Day Three Round-Up!

The big drama today at MAGFest involved the Nibbler championship incident, but other than the panels and concerts (Armcannon, Metroid Metal and Smash Bros), it was pretty much business as usual. Awesome, awesome business as usual.

People were especially excited about the bands for tonight, where some of the big headliners got their chance to play. Armcannon has been getting a lot of great publicity lately, and it’s for good reason: they rock. Keep an eye on them. Metroid Metal is the breakout band from last year’s MAGFest that has likewise been picking up some serious momentum, and Smash Brothers has been described by some as “the MAGFest all-star band.” The Saturday concert was by far the most talked-about performance, and people had good reason to be excited.

Speaking of a good reason to be excited, I got to spend a little more quality time with Street Fighter IV. I’m quite happy to report it’s going to be phenomenal. According to the game’s current Wikipedia page, “Producer Yoshinori Ono has stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II” as opposed to the more technical Street Fighter III. Now, I’m not knocking Street fighter III: it’s deep, involved, and a whole lot of fun. Still, there’s something to be said for keeping it simple and staying true to the classics. The fighting in SFIV feels like a super-polished 2.5D version of Super Street Fighter Turbo, and what it lacks in complexity (and player roster), it makes up for in style. The crowd cheered as Zangeif pulled off yet another suplex on poor Ryu, and the camera zoomed in upon impact in order to show both fighters fantastic facial expressions.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the Ultra finishers: the quality of the cinematic is jaw-dropping. I was a little worried when I watched promotional videos of SFIV because I thought the Ultra Combos would be too overused and too overpowered, but there’s no need to worry. The move can only be triggered when the player has already taken a pretty heavy beating, and even then, it’s pretty tough to pull off the move and even tougher to land. Successfully finishing off an opponent with an Ultra Combo makes you feel better than winning the lottery, and pulling it off in a public setting like MAGFest is epic enough to make you feel like King of the World. Onlookers cheered like crazy after every match, rooting for the come-from behind victory and celebrating every perfect finish. There are advanced techniques for the hardcore player and plenty of new faces that bring some great personality to the roster.
Street Fighter IV is going to blow people’s mind when it comes out, and even now it appears to have been embraced by the hardcore fighting community due to the depth and balance of its fighting system.

On the film front, I also got a chance to speak with Chad Williams, one of the big names behind PBC productions (The New Adventures of Captain S, Little Miss Gamer). PBC has been hard at work on the webcomic of Captain S, and Chad told me there were plans for a huge end-of-the-year animatic for the series. It’s currently in limbo, but it may happen in the future, so be sure to check out their website for details.
Chad also let me know of some other upcoming PBC projects, such as a documentary on the recovery projects in New Orleans and the contributions of New York corrections officers in the rebuilding effort. PBC has also done a feature-length documentary called Puppet Rampage, based on the 2007 National Puppetry conference. Bet you didn’t know PBC did stuff outside of gaming!

“PBC is an ambiguous title,” said Chad, grinning. “We get to do a whole lot of different, unique stuff.” The PBC crew shot a music video based on ExciteBike earlier today, and they were getting clips with real MAGFest guests to use in their video. Unsuspected gamers playing on the main floor suddenly found themselves filmed for what might end up being the next big viral hit: it just goes to show the kind of stuff that can happen at any moment at MAGFest.
“It’s a gamer’s holiday,” said Chad.

Saturday marks the last full day of the con; check back tomorrow for some closing thoughts!
~Joe Newman

Triple Panel update! Screwattack, The AVGN, and Overclocked Remix

Day three featured some pretty fun panels, featuring Craig from screwattack.com, James Rolfe a.k.a the Angry Video Game Nerd, and the crew of OverClocked Remix, best known as the creators of the soundtrack for Street Fighter HD Remix.

Craig from Screwattack.com took the stage first and jumped right in to taking questions. There were a lot of questions thrown out about how Screwattack works as a business, and a few questions about Craig’s gaming history as well. One audience member asked about Craig’s favorite game, which launched Craig into a story of when he was a kid and would save up his allowance and headed to Pizza Hut with his friends “for cheesy bread and Street Fighter.” Craig expressed his love for the SNES classics, naming the system “the best console of all time.” He also talked about the origins of his trademark hat (”Organically glued to my head”) and his “Stuttering” nickname (”I stuttered a lot as a kid. I don’t anymore, but the name stuck.”)

