Pocket Universe

This article about Good vs. Evil in The Escapist nicely summarizes the problem with “moral choices” in video games today: namely, that they take a simplistic view of good vs. evil. The dilemmas are more along the lines of “Do you want to be the hero who helps the innocent, or the bastard who exploits them?” Not really a moral question, that is more of a gameplay choice. A more interesting question would have more of a grey area: For example, do you kill a few innocents to save the greater population, or spare them in hopes of finding another solution? It would be nice to some more depth to these decisions, and appropriate endings that reflect the results of your choices; currently, the endings are either, “You were a good guy, and ended up a hero,” or “You were a jerk, and now you rule with an iron fist.” Not much subtlety there. How about the guy who doomed a civilization because he was unable to sacrifice others? Or the guy who saved them, but as great personal cost? Anyway, the article presents a great example of one potential storyline.

My internet connection mysteriously went down on Friday afternoon, so I was stuck for the weekend with no network access. Without the safety net of the internet time-sink, I was forced to re-evaluate my priorities, and find something to do that didn’t require a feed to the Intertron. After a few hours of soul-searching, I decided to get back to work on Half-Life 2 for the Xbox 360. What follows are my thoughts from picking up this game after a long hiatus.

Half-Life 2 is such a good game, but I figured out why I have such long stretches between play sessions: This game scares the hell out of me. Sure, it’s not Resident Evil, with zombie dogs jumping in through the window. That’s not to say there aren’t zombies though; they do show up every now and then, usually after noticing a large smear of blood across a wall and floor, leading to an ominous closed door. And when the inevitable beast shambles forward, and the headcrab leaps towards me, I fear (if only for a moment) that it might actually jump out of the screen and devour me.

So once I get past the burning fear, and the confusion that comes from continuing a story-based game after a break of several months (“Where am I going again? Wait, do I need to go across that bridge, or is that where I just came from? Why is that guy shooting at me?”), I am back in the world of City 17, guns blazing. It is immersive and disturbing, but also immensely satisfying. Playing it is amazingly intense, but I find myself days later, thinking back on how cool those events were. So here, in no particular order, are the things that really impress me about Half-Life 2:

1. Interactive “cutscenes”: I put “cutscenes” in quotes because, unlike the cutscenes in most games, Half-Life 2 does not actually cut away during the story progression. You are still in complete control while events unfold, free to walk around the room, view a conversation from any angle, or just stand in awe as a giant robot throws an oncoming van into a crowd of snipers. You see the events happen in real time, and it draws you in to the story. You observe the action not as a person watching a television screen, but as a character in the middle of the scene. The importance of this perspective can not be overstated.

2. Immersive environments: Half-Life 2 is not populated by boogeymen in closets, waiting for you to stumble by so they can pop out and say “Boo!” Your attackers are creatures and soldiers and yes, sometimes even zombies. Sometimes you will stumble on a battle in progress, and you have to ready yourself to face the victor; sometimes you come upon a desk littered with soda cans and papers, and then notice reinforcements arriving on the security monitor; sometimes you see the remains of a headcrab attack, and are left to face the unfortunate soul who was killed. Either way, you happen upon realistic enemies who inhabit realistic locations, not wax mannequins waiting for a tripwire before they spring to life.

3. Interactive environments: Remember those games where you need to get the gold key to open the gold door? Or you need to blue keycard, which happens to glow brightly as it sits by itself on the desk? Half-Life 2 has none of these. What it does have are realistic environments with real-world solutions. So when you are faced with an electrical fence, you can actually follow the wires to the control panel that you need to disable. Or maybe you have a fan that needs to be disconnected. In that case, you can see the air vents that travel the room, and follow them from room to room until you reach the generator. But these are not painted red or under a bright glowing arrow; they are just normal, ordinary air ducts, like you might see in any other building. The environments are put together logically, and everything pretty much works, so you can solve a problem using common sense, instead of trying to figure out what arcane series of steps the creators wanted you to follow. You begin to see the environment as a real thing, not just painted bitmaps on featureless walls.

4. Realistic physics: In the same vein, you have real objects that you can pick up and interact with. Maybe you can jump from one rock to the next to avoid the toxic sewage…or instead you can grab that board for a makeshift bridge. If that ramp tilts as you walk across it, you begin looking for something heavy to weight down the other end. And maybe that barrel will float long enough for you to jump on it and bound across to the other side of the lake. But again, you can see and use real objects to solve real problems.

5. Gameplay variety: You face military forces that require direct combat. You encounter overwhelming forces that require stealth. You are sent into a zombie-infested town, and forced to battle as you run for your life through a never-ending onslaught. You have to drive across the countryside, avoiding or shooting the huge attacking insects. Then later, you have to avoid those same insects by only jumping from rock to rock, because touching the sand will bring forth a swarm that will most likely destroy you. And later still, you gain a gland from one of these creatures, and throwing it at your foes causes a swarm to emerge from the earth and attack the enemy. From mission to mission, the gameplay changes and evolves, making sure you never get bored.

6. The sound: Oh sweet merciful fate, the sound! The machine guns generate a room-shaking amount of sound, and yet you can still hear the “clink clink” of individual shells hitting the ground. You can pinpoint an attacking zombie simply by the direction of the approaching shriek, and you sometimes hear large mechanical beasts doing battle behind the walls nearby. If you can afford to play this with the sound cranked beyond tolerable levels, I heartily recommend it.

In keeping with my promise, today’s entry is about the game currently at the top of my Must Play list (more on that later), Metroid Prime for the Nintendo Gamecube. So far, this 3D rendition of the classic Metroid series is as good as the reviews suggest (currently number 7 in the top games of all time, according to GameRankings). However, one of the frustrating parts of any Metroid game is the exploration. I mean, it’s fun when you discover new things, but it’s annoying when you have four huge open worlds to explore, and you have no idea where to even start looking for the next hidden passageway.

Luckily, Prime has a few key features to help alleviate the confusion. First, it has huge 3D maps, where inaccessible doors or passageways are (usually) clearly indicated. So when I get the Ice Beam that opens white doors, all I have to do is look for rooms with white doors that I haven’t opened yet. So that at least gives me a place to start. And if that doesn’t work, there is a hint system that can be turned on and off at will. It’s direct, but subtle: You are given a “sensor reading” that shows you which room you need to get to, but you are not told exactly how to reach it. Instead, you have to figure out which room is closest on the map, and see if you can find a previously-undiscovered door or ramp or clue. It doesn’t hold your hand, but it lets you do the gruntwork of searching, without that nagging feeling of, “What if I’m not looking in the right place…?”

So after running into a few areas where I was blocked by water (you can swim in water, but you can’t jump very high in it), I finally figured out that I needed to find the Gravity Suit, which would let me move through water as if it were air. I sussed out some likely candidate locations, and after a few dead ends, I ended up back in the research labs of Phendrana Drifts. I turned on the hint system for a moment to verify that I was, in fact, in the right place. Then I went about searching for that secret room.

I ended up in a room filled with water and tentacles and electric fish, which is about as fun as you might expect. Furthermore, the walls were too steep, and I couldn’t find a way to swim out. So I started switching visors, and lo and behold, I spotted the Gravity Suit, safely ensconced in ice at the bottom of the lake. I grabbed the power-up, watched the animation of putting on my new suit (ooooh, gold with purple highlights! I will be quite the hit at the annual bounty-hunter ball!), and bounded off with my newfound powers. Oh, and the Gravity Suit also improves visibility in water, so it goes from being downright murky to just slightly hazy. Thanks Nintendo! I went off, found my save point, and now I am ready to play again tonight because I already know at least a few areas that I can now reach thanks to my new suit. In all, I would rather have too many options than too few. We’ll see if I’m still feeling so positive after tonight’s session.

With E3 2009 coming up fast, my mind naturally turns to video games. I am excited about what might be announced this year, but I am also way behind on playing the games I currently own. Plus, I want to start writing more regularly.

With that in mind, I am starting a new column: Daily Gamer. Every day, I will take a few moments to write about videogaming: either the latest games I am playing, things I am looking forward to, thoughts on gaming in general, or interesting facts about my videogame database.

Yes, I have a videogame database. But it is not as geeky as you might think. It is more so.

So that’s it! Stay tuned to this page for my daily thoughts.

In just one week, you will be able to order the trial version of the Spore Creature Creator! For those of you who don’t know about Spore…well first of all, it was my pick for Game of the Year at E3 2006, so get reading. The game itself doesn’t come out until September, but the Creature Creator serves two purposes in the interim.

First, it placates people like me who are most excited about the idea of constructing their own aliens. I fully anticipate spending many hours just playing around with the editor and seeing what it can do. If you haven’t seen it yet, it looks amazingly easy to build, paint, and watch your creations come to life.

But more importantly, the Creature Creator will allow users to pre-populate the Spore game world. You see, when you play Spore, you create your own life-forms, but you also encounter hundreds, if not thousands of other aliens as you explore your planet, solar system, and galaxy, and every one of those beings was created by another Spore player through an electronic form of cross-pollination. By released the Creature Creator early, Maxis can make sure that the game world is already teeming with life when the first player starts his game. It also appears that you can track aliens by who created them, and even tell the game that you would like to see more from that person, so this aspect of the game appeals to the artist in me.

As you can tell, I am incredibly excited about this! I will let you know more once I get the trial version, and since you can easily email pictures or upload videos to YouTube, I may even start sending out links to what I’ve done.

Andy’s Rating: One notch below Loved It (12/13)

As the first Metroid game released for the Super Nintendo system, the designers of Super Metroid had a legacy to live up to. The original Metroid for the NES introduced non-linear gameplay on a large open world, into which the player (as bounty hunter Samus Aran) is dropped with very few abilities. Over time, Samus gains new powers that allow her to enter previously inaccessible areas, and she discovers hidden doors and passageways that let her explore deeper into the planet. But the player is given little direction, and elaborate hand-drawn maps are practically required to figure out where to go next.

The Game Boy sequel, Metroid II: Return of Samus, alleviated this lack of direction by introducing a new gameplay element: deadly lava, which blocks access to the next area until certain goals are met. In this way, there is still a vast planet for the player to explore, but always has a rough idea of where to focus his attention. Although this provided more clear-cut goals, many criticized the game for straying from the more organic progression of the original.

