61 Frames Per Second : microsoft

Kids' Games too Complicated for Kids

Bob Mackey — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Since I try as hard as I can to be a well-rounded gamer, I like to experience as many kinds of games as possible. Take Fallout 3, for example; I was once highly allergic to non-linear, Western RPGs, but in the past two weeks I've invested over 50 hours into Bethesda's little masterpiece. And I had the same intentions when I picked up Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise--I had no idea if I would like the game, but the endless amounts of praise it received (from adults, mind you) convinced me to buy it at a budget-friendly price. I'm not averse to kiddie games, but I was initially worried that maybe Pinata was going to be a little too simple for my gaming tastes.

But when I got through the game's all-too-brief tutorial, I could only think one thing: "Children are supposed to understand this?"

As someone who's been a gamer for over 20 years now, I pride myself on being able to figure out even the most complicated of in-game mechanics; but when I'm given no assistance by the game itself, I'm usually not too enthused about playing for long. I ran into this problem when I decided to slip into the Civilization series a few summers ago; after picking up Civ III and realizing that my only tutorial was a 200-page book, most attempts to come up with any sort of strategy were shot down by my lack of knowledge of how the game actually worked--and this was after reading all of thosse pages. Viva Pinata has its own tutorial and isn't nearly as complex as Sid Meier's world sim, but you're only taught the very basics of Pinata-raising, leaving important questions like "What is the goal of the game? How do I get money? Why do murdered Pinatas come back from the dead?" unanswered.

It should be noted that most of this information can be found in the game--albeit in a text-only "help" section that's nearly impossible to read on my large SDTV (thank you, Rare). I am having fun with Viva Pinata, but after playing it for a few hours, and watching my girlfriend tend to her own paper mache critters, I've noticed that some of the most basic elements of the game have still gone unexplained. After playing my share, it's hard to believe that Viva Pinata could ever be appealing to kids naturally attracted to bright and colorful cartoon animals; the game requires as much in-depth micromanagement as your typical SimCity, though the economy is much more abstract.

I'm happy that I find the game entertaining--if a bit messy and confusing--but VP is really an adult's game dressed up in kiddie clothing. This works out fine for all of us, but Rare seems to be a bit confused about their target audience. I'd be interested in knowing if any of you 61FPS readers out there have been privy to a child's experience of playing Viva Pinata; it's possible that I may be underestimating the abilities of our youth.

If you're interested in the subject, you should also check out John's post about the kid-friendliness of VP; our opinions differ greatly.

Related Links:

Of Children and LEGO Games: A Valid Concern
The Impetuousness Of Youth
Children are the Future (Of Cheap Gaming Junk)

In Defense of the QTE: Ninja Blade

John Constantine — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Now that the man’s winding down his career, let us honor Yu Suzuki for his most important contribution to game design: the QTE. Hey now. I can hear you rolling your eyes. We might be sick of pressing the X button every single time Crystal Dynamics wants Lara Croft to kick a tiger with style, but the quick time event provides us with some of videogames’ most satisfying thrills. They aren’t inherently bad. They’re just implemented very, very poorly. This week, you’ll be able to walk out into the world and pick up a copy of From Software’s Ninja Blade. Hell, you can go home right now and download a demo of Ninja Blade just to have a taste. One level is all you need to exemplify just how good quick time events can be in a game.

Here’s why.

First, a definition. In God of War’s wake, “quick time event” has transformed from a noun into a sort of critics’ short hand. It’s a blanket term to describe when, in a game where you have direct control of a character, the normal control is taken away and you watch a unique or atypical animation. While the animation plays, you must press a specific button as prompted on the screen. If you don’t, you’ll have to replay the sequence. Now, there are many parts of modern games that can be described this way and not all of them are quick time events. For example, in action games like MadWorld and Yakuza 2, you’re prompted with special inputs — press X next to a car, swing the Wiimote down — to finish off enemies. The most colorful finishing moves have you stringing these inputs together. These are not quick time events. They’re contextual actions. A quick time event is a choreographed, dramatic sequence where prompts imitate an action that you do not have direct control over. Resident Evil 4 has some classic examples. You, the player, steer Leon to the top of a hill and move forward. The game then shifts the camera to a group of enemies on a cliff above you. They push a boulder off said cliff that chases you and to escape you repeatedly press a button, which keeps Leon running. That button has nothing to do with movement during regular play. If you don’t press it here, the game ends. That’s a quick time event. They can, and have, enrich games with emotionally charged moments the game wouldn’t have otherwise.

The chief argument against quick time events is that they pull you out of a game by stripping away control, if only partially. They’re gaudy cheats to mask the passive storytelling devices of film instead of relying on a game’s interactivity to inform its drama and incident. It’s a valid argument against bad quick time events. The most recent games starring the aforementioned Lara Croft, particularly Tomb Raider Legend, have terrible quick time events made up of sixty second cinematics halved by a single, easy to miss button press. When implemented well, though, a quick time event is anything but a mask for inactive game sequences, as in Quantic Dream’s Indigo Prophecy. The game allows you limited sequences of full character control, relying on quick time events with inputs that imply the action to make up most of the play. Lucas Kane is running from police officers and needs to dodge left so you’re prompted to press both analog sticks in that direction. You aren’t moving Lucas, but the movement of both sticks translates as urgency, and agency, for you. These QTEs are fast to match the pace of the game and end up making for affecting play because of their speed and mimicry of the action. That’s the key to QTE success; tying your input as close to possible to dramatic actions that are impossible to depict, or make interactive, in the game itself.

Ninja Blade’s first level is about half quick time events and they are incredible spectacles. The level ends with a fight against a giant, grotesque spider on top of a skyscraper. The first part of the fight is familiar three-dimensional action; you move around with the level analog stick and press X, Y, and B buttons on the Xbox 360 controller to slice and stab with a sword. The second part, after whittling down the spider’s defenses, has you riding the spider up a skyscraper before riding a wrecking ball across the night sky, and then crushing the spider with it. There isn’t a way in games to make this one-hundred percent interactive and retain its presentation. Not yet at least. So sequence is a quick time event, and through a mixture of rumble in the control, speed of button prompts, and inputs that approximate other actions in the normal game, it’s completely engaging.

Like I said, QTEs don’t damn a game. They’re just another tool. Quality depends on the craftsmen.

Related links:

Love-Hate: In Defense of the Cutscene
Overpowering the Flavor: Cooking Mama World Kitchen and Cutscene Clutter
Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone
Sonic Unleased: Worse Than Syphilis
Sega's Yu Suzuki Steps Down
Where is Yu Suzuki?

Recession Gaming Deals: The 360 Arcade Pack-In

Bob Mackey — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:30:00 GMT

If you're anything like me, you probably don't have a lot of extra money to spend on entertainment. But the savvy among us know that it's not necessary to spend the standard $59.99 retail price of a new game to have fun. Everything from Steam's weekend deals to console digital download services prove that you don't have to go into debt to waste away a few afternoons. But sometimes, cutting out the middleman isn't always involved in finding amazing gaming deals; cheapskates are often welcome in the wonderful world of brick and mortar retail, as long as no one knows how truly poor we are.

Of course, I'm always looking to help fellow members of the lower-lower-class get their hands on some video games, which is exactly the point of this post. While browsing at my local non-GameStop retailer today (they exist), I stumbled upon quite a steal: a used copy of the compilation pack-in Microsoft's been bundling with their Arcade units. For only eight (!) dollars, I walked away with Sega Superstars Tennis, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Uno, Luxor 2, Feeding Frenzy, and Boom-Boom Rocket. Granted, some of these games are mediocre at best, but for a little more than a buck a piece, you really can't find a better deal. Check out your local GameStop or other used game store; this pack-in shouldn't cost you more than ten bucks.

Related Links:

How the Recession Will End the Wii’s Torrent of Sewage
The Perfect Recession Game: Tetoris
EA says, "Recession actually a good thing"

Where Is SSX?

John Constantine — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:30:00 GMT

Let me ask you a question, EA Canada: must it all be so gosh darned realistic these days? I’ve played Skate and Skate 2. Cool games. Cool games that helpfully reinforce, digitally, that my brain is not ready to take up skateboarding. The sheer amount of things I need to take into consideration whilst performing a simple trick in Skate terrifies me. If I tried to do this in real life, and I had to think about all the different things I was asking of my body, a plank of wood, some wheels, and gravity, I would experience complete ego disintegration right before rupturing my testicles on a railing in some public park. Why oh why can’t you take me back to the good ol’ days of extreme-with-a-capital-TREME sports, EA Canada. Why can we not head back to the mountain for some good times with a new SSX, the awesomest fake snowboarding game of all time?

