Farewell to an Australian Games Industry Icon
I received a bit of sad news from "He who must not be named" this morning. It appears that Aussie game developer Auran are struggling to stay afloat, and will most likely close. This isn't good news for the Aussie contingent of the games industry, and is an indication of how cut-throat the industry can be.
But let's be honest, while it's sad to hear that they're in strife, it isn't really a surprise.
Biosham ™
I can fully understand the desire a developer has to protect their creation from being copied illegally. I can understand why some steps would be taken to mitigate the risk of losing money due to piracy. What I can't understand is why some companies go so far with their anti-piracy measures that it starts to have an impact on the honourable, paying customers.
I have bitched in the past about how activation is a pain in the neck. But that example is nothing like what 2K Games have recently inflicted on the buyers of their latest creation, Bioshock. Rather than throw a few links to a bzillion blog and forum posts that have covered it already, let me just give you the short version:
- Bioshock comes with SecuROM.
- It requires online activation before it can be played.
- It can only be activated twice.
On the surface this might not sound so bad, but when you think about it a little deeper it becomes obvious why this is such a pain in the arse.
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 Well, as of right now nothing - the debug unit Sony's demoed to us still features slightly outdated firmware, meaning the machine flatly refuses to play anything other than Blu-Ray discs.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
List o’ Software
Just a quick one this morning. I have starting gathering a list of software applications that I use all the time (or will use) which I find to be good. There's quite a few of these lists out there already, but I thought I'd comment on the stuff that I find useful and give you guys the chance to have a play with them yourself. If you think you know of something that is worthy, let me know and I'll check it out.
The list will be growing constantly as I find more time to add to it, and so it'll remain on it's own page which can be found over here (there's also a permanent link in the side-bar).
All joking aside, I have to have a Wii
I've been a gamer for a very long time. My interest in games is what launched my programming career, and as a young kid I used to spend hours trying to figure out how those games worked on my Commodore Vic 20. Peeking and Poking was as far as I got in those days, but the interest has been around since. For many years I worked hard to try and get a job in the games industry, and with the industry here in Australia being quite hard to get into I decided to head to the U.K. where there are more developers and a bit more opportunity to get the foot in the door. After contracting for a year to build up some funds (Australian dollars don't do so well against the Pound) I ended up working for a game company in Guildford. I don't think I've ever had so much fun at work, and just between you (the rest of the world) and me, there are quite a few things I miss about that job. I have talked in the past about finding people who are good, and one of the things I failed to mention (because my list was far from exhaustive) was passion. While there are people in any industry that lack passion for what they do, you can't help but feel that the greatest concentration of passionate developers lies in the realms of games development.
That little blurb isn't really necessary reading for the purpose of this article, I guess I just wanted to let you know that I have a bit of a background in playing, and building, games. I'm sure that many gamers out there will agree with me when I say that it's getting to the point now where there are so few titles being released that really push the boundaries of gameplay. There are a s**tload of games released all the time, most of which suck (either fully or partially). To be honest, I don't think there's a game on the planet that doesn't suck in some way. The thing is, in my opinion, the amount of suckiness (let's call it suckage to keep with the gaming theme) in games is going up and up. Suckage is increasing rapidly, and I've been finding it hard to get excited about new gaming technology (such as the next-gen consoles) and the games that will be running on them ...
... until today!
Well that's not 100% true, I have in some ways been excited, but not to the same extent as the excitement I felt today. The reason is because of the shower of gold that is known as the Nintendo Wii. I have been keeping tabs on the situation surrounding the Wii ever since Nintendo first announced that they were going to be making a next-generation games console, which back then was codenamed the Revolution (which, in my opinion, they should have stuck with - but I'm no marketing genius :)). There's been quite a bit of speculation about how good or bad this console is going to be, and lately it has really been under fire - not just because of it's name.
The first thing geeks do when they hear about new hardware is look at the tech specs and compare to either what's on the market already or what the product is going to be competing with. I'm not going to list all the specifications of the Wii (or it's competitors) but at first glance it does look like the Wii lacks grunt compared to the consoles it's going to be taking on. So already the naysayers are stating that the console will choke because it just "can't keep up". Add on to this the new controller, which is quite out of the ordinary, and you've got most of the gaming population pointing, laughing and saying that the console will "... suck due its lack of power, pissy name and TV-remote-style controller."
I think they're wrong. Very very wrong. There's something about this console and it's features that I find very compelling. The new remote controller initially seems wierd when you first look at it, but when you take a bit of time to think about how it might work, you come to realise that it's actually quite natural. I think that this style of control is going to unlock an element of fun that the other consoles, with their standard games and standard controllers, will fail to unlock. Let's face it, games aren't about the whizzbang graphics, or about how many rocks there are flying about on screen at once - they're about FUN! Nintendo cottoned on to this notion from the very start. Not one person who has played Nintendo games from the start can say that they've not had fun consistently on most (if not all) Nintendo hardware. These guys have mastered the art of producing technology which allow people to enjoy themselves.
The link that kicked this feeling to the front of my mind was one I stumbled on (and I don't even know how) earlier today - it's called the Nintendo Wii Preview. Nine pages of Wii goodness that really need to be checked out. If you don't know what the Wii is, then you should read this and have a look at the official homepage. It's going to be a blast.
In short, I think this console will win the next-generation console wars. It captures an element of fun that the other consoles can't capture. It adds a style of gameplay that the other consoles can't add. It'll make old games replayable purely because of the way you interact with it. It'll get more people involved because you don't have to be a grandmaster with a "normal" gamepad controller any more, you just need to time you natural movements properly.
I think there are so many possibilities for this console that it's going to last for a very long time. I think there might even be a chance for me to get Amy playing some games in front of the TV with me, which would be great fun - especially when we're throwing ourselves around the room because of the nature of the controls.
Come on Wii! I may have laughed at you in the early days, but I'll take your low specs and fun games over the shiny, spaceship-style Xbox360/PS3 with great looking but poor gaming titles any day.
Thank you Nintendo. You've given an old gamer a glimmer of hope that the next generation of console gaming has the chance of being enjoyable, and not just packed with suckage!