Thankfully, the third game maintains the non-linear gameplay of the first, while removing most of the frustrations, and also inherits many of the advancements made by the second game. In Super Metroid, Samus returns to the planet Zebes, the setting of the first game, where she once again has to face off against the Space Pirates and their leader, Mother Brain. The villains have stolen the baby Metroid that Samus rescued at the end of Metroid II, and retreated to their newly rebuilt lair. From the start, this gives the player familiar territory to explore, and it is fun (and a little eerie) to pass through the room that you destroyed at the end of the first Metroid.

Progression in Metroid is all about the weapons and equipment, and Metroid 3 takes nearly everything from the first two games, and then just about doubles it. New suits provide damage reduction and added mobility, and the Varia Suit has never looked better. (It also retains Samus’ iconic rounded shoulder armor, introduced in Metroid II as a way of distinguishing the two suits on the monochrome Game Boy screen.) There are also addition beam weapons, but while previous games required you to track down the original powerup each time you wanted to switch beams, Super Metroid makes things easier for the player by allowing you to switch each beam on or off at will. As an added convenience, some beams can be combined; so for example, you can equip the Plasma Beam, but still retain the Metroid-freezing power of the Ice Beam.

Besides the various suits and beams, Samus gains a number of new tools in her arsenal. Notably, the x-ray scope makes it even easier to find hidden passageways. As another nice touch, if you can’t destroy a block with a certain weapon, it will show you which weapon is required to remove it. There are many other abilities that Samus can collect during the game, but sadly, the Spider Ball (a favorite from Metroid II) is missing here. In Super Metroid, it may have rendered some of the puzzles too trivial, but it was a welcome addition that really opened up the previous game to complex exploration.

It should be clear by now that Metroid 3 adds more of the weapons, abilities, and tools that you loved from the previous games. But it also introduces gameplay improvements that make this game less frustrating and more fun. First and foremost, Metroid 3 finally has an auto-mapping system! Yes, you can say goodbye to those cryptic hand-drawn maps forever! The game shows you where you have explored, and convenient map rooms give you an idea of where to go next. However, the maps do not reveal everything, so some exploration is still required, but they take a lot of the tedium out of it.

Another huge change is how you discover new items and abilities. In the first game, a seemingly impassible area would suggest that some new ability was needed, but it was often unclear what you needed or where you would find it. Metroid 3 also has these same obstacles, but they are usually discovered when Samus falls into an area that she can’t escape. This added to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the game, but also provides a better idea of where you need to explore next, because there is always some way out. It may sound like a subtle difference, but it provides the same sense of progression, without worrying that the necessary item is tucked away in some distant corner of the world. Instead, you feel trapped, and there is an urgency to find your way out.

There are a few frustrations that creep up along the way, however. While many of the controls were streamlined or improved, some of the new moves are difficult to execute. In particular, the wall jump is tough to pull off with any consistency, and there is nothing more frustrating than making nine or ten jumps up a tall vertical shaft, only to miss the last one and have to start all over again…and again, and again. Other moves like the Super Jump are difficult to decipher, and frustrated players may find it necessary to consult a walkthrough to proceed.

In all, Super Metroid maintains the sense of wonder and exploration from the first two games, while including many changes to keep the player from quitting the game in frustration. The energy charge stations from the second game are retained in this one, and you even get a few reserve tanks in case you get really desperate. The mapping system relieves you of the manual effort, but the game compensates by giving you a world which is much larger than either of the first two games. The sound is more subtle, the music is better, the enemies are bigger, and the battles require more strategy. And to top it all off, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous, making great use of lighting, color, and effects. This really is one of the best examples of great 2D graphics from the 16-bit era.

Setting the story back on the planet Zebes was a nice touch, because the player can really appreciate the graphical improvements from the 8-bit to the 16-bit era. Having a familiar setting also makes you notice the little differences, which often give you an idea of where to explore. The storyline remains the high point of the series, with an ending that is tremendously satisfying. Without revealing the details of the extended ending sequence, players who have completed the first Metroid game will be taken by surprise by the battle in Metroid 3. It is amazing how much adventure, fun, and genuine emotion the designers were able to pack into this game. If you have never experienced Super Metroid, it is definitely worth your time.

Andy’s Rating: One notch above Really Liked It (11/13)

When we last left Samus, she had just wiped out the Metroids on the planet Zebes and defeated Mother Brain. Oh, and she revealed that she is a woman. With that mission complete, she now proceeds to planet SR-388, the home of the Metroids, in order to wipe them all out.

And when we last left me, I was complaining that the original Metroid was too open, and it was hard to tell where to explore next. Also, many of the secret areas had to be found by trial and error, and when starting from the last save, Samus would begin with a minimal amount of energy, forcing the player to go through a tedious process of recovering health before continuing.

Andy’s Rating: one notch below Really Liked It (9/13)

I grew up playing the Atari 2600, and in the early ’80s, computer games were really starting to take off. So by the time the NES came out in 1985, I had pretty much gotten out of console gaming. I never owned a Super Nintendo or a Nintendo 64 either, but I started getting back into console gaming late in the life of the PlayStation. I eventually picked up a Game Boy Advance SP, and decided to catch up on all the classic games that I had missed. Thanks to that wonderful little system, I played through all the Super Mario Bros. games. (I am now playing Super Mario 64 on the Virtual Console.) More recently, I turned my attention to other big-name Nintendo franchises: The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. My goal for each of these games was to complete it without reading any hints or walkthroughs.

I blog so rarely that sometimes I think, “I wish I had another blog, so that I could avoid posting to two blogs at once.” Well, my wish has been granted: I am now a contributor to Garden of WiiDS, a Nintendo-oriented blog created by a friend of mine. As much as possible, I will be making some of my videogame posts there. You may want to check it frequently, especially if you are into classic Nintendo games (as I’m sure none of you are).

It looks like more songs from Guitar Hero II have been announced, bringing the list of licensed songs up to 25 (from an expected total of 40). I’m not familiar with some of them (never really a big fan of Black Sabbath or Anthrax), but I was pleasantly surprised to see some favorites on the list. “Message in a Bottle” by The Police would be particularly good, since it has a good guitar part and a great bass line. (Remember that in co-op mode, one player will be on lead guitar, while the other will play bass or rhythm guitar.) I am also pleasantly surprised to see “Misirlou” by surf-guitar god Dick Dale, which is probably best known as the theme from Pulp Fiction. “Crazy on You” by Heart is a great choice, although I would have preferred “Barracuda.”

There were two song selections in particular that stood out, ranging from fantastic to ingenious. “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd is a rock staple, with a nine-minute running time, and a gloriously long and involved solo at the end. But while “Free Bird” is an obvious choice, it must have taken a true genius to secure the rights to “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” by England’s loudest band, Spinal Tap.* With Nigel Tufnel at the lead, it goes without saying that the lead guitar line is stellar, beginning with the extended string of hammer-ons. The additional guitar part (I presume it will be rhythm guitar) is suitably driving, and I’m sure those of us with kids will enjoy having them sing along with lyrics such as, “You’re too young, and I’m too well-hung.” It is nice to see that the makers of Guitar Hero can pay tribute to such a great rock band as Spinal Tap. One can only hope that “Big Bottom” is somewhere on the sequel, with its rousing triple bass line.

Including the ones that have been previously announced, here is the set list so far, complete with links to iTunes:

“Arterial Black” — Drist (Original Track)
“Beast and the Harlot” — Avenged Sevenfold
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?” — The Rolling Stones
“Crazy on You” — Heart
“Free Bird” — Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Heart Shaped Box” — Nirvana
“Jessica” — The Allman Brothers Band
“John The Fisherman” — Primus (Original Track)
“Laid To Rest” — Lamb of God
“Madhouse” — Anthrax
“Message in a Bottle” — The Police
“Misirlou” — Dick Dale
“Psychobilly Freakout” — The Reverend Horton Heat
“Shout at the Devil” — Mötley Crüe
“Strutter” — KISS
“Surrender” — Cheap Trick
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” — Guns N’ Roses
“Tattooed Love Boys” — The Pretenders
“Them Bones” — Alice in Chains
“Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” — Spinal Tap
“Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” — Stone Temple Pilots
“War Pigs” — Black Sabbath
“Who Was in My Room Last Night?” — The Butthole Surfers
“You Really Got Me” — The Kinks, as performed by Van Halen
“YYZ” — Rush

* I apologize for the incorrect spelling of the band’s name, but the OS won’t let me type the dieresis over the “n.” That’s probably because no one ever uses that punctuation (“¨”) over a consonant. I guess Spinal Tap is also too revolutionary for the typesetting industry.

There’s an interesting thread over at Evil Avatar about backwards compatibility and the future of video games. Basically, the editorial suggests that developers release “greatest hits” packs containing selections of classic games, primarily for those who have never played them before.

The discussion brings up an interesting point: Why is it that you can go to Best Buy and pick up a movie that is fifty years old, but you can’t find a game that was made more than a few years ago? Can you imagine if someone wanted to watch a movie, but couldn’t get anything that was released prior to 2000? Or if a salesman said, “Why do you want to watch that old movie? You should check out of these new movies that just came out!” For some reason, we have great respect for the history and tradition of movies, but games are still stuck in the “newer is better” mentality. And of course, as a side effect of the short release cycle for games, they typically retail for $50, to maximize the profits during their relatively short shelf life.

This strange dichotomy between movies and video games just struck me, which is why I wanted to mention it. Hopefully the Wii, with its downloadable games from the first three generations of Nintendo consoles, will allay this accepted practice somewhat. Instead of a game that uses two analog sticks, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons, I could show my son a game that uses one joystick and a jump button. I think need to remember where we came from to truly appreciate the games of today.

Okay, I know this is woefully late, but I wanted to toss out my list of honorable mentions from E3. These are the games that showed potential and were interesting, but weren’t quite the best of the show.

Red Steel (Wii)

Another first-person shooter? I admit that I wasn’t excited about this game prior to E3. However, using the Wii control scheme, it looks like it will (dare I say it?) revolutionize the genre. You move with the thumbstick and aim by pointing to the screen; already, it seems like shooting is going to be much easier than with a standard controller. But they added other unique gameplay elements. If you get to a closed door, you can make a movement with your left hand like you’re pushing the door open, and you see your in-game hand opening it. Each weapon has a different way of reloading, and if you’re using the shotgun, you actually hold your right hand upright, and move your left hand like you’re pumping the barrel to reload. Very cool. When you have your opponent disarmed, you can just wave your gun towards the ground, and he will understand that he’s supposed to lay down. Oh, and you can hold your gun sideways if you want to look like a gangster for some reason.

