render

Lowspec.com

2006-02-19T00:11:00.000-08:00

After months on hiatus from any personal work, during which I've been very busy elsewhere, I've established a new website, Lowspec. It'll be updated regularly.

es muerto

2005-08-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose it's time to finally put this blog to rest. Though I'd intended to keep it at least somewhat operational, that hasn't happened, and there's really no chance that it'll offer much by way of content in the near future. That's right: go ahead and unsubscribe, these RSS feeds are dead. I'm still publishing and commenting over at gamerswithjobs.com. Thanks for visiting! It was a fun year.

a year of blogging / new directions

2005-07-07T02:08:00.000-07:00

I year ago today I published my first post here at render. This site never was a particularly ambitious undertaking, and like most bloggers I wasn't even sure I'd keep it alive for more than a few weeks. Yet here it is, now with a year's worth of posts in the archives.

I recently read through many of my early posts, and I'm somewhat chagrined by the naiveté (or ignorance) they sometimes betray. Perhaps I'm more cynical, perhaps just better informed, but a trip to E3 and a year's worth of careful attention to the medium and media has definitely altered my thinking.

I owe a lot to my fellow bloggers, many of whom are linked at right, for their insightful and entertaining contributions to game-related discourse. The content here at render has certainly been guided and inspired by their work.

I've recently finagled my way into a staff position at Gamers With Jobs, where I'm arguably in the company of much better writers than myself (subscribe to the front page feed, and you'll see what I'm talking about). It's an ideal opportunity, and one that I'm sure will consume a fair amount of the time that I've previously devoted to posting here at render.

I briefly considered pulling the plug on this site, but decided against it. Instead, I'm keeping render as a base of operations of sorts, and might expand its focus to include non-gaming related subjects. At any rate, I'll continue to post here, but probably not to the degree that I have in the past.

That said, I'll be pursuing other avenues in which to air my views. Gamers With Jobs will likely be the primary recipient of my written output, but I'd certainly be up to working with other bloggers, websites, or publications. Contact me if you've got something in mind.

For those who actually visit this site (instead of lazily skimming the feed as I am wont to do with most blogs), the content in the right-hand column will always be kept up to date.

To everyone who has taken the time to read, comment, or subscribe during the past year, thanks! Stay in touch.

Blake Lewin on GameTap

2005-06-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

Gamasutra's got an interview with Blake Lewin, Turner Broadcasting Systems' vice president of new product development and the brains behind the upcoming GameTap service. GameTap, due to go live this fall, will offer PC users the opportunity to subscribe to a huge catalog of vintage PC and console games. It's an intriguing concept, especially considering the fact that in addition to providing subscribers access to classic titles, GameTap will also feature bonus material. Here's an excerpt from the interview:

"When you go to pick a game," said Lewin...."you go to the info card about that game. We'll have our own descriptions, screenshots, we are writing our own 'how to plays' as well as adding tips... We're adding bonus material. So if we go to Pitfall and look at the bonus material, we're working with the publishers to get original production art and old commercials. We're producing our own behind the scenes videos, so in this instance we've got the history of Pitfall, which is a short two to three minute piece that we produced [by] interviewing David Crane, where we talk about what his idea was and how he came up with Pitfall Harry."

Lewin's thinking big in terms of GameTap's potential to revitalize past titles and franchises, and doesn't hesitate to analogize to his company's work in television in cinema:

"Using cartoons as an example, when we bought Hanna Barbara, Scooby Doo was a very dormant franchise. But through Cartoon Network, we've reinvigorated Scooby Doo, and now Warner Brothers has released two major motion pictures around Scooby Doo. [The] same thing will happen with games. We will reinvigorate franchises that have become dormant, and give the publishers opportunities to create new versions of them."

The service has licensed with close to a thousand games, says Lewin, but plans to launch with about 300. From there, they'll release 5-10 games per week, with promotional content built around these releases.

I'm a little wary about all these classic titles in the hands of a corporate media monolith, but I have to admit, the prospect of hundreds of vintage games made available on the PC is exciting. GameTab's not talking subscription prices at present, and they haven't released a list of games yet. Their official site does offer a glimpse of the service's interface, though, which seems pretty slick. It also offers a chance to get in on the service as a beta tester, if you're interested.

Carnival #3

2005-06-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

The third Carnival of Gamers is up at Man Bytes Blog. Someday I might host this thing, and if I do, I can guarantee you that it won't be anwhere near as clever as Corvus's write-up. Go check it out.

selling out

2005-06-22T01:39:00.000-07:00

SWAT 4 owners who downloaded the game's recent 1.1 patch may have been surprised to find that their game now features dynamic in-game advertising. Where once the game's maps featured posters for fake products, there are now posters hawking the likes of Batman Begins and Comedy Central's Reno 911.

There are a couple of issues here. First is the aesthetic effect of in-game advertising. SWAT 4 prides itself on its realism, so I suppose that's one of the developers' excuses for adding the advertising content. The argument could be made that the in-game advertisements subtly enhance the sense of immersion, though I'm inclined to disagree.

There's nothing subtle about the presence of garish advertisements of real-world products in the abstract, escapist world of most video games. It's blatant and ugly, and in the case of games like SWAT 4, which relies on its carefully crafted atmosphere and tense, suspenseful gameplay, it's a major distraction. In cinema, conspicuous product placement is a regular feature of mass-produced, brainless films. Not only is it obvious, it's obnoxious, and it speaks to the filmmakers' prioritization of money over artistic expression.

