G-pinions

I don't know what Tom is so perturbed by - Viva Pinata isn't for us. I agree that Microsoft needs to get away from the idea of catering to what they believe is the "hardcore gamer", but it's naive to totally dismiss age demographic and target audience when you're publishing a game. I don't even know what would qualify someone as a hardcore gamer these days anyhow; with the average gamer having plenty of disposable income, it's not much of a feat to own all of the systems anymore. I would love to entertain the idea that liking small quirky titles somehow makes me more of a gamer than someone who plays five hours of Madden a day, but it doesn't really - it just makes me arrogant (which I don't deny).

When Microsoft says "we need to go beyond that core audience and develop titles that appeal to a different type of customer", I agree, even if it is a bit misguided. PS2 is successful because it has that luxury - the diversity of their greatest hits line speaks for itself. Microsoft hasn't come close to actually fulfilling the needs of the perceived "gamer" (RPGs, anyone?), but diversifying can only be a good thing. Most of the games I'm looking forward to on the 360 will likely have a gun on the cover - not because the action genre is my favorite, but it's what they do best on the system.

I'm totally psyched for Viva Pinata, but I feel no frustration that they're assuming that I won't want to play it - most people my age who own an Xbox will have absolutely no interest in it. That's just how things are. Hardcore and open-mindedness don't go hand in hand in my book; if anything, it's a level of devotion. I'm all for original IPs and diminishing sequels, and not ignoring specific demands in the market will only help that.

Speaking of original IPs, there's some sad news to report today, even if it's ultimately a good thing. The Katamari series is no more, at least in it's current incarnation. The team has disbanded and the creator is working on a new game. Usually I would whine to no end about a great series ending abruptly, but I'm actually happy about this. They have three great games to their name, they brought the idea that unique, innovative games can be successful back to the forefront when it needed it most, and the series won't be spoiled by an early over-saturation of the brand. Let's all hold hands and cry big cosmic tears at this poignant departure.

I know it's been done before, but the language Penny Arcade uses to describe games they are not interested in, seems to mirror what Microsoft representatives say a little too closely for my comfort. Microsoft says, "We've already done a great job with the core audience on Xbox and Xbox 360, but we need to go beyond that core audience and develop titles that appeal to a different type of customer." According to them, hardcore gamers only play the types of games the XBox is known for - mainly shooters and racers. Penny Arcade says, "It's (Viva Pinata) not really for us, of course ." What the heck are these two people talking about? Since when do hardcore gamers limit themselves to only a couple genres? PA made their comment in reference to Viva Pinata - which will obviously be marketed towards a different demographic than Halo - but does that mean it isn't for hardcore gamers? Should I be ashamed that I think it looks awesome? Companies are terrified of making new types of games because the media perpetuates this idea that "hardcore" gamers - real video game fans - only play a less than diverse array of titles. This is both extremely ignorant and damaging.

Also, if one more person complains that Rare should be working on a sequel to Banjo-Kazooie or Killer Instincts instead of Viva Pinata, I am going to make a tiny voodoo doll of Dan and dip his fingers in chocolate sauce during inopportune times. The industry does not, under any circumstances, need more sequels!

If you ask any Xbox 360 owner right now what the big game coming out later this year for their system you'll get one answer: Gears of War. This is, apparently, the showcase title for the X360 this Christmas. The game that will ensure the X360 will continue to be impossible to find while fending off the Revolution and PlayStation 3 single-handedly. Not only is this the huge title, but until the announcement of Viva Pinata yesterday, it was the only big title scheduled for release later this year. It must be great, right? It must be the perfect title to fill our shooting needs until Halo 3 comes out next year, right? Right?

I honestly do not understand this hype. This is the very definition of a media-fueled, or more accurately a media-forced, hype fest. I can't blame magazines and websites for hyping this title. They have no choice but to if they want to attract X360 fans. But is there any reason to actually be excited about this game? Other than the fact that it looks amazing, what exactly is the appeal? It's just another shooter developed by a team that is known for twitch shooters - something the X360 does not exactly excel at.

Man, I hope that Viva Pinata really takes off. Not just because I love Rare, but because I am getting really sick of Microsoft's strategy in this industry. They continually talk about the core gamer - apparently they are too lazy to say hardcore - and how they have already built a solid fanbase just from them. Am I missing something here or does the Xbox just attract fans of shooters and racing games? Aren't those, along with sports, the titles the casual, mainstream sect eats up? Not that there's anything wrong with those genres, but shouldn't you have another genre or two. Can anyone name two Japanese RPGs on the Xbox? I know I shouldn't be rooting for one company over another, but I really hope Sony and Nintendo crush MS this Christmas. I can't take another generation of owning a system just to play first person shooters, while the rest of my time is spent playing every other genre on the other systems. Yes, MS has built a solid fanbase with the amazing Halo franchise, but they aren't exactly pushing the limits of gaming.

