Category Archives: Games

Xbox One: Climbing out of a hole

Games

It really makes you wonder how Microsoft decides on it’s PR message (and they people they hire for it). The day before the Xbox One reveal. they let it out that the event was going to be an hour long introduction, the “future of entertainment” and that they’re going to talk about a lot of games at E3 about 3 weeks later. It makes sense to hold off information for the biggest industry event in the world (give or take) but why not just hold everything off for E3 at this point? Especially with how this event was handled.

True, it was an introduction. They showed the hardware, talked a bit about what it can do and the improvements to what they’ve been building for the passed 10 years. Now this whole adventure was started with a gaming machine and they barely talked about games. The games they did talk about, were obvious franchises that were of no surprise so they didn’t swing much weight with them. One new game was shown, but that was more of a teaser announcement.

So all the fans who got the Xbox platform to where it is today, were shown no reason to be into this next machine. In fact, they were so vague this whole reveal has turned into a PR nightmare for MS. Instead of laying everything out there, they held back information on the really big issues. How does this thing work? What’s being locked down with this “games must be installed to the HD and authorized by our servers.” You can say stuff like that, raise every console gamers eyebrows and hope for the best. I understand they are trying to do something new with TV integration, a full set top box experience with a ton of stuff that can be switched on the fly. But the focus you are trying to change, the way games are bought and sold and used is some scary thoughts to a lot of people. Valve did this on the PC about 10 years ago with Steam to great success. But they finessed it. They eased into it and laid out how Steam was set up. The message from this Xbox One event confused the hell out of people, making them asks questions…which were answered by multiple people through the rest of the day, long after the event was over. Plus, the answers were all different, so that just made the rumors worse by freaking everyone out. Will I be able to lend a game to a friend to play? If I have a family is the game I bought only going to work on my “console” and not the one in my kids room? How family friendly is this thing?

The Xbox One has turned into what sounds like a money pit to own and MS is holding the shovel with a blank stare. I can’t believe they didn’t think this out at all. They had to be super clear and this shady talk from the side of the mouth about key issues just makes people mad. There was so much not said in the presentation that came up after, questions and deeper looks on the things people actually wanted to know. The rumor for weeks has been that the NextBox would need to be connected to the internet at all times in order to pretty much do anything (like play single player games which is a deal killer for just about everyone). The event pretty much alluded to this and when asked they go, eeehhh, it’s just gotta talk to the servers once every 24 hours. What’s the difference (steam checks every 2 weeks I think)? Did I not buy this freaking game? This goofy thing needs to check my credentials every single day? Games have to be installed to the HDD to play, it won’t run of the disc. There’s a FEE if you want to put it on another machine. I can’t let a friend borrow a game like since the dawn of home consoles? The HDD is 500 gigs and if I’m putting 15Gig game installs in there how long is that going to last? I have to delete and reinstall disc based games as I go (that’s something that could happen and it sounds like they prepared for it by having the game playable as it installs). So many questions.

The new Kinect comes with every box and it is required to be hooked up for the xbox one to work? I think? That’s what it sounds like. It makes sense that it comes with every One so developers know that it’s a standard feature and they can be assured anyone can use it with whatever they come up with. The tech is greatly improved which is great! But even that bothers everyone because it listens to you when the machine is off (you can turn it on with a voice command). That’s some future tech there, but it doesn’t make people feel good thinking that MS could listen and record anything said near this machine. The UI looks amazingly fast, which is a huge plus. The media center aspect of it (which they talked a lot about) lets you switch from game, music, tv, internet, phone (skype!) instantly. The 360 is crazy slow on switching between areas so this is neat. Getting this all up and running is another question mark. The One has 8 gigs of RAM, but 3 of that is reserved for the OS (partly explains how it switches so fast and keeps multiple apps open at once) but does that mean games will only have 5 gigs of RAM to work with? 3 gigs is a lot to lose in that regard.

They say nothing is locked down yet and that’s pretty clear with every contradictory answer. It’s stupid that the company making this thing don’t really know how it’s going to work yet. So now MS is neck deep in a PR hole that has got to have a lot of people over there concerned about their jobs. If they don’t pull of some magic at E3, this thing could turn into the next 3DO. I giant box that pretty much collects dust on a store shelf.

