Gaming Signal: November 2007 Archives

Friday November 30, 2007

Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Well I am going to try to be as unbiased as I possibly can about this review but I admit I'm having a hard time doing that. I usually try to divorce myself from the "fun" you are having playing the game while writing the review to give you, dear reader, the skinny "4 r3@1z!" I admit that this time, with COD4, I can't do it. This game is REALLY GOOD. Infinity Ward's COD4 is where EA/DICE should already be with the "Battlefield" series of games but are unfortunately moving too slowly now that the EA (+4 Sceptre of Marketing) is still bashing heads at EA again to get them to release games way too early and with a support strategy "only a mother could love." But enough EA bashing!

Call of Duty 4 is by far the best implementation of FPS warfare I have run across to date. It is easily better than Halo 3 or Battlefield: 2142 in their respective multiplayer facets. Single player was non-existent in BF:2142, but the single player experience in Halo 3 is similar to COD4 in only one aspect, they are both short. Otherwise, COD4 is the new baseline for FPS as far as I am concerned. I say that with confidence as well and I haven't even played COD4 on the PC yet, but I will. I'm so impressed with COD4 on the 360 that I've added the PC version to my x-mas Amazon list.

Single player is short as I have said, but it is so diverse in gameplay that you are really playing a few different games in there. There is the standard FPS warfare play, then there is FPS sniping, then you are using a stationary gun in a surveillance airplane, then in other vehicles, its similar to earlier COD games in this facet. However, in COD4 they have refined all of these other game elements to a rich degree. So I hear you guys, you say "But Trent. What makes this experience more rich in player experiences over the previous COD games?" It's the little things. Things most developers don't even attempt. "Field of view" is the one that sticks out the most to me. When you true up the sights on a assault rifle, the FOV changes. The closer butt end of the gun becomes blurry while the sights and the target are all in a clear (vignette) where the peripheral vision is blurry as well. This is like shooting a real f-ing gun here. Yes I know this has been done before, but not this well. I'm impressed every time I experience it. COD2 even had this effect but I'll tell you whats different. In COD2 and every other game that has ever attempted it, once you are in the FOV and you move around, in the older games the FOV would not change. In COD4 the FOV adapts to your target. So if you move the FOV changes and you have to adjust a little. It feels "Right" for once and not a gimmick like earlier attempts at FOV.

To finish up with single player, the missions are varied and the situations and locale are very wide and changing, with little reuse of maps from earlier missions. In fact you are changing the protagonist character a lot. In typical COD fashion you follow a US and a UK special forces soldier and switch between the two story arc's a good deal and there is even a surprise in this facet as well. I won't give it away. My only complaint above was that the single player game was a little short, but I feel not that it did not need to be this way. In fact the (real world) loading times of these missions (the whole game for this matter) are so quick that I honestly wanted a little more "cut scene" in between the switch from US to UK soldier to beef up the scene a little and give me time to catch up on where we left off with the US or UK soldier last time the story arc shifted. I can't believe that I actually "asked" for more cut scenes. LOL!

Multi-player is where this game really shines. Perks, challenges, classes, custom classes, barracks in COD4 are all variations of "unlocks" in this game, but unlike BF:2142, COD4 makes them fun instead of just a reward for leveling. Think of these unlocks in a Crackdown kind of way that makes using the weapon in unique ways part of challenges you have to unlock. For example, one of the "Marksman" challenges is to get head shots using the weapons. Sounds simple.... it's not! Some of these take time, some of them are even tied to XBOX live achievement points. Others are just fun unlocks, but all in all I like the way COD4 does this over BF:2142.

Another facet of multiplayer that I think deserves a little discussion are the controls. They are simple, effective, and quick to execute. This is very similar to previous COD games and they had it right there too. I do not find myself having as much trouble playing an FPS on the 360 with a hand held controller with COD4 as I do with Halo 3 or even Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (the BF game franchise on the 360.) The only exception is the crouch button being the RED "B". I think it might have been better for crouch to be the integrated right stick button like in most other 360 FPS games. But honestly I consider this nit-picking.