SSX 4 showed up on a few release lists back at the end of 2006, right around the time that the Xbox 360 was ending its first year and just before the release of the Playstation 3. These were the systems said to be home for such a wonderful sequel. Alas, that game was never ever officially announced and has failed to materialize since. A sort of remix of SSX 3, SSX: Blur, came out for Wii in March 2007 and it remains the single most frustrating game I have played in my entire life. They added some new cel-shaded graphics and motion controls that give a shockingly real simulation of a crippled nervous system. You move following onscreen prompts and then NOTHING HAPPENS. Playing it is demoralizing and makes you hate things. Even your pets. After trying to play SSX: Blur for an hour, I ended up yelling at my cat and blaming her for the hantavirus.

DJ Atomika, the chipper voice of SSX Radio throughout the game, re-emerged in Criterion’s Burnout Paradise and hinted at some fresh snow on the mountain. Please don’t lie to me, Atomika. My heart couldn’t take it. I long for sweet, sweet fake snowboarding on 360 and PS3. Grant me this simple desire.

(Much love to NeoGAFfer Wario 64 for asking this very same question. Props.)

Where Is?

The PSP
Hydrophobia
Prototype
Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden
Yasunori Mitsuda

The Console Wars Made Adorable

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:50:00 GMT

Everyone gets embroiled in a console war once in a while. We have some kind of inborn instinct that causes us to rush to the defence of our beloved consoles as if they were a damsel cornered by a dragon. It's interesting to wonder what system-associated developers like Miyamoto think about such behaviour. “What, do you people have deep-rooted problems revolving around peer approval or something?”

When you think about how silly the console wars ultimately are, you really do have to duck your head in shame for participating (shortly before you go back and do it all over again). Or, sometimes, you might receive another reminder of how easily we can all get along if we just try. For instance, through an art project.

A board member on IGN has put together a small group of sketches titled, “The Console War is Officially Over.” The adorable pictures feature the major game consoles (and their young portable siblings) in various states of play.

(Those bedsheets should be burning merry hell.)

It's a heart-melting group of pics. It makes me feel really bad for ever fitting my Xbox 360 with sharp spurs and sending it after the PS3. They don't want to fight. They want to love. I vow to be a better console owner from now on.

(PSP, moar like Pee-ass-pee, lol)

Related Links:

Roundtable Discussion: Where Is the Handheld Version of the Console Wars?
Sign of the Times: Current Gen to Stick Around a Little Longer
Microsoft's New Year's Resolution

Ghostbusters: There Are No Words For How Good Bustin' Makes Me Feel

John Constantine — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:30:00 GMT

Guest contributor Adam Rosenberg resides in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where he slaves away daily as a contributing editor for UGO’s Gamesblog as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah.

I haven’t seen shit that will turn you white. The shit I have seen, namely a fresh build of Ghostbusters: The Video Game for Xbox 360 and PS3, will make you green. With slime. And envy.

Last summer, a preview build featuring a portion of the widely seen New York Public Library level made the gaming press rounds. The unfinished code appeared out of thin air, its sender listed only as “Evil PR Monkey”. The demo was raw. Very raw. But not so raw as to diminish Ghostbusters’s promise. There were Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddmore (noVenkman in the demo), fully voiced by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Aykroyd and Ramis’ script, even just that tiny chunk, was characterized by the same wit that made the original films such classics. Then a few weeks later, Activision announced that, following their merger with Vivendi, they would not be hanging onto the Ghostbusters license.

News on the game since, even following Atari’s confirmation that they would be publishing Ghostbusters in June 2009, has been disturbingly light. No more of the actual game has been shown since that messy preview code. Until last week. While I didn’t actually get to go hands-on with it, I did get an eyes-on playthrough of the remainder of that library level. And now… well… I ain’t afraid of no Ghostbusters.

The presentation — third-person perspective, story, voice actor/likeness participation, core ghost-wranglin’ mechanics — are unchanged. What’s fresh is a new sprint button and a multi-directional quick dodge. Both significantly tighten up the gameplay. If you haven’t gotten a look at any video of play, there are two types of spooks and specters to combat.

First are capturable Ghosts, boss and mini-boss-style baddies. You wear them down with the Proton Beam — Or another weapon. More on those in a sec. — and then snare them in a Capture Beam. The captured ghost has to be slammed into walls until it is weak enough to be pulled into a trap. Then there are the more common Entities, supernatural conglomerations of physical objects, such as books, papers, lamps, and the like. These spirits can be flat-out destroyed (or is that neutronized?). They typically have shields that must be stripped away before they can be taken down. Still others manifest as hulking beasts; these must be worn down with sustained attacks until their head – glowing lamps, during the library demo – can be ripped away with the Capture Beam.

That’s the talent, so what about the tools? Weapons stem from the Proton Pack which, along with a dangling PKE Meter, serves as your HUD. The pack itself changes appearance depending on the beam type in use, and each beam now features primary and alternate modes of fire. The vanilla Proton beam is supplemented by the Boson Dart, a concentrated burst shot which works like a rocket launcher. The newly introduced Dark Matter Beam fires either a damaging shotgun-like spread or a sustained stasis beam which has the effect of slowing down targeted enemies. There’s also a Slime Blower, which is used to clear away dark, red-tinged slime. No “Higher and Higher” to accompany it though. Throughout the game, you can upgrade the ‘busters’ equipment with money earned from capturing ghosts and collateral damage. The bill for the latter goes to one Walter Peck, by the way. It’s true what you’ve heard about his genitalia. Just saying. The demo ends with a knockdown boss fight against a familiar supernatural librarian. Cornered in a cavernous space tucked away in a distant corner of the NYPL’s sub-basements, the librarian ghost mounts a final offensive from behind her shield of floating books and candelabras. After finishing her off, the team moves to investigate a trans-dimensional portal which has appeared in the center of the room. The walls peel away to reveal a hellish landscape and… the pause menu pops up. Demo over. A good portion of the game will send the Ghostbusters hurtling into these Otherworlds, though the “what” and the “why” of them remain a mystery for now.

It’s clear that Atari is giving Ghostbusters: The Video Game the triple-A attention it deserves. The publisher switch has resulted in remastered FMVs, newly written and recorded lines of dialogue, additional mo-cap work, and an apparent tightening of the gameplay. Plus, even though it wasn’t shown, I was told off-duty Ghostbusters will be able to explore the team’s iconic firehouse. No concrete details were shared, but I was promised that “rewards” await those who take the time to explore. As long as we can use the pole, all is good. The mid-June release date is creeping ever-closer, and I have to it’s very exciting to see this polish applied to Ray, Egon, Peter, Winston and Nameless New Guy’s (i.e. You) HD-console adventure.

Related links:

NYCC 2009 - Ghostbusters Wii
Screen Test: Ghostbusters
Films to Games: Ghostbusters Really is Ghostbusters 3!
Ghostbusters. Peter Venkman. Walter Peck. The World is Just.

Trailer Review: Demon’s Souls

John Constantine — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:00:00 GMT

From Software, you guys got some weird in your blood. Who in the hell makes console exclusives these days? Not only that, who in the hell makes exclusives for every console on the market? And who in the hell makes console exclusives that are spiritual successors to cult hits that were console exclusives in the previous generation? You guys, whew, you guys are nutty. You’re nutty nut bars and I love it.

It’s a big month for From Software. Just last week in Japan, they released Ninja Blade on Xbox 360. Ninja Blade is a third-person action game that is a modernization, in both tone and technology, of their Xbox-only franchise Otogi. Today, they released Demon’s Souls in the land of the rising sun. Demon’s Souls is the Playstation 3 version of From’s PS2 oddity King’s Field, a series of distinctly western RPGs full of the dungeon crawling and character customization Elder Scrolls fans go ga-ga over.

As you can see from this trailer, Demon’s Souls is a real odd duck.

The presentation is polished but by no means mindblowing and the same can be said of its art direction. It really doesn’t look like a product of the east or west, its RPG-tropes coming across as just… neutral. I have no idea what to make of it. There’s still no word on whether or not this one’s coming to the States. The Asia version of the game, though, has both full English voice acting and all English menus. I don’t know about y’all, but this one’s so strange I might just have to import it.

Previous Trailer Reviews:

Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting
Priston Tale II: The 2nd Enigma
King of the Fighters XII
Edge
Dante's Inferno
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Resident Evil 5

Sign of the Times: Current Gen to Stick Around a Little Longer

Bob Mackey — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

It wasn't too long ago when Sony produced a commercial for the fictional Playstation 9 during their initial Playstation 2 campaign; that's right--the company was once so successful, it had the funds to advertise things that didn't even exist. But these were far different times, before the dot-com bubble completely burst; back in those days, you simply had to log onto the Internet and wait for padded envelopes full of money to arrive at your house (who knows where they came from). But in our modern times of economic disparity and joblessness, the evolution of entertainment technology is not one of our biggest priorities. And, according to a San Jose Mercury News report from yesterday, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, recognizes the current problem with the standard five-year hardware cycle:

"Just coming up with something that's faster and prettier isn't going to be sufficient. The life cycle for this generation of consoles — and I'm not just talking about Xbox, I'd include Wii and PS3 as well — is probably going to be a little longer than previous generations."

