May 2007 - Posts
Microsoft just announced some cool new technology - basically a table-sized, multi-touch input display with intuitive UI. The videos are great - I love how the table reacts when drinks are placed on it. And I'm already imagining the interesting social/trivia games you could create in a bar - imagine SceneIt! with a team at every table.
No idea how much it costs, but I'd guess this it likely targeted at "professional" applications like bar surfaces or hotel guides... at least for now. But five or ten years from now? I may be looking at my new coffee table (and music/media interface!)
So I'm curious - how do most of you get your casual games to play? Do you play primarily on the PC and use sites such as RealArcade, MSN Games, or Yahoo games? Or are you a "new generation" casual console player, and prefer getting your casual games from Live Arcade, PS3's online Store, etc? What is it about the experience of getting games that you like or dislike?
A related question is what sorts of games do you want to see that you don't currently? Are there game genres we're (as in the industry) missing that would draw in your wives, girlfriends, or non-gaming friends? Oldschool classics that would resonate with newer gamers? Companion games to large-scale MMOs that allow people to play some element of the game while on the road?
This is just something I've been mulling over for a while. Everyone "knows" casual games are huge and will be a significant driving factor of the game industry going forward. What I'm wondering is if we the industry have blinders on and are missing obvious opportunities to bring interesting technologies or concepts that could help broaden the overall market significantly (to everyone's benefit.)
Disclaimer: You should assume that any ideas discussed publicly here are just that - public. Microsoft (or anyone) might use them in product ideas. If you have some ideas that you want to keep private because you think you might do something with them yourself one day, you should not post them here.
That said, if you're ok with the above, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
A good friend of mine, N'Gai Croal, just posted an interesting discussion he had with Geoff Keighley about April's NPD report. I've known N'Gai for a long, long time now... perhaps ten years or so? We tend to disagree a great deal about certain topics, particularly Sony's strategy around the Playstation (including PS2's online "strategy" as well as almost everything about the PS3). That's led to some (sincerely) fun discussions over dinner and wine at trade shows (with hopes of many more!) That said, this time around I found that I actually agree with many of his thoughts. Take this for example:
The reason nearly a million fewer people have bought PS3s than bought PS2s during each system's first six months on the market is that at $599, the PS3 isn't as perceived to be as good a value as was the $299 PS2. At this point in the PS2's lifespan, it had the following meaningful exclusives: next-gen Madden, SSX, Onimusha, the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo with Zone of the Enders packed in, NBA Street and Medal of Honor Frontline, with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec a couple of months from release. PS3 has Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm and...what, exactly? Many of us were waiting to see how much the PS3's positives (brand strength, Blu-Ray playback, superior computing power) would offset its negatives (high price, lack of killer apps, tricky architecture, Xbox 360's lead and Nintendo simultaneous arrival) during its first six months in stores. Now we have the answer: not much.
Bravo! I completely agree! This is a bit of a shift for N'Gai as I recall him being a very strong believer in the ability of the Sony brand to sell PS3s early on (with me just not buying it.) Welcome to the light, N'Gai! 
Also in the discussion Geoff summarizes another of Sony's challenges quite well - the fact that the Xbox 360 is the lead development SKU for the vast majority of platforms. This bit us last generation with the Xbox (which is why so many multi-platform ports looked similar to the PS2). This time around the shoe is on the other foot, and developers are leading on the Xbox 360.
As to your point about third party support for the PS3, I agree that most publishers will continue to produce PS3 SKUs no matter the near-term hardware sales numbers. But programming for the PS3 is a challenge, and I'm not sure I buy Yves' suggestion that porting a 360 game to PS3 only costs 10% of the budget. (This is coming from the publisher that still hasn't shipped Rainbow Six: Vegas for the PS3 six months after it was due out.) The likelihood of ports aside, the most important trend to watch is which system publishers use as their base development platform. Sony maintains that publishers will soon switch from the 360 to the PS3, but as of yet I've seen very little evidence to support that claim. Over the past few months almost 100 percent of the third party games I've seen have been demonstrated on the 360. Will things be different at E3? For Sony's sake I sure hope so. But even if publishers port 360 games to the PS3 I don't expect the games to look any different on Sony's platform. And that's a major problem for the PS3, especially given its premium price.
