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The Red Ring Strikes

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Just as I was getting back into GTA IV in a big way over the past few nights, my Xbox 360 Elite red ringed today.  It started with freezing and white vertical artifacts.  They were lines of a sort.  The 360 froze every time I booted it, but no red rings.  For a while I wasn’t getting any ring at all.  Once I unplugged the power and plugged it back in I got the red ring.

Microsoft’s online return website was easy to use.  I just registered the console and picked the option to have a box sent.  No muss no fuss.  Now I just have to wait for the box and the transfer to happen.

I didn’t expect to ever get the red ring.  My console is about 15 months old from the time of purchase (it is about 30 months since the manufacture date).  The console hasn’t had any prior problems.  I’d also heard anecdotally that Elites seemed to have less red ring problems.  It was probably just the case that there were less Elites out there to red ring so you don’t hear about them as much.  I can dream of getting a Jasper Elite as an exchange, but it’s doubtful.  I don’t think any have been found in the wild yet.

Now to figure out what I want to play on my PS3 or PC.  Maybe I’ll finally play through Crisis Core on the PSP.  My library is feeling very 360 slanted all of a sudden.

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My Top 5 Most Anticipated Games

Monday, February 16th, 2009

I was inspired by Gamespy’s editor’s lists of top 5 most anticipated.  You can click next on the bottom to see each of the contributor’s lists.  I was surprised how different each of them was until I tried to put together my own list.  There are tons of good games scheduled for this year.  With no further adieu, here is my list:

1) Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams
2) Diablo III
3) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
4) Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 2
5) God of War III

Honorable Mention – Star Wars: The Old Republic

Cautiously Optimistic – Batman:  Arkham Asylum

Everything on my list is currently a day of full price purchase.  Key observation #1, everything on the list is a sequel.  I’m a skeptic at heart and I put a lot more stock in what the developers have proven rather than what they promise.  That said, I am expecting some top quality titles out of the various new IPs this year.  I just don’t know which ones will hit the mark far enough in advance to have high expectations for them now.

Now some further commentary:

Bioshock 2 – I know I’m setting myself up to be disappointed here.  My expectations are sky high for this title.  I can’t tell how many articles I’ve read that point out Ken Levine’s lack of involvement.  I’m not entirely sure how true that is.  The core group in 2K Marin was essentially formed out of key members of the Bioshock team.  The group essentially mentored under Levine.  You don’t think they have conversations about what they are doing and how it fits into the world he created?  Bioshock was one of my favorite titles of all time.  The team wasn’t boxed in by any parameters and were able to create a tight game and compelling narrative.  I expect the next Bioshock to be technically successful but I have real concerns about what the narrative will be.  The biggest concerns I have are polish and story.  I hope they don’t end up having to rush things.

Diablo III - I sunk a ridiculous amount of time into Diablo II.  The combination of RPG and fantasy elements appealed to me from the start.  The first Diablo was ground-breaking in its time.  There has been a groundswell of concern about the art direction on the newest title which I feel is entirely unwarranted.   I don’t want the color pallets for all of my games to be dipped in muck.  The Gears of War’s style color schemes are just too dark and boring.  My biggest concern is around the inclusion of the Paladin class.  There hasn’t been an announcement yet.   I always pick the Paladin.

Star Wars:  The Old Republic – I can’t wait to see what Bioware does with this.  I posted at the time of the EA acquisition that I though this game was the reason for the purchase.  Based on the highly successful KOTOR game, this title.  If anyone can challenge World of Warcraft, it’s the Jedi.

Batman:  Arkham Asylum – What a PR campaign.  The team promoting the new Batman game has the blogs whipped up into a frenzy.  The screenshots look great and all of the blogs are saying positive things.  The commentary and screenshots so far give the impression of a Bioshock-like tone to the game.  We are seeing the first crop of games to be influence by the top quality 2007 titles.  Batman is coming from an unproven studio, but I’m cautiously optimistic based on everything I’ve heard.

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COD: World at War…Something’s Missing

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4:  Modern Warfare is one of the best games of all time.  All of the sales have been well warranted.  With a compelling 6 hour solo campaign and a well honed multi-player with player progression built in, the game was destined to be a classic. Based on Activision’s franchise model, it was certain that we would see another version of COD from Treyarch on the off-year.

Treyarch’s COD3 left a bit of a bad taste in players mouths as the quality level fell from what players saw in Infinity Ward’s COD2.  Treyarch points out, and rightfully so, that they had to complete COD3 on an overly compressed time frame.  From what I have read, it sounds like one Activision was sure that COD2 was going to  be successful, they kicked COD3 into production for the following year.  That gave Treyarch half the time (1 year vs 2) that they would normally have expected to complete a next gen title.  Even with a bit of help from Infinity Ward’s tech, matching the prior title’s quality level was still a tall order.

