Monday, February 27, 2006

Another like- minded opinion

My friends/co-workers talk about games often. I always like it when I see an article echo one of my (overly strong?) opinions.

Xbox 360 vs. The Public Good

Since the announcement of the 360 I felt like Microsoft was ushering in the next generation of consoles way too early. It seems like they want to quickly correct the shortcoming that exist with the first Xbox.

Were players crying for better graphics? Sure, player always like better graphics and Xbox had a clear graphics advantage. There are a handful of Xbox titles (Thief & Riddick for a couple) that look amazing and far better than the rest of the Xbox library. These game look WAY better than any PS2 game. I was amazed when I saw these games. What other treasures could the Xbox have produced? Anytime a game was released cross console I bought it for the Xbox because I knew 1) Better looking and 2) shorter load times.

Were players crying for new gameplay experiences? A resounding "YES." While I think this answer is heard louder in the developer community, the buzz word for the past 2 years has been "innovation." The industry has been acting like the game industry may die if innovation in gaming is not pushed to the forefront of eveyones mind.

Do you foster innovation by pushing a new console that focuses on "everything HD"? Thereby making art production (and not gameplay development) the most important/time consuming aspect of game development.

Do you foster innovation by cutting the life cycle of current gen consoles short? At a time when graphics and pushing/learning the system are no longer the largest obstacles.

Do you foster innovation by releasing 2 version of a console with different capabilites? I thought the Tapwave Zodiac made the dumbest move possible by having 2 different versions of their console (different amounts of memory and therefore price) but Xbox repeated this move.

No, but maybe you can get it right this time and get Japanese software support and sales. But still the Xbox 360 is floundering in Japan, being crushed by the Nintendo DS (like everything else) and little sales happening in the U.S. because no one can even find a 360 to buy.

Now people are just waiting on the sidelines to see what happens. Waiting to see if their local EB gets some 360s in stock or maybe just waiting for the PS3. The people I know who have a 360 are playing Halo 2 or Geometry Wars.

Well, if 360 doesn't go well maybe Microsoft can release another console in a couple of years.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Sirlin Article

My 2 best friends and I took a snowboarding trip last year. On the drive we had a discussion that was nearly identical to this article.

Me way on the "MMOs suck" end (and often using Street Fighter as an example of whats right with games and WoW as whats wrong), one friend on the "MMOs rule" end and one in the middle. Sirlin touches on much more of the "group > solo" aspect than I ever thought about and some interesting points about "being alone together."

Anyway, it's an excellent read as are many of Sirlin's articles.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

New Address

My blog has relocated to www.bulletpattern.com

Reality Sucks

Generally speaking I don't care much for realistic games: sports games, WW2 shooters, realistic driving games, etc. but the question os realism in games goes a bit farther than that.

Many people understand that game mechanics with no basis in the real world can create some really great games (Tetris anyone?) but often people I interact with seems to be obsessed with games needing to "make sense."

Often I hear, "Do you think it's weird that those platforms/tokens are just floating?" or "Do you think it's weird that these enemies just disappear when they die?" or "Do you think its weird that you can't see the character you are playing?"

No, no I don't.

I recently read an article in the December 2005 Edge magazine that really echoed (and more eloquently stated) my frustration with "reality" in games. I cannot find it online to link to, sorry.

So now when people say, "Do you think it's weird (insert common or new game mechanic here)?" I can simply reply, "...games can explore patterns of interaction and systems of cause and effect that aren't based on anything recognisably real." instead of wanting to grab their shirt and scream at them.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Doujin Games: Part 1

I recently got back from Japan where I got quite a few doujin games. I went to Comiket but the games were the next day only! So my buddy Keisuke got me a stack of games when he went. I also picked up some other games in Akihabara.

These "amateur" games are really great. Often made by 1-10 people these games really showcase some amazing quality most of the time. Onto the short reviews.

M.O.E. - No Limit Off Beat Action Shooting
The controls are shoot, block, special, rush and switch weapons. Each character has numerous weapons that have limited ammo (somehow you get more ammo, I could not figure out how this worked). You can play as Azumanga's Chiyo riding her dog or FLCL's Haruka.

The game is really fun. The weapons are varied and interesting. The characters (the one's I know) had nice little touches that stayed true to their respective source material (Chiyo can flap her hair and fly). There are just a few (5?) levels to run through then you fight the boss! Azumanga's "Daddy" complete with a kameneko attack.

Sometimes these controls feel a bit sluggish and just the act of turning around can sometimes be a chore. Often you will get kicked obscuring (there is an indicator though) but why does the action not center on my character?

There is a great edit mode where you can change the characters' weapons and color palette. This is also a great way to view the sprites! Pick it up if you have the chance and especially if you are an Azumanga fan.

SNS - Super Nintendo Sisters (?)
Two games in one! Don't get too excited they are both terrible! One is a Super Mario clone with a Windows Desktop theme. Poorly executed and subpar sprites. I actually ran into a bug where my character did not jump high enough. I could not jump over the first obstacle. I ran around confused, thinking there was a mechanic I was missing, my buttons were configured wrong, etc. I restarted the game and jumped over the obstacle no problem.

There was also a side shooter where you could switch you shooting method from side view to shooting at the ground, a really nice mechanic, but you just fly back and forth in this small area and shoot a couple of tanks. Skip it twice.

Shoot the Bullet
Another game from the creator of Shanghai Alice and another masterpiece. You know what to expect, nice soft background, nice little characters and a million bullets. But you know what you didn't expect? A totally new shooting mechanic!

You use a crosshair like a camera to "shoot" the enemy. You must get so many pictures to defeat the enemy. Any bullets in the frame are destroyed so it is both an offensive and defensive mechanic. Must buy!

More later...