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.

Today’s write-up will NOT be about how glorious Super Mario Galaxy is. It will not be about how Call of Duty 4 ceases to underwhelm me. It will, most certainly, not be an ode to the wonder that is Zack and Wiki. No, today we discuss PlayStation 3 games. And what a discussion it shall be.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to receive a call from none other than Captain Qwark himself. He was calling to inform me that my reserved copy of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction was to be in stores the following day, and that I would be required to drive to the game store to receive said product (rather than have it beamed directly into my brain). I grinned. It was about the only grin I’ve gotten from anything related to GameStop–a company whose presence in my town feels like an invasive plague now–in well over a year. That wretched retailer has lost all of my support thanks to its short supply of games on launch day (NO spare copies of Bioshock or Assassin’s Creed on launch? NONE?), and I will do my best to avoid giving them my money henceforth. They can give me money for trades, though. I’m no Puritan, after all.

Cough.

Anyway… Ratchet 1, 2… 6 is truly stunning. I don’t mean that as a way of describing its graphics, though the color palettes and broad swashes of inventive and alluring design do resonate deep within my shriveled gamer’s soul. No, I am referring to the complete Ratchet Package: the controls, the story, the level design, and of course the weapons. The game nails almost everything that made the first three games in the series such a spectacular success in my eyes. Simple platforming is placed neck-deep in frenetic fire fights, the characters are colorful and never attempt to bog down the fun with any serious or melodramatic moments (though the ending to this one does come close to the latter), and the many planets and environments are unique, expansive, and full of life. The bolt collection is naturally back and more OCD-inducing than ever (the ting-a-ling of nuts and screws flying into your possession is like a siren song), and Ratchet’s ears have grown noticeably larger than I remember. To put things briefly, I loved this game dearly, and I am eager to give it another go once my DualShock 3 arrives in about two weeks time (though I may be too busy with Mario and Uncharted to do so immediately).

Ratchet is also something that the PS3 desperately needed, an all-audience title from a very successful PS2 franchise, reloaded and remastered for the HD era. With the new “low” price of the 40GB unit, Sony should be looking to push its first party titles hard in the next 6 weeks leading up to Christmas, and between this and Uncharted I’d say it has the ammunition to accomplish that goal. Well, that sounds a bit vague. When I say “that goal,” I mean the 11 million units shipped worldwide. To even speculate that Sony could pull itself from third place this winter is absolutely silly; Nintendo has the franchises to continue its dominance in North America (but not Japan, surprisingly) well into next year (Smash Bros. Brawl, my love, I cannot wait!), and Microsoft had two solid months of Halo humping (and about 800,000 consoles sold) to sustain its lead for a while longer. But still, to think Sony is, after a year, finally reaching the 2 million mark and seeing a doubling of its sales thanks to the new price reductions and SKU… that’s most definitely a sign of things to come. It’s also a sign that people don’t seem to care about backwards compatibility that much (vote with your wallet, as the saying goes), but that could just be because the games–the only thing we ever wanted–are finally arriving. I’d say Sony could, potentially, see another million added on to its US sales if things go well for them before year-end, and worldwide they can certainly count on Europe to pull them to their fiscal goal. That’s still placing them a fair leg behind the leading HD system, but it makes the console wars a bit more lively, I’d say.

So let’s talk about the big gun for Sony this year, since it seems Unreal Tournament 3 is going to be 2008 and Haze is quietly becoming a mockery as far as exclusives go. The game is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and thanks to last week’s PSN demo, I can assure anyone that has an inkling of doubt about this game that they will NOT be disappointed. Does it scream 10/10? No, but neither did Gears when I first played it (replaying it with a friend now, I realize I never properly enjoyed the game back then, and my assessment of it has changed considerably). There are some things I am sure of, though, and that’s that this game has some incredible talent behind it. The writing brings to mind The Sands of Time–Nathan Drake often finds himself speaking his thoughts aloud, which are in fact lip-synced in the game if you check, and he is never short of a few wry grunts during combat–and the cover system outdoes its inspiration, the oft-imitated Gears of Way, in several ways. First, being able to run and take cover using seperate buttons (or in this case, analog stick and Circle), is a huge plus. Here, one simply pulls off of cover whenever he likes, and rolls to new cover/hurdles his current cover by pressing the stick in a desired direction and hitting Circle again. It works quickly, and very, very well.