Finally, there's a bit of discussion around the Wii's current impressive sales. I think I tend to agree a bit more with Geoff here as he struggles to imagine a long life-cycle for the Wii, as well as sales remaining as robust as they have been through holiday. Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii for what it is, but I (and a lot of people I know) just aren't playing it right now. We're waiting for the next round of impressive games (the "holy trinity" of Super Smash Bros Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 as Geoff puts it.) And we continue to be disappointed by the quality of game visuals.
It is worth stating that there really may be a significant crowd of gamers out there who just aren't as hardcore, and who are completely happy with the Wii as-is. But as the 360 and PS3 come down in price and broaden their portfolios to more family-friendly and crowd-engaging content, I just can't see Wii's momentum continuing. To quote Geoff again:
As for your question about Nintendo storming to first place, it's creating concern but not panic. Most of the executives I speak with still think the Wii has a shorter lifespan than the other consoles and may begin to slow down sales-wise later this year. That being said, it's hard to ignore the continued strong software sales for the Wii, including the bafflingly good sales of Wii Play. Again, I look back to those 115 million PS2 owners as the tea leaves. How many of those 115 million will decide to move to the Wii instead of the PS3 or 360? There's certainly a scenario here where Sony gets attacked on two fronts: The 360 starts to steal away the enthusiast gamer crowd that bought the PS2 in year 2 or 3 and the Wii starts to steal away the broad mainstream crowd who bought the PS2 in year 4 or 5 (and is still buying it now.) If that happens I don't know where Sony goes from here. Do you really think a $100 price drop solves any of Sony's problems? Is that disruptive event that the PS3 needs to kick it back above 150,000 a month in sales?
The whole discussion is well worth reading as it gives you some very different viewpoints. But I should again highlight that for once, I'm in more agreement with N'Gai than not. That's rare and noteworthy. I'm just not sure whether one of us owes the other dinner or not.
Care to feel old? Take a read through this great article from 1up.
I've been working in the game industry for nearly 20 years now, and I'm always startled when I realize how much older the industry is than that. Especially since when I started, video games were still very niche - either you were learning to type with Zork, or you were 8 and playing Nintendo. It's going to be interesting to look back twenty years from now when today's "video game generation" becomes tomorrow's politicians and business leaders.
The 19-inch screen flashed in waves of blue and black as two normally reserved professionals threw themselves into a competition destined for the history books. Mashing furiously at hand-wired buttons, each battled to be the first winner of a unique contest never before played by man: the contest of the videogame, seen for the first time on home televisions. In 1967, a bold engineer with a vision led a small team to create the world's first electronic games to use an ordinary television set as a medium. Wary of naysayers from within, the video mavericks sequestered themselves behind closed doors, and for good reason: They worked under the payroll of Sanders Associates, a giant Cold War defense contractor. As hippies on the streets of San Francisco stuck flowers in the barrels of guns, three men in snowy New Hampshire crafted the future of electronic entertainment deep in the heart of a commercial war machine. In May of 1967, the world's first videogames -- as we know them today -- made their quiet, humble entrance into the world.
Ubisoft recently announced that they're redoing Jordan Mechner's original Prince of Persia game and releasing it on Live Arcade with updated visuals and puzzles. I can't tell you how much I loved playing the Apple II and PC versions of this game when I was growing up. It was one of the first platformers that combined exploration, combat, and puzzle solving seamlessly, as well as having some great story hooks that actually affected gameplay in a significant manner. (I'm purposely not going into details here in case you decide to play the Live Arcade version later this summer, but you can look it up if you care. For what it's worth, a similar story hook was built into the story for the first Prince of Persia game on the Xbox - great stuff!)
