Second Story Gamer

This article, a month ago, would be a lot longer and a lot more critical. But seeing as Sony’s moves are finally paying off for them, I’m going to give them a lot more credit. Their decision to but a Blu-ray drive into their machine has really worked for them. I’m planning to buy one very soon for that very reason. Their decision to make a ultra-powerful machine is starting to pay off, as their games are looking better and better. But that doesn’t mean they are in the clear just yet:

Help out the Third-Parties

Even thought third-parties are getting better at developing for the PS3, they are still not at the quality of their 360 counterparts, which is ridiculous as Sony definitely has the superior machine in terms of raw hardware. Sony needs to get up off their throne and stoop down to help the struggling third parties, namely EA Sports, whose games are much, much better on the 360. Without third party support even Sony will fall.

Standardize the SKUs

Another problem of Sony’s is the customer confusion that they are causing by releasing forty different SKUs, all with differing backwards compatibility support and hard drive size etc. Sony needs to make just one or two SKUs and stick with them. Switching them every few months will not help them.

Include Backwards Compatibility in Every Console

Mark my words, Sony’s decision to include backwards compatibility in only select SKUs will hurt them in the long run. Although the library is growing, it is not even close to that of the 360. Adding the potential to have the thousands of games that were released on the PS2 just improves the value of the console. Removing the library of the PS2 just makes the PS3 a Blu-ray player (which, I’m sure, Sony doesn’t mind, but would rather it be used for both).

Release Home

Sony needs to get their online play together very quickly, because they are being continuously trumped by Xbox Live. The PSN is pathetic compared to the quality of Xbox Live. I’m skeptical of Home right now because I really can’t see myself spending time there. Sony would do better to release some sort of cross-media bar first, then add Home later. They are doing the advanced without the basics. But if Home has some sort of accessible system to invite friends it could be a success.

Their problems are definitely manageable, compared to their influx of problems for most of last year. Hopefully they can sort them out and deal with them as soon as possible. Be sure to check back tomorrow for my tips for Nintendo. And check out yesterday’s How to Save the PC.

We all know it: The PC gaming market is drowning in a sea of piracy ( that’s a strange pun). PC games only accounted for about 13-14% of total sales in 2007 and will likely go down even farther as the consoles continue to provide a lifeboat for the sinking ship that is the PC gaming market. Here’s some things that need to be done within the market:

Strengthen the PC Gaming Alliance

The PC Gaming Alliance was unveiled during GDC. The only problem with this agreement is that there are a few organizations that definitely need to be on here. Specifically missing on this list is Valve. Valve’s Steam has been considered considerably superior to Microsoft’s Games for Windows initiative that has as of yet fell on its face. If Valve was in this Alliance, Microsoft could cooperate with them in making an application for the PC that would rival that of the consoles. Also missing from this list is EA, who also has a very successful PC franchise in the Sims. Adding EA just adds more authority and unity into the Alliance.

Standardize the System Requirements

Before you scream that it’s a PC not a console, hear me out. I’m not talking about putting specific requirements into every PC, I’m talking about the requirements of the games. The CPU and RAM requirements are nothing but extra confusion to the end consumer. I think that there should be a letter scale of the minimum setting the game needs to run. For example, say a 2.0 GHZ 2 gb RAM machine is a grade B. Every game that has a 2.0 GHZ 2 gb RAM minimum requirement would a B game. There could be problems with the updating of such system, but I’m sure the Alliance could work out some sort of agreement. Maybe they could do a yearly update.

Stop Fragmenting the Market

In some ways, PC developers are to blame for the downfall of PC games. They love to cut off their potential consumers for some reason. I really don’t understand why a developer would make a game like Crysis. The game works well on a fraction of the available PCs so they are already slicing the PC user base. I understand that people like to push the technology, but why would anyone want to spend millions of dollars to make an insanely pretty game that no one will buy because they can’t play it. Who wants to go out and buy a $1000 machine to play the newest PC games when you can play your games on a less expensive console or on any computer’s web browser.

Get Gamers away from WoW

Out of all of these tips this one may actually be the hardest. Gamers who are playing WoW aren’t buying new games and aren’t supporting the PC Market. All they do is play WoW and continue to help Blizz- sorry Activision Blizzard get enough money to buy several countries. Good luck developers.

Stop Piracy

This is the most vital of all of the tips. Games aren’t selling on the PC because pirates are hacking into the code and putting the game on Bit torrent for anyone to download for free. Who would bother spending $50 on a game when you can play it for free? PC developers need to find better copyright protection software and need to get harder punishments for game pirates.

