Science Check – Watch Dogs June 16, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials, Science Check.add a comment
Last month, UbiSoft released a game which took the concept of an open world sandbox video game and completely turned it on its head by giving players the ability not only to explore their environment, but control it. That’s the concept behind UbiSoft’s latest multiplatform title, Watch_Dogs.
What is Watch_Dogs? Allow me to introduce it to you the same way it was introduced to me, UbiSoft’s E3 2012 Press Conference.
Sometimes, you’re forced to make some severe leaps of logic as to just how plausible a video game’s grounded reality can be. Some things we’re willing to take for granted, like enemies will simply just carry health and ammunition supplies with them at all times, and you will be immediately able to make use of them.
But then sometimes there will be moments in gaming which skirt the bounds of reality and you are forced to ask yourself…COULD THAT REALLY HAPPEN? Fortunately for me, I happen to have a bunch of friends on speed dial with science backgrounds and when I ask them questions, they have no problem filling me in on just what reality would do in these situations.
So this is Science Check, where I take a look at the leaps and bounds of scientific logic that games have made over the years and check if it would indeed work, or if you tried doing it in the real world, you’d be totally screwed.
It’s all very plausible for a service like CtOS to be installed. Complete integration to improve automation is a huge part of the growth of new tech companies right now. Smart grids, smart streets, smart buildings, and more are all being discussed right now and its quite a fascinating subject.
On face value, you would think being able to interface with this system (if it is implemented) and control it wirelessly via a cell phone is pretty implausible, but there are workarounds. In the game, the player needs to physically access the CtOS control system directly in several points through Chicago in order to install a backdoor Trojan to compromise each area and bring it under control of the player. Once that happens, a player’s abilities in each zone increase and they have full access to not only the CtOS but every mobile device connected to it. In reality, once you have a computer virus installed on a system, controlling the infected system via a mobile device is entirely possible!
Once you have control of the CtOS, there is plenty that the player can do with it. All of Chicago’s traffic control systems are managed by the CtOS, so the player can in effect control things like the traffic lights, deploy hidden spike strips, and raise traffic barricades. The game never outright says what the hardware limitations are of these features, so I really will only be able to talk about them briefly. The city’s traffic control system can be accessed and subverted even in areas that the player hasn’t physically compromised, so it is likely that traffic control in Chicago is a low security subroutine. Typically the player can only alter these systems when they come within range, but it’s unclear if that is a physical limitation of the player’s abilities or simply a convenience that the game’s developers gave you. In theory this could work in one of two ways. The first possibility is that the CtOS’s traffic control system was completely compromised by the player at the start of the game, and this would allow the player complete control over every street light, barricade and spike strip in Chicago from anywhere in range of the CtOS, but for convenience to the player, the game will only give you the option to control systems in your immediate range. The other option is Chicago’s traffic control system runs independent of the CtOS but the player’s phone has a subroutine programmed into it that can control the traffic systems wirelessly once they come within range of the phone. This is probably the more likely scenario, although it requires a bit more of a leap of faith to accept, given the fact that traffic control systems are traditionally hard programmed with their timing instructions when they are first installed, and require a direct line connection to be altered or manually overwritten by any authority figures. These control systems are typically locked up pretty tightly and can only be accessed by emergency personnel. As far as I know, they can’t be wirelessly accessed, although I could imagine that police would want to be able to control traffic systems within a certain range of them, so they wouldn’t need to continue going back and forth between the control box and the road when directing traffic. Of course, you know once you give someone an opening to control something that they shouldn’t, someone nefarious will take advantage of it as the player will in the game.
So how do you get around Chicago? The player has the ability to commandeer any car in the city. At first you’ll be breaking into these cars the hard way. Early in the game, when you select a car you want to steal, the player will smash the car’s window, unlock the door and quickly hot wire it. This will typically cause a pretty good ruckus and possibly set off the car’s alarm, but it is a pretty plausible way for a thief to get into a car. Anyone who plays Grand Theft Auto would assume all the car doors in the world are just simply left unlocked, but that’s not the way the world actually works. As you progress through the game, it does get a lot more convenient to get into cars. Once you get the ability to add skill points, you can upgrade your cell phone to hack any car’s security system and grant you control of the car as if it’s yours. No need to smash windows, subvert alarms, or hot wire anything. Just take the car as if its always been yours.
The security on today’s cars are so convenient, a car’s owner can enter and operate their vehicle entirely without the need of a physical key. Typically an owner can keep some kind of physical device on them, usually an encrypted key fob, which will create a short range Personal Area Network (PAN). However, you don’t always need to have a key fob. Your SmartPhone has the capability of transmitting a PAN that your car can accept as well. In fact, one of the first things car manufacturers did once devices like the iPhone became commonly adopted was create an app for phones that could control the security features of their newest cars. I remembered seeing James Bond control his car like this when the movie Tomorrow Never Dies came out in theaters and thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen, but it was probably never going to be something normal people would be able to do in my lifetime. I was wrong. With what our SmartPhones can do today, James Bond never had it so good.
The problem is what happens if you try to get control of a car that predates an electronic security system? Electronic systems, while very common in new cars, haven’t been around for very long. There are plenty of cars still on the road that can only be entered by a physical key, and no amount of electronic hacking can grant you wireless access to it. Either Chicago reclaimed all the old cars running in the city and either gave its inhabitants brand new ones or upgraded current cars with modern systems themselves as a way to bribe voters to approve CtOS being implemented, or Chicago mandated that everyone needed to upgrade their cars with modern computer security systems on their own dime. I highly doubt either of these events could have happened as the former would have been very expensive, and the citizens of Chicago would have likely been completely against a law mandating the latter, and that would have turned public opinion against CtOS. I think I prefer Grand Theft Auto’s world where all the cars are simply left unlocked.
Another feature you have is the ability to eavesdrop on any video camera within range of you and view what the camera is transmitting. You could witness anything from a man confessing love to a girl who doesn’t feel the same way about him to Aisha Tyler talking to one of her girlfriends on the phone. This may sound like a trivial ability but in reality it is very important to gameplay. In the game, you can gain access to areas that are locked off by taking control of local security cameras. Once you have control of a camera, you can move your control from that camera to any other cameras or computer systems within a line of sight of that camera. This works out pretty well because it helps you gain access to new areas which may hold important information without needing to even be in the room. It can also lower risk to the player by allowing them to intrude on heavily guarded areas where they would be shot on sight without provoking a firefight.