Below are a couple of updated screen shots, with thanks to Team Xbox.
Been biting my tongue on this one for a while, but there are some great updates and DLC coming for Crackdown! As you probably remember from a couple of posts I did on Crackdown, I loved the game but definitely was looking for new stuff to do once I finished. Well, it's coming. 
Below is a straight rip of the text from Major Nelson's post. It's worth noting he also has videos posted of the content in action, so you should definitely head over to the site and check it out!
Title Update Items (Free)
Reset Gangs: In place of the current option to reset the city’s crime (unlocked by defeating all 21 bosses), the gangs can now be completely reset in the main campaign.
Easier Orb Hunting: Imagine how great it would be if when searching for the last remaining hidden agility orbs the audio range on each of them got wider as fewer remained; well imagine no longer. Audio ”ping” range is now gradually increased when searching for the last 50 percent of hidden orbs, and 20 percent of agility orbs.
Ground Strike: Available to a four star strength agent only, it is now possible to slam downwards while airborne by holding the attack button. The resulting strike is deadly to anything it hits, with an additional shockwave stunning nearby enemies.
Improved firing over low walls: Agents can now fire downwards at a greater angle while taking partial cover behind a low wall.
Targeting enhancements: Improved target lock prioritization of enemies behind vehicles as well as live enemies over corpses.
Those damn fire hydrants!: The fire hydrants were near indestructible but were also hard to spot. Now, though still best avoided, they can be smashed over for a far less unreasonable penalty.
Stunt Ring Visibility: Stunt Rings are now much easier to locate.
No “Lefty Flip” on vehicle control: Removal of the lefty flip on vehicle control so that left-handed players can aim with the left stick, but still steer with the right stick.
Persisting Charges & Mines: Limpet Charges (and the new Proximity Mines) will persist at all times within the game world and not just when within a certain range of the player.
Distant Explosions: No matter where the explosion(s), players will be able to see them provided they have a line of sight… it’s always a clear day in Pacific City!
Ramp Truck Issues: Some vehicles didn’t seem to get on well with the ramp truck, but we never intended this to be a SUV-only toy. Now none of them can get enough of it!
Camera Enhancements: Better camera for performing vehicle stunts or driving on near vertical surfaces (particularly with Top Level Agency SUV or new Peacekeeper Buggy). Also vertigo-inducing tweaks for those long leaps of faith.
Player to player precision shots: We’ve dropped the PvP lock-on but now another agent can be hit with a head or leg shot using normal targeting.
“Free-For-All Pack” Downloadable Content (Free) :
Keys to the City: The ultimate Cheat Mode! Enter this mirror of the main Campaign for a clean-slate game that can be fully exploited and customized for a single play session. (Note: Achievements and leaderboards will be disabled in this mode)
- Build a pile of 100 explosive drums at the top of the Agency Tower – then let it rip!
- Spawn a ramp truck anywhere, and it’ll stay there
- Create an agency vehicle or one of the new Peacekeeper vehicles any time, any place
- Players can set character skills however they want them, or just activate the accelerated skill leveling feature (“Crackdown” demo anyone?)
- Check out “Super Agent Agility” to jump ridiculous distances, swim faster than a torpedo and sprint faster than a speeding bullet (almost)
- Try the “Super Agent Strength” to toss a truck with deadly accuracy further than ever dreamt. Boot enemies into the stratosphere!
- Get the most out of the exciting selection of new weaponry by activating infinite ammo. Max out the selection at each supply point too!
- Do all of this without skipping a beat of the action – the pop-up cheat menu is always available during play without pausing the game
Vehicle Impounding: The Agency Garage has been given an overhaul; this was partly to accommodate the brand new Peacekeeper Vehicles, but also to allow Agents to impound their favorites so that they’re always available…in their preferred color.
