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22 Oct 04
I just want to thank the Astros for giving Houston one of the most thrilling runs in the history of baseball. For those of us sure that the season was over in July, you taught us to have faith. Great job guys. I'm one of those guys who feels that you have to root for the team that beat you just to prove that you only lost to the best. So sorry Red Sox nation, Go Cards. Sweep 'em. Oh, and Drayton McLane, if you're reading, do what it takes to sign Beltran. You know it's the right thing to do. He's even hinted that it's not all about the money.
Sorry about that for the non baseball fans out there. Although, have you seen the new look Rockets? Just kidding.
Interesting goings on at Lionhead. It seems that BC has been cancelled or at least suspended. I know people had high hopes for it. That seems to be the problem with Lionhead. The initial concepts are great, but vague. Then they put out all the great ideas they hope to get in the game. Then reality sets in as the project drags on and they release a game that's admired in concept, but isn't as much fun as hoped. That seems to be what happened to Fable (which did break a few sales records).
Gear Live put up an interested related story. Check it out Here.
I still have hopes for The Movies. Lionhead's not trying to invent a new genre there. As long as you get a studio business sim with some light movie making elements, I don't see how they could go wrong. Of course, they haven't been hyping it to the moon either. That helps.
Did you see the shocking news in the news section? Dominions III will drop support for Solaris. I guess dreams don't always come true. Sorry. By the way, if you're a Solaris only gamer, you're way too hard core, but my inner geek admires you.
Speaking of shocking, Computer and Video Games has confirmed that Civilization IV is in development.
Finally, Penny Arcade has started their Child's Play charity drive again. I'll probably put one of their ads on the site. One of the hospitals on the list is the children's hospital here in Houston. If you're unsure where to give, it's a good place and I recommend it.
Jason
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21 Oct 04
Man, the Astros lost in seven. Harsh. For losing two of their starting pitchers, they certainly salvaged the season. It's just hard when they lead half the game and then the season's gone. Still, great job guys.
I didn't mean to seem too hard on PR people yesterday. I really appreciate what they do 90 percent of the time. I just have problems at the top and the bottom. The top as I mentioned are big games that are going to be hits anyway, so they really don't need to be pumped up. The bottom isn't really the bottom it's the niche games.
I've mentioned my passion for finding strange, quirky games that qualify for diamond in the rough status. You see the great ideas there, but they're hard to shout out to the world. Explain the breadth of Dominions II in a sentence. Describe the intricacy involved in a company level simulation of WWII. That's a tough job and I don't blame publicists when they don't do it perfectly. It's just hard to sit and watch a good game die on the vine simply because it's not an easy sell.
That's my worry with Kohan II. There is a market out there for people who like RTS gameplay but feel that it just moves too fast. Kohan II has some elegant answers for that. You really feel like you're in control and not forgetting a couple hundred things you have to do. Even that's not a very good explanation and it's certainly not good enough for a tag line. I sympathize with the problem, but I keep hoping the marketing guys are up to the challenge.
Jason
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20 Oct 04
You know it's almost funny watching Vivendi and Microsoft arguing over which game is going to be the biggest this year. Vivendi keeps trumping Half Life 2. Here's some of the copy:
Hailed as “...the best game ever made” by PC Gamer, Half-Life 2 earned a top-rated review score of 98, the highest score bestowed by the magazine in more than six years. The game has received numerous accolades for its technical excellence, captivating story and addictive game play, including more than 10 awards and nominations at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo. In addition to being named “Best PC Game” by 1up.com (Ziff Davis) and Gamespy.com, the title also received a “Technological Excellence on PC” award from IGN.com. CNNMoney.com stated that “Half-Life 2 will redefine what gamers expect from their games visually – and the gameplay is a lot of fun as well.”
The global anticipation for Half-Life 2 has reached unprecedented heights, as consumers around the world mark their calendars to buy the game at retail on November 16th.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft is crowing about Halo 2. Don't worry they're just as enthusiastic:
There hasn’t been this much anticipation for an otherworldly touchdown since Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. With three weeks to go before the game hits store shelves, pre-orders for “Halo® 2” – the highly anticipated Xbox® exclusive from Microsoft Game Studios – have eclipsed the 1.5 million mark in the United States. With phenomenal record-breaking video game pre-orders, “Halo 2” is poised to generate more revenue in 24 hours than day one sales of any full feature movie in entertainment history, including “Spider-man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Matrix: Reloaded.”
In the U.S., the anticipation builds to a fever pitch on Nov. 9 when thousands of shoppers line up to be among the first to get their hands on the action-packed thriller.
Amazingly, the game that probably will be the biggest seller this year will beat both of them out of the gate. It's publisher is taking a more reserved approach. That's kind of surprising from a group called Rockstar. Still, it's nice to see a publisher have enough confidence in their title they don't have to resort to hyperbole. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is expected on the 26th of October. May the best game win.
Jason
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19 Oct 04
I read the Gamespy review for Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. They loved it. The author made an interesting point though. He claimed that the heart of the game was skirmish and multiplayer so the short campaign didn't matter. I suppose that might be true if that's what you're looking for. I don't think the market here is to that point however.
Clearly the great games in the RTS genre have had good stories. The stories give meaning and purpose to all the carnage that's about to ensue. Sometimes they even explain the overwhelming odds the player is up against. Even more than that they draw the player into the game world while exposing him to the mechanics of play and the differences between the units. While the campaign can serve as a glorified tutorial, the best games keep you playing by storytelling. You have to win not only to meet the mission goals, but to see what happens next.
I guess you could say that I sound like I'm bashing the Warhammer campaign. That's not true. The fact is that even in a short campaign that only has you play as one of the factions, they're telling a pretty compelling story. I haven't quite finished it yet so I can't tell you if it reaches a satisfying conclusion, but it's good so far. My point is that I'd rather have a good short story than a long bland one. I'll reserve final judgment on Warhammer 40k for the review.
Jason
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18 Oct 04
Quick update, playing both Kohan II and Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War at the same time is a bad idea. Kohan has a deliberate pace with an emphasis on planning, tactics and finesse. Warhammer is more about aggressive tactics, complementary units and rapid tech research. There is an interesting similarity. Both reward you for engaging with force and retreating at the right time. You'll do better if you can keep your units alive and their morale up.
Morale is an interesting concept that has been largely ignored outside of wargames. Suddenly we have three major realtime games that model morale: Rome: Total War, Kohan II and Warhammer. Rome and Kohan have broken units run away out of the players control. If the enemy has units, the broken squads are easy to hunt down and obliterate. However given time broken units can regroup. In Rome that usually means you can protect them or retreat them from the battlefield. In Kohan, that means you can take them back to your supply zone to build them automatically to full strength.
Warhammer takes a different approach to morale. Broken units don't run. They just are severely reduced in their combat effectiveness. It's usually best to pull them back behind other units to recover before you send them back in. Since there are weapons and tactics designed to break morale, you can just fire and forget your troops on the front lines. With knockdown and other tools to break morale, less units can defeat a much larger force if your enemy isn't paying attention to morale on the front lines. Of course, that means Warhammer, by design, is a much more micromanagement heavy game in the heat of battle.
This week we've got an older turn based game. It's Massive Assault (official site) from Wargaming.net. Massive Assault is a chess like wargame set in the far future. Two effectively balanced sides duke it out over control of a series of planets. There are some interesting twists such as hidden allies that can affect the outcome of the game. It's also nice to see a turn based game that doesn't skimp on the graphics. In fact, a neat feature of the game allows you to watch the replay as if it had been played as a realtime game. Some of the battles are quite stunning. Check this one out if you missed it when it was released last year.
Jason
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