Gaming Signal: December 2005 Archives

Saturday December 31, 2005

Is Microsoft Wrong About Xbox Live?

The Wall Street Journal has in interesting article concerning Microsoft's big bet on Xbox Live. MS is betting that online, multiplayer games will be the 'killer app' for the 360, and for MS. Analyst Michael Pachter, from Wedbusg Morgan Securities, disagrees, basically saying people play games to escape, and not for social reasons. Therefore, MS' strategy is flawed.

I disagree with this statement because I think people play games for both reasons, and they aren't mutually exclusive. Sometimes its just to get on and play, sometimes its to get on and play with/against your friends. The big reason for the success of BF2, UT2K4, etc is the fact you basically only have multiplayer online play. All the MMORPGs exploit the social interaction as well. Let's not forget that non-computer/console games are basically played for social reasons too.

I think Mr. Pachter may be behind the curve here. As PCs and consoles, with high-speed internet access, become more prevalent, I think gamers are looking beyond the single player games, and do want more interaction with others. That's not to say that single player games will go away, they won't. People will still want to experience good single player games. They'll also want to play against their friends and others. And knowing how much fun it can be to play against a bunch of other people, I think MS is on the right track, especially considering how integrated the Live service is with the 360. Now, $50/yr is a nice chunk of change to put down for the privilige of playing against others on Xbox Live, that's in addition to any other online fees, but I think its a reasonable fee. I'm actually very intrigued by Xbox Live, especially the marketplace function. Now I just need to get a 360...

H/T to Kotaku for the link.

Gaming quickly

Reuters (via Yahoo) has a story about game companies looking to speed up board games - because consumers believe they don't have time to play games otherwise. Examples are Scene It? (a decent DVD-based movie game) and the Nascar version of Monopoly which are both designed to be played in less than an hour. They also promote the ability to play without reading the rules. Game on!

But they also talk to the founder of Cranium and he describes the need to squeeze kids games down to even shorter time-frames. Why is this, exactly? Should we really promote short attention spans?

Tuesday December 27, 2005

REVIEW: Sleeping Queens by GameWright

REVIEW SUMMARY: Outstanding card game for kids ages 6 to 8 years old.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The game plays out with 9 sleeping queens - your job is to wake and own enough to win. You can play Kings to wake them, Knights to steal them, or Potions to put your opponents' back to sleep. If you can't play, you can discard as many number cards from your hand that make an addition equation (4 + 2 = 6) as long as you can reason it out. This elements is great for the first grader just getting started with basic math.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great gameplay for kids, math skills tested
CONS: Not too much - there is one rule about not allowing the Dog Queen and the Cat Queen on the same side that's arbitrary and hard to remember.
BOTTOM LINE: Invented by a 6-year old girl, this game delivers for kids!

The Big List Of RPG Plots

How many have you played? My favorite is 'How Much For The Dingus?'...

GamingSteve's 'Best of 2005'

GamingSteve has his 'Best of 2005' list up (in podcast.) I've included the list below (I hope Steve doesn't mind this) in case you don't have time to listen to the hour-plus 'cast. His favorite 3 are Resident Evil 4 (GC/PS2), God of War (PS2), and The Warriors (PS2/XBOX).

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (XBOX/PS2)

Legend of Zelda:The Minish Cap (GBA)

Resident Evil 4 (GC/PS2) - the best $10 you'll ever spend on a game, Steve says

Odd World: Stranger's Wrath (XBOX)

Grand Turismo 4 (PS2)

Fight Night Round 2 (GC/XBOX/PS2)

Devil May Cry 3 : Dante's Awakening (PS2)

Timesplitters Future Perfect (XBOX/PS2)

God of War (PS2)

Lumines (PSP)

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (XBOX/PC)

Jade Empire (XBOX)

Midnight Club 3 : DUB Edition (XBOX/PS2/PSP) - note the PSP edition sucks, don't get that one

Psychonauts (XBOX/PS2/PC) - most innovative gameplay this year

GuildWars (PC) - the MMORPG that's free to play

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (PSP)

Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (GBA)

Kirby: Canvas Curse (DS)

Battlefield 2 (PC)

Madden NFL 06 (XBOX/PS2/X360/PC/PSP/DS/GC/GBA) - this game is on every platform!

Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)

Nintendogs (DS) - for the non-gamers

Rebelstar Tactical Commands (GBA)

Dungeon Siege 2 (PC)

Burnout: Revenge (XBOX/PS2)

XMen Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse (GC/XBOX/PS2/PC/PSP)

Indigo Prophecy (XBOX/PS2/PC) - a rare adventure game

Heroes of the Pacific (PS2/XBOX/PC)

Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood (PS2/XBOX/PC)

F.E.A.R. (PC)

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GC)

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

The Warriors (PS2/XBOX)

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP)

Civilization IV (PC)

Soul Caliber III (PS2)

Guitar Hero (PS2)

The Movies (PC)

Dragon Quest 8 (PS2)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (X360)

Call of Duty 2 (X360/PC)

Condemned: Criminal Origins (X360) - scariest game Steve ever played

Peter Jackson's King Kong (PS2/XBOX/PC/X360) - short!

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS)

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (GC/PS2/XBOX/PC)

Top 20 Games Of 2006

Voodoo Extreme has listed their top 20 games of 2006.

Even though there is no release date, Dragon Age from Bioware made the list. I'm looking forward to that one as well as NWN 2, WoW:Burning Crusade, Spore, Bioshock, Gears of War and UT 2007.

Lots of games there, maybe I ought to put off buying a new house and buy more games...

Sunday December 25, 2005

BioWare's Mass Effect

BioWare has taken the wraps off its upcoming XBOX360 Sci-Fi RPG titled Mass Effect. What an amazing looking title - and from BioWare (a company not exactly known for great graphics.) This one has a lot of promise and while I'm not a big console fan, but this one might be worth the purchase of the system in early 2007.

Gamespot Best/Worst of 2005

Gamespot has thier best and worst video games of 2005 up. A quick rundown of the top games are:

Best
** Resident Evil 4 (GameCube/PS2) - Amazing to me that this is a GC title - I thought that platform was just for Mario?
Ninja Gaiden Black (XBOX)
Mario Kart DS (DS)
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Guild Wars (PC)
God of War (PS2)
Forza Motorsport (XBOX)
F.E.A.R. (PC)
Civilization IV (PC)
Battlefield 2 (PC)

** - Picked as best overall game for 2005.

I've included more details below, especially for those not all that interested in watching the rather questionable on-camera performances by the Gamespot crew. Guys, break out of the cue-card reading wooden performances, and comb your hair BEFORE going on camera. I've been there - it aint that hard.

Best games by Platform
PSP - Lumines
GBA - Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap
DS - Mario Kart DS
GameCube - Resident Evil 4
PS2 - God of War
XBOX - Ninja Gaiden Black
XBOX360 - Project Gotham Racing 3 - Note here, GS states that this game alone is reason enough to buy a 360!
PC - Civlization IV

Oh, and the worst games of 2005?

Worst
Chicago Enforcer (XBOX)
Crime Life: Gang Wars (XBOX)
Marvel Nemesis (DS)
King Kong (DS)
Land of the Dead (XBOX) - which is picked as 'Worst overall game of 2005' I bet the dev team is proud!

It just goes to show that it's WAY too easy to create an XBOX title. Seriously.

Tuesday December 20, 2005

The Mathematics Behind Sudoku

American Scientist examines the mathematics of Sudoku.

Review Policies

Here at GamingSignal the crew will be reviewing games of all types - from board games to computer games. In order to bring some level of consistency and integrity to the reviewing process, we've agreed to a common set of policies between all the reviewers. Each person will bring their own biases and thoughts to the process, but you can bank on a certain amount on consistency between them. Consider the following to be our editorial policies.

