Sometimes I get triple-A fatigue and I feel just a little tapped out. I find myself a little niche where the only gaming of note I do is on my DS. I can dump hundreds of hours into a Harvest Moon or Pokemon game and never look back -- in fact, I'm not even HeartGold or SoulSilver-ing yet because I'm just focusing on Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands. Yep, that's about it!
These phases lend themselves to being light on blogging -- at times like that, I'm glad I have my Twitter to toss quick thoughts and links out to you guys. Of course, I'm also busy as usual at Gamasutra. You know I love indie games that try to push or change the medium; I spent time with Jason Rohrer's Sleep is Death, my writing on which you might have read at Kotaku, so just a little bit later, I caught up with the fascinating, loquacious and giant-brained Eskil Steenberg at Gamasutra to talk about his work on the impressionist-art MMO (though he resists the word "MMO") LOVE.
We talk about how he suddenly decided to develop his own self-contained game engine and persistent multiplayer world without any significant design experience (truly, truly impressive), and why LOVE is, in his view, completely different than other games, most of which don't interest him much.
I went to see Crysis 2 unveiled in New York City late last week, and I talked to Crytek boss Cevat Yerli about why, in a world where crappy-looking Facebook games can pull millions of users in just a few weeks (as venture capitalists are I think over-fond of pointing out), AAA graphics still matter. Last night on Jimmy Fallon (Kotaku has video), Cliff Bleszinski answered "graphics" first of all when asked what makes a blockbuster -- because they "pull people in" initially, he qualified. Yerli and Bleszinski both work for companies with perhaps the largest footprints in the high-end development engine biz, so certainly they have an interest in that point of view.
Oh yeah, Bleszinski was premiering Gears 3's trailer, by the way. It has a lot of ashes and dust in it, kind of like Crysis 2's trailer. Ashes are so in for 2011! Seriously, it looks cool, though, and as Cliff says, it has female soldiers for the first time. He says that's thanks to fan feedback.
Most of my time yesterday, however, was spent covering the latest and greatest in the Activision-versus-Infinity Ward drama, which you know I have been following in some depth for some time. As I'm sure you've heard by now, exiled IW bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella now have their own studio in Respawn Entertainment, and surprise-surprise, they have EA's backing. Wedbush's Michael Pachter told me this is the 'ultimate screw-you' to Activision.
I would guess the 'ultimate screw-you' to Activision will happen when employees of not only Infinity Ward, but of certain other studios under its umbrella who are sick of being crunched to obscene, five-years-ago levels try to get out and send their resumes to what's likely to be a more comfortable situation. At Respawn, I would assume they put lights in the cubicles all the time, not just when the press is visiting.
But anyway, after writing about them for weeks on weeks now, it was neat to finally talk to Zampella, West and EA (read my interview!), even if just on the studio kickoff. Most people assume the two are going to lead some kind of Modern Warfare killer on EA's behalf, although they aren't yet willing to confirm anything whatsoever about their project. Theoretically, they could be making anything, although I'm not exactly expecting a cartoon platformer.
It'll be interesting to see how their product is positioned -- after all, anything that competes with Modern Warfare is going to compete with Battlefield, too. As Pachter said to me yesterday, the vertex of the market that would make the most sense for the pair is the future/sci-fi-ish genre, where their only major rival would be a little franchise called Halo (and maybe Killzone or something).
Shooter, shooter, shooter, shooter. Graphics, graphics, graphics, graphics. Bummer that the industry's top talent keeps making the same kind of games. Or maybe I'm not the market. If you're into this kinda thing, you must be going out of your head with this bounty of exciting news.
Now I return to Harvest Moon, where I will plant and pluck turnips over and over and over and over and over.
20 comments:
These are just the guys who happen to be talking loudest at the moment. A week or two ago, AAA was dead. Apparently bandwagon is the only mode of transport available to us.
It's pretty much the same everywhere. According to TV ads, Avatar and The Blind Side were the only movies of note released last year; Lady Gaga is the only important name in music. Meanwhile, hundreds of niche markets are consuming slightly-left-field media continuously.
Games are diverse, have always been diverse and are continuing to diversify. It's easy to forget sometimes.
To me the graphics race seems less about making the game better and more about positioning your engine as the middle ware of choice.
I am CliffyB's market, but I am not really flipping out over these titles. Crysis was pretty but ultimately kinda boring and I hate cover in shooters. That being said, I have consistently loved the trailers for the Gears of War games, and I'm glad they kept up the quality for this one.
I'm actually glad that the top (graphics) talent makes shooters. Action games are, to me, the best games for showcasing graphics. More effects and dynamic lighting effects. More stuff on screen period. Other genres don't need this stuff to be brilliant, and require different talent, like writers. If only there were better writers in the gaming sphere.
I'm really looking forward to 2 or 3 E3's from now, when Jason West comes out on stage to debut their new game and hopefully blows everyone away like COD4 did.
Sales of Gears of War: 6 million units
Sales of Wii Fit: 22.5 million units
Graphics my ass. Cliff is selling a niche product to a niche audience while the market shifts way the fuck in a totally different direction.
>> "Shooter, shooter, shooter, shooter. Graphics, graphics, graphics, graphics. Bummer that the industry's top talent keeps making the same kind of games."
Geez, you said it. There was a point when I was into these games, but they just seemed tired now. I look forward to more fresh and unique IP like Infamous, Demon's Souls, and Heavy Rain.
I'm with lang; whenever I feel like playing an FPS, I pop in Team Fortress 2. Even 2 years old and on the PS3 without all of Valve's crazy updates, it still scratches that itch just fine.
