Bits For Rent

Is it just me, or does the next generation of gaming seem intent on refining the game experience we’ve seen over the last five-six years? Thanks to newfound processing power and innovative control schemes, developers are eager to tap the power of their new dev kits and deliver gamers product that’s already on shelves for under $20.

Specifically, it seems that we are once again in the midst of a first-person shooter renaissance. Whereas last generation brough us Red Factions, TimeSplitters, BLACKs, and 007s out the ass, this generation is seeing fit to keep us stocked to gills with Tom Clancy’s and Call of Duties and Brothers in Arms until we cry mercy. With the last batch of systems, dual-analog control and destructible environments seemed to be the harbingers of dime-a-dozen FPSes. Before we knew it, GameStops and Electronic Boutiques had half their shelves covered in mindless, trite, and quite often horrendous first-person fare. Am I the only one that remembers them making THREE Medal of Honors, FIVE James Bond games, and God knows how many Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six titles? Why the hell did we tolerate so much of the same crap?

Ask any developer and he’ll tell you that the cost of making games is constantly on the rise. Naturally, with the start of a brand new console cycle its expected that it will be expensive to get code running on those expensive new dev kits with higher-resolution textures and more advanced physics. No one said that making games was easy, but then you don’t here the PC developers bitching about how suddenly everyone wants graphics for 512MB graphics cards and not 256MB cards. In the business world, we call what console developers suffer “Step costs,” as in the costs of making games suddenly jumps after 5-6 years when new systems come out. In that window, however, you have the time to refine your code, adjust to the technology, and continue to polish each game more than the one that came before it. So why the hell do they have to keep making the same game over and over again? Are devs really that strapped for cash, or does the industry really love the FPS that much?

Ok, most of this is poorly researched rambling, but I have a point: I’m actually APPROVING this continual recycling of the FPS genre, at least for the next year or two. Here’s why: thanks to the new hardware, shooters on the Xbox 360 and PS3 look absolutely fantastic, and that is paramount in an FPS. Having already had six years to perfect dual-analog controls, shooters can now become more intricate and hybridized. If you look at what Ubisoft is doing with Rainbow Six: Vegas and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, the games have taken the first-person perspective and reduced the emphasis on run-and-gun monotony and are instead forcing the player to do something the previous generation of first person shooters largely ignored: think.

Granted, there are the WWII shooters and other exceptions that prefer to keep an all-action focus, but even these have seen a degree of evolution. If one looks at Call of Duty,there is now a focus on cinematic presentation; gamers are put on the front lines and in missions that previous hardware limitations prevented. Plus, the volumetric smoke and accurate reproduction of gunfire sounds aren’t too bad, either. But let’s get back to the good stuff.

When the Nintendo Wii was first shown, a lot of people saw that remote and nunchuck and said, “Wow, what a great set up for an FPS.” Lucky for us, many developers agreed. Call of Duty, Red Steel, and Metroid Prime 3 are all fine examples of what the wiimote control scheme is capable of bringing to the FPS genre. Thanks to the gyroscopic controls, those last-gen graphics bring us next-gen immersion that no other system can match. You can open doors and knock around enemies just as you might in real life, and aiming the controller at the screen is the closest we’ve gotten to weapon simulation on a Nintendo system since Duck Hunt. Plus, since the system is essentially a better GameCube, developers can shut up about cost and perfect the thing that matters most in an action title: gameplay. And if that isn’t a win in our book, I don’t know what is.

In the end, I’m not sure if it’s safe to say that we’ll see as much FPS sequelitis this gen as we did last, but I am confident that the quality of the FPS is going nowhere but up. With fresh systems and new controls, are you prepared for the reinvention of gaming’s biggest genre?

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mother never danced through fire shower

So the big news today was that Sony, in their ever-increasing efficiency of fucking things up, went public with an announcement claiming that not only would the European/PAL launch of the PlayStation 3 be moved to March 2007, but that the US and Japan would only see a combined 500,000 units at launch. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s about how many PS2s they were able to make… SIX years ago, BEFORE their competition arrived, WITHOUT Cell chips or blue laser diodes. Feel free to slap your foreheads with me.

