It’s hard to describe exactly how I feel after finishing Braid. Going into too much detail, even about the feelings this game, nay, this work of art, has unearthed after completing the final levels would greatly spoil much of the experience. Put simply, it is nothing short of incredible.
Braid begins simply by introducing you to your smartly dressed character, Tim, who has made several serious mistakes resulting in the loss of his beloved Princess. For the duration of your time in Tim’s world, you’ll traverse many a platform, bonk the heads of many a Goomba-esque creature, climb many a ladder in pusuit of the just out of reach puzzle pieces scattered about the oil-painted landscape. But a simple run-and-jump platformer, Braid is not. The gameplay revolves entirely around a perfectly realized time manipulation mechanic never before seen in the video game medium.
For every world you enter, a few pages of the fantastic story are revealed. These pages reflect not only upon Tim’s plight, but the upcoming world’s new gameplay mechanic as well.
There is a key at the bottom of a pit. You drop below and obtain the key, looking up at the cliffs above, longing for a way out. Have you made a mistake? You reverse time, leaping backwards and up into the air, standing on the edge of the abyss once more. Except this time, you’re holding the key. How did this happen, you ask? The key, it seems, is glowing green to indicate that it completely ignores your manipulation of time. Keys are not the only objects in the game world that can be affected in this way; doors, enemies, and platforms, for example. As you pass to the next world, you notice that the gameplay has evolved, integrating the previous mechanic into an entirely new feature of the world’s flow of time.
Each puzzle requires you to manipulate time in such a manner so that you might obtain a puzzle piece to place in each world’s picture frame. Puzzles are the absolute focus of the gameplay, and while there are a handful that will leave you scratching your head for long periods of time, their solutions are always fair, always clever and rewarding. Nearly every solution will literally provoke some type of positive verbal exclamation. Many times was I stumped during my playthrough, only to solve the puzzle many, many minutes later with a satisfied, impressed, “Ah, ha ha! That’s amazing; absolutely brilliant!”
Jumping and dodging, rewinding and pausing all the while, Braid is a breathtaking sight. The landscapes shimmer with colorful, surreal painted clouds and grass. Beautiful light classical music plays as you contemplate your next moves, adding further layers of surreal atmosphere, broken only by the sounds of quickly rewinding audio tape as you reverse your actions.
After completing each of the six worlds, you will experience one of the most profound endings to a video game ever conceived. This ending will leave an impact that you’ve never felt before. You’ll stay awake, just as I have, simply to think about it. You’ll want to play it again, in search of subtle nuances you may have missed the first time through. You’ll scour forums for other opinions. It will stay with you forever.
Video games are constantly looked down upon by nearly everyone who isn’t involved with them on a daily basis. Friends, parents, and teachers; law officials, politicians, and religious fanatics. Most believe that they’re a waste of time, a corruptive force of evil, or simply “just for kids.” Braid is undeniable proof that games can be extremely intelligent, emotional, thought-provoking works of art. Acknowledging both facts, we are left with feelings similar to those felt after finishing the game: We are grateful for knowing better, for having the open mind to experience these creations, yet at the same time we are saddened to realize that those biased against the medium will never experience something as profound and amazing as Braid.
Siren: Blood Curse is part of Sony’s great experiment to test and/or increase the popularity of episodic gaming in console owners. The original Siren was somewhat critically “meh’d” — I’m igniting the sparks of a new half-assed vocabulary revolution — I, for one, rather enjoyed it. It was terrifying knowing that you could die very, very easily. And, let’s be honest. Japanese people with blood pouring from their eye sockets is pretty much the last thing you want to see running towards you in the middle of the night.
So it is with great pleasure that I can announce to you, dear reader, that Siren: Blood Curse does not suck in the slightest. At least, not after the first few episodes. This is, after all, a first impression article.
I am a bit perplexed, however, as to why it was released such as it was. For example, the most successful episodic game around right now is Sam & Max — also awesome. Each episode is released every month for 5-6 months, and each episode is about 2-3 hours long. Considering the extreme brevity of the Siren episodes, each clocking in at approximately 20-40 minutes, if that, totaling about six hours of gameplay, you’d think that they would release it one episode per week for 12 weeks, like a season of your favorite television series. You could buy it much like Sam & Max — each episode, or the entire season.
So, my point being, the entire game is out and finished. It’s available right now on PSN for $39.99, or $14.99 per episode pack, of which there are three. They’re not really doing anything super groundbreaking by saying “you can get 1/3 now, or you can get all of it now” right up front like this. It would have been better, and a bit more of a tease — again, just like our dear old idiot box — to release it week by week and build up to the ending.
Though I’m a ways off from a full-bodied review, Siren is a pretty damn good bet for $40 or $15 per pack. Those who are hopelessly attached to physical media: Embrace this purchase opportunity knowing you don’t have to go to the store to pick it up. You save gas, you emit less CO2 into the atmosphere, and you just feel cool cos you’re all high tech and stuff.
This comic pretty much sums it up if you haven’t read the liveblog or watched the videos for yourself.
The Sony E3 2008 press conference is starting shortly, and as with Nintendo and Microsoft, I’ll be covering the events as they happen here on this liveblog. Stay tuned for updates!
