Rainbow Six: Terrorist Hunt Etiquette

Look, I'm a co-op whore and I've easily logged a 100 hours playing Rainbow Six: Vegas' addictive Terrorist Hunt online multiplayer mode. I shudder to imagine the landfill large enough to hold the legions of digital terrorists I've sent to an early grave.

With all the play experience under my belt, I thought I'd give back to the community and offer up a PSA of sorts about game etiquette. The R6: Vegas fan base are a pretty mature and courteous lot to begin with and I've had the pleasure of playing with (and against) some outstanding human beings. But as is the case with manners in all areas of life, it never hurts to get those reminders on proper conduct and even the best of us can forget that there are real people on the other end of our 360 headsets.

So without further ado, here are my personal guidelines to playing well with others in Rainbow Six: Vegas Terrorist Hunt:

(Hit the jump for more...)

1. Thou Shalt Not Join a Game in Progress
   Ubisoft has not gotten around to fixing a bug that will deny you and your team victory points if a player enters the round mid-stream. There's still some debate on whether the points are still awarded despite the game screen that declares all points has been nullified and the mission has failed. Gripes about Ubisoft's buggy products aside, it's just better form to join a game that is still on standby in the lobby than popping in when the sole surviving player has eliminated the last terrorist in a map like the Research Labs. On Realistic difficulty. And set to High Density. Trust me when I say you don't want to potentially deny that player his just reward!
   
   The game will tell you when you're about to join a server that's already started their round, so do the right thing: wait before joining or find another server.


2. Thou Shalt Refrain from Joining Games Just to Rank Up
   Few things are more uncouth than having fresh blood join your fight against the terrorists, only to have the entering player state that he wants to rank up, so please don't lose any rounds. Annoyance levels escalate further when said rank-obsessed player proceeds to do nothing but die within the opening minutes of every round. The moral of the story is: everyone likes to rank up, but most players out there also want to have fun and play alongside good teammates. All for one and one for all, right?


3. Thou Shalt Not Pressure Teammates to Commit Suicide
   This is a big one because it happens so often and is an incredibly boorish thing to do. This also applies to telling a player to "hurry up", as if his only intention of playing is to walk around the map aimlessly and run out the clock, thus losing the round and sacrificing valuable victory points. When most of the team gets wiped and there's a single player left to battle the spawning hordes of terrorists, take a breather and offer him friendly support. Don't be a backseat driver gamer, mind you, just try your best to be an extra set of eyes and ears for your valiant teammate.
   
   On the flip side of this equation, if you find yourself the sole surviving member of your squad and there's still a horde of terrorists to shoot, know when to bow out gracefully. Let's say you're in Calypso Casino on max difficulty and all your buddies buy the farm on the rooftop. Even if you're confident in your abilities to win the round, are you really going to force everyone to watch you crouch-walk around with your shield and pistol for 15 minutes? I sincerely hope not, soldier. This is one of those times when you do need to take one for the team, and take it gracefully.


4. Thou Shalt Communicate With Your Team
   This is a serious no-brainer but it's important enough to state the obvious anyway. Let your teammates know when you're tossing grenades. Let them know when you're entering a hot room. Let them know if you're pinned down by gunfire. And let them know if you know their ass is in imminent danger. No, you don't have to trot out the faux military lingo and act like Sgt. Slaughter. You only need remind yourself that a team that works together wins together. Also, the more you know, the more you grow. And knowing is half the battle. Or something like that...


5. Thou Shalt Be a Good Host
   It's understandable for a host to want a full lobby before starting up the next round of play. It's also easy to sympathize with a host who delays a round in order to bring in one of his good buddies to play. It is not okay for a host to ask a waiting player to leave in order to make room for the host's friend and his friend's friend. That, my good people, is called a Dick Move.
   
   There are no hard and fast rules to being a good host. It's really a combination of common sense, courtesy and respect. For starters, it's only a good idea to host a public match if you know you're going to be in it for the long run. You may only need a 10-minute fix, but what of the other players who joined? In addition, a little friendliness and MC-ing skills can go a long way. Acknowledge and welcome new players when they join. Give your team advance warning if you think you need to shut down early. And don't be afraid to exercise your hostly powers and boot troublesome players who have no respect or who will only hinder your team from having a good time.

