Posts by Taylor

Quote from 2d-chris

I don't think your average gamer will be partifucally upset by that, infact I'm sure thats what they want? Sure risky project are going to have a hard time, not just because of the current economic state but the very fact a risky project will and should alway be risky? Where there is risk there will be uncertainty.

Games actually do quite well in a recession because people prefer to stay in buy entertainment that will last a relatively longer time. But yes, you’re right, but if everyone makes games for the lowest common denominator because it’s the only way to not haemorrhage money and get fired, it’s going to be pretty boring.

I’m not really a fan of Street Fighter IV if I’m honest; it’s developed around contrived comebacks and fireball traps being the height of strategy. Coming from Guilty Gear and a bit of Street Fighter Alpha I just find SFIV to be too lacking in options, and ultimately that’s where depth comes from. Plus, it's so damn slow.

BlazBlue was basically an attempt to take all the awesome in Guilty Gear and compact it in a way that made it more accessible, which makes a lot of sense as it was a really complicated game. But while doing this the game became far too rigid as all the characters got locked to a particular play-style, bursting was too risky, and you can’t even run away the length of the screen without negative penalty kicking in. Plus the balance is atrocious, Rachel, Nu-13 and Arakune are leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. The characters also aren’t as interesting, even the ones they copy and pasted like Sol Badguy, Ky and Potemkin.

However, Continuum Shift is the next revision which is currently undergoing location tests in various Japanese arcades and it sounds like a much better game. They’ve been very aggressive rebalancing (pretty much deleted Nu-13 and started again), changed the burst system, changed the Guard Libra, added more flexibly and moves, etc. But for now I’m back to Accent Core and learning Dizzy.

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Tradewest Games SAS has announced today that BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger will be released in France for PC in the 1st quarter of 2010.Frédéric Bichat, General Manager of SAS Tradewest Games added:

"We are particularly proud to have been selected for the exclusive distribution of ... BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. This partnership allows us to strengthen our line-up.."

It should be noted that BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger has not yet been released on Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 in Europe. That, also, is expected in 1st quarter 2010.

The game was released on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in North America and Japan in June of this year.

It is odd that the PC release of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was announced for France, but we are certain to get announcements that it will release in other territories in the future.

http://iplaywinner.com/news/2009/11/13/ ... -next.html

Yeah, I know. It’s not first person and you can’t pretend to be an elf, but I think it’s interesting this is happening. Guilty Gear XX #Reload did get a PC release but it didn't sell well enough for the revisions to make the jump. Unfortunately in this case Calamity Trigger is a pretty broken game and it sounds like the upcoming revision, Continuum Shift, will fix a lot of problems. It’s still no Accent Core, though.

Quote from Gloglebag

But if I take a look at this comparison video http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pc-ps ... fare/58992 , and how phenomenlol it looks and runs on old hardware like the 360/ps3, it could have run a lot better.

At least the PC versions does black! Game footage, especially PS3, is always strangely washed out in these web hit generators accurate comparison tests.

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iPhone developers mock LangdellA number of iPhone developers apparently incensed by litigious Edge Games boss Tim Langdell have renamed their games to include the word "Edge".

Fez, for example, is now called Fedge. "To better represent the edgy nature and aesthetic the game, and edges of squares and cubes, Polytron is proud to announce the name change from Fez to FEDGE!" the game's website explained.

"We at Polytron Corporation are at the edge of everything, at the edge of other edges, so it only make sense to reflect this edgyness in our product's name, which is now Fedge."

"Tags: edge, edge of edge, edgy, edgy edge edge edge edge, fedge, fez."

Other games undergoing rebranding (links gathered together by Touch Arcade) include Eliss (sequel to be called Edgeliss), Closure (now "Closure: on the EDGE of reality"), Dismount (sequel "Ledge Dismount"), Edgeward McEdgington and Critter Crunch (now Critter Credge).

Tim Langdell's name rose to infamy earlier this year when word spread of his attempts to prevent French developer Mobigame from calling its game "Edge", as catalogued in our extensive feature on the subject.

