Pagoda of Gaming

OnLive is, well, the future. Probably just part of it, but a big part.

My cliffnotes: It streams games to your tv. But only the video streams. The only actual data that you recieve is a live 720p video stream. And basically the only thing you’re sending back is your WASD’s and mouse waggles. Watch the intro video at the link, and you will be amazed.

There’s some other neat features in there too, recordable clips, spectating absolutely everything on the service, and your usual XBL affair. Then there’s also the neatness of having it eaisily hooked up to your TV via a virtually free set-top box or just through your PC.

But it gets really interesting if you use your imagination. Imagine 10 years from now when the only hardware you need is a TV, and a preffered control method.

Furthermore, the service that you sign up to might only provide the “dashboard” of your invisible console. To get access to a game all you would need would be an access key of somekind, like a torrent file, and off you go. payed either through subscription or a paypal’d transaction.

The big three would stop being console manufacturers and start being fully fledged publishers. And start focusing on making games for a fucking change.

Imagine MMO’s without client software. You would never need to download a patch again because you never download anything to begin with.

There is an inherant singular problem. My, and your, connection speed. The service needs a pure 8 meg connection to work as well as the £2000 gaming PC you wish you had. But when these kind of services become the norm, I think we should have the bandwidth.

My favourite peice of video to emmerge during the time of GDC 09 goes to this Batman: Arkham Asylum gameplay/developer walkthrough footage. It made me a believer - I cannot freaking wait for this. (yes, I know I broke the html)

Fallout 3 picked up a couple of awards at the GDC Awards (only voted on by actual developers) for Best Writing and Game of the Year. LittleBigPlanet took virtually everything else. And as usual, Kotaku wrote it, so I don’t have to.

Petey said that there’s definitely going to be more Fable 2 DLC, which makes me a very happy Albionion.

The world gasped in excitement and then sighed in dissapointment as Infinity Ward released the first trailer for Modern Warfare 2 (as I will henceforth call it). It’s not really worth watching - lots of green lines and sounds and…green lines. But atleast we know for reals that the game exists.

Crytek showed their new engine - the important news, it’s a more polished version of the Crysis engine with added proper console support.

Then there was my favourite announcement.

If you want to see more of GDC - more than my internet-observed ramblings - Then check out the latest awesome episode of Area 5’s Co-op, no string of adjectives can describe the awesome.

In other news, I bought alot of stuff in Aberdul on saturday. I got Layton and must’ve spent £70-odd on Comics. I also dinged 25000 gamerscore, thanks to completing Fallout 3’s second DLC Chunk, the pitt.

There’s also a new Podcast out there that’s slightly more relevant than usual - in a nutshell, it’s Dundee gamer dudes talking gamer stuff. Gamepocalypse. Wingums put me onto it, because he is on it. Honetly, I was totally surprised - to this day I can’t get the motherfucker to listen to a podcast.

Kingdom falls this night

I’ve been losing the path to setting goals for my weekends - and when I do, it makes me feel alot more engaged with my short time off. So this weekend.

GOAL #1 - Go To Aberdull (includes ‘buy comics’ and ’see watchmen again’ and ‘aim to get a kebab because they are awesome tasty’)
GOAL #2 - Complete Fallout 3 DLC #2 “The Pitt”
GOAL #3 - Get to the end of Bully’s third chapter

Since my internet connection returned to me, in it’s fullest form - that of 8mbps, I went last night and returned my consoles to their position - of being chock full of new content all the time. Last night I played some Killzone 2 before 11pm, downloaded a bunch of stuff from XBL (fallout DLC included and some demos). I want to get through the pitt before the end of the weekend, so that when next weekend rolls round (the start of my first work holiday) I won’t be left with anything that I’ve missed, so I can go to edinburgh with my laptop and DS for gaming sustenance.

Bully, was rediscovered last night also, is the topic of the new series of REBEL FM’s gameclub. Basically they play through sections of a game and congregate every couple of chapters/levels and podcast about it with the spoiler tags off. I figured this is the perfect time to sit the fuck down and get this game done. I grabbed my old save and played up to the end of chapter 2 last night, so I’ll have chapter 3 to do before the next ‘cast is released. LINKY.

There will be a post this weekend - post GDC observations. Feature post will be next week. I let the Nintendo rage take all the writer out of me for this week.

wait, wait, waaayyeeeait you motherfucker

The metaphor I posted the other day: “Our console war is now dealing with an insurgency”, wasn’t supposed to be used for another couple of days, but as I tweeted earlier on, I found something that made me rage to the depths of my Player 1. THIS. Go and take a look. Let’s look at this heresy together.

So… NO. Never. Nuh-Uhn. It’s time to dust-off the old anti Wii ammo.

One - Bioshock relies on it’s graphical intensity to deliver it’s emotions - this is true of many other current generation games - The Wii cannot deliver a beautiful cinematic experience. It’s a little shallow, but that’s the damn truth.

Two - The Wiimote doesn’t deliver precision. A mouse works so well because it has an anchor, the same can be said for a classical analogue stick, somewhat. What it does deliver is a sore fucking arm and unreliable waggleness. This prevents it from ever being competative. This applies to every game in this list. When people are seeking out Gamecube controllers to play their games with accuracy; you know you’ve got a problem.

Three - I don’t think Nintendo would like a Little Girl Harvesting Sim on their box.