What it does have in common with Gears, though, is that gunfights are demanding, often punishing. The short demo features an extensive amount of combat, and while the enemy AI is not of any particular prowess, it is nevertheless quite deadly. You’ll have to switch cover often due to flanks, and there is no chainsaw bayonet (just your fists) to save you from a close encounter with the oncoming grunts. A noticeable lack of ammunition for your pistol and any heavy weapon you may pick up makes precision shooting and the ability to comb dead bodies for spare clips key abilities, too. I’m not sure if this is done to make the fights less like laughable Tomb Raider skirmishes and more like Rainbow Six: Vegas or Gears of War bouts, but it definitely had me clenching my jaw… and dying… a lot. Once I got the gist of the controls, though, the challenge was like a game of manhunt. Grunts gave chase, I gave bullets in return, and in the end I got to some of the wonderfully stylish platforming segments.

And this is definitely Naughty Dog’s best work as far as platforming goes. Even though the bits in the demo were fairly straightforward, the potential I saw in the diagonal leaps, fingertip grabs, and ledge-holding shuffles have me beaming with anticipation for the full meal next week, and I think many who have tasted this little appetizer are feeling the same. In a period where the first-person shooter is running rampant like the plague, a third-person adventure — and this game promises to have everything an adventurer could hope for — is just the thing the doctor ordered for those of us with high-def sets. Jungles don’t look this good in person, but this game will make you wish you were in one anyway. Add to all of this the attention to tiny details (Nathan’s gun holder has its own physics, his clothes realistically get wet and dry over time, and people move and act like real people should move and act), and a story that has us all thinking of Indiana Jones and the good movies that George Lucas has made, and you’ve got something very special, indeed. Will it be my game of the year? Heaven knows that competition is a tough one. But let’s just say I’m most certainly looking to place this one near the top five, and that’s just from a demo.

Ok, my hand in cramping up from all this typing. Wii game discussion, and perhaps some thoughts on Beowulf, will be posted soon.

Oh man, what a mediocre showing. Great games, but that was already known. RE5 was kinda obvious when Peter was leading in to it, but I still can’t believe Sony let so many big games get a trailer or an on-stage demo at this. Regardless, the big hits of this show– Gears, COD4, Assassin’s Creed — are all going to be multiplat.

The lack of Haze in trailer or demo form pretty much sums up all the rumors about PS3 exclusivity and most likely it serving as a bannerchild for the ROCKAXIS or whatever they’ll call it.

Disney videos being on Live makes great sense for Disney but with their Sony loyalty in Blu-Ray I’m a bit confused. I would love for Sony to announce that all its Blu-Ray studio partners will have their HD content in the PlayStation Store and just tear the rug out from under Microsoft (since they totally ignored HD-DVD), but that announcement is aways off.

Other than that, I don’t care about PGR4 or its camera shy developer who was reading from all the conveniently stationed teleprompters, and I’m disappointed that Mass Effect, Alan Wake, Bioshock, and Halo 3 — the big 360 exclusives, were all largely ignored or just got videos.

The only truly exceptional part of the show, hands down, was the COD4 guys. “We’re going deep… and HARD,” should trump all the memes of Sony’s 06 conference. I think I woke my neighbors laughing so hard.

I’m not even going to go into why I haven’t written a damned thing in two weeks. Let’s get busy.

I am officially in love with Cormac McCarthy…’s writing. After reading The Road last month I went to the bookstore and purchased the soon-to-be-a-theatrical-film No Country For Old Men, and it was–in a word– stunning. I’ll be very up front about it all: the man does not write comedies. Both books are dark and tragic in their own way, full of death and fear and brutality. Yet at the end of both novels, you realize that the point of the book wasn’t to envelop you in this violent and bloodthirsty reality, but instead to celebrate the smaller victories that come with even the biggest tragedies. I honestly cannot allow myself to say any more on the subject, as ruining either work would feel downright sinful, but rest assured that spending your money on either book will bring you hours of rapture and a strong dosage of enlightenment. For me, having recently suffered a rather dark hour in my own life, finding some solace in McCarthy’s bare prose and terse worlds was truly a blessing. I consider it my duty to inform you that such a feeling should not be hoarded, but shared with as many people as possible. So, go buy a book you bums. It’s summer, after all. I doubt you’re doing anything more productive.

