Epic Loot For All!

From MMO to m-moé

Chris Jacobs — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:27:00 GMT

From the wonderful and ecclectic world of Japan comes news of a new MMO. For you english-speaking types, the story is that developer Headlock is making ai-sp@ce, a SL-style world set in Akihabara and combining the visual novel canons of Da Capo II, Clannad, and Shuffle! The title is set to launch over the summer.

As the closest thing to an animé expert we have, I find this interesting. There will definitely be buyers, as visual novels tend to be hot properties and tend to become popular anime series, too. Admittedly, I've never seen the three titles being used for ai-sp@ce (Clannad is on my to-do list, though). I can only hope that negotiations are or will be in the works for other visual novel titles, or heaven forbid, use popular light novels. Of course, I'm still waiting on the Tenchi Muyo! MMO, but I'm weird (read: old-school) like that.

Cabin Fever

Chris Jacobs — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:22:00 GMT

I am a beta-tester for Warrior Epic. Scary thought, huh? Well, the servers were up last week and diagnostic tests were being run, but the closed beta still isn't open. Instead of flooding the forums as to why this is so, here's my two cents.

1) The player cap hasn't been matched
As of 1:27 AM Eastern Time on April 6, 2008, there are only 407 approved beta testers (as per the forum). The cap is 500, so I'm betting there's still ways to go before that is satisfied.

2) All clear never happens on the first try
Have you ever done a programming project for a CS class or something? How often did you get it to compile and run on the first go? If it's more than two, you're not human. Even if it's just a typo that makes the server go *raspberry,* it's a problem, and that has to be addressed pre-beta.

3) Flooding the forums is eating important WE bandwidth
Every time you have to go start a new thread wondering why the CB hasn't opened, you take up space on the server. That and the hits that it gets increases the chance of a major crash when the beta does open up.

So there. That's my 2 cents. Now shut up and get off my browser, damn kids.

Colorful cards and more colorful tiles, ahoy!

Brian Beccia — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:11:00 GMT

Never let it be said that I am not one for trying new things, be it in the realm of foodstuffs, music, or games. However, with that in mind, I will admit that I do not often enjoy a lot of the new things I try. And such was the case this past week when my roommates, knowing my casual disinterest for trading card games, and my reluctance to play strategy-based property-management board games, decided to leave me to my devices in reviewing a game that combines the two: Culdcept Saga. And so, feeling the victim of a poorly planned April Fools' joke, and realizing my actual contribution to this space is nil, I set about to the task.

Culdcept Saga is brought to us by the friendly developers at Bandai-Namco, the combined force of which has turned out numerous anime-based titles from the Naruto and Gundam franchises. The story that I got out of the two-days invested in this game is essentially thus: a world of magic and intrigue is falling into chaos, and requires the powers of special people with books of magical cards - called Cepters - to restore the balance and throw off the ire of the gods. The problem is that the majority of Cepters are layabouts and thieves, exploiting their powers for selfish gain, until the emergence of the main character, an anonymous rainbow-haired lad that can be given a minority of customization by the player before thrusting him bodily into this happy color-saturated universe.

This basic plot is happily given depth and scope through the innumerable encyclopedia-like lore entries that make up the game's loading screens, a facet that I readily embraced as it gives the player something to do between load times other than sit on their thumbs. But the warm hug I give the game quickly turns to a cold shoulder of disgust when I see how fast the game itself actually loads. Apparently, the XBox 360 version of Culdcept Saga is a pseudo-sequel to a previous PlayStation 2 release, which Bandai-Namco apparently didn't see a need to update in terms of graphical detail or visual effects. This means that the game renders between load screens in a manner of seconds. All the lore and backstory injected into a game is pretty much useless when the players don't have enough time to read it all, unless you invest in a decent study aid.

So, already a little disheartened, I suffered through the initial Kingdom Hearts inspired opening sequence, and began the first (tutorial) battle. So, now I have a few words to say on gameplay. The entirety of the game experience involves you and at least one other person (though local and online multiplayer matches, and indeed some of the late-game fights can have up to three different opponents) traverse a multicolored gameboard on a quest to see who can wring the most resources from the other in a number of turns. Each time a player lands on a vacant space - marked out in one of four colors matching the usual four-element system: Fire, Water, Air, Earth - they have the option to simply rest there until their next turn, or summon a creature card from their hand to claim the territory. If a player lands on a space claimed by an opponent, they likewise have two options of attempting to wrest control away from the opposing player, or doing any other action and paying the toll (a la Monopoly).

It's probably important to note that almost everything you encounter on the game board is ridiculously variable in some way. For a set cost, a player can use his hard-earned resources to "level up" their territories, increasing the toll cost and boosting effects for whatever monsters inhabit that space, or even change the elemental alignment entirely. Bigger bonuses are given to the player that controls the most territory of a single element ("chains"), and bigger still if the creature inhabiting that space is also of that matching element. And as if they needed any more allusion to Monopoly, at the starting point of the game board is a castle that functions very much like "Go" did in the classic board game, rewarding players with a bonus depending on how much accrued territory is in their possession and how many points of interest they passed during the lap.

All of this is hastily explained in teeny text boxes in about two minutes before the main battle begins, and in the space of a full hour's time my poor avatar was owned in every conceivable fashion by the AI character, which illicits two very important comments from me: the first, that this is inherently a game that requires some time to develop knowledge and finesse, to understand the core strategies inherent behind the different game boards; the second, that the artificial intelligence is a cheating WHORE! On more than one occasion, I had to raise my eyebrows in suspicion of the dice roller, which saw fit to give rolls that most often landed me right on my opponent's level 4 fire tile guarded by the beastly red ogre and friends (a battle most often ending with me giving up nearly half the board in payment, and losing valuable creatures and items), while my opponent either skipped merrily past, or landed one space short of my then only territory chain on the board. Of course, being the day and age of gaming we live in, there were no true negative consequences to me losing. At the end of the battle, I was given a small random selection of cards to add to my books, and saw that the only true penalty was to have to sit through the awfully-voiced opening cinematic again.

There is really little to speak of strategy in Culdcept Saga aside from trying to intimately study the small picture of the game board given to you before the next match starts, and attempting to remember at a glance some 500 different cards by face alone. One note of sympathy (I'm guessing) that is given to the players is the ability to see your opponents' cards both in hand and as they're played. This might seem like a tremendous dumbing down of the game, but as I didn't play this against actual people who need to take time to plan their moves, I was left to try and sort out what the AI was throwing at me at lightning speeds. Two cards I did get an intimate awareness of over the course of my whipping were "Haste" and "Slow", and that much only because as soon as my computer opponent obtained either of the spells, they were used immediately, and most often in sequence of each other.

The scope of the battles is another irksome quality that I feel I need to comment on. The objective of each map is for one of the players to accumulate a set amount of resources (Magic) by lapping the game board, claiming territory, and sucking it out of other players. For the first map, I was told to accrue a total magic value of 5000 (starting from zero, of course), which means regardless of how good at the game I might become, I'd still be parked there for an hour at least while my little character runs a marathon of laps to get me to the necessary total, and in the later stages against two or three other opponents, games can run up to four or five hours to play through entirety, or even longer! Those who might wish to play this game online, I suggest you start investing in a particular brand of incontinence protection, as against real people there is no way to delay the game for emergencies like food or toilet.

In many ways, this review is still along the lines of a "first impressions." When I finally completed the initial battle stage (after the third fracking try!) I was so drained physically and emotionally that any sense of satisfaction I might have felt on receiving a passing mark didn't have anything to take root in, and because I didn't have enough time to read through all of the loadscreen story to develop an interest in the world at large I had no emotional drive to keep playing it.

TCGs alone are games that require some measure of strategic prowess and skill, but throwing a board game into the mix makes the whole experience entirely dependent on luck, and giving Culdcept Saga a difficulty curve largely similar to a tangent function, for all it represents your actual chances of success in any given battle.

EPIC LOOT GRADE: COMMON (2/7)
If you're a fan of things like Magic:The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Monopoly, or the original Culdcept game, by all means pick this up and enjoy. I will not be joining you. Were it not for the crappiness of my own experience with this game, I would have likely given it an Uncommon rating. It's certainly worth a few points to note that this game truly is an original concept and a unique blend of mechanics from other established games that works very well for the whole. But a bland presentation of setting and story, and luck-based AI murderousness are severe turn-offs for me, as is a console game that can rival my WoW account in terms of play time. Play it if you want, but keep it away from me.

Epic Loot Reviews Eve Online

Colin Brennan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:34:00 GMT

Eve Online, developed by Crowd Control Productions (CCP), is a space combat/social MMORPG that puts you in the pod of a pilot in the future of humanity.

