Too Human Demo : Might Have Potential

Like I mentioned in the last post, the E3 2007 trailer for Too Human got me all hot and bothered. It was an awesome cinematic with humour and story to it. It was engaging and impressive.

Since then, I've been following the news of the game as its been developed. There's been all sorts of hubbub, from no local multiplayer to Denis Dyack challenging players to some preview players complaining about the length of the main story. I've been nervous, of course. Me and my bf have been anxiously awaiting a decent multiplayer experience.

It is a pretty big piss off that because we want to play it together, not only do we need to buy 2 copies of the game, but we also need to pay for gold accounts AND buy a second xbox. Why is it that they only want us to be able to play with strangers? Just so that they can make that extra $500 off of players? That alone leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

As for the demo itself. I dunno. I can see that it could be ok, but I don't know that it's worth the $500 investment just so that we can play a co-op game together.

The first big issue for me is the controls. There's a fairly standard control scheme out there that most players are used to, LS for movement, RS for camera, A/B to attack. I can't think of any other game that uses the RS for attacking! It's really frustrating at times to be moving around, trying to fix your camera (which can be awful at times) and all of a sudden your character breaks out into a swirly little flourish of moves. Controls are standardized for a reason! I can understand you might want to differentiate your game or make things work in a way that's better according to you, but it fucks over every gamer that's playing on instinct based on a control scheme that's used in every other game. Deviating too much from the standard just results in the player swearing at the TV (and I speak from experience).

The other issue I found was targeting. LB targets, so for juggling, which seems to be the "cool" thing they're pushing now, you need to use your guns, which are both the LT and RT. And that's just completely awkward! Targeting also blew donkey balls when it came to incoming missiles. Because I can't fucking look around with the camera, I can't target the missiles specifically. At least not in any way I could figure out, unless I was far far away from all other enemies. There was no way to ignore close targets to deal with the much more immediate and devastating threat of the missiles.

The characters themselves miss the uncanny valley, which is nice. I especially like their eyes and the way that their focus darts around and changes frequently. However their walking motions seem slightly awkward. Can't pinpoint way though. However they move very smoothly in battle. And I do like the gliding moves as they zip from one target to the next (though interestingly my bf disliked that particular part). It was easy to engage in epic battles and kill things without much effort, just swirling the RS around. I was disappointed in no button-mashing though. But the RS does make for an easier motion. I dunno, I think I would have preferred camera control, since the current cameras suck pretty badly.

The story looks like it could be ok. The voice acting is passable and doesn't detract too much form the game (Lost Odyssey was HORRIBLE for that). I'm not sure but I thin I recognize one of the voices from somewhere, but I can't find a list of the credits for the game yet.

I'm still torn on it. It could be fun, but I really wanted a co-op experience. And I don't know if the fun I'd get out of it would be worth the huge investment we'd need to make. We'll get one copy in any case. Maybe we'll wait for it to hit the used games racks before buying the second.

E3 2008 reports are boring so far

I've been watching the news feeds as E3 goes into its second day and so far I'm rather underwhelmed. Nothing very surprising has happened, most has been speculated for months now. And as for the trailers, nothing has wowed me like Too Human did last year.

The only ones that were neat so far are Ghostbusters, which contained more movie clips that game footage, and Fallout 3, which had some fun Bloody Mess in-game action.

Hopefully there'll still be something fabulous coming down the line...

Wii Fit!!

We started out today by going for breakfast and I came home with a Wii Fit! *squee* And yesterday I won 2 free tickets to see any Fantasia show I want, now I just have to decide which one. This is starting out to be a great weekend!

Playing easy, working hard: Making games difficult is fun

[This is my July entry to Corvus' Blogs of the Round Table. This month's topic is Hurts So Good, where we look at Difficulty in Games, why we sometimes set these games aside permanently, sometimes we forge ahead.]

The difficulty level in a game is inversely proportionate to the amount I enjoy it. I don't play games for the challenge. I play for distraction, for relaxation and for entertainment. I do NOT play games to take on something akin to having a second job. I don't want any additional frustrations in my life, I play games in order to escape from my problems.

When I started gaming, I didn't really care about getting to the end or winning. Heck, most games back in those days were designed to be unbeatable! The furthest I got in Mario was as far as the secret warps would take me. I couldn't actually play it through with any degree of skill. I didn't really have any desire to do so either because I didn't know of any winnable games.

Then with our first PC, adventure games burst into my life. I still love the genre to death! Even now, Day of the Tentacle leaves a lasting impression on me and Grim Fandango is currently installed on my PC. But to actually play them to completion? Ha! Playing DotT is how I discovered this amazing new thing called a walkthrough that I downloaded from a BBS. (You do what with the wet noodles?)

These days, I can't imagine making my way through most games without one! At the slightest frustration, like not knowing which gym to hit next in Pokemon, forgetting how to blow out candles in Zelda, not figuring out you can hit the gimps back in No More Heroes, I can check quickly online and then get back to my relaxing pastime. Even for games like Bioshock, I'll set everything on the easiest setting so I can blow through it, enjoying the story and having fun blowing shit away.