Craig fielded a few questions about the inner workings of Screwattack, talking about the popular feature Video Game Vault (They play all the games, of which there are more than 600!). There was a little discussion about Handsome Tom’s leaving the site (a huge controversy this past year), but Craig finished the panel by re-emphasizing the community aspects of the site. “When people think SA, I don’t want them to think, ‘That’s Stuttering Craig’s site.’” he said.

The AVGN asked for audience members (all fans) to vote on their favorite Nerd moments, for consideration for his Top 10 Nerd moments coming out later this year. “Whip or Shizz?” “Kill all babies or the Joker’s ass?” Everyone knew the jokes by heart, yet arguments over rankings were inevitable.
One Heated debate: which was better, Kyle’s flashback, or the pause music from BattleToads?

…You just have to know. What, you ask, was the number one choice? Well… you’re just going to have to wait for the video to find out.

Then James took some questions from his captive audience. Some samples:

5 favorite bands? Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Metallica, Led Zepplin.

Favorite video? Mario 3, because “for once I got to play a good game.”
Favorite games? “Super Mario World, Zelda: a Link to the Past, Super Metroid. The SNES had the best stuff.”

Where are you going from here? “Feature film.” “Stick with me, I’ve got something in the works.”

What about the next AVGN vid to be released online? “Michael Jackson’s Moonwaker.”

Asked about a video’s production, James said there’s a lot that goes into it. “They don’t have to look too professional because it’s just supposed to be me in my room, you know? I use desk lamps and stuff.” He uses a pretty professional mic for recording but he likes the intimate nature of his voice-over track. James talked about what goes into the editing process, from synchronizing game footage to color correction to matching time codes. “When all that’s done, that’s when the editing starts.” That’s the price for having high-quality videos, you know.

OverClocked Remix

Panel members:David W. Lloyd a.k.a. djpretzel, Larry Oji a.k.a. Liontamer, Shael Riley, Andrew Aversa a.k.a. zircon (directed OC ReMix’s Final Fantasy VII album), Jillian Goldin a.k.a. pixietricks, Vinnie Prabhu a.k.a. Palpable, Christopher Getman a.k.a. Mazedude, Scott Porter a.k.a. OverCoat
OverClocked Remix appeared at last year’s MAGFest, and since then they’ve exploded into the public consciousness for their work on Super Street Fighter II Trubo HD Remix, the first major game release to feature an entirely fan-made soundtrack. They couldn’t avoid chatting about it on their 10-year anniversary.

As the story goes, the soundtrack for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was negotiated when Capcom approached Shael Riley and told him how much they liked their urban remixes of the original Street Fighter II soundtrack, the community’s Blood on the Asphalt album. Instead of sending a cease and desist, Capcom hired OCR to produce the new soundtrack. The team at Capcom worked closely with the OCR guys to make the soundtrack for the XBox 360/PS3 game, working alongside the folks at UDON to make the game’s art. The OCR guys read aloud a few of the emails between Capcom and the remixers, and there were some laughs due to some of the funnier requests Capcom made. “We love the cello part in Akuma’s ending theme for the original Street Fighter. Could you add that?” Capcom asked. OCR responded: “There is no cello part in the original Akuma theme.” Not to mention Akuma wasn’t even in the original Street Fighter to begin with.

“Before we had the game in front of us, we were all stressed.” The gig came at a particularly good time, too, as the game was having development troubles with delays in UDON’s art pipeline. Since other newsworthy initiatives planned for OCR’s website in 2008 had to be delayed, “HD Remix saved our ass… Now we have our sights set on 2009.”

The panel, like the AVGN panel was extremely informal: that was a conscious choice for this year.
Their next album, Summoning of Spirits, honors Namco’s Tales RPG series and will be released later this month after this year’s MAGFest. OCR is still hard at work on new projects for this year: Donkey Kong Country 2, a best-of Zelda theme remix, and a Final Fantasy IV project. The panel even let the audience in on a special preview of the FFIV album, featuring clips of the various remixes. This is definitely an album to watch.

