Categories
Blog

Geoff Keighley’s E3 – Hanging by a Thread

God bless Geoff Keighley. He just won’t allow the plug to be pulled on E3.

Summer lovin’ had me a blast…well it was okay.

Summer Game Fest is an event aimed directly at my generation of gamers. We grew up on 8 to 16-bit systems. We were coming of age when E3 was at its apex which was long before APEX. We are a generation of people who took days off of school or work to watch E3 and the subsequent games that came out of that conference.

Summer Game Fest is for us. It is a present directly from Geoff Keighley to us.

If you don’t fit into that group, you will play the games after your favorite streamer plays them. You don’t care about gorging yourself on all of the pre-release information because you are busy streaming now. You might catch a clip on TikTok, Reels, or YouTube Shorts but you aren’t going to sit down for multiple hours a night and watch these streams.

Well, I did. And, as predicted, I actually enjoyed most of what I saw. Here is my rundown of games from Summer Game Fest 2024.

Keighley started off by paying lip service to all of the staff who have lost their jobs over the past couple of years as the industry has gone through a culling. Of course he could have said more but I am actually surprised that he said even the bit that he did. He usually has his lips firmly placed on the buttocks of the nearest industry luminary so I’m surprised he was able to mumble this between cheeks.

Help Wanted

The first game on the docket was Lego Horizon. I like the Lego games just fine and since they turned off the tap there has been less overflow of them in the last decade or so.

I wonder if this game happened because the toys did well or if it happened because Guerrilla and Lego are Scandinavian companies and it was in their interest to help each other out. We see a lot of this in Japan but it is the first time that I have noticed it elsewhere. (It also could just be an insane theory. )

No More Room in Hell 2 came after. I have zero idea of the circumstances surrounding this game but I will say that it looks really good. The first game was a Source mod. I’m not sure if the first game was the same kind of game but this game looks like Left 4 Dead.

The next game announced was Harry Potter Quiddich Champions. (I think I am getting whiplash from the differences between these games being announced.) I don’t know why they are making this game. I know that the last Harry Potter game did well so I’m sure that has something to do with someone thinking it’s Quidditch’s time to shine. If I recall, I think the EA version of Quiddich World Cup was a pretty middling game. I’m not sure what the sales figures were but they couldn’t have been great because EA would have driven it into the ground with yearly sequels.

Cuffbust is one of the games of the show for me. I think that this game is aimed at the audience of gamers that I spoke about before who probably aren’t even watching this show. I think Cuffbust is going to appear on some streamers channels and it has the potential to be the next big thing.

Star Wars Outlaws looks awesome. I can’t wait to see more about it at the Ubisoft conference. It has the potential to be just as good as the EA Star Wars games.

Outlaws might just save this industry.

The team behind Gris is making Neva which looks absolutely gorgeous. The fluid movement of the character and the art and vibes of the game are just jaw dropping. I think this game has serious Mononoke vibes and I am here for it.

Sid Meier appeared in a video introducing Civilization 7. That is awesome. I am glad we are getting more Civilization. I am happy for all of the Civilization players out there who need to move on so they can get a different game charted in the Steam most hours played column.

Black Myth: Wukong looks sick. I like the Journey to the West story being presented as a modern day action game.

Asgard’s Wrath 2 looks good. Facebook is still trying to get people to forget that they are Meta and buy a Meta Quest 2 because you can’t get this game anywhere else than on a Meta Quest 2. It looks good but it’s just not for me.

Next is Once Human. That’s all I have written.

Moving on, Space Marine 2 is coming soon. Space Marine was the first 40k game during the PS3 generation that caught on with people outside of the 40k audience. It was basically Gears of War. It was the game that finally justified all of the 40k fans who had been beating their drums telling console gamers that their video game characters were all based on 40k Space Marines. We all knew but we just liked to watch them get all foamy at their mouths.

Space Marines started it all.

Metaphor from the Persona team looks really amazing. Never has a property, Shin Megami Tensei, had so many offshoots that were leagues better than the original property they were based on.

Batman Arkham Shadow is the most promising VR game that I have seen recently. It is coming from Camoflaj, the team behind the excellent Iron Man VR game that game to PSVR.

Street Fighter is getting new characters. That’s nice. I’m glad that this new Street Fighter game is better than the last one. I think the last thing that Capcom needs right now is for Street Fighter to have to back into hibernation for a few years like it did before Street Fighter 4 debuted.

Tears of Metal looks interesting with a very unusual art style.

Dragonball Sparking Zero is a new game for the people who loved Dragonball Budokai.

Delta Force Hawk Ops is the reboot of series that has been chugging along on PC and PlayStation for a long time. I still remember seeing the PS1 version when I worked for Blockbuster.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves looks great. I am sure that a lot of Mexicans and Central and South Americans are going to be super happy.

Battle Crush looked interesting. It looks like the developers just took one for the modes from Fall Guys and made a whole game based on it. It is a brawler where the environment slowly breaks away and gets smaller and smaller until only one player remains. (You know the mode I’m talking about if you’ve played Fall Guys.)

