We could be heroes, just for one hour

A couple of months ago, Square Enix surprised the world by announcing a brand new game. The big shock came not so much from the game itself, but rather that platform it was on. I'm talking, of course, about Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, which was released not on Playstation, DS, or even Xbox 360, but rather on Apple's iPod. Now, I've only ever purchased one iPod game before (Harmonix's Phase), but, for $5 there was no way I could pass this one up.

The game casts you in the roll of Ziggy (who doesn't play guitar), a young boy whose brother has been carted of by militia. It's your job to travel around the country on a quest to get him back. The game is strategy RPG, in the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics, where you take turns moving your characters on a grid and selecting appropriate attacks. Everything is stat-based, and you can see the chance you have of making a successful hit, as well as the damage it will do, before you choose to attack. Nothing relies on split-second timing or precise hand-eye co-ordination; it's all about good planning.

To aid him on his quest, Ziggy enlists the help of the Tune Troopers. This is where the most novel aspect of the game comes into play: In order to create a Trooper, you must choose a song from your iPod which is then converted into an ally. They never tell you exactly what the algorithm is, so you can't plan to make a warrior by choosing, say, a hard rock song, but instead must experiment with different tracks to see what results they yield. You may end up with a mage, a monk, a ranger, or a number of another classes, the outcome definitely containing an element of randomness in it. Then, as you fight battles you earn Pitch Pearls, or PP for short (yes, just as with Dead Rising's Prestige Points, Eastern developers have once again chosen a name that makes Westerners snicker), which you can use to power up your troops, boosting their stats and unlocking new moves. The other way to boost up your Troopers is actually done outside of the game. That's right, by listening the songs you made the troops from, you will find those allies improved the next time you play. However, each Trooper can only be used in a certain number of battles, so there's no point in making anyone too powerful.

So anyway, when this game was revealed I had every intention of playing it for a while then offering a full review, or at least an extended hands-on impression. However, as I sit before you I've only played for maybe an hour or two. But why? Well, there are a few reasons:
The first one involves the creation of Tune Troopers. I love the idea of making characters from music, and powering them up by listening to the songs, but the reality doesn't turn out so great. Sure, if I had a small capacity iPod with only a handful of songs on it then it might be okay, but with over 200 albums to choose from, the chances of me listening to a particular track more than once between play sessions is highly unlikely, so therefore my troops never get those bonuses. Okay, if I make multiple troops from different songs then I stand a chance of listening to some of them, but never enough to give me any real advantage. I realize that I could cheat by putting a song on constant loop before I go to bed, but this would sort of defeat the purpose, and remove any aspect of fun the mode has.

I also don't like the randomness involved when making allies. I've tried making multiple guys from the same song, and they always come out completely different from each other, making me wonder if your choice of track actually effects anything at all! They even give you suggestions sometimes; for instance, I was once asked to pick a song with the word "rock" in it. Cool, I thought. I liked them suggesting tracks, as it might make me choose ones I hadn't heard in a while, or had forgotten about altogether. However, upon making a selection (The Clash's Rock the Casbah) I was told this wasn't what they were looking for. I didn't understand; it had the word "rock" in it, which was the only requirement, but I was never told where I went wrong, leading me to believe it's just bad design or poor programming.

There were some other aspects of the game I didn't like, as well. Now, I never played FF: Tactics so I don't know if this is indicative of the genre, but are all strategy RPGs this boring? I'm not talking about the structure of the game, which plays sort of like Puzzle Quest (where you select where you want to go on the World Map, then from a list of options when you get there), but rather the actual battles. Now, I wasn't expecting mile-a-minute gameplay, but I didn't know it would be this slow. Every time I make a move I have to check my character's movement range, attack range, and the range of their spells; I have to see what percentage chance I have of hitting enemies, and what damage it may do; I even have to check the movement, attack, and spell ranges of all nearby enemies, to make sure they can't reach me when their turn comes around. I know I don't have to do any of this, but this is a strategy game after all, I and would feel like I was playing incorrectly if I were to blindly rush into anything. Overall, it feels more like playing a board game than a video game, and I don't mean a fun, exciting board game like Scene It, but rather a slow, dull one like Chess, which requires way too much forward-thinking for my taste.