With the unprecedented effort Sony and its many 3rd party partners gave us with the PS2 and Nintendo trying something completely different with the Revolution, it's just hard for me to get excited about Microsoft and another shooter.

In perusing some of our site stats, I noticed someone arrived here by searching for the keyphrase "each locked door rabbit." Time to fess up, silly people.

Super early this morning, Sony announced a simultaneous worldwide release of the PS3 before Thanksgiving (but after Halloween), along with the revelation that, while they may be able to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft in the realm of online gaming, they still are light years behind in name-coming-up-with ability. The PlayStation Network Platform - which is a shortened version of PlayStation Network Platform In Which You Can Play Games Against Your Friends, Or Sometimes Even With Them, Or Even With Some of Your Friends While Against Other, When You're Not Even Next To Them. It's Online Baby! Wave of the Future! - will be free, like Xbox Live Silver. They haven't announced pricing of any kind, but the way in which they dropped bombshells last night, I imagine they will actually pay you to play online. Sorry Microsoft, probably should have released games when people cared.

Wait a second? You say people do care? Are you saying that, while you're happy Sony finally acknowledged the PS3, you really just care about games? Well, I'm with you buddy. Three cheers to Sony's commitment to getting a PS3 into every child's hands this holiday (they are producing 1 million a month... which means it will take 427 years to make enough systems for every person in the world, if the rate of population increase remains steady), but who cares about a system without games? Or, worse still, games where Box Guy is the star?


And you thought Wall Guy was bad

Without further ado, I present to you Rare's new title. Be warned, Rare has been known through their existence for making fun games that don't necessarily push gameplay to places unknown. But they are always fun, funny and look stunning. I have no idea why Microsoft is positioning them as some uber-developer, capable of convincing people to buy an Xbox with the mere mention of their name. Rare is at their best when they make quirky titles that appeal to a relatively small section of the populace. Diddy Kong Racing, their First Person Shooters and Banjo obviously sold really well, but Blast Corps and Jet Force Gemini, games which bombed but are still great, are much more indicative of what Rare is capable of.

Please, judge this game based on how much fun it will be rather than if it's the next fucking Halo or whatever people expect from Rare.




Welcome to Viva Pinata


This is my favorite character


I love Rare

I don't know anything else about the game at this point, except it's going to be great. I am so happy Rare isn't making a sequel to Killer Instinct or whatever the lames are clambering for. This game looks completely different from anything else out there. Even though it will inevitably bomb since Xbox owners don't play kiddie games, I am glad Rare is making something original rather than just updating Banjo or Perfect Dark each year.

I'll update the G later when they announce some actual details about this game. Hopefully there will be a movie or two as well. I bet this looks stunning in motion.

Minor Update - If anyone is interested, it seems as though this is being worked on by the Banjo Kazooie team. Rare has five non-handheld development teams right now. Since they released 3 games last year (Conker, Perfect Dark and Kameo) that left the development team of Viva Pinata down to two - the Banjo team or the Diddy Kong Racing/Jet Force Gemini guys.

Since it looks like it is the guys who brought Grabbed by the Ghoulies to the world, that means we still don't know what the JFG guys are up to. I'm going to guess it's another racing title. Not like the Xbox needs any more, but they were making Donkey Kong Racing for the Gamecube at one point, which obviously didn't come out, and they have been rumored to be working on a game called Saberman Stampede since then - another racing title. I certainly wouldn't mind another racing game, but I'm still waiting for my Anticipation meets Snake Rattle 'N Roll monstrosity.

The Banjo team is also responsible for Blast Corps - a game that I would actually want a sequel to. I guess this rules out the possibility of a X360 Blast Corps 2. However, we may still get a sequel on the NDS. Online co-op city destruction? Yes please.

I guess it's time I spoke a bit about Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. I feel like I'm wasting ever so much space by spelling the name out in full, but some of our readers aren't really...how you say...gamers. Or hate acronyms. Anyhow, I've never been a fan of anything with Tom Clancy's name on it. I haven't seen The Hunt for Red October, but outside of Connery I'm sure I'd bored to tears. I've actively avoided the previous Ghost Recons and Rainbow Sixes, and speak out daily against Splinter Cell. My main two problems with all three series lie with the unintuitive controls and unforgiving gameplay. That little jump-split-your-legs-in-an-alley maneuver you can do in Splinter Cell? Cool in theory, but not something you can pull off at a moments notice. The control sets consist of a laundry list of very specific moves, which you have to actively remember and utilize in each circumstance to advance and/or get the most out of the level design. Not user-friendly games, in short.

