I'll Defend Yu
After trying to be productive for the better part of the morning, I found myself without much to do. Boredom set in. And naturally, my thoughts turned towards the stack of games I'd gathered in the past month; free time proved to be a precious commodity during the weeks of E3 preparation and I often chose to spend it socially rather than with a controller in-hand. Yet this afternoon, rather than peel the plastic off Enthusia or Devil May Cry 3, or return to Guild Wars to level, I somehow got the urge to robotically run through the streets of '80s era Hong Kong in Yu Suzuki's flawed epic Shenmue II for the Xbox. I know. I'm completely insane.

Right trigger to run? Come on. Required d-pad assisted turning that make Resident Evil's oft-ridiculed controls feel fluid? Yup, it's in there. It's almost as if the developer went out of its way to make playing the game as frustrating as possible. And don't even get me started on the dialogue or voice acting. If I hadn't already had an early save game on my Xbox, I would've returned to the subtitled Dreamcast version. The Japanese vocal track is far superior to the laughable localization most are familiar with.

The gameplay, too, is heavily flawed. I'm quite fond of the fact that Ryo Hazuki, our main character, has to work a job to afford life on the road. Or rather, I'm fond of the idea. In practice, the work segments are a bit too repetitious and often too dependant on luck rather than skill. I don't expect work to be fun, even in a videogame, but I would like the ability to excel and earn more money in turn. Shenmue, unfortunately, doesn't often allow for that sort of thing. And can it get tedious...

MORE...

A Look At Spore
Next time you've got an hour free, take a look at Will Wright's Spore Presentation from the 2005 Game Developer's Conference on the GDCTV website. (registration required) With all the complaints about me-too titles and sequels, FPS-overload and yearly Madden releases, it's quite motivating to see that the creative mind behind the Sims is most definitely doing his part to initiate change.

The post-presentation buzz on the GDC floor was enough to make those who had other appointments scheduled during the same hour wishing for an encore performance. Now after having seen the video, I want my hour back, as well.

Before I start throwing out hyperbole after hyperbole, I'll let you take a moment to watch. Hearing the pitch from a third-party just won't cut it. Take a look, and discuss this ultra-revolutionary piece of software when you get back. Damn, let one slip ;)

Missing Inaction
Personally, one of the most disappointing aspects of E3 2005 was the lack of PSP software on the show floor; notice that I didn't say "interesting software" or "innovative software" or "puppy-raising simulation software." Because above all else, it is simply the absolute lack of software for the platform that I find disturbing.

Daydreaming about the future possibilites that the platform will allow is not even necessary; the revolutionary gameplay experiences that the platform and it's innards allow have been available since the moment the unit hit retail shelves in the States. Case in point: Matt's Star Wars review -- it has almost nothing to do with the film, I assure you.

MATT + PSP = BLISS

Downloadable content and network play are already a reality. And while online play isn't currently available in a tremendous assortment of titles, it still exists. Right now. On the PSP. I'm not asking for Soul Calibur III, Quake PSP or a fancy new online MMO to hit tomorrow. But I would've liked some indication that interesting, innovative software is in the works. I know it is, it just would've been nice to see it.

I never thought the DS would have a more impressive showing this year than Sony's little handheld beast, but that's exactly what happened. I'll take Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, and Electroplankton over Burnout any day of the week.

Reaction to Nothing

A freelancer for a product I work on wrote this quickie fluff article that slapped me in the face this morning. Am I over-reacting? His tone just made something inside me rankle.

Okay, calm down; it's obviously not serious, it's just meant to be funny and light-hearted. But it falls too short on satire.

And frankly, the picture gives me a real physical reaction (a different one, I am certain, than the one it gives the young men it's designed to titillate.) It makes me not want to go to the front page of our own website. You see? The same image that makes men nearly unconsciously click on stuff makes many women avoid it. And you wonder why women don't read gaming magazines?

And what we want are boobies. Big ones. The larger, the better. Preferably attached to a female whose IQ numbers in the double digits.