All gameplay gripes aside though, there is one final issue I have with Song Summoner, and it's probably the most important one of all: The iPod itself. Not the controls, which actually work surprisingly well, but the battery life. Now, I have a 5th generation iPod, and anyone who's ever tried playing a video on one of those will know how quickly the battery gets drained. I'm sure they've improved this on more recent models (and I imagine the Nanos - which use flash memory instead of a hard drive - are better), but I can't play for more than an hour without completely killing my power. This wasn't so much of an issue when playing Phase, as I only played for a few minutes at a time, but as Song Summoner is an RPG, extended play sessions are sort of a given. Unfortunately, this fact made me pretty much give up on the game, as even playing for 15 or 20 minutes put me in danger of running out of battery life later in the day, when I was listening to music or podcasts (oh, and by the way, it will go for hours when just playing audio, so it isn't broken or anything). No, the only real way I could safely play this title would be when my iPod is plugged in and charging, which completely destroys the entire portability aspect.

So all these things combined have pretty much finished my game of Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes. I'm not saying it's inherently bad, it's just clearly not for me. If you're a fan of strategy RPGs though, have a modern iPod with a decent battery, and a small selections of songs you listen to constantly, then this might be just the title for you. I like the idea of using music to enhance the game, but I didn't feel it was very well utilized in this case. Oh well, Square have already released some excellent games this year, with more on the way, so if I have to put up with one Song Summoner for every The World Ends With You, I think I can live with that.

Welcome to bullet hell

Your suit is fully powered up; you feel strong, fast, invincible. You take your time choosing the appropriate weapons for the job at hand, this particular mission requiring something that bounces off walls and explodes on impact. You test out your boost, zipping this way and that, amazed at the sheer speed you can muster up. You psyche yourself up, confident in your abilities to handle the challenge ahead, but upon opening the door you notice what looks like a torrent of rain heading your way. It appears as though the very heavens have opened to let this powerful downpour out, and the very last thought that runs through your head is "Wait! That's not rain. Those are missiles!". Half a second later it's all over, and you're no more than fragments of dust floating in space. Welcome to the world of Bangai-O Spirits.

For those unfamiliar with the title, it's a follow-up to the 1999 N64 shooter, which is more well known from it's 2001 release on Sega's Dreamcast. Now, Treasure have decided to revisit the world of Bangai-O, this time on our favorite dual-screen handheld. The game puts you in the shoes of a flying mech who's armed to the teeth with powerful weaponry. You can fly in any direction, and have unlimited boost to help you traverse the enemy-packed levels. At the start of each mission you choose two main weapons, and two uber-weapons; your arsenal includes various types of missiles, such as homing, napalm, and bouncing, as well as melee weapons like sword, bat, and shield. Your uber-weapons have similar choices regarding missiles, but also include powers like time-freezing. The hook is, if you choose two different missile types, either main or uber, during combat you can fire them separately, or combine them to get bullets that bounce and explode, or ones that home-in and penetrate enemy shields, as well as many other combinations.

The levels vary in size; some take up only a few screens, while others go on for ages, but they all have one thing in common: They are chocked-full of enemies who all have the same weapons you do and are not afraid to use them. You usually have no more than a split-second to get your bearings before an endless wall of explosive projectiles starts homing in on your location. Luckily, your mech is quite agile, and your bullets can penetrate the enemies', but head-on combat is still not advised. Instead, choosing a good spot and slowly taking out bad-guys is a much better option, and having missiles that can be fired round corners certainly helps. What also helps are your uber-weapons. In most shooters these types of armaments are for last-resort use, getting you out of a tight spot when you are overwhelmed, but in Bangai-O Spirits you must rely on them all the time. Most of them are projectiles that you can charge, releasing up to 100 at a time in all directions, or focused one way. The size of them depends on how many enemy bullets are on screen at the time; waiting for the right moment can yield missiles that are 4 times their normal size. You also have other options, such as a power that freezes all enemies and missiles on screen, the duration of which is also determined by the initial charge. Thankfully, as you kill baddies they drop fruit (no, I have no idea why they chose fruit) which powers up these weapons, allowing for near-unlimited use.

