Gaming Signal: July 2006 Archives

Wednesday July 26, 2006

Monopoly updated?

Parker Brothers has decided to update Monopoly yet again - as if the hundreds of licensed content versions weren't enough. As an aside - the Hasbro web site lists no fewer than 10 versions of Monopoly now available, from the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Disney editions, to the Anniversary, Deluxe, and Junior versions. Wow, now that's a way to milk that franchise (Apegames should take note!)

However this new version of the venerable classic, titled the 'Here and Now Edition" loses the fake paper bills in favor a fake plastic Visa debit card and a calculator-like machine to read them and keep track of your virtual cash. It purports to offer a modernized version of the game with new tokens (does this mean I can't be the shoe?), popular American locations from across the US, and dollar amounts updated to today's amounts (finally keeping pace with inflation, I suppose.) The game comes with a modern price as well - costing $10 more than the traditional version.

Monday July 24, 2006

Gaming News Tidbits for July 24, 2006

ZOMG!!! Another tidbits, w00t... I would like to apologize for that little bit of terrible gaming lingo and simply say I was so excited to bring out some of these tidbits - I couldn't help myself. Today's selections include some linkages to jedi, the great unnamed one, and a preview of a wargame (that may not suck).

First up on the blocks is a demonstration of a new physics engine the folks over at LucasArts are working and was shown at E3. Basically, they were illustrating some serious jedi butt kicking action with a finale that really presses home the reason why I am a Star Wars fanboy. Now, I know that LucasArts is working on a Wii title and I can only imagine it will be on all consoles, but if it allows me to some of what that video shows - I am in... How I hate them so
The friendly folks over at Gaming Report have the scoop on how you can win a limited edition WizKids Horrorclix figure of the great unnamed one (Cthulhu - so much for keeping what limited sanity I had). All you have to do is visit the crazy folks over at Yog-Sogoth and enter thier limrick contest. I am sure our creative readers will come up with something witty. GamingSignal and SFSignal are not responsible for any damage done to yourself or the universe due to the claiming of this prize (if you win) and would like to be spared when the end comes
Hexus.gaming has a very large preview of the new Warhammer: Mark of Chaos game that is coming from the folks at Games Workshop and Namco. I know I loved Warhammer when I played and I am looking forward to this one.
The July Carnival of Gamers is up over at the Grumpy Gamer, and this gets extra points since its also Ron Gilbert's blog site. For those who don't know - I link to Mr. Gilbert's wikipedia bio (Plus I don't know many folks who can read Latin), but as a quick note, he is the creator behind the classic Monkey Island games.

Wednesday July 19, 2006

Intel and Episodic Gaming Are BAD!!!

Well, at least according to Mr. Mark Rein of Epic Games, and the presentation he gave at the Develop Conference last week. According to the articles I have linked, Mr. Rein has indicated that Intel's integrated graphic solutions are bad for computer gaming since they really don't have the capabilities to run games at any decent resolution, but have a large market penetration. He also felt that episodic gaming is equally bad since it is a broken business model and will result in regurgitation of content that ends up costing the consumer more in the long run. Hmm, interesting statements really, but is he right? I don't think so and according to the article on Next Generation it was not well recieved at the conference. And I think he is wrong!!! But why do I think that? And what the heck do I know about this stuff? I am just going to ignore that second question since I don't like that tone, and focus on why I think Mr. Rein is really missing the boat here.

Updated to put this whole spiel on the main page since our feed is acting screwy...
Updated since our feed is now fixed (thanks JP) and to fix some language issues - English is my only language...