Then there's the fact that the developers snuck the ad content in on a patch. Content and gameplay-altering patches have been the subject of a fair amount of discussion of late, and for good reason. It's reasonable to assume that if you're dropping 50 bucks on a game, the only modifications the developer should make to the original content should be bug fixes and similar technological improvements. Other than online games, I can't think of any other media that routinely gets edited after purchase. Imagine if one day you sat down to watch your Godfather DVD and found that the film's content had been altered to include in-film advertisements for Ragu spaghetti sauce.

I may represent the minority in this regard, but I'd think twice about purchasing any title that employed gratuitous in-game advertising. If I'm paying 50 bucks for a game, the publishers and developers have earned their money. I'd be a lot more sympathetic (and maybe even supportive) if SWAT 4 was a freeware indie title, and the developers were using the ads to finance game development. But if I'm paying retail prices, I want my games to be ad free.

Advertising gets crammed down our throats at every turn, on the radio, on television, and in movie theaters. Games have previously offered a blissful retreat from reality, and I'd prefer that they stay that way. If Irrational Games wants to take cash from Glock or Beretta for featuring their firearms in SWAT 4, that's one thing, but I resent the incursion of obnoxious, unrelated material. I mean, come on...Comedy Central's Reno 911? How is that remotely related to SWAT 4's content or gameplay?

Another issue for consideration - albeit a speculative one at this point - is the idea that games could become dependent upon their advertisers to the point that the advertisers gain a degree of influence or input into the games' content, marketing, or distribution. That's the last thing the industry needs.

At very least, gamers should have the option to disable the ad content. Or failing that, the game could be sold in two editions: a budget-priced, ad-enabled version, or a regularly priced, ad-free version. And for crying out loud, this kind of thing should never be snuck in via a patch. Consumers have the right to know what they're buying up front.

Like serious filmmakers, I'd hope that developers who value their titles' artistic merits would eschew in-game advertising altogether. On a positive note, it's highly unlikely at this point that games set in alternate realities or other historical periods will employ in-game advertising, but I'll be very surprised if other titles don't exhibit increasingly ubiquitous, sophisticated advertising methods.

I won't argue that there's no place for ads in any games. Given the stranglehold corporate sponsorships have on real-life sports, for example, the aesthetics of titles based on pro sports events aren't going to suffer, and genuinely may benefit, from the presence of such ads. The question is whether the consumer will see the benefit of these advertising dollars. Call me cynical, but I highly doubt that games that draw revenue for advertising sources are going to be any cheaper.

I'd rather be playing BF2

2005-06-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

I'm forcing myself to type this instead of playing the Battlefield 2 demo, which since its release been taking up a fair amount of my evening free time - to the point that most nights, when I'm done playing, I'm too tired to write (hence the lack of posts here). Battlefield will hit store shelves this week, and I will most certainly be buying it.

Enthusiastic forum goers are already very, very busy debating the relative merits of BF2's numerous vehicles, weapons, maps, and infantry kits. From what I've seen in the demo, there are some obvious balance issues, as far as combat is concerned. The anti-tank kit, for example, is more useful and deadly than it should be, and certain weapons seem woefully inaccurate or underpowered. In a multiplayer title with less objectives, and less of an emphasis on team and squad coordination, some of these issues might be dealbreakers. In Battlefield 2, though, there are just so many options, all of which fit so nicely into coordinated, squad-based combat, that you can't help but find all kinds of challenging and interesting things to do. So what if your engineer has piece of crap shotgun? Jump in a tank, repair it, roll to a control point, waste your enemies, and then mine the place like crazy. You're a hero. The bottom line is that skill, planning, coordination, and creativity figure much bigger in BF2's gameplay than individual weapon or vehicle attributes do.

I can't stress enough how much having a good server or group of fellow players adds to the enjoyment of the game. When you're part of a squad, and everyone's doing their job, and things are really clicking the game is just awesome. When you're stuck on some generic public server and you can't get off the aircraft carrier because your jackass teammates keep killing you because you're trying to get to the helicopter/jet before they do, it's awful.

Along those same lines, I've recently discovered the joys of Teamspeak, a free program which offers a robust set of group voice chat capabilities and runs independent of the game you're playing. Battlefield 2 has a decent squad voice chat option, but compared to Teamspeak's excellent audio and other features it's pretty weak. Of course, to get the full benefits you've really got to be online with a Teamspeak-committed community.

BF2 isn't the only game to look forward to this week - Destroy All Humans is also making its debut, and Psychonauts will finally be out for the PS2. A fine way to kick off summer, if you ask me.

next gen processors: what's the real issue here?

2005-06-14T01:10:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else out there sick to death of the constant media battle for next-gen processor supremacy? It seems like every other day we've got another tech-y article claiming the 360's got the PS3 beat or vice versa. Whether it's Microsoft and Sony or Nvidia and ATI, or their detractors and advocates, there seems to be a constant swinging of the pendulum based on various and sundry technical considerations. Honestly, at this point, who can say which hardware is functionally more powerful? The experts can't seem to agree.

I confess, I don't really care. I don't think there's any question that all the next-gen systems will have highly advanced graphical and sound capabilities. I'm sure all of their chips will be perfectly capable of rendering a hojillion polygons and bleeding-edge visual effects and 5.1 surround and whatever. It's hardly an issue, in my opinion.

