Bits For Rent

Last week we stood witness to the coming and going of the newly resurrected E3 Expo (though the name Electronic Entertainment Expo shouldn’t really need another “Expo” at the end when truncated). The consensus, overall, was that it was good to have the grand ole celebration and excess back again, and that many, many good games could be found on the show floor. After having listened to, watched, and read a large amount of coverage, here is what I have taken away from this year’s E3, in as brief a manner as I could write it. (Read: long as fuck)

Going Through the Motions

Obviously we must address Project Natal, the oddly-named but altogether stunning motion-sensing technology revealed by Microsoft at their media summit/press conference/whathaveyou. First, a disclaimer: with all of the motion technologies, be they from Microsft, Sony, or Nintendo, there is a limit to what is feasible and within that a limit to what is practical. Nintendo offers the option in Punch-Out!! to let the player use the Wii remote NES-style, wand-and-nunchuck-style (with motion sensing), or with the balance board, which will detect your dodges. The last two methods have been reported to present odd feedback in the player’s movements, often to the detriment of his ability to play the game, and as such the first method, where only buttons are used to play the game, is considered the most practical. Still, the options are welcomed by the intrepid among us, and some even prefer the balance board or waggle+wand controls over the NES-style. Point being, while the industry and the hardware providers may be obsessed with bringing us a new take on interactivity, in the majority of cases this new format of game-playing can only be applied as either an option (PS3 games toggling use of SixAxis controls are another great example), or as a control input for a very strictly defined, limited gaming experience (Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii).

Take for instance the talk from both Microsoft and Sony of their respective technology’s ability to interpret one-to-one motion. The Wii only just achieved this (at least, is assumed to have) today with the release of Wii Motion Plus. But when Sony and Microsoft pitched this idea, they talked of using in ways Nintendo has carefully avoided: throwing fireballs in RPGs, holding your sword and shield, fighting with virtual enemies, etc. Nintendo has only ever tried to implement motion into combat with quick flicks of the wrist. Why? Because games are built upon systems of repeated actions — the old Bungie “30 seconds of fun” argument. To stand before your TV and swing and block attacks like a wildman not only makes you look like a total cad to whomever might catch you in the act, but it will also straight-up wear your ass out.

To put it simply, I think Microsoft has achieved something triumphant in its vocal and facial recognition, and it has the potential to harness a new level of immersion should it layer this technology into games. I do not think, however, that asking players to set down their controller and instead grasp at the air is what people want, or need, from this new style of game playing. History proves that simplicity will always be the victor, and as with Punch-Out!!, sometimes it is easier to press A than have to tell your character to kick someone in the junk. In that respect, I think Sony is wise to have chosen to expand on their available technology, the PlayStation Eye, and keep a controller in players’ hands. Nintendo also chose to keep that physical tether to the screen intact, and has met with resounding success.

What Sony must consider, however, is how — unlike Nintendo — these new controllers are not the standard PS3 interface, and must likely be purchased in pairs if they are to be best utilized. Both companies will fracture their audience with their tech, but unlike Microsoft, Sony’s device seems like applicable to sedentary, non-gaming uses, such as menu-browsing, video chat, and the like. It is a controller, not an interface, and thus it will live or die by the the software support it receives. So while I don’t really prefer one solution to the other, it is clear that they are more different than they are similar. Personally, I think both companies have opened up a can of worms entering into the arms race against a well fortified Nintendo, and both will likely lose more than they gain. Then again, I have been wrong about this kind of thing before.

Microsoft Shows Its Hand

There were a fair number of games at the Microsoft conference, and a large percentage of them were exclusives or “exclusives”. Let’s get right to it. Splinter Cell: Conviction hit me like a taser shot to the genitals (again with the male genitalia jokes, what gives?), and by all means deserves all the plaudits it has so far received. While the demo didn’t really show us what the actual, boring parts of the game will be like, it did a lot to reignite interest in this Sam Fisher guy and made me, a series agnostic, want to find myself in front of a 360 this fall to find out what’s become of the poor man’s daughter. And the visual flourishes? Classic Ubisoft. At least among all the Wii-related refuse they are releasing their core development teams haven’t lost their edge.

Modern Warfare 2, on the other hand, got knocked for showing just what a boring part of the game might be like… and then for cutting some of that out. Oi, talk about not being able to catch a break. I, for one, found the demo very engaging and am eager to get my hands on the latest from Infinity Ward. Call of Duty 4‘s multiplayer is beginning to wear stale for me and World at War was never anything more than a diversion from Left 4 Dead. Which I suppose brings us to the next title shown. (Quickly: I am glad that at least one Activision game doesn’t require a plastic peripheral, and that IW has spun their series off from Call of Duty, so that Treyarch cannot get its grimy paws on it. Good for you, boys.)

Left 4 Dead 2. Breathe in deeply for a second. Did you smell some odd fragrance to the air, like a kerosene lamp burning? That’s the lather that thousands of Valve fanboys have worked themselves into at the announcement that L4D will be getting a full sequel in lieu of the traditional long-tail content drops Valve has graced other titles with, such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2. Why the sudden change of heart? Money, no doubt, played a very large part. Why give away for free what you can charge full price for? We live in the era of DLC, where Resident Evil 5 comes with multiplayer on the disc but asks for you to pay a bit extra to unlock it. Where you can buy experience points or in-game money to save you the trouble of having to actually play the game to unlock or accrue these things. Where your virtual horses can, for a small earthly sum, be clad in the finest of armor. Can we really shake our fist at this one?

But let me be serious for a moment here. We all wanted the long-tail love for L4D, because we all love L4D. I think that people really wanted to do more with Louis, Bill, Francis, and Zoey. With the sequel, not only are we getting a new set of locations, we’re losing the focus on gunplay (in favor of the more strategic melee combat, it may not be a bad thing, but will change the balance and horde combat significantly), the night of the living dead has become day, and the missions all tie together. None of these things, by themselves, is a bad thing. However, because the first game was so successful, and its quirks and charms so adored, Valve could never have made a sequel such as this without incurring the ire of some portion of its fanbase. As a marketing student, I look forward to seeing how Valve presents this game to players of the first. Much like World at War, they will have to tread a fine line between encouraging players to move on from the first game (something Valve has never had to do before, to my knowledge; even CS 1.6 still has its hold-outs) and maintaining a level of trust with players that, no, we are not going to keep milking you every year — we wanted to refine the experience and this was the only way possible. Because if Valve is looking to make L4D more of a series than a touchstone, well, I don’t know if I’m ready to live in that universe just yet.

Moving on!

Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach. Bungie, you broke with Microsoft so that you could make more Halo games? Really? First of all, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers is the dumbest title for a game in a long while. Imagine: Babiez was heads and shoulders above you, since it at least gave us some great lulz. But ODST? How is mom supposed to remember that? She’ll just say “new Halo” to the clerk and be fine, I suppose. But still, DUMB ASS NAME. Also, you haven’t shown shit of the actual game, so I have nothing to say about this. Likewise for Reach. Next!

Forza Motorsport 3. Well this one sure does look pretty. It’s got some nice physics and a host of neat fan creation tools, too, like livery and video editing. But, I’ve never really cared for anything out of the sim-racing genre, aside from mandatory Gran Turismo purchases, so I’ll probably passing this one up. And Need For Speed: Shift? You guys really have the worst timing. I’m sorry. Other than that, most of the stuff we saw was third party, other than Alan Wake. From what I saw of that game, the concept sounds really fun, and the game looks great. But the actual mechanics and play on-screen looked way too familiar, and nothing in that demo popped out at me as being “omfg” material. I know this is a game a lot of guys in the press like to stoke boners over, but I haven’t quite begun to sip the Kool-Aid yet. Maybe as it gets closer to release.

Sony’s Shotgun Strategy

The worst part of Sony’s conference, aside from Kaz Hirai, was that they forgot or rather opted not to show some really great stuff. Unlike Alan Wake, Heavy Rain is totally in my wheelhouse. Multiple paths where your character can die or be injured in various ways, a crime story, investigation and environmental exploration… it’s too good to be true. Then I watch something like the extended demo on G4TV, and I know that it’s real, it’s coming, and I fucking want it.

