Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Chinese New Year to all.  Here’s a Link bento box to celebrate.

On an unrelated note, it’s nice to see new, quality IP succeed - especially on the Wii, as De Blob appears to have.  I haven’t been able to pick it (or anything) up of late but it’s on my radar and I’ll be purchasing it shortly.

Mario Physics

This is just kind of cool.  Mario and physics are converging.

Suasion

Games of the year debates are a bit passe at this point, but I was pleased to see that Kombo actually posted their debate on the subject online.  Most interesting to me is that it wasn’t really a debate per se - everyone had an opinion that they stuck to throughout, and no one was persuaded to change their opinions (or indeed, to waver) at any point. 

The cynical will say that this simply makes the broader point that Game of the Year is simply another term for “Here’s What I Think,” and that such debates are more about self-validation than a meritocracy.  (But aren’t they all?)  That said, people have different tastes, and I’m not sure that self-expression is really all that bad if it sparks people talking to each other rather than at them.

And read the debate, it’s interesting.  They’re way off on LittleBigPlanet, though.

Back And Some Thoughts

I’m back from Australia, so I’ll resume a more regular posting schedule shortly.  A few random thoughts in the interim:

• Hangover: There are some hugely anticipated games this year, but I don’t think any of them come out before March (RE5)… so we spend a quarter of the year recovering from the Christmas glut.  This is a hobby horse of mine, but it still seems worth talking about.
• Recession: Eidos is blaming disappointing Tomb Raider sales - and ensuing layoffs - on the current recession.  I’m not sure you can make that argument given all the counterevidence suggesting that this holiday was pretty good for game companies, but I guess it lets you off the hook…
• Dead Rising: I’m interested in hearing about the DR remake for Wii, but I hope they’ll correct what I thought was the biggest flaw in the original and make some of the more off-the-wall weapons more powerful.  No point in hurling tires at zombies if they barely dent them in the process.
• Sequels: All but 3 of GameLife’s most anticipated games of 2008 are sequels.  This probably just proves that we’re more likely to obsess over games that we already know were fun the first time around, but I’d be interested in seeing a similar list for originals. 
• Fallout: I’m really excited to get back to Fallout, which is still woefully uncomplete.  But catching up on Insult Swordfighting’s post series also promises to be an interesting complement to the experience.

Game On

I take  back my previous comment about not seeing much gaming in Australia.  I arrived in Brisbane yesterday and today was able to check out the Game On exhibition at the Brisbane library. 

Game On is intended to be an overview of the gaming industry and includes a number of different playable games , including a wall screen-projected Pong at the entranceway.  The exhibit was quite interesting, particularly insofar as it got an incredibly diverse group of people through its doors.  I saw a woman earnestly attempting to play Super Mario Bros. 3 amidst numerous pointers from her son; nothing that engages non-gamers effectively can be a bad thing.
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Happy New Year!

2008 turned out to be a much better year than I expected it to be as far as games went, which is what’s ultimately delaying my “Best of” list.  But what will 2009 bring us?

Right now, I can’t think of all that much, but 2008 originally looked similar.  Off the top of my head, here’s what I’m looking most forward to:

1. Resident Evil 5
2. God of War 3
3. Fallout 3 DLC
4. A new Rock Band?
5. A new Zelda?

I’m also keeping an eye on Killzone 2, as it’s getting better previews than I expected.  We’ll see, though.

What’s everyone else looking forward to?

Your body is a temple (of doom)

The media have been tossing around this story about a study that found a correlation between the idealized or hyperidealized bodies of videogame characters and body image in gamers. It’s one of those O RLY? conclusions that is the result of almost every social psychology experiment: Gamers who played games featuring hot-bodied characters of their own gender had poorer body self-esteem, even after a mere 15 minutes of gaming.

It’s not the conclusion, per se, I take issue with; like I said, the goal of social psych experiments is, in essence, to scientifically validate obviousness. What bothers me is the fact that this scientifically un-rigorous “study” was published in an actual journal (which has, if I may revert to 13 years old, the best name ever) and is getting press attention.
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Duly missed

Kotaku points out a post at thegamereviews.com that notes that this is the first year in a decade that didn’t see a new Zelda game released.  This is actually something that perhaps most people don’t really think about, instead only thinking about the “main” games in the series, but as it turns out, I’ve played to completion nearly every game on that list (I never played Link’s Awakening and Majora’s Mask, and have not completed Phantom Hourglass).

I knew there was something missing this year.

The Point Of Combat

I’m skiing in Colorado so sorry for the light posting. 

Patrick Klepek of MTV Multiplayer makes an interesting point about combat in video games via Fallout 3.  He says that he doesn’t like the game as much now that he’s hit the level cap and combat is now boring (since it has no intrinsic reward).  It made me think a bit about the purpose of combat in gaming; I think I see three main types.

The first is where combat serves as an obstacle.  In an FPS like Half-Life, the enemies aren’t particularly difficult on an individual basis, but there are a ton of them and they serve as a barrier between the player and the end of the level (the goal).  Left 4 Dead is perhaps a prime example of this - your goal isn’t to kill zombies per se but to get around them to reach the safehouse.  As a result, the reward is related but mostly disconnected from the combat.

The second type is where the enemies are intended to be a means to an end, like in an RPG like WoW or Fallout.  The enemies are perhaps slightly harder than in the first example, but you’re mainly concerned with what they give you (experience or items usually) rather than the enemies themselves. 

Finally, there are games where the combat is intended to be inherently interesting.  This may be in the form of a complex puzzle like in Shadow of the Colossus, a boss pattern memorization such as Ikaruga, or in its purest form, a fighting game like Soul Calibur or Tekken.  These games are the ones where the most care is lavished on the enemy design and combat engine because it alone needs to hold player interest.

Since Fallout involves the second type, it makes sense that once Klepek finished obtaining those rewards he was no longer interested in fighting - people do what you reward them for.  But it seems interesting to me that in only one game is fighting really the point of the game; it suggests to me that even “violent” games may have much different lessons to teach than we might initially think.

Jeff’s most overrated games of 2008

Unfortunately, my list for Best game of the year is going to be a little delayed as I try and catch up on the vast quantity of games I can now get back to after completing (for now) Fallout 3 (I don’t want to give any potential contenders short-shrift).  So, to compensate, I’ll just list what I believe are the most overrated games of the year, as I think I can probably do that already.

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