Zero Punctuation Reviews InFamous

So posting has been slow this week, in due largely to a long week at work. So in lieu of more posts about Wii-nis envy, here's Yahtzee:

Game Play: Sacred 2 (PS3)

I've already posted about Sacred 2's bizarre coop setup (bizarre being a friendly term there), but since we got past that weirdness, we've been able to jump into the game with more earnest.

Let's deal with some of the bad first. Framerates drop. Bugs crop up here and there - we had one instance where our characters stopped responding to our control and nobody could take any damage. The Girl resurrected once somewhere she couldn't move, until she was knocked aside by a giant squid. When working correctly, the game's rules are a bit arcane and sometimes even when it is working - it almost feels like it isn't. We've been playing it on and off for a few days now and I think we're finally getting a hang of the statistics, what some of the items do, managing the characters, etc.

So this is not a pick up and play kind of game. You have to put in some time just to get the hang of it. While still using a very much a Diablo-style format, the game employs some pretty serious mechanics to it.

The good is that once you get the hang of it, Ancaria is a huge and well realized world. Few games in this genre, especially for the console, allow you to roam so freely about, picking up side missions and honestly just exploring. The non-linear aspect is a huge bonus, compared to the specific chapter flow of most games of this ilk. There is a decent amount of diversity that we've seen so far, although at some point you wonder what in T-Energy made the rats just so darn mean. Still, you get the impression you are adventuring across a vast landscape, not just fulfilling task A which will be followed by task B.

Truth is, now that we're in the thick of it, this is honestly one of the better two player hack and slash RPG's we've had on the console. The game shines when you head down a hill and meet an army of monsters and get engaged in brief but somewhat epic battles. In fact, the game is better at throwing ten or more creatures at you than it is at boss fights so far.

I have an armload of fixes and tweaks I'd like to see in a patch at some point, but the game is definitely recommended for fans of the genre - with the caveat that it takes a little bit of time and frustration to enjoy.

For Sunday: Scotty Got An Office Job (The Cliffhanger!)

This is the latest in a long running series. Excellent, if not a bit tragic - but bonus points for the use of the word bung:

Michael Pachter Claims Wii-nis Envy For Sony ( and something less insulting for Microsoft )

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, clearly not a Cathode devoted reader:

“Sony and Microsoft each fired cannon shots across Nintendo’s bow, with Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s Motion Controller (based on the Eye Toy). We view Microsoft’s proposed offering as intended to provide a user-friendly interface for Xbox Live dashboard access, and view Sony’s offering as Wii-nis envy. We do not expect either to displace Nintendo’s Wii from its leadership position,” he said.

-- Analyst: Rival Motion Control Tech Won't Break Wii Dominance

Pachter's been doing this a while, and has also said that Sony could see a price cut in April, that this is the final generation of consoles and the Wii should lower prices to "be strong again".

(Note: this is why I try not to predict much of anything)

So penis jokes aside, I'm not entirely sure what he's smoking. OK, yeah - Sony is clearly coming up with a solution akin to the Wii's motion controls. I'm missing the bit of the analysis where that equates to being doomed. Because other portions of the PlayStation 3 which have emulated other console features, like the PlayStation Network, have been miserable failures.

No, wait. The opposite is true. In fact, if anything Sony has showed that it is almost better off emulating other companies (PSN) than trying to come up with new ideas (Home). Not to mention that this is the game Microsoft perfected like over a decade ago.

Speaking of Microsoft - while Pachter's comment on Sony might invoke a 'duh', the Microsoft bit is a 'huh'. Microsoft has made of point of getting Natal games in front of the press. Microsoft has shipped development kits to every one of their partners. Does that sound a bit odd for a dashboard upgrade? Not to mention a pretty cost ineffective way to solve a non-problem?

I'm hoping Pachter's being quoted out of context or something. Because while being quoted with the word "Wii-nis" by your name probably does something for traffic, but I was under the impression that an analysis made use of facts.

Movie Watch: Terminator Salvation

I'm going to through in some spoilers here because, well golly, as I've said before some things just deserved to be spoiled.

Terminator: Salvation starts off pretty strong. One of the early action sequences is actually a pretty impressive showing of cinematography and directing. A lot of the premise elements make it seem like the movie is trying to build into something more than just an action movie - something almost like a Philip K. Dick novel in places.

And then, about half way through, the entire movie gives up completely on all of the above and turns into a vapid Hollywood blockbuster before turning the corner to being blind, stupid and annoying.

