Penny Arcade Expo '08 - Day Three

Games: The third and final day of the Penny Arcade Expo started slow, both for the wife and I, as well as for the rest of the convention-goers.

Taking a look around, more people seemed willing to queue up for coffee or crepes before the show got going. The halls weren't as crowded, and the people who were there seemed to be walking slower, and perhaps sagging a bit. Three days of immersion in pure gaming can take their toll on even the most hard-core games enthusiast, as was evident in our surroundings. That said, it didn't take long to get the fires stoked and the bellows pumping.

The first event of the day was PAX Family Feud, a faithful recreation of the popular game show taking place on the main stage. Like many of the other events at PAX this year, there were some technical issues and things got rolling a little bit late. However, the wait was definitely worth it.

Probably my favorite program of the convention, emcee Alon Waisman of Chatterbox Radio selected contestants from the audience to team up with the developers of PAX 10 titles Schizoid and Strange Attractors, along with two people selected from the listening audience of Waisman’s show. Complete with music and sound effects, the Feud was on.

Unfortunately, it was also off soon after it began. The group of contestants not pictured won the competition in a landslide, completely shutting out the opposition. Even so, it was a treat to see categories based on gaming and Penny Arcade culture. The questions were:

- Name one of the Powerups Mario uses. (#1 answer: Fire Flower)
- Name a popular PA supporting character. (#1 answer: Fruit “Friend”)
- Name the first console you played. (#1 answer: NES)
- Recite a games advertising slogan. (#1 answer: It’s in the game!)
- Name something you do if the power is off....

This final question… well, let's just say that the answers speak for themselves. Also, I’d like to draw your attention to exactly where on the survey those answers placed. Interesting.

Believe it or not, I still didn't manage to complete my tour of the Exhibition Floor by the end of Day Two, so we headed back to polish off the stragglers.

Valkyria Chronicles

First on the list was a brief chat with Sega’s Christopher Kaminski on the subject of Valkyria Chronicles, as well as the upcoming Madworld.

An extremely nice guy, Kaminski went through the finer points of Valkyria for me, making sure to point out that players would have tank units to control and five different classes of infantry, with over 50 characters to choose from. The art style of the game was quite appealing, and the blend of action and turn-based elements gave a slightly different flavor to the gameplay. After stating that he was an X-Com fan, I felt confident that the game was in the right hands.

Madworld

Although Madworld was not on display at PAX, Kaminski was quite forthcoming in discussing the Wii-exclusive hyperviolent title. When asked what the motivation was behind the game, he stated that the development team headed in the direction they did as a way of generating content for "core" players who have felt abandoned by lack of diversity in the Wii’s releases.

When asked whether Nintendo gave any push-back regarding the quality of the content, the response was that they were extremely supportive and clearly understood the need to fill gaps in their library, though they are hesitant to fill them with first-party titles since such games do not fit the current Nintendo profile. Unable to give any details on Wii-specific controls, the only information available was that the game would use the Wiimote-Nunchuk configuration.

Immediately following, Mabel Chung walked me through Yakuza 2, due to hit stores in approximately 2 weeks with an MSRP of $29.99.

ouch.

Set one year after the events of the first game, Kiryu Kazama gets dragged into the mob life against his will, and his only choice is to set things right. (Surprise!) I was a huge fan of Yakuza personally, and the fact that this game is getting a release is extremely good news, in my opinion. Although the answer was an official “No Comment” when quizzed on the subjects of the PS3’s Yakuza 3 or the Yakuza game set in feudal times, Chung mentioned that the game will have the Japanese voices with English subtitles, a greater emphasis on “heat” maneuvers in combat, and that a “lock-on” function should help to alleviate problems gamers had with the first title’s one-on-one boss fights.

Moving on to the other end of the hall, Senior Producer Chuck Beaver gave me the skinny on Dead Space. Although it's been impossible not to notice the game over the last few months, finally getting hands-on and seeing the title with my own eyes convinced me that the game can deliver the goods. The disgusting aliens came fast and furious, and navigating through zero-G environments was a little mind bending, in a good way. With the main character’s magnetic boots, it's possible to leap from one wall across a vast, open area and land on the opposite wall, the ceiling, or the floor, with bits and pieces severed from the enemies remain floating where they were detached. I also admired the HUD-free aesthetic, with vital information on the character displayed via lights on the back of his suit, and the traditional item screen replaced by a holographic display manipulated in real-time. Good stuff.

Rounding out the afternoon was a stop at Namco’s booth. Although I'm not much of a fan, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm had some pretty incredible animation, looking like anime brought into the third dimension flawlessly.

Smoking that blunt won't make your game play better.

Afro Samurai was also on my to-see list, but the game in person did not live up to the sheer coolness of the trailers. Although the graphics and style are admirable, the demo on display bored me almost instantly with a swarm of generic enemies, each taking a dozen sword slashes before falling to the ground. A focused “super” move was also at my disposal to cleave enemies in two, but it was a hassle to have to use this feature just to get through the peons faster. I realize that this is just a demo and the game could get better past the opening phase, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it… won’t.

At this point, I had completed my tour of the Exhibition Floor, and I realized that with this part of the show getting so much bigger than it was last year, I had virtually no time for any of the panels or programs that were running at the same time. Checking the schedule and seeing that most of the things I wanted to see were already over, the wife and I packed it in and headed out for a nice lunch to celebrate the close of the show for us. As we noshed, we each compared notes and came up with our respective lists for games of show.

Hers:
1- Rise of the Argonauts (PS3, PC, Xbox 360)
2- Cate West: The Vanishing Files (DS)
3- Dead Space (PS3, PC, Xbox 360)

His:
1- Fallout 3 (PS3, PC, Xbox 360)
2- Rise of the Argonauts (PS3, PC, Xbox 360)
3- Dead Space (PS3, PC, Xbox 360)

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (and the rest of the PAX crew) did an outstanding job of putting the show together, so our profound thanks and deep appreciation go out to them for hosting it. It was a great way to spend a weekend, and we're looking forward to doing it again next year.

Thanks, guys!

P.S. - What convention coverage would be complete without a photo gallery of the odds and ends? Here's the wrapup. Enjoy!

Dignified. Reserved. These are the people who come to PAX.

A Rain-Slick cake made by Brian Kurtz of Layers of Illusion. His card says his cakes will make guests "crap their pants in disbelief." Great cake, but mine remained unsoiled.

The family of the future grills with nuclear power.

I may not be a fan of Castle Crashers, but this li'l guy was just too cute.

Her eyes match her robe. Neat!

Where else but PAx can you see a giant mountain of pink Godzillas. (Godzillii?)

Was Rock Band was popular at PAX? I'm thinking yes.

Master Chief gives a lesson on the safe use of futuristic armament.

The soundtrack playing behind her was kickin'.

Mario... you've... lost weight.

Stormtrooper costume: Fail!

The line to see Wil Wheaton was fifty-eight million miles long.

No idea what this was for, but it's my policy to snap monster pics when I can.

The award for most incomplete MGS costumes goes to...

After playing the game, I don't envy the Dead Space Engineer one bit.

This also looks like a cake, but it's really a diorama. Pants-crapping avoided again.

Gah, who's that scary-looking dude with Crypto?!?

Penny Arcade Expo '08 - Day Two At PAX

Games: Day Two at the Penny Arcade Expo started off in true PAX fashion with the sounds of Rock Band flooding the Convention Center.

A group of eager musicians gave their rendition of ‘Learning to Fly’ quite earnestly, with quite a few more would-be rockers waiting in the wings offstage. After a polite golf clap, the wife and I made our way to the press-only Q&A session with webcomic superstars Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik.

The relatively subdued session was credited to fatigue from the night before, though there were a few interesting bits of information to be had. In no particular order:

- The sound of dice hitting mats is special to Jerry.
- PAX has discouraged multi-story exhibition booths ala E3 to keep the scene mellow.
- Approximately 75% of attendees are from outside Washington State.
- The favorite swear word of the duo is “twatvomit’.
- PAX East Coast is already selling exhibitor space for the show in 2010.
- The offer was made to run Duke Nukem Forever on the main stage, only to be strangely
denied by the developers.
- The ‘Rain-Slick’ game series will have four episodes, Ep. 2 is currently in production.
- Ctrl+Alt+Del’s Tim Buckley is viewed as an ‘art thief’ by the duo.
- The ‘PAX 10’ spotlight on indie games will continue as a PAX tradition henceforth.