~Joe Newman

Check out each site included the panel by clicking their logo above!

Save the Princess

If you haven’t realized yet from the hail of positive reviews, the new “Prince of Persia” release is an awesome game. Ah, but what qualifies it to enter the cannon of great games, you ask (don’t you?) Well, let me expound upon the reasons.

First, the game is revolutionary. More of a quietly significant innovation like the microwave than a bloody upheaval like the French Revolution, but a step forward none the less. The chief source is the way it mixes gameplay and presentation to create an experience that contrasts with its contemporary brethren. Most of today’s blockbuster titles are a succession of violence, gore and over-the-top machismo draped in drab shades of brown, black and gray. Examples include “Gears of War,” “Killzone,” “Call of Duty,” “Resistance,” “Left 4 Dead,” “Fallout 3,” “Grand Theft Auto IV,” etc. Most of these are also shooters, a type of game that has achieved de facto status as the genre du jour. Other hallmarks include hardcore difficulty levels, co-op modes and online play.

The new “Prince” has none of these things. The boldness involved when a large company like Ubisoft steer away from formulaic profit territory to drive into new terrain is what, for me, qualifies it as revolutionary. In an era of grim, online shoot-em ‘ups, the game instead presents beautiful and breathtaking landscapes that emphasize exploration over headshots. I simply can’t say enough about the art style; it’s just stunning. The game seeks to be rewarding, not demanding, with combat that encourages creativity in lieu of frantic button-mashing and hair-trigger reflexes a la “Devil May Cry 4.”

Second, it executes some classic gaming conventions, platforming and adventure, with renewed vigor. As I mentioned before, the FPS and RTS and other acronyms constitute the majority of games produced today; the idea of a platformer or adventure game seems downright antiquated. Even “Uncharted,” poster boy of next-gen adventure games, threw in a “Gears”-style cover mechanic. But, just like in music, movies and art, there’s something to be said for going back to the roots. The thrill of old school games like “Super Mario World” and “Pitfall” came when your plucky avatar finally navigated that tricky succession of traps and baddies to reach the level’s end. “Prince of Persia” proves that this exhilaration is timeless as the Prince slides, leaps, climbs and (with Erika’s help) flies across the world.

Third, it creates a deep immersion that almost all “big” games strive for but often fail to reach. Some games achieve it with atmosphere (”Bioshock”) and some with setting (”Grand Theft Auto IV”), but “Prince of Persia” uses connectivity. With little prologue, you are immediately thrust into the action with no clumsy interface to get in your way. There are no levels and no linearity, it’s you and this chick and an unstoppable evil to defeat. The game takes place in a sprawling city that you save piece-by-piece and can travel across back-and-forth without the aid of loading screens. I think this simple decision, to connect every area of the city so seamless, really helps lift the game from great to unforgettable. It gives the experience that larger-than-life feeling, similar to the way MMOs use vast distances to create an epic scale.

Of course, the game’s not perfect. The combat, as fun as it is to string together cinematic combos, could use a little more variety and mobility. The fairly shallow difficulty helps enhance the cinematic and immersive flow, but it would be nice to have some more challenging options. Yet, I’ll conclude by saying that these flaws are the best part as they prove that as great as this game is, it can be even better. Ubisoft has staked out some new territory, let’s hope they keep pushing the boundary forward.

Jim would be happy to know that “Prince of Persia” employs heavy use of one of his all-time favorite video game moves, the venerable Double Jump. Jim Gibbons, Online News Editor here at WizardUniverse.com, and I both have long admired the fun and utility that having an additional burst of height provides. Sometimes, one jump just isn’t enough.

Just as I feared some real economist had to come along and use fancy things likes “facts” and “mathematical data” to debunk my recent comments on the financial health of the video game industry. Such a public calling out I cannot sustain in good conscience. You have thwarted me for the last time “The Economist” and I will marshal all the power available to me towards your destruction.