Electronic Arts got involved recently, petitioning to have Langdell's series of Edge-related trademarks cancelled following attacks on its game Mirror's Edge.

However, that hasn't stopped Langdell pressing on with other actions, including one against PuzzleKings over Killer Edge Racing, which seems to have inspired cheeky devs from taking a stand this week.

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/iphon ... k-langdell

Add two more x's to that title and I'm interested.

I think my win and fail cancelled each other instantaneously as I thought "this sounds like QotSA."

£26 in Sainsburys.

Probably a bit late now...

I've not downloaded anything for a long time, but I recall a significant amount of dicking about afterwards. Mounting it, applying the crack, whatever.

Either way, we’re pardoning piracy because they have to enter a number. As someone who occasionally still walks to the shop, that is really incredible.

The title is kind of deceptive, it's definitely not the first time a developer has leaked a dysfunctional version of their game onto torrent sites.

Quote from Sentura

just to respond to this: it's not really a question whether to pirate or not if a game comes out at a low price. price is a static barrier, and it would be the same whether you had a weighted price or a very low price; the barrier stays the same. the extra bother of going through credit cards or similar just to get access to a game is something that people don't want to bother with. i reckon in the future, the essence of distributing a piece of media will have to be so simplified that people won't have to bother with various payment options, but rather have a "one-click" button for everything. or, put differently, there is a blindside to impulse shopping online.

It's much easier to buy stuff off Steam and iTunes than jumping through the various hoops to pirate it.

Quote from FrieChamp

P.S. Here is a fun little snippet from Kotaku for Rick: http://kotaku.com/5391324/dedicated-ser ... tor-either

Even with the stirring between quotations it seemed more like the guy didn't know the answer . The comments are the best thing about the article, though. Gamers saying that they will pirate the game* while simultaneously asking why nobody listens to them. Though there's not nearly enough people blaming consoles who, after being dormant for decades, are now responsible for all of the worlds problems.

* As they still want to play it. But not pay for it support no-dedicated severs.

Quote from Pericolos0

haha true, I remember the pc sales for modern warfare were laughably low compared to console versions anyway =).

Though, if I remember one strongly worded blog post, the amount of players was not.

Well, I'll keep an eye on it. Though, I will explain the rank comment so I don't look like a lunatic. Rank is the name given to a mechanic that's been in games for several decades, particularly arcade games*, that changes the difficulty based on how good you are, or are not. The difference being it was hidden away from the player instead of given a marketing term.

The most obvious, extreme and hated example is Battle Garegga.

* Though not exclusively, Resident Evil is a good example.

Has anyone else found that the melee weapons are too good? Someone was telling me he felt like an idiot walking around with a gun when someone running around holding down the 'fire' button with the machete was far more effective and got several times the amount of kills.

I brought the first game so I had something to play with my brother, until he went back to Call of Duty anyway. I was intrigued but found myself underwhelmed by the amount of content, especially with only two maps in versus. Once I'd finished a campaign I didn't feel like I wanted to play it again, especially as I actively dislike rank systems (or AI Directors as we now call them). I want to like L4D2, but I'm still not sure about it.

Quote from Thrik

It really is very primitave, Taylor. The fidelity and visceral quality of today's games is truly the best it's ever been, but the storytelling and the impact it leaves on you remains extremely poor for the vast majority of games. Interestingly the only games that've come close to giving me the kind of emotional power I've felt from movies and TV are ones that feature no killing at all, such as Grim Fandango.

I do agree there is plenty of room for storytelling in games to grow. I just think it’s interesting that games have survived with a story no better than a kidnapped girlfriend for decades, and suddenly everyone is making 12 hour semi-interactive films, looking for our Citizen Kane, and worrying about the “message.”

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I was probably being a bit hyperbolic when I said it's a milestone and that I applaud them for it, but it is nonetheless the kind of thing games should be doing more often and I don't think they deserve to be lambasted for it.