And there you have it, just a few basic guidelines on playing fair and playing with class. If you have some of your own suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. Drop a note into the comments and we'll compile our own little Miss Manners rule book for Rainbow Six: Vegas!

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Remake Heaven

Who needs sequels when you can take the franchise originator -- almost always the most superior in quality, whether you're talking games or movies -- and slap on a fresh coat of paint for a new generation to enjoy?

Ubisoft and Sierra are pulling out the fan service for two older titles, one of which is fairly recent, with the other going way, way back to 1989.

I speak of course about The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Prince of Persia Classic.

Slap that jump for more information...

Assault on Dark Athena is the upcoming, extended X360 remake of the highly-acclaimed The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Developer Starbreeze Studios is slapping on a fresh coat of paint, adding a developer's commentary audio track and adding a sort of epilogue chapter that was not included in the Xbox version of the game. Oh yes, and online multiplayer will be included as well.

Overall, I think this is sweet because I missed the boat on Butcher Bay and I've heard nothing but high praise for it. The original Xbox version is not due for a backwards-compat treatment either, so if we are to take this next-gen remake in lieu of that, I can only say: Why Not?

Going back further into our past, we have Ubisoft's reimagining of Jordan Mechner's classic platformer, Prince of Persia. Released in 1989 for the PC, this game pretty much took the 2D side-scrolling adventure game to whole new levels and influenced many games in the years since. The remake is being handled by cellphone games developer, Gameloft and as you can see from the above screenshot, it is looking stunning. Aside from the cosmetic update, Gameloft is pretty much leaving the level designs untouched, with a few welcome tweaks to the combat system to make those sword fights even more exciting. The game is due out on Xbox Live Arcade sometime this summer and will likely sell for 800 MS points.

I know it's still too early to tell how good prince of Persia Classic will be, but I'm just going to make a confession to Microsoft right now. I will gladly pay 800 MS points for ANY retro title you release, so long as it is updated lovingly to conform to today's higher production standards. Just pick a good classic (no Xevious garbage, please), hand it over to a competent developer, let them work their magic and slap the 800-point sticker price on the final product. Sold. Done.

On a similar note, I would love to see more next-gen remakes done of old games or games created by defunct studios. For example, I want someone to step up and do a X360 version of the first Deus Ex. Or how about some next-gen love for Thief or the original Half-Life? There's nostalgia to be mined and money to be made, people.

Of course, one could argue that remakes are a mark of laziness and even a lower form of cranking out sequels to cash in on a successful IP. I can sympathize with that perspective, if the remakes were done poorly or based on a truly crappy old game. I'm just talking about revitalizing a great, classic game and exposing it to a brand new audience. They would also be pleasing the veterans who experienced the greatness the first time around but want another taste.

As it stands, I'm looking forward to both the Riddick and Prince remakes very much. I hope they succeed and inspire more publishers to not simply reissue, but reimagine and enchance tried-and-true classic games of the past.

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Gamer Perversions: Manual Huffer

I've been slow to warm up to Destructoid's podcast, Podtoid for any number of reasons. I love the blog and most days appreciate its irreverent and caustic take on gaming. The podcast has been a little trickier to enjoy and much of it was based on the first episode I ever listened to. It was their first show following the Game Developers Conference this winter and the hosts were killing me with their in-joke ridden blather. Among the nearly 90 minutes of that episode, probably only 30 minutes of talk was related to gaming news. Talk about losing your focus!

The most recent Podtoid has been a lot more pleasant. The strong opinions, swearing, camaraderie and in-jokes were all there but I this time I actually had fun listening to it. I actually lawled at one point when the hosts went on another tangent and talked about huffing game manuals.

Oh my god, you don't know how much I relate to that. I used to sniff manuals to new games all the time. It was a ritual. I also agree with one of the Podtoid'ers about how manuals nowadays have been losing that special scent they all used to have.

Gamers and non-gamers alike may wonder what the attraction is to smelling the pages of a crisp, new game manual. I would justify it by comparing it to enjoying the smell of a new car or the comforting aroma of fresh, homemade bakery.

I'm curious if the Podtoid cast and I are the only manual huffers out there. Raise your hands out there if you do this too. You know who you are.

