Tag Archives | Gaming

Earth to Chicago: Gaming’s “M” is Movies’ “R”

Posted by Jared Newman on July 23, 2009 at 7:37 pm

gtaivThere’s a storm brewing in the Windy City over the allegedly unconstitutional treatment of video game ads, with an industry trade group suing Chicago’s transit authority.

This turn of events stems from Grand Theft Auto IV. Last year, a rash of shootings led the Chicago Transit Authority to pull GTAIV bus ads, after a local Fox News report drew a tenuous link between the ads and the incidents. GTA Publisher Take-Two Interactive claimed breach of contract, and the transit authority reinstated the ads, but later banned all advertisements for M-rated games. It’s important to note that R-rated movie ads are still allowed.

That brings us to the Entertainment Software Association’s free speech lawsuit, and a question posed by the Christian Science Monitor: “Are ‘mature’ video games worse than rated-R movies?”

No. Let’s put the “games are worse because they’re interactive” argument aside for a moment and look at the ratings themselves. Here’s what the Motion Picture Association of America says about R-rated films:

An R-rated motion picture may include adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements, so that parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously.

Now, here’s the Entertainment Software Ratings Board on the M rating:

Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

Looks pretty similar to me, especially the phrase “intense violence” in both descriptors. If the ratings themselves are so similar, the point of contention will surely be interactivity. But as courts have repeatedly found, it isn’t proven that violent video games cause violence because you play them, while movies don’t because you watch them.

Whether you like violent video games or not, their first-amendment protections should be a no-brainer to anyone who’s even dimly aware of past laws and lawsuits. I can’t see how the Chicago Transit Authority will emerge the victor in this case.

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Xbox Sells Costlier Game Downloads. Why Can’t the App Store?

Posted by Jared Newman on July 22, 2009 at 6:17 pm

braidtimXbox Live Arcade is no longer a purveyor of quick-hit, $5 video game downloads, but a place where $15 games are beginning to thrive.

That’s what Kotaku found after looking at the cost of downloadable Xbox 360 games, from the console’s launch in 2005 up to last month. The average cost of video game downloads has climbed, especially in the last two years, but the reason is a shift in how many of these games cost $10, $15 or even $20 for a purely electronic copy. The tell-all chart, compiled by Stephen Totilo and Andrew Freedman, is located here.

The rise in prices on Xbox Live Arcade isn’t a bad thing. It means the kinds of available games are richer experiences, coming closer to what you’d get from a boxed title. Braid, an indie game priced at $15, is the perfect example. Same goes for the recently released Sam & Max Save the World ($20) and upcoming Shadow Complex (likely to cost at least $20).

Digesting this, my mind jumped to the iPhone’s App Store, whose free market is a mixture of zero-dollar “Lite” games, $10 offerings from major publishers and everything in between. A recent report by Pocket Gamer found that the average price of top 10 titles is $1.89, while top 100 games average $3.80. So I wonder: Will App Store games get better, causing a surge in prices?

Before I go on, let me acknowledge that I’m totally comparing apples (har har) and oranges. Not only are the two data sets different, but the gaming platforms don’t necessarily lend themselves to the same demographics or same style of play. But my point isn’t to make a direct comparison between two non-competitive marketplaces.

What interests me is how Xbox Live Arcade is cleverly evolving into a place for high-quality game downloads, while the App Store is not. Pocket Gamer notes that the most successful $10 iPhone games are big-name franchises, such as Doom: Resurrection and The Sims 3, but those are just dumbed down versions of their computer counterparts, and even they’re undermined by the amount of inexpensive and simple games available. Meanwhile, Xbox Live Arcade is bringing in entirely new games while phasing out the cheap stuff.

The difference, of course, is that Microsoft takes on a greater role in regulating its market. I’m not saying Apple should do the same, but when it comes time to spend $15 on a downloadable game, I know which market will get my money.

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The Xbox 360’s 3-Disc Dilemma

Posted by Jared Newman on July 21, 2009 at 5:50 pm

doom3Sony likes to boast that it’s selling “future technology” in the Playstation 3, but let’s be honest, most games hardly show it.

An exception could come from Doom 4, a distant release that will apparently take full advantage of the PS3’s Blu-ray discs. In a Game Informer interview (via VG247), id Software’s John Carmack said the game will “almost certainly” be split into three DVDs for the Xbox 360, while the PS3 version will only require one Blu-ray disc.

This, I think, is more important than any advantage you might see in graphics. Give me a big-screen HDTV, and I’ll generally be pretty happy no matter which console you put in front of me. Making me get up after a cliffhanger moment to swap out discs — twice — is a different story.

The Xbox 360’s inability to store everything on one disc poses other challenges if games begin demanding more storage space. Carmack said another upcoming id game, a racing and shooting adventure called Rage, will need two discs for the Xbox 360 version, but still just one for Blu-ray. It would’ve been easier to split Rage in thirds for the Xbox 360 version, Carmack said, but the game is designed around two major wastelands, so three discs wouldn’t work as well.