Having unfinished business on the Exhibition floor, my main priority for the day was to hit all the games that I missed on Day One. Unfortunately, the Expo was even more crowded today than it was yesterday, and it was tough at times to make progress through the massive crowds. However, did manage to see almost everything that I wanted to.


Left 4 Dead – PC, Xbox 360

In some ways quite surprising, and in others not surprising at all, Left 4 Dead was quite impressive in terms of presentation and energy level. Zombies in the game attack in large numbers and with great speed, and the image of ten or fifteen undead enemies rushing the player at once was genuinely horrific. I spent most of my time watching a multiplayer session where teammates’ glowing silhouettes were visible through walls and architecture as an easy way to locate people in need of help. The action was fast and quite furious, and in one particularly brutal scene in the sewers, three out of the four members of the harried group were taken out of action in the span of just a few seconds. The game presents pretty much what I expected, just a lot faster and more raw than I had imagined.


Monster Lab – Wii , DS

This was a cute little game aimed at the younger set, though the needs of older players haven’t been completely ignored. Tasked with creating mix-and-match monsters, kids venture out to perform tasks including a variety of minigames and turn-based one-on-one combat. The art style was attractive, and who doesn’t like designing their own characters? Assistant producer Devon Detbrenner made a convincing case for the title.


Mercenaries 2: World in Flames – PS3, Xbox 360

Associate producer Ali Zandi put Mercs 2 through its paces for me, and I have to say that I walked away with a much higher opinion of the game then I initially expected. I was not a big fan of the first Mercenaries, deciding to bail on the title when I discovered that none of the munitions at my disposal could destroy a chain-link fence. When asked if such fences existed in the sequel, Zandi assured me that everything was destructible in the game, and that choosing your own path was encouraged. To demonstrate, airstrikes were called down on fuel refineries for satisfying explosions and physics-based damage. I didn’t have any plans on checking the game out prior to the demo, but this display changed my mind.


Mirror’s Edge – PC, PS3, Xbox 360

To be perfectly honest, I just don’t get with the big deal is about this game. After demoing and watching one of the developers give his spiel, I’m just not at all impressed. If the game wasn’t in first-person, it seems like it’d be about simple navigation and combat, which isn’t anything new or noteworthy. The viewpoint shift didn’t seem to add much in my estimation, and although the title seems solid enough, no excitement is generated.


Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe – PS3, Xbox 360

What is there really to say about this? Although the graphics were nice and the character models were more visually attractive than they were the last time out, it’s basically just a ludicrous idea. Actually seeing the Joker fight Scorpion was about as cool as it sounds, which is to say, not at all. Although most of the characters were still locked, representing MK were Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kitana. On the DC side were the Joker, Catwoman, the Flash, Superman and Batman. Mortal Kombat fans will want to check it out since it looks like more of the same, but I couldn’t help shaking my head and scoffing. Yoda in Soul Calibur almost seems like a good idea compared to this.


LittleBigPlanet – PS3

Another one to file under “huh?” the fact that Sony is pinning so much on this title doesn’t make any sense to me. The demo on display featured three or four different worlds, and four players at a time took them on. After a brief session customizing avatars, the action was quite simplistic and hardly anything that looked interesting. Granted, a big hook to the game is going to be the player-created content, but even so, I can’t imagine this disc having much more than niche appeal. I’ve been wrong before and I may be wrong now, but I just don’t get LittleBigPlanet.


The Pax 10 were clustered together and surrounded by beanbags in the Exhibition Hall, and if these selections are any indication, there are a lot of extremely talented game designers just waiting to be discovered. The highlights were:

The Maw

Probably the most ‘traditional’ of the bunch, it’s a bright, colorful adventure I name-checked in yesterday’s coverage. Having already secured a deal for distribution through Xbox Live Arcade, look for this one soon… it looks like a lot of fun.

Sushi Bar Samurai

At least six months away from being released, this title was already looking good. Developer Casey Muratori was on hand to explain the intricate mechanics. Presented in a charming ghost world, the player takes on the role of a sushi-crafting samurai who must assemble the proper dishes to satisfy the spirits he meets on his journey. By combining different food elements in unconventional puzzle-type gameplay, this one looks like a real sleeper hit. At the time of this posting, there are no console distribution plans.

Impulse

A crowd favorite, Impulse was created by students at RIT. The goal is to guide a sphere through use of magnetic polarity and well-timed explosions. The school has cleared the title for sale to interested parties, though no other specifics were given.

Polarity

Another school creation using magnetism as a mechanic, the visual design was crisp and clear and the platform style of play was instantly relatable. Unfortunately, the game is reportedly only 20 minutes long and since the development team has graduated and gone their separate ways, the future of this title is uncertain.


Leading the Exhibition floor behind, we made our way to the Main Theatre for Bethesda’s developer walkthrough of Fallout 3.

In a word: WOW.

Being a fan of the Fallout franchise and having respect for Bethesda’s work with Oblivion (even if I wasn’t its biggest fan), the footage shown and the elements highlighted by the devs went further than I was expecting and will undoubtedly be one of the biggest titles of the year. Socks were definitely knocked off.

The extended demo was about 30 minutes of gameplay selected to highlight features, and not the same 30 minutes that the average player will first encounter upon starting the game themselves.

Neither of these Bethesda guys is Todd Howard.

The first noticeable feature was a draw distance that goes “all the fucking way”, to quote Bethesda’s Todd Howard. And it does. From the portal of the Vault where the game begins, objects were clear and discernible all the way to the horizon. The level of detail in the environment was stunning, surpassing anything I can think of currently running on the 360 and with the frame rate allegedly locked at 30fps, it’s extremely smooth.

Now you're playing with power.

Several weapons were shown, notably the Powerfist (a huge metal hand used to inflict melee damage capable of exploding skulls) and a rifle which shoots railroad spikes that can impale parts of enemies on the architecture behind them. Complementing the weaponry was the game’s ability to be played in real-time or slowed down to give players a chance to focus on specific parts of enemies. Damage incurred by the opposition will have specific effects on their performance, and items will be able to be salvaged after victories.

The lockpicking minigame displayed later actually used a bobby pin and screwdriver, and the computer hacking game resembled going through the BIOS of a computer, line by line of code. The detail and care given to the re-imagining of these features was quite heartening, and began to reinforce the idea that the developers were going above and beyond to craft an experience that at this point looks to be second-to-none in terms of open-world role-playing.

Groin targeting was noticeably absent.

I was already fairly excited for the title, but after the demo I was ready to go down to Gamestop and pay for my copy in full. Can't wait.


That’s it for Day Two coverage. Check back tomorrow for Day Three’s final.

Penny Arcade Expo '08 - Day One At PAX

Games: Once again, the good people at Penny Arcade are hosting their Expo in the heart of the emerald city.

Although the idea may be discouraged by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, (the super-popular webcomic’s writer and artist, respectively) the fact remains that the Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX for short, is quickly becoming the de facto place to go or those in the games industry who want to be seen, now that E3 is a mere shadow of its former self and E for All seems to be a non-starter.

Taking place in the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in downtown Seattle, the joint was packed -- and although no official numbers had been released at the time of this posting, certain Expo officials have anecdotally estimated that attendance was estimated to be close to double last year’s.

Today’s post will summarize PAX Day One, starting with the biggest draw for me, personally… the games.


---

I arrived early to take advantage of the press-only window of opportunity in the Exhibition Hall, and I was glad I did since the line of convention-goers waiting to get in was thick and deep. Once inside, the display space was markedly larger than last year’s.


Although still not on scale with the behemoth that was E3 in its prime, the scene is definitely beginning to leave its humble beginnings behind and evolve into something quite respectable. As an example, I covered the Exhibition floor in just a few hours last year, and this year I only got through half on my first day.