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Make Me Buy Your Mag

I was shopping for groceries the other day and did my usual shuffle past the magazine racks to oggle the men's magazine covers. I also took a gander at the gaming mags, picking up a shrink-wrapped copy of OXM to check out the content on their bonus disc.

It was then that I realized something. Gaming magazines are not trying hard enough to stay competitive in this world of blogs, game trailers, G4, podcasts and online news syndication.

Come, follow me across the jump and I will explain more...

The OXM is a decent magazine that I've purchased one issue of at the beginning of the year. It's a little skimpy on the pages but still shares a lot of good qualities with its sister publication, PC Gamer. Despite this, I've been getting the sense that the traditional magazines have been slow to adapt to the advances in new media an Web 2.0. This is a time when a single blogger can sift through the latest games news and post coverage on their own site mere minutes, if not seconds, after the news has broken. The end user, through the magic of hyperlinking and broadband, can read this article and immediately jump to additional support articles, rich media, such as a game play video posted on YouTube or watch a freshly posted developer interview on IGN or Gamespot.

My point is of course is that information spreads with incredible speed now. Furthermore, we as consumers of information have much more power to control what and how much we want to take in. Traditional magazines, stuck to their rigid one-month production cycles, are slowly getting phased out of relevance.

They do have an ace in the hole in the form of their pack-in bonus discs. Dating back about 10 years, these discs used to be a cool novelty for magazine to include in their issues. And what a valuable novelty they came to be. The commercial web was still growing up, so it was still hard to get hard information on new releases, let alone demos, videos and cute casual games. These bonus discs had all of these things in spades and were often wrapped in a very slick interface. Sadly, these discs have slipped drastically in quality and relevance over the years.

The disc that came with my first issue of OXM was decent. It certainly didn't contain anything that made me want to rush home and pop it into my Xbox. It did include premium downloadable content for Oblivion, which I didn't have in the first place, and a collection of demos to very mediocre games, including Superman Returns.

At the supermarket, holding up the latest issue of OXM, I was equally unimpressed with their bonus disc. Their feature demo was for Star Trek: Legacy, followed by trial versions of Xbox Live Arcade titles like Worms, Alien Hominid and a couple older releases. I blinked, looked over the content again and immediately shelved the magazine.

Who are they selling the magazine and the disc to? Am I being too harsh when I say you can't just slap any old content onto your disc... the same disc that doubles the price of your skimpy magazine. Granted, if the stats are to be believed, a good 50% of all X360 owners are not connected to Xbox Live. This increases the value of those old demos and Arcade trials for those poor souls who are a literally only getting half the fun out of their Boxes.

What about the rest of us who still enjoy their gaming news in hard copy form every so often? What about the rest of us Xboxers who actually have access to Live and want something we can't get on the Internet? How attractive is it for us to lay out $10 for a magazine that might have the odd exclusive on an upcoming game, pap on the remaining pages and a bonus disc full of old or uninteresting demos?

This slide in quality is one of the prime reasons why I'll buy a games magazine once every three to four months at best. Traditional publications need to take advantage of their strengths and push harder to keep and expand their readership.

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Shadowrun: Half a Game?

That Shadowrun is coming out for Windows Vista and Xbox 360 on May 29th is soooo last week's news is not lost upon me. Yet I soooo wanted to talk about what the world's first cross-platform FPS means for gaming.

It's not that Vista owners and 360 players will be able to compete with each other for the first time ever has me a'twitter. I'm actually more interested in exploring what constitutes a full, complete game in this age of arcade revivals, episodic content and expansion packs.

Specifically, Shadowrun is a strictly multiplayer game and will retail for full price - $60 to $100 depending on where you live. Why does this not bother me very much? Does it bother you? Is this an acceptable proposition in the years to come for our beloved hobby?

I attempt to answer my own questions after the jump.

So, Shadowrun is only going to support online multiplayer over Windows/Xbox Live. Are FASA and Microsoft Game Studios out of their freakin' minds?

Surprisingly, no, they are not.

