Heavy Rain Wows and Whoas

I picked up Heavy Rain right away, since I'm done with White Knight Chronicles and FF XIII isn't out yet.  My wife showed some interest in wanting to play through together, so that was extra motivation.  I have to say I'm really impressed with it so far, and it's not the kind of genre I'd think I'd enjoy given that there's not much action to it.  I guess you'd describe the game as an interactive movie/drama, kind of reminds me of old school choose your own adventure books.

Right away you can tell the production values are through the roof.  Attention to detail in scenery, character models, expressions, emotions, and most importantly direction and cinematography.  It sucks you in really quickly too, in that you don't really feel like you are playing a game but are more a part of the story.  It's a lot like a good movie in that regard.  I'm not very far into it yet, so I don't have a lot to say about how it progresses after the first few chapters, but I'm definitely hooked.

It's a shame though that such an excellent game is marred by some pretty horrendous bugs, hence the groans you might be hearing all over the internet.  I was certainly disgusted enough the other night to put it away for a couple of days.  There's been lots of talk of freezing and save corruption bugs, but mine came in the form of audio bugs.  Well, to be fair, one of them was my fault I guess.

When I moved the PS3 to another room, I hooked up the network and optical out for audio, two things I wasn't using the first night I played.  The game downloaded and installed a sizable patch.  Afterwards, I had no sound in the game, but I had sounds in the menu.  I could hear it through HDMI, but not through optical.  I was out of my mind for a good 45 minutes, before I finally saw some mention of DTS 5.1.  My Dolby headset does not support it, yet it was casually checked in the PS3 system menu, which I guess made the game try to use it and resulted in no sound at all.

With that out of the way, I was tired but ready to play.  My reward?  Every 15-20 seconds the audio in the game would cut out, like it's skipping or seeking.  I gave it a good 5 minutes or so to go away with no avail. Completely unplayable since at the least it was annoying and at worst it completely broke the immersion.

I'm ready to go back and see what I can do to fix the problems, like reinstall, try without the patch, etc.  Things I shouldn't have to do but will in order to play the game.  They also need to figure why some of us are getting load times that are easily over 3 minutes in length when others are in the 15-30 second range. My editor at Gaming Age, Jim, suspects it's the space left on your hard drive (very little for me) and the developer seems to concur.

Remote Play for PS2 Games on the PS3/PSP

The PS3 and PSP offer this really awesome technology called Remote Play.  Remote Play allows content to be played on the PS3 (games, movies, music) and streamed onto the PSP remotely.  For games, you can use the PSP controls to play while the video is streamed back to you on the PSP screen.  You might not have ever heard of this, and for good reason.  Sony isn't doing crap with it.

This unofficial listing shows there are hardly more than a handful of PS3/PSN games playable via remote play.  BlazBlue works and works really well.  It's such a convenience to be able to leave the PS3 and screen and play your game elsewhere.  If you're into two generation old games, every PSOne game is playable this way, but what I really want is all the PS2 games.

I figure I have limited time in front of the PS3, but I have other time where mobile gaming is a possibility.  If I could play PS2 games through the PSP, I think I could seriously put a dent in my PS2 backlog (looks at a pile of unfinished RPGs).  Unfortunately Sony thought backwards compatibility was a non-factor for gamers and pulled it out of hardware shortly after release.  So here I am with a PS3 that can play all my PS2 games, the ability to remote play stuff on the PSP, and absolutely no hope of it ever happening.  That is, until I saw this...

Is Sony's Motion Controller Going to Make it a Wii Port Machine?

Industry Gamers talked to Rob Dyer, SCEA Vice President of Publisher Relations, about Sony's position in the motion controller space.  A fitting topic given my post from yesterday about Natal pricing and the prospect of three console with motion controls.  There were some choice quotes here that give off some mixed signals from Sony.  Dyer said,

"From a third-party perspective it's easier to develop for, you can use the same code base that you currently use for PS3 or 360 or even the Wii in order to get a motion controller game out."

This to me screams, "Hey, crappy Wii shovelware developers, come do the same thing on our box.  It's easy!"  But when confronted with that very question, Dyer responded,

"I can assure you that's not what you're going to see. The fact that we use a camera changes everything. I think the press has forgotten that Sony has been using a camera [for a long time]. This is now our second iteration of it. We know what the consumer wants with regards to using a camera and whether they want something in their hands or not."