Blue Christmas

The business of video games has become larger and larger almost every year since the original Nintendo first brought Italian plumbers into living rooms nationwide. Along with the money generated, the fanbase has also steadily increased, as the variety of games available expands exponentially to lure in new players. The kinds of things you can expect from video games has also multiplied with advent of more powerful machines and the always-evolving power of the Internet. For most of its history, the industry has just continued to climb to greater and greater heights.

Amid this continually upward trend, there have only been two large scale failures. The infamous video game bust of the mid-80s and the total failure of the Dreamcast, the latter which demoted Sega from powerhouse player to endlessly churning out mediocre “Sonic” games. Yet, if you look past all the pretty ornaments out on display this Christmas season [add some games here], there’s some news underneath the tree that isn’t like to spread holiday cheer.

Sony’s announced 16,000 job cuts, EA chopped off six percent of its workforce, Midway canceled several games, THQ slipped into the red and Electronic Gaming Monthly is likely to cease as a print publication. Despite the veritable torrent of quality titles released, it seems that dastardly economic recession has stymied potential buyers from investing in a $60-a-pop product. While it’s tempting to blame this all on the recession, some of things events have been a long time coming. Sony, especially the corporation as a whole, has been struggling to find a stable line of profit for a while now and EA’s financial troubles where also apparent back in the summer months.

My theory? Perhaps, like many other economic sectors, the video game industry is susceptible to bubbles and bursts. Think of all the massive hype surrounding the unveiling of next generation consoles. The respective companies promised that the synergy they (the consoles) were capable of, incorporating games, movies, music and the Internet, opened up the path to immense profits. On top of that, “World of Warcraft” become a poster child of sorts, with its 10 million times $15 a month business model. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that? In addition, Xbox Arcade and the Playstation Store ushered in an era of smaller, cheaper titles.

Guided by the cheap credit of the global economy as a whole, old hands expanded their libraries and new companies tried their luck. But making games can be an expensive endeavor and public opinion can be brutal, resulting in a quick trip to the Wal-Mart bargain bin. As demonstrated by EA, the industry’s biggest publisher, even having a few blockbuster titles isn’t always enough to put you inside the margin of profitability. The irony of EA’s sudden turn of fortune has already been noted by others.

And so, with both the holiday season and the global financial meltdown fully engaged, that end-of-the-year saving grace has yet to manifest itself for many game companies. A lot of industries that rode the wave of economic growth produced by financial market manipulations have just now come crashing into shore. It seems that some video game companies will not be spared from this tsunami either. The bubble burst and there’s coal underneath, just in time for the holidays.

Yet, this surely will not be the last Christmas the industry sees. While losses may slim down some corporate structures, the video game industry is too firmly entrenched, both socially and economically, to suffer any drastic consequences. So, drink some eggnog, buy some games (if you can), enjoy the season and be glad you play games, not make them.

Fact Check: I’m not an economist and what I argue above is merely food for thought, or at the very least an intellectual snack. Please do not ask to see facts, stats, graphs or trend lines to back up any of this, as I have none of these things. If you do hold some theoritical disagreement with my thesis, by all means, comment away.

My First Homecoming

Like an ever-increasing number of lucky Playstation 3 owners, I received a code to participate in the Home beta over the weekend. After years of promises and half-glimpses, I would finally have a chance to experience Sony’s much-touted interactive online experience. What awaited me inside their online realm was in a word, sparse.

Overall, the beta offers little to see or do at this point, which is kind of despairing when you considering how long this thing has been in development. The amount of clothing and furniture with which to custom your individual avatar is limited to only a handful of items. Still, I went ahead with gusto, creating the fattest, tallest character possible and then decking him out with red track pants, a black tank top, aviators, a brown hat and black dress shoes.

My online personage thus made, I ventured out into Sony’s brave new online frontier. There are only a few locations available for exploration at this early stage, so I had to content myself with wandering the large plaza area. It serves as a hub, connecting you to the other spaces, like the bowling alley, mall and movie theater. It all looked pleasant enough and, to my infinite surprise, my fellow inhabits displayed equally sunny demeanors. After experiencing the unvarnished brutality to logic that was “World of Warcraft’s” old Looking For Group channel, I expected a little more in the way of fanboy bashing and argument mongering.

