Curmudgeon Gamer
31 May 2007
The catch with "free" GameTap
Now I understand how the free ad-based version of GameTap will make money -- other than from showing adverts, of course. I got it when I read this comment over at NeoGAF:
As I understand it (and the GameTap people who lurk here can set me straight): The free, ad-driven service doesn't give access to all the big-name games, but it does have a rotating selection of the big-name games. So currently you can play (e.g.) Tomb Raider: Legend by just signing up for the ad-driven free service. But if you aren't finished by 4 June 2007, then you'll have to find another way to play. The option they'd want you to choose, of course, is a paid membership with their service. Sneaky.
Yes, the first hit is truly free (having to watch advertisements notwithstanding). But you better smoke it all before it goes back behind the non-free wall. After that, you pay, just like everyone else.
Unfortunately, it looks like the games are only free til Jun 4th, at which point I guess they'll rotate more in. Maybe I can beat TR: Legends by then.Ah-ha. Yes, I'm a bit slow, but I get there eventually.
As I understand it (and the GameTap people who lurk here can set me straight): The free, ad-driven service doesn't give access to all the big-name games, but it does have a rotating selection of the big-name games. So currently you can play (e.g.) Tomb Raider: Legend by just signing up for the ad-driven free service. But if you aren't finished by 4 June 2007, then you'll have to find another way to play. The option they'd want you to choose, of course, is a paid membership with their service. Sneaky.
Yes, the first hit is truly free (having to watch advertisements notwithstanding). But you better smoke it all before it goes back behind the non-free wall. After that, you pay, just like everyone else.
Labels: gametap, online distribution
--jvm at 16:27
Comment
[ 4 ]
Carmack's jumped the shark
id Software is working on a brand new game with a brand new engine, and I don't care:
"We are working on an all-new franchise: it's not Doom, it's not Quake, it's not Wolfenstein, it's not Enemy Territory, it's not even Commander Keen!"It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."
A decade ago the words "all-new John Carmack engine" would have had me poring for hours over Anandtech video card, motherboard, and CPU reviews. Now I wonder why I ever cared so much. Maybe id really will have something novel and fun this time, but I wouldn't even bet my milk money on it.
I'm going to hazard that I've changed and id Software fundamentally hasn't.
Edit: Removed link to Kotaku junk post and linked to original source. Idiots.
--jvm at 15:54
Comment
[ 4 ]
29 May 2007
Lara Croft, next-generation doll
If you ever doubted that Lara was eseentially a 3D dress-up doll for some people, well, this thread at Tomb Raider Forums will set you straight. Her model in Tomb Raider Anniversary demo can be retextured and people have been remaking her at will. Here's what she looks like in the demo:
And here are a couple of reworkings by TR Forum denizen jvjv:
Wow. Just...wow.
And here are a couple of reworkings by TR Forum denizen jvjv:
Wow. Just...wow.Labels: modding, tomb raider
--jvm at 21:17
Comment
[ 1 ]
Review: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (PS2)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is equal parts romance, time travel, and glassy smooth action sequences: a traceur prince seeks redemption, falls in love, and earns the power to bend time. Prince of Persia: Revelations, also known as The Warrior Within, was an ugly scar of a sequel, unplayable and buggy. The third game, The Two Thrones, was hailed by Ubisoft and reviewers as a return to the romance and action of the first game, with the improved combat of the second.They were wrong. It's just another soulless sequel whose misunderstanding of Sands of Time beggars the imagination.
It has but a mere glimmer of romance. Its plot hinges on timelines that are neither novel nor compelling. And the action -- while certainly an extension of the previous games -- frustrates almost as often as it entertains. Whoever designed that ridiculously cheap puzzle-to-chariot-race-to-boss-battle sequence in the middle of the game should be unceremoniously sacked. Nothing in this game justifies the time you'll spend fighting against its flaws, certainly not its perfunctory final sequences. Heck, the best line in the entire game isn't even original: it's borrowed from the very first game!
I should have taken heed when I saw that Jordan Mechner -- writer and designer of The Sands of Time and the creator of Prince of Persia and Karateka -- had no part in the latter two modern Prince of Persia games. Clearly he knew that the conceits of the first game would work once, but no more. Now I know better and so should you.
--jvm at 16:02
Comment
[ 3 ]
28 May 2007
Well written, Blizzard
I've been trying to play World of Warcraft one month at a time with breaks of a couple of weeks between those months. Not only is it cheaper than any of the continuous plans, it usually forces me to catch up on some other facets of my life.Usually when the cancel interface asks why I've canceled, I say it's because the game is too expensive, which, after a manner of speaking, is why I'm doing it. If it were cheaper to pay a year at a time than this back and forth, I'd probably do it. Today, however, I picked the [newish?] option for needing more time for other things. I believe school, family, etc were options for the next drop down of why I needed more time, for example.
In a move reminiscent of Fight for Life, it appears WoW cancellation screens have different notes and perhaps pictures depending on your reason for quitting. The note with this one tells me Blizzard might want to give its employees more time off, too.
We are proud that we were able to make a sucessful [sic], enjoyable game. And as much as we'd like you to keep playing, we understand that there are certain cirumcstances [sic] which may prevent continuous game play. Currently, we have no plans to delete World of Warcraft accounts regardless of their activity history. Provided that the characters do not get deleted by the account holder, we will retain all character information on our servers indefinitely.
Well, at least it got the point across, and I'll be back for the run from 65-70 soon.
--ruffin at 08:11
Comment
[ 0 ]
26 May 2007
Tomb Raider Anniversary comparison shots
I am busy finishing up a couple of games (on which I hope to have short posts soon), so I've not been posting much. I have been keeping tabs on the Tomb Raider Anniversary news, and I think the images in this NeoGAF forum post (which in turn took images from this Tomb Raider Forums post) demonstrate the possibility that Crystal Dynamics has done a decent job of recreating the original game. I'm especially impressed with the shot from the Colosseum.
In less than two weeks, I'll be playing the full game -- the PlayStation 2 version. I've made up my mind that playing the game on an HDTV at 480p is probably a better experience than on the little PSP screen, especially if the translation diminishes the quality as happened with Tomb Raider: Legend. I'll do my best to give the game a thorough curmudgeoning. I know Ruffin will tell me if I'm slacking.
