Gaming Signal: June 2007 Archives

Saturday June 30, 2007

REVIEW: Carcassonne/Xbox 360

The classic tile laying game comes to Xbox Live Arcade, and doesn't miss a beat.

After the gaming goodness that was Catan for XBLA, I was really looking forward to the console version of Carcassone, one of my favorite analog games. I won't go in to deatails on how to play the game, I'm assuming you already know. And if you don't, you can follow the link above to find out.

So, how well does the XBLA version compare to the original? Very well, very well indeed. Carcassonne for XBLA is identical to the orignial, and you have the option of using using the River expansion or not. You also have the ability to change a few of the game and scoring options, basicaly allowing you to play the American version or the International version, with the big difference being how farms are scored. It's easier to score under the International rules.

I've played about 15 games already, and a very nice side effect of the game being on XBLA is the fact you can finish a 4 player game, against the AIs, in about 10-15 minutes. When placing a tile, the game will only allow you to place it in a legal spot, and in a legal orientation. You can flip the tile between facing, but only those facings that are legal will be shown. This cuts down on the time of trying to find a spot to place a tile.

There are also some nice graphical touches. Whenever a player scores, there is a nice little fanfare and the city will raise its walls and fly a flag, while a road will pave itself. Otherwise, the tiles are clear and look nice.

There are a few minor problems. It can be a bit frustrating to get a tile into the spot you want, especially if you are trying to choose between two katty corner spots. Also, as the board gets bigger, the camera zooms out. This makes it more difficult to see roads at a glance without zooming in.

Those nits aside, Carcassone for XBLA is a very fun game, and at 800 points ($10), its loads of. Highly recommended. I need to see more of you online so I can beat you....

Thursday June 28, 2007

Gaming News Tidbits for June 28, 2007

At the Hollywood ang Games Summit (which has excellent coverage over at Gamasutra), Lucasarts has confirmed that a Star Wars game that invovles lightsaber usage is under development for the Wii. I think the inner fanboy in us all just giggled at the possiblity of swinging that remote around our collective living rooms.

Codemasters has released a trailer for the new action/RPG game called Rise of the Argonauts. This game was profiled a couple months back in Game Informer and looks pretty interesting (well interesting to me).

Sony Online Entertainment continues to expand its MMOG empire by signing a publishing deal for Pirates of the Burning Sea. The Joystiq post links to an update on the Pirates webite that documents the whole situation between the two companies. The great news is this adds to the benefits that Sony's Station Access Pass offers. For a single monthy price, a gamer has a plethora of games at their disposal. The downside for some gamers is that this is another title squarely in Sony's hands but it is a bit more complicated than that (as documented in the developer update).

Feel that the PSP and Nintendo DS are too shiny for your gaming needs? Well, for all those old school gamers who really want to experience retro gaming but still have mobility we have the first images of the new Atari Flashback Portable. The folks over at Engadget have the shots and while there are still questions that need to be answered about actual availability and game distribution, it appears that the product is not vapor ware.

Another option for mobile gaming is a Windows Mobile powered PDA, and there have been several titles that have come out on that device in recent years. Today, Machines at War was released as a beta for this platform. It is a real time strategy title with a laundry list of features. This news comes from Pocket Gamer which represents probably the number one spot for Pocket PC game news.

Andre Lemothe has announced a new DIY game console. The $200 homebrew machine uses a new multi-core processor and a bunch of other items that would be better described on the XGS website. While the price point may prevent some from looking at this, I think it is definitely a possiblity for some folks who wish to learn about game consoles and hardware design elements which is not possible with the any of the other consoles out there.

Shacknews reports that Supreme Commander is getting an expansion. The Forged Alliance expansion is a standalone affair that will add a new faction, 100+ new units and a new single player campaign. The game is targetted for a November 2007 launch.

Major Nelson has setup a dedicated server for some LIVE enabled Games for Windows (which is a long way of saying, PC games). He claims that it won't be available 24x7, but a simple check of his servers profile page will allow those Vista gamers with Shadowrun or Halo 2 to engage in some fragging of some Microsoft guys. Just remember to give them the love they deserve...

