Category Archives: Editorials
FIFA 12: The Pro Clubs Debate
Now, I’m a big fan of the FIFA series of games. Those of you who follow my posts and the Podcast will know that I am an avid supporter of the FIFA franchise (only once did I slip over to the Pro Evolution Soccer darkside). Every year I get excited about the prospect of a new FIFA game and what features they’ll introduce, what gameplay they’ll fix from the last game and whose ugly mug will be plastered on the front of the box. With FIFA 12 it was no different. I can sing the praises of the FIFA 12 game; I believe it is EA Sports best attempt yet at a “football simulation” and there are many promising factors about where the franchise is heading in the future in terms of gameplay. However, one minor thing still haunts me to this day. The source of many debates and hot-worded Xbox Live Messages revolve around this question, ANY or No ANY?
Personally, my Pro Club plays with an ANY (to those of you who are clueless, an ANY is a player nominated to control the rest of the team that aren’t your online friend/s). Obviously, this shows that I am in favour of people on Pro Clubs playing with an ANY. My argument for this is as follows.
- Mano-a-mano – Two teams with an ANY are going head-to-head. The ANY’s individual skill, the team’s ability to work effectively as a team and the team’s tactics go head-to-head. It’s about that sense of gladiatorial competition, the right to say that you are better than the person you are playing.
- Ridiculous AI technical ability – If you play Pro Clubs, you probably know how I feel. A team without an ANY has a striker up front. The ball is situated in their own penalty box. Said striker puts his hand up to call for the ball. A seemingly bumbling defender swivels on a six-pence and delivers a rocket of a pass, flat trajectory and all. Said striker gratefully takes the once in a lifetime pass into his stride and is on the counter attack immediately. Wash, rinse, repeat.
- The sense of being cheated - I may be the only one, but whenever my Pro Club plays a team without an ANY, Lady Luck seems to err on the side of the AI. It’s as though the AI has it’s own pride, it’s own hunger to win. So, low and behold, bounces start going against you, the referee appears to be on the opposition pay-roll, the post and crossbar start to look that little bit thicker. It’s nice that EA Sports have included this sense of having the “rub of the green” in the game, as a modern game of football does, but sometimes the coincidences stack up into an all too common occurrence, game after game.
- Inhuman reaction times – The AI has a faster processing speed than a human brain. When that ball is rolling over the line, an ANY’s brain has to process the image of the ball and then tell the correct finger to depress the correct button at exactly the right moment. The AI sits back, smokes a cigar, maybe catches up on its correspondence, knowing that it has the processing capabilities to deal with the panic. Hence in those button-bashing panics, the AI has the upper hand over the human ANY player.
- AI, Master of the defence system – The new defence system EA Sports introduced in FIFA 12 was supposed to introduce “Tactical Defending”. Basically, you were supposed to jockey the person on the ball, waiting for the precise moment to stick a foot in and take the ball from him. Every gamer had to learn a new way of playing and defending in FIFA 12. However, a team without an ANY do not have to worry about this (unless their Virtual Pro is a defender, of course). Instead, the AI, master of the new defence system, constantly maintains the optimum position to defend a situation, doesn’t react to step-overs and other flicks a human defender may react to (which would open space for the attacker), but instead sits back and thwarts carefully laid passing movements. With 5 at the back, this wall of master defenders looks nearly impossible to penetrate.
- Masters of the air – Not only does the AI have amazing defensive skills, it also has the uncanny ability to out jump even the tallest attackers, winning headers 90% of the time. Pair this with their inhuman ability to spot a pass and then make it, all in a split second, it adds up to quite a formidable counter attacking weapon.