In the meantime, Windows users with a sufficiently strong machine can download a demo here. My one Windows machine has a 1.2GHz AMD processor without SSE instructions, so I'm out of luck.
In less than two weeks, I'll be playing the full game -- the PlayStation 2 version. I've made up my mind that playing the game on an HDTV at 480p is probably a better experience than on the little PSP screen, especially if the translation diminishes the quality as happened with Tomb Raider: Legend. I'll do my best to give the game a thorough curmudgeoning. I know Ruffin will tell me if I'm slacking.In the meantime, Windows users with a sufficiently strong machine can download a demo here. My one Windows machine has a 1.2GHz AMD processor without SSE instructions, so I'm out of luck.
Labels: ps2, tomb raider, windows
--jvm at 21:12
Comment
[ 0 ]
25 May 2007
Media Summit A-Go-Go
The big sites have mentioned they've been under another of those news embargos for the duration of Nintendo's big E3 replacement show. (I've registered my disdain for the news embargo system before.)
So, what was the big news that was so R0XX0RZ MEGAT0N that Nintendo would forcibly gag a legion of game press until the moment of midnight to release it?
THAT THERE WAS NO NEWS.
In the words of Joel Robinson, "Oh god! The joke's on us!"
So, what was the big news that was so R0XX0RZ MEGAT0N that Nintendo would forcibly gag a legion of game press until the moment of midnight to release it?
THAT THERE WAS NO NEWS.
In the words of Joel Robinson, "Oh god! The joke's on us!"
--JohnH at 15:33
Comment
[ 1 ]
22 May 2007
ESRB statement on anti-tobacco groups
Has the ESRB received any pressure from anti-tobacco groups regarding the rating of games and the use of tobacco in videogames? Spokesman Eliot Mizrachi says that "[the] ESRB has not experienced 'pressure' with respect to this issue, and this may be due in part to precisely what you pointed out - that ESRB's content descriptors do a good job of identifying content that parents would be interested in knowing about given the rating category assigned." You might recall that the data I collected showed that games with a rating below M were more likely to note tobacco use or references.
--jvm at 20:40
Comment
[ 0 ]
More about PlayStation Museum
I wrote the PlayStation Museum curator about their liquidation. Here is the response:
jvm: What precipitated the liquidation of the PlayStation Museum's collection?So now you know.
PS Museum: A partner in the museum has decided to split and force a liquidation (unless I can come up with the money which I can't).
jvm: How will the online museum change after this liquidation?
PSM: The online museum may stay. The future of the museum is still slightly uncertain.
jvm: Are you in touch with preservation institutions about selling the collection?
PSM: No, I haven't been.
jvm: And has the eBay auction been removed by you or by eBay? In either case, why?
PSM: Apparently ebay removed it for trademark violation, unauthorized item? Your email was the first I heard of it and now I just read the standard email from ebay. Everything will now have to be listed separately.
Labels: collecting, psone
--jvm at 18:04
Comment
[ 3 ]
21 May 2007
Death of the PlayStation Museum?
Via Simon at GameSetWatch, I see that the PlayStation Museum (site down as of this writing) is probably closing down. The collection is for sale here currently, with an asking price of $30,000. As someone who is quasi-obsessive about PlayStation game collecting, I'm sad to see it go. If there is a university out there looking to jump into preservation with both feet, I'd think thirty grand would be pretty cheap for this extensive a collection.
On the plus side, owning about 8.5% of the number of PSOne games they have doesn't make me feel too bad about my collection. And it's not jointly owned (one PS Museum partner is apparently the reason for the liquidation), so I don't have anyone urging me to sell it off. (No, I'm not counting my wife. I think she's found her peace with my collection.)
On the plus side, owning about 8.5% of the number of PSOne games they have doesn't make me feel too bad about my collection. And it's not jointly owned (one PS Museum partner is apparently the reason for the liquidation), so I don't have anyone urging me to sell it off. (No, I'm not counting my wife. I think she's found her peace with my collection.)
Labels: collecting, psone
--jvm at 20:10
Comment
[ 3 ]
Devil May Cry Kills WinPC Gaming
I'll admit I was surprised to find a version of Devil May Cry that Matt hadn't mentioned, and one that includes an extra boss to boot. Yes, you guessed correctly; it's the WinPC version, and I saw one line in the PC Gamer magazine review for DMC3: Special Edition that tells me PC gaming really is going the way of the dodo.
But DMC3:DASE nonetheless reveals the big advantage of being a PC gamer who enjoys the occasional console port: We let console gamers sift through the interminable catalog of crappy console games, and enjoy the cream of the crop in budget-priced, spectacularly generous special editions later.
Wasn't that the Mac gaming line? (Sadly, the only reason it's not the Mac gaming line any more is because now Mac gamers use Windows to game.) And all this after our buddy, Logan Decker, said that the game "feels like a cheap-a$$ port," with cruddy controls, "textures [that] look like they've been through too many washer-dryer cycles, audio [that] drops out occasionally, and the in-game camera seems to be controlled by a demonic force that's rooting for your enemies."
Why is it better to play console ports on PCs again?
But DMC3:DASE nonetheless reveals the big advantage of being a PC gamer who enjoys the occasional console port: We let console gamers sift through the interminable catalog of crappy console games, and enjoy the cream of the crop in budget-priced, spectacularly generous special editions later.
Wasn't that the Mac gaming line? (Sadly, the only reason it's not the Mac gaming line any more is because now Mac gamers use Windows to game.) And all this after our buddy, Logan Decker, said that the game "feels like a cheap-a$$ port," with cruddy controls, "textures [that] look like they've been through too many washer-dryer cycles, audio [that] drops out occasionally, and the in-game camera seems to be controlled by a demonic force that's rooting for your enemies."
Why is it better to play console ports on PCs again?
--ruffin at 17:05
Comment
[ 2 ]
19 May 2007
Used Games Lose Their Fleas?
During my irregularly taken morning run, I passed four yard sales. Running isn't the best way to take a quick survey of what's for sale. Regardless, I didn't see one video game system, appliance, nor game at any of the four, all seen before 9am. I'd already thought I'd noticed a dearth of games at yard sales, which this morning's events only supported.