But the coolest element has to be the swordfighting sequences. You slash and thrust with your right hand, and bring your left hand up to block. It remains to be seen how precise the motions will be (the demo showed the player holding a sword to his opponent’s neck), but if it’s anything near what was shown, it should usher in a whole new way of playing FPS games. Hopefully other developers will take the cue and start thinking differently about the controller and its effect on gameplay.

Viva Piñata (Xbox 360)

Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for cute. And I’m a sucker for sim-type games where there is no predefined goal. Oh, and I’m a sucker for cool uses of online connectivity. Viva Piñata for the Xbox 360 delivers all of those, in spades, along with a graphic style that you have to see to truly appreciate. Every character and item in the game looks like it was made from that crèpe-paper piñata material, and everything is very colorful. I could just sit and watch this game all day.

The premise of the game (and please, bear with me here) is that you’re cultivating an area of land to attract living piñatas. One of the examples given was that if you have water, grass, and apples, you will attract the horse piñata. As you change and develop the environment, different types will arrive and leave. Maybe some types only show up if other types are already present. Some animals don’t get along, so you’ll either have to keep them separated, or there’s going to be a lot of candy spilled on the ground. Sometimes a sour piñata will arrive in your town, being violent and attacking the other residents. You can either lure him away, try to cure him, or just get your shovel and beat him until his sour candy pours out. Of course, then you risk other animals getting infected….

I suppose that if there were a goal to the game, it would be to eventually collect every different type of piñata. To that end, you can package up one of your residents and give or trade it to a friend over Xbox Live. Some will be common, and some will be rare. Maybe you will end up with a rare color combination that you can sell in the Xbox Live Marketplace. If you want, you can pay someone else to come in to your town (again, over Xbox Live) and do your gardening and take care of your town. And of course, the developers will continually be adding new items and piñatas that will be available for download.

Although I am a big fan of the potential for online connectivity, there are admittedly some concerns. The developers mentioned having new content available, but were unclear whether it would be free or not. Is this entire game just a ploy to get obsessed gamers to play $1.99 each month to download the latest cool pets? Or will most of the content be free? And why is there already a cartoon tie-in planned? I suppose the jury is still out on this one. It sounds like a mere shadow of what Spore will be, especially since the types of piñatas are limited by what the developers create, while Spore has an infinite number of creatures designed by millions of other players across the globe, all downloaded to your machine seamlessly in the background, for free. But from a strictly 360-centered point of view, I think Viva Piñata looks intriguing.

Guitar Hero II (PS2)

Not much to say about this one. It will have something like forty new licensed songs, and a number of other independent tracks. One of the licensed songs is “YYZ” by Rush, and I got to try out the bass line. I don’t really have any news other than that. It will come out this fall, and you’ll buy it, because it is insanely addictive and one of the best PS2 games ever made. What more do you need to know?

Heavenly Sword (PS3)

Oh look, a PlayStation 3 game made it onto my list! Well, don’t get your hopes up too high. The demo of this medieval fighting game was set in an arena, where your double-bladed heroine gets to face off against scores of enemies. Gameplay-wise, it seems very similar to God of War, as you have several different attacks using your chain blades, as well as pre-scripted combo moves that you execute by hitting the right combination of button presses following the on-screen prompts.

So why did this make my list? Three reasons: One, it is just a lot of fun to play. They really make you feel in control of the character, as she jumps around and pulls off various combination moves. Secondly, the graphics are just stunning. Everything is suffused with a golden glow, from the metal on the armor to the ethereal haze of the weaponry. This is the only PS3 game I saw that really looked better than the 360. And finally, it seemed to have some great character A.I. When you start off the demo, the enemies are watching you practice your moves in the arena. As you perform various tricks, they laugh and clap and cheer and goad you on. Then, as they start attacking, the onlookers react realistically to what is happening on the battle. If other games can start having background characters that act this realistically, then I will be very pleased with the direction the next generation is headed.

Super Paper Mario (GameCube)

For some reason, Nintendo chose not to have any GameCubes on the show floor. Okay, maybe there was a good reason, since Super Paper Mario looks like the only new first-party GameCube game they announced. But it looks like the GameCube will go out with a bang! Super Paper Mario looks like a traditional side-scrolling action game utilizing the 2-D paper look from the Paper Mario RPG series. However, as with Paper Mario, this game plays with those conventions in interesting ways. Since the characters are literally flat, they can slide under obstacles, roll up and blow away, turn into a paper airplane, and do all sorts of other crazy feats.

This looks like a game that plays with the conventions of traditional side-scrolling action games, and throws in a bunch of perspective changes from 2-D to 3-D just to confuse the player. From the demo movie I saw, there were shots of a giant Mario character drawn in the blocky style from Donkey Kong, characters running on walls as gravity changes direction, and strange art-deco–inspired moving backgrounds. It’s been a while since the GameCube has had a good, classically-inspired Mario game.

After much consideration, I am finally ready to reveal my favorite game of E3.

Game of the Show: Spore

Spore is almost maddeningly difficult to describe. (However, the flash intro on the web site actually does a pretty good job of summarizing the game; go check it out.) Adding to the difficulty is the fact that Spore appears to have a near-infinite amount of depth and replayability. With that in mind, I am going to keep my description short and to the point. Otherwise, I would end up spending hours talking about it.

Spore was created by Will Wright, the genius behind SimCity and The Sims. It is a sandbox game, where you guide the development of a race from a single-celled organism to exploration and conquest of the entire galaxy. There are six basic phases, some of which directly correspond to other games. You start off in a two-dimensional tide pool, eating and avoiding larger creatures. As you eat, you gain DNA points that allow you to customize your creature; you can add better flagella, for example, or something that allows you to attack would-be predators. Eventually, you graduate up the creature phase, where the game switches to 3D, in the water and, eventually, on land, as you develop the appropriate appendages. Again, you eat, attack, gain DNA points, mate, lay eggs, and use those points to develop your creature even further.

Here’s where it gets good: You can modify your creatures through a spectacular creature editor that lets you choose mouths, eyes, limbs, hands, feet, weapons, and decorations for your creature. Depending on how far along your creature has developed, you get different sets of items to choose from, and what you choose affects your creature’s strength, speed, stealth, and eating habits (herbivore or carnivore). The amazing thing is the amount of control you have over every step of the creation process. Not only do you place parts on your creature, but you can alter their size, shape, angle…you can make a creature with two mouths instead of one, or something with two legs, each of which ends in two more legs…you can put a hand on your tail, or have six arms and four legs. You have infinite possibilities for what you can create, and the amazing part is that whatever you make is procedurally animated, so it knows how to walk, attack, cheer, and play.

Get comfortable, because we still have a long way to go. Once you design your creature, you can then choose how to color and texture it. Want a black creature with white stripes? Done. What about dark blue with red ridges down its back? Easy. What about a mottled purple scaly coat, with maroon stripes and yellow polka dots? Not a problem. You can create a base texture and layer up to three other textures on top of it, and the end results are amazing. Will Wright has said that their goal is to let someone create a creature in a few minutes that it would take a Pixar artist a week to design, and from what I can tell, they have done it. I imagine that I could spend weeks just designing new creatures. Wright even pointed out that with his previous games, they made these fantastic editors that were only really used by maybe ten percent of the players. So what is the point of sitting around designing cool creatures, if you’re the only one who sees them? Read on….

Okay, so now you have your creature designed and evolved. Eventually it becomes sentient, which means that you switch from controlling one creature, to controlling an entire race of creatures. At this point, it switches to a tribal game, much like Black & White or Populous. Now you influence your creatures by providing huts or tools or weapons or musical instruments, to control how they act and what they do. After a while, you switch to the city phase (à la SimCity) where you help develop architecture and technology as your city takes form. And like the creature phase, you have a building editor, where you can design your own edifices if you don’t like the ones provided for you. (More on that below….) You can also use or design vehicles for your creatures, either walking vehicles, tanks, or planes. Again, a full editor is available for each of these.

As you develop and branch out, you will run into other cities on your planet. At that point, it switches to a civilization game (like Civilization, natch) where you choose how to deal with the other inhabitants of your planet. You can invade them, defend against invasion, try to make peace, trade…whatever you want. One way or another, you will eventually have control over your entire planet.

Then you develop space travel.

Yep, you get a spaceship (or design it) and travel out through your solar system. Here is where the space phase starts. You discover other planets, some of which are uninhabitable, and some of which might have other creatures. You can choose to place a colony in a sealed bubble, or you can choose instead to terraform the planet to give it an atmosphere that can support life. At that point, you can colonize the planet, or just abduct some of your own indigenous creatures and plant them on the planet. And if you’re lucky, you may find an ancient artifact that you can use to upgrade your technology.

Once you’re done with the local solar system, it’s time to travel out through the galaxy. In stages, you travel farther and farther away, discovering other solar systems, each with its own set of planets. Along the way, you will discover other cities and other civilizations. Will these people worship you as a god? Will they want to trade with you? If they are friendly, then how will they react when you try to abduct one of them? Or maybe they’ll just attack you outright. So maybe you retaliate and destroy their city…or their planet. Oops, it turns out that it was just one colony of a much more powerful race, and now your homeworld is under attack. Are you going to go back and help them, or just keep exploring the galaxy? After all, there are literally millions of solar systems out there to discover….

So you go from a single cell to conquering other solar systems. To call this game “epic” would be an understatement. But I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet: Each of the other solar systems in your galaxy is populated with creatures and cities and civilizations from other players. Read that sentence again. When you play, you are designing your own unique creature, and the computer is watching what you build and how you play. That information gets uploaded to the internet, and then downloaded to other players’ computers for them to discover. At the same time, the millions of stars in your system contain data downloaded from other players. While you are not playing against those players directly, the computer will control those civilizations and play them in the same way that the original players did. That’s the genius of this game: It takes the universe of other players and playstyles, and turns it into a literal universe to explore and interact with. The content will never get old, and there will always be something new to discover.

Now, remember all those editors I talked about earlier? There’s the creature editor, flora, buildings, vehicles, and spaceships, and maybe a few others I don’t know about. Well, when you design something in one of those editors, it again gets uploaded to the internet, and downloaded to everyone’s individual machines, and their content comes to you. So that means that when you want to, say, get a fighter for your creatures, you can choose from ones designed by thousands of other players. Not only will those selections be sorted by popularity, but your previous design choices will also influence the recommendations. Oh, and if you like something by a particular players, you can bookmark them, and other items they design will be recommended more highly in the future. Basically, it’s like an Amazon recommendation system for in-game design ideas.

