Entries Tagged '360' ↓

I’ve spent too much time of late on blogs and forums where gamers have talked about “deep” games, with too often the dark, moody games getting most of the acclaim and recognition. I’ve been enjoying Batman – Arkham Asylum, but I was a bit tired of it one night and went back to playing LostWinds, a simply marvelous game. And then I couldn’t resist a good deal on Muramasa.

It’s quite interesting to juxtapose these games, especially one that has the acclaimed depth of Arkham Asylum. The reason is that they all have game worlds that you can immediately identify and jump into. I find Lostwinds and Muramasa no less engrossing and immersive than Arkham Asylum. Yes, it helps that they have distinctive art styles, but LostWinds and Muramasa are 2D platformers. Partly, as familiar as I with the world of Batman, it’s not as new to me, especially as it’s based on a graphic novel and atmosphere from 20 years ago. What’s engrossing about Arkham Asylum is the ability to feel like the Batman, from the fights to the detecting to the gadgets.

You could say the difference is immersion through the character or the world. So far, Muramasa has two characters that you can play as, but in my initial choice of Kisuke, the ninja who has lost his memory. Besides being generic, gamers run through several stages in one level before getting anything resembling a story and character information, all told through exposition. In contrast, Arkham Asylum tells several stories in different ways–expository diaries, recreated memories as cut scenes, dialogues.

Yet, I find Muramasa no less compelling of a game world because of the rendering and the obvious folklore that it invokes. Unlike Arkham Asylum, I’m traveling through many different settings–woods, cities, fields. In Arkham Asylum, as with many Batman stories, I feel that I’m in an externalized world of the Batman’s psyche–it’s dark and brooding, with dangers around all corners. Arkham Asylum and even Gotham by extension are what you imagine a man obsessed with having witnessed the criminal murder of his parents.  [It's a Batman story I've long wanted to write--how Batman sees a much different world than the rest of us.]

In Muramasa, even though dangers lurk around, it’s in a beautiful world. The world is not the scary extended worldview of the character but of a much different view, one of wonder and even delight. Supposedly the game is placed during the ‘golden’ Edo era in Japanese history, in contrast to many games set in the Sengoku era, a time of civil war. This contrast of beauty and fighting creates its own tension, in a much different way that the reflective environment of Batman.  [I don't pretend to know Japanese history, outside of my paltry readings and work in oriental art class.]

In LostWinds, we have another fictional setting rooted in windy cultures of Tibet, Inca, and Maya. In LostWinds, gamers play two characters simultaneously–Toku with the nunchuk primary and Enril the wind spirit with the Wiimote. Like Murasama, the characterization is not deep, but as we know from good stories, characterization doesn’t have to be deep to be interesting or captivating. As in Ico, gamers play a bonding relationship in which Enril can do some pretty neat things.  At times, Toku seems like he’s merely along for the ride, yet he’s essential to Enril.

Lostwinds‘ world is beautiful–many times, I enjoy drawing the wind through the trees to see the blossoms flutter. Between the art and the music, Toku and Enril wend their way through the world, allowing the player to interact with it to solve puzzles. While the  puzzles might not be terribly innovative, they are nonetheless satisfying.

I think that, like Arkham Asylum, Toku’s world is something of a reflection of the character’s view. For the most part, it’s happy and bright, but it has its darker aspects, with the caves and mines. The over and under world is a staple of fairy tales and children’s stories. So, the structure is familiar while the presentation is fresh.

Yet, the 2D vs 3D and standard vs high def resolution has no real bearing on these games’ ability to pull players in. An interesting world is far more important than these aspects that we spend far too much bandwidth discussing.

One reason that Batman – Arkham Asylum is getting high praise is that it is a deep game. I initially feared that it would be a beat ‘em up and would get tiresome. But the game throws different ways to keep you engaged while playing.

• Choose among different ways to take out enemies [straight-up fistfight, silent takedown, glide attack, tech toys].
• Select proper timing for different combat moves for certain enemies.
• Solve riddles along the way [part of exploration].
• Collect trophies [part of exploration].
• Work combos to improve experience so that you can upgrade your weapons, armor, or moves.
• Learn about different characters, and listen as they interact with each other and you.

