At this point, this series could use a re-introduction. As my journalism work (currently) does not require me to play and review the latest games in a timely manner, I’m often in catch-up mode, writing about a game weeks, months or even years after their release. In a way, this provides some distance from writing actual reviews and allows me to focus more on critiques. In Late To The Party, you’ll rarely find me listing pros and cons. Instead I’ll look at particular aspects of a game and explain why they’re interesting — to me at least.

Straight to the point, Ninja Gaiden II is a Gamer’s Game, and slashing through it made me realize how long it’s been since I last played one. It’s got action, decapitation, linear levels with steady learning curves, a throwaway plot, terrible dialogue, scary bosses and objectified women, I spend a lot of time thinking about how repetitive and dull that stuff gets, but I sort of forgot that, when applied correctly, it’s still a lot of fun.

Before I go on, please know that I hated this game’s prequel. I bought a used copy, spent an afternoon with it and brought it back to Gamestop to take advantage of their “exchange it within seven days” policy. Mostly, this was because of one pet peeve that obviously bothers no one else: Ninja Gaiden combined Saves and Lives — two standard respawn mechanisms that, when combined, break the whole system. It forces the player to leave his state of immersion and wonder “Should I quit the game and load the last save point, or sacrifice a precious Life?” This happened to me in the second level. I had no idea whether to keep expending Lives to challenge the boss or load an earlier save point and try to preserve my stock. After going back and forth a half dozen times, my brain self-destructed and I decided Splinter Cell would be a better choice for my money.

Needless to say, I was not expecting much when I opened the Gamefly envelope this time around. But Ninja Gaiden II has a way of coaxing you into its world. The bands of ninjas that surround you at every pass are easy enough at first; with enough button mashing, you can sever all of their heads (and most of their limbs) and emerging from battle with only a scratch or two. After a couple levels, the enemies get bigger, slimier, more plentiful. It’s no longer sufficient to simply tap the “Strong Attack” button repeatedly. Slowly, the game forces you to change your methods and play with different techniques. As with the last game, you’re still stringing together combos, but the attacks have a natural flow to them, which takes some of the emphasis off memorization — another pet peeve of mine.

Hand-eye coordination is placed on a pedestal in Ninja Gaiden II. There are no puzzles to solve, and the storyline — some people released some demons — is negligible. The payoff for surmounting each challenge is implicit; it’s not so much “now I get to see what happens,” as it is “wow, I defeated all those bad guys.”

I’m into Chapter 5 now, so we’ll see how my interest in the game evolves. These balls-to-the-wall action games, however fun, tend to wear on me slightly past the half way point. I know, that’s another subject entirely, so we’ll save it for another day. For now, chef recommends!

Xbox 360, Violence, Late to the Party, Teh Hardcorez | No Comments »

If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to stock this blog with regular updates now that I’m freelancing and trying to get myself out there a little more. But after a fun, if not rambunctious, weekend, I’m resigned to merely tossing you in a couple directions instead of gathering too many thoughts of my own. Tonights topic — one that’s obviously close to home — game journalism.

Last week I caught up with the Sore Thumbs blog, operated by former Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-In-Chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu and Senior Editor Crispin Boyer. They’ve basically got a game journalism tell-all going on there, steadily revealing the kinds of corrupt practices that induce vomiting in most ethical media types. Part three of Shoe’s behind-the-scenes series, for example, details the many ways that PR representatives try to finagle higher review scores and how one method in particular led to Shoe’s departure from EGM.

But the blog post that’s getting the most traction from the blogosphere this week is actually a response from an anonymous PR representative. Basically, the rep admits to several tactics to ensure high scores for his client, but also casts stones at reviewers in general, accusing them of writing lazy or unfair criticisms. The fighting words:

The fact is game journalists – of which there are hundreds at the moment – are living off the blood sweat and tears of creative people who love games and regularly work 100 hours weeks. The fact they casually rip on a game gives others involved in the development and marketing process good reason to pissed.

As evidenced in discussions here and here, this sort of comment shifts the discourse away from issues of swag and corruption brought on by the PR machine and instead strikes at the general nature of game journalism — a cunning PR move, indeed. As I mentioned in Sore Thumbs’ comment section, I’d like to know if the laziness or unprofessional nature of some game journalists justifies the work of the PR man, which in this case is to secure high scores for his client’s game, regardless of whether it’s deserved.

