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Archives for May 2005

E3 this and that

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So as you may or may not know, I am not at E3. I’m perfectly okay with that, I have no desire to be around such a nerd herd that is the Expo. But I can’t deny how exciting it would be to see the press conferences, wander the floor in awe, meet cool people and play even cooler games. Alas, such is not my lot in life. But bloggers are there en masse and I am cool with that.

I would frequent Gamespy/IGN and Gamespot for my E3 fixes in years past. Not this year. I’m sticking to my fellow bloggers for my information. Funny how that works. They know what the gamers want and are covering the Expo with aplomb.

The major 3 consoles have held there press conferences and I have mixed feelings. Sony’s and Microsoft’s presentations sounded more like pissing contests while Nintendo was low-key and focused on the games. (I tip my hat in Joystiq’s direction, they have done a bang-up job on their coverage)

Nintendo seems to be catching a lot of flak for their presentation and their direction in general (although some people seemed to have enjoyed it). After last years trash-kicking (see: Reggie-lution) the bar was set unfavorably high for them. From what I’ve read, Nintendo did just fine. They avoided the muscle flexing and were more about the games. That works for me. I’d love to see Nintendo contend this generation (and I think they will) I just wish they’d get more respect. They’re not George Lucas, for crying out loud! The Micro this is a little weird, but come on! I can play games ON, not WITH an NES controller. Cool, if it costs 39 bucks or less.

Currently I’m torn between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I will buy a Revolution, that much is clear. (hat tip to Kotaku for the great spec coverage and Top Of Cool has a great comparison of specs here) Now the question comes down to the other console (I don’t have the cash or desire to own all three). Halo 3 weighs heavily on the decision. The PS3 controller looks horrible in its present form but I’d like to feel it and see how well it flies when I’m tee-oh’ed. That bomerang shape may come in handy. Right now I could go either way with my 2nd console.

Of course, it comes down to the games and that’s my current beef. Outside of Gears of War, I’m not seeing anything original. What is this, Hollywood? Nevertheless, Nintendo could release a thousand Zelda games, I’d play them all and love every minute of it. I mean look at this stuff!

Wondering how the food at E3 is? Damned Machines has it covered!

I haven’t even mentioned PC games yet (which I admit that I don’t play as much as consoles) but I do love the Strategy genre and I am pumped about Age of Empires 3. Troy, at Portico, has a great list of E3 Strategy games here. I’d like to see what E3 holds in store for Guild Wars (and other MMOGs). On the shooter front, Quake 4 looks rock solid.

Live Blogging Xbox 360

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Since I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll be live blogging MTV’s Xbox Next Generation infomercial special. Looks like Kyle, Kotaku, and Joystiq will be doing so as well.

I’m not really sold on the Xbox 360 just yet. The whole MTV special just stinks of piles of Microsoft money being thrown around trying to get the ever popular 18-39 audience. I’m the list of “stars” that will be there don’t do it for me, either. The fact that Maurice Clarett is there almost prevents me from watching it all together (I’m an Ohio State fan, what can I say?). I’ll reserve judgement until after the show, but I can’t shake this feeling of deja vu.

On a side note, I’d like to see Xbox Live numbers between 9:30 – 10:00 pm EST.

Update: Okay, here we are, 9:30 and it’s go time:
Lets get the hype and hyperbole going right away! The Next Xbox will “Literally change the face of entertainment”. Phew, they start piling it on thick right way.

(Kotaku has some nice high-res images up already. Again, I’m not feeling the new design. I keep getting this nagging feeling that Microsoft is making a big mistake releasing this so early. More on that later.)

9:31 pm – Alright, so unrecognizable girl brought it out and yep, it looks just like we’ve known for a while now – ugly white and standing upright. Blech.

9:35 pm – “What do you think of the new Xbox 360?” (Elijah Wood)
“I’m looking forward to getting a free one. Hah ha!” (Li’l John? Some dude with a chalice)

9:39 pm – Alrighty then, they’ve shown the Xbox 360/Samsung commercial during the same break. The first time I saw that I thought it said “Microsoft and Samus” Heh. Madden, NFSU:MW and TW 2006 clips – are they real or simply “possible” gameplay. We’ll see. Need for Speed looked hot but Madden and Tiger Woods looked wierd.