The game contains no story, except for some amusing cutscenes during the tutorial (which gets really hard by the end). Instead, you are given the option of playing any of the 150 levels right from the start. They are grouped into different categories, such as designers picks, and puzzle levels. This is an interesting choice; it's always nice to beat a level only to unlock the next one, but in this case I think they didn't want people to become frustrated with a seemingly-impossible challenge, and give up on the game altogether. This way you can forget about any level you don't like, and move onto the next one instead; since every one has it's own separate score, and nothing caries over from one to the next, it doesn't matter what order you choose to tackle them in.

I should take a moment to moment to talk about the puzzle mode. This series of challenges focuses not on bullet-hell combat but rather on, you guessed it, puzzles. You will be asked to do things like push blocks around to trigger switches, making sure to get them in the correct order so they don't block your way. While these levels are a nice distraction from the blister-inducing shooter ones, I've only found myself attempting them ever now and then, when my fingers are growing numb and my brain is itching for a workout instead. Also, I've found that even the shooter levels have some puzzle aspects involved; as I said before, direct combat is best avoided, and careful planning is your safest bet; even the choice of which weapons to use is part of the challenge, as there are none to find in the levels so you better have the right ones equipped when you start.

There is one more mode that I should really mention, which is probably the most interesting of all: The level creation mode. This tool allows you to create you own levels, and offers you all the options available in the regular game. You can place walls, breakable and invincible; enemies of all types; missile pods; switches; bombs; and all manner of other items, in arenas of varying sizes. Once you have finished making it, you can share it with others using the game's most unique feature: The level will be converted into a modem-style sound file, usually around 10 seconds long, which can be played via the speakers and picked up on another DS via the microphone. It's kind of a retro-futuristic thing, which reminds me of the technology from the film Brazil. You can also record the sound file onto a computer, then share it with the world; anyone who wants a copy just plays it with a pair of headphones held up to their DS microphone, and it transfers it right over. Even though it took me a few tries to get the volume level right, it's still a neat feature that's definitely worth trying.

So now that I've explained pretty much the whole game, you may be wondering what I think of it. Well, it's not bad. I haven't gotten too far, but have enjoyed the stuff that I've played. However, it definitely has it's issues, such as the trial-and-error gameplay, which often requires you to memorize enemy placements before you even stand a chance of winning. It also has some technical problems, like the major slowdown that occurs everytime the screen becomes too full of bullets (which happens a lot!), but in some ways the slowdown is a blessing; it at least gives you a little more time to react when the odds are stacked against you. The controls are solid, but can feel a little complicated at times; you have a seperate button for each weapon, and pressing two at once toggles between seperate and mixed bullet mode. Pressing a direction before firing causes all your shots to be locked in that direction, where as pressing fire first causes them to go whichever way you're moving, changing as you do. You can also double-tap any fire button to hover in place, which can prove very useful when you've found a good vantage point.

I've also found that the melee weapons aren't as useful as I would have liked. The sword, which is used for cutting through walls of enemy projectiles, requires precise timing to be effective, and I haven't had to use the bat or shield at all so far. Instead, I've been relying solely on my various missile types, experimenting with different combinations when I'm having a hard time with a particular challenge. The thing is, even your missiles feel kind of like pea-shooters when up against the endless onslaught of enemies, and I found myself using my uber-weapons more often that I expected, which feels a little cheeky, but is really a neccessity and by no means makes the game easy.