[11:35] Crazy music with game quotes as the PS logo is displayed. “You’re not the militia, you’re not PMC!” says Old Snake. David Hayter FTW.
[11:38] Sounds of SOCOM Confrontation. Excitement! OK, dim lights.. LOTS of TV screens. This is definitely the flashiest show of the Big 3.
[11:40] Showing Killzone 2, Riddick, Metal Gear Solid 4, Resident Evil 5, Bioshock. This is really slick presentation, and kicks the crap out of anything Nintendo and Microsoft have shown this week. Tiger Woods, Force Unleashed, Little Big Planet. So far they’re making it clear that Sony is the leader in upscale products for people that live for digital entertainment. But here come Jack Tretton. Hopefully he doesn’t make an ass of himself like he did last year. Chewbacca, anyone?
[11:42] Someone needs to ask him how he’s coping with the loss of John Travolta.
[11:44] He’s talking about how stressful it is to prepare for E3, and that he’s glad to give away 2 years of his lifespan each event. Is it just me or does “Sackboy” (of LittleBigPlanet) sound like a racial slur? It’s hilarious either way. “2008 is the year of the PS3.” That might actually be true, so let’s see what they’ll anounce later on. He’s still talking about the history of the PlayStation.
[11:46] I think he got the message that last year was really embarrassing. He’s stepping up his presentation and feels much more down-to-earth than Reggie, Crazy Marketing Chick from Nintendo, or that Marketing Guy from Microsoft. Talking about the 10 year lifespan the PS2 had. If you ask me, with Persona 4, it’s still going strong. Good for them. The PS2 kicks ass.
[11:48] Now talking about how the PS3 is so great for “entertainment enthusiasts.” Bravo, those were the right words to say. I use my PS3 for entertainment in general more than the games, and I don’t regret my purchase for a second. Nor do I regret my purchase of the 360. Both systems excel at their intended purposes.
[11:50] Talking about Blu-ray winning the format war, and how families are moving from PC to console when considering digital media. But today, he says, we’re here to talk about kick-ass games. He’s recapping this year’s games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, GTA4 and MGS4. MGS4: “This is why you buy a game system like PlayStation 3. Exclusive games are what make up gamers minds and drive the business.” After the shit I’ve seen from Nintendo and Microsoft, Sony is making me pretty happy right now.
[11:52] Resistance 2. Man, their stage setup is really impressive. Whoa, it’s like a Lord of the Rings Ent creature but Chimera. That’s creepy. Hale just popped a rocket into it’s mouth, awesome.
[11:54] Good god, that thing is huge. We’re talking skyscraper huge. And it’s pissed. Traversing between buildings and catwalks just to battle the damn thing, or at least not be killed.
[11:56] Oh snap, it grabbed Hale and literally hucked him across Chicago. Wow. The creature is called a Leviathan. It’s all taking place in 1953. This’ll give Epic Games a run for their money. Let’s hope the story is better than the first, though. Holy crap, 8 player online co-op? “The word we often use at Insomniac to describe R2 is ’scale.’”
[11:59] Twin Falls, Idaho in the new trailer. Hot, hot, hot. The entire trailer has dialogue from a radio broadcast. It sounds very Orwellian. Dig it! Can I get a “fap, fap?”
[12:00] User generated content. “What happens when it comes full force in the gaming world?” LittleBigPlanet. Create level after level, hurdle after hurdle, and challenge your friends to play them. “Something you can play with your 6-year-old daughter or your hardcore gamer and have a good time. It’s something uniquely PlayStation.”
[12:02] They’re playing through a level of LBP. Wow, I forgot how great this looks. Very, very charming visuals. Sackboy is outfitted with a Boston basketball uniform and headband. Hilarious. He’s jumping through the level which is creating Sony’s charts showing off their numbers. VERY cool. Sony is really knocking their presser out of the park.
[12:05] Lawl! There’s a portrait, framed picture of Tretton on the wall of the level. Sackboy waves. Hello! There’s a factory putting little PS3s and chili peppers into a convoy of trucks heading to Latin America. Awesome. Greatest Hits for PS3 — later this year, $29.99 retail: Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night, Need for Speed Carbon. Super ironic that the cases are RED and not blue. R6: Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, Oblivion, Ninja Gaiden. End of the chart level. Fantastic presentation!
[12:06] I like that the developer guy for LBP was talking from a script, obviously, but he was modest and it felt friendly instead of like a cold marketing scheme.
[12:08] Talking about PlayStation 2 now. Definitely not a dead system! “In many ways, PS2 has allowed us to be more agressive with PS3.” Here’s a trailer showing off the PS2 games coming this year. Yakuza 2, some sports games (yawn), Force Unleahsed, Singstar, Mercenaries 2. No Persona love?
[12:11] “The PS2, at $129, is a great way to get into gaming.” Agreed. If you’re serious about getting into gaming, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, it’s your best option. An established library of quality games for a system that is readily available at any store. New PS2 bundle: LEGO Batman PS2.
[12:14] Talking about social networking and connectivity. PlayStation Network. “This is a generation whose digital identity is as important as their drivers license.” PSN identity will now be single identity, like a gamertag. Talking about how PSN will be the next big thing for digital distribution.