It's just another bunch of people cutting things out of context and over-reacting, it'll be something else next week. Comic books, film, music genres, philosophy, and even roman theatre got painted as vicious, youth corrupting, evil in their conception, particularly by other threatened mediums.

Quote from Jetsetlemming

I don't think I've ever played a game where "fun" and "Meaningful" existed together, though the two types of games certainly each share their merits. I don't begrudge Pathologic refusing to entertain me.

Most of the games lauded as meaningful, emotional, artistic, etc. are done so retroactively anyway. Keita Takahashi and Fumito Ueda interviews are always great to read because the interviewer is just there to forward their own opinion that the games are works of meaningful, emotional, art, etc. when the creators themselves feel their games are none of these things and that’s not what they set out to do. I remember one Gamasutra interview with Keita Takahashi where they came prepared with pieces of paper and pens so they could pass their agenda through what he drew instead.

It might be a stronger point if Schindler’s List was Rambo with a couple of meaningful scenes in it. Shock value, placed amid shooting thousands of soulless NPC's in the face for nothing but vicarious pleasure, applauded as crossing a milestone is either mistaken or proof of just how primitive the medium is. Everyone thought the nuke exploding in CoD4 powerful and so was the ending; really nicely done and unexpected. But anyone who thought they were an amazing commentary on war and proof of the power of video games needs to put down the controller and read a fucking book.

I know from other Call of Duty titles that this will not be some haphazardly thrown in scene and it will come with a wave of justifiable context and handled maturely; it being disgusting or tasteless is not my point. But the implication that this is some kind of advancement leaves me agitated. It doesn’t even use the medium of games, because it is not interactive, so it’s a scene other mediums would do much better.

Quote from KoKo5oVaR

If you add a "Thanks" button i would love a "No Thanks" button associated to say "Thanks" in eot.

You could have a button in EoT that quoted the user in question and replies with the word "cocks" and an irrelevant 1900x1200 image macro from the totally underground 4chan, possibly repeated to the image limit. I demand efficiency, Thrik.

BS1 didn't work for me. Won't be buying the sequel even if it grants wishes.

Basically PSN lets you add friends and send mail, that's it. The games themselves have to handle any kind of invites, matchmaking and parties so this leads to some poor and inconsistent implementations. The few games I do play online like BlazBlue, Street Fighter IV, Fat Princess, Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2, all do a pretty good job. I also play Demon's Souls but that works differently, and I would imagine it's something that wouldn't be allowed on Live (people join your otherwise single player game and, without consent or warning, try and kill you).

The PS3 “yellow light” issues are not worth considering. It’s a rumour that’s come along recently because of a very ill-researched Watchdog episode that suggested instead of paying Sony £100 to fix your out of warranty PS3, you should pay the same to people in a van to try and do it with a very high fail rate. It was fronted by freelance columnist for Microsoft whose anti-Sony articles strangely went offline the day after the episode went out. Yeah.

It all really comes down to what games you want. The PS3 is probably ebbing ahead with exclusives right now, certainly my two top games this year are on it (Demon’s Souls and Uncharted 2), but strangely there are some obscure Japanese titles you can only get on the 360, leading to me importing a Japanese one. It’s kind of odd that the home for obscure Japanese RPG’s and shmups is the 360. PSN also has some very good downloads but the 360 certainly has more choice, and a lot of people really drop the ball when doing their PS3 ports.

Quote from Lord Ned

Maybe because i'm tired and my eyes are blurring... but that made no sense to me.

In the game design blogosphere it's those types of articles that are popular. Not ones that are, err, actually helpful.

In your articles consider using words like "diegetic narrative" for no reason, write as if rank is a modern innovation with the "AI director" and force references to it, ask that token game mechanics be removed for being unrealistic or old without any real justification other than "it's about time...", muse over a game you played 5 minutes ago with some youtube research for comparisons, suggest we remove "barriers" so games play on one context sensitive button, reach no conclusions under any circumstances, and champion post-game emotional art synergy.