15th November 2013 marks the day that console gaming enters it's next phase with the roll out of the PS4 in the US.
In the days leading up to the 15th we should start seeing reviews for the launch exclusives like Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack, which in a way gives the rest of the world a bit more time to tweak that day 1 games list if things turn out differently to what we expected. I am expecting Knack to suck but I could be wrong haha.
As an Xbox gamer the 15th brings with it mixed emotions. The 15th means we will have exactly one more week until we get the Xbox One. It also brings about the end of an era as on this day I will bid goodbye to my beloved Xbox 360 and generation long favourite, Gears of War. I plan to go out with a bang though with my group of gamers mates and I hitting Gears hard for huge session. Many beers will be had and many war stories told as we put to rest the game and console that brought us all together.
Looking a head we have many exciting things to look forward to. None more so than the event Microsoft and EB Games are putting on for the launch of the Xbox One. Little old NZ will be the first country in the world to officially get the One and they are going all out. The night starts at 830pm with bands, entertainment and plenty of consoles set up for eager fans to get their hands on. Come 12am some lucky customer will be handed the very first console and I hear it may even be done by someone pretty high up in Microsoft!! THIS IS GOING TO BE HUGE!!!!
I'll see you gamers on the other side!
Thursday 7 November 2013
Tuesday 29 October 2013
Are Arcades & Arcade-Style Games Still Relevant?
When I was all of nine-years of age I would take a two dollar note down to my local fish and chip shop and spend a good two hours playing one of four arcade cabinets on offer.
It was here that I would cut my teeth on the latest game release and, if you could stand the constant gaze of the eager (and often penniless) stander-by or the the quip of the local know-it-all, you could develop a decent set of hand-eye co-ordination (take Defender for example) and generally have good innocent fun.
After a while, I shifted to the Laundromat (and a much larger choice of cabinets), but still kept my budget reasonable ($5 would normally last me the afternoon - with change to spare for a can of fizzy drink).
When I turned twelve, I discovered "downtown," movies and the Video Parlour (most often referred to as trouble-spots for roaming wayward youth) - where $20 would get you a bus ticket to and from town, a movie pass, popcorn, ice cream and drink, with at least $6 to spare to play "spacies" (some games were a daring 40c so sometimes we would spend extra on playing games and walk home). Once again, I could spend three hours effortlessly, watching others and playing my own preferred games, sharing knowledge and generally having a blast.
The last game I checked out in a parlour was Virtua Fighter 3 - a must see on the cabinet as the current consoles were not up to speed to handle the amount of detail and polygons.
What I have noticed in my time is that my beloved Arcade experience is a thing of the past - last quick look around in my local parlour only offered Dancing and shooting games and a tired looking Daytona cabinet - and each unit setting you back $2-3 a turn - not exactly loose change in this day and age.
What this has translated to is the loss of the quick-fix Arcade games that I treasured so much - most games now offer complex stories, detailed events and long cut-scenes that push the narrative of the story. It begs the question - is there room for arcade-driven games and high scores? We still get the fighting games, but even they can become complicated with characters to be unlocked, back-stories, costumes and upgrades - similar to driving games and endless campaigns and upgrades.
Most games come attached with a costly price-tag, driving consumers to demanding more bang for their buck - but when I am pressed for time (especially as a parent) I find myself dedicating less time to larger games, and enjoying the brief buzz of a retro-download to keep my skills sharp.
My children couldn't care less - the simplicity is routine and mundane.
Are we in danger of losing love for the arcade-style games, and thereby losing the niche market that brought about the video game revolution? Or is it simply a case of moving on and saying goodbye to the past?
It was here that I would cut my teeth on the latest game release and, if you could stand the constant gaze of the eager (and often penniless) stander-by or the the quip of the local know-it-all, you could develop a decent set of hand-eye co-ordination (take Defender for example) and generally have good innocent fun.
After a while, I shifted to the Laundromat (and a much larger choice of cabinets), but still kept my budget reasonable ($5 would normally last me the afternoon - with change to spare for a can of fizzy drink).
When I turned twelve, I discovered "downtown," movies and the Video Parlour (most often referred to as trouble-spots for roaming wayward youth) - where $20 would get you a bus ticket to and from town, a movie pass, popcorn, ice cream and drink, with at least $6 to spare to play "spacies" (some games were a daring 40c so sometimes we would spend extra on playing games and walk home). Once again, I could spend three hours effortlessly, watching others and playing my own preferred games, sharing knowledge and generally having a blast.
The last game I checked out in a parlour was Virtua Fighter 3 - a must see on the cabinet as the current consoles were not up to speed to handle the amount of detail and polygons.