After detractors tired of pre-hating the game for not staying true to the brand's roots as a pen-and-paper RPG by being a CRPG, the game attracted additional flak for not having a single-player mode. Xboxers without a net cable plugged in and a Gold subscription would be left out in the cold. They could perhaps enjoy the meager scraps of a few single-player training scenarios, if even that . The cynical-minded of us could speculate this is just a clever way for MS to shepherd more Silver players into becoming paying subscribers to Live or even as a foreboding sign of things to come in the industry. Let's face it: our games are getting prettier, but the content is shrinking and companies are taking less risks in a world where 30 million dollars, a staff of 100 and 3 years of development time can still result in a bomb that sells less than 100,000 copies. Developers are narrowing their focus, finding a niche and focusing their efforts on a few key areas of the game experience.

But does this grim reality of the games industry really matter to you and me? There we are, standing in the console aisle of our favourite retailer and we're considering shelling out full price for a game that has the content equivalent of the icing on the cake we used to have atop the single-player main course. It wasn't so long ago when multiplayer modes were almost like a luxury. Most gamers were still chugging about with their 56k modems. Net code was primitive at best and if you got a deathmatch game running smoothly, that was a reward enough.

It wasn't until the late '90s when a trio of PC first-person shooters set the precedent for multiplayer-exclusive gaming. Tribes (1998), by Dynamix, not only eschewed single-player options, it introduced jetpacks and operable vehicles for the first time in the genre. Both Unreal Tournament (1999) and Quake 3 (1999), by Epic and Id Software respectively, featured respectable single-player matches versus intelligent AI bots, but the real deal was testing your reflexes against human opponents in the online arena. Today all three of these games are hailed as modern classics and -- certainly in the case of Quake 3 -- are still being played by a hardcore community of gamers.

Whether Shadowrun joins the lofty ranks of these classic shooters still remains to be seen. I was very apathetic to this title when it was initially announced. Personally, I'll take a long, involving single-player campaign over addictive mutliplayer any day of the week. Call it the gradual numbing of media exposure or just the passing of time, but I've been slowly warming up to the possibility the game might actually be top quality... perhaps even as good as my beloved Unreal Tournament.

In addition, All the VIP bloggers and gaming press that got their hands on the Shadowrun beta have nothing but great things to say about it, so that is a very encouraging sign indeed. Ah, but the doubts persist. Only 3 modes of online play? Less than 10 maps on launch? My mind ponders how long it should take to develop a shooter like this. FASA devs keep harping on how they have fine-tuned the play balance to a razor's edge. The map count may be small, but each one offers layer upon layer of strategic depth and replayability.

Come May 29th, we will all get a chance to decide if this truly is a great game for the ages or merely half a game that costs a full chunk of change.

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Unfaithful Gamer

"A man is only as faithful as his options."

Such are the wise words uttered by Chris Rock during one of his classic stand-up comedy routines. He was of course referring to men's natural fidelity to women (or lack thereof). The spirit of the joke, however, applies just as easily to gaming. Now before you think this post is going to be a tell-all confessional of all my techno-fetishist deviancies, let me assure you it's not nearlythat kinky.

I'll elucidate you with more of my verbage after the jump.

We live in a multi-platform age, this much is true. I'm willing to bet 99% of all Xbox 360 owners have at least one other game console plugged in to their home entertainment system or a PC in the house with The Sims or World of Warcraft installed on the drive.

I have a PC in my room that I used for gaming up until I bought my 360 last December. Then it was aaalll about the console gaming for 4 straight months. Play With My Box was born and I thought the 360 would be my main squeeze until the 720 is announced in 2010. That prediction turned out to be fabulously unrealistic. If you haven't yet noticed, X360 owners are in a new release drought at the moment, with the sole big releases this month being C&C 3 and the Halo 3 beta. Not to say that isn't keeping with the general retail pattern with game consoles, when the spring and summer months are typically very dry and the deluge of blockbuster hits all pour out in the two months leading up to Christmas.

The games industry REALLY should adopt the Hollywood model of releasing over-budget blockbusters during the summer and rushing out the serious, high falutin "Oscar bait" just prior to Christmas. Sadly, the typical summer drought of game releases is probably based on hard, empirical retailing statistics, as hard to believe as that is. I mean, gamers are gamers, and we are going to buy and play games year-round if there's good stuff to be had.

But I digress slightly. The point of all this is to say I have been "stepping out" on my 360. That's right. My PC has lured me back into its warm embrace for the past couple of weeks. It all started with the innocent downloading of the Puzzle Quest demo. The turn-based fantasy trappings of that game lead to my purchase of Disciples 2 Gold over Steam, in blatant disregard to rumours of credit card information hacking I might add. The snowballing cullminated to my long overdue return to the world's greatest "free" MMO, Guild Wars.

