Confused about all the versions of the PS3
Posted on October 31st, 2007 by wagnoid
There is only one PS3 but it has many circles.
Wired’s Game | Life created a handy venn diagram:
(Hat Tip: Engadget)
GameOver40.com
Gaming with one foot in the grave.
Advice to Sony: Build a PSII
Posted on October 29th, 2007 by wagnoid
As a followup on my last post on why I think backwards compatibility is important, here’s a direction I would consider for Sony:
Re-Position the PS2 as a competitor to Wii
Given the business Wii has generated in the casual game market with a technology platform comparable to the PS2, I think a great move for Sony would be to build out a competing product to the Wii using the PS2, which also would work on the PS3. The idea would be to improve upon the motion controls of the SixAxis controller and build a controller similiar to the Wii’s. Internally create a Wii Sports competitor for it and build it with a PS2 for $179-$199, or as a controller and game only package for PS2/PS3 at $59-$99.
Here’s why it makes sense:
- Sony’s PS3 sales are lackluster and by entering the casual gaming market it adds PS2 sales as well as cross-over PS3 sales for users who want superior graphics.
- It undercuts the Nintendo Wii with a lower cost package and re-vitalizes the old PS2 until the PS3 can gain more marketshare.
- It uses the old sales theory that men get families into the store but wives get families to the cash register. With support for casual games, the PS3 might be the compromise between the hardcore gaming husband and the casual gaming wife.
- For mother’s buying a kid a system, a PSII would be a good entry level system which has both casual games for families and a library of cool games for the kids.
Of course with no backwards compatibility, it doesn’t make much sense since there is no upgrade path to the PS3. With the way the Playstation business has gone off the tracks over the last year or two, they need to do something to get back on the rail and I’m not sure Playstation Home is going to sell systems.
PS3 Backward Compatibility Is Important
Posted on October 26th, 2007 by wagnoid
Recently, Sony announced a new PS3 model sporting a 40GB hard drive at a reduced price of $399, which should be good news for gamers looking to purchase a PS3. Along with other cost cutting measures, they’ve had to remove all PS2 Backward compatibility to the unit. Will this hurt Sony? I think it will.
Quoting analysts at GameDaily.com:
It’s not an ideal solution, but something had to be done. “It’s about cost reduction, but also getting people to focus on PS3 games. End of the day, they need to do something, and this was probably a compromise between costs and price cuts,” UBS analyst Ben Schachter said.
I can understand the sentiment, but it’s going to be a cold winter this Christmas for Sony. Here’s why:
- Compared to the XBox 360, there are few must buy titles for the PS3. If you are going to buy a single HDTV gaming console, the selection of good games for the XBox 360 is pretty compelling.
- Unlike the original XBox, there are a ton of games on the PS2 that are still well worth playing and having that backward compatibility was a good reason for users who don’t have a PS2 to purchase a PS3 instead. God of War 2, Final Fantasy 12, Okami, and Persona 3 are all great games that I have on my list to play sometime this winter.
- Over time, digital distribution is going to be a key profit maker for game console manufacturers and the ability to download and play PS2 games on your PS3 would be a great addition to Sony’s online initiative. With no backward compatibility, that market doesn’t exist.
- Why on earth are they not calling this product something different? How confused is the marketplace going to be with some models having backwards compatibility and some don’t all with the same product name.
I do agree that price is the most important consideration for getting someone to purchase a PS3, but at $399, it’s a hard sell over an XBox 360 with it’s larger library of games.
Don’t Overlook Portal
Posted on October 25th, 2007 by wagnoid
Before Orange Box came out, no one had really heard much about Portal and assumed it was being thrown in simply as a technology demo. Now that people have it in their hands, it’s been getting a lot of buzz as a great game. After spending the last couple nights playing it to completion, it’s become one of my favorite games of the year.
While I waited to read articles that included any spoilers, what I did read gave me the impression that the game was a series of puzzle and included some witty voice acting. That is al true, but what really surprised me was the genuinely good narrative and the way the game lead you through that storytelling without the heavy handed approach of cut scenes. Instead, you find little bits of the story as you go along.
I think Portal benefited from the fact that the game is short and focused on the single game-play mechanic of the Portal gun. Another developer might have tried to make Portal into a full retail package and be faced with some bad design choices to extend the play out another few hours. One way might have been to add other gameplay elements such as the use of different weapons, a vehicle level, or the now in vogue, quick time events ala God of War. Another way, from the school of Mario, is to increase the difficulty as each level progresses making you having to become better skilled at the controls. While Portal does get more difficult as the game progresses, the answers lie in using more sophisticated uses of the Portal gun as opposed to having to become more dexterous with the controls. At the end of the day, Portal is all meat and no filler, and as a result, is a satisifying gaming experience.
Spoiler Related Links Below
Halo 3
Posted on October 18th, 2007 by wagnoid
I bumped into title while visiting a local game stop. It’s really good; I’m surprised more people haven’t heard about it. 
Lair is very disappointing
Posted on October 17th, 2007 by wagnoid
I put this in the category of “Games I was really looking forward to that totally disappointed me”. I really tried hard to like this game, but it let me down big time. The game controls absolutely suck. It’s a beautiful game with a great concept, and I really do feel bad for the developers that spent years of their life developing it, but at some level of management, the team was let down by some really bad game design decisions.
