Game Nacho

4 Crucial Aspects All Next-Gen Games Need to Have

Nigel — Sat, 18 May 2013 05:08:50 +0000

We’ve been gaming on current-gen consoles for a long time, it’s time for an update. With new features and better hardware coming with next-gen consoles, what should we expect of next-gen games? Here are 4 crucial aspects we think all next-gen games need to have.

Better Graphics

The hardware on next-gen consoles will allow developers to take 3D graphics to a whole new level. You may think the graphics on your Xbox or PS3 look pretty good but compared to PC games they’re falling behind. The next-gen of consoles will allow for an overall increase in the “standard of graphics” in games.

Unique Gameplay

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of games have become “saturated”. This has happened with sequels to games and in specific game genres. Some examples of this are Dead Space 3 and First Person Shooters.

The Call of Duty series has been a successful fps and has laid the groundwork for multiplayer shooters, but it gets repetitive. I know the Call of Duty series has tried different game modes to try to change things up, but I think it needs to go a step further.

PS3 indie game

DRM Free

There’s been a lot of problems with DRM/always-online games. For example Diablo 3 and SimCity, where players had to have an internet connection to play a single-player game. It’s gotten ridiculous in some games. There has already been a sort of movement to DRM Free games. This is definitely something that gamers care about and something that next-gen publishers should strongly consider.

Interesting Characters

I think this is one of the most important parts of a game. It’s crucial that the protagonist (and antagonist for that matter) is interesting and believable.

GLaDOS

It’s exciting that a new generation of games and consoles are coming soon. There’s bound to be plenty of new features, but I think there’s a lot that gamers are expecting from next-gen games. Do you think next-gen games will deliver on these aspects?

48 Awesome Games Made in 48 Hours

Nigel — Fri, 10 May 2013 23:55:03 +0000

If you didn’t know the Ludum Dare 26 competition concluded recently. In this competition game developers from all over the world create a game from scratch in 48 hours. The theme chosen for this competition was “Minimalism”. After playing over 200 of the 2347 entries I can say that these games are nothing short of awesome.

Without further ado and not in any particular order here are 48 awesome games made in 48 hours:

essentia

Minimalist RTS

Battery

Join

ProductionVille

Tundra King

Lead the Bunny

Bounce

MinimalismRPG

Running With Swords

Bliss

The Cave

Minimal Destiny

Zombie Blocks Attack

Velocibox

Tiny Runner

COLORUS

Leak Tracks

Cimi Mal

CatLife

Balls Balls Balls

Neverending bricks

BasedBall

the sunset

WALK

Dungeoneer

Mini Car Racing

Block Man

Shp Shft Mz

DeaN

Greyspace

min-max

Like Rogue

Ever Hunting

Quest

Winter’s Bane

28 Pixels

Farm Villager Quest

Don’t Hit The Core

Pivot

Minimalism : Find the red Cube

ShrunkenAdventures

Pieces

I also participated in the 72 hour jam, you can check my game out here:

Controlled State

Anyways I hope you enjoy these games, and let me know of any other awesome Ludum Dare 26 games that I missed!

4 Claims the Wii U can make that the Xbox 720 and PS4 can’t

Nigel — Sat, 04 May 2013 05:30:25 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk that the new Xbox 720 and PS4 are going to take this generation of consoles by storm. The Wii U may not be blowing gamers away, but it can still hold its own. Here are 4 claims that the Wii U can make that the Xbox 720 and PS4 can’t.

First

Obviously one of the bigger claims is that the Wii U was released first. It released in November 2012 while the PS4 and Xbox 720 haven’t been released yet.

Even with this head start and estimated sales of 3.45 million units already, will it be enough to stay on top when the Xbox 720 and PS4 release?

Backwards compatibility

There’s been many rumors that the PS4 and the Xbox 720 will not be backwards compatible with older games. This is due to the differences in hardware from older systems. While the Wii U is backwards compatible with Wii games (and even Wii controllers on that matter).

Non-annoying Share Button

There’s one thing that is particularly annoying with the PS4 controller, that is the share button. Having it as a physical button on a controller is worrisome. I don’t want to be bothered with a share button, I just want to play games.

Anyways this is one thing the Wii U does not have that I’m glad they didn’t integrate.

Retro Games

Nintendo has been making consoles for much longer than Microsoft and Sony have. The Wii U Virtual Console allows you to buy these great classics right on the system. This retro library of games is something that Sony and Microsoft do not have.

Super Mario World

Even though the Wii U does have some benefits over the Xbox 720 and PS4 the Wii U has some clear weaknesses at this time. The Wii U is currently lacking on some of its key 1st party titles, it needs to start releasing those great titles soon in order to stay on top in the coming years.

