Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Working on a new writing project right now, so I'm actually procrastinating by posting this… but since I'm here, what the hey?
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Games: Started Dead Space tonight and just played for a little bit, maybe a hair over an hour or so. Gotta say, I'm not at all impressed.
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Granted, I'm not very far so I'm not going to get out the gas can and torch just yet, but I have a very strong suspicion that the gameplay I went through in the first hour is going to be washed, rinsed and repeated until the end of the game. Go here, get X item, go back, and kill gross-looking aliens in every hallway on the trip.
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The graphics are beautiful and I really like the way the developers implemented a few things like the holograms taking the place of menu screens, and the way you can instantly get back on the correct path when lost by clicking the R stick, but there's a lot here that's janky.

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For example, why do the aliens always drop money or ammunition? Going further, why do I need to worry about either? If we're so advanced in Dead Space’s reality, can’t we come up with guns that don't run out of ammunition every five minutes? And who in the world thought implementing a money/store system was a good fit for this title? You're supposed to be playing the role of a space engineer in a giant ship taken over by aliens… wouldn’t it make a little more sense to simply find the items or craft them yourself? I mean, a store? Really?!?
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Other things are giving me a warning sign as well, like the fact that the main character is a silent protagonist. To any developer out there who still thinks this is a good idea: IT’S NOT. What it is, is silly, completely unbelievable, and ridiculous. The story doesn't seem to be any great shakes, either, and there are tons of cliché sci-fi elements are on display… and I'm still at the very beginning of the game.
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I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but I have to say that the game isn’t getting off to the greatest start.
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Games: In a completely shameless bit of PR, can you guess what upcoming game I'm completely geeked over?
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Shipping 12/9, Persona 4 will come with a soundtrack CD, and people who pre-order will receive an art book by my second favorite artist in the series, Shigenori Soejima. (Sorry Shig… you do indeed rock, but Kaneko’s the man.) If you have even the faintest interest in quality RPGs, this is your wake-up call to not miss out.
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I got an e-mail out of the blue this afternoon inviting me to download the Home Beta and "join in a celebration" between 6pm-8pm, Pacific. After being less than impressed with the New Xbox Experience, I was ready to get an up-close look at what Sony has to counter with, so I did just that.

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After downloading, I was prompted to create an avatar. Evidently, avatars are the new hot thing and with Sony's addition, each of the big three consoles now sports their own version. Initially the creation options seemed like they were going to be deeper than the 360's, but after just a minute or two, I started feeling just as limited. The best I could do was to put together a nondescript-looking dude with a fauxhawk and some earphones that you'd expect to see walking down the sidewalk in Liberty City.

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Listen up, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony: When gamers create avatars, our first inclination is not to re-create an exact likeness of ourselves-- what we want to do is to go friggin' crazy. The more outlandish and bizarre options, the better. Going further, being something that isn't even human would be a huge plus. Big demon horns? Dog heads? Chicks in skimpy bathing suits?Hello??

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But I digress...

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Anyway, I took my Joe Blow into my seaside studio apartment and took in the view. There were many options for various things like furniture and wallpaper, but almost none of the features were active. The only thing I could install was a bubble blower, and it didn't keep me busy for long.

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With a few minutes to go before 6pm, I went for a spin around the central gathering area and checked out the "Mall", "Bowling Alley", and "Theater". Everywhere I went, there were small clusters of people typing out brief messages via their D-Pads and displayed in small balloons over their heads. I assume that headset functionality will be enabled for speech, but I don't have one and no one I encountered seemed to have one, either. Needless to say, conversation was not happenin'.

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The mall was another empty locale, the few storefronts having no goods for sale. Nothing to do there but stand around. The theater was little better, modeled to resemble a movie theater, and there was a short clip of the latest Socom looping on the screen. I could sit my avatar down and watch it, but I don't see why I'd really want to pretend I was in a theater when I'd much rather pick a video of my choice from a menu, save time, and skip the pretense.
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Finally, there was a little action happening in the bowling alley. Several people were tossing some balls, and there were some pool tables up against the back wall. After walking into the play area, I was asked whether or not I wanted to participate in a game, and I did. Very rudimentary and minigame-ish, and there was nothing special about it, save for the fact that there were other live people playing it with me. Going through the motions got old, fast, so I headed back out to the central gathering place to see what this "celebration" Sony mentioned was all about.
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More clusters of other users were gathering, and a few people pecked out some "where's the party?" type messages. With nothing else to do, some players started standing in groups and "dancing" (nothing in the world looks as hopelessly pathetic as this), while others just sat down and waited, virtually. I sat down, too.
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We waited.
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Then we waited.
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After that, we waited some more.
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By 6:40, I had had more than enough, and I decided to get back to Live and start actually playing something, instead of just standing around watching people type text fragments aimlessly as they tell each other they're bored. It's pretty bad form to invite people to an event and then not show up and have no event, Sony... that was, perhaps, not the best way to start things off.
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Long story short, being at Home was like being in any random third-person open-world game except that there was nothing whatsoever going on. I couldn't even jump off the nearest balcony when the tedium became too much.
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Virtual environments are nothing new and although I realize this was just a Beta and that not all of the features and functionality were there, I don't really imagine myself going back often to spend time in a pretend space without anything to occupy my time except looking at Sony advertising and milling around with people I don't know. Maybe Home will hook some people, but I've got better things to do with my time, I think.
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Games: Quick update... I just got my Home beta code and I'll be trying it out for the first time tonight. Impressions to come.
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Misc: I had a few news bits to talk about, but nothing can trump the fact that today is my wonderful wife's birthday!
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Happy Birthday, Lady... I hope you enjoyed it.
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I'm running on empty today, so I'm going to take the easy way out for tonight's entry and recommend that you go check out Bill Harris' Blog, Dubious Quality. Here's an excerpt from his latest post (11/17), about the used games market:
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Epic Games president Mike Capps had this to say about the used game market in the U.S.:The secondary market is a huge issue in the United States. Our primary retailer makes the majority of its money off of secondary sales, and so you’re starting to see games taking proactive steps toward that by… if you buy the retail version you get the unlock code.
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Bill's writeup is razor-sharp and spot-on, as always... And if you care about the used games market the way that I care about it, this particular post is well worth the time and energy it will take you to click over there.
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Tell him I said hi.
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Games: I can't name any names, but I just got a pre-release copy of a game I'm very excited about for evaluation, and I'm pretty tickled at the moment. All my available game time will probably be tied up for the next two weeks (at least), but I couldn't be happier. When stuff like this happens, it makes me glad to be a critic.
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Writing: After wrapping up my last short story, a friend and I got talking about things and before I knew it, we had started a brand-new collaboration project that will end up being a full-length novel. Not a lot of details to share right now, but we got the logistics and details hammered out in the blink of an eye. Writing will begin shortly.
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Between this and the pre-release I just mentioned above, my hands are going to be quite full. Good times.
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