I could go on with more reasons, but I’d end up ranting myself into an early basket case. I have thought about how EA Sports could balance the Pro Clubs game mode in a fairer way. I used to think that making a player play as an ANY in the Pro Clubs mode would solve the problem, but that would drive some players away from the game. Instead, I think a search filter option would benefit the balance of the game. This would allow clubs with an ANY to search for games with other clubs playing ANY and vice-versa, thus restoring harmony and fair competition to the Pro Clubs world. Hopefully, EA Sports will listen to the gaming public before making any decisions on FIFA 13. Who knows, they might even take away the “Be a Goalkeeper” mode. Oh well, one can dream I guess.
Review: Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer (Xbox 360)
Writing this review is hard for me, as it involves me having to eat a huge chunk of humble pie. It’s common knowledge that I hate the Mass Effect franchise and absolutely loathe the games, but something in the recently released Mass Effect 3 demo made me change my mind (and eat said pie) – multiplayer.
Whilst the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 borrows it’s genetic makeup from the Horde mode template (fight back waves of enemies with 3 of your pals) it does introduce some rather exciting and re-playable aspects that other games have not considered. Firstly, the RPG system used in the multiplayer is a great idea. Most modern multiplayer games, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield use levelling systems to keep the player hooked. What Mass Effect 3 does is allow the player not only to level up in a conventional way, but to choose in what way their character is improved (be it a quick boost to your overall shield or a power upgrade for your Singularity power). Experience points (or to you and I, XP) are earned by killing enemies, completing objectives and basically surviving the 11 rounds and getting your armoured butt out of that hell hole. XP is then spent on upgrading your powers, which differ with each class and race.
That’s another thing about the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer; you have characters, much like a conventional RPG game. Within each class category (e.g. Sentinel, Soldier, Infiltrator etc,) you have 4 different characters of different race and sex. However, you only start out with a few of these characters unlocked. With these characters, you have a few customisation options to make you stand out a little bit within your squad of 4, such as armour colour and fancy pants lights.
In terms of unlocking new characters, this is done in the same way that you come about new weaponry – unlock packs. By completing objectives in multiplayer missions you earn credits, which can then be spent in the store. The store contains unlock packs, which, when bought, give you a random set of goodies like extra ammo clips and Medi-gel (Especially good if you die often) – very much like a pack of trading cards. With a more expensive pack, there is a higher possibility of gaining rare weapons and characters. Rare weapons are obviously more effective in taking down enemies, so saving up that little bit extra to get a better unlock pack really is worth it.
The actual gameplay in the multiplayer is refreshingly different. Although it does just involve waves of enemies coming at you, with a few “search and destroy” type objectives thrown in for good measure, the game works well. A full game, if completed properly, lasts for about 25 minutes. In these 25 or so minutes, you are presented with a decent variety of different enemies, ranging from your lowly grunt foot soldiers, to massive mechanised battle machines. This variety of enemy means you really do have to work with your team mates, even before the match begins. Thinking ahead and strategising about what classes and powers complement each other really does add more flavour to the multiplayer experience.
A few issues I do have about the gameplay is the movement and cover system. The cover system works 9 times out of 10; however, there are moments in the heat of battle where you are automatically snapped into cover for no logical reason. This usually results in a premature death. Moving about the map can sometimes feel a little sluggish and sprinting in a straight line is an art form you have to learn to master. Apart from these niggling issues expected from a beta, everything else works spectacularly well. The aiming system works as it should, with shots being registered correctly. I haven’t had any issues yet with lag and the host migration works well when a host leaves the game.
Overall, if you’re still sceptical about the Mass Effect universe, as I was, you should just try the demo for yourself. Even if you just play the multiplayer for Mass Effect 3, you won’t be disappointed. Who knows, you could be pulling a chair up next to me, sharing my delicious humble pie.
Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release on March 9, 2012 (EU) and March 6, 2012 (USA).