Here’s some quick impressions of what I saw so far:


Alien Crush Returns - WiiWare

Out of all the games I took in, this one probably got me the most geeked-out. Being a huge fan of the Crush titles on the TurboGrafx-16, I’m of the opinion that a new installment in this series is long overdue. Basically a pinball game taking place on Giger-esque fantasy boards created from bits and pieces of alien biology sporting updated graphics and new modes… I’m already sold.


Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ - DS
As if the title itself wasn’t enough to clue you in to what sort of experience to expect, this screenshot sort of says it all. Jeremy Zoss of Destineer gave a short demo of gameplay, and it was looking good. Red hangs out at the bottom of the screen while the environment auto-scrolls to bring zombies, monsters, and all sorts of baddies to be blasted.


Animal Boxing – DS
Another in Destineer’s stable, Animal Boxing is the first game to play with the DS inverted, meaning that the touch screen is held at the top. All punches are thrown via the stylus, and the art style was bright and attractive. When I asked whether or not there would be anthropomorphic hook-ups between matches, Zoss declined to comment.


Mushroom Men: the Spore Wars – Wii

Looking much more interesting and attractive in person than it does in screenshots or in previews, Mushroom Men appears to be a quirky adventure game with a great sense of weirdness and dark overtones. After her hands-on, I’m much more interested in this title than I was before… I think knocking a box fan onto a rabbit with my ‘spore powers’ and chopping it up into bits of fur may have had something to do with that.


Legendary – PC, Xbox 360, PS3

This one’s been getting a lot of coverage lately, and with good reason. Going after mythological creatures with heavy-duty fire arms seems like a can’t-miss. The demo looked very solid to me, so I’ll be giving this a closer look when it hits.


Damnation – PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Billed as a shooter with vertical elements, Damnation reminded me strongly of Gears of War blended with more open levels and some light platforming. The brief demo consisted of starting on a cliff and making my way to a bridge in the distance. The rep on hand stated that there were several ways to get to the objective, and that scaling buildings and finding your own path are part of the appeal. I liked what I saw.


Rise of the Argonauts – PC, Xbox 360, PS3
More than anything else I saw today, this game stands out as one I’d be fairly confident buying new, and at full-price. Taking some brutal combat and combining it with Greek mythology and some streamlined doses of RPG structure, I was getting pretty excited to get my hands on the title as Liquid Entertaiment’s Andrew Rubino gave an outstanding talk-through and demo. Actually reminiscent of BioWare’s console efforts, the ship used as transport between the islands serves as a ‘home base’ of sorts where you can chat with your teammates and access various resources. Also sporting dialog trees and outcomes in the game which are greatly weighted by the player’s choices, the developers seem to have made some great choices in their design phase.


The Conduit- Wii

Eric Nofsinger of High Voltage Software was a great ambassador for this anticipated Wii title. Graphically, it looked a cut above any other action title on the Wii, and some of the weapons looked interesting. When asked what made his game more than just a standard shooter on a system lacking them, Nofsinger commented that the title has a very deep back story and history tucked away for those who care to seek it out, in addition to Wiimote-specific twists on weaponry.


The Rest of Day One's Games:

Darksiders must have been running a very early build, since it was quite choppy and tough to play. The character design was nice, but it was hard to get a good sense of what the action would be like.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, the sequel to the incredibly addicting Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords was looking good despite a lackluster presentation by the rep. New features include variable gravity to affect the refresh patterns of the gems, and a wealth of different spacecraft to use in “battle.”

Nintendo’s booth (except for The Conduit) was looking quite sad and pathetic. I can’t help but think they must have some secret weapons up their sleeve for the holiday season, because what was on display was less than impressive, to say the least. A snowboarding title, Wii Music, a Mario baseball title, a Wario title, and Animal Crossing which looked exactly the same as the N64 version. None of the above had the sort of star power associated with Nintendo’s top franchises, and I can’t help but think that many Wii owners are going to be disappointed come Christmastime.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad was only on display as a video trailer running on a monitor, but it was enough to set off my fringe-o-meter. From what I can tell, this game has been tagged for a while as one of the most outlandish examples of Japanese wackiness, so I was little surprised to see it on display. Then again, zombies, swords, and girls in bikinis… what’s not to like?

The Maw, for Xbox Live Arcade, was looking quite fresh and interesting. From the video I saw, it appeared that two aliens escape from captivity; one with brains and one with a mouth. The player seems to control the smart one, and feeds enemies and obstacles to his companion in order to give him a new powers and grow him in size. For an XBLA title, it was impressive.

The cinematic shown for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was one of the most impressive pieces of CG I’ve ever seen, easily eclipsing 99% of anything Hollywood’s ever turned out. I’ve got no interest in the game, but I definitely recommend viewing the trailer online.


At about this point in the afternoon, my schedule was telling me that it was time to head over to the main theater and get ready for the keynote address, given this year by Ken Levine of Bioshock fame.

Starting thirty minutes late and after attendants had filed into the hall haphazardly and disorganized, Levine launched into his presentation which was quite amusing at times, supported by some hilarious visuals on PowerPoint. I must say, his speech with tons of D&D references was the first time I’ve ever heard anyone refer to his birth as “parents rolling his character.” The gist of his time was about nerds and geeks (as he called himself) finding their tribe, and it struck a chord with most of the audience.

Following Levine was a symphony heralding the arrival of Holkins and Krahulik onstage for part one of their traditional audience Q&A. Always amusing, their back-and-forth banter seems more like a polished comedy routine than two comic strip creators on a stage.

Dude, I'm NOT looking at you, I swear.

Highlights of this segment included everyone in the audience cracking their knuckles simultaneously (the result is an incredibly horrific and disgusting sound), a brief snippet of Holkins’ song “Are You Really A Woman”, and the announcement that there will be a PAX occurring on the East Coast sometime in the year 2010. Although no specific date was nailed down, it was confirmed that the East and West shows will not overlap. After that, general hilarity ensued.

In what can only be described as the most pathetic display of fandom I've ever seen, this girl clad in tentacles and what looked like a headcrab waited in line to get her chance at the mic... only to grunt, groan and flail before skulking off into the crowd.

Way to make gamers look normal!

That’s it for Day One coverage, check back tomorrow for Day Two.

Castle Crashers & The Last Guy - Demo Impressions

Just a few quick notes tonight, but expect more updates over the coming weekend. I’ll be posting bits and pieces from PAX over the next three days.


Games: Played two demos recently, neither one convincing me to drop the cash.

On 360-- Castle Crashers. From the Behemoth, the same wacky guys that brought us Alien Hominid comes a four-player side-scrolling beat-‘em-up in the vein of just about anything that was in arcades during the 90’s.

If nothing else, I really dig the Behemoth’s aesthetic. The squiggly lines and bright colors are attractive in a fourth-grader sort of way, and there’s just something about the way the game looks that makes you want to like it. Unfortunately, the bits of gameplay I got from the demo don’t seem to be as solid as the visuals.

Within just a few minutes, I started getting bored of walking from left to right and mashing the attack button over and over on a horde of cookie-cutter enemies. This sort of gameplay is undoubtedly more fun with three other players (whom I did not have on hand) and it’s entirely possible that the game gets deeper as the player progresses, but I’m just not very interested in the mindless melee thing anymore.

If any of you readers have purchased the full version and can vouch for the content past what was shown in the demo, I’d love to hear about it. Otherwise, I’m giving this one a pass.


On PS3-- The Last Guy. From a studio I’ve never heard of before comes this incredibly bizarre top-down effort that tasks players with herding stray humans into a line and leading them away from zombies and to the comforting arms of safety the way a mother duck leads her ducklings.

The green dots are survivors to pick up. I'm fairly sure that teeny red blob in the middle is your character.

On paper, this idea seems like pure gold. Rather than being dark or serious, it definitely skews towards that only-in-Japan type of insanity that all the best fringe games contain, along with wacky voice samples and manic music. However, I’m sad to report that I found it borderline-unplayable.

Seriously, this is exactly what it looks like. Great details for a spy satellite. For a videogame? Not so much.