The funny part is that now I AM a game designer. I get to have my say in how these things are made. Currently, I work mostly on casual games, so games that are right up my alley. Games that are fun, distracting and easy. And yet frequently the feedback I'm getting about my games is that I'm making them too punishing and too hard! I've been amused to hear this, given my stance. But it's frustrating. I'm trying to figure out why this is, why I want to make games that are more difficult than the kind that I personally enjoy.

Maybe I feel like I should enjoy the challenge more. There are a lot of gamers out there who play for the challenge, especially the old school hardcore gamers. I'm certainly old school, but my title as hardcore would depend on your definition of that term. So because I don't like being overly challenged in games, I don't feel like I fit into that crowd sometimes. And maybe by trying to make games that are outside my comfort level, I'm fixing my targets on the type of gamer I *think* I should be.

Or am I trying to assuage guilt over having more fun with simple repetitive tasks rather than solving intricate puzzles? Most casual games these days have a "zen" setting, where you can just immerse yourself into the gameplay without thinking at all about challenges. But really, as a designer, I think that might something rather boring to make. Balancing difficulty and creating variations is part of the fun of design!

I think that's the really the reason why there's a difference between what I like to play and what I like to make. I find certain types of games more fun to play because of the stories, the characters or the flow. However, designing games provides me with a different kind of fun, balancing difficulty, coming up with variations and that schadenfreude feeling from messing with the players. I think it's ok to enjoy making different kinds of games so long as you're willing to familiarize yourself with the type of game you want to make.

I guess that means I oughta start playing more punishing games, dammit. Stupid revelations, ruining my fun!

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Main Hall for links to all entries.

Wanted reminds me of No More Heroes

[minor spoilers, if you care]

We went to see Wanted last night and it's just as crazily action-packed as the previews promised. And really, it's the ultimate coulda-been-a-video-game movie. Let's see, ordinary Joe gets his call-to-action when he finds out his long-gone father was part of some deadly group of assassins. He's trained by the best to be even better and defeat his nemesis.

There's car chases, gun fights, knife fights, fist fights. Oh, and healing is no big deal. So the fights go on forever with no one caring if they get a few chunks of skin taken outta them. Of course there are plot twists and some puzzles thrown in for good measure. And the end is one boss fight after another. Very climactic.

What it reminded me of most though is No More Heroes. Because between the crazy action sequences it slows right the fuck down to a crawl. Barely any speaking, the colours are muted, the locations are barren. So at times it feels like the typical movie flow is broken because you burst out of those action scenes soaked in adrenaline only to skid to a complete stop, almost falling on your face, when it's over. They take those peaks and valleys of a typical plot progression and bring you right down to baseline in between.

And that's what No More Heroes felt like for me too. And it took a while for me to appreciate it. It's that unending, unnerving, calm and normality that give the action scenes that much more of an impact. It was just like Morgan Freeman's character. I'm sure that other characters swore during the course of the movie, but the only one that I really noticed, the only one who's use of the word actually had a meaning, an impact, was when Morgan Freeman's otherwise stoic character lost his cool.

And just like No More Heroes, Wanted doesn't take itself seriously. It's silly and feeds us all the stereotypes we expect from its genre. It gives us some genuinely funny one-liners and a likable protagonist.

In all, I enjoyed both, but I can see why some people might not like the pacing of them.

REVIEW: King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I wrote this review more than six months ago for a gaming website. Since they seem to have stopped running reviews on the site and now that the editor I was working with has left, I'm going post this review on my own blog, damnit.

Competitive gaming: pathetic or hilarious? King of Kong lets you decide

Ten minutes into this documentary about the quest for the top score in Donkey Kong, I really wasn't sure what to make of it. Ten minutes after I finished watching it, I still wasn't sure if I liked it or not. It actually took a few hours of digesting it and thinking about it that I decided in the end that, yes, I did enjoy it. While the quality of the film was decent and the story was interesting, I think I mostly enjoyed it because it made me think about whether or not I liked what I had seen.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 90-minute documentary about two people battling it out for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the top score in the arcade version of Miyamoto's insanely difficult first game, Donkey Kong. And just like any documentary that delves into the inner-workings of a particularly fervent subculture (such as Trekkies) you feel dumbfounded and just a bit embarrassed by the extreme displays of passion from the people involved. This is their world, it's what they've built their entire sense of self around. It's pretty incredible the way that they talk about these high scores along with the investments they've made to achieve them. However, in a way, it's also kind of sad. While that aspect is downplayed for the sake of an upbeat story, the filmmakers do touch on it when they include a line from a player's young daughter who, talking about the Guinness Book of World Records, says, "Some people sort of ruin their lives to be in there."

That's exactly why I felt torn about enjoying the movie. On the one hand, you have this well-crafted story about the meek and lovable underdog facing off against the egotistical, and just plain rude, blowhard of a champion. On the other hand, you've got these grown men acting like they're single-minded teenagers, obsessed with beating each other in a video game. I mean, after all, it is just a game. If this was just a movie, I could have sat back and enjoyed the tense drama that was unfolding between the characters on the screen and laugh it off as being campy. But since this is in fact a documentary, the intense emotional drama that these real, living people are going through comes across as a somewhat embarrassing.