[12:16] “So what’s an E3 conference without a few surprises?” Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Shorter game, lower price, high intensity. A continuation of the story from Tools of Destruction (the only thing about that story that was interesting was the ending, so this should be good). Ratchat can pick stuff up with his wrench now. That’s kinda cool. Using luminescent grubs as a torch.
[12:17] Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty — This summer, $14.99! Awesome! Episodic gaming for the win.
[12:19] A trailer showing off a bunch of high quality downloadable games. Crash Commando, R&CF, Fat Princess (ha!), PixelJunk Eden (pretty…), Pain: Amusement Park, Flower (slick art-game), Siren: Blood Curse. Awesome to see these guys are embracing digital distribution in a way similar to Valve.
[12:22] Gran Turismo TV. Licensed automotive programs in HD. As in, real life. SWEET. I was going to say “why should I watch the game when I could play it,” but this is definitely interesting. Reviews of the newest sports cars, behind the scenes footage of development. D1 Grand Prix drift series. Best Motoring. Video Option. TopGear. All of accessible through PSN on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Those who bought the game definitely just got a lot more value from their $40. Content available August 1st.
[12:25] Says Jack, gamers aren’t in this for just the high score anymore. Talks about Trophies and rewarding the community for their accomplishments. Nothing conclusive yet, so now we’re talking about Home. “Your patience will be more than rewarded.” We’ll see.. can you guys work on the load times, please?
[12:26] Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Lucasarts to provide content through Home. Here comes a new video of Home. Slick DnB music. Game-themed areas to hang and chat in, looks cool. Showing off Warhawk, Resistance and Uncharted themed areas.
[12:28] Movies and TV over PSN, day one will include Sony, Fox, MGM, Lionsgate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and Funimation. Both SD and HD. Both rental AND electronic purchase. $1.99 per TV episode, $2.99-5.99 rentals, $5.99-14.99 purchases. Sweet. The first company to offer digital movie purchases besides Apple. Time to upgrade my PS3 hard drive!
[12:31] Video store tab just beneath the PSN Store logo. Looks just like the PSN we’re used to. This display kicks the crap out of Xbox Live Marketplace for sure. SD movie at 1.5GB. That’s big enough to include 5.1 surround. Though if you ask me, they shouldn’t be offering SD if they’re pushing HD as much as they have been.
[12:33] Rentals and purchases available to play on PSP, too! That’s awesome. New service/content is available TONIGHT. Fantastic!
[12:36] Focus on PSP. “One of the most elegant products we’ve ever made.” A new PSP entertainment pack, the Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters pack, with the game, National Treasures 2 on UMD, 1.5GB memory stick, all for $199.
[12:38] New title for PSP Resistance from our own Bend Studio! SHOOP DA WHOOP (okay, yeah I knew about it for a while). I’m very happy to see that it’s evolved significantly from its initial design. I probably shouldn’t say much more about my experience with it. Congrats to Bend Studio, you just made every PSP owner shoot off in their pants.
[12:40] Showing off a trailer for new PSP games. LocoRoco 2, Valkyria Chronicles, etc. Spiffy.
[12:43] Back to PS3. I want their segue music for the PS3 bootup noise instead of the orchestra. It’s reminiscent of PS2’s boot sound but much slicker. Google news/video, webcam, etc. called Life with PlayStation. Nifty.
[12:46] SOE’s DC Universe Online. “SOE has a remarkable track record of MMOs.” I disagree, Star Wars and EverQuest 2 suck ass, but maybe they’ve changed since then. DC’s Jim Lee on stage now, doing one armed pushups. Oh snap, Tretton! You just got served!
[12:49] Lee’s talking about gaming and comics. “I’m seriously hooked on MMOs. I was the first Paladin in EQ2 to get the…” I’m sorry but I just don’t care about EQ, but it’s great how passionate he is, you can tell he’s not bullshitting. Talking about how great it would be to be fighting in the DC Universe, helping Lex Luthor destroy Superman or fighting the Joker with Batman. I’ve always been a Marvel guy, so I’m not pitching a tent, but here comes gameplay…
[12:50] Looks like City of Heroes. Didn’t see that coming, right?
[12:52] Back to Jack, talking about the great PS3 games over the past year. Starting in September, 80GB with same functionality as 40GB, for the same price: $399. Hell of a deal for those of you without Blu-ray. “We want to do all we can to make the transition from PS2 for PS3 as easy as possible for those on the cusp of upgrading.”
[12:54] Video showcasing developers talking about working with the PS3. Treyarch, EA Tiburon, Ubisoft, Bethesda. This is great. I love hearing from developers on this stuff. A lot better than Microsoft and Nintendo spitting on the hardcore. “[With the PS3] you’re really only limited by your internal resources.” And a direct burn to Microsoft: “One of the great things about the PS3 is that every system comes with a hard drive.” Zing! “It doesn’t even look like the games that are out so far are even using close to 80% of the SPUs. It makes it exciting to see what we can do in the future.”
[12:58] “2008 is the year of PlayStation 3.” Another video showcasing the games discussed in the press conference. The new Motorstorm looks pretty good, I couldn’t get into the first one. SOCOM Confrontation looking slick. Mirror’s Edge, fap fap. Killzone 2, that reminds me, they haven’t shown us Killzone yet, and it looks like they won’t. Oh well, perhaps in the next couple days we’ll see more.