Before you can visit any new location, they must be downloaded to the hard drive and even after that there is still a cumbersome loading screen to contend with. While it was neat to see all the people milling about, interacting become a trying process. As most PS3 users lack a headset, communication was limited to typing in each letter manually using the controller. This process continually frustrated my attempts to insert my biting, sarcastic barbs into conversations, due to the lateness with which said jabs would arrive. Also, once I had more than 15 people on my screen, the lag kicked in, though in all honesty it could have been a lot worse. However, my Internet set up is not ideal due to my living in South Korea and my router’s config screen being completely in Korean. On the plus side, there is any number of amusing dances that your avatar is capable of executing. On the downside, after 15 minutes boredom set in. I don’t think I’ll be using it again until the next update.

Generally, the mood seemed subdued, which reflects my overall takeaway from the experience. I know it’s too early to judge, but things like a beta are supposed to get consumers excited about the product. Instead, I’m borderline worried. The fusion of Second Life and gaming that Sony seeks to capture seems headed toward a muted middle ground. The bottom line for me is that I want to be able to find my friends online and play games with them, and I want to do it quickly. What Sony fails to realize, I think, is that this is all that most people want. All the extra bells and whistles, achievements and statistics and customization, are always great, as long as they don’t interfere directly with the primary goal: playing games online with your friends.

By creating entire worlds where a few icons can suffice, Sony surely will create a new experience. However, all the features that Home offers are already available on the Xbox 360 or in PC gaming, just without the veneer of explorable 3D worlds. My experience with Home so far suggests that this gloss could end up as a distraction, not an enhancement, to the gaming experience.

Additional Comment: I’m about 17 hours in to “Valkyria Chronicles” and I’m totally digging it. If you are in anyway remotely interested in strategy, fantasy or gorgeous animations, then buy this game.

Something I’m excited about

Actually, I lied, there are really two things (games) that I’m waiting for with a high amount of day-dreaming anticipation. First, is a title from Ubisoft. For me, they represent a company with a long personal history of failing to deliver on titles they relentlessly build up, most recently “Assassins Creed” and before that “Heroes of Might and Magic V.” While I’m on the subject, I should mention that the first three incarnations of the latter are among the greatest PC strategy games of all time, check them out if you never have. Again, Ubisoft has been feeding me videos and screen shots that seem to be the pieces of a truly enjoyable overall experience. I’ve been doing my best to keep my standards low, but they seem to be trying hard to make that a nigh impossible task.

The game in question is the new “Prince of Persia.” A venerable franchise if there ever was one, it’s got roots sunk deep in the ancient era of the late 1980s. Back then, the game was renowned for its remarkable fluidity and imagination, contributed in part by the developer’s passion to get the Prince’s movements just right. This next-gen incarnation doesn’t look like it’s gunning to beat “God of War 2″ or “Grand Theft Auto IV” in the pixels department and that’s not such a bad thing. There’s already enough pretenders to that particular throne and those who choose graphics as a shortcut to gameplay usually fail at both. What the new Prince seems to lack in raw power he makes up in grace and style. The drawn-and-painted feel of the art direction lends the game something that all the normal-mapping and HDR Lighting of “Crysis” can’t: individualism.

The video game market is big and serious enough now that it has entered the same push-and-pull that it’s respective comrades in the music and move industries feel. The tension between creating a product that sells and furthering the form sometimes intersect and sometimes seem so remote as to make one cynical. Is the new “Prince of Persia” garb just a flashy distraction or will it add feeling and spirit to the experience? As I brought up earlier, the gameplay must come first and, for my part, I’m hoping the Persian royal’s new duds are a product of an overall design philosophy.

In the end, I must admit, I’m a sucker for cell-shaded, painstakingly animated 2D graphics (see “Odin Sphere” if you think 2D is outmoded), or anything else with a drawn or artsy feel. This brings me to exciting thing #2, the JPRG soon to reach American shores “Valkyrie Chronicle.” In addition to its animated nature, it also falls into the strategy genre, another of my favorite things. Some games you know you will enjoy despite their quality because they just have too many things you like for it to be possible to wholly disown them. “Valkyrie” seems such a game and leaves me with a tranquil, patient anxiety in juxtaposition to the my nervous fretting about whether or not Ubisoft will spoil a promising premise.