Anyway, if you want to read some “game journalism” that’s actually, you know, journalism (reviews are subjective, which is a big distinction in my mind), check out Dean Takahashi’s investigation of the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death. Using anonymous and named sources, Takahashi reports, among other things, that Microsoft ignored warning signs that their new console was prone to failure and plowed ahead for that Christmas launch. For example:

Early reports on the problems were myriad. In an Aug. 30, 2005 memo, the team reported overheating graphics chip, cracking heat sinks, cosmetic issues with the hard disk drive and the front of the box, under-performing graphics memory chips from Infineon (now Qimonda), a problem with the DVD drive, and other things. At that point, the contract manufacturers were behind schedule and had only built hundreds of units. They were supposed to have been in high gear, making thousands every week.

So what’s the big deal if they’re still selling consoles? Takahashi notes that while Microsoft was investigating the problem in 2007, they froze production, chopped a million units off of their target sales and stopped heavily promoting the Xbox until they could figure out a solution. The Wii craze was in full swing, and Takahashi argues that Microsoft lost a huge potential customer base during this time. Not to mention that the company announced in mid-2007 that it would repair all defective consoles for free, requiring a $1.15 billion write-off. Takahashi calls that charge “one of the biggest liability glitches in consumer electronics history.”

Microsoft refused to confirm or deny any of the facts that Takahashi dug up, but an executive told him during an earlier interview that he still thinks launching earlier than Playstation 3 and Wii was the right call.

Xbox 360, Media, Business | No Comments »

Hooray for Google Analytics, reminding me that 3 months without any posts begets no visitors. If you don’t know me, you probably don’t know I am moving to San Diego in a couple of weeks. I already quit my newspaper job and will be heading across the country after a brief respite.

So, the arts department at the paper never got to publishing that GTAIV article I mentioned earlier, because I never got to writing more articles to prove that I was a consistently capable writer. (I guess they saw the blog. Sigh.) So here we are:
—

If I worked for a publication that exclusively covered video games, I’d probably be excited to review Grand Theft Auto IV. It’d be a chance to state an opinion that really matters, not just to gamers, but to all the concerned parents, casual players and culture junkies who might be reading.

So it’s not surprising that when reviews finally dropped for the latest installment in the series, which requires players to commit many felonies in the service of organized crime, out came the “games are art” argument and comparisons to Goodfellas and The Godfather. Perfect review scores abound on several gaming Web sites, and one critic for GameZone even called GTAIV “the masterpiece of this gaming generation.”

Look, I’m firmly in the “games aren’t second-class media” camp, but if you believe all the lavish praise, you’re missing half the equation.

Popping in the disc, I found the shimmer of the opening scene, the sweeping score, the dialogue, mesmerizing. When the plot advances, it seems GTA has matured, leaving behind the senseless violence and murder for which the series is known.

But when you’re left to wander the city on your own, it’s the old GTA. I needed to travel, so I stole a car. I’m not a great driver, so I hit a few lampposts — and people — along the way. Just to see what would happen, I shot a homeless person. The main character, Niko Bellic, who seems so likable in cutscenes, can also resemble the nameless, faceless, morally empty character that starred in Grand Theft Auto III.

I thought about criticizing Rockstar, the series’ developer, for giving us two completely different games in the same package before I realized it had to be this way. Without the version where you can blow up cars, shoot innocent people and jump off buildings, you could never sell the one where the characters talk about their feelings and develop relationships.

You wouldn’t have the media hype either. I know this, because my non-gamer friends know nothing of the games that really do have artistic merit. In a way, it works out; the mainstream media frets over the violence, sex and drugs and how your kids will probably do all those things because they played a video game, and the gaming press responds by pulling the “games as art” card.

If I were one of those critics, I’d probably do the same.

Xbox 360, Games as Art, Player Choice, Violence, Late to the Party | No Comments »

Say what you will about Official Xbox Magazine, but this pissed me off.

In the July 07 issue, the Eds tell us they can “finally” reveal the reason Chronicles of Riddick for Xbox hasn’t been made backwards compatible — “it’s coming to Xbox 360 this winter!”