Where have the old games gone? The title of the post is a bit of a misnomer -- I do still see a decent collection of games at fleas, but they are increasingly at a stand/store dedicated to gaming rather than individual stands, where you could occasionally bag a find or two before. Between these flea stores and real gaming stores, I wonder if the increased "value" of used games, more accurately described as "ready money for used games," hasn't killed the game hunter's supply. That is, now people go trade in used games for nothing at EB rather than keep them in a box to put in their driveway.
Matt has an interesting story of being caught in a line at one such store hearing a lady trading in a GBA on an SP and being offered a price low enough that Matt himself had to consider beating it. Did she trade it in anyway? Value is now more about the "ready" in ready money, not absolute value.
Still, it's not like games have quite yet disappeared in spite of the efforts of GameTap and other virtual rare book rooms. Where are they going? More directly, what have EB and Rhino and friends done with the games they've taken out of circulation as unsellable? They 're sure not showing up at neighborhood yard sales like they used to.
Where have the old games gone? The title of the post is a bit of a misnomer -- I do still see a decent collection of games at fleas, but they are increasingly at a stand/store dedicated to gaming rather than individual stands, where you could occasionally bag a find or two before. Between these flea stores and real gaming stores, I wonder if the increased "value" of used games, more accurately described as "ready money for used games," hasn't killed the game hunter's supply. That is, now people go trade in used games for nothing at EB rather than keep them in a box to put in their driveway.
Matt has an interesting story of being caught in a line at one such store hearing a lady trading in a GBA on an SP and being offered a price low enough that Matt himself had to consider beating it. Did she trade it in anyway? Value is now more about the "ready" in ready money, not absolute value.
Still, it's not like games have quite yet disappeared in spite of the efforts of GameTap and other virtual rare book rooms. Where are they going? More directly, what have EB and Rhino and friends done with the games they've taken out of circulation as unsellable? They 're sure not showing up at neighborhood yard sales like they used to.
Labels: used
--ruffin at 10:17
Comment
[ 5 ]
16 May 2007
VC Curmudgeon: Battle Lode Runner, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden
Note: the rating system has changed. As Mordrak suggested last time, more curmudgeon-heads should imply a worse game. Five heads means awful, none means great.
Also note: I'm dispensing with the rate-the-most-recent format. I'll just offer a dip into the VC archives each time, as personal knowledge and/or interest merits.
Battle Lode Runner
Produced and released by Hudson. Originally for the PC Engine.
Rating:
Lode Runner, Broderbund's ancient action-puzzle platformer, has a long and storied history. One of the first real hits of the 8-bit computer age, with ports for most contemporary systems, it featured 150 levels, an editor, and a whole lot of hurt. This is an incredibly difficult game, and it requires complete mastery of the game world's physics and enemy AI to finish it.
Broderbund only released the original computer versions of the game, but licensors in Japan kept the the series going for much longer, up to the N64/PSX era. Battle Lode Runner comes from that branch of the series. All editions are brutally hard puzzle games, and this one assumes players have some past experience, so it gets taxing for newcomers in the first ten levels (of 101), and hard for experienced players within the first 40. You will be stumped frequently, but genuine puzzle game fans wouldn't have it any other way. (Others are directed to GameFAQs, which has an obtuse, but excellent, resource on the game.)
Battle Lode Runner's main attraction is supposed to be its battle mode, which indeed is cool and takes inspiration from Bomberman, right down to offering cameos by the Black Bomber, but for true classic gaming fans puzzle mode is the real draw here... if they can put up with the soul-crushing difficulty and extreme trickiness. For professionals only.
Castlevania
Produced and released by Konami. Originally for the NES.
Rating:
As Curmudgeon Gamer readers probably can remember, some of us have considerable fondness for the Castlevania games. While I enjoy most of them, if I had to choose my taste would lean more towards the old-school, level-based platformers more than the recent "Metroidvanias." Of them all, my favorite remains this one, the original Castlevania, a game that has been much cursed and loved over the years since its release.
Lots of people dump on Castlevania now. They react with dismay that you can't change your jump direction in midair, how enemies frequently kill you with one knock into a bottomless pit, how you can be screwed over instantly just by picking up the wrong subweapon. I even agree with them on that last bit; I've lost Holy Water too many times because a random monster decided to drop a Dagger on the pixel just in front of me.
But for those who watch for these things, there is a kind of perfection here. Simon Belmont has a peculiar mixture of weakness and strength. His basic attack has a nice, long range, but terrible vertical reach. In order to attack airborne foes or candles, the player must learn the timing to jump and whip just after launching, so the strike comes at the top of the jump.
Once that move is mastered, the game's addictive rhythm begins to be felt, and the player starts noticing that the enemies have their own rhythms. Medusa heads come flying out in a sine wave at regular intervals. Skeleton throwers release their projectiles on a set schedule. Bone pillars fire fireballs over a three-second count. This combines with Simon's steady pace to produce a game with a definite flow, and once you get into it (which can take a while), it's possible to finish whole levels without taking a hit.
But that's when you get into it, and until then, you will die, die, die. Most bosses can be defeated absurdly easily if you get to them with the Holy Water weapon, but if you lack it then the odds are against you, even if you're at full health. Castlevania will probably come as a rude shock to players used to the likes of Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night, but it shows admirably the difficulty and production values that make NES-era Konami so adored by retro gamers.
A note about the game: I actually own the NES Classics rerelease of this game in addition to the recent VC game, and I noticed that the ROMs used in the two are not identical, either with each other or the original NES game! There is a scoring bug in the NES version for when players defeat five or more enemies with one subweapon that can be used to reap many thousands of points, and multiple extra lives on the first level. It has been fixed in both later releases. Further, the Virtual Console keeps the original game's joke credits (all the monsters are played by actors with punny names), but the GBA release sloppily removes them. These are interesting edit decisions, indeed....
Ninja Gaiden
Produced and released by Tecmo. Originally for the NES.
Rating:
In a way Ninja Gaiden it is a spiritual brother to Castlevania, featuring similarly limited weapons, a nearly identical subweapon system, an obvious analogue to CV's heart weapon-use system, and copious background objects to be destroyed for items. Like Castlevania, there is a subweapon (the buzzsaw-like spin move) that can make short work of bosses, but isn't well-suited to non-boss use. Yet Ninja Gaiden isn't nearly as fun.