Likewise, Sony stalwarts Ratchet & Clank were politely asked to remain visible only on the show floor. For a game that is looking to finally give the series that show in the arm that it needs, and as one of Sony’s staple brands, you’d think the guys at Insomniac would get a little more exposure. The time puzzle mechanics, which share the same central conceit as PSN game echochrono (to lazy to link), will hopefully do much to inspire the level designers, who had grown a bit lazy with their world construction since Up Your Arsenal. A stronger focus on platforming and puzzles will do much to please fans, and the inclusion of a more involving story will undoubtedly bring the game more Pixar comparisons, so long as the classic tongue-in-cheek humor remains intact. In short, I’m totally on board.

Likewise for Uncharted 2. Do I even have to say anything about this game? It’s all been said already: it’s fucking gorgeous, it’s funny, the online modes are a blast, and we’re all going to be enraptured by it when it comes out this fall. But the PSP go? Notsomuch.

Some people just don’t like the way it looks. A lot of people just don’t like the price (read: me). But truth is Sony’s on the right path with this one, and it’s doing what it needs to in order for developers to start supporting the platform again. I.e., it’s cutting out piracy as best it can. The only thing is, with an iPod touch going for $229 dollars, the PSP go isn’t really the right value proposition Sony needs. Unlike the TV market (or perhaps quite like it, given their fiscal statement), Sony cannot afford to play the “premium product” card anymore. It’s costing them would-be buyers who can go pick up a DS or 360 at much lower costs than the Sony systems. If Sony wants to be a competitor, they can’t keep acting like they are Nintendo. Sega thought it was hot shit back when the PSX launched, but the Saturn wasn’t exactly the hit they were hoping for. When it comes down to the brass tacks, it’s the install base that brings the software to the market, and the price is the barrier to entry. Sell the go for $199, and you’ve got yourself a helluva competitor.

Real quickly, the rest of the Sony stuff:
- MAG: not for me. For whom? I have no goddamn idea. Why isn’t Zipper making a new Syphon Filter again?
- The Last Guardian: Day one. Ueda is a genius and can do no wrong. I am enchanted by the trailer and cannot wait to play the game.
- GT5: lol vaporware. But seriously, it looks great. Can we get a release date?
- FFXIII: Want. Black guy seems like another case of Japan doing it wrong (RE5, hel-lo!)
- FFXIV: Same designer as FFXII makes me super happy. MMO? Notsomuch.
- God of War III: it looks like more God of War. By all means, that is perfectly fine by me. I get to pull Helios’ head off with my bare hands? Disgusting, but I will nevertheless relish the moment.

Nintendo Announces Mario Games, News at 11

Nintendo I can sum up rather quickly. NSMB for Wii will be an obvious purchase, as will Galaxy 2. They know this, I know this. Golden Sun was a pleasant surprise and had me wanting to track down a copy of GS2, which I never played, in anticipation of this new outing. I’m glad that they held off on showing a new Zelda, because I think they need to consider not only a return to cel-shading, but also what it was about the N64 titles that made the series such a killer. Twilight Princess suffered from a lot of failed ideas and an inventory with several one-shot items. Ocarina, on the other hand, always managed to keep your old items relevant, or at least never did anything to lower their merit. But it isn’t enough to take from the past to sculpt the future; Nintendo has a carve out new ideas for a new generation and for new hardware. I’ll gladly give them another year to get that done properly.

Really, the only concern or game that I felt the need to seriously mull over was Metroid: Other M. Team Ninja and combat go together like rice and beans, but Team Ninja goes with a lot of other, not so glamorous things, too. Large Breasts, horrible character design, and terrible plots come to mind. The trailer wasn’t enough to tell us much, other than this game looks to reinvent the 3D Metroid game. I don’t mind if the game has more action, or more visceral action anyway, but Retro’s games did a great job of maintaining the sense of isolation and lonely exploration of hostile alien worlds. Reflections in the visor when hurt or in the cold were only part of that special crafting, but already it seems like this is more of a Warrior Within than a Sands of Time. I will be following this one closely, though, with the hope that Nintendo keeps Itagaki’s old crew on a tight leash. If they can deliver a Samus that kicks ass but is also vulnerable and helplessly intertwined in the affairs of Space Pirates and Metroids, I’ll be as happy as the next guy. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Supporting Third-Party Support, and Closing Thoughts

As I wrap up, I come to two games that I have wildly differing expectations for. Brutal Legend is a game that wears its heart on its sleeve, and makes its inspirations well known to all simply due to the fact that they are all in the game. While Psychonauts sits near the top of my pile of shame, Grim Fandango was a delight I enjoyed well after it first came out, and I knew long ago that if the man behind that game were to craft another, I would most certainly be up for seconds. While Brutal Legend is a far cry from a sequel to Grim, the classic Schaffer hallmarks seem to be intact: humor, character design and personalities, inane madness, and a plot so original you wonder why no one had thought of it before.

Assassin’s Creed II, on the other hand, has me fingers-crossed for fear of another letdown. Despite the iconic style and open-world championing of the first title, the game fell apart as soon as you finished off your main target in each city. The side-missions, or rather the missions you were required to do to collect evidence on your target, were repetitive and uninspiring, requiring you to complete mundane tasks such as sitting on a bench and listening to people talk (the game’s lack of cinematic camera movement meant staring at the game world in all its middling glory) or slowly walking behind someone while pretending to pray just long enough for you to get next to them and steal an item. But the new game, with its Renaissance flair and Italian draping, is as big of a temptation as one can encounter outside of Amsterdam’s red light district. The graphics have that “come hither” sexiness that keeps your eyes glued to the action and the new gimmicks such as killing guards from inside a hay pile or taking out two sentinels at once with twin hidden blades beg for your forgiveness of the half-baked original — look, you can hear Ubisoft saying, at those old promises now delivered.

Unfortunately, I’m a cynically bastard. If there is any one thing to be taken away from E3, be it from the motion tech demos, the Modern Warfare 2 demo, the Splinter Cell demo, the Assassin’s Creed II demo, or even the Metroid: Other M trailer, it’s that this is, first and foremost, a show. And as this is a show, we should take everything with a strong helping of salt. Who knows what sort of smoke and mirrors and prestidigitation take place behind the spectacles unveiled before us. The beauty of an E3 demo, unless it is a level playable in its entirety, is that it can be cut from any one or even from several places in the game and stitched together to construct a truly breathtaking first glimpse of some of the latest and greatest offerings. So, yes, Assassin’s Creed II looks like it could right a lot of wrongs and prove itself to be the game we always wanted from Ubisoft, but the truth is seldom so kind. Last year Resident Evil 5‘s director promised that conceits were being made to Americans and that Gears of War-style controls would be adopted and that we hadn’t seen all the game had to offer… but that just meant that aiming was moved to the right stick and there was an underground lab you would eventually find yourselves in (shooting gatling gun-clad zombies!).

But all the same, I was happy with the quality of the third party offerings for all systems, and saddened that I will not be able to play many of the great early 2010 titles when I am out of the country next year. Overall, E3 was a great return to form, with some of the best coverage and most diverse array of titles we’ve seen in some time. Compared to FPS-heavy 2007 and 2008, it was nice to see E3 embrace some new (and some old) genres. And with titles like A Boy and His Blob and Scribblenauts showing that innovation and simple charm can still exist in small packages, there were plenty of hidden gems as well. The only downside to E3? Knowing that we have to wait until TGS this Fall for more big reveals and shameless strutting from the console makers.

Note: I apologize that these entries keep running so long, but when I can’t post often enough to deliver smaller articles, I end up lumping as much as I can into one post as possible. Next time, look for (hopefully) shorter entries on Resident Evil 5, and inFAMOUS versus Red Faction: Guerilla versus Prototype.

Last year, the video games industry saw record sales of over $30 billion in units of software sold. Compare to the last great year for software, 2004, that is an increase of over 50%. In addition, console makers pushed a record number of hardware units for each of their respective systems, with 10.77 million PS3s sold, 10.8 million 360s, and almost 25 million Wiis. This is without considering the enormous success found in the handheld market, where the DS is the fastest selling system ever and Sony’s PSP is doing markedly well in a field that, during the age of the Game Boy, was mostly uncontested. Even with the begin of a significant decline in sales of PS2 hardware, which did not receive a price drop to the sub-$100 mark until April of this year, it is evident that 2008 marked a new high in demand for video games and game hardware. The question we must now ask ourselves is, can it ever happen again?