I'll try to be vague, but let's just say that about the time John Connor decides to napalm an entire forest - it's about time to bail. It doesn't entirely make sense, and just serves to set up another (this time much more banal) action scene and worse - opens the plot to numerous blunders of the movie's progressive downfall.

For one thing - it begins to baffle the viewer as to why John Connor, who should have more advanced knowledge of Skynet, Terminators and hacking phones for free service (though that last bit is probably of little use anymore) acts like such a dimwitted grunt for most of the movie. Gone is the intelligence that we've seen in previous movies, in its place is a role that feels like a boilerplate from every other action movie. Bale's strategy through all of this is to give us his angry puppy dog look through most of the movie.

When the movie reaches its "twist", the wheels have officially come off the bus. There's the right way to do a twist - which is the careful seeding of hints and foreshadowing, and there's the Terminator: Salvation method which is to just wait until you need a nifty plot moment, make up a bunch of crap and hope the audience is still impressed with all that napalm blowing up.

As the movie moves into Skynet Central, you might think to yourself: "this can't get any worse". Surely all these computer interfaces designed for humans in a machine world gone made is bad enough. Or maybe that in a city full of human killing machines, the incredibly powerful AI decides to send a lone robot to kill off its most wanted prize. Or maybe the revelation that all terminators are, in fact, just walking nuclear bombs. Or the "salvation through electrocution" scene.

I won't spoil the ending - but I will warn you. Yes. Yes, it gets worse.

It's a horrible movie. Highly, highly not recommended. Seriously, Terminator 3 was much better if only because it knew it was just a stupid action film from the beginning.

Sacred 2: Offline Coop - Nearly A Fail

The Girl and I were big fans of the Baldur's Gate and Norrath games (and their clones like Justice League) because they offered a good method of couch coop. The best implementations made it easy to create a new character, start a game, and join in and out of current games.

Sacred 2 just recently released for the PS3 and I was pretty excited to get something like the above for the new system. It's a shame that the offline coop nearly wrecked the whole thing.

So for people in our position, there's a trick to doing offline coop right. You won't find it in the manual and the game is of now help. Not sure who figured this out online, but hats off to them.

To play two characters on the PS3 and be able to save them:
- Make sure you have two users on the PlayStation 3 system. That's right, get out of the game, go to the system menu and create a new user. Just for this game.

- Log in as one user, create a character.

- Log in as the second user, create another character. You can now start a campaign and when the second controller hits start, select the first user.

- Now you can select the first character, play and save together.

There's a few odd things that still hang around offline coop - like not being able to trade with the other player. But at least with the above you can play together.

Overall opinion on the game forthcoming, but the above is just a terrible concept.

Update: Review up now.

Update: With the latest patch, you can do offline trading. When two players are close to each other, "Trade" will appear above (like "Use" or "Talk"). It's a bit unfriendly when you're in the heat of a battle, and both users need PSN accounts and be signed and it seems buggy and will flake out on detecting a signed in user ... but it does work. Mostly.

More Signs Nintendo Is Demented

Reggie "Terminator" Fils-Aime, interviewed by CNet:

With their announced new motion-sensitive control systems, Sony and Microsoft seem to be planning to aggressively go after the elusive mainstream audience. But perception-wise, at least, Nintendo maybe has the opposite problem: You've got the mainstream. How do you reach that core gamer?

Fils-Aime: We have near-term, mid-term and long-term opportunities. The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends. We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus. The mid-term opportunity is the more mainstream consumer who saw Wii at a friend's house but just needs a little extra incentive to get into our game. That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and new Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve. And the long-term opportunity is that person who currently says, "I don't play video games and I have no interest in playing video games."

The problem Nintendo has is that if that is seriously their near and mid-term strategies - they're pretty fscked. I don't care how impressive previews of the The Conduit may be - you can count the number of Halo fans who are getting a Wii to play it on your right hand. Especially when any gamer compares Nintendo's networking with Xbox Live.

And this fascination with Tiger Woods, a long running EA Sports franchise which sells will on every platform as some kind of Wii Motion Plus catch is just fascinating. Perhaps for the hardcore golfers who just loves to actually practice their swings ... maybe.

Honestly, I think you can sum up Nintendo's philosophy with this: "That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and new Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve."

Hardware, hardware and more Mario. That's their plan. Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft have technically competent motion sensing solutions coming down the pipe and all the high def glory that gamers do (sorry Reggie) care about. In particular, Microsoft's lower price points will be able to put pressure on the Wii marketshare. Just wait for the Xbox 360 Arcade + Natal + 360 Sports package.