[1:00] God of War 3 confirmed! First trailer… Kratos: “There will be only chaos!” Hell yeah, dude!
[1:02] Sucker Punch’s Infamous. Yes, please! Roam the world as a superhero with the ability to save or destroy the remnants of civilization. Oh man, this looks AMAZING. Graphic novel style trailer, plus in game video. Post-nuclear war. “Why did I survive? Do I fight the darkness I unleashed, or be consumed by it?” Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Pre-order this right now. Spring 2009.
[1:04] “You’ve never seen a massive online game like this.” Brand new title, “not remotely possible anywhere else.” That new title is coming from Zipper Interactive, and it’s called… MAG, stands for Massive Action Game. Cool name. 256 players. Helo insertions, paradrops… Teams broken into 8 player squads, led by proven leaders. The feel of a tactical feel of a squad based shooter and the feel of a massive battle. Character advancement to match your unique playing style. And now we get to see it…
[1:07] Very, very cool 2D high-tech animation. Looks like a pre-rendered visual target but we’ve seen how close Guerilla got to their visual target in Killzone 2. I get hints of objective based gameplay like Enemy Territory coupled with the scale of Battlefield, multiplied by 10. Overall, looks very promising.
[1:10] “If this is what year two of the PS3’s lifecycle looks like, imagine year three and beyond.” And we’re out.
Right on! Sony’s press conference was a pretty big hit as far as I’m concerned. I’ll have an article covering all three press conferences and their impact on each console, as well as gaming in general, up later this week.
Nintendo’s press conference starts at 9:00 AM, and like yesterday with Microsoft, I’ll be covering/commenting on the happenings. Updates will begin at 8:55 AM. Stay tuned!
[8:55] IGN Live Wire providing the streaming once again. Hopefully they can keep up today.
[8:59] Nintendo logo is up, show is starting soon.
[9:05] They’re showing off pictures of regular people playing the Wii on the giant projection screen. Because we all know soccer moms are the future of gaming!
[9:08] Right, here we go, presser intro video. Lots of people playing stuff. Let me emphasise the word “people.” Hah, ok some lady was playing a Wii and wearing a Green Linen Shirt. They get points for showing that one. “We promise to keep the world smiling.”
[9:10] Sales/marketing exec on stage, her Mii and signature in the background. “As you can see, my name is not Reggie [...] but I have a lot in common with my boss.” I think she’s a little too happy, to be honest. But, after all, it does print money.
[9:15] She’s talking about how video games are safer than trying to impress your kids by snowboarding. Well, duh. OK some snowboarder guy. Shaun White Snowboarding with the Wii Fit board. Hm, that’s cool. They’re talking about how the board really enhances the gameplay and feel of the game in general. Available by year’s end.
[9:20] Iwata on stage talking about a shift in the gaming market, and that he bets that five years ago we didn’t expect they’d be selling thousands of bathroom scales around the world. Touche. The user base has expanded to everyone instead of just the gamers. Very true, but I only know one non-gamer that has purchased a Wii to play more than just Wii Sports.
[9:25] He says that Guitar Hero III for Wii is outselling all other versions of the game. That’s interesting, but makes sense when you take it in context with the expanded market for Nintendo. “For all of us in the video game industry, there is danger in standing still.” I agree, though I don’t agree with their implied argument that casual gaming is the future for everyone that plays games, including the hardcore. I’m trying to withhold judgement until they show us more.
[9:28] Creator of Animal Crossing on the screen, taking about his vision for the game. Animal Crossing kicked ass on the Gamecube but I don’t think I’ll be able to get into this new version, called Animal Crossing: City Folk. I burned out on it a long time ago. Looks like a prettier version of Wild World.
[9:30] They’ve added a city in addition to the town. The actual Happy Room Academy is available to browse and view other people’s rooms. Auction houses. Change your hairstyle in the salon, or put on a mask to look like your Mii. There’s a new microphone called WiiSpeak, perched on top of your TV. They call it a community microphone. You know, if I could actually get people to play this game, this would be pretty cool.
[9:39] Aha, there’s Reggie. “Pleased, but not close to being satisfied.” Animal Crossing complete with Wii Speak by the end of the year. Lifetime sales for the Wii in US, 10 million, 20+ million for the DS and DS lite. $5B retail, still not satisfied. Here’s a graph showing the DS kicking the shit out of the PSP. Ooh, burn, Sony!
[9:42] DS is still outselling itself every year. It still prints money! “No system has sold more games during it’s first 19 months of availability.” Um, I’ve only got something like 10 games for my Wii. My 360 had twice that after 19 months.
[9:45] “The Wii library grows faster than any other console.” Hey, Reggie, can we get a Good Game to Shit Game ratio of those numbers, please? OK, here comes 3 new trailers. Clone Wars movie game. Meh, Force Unleashed looks better. Now a new Raving Rabbids game; I didn’t even finish the first one. Supports the balance board. Call of Duty: World at War being shown, I didn’t even care about the initial announcement. CoD4 just kicks too much ass to go back to WWII.
[9:48] Marketing lady is back. I swear to god, she’s doing lines of crushed Valium backstage. Talking about female gaming jumping in popularity. Guitar Hero On Tour sold 300K in it’s first week (really? Why?). On Tour Decades on the way. GH:OTD trailer, not impressed. Spore Creatures on DS, trailer now. We’ll see how this pans out later this year, but Spore, to me, is about the entire experience from single celled organism to Mobile Oppression Palace.