Shortly after gaining the ability to use jumpgates to minimize space travel, Humanity came across a glorious natural phenomenon - a warphole that was dubbed "Eve". Eve took humanity to a universe never before explored - if that is just another part of our own universe or a completely new one we don't know - but humanity took up the opportunity for exploration with a very distinct fervor. Colonization ships were quickly dispatched through Eve, and a new frontier was born.

But nature had it's own twist of fate planned. Shortly after sending the ships through, the wormhole collapsed shut and the link to this new universe was cut off. The colonists suffered from a lack of food and space fuel, and desperately scattered in search of hospitable planets and new terrain to grow on. Many, many colonists died and the technology for space flight was soon lost as ships crash landed onto various planets in the new universe. Humanity entered a new dark age.

Some millenia later, four races emerged from the ashes of death to rediscover space flight and take to the stars once again. Re-perfecting jump gates, these 4 distinct races each had their own differing opinions about what to do with life, and so they began to war. The Great War cost many lives, but it also provided the stage for the rise of corporations over governments, and soon an uneasy truce was forged as people began to trade and prosper once again. This is the stage that Eve is set upon... one with a vast expanse of territory to explore.

Gameplay
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What sets Eve Online apart from most other MMOs is the skill system that drives it. Both good and bad, Eve is built upon the acquisition of knowledge over time as it is piped into the pilot's head through a data link.

The trick is, even when you're offline, you pilot is constantly learning the skill that you set him/her to learn. Killing enemies does not offer any experience or bonuses except cash and items... which I'll get to in just a moment. So, for the casual player, this is an extreme boon. ANYONE can be good at Eve regardless of time actually spent in-game. While this puts some players at a very real advantage, skills are NOT everything that drives Eve. What drives Eve is something else... which, as I said before, I'll get to.

Also unique is a very distinct lack of classes. While at the beginning, during character creation, you choose your education and your career path, these things don't lock you in to any one set path. You're simply given more points in a few areas that you wish to excel in and specialize in during the beginning, although you can quickly and easily change your mind later during the game through the acquistion of new skillbooks.

Now... what drives Eve is the persuit of cash by ANY MEANS POSSIBLE. It is CCP's sole wish that you, the player, have as much freedom as possible. If you can think of ways to con people out of cash, bully them out of money, steal it, make deals for it...whatever you want... it's all legal. It's just sometimes you might get some enemies from your actions and there might be some very real repercussions. Sure, it might not affect you now... but karma has a very scary way of coming back in Eve.

Because cash drives everything, cash is a very real asset in Eve and can set players over the top with abilities. However, as powerful as you are, one person is not perfect. Eve is powered by their corporations (guilds) and what those corporations accomplish. A well versed corporation with a large bankroll can wage war and take what it wants, be it money or entire areas of space.

To set up losses, Eve's death system is extremely, extremely brutal. This is a major turn off for most players. When you die, you die in two stages. First, your ship blows up. Most corporations provide insurance for these type of things or players buy it themselves, but usually what's on the ship is more important than the money that went into the ship. Finding some of those materials may mean dealing with other players that you may not want to deal with again, and therein lies the rub - you have to rely on others and not some random NPC 31 that drops item X. People may not want to help you if you were .... unpleasant to them.

After your ship blows up, your lifepod containing your pilot is ejected. What you usually want to do at this point is run as fast as you can to the edge of the galaxy and hide and hope that they don't find you. If they do find you and "pod" you, then hopefully you'll have a clone in storage. Clones are expensive, but they'll save you from losing skill points, the fundamental points that make up your skills. However, if you have more points than than your clone has storage, the other points will be removed, forcing you to re-learn valuable skills and setting you back literally weeks.

There's your problem of why people may not like the game - the system is brutal. In a world of eat or be eaten, CCP got exactly what they wanted - an innovative and brutal game where the best may not always be the best equipped. The best may be the person who can think through a situation better than their opponent. This is not World of Warcraft where everything is friendly and straightforward. Eve Online is a sandbox of social networks and intrigue that may leave you with a dagger in your back... or you placing the dagger in someone else's.

Gameplay gets a 7 out of 10 - The system is well designed but lacks a universal quality of enjoyment. This might be exactly what you're looking for, but it can also offer a large amount of psychological pain and anguish. This is right up some people's alleys, but the worst nightmare for others. Hence, the reduction of points in what is a very, very solid system.

Sound
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The music and sound effects of Eve Online are pretty well done. Laser blasts and rockets have appropriate sound effects, and warp drive is always a fun thing to turn on. Aura, the ship's onboard computer AI, is friendly, but can come off as annoying at times.

Where the game really shines is the background jukebox, which provides a wealth of techno/synth beats that are calming and blood pumping at the same time. The system is smart enough to change the music flawlessly between ship-to-ship battles and general exploration of space, and that provides a great ambience to a game where everything is just a vast open sea of nothing.

Sound gets a 10 out of 10 - The music more than makes up for Aura's annoying comments... plus you can turn her off if you really want to. Weapon effects and engine sounds sound great in combat, and really give you the feeling of space flight.

Graphics
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With the recent release of Eve Online: Trinity 1.0, the entire graphics engine of Eve got a complete overhaul. The new graphics take advantage of the latest graphics cards, while the old engine is still supported by the developers and offered as a low resolution alternative for those with computers that may not handle the game.

One of the trademarks of Eve's graphics has always been the ability of planets to occlude light, giving you these wonderful bursts of light that glare into the camera like the dawn of a new day. Thanks to the Trinity expansion, Eve also now supports soft shadowing, which allows ships to cast shadows on themselves. This is a really wonderful step forward, although a major video card burn for anyone who may not have the power to spare. But, if you have a nice high end computer, you'll really appreciate how well detailed the ships are now and how the light of the universe plays off of the metal.

Explosions and particle effects are very solid, but my favorite effect is the engine trails. When you get into dogfights in Eve, the trails really make the combat that more intense from a distance, as you can see the engine light swirling around in patterns as people shoot one another and perform electronic warfare. A contingent of corporation ships flying in formation is a sight to behold as well, their engines leaving a beautiful trail of dust in their wake.

However, when you're piloting the ship, don't put the camera right behind the trail... you get to see exactly how many polygons make up the effect, which really lets me down. Also, some nasty clipping is also possible, and just not friendly to behold. That is a bit of a drawback to what would otherwise be a flawless graphic engine choice.

Graphics get a 9 out of 10 - This is because the Trinity expansion increases the beauty of Eve without leaving behind legacy players. Anyone can pickup and play Eve with a great graphics card or a starting card on a low end computer. This can attract a wide audience to the game, and is very important to anyone interested in playing. The thought of a developer making sure that no one is turned away due to hardware issues is a comforting thought. The soft shadows on the high resolution version are a great step forward in graphic design and really make the game stand out. The only downside to this engine are the clipping effects that you can easily make the camera pull in-flight.

Playability and Fun Factor
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Finally the best part of the review comes to pass... how fun is this game?

To be totally honest I'm not entirely sure what to say here. I know that this game is exactly what the doctor ordered for some people. What we have is a living universe, powered by players, running on ONE server. Yes, you heard that right, the entire community of Eve Online is housed on one mega server. The server can, and has supported, over 40,000 people online in the same universe at one time. The world of Eve, in respect, is massive. If I were to show you the star map of the game, your head would probably explode.

On the same hand, the game can be a real pain to get into. Not only do you have to network with a corporation that you know nothing about, you may be walking right into the hands of more experienced players who are pulling some kind of con job. Because Eve centers around who you can trust, you never know exactly what the game might have in store for you. For some people, this is amazing. For others, this can lead to horrible impressions and just nasty gameplay.

Also, being a newbie has another challenge - understanding what your place in the world is. Eve's tutorial is great for teaching you the basics of the game, but you'll honestly be still left out in the cold, lonely reaches of space. Running missions for agents is not the same as you get in other MMOs, and can get downright boring. All of the fun of Eve, and the main part of the content, is centered around being apart of a corporation and getting into the heat of social and political battle, which then leads to in-game conflict and things blowing up. Because death carries such a huge concequence, trigger happy fanatics will probably only find misery and pain as they collect the insurance from their crash for the 90th time. PvPers will be happy for a while, only to find out that shooting people and stealing their cash can carry dire consequences from other large corporations - people who will be happy to put either a bounty on your head or send out their security teams to deal with you directly.

Eve is a major step forward while simultaneously being a step backwards. The game is always new and changing, and if you stick with it you're only going to find yourself in a deep love/hate relationship with the game. It's great for all the things you can do and accomplish, until that one fatal mistake wipes 1 week to 7 months of hard work away in less than 10 seconds. And for all the social ties you can create, the social ties are the same drawback. While there are great people in Eve, there are also the biggest jerks and idiots you can find anywhere... and sometimes socializing with the rest of the human race isn't want you may be looking for in a game.