Much like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars is an addictive, crack-like substance that sucks you in hard and keeps you up way to0 late, way too often. Only this past weekend have I returned to my neglected wife Xbox and humoured her with joyless rounds of M:UA, Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas. It's all a bit discombobulating and even a little dirty, but I've always been a single-platform gamer. Juggling the PC and Xbox 360 is a naughty business that I'm only just getting used to.

But don't judge me. When was the last time YOU snuck away from your main gaming platform to get some side action?

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The Simpsons Does Warcraft: Semi-Relevant

So I'm feasting on my delicious szechuan chicken with dry spinach tonight and up comes The Simpsons on the trusty idiot box. I've always loved this show but my viewing has dropped off a lot in the last several years. The writing doesn't snap like it used to during the "golden era" of the series and the frenetic pacing has long disappeared.

Occasionally a timely topic will crop up in an episode that keeps the show somewhat relevant. It didn't happen tonight. Tonight's show started off with Marge finally joining the digital age by getting herself an e-mail account. This quickly spirals off into Marge's computer addiction and her discovery of a WoW-like MMORPG. Yes, well sorry to say, but didn't South Park do this several months ago and do it much better?

The accompanying plot line involving Lisa joining a soccer team was much funnier and made me wish they put more attention on that instead.

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Stealth... Or Trial & Error?

It's a glorious start to another glorious week here at PMB. Nothing like some sunshine to take the sting off the innate shitty-ness that is a Monday morning...

What did you all play over the weekend? My games du jour were Castlevania: SOTN (yes, I'm finally warming up to it) and last week's bargain highlight, Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

SCDA is a stealth-shooter game and one tough mofo. It represents a slight departure in the prolific Splinter Cell series, improving in some ways but also staying rigidly true to the series formula... much to their detriment, I should add. It got me thinking about the qualities that make a great stealth game. SCDA captures some of these things and really drops the ball on the others. Read on for my psuedo-intellectual spiel...

It's been a few years since I played the original Splinter Cell and even longer since I experienced the masters of modern "sneakers", Thief (1 & 2). As different in tone and style as the Thief games are from Splinter Cell, I couldn't help but feel that Ubisoft, with now 4 games into their SC franchise, has NOT played enough Thief. They need to seriously study that game to learn what a true stealth action game is all about.

My #1 complaint with the original Splinter Cell was that it was too linear and forced players to "solve" the missions like a puzzle, instead of as a dynamic, espionage situation. You had to go one way, do a certain sequence of things and do it within a certain amount of time. None of that is bad in of itself, but Splinter Cell made you feel like you were being forced down a magic solution-path and did not reward creative approaches to mission objectives. Roughly 4 years later, I'd expected the SC developers to have brought in some "next-gen" game mechanics for Double Agent for the 360. Let's just say I was very disappointed.

Let's forget for a moment the few new wrinkles that have been added to SCDA. Spying for both the NSA and the terrorists is a very cool idea, as you need to balance your objectives and retain enough trust from both factions. What isn't cool with the game so far are the smaller levels and an even stricter adherence to linearity than ever before. It sometimes feels like a classic adventure game making the awkward transition into the stealth genre, what with the inclusion of mini-games for everything (lockpicking, safe-cracking, hacking...even pulling a goddamn parachute string) and the very contained nature of the maps. The game has been feeling like a string of "stealth vignettes". I'm following that "one right path" again and after progressing through each locked door, I'm presented with yet another puzzle that needs to be solved in a prescribed manner before I can move on. One wrong move, and half your secondary objectives could be blown. The missions become a grind of trial & error, saving and reloading.

Granted, the game is still fun and compelling to play. The artificial challenge makes me want to complete the missions almost in spite. This is simply the wrong way to make a stealth game. The more I play Double Agent the more I realize how well Looking Glass Studios nailed (and defined) the stealth genre back in 1998 with their Thief games. Those classics rewarded exploration, good reconnaissance, timely and skillful use of your tools and allowed you to approach you objectives from various angles. You can give Sam Fisher all the do-hickeys and fancy moves you like: he still can't touch Garrett in terms of pure elegance and efficiency.