COD: World at War is Treyarch’s first full-production cycle attempt in the series.  Activision knew well in advance that they would release another COD before Modern Warfare was released.  So how did World at War fare?

From a sales standpoint the title has done exceptionally well.  That is for two reasons.  First, it is a sequel to the extremely successful COD4 and second that it is a solid effort.  From a review standpoint, the title has scored in the mid to low 80s.

Dramatic Effect or Simply Brutality?

Treyarch tried to learn from what Infinity Ward did with COD4.  Treyarch attempted to intersperse powerful scenes of war for dramatic effect.  The problem is that those scenes just didn’t come off quite right.   The power in the shooting squad and nuclear explosion scene from COD4 were just not matched in what effectively amounted to brutality scenes within World at War.  None of it was bad, it just wasn’t quite right.

Modern Warfare vs WWII

This one isn’t Treyarch’s fault.  I’ve read a lot lately about how tired people are with the WWII theater and killing Nazis.  I initially rejected that idea.  If a game is fun and innovative, the particular setting isn’t really important.  Wrong.  After playing COD4, I didn’t want to go back.  I found myself longing for the updated weapon technology.  I missed the current day weaponry.   The incorporated imprecision in the WWII weapons really bothered me.   It’s very noticeable in the bonus zombie level.  Since the enemies are trying to claw you at close range rather than shoot at you from a distance, the lack of accuracy from the weapons is really noticeable.

The one thing that the WWII setting gives developers is a built in effective story.  Striking out into an “alternate reality” like COD4 did requires the developer to construct an effective story.  It’s better to use WWII than have a bad modern warfare story.

Bugs and Polish

The area that Treyarch fell off the most is bugs and polish.  In no particular order I had the following issues:

  • NPCs walking through tanks
  • Dying bug that required me to reset
  • “Cheap” grenades that seem dropped in (Destructoid thought the same)
  • Obvious infinite re-spawning enemies
  • Nearly broken final level (Reichstag)

The NPC and dying bugs should have been caught in QA somewhere along the way.  The cheap grenades and infinite re-spawning enemies feel like a developer cheat to prevent characters from intelligently taking cover and picking off all the enemies.

The last level (Reichstag) is nearly broken due to a ridiculous inconsistency in design.  The storming of the Reichstag up to the front steps is fraught with tons of the cheap grenades and re-spawning enemies issues.  I can deal with it to a degree as it shouldn’t be easy to storm the enemy’s base.  It just feels like you are restarting repeatedly to hopefully pick exactly the right path to pass through.  The steps of the Reichstag is one of the worst designed game segments I’ve ever seen.  You need to shoot the enemies hiding behind the pillars so that one of the pillars falls and opens the way.  I had to look up what needed to happen after spending a long time trying to figure out how to do it myself.  If you look it up on google, you’ll see tons of questions and answers about it.  Following dying repeatedly on my way into the Reichstag, you get a section where you walk over and pick up a sniper rifle in the main hall and basically kill everything that moves with no repercussions whatsoever.  No one shoots at you at all, there are no counter-snipers, and no one even tries to find you.

Overall

If you haven’t played COD4 yet, shame on you.  That title should be picked up well before playing this one.  I can’t recommend World at War as a full price pickup.  I bought it on a $39.99 Best Buy sale.   $30-$40 feels about right for the title.

I just can’t shake the feeling that Activision needs to find a way to fold the entire COD franchise into Infinity Ward so that they same main team is giving oversight to the titles.  World at War’s problems are mostly story and polish which I think Infinity Ward’s management would help greatly.  The real question is whether Infinity Ward’s management wants to do two titles at once and and risk diluting their impact on the each.  Either that or Activision doesn’t want to depend on one studio alone to continue the franchise.

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2008 Game of the Year

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

I always have to delay my game of the year consideration until I have had a chance to play the great crop of games that comes out right around Christmas time.  This year I had the opportunity to vote in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.

The nominees for game of the year were:

  • Fallout 3
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Left4Dead
  • LittleBigPlanet
  • Metal Fear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

After playing each of the games I have to give my game of the year vote to Metal Gear Solid 4.  Every one of the games on the list has pushed video gaming forward in its own way.  I strongly considered Left4Dead because of the AI director innovation and how well put together the experience is.  I also considered LittleBigPlanet for the astonishing move forward in user-created content.  Ultimately though, I could not pick anything other than Metal Gear Solid 4.