So far, I think the most interesting bit of technical commentary regarding the 360 and PS3 is the systems' anticipated difficulties in running non-engine gameplay code, which I first heard mentioned by Chris Hecker in the GDC Burning Down the House rants. I've heard echoes of Hecker's comments elsewhere but I haven't seen anything definitive on the subject since the GDC.

In a nutshell, Hecker posited that the PS3 and 360 processors will churn through engine code quite nicely, but will require much more streamlined, refined code to run AI routines and other gameplay-specific functions with any degree of efficiency. Hecker says, "…this is [the] code that actually makes the game feel different. This is the kind of code we want to be easy to write and so we can do more experimental stuff." With regard to the next-gen processors' abilities to run current gameplay code, he states, "…your new fancy 2 plus gigahertz CPU, and its Xenon, is going to run code as slow or slower than the 733 megahertz CPU in the Xbox 1. The PS3 will be even worse."

In the face of the constant stream of information about each console's relative graphical prowess, this issue keeps crossing my mind. I don't hear much talk on the subject of late, though. Hecker's comments certainly seemed well-informed, and though I suppose it's possible he was just plain wrong, I think it's more likely that what we keep hearing from marketing and the media is reflective of the overwhelming bias that graphics seem to have relative to all other game and hardware characteristics.

As I mentioned above, from my perspective the next-gen consoles' graphical capabilities aren't the issue. The quality of the games, and specifically the gameplay, is of much greater concern. Are we looking at a couple of graphical powerhouses that can't handle sophisticated, intelligent AI routines and other essential gameplay code? Are we looking at hardware that effectively discourages innovative, polished, refined gameplay? Hecker seems to think so. Does that mean that what we'll get with the initial next-gen releases is a lot of beautiful games featuring clumsy, lackluster, bug-ridden gameplay? I honestly don't know, but I think it's a question worth asking.

family gaming update

2005-06-09T23:44:00.000-07:00

Something unusual has happened. My wife is playing a video game. Like seriously playing a video game. And this is no Animal Crossing, either. We're talking Legend of Zelda: Windwaker.

Our daughter, who watched me play through the game many months ago, initially talked her in to it. Now she's up with the game well after the little one is asleep, motivated by a desire that is all her own.

Over the weekend, Windwaker wallpaper showed up on our PC desktop. And the day before yesterday, when I was home sick, she dragged me out of bed and into a GameStop, EBgames, and Barnes and Noble in search of a strategy guide. And today when I checked our ebay watch list I noticed that she's actually eyeing a Zelda soundtrack CD. I mean, it's freaky. I don't know if our household can handle two obsessive gamers.

The strategy guide was a wise purchase on her part, because in all honesty, we're both tired of me giving her advice. The problem is, she's completely obsessed with breaking jars and cutting grass. My wife, who chastises me for throwing a post-it note into the trash instead of the recycling bin, has no qualms about destroying every tree, shrub, flower, and blade of grass in her path in search of rupees. Such constant defoliating is fun when you're playing but not when you're watching someone else play. From the viewer's perspective it's just plain boring. Plus, I'm unreasonably impatient.

So now I'm on hand to assist should a boss fight get ugly, and I'm happy to follow along with Tingle on the GBA when she's in the dungeons. Above ground, she's doing very nicely on her own.

rolled up

2005-06-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

After months worth of joyous messing around with Katamari Damacy, I finally got around to completing the game. That is, I made the moon. It's hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction that comes with creating a katamari large enough to roll up small land forms, clouds, and entire industrial complexes. I was very impressed with myself. Yes, we do love katamari. Bring on the sequel.

pilot envy; DICE axes Trauma

2005-06-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the will to write lately. Perhaps it's post-e3 burnout. At any rate, I didn’t' submit anything to the second Carnival, which I'm now regretting, because it looks like a splendid effort.

To be honest, I've been preoccupied of late with Battlefield Vietnam. I loaded it up last week with the intention of getting warmed up for Battlefield 2 and now I'm hooked. When it was released last year, I wasn't all that impressed. Maybe it's because I now have an updated PC and a much faster, more reliable Internet connection, or maybe it's just the fact that I haven't played any quality online multiplayer shooters for a while, but at any rate, I've really been enjoying myself.

I've played with a few absolutely incredible helicopter pilots. In the right hands, a few helis can totally dominate a map. Riding shotgun with a crackerjack Huey operator is one of the most cinematic gaming experiences I've had in a while. My current goal in life is to become such a pilot, so that I can rain death and destruction upon my unwitting enemies in BF2.

Though I've no shortage of dislike for EA's business practices, I haven't jumped aboard the boycott EA bandwagon, party because I think it's a hopeless cause but mainly because they make games I want to play and I am selfish. I will be buying Battlefield 2 with a twinge of guilt, however, especially after reading of DICE's shutdown of Trauma studios.

I don't know all the details, but it doesn't look nice: creative independent studio creates award-winning mod for popular franchise; creative independent studio gets bought out by multinational game company developing sequel to franchise; creative independent studio does R&D work on sequel (which is obviously inspired by their mod); and then, surprise!, creative independent studio gets dissolved as sequel reaches gold status. Once could certainly conclude that in DICE's eyes, once Trauma completed their work on BF2, they were expendable. Like I said, it doesn't look nice.

follow up

2005-06-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

First of all, Ben Zackheim is leaving Joystiq for greener pastures. I'm sorry to see him go and hope this isn't the last we'll hear from him. Second, he was kind enough to link to my recent post, where, among other things, I mentioned Matthew Gallant's hatchet job on the Carnival of Gamers.