Skyrim: 20 Minutes of RPG Heaven
Thursday, 22nd September, 2011
I’m waiting in line. The queue stretches around the whole of the Skyrim booth. About 30 people sit, staring at the Samsung goliaths in front of them. It’s like they’re jacked into the Matrix. In a sense, they were. Whilst I wait, patiently I might add, I see a plethora of different stories unfolding next to me. Even though these people all started at the same time, at the same point, with the same races to choose from, all the screens could well have been showing entirely different games. One guy is sprinting around pouring fire from both of his scaled Argonian palms. Another guy struggles to fend off a pack of wolves, crying out to no one in particular as he hits the sneak button by accident and gets mauled. One girl stares blankly at the screen, fire glowing from one hand, a sword in the other. She hastily lays waste to a rabbit that dared cross her path.
Pocket Odysseys: Four JRPG Journeys for the DS
(Our Eurogamer Expo content is coming soon… in the meantime, enjoy this piece on DS RPGs from Gamebit Contributor Si Cole. -Managing Ed)
So, hands up who bought a 3DS. Go on, all the way up. Okay, you can carry on with what you’re doing. This here article is for those of you still living the 2D dream, those of you looking for some RPG action with an Eastern flavour for that trusty little DS of yours. You interested? Yeah? Okay, gather ‘round…
Now some people will say that the JRPG is dead. And some people will say there have been no decent JRPGs this generation. Both of these statements are, I’m happy to point out, utter bilge. Admittedly, it’s a genre with what we can politely call idiosyncrasies and quirks that may put some off. Foibles that can send even those blessed with Zen like calm into fits of rage. I mean, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve screamed into the nearest pillow after being kicked – KICKED HARD – by the hoary old JRPG.
Anyway, as I was saying…
That whole “JRPG is dead” thing is a fallacy. They’re not dead, they just chose new pastures from which to entertain us. Yeah, that’s right. It’s the handheld where this much maligned genre has found succour. The reasons for this? Well, I can think of two main reasons. Firstly, from a financial point of view it’s relatively cheap. As technology evolves and becomes ever more sophisticated, the cost of development spirals accordingly. Producing big budget JRPGs full of the cinematic bombast we’ve become accustomed to is simply not commercially viable. Unless you’re a big hitter such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest or Shin Megami Tensei you’re going to find it hard to shift the units to recoup those millions upon millions of Yen you’ve burned in development.
Other than commercial viability another factor that springs to mind is simply the lay of the land. Gamers’ tastes have changed regarding what they play on the consoles sat under their tellies. The high-end consoles, namely the Xbox 360 and PS3 are capable of handling the gargantuan Western role-players formerly exclusive to PC gamers. The likes of BioWare and Bethesda have been able to steal the hearts of console RPG fans with their sophisticated wares. This is compounded by the fact that on the whole the genre has failed to evolve. Whilst the WRPG still feels fresh to your average console gamer, the evolutionary paralysis that grips most Japanese RPG developers dictates that creaking mechanics of a bygone era still reign supreme – something gamers, in the West at least, have had a bellyful of.
Woh, there. This is treading into epitaphic waters. I know, I know, this is supposed to be a positive piece. Before I started chewing the fat over the state of the genre I was telling you that the JRPG is alive and mostly well on the handheld console. Below are the four DS titles I think most worthy of checking out if you haven’t already.
Chrono Trigger DS
Okay, this is technically an old game. I was finishing my GCSEs when it appeared on the SNES back in March 1995. I didn’t see a copy until later that Autumn as the North American release didn’t appear until that summer and back then it was trickier to get hold of games from overseas. That’s right, this never got a Euro release – either on SNES or on the PlayStation port that appeared four years later.
Now anyone who was fortunate enough to have played this back when it first appeared will tell you that this was a high watermark for the genre. Developed by Square, whose staff were at the peak of their creative powers, Chrono Trigger has everything; an epic narrative that spans thousands of years and several dimensions, a varied cast of characters you actually care about, a fun combat system and multiple endings. The game follows the exploits of Crono and his band of companions as they endeavour to save the world from the evil Lavos. As mentioned, the story takes the adventurers across many centuries and alternate dimensions, each with their own separate story arc that cleverly ties into the bigger picture. The DS version is arguably the definitive version in that it adds a New Game + mode and several new quests. If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger I implore you to do so. The game has stood the test of time well and will provide a rewarding experience that many, more modern titles struggle to match.