I’ve heard the Lair developers defending their six axis control scheme as being for the casual gamer, but I just think there was a bit of groupthink that prevented the team from taking an objective look at the controls. As a longtime software developer, I’ve seen similiar things like this happen. To a much smaller extent, design decisions like this get raised all the time, and people become passionate about the subject. At some point, the issue gets escalated and at some level, managment wrestles with it and a direction is selected. It’s at that point, that things can go off the rail.
An old motto that is common in development is “Disagree and Commit” and for the most part, it works out well. When your life is so focused on a single project, it’s easy to get myopic and escalate issues needlessly to the point where people become passionate of the color of a font or the name of a button. In that case, there is no ‘right’ answer and making a decision and moving on makes perfect sense. For the detractors of a decision, it may not make the best sense, but it keeps the project moving and at the end of the day, it may be sub-optimal but still good enough.
The problem with “Disagree and Commit” comes after that point when new information becomes available that may reverse the decision. No one wants to re-visit a sensitive topic and managers are usually wise to avoid it. Once committed, decisions like that are hard to reverse. It’s much easier to ignore the information than to open up a sore wound, and it takes a strong manager to reverse course. I have no idea if this happened in Lair but having seen previews that commented on the faulty control scheme, I wouldn’t be surprised that something like this happened. It seems inconceivable that no one ever raised the alarm that the controls sucked or that the team didn’t read any of the previews raised around this issue.
Some people like seeing games getting reviewed poorly, but having been around the software industry so long, I really feel bad for the team that developed the product. It takes a long time and energy to develop software and it’s clear from the product that people worked passionately on this product. I would much prefer to see Lair be fantastic and lauded, but sometimes decisions have an enormous impact, and whoever made the call on the controls, let the team down.
Heavenly Sword Rocks
Posted on October 17th, 2007 by wagnoid
10 years ago, I would have agreed with others around the internet that Heavenly Sword, also known by some as the PS3 Goddess of War, was good but too short. Others have said that compared to the Ninja Gaiden series, Heavenly Sword doesn’t reward you for mastering the controls and can be beat by button mashing. I think these observations are basically correct, but as an older gamer than can’t find more than a couple hours a night to game, I just don’t have the commitment to finish a longer game or master complex controls ala Ninja Gaiden which constantly belittle me by asking, “Do you want to give up the way of the Ninja?” Having said that and having lost gamer-cred, I must say that Heavenly Sword rocks.
Heavenly Sword is a showpiece for the PS3 with some of the most amazing graphics I’ve seen. Albeit predictable, it has a good narrative driven by pretty amazing cut-scenes and voice acting. The game play has some learning curve to it and you do improve as you master the controls, but it’s not anywhere as difficult to master or as penalizing as Ninja Gaiden, and if you wanted, you could probably survive most of the game mashing the buttons over and over again. I also found the six-axis controls to be really fun once I got the hang of it.
It took me about 6 hours to fully complete the game, and for me, it was about the right length for the experience that it delivered. In some ways, I wish it would have been longer but not at the expense of the pacing or by having to backtrack through levels. At the end of many games, the last 25% for me are a slog for me to finish feeling compelled to do it only to say that I’ve completed the game. I loved every minute of Heavenly Sword from the opening sequence all the way to the end credits, and at the end of the day, that’s what makes a good video game for me.
Stranglehold is a fun ride
Posted on October 12th, 2007 by wagnoid
I just finished playing through Stranglehold for the XBox 360 and while it isn’t the best game I’ve played all year, it was pretty fun to play and well worth a rental. While the game only took 6-8 hours for me to complete and likely much less in the hands of better gamer, it had a lot of fun moments with bullets flying, items shattering, and with the slow motion, Tequila Time mechanic, there were times you felt like a super-cop bad ass. While it was a bit gimicky and likely would grow stale if the game was much longer, I hope it sells well enough to encourage other developers to build theatrical-like experiences for a gamer.
Related info:
Bungie Leaving Microsoft
Posted on October 10th, 2007 by wagnoid
It’s now semi-official that Bungie Studios is leaving Microsoft and there is a lot of speculation on what the ramifications for both companies are. From my perspective, it’s good for both companies. Here’s why:
- Bungie will have more independence to develop the type of games they want and the ability to build games for multiple platforms.
- Bungie employees will have more financial incentive to work harder and grow Bungie as opposed to being a single line item on Microsoft’s Financial spreadsheet.
- In a related note, it also makes it easier to attract new employees to Bungie who don’t want to work for a large corporation like Microsoft
- Microsoft on the other hand still retains the IP for Halo and the first right of refusal for any future Bungie products
- Microsoft gets to remove a fairly big chunk of expenses off it’s financial books making it’s game division looking better in the eyes of investors.
At the end of the day, I believe Microsoft looked at Bungie’s proposal and was faced with two options: take the deal Bungie was offering or watch it happen anyway with no control of the situation. There isn’t too much Microsoft can do to stop key Bungie talent from leaving Microsoft and starting their own development house and with this deal, at least Microsoft has some control over the situation.
Bioshock is undoubtedly MY game of the year
Posted on September 25th, 2007 by wagnoid
Bioshock may not be “The game of the year”, but for me, I can’t imagine any other game being better in my eyes. From the moment you enter Rapture, you become engrossed in the game. It has a fantastic atmosphere, a good storyline (albeit the freedom to choose between playing as a bad guy and a good guy is over-rated), and strong game play mechanics. Some people complain it is too easy, but I found it to be tough enough to be entertaining but not too tough such that I got frustrated so that I couldn’t continue moving the story forward. In a word, it’s awesome!