[9:51] Pokemon Rangers… oh, who gives a shit? Whoa, what? Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on DS this winter. Where the hell did THAT come from? Custom engine, returning characters. Hm!
[9:53] “Why can’t the DS and the airport work together?” They’re testing out connecting DS with airport information, hotels, restaurants, etc. At Safeco Field, they’re testing DS compatibility with Mariners news, etc. and even order sushi.
[9:58] Reggie’s back, thank god. They’re talking about the MotionPlus accessory, “redefining the Wii remote.” Makes the remote more responsive and precise. Wii Sports Resort announced, “literally a day at the beach.” Hey, this will be the first game half of Nintendo’s customers will buy after their initial Wii purchase! Includes the MotionPlus accessory. Marketing lady is throwing a frisbee for a Wii dog. Fails at throwing the first time. Reggie: “Is that the good wrist or the broken wrist?”
[10:00] Reggie is demoing jet skiing in Wii Sports Resort. Looks kinda cool. I loved Wave Race 64. The guys are chopping stuff up with a sword. Maybe the next Red Steel will be worthwhile! Hmm. Perhaps this will make the Wii a better system. Marketing chick and Reggie are fencing, and he kicked her ass.
[10:05] Wii Sports Resort launching globally Spring 2009. New game coming this holiday, super dark smokey stage… Some crazy drummer on stage, playing with the remote and nunchuck and using the balance board for the bass pedal. It’s not very accurately capturing his actions. Honestly, it’s kind of embarrassing. Miyamoto on stage, playing a really shitty sounding saxophone with his remote. Wii Music coming this year. They’ve been working on it since they finalized their plans for Wii. And it shows, in a bad way.
[10:10] Basically, it’s a big virtual musical instrument set. Here’s hoping this is a WiiWare title since I’d never put money down for a disc version at full retail price. Some instruments: sax, piano, violin, drums, guitar, a variety of percussion. Chalk me up for a big fat MEH.
[10:14] And you though Rock Band would make you look like a douchebag. Good god.
[10:18] Wrapping it up. “Nintendo simply brings more smiles to more faces.” Sorry, but Too Human brought more smiles to my faces last night when I played the demo.
That’s all for now. Check back in at 11:30 AM for a liveblog of the Sony press conference, where I hope to hear more kickass Killzone 2 one-liners.
Microsoft’s E3 2008 Press Conference starts shortly, and I’ll be liveblogging it with super-duper commentary just as soon as the stream starts up. Honestly, I’m not expecting anything phenomenal from any of the Big Three this year. Nintendo already announced it’s motion-plus thing, which to me seems like something that should have been included in the Wii remote to being with. Meh, we’ll see. Stay tuned.
[10:25] Five minutes to go. IGN’s LiveWire is thumping with anticipation, like your mom.
[10:30] Late as usual, but I’m not complaining, except about your mom’s performance last night: lackluster.
[10:34] Here we go. Big franchises, big sellers, blah blah… I’m going to skip the bullshit.
[10:38] Incredible Fallout 3 video, mix of live action 50’s style, animation and 3D gameplay. I LOVE YOU, BETHESDA. Full trailer online in a few hours.
[10:40] Fallout 3 in action. I am fully erect.
[10:45] Incredible. Real time FPS/TPS action, or classic percentage-based automated combat. Radio stations that play through your Pipboy. Extreme violence. Fallout fans will be very happy. This certainly looks better than Oblivion, graphics-wise. And the demo ends with a mini-nuke catapult. Exclusive 360/PC downloadable content. Time to pre-order!
[10:46] Resident Evil 5 producer on stage, the first live demo. Here we go. Looks like a real pretty Resident Evil 4, but in Africa. That’s Racist! And holy shit, online co-op! FAP FAP.
[10:49] Resident Evil 5 released worldwide on March 13, 2009. Lame, but it’ll be worth the wait.
[10:51] Here comes Peter Molyneux. Get ready for the hype machine? Bird poo on the hero. I’m super impressed, Peter! He’s talking about innovation and I’m just seeing another Fable. Going to be a good game, I’m sure, but it’s no Fallout 3.
[10:54] You can see Orbs flying around, and those are your friends playing the game. Why don’t we just see their characters? Seriously lame, looks really half-assed.
[10:56] Raise a family in Fable 2. Why, exactly? — Last piece of news: Fable 2, October 2008. Chalk me up for a big fat MEH.
[10:58] Here we go, Gears 2. I want you inside me, CliffyB! Oops, sorry. Cliff Bleszinski. Looks super pretty. Way prettier than Gears 1 and UT3.
[11:00] Is it just me or do the guns sound… really, really good? Louder, more impact. Really nice improvement. There’s a giant Locust swinging a flail around, pretty sweet. Big tentacle Darkwalker-looking things. “Burn, baby!” Head-stomp, squish! I’m swelling with patriotic mucous!
[11:03] Oh craps, Locust with flamethrower? Fire bad (unless equipped by COG). John Di Maggio is still a total pimp as Marcus Fenix. Plenty of quick new one-liners abound, though I’m still waiting for their equivalent of Killzone 2’s “I feel like a spare prick at a gang-bang.” That was pretty epic. Now we’re in an elevator in a building on it’s side. Going left?