In my irritation over Gallant's wholesale devaluation of the Carnival, I resorted to some minor name-calling, which I now regret. I'd like to think that I'm typically above that sort of thing. I still think Gallant's article was lazy, irresponsible journalism, but like everyone else out there, he deserves a modicum of respect. For all I know, he's a perfectly decent guy.

I've read some of Gallant's other stuff, and from what I can tell, he possesses the same critical eye, sharp wit, and seasoned attitude that he would have found among many of those who contributed to the Carnival, had he taken a look. It's too bad he was so quick to dismiss it. I'm sure he would have found something he liked.

who needs game blogs?

2005-06-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Tony at Buttonmashing for getting the Carnival of Gamers off the ground. I think that the first installment was by most measures a resounding success. It even managed to inspire an article over at Computer Games Magazine. Never mind that the article's writer is an idiot; Josh at Cathode Tan stepped up and gave him what for.

Amit at Damned Machines has more evidence of potential anti-blogger sentiment, this time over at the New Zealand Herald. The Herald article, by David Griffin, is an interesting read.

Griffin says, with respect to bloggers, "The video games industry needs these people, maybe even more than the mainstream media." Really? Does he mean that bloggers generate critical interest in games and gaming products? Or that bloggers are somehow more perceptive or accurate in their assessments about game-related topics, and the industry would do well to listen to their ideas?

Are any of us the "influential commentators, even agenda setters" that Griffin mentions?

Who actually reads gaming blogs? I'm sure some of the heavy posters like Kotaku or Joystiq get some widespread exposure, but I'm betting that most of us are read primarily by each other and by a select group of gaming writers and enthusiasts.

As a group, we're decidedly different than the political bloggers, who get a lot of mention in the political media. As far as I can tell, gaming blogs are typically ignored by the mainstream gaming media.

Is this changing? Are events like the Carnival and sites like Gameblogs.org working to bring gaming bloggers out into the light? Do we find, or are we about to find, ourselves in the "uneasy position" described by Griffin as "midway between being credible outlets for news and opinion and unfiltered mouthpieces for those with internet connections and something to say."?

As for me, I like the idea that individuals such as myself could help generate a groundswell of opinion and commentary that may actually make a difference in the gaming industry. I think it's a worthy goal. At the same time, I'm aware that this little project of mine is at this point unlikely to do more than provide me with a small audience of similarly vocal gamers with which I can associate and process my ideas - an opportunity that I'm absolutely thrilled to have.

e3 impressions : final roundup

2005-06-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

I'm already sick of writing E3 game impressions, especially the dull, drawn out affairs that I've been posting here of late. I'm looking back at the last several game preview posts and I've decided that I've been doing a half-assed imitation of GameSpot, regurgitating assorted facts about games with only hints of actual commentary. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but sites like GameSpot are already doing it, and doing it better because they've got actual press kits to refer to. So, in the interest of getting this over with, here comes a deluge of very brief, unsubstantiated E3 game impressions. Woohoo!

I loved the look of Genji: Dawn of the Samurai even before I saw it at E3 in all of its artsy ancient Japanese glory. I'm a total sucker for quality visuals, especially if they involve cherry blossoms and samurai / ninja types. Unfortunately, Genji seems to play just like every other combo-based hack-and-slasher out there. Even worse, it features these tiny environments where you have to kill, say, a half dozen bad guys before you wait through a pointless cutscene and move to another tiny arena. Cutscene after cutscene after cutscene. Ugh.

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows was also a disappointment. I spent many, many hours on the arcade version as a youth, and really hoped that, if anything, Romero's update would provide some highly accessible, jump-in-and-fight multiplayer action. I spent 15 minutes with the game and walked away bored.

Luckily, just across the room was Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. I've got no real interest in the MK series, and probably wouldn't have given it a second look if I wasn't trying to wash away the Gauntlet aftertaste. Shaolin Monks was genuinely fun, though in the way that God of War is fun (even if it probably isn't smart in the ways God of War was smart). Very satisfying, accessible, slick, violent action. Plus co-op! Who knows, it might actually turn out to be a decent game.

FarCry: Instincts does a nice job of capturing the sun-drenched island paradise environs of the PC game, but actually takes the title in some interesting new directions. What really stood out was the fact that this time around, the main character gets injected with a mutagen and gains a buch of "feral" abilities, including a kind of scent-following skill. Of course it doesn't look anywhere near as good graphically as its PC predecessor, and I couldn't get a handle on whether it features the enemy AI that made the original so much fun.

F.E.A.R. looks like a pretty polished FPS, jam-packed with realistic physics and loads of overdone particle effects, plus bullet-time. I played for about 15 minutes, but didn't get to any of the freak-out scary parts. Monolith has produced some incredible FPS titles (Shogo, No One Lives Forever) and some real bombs (Contract J.A.C.K.). Hopefully F.E.A.R. will end up in the former category, despite its excessive use of punctuation.

Indigo Prophecy looks really interesting. It's an adventure game with some unusual new gameplay mechanics (no more pixel hunting!), and a complex, variable storyline that unravels through the eyes of four playable characters whose choices influence each others' actions. It had nice visuals, good voice acting, and a cool, cinematic split-screen effect that heightens tension and focuses player attention on critical events occurring outside the frame. I'm intrigued.

