when you are not in combat there is intensive music playing, and often you’ll find yourself jumping at bit at sounds of yourself moving and sounds of the environment. There were many times throughout F.E.A.R. when I jumped because of my own shadow, it’s unnerving.

The combat is your standard FPS configuration: run, duck, shoot, rinse and repeat, but F.E.A.R. does have some notable weapons. Aside from the regular submachine gun, the usual pistol, and the typical shotgun (which you will use a lot), there is a particle blaster, a repeating air missile gun (my personal favourite), and a nail gun. The gunplay is fun but horribly repetitive, and it’s very possible to become bored of the firefights by the end of the game. Monolith does occasionally through in a mech or a super solider fighter here and there but it’s again the same kind of fighting.

The graphics are good for their day and age, though there are some performance issues like frames per second drops during graphic intensive times, but overall F.E.A.R. plays well. The environments are overly repeated and sometimes it feels like the developers simply copy and pasted parts to make a level. However, one thing this game does excel at is it’s level design, there are times (often in later levels) where the path isn’t so clear, and you have to look around a bit more to find the right way to go, but this is vanquished by the linearity of the levels, there is only one path, and if you stray from that path you will either a. die, or b. hit a wall.

Despite all of the game’s flaws, the story is wonderful, even if it is broken up into minuscule pieces until the end of the game. This was something I had a problem with, there was no even flow of story coming. Throughout the levels you’d find pieces of data that act as background information for the game but you never really get a full blast of what’s going on until the end of the game.

If my judgment sounds straying it’s because the game has lots of up points and down points. F.E.A.R. is a great game, but with some fixing it could be much better. Overall I’d call it an average title, so if you have nothing else to play, you can pick up F.E.A.R. and not be disappointed, but if this game was still at retail value I’d say it wouldn’t be worth a full buy. I heard F.E.A.R. 2 is more polished than F.E.A.R. 1, so I will have to check it out and report back.

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/halo-wars-and-the-case-of-a-console-rts/ http://giantenemyblog.com/halo-wars-and-the-case-of-a-console-rts/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:00:03 +0000 Peter http://giantenemyblog.com/?p=4718 The real time strategy (RTS) genre has been popular on the PC for ages now, hell, it’s even a sport. When Halo Wars was first announced you got the general consensus from people that it’s going to fail horribly because it’s an RTS without the use of a keyboard and mouse. However, is that the case? Can it be possible for a genre almost extremely exclusive on the PC to be done well on a console? I went to find out when I downloaded the demo for Halo Wars.

Most people remember the monstrosity of StarCraft 64, I remember renting it for my Nintendo 64, and I remember loving the game for being StarCraft but hating how it was done. If you have never paid StarCraft 64 let me tell you this: Don’t. The consoles are a huge deal in RTS games. StarCraft 64 takes good controls and decides add a nice layer of shit upon it. This isn’t about SC 64 though, so let’s get to Halo.

The first thing I noticed about the demo is that the graphics are very well done, and the cutscenes are amazing. This time around we have more story from the Halo world, and we get a better sense of what was going on in the war between the Covenant and the Humans. Story is a major part of an RTS, and from what I’ve taken so far from Halo Wars, it’s not going to be on the short side of the plot stick.

Who cares about graphics and plot though, it’s all about the controls. Here is where the Halo Wars does fairly well! I was expecting to be fumbling with my controller to get simple tasks complete and I was very surprised. Though playing with a mouse and keyboard is infinitely better then a 360 controller, the controls work for the game.

The game itself, well here is where we reach a bit of a bump in the road. See because Halo Wars was built from the ground up for the Xbox 360, you have a more dumbed down RTS experience. Building bases is limited to where it lets you, resources are automated and limited only by how my supply pads you have. The battles feel more battle then strategy, but all and all the demo is actually fun, and that my friends is what it boils down to (for myself anyways).

So final impressions? Halo Wars will be a positive step in console RTS games, I could go as far as to say even some “hardcore” RTS players will grow to like it. It’s only a shame that it may do worse than Halo 3 because the fanbase seems to not have the patience required for an RTS game, then again, that Mythic map pack comes a month early with it. You never know.