The main problem seems to be that the game’s camera is about three miles above the surface where the player’s character is. On my 28” HD display, my avatar was about the size of four pixels and I found it nearly impossible to tell exactly where I could or couldn’t go, or what the pertinent details of the environment were. Imagine playing Gauntlet via Google Earth, and i'm sure you can start to imagine the difficulty here -- it's a simple concept that doesn't play nearly as smoothly or effortlessly as something so basic should.

I have a hard time believing that this game got through testing without anyone saying “Wow, I can’t see a damn thing here.” I support the concept in spirit, but I can’t see putting cash down for something that I’m having so much trouble with in just a demo.


Check back soon, PAX starts tomorrow.

Random Games and PAX

Just a quick one tonight, I had a long day today and tomorrow looks like it’s going to be even longer.

Games: Here’s a link to the 20th Bargain Basement at GameCritics.com… in case you’ve never seen it before, it’s a pet project of mine where I give some attention to older titles that are available on the cheap. (This installment: Folklore, Saints Row, and Jericho)

I finally got around to playing the new Space Invaders Extreme on DS, and it was as good as people have been saying. The graphics are still classic, but they got an overhaul with flashy backgrounds and other various tweaks. The little defender ship now has a variety of weapons to earn, and the audio is a pretty cool little synaesthesia experience. It’s something that’s good for five minutes here and ten minutes there, so check it out. Recommended.

Looking at things to not check out, Nanostray 2 (also DS) is pretty much a waste of time. I have a lot of love for old-school shooters, but this one just feels so completely anonymous and generic that I couldn’t get into it at all. There’s no real hook; no identity to set it apart. There’s no fish theme like Darius, no Moai or Options like Gradius, no grabby claw like Einhander… the developers wisely removed the stylus control set up, but other than that there’s not really anything going for it. Not Recommended.

Finally, PAX is happening this weekend. Last year’s show was a good time, and this year’s looks to be even better… Props to Jerry and Mike of Penny Arcade (and the entire PA crew, of course) for hosting the show, and especially for hosting it here in Seattle. I will definitely have some coverage from the show here and also at GameCritics later in the week, so stay tuned.

A New Short, 360 Darkness, and Diabetes

Writing: A couple things to mention on th’ fiction front.

First, I wrapped up my third short story, Visitation Schedule. A psychological horror tale about a father and son, I’m going to be hitting up my usual crew of feedback-givers for the skinny, after which I’ll start shopping it around. This one took me a little longer to write than the last one, but I think it’s a quicker read… funny how something that takes two or three weeks to write can be polished off by the audience in about ten minutes… sort of like how it takes 42 bags of oranges to make one half cup of orange juice.

This is the idea, generally

The other thing to mention is that I spent the majority of today cruising through short horror venues for Love Means Leaving Together. The common word in the industry these days is that horror doesn’t sell, and I guess there must be something to that since there seemed to be very few domestic buyers for scary shorts. Things are looking a little more robust overseas, though if anyone’s interested in my story I’m not sure what the Euro conversion is.

The hand-drawn art in the game has a nice style.

Games: Although I’ll be the first to admit that Success’ Operation Darkness (published by Atlus) gives a very bad first impression in the demo that’s available on Live, I’ve been pouring tons of time into it and I think it’s a fantastic title.

As you can tell by her breast size, she's eeeeeeeevil.

The camera is more skittish than a colt full of caffeine and the graphics are nothing to write home about, but the theme of supernatural warfare in World War II is handled excellently, the script and characters are very tight, and the voice work is excellent. Additionally, it takes advantage of action shots and certain simultaneous movements to give a more active, energetic feel to the turn-based combat than SRPGs usually have. I’m only about two-thirds of the way through the game, but so far it’s absolutely Recommended for those players who can look past appearances to what lies underneath.


Misc: I’ve met a number of people recently who are suffering from diabetes, and although I’m not overweight and I think I have pretty good eating habits compared to most people, I have to admit that hearing all these horror stories about spiking blood sugar levels and favorite foods that are now off-limits is making me completely paranoid. I love rice, bread and pasta, and now every time I eat some, I’m constantly thinking “is this one serving?”

Not what I want to be doing.

The thought of being limited to only one tiny scoop of rice on a plate is slightly terrifying, but the idea of giving myself insulin injections and having open sores on my feet or going blind is even worse. The wife is starting to get annoyed with my totally unsubstantiated fear of developing the disease, but all I can think about is how miserable my friends with diabetes seem to be...

Damn you, high-fructose corn syrup! You’re ruining my carbohydrate tolerance and making eating too hazardous to enjoy!

Interview with: Epicenter Studios

As promised yesterday...


Games: After launching the great kid-friendly title Critter Round-Up on Nintendo's WiiWare service, Bryan Jury, cofounder of Epicenter Studios was gracious enough to speak with me about the studio, where it's been and where it's going.








Thanks for speaking with me, Bryan. What can you tell us about yourselves? Backgrounds, personal/professional?

Like most others in the industry, neither myself nor my partner Nathaniel McClure originally planned on making a career out of our passion for video games. I have a structural engineering degree and worked in that field for a few years before throwing away a respected, and nicely paid, career to be a QA tester at Activision. That was a rough financial transition, but there isn’t a day that goes by when I regret anything about it. Nathaniel has an economics degree that he decided not to use in order to get involved in producing, writing and acting in films. We met in the Activision QA basement in 2002 and quickly worked our way up the ladder. Within 18 months or so, we were both integral parts of the production teams responsible for some of the biggest titles there. Between the two of us, we’ve worked on every single Call of Duty title as well as several licenses such as Spider-Man, Shrek and Star Trek.

How did Epicenter Studios come to be? What's your mission as a studio?

One of the great perks of working at a huge publisher like Activision is that you really get to see every part of the development process, stuff most people in the industry probably never get to see. Working alongside developers big and small, independent and internal, marketing, PR, licensors, legal, finance…you really get a great education of how this stuff works. But there’s a certain point you reach where you want to do more, learn more, create more.

I ended up getting an opportunity to help start up a small development studio back in 2006. While things didn’t really turn out all that great for many, many reasons, I have always felt you learn more from what went wrong rather than what went right. About the same time as we shipped our first game, Nathaniel, who was still at Activision, called me up. He was done with working 80+ hour weeks, busting his ass for someone else and wanted to know if I was interested in starting up our own studio. Of course I was interested, and when I mentioned the Wii firefighting idea I had been kicking around, we found a direction we knew would be successful. We formulated our business plan, called in a few favors that we built up over the years, and with a core team of 3 guys, created a playable 5-minute demo. We shopped it around and ended up getting a good amount of publisher interest.

In the meantime, the opportunity to do a WiiWare launch title with Konami appeared. Knowing we’d have a published game on the market in a matter of months, we started work on Critter Round-Up in November 2007 and wrapped it up three months later. In the meantime, we got a fantastic publishing deal for Real Heroes: Firefighter, which we are working on right now.

Our overall mission for Epicenter has been really simple. We want to make great games. We feel that in order to do this, we need to create a healthy, nurturing environment where the artists, designers and programmers all feel comfortable and valuable. It sounds cliché, but we really are creating a family here. There’s no ego allowed, and even the most junior people know they are personally responsible for their tasks and can have input in just about any area. Everybody’s voice is heard, and everyone has a financial stake in all our games. We have a lot of very, very talented people who could make a lot more money elsewhere, but they believe in what we’re doing, and it’s really been a fantastic first year for us.

The game (pictured above) is perfect for kids and has a definite arcade-throwback sort of feel to it. What's the story behind the making of Critter Round-Up, and how did you hook up with Konami?

Once we finished our Firefighter demo and were actively shopping it around, our agent asked us if we were interested in pitching some original ideas to Konami which, of course, we were! We put together a handful of ideas, picked the top 4 or 5 and sat down with some Konami producers. In the end, they really liked the idea for Critter Round-Up. The only catch was that they wanted a launch title for WiiWare, and back in November of 2007, we really didn’t know when that was. We made the educated guess that WiiWare would launch in March, which gave us basically 3 months to get the game from concept to completion.