They got some serious long hours to look forward to over in Seattle until E3. I’m talking all hands on deck to get this thing making sense. People are literally afraid of buying an Xbox One right now. A pariah of plastic! A controversy is sitting in their lap and they have to work to win just about everyone back. That means: make sure this thing is consumer friendly, the penny pinching of this thing sound ludicrous. And show the games. Show A LOT of games people haven’t seen before. Show why it has the Xbox name on it and not the MS Media Center Deluxe Duke. They have to clear up the message they’ve drooled out. Odds are accounts will work just like Steam, PSN and Live. Sign into your account and you’ll have full access to your content. This mess can’t be as dire as it looks now, there is too much at stake. I hope they have some incredible games and game features (why should I pay for XBL Gold?) to show because Sony and Nintendo (!) are licking their chops waiting to steal away Xbox users. They’ve said they were holding on to games for E3 and not to panic about it, I really hope they meant it.

The Next Xbox

Games, Tech

In 2 days the next xbox will be shown to the world. It’ll be 8 years between generations and there is a lot of expectations for Microsoft to meet. Sony has already tipped their hand giving a look at the PS4 and Nintendo is off skipping stones in their own world. Here are my thoughts.

I’m surprised they’ve been able to keep quite for so long on the next xbox. It’s good and bad. The hype and hope is at an all time high, but so are the rumors. If you cruise the message boards, many people are convinced that the roles between MS and Sony have switched. Sony is set to make all the right moves for gamers and MS’s hubris will bring them crashing down into the dirt.

Here are the a few things I think we will definitely see on Tuesday. The actual console. They’ll show the physical box, controller, name the system and a “holiday 2013” release date. The next version of the kinect will also be talked about and it’s going to come with every xbox. The kinect has sold well and is a defining feature for MS, they put a lot of time and money into the tech and I think they’ve been able to greatly improve it in the last 3 years.

With E3 so close, they can’t show everything. They’re going to save some stuff for that press conference, which I think will be many 3rd party games and a real release date with launch titles.

That said, MS needs to be really careful how they approach this. The xbox started as a video game console and has been morphing into a set top box. Those set top box features will continue to grow, but at this point I think they really need to focus on the games portion of the machine. Talk about the guts, how it’s going to make games better. Show and talk about all first party stuff they are working on. Exclusives have fallen by the wayside for the xbox in the passed 2 years or so and MS really needs to drum up that kind of support and dedication to the machine. Give more reasons to get an xbox because the competition has closed all the gaps.

Xbox Live isn’t the draw the used to be. Sony has made some great moves and has improved year over year. MS has raised prices and added things that are available on many other products. Making people pay for stuff that you can get for free elsewhere isn’t a feature. The xbox platform has cemented itself as FPS juggernaut. The Call of Duty fan base is absolutely massive on xbox and pulls all those players in year after year with no effort. People pick up that game on xbox because all their friends play it on xbox. The early start, the much better Live service grabbed those guys in early and kept them there. There was no need for a person to drop hundreds of dollars to switch systems (look at how COD did on the WiiU, the online lobbies are basically a ghost town). That could change during this hardware switch. Then need to get people to stick with Live as their premiere online gaming experience by raising the quality and usefulness of the service in every way.

Xbox Live needs much bigger incentives to stay relevant. The friends list limit will definitely be raised to a huge amount. Paying for multiplayer is beyond lame, you can’t push netflix as something special any more. PS+ is a brilliant idea on Sony’s part. Reward your fans for a higher level of service and loyalty with great incentives. MS has a great thing with Xbox Music, but it’s completely worthless on the xbox. There is so much competition in the streaming music space that it’s hard to tear anyone away from the ecosystem they already use. Without paying for Gold AND a Xbox Music sub, you can’t use the Music service. It’s just empty, useless windows sitting in front of you. That service works on very little, it’s an incentive for Windows 8 and it needs to be an incentive on Xbox. It’s a cool and useful service that no one even thinks about because it’s behind so many walls. You get Gold, you should get full access to Music. Spotify is perfectly usable for free on PC for crying out loud. They should get it to stream music through the machine regardless of what you are doing on the box, don’t confine people to having just the Music app open, think multitasking. It makes it much more useful. MS has to bring Live to another level. Give big discounts, prizes, exclusives to your paying fan base. They love it and will feed into your eco system.