[11:05] Riding a brumak! Oh, snap! End of demo. New 5-player co-op mode called Horde, survival style. Available November 7, 2008. Lame marketing guy is back on the stage now. I miss J Allard.
[11:07] He’s talking about bringing gaming to the mainstream. That’s OK as long as you guys keep making a reasonable amount of hardcore games. I don’t want more casual shit, OK? A little here and there is fine, but don’t change it too much or you will all fail miserably. Now touting their lead over PS3 and Wii. Thank you, Captain Obvious!
[11:09] Talking ’bout Xbox Live now and how it’s doubled in members in a year. Great. Can we get a dynamic anti-douchebag voice chat filter that recognizes words like “faggot” and the n-bomb so playing with voice chat is a tad more bearable?
[11:11] Lots of TV and movies from Live Marketplace. But I’ve only got 20GB and component, Microsoft! Still, this is the way to go: digital distribution for the win. NBC and Universal are new partners on Live Marketplace. That’s cool, I guess, but Blu-ray still wins as far as I’m concerned. That is, until we have guaranteed permanent re-download access to purchases like on Steam, 5TB hard drives and 50Gb broadband.
[11:14] Here’s some balding guy, I didn’t catch his name. He’s going on about how 7th Generation will change gaming forever. I think it already did, or we wouldn’t have achievement whores. “What’s next?” Reinventing thru software? What’s he talking about… Wow. Way to rip off Nintendo. *sigh* Xbox Miis. Seriously? What the hell! I feel seriously betrayed. They’re going to get sued, big time. The new dashboard looks like Vista and Media Center combined. I’m… kind of disgusted.
[11:17] Rare’s behind the avatar design. I’m really… super disgusted. They think they’re doing something new. I’m sorry, but no. I mean, I’ll customize mine, and they’ll probably do it better than Nintendo simply because Nintendo doesn’t have an online service for shit, but they did it first and this just stinks of “me, too!”
[11:20] Game shows on Xbox Live with avatars, chat, etc. I fear for the future of gaming. Is this the end of the hardcore gamer? Are these companies so blinded by the Wii’s obvious fad-centric success that they feel the need to change their console to compete? They already covered the fact that the 360 outsells both consoles, so why fix what isn’t broken? The 360 has always been the hardcore gamer console. I’m going to throw up.
[11:23] OK, ShaneKimChee? That’s pretty funny. Alright, man, deep breaths. Deep breaths. I feel better, Geometry Wars 2 coming out next month. Thank you. I’m keeping my breakfast down now. Ooh, and Galaga Legions, ala Space Invaders Extreme! Fap fap! Made by the Pac-Man CE team, next month on XBLA.
[11:24] Yeah, they’d better give us Portal after all that crap. Portal: Still Alive, new test chambers and achievements, coming to XBLA. Oh lord, and here’s South Park for XBLA. Very brief, no gameplay shown. Yeah, we’ll see. South Park 64 was crap.
[11:27] Community XNA games showcase. Nothing looks really good, why aren’t they showing off The Dishwasher? Now we’ve got a Netflix partnership. They’re linking their Instant catalog with Xbox Live! Oh man, that’s awesome! I’m super glad I switched to uncapped DSL now. No news on whether or not there’ll be HD video yet.
[11:30] Here’s Shane Kim, saying we’ve got just as many great games as last year. Man, I hope. Holiday 2008 was incredible. Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2. A new episode for GTA IV. “3 out of 4 games rated E or T.” Is that good or bad?
[11:31] Banjo Kazooie 3 trailer. Spiffy looking. We’ll see if it rocks as much as the first one, but I’m getting really sick of Rare’s super-bloom, super-bright rendering engine. It’s kind of sickeningly cute, you know? A new Viva Piñata game. I never really played the first one. Is that bad?
[11:33] Oh lord, it’s the e-Reader, but for the Vision Camera. I guess they’re going to sell packs of cards like Nintendo did for Animal Crossing? But here’s good news, the original Banjo-Kazooie on XBLA! Fantastic! I’ll be buying that on it’s release date.
[11:37] Scene It… meh. Skip it. I’m so god damn funny. You’re In the Movies. Yeah, no thanks. Didn’t these guys learn from the epic failure of the PS2 EyeToy games? I think I’ll play Rock Band instead.
[11:54] Streaming delay on my end, so I’m unfortunately a bit behind. Now covering the new Guitar Hero: World Tour. You’ll never get my monies, Activision! Rock Band kicks the crap out of your game. Wut, 8-player Battle of the Bands? That’s cool. Still skeptical, though. Their track list for GH3 was far behind Rock Band’s awesome goodness.
[11:56] Whoopdee doo, R.E.M. Van Halen and The Eagles, Guitar Hero exclusive. Wow, these really are their own consoles now, aren’t they?
[12:00] Rock Band > Any single component. Lips is karaoke. Feh — whoa, wait, it’s from your own music collection! I spoke too soon. That’s pretty rad. We’ll have to see how well the detection works. MS execs have crappy taste in music. Where’s Band of Horses or The Shins? No, you had to bring on this crappy pop-oldies chick.
