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Opposable ThumbsThe Art of Technology
Resident Evil: Revelations packs a full horror adventure into a tiny packageFri, 10 Feb 2012 11:30:00 -0600
Last year's Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D always felt like a proof of concept that the series could function on the 3DS, and Capcom has admitted as much in interviews. Though it stood out with impressive visuals and online co-op action, its decision to hack together a collection of existing side modes from previous series entries made it another uninspired option on a platform struggling to pin down an identity.
Resident Evil: Revelations finally breaks free of the series's portable history, which is filled with false starts and half-measures alike. It's an original, full-fledged adventure that looks and feels like it could have debuted on a console—at times, it even tops 2009's Resident Evil 5 for sheer thrills and entertainment.
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Every graphical and technical advance the game industry has seen from Pong to Crysis has been a small step toward the end goal of a real-time, photorealistic 3D world that is truly indistinguishable from a real-world scene. Speaking at the DICE Summit Thursday, Epic Games founder and programmer Tim Sweeney examined the speed and direction of computing improvements and determined that we "might expect, over the course of our lifetime, we'd get to amounts of computing power that come very close to simulating reality."
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You'd think that Tomonobu Itagaki, the rock star developer of successful game franchises like Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series, wouldn't have much to be sad about. But, in a surprisingly personal DICE presentation today, Itagaki shared how a crucial mistake in the game development process sent him into a spiraling depression—and how the movie Armageddon helped bring him out of it.
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For decades now, large parts of the game industry have been striving to create games that are more meaningful—games that can speak to the human condition and tell an impactful story that's deeper than "remember when I shot that guy?" At a DICE Summit presentation today, Twisted Metal designer David Jaffe made an impassioned argument that such efforts have been misguided, and a huge waste of the industry's time and resources.
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If there's anyone who can make sense of the recent, meteoric rise of mobile and social games, it's probably the people behind the golden age of arcade gaming in the early '80s. Just such a group drew a lot of parallels between the two gaming eras at a DICE session today, while also offering some cautionary warnings about following in the arcade's footsteps.
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Cell: Emergence: An AI experiment with the heart of an old-school arcade shooterThu, 09 Feb 2012 12:22:00 -0600
There's an undisguised nostalgia about Cell: Emergence, though it's not quite as bold or overt as other recent blocky 3D games like 3D Dot Game Heroes or Minecraft. Still, the effort from indie developer New Life Interactive uses the mechanics and still-screen storytelling of an aged arcade shooter to deliver a short, cerebral package. And despite its humility, Cell: Emergence's new, understated package recalls a refreshingly old-school way to play 3D shooters.
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Double Fine seeks to cut out publishers with Kickstarter-funded adventureThu, 09 Feb 2012 08:39:00 -0600
It seems industry analysts aren't the only ones questioning the traditional game publishing model these days, as Tim Schafer's Double Fine (Brutal Legend, Costume Quest) has launched a Kickstarter project to crowdsource funding for "a brand-new, downloadable 'Point-and-Click' graphic adventure game for the modern age."
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When people talk about the importance of actually spending money on games, rather than resorting to a used purchase or piracy, the importance of "supporting the developers" is never far from the argument. Yet for a lot of classic titles being repackaged and sold these days, money from new purchases isn't going to the developers at all, but solely to the publishers that own the long-term rights to the titles.
Freelance developer Simon Roth decided to see just how deep this problem goes. He started digging around on Google and talking to his colleagues to determine which developers, if any, were actually receiving a cut of the continuing profits on their work. Last week, he published the results of his research, a list of over 200 classic titles that are currently being sold by publishers without any of the new income going to the actual developers that made the game.
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If you ask people what a game developer does, most of them would give a simple answer—they make games. But if you ask someone what a game publisher does, most casual observers would have a much harder time giving you an answer. And these days, a lot of people in the game industry might have some questions about that, too.
The DICE Summit on Wednesday hosted an interesting discussion of whether the traditional publisher role—which primarily involves supporting developers and marketing their titles—really has a place in a gaming world that's rapidly discarding old ideas and business models.
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Data shows Vita's missing backward compatibility could cost Sony salesWed, 08 Feb 2012 14:25:00 -0600
Kotaku is reporting that Sony will not be bringing its Japanese UMD Passport program to North America, removing the only method for PlayStation Vita owners to play their collection of PlayStation Portable universal media discs (UMDs) on the new handheld (PSP games downloaded from the PlayStation Network will still work on the Vita, however). While this is obviously bad news for anyone who wants to play their battered old copy of Lumines on a slightly larger screen, it made us wonder how important backward compatibility really is to a system's retail success.
We were perfectly ready to speculate wildly on that very topic, but it turns out there's no need. Someone has actually crunched the numbers and tried to develop a statistical model to show just how valuable backward compatibility is for a portable system's overall market share. And the results show that Sony just might pay a price for its decision to ignore all the UMD owners out there.
