Walk the Creed, talk the Creed
When that first trailer of Assassin’s Creed came out at E3 2006 showing off Altair’s cold and calculated assassination, the game would immediately jump to one of my most anticipated games. But as easily as it appeared, the drop-off was just as harsh with uneven previews, and rather critical reviews with the release (even recieving a 4.5/10 from former EGMer Crispin Boyer). Yet it was the again promising trailers for the second title that renewed my interest and got me to give the game a chance. I’m going to be upfront about it, Assassin’s Creed is not an easy game to review. The core experience is almost proud of its repetition, linear structure, and arbitrary mechanics, yet even 2 years later the game’s polish is hard to ignore along with its ambitious story direction and fresh gameplay style. What impression it leaves a player with is hard to predict, but when I was done, I felt all the better for having known that experience.
(rest of my reflections after the cut)
Opera vs. Firefox 2: New Age of Heroes
The years 2003 and 2004 saw me venturing through rough waters across the oceanic internet. In the beginning of 2003, I was still browsing at a crisp 14.4 kbps with AOL 5.0, but with the purchase of a cable modem came my prompt switch to IE 6.0. For some months I can recall cooly defending IE from a friend who stood by Netscape, only to discover myself that we’d both been fools.
This discovery came when I stumbled upon Mozilla Firefox, which if my memory serves me correctly, was around version .8 at the time I first started using it. I was amazed by this new sensation of “tabbed browsing” along with promises of better security, pop-up blocking, mouse gestures, and a seeming limitless amount of functionality that IE couldn’t even touch. I quickly fell in love with the program, its open-source roots made it quite the rebel back in the day and it was endearing to many a tech-geek with its campaign to “Retake the web.” At one point, I even considered buying a promotional t-shirt, but upon actually seeing someone with said shirt, I realized that browser campaigns were perhaps best left for the internet. In general, the Firefox team could do no wrong at the time. Read the rest of this entry »
The third time’s a charm
No one will deny that Microsoft has made tremendous progress going from the original Xbox to the current 360. Numbers-wise, they’ll likely outpace the original console by at least 10-15 million units and make more profit in the process. Their console has also managed to remain extremely relevant both in terms of software and hardware, despite launching a year before its competitors, and perhaps most importantly, the 360 has become this generation’s hardcore darling.
This is not to say it’s a perfect machine. But Microsoft still has room to grow, and as someone who would call themselves a fan of the company’s general console direction, I’d love to see their next console not only duplicate the multiple successes of the 360 but iterate on its success as much as possible.
The following article is a general bullet-point esque argument on what I’d like to see the next hardware shape up to be. More after the jump.
Review: A Planet Lost and Found
Capcom started off this generation strong, with early announcements of new IPs in Dead Rising and Lost Planet, and it was as if the hype for one title boosted hype for the other (both titles were also under the supervision of Capcom star Keiji Inafune). The two games were somewhat of a pair of twins, both action titles with impressive graphics, and with enough of an original concept in each of them to make them stand out on store shelves. And while both were instant hits in retail upon their release, Dead Rising managed to become a cult-classic in the minds of many, while Lost Planet seems to have become “just another shooter” that failed to hold onto a larger audience. Going into these games, I myself thought that Dead Rising would be my preferred title of the two as well, but after hours spent with each game, there’s practically no doubt in my mind; I’m in love with Lee Byung-hun. [Rest of the review after the jump]
I’m a PC (don’t get excited)
Growing up as a kid, getting a computer (and later a newer computer) was incredibly exciting. Often times there were immediate differences right off the bat, whether it was a big OS change, the (kind of) exciting new world of DVD drives, fancy new programs packaged with the computer, etc. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown old and am prone to waving my cane at things, but I’m in need of a new computer and when I eventually get around to it, I’d imagine I’d want to immediately lock it down from all the fancy crap and strip it to the point where there’s little change to the way I use a computer now. The only real reason I want a new computer is because the one I have now can’t do the things I want it to do (it’s stuck with USB 1.1, some of the innards seem to slowly be going bad, it can’t play HD videos well, and it’s hard to find any games that’ll run well on it in general, along with a plethora of little issues along the way).