This could sound like a recipe for a mixed bag, but there’s a focus to the game, which you might suppose is the story. While the story is a kind of tether for all the elements, it’s not really the focus. Instead, I think the game is centered on characters–be it Batman or the villains. Rocksteady went to great detail to provide each character their own story within the game. Yes there are the character bios that you pick up, but that’s just a part of it. You see the characters interact within the game, continue to develop what’s provided in the bio and even enrich it.

In the comics, Arkham Asylum itself has its own character, at least in the hands of the better writers. I think this game is trying to do the same, although I’m not quite far enough along to judge if it’s successful. Regardless, the asylum provides the focal context, so that there’s a reason to examine and to have such interesting characters.As someone who has worked [albeit briefly] with mental health/mental retardation patients, I think these problems provide great insight into even the ‘normal’ mind. At least, I came away with a great change in my values and a greater appreciation for many things, not the least of which is the very real and sincere emotions of these patients. Each patient had an interesting life and perspective. This game seems to realize this, although it’s dealing with criminals. In this respect, I think the game is very much in the spirit of the Arkham Asylum graphic novel. Maybe I have a preference for character-driven stories, but I think that this game succeeds largely because of the characters. [The action part of the game, especially the fights, does get a little repetitious after a while.]

Because of this character focus and detail, because of the variety of gameplay, and because of the art direction, the game is very immersive and deep, an excellent example of game design. I disagree with reviewers who talk about this game’s innovation because I’m not seeing anything I’ve not seen before. Instead, I think the vision, attention to detail, and focus with variety that is innovative.

I wish game developers and publishers could learn from this game, especially for the Wii and DS games. I don’t think it takes any particular power that the 360 or PS3 have to pull off this game. [Well, the graphics are a part of it, but hardly the whole.]

I’ve kept my interest in Batman: Arkham Asylum at bay, largely because I thought it would be bad. I was even reluctant to download the demo, but I did. At first, it confirmed my worst suspicion, that it was just a high-def beat ‘em up. As it turns out the game is more than that. Still, I’ve now gone from wondering about its quality as a game to wondering about its quality as a Batman story.

Written by Paul Dinni [Batman: The Animated Series], the game is influenced by the graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. The dialog seems better than most games, especially comic book games, but even in the demo, I see some weak motivations and conveniences to advance the plot.

As a game, I was enjoyed the different modes, namely because the combat was itself as bad as I expected, a button-mashing affair. Fortunately, the game relies on more stealth than frontal assaults. You must find ways to isolate one of the many enemies from the others so that you can swoop down [and you will] to take out the goon silently. You might have kevlar armor, but you’re not invulnerable and will die fairly quickly if you stay exposed. Even trying to attack using the batarang and from hiding behind a corner, I was killed rather easily when I encountered the first group of thugs with guns. The detect mode allows you to see possible egresses and clues. This is an invaluable mode, as you can see through walls.

Still how much detective work and actual puzzle solving the game offers is hard to tell from the demo, which really offers none. My fear is that this brain-operated part of the game will have to slog through riddles of the worst and most obvious sorts. But at this point, that is only a possibility, not indicated by the demo.

The problems the demo reveals is that the game could be repetitive, even with the stealth, and that the camera is annoying. The camera seems almost always perched over the Batman’s right shoulder, which felt awkward at times. True, you get to watch the cape physics from that angle. But it felt off to me throughout 2 run-throughs of the demo.

Yet, I’m now pestered with the expectation that the game fails to reach with the story. In the original graphic novel, the focus is more on Arkham Asylum and madness. In the comic, the asylum isn’t a place of rehabilitation. Even as the doctors attempt it, it seems to take the patients, like Harvey Dent, to even worse places. While madness can drive some to great horrors, madness is still a human quality. Can we really shut it up in the darkness and pretend that it’s not real? In the original story, we see what happens when one characters tries to ignore reality. As the Batman says at one point, ‘It’s only that madness that makes us what we are.’