The graphics and sound are top notch as always in Infinity Ward games. I must say that I think the BLUR and BLOOM are especially well handled in COD4 and the positional audio is really good. I would like to tip my hat to the texture designers of this game for making the opposing teams textures different enough to ensure that you are rarely going to shoot your teammate. The battlefield games still make that tough and they even have different colored text above the players, and I still wind up shooting a teammate every now and then. (Tim / JP, I shoot you guys for fun, its not a mistake.)

Negatives? Well I have maybe just this one. This game needed a "cover" system similar to Ghost Recon or Gears of War. In fact in the single player game, the enemy can use cover! The actual player... not so much. But with all the other perfect execution in this game. I can cope.

Overall COD4 is an excellent purchase. As I mentioned earlier I plan to let my family get me COD4 for the PC for xmas as the PC can support more players in a map at once and of course the benefit of a mouse and "WASD" for controls. (360 supports 18 players max and I think PC is 32.) If you are in to FPS games then I truly believe that COD4 is at the top of its genre right now.

Monday November 26, 2007

REVIEW: Crysis

MY RATING:

By now everybody has heard something about Crysis: either about the jaw-dropping visuals (true), the outrageous system requirements (true), or the emergent gameplay (also true.) You've probably read about the impressive AI for your squadmates and enemies, the various vehicles you can pilot and the nonlinear play. These things are also all true. And by now, you're probably wondering how I could have given the game 3 stars. Well...

What you probably haven't heard about Crysis is that the game is short - maybe 8 hours worth in total. I finished the game on medium difficult in about 8 hours of play - and that was extended only because I had to repeat the ending sequence several times to overcome difficulties in game mechanics and outright bugs. I find this annoying - I felt Far Cry was much longer

You probably didn't know that despite its open-ended nature on ways to solve the various missions, the game itself is on a rail - running you through mission after mission advancing the plot. Half-Life is exactly like this so I don't fault the game for it, but it isn't Grand Theft Auto in any way. Which is too bad, because the game definitely has the engine for it.

The best part of game for me is in the jungle, fighting the elite units of the North Korean army. Humans are always more interesting adversaries to me than aliens and this game is no exception. The enemies AI here is some of the best I've played with agents sounding the alarm, with remote units joining in the fight, and an overall sense that you can't just blast your way through most areas without bringing every enemy in the area down on your head. That said, I had plenty of cases where the AI got the enemies stuck on the terrain or attacking me through a wall. No game is perfect. Most of the first half of the game feels like you against small outposts and bases - and is definately the most fun for me. Near the half-way point, you participate in a larger conventional tank battle and that too is a lot of fun.

You might have heard that the game has a section where you battle in zero gravity. It's true, but it is a terrible gimmick and I didn't find it fun. You might have heard that the game has a snow / ice area. That's also true and this is the spot where the game demands the most of your system. It looks great and plays well - but I have to wonder if it was worth the hardware requirements. The jungle environments of the first half of the game are equally impressive and a blast to play.

The game changes dramatically towards the end, switching styles from fighting squads of humans to fighting wave after wave of flying aliens. And in the very end, the game has you fighting a series of boss battles against larger and larger alien craft. It doesn't help that there are bugs here (as of this writing) that makes it impossible to complete sometimes, but the game mechanics themselves change and become lame. I have no idea why they did this when the rest of the game is so good.

My system is an AMD X2 4200 (dual core), 2GB RAM, with dual nVidia 7800GTX graphics cards in SLI and a 24" widescreen Gateway monitor. So far, this rig has handled everything thrown at it - but not Crysis. For the ending sections, I had to turn down all the settings to 'Low' and reduce the resolution to play. It's kind of a bummer, because I feel the game looks worse than Half-Life 2 with those settings yet barely provided 30 fps. I have not played multiplayer yet because I feel I would be at a huge disadvantage with such a low framerate.

My bottom line is - the single player game is short, the game requires a top of the line gaming rig to play. The game starts out very strong but gets weaker as the game goes along. That's why it gets 3 out of 5 from me.

Sunday November 25, 2007

Space Time Studios' New Science Fiction MMO: Time To Get Excited?

The crew over at Ten Ton Hammer have an interview up with Space Time Studios' Cinco Barnes and Gary Gattis called Creating a Science-Fiction Epic. Space Time Studios is a new developer populated by ex-developers from Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online and Shadowbane. They are working with NC Soft on a completely new IP, one that they call 'science-fantasy'. Which basically means something more along the lines of Star Wars than Earth and Beyond.