In order to do this, we ended up licensing our technology. We used the Vicious Engine since we had a good deal of experience with it on previous projects, and it enabled us to be up and running from the very first day. It also allowed us to ship a game with only part-time support from one programmer, which is something I never want to have to do again! Along with the schedule, the actual size of the game needed to be heavily managed due to the inherent storage space limitations of the Wii.

In the end, we were the only Western-developed launch title when WiiWare went live in Japan, and launched just a week after WiiWare came to America. Konami was a great partner to work with, and they really let us make the game we wanted to make.

Since Critter Round-Up was your first game as a studio, what was the process like both before and after the game became available? What has the feedback been like, what have you learned, and what (if anything) would you do differently?

That’s a really good question. Due to our small size, we are able to have a very organic approach to our processes. It’s something we’ve called Guerilla Development. Yeah, that’s just a way of saying that we made up a lot of stuff as we go along. But really we made sure that everyone’s voice was heard at all times.

One of the great things about using tech like Vicious is that it allows us to put together an element and test it out very quickly. So if our fresh-out-of-school animator had a cool idea, we’d be able to prototype it out pretty painlessly. To me, it’s just all about finding the fun. Chase it around, hunt it down if you need to, but finding the fun should always be the main focus. Because of that, we often don’t work from very specific design docs. We create the basic gameplay systems and the “big beats” that are key to the experience, but we fill in the blanks during development. With a small enough team size, this kind of flexibility is something we’re taking full advantage of.

Critical feedback is often a bit frustrating. It’s quite easy to be cynical when looking at a new game, especially if it isn’t necessarily something you’d normally play. But overall we’ve been satisfied with most of the feedback we’ve gotten. We’ve received quite a few emails from people who really enjoyed the game with their families, and that means a lot to us to hear that kind of thing.

One thing I wish we had focused on more was the single player experience. Critter Round-Up is just more fun playing with other people, and I wish we had more time to push the single player stuff a bit. We also had a great multiplayer mode that didn’t make it in due to time constraints. If only we had thought of it sooner… There were also a few factors that were completely out of our hands, such as pricing and market awareness, both of which we’d love to have changed. But in the end, considering the timeframe and budget we had to work with, I’m very proud with what we put out there.

Do you plan on staying with the download format for the time being, or do you have plans to go standard retail? What are you working on now, and what can you tell us about it?

We never set out to only do downloadable games; it was a great opportunity that presented itself at the right time. We do love the idea of these smaller games though…to be able to create a game on a small budget and timeframe and bring it to a worldwide console market is something that was impossible just a few years ago. It’s a great option to have available, for sure.

The first-ever released image of Real Heroes: Firefighter, and you saw it here first.

Right now we’ve got most of the team working on our first retail game, which is our studio-owned IP, Real Heroes: Firefighter for the Wii. It’s a first-person action game where we put the player into the boots of a rookie firefighter, fresh out of the academy.

After shooting Nazis for the thousandth time in Call of Duty, I find it very refreshing to take what we’ve learned from that series and create something where the player doesn’t use violence to overcome their obstacles, while still retaining the high-action gameplay of the first person genre.

One of my biggest gripes about the Wii in general (we’ll save the other dozen for another day) is games that abuse the Wii Remote’s motion controls. Just because you can waggle doesn’t mean you should. We’re making sure that we use this functionality is ways that make sense. It’s much more fulfilling and visceral to hack down a door with your axe by using the actual motion or adjust the hose nozzle spray by rotating the Wiimote left and right. And the stuff we’re doing with our thinking fire system hasn’t been done before. It understands where it is in the environment, and it’s already a very cunning enemy. I know Alone in the Dark’s fire is getting a lot of attention, and we’re well on our way to surpassing it.

We’re about a month away from our Alpha milestone, and I’m very happy with how development is coming along. We didn’t set out to make a great Wii game. We’re making a great game that happens to be on the Wii.

Yars' Revenge - Atari 2600

Not that it's necessarily related to anything in particular, but what are some of your favorite games and/or game creators? Any influences or inspirations?

This is such a loaded question to ask a guy who collects vintage game systems. Going back quite a ways, Yars' Revenge was probably the first game that really grabbed me as a kid, along with Adventure. I was the perfect age to graduate to the NES when it came out, and I would have to say Super Mario Bros. 3 was my favorite game for a long time. Then came a bit of a down time for me with games. I loved my Genesis, but going to college helped me find my next true love, which was Doom. I can’t begin to count the number of hours I spent playing that game. Some friends and I used to take over a computer lab late at night and play multiplayer for hours. That game changed everything for me, and I don’t think I’d be working in the industry if it weren’t for Doom.

Ken Levine’s System Shock 2 and Warren Spector’s Deus Ex absolutely blew me away. They really pushed what you could do in the first person genre with regards to story and customizing your personal play experience. But to me, one of the greatest games of all time is Half-Life 2. As great as the original game was, and how influential it still is, Half-Life 2 took every one of those elements and mastered them. There are so many perfect pieces working together to create this amazing experience that it’s often hard to notice that these systems are actually in place. I actually forced a couple of my programmers to go back and replay it before we started work on Firefighter. It also made me realize how much of a physics whore I was, which will be on display in Firefighter.

Brilliant.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time proved to me that you could create a fully believable world in 3D and allow the player to do some extremely complex things. Silent Hill 2 had one of the most emotionally powerful stories I had ever experienced in a game, and I was surprised by how much the ending affected me. BioShock is a modern masterpiece. Sure it had some problems, but it was an absolutely fulfilling experience adventuring in Rapture. It’s also impossible to ignore how brilliant Portal was.

Funny though, for the longest time I was mostly a PC gamer but now I find myself playing on consoles almost all the time. I’m sure I’m missing quite a few heavily influential titles as well, but I have a feeling I could go on forever here…


Games as art? Are they now? Will they ever be?

This has to be one of the greatest debatable questions in our industry, and I also think it’s an absolutely important one. My short answer is no, with few exceptions, I do not believe gaming could be considered art at this time.

Emotional fail.

For me, art is something that brings forward emotions from within yourself. A Sigur Ros song does this. An Aronofsky film does this. A Whedon musical does this. Gears of War? Not so much.

Now, obviously this is completely subjective and everyone is affected by different things in different ways. And I’m not talking about that rush of adrenalin you feel as you capture the flag at the last second, or even the tinge of sadness you feel when a main character is killed off. I’m talking about the kinds of things that make you feel and think things, sometimes surprising things, while you’re experiencing it. Thoughts that ring around in your head long after you’ve walked away.

With few exceptions, I just haven’t experienced this with games. The ending to Silent Hill 2, your relationship with Alex in Half-Life 2 and its episodes, certain revelations in BioShock did this for me. But overall, it’s a very short list.

I’d like to think that gaming is still in its infancy stage and will have a chance to grow. I just think there are a lot of factors against that happening. As an interactive medium, there’s really nothing else that’s comparable. Sports perhaps, and I think there’s an argument to be made that some sports or sporting events can be considered art, but again, I’d like to think that gaming is deeper than just competition.

I do think the day will come where games as a medium can be considered art, but we’re going to have to solve some pretty big issues before that happens. We need to find ways of financing games other than through the traditional publisher/developer relationship. He who controls the money controls the power, and all too often that power is tied up into market research whitewashing innovation or making copy-cat titles that chase the latest hot trend and not with the creators trying to put their ideas on the screen.

There is also a need for technology solutions that are affordable and scalable. There was this great sci-fi morality indie film out a few years ago called Primer that was created by a couple of amateurs for less than $10,000, and it’s really fantastic. There’s no legitimate comparables in the gaming market right now. Not only did they not have to reinvent the wheel, as camera equipment is fairly standardized, but it was self financed as well. Braid is probably the closest we’ve got right now, which is great, and I really hope it helps push a trend of personal projects getting created.I do believe we’ll get there though. I think we have to.

Infinite thanks to Bryan Jury and all of Epicenter Studios for taking the time to talk with me, and all readers in the market for a kid-friendly WiiWare title should know that Critter Round-Up is kid-tested and parent approved.