Mecha Break looks like it could be something amazing for fans of mecha fighting games. It doesn’t have any Mech franchises locked to it but that might be a good thing. The fighting looks fluid. I’m not sure if they are going after an action audience or if they are going after a simulation audience. I think if they can bridge the gap they could do pretty well with this game.

Blumhouse Games came out and debuted two handfuls of games and, just like their movies, I think some of them will be pretty good and others will probably be duds.

We heard you liked budget horror. How about budget games?

Project C from Sam Barlow is my most anticipated of the group. Fear the Spotlight is the first release from this new publisher.

Power Rangers – Rita’s Rewind is a new game from Digital Eclipse. It looks a lot like the older brawlers that they have been making in recent years. It will probably be pretty solid. Is Power Rangers popular again or is this further proof to the audience that this show is really going after?

Deer & Boy looks like it could be very good. I am getting Never Alone vibes from it. I hope it is even half as good as that game was.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is another game that isn’t for me but the story looks like it might be very interesting so I hope that this game can prove me wrong and become something I need to play.

Slitterhead is a horror/ action game from the guy behind Silent Hill. The gameplay looks like it’s reminiscent of an old GameCube game called Geist. The player is moving from one NPC to another within the game world to solve puzzles or just play the game. Also, this isn’t the only Geist-like that is shown this year.

Killer Bean is the other game that I think has the potential to be the next big streaming game. It is a shooter where the player plays as a bean and the NPCs are also beans. It’s weird in all the best ways.

Cairns is a mountain climbing game that I think looks really cool. I like that they want the game to be more an exploration of man vs. mountain and the mental strength needed to overcome the obstacles – instead of just the strength needed to overcome.

Wanderstop looks like a nice cozy game. It’s another game where the player runs a shop. It’s coming from Annapurna so it probably is going to have something a bit more than just cozy vibes so that appeals to me.

Unknown 9 Awakening looks good too. It’s coming from Bandai Namco. This is the other Geist-like.

Monster Hunter Stories is coming out again for people who didn’t play it the first time or the second time. Also, the second game is coming back too.

Enotria: The Last Song is another game that looks good. There is a demo out now.

The First Decendent looks like an interesting looter shooter. I like the space setting.

Sloths are cool.

The team behind Among Us, Inner Sloth, has started a funding effort called Outer Sloth. It doesn’t seem like they are becoming a publisher but just dipping their toes in to publish some games with some money they had laying around since they raked it in during the Pandemic. It truly seems altruistic. The games coming are: Mars First Logistics, Battle Suit Aces, Mossfield Archives, One BTN Bosses, Rogue Eclipse, and Project Dosa.

Sonic X Shadows Generations is coming. Sonic has been on a bit of an upswing lately. It looks like an interesting game.

Dune Awakening is telling an alternate history of the Dune series. The trailer looked good. I need to get some more information about this game because I love the Dune series.

Battle Aces is trying to bring back the RTS genre. They tried to pitch this as an RTS game for anyone but it just looked like an RTS game. We’ll see if they are able to follow through with it being for anyone.

The Finals Season 3 is announced. I should give this game a try. It seems cool.

Alan Wake 2: Night Springs is coming too. It has Twilight Zone vibes. I think it’s going to be really cool. Remedy can do nothing wrong.

New World Aeternum from Amazon Games was announced. I’m not sure if this is a new game or if this is just Amazon reminding people that this game is still around and that Amazon Games still exists.

Dark and Darker is going to be free on PC.

Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Gods from Capcom is the other game with an Eastern setting that didn’t really appeal to me but seemed like just another game to add on the pile of games that are all going after that setting.

Hyperlight Breaker looks like a great addition to the Hyperlight series. This game looks so much better than the first game even though the first game looked really good too.

Do you like dope games that look dope?

Party Animals looks like it could be a lot of fun as a party game.

The Skate trailer got me excited for a new Skate game. I don’t think it is coming anytime soon. This trailer was really just proof of life as well as a way to keep the audience interested in the game.

Palworld is getting more content.

Valorant is coming to consoles.

Squad Busters is another game from Super Cell that will make hand over fist but I have zero desire to play.

Monster Hunter Wilds makes its second appearance of the season. This trailer had a bit more in it than the State of Play trailer.

Phantom Blade 0 is the game they decided to finish things off with. I’m not sure if I was just tired from the two hour show or if I was so unimpressed that I didn’t have anything to write about it.

I thought the show was okay overall. There were some cool announcements and there were some trailers that got me excited about some games but there was a malaise of disappointment too.

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSYmLwoRX/

I just don’t think this is really the show that it needs to be. As I said before, I think this is an aging model that is trying to hold on to something that doesn’t really exist anymore. It reminds me of that guy on TikTok who wears JNCO jeans and rollerblades around town with a Super Nintendo in his back pocket. I’m glad they are both around and doing their thing and having fun while doing it but there isn’t the luster there anymore.

Categories
Blog

How is the State of Play, Sony?

Sony had a few cool announcements at this summer’s State of Play. They even did a decent job of reminding us that PS VR2 still exists.