The kicker is that this new MMO will be designed, from the ground up, to feature fighter ship combat in space, and, in fact, the game will be almost entirely set in space. This really piques my interest. I really liked Earth and Beyond for the 'entirely in space' reason but got tired of the hellish grind.

This new MMO will ask the players to take an active role in combat, as there is no 'auto-attack' button as in so many other MMOs. The results will be mostly be derived from a player's skill, but the avatar's skills will also play a role. So most likely akin to Tabula Rasa's aim-and-shoot mechanic. Only in space and between ships. Awesome.

I know there are some of you out there saying, "What about Eve Online?" And yes, Eve is out there, but the focus there is strictly PvP and more on capital ships than on smaller ships. Eve also has a distinct lack of story and it has a huge learning curve.

Hopefully Space Time Studios can find a way to not make running around in space boring and will give us something interesting to play. I know I'll be watching this one closely as they continue to develop.

Wednesday November 21, 2007

Interesting MMO Items

Just when you thought it was safe to be a MMO hater, they go and do soemthing to pull you back in. For instance:

Tabula Rasa guy Starr Long gives an interview with TenTonHammer where he describes high-level mounts: mechs. Sorry, Personal Armor Units. But we all know what they mean. Even if it's really powered armor like in Starship Troopers, that is still really intriguing. Of course, you have to slot through many levels of killing space rats to get there, but, Mechs!

It seems that Realtime Worlds, the brains behind Crackdown, are working on their own MMO, called APB. As you can tell by the name, its a police/crime MMO, hopefully patterned after Crackdown. Take a look at the concept art for some interesting character artwork. I'm sure Pete is signing up right now...

I know no one here plays EVE Online, but this is still impressive. They are releasing a new update soon, called EVE Trinity and just take a look at the screenies. Damn, that is sweet. Too bad there really isn't much of a game here, this much spaceship goodness is tempting.

Sunday November 18, 2007

A trio of PSP titles

Recently I went to India and took along my trusty PSP as a way to pass the time on the interminable 18 hour trip (plus - just for me - 7 hours layover in Frankfort, Germany!) Besides 3 books and half of the first season of Heroes on my PC (thank you bittorent), I bought three new titles and tried them out.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions: Nice game for the PSP overall, but slower than I would like. If I have one gripe about the PSP, it is that many games are slow - either in load times or during the game. FFT suffers from long and frequent load times. It really sucks, because I keep feeling I could be having so much more fun than I am. The game mechanics are fun and leveling up is very interesting. The game does throw you in the deep end rather quickly and your RPG choices aren't entirely obvious. It hasn't impacted my game yet, but I can see people easily making poor choices on skills / levels. The gameplay is good, with interesting combat. The game has too many hints during play, but I'm hoping there is a way to turn them off that I just haven't found. I have yet to play a Final Fantasy game that I actually like, but FFT is the favorite of all I have played so far. There are some Japanese things I have a hard time with like the male protagonist appearing like a girl - he's fair and pretty and long-haired and some very strange dialog sequences, but otherwise this is a solid game. If you like Final Fantasy, I bet you'll find this one worth playing.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror: This game was a bargain buy at Best Buy because it isn't a new title. And what luck, because the game is a ton of fun. This is the first shooter on the PSP I felt I could actually play without cursing the interface. And, load times are quick and infrequent - another bonus. The special forces guy that you are plays well and has lots of interesting gadgets that are easy to use. I highly recommend this title.

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters: A platformer that has extremely high production value. This has to be the prettiest game on the PSP that I own. The shooter elements are fun, and the puzzles are interesting. I haven't gotten too deep into this game yet (Syphon Filter took up a lot of my time) but I am definitely enjoying it. If I have one complaint, it is that the save system is a bit odd - but once you get used to it things work fine.

Thursday November 15, 2007

MMOs, Parenting And Time

Mark over on Channel Massive has decided that you can be a great parent or a great gamer but you can't be both.