BUT BUT BUT! Before you close this tab (you lazy little scumbuckets that can’t read more than one-hundred word posts I spit at you), Allow me some more gushing.

Planet Earth. I just got the thing on Blu-Ray and–after watching the first episode in HD a few weeks ago–I can’t think of anything I’m more excited to do that pop this bitch in tomorrow. If I ever for a moment regretted purchasing a PS3, this little gem has made it all worth it. Seriously, I haven’t even popped it in yet but somehow owning the series has lifted my spirits and brought a sparkle to my eye. Nature is a beautiful thing, and I am anxious to finally watch something that accurately captures its glory.

Afro Samurai is another one of my purchases, but I haven’t yet watched this Director’s Cut. Apparently most of the new footage is for the sex scene (BOOBIES BOOBIES BOOBIES!), but either way the show is some of the most balls-out ass-kickingly (not a real word) good anime I’ve seen in a while. Of course, the other anime I’m watching is Monster, which is far from ass-kicking but still good, so I guess you could say that I’m in good company as far as video is concerned.

Unfortunately though I haven’t had time to play my purchased copy of Odin Sphere, since I am boycotting myself from playing anything until I beat FFXII, which also means I’m waiting to buy Tomb Raider Anniversary, something I’m rather giddy to sink my teeth into. The other side of this coin is actually uplifting as far as I’m concerned: I’ve stopped playing Pokemon. Yes, I became champion, saw the 150, and quit. I know there’s a whole ‘nother island to go see, and all the 354 or something remaining pokemon to grab, but fuck it, I have more important games to play. Like Lunar Knights. And Tomb Raider. Bah, talking about pokeys gets me angry. I think I’ll leave off here for now. I’m going to go start Suite Francaisse tomorrow (finally!) and of course binge on Planet Earth. I’ll hopefully be back with more on those soon.

There is a certain level at which the process of gaming becomes purely an unconscious action. Rather than having to focus our physical and mental efforts on avoiding obstacles in Mario, or perfectly countering an opponent’s attack in Virtua Fighter, we can simply “see” the game as it unfolds, as if we had somehow transcended beyond the limits of the controller and television interface and laid bare the code before us. I speak of those games that are wholly pure, unadulterated by level-ups or plot or side quests. Tetris, Galaga, Bejeweled. These are all such experiences. But recently I have discovered a new entry into this most upper of echelons. They have named it Calling All Cars.

I see your faces. Your noses are wrinkling. Your eyes may be rolling. Calling All Cars in the same league as Tetris? Yes. I am not expressing bias in any way, other than a bias for pure, fun gaming. CAC is indeed a Tetris-like experience, and let me tell you why. Each game consists of the same formula: a prisoner escapes, you race to catch him, a battle for possesion ensues; you race to return him to jail, a battle for scoring ensues; rinse and repeat. The formula is simple, and utterly effective. Rather than letting the game become a Twisted Metal where a bevy of power ups and vehicle types effect the balance of the game, Calling All Cars keeps things as basic as possible. You can pick a vehicle, but they all drive the same. Likewise, there are only three power-ups to speak of: a hammer to hit the ground with, jarring the prisoner from a competitor’s car; a magnet–the trickiest of the three–which allows for long-range swipes; and also a homing missile perfect for nullifying a run to the station when your four wheels just aren’t fast enough.

In total, these elements all blend together for an experience that is quite simply the most mindlessly brilliant and entertaining game I’ve played since perhaps Meteos or Tetris DS. I am not lying when I spent four hours straight in front of my TV with this game. It was just that satisfying.

Other than that, I’ve been playing Lunar Knights and Pokemon, and am once again about to dip into FFXII now that my PS3 has PS2 video upscaling turned on. I took a peek at the game in 720p and nearly lost a night’s sleep with the anticipation of level grinding in the new forest area I had reached. To all the haters of FFXII’s gambit system, you haughty, “old school” devotees can go plant your heads up your asses, because you don’t deserve to be gaming anymore. I’m done with you.

… I guess I could talk about season finales for Lost and Heroes, one being utterly astounding and the other utterly devastating (in its suckatude), but I think I’ve filled my quota for the use of the word utterly today. I’ve got a long weekend of packing and moving furniture ahead of me, but when I come back I’ll have hopefully started Odin Sphere and be able to discuss that. Until then, may the sheep-trees be with you.

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?

