OJ’s rants What would OJ do?

A Gaming Round-Up

I have quite a bit to cover in the gaming world today, and I didn't want to create a separate post for each thing so I thought I'd group them all together.

So to start off with, there's been some buzz around town that some "demo" PS3s have made a bit of an appearance. The guys at IGN have been given a bit of a hands-on session with the PS3! It's hard to call bullshit when there's photos of dudes playing the console, so I'll hold myself back for now The article is quite interesting, and in my (humble) opinion doesn't really give the PS3 a resounding thumbs up.

Firstly, the "demo" didn't really clear up many of the questions the guys had:

Interface-wise, we've still got a lot of unanswered questions. For example, what happens when you stick a DVD, PS1 or PS2 disc in the machine? Well, as of right now nothing - the debug unit Sony's demoed to us still features slightly outdated firmware, meaning the machine flatly refuses to play anything other than Blu-Ray discs. Similarly, all attempts to connect our PSPs and Cyber-shot digi-cams to the console were met with resounding indifference. However, we'll be getting our hands on an updated version of the machine imminently, so rest assured we'll be probing even deeper next time around.

Rest assured? Hrm, yeah right. Don't think that the "next time round" will result in a great deal more information if it's any time soon. Since they didn't really have a great deal to cover given that the system was a demo system, they focussed a bit on the controller:

Instead of duplicating that, we'll take a look at one last thing - possibly the most controversial aspect of the PS3: the controller. Prepare to be shocked though: we don't really like it all that much. True enough, you can go along with Phil Harrison's proclamation that it's already the industry-standard controller amongst umpteen-million gamers around the globe, but, arguably, that doesn't make it the best. Personally, we can't help but feel that the SIXAXIS (as it's now known) has been sadly neglected when viewed alongside the rest of the PS3. Compared to Microsoft's uber-comfortable Xbox 360 pad, the SIXAXIS feels cheap, plasticky, uncomfortable and disconcertingly light - almost as if it's going to fly out of your hands during those more extreme gaming moments.

So they've well and truly borked it! Nice work considering that the big selling point for the Wii was the controller - right now, if I were Sony I'd be nailing my controller designer to the fence. There's a stack more to it than what I've quoted, and I'm not going to quote any more in case they pissed off with me reproducing parts of the article, so get over there and have a read.

Basically, this confirmd my thoughts on the PS3 - it's JAGC (just another games console). Nothing that they've done is really going to blow my skirt up. The games will be the same games with the same style of play on a bigger, shinier and noiser box. Sure the GFX and number of bananas on screen might have increased, but it's the same shit different look. I know I won't be investing my cash in one for a very long time, if at all.

Now for something totally different - a review of a hefty Wii gaming session, which is a total switcheroo compared to the S3. The feeling I get from this review is that which I already felt for the Wii - fun fun fun! One question that many people are keen to know the answer to is whether or not the Wii controller is going to force you to break a sweat and collapse due to the amount of activity. Those lazy bastards out there will be glad to know, it looks like you don't have to be fit and active to wield the Wii controller for extended periods of time:

To test this, in terms of fitness we took along two regular gamers with average to low fitness and one gamer with ME/CFS. He was able to play for the two hour slot with only a fractional tiredness issue and was if anything, making the largest motions with the remote controller out of all three of us and owned at Wii tennis! If you have health related concerns that you or your friends and family suffer from a tiredness health problem, it’s not going to bar you from enjoying the Nintendo Wii. We’ve tested it now and after two hours, it’s safe to say that it’s possible to play on the Wii launch line up for two hours and not be dripping with sweat afterwards. Just remember that large body motions are not a requirement – they’re what players do to have fun with the game. Playing with smaller movements or sitting down is largely possible, doable and healthy.

Interesting! That should get the whole family going I'll resist temptation to regurgitate the entire article, so I'll just finish off with: Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

The next point I'd like to cover is that of distribution in the games industry. For quite some time, the big companies such as EA have managed to, shall we say, "acquire" shelf-space on a fairly regular basis with the large stores like Walmart and EB Games. Needless to say this has made the issue of distribution a huge mountain to climb for those companies who are trying to get a foothold in the market. I'll do my best not to imply that there's a shifty deal going on between the big producers and distributors (;)) and instead focus on the solution to the problem. The best way to describe it is to give the best known example to date: Valve's Steam. What a fabulous idea! Online distributin of games and their content was always going to be the next step, and with Steam it's really easy. It's already been used to great success for games such as Half-Life 2, The Ship and Psyconauts, and it looks like the bigger fish are starting to flock to the feeding frenzy with titles such as Call of Duty and Dark Messiah. As time goes by, more and more games shops will end up with bare shelves because the cost of physical distribution through boxes and CDs just won't be worth the effort. I take my hat off to Valve for this step - not just because they've done a great job with the solution (which did have a few teething problems), but because they're sharing the wealth with the other devs. Sure they're going to get a piece of every game sold through Steam, but they're not trying to use their muscle to drown out the other players in the industry which I think is a great thing.

If the above information doesn't get you excited, then surely the thought of seeing Unreal Engine 3 on Steam should surely raise the eyebrows. A bit more evidence of its success can be found over here.

I also think Microsoft with their Xbox Live Arcade system are going to do very well. Opening up Game Studio Express) and allowing people to create their own games for sale on the Arcade mechanism opens up the floor to innovation - something that the larger game development companies no longer strive for.

Right, let's wrap up with a few more nuggets of jolly goodness. That fun-filled pair Sam & Max are making a return in Sam & Max ride again. The original game was just awesome, let's hope that the developers of this title can back it up (at least a little) It looks like there's going to be a world-wide release on the 1st of Nov 2006 - keep ya eyes peeled! It should be great.

Last but not least, those lovable folks at EA have decided to douse their clients with spyware that comes bundled with Battlefield 2142. How nice! Just make sure you're not doing anything at all while you have this game installed and you should be fine. Better still, boycott the game until they remove the spyware - the whole idea of spyware in games is just wrong I think.

So that concludes my little games round-up. If you're looking for something else that might be a bit more fun to read after this collection of goodies, perhaps something like this will take your fancy