So that’s the game in a nutshell. I haven’t even gone into detail about many other things, like the fact that how you play your creature early on affects how it acts socially, or that you can collect other creatures that you have scanned into “gotta catch ’em all”-type trading cards, or that you can develop a race of weak creatures who are more powerful because they hunt in packs. I sat through a 15-minute demo, and I already have more information than I can succinctly share. Personally, I imagine just spending days and days designing various creatures and spaceships. It seems like the game is whatever you want to make of it. If you like the creature phase, just play that. If you want city building, then work on that. It seems almost too good to be true, but if even half of what has been planned comes to fruition, this could be the be-all and end-all of sim games. It comes out in 2007. I can’t wait.

For those of you on a Mac with iPhoto, or with an RSS-capable newsreader, you can now subscribe to my E3 2006 photocast. Either click on the link above, or go into iPhoto and select File: Subscribe to Photocast, and paste in the URL. You will then be subscribed to my photocast, which you can view at your leisure, place on your desktop, or set as your screensaver. Just go nuts! Later, I will post the accompanying guide to the various celebrities I ran into at the show.

It looks like E3 is finally over and done with, and I know everyone is waiting with breathless anticipation for my ranking of the various consoles. Wait no longer!

1. Wii

After the initial skepticism about the “revolutionary” new console from Nintendo, the Wii started out strong with a two-hour wait to try it out. By Thursday, the wait was four hours, and the crowds didn’t die down the rest of the week. Nintendo finally showed off games for its new system (26 to be exact), and reactions were almost universally positive. There are still some details that need to be ironed out, such as a little too much sensitivity when using the pointer. But other than that, the Wii had a tremendous showing, with many highly-anticipated games the demonstrated that the new controller is not just a gimmick.

The Wii has everyone buzzing about its potential, and for the first time in a long time, it really got me excited about the potential for completely new types of gameplay. However, unlike some other systems (see below), they actually had a solid group of games to back up their claims, including some high-profile third-party games like Red Steel. Add in the always-on connectivity, the ability to play classic games by Nintendo and others, and the added surprises with the controller, and you have the smash hit of the show, hands down.


1.5. Nintendo DS

Okay, this isn’t technically one of the big three consoles, but I had to include the Nintendo DS in the mix, simply because, again, it had such a large variety of games to show off. There were a surprising number of first-party Nintendo titles being shown, including many sequels to old favorites: New Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Kirby, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, Star Fox DS, and Yoshi’s Island 2. Then you have some surprising new games like Mario Hoops 3-on-3, and the completely bizarre but engrossing Elite Beat Agents, about a group of male cheerleaders.

And just like the Wii, the DS games displayed many examples of new and unique gameplay techniques. Tap the screen in Mario Hoops to control the rate and position of your dribbling. Tap in time with the music in Elite Beat Agents to perform the correct cheers. You can direct characters in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 Phantom Hourglass. In the third-party game Spectrobes, you can excavate fossils using the touch screen, and then get rid of dust and particles by blowing on the screen (thanks to the built-in microphone). And I haven’t even talked about the Wi-Fi internet connectivity. Developers keep coming up with more and more ways to use the unique advantages of the DS.

As for the hardware, the functional DS has been replaced by the sexy DS Lite, which is both smaller and lighter than the original, with brighter screen and a glossy white exterior just like the very best Apple products. This system is so impressive that there have been lines around the block in Japan just to get one, and they have been selling out consistently for months now. And remember, this isn’t even some new system; it is just an update to the current one. When an updated version continues to sell out, you know you have a hit on your hands.


2. Xbox 360

I will admit that the Xbox 360 games at the show looked excellent. However, I was a little put off by the number of first-person shooters. Oh look, this one is in the snow! This one is in the jungle! Oh, and this one takes place in a war-torn post-apocalyptic city! How original! There were however some stand-out titles that I saw, which I will discuss at a later date.

What really fascinates me about the 360 is the Xbox Live features, specifically Xbox Live Arcade. With cheap, simple, fun games that you can purchase and download, the 360 looks to be a great platform for the small developer who doesn’t have the multi-million-dollar budgets of an EA. And you will be able to play Lumines Live over Xbox Live, which almost sells the console right there. I think the system has a lot of potential, which pains me to say since I have been such a Sony fan since the first PlayStation. However, at $200 less than the PS3, it looks like a much better deal.


3. PlayStation 3

Microsoft’s Peter Moore recommended buying a Wii. No no, he hasn’t gone crazy; he simply pointed out that instead of a PlayStation 3, you could buy an Xbox 360 and a Wii for the same price. And you have to admit, he has a point. At $599 for a console, the games for the PlayStation 3 would have to be pretty impressive.

And honestly, they just weren’t. Sure, they looked pretty, but they were pretty versions of the same old gameplay. A sword-fighting game? A World War II(-ish) shooter? A prettier high-definition version of the same old Gran Turismo game? At least the pretty graphics will give me nice dreams while I fall asleep from the gameplay.

You know, I’m a huge Sony fan, and they really wouldn’t have had to do much to impress me. Sadly, they couldn’t even do that much. I mean, yeah the grass in Madden looks nicer, but in the end, the gameplay is still the same. I saw nothing to lead me to believe that the PS3 would take gaming to the next level, other than a lot of empty promises about Sony’s online service being the “Xbox Live killer,” and some stuff about how easy it will be to buy music and movies online. Yawn. I was not impressed by the PS3, and at this point, unless they come up with some amazing games between now and November, I predict that the 360 will beat them this holiday season, if not longer. I really wish I had something better to say about Sony, but I really don’t.

It�s late, and I�m bored and tired, so I give you The Cynic�s Guide to the Microsoft E3 Presentation. Enjoy. I�ll report back later if anything blows my skirt up.

How many of you know someone who has never seen a movie, or watched a TV show, or read a book? None? Of course not. Its preposterous.

Now, how many of you know someone, maybe even within your own family, who has never played a video game?”

And with those words, Reggie Fils-Amie eloquently stated Nintendos strategy: to expand the market by attracting people who have never played video games.

Once again, you can read a painstakingly-detailed description of the Nintendo E3 2006 keynote over at Kotaku, but let me give you the short version:

The Nintendo DS is selling like hotcakes laced with caffeine and slathered in crack.

People laughed at the idea of the DS, but now non-traditional games like Nintendogs and Brain Age are selling to a different demographic

The Wii controller…

The second part of the controller (the nunchuk”) has an analog stick for movement. However, it also contains a tilt and motion sensor, so you can do things like slash a sword with your right hand, then block with your left. Or if you come to a door (using your right hand as the gun), you can open the door by making a push the door open” motion with your left hand. It looks really, incredibly easy to use, and will open up whole new areas of gameplay.

But what about the games? After all, whats a new system without games? Well here are a few for starters: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; Metroid Prime 3: Corruption; WarioWare: Smooth Moves; Super Mario Galaxy; SUPER MARIO GALAXY!!!!!!111!!!!!; a new Sonic game, a new Rayman game, and some whole new franchises like Project: H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster: Day of Crisis. Basically, nearly everything looked interesting, fresh, and looks like it will use the controller in a multitude of ways. I have not been this excited about a new system for a long long time.

Oh, and for the GameCube: Super Paper Mario, which, again, looks unreal. Think a 2D platformer, with a bunch of mind-bending 3D effects. Really, you have to see the video.

And the DS? Yoshis Island 2, Starfox DS, Mario Hoops Three-on-Three, Elite Beat Agents, Mario vs. DK: March of the Minis…the list goes on and on.

Lets see, what else…? Oh, the Wii will be connected to the internet even while its sleeping, so a game developer can push new items or levels, or a friend can visit your Animal Crossing town and drop off a present. Cool.

And then they invited a guy from the audience to play a four-man tennis match with Shigeru Miyamoto, Fils-Amie, and Satoru Iwata. The gameplay looked easy to pick up, and just fun. Oh, and 27 games will be playable on the show floor.

So thats it. I am thrilled about the Wii, and I cant wait to try it out! I will give more reports tomorrow night, after I try the games out. I think this could revitalize the gaming market in a way no one has ever imagined.

You can read a report from the Sony E3 2006 press conference at Kotaku, but let me give you a few highlights:

Lots of new games for the PS3.

Sony free online service will do everything that Xbox Live does, except twice as fast and much shinier. Oh, and it will cook you dinner.

You can buy new levels and items for your games. Yay.

The new PS3 games will be pretty much like PS2 games, except with better graphics

The PS3 controller will be wireless, and have tilt sensors in it, except without the position sensors of the Wii controller.

And what�s with the faux-Wii controller? Gee Sony, weren�t you just talking about the �gimmicks” that the other systems are using? This implementation is much more limited than what the Wii controller will be able to do. Since Sony and Microsoft already have tons of overlap for third-party games, that pretty much guarantees that the PS3 version will not use the tilt sensor, or will use it just for a few little gimmicky extras that no one will care about.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the price: $499 for a version with a 20GB hard drive and some features stripped out (HDMI, Wi-Fi), or $599 for a fully-featured version with a 60GB hard drive. Contrast that with the Xbox 360 price of $299 for the version without a hard drive, and $399 for the version with. Or the Wii, rumored to be between $199 and $250.

Here�s the thing: I�m the target market for these guys, and I love my PlayStation 2…and I didn�t care about the Sony press conference. I saw nothing there that makes me excited. In fact, I see the potential for skyrocketing development costs that will result in the same old games, except shinier and high-definition. Right now, I feel like people are going to start realizing that the emperor has no clothes. I predict that people are going to pay $599 for a system, and say, �I spent all that money for THIS?” While I don�t think it will lead to another videogame crash, I will go on record with my prediction that this generation of PlayStation will be a very slow starter. Maybe a few years down the road, when HDTVs are more commonplace, and the price has dropped. But not this holiday season, and not the next. It hurts me to say it, but that�s how I feel.

For you Mac users out there, I have published a few pictures from my previous trips to E3 in 2003 and 2004. Each evening during the week, I will update it with pictures from this year. To use these pictures as your screen saver, go to the Apple menu, System Preferences, Desktop & Screen Saver, and click the Screen Saver tab. Then from the list of screen savers, select .Mac, and click Options. Type in my .Mac membership name (bates), make sure the slide show is checked, and you should be set! As new pictures are uploaded, your machine will automatically download them and update your screen saver.