Xbox 720 Will Most Likely Have the Same Controller

Nigel — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:15:48 +0000

The Xbox 360 controller is the iconic video game controller of this generation. It has just the right amount of buttons and complexity to support all the actions needed for today’s games. With a highly liked and functional controller it wouldn’t be surprising if the Xbox 720 has the same controller as the Xbox 360, just look at what the Wii U did.

Now you may think that this is a bit of a stretch but the Wii U did exactly this. The Wii U does have a new tablet controller but most co-op games still require the use of old Wii controllers.

The main reason the Wii U did this was for functionality. Nintendo already had something that worked (the Wii controller) so they decided to keep it. Also most people that buy a Wii U most likely have a Wii, so that means they already have controllers for the new system which would mean lower cost to start playing multiplayer games.

The New Controller
Now Microsoft could have a new tablet controller but we don’t know for sure right now. Although they are planning on having a new Kinect, which admittedly seems kind of creepy with its “always watching” plan of use. It definitely gives off a 1984 vibe that I’m sure most gamers don’t want from their video game console.

Xbox 720 “Always Watching”

The Xbox 360 controller was a huge advancement over the original Xbox controller. It was not as bulky and fit much better in your hands. It has a great button layout for gaming and just enough buttons to be complex enough for most games but not enough to be too complicated. It is a great device for gaming.

Even the new Ouya console controller has a very similar layout to the Xbox 360 controller. In fact the layout of the Ouya controller is practically identical to the Xbox 360 controller. For a console that’s trying to be different it’s interesting that they used the same controller design as the Xbox 360′s controller.

In conclusion the Xbox 360 controller is a great gaming pad and many gamers really enjoy using it. It’s not too bulky, it’s just the right size, and you can actually game with it for hours. It will be interesting to see what happens at the Xbox 720 reveal on May 1st.

Xbox 720 Specs to Set Standard for Next-Gen Games

Nigel — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 04:44:58 +0000

Since Microsoft’s release of the original Xbox they have been a major player in the gaming industry. Microsoft’s presence in the gaming industry along with the Xbox 360 set the standard for games. Now that the next-gen consoles are on the horizon, will that stay the same?

The short answer, probably. The reasons may not be what you think.

Looking back at this past generation of consoles there have been three major players. The Nintendo Wii, the Sony Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360. Out of these three it’s clear that the PS3 and the Xbox 360′s hardware capabilities surpassed those of the Nintendo Wii. This being said these two systems were the focus of AAA games for the current generation.

The PS3 and the Xbox 360 have fairly similar capabilities and features. They both brought to the table advanced 3D graphics which brought to life many long-running series, such as the Elder Scrolls games. They also brought dedicated online multiplayer that many games featured such as the Halo series of games. Even though there were similarities among the systems there were also many differences.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Getting into the hardware specifics of the systems, the PS3 did have better graphics capabilities than the Xbox 360. Along with this better hardware (or perhaps because of the blu-ray player) came a higher price tag for the PS3. This resulted in sticker-shock for many consumers, which resulted in low sales upon the initial release of the system.

Even though the PS3 eventually caught up and surpassed the amount of total sales than the Xbox 360, this was only recently. For most of this generation of consoles the Xbox 360 dominated the market.

Since the PS3 and Xbox 360 were fairly similar in graphic capabilities in order to develop and release games for both systems and to cover a larger market, developers had to go for the slightly lower-spec console. With a successful console from a big name like Microsoft and one of the biggest gaming audiences developers were drawn to the system. Ultimately this means that the Xbox 360′s specs determined the standard for the current generation of games.

What this means for the Xbox 720

We’re all gearing up for a potential announcement of the 720 in the coming months. There have been some rumors and speculation on what the specs of the Xbox 720 are going to be, but for now we don’t know for sure.

If the Xbox 720 sticks to what the Xbox 360 did well then it will set the standard for next-gen games. Also to be clear I’m not talking about PC games, I’m talking about console games.

Microsoft needs to be careful and not add on expensive features like what the PS3 did with the blu-ray player. They need to focus on having good hardware and providing great software tools for developers to work with. For Microsoft to have a fairly decent and not overly priced system is the key to it’s success.

Interested in more? Check out: Only 4 things Needed to make the Xbox 720 a Success

EA, could this be the end of a Gaming Giant?

Nigel — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:39:42 +0000

After being named ‘Worst Company in America’ again, and with their recent layoffs of most of its Montreal studio, EA’s horrible reputation with gamers is starting to catch up with them. Could this be the end of a gaming giant?