Fun Factor reaches a 7 out of 10 - CCP made a great sandbox game that can be simultaneously rewarding and humiliating. Some of the best video game stories come out of Eve for a reason - the concequences are quite real and well felt by the receiver while being enjoyed by the giver. The high placement of corporations wipes out a solo option to the game, unless you want to be a space pirate. Even then, being solo has significant disadvantages and can place you in harm's way extremely quickly at later stages. Simply put, the game is fun but it's not for everyone. Know what you're getting into and try out a trial of Eve.

Final Thoughts
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Eve is a masterpiece in game structure, project design, and social networking. The game is a walking masterpiece because it reaches new levels of game design and a deep analysis of what could actually happen in economics and relationships if we walked this path. What you see coming out of Eve is a world very similar and yet different from ours... where pain can just as easily be estabished and people can be shot right out of their seats and right out of the game forever due to massive setbacks. The graphics in the game are crisp, the sound is clean, and the systems are well made. CCP doesn't have to manufacture alot of little patches to hotfix their game because they got it right the first time... the game is balanced and very well made and supported.

It is this amazing design that also sets it backwards. Rather than being fun all the time, Eve has bursts of fun and bursts of pain and can sadly remind you of your real life job. You log in to play and 2 hours later you'll be leaving the game forever just because someone took their dagger and placed it square in your head. This thrill is wonderful, and harsh. I can't stress this duality enough.

By the loot standards designated by Epic Loot For All!, Eve Online is designated as:

Rare Loot (4/7)

Make Mine Free, Please.

Colin Brennan — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:59:00 GMT

With the rise in awkward and unsatisfying free to play MMORPGs, it's not really looking that good overall. Some of these games are just horrible retail games that are trying to stay alive via a micropayment system. Others are just really old MMORPGs that were good, back in the 90s. And some are just... awkward.

But, in every dark, nasty, smell hole, there's a ray of light somewhere. Enter Warrior Epic, a new MMORPG being developed by the group over at Possibility Space. What makes Warrior Epic different from your standard MMORPG? Well, let's take a look at a few things, shall we?

First of all, Warrior Epic is going off of the Guild Wars mindset in downloading... they want to promote ease of play and quick installation times, and their client knows how to do it. A 440k installer gets the game going, and the rest of the assets download as you play. So, there's a small installation at the beginning, a small download time, and then you're good to go. The rest of the game keeps downloading while you're slaughtering things. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

The second thing is the very odd emphasis on using multiple characters. You really don't see this that often... but Warrior Epic lets you use all 8 classes and encourages you to do so. One of the really innovative uses of this is the resurrection/summon option.

Upon death, you have two choices - resurrect yourself and keep going or stay dead and grab one of your other warriors. Choosing the latter brings one of your other characters into play, but with a twist. Your dead character's spirit is attached to the one you're playing now, and you have the option of summoning the dead character's ghost as an attack spell. The attack is based upon the class and level of the dead character, but either way it's a really neat system. Only thing I'm worried about is using it in PvP at later levels... because you probably won't be effective unless you're using your best character and have a "dead" summon character that's a high level as well.

When you're off adventuring, your other warriors take a break in your Warrior Hall, which you get to update and customize to your liking. Apparently those customizations also let you choose from more customization for your characters and more items to be held in storage. Nice.

There's also a focus on casual play, much like Guild Wars in that respect. Possibility Space says that each mission can be finished in 15 minutes or less, letting you feel like you got somewhere even if you don't have the time to really sit down and play. With the added focus on solo gameplay, this seems like a good trend and direction for the game.

Finally, the thing that will excite Chris over there is the game is being tailored to run great on high end systems AND low end systems. So for those of you who are stuck with a smaller version of the ENIAC, then this game will be a great choice for you.

Right now, it appears that they're going to be going with a subscription system much similar to Hellgate: London. Simply either play for free and get access to basic content, or pay a small monthly fee and get access to more character classes and more "subscriber content". PS hasn't gone into definitives with this stuff yet, but I really like that approach. To me, the micropayment system breaks when you can buy items like " Double EXP for 10 bucks!" because the people who pay are now obviously breaking the game just because they had money in their pocket. I get left out because I'm a poor college kid.

But keeping content to a subscriber basis means you still have to earn your style and still have to play the game to get what you want. I approve of that, because things aren't being broken and handed to you on a silver platter.

What's my personal judgement of this game right now? It looks interesting, but I'll wait to give you a more hands on view of the game at a later date. I really want to play the Illusionist, as seen above. (I LOVE HER DRESS.) In the mean time, go check out the website at www.warriorepic.com and enjoy the movies, screenshots, and apply for the closed beta test of the game.

All-in-None Device

Chris Jacobs — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:52:00 GMT

With support for HD-DVD dropping like the President's approval rating, it seems like Blu-Ray is going to end up winning the DVD wars. In general, that's good. Combine this news with the impending switch to digital-only broadcasting, the choices for the consumer become a lot simpler. That may sound bad, but too much choice is not good for the market. (Trust me on this.) To the people at SCEA and Sony, this news couldn't have been made better if Gabriel had come down from Heaven with his horn to say it.

However, the PS3 is not out of the woods yet. Right now, low-end Blu-Ray players are slightly less than the 40GB PS3. If the players drop in price but the PS3 doesn't, there's going to be some serious hurting. One of the big reasons the PS2 succeeded over the Sega Dreamcast in Japan was that it was the cheapest DVD Player available. You can't fault Sony for trying to recapitalize on this, but a $600 Movie Player just is not smart when there's cheaper alternatives that are suitable substitutes.

Which brings us to the key issue with the PS3. Remember back to when it first came out. Do you recall everything that was said about it? It was a game console; it was an Internet browser; it was a DVD player; it was a medical computer for hospitals; it was Second Life meets XBoX Live.

That was all well and good, but what did it really do? Cause assault charges and $900 arbitrages all while sticking people with a $600 system that didn't do much of anything, and there's the problem. When you try to cram your electronics with all of these different features, the end result is something that does nothing. For example, the PSP was supposed to be a portable PS1, mp3 player and movie player. However, the games have loading issues, no one wants UMD movies, the iPod is still a superior music player, and the configuration of the console game pad leaves something to be desired. It may cost you more, but a DS and a video iPod will get you much more mileage than a PSP.

Let's face it. Despite the addition of TV and movies to XBoX Live, the 360 knows its a game console. Despite the Miis and Internet browser, the Wii knows its a game console. The PS3 has no idea what it wants to be and will end up as a bust until a direction is found. Will Blu-Ray be the crutch that supports Sony through this generation? Time will tell, but not if common sense has anything to say about it.

Blu-Ray.... wins?

Colin Brennan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:11:00 GMT

So, apparently, from what Sony is saying over on their PlayStation Blog, the format war is over and Blu-Ray has won.

Mmmm... Blu-Ray... wait a minute. So now I can watch all of my high definition movies on one format and not have to worry about picking between HD-DVD and the "superior brand". *end sarcasm*

Honestly, I don't mind Blu-Ray winning the DVD wars. What I do mind, however, is Blu-Ray now being touted as the future of gaming and the PlayStation 3 now coming of age. Now, I could fanboy myself all over the place, but I want to be logical and give you a reasoned argument as to why this line of thinking is a fallacy.

Technology never makes or breaks a system - it only aids in the production of the games. We have heard it time and time again, and people still forget this very simple rule. Games make the system. Blu-Ray being Blu-Ray is one thing, but Blu-Ray to save the PlayStation 3's library is something completely different.

These new HD formats allow the developers to put much more data onto the disk, which in theory allows them to make longer and more complex games with better graphical quality. Yet, at the same time, this puts more of a strain on the company to make higher quality games. Higher quality games mean longer production times, and longer production times mean the publisher shells out more money to the developer.

What did that long line of text just mean? Simply put, you pay more for the game or the publisher quickly forces the developer to release a half-finished product to simply turn a profit.

Right now, developers are not pushing the PlayStation 3 to its limits, and I'm tired of hearing "the developers don't know how to fully utilize the system yet" arguement. It's been two years, and I think all the developers know how to handle the PS3 SDK. What they're lacking is the time to make a professional game that CAN push the PS3 to the limits.

And superior technology never means that the games will be great. We can turn back time and look at systems like the Saturn, 3DO, and Jaguar, which all sported superior technology for the time and yet ultimately flopped. This was because the companies that developed games for these systems lacked vision. They couldn't put their foot down and make a quality game that could catch everyone's interest... they just wanted to make very poor B grade games with powerful technology.

It doesn't matter how fast the system is or how pretty the graphics look. It comes down to if the game is fun or not.

The PlayStation 3 library isn't strong, and everyone's saying it's a late bloomer in the console wars. All of this time, PS3s are sitting on shelves and games aren't being moved, which leads to developers and publishers sucking down poor profits or actual deficits. That's why you see so many PS3 exclusive titles jumping and becoming multi-platform... publishers need that money to support the development of the game.