The Splinter Cell games are still top quality despite all of my complaints. The graphics are excellent, the moves are cool and it really does make me feel like a super spy. The series just needs to evolve and utilize better AI and level design, or it could easily devolve into a thinly disguised puzzle-adventure game rather than the nail-biting stealth thriller it was meant to be.

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PC Gaming Dies Again: Part 2

Last week I put on my pink Pundit Cap (I have a yellow one too!)and discussed the current state (and possible future of) PC gaming. I concluded that the PC games industry will remain the resilient industry that it is, supported by innovative studios, indie developers, a dedicated hardcore audience and a growing mainstream market. The PC has fallen on rough times before but it has always remained the stalwart gaming platform for savvy gamer.

In terms of revenue potential and exposure, however, I'm afraid the consoles still have the upper hand on personal computers. As always, I have a little anecdote that (hopefully) illustrates this reality. Hit the jump for the full goods!

I have been a staunch supporter of PC gaming for years, reveling in the broad variety and innovation that seemed to thrive in the industry during the '80s and '90s. Ironically, I have never owned a cutting-edge gaming rig, always lagging behind the curve by a good two or three years. Despite my hardware deficiencies, there was never a shortage of worthy games to play. When a system-crunching blockbuster came knocking on my door, I only needed a minor upgrade and a few config file tweaks to get up to speed on the latest & greatest.

I'm older now with a lot more money to back my gaming habits, yet on the flip side, I have less time and less patience to deal with all the fringe activities related to PC gaming. Things like installing patches, upgrading hardware and optimizing performance settings are all things that I used to endure as my means to enjoying the best in electronic entertainment. Back in college, I didn't mind troubleshooting my Voodoo video cards or installing a new set of RAM into my aging rig. Nowadays, I can't be bothered. I'm always working out the time/effort ratio of fussing over my PC just so I can play a new game. These days, I just want to plug and play.

I was at an impasse prior to buying my Xbox 360. My current PC was still capable of playing recent titles but it was fast becoming a dinosaur in the face of quad-core processors and physics-processing cards. I knew I could throw wad of cash into upgrades or even a wholesale system replacement but the sensible part of my brain resisted.

"Whoa there, Mac. The computer you have now does everything you really need it to do. You can do your design work, surf the web, get your e-mail and download your pr0n. And now you're considering dropping more than a grand on upgrades just to play the newest games for the next year?"

Ten years ago, that sensible part of my brain would be have smacked down by my gamer's passion. Today, I admit defeat and take the path of least resistance.

In the end, I just want to sit down and get lost inside a great game. Each successive generation of game consoles have brought them closer and closer to the sophistication of PCs, yet still maintaining that ease of use that appeals to not only the "mainstream", but lazy old dogs like me.

Eventually, I will upgrade my PC to keep pace with the next phase of game releases. After all, I will need to play Spore the moment it hits store shelves, whenever the hell that may be. For now, I feel like I've picked a winning horse in the Xbox 360 and plan to use it as my main gaming system for a long time to come.

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Perfect Dark Zero: How to Make a Good FPS

I'm baaaaaack... My arms are feeling much better, thank you for asking. Umm... good posture FTW!!!1

My 360 talks about me, and if she was perfectly candid, she would have reported something like:

Maclintok wasted a couple of hours last week playing Perfect Dark Zero. Has my owner gone completely mad? What the Dickens was he thinking?? Does he enjoy reveling in mediocrity? I'm going to give him the Ring of Death. That'll learn'im...

Imagine that, my 360Voice shaming me for not only failing to spend time on my Xbox, but also for playing lousy games.

OK, to be fair, PDZ is not a total failure. The game, with its litany of wasted potential and basic crimes against design, simply highlights the foundations of what makes a good first-person shooter. I speak on this not as any sort of authority of course. I am merely a gaming vet who has followed the 3D shooter genre since its inception, beginning with decidedly non-3D classics like Wolfenstein 3D and D00M, all the way up to modern-day titles like Half-Life, Halo and Rainbow Six: Vegas. So while I don't claim to be an expert on shooters, for the sake of this article, I am. Fair? Fair.