Really?  The camera changes everything?  I mean, it sounds like he's saying that proudly.  The Sony cameras have been a total failure.  We got some games that slightly resembled the full body block breaking game from Natal, the ability to video chat in a game, and the closest thing to an actual use with the card game Eye of Judgement.  If anything, after two iterations, you should at least have an idea what to avoid (hint: everything you've tried with it so far).  He added,

"I think there are some games that are purpose built not to have a motion controller and there are some games that are purpose built that would be better with a motion controller. Having been on the publisher side and having made Wii games, the problem a lot of the time was because you had that Wii remote from the get go you felt like if you weren't using it, were you really making the right kind of game? I think that's been a problem for a lot of publishers. Can I make a game that's compelling using this motion controller? And if you can't then just make a great game without it... I think people had a problem doing that on the Wii."

So then that makes me think that he really gets it.  Sure, there may be a place in the market for this peripheral for a few games completely dedicated to using it.  But I certainly would hope that the Final Fantasy, God of War, Ninja Gaiden, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted type of games would never even consider this as an alternative to the controller.

I've always hated when people trying to put down video games say things like, "Why would you play video game basketball when you can go out and play the real thing?"  That isn't even worthy of a response.  But I now have to wonder, what kind of advancement to gaming does emulating an action with your body bring?  Going through the motions without the tactile feedback and immersion just doesn't seem worth sacrificing really good simulation of the same thing.

Fear for the Future of the Game Controller

News over the weekend says Michael Pachter, video game industry prognosticator, predicts that Microsoft's Natal for the Xbox 360 will be price at $50.  We've been hearing about Natal and Sony's wands (Arc?) for a while now.  We know what they are likely to be capable of, and we now know a ball park figure for what one may cost.  It's a bit late to ask the question, but does anyone else think these are a joke and at the same time afraid of the influence they may have on future consoles?

I don't try to hide the fact that I have no love for the Wii, due in no small part to the controller that's forced onto nearly every game.  It doesn't mesh well with any genre I'm interested in playing, which is no small number, and it looks horrible compared to games on the other platforms.  It's only use currently is an 80's VHS workout tape replacement for my wife.  But, since it sold so incredibly well, Microsoft and Sony felt compelled to join the party.

Both companies have hinted that this will be a longer console life cycle, and these new peripherals will be like rolling out the next generation of their consoles.  The longer console life cycle part I don't have a problem with.  Sure, I'm a bit of a graphics whore, but I can appreciate waiting if the technology isn't going to provide a big enough bump up from what we're currently playing.  What I don't buy is that these new input devices are ushering in a whole new generation of games.

Again, I don't dispute the success of the Wii.  They accomplished what they set out to do, create a console that appeals to non-gamers.  Success!  My mom owns one.  So, are Natal and Sony's wands supposed to be the ticket into that new market?  Is that market already saturated by the Wii?  I know neither one appeals to my mom, since she already has a Wii and never uses it.

I'm what I think of as a core gamer.  I'm involved with the industry.  I own many generations of consoles and games.  I buy and play many games on a regular basis.  I play with a standard controller.  Am I wrong?  Am I no longer the core gamer, or the core audience as the console manufacturers see it?  Because if they think I'm still the core gamer/audience, then they certainly aren't appealing to me.

My own experiences tell me that I have no interest in replacing button presses with waggling a Wii remote.  Games on the Wii that take true advantage of the wiimote have generally been gimmicky mini-games or games that end up unappealing to me regardless of the controls.  For Natal, do I really want to control a game by relying on a camera to pick up my motions?  At best, there will be a new genre or two that are created that do an awesome job at taking advantage of the unique Natal controls (see: Steel Battalion).  At worst, it's an invitation for a bunch of crappy games where you use your body to block or hit things on the screen.



What's the appeal of pretending to hold steering wheel in the air and press imaginary brakes?  It's a technical achievement to get those motions turned into game controls, but just because someone figured out how doesn't mean it's a good idea.  I've played Forza and Gran Turismo for a few hours at a time sitting in a racing cockpit.  The thought of holding my hands in the air and foot off the ground, even for less than an hour, sounds maddening, much less for a full gaming session.  This is assuming that the precision of the controls will be any where near good enough to satisfy gamers looking for more than a gimmick to show off to friends.

At least with Natal and Arc, the consoles has already been established and sold with a regular controller.  No developer will be forced to design around these new inputs.  That gives me hope that one could avoid these additional peripherals and never be impacted negatively.  What I fear is that Sony and/or Microsoft would replace the controller with one of these new devices in their next console.  That would pretty much guarantee me a handful of years to catch up on my backlog.