JP posted his impressions of Overlord (which is another Codemasters' title) a couple weeks ago, and they were positive if not a bit creepy. That whole cackling thing was a bit disturbing, but I digress. The game was released this last week for the PC and Xbox 360 and Trusted Reviews has reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the game. They gave it an 8 out of 10 and I would be remiss if I didn't include this quote:

A joyous mix of childish bad-boy attitude and ‘borrowed’ ideas, fashioned into one of the most stupidly entertaining games this year. Overlord may be slight, but it’s wickedly enjoyable all the same.

Which pretty much says that it is on my list of games to be purchased...

Some changes are afoot...

In the process of mucking with the site over the last few days, I finally decided to change the colors a bit. I would like to say these are the final mix, but chances are there will be some feedback regarding what I have done. It was not that the black and purple combination did not work, but it was just something I think needed a change. Feel free to post your feelings and I will take them under advisement.

I also have updated the search box to use the Google Blog search functionality in a manner similar to that found on SFSignal. I hope that the changes are not too much for the folks that actually browse the site and hope that they will share us with friends, family, and/or enemies.

Wednesday June 27, 2007

Gaming Tidbits for June 27, 2007

Carcassonne makes its appearance on the XBox 360 via the Xbox Live Marketplace today. This is another board game conversion much like Catan, and is quite a fun game. The download will set folks back 800 MS points which equates to about $10 (now I won't get started on how you cannot buy 800 points but instead must purchase a minimum of 1000 - are you listening Microsoft???)

Continuing news about the XBox 360, Gamasutra has an interview with Chris Early on the growth of the Xbox Live Arcade. In the interview, they discuss how success is measured and many other aspects of the service. I will admit that as a gateway to demos and other content for the Xbox360 that it works pretty well. It is a great opportunity to learn a bit more about the service.

Hackers have managed to get the Vista-only PC game Shadowrun cracked to run on Windows XP. Admittedly, players can only engage in single player engagements against bots or LAN based multiplayer games, but it does demonstrate that the DirectX 10 requirement is probably not as stringent as Microsoft claims. It was announced earlier that Falling Leaf Systems was creating a set of compatibility libraries (called Alky) to allow Shadowrun and Halo 2 to run on Windows XP machines.

Anarchy Online enables the purchase of virtual items using real currency. The kicker is that these items are more vanity type of things and are proposed to not affect play balance. It should be interesting to all parties involved how this will be recieved by current subscribers to this title, and to see if other games follow suit.

Petroglyph's new real-time strategy game to be published by Sega, Universe at War will join Shadowrun in allowing PC gamers and XBox360 owners to play against/with each other. Petroglyph is the developer behind the Star Wars: Empires at War strategy game. It should be interesting to see how well the control schemes are mapped to enable console players keep up with PC players with this type of game. I will admit that this area is going to be much harder than even first person shooters, but time will tell..

The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) has announced the list of exhibitors for the show. With the loss of E3, it appears that game studios have found a worthy alternative. Now, if I can figure out a way to actually attend the show - time to start plotting...

Original downloadable content on the Wii

Today, Nintendo has announced WiiWare which will enable developers to create new downloadable content for the platform. The first of these titles will be available in early 2008, and it is with this step that we see perhaps a competitor to Xbox Live Marketplace. Today, the Wii Shopping Channel enables access to older titles for play on the Wii's virtual console, but this announcement is all about bringing new original content to the platform. Gamasutra had this quote from Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo America which I think demonstrates that they are finally seeing the value of arcade/lite/smaller titles from both financial and entertainment standpoint.

"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit... WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."

Combine this news with things like GameTap, XBox Marketplace and Playstation Store and you have downloadable content up to your armpits, and I think we can agree that is a good thing.

Monday June 25, 2007

Wowhead is sold for $1 million!!!

I first saw this news over on ForeverGeek which links to a much longer version of the story, but it has now been confirmed by multiple sites. The interesting thing about this sale is that it now puts the three major item/quest/information databases (Thottbot, Allakhazam, and WOWHead) in the control of a single company. Furthermore, there are rumors that the company that now own them (Affinity Media) is still in ownership of the gold selling company IGE. This gets all very strange and the whole story is somewhat laid out in the ForeverGeek link, but that was not what intrigued me about this sale. The thing that intrigues me is that somebody paid this much money for an online database that is populated by data gleaned from players. The folks that created the database and the user interface do get some props for building a fast site (in the WowHead case), but the content itself is not something they created. I also know that for my gaming time - I use this information to plan quests and determine if I am in the correct location to find a given quest mob. This metagaming truely has changed the way players approach the game and often allow players a means to tailor their raids/dungeon runs to focus only on those monsters that drop the items they are after.