The Secret Formula

The success seen in 2008 can be boiled down to a combination of several factors: a line-up of highly sought-after games released throughout the year, the maintenance of the PlayStation 2 as a viable and active platform, the short supply of Nintendo’s Wii for nearly an entire year, and the demand for new gaming experiences from the PS3 and Xbox 360.

2008 met with a great amount of hyperbole when in first began, according to some to even have the potential to eclipse the last unofficial great year in gaming, 2004. Grand Theft Auto IV was finally coming to market, along with Gear of War 2, Fable II, Resistance 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Miyamoto’s strange new Wii Fit, LittleBigPlanet, Call of Duty: World at War, and a new Prince of Persia and the hope of, possibly, Gran Turismo or Killzone 2. Not all of these titles would ultimately end up having great sales success, and some, such as Dead Space, would catch us completely off guard at that summer’s E3 expo. Still, it was clear that the market would be ripe with highly anticipated new titles, particularly featuring franchises known to lurk the elusive casual gamer back to the couch for another go at his favorite series. GTA, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, and Gears of War 2 would prove to have the strongest of the individual game sales — each with multiple millions of units sold — and there was an unbelievable number of music titles (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour) purchased as well. Truly, 2008 was a great time to be playing video games.

Also key to the strong success of the industry, only this time serving in a reserve role, was the PS2. With games such as SingStar and Buzz! available on the system, the PS2 became a very compelling party box/portable karaoke in 2008. The system also featured a few hardcore title releases, such as the stellar Persona 4, but was most impressive for its sales in another, more casual category: sports. Despite the next-gen glitz and effects work in the PS3 and 360 versions of FIFA, Madden, NBA, and MLB games, the PS2 maintained large sales numbers for all of the latest additions to these franchises. Clearly, the armchair quarterbacks once thought to be lumped in with the hardcore market have continued to make the economic decision to update their software for a system they already own (at a price of $50 rather than $60 for each title), instead of purchasing a $200-400 system to play them on. Considering that 2008 brought witness to one of the worst economic declines in America’s history, the logic certainly makes sense. Factor in the fact the HDTV penetration still has yet to rise to the level predicted by early analyst reports and you have a very clear proof-positive that the world still needed PlayStation 2 in 2008. The system sold nearly 9 million units last year, just shy of its successors, but increased its global install base to a whopping 140 million units. As any developer would tell you, you can’t just ignore that kind of established market. Surprisingly, however, no single PS2 game was able to make it into the Top 10 sales charts for 2008. The decline of a system will always be predicated by a fall in its software sales, and the data for 2008 shows that PS2 has likely seen its last meaningful year.

Nintendo Regains the Throne

In contrast, Nintendo could barely make enough of its Wii system to sate consumer demand, and the sales numbers for the system show. The company also found creative ways to extend the life and/or popularity of some of its titles, particularly through the bundling of a remote with every copy of Wii Play, a steering wheel with each copy of Mario Kart Wii, and the balance board with Wii Fit. The last of these is the most fantastic, however, as Nintendo proved to the world that it could sell a game and peripheral bundle at $90 and still have tremendous success. Of course, Guitar Hero and Rock Band also released numerous forms of bundled software and hardware that greatly exceeded this price, but neither could match the success of Wii Fit‘s whopping 4.54 million copies sold.

The X factor for 2008 was, undoubtedly, the Nintendo brand. Nearly all of their major software, aside from Wii Music, was met with both a positive critical response and a tremendous amount of consumer demand. Additionally, Nintendo was able to continue selling these titles to Wii owners beyond the traditional 6-week sales window. Mario Kart Wii and Wii Play, in particular, charted in the Top 10 for the remainder of the year, and continue to have a presence there today, a full year on since Mario Kart Wii was released. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, whose games feature strong sales that quickly taper off after hardcore users have purchased the items at or near release, Nintendo has found an audience interested in diving back into its catalog and purchasing older titles, which allows it to keep selling these games for full price while third-parties and Sony and Microsoft first/second-parties ultimately must drop the price of their titles to reignite sales. Gears of War, Resistance, and Halo are some of the only brands which were able to maintain premium pricing for over a year on these next-gen systems.

Why? While both console makers try to bundle their systems with the latest in either family-friendly or hardcore titles, Nintendo has chosen to include a very basic, but still fun, title with its boxed system since it first launched. The value of its brand as a software maker, and the relative ease with which the titles can be played (using a steering will, standing on a board, flicking a remote, etc.) not only keep the barrier to entry low, but they encourage word of mouth among a far larger audience than a traditional game might.

Dark Clouds Forming

Notice, however, that Super Mario Galaxy and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, while both adored by fans and critics, are not in this list of successful titles. The hardcore game player that has been playing games for multiple generations is no longer the primary software buyer on the Wii. But even then, simple software titles published by third parties also fail to meet with any success. Last summer’s Boom Blox was a critical success, but failed to move more than a quarter of a million units when all was said and done. Its simple design and friendly styling should have sat well with the audience known to own the system, but it was passed over in favor of more copies of Mario Kart and Wii Fit. Likewise, hardcore titles such as No More Heroes, Madworld, and House of the Dead: Overkill have also been unable to inspire much interest on Nintendo’s system in the past year, and even GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS has vastly underwhelmed when it comes to sales. The large, faceless audience of Nintendo owners, like an old fish, can’t be fooled by the developers lures and promotions. If the game isn’t Wii-branded, they aren’t biting.

This puts the casual gamer (not the lifestyle gamer, as we will brand the Wii-owner) in a bit of an odd position. With the PS2 soon to experience its last, sputtering gasps of life, where does that player go to enjoy the kind of experiences he has been accustomed to. The Xbox 360 is likely not to move below $199 for some time, nor will the Wii be budging from its $250 launch price. But while logic says that the Wii is the casual gamer’s console of choice due to its strong sales and key major titles, the control scheme and game lineup are actually far different than what the PS2 saw — save for the ports of PS2 and PSP games the Wii still sees. The Wii has become a sort of elephant in the room, both too large to ignore but yet too difficult to work with and find success. Designers are at an impasse: find a way to achieve the evergreen prosperity the Wii is seemingly capable of granting, or be stuck just producing expensive, resource-intensive software for the 360 and PS3, which may or may not be successful (EA has seen this with risks such as Army of Two and Mirror’s Edge, and even Sony first parties have had sluggish sales).

Another point worth pondering is what the next console cycle will bring with it and how long until those systems come to market. If Nintendo remains top dog as it appears it will, they have an incredibly wide array of options to take with their next system. Do they keep it underpowered and focus on controls? To they take a significant leap in graphical ability and open the system to features such as DVD or Blu-ray playback? Do they go digital distribution only? There are things about Nintendo’s past that cause me concern.

First is that when Nintendo has decided to release a new system, they utterly cease to continue supporting the previous one. Even when they claimed the Game Boy Advance would remain one of their “three tiers,” the system was swept under the rug within two years. Compare this to living in a time when Sony was on top, and the PSX and PS2 both had strong lives after their successors were released and you can imagine that the folks at Ubisoft, EA, and Activision must be a little nervous about what new hardware will mean for them.

Second is Nintendo’s history of being obstinate and behind the times with their products. Both the Wii and DS are devices far less powerful than their rivals, yet both manage to sell phenomenally better. The Wii is the first system Nintendo has released that does not use a proprietary format to play games, but even then the system is not capable of playing back a commercial DVD video release. Furthermore, Nintendo is almost always solely interested in Nintendo. The company will refresh its major franchises once or twice a console generation, but remains very inconsistent when it comes to creating new IP. This generation we have seen Wii Sports, Wii Music, Wii Fit, and Brain Age as new lines for the company, but the GameCube saw the creation of Pikmin and the resurgence of Metroid. Punch-Out!! is largely a remake of the former two titles, albeit a very good one, and it remains the only “core” title released by the company in over a year. Which brings me to another point:

Nintendo is slow. They take their time making games, and they’ll be damned if they work any faster because the fans are eager to buy them. The Game Boy Advance had about 6-7 years before it got replaced by the DS, and I’m sure that they’ll be stretching the Wii and DS to do the same, using slight hardware modifications (DS Lite, DSi, GBA SP, GBA Micro, etc.) to refresh the product line and pique consumer interest for longer than the internal tech should probably be expected to last. This is actually great for developers who can capitalize on cost savings later on in the console life cycle to produce games on smaller budgets without sacrificing quality, but it could also ultimately lead to a sense of stagnation.