That's really the Wii's best hope - that Sony and Microsoft charge too much for their solutions.

Interview continues:

Can you talk about what you saw from Microsoft and Sony when it comes to the motion-sensitive controllers. It will be a sort of a new arms race.

Fils-Aime: The only thing I'll say is a rhetorical question. Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, "Well done." But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, "Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?" It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained. Our focus is how do we take active play and make it entertainment. And that's what we're going to continue to focus on. And I think we've done a great job with Wii Motion Plus, and the Balance Board. And we're going to continue to push the envelope in ways to make it more fun.

When this gen of consoles took off, the Wii was innovative. A year from now, or maybe less, it will just look inexpensive. Which isn't nearly as brand friendly (though it doesn't hurt). Nintendo got here by pushing the envelope - but now they think pushing the envelope is measuring your heart beat and painting the Wii black.

Nintendo needs a better answer - and here's a tip: it is not more hardware.

Armchair Analysis: E3 2009 Keynotes

I will probably never attend E3, as I am unlikely to shell out for it myself and don't foresee an employer willing to do the same.

Should not stop one from reaching from afar and being highly critical.

Nintendo (Joystiq Coverage)
Let's play a game. Let's strip everything from Nintendo's keynote which is not either a) a rehash of an existing Nintendo icon or b) requires a new piece of hardware to play.

We get:

• Dead Space: Extraction
  
• Conduit
  
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
  
• Flipnotes Studio (DS)
  
• Style Savvy (DS)
  
• Cop: The Recruit (DS)
  
• Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion (DS)
  
• Golden Sun DS (DS)
  
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
  

Now, a magic trick. Stare at that for a bit and then mentally remove DS games, light gun games and sequels to other well known franchises. It's like those 3D things at the mall, but in reverse. Ok, so that last one might not be entirely fair - the industry is pretty franchise driven all in all, but we're talking about Resident Evil, Final Fantasy and Tiger Woods for fsck's sake. It's not like a sequel to Crackdown on the 360 - there's already what, like 50 Resident Evil games for the Wii?? And Tiger Woods? You actually show Tiger Woods during a keynote? Let me guess - it looked like a damn golf game.

For me, the message from Nintendo is - love our hardware and love our characters. Or piss off.

Microsoft (Engadget Coverage)
Microsoft had Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney? Wow. If only it was a game I cared about.

Oooo, look - Felicia Day...

OK, so would it be fair to play the same game here with Microsoft? Depends on your level excitement over, say, a new Halo game versus a new Metroid game. If I went by number of sales, I'd say a lot more people are excited by a new Halo game, and a new Crackdown game, and a new Left 4 Dead game, etc., than a new Metroid. Maybe Mario is a bigger draw, I don't know. I didn't finish Galaxy.

And that's accounting for the Wii outselling everyone by what, like 2 to 1 every month? Plus, Microsoft had goodies to add to Xbox Live, and Xbox Live Arcade. Did Nintendo announce a new buddy system? Better networking? Better lobbying? No. They did not.

And of course, Microsoft has this Natal announcement. Motion sensing by camera, no other hardware required. There's some impressive videos and as mentioned before on Cathode, early opinions are pretty high. I think Natal's microphone seals it for me as a show stealer for E3 - even if Nintendo had it with Wii Talk first. Sony needs to step up there.

I'm not a 360 user, and I still thought Microsoft had a pretty good showing.

Sony (Joystiq Coverage)
Sony's done an excellent job of shoring up their software glut - even if they haven't been able to stave off Microsoft's exclusivity attacks completely. Again, if we play the same game here - Sony still showed off some interesting new titles like ModNation, MAG and Agent. The big franchises are going more cross-platform and what exclusive Sony shows seem pretty darn good.

Sony's pushing the PSP Go pretty hard, and I'm just not that interested. Seems like a good evolution, even if it is a bit late and still about $50 too expensive. The Motion Controller might look a bit like a sex toy, but I can't deny their argument that some games just need buttons. I still think they need an EyeToy update that includes a microphone, however (I'm an idiot).

PSN has been good to Sony and I'm glad to see them pushing it - but there are some key developments, like Netflix integration, missing from the deck. And we can all agree Home needs some serious work. Added involvement is nice and all, but some structural changes (like not having 50 people and bubble machines crowd a Silent Hill lobby) would have been nice.

No slim PS3 announcement, interestingly enough.

All in all, a decent showing - but a bit mixed for me.

