More Project Natal, EA Fight Night MMA Year Rotation & Should Apple iPhone Games be Rated? – Welcome to the column that would be interested in a hands-only controlled game if they knew where their hands had been known as Dare to Play the Game.
A funny thing happened to me with NHL 2k9 this week, I didn’t play it. Yes, it involved World of Warcraft and yes I am ashamed. Okay, not really but it sounds good when I apologize for playing a ridiculously addicting PC based MMO and trying to get my character to level 70. I’ll explain more under Mutterings. However, I did spend the time to try out two wonderful Xbox Live Arcade demos: Wolfenstein 3d and CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars.
Wolfenstein 3d is what you would expect. Classic First Person action that reminded me a lot of my college years. The first level and the secret level brought back a lot of old memories and I knew I would spend the 400 points near instantly. Cell Factor was a different story. I didn’t know what to expect, but instead I got what could possibly be the XBLA sleeper hit of the year. I’m being serious, it’s that good. It is Unreal Tournament-lite but in so many good ways. Picked it also up at 800 points. Expect reviews of these games by Saturday.
So of you might remember Lauren from a previous Ode. I found another picture of her a few months ago and then this one and included it because it was so darn cute. She’s an assistant manager at an EB Games and was voted Miss Video Game 2007 Round 1 and 2 winner. I got to thinking, there is (she might be gone now) a really pretty girl working at the EB Games I used to go to named Ginger. But then I go to like Gamestops and it’s usually a pair of really rough guys who just bark at you about trades. It’s the same company now, but just odd. I always did like EB better anyhow.
Xbox 360
Earlier this week Microsoft let me try Project Natal in a hotel suite where test-versions of the new gaming sensor array was set up. Three times, I thought I found a flaw in the systems.
I thought the system, as impressive as it was in letting me play kickball with virtual balls on a TV and no controllers on my body, might not be able to handle multi-player gaming.
Wrong, the project’s director, Kudo Tsunoda told me. He had me look at a special display set up as part of the ball-ricocheting demo. What I saw proved how clearly Natal was easily reading both my body and his as we both stood in front of the sensors. We appeared on screen as simplified, mutli-jointed stick figure skeletons within silhouettes of our bodies. It clearly saw us as separate people. There would be no problem, he said, for the system to support a game that let us play at the same time and track our movements separately.
I thought Project Natal might be good for reading big body movements but not for finer finger movements.
Theoretically, I got that wrong too, Tsunoda told me, though he didn’t have a way to prove it to me there. The stick-figure skeletons that Natal recognize us as did not have fingers. Each one had a short stick for each hand. I saw no fingers, so I assumed it could not see my fingers. There seemed to be no way for Natal to know, say, how many fingers I was holding up. If it could, then it could maybe read hand signs issued to squadmates in military first-person shooters. I questioned Natal’s ability to detect those finer movements. Tsunoda said that such detection was possible, though the sensitivity would be different at different distances. He thought my fingers idea was do-able.
I thought that the Natal could be fooled to let me drive Burnout Paradise one-handed.
Wrong, for sure. Microsoft had EA’s Burnout Paradise programed to work with Natal. As I stood in front of the sensors, I moved my right foot forward to accelerate, and moved it back to decelerate and reverse. I held my hands in front of me, pretending to turn a steering wheel. The Natal had registered me in under a second and was letting me control Burnout smoothly. I saw, in another monitor, how it read my stick-figure skeleton. I guessed that it was reading my hands as a single unit moving in space and that it wouldn’t be programmed to know or care if I put one hand behind my back. It did. When I put my hand behind my back and just waved one hand in front of the TV, the Burnout car failed to steer. The Natal needed to see two hands. Maybe it’s cooler to drive one-handed, but Natal not letting me do it was impressive in its own way.
I thought Natal had to be used in bright light.
Wrong? The demos I played of Natal were set up in dimly-lit hotel rooms, except for Peter Molyneux’s Milo demo which was set in a bright room. Tsunoda said lighting was a non-issue for Natal. Maybe so, maybe not. But if it works in a dim room, that’s not bad.
With Project Natal not due for release at least until next year, we’ll all have plenty of time to question every aspect of Natal. The strong showing the system had in its first week in public suggests that it may withstand the skepticism. So far, it’s fun. And it works.
Project Natal is my new beef. Many of you in the past have witnessed as I have slammed the Wiimote and N64 games. Project Natal is so much more than that, because while I can avoid the Wii or the Nintendo 64, I might not be able to avoid Project Natal. Why you ask? Cause Project Natal will probably worm its way into my gaming experience whether I like it or not.
I have to admit the demos are interesting and I do feel that there is some wonderful technology at work here. But the problem here is I’m also hearing rumors. Rumors of this replacing a standard controller, rumors that Microsoft wants this to take on the same relationship as the Wiimote for the Nintendo Wii. There might be not be much truth to that, but I have to believe otherwise. We are dealing with a dangerous gimmick that could change gaming, but not for the better; for the worse.