Morrison and McKean create an interesting story, though not an entirely satisfyingly coherent one, which might be fitting. Nonetheless, the questions that the graphic novel poses are worth asking, about the role of madness, about its origins and qualities, about its presence even among the sane. We collectively to try suppress the nature and even necessity of madness, which is what sometimes we call up to do what consider immoral but necessary.

The game appears only losely based on the graphic, so my hope of an interesting dramatic treatment  is probably pointless. The game may have some interesting stealth aspects, but in the end, it could very well still be little more than a good action game.

A while back, Michael Abbott posted an excellent post about the status of sports games, which I agree with. [I posted some of my own experiences in support of his points.] If you’ve seen me on Xbox Live, you’ve probably seen me playing NCAA 2010. I have a couple of online dynasties that I play with my brother. And we’ve been experimenting with the new teambuilder feature, that allows you [as you might guess] to build and customize a team from scratch.

And to follow up on Michael’s post, we are taking the customization in a fun direction, doing things outside of the game.

You see, we decided to combine comics and gaming to start developing teams based on superheroes. The idea is to take the traits of the character and apply it to different aspects of the team–player attributes, playbook, school attributes.

For example, a team built around Ben Grim/The Thing might look like this:

• The Thing QB has a 99 throwing power rating but probably a low throwing accuracy, of say 55 or 66.
• Everyone on the team has boosted Strength stats: Strength, stamina, Injury, break tackle, stiff arm, Run & Pass Block Strength, Kick Power, Trucking, Block Shedding, Hit Power, Tackle.
• All of the speed attributes are much lower than normal (which would depend on the attribute–a basic speed of 40 for a RB might be unusable, although an interesting test when pared with the high strength values).
• Intelligence-related stats would be 50, 60 or so.
• The defense would be a 5-2 or 4-3, and the offense would be a more run-oriented team with some short to middle passes.

But here’s we started having fun–characterizing how the team is played:

• The same Ben Grimm team would take a lot of chances because Grimm is an emotionally, fly-off-the-cuff character. That team would go for it on 4th a lot more often.
• You’d always play to win, not to tie. For example, that team would go for 2 point conversions outside of the normal.
• It would blitz a lot, too.
• It probably would run up the middle more often than not. Very few screens and no trick plays.

We started going even further with these out-of-game characteristics:

• With Doctor Doom’s Doombot team, the Doom player gets to pick some aspect of the opponent’s coaching or gameplan and remove it [as an agreement since it can't really be enforced]. For example, he could say that you have to start your backup QB and demote your starter to 3rd string. Or he could say that you can’t call any inside runs.
• But the Doom team has a weakness for monologuing, which means that once a quarter, the Doom team has to take too long to call an offensive play. The Doom player picks when [early or late in the quarter].

No, this probably won’t appeal to college football fans. But we’re captivated with this new ability to play the game in a different way. And the game’s RPG aspects now seem to be more open and obvious than before. We’re no longer playing a strategy game and focused on numbers. We’re now developing game personas and playing roles.

I’ve been playing with kodu some but not to a great extent. A couple of nights ago, I was finally able to connect to a game sharing room and downloaded several games. Some were good and worth replaying, while I quickly aborted playing others. Invasion RTS, for example, is an ambitious RTS, in which you create two types of buildings which in turn create different types of units, giving you 3 types of defenders/attackers. And you have only 2, unreproducible kodu units to collect coins which allow you create things. Meanwhile, an evil red factory is busy pumping out attacking units.

It’s hard but enjoyable. The author PariahtheGod stopped work because someone else had a produced what he considered a better RTS.

I understand the reasons, but a couple of things interest me. Invasion RTS, whatever its design, was still a different game from the one that he liked [which I've not been able to download and play], as the other gamers have said. What intrigues me is that this pull to create something different is strong.

Yet, with many, duplicating and recreating is perhaps stronger. There are practical reasons, of course–when learning how to create a game, copying or recreating an existing game is a very standard practice. Porting, imitating, recreating dominates the homebrew scene, in fact. Yet, game developers like jayenkai who visit this site do both–they hone their skills while being creative. And many recreations are creative in their own ways, taking a different tact or changing gameplay here and there. Plus, creating a game from scratch can often lead to feature creep, leading to complex games.