While I cannot say what this will mean for the online community in WOW or other MMOs, but maybe with this sale there is an opportunity for another ambitious developer to come along and create a similar system. But who knows - since these sites seem to do a pretty good job already. Although, an independent site may offer things a corporate backed site may not...

Update: Turns out the story was initially posted over at TechSoapBox by Ahmed Farooq. So for our own journalistic integrity (which will lead to no small amount of ridicule from my friends), I have updated the post.

Dragon Quest VIII

I haven't finished it yet so this can't be a proper review, but I wanted to comment on my experience so far with a classic RPG for the Playstation 2, Dragon Quest VIII. From the story to the art to the music, this game delivers on all fronts. If you are at all a fan of RPGs and have no tried this one out, you owe it to yourself to pick it up.

Number eight is the first in the series to move into 3D, and wow, does this game look awesome. The anime art style and 3D characters really look fantastic. The monsters are quirky and the art fits right in. For example, there is a monster known as a Candycat that sometimes rolls over and licks its face rather than attack. There is another called a Hammerhood that almost always misses because his hammer is too big. And there are some quite friendly looking slimes that will beat you to a pulp if you don't get them quick. All these plus the art for your hero and his compatriots help the game feel distinctive and memorable.

The musical score has to be one of the best I've ever heard in a game. It is certainly up there with Diablo II in terms of quality and appropriateness. The Town background has a bright and airy quality, while the dungeon music has a somewhat ominous and booming quality. The voice acting is of generally high quality and also contributes to the value of the characters. The voice of Yangus, a rather stocky friend who is with you from the beginning, has a great Cockney accent in it that contributes to the type of character he is as a former thief now on the straight and narrow.

But what sets this game apart is how compelling the story is. It is somewhat hard to imagine these bright and colorful characters are at each others throats at times, but the bad guy is really evil and his bad deeds some across well in the voices of the other characters.

All these factors come together to provide a wonderful basis for a solid RPG. And luckily, the gameplay mechanics don't hinder it. In general is is pretty basic fare. Each time you have an encounter, your characters get a choice of actions from attacking to using items to casting spells. As your characters advance, they get advanced attack options and more spells, with many of them being unique and not simply upgrades to previous spells. Each time you level up, you get to decide where you want to spend a limited number of skill points - either increasing your ability with a weapon type or one unique non-combat skill per character. These are the only really interesting aspect of character development - for example, your female companion Jessica can develop her sex appeal. And having high levels in these skills can have an interesting impact - as Jessica develops her unique attribute it can stun monsters into skipping a round of combat just admiring her, uh, charms. Interesting to say the least.

The game allows you to follow the story straight through, but offers random encounters in the wilderness (often required to level up enough to take on the next boss) as well as some interesting side quests. The random encounters can be really tough though, and can require more tactical thinking than a boss fight. I was a little dissapointed with how often it seemed these random encounters cropped up, especially while following the paths between locales. You can teleport between cities you have already been to and avoid those paths, but simply traveling during the day can be quite trying. At night combat gets even tougher, and I got wiped out a couple times before I just stopped even traveling at night.

But this is a minor issue with what so far has been a really fun game. It doesn't have the depth of a PC game, but for your Playstation crowd this is one of the better RPGs available.

Monday June 18, 2007

Top MMO?

This week Blake Snow over at GigaOM published an article about the Top 10 Most Popular MMOs, and I have reproduced the list below:

World of Warcraft (big surprise there) - 8.5 million subscribers.
Habbo Hotel - 7.5 million active users
Runescape - 5 million active users
Club Penguin - 4 million active users
Webkinz - 3.8 million active users
Gaia Online - 2 million active users
Guild Wars - 2 million active users
Puzzle Pirates - 1.5 million active users
Lineage I/II - 1 million subscribers
Second Life - 500,000 active users

This story was picked up by bunch of folks and I think it raises some interesting questions regarding what these numbers mean. One point to make is that I personally do not consider Second Life to be a game, but the goal for GigaOM was to track the top 10 online worlds not games. This is a relatively interesting list considering that the list includes both free and pay content, and I wonder how much crossover occurs between these games. For myself, I have Guild Wars and was an active WOW player for a while. I also wonder what makes an active user, and while this would mean some playtime is necessary - the article does not indicate how much is needed.