So overall, I can't really recommend the game to everyone. If you are the type who is easily frustrated, and hates replaying levels over and over again, then Bangai-O Spirits is definitely not for you. I haven't found myself getting too worked up so far, but I feel that if I tried to play for an extended period of time I'd end up snapping my DS in half in a fit of blind rage before too long. I think this is a title that I'll play a little bit of in between other games, but never for long enough to get really pissed off with it. The level creator should also provide potentially-limitless fun; I've already downloaded a few good ones from YouTube, and have even made a couple of my own which I promise to share with all of you when I get the chance. So if you love games that give both your mind and fingers a serious challenge, and have mastered the zen-like art of keeping calm under pressure, by all means pick up a copy. As for me, I'll probably take a break from it when Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise releases next week, but I'll always keep it handy for those times when I'm feeling a bit masochistic, and burning my arms with cigarettes just doesn't cut it anymore.

Quit happens

I'm done with Wii Fit. Lets not make any pretenses about the reason: The game is boring, and I'm lazy. I thought it would keep my attention for a little more than two weeks, but I just can't bring myself to turn it on anymore. I still like the concept; the idea of getting in shape while playing video games is a sound one, the problem being that the games themselves get very dull, very quick, at which point it simply feels like exercise. Not that there's anything wrong with exercising, but if I wanted to fill my time doing it I don't need a big, white piece of plastic on my living room floor, especially as the games I was focusing on were things like push-ups and sit-ups.

I realized something else though, which should have been obvious from the start: I don't need to lose any weight. Okay, I always knew that, but I didn't think Wii Fit was all about weight loss, I thought it was about general fitness. However, I quickly found out that the game doesn't give you any goals, or suggestions to get you to your "ideal" weight. I mean, it tells you how much you need to gain or lose, but doesn't give any dietary suggestions, or even recommend which of the exercises you should be participating in. It's kind of a half-assed system, which probably stems from the fact that giving people nutrition advice could result in unwanted lawsuits (I don't know exactly how, but people sue for everything these days). It also has to keep the premise that it's a fun game, not a pressure-filled training regime. Unfortunately, this leaves it feeling a bit flaky, like those dietary supplements that have disclaimers saying "any weight loss achieved while using this product is purely coincidental".

So that's about it. Sorry to anyone who wanted to know if Wii Fit is really helpful or not, but I guess an overweight person would probably be a much better test subject. Or maybe a non-gamer who picked up the Wii specifically for Wii Fit, and doesn't know how fun video games are supposed to be. I'm not saying that I'll never play again; I may find in year or two that I want to get in shape, at which point Wii Fit might seem like a blessing. For now though, when I have a bit of free time to play a game with a big plastic peripheral, I think I'll stick to one I actually enjoy.

Is it called "Plait" in the UK?

This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee takes a look at Braid, the recently-released Xbox Live Arcade puzzle-platformer. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this title, but haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. Some have been comparing it to Portal, as the challenge lies in mastering the game mechanics, and learning to think in a certain way in order to pass the challenges. It sounds as though even Yahtzee had a good time, and instead of having a lot of bad things to say about the game, he instead fills a good portion of time bitching about how we rarely see titles like this, thanks to all the people out there mindlessly buying crappy sequels to expensively-made franchises, therefore discouraging developers from trying anything new.

Well, while I agree with this sentiment, it's unfortunately not going to change, it's only going to get worse. Take a console like the Wii, for instance (uh oh, here I go again.....); publishers are realizing that they can make a million dollars by shoveling out cheap mini-game compilations and dumbed down versions of proper games, so what's the incentive to risk all their money on something original? It's a problem we've been seeing for a long time in the music, and movie industry (Disaster Movie?! God, not another one!), and video game makers are quickly copping on to the fact that the same can be applied to their industry too. For a lot of people, all it takes is the word "Madden" on the front of the box and it's an instant sale, regardless of quality. Thankfully, some people out there are trying to expand the art form known as gaming, as Yahtzee does point out (by the way, I own every game he uses as an example), so it's not all doom and gloom. Besides, just because I plan on buying Gears of War 2 doesn't mean I'm not excited about Tim Shaefer's next project, or Team Ico's. I hope that, even when the video game industry becomes so mainstream that crappy "pop" games are at the top of the charts, we still see some new and original ideas coming from developers who truly love gaming.