Signs Nintendo Might Be Losing It

Microsoft showed off Project Natal to the press at E3 and the opinions seem to run from the positive to the wildly optimistic. Camera-based, Microsoft's motion solution doesn't require waving any hardware around. While products for the device (as well as the device itself) aren't expected until around 2010, it is reported to be quite functional and user friendly already.

Rumors abound that Sony has a motion trick up its sleeve as well, either an adaption of the Sixaxis (a more Wii like solution), or camera based like Natal. However, it looks like it might be a no show for E3.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has announced Wii Vitality. This is a heart rate monitor that hooks into your wiimote.

Let me say that again: it is a heart rate monitor. For your wiimote.

Microsoft has a potential Wii-killer (or at least a Wii-beater-upper) and Nintendo has a heart rate monitor. For your wiimote. OK, so technically they also have Wii Motion Plus with exactly zero titles I can think of that would really make me want to buy it.

Gamers are begging Nintendo for a better software library. While some gems, like Boom Blox (review pending), might be going unnoticed - the amount of shovelware on the Wii is rather embarrasing. Aside from Nintendo's own first party titles, which often ship with some new hardware gimmick, the Wii has some pretty slim pickings. While titles like Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party make excellent use of the Wii Fit Board, there are precious few developers looking to go outside the nunchuk as an accessory.

So why does Nintendo insist on making more of them? And then... even more?

They're still making money hand over fist, but Wii Fit can only sell for so long - and I don't think a heart rate monitor (for your wiimote) will help that. If Microsoft delivers a decent Wii Play clone in early 2010, Nintendo might be picking some Wii Teeth off the floor.

Update: Sony just showed their motion solution - a wand combined with EyeToy to deliver "1:1" sensing.

For Sunday: Zero Punctuation Reviews Duke Nukem Forever

DNF is one of those things I feel like I should have a comment on - but seriously, I can't even muster the time to act surprised/shocked/involved/caring.

Potential Buffy Film ... Sans Whedon

What with vampires and franchise relaunches suddenly all the rage, plans for a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie have inevitably come to pass, with the rights holders of the franchise announcing plans for a new Sunnydale-set film.

But there is a catch.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film, which will neither be a sequel nor prequel but a relaunch, is moving ahead with absolutely no involvement from film and series mastermind Joss Whedon. It will also fail to feature TV's Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and will in fact have no connection to the long-running series—meaning Angel, Willow, Xander and Spike will also be MIA.

-- Buffy Relaunching Without Whedon, Gellar...Regard for Fans?

Trying to think of a better recipe for disaster, but oddly none comes to mind.

Get Brutal With Tim Schafer

EA is holding a Twitter event with Tim Schafer, the man behind the potentially most awesomest game Brutal Legend (if not the most awesome, most likely to have the biggest hair at least).

The event coincides with E3 and EA has a site online (http://e3.brutallegend.com) with details on how to get in the action.

Urban Retro's 8-Bit Wallet

Urban Retro sends word of this product, The 8-Bit Wallet, which is I guess more or less what is advertised...

Game Play: Flashback (iPhone)

I remember the original Flashback on the Amiga, and I remember it fondly.

I don't remember it so fondly when the game has horrible touch controls tossed on top of it. Honestly, by the time I had a) fallen to spot and b) spent ten minutes struggling to get to the right place to handle the flashy cube thing ... I was ready to delete app from the phone.

Total fail for me.

Game Play: MadWorld

As the Wii's substantial user base becomes even more substantial, publishers and developers are trying to figure out how to best get their games on the system. Many seems to making fairly generic franchise decisions (in other words, can we make a light gun game out of this). So hat goes off to Sega and Platinum Games for making a fresh title with a unique look and feel.

MadWorld is rendered in sharply contrasted black and white with splashes of red (for the large amounts of blood) and a few other choice colors. You play Jack, an ultraviolent kind of guy with a fancy chainsaw in his arm, in an ultraviolent part of town where such fancy chainsaw really comes in handy. The gameplay is a mix of Smash TV (Jack's grim cityview is the backdrop for such a television program) and God of War, where combos earn you cash and eventually you'll get a boss fight with a pretty decent handle of how quick time events should work (i.e. I didn't want to throw the controller).

I've made it through a few bosses now and the only real complaint I have is that the game can get repetitive despite many attempts by the developers to avoid it. I'm not sure if it is because once the visual style settles in, there's less eye candy about on a level by level or what - but the distractions made out of mini games (such as man darts - toss enemies into a massive dartboard), cutscenes and boss fights only marginally makes up for the fact that 90% of the residents in the game seem to just be waiting to be chopped to bits.

Recommended, but probably only as a rental.