That means the current Xbox version will be revamped with better graphics and some new features. In the top corner of the article, along with a screenshot, reads, “If you already bought Riddick, buy it again for the new levels, the multiplayer … and the Achievements!” (improper ellipses use is theirs, no text omitted)

But note the fine print on the bottom strip of the page, “Just in case you’re still wondering, we were able to definitely confirm that Riddick for Xbox will never be backwards compatible. You’ll need to buy this version.”

In my mind, denying gamers backwards compatibility for a game they paid for is a bad thing. I understand the practical/financial motivations for it, but there’s no way it’s beneficial for the consumer. Adding exclamation marks to what could be interpreted as bad news (you must either pay $60 or hang on to what should be obsolete hardware) seems irresponsible to me. That kind of punctuation is typically reserved for drunken rants or heavy sugar coating. Neither is appropriate here.

Newman, Xbox 360, Media | No Comments »

Sam Fisher is getting old.

Sure, he’s been trying some new things lately. Like posing as a terrorist and juggling “trust” between his government and the enemy. Like sneaking around without his famous ninja suit. Like venturing into co-operative multiplayer with a partner. Those are nice additions in Splinter Cell: Double Agent, but the problem is he kind of forgot what he was doing in the first place.

Sam’s not as sharp as he used to be. He used to be able to walk up to an object and spell out all the things he could do with it, with a compact, easy to read list. Now he has to scroll through a bunch of indecipherable pictures. He also has trouble with lighting; a meter once told him exactly how much a shadow was concealing his figure, now he just has to guess. I suppose it’s more realistic, but it comes at the cost of trial and error — something the game always relied on too much to begin with.

Sam’s also lost his moves, like the one where he straddled a narrow wall, clinging near the ceiling before crashing down on an unsuspecting foe. I guess the maneuver always seemed contrived or forced, so Sam no longer remembers how to do it at all. And while other games like Gears of War have made it easy to cling to walls and bounce between cover, Sam feels clumsy around every corner he touches. For a government ninja, he can feel pretty awkward. It’s sad.

All the window dressings applied over the years (multiplayer! co-op multiplayer! he’s playing as a _bad guy_!) can’t hide the fact that Sam Fisher’s mind and body are in decay. Sometimes his objectives aren’t clear. Sometimes the way to the objective is too obscure, too specific. You wander around each level wondering what to do, bumping into enemies and clicking the retry button. It feels too much like a game, not enough like snooping.

For these reasons, I’ve sent Sam packing (recall: GameFly subscription). And I do so with the disclaimer that I only played through 2.5 missions of Double Agent. It may not be enough to fully evaluate a game, but it’s enough to know I wasn’t having fun. I don’t think Sam was enjoying it either.

Theory, Gamefly, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

I’ve placed Phantom Dust back in the rotation, after hearing Microsoft finally made it backwards compatible with the 360 (thank you!).

Phantom Dust has often been called the video game equivalent of Magic: The Gathering. Players bring an “arsenal,” or deck of skills, into battle with one opponent. Some of these skills can attack, while some are defensive. There are also trickier skills that erase the opponent’s deck or affect a player’s speed and stamina. Basically, the player wants to arrange his deck in a way that focuses on a certain battle plan. Each player gets a spot in the arena where their skill capsules are held, where they can bind a skill to one of four buttons.

Example: I thought it would be neat to make an arsenal where I could walk over to someone’s capsules and erase them. I arranged the arsenal to have basic defensive capabilities, and put the rest of my resources toward skills that pop capsules and absorb whatever skill the other player is using.

It didn’t work. One player was able to wear me out by freezing my skills and kicking my ass with a sword. Another opponent completely screwed me over by casting a spell that prevented any erase skills from being used.

I rarely won any online battles, and as soon as I considered copping some of the arsenals that were used against me, I stopped playing. It seemed you could only be crafty to a certain point, after which you’re just stealing someone else’s ideas. I guess this is why, even after learning to play chess, I never got into it. Part of me — and I hate to admit this — just didn’t want to do the leg work of memorization. As in Phantom Dust, there’s a certain amount of quick thinking and thorough planning involved, but in the end you just need to study all the possibilities. Those who do their homework have the upper hand. But homework is homework.

After all that, why am I dusting off (pun!) this title? Probably because, like Chess, it’s still a damn good game.

Theory, Xbox 360 | No Comments »