They also better learn from the RROD fiasco. Don’t build a piece of junk. I know that regardless of what they put out, I ain’t touching one for at least 6 months to make sure it’s not another faulty machine. They took a beating in the press, loss billions in repairs, they cannot afford to get through another piece of junk scenario. Make sure that thing is reliable before it goes out! Stress test the hell out of it and FIX what is wrong from the start!

I don’t expect to see much difference in the controller and I think they’d be wise to hold back on the “extra” feature talk for E3. Talk about a lot of games, it’s social features and a few apps like Skype and stuff that makes it a complete ecosystem. Be VERY clear about what does and doesn’t need a internet connection to work. I don’t think it’s going to be as doom and gloom as many thing because the internet infrastructure around the country, let alone around the world, varies greatly. It’s just not reliable or equal just a few towns apart. They’d lose a huge potential userbase if everything has to be online to work. I expect some sort of cable TV integration like google TV, but I don’t know how many people are look for or looking forward to that. Leave those big details for E3, win over your core video gamers first.

Xbox Music

Games, Music, Tech, You know what grinds my gears?

Microsoft recently released their Xbox Music service to the public. At this moment the software is out for the Xbox only, in about a week it’s going to come with all Windows 8 products. It’s the second or third relaunch of their services (laying Zune to rest) and it’s good. But something really bothers me about it.

The continued penny pinching of the Xbox user base. Xbox Music is direct competition to Spotify, Last fm, Pandora and the others in the army of internet radio. All of these services are well entrenched with their users and many (namely Spotify) work on a huge array of devices. Xbox Music is going to only work on Microsoft devices for at least 6 months. It’s going to be the center of Windows 8 for music. You’ll be able to stream internet music for free, just like Pandora and Spotify with commercials (you can also purchase music), or go through the pay wall for the premium ad free, unlimited skipping service (called Xbox Music Pass). That sounds great and the software is pretty slick, no other program looks like it and it makes itunes look pretty ancient.

Here comes the stupid. Without the Music Pass, this services is gimped and useless on the Xbox. You can only listen to 30 seconds of a song. It’s an elaborate preview service. With the pass, you can actually use it the way it’s intended. You also have to have a gold membership to use this service. The money hoops for this on Xbox are completely insulting. This new service is made and run by Microsoft, why on Earth should a Xbox Gold member, who is paying upwards of $60 a year be required to pay MORE? Add it as another value to getting a Gold membership! This is a fledgling service that needs to impress people enough to drop whatever music service they already live with. That’s hard enough to do without giving people reasons NOT to use it. Anyone without Windows 8 is pretty much locked out as well…it’s not going to come to Windows 7. The loophole is that the Music Pass works with the Zune software but the amount of people using that is pretty small AND it’s not using the new design so the interface is a different experience (although the Xbox Music UI is heavily based on the Zune software).

The value that Microsoft is giving to it’s loyal player base just keeps getting smaller and smaller. The $10 hike for Xbox Gold membership was shady enough, this is just unbelievable greed. Lucky for Microsoft, Nintendo still has their head up somewhere above the clouds for their network, so that’s still no worry. They can even continue to point and laugh. Sony on the other hand just keeps making the right moves. They’ve matched many of Xbox Live’s features (for free) and the PS+ membership is a great value idea.

My plea to the powers at be in Redmond, WA: Stop trying to squeeze your fans out of every single dime, it’s going to come back and bite you. With the next generation looming on the horizon, you need to get all your ducks in a row. You better quality test that thing because EVERYONE is going to be watching for you to do a header into the dirt and you’ll be the ones responsible for a mass exodus from the Xbox platform.