The thing is, I don't know what he's complaining about. His needs are fully satisfied right now. Boobs are everywhere. Any female character in a mainstream video game is pretty much guarranteed to have balloons stuck to her chest, unless she's supposed to be "nerdy" or "smart", I guess. And they're not in any danger of going away.

So this article is a whole lot of nothing. A chance to show some cleavage and get hits. A cheap shot. Not badly written, at that, for which I have to give Scott credit; but it's not anything new. It's the same old story we've been hearing for years from game developers resistant to change. They have a formula, they know it works, and they don't want to change it.

Me, though, I'm ready for some changes. The problem isn't that there's big boobs right now - the problem is that there's nothing but big boobs when it comes to depicting women. You want to feature boobs on the cover? Fine. But I want something else. And that's what I'm trying to make, I guess. Something else.

So thank you Scott. I came to bury you, not to praise you. But your article had the effect of reinforcing my convictions. I want alternatives. I want new perspectives. I want ... jesus. I just want to move on.

Why Do We Care?

I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones lately. On the way to work, on the way home. Sitting on the couch while watching TV. Sitting on the couch while I intend to play something else, some other, bigger, more important game, like God of War, or Jade Empire.

But it's Fire Emblem that really calls to me, with its 2D graphics and melodramatic, hokey storyline. And as I play it, I have to ask myself, what makes me care so much about this game?

MORE...

PAX Arcadia

Penny-Arcade just announced that Nintendo would be an exhibitor at this year's PAX! How cool is that? I've often heard criticism that Nintendo is too aloof, too closed, but at least someone in their marketing department is doing something right.

I'm gonna be there this year. How about you?

Manifesto 2005

Every so often we see one of these; but this particular one is impressively detailed, long, and difficult to argue with.

But it's not all pessimism. This manifesto is smart, and makes real suggestions that can be implemented TODAY. And some (like #19) are about refraining from doing something in a game that we don't want.

Now, can we collectively do that for game publications? If we were to make a manifesto of everything we wanted from gaming magazines, what would that look like?

Development After Retail
E3 has come and passed, delighting those who were required to cover the event, as it signals the start of the slightly slower-paced gaming season that precedes the holiday rush. Say what you will about the quality of the products on display this year -- it seems many came away from the event feeling slightly underwhelmed -- but there were definitely a few reasons to make the trek to Los Angeles last week.

TOMONOBU ITAGAKI.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a relatively small party hosted by Tecmo and Team Ninja celebrating the end of a Dead or Alive Ultimate online tournament. The top eight players from around the world were in attendance to compete against each other for the top spot and a chance to meet the game's illustrious and often misunderstood creator, Tomonobu Itagaki.

I was delighted by the diversity of the players in attendance; they had come from not only the US and Japan, but also New Zealand, Taiwan, and Mexico. While most players were young men, the crowd favorite was clearly the middle-aged Japanese woman who had made her way through the ranks to take on the world's other top players. Watching them play was impressive; many disregard DOA due to its deceptively simplistic fighting mechanics. But watching skilled players -- the world's best, in fact -- does make it much easier to respect the game. No button masher would've stood a chance in that room.

MORE...

Well played, Nintendo

While initially watching Nintendo's E3 conference, I wasn't completely impressed. The console looks alright, but with little more than a 3-second Metroid Prime 3 video, it was pretty obvious that Nintendo was nowhere near as far along in their next-gen console development as Microsoft or Sony.

The Game Boy Micro didn't do it for me either. Even in light of the PSP, I still consider the Game Boy SP as the closest thing to a perfect portable system. Small, simple, and a folding structure that keeps the screen from scratches. The Micro is just a small Game Boy Advance. No new features. No music playing. Nothing too new, really.

However, then Nintendo dropped the bomb for me. "Virtual console." The ability to play 20 years of Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 first-party (and hopefully third-party) games. Wow. Wow-oh-wow. This was what caught my attention. This is what I'm excited about with Nintendo's new console, and I doubt I'm the only one. If there's anything Nintendo has going for it right now, it's a great library of older games. And while it may not be the same as the tech demos of the PS3 and Xbox 360, I now know I'm going to need one of these babies.

Well played, Nintendo. Well played.