Dragon Quest IX
No one needs an introduction to Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky. Nintendo did a pretty good job, via slightly creepy X-Factor berks “Jedward”, of ramming the game down our throats. At the time I derided Nintendo’s cynical marketing campaign. The idea of “The Jedward” grinding an old-school JRPG for 70 plus hours seemed frankly ridiculous. In hindsight, however, I applaud them. You see, they managed to get one of the DS’s most hardcore titles into millions of homes.
Level-5’s second Dragon Quest title (following the stunning VIII on the PS2) is essentially a series of vignettes sewn together by a tale of a (literally) fallen angel charged with collecting a number of celestial fruit. The fruit has fallen into mortal hands, wreaking havoc in the many locales your hero travels to. Although not the greatest narrative in relation to other Dragon Quests, the varied cast of NPCs and locations in which they are found keep things engaging. Anyway, you’ll get most of your enjoyment from building up your team, each member having a vocation which grants them unique skills.
Make no bones about it, Dragon Quest IX is a beast, a veritable leviathan of a game. It’s absolutely massive. There are hundreds upon hundreds of hours of gameplay on offer here. Firstly, the main game itself can take upward of seventy hours to finish. Not only that, the game includes a plethora of treasure maps which require some serious levelling to best their dungeons’ bosses. Then there are the various vocations on offer to the player and his squad, each requiring a good degree of grinding to take full advantage of. To top it off, once you’ve finished with the single player experience you can even take the game online to play with others. Seriously, this game is massive – and tough too. The game will happily punish poor player preparation, removing half your stash of total gold and sending you back to the beginning of a dungeon. Definitely do not be fooled by the cutesy art-direction and playfully colloquial localisation!
Radiant Historia
Developed by Atlus, of Shin Megami Tensei fame, Radiant Historia arrived on DS in the US earlier this year. The game follows the exploits of special agent, Stocke and his friends who become embroiled in the battle between their native country and their bitter enemy, neighbours Granorg. Radiant Historia riffs on Chrono Trigger’s time travel mechanic superbly. The plot crsiss-crosses between two main timelines, with the player having to dart backwards and forwards with the aid of a mysterious tome, resolving plot points that enable progress at later points in both timelines. In addition to the wonderfully dizzying plot, the game’s combat is also superb. The enemies appear on a 3×3 grid with the player having to cue attacks. The longer the chain of attacks the quicker enemies are dispensed with and the more XP is awarded at the end of battle. This adds an almost puzzle element to the game and stringing a big combo together is extremely satisfying.
Unfortunately, the game hasn’t had a European release. This is probably because Atlus don’t have a European presence, with a lot of their games being published in this region by the likes of British publisher Ghostlight. Fortunately, importing games is a lot easier these days and with the DS being region-free, playing this game should be relatively hassle free. There are a number of reputable North American sites who will happily ship to our shores so you’ve got no excuse not to play this excellent title.
Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver
Okay, for a lot of gamers in their twenties, a new Pokémon game is a no questions asked day one purchase. They were at the right age in the mid-nineties to form an emotional attachment with the franchise. Pokémon’s surge in popularity at the time was part of their childhood; the cartoon, the lunchbox and of course, the original Game Boy title. In contrast there are a lot of older gamers who view Pokémon games as childish fare, simply that videogame of that annoying cartoon that used to be on years ago. Now, I don’t mind admitting that until about a year ago I was one of the latter – and how wrong I was. Pokémon may be chock full of cute, nonsensical beasts with equally nonsensical names but don’t let that fool you, as like Dragon Quest IX this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yes, under the fluffy surface Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver is a brutally addictive collect ‘em up fused with a deceptively deep RPG.