Other reasons to fear that the games industry may see a weakening in its future is the ultimate failure of the PlayStation 3. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the console world needs a strong Sony to survive. Sony brought several things to the games industry with the Playstation, and all were changes for the better: the optical disc standard; its connections through the film and music industry provided new outlets for games to be sold through; a sizable new audience brought up on DualShocks and Final Fantasys; most importantly, it provided a slick and powerful entertainment device that wowed consumers and stayed price competitive with the latest offerings from established hardware providers.

That last point has now fallen to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and it is unlikely Sony can reclaim the mindshare it has lost this generation, even if the rebranding and redesign of the PlayStation 3 are in fact forthcoming. But while Microsoft is content to collect Live subscriptions and collect franchises and developers once exclusive to Sony and Nintendo, Sony is still driving innovation and content. Flower, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Wipeout HD, and Warhawk are all experiences exclusive to the small PS3 install base, but are tremendous titles that should be enjoyed by all. In the last generation, the PS2 was the system almost everyone owned, and the GameCube and Xbox were the sort of extracurricular systems hardcore gamers would pick up to get their Mario or Master Chief fix.

Now, Sony is still publishing a bevy of ambitious, quality product at a reduced marketplace, and the sales numbers show it. While Shadow of the Colossus was able to achieve a sales success ICO could not, it also did so on a system that had over 100 million units sold. Ueda-san’s next project, known only as TRICO now, will be fortunate to have the same success, on a system that costs far more to develop for and that has only a fraction of the user base. But the game will be released, just as will Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, a new Ratchet and Clank, and more. Because unlike Nintendo, Sony has harvested a fantastic collection of first and second party studios, and they deliver consistently and in quality. So while Nintendo can happily sit back and count stacks of money, it will also express indifference when fans clamor for more of the games they love so much. Aren’t you happy with the Mario Kart you’ve already got? What do you mean Smash Bros. has broken online play? That game will last a decade! So on and so forth. Our new masters are, sadly, omnipotent but not omnibenevolent.

Hope Springs Eternal

My thoughts of Nintendo are dour and biased and overly critical, some will no doubt think, but I am not blind to the opportunities this new era of gaming has opening before it. Take, for instance, what Apple has brought to the table. The iPhone is our first portable, always-connected gaming handheld. With it, we can download new software or title updates anywhere we have service or WiFi, and new games are being added to its store by the minute. Already it has a library in the thousands, and the user rating system effectively allows the cream to rise to the top without Apple having to enforce quality content restrictions and QA each new title it approves. This is a bold, fresh take on gaming, and it is already leading to new approaches from Sony and Nintendo, the latter of whom has already released a WiFi-enabled DSi capable of downloading games on the go and the former who is expected to unveil a new, download-only PSP in a week’s time.

Further, we are about to witness whether or not third parties will sink or swim on the Wii. With EA’s new EA Sports Active title, we have the first polished, major release to compete with or supplement Wii Fit. Can mimicking Nintendo finally bring about strong sales numbers on a system where no third-party game other than Rock Band and Guitar Hero has been able to find sales success? I am sure a lot of people in the industry are hoping so, because so far even the kindest of reviews (hello, Zack and Wiki!) has not been enough to catch the attention of our lifestyle gamer. Which is sad, because the Wii is a fun system with a lot of potential to reignite interest in old franchises and genres. But then, I know two people whose parents bought a Wii and still have it in the box, and my system only gets dusted off every six months. I think that, by reaching for a new audience, Nintendo has found a sort of No Man’s Land where only knows how to survive. Brilliant, from a business perspective, but terrible if you’re the guy they’re doing business with.

Which seems to have also have been the case for the PSP. Stuck in 8-12 year old marketing hell, the console sells well enough but the game sales are utterly laughable. What exactly do people do with the thing? Sony’s plea will always by rampant piracy, but are kids savvy enough to really sit down and create pandora batteries and hack their firmwares? I’m not so convinced. A lot of it probably had to do with that fact that, when faced with a system almost as powerful as a PS2, developers were creating experiences too rich and elaborate for the portable space. Which is why Sony is in the midst of rebranding and rebuilding the device, and encouraging devs to give the system another shot, only this time with titles more like Patapon and Pixeljunk Monsters and less like Liberty City Stories. Will it work? I really hope so. The PS Store should have been there from the beginning, and hopefully a reboot will be just the kick in the ass the system needs to really shine. Making some of its already excellent back catalog available to download is a good start, but we need a lot more of it. Oh, and were are the downloadable PSX titles at, Sony?

Meanwhile, Microsoft and Sony plan to adopt a kill them with gorgeous games approach this year, as Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted 2, Halo ODST, Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, and possibly a new Metal Gear will all be totally drop-dead looking and wow us all. They have both made unique uses of DLC and Marketplace/PSN Store games to bring users unique and experimental products, and I see both of them continuing this trend. As the industry slowly frees itself from the grip of retail, sales in this space will become nothing short of essential. Sony has taken bold steps in offering full PS3 and PSP games on its store, while Microsoft has sought to satisfy the complimentary needs of its users with a robust Netflix service. All of these are great reasons to consider purchasing either system, and will no doubt be marketed as such in the coming year.

The Big “If”

As for software, 2009 is again looking at a great lineup, but now its Achilles’ heel has been fully exposed. If we are to see another 2008 in this console generation, it will only come at the will of Nintendo. No matter how many quality titles are released this fiscal year on 360 and PS3, if Nintendo does not deliver on the titles they supposedly have waiting in the wings for this fall, 2009 will look like it was the year the recession hit, not 2008. The ball is in your court, Nintendo. Next week at E3, show us what kind of future lies in store for the industry. It’ll be like our own version of Groundhog Day, only the Groundhog knows what’s on the line this time.

Well it’s been a long, long time since I sat down to write anything on here, but I hope to greatly change that trend starting this week. To begin with, I have been thinking a lot about where Nintendo needs to take the Star Fox series as it inevitably makes its way onto the Wii. The question is a difficult one, as the last three games in the series have been a scattershot of vague, half-formed ideas and brilliant misfires. Command lacked any strategic challenge and drowned in its own morass of plot lines; Adventures was a gorgeous platformer with an unmatched sense of place that suffered from dungeons that were tired and formulaic long before the fetch quests ever grew tedious; and Assault had some of the makings of a true return to form, but its emphasis on ground combat and an utterly dull enemy had fans crying foul. So what, then, can Nintendo do to right its wrongs and regain the trust of some very patient, but very skeptical fans? The answer is actually far more simple than you might think.

Star Fox 64 introduced gaming to a wonderful variety of homages and camp that to this day has not been surpassed in any way by sequels or imitators. The cast, the settings, and the combat were a perfect mesh that served what is an admittedly short game a heaping mound of replayability and charm. With the inclusion of rumble technology, a first for consoles, the game was kinetic and engaging in ways that had never before been seen, let alone felt. Game journalists now often talk of how there is a “fourth wall” between the screen and the player, an imagination barrier that separates the game world from our own. Star Fox 64 was the first to truly break through that barricade–demolishing it with force feedback in every boost, brake, damaged wing, and gargantuan explosion. It took a series that was accredited for proving that the SNES could handle the third dimension and made it a star. Yet somehow, after nearly 11 years, that star has lost most all of its luster. Which is why Nintendo needs to go back to square one.