Anyway, here's the review. As always, it contains plenty of strong language, and is definitely NSFW.

Check out the rest of his videos here.

Oh, no rush or anything

Yay! My one free morning off for almost a week! As I mentioned before, I was very excited about having this morning off, as there are some Rock Band songs I couldn't wait to play; Rush's Moving Pictures album was released yesterday, and their songs are always good to play along to. So why aren't I playing them right now, after all, wasn't that my intention? Didn't I get out of bed specifically to spend the only morning I could rocking out? The answer to these questions is, yes I did but the album isn't there!

It looks like Harmonix are having some "technical difficulties", so have stalled the release until they can work them out. Technical difficulties, eh? You waited until the day of release to announce a delay?! I can hardly imagine what would happen if this were any other entertainment industry; picture all the outrage if movie theaters had to send customers away on the day The Dark Knight was supposed to come out; or if bookstores told eager fans "Sorry, we actually didn't get in that final Harry Potter book after all. They must have had some technical difficulties at the printers." Alright, I might be blowing this a little out of proportion, but who's to say I wasn't looking forward to this release as much as the two I just mentioned? I think video game fans have to deal with this kind of crap all the time; it's either developers announcing their shipping date, rather than the date their product will actually be for sale, or simply constant delays! I know that video games have a lot more bugs to work out than movies or books, but shouldn't game makers bear this in mind when announcing things? In this case, people are speculating that the glitches stem from the fact that YYZ (the song I was most looking forward to) has no lyrics, so the virtual singer has nothing to do on stage. I don't know anything about programming, so I can't really give an opinion on whether or not this is true, all I know is that the album isn't there, and I'm disappointed.

I'm sorry Harmonix, I really love your game, and I think everyone is surprised that you've managed to release new songs every week without fail; I guess there had to be some delays at some point, I just wish they could have happened some other week, when crappy songs were being released. Then again, one man's crap is another man's..... er....... I don't know, something good that starts with "cr"......... crumpet, there we go. I still plan on buying the album when it finally comes out, it just might be another few days (at least) before I have the chance. Oh well, I guess this gives me the opportunity to catch up on a few bits of news, before I have to put my nose back to the grindstone in a few hours.......

They call me the working man

I've been trying hard to keep this blog about video games, not about myself, but some of you may be wondering what's up with the low post count this week. You might be thinking that I've had enough of writing, or at least have gotten bored of doing it so much. Well, just though I'd inform you that neither of these is the case, it's just that damn thing known as "real life" that's been taking up my time. There are been extra shifts to cover at my job, so I've been working lots of doubles and have had very little free time. I've also had to deal with the hassle of my car crapping-out on me, right when I need it the most. There have been many things I've wanted to post about but just haven't had the chance, as I've been kind of wiped out during the little breaks that I have had. Luckily, things should go back to normal in about a week, and the post-happy Oscar you all know and love should return, triumphant.

I have Wednesday morning off, which is nice, but the call of Rock Band is strong at the moment; not just because I haven't played a lot recently, but because I'm really excited about this week's upcoming songs, and have a feeling I'm going to spend the whole morning rocking out to them. I promise to write about them as soon as possible, and hopefully catch up on a few other things as well. So don't fret; this isn't the end, it's only the beginning......

Multiplayer shooters can be fun

Now, the title of this post may seem quite obvious to some, what with the popularity of titles like Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4, but I'm not usually a fan of this particular type of gaming. I just find them to be a bit repetitive; it's the same handful of maps over and over again, and I usually have my ass handed to me by some trash-talking twelve year old. Then, about a week ago, I saw a buddy on my friend list playing Team Fortress 2, which is part of The Orange Box. Now, I played Half Life, and I played Portal, but I never even tried out the multiplayer shooter game, which seemed to me like it may be a little too complex. However, with a friend to show me the ropes I figured I should at least give it a go, and I'm really glad that I did.