The aim of the game is to become the best Pokémon trainer in the land. To do this the player must battle other Pokémon trainers as they traverse the large game world. Along the way your trainer collects wild Pokémon which can be trained to fight in your team of four. Unlike other JRPGs the player does not level up, each individual Pokémon does, and at certain levels, your Pokémon will evolve, granting them a wider selection of special moves. The battles are essentially rock-paper-scissor affairs and the skill is to create a balanced team to go into battle with. The sheer number of Pokémon you are able to collect means that hundreds of hours can be spent collecting, training and organising your team. And of course, once the collecting bug bites it’s really easy to find yourself saying; “I gotta catch ‘em all”.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the Pokéwalker, a pedometer like device that comes with the game. You can transfer a single Pokémon to the Pokéwalker and fight and capture random Pokémon on your travels and discover random items too. The more steps you take the better the Pokémon you can attempt to snare and the better the items there are to discover. That’s not all. Each time you transfer a Pokémon to the device and then back to the DS it will level up by one level. That means you can continue to cultivate your collection of Pokémon even when you don’t have your DS with you. Neat.
Honourable mentions:
The World Ends With You – Set in contemporary Japan, this Square Enix title is a feast of Japanese pop culture and makes full use of the DS’s touch controls.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – A sci-fi dungeon crawler in which the player has the somewhat novel option of negotiating with the demons they encounter.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time & Bowser’s Inside Story – The Mario and Luigi RPGs are all of a high standard, with Superstar Saga being one of the GBA’s best titles. The DS games or of a similar standard; full of playful humour and typical Mario charm. The battle system in both games is particularly satisfying, utilising a clever rhythm action based mechanic.
Avery On: Sony at Gamescom
Despite essentially standing unopposed, it’s clear that Sony won this year’s Gamescom. Even if Microsoft and Nintendo had brought out their European CEOs and announced that they were going to pay every member of the public to own their systems, Sony would have wiped the floor with them. Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, the already polished games coming to the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 3 becoming cheaper than Microsoft’s Kinect-ready baby for the first time sent a clear message to gamers, the assembled press and the industry: the Sony Computer Entertainment we all loved is back, in a very big way.
Sony’s conference in Cologne was somewhat symbolic; as SCEE’s current CEO, Andrew House, prepares to leave for Tokyo and SCEI, we were given The Jim Ryan Show, as the COO and heir to House’s throne extolled the virtues of PlayStation. For just under an hour, Jim appeared cool and calm in his first major public appearance, and introduced games that made many 3DS owners regret their purchase.
No longer bound by a singular analogue nub and PlayStation-era graphics, Nihilistic showed us a console-class FPS on a handheld for the first time in the form of Resistance: Burning Skies. A trailer for LittleBigPlanet kept Kaz Hirai’s word from E3 that the PlayStation Vita would blur the lines between reality and gaming worlds, as real world objects and backgrounds were turned into a monster in the game’s level creator. Reality Fighters killed Nintendo’s AR Games and Face Raiders in one neat little package where your face and the faces of your friends can become fighters in the real world without the need for AR Markers (demonstrated by battling “Andrew House” and “Jim Ryan” using the Audience as a backdrop). Finally, Escape Plan showed off SCE’s creative touch, as a game with the charm of World of Goo and art style of Limbo, with buttonless controls taking advantages of PlayStation Vita’s touch surfaces.
As I watched trailers and live gameplay straight from Germany, my need to buy a 3DS merely to play Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 faded. For Sony, the PS Vita is their portable PlayStation 2: a system with many times the graphical prowess of its predecessor and with a metric crapton of third-party support (FIFA and an all-new Assassin’s Creed have been confirmed for 2012 launches by Sony). People will be willing to beg, borrow or steal the £229 Sony’s asking for its new portable’s entry-level model because the Vita will actually have compelling games, something Nintendo’s not nailed yet with it’s ~£149 3DS. This generation, the handheld war will be fought on software, not affordability, and with stellar first-party titles and console-class 3rd-party content on the way, it’s not hard to see Nintendo losing its dominance in a shrinking handheld market this generation.