Harmonix has finally come through

Games

Korn is finally on Rock Band. Yes, “Word Up” is on Lego Rock Band, but that is a terrible cover of a terrible song so it doesn’t count. Freak on A Leash was in Guitar Hero 4 or 5, but this makes it official.

Freak On A Leash and Falling Away From Me are now in my library. I stopped buying tracks about a year ago in protest, it was down right ridiculous that Korn didn’t make it in after freaking Ramstein, who had one notable song in the US in 1998, did. It was some serious conspiracy stuff! There’s probably about a dozen bands that Korn opened the door for that had DLC added over the years, but not a drop for Korn (was it a label issue? Sony and Road Runner are well represented in RB though…). I can only hope this does well enough for them to add more, there’s a ton of good songs that would fit well. Would have been great if they released these tracks when the franchise was still huge. But I digress, 2 songs is a treat for me. Playing on Medium Pro drums is actually more difficult than playing on Hard Pro. There’s so many notes taken out that it’s really hard to follow, the chart looks so wrong. FOAL is a lot of fun in particular, the drum pattern is really unusual.

Mischief Managed

Games, Misc.

After being on the injured reserve list for the passed 6 days, I watched Deathly Hallows pt 2 (I think I’m going to watch it again), finished reading Book 6 and just finished Book 7 a few minutes ago (I practically ate the book..I did it in like 4 days). That’s the 3rd time I’ve read Deathly and the first time I’ve read the whole story in a row. It’s a hell of a story man! Seems kind of passe to talk about it now since it’s been over for years now, but it really stands up. Rowling had a really clear vision from the start of the journey she wanted to write. There’s all sorts of plot points that thread around every book and most of it is explained well (there’s a lot of world lore that comes into effect in 7). Considering the story goes for around 4,000 pages (US Hardcover editions) it’s amazing that Rowling manged to keep everything so strong for that long.

The first 2 books can certainly be called children’s books, but the further you go the more complex and adult it gets. There’s a lot of intense real world adult content that takes place. It’s a story that took 10 years to write so the audience grew with it. If I gave it to a kid, I’d probably start around age 8 and give them each book a year apart. I’d blather on more, but there’s so much to cover, it’s easier to talk about in person. Years later I’ve come to appreciate the ending more. I still feel like it was cut short, she could have easily written more, but I think I understand her intent. It’s still a powerful and focused finale. That said if Rowling ever wrote more, whether that be filling in gaps at the end of 7 and the epilogue or anything before or after the story, I’d be there day one. I have a couple problems with the books (she sticks very closely to a timeline and event formula), but I can’t honestly call out anything that really bothers me about what she’s written. It completely grabbed me the same way it did when I first read it which is amazing. I’m such a fan that I pretty much shrug off any criticisms I hear or read about it…you have to read every word of the books to understand it.

The movies are a big success too. Cast and crew did they’re all out best and it really shows (I see the main cast when I read the books now). Sure tons of stuff was taken out, but that always happens from page to screen. I question some things more than others, but it all works in the end. Anyone can say they’d do better if they had a crack at it, but I think very few could. It’s a daunting task to start, and hindsight is always 20/20 so you have a finished product that you can easily criticize about what did and didn’t work. I wonder if the books will ever be done in long animated form. The fan in me would love to watch every bit of the journey; there are so many great characters and moments in there. Will they ever remake the movies? Seems hard to believe but you gotta think that some decade down the line they will.

Mortal Kombat

Games

Is back and better than ever! The 9th game in the series that is out for 360 and PS3 is honestly the best game in the series and the most fun I’ve had with a fighter since 2005’s Dead or Alive 4.

Whenever a Sonic the Hedgehog game is announced it looks good and people get excited for it. They remember having good times with the series as a kid and look forward to the new, shiny experience that a new game should bring. Then it comes out and it’s a complete disaster. Mortal Kombat is like that, but the game actually came out meeting every expectation.

It’s an extension of Mortal Kombat II (which was amazing when it came out) with juggle combos and moves. There are still dial-a-combos from 3, but toned down. The game speed is right between 2 and 3 with the same chunky, deliberate pacing that the series is known for.