If you've ever been around casual Wii gamers, then you probably realized that the one factor nearly every console war has been fought over is now completely irrelevant: graphics don't matter. And if they somehow do matter, the Wii's lack of horsepower certainly isn't holding it back. The PS3, technically the most powerful of the main three consoles, has been hurting from the very beginning by inducing sticker shock in those who may still be interested in the Playstation brand; and the drop in price from $600 to $400 still isn't low enough. Americans have recently become budget-conscious, and the fact that a new generation of hardware will undoubtedly require a TV upgrade certainly isn't helping us move to the next generation of hardware any faster.

Personally, when it comes to waiting for the latest round console, I wouldn't mind waiting until 2013--or at least until someone out there shows the common decency of giving me a full-time writing job.

Related Links:

How does the Game Industry compare to the Auto Industry?
The High Cost of Gaming: Free Radical, Creators of GoldenEye, Close Doors
Game Designers: Rockstars, Auteurs, Dweebs?

Microsoft’s New Year’s Resolution

John Constantine — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:00:00 GMT

For the second time in history, an American company has created a massively successful videogame console. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is, without doubt, America’s greatest triumph since the Atari 2600. Of course, this is discounting personal computers of all stripes, and even the achievements of Microsoft’s first green-tinged box devoted to gaming. But 28 million consoles sold worldwide is a monumental feat for any gaming machine and, contrary to some speculation late last year, it looks like the system’s sales have yet to plateau. As far as creativity and growth of the medium, Microsoft pioneered downloadable content on home consoles, established one of the first easily accessible independent games services, and brought online gaming into more homes than ever before. Not to mention how they’ve published some of the most enjoyable traditional gaming fare — shooters like Halo 3 and Gears of War as well as RPGs like Fable 2 — of the last two years. Yes, kudos to you Microsoft. Ya done good.

BUT YOU CAN DO BETTER! What’s up with 2009, guys? Halo Wars? That’s what you’ve got? Where’s Alan Wake, you punks! Ninja Blade? How about a freaking action game without a ninja in it?! Geez!

Okay, okay. I am calm now. I am fine. Announcing some great first-party software for the 360 would be a pretty logical resolution for Bill Gates’ house of pancakes. But I was thinking more along the lines of modernization.

Microsoft should resolve to make Xbox Live free to all Xbox 360 owners in 2009. At the very least, they should expand on Xbox Live Silver Memberships, allowing more games to be played online at no additional cost as they did with Street Fighter HD Remix. Alternatively, they could start adding more perks, such as free Arcade downloads with Gold memberships. Regardless, now that Xbox Live has proven itself, it is time to stop charging players needlessly. There is absolutely no reason that Xbox owners should have to pay for multiplayer in 2009. Hell, if nothing else, making Xbox Live free would give the entire world one fewer reason to buy a Playstation 3.

Think about it, Microsoft. Oh, and announce some more first-party titles already. Not Too Human 2.

Related links:

Virtual Console New Year's Resolutions
Nintendo’s New Year’s Resolution
The New XBox Experience: A Brief Reaction

Question of the Day: Your Ideal Controller?

John Constantine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:30:00 GMT

These days, the console exclusive is a cagey beast rarely spotted in the wild. You tend to find them in specialized reserves for endangered species, which is to say, coming directly from console manufacturers rather than third-party publishers. There are a stray handful of third-party exclusives, many of them living in the untamed wilds of the Wii, but if you’re an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 owner, you can almost always get the exact same game on both systems (give or take a handful of features.) DLC tends not to sway me one or another when deciding what system to get a game for. It’s all about the controller. After eleven years of using the damn thing more often than any controller, I’ve gotten all too comfortable with Sony’s Dualshock, so I tend to gravitate towards Playstation 3 versions of games. But I don’t think I’d say the Dualshock is my perfect controller by any stretch of the imagination. That honor will always stay with the Super Nintendo controller. It’s ergonomic, has just the right number of buttons, and is so light, you sometimes forget it’s even there. (These days though, the SNES controller’s is almost distracting. After playing with rumble-ready controllers for a decade, you expect a little heft.)

Carnegie Mellon’s Damien Lopez put together a visual history of controllers (pictured above) that got me thinking about just what the perfect game controller would be. How do you make a controller that would accommodate all fifteen of the disparate consoles listed in this chronology that was simultaneously comfortable and versatile? Could the perfect controller be both Wii mote and Dualshock? And most importantly, dear reader, what’s your ideal controller?

Related links:

Question of the Day: How Do You Make a Horror Game Horrifying?
Question of the Day: Yu-Gi-Oh! And Card-Based Videogames?
Question of the Day: Why Can’t I Emulate?

NPDeez Nuts: The Way Tomorrow Looks

John Constantine — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Way back in May, I thought that, like every other blog that regularly talks about the videogames, 61FPS should cover the NPD sales numbers every month. It seemed like a no brainer until I realized the truth: who gives a damn about sales? We are not gamblers here, throwing crumpled dollars in a circle, cursing each other out over how many copies of Wii Play might sell in a four week period! We are aesthetes, which is to say, we are pretentious as fuck. Waxing philosophical about emergent narrative is how we roll, and sales numbers should be beneath our concern! Harumph and such.

I’m kidding. Well, half-kidding. We’re not snooty berks. We just like videogames a lot, and we like thinking about them even more. Today’s an important day to mention the NPD numbers because they are, to turn a phrase, meaty food for thought. Sony sold just under four-hundred thousand Playstation 3s in November, and just over four-hundred thousand PSPs. Micrsoft sold eight-hundred thirty-thousand Xbox 360s. And Nintendo sold two-million, forty-thousand Wiis. Nintendo also sold one-million, five-hundred thousand DS Lites. Three and a half million people bought Nintendo consoles in the United States. In one month. That is a lot. A lot a lot.

It doesn’t mean Sony is doomed and that the Playstation 3 is going to disappear, Gizmondo-style, before 2009 is out. It doesn’t mean that Microsoft is going to announce an Xbox 360 follow-up in six months that introduces some novelty device and even more cutsey avatars for Xbox Live in a bid to get a piece of the new mainstream pie.

These gargantuan numbers mean that Tuesday’s announcement of Dragon Quest X for the Wii, like Monster Hunter 3’s transition to Wii last year, is the first of many such announcements. From here on out, it won’t be a smattering of hardcore games and an ocean of minigame-collection shovelware on the Wii. From here on out, the very best developers in the world are going to be put to work on Wii development kits by publishers. Because that’s what people own to play videogames. It also means that the extended console lifecycle for the current crop of consoles is all the more likely. HD games aren’t going anywhere, but the talent has to start making Wii games if they want some of that Nintendo money.

Two million Wiis. In a month. That is insane.

(Link: GameLife)

(Image: © Sebastião Salgado/ AMAZONAS Images: With the men away in the cities, the women carry their goods to the market of Chimbote. Region of Chimborazo, Ecuador, 1998. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition," Aperture, New York, 2000, p.276-277.)

Related links:

NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’
If Sales Numbers Mattered, LittleBigPlanet's Commercial Would Be Appealing
Capcom to Date, By the Numbers
Nintendo's Paint Change

The Portable Xbox 360 and Hand Warmer

Nadia Oxford — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:22:00 GMT

Here's something for you to lust for through the weekend: a portable Xbox 360 put together by a smart man who calls himself Ben Heck.

With this, you can play Xbox 360 games on the go. You can even transfer your profile data from your less cool, more stationary Xbox 360 to this little wizard. You can keep your bread warm over the vents, too.

This portable Xbox 360 was assembled in the shell of a laptop, with some obvious modifications. Now you can Red Ring on the go, or not. Heck has taken pains to make sure the unit doesn't overheat, including sexy copper wiring and enough air ducts to ventilate a subway system.

I wonder if Heck can reduce the size just a smidge more to make something more Asus EEE-sized. We'd all die of the cute, but it'd be worth it.