Back in the day, everyone loved Ninja Gaiden. It transformed a company known for quirky puzzle-like games (like the awesome Solomon's Key) to the talk of the playground. Ninja Gaiden was maybe not the first game to give us cinema scenes, but it was the first to do it with panache. I like to imagine that the developers, noticing that many anime productions are composed with a relatively small number of flat animation frames, realized that the technique was perfectly suited to the NES' graphics hardware.
But the game hasn't aged well. Castlevania's weighty, striding protagonist keeps the flow of that game reasonable and provides it with a pace, but Ninja Gaiden's Ryu streaks across the scene and gets knocked around almost before the player can react. And the game doesn't keep track of which foes you killed in an area, so if you scroll past a location where you killed a foe and return to it, he will have returned. And while Ryu can be controlled in mid-air, this doesn't apply if an enemy hits him, so pits here are nearly as bad as Castlevania's. Add in a wall jump with twitchy timing, annoying jumping puzzles, and a primary weapon with way too short a reach relative to enemy speed, and most players will get frustrated fast.
This isn't to say that Castlevanis isn't frustrating too. But that game rarely gives you the feeling like you have had no time to react, while Ninja Gaiden gives this impression constantly, and its constant stream of reappearing, tiny foes with two-step walk animations stand in contrast with the slick cutscene graphics.
It is possible to like Ninja Gaiden. We all did once. But we also once liked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. Despite what Michael Bay seems to think, it seems that childhood fondness can only take you so far.
EDIT: Title changed to something slightly more appropriate.
Also note: I'm dispensing with the rate-the-most-recent format. I'll just offer a dip into the VC archives each time, as personal knowledge and/or interest merits.
Battle Lode Runner
Produced and released by Hudson. Originally for the PC Engine.
Rating:
Lode Runner, Broderbund's ancient action-puzzle platformer, has a long and storied history. One of the first real hits of the 8-bit computer age, with ports for most contemporary systems, it featured 150 levels, an editor, and a whole lot of hurt. This is an incredibly difficult game, and it requires complete mastery of the game world's physics and enemy AI to finish it.
Broderbund only released the original computer versions of the game, but licensors in Japan kept the the series going for much longer, up to the N64/PSX era. Battle Lode Runner comes from that branch of the series. All editions are brutally hard puzzle games, and this one assumes players have some past experience, so it gets taxing for newcomers in the first ten levels (of 101), and hard for experienced players within the first 40. You will be stumped frequently, but genuine puzzle game fans wouldn't have it any other way. (Others are directed to GameFAQs, which has an obtuse, but excellent, resource on the game.)
Battle Lode Runner's main attraction is supposed to be its battle mode, which indeed is cool and takes inspiration from Bomberman, right down to offering cameos by the Black Bomber, but for true classic gaming fans puzzle mode is the real draw here... if they can put up with the soul-crushing difficulty and extreme trickiness. For professionals only.
Castlevania
Produced and released by Konami. Originally for the NES.
Rating:
As Curmudgeon Gamer readers probably can remember, some of us have considerable fondness for the Castlevania games. While I enjoy most of them, if I had to choose my taste would lean more towards the old-school, level-based platformers more than the recent "Metroidvanias." Of them all, my favorite remains this one, the original Castlevania, a game that has been much cursed and loved over the years since its release.
Lots of people dump on Castlevania now. They react with dismay that you can't change your jump direction in midair, how enemies frequently kill you with one knock into a bottomless pit, how you can be screwed over instantly just by picking up the wrong subweapon. I even agree with them on that last bit; I've lost Holy Water too many times because a random monster decided to drop a Dagger on the pixel just in front of me.
But for those who watch for these things, there is a kind of perfection here. Simon Belmont has a peculiar mixture of weakness and strength. His basic attack has a nice, long range, but terrible vertical reach. In order to attack airborne foes or candles, the player must learn the timing to jump and whip just after launching, so the strike comes at the top of the jump.
Once that move is mastered, the game's addictive rhythm begins to be felt, and the player starts noticing that the enemies have their own rhythms. Medusa heads come flying out in a sine wave at regular intervals. Skeleton throwers release their projectiles on a set schedule. Bone pillars fire fireballs over a three-second count. This combines with Simon's steady pace to produce a game with a definite flow, and once you get into it (which can take a while), it's possible to finish whole levels without taking a hit.
But that's when you get into it, and until then, you will die, die, die. Most bosses can be defeated absurdly easily if you get to them with the Holy Water weapon, but if you lack it then the odds are against you, even if you're at full health. Castlevania will probably come as a rude shock to players used to the likes of Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night, but it shows admirably the difficulty and production values that make NES-era Konami so adored by retro gamers.
A note about the game: I actually own the NES Classics rerelease of this game in addition to the recent VC game, and I noticed that the ROMs used in the two are not identical, either with each other or the original NES game! There is a scoring bug in the NES version for when players defeat five or more enemies with one subweapon that can be used to reap many thousands of points, and multiple extra lives on the first level. It has been fixed in both later releases. Further, the Virtual Console keeps the original game's joke credits (all the monsters are played by actors with punny names), but the GBA release sloppily removes them. These are interesting edit decisions, indeed....
Ninja Gaiden
Produced and released by Tecmo. Originally for the NES.
Rating:
In a way Ninja Gaiden it is a spiritual brother to Castlevania, featuring similarly limited weapons, a nearly identical subweapon system, an obvious analogue to CV's heart weapon-use system, and copious background objects to be destroyed for items. Like Castlevania, there is a subweapon (the buzzsaw-like spin move) that can make short work of bosses, but isn't well-suited to non-boss use. Yet Ninja Gaiden isn't nearly as fun.
Back in the day, everyone loved Ninja Gaiden. It transformed a company known for quirky puzzle-like games (like the awesome Solomon's Key) to the talk of the playground. Ninja Gaiden was maybe not the first game to give us cinema scenes, but it was the first to do it with panache. I like to imagine that the developers, noticing that many anime productions are composed with a relatively small number of flat animation frames, realized that the technique was perfectly suited to the NES' graphics hardware.