As you can see, PC Gaming has a long way to go before it can catch up once again to the consoles. Hopefully, the Alliance will help revitalize the PC market and PC developers can make money again. Be sure to check back tomorrow for my tips for Sony and the PS3.

Some of you may groan when I say that the PS3 is getting another SKU. But, trust me, this one is nothing to cringe about. Sony actually released a new bundle that will not be removing features from the console. I’m so proud of them. In June they are releasing the PS3 bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4 and a new Dual Shock 3 controller. Well, I was planning to buy a PS3 in the next few weeks, since Blu-ray has just demolished HD-DVD, but I guess I’ll have to wait this one out. Ok, so there is something to groan about: resisting the temptation to buy a PS3 now when theres a better one coming out in a few months. Needless to say, things are looking very good for the PS3 this year.

    Remember that cute little addon-drive for the Xbox 360?  Probably not, because about three people bought the thing.  Yeah, well that thing is now $50.  Now, if this thing still comes with 6 HD-DVDs (I’m not sure if it does) then it may actually be worth the money.  If it doesn’t, Microsoft should just give it away for free.  Who would think of buying a $50 potential brick.  But if you are a collector or have some fetish for dead technologies, this is the perfect news story for you.  Hey, the thing is pretty cute.

EA has recently offered to buy Take-Two Interactive for $26 a share, which roughly equals $2 billion. We’ve heard time and time gain that Take-Two’s situation wasn’t great and that they were ready for a change in ownership. I would really like to see Microsoft try to buy this company as their first-party is definitely crumbling. But that seems like it will not happen since Micrsoft has been throwing their cash around with Yahoo, and I doubt they will want to spend more money. Other than Microsoft, EA seems like the best choice for this struggling company. EA has become a much better company in recent times and I think they could definitely handle Take-Two. And it might even put them back on top for the biggest publisher in the industry, after Activision Blizzard (I hate saying that name) trumped them not so long ago. One thing you got to remember though: Rockstar will be free from Take-Two soon and they are, arguably, the biggest part of that company. We will see how this plays out

Ah, Assassin’s Creed. I really wasn’t planning on playing this game until my friend let me borrow it the other day. This game is great, but it definitely has some minor flaws.

Let’s start out with the graphics. This game is gorgeous; there’s no other way to describe it. The lighting, the textures everything is beautiful. The framerate is smooth and the draw distance is very good. Any graphics whore would faint when seeing this game. Well, since we’re on the topic of graphics, I’ll bring up the animations. The best animated game I have ever seen. Everything looks realistic and has a different animation. The climbing up the walls and all of the combat looks totally fluid without the usual jaggedness usually attributed to video games. Everything about this game visually is stunning.

Now onto the slightly less enthusiastic part: the gameplay. No, I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just that it’s not great. The actual combat pales in comparison to the graphics but by no means is it bad. The swordplay revolves around a counterattack system in which you wait for the enemy to begin to attack, then gruesomely kill them. The scaling of various buildings is insanely fun; It’s kind of like how you loved climbing buildings in Crackdown. Again, it gets a very good score on this part.

So thats marked off the list; let’s get to the story. The story is actually very interesting, if dull at times. That may seem like an oxymoron to you so let me explain. The whole premise the story that (SPOILER) you go back into your ancestors memories is quite interesting. But, it’s plagued with overlong scenes with you just listening to other characters speaking. Sure you can move around a bit and change the camera angle, but that gets old fast. One, thing I’ll give this game is that some of these scenes are actually quite gut wrenching. During one scene, you actually helplessly see a prisoner’s legs being broken ruthlessly by a crazed doctor. These scenes have gone relatively unmentioned by most reviewers, so I thought I should mention them.

The rest of it is pretty good. The AI is very good for the citizens of the city, but is merely passable for the soldiers, because I’ve killed a soldier right, in front of another and him not do anything. But, that only happens rarely. Getting from one city to another, I got lost a few times, and it gets annoying, but thankfully you can skip it after one time.

All in all, this is a great game. I would definitely recommend picking it up if you haven’t got it already. If you liked Crackdown or Prince of Persia, you will probably like this game. At least give it a rent.

Rating:

    Again, slightly late news, I’m sorry but I had to comment on this little announcement made not so long ago.  The absolutely brilliant and hilarious song “Still Alive” will be coming to Rock Band via DLC.  Now, I’m not really sure how this is going to work because I can’t see where the drums would come into play.  Well, I’m sure they’ll figure out something.   And please make it free.  Pull a Halo 3 theme on Guitar Hero type move and make it free for everyone (or only Gold subscribers or something).