For those who've never played it before, it's an online shooter that focuses more on team games, rather than deathmatches and other "lone wolf" types. Many of them should be familiar to anyone who's played shooters before: Capture the flag, securing control points, and things like that. What makes Team Fortress different though, are the variety of character classes you can select from during the matches. There are the usual types, such as the heavy gunner, the explosives expert, the sniper etc..... but there are also some rather unique jobs, such as the engineer, who can set up supply boxes and automated gun turrets; the medic, who wields a proton-pack-style healing gun, and can grant temporary invincibility to allies; and the spy, who can disguise himself as the enemy, and become invisible for short periods of time. Each class has it's own unique weapons, and there are none to find around the maps, but ammo is universal so works in any gun.

Even though the games are a little more complex than "just kill everyone", having someone to back me up was a big help. Some of the character classes are a little easier to play as when learning the rules, and having a friendly medic behind me ensured that I didn't die too often. Also, as each map has only one type of game associated with it, I got to learn the rules a bit quicker than I expected, and even though I wasn't exactly dominating everybody, I still felt as though I was holding my own, considering the short time I had played for.

So overall, I'm having a really good time with Team Fortress 2, and can't wait until I have another day off to get some more time in. The funny thing is, I've talked to few of my other friends who also own The Orange Box, but have never tried out this particular part of it, possibly for the same reasons I never had. Valve are also doing a good job of adding new content into the game, so it should stay fresh for a while, and entice old players to return for another go. Oh, and if you don't already own The Orange Box, then this means you haven't played Portal, so what the hell are you doing reading this? Stop wasting time, and go and buy it! I'll see you online.

The times they are a-changin'

A young boy named Ethan comes home one day to find his entire family missing. On the ground is a strange "hollow pen", and upon picking it up he starts having weird flashbacks. It turns out that the pen has the ability to open doors into the past, through which he may be able to find out what's happened to his family. However, someone else out there has their own hollow pen, and may be changing the past themselves. This is the premise of Time Hollow, the latest DS point-and-click adventure from Konami. Somehow, I've managed to miss all coverage of this game up to this point, but with all the titles being released in the next few months, it's not surprising that some of the smaller ones have passed me by. Now that I know about it though, I'm kind of excited, and will share with you the details of this time-bending adventure.

The game takes place over 8 days, as you must guide Ethan around various locations, uncovering clues, and altering the past to solve people's problems. For instance, there is a point where two sisters are fighting over some lost money, which ultimately causes one of them to run off. Rather than simply look for the missing person, as you would in other adventure games, it's your job to find the money, open a door to the past, then deposit it in one of their hands before they have the fight. In this way, the argument never happens, and the sister never runs off. Simple. You can't just alter the past willy-nilly though; it's only after having a flashback that the ability presents itself.

This is the basic premise behind this title, which smacks a little of Day of the Tentacle, another point-and-click adventure where changing the past is the solution to some of the puzzles. There is a flash demo of the game available, but unfortunately it's only in Japanese. One thing it makes quite clear though, is that there is a lot of dialog, but anyone who's played a point-and-click adventure before should be familiar with this concept.

Konami's official site state the release date as September 23rd, and I have a feeling that fans may want to pick up a copy as soon as possible; niche titles such as this always seem to come in small, sporadic shipments, and become increasingly harder to find as time goes on. Even if I don't have time to play on release day, I'll probably buy a copy anyway. That way, I'll have something to look forward to after I'm finished with my huge list of holiday titles.