The last time I really had any sort of love affair with a computer was with my Linux tryst back in 2005 or so. It was exciting and heated, getting to learn all these new things, but then having to learn how to get the CD drive to play an audio CD wasn’t quite what I’d call “passion.” This is not to say that computers today have stagnated in terms of innovation, some tech. followers might say they’re trying too many things at once. I think a lot of it comes down to how thoroughly integrated PCs have become in our lives to the point where we have set expectations of the experience and anything that shakes that up is just a nuisance (and as a result you see a lot of arguments over what changes are warranted versus what is not, like with the overhaul that resulted in Office 2007). I find that it’s important to follow through with the gradual changes in technology but wow does it feel like a frustrating grind sometimes (I’d love to see how all those Facebook 2.0 haters would react if they suddenly had to revert to the old layout again)?
I want to touch you.
I’d love to experience that childish excitement that I’d had as a kid where everything felt fresh and in need of exploration, but these days it’s certainly more comfortable to play it conservatively rather than play around with all the stuff that pops up. It almost makes me wonder why I even want a new PC when much of that functionality I want listed above are things that can still be worked around. Am I just trying to be a good consumer, or perhaps a spoiled and needy gamer? If I’m going to do things mostly the same (maybe I’d throw Vista on there, that’d be the biggest difference), what’s really the point? It’s sad to say, but so much of is due to convenience. I would certainly like to do away with the stuttery scrollbars I experience when using Steam or the Zune software. And then why did they invent USB 2.0 when 1.1 would eventually get the job done? Well I guess watching a transfer with a USB 1.1 device is about as fun as watching your dog dry after he’s been out in the rain. Plenty of people have no idea what’s so damn special about a dual-core machine aside from perhaps knowing it’s more powerful. Hell I barely know much about how they work aside from being stronger multi-taskers, I guess all I need to know is what everyone else knows, it’ll get shit done faster. How much is all that extra power worth when most people don’t even realize it’s there?
Is it wrong that even with this realization (not to mention that I’d probably do things by the books with a new PC), I’d still love to have a new machine in front of me? Well no, not wrong but certainly inefficient. Newer PCs will be more efficient when handled properly, although how much more inefficient can you be than throwing aside your old junker and letting it gather dust in the attic? There unfortunately is no higher ground here in my mind. Either way, I’m being wasteful and paying the price in some way (by sticking with the junker, I’m unable to keep up with technology and it doesn’t get things done the way I’d like it to. And then by buying a new PC, I’m spending more for “virtual” gains while letting a “just fine” machine go to waste). I’m going to take a chance and say that no computer engineers did a side-focus on Ethics when they were getting their degrees.
Oh screw that, I want a new PC already.
Dusting up the Streets
Street Fighter IV is being released today and so far the reviews have been rather phenomenal. The game also seems to have been a bigger success than anticipated in the marketplace; 
Amazon is currently sold out on both platforms and some B&M have sold out of pre-orders as well. Even in Japan, where Street Fighter never had the same dominating presence as in the States, the game sold out easily in its first day on store shelves. This doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be a sales juggernaut, it could simply be exceeding their predicted numbers, but it’s a good sign nonetheless.
For this game to overwhelmingly succeed would be a great sign of life for the fighter genre, a genre that’s been struggling for many years. Even moreso, the game is a 2D fighter, the likes of which been in even worse shape over the past few years as the stronger pedigrees these days tend to be 3D franchises (Soulcalibur, Tekken, Virtua Fighter). Is it traditional 2D i.e. hand-drawn sprites? Not quite, but the remnants of that style remain in the game’s play-control. I haven’t played the game yet myself, although I’m eagerly anticipating the first chance I get. I unfortunately won’t be buying it any time soon (out of respect to my bank account), but I imagine the online scene will manage to sustain itself for some time.