Related Links:

Microsoft Might Just Hate You
The New Xbox Experience: A Brief Reaction
My Life As a Red Ring Statistic

My Life as a Red Ring Statistic

Bob Mackey — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:30:00 GMT

I jumped on the current-gen bandwagon a little late; last February, to be specific, when my freelance writing skills suddenly and unexpectedly became profitable. In order to stay relevant, I had to upgrade; so I picked up an XBox 360 and a Wii roughly around the same time of the year. The Wii was something I always wanted but could never find, while the 360 always filled me with justifiable anxiety. Undoubtedly, 2007 was the Year of the Red Ring of Death, and the talk of XBoxes expiring in mass quantities kept me far, far away from Microsoft's machine. But by early 2008, I assumed all of the problems had been worked out. Surely, after all of that mess, a newly-purchased 360 would be free of console cancer. Right? Right?

You'll never guess what happened last night.

After a short session with Burnout: Paradise was interrupted by an uncommon freeze-up, I restarted my 360 to find that a few seconds in the menu was all it took to make it lock up again. Then I saw the ominous sign I've only heard about in legends and podcasts: three little lights on the front of my console cheerily told me that I was completely fucked.

I could be angry about this, but I'm really not. Microsoft is sending out a pre-paid mailable casket for free repairs, so I'm not exactly out 300 bucks. Also, this is probably the best time of the year for my 360 to die; with finals week just on the horizon, I need every excuse I can to stay as far away from video games as possible, lest I live the rest of my adult life in a box. But the real reason why I'm not using the Internet to dispense my white-hot rage is that, in some weird way, having my 360 die has given me some sort of strange gaming street cred. It sounds silly, I know; but now I can stand in solidarity with all of my brothers whose 360s bit the big one.

But more importantly, through the power of anecdotal evidence, it seems like even newer, post-fiasco 360s aren't free from the Red Ring. Anyone out there have similar stories to back up this hypothesis?

Related Links:

Microsoft Might Just Hate You
Please, Please Don’t Forget Xbox Community Games
Thanks, Microsoft, For Throwing Avatars Back To 1998.

Rock Star Designer Fallout: Team Ninja’s Post-Itagaki Future

John Constantine — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

While the videogame-designer-as-rock-star phenomenon is still a growing factor across the game development landscape, it’s had a recognizable poster boy for close to a decade. The be-sun-spectacled Tomonobu Itagaki is gaming’s very own Noel Gallagher, a mouthy, arrogant source of great quotes with a spotty creative track record, but who’s inarguably responsible for a couple of masterpieces. He’s also a magnet for controversy. Even beyond his inflammatory comments about rival game franchises, namely Tekken and Devil May Cry, Itagaki has been at the center of multiple legal entanglements with his former publisher, Tecmo. First, it was charges of sexual harassment. Then, this past June, Itagaki quit Tecmo after shipping Ninja Gaiden 2 and immediately sued the publisher for not delivering on promised pay bonuses.

This is the problem with the rock star designer phenomenon. In the aftermath of Itagaki’s departure from Tecmo, everyone in the industry was asking what’s next for Itagaki and what is his beleaguered publisher – Tecmo’s president resigned shortly after Itagaki left and they were nearly acquired by Square-Enix after that, before agreeing to merge with Koei – going to do without him. No one really asked what Team Ninja, the team that Itagaki founded, was going to do without their public face. How does a development team recover when their image, an identity that’s secured them a devoted audience more than the games they’ve made, has walked away?

Well, the verdict’s still out on that one. Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt sat down with Itagaki’s successors, Yosuke Hayashi – Hayashi directed the Playstation 3 port of Team Ninja’s first Ninja Gaiden, a game publicly panned by Itagaki – and Hitoshi Hasegawa, and Team Ninja’s future is still an unknown. Both Hayashi and Hasegawa put on a brave public face, discussing this console generations’ still-growing potential, the team’s satisfaction in their work, and their enthusiasm for those machines. But neither commit to specific, new projects, nor what they might be interested in doing with the new creative freedom that comes from an auteur’s departure.

I wonder if it even matters, really. Do people buy Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games because of Team Ninja and Itagaki’s reputation or because of those brands? Considering the emphasis Microsoft has put on Itagaki and the team’s name since the Xbox 360’s launch, you have to think that it’s at least a factor. Personally, I think that Tecmo will continue to sell these franchise games with or without the Team Ninja name on them. But I’ve been wrong before.

What do you think, everyone? Is Team Ninja hurt by the loss of their rock star?

Related links:

Game Designers: Rockstars, Auteurs, Dweebs?
Where Will You Go, Tecmo? What Will Happen to Our Love?
The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?
Watcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden - Dragon Sword
Whatcha Playing: The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS

Watcha Playing: The Palette Cleanser

John Constantine — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:45:00 GMT

The past six weeks have been teeming with meaty, action games. I’ve been working through them slowly but surely, like an elegant seven course meal. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was thick, hot comfort fare, a brief appetizer of sloppy design coated in delicious Stormtrooper and rancor killing action. The game’s a buggy mess, really, the gaming equivalent of empty calories, but definitely satisfying. Then there was the dynamic horror duo of Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming, a soup and salad combo built to terrify. They didn’t really scare, but instead delivered visceral body simulations. Both games succeeded by making you constantly aware of your avatar’s physical presence and the heft of their actions, and they achieved this through a careful synergy between atmosphere and play. Yakuza 2 was truly the main course, a game I had no expectations for whatsoever that turned into an all time favorite. Its broad adventure, pulp tale of cops and crooks, and simple but ceaselessly engaging fisticuffs were nourishing, more substantial than anything released on current gen consoles. For dessert, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Another bonafide surprise, Ecclesia turned out to not be another retread through Igarashi’s decade-old formula, but a challenging successor to Castlevania 2 with fierce action whose variety and elegance was exceeded only by the game’s environments. Yes, it’s been a great month of big games, but it’s been the small things I’ve played in between them, games I’ve played for no more than a handful of minutes here and there, that have given the most *ahem* food for thought.

The palette cleansers, as it were, aren’t what you might expect either. These quick play sessions, no more than fifteen or twenty minutes, haven’t been with simplistic small titles. Far from it actually. The ones I keep returning to are Wipeout HD, Mega Man 9, the original Katamari Damacy, and Castle Crashers, all games that sport demanding mechanics, all games that get very stressful very quickly. Hairpin turns at high speed in Wipeout and precision jumps toward clandestine robot master confrontations don’t exactly seem like the ingredients for refreshment, but they’ve been restorative between the larger games. What makes these games perfect palette cleansers isn’t their immediacy, nor is it their lack of an expansive narrative. The key characteristic is that they don’t demand a serious investment in their world before and after. You don’t have to remember what you were on your way to do before your last save, what sidequests you’ve half completed. You simply need to know how to control them, and all of them take practice to control well.

Strange as it is to say, after recently starting a game of Fable 2, I immediately thought that it would make for an excellent palette cleanser. The game may be huge in scope and have a sweeping story to tell, but its play and guiding hand towards objectives don’t ask much of you beyond an understanding of the world’s rules. Molyneux’s made a sprawling RPG that’s less of a filet mignon and more of a small dish of sherbert. I’m wondering what other fall blockbusters may hide the same quality.

What are some of your favorite palette cleansers, everyone?

Related links:

The 61FPS Review: Dead Space
Katamari in the Classroom, Part 1
Style Over Substance: Why I'm In Love With WiiWare's "Art Style"
Screen Test: Star Wars – The Force Unleashed
Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone
Surprise of the Week: Sega Releases a Good Game
Impressions: Fable 2
Gears of LittleBig Fable Music: Considering the First-Party Blitz
New Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Pics
Suffering Castlevania Fatigue

Gears of LittleBig Fable Music: Considering the First-Party Blitz

John Constantine — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:30:00 GMT

October brought its true fury and grandeur to New York today. It took three days, but the nattering leftovers of summer finally drifted out to sea like so many dead leaves and left behind the lowlight and intent wind so particular to the month. Walking down the street, I could smell it, looming like bonfire smoke and Halloween parades: game season.

I hold no love for the business structure that sees some ninety-percent of the year’s most ballyhooed games releasing all within a tight ten week window. It leads to sensory overload and, for the devoted gamer, it adds to already-big backlogs. But I’d be lying if I said it isn’t always exciting. All of the hype, all of the previews, leaked screens, developer showcases, and high, high hopes all lead here and it always begins in October. Holiday 2008, as it were, is going to be a particularly interesting season considering that it is gaming’s first to witness true third-party agnosticism. Nigh on every publisher from East and West is releasing their biggest games on any and all platforms available. (There are rare exceptions. See Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles, Valve’s Left4Dead, and a number of Wii titles.) This brings even closer scrutiny to the console holders' offerings; more than ever, first-party games need to be system sellers. They have to act as ambassadors, convincing casual and hardcore gamers alike that if they put money into such and such a system, there will be more where that came from.