But the game hasn't aged well. Castlevania's weighty, striding protagonist keeps the flow of that game reasonable and provides it with a pace, but Ninja Gaiden's Ryu streaks across the scene and gets knocked around almost before the player can react. And the game doesn't keep track of which foes you killed in an area, so if you scroll past a location where you killed a foe and return to it, he will have returned. And while Ryu can be controlled in mid-air, this doesn't apply if an enemy hits him, so pits here are nearly as bad as Castlevania's. Add in a wall jump with twitchy timing, annoying jumping puzzles, and a primary weapon with way too short a reach relative to enemy speed, and most players will get frustrated fast.
This isn't to say that Castlevanis isn't frustrating too. But that game rarely gives you the feeling like you have had no time to react, while Ninja Gaiden gives this impression constantly, and its constant stream of reappearing, tiny foes with two-step walk animations stand in contrast with the slick cutscene graphics.
It is possible to like Ninja Gaiden. We all did once. But we also once liked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. Despite what Michael Bay seems to think, it seems that childhood fondness can only take you so far.
EDIT: Title changed to something slightly more appropriate.
Labels: battleloderunner, classic, loderunner, nes, pcengine, retro, tg16, vc, virtual console, wii
--JohnH at 21:19
Comment
[ 6 ]
15 May 2007
Tobacco and game ratings, take two
I did contact the ESRB about tobacco and game ratings, and I got a very helpful response. I'm still trying to get more details, but it's worth giving this different interpretation of the data I showed the other day. The games in the ESRB game ratings search engine which show a descriptor referring to tobacco can be grouped this way:
- 29 rated E
- 18 rated E10+
- 91 rated T
- 3 rated M
Do content descriptors list all of the different content found in a game?Two conclusions I think we can safely draw from this:
Content descriptors are not intended to be a listing of every type of content one might encounter in the course of playing a game. They are applied within the context of the rating category assigned to that game, and are there to provide consumers with additional information about elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern relative to the age appropriateness of the rating category assigned.
Since content descriptors are applied in the context of their respective rating category, the absence of a content descriptor may not necessarily mean the total absence of such content, and a given content descriptor may not always refer to precisely the same type or intensity of material depending on the rating category that accompanies it. For instance, Suggestive Themes in an E10+ game may refer to a flirtatious remark whereas in a Teen game it may refer to provocative clothing on a female character.
- There are several games with M ratings that include references to tobacco or that show tobacco use but do not carry a tobacco use/reference descriptor. So the two M rated games in the ESRB searchable database are simply the two which happen to be M rated and carry a tobacco descriptor.
- The tobacco descriptor is more appropriate for games which are rated below M, namely E through T, and accordingly that's where we find almost all games using a tobacco descriptor. That seems to indicate that the rating system is doing the right thing, namely pointing out tobacco use in precisely the situations where a parent would want to know about it. If a parent is letting a child play an M-rated game, then it is quite possible that tobacco use is of far less concern than the violence that probably earned the M rating.
Question 1: How many games that include any tobacco reference/use are rated M for other reasons?With more data we could certainly answer that question and it would give us a basis to compare ESRB rating of games with this statement about rating of movies:
From July 2004-July 2006, the percentage of films that included "even a fleeting glimpse of smoking" dropped from 60 percent to 52 percent, and 75 percent of those fetched an R rating for other factors, [MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman] said.Because I'm curious, I'd like to see if I can get an answer to this question:
Question 2: What contact has the ESRB had with the advocacy groups which have put pressure on the MPAA regarding tobacco use?I've asked the ESRB for an answer to Question 1 and I'll also try to pursue Question 2 as well. I'll let you know if I get any answers.
--jvm at 16:08
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[ 0 ]
14 May 2007
GameDaily: How Microsoft can win (if by win you mean lose)
I think you can rightly accuse me of being an occasional ivory tower pundit, but even I can see that this tripe from GameDaily is, well, tripe. Apparently Microsoft can take five steps to a definitive lead over Sony and Nintendo, and those steps can be summed up as "Lose money on everything."
The steps are:
They are not going to give up on making a profit -- I just don't think the company or shareholders are prepared to see another year or two of massive losses in the Xbox venture. They're not going to discount the one game that every owner -- or prospective owner -- will happily pay $60+ for this holiday season. They're not going to kill the Xbox Live goose which keeps laying those golden eggs. So far Microsoft hasn't shown the best judgment when it comes to buying studios (although Bungie turned out well), and the age of buying exclusive games has passed for now. More likely is that Microsoft should pay for exclusive bonuses for their version of a cross-platform game -- and that should be a lot cheaper than buying the whole game outright.
I understand the usual argument is that Microsoft can afford to lose money hand over fist, but does anyone really think that this reckless strategy is sound? Other than GameDaily, of course.
The steps are:
- Slash the price (i.e. lose money)
- Bundle Halo 3 for Holiday '07 (i.e. lose money)
- Make Xbox Live free (i.e. lose money)
- Acquire more studios, pay for exclusives (i.e. gamble)
- Enter the kiddie game market (i.e. go up against Nintendo on its own turf)
They are not going to give up on making a profit -- I just don't think the company or shareholders are prepared to see another year or two of massive losses in the Xbox venture. They're not going to discount the one game that every owner -- or prospective owner -- will happily pay $60+ for this holiday season. They're not going to kill the Xbox Live goose which keeps laying those golden eggs. So far Microsoft hasn't shown the best judgment when it comes to buying studios (although Bungie turned out well), and the age of buying exclusive games has passed for now. More likely is that Microsoft should pay for exclusive bonuses for their version of a cross-platform game -- and that should be a lot cheaper than buying the whole game outright.
I understand the usual argument is that Microsoft can afford to lose money hand over fist, but does anyone really think that this reckless strategy is sound? Other than GameDaily, of course.
Labels: business, microsoft, nintendo, sony, xbox360, xboxlive
--jvm at 21:27
Comment
[ 9 ]
12 May 2007
Sam & Max Season 1 DVD does the right thing
The new Sam & Max episodes, currently available only on the GameTap service, will be available on DVD soon. I had wondered in my recent discussion with Simon whether they might require a network connection, and it appears they will not:
Will the episodes on the disc require online activation?Well, it's heartening to know that in some cases the consumers are demanding standalone games and the developers & publishers are responding with the a proper alternative.