- Impounding is simple: commandeer the vehicle and return it to the garage
- Vehicles that aren’t yet impounded are displayed as feint images, so players can see at a glance what’s missing from their collection
- The “Confiscator” achievement awaits those who simply had to catch ‘em all
Co-op Trophy sequences: A trophy emblazoned with my gamertag that is displayed for me and my opponent every time I win at the existing game types!? Yes please!
Psychotic Mission Trials
§ A record is now kept of Time Trials completed at “Psychotic” difficulty
§ Scoring the maximum 21/21 isn’t just the ultimate challenge that every true Agent of Justice should have the stones to take on, but it’s also the only way to unlock the highly coveted “Psych Out” Achievement
“Getting’ Busy Bonus Pack” Premium Downloadable Content (800 Points)
New Vehicles:
Agency Buggy:
- Double wishbone suspension absorbs the bumps in spectacular fashion
- Rides over anything – even when scaling near vertical surfaces
- Insane air control
- Roof mounted, independently aiming mini-gun activated with either “B” or “Left Bumper”
Agency Racecar:
- Ridiculously powerful mono-cockpit race car
- Acceleration that blows away everything else in the city
- Incredible grip and top speed
- Those road race leaderboard times are set to tumble!
Agency Armored Vehicle
- Like the Agency Truck, the AAV can smash through barricades with ease
- Tank-like in design, occupants are completely protected from assault
- Surprisingly fast and agile for its size
- Rockets fired from independently aiming main turret with either “B” or “Left Bumper”
Street Racing: Pacific City is finally free from crime. Agency activity is once again concealed behind closed doors. The remaining peacekeepers, having very little to do, quickly grew restless. To satisfy their lingering lust for danger, high risk Street Racing tournaments have been established across the city.
- Compete in six different on and off road races across the city
- 6 radically different vehicle options per circuit
- Race against up to 11 other “do or die” opponents, including another player over XBL
- Compare fastest race times as well as race wins for that session with your co-op “buddy”
- Players can post their fastest time per circuit to the online leaderboards
- Take advantage of the world of “Crackdown” to win by any means necessary: create road blocks, hit gas tanks, or simply slam opponents into submission
New Equipment
MSK Lobber
- Mini rockets are thrown out from the rotating muzzle section before their boosters ignite and swarm towards their target.
- The homing mini-rockets are incredibly agile making this the ultimate fire-and-forget weapon
EX1 “Proximity Charge”
- Similar to the standard issue “Limpet Charge,” these can be attached to any surface.
- A visible local field is generated when the charge is set. Enemy penetration of this field will result in detonation
- In a bid to reduce the extensive civilian casualties lying in the wake of any crime fighting Agent, intelligent threat-sensing technology prevents the charge from detonating when a firearm is not detected
- Unfortunately the technology isn’t quite intelligent enough to prevent detonation due to field penetration by another Agent
HRX “Harpoon”
- A powerful gas powered mechanism capable of launching a deadly, razor-sharp spear over large distances with incredible accuracy
- Can be used to ensure enemies “stick around” when players need them to, or to attach perps to their vehicle if they need to take them downtown…or around town
MZ360 “Mini-Gun”
- The ultimate fast-firing projectile weapon
- “Spin-up” to full fire rate takes some time, but the devastation is incredible
- Comes with a bountiful supply of high-caliber ammunition
VS1 “Cloaking Device”
- The perfect device for the Agent that likes his action served psychotic, or for anyone that just needs to get under the radar from time to time
- Renders the player barely visible and off radar
- The VS1 is fuelled by Agency suit armor; when depleted an Agent can find themselves distressingly vulnerable
New Game Types
- Compete solo or with two players in races across the city rooftops
- Nine new races in total, each with its own solo & co-op leaderboards
- Four are with Los Muertos, three with The Volk, and The Shai-Gen play host to the remaining two
- And no, gamers won’t need to complete these too for the existing “Over Our Heads” Achievement!