Armistice

A lot of us were disappointed by the Xbox unveiling on Mtv. I didn't see it, but I've read and heard the comments. And most of you also acknowledge that it wasn't meant for us.

That is absolutely the most important thing to understand about this whole launch: it wasn't about us. It wasn't about games. As of yesterday, the console wars are over.

We're looking at a new dawn rising, friends.

Xbox 360 does not compete with Sony or Nintendo. It is not a gaming console. It is a powerful device to deliver content online and over WiFi. Microsoft's real competition is Apple, Yahoo, and Google. Apple's movie-download service. Yahoo's retail channels. Google's - well, everything. Heck, throw Comcast and TiVo in there for good measure. The games are merely a means to an end - an "instant-on revenue to support an exponential expansion into the livingroom," as Eric put it over an IM chat we had.

A reporter recently asked me to comment on how important it was to be first in the console wars. But that's an irrelevant issue, now. Microsoft has redefined the space on its own terms. It's not a console war anymore. Microsoft has altered the terms of the conflict to cater to their strengths. It is now a war of integrated systems and services. Sony and Nintendo? They're still making gaming systems. Fancier ones, but nothing like what Microsoft has in mind for Xbox 360.

This was really driven home to me while at Ryan's house, checking out his modded Xbox. That thing was a buffed-out media center. We browsed the web, downloaded videos, and watched them. Ryan scrolled through the files on the Xbox as well as the files on his laptop. He had tons of games loaded on, ready to play. Freedom from packaged software. Freedom from wires. Freedom. The Xbox 360 saw this, and understood; it was always a part of their plan, anyways; the hackers got it first, but Microsoft will polish it. Can the PS3 and the Revolution compete? No, not at the stakes Microsoft is playing for.

The reason the unveiling played out the way it did is because they don't really need to convince us of anything. We're all just along for the ride. Gamers? We're small potatoes to Microsoft. A means to an end.

Which came first, the rhythm or the game?

Tycho at Penny-Arcade makes a great point in the last paragraph of today’s news post in response to the recent Gamespy review change. In it he criticizes reviewers for concentrating on music they like or dislike in rhythm games rather than the actual gameplay. According to Tycho, "What I want to know is if these new songs provide interesting, original rhythms I can play solo or with my friends when they come over. Will it extend the amusement I get from the peripherals I purchased?"

The man is on to something. Just because a song is good doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fun in a game. With a game like Donkey Konga, no one expects Pink Floyd’s The Wall or some such music. It wouldn’t work, nor would it feel right. Meanwhile, bouncy pop songs are far more fun for pounding and clapping on a plastic drum.

The music that I like on my stereo is far different from the music I like in my video games. I may bounce like a wounded whale playing “Butterfly” in DDR, but that doesn’t mean I listen to it while writing. On the same token, I may have a saccharine affinity for The Geto Boys, but I doubt anyone would want to shake electric maracas to their music.

The problem, of course, is that a music video game is not the same as a music video. In the majority of music videos, what occurs on screen is propelled and filtered through the music, which is produced to be listened to on its own. In rhythm games, you have the opposite. The music is filtered through the gameplay. Therefore whether a song in a rhythm game is enjoyable or not relies far more on how fun the game is than if it will fall into some form of collegiate musical canon.

In Other News

...I guess they unveiled something an hour ago.

The Big Score Issue

Scandal at Gamespy: a reviewer is angry that Gamespy inflated his score and added phrases he didn't write in order to justify the better score. Gamespy has taken down the article due to controversy.

The thing is, I can understand both sides - as can all of us working for game pubs. On the one hand, I'd be pissed as a writer if my score and text were altered without my knowledge. I mean, what are you paying me for? Give me feedback, but don't make up stuff I didn't say. My NAME is on it.

But as an editor dealing with freelancers I know ... time is of the essence; we don't have time to ask the freelancer to reconsider, maybe replay the game. And when the review goes up, readers respond to it as a Gamespy review, not as a Nich Maragos review.