The Kirby series originated on the NES, and the first games (in particular the second) are considered to be classics among enthusiasts and fans of platformers alike. However, the likelihood of younger gamers, or even older ones, being able to acquire these games and replay them is highly unlikely in this era of High Definition and wiimotes. Before Nintendo added the games to the virtual console, one solution was used to bring one of these games back into the spotlight: with revamped graphics and an insanely popular system to play them on, Kirby’s Adventure was re-released for the Game Boy Advance as Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland. An excellent update of a time-honored classic, the game is an example of a trend we have seen in the game industry over recent years: publishing updates of classics games using new technology to rebuild their worlds in a way that honors the original but doesn’t make the graphics-conscious squirm.

Like Kirby, there have been other games that ahve used this with considerable success: Resident Evil’s remake on GameCube was a sign of things to come with Resident Evil 4, and was praised by critics for keeping the spirit of the original intact. Tomb Raider: Anniversary has been called by some a better game than the original, as it forgoes the “tank” controls that once plagued Lara in favor of the game mechanics that powered the series revival, Tomb Raider: Legend. New Super Mario Bros. is an entirely new game, but honors its 2D ancestors with spot-on gameplay and lush side-scrolling level design. The list goes on, and the results are almost always the same: great games will stay great, but a fresh take can make them into something quite special.

When Starfox was released for the SNES, it was not a pretty game–a fact that, over time, has managed to remain true. What the game was, though, was a challenging three-dimensional shooter with a fully realized universe, an iconic enemy, and a memorable cast of talking animal star pilots. It could be a punishing game for first time players, yet that was somehow a part of its charm. When the sequel was announced and then, ultimately, cancelled in favor of shifting focus towards the Nintendo 64, there was genuine disdain and disappointment among fans. Star Fox 64 would eventually right most of those wrongs, but still a blow had been dealt.

All of these years later, Star Fox has unquestionably acquired a new fanbase through its sequels, be they great games or no. But with everyone sitting in fretful anticipation of the next in the series, why shouldn’t Nintendo look to its past in order to pave its way to a brighter future? New Super Mario Bros. is one of the fastest and highest selling games ever released, and it was simply more of what gamers, young and old, knew and expected of their favorite Italian plumber. Could the same not also occur for Star Fox?

A re-imagining of StarFox for the Super Nintendo released on the Wii, with elements of the beautiful flight control found in SF64 and even Assault (minus the latter game’s slow pace), would be a breath of fresh air from the series’ current mess of flat characterization, uninteresting missions, and winded dogfights. It would give younger fans a chance to try their hand at the game that started it all, only updated to look and play as good as the series’ more recent console forays. It would give older fans a reminder of just who Fox McCloud was and what made him capable of carrying a franchise through four more outings (not including the cancelled Star Fox 2) — or even as its chief representative in the high stakes world of Super Smash Bros. It is an opportunity to see just how this illogical pairing of Fox, Bird, Rabbit, and Toad found itself a spot in the hearts and minds of gamers all over the world. It is an opportunity for remembrance, and to rejoice.

I won’t carry on any longer on how the logistics of this idea may work or what steps could bring this idea to fruition. This is merely a rallying call, an open letter to fans to remind them of what has brought us so far and helped us endure the mediocrity of recent years. It is a plea for Nintendo to once again take up the reigns of its own franchise and, rather than farm it off to a developer unfamiliar with the series’ wonderful legacy, embrace its characters wholeheartedly and deliver us a game that has not had a chance to be played properly among a global audience in 15 years.

I have made my claim. Who among you agrees?

I won’t get into the details of what I’ve been up to, but I’ll sum it up as best as I can: I have been fairly busy with college, incredibly busy with Rock Band, and perhaps even more busy enjoying a fair number of tasty beers (in between bouts of binging on Coke). I am an awful, pathetic slacker that wants more than anything to be sit here daily and write out my thoughts, but who never seems to be able to load up the webpage and actually do anything about it. I’m disciplined enough to read about an hour before going to sleep each day, and I keep up with the news well enough, but fuck me if I can put pen to paper or finger to key and pound out a decent journal entry more than once a week — let alone once a month. But for anyone reading that may actually care what I have to say on here, I’m working on it. I’ll be coming back.

So, with all that aside, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of today’s post. Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Professor Layton, as I’ll call it (or just Layton), is a peculiar little game. Created by the fine folks at Level 5 (who have produced the wonderful Dark Cloud 1 and 2, Dragon Quest VIII, and Jeanne D’Arc to name a few), the game is a complete charmer from the moment your journey begins. The story follows one Prof. Layton and his child assistant/pupil Luke as they journey to the secluded town of St. Mystere to unravel the mystery behind the Golden Apple — a prize left by the town’s wealthiest resident to be claimed by his one true heir. The opening dialog, which is presented with charming British accents, provides the user with all of the essential backstory before giving the player a little taste of the game’s main course: puzzles.

Now allow me to diverge from my summary to expand on the matter of puzzles. To me, puzzles are simply delightful. I love brainteasers, even when they are so obtuse I can’t possibly wrap my head around them — they are, simply put, one of the most natural and enjoyable ways of flexing that all-important muscle that makes us human: the brain. Now, I knew that Layton would be throwing puzzles at me left and right, but let me assure you: this game is absolutely packed with the bloody things. I believe there are something like 120 total, with an additional set of collection-based mini-puzzles available from the menu screen. A weekly puzzle is also available from the Nintendo WFC.

Anyway, back to the game. Or, really… I never stopped talking about the game, because after the spoken introduction, almost all of the time you will spend in St. Mystere will be staring at the screen of Puzzle ___, the cogs in your head spinning like tops to find the solution. And when you input the answer and the Professor or Luke goes through his victory animation, you may never feel as rewarded for your efforts as you do right then. “Professor, I’ve solved it!” and “Every Puzzle has an answer” will soon become a mantra for you, and after quickly gathering some information from the townsfolk, you’ll tap your way around the screen to find the next object or person to interact with, not just to advance the plot and determine just who is behind all the strange occurrences but to get that next quick fix… to face that new, unknown challenge.

If I’m making the game out to sound like some sort of addiction, well… perhaps that’s the right thing to do. As I stated before, the game is just utterly charming: the art on display is unlike anything you’ve seen in a game in recent years, and the characters are wacky enough that you can’t help but tap on them and see what kind of derranged ramblings they will spout about this damned puzzle they’re working on and won’t you please help me solve it and if you do I’ll tell you about where to find what you’re looking for. I don’t think there’s a monetary system in St. Mystere (I’ll spare you jokes about Hint Coins); knowledge is the only currency these people recognize.

Aside from the puzzles and the art and the great cast of characters, I don’t want to speak on much else of Professor Layton, as it was an experience that was better served by going in with little knowledge of what to expect. I only hope that I have piqued the interest of someone out there; for $30, you will get at least 15 hours of great mind-benders and a cute-though-somewhat-predictable story; but more important than either of those is the experience, on a whole, that you will have gone through. Layton is a game that stays with you, much like a Miyazaki or Pixar movie might stay with you. The presentation, the puzzles, and the people you meet all blend together to form an unbeatable package. If you were ever interested in this game, or if you feel even a slight bit of interest now, do yourself a favor and check this title out. Soon, you too will be waiting eagerly for the sequel.

Has it really been seven weeks since I last wrote anything here? Well I guess that says a lot about the current state of affairs in the gaming world, let alone my own. To keep it short, college has become a bit of a mother-fucker this year, and the increased pressure from that, plus a few self-proposed changes in my disgusting habits–trying to keep up with the news, make more time for reading books and magazines, getting out of the computer chair every now and then–have left me very short on time for writing blog entries, and even playing some of the great games coming out has been difficult. However, that is not to say I have not persevered. So without further ado, it’s time to talk games.

The first game I’ve tackled is the last game I mentioned on here — Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. After only a few hours with the game, I was totally in love with the control scheme and blabbering to anyone who’d listen about how refreshing it was to play a shooter like Prime that placed an emphasis on interface; not just between the user and the controller but the character and the environment. Prime is truly an adventure game at heart. And so long as we forgive them game its historical conceits–everything seems made for a morphball to tunnel through, never naturally structured–the atmosphere the game presents is overly engaging. No two hallways are alike, no gimmicky puzzle must ever be repeated time and time again for the designers to get their jollies; Prime is a game that was made by people in love with the lore they created, and it clearly shows.