- Each district (including Agency Island) hosts a Stockpile game – clearly identified with its unique beacon
- Stockpile can be played solo or in co-op
- The aim is to collect all the game specific orbs (also marked on the tracker) in the fastest time
- Best times are uploaded to the online leaderboards
- Two players can work co-operatively to find all the orbs in the fastest possible time, or simply compete for the highest score when the time runs out
- In the case of competitive play, it doesn’t always pay to do the grunt work of collection; when an Agent is killed he drops a third of his spoils
- A highly addictive two-player competitive game that makes the very most of the world of “Crackdown”
- The game can only be initiated in one place – the Agency Garage
- A random target destination is identified somewhere on the city, but is only marked on the tracker (not the map)
- The first person to reach the destination gains a point and activates the next checkpoint
- The winner is the first to 10 points
- Other than that, Checkpoint Chase has no rules!
- The ultimate competitive combat event!
- Each of the 21 gang boss lairs now also plays host to a game of Rocket Tag
- When the game is activated the players are randomly assigned as “hunter” and “hunted”
- The hunter has a straight-shootin’ “Hotshot” rocket launcher…and more ammo than he could ever need!
- The hunted has…a pistol
- To win, the hunted player must avoid being caught in the blast of the rocket launcher for 60 seconds. Simple! J
Achievements: The new content brings with it seven new achievements (taking the overall total to a nice round 50). Let’s get one thing straight, nobody’s paying for the 100 points that were missing from the original game – and in fact we’re repaying that debt with some serious interest!
In total the download pack unlocks a whopping 350 gamerscore!
- Impound all the chosen vehicles and store them in the Agency Garage
- 40 Gamerscore
- Complete all Time Trial missions at the Psychotic Difficulty level
- 100 Gamerscore
- Complete any Stockpile mini-game in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
- 10 Gamerscore
- Complete three flips of any type in a single jump in any vehicle
- 20 Gamerscore
- Use the Harpoon gun to attach five corpses to a single vehicle
- 10 Gamerscore
- Win all Street Races using any vehicle
- 20 Gamerscore
- Win all Street Races using all available vehicles
- 150 Gamerscore
* Available with Free DLC
** Available when one player has Premium DLC
*** Available only with Premium DLC
Lots of details over at Major Nelson.
One of the cooler aspects of the update is IM integration - yes, you can now communicate with all of your Live Messenger friends! Currently most of you will need to use a USB keyboard, but I can tell you the TID (Text Input Device) is very well done and definitely adds to the experience. For now, here are a few keyboard shortcuts for IM (with thanks to Major Nelson again):
Going to sign in to Messenger:
- When you are not signed in to Messenger, pressing Windows + M will take you to the sign in screen.
Going to start a conversation:
When you are signed in but don't have any open conversations, Windows + M will take you to the Messenger screen where you can start new conversations.
Note: if you have any open conversations, Windows + M will not take you to the Messenger screen. You'll have to bring up the Guide (Windows key) and navigate to Chat->Messenger Tab.
Going into overlay mode:
- When you have any open conversations, Windows + M will bring up the overlay over whatever you are doing. You can see the last few lines of a conversation and enter a message. This is a great way to exchange quick messages while watching a movie or playing a game!
Getting out of overlay mode:
- You can dismiss the overlay the same way you brought it up, with Windows + M.
Tip: you can always get to the Guide when an overlay is up, by pressing the Guide button on your controller or the Windows key. This will dismiss the overlay and bring up the Guide
Switching between conversations in overlay mode:
- You may have more than 1 open conversation. In that case, when you bring up the overlay, you can cycle between the conversations using Ctrl + -> (right arrow key).
Tip: if you are in the overlay, exchanging messages with contact1 and you get a new message from contact2, you'll see a blinking icon that will tell you that you should cycle to that conversation to see the new message!
Note: if you are using a Mac keyboard, substitute the Apple key for the Windows key.
Finally, I've gotten lots of questions about the new video capabilities of the Spring update. Jump on over to this FAQ and you'll be well taken care of!