Move continues to be the unloved middle child at Sony; whilst its accuracy has shifted more than a few sharpshooter-bundled copies of Killzone 3, it’s failed to capture the casual market in the way Sony intended, eclipsed by continued Wii sales and the launch of Microsoft’s controller-free Kinect. Regardless, Sony soldiers on, and is trying to entice Wii owners with Move Fitness and DanceStar Party. Whilst I’d certainly buy the two games – which explain themselves with their names, if I’m being honest – over Wii Fit and Just Dance, I definitely wouldn’t over the full-body workout of Your Shape or UFC Personal Trainer and the super-advanced, super-fun Dance Central, which is set to gain a sequel this Christmas.
Speaking of unloved children, Sony managed to surprise everyone with a new PSP model, the PSP E-1000, exclusive to Europe, lacking a glossy (and fingerprint-friendly) finish, stereo speakers and Wi-Fi. Whilst this isn’t going to be appealing to most gamers – who will continue purchasing the PSP-3000 – Sony isn’t aiming for the hardcore gamer here; in a U-turn on their original strategy, they’re aiming this at pre-teens and teenage kids who will appreciate the large range of £10 PSP Essentials. The PSP is certainly a solid entry-level handheld, and the constant addition of new games to the Essentials library is welcome to current PSP owners. Even in spaces where Sony has been perceived as a loser, they keep soldiering on, providing new things and new deals for current customers.
Whilst talk of non-Move PlayStation 3 titles was relatively brief, the appearance of Resistance 3 and a new piece of DLC for inFamous 2 will keep PlayStation fanboys and new customers happy and content with their purchases. But for many, the final items were the biggest and most important parts of Sony’s conference.
I’ve been playing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy in recent weeks on my slim PS2, and I’ve learnt to love its developer, Naughty Dog. Whilst it drags on in places, I’ve been amazed that a ten-year-old game can be as fun and engaging as something still in its slip-case. At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s something of a timeless game, and it’s been making me consider dropping money on a PlayStation 3 for Naughty Dog’s Indiana Jones/Lara Croft hybrid, Uncharted. At one point, I considered waiting, and was almost ready to keep my money in my wallet until Christmas. And all of a sudden, Uncharted 3 happened. The footage they showed at Gamescom told me one thing: I need to get my hands on Uncharted and Uncharted 2, pronto.
This fact makes a £199 PlayStation 3 an incredibly attractive proposition. This generation, Sony has beaten the living crap out of Microsoft in terms of superiority in first-party titles, but the high price has put not just myself but many others off – until now. In the United States, Sony’s Blu-Ray-playing, inFamous/Resistance/LittleBigPlanet/Heavenly Sword/Uncharted-playing, do-it-all machine is now $50 cheaper than its bitter rival, the Xbox 360, and here in the UK, it’s at a price point where those who have, until now, just owned Microsoft’s machine or partnered it up with a Wii will say, “fuck it, I’m getting myself the only system I don’t own. Uncharted 3 looks really, really good, and I might as well pick up LittleBigPlanet whilst I’m at it.”
Unless Microsoft does something quickly, we could be looking at a future dominated by the PlayStation 3. And after their display at Gamescom, that’s not a bad thing at all.
Avery On: Grand Theft Auto annoyances
Rockstar Games and I have had a bit of a love-hate relationship. I’ve played countless Grand Theft Auto games, but have never taken to them. Don’t get me wrong; I love the open-world environment and the reckless destruction of Rockstar’s flagship creation, but LA Noire remains my favourite Rockstar game. I’d forgotten why until a few evenings ago, when I curled up in bed with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, only to stop half an hour later, furiously pulling out the UMD from my poor little PSP’s disc drive.