I'm also intrigued by Remedy's Alan Wake. After a year in development, what they've got is basically a tech demo - but what a tech demo it is. What they showed, in fact, was a small mountain town a la Twin Peaks laid out over one huge, seamless map, in an engine that allows for real-time manipulation of day/night cycles, weather, and atmospheric conditions for startlingly realistic, moody effects. It really was incredible. The plot focuses on a horror writer who has retreated to the small town to find solace following the death of his wife, but whose subsequent nightmares begin to intrude on his reality. Ooh, scary!

Footage taken from actual gameplay of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars was showing on a handful of monitors at the Activision booth. It looked like a potentially great multiplayer title. Quake 4, on the other hand, just reminded me of Doom 3, but with more NPCs. Yawn.

Hellgate:London was on display in pre-alpha form, and it looked awful. It played terrific, though. It's an RPG with randomly generated maps like Diablo, except that it's primarily a shooter, and it's playable from a 1st or 3rd-person perspective (although 3rd person is forced with melee weapons). The premise is pretty lame (demons from hell are breaking through Earth's crust and must be beaten back), but the game takes place in an above and below-ground version of demon-ravaged London, which could be interesting. A lot of polish is needed, but this one could really shine.

Auto Assault was disappointing. It didn't look interesting, it didn't play well, the weapons seemed weak, and the interface was clunky. I couldn't find anyone to tell me anything about the game, so maybe I just missed something. What I saw didn't interest me at all.

Half-Life 2 was playable on the Xbox. Xbox owners should be very happy to get their hands on this one. Video from the upcoming Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast, which features HDR lighting, was on display and was impressive indeed. HDR rocks.

Prince of Persia 3 has another angry Prince, who this time can turn into a sort of goth-looking evil Prince. Stealth kills, a new chain weapon, chariot combat, and plenty of bloodletting all figured prominently in the demo I saw. I'm tempted to care, because deep down I know that from a gameplay perspective it's likely to be terrific. The problem is, I'm completely disgusted with the turn the franchise's content took after The Sands of Time. The fact that the guys who were narrating the demo presentation at the Ubisoft booth were perhaps the most irritating, obnoxious, unfunny individuals in all of South Hall didn't help.

King Kong: Wow. From the short video interview clips of Michel Ancel and Peter Jackson that preceded the gameplay video, it's clear that this game has been a real labor of love for the two. I'll just say that it looked really, really exciting. A highlight was watching King Kong (who is playable in the game) tear through a massive ravine like a gigantic Prince of Persia, vaulting off cliffsides and swinging from huge stone outcroppings, to end up fighting a couple of Tyrannosaurus Rexes (Rexi?). Very cinematic.

They made the revered Chronicles of Narnia series of children's books into what is essentially a hack-n-slash monster basher. Dumb. I didn’t give it much of a look, so I can't comment on the gameplay. Visually, it looked pretty dull.

I had high hopes for Killer 7. Its cell-shaded graphics looked cool in the trailers, but the actual gameplay environments I saw just seemed empty and featureless. And I simply had no idea what was going on, despite the fact that a very nice Nintendo rep walked me through about 15 minutes' worth of one level. What I saw was lots of attitude, violence, and absurdity, without anything solid to hold it all together. Maybe there's a compelling premise buried there somewhere, but I didn't see it.

Serious Sam 2 is vintage Serious Sam, only prettier. Not Doom 3 pretty, mind you, but pretty nonetheless. I saw new and familiar enemies, huge weapons, more varied environments, and all the typical modern FPS bells and whistles, like realistic physics, that you'd expect from an update to the franchise.

Starcraft: Ghost seems to be aiming for a hybrid of Halo and Splinter-Cell type gameplay. The Xbox version was the most refined, and people seemed pretty excited by the multiplayer component. I took a crack at the singleplayer, and was fairly impressed. The character and vehicle designs were especially cool. Nothing about the game seemed especially unique or groundbreaking, but overall it seems to be coming together well.

I checked out Batman Begins, and ended up playing for a good 20 minutes or so. For a movie-based title, it was pretty solid. They've done a nice job working the stealthy/scary/acrobatic attributes of the Batman character into the gameplay, and the result is a cool, unique hero with some fun abilities. Hopefully it won't completely suck.

Telepathically picking up a cow and throwing it at a farmer in a nostalgic postwar American farmhouse setting was one of my e3 gameplay highlights. I'm really looking forward to Destroy All Humans.

From a purely graphical and art design standpoint, Darkwatch looked great months ago, and it looks even better now. That sloppiness that the controls exhibited seems to be gone, and the framerates I saw were nice and high. The steampunk/ gothic/ horror/ western premise could certainly fall flat, and the good/ evil gameplay dynamic might end up being stupid, but at least the action looks fairly solid.

Oh, and Battlefield 2 looks great.

That about covers it. There's more on some of the 360 titles, but I'll wait until later to comment on those.

fresh perspectives on the console wars

2005-05-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

The not-updated-often-enough buzzcut.com has a fantastic article by David Thomas on Nintendo's position in the gaming market. Thomas argues that the press needs to learn to look beyond the prevailing hype-driven themes that dominate discussions of the gaming industry, and start paying attention to how the world of business actually works. I think he's right. A must-read.

controller evolution

2005-05-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is awesome. Even the 360 controller and PS3 batarang are represented. All the chart needs now is the Revolution controller. (found via Press the Buttons)

Ha!

2005-05-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

It certainly seemed too good to be true. What remains to be seen, of course, is what the actual PS3 hardare will deliver, and whether it will be anything like what was on display at the press conference. So far we're told "nVidia had been working with other chips similar in power to RSX and therefore the final PS3 hardware may be able to achieve the sort of results seen at the event." Note the strategically placed "may" in that sentence.