Can Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4 break that mold? Personally, I would never place buying a system on two games - I need to know that the rest of the library is solid. That's why I followed up with the Xbox 360.

The library for the 360 is strong. Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3 (less so Halo 3), Condemned, Gears of War, Oblivion, Forza Motorsport 2, Project Gotham Racing 4, and the upcoming releases of Huxley, Too Human, and Champions Online make the system look amazingly stable, not to mention the constant releases on the Xbox Live Arcade like RezHD and N+.

To support my final opinions... think back to GoldenEye. You, like most people, probably remember GoldenEye as an amazing game. I played GoldenEye a little bit ago... and it's still as fun. Even with horrible graphics, frame rate issues, and aiming controls that are laughable... the game is still amazing. Now tell me that data and graphics are everything.

I don't care how pretty your game is... I don't care how much you can fit on the disk... do you have the vision to make a great game?

For Those About to Rock: Tournament Edition

Chris Jacobs — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:18:00 GMT

As my compatriots will probably tell you, Katsucon wasn't so hot in the video game department, so here's a solution to one point of contention: a viable Battle of the Bands using Rock Band.

1) BE IN FOR THE LONG HAUL

You have to realize that this is going to be slow-moving. Unlike most multi-player games, versus battle isn't the way to go. You need to go one band at a time for as many bands as you have. If you have plans for a multi-level tournament, get rid of them. Unless you don't have a lot of participants, there won't be time.

2) SHOW NO MERCY

Failure means failure. Equipment snafus are one thing--those demand restarts--but being in over your head is another, at least to a point. If there's a failure in, say, the first quarter of the song, you can give them a mulligan, but if they don't have the chops to rein it in 16 bars from the end, that's their own damn fault.

3) IT'S AN ART AND A SCIENCE

Judging should be a two-step process. Yes, you need to judge the technical stuff--difficulty, percentage, stars--but this is a Battle of the Bands. Encourage the participants to be rocking out hardcore and factor that into the final result. This way, all aspects of the performance (and yes it is a performance) are critiqued and an overall winner is selected.

4) DOWN IN FRONT

One of the most important rules of theater is "Never upstage the audience." I'd be the first to admit that Rock Band is worthy of being a projector-and-screen game. However, the point of this tournament is not for the band to look at the big screen, it's to play to the audience. If you're fortunate enough to have or purchase an A/V splitter, you can still put the game on the screen, but you can also send it to a smaller monitor. Position the monitor so that the band looks at it while facing the audience and everybody wins.

5) NO STAIRWAY

This goes double for large numbers of participants. If the song's too long, ban it from the tournament. I don't care how many people heart The Outlaws or The Who. Grow the heck up and let the event finish before next week.

Finally,

6) THE NEEDS OF THE MANY OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE FEW.

If you're going to have rules, then have everyone abide to them, including yourself. Bend them if you have to, but don't break. This tournament is subjective enough as it is. You shouldn't make different rules for different people so everyone can question the validity of the whole thing.

So that's it. Throw in some prizes and you have a radical Rock Band tourney so everyone can live their innermost rock 'n' roll fantasies without the drugs. (Not so sure about the sex)

PVP DIY

Chris Jacobs — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:52:00 GMT

For those of you who actually play something other than WoW, (namely Holic), try at catch me during the evening on Channel 5. I'm either Delmar the Monk/Preist or a lady mage named Kosara. Yes, it's a Korean game through and through (including bad translations), but it has story and it really isn't bad for a free game. I'll give a review later. (Thank God for having a friend with a good computer)

Anyway, this is a follow-up of my previous entry about how companies who aim for the top-tier specs tend to leave everyone else in the dust and stuck with time-wasting flash games. Obviously, if I am to complain about a problem, I should try to provide a solution. Well, I have. Granted, my chances of actually following this through is on the right-hand side of nil, but one can dream. The main procedure would be quite simple, really: buy a refurbished XP system with middle-of-the-road specs and program for that. This way, you cover enough of the customer base to get a decent sample. The key issue would be graphics, but if you stick to somewhere between late-SNES (circa FFVI) and mid-PSX, you can probably get a decent world built.

Of course, there's the question of what to put in this world, especially if we're going to delve into one of the most popular multiplayer genres there are: MMORPGs. It just so happens that I have an idea. You've probably never heard of the OVA system for pen-and-paper RPG's, but it's really solid. It's essentially a sandbox anime-style system with no defined setting. I figure find a good setting, throw in some loots and instances and we have a game.

Yes, I can hear your shouts of "Chris, you elegant Adonis, you're making a niche game!" WoW is also a niche game to that just happens to have 10 million people attached to it, so suck it. Additonally, you're probably wondering where this would take place considering th vast array of anime settings. That's actually a pretty easy choice: Tokyo (or a reasonable facsimile). A nice urban development which is rarely seen in MMO's, which to this point have almost always set in an endless region of plains, hills, mountains, and 5-level dungeons. Tokyo can provide a good sampling of every environment (and Tokyo Tower would be the greatest PvP zone evar). Plus, there's a great way to encompass most of the anime clichés while still keeping a narrow focus: school. Between Tsukihime, To Heart, Sailor Moon, Tenchi, Nuku Nuku, Melancholy, and all the rest, there's plenty of story fodder to make a tightly woven mythos.

If I am to follow up on this, you'll hear on how I intend to handle some of the issues of porting a P&PRPG to bots and code. If I don't, then just continue dreaming, like I've been.

No Compy Left Behind

Chris Jacobs — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:30:00 GMT

Okay, I know that new tech is created every microsecond of every day, but do we always have to build up for it? My 1.6 GHz laptop with just as many gigs of RAM attempted to play two MMO's in its lifetime: Dungeon Runners and Hellgate: London. Both attempts were epic fail.
My friend has been easily able to play WoW on her laptop, so it's not like games and laptops don't mix.

Perhaps it's because my laptop is born in August 2004.

I have this general problem with the way things are built nowadays. We as a society are advancing so fast and companies are so money-hungry that what we buy is built to fail at a certain time. Of course, it doesn't mean there's a major conspiracy--everything wears out eventually. However, there are those few devices that defy statistical analysis and live long and healthy lives, but they eventually are rendered obsolete by society's next wave of tech. Even software is aimed for the bigger and brighter, even though it could be surpassed by the time I finish this sentence.

Need an example of what I mean? Okay. Name everyone you know who can play Crysis on their PC.

Time's up. If you named more than 2 people, I'm impressed. Games are designed to take up so much space and so much power of your computer that those who decided that they didn't want to schill big bucks on a new system and even those who bought new, but lesser-powered systems are being left behind to drown in Bejeweled and Peggle instead of enjoying WoW and Unreal (not that there's anything wrong with Bejeweled or Peggle). The same could be said in the console wars. Admit it, when the PS3 finally gets its games, the system's going to be incredibly badass, but in order to get it, you pay out the nose.

Naturally, we'll get the argument from hardcore gamers that commoners shouldn't be in their games. After all, 9 million WoW users* gets to be a bit much after awhile, but then you lose the point of multiplayer games in the first place, and that is to play together. Besides, non-hardcore gamers could be the untapped market a landmark game thrives on. Just give us something immersive and not seem like it's supposed to be a time-waster that doesn't eat up every processor within a 10-meter radius, and you may have something.

One last thing: Make sure it runs on Windows 2000, k?

*((Editor's Note: World of Warcraft just released that they have hit 10 million users. Now it's even more crowded than when this article was published. -Colin))

R.I.P. Turn-Based Fighting

Colin Brennan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:58:00 GMT

Recently, Massively.com just posted an article about random battles in MMORPGs, and how absolutely no game does this. This sparked me to respond in kind with a thought process that's been in my head for a while. What ever happened to turn based combat?

Ever since we moved into the massive 3-D worlds of MMORPGs, we killed turn based combat. Currently, only one MMO uses a turn-based system, and that's Toontown Online. Yes, that's right, I just used Toontown as an example. It's not my fault it's the only turn-based game!

But why did we get rid of turn-based systems? Why did we have to feel the need to see every enemy on screen and attack with swords from 5 feet away?

I really miss the turn based style, and I think it would be wonderful to implement in an online setting. What's cooler than being with your party and getting drawn into random combat? The camera swirls down on your party and your enemy, and all of you get your weapons out and ready. The time bar begins to tick, and soon your turn has come! You punch in your command and unleash a torrent of anger onto the enemy, a veritable cutscene of glory as you use your magical abilities to pummel your foe into kingdom come.

Final Fantasy makes turn based combat look glorious. World of Warcraft makes real time combat look... interesting... Seriously, it's not their fault though! There's only so much you can do when you don't know where the enemy is going to be. You can't script cutscene movies for each ability... you're only limited to a few particle effects, some weapon glowing, and a nice slash hitting your foe.