Four - The only, only, way you’d get Resi 5 on the Wii was if it suffered the “Chop til You Drop Effect” - severe reduction in graphical quality, reduction in digital square footage of play area and less on-screen enemies. You’d lose in-engine cut-scenes, sound quality, and an overall feel compared to the original.

Five - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HALO ON Wii.

Six - Microsoft would never licence Halo for anything that wasn’t personal encased in carbonite by them. If it were on Wii, you would lose all the functionality that makes the online matchmaking work, because the Wii was never and will never be built to function as a proper online enabled console. Ninty are too scared of fucking pedophiles to care enough to invest in a true online community or allow a player to have a true, fleshed out, identity within those communities.

Seven - There’s only two reasons I ever played Oblivion on the 360, because the 360 had shit all out in those early post launch months, and because I could play it on a TV and not my (at the time) shitty PC. Bethesda made their mainstream name with Oblivion because they chose to do an amazing port of the game onto systems that have similar powers, but you know when you play it that it was a PC title, you can see the consoles chug along just trying to run the game. Any open world game suffers on the Wii, because as soon as development starts it instantly narrows the scope of the game as fast as it does the draw distance.

Nintendo is doing something right and something wrong at the same time. It’s Iraq - It’s trying to build for the future, it’s trying to deal with insurgency, it’s full of religious zealots and it’s got exploitable oil by the desertloads.

Wii Fit is the oil, Wii Sports is the oil. The million selling titles that no self-professed hardcore gamer should admit liking. It’s dirty oil - but that doesn’t stop Microsoft and Sony wanting a peice of the pie. They don’t really need the Oil, but they want it because it’s power. It’s goddamn greed.

The Nintendo Fanboy is the Hardcorest kind of Zealot you’ll find in the business - Shiggsy is their prophet. But they live in a fucking desertbowl. Drip-fed titles that are slowly swaying off the path of fond memories. The Insurgent collective - Soccer Moms, Newscasters and Celebrities - Are there not becase they care about gaming, but because they want what’s trendy. Ninty pulled an Apple and made ‘gaming’ cool and attractive to the masses, just as apple did with laptops and MP3 players. It’s as if they’re there simply for the war and glory.

But then there’s the DS. The sining light - some of the time. Compared to the Wii it’s drastically simple, it’s a twisted take on proven technologies, tightly designed and above all, it’s supremly charming.

When the DS isn’t being shoveled ware like there’s no tomorrow, it’s an amazing thing to behold. This week, my game boner has been ragingly stoked by Chinatown Wars. It’s the perfect example of how to tackle a Ninty console. You build for the gamer not the child, you don’t get blinded by the rediculously huge install-base and stop development halfway through because you’ll make your millions regardless. You don’t rape your audience in the face with the gimmic - because then it’s only a gimmic if you do.

I find it hilariously ironic that when the heads of Nintendo stood before up at E3 all those years ago and claimed that a console without change, without redefinition, would die a horrible death on it’s third iteration. But yet they continue Reshovel old titles, prey on franchises like they were battery-hens and keep a very old plumer from his retirement.

The gaming world, you and I, deserve more from nintendo, or if they choose, nothing at all. If they know what they’ve done to their name they should just come out and say “hey, we’re killing our old franchises for good and we’re going to make games for MILFS - permenantly”. But they shouldn’t. They should commit to making more titles like Layton - that they published, that is based on an original IP, and received 5-star reviews. This April, I want to buy a DSi, but not for Reggie, ‘Moto or Iwata. I buy it for the Rockstars of the world, so they can bring out amazing games and I can be the luckiest gamer in the world and be the one to play them.

But hey, they might die like Sega. Part of me wants them to.

so keep your ass out the minibar

This is seriously the best news I’ve heard in a LOOONNG time. I need Screenshots, I need Trailers, I need a freaking expensive collectors edition for me to buy. Winter 2009. PS3, PC and 360. I will be buying for Multiple Platforms. GDC is this week, so we might get to see something.

Full story over on Kotaku

This should be a great week for gaming news.

Open a window and a breese blows in and I

I don’t try to pretend that my little hovel of the internet is real, and I know that based on statistics that there are few, few visitors to the site. Of late I’ve been feeling that I should be doing more.

My current living situation leads me to dream of a day that I eat, sleep and breathe gaming and somehow that pays all my bills - those dreams, most of the time revolve around writing: because I know I’m totally shit at everthing else. My dreams are meant to stay dreams, and this site is the toy that helps the dreams atleast stay within my thought.

Real websites run features, they get clicks and they go beyond daily news, be it reviews, podcasts or analysis of NPD numbers. So I’d like to run some features. I already do reviews - Tycho Style - picking apart specific parts of a title, instead of the overall, and running them within the usual, daily, bloggery.

So this week, I will try my darnest to give to you (though if you’re down with the context yet, give to myself) the first proper feature I’ve thought could actually work.

I play in an endless cycle of shifting platforms, and when I do get out and about I see alot of people that for a multitude of reasons stick to one platform, I’d like to be a dick and show them what their missing. “Nin’s Defining Quintet - X-Box 360″ will focus on what I feel are the 5 best games that define the X-Box 360 and what they mean to gaming as a whole.

Why bother with an introduction? Well then there would be a commitment, and I’d maybe actually do it. And also, it’s handy ‘anti-troll’ collateral. I’d better get researching.

I’ll leave you with a phrase that came to my mind during an episode of Gilmore Girls I watched today, and I’ll maybe elaborate on it later:
Our console war is now dealing with an insurgency.