However, I must say that all is not gold in the land of Samus. There are several flaws with the latest Metroid that harken back to the roots of the franchise, as well as a few gaming cliches that should have been swept aside. First and foremost, the continuing, persistent use of voice-over directives that require the player to bring up the map before they stop are incredibly obnoxious. I cannot think of a more profound way of pulling the user out of the experience than to beat them over the head with instructions and insistent objective reminders. Yes, I know that I have to find an item capable of opening the next type of door in order to shut down the core reactor that will lower the shield and let me get into the giant seed that has plunged into the planet, corrupting all the life on its surface. You told me about it right before I turned the game off last night, I don’t think I’ve forgotten.

And please, must you belittle your own effort at making this game so beautiful by putting a time requirement on the last level of the game? I’ve played for 15 hours to get there, why the hell do I get 15 minutes to run through it? My friend, a longtime fan of the series, still to this day loads up a copy of Metroid Prime just to look around at all the detail in that game’s world. In Elysia, the Chozo-influenced world of Corruption, gorgeous mosaic artwork adorns the floors and doorways of all the floating buildings, and no one but a few steam-powered robots are there to badger me while I study them. There should be no concerns of “pacing” in a Metroid game; the entire purpose of the series was, until this game, to emphasize detachment, isolation, and the sense of wonder and fear one has in exploring a new environment. There were no commander’s orders to report to Waypoint A and grab Plot Device C, just suit upgrades imperative to your own survival. The further you pressed into the core of Zebes or Norion, that progression was made at your own risk, by your own accord. The fate of the galaxy was not in a bounty hunter’s hands.

I know a lot of people in the press said that the first level of MP3 is incongruous with the rest of the game, that it felt forced and too much like a Halo set-up for it to be truly Metroid. I agree, to an extent. Samus should not be the pawn of the Galactic Federation, she is and always has been an autonomous, independent figure. She has been a beacon of feminine power in the gaming world for too long to be forced to obey orders from some generic army goon, who we cannot and will not feel empathy towards as his ship is attacked by Space Pirates. That bastard got what he deserved.

In fact, the entirety of this game it feels like Samus is never really where she is supposed to be. After being attacked by Dark Samus (spoilarz olol), she is fitted with a new suit that gives her access to something called Hypermode: an essential yet utterly shallow game mechanic. After using this mode for too long, Samus will become corrupted and you have to expell an energy tank’s worth of energy to recover. Otherwise, you pop into it, fire off a salvo of lasers to kill anyone in your way, then pop back out. If the regular weapon and missiles were not so inaffective against the normal enemies, this would be entirely unnecessary. But that is a minor nitpick at this point. What I’m trying to explain is that Samus, or You, wakes up in this new power suit, “rebuilt” so to speak by the Federation and charged with saving the world. But you’re a bounty hunter. This feels more like the storyline of Bionic Woman (more on that one later) than Metroid. If only the game wasn’t so damn good, I would be outraged as a casual fan of the series.

So yes, Corruption was awesome. It’s about 16 hours long, the controls were never a burden unless a very precise aim was needed to hit a target (not often enough to cause me greif, thankfully), the levels are stunning for a Wii title, and the core mechanics of older Metroid games make a few welcome cameos–I’m looking at you, stacking beams. Overall, in a year starved for good games exclusive to the system, Metroid Prime 3 makes for a great breath of fresh air for Wii owners, and will at least make the wait until November that much shorter. Recommended.

Yikes. I really got on a tangent in this post. I’m going to just put this up as its own topic and post another article about the rest of the games, music, books, anime, and TV I was going to mention. Maybe two articles. Maybe a whole series.

I absolutely LOVE Prime 3. To think that after the hardcore sucking of Prime 2 I would be treated to a complete masterstroke of work by Retro, who has absolutely nailed the perfect balance of backtracking, exploration, and objective missions here, within a week of Bioshock — the best FPS since Half-Life 2 — would have positively caused my mind to explode with neuron orgasms. I am literally in awe over the beauty that the Wii has achieved in bringing me at 60fps, and stunned to think I am using six year old tech to play something this intuitive in terms of control schemes. In all honesty, after about five and a half hours with the game, I don’t think that any of the other major Nintendo titles for the Wii already released or coming this year have a chance to top Prime for GOTY. Super Mario Galaxy seems utterly childish in comparison, Zelda was an over-fluffed epic with an anorexic story, and Brawl is a top-notch fighter but can never be as rich or as deep as something like Metroid. Seriously, I am one of the most nagging, hesitant and clear-minded person when in comes to deciding where and when to toss my hat in on something such as this, so believe me when I say I am amazed by what this game has accomplished. My friend was not joking when he told me to either play Metroid or throw my Wii away. It’s that good. Believe.

Also, I would like to apologize for the overflow of adverbs. These things happen.

—————-

Now playing: Edgar Winter Group – Free Ride
via FoxyTunes

Sorry for the long wait in writing a new entry, I’ve had some pretty big changes in my life in the past few weeks which I shall not elaborate on at present that have kept me from the keyboard. Suffice it to say I should be getting back to the old once a week routine, possibly more often, and I’ll start with a lovely little summary below:

So the day I got Pokemon Diamond (also known as Amazing Grace, for I was once lost but now am found, no longer blind to the wonderful world of pokeys and mon) I also happened to nab another game for the DS, this one a bit more niche than the sales-hoarding giant I went in for. That game was Lunar Knights, and I can honestly say it could change your life. Forever.

So, since I’m assuming whoever is reading this is probably unfamiliar with the title, allow me to give you a short summary: the game revolves around two characters. The first is a brash, emo little lad that is carrying the Dark Sword capable of eradicating the vampire overlords occupying the game world. He is called Lucian, and he begins the game accompanied by the Dark element (Terrenials, they call them) Nero, a floating cat that talks (naturally). He also has an eye-patch, which makes him look like some sort of goth pirate knight. That’s an instant plus for me right off the bat.

Anyway, you start off as this dude and then later team up with a little Vampire-hunter runt named Aaron who will be aiding you on your quest to assassinate the vampire leaders. You see, the vamps have covered the world with a solar obstacle known as a ParaSOL, which blocks out the sun and makes the world a breeding ground for their pale, long-toothed ilk. Kinda like Vegas. Anyway, you team up and it’s off to fight and save the day. Sounds rather typical, I know, but did I mention you have a floating cat?

That cat is more than just a selling point, folks. Y’see, Lucian can merge with terrenials, and that means you can go into bad ass, “It’s Rape Time”-mode whenever your meter fills, sheathing your sword in favor of some wicked half-human claw-n-jaw slashin’ action. Trust me, when you’re in a room full of mook henchman, raging out is awesome. But if you’re more into the standard combat, Lucian also has a shield you can throw up to block enemy counters (of which there are many… stupid buggers don’t know how to stay dead!). It’s a very neat gameplay feature. In fact, all of the gameplay is great and the only complaint I have about the “Game” portion of LK so far is the menu system–crafted by the geniuses behind Metal Gear Solid’s archaic menus–is totally wonked. But that’s just a minor complaint. Especially when you see the game in action.

Without a doubt, Lunar Knights has the BEST 2D sprites on the Nintendo DS. I kid you not, people. This game is absolutely gorgeous. Each room is elaborately detailed and the tiles are rich enough that their repetition is hardly noticed when playing. The enemies are well animated and very diverse at times (save the weird blob/slime things), and the bosses can be very big too. And then the game flips into 3D shooter mode and looks just as good, if not better.

After killing or weakening a vampire, y’see, they get in their coffins and try to escape “death”, so you have to hop in your ship, take down a ton of their cronies, and haul their sorry ass back to your solar station where you fry their blood-sucking guts into space dust. How kick ass is that?

If that doesn’t seal the deal, the game is also full of full-motion anime cutscenes, and occasionally spoken dialogue is used outside of these, for short phrases and such. So that means that the visual, aural, and gameplay are all top-notch. What more could you want? Oh, I forgot to mention… there’s some furries thrown in for good measure as well. So that ought to cover it. Now what are you waiting for? Go find this game!

