Limbo
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
Well yesterday Limbo came out on XBLA. This game is definitely different, and interesting for sure. However, this game is not without it’s problems. First, the stylization is great… maybe a little too dark overall, but still a great concept and they pulled it off. The sound effects fix perfectly. However, there are no instructions, or music. There also seems to be absolutely no story, which I was a little disappointed by. One thing that you definitely need is patience for this game. There is a lot of trail and error, due to the lack of explanation. One great thing is the fact that there is almost no punishment for failing. When you die, you are almost right back where you were. I’ve been able to get through half the game in probably ~3 hours (including all my trail and error). This game really reminds me of Braid, for a few reasons; 1 this is an indie game, 2 new style/innovation in the gameplay, 3 worth your money. I don’t really think that this game will have any lasting replay value, but it doesn’t matter to me. If you want something to entertain you for a while, check out Limbo – available now on XBLA
Tags: Indie Games, Limbo, Stylized, XBLA
Alien Swarm
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
This past week, Steam released Alien Swarm, a 100% free game for everyone to download and play. This game was made by a group of Valve developers in their spare time, and Valve released it to the community. This is just another reason why Valve is the savior of PC gaming.
I took the time to play with some friends today, and it was a great game. I really enjoyed it, it is quite balanced and has a bunch of great small mechanics.
This game is definitely one of the best games I’ve played on the PC in a while. And its not one of those free-to-play games with micro transactions, it is 100% free – which is the best part.
Charity in Gaming
Posted by Mike | Filed under Commentary, Games
By way of Gamepolitics, I read an interesting editorial piece regarding charity within the video games industry. Ryan Sharpe, co-found of the Get-Well Gamers Foundation, basically came out saying that the video game industry isn’t doing enough charity work. While he did make the comment that he was unaware of all of the charity work done by companies, it is quite evident that he really doesn’t know.
A simple Google search on the matter will turn up lots of results. If you spend anything more than a quick glance into it, you’ll find that Bioware has helped raise money for Child’s Play Charity, Naughty Dog sponsors a kennel (not for publicity), Ubisoft helps raise awareness regarding challenges faced by disabled persons, Activision has their charity push and CODE, Zynga donated money to Haitian charities.
With just these examples (which literally took me less than 15 minutes to find with Google) it is quite clear that the video game industry are not scrooges when it comes to charity. Sure, maybe the movie industry donates more money but that doesn’t mean that they are automatically more charitable. What about the video game companies that do the good work for the sake of doing the good work without saying “Look at me! I’m doing charity” and call attention to it. Dollar amounts are an easy way to measure how much you’ve done, but don’t forget that giving time is just as important (if not more) as donating money.
Tags: Activision, charity, Electronic Arts, Naughty Dog, ubisoft, Zynga
Heavy Rain
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
Heavy rain is a very interesting game, and is definetly unique. It has come out on top of the UK charts, and to see the full chart info click here.
Tags: Heavy Rain, SCE, UK
Sony’s Arc
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
I have found it interesting that, as with time shortening until the release of Arc and Natal, that there seems to be more and more people trying to convince us that they won’t just be gimmicks. However, today I read an article regarding Sony’s PR strategy surrounding the Arc which is quite refreshing. Sony evidently would rather not tell you about how great Arc is, but rather show you how great it is. This strategy seems quite evident when you compare the two presentations at E3 last year. Sony had a very tech intensive demo, while Microsoft had one that was more about presentation rather than an actual demo.
Another interesting point from the article is that it seems that Sony has really considered the end user and how the product relates to them. Of course we are going to see a few games (hopefully this is all) with stupid controls just like on the Wii – but perhaps this won’t be the case with all of the games incorporating the new motion controllers. Only time will tell.
Tags: Arc, microsoft, Motion Controls, Natal, sony
Why the iPad is no good
Posted by Mike | Filed under Commentary, Games, Programming
Well the news about the iPad has been around for a while, and there are plenty of game developers excited about it. Why? I haven’t the slightest clue. There is three differences between the iPhone/iPod touch and the iPad and they are: (A) Size of the screen (B) System power & (C) Price. The iPod Touch got more power between the first and second hardware revisions just like the iPhone 3G and 3GS. But, here is the problem… the iPad will bring about the downfall of the video game industry (if it actually catches on).
While my statement may be very wild, if the iPad actually catches on – video game developers should not be happy at all (at least the ones who want to make money). Sure, with the bigger screen size and more powerful system we’ll be able to make bigger and better games, but the problem is that the economics surrounding the iPad will probably gravitate to towards the same trends that the iPhone/iPod Touch have in terms of application costs and the flood of applications. While usually having more is better, in terms of the consumer, in the case of the App Store it is actually really bad. With the 20,000 games available on the App Store how can one find a good game? Its not easy. I put less research into buying a $60 game than I ever have trying to purchase a game from the App Store.