Maybe other people who play games professionally, or those who are intensely into any kind of competition lifestyle, can really relate to these people and their trials and tribulations. But I'm an outsider looking in, as I'd guess most moviegoers would be, so my experience was that I felt sorry for the people in the film. I felt bad for the villain, because I'm sure editing didn't help his cocky portrayal. I felt genuinely bad for the underdog, who was so sincere and sensitive, sitting under the film crew's lights, tears streaming down his face. I felt apologetic that this competition for the top score that they take so very seriously is something that's kind of a joke to me.

As I said though, after thinking about it for a few hours, I came to the conclusion that I did enjoy the movie. I feel that maybe the filmmakers went a bit over-the-top with the characterizations of the people involved, but perhaps that's just the way those people are in real life and that alone fascinates me! They did a great job at using the interviews and archival footage to build up the story to a satisfying conclusion. The fact that I had to think about whether or not I enjoyed it really tells me that they did a great job putting everything together, taking the players seriously but at the same time touching on the absurdity of it all.

Of course, being real life, the story doesn't end when the film does. The DVD has a few updates on what happened between the theatrical and DVD release along with links to sites where you can follow the continuing saga of The King of Kong.

All of that being said, my favorite parts of the DVD actually had nothing to do with the documentary itself. They have some pretty neat extras on it including a really really short animated history of the Donkey Kong game along with about half an hour of 8-bit music and Donkey Kong inspired artwork from I Am 8-bit. I find myself eager to watch it again just to hear the two sets of commentary tracks that accompany the DVD version. Maybe that will help me understand the intention of the film and why I feel so torn about it.

All in all, The King of Kong gives you a unique look into the lifestyle of competitive gaming that you probably never knew existed. While being respectful to its subjects, the filmmakers still manage to point out the absurdity of the whole situation, mostly because they take it so seriously. Go along for the ride and decide for yourself if it's serious or a mockery.

Asskicking women must have tits the size of cantaloupes

RPS gives a big WTF to Codemasters for the screenshot of its latest leading lady:


Are those really necessary? I mean, At least give the girls a bit of support, it just plain hurts my back to see those fun bags dangle loosely, subject to momentum and gravity. If their research shows that their target market really wants such wank material, why doesn't Codemastes just cut out the farce of making a game?

And no, that isn't just concept art, other images from the game show her wearing exactly that while "performing daredevil feats on the edge of human ability." Is that top painted on? One wrong jiggle and she'll have pulled a Janet-at-the-Superbowl.

There can be ass-kicking (and utterly hot) women action heroes out there who wear clothes, ya know. Just to name two upcoming games I'm actually looking forward to: Rubi, from Wet by A2M an Faith, from Mirror's Edge by EA.

Celebrate Canada with games and beer, eh?

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!

Grab yourself a two-four of beer, some Timmie's coffee, a big thing of poutine and a couple of butter tarts! It's time to celebrate Canada Day Canadian-style! Grab your favourite made-in-Canada game and get cracking, eh? See what it's all a-boot.

• Anything Unreal from Digital Extremes
  
• Army of Two from EA Montreal
• Penny Arcade Adventures from Hothead Games
• N+ from Metanet Software
  
• So much of the EA Sports and Need for Speed series are made in B.C.
  
• Mass Effect, KOTOR or any other fabulous game from BioWare
• Sins of a Solar Empire from Ironclad
• Mario Strikers from Next Level Games
  
• Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Prince of Persia, Far Cry or any other from Ubisoft Montreal
• D&D Online from Alchemic Dreams
• All of Warhammer 40k from Relic Entertainment
• The Wizardry or Jagged Alliance developed by Sir-Tech (published by Strategy First)
  
• TV Show King for WiiWare or Prince of Persia Classic on Xbox Live from Gameloft
  
• Either of my C.S.I. mobile games from Gameloft ;)
• Pre-order Too Human from Silicon Knights
• Look forward to Wet from A2M
• Anticipate the new Deus Ex game from Eidos Montreal
• Get excited about Prototype from Radical Entertainment

So crack open a cold one and act like your liver can enjoy the benefits of universal healthcare!

A farewell to Bill Gate's hair

I love GeekSugar, deliciously geeky AND girly! I mean, who else would use Bill Gate's retirement from Microsoft to showcase his disastrous hairstyles over the years? Unfortunately, they didn't include my favourite photo:

Louis Armstrong WAS the apocalypse

What is it about Louis Armstrong's music that makes it such a perfect match for the post-apocalyptic lifestyle? We went to see Wall-E today and it was totally awesome!

The opening sequence just reminded me so much of the opening movies to the Fallout games though (it wasn't Armstrong there though). However one of his songs figures prominently later on. Is it his baleful voice? Is it the contrast of the happy lyrics with the bleary visuals? Is it the dream of a time when everything seemed *just right*?

Let's see...

• 12 Monkeys - What A Wonderful World
• Fallout 2 - A Kiss to Build a Dream On
• Wall-E - La Vie En Rose

Am I missing any?