Also, be on the lookout for Real Heroes: Firefighter coming to the Wii.

One of those days...

Misc: It's been one of those days...

Not dead, just sleeping.

As much as I don't want to, my body is telling me that I'd better turn in early or I'll be paying for it tomorrow, so I'll have to postpone the usual update.

However, I've got a great interview with Epicenter Studios ready to roll, so let me get a good night's rest and check back tomorrow for the scoop.

It'll be worth it.

Soul Bubbles and Happy Hour

Games: I just received a review copy of Soul Bubbles for the Nintendo DS. I didn't know anything about it except that I saw a full-page ad for it on the back cover of Play magazine and I thought that the illustration looked appealing. After spending about two hours with it this morning, I'm absolutely impressed.


Shocked, even.

The quality of this cart is absolutely top-notch… the graphics, the level of control, the variety and gameplay, the implementation of the stylus… it's all totally polished.

Basically, you play as some sort of fairylike spirit guide tasked with herding ghosts into the next world. The trick is that you can only transport them after enveloping them in bubbles and blowing them through mazelike environments. It doesn't sound like too spectacular a description, but trust me-- this game is absolutely good enough to be a first-party Nintendo title.

Soul Bubbles is only available at Toys "R" Us, an unfortunate circumstance since no one I know really buys games there, in addition to the fact that "exclusive to store X” games usually blow chunks. Not this time, though.

I'll reserve further comment for the moment since I'm still in the early stages of the game, but so far… WOW.

Books: So I've been reading Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned off and on for the last few weeks, and today I decided to put it down and not come back to it.

It's a clever urban fantasy set in my hometown of Seattle telling the tale of hyper-snarky Amanda Feral, an attractive ad executive turned into a zombie and thrust into the supernatural underworld.

It started strong and kept my attention, but it's too clever for its own good.

Large chunks of the book are nothing but catty dialogue (which is scathingly funny, for the most part) but instead of reading a book and getting involved the characters, I felt as though I was continuously eavesdropping on someone's conversation at a cocktail party.

The other annoying thing about it is that the story is brimming with self-referential comments and observations which take the form of notations at the bottom of a page. I don't have a problem with these insertions in general, but when half the page is text and the other half is notations and asides, it's going a little too far.

I really appreciated that Henry went with a self-aware zombie and stayed away from the completely tired vampire or werewolf characters that are infesting retail bookshelves these days, but the torrential amount of witty conversation just wore me out.

Writing Updates and 360 Downloads

Writing: A while ago, I posted a micro-story called In The Trees on this blog.

(You can use the search function at the top to go back and find it, in case you missed it the first time.)

I originally wrote it for a short-short story contest that was canceled for reasons unknown before I got a chance to enter, and never really did anything with it. However, a few days ago I saw mention of Pseudopod on Michelle Lee’s blog, and submitted it to them as a possible piece to be produced as Flash Fiction. I'm not sure that it's a perfect fit for what they're looking for, but you never know.

In other writing news, I've pretty much finished running my short Love Means Leaving Together past my various feedback folks and I've tweaked it about as much as I think I'm going to. Thanks to everybody who shared their opinions with me.

Now that this part of the process is basically done, I'm going to ramp up efforts and start shopping it around to see if I can make a sale… keep your fingers crossed, and you'll hear it here first when it's ready for publication.


Games: The wife and I spent the morning going through some of the stuff I recently downloaded from the 360 Marketplace after getting a functioning console back in the house. Here are some brief thoughts:

Bionic Commando: Rearmed - I'm already completely in love with this remake, but I'm quite glad to say that that the co-op in story mode is just as fun as the singleplayer. if you haven't already downladed it, what are you waiting for?!?

Legendary trailer: I've been watching this game for a while and although the word-of-mouth is that the game hasn't really come together, the latest trailer looks like pretty great stuff.

Some of the developers appear on-screen via some unintentionally humorous special effects and talk about the AI of the enemies and certain aspects of their design. I've got to say, if what the developers claim is true about monsters modifying their behavior to take advantage of the environment and changing their tactics on-the-fly the way it seems to work in the video shown, I'm down with that.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 trailer: I was a big fan of the first game, so I was already planning on picking up this sequel. Although it was nothing earth-shattering, the enhanced emphasis on team attacks shown was interesting. As long as they don't change things up too much, I'm sure I'll come away happy… these sorts of top-down dungeon-crawlers are like the videogame equivalent of comfort food.

Saints Row 2, the Ultor trailer: Straight up, the first Saints Row was great stuff. More GTA than GTA 4 if you ask me, Volition definitely understands what makes open-world games fun, and SR2 looks like it's on-track to deliver bigger, better, faster, more.

This trailer in particular was enjoyable because it's positioned as a faux training video for the Ultor security forces who will presumably be the player’s opposition. Complete with cheesy voice overs, the clip demonstrates things to be aware of when patrolling Stilwater, such as gang members on chainsaw rampages and unsavory characters assaulting passersby with electrified defibrillator paddles.

I laughed out loud.

Saints Row 2 doesn't look like it's going to revolutionize the industry, but then again, it doesn't have to… nailing every element in a sandbox game is something that very few titles have come close to, and SR2 in its current form looks like it has a better-than-average shot.

Two Down, and I'm Out.

Games: Okay, this will be the last I talk about Shiren, I swear.

Since I was so in awe of Hargrada's righteous rescue, I decided to "pay it forward" and return the favor to someone who needed it. Using the game's wifi options, I picked what looked like two pretty reasonable anonymous requests for help and sallied off... to my destruction.

I never knew level 13 could be so tricky.

Anyway, I was determined to do it and I did, so Mr. Monkey and Tony, wherever you both are, you're welcome.

And with that done, I'm packing up the cart. I've got a bunch of stuff in the review queue, so I really can't dally any longer without putting my deadlines at risk.

I will honor any rescue requests that come in, though. ; )

Hargrada Saves The Day

Games: Thanks to the awesome efforts of blogreader Hargrada, my bacon has been saved. He took the time and made the effort to trek down to floor 28, revived me, and left me a jar full of goodies to help out with the rest of my quest.

Tremendous thanks to Hargrada for the deed, it was utterly appreciated.

…And it was appreciated even more so for the fact that thanks to the rescue, I picked up where the ambushing enemies had left me to rot and soldiered on through to the end, finishing the game.

Shiren is a pretty unique title in that it’s less about grinding through experience levels or collecting phat lewt (although it doesn’t hurt) and more about wisely managing resources and using your head. Some of the best items in the game are very common and available early on, so once a player has learned how to properly use them, situations that formerly seemed impossible can be survived.

For example, I had ignored using the Staff of Paralysis for quite a while until I was in a pinch on one of the higher floors. I tried it out of desperation, and once I realized that it could put a complete stop to some of the meanest enemies in the dungeon with just one hit, the way I looked at the game completely changed.

(Hey… I may be a little bit slow, but at least I caught on eventually.)

For other Shiren players out there who may be interested, here are the stats I had when I finished the game:

Level 25
Strength 9
Hit Points 132
Mastersword +7 (w/ anti-rust)
Hide Shield +10 (w/ anti-rust)
Antidrain Armband
1 rescue (thanks again!)

For those of you who may be a little hesitant to jump into a Roguelike game since the genre is known for being a bit on the brutal side, let me just say that the stats and equipment above are on the low (probably VERY low) side of what can be achieved, and were the product of only a few hours’ worth of work once I learned what the game wanted of me.

My main strategy was to use Staves of Knockback, Doppelganger and Paralyze to get through most of the tough enemies on floors 25-29, and I had saved a Scroll of Sleep for the final boss room. After hitting the ultimate opponent with a tossed Mamel Meat (turning him from the super-powerful final boss into the weakest enemy in the game) he was dead in one swipe.

All in all, I give the game major props for actually applying the rules of play to the boss. Practically every other game out there would have made that meat (or the staves, for that matter) ineffective and given the boss a bunch of arbitrary advantages, but it was totally gratifying to see that although the developers set the bar high, they played fair the entire time – what works on the player works on the enemies, no exceptions.

I give Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer my highest possible recommendation.