I’m fascinated by what the Big Three are bringing to the table and how those games reflect their mutual identities. Nintendo is Nintendo, releasing just two Wii games, with the new god of the Touch Generation, Wii Music, and its long tail economics prophet, Animal Crossing: City Folk. I have no idea how people will receive Wii Music giving Guitar Hero’s ubiquity. If everyone with a Wii is already used to one type of music game, one that requires you to actually, you know, play, will they actually want to pay fifty dollars for a gimped version that offers none of the manufactured exhibitionism?

Microsoft has got the quantity and the most traditional variety. Between Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, and (possibly) Halo Wars, they’ve constructed a blanket of sequels covering the genres of old so thoroughly, it’s a wonder most players don’t curl up inside and take a nap. Microsoft is also taking two more stabs at currying casual favor with You’re in the Movies and Lips. Gears will do spectacularly (though not Halo spectacular), Fable will do well, and provided it actually comes out, Halo Wars will sell on its name alone, but it remains to be seen if Microsoft can finally, after so many attempts, steal a slice of Nintendo’s pie. Kids don’t know who Banjo is and it’s not clear that the young adults who do still care, You’re in the Movies doesn’t seem like an obvious draw, and Lips has Singstar to deal with in Europe and America’s apparent ambivalence towards purely karaoke games. Low, low price or not, the Xbox 360 still looks to be the gamers game box during the blitz.

And then there’s Sony. Two of Sony’s four games are pure Playstation standards, totems of a threadbare empire: the basketball game and the racing game. NBA ’09: The Inside and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift should do respectably, catering to the audience they’ve always had on Sony’s boxes (though Motorstorm is filling in for Gran Turismo and Namco’s seemingly adrift Ridge Racer series.) Though, admittedly, that audience is not quite so big as it once was. Insomniac’s Resistance 2 is also interesting, the sort of first-person shooter heavy on single-player, narrative thrills and massive multiplayer variety that gamers were desperate for in 2007, before Halo 3 came out. Given the success of the original, though, and Insomniac’s pedigree, Resistance 2 could be a break out moment for Sony when it goes head to head with Gears 2.

Sony’s fourth game, due in just two weeks, is this fall’s true wild card. I have absolutely no idea what LittleBigPlanet is going to do when it finally comes out, whether the massive marketing push Sony’s put behind it has impregnated the world’s mind with that game’s intimidating possibilities and inviting façade. It’s impossible to say that LBP will draw in a traditional audience. As much as it’s a platformer, the fact of the matter is that the game can be anything you damn well want to be. It could change everything, a game that fundamentally alters the mainstream’s perception of what a game can be, or it can shrivel and die on the vine, a fondly remembered ambition years ahead of its time. I honestly have no idea what to expect from LittleBigPlanet and that’s exciting in and of itself.

Game season’s started. You can feel it, taste it, and see it all around. Get ready, dear reader. We’re going to have some very tired thumbs by the time 2009 comes knocking.

Related links:

Lowering the Standard: Why Nintendo’s Hardcore vs. Casual Commitments Aren’t the Problem
Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference
Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."
Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet
E3 Day 4: No Blades, No Bows. Leave Your Weapons Here.
E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption

The Curious Case of Playstation Home

John Constantine — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

I sometimes forget that Playstation Home, Sony’s proposed Frankenstein Monster that blends Xbox Live-like online service with an American Apparel-ad-meets-Second Life 3D space, even exists. Following its debut at GDC 2007, I was intrigued by the idea, but in the intervening eighteen months, Home has yet to materialize in any meaningful way. A closed beta trial of the service launched way back in April 2007, preceding a tentative launch later that fall, and that beta has since been extended half a dozen times. Home’s actual launch is out there, somewhere in the unknowable vaporware-future, and thankfully so. According to any and all hands-on reports from beta testers, Home is a ghost town, empty but for a scant few trendy avatars wandering the eerie Logan’s Run-style wasteland, hunting for an awkwardly animated dance party that may never happen.

The public showings of Home’s game themed rooms, like a Warhawk battle planning lounge where matches can be launched from, have been intriguing, but still they’re still just a half-formed suggestion of a possibly good idea. Even 1up’s recent tour of a close-to-finished “Uncharted Bar”, a saloon area tied to the absolutely brilliant Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, gives only a hint of what visiting the space and using the service will actually be like. Even after considering the breadth of Home’s features – the trophy rooms, user apartments, interactive movie theaters, mini-games – I still have absolutely no idea what the service’s actual purpose is. Yeah, it’s interesting that you made this, Sony, but what the hell is the point?

Personally, I think the best possible thing that Sony could do with Home at this point is to take a page from Microsoft’s new frontend strategy, and start imitating Nintendo. Not by changing Home’s hipster avatars into cutesy caricatures, but by further evolving Home’s Second Life mallscape into something that could actually be considered a game in its own right. Nintendo’s already built the model for this move in Animal Crossing; rather than having Playstation users purchase faux-Ikea furniture for their trophy-laden domiciles, let them find things in the environment. Incorporate NPCs or even moderator run avatars that ask you to perform tasks or reward players with the best billiards scores. And if Sony wants to keep things in the trendy category, why not incentivize players to make Home a “green” space and then encourage them to power down the Playstation for awhile or even launch Folding At Home. Public interest in Home, and excitement for Sony’s online strategy, will only happen when it becomes clear that Home is more than a barrier between you and playing games with friends.

Related links:

The Strange Case of Hype
SCEE Playstation Day 2K8 Roundup: Killzone 2, Home, Little Big Planet Dated
Progress Quest: Playstation 3 Growing Up and The General Beauty of Firmware Updates
The Natural World of Little Big Planet

Screen Test: Fable 2

John Constantine — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

For all of the hate the original Fable got for not living up to Peter Molyneux’s wild claims about how the game’s role-playing would provide a nigh on life changing level of depth and complexity, I adored it. It was a perfectly paced little nugget of fun, about fifteen hours of content, satisfying combat, and some neat (for its time) character customization. Even if it didn’t quite let you live the full hero’s life it originally promised to, it still offered some impressive opportunity for moral choice in a game world, choices whose consequences are far more interesting than the ones found in similar games five years later. I’m still not too sure what to expect from Fable 2. I feel as though its been flying under the press radar since it was announced. Even though its all but done right now, no preview or interview has given a sense of what the full game experience is going to be like. Right now, it just sounds like Fable but bigger. These screens certainly bear that out. As always, Lionhead bangs out some pleasantly exaggerated human caricatures, homey looking fantasy villages and forests, and some nice and spooky enemies. Maybe that’s why Fable 2 is still flying under the radar. Instead of being billed as a paradigm-altering juggernaut, it’s being sold as what it looks like: videogame comfort food.

(Link: Xboxygen via NeoGAF)

Previous Screen Tests:

Final Fantasy Dissidia
Fragile
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Silent Hill Homecoming
Fallout 3
Alone in the Dark
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Where Will You Go, Tecmo? What Will Happen to Our Love?

John Constantine — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

This has been something of a tumultuous year for Tecmo. In the past twelve months, they’ve shipped just four games, three of which are Ninja Gaiden games. The fourth, Fatal Frame IV for Wii, wasn’t even developed in house (it was handled by Suda 51’s Grasshopper Manufacture.) None of these games were actually published by Tecmo, relying on companies as diverse as Eidos, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Nintendo for distribution. In June, their public face and star designer, the outspoken, boozing womanizer Tomonobu Itagaki, quit the company days after Ninja Gaiden II released to middling reviews. In August, their president resigned and Square-Enix tried to take over the company. Today, Tecmo announced they’ll be the latest Japanese company to find refuge from shrinking domestic business by consolidating. Their new partner will be Koei.

Tecmo, I’m worried about you. Times are tough for Japanese developers developing traditional games for home consoles. We’ve had wonderful times together and I’m still looking forward to Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff this fall. Remember all the good times we had with Tecmo Bowl? Yeah. Corporate mergers are a good thing for Japanese developers. Look at Namco-Bandai, that’s gone well! That totally cut down on all those terrible licensed anime games Bandai made. Mergers are also good for creativity. Sega totally kept their strong creative streak after ducking out of the hardware business and merging with Sammy. Look at Square and Enix! They keep on making the same new, adventurous software they did fifteen years ago when they don’t have to. Why, they could just keep on cranking out things with the words Final and Fantasy on them and make a buck.

…

Bottom line, I’m concerned about Tecmo retaining their identity after the merger. They are, after all, merging with the house of Dynasty Warriors. Tecmo doesn’t always release great games, but they have a rich history of fun and interesting games. It would be a shame to see them just fade away.

(Link: Edge Online)

Related links:

Trailer Review: Tecmo Bowl – Kickoff
Whatcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?