State of Play 2024

I wish that Sony did a better job of letting its audience know that the PlayStation Plus package exists and they are doing solid work on that service. I have a good internet connection so for me that service works very well. They do a very good job of adding new titles to the Classics collection; their back catalog of PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP, and PS VITA games. I am sure it comes down to some form of business related penis envy related to Game Pass but I’ll keep prosthelytizing for it.

Sony started out pretty strong with an interesting trailer(?) in-game cinematic(?) for the game Concord. Concord is a hero-shooter. I’m concerned that people may be done with hero shooters but there were so many cool ideas going on in this presentation about the game that part of me hoped that this game could do something to invigorate the genre.

Overwatch + Guardians of the Galaxy = Concord

They moved on to God of War: Ragnarok on the PC. They used a lot of PC buzzwords to excite those members of the PC master race. It’s not for me but I am happy for the people who it is for.

They moved on from close-ups of brutal murder to the brutal murder of armies of men in Dynasty Warriors Origins. I’ve never been a fan of Dynasty Warriors but I was interested in this demo. Much like I was interested in the game when it originally came to the PS2, it’s one of those games that seems like it should be getting the most out of each system that it is on.

Somebody has gotta like this.

Infinity Nikki looks like one of those Japanese games that does well for a very small niche audience. I’m not sure if it is for me but it looks gorgeous.

Ballad of Antara looks like it is a take on a Souls game. The visuals are gorgeous. I’d like to learn a bit more about this game.

The next two games weren’t so much showing the state of play so much as proof of live for the VR genre. Skydance’s Behemoth for VR and Alien Rogue Incursion for VR.

Sony knew they needed to bring things back up after the dip in excitement so they gave us what I think is probably the game of the show – Marvel Rivals. Marvel Rivals is a hero shooter from Netease. The second hero shooter of the show. I have a feeling that this one may put the nail in Concord’s coffin before it even debuts. I think that this game is much closer to Overwatch which will be easier for people to grasp. Also, the characters are all well-known and the designs are really interesting. I also was interested in all the different ways that the powers will work with each other.

Another hero shooter but…Marvel. Huh? Huh!?!

Where Winds Meet looked gorgeous but seemed just too generic for me to be too impressed by it. There is a lot of dark Eastern games being made right now and this isn’t as interesting to me as some of the others that are coming.

Until Dawn is getting a remaster for the PS5. I enjoyed a lot of this game on the PS4 and it is good that Sony is turning another one of their popular games into a new remastered version but it isn’t going to be something that I play through again. I hope they add some reason for the people who played through it on PS4 to come back to the game again.

Path of Exile 2 was an interesting addition to this show. I don’t really think of Path of Exile as a PlayStation game but I might also be totally wrong. If they are able to optimize the controls to be even close to how Diablo plays on console, I’m sure they will do very well on the console.

Silent Hill 2 looks good. I haven’t heard very many good things coming out about this game’s development but I hope that it comes out and gives its audience something to enjoy.

More monsters but this time…they are wild.

Monster Hunter Wilds looks very cool. Once again, this isn’t a game that is going to get its claws into me but I am glad that it looks like something that its audience will really get into. Monster Hunter’s audience is one of the best fandoms in console gaming. I still remember that time that I watch a Japanese guy hiking through a blizzard with a brand new PS4 and a copy of Monster Hunter when that game came out on the PS4.

Kawaii Kratos!!! Kyaaaaa!!!!

The final game of the State of Play was Astro Bot. This should probably be the game of show over Marvel Rivals because we know that this game is going to be good. They added a lot of fan appeal to the game. It’s good that Sony finally has a mascot character that can honestly stand next to Mario and Master Chief as an equal.

I think this summer’s State of Play was strong. I don’t think it is going to be able to stand up to Microsoft for best conference but I think they had some solid titles to be excited about in the coming years. I think they have some more work to do in making PSVR2 something that is a must buy for the majority of their audience.

Categories
Blog

Executive Decision – Battlefield 2042 Launch

I found myself laughing a bit at the news released last week from the EA internal Town Hall meeting concerning Battlefield 2042. EA finally placed some blame concerning their release of the latest installment of the Battlefield franchise. In true upper management fashion, the blame was placed on decisions and not on those who made those decisions. It is also worth noting that there is nothing said about whether they should have held the game back to iron out the issues that led to the bad launch.

Is Frostbite Part of the Change?

The town hall style meeting didn’t only deal with Battlefield 2042 but none of the rest of the news was leaked to my knowledge. The executives didn’t just point out the issues with the game but they also spent time talking about where the game is going and the future of the series. It seems like they still do believe in this iteration of the game and the franchise as a whole which is heartening.

The meat of the leaks all came from the mouth of Laura Miele, EA’s Chief Studios Officer. She pointed out that EA and many instances of hits and misses (we are looking at you Andromeda). She pointed at the launch of Battlefield 2042 as one of the things they can chalk up to a miss.

The Frostbite engine seems to be something that is on the chopping block for the studio as they start moving some development back over to Unreal. Frostbite was the engine that was poised to take EA into the future. It was also one of the reasons they touted for buying DICE. The problem is that Frostbite is an older engine that is notoriously difficult to work with especially for facial reactions that are so important in action games. It works great if you are making games that have gorgeous environments where you are shooting people that are covered nearly head to toe in gear but not so much when you want to see subtle changes in expression.