So how realistic is this? You would think once you’re able to gain access to a closed network you would be able to take control of any camera connected to the system. However, a lot of the time, security cameras are part of a completely closed system and don’t allow outside wireless access. However, if we are to assume that the player’s control over a system relies strictly on line of sight, there is another option and that is infrared. That’s right, the same kind of technology you would find in a TV remote, it can also be used for a wide range of other purposes including data transmission. Anyone remember the old Palm Pilot? Before they were equipped with modems, two Palm users could swap data by simply using the infrared ports on the device. Most laptops in the 90s came equipped with them too, but they weren’t as convenient as they were for personal digital devices. Infrared isn’t the world’s fastest way of transmission, but since it relies completely on line of sight to transmit data, anything typically transmitted by infrared isn’t encrypted because it doesn’t need to be. Security cameras would not be able to transmit user control from point to point unless they were equipped with both an infrared receiver and transmitter, but since the cameras do seem to be able to identify citizens (with the exception of the player) so easily, it is highly likely that the city’s security cameras could be using infrared. Technology that is currently available, specifically the Xbox One’s Kinect, has a powerful infrared transmitter and receiver and is able to identify players using a very similar process. In theory the player could gain control of security cameras remotely just by using the cameras’ infrared transmitters against them, so long as he was in range of them and already compromised the system they were connected to.
Once you have control of the CtOS in each area, you can briefly read the profiles of everyone in the game that you pass by. The information you get typically ranges from their profession, yearly income, and any important information the CtOS deemed pertinent or nefarious, no matter how trivial. The sickest thing is, it is reasonable to assume a security state would keep detailed records on all its citizens. There’s a line in the game early on that one of the selling points of CtOS when Chicago was trying to get it installed was that they would offer free wireless internet access to everyone in the city. I don’t know if the founders told everyone the reason they were willing to offer free wireless internet service is because they wanted everyone to connect to the system so they could monitor all of their citizens’ electronic communications without the need of a warrant. Since everyone in modern day will typically keep some kind of personal electronic device on them at any time, everyone in the game also has their own personal electronic device, and all these devices are connected to the CtOS. Since the player has the CtOS compromised, in theory the player would be able to intercept any kind of communication the people around them was currently transmitting, and abilities like being able to listen into active phone calls or read instant messages are trivially easy to do. Extra abilities like being able to copy data on their phone, like their car’s security key, music, or transfer bank account information is a little tougher to do remotely, but there is precedence for it. I remember back in 2007 it was fairly common for teenagers to share ringtones with friends using their cell phone’s Bluetooth modem, and it is reasonable to assume that the player’s phone could transmit some kind of local signal to covertly copy data on another person’s digital device. Also, due to the extreme convenience, people do perform bank transactions on their personal electronic devices. It is very easy to look up your bank balance, recent transactions, and transfer money from your SmartPhone or Tablet, and while total control of your bank account isn’t possible on your cell phone, it does leave a backdoor for someone who intends to compromise your phone the ability to take money out of your account. Fortunately, a transaction like this would be very easy for a bank to record and refund in the real world, but if the person took precautions, it would be very difficult for the bank to catch the person responsible for it. Call me paranoid, but to this day I actually keep my phone’s Bluetooth hardware completely disabled.
After all this, I must say the premise for their game is surprisingly well rooted in plausibility. Thankfully, street-level hackers having the resources to pull off that complex of a job, the complete subversion of an entire city’s security network, is much less likely. You’re basically talking about needing the resources and backing of a world power to be able to implement those attacks in a meaningful way. And let’s face it, giving yourself green lights isn’t worth that kind of investment.
So there you have it, Watch_Dogs has been officially Science Checked. Special thanks to K.M. for their assistance writing this. Enjoy the game guys, but never forget the moral I believe these game developers are trying to convey with this game. NEVER implement a system like CtOS.
Watch_Dogs is out now on multiple platforms.
Why Doesn’t Sony Bring Home to the PS4? June 4, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
With E3 a week away, I decided to fire up my PS3 and give Playstation Home a look. Sony’s actually been really good over the past few years at offering exclusive content and spaces to celebrate E3 every year. Sony may have recently added Trophies, but after a thorough search, I noticed Sony hasn’t activated any E3 2014 content on Home just yet but after spending so much time playing Sony’s newest console, it was surprising that I still have to use older equipment to access such an important piece of Sony’s Playstation Network.
I was one of the first Beta Testers for Playstation Home, and over the past few years I’ve seen it grown tremendously but even after reviewing the most recent version of the program, I’ve noticed it isn’t perfect. Most of these issues are actually technical. It reserves a lot of space in the PS3’s Hard Drive, and yet most of the game’s content is downloaded as its being accessed. It has a large and diverse catalog of avatar clothing and accessories, and yet it takes forever to load each user’s appearance alongside all the other content it must load when entering a new area. I’m seriously concerned that since the program has worked like this for quite a while now, users appearances are phased in like this because of hardware limitations.
The most logical solution to all of these technical problems with the game is to simply make it available on the Playstation 4. Since the PS4 has a lot more memory to offer developers, it could be able to load all of the data Home streams whenever you enter a new area, and possibly could hold that data in memory for longer. This could also decrease load times. For more than a year, Playstation Home has been able to sync all of a player’s progress on their servers. So everything that a player unlocks remains consistent regardless of which console the player is using. This means Home could, in theory, be able to keep track of a player among multiple different platforms.
Home works on a very similar income structure as the free-to-play model, and because of that it benefits economically by having a wide user base. The game is free to access to anyone with a Playstation 3, online access, and a Playstation Network account. It makes money by selling premium content, like Home Spaces, avatar clothing, and other digital accessories. Having it available on multiple platforms is the best way to ensure a wide user base, and it could attract more developers who use the free-to-play model to design premium Home exclusive content.
On a separate note, I am surprised Home hasn’t been released on the Playstation Vita either. Why not offer Vita integration? The developers were talking about PSP integration ever since the closed beta, although they never did anything with it. The reason why was because Home used to have a virtual PSP as the framing device for manipulating Home’s menus, and you could personalize it quite a bit, which was something I appreciated. During last year’s E3 promotion, Sony used a virtual Playstation Vita to assist players in completing the E3 quests. It would have been great to actually have that information that was keeping track of my progress on my actual personal device, like a Vita or Playstation App compatible Smartphone/Tablet. The Vita’s hardware is better than the PS3’s in a lot of ways, and it can already be used as a PS4 second screen. I would love to be able to navigate all the in-game menus from a second device.