R.I.P. Xbox 720 and Playstation 4: The Future of Gaming

John Constantine — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:00:00 GMT

When Dennis Dyack laid out his vision for the One-Console Future, he theorized that the extinction of multiple videogame consoles wasn’t just a utopian possibility “where games would become better in quality, cheaper, and more widely available.” He said it was inevitable. I’ve never agreed with Mr. Dyack, but I don’t necessarily think he’s too far off. As Wedbush Morgan’s resident maverick Michael Pachter says in the latest episode of GameTrailers’ Bonus Round, the console war is already on the road to being less about technological difference’s as it is about a war of branding. Not who has the better games, graphics, and controllers, but whose name is cooler. I think that’s true. But it’s only one possibility.

The overall subject of Bonus Round this week is the future of videogames. What will we be playing in seven or eight years, during what would traditionally be the next generation of consoles, and what will we be playing those games on? Geoff Keighly sat down with Pachter, former editor in chief of EGM Dan Hsu, and Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley to discuss the subject and their dialogue got me thinking about Dyack’s land-of-milk-honey-and-no-proprietary-technology predictions. Both Blackley and Pachter agree that eventually, as social infrastructure continues to grow as the driving factor behind all entertainment and artistic expression, videogame consoles will naturally consolidate along with every consumer device in an effort to provide unified access to a user’s personal experience. Your games, your friends list, your profile, photos, family trees, etc. all linked in with everything you use, including your game console. The games themselves, from Pachter’s point of view, have solidified as content; much like television programs between the ‘60s and today, the format has reached its final form, the only evolution left being delivery and a polishing of presentation. Dan Hsu, however, proposes that the console market has been indelibly changed by the Wii. Going forward, Sony, Microsoft, and whomever else’s consoles will diversify into different experiences defined by inputs like the Wii’s motion controller or balance board.

That’s the true shape gaming’s future. Blackley and Pachter aren’t wrong that functionality between every consumer device will continue to converge to satisfy our new communal needs, but this doesn’t ensure a Dyackian console. No, videogames are too young and are changing too quickly. They are in their adolescence as a form of expression. But the format, how we touch these stories, diversions, and competitions, is just being born.

Related links:

Too Much Crap: The Gamer’s Lament
The Madden IQ and The Future of Competitive Gaming
Counterpoint: Too Many Games?
Serious Business: Dennis Dyack Blames the Internet

All Ages: Viva Piñata and Building Games For Children

John Constantine — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

I got no end of grief from Peter Smith when I started playing Pokémon Diamond a couple of months back. Pete’s no stranger to mindless grinds; the man’s confessed his many replays of the NES Final Fantasy games. No, he was opposed to Pokémon because, “It’s for f$?!ing babies, man.” The argument confused me. After all, Pete, like me and the rest of 61 FPS’ team of outlaw journalists, was raised on the 8-bit era’s simple designs as conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo. Though Pokémon’s billion-dollar audience is mostly made up of the Trapper-Keeper and Lunchables set, the game itself is in the age-and-gender-neutral mode that’s made Nintendo the corporate success they are today. “Family Friendly” is the accepted term but it’s just a media savvy way of saying that games like Pokémon, Mario, Brain Age, and Animal Crossing can be played and loved by very young players, but they aren’t games explicitly for children. He did get me thinking, though: Have I ever actually played a game designed specifically with very young players in mind? Not the Reader Rabbit-style edutainment so many kids have been subjected to since the early-80s. Just regular, old, played-for-fun videogames.

My first exposure to Viva Piñata was marked by cynicism. Microsoft’s monumentally expensive acquisition of Rare was just under four years old when it was announced and the partnership had yielded dubious results; bad sequels, middling remakes, one atrocious new IP, and another that had been years in development on three separate consoles before it was finally released. Between the animated series and the variety of brightly colored critters to gather in the game, Piñata seemed like a soulless and pointed marketing machine built for no other reason than to make Microsoft some of that proverbial Pokémon money. So it came as a surprise when the game turned out to be both a commercial flop (relatively speaking) and a critical success, praised for its peaceful, eccentric presentation while being ignored by gamers and parents alike. I never got around to playing the first, but its reputation brought me to Viva Piñata’s sequel, Trouble In Paradise, free of cynicism and curious about what I’d find. Turns out it’s a reputation well-earned. Even though Piñata is a brazen fusion of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing and Pokémon – surrounded by strange, brightly colored characters, you are given free reign to alter a seemingly mundane plot of land to your gardener-heart’s content but are tasked with gathering hordes of diverse fantasy creatures in order to level up and expand your domain – it is impeccably made, its charms difficult to resist.

What’s most impressive about Viva Piñata, though, is that it is explicitly designed for children. Where family friendly fare like Pokémon relies on tried-and-true game design tropes to remain accessible (simple but abundant text explanations, limited buttons, menus comprised mostly of lists, etc,) Viva Piñata relies on the language of children’s media to invite players in. When beginning a game, or garden if you prefer, you’re introduced to Leafos, a masked, soft-voiced woman who guides you through your first tasks. Rather than burden you with sheaves of instruction, Leafos points you to a small red and white symbol that will appear over your next action on the screen. The target can point to things as simple as your menu button or one of the first piñatas to enter your garden. She’ll leave you to find your own path, but when you succeed in any task in the game, she praises you for the achievement and briefly explains why what you’ve done progresses the game. You’re also scolded for bad behavior. Hit someone with a gardening tool, you get a warning. Do it again, and you’re punished by having your tool taken away. Over the game’s first two hours, you’re introduced to the other colorful characters who live around your garden and aid you in your endeavors, a cast whose similarity to Fred Rogers and Jim Henson’s compatriots is hard to ignore. After those initial hours though, you’re set free to explore and play. The game teaches and encourages the player through positive reinforcement in a secure environment rather than through text-based instruction and trial-and-error. Its hand-holding is never condescending or frustrating, merely helpful.

There’s the difference between a game made for children and any other. Viva Piñata, like Pokémon, can be enjoyed by everybody, but its design is built around how a child learns. It isn’t the toys surrounding it, just how it’s made.

Related links:

To Be a Pokémon Master
Going Back in There: My Very First Hour With Pokémon
The B.Beard All-Stars: Hour Eight of Pokémon
Common: Rare Makes Bad Games
Raised on the Stuff

Everyone Will be Able to Rock

John Constantine — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

At the end of June, my concerns for the future of videogames' burgeoning rock star genre were growing by the hour. Activision was waving their new drum kit in EA’s face while Konami tried to get people to like their music games outside of Japan. The big problem? None of those companies appeared to give a damn that they were flooding a market and audience already drowning under a torrent of plastic instruments. Not to mention that none of those instruments were guaranteed to be compatible with games that didn’t come packaged with alongside them. Yeah, Guitar Hero 3 and its electronic axe might be one of the ten best selling games in the history of games but that doesn’t mean the genre bubble can’t burst. Today, another faceless company has helped to allay my fears.

And, would you believe it, it’s Sony doing the allaying.

The once haughty Japanese giant stated on their Playstation blog that they have reached an agreement with Activision, EA/MTV, and Konami to allow every single publisher’s rock & roll instruments will work with every publisher’s games on the Playstation 3. Bought Rock Revolution but want to get in on Rock Band 2’s killer track list? Go for it. Feel like using that gorgeous new Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit with Konami’s new opus? Fine, have fun. Not only that, but SCEA also said that, though it isn’t happening just yet, they’re working on a fix for the original Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 as well.

This is the first step on the road to peripheral-based music games finally coming into their own. Guitar Hero made them an institution but this agreement will help cement the instrument set as an expandable platform that doesn’t necessitate annual hardware revisions. What else needs to happen to guarantee this glorious, melodious future? Microsoft and Nintendo need to step up to the plate and make the same arrangements on their respective consoles. It’s likely Microsoft has already got this in the bag, but Nintendo? They enjoy screwing over their customers a little too much, methinks. All that would remain after that would be a centralized music store that supported every game and hosted a library akin to iTunes that offered procedurally generated tracks based on the engines developed by Harmonix, Neversoft, and whomever else gets in on the action.

The future, she is bright this day.

(Link: via Joystiq)

Related links:

Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
Why Dontcha Cry About it, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band
Warner Music Wants More Royalties

Sony Fans, Meet Your New Totem: Sackboy

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:45:00 GMT

Your dear mother has undoubtedly told you at some point, "You need to have a wife. It's good to have a wife." Maybe you agree or maybe you disagree, but either way, singles feel pressured to hunt down a mate even while insisting to themselves that the single life is totally rad.

Sony's adopted your mother's stance on companionship, but instead of spouses it's talking about mascots. "Every system needs a mascot. It's good to have a mascot. Here, Sackboy now represents Sony."