Most of my life I have dealt with the “controller” or the keyboard/mouse combination and I just don’t see that changing. Project Natal is a gimmick plain and simple. Think about the various games on the Wii, there are only two I can think of that would not exist without the Wiimote or something similar. Those two? WiiPlay and WiiFit. Every other game out there would do just fine on a standard controller. But I bet there are more than two games that feel hindered by the format and benefit greatly if controller input is used instead. Technology like this should certainly be used, but not at the expense of the system or a good game. A good game isn’t made because of a gimmick, it’s made cause it simply kicks ass.
If nothing else, this makes the whole scene between Sandra Bullock and Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man feel a lot closer to home.
Electronic Arts
At E3, EA Sports chief Peter Moore let us in on his master plan to guarantee an EA Sports fighting game every year.
It’s an odd-numbered year this year, and so it is that EA Sports shall give us a boxing game. Fight Night Round 4, to be specific. Later this month.
EA Sports’ Peter Moore sat with Kotaku at E3 last week to talk about the more athletic wing of Electronic Arts. We talked about the newest sport in the EA Sports roster, Mixed Martial Arts, which gets its first EA treatment next year.
“It gives us a rhythm of a fighting game every year,” Moore said, saying that boxing and MMA would alternate years. “That’s the plan. If you think of 2010, we’re bringing MMA. In 2011, Fight Night Round 5.” Moore instantly qualified that with: “That’s not an announcement.” But we were already complimenting him on picking out the title.
He laughed. “It’s not hard.”
The biggest name in MMA is UFC, to the point that it dwarfs its competitors in public awareness in the way WWE does its pro wrestling rivals. But THQ has the MMA license, not EA. That doesn’t shake Moore.
“This is a long-term play for us. I have nothing but the greatest respect for UFC and what THQ has done with that franchise. [UFC boss] Dana White has done unbelievable with the sport itself. I’m a big fan.
But I think there’s room for a contender. Clearly, we’re a contender in the first year. Our job is to make the sport even more interesting by bringing EA Sports authenticity to it. And we’re in this for the long haul.”
Moore said he does not know how long THQ has the UFC license but said there are other viable MMA groups out there with fighters who might fight the game. Moore attended a card held by the Strike Force group a couple of weeks ago, for example. “We’re going to get who we need to get,” Moore said. “Ask me again in five years if we’ve been successful.”
This is a pretty smart idea from a business standpoint of Electronic Arts. As much as I don’t like the company; this will help to maximize sales and keep Electronic Arts in as many “fields” as possible. In the MMA world, there is room for competition, but clearly UFC dominates. However, there are other arenas of MMA fighting especially abroad that could be captured in EA’s game. Another thing to consider? Female MMA fighting. Women such as Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos could give EA’s game an edge and actually give some competition to the UFC fighting game. Another league to consider some association with is Dream, sister league of K-1 which has long been a facet in combat fighting. The only thing I ask of EA is not to include this man:
I PITY THE FOOL, oh wait…wrong guy. Kimbo Slice, *sigh* *not even going to attempt a joke since the picture speaks for itself*
iPhone
It dawned on me recently, in fact when my 8-year-old bought an iPod Touch, that it would be nice if the games in the App Store were rated.
Currently the only way I can maintain control over what Tristan buys on his Touch is by completely blocking his access to the store, but what I would love is the ability to block by rating. It would be great if Apple followed the model used by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, and allowed me to block games by rating.
The problem is the games in the App Store aren’t rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board or anyone else for that matter.
That’s something that the Entertainment Software Association would like to see change, mostly because they know what can happen to a platform that has no ratings.
“We’ve been down this road before, the Entertainment Software industry, we know how this goes and it’s wise for (Apple) to make steps in that direction so that this is addressed up front and there is an environment that is hospitable to children and families,” Michael Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, told a group of reporters last week. “It would be wise to do that, we would welcome the opportunity to work with them, we are reaching out to encourage that.”
Gallagher hastened to add that he doesn’t expect every game on the App Store, which has thousands, to be rated.
“That doesn’t mean that every entrepreneur, every software engine that is able to write code and put up an app on the App Store is going to go through this process it simply says that if a game is rated it needs to pass through through and be filtered appropriately by the controls that are on the iPhone,” he said. “That would be a big step in the right direction and it is virtually friction free.”
Of course that begs the question: How will one determine if a game should be rated? Maybe the best approach is to allow a parent to limit access to games based on ratings and to include among those ratings unrated. That way as a parent I can give my son some access to games, but only those that have been looked at and rated as appropriate.
Perhaps that could be part of the rumored game-only store we’ve been hearing rumblings about. I’m sure we’ll know more come later today when the WWDC kicks off.