I’ve been a supporter of the majority of the decisions Capcom made with this new Street Fighter, and I feel that they may be the developer who can give the fighting games a second wind if the game succeeds enough. The most important step they made was the 3D-over-2D engine. It does alter the general feel a little, but with a fantastic trade-off. The 3D engine allows the game a more modular structure that’ll allow it to be much more easily upgraded over the next few years. King of Fighters XII, still rooted in sprite-work however, will likely struggle with the same issues of cost and time that it has struggled with for years in iterating the franchise. People joke about the Morrigan sprite from 1995, but there’s a reason for that, and Capcom made an effective and smart business choice by going with this 3D engine instead. In addition I feel they were smart to bring the game back a little from the greater complexity of Street Fighter III. I like that series from the limited time I shared with it, but it was never as approachable as the flagship Street Fighter II series. I don’t know if I’d have as much interest in playing something like Street Fighter II HD Remix now as it feels a bit bare in terms of fighting systems, but Street Fighter IV may play the perfect medium between the two. I do feel for SFIII fans who were annoyed at the complete lack of III characters in IV, it’s unfortunately just another business choice they made considering how many people were turned off by the almost completely new cast of III. I don’t think the original World Warriors are as iconic as Capcom wants you to think, but they’ve all etched themselves into the memories of everyone who grew up playing this franchise. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of direction Capcom takes with the inevitable introduction of other characters (aside from the 12 original characters and 4 new ones, the rest have been a mix of Alpha and New Challengers for the most part).
From what I’ve seen, the only blatantly disappointing aspects of the game lie with Capcom’s lack of dedication towards single-player modes. There is no dedicated single-player mode ala Weapon Master (from SCII) or the World Tour mode from Capcom’s own SF Alpha 3. Just straight up arcade, which is also the only way to unlock characters from what I’ve heard (this rings too familiar of playing through MvsC2’s Arcade mode again and again and again as it was the only realistic way of unlocking characters). In fact I just finished unlocking the last 3 characters in my save file the other day, after 7 years. Unlocking won’t be anywhere near that bad in SF IV, but Capcom should make it more flexible. Finally there’s no create-a-character mode despite that mode’s growing popularity in fighters. Can’t say I was expecting it, but it would’ve been a nice addition. For Capcom to add in more single-player functionality as DLC would be a little useless, considering most of these modes are there mostly to gain familiarity, but if they do make other versions (Champ, Hyper, etc.) for retail in the future, they should really keep these kinds of additions in mind.
It’s going to be interesting to watch how IV fares up in the long run compared to III. With this game, it feels like Capcom is once-again placing Street Fighter as a brand and they’ve given it a pretty decent marketing campaign. The Collector’s Edition comes with a new anime movie, UDON is doing a 4-issue length comic sub-series based on the new characters, and Capcom is doing the most work it’s done in a while to give the game it’s own visual feel (with the ink splotches that are added in battle for aesthetic affect, accompanying cutscenes for the arcade mode, the previously mentioned 3D engine, fancy super and ultra combos, etc.) In contrast, Street Fighter III wasn’t marketed well and not easily available to the average gamer. All three versions were ported to the Dreamcast, but the only other way to play the games were on the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for PS2 and Xbox. Even there, III wasn’t the main feature (Third Strike was put in to complement the SFII Hyper Fighting portion). It was also in arcades, but by the late 90s, arcades were already long in the tooth. In contrast most every other Street Fighter affiliated franchise was all over the place: SFII was ported to just about everything, Alpha saw games on Saturn, PS1, DC, and even GBA, and the Marvel vs. Capcom series was similarly treated. To be fair, III has long-earned itself a special place in the underground fighting game scene, but Capcom never quite gave it a chance to be a mainstream success. It’s pretty clear they’ve learned from their mistakes with their positioning of IV, most telling is the port to the HD-consoles just a few months after the arcade release (and with a few additions to boot). Hopefully it works out well for them.