I guess the last entry took the wind out of me. It’s certainly been a while since I’ve managed to come around and punch anything in to this little text field that was worth punching in, but I’ll spare the lengthy diatribes for another time and just chat about some recent goings-on.

Since the last time I posted, Arctic Monkeys released their second CD, Favourite Worst Nightmare, and I’ve probably listened to the whole thing well beyond a dozen times. At just over 38 minutes, the disc is an dense compilation of break-ups, breakdowns, cultural criticisms and wry ballads about sex kittens now domesticated. It’s every bit what you’ve come to expect from the explosive little band of Brit youngsters, with a dash of cock-punching thrown in for good measure. If you like rock, then be prepared to hear some of the best guitar and drum coordination this side of the year 2000. I do not exaggerate.

Other than music, I’ve been dividing my time up betwixst a medley of anime, sci-fi, and good old fashion gaming. In terms of the latter, I’ve recently detailed the rekindled love affair between myself and Pokemon Diamond on the aL forums, plus I’ve been finding spare moments to level up and explore the world of Ivalice once more in Final Fantasy XII. I really wish that the PS3/Wii hype hadn’t occured at the same time as this game’s release, because if it weren’t for those things I honestly believe that I could have written about this game for months on end. (Which reminds me, I never did finish the Legend of Zelda articles on here… blast it all.) Something about playing an RPG where the story is so rich and the characters so complex and the combat so effortless that at times I merely steer my party around with naught but the analog sticks just seems so divine. Being able to type long sentences about such a game is also quite enriching, but I shant detract from my love session to indulge in that just yet. In reality, words are lost in describing how beautiful the world of FFXII is, even in its starkest dungeons and most vile of villains’ smiles. Undoubtedly, my game of the year for 2006. Bar none.

But what of the pokeymons? Ah, pokemon. Such an interesting one, that. I really do like the psuedo-3D that Game Freak went with in this one, as well as the nice big touch screen buttons that you tap on to carry out battles. Both add a great deal of charm and endearment to a series that is growing considerably long in the tooth. I cannot say I have great pleasure in the first 4 or so hours of the game that I have played. Something about the fact that the wild pokemon always being so weak and so repetitive (500 types and I’ve only got 14 logged in my Pokedex? What. The. Fuck.) and that first dungeon always being Rock pokeys just annoys me. And I had to get running shoes to move fast? What the hell was I wearing to begin with? Cinderblocks?

Early nags aside, the game does show some serious potential to fuck up my summer. I’ve been limiting my play sessions quite moderately, but once the looming figure of finals week has passed over me, it’s balls-out gaming time for me. Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo (Fucking SICK! You have no idea.), FFXII, and Pokemons to keep me company at the pool is going to make for a May like no other. Or like every other, only better. Either way, me and my Fire-spitting, Fear-of-God-inducing baboon Momo are going to be kicking ass and taking names for quite some time. That is, unless someone hands me my ass on the Nintendo WFC.

Two more bits I want to jot down here. First off, I’ve been trying to force-feed myself some anime, since I’ve been rather avoiding the stuff overall for the past few months. I’m working through Samurai 7 (good), and I totally made Afro Samurai at the top of my Buy List (right up there with the Pan’s Labyrinth DVD), but the one that has be intrigued the most right now is Madhouse’s Claymore. It’s essentially the same fucking cartoon we’ve seen forever: rogue, solitary antihero goes around killing demons or whatever in different towns, saves an obnoxious little brat and ends up buddying up with the kid to become a more “human” figure and learn a bit more about right and wrong, or something. What’s endearing to me is the animation quality and apparent spit-polish that’s been put into such a straight-forward plot. The visuals are truly striking, and each of the three episodes aired so far have been enjoyable from start to finish, enough so that I’m actually eager for my next filling. Madness, I say.

Oh, and then there’s some show called Battlestar Galactica that I decided to download and try out. I think you’ve probably heard of it. All I can say is holy shit how was I so late to this fucking party. The show has everything I require from life: a hot chick walking around talking nonsense while being naked or wearing something incredibly hot, a scientist that is out of his freakin’ mind with hallucinations and paranoia, a craggy old commander struggling to fight a war and keep his life together, hulking-ass robots that trying to wipe humanity out entirely, and a giant game of Guess Who’s the Cylon that only gets more and more intriguing with each episode. Color me impressed, folks. I’m about halfway through season one, and after watching the past seven episodes and the miniseries I’m just about ready to call myself a fan. And as my parting words for the evening, I would recommend you becoming one, too.

I’m going to be a little pissy in today’s post. I’m not sure if it’s the shooting at Virginia Tech that have incited this bitching, spewing attitude I feel rising within me, but it no doubt has made a considerable impact on my psyche. In some perverse way, it seems that violence is fueling my anger and apathy towards video games. Jack Thompson would be giddy.

The subject I wish to address today is the nature of innovation in the video games industry, or lack thereof. You see, it seems that Nintendo and the gaming media have found a newly polished soft-white trumpet to toot as they march along to the slow funeral drums of the Sony Empire wake. According to these so-called analysts and industry bigwigs, the Wii is the end-all and be-all of the next generation of interactive entertainment, and the 360 and PS3 are simply hardware improvements of old technology, the next iPods falling into the shadow of an iPhone. Some even say that the only true next-gen experience is the Wii, and that the high-definition era is simply a technological circle-jerk being forced down consumers throats when all we really crave is some new foreign grab-ass from those guys that decided touch screens on a handheld were actually a pretty nifty idea. To all of these people, and to anyone else who may feel similarly, I ask you honestly: who the fuck are you kidding?

Let’s be entirely serious here. The Wii is nothing more than Nintendo’s latest variant in a long-running trend of favoring gimmicks–I’m sorry, innovation–over actual computational horsepower to render games that people honestly DO want to be playing (12 million 360s and 3 million PS3s don’t lie). Let’s look back at the company’s history: We have the Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, and Game Boy Micro. All the same system, all introduced at prices above $80, and each containing several obnoxious requirements for proper usage (lack of backlights, lack of headphone port, lack of a reason to exist, respectively). That’s one hardware generation, in terms of the portable market, and the reason for such obvious milking of a loyal/idiotic fanbase is that the entire time Nintendo was uncontested. Surely some of the readers here can recall E3 2005, when Nintendo failed to reveal the Revolution/Wii in the face of the 360 and PS3, but instead showed an awful DS prototype (which got sexed up considerably when it became the DS Phat, and even moreso with the Apple-like Lite) and the GBA Micro. For those having trouble remembering, this was the same year that Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime went on stage and promised to kick ass and maintain the DS as a “third pillar” alongside the Game Boy brand. Yeah, whatever buddy.

My point here is, essentially, that Nintendo follows profits, and only profits. Even when it looks like it’s doing something oh-so-clever or unique, a la the Virtual Boy, there a dozen Game Boy variants and peripherals to look back on and make one say “is this really the same Nintendo?” I’m talking e-readers, link cables, power gloves, lack of DVD playback in the Wii, GameCube disc format, the N64 memory pak/rumble pak/expansion paks/disk drives, the half-assed implementation of online support for the Cube… the list is staggeringly long. And it only further reaffirms that, while Nintendo is perfectly happy to parade around its newborn baby like America’s favorite console maker, they’re still a conservative company looking to ‘poon the consumer at every opportunity.

“But that’s not fair!” you cry out at me in a furry of message board posts and bull-like snorts of rage. “Nintendo is giving us Virtual Console games and the DS and it’s outselling everything!” True, true. I’m not going to say that Nintendo does nothing good and that we should dislike them; I’ve bought a few overpriced VC titles myself and even choked down the outrageous costs of extra controllers, nunchucks and “Classic” controllers for that sake of “next-gen.” And I don’t have too many regrets about them. But to say that the company at its roots is innovating the gaming business is flat-out preposterous. The Wii is an underpowered system delivering the same gameplay experiences that have been possible for over 5 years on the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and even the PSP. The only thing that breaks with tradition is the actual controller, which I applaud the company for sticking with even in the face of so much early skepticism. In fact, that’s fundamentally all Nintendo is doing: in both the Wii and the DS, the company has taken underpowered or less-costly measures of production (not putting two ARM9 chips in the DS to allow for dual-screen 3D is a joke) and combined them with brilliant new forms of control to create industry blockbusters. But I don’t call that innovation, I call that damn good forward thinking.