Now, think about non-linear games, such as Grand Theft Auto. I can’t say it would be impossible to split this kind of adventure into several discs, but it could be problematic unless each disc contained the entire game world.

On the flip side, Carmack said programming for the PS3 required much more “sweat equity” than the Xbox 360, despite its lack of size constraints. But if game developers someday embrace the roominess afforded by the PS3’s Blu-ray discs, Microsoft will find itself at a real technical disadvantage.

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Forty Years of Lunar Lander

Posted by Benj Edwards on July 19, 2009 at 11:54 pm

Lunar Lander

Lunar Lander games abound on every platform. Along with Tetris and Pac-Man, the game–in which your mission is to safely maneuver your lunar module onto the moon’s surface–is one of the most widely cloned computer games of all time. But did you know that game players began touching down on the moon in Lunar Lander just months after Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did so on July 20th, 1969?

lunarlander_tinyToday’s versions of Lunar Lander are easily taken for granted; they’re generally regarded as dinky games you can get for free–“Who would pay for that?”

But the mother of all realistic space simulations wasn’t always perceived that way. In 1969, it was, in its own way, a sophisticated, ambitious piece of digital entertainment. And during the BASIC era of the 1970s and 80s, many programmers cut their teeth by attempting to program their own version of Lunar Lander. David Ahl, founder of Creative Computing magazine, called it “by far and away the single most popular computer game” in 1978 (and he was only talking about the text version!). Indeed, Lunar Lander was one of the early computer games that helped define computer games.

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Games Industry Suffers From Recession, Finally

Posted by Jared Newman on July 16, 2009 at 5:34 pm

fightnight4After a few months of lagging sales, market researcher NPD Group is finally saying the recession caught up with the video games industry. All it took was for gaming to suffer its biggest year-over-year sales drop in 9 years.

Total industry sales in North America were down 31 percent in June, compared to the same month in 2008.  Hardware took the biggest hit, with a 38 percent drop in sales, and software fell 29 percent. Accessories fared the best, but still saw a 22 percent decline, according to GameDaily.

June is not the first recent month that the industry was in decline. Video game sales have fallen year-over-year for the last three months in a row. Still, NPD avoided chalking this up to the recession. After all, last year was particularly strong, with the fast-selling Wii Fit and blockbuster games such as Mario Kart Wii and Grand Theft Auto IV doing well in the spring. Plus, the three current generation consoles were fresher a year ago, and no company has cut prices since then.

But now, NPD analyst Anita Frazier is finally blaming the economy. “This is one of the first months where I think the impact of the economy is clearly reflected in the sales numbers,” she told GameDaily. Sales haven’t plummeted this drastically since September 2000, when there was a 41 percent industry decline.

Why pull the recession card now? To paraphrase Frazier, it’s a combination of weak line-ups, stagnant console price points and a lack of must-have games, combined with consumers’ unwillingness to spend more until things change. In other words, you can’t expect people to pay the same money for lacklustre products just because they’re video games. To put it one more way, the video game industry is not recession proof; it was just piggybacking on the strength of the Wii and a few blockbusters, so let’s please let that label die once and for all.

Frazier isn’t throwing all her optimism out the window. There’s a chance, she said, that a strong second-half could bring total 2009 game sales on par or slightly above last year’s numbers. Game makers aren’t fully cooperating, though, as Take-Two delayed the much-anticipated Bioshock 2 in hopes of reaping better sales during FY2010. Heavy Rain, a Playstation 3 exclusive that’s getting some attention, was also put off until next year.

To save 2009, the games industry needs Wii Fit Plus to spur more sales of the Wii Balance Board, it needs Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST to sell like true holiday blockbusters, and it needs people to splurge on high-cost peripherals such as the band kit for The Beatles: Rock Band.

Holiday price cuts for the three major consoles couldn’t hurt, either.

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Ridiculous: Premium Game Includes Night Vision Goggles

Posted by Jared Newman on July 14, 2009 at 6:57 pm

callofdutyprestigescreenIf you like playing video games, and tend to snoop around a lot in the dark, Activision’s got a proposition for you.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Prestige Edition was revealed today, and it includes night vision goggles — not replica goggles that look good on your mantle, but fully-functioning, paint-everything-green night vision specs.

Mum’s the word on pricing for the package, which also includes typical collector’s edition fare such as a book of concept art. Most Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 console games cost $60, with collector’s editions often costing $80 or higher. The inclusion of night vision goggles in Modern Warfare 2’s Prestige Edition will likely drive the price way up.

Limited edition video game packages never appealed to me, as someone who tries to be frugal about gaming. When a special bundle costs more than $100, that’s money you could’ve spent on an oldie but goodie in the bargain bin. I’d rather have that than a Master Chief helmet on my mantle, but I understand the value in showing your gamer cred.

Still, night vision goggles? Those don’t even look good on display — despite the included head sculpture — unless your living room features a mannequin in military garb.

So my challenge is this: If anyone here is considering the Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Pack, please justify your purchase. I genuinely want to know what use for night vision goggles you have in mind. Only then can I understand where video game fandom ends and total ridiculousness begins.

