Not the Bestest Ever Multiplayer Game, at least, any more

After a brief stint at the top of XBox Live, GTA IV is no longer the most popular multiplayer game on XBox Live any more.  It’s been overtaken by both Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3. That didn’t take too long.

In all fairness, the multiplayer in GTA IV was only one aspect of the game that was so popular with reviewers, and my sanity has been partially restored as it is no longer ranked as the best game of all time.

A Plague Of Locusts O’er The Land

Tadgh Kelly has a post up at GSW arguing that the delisting approach that Microsoft will be taking with XBLA marks the end of the platform as we know it.  Unfortunately, he makes his argument so hyperbolically that it obscures some of the good points that underlie his point.  Although I agree with his basic premise entirely, his conclusions start to run off the rails.

Kelly and I are in agreement that searching for games in XBL is currently unworkable.  Unless you know what you’re searching for, it’s nearly impossible to search for games with some reference to quality, popularity, or gameplay type.  We’re also in agreement that the proposed solution isn’t necessarily the ideal way to handle this concern.  But that’s where our opinions largely begin to diverge.

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When Good People Make Average Games

So the first installment of Penny Arcade Adventure is now out, and the reviews are in: the game is “not bad.”  This isn’t particularly surprising; after all, most games fall into that category.  I think what was slightly surprising though - at least for me - was the idea that guys who live and breathe gaming (who in fact make their living off of it) came in around the average.  This probably shouldn’t have been so startling.  After all, thinking about it provides plenty of reasons that it might be so.  But I suspect a lot of us play a mediocre title only to think, “I could make games better than these guys.”  So why couldn’t we?

Maybe the best reason is that we’re simply not a team.  Most reviews cite the Penny Arcade mentality as the game’s biggest strength; it’s got the humor and style that fans of the strip have always enjoyed.  (I’ll note that it also seems unfair to knock the game simply because you’re not a fan, as some reviewers do - you need to judge a game on its own terms.)  Naturally, since Gabe and Tycho have risen to fame due to that sensibility, it should be expected that they’d nail that part of the game.  But there’s obviously a lot more to a game than any one element.  And it seems like the gameplay, although inspired by Final Fantasy and related PA loves, didn’t get the same lavish attention that the storyline and setting did.  I would guess that the designers spent so much time trying to understand what Gabe and Tycho had in mind that no one really spent the time to think about how to keep the gameplay fresh.

I’m not trying to criticize them.  After all, the game isn’t bad.  It’s just not the revolutionary step that I think many fans were expecting.  And my point in writing this is to clarify that there are so many moving parts to a game, that we often lose sight of the fact that simply doing a great job in any one of them isn’t enough to provide a truly great game, even when made by one of our own.  To PA’s credit, their column has noted the concerns people have raised and have taken responsibility for them, suggesting they have to “work harder” in the future.  That’s refreshing, particularly since they don’t really have anything to apologize for.  I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to the series in the future - and I’m a lot more humble about my ability to do any better.

XBLA File Sizes

The XBox Live Arcade file size has been raised again, this time to 350MB.  I have mixed feelings on this: part of me is suspicious that it’s just another step on the long line to digital distribution controlled by the console manufacturers (including the concomitant DRM issues).  On the other hand, it never made a lot of sense to me.  If a company wants to have a good, decent-sized game available for download, and they were willing to use XBLA to distribute it, what was the point of a size restriction?  Just make the size obvious, and what’s the problem?

Ikaruga Is Hard

That is all.

By The Way, I’m Back

I neglected to mention this, but I’ve been away for the past two weeks due to a trip to China and Korea.  (Sorry.)  During the trip, I had the chance to meet with a number of different companies, but I was most interested in some of the technology companies and their vision for the future.  By far the most prominent meme we saw at consumer electronics companies was that of digital convergence, the somewhat played-out concept that eventually all devices will converge into a single “master player” - say, a central unit that plays games, watches movies, connects to the internet, and so on.

It was with that in mind that I read about the new deal Microsoft has inked to make 10 minute short episodes for Xbox Live.  Convergence is definitely alive outside the US; Korean consumer electronics were far beyond anything that I’ve seen in the States, and for a variety of reasons.  Yet at the same time, I’m skeptical of its eventual promise: the best Asian products were those that did a specialized function extremely well, rather than trying to be a jack of all trades.

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Microsoft Live Royalties

Well, if this is true, it seems like a terrible move on Microsoft’s part.  Kotaku reports that MS has decided to cut the royalties that it pays to indie developers in half, from 70% to 35%; the rationale for this move is unclear, but might be related to a push to use the XNA package for future development. 

This seems like a bad idea for two reasons, 1 practical and 1 theoretical.  From the latter standpoint, it’s unclear to me why Microsoft deserves to earn a 65% cut of revenues when it provides no actual content development - its role is purely distribution and QC (both of which are traditionally low-margin businesses, since they’re not responsible for actually creating anything).  And from a practical standpoint, XBox Live derives most of its advantages - absolute and relative to the PS3 - from having lots of exclusive content, not from its interface or style.  If the PlayStation network had great games and a lousy appearance, we’d still use it. 

 This move is clearly going to discourage many developers from continuing to stay with the Live network, and to the extent that it hurts creative content development, is dangerously close to ceding ground to Sony.  We all saw what happened when Sony’s hubris led it to disregard its consumers’ needs and create an expensive product without enough content.  I would caution Microsoft to be careful about doing the same.

This is still just an unconfirmed rumor, but Microsoft’s response is hardly encouraging.  Good job to Kotaku for investigating this.

IrRezistable

Rez is out on the XBLA now, and while I was fond of the PS2 version after renting it, it’s more beautiful than ever in its new, HD form.

It’s short, but not a complete pushover of a game.  You can’t just tap a button over and over again without paying attention to what’s going on in the game, but you’ll likely not have too much trouble with the game (although I still need to complete the last level after I just unfortunately failed on the final boss).  Like Portal, the game may be short, but is well worth it.  There are few games that are as profoundly and uniquely moving as Rez is.  There’s essentially no story (just some short explanation in the options menu), but that’s not really the point.  The mix of visuals, music, and interactivity create something wholly unique and beautiful, somehow blending into something that almost transcends the medium.   There are times when I was just in awe of what the game accomplishes.  If this isn’t “Art”, then nothing is.

Rocket Race Rules

I just thought I’d thank the Shacknews folks for showing me the Halo 3 custom game Rocket Race.  It’s sort of like The Road Warrior (movie) meets King of the Hill (gametype) with infinite rockets and invulverability.  The gametype is so much damn fun Bungie probably could’ve shipped it as a separate game.  I highly recommend it if you have Halo 3 and can get a minimum of 8-10 people together in a custom game (shouldn’t be too hard with the party-up system or with friends).  You won’t be disappointed.

CoD4’s Corrected Beta Registration Works in my favor

I just got a notification that I’m in the beta.  I’ll have impressions up as soon as I have a chance to play it (assuming there’s no NDA on it, which I don’t think there is, but I’ll have to double-check).

Thanks for fixing the registration, Infinity Ward! I didn’t even have to refresh the page 1000 times!