What I have noticed in my time is that my beloved Arcade experience is a thing of the past - last quick look around in my local parlour only offered Dancing and shooting games and a tired looking Daytona cabinet - and each unit setting you back $2-3 a turn - not exactly loose change in this day and age.
What this has translated to is the loss of the quick-fix Arcade games that I treasured so much - most games now offer complex stories, detailed events and long cut-scenes that push the narrative of the story. It begs the question - is there room for arcade-driven games and high scores? We still get the fighting games, but even they can become complicated with characters to be unlocked, back-stories, costumes and upgrades - similar to driving games and endless campaigns and upgrades.
Most games come attached with a costly price-tag, driving consumers to demanding more bang for their buck - but when I am pressed for time (especially as a parent) I find myself dedicating less time to larger games, and enjoying the brief buzz of a retro-download to keep my skills sharp.
My children couldn't care less - the simplicity is routine and mundane.
Are we in danger of losing love for the arcade-style games, and thereby losing the niche market that brought about the video game revolution? Or is it simply a case of moving on and saying goodbye to the past?
Sunday 29 September 2013
Where to for Gears of War?
(Before I start I'll apologise for the length of this blog. I'm just very passionate about this franchise haha)
Gears of War... The first changed my gaming life forever and the series is up there with Uncharted as my favourite franchise from the past 7 years.
Let me go back to the start...
It was 2006 and I was starting to look ahead at what console I'll buy to replace my much loved PS2. My wife had asked which new console I'd get since she was hatching plans for my Xmas present. What an awesome wife I have!!
Nintendo hadn't been on my radar since the SNES so Wii was not for Mii (me).
This left me with two options; Replace my PS2 with the logical choice, PS3, or head for unfamiliar territory in the Xbox 360.
I never did own the OG Xbox but did borrow my Wife's work one a couple of times. I played Halo, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Rally Sport Challenge 2 (please MS, make another one of these!!!) and could see the appeal of the system but never took the plunge. I was very much a Sony guy and had been since the PS1.
So when I saw that Big Boys Toys would be showcasing the systems I jumped at the chance to go and try out the latest and greatest. PS3 was the one I paid my $$ to see so went in convinced that upon release I'd be picking one up (or the wife would be).
So if anyone remembers back to the PS3 launch, it had a pretty dire launch line up. This did little to get me excited and as I wandered from machine to machine I really started to question whether it was worth even upgrading.
Fortunately Xbox was set up pretty near by and I noticed a large structure with a big red skull on it that I would soon come to know as the Crimson Omen. Inside they were running a demo trailer of this game that I could only describe at the time as the greatest looking thing I had ever seen. I was blown away by graphics and the brutality on offer. Somehow this one game made all of what PS3 had to offer seem insignificant.
My eyes were opened to a new world and my wife was quickly informed. Come Xmas I had a Xbox sitting under the tree and I couldn't be happier.
Now the first change was obviously the fact that I had switched console suppliers for the first time in more than a decade.
The second was that Gears 1 introduced me to online play. Being a PS gamer I was not famailiar with the concept and the thought of playing competitively with others scared the crap out of me. Needless to say that jumping forward to today, online is one of the most important parts of gaming for me.
So the first 3 Gears of War games are awesome!! 2 being a particular highlight. 3 was almost as good but had lost a little of the "weight" that Gears was known for. All 3 games were announced and launched to much fanfare and acclaim. MS threw huge marketing budgets at each to ensure everyone knew a new Gears was coming!! We got 5 books and a 20 odd issue comic series which were all very good at linking the back stories to the games. Gears was hot property.
Then at E3 2012 Gears of War: Judgement was announced. There was a trailer shown and then it was gone. To those like myself it all felt very strange, like suddenly MS just didn't hold Gears in the same regard as it's other flagship franchises anymore.
Sadly my worst fears were realised as more news trickled out.
Firstly the games creator Epic Games handed the development to their smaller in house developer People Can Fly (PCF). Nothing against this company, it is just alway worrying when franchises change hands.
Next there was news of many Epic employees, including Gears creator Cliffy B (Cliff Bleszinski)leaving the company. Cliff was the face of Gears and love him or hate him, he would be a huge loss to the series.
Then we started hearing about the changes to the game. Now I didn't mind the campaign as it added some interesting ideas with the declassified sections but the story was definitely the weakest in the series.
The biggest problem was with the competitive multiplayer section. For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to change a few of the key elements that make Gears stand out from the crowd.
- They sped the character movement up and took away that "weight" I mentioned earlier.