Here now, are some helpful pointers for you budding (and experienced) game designers who want to create an FPS that doesn't suck:

• Feeling, feeling, feeling: Much like the rule of thumb for opening a retail business is location, location, location, the feel of a shooter is often times the critical factor that separates the men from the boys. Your FPS has got to feel right. This is mainly the tactile component of the user interface but it also includes the little things like the HUD layout, weapon animations, weapons sounds and the sound of your avatar's footfalls. Every little thing counts and can make or break the experience. Since Perfect Dark Zero is my whipping boy today, I'll prop it up as an object lesson. This game gets the feeling all wrong. The viewing angle feels too close and claustrophobic (also an issue with level design); the diving and cover controls are atrocious; the crosshair is ugly and difficult to aim; Joanna Dark feels like she's gliding instead of running; even the footfall sound effects are erratic and unconvincing.
  
  
• Don't have your FPS be a Jack-of-all-Trades, unless you're Warren Spector: There's a reason why most games are either purely stealth based, tactics-based or all-out action. Having a singular style of gameplay gives your game focus and is much easier to do than mixing and matching opposing design elements. PDZ tries to incorporate stealth and "espionage" play mechanics into what is essentially a linear shooter and it is all done quite poorly. After playing games like Thief and Splinter Cell, there is no excuse for anyone to endure half-baked stealth gameplay. Nice try, Rare, but no cigar. Actually, bad try, and no cigar.
  
  
• Story isn't everything, but it still matters: Let's be perfectly honest here and state for the record that most FPS storylines are utter crap. It's commendable when developers layer on intricate background mythology or complicated plotlines for their games, but all they really need is a pretense/justification to wander around a industrial-military setting and shoot aliens in the face. I think so long as the writers can keep the story simple and create characters you can relate to in some way, that's enough to propel the player forward and get them involved in your game world. Shall we beat up on Perfect Dark Zero again? Sounds good to me. The PDZ "story" is nonsensical garbage, made worse by sub-par voice acting and budget-looking cutscenes. As a player who needs to feel involved on a basic emotional level to stay interested in an entire solo campaign, everything in PDZ is skippable. Voice briefings? Don't care. Dramatic cutscenes featuring stiff animations and shoe-string voice talent? Get it over with already.
  
  Game stories have a long way to go before they are even considered fit to sit in the "young adults" shelf in the booksktore. Great games like the recent Tom Clancy titles have shoddy, cliche-ridden storylines as well but at least they compensate with fantastic game play. There's just enough plot to keep me going and it doesn't ever get in the way of the flow of the game.

FPS's are easily my favourite genres of video games. I could go on & on about the ingredients that make an addictive shooter. And I probably will. But I don't feel like stomping on Perfect Dark Zero anymore today. Hell, I bought this game and I still want to get through the game and enjoy it. It's just that every time I play it, it reminds me how important it is to not screw up the fundamental principles of FPS design.

Have a good weekend everybody! Hug your Xbox.

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PC Gaming Dies Again: Part 1

Are the days of gaming on the PC numbered? That's the perennial question put forth by Jimzzor on the You NEWB blog.

This is a huge, complex subject rife with fanboy bias, armchair speculation and gross exaggerations. I'd like to tackle it from a broader perspective of the overall games industry before commenting on it from a more personal standpoint. Come, let's peer into our smudged crystal ball...

Remember that awful buzzword, convergence? Yeah, I cringed a little too. Buzzwords can die a slow, painful death for all I care, but this one applies to the current state of game consoles versus PCs more than ever. With each successive generation of consoles, the technological divide between them and your typical gaming PC narrows. Microsoft is spearheading their Games for Windows program to close the gap even further offering, among other things, the promise of cross-platform play experience between computer and console gamers.

So what lies ahead for PC gaming? Will the platform eventually be absorbed into the console world or maybe vice-versa? Games for Windows appears to be Microsoft's best attempt to bring console-like features to the PC games experience: ease of use, plug & play, standardized packaging and... Windows LIVE. Whether PC users will warm up to these new initiatives is still up in the air, but the outcome will have profound effects on the evolution of the games industry.