The problem is when Gamespy's editorial opinion is different from the reviewer's. And ultimately, the question is, does the editor have control over the voice of the entire product (the website or magazine)? In this case, the editors had already given an earlier version of the game a pretty decent score - they liked the game. So what do you do when one guy goes against that and gets all curmudgeonly? Do you let one lone, cranky reviewer have the final say? What if the editor thinks the reviewer was out of line?

It's not a case of "Gamespy sucks Nintendo's cock" or any other crappy shallow assessment of the situation; Gamespy has a right to try to control the editorial voice. The problem is we feed on an industry where TIME is at a premium - the idea is, whoever gets the newest stuff up FIRST wins. So we scramble to put up reviews and previews and news as fast as we possibly can. And in this case it meant that Gamespy editorial decided to quickly edit a freelancer's review to reflect more closely what they thought the game should get, instead of trying to talk to the reviewer and come to a better solution.

Are review scores sometimes artificially inflated? Of course. There was a notorious incident of Maxim, of all pubs, inflating a score after a prominent game publisher called them up for a chat. But I doubt very much in this case that Gamespy got an angry call from Nintendo. I think it far more likely that the decision was internal.

I don't know what the answer is. Maybe we're still asking the wrong questions. Maybe instead of haggling over scores we need to look more closely at the systemic issues of covering this industry. Maybe we need to ditch the review scores. Maybe we need to take more time developing stories about games.

Maybe we need a revolution.

Getting Up to Blogging

Marc Ecko has a blog on 1-Up. He's a very articulate speaker, so I'm not surprised that his writing is direct and clean, with well-paced emotional touches. I hope he keeps it up.

Electronic Boys vs. Frag Girls

"Shoe" writes about the EGM vs. Frag Dolls match up. What can I say? It made me smile.

The Worst-Kept Secret in the Industry

By now we've all seen the Xbox 360. And we know that yes, it is called the Xbox 360, we have a pretty good idea of what the specs are, and we've all seen the pretty, pretty pictures. And is Microsoft freaking out?

No way. They are fat and happy. This is perfect for them - the rumor-mongering and passionate debates among geeks over whether or not the leaked photos were fake or real or new alien technology turned a simple new console release into a home entertainment revolution that ended up being too big for the game industry - spilling over into the cultural wasteland of MTV.

At this point Sony might as well not show up to E3. Oh, we're mildly curious, I suppose. But their thunder has been good and stolen. Nintendo? I love you, but you might as well wait until next year to say anything. 2005 belongs to Microsoft.

The best way to make sure everyone's talking about your secret is to call it a secret and make sure you tell everyone not to tell anyone. It's a lesson that catty girls learned in junior high--the quickest way to spread a rumor and take over the playground. Turns out Microsoft is pretty good at it, too.

Forza Force

Forza is a new racing game that is blowing people away with its realistic physics and amazing blah blah blah. I don't care about that. What's awesome is the level of customization possible (if you're an incredibly dedicated customizer). Check it out.

Our Fake Best Friends

It's no surprise that Nintendogs is the best-selling game in Japan right now. Famitsu gave it a perfect score. The game is driving sales of the DS.

I can understand it. Nintendogs is brilliant - such a simple idea, executed with such cuddly charm. To not feel something when the virtual puppy responds to your stylus-petting is to have a heart of stone.

Japan excells at wringing feelings out of cold digital or robotic beings. Even slick-and-cool Sony scored a place in people's hearts with the Aibo. Virtual pets like Aibo and Nintendogs make sense in a place like Japan where having a real cat or dog is a luxury; but I think the appeal is deeper than that. These simulcra tap into our deep need to love; they take advantage of our innate programming - by displaying the symptoms of affection, they can awaken real affection in us to the point where we feel a true bond.

Japan is already taking this to the next logical step, with robot therapy [via Gonzalo]. We've all heard that pets help the aged live longer, more fulfilling lives...well, it seems that even fake pets help. As long as our emotions are real, it doesn't seem to matter. For Japan, this is just an extension of all those cute critters telling you what to do at train stations, at police stations, in shopping malls - they direct not by force, but through the power of affectionate mascots.

I think this could be extended into all sorts of fields - training, education, work, other forms of therapy. Like dolls, but with the capacity to respond. Never underestimate the power of the human heart.