Final Fantasy XI tries to keep the style of Final Fantasy alive in an online setting, but even that can't go as far as the offline games can with the minute long summons that make you feel the power you possess.

I know most of you think these cutscenes aren't necessary and just a big waste of time... but come on... you have to admit... that looks awesome. And wouldn't you love to do something like that online with your friends? Yeah you would. Even the most stalwart hater has to admit that it would be pretty cool to watch, and it would make your raids 110% more epic.

<< Related Story >>

Hands-On: Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa

Colin Brennan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:51:00 GMT

Finally, after all this time, I think I can finally write a review of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't delay this review because I was bored or something. I just wanted to make sure I got a good accurate dose of what was going on in the game, instead of just telling you about the first 5 levels and assuming it was a horrible game. What I ended up getting out of it was not a horrible game. Just perhaps... a misguided one.

For those of you who have been under that proverbial rock, Tabula Rasa is an MMORPG that's been trying to break the standard MMORPG conventions. It's biggest change is the fact that there is no "auto attack button", a convention that no one seems to want to get away from. Instead, Tabula Rasa blends it's game engine with that of a third-person shooter, forcing you to attempt to aim. I emphasize "attempt" because only a few weapons rely on sights that don't allow auto-lock. Guns like the rifle, pistol, and standard firearms can lock onto the target, which negates the whole point of aiming.

However, this opens up for fun weapons, like the shotgun, which can hit multiple enemies in a cone radius in front of you. Also, the closer you get with the shotgun, the more damage it deals. This is a neat idea for an MMORPG. There is nothing more satisfying than blowing someone away at point blank range.

What the game does to make up for this "target locking" is force you to do things like crouch to improve your accuracy. When it comes down to it, Tabula Rasa is still rolling damage just like every other RPG, only it has a few more little tweaks. If you have less of a "bead" on your target, you do less damage and have a higher chance to miss. A better lock is more damage and less of a chance to miss. So, in other words, crouch is your best friend - glue your finger to your C key.

To throw another little FPS element in, terrain has an effect on gunplay. Hiding behind barriers and environmental objects provides cover, which drops the damage dealt against you. Fun sometimes, but not always necessary. Although, if you have the option, get behind that cover solider. You never know what may happen. There are other minor FPS elements, like weapon jamming, weapon overheats, and reloading... but they are exactly how they sound. I don't have to do much explaining for them.

But, with all of this FPS stuff added, those are not the things I like about this game. What I like the most, and what I think is the best addition to a game EVER is the "Kill Frenzy" mode. As you gun down your enemy, you begin to heat yourself up and become immersed in the combat. This gives you the gift of increasing experience (yes, you heard that right, more exp. for more kills) starting at 125% all the way up to 250%. When you're in a group, this is applied to everyone's kills, so this makes grouping really really good. Plus it gives you a reason to chain kills and take out large groups.

The game design decision that has everyone on the fence about this game is the control point system. Finally, a game understands that monsters are not just there to look pretty. The Bane, the evil enemy you're fighting against who just so happen to be the ones who destroyed Earth and forced you onto these other planets, are not stupid. They do fight this war just like you do, and they will take over your bases.

What does this mean for you? Well, it means going and accepting a quest at a base and coming back to find the Bane have turned your outpost into a slaughterhouse. If you want to turn in your quest, you have to retake the base... and you're not doing that alone... trust me.

However, is this as bad as it sounds? Not at all. I don't know how many reviewers whined about this system and how it ruined their gameplay, but it's really an easy system to sidestep. If you want to have the bases (mostly) captured, go into the first instance of the battlefield. Usually the most soldiers are there, and the bases are usually under player control. On the less populated instances of the battlefield, the bases won't be under control due to lack of manpower. So if you want to do quests involving those couple bases, go to instance 1. Simple as that.

Moving along, we have the addition of "Logos Elements". No... not Legos. This isn't about happily colored bricks. This is about the language of an alien race that apparently gave us access to magic.

Logos is what moves most of your skills and unlocks Eloh doors, the ancient alien race (AKA, Good Guys). Eloh doors usually conceal more Logos elements, and those are usually the ones you'll use to power your skills. So, getting one Logos sign may take 5 or less other Logos... leading you to go searching around the world to find them.

Alot of them are shown to you through quests from Logos Receptive trainers or though instance runs. To defend the system, the logos are pretty neat as an entire language is basically made out of them. If you get bored, you can write basic sentences about war in logos symbols. They put alot of work into these things. On the downside, you'll get access to skills that will taunt you, because you won't have all the necessary symbols to use them. And, finally, on the upside, once you get one symbol, you have it forever. So you only have to unlock each one once.

And speaking of unlocking things once, someone at Garriott's office had a great idea! Cloning!

Every time you're about to level up and change a class, or if you complete all of the missions and certain side quests in a battlefield area, you get a clone credit! This lets you go into your main character select menu and create a duplicate of your character. This duplicate gives you the ability to go back and reassign skill points, like a standard skill wipe, but it also lets you follow the other class trees to give you a taste of what you could have selected without the pain of re-levelling. So, if you didn't think you should have chosen commando at level 15, go back and play your clone! Make him choose ranger and off you go with your new class! And, if you find out it's not what you thought it was, you can go back to your old class! It's good news all around! Just remember to clone yourself at levels 14, 29, and 50. 14 and 29 are class changes and 50 is... obviously 50 and the end of the game.

What's the downside to this game? Well, sadly, there are a few. Some of these quests are just downright sad, and sometimes you can get pretty confused as where to go. There's no set progression after a while, and you can wander around to multiple battlefields without a clear direction of where you should be.

Also, because the the Tabula Rasa team started with lower end content and gradually progressed to higher end content, the higher end content is lacking while the lower end content is very deep and intriguing. You'll find yourself with less and less to do as you go up, and that's not a good thing. However, in their defense, they're working on this as we speak and adding more to the game with each new patch.

Which, finally, brings me to the paragraph before the conclusion - where we are now in Tabula Rasa. The team is really taking player feedback into account and throwing it into the game. Already just a few months after launch they implemented a classification system of items (the standard rarity style), a auction house for players to sell stuff, a few more higher end instances, and hybrid races are coming in the next patch. That's alot for only being a little bit into the game! To top that off, they're reworking the current stat system in the next patch to have it make more of an effect on your character, something that was really needed with the current system. Putting points into body, mind, and soul didn't affect your character as much as it should have - armor was everything.

The final say is this: if you're really looking for something different, try out Tabula Rasa. The game has enough differences from standard MMO-fare to keep you trigger happy for a while. And with how quickly this team is progressing with identifying their weak points, I think you'll be seeing the downsides of Tabula Rasa being washed up pretty quickly in the swell of new content. You're not going to be disappointed.

Final Score: Rare Loot (4/7)
(Rare Loot denotes games that are above and beyond the average, but still have a few holes in them. These are quality games that fans of the genre are recommended to look into, as they take new directions and try something different and daring. However, these games are not perfect, but may change and improve over time. For more information, see our scoring article.)

Alliance and Horde, Heroes and Villains Pt. 1

Phil Thomas — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:38:00 GMT

Well, here we are, on a cold winter's day, and I find myself musing on the difference between World of Warcraft and City of Heroes/City of Villains, the only two MMOs I've played (well, not counting my brief stint with EQII and Runescape). After careful consideration, and playing of both games, I find that the difference between the two is, in a word, ginormous. I'm going to do this in segments, so let's start at the top: character creation. In WoW, you pick whether to be Horde or Alliance, you pick one of 5 races for that faction, and you pick whatever class you want to play that the race you selected can be. Then you tweak your facial features, eye and hair color a bit so that you look unique, but really you're not. A name, and you're done. That's it. Nothing else to it. Nice, quick, and easy into the game to grind to 70. It's a 5 minute character, like when your DM premakes characters for the D&D campaign and all you have to do is fill in the minor details. There's not much meat to it and he's exactly the same as every bloody Level 1 character of the same race and class. He even has the same weapon and the same clothing that provides no protection whatsoever. He's cut and pasted from one person to the next until you grind him high enough to get different gear than the other people and start specializing him with talents and your use of spells and attacks and whatnot. Except for the fact that 100 other people are using the exact same talent spec you are (and, in fact, you may have found the spec you want off of the internet somewhere), he's somewhat individual beyond the name.