I’ll bookend this with an excerpt from James Mielke’s review over at 1up. As you can see, he’s more than faithful in what this new entry could do for the franchise:
In my opinion Capcom and DIMPS have done an amazing job with Street Fighter 4. It’s obvious from front to back that the people working on this game knew the legacy they were contending with, and found the guts to finish this project with conviction. This is no mere copycat; this is a proud new addition. It’s a bold, confident fighter that celebrates its heritage while bringing fresh, new ideas to the table, arriving in a remarkably complete package that — if this were the last Street Fighter to ever be created — earns its rightful place in the series’ canon. It’ll be great to see the tournament-quality matches that arise from this fourth iteration (as well as the crazy exploits that only the best players can discover), and the future innovations it will awaken in Capcom. In all, it’s a fine return to form from the masters of the genre.
The Satellite’s Descent
Read an article yesterday by Mike Elgan over at Computerworld Blogs about the soon and near certain end of satellite radio in the states. Although Sirius XM is the only business in town -especially after the merger- business is rather rough right now. Just as they were the trailblazers, they’ll also be the gravediggers.
Elgan’s article comes off depressingly humorous in certain ways, as it makes me think of how unrealistically many American consumers cling to ideas that good products will persevere, an idea as hope-filled as the American Dream. Despite how promising and interesting a product that satellite radio provided, it couldn’t dig itself out onto terra-firma (there’s a hidden joke there for radio listeners). Here’s the quote from the article that was particularly…heart-breaking:
Readers who subscribe to Sirius XM (I subscribe too, by the way) claim that satellite radio is just too wonderful to die, that somehow its sheer awesomeness will pull it through the hard times.
But the world doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. The company was in dire trouble before the recession, and now the economic downturn will kill Sirius XM off and bury satellite radio forever.
It’s unfortunate, but it’s the truth. For the quick and dirty story leading up to the looming bankruptcy filing, the company has a lot of debt which needs to come in soon, and considering satellite gets most of its supporters through new car purchases (and car dealers aren’t doing too pretty right now either), there’s no real way for them to make up this debt. If satellite had any chance of survival, the recession killed those chances.
I never subscribed to satellite and it probably wouldn’t have made much sense for me, considering I don’t have a car nor am I home enough to make it worthwhile. But yet I’ll be upset to see this service go, it’s a blow to the already disheveled music industry, along with talk radio across the board. There’s still something special about freshly arranged playlists, which satellite was always lauded for, but terrestrial is utterly terrible at doing. In addition, plenty of talk radio shows I used to listen to are now on satellite, who knows what’ll happen to these guys now? It’s a loss all-around with satellite gone, and I regret never really having the chance to explore it. Meanwhile podcasting is still too immature a medium to be viable commercially, few people are able to make big profits on it as of yet. And internet radio was never very interesting to begin with. Terrestrial? Give me a call when it’s relevant again.
Pretty much everyone is feeling the affects of the struggling economy, and events like this make it all the more poignant. The other day I ran across this article on twitter, 15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009, and while it’s silly to feel sad over mega-corporations collapsing, there is a service here and there that all of us are going to miss. Blockbuster has been on a few these lists (including Elgan’s own watch list: “10 things that won’t survive the recession“), and while they’ve made their share of mistakes, could you imagine not having a Blockbuster in your neighborhood anymore when you’re bored on a Sunday night? Sources of leisure activity often thrive in times like these, but already results have been disastrous and will only continue to get worse.
Not all of these companies will collapse, and there’s going to be new companies rising up to take the place of some of the ones that do. For the time being though, it’s hard to be excited about the end of the recession, when all too many companies won’t even see that end.