The Future of Gaming Might Be Going Back to Unreal

Miele commented that the studio basically needed to go back and update the existing Frostbite engine so, according to her, it was like building an engine from the ground up.

Another reason for the subpar launch was the global pandemic which hit during the halfway point in the project. We can all understand why this caused such havoc for the development of the game. Nobody would hold EA to the flame because a global pandemic caused issues for a multinational corporation that needs to share large assets across the world and managing teams across time zones and local laws. There was a lot that went into making this game during that time and we all feel for the team and the hard work that went into making the game that they did. But, players don’t need to forgive management for digging their heels in and deciding not to delay the game, which leads nicely into the final point.

The game had an unprecedented number of bugs. Miele stated that the team got a lot of feedback about bugs and other areas of the game that weren’t up to DICE standards according to players but it seems like they focused on the positive feedback from players who told them “Battlefield is back.” The game ended up releasing with a Day 0 and Day 1 patch but the experience was still too buggy to be considered a 1.0 game.

The final reason she gave for Battlefield 2042’s rocky launch was Halo Infinite. She compared the much anticipated free-to-play shooter to Battlefield 2042 saying, “[Battlefield 2042] was not favorable because Halo Infinite was a very polished title whereas Battlefield 2042 contained bugs and wasn’t as polished.”

Bout to Drop on Some Battlefield Players

I feel like this is a quote that is going to follow her around for a while but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true…mostly. Halo Infinite also had a lot of bugs holding it back but overall it did feel more polished than Battlefield 2042 because of the historic number of bugs in a Battlefield game.

It is totally understandable that a game of this size and scale would have issues being developed in the middle of a pandemic. What is unforgivable is the studio’s decision to hold to their launch date. The executive team at EA could have taken these factors under consideration and delayed the launch of their game. They could have fixed the unprecedented number of bugs. They could have also given their game a little bit of breathing room from the launch of Halo Infinite.

I was really excited for Battlefield 2042 because I haven’t played a Battlefield game since Battlefield 4. When I played the game on my aging PC during the beta tests, not only the bugs but the technical requirements left me struggling with the game even on the lowest settings. I could have played the game on my last generation consoles but that would have been a stunted experience because of the limited player counts.

I did end up playing the game on my PC after the launch for a few hours because I had access because of the 10 hour free trial on Game Pass. While it did play better than during the launch, there were tons of bugs and performance issues that might have been happening because of my PC or because the game itself was buggy so it just turned into a bad experience overall and it soured me on the game. I would like to go back to it at some point in time but being unable to get my hands on a new console or a new GPU at this time also keeps me from going back to check things out.

I hope that EA learns from this experience. I hope that investors learn that bad decisions can be made by teams and executives alike and I think the worst decisions made for Battlefield 2042 were made by the people who sit a long table and not by those who sit in front of computer screens.

Categories
Blog

Microsoft: The Apex Predator

Most people who follow games know that Microsoft, the recent apex predator of games, has been on a buying spree. They have been bolstering their portfolio to flesh out what they have to offer for their Game Pass service. In the beginning they started small but in recent months the purchases have been getting bigger and bigger. When it was announced that they had purchased Activision Blizzard to the tune of about $70 billion it gave me pause.

Microsoft: The Apex Predator
That’s a lot of big names

I love my Xbox and I am a devout Game Pass subscriber but the purchase announced in January made me wonder about the future of the industry. Microsoft just purchased “the” largest or one of the three largest video game publishers in the world. It is akin to Apple purchasing AMD or Intel. It is a huge purchase that has ramifications across the gaming spectrum.

After I heard the news, I wondered if the console wars had effectively been turned into a battle of East vs. West. Microsoft is working hard to gobble up all of the western developers in the Americas and Europe. Sony and Nintendo are left in Japan trying to hobble to keep up. I’m sure that Nintendo, as always, will be able to sit in their corner and bring in a tidy profit for their shareholders but Sony, who has been the king for so long, has been lagging behind recently. Their subscription service, while amazing in this author’s opinion, just can’t hold a candle to Xbox’s Game Pass.

It was announced this week that Sony had acquired Bungie but Bungie would continue to make games for all platforms. There are rumors that Sony has some other acquisitions that it wants to proceed with in the coming months. If this is true, can Sony keep up with Microsoft. Who knows?

It’s a start

I think the first thing Sony needs to do is get as many people as possible moved over to their PlayStation Now service. Microsoft did this by combining their Xbox Live service and their Game Pass service into a combo and then throwing the Xbox Live service out the window. PlayStation needs to look into doing the same thing with their services.

I pay for both PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. I picked up PlayStation Now a few years ago on sale at a criminally low price so I am set up with that service for the next few years. I think for PlayStation 5 customers they need to get them started on a combined service as soon as possible. The fact is that people don’t want to be double billed by a company for something that they could provide for one price. And Microsoft proved that it doesn’t even matter if that price is high than they were originally paying, as long as the value is there.

Sony has been making some small acquisitions but overall Sony, not PlayStation, as a company just can’t compete because it’s business isn’t as healthy as Microsoft’s overall. Many of the various departments within Sony are not holding up against competitors which means that the PlayStation division doesn’t have as much money to throw at growing their business.