Miscellaneous: I was talking to someone the other day and they had related to me a story of how they had finally come to a great epiphany about some of the choices they had made in their life and how they were product of their upbringing. After hearing them out, I was struck by the realization that this person’s stroke of insight should have seemed pretty obvious to anyone who thought about it for more than three minutes.

I don’t mean to belittle this person or downplay their own personal journey of discovery (gag) but this was hardly the first time that someone has related a similar experience. I come into contact with a huge number of people through my job, and I often find myself with plenty of time to chat with them. More often than not, things that seem like mysteries would (and should) be completely obvious to anyone after even the most cursory level of introspection.

It makes me wonder sometimes, do people just not think about what drives them or what makes them who they are? Is it really that unique to sit down and try to puzzle out the things that motivate a self to become what it is, and how it got there?

My initial response is that no… it’s not that special, but the more people I meet, the more it seems like this sort of self-examination is the exception and not the norm. I find it a little hard to believe that so many people trudge on through life with the blinders clamped down tight and never give much thought to why they do the things they do, but anecdotal evidence seems to prove otherwise…

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?

Shiren Needs A Rescue

Games: So I've been playing Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer on DS lately, and I love it... it's fantastic stuff. A brutal Roguelike game, the player gets sent back to level 1 and loses all their equipment if death comes in a dungeon, which it does... and often.

Although this sort of thing would usually drive me nuts, Shiren does it so well that it hardly feels like punishment most times. I'll get more into it later, but one pretty cool feature of the game is that if you *do* happen to get cacked on your adventure, you can send out a rescue request to anyone else playing the game. Via a password or through Nintendo's Wifi system, another person can find your dead body and bring it back to life, salvaging your progress and giving you a second chance. Awesome idea, and... I need to use it.

Right now Shiren's lifeless corpse is laying on floor 28 (out of 30 for the first major dungeon, Table Rock) and I've got a pretty good chance of finishing the game, in my opinion... I just ran into some bad luck and got overwhelmed.

Replace SpongeBob with Shiren, and you get the picture.

I'd really like to salvage this attempt and finish since I'm so close, so if ANYBODY out there is playing Shiren right now and wouldn't mind rescuing me, drop me a line and I'll give you my Wifi code.

Pleeeeeeeease?




Food: These are awesome.

I could eat the entire can in one sitting... seriously.

Go try 'em.

RIP - Bernie Mac

I had a few random bits talk about tonight, but instead of that I wanted to take a minute and pay my respects to Bernie Mac.

This sad story has been covered all over the Internet, so I'm not going to get into any of the details except to say that the age of fifty was far too soon for him to go.

He was truly one of my favorite comedians, and he will be missed.

Overwhelmed With Downloads!!!

Games: So now that I have a functioning (for the moment) 360 back in the house, I spent some time catching up on all the DL stuff I missed over the last month or so.

…Of course, while it was gone I was spending time catching up with all the PS3 stuff.

(WiiWare seems quiet for the moment, although the new Nintendo Channel is nice. If they’re not going to do demos for the Wiiware titles, videos are the least they can do.)

Anyway, I’ve talked about some of this stuff earlier, but whatever… it’s overview wrapup time!


PS3:

PixelJunk Monsters: This has been on my unit for a while, but I got sidetracked and never finished it so I was trying to complete the 2P with the wife… I think I’m going to quit it again, though. It was really fun and addicting until I realized that winning a stage depends more on memorization than actually reacting to things in real time. When I lost a round thanks to the fire-resistant spiders that had never made an appearance before, I lost steam. A fun game, but honestly, I feel like it’s more work than fun at this point.

PixelJunk Eden: Pretty damned sweet. Great tone, great mechanics, totally great visuals. It gets HARD, though... anybody who says this is relaxing didn't play it for very long. It's a toss-up between this title and flOw (which I loooooooove) for best art-house title on the PS3. Both are superb, really.

Siren: Blood Curse: I get that this series has fans, but I never liked the first Siren, and this one isn't changing my mind. The graphics turned me off, and the camera was spazzy. It was dark as all hell, too. There were a few other annoyances I had, but it just wasn’t clicking with me and I don't think I'll be spending the cash on this one.

Tori-Emaki: kind of a cool artistic thing where a flock of crows flies over a 2D landscape rendered in that old-fashioned Japanese style. (Anybody know the correct term for the style?) It’s not really a game, but still sort of cool. I think it was worth two dollars.


360:

FaceBreaker demo: wow, what a completely repellent experience. the computer opponent (on easy, no less) started pummeling the sh*t out of me before the round even started. Forget boxing, it felt more like I was playing some sad wannabe version of Killer Instinct in the arcades -- and that's not a good thing since this kind of buttonmashing I don't need... I can safely cross this one off my to-play list. There was a study done recently that seemed to suggest that demos actually hurt game sales, and FaceBreaker is the sort of game that clarifies that. The game left such a bad taste in my mouth I no longer have any interest in checking out the full version. In this case, I'd say that the demo succeeded in what I think a demo is supposed to do: prevent a person from wasting hard-earned money.

Tales of Vesperia demo: Meh. I never liked any of the other Tales games, and this one seems like more of the same. I’m pretty done with this whole anime-RPG thing for a while unless a pretty spectacular one comes along.

Dark Sector demo: I know this has been out for a while but I haven't gotten to it yet. Based on the demo, my view of it has actually risen quite a bit. It "felt" pretty right between the movement and targeting, so this one gets bumped up near the top of my to-play. A nice surprise.

Geometry Wars 2: Not a lot to say on this one, I'll be getting the full version any minute now.

Braid: I spent most of the morning playing through this, and I'm totally impressed for the most part. It's bold, revolutionary, and strongly encourages out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to problem-solving. Best described as a platformer that relies on time manipulation (and that's really not describing the game with any degree of justice) it's unlike anything else I've seen in a while. I wouldn't say that it's perfect since some of the puzzles can be extremely difficult-- it's such a short game that it doesn't really have enough of a chance to acclimate a player to the intricacies of time manipulation sufficiently. That said, I'm still pretty high on it at the moment.

Schizoid: A combination of the completely overlooked Adventures of Cookie & Cream on PS2 (and DS) and hyper-hardcore shooter Ikaruga, this game has two ships of different colors flying around small screens full of enemies with teamwork as the core idea. The blue ship takes care of blue enemies, while the orange ship does the same with orange opponents, the trick being that one ship will often have to shield the other. I only spent about 10 minutes with it, but I was liking what I was seeing. More to come on this one, for sure.


That's it for now, but with all this said the only thing really on my mind is the remake of Bionic Commando: Rearmed next week.

Random Bits

I've been accumulating lots of bits and pieces that I keep meaning to blog about but I've noticed that I'm just not getting around to them, so I've decided to clean out my stack of little Post-it notes with ideas on them and just be done with it.

Teachers: I hate teachers who don't have complete mastery of the subject they’re teaching.

I had a teacher in high school who was covering grammar and spelling, and she made constant errors. She couldn't even discuss the subject without having the answer key in front of her, and it drove me up the wall. When I go into a class, I expect the person in charge to blow me away with their level of skill and knowledge, and to completely be my superior on whatever topic it is we’re covering. I realize that people are only human and humans are not perfect, but education is a serious subject and to waste a person's time by doing a poor job of teaching is offensive to me.

Long story short: don't be my teacher unless you've got your shit locked down tight.

Eco: There are a bunch of electric cars running around Seattle, and the wife and I thought they were pretty damn cool until we actually did some research and got the facts. Long story short, these aren’t even close to the excellent vehicles that were featured in the film “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Instead, they're little better than glorified golf carts that cost as much as a regular car. Pretty disappointing. I mean, seriously… I've had RC cars with more pep than these things. I know for a fact that electric cars can do better than this, and I fail to see why these things are even on the market.

Spotted: On the side of a locksmith’s struck, a bit of text said “unlocks free when child is trapped inside.” That's pretty decent of them, I suppose… however, the real humanitarians of this a bit are the proprietors of the adult entertainment shop I passed along the highway a while ago when we were tooling through Oregon. Their sign? “ADA ACCESSIBLE” in huge letters on the outside of their building. It's great to know that people in wheelchairs who need a little visual stimulation won’t need to struggle with pesky curbs or stairs on their way to pick up some weekend wank material. Kudos!