Now, we have CoH/CoV character creation. So, you log into the game and pick a server. Then, it gives you a choice: Hero or Villain. Once you've selected your side, you pick one of 5 archetypes: Tanker, Scrapper, Blaster, Controller, or Defender for Heroes, and Brute, Mastermind, Stalker, Dominator, or Corrupter for Villains. Next, you choose an origin (how you got your powers), same for both sides: Mutant, Science, Technology, Magic, or Natural. The next step is to choose your primary power set. Wait, what? Primary power set? What is this? Yes, that's right, here's my #1 preferred difference from WoW characters: you get to choose the powers your character can pick from before the game starts. Instead of every character of each class being able to use every ability and every attack allowed, you have to choose a specialty for your character from the get-go. None of this "Well, I'll level up a bit then decide what I want to be good at." You have to decide what your character is capable of before you even see an enemy. You actually have to THINK about your character. If you're feeling lost, reread that bit until you've caught up.

Once you've picked you're primary power set, you pick your secondary power set. Yes, you even have to choose your SECONDARY abilities. Then, you choose your starting powers (there's that lovely word again, "choose"). Meaning, that of the three powers that are offered (two from your primary power tree, one from your secondary) you only get two of them. The final step is designing your character. First, body type. Is your character male, female, or Huge like The Thing. Is he athletic, slim, average, heavy? How tall is he? 4'? 7'? 8'? Now, let's tweak the shoulders to the right width, and the legs to the right length, and the hips, and every other possible facet of your character's physical form. Now, we pick the colors of the character. We pick their hair, their face, their skin color, and their uniform. You can do a nice, easy two color distribution across the whole body, or pick the colors of everything. Pick the type of gloves, the chest, the legs, the boots, masks, all of it. This is a long character creation that requires careful thought. You even get the chance to write a back story and description for the character.

Why, you ask? Why take so long to design a character when you can just throw one together in WoW in 5 minutes? Well, if you don't have a problem being a clone of every other player of the same class and race with the exception of your gear, then there isn't any good reason. The games cost the same per month, and more people play WoW. There's nothing to stop you from playing WoW. But, if you want to have a unique character that stands apart from the rest and can easily be picked out in a crowd, then CoH is your cup of tea. Sure, WoW may be more popular, but, when you're paying you're 15 bucks a month, do you want it to go to a game played by retarded chimpanzees (Barrens chat, people, Barrens chat), or a game where people are actually fun to play with and have at least half a brain? The choice is yours, but honestly, I know what mine is.

Bleached Blind

Chris Jacobs — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:07:00 GMT

I'm typically the last one to the party in terms of cool stuff, so I'm pretty sure you know about Ben Croshaw aka Yahtzee taking the interwebs by storm with his brutally honest, yet delightfully charismatic Zero Punctuation reviews. Obviously, a myriad of copy cats have come out, and for one instance, I just happened to be one of them. I feel no remorse for this act; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Besides, it was funny.

The game in question is Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Wii. The reason I even laid eyes on this was because it was being play-tested by Colin for potential use at the Pittsburgh Japanese Animation Club. We came to a consensus not to put it anywhere near the organization and Colin sent it back to GameFly. Its awfulness inspired this ramble which I recited a la Yahtzee to the Club but without the peppy music or the amusing cartoons. The result was still a hit and so I paste it here for you all to enjoy and also potentially vomit upon, your mileage may vary.

Also, do be aware that there is a lot of NSFW innuendo and viewer discretion is advised.

Even though I've been limited in my experiences with fighting games, it seems like there's a very steep divide between the ridiculously simplistic games and those where you have to execute a sequence of 9 directions 5 times then hit three buttons simultaneously just to wave to your opponent. The only reasonable excuse for a happy medium is perhaps Super Smash Brothers, but that's because they include other things like environments and items and shiny characters that gives game reviewers a hardcore case of amnesia.

Which brings us to Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Wii, even though it has nothing to do with Smash Brothers at all. Regardless, it already has one strike against it because it's on the Wii, which means it won't be overly challenging unless you find adding 2+2 to be like disarming a nuclear warhead. There are only three moves: slash, uppercut, and stab. Pressing buttons on the Wiimote change the attacks to stronger slash, stronger uppercut, and stronger stab. If you really want an extra push, you need to shake your nunchuck to fill up your spirit gauge, and surprisingly compared to what's coming up, this is as tame as making 2nd grade fart jokes. At some point, you're going to come at an impasse and this triggers a game of rock-paper-scissors, except it's really slash-uppercut-stab and whoever wins does damage. I'm being completely serious. At the very least, it's best-of-5, so you actually get your agony prolonged that much more.

There's all sorts of other elements of fighting games in here, too, but it's all useless once you realize that all the standard attacks are incredibly spammable. What this means is that by merely moving your right hand, you can get a rather lengthy combo. I highly recommend spamming the stabbing motion, as it will give you the maximum pleasure against female characters and maximum humor against the men. Surprisingly, there is a fatigue bar that prevents you from getting off too many hits, but by the time I run out of fatigue, my stabbing combo was still so ridiculously high that I would've needed to see a doctor if I kept going. Once your done wanking your opponents into oblivion and the nearest therapist, the game ends and gives you money. That's it. No credits, no unlockables, just some money. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that this game was really just a lonely bastard looking for a good time and you just happened to be around to fap 25-hit combos with regularity. In hindsight, the lack of unlockables might be because the character used was that one chick with breasts more developed than some 2nd-world nations, but it's hard to let something like storyline contingency get in the way of the real point, and that point is that this game sucks.

Bleach: Shattered Blade lives up to the Shattered part in that the concept of a good fighting game was smashed into tiny bits by a minimal move set, stupid mini-games and treating the player as if he were looking a good time that had nothing to do with video games. I would say that this would be surprising, but to be honest, this seems problematic for any Wii game that involves any sort of sword, which makes me think that the American commercials are wrong and that the console's name really is a $250 shiny exercise and masturbatory aid that can play GameCube games. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

CES's major turn-off

Chris Jacobs — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:15:00 GMT

So the Consumer Electronics Show may not be the biggest name in video game conferences, but you can bet that it saw its fair share of geeks, especially those in the blogosphere. One such representative, Gizmodo, decided to make news instead of just report the news. While covering the Vegas tech expo, representatives had a device that allows the user to turn off TVs, thus shutting off various monitors and monitor walls. These shenanigans also interfered with corporate presentations, and eventually got the pranksters kicked out of CES, potentially for good.

After the fact, one of Gizmodo's head honchos apologized (sort of) but after a major backlash against the site (and blogs in general), he stepped up and defended the act as a support of independent journalism, refusing to bow down to "the man" or succumb to a life of puff pieces.

So acting like a complete turd at a major corporate exposition allows you to support journalistic ethics? Does this mean that when I jump two lanes on the highway and crash into you, I can claim I'm trying to advocate defensive driving?

Here's the thing: I've been to and worked at conventions. Granted, they've been nothing remotely close in magnitude to CES, but I do know that doing anything that antagonizes staff or guests does not go over well. I'm aware that the devices used are essentially harmless to the TV's, but common sense dictates that it's a bad idea. Gizmodo got what they deserved, but trying to justify the act by using words such as "integrity", "ethics", and "auditors of companies?" That tells me that they really don't get it. Neither the major news outlets nor the blogs are the be-all-and-end-all of technology critique. That designation belongs to the consumer. If people don't buy a product or don't like it, then it's bad. It's merely our job as journalists to give people a heads-up. Gizmodo's holier-than-thou attitude shows immaturity, something you cannot have if you want to be a respected news source. This doesn't mean you have to say you like everything. I can't possibly begin to count the number of 1's and 2's X-Play has given games, but they're also getting major scoops and exclusives. Gizmodo also has had their share of major news stuffs, but their immaturity shows me that they do not understand what it takes to get to the next level or even stay on the one they're on.

You may have noticed that I haven't linked you to Gizmodo's site. The purpose is merely symbolic, really. If you really want to get there, you can Google it easily enough. The point is that they're right now just trying to get sympathy and attention, something I'm not going to give them. If you want to play with the big kids, you have to act like them. Gizmodo's actions make them look like spoiled brats who need to know how unimportant they really are.

Learn how to play the damn drums...

Brian Beccia — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:32:00 GMT

Post-work nighttime is a special time of day for me. A chance to kick back, relax in the warm glow of my monitor, with my favorite brew or Dew handy for a lengthy consumption. Real 'me' time, as it were. So imagine my surprise when my friend and roommate suddenly messaged me out of the blue with the news that he'd started a brand new blog committed to the idea of fireside-chat editorial reviews regarding games, gaming, and the game community at large, who then goes on to tell me that he wants me to be one of the writers involved in the project.

A chance to lash out at the minds of the misinformed with the razor edge of my wit? How could I refuse...