The game story is a retelling of the original three games. Raiden is getting crushed by Shao Kahn when he sends a vision to his younger self in an attempt to keep his present, Shao Kahn taking over, from happening. We jump back in time to the original game and events unfold and change from there. Everyone from the first 3 games in it it along with most of the stages from those games (a few added to address the new events).

This game looks amazing. The artwork is really impressive, some amazing character models and animation really make the game come alive. The damage modeling is some bar raising stuff, I can’t think f another fighting game that has this much detail, characters look like they went through a war at the end of a match. The audio supplements this, the fighting is very visceral. Great sound effects match the visual impacts of every punch, kick and impalement. The backgrounds are a treat to see, a lot of the old stages look amazing now with some really great lighting effects (the Living Forest is a great example). The brutal Fatalities are back and they made Babalities really funny. The cast is huge and just about everyone is a ton of fun to play with added special moves that make everyone play uniquely. The new special meter had 3 sections that fill up. One lets you do an enhanced special move that makes your standard special more powerful. Two bars allow you to break a combo and three bars lets you do a X-Ray attack. These X-ray attacks are like Ultras from Street Fighter that do tremendous damage and can turn the tide of a fight. They’re brutal attacks that break bones (which you can see happen with the x-ray effect) but they’re pretty easy to avoid and block so you aren’t helpless when it’s triggered.

Mortal Kombat is a great achievement for NeatherRealm Studio. An amazing amount of thought and work went into this game. It keeps everything that people love about the series while adding the production and features you expect from a game released in 2011. Mortal Kombat is easy to pick up and play, but there’s a lot there to dig into. All sorts of modes, extras and secrets to unlock mean there is a ton of gameplay to go through. Few games present a fully fleshed out world like this game does.

I’ve kicked Mafia Wars to the curb

Games

Been thinking about doing it for awhile and I finally pulled the trigger. You can say that any game is a waste of time, but none quite like Mafia Wars. It’s a spread sheet with graphics and the “gameplay” feature of bothering other people to send you useless objects so you can keep running on a treadmill. It never ends. They just add another section, add more hoops to jump through that require you to bug other people to try and finish.

It turns into a habit, doesn’t matter if you’re having fun anymore. So I gave it up. Unfriended all the people that were there solely as Mafia members, now I have regained a functional Wall again. It was stupid actually, 90% of of friend updates were Mafia War requests, I had to actually browse to see anything from someone I actually cared about.

So cold turkey. Removed all those mob friends, blocked the application completely and deleted the Zynga toolbar. Feels good actually. It’s a healthy feeling.

Welcome to August

Games, TV

Summer is whipping right by. July did prove to be pretty epic, lots of fun events happened for me.

I’m currently addicted to Starcraft II, along with a few million other people. It’s been a long time since I bought a PC game and it was near impossible not to pick this up, 11 year wait for the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time. It lives up to it which is a great relief.

Speaking of addictions, I recently finished watching the entire Xena TV show from the 90’s. I watched the first 2 seasons or so when it first aired and stopped for whatever reason. Since seeing Lucy Lawless on Spartacus, it made me want to revisit the show and Netflix has them all up on Instant. So 6 seasons later I can say it was a pretty good show. I think it took me 5 months to get through and I gotta say I’m kind of bummed it’s over. The ending was pretty satisfying all in all (pretty logical for the message and direction of the show), but the episode before the last one was atrocious. The show probably would have been better at 5 seasons. 22 episodes per season is a lot, and cutting out the filler and bullshit episodes probably would equal 5 full seasons. The episode I mentioned above flashes forward to present day to try and fill a gaping plot hole from season 3 or 4. It was terrible. That plot hole should have been addressed right when it happened, not 2 season later with a horrible plot device to try and explain it. The section taking place in the “world” of Xena worked but everything in present day was terrible. Season 6 also went a step above in dark tones and violence, it was a strange tonal shift. The sloppy writing really kicked in in Season 5 and whenever they ran out of actual episodes with real plots there would be garbage episodes to get them to the end of the season where they knew how they wanted to end it. So avoiding the rough spots, it was a fun show and 15 years later I still have a crush on Lucy Lawless.