Let's ignore the definition of 'great', which in this case is basically anyone who can engage in end game, high level raid content. That isn't a mark of greatness, necessarily, more a mark of someone with a lot time available to them. Which brings us to the parenting. As parent, we all know our gaming time is very limited. I haven't even played much of anything except for an hour over the last weekend. But, I disagree that you can't be a 'great' gamer and a great parent. You can. Look at Scott. It's just a question of time management, and making the most of the gaming time you do have.

Unfortunately, good time management skills and the discipline to use them aren't skills that everyone has. That's when you get people who forgo their families to do nothing but game. Those people don't prove the axiom being put forth. It is possible, but not by everyone.

But what I find more interesting is the following comment by Mark in the comment section of his post:

What's really interesting is the conjecture that this is indicative of bad game design or at least a problem int he way MMOs work today. I totally agree and can't believe I missed this HUGE point in writing the post. What the hell is wrong with people making games that have these kinds of time requirements for players to achieve the high end (defined by the game) of success?

Mark is talking about this post on CuppyCake, basically saying that the huge time needed to get the high end content is a design flaw in MMOs. Well, no. It's designed that way for one reason: Money. The more time it takes you to reach a goal, the more monthly payments you'll make and thus the more money the developers get. That's why things get harder and take longer as you level. I can't believe no one mentioned this. It's a business decision which influenced the game design. You may not like it, but unless someone shows a different model can work, you'll have the time sinks in every MMO.

The Return of Bloodbowl. For the PSP!

I have fond memories of the first edition of Blood Bowl, the bloodily fun 'football' game from Gamesworkshp. Who wouldn't like a team coached by Tom O'Landry the Undying? BB has gone through many changes since its first incarnation, and it has a rabid fan base still. Now developer Cyanide announced it will be developing Blood Bowl for Xbox 360, PSP,and DS. This is great news. Imagine playing BB over Xbox Live or a pickup game at the office (darn you Tim for moving into another building) on the PSP.

Too bad it releases in late 2008. So much time to wait.

Best. Halftime Show. Ever.

On Nov. 3rd, the University of California, Berkeley faced off against Washington State in a football game. That means marching bands at halftime. Not content to have the same old show, the UCB band did something a little different. Their entire show consisted of video game music: Mortal Kombat, Mario and Zelda. Also, check out the cool Pokeball configuration. Awesome. Nice Tetris moves too.

However, there is a disturbing lack of Moon Patrol music. Kids these days....

Wednesday November 14, 2007

PSP to play PS3 games?

The November issues of Game Informer magazine indicates that Sony has announced plans to allow the Remote Play feature (which allows the Playstation Portable to utilize the Playstation 3's browser and view video content remotely today) to play games from the PS3 at the recent Tokyo Games Show. That is to say: a PSP wirelessly hooked to the Internet could connect to your PS3 at home and play games from it anywhere in the world. All I can say to that is: Wow.

Now it isn't clear which games can be played that way - just PSOne games or any PS3 title. If you can play PS3 titles it isn't obvious to me how the PSPs limited controls could work right. The technology behind this apparently has the PS3 rending the game in the resolution of the PS3 and streaming the video output to it. I saw somebody complain that this proved the PS3 hardware wasn't all that advanced if the PSP could play the game but that person didn't understand the technology - the PS3 is doing the heavy lifting, the PSP is just acting as a remote terminal.

In any case, this is the first time I've been interested in a PS3. Of course, there would have to be some unique content for it too and so far, that seems to be lacking. Until that happens, I'll stick with my 360.

A Rogue Game For The DS?

Joystiq says that Mistwalker's latest DS game just may be a Roguelike dungeon crawler. It's called Away: Shuffle Dungeon, which lends some credence to the assumption. How cool would that be? I might actually buy a game for myself for once.

But how awesome would a Rogue game be on the PSP? Now we're cooking with gas. That's what I'd like to see, and you wouldn't even need shiny graphics. Just a deep crawler that's fun to play. That would be cool.

But if you want to play something now, you could always try one of the more popular Rogue games for the PC: Ancient Domains Of Mystery. Of course, for something a little different, you could always try Dwarf Fortress, unless you are a h8a like Tim.

MMO, Solo Content, and longevity...

Massively is a relatively new blog in the Weblogs Inc network, and focuses on MMOs. At this point (since it is very new), it is an excellent resource for all things MMO. It covers older and newer games which is something I am interested in since I am still intrigued by these games.

