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4 Aug 06
I want to apologize. David was sick last night. I stayed up with him way too late since he had trouble sleeping with a mild fever. That cut last night's story short and is delaying the next bit of the story. I'm still pretty exhausted. I couldn't focus well enough when I fired up the game. If I have time, I'll put a story update over the weekend. Otherwise look for a big update on Monday. Thank you for your patience and all the kind thoughts and prayers.
There are rumors that Konami is bringing the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to Xbox Live Arcade. That got me thinking. Is the Xbox 360 really a viable budget gaming system? It could be. The original Xbox is getting hard to find. But there still is a decent backwards compatibility list. It might not be the list everyone hoped for, but it has a lot of inexpensive, quality gaming.
Then there's the Xbox Live Arcade. They've build up a good selection of games. Now there's fighting (Street Fighter II), puzzle (Zuma), Action (Geometry Wars), Arcade (Galaga), Platforming (Cloning Clyde), and classics (Uno). Most of those categories have more than one representative. They're relatively cheap and all have a free (though limited) demo.
Speaking of demos, there are now some quality demos out there that sport a good amount of gameplay. The latest demo is Dead Rising. It gives you 15 minutes of free form zombie destruction. It's fun and potentially addictive.
If you have limited gaming time, having a good selection of demos on hand can be just the ticket. A little burst of Prey or Perfect Dark Zero can give you a shooter fix. Table Tennis is a nice change of pace. Fight Night has some visceral action. You can get some variety in your gameplay while not building up a backlog.
Speaking of backlogs, some of the games out there have loads of gameplay. While there's obviously Oblivion, games like Ghost Recon and Chromehounds have active and committed online communities that keep the game alive and fresh. There are even some content downloads to extend the experience. Some are free while others cost a small amount. We've even seen a few formerly pay downloads released later as free content. Hopefully that will become a trend.
In short, there are a ton of gameplay options out there that don't require a huge hit on your wallet. Some of the launch games are falling to the $20 price point. There are rumors that a price drop and/or a larger hard drive bundle will be coming this fall. The Xbox 360 PR lines about customized gaming experiences might be true in ways they hadn't considered. It's something to keep in mind when making console purchasing plans this fall. Of course, you should forget the huge Nintendo library that will be coming out on Wii. Have I mentioned lately that it's a great time to be a gamer?
Jason
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3 Aug 06
The Liir have been the early foil for my previous two stories. Now I get to swim in their fins. To keep people's expectations up for an early Liir loss, I've cranked the AI difficulty of the beta build to difficult. We have all four races fighting over 50 stars. To offset this difficulty a bit, I selected a rift galaxy with groups of stars on either side of a central rift. Given that the Liir stutter warp moves faster away from stars, that shouldn't hinder me much if I make it that far. Hopefully it will keep two of my opponents occupied on the other side of the rift.
I've decided I like a fast start so I've given each side three starting planets and an equal number of bonus techs. I started with my size 10 home world and two size 7 colonies. All started with moderate resources. I didn't get any transport techs in my bonus, but I did get green lasers. It never hurts to have more firepower. Our first order of business is to research recombinant fissionables.
I'm on a corner of the galaxy opposite the rift. My worlds are strung out into open space. That's great for defensive purposes, but it's tough for exploration and expansion. Unfortunately, the world that's closest to the near star systems is also the one with the least resources. Resources or not, it's going to be my primary ship production world for a while. The drives are too slow to shuttle large numbers of ships from the outward worlds.
The early strategy is simple. We need worlds. The Liir ships aren't particularly tough or bristling with weapons. They can really use a tech lead. To do that we need a strong industrial base. We need to improve our industrial tech, propulsion and efficiency.
Early expansion is disappointing as expected. I know it's logical that the closest worlds aren't likely to well suited for you, but it's still a let down.
Jason
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3 Aug 06
Don't worry. I'm going to start the story in a little bit. I wanted to get a few more Xbox 360 notes on the record first. I'm separating these so people who are only interested in the story won't get bogged down or confused.
I left off trying to get my NAT condition to read 'open' on the Xbox 360. I'm happy to report I succeeded. No one source provided all the steps I needed to complete to the process. By playing mix and match, I was able to open it up.