I suppose I should begin my descent into foamy-mouthed-ranting mode by diving headlong into a classic, simmering argument over which game is 'better' than another. The highly anticipated 4-player musical fantasy escapade Rock Band has been released for a little over a month, with the third installment of its predecessor series released for some time longer than that, and I still find myself being drawn into looking over the scathing reviews being rained upon Rock Band like Christmas Dinner leftovers from a fifth-story balcony, while Guitar Hero III is held aloft and cheered like Sean Astin at the end of Rudy. Quite frankly, I find this to be a little perplexing. From what I gather from the community as a whole, Rock Band has been rated as little more than an insanely expensive version of GH thats sole differentiation comes from the addition of drums and a karaoke line. While for the most part, this summation is true - crude, but true - the sophistication and immersive qualities of Rock Band appear to be horribly lost on this brand of strum-happy 'tards.

It seems that the key determining factors between the two games' quality are the song selections and difficulty of the tracks, and for the most part I have to reply with "Eh..." Guitar Hero III indeed does boast a tremendous setlist from the vaults of MTV, and the epicness of the tracks is not lost on me ("Cliffs of Dover" in particular is a worthwhile experience on any difficulty setting), but this 'greater' aspect of the game is also its major flaw. Neversoft's contribution to the world of Guitar Hero is in the 'story' of the career mode, whereupon your character's little small-town band heads out on a mystical journey to tangle with the God of Rock himself, and by the time you get to the final songs of the game, the difficulty curve feels a lot like running headlong into a brick wall. I personally consider myself an adequate player on the hard difficulty, so quite frankly it was largely unexpected to find myself failing miserably at the now-required Dragonforce selections. It seemed that Neversoft specifically tailored the third installment to those few friendless misanthropes with way too much time on their hands to have mastered the hell out of the previous games, and this aspect took the fun of the game down a dark spiraling tube to the septic tank of the virtual world. A further turd was flushed after it when I discovered that because of the change of developers' hands for GH3, all of the fun, random, and downright kooky bonus tracks were entirely absent.

Granted the difficulty issue is one solvable through more play of the game, but my biggest issue with Guitar Hero III is purely an aesthetic one. I can't help but marvel at an interesting conundrum with the next generation of consoles in that as graphical capability and detail has skyrocketed in quality, the graphics they give us seem to be getting progressively more grotesque. I couldn't help but be violently turned off when I first saw the male singer in GH3 looking like a malnourished scarecrow with a small yappy dog for a head, or the female singer looking like a combination Bratz and Troll doll. The character animations, however, are where I felt like Neversoft missed cutting a corner and accidentally lopped the game's head off. Harmonix, the original developers of the Guitar Hero series put a lot of effort into giving each of the characters (even the minor band members) their own personality. I can distinctly remember giggling a few times at watching Clive Winston duck walk across the stage, or Eddie Knox fluff his pompadour and strut for the ladies. The attitudes of the characters and the craziness of their 'star power' moments made the game feel like it was an homage to the genre of Rock music instead of just merely displaying it in a new way.

Not so with GH3. I found myself crinkling my eyebrows in confusion in a quick-play session with Judy Nails as my character as I let loose the full bar of star power, only to see the notes turn blue. Gone was the fun, over-the-top super move of Judy throwing her guitar into the sky and catching it to slam the next chord, and in its place were.....hearts?! Little red hearts?! Why was this punk-rock princess surrounded by cuteness and cheer?! If that wasn't enough to infuriate my senses of boyish rock fandom, the camera immediately cut to a lingering shot of the drummer, and once I saw his torso-challenged, knee-jerking, marionette moves I all but threw down the controller in disgust. In taking the reins from Harmonix, Neversoft succeeded only in stripping away the very qualities that made the Guitar Hero series such an enjoyable escape into the world of rock star fantasy.

And speaking of fantasy, the last major point I have to share in this fist-shaking tirade of mine has to do with GH3's flagrant false advertising. With the idea of the players having to play their way up the Rock food chain, Neversoft tentatively subtitled their version with 'Legends of Rock' and took the idea of encore songs to the next level by having you square off against different 'Bosses' in a six-string showdown. It came as a bit of a surprise to me that the only 'legends' the company could offer forth (whether through licensing issue, disagreement of artists, or laziness I'm not sure) are Slash from Guns 'N' Roses, and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine before adding in the fictional players from the aforementioned career mode. Imagine my disappointment going into this game expecting to play with rock greats like Zakk Wylde or Joe Perry or Eddie Van Halen...you know, LEGENDS of Rock! Screwed again!

Rock Band delivered the immersion I was hoping for, and right away I could see just how much work was put into the crafting of the game and the package as a whole (the Fender Stratocaster controller, despite it's issues, is the single greatest piece of hardware evar!). Being the nebbish fantasists that we are, myself and three of my friends set to work crafting our digital rockers as avatars of our real selves, and dove right into the multiplayer World Tour to begin our descent into virtual super-stardom. Yes, the difficulty of the tracks (at least, the guitar tracks) is significantly easier than Guitar Hero might offer, but combine that with the merciless rhythms on the drum kit (I have a greater respect for ANYONE who can play the drums, now), or the epic feeling of crying the final note of Boston's "Long Time" into the microphone, and be damned if you don't feel like you can take on the world one club at a time. On numerous occasions we found ourselves mimicking the moves of the characters onscreen (fully motion captured, I might add) without even intending to. At other times, we four got into heated discussions over which songs should and shouldn't be on our set list for a particular gig (what drum parts were too complicated, which notes were too high, what guitar solos could or couldn't one of us handle) much like a real band would, and credit Harmonix for going the extra mile to make that 'realism' of band politics apparent and tangible. And they're an excellent source for knowledge of what being in a band is like....as most of them are (ta da!) IN BANDS!

But in the end, it's all what you happen to notice, right? I'm a die-hard lover of all of the little things that programmers and developers put into their material to liven it up a little, so forgive me this once if I choose style over challenge. I'm sorry, but I simply can't get behind a game that makes me wince with shame at the sight of the drummer looking like a wind-up monkey, of vague promises left unfulfilled, and stripped down characters that do no justice to their roles or what they represent...that sort of shallowness cannot and should not be allowed in this day and age of games.

And that's likely the last apology you're getting from me as well!

That's Right, Force PvP On Me.

Colin Brennan — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:13:00 GMT

Because, you know, it makes total sense for your well thought out world to have a bunch of idiots shooting each other in the head. That's what people do, right?

WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG. I don't care what you say about market standards and what people "want". What you're listening to, Mr. Developer, is a small sect of idiots who want to be able to sleep well at night because they ruined someone's gaming experience. They're too insecure to do anything else well in life, so they might as well take out their insecurities onto people trying to have legitimate fun.

How do I know this? Well it's pretty obvious that people don't want PvP to be the bulk of the game.

Ok, maybe I'm being too strong here. No... wait... never mind.

However, what separates me from other screaming anti-PvPers?

I LIKE PVP.

Woah. Woah woah woah you say. Now I seem even more confusing. Hear me out my friend, hear me out:

Some games are made for PvP, and those games are the ones that tailor make the setting to work out perfectly. Please insert Lineage II and World of Warcraft into this section. These games are made with PvP in mind, and do a great job of running with it.

World of Warcraft has wonderful PvP servers with a good balanced game mechanic of territories and contested areas, really cool battlegrounds for those of us who like a point to our PvP that's beyond mindless face melting, and legitimately neat rewards for PvPing. The game is built around a war between two sides - so it makes perfect sense that those two sides, even in a non-war period, still bash the hell out of one another.

Lineage II is about a time devoted to chaos. There's unease in the kingdom, and it shows. Strong clans carry the way in L2, and they war over land, castles, and riches. Players can openly attack others, but for a price. The price is measured in Karma - which means you're gonna get yours in due time. The higher your karma goes, the more chaotic you become and the more chance you have to drop your items if someone kills you. And guess what? There's no penalties for killing a chaotic character! You're rewarded to kill idiots! Heck, you can get this awesome demonic sword to drop (see picture above) which makes you instantly chaotic, but makes you crazy powerful and even shake the entire world with your presence.

I'd talk about Guild Wars and how much it loves PvP, but that's like telling you that an orange is the color orange.

What's my point? My point is that these games foster PvP. They care for it and cradle it like a small child and nurture it in growth. They take advice from the players about how to make their PvP better. THEY LIKE PVP. I think I've said it enough.

However, Tabula Rasa is a game that takes place during HUMANITY'S SURVIVAL AGAINST THE BANE. You're in the damn military fighting off an alien evil that wants to kill you and everyone you know. Shooting your best friend in the head sounds only like the best way for you to get the noose, or a great way to make sure you get killed faster.

Yet, Tabula Rasa fell to the PvP plague and added it in shortly before launch. Apparently they had to cater to all the frothy ADD children who only want to level their characters to shoot one another in the head. While I applaud the TR team for splicing it into the story in a pretty decent way (the concept of a war game) it still just doesn't mesh with the universe as a whole. Walking into base camp to find two recruits pistol whipping one another until one dies just doesn't seem like something the military would want.