First, there will be times when we might choose to provide our impressions or thoughts on a game that we don't want to be a formal review. This might be because we've only played the game for a few hours, it might be based on impressions from a beta test, or it might simply be that we're not ready to release the full review yet. In these cases, rather than have a title of REVIEW, this posts will have a title of FIRST IMPRESSIONS. This will be useful for games where the interest is high and we want to let people know what we think without having to wait for the full review.

However the meat of the reviews here will be REVIEWS. You can count on them to follow certain policies. We will finish every game before we rate it - an important element of a role-playing game (RPG) or first-person shooter (FPS) is playing through the single-player scenarios and discovering the plot and how the game might change over time. It would not be fair to review these games without playing them though. If we don't finish a game, it won't get a rating, although it might still get a review. Several game types don't warrant playing through every game mode or built-in scenario (true of many board games or real-time strategy games, for example.) We'll still give these a rating. Here are the ratings and what they mean:

If a game has no rating, that means we didn't finish it.

A half-star rating means the game should be avoided by nearly everybody and has no redeeming value at all. Luckily, there aren't very many of these stinkers but should we come across them, we'll let you know.

A one star rating implies that the game is overall very poor, but might appeal to somebody who must have the game based on a particular license. An example of this would be the Spider Man 2 game for the PC.

A two star game is one that is going to appeal to fans of the game type or genre (RTS, FPS, etc.) but the game has some issues, doesn't offer anything new to the genre, or isn't able to deliver on a new feature or concept effectively. I found Fable (XBOX) and Shadows over Camelot (board game) to be games of this rating. Note that this game isn't lame or a waste of time - it just isn't going to appeal universally.

A three star rating indicates that the game is very solid and fans of the genre probably shouldn't miss it. It should offer some new ideas or gameplay or execute so well that it is the new pinnacle for games of its type. These games might also contain such high production value (graphics, sound, UI) that the game transcends the two-star category for that reason. To me, Doom 3 (PC) and Fist of Dragonstones (board game) are 3-star games.

A four star rating will be used when the game is really good, delivers unique game-play for the genre, or invents a new genre. It will offer fun gameplay for everybody, even those who aren't a fan of the particular style of game. This would be a great game for people who want to get into that type of game and try it out. To me, Civilization 4 (PC) is like this, as is Puerto Rico (board game.)

A five star rating is rare - this is the game that gets it all right and does it so well, you believe most gamers will regret not playing this one. These games will likely hold up very well over time, and can be enjoyed years after they first come out. This is the hardest rating to give - predicting that a game is a classic is always difficult. Examples of this type are Half-Life (PC), San Juan (card game), and Ticket to Ride (board game.)

There are half-star ratings which allow the reviewer to further distinguish the games as needed. Additionally, each review can ultimately rate the game however they like - but they should tell you why they have chosen to deviate from the policy if they have. This is important - I think we've all just enjoyed the heck out a game without exactly knowing what it brings to the table.

We're going to make every attempt to tell you how many hours of gameplay we believe the game has. This is easy in some cases, and hard in others. I feel strongly that this is important though - you want to know you're getting a certain value for your gaming dollar.

We will also make sure to let you know which version of a game we're playing at all times. It is important to distinguish between Doom the PC game, the XBOX game, and the board game.

Most of the time we will be reviewing and rating games targetted at adults. However, when we aren't we will be careful to indicate the target audience of the game and rate it accordingly. Yu-Gi-Oh! is a card game very firmly targetted at the 'under 10' age group and should be reviewed and rated as such. Comparing this to Magic: The Gathering (card game) would be patently unfair.

Finally, certain types of games - specifically those Massively Multiplayer Online games - don't lend themselves to reviews in the regular sense. We're still review them, but reserve the right to return to our review and update it. These games can change so radically, that it will be important to let readers know how the game is at the moment, rather than frozen in time. One need only look at the recent changes to Star Wars: Galaxies for a fantastic example of this (the game today - 12/19/05 - is very different than what launched.)