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The Darkness II: A short, entertaining, by-the-numbers horror shooterWed, 08 Feb 2012 10:40:00 -0600
The Darkness II is one of the most unabashedly and gleefully gory games of this generation, reveling in its own torrents of blood and shredded viscera. While bullets, exploding heads, and tearing through flesh aren’t anything new in the video game world, the brutal Darkness executions take the virtual carnage to a whole new level. Bodies are regularly torn in half (both crosswise and lengthwise), skulls and spinal columns are torn out through mouths, bodies are impaled with thrown objects, and entire digestive tracts are forcibly removed through enemies' nether regions.
Given that, it surprisingly never makes the player feel like they’re in need of a shower when the bloodshed is over. Games like Rogue Warrior and Soldier of Fortune were just as brutally violent, yet their uber-serious undercurrents simply made them feel like exercises in virtual sadism. Last year’s Bulletstorm, on the other hand, was so over-the-top and silly that the blood and guts really didn’t make any impact at all. The Darkness II manages to strike the right balance between the two extremes, not only making it a better game than the ones mentioned above, but also making it superior to its predecessor in many ways.
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Next month's launch of Mass Effect 3 is extending past the usual PS3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms with Mass Effect Infiltrator, an iOS game that will tie in with the console and PC title to provide bonuses and unlock content.
A number of reports from an EA promotional event in New York describe Infiltrator as a third-person shooter in which players work to free prisoners from a Cerberus base. Completed rescues in the iOS title will unlock "exclusive weaponry" and increase players' "Galactic Readiness" rating in Mass Effect 3 according to the reports, helping players to unlock the best ending in the main game. Actions in infiltrator will also affect the larger story in Mass Effect 3.
This isn't the first time the Mass Effect series has appeared on iOS. 2009's Mass Effect Galaxy was a short, top-down shooter that offered an extremely limited tie-in reward with Mass Effect 2 when the game was completed.
EA says Infiltrator will be hitting the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch "soon," presumably ahead of Mass Effect 3's planned March 6 launch.
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In the annals of video gaming, 2005's mind-bending platformer Psychonauts is right up there with Earthbound and Beyond Good and Evil in the ranks of games that have a devoted cadre of fans eagerly demanding sequels. Now, those Psychonauts fans might have a decent chance of getting their wish, thanks to an odd, indirect Internet back-and-forth involving Psychonauts creator Tim Shafer and Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson.
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Kingdoms of Amalur: A great action game in an empty, forgettable worldTue, 07 Feb 2012 11:15:20 -0600
The ubiquity of the action RPG, as an idea, is a little weird when you think about it. It's hard to think of two more disparate genres to try to combine, and usually the attempt ends up leaning too heavily toward one side of the coin or the other. Action RPGs often feel like roleplaying games that replace turn-based combat with overly simple button mashing, or like action games with some cursory, stat-building “RPG elements” thrown in toward the end of development.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning manages a surprising trick, then, in creating an action RPG that feels like a full-fledged action game and a full-fledged RPG. Unfortunately, only one of those two component parts manages to stand on its own in a satisfying way.
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DRM server transition to make some Ubisoft games unplayable starting tomorrowMon, 06 Feb 2012 15:22:00 -0600
While DRM schemes are designed to make sure only legitimate purchasers can play a game, the opposite will be true starting tomorrow for some Ubisoft titles. That's when a planned server migration will temporarily disable the DRM servers for some of the company's Mac and PC titles, making it so only pirates with cracked, DRM-free versions of the games will be able to play.
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Game makers face uphill battle proving copyright infringement in courtMon, 06 Feb 2012 13:52:00 -0600
The idea of copying a successful game concept and profiting off of your own version is practically as old as the game industry itself—just look at the countless Pong clones released in the wake of the Atari original (which itself may have been copied from another source... but that's another story). The idea of game copying has gained added attention in recent weeks, though, as some high-profile social game companies have released games some say are a little too similar to their existing inspirations.
Tiny Tower maker NimbleBit and Bingo Blitz maker Buffalo Studios both took issue with overly familiar titles recently released by Zynga, making their complaints known through large infographics that show near-identical side-by-side screenshots. But Triple Town developer Spry Fox went a step further, actually filing a lawsuit (PDF) against Yeti Town developer 6waves Lolapps, saying the latter company "unabashedly" cloned its popular social game. The lawsuit takes the matter away from the nebulous moral and ethical questions of what constitutes an "original" game idea to the codified legal realm of guilt and innocence. Yet the nature of copyright law as it applies to games, and the existing case law in the area, suggests Spry Fox has an uphill battle in protecting Triple Town in court.
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Weekend Time Waster: Solitaire Blitz brings excitement to lonely card clickingSun, 05 Feb 2012 14:00:00 -0600
Digital forms of Solitaire have been included with Windows since it reached version 3.0, and they may well represent the most widely played video game series this side of Angry Birds, enjoyed by bored cubicle workers and bored, procrastinating students alike. While most serious gamers probably wouldn't put these games top ten picks of all time, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single PC owner that hasn't put in at least a few hours on a machine that has nothing else available.
Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle maker Popcap is targeting this familiar genre with its latest Facebook time-waster, Solitaire Blitz, a supremely addictive and well-crafted offering that adds just the right amount of tension to the zen autonomy of mindlessly clicking cards.
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This week, an animated trailer for an imaginary Zelda game got us wondering why exactly games often can't live up to the thrilling scenes we're shown in pre-release videos. We also looked at the slow redefinition of what an Online Pass can be used for, examined the legality of blocking used games sales, and spent a massively-multiplayer hour as a cat.
Madden NFL and Tecmo Bowl both agree that the Giants are going to win the Super Bowl this weekend. Personally, I'm rooting for stadium collapse.
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Boom to bust: THQ's "revolutionary" uDraw now filling warehouse shelvesFri, 03 Feb 2012 12:55:00 -0600
Back in the long-ago days of the 2010 holiday season, it looked like THQ had a hit on its hands with its out-of-left-field uDraw Game Tablet, a slate-like controller that used a stylus to let players draw on the TV. The company sold 1.7 million of them to Wii owners by early 2011, beating expectations and leading some to speculate that the uDraw might be the biggest game control revolution this side of the Kinect.
Buoyed by the initial success, THQ quickly cranked out uDraw tablets for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and got to work licensing new compatible software from big, family-friendly brands like Kung Fu Panda, Spongebob Squarepants, and Disney Princesses. But that expansion now looks like a colossal mistake, as excess uDraw inventory was a major factor in the huge financial loss reported for the company's recent 2011 holiday quarter.
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Oklahoma lawmaker proposes tax on "violent" video games (and Ultimate Card Games)Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:42:00 -0600
When the US Supreme Court decided last year to extend full First Amendment protections to video games, many likely thought that was the last word on potential legal assaults on the medium. That's not the case though, as an Oklahoma lawmaker has now proposed a special tax to be focused on "violent video games."
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Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place three years after Final Fantasy XIII. Vanille, Fang, Snow and Lightning are gone; either dead, encased in crystal or disappeared to unknown adventures. Serah Farron, Lightning's sister and Snow's fiancé, hides her pain while teaching the children of New Bodhum and helping her friends in NORA. Images of Lightning engaged in an epic battle haunt her dreams, but she knows her sister is gone forever.
What happened to Final Fantasy? The elaborate narrative and groundbreaking graphics of Final Fantasy VII turned the franchise from a significant cult favorite into a mainstream blockbuster in 1997. Since then, though, almost every Final Fantasy has struggled to find the correct balance between game and story, with CGI cut-scenes and anime clichés taking up as much time as the gameplay.
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Double Fine Happy Action Theater redefines what a Kinect "game" can beWed, 01 Feb 2012 15:08:00 -0600
Calling Double Fine Happy Action Theater (DFHAT) a game might not marry well with many people's definition of what a game is. A game usually has clearly stated goals and strictly defined rules that describe how you could fail to reach those goals. In DFHAT, on the other hand, it's literally impossible to either win or fail in any of 18 myraid scenes, which each use the Kinect 3D camera to transform your living room in various ways.
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The instructions underneath VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh's new browser-based MMO ChatChat simply read: "be a cat." These instructions also describe a dream I held between the ages of 5 and 7, so I'm eager to finally see if my dreams were realistic. Below is a short, diary-style description of my first hour as a cat.
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Kazuo Hirai has been named as President and CEO of Sony Corporation. He will take the role on 1 April, and replace Howard Stringer in both roles.
Howard Stringer will become chairman of the board of directors in June, when Yotaro Kobayashi retires. Hirai is also expected to be appointed to the board in June.
Hirai, 51, is currently Sony's executive deputy president and chairman of the company's Computer Entertainment (SCE)—or PlayStation—arm.
He joined the firm in 1984 at Sony Music, before moving to SCE America in 1995, where he played a vital role in the PlayStation's US success. A mainstay amongst PlayStation executives, he replaced Ken Kutaragi as President of Sony Computer Entertainment in 2006.
Stringer, 69, recommended Hirai as his successor, saying that he had "distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation and networked entertainment businesses." Stringer commented, "he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now."
In the announcement, Hirai laid out his plans for the future of Sony. "The path we must take is clear," he said, "drive the growth of our core electronics businesses—primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains."
Sony's next big launch is the PlayStation Vita: the quad-core successor to the PSP which launches on February 22.
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At the heart of the great used game debate are legitimate fears—on both sides of the divide. Gamers are worried about their right to buy and sell games they legally bought without technological hindrance or lost content. Publishers are afraid new game sales are unsustainable when cheaper, functionally identical used versions are available mere days after release. Meanwhile, major retailer GameStop rakes in what's estimated to be billions of dollars from the used game market.
Is there a better way? Mike Kennedy seems to think so. He's setting up a new used game trading site called Parcel Gamer that he thinks can satisfy both publishers and gamers, while also undercutting GameStop's high-margin business model.
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