No, they won't. You'll need your disc in the drive to play, but that's it. See, we do listen to you guys!
Labels: business, copyright, drm, gametap, online distribution
--jvm at 20:54
Comment
[ 6 ]
Tobacco and game ratings
Update: After reading this over, I suggest going to this later post for follow-up comments, including information from the ESRB.
In response to public pressure, the MPAA will now consider tobacco use, particularly smoking, when assigning movie ratings. While they've stopped short of automatic R ratings for movies that show a person smoking, it does appear that they will bump a movie up in some cases if the use of smoking appears gratuitous.
I wondered what our dear old ESRB has been doing about tobacco use in games. Does smoking of tobacco get a game rated at least a T? Or maybe even M?
Apparently not.
To the ESRB's credit there are no EC (early childhood) games with any substance (alcohol, tobacco, or drugs) references. In fact, EC is so clean it doesn't include any violence (cartoon or otherwise), salty language, or gambling. Good to know.
Back to the point, this seems to highlight a difference between movie and game ratings. Glickman said that those movies with any smoking at all had generally received an R rating for other reasons. That doesn't seem to be the case for games. If I have time later, I may try to dig deeper into that disparity, but knowing there is a difference one can point to easily is interesting by itself.
Finally, I do wonder if the ESRB is getting pressure from the same interest groups, like the American Cancer Society, that have been lobbying the MPAA. Maybe I'll try to give them a call on Monday and ask for a statement.
For the record, I do not use tobacco in any form, nor does anyone in my immediate family or circle of friends.
In response to public pressure, the MPAA will now consider tobacco use, particularly smoking, when assigning movie ratings. While they've stopped short of automatic R ratings for movies that show a person smoking, it does appear that they will bump a movie up in some cases if the use of smoking appears gratuitous.
I wondered what our dear old ESRB has been doing about tobacco use in games. Does smoking of tobacco get a game rated at least a T? Or maybe even M?
Apparently not.
- 15 games with the descriptor "Use of Tobacco" (1 E, 4 E10+, 8 T, 2 M)
- 13 games with the descriptor "Tobacco Reference" (5 E, 3 E10+, 5 T)
- 27 games with the descriptor "Alcohol and Tobacco Reference" (6 E, 8 E10+, 13 T)
- 86 games with the descriptor "Use of Alcohol and Tobacco" (17 E, 3 E10+, 65 T, 1 M)
- 29 rated E
- 18 rated E10+
- 91 rated T
- 3 rated M
From July 2004-July 2006, the percentage of films that included "even a fleeting glimpse of smoking" dropped from 60 percent to 52 percent, and 75 percent of those fetched an R rating for other factors, [MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman] said.So 75% of movies with even a fleeting glimpse of smoking were given R ratings -- and thereby limited in theory to people who were 17 years of age or older. By comparison, only 3 out of 141, or 2.1%, of games with any mention or use of tobacco were given an M rating, the rating that most closely approximates the MPAA's R rating. It should be noted that those 141 games include some that are several years old, and rating standards have changed over time. (I've discussed such changes at least once before.) Still, the PlayStation 3 game Calling all Cars, released just this week, has the "Alcohol and Tobacco Reference" descriptor and is rated E.
To the ESRB's credit there are no EC (early childhood) games with any substance (alcohol, tobacco, or drugs) references. In fact, EC is so clean it doesn't include any violence (cartoon or otherwise), salty language, or gambling. Good to know.
Back to the point, this seems to highlight a difference between movie and game ratings. Glickman said that those movies with any smoking at all had generally received an R rating for other reasons. That doesn't seem to be the case for games. If I have time later, I may try to dig deeper into that disparity, but knowing there is a difference one can point to easily is interesting by itself.
Finally, I do wonder if the ESRB is getting pressure from the same interest groups, like the American Cancer Society, that have been lobbying the MPAA. Maybe I'll try to give them a call on Monday and ask for a statement.
For the record, I do not use tobacco in any form, nor does anyone in my immediate family or circle of friends.
--jvm at 03:46
Comment
[ 6 ]
11 May 2007
Try not to be so obvious, Mr. Previewer
A new God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) preview says:
No.
End fanboy writing now.
As has become standard for the God of War series, this means players will find all kinds of ties between the story and previous God of War tales, from subtle references to out and out reveals.I can believe there were lots of connections between God of War and God of War II. It's only natural. Does does that establish a standard for storytelling in the series?
No.
End fanboy writing now.
--jvm at 21:57
Comment
[ 5 ]
On game preservation and GameTap
Simon of GameSetWatch has posted excerpts from a recent email conversation he and I had regarding GameTap and similar services, especially with an eye toward game preservation. You can go read it yourself.
I'll only add here that I meant to get in a mention of Save the Whales, a game which was reportedly distributed online-only and was almost lost to the digital abyss. Did I mention it was an Atari 2600 game? That's right, a game distributed through a modem to an Atari 2600 over 20 years ago. Anyway, it apparently wasn't a great game, but it didn't have to be fun to be important.
Ok, I'll add one more thing. That is not a picture of me in Simon's post. Honestly.
I'll only add here that I meant to get in a mention of Save the Whales, a game which was reportedly distributed online-only and was almost lost to the digital abyss. Did I mention it was an Atari 2600 game? That's right, a game distributed through a modem to an Atari 2600 over 20 years ago. Anyway, it apparently wasn't a great game, but it didn't have to be fun to be important.
Ok, I'll add one more thing. That is not a picture of me in Simon's post. Honestly.
Labels: atari, business, copyright, emulation, gametap, history, online distribution, steam, virtual console, xbla
--jvm at 00:50
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[ 0 ]
10 May 2007
Videogaming as physical therapy
I've just got back from my first visit to a physical therapist to rehabilitate my left thumb after my knuckleheaded accident last month. Along with various exercises, I've been given the green light to use my PlayStation 2 (and presumably other consoles). In fact, the therapist referred to it as "good exercise", but cautioned me to take ample breaks so as not to stress the healing tendons too much.
Now if I can just keep myself from buying God of War 2 on the way home tonight. After all, I was going to finish Beyond Good & Evil before I dug into another game, and Tomb Raider Anniversary is due out soon and...
Ahhh. It's good to be back.