- Down But Not Out (DBNO) was removed. This is where unless you were gibbed (killed instantly) you would go down and could crawl to safety and revive or have a team mate revive you. This was an additional layer to Gears that most loved due to the risk/reward factor, especially in Team Deathmatch or Warzone modes where keeping team mates alive was crucial.
- The biggest change though was the very strange decision to remove the Locust and make it COG vs COG.
All these changes lead fans to believe that Epic/PCF were just chasing the Call of Duty/Halo crowd. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on what happens next) the gamble didn't pay off. Gears: Judgement was a failure.
So where to from here?
Many would argue that due to Judgement flopping, Gears is dead. But I have read a few things that give me hope and that we may just see another Gears of War on the Xbox One.
Firstly Epic did come out and say that Judgement was a test of sorts and other rumours point to it actually starting out as DLC for Gears 3. The fact that there is an unloackable section called Aftermath that runs in parallel to Gears 3 while the rest of Judgement is a prequel to the series kind of points to that.
Secondly the head of Microsoft Studios (publishers of Gears of War)Phil Spencer commented recently on how he'd love to see the series return and that it was up to Epic on what happens next. Microsoft have said they are spending over a billion dollars on Xbox One exclusives and it would be very strange for a company to leave such a successful franchise after one miss step.
Sales figures:
Gears 1 = 5.9+ mil
Gears 2 = 6.4+ mil
Gears 3 = 5.3+ mil
Gears J = 1.5+ mil
So onto my hopes and dreams for the future of the series.
Easy one will be moving from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4.
Next gen engine for a next gen game that'll bring all the latest in lighting and physics.
Second would be the use of the much touted Mircosoft Cloud service (Azure).
I'm talking dedicated servers for multiplayer, more believable AI in the campaign as well as for bots if you are using a practice mode for multiplayer.
They could look at new modes such as a persistant online space where a battle could rage on for days with players coming and going while adding to the overall victory. Stats would be consistanly updated as your team wins or loses. Again bots could be used that mimmick real players (ala Forza 5 Drivatars) to either pick up the lack of players or to add an AI controlled element to the battles (see Titanfall).
Thirdly I'd like to see the series move back to what made Gears 1 & 2 so great.
More of that weight I spoke about.
Less weapons to try and fill every perceived gap. Take it back to basics.
A story that runs parallel to the original story, possibly take it back a little further and start at Emergence Day. With the new Xbox hardware they could really show the terror of Sera (the planet Gears if based on) being ripped apart and what lead to the decision to carry out the Hammer of Dawn strikes and destroy 90% of the planets population.
The series has so much history through the games, books and comics. If MS and Epic let this series end on such a poor note it'll be a real injustice to one of the current gens greatest new IPs.
Gears of War... The first changed my gaming life forever and the series is up there with Uncharted as my favourite franchise from the past 7 years.
Let me go back to the start...
It was 2006 and I was starting to look ahead at what console I'll buy to replace my much loved PS2. My wife had asked which new console I'd get since she was hatching plans for my Xmas present. What an awesome wife I have!!
Nintendo hadn't been on my radar since the SNES so Wii was not for Mii (me).
This left me with two options; Replace my PS2 with the logical choice, PS3, or head for unfamiliar territory in the Xbox 360.
I never did own the OG Xbox but did borrow my Wife's work one a couple of times. I played Halo, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Rally Sport Challenge 2 (please MS, make another one of these!!!) and could see the appeal of the system but never took the plunge. I was very much a Sony guy and had been since the PS1.
So when I saw that Big Boys Toys would be showcasing the systems I jumped at the chance to go and try out the latest and greatest. PS3 was the one I paid my $$ to see so went in convinced that upon release I'd be picking one up (or the wife would be).
So if anyone remembers back to the PS3 launch, it had a pretty dire launch line up. This did little to get me excited and as I wandered from machine to machine I really started to question whether it was worth even upgrading.
Fortunately Xbox was set up pretty near by and I noticed a large structure with a big red skull on it that I would soon come to know as the Crimson Omen. Inside they were running a demo trailer of this game that I could only describe at the time as the greatest looking thing I had ever seen. I was blown away by graphics and the brutality on offer. Somehow this one game made all of what PS3 had to offer seem insignificant.
My eyes were opened to a new world and my wife was quickly informed. Come Xmas I had a Xbox sitting under the tree and I couldn't be happier.
Now the first change was obviously the fact that I had switched console suppliers for the first time in more than a decade.