My Weird Windows 7 NIC restart bug update: It seems to be gone again. 5 restarts and the network kicked in right away. Maybe it’s the new FIOS router?

A lull

Games, Music, TV

Had a bit of a lull recently, I’ve seen a few movies on DVD, but none really worth mentioning. They haven’t been bad per say, just not anything worth writing about.

TV has been going strong, Spartacus finished, but I haven’t watched it yet. Fringe is back and is on a roll, been a great season. Fox really needs to stop taking shows off for weeks at a time and starting them up at seemingly random. Cable always crushes network TV channels in this regard. They worst thing you can do is make a popular show stop in the middle of a season. Whatever reason they have for it is completly outdated and does nothing to help shows. You get a fan base and you keep them happy. People are way too busy and there are way too many options today to make a show vanish for a month. And forget about moving an established show to a different day, that is another nightmare. Fox has shot too many shows in the head that way.

A bit of a lull game wise this month, but May is going to be unbelievable. It might be the biggest May to date for games, it’s looking like a holiday release schedule. I think I’m going to make a release list to show how crazy this summer is going to be.

Korn III: Remember Who You Are looks to have a release date now. July 13th, 2010. Later than I hoped, but that is a day before Mayhem Festival kicks off so the timing is right. I think a lot still has to be done to get it ready for release despite the album being done. The single, “Oildale” looks to hit the radio on May 3rd so that’s something to look forward to. I really want to hear the studio cut.

Gaming update

Games

Here’s been what I’ve been playing:

Mass Effect 2- Finished it in about 35 hours. Fantastic game, I imported my character from the first game to continue the story so that made it a bit cooler. Coming across people (or “beings” I guess is a better general term to use) from the first game and seeing what my choice led to were really cool. It’s a streamlined game from the first. They tossed the Mako ship sections which I greatly appreciated and they got rid of the “RPG statistic” under pinnings of the combat system. That really doesn’t come into a great deal of a difference at higher character/skill level, but it makes the beginning of the game much smoother. Also gone is all of the garbage pickups that did nothing but take up space and they made the necessary tweaks to the interface. The feeling of combat is much, much improved. Sound effects, impact, easy of use makes every fight fun and stategic. They also gave the game engine an incredible amount of polish so it runs unbelievably well. Very little pop up, solid framerate, reasonable load times, fantastic texture and model work. It really feels like a unique sci-fi universe. Morality wise I made choice based on how I think I really would if I was Captain Nick Shepard. I was more good than evil, with some devious choices made when I felt really necessary. I’m anxious to see what goes down in the 3rd game. One of the best games of the year.

Bioshock 2- The original is one of my favorite games of all time. Fantastic story and one of the most atmospheric games made to date. I love Rapture. Now I didn’t have high hopes for the sequel, but I’m pleased to say it stands right next to the original. It takes a hit story wise because it’s not the breath of fresh air that Bioshock gave us in 2007 and it brings us back to an already established location. But, you do see all new places in Rapture and the story they came up with is very strong. 10 years after the first game, their is a lot to take in and explore. All the changes they made were really for the benefit. Better hacking game, greater weapon selection (rocket harpoons are a scream), duel wielding weapon/plasmid, video style research just make the gameplay better. The production values still hit the mark with excellent visuals and sound work. I didn’t check out multiplayer, but I highly recommend this, had a blast with it.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood- A Wild West FPS essentially. Gave this a spin before Red Dead Redemption comes out, it’s a really good rental. It starts really slow, the first stage is rather boring. But the game picks up as you progress. Playing as the brothers is really fun, I really like their dialog and the story is some classic Western stuff (war, betrayal, women, guns, redemption, revenge). Looks pretty good, controls well, 2 play styles based on which brother you choose to play as and there is a lot of location variety.

Starcraft II- Fundamentally SC in High Def which is what it should be at the very least. Looks and sounds amazing, I have to give this more play time to really say anything about it. I’m horrific at it, getting stomped is the worst.