Get your rock on

This week in Rock Band, we take a break from all the loud, angry music, and travel back to a time of leg warmers, parachute pants, and hairstyles I prey everyday don't make a comeback. That's right, I'm talking about the 80s. Showing everyone that they are going to release a very diverse selection of music, Harmonix has given us some songs that I can really only describe as 80s pop. Even though that's not exactly a genre I've been dying to play, I'm at least thankful that we are getting something very different this week. Oh yeah, and The Janitors' song is another of the budget ones, being offered for only $1, while the rest are the usual $2.
This week's tracks are:

Devo - Girl U Want
Devo - Through Being Cool
Duran Duran - Girls on Film
Duran Duran - Rio
The Janitors - Get Your Rock On
Note: Click on any song for expert drum videos.

So which of them did I buy this week then? Well, being only a child during the 80s, I was lucky enough to have been blissfully unaware of much of the terrible popular music around me. Listening to the tracks, I laughed a bit at the cheesiness of them, and figured I would probably just skip them all. Then I listened to Rio, and realized that, while it was a cheesy pop song like all the others, it was a cheesy pop song that I knew. Well, that was enough for me. Being in Tier 7, I wasn't expecting a walk in the park, but I was still a little surprised by the difficulty. It's another one of those songs that has constant 16th notes most of the way through, like Orange Crush, Outside, and, of course, Run to the Hills. It's also rather fast, and the chorus has a tricky kick drum beat, amongst all the fast hand parts. Thankfully, it eases up a little somewhere between half, and two thirds of the way through, and goes into a more manageable beat. However, the fast parts aren't over yet, there is still one more chorus to deal with, before it eases up again toward the end. Phew! It's certainly a tiring one for those of us who haven't mastered the art of super-fast drumming yet.

So what else is gong on in Rock Band this week? Well, we have a little more info about the song transfer feature, that will allow users to export all the Rock Band songs into Rock Band 2. According to Harmonix' PR man John Drake, on the day the sequel is released, the original will receive a patch that will add the export feature to the main menu. Clicking on it will prompt you to enter a password, that will be included with the second game. After this, the payment screen will pop up, but don't worry, they have promised it will cost no more than $5. That's it. After the songs are copied to the hard drive, you will have access to them when playing Rock Band 2. They still haven't confirmed whether or not every song will be accessible, but we know that at least the vast majority will.
They also answered a question I have been wondering about: If I lend Rock Band to a friend who has the sequel, can they export all the songs into their game as well? According to Mr. Drake, as long as they pay the fee, they probably can. So when he says "probably", does that just mean they haven't figured out how to prevent it yet? Not that Harmonix seem greedy, or anything, it just seems that they could lose a lot of money this way. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks......

We've also been given final confirmation, both from Sony, and Microsoft, that all our instruments from the upcoming Rock Band 2 will work fine in Guitar Hero: World Tour, as well as Rock Revolution. In fact, instruments from all three games will be interchangeable with each other. I assume this means Rock Band 1 instruments will work as well, as there is no major changes between these and the new ones. It sure is nice that these companies are working together to make it easier for the consumer, but the question still remains as to what happens when you use a drum set that doesn't have as many pads as the game was designed for. I could swear I heard somewhere that Guitar Hero would auto detect if you were using different drums, and adjust accordingly, but I can't find confirmation of this anywhere. Nevertheless, it means that more people will be likely to pick up multiple rhythm games this holiday season, which works out well for everyone.

A SKUwed perspective

There's a rumor on Joystiq right now: Apparently, the recently-released 80GB PS3, that ships with Metal Gear Solid 4, will no longer be manufactured. While we all knew that the bundle wouldn't last forever, it just serves as a reminder for something that's starting to get a little out of control in the video game industry: Hardware SKUs. For those unfamiliar with industry terms, SKUs are simply the different models of a console (or any other product for that matter), so for instance, the Premium, Elite, and Arcade models of the Xbox 360 are all different SKUs.

This never used to be an issue in the past. Sure, plenty of companies re-released their systems in a new, slimmed down, or cheaper to produce model, but the core functionality always remained the same. All this changed when Microsoft released the Xbox 360. For the first time, consumers had to choose which model they wanted when buying a new game system. Although both SKUs (Premium and Core) could play the same games, the lack of a hard drive on the cheaper model made certain functions inaccessible, such as the ability to play Xbox 1 games. The good news for the consumer was that the Core could be upgraded, to essentially become a Premium, by purchasing things like a hard drive, wireless controllers, and high-def cables. The bad news for developers was that not every system had standard storage space, so they couldn't rely on the hard drive when designing games; they had to ensure that their products worked on every 360, not just the more expensive ones.