How will Sony keep up with Microsoft?

I believe that Japanese companies will band together to support Sony as a way to fend off Microsoft’s encroachment into their territory. Microsoft has always had a hell of a time getting the Xbox to make any headway in Japan and even with Game Pass, Japanese gamers haven’t gotten on board with the insane value that Game Pass provides. (Japanese Netflix also lags behind America because that isn’t how Japan watches TV usually.)

The Bungie acquisition looks good on paper to shareholder but overall it doesn’t give me hope that Sony is taking these moves by Microsoft as seriously as they need to be. I want to see a strong video game industry and moving towards services instead of boxes is where the industry is heading without question. We need Sony to step it up and become the HBO Max of video game services to Microsoft’s Netflix to keep this whole thing interesting. Right now Sony is looking more like Crackle. If that reference is still applicable in this day and age.

Categories
Blog

VH1 Storytellers – Hennig and Raymond

Amy Hennig and Jade Raymond are two of the biggest names in modern storytelling. They have been behind some of the biggest original IPs to come out of video games in the last 20 years. So, when they have a talk, you listen.

At the time of this Venture Beat interview the two of them were working with EA on Star Wars properties. Both of their projects fizzled out but it is still good to hear what they have to say about Star Wars and about storytelling in games as a whole. Currently Jade Raymond is an executive with Google’s Stadia project. Amy Hennig moved to Skydance Media, a company known for making films. She seems to be helping them develop something using film with an interactive twist.

Hennig says, rightly so, that there is no one-size-fits-all philosophy for storytelling in games. She spend a lot of this interview reinforcing that idea. She brings up games like Journey, Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus as stories that tell a structured story but have a lot of freedom for the player to move around and make their own stories in the quiet moments of the game. These kinds of game also leave the player open for interpretation – the story isn’t being spoon fed to the player. She followed this with a good metaphor that I agree with completely.

One form of interactivity is interpretation. I find poems and lyrics more interactive than a non-fiction book, because I’m actively engaged in interpreting that experience through the collision of metaphor and information. Games are like that. If you lead the player, even at the level of a linear-authored story that allows room for interpretation, it’s already more interactive in some way. The more austere a story is, like Journey, it leaves even more room for a player. But it doesn’t mean that anywhere else on that spectrum of authorship is right or wrong. It’s just a different genre.

I couldn’t agree with this more. I like reading non-fiction stories but there is something about non-fiction that has always felt less interactive than fiction or poetry for me. Hennig makes a great point that in non-fiction the story is told as fact and it happened to that person. The facts are presented and evidence is presented on why the events happened. In poetry and fiction, the same is true but there is imagination that comes in to fill in parts of the narrative. The reader tends to fill in the blanks with their own imagination.

They both agree that genre plays a big part in the storytelling of a game. Uncharted is a pulpy action game so it makes sense that Drake would be a gun slinging bad-boy, much like Indiana Jones. Games like Uncharted, Journey, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order all work because the developers know their genre and keep to it.

The two of them agree that leaving room for interpretation is important as well as a well-crafted story. Raymond mentions that different players want different things. Later Hennig says, “We hear that anecdotally a lot. It’s like what we said – different tastes for different players. Not everybody likes the same movies.” Some want hugely open stories that they can help create themselves and other players don’t – they may feel paralyzed by the openness. They both agree that it’s a fine-line and they are continually trying to find the best way to do it.

I love when creative people have the confidence to say, “Hey, maybe what I made isn’t for you. I’m sorry but I’m also not going to change it to fit your tastes.” Video games have especially become susceptible to this because everything is focus grouped to death which waters down the original artistic intent (see Hideo Kojima for an example where this hasn’t happened).

Hennig brings up the role cinematics play in games and how they should be a treat for the player. Sometimes cinematics are used as a way to show off the graphical power of a game because the gameplay moments don’t look as interesting.

I get just as annoyed as anyone by cinematics if they’re bad. I’m tapping the button trying to get past it too. But if it’s a well-told story and I’m invested in the characters and why they’re doing what they’re doing, I feel like it’s a reward for the work I did to get to that cinematic.

In games like Uncharted or The Last of Us, I’ve always felt rewarded by the cinematics especially after a tricky firefight or something that I’ve beat my head against for a few tries. Once I’ve conquered that part, a well done cinematic experience gives me time to relax and reflect about the story after doing something difficult in game.

One of the best parts of gaming is the water-cooler experience. When you are playing the same game as someone else, unlike a movie or book, a lot of times you are talking about events that happened to your character because of a hundred if-than statements have coalesced and something happens to you that didn’t happen to your friend. In this moment, you are participating in the story. You are changing it and giving it ownership. This is an important part of storytelling that they recognize.

Later in the conversation they talk about the dissonance between the stories told in the cutscenes, where a lot of character building is done, and the action between those cutscenes – usually shooting stuff. This is a problem with Uncharted and Tomb Raider, which they mention in the article. Raymond mentions how hard it is to tackle this issue, “That’s always the dichotomy that I feel like would be easy to fix. But no one’s ever done it very well.” It takes the player out of the story when a good person turns into a killing machine all for the sake of making a standard action game with gun combat. It’s good to know that two of the best storytellers in games are thinking about how to correct this issue.