Let’s jump off that topic before I conclude with some comments about the business end of Nintendo. I want to clarify that by singling out Nintendo as a failure to innovate the industry I am not simultaneously heralding Sony or Microsoft as properly bringing us to the forefront of digital evolution. Not even for a second. Sony and Microsoft are guilty of something else entirely: stagnation. Since the days of Master Systems and Nintendo Entertainment Systems the industry of video games has been pushed forward by a constant arms race among at least two major contenders for space in peoples’ living rooms. Time and again we have seen 4-6 year cycles of hardware evolutions, often even shorter in the case of the stupendously failing Sega systems, but have we ever once seen a truly unique variant on the forms of material being presented? SNES and PlayStation gave us 3D life and began the turn towards 32- and 64-bit graphics later to be built upon by the N64, but when was that transition from beautiful hand-rendered sprites to clunky polygons ever considered anything more than the necessity of change? The facts still remain the same today: games are placed into a console, the console is turned on before or after this process, the game loads, and we use a tethered or now untethered device to manipulate objects that appear presented on a screen in front of us for prolonged periods of time. The only changes to this are the ability to play games with a multitude of others, with or without vocal interaction, and the addition of a few more buttons or methods of managing on-screen duties (read: motion control, vibration, in-controller speakers).

All in all, the world of gaming is very much unchanged from its origins. With new chips and more RAM we’ve been able to complicate the once rudimentary principles that all games are based upon, but we haven’t necessarily reinvented them. It just so happens that now if I want to hit a tennis ball I may not have to press a button but instead flick my wrist to accomplish the task. Is that such a bad thing to be saying? That’s not for me to say. My only purpose in writing this blog post is to drive home the fact that a video game is and always has been comprised of several fundamental parts. Adding or removing to those basics, or just allowing for those basics to be done in fancier, better looking ways, does not constitute an innovation.

So where does this leave Nintendo? After all, I did say that the controller was rather clever and that the machine it reports to was rather not. To answer this, I must lay bare my feelings on the company itself. To me, Nintendo is a perennial power that has long rested on the laurels of its handheld market stronghold to keep itself comfortably in the black. Even with the failure of the GameCube, a clusterfuck of childish design decisions and corporate double-fisting, there was the GBA to look upon with adoring eyes; possibly even the occasional game for the ‘cube to lift your hopes, too.

But when word came of the PSP and the early consensus that Sony would effectively strip Nintendo of its last remaining foothold, its security blanket, the company had to face facts. It was time to innovate or die. But I don’t mean the innovation of a “Revolution,” I mean the innovation of taking the house that Mario built and turning it upside down. They start hyping up their next system as the Revolution, they get some guy to say the words “kicking ass” on stage, they take a risk with the multitude of complex buttons and screens and microphones and WiFi of the DS and go head to head with the sexy, widescreen, traditional handheld PSP.

But that last one wasn’t going so well, and the stock numbers weren’t in the right place to try their hand at another costly, graphics-heavy system, especially with HD being touted by the competition as the killer new standard. So they put their heads together and said, “wait a minute, what do we do best?” The answer, as you know, is easy: Re-hash. We get the low-power Wii with a console variant of the DS controls (you can’t make a TV a touch screen, so make it a point-to-touch screen), and a hot new DS right in the vein of the SP and Micro redesign. At the same time, you have 360 failing in Japan and Sony trying to shove a foot down its throat while sticking two thumbs up its ass. That, my horoscope would say, is how the stars aligned and Nintendo got the full head of steam it has to day, powering back from the brink of pulling a Sega to leading the industry in market share and market growth. The cultural icon-like status of the DS Lite doesn’t hurt, either, but for the most part the Wii is just a culmination of fortunate events and careful planning. Fortunately for us, it’s not too bad having to play some great GameCube games on it, people seem to get a genuine kick out of swinging their arms around like trained apes. Shit, why didn’t anyone think of it sooner?

So I skipped out on my post-Phil GDC blogging due to class immediately following his presentation and the fact that I was OMGBusy last week getting my “shit right” and preparing for the druken glory that is Spring Break.

The keynote has had time to simmer know, and the consensus appears to be unanimous. Even the black, charcoal hearts of Tycho and Gabe at Penny-Arcade have been warmed over by the woolly charm of LittleBigPlanet’s physics-powered foursome. Speaking of which, have you SEEN that 18 minute demo they did live for GDC? The four minute trailer that got out before looks absolutely elementary compared to the depth and depravity of the demonstrated version, though they feature the same level. The additional time given to character expression, slaps, hand waves, orange vaulting, and even stickering a few linen sheets had my mouth completely agape at the potention that lies within this charming little download title. If they didn’t know it before, I’m sure they do now: LittleBigPlanet is going to be a BigBigHit. Sorry, I pun when I’m giddy.

In truth, I could wax on and on about the glories of this user-powered title for an entire blog entry (and I just might later this week or early next), but there’s so much more to address I feel obliged to press on. Let us instead address the much more highly contested reveals: Miyamoto’s non-keynote and Sony’s Home.

As for Miyamoto, well, I really feel bad for the guy. His company is in the middle of a mega-huge stock buy-out, or so I’ve been told, and this prevented him from revealing any significant new information about his games and the Wii in general that could compromise the value of the purchase. Honestly, I thought they were too busy printing money over there in Japan to still need stocks, but apparently there’s no such thing as too much profit.

Other cool stuff I read from GDC, as an attempt to prove that this blog is more that a mere commentary by myself on my PlayStation experience (it’s a helluva lot better than my Wii one, but we’ll touch on that soon): Warren Spector, one of my personal favorite minds in the business, got up and talked for a little over an hour on the importance of story in video games. He categorized the four types of story inclusion in games, and basically summed up his speech by saying that user involvement in story decisions has become crucial. GTA and similar games served as a strong beginning for the formula, but the cinematic and freeform style of games like Gears (not an actual mention, just recalling this off the top of my head) or Oblivion, where the user’s actions affect the outcome, are what storytelling in next-gen gaming is all about. As a huge fan of story and narrative in games, I was enthralled by the article.

I also read about CliffyB’s (gosh that feels loathesome to type) Designing Gears of War junket thing, which happened right before the Shiggy keynote, but he really didn’t say anything too exciting other than when he described the use of visual aids to enhance the perception of speed and action. Motorstorm is just as guilty of using blur to boost the sense of speed as Gears is of using shaky-cam to boost its running, so it was cool to hear I’ve been fooled so easily, so often.

Aside from the other cool bits by Elite Beat Agent’s creator (Ouendan 2 and EBA 2 this year, bitches) and Koji “IGA” Igarashi on the resilience of 2D and Castlevania, the big news of GDC was Home, Sony’s Second Life-cum-social-network. It’s been getting some pretty mixed comments, ranging from the expected fanboy orgasms of “OH MY GOD IT’S SO FREE!” to the grumblings of Nintendo and Xbot loyalists critiquing the feature for not attracting a new audience, not appealing to them, not being free enough, not buying into the idea of playing games inside a glorified META game, and more. I, personally, am a bit on the fence, but on the whole rather receptive to the idea of a free online virtual lobby and Sims-like interface for killing time between games and grouping up with other PS3 owners. After all, I have a PS3, and it’s not going to cost me a dime to at least try it.

I’ll even admit that the lobbies and larger social areas aren’t strongly appetizing. The ability to customize my own apartment and run content from my harddrive live into TVs and picture frames around my personal living space is, however, a pretty fucking awesome feature. I know that a lot of journalists are talking about how people will be using this to broadcast porn through the PlayStation Network, but it really just makes me feel sorry for the gaming community that our news sources are obsessing over the potential to put boobs and cocks on the walls of their virtual homes. C’est la vie, I suppose.

Anywho, it was a great week for video game news, even if some of the fanboys got their feathers ruffled by all the good and not so good news. If anything, GDC served as an example to show that all three competitors, no matter the current situation, are still holding strong and already dug in for another five years of console warfare. And as always, that means more great news for gamers.