As development costs for B- or even C-list titles continue to climb, more developers are looking to release their product on multiple platforms to ensure profits for their years of hard work. And while piracy is a problem for all forms of electronic media, nowhere is it more rampant than on the "open-system" PC. How do publishers and game studios recoup the costs on their multi-million dollar titles? MMO juggernaught, World of Warcraft has established the model for a successful online game, never mind single-handedly propping up the PC as a viable gaming platform. But surely not even this game, 8 million subscribers strong, can keep PC gaming alive through the next generation and beyond. What will it take to ensure survival?

Survival is a non-issue. The way I see it, computer games have long been the domain of the hardcore and a breeding ground for the newest innovations. Developers with innovative, ground-breaking ideas thrive in the PC market, a market that is bereft of prohibitive licensing fees and a comparatively mainstream mindset on what constitutes a successful, profitable game. Although programs like XNA and Live Arcade are bringing that "indie" spirit to the console stage, it's still a far cry from the unregulated world of modders, open-source applications and bleeding-edge hardware you can only get with the PCs. THIS is what always has and will continue to set the PC apart from its console brethren. It's the grassroots, DIY-spirit of computers that will always keep them around as a perfectly valid option to gamers. Not to mention that small, yet passionate set of consumer who will always demand the best hardware to drive the latest technological marvels. Crysis anyone?

Hey, it can't just be the "1337" hardcore gamers sticking with the PC. I mean, look around you. Look at your friends. Your buddy, he just waited in line at an obscenely early hour this morning to snag a Wii, yet he still compulsively logs on to WoW to level up his second Blood Elf. Your other friend, he still plays hours of Battlefield 2 and Counter-strike (Source version... blasphemous!), but every so often he'll fire up his 360 to pull off crazy car stunts in Crackdown. To them and to a growing segment of the gaming-buying population, the issue of console and PC games is not an either-or proposition.

The question of whether PC gaming is dead or alive is practically the wrong question to begin with. Gaming continues to move into the mainstream and the average consumer is getting more savvy and accepting of games, regardless of platform. Unless the PC goes the way of the dodo bird for its myriad of other uses like, accounting, design, commerce, Internet, word processing, etc. etc., people are unlikely to stop using it to just goof off.

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Angry Gamer Confessional/Help Guide

Destructoid is an awesome gaming blog. I like to think of it as the red-haired stepbrother to elder siblings, Kotaku and Joystiq. While I will often find echoes of the same stories on the "Big Two" blogs, Destructoid dares to offer articles more off the beaten path.

They published an article about Angry Gamers before the weekend which I found relevant, timely and hitting a little too close to home. Frankly, I can relate and I'm none to proud to admit it. I haven't gone as far as punching holes in my wall over a game, but I have a couple broken keyboards and cracked SNES controllers to offer up as proof to my legacy of gaming rage.

I've chilled out in my older age, but you'll still find me muttering to myself or clenching my jaws when I'm being particularly vexed by a video game. Case in point: Crackdown.

First thing's first: I love this game. I've been hopelessly cracked out since last Tuesday's release and have not been able to look at my previous favourites, Gears of War and Vegas quite the same way. As good as it's been, however, Crackdown has reacquainted me with the demon within over the weekend. The game, at its heart, is a platformer and I have a history of frustration with these type of games, as do many other people I'm sure. Missing platforms and falling to your death are par for the course in your typical platformer. My Agent, while hardy enough to survive most falls, is just this much short of perfection when it comes to overall play control. It's so frustrating to be merrily hopping on rooftops and suddenly lose footing and fall several stories below. Sometimes it's not terribly convenient to climb all the way back up. Factor in massive crossfire from enemies, randomly placed propane tanks and the tactical disadvantage of not having the higher ground and repeated falling mishaps become quite maddening.

It's even worse when I've made some effort to climb up to a certain peak and fall back to ground level only because I was trying to avoid a grenade or do a nifty jump shot on someone. The oilrig battle with the Volk kingpin is a good example of this. Man, that was a grueling fight. Sure, it earned me some nice achievements but I was ready to dash my controller against the wall with all my falling, getting back up, falling, getting back up...

So it's a strange paradox with Crackdown. I've been so addicted to it yet I can't remember being so compelled to swear at my TV or break something simply because I made a mistake. Repeating to myself that it's just game does little to quell the rage. So yes, I would say that I am indeed an Angry Gamer.

Well, the first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem! (sigh)

Read the Angry Gamer story on Destructoid

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