My Kingdom For A Horse

So I was reading the latest Games For Windows, and it had an article entitled, “Three Wishes.”  The angle was that the magazine asked a number of industry figures what technological trick they might wish for if they had a magic genie.  And what surprised me about the article was just how routine most of their requests were: the industry’s come a long way in the last thirty years, but we’re still dealing with many of the same issues.  Unbelievable cosmic powers, itty-bitty living space, I guess.

For example: Warren Spector wants a game engine that’s as accessible as movie-making equipment (so he doesn’t have to reinvent cameras, AI, the UI, and so on), as does, essentially, Richard Garriott.  Will Wright wants good pathfinding.  Matt Milller of NCsoft would eliminate bugs.  Brad Wardell - the CEO of Stardock - would like to get himself some virtual reality.  Bioware GMs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk request great AI and better digital actors.  If these seem familiar to you, it’s probably because gamers have been complaining about not having them for years.  Why haven’t we made more progress? 

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Pointless Gear Watch: Wireless Wired Nunchuk Adapter

It’s generally a bad sign when I have to read an article twice to understand what the featured product is for.  It’s an even worse sign when it turns out to be this.  Not to be confused with Nyko’s wireless nunchuk (already a fairly pointless invention), this adapter attaches to existing wired nunchuks and makes them wireless.  This is a valuable product for individuals who like to repeatedly cross the room in order to play their videogames, those with twelve foot arms, and for other people who don’t exist.

The product retails for $20, compared to $30 for the standalone wireless nunchuk, making it slightly less worthless but $20 overpriced.

Listmania!

Tis the season for multipage retrospectives.  I’m going to archive the many 2007 lists and “best of’s” out there - to be updated as events warrant and in no particular order (sites with multiple lists get their own headers for the sake of organization).  Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Games of 2007

• A wiki of all the games first published this year!  Just in case you want to take a stab at making your own lists.

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The Rise of Vaporware Day?

It’s amazing that today we see news on, not just one, but two products long thought to have been vaporware.

The first, as you’ve probably all heard by now, is the new Duke Nukem Forever teaser trailer.  The game, which has now been in development for more than 10 years (and announced about 11 years ago) according to Wikipedia, has been a running joke now for the last, say 7-8 years, and is now considered one of the foremost examples of vaporware, “winning” Wired’s vaporware awards several times since 2001 (and placing second in 2000).  Wired even went out of their way to create the “Vaporware Lifetime Achievement” award in 2003 to award to Duke Nukem Forever.  For his part, 3d Realms co-owner George Broussard has steadfastly maintained that the game will be released “when it’s done”, and accepted the award in good humor.  Hopefully this non-commitment to a firm release date means that, if the game ever does see the light of day, it will actually be worth the wait.

As for the second piece of Vaporware today, there’s news of the Phantom Lapboard. That’s right, while the aptly named Phantom console may never see the light of day, somehow or another the company has managed to finally release the keyboard/mouse combo that they were developing for its use.  It’s sort of strange that after all the big promises of the Phantom Console the only thing they were able to release with all of the financing they secured is the “controller” for it, but I suppose it counts for something.

In any case, what do both of these releases have in common?  Well, despite the fact that we’re finally hearing about these vaporware products, both are still a bit underwhelming. While we have not heard or seen much of anything about Duke Nukem Forever since 2001, a new trailer featuring flashy (CG?) graphics but no actual gameplay isn’t likely to get people excited.  Broussard has tried to cool things down a bit by saying it’s just a teaser and that a better trailer will be coming soon, but I can’t help but feel that maybe they should’ve just skipped this “teaser” then because it likely will have the opposite effect of what they’re hoping.  Sure, the graphics look nice and I suppose if that’s how it looks it could be cool, but then just about anything could when you’re not showing actual gameplay.  Certainly, the game could be amazing when it comes out, but the teaser released today basically gives no indication either way.  I’m hoping for the best, but this teaser probably won’t quell many doubts that people have about the game.

As for the Phantom Lapboard?  Well, it’s a decent idea, I suppose, to make it easier to use a mouse and keyboard from the comfort of your couch.  However, I think its utility is probably pretty limited given that most people don’t have a computer hooked up to their TV.  It would probably be a great controller for Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3 (since it supports a keyboard and mouse), but at $130 I doubt it’ll excite too many people.

Rock Band’s Hydra Head

My original Rock Band guitar suffered from the bad “down strum” problem that many people were experiencing.  Luckily, EA’s support was actually surprisingly good for it.  I just filled out a quick Web Form and within about a week I received my new Rock Band guitar.  I packed up my old guitar and sent it off back to them and the process was completed quickly.

I thought I would give my new guitar a shot to ensure that they had fixed the problem.  Sure enough, the strum bar seems to work fine now.  But in place of a bad strum bar, I have two different problems that have now sprung up. Although neither of the problems are as detrimental to the gameplay as a bad strum bar, both are kind of annoying.

The first problem is that the fret buttons seem much “clickier” than my original guitar.  One of the things I really liked about the Rock Band guitar was the fact that the strum bar didn’t click like the Guitar Hero one did.  It made it feel a bit more natural, and reduced the “real” sound of playing the virtual guitar.  But now with my new Rock Band guitar, the fret buttons click and clack like never before, sort of rendering the advantage of the silent strum bar worthless.   I don’t need total silence, but the buttons click so much now (and seem slightly more difficult to depress at the same time) that during particularly tough sequences, it just sounds sort of messy.

The second problem is that the “Overdrive” (Star Power to those with Guitar Hero) seems much more difficult to activate on the new guitar.  I’ve raised the guitar way over my head, jerked it back and forth, and sometimes it just does nothing.  Actually, there are other times when I’ll seemingly be in the exact same position as I always am, and I can’t NOT activate “overdrive”.  As soon as my power gets to the halfway point it can activate.  So, in other words, it’s often difficult to activate my overdrive when I actually want to.  I think I can partially remedy this by sitting up very straight when playing, but other than a couple accidental activations, this wasn’t really an issue before whatever my posture may have been.

I imagine it’s probably not worth it to call EA again unless my Overdrive stops working completely, but they probably haven’t made any changes to the guitars again by now anyway.  I’m going to keep playing with it for awhile and see if it gets any better, but it’s just too bad that they couldn’t get it just right for this game.  I really do prefer the strum on it to the Guitar Hero guitars, but if I’m clicking away on the frets anyway, it probably doesn’t make much of a difference.

Double-Facing Kotaku On The PSP

I’m going to both agree and disagree with Kotaku (or more specifically, with Mark Wilson) simultaneously.  Jason Chen of Gizmodo wrote a column entitled “Why the PSP Might Overtake the DS.”  It was, as Wilson points out, an interesting variation of Xeno’s Paradox - well-reasoned, articulate, and deeply flawed.  I’ll provide an overview of the article, then discuss why the entire conversation is off-base.

Chen’s post contains 8 pieces of evidence for the PSP’s ultimate domination.  I’ll let you read them in detail or yourself, but they all fall into one of three categories:

• Sales momentum: The PSP has sold 1M units in Japan in two months, sales for the PSP are up while the DS’s are down, and the PSP has sold as many units as the PS2.
• Product quality: The PSP has more highly-rated games, as well as more add-ons and media interactivity.

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Not Ready To Rumble

I realize I’m probably in the minority on this one, but I’m actually pleased that the Dualshock 3 isn’t going to feature some sort of “next-gen rumble” capability.  Rumble can be a nice immersion tool when properly - and infrequently - implemented, but more often than not it’s overused and ends up distracting me much more than it ever actually helps. 

Do we really need to feel the “hum of a lightsaber’s energy as it powers up”?

$50 Duck Hunt, Anyone?

Does it strike anyone else as weird that Nintendo is basically re-releasing the NES zapper for the Wii?  I mean, sure, it sounds interesting… but it would be very difficult to control a complex game with just the Wiimote, since you wouldn’t have enough hands for the zapper/nunchuk combo.  And if it’s just for simple games, are we really going to want to pay for this?

Not Dead Yet…

Well, I’m back from my trip - but I’ve just moved, have no internet till tonight, and am in orientation for a new position from 8 am until 11 pm every day.  Will be hopefully posting later.

Ninjitsoops

I thought this was a weird statement to make (from IGN’s recent impressions on Dragon Sword):

“[H]ow do you translate a series known for cutting-edge graphics and spectacular button combos to a handheld that lacks the horsepower of any home system and uses a stylus to boot?”

Unless I’m mistaken, haven’t all of the Gaiden games prior to Black/Sigma been twitchy action games unreliant on their graphics?  I loved them, but let’s not confuse the last two games with the series.

As long as we’re on the subject, another line that raised my eyebrows: “What the demo proves beyond any doubt is that Gaiden for DS is terrific.”  Gee, guys, you’re generally supposed to wait for the game to be released before you review it.  (For what it’s worth, I’ve beaten 2 & 3, but have never finished 1.  I’m hoping Dragon Sword turns out well.)