My preferences tend toward whichever game is the most engrossing and immersive.  MGS4 was the game that hit that target the hardest.  The visuals were jaw-dropping throughout the game.  No other game this year, or possibly ever, did such a great job of making you feel what the main character was feeling.  I didn’t even care about the long cut-scenes until the very end.  The cut scene during the credits is very long and slow and the player has had enough by that point.

I put 40 hours into Fallout 3 this year, but never found myself as engrossed as I did in MGS4.  I never found myself up at 1-2am playing Fallout.  MGS4 was the only game that kept me engrossed until the early morning hours this year.  The most amazing part is that I have never really been a fan of the Metal Gear series.  Outside of the original Metal Gear Solid, I never put a lot of time into any of the games.  I never expected to like the game as much as I did.

If you have a PS3 you owe it to yourself to play Metal Gear Solid 4.  It is the best game of 2008.

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Wow Queue Frustration

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Imagine a game that has people so commited that they will wait 30 minutes in line to start playing.  That game is the wildly successful World of Warcraft.  Around Christmas time, when there is a spike in the number of new users who receive the game as a gift, everyone also seems to be home from work all the time.  This results in a huge spike in users and a queue to get onto most servers.  Servers that normally have no wait whatsoever spike to a half an hour or more.  People will wait in the queue and still play.  It’s fascinating.  Worst of all, I can’t say haven’t waited for it…

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Fallout 3 PC has Xbox Achievements

Friday, October 31st, 2008

One of the reasons I considered getting the Xbox version over the PC version was because I’m not above the Pavlovian attachment to Xbox Live achievement.  Good news!  The PC version has them.  Since Fallout 3 was lead developed on the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live for Windows is now free, the PC version allows you to get exactly the same achievements.

A couple of quick notes:

You need to activate the live features.  Select “Live” from the menu screen before you start playing.  If you do it during a game, it will end your game without saving it.  That is a total pain.  Also, if you activate live after you start playing you won’t be able to see your save games any more when logged in, only when logged out, which won’t give you any achievements.

There is a fix for finding your save games.  Go to the My Games folder in My documents.  Find the Fallout 3 folder and copy your save games from the default directory into the one that has your Xbox Live user id.  Now you should be able to log in and see them.  Your achievements will not be retroactive.  Luckily I really only need to replay the vault section to get what I missed.

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Steam Pre-order of Fallout 3 Doesn’t Seem So Bright

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

After doing some research on Fallout 3, I decided to go for the PC version for two reasons

  • An active modding community exists that will likely extend the game after the SDK is released
  • My computer is more powerful than my 360 or PS3 so it can display the graphics better

An extra bonus was that the game is $10 cheaper for the PC, but that is offset by the fact that it can’t be resold.  Originally, I pre-ordered the game from Amazon, but last week the game showed up on Steam and I cancelled my preorder.  I placed an order on Steam instead because I prefer to never have to keep track of the discs or put them in the drive.  I can always just re-download from Steam if I ever want to install it.  I like that.

The problems

Steam is taking forever to tranfer the files to me.  The game didn’t pre-load!  I didn’t think the download would be a huge issue over cable modem.  I can’t remember the last time downloading something other than a high definition movie was an issue.  It has been hours of downloading now and it still isn’t done.  Release day delivery from Amazon would have gotten here faster.  Valve really needs to consider adding bit-torrent like P2P capability to their network for major releases like this.

It isn’t steam’s fault, but I’m starting to get a bit worried about the PC version.  A quick scan of the forum thread about Fallout 3 on Gamerswithjobs.com shows that lots of people are having problems and the PC release may be buggy.

I’m wondering a bit now whether the 360 version was the better way to go.  There is something to be said for ease of use.  We’ll see once I finally get to play the game.

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Big Changes

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

I’ve failed to post now for nearly two months. In the interim, much has happened. I finished a major project for my previous employer and moved to take a new job in the video game industry. It is a move that I contemplated for a long time. Last weekend I moved to California and subsequently started at the new job.

One obvious limitation on future posts is that there are things I can’t or won’t be able to discuss on video games related to my position and inside industry knowledge. I’m just glad to be able to be say that I will potentially have inside industry information.

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The Right Length For $60 Video Games

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

Warren Spector doesn’t think that 100 hour games make a lot of sense, and I agree with him.  Over the last year or so, I’ve thought a lot about the right length for games.  My viewpoint is obviously influenced by my demographics.  For the nearly 30 year old set with family, free time is at a more substantial premium than for high school or college age individuals.  That said, the reality of the gaming market is that the average player age is in their late 20s.  The largest proportion of the market holds full time jobs and has other commitments.  For that reason, as Warren said, very few people will ever finish a long game.  That is a waste of development money.  If you spend 15-20 hours on a game and feel that you’ve gotten your money’s worth, the developer wasted money on the additional content after that.