Ok, but being the psuedo-loyal Sony fanboy guy that I am, I can’t bash them on this issue entirely. Well, I could, but you can read that kinda blog anywhere. So instead, let’s talk about marketing.

It is a proven fact that the PlayStation 3 is the largest and heaviest console produced in the past two decades. Weighing in at 11 pounds and standing slightly taller than the Xbox 360, it seems Sony was really trying to model the system after a large Silverback gorilla. Or an NFL linebacker. But even though the size and weight are off-putting, there is an even greater mistake being made by Sony in the design of their system (and no, I don’t mean the HDMI/wifi model difference). They painted it black.

You see, as a Marketing major, I know that it also a proven fact that consumers can take two identical products, look at them, feel them, and use them, and come up with a preference for one over the other. In the world of market research, two facts ring very clear: 1. we are more likely to pick a product up if it’s on the right side of a group than in the middle or on the left, and 2. if comparing white and black products, the consumer will say the darker product is heavier.

So, consequently, that 11 pound PS3 just became 13-15 pounds to the purchaser of it. It’s like that smooth plastic coating is plated in pure lead. And you wonder why the Wii and Xbox 360 are using white as their color of choice. Guess Apple isn’t to blame after all.

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can i make your garden grow?

Well, it took eight days to get here, but my little bundle of joy arrived yesterday afternoon and I couldn’t help but click my heels and gayfully parade around the yard, package in hand, singing my praises to the United States Postal Service. And what had ol’ Stealth in such a fine mood? Why his freshly imported black DS Lite, of course.

There is something about a shiny black veneer that I find cosmetically irrestible. As such, my entire line of consumer perephrials have fallen into a sort of glossy monotony: black iPod w/video, black Acura, black Samsung LCD TV, black ViewSonic LCD, black Thermaltake tower, black Logitech speakers and mice, black GameCube and PS2… and that’s only a taste.

Needless to say, my wallet (the irony is sublime) and cell phone are the most standout items to have escaped my horrible fetish for colorless homogenity. Basically, my rule of thumb is two-fold:

• It cannot be white (Oh Xbox 360, how you taunt me)
• If there is an option for black, it must be taken

Surely this must border along some line of OCD behavior, but when one actually holds a black Lite in their hands, they will undoubtedly forego any conclusions that such a sickness exists. The device is truly that beautiful.

But is beauty not only skin deep? We are expected to believe this as fact, yet I have seen proof of the contrary. Simply insert a DS cartidge into your black DS Lite and flick the power slider. That burst of optic splendor shining in your face right now? That is beauty.

It actually has caused me to ponder why our reliable, yet rather unremarkable, friend the DS XL was never designed with such a focus on visual appeal in the first place. Even the revolution–I mean Wii–has had a solid, appealing design since it was first revealed as a prototype box. So why, in the face of the looming PSP Launch, did the DS have to begin as the ugly duckling? Was cost that much of an issue? Or maybe it was the GBA cartridge slot protrusion? No, my friends, the answer is far simpler: it was greed.

Yes, Nintendo, like we consumers, has a knack for syphoning as much from our pockets as possible when it comes to handhelds. Why didn’t the GBA have a backlight? Because then you couldn’t have made the SP. And why didn’t the SP have a headphone port? Because then we didn’t need to buy that little dongle!

The case is no different with the DS. Nintendo released Base Unit A to the public, and then provided us with a myriad of color schemes for said Unit. Then, when a sufficient amount of time had passed (read: enough good games were out), they went and pulled the curtain back on Kickass Unit B. And we, the ever-loyal gaming sheep, quickly panicked and lined up for what was clearly the better product, even though it had Flaws 1-3 built in to spite us. (slot, stylus, and charger pin, if you were wondering).

But who the hell are we to complain? I mean, have you touched a DS Lite? Do you realize what you’re missing by not owning one? You want to be cool, don’t you? I know I did. And now I can safely say that yes, Nintendo, you have raped my wallet once again, and it was more than fantastic.

Call me?