The interviewer brings up The Last of Us as an example where the killing matches the tone of the game. He says it feels like “every single fight is a life and death struggle. It matches.” Hennig agrees and bring it back to what they said about genre and how genre is important in these decisions. She points out that there isn’t really a good answer right now but it’s something that they, as creators, are aware of and want to try and improve upon. I’m glad to hear that there are creators that aren’t satisfied with the status-quo. It’s good to know that they want to get to the point where we can enjoy a game like Tomb Raider or Uncharted and not feel like a mass murderer after the credits roll.

Raymond has an interesting anecdote about her time working on The Sims. She mentions that when she was at EA working on that game, the team did a lot of research into how players where playing the game and why they were making those choices. She mentions that some people were playing the game to “role-play American life and American values.” I find this interesting but it makes sense to me. America is definitely the dominant culture in games and I haven’t thought much about how that is seen by non-American players. Of course, I know that there is a lot of discussion about the need for more variety in the stories told in gaming. I love watching foreign TV and films because it gives me a glimpse into being a part of a different culture. It is important to see media from one’s own culture but it is also important to feel like an outsider sometimes as well.

At the end of the article, the talk moves to the Star Wars projects. Hennig does most of the talking during this part and Raymond is quiet throughout. Hennig talks about enjoying the constraints of working in another person’s playground. The universe of Star Wars is huge but there is a lot of room to move around. She is a huge fan of Star Wars and she seems excited to make something unique within that world. She mentions that writing on a blank slate can be paralyzing at times and that writing a story within the Star Wars framework is exciting. She pushes back on the idea that working with Disney, the Star Wars people, and EA is like having too many people in the kitchen. It seems like she enjoys that kind of collaboration and we can see that with her new role in Hollywood she moved even farther toward that kind of work.

I found this interview very interesting as a writer and as a person interested in storytelling in general. I have always loved video games and have always believed myself to be more interested in the stories of the games than the actual gameplay. It’s great to hear two of the principal creative minds in the industry talk about what they do and how much hope they have for the genre going forward.

Categories
Blog

Finally a Holiday Off

I’m not really sure how to respond to this article about GameStop employees having Thanksgiving off. GameStop is just follow the lead of retailers like Target and Wal-Mart but they are in a very different position than those other retailers. I think it is a smart thing to do but it’s a complicated decision for all involved.

Come back tomorrow

GameStop has been at the precipice of bankruptcy for a few years now. It seems like a month doesn’t go by without some news snippet about them shutting down stores or laying off workers. For GameStop, the business, it is not good news that they will have to delay their door-buster sales for a day.

Talk about super spreaders

When I think about the workers, it’s a different story. With the threat of Covid 19, many workers are worried about their safety and the safety of their family members. So, taking one of the busiest days of the year off is a responsible thing to do for the health of employees and customers alike.

I’m sure there are a lot of GameStop employees who love the idea of spending time with their family on Thanksgiving or even just having a day off to play games. But, unlike salaried employees, GameStop employees at stores don’t get paid holidays. For these people, who are living paycheck to paycheck, they are losing a day of work. Worse yet they are losing a day where they would have been paid time-and-a-half. That is a significant loss to their paychecks.

It is a complicated issue and there are a lot of reason why closing the stores outweigh the reasons for keeping them open. At least we know there will be more people online to play games with on Thanksgiving, unless some asshats plan a DDoS attack on that day.

Categories
Blog

PlayStation 5 is Making Some Tweaks to It’s Menu

It’s been announced recently that Sony has made some changes to their PlayStation Store as well as a big overhaul of their UX. Today, Senior Vice President of Platform Planning & Management, Hideaki Nishino announced some of those changes in a video posed to YouTube.

Things are looking good with the new PS5.

For those of us who have never been fans of the cross-media bar, it seems we will have to continue to live with it for the time being. I do like that they have split the games and media into two different realms. I always thought the apps area on the PS4 wasn’t very well planned out and slow.

Cards are the new hottness

The biggest feature that they talked about were the cards. The cards look really helpful. I love the idea of including time to completion on different activities in game. These companies are compiling infinite amounts of data on how we as players play, I am happy that they are now turning that data into something that is useful to us.

The potential of including guides from developers is huge. I’m not sure if this is something developers will need to put together themselves or if they could just use the information from the community. I’m sure that would take the pressure off of the developers and allow the community to make their own guides. People could up-vote the most helpful guides and those would be the featured guides. I’m sure there is potential for penises which may be the reason for making this a walled garden. I worry that if it’s just left up to the developers to implement these guides that the feature will be a wasteland before too long.

The sharing functionality hasn’t changed that much at first glance. I’m sure that I will use it about as much as I use it now.

I am glad that they are including voice support in the UX with a microphone in the controller. I use voice support on my phone and it has become invaluable so I can see how it could increase my use of the message system in the PlayStation community.

PlayStation will include the ability to pin media to corners of the players screen so they can watch their friends streams. The Xbox One included the One Guide which allowed players to view Netflix or other apps in a small window on one end of the screen.