EA’s reputation with gamers has gone from bad to even worse over the past several years. EA is a gaming giant, they have such a large reach that they can and have negatively affected many parts of the gaming industry. Let’s take a look at what they have done.

Over its years EA has acquired a fair amount of game studios. After EA acquires said studio what tends to happen is EA “guts” the company. This means that EA buys the company, lays off the staff, and keeps the IP’s.

Even recently EA had layoffs for most of its Montreal mobile-games studio. They plan on decreasing the studio until there is a complete shutdown.

With these newly acquired IP’s EA gets to work on a game. EA isn’t too concerned about the games quality because they know gamers are interested in the IP and the game will sell anyway. What ends up happening is they keep rehashing sequels until gamers get sick of it. I’m sure we’ve all had a game that EA has beaten to death, it’s just awful. This is how game series die.

Another one of EA’s “features” is always online drm. This is a feature to stop people from stealing a game but is quite annoying among gamers because it hurts paying customers the most. This is because in order to play a game, even single-player, you always have to have an internet connection. Problems were seen in EA’s recent game “Sim City” where gamers frequently got a connection error and were unable to play the game.

Sim City DRM Error

With all of these reasons and many more gamers have started to have a strong distaste for EA. Even the big gaming giant that EA is it’s apparent that they are starting to fall apart. They are losing staff and losing customers.

If EA doesn’t start to put more effort into making quality products, instead of rehashing IP’s, they can fall apart. Just take a look at Dead Space 3, it was so bad that shortly after release EA decided not to make a sequel because it wasn’t selling as well as they thought it would.

Gamers are getting smarter they can’t just rehash games and expect us to buy it. They need to create quality products, because there are many alternatives out there that provide “more game for your buck”.

With EA’s destruction of studio’s, lack of care and quality of IP’s, always online drm, and I’m sure many other reasons it’s no wonder that they have won ‘Worst Company in America’ for the second year in a row. EA needs to change their stance on game quality or they chance losing customers and falling apart.

Where are all the 1st Party Titles Nintendo?

Nigel — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 02:43:02 +0000

With the Wii U out for several months it’s disappointing that there aren’t very many 1st party titles. Since the Wii U’s release Nintendo has had to cut the price just to keep the system alive. If they don’t start releasing these titles soon the system could be forgotten before it even gets going.

Nintendo is starting to slip with its lack of 1st party titles to support the Wii U. Really the only traditional 1st party title that has been released is New Super Mario Bros. U. So where are all of the 1st party titles from Nintendo?

New Super Mario Bros. U

There has been some slight reasoning as to why Nintendo has not released much 1st part titles, although it sounds more like an excuse than anything. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has said during a Q&A session with investors that Nintendo is holding back their number of first part games on purpose. They want to spread out the releases of their 1st party games to try to keep up interest in the system.

This shows that Nintendo isn’t sure about the support of 3rd party developers for the Wii U. I guess that’s a safe-proof plan, but it’s been several months without any major 1st party titles.

Nintendo’s system needs some 1st party support and it needs it now. The average Nintendo gamer enjoys the big titles like The Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros., and their usually premier Mario title. Without their main exclusive games to attract gamers there isn’t much reason to buy the system right now.

I think Nintendo is riding off of the success from the Wii because of the overwhelming support it got from gamers and non-gamers alike with the “revolutionary” motion controller. I think people are over the gimmick and all that matters now is good solid games, which Nintendo is lacking of right now. Nintendo needs to get its head in the game.

Only 4 things Needed to make the Xbox 720 a Success

Nigel — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:26:54 +0000

The Wii U has released, the PS4 had announced, the only thing left is the Xbox 720. With the success of the Xbox 360 there’s really only 4 things needed to make the Xbox 720 a success.

Ability to Play Used Games

There’s been many rumors and hints that the next generation of consoles will have a “used-games lockout”. This means that gamers will not be able to buy used games or sell their completed games to others. It definitely isn’t something in favor of “the gamer”.

There’s been different ideas on the ways this could be handled such as “crucial-DLC”, having each game locked to a system, always-online DRM, or even the elimination of physical copies of games entirely.

Sim City always-online DRM Error

Upgradable Console

Since we know that the PS4 is going to have 8 gigs of ram and several other graphical upgrades, it’s safe to assume that the next Xbox will also have similar or even better specifications. That’s great and all, but one of the biggest downfalls of consoles is that they become outdated.

A possible way that this could be solved is by allowing users to upgrade their system. There shouldn’t be an option for this right away, but possibly a few years down the line. The Steam Box by Valve is a good example of this. It is essentially a beast computer that will run games that users can still upgrade.