Games: My 360 returned via UPS today, and it's good to have it back. I nearly chucked it out the window, though… upon putting it back up on my shelf and reconnecting all the cables, the unit would not turn on and displayed three red rings.

I'm sure you could imagine my joy.

Undaunted, I turned the unit off and unplugged all the cables, determined to make the damned thing work. Poking it all back up, what did I get? Four red rings.

I was on the phone with Microsoft customer service and I had literally drafted a letter to Shane Kim while I was waiting, but for whatever reason the techno gods were having a little joke at my expense… a few minutes after the rep came on the line, the thing suddenly started working for no apparent reason. My fingers are crossed that it will remain in this state.

Speaking of the 360, N+ level pack #1 is now available on Live. To be perfectly frank, I haven't had a chance to actually sit down and go through it, but I have complete faith in MetaNet and I downloaded it without any hesitation, whatsoever. I suggest you do the same.

On the DS front, I finished the review for Izuna 2: the Unemployed Ninja Returns and found it to be lacking, not at all up to the standard that other recent Atlus games have set. Feeling unsatisfied with that roguelike, I put down some cash for Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer and although I'm still at the very beginning, it's already seeming like a much higher-quality experience.

Finally, I had a comment and/or question regarding my use of the phrase “rooted in the last generation” and what exactly that meant.

To be honest, I think it's a little bit lazy of me to use that phrase often because it's shorthand for a couple different things. I apologize for my lack of specificity, and no, that's not sarcasm. = )

I suppose in general what I mean by that is to say that certain games pick the low-hanging fruit of the current generation and then stop in terms of their design. For example, I've played several games recently where the graphics are taking advantage of console X’s horsepower, but completely ignore things like realistic physics, adding objects to interact with, having realistic architecture, and so on. It's not that these games are necessarily bad because they aren't, but it's pretty clear that they're not reaching to fully take advantage of what the current generation offers.

A perfect example of this is Folklore, a game which I actually have great affection for. It looks fantastic for the most part, the level of detail at certain times is amazing, and the level of atmosphere is almost palpable. However, its design is “rooted in the last generation” (or perhaps even the one before the last) by having levels which offer effectively no interaction and a core design which consists of:

A> questioning townsfolk in ultra old-school “talking heads” fashion

and B> capturing monsters.

That's really it, and this game could have existed on the PS2 and probably even on the PS1, though it would have been looking like a goat’s dirty bits on that hardware.

With Folklore (and really, a lot of games these days) it's pretty clear that the people designing the game aren't starting from a current-gen perspective and they’re trying to justify a $60 price point by making things look oh-so-pretty.

Again, I don't mean this to come off completely negative because I think certain aspects of older design are just fine, and I still enjoy playing games on older systems. I don't mean to sound like we need to burn our heritage and keep our eyes focused only on the future, but at the same time there are many new factors to take into account when designing a game and if we're going to avoid stagnation in the industry and if people selling the games really want to justify the higher price consumers are paying, games are going to have to start in a more advanced, current-gen place (i.e.- online, the role of downloading, multiplayer, physics, customization, more sophisticated storytelling, more sophisticated interaction, and so on and so on and so on.)

Does Folklore start in a current-gen place? Absolutely not. In terms of sophistication, it's actually pretty crude. Do I still like it? Without a doubt. Still, I'm not one to advocate for laziness in game design and in general, I think the bar does need to keep being raised.

I hope that answers your question, Anonymous… I'm a little sleepy at the moment so I'm not sure that entirely made sense, so let me know if more clarification is needed.

One last thing: Fruity Pebbles are way tastier than Cocoa Pebbles. It's true, so deal.

PixelJunk Eden, Folklore, The Dark Knight, and Credit Due

Another night of random bits and pieces…


First off, I completely forgot to give credit to my wife for snapping the superb photos I used for the Casual Connect coverage. She did a great job, and I apologize for the oversight.

(By the way, I actually don’t drink alcohol. All the drinks you saw me sipping in those pictures were non-alcoholic, just for the record.)


Games: I downloaded PixelJunk Eden today for $10 from the PlayStation Store, and after one session, I’m not regretting the purchase.

The visuals have a definite minimalist flair and the audio is laid-back ambient techno sort of stuff. The presentation definitely works for me.

Gameplay seems like a complete mystery at first, but after a little experimentation it becomes clear… your character is something that looks like a cross between a spider and a tick, or some other parasite. The goal of the game is to collect flower-like icons that are scattered in the extremely vertical levels.

The parasite can leap far distances and cling to any surface, in addition to leaving behind a trail of spider silk. Popping small flowers that float throughout the level (by touching them) releases pollen, and this pollen causes plants to grow. By leaping to the top of a nearby plant and then releasing pollen, plants higher up will grow, providing a means of ascending in the search for the flower icons.

The small blue, yellow and purple specks are your characters hanging from silk.

Jump, land, grow a new flower, jump again, land higher up, repeat.

It sounds a little simplistic, but in practice it’s a beautiful simplicity -- considerable technique is soon revealed behind the careful jumping and manipulation of silk swinging.

So far, I’m loving it. If nothing else, the PS3 seems to be cornering the market on art-house projects. I approve.

Also, before I move on to another topic, I wanted to throw out some praise for the PS3's Folklore. I’m going to cover it in the upcoming Bargain Basement that’ll be seen at GameCritics, but for those of you who might have been considering the title or who are on the fence, I say take the plunge.

It’s definitely got some issues and the core design is rooted in the last generation, but it succeeds wonderfully at creating a sense of mood and ambiance that’s hard to ignore. Additionally, the real-time action is dialed-in, and collecting dozens of monster-like Folks (imagine Pokémon with a much more mature, darker slant) is quite addicting.

I can’t sit here and say that it’s a perfect game, but I will say that I enjoyed it far more than I ever expected to… for people who like some quirk in their games like me, this one’s a winner.


Film: The wife and I just saw The Dark Knight last night, and we both walked out of it feeling supremely disappointed.

Before saying anything else, I will say that Ledger’s Joker was pretty awesome. I don’t think it was Oscar-worthy, but it was certainly the best thing out of the movie and he did an outstanding job. I was pretty captivated with his portrayal, and his interpretation was quite engaging. I can’t say that I was the biggest Ledger fan before this (though Brokeback Mountain was an amazing film) but I am honestly disappointed that he’s no longer with us… I would have loved to see where he could’ve gone with the Joker in another film.

Besides that aspect, the film was pretty much a wash.

I just can’t get into Christian Bale as Batman. He’s got sort of a lisp, his enhanced “bat voice” vocoder was completely cheesy, and for some reason the facial part of the costume just didn’t look right.

Just get the Batmobile fixed already, will you?

Besdies my dislike of Bale, the movie felt bloated, overcomplicated, and overlong. I did not appreciate all the socio-political commentary that felt shoehorned in where it didn’t fit and I felt that the movie would have been leaner and meaner if they had taken out some of the peripheral things and made it at least two hours, if not an hour and 45.

For example, I completely did not buy into the “love triangle” between Maggie Gyllenhall/Batman/Harvey Dent… it felt totally forced and missed the mark, not to mention making Maggie’s character look like a spineless flip-flopper. Besides that, I don’t understand why people who make superhero movies these days seem to think it’s impossible to entertain people with only one villain… Two-Face could have been in a movie all his own, and more screen time with the Joker would have only been a good thing.

The action was boring and unimpressive, the fights weren’t memorable, and I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief for certain things that happen in the film. I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, so I’ll just say that there was very little excitement for me in terms of action.

Finally, I just had no interest in Batman’s self-doubt throughout the film. Again, I’m going to try to avoid spoilers here, but it was almost like Nolan was trying to make some other sort of film and crammed Batman into it, rather than the entire thing feeling like a natural evolution of Batman himself. It possibly could have worked some other way, but the film as it stands didn’t hit the mark for me.

Meh.