Are Video Game Publishers Entitled to Money After First Sale?

This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as of late.  Sony's SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 for the PSP ships with a voucher that enables online play.  Once the voucher is redeemed, that game cannot be played online on anyone else's PSP.  This means you can't trade the game, lend it to a friend, or buy it used and still have access to the online mode.  UNLESS you pay another $20 to Sony for a new voucher.

This is only the latest report.  Publishers have been trying to figure out a way to make money off used game sales for a while now.  EA also took this tactic with their sports games and only made roster updates available for new copies of the game.  No voucher, no roster updates, unless you paid EA money to get access to the updates.

Why do video game publishers feel they are entitled to additional revenue after the first sale when that's not the case for other industries?  Movie and music companies aren't getting a cut on used sales.  I'm pretty sure Nike isn't getting any extra money from the shirt I gave to Goodwill.

Let me quote you something from the Wikipedia article on first-sale doctrine:

The first-sale doctrine is a limitation on copyright that was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908 (see Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus) and subsequently codified in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 109. The doctrine allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell or give away) a particular lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been obtained. This means that the copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy end once that copy is sold, as long as no additional copies are made. This doctrine is also referred to as the "first sale rule" or "exhaustion rule."

Game publishers are obviously fighting this, but they don't have my support.  Some are rationalizing it as digital rights management (DRM), as in Sony's SOCOM case, but the $20 charge reeks of money grubbing, not piracy prevention.  Punishing the honest consumer for the action of pirates is wrong.  I don't have the answer for illegally downloaded games, but it's not to charge every new user of a legitimate game an extra fee.

We all know where this is headed, digital distribution.  The publishers want to cut out Gamestop and the used game sales, as well as keep a tighter grip over legit copies.  Ubisoft has gone so far as to make Assassin's Creed II (PC) unplayable without an internet connection, a constant connection.  As in, it will actually boot you out of the game if it detects network loss.  Then what do we get for our troubles?  We get no physical copies of games, manuals, and boxes.  We get the inability to loan games to friends, rent them from the store, or sell them when we are done.  And, if there's no plan for the publisher going out of business, possibly the loss of the game forever.  Sign me up! </sarcasm>

Last Remnant Fell Into Middleware Trap

As reported on 1up, Square Enix CTO, Julien Merceron, admitted the traps they fell into with using the Unreal Engine as middleware for The Last Remnant.

One of the traps with middleware is that some game teams believe that, because they got this middleware, maybe they need less programmers on their team, or maybe they don't need that many skilled programmers. Sometimes middleware is just something that a studio or a game team is going to use because they don't find the right people.

A lot of press was pretty hard on the game for poor performance and framerate, but nothing could have saved the game from the technical mess that was its combat system.  I honestly wasn't distracted by the technical issues.  The randomness of the combat is what killed it for me.  You could never count on what battle choices were going to be available from one round to the next, and most importantly, even though you could see a tactical view of the engagements, you could never count on actions being taken in any particular order.  This completely stripped the game of strategy.  You couldn't make the smart decisions about which group to attack because you didn't know if they were going to be locked in engagement or not by the time their arbitrary turned rolled around.

Playing Titan Quest Again

My local group of friends and I love co-op games.  We used to have a standing night to play Xbox games together (like Unreal, Crimson Skies, and Mech Assault).  Now we've all got families and other excuses, so outside of the occasional MMO, we just don't game much together.

I think we've found a common ground this week though, Titan Quest.  It's a game type we all love, has simple support for multiplayer online, and it's cheap.  Not to mention it's a great game with a huge depth of classes and abilities.  Solo, I've never finished the campaign, much less taken on the higher difficulties.  I plan on testing out the multiplayer server tonight, figure out which mods to use, and try to narrow in on the class I want.

Bayonetta Contest T-Shirt Get!

Yes, I am one of the lucky (skilled?) 500 people to get the Scarborough Fair t-shirt that Penny Arcade had made up to support their old school contest.  In a nod to 80's Atari high score competitions, where people would snap Polaroids of their high scores and send them to magazines, the goal was to complete Bayonetta on hard and snap a pic of the ending screen.  Of course nowadays that has to be confirmed with checking your achievements as well.  Awesome game and shirt (I'm wearing it today!).  Thanks to Penny Arcade for the contest.