[12:03] Rock Band 2 debuting exclusively on 360. What does that mean, exactly? Here’s a really small print list of the set list. Guns N’ Roses debuting a new track on Rock Band 2. That’s cool, though I don’t really care for them. And oh yeah, AC/DC! Hell yeah, bitch! LET THERE BE ROCK. YouTube video of my Angus Young coming soon! Interpol, Beck, etc. Yes please!
[12:07] All downloadable tracks from RB1 forwards compatible with RB2. Sweet! And if you own the original RB, you can export all tracks into the new game. That’s VERY nice. Over 500 songs available by Holiday ‘08 in RB2.
[12:08] Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. Infinite Undiscover (stupid name, sorry guys) 360 exclusive on September 2nd. Star Ocean: The Last Hope in Spring 2009. Star Ocean 3 was a huge bore to me so I’m not that thrilled. The Last Remnant only on 360 this holiday.
[12:11] The Last Remnant footage. Looks like a Squeenix game alright. Maybe Japan will buy some 360s now? Feels like FFX and FFXII combined. November 20th, 2008. Also for PC, date TBD.
[12:15] One more big Squeenix announcement. Here’s a movie… Oh for god’s sake, IGN just stalled out again. Please hold!
[12:22] Well, IGN cut off the streaming for Microsoft’s conference to prep for their stage show stuff. I missed the big announcement, but here it is: Final Fantasy XIII coming to 360 as a multi-platform title. Pretty cool, but I’ll still be getting it for PS3 unless there’s some sweet exclusive functionality. FF’s always been a Playstation thing, as far as I’m concerned.
And there you have it, folks. Another Microsoft conference with some cool stuff and some stuff that I’m not terribly thrilled with. Further commentary in the days to come; expect liveblogs of Sony and Nintendo press conferences and thoughts on cool, new stuff shown at this year’s E3.
Inspiration: Unreal Tournament III (PS3/360)
5. When coded correctly, bots can make formidable allies in addition to challenging enemies.
4. Bots can adapt to your skill level, or at the very least, offer a wide range of difficulty so you’re never overwhelmed or under-challenged.
3. Bots will always be available for you to play with regardless of the time of day.
3. Because bots are always available, dead multiplayer games can live on infinitely.
2. Bots will do what you ask, and depending on the set skill level, do it well.
1. A bot will never, ever call you a faggot on Xbox Live.
Much like most gamers who own the system, my relationship with the Xbox 360 is best described as a love-hate affair; a bittersweet mixture of absolute gaming pleasure and heart-wrenching misery. The system plays host to such amazing titles as Bioshock and Mass Effect, and continues to outperform the PS3 on multi-platform titles like Assassin’s Creed and GRID. We all love our Xbox 360s. They’re just swell.
Alas, our undying affection is not reciprocal. The Xbox 360 hates you. It hates you more than that girl you obsessed over in your freshman year of high school. It spits the Red Ring of Death in your face on the release day of your most anticipated game and has the hard drive capacity of a laptop circa 2002. Least troubling, but not far from our minds: it cannot play its predecessor’s games for shit.
I’ve recently become addicted to Goozex. As much as I love the current staff of the Bend Game Crazy and GameStop stores, they simply can’t compare to the trading experience I constantly enjoy through Goozex. This addiction was fueled by my desire to ditch a considerable amount of older games that simply don’t appeal to me anymore, and the wish to replace older games that either ran terribly on the 360 or looked better running on the PC. It began with the Xbox-era Splinter Cell trilogy. These games essentially run in true widescreen, high definition resolutions on the PC at higher frame rates and with better controls. Once I played these games on the PC, I couldn’t go back to the way they looked on Xbox. 480i/p just doesn’t compare.
When the multi-platform games of yore were released, the Xbox was the far superior to the PS2 in graphics and audio. Each game was visually sharp and vivid, while the audio blasted us away in amazing Dolby Digital 5.1. Yet my relatively recent acquisition of an HDTV has all but destroyed the notion of the Xbox as the superior last generation console. And it’s all Xbox 360’s fault.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance isn’t compatible with Xbox 360. While it is understandable that this title would take a back seat to development for Xbox 360, it is one of the most infuriating instances of last-gen neglect. Substance was praised for the mountain of additional content included in the Xbox exclusive version, at least for a few months, and many a gamer purchased this version over the PS2 Sons of Liberty.
While there are many titles in the Xbox library that, like MGS2, have gone neglected, there are some 360-compatible titles that should have been left alone. These games, when played on Xbox 360, serve only to insult the gamer with a mediocre-at-best technical experience. Reach high speed in Project Gotham Racing 2 — a Microsoft-published title, no less — incites hellish audio glitching and frame rate drops. Silent Hill 4 is missing textures at every turn. Fable runs at a miserably low frame rate.
I understand why the Xbox 360 doesn’t run older titles as well as the PS3 does. The lack of hardware emulation significantly hampers the console’s technical compatibility. But why, for the games that work well, am I forbidden from stretching 4:3 ratio images to 16:9 widescreen? Why can’t I smooth the images out so they look a bit less pixelated and old-school? Why do the black levels seem so out of whack compared to an upscaled PS2 title?
Thankfully, Goozex and the PS3 have me covered, but not without a sharp, flavorful note of irony.