Now if I can just keep myself from buying God of War 2 on the way home tonight. After all, I was going to finish Beyond Good & Evil before I dug into another game, and Tomb Raider Anniversary is due out soon and...
Ahhh. It's good to be back.
Labels: meta
--jvm at 13:06
Comment
[ 1 ]
09 May 2007
Google Reader Version Targeted For Wii
Above link goes to the page on Google's official blog discussing it. Short story shorter, one of the Google Reader team has a Wii and thought an interface would be cool/awesome, and so, he and his team made one over a weekend.
I like to think, when they went over the browser strings in their logs, their noticing the Wii Opera traces left by my attempts to use their service on my Wii played a role in their decision.
But why should Wii have all the fun? Get cracking on PSP support Google! And I surely need to check Curmudgeon Gamer and Lifehacker through Dreamcast PlanetWeb while we're at it!
Work on a Lynx interface, unfortunately, is still not forthcoming.
I like to think, when they went over the browser strings in their logs, their noticing the Wii Opera traces left by my attempts to use their service on my Wii played a role in their decision.
But why should Wii have all the fun? Get cracking on PSP support Google! And I surely need to check Curmudgeon Gamer and Lifehacker through Dreamcast PlanetWeb while we're at it!
Work on a Lynx interface, unfortunately, is still not forthcoming.
Labels: google, googlereader, nifty, rss, wii
--JohnH at 13:58
Comment
[ 1 ]
07 May 2007
School claims ownership of student games
And I'm not surprised. What DigiPen is doing doesn't sound much different from what I've seen in a more traditional field.
For those who have gone through the higher levels of academia, there is usually someone else claiming some sort of copyright on your work. At my university, they have copyright on my PhD thesis. I have limited rights, but they own it. The same goes for papers submitted to journals: you're generally granted right to give copies away through a personal webpage, email etc. as long as you use the final copy that appeared in the journal. It's a rigged system.
So, DigiPen students, welcome to the real world.
If you're bothered by it enough, here's what I'd suggest: Create your work as an independent project on your own hardware and with your own software. Then create a derivative work, with a clear lineage that can be demonstrated if requested, and turn that derivative work in to the school. I don't know if it'd work in court (IANAL) but it's what I'd try. (This might be an idea that Ruffin's talked about on his personal blog, but I'm not sure. I'll let him speak up on that point.)
For those who have gone through the higher levels of academia, there is usually someone else claiming some sort of copyright on your work. At my university, they have copyright on my PhD thesis. I have limited rights, but they own it. The same goes for papers submitted to journals: you're generally granted right to give copies away through a personal webpage, email etc. as long as you use the final copy that appeared in the journal. It's a rigged system.
So, DigiPen students, welcome to the real world.
If you're bothered by it enough, here's what I'd suggest: Create your work as an independent project on your own hardware and with your own software. Then create a derivative work, with a clear lineage that can be demonstrated if requested, and turn that derivative work in to the school. I don't know if it'd work in court (IANAL) but it's what I'd try. (This might be an idea that Ruffin's talked about on his personal blog, but I'm not sure. I'll let him speak up on that point.)
--jvm at 21:06
Comment
[ 8 ]
03 May 2007
Virtual Console Adventures: The MK64 Bug
One of the things my local circle of gaming friends and I love is Mario Kart 64.
For my money SNES Mario Kart is a little better, but it's limited to two players. For multiplayer Mario Kart action, nothing matches the N64 version. Its battle mode provides a level of strategy unseen in what has become, in later installments of the series, a throwaway mode. Its race mode is also fairly awesome, despite some worrying design choices. It is a game that has kept us occupied for over a decade.
Last night, we were playing a few Mario Kart rounds on the Wii's Virtual Console, and we encountered a surprising flaw in the emulation. In one race on Moo Moo Farm, the game played at an obviously much higher speed than normal. I'm not talking about it just seeming faster through the Wii's increased framerate, it actually was a much faster race. The starting lights, instead of the measured "one... two... three", went by in less than a second, and during the race our velocities were likewise increased.
It was entertaining to play, once, but it wasn't accurate. We were lucky we were on Moo Moo Farm, a fairly laid-back course, and not, for example, Bowser's track. If we had been in a Grand Prix, a "real" game instead of a quick race, the playthrough would likely have been ruined.
Interestingly, the music and sound effects were not accelerated. One of us used a Star powerup during the game, and the invincibility music only had enough time to loop twice before the effect ran out. The next race, speeds returned to normal, and remained there until we stopped for the night.
We're not sure what circumstances triggered the speed-up. The story is that some people who have purchased Mario Kart 64 were later offered a mysterious update for it in the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo is notoriously tight-lipped about what goes into these updates, and I hear that sometimes, like with Star Fox 64, they actually seem more like downgrades, rolling back some of Virtual Console's already-meager framerate improvements. If SF64 runs off the same emulator it is not unreasonable to assume that it will also suffer from speed spikes once in a while.
I'll probably check online for an update to see if it addresses the problem, but will it? It occurs so infrequently that we'll really never know if the flaw has been fixed or not unless it happens again. Nintendo has taken pains to keep the mechanics of Virtual Console hidden from the player, ostensibly for usability's sake, but there is a limit to what can be explained away in the name of simplicity, and it seems in this case that Nintendo is more trying to hide the details of Virtual Console's flaws by not talking about them.
But that is really a crappy way to treat one's customers. We deserve to know what the benefits and drawbacks to updating are before pressing the fatal button. C'mon Nintendo, give us some credit here.
For my money SNES Mario Kart is a little better, but it's limited to two players. For multiplayer Mario Kart action, nothing matches the N64 version. Its battle mode provides a level of strategy unseen in what has become, in later installments of the series, a throwaway mode. Its race mode is also fairly awesome, despite some worrying design choices. It is a game that has kept us occupied for over a decade.
Last night, we were playing a few Mario Kart rounds on the Wii's Virtual Console, and we encountered a surprising flaw in the emulation. In one race on Moo Moo Farm, the game played at an obviously much higher speed than normal. I'm not talking about it just seeming faster through the Wii's increased framerate, it actually was a much faster race. The starting lights, instead of the measured "one... two... three", went by in less than a second, and during the race our velocities were likewise increased.
