How Quickly We Forget

Joystiq is pitching Prime 3’s ”token” system as Achievements Lite.  But you can make at least a colorable argument that the basic idea of accomplishing in-game feats to obtain rewards has been around at least since the Warp Pipes in Super Mario Brothers.  And although I’m not sure exactly where the idea of using in-game rewards to “redeem” additional content originated, it certainly wasn’t with Live.  I mean, Mega Man had Rush-accessible areas, Mario World had the Yoshi Coins and Star Road system…  I’m sure you can think of other examples.

This isn’t to demean Live, of course.  But Achievements were an outgrowth of existing ideas, not an innovation in and of themselves.  In fact, I rather prefer Metroid’s system, since at least the tokens there can be used to do something in the game.  Bragging rights don’t really motivate me to do anything.

I feel like running a Marathon

I highly recommend you check out this quasi-interview that Bungie conducted with Marathon: Durandal (XBLA) developers Freeverse. In my recent list I mentioned that I had dropped Marathon: Durandal from my “Probably Will Buy” to my “Could Buy” category, but with a completely new 3d engine (that looks extremely colorful and beautiful), new network code, 8 player online coop, 8 player deathmatch, and what sounds like a really fun new mode with new levels, I may have to bump it back up again. The new mode? I’ll let Freeverse explain:

When you start a Survival game, you’re dropped randomly into one of four brand-new deathtra–er, levels and given a metric -blam-ton of guns and ammunition. After you gather your bearings, we start teleporting groups of enemies, dozens at a time, into the level. It’s literally wave after wave of Pfhor and S’pht against you, and we keep the action moving by changing things up every sixty seconds. The more enemies you sack–and the less damage you take–the higher your score will be at the end. (And we all want to be at the top of the Leaderboards, right?)

As you progress through each round, we rotate new threats in and out of the game, from lowly Pfhor Fighters to Hunters to Juggernauts. (Did I say Juggernauts, plural? Hmm.) Our goal was to keep the experience fresh both while you were playing and between individual games. By rotating the enemies in waves and randomizing the placement of the enemies each time we add more, we keep Survival challenging and unpredictable–each time you play, it’s a little different.

While the placement of the enemies is random, the progression of the waves is not. Thanks to our wonderful testing crew, we’ve been able to craft a cleverly escalating difficulty ramp for the Survival rounds. It’s also a pretty awesome way to play with some of the weapons the game doesn’t give you much time with outside of multiplayer.

Does this sound sort of like a 3d FPS version of Geometry Wars to anyone else? Can’t wait to see it on my own 360.

What Do We Want From WiiWare?

Here’s a subject for debate: GameSetWatch asks what we want from WiiWare, Nintendo’s new tool for original DLC.  To start things off, I’ll suggest that these are the top three things Nintendo needs to do in order to make WiiWare a viable alternative to Xbox Live.

1. Provide an open forum for developers to create their own Wii games as they see fit.  That means that Nintendo can’t put its thumb on the scales to limit developers’ options, as it often does (see, for example, the nanny mentality that led to Friend codes or no-blood Mortal Kombat).  Let people create whatever they want to create, as long as it meets basic quality requirements.  This also means aggressively pursuing outside IP to prevent Microsoft and Sony from locking it up… Flow would have been a good addition to the Wii lineup, if Nintendo had been better prepared and more aggressive.
2. Be careful leveraging Nintendo IP for new DLC.  Nintendo’s biggest advantage over Microsoft is the fact that it has so many recognizable brands… but if it just churns out more crappy minigames, people are going to wonder why the hell they’re paying full price for more Mario Party.  Nintendo also needs to distinguish between new WiiWare games and its own historical library - I’d much rather play a new Alien Hominid game than try to remember why I bothered re-purchasing Blaster Master.
3. Price appropriately.  I already think Nintendo’s Wii pricing is lousy, and $8 is the most I’ll pay for almost any older game.  But if they think WiiWare is an opportunity to sucker their fanboys for a few extra dollars’ profit, (I hope) they’re mistaken.  Please don’t try to rip me off.

Your thoughts?

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Should Live Be Free?