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Bioshock 2 Delayed. One Less Holiday Game, Please.

Posted by Jared Newman on July 13, 2009 at 7:10 pm

bigsisterbioshock2The gaming world was seriously bummed out today, hearing that the blockbuster Bioshock 2 will be delayed until fiscal year 2010. I’m thrilled.

Publisher Take-Two said in a financial update that the game needs “additional development time,” but there are hints that the company wants to duck this year’s holiday game rush, even if FY2010 technically allows for a November or December release. Mainly, the following quote shows the publisher’s hand: “We believe the result [of a delay] will be a more compelling consumer experience and a better performing product in the marketplace (emphasis mine).”

Could this signal an end to the age-old practice of releasing too many good games at the end of the year? Maybe, but there are other factors that can’t be ignored. Take-Two acknowledges that it’s partly waiting for a better economy to come around. In explaining Bioshock 2’s delay to FY2010, the publisher says the game, along with other blockbusters, “provide a platform for enhanced financial performance in what we hope will be an improved retail environment.”

And sure, extra development time could certainly be a necessity. There are, after all, four studios working on the project, which I imagine would slow things down considerably.

But Bioshock 2 is a major release, certainly capable of going toe-to-toe wih other top-tier titles, and publishers aren’t well-known for delaying a game past the holidays for the sake of making a better product. I don’t know if the economy will be more favorable to video games by, say, next spring, but I’m inclined to think Take-Two sees an advantage in separating itself from the holiday game glut. At least one other high-profile game, the Playstation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain, is doing the same.

It’s my opinion that Bioshock was a flawed masterpiece, better left standing alone, so the news doesn’t bother me on another level. Still, I welcome any sign of better games in the off-season. A blockbuster game would be perfect right about now, in the summer.

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What’s Modern Warfare Without Call of Duty?

Posted by Jared Newman on July 10, 2009 at 5:31 pm

modernwarfare2In a perfect world, Activision’s next war-based first-person shooter would be called “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2: The Sequel: The Game.” Then, we could laugh even more heartily at the contrived nature of this video game title.

Instead, the once-proud Modern Warfare 2 is being renamed to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a change that stresses the game’s roots in the wildly popular Call of Duty franchise. For reference, the game’s predecessor was dubbed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so it’s just a numerical switcheroo.

Activision hasn’t said this flat-out, but it seems to me like a branding issue, and that seems more obvious considering an apparent loss of name awareness that occured. Besides, when you’ve got a name brand that’s six titles strong and gaining new audiences every year — not counting expansion packs and console ports, but counting last year’s Call of Duty: World at War — why mess with it? Call of Duty’s got the mainstream appeal that few first-person shooters enjoy, thanks to its recognizable real-world settings and popcorn action.

But changing the upcoming sequel’s name carries baggage. Instead of spinning Modern Warfare into its own successful franchise, it remains shackled to an existing, and rather old, series. In addition, this makes it harder for Activision to grow both series independently.

I’m wading into wacky prediction territory here, but don’t believe there can’t be a holiday season with Modern Warfare and Call of Duty games selling side-by-side. The upcoming glut of “Hero” music games — DJ Hero, Band Hero and Guitar Hero: Van Halen are all coming this year — shows Activision’s willingness to exploit successful franchises. Call of Duty games could be next, and while part of that will entail making Modern Warfare different enough to stand alone as a game, it all starts with the name.

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LucasArts Dusts Off Classic Games

Posted by Jared Newman on July 7, 2009 at 2:21 pm

tiefightercdIf you’re like me, your fondest memories of LucasArts are rooted in the 1990s, with classic computer games like X-Wing, The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit the Road and Star Wars: Dark Forces.

With any luck, those games will soon be available for purchase again through Valve’s Steam download service. Tomorrow, LucasArts will bring 10 classic games to the service, but none of the ones I mentioned above are among them. Included in the list are Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, LOOM and Star Wars Battlefront II, plus six others. But, the company’s Twitter feed says this is “just the beginning” of plans for the publisher’s back catalog.

Even if you have old CD-ROMs of these games kicking around the house, you may have trouble getting them up and running on today’s machines. Assuming that you can still make it through LucasArts’ authentication hoops — I recall a Star Wars alphabet matching system for X-Wing — you’ll likely need extra software and a bit of technical know-how to experience the games as they were (check out DosBox for your pre-Windows titles).

Indeed, a hassle-free experience might be worth the cost of admission, though it’s worth noting that some of these re-releases will carry paper-form copy protection, but in printable digital files.

It looks like LucasArts doesn’t intend to stop with Steam, either. Apple policy discourages discussion of pre-release App plans, but LucasArts CEO Darrell Rodriguez literally said “wink wink, nod nod” to Joystiq after saying “it would make sense” for the company to release its old adventure games for the iPhone.

I see only good coming from LucasArts’ decision to dip into its back catalog and pushing it on new platforms. It just brings me that much closer to my dream of a multiplayer adaptation of X-Wing or Tie Fighter for one of the three gaming consoles.

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