Blizzard has a con and Sony signs a deal

And I’m back!

I apologize for my extended absence, but sadly, life demands responsibilities from me other than just playing video games and that pressure has been rather strong of late. Still, I have managed to snatch a spare moment from its chaotic midst and will now put forth some news and opinion.

Item #1: Lingering Questions
This weekend, Blizzard paraded its immense wealth and popularity in front of the video game industry during Blizzcon 2008. The company showcased new and upcoming content in all three of its massive franchises and still found time to coyly dodge questions about a yet-to-be-announced fourth project. My interest centered on new “Diablo III” information in particular. I have high hopes for the title, but I can’t help but wonder what place such a game has in an RPG world-made anew by MMOs. It was essentially a proto-MMO in its time, driven primarily by the desire for the best lootz and the most uber buildz. I’ll be interested to see if Blizzard can breathe new life back into the action-adventure genre without creating a dumbed-down WoW clone.

Item #2: A Big Idea for the Black Box
Sony recently forged a partnership with the ubiquitous video-sharing service YouTube to create an exclusive Playstation 3 channel on the ‘Tube’s site. Visitors can browse through videos and trailers for Sony’s latest offerings as well as developer interviews and the like. This in and of itself is not so exciting as one can already find such things online. The interesting tidbit is where Sony hopes to take the service, with PS3 users able to capture their own videos and upload them directly to the site. The first implementation of this is planned for “LittleBigPlanet,” combining custom-created levels with homemade videos.

The success of the endeavor will show itself in due time, but it’s good to see Sony is looking for more ways to enhance the online experience of their console, which of course still pales in comparison to the robustness of Live. Well, as long as the service isn’t down or your Xbox 360 bricked from the red ring of death, that is. However, it also strikes me as just another piecemeal attempt that fails to offer anything truly unique. Sony needs to stop adding an update here or there and go ahead and get Home out the door. Without a cohesive online support structure for the titles, they will allows stand a little bit behind the Xbox 360.

Ye Olde School

As the cost for developing graphically stunning titles increases, the modern gaming industry is beginning to resemble the movie biz more and more. Publishers don’t want to pour a lot of time and resources in a new idea only to see it tank, so formulas and franchises are the norm.

That’s where downloadable content comes in. Cheap to buy and cheap to make, the fair offered on both Xbox Arcade and the Playstation Store can be quirky and fun because it can afford to take a few risks.
Another plus is that such bite-sized stimulation doesn’t require the heavy time investment that say, delving deeply into Metal Gear Solid 4 does. You can get your video game fix and quickly be on your way, allowing for the development of a fully functioning social life and career.

With that preamble in mind, I highly suggest investing $10 bucks in the downloadable remake of the NES classic “Bionic Commando,” dubbed “Bionic Commando: Rearmed.”

The game combines both old and new elements into something refreshingly different. For once, there are no invading alien species hellbent on the destruction of mankind, i.e. “Gears of War,” “Halo,” Resistance” and practically any other shooter in recent memory. Instead, your task is a simple “rescue this dude, kill the bad dude.” The game throws in plenty of snarky dialogue and other interactions, though, to compensate for the lack of dramatic depth.

The gameplay mechanics offer the kind of challenge almost completely forgotten in today’s convenient age of constant checkpoints and endless lives. The game’s titular hero possesses a bionic arm that can grapple onto any metal object or platform. Traversing of the levels is accomplished by using this ability to swing, grab and lift yourself up and across the many obstacles.

The modern update adds a wickedly (and often brutally) refined swing mechanic, a host of upgrades and weapons, challenging level design and numerable boss fights. For those thirsty for even more, the game also throws in over 50 special challenge rooms, which present the player with a virtual obstacle course to navigate in just 30 seconds.

A warning for those easily frustrated: The difficulty level of this game can be absolutely insane at times, with each swing requiring exact timing and a limited amount of lives allotted for each level (Trust me, the challenge rooms will test even the most mild-mannered). But hey, that’s all just part of the old school charm.