I don�t know how I missed this last week, but Penny Arcade received a press release listing seven of the songs from the upcoming Guitar Hero II. They are:

�Psychobilly Freakout”—Reverend Horton Heat
�Strutter”—KISS
�Who Was in My Room Last Night”—Butthole Surfers
�War Pigs”—Black Sabbath
�Arterial Black”—Drist
�You Really Got Me”—Van Halen
�YYZ”—Rush

Rush?!!?? YYZ?? Not only is this fantastic from a lead-guitar point of view, but it will include a second track for the bass line. YYZ is one of those incredible bass songs, and my mouth is watering waiting for this one!

When I read truth, I love to share it. And thanks to 43 Folders, I found a fantastic article about living a backlogged life. The gist of the article is this: At one point in time, if we missed something, it was gone: a phone call, a TV show, whatever. But now, thanks to the wonders of technology, these time sinks are now collected and sorted and aggregated for future enjoyment. Instead of letting technology free us, it has removed our ability to let go of the past.

As I’ve been trying to get my life organized, this point particularly resonated with me. As I try to get my life organized, I have realized that the more you hang on to the past, the more difficult it is to enjoy the present. The more I worry about sorting and deleting and responding to my old email, the less time I spend actually working on things that I need to do today. And sure, I have hundreds of hours of shows recorded on the TiVo, but which are the ones that I watch as soon as they are recorded, and which are the ones I think that I might get to someday, maybe?

This has also affected my life in a purely financial sense. A long time ago, I read a great book by the Motley Fool entitled You Have More Than You Think. The authors offered a piece of advice about purchasing luxury items which has great application to daily life: Don’t buy something new unless you’ve used up what you already have. For example, don’t buy a magazine at the newsstand if you have a magazine you haven’t read sitting on the coffee table at home. Don’t buy a new book if you have a shelf of unread books in your office. It’s really a simple rule, and it’s very lenient if you’re using what you have. I have been trying to follow that rule, in general, but recently I have gotten very specific in applying it.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling very poor, and feeling like my spending was getting out of control. In an effort to get ahead of the game, I decided to go into lockdown. I have so many unread books sitting around, and so many unwatched DVDs, and so many unplayed video games, that I could literally not buy any media for probably a year, and still have plenty to do in my free time. So, until I have made some headway on what I already own, I am not buying anything new. I expect that at some point, something will come along for which I will bend these rules a bit, but I hope that will be the exception rather than the norm. Until then, I hope to find a new appreciation for the things I already own. Maybe I’ll finally get to that great book that I’ve heard so much about, or that videogame series that I never finished. It’s as if my entire life were leading up to this point. I’ve collected all this crap my whole life; time to start enjoying it.

Have you seen an Xbox 360 blog? No, I�m not talking about a blog about the Xbox 360; I�m talking about a blog by the Xbox 360.

Really, you have got to be kidding me.

I know it�s two weeks early, but this is breaking videogame news, so I�m counting it in the first of the E3 2006 news reports. The new console from Nintendo has been known by its code name, the Revolution, for some time. However, Nintendo have now provided its official name:

Wii

Yes, Wii. Sounds like �we.� Here�s the information from the official site:

Introducing Wii.

As in �we.�

While the code-name �Revolution� expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.

Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.

Wii will put people more in touch with their games�and each other. But you�re probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like �we,� which emphasizes this console is for everyone.

Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive �ii� spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.

And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that�s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.

Because, it�s really not about you or me.

It�s about Wii.

And together, Wii will change everything.

At the very least, I�m intrigued. I�m not sure what the ad campaign is going to be though. �I can�t do my homework now Mom; I gotta Wii.�

Even though a set list is not yet available, it has been announced that Guitar Hero II will be released in November, with at least 55 playable. No word yet on whether they will all be hit songs, or whether some of those will be from independent artists, like in the current Guitar Hero, which has 30 classic tracks, and some number of additional no-name tracks.

One of the fantastic additions to Guitar Hero II will be expanded multiplayer. In the current game, if two people play together, they either alternate playing the lead, or play it simultaneously. In the second game, there will be an additional music track for each song. For some, it will be rhythm guitar, and for some, it will be bass. You can then choose ahead of time which person will be playing lead, and which will be playing backup. I sent an email requesting a Bass Hero game a while back, so it sounds like somebody listened to me!

Oh, and I heard elsewhere that they are expecting to release five or six Guitar Hero games between now and next year, including the possibility of themed games, á la Karaoke Revolution Country. For my money (literally!), the more games, the better.

You can read the entire interview with the game�s creators for more information.

In just 28 short days, I will be in the middle of E3 2006, the Electronics Entertainment Expo! (Actually, I�ll be there 27 days from now, but I forgot to post this yesterday.) For those of you who don�t know, E3 is to video games what the Super Bowl is to baseball (or soccer, or whatever that sport is). All of the game manufacturers come together and provide playable versions of their games coming out in the next year (or more).

It�s also the place where all the major console manufacturers announce their plans for the next year. This year is particularly significant because it�s the once-every-five-years event where all the new consoles are released (give or take a year). According to the venerable Wikipedia (which is only as reliable and accurate as the general population), this is the seventh generation of video game consoles, although it is the sixth by my count, as I start counting at the Atari 2600, which really started the video game market.

Let me step back a moment and recommend that everyone read about the Video Game Crash of 1984 (incorrectly cited by Wikipedia as the Video Game Crash of 1983). It is important that we study history; otherwise, we are doomed to repeat it. It was a crazy time to be a video game fan, to be sure. I vividly remember my favorite magazine, Electronic Games, changing its name to Electronic Fun (With Computers and Games), in order to distance itself from the dying console market. (I have no idea if the modern Electronic Gaming Monthly is in any way related to the original Electronic Games.)

The impact of the Crash was so great that I got out of console gaming, missing the NES era entirely. (I am only now experiencing the best games that I missed, thanks to the brilliant Game Boy Advance console and its healthy supply of retro games.) I returned in the middle of the 16-bit era, picking up a Sega Genesis during my late college years, about three years into its five-year life cycle. I remained behind with the next generation, and only got a PlayStation for Christmas in 1998, again, about three years after its release. The net effect of getting into that console so late is that there was already an established library of great games for me to choose from. My experience with the PlayStation was so monumentally life-changing that I picked up the PlayStation 2 at launch in October of 2000.

A few years later, I repeated my PlayStation experience of getting into a console late in the game, and picked up a Nintendo GameCube for the low low price of $99, which included four classic Legend of Zelda games: two from the NES era (which, as previously mentioned, I had bypassed) and two from the Nintendo 64 (which, again, I had missed altogether). In fact, one of those Nintendo 64 games, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, is widely considered to be the greatest video game of all time. I haven�t played it so I can�t comment, but my favorite video game of the modern era is somewhat different.

Which, in a convoluted way, brings us back to today. The Xbox 360 has already been released, so that�s old news. The new darlings for E3 2006 will be the PlayStation 3 and the wild card Nintendo Revolution. Though both were announced at E3 2005, this year is the first where the games will be playable (including, hopefully, Metal Gear Solid 4).

Will Sony maintain its place at the top of the console heap? After all, no company has maintained console superiority for two successive generations…at least, not until Sony came along. (Starting with the 2600, the progression has been Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Sony.) But have gamers become tired of just more of the same? Or will Nintendo pull gamer in with their new controller, which promises to change current gameplay completely? Nintendo has already stated that there is at least one more secret to the Nintendo controller that has yet to be revealed….

In any case, I will keep you posted as news leaks out over the next few weeks. Historically, many of the big news announcements have been during the Tuesday press conferences prior to the opening of the exhibit floor on Wednesday. I�ll provide a news update then, and nightly reports from the show floor. And, as with E3 2003 and 2004, I will be staying with Dave in his newly-Mac�ed guest room. As far as vacations go, it doesn�t get any better than that.

Some have accused me of having little self-control when it comes to purchases. If that�s the case, then these Katamari Damacy t-shirts could be very, very bad for me.

Rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution have been around for quite a while now. While a few can use the standard console controller, such as the fantastic Amplitude, most of them require a specialized peripheral to complete the experience: a dance pad for Dance Dance Revolution, a miniature Japanese drum for Taiko Drum Master, or bongo drums for Donkey Konga. The problem with these peripherals is that they can sometimes seem gimmicky or unnatural to use, or even somewhat unnecessary. Maybe they take some skill to learn, but more often than not, they are only good for a laugh at a party, as you watch someone jump around on a dance pad or bang on some goofy plastic drums.

So when peripheral maker Red Octane set out to make a guitar game, it is fair to be a little skeptical, thinking they would just want to whip out a quick game to sell their goofy plastic guitar. But then they selected Harmonix to develop the actual software…Harmonix, who created the aforementioned Amplitude, as well as Karaoke Revolution series. As a company, their stated purpose is “to create new ways for non-musicians to experience the unique joy that comes from making music.” So with one company making the hardware, and another working on the software, the question remained of whether Guitar Hero would end up as merely a gimmick, or as a satisfying music experience.

Wonderland has a transcript of the keynote speech from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. It provides some important context for the reasoning behind the Revolution controller, as well as Nintendo�s view of the worldwide videogame market in general. Definitely worth reading.

If you don�t know anything about the videogame world, then you may not be hip to the controversy surrounding Nintendo�s next-generation console, the Revolution. Let me catch you up in three sentences: The Revolution was revealed at E3, but the controller was not shown. Nintendo says that the controller will be revolutionary, and change how you play games. Some people think that Nintendo are geniuses, while some think they are just blowing smoke.

All caught up? Good. Here�s the Revolution controller. I have no idea what to think about it at this point, since I haven�t even read the article. My short five-second opinion: It�s a remote control that is tilt sensitive. Other than that, I have no opinion as of yet.

Well, what are you still doing here? Get reading!

Of course, everyone remembers the old Nintendo Game & Watch LCD games, and everyone knows that they were later revived with the excellent Game & Watch Gallery games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. So what�s my dream? That they would recreate the old dual-screen Game & Watch titles for the Nintendo DS. After all, the designs of the 2004 DS and the 1982 Game & Watch look strikingly similar.

For another perspective on our GTA-fueled violent society, you might want to read this article at Game Revolution.