Now we’re gonna pimp the Xbox. I thought this was about the new one.

Wireless was just confirmed – and a RING OF LIGHT. Whoa. That is hawt. Those face plates are embarassing.

The Live Marketplace – another bad idea. After watching that demonstration I had the image of MS taking money out of my pocket without me even knowing it was happening.

9:50 – Some more games – Gears of War looked good as did Qauke 4. The other brief games didn’t look interesting. So now it’s Perfect Dark time. But first let’s listen to some Gaming Pros. Zyos just called it the “Xbox 2”. I guess he didn’t get that memo. Now they’re talking about Perfect Dark Zero. 50 players at once sounds very, very tasty. Fully destructible environments. We’ll see about that. It’s been promised before. Ms. PMSgamer likes to swear a lot. That’s so gamer.

Watching the deathmatch, the controllers look small. Too small?

“Xbox 360 is gonna be amazing.” – Elijah Wood.

10:03 pm – That was over sooner than I thought it would be. A couple observations –
1.) Xbox 360 is supposed to usher in the HD era. But as Bill at DQ points out, why not broadcast the show in HD? There wouldn’t be a better way to convince us that it is, indeed, the HD era. I’m not convinced yet. I also noted that they really didn’t play up the HD aspect of the 360. Not sure why, but I didn’t notice any mentions.

2.) Even though it was still MTV, the production value was well done. While I asked Spike TV for two hours they stole from me last year, MTV kept it short and relatively sweet. Spike TV could take some advice from MTV how to host a Video Game show. I didn’t notice any gratuitous cleavage shots (except during the deathmatch which was too bad) or any celebrities trying to act like gamers. Well played, MTV.

Well, that was actually anti-climactic. I’m still interested in the next generation of consoles, including the Xbox. Things looked great. But like I said earlier, there’s still that nagging feeling that I can’t shake. With the marketplace, the ugly design (with a ring of light!), and the “HD era” things feel gimmicky. I know Microsoft knows what they’re doing, so I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Update #2: Here are some of the other bloggers talking about the Xbox 360 – Damned Machines, SmashBOT, Video Games Ombudsman, Dubious Quality, Joystiq, Nomad Gamer, Listen Up, Sports Gamer, Arena of Ideas, Also Coin Operated, and others, I’m sure. The consesus seems to be MTV sucks, the Xbox 360 didn’t impress, and everyone will still be buying one. Mission Accomplished.

The Carnival of Gamers

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Recently, I’ve been mulling over starting something that has been popular among other “genre” bloggers, the Carnival. What is a Carnival? I’ll quote the description of the popular Carnival of the Vanities (from a recent edition of said Carnival):

The COTV is showcase of blog posts which have been submitted by their authors as an example of their best work. Each week a host is selected to compile these posts and present them to the blogosphere so that people who may not have known about them will get a chance to read them. It is a great opportunity to expand your horizons beyond the normal heavy hitters.

There are a bunch of interesting Carnivals out there, including the ever important Cat and Dog Carnivals! If cat bloggers can have their own Carnival, so can Video Game Bloggers! I think this would be a great way to expose your readers to other players that also blog about video games. I think video game blogs are on the cusp of something big here.

With that in mind, I propose the Carnival of Gamers. (That’s the working title, it can change if someone has a better moniker) I would host the first couple of Carnivals, since I have a vested interest in seeing this succeed. I’m not sure if weekly or bi-weekly would be the best format, but that would work itself out. Anyone interested in participating would submit their selected entry to me, by way of blog comments or email to “buttonmashing at gmail dot com”. Everyone that submitted entries would be included (barring any inappropriate content, my discretion) and I reserve the right to present the entries as I see fit. I would add commentary as needed but I would want the entries to speak for themselves. This is about bloggers and their writing, not my lame attempts at pithy remarks.

