Retro PC Gaming

EA and Ubisoft are giving away free copies of Red Alert (1 and 2) and Far Cry (the original) as promos for preorders of RA3 and FC2.  Here’s a question for you: why the different attitudes towards older titles between PC gamers and consoles?  I doubt you’d see a console giving away older games for free - they’ve discovered that those games can easily be resold, often for fairly exorbitant prices, to gamers as part of the retro gaming craze.  Yet here we are.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed odd.  I’ve often wanted to play older PC games again, and I’d love for someone to hand me a nice, shiny package that would let me do that without the need to worry about things like DOS compatibility, game speeds, and so on.  (Look at the recent remake of Quest For Glory II, which was an entirely freeware effort and involved a complete graphical overhaul.)  So why are PC game makers so loathe to provide this?

I can think of a few reasons - IP is probably harder to trace through the maze of PC games, whose developers fold, merge, and acquire other companies faster than, say, Nintendo.  Also, there’s no pre-ready install base of hardware to sell through to.  And more people probably have fonder memories of their old Genesis or NES than of their PCs.  But still.  It seems like a missed opportunity - or am I missing something?

Healthy Skepticism

Far Cry 2 has released its system requirements, and forgive me if I’m somewhat skeptical that a Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, and an nvidia 8600 GTS are really all that will be required to run the game at the quality that we’ve been seeing it.  I’ll start by pointing out that those requirements are relatively steep for most non-hardcore PC gamers to begin with, Game Life’s surprise notwithstanding, and end by pointing out just how much systems sputtered at even the recommended requirements for Crysis and Far Cry upon their release. 

I note this simply to point out how insular PC gaming culture is… I’ve been out of the loop for all of a year or two, and the investment required to allow me to play a new computer game at a reasonable level of quality is already fairly high.  How must new inductees into PC gaming feel?

Why Is Braid So Big?

There’s been quite a fuss over the release of Braid this Wednesday, and it’s interesting to think about why a small-scale game is creating so much buzz.  After all, but Braid is at its heart not particularly notable: there are a ton of short, inventive, puzzle-oriented games out there that haven’t gotten the press coverage that it has received.  Big-scale games have imaginative, impressive art too… and more complex play mechanics.  (I don’t mean to diminish the game’s accomplishments - I haven’t played it, and a lot of people who have seem to think it’s pretty good.)  So what’s the deal?

Let me suggest that it’s basically because of what Braid represents.  To the large development community that comprises much of the blogging landscape, and the many smaller media voices out there, Braid is essentially the realization of their indie dreams: a game that was essentially made by a handful of people in a couple of years and whose ascendance to XBLA release demonstrates conclusively that independent success just might be possible indeed.  In other words, it’s a Cinderella story: it creates a ray of hope for people who are often chained to a large, soulless publisher. 

Sure, Braid features a pretty interesting play mechanic - but playing with time isn’t something we haven’t really seen developed as a gameplay concept plenty of times before, and it’s not the first to be inventive.  It simply uses time in a slightly different way.  It’s what the game symbolizes to people that makes it so interesting to them.

Spore Creature Creator

I played around with Spore’s trial Creature Creator recently, and I’m not 100% convinced that it’s a great idea.  As fun as it is to make my own hideous monstrosities, one of the main points of the actual Spore “game” is the progressive evolution of your beast as it moves through evolutionary phases.  Handing me the keys to the kingdom so early seems like it risks eliminating one of the few real reward systems the game has.

I’m also not sure whether or not some of the game’s lack of functionality is due to the fact that it’s a demo or not… but the painting seems like it lacks some basic options around color gradation and pattern selection, and it’s surprisingly difficult to mold the basic body shape into non-traditional forms, outside of simply lengthening or shortening the spine (for that matter, what happened to invertebrates?).

Legacies

I’m previously criticized movie adaptations of games that subsequently jettisoned the games’ unique characteristics.  I view the recent announcement of Wolfenstein 3D’s spiritual successor - known simply as Wolfenstein - in something of a similar vein. 

Wolfenstein 3D was indeed an historic game, the first real FPS to hit the market; although it took Doom to really get the genre into the open, id obviously knew what it was doing.  That said, I’m really unclear on the motivation to revisit it: the game is not a remake, but instead a sequel to the multiplayer (and decidedly less silly) Return to Castle Wolfenstein.  As far as I can tell, BJ Blaskowicz is the only real component of Wolf 3D to make it intact into the new title - unless you count the vague premise of Nazi supernaturalism, which is neither unique to the game nor particularly iconic within it.  The game features a realism that was certainly not a hallmark of the over-the-top original, and the game mechanics themselves are also relatively new.

Partly this is a result of the fact that although Wolf 3D was a pioneer in its day, there is little about it that remains unique in today’s crowded FPS marketplace.  Yet as IGN notes, there is a whole host of gamers who barely (if at all) remember the original.  So presumably the hope is that Wolfenstein carries enough weight with nostalgic older gamers to motivate them to play the new game… without investigating how much of the old title yet remains.  Personally, I’d prefer a remake of a more obscure game that could do with the publicity and might feature a ton of the quirkier characteristics that made playing it worthwhile: Blake Stone 3 or ROTT 2, anyone?

Puzzling Through Puzzles

Brainy Gamer is asking a question that, as an adventure game fan, intrigued me: are puzzles dead?  BG argues that modern games have eschewed puzzles in favor of twitch-action FPS’s and combat-heavy, reflex-oriented skill requirements.  Although I wouldn’t disagree per se, I think he’s both oversimplifying the transition and perhaps understating the true magnitude of the change.