All that jazz said, GRAW is a very well-made game, and the first truly next-gen experience I've had on the 360 (Fight Night R3 was VERY close to one). It looks stunning, scarily so sometimes. Defending the Mexican president from the blown-out US embassy with soldiers coming at me from all sides made my heart race, and never let up for the twenty tries it took me to beat it (had to restart the level and get there with more health and a gun that could zoom). I was quite shaken afterwards, and for the next several hours. When graphics can do something like that to you, you realize just how far we've come. The CrossCom is a pretty brilliant addition too (in single player specifically), allowing you to see through the eyes of your squadmates or a hovering, commandable scout drone that highlights enemies on your HUD.

The gameplay is fairly straightforward military shooter fare, with a lot of scouting, moving your troops around and getting killed. Some pretty handy combat moves are always at your disposal, hugging walls and such, though they're never as easy to pull off as they should be. My main problem with the single-player is how inconsistent your squadmate's AI is (as most reviews seem to recognize). It's cool when your buddies follow you and position themselves intelligently on all sides of a truck, but not so much when they just stop moving and decide they're not taking commands for the rest of the missions. Considering the levels are very much designed around squad tactics for full enjoyment, it's frustrating when you have to go it alone as a result of sloppy programming. And, as always, Freedom Fighters did squad commands infinitely better than anyone ever has - anything else seems over complex and yet underpowered in comparison (you can't even order your ghosts around individually - lame).

The graphics really are stunning though. I've never been in Mexico City at dusk, but I now know exactly how it looks. The lighting changes when the sun goes behind clouds, and your eyes have to adjust to the light coming out of a darker area. It draws you in quite quickly, and almost makes you feel like they didn't design the city, they just made a game in it. Multiplayer, which supposedly looks worse as a result of it's different engine, never ceases to impress visually. From undulating grassy hills to swaying palm trees to water droplets splashing, there are dozens of effects I have never seen in a game before. Even the physics are up to par, with some pretty rewarding ragdoll kills to be had.

As for the multiplayer, it's good. Quite good. But ultimately, like all things, it's no Halo. It plays well, and the game type options are myriad, but the weapon balance and level design leads to a bit too much camping and reliance on not playing like a jackass. Games with buddies can be a blast, but even getting into a game against random folk is a chore, nevermind enjoying it. I popped Halo 2 in for the first time in months last night for some comparison and to catch up with some buddies, and was SHOCKED at how quickly I picked up the controls again. It was like riding an elephant, or something. Even throwing a grenade in GRAW takes considerable effort, which isn't much fun under any circumstance. Oh, and for all it's glaring missteps, PDZ did a couple things right - making everyone not on your team universally red, and having analog zoom. The former really helps confusion and is sorely missed here (your teammates should NEVER be red), while the latter just felt nice. The drone also doesn't work nearly as well in multiplayer, as it covers far too large an area of the map, anyone on a team can control it, and it has no visual indicator for taking damage.

All in all, I'm enjoying both the solo and multiplayer sides of the game, even if I have my significant beefs with both. It's the kind of experience that is so exquisitely crafted in some regards, you can step outside your genre for a bit and still have some fun. More to come I'm sure.

According to some French site, there actually will be a sequel to the best game no one played this generation. It's funny that this is coming only a day or two after Nick and I had a brief discussion about the upcoming sequel to God of War. Even though the original is easily one of the best 3D games I have ever played, I just can't get excited about another adventure. I know it will be great at the very worst and I definitely will buy it at some point, but the over-saturation of sequels has made it difficult to get excited about any new entry in a series.

I told Nick, the only sequel that could actually excite me would be Beyond Good and Evil 2. Unlike 99.9% of games, BG&E was great because of a compelling story and likeable characters. There are so few games that offer a strong emotional experience to compliment engrossing gameplay. There are even less games that can create that bond and make people yearn for a proper resolution. Despite some flaws, BG&E was great because it dealt with serious political issues in a way that was both accessible and engaging. The gameplay was an extension of the story, one in which you would feel nervous while sneaking past guards and triumph when you captured a particularly telling photograph.

Here's hoping the sequel truly does get made.

For those who do not speak French, Bethany was nice enough to lend her considerable linguistic talents in the cause of better informing our eager readers:

"The abrupt finish of Beyond Good and Evil couldn't rest without a sequel. After all, the project - from creator and newly-dubbed Knight of Arts and Letters Michel Ancel - was devised as a trilogy at its conception. A couple months ago, the preproduction of the game started. We now know a little more.

BG&E2 will have a similar gameplay style as the the first episode, but this time we will travel to different planets. The sequel will happen on next generation consoles. It will return a smile to Jade's face. When will it come out? Not before the end of 2007."

