Archives for December 2004

Last week I commented on game reviews after reading this post on RedAssedBaboon. I railed against the content of the review but didn’t say much about review scores. But I can promise that’s exactly what people look at before they read a review. This made me thing a bit about a way of giving a game a score that encapsulated more than just graphics and sound or story and gameplay. There are outside influences that should also be considered, like when a game is released (relative to the release of the console) and sequels. Read on to my new way of reviewing a game.

This is still a rough draft, but I have been thinking about this for a while and think I may be on to something. It is a new take on the “1-10 scale” but takes more than the graphics/sound/gameplay/control aspects in to consideration. It’s hard to reduce the rating of a game to a single number but in the end that’s what I’m using. There are a few things that I’m assuming. One, I don’t think there has been a perfect game yet, hence no perfect 10s. Two, I’m not sure how this will work across platforms so I may have to keep the scores within the platform. That doesn’t mean a game that is scored 9.2 on the Gamecube is any better than a 9.2 game on the Xbox. But for now they’ll have to remain isolated.

My rating system is akin to the Pauli Exclusion Principle but instead of electrons we’re talking games: No two games can have the same score. Using an example, here’s how it works (using Gamecube games). The games I’m using a three fantastic games: Metroid Prime, The Legend of Zelda:Wind Waker, and Viewtiful Joe. On a gameplay level, all three are different but all three deliver with aplomb. Audio and visuals are superb and all three are replayable. Given that I don’t think a game can reach a perfect 10 or anything close to that, I’m giving my favorite game, Wind Waker, a 9.7. Then we have Viewtiful Joe. Again, another classic, one of the best on the Gamecube. But it’s not quite a 9.7 but it’s definitely a 9.6. So we’ll go with that. Now we have to consider Metroid Prime. Definitely one of my favorites, right up there with Wind Waker. I would say they are almost equals. But since we have the exclusion rule, I can’t give Metroid a 9.7 but it is better then VJ. So we’ve narrowed it down between those to. I’d say it’s closer to 9.7 than 9.6, so I’m giving it a 9.68. Now Wind Waker is a 9.70, Metroid Prime a 9.68 and Viewtiful Joe is 9.60. These values aren’t set in stone and they are subject to revision (as are my rating rules) but this gives the basic framework.

Sequels are especially tricky. It’s always assumed that a sequel is going to have the advantage of an experienced programming team that can improve things like graphics and controls. But I don’t think a sequel that looks better but doesn’t improve on a certain level doesn’t deserve to be rated higher than its predecessor. Same thing for games that are released later in a console’s life – it should be looked at more critically.

Another week has gone by. The (arguably) best month of videogaming has unfortunately come to an end, but it has brought everyone much gaming goodness. It also looks like the plebes employed in the gaming industry also have something to be excited about. Our first item is just that.

From Kotaku, we get a leaked internal memo from Electronic Arts. From the memo:

As much as I don’t like what’s been said about our company and our industry, I recognize that at the heart of the matter is a core truth: the work is getting harder, the tasks are more complex and the hours needed to accomplish them have become a burden.

He does acknowledge blogs before “media” which seems to be becoming a common theme lately.

We are looking at reclassifying some jobs to overtime eligible in the new Fiscal Year. We have resisted this in the past, not because we don’t want to pay overtime, but because we believe that the wage and hour laws have not kept pace with the kind of work done at technology companies, the kind of employees those companies attract and the kind of compensation packages their employees prefer. We consider our artists to be “creative” people and our engineers to be “skilled” professionals who relish flexibility but others use the outdated wage and hour laws to argue in favor of a workforce that is paid hourly like more traditional industries and conforming to set schedules. But we can’t wait for the legislative process to catch up so we’re forced to look at making some changes to exempt and non-exempt classifications beginning in April.

That doesn’t sound like contrition to me, but I also recognize that EA is a big Wall Street company that has investors to please, but nontheless, no one deserves the hours these guys put in. I guarantee the guy who wrote this memo hits the road by 3:30 every day. (This memo was verified by Kotaku, too)

From Joystiq, we get a link to something that is near and dear to my heart – statistics. Bungie.net statistics to be exact. I am simply overwhelmed by what Bungie is actually keeping track of. I was showing my friend what you can access online and it is pretty amazing. Well here we have an intrepid Halo 2 player who has made Bungie’s RSS feed into some visually useful and pleasing data. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet (you need Office 2003 to make it work and I only have Office XP on the laptop, I’ll have to use it on the PC downstairs). For all that are interested, here are my Halo 2 stats. Nothing special, but I love Halo 2 on Live nonetheless. (Please notice the Symbol. I hope the irony isn’t lost on many)

On that note, according to the Washington Post (Via Kotaku) the Gamecube is obsolete. I have refrained from going off the handle on this one, but I can’t bottle it up forever. I’ll leave it at that for now.

That was a quick review of what I liked this week. I’ve come across more Gaming Blogs lately, so hopefully I’ll have a bigger pool of blogs to review, but for now I’m satisfied with what we’ve got so far. If you’ve got a tip or something you think I should see, drop me a comment. I’m in the process of setting up an email address for tips, but I haven’t set that up yet. Until then, comments will have do to.

(This post probably should have qualified for the “read more” link but I totally forgot I had it. I’ll add one next time.)