I’m not going to link to it, but many of you probably know that today marked the big reveal of GTA IV, or the Second Coming as far as most of the gaming world has been hyping it (although Super Paper Mario is fighting the Master Chief for the title as we speak). Suffice it to say, the trailer is all too brief and all-too-familiar as far as I’m concerned. We’re looking at a very nicely detailed Liberty City and a Russian immigrant who sounds like he used to be in the human trafficking business. Yawn. I’m sure the game will be all sorts of knee-to-the-balls awesome, but I’m just too ambivalent towards the franchise and its massive herd-like following to care.

At the same time, it’s never felt so good to slam some prissy Greek’s head into a door. That’s right, God of War II has been out for two weeks now and I’m currently about 55% or so through the game. To put it bluntly, the game is like sex for my hands and a rim job for my eyes. The combo system is utterly flawless and the game–which I’ve manned up and decided to tackle on Hard–is masterfully balanced. Each foe has a weakness to exploit and a strength to avoid. Unlike similar PS2 action romp Devil May Cry, the game rewards patience and precision. Carefully executed combo strings and magic timing are far more effective here than, say, DMC3′s aerial juggles and dash-slash handiwork. That’s not to say that the DMC games are bad–the original is one of my top favorites on PS2, and the third game is hard enough to make me want to kick a baby–it’s just that their particular style of game is more oriented around the flashiness of your movements where as Kratos’ controls are oriented around a whirlwind of chain-slinging death.

I could wax on about the story, but essentially the material is a direct continuation of God of War the original, with Kratos being a bitter so-and-so that wants to go all ancient-emo on Zeus. It’s not really the story that matters, good though it may be. What’s amazing about this game is the presentation. The fact that the tutorial level is a fight against the mammoth Colossus of Rhodes trumps even the momentous Hydra battle of the last title, and the scale of the game only widens as you move on. Whipping massive steeds to move an island, attacking Titans, and hauling ass atop a Pegasus whilst clipping the wings from a gryphon is just a taste of what the first twelve hours alone offer. I can’t really say it too many times: the game is fucking fantastic.

Elsewhere in the world, I’ve been rather intrigued by a couple things. First off, the Folding@home project is a perfect way to justify my electricity bills, and I’m really excited by how much support the project has gotten from PS3 owners (over 50,000 unique contributions). The system acts like a screen saver–I’m currently running it while typing this–as the globe slowly revolves, revealing the glow of city lights in a twinkling white and the active PS3s folding in a prominent yellow. It’s almost like using the weather forecast on the Wii: zooming out, spinning around the world and pulling in on Prague or Paris or Kyoto and seeing who else is putting their time in to find the cure to serious illnesses and cancers. Of course, it’s not something that I’m lauding because its on PS3–I run f@h on my PC too–it’s just such a positive feature and such a simple way to show you’re willing to help that I can’t think of a reason NOT to do it. Aside from the electric bill, that is.

Speaking of ways to help out, I just finished off Beyond Malthus a little paperback by the Worldwatch Institute that nicely summarizes the world’s coming damnation. In 21 chapters, the book identifies 19 issues present in the world today that, coupled with population growth (the number one problem facing us today), mark the coming of bad times for the world. Though the book was written in 1999 and we’re all still alive and doing moderately well, the facts are indismissable: fisheries are shrinking, land is becoming more and more densely populated, water supplies are dropping, and death tolls in third world countries are on the rise. It certainly says “fuck the spoon, you’ll need a whole crate of sugar to wash this down,” but I’d expect nothing less from an economic/ecological survey. And while the book provides no solid answers or solutions of its own to the dilemmas it presents, it does serve as a rather insightful and harrowing look at just how precious the world really is. I sure hope it doesn’t go anywhere anytime soon.

Ahh, what else… I’m reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, another dry droll about environmental determinism as a means to explain why whites rule the world and why indigenous people get slaughtered, so I guess that’s new. I’m about to start into Suite Francaisse as well, which got rave reviews last year when it was released, and there’s an insurmountable number of games in my Pile of Shame right now. Just looking at my dresser makes me weep in pity at my busy life and inability to plow through even the most simplest of games (Devil May Cry 2, anyone?). So if I make any progress there–Motorstorm is dying to be played–I guess I’ll jot a note down. Other than that, life’s just the same old, same old around here. Probably won’t write again until next Thursday, so Go Gators in the meantime and sayonara .