As far as I’m concerned, the biggest announcement of GDC has happened already. Yesterday, (sorry for the lateness of the post, the blog was having issues) Microsoft announced at their keynote that Gears of War 2 was coming to the Xbox 360 this November. This is fantastic news for me, as I absolutely loved the first game and still play it from time to time. A few things I think they need to fix:

Get a couple more animations for the chainsaw. It was fun the first hundred times, but I really wish they could make different animations and by the way the trailer looked, they are.

More than 4 vs. 4 online. That number is far to small for the multiplayer these days. Gears was (and still is) one of the best looking online games out so maybe they were restricted somewhat by the graphics. I would sacrifice the graphics for more players online anyday, as would most people, I think.

More game types would be fantastic. I was ecstatic when they released that king of the hill type of match through a free update, but I would really like more game types with the release game. Maybe a capture the flag game type.

A matchmaking system. The whole search for a game and join thing is ancient. It got to be a pain. Since Call of Duty 4 did it, Gears 2 will probably have it.

Free DLC. Come on Microsoft, give into Epic. We all know it was Microsoft’s fault we were forced to buy the second Map Pack (a bad purchase on my part, as I really didn’t like those maps). Get a sponsor or something. Just get FutureWeapons to do it please.

Other than those few gripes, I loved Gears of War. It was by far my game of the year in 2006; then again, it was a lot easier to pick then than it was last year. Hopefully, this game is not delayed.

Analyst Evan Wilson has recently predicted that the next cycle of game consoles will begin in 2010. He says Nintendo will follow with Microsoft releasing later that year. He has no word on the PS4 which will surely take much longer to come out.d
Personally, I don’t know if I believe this too much. So I believe the Nintendo part. Its inevitable; especially since their console is the least advanced of the three. I think Microsoft will be out in 2011 though. I don’t know why I think this, I just do. It makes no sense to release a new console, if people are still buying the old one and unless somehow Sony manages to take over the market, I think people will be buying tons of 360s in 2010. We’ll see though.

I’m sorry to say it folks, but the franchise of Bioshock has died a little bit in my eyes. It *snivel* was confirmed that *snivel* IG Fun, makers of such huge games such as Rush Hour 3 on the mobile phone, have *snivel* secured the rights to make a mobile version of the game. Nooooooo!
Pathetically dramatic paragraph aside, this still is a very bad move by 2K (or whoever owns the rights) in my opinion. How could anyone think that this could actually be good or sell good. All this will do is make the Bioshock franchise look shitty. Thank you 2K (or whoever).

Well I basically told you the whole news story in those first two sentences but I will elaborate a bit with my opinions. First of all, I would like to congratulate EA for setting a fairly close release date for a game I thought wouldn’t even be out this year. It seems like they got their act together very quickly. I thought that a project this ambitious would take a much, much longer time to release than it has been. Secondly, I will probably not be playing this game. Sorry to all you Spore fanboys (the game hasn’t come out and there are already fanboys, God!) but my computer definitely cannot handle the game. If it gets ported to consoles, of course I’ll give it a shot, but with my computer situation as it is, and it is unlikely to change for the time being, it looks like I’ll be forced to pass on this game.

Microsoft’s Shane Kim has recently stated that since Microsoft owns the Crackdown IP, a sequal by a developer other than Realtime Worlds, who have stated they are not making the next one, is definitely a possibility. He was very vague in his choice of words so if there is one it seems like it will be a long time till we get it. Maybe a couple of years. Hopefully sooner though, I absolutely loved the first one. Very underrated game.

Call of Duty 4 developers Inifinity Ward , also known as the good COD developers,
have recently said that they will release new maps for the game. Thats about all we know about them right now so I’m just going to leave that at that.
Notice the title said “and other news” too. Bungie recently said that they would be switching popular map codenamed “Purple Reign” with an unknown map codenamed “Moonlight Sonata”. Since Halo has been a relative yawn to me, since COD4 came out, I decided to put this story in the other news, even though it has more content than the COD story.

Valve has recently answered my hopes and prayers by announcing that there will in fact be more Portal coming. And that doesn’t just mean new puzzles, according to them, it means that there will be a new game. This is fantastic news, as this is the my favorite part of the Orange Box by far (though I admit I haven’t had enough time to delve fully into Half Life or Team Fortress…By the way, does Half Life make anyone else feel kind of nauseated?) I can’t wait for that cake… Or is it a lie? Ahh who gives a damn, just give me more Portal.