Yep, the DS is still the king. especially when you're tired of playing Awe-Inspiring Epic Scale Big-Budget Game of the Week. Sometimes you just want something more low-key and relaxing that you can take with you and play when you have a spare moment. Myself, I've been putting hours and hours into Dragon Quest 5 and loving it!
"Sales of Gears of War: 6 million units"
"Sales of Wii Fit: 22.5 million units"
"Graphics my ass. Cliff is selling a niche product to a niche audience while the market shifts way the fuck in a totally different direction."
Players of Farmville: 85 million.
Graphics my ass. Nintendo is selling a niche product to a niche audience while the market shifts the fuck in a totally different direction.
Never had much interest in Gears of War, Modern Warfare, or even Halo. I can certainly appreciate their quality as games. But they all still strike me as another action-packed shooter (though perfectly polished). You know what I would be interested in? The trailers for each Gears of War. Or some of the recent Halo trailers. Remember how much praise the Mad World GoW trailer received? I still consider it one of the best trailers I've seen. Except that it has nothing to do with the game.
What's so interesting is the juxtaposition of the quiet, mournful, emotion-filled music with the dark violent action. But in the actual game, that entire aesthetic is no where to be found. Why can't they try actually going with it in the game? Well, economics I'm sure. There's obviously a huge market for what's already there. The subversion of a genre aesthetic is getting more visible in the indie community especially in platformers. Consider the group of dark moody black-silhouette games (sadly the games were the announced with trailers so long before release that the novelty has disappeared to a degree).
While I definitely do enjoy AAA titles, the release I'm looking forward to most this week isn't Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's Sam & Max Season Three. :)
And graphics are nice, but they're not everything. Final Fantasy XIII looks beautiful on my HDTV, but it's still sitting on my coffee table unplayed after putting in about 10-12 hours of game time.
This is what's so great about Heavy Rain's success - it's AAA money and tech put down on an adventure game , and it outperformed Massive Action Game.
Err... At the risk of sounding even more like a pretentious iconoclast than I'd like, are these guys really our "top talent?" No disrespect, but they've been making games that, while easily sellable, don't really do a whole lot to push the envelope, and they've been doing so with budgets that would shame larger feature films. Isn't our top talent making things like Monaco, The Path, Flotilla and Plants vs. Zombies? Small, elegant games that refine or redefine concepts in ways that are artistically significant rather than commercially significant? 'S a bit like saying Dan Brown is our generation's foremost author because he sells a lot of books.
Come on, Leigh, this should be your favorite subject: "The dominance of phallogocentric views and mechanics in US created video games and the impact on gender troubled little boys with their sexuality, relationships and military career" (fill in usual quotes from Butler, Kristeva, spice it up with Foucault, Derrida, Freud (Sigmund AND Anna :)
I particularly despise the most recent Crysis game that shamelessly steals it's thrills from 9-11. Distasteful and exploitative?
I blame Cevat's rambling on the Giantbomb interview with Ryan on a) jet-lag b) long working day c) language differences. He had to sell his game on that event, but I still don't like it.
The meta-sexual themes in FPS should be explored more academically. I would read a book about this (*hint*, *nudge*).
I agree with Alex. Academia is beginning to pay attention to video games. That doesn't mean that the average gamers needs to be up on their literary/artistic/social theory. It just means that a whole new audience is entering the discussion, and we should be ready for it.
On a side note, Alex, I gave a conference presentation about movies stealing from 9-11 last year. It's not surprising games have jumped on board.
@Ben: good to hear.
[correction: Brad did the Giantbomb interview with Cevat, I referred to above, not Ryan.]
Gamers try to avoid grind, or they just accept it as something you have to do, then try to optimise their grind path. WoW players plot quickest routes between harvest points and know the drop rates for mobs.
It's easy for Shooter gamers to think they don't have the same grind as MMO players, because the grind is disguised as waves of enemies, rather than obvious like quests for 10 rat tails.
And the game that everyone raves about, the one that people bandy around stats about, is currently Farmville. Grind, undisguised, with no reward other than further grind and more stuff to grind. It is one facet of the RPG world, microcosmed and taken to a massive extreme. It is Pavlovian conditioning in action. Harvest Moon at least feels like a world! Pokemon too!
Anyway, point was meant to come in somewhere there. Umm, oh yeah, shooters! I don't mind that they end up taking the "top talent". Hopefully they can take something many gamers are used to a make it into something better. But I'd like them to take over something like Harvest Moon instead though. Imagine: it's got the addictive grind already. Revamp that and turn it into a beast like MW. It might spell a new era in games addiction.
P.s. I liked the West/Zampella interview. Simple, direct, no bull. Good job.
Nowadays, if your game's on 360 or PS3, if it's not a shooter it almost won't sell as much.
Luckily there's a few great games that came out recently that break the mould, but the fact that some great games, like X-Com and Silent Hill, are either confirmed FPS games, or heavily rumoured to make the jump, that saddens me. How the hell can a third-person survival horror and a turn-based strategy game possibly work as shooters? I mean.. come on already! Did nobody remember how dreadful the Resident Evil FPS/rail shooters were? They're oversaturating the market and it's no bloody wonder I'm fed up playing them. Except Team Fortress 2, that's ALWAYS a blast.
You have nicely described about the way you play and love the video games.The narration about "HeartGold","SoulSilver-ing" ,"Harvest Moon" and Sunshine Islands are perfect. Shooting video games are very popular now a days. I have similar views that Facebook games can pull millions of users in just a few weeks. But getting a reliable website to rent or buy video games online is not that easy. I think you should discuss about it.
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