So after the excitement of GDC and all the razzle dazzle of LittleBigPlanet, Home, and the Super Mario Galaxy trailer–as well as some hot screens of Too Human and Mass Effect–things seem to be going back to the bitter, groupthink mentality of before. I really didn’t want to make this post about video games again, I’ll get to a “just for fun” entry later tonight, but it seems like I can’t get away from my podium.

First off, we have the delirium of Megaton Monday. The big news of the week, you might say, is that Microsoft is just about ready to officially reveal its “Elite” Xbox 360 package, which will feature the additions of HDMI, a 120GB hard drive, and a svelte black exterior for $479. But you would be wrong. Instead, it was the bomb-drop that Devil May Cry 4 would no longer be an exclusive to PlayStation 3. Of course, this spawned an enormous amount of spear-rattling and disgruntlement across the internet–one MS employee scratched the title off a checklist featuring MGS4 and FFXIII–but overall the news was in fact received a grossly exaggerated response. The truth is, as some have pointed out, that this is pretty much the status quo for third parties. Fiscally, it does not make sense for a publisher or developer to keep a game on only one system when the costs have grown extraordinarily over the last generation alone. Likewise, the people complaining on the behalf of Sony are still getting the same game, and so will their friends that have 360s. This is what I like to call a win-win; losing exclusivity is just losing bragging rights. If that matters enough to you that you’re willing to boycott Capcom over their decision, then you’re not really a fan of the series and don’t deserve to own the game either way. The same thing goes for Ace Combat 6.

I just want to do a few name drops here while I’m at it, since this is such a game-centric post (the next one will feature a bit of God of War love… maybe a lot… but include other stuff too). For anyone crying out that the sky is falling because Warhawk went multiplayer-only for the PSN, try listening to the director of the game for a minute and see exactly how Incog. essentially saved their game from becoming vaporware. What they have done is incredibly ballsy and I cannot applaud them enough for being forward and open about the entire affair. The length and depth of the above interview is absolutely incredible, given that the man most likely felt as if he were being interrogated before a firing squad. But on the other end, we had more dismal sales for PS3 and $130 cat helmets for Halo 3. Joy!

The real meat of the past two weeks, though, is Too Human. Incapable of keeping his foot anywhere but firmly planted inside his large, cavernous mouth, Denis Dyack has been causing quite a bit of mischief. In case you missed it, the man went in the the EGM offices and verbally accosted Mark MacDonald for his E3 2005 preview of the widely accepted shitty build of his little darling, Too Human. Like a rabid dog hungry for the flesh of its master, Dyack has gone from the podcast to message boards to blog, spewing vitriol and ranting incoherently about the need to stop previewing games before they’re finished. What? Excuse me Mr. Dyack, but the fact of the matter is that the reason you bring a game to a conference such as E3 is twofold. First, you wish to build some public interest, or “hype”, around your product. Second, you wish to see how the press or general public respond to the current direction you are taking with your game. What happened with Too Human last year is that the product they attempted to garner acclaim for was utter rubbish at the time they showed it; the camera and frame rate were abysmal, and the game lacked any sense of unity too it. In short, you were shooting for the stars, but you hit your foot.

Now, when screens of your game have been released that look fantastic, and you have a chance to finally present a product that is worth either hype or critical praise, you parade yourself around and bully those that kicked dirt at you. Why are you doing this, Denis? The is no real issue with the way review and previews are conducted. You seem to have the conception that a poor preview will result in that critic’s opinion of the final product also being poor, when in reality both are subjective to the build of the game they attempt to honestly report on to we the readers. Certainly, it would be lovely if all previews began at the phase when a game is complete, but then what would differentiate a preview from a review, aside from the amount of the game that writer had been able to play?

The simple fact is that the gamers and the press want to know how your game is doing from the moment you first tell us about it. It’s no different than having a child. “Is it healthy? Is it a boy? When is it due?” Both the fetus and the game are in the throes of being constructed, but all along the way there will be people there to hen-peck and prospect about the eventual product. So my parting words to you, Mr. Dyack, are not unlike what I may tell that small child when it’s reached the ripe age of two: you are to be seen, not heard. Go back under the drapes and finish whatever wizardry it takes for you to make a great game, then come out and flaunt your product then. But until that time comes, do not be bitter that some people doubted you and called you names, just put your nose to the grindstone and do what every great developer does: make us say wow.