May 2009 have mercy on these souls
Nintendo managed to sell over 4 million Wiis in November and December 2008 and probably could’ve sold another half million had shops not run out. For some reference, this is a fifth of what the Gamecube sold in its entire 5 year run. I’m not here to argue which console is/was better, both have their strong points. But it’s flat out maddening how little is happening on the Wii front and yet they’re posting these types of numbers. For instance, Matt Cassamassina of IGN Nintendo recently let out a “big” announcement on their podcast. According to a gaffer’s summary:
Matt can’t say which title (though it’s already been announced), but a third party which has a major online game on the way are not going to use friend codes
Now for the Wii, this is somewhat of a headliner as friend codes have completely mitigated the Wii’s potential (and the DS as well) as a online multiplayer console. The need to use friend codes to play with friends makes the already ephemeral nature of online play even more so. If this game turns out to be Monster Hunter 3, as it’s rumored to be, that could be a big boon for the multiplayer centric game.
BUT, in the greater scope of things, it’s tragic that this qualifies as major news for the Wii these days. With 2 years in the can, Nintendo has done extremely little to frame the Wii as anything more than a “once-in-a-while” console, making very little effort to produce hardcore-centric functionality (although calling good online-play hardcore-centric is a stretch these days anyway). Nintendo’s 2 big games of the 4th quarter were Wii Music and Animal Crossing, neither saw stellar reviews (and many people probably prefer the DS AC anyway). And the only announced 1st-party titles for the first quarter are Gamecube ports with Wii functionality: Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis.
With 4 million units sold in the holidays while there was nothing new and worthwhile on shelves (all Nintendo’s big first party titles came in the first half of 2008), there more than likely is no panic to produce great content for the console at this point. The long-awaited fridge fix that would add more streamlined storage capability? That was announced in October as part of a firmware update for the spring, even though we all know that this type of functionality shouldn’t take months to be released after being announced. Clearly Nintendo is not in any rush to get things done at this point.
I imagine the reason I bought a Wii before anything else was the same reason people are buying it now. Relatively cheap in comparison, it’s doing things differently, I was excited by the prospects of Virtual Console-one of the few areas where the Wii has actually delivered-and you didn’t need hi-def for the optimum experience (don’t let anyone tell you that you need hi-def for the other two either, those claims are widely exaggerated). The thing is, that was 2 years ago and the outlook was more promising then with Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, MP3, etc. There’s some decent looking stuff in the pipeline, but with the console selling this much, there should be a lot more. In the beginning, Nintendo was practically carrying the console on its own shoulders, much as it did the Gamecube, with 3rd parties taking a while to convince. And while the 3rd parties still look to be slacking, Nintendo is the one looking the most lazy at this point.
As someone who defended the console’s potential at launch, it’s pretty disheartening to see the company who boasted promises of a new frontier in gaming (and we’re not talking about marketing frontier) not doing a great job fleshing out the frontier. They performed well enough at the start but what is there to say about the past 6 months not to mention all of 2009?
My Name is Charles Barkley (discussing role-playing)
The term role-playing means different things to different people. For some, it harkens back to the days of D&D spending time around the table with some buddies, for others it refers to putting oneself in the mind of a favorite character in a chat room or perhaps in real life. For me, it’s almost always made me think of the RPG genre in video games. But being that games are interactive, the player can often place themselves in the head of the character. I find that the less stiff I am about role-playing, the more fun there is to have.
The power role-playing has had in games has only gotten larger with time. Western RPGs did and still tend to play closest to the classic definition of the term by allowing the player to design their avatar, choose how they want to mold that character (by skill sets) and then negotiate conversations. And while jRPGs are known for their overkill in terms of rigidity, there was a time when they were much more flexible as well (see Final Fantasy 1) and adhered to many D&D conventions. Defenders of jRPG still say there’s some role-playing to be had today, you just have to place yourself in your player character’s shoes (even if they happen to look like Meg Ryan).
I object.