It was entertaining to play, once, but it wasn't accurate. We were lucky we were on Moo Moo Farm, a fairly laid-back course, and not, for example, Bowser's track. If we had been in a Grand Prix, a "real" game instead of a quick race, the playthrough would likely have been ruined.
Interestingly, the music and sound effects were not accelerated. One of us used a Star powerup during the game, and the invincibility music only had enough time to loop twice before the effect ran out. The next race, speeds returned to normal, and remained there until we stopped for the night.
We're not sure what circumstances triggered the speed-up. The story is that some people who have purchased Mario Kart 64 were later offered a mysterious update for it in the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo is notoriously tight-lipped about what goes into these updates, and I hear that sometimes, like with Star Fox 64, they actually seem more like downgrades, rolling back some of Virtual Console's already-meager framerate improvements. If SF64 runs off the same emulator it is not unreasonable to assume that it will also suffer from speed spikes once in a while.
I'll probably check online for an update to see if it addresses the problem, but will it? It occurs so infrequently that we'll really never know if the flaw has been fixed or not unless it happens again. Nintendo has taken pains to keep the mechanics of Virtual Console hidden from the player, ostensibly for usability's sake, but there is a limit to what can be explained away in the name of simplicity, and it seems in this case that Nintendo is more trying to hide the details of Virtual Console's flaws by not talking about them.
But that is really a crappy way to treat one's customers. We deserve to know what the benefits and drawbacks to updating are before pressing the fatal button. C'mon Nintendo, give us some credit here.
Labels: bugs, classic, emulation, mariokart, mariokart64, nintendo, pr, virtual console, wii
--JohnH at 10:57
Comment
[ 8 ]
01 May 2007
Will Tomb Raider Anniversary be the first big business model deathmatch?
So GameTap's PR contacted me regarding this post (which I've hopefully corrected) and pointed out that GameTap will offer Tomb Raider Anniversary through its subscription service and, apparently, the new online retail service. That's certainly an important distinction, and I regret that I missed it originally because it makes the situation even more interesting.
Now, we don't know for sure that Steam will have Tomb Raider Anniversary concurrently with GameTap's subscription service and brick-and-mortar stores, but just suppose for the moment that it will. Then Tomb Raider Anniversary could well offer a comparison of business models we've never seen before:
For average Joe User with broadband access, I get the feeling that GameTap's on-demand play offers the best deal. You can sign up for a single month, play the game, and then drop the service (or switch to the free ad-driven version). If you take two months to finish it because you have a life outside games, then you end up dropping $20 on it, maximum. If owners of the boxed Windows version can get away with spending as little as $10 even after they play and sell the used game, I'd be surprised. I don't think Steam will be pricing this kind of brand new game at $10, although they should be offering it at a discounted price if they know what's good for them.
It pains me to say that GameTap offers a better value, mind you, but there you go. For Joe User, mind you, but not for me.
Now, we don't know for sure that Steam will have Tomb Raider Anniversary concurrently with GameTap's subscription service and brick-and-mortar stores, but just suppose for the moment that it will. Then Tomb Raider Anniversary could well offer a comparison of business models we've never seen before:
- Boxed sales at brick-and-mortar stores
- Virtual game sales through Steam and GameTap
- On-demand play through GameTap
For average Joe User with broadband access, I get the feeling that GameTap's on-demand play offers the best deal. You can sign up for a single month, play the game, and then drop the service (or switch to the free ad-driven version). If you take two months to finish it because you have a life outside games, then you end up dropping $20 on it, maximum. If owners of the boxed Windows version can get away with spending as little as $10 even after they play and sell the used game, I'd be surprised. I don't think Steam will be pricing this kind of brand new game at $10, although they should be offering it at a discounted price if they know what's good for them.
It pains me to say that GameTap offers a better value, mind you, but there you go. For Joe User, mind you, but not for me.
Labels: business, emulation, gametap, online distribution, tomb raider
--jvm at 16:13
Comment
[ 2 ]
GameTap to offer untethered downloads?
Updated below. Followup here.
From an interview at Next-Gen.biz this morning (my emphasis):
If anyone from Turner is reading, how about letting us in on some details of the new sales model? I'd be really interested to see what GameTap will offer that is different from what Steam and other download services are doing. Use the Contact Us link at the top of the right sidebar.
Update:
GameDaily has some other interesting data about GameTap. In particular, they say that membership is up almost 300% over 2006. I will try to go back and see if there was any information in 2006 about how many subscribers they had.
Also, they appear to be offering Tomb Raider Anniversary for on-demand play the day it launches through the GameTap subscriber service. You might recall that TRA was already coming to Steam (although it isn't clear if it's coming at launch). Certainly it's not new to see the same game on different services -- practically every one out there has a licensed version of Pac-Man -- but it is unique for the same, brand new game to show up on more than one service on launch day. Very interesting.
From an interview at Next-Gen.biz this morning (my emphasis):
[GameTap general manager Stu] Snyder also says that GameTap would be moving its TV programming from its client to the web, as well as launching a digital retail store where users will be able to buy and download new and cataloged games for keeps.That's quite possibly the best thing I've heard about GameTap in a while. If the downloads are untethered -- i.e. don't require a network connection to run and can be archived and reinstalled later without communicating with GameTap -- then I'll be really impressed. I doubt it will be as nice as downloading legal ROMs from StarROMs, data that could be used on any system with any suitable emulator. We'll see.
If anyone from Turner is reading, how about letting us in on some details of the new sales model? I'd be really interested to see what GameTap will offer that is different from what Steam and other download services are doing. Use the Contact Us link at the top of the right sidebar.
Update:
GameDaily has some other interesting data about GameTap. In particular, they say that membership is up almost 300% over 2006. I will try to go back and see if there was any information in 2006 about how many subscribers they had.
Also, they appear to be offering Tomb Raider Anniversary for on-demand play the day it launches through the GameTap subscriber service. You might recall that TRA was already coming to Steam (although it isn't clear if it's coming at launch). Certainly it's not new to see the same game on different services -- practically every one out there has a licensed version of Pac-Man -- but it is unique for the same, brand new game to show up on more than one service on launch day. Very interesting.
Labels: business, emulation, gametap, online distribution
--jvm at 09:54
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[ 1 ]
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