First off, I think it’s inaccurate to claim that games have become more “twitchy” with time.  Such a statement fails to account for the whole host of purely twitch titles that represented gaming historically: classic titles like Xevious, Prince of Persia, Gauntlet, Smash TV (to pick a few randomly off the top of my head) were entirely centered in this type of mechanic.  Early console games were even more guilty of this - there were few if any puzzles to be found in Super Mario Bros. or many of its ilk.  I suspect that BG is thinking of the golden age of adventure games, rather than gaming as a whole, when he makes his critique - there was a period where simulations, RPGs, and adventure titles were predominant, but let’s not assign them too much weight.

However, where I think he probalby understates his case is in the overall transition of gaming from the perspective of its goals. 

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Adventure Game Update: A Vampyre Story

As one of the remaining adventure game fans out there, I was excited to read an update on A Vampyre Story, one of the most promising titles coming down the pike, from Kezins.com.  AVS is being made in the tradition of the classic LucasArts titles; there’s not a ton of information on the game itself - just that it’s currently in test - but I’m guessing it will probably release by the end of the year at least.

UPDATE: By the way, Brainy Gamer has been hosting a community discussion/play-through of Grim Fandango, my favorite game of all time, and I’d invite anyone who never experienced it to join in.

And, it’s official…

Blizzard sure knows how to announce something.

After teasing us all week with strange clues,wild goose chases, and clear red herrings, Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo III is coming.

But not only have they confirmed it, they’ve provided a wealth of information, including not only a cinematic teaser trailer, but a LONG gameplay video with commentary AND a beautifully designed website with even more information to host it all (I played both the cinematic and gameplay trailers this morning with only 1 slight hitch during the gameplay trailer… since it was early, perhaps it will get worse through the day, but I highly recommend you check it out).

In any case, the game already looks amazing, seemingly retaining that classic Diablo feel with significantly updated graphics and, what appears to be, far more interesting looking environments.  Something not completely clear to me right now is whether the game will retain the random levels, but the FAQ on the website hints at it right now as it says random scripted events “build” on the random level generation of the originals.  The game even already has a fantastic soundtrack to accompany it, something that I mentioned in an earlier comment was a key aspect of drawing you into the worlds of the original games. The other thing you can notice from the gameplay video is that it appears, as in the originals, there appears to be very little cooldown time for skills, another aspect that contributed to the lightning-fast gameplay of the originals that has often been lost in many “clones”.

One minor area of early concern for me is whether the controls will also retain the right-button-mouse reassign hotkeys that added to some of the franticness of the originals.  The gameplay video mentions a “swap” hotkey as well as mousewheel support, which is definitely helpful, but hopefully they did not also remove the individual keyboard hotkeys.  I doubt they did, and I think the commentary was just stressing that, as in the originals, Diablo III can be played entirely with a mouse again.

So far, I’m very impressed.  Unlike some companies that just release a crappy, brief, cinematic teaser with nothing else, Blizzard launches a full-out explosion of information for what is probably one of the most requested sequels ever. Call me a hopeless Diablo fiend, but this game immediately jumps to the top of my most anticipated games.  The only question now is whether I’ll be able to play it before the decade is out.  If I had to wager a guess, I’d say that they’re shooting for the 2009 holiday season… which probably means we won’t see it until summer 2010 (or beyond).  But, the game does already look pretty damn good, so here’s hoping that it makes it out sooner than later.

Minor Update:  Shacknews has larger and faster loading movies here.  You can also view a couple shorter movies that focus on some of the attacks of the two classes that have been announced so far (Barbarian and Witch Doctor), as well as an “Artwork Trailer” which is actually kind of cool.  There are even some HD versions of some of the movies, but you’ll have to register (for free) to download them.

Oh yeah, and if anyone from Blizzard is reading this, I’ll just let you know right now that I’m available for a beta… or alpha… or whatever. =)

Diablo III or Bust *UPDATED*

I just thought I’d put up my 2 cents that if Blizzard’s newest teaser is for the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King, something we already know about and have plenty of information available on already, and which is only aimed at people who have level 70 characters (or close), then that would be a massive disappointment.

For all the Diablo clones out there, for some reason, nothing has been able to match up to the original (and especially its sequel).  Perhaps nothing ever will, but that doesn’t mean that a sequel to the 2000-released Diablo II (and 2001 expansion) isn’t extremely anticipated.  A WoW expansion means nothing to me and only something to a (smallish?) subset of the 10 million WoW subscribers who have or are close to level 70.  But a Diablo sequel… that’s something that I, and probably a hell of a lot more people than the mentioned WoW subset, can firmly get behind.

*UPDATE*

Well, more teasers today from Blizzard but Diabloii.net supposedly has confirmation from “inside sources” that Diablo III WILL be announced this weekend at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (WWI for short).  Here’s hoping their sources are right (and that the game doesn’t take another several years to make it out).

Ni Hao Ma, Zon?

This seems like an interesting idea: use a game to teach languages and culture.  I’m currently taking Chinese classes, and it would be nice to see an easier way to learn the language, which is quite difficult - in 9 months, I barely have the vocabulary required to ask for the time, directions, or to order food (comparatively, it’s taken me about 2 days to learn how to read Korean).  And I’m one of the better students in the class.

More to the point, I’m amazed it’s taken this long to try something like this.  An MMO is a social, interactive experience that can do a great job of mimicking real-life situations.  I’ll report back once I’ve had the chance to try the game out.