In short, bringing Home to the PS4 seems almost like a no brainer. In fact, I’m shocked it wasn’t included with the Playstation 4 at launch. However, the console has been out for a few months now, and I think the time is about right for Sony to make an announcement about their future plans for Home. With the PS3’s lifespan starting to wind down, Sony should use this year’s E3 to announce their future plans for the Playstation 4. Not only would this encourage people to buy their new console, but give early adopters a lot to be excited about. Anyone want to place a bet to see if Home PS4 gets announced on June 9th?
Who Made the Best Video Game Commercials? May 21, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
A big secret about the gaming industry is that game sales are primarily fueled by marketing. While in the age of the internet, games can quickly gain a cult following by devoted fans who trade information on message boards across the world, for the people who don’t play games, their only exposure to new games will typically come from the commercials for them that get aired on television or posted on billboards.
The big three console makers have always known that it takes great games to convince people to buy their console, but they also need to find other ways to make their console more attractive for developers to make those amazing games, and that means that they need to create big advertising campaigns to sell their products. Sometimes these huge campaigns pay off, other times they don’t. We’re not really here to discuss that. We’re here to talk about which of the big three console manufacturers made the best video game commercials.
We can’t start this discussion without talking about the company who has probably had some of the most successful video game advertising campaigns in history, Sony. I already talked about this in my more-in depth article on Sony commercials, but really one doesn’t need to look much further than their Greatness Awaits campaign to see the latest spectacle of a great time on top.
Short, elegant, and to the point with just the right amount of spectacle. For Sony, their commercials stress that they’re selling you an entire platform, not just a single game. Now, this strategy hasn’t always worked for them. I know a lot of people who hated their original PS2 advertisement campaign.
I liked this commercial. I thought it was a good first step for a platform just coming out with very few games to show for it. The PS2 would be sold out for at least five months after the console launched in my neck of the woods. A platform launching that successfully without a killer app was nearly unheard of.
But if I’m going to talk Playstation, there is something that I cannot forget, or should I say, someone. Sony’s “VP of Marketing”, Kevin Butler.
If you ask me, its a shame they discontinued working with him.
Microsoft has never really been successful the form of advertising. They invested millions of dollars into the advertising campaign for the release of Windows 95, and more people had the original DOOM shareware installed on their PC. Since then, Microsoft shyed away from mass marketing campaigns. They were the market leader, and from what I’ve been told there is an unwritten rule that anyone who comfortably held the crown of market leader doesn’t need to advertise, as their product was already well known enough by people. However, when Microsoft decided to enter the game console race, they needed the full weight of the company behind their new product’s advertising budge. Microsoft’s marketing department, while they were able to produce some huge launch events, was never able to produce great commercials for their platform early on.
I still remember how the highest resolution version of that commercial Bungie released for download made my computer from 2003 slow down until I upgraded the GPU.
Even to this day, I never really thought much of the Xbox 360’s advertisements. However, they always did a fantastic job with the 360’s Halo titles! While I mentioned the “Starry Night” ad in the top video game commercials video, that came out only to promote the game’s beta test, not the game’s release. When Halo 3 launched, Microsoft went all-out on a campaign simply titled “Believe” and while I think Starry Night was more revolutionary, the Believe series still gets me to choke up every time I watch it.
After Bungie finished the fight, their next two games had very similar ad campaigns. It all started with a highly-successful commercial which saw some pretty critical acclaim. It was so good, I had to put it on my list.
For Bungie’s last Halo game, they decided to keep with the style they explored in the previous commercial, and tell a prequel story to the beginning of Halo: Reach. We all knew the character of Noble Six was a last-minute replacement, and now we knew what happened to the previous Noble Six.
How successful were these commercials? After Bungie left the Halo franchise, this tradition continued with the first ever television commercial for Halo 4.
If you ask me, nobody did a better job than Nintendo. Even though Nintendo became a cultural phenomenon when they released the NES in my neck of the woods, I can’t remember them ever having to market their products on television during those days. However, when Nintendo decided to enter the handheld space, that all changed. When the Nintendo Game Boy launched in North America, Nintendo promoted some of the system’s launch titles, including one of my favorite Mario games of all time, Super Mario Land.
During the era of the Nintendo 64. Nintendo was sitting in second place against the incredible market domination of the original Playstation, but they did have some really creative exclusive titles available. Only Nintendo could produce such unique commercials for games that were this unique.
Here’s one you’ll probably remember, this is the commercial for Super Smash Bros. After watching this, you’ll never look at cute mascots the same way again.
Haven’t lost your faith in cute mascots yet? Watch the commercial for Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
But the Nintendo 64 wasn’t the only system that Nintendo was promoting. At the same time, they were holding nearly uncontested control in the handheld space thanks to the overwhelming success of Pokémon. Want to catch everything in the game? You’re going to need a Link Cable.
Sadly, since the late 90s, Nintendo lulled a bit in their ability to make memorable TV commercials. I have to admit I was never a fan of their marketing campaign for the Nintendo Wii or Wii U, but I think that in the past year or two, Nintendo has gotten a little bit of their original magic back. Here’s their commercial for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.
So after watching all that, I really can’t say who I thought did it best. Each company was excellent in its own way, and to this day have produced commercials I’ll never forget.
I’ll leave that up to you! Post a comment on who you thought did it better and what commercial you thought was the best!
Google Maps Put Us in a Pokémon World April 13, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
Since the release of inFAMOUS: Second Son and the great RPG deluge of Spring 2014, there wasn’t much gaming news going on to report on. It was one day from April 1st, and if previous experience was any indication, most of the news that would be coming out that day would be outright false, and I wouldn’t have much to report on. Unless I’m doing an April Fools Prank of my own, I don’t like posting up fake news or false information on this site, so I was ready to just put work on the site on hold for the day. By the time the clock hit 7PM local time, I was just burnt out. So I was nursing my wounds on Twitter when a Tweet from The Pokémon Company crossed my eye. Google was looking for a Pokémon Master to join their company. Don’t believe me? I’ll let the video explain it for you.
That’s right, Pokémon were in Google Maps and Google, with the blessing of The Pokémon Company, was daring us to catch ’em all. I fired up my Google Maps app, which, in my opinion, is the best GPS available on a SmartPhone, and tapped the search bar. Normally I would see a record of all the previous locations I had searched for, but this time was different. The words “Press Start”, comprised of blue letters, appeared in the search menu. I tapped the words and the app changed, hurling my present location to the west coast of the United States. A pixelated building was superimposed on top of the map’s present location, baring a very similar appearance to a Pokémon Center. A few tiny, pixelated icons resembling Pokémon surrounded the building, and the city the building was in. I couldn’t believe it, I was mapping the Pokémon World.