With Kodu specifically, we have a game lab that is really best suited for simple games. Yet, I’m seeing people trying to create RPG, RTS, FPS, and other complex games. Recreations of Command & Conquer, of Halo, Diablo and others. And some don’t work very well, mostly due to Kodu’s limitations. I’m not complaining or criticizing, only observing, and it got me to think, well, smarty pants, why don’t you do something.

I like how Shigeru Miyamoto often takes game inspirations from life and not from other games. So, as my dog jumped in bed at 6 am to get me to play with her, I immediately saw a game idea. In fact, I saw in it a theme for several small games, all centered around friendship. I’m still working the first game in the series, but here’s a rough design of the first one.

Friendship 1 – Play with Me

Setting: You are a young, frenetic bike. And you want to play.

Objective: Get at least six different creatures to play with you. When you have played 6 times, you will be tired and have to take a nap.

Gameplay: Many other creatures are in the game world, but almost all don’t want to play, at least at the moment. They have other things they want to do, and then they will play with you. For example, one creature just wants to sleep for a while, and you have to keep other creatures from bothering her while she sleeps.

Controls: You can do several actions with your bike:

• Move
• Jump
• Pick up/drop
• Speak
• Emote

Speaking will actually be a large part of the game. The A, B, X, and Y buttons represent 4 general types of speech, such as request, warn, and plead. With these and the  few actions, you have to help each creature get what they want before they can play with you.

I’m still working on the controls, because I’d like to use the d-pad to set a tone or mood, like aggressive or sad, that affects the basic speech actions.

I’m not saying this is how creating in kodu should be done or that recreating games is bad. And, no, I don’t consider myself anywhere near Shigeru’s level. But after I tried to work on game ideas in Kodu that were roughly based on other games, working on a game inspired by something personal feels easier and more interesting. We’ll see if it doesn’t suck. Certainly, I welcome feedback.

Okay, all you game maker types, kodu is now available for download as a community game on Xbox Live. For a mere 400 points [US$5], you can create that great American game using Kodu intriguing icon-based development tool. You can purchase online, if you log into your account at the above link.

I will definitely grab it. Unfortunately, game sharing is cumbersome:

• Gamers sharing must be on each other’s friend list.
• Both gamers must be online at the same time.
• Both gamers must have Kodu running.

And you thought Wii friend codes were a pain. [Seriously, this cumbersome sharing process could stifle significant game sharing, as the creator has to share with each gamer. It's a shame that, when I start Kodu, I can't see any Kodu games created by friend and then download from there.]

If anyone has games to share, please feel free to add me to your friend list. My gamertag is on the right column.

For some games, creating is as fun as playing. Maybe it’s just a carryover my childhood obsession with building blocks, but a couple of creative items have my interest right now.

First up is Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! which I never played in earlier versions. For DSiware, this is a very full offering, in large part because you can edit, upload, download and rate cutomize levels. Like other Nintendo games with level editors, you have to play the game to unlock new features and items in the editor. I have spent almost as much time editing levels as playing the game. Even though the DSi has larger screen, it’s still not a lot of screen real estate for something like level editing. Yet, it works very well and is easy to use. Minis March Again offers enough items that a lot of variation is possible.

Next, if you want more than level editing and more game creation, then get ready for Microsoft’s Kodu which is coming the end of June. It’s a game creator that is aimed at younger kids, but not limited to them, because it relies on icons, not code snippets. IGN has a nice hands-on with Kodu, which is part of the 360′s community games area. One of the nice features is that you can have more one person authoring a game at the same time.

My son already has summer homework, so we’re talking about creating a game for a part of it on the 360. I plan on wasting much time with it myself, creating some short RPGs and the like.

So, get your creative juices flowing.

I watched Microsoft’s E3 session yesterday [thanks to G4tv], and I have to say that it was an impressive presentation. It had spectacle, big names, and games. But without a doubt, the most talked about part was Project Natal, Microsoft’s technology for motion control and then some. Using 2 cameras as well as voice, Project Natal was shown with great promise–ease of use, highly interactive, facial and voice recognition, an ability to scan in devices like a skateboard, and more. Indeed, as several people on stage said, it’s the stuff of science fiction.