Apple iPhone games should be rated. The fact that they aren’t yet just is going to subject them to all sorts of ridicule. It would help parents protect their kids and it would probably sell a few more apps cause most people understand the ESRB ratings. However, there is one small caveat to all of this and one thing that iPhone has benefited from. Creativity. There are tons of games and apps out there for iPhone and the list keeps getting bigger every day. They are simple to make and the profit model can be quite convincing for small and upcoming companies. Ratings sometimes hinder these companies from making certain games. I’m not really talking about adult games. I’m talking about games that are on an imaginary gray area between usually T for Teen and M for Mature. My only worry is that a game might be scaled back to meet criteria for the Teenage crowd and eliminate some of the mature content. As long as game developers treat this as a filter and not a sales model on which games to make, I think this will work out alright. For the record, apps need to stay untouched. IFart is important to the youths of America.
I originally thought just Gunstar Heroes was going to be released today. It turns (at least according to Xbox.com) that 6 Sega Favorites are getting the Arcade treatment. Problem is that 5 of them can be found on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. Sure they are 400 points each, but this is simply rehash. The only one I would consider is Gunstar Heroes and I would have to try the demo first and see how it has aged (cause if you read my review, you know how some of the games just didn’t age well). The only other reasons you would buy these would be because of achievements or if you had no plans to buy the Genesis collection and just wanted one or maybe two of these. Gunstar, sure….the rest just ignore.
On WiiWare this week, the first game is called Swords & Soldiers. It’s a side-scrolling strategy title that lets you control an entire army and cast some miscreants of magic. There is a single player campaign as well the ability to take on your friends through local multiplayer. The game also looks like it doesn’t take itself seriously which is also a plus. It’s receiving pretty high scores from most of the major places and it looks like a colorful vibrant spin on the real time strategy format.
A fishing game….wow…*twirl finger*. You get to control one of two elderly fishermen named Jack or Walter. What, Enos and Ole Dirty Bastard were taken? Anyway, you are running along the side of a pond and trying to catch some fish. Certain fish are worth certain points and you have to avoid obstacles. Also as a side point, a game called Fishtris is included where you try to catch three of the same colored fish in a row in order to fill up a gauge. I don’t even know what to say. Oh yeah…Fail!
Another strategy game from Koei. This one came out for the Super Nintendo way back in 1993. The plot was that you could play as Genghis Khan trying to conquer Mongolia or play as an eager world leader and take over the whole world. *insert evil laugh here*. This is accomplished through stabilizing the economy, controlling population, family relations and developing your military in a turn based control format. There were four separate scenarios and a lot of depth as found in any Koei strategy game. If you like this sort of thing, then you’ll have a lot of fun here. Most of us will probably just pass this one by.
PS2
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
PSP
Class of Heroes
Rock Band UnPlugged
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
PS3
Prototype
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
Virtua Tennis 2009
Xbox 360
Prototype
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
Virtua Tennis 2009
Wii
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis
Virtua Tennis 2009
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
My Sims Racing
Go Play Circus Star
Go Play Lumberjacks
DS
Lego Battles
The Legendary Starfy
Puzzle City
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
Guitar Hero on Tour: Modern Hits
MySims Racing
Miami Law
Petz Fashion: Dogz and Catz
Dreamer Series: Teacher
A fair amount of games this week but nothing I would consider strong. There is Prototype out for 360 and PS3 and there is a bunch of Tiger Woods out there. Tiger…Tiger…Tiger…it sounds like somebody picked Sagat in Street Fighter 2. Anyhow, I do have a small hope that the DS release of the week, Lego Battles is decent and it gets ported elsewhere as a result. Like Xbox Live Arcade or heck its own retail disc. Finally, there are a couple of tennis games this week with Virtua Tennis 2009 and EA Grand Slam Tennis. It’s alright this week, just nothing to write home about.
World of Warcraft, ahh yes. I only played one character this weekend, and that was my rogue. He’s actually in Blade’s Edge, a section of the Outlands for 65-68 level characters and he is doing well despite fighting creatures 1 or 2 levels ahead of him. I am level 66 now, I trekked across Zangarmash (stealthing along the border since that is Alliance controlled) and through the mountains to get to my destination. I picked up two flight paths and my main goal was to find a new pair of shoulders. After close to a dozen quests, I finally had what I was looking for and level appropriate. In fact, my rogue is actually decently geared for his level and I think I can make 70 pretty easily. My mining is nearly maxed and my talent tree for combat is up to the 51 point threshold which means one thing: Killing Spree. Killing Spree is a beautiful ability which has made my life a whole lot easier (and deadlier on my rivals).
My only wish is that his blacksmithing was also over 300 skill. It’s at 286 and I find myself going back to the Plaguelands every so often to mine some Thorium and watch the numbers slowly turn by. From 275 to 300 has been absolute nightmare. I know once I hit 300, I have about 8 stacks of Fel Iron waiting for me (been slowly collecting from Outlands) but until I get to that point, I’m forced to play As the Blacksmithing Hammer pounds. By the way, I only have three characters now; my rogue, hunter and mage. I deleted my death knight and let Sarah create her own death knight on the Killrogg server. This way she can actually play her own character on the server. She would have played mine, but she doesn’t like Taurens, something about the fact they look like cows I guess. Anyway, until next week kiddoes.
As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)