In my opinion, the reason why Pokémon has worked so well as an enduring franchise for so long, is that it copies just enough of the real-world to appeal to a wide audience. In fact, the exotic lands that Pokémon games have taken place in closely resemble real world locations, and the game’s developers have stated on several occasions that this is no coincidence. The blurring of the line between the real world and fictional events that take place in the real world to promote the latest media release is something that marketing partners have been doing for at least ten years now. I’m sure that many people remember the I Love Bees alternate-reality game designed to promote the release of Halo 2 in 2004, but it wasn’t the first ARG ever done, and there have been many others since. For April Fools 2014, Nintendo was stepping into that territory, and for a short time the line between reality and game was going to get even blurrier.
The first thing I noticed was just how detailed the promotion was. Google did a great job with updating the Maps interface for this event. They didn’t just have Pokémon icons all over the maps that you could highlight and “capture”, the app’s interface kept track of all the Pokémon you currently possessed, kind of like a rudimentary Pokedex. Also, just like a Pokedex, you unlocked character bios and statistics for any Pokémon you had captured, and you could go back and review that information as much as you needed to as you continued your search! The Pokedex informed me that there were only 150 Pokémon to find, a number reminiscent of the first generation Pokémon games. After combing through all the wild Pokémon surrounding the starting Pokémon Center, I was off searching the world for new Pokémon to capture.
I traveled across the map, searching far and wide. As I searched, so did the rest of the world. The internet was abuzz with other Pokémon Trainers swapping notes on where to find difficult Pokémon all over the world. There was a Pidgey on the top of the CM Tower in Toronto, Canada. Several Pokémon were hiding throughout Manhattan. The Galpagos Islands were practically brimming with all kinds of life, and not just the real kind. Within a few hours I had found what I thought was all one hundred and fifty Pokémon and called it a night.
April 2nd passed, and I was fairly certain that my Pokémon journey had come to an end. The joke was over and I had what I thought were all 150 Pokémon captured. Little did I know that there was in fact one more to find. When the first Pokémon games were released, Nintendo coded in a 151st Pokémon which could not be obtained through normal gameplay. Their plan was to offer it to players who participated in official Nintendo sanctioned Pokémon events, kind of like the DLC that you get with preordering a game today. The 151st Pokémon was Mew, and Nintendo built an entire legend around this one, culminating with the story of the first Pokémon motion picture.
It turned out that Mew could also be found in Google Maps as the 151st Pokémon, but he wouldn’t be easy to find. After doing a little research on him I discovered that Mew could only be found by Pokémon Trainers who had already located all 150 Pokémon, which is why he never showed up on any of my previous sweeps, and he could only be found in one location out of a pretty hefty list of possible locations. It sounded like he would be difficult to find, but I searched and searched, and eventually I did find him.
I have to remark on one major thing I don’t think has been reported on by the rest of the media, and that is the educational benefits of this promotion. By choosing to do this event through Google Maps and hiding Pokémon all across the world’s map specifically, anyone who participated could have walked away with a little bit more experience in geography. I’ve been hearing concerns for many years now that young people have difficulty finding the location of some pretty important countries, or the locations of certain major cities on the world map. Since the whole point of the Pokémon Challenge involved using the world map for a giant Pokémon safari, anyone who participated in the event could have walked away with a better understanding of geography. You really had to search the maps closely to find where Google hid all the Pokémon, and even if you simply breezed through location to location, seeing the names of cities, towns and landmarks would make anyone exploring a location in the world they were unfamiliar with more familiar to them. Even if you specifically gave Google Maps the exact location specific Pokémon could be found, an animation would move the globe from your current displayed position to the location you told it, giving anyone who searched for the location a pretty quick understanding about where in the world the location was relative to where they were searching. Educators are always trying to make the subjects they’re dealing with relevant to their students, how about doing a Pokémon search in your classroom?
While this was certainly designed for current Pokémon fans and for the nostalgic like me who remember the height of Pokémon fever, I’m really happy that Google and Nintendo were able to do this. I hope that something like this comes our way again, and if it does, you can be sure I’ll write about it. Happy April Fools everybody!
What GBA Games Should Come to the Wii U Virtual Console April 8, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.1 comment so far
Last week, the first Game Boy Advance games were released on the Nintendo Wii U, offering gamers the chance to play an entire generation of classic handheld titles for the first time in ten years. With games like Metroid: Fusion, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Advance Wars among the first games released through the service, Nintendo is stepping up their game convincing people to buy the Wii U by offering more of the best games from their back catalog on a platform they desperately need people to adopt.
So what games from the GBA’s strong back catalog should Nintendo release next for the Wii U? Here are some of my ideas. Metroid: Fusion and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga have already gotten released through the service so I’m not going to include them on the list. Rest assured, if they had not already been announced and released, they would be on this list. I also won’t include the GBA version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, as the SNES version of that game has already been released through the Wii U VC, and it’s exclusive multiplayer expansion Legend of Zelda: Four Swords was already ported to the Nintendo 3DS and released as a free download some time ago. I’m also not going to include straight up remakes or ports on the GBA, as Nintendo can just as easily port the original games to the Wii U.
Without further ado, here are some GBA games I would like to see on the Wii U.
Pokémon Emerald – The third game in the same generation that included Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald is considered to be the perfect game of the third generation Pokémon games. With a new story, new protagonist, and the power of the GBA behind it, the Pokémon world looked better than we had ever seen it before. In fact, the game’s graphics looked so good, Nintendo used the game’s engine to remake the first generation games, but I’ll get to them in a bit.
Metroid: Zero Mission – Nintendo’s handheld remake of the first Metroid game was ironically the final game made by the team who created the original Metroid. It was a very successful release, with a lot of critics praising the updated graphics and new locations, while still retaining the original feel of Metroid. The original Metroid (NES) has always been a staple of Nintendo’s Virtual Console platforms. As far as I know, Nintendo has released it on every platform with a Virtual Console to date, but Zero Mission’s enhanced graphics and gameplay makes the original game much more accessible.
Mother 3 – The long awaited sequel to the SNES cult classic EarthBound was released to a Japanese only audience on the Game Boy Advance. For years, gamers have clamored and petitioned Nintendo head honchos to translate this game and bring it to the United States. Sadly, the game launched in Japan shortly before the GBA was replaced by the Nintendo DS, and in my opinion, Nintendo probably decided that the time and money to properly translate the game for a western audience would not be worth it with the Nintendo DS launch on the horizon. In defiance, a group of hackers released an entire translation script for the game, and implored everyone to import the game and use it. Now with the GBA Virtual Console on the Wii U, there’s a real chance this game could get released here. Perhaps with the incredible sales of Bravely Default, Japanese game developers are starting to take notice that there is an incredible market here in the States for their games. The hackers who translated the original game are offering their entire script to Nintendo to use completely free of charge.
Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen – Around the same time Nintendo was developing Pokémon Emerald on the GBA, Nintendo also remade their original Generation 1 Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, using the Generation 3 Pokémon engine. When the Pokémon games launched on the GBA, the Pokémon World had never looked better. All the classic gameplay from the original two games were brought back, along with some new bug filled game areas. The graphics were crisp, the art style was vibrant, and all the original 150 Pokémon were ready to be caught and traded to help you complete your Generation 3 game’s Pokedex.
Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap – Ever wondered how Link got his hat? Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap not only set the story for the Four Swords Saga, but it was also an origin story for the entire Legend of Zelda universe…well, that is up until The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was released. Seriously though, who doesn’t want to play a new Legend of Zelda game on their Wii U controller?
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance – The Final Fantasy Tactics series is probably most known for having one of the most sought after games on the original Playstation, but there was a Final Fantasy Tactics game released on the GBA, and many critics consider it to be one of the best games on the system. I mean what’s not to like? The game’s developers were able to bring over the gameplay which made the original PS1 title so much fun, and it would be a great addition to the Wii U Virtual Console.
So that’s my list, but I want to hear what you guys have to say! Post a comment and tell me which GBA games you want to see on the Wii U Virtual Console.
Now please being in a GameCube Virtual Console!
Who Will Define The Next Year of Nintendo? February 25, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
On March 18th, 2014 the Year of Luigi will officially end. The Year of Luigi, originally announced a year ago, was one of the best promotional events in the history of Nintendo and brought a character typically seen in the background up front and center as he happened to star in several major games that got released over the course of that year, including Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, New Super Luigi U and Dr. Luigi.
With the year wrapping up soon, and with all the positive press from the promotion, I started to wonder if Nintendo might try the event again with a new character for 2014. Luigi was chosen because he was a background character that hadn’t got as much appreciation as Nintendo’s biggest mascot, Mario. He was also chosen because Nintendo had planned an entire lineup of games which featured him to release within that year, including several games he would star in. So it would be logical to assume Nintendo may want to promote some other secondary character once the Year of Luigi concludes.
But which character? With a bit of speculation, and a bit of conjecture lets take a look at some of the options.
Samus Aran – The third major Nintendo property has not seen much love from Nintendo in this current generation. Since the release of Metroid: Other M, we haven’t heard a peep from the franchise’s hero Samus Aran, despite the demand for new Metroid Prime games. Short of releases of the original Metroid games on the Wii U and 3DS platforms, and a fantastic bunch of minigames in the Wii U launch title Nintendo Land, there have not been any new Metroid games released on the current Nintendo platforms. I think the time is right for some new Metroid games, all it would take is a new game’s announcement. In the meantime, Metroid Fusion has already been confirmed as an early title for the Wii U’s first GBA Virtual Console releases, and Samus was one of the first characters confirmed for the next Super Smash Bros game.
Donkey Kong – Could this year be on like Donkey Kong? It’s already started up. One of the original mascots of the Nintendo company, Donkey Kong would be a great contender to dedicate the next year. With Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze releasing this month on the Wii U, the lineup is already in place. He has also been confirmed as one of the first playable characters for the next Super Smash Bros game and Mario Kart 8. However, even I have to admit the timing may be wrong for Donkey Kong this year. With the new Donkey Kong Country game getting released while we are still officially in the Year of Luigi, it may have been too soon to dedicate the next year of releases to him.
Bowser – A role once played by Dennis Hopper, next to Mario or Luigi, Bowser is one of the most iconic characters from the Super Mario series, and if Nintendo wanted to devote another year to a lesser appreciated character from the Super Mario franchise, Bowser would probably be the most likely candidate. While typically the villain of nearly every Super Mario Bros game, Bowser has occasionally joined Mario with his battles, like in Super Mario RPG, or joined him with his recreational activities, like Golf or Go Karting. Interesting to note that not only will he be returning as a playable character in Mario Kart 8, all the Koopalings will be coming with him.
Pikachu – The most iconic mascot for one of the most popular game franchises in history could find a year dedicated to him. Yes I know that Nintendo already released the sixth generation Pokémon games in 2013, but Nintendo doesn’t need to launch a new Pokémon generational game, they could be in development of new spin-off titles like a new Pokémon Ranger game. On top of that, there have been rumors for a few months now that an interactive game starring Pikachu is under development and will be the next game Nintendo releases in the Pokémon series. Could this Pikachu game be the flagship title of a year of Pikachu like Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was for The Year of Luigi?
The Year of Luigi ends March 18th, 2014. I guess we’ll find out what will be coming in less than a month. Until then, speculate away. I’ll see you on Miiverse.
Why I Left the PC February 20, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
I got my first PC in late 1996. It was a Pentium machine clocked at 133mHz with 16MB of RAM running Windows 95. The store my dad bought the computer from included a CD-ROM with the computer which had over one hundred different DOS shareware demos. Every game demo you could imagine as staples of the gaming industry was on that disc. Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis were just some of the games I could start playing, and my computer, while a dinosaur by today’s standards, could run all these demos without the slightest hitch. When I loaded up the first shareware demo, the computer’s speakers began to roar. The last time I had played a video game was on the original NES and as the flight simulator loaded up, it looked hundreds of times better than any game I had ever seen before. On that day, I became a PC Gamer. Ten years later, that ended.
Throughout the late 90s, the PC had so much more that it could offer gamers than the consoles of the day could. It had better graphics hardware, a wider variety of control options, and online capabilities. But to me, the single thing that made the PC the best gaming platform was its ability to improve itself through the form of patches and mods. PC game developers could release new features, fix bugs, and support user modifications with just a simple download.
The tide had begun turning against the PC starting around the launch of the original Playstation. While it was clear that the PC could deliver a better gaming experience than the consoles of the day could, it was clear that the consoles would compete by offering some amazing exclusive games that would never see a release on the PC. By the time the PS2, Xbox and GameCube launched, publishers turned nearly all their focus to developing games on those consoles. Even LucasArts, who had one of the biggest catalogs of PC games, was no longer porting games to the PC. PC games were still being developed, and any game’s PC version would clearly offer the superior gaming experience over the console version, fewer games were coming to the platform. Unless the game was pushing technology past something the consoles could do or was a best selling game, it wouldn’t come to the PC.