So before I/we start this, I want to gauge interest in this endeavor. If you have a blog about video games, would you be interested in participating? Would you link/submit/host the Carnival? Would you be thick-skinned enough to take the occasional bit of criticism that may pop up, over time? How often to do you think we should have the Carnival? Can fanboys get along? Do you have a better name for it? Should we call it the Carnival of the Fanboys?

So please, link to this post, comment, send me an email, whatever, if you think this might be something that we “non-existent” gaming bloggers can do.

Update 5/11/05 – 8:28pm: There has been a pretty good response to the idea of having a Carnival. Many have responded, both to participating and to helping out/hosting. Everyone seems pretty optimistic. Thomas mentioned (in the comments) that some Carnivals have the host choose the posts to highlight, but I like the format of the Carnival of the Vanities with the participants submitting their own posts, so I think that will be the format we go with.

I’m planning on holding the first Carnival of Gamers Thursday, May 26th. I think bi-weekly will be an appropriate frequency. Thomas has volunteered to host, so he’ll host the next Carnival June 9th. We’ll set up a schedule with other hosts after that. I’ll set up a submission page next week and we’ll start accepting submissions then. Everyone is welcome to submit, and I’d really like it if we had some submissions from bloggers who aren’t obsessed with games as much as we are. Look here for more information soon.

Update 2:Go here for submission instructions.

Live Xbox 360 shot!

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I don’t care for it, but maybe you will – Engadget brings us a Live Xbox 360 shot!. It can look ugly as long as it delivers the goods, namely Halo 3. The white color will certainly stick out next to the black components of my home theater but that’s not a big deal for me. Standing up isn’t my thing, either, but I doubt it will have to stand as such.

Is this the real deal? Who cares, in less than a week we’ll have the MTV unveiling (which I’ll probably live blog) and we can say goodbye to all the rumors and hearsay.

These aren’t the blogs you’re looking for…

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It’s late and I should be sleeping, but this can’t wait until the morning.

It’s hard for me to believe I missed this one. Hard for two reasons: 1) I regularly read Technology Review at work and doubt I would have looked past an article such as this (even though it was posted a couple days ago) and 2) I am fascinated with all things blogs and video game blogging in particular. So when I read this over at Cathode Tan, I was flummoxed. How can someone at the pinnacle of the technology world (MIT) be so off?

First, for the full story, you need to read Josh’s attempt at contacting Tech. Review here (thanks for the mention, Josh). It’s classic. Adam at render was equally upset with the lack of journalistic research and sounded off here. Finally, Amit at Damned Machines is sucessful (?) at contacting someone over there with some jabs at this piece. All good stuff and I’m glad everyone was on this. The video game blogging community is growing pretty quickly. With Bloglines I currently subscribe to 80+ video game blog feeds, with more popping up all the time. There is no dearth of bloggers blogging about video games. To only mention Joystiq (which I enjoy) and Gamespot is simply embarassing. I’m no journalist but I try to hit up Google anytime I’m unsure of something I’m about to write. It makes sense to me, but I’m just a blogger.

But the “there are no gaming bloggers” gaffe is only one of many the writer makes. The article in question also hints at blogging in MMOG’s. Hmmm, that seems like something Foton mentioned, ohh, I don’t know, two months ago! Of course, the all-mighty dollar looms large in all of this and we can’t forget marketing!

“The reason we don’t have more community elements like blogs in games is because the publishers haven’t figured out how to harness it and make money off of it,” says Li.

Holy crap did I just read that right? “We already take fifty bucks out of their pockets but when we can use blogs to take more, we will!” Blech!

And we end with this doozie:

Everyone contacted for this article expressed interest in seeing more game-specific or within-game blogs. While it may be awhile before we see blogs within games, one thing’s for certain: there’s plenty of room for them and, well, there’s interest in blogging.

“Video game blogs are on the rise,” says Swofford. “The segment is growing.”

Plenty of room for them? I beg to differ.Video games move at such a quick place that I really don’t see their utility within most games. Screen shots and funny stories, sure. That usually takes place after you’ve played a session of gaming. But in-game blogging, even in the MMOG sense, doesn’t really resonate with me. And yes, video game blogs are on the rise.