Other games might be looking towards this concept, like The Secret World, where you're facing off against unspeakable evil and conspiracies. Once again, I think pistol whipping each other is pretty much 100% stupid when you're being stared down by something that looks like Cthulhu.

In short, games that breed cooperative play SHOULD NOT breed Player Vs. Player combat, no matter how many people cry that they want it. Take a stand developers, stand by your world design. If it doesn't make sense, DON'T LET IT IN. You are the gatekeepers. You are the dungeon master. You have the final call.

Loosen Up!

Colin Brennan — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:49:00 GMT

Yeah, sure, keep screaming over Vent. Hopefully you'll have a brain aneurysm and die. The newbies will thank you and praise the day.

No, seriously, the screaming/serious expert of Game X is becoming far too commonplace these days. Quite frankly, we need to start taking the stick out of these people's asses. We talk alot about the dumbasses of the gaming community - the people who run around and say "Lol guyz, ur game is w3ak". Yet, for some reason, the screaming expert seems to avoid the radar that is our discussion.

These people need to be tackled just as much as the people who are complete morons. At least the morons know they're dumb. These people think that the world needs to be handed to them on a silver platter because they can play World of Warcraft better than you. Congrats, you've wasted more of your time than I have! You deserve this shiny, gold plated award that I bought at the dollar store!

I've been kicked out of parties, spammed in tells, and otherwise ridiculed by perfectly "normal" (in some sense of the word) human beings just because I don't use my magic spells the same way every other wizard in their elite group does it. But, I'm sorry, I'm not Derren Brown here. There's a very large possibility that you might have to teach me something, god forbid. And maybe, you'll even have to *gasp* tolerate me!

We were all new to this once. You asked stupid questions too, if you can't remember back that far. And there is NO REASON why you can't be like the guy who taught you.

Now... some of you are probably moving those hands down to the comment button already. But hear me out... I'm not saying that all of this screaming is uncalled for. There are some idiots who rightfully deserve the swift kick that some of these people offer. Who are these people? The Ignorants. People who really just don't get it, and are being jerks about it. There are people who don't get it naturally, but not all of them are going to be mean. Some, you just got to notify that you might want to back out and find another group until you can get this one style of play down. And when you put it that way, it doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Lastly, and probably most importantly, you ever notice what some of these people turn into in real life?

Case in point - I've got a good friend. We'll call him Sam. Sam is friends with another one of my friends, we'll call him Eric. Eric has a girlfriend named Sarah. Eric and Sam live in the same building, only one floor apart. Both Sam and Eric and Sarah play together in the same guild with me in World of Warcraft.

Sam goes out and makes a priest character, and wants to have it focus on damage. Sarah already has a priest character that does the healing for Eric when she's available. But, for some reason, both Sarah and Eric feel that Sam is pushing into Sarah's territory by creating another priest. You know, like we can't have more than one of each class in the guild... it's ruining people's uniqueness.

Moving along, Sam, as a joke, calls his priest a "Shadow Mage" pointing to the fact that he does alot of damage like a mage, but only with shadow damage. Eric and Sarah find this to be offensive and demote Sam to the lowest level of our guild, the joke rank called "Dumbus". Sam thinks Eric and Sarah are assholes, and Sam would be right.

However, this stupid arguement carries over into real life, when Eric and Sarah talk about Sam behind his back. Sam drops the whole thing and quits World of Warcraft to avoid the drama, but it continues in real life.

Eric and Sarah think their the experts of the game. Eric and Sarah think everyone should play with them. And Eric and Sarah are losing the trust of real life friends because they take the game FAR TOO SERIOUSLY.

Stick out of ass people.... stick out of ass.

Shocked, Rattled, and Rolled

Colin Brennan — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:11:00 GMT

Very few games send me into so much of a frenzy that I have to go out and preach it's goodness to the world. Usually I'm all about running up and beating most games in the face until they're a bloody pulp. However, I'm so in love with this game that I really don't think I can say anything bad about it.

Bioshock. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that the game is well, well, well, well, well made. Only noticable glitches are the Sander Cohen bug (he likes to come back from the dead after a certain level switch, oops) and the telekinesis object flaw where the object moves around like haywire when it clips the plane. But even those I can forgive, because if there's anything I need to award this game with a gold medal for, it's the story.

Bioshock puts the story and narrative first and the shooter/RPG second, a wonderful move by Irrational Games, who afterwards were absorbed into the 2K Games conglomerate. They set out to create a fully detailed and working underwater city, Rapture, a cast of interesting and somewhat understandable characters, and went above and beyond in filling everything in with story. I don't think there's a leaky screw in Rapture that doesn't have a reason for it being there.

However, it's that same story that gets it grilled by the media. Well, not the story, but rather the techniques behind it. Apparently for a lot of reviewers, you can only do a game concept once and have it still be fresh. (Please note, these are the same reviewers who go OMG HALOES after the third one... so hypocrisy rules around here.) So, I'm not going to hide the truth from you, if you've played System Shock 2 from Irrational Games, then you've played Bioshock already. All you have to do is turn the Von Braun/Rickenbacker into a city, plunge it from space to sea, turn back the clock a bit, turn Shodan into a man, and you've got Bioshock. (Second note, I'm kidding about turning Shodan into a man. There's no AIs in this. But, once you've played it, I think you'll get the joke.)

Bioshock is the namesake sequel to System Shock 2, so it only makes sense for them to use the same storytelling design. Yes, you're still running around and listening to a guy on your radio tell you to accomplish goals. Yes, you still pick up audio diaries to learn more about the characters an story. But come on! Was it so bad the first time around? In the eyes of many gamers, it wasn't. It only added to the tension in the story.

Bioshock continues that tension, making the city of Rapture a falling apart wasteland of nothing. Oh, it's well detailed, but for some reason it still feels empty - and that's a good thing. When you're drawn into the audio diary you're listening to, you get a real fright from that splicer sneaking up behind you and wacking you. Or the wonderful thumps of the Big Daddy walking down the hall, looking to protect a Little Sister.

And the story is so well-detailed, as I've said before, that it's intricate nature will continue to amaze you throughout the game. Not to give anything away, but the plot twists and turns more than some of those pipes that I rewired while hacking machines. The mechanic may be the same, but there's so much more of that mechanic that you really can't compare the two games. Bioshock has more characters, more links between them, more useless chatter to emphasize the backstory (which you'll still love, even if it is pointless chatter, it's fun to listen to) and good voice acting.

To back up that storytelling, Irrational continued with their expertise in setting up scenes. When you walk into some of the areas in Rapture, you will be surely amazed by how they set the scene, props, and lighting so it's perfect for the mood. At some points, you will be shocked by the gore. In others, you will become extremely tense just due to the way the environment is set. As a small example, when you first enter the Medical Pavillion doors, check out the words "Above all, do no harm" written in blood on the floor, and signed by one of the game's characters. If that's not enough to make you wonder about this guy, you have a corpse in a wheelchair not that far away - most likely the source of the blood by the way the stains point on the floor. You just don't get that kind of scene setting in other games.

I could go into the deep customization mode of your weapons, the invention system, the buying of plasmids and finding of gene tonics to change how your character works with the world around him, but I don't have to. They're just added bonuses to the concept of playing a fun, interesting game.

In short, this game will hold you, grip you, and squeeze you until the end. I hate to say this, but for once I need to drop the critique of the gameplay elements just because they're almost not necessary. This game is about the story and about you experiencing it. And, trust me, YOU NEED TO EXPERIENCE IT.

In the words of the great Andrew Ryan, "A man chooses. A slave obeys." Don't obey me just because I said it was good. Choose Rapture. You won't regret it.

Oh god, blog set up sucks.

Colin Brennan — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:52:00 GMT

Wow, after all of that, apparently it finally let me make an entry! Woooo hooo!

Hey everyone, I'm Colin Brennan, your resident blogger and runner of this fine video game critiquing establishment. Well, maybe it's not so fine. Maybe it's a bit moldy and run-down, but hopefully we can change that.

What are we aiming to do here? Well, we're basically aiming to bring up points that y'all are afraid to say. Words and sentences that make small children cry, like "Halo isn't as good as you think it is", "The Wii is not a magical unicorn with wings that will take you away to amazing worlds", and "World of Warcraft needs to die". Oh, I can hear them starting the waterworks already, and it's already been two paragraphs in.

Honestly though, we want to cover some ground and expose to you, the audience, things you may not notice/see/play. Also we want to give you our opinions on things, and perhaps persuade you to look at your gaming in a different light.

Now, while I'll be doing my fair share of writing here, I'll most likely be accompanied by alot of avid and crazy gamers, all of whom have very different tastes from my own and will be expressing them here loudly. I'd talk about who they are and what they do here, but I'll let them do that on their own free time.

So to those of you who will be joining us... your forecast for this website is a heavy chance of gaming with a slight aftertaste of interesting and debatable ideas.