Alas, I digress from my main point here which is sparked by a post titled "Is single player content hurting MMORPGs?" by Kevin Stallard. In this post, Kevin indicates that perhaps the changes in the market to add things like instances and solo content maybe causing more harm than good. Now we should clarify that the harm that he is referring to is in the "community" or social elements that games like Everquest produced. He claims that the whole spawn camping, forced grouping, and non-instanced content helped to create a community since they really had to interact much more due to negotiating camps and finding groups. I don't agree with him, but I will get to that later. He points to the forums for a server where there is still activity after seven years, and claims that maybe that mentality has increased the staying power for these older games. And this is where I wonder what he was trying to say, is the point that some of these crappy design elements and un-fun gaming elements were what make these games continue to exist while newer titles have fallen by the wayside?

Now I won't deny that there were some great communities that sprung up during my time in Everquest, but the whole forced grouping and lack of solo content did not create those. These communities exist in other games such as the community over at Texas Teamplayers. See my feeling is that much of this community that Mr. Stallard talks about is a byproduct of the market situation at the time where EQ, UO and DAOC were first released. For many folks, these were the first games of this type they ever saw, and when you add the fact that this was also a time of huge growth in the web - then you have a formula for community building.

Another factor is that drove this community building at that time was the fact that the game required effort to level. Having a level 50 character in EQ for a long time was something to be awed by. This avatar was an extension of that person, and for me my avatar was that. Furthermore, voice chat was not all that available unless you dialed up your guildmates on a conference call. To help facilitate communication and to allow guilds to communicate, folks started building communities. As EQ started to fade (not disappear and I doubt it will every truly go away), the communities continued to exist. These folks still maintain contact on forums no matter what game they play.

I do not agree with Mr. Stallard on the topic that the strength of the community that forms around a given title will give it staying power alone. I would also disagree with the statement that UO and EQ are "going strong", but they do have pretty stable populations. The reason some of the newer MMOs failed have more to do with the "me too" mentality and the fact that the property was not all that impressive. Take one look at Vanguard and it's early claims to bring back the hard core MMO game. The game pretty much has fizzled and while has expanded Sony's library of games - it has not been elevated to the levels that Everquest and World of Warcraft have.

Tuesday November 13, 2007

Do You Enjoy The Grind In Your MMO?

Almost all MMOs have a grind of one type or another, and most of us dread the time where the grind overtakes the game, then sucks the fun out of it. WOW Insider has the solution: listen to an audio book while grinding!

This may very well be a good idea, but the underlying assumption here is the MMO in question isn't fun enough, isn't compelling enough to keep your attention so you have to find something else to do while 'playing' the game. I realize Kevin likes to watch DVDs while playing, and that's just another version of Insider's idea, although watching a DVD takes more attention than listening to a book. Still, if the game you are playing is made more...palatable by doing something else concurrently, just how much fun is the game really?

This is a big problem I have with MMOs. At lower levels, the grind is non-existent to hardly there, but at some point it will rear its ugly head and make you wonder just why you're killing the 1000th 'rat' to find it's magic spleen. The minute I think that doing something else while playing is appealing, it's time to stop. Can you imagine doing this with a game like Oblivion?

I guess I just don't 'get' this mindset.

Monday November 12, 2007

A Companion Cube Of Your Very Own

Admit it, you cried a little inside when you were forced to euthinize your companion cube in Portal. After all the help it gave you and all the encouragement, even though the companion cube can't speak, you were cruelly forced to incinerate the cube after a job well done.

The people at Steam feel your pain, and have decided to do something about it. Now, in the very near future, you will be able to re-unite with your companion cube when you purchase your very own plush companion cube! And the 'fuzzy dice' verison? Awesome. Now you'll never have to be alone again.

Rock Band Band Mockumentary

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're aware that Rock Band is releasing on November 20th. To celebrate this occasion, MTV and Harmonix got together anr produced a VH1 Mockumentary about the Rock Band Band.

Apparently more of these are in store. As for the game itself, it looks like a lot of fun, especially if you can find three other people to play it with. Maybe Trent will get the whole shebang for us to play! Way to go Trent!