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3 Sept 04
If someone could drop me an email as to why yesterday the news section got 14 page views and today it's already well over 1000, I'd appreciate it. If someone linked to me and had that effect, they deserve to be thanked.
Who would have thought the hard drive would suddenly become the greatest thing ever? In the past week, I set up HDLoader on my PS2 and got a PVR from my cable company. Yes, I'm late to the Tivo express, but this is cheaper and perfectly internally interfaces with my cable schedule. So two 80 GB hard drives and I'm suddenly a happy camper. Weird.
In case you don't know, HDloader is a program disk for the PS2. If you have it, a network adapter, and a hard drive, it can revolutionize your PS2 experience. The problem is that Sony has basically shut down the company. Now I understand why Sony would do this. There's ample reason. The program basically loads the entire disk image of the game on to the hard drive and then runs it from there. This, of course, dramatically decreases load times and is the legal intended purpose. Unfortunately, the illegal purposes got the company shut down. Just think Blockbuster Gamepass (unlimited rentals).
That's too bad since the legal, intended purpose is great. You can access almost all of your PS2 game library without switching disks. I find it makes it much easier to get a few minutes in on that obscure game or two, that I never seem to drag out of the library. For games you want to get in and out of, it's great. If it wasn't for that IP protection issue, you'd think Sony would want everyone to have one of these as it improves the game experience and makes it easier to play more Playstation.
Do I even have to go into what I like about a PVR, DVR, Tivo or whatever you want to call it. Having the last couple episodes of your favorite series automatically stored. You don't have to miss anything. Programming and watching stored programs is a breeze. This unit has two tuners so it gives me picture in picture free, plus I can record two shows while watching another. That's just great. The only thing it doesn't do is save or send over ethernet, but that's not surprising given that it's coming from the cable company. I'm such a geek.
Jason
Comments?
1 Sept 04
Update: There are reports on the web that the Evil Genius demo was cut down to get under 200 MB so it could fit on the gaming magazine's demo disks. If true, this makes publishers look dumb. Some people really believe there's no such thing as bad publicity, but as Derek Smart would say, "That's Bullocks!" Negative word of mouth (or web) can severely hurt sales of a game. Even just a few negative impressions filtering back to the sales drones at the major brick and mortars can dampen sales.
I say you've always got to put your best foot forward. If you don't get into a few demo disks, there are probably as many lost sales for the magazine as there might be for the game. This is one of those times when I would have advocated delaying the demo until after release if the publisher insisted on the smaller demo. I still think they've crafted a great game, but you have to work to see it in the demo.
Acclaim Update: it appears all projected releases from Acclaim are indefinitely suspended pending bankruptcy resolution (chapter 11). That's too bad, I know some people were looking forward to Juiced, the racing game, and I'd heard some good buzz about The Red Star, a comic book action game.
I saw today's Fry's ad. Nothing for Pikmin 2 or Phantom Brave, but they did list ESPN NHL 2k5 for $14. What is that, like 2 or 3 game rentals? Some previous years used games are still selling for more than that. I know Madden will still sell big at the $50 price point because you can make the argument that it's a better football game than ESPN NFL. However, on the hockey side, ESPN has consistently been better than EA's NHL game. Early reviews indicate that trend will continue this year. But even if they're dead even, how can you justify paying $30-36 more for a game that's not any better?
Last year ESPN had leads in Hockey, Basketball and Baseball. EA won a clear victory on Madden. I'm going based on reviews here. While the lower price point didn't come close to knocking out Madden, I don't think EA will fare as well for the rest of the year. Good thing they got the exclusive NASCAR license. They're guaranteed to win there.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Sports fans are tired of paying full price each year for "glorified roster updates," bug fixes and new music. The sports games have next to no trade in or resale value. Now they have an alternative; we'll see if they vote with their wallets.
I think I understand Microsoft's closing of XSN now. Third place will not sell at $50 a pop. They obviously didn't think they'd make enough money at $20 per unit. So they cut their losses. All eyes are firmly on EA Sports.
Jason
Comments?
31 Aug 04
You know the Evil Genius demo shows how hard it is to make a good demo. You really need to give a fun, solid taste of the game, but leave the player wanting more. Both Rome and Evil Genius have demos that leave you wanting more, but fail to give that experience of what the whole game is like. The sad thing is that when you do that you likely eliminate some people from buying your game, but you don't necessarily win any converts.
First of all, I'll go over the bad. EG did not like my antivirus program. The two conspired to bring the system to a near standstill. I know most games recommend turning off your AV program to avoid conflicts, but few actually have serious disagreements. Other than that, I had a couple of hard freezes running the demo. That was somewhat surprising for a game that was "ahead of schedule."