But a lack of key exclusive titles was not enough to turn me away from the PC, it was the decisions made by the game publishers. To them, the PC was a pit, at least, that’s how it seemed like they felt. Valve released Half-Life 2, one of the best games ever made, in 2004. In every copy of Half-Life 2 was a program called Steam, and it would run every time Half-Life 2 did. The Steam program required online access to function, but once you gave it the game’s CD-Key, it would keep Half-Life 2 up to date, keep an online friend’s list of all the Half-Life and Counter Strike players, making it easier for you to join friend’s games, and provided one of the PC’s first online digital marketplaces. Many PC players were against its existence, but it offered me a lot of really useful benefits, so I had no issue with it. Little did I know that other publishers would see the success of the Steam platform and its acceptance by players like myself, and, not knowing or caring about all the benefits that Steam offered players, actively engaged in anti-consumer practices to protect their own bottom lines.
In 2007, publishers started to ship PC games which, like other games that shipped with Steam, required online activation to play. However, unlike Steam, they offered absolutely no benefits whatsoever to customers who bought games that required online activation, not even automatic game patching. In fact some of the games it shipped with, like the original Bioshock, had no multiplayer component. So, why did it have to be included? The worst part of this development was that the publishers limited the amount of times you could perform an online activation! The internet went into an uproar by this point. PCs can break or get computer viruses very suddenly and unexpectedly, forcing players to perform system wipes, costing them an activation in the process. Meanwhile, while Steam wasn’t going anywhere, there was no way to tell how long the activation servers that verified these games would continue to run, or if they would go down due to heavy use. The concerns turned out to be fully justified. Even legitimate PC game reviewers encountered problems with these limited activations.
Forced online activations became the norm by 2008. Games including Mirror’s Edge, Red Alert 3 and Dead Space all required online activation. I was most sad to see Red Alert 3 would be DRM locked, I was actually planing to buy that game, but I knew all it would take would be three system wipes and I would have to rebuy it.
Meanwhile the newest consoles were looking more and more attractive by comparison. With the wide adoption of HDTVs, the game consoles could offer high definition gaming in surround sound, perfect for gamers interested in setting up a home theater system in their home. Also, with the wider adoption of high speed internet, console games could be patched, giving consoles one of the biggest advantages the PC held over it. Unified console marketplaces also made it possible to deliver downloadable content, digital games and even feature films!
The tide against the PC had turned and I knew that if I wanted to stay a gamer, I could no longer be loyal to just one platform. Some of the best games I’ve played in the past ten years were console exclusives. I never thought I would make that statement.
The PC still claims dominance in graphical fidelity but with its cost, complexity, and the restrictive self imposed procedures publishers are forcing on their customers, it is getting harder and harder to justify those slightly less jagged edges or extra frames per second during gameplay.
I will miss the PC. But I’m a gamer.
Subs vs. Dubs, For Gaming February 18, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
For as long as media has been imported overseas there has been a never-ending discussion from fans of other country’s media how the imported content should be localized for the region it is being brought to should be presented. One option, by far the most used by mainstream media distributors is referred to as “dubbing”. This is done by doing a complete translation of a script to the language spoken by the region it is being brought to, hiring a new cast of native voice actors, and redub all of the content’s dialog. The other option is referred to as “subbing”, which keeps the content’s dialog exactly as the original creators intended, with its original voice actors presented in its original language. Only subtitles are provided to help non native speakers understand what is going on. While this is a cheaper option for foreign distributors, this option is typically preferred by importers and many devoted consumers. This debate, lovingly referred to by either side as, “Subs vs. Dubs”, has been happening for a long time. Now, the conversation is happening all over again for video games and it looks to be completely changing the rules on how international video games are localized.
Let’s be honest here, regardless of how you feel about subs or dubs, there are valid arguments on both sides. People arguing for subtitled content argue that a content should be presented in its original medium exactly the way that its creator, regardless of their country of origin, intended. On top of that they cite that in a lot of cases foreign dubbing just isn’t very good and can wreck an otherwise fantastic work. People in favor of dubbed content have their own points. Subtitles can distract the viewer from what is happening on the screen, and if time and effort is taken by the right localization studio, a properly translated work performed by decent voice actors can be obtained in any country regardless of a language or cultural gap.
Up to this point, any localized content provided from overseas development studios have typically made the decision to fully translate and localize any of their game’s content to the region they release their game to. It is a difficult process, as it means an entire reworking of a game’s menu systems, script, and can require an entirely separate team of voice actors and directors be hired and recorded. It can be an expensive process, especially for dialog heavy games. Because of that, some companies have sadly chosen not to even bother releasing many popular games overseas, like Mother 3, because they didn’t believe the development costs of localizing their content would pay off once the content was released to a new market, or because they wouldn’t be able to release a game into the market before a new platform would launch.
Consumers on the “sub” side of this argument have not been happy with this status quo. In fact, I remember there was a huge desire for Catherine to be brought to the US in its original language. The guy who did the voice of Vincent in the original Japanese version is apparently a very famous voice actor in Japan, with many fans here in the US. Sadly, the version of Catherine that came to the US only included a localized English audio track, and even though I enjoyed it tremendously in my own native language, this upset many people who preferred to hear it spoken with the game’s original dialog by the original voice actors.
However, as of this past year I have personally had something of a resurgence in my interest in foreign content, and I have noticed that the trend of “dubbing” all localized content is beginning to change. The Nintendo 3DS downloadable title Attack of the Friday Monsters (A Tokyo Tale) was entirely subbed. This decision worked on many levels, especially since the game took place in Japan. Even though it was just a cute little downloadable title that never got a retail release, for the first time I can think of, a video game studio chose to present localized content for a North American game release in the form of subtitles instead of redubbing the original voice over work.
I believe the best decision that could have been made to solve this debate is to give consumers a choice between the two and release games that offer players either option. Back in the days of VHS, this wasn’t an option, but with the storage space offered by Blu-Ray Discs, and its ability to be used as either a game or a film storage medium, and with online streaming services and DLC, consumers can get both options without having to rebuy the same content multiple times. Heck, you don’t always need a large enough disc to do it. Bravely Default’s full version can be played in the original Japanese language (among several others including English and Italian), they just couldn’t fit all the different languages into the game’s demo version. The North American retail version of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII does not include the game’s original Japanese voice over on the game disc, but Square did release the game’s original Japanese audio track for free as DLC, and it can be downloaded right now by anyone with a copy of the full version of the game who wants to hear it. Support for this decision this must have been very positive, as Square Enix plans to do it again with the next Drakengard game, and will give DLC codes for the game’s original Japanese voice over audio for free to anyone who preorders the game early enough.