"Gee Sony, Sackboy is awfully cute, but is it a good idea to make him the spokes...doll for the company? We don't actually know how LittleBigPlanet will sell. And honestly, I'm okay with Sony's lack of a mascot--"

"It's good to have a mascot. Now start making babies."

If you feel wary, it's okay. Sony's previous attempts to match us up with digital companions resulted in lukewarm relationships before sputtering out: Crash Bandicoot, Lara Croft, Kratos. Even Microsoft fared far better by branding itself with Master Chief.

What do you think about Sackboy as Sony's new representative? LittleBigPlanet will undoubtedly be awesome, but even though we gamers are a grasping, superstitious lot, there's never any guarantee of a title's success. LittleBigPlanet might launch with gusto and burn brightly before crashing to earth like a failed science project. Also consider that the Internet's favourite hobby is to adore a big-name title for a few months, then dump on it (cough cough Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Grand Theft Auto IV cough hork).

I initially thought Sackboy looked like a hanged gingerbread man. He creeps me out a little. My husband was horrified at my comparison. I haven't yet told him that I changed my mind and decided that Sackboy looks like the Gimp from Pulp Fiction...if the Gimp was supremely happy about his position in Zed's shop, I mean.

Related Links:

LittleBigPre-Order Confusion
E3 Opinion: Because It's Cool To Complain

E3 Opinion: Because It's Cool To Complain...

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Totally Possible Things The Big Three Could Have Done To Make Me Happy With Their E3 Conferences:

Sony: Without a doubt, the one PS3 game that people are most excited about is LittleBigPlanet, and its use for a fiscal presentation in Sony's Conference was charming and delightful. Wouldn't it have been great if they'd done just a little more? Picture this: The lights go down on stage, and up on screen we see a recreation of the stage built out of popsicle sticks and yarn. Sackboy, in Jack's choice of Boston Celtics garb, walks in, lip-syncing perfectly with Tretton's voice (via PlaystationEye, which they've announced will be a feature of the game) and welcoming other Sackboys dressed as if from Resistance 2, Ratchet & Clank, and DC Universe Online, each lip-synched to their own guest as the cardboard frame behind them cycles through string-suspended images of each of those games. Totally possible based on what we've seen so far. For that matter, if LittleBigPlanet can easily utilize photographs, graphics and music from your hard drive, odds are good you can also paste videos onto little styrofoam movie screens. Just a couple of presentations in that alternate arena, then snap back out to reality. Would have made one hell of an impression without slighting any of the games involved. LittleBigPlanet should be to all Sony presentations from now on what Keynote is to all Apple presentations.

Nintendo: Rhythm games are popular right now, irreverent mini-game collections are the biggest sellers on Wii right now, the DS is the only gaming platform outselling the Wii, and Nintendo is just sitting on a game that perfectly ties all of that together, a game that they actually had playable at their booth! Just talk about Rhythm Heaven, Nintendo! No, it probably wouldn't have won over most of the crowd that was upset by the lack of a true "hardcore" title on display, but it definitely would have attracted a lot of positive attention to a buzzworthy game that may very well be ignored in the marketplace. Why bother showing WiiSports Resort, a game guaranteed to sell like Pabst Blue Ribbon at a college bar? With the insane design team from WarioWare and maliciously addictive rhythm gameplay, Rhythm Heaven may very well have stolen the show, if only given the opportunity.

Microsoft: While they arguably had the most crowd-pleasing conference of the big three, there were two things that would have made me giddy with Microsoft's show. First, more details on Lips! I know its just a karaoke game, but it stole my heart! I need more! Second – and this one's stretching a bit – confirming that long-rumored motion controller, preferably with a trailer/demo of an HD Boom Blox. Man, that would've been sweet!

Related articles:
So I Hear Folks Are Upset With Nintendo...
Penny Arcade Sums Up E3
E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony's Clothes, and Nintendo's True Disruption
E3 Day One: Microsoft, Sony, Final Fantasy, and For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ain't No Party Like A Motion-Control Party!
Make The Music With Your Games, Kids!
SCEE Playstation Day 2K8 Roundup: Killzone 2, Home, LittleBigPlanet Dated

E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption

John Constantine — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Despite their show-ending bombshell announcement, Microsoft’s E3 press conference was something of a non-event. The house of X showed off titles that had already been seen or leaked, announced a handful of downloadable titles that weren’t exactly setting folks’ brains on fire, and revealed an embarrassing attempt to cash-in on the Mii phenomenon with Xbox Live Avatars. It’s embarrassing enough that the Avatars look so similar to Nintendo’s Miis, but it’s even worse that they were designed by Rare, the less-than-profitable appendage Microsoft cut away from Nintendo in the first place.

It wouldn’t have been difficult for Sony and Nintendo to one-up Microsoft’s event, but neither of the console makers did, both of them focusing more on sales data and business strategies than on software. In many ways, Nintendo’s 2008 conference was identical to 2007’s, with talk of DS and Wii growth, and Nintendo’s success in catering to female gamers. The chief difference was that there was even less Nintendo software on display this year. Nintendo’s only games were the much-rumored Animal Crossing for Wii (it’s Animal Crossing, but with voice support and skyscrapers), a peculiar beach-themed Wii Sports sequel that takes advantage of the MotionPlus (the Wii’s sixth peripheral), and the baffling Wii Music. It’s an air-instrument simulator. It’s not even a game. You just flail about pretending you’re playing an instrument, like what children do with sticks except it costs money. Sony’s two-hour-long session was particularly interesting following Nintendo’s, given their emphasis on their three successful consoles (Nintendo tried to play up a three-console strategy in 2004 when the DS was still an unproven oddity. The Game Boy Micro, their third pillar, crumbled upon release.) All in all, Sony’s conference was very much like Microsoft’s: previously seen/leaked games, a comprehensive new film-and-television digital-delivery service, and a couple of not-quite-earth-shattering new game reveals.

To be fair, both Nintendo and Sony had revealing moments during their conferences. For all of Sony’s emphasis on positive sales numbers, the biggest spin of their presentation came in the form of testimonials from Western developers expressing their love for the Playstation 3 hardware now that they’ve acclimated to its unique architecture. Bethesda, 2K Marin, EA’s Madden team; all developers whose debuts this generation were on Xbox 360, all developers who previously had trouble bringing their titles to PS3. It may not have been a bombastic moment, but it was one more vital step in improving public perception of Sony. It’s just a shame that the software on display didn’t do the same.

It was President Satoru Iwata who had the only interesting moment of Nintendo’s show. In the few moments he spoke before introducing Animal Crossing: City Folk, Iwata discussed Nintendo’s Brain Age, Nintendogs, and New Super Mario Bros., DS titles that have all enjoyed strong sales for over two years straight. He also pointed out the success his company’s titles have enjoyed throughout the calendar year. He may not have used these exact words, but this is Nintendo’s true disruption. Not changing play paradigms or pulling in a new audience. Nintendo has successfully altered the industry and the way games are consumed, further proof of the dissolution of the holiday release cycle and the viability of long-tail marketing for all games. Cole was right. We don’t need E3 anymore. The industry that necessitated it no longer exists.

Welcome to the true next-gen.

Related links:

E3 Day One: Microsoft, Sony, Final Fantasy, and For Whom the Bell Tolls
Wii MotionPlus – Say What, Nintendo?
Do We Need E3?

Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories

Nadia Oxford — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:56:00 GMT

It was generally accepted that this year's subdued E3 wouldn't have much to offer in comparison to the big shiny blitzes that used to make game journalists hang themselves with laptop power cords. Goes to show what we know: things got exciting right off the bat with Square-Enix's announcement that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Oh, you youngsters understandably have ants in your pants over Square-Enix's sudden shift, but I've been down this road before. Yes sir, I remember when I was riding high on the thrill of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. Nintendo finally claimed supremacy in the sixteen-bit console wars thanks in part to their great RPGs, and we automatically assumed Square would develop for the N64---

Zzzzzz...

Zzzzz-- ! Ah! Huh? Oh, sorry. If I sit in the sun for too long, I doze off like an old dog.

I remember being torn over the announcement that Square was giving up on cartridges and would be developing for the CD-based Playstation. I had my money saved up for a Nintendo 64; I had swallowed all the propaganda and I was a Nintendo Fangirl Machine.

I'm amazed at how easily games have been taking me back ten, fifteen years lately. Between Mega Man 9, Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS and now Square-Enix acting naughty, I really feel like a kid again--

And Simple Minds just came on Last.fm! There you go!