Steam Box

No Social Media Shenanigans

I think many gamers are worried about the addition of the “share” button on the new PS4 controller. It kind of cheapens the controller, it’s like having a big annoying Facebook like button in the way of playing video games. Social media has already invaded computer video games, can’t we just play in peace?

Anyways the addition of a share button is better kept on a screen and not as a physical button. The next Xbox needs to be careful with how they deal with social media.

New IP’s (Developer Support)

New IP’s aren’t entirely Microsoft’s choice, it’s also up to developers, but Microsoft hasn’t been very friendly to indie developers in the past. Such as the developer of FEZ would only be allowed to give an update of his game if he paid $10,000. It’s clear that many indie developers have gone to the Playstation Network to publish their games because of Microsoft’s lack of support and hindrance.

Journey

The Future of Video Game Consoles

Nigel — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:05:27 +0000

2013 is shaping up to be an awesome year for video games and video game consoles. First we have the two big powerhouses, Sony and Microsoft, readying their consoles for the next generation of games. Also coming out is the very open and developer friendly Ouya system, as well as Valve’s Steam Box. With some of these systems planning on having specs that rival gaming PC’s the future of video game consoles is looking bright.

It seems that all 4 of our 2013 predicted video game consoles are going to be released this year. With that said I think it’s fair to say that the next-generation of consoles have been well overdue. We’re all ready to take the next step in video game history and not to mention that some of the current consoles are starting to feel out of date.

Sony and Microsoft
The two major powerhouses Sony and Microsoft are certainly going to have a large impact on the gaming industry. Right now only the PS4 is confirmed as seen by the large event held by Sony last month. The specs of the PS4 are certainly a huge step up from current consoles.

On the other hand the Xbox 720 is not entirely confirmed at this moment. There’s been several hints that there will be an announcement of the new system at E3 this year. With the success of the Xbox 360 if a new system is announced it will be sure to shake things up in the months following the event.

PS4 Controller

The PS4 and the Xbox 720 will undoubtedly be the two major game changers in the video game console race. With all the exclusive and great titles on each system and the huge following and support of gamers worldwide, it’s going to be amazing to see what these consoles have in store for us. All we have to worry about now is what price the systems are going to be.

Ouya
The new Android based console with a cheap $100 price-point is shipping to Kickstarter backers on March 28. This console has a different approach than the other consoles by having all the games free-to-try.

Since this console is sort of more open and dev friendly it certainly seems to try and excel where the other consoles do not. It will be interesting to see how well the Ouya system will do, how many exclusive games will be made for the system, and how well the free-to-play/free-to-try model will be accepted by gamers.

Steam Box
On the surface it doesn’t make much since as to why a practically exclusive PC developer and leader of PC game digital distribution, Valve, would decide to make a console.

Xi3 Piston Steam Box

As more information became aware we found that they weren’t making one single Steam Box unit, but instead there would be various different types of PC’s that would run as a Steam Box console. With Valve having a reputation of great games and a huge following the Steam Box is sure to have an impact on the gaming industry.

Future
Even though consoles cannot be upgraded like PC’s and will inevitably become outdated, they are still very important to the gaming industry. One of the biggest features and draws of video game consoles are the exclusive games. This being said most major games are tailored to run on video game consoles.

Seventh-Gen Consoles

Since most major games are built to run on consoles then video game consoles are really setting the standard for what systems all video games are being built for. Having new consoles not only affects the capabilities of the consoles themselves but it also affects the types of games that are released on PC as well.

It’s an exciting time right now in the video game world. There’s new systems on the edge of being released and along with that there are going to come new games that I’m sure will blow all of our minds. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the gamer.

What video game consoles are you excited for? Let us know in the comments.

$20K Prize to Make a Game for Cats

Nigel — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:08:12 +0000

Ever wanted games your cat could play? Well now you’re in luck.

I thought I’d seen it all until I heard about this game jam for cats. The event is going to take place in Los Angeles on March 23, the weekend before the GDC starts.

The game jam is going to be rewarding prizes of $15,000 to the winner, and $3,000 and $2,000 to the runners up, so in total that’s $20,000 in prizes to make games for cats.

If you’re interested and are a game developer you can register for the event here. Over at Gamasutra there’s even an article on 5 tips for making video games your cat wants to play to get you started.

Apparently the hosts of this contest have a specialty in making apps just for cats, I had no idea there was a real (however small) market for this.

I don’t know if I should be calling this clever or ridiculous, but whatever it is it’s the first of its kind and definitely worth a look.