I tend to take this even further, outside the realm of RPGs. Take Silent Hill 2 for instance, James has a mostly defined character before you even press Start. When I play the game though, it’s hard to distance myself as “a god” and instead get right down to the grit and put myself in his head. When he does something stupid, it’s really me doing something stupid. When he sees something otherworldly, I’m seeing it too. Amusingly enough, when I saw something bizarre, I’d stop and look with James as if I was there seeing it myself. I find a great game excels at creating this in-body experience. When I was playing REmake shortly after, the sense of attachment was so weak, partly because there seemed to be so little choice compared to SHII. Run or shoot, fight or flight. There was no reflection to be had or taking a few moments to gather what just happened. This is contrary to THE SCENE where “Magdalene” is played in SHII, a powerful moment for both the character and the player in the game. Nintendo has consistently been against giving Link in the Legend of Zelda full voice-acting simply because they want the player to believe themselves him, and they’ve always done a great job with this.
I think there’s many ways to do this, and all can create a different affect. While I haven’t gotten around to playing Mirror’s Edge, the in-person feel was incredibly well-done from what I had played of the demo. It’s all because of the tension and mood the game is able to create; crawling through the vent wasn’t exciting, but falling out and seeing the guards meant the player (as Faith) had better get running. And then there was Resident Evil 4. In that game I was Leon “kick across the face” Kennedy, in large part due to the amount of gameplay options available to the character. Will Wright is an adamant enemy of story in games because the player’s story through their characters will always be more powerful in his opinion. And while I may not be against story, I agree that games should try to make the character’s story theirs but also that of the players. I may not be the biggest fan of the game, but Shadow of the Colossus did this with flying colors.
“If you want good story, go read a book.” I’ve heard this thrown around a lot, and sure most games can’t compare with a good book storywise-at face value. But the added interactivity completely changes things. Every experience that your character has, essentially becomes your own as you’re there to play it and witness it. And that is something that cannot be discounted. Squirtle, I choose you!
Traffic: This is not Queens Blvd
Today I found someone apparently stumbled upon my blog with the following search query: “matrix reloaded shane bettenhausen.” I don’t really want to know what that’s about and I find it odd that such a query would link to my blog. On the plus side, I’m getting a lot more traffic these days from searches it seems, although sometimes I find it funny/wrong when people come looking for something they definitely won’t find. “Street Fighter Gill” – looking for a strategy on how to beat the guy? Well you’re completely out of luck here, I’ve never even played enough Street Fighter III to make it to Gill!
My overall traffic has come down some since December, I assume it’s due to my more haphazard posting structure these days but I think every blogger (who’s not being paid for it) eventually learns that traffic isn’t the most important metric for measuring the quality of the blog. While my traffic may have gone down, I feel more and more careful and self-aware of my writing ability as time passes. Recently I feel I’ve been varying up the content of my posts much more, mostly unconsciously, and that’s always the direction I wanted to take with this blog. Also I want to make sure I’m writing about things that matter to me, rather than write because I feel obligated to put something down on paper. I may have finished Crackdown, but you’re not likely to see a Crackdown review because the experience wasn’t significant enough. Should I write about games that are exceedingly terrible here? Sure, but Crackdown doesn’t fit in that category either.
Don’t expect this blog to live on the bleeding edge of anything, games, movies, etc. If you want news stories, this aint the spot, besides there’s other people who’d definitely do a better job than me. And I can’t think of the last time my gaming experience of the year was actually from a game that came out the same year. Ideally, I’d like to edge more towards contemporary works, but budgetary issues prevent such a thing. Another thing, a lot of people will say that game reviews today are reviewed as products, not works of merit, I’d love to try to go more into the latter half more myself, if I have the writing hutzpah to do it. Everything with time right?
In other news I beat the first Contra game yesterday for the first time ever. It was with a friend and 30-man code to boot. It wasn’t anywhere as difficult as I expected, it didn’t help that as a kid I didn’t actually know that the Konami code was for everything (back then it was just the TMNT code to me).