Playstation 3 owners are doubtlessly feeling some of the mild anger and confusion I felt when Square ditched Nintendo. I like the idea of major Final Fantasy installments not belonging to any console in particular, but everyone knows I'm a Communist. "Aaaaaaah, Motherland!!!"

Related Links:

E3 Day One: Microsoft Sony, Final Fantasy and For Whom the Bell Tolls
Screen Test: Final Fantasy XIII Versus
Turning Japanese: Microsoft's Latest-Ditch Effort to Win the East

E3 Day One: Microsoft, Sony, Final Fantasy, and For Whom the Bell Tolls

John Constantine — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:00:00 GMT

There was a very brief period of crossover time, between 2002 and 2006, when E3 was still a gargantuan, money-wasting event and high-speed internet access was ubiquitous. During these years, gamers across the English speaking world regularly crashed websites following videocasts and liveblogs of press conferences as the biggest game announcements of the year hit the public. In the wake of the old E3’s dissolution and 2007’s lackluster event, the press cycle for the games industry seemingly changed forever; game announcements, platform holder initiatives, and publisher events have been spread out over the last eighteen months, no longer restricted to only a handful of days in the summer leading up to the usual holiday deluge of high-profile releases. The days of “breaking the internet” appeared to be over.

Then Microsoft announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming out for the Xbox 360 and it was the good ol’ days all over again.

Today’s big reveal has not only overshadowed all other big E3 news so far, including all of MS’ other announcements, it’s emblematic of a genuinely important shift in the way we as players are going to consume games going forward. As development costs have risen, third-party game exclusivity has been declining. Square-Enix’s commitment to multi-platform releases is one more nail in its coffin, if not the final one. What this is ultimately going to mean is that videogame consoles are going to further diversify beyond the current generation. It means that consoles are going to stop trying to compete solely on the software front and move into the realm of unique experiences, a la Nintendo’s Wii.

What the announcement means for the current console cycle, where software exclusivity is still the central competition between Microsoft and Sony, is that Sony is in a legitimately dire situation. Disregarding the hyperbole getting tossed about that Final Fantasy XIII was literally all the company had left to hook a mass audience, it was the last of Sony’s third-party exclusive stable. They have now lost Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, and Dragon Quest, the three most-important non-Nintendo franchises in Japan. Their remaining first-party exclusive franchises with a serious global audience are God of War and Gran Turismo, games that simply do not have the appeal of a Halo or a Wii Play.

Tomorrow is going to be a very, very interesting day.

Ain't No Party Like A Motion-Control Party

Derrick Sanskrit — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

There's a lot of buzz and all-but-confirmed rumors swirling about a motion control remote for the XBox 360 and a break-away motion controller for the PS3. While it is obvious that these are a shameless effort to gain favor with the casual audience that's made the Wii so wildly popular, I am excited for one reason: Steven Spielberg's Boom Blox.

The current Wii-exclusive, balls-vs-blocks party puzzler has been universally praised by critics and the few gamers that have picked it up. Its compelling knock-stuff-down gameplay has proven to be a more visceral, transcendent thrill than any other game I've exposed my friends and family to... well... ever. I have friends that come over every weekend now just to knock over each other's castles. The game suffered from criminally poor marketing; I've only seen television advertisements for it in the morning on Toon Disney, in which Steven Spielberg's name is only casually dropped at the very end. We here at 61FPS were all very excited by the pre-release buzz, and I still had a hard time deciding to plunk down the $50 entrance fee on release day for what looked like a glorified Jenga. Whether a result of lousy promotion or a curious price tag, the game has clearly suffered, selling an unimpressive 60k units in its first crucial month.

Shortly before the game's release, EA's Amir Rahimi, senior producer on the game, said "there's definitely the possibility of going to other consoles." At the time, this seemed like a ludicrous statement, as Boom Blox would be absolutely no fun if it didn't feel like you were actually throwing balls at these towers of blocks. However, if both Sony and Microsoft's current-gen consoles had widely available single-handed motion controllers, this unlikely Game of the Year contender may finally find its audience.

Porting Wii games to the XBox 360 or PS3 may become a serious trend. If a Boom Blox port does happen – and is successful – who knows? Any Wii party game could follow the same route. Rayman Raving Rabbids was a huge hit on the Wii and a massive flop on every other platform simply because the game's fun relied almost enitrely on the Wii remote. Carnival Games, controversial though it may be among the hardcore Wii crowd, was an unexpected blockbuster in sales. Nintendo's shiny white box continues to dominate the market, so development on such games would probably still focus on the Wii, but giving publishers the ability to develop a similar experience for all three current-gen consoles simultaneously can only lead to increased resources, production values, and (hopefully) better games.

XBox 360 "Newton" render via Gizmodo

Turning Japanese: Microsoft’s Latest Ditch Effort to Win the East

John Constantine — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Microsoft held a press conference yesterday in Tokyo to show off their upcoming slate of six Xbox 360 role-playing games. Aside from the Japanese edition of 2007’s Mass Effect and a look at Peter Molyneux’s Fable 2, Microsoft showed off four Japanese developed RPGs. Two of which are the latest in entries in Namco and Square-Enix’s long-running Tales and Star Ocean franchises. Microsoft’s also pulled a slight coup with the announcement that Square-Enix’s new IP Last Remnant, developed to appeal to both eastern and western audiences, will now release on Xbox 360 before Playstation 3.

Since the Xbox 360’s release in 2005, Microsoft has been trying to woo Japanese audiences with high-profile role-playing games. Namco’s Trusty Bell: Chopin’s Dream and From Software’s Enchant Arms were the first J-RPGS to see release this console cycle. Microsoft also secured the exclusive rights to Mistwalker’s Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s first post-Square-Enix work. But in the past thirty months, both Trusty Bell and Enchant Arms failed to find a significant audience in Japan and have since been ported to the Playstation 3. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, despite being heavily promoted under Sakaguchi’s name, have also done poorly despite strong debuts. Microsoft’s RPG Premiere Event shows a commitment to a failed tactic. Having the support of both Namco and Square-Enix might have been a winning strategy ten years ago but the fact of the matter is that Japanese gamers have never, and most likely will never, be interested in purchasing an American made game system. While western fashion, film, and food brands have significant cultural currency in Japan, the culture’s taste for consumer products has always been exclusive. Japanese gamers want Japanese systems and Japanese games. Additionally, the pool of Japanese gamers who play home consoles has been on the decline for half a decade as tastes have shifted to quicker, portable experiences.

All of these new RPGs look fantastic. But they won’t make a lick of difference for Microsoft.

NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’

John Constantine — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:00:00 GMT

April’s come to a close and now, under the cold, hard light of math, three things are becoming clear. First, people freaking love Nintendo games. Sure, we already knew that, but over a million people bought Mario Kart for Wii in less than a week. Second, people freaking love Grand Theft Auto. Nearly two million people bought that in even less time. Third, our access to new videogames is going to change dramatically in the very near future. While these numbers may just look like numbers to us, to the people who publish videogames, the people who control when we get to engage these creations, the math is saying that 2008 is different. Tradition dictates that high profile, big hype games are held in reserve for the holiday push from late September through December and the rest of the year is just a slow trickle of quality goods. The math of March and April 2008 says that people will buy many, many games throughout the year, not just around Christmas. What happens now? Going forward, we’re going to see more games, more often. At least, until digital distribution destroys physical media and the whole issue becomes moot.

While the gigantic March sales numbers didn’t keep their drive through April, even with five days of juggernaut sales from Grand Theft Auto 4, all the players put in impressive showings. Wii sales kept pace, down to just 714K units from 721K, but Nintendo DS sales saw a more precipitous decline, down to 414K units from a powerful 698K despite the healthy software debut for both Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon SKUs. GTA4 moved the huge numbers expected, selling 1.85 million units with only days left in the reporting period but it failed to make an impact on HD console sales. Microsoft and Sony saw sales of their home consoles drop below the 200K mark but both companies can expect bigger sales through May thanks to GTA4 momentum and anticipation of marquee June titles Metal Gear Solid 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2. Software sales were cool on the whole. GTA4 and Mario Kart Wii dominated, but no third party was able to replicate the success Ubisoft and EA had in March with the debuts of Rainbox Six Vegas 2 and Army of Two.

Hardware Sales

Wii - 714,200

Nintendo DS - 414,800

PSP - 192,000

Xbox 360 - 188,000

PlayStation 3 - 187,100

PlayStation 2 - 124,400

Software Sales

GTA IV (360) – 1,850,000

Mario Kart Wii -1,120,000

GTA IV (PS3) – 1,000,000

Wii Play – 360,000

Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 326,000

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – 224,000

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness – 202,000

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time – 202,000

Guitar Hero III – 152,000

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) -141,000

Out thanks to both Next-Gen and Kotaku for their coverage.