White is not the new black

Sony has revealed the last piece of the puzzle and I think convinced a lot of people to make a PlayStation purchase. The new UX has plenty of other secrets for us but we’ll probably have to wait for November 12th when the PlayStation 5 debuts.

Categories
Blog

TikToker Takes Responsibility for Pokemon Branding Kerfuffle

It is sad that I find a person taking responsibility for making a mistake newsworthy but the fact is that in our increasingly selfish society it is newsworthy.

Pokeprincxss, who has rebranded to Digitalprincxss, has changed her handle, taken down merchandise that infringes upon Nintendo intellectual property, started paying back the money she has already made off her merch, and taken responsibility for having made a mistake.

We live in a society where businesses and people don’t take responsibility for anything they have done; whether it is pumping prescription drugs into every small town across the country, poisoning the water of a whole city, or having a hit and run with a small child. It’s not a new thing that people don’t want to take responsibility for that which may get them into trouble but we also don’t see very many people or businesses taking responsibility for their actions.

Nintendo issued her a cease and desist order and I’m sure she has been able to work with them to figure out the best way to correct this mistake. It is the use of the word mistake that makes me so proud that she has done this.

Speaking with Kotaku, she adds “I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to play the victim in the situation, and only hope to be somebody people can learn from and not make the same mistakes I did.”

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-goes-after-adult-tiktok-influencer-over-pokemo-1845351446

I’m sure she has been financially hurt by this but it may also bring more people to her TikTok and OnlyFans pages. I hope Digitalprincxss is able to turn this into something good for herself because in my opinion she needs to be praised.

Categories
Blog

Parsec – Add Ubiquitous Star Wars Reference Here

I’m a little late to the Parsec party it seems. I just heard about this service recently and I tried it out this weekend and I’m impressed with what I saw. By all accounts, it seems like they have done the impossible and brought latency down to an almost imperceptible number for both users and game creators. Parsec might be the key to making cloud gaming mainstream.

One night while on a hacker forum, Parsec’s founder learned about a new way of bringing down latency by using only the GPU. They set out to try it themselves. In the beginning, the latency was still not good enough for twitch shooters and fighting games but as they continued to work on it and were able to get the latency down to under 10/ms. Of course, once we start adding in networks, home routers, and so many other kinds of things that number doesn’t stay that low but it seems that Parsec is the real deal and they have made something that works right now. Video game developers started taking notice of Parsec because of what they have been able to produce.

In early August it was announced that Ubisoft would be partnering with Parsec for a long term deal. Parsec was able to ingratiate themselves with Ubisoft after they helped power their demos for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion for over 1,000 media professionals. The demos must have gone well because Ubisoft seems to be teaming up with Parsec for the long haul. It doesn’t hurt that, as a platform holder with a new gaming service Uplay+, Ubisoft wants to throw their hat into the ever-growing pool of cloud based companies.

Cloud gaming is here to stay. It seems like every company is stepping into the ring to show off a bit of what they have in store. Google’s Stadia didn’t start well but cloud gaming isn’t something that we need right now, it’s something we’ll need in a few years and companies need to be getting it right for when that happens.

Amazon Luna is poised to launch soon and I’m sure that they are watching this very closely since Parsec is using Amazon Web Services to host their technology. Microsoft has X-Cloud and PlayStation has their PlayStation Now (Gaikai) service. Each of those companies may be wondering if Parsec can make the same magic happen using Microsoft Azure. Both of those services are using Azure for their cloud based services.

Parsec has split their business two ways that may be very beneficial. First, they are going after the content producers like Ubisoft to show off how those companies can’t live without Parsec. Game makers can add Parsec’s SDK to their games. Second, they are also going after the users, people playing at home with their friends, right now with their app. Video game players can use that app to play in a lag-free environment with friends or even with matched players.

The app gives players a way to play co-op games with very low latency. One person starts a game as a host and then someone joins that game. I tried the service out and here is what I have to report.

I tried running Burnout Paradise from my friend’s computer. I live in Japan and he lives in Omaha, Nebraska. The video had a lot of artifacting, the audio levels were going in and out at a specific interval of every second or so, and the gameplay was perceptively lagged. I ended up quitting pretty quickly after having gotten it booted up because it wasn’t a great experience.

The next game that I tried was King of Fighters. This time I started it up and let my friend share with me. We were both able to get things running and he said that the game did not look bad on his end. The lag was a lot better for that game.

I will say that I have a 2GB connection and he has a 500mb connection. There was also an ocean of distance between us and have the distance across the United States. But, after factoring all of that nonsense in I still think that Parsec has done something amazing for streaming. I will do some more testing this week and I’ll either update this article or write another one with my thoughts on the service.

The name Parsec is being spoken with near-godlike reverence when it comes to playing games online. That means whenever one of these companies ends up swooping up Parsec, that company is going to be purchasing some very good word-of-mouth from users but also names like Ubisoft, Samsung, and HP who have also used their technology. I’m excited to see how fast cloud gaming can become and it looks like Parsec might be one of the companies who brings us to the finish line.