Now the Intel thing, and this gets a bit sticky. The problem may partially reside on the folks at Intel with the architecture of the shared graphics adapters, but the cost of the overall system is really part of that solution. Mr. Rein indicates the difference in capabilities is only few dollars, but I question where that few dollars is determined at. Furthermore, if its at the hardware level, that value is not accurate since a few dollars can mean huge differences as prices roll up to the consumer. And as we know in the US, cost is king since we like our stuff relatively inexpensive. The bottom line here is that for folks who make middlewear (Unreal Engine) with obscene hardware requirements need to understand that a majority of consumers will not be running the equipment of that nature. I also hate to mention the real reason that consoles are starting to win over consumers is the rolling upgrade that PC games seem to require (new video and processor options almost yearly). Consoles do offer stability of a gaming platform that I think is lacking in the PC, but that doesn't mean I want to see PC gaming disappear. I think those smart guys at game companies should be looking for ways to make this stuff work on the technology that is readily available. Sure there will be those consumers who run a $10000 gaming rig, but if you rework the design to meet a recommended (notice I said recommended and not minimum) specification that the average consumer can afford - I am sure the market will respond with higher sales numbers. Furthermore, with a focus on gameplay and story - as compared to building yet another rendering engine - maybe we will see some real innovations in gaming versus deathmatch ad naseum (I have a whole rant associated with the concept that a short crappy single player experience that really is a last second thought for a multiplayer game.)

This last statement leads into the whole concept of Episodic Gaming. Mr. Rein seems to think this is a broken model, and I think he is totally wrong. Gaming is not about latest graphics package nor how realistically you can render water - its about the story and game play. The problem is that many of these awesome looking games are really weak or shallow with respect to things like story or gameplay. Combine that with the fact most games are simple multiplayer affairs which float around until the next sequel comes out that adds new graphics and yet more crappy story (which all goes back to another rant which I really should write up). Half-Life was different for me in that it had a griping story and Half-Life 2 picked it up from there to continue the narrative - but I felt it was short and the ending was missing. In comes episodic gaming and you can build on your existing game and release levels/chapters/scenes to continue the story in decent sized chunks. This opens a whole new market for game developers in that they can really leverage the engine they spent years crafting with a decent story to keep their customers happy. Furthermore, you will see quality stuff released on a schedule versus the current mod-only community (whom I love) that releases stuff when they get a chance. I mean this concept is not new, and works for many different media types. Games have been in this mode for years but as compared to releasing a new game as a series of levels - they wait and package them with more levels and a new rendering engine together as a full blown title. I don't deny that releasing all titles as episodic will not work, but I think it works for Valve. I also think that this will work very well for RPGs, and it does work for the MMO market - where small content changes are free, but larger land expansions are boxed versions sold to the consumer.

Ultimately, the story to our game producers is that we play games for that reason - to play. Games like WOW work since they have a very low technology barrier and do not require me to buy a dual SLI enabled PC to experience the game. These games have focused their effort on game play and content, but also making it work and look good on middle range hardware. And if episodic gaming enables that type of experience using an existing engine to tell a decent story - I am in. Focus on the topics I have discussed and look at what a stable console has done for games. I dare say that some of the best titles released come at the end of a console's life cycle and that is reinforced by looking at some of the great titles that are available for the soon to be replaced PS/2. Remember it is not about having the best rendered water - it is about learning what you can do with what you have available and giving the consumer a experience that is fun.

Sunday July 09, 2006

Private WoW servers

The other day I stumbled across something I shouldn't have been surprised at but was - private World of Warcraft servers. It seems there are more than a couple of back-end emulators out there that allow you to run your own WoW server, and with it host your own users. All of this is free and openly violates Blizzard's copyrights and license agreement - but without any leverage over you, how can they stop it?

Being curious, I decided to give one a try and here is what I found out.

I started out by making a complete backup of my WoW directory. It turns out you have to apply a patch to WoW specific to each back-end emulator, and I wanted to only mess with a backup rather than my main WoW files. I also saw several comments that I could only run the interface addons specified by the emulator author, so I removed all my addons and only applied the ones they provided (of course, I figure most addons will work being that they are all client-side and the full WoW client is operating.) Finally, I had to register with the server operator at their web site (creating my account.) During the client patch, it asked me for the name of my server and I filled in the appropriate DNS name and that was it - I was able to promptly fire up the game and log in.