In the wake of recent controversy over the �Hot Coffee” mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which activates a previously-hidden sex scene within the game), the Entertainment Software Rating Board has changed the rating from �M” (Mature 17+) to �AO” (Adults Only 18+). You can read more details of the fallout in this press release.

The upshot of this is that stores which refuse to carry �AO” titles are pulling San Andreas from the shelves. For stores that still want to carry it, Rockstar is providing �AO” stickers to place on current boxes. And Rockstar has downgraded their profit estimates for the next quarter…and they will no doubt be shocked when they soundly beat these estimates, as people rush to buy up every last copy of San Andreas before it gets pulled. I tell you, if I hadn�t thought of this on Tuesday and picked up my own copy of the game, I would feel quite the fool right now.

As for the �hot coffee” issue itself, I don�t think Rockstar is entirely blameless. I mean, yes, accessing the �sex minigame” requires third-party devices to actually modify the code, as it is completely disabled in the normal version of the game. But on the other hand, the minigame was in there in the first place; it would be difficult or impossible to put such a scene in simply through that same kind of device. I think the uproar over the content itself is unwarranted; as someone else pointed out, the sex scene is no more graphic than something you would see on �Sex and the City,” and I don�t think there is any nudity. If someone is going to go through the effort to unlock a poorly-rendered sex scene, they could just as easily (or more easily) obtain actual pornographic material. Still, Rockstar shouldn�t have left that code in. Hopefully this won�t have too many lasting repercussions for the videogame industry.

If you check out this week�s Best Buy ad, you will find that they have a deal this week on PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits titles: 2 for $22. Yes, you read that right. It almost makes me wish that I could get rid of my PS2 and buy everything all over again. Some of the highest-ranked PS2 games are now Greatest Hits titles, including Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, Tony Hawk� Pro Skater 3 and 4, Burnout 3…those are all in the top ten! Like fighting games? Get Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution and Soul Calibur II. Action? Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Devil May Cry. Snowboarding? SSX Tricky and SSX 3. Like platformers? Ratchet & Clank and the sequel, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. Or get Jak & Daxter and Jak II. For RPG lovers, you can pick up Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. Want a shooter? Get SOCOM, SOCOM II, or TimeSplitters 2. NBA Street and NBA Street Vol. 2, NFL Street…the list goes on and on and on.

You can get four fantastic games for the price of one regularly-priced PS2 game. If you have a few extra ducats laying around, you can build an amazing game library. Note that this deal is for Reward Zone members only, so sign up if you haven�t already (and as a bonus, you get gift certificates in the mail for $5 for every $150 you spend). If nothing else, everyone should pick up Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City.

Here�s a good article from Anandtech about the PS3.

Sony has finally announced the specs for the PlayStation 3. Most of the data won’t mean anything (3.2GHz PowerPC core, 1.8 TFLOPS GPU, etc.), so I’ll just highlight the important points as I see them:

Video: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, LPCM, etc. Storage: Detachable 2.5" hard drive (capacity unknown) Ports: USB 2.0, Memory Stick Duo, SD, CompactFlash Communication: up to 1000Base-T (i.e. gigabit Ethernet), WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 Controller: up to 7 Bluetooth controllers, USB 2.0 (wired), PSP (WiFi) Video Out: HDMI Media: Blu-Ray disc

Note that the Xbox 360 only does (“only”!) 1080i, and has four wireless controllers, not seven. No shots have the controller have been shown, but the system itself looks nice. (Funny…it’s convex, where the 360 is concave.) Comes in white, silver, or black. I really want to see the controller though.

I’ll probably post shots once all three systems have been revealed, so sometime after Nintendo’s press conference tomorrow morning at 9:00.

For up-to-the-minute news about E3 and the new systems, I would recommend the following sites (in order of preference):

Evil Avatar (great gaming news in a blog format)

IGN (general all-purpose gaming site)

Penny Arcade (not as timely, but they’ll have good coverage of things of interest)

And of course:

Sony PlayStation

Xbox 360

Nintendo

Here we are on the cusp of E3 2005, and a flood of videogame news is imminent. Unfortunately, I will not be attending E3 this year, as other duties have taken priority. But really, besides the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Revolution, will there really be that much to see?

Before the new information comes rolling in, here is a quick summary of what has been announced so far, and what is rumored for the new systems:

Xbox 360: There is the most information about the Xbox 360, as Microsoft is trying to get the jump on the other console manufacturers to combat their perceived also-ran status since the Xbox came out so much later than the PlayStation 2. (Of course, the original PlayStation came out much later than the Sega Saturn, and that case is cited as giving Sony the advantage, since they had more time to hone and perfect their system without rushing it to market. I guess whatever happens in the marketplace, people will provide retroactive explanations for it.) Not only is Microsoft providing information earlier, but their console is supposed to be available this year, as opposed to early 2006 for the PlayStation 3. As for what the name “Xbox 360” means, my theory is that they changed it so it would be numerically close to the PS3. After all, why would you want to buy an Xbox 2 when you could get a PlayStation 3?

The design of the Xbox 360 is based around the “inhalation” or “double concavity.” Yeah, whatever. It’s white, very clean-looking, and can sit horizontally or vertically. The CPU is an IBM PowerPC (wait, I think that’s been used somewhere else…) with an ATI graphics processor (which, since the Xbox used an Nvidia graphics processor, leads people to assume that the 360 will not be backwards-compatible). It has an externally-attached 20GB hard drive, although it is unclear whether this will be included with every system. (There were rumors of two configurations: one with the hard drive, and one without.) This is good because you can take your drive over to a friend’s house, and also upgrade it in the future.

All Xbox 360 games are required to support high-definition output, either 720p or 1080i (or possibly both), 16:9 aspect ratio, multichannel surround sound, and custom music playlists. The system will also play standard DVDs in progressive scan, but will not support any of the high-definition DVD formats (unlike the PS3, which will support Blu-Ray). The system also includes built-in 802.11g wireless networking, USB 2.0 ports, and slots for memory cards. And finally, the system includes support for up to four wireless controllers, a console first. (The only other first-party wireless controller is the Nintendo Wavebird, but even that is a separate purchase.)

So in all, the system looks really impressive. I haven’t even gone into the details of the new Xbox Live service, which will have both a free version, which will allow you to download new content, chat, send messages, and other things, but you will have to upgrade to the pay version to play other people online (except for specific free-weekend promotions). Seems like a good way to hook people in. I haven’t seen much in the way of actualy game demos yet, but if you assume the graphics will be suitably impressive, you probably aren’t too far off.

Nintendo Revolution: Okay, these next two will be much quicker, since there is not much information about either. The Nintendo Revolution is the follow-up to the Gamecube, and Nintendo has only provided a quick press release about it, prior to the big press conference on Tuesday. The salient points are: next-generation console, small (about the size of three DVD cases), horizontal or vertical alignment (thank you Sony!), built-in wireless internet, and backwards compatibility with the Gamecube. Backwards compatibility makes sense, as Nintendo has repeatedly said that the current technology should be able to deliver any number of fantastic games, and that companies should work on more-creative ideas, not faster processors. That said, I am not sure how advanced the new system will be relative to the Gamecube, which is quite a good system by itself.

Much more interesting are the rumors. Nintendo has said that the Revolution will be unlike any previous console, and will change how you think about console games. The Nintendo DS ad campaign focused on touching, and someone from Nintendo said about the Revolution, “Touching is good, but feeling is better.” Rumors are that the controller will not even have a standard joystick, but perhaps a touchpad or something similar. I have no idea of what that would look like or how it would play. Other rumors are that the system will have a built-in monitor, or possibly that it will support 3D (as in “3D glasses” 3D). I have reserved faith in Nintendo, but the DS didn’t blow my skirt up, so maybe the Revolution will.

PlayStation 3: There is the least information about the PS3. The new Cell processor is rumored to make it more powerful than the Xbox 2. It is supposed to come out next year. Other than that, nobody knows anything. Based on the other consoles, I would presume built-in wireless networking and wireless controllers. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

Game Boy Advance: Rumors are also circulating of a new game Boy Advance at E3, but it is unknown whether this is a new machine, or just a redesigned version of the current one.

So that’s all the rumors and news as of right now! Expect much more information this week!

Quick, check it out before it gets pulled: the Xbox 360 promo video.

Pac-Man is 25! Read a little history about video gaming’s first mascot at CNN. And if you have any interest in building an arcade cabinet of your own, SlikStik can supply you with authentic control panels, or even a ready-to-assemble arcade cabinet. Then all you need are a computer running MAME (the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), some sort of arcade-perfect multisync monitor, maybe an authentic coin door, and of course, your legal arcade ROMs. If you want to read reviews of any of the above products, RetroBlast has painfully-detailed reviews.

Some of you may remember in my E3 2004 report, where I picked God of War as the second-best game of the show (after the incredible Burnout 3). Well, the reviews are coming in, and to say that it is a critical success would be a gross understatement. According to GameRankings, a site which aggregates reviews from various publications, God of War is the best PlayStation 2 game of all time (Burnout 3 is eighth), and the seventh-best videogame of all time. Penny Arcade even has a short write-up and comic about it. Judging by the demo I played, I think they’re spot on. If you have a PS2, and have some time to play after the kids have gone to bed, this sounds like the game to get.

I am not sure of all the implications associated with this story, Sony loses PlayStation patent case, must pay $91M. It seems that if Sony loses the appeal, they will no longer be able to sell any of the infringing items, which include the PlayStation concoles, DualShock controllers, and 47 games. Of those games, there are some fantastic ones that I would highly rcommend, including Amplitude, Ape Escape, FantaVision, the Gran Turismo series, the Grand Theft Auto series, ICO, Jak & Daxter, Kingdom Hearts, The Mark of Kri, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Twisted Metal: Black, and War of the Monsters. Yikes! Many of these are only $20 on the Greatest Hits series, so if you don�t have them already (and you have a PS2), I would recommend making a Best Buy run and picking them all up. Soon.

Apparently Penny Arcade challenged Bungie to a game of Halo 2. You can read Penny Arcade�s take on the match, but personally, I thought that Bungie�s version was hilarious.

From this year�s Game Developer�s Conference, Mark Rein has some interesting comments about Epic Games� new Unreal 3 engine, and how it will reduce the cost of developing new videogames. It sounds incredibly powerful.