So blog on, gaming bloggers. I’d like us to have an even bigger presence. Join the ranks of more “accepted” forms of blogging (whatever that entails). Personally, I’ve been mulling the idea of a “Carnival of Gamers” in the near future. I’m still hatching my idea, but I’ll be presenting here soon, hoping to drum up some interest. So stay tuned!

Wired 13.05: Dome Improvement

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I just finished reading the oddly titled article Dome Improvement over at Wired and I must say I’m mildly confused and extremely interested in this topic. The article looks at the steady climb of IQ in the civilized world. It attributes the rise partially to genetics and not as much to environment (among other things) and it makes some interesting observations. Like this one, regarding twins:

Identical twins raised in different environments have IQs almost as similar to each other as the same person tested twice, while adopted children living together – shared environment, but no shared genes – show no correlation.

Very interesting.

But what does this have to do with video games? Well, the author of these studies wonders where this increase in IQ is coming from. It can’t be schooling, given the current state of our public school system (which I don’t buy completely). It also can’t be correlated with nutrition, since diets haven’t changed for the better since the 50’s. So what is making kids smarter? The explosion of media, including — you guessed it — those evil video games!

The best example of brain-boosting media may be videogames. Mastering visual puzzles is the whole point of the exercise – whether it’s the spatial geometry of Tetris, the engineering riddles of Myst, or the urban mapping of Grand Theft Auto.

That might be a stretch for some, but I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve seen my four year old nephew play computer games like it’s second nature to him. My two year old daughter can recognize different characters in video games and she know I’m supposed to shake trees to get the fruit out of trees in Animal Crossing. These might not be developing life skills but they are helping these little minds develop. In my book that’s a good thing.

And I think the author of the Wired article is a pretty good authority on this topic. He’s the author of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, which sounds like an interesting read. I’ll have to check it out.

Update 5/11/05 – 11:59pm: Seems like this article (and book) are getting quite a bit of air-time. Kottke has a big list of both media and blog links. Render and Damned Machines also chime in.

Forza Motorsport review roundup

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Supra!
The good guys at Joystiq bring us their Forza Motorsport review roundup. I’ve been on a Burnout 3 kick lately but I’ve been looking for something else to try. I’ve been debating between Forza and Midnight Club 3. I know that’s apples and oranges, but both look like fun in their own ways. I was all about the Underground scene with NFSU (Toyota Supra for teh win!) and I’ve heard good things about MC3 but I’d also try my luck at a more “pure” racer like Forza.

In the end I’ll probably rent both of them and buy Burnout 4.

The hyperbolic machine

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Nowak is mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it anymore!

The more important realization, however, is that even if real-time rendering reaches that watermark, the game industry will still be a long, long ways off from reaching the standards of Toy Story’s creativity, originality, cleverness, writing, acting and maturity (all this from a G-rated film).

Amen, brother.

Halo 2, New and Improved

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By now, just about everybody knows that Halo 2 has been updated with new maps, playlists, and cheat fixes. I haven’t tried them out yet (but will after the greatest TV show ever is over). I did talk to a clanmate this afternoon about it and he gave it the thumbs up. But he likes movies starring Kirsten Dunst, so he may not be the best authority. We’ll have to wait and see for ourselves. Update forthcoming.

Update (3 hours later…): The clan had a chance to try out pretty much everything except the new maps (because I haven’t bought them and now I won’t because I don’t want to give my clanmate (you know who you are) the satisfaction of saying “I knew you’d cave in and buy them.”) Highlights included big team battle (CTF) in Containment and a Slayer in Warlock. Containment felt like a smooshed Sidewinder but it was enjoyable. The Slayer match in Warlock was crazy frenetic and I never had a chance to get my bearings. We also ended the night on a Sniper Battle which was enjoyable. Overall, I give the new changes a thumbs up. Or, in keeping with the theme of the blog, a big thumb mashing on a button. Because that’s just what I do.