If you have any concerns or comments on our policies please post them below.

Wednesday December 07, 2005

PS2 REVIEW: Shadow of the Colossus

REVIEW SUMMARY: Like it's predecessor Ico, Shadow is a premiere adventure.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A boy is given a quest by the gods to slay 16 giants. Upon completion of this mission, they will bring his dead girl friend back to life.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Satisfying puzzles that were, for the most part, able to be completed by mere mortals.
CONS: I wanted more cutscenes between giants; the last colossus was VERY difficult.
BOTTOM LINE: This is one console game I enjoyed far too much to use as a trade-in.

Shadow is set in the same universe as it's predecessor Ico; a tribal culture somewhat reminiscent of Aztec, but with a strong magic presence.

Also like Ico, there are really just two characters in Shadow (outside of cutscenes.) Ico had the boy and the princess he was rescuing. Shadow has a boy and his horse Agro.

The game's formula is simple:
1) Get enigmatic details on the next colossus
2) Get on your horse and ride through the land to find the colossus
3) Slay the colossus

Pretty straightforward, to be sure.

To find the colossus, you have a sword that, when you're in sunlight, will glint, shining a ray of light in the direction of the colossus. The landscape is very attractive, and varied. I found Agro the horse a little difficult to control, but fortunately that wasn't a necessary part of the game.

Once you find the colossus, you need to figure out how to kill it. Again your sword will point out 'weak' points on the giant. When hit, these weak points will drain life from the colossus. Most of the early colossi have one easy-to-access weak point on their heads, while the later ones have hidden points and you must break off armor, etc. before you can kill the beast.

Climbing on a colossus is (in my opinion) the neatest part of the game. Your character uses the giant's fur to climb, and hangs on for dear life while the monster shakes and rolls to get rid of you. That whole experience feels very realistic.

The colossi are varied. Some fly, some walk on four legs, some on two, some are underwater and there's even one humungous sand worm. And the method for killing each is also very different.

On the downside, I was was a little dismayed while playing the game that there were no substantive cutscenes between giants. The game makes up for it, though, with a tremendous cinematic at the end which must last 40 minutes. It's even somewhat interactive, though it doesn't appear you can affect the outcome.

The game really encourages experimentation, and in most cases this tinkering led to the solution for killing a colossus. However, we had to use cheats to beat a couple of the giants. Even then, though, more often than not we had just missed some critical terrain feature that made it obvious how to approach or defeat the giant.

The last colossus was HARD! Even knowing how to kill it (gamespot.com has a video walkthrough) didn't keep us from spending 3+ hours killing it (a normal colossus took us maybe 30-40 minutes.) Fortunately there's no real penalty for failing (falling from the colossus or just plain dying while trying) except maybe a minute or two it takes to get back to the point you just were.

Overall I don't enjoy this quite as much as Ico, primarily because this game requires you to be a bit more of a joystick jockey than it's predecessor. Still, this is one I'm sure the boy and I will go through again in a year or so.

Saturday December 03, 2005

Illinois' video game law terminated

Illionois had passed a law banning stores from selling games with violent or sexual content to minors. However, the law was struck down Friday (before it could go into effect January 1, 2006) by US District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly. Kennelly ruled that state officials had come "nowhere near" demonstrating the law would pass constitutional muster as a valid reason to restrict the first amendment's right to freedom of speech or expression.

One major problem with the legislation was the definition of the violence they wanted to restrict. It used language that defined it as:

...depictions of or simulations of human-on-human violence in which the player kills or otherwise causes serious physical harm to another human. �Serious physical harm� includes depictions of death, dismemberment, amputation, decapitation, maiming, disfigurement, mutilation of body parts, or rape.

That's pretty restrictive to video games - many, many of them would be subject to this (some commentators went so far as to include Mario here - although I'm not sure I've ever seen dismemberment in a Mario game.)

This is always the problem when trying to sensor - either video games or other things (including pornography.) Trying to define what is too violent is simply too subjective.