The more astute among you may remember hearing about God of War, the upcoming PlayStation 2 game which was my second-favorite pick in my E3 2004 Trip Report (behind the excellent and already-released Burnout 3). Well, I was reading about God of War in my latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and I discovered that the director, David Jaffe, has his own blog! If I have been more on-the-ball, I might have snagged one of the demo discs he was giving out. In any case, he has some interesting posts about the development process and progress, and the game itself is being released in March, so I may have to pull myself away from World of Warcraft for a while to play it. It was incredibly fluid and fun to play, and I can’t wait for the full game to come out!

Curmudgeon Gamer has a list of gaming gaffes of 2004. Interesting reading. You may want to read the 2003 version as well.

I read the news about the exclusive licensing agreement between EA and the NFL earlier this week, but somehow, I completely glossed over the �exclusive” part.

In case you don�t follow the world of sports videogames, the Madden NFL series has been the market leader for many, many years. To a large segment of the population, �Madden” is synonymous with �football videogame,” in much the same way that �Kleenex” and �Xerox” are synonymous with their respective markets (which are, of course, automotive parts and food service). This last year, Sega made a brilliant move and lowered the price of their competing ESPN NFL 2K5 game to $19.99, as opposed to the $49.99 charged for Madden. Obviously, they hoped that more people would be drawn to their cheaper offering, which also released several weeks before Madden. Based on discussions I have had, it seems like it worked: Many people tried 2K5 who wouldn�t have otherwise, and some even doubted if they would pick up Madden, since the 2K series is actually very good.

So now that we�re all up to speed, in rolls EA and buys the exclusive rights to the NFL teams, players, and stadiums. The ESPN NFL series is great, but I don�t think people will be buying ESPN Football Sim 2K6 with the Mudville Tigers playing against the North Upperton Leopards in the Tahomadome. Effectively, this eliminates any competition between EA in the football-game market, and they don�t have to worry about lowering the price of their game in the future. I think they will still be forced to innovate, since many won�t care if they�re playing the 2004 or 2005 version (or at least, I wouldn�t), but this is obviously bad for competition overall.

Combine this with the EA spouse story, and I am becoming more and more convinced that EA is truly evil. They do make great games, though.

If you want up-to-the-minute news on the after-Thanksgiving sales, check out Black Friday 2004. I went to Best Buy last year at 6:00 am, thinking in my naiveté that it would be empty and I could swoop in, get my stuff, and swoop out before the crowds rolled in. When I drove in and saw a line around the block, I suddenly realized what I was getting myself into. After I finally found a parking space, the line had just entered the building. After about twenty minutes of shopping, I got in line to pay. After another 55 minutes, I finally got up to the register. I went home with a bundle of cheap DVDs and an overdose of adrenaline. Hopefully they�ll have some good DVD deals this year.

Ars Technica has a wonderful review of Delicious Library, the wonderful Mac OS X program for cataloging DVDs, CDs, video games, and books. Along with a thorough review of the application, its target market (read: collectors) and its potential, there is some discussion about the Macintosh experience of installing and using new software.

If you don�t have a Mac and don�t want to wade through the multi-page review, just jump directly to page 4 and look at the screenshots, particularly the close-ups at the bottom of the page. The attention to detail is amazing. This is an application that caters to the person who wants to organize and display his collection, and you can tell that the developers worked to make something that is both easy to use and looks nice.

Here is my take on the controversial subject matter of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (and let me first apologize for not chiming in on Daves thread when he mentioned it many weeks ago):

I think that video games are often credited with more impact than they deserve when compared to, say, movies or books. I wasnt very active in the blogger community back in 1971, but I dont think there was a great outcry about the subject matter of The Godfather when it was released. Nor, I doubt, was there a great outcry about the original book. But for some reason, video games are looked at as more influential than these, although I would argue that quite the reverse is true.

But lets say for the sake of argument that its not. Lets assume that video games have more of an impact and are more life-changing than movies or books. Even then, why is the subject matter of gang life automatically taboo? The last time I checked (about an hour ago), The Godfather sat squarely at the top of the IMDB list of highest-ranked movies of all time. Yet here is a movie where a character goes from being an innocent, through a progression where he becomes the head of a large mafia organization and arranges for the murder of his sisters husband. The movie culminates in his denial of that very crime to his own wife. It does not end with redemption. (And if you watch the other two movies, it really doesnt end with redemption.) So why is this movie so universally lauded? Why did it, and its sequel, both win the Academy Award for Best Picture in their respective years?

I believe The Godfather is highly praised because it accurately portrays an American subculture that many (or most) people are not familiar with, and more specifically, how one extended family deals with life within that culture. It doesnt pass judgments, and it doesnt try to offer solutions. It just shows life how it is, or how it might be, and lets the viewer draw their own conclusions. Some people see The Godfather as a stern warning against the eventual corruption and destruction that come from a life of crime; others see it as a reinforcement of the importance of family. I can see how both interpretations are valid, because the subject matter is presented honestly. Even in Goodfellas, which is a much bleaker movie, people come up with wildly different interpretations on why events unfolded as they did, and what lessons can be taken away from it.

Which brings us back to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In a recent videogame magazine, someone (I cant remember if it was an editorial or a letter) complained about San Andreas, saying that the glamorous tradition of the mafia was a suitable subject for a video game, but the thuggery and seedy lifestyle of Los Angeles gang warfare was not something that was worthy of making a game about. To me, this smacks of elitism and ignorance. By implication, our respected Italian immigrants were complex people, whose struggle to survive in America led to a strong family bond and a desire to protect each other, even if it meant going outside of traditional law; while black street gangs are simply thugs and criminals, whose motivations are as complex and well-reasoned as a drive-by shooting. If you follow that logic, Boyz N the Hood is really just an inconsiderate and ill-conceived exploitation movie, not a poignant tale about the day-to-day life of people living within the poorer sections of Los Angeles.

Now, not having played the game, I am certainly not claiming that San Andreas is the videogame equivalent of The Godfather, or even Boyz N the Hood. For all I know, it could be a digital Soul Plane. All Im saying is that is the subject matter doesnt automatically preclude it from being something meaningful. In fact, this game might be more significant than the previous releases. For one thing, there have been plenty of games where the protagonist is a mob hitman, but how many put the player in the shoes of a black gangmember? Many games let the player choose a black character, but out of a selection of characters which includes some white characters. I think this is actually a sign of progress in terms of race relations.

Another reason why San Andreas is significant is because it is the first game that I am aware of that deals with these issues from the perspective of an insider. Its one thing to dismiss the actions of gang members for whatever reason, but its quite another to be playing a game where your best friend just got shot, or crack dealers are roaming the streets of your neighborhood, or whatever stereotypical motivations you can think of. In fact, I may have to change my earlier position: Maybe videogames have more of an influence, not less, than movies or books, because instead of watching another character make decisions based on his own drives, you are making those decisions yourself. Now, Im reasonably sure that San Andreas doesnt have a gameplay option where you study hard, stay in school, stay away from gangs and drugs, and become the first person is your family to go to college with a full scholarship, but within the confines of the story, there are decisions to be made and motivating factors to be aware of. From that perspective, I think that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has at least the potential to be a significant and important form of entertainment. And if you want to play and just shoot people and run over hookers, you can see how far that gets you. But unlike the movies, you make the choices, and you determine what happens to your character. If for no other reason than that, the game should be given a chance.

If you drove by your local GameStop or EB Games last night, you may have noticed people lining up for the midnight release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, arguably the most-anticipated PlayStation 2 release of all time. The previous games in the modern Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, have been considered among the greatest PS2 games of all time, receiving an aggregate score from GameRankings of 95% and 94%, respectively. Based on early reports, the latest one more than lives up to its predecessors. At the risk of overhyping the game, here is an excerpt from the IGN review:

I�m not going to beat around the bush. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the single best PlayStation 2 title I have ever played. It�s larger than the biggest RPG, has more story than the heftiest adventure game, and has almost as many mini-games as Nintendo�s Mario Party. Additionally, it has a production value that�s second to none, boasts a faithfulness to �90s source material with an eerie accuracy, and provides more hours of entertainment than all the previous Grand Theft Autos combined. In short, it�s a terrific unending masterpiece of a game—and one that will never fall victim to an over-exaggeration of its lofty status. It�s the defining piece of software for Sony�s successful sophomore system, and it�s almost impossible to imagine a PlayStation 2 library without it.

I don�t think I can describe Katamari Damacy any more succinctly than it has been described by Penny Arcade (although the comic also describes it pretty well):

Katamari Damacy is, in no uncertain terms, the finest 20 dollars I have ever spent on a new game.

Tell me if you've heard this one: As the tiny Prince of the Cosmos, you must roll a sticky ball around on the Earth, progressively picking up larger and larger things until your huge ball of garbage is transformed into a star.

In other videogame news, while it�s not a PS3, Sony has announced a redesigned PlayStation 2 that will be released on November 1. The new system is amazingly thin: only 2.8 cm, versus 7.8 cm for the current model. The overall weight has been cut in half as well. It looks like the new model uses a flip-top lid to insert games, instead of the slide-out drawer currently used. But most significantly, the new model has a built-in Ethernet port, so a network adapter is no longer needed. (However, if you want to use dial-up networking, I guess you still have to get the older machine and the current network adapter. It looks like Sony is embracing the Xbox model of broadband-only networking.)

To get an idea of just how small the new PS2 is, compare the size to the picture of the controller, or just look at the side-by-side comparison with the previous model. It really is amazing how much they can pack in to such a small unit! I can easily see people buying one of these as a pseudo-portable gaming system…it�s so light and thin, there�s no excuse not to take it with you wherever you go!

And on a somewhat unrelated note, Sony has also announced that the PS3 will use Blu-ray discs as its media format. The Blu-ray format is one of two competing formats for the next generation of DVDs that will display high-definition resolution, the other being HD-DVD, which uses the same red laser as current DVD players. Blu-ray players use a blue laser, which allows for more data to be packed onto a single disc; HD-DVD relies instead on better compression algorithms to achieve the same amount of data on a disc. The press release also mentions the MPEG4-AVC codec, which was developed by Apple to produce high-definition video with the same data rate as current DVDs. It is still unclear which format, Blu-ray or HD-DVD, will gain traction in the new high-definition DVD market, but at the very least, this will mean that the PS3 can potentially play back high-definition video in its native format. Truly, we live in wondrous times….