Why? Two words: Car Physics.
I understand that Grand Theft Auto isn’t the most realistic game around, but there’s something about the handling of cars in this game that drives me (and my hardware) to destruction. No matter how good the game is graphically or in terms of story, the car handles like a shopping trolley on a freaking bouncy castle. Whilst LA Noire had equally crappy car physics, it was much less noticeable – primarily because you could hand the keys over to your partner if you were feeling lazy, and your car was about fifty times less likely to flip over because you hit a car or made a turn too quickly.
More importantly, in LA Noire – a game which I reviewed for both Stevivor.com and this very organ – the story wasn’t overly reliant on your driving. In Vice City Stories, I was taking the wife of one of the game’s many asshole NPCs Quad BikerRacing, and the game’s crappy car physics meant I lost the race every single time, and was presented with “Mission Failed” in giant pink letters. Why? I hadn’t come first. Well, excuse me for having to put up with your shitty vehicle handling.
It’s this kind of annoyance that has put me off the series. Either I’m flipping my car over because I need to make a sharp turn, or I’m stupidly outnumbered against Biker gangs or Cholos or Haitian gangs (delete as appropriate for GTA IV, Vice City Stories or Vice City). I play for the first hour and get used to the game, and then the difficulty incline goes freaking vertical. It’s things like this that put new players off the franchise, and I’m pretty sure you want sales for future GTA games to be more than the numbers you got for GTA IV.
The thing is, there’s a solution, and it lies in Rockstar’s latest epic, LA Noire. In LA Noire, the story carries on if you catch the wrong guy or if you don’t tie up a loose end. LA Noire keeps on going, regardless of the player’s actions. Perhaps Rockstar could apply this to a a future GTA game; if you come second or third in a quad bike race, for example, a cut scene is invoked where the asshole NPC’s wife says “Aww, better luck next time, generic protagonist”, and you get to play the next mission in the storyline of the asshole NPC’s wife. Knowing the slightly puerile nature of the GTA series, you probably end up banging her anyway.
That way, you stop the game from going stale, and the player’s actions influence your flagship franchise more than ever. Grand Theft Auto 5, anyone?
Avery On: Nintendo 3DS
It appears it’s not a very good time to be a Nintendo 3DS game; as Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft pointed out, 11 3DS games have either been cancelled or put on hold – one of them, as a matter of fact, because of uncertainty as to whether or not the system will succeed. In the US, NPD data shows us that Nintendo DS sales outstrip those for Ninty’s new handhelds by a factor of three. I have a few theories, however, as to why the Nintendo 3DS hasn’t been so successful so far; here’s just a few of them.
Firstly, Nintendo did themselves a great disservice by attempting to capitalise on the success of their previous handheld, by keeping the “DS” name alive. I have a theory that many consumers see the name “3DS” and think it’s just a Nintendo DSi with 3D capabilities – a problem not particularly helped by the similarities in design and the 3DS’ user interface. Eurogamer’s Rob Fahey reckons that many will believe, as they have done with the 3DS, that the Wii U is merely an add-on or iterative upgrade to their existing system.
The second hindrance is a slightly weird one; Nintendo have actually managed to create something that can’t be advertised well. I don’t have to remind you that 3D displays haven’t exactly taken off yet, and 2D advertising restricts Nintendo’s ability to show off its new system’s Unique Selling Point. Nintendo, here’s a simple solution: show people a picture of the Nintendo 3DS – screens facing towards viewers – and have a soft, mother-like voice say this: “This is Nintendo 3DS. It’s a totally new console that lets you play games in 3D without the need for glasses.” Then do some silly promotion – make images fly out of that top screen, if you have to. Just please, please, don’t make more adverts with generic people going “OMG IT’S REALLY 3D”. For our collective sanities.