With current technology making it possible for movies, television and video games to offer consumers either option for how they want to view their content, perhaps this debate may finally be coming to an end.
The Scourge of the Season Pass February 10, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
With all the paid DLC coming out for major game releases, why not pay for all of a game’s content at once and get all the DLC at a reduced price? Since around 2011, publishers started offering players the chance to buy a Season Pass with their game. For the customer, they sound good in theory. Not only can it be cheaper for your wallet, it can be a lot easier than having to navigate though a dozen individual downloads, sorting through downloadable videos, demos and avatar clothing, and being really careful not to repurchase any redundant content by accident. Just buy a Season Pass and all the downloadable content will unlock in your game automatically as it gets released. Every time you boot up your game you’ll get a small pop up when new content is available. From there you can immediately download it without having to pay any extra money. It couldn’t be simpler. It also works well for the game’s developers. By getting money in advance for content they are working on, it can finance future game development and ensure post-release content for a game will be more likely to see a release.
So if Season Passes are a win on both sides, why is this article titled The Scourge of the Season Pass? Well because not everything in theory works when put into practice, and as I plan to explain further in this article, every once in a while game developers and publishers can get a bit greedy. This system, once a benefit for gamers, is now becoming an issue. Let’s look at our recent gaming history and find out why.
Season Passes are nothing new to the gaming industry. Episodic games have used a similar payment option since games were delivered by shareware, and more recently when Telltale Games started work on the first season of Sam & Max in 2006. Instead of charging for each game episode individually, Telltale offered a second payment option while the episodes are still under development and promised customers who paid for this second option access to all the game’s episodes as soon as they got released. The price for this second payment option would still be a reasonable amount more than just one episode would cost, but less than what the consumer would have paid had they bought each episode individually as they got released. By offering this simple common sense payment option, Telltale Games became a powerhouse during the Episodic Gaming Boom, whereas other larger developers like Valve Software and Ritual Entertainment failed to capitalize in it. To this day, I still stand by the statement that had the SiN: Episodes offered a similar payment plan, Ritual Entertainment would still be around and further SiN: Episodes would have gotten developed past the first one.
So what are the problems with Season Passes? First off, they’re getting incredibly overpriced, especially for games on the latest consoles. The Season Pass for Dead Rising 3 costs $29 US, and while Capcom is promising to release a series of Single Player expansion missions for that game, the Dead Rising 3 Season Pass is still ten dollars more expensive than the Season Pass prices of most other games are, even other games on the Xbox One. Dead Space 3 also offered a Season Pass right after it was released, but all that was included with it was some extra weapons and armor that EA had already released on Day One and was planning to sell individually. You’re not exactly paying in advance for future content when it is already out on Day One. Since EA was already bundling DLC codes for similar content inside new copies of the game, EA should have released their Season Pass’s content free to anyone who preordered the game (or bought the game’s ultra rare Dev Team Edition). Some extra weapons and armor didn’t make for much of a Season Pass. When EA released Dead Space 3’s Single-Player expansion pack to wrap up the game’s cliffhanger ending, they charged separately for it.
There are other concerns with Season Passes being offered for sale so early, and that is “what if the game’s developer cancels future DLC development due to poor sales?” It’s almost like a catch-22. You don’t know if you should pay the developer in advance for extra content after a game’s release because if the developer cancels their post-release content you don’t know what will happen to your money, meanwhile the developer can’t fund post release content for their game because not enough of their customers purchased Season Passes. Recently, there has been a lot of news about this problem because WB Games has cancelled all future DLC for the Wii U version of Batman: Arkham Origins, even though they were selling a Season Pass for it. Fortunately, Wii U gamers who had purchased a Season Pass for Batman: Arkham Origins were automatically refunded their money, but there’s no guarantee in a digital market what can happen to your money if a publisher can’t deliver on it’s promises, even if they already have your money. The default stated policy on digital content through the various online marketplaces is NO REFUNDS.
Then there are the other times when the content covered by the Season Pass just stops for no reason. For some reason the final DLC for Halo 4 was not included with the Season Pass, forcing Season Pass adopters to have to shell out an extra ten dollars for the game’s last downloadable content release. If you’re going to sell me a Season Pass, INCLUDE EVERYTHING! If you can’t include everything, don’t offer the Pass at all. Many other Season Passes, like the Season Pass for Gears of War 3, while it offered new multiplayer maps and a single player expansion, it did not include any of the premium weapon skins that were put for sale at launch. If you wanted to obtain them, you had to buy them separately, and since there were a lot of them up for sale on the day of the game’s launch, buying all of them could be quite expensive. Since the weapon skins serve no function other than aesthetics, I’m sure a lot of players were angry Epic dared to charge for them for it in the first place. They should have been unlockable content, or offered with the Season Pass.
Well, how do we make this better? Well, I believe a Season Pass should be included with all Collector’s Edition releases of a game. Obviously if the game in question is not getting a Collector’s Edition release, you don’t need to include a Season Pass with a regular edition, but if the game is getting some form of a CE at a premium price point, a Season Pass code should be bundled with it. Since Halo 3’s Legendary Edition was released in 2007, Collector’s Editions have gotten incredibly expensive, and in a lot of cases recently their high price cannot justify the exclusive content that was included with it. By including a Season Pass with the game’s Collector’s Edition, you will probably get more demand for the premium release at launch, and consumers will consider it a very good deal. Games like Halo 4, God of War: Ascension, heck even Forza Motorsport 5, released with Season Pass codes bundled inside their Collector’s Edition releases, and they greatly justified their prices along with the rest of the exclusive content that came with each game. Sure the redeemable codes included with the Collector’s Editions were labeled something other than Season Passes, but the codes offered the same function a Season Pass did. Why isn’t this done with every Collector’s Edition?
Also, as I said earlier, if you’re going to offer a Season Pass for sale, make sure it includes everything the game offers. The Season Pass for The Last of Us, while not included with the game’s Collector’s Editions, is without a doubt one of the best Season Passes currently offered on the market. Not only are both of the game’s multiplayer map packs included with the Season Pass, an entirely new single-player campaign, an exclusive feature-length making-of documentary and all of the paid premium multiplayer avatar content is included with the Pass. Naughty Dog really did a good job planning that one out, and it puts into question why couldn’t Gears of War 3’s Season Pass offer the premium weapon skins?