The real question is where consumer’s feel that they’ve gotten their money’s worth from the developer.  I have an easy answer – 10 hours.  Why?  That was the length of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  I absolutely felt the game was worth every penny and it was just about the right length.  I should be able to finish a game in under a couple of weeks playing in the evenings.  A game like Bioshock that stretches closer to 20 hours is even more value for the money.  If the game had been a bit shorter, it wouldn’t have substantially impacted my evaluation of it.  Although I will take as much Bioshock as I can get.  Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed both clocked in at the 15-20 hour range.  Both games had substantially more content, but I wasn’t inclined to invest 15-20 more hours with the secondary material.

Grand Theft Auto IV is a game that I am unlikely to ever play through as Warren said.  The 60-70 hours minimum of game time is something I’m unlikely to find time to devote.  There are games like Call of Duty 4 that clock in at a sub-standard but exceptional 6 hours.  When the deep multi-player experience is considered, the game certainly meets the 10 hour threshold.

For my money, a $60 game should have 10-20 hours of great game play, no more and no less.  A developer who wants to make a substantially longer game should consider whether shortening the development cycle and making a better, shorter game is more sensible.

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World of Warcraft – After The Trial Period

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Buying the Game

As if there was any doubt, I ended up purchasing World of Warcraft when my trial subscription ended. For $19.99 with a free month, it is a better deal than paying $19.99 for the retail box that only comes with a 14 day trial. The Battlechest that includes The Burning Crusade Expansion is often on sale for $29.99 at Amazon, but that also only comes with a trial. For $5 more than the monthly subscription fee I was able to get the game. I will probably buy the expansion later, since I won’t need it until level 60 unless I want to make a different character. I’m only out $5 if I opt for the Battlechest that includes the strategy guides. In a game this big, the strategy guides might be nice to have. Half the time I can’t remember where the cities they tell me to go to are. Is that Darkshire or Darkshore? It makes a difference, because they are probably 5-10 mins apart. The expansion pack alone has occasionally gone on sale for $9.99. If I can find a deal like that, I’d pick it up on its own.

Getting Additional Time

While I’m sure Blizzard would prefer you to put the automatic subscription renewal on your credit card, I’m going to recommend buying prepaid cards. In general, the price isn’t any different between the two. ($15/month) Using the online renewal might save you tax in most states. However, there are two benefits to using the prepaid card. First, you won’t forget to disable your subscription. Auto billing is a sort of set it and forget it. You probably won’t realize you are still paying for it until a while after you’ve stopped playing. Second, the retail cards sometimes go on sale. For instance, the 60-day prepaid cards are on sale right now at Circuit City for $19.99. (Until 5/17/08) I purchase two using the convenient store pick-up process. My store by work was actually out of stock today, so I’m glad I ordered in advance. Most locations still have the cards in stock as of Monday.

Total (Current) Cost

No one has ever said that World of Warcraft is cheap. The game is anything but over the long term. However, I have managed to keep it under control so far. My cost for 5 1/2 months of game play is just about $60. (2 week trial + $19.99 for the game and 30 days + $40 for 4 months of additional play time) That is the price of a comparable retail purchased console game. If I’m still playing the game at the 6 month point, I’m sure that I won’t mind paying a little bit more for some more time. Right now, I’d assume that I’ll be more than done with the game by that point and something else may come along to replace it. Then again, everyone seems very excited about the Lich King expansion. $60 or so every 6 months for a “sequel” in the form of an expansion may not be a bad model for the consumer. I’ll be interested to see if it is that much fun and if I can keep the costs that low.

The Game Itself

I’m obviously still having fun. Quest completion is addictive. I’m not someone who can schedule events at a particular time. My schedule just isn’t that reliable. However, I really enjoy the fact that I can pick up the game and put it down again in even 10 or 15 minute increments and still have fun pushing quests along. That is a real secret to success for the Blizzard formula. The multiple-enemy kills are still annoying me, though I think my character may be learning some skills now that will allow me to run away and avoid death better. It still annoys me that if I’m trying to fight against enemies around my level, I will virtually always die when I get too close to a second enemy that attacks at the same time. Really what I will need to do soon is start working together with people in a team approach. This week I’ll probably try some teaming up.

My character just reached level 20 which opens up a whole new world of arms, armor, and abilities. I’m pretty excited to check them out and continue to develop. Looks like Blizzard has me hooked for a while longer. WOW is really cutting into my GTAIV time.

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