The second was that Gears 1 introduced me to online play. Being a PS gamer I was not famailiar with the concept and the thought of playing competitively with others scared the crap out of me. Needless to say that jumping forward to today, online is one of the most important parts of gaming for me.
So the first 3 Gears of War games are awesome!! 2 being a particular highlight. 3 was almost as good but had lost a little of the "weight" that Gears was known for. All 3 games were announced and launched to much fanfare and acclaim. MS threw huge marketing budgets at each to ensure everyone knew a new Gears was coming!! We got 5 books and a 20 odd issue comic series which were all very good at linking the back stories to the games. Gears was hot property.
Then at E3 2012 Gears of War: Judgement was announced. There was a trailer shown and then it was gone. To those like myself it all felt very strange, like suddenly MS just didn't hold Gears in the same regard as it's other flagship franchises anymore.
Sadly my worst fears were realised as more news trickled out.
Firstly the games creator Epic Games handed the development to their smaller in house developer People Can Fly (PCF). Nothing against this company, it is just alway worrying when franchises change hands.
Next there was news of many Epic employees, including Gears creator Cliffy B (Cliff Bleszinski)leaving the company. Cliff was the face of Gears and love him or hate him, he would be a huge loss to the series.
Then we started hearing about the changes to the game. Now I didn't mind the campaign as it added some interesting ideas with the declassified sections but the story was definitely the weakest in the series.
The biggest problem was with the competitive multiplayer section. For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to change a few of the key elements that make Gears stand out from the crowd.
- They sped the character movement up and took away that "weight" I mentioned earlier.
- Down But Not Out (DBNO) was removed. This is where unless you were gibbed (killed instantly) you would go down and could crawl to safety and revive or have a team mate revive you. This was an additional layer to Gears that most loved due to the risk/reward factor, especially in Team Deathmatch or Warzone modes where keeping team mates alive was crucial.
- The biggest change though was the very strange decision to remove the Locust and make it COG vs COG.
All these changes lead fans to believe that Epic/PCF were just chasing the Call of Duty/Halo crowd. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on what happens next) the gamble didn't pay off. Gears: Judgement was a failure.
So where to from here?
Many would argue that due to Judgement flopping, Gears is dead. But I have read a few things that give me hope and that we may just see another Gears of War on the Xbox One.
Firstly Epic did come out and say that Judgement was a test of sorts and other rumours point to it actually starting out as DLC for Gears 3. The fact that there is an unloackable section called Aftermath that runs in parallel to Gears 3 while the rest of Judgement is a prequel to the series kind of points to that.
Secondly the head of Microsoft Studios (publishers of Gears of War)Phil Spencer commented recently on how he'd love to see the series return and that it was up to Epic on what happens next. Microsoft have said they are spending over a billion dollars on Xbox One exclusives and it would be very strange for a company to leave such a successful franchise after one miss step.
Sales figures:
Gears 1 = 5.9+ mil
Gears 2 = 6.4+ mil
Gears 3 = 5.3+ mil
Gears J = 1.5+ mil
So onto my hopes and dreams for the future of the series.
Easy one will be moving from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4.
Next gen engine for a next gen game that'll bring all the latest in lighting and physics.
Second would be the use of the much touted Mircosoft Cloud service (Azure).
I'm talking dedicated servers for multiplayer, more believable AI in the campaign as well as for bots if you are using a practice mode for multiplayer.
They could look at new modes such as a persistant online space where a battle could rage on for days with players coming and going while adding to the overall victory. Stats would be consistanly updated as your team wins or loses. Again bots could be used that mimmick real players (ala Forza 5 Drivatars) to either pick up the lack of players or to add an AI controlled element to the battles (see Titanfall).
Thirdly I'd like to see the series move back to what made Gears 1 & 2 so great.
More of that weight I spoke about.
Less weapons to try and fill every perceived gap. Take it back to basics.
A story that runs parallel to the original story, possibly take it back a little further and start at Emergence Day. With the new Xbox hardware they could really show the terror of Sera (the planet Gears if based on) being ripped apart and what lead to the decision to carry out the Hammer of Dawn strikes and destroy 90% of the planets population.
The series has so much history through the games, books and comics. If MS and Epic let this series end on such a poor note it'll be a real injustice to one of the current gens greatest new IPs.
Thursday 26 September 2013
What Are The Incentives For Digital Downloads On Current Consoles?
Okay - let me step into my grumpy boots.
I have just purchased two digital downloads from the Nintendo E-Shop in the past three weeks and have been thoroughly impressed with my purchases - but something sinister is tugging at my conscience...
What is the overall incentive in buying digital downloads, and what possible benefits do I get by by-passing my local outlet?