First, I think it’s intriguing in that it shows a great commitment to the current 360 console, which is entering its 4th year, and we likely won’t see Project Natal until 2010.

Second, I’m dubious, not just because Peter Molyneux’s has a history of unfulfilled hyperbole but because of several questions.

• Microsoft may have scores of bank vaults to throw behind its projects, but it has a record of overcharging for its accessories. I have a hard time believe that this Natal accessory would sell for less than $150. This in itself is a barrier for it reaching anywhere near the audience that the Wii has. Needless to say, there’s no way you can use this with the disk-less, arcade version of the 360, so we’re looking at $400, if not more. In addition, accessories rarely get the kind of game support that built-in features get, which is a reason that the Wii controls released as part of a new console rather than a Gamecube accessory.
• The idea that the body is a controller has a sleek, minimalist appeal, but in actuality what does it mean? The Wii nunchuk and remote already saw a reduction in the buttons compare to the 360 or PS3 controller–9+dpad vs 13+dpad. And people have complained about that reduction. Now, imagine having no buttons. While that might work for some games, how would you play a FPS or strategy game with no buttons? For simple games, yes, the body is a seemingly intuitive controller, yet limited. Now, imagine a game that uses both–what’s the gained advantage of the body as a controller if you have to use a gamepad? Plus, I can imagine the broken tvs with that 360 controller with its rounded design.
• In the latest Tiger Woods game for the Wii, a twist of your Wii remote as you swing has an effect on the contact with the ball, almost like in real golf. This is the beauty of the Wii remote with Motion Plus–it can detect fine changes like this. Can 2 cameras detect such a twist of the wrist? Reliably? Consider me doubtful. I think there are limits to what those cameras can detect. As we saw in the Red Steel 2 demo yesterday, use of Motion Plus allows the game to detect speed, as well as direction. Again, can two cameras capture this information?
• I think that ‘air’ controls are too imaginary for us to get into gaming. As someone who enjoyed The Force Unleashed, I can saw that the Wii remote was a physical thing that actually contributed to my immersion–it had a ‘feel’ of a light saber handle. The weight of the remote also helped in not the illusion. Having nothing but my swinging hand seems to return too much to my childhood, where, even then, we had physical sword substitutes.
• Molyneux’s Milo demonstration was fun, but realistically, I’m not sure how it will work with games. HD games already have budgets 2-3 times that of a Wii game, if not more. They’re going to add to the game’s budget and lengthen the game development with some sophisticated voice and facial recognition? For an expensive accessory that not everyone has? Consider this: Even with the Wii Fit and balance boards achieving incredible sales as an accessory, I count the games that support it on one hand. Even if Natal achieves Wii Fit sales, is there a reason to expect more games? Consider me dubious.
• Another gameplay question is how would these cameras handle multiplayers? Can 2, 3 or 4 gamers play at the same time and still have the motion detection work accurately? I know the demo showed 2 people, but how is that implemented to work reliably?

I’m not trying to be Wii fanboy here. I was caught up in the demo as it happened [although seeing Molyneux raised the proverbial red flag]. But Microsoft talked some smack with the idea of Natal being a Wii killer. I just don’t see that happening.

Personally, I find Microsoft a very confused, yet highly successful company. At times, their various products’ designs seem to be a grab bag of competiting features. I also think that Microsoft have missed the point of the Wii’s success, focusing on motion controls. Nintendo has packaged their appeal in a variety of ways–the motion controls, Nintendo’s cast of characters, the price, the design of the hardware and the menu.

Yet, the other part of Microsoft’s session was real and very impressive. As I’ve said before, I think services is a key to game consoles. And Microsoft is very much ahead of Nintendo and Sony in that respect. [Again, I these services further indicates that the 360 will be around beyond five years.]

My throw-away comment–Nintendo better not have charts for their session. The Microsoft session was well rehearsed and very focused on games and the user, not on the company and sales.

For over a month now, I’ve wanted to write about my recent gaming experience with NCAA 09 and my brother. I never got around to it until I saw Abbott post about sports games. So, that post I planned is a now a comment over at the Brainy Gamer.