Click here to read what may have been the most recent news story on the PlayStation 3 that actually spat out an optimistic outlook for Sony. Obviously, it's from 1up, but even they couldn't come up with a 100% positive spin. At least it predicts the PS3 will actually come out at some point. Right now, I'm not even sure it will ever see the light of day.

Ok, obviously at some point in the future there will be a system, developed by Sony, that is called the PlayStation 3. It could be a cardboard box full of naked pictures of Bea Arthur and it will still outsell the Xbox 360 in Japan. I just don't think there is any way the system that has been talked about for the last year - the PS3 with the boomerang controller, Cell chip and Blu Ray player - will ever actually see the light of day. Not in Spring of this year in Japan. Not Christmas in America. The system is just too darn expensive for Sony to actually expect to make a profit off of it.

What I don't understand is why Sony decided to take a completely different approach this generation. I guess you could say this all started with the PSP - Sony was terrified about fighting Nintendo in this arena, a company that essentially prints currency with their handheld line, so they decided to create a system more powerful than anyone imagined a portable can be. Have you played this system? It's ridiculous. The screen seems on par with those high definition plasma sets you find in rich people's homes. The speakers sound better than the fancy 5.1 system Nick just picked up. And the graphics are on par with current systems. It's unreal how powerful it is.

But it's expensive. And, even though it isn't necessarily hard to develop for (if you're a programmer; Nick and I tried making a God of War sequel for it, misspelled "God" and gave up), it does require a large amount of resources to get the most out of the system. Have you noticed the system is almost twice as expensive as the NDS with pricier games even though it has far less entertainment hours readily available? Obviously, the NDS is winning handily all over the world. As Sony proved during the last two generations, price coupled with a huge variety of games is what makes systems a success. All the bad marketing in the world can't give the PSP the two things it really needs.



This is not supposed to be a PSP article - though it's relevant since they are taking the same path with the PS3 - but the best games on the PSP are ones that barely even wake the system up. Games like Lumines and Exit are pure portable titles and are why this is a must own system. Why did Sony jam all those powerful chips in this tiny package if the best games were only going to use a fraction of that power?

Now Sony is trying the same strategy with the PS3, only on a much larger scale. They have been working with IBM for half a decade developing this fabled Cell chip. They have spent a ton of money in research and development and another ton building fabrication plants to churn out these chips. They are most likely spending a ton more on servers for their online system - an area they have only a fraction of the knowledge as their competitor MS does. And then there's the Blu Ray DVD player. They are trying to establish this as the new standard for home movies. This is what happens when you are more than a video game company: because the future of BR is so important to Sony (the only thing they actually make money on is the PlayStation line. They need something else as well), they are trying to cram it into their next console to ensure its place in people's homes.

The problem is, this will ramp up the cost of the PS3 considerably and offer no improvement in actual games. Blu Ray DVDs are also much more expensive to print, which means gamers may long for the days when they shelled out $70 for a limited edition version of Oblivion. Will this really fly?



The PS2 is the best system ever because it is dirt cheap and every developer in the world is making games for it. Since it's so easy to develop for and there are 100 million systems out there, developers are willing to try something different even if it only appeals to a minute audience. Games like Robot Alchemic Drive would most likely not exist if it wasn't for the PS2. Even if the game only sells 20,000 copies, Sandlot will still be able to make a profit because it is so cheap to develop. And Namco is willing to try something completely different with the fantastic Katamari Damacy. What if these things required 3 years of development time and fifty programmers? Would anyone risk making these super niche titles?

Even though Sony has secured rights to amazing 3rd party games like Metal Gear Solid and Devil May Cry, the thing that really pushes the PS2 is a glut of these cheap and really fun games. Regardless of what kind of games you're interested in, there are a ton of games under $20 you can buy on the PS2. If you doubt this theory allow me to present some evidence. I don't have final sales numbers, but this article mentions that Grand Theft Auto San Andreas sold about 2.5 million copies during its first month of release. Let's say it sold 10 million total, or even 30 million, that is still only a fraction of PS2 users. Even amazing, mainsteam PS2 games only sell about 5 million copies. There are 100 million PS2s out there. The reason it is such a huge success is because there are so many great games in different genres, not because of the huge titles that get all the hype.

But this doesn't look like it can happen on the PS3. Why is Sony ignoring the thing that put them in this position in the first place?

My prediction - Sony scraps the Blu Ray DVD completely and releases the PS3 worldwide this year. They are too smart to screw themselves over by forcing BR to people who don't even care about it.

By the way, this column is completely moot if Sony really does release a Massively Multiplayer Online War of the Monsters at launch. I've been spreading this rumor for a while now hoping Sony will catch on. Would not this be the best system seller of all time? How much money would you be willing to spend on this game alone? $600? $6,000? Get it done Sony.