While the iPhone OS and SDK are great for indies and hopefuls wanting to break into the game industry, there are very few companies that can actually survive with the sort of economics that are available on the iPhone. The thing is, that you need to develop something really quick and really cheap in order to turn a profit. There are very few games that sell for more than a few dollars, so if your game cost $100,000 to make (not really that big of a number if you have an artist, programmer, QA, etc working on your game) then you would have to sell a minimum of ~150,000 if you sold your game at $0.99 (there is a percentage that Apple takes from the sale). Sure there are many developers that could put out games for less than $100K, but there are many people who will do this development on the side so there really isn’t any cost associated with it.
Now, you might be wondering why a a game developer would care about a platform they may not even develop for. Well, that is simple. The economics surrounding the App Store have started to bleed over into other sectors of the industry as consumer’s are getting more and more used to getting really small (and usually not that good games) for good and cheap. They want more of this. Now there are less and less people who are willing to continually spend $60 on a new release for a game. They might start buying used copies, none of which goes to the developer. And while I may be exaggerating a bit regarding the overflow, there are plenty of examples of people complaining about the price of the PSP minis in comparison to the App Store.
Now, the iPad has a touch interface, just like the iPhone. Guess what, it sucks. It doesn’t really drive innovation like one would think, except for innovation on how to adapt and get around the platform’s limitations. Sure limitations can drive people to create awesome games, but with the iPhone its about finding the interface that sucks the least. Yeah, the iPad has a much bigger screen that will allow developers greater flexibility when designing controls because screen space will not be as limited. The biggest problem with the iPad (in terms of gaming) is still present… NO BUTTONS. While the touch interface is great, it still needs to have physical buttons with physical feedback. No buttons = limited gaming potential.
Without forgetting one huge problem, we come to the biggest problem of all – PRICE. The starting price is $499 USD. That is more than a new desktop! This platform will suffer, just like the PS3 did, until it has a price cut to be a reasonable price that is affordable. The iPad is on track to have the same consumer adoption rate as the MacBook Air (while I don’t have numbers regarding this, many Mac enthusiasts that I know thought the device was a flop). You cannot charge $500 for a piece of hardware that doesn’t do that much and expect a huge adoption rate.
Lastly, we cannot forget the thing that I really cannot understand most of all – the lack of innovation in the device. What is the iPad really? It is an oversized iPod Touch. I think the only innovation is that it will be able to connect to the internet anywhere with AT&T – but that is not anything new. There are no new hardware innovations that will allow developers to create new interesting new interfaces. When the iPhone/iPod Touch came out at least the accelerometer and the multi-touch screen was new, now it is old and dull. In reality the iPad is nothing more than an oversized, overpriced, iPod Touch.
Tags: apple, Development, game development, Games, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, mac
Heavy Rain
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
Heavy Rain is coming out tomorrow, but for those of you who aren’t quite sure if they’re going to like the game there is a demo available on PSN.
I took a look at the demo and it is definetly an amazing looking game, without question. Additionally, the gameplay is definetly unique and is a nice innovation. It looks like this could be a very interesting game and could be a candidate for best new IP of 2010.
Tags: game, Heavy Rain, ps3, psn, Release
Sony’s The Tester
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
A little while back I heard something about this, but it seems that Sony is actually putting on the ultimate gaming competition… and the prize? You get to be a tester for Playstation games. Wow, what a punishment… I mean prize. The thing is, that game testing is very tedious and sometimes boring work. You have to play the same levels hundreds of times. Who ever wins, I hope they do a follow up a few months (or even weeks) after they start their new job, I’d be curious to see a kind of before and after.
Tags: game development, Playstation, sony, Tester
Halo ODST
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
I had the chance to play Halo ODST, and I gotta say – not impressed and definetly not worth $60. Clocking in at less than 4 hours worth of gameplay, this game feels like it was forced to fit in the Halo universe. While there was some great performances from Nathan Fillion (Captain Malcolm Reynolds – Firefly), Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb – Firefly, John Casey – Chuck), and Nolan North (Nathan Drake – Uncharted), the story was rather slow and jumped around alot. It would have been nice to have a better written story. Evidently Bungie doesn’t have Midas’ touch when it comes to games, and I hope that Halo Reach isn’t this bad when it is released later this year.
PSN Uno
Posted by Mike | Filed under Games
I recently saw Uno on the PSN. At first, the price was $7.99 – way too much for a simple card game. Then I was deligted to see that the game’s price had been reduced to $3.99, much more acceptable. I decided to purchase it and there was no big suprise, it was a game involving the classic card game Uno. The visuals are nice, the controls are okay, there’s multiplayer and trophy support. The one problem is that the game almost seems like it plays for you. If you are playing the classic game, there doesn’t feel like there is a challenge, because it tells you what to do almost. Its amusing to play online and listen to people’s commentaries when you’ve gone and done something that they don’t like. I would suggest this if you’ve ever wanted to play Uno by yourself, otherwise pick up an Uno deck and play with your friends
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