Now the good. First, it strongly reminds you of the Dungeon Keeper series. If you hated the series, that might be bad, but I really enjoyed those games. The style is there, the humor is there, and the parody is there. I guess the problem is that you have to look for it. They stripped so much out of the demo that you have to look at the little things to pick up the broad brush strokes of the designers.
Another favorable comparison would be to the Austin Powers movies and NOLF games. The sixties spy era parody is in full effect for the game. That shines through in the demo. Plus your goal is create a doomsday device to blackmail the world. Some purists might not compare it to the Bond films, but it reminded me of the early Roger Moore films. The crazy henchmen supporting a bizarre evil genius.
I guess that's my main problem with the demo. The fun is there in the atmosphere, but not in the handcuffed gameplay. My recommendation is don't turn down this game on the demo. Check out some previews as well. Then maybe wait for reviews. This trailer might not sell it, but I still have hopes for a sleeper hit.
Jason
Comments?
30 Aug 04
I've mentioned it before, but go catch up on your Penny Arcade reading if you're behind. Some people claim it's grown pedantic, but I think they've grown more enthusiastic than ever.
Rumors have it that Acclaim is in its death throws. Check out Spong for the latest.
I downloaded the Evil Genius demo today. I'll have some impressions up sometime soon. Check the news section for the download link.
If you've got a Gamecube, Pikmin 2 was released today. If you missed the first one, it was a type of RTS game, but you were a spaceman leading your vegetable army. It's actually even more weird than that if you can believe it. The new version removes the time limit and adds some multiplayer features as well as some new troops. If you're looking for something different this is it.
Oh, the first Phantom Brave (PS2) reviews are starting to pop up. The general consensus seems to be if you're a hard core strategy RPGer, you'll love it. Others need not apply. I've enjoyed Disgaea and La Pucelle from Nippon Ichi so I'm sure I'll give this one a try. Let's see if Fry's will come through again with an early sale since September will be hard on the wallet no matter how I slice it.
Today we'll continue the strange trend. This week's game is Metal Gear Acid (official site) from Konami. It's a PSP game. Yes, that's Sony's Playstation Portable. Since the deck isn't out yet, obviously there will be a wait for Acid. Speaking of decks, Metal Gear Acid is not a stealth action game like the rest of the Metal Gear series. No, it's a card based strategy game. It seems many of the items, events and characters from the earlier games will show up as cards to be played. Look for MGA whenever the PSP launches.
Jason
Comments?
28 Aug 04
I figure it's time for some wild predictions. The next generation of consoles will be announced and/or released in the next year or so (does that mean we can finally stop calling this generation of consoles next gen?). There are a lot of theories out there about what they do and look like and stack up against one another. I have no inside knowledge or way to get a sneak peek at the information. So I'll just pull guesses out of the air.
1. Microsoft's Xbox 2 will not be the clear "most powerful" console. They want that title and many Xbox fans are expecting them to maintain that title, but I don't think it will happen. You have to remember the original Xbox was created very late in the game. All the others had locked in designs about the time the Xbox hardware was being put together. They knew exactly how high the bar was so they designed their system to be the best. They don't have that advantage this time.
The stated goal of the Xbox 2 is to surpass Sony. They don't mean in power; they mean in sales. To do that they have to keep the hardware prices down. They need to have the freedom to aggressively adjust prices to keep pressure on Sony. Even if they keep the hard drive in the next Xbox, the fact that they toyed with removing it shows that raw power is not the end goal this time. I'm sure fan boys for all systems will claim theirs the most powerful, but I don't see a clear cut winner for the next round.
2. I predict Sony will learn something. A lot of people have complained the PS2 is underpowered. That's simply not true. If you look at some of the exclusive PS2 games, you can see the raw power behind the PS2. Part of the problem is that the PS2 is harder to work with than the other consoles. The two general vector units could be quite powerful, but you'd have to write special filters or shaders to use them. If you do that, that makes it much harder to port to other systems. Most design teams seem to like to keep the porting option open. So I think Sony will learn that being the easiest system to program for will result in better looking games.
The other thing I think Sony will learn (and Nintendo and Microsoft) is that since system memory is now cheap, too much is better than not enough. In the PS2, Sony went with a Rambus solution that was elegant, but slightly more expensive. Unfortunately, other memory prices dropped considerably, but not Rambus. Memory prices limited the amount of system memory put into the PS2. That memory limit has developers constantly butting their heads against it. Up with more memory!
3. I'm going to go out and guess that high end A/V features will be in all the consoles. We'll see 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 sound. We'll have 480p, 720p and 1080i video modes supported. You'll have ethernet out of the box. Despite all that, you'll still need to buy lots of cables, spare controllers and games separately to support all those features. The listing will look good on the box though.
Jason
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