Of course, silly marketing and ill-thought-out naming of a device isn’t everything; that launch line-up was pretty dang terrible. I mean, don’t get me wrong – Nintendogs looks far better than it did on Nintendo DS, even with the 3D off, and Pilotwings Resort is decent, even if it’s so paper-thin it should be packed in with the system instead of being sold separately – but the rest of the line-up made it feel like this hardware was really rushed out of the gate. It’s the first piece of Nintendo hardware, to my knowledge, to not launch with a Mario or Zelda title, and whilst that wouldn’t be much of a problem had their been a killer app bundled in, even hardened Nintendo fans struggled to find a reason to buy this hardware at launch. Yes, it would have made your 2010-11 fiscal results look bad, but you guys really needed to wait until The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D - along with, of course, the Nintendo eShop and Internet Browser – was ready.
That said, it’s not like many of these Nintendo 3DS games are going to be missed – the only major loss for gamers is the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 - but it still unsettles me a little. At E3, Sam Machkovech noticed a huge lack of third-party titles for Nintendo machines; losing even the likes of My Garden is a little unsettling, as a prospective buyer of this new hardware. One can only hope this trend is reversed, and we can get a flood of great titles – both from Nintendo and third parties – this time next year.
Avery On: Wii U Criticism
I feel like I’m the only person on the planet genuinely excited about the successor to Nintendo’s hugely successful Wii, the Wii U. Like the Wii Remote before it, the New Controller feels like something revolutionary. I’m relishing the thought of playing Zelda in HD, with my inventory and vital stats available for at-a-glance access. I will genuinely jump for joy if the Rhythm Paradise demo seen by Sam Machkovech at E3 makes its way onto one of the Wii U’s 25GB Discs, and I reckon I’m going to agree with Katsuya Eguchi’s statement that Wii U will change the way I play first-person shooters. So, as I mentioned on this week’s podcast, why is there so much negativity being levelled to this machine by journalists?
Last week, CVG’s Tom Pakinkis said that the Wii U has cut a few corners – the New Controller’s display isn’t a crisp, bright OLED one, for example, and it has no DVD or Blu-Ray capabilities – and, because of this, the core may be turned off. I’m pretty sure that many core Nintendo gamers (those who carry on playing Wii games, despite the massive amount of shovelware available for it) would disagree; after all, the Wii plays games in good old Standard Definition and has no DVD playback features, but they don’t care.
I honestly disagree that every core gamer wants a killer entertainment machine built in to their games console. Sure, Blu-Ray adoption has helped PS3 sales, but I think I’ve only ever used my Xbox 360 twice for DVD Playback, and the number was the same back when I had a PS2. Most gamers have standalone DVD or Blu-Ray players, or have decided to go digital and have invested in an Apple TV or Boxee Box. The Wii U – as with all Nintendo machines – is more concerned with providing gamers with a fun and immersive experience than giving it the ability to play every format on the planet.
Whilst it will be important for machines like the PSVita to use bright OLED screens – after all, they’re going to be used in conditions where massive amounts of sunlight would otherwise make gaming impossible – I don’t think it’s vital that the Wii U has a touch screen that utilises fancy tech. If it can display inventories and that super-fun Rhythm Paradise demo, it’ll do. I’m sure plenty of other gamers will agree – with Nintendo, it’s never about the tech, it’s about the experiences they can make.
So why so much stick from the press? Well, whilst I do believe everyone’s entitled to their opinion, I have a theory that most of these pieces are linkbait. Journalists – and gamers, as a matter of fact – have only seen a small amount of what the Wii U can do. Nintendo – and third-party devs, of course – will find innovative ways to use the New Controller, much in the same way devs are innovating with Kinect and as they did in the past with the Wii remote. All of our worries about the tech being behind the times or not powerful enough will fade away once the software is there and once we are able to get a Wii U controller in our hands.
That said, I’m forever the optimist, so if you disagree, let us know in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter (I’m @lovedecake).