To make matters worse I have just claimed my points on-line (Club Nintendo) for my purchases, and guess what - I get 50 points less than a retail purchase ticket!
So let me explain - (1) I do not pay for the manual, disc or packaging (2) I do not pay for the shipping or mainland tax and (3) I do not pay for the retail mark-up. What does all that mean when I still pay retail value (sometimes the retailers have specials that better the on-line cost) and I use a large chunk of my Internet data to complete the transaction.
And now, to add insult to injury, I am getting shafted 50 "star" points...
Nintendo? What madness is this? Is this relative to the lesser consumers of New Zealand? Have you actually seen the poor offers being made on-line? Do you even care?
But this trend is not unique to Nintendo so I ask the question - what are the actual benefits of current digital downloads? Hell - when I'm finished with the game I can't even sell the download to another consumer (I am referring to current consoles), so why the exorbitant cost?
If gaming "companies" (I refuse to use the term corporations but it is getting that way) want to make digital downloads more attractive to the average punter they better damn well get realistic about the costs, because it seems to me that the only winners at the end of the day are the publisher - not the gamer - as opposed to both benefiting in this heated and often spurious contest.
Where would any company be without giving incentives to their customers?
And so Sez Jez!
I have just purchased two digital downloads from the Nintendo E-Shop in the past three weeks and have been thoroughly impressed with my purchases - but something sinister is tugging at my conscience...
What is the overall incentive in buying digital downloads, and what possible benefits do I get by by-passing my local outlet?
To make matters worse I have just claimed my points on-line (Club Nintendo) for my purchases, and guess what - I get 50 points less than a retail purchase ticket!
So let me explain - (1) I do not pay for the manual, disc or packaging (2) I do not pay for the shipping or mainland tax and (3) I do not pay for the retail mark-up. What does all that mean when I still pay retail value (sometimes the retailers have specials that better the on-line cost) and I use a large chunk of my Internet data to complete the transaction.
And now, to add insult to injury, I am getting shafted 50 "star" points...
Nintendo? What madness is this? Is this relative to the lesser consumers of New Zealand? Have you actually seen the poor offers being made on-line? Do you even care?
But this trend is not unique to Nintendo so I ask the question - what are the actual benefits of current digital downloads? Hell - when I'm finished with the game I can't even sell the download to another consumer (I am referring to current consoles), so why the exorbitant cost?
If gaming "companies" (I refuse to use the term corporations but it is getting that way) want to make digital downloads more attractive to the average punter they better damn well get realistic about the costs, because it seems to me that the only winners at the end of the day are the publisher - not the gamer - as opposed to both benefiting in this heated and often spurious contest.
Where would any company be without giving incentives to their customers?
And so Sez Jez!
Wednesday 18 September 2013
What is going on?? Why all the hate??
After 7-8 long years the reign of, the current generation of consoles is coming to an end and we have had our first glimpse of what will be ruling our spare time for the next 7-8 years.
This is a time for gamers to be excited, feverishly scouring the internet and magazine stands for any piece of news on their preferred system. Thinking long and hard about their day 1 purchases and what game will get to grace they disc slot or download list first.
But this time it seems, for many, it is actually a time to slag off the “competition”. Just going on any website forum or comments section is like walking into a school yard and seeing a bunch of kids bicker over whose new ball can bounce the highest.
The funny thing is half of the people comparing TFLOPs and MHZ have no idea what it all means and as long as their chosen console has a higher number it must mean it’ll be the new winner of this so called Console War. My question is, when did it stop being about the actual games and more about the bragging rights? Power is definitely not everything or we'd all be playing high end PCs and Nintendo would no longer exist (sorry Jez).
I have owned nearly every major console since the Atari 2600 and it is very rare that the power of a system made a game any more fun. I had both the SNES and the Mega Drive but preferred the less powerful Sega because it offered the games I liked (Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi to name a few). The PS2 was weak compared to Xbox and Gamecube but outsold them both by a huge margin plus offered us great games such as GT3, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas.
I guess all I'm really getting at is gamers need to forget all this console war rubbish and just get on and enjoy the games. If you prefer what Sony has to offer, get a PS4. Same goes for Xbox One and Wii U. Just stop trolling the other systems and allow the true fans to get hyped.
We are all gamers at the end of the day and should be banding together to show everyone who writes off our hobby as childish that it is a legitimate form of entertainment on equal footing with Movies, TV and Music. If we continue to act like kids we will be treated as such.
Now in the words of the Nintendo of America COO and President, Reggie Fils-Aime, "Play the Game!!!"
Friday 16 August 2013
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