It�s a big week for videogame news! On Monday, Nintendo announced the launch date and price of the Nintendo DS. If you don�t already know, the Nintendo DS is the new portable system from the makers of the Game Boy. According to Nintendo, it�s not a successor to the Game Boy, but rather a whole new portable device (although it can play Game Boy games). The key selling point is that the DS has dual screens, hence the name. The design hearkens back to the old multi-screen Game and Watch games, like Donkey Kong.

The processing power seems about equivalent to the Nintendo 64, so it can display full 3D on one screen, and a 2D view on the other. So, for example, you could play a racing game with a 3D view on one screen, and an overhead map with racer positions on the other screen. There are a lot of gameplay possibilities that can come from this new design, and I am looking forward to see what the game creators come up with. Oh, and the bottom screen of the DS is a touch screen, and it comes with a stylus. The DS also has wireless networking, so you can play wirelessly with people in your general area, and possibly with people over the internet. Animal Crossing DS seems like the killer app for this system!

But back to the news of the day: The Nintendo DS will be available in North America on November 21, at a retail price of $149.99, which is $30–50 less than what the analysts were predicting. The system will also come with PictoChat, a wireless chat program that also allows you to send drawings to people within range of the device. I�m pretty excited about this new game system; with any luck, I�ll be picking one up around Christmas!

Burnout 3 ships today for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. If you still aren�t convinced that you need to pick this one up, here are a couple of things I read about the game:

A brief mention from Penny Arcade:

Burnout 3 hits today, and even when gazing on a month like this—hung heavy with bulging games—it might still come out on top for me. If you�ve been playing that demo they had on OPM, and a lot of you have because it�s a topic that comes up a lot, you know as well as I do that they have discovered some brilliant new action genre in which �racing” and �cars” are just useful, universal metaphors. It even has Team Racing modes, that elusive bandersnatch my spirit has yearned for. Grab some shit you aren�t playing anymore and get it on the cheap, but here�s a game whose value might actually be commensurate with its price.

There is already bucket-loads of buzz and hype surrounding this game, fed by both the electronic and printed media, and on some deep-rooted level that disturbs me. I initially was going to do my best to take a deep breath, ignore the tingling in my hands, the grin on my face and my compulsive need to skip working, eating and sleeping to play this game more. I was going to delve past the gloss, find the lurking flaws that just had to be there and undermine everybody�s bandwagon reviews by objectively critiquing the game. After all, it just couldn�t possibly be as good as everyone says it is—it�s only an arcade racer, not the second coming of Pac Man. �Surely, racing a car really fast can�t be that good, can it?” I asked myself. Despite my best efforts, though, it turns out I can�t buck the trend. Burnout 3 is awesome.

This article provides some interesting (and sometimes humorous) evidence that the videogame market is headed for another crash in 2005. (For those of you who remain ignorant of videogame history, the first was the Crash of 1984; sometime in the future, I�ll post some recollections on the crash from the perspective of someone who experienced it firsthand.)

It all started when I borrowed a friend�s Nintendo GameCube, and he included his Nintendo WaveBird wireless controller. Until that point, I had never really thought about getting a wireless controller, since they were all third-party controllers which never looked or felt quite the same as the original corded controller. But the WaveBird is notable in that it is the first (as far as I know) first-party wireless controller (in other words, the first wireless controller released by the company itself). As such, it looks and feels almost identical to the original controller. That�s when I realized how nice a wireless controller could be, especially with kids running around.

So I started looking for a good wireless controller for the PlayStation 2, but every one I found still looked vastly different from the original Dual Shock 2, widely considered to be the best videogame controller ever created. I heard good things about the Fountech AirStyle controller, which was a little difficult to track down, and ended up being a little pricey. It worked pretty well, except I had some issues with lag (especially when playing Amplitude), and it seemed very sensitive to position in order to work well. I ended up having to sit with the controller facing the console most of the time in order to avoid any dropouts. So, a pretty good controller, but not up the the standards of the WaveBird.

Which brings me to the Logitech Cordless Action Controller. As you can see, it looks very close to the Dual Shock 2, although it is designed slightly differently. However, the overall size is about the same, and the color is a very nice black, as opposed to the dull grey of the previous Logitech wireless controller, which was also much larger. I haven�t put it through its paces with Amplitude yet (since I�ve been spending all my time with the Burnout 3 demo), but it has worked flawlessly so far, with no dropouts no matter how I sit or where I position the controller. I haven�t tested the limits of the range, but it is supposed to work as far as 30 feet away, although I can�t imagine when you would need to go farther than that. And unlike the WaveBird, the Logitech controller has vibration feedback, which is also nice. Battery life is 50 hours with vibration on, and 100 hours with it off. You can read more about it in this excellent review at IGN.

At the moment, the controller is on sale at Amazon for only $30.39, with free shipping, which is a good ten dollars off the going price at Best Buy. (Make sure that know the difference between the Cordless Action Controller, and the earlier (and much uglier) Logitech Cordless Controller. In case you�re not sure, look for the little blue oval in the center of the controller.) If you have a PlayStation 2, I would highly recommend picking up this controller. It works brilliantly, and I don�t think I�ll be going back to a wired controller ever again.

If you pick up the latest issue of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (the one with the keychain on the cover), it includes a demo disc with a bunch of racing games on it, including a demo of Burnout 3: Takedown. I have Burnout 2 and have played it a lot, and I can honestly say that Burnout 3 makes the previous one look like a Sunday drive down a deserted highway. It is that incredibly good. The demo only includes one track, and you have to go back to the disc menu and reselect it after every race (and wait through all the loading screens), but I must have raced that track forty times last night. In a row. If I didn�t have to sleep, I would probably still be playing it now.

One of the coolest parts about the new game is that when you wreck, you can hold down R1 to play the crash in slow motion. So either watch the carnage in all its slo-mo glory (with accompanying strange sound effects), or you can move the analog stick to gently nudge your car in a new direction as it is crashing. If you do it right, you can even take out opposing racers in the process. Also, if you cause another racer to crash while driving (and don�t wreck yourself), it zips away to a shot of the other racer crashing, then back to your vehicle. It�s really slick. The final game will be online, with almost every game mode playable with up to five other people. I�m really looking forward to the new Crash Mode, where you can have six people careening toward the same intersection simultaneously, competing to cause as much damage as possible. It truly is a sight to behold.

For a taste of what I�m talking about, check out the trailer on the official site. You can also read a great interview with one of the game�s creators, as well as a preview of the final game, which will be released on September 10. Until then, the demo disc probably won�t leave my PlayStation 2.

But when I tried the Spider-Man 2 demo last year, it was everything that I had hoped the first game would be. To start off, they finally implemented a physics-based web system, where the webs actually hit specific targets, and the swing happens accordingly. Then they captured many of the animations from the first movie. So for example, when Spidey hangs on to the web for a little extra time, then lets go, he does that cool kick-release maneuver that you remember from the film (and if not, you would remember it if you�d see the movie 90 times like I have. Shame on you!). When I played it, I must have spent 20 minutes just swinging on webs and doing nothing else. And finally, Spider-Man can actually land on the ground this time around, so you can literally start on the street, make your way up to the top of the tallest building in the city, and back down again. I guess they�ve taken their play cues from Grand Theft Auto, and the result looks to be incredible.

Now, if you have multiple systems and are not sure which version to get, I would recommend the XBox version as your first choice, followed by the PS2 version, and the GameCube version last. This is based on a conversation I had with one of the developers at last year�s E3. He said that when they developed the PS2 version, it was difficult to program, but it could do everything they wanted. With the GameCube version, they ran into a lot of bugs and technical limitations that they had to work around. And with the XBox version, every issue they ran into, Microsoft had a set of tools that would do everything that they wanted to do, and more. It really seems like Microsoft has the best development environment out there, as well as the most powerful system. But since I don�t own an XBox, I�ll have to settle for the PS2 version instead.

For those of you unfamiliar with golf, it�s a game where you use a bent stick to hit a little white ball into a hole. And it�s not just a videogame; rumor has it that people actually play this game in real life, in the big blue room with the bright yellow light. However, I prefer to play it as God intended: on a video game console.

And if you prefer your golf games like I do, with a little whimsy, then you have plenty of great options. Mario Golf: Advance Tour is the companion game to Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube, which again I highly recommend. The GameCube version is more of a straight golf game (well, as straight as any golf game with large carnivorous plants and talking dinosaurs), while the GBA version is more of a hybrid of golf game and role-playing game. As you play through various courses, you can improve the stats of your characters and progress in the overall storyline. And the coolest part? You can link up the GameCube version with the GBA version, transfer your characters to the GameCube, and unlock various bonus features on both systems! I�ll have more details once I�ve picked up the game, but for now, if you have an extra $20 burning a hole in your pocket, douse that flame with a healthy helping of portable golf goodness!

That may not sound very interesting at first, but let me provide a little more detail: The store in question is run by a raccoon. I needed the shovel to dig up fossils and other artifacts, and to bury fruit to grow new fruit trees. And on occasion, I can bury money to grow a money tree. And this entire world exists on a GameCube game called Animal Crossing. (Well, except for the part about rushing home from work; that was in the real world.) Intrigued? Read on….

I�ve had some time to gather my thoughts on the games I saw at E3. As with my coveted ratings system, I have divided my evaluations into five main categories: Excellent, Good, Promising, Indifferent, and Terrible. Note that not all games will end up being evaluated at all; if a game was under my radar before the show, and didn�t do anything to stand out on the show floor, then I generally ignored it.

So let�s start at the top and work our way down…

Before heading down to E3, I have compiled a list of games that I am looking forward to seeing at the show, just to make sure that I don�t miss anything in all the activity on the show floor. I compiled my list somewhat haphazardly, so it is not complete. For your own edification, here is a partial list of what I am hoping to see, somewhat in order of priority:

For those of you who are unacquainted with the videogame industry, the Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3, is the annual event where the videogame companies demonstrate their new software and hardware for the coming year. It is the largest videogame show of the year by a long shot.

And this year, I am going again. This weeks marks my second annual excursion to E3, a tradition which I hope to continue for years to come. Honestly, I don’t know why I haven’t gone before this. I had a blast last year, and this year looks to be even better, what with the PSP, Nintendo DS, Halo 2, and lots more which I will tell you about when I get back.

Before I leave, I will try to post about what games I am most looking forward to seeing at this year’s show. Hopefully I can get to it somewhere in my frantic schedule of packing and charging. But in any case, I will provide a full report when I return on Thursday night. So if you are already on the edge of your seat, you may want to get comfortable.