Now over at XFire, they also track statistics of their users and they have a another top 10 list that lays out play time based on average hours per day. That list is reproduced here:

This list is all about games and shows a much different view of the MMO market. The interesting fact for me was that Maple Story did not show up on the other list, but that is not really what is important. The data collected is from actual gameplay numbers, but only for those users who also run XFire.

These lists give some great insights into who is the 800 pound gorilla of MMOs, but I think it does show that there are some other options out there for folks.

Monday June 11, 2007

Overlord Demo Impressions

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to try the demo for the upcoming XBOx 360 game, Overlord. Think of overlord as an evil version of Nintendo's Pikmin.

In both games, you have minions that you can control to do your bidding, but in Overlord, not only are you evil, you can also take part in the action, axing things or using magic to wreak havoc. Such as casting a fireball into a field of wheat to burn those pesky, demonic halflings which are infesting the land. Oh the halflingmanity. There is nothing like the cries of halflings burning to get the blood going!

Apparently, the real game will have you working your way up to total domination of the world around you, and offing any and all annoying heroes who may get in your way.

The gameplay in the demo was short, but fun. You can control your minions (of which there are several types) by pointing and sending, or by using the right stick to directly control them. Additionally, you can melee attack with your axe or caste magic spells (you only get fireball in the demo). You have certain objectives to accomplish on each level, and you use the minions to help you achieve them, taking breaks in your stronghold (where you can kick the Fool) between levels.

As much fun as it is to burn halflings, I did have a few issues with the game. First, the camera control stinks. You have to depress the
LB and then use the right stick to move the camera. It feels clunky. Also, you can use the Y button to send your minions to a certain spot, but there is no indicator on where, exactly, you are pointing. The same thing happens when casting a spell. But these are seemingly minor nits. In the full game they may become more annoying, or go away with familiarity.

So I'd have to say that Overlord is now on my list of games to acquire. Did I mention that you can regenerate your health and mana by sacrificing your minions at the appropriate shrines? Sweet.

REVIEW: Dungeon Runners

I got a chance to play a new, mostly free, action oriented MMORPG named Dungeon Runners this past weekend and I thought I would share the results.

This new title is produced by NCSoft and acts pretty much exactly like an online Diablo 2 clone. That was a fine game, so you could do a lot worse than copy it. Unfortunately, Dungeon Runners leaves a little to be desired as we'll see below. The game is free to download and play, but if you want certain features - such as a bank or the ability to equip the best items - you have to subscribe. This alone makes it worth your time if you've ever enjoyed Titan Quest or Diablo.

The action is classic hack-n-slash Diablo-style with quantities of monsters rushing around you and needing a smack-down. And the loot drops exactly as in those other action RPG titles - with so much you rapidly run out of ways to carry it. But like all the latest of this style, you can use a scroll to teleport back to town to sell your inventory off and keep going. It is in the loot that the game shows you the first element of its business model. The best items (of mythical, epic, and rare level) are only available for use by subscribers. You can see the item, see its uber stats, but you can't equip it unless you start paying $5/mo. I felt this was ingenious - I've seen plenty of people subscribe right after getting that great piece of loot.

The graphics are pretty poor and much better suited to 1 or 2 generations old graphic cards. This is good in that it plays one a wide variety of systems, but bad in that it looks dated. The music is monotonous - I eventually turned it off completely. Sound effects are reasonable, but nothing special.

Overall the core gameplay is there, but the game seems unfinished in several ways. You can only have 1 character per logon - which seems pretty restrictive for an MMO. You can't trade items to other players without throwing it on the ground - which is pretty odd. The game lacks many of the best conventions of this genre that has been perfected by games like Titan Quest - your inventory isn't sortable, you can't see the entire skills tree to know what to focus towards, and the story is pretty flat. And finally the game has some bizarre NPC audio that attempts to be funny but ends up being annoying. For example, several NPCs with bad Scottish accent's routinly say "I know a lady with a lot of money, her name is Penny." Ugh.

There is a lot to like about Dungeon Runners, but the game has a ways to go as well. At least I can say for sure that the price is right to try it out and see if it's your style of action game.