Or you know, you could just go back to the early PC days and make all of a game’s DLC free. People have been asking about that since Horse Armor was put up for sale in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Offering post-release DLC without charging extra for it isn’t like offering the content for no money. People still would need to purchase the full version of your game to use the DLC, but if you continue to support your game, more and more players will want to pick it up just based on word of mouth. It would increase goodwill and bring loyalty to your studio, publisher and brand. The Witcher‘s developers had that philosophy when they were developing the first game on the PC, and any time they rereleased the game at retail with new content, they offered that content for free on their website to anyone who had previously purchased the game. Recently, the only way I’ve seen players get a game’s DLC as part of purchasing a game new is by purchasing a Game of the Year Edition. While a GOTY version of a game can be a good deal for new adopters of a game, it is a bit of a disrespectful slap in the face to players who paid full price for the game on day one. In fact, I’ve purchased several Game of the Year Editions of games I already owned (and in some cases already bought $100+ Collector’s Editions of) just because rebuying a GOTY edition of the game at retail was a better financial deal then buying all of the game’s DLC was online. When having your customers rebuy your game is a better deal than purchasing all the downloadable content for it, developers need to take a step back and look at the new market they have created.
Please, do it quickly.
Best Console Launch Titles…Ever February 5, 2014
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
No matter what console you’re planning to launch, any smart game developer knows that a video game console isn’t sold based on its technical merits alone, but by the games it plays that you can’t play anywhere else. If you want your console to sell, it needs to have a killer app and fast.
Today, we’re going to be talking about some of the greatest launch titles for game consoles in the history of video games. They could be groundbreaking in their own right, show off the technical capabilities of the system that they launched with, or just provided a great experience you couldn’t find anywhere else.
Game Boy – Tetris
Tetris is without a doubt one of the most addictive games ever made. Even my own father, who never played a video game before in his life (and hasn’t since) played this game on my original NES to the point he would have dreams about it. So it was logical for Nintendo to bring one of the most popular games for the NES to their flagship handheld console, the Game Boy. While this game was not a launch title on the Game Boy’s initial Japanese release, it was ready in time for the Game Boy’s North American launch. Through a clever bit of foresight, a copy of Tetris was bundled with each new Game Boy and for really good reason. There was no title at the time that could have better shown off the Game Boy’s 2-player functionality and by bundling each Game Boy with a copy of Tetris and a Link Cable (which was needed for multiplayer), it encouraged early adopters to use all the features the Game Boy offered and set a high bar for the platform that Nintendo’s competitors could never reach.
SNES – Super Mario World
I believe that Super Mario Bros 3 perfected the Mario platformer formula, but Super Mario World cranked it up to eleven. After the tremendous success of the Super Mario Bros series, Nintendo had one of the most iconic mascots of any medium at their disposal, and they were going to use that momentum to sell their brand new 16-Bit system, the Super Nintendo. All the classic Mario features were back, but now the Super Nintendo could bring even more. There were more levels, new enemies, new power ups, and a whole new world to explore. Nintendo knew that by taking a character we all knew and loved and bringing him to the new system as a launch title, Nintendo could show just how much more powerful their new console was over the NES.
N64 – Super Mario 64
This is the game that defined the 3D platformer, and to this day there are still imitators that aren’t able to do it as well as Nintendo did. This can be considered by many to be Nintendo’s entry into the first official 3D graphics generation, and Nintendo would set that bar as high as they could. You could do everything Mario was known for, only now you could do it in 3D. The control was darn near perfect. You could run, jump, swim and even fly. In fact, this game was so good, it transcended its success one more time to one other platform. Nintendo wanted to show off how great their new DS was, so they ported Super Mario 64 to the DS. When people saw the DS could replicate the features of a Nintendo 64 by bringing one of its best titles to the new handheld platform, it became a best selling title and contributed to a lot of early DS adoption.
Xbox – Halo: Combat Evolved
The year was 2001. One of the most successful companies in the world was entering a field they have never been a part of previously. They needed to sell as many consoles as they could quickly in order to be competitive against the industry heavyweights of Sony and Nintendo, especially in the wake of the overwhelming success of the Playstation 2. Their answer was to take one of the highest anticipated titles for the PC, buy its development studio, and bring the title they were working on to their new platform. When the original Xbox launched, there was no title that showed off the console’s capabilities better than Halo: Combat Evolved. The control was perfect. The graphics were superior to anything that could be done on their competitors’ systems at the time. But the most enduring legacy it has is it brought the formerly PC-centric ritual of the LAN Party to console users. The game continued to be a best seller for years after the console’s launch. In fact, according to author Steven Kent, years after the game’s release the Xbox continued to be referred to as the Halo Delivery System. It was only removed from the console’s top 10 sales lists when its sequel was released in 2004.
Playstation 3 – Resistance: Fall of Man
Sony’s first entry into this list was the reason I got a PS3. The game was hardly considered groundbreaking or revolutionary for its time, and many didn’t think the graphics were even that good, but for everything this game did, it sure did it well. I’m a huge fan of History Channel and Discovery Channel documentary series, and this game presented its story in a way that felt customized specifically to my tastes. In fact, I once wrote the game’s opening narration on a High School blackboard and asked a class to identify where it came from. They all thought the narration was from a real-world event. True to developer Insomniac Games’s pedigree, it had some of the most unique weapons ever seen in a console FPS. It also had some of the best multiplayer I have ever played on a console. Everything felt well balanced, and new players could be competitive against grizzled veterans. Sadly, Sony has announced their intention to discontinue the game’s multiplayer permanently pretty soon. Sad, I never could make it to level 60.
Wii – Wii Sports
Nintendo made their entry into the first ever HD console generation a sub-HD game console with a control system unlike anything consumers had ever seen before. To make it clear to the consumer what their unique console was capable of, Nintendo chose to bundle a game with it that fully took advantage of all the console’s motion control capabilities and their avatar maker (affectionately dubbed Miis). Their decision was one for the history books as it propelled the Nintendo Wii to become one of the best selling consoles of all time, and made the game that was bundled with it, Wii Sports, one of the best selling titles of all time.
Wii U – Nintendo Land
Nintendo’s first entry into the HDTV world was another unique console which brought the capabilities of the Nintendo DS to the home system. To fully embrace this unique touch screen control system and pay homage to all of the classic franchises they have produced over the years, Nintendo released Nintendo Land as a bundled game with all of the premium launch models of the Wii U. The game offered tons of different minigames to explore, each one modeled after a classic Nintendo property. While the Wii U is currently sitting in last place in this generation’s console war, I still think it’s a great system and I recommend this game to anyone interested in picking one up.
GameXcess.net - Gaming News, Videos and Editorials! 