First, for anyone interested, I have a Linksys WRT54GS router. That is listed as a compatible router for Xbox Live. To get it to work, I had to set up the Xbox 360 with a static IP. I had to forward ports 88 and 3074 to it. I had to turn off UPnP on the router. I had to uncheck the Block Anonymous Internet Requests under security. Then the NAT reported as open. In all that I had upgraded to the latest firmware as well.
Microsoft needs to consider this problem carefully. For one thing, they're holding up 360 gaming as the goal for Windows Gaming (see the official magazine). Simple, transparent and easy to play are the buzz words. Well, this is a problem that is negatively affecting many Live users. From the message boards I've read, few understand it. Many don't feel confident enough to solve the problem. Then there are those of us who want to solve the problem, but are having a tough time finding accurate information.
If it had only a minimal effect on your gaming, it wouldn't matter. However, it determines who you can play against (and with). It can affect your lag, voice chat quality and number of drops. Yet the Xbox site's advice is to use a compatible router.
I should also point out that after finally getting it open, the next time I turned on my main computer, I couldn't connect to the internet. I had to shut down everything up to the cable modem and sequentially start up to solve that problem (after lesser troubleshooting efforts had failed). That's a whole lot of hassle.
I'm getting slightly better at Hyper Fighting. The default difficulty is only three out of seven stars. Great.
I tried out the Saint's Row demo on the 360. It really feels like Grand Theft Auto with tighter controls and better graphics. That will probably move a lot of units. None of it felt fresh or inspired. I'll be looking at the reviews.
Jason
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2 Aug 06
Assuming I can stop playing Street Fighter II, I will be starting the next Sword of the Stars story tomorrow. Today my 'gaming' time was spent either playing SFII or working on trying to get my NAT connection to change from 'moderate' to 'open.' Thus far I haven't succeeded. I'm running out of things to try. If these last ditch efforts don't work, I'll have to live with moderate and give up my dreams of hosting matches. If anyone else is having similar problems, I suggest you start by going to Port Forward.com. They have a nice feature where you can select your router and what you want to configure. Then they take you through step by step. It took my a while to find that place, so hopefully my questing will help someone else.
I had forgotten where Hyper Fighting fell into the Street Fighter II lineage. It was basically the last of the pure Street Fighter II games. It was before they added more characters and super combinations and tag teams. I believe it was the fastest and had the hardest AI of the SFII generation. I recall I had a year or more of playing under my belt before I faced a Hyper Fighting cabinet. Trying to jump back in right there was ugly.
Just for reference, the last two 2D Capcom fighters I played were Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Neither of those are good preparation for Hyper Fighting. In fact, unless you need help identifying characters, I'd say they hurt more than help.
I did remember playing the original games. In fact, I often saw the AI perform combinations I remembered using on my foes. The problem now was timing and execution. Hyper Fighting rewards perfect timing. You can link moves if you time it right. Today, I could time nothing right.
I ran through most of the characters trying to find a groove. I now remember that I was decent with most of them. None of that was reflected today. I still had fun even though I was losing match after match to an AI with amazing timing. I vaguely remember being able to do the jab, hook, flash kick combo with Guile on occasion. I saw it twice in a match today.
I ended up using the thumbstick for control. The D pad is decent on the 360, but thumbstick felt more natural and smooth. Though my precision wasn't there yet (and may never be), I'll need to have that smooth control to function at the level of play required by the game. I don't know if I'll ever be hard core, but it's nice to see the game is. Recommended.
Jason
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1 Aug 06
In case you didn't check the news section, Sword of the Stars is golden. US release is still the 22nd of August. Will we see any retail version stories after that from the Talk Strategy readers? One can only hope.
Forgive me for taking a detour tonight. In a few hours Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting will be released on Xbox Live Arcade. There are only handful of games that stand out from my college gaming experience. First is X-Wing. That was like a dream come true. Tie Fighter may have been a better game, but nothing beat the thrill of my time at the controls of my own X-Wing. Then there was Doom. We downloaded it early on and it became a dorm event. It seemed like everyone in the building stopped by that first night. Wing Commander II and Ultima VII stand out as fond memories. MUDding became a brief addiction for a while. I forget the names but one was a high fantasy and another a post apocalyptic wasteland. Then there was Street Fighter II.