It's interesting to see how many folks ask me if my choice of "Ozymandias" as my gamertag or domain name refers to the Watchmen character. In actuality, I'm a reformed ex-English major and I was originally drawn to the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley - it appears that poem, in turn, inspired the creators of Watchmen (and for good reason).
I registered the domain in 1997 - almost the pre-history of the internet, really. I'm actually quite glad I did as it's amazing to see how many other people use Ozymandias as a nom de plume today - there are something like 10 "Ozymandias" variants for Gamertags alone on LIVE, and what appear to be hundreds of other similar screen names across the net.
Anyway, today I realized I had never posted or linked to the original poem. Hope you take a moment to read and enjoy it!
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Was just talking with a good friend this weekend about the Wii. He's been looking to buy one for the last few months but hasn't come across it yet. Anyway, we started talking about the games to play and what I recommended, and I suddenly realized that I'm really not even playing the Wii anymore!
The half of Zelda: Twilight Princess I played was great, but since then the only game that's gotten any real time was Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. And it's not for a lack of trying. I've rented literally every third party Wii title there is from Gamefly, and almost every single one wasn't worth playing - either due to horrible controls, or to being significantly graphically inferior to a PS3 or 360 version. (The one exception was Super Bubble Pop Bust-A-Move Bash! - the control worked quite well there, but then again, I'd expect it to considering the simplicity of the game mechanic.)
I still love the idea of the Wii, but the controls just haven't delivered as of yet. I've had concerns for a long time about their applicability to FPS titles. Those concerns are pretty well-validated at this point, and other genres seem to be having similar issues. I'm hoping Mario Galaxy or the new Metroid spark some excitement again, but I really feel like the Wii is turning into the Gamecube of this generation with amazing first-party titles, mediocre third-party title support. To be fair, it's still early, and a lot of third-parties were caught by surprise by the Wii's early success. Here's hoping the next wave of third-party titles amaze... if they don't, I really doubt the Wii will have any legs come next Spring. 
[Edit: Wrong game title - fixed.]
A friend send along a link to a great post on Wired by Clive Thompson discussing what "cheating" really means when playing video games. It highlights the differences between "cheating" when playing alone versus playing online, and particularly interesting to me, it also discusses the different types of cheaters:
A small hardcore group are die-hard purists, like my friend. They don't use any cheats or guides, because they consider it "cheating yourself" of the subtle pleasure of getting stuck in a game -- then suddenly spying the way out.
The next group is the walkthrough folks, like me. We regard guides as a form of travel literature; I'd never have located all the cool, secret areas in Final Fantasy XII without a FAQ. (In contrast, the hardcore crowd seems to relish the idea that they'll miss out on stuff, because it's part of the mystery of game.) But I almost never use cheats or manipulations of code to grant myself "unearned" power. I like the idea that if I'm born into this virtual world, I'll abide by the fictions that govern its reality.
Then there's the final group of gamers -- the "by any means necessary" crowd, as it were. Like the ancient gnostics, or like Morpheus in The Matrix, they know the world around them is just code -- and the fun is not in obeying it but mucking with it. Single-player worlds are toys, to be hacked with any available Easter eggs, exploits or hardware mods; you can't have the truly l33t experiences if you're not tricked out with sick amounts of weaponry and skillz.
I'm definitely more of a walkthrough guy, with a bit of a purist streak. Meaning I'll play the game without hints or guides until I get reasonably stuck, but then I'll look up how to get past the chokepoint and continue on without guides. Don't have enough time to beat my head on a locked door for hours - and frankly, I play games to be entertained, and not frustrated.
I also had a slew of people looking for my thoughts on the whole Sony God of War II/goat fiasco. I'm actually not going to comment on it simply because I'm personally highly offended by the whole thing. Anything I might say would end up looking like an anti-Sony rant from a "Microsoft shill" (as some like to believe). Suffice it to say it should have never happened, and that's the end of it.