Interestingly, there are LOTS of changes on this particular server. You get about 10x the experience as normal, significantly increased the quest reward cash (50g for a lvl10 quest, for example), health regens about 5x faster, slowed all mobs, and had mobs dropping tremendous amounts of loot. I also noticed on the servers web page that the level cap had been raised to 255 - I have no idea what that means exactly, but I did see that they had changed up some classes (giving additional racial benefits, for example) and changed the default spells. They also created new zones (based on existing ones of course) with higher levels mobs, and put the game into a pretty hard-core mode (no quest rewards for grey quests, for example.) They also had vendors allowing you to purchase all the various armor, including the new Tier 3 items.

This was interesting and despite playing for only about 45 minutes I had progressed quickly through levels. I'm not sure how fun this was exactly, although I wondered if at level 255 I was going to be able to solo places like MC.

Of course, there were lots of bugs. My newbie Undead Warlock's pet didn't work right - a pretty tough situation for that class. The map didn't work either, and sometimes high level mobs spawned into the newbie zone (ouch!) And the best part - this morning I looked and the server was down with the server admin posting that a hacker had attacked his system and wiped it out. Easy come, easy go.

Wednesday July 05, 2006

Yes, we have a new poll up...

And I will be honest in saying that I stole it from those loving folks over at Kotaku. Basically, it asks that all important question - what is your favorite weapon from video gaming? The list consists of a smattering of weapons from all sorts of games including one from Mario Kart. So what are you waiting for, come on out and vote for your favorite - Results will be posted on Friday.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - PC vs. XBOX 360

So here I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PC and I have to admit, I got bored. So out of the blue, I call up Gamefly.com and notice my queue is empty and there is really nothing I want to rent. So I decide that I'm going to rent Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360 and do a little visual comparison between the two. So three or four days go by and the 360 version finally makes it to my house. I figure that just going through the begining tutorial should be sufficient for me to understand the differences between the PC and the 360. Next thing I know, it's 6 hours later and I'm still playing, totally immersed in the game and having a blast! What happened to the game I was bored with? When did my "meh" PC opinion turn in to "got to play more... so sleepy.." XBOX 360 opinion?

So here I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PC and I have to admit, I got bored. So out of the blue, I call up Gamefly.com and notice my queue is empty and there is really nothing I want to rent. So I decide that I'm going to rent Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360 and do a little visual comparison between the two. So three or four days go by and the 360 version finally makes it to my house. I figure that just going through the begining tutorial should be sufficient for me to understand the differences between the PC and the 360. Next thing I know, it's 6 hours later and I'm still playing, totally immersed in the game and having a blast! What happened to the game I was bored with? When did my "meh" opinion turn in to "got to play more... so sleepy.."?

So I figure its like this. This game was meant to be played with a joystick. So I break out the "wired" XBOX 360 controller and hook it up to my PC, download a few drivers, BAM, I'm playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the PC with a joystick. But the controls are now kind of sluggish and dont really feel (sync'ed?) with the gameplay. You guys know I have a PC with pretty decent specs. I can play Elder Scrolls: Oblivion at 1280x1024 and keep a good 35 to 40 fps. So now I'm really confused.

Am I becoming a console convert?

At this point I'm really confused. There are definate downsides to the XBOX 360 version of the game. When you are in a cityscape like "Green Emperor Way" the load times are CRAZY LONG, but for some reason I don't mind? There are clearly some texture differences, especially regarding the players character.

I thought it my have been that I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the PC on a 21 inch 4:3 aspect ratio monitor and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360 on a 30 inch 16:9 aspect ratio LCD monitor. But "lo and behold" a closer inspection of my Olveia 30 inch LCD revealed a VGA port that was unlisted in the manual so I have port 2 on my PC's video card using that input on my Olveia 30 inch LCD so I was PC gaming at even output with my 360.

It's not character selections either, I recreated my custom Spellsword "like" class, so in effect I'm playing the same character on both versions of the game.

To sum up: I can not explain why I'm having more fun playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the XBOX 360 than the PC. Anyone care to pontificate on the reason, or am I on the slippery slope to becoming a console zealot?!?!