Our campus arcade was one of the first in the city of Houston to get one. It was an instant sensation. It really looked like nothing else. Once you felt the tight controls, you knew it played like nothing else. What was its competition? Pit Fighter? Don't make me laugh. It wasn't long before crowds gathered around the game. I hadn't seen anything like it since back in the heyday of arcades. This was better than Centipede or Donkey Kong. There was a back and forth rhythm to each match. The characters were distinct and memorable. Most importantly, there were two people playing in a showdown of skill.
It was an amazing game since there was no best character. Each character could be all the others, but you had to use different techniques and timing to beat different characters and even the same characters at different skill levels. The special attacks, the sound effects, the music, the animated backgrounds and the feel of the crowd all added to the intensity of the battle.
When we first started playing, just figuring out how to trigger the special attacks was enough to win you some matches. Later on we'd learn about block types, throws, aerial attacks and juggles. You had to learn a variety to techniques to win consistently. You had to learn how to use all the attacks. The game was so popular that buttons kept going out on the machine. That didn't stop people from playing, but they had to adjust their gameplay to compensate.
I made a lot of friends around that game. I met people I would have ignored and many who would have ignored me. It was always fun seeing who people chose to play. I had a Chinese friend who always chose Chun-Li. I usually played E. Honda, Guile or Zangief. Once you got good at Zangief, it was almost too easy against a fair to poor player. His throws and attacks were so powerful. He could easily be beaten by a skilled player, but a lesser player could barely touch him. The range on that big 360 pile driver was insane. It was a great finishing move. People always thought they were out of range.
Later versions of the game brought more characters, but I think the best thing they did was the cabinet redesign. They moved the controllers farther apart. They increased the screen size. They added bigger and better speakers. None of those things helped the player. They all helped the audience. More people could watch and cheer for a game at one time. It was quite a feeling struggling to defeat a skilled player and then hearing the roar of the crowd for your win.
I've played better games, but few have left me with better memories. So though I'm not staying up to grab it at the first minute, it seems Microsoft will be prying some more money from me for a chance to relive some of that glory. If you see me on Live, challenge away. My quarter is already on the machine.
Jason
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31 Jul 06
Whatever I had planned to write about today got scooped by today's big story. Yes, times and E3 they are a changing. I posted the ESA press release and some of the related links in the News section. In my little E3 poll, I forgot to add the option to scrap the thing and start over.
I guess the first thing that surprised me was the whole "wicked witch is dead" song and dance so many did on news of the previous incarnation's demise. I didn't realize how many people hated what E3 had become. From the outside, it looked like a chance for the whole world to revel in games. I guess it was a little darker inside.
I could have gone the last two years, but I never found sufficient reason to spend that kind of money. Had I known an era was ending, I probably would have gone this year. Next year, with the invitation only format, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be excluded. Even if this site continues to grow greatly, I'm not going to crack that top ten percent. It's not much of a heartache. There certainly are a lot of people I would have liked to have met, but perhaps there will be other opportunities.
In fact, it's possible that opportunities will abound. There's a chance that each publisher and hardware manufacturer will have their own media event. That seems to be part of what drove this change. The big players felt their shaped messages weren't getting out through the din of E3. Some sites have even suggested that with all the money the companies will save not having to put up the huge displays at E3 they will be able to fly the media to their event and put them up in hotels. I'm sure I won't make that cut either. Though if there are publishers out there who want to pay my expenses for me to visit them, just let me know. We can work something out.
I do like the general idea of E3 turning into a media event. After all, it was only in the last couple of events that any effort was made to support the media. It was largely impossible to report from the floor. No one saw everything they wanted to. It wasn't that long ago that direct feeds weren't even made available to the media. The goal of focusing on the media should improve information flow.
The two things that worry me are limited access and controlled access. By limiting who covers E3, we run the risk of institutionalizing current market leaders. We also open up a means of punishment for unflattering coverage. Media on the bubble will be looking over their shoulders. Controlled access could go both ways. It's important to meet developers to get a sense of their vision and enthusiasm. However, personalization and tightly controlled interaction can limit the objective reporting we've come to expect.
I do feel bad for the bloggers. They brought a breath of fresh air to this year's E3. People beholden to no one shared their unvarnished impressions of what they experienced. That even had an impact on the rest of the media covering the event. Now that's all gone. I can see why that would be good for publishers, but it doesn't do anything for us gamers. Let me hear your thoughts.
Jason
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