White Knight Chronicles Progress

White Knight Chronicles is still soaking up all my game time since I'm on deck for the review.  It's been a bit of a disappointment.  My expectations were rightfully high since the first time we were shown the gameplay trailer before the launch of the PS3.


The character models and environments are comparable, but that's about it.  The gameplay is not nearly as engaging as it looks in that video.  The animation is way dumbed down as well.  It's not that it's a bad game, it's just completely average.  The online portions offer some hope to the dragging single player, but you have to play through the story to unlock the online quests.  If I wasn't constantly and completely starved to play RPGs (and reviewing it), I probably wouldn't bother.

Plants Vs. Zombies Already #1 in iPhone App Store

There's an incredible amount of hype behind this game.  The gaming world collectively groaned when the delay was announced, and much rejoicing has been had since it's release a couple of days ago.  Having played the first quarter of the game myself, I have to wonder what all the hullabaloo is about.  It's a good game for sure, but it's still just a nicely made tower defense game, of which there are many.  If you all want to make a stink over an iPhone game, at least make it over Sword & Poker.

Final Fantasy XIII Director on Western Reviewers' Slant

This bit of news hit particularly close to home since I'm handling the FFXIII review for Gaming Age.  While Final Fantasy XIII is still receiving very good review scores across the globe, a CVG article points to this quote by director Motomu Toriyama:

 "We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view. When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... [It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom."

So, first let me say that I agree.  Perhaps I'm in the minority of westerners that like linearity in my RPGs, but I hate thinking that I may have missed something in an open world game.  Covering every square inch of the world to make sure that doesn't happen ins't exactly the best use of my time either.

What's more of an issue for me is the implication that the concern is that high for reviewers over how linear an RPG may be.  I think back to the press as a whole as they reviewed Mass Effect.  I remember multiple outlets making remarks along the lines of, "The story and atmosphere are amazing.  The combat...meh, but the atmosphere and writing!"  Sure enough after two attempts at playing through the game myself, I just can't get past the "first person shooter wrapped with a few RPG elements" type of gameplay.  Why wasn't that more important?

If anything, the combat in FFXIII sounds like a total step in the wrong direction, and I'd expect that's what the complaints would be about (they certainly were on NeoGAF).  We're playing games here, right?  We're not watching movies or reading books.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe there are a number of people that don't care that much about the combat system and character development systems in RPGs.  Reviews scores over the last few years would confirm that.

Mystery Code Included with Darksiders Gets You...

A free game?!  Damn, that was worth waiting for.  It was just announced on the Darksider's community website.  Yeah, a brand new copy of Red Faction Guerrilla.  If that doesn't say thank you to your customers, I don't know what does.

On the topic of generous updates, I have to remark on the work being done by iPhone app developers.  I just recently received updates for Angry Birds and Moto X Mayhem that nearly doubled the original content I paid for, for free.  I figured bug fixes would be common updates, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of enhancements and content updates without asking you to pay for a whole new game.

Buying Games in Parts?

While on the iPhone app store today I ran across a puzzle game called Cogs.  You slide some pieces around on a 3D object, and it had a little engineering flair to it.  At a glance I saw "51 puzzles" and $0.99.  Sounded good until I fully read the feature list.  This was the first 10 puzzles for $0.99, and each pack of 10 puzzles thereafter was another $1, $5 in all.  Well, the game was not at all appealing to me at $5, which begs the question, "Is there a market for piecemeal games?"

My gut reaction is no, especially how turned off I was by this encounter.  So, I started thinking if this would work in any situation.  For the consumer it seems like it would be a total win.  Can you imagine the next big RPG (like FFXIII) being released as 6 $10 pieces.  If you never made it past the first third of the game, you'd only be out $20 instead of $60.  But why in the world would a publisher ever do that?  There may be an increase in the number of people who buy the first segment, but you have to believe that a large number of the early adopters that would have paid full price would never reach $60 this way.

If I'm right, then the only way for this to work for a publisher is to charge way more the full game by charging more for each piece.  Like in the FFXIII example, 6 pieces at say $20 a piece.  That way people that play to half way have paid the old full price, but the ones that finish pay double the price.  Well, who the hell is going to pay double the price for a full game?  My point exactly.

Which brings me back to Cogs.  They must know that their game is not worth $5 and are overcharging for each piece to balance out the number of people that stop after the first dollar or two.  I'm not buying the idea that they are doing it for the benefit of gamers that only want to pay for what they play.  Devious.