The above-linked article also points out the fact that the on-floor Xbox 360 demos were, of course, not actually running on 360 hardware. What it fails to metion is that the graphical quality of the demos shown were likely of worse quality than what the actual 360 hardware will be capable of producing. So at least in this regard, Microsoft isn't guilty of the same false advertising.

360 preview: Call of Duty 2

2005-05-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 and PC (not to be confused with the dubiously titled Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, the sequel for the current console generation) is lookin' good. Actually, it's lookin' a lot like the original, with all the graphical upgrades you'd expect from a next-gen title.

As I watched an Infinity Ward guy work his way through the Xbox 360 demo, which featured a WWII battle set in an Egyptian city, I was at a loss to find anything unfamiliar or unique about the gameplay. It looked incredible, but apart from the impressive technical improvements, from what I could tell it plays almost exactly like the original.

This impression was confirmed by one of the Infinity Ward guys, who, when I asked what was new in the game, could only say, "Um, I dunno…more grenades, I guess. Plus smoke grenades." I pressed for a little more info, and in response to specific questions he revealed that the friendly and enemy AI have been reworked and will utilize 2,000 lines of context-specific, unscripted dialogue. For example, an AI-controlled German sniper may make his way to the top of a tower, and your squadmates will observe and point out his presence and location.

I was also told, eventually, that the game's levels were designed to allow for more complex approaches to objectives, and squadmates will instinctively know how to flank and suppress enemy positions. In addition, the levels will play out on an even more epic scale, and will include a variety of vehicle missions. There are a total of four different campaigns, including one that puts the player in the role of a tank commander. I asked about multiplayer, and was gruffly informed, "we're not talking about multiplayer at this time."

The original COD was, in my opinion, one of the best combat shooters around. Like everybody else, though, I'm sick to death of WWII shooters. Maybe by this fall, I'll be up for the next-gen take on the title.

360 preview: Condemned

2005-05-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a roundup of the 360 titles I saw at e3. Here's the first of several:

Monolith's Condemned, a next-gen first person horror/shooter title, puts you in the role of a cop investigating a string of murders. Apparently, you've been suspended from the official investigation, as you've somehow been linked to the killer. You set out on your own (of course) to solve the murders.

In the level I saw, the player explored an abandoned building inhabited by disfigured, homicidal street people. If they weren't attacking the player, they were bludgeoning each other to death. The combat was pretty gruesome, and involved a lot of melee items, like planks, pipes, and metal bars.

In Condemned, you're limited to one weapon at a time, and firearms aren't reloadable. If you want more ammo, you'll have to find another gun. Your foes are smart, and during combat they'll search around the area for a weapon more deadly than the one you're carrying. The Monolith rep I talked to said there'll be about 35 weapons in the game, which vary according to location. He mentioned that one level will take place in an empty department store, and the player will be able to use mannequin pieces to beat down enemies.

Condemned isn't all about combat. There's also a healthy does of investigative work involved, which requires the use of a variety of high-tech evidence gathering tools, like UV lamps, molecular sniffers, a 3D surface scanner, and a digital camera. In the demo, the UV lamp was used to discover a handprint on a locker, which was then found to contain a bloodied, twitching body. Yuck.

The environments I saw were dark, realistic, incredibly detailed, and very effective at conveying a sense of creepiness. The overall graphical quality was pretty sucky for a next-gen title, but after all, it was running on alpha hardware. Condemned was definitely the grossest game I saw at e3 - it captures the nastiness of first-person melee combat very well (even better than Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay). By all appearances, Condemned looks to be stylish, brutal, and pretty darn disgusting. The rep I talked to said it's planned as a 360 launch title, but it's also planned for later releases on PC and PS3 as well.

e3 hands-on: Burnout: Revenge

2005-05-27T00:57:00.001-07:00

Not surprisingly, Burnout Revenge continues the series' ongoing emphasis on what really sets the franchise apart from its peers. I'm talking about the crashes, of course, which in the new installment are more cataclysmic than ever. Revenge retains Takedown's "aftertouch" system of steering your wreck for maximum damage, and brings the "crashbreaker" explosions of the previous installment's crash mode into the races. Now you can detonate your wreck and blow your opponents off the track.

The levels I drove - one in a Tokyo cityscape, the other in a faded industrial wasteland - were a refreshing change of pace from the series' previous locations, which in my opinion always seemed rather bland. Both track environments conveyed a much more powerful sense of mood and drama than I've seen in previous Burnout titles. Even more impressive were the multiple pathways through each race, giving the player opportunities to catch serious air (and land atop rivals!) or cut through side streets and structures.

In an unexpected development, the game no longer allows you to wipe out upon colliding with cars (other than your rivals and large trucks) that are traveling in the same direction in your own lane. Instead, as long as you're moving at a relatively high speed, you'll just blow right through the other vehicles, reducing them to splinters. When I expressed my surprise at this feature to the Sony guy hanging out at the demo station, he replied, "Yeah, I guess a lot of people were complaining about all the crashing." Huh? This is Burnout, right? I though crashing was the point.