A Fading Memory is one of the more intriguing community games on the Xbox 360 that I’ve seen. Admittedly, I was drawn in by the cover art, which is somewhat rare for community games. What makes it intriguing is the premise behind this platform adventure — you play a woman, more accurately a woman’s dream of herself who, in reality, has slipped into a coma. The introductory level has almost lyrical prose to set the game in this dream world.

The game’s challenge is that the world darkens, which you can only relieve by killing the monsters that inhabit the dreamscape, illuminating it again though only briefly. I love this mechanic for bringing tension to a game. The graphics are simple but have a very identifiable style. [For some reason, I thought of Kandinsky, which, although his art really looks nothing like this game, would be an interesting style to adapt into a game.]

The downside is that I thought the controls and the level designs were somewhat awkward. Still, it’s one I wanted to buy and play to see the rest of the story.

I have been swamped with work, and I’ve been trying to ruminate on playing Fallout 3 [I got it cheap] and Chrono Trigger, as well as thinking about the effect of gaming on the gamer. But I want to post this little tidbit: Kodu, a visual game development app for the 360.

Kodu is clearly derived from Microsoft’s web game development site, popfly. It is also clearly a reaction of sort to Little Big Planet, even though that game hasn’t sold as well as expected.

The idea of parents and kids sitting together and creating a game is intriguing, and it certainly has possibilities, especially compared to the PC. My son was very much into some of the level designers on the game sites that he visits, so I could see him interested in something like Kodu. There’s no mention of sharing Kodu games, which I would think would be a major draw, so that kids could share their games with each other. However, that might cut into the community games scene.

Regardless, the option of having such an app doesn’t hurt the 360.

In January, I commented on Joystiq about the significance of services for consoles in this generation and even moreso in the next–something far more significant, in fact, than the next gen graphics that have consumed console and gamer discussions for the last three years.

Gaming doesn’t occur in a vacuum, despite our closing our doors as we indulge in hours of gaming. Although I’m on board with Jon Stewart and his derision of twitter, social networking is but one aspect of what’s happening with the Internet, as we’re seeing on-demand in greater quantity, and mashups of services. We’ve known about the idea of gaming consoles as multimedia centers for a while, but sometimes, it takes time or several attempts to get it to work. And I think time is the key because often innovations require a certain threshold of users before it gains the attention of mainstream users.

For example, about 8 years ago, I tried AT&T’s cable tv/internet/phone package. And it failed miserably, both on the service level [and boy, was their service atrocious] and among the public–it was just not something that people saw as a benefit. Today, that is a different story, as Verizon and others are succeeding in packaged services.

When my wife bought me a 360, she thought it was just for me. Similarly, I bought the Wii for the kids. And they were both for gaming. Yet, the 360 sees more non-gaming activity today because we use it to watch movies and shows via Netflix and Playon, and I use it [when the 360 decides to work with my router] to talk to my brother rather than the phone. We use the Wii for Wii Fit exercise, checking the news, and even surfing the web.

Even though it might not have the range of services as the 360 [at least, outside of Japan], the Wii is perhaps a key on service implementation. For one, it is a far more popular console and has the ability to push new products and services to more people than the 360. [I'm not saying by any means that the 360 is the innovator and the Wii is a popularizer.]

Second, as restrictive as Nintendo can be, it has created a far friendlier, more customizable interface. Several years, when I taught technical writing, I had students conduct usability tests with older users and telephones, and we found that one of the key problems of phones is that their controls were too similar yet too different from other devices, causing confusion. The underlying design metaphor is critical in user satisfaction. This past weekend, my wife was trying to find a movie and became very frustrated with the 360 interface–the new one–because it separates Netflix, videos on our local network, and Microsoft’s own video offerings. Too many things, too many similar things, and too little customization. Even though Microsoft call them ‘channels,’ the metaphor is weak, at best, especially with an interface that has 3 tiers. The Wii has a very flat interface. And there’s only one place to configure the system [unlike the 360]. But the flat interface allows customers to organize the channels on their own, grouping similar channels however they define them. The Wii menu could use a lot more work, but the underlying design principles are the right ones.