When Sony announced Qore, a video magazine product delivered via PlayStation Network, I was intrigued yet cautious. All of the content included in each issue — interviews, concept art, gameplay footage and betas — are readily available on sites like Gamespot, IGN, etc. Betas can be obtained through PlayStation Underground, which I have been a member of since god knows when. At the same time, however, I’m a digital distribution whore and a big fan of collector’s edition bonus DVDs like those included in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Halo 2. I took the plunge and bought the first issue.
Each issue is priced at $2.99, or you can opt for an annual subscription for $24.99, in which case you’ll also receive a free copy of Calling All Cars. Included in the first issue are interviews for SOCOM: Confrontation, Soul Calibur IV, Afro Samurai, Secret Agent Clank, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. SOCOM and Star Wars also contain less entertaining tidbits like concept art and a preview of an upcoming comic series. Rounding out the issue is guaranteed access to the SOCOM: Confrontation public beta and a theme for said game.
Qore is definitely a good idea. I was a subscriber of GameSpot for a while, during which I enjoyed high quality ad-free video (prior to Gerstmann and Davis leaving) and speedy patch downloads. Qore, on the other hand, is absolutely devoid of any worthwhile content. The entire time I was watching videos, I felt like I could have been watching videos on any number of review sites without being charged a dime. And speaking of Jeff Gerstmann, a guy who I’m sure we’re all very fond of for his excellent charisma, Qore features a hostess that is completely devoid of a believable personality. Instead, she brings to mind the nerve-grating hosts of GameStop TV. Yes, the ones you wish you could punch every time you stop by to pre-order your next fix.
In addition to the lack of content and the $2.99 per issue charge, Qore is ad supported. The shortest ads are at about 5 seconds long, while the longer ones are sometimes equal to a full trailer in length. Luckily, the longer ads can be skipped after a few seconds, but if I’m paying for it — like GameSpot — I shouldn’t be watching video advertisements. In magazines, I can flip past an ad in under a second, so if they’re going to continue support Qore via ads, I should be able to skip them immediately.
Qore is laden with issues that could be labeled simply as bugs or, more likely, design oversight. The PS3 remote cannot be used to control any aspect of Qore whatsoever; you must use a PS3 controller. Qore looks like a DVD menu, so this is perplexing. Additionally, videos can only be paused, restarted or stopped. YouTube has more advanced player functionality than this.
Is Qore worth paying for? Unless you’re dying to be a part of the SOCOM: Confrontation beta, absolutely not; at least, not the first issue. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the product before passing further judgment. Until then, go hit up your favorite game video site and watch their videos knowing you’re not missing out on anything worthwhile.
If you’re a BendBroadband customer or if you read the Business section of the Bend Bulletin in the past few weeks, you’re no doubt aware of the changes to the broadband internet services for both residential and business customers coming July 1st. Residential customers are limited to 100GB of total usage, both up- and downstream, while business customers are limited to 150GB. The upside is that download speeds are doubling for faster access to content.
But you’ve heard all this before, so why am I talking about this on a game site?
It’s no secret that I am an advocate of digital distribution. It saves space on my shelves and provides me fast access to a large selection of games and music, including titles that are no longer available locally. I save money by not driving to Best Buy or Gamestop, and I don’t have to pray that a popular new title is in stock if I didn’t pre-order. Those are just some of the benefits the consumer enjoys by purchasing media from a digital distribution service.
The developers and artists receive many benefits from digital distribution as well. They make more money from each sale because they don’t have to pay packaging, shipping, or even publishing costs. At most, the digital distribution service takes a small commission from each sale in order to keep the service active — much smaller than the costs of producing and selling physical media. Since the media is digital, there is no chance of selling out, resulting in more sales.
Let’s say you’re an indie game developer with the next big indie sleeper hit. It’s a 2GB download priced at $10, delivered from your BendBroadband business connection. It’s got all the bells and whistles: DirectX 10, voiceovers, great music and gameplay. You’re not sure how well your game will sell, if at all, but word of mouth spreads and you do pretty well for yourself at 500 copies sold in the first month. You’ve just made a cool $5,000 — and your internet bill contains $1,275 of overages, over a fifth of your profit. If you’re working full time on your project, these overages would hurt much more than if you were working on it after your everyday nine-to-five.
Coming back to the consumer point of view, and a decidedly geeky one at that, we’re seeing new content delivery systems like Apple TV and streaming Netflix video begin to surge in popularity. We like our content served up hot, fresh and made-to-order. I’m one of those people that dreams about paying for products in “credits” as I swipe the chip embedded in my palm over an automated scanning device. I dream about how cool it will be when I can buy all my favorite products without having myself or anyone else pour hundreds of dollars into their gas tanks for transportation to the stores.
The digital lifestyle is the future everyday lifestyle for every person on this planet. To simply stand aside and allow a company that feels threatened by the next revolution in content delivery smash to pieces what so many have worked very hard to achieve is unacceptable. Help fight for digital distribution and the future of the internet. Call BendBroadband at 541-382-5551 and tell them what you think of their absurd usage caps. If you’re able, cancel all of your cable services and call for DSL or rural wifi installation. Join us at the protest at noon on June 7 at the entrance to BendBroadband on Empire Ave, and show them that we won’t put up with their desire to choke the last breath from the emerging digital lifestyle.