True to the "Revenge" subtitle, there are a few gameplay tweaks that capitalize on avenging takedowns and otherwise increasing the vehicular mayhem. It's looking good, and due out for PS2 and Xbox this September.

e3 hands-on: Stubbs the Zombie

2005-05-27T00:57:00.000-07:00

Stubbs the Zombie, the brainchild of Halo co-creator and Bungie founder Alex Seropian, was actually playable at e3. Finding it took some work - it was buried in a cluster of demo kiosks at the Microsoft booth, and only playable at two stations. A shame, really, because it was one of the most clever, charming titles I saw at the expo.

It may seem odd to use the term "charming" to describe a game in which the player controls a rotten, brain-eating monster. But Stubbs the Zombie is charming, in large part due to its clever portrayal of small-town, postwar America. Its imagery is right out of a late 50s sci-fi novel, and the unusual color scheme is reminiscent of a faded, grainy, vintage Kodak snapshot.

Stubbs is controlled from a 3rd-person perspective, and he's absolutely hilarious. A former traveling salesman, he's decked out in a tattered suit, a fedora perched above his grinning, bug-eyed visage. He's got a gaping hole in one side of his abdomen from which a length of intestines dangle, and his suspenders hold up the left half of his body. Even in death, he's got a cigarette clenched between his teeth, and the occasional puff of secondhand smoke emanates from his open wound.

In the level I played, which was set on a quant little farm, Stubbs was tasked with fending off members of the local anti-zombie militia and breaking into a boarded-up farmhouse. By gobbling the brains of the humans that approached (including a pitchfork-wielding farmer in red long johns), Stubbs transformed them into shuffling assistants, who meandered about in search of additional flesh.

Stubbs sports a variety of unique abilities, the most useful of which was his detachable hand, which could be sent scurrying into small and hard to reach places. If the hand managed to grab on to a townsperson's cranium the player gained control of that character. In the demo, I was able use the hand to enter the farmhouse through a chimney, then grab a rifle-toting townsman and control him to dispatch the others. Stubbs has other abilities as well, including grenade-like internal organs and some sort of deadly belch/flatulence.

As expected from a game that draws from Halo technology, Stubbs the Zombie has tight, responsive controls and great AI. It looks like a really fun game, and I can't wait for its release, which is currently scheduled for November 2005, on Xbox, Mac, and PC.

e3 impressions: Prey

2005-05-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

How's this for a first-person shooter concept: A Native American who happens to be a former Army Ranger gets abducted by evil aliens and finds himself on their massive spacecraft, orbiting the earth. With his newly discovered spiritual/mystical abilities, he's the only hope mankind has of stopping the alien menace.

That's Prey in a nutshell. My initial reaction: stupidest idea ever, and it should have died with the original game, which was announced but never realized seven years ago. That was before I saw the closed-doors demo at e3's ATI booth. I've since done an almost complete 180 on the game, and despite some concerns I've got about Prey's content, I'm now ready to declare it one of the most interesting shooter titles on the horizon.

In the 10 or fifteen minutes of recorded gameplay that developers Human Head Studios showed, I saw some of the most impressive visuals I've seen in a game. Prey utilizes the Doom 3 engine, and looks mind-blowingly fantastic - not just in terms of graphical realism but in creative, unique visual design. In addition, the developers look to have gone out of their way to avoid familiar level contruction, as Prey seems packed with environmental features that ignore the laws of gravity and physics and allow the characters to move through the world in highly unconventional ways.

Prey is a violent game, which is unsurprising considering the genre and subject matter. I was taken aback by a particular moment, however that depicted the following scene: as the player approaches an enclosed area , two identical pigtailed young girls, about age 6, are seen in what appears to be a state of panic. Suddenly, one is transformed by an unknown force, and without warning grabs the other and violently impales her through the midsection on a sharp object. I found it particularly unsettling, which I'm sure was the point of the scene.

As I've mulled over it since, it's struck me that there are certain boundaries that even the most violent of media have typically been reluctant to cross. One of those boundaries is portrayals of violence, especially graphic violence, against young children. The scene was shown without any narrative context or explanation, and was over in a matter of seconds. As such, I'm reluctant to make any hard and fast judgments about the game's content. Still, I found it profoundly disturbing, perhaps in part because I am the father of a young girl.

Provided that they reach the appropriate audience, I've got little problem with most current games' violent content. As stated above, I'm in no position to draw any reasonable conclusions about Prey's content from mere seconds of early demo footage. Still, after witnessing the scene I described, I've realized that there are limits to the types of games I'm willing to play. If gruesome violence of the variety I viewed in that particular event plays a major role in Prey, it will lilkely be a game that, despite my appreciation of its finer qualities, I'll end up leaving on the shelf.

For now, I'm certainly leaving open the possibility that there's more to the demo's graphic portrayal of a young girl's death than lurid shock value. I hope so - from what I can tell, Prey's unusual gameplay and captivating visual material is likely to stand on its own. Time will tell. Prey is due out in 2006, on both PC and Xbox 360.

e3 hands-on: Shadow of the Colossus

2005-05-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

I'd been looking forward to some time with Shadow of the Colossus since the first incredible screenshots of the game were released. I can think of few games I loved as much as its predecessor, Ico, and I was thrilled to see Shadow playable on the show floor at Sony's e3 booth.

The demo I saw gave the player the opportunity to explore a vast, barren environment on horseback, and culminated in an encounter with one of the massive colossi. As expected, Shadow looks like it retains many of Ico's key features, including a muted, soft color palate, a wealth of subtle artistic details, and a breathtaking sense of scale and distance.