Third, Nintendo has shown that less can be better. The Wii console itself is compact. It’s cheaper. The basic controller has just 6 buttons compared to 12 for the 360 controller, not to mention that it looks more like a remote control. The Wii in a way represents less of a physical console presence than the 360 or the PS3. As such, it’s closer to the idea of a thin client, which is where I think gaming services are heading or should head.

The point isn’t to argue who has the advantage; instead, I’ve tried to point out what the consoles are doing and need to do. I think the thing none of them have done well is to offer more dynamic functionality. With computers, we see new services pop up all the time, and we simply enter a URL to use them. With game consoles, we are much less able to do that. We have to wait until Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo decide that the services are worth rendering to their respective products. As such, the current consoles are decidedly last gen and ‘web 1.0.’ Yet, even in their flawed current models, they can do more, can offer us more ‘web 2.0′ features that involve information sharing, collaboration, interoperability, and hosted services.

As much as I support homebrew and indie development, the Xbox community games are a kick to the crotch.

Some of the games are fun, like Word Soup. But others, like A Kitchen Sink War and Swords & Monsters , are just plain horrible. It’s one thing for me to download and try someone’s first DS homebrew project that is yet another Pong clone. But these community games come at a price, even if it’s just 200 points [~US$2.50]. You have to keep in mind that the community review of these games is to ensure only a certain level of functional quality, not a game experience quality or quality of ideas.

I’ve been excited about the Xbox community games for a while, thanks in part to my wonderful experiences with DS homebrew games. Charging for ‘garage’ games introduces a dynamic that could negatively influence both creating and buying/playing such games on the 360. It’s tempting to say that time and the market will drive the quality up, but, while I like much about capitalism, faith in competition ensuring quality is somewhat naive, in part because we’re not talking about constant competitors. We’re looking at seasonal, part-time, and hobbyist competitors, which is much different than ‘professional’ competitors. [Please, homebrew developers, don't take offense because some of you are highly professional in your skills and imagination: I'm talking strictly about developers who are developing games for a professional living.]

Too many of these poor games will deter gamers from looking at community games, except for the occasional ‘hit’ that gets media attention. I wouldn’t want to see community game development become something only for ‘professional’ developers, but by requiring a $99 fee for being able to publish games to the 360, there almost has to be some charge for these games, even though the game developers have much other costs, including time and tools. Even though gamer rating systems have their flaws, perhaps that would help, or at least, it would allow gamers to feel that the games have some level of content quality control.

I received a notice last week that I was accepted to test the new Xbox interface [nxe]. While I don’t hate it, the new functionality is the only good change. The new avatars and the new navigation format are at best not any worse than what 360 owners had before. The interface is now organized as ‘channels’ which are nothing like the Wii channels.

It takes a few passes to understand the differences among the different channels. The Welcome channel can and should be hidden after you initially log on. It has no real value, except to guide you at a high level through the new features.  But here is my list of the pros and cons of the new interface and features.

Bottom line: The new features are great, but the overall design is not very good.

positives

• The Netflix channel works great and is probably the best feature in the new design. The video looks great.
• Though i’ve not used it, the party feature is a great way to talk to 2+ friends at one time.
• While the ability to copy a disk didn’t speed up loading my games that I could tell, it does prevent that horrid cd drive noise. [However, if you have 20 gigabyte drive, as I do, you'll only be able to copy 2, maybe 3 games, to your drive.
• The avatar creator is actually okay, although we have seen so many that the creation interface is almost a given design. But Microsoft offers some nice features, like different clothes and accessories.
• Those old themes you paid for are still usable as wallaper for the new interface.  But they don't interfere with reading anything.
• The advertising spotlights are now all in one channel. In the old interface, some ad spaces were not clickable so you couldn't easily find out more information about the game or event. That's no longer the case.

negatives

• After hiding the Welcome channel, the default channel isn't the most useful channel [My Xbox] . . . it’s the Spotlight channel.
• You cannot edit your Instant Movie queue for Netflix, which means you have to manage it from a PC.
• Some features are not easy to find. Go ahead  . . . find where you would change the dashboard theme. I spent 10 minutes searching for it and had to repair myself to google. No, it’s not in the System Settings menu.
• You can only see 3 friends at a time in the friends list. The new interface is just not good for some things, like viewing a long list. If you’re like me and have just a handful of friends, it’s not too bad. You have scroll a couple of times to see everyone. But if you have 12 or more, the Friends channel is quite useless. The best way to view your friends’ status is to use the big Xbox button and view your friends in an old fashioned list. [To be fair, friends who are online are moved to the front of the channel.] But overall, the friend channel is dominated by big, clunky graphics that don’t provide any extra information and are just there to look pretty, which you’ll get tired of in about 1 minute.
• For those expecting Microsoft to beat the PS3 ‘home,’ they didn’t do it. The Xbox avatars are all in all just barely there. See the following list.
• The avatar creation, all in all, doesn’t compare with the Mii creator. You can’t finetune the facial features, so you’re not going to see Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Obama, et al. here.

What Microsoft missed

• Customization. While the Wii Menu isn’t completely customizable, it does allow gamers to rearrange channels to put what they use the most up front. Microsoft focused on copying the Miis but completely missed this small but gretaly useful feature. Maybe I’m not interested in Events and Spotlight ads so let me hide them.
• After going to some work to create an avatar, where does it get used? The friends channel is it, and even there, it’s not much. Microsoft couldn’t have given even a small game to use them in? Couldn’t have one-upped Nintendo’s Mii Channel? [While creating your avator, using the left joystick, you can make your avatar look disoriented or angry. It's interesting that they design this kind of interactivity in the avatar but don't really take advantage of it.]

What is good in the new 360 interface is great. But the majority of it is either a step to the side or, in a few cases, a step backwards [either from what 360 owners had before or from what other console owners have]. I applaud Microsoft for the willingness to start over on some of their products, to copy what’s good in their competition and to even introduce new functionality.

Sometimes, I feel the neighborhood cat lady . . . except that I’m a dude, not a lady. And I don’t take in stray cats with all kinds of afflictions and scars. Instead, I take in stray games [which at least don't literally stink up my house].

Such a game is Fable 2, which this review well captures the game’s defects:

• A rather blah story
• A game that is hardcore in its size and other features but lacks the depth we’d expect from an RPG of this size
• A game world that is huge and offers vistas of places that you can’t get to [or at least easily]
• A lack of a good map tool that allows you to visit the world easily or even relate the different areas to each other
• Too few baddies to fight, unless you just want to get a whole town mad at you
• Lots of linear play with the appearance of openness

To which I would add:

• A really clunky interface with almost ability to customize
• Way too easy to make money
• Dreadful job mini-games that become mind numbing after a short time

I admit that all of the above is true, only to say that I still really enjoy the game. I do wander around the world, even though it’s not completely open. Even though you might not discover a place that doesn’t have a quest attached to it at some point, you can still explore the world and find surprises. When I happened across what seemed like a large, abandoned mining camp, I was still fascinated, although I never saw anyone to fight. But I didn’t know for sure . . . and I had that experience of wondering what happened there, why was everyone gone.

In a way, too, my expectations weren’t for another Oblivion thanks to the fact that Fallout 3 fulfills that expectation. I had played Fable and knew what to expect. And that’s what I’ve gotten, but better. I can do much more in Fable 2 than in Fable, like buying all sorts of properties. In the original, I could not spend that much time outside of the main quest and story because there wasn’t that much to do. But in Fable 2, I can . . . I’m maxing out those job skills with the minigames, and I’m investing in property, just my pa advised me.

The other thing is that the game is light-hearted, even for its seemingly dark main story. From item descriptions, to quotes during the load screen, to NPC chatter, there’s usually something in every game session to make me smile just a little. I think it’s the kind of game that shows why itemizing the faults can be so very misleading and how a game can be fun without being the most complex or sophisticated game in a genre. The game has enough relationships among player actions and the game world to make it the kind of sandbox game that doesn’t overwhelm you and make you feel you’ll be playing it for months.

Plus, any game that provides stories like the two in this forum thread can’t be that bad.

* Image from the gamersinfo.net WOW blog