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out 07/10/2020

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out! 07/04/2020

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out! 06/27/2020

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out! 06/19/2020

Categories
Blog

SNK is Bringing More NeoGeo Pocket Color Games to the Switch This Summer

SNK announced that it would be adding to it’s stable of NeoGeo Pocket Color games on the Switch. At the end of April they made SNK Gals’ Fighters the first game in their new line of emulated NeoGeo Pocket Color games for the Nintendo Switch. The new product line is called NEOGEO POCKET COLOR SELECTION.

SNK announced that two new games would be coming this summer. King of Fighters R-2 and Samurai Showdown 2 will be added to NEOGEO POCKET COLOR SELECTION.

Samurai Showdown 2 was already given away to some people who purchased the new retail Samurai Showdown game for the Switch. This summer everyone will have the opportunity to get their hands on that game.

Some players will remember King of Fighters R-2 for it’s connection with the Dreamcast. The NeoGeo Pocket Color could be linked with the Dreamcast using a special cable for use in King of Fighters ’99 Dream Match for the Dreamcast. A novelty for the time and a peculiarity even now.

SNK Gals’ Fighters was released on the Nintendo eShop for $7.99 so we can expect similar prices for the KoF R2 and Samurai Showdown 2.

The games will also feature local co-op play in both docked and undocked modes.

https://www.famitsu.com/news/202006/24200882.html

Categories
Blog

A Noob is Back: The Bali Major

I decided to catch up with Dota 2 during the Bali Major this year. It has been five years since I’ve watched Dota. (It’s been even longer since I played it.) I’ve really been enjoying Dota again. Here are some of the things I’ve noticed.

First, the game has totally changed. I guess it’s normal that an ongoing game changes but the amount of changes that has happened in Dota is staggering.

The biggest change are changes to the map. The lanes are huge now. In the past, the lanes were narrow and they were confined. The trees are much more sparse especially in the jungles.

Another big change is that there is a warp that goes from the off-lane jungle to the safe-lane jungle. I’m trying to understand how the pros are utilizing this warp. It seems like it is used after killing Roshan.

Roshan is another change that has been made. Roshan used to be located in the river but now there are two spots where Roshan spawns in the safe-lanes. I’m still not sure if he spawns in both or if it’s only in one. I’m not an expert and I have done zero research into these changes.

There are also some objective “fountains” located throughout the map. It takes a moment for the hero to do the objective and they get something from the objective. I am not 100% sure how these work.

Gems have also changed a bit. They seem to spawn in the river as they always have but there are some other spawn points.

The last change that I can think of, remember this is coming from a self-proclaimed amateur who has been away from things for some time; there are some new heroes.

It is cool to see new heroes. One of them rolls up into a ball and it’s a swashbuckler. There is a lizard that grabs a hero and slams them into the ground like Hulk did to Loki. There are others but I haven’t gotten a good idea of what powers they have because as I have only been watching streams for about a week.

I’ve been really digging the teams and the casters for the Bali Major. Dota has gone through some tectonic shifts in the last few years not only because of the version upgrades but the community has changed as well.

I feel like the community is strong. Is it as strong as it once was? I don’t think so but I still think that Dota has a strong community and the game is well made enough to withstand the test of time.

Categories
Blog

Halo Infinite’s Drag on a Dime

It was announced last week that Halo Infinite’s cosmetics would be getting some reduced pricing. 343 Industries has heard the outcry from fans and starting, January 18, prices for cosmetics and microtransactions would be reduced in the in-game store.

Slayer, girl, SLAYER!!

The news was posted to Twitter by 343’s head of design Jerry Hook. He announced there would be other changes to the store besides price reductions, like “providing stronger values in our bundles, starting to put individual items outside of bundles, and more.”

I was excited to see that they will be splitting items from the bundles so each item can be purchased individually. I think this is a great addition because I bought the cat bundle a few weeks ago and I wasn’t happy with the armor coloring that came with it. I mainly wanted the cat ears but the gun charms were also good too. It’s good that they are going to give the player more ways to purchase stuff in the store.

Hook added, “We will be trying new things throughout the rest of the season so that we can continue to learn and improve for the future.”

It is heartening that the team at 343 are using this first season as a sort of beta period. It’s good that they are throwing somethings at the wall to see what sticks. It is a difficult balance for any team because the community wants everything for free but the dev team and their publisher want to try and make some money off of the whole endeavor.

Later in the replies to the tweet, a user mentioned that 343 wouldn’t need to lower prices if there were a free way to earn the currency used in the in-game store. Hook replied that the studio should be looking into doing both.

I have never felt that in-game cosmetics needed to be cheaper because they just aren’t that important to me. I have always played service based games with the idea that I am never going to have everything.

I was recently in the Halo Discord and this debate was raging. There were people speaking to both sides of the issue but it’s always hard to debate against the idea that everything should be free all the time.

I hope that 343 is able to keep tweaking things to keep people interested in their game. I have been having an awesome time with the game. Like most people, I have some issues but overall I have been having a lot of fun playing Halo again.

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out! 06/13/2020

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out! 06/05/2020

Categories
Famitsu: Check It Out!

Famitsu: Check It Out! 05/30/2020

Categories
Footage-cast

Footage-cast – Astroneer Part 1