Microsoft has apparently felt compelled to defend their pricing of Live, especially since the GFW controversy has underscored the fact that most of these services are free for PC users.  MS points to the cost of the bandwidth, technology, etc.

I don’t really have a problem with the $50 annual fee, assuming that Live continues to offer solid online play.  The PS3 and Wii networks seem to give you pretty much what you pay for, which isn’t much, and I appreciate the level of professionalism that Live offers… it’s by far the best of the consoles. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’d be willing to pay anything for PC titles… there’s no good reason to pay for something that doesn’t require the same infrastructure as Live.  But there seems to be an unnecessary sense of entitlement if people are really complaining too much about Microsoft’s platform.

Bomberman Live(s)

This is why I often like what Microsoft is providing with the XBox Live Arcade over the Wii Virtual Console.  Say hello to 8-player online Bomberman Live.

Sure, the VC does get a lot of great, classic games.  The VC even got one of the better, “classic” Bomberman games.  That’s great, but it’s no HD Bomberman with 8-player online support.  Assuming it pans out, this will be an awesome update to a classic game.  Rather than making us pay for the same old classic game, the XBLA often actually gives us some extra added value for our money.   Of course, there’s no word on how much this will cost, but hopefully (and perhaps most likely) it’ll be no more than $10.  The extra $4 over the VC Bomberman would be well worth it if the online play works as well as it should.

XBLA also has a remake of the original Prince of Persia coming out.  My original favorite version of the game was the SNES one, so when I originally heard PoP was coming to XBLA as well, I figured I’d probably have to wait for the SNES version on the VC.   I was wrong on that one too.  Check out a videos for the enhanced “Prince of Persia: Classic” here.

I have no problem with what the VC is doing in theory.  I think it’s great that we can get nearly 100% accurate reproductions of older games, but given that XBLA is giving us updated versions of some of the same games within roughly the same price range, isn’t there any room for the VC to give us both the “classic” version of a game alongside an updated one?

Rewarding The Lousy

Stephen Totilo asks if losing should be more fun.  I immediately found myself saying “of course not,” so I decided to read a bit further.

In essence, Totilo says that he sucks at some games (here, at the Halo 3 beta).  So, he reasons, if he’s going to be worse than the hyperactive 12 year olds who obliterate him over and over again, designers should at least make dying fun.

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Big Crackdown Bug

I downloaded the “Free-for-All” update for Crackdown to play with Jeff last night, and of course ran smack into this bug.  Now my save game has been erased, and I’m back to square one.  Dammit.

Hope everyone else is luckier than me.

You’ll Get Nothing, And You’ll Like It

Is this really true?  Is Microsoft actually “legally required” to region-code its products?  The press flak’s defense seems to ring a little hollow:

“We understand that [people want access to other regions' content], but unfortunately we are legally required to ensure that all content on Xbox Live is only available for download in the country in which it is licensed. If we don’t we may not be able to continue providing quality content… I should also point out that licensing agreements like this are standard practice in the entertainment industry.”

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Posted in Business, Geoff, Xbox Live | 2 Comments »

I Reiterate

Hot on the heels of the “no one’s this dumb” post comes this Joystiq mention that Live is going to start charging for videos identifying the location of all 100 Cog Tags in Gears of War.  Amusingly, this isn’t even a single video - it’s a set of 5, with each of them running $1.25 US apiece.

Honestly, I have a hard time getting worked up about this, primarily because anyone stupid enough to pay for this deserves to lose their money.

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Math For Idiots

The cost of an episode of the Daily Show or Colbert Report on Xbox Live: $2.

The cost of a month’s Daily Shows and Colbert Reports: $2 * (4 episodes/week * 4 weeks/month) = $32 * 2 shows = $64

The cost of digital cable (with free DVR): $60.

Gee… $64 for two shows for a month, or $60 for all shows for a month?  Tough choice.

OK, OK - I know that people may not necessarily want both shows, or the whole month’s worth, and maybe digital cable is slightly more expensive in your area.  But it seems to me like this is a pretty clear example of yet more egregiously overpriced Live material.  And the fact that iTunes is gouging us too doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference.