Differing Opinions

Posted on by

I read Tobold’s blog not because I agree with him but rather because I don’t.  He often starts with complicated ideas, boils them down to a black and white question and picks a side.  It’s hard to think of a personal gaming blog that elicits more comments, both for and against, so something must be working.

A recent case in point is the defense of EA argument.  In it, he postulates that disagreeing with an artist’s intended ending isn’t grounds to dismiss the game or the artist completely.  Perfectly reasonable.  Applying this logic to Mass Effect 3 however, the argument loses ground.

Rohan has a solid critique of the ending and the idea here is that a story’s ending, a twist though it might be, is dependent on the preceding elements in order to be accepted.  Casablanca might not have a happy ending but it’s acceptable and memorable due to the characters remaining true to the entire story to that point.  Bioshock Infinite might not please everyone but you can’t deny that each and every character gives additional weight to the ending through their actions in-game.

Some might have read the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.  The first half of that series was pretty solid, the second half, so-so.  The ending was a massive Deus Ex Machina – magic saves everything.  It completely nullifies the rest of the story up until that point because the entire series could have been wrapped up in book 1.  Mass Effect 3’s ending was so poor, so full of plot holes, that they needed to retcon a few things and clarify some leaps in logic for people to accept the ending.  Even then, barely a decision you made up until that point had any impact whatsoever on the options presented to cap the series.  Starchild?  Really?

To the original topic.  EA didn’t win the golden poop because of the ME3 ending.  They won it for micro-transactions in every game, poor quality games, draconian DRM practices that inhibit gaming and for generally being so out of touch with what they are delivering that they want to blame everyone but themselves.  EA hires great companies with great ideas and somehow manages to burn out every original idea and spit out a husk of a former team.  There has to be a balance somewhere between the game experience and the bottom line – hopefully EA can find that again.

Same Story, Different Eyes

Posted on by

I’m running through a second playthrough of Bioshock Infinite, having given some time to digest the complete story from last time.  I mentioned that there was a twist, and to be quite honest, I didn’t see it coming.  I normally have a decent eye for that sort of thing but I think I was just too engrossed in the tale to notice.  There’s just something about a good yarn that makes you put logic at the door, put on your kids’ mind of open wonder and just goggle up whatever the story says.  Sure, there might be some plot holes but they are so slight that you can forgive them.  This isn’t Prometheus!

Back on topic. The thing about the twist is that it pretty much puts the entire game in a different light.  The prime driver of the game changes, the setting changes, the people change. Heck, you change.  Every little tidbit of information, the little tales spread between recordings, the images, everything is in on the twist.  Where once I read rhetoric, now I see truth.

I think that’s Bioshock’s (the series) best accomplishment.  That the entire story can be played multiple times with a completely different mindset.  Where once I was the savior, now I am the criminal.  Where once there was hatred, there is love.  It’s a really weird feeling to be told the EXACT same story, word for word, and get a 180 degree interpretation.  This “grey zone”, if you will, is astounding.  I’m looking forward to seeing this through to the end again.

 

Follow Up

Posted on by

In relation to the previous post, Microsoft brass has come out with an apology for what seemed like a crazy tweet.

“We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers. We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter.”

That makes step 1 complete.  Step 2 will likely be happening on May 21st, if sources are correct.

This does beg the question about pricing and was one of the main reasons the PS3 had such a hard time penetrating the market.  2006 was a good financial year and still the >$600 price point was too much.  Today’s market is garbage, worldwide.  For the same price you can get a decent laptop and build a media center, wifi everywhere and build a massive collection with Steam/GoG.

Microsoft’s push towards the subscription model isn’t folly.  They’ve had it since the first XBOX with a sub model to connect to their network. This “subsidized” model allowed them to sell consoles at a loss and make it up over the years.  Sony did not do this, but instead gave you the best price Blu-Ray player at the time.  If MS is going to push a contract model, similar to cellphone arrangements, this could work in their favor.  Let’s say they sold you the console with free network access for 600$ but also had a 300$ console with a 15$/month connection fee, I would gather the former would sell like crazy.  You’d end up paying more by year 2 with the contract but the system would be on your shelf.

If you were to read the internet about this whole MS vs. Sony debate, the only “
known” factor seems to be the network connection – and it’s not even confirmed.  People can’t compare price, spec, game selection, there’s just no information out there.  Instead people will latch on to the tinniest piece of information, rumor or not, and preach it as the death of X console.

In my RL job, I do a lot of analysis and this entire process is quite the case study.  There is the advantage of early PR on Sony’s behalf, with not a peep from them since – nearly 2 months ago.  The big picture PS4 is out there but we have next to no details past that.  MS has a die-hard following on XBL, with 10+ years of network service behind them.  That they maintained the console lead for so long, with next to no technical/game reason for it is a testament to the online service’s integration.  You would think by this time more info from MS would be revealed, even if it was just a teaser site.  This gap of information, in an age of instant information, is causing massive speculation.  I have never found a time where speculation was positive.

May 21st is a long time out, a couple weeks before E3.  With a near complete lack of details from either camp, there really isn’t much to do until then.  But when has that stopped the interweb?

 

So I Hear You’ve Been Living In A Cave

Posted on by

First with the introductions.  Adam Orth is the creative director for games at Microsoft.  He sent out a tweet, in response to rumors that the next XBOX is going to require always-on internet, that basically said he didn’t get what the problem was.

MS twitter

To which many a person replied.  Orth then compared internet access to electricity, in that it’s just always there.

A few points.  Point the first.

Now, I’m no rocket scientist but I do knows my stuff things.  My electricity goes down maybe twice per year and I might suffer a brownout or two (where it drops and comes back suddenly).  My internet however, goes down more than a few times per week due to multiple issues, the least of which is a crappy router.  My provider, as reliable as they are, still are not anywhere close to the reliability of electricity.  And I live in a high urban area.  My friends in the burbs or in the country, well they either don’t have access at all or suffer through horrendous service and garbage speeds.

I know people who live year round near my cottage have no internet other than tethering to a phone, facing north, in a special 4in x 4in corner, with no clouds, and no one can move while the internet is up.

Point B)

Has Mr Orth been living in a cave this past month?  Year?  There wasn’t a day in March that didn’t talk about SimCity and the always-on requirement.  Hell, it (partly) cost the CEO of EA his job.  Diablo 3 is standing right behind you, same with the UPlay from Ubisoft.  Steam is somewhere there smiling too, what with the offline mode and all.  Always-on is clearly not ready for prime time.  Unless you want to cut your market share.

Point the 3rd.

It is hard to believe that someone so highly placed within MS think this way.  Even more so when it comes to the gaming division.  I have such a hard time believing it that I am beginning to think that his account was hacked.  That truly seems to be a more reasonable answer to this.  Or, the entire point of the tweet was to gauge the public’s readiness – maybe.  That seems too meta for MS though.

Final Sum

Here’s what I’m thinking is going to happen next.  Orth is going to tweet a clarification of some sort (or move companies).  Microsoft is going to modify their always-on requirement so that offline play is possible. There will continue to be massive speculation about always on until MS comes out with an official statement.  Until that statement, every discussion about that console is going to likely be negative press.

Now That’s an Ending

Posted on by

Here I sit, nearly 2 AM on a tear of a run to finish Bioshock Infinite  done and done.  Irrational has a propensity for twists and turns in their tales and this game is no different.  Expecting a twist is different from expecting the twist, much in the same way you can’t really watch the 6th Sense a second time but you’ll still sit through another one of M. Night’s movies to see what’s next.

I finished the game, in a bit over 16 hours.  I played on the hard difficulty, which I suggest most others do as well.  I had a few problems at the start but after a few upgrades, it was relatively smooth sailing from then.  Up until the last fight.  You know it’s the last fight as the mechanics change a tad but it’s a solid run.  Little note for those trying the game, I highly suggest you upgrade the Murder of Crows and Possession to their highest.  While the game is certainly a FPS it is much less about running and gunning as it is about tactical fights.  Both of those skills give you a lot of breathing room.

There are some issues within the game, I’m sure you’ll find them from time to time, but on the whole, the entire game has a great flow.  The pacing is superb up until the final penultimate act.  You companion, Elizabeth, becomes such an integral part of the game that  when you are separated from her for any amount of time, you feel exposed.  There is something to be said about an NPC character leaving such a mark and I can think of only 2 others that come to mind – the Princess in the Prince of Persia reboot and your horse Agro in Shadow of the Colossus.

I won’t spoil it for anyone as it really is a game to be experienced.  Not played mind you, that comes naturally.  You need to experience the story, the world, the people.  When the twist happens and you think back to the trip you’ve taken, you’ll appreciate it all the more.

House Math

Posted on by

Off-topic from most but here goes.  I wrote about a similar subject that hit the US during the market crash 5 years ago and while Canada is better protected (no sub-primes, no HELOCs for first buys, etc…) the market is near saturation.  Here’s why.

The average “big city” house is about $350,000.  A decent mortgage is say, 3.25%.  If you put $25,000 down, then your mortgage rate is about $1,500 a month.  A house payment (plus insurance, taxes, maintenance and utilities) shouldn’t be more than 35% of your net income.  So let’s get best picture here and say the extras cost you $500 a month.  $2,000 net rolls up to be about $35,000 gross.  That’s only for the house.  The other 65% means you need to bring in another $3,7000.  That’s right, a total of $5,700.  That means a gross income of $104,000.

The average Canadian salary is about $47,000 per year.  Even double that with dual income, you’re still short $10,000 a year.

So if in the best case, where your costs are low, the average couple is unable to purchase the average house and be financially secure in case of mortgage changes, market changes or job changes.  If you then follow the logic that you need an above average salary to buy an average house, the percentage of home ownership at any given time should be less than 50%.  We are at nearly 70%.

Granted, this includes everyone who purchased a house before this housing boom.  Home buyers today have less money and higher prices.  I’m not saying we’re on a bubble, but the upward trend of the market is not sustainable in the long term, especially if the house prices exceed the increases in salary (which are usually just below inflation).  The days of single person home ownership are gone unless you are willing to make some very significant sacrifices.

MetaCritic

Posted on by

BioShock Infinite is out, after what seems like 20 years of dev time.  It also seems to have universal acclaim.  The interesting part about that link is that it’s not a review but Metacritic’s assembly of reviews.  I have issues (still do) with Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes and a pile of aggregate sites.  Their definition of “Critic Reviews” can be, enlightening.  IGN might show up 3 times, one for the US, one UK and one for the Aussies.  I can’t fault the site for having reviews a week before a game launches, though in the recent SimCity debacle you have to wonder when there’s a 30 point spread between the average, top and bottom scores.

Yet here we are at BioShock Infinite, scoring a whopping 96 with 40 reviews already in.  I can say I have more faith in these reviews because the game experience is the same offline or on – you know, since there’s no online.  Still, when you look at the list of all-time best PC games, it comes 5th.  I have played nearly every game that’s scored a 90, so time will tell if it does merit the score.  Even more so if it beats out the first game, which was a masterful story with solid mechanics.

Another side comment – the game is available on Steam for 60$.  I can’t remember the last time I paid 60$ for a game on Steam but in this particular case, I couldn’t really come up with a good enough reason not to give them my money.  Years of work, apparently a kick ass game – why not?

These past month has probably been the best in recent memory for games. Scratch one though.

Riccitiello is Gone

Posted on by

So the web is aflutter with news that John Riccitiello, the CEO of EA, has left the company after 6 years in the big chair.  Since that time, EA’s stock started at 52$, rose to a high of 62$ in 2007, took a massive nosedive at the end of 2008 to 17$(due in large part to the economy), and has fluctuated since then between 17-20$.

EA and I have had a falling out.  That isn’t to say that I don’t respect and appreciate what they’ve done in the past.  They were the first company where I could be sure all their games were quality (back in the 90s). EA has had ups and downs over the years.  They are responsible for Rock Band, Crysis, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.  They’ve produced innovative games from time to time (Mirror’s Edge) and bled franchises dry (the Sims).  They’ve treated their employees poorly and yet stood up for equal rights in the political sphere.  They’ve implemented some of the worst DRM on the planet (Ubisoft comes first) which has led to some of the most prolific pirating ever seen (Spore is the #1 pirated game apparently).  Dante’s Inferno marketing had fake protesters and one of the most insane ploys ever created (remember the naughty pictures they wanted?).

While this certainly isn’t the end of EA, make no mistake, this is a massive change in management.  Like the doctors before him, John was shown the door after a very disappointing release.  I have no worries that he’ll find somewhere else to work and at the same time, I’m really hoping the next CEO of EA manages to remember that in order to make a profit for shareholders, you need to make games people actually can and want to play.

More Grimrock

Posted on by

If you haven’t already, you should pick up Legend of Grimrock.  It’s an amazing indie game that captures the dungeon crawl feeling.  My only issue with it was the level cap and that you were sort of forced down a single skill path because of it (especially for rogues).

In the fall the devs released a toolkit to allow players to build their own dungeon sets.  Well, an enterprising group managed to re-create the entire main quest line and add piles of tweaks to the journey.  Master Quest allow you to level up to 30+, gives items more worth, a slightly different layout and replayability.

Considering you can get the game for 10$, which is less than the price of most DLC today, you’d be doing yourself a favor giving it a shot.  I know I’m going for another few runs through!

The Wonders

Posted on by

So we’re about into week 2 of SimCity, a game I haven’t played but feel like I have.  The stories coming out are pointing more and more towards Accident-Lawyer on the truthiness scale.

Recently we learned that “offline mode” is more than feasible from the same guy that was able to mod away regional boundaries (make the map bigger essentially).  The servers apparently are only used for resource relay from nearby regions and to save your game.  Given that resources in regions only update if there’s an ACTIVE player in those regions, when you’re playing  private region, it never updates.  This means that the “cloud” does one thing and one thing only for single-player online games, it saves.  And does a poor job at it too, since you can’t access your saves from a different server.  Not too cloud-like to me!

Today we find out that the game has a line of code to disconnect you after 20 minutes of no-interweb.  Code it out, and you can play offline as much as you want, you just can’t save.  Seems rather DRM-ish to me.

All this while, the Maxis boss has been claiming the cloud off-loads computation.  Mind you, they’ve now opened the can of worms by alluding to the game as an MMO.  You know, an MMO where you actively play with other people and don’t have any single player options?

It just seems unfortunate that a series with as much history as SimCity would want to go down this path.  Are there still pirates?  Yes, and I would bet dollars to donuts there are more pirates that don’t want to play your game than do.  I also bet that online stores without DRM would have sold you more copies.  There are simply too many DRM alternatives out there to go down this ridiculous route.  It’s 2013, we can do better.