Horseback exploration of the game's open areas was an unusual but engaging experience, due to the game's stark, expansive vistas, and horseback controls that control your mount with the use of reins and spurs. Unusual architecture loomed in the distance, hinting at the potential for the puzzle-based exploration that made up the majority of Ico's gameplay.

The demo's colossus, a towering giant of weatherworn, grassy stone, was an impressive sight, but surprisingly easy to defeat. Once the path to the creature's vulnerable spot was clear, it was simply a matter of navigating your way up the lumbering form until you were able to plunge your sword into his head, resulting in geysers of dark blood or oil-like liquid, followed the colossus' eventual collapse.

Though the graphics aren't cutting edge, the game is undeniably impressive from a visual standpoint, and the controls and mechanics seem thoughtfully implemented and responsive. At certain points in the game the framerate seemed to lag, but not so much that it significantly diminished the gameplay experience. The prospect of seventeen additional colossi is certainly intriguing, though one would hope that the remainder pose more of a challenge.

Whether Shadow of the Colossus will convey the same since of mystery and wonder as Ico remains to be seen. Ico's powerful thematic sensibilities, reinforced by subtle, persistent visual and audio cues, were carefully developed over the course of the entire game and culminated in some truly incredible events. It wasn't the kind of experience that could have been conveyed on the e3 show floor, and it's not the kind of experience that my e3 time with Shadow of the Colossus provided.

Shadow of the Colossus looks like it's headed in the right direction, but only some quality time with the finished product will determine if it's a worthy successor to Ico. It's current slated for a Fall 2005 release, exclusively on the PS2. There's finally an official site in English underway, which can be found here, if you're interested.

e3 hands-on: Okami

2005-05-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Okami was one of the most visually striking games I saw at e3. A 3D action adventure title, it puts the player in the role of a white wolf, apparently the earthly embodiment of the god of the sun. The game's cel-shaded visual style draws heavily from classical Asian illustration, and it's simply gorgeous - like a nineteenth century Japanese print come to life, right down to the subtle parchment texture that underlies its images.

Okami bears some resemblance to the recent Zelda titles, in that it features a familiar third-person perspective and a balance of exploration, puzzle solving, and combat. What really makes the game unique, though, is a clever, unusual gameplay mechanic that allows the player to freeze the game world, transforming it into a monochromatic illustration. From there, the player is given access to a "celestial brush" capable of painting bold, calligraphic strokes onto the image. With a variety of carefully executed brushstrokes, the player can slash through or bind enemies, cut open doorways, and paint objects into the environment.

According to Sony, the game is about 30% comple. The graphics and visual effects, which are reminiscent of Cloverleaf's Viewtiful Joe titles, are already extremely polished. The storyline and level design seem a little sparse at present, but that's to be expected for a game so early in its development cycle. In its present state, it's simply overflowing with creative potential. Okami is currently scheduled for release as a PS2 exclusive, sometime in 2006. If you want a first-hand look at the game, there's a terrific new trailer at the official (Japanese) Cloverleaf site.

e3 preview: Black

2005-05-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

While navigating the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds at the EA booth, I noticed a stairway up to a second level, packed with media types waiting to get into what I expected was a behind-closed-doors peek at an upcoming game. I watched as several were herded into a room, and the rest were turned away. As those who didn't gain entry dispersed, I spotted a small, nondescript sign on the stairway that read "Black."

Could this be the upcoming Criterion title of the same name, I wondered? The one for which the developers had released only a single screenshot in the previous year, hinting that it promised to "put the shooting back in first person shooters?" A chat with the Criterion employee manning the door confirmed that it was. I struck up a conversation with the guy, and, quite unexpectedly, managed to talk my way into the next presentation.

Before showing actual gameplay, Criterion explained that Black is the developer's attempt bring innovation to the FPS genre, primarily by allowing the player to use the environment as a weapon. Taking cues from Hollywood action blockbusters like Die Hard and the Matrix, the development team (which features members from the first two Burnout titles) aims to provide the player with a destructible playground in which weapons provide the means for devastating, over-the-top interaction with environments and enemies. They're billing the game as "gun porn."

The PS2 demo I saw, in which a member of the Criterion team played through a portion of a level set in what appeared to be a besieged European city, was very impressive. The gameplay was familiar first-person shooter fare, with the player backed up by an AI-controlled squad. All the modern FPS bells and whistles were present, including convincing rag-doll and environmental physics, an arsenal of powerful conventional weapons, incredible particle effects, and intelligent enemies behind every corner. The gameplay I saw was incredibly intense, with the player encountering a constant hail of bullets and shrapnel.

Several scenes really caught my attention, including one where a grenade lobbed into a building's upper floors blew out the structure's front windows, sending glass, debris, and bodies flying outward and into the street. In another, the player used a rocket launcher to take out several floors of a partially destroyed building, causing enemies and portions of the structure to collapse downward into a pile of rubble. Cars exploded, statues toppled, doors were blown off hinges, and telephone booths were torn apart like they were soda cans. The demo culminated in a scene where the player sent an RPG into a tanker truck, resulting in an absolutely spectacular explosion.

Though the game is slated for a fourth-quarter 2005 release, many details are still under wraps. Criterion did state that at this time there are no plans for multiplayer, and the game won't give the player access to any drivable vehicles. The demo graphics, which already look very good, were reportedly at 50% quality. Provided that Criterion can put together a compelling premise and maintain the demo's thrills throughout the entire game, Black might be one of the most engaging FPS titles of the current console generation. It's currently scheduled for release in February 2006, for both Xbox and PS2.