Microsoft got a lot of crap for dividing up their consumer base. The company throwing the most stones was Sony, but when they stepped out of their own glass house to announce the PS3, I think many people realized that a trend might be starting. Sure enough, just like the 360, the PS3 would be available in more than one SKU. Many people praised Sony for putting a hard drive in every model, but one thing they didn't do was allow the cheaper model to be upgraded into the more expensive one. I suppose technically there were third-part devices that could add things like wireless capability, and a multi-format card-reader, but none of these were officially licensed by Sony.

This is where things start to get a bit tricky. Sony were clearly not content with the current choice they were giving consumers, so decided to constantly release slightly different models of their console; this one had a bigger hard drive, this one had no wi-fi built in, this one had no card-reader, or less USB ports on it....... Okay, I admit that I may be making the situation sound worse than it was, but it was (and still is) pretty damn confusing, even for someone who actively follows the video game industry. I hate to think of how perplexing it must have been for average Joe-gamer, who just wanted to play the latest version of Madden Football.

Clearly, Sony's main goal in all this hardware redesigning was to make their system cheaper to produce. They did this by removing functionality that was deemed non-essential. Probably the biggest thing to be taken out of recent models is the backward compatibility, or the ability to play PS2 games, if you will. The first models of PS3 had both the CPU and GPU of a PS2 inside of them, so they could play any of the old games no problem. Then Sony decided to take one of those chips out, and have the PS3 play PS2 games through emulation, much in the same way that the Xbox 360 plays Xbox 1 games. Of course, emulation is never perfect, so this model couldn't play every PS2 game available. This was shortly followed by the removal of the remaining chip, and the loss of all backward compatibility. This was the issue that caused the most confusion amongst potential buyers.

I've mentioned, on more than one occasion, the hassles my girlfriend gets at work from parents buying video game systems for their kids; now imagine having to explain things like backward compatibility, and software emulation. Of course, there are plenty of people who still refuse to believe that the PS3 they hold in their hands won't play PS2 games; after all, they've seen a friend's console do it, and besides, what would a girl know about video games, eh? These people then come back later, very angry at the fact that it won't play their old games, claiming that they were told it would.

Another issue that presents itself when console makers constantly release new SKUs, is the lack of price drops. This is not just a Sony issue; Microsoft are proving themselves to be just as guilty. Up until this generation, console pricing worked much the same as any other consumer electronics device: The initial price was gradually dropped as the manufacturer got better at producing them. Now companies are looking at Apple's iPod business model, and attempting to copy it. This method involves keeping the cost the same, but adding more into the box to sweeten the deal. Even though Sony have had a number of price drops, most of them were more like clearance sales, where they got rid of all their old models, to replace them with a newer one, most likely for the same cost the old one used to be. Microsoft are following suit, having recently dropped the price of their 20GB model by $50, only to later reveal that it would be replaced by a 60GB model, for the original price. Now we are hearing rumors that they plan to lower their prices once again; lets hope it's a permanent price-drop this time.

Meanwhile, Sony have announced a new 160GB PS3 bundle. From what people can tell, it's actually a 40GB model with a larger hard drive on it. Oh, and that's not the 40GB Metal Gear bundle, which had partial backward compatibility through software emulation, but rather the other 40GB one, which has no backward compatibility, only 2 USB ports, and no card-reader. Confused yet? Also, as they're bundling it with a few extra bells and whistles (Uncharted, plus the PSN game Pain), they're actually upping the price again, instead of lowering it, as they should be at this point in the console's life cycle.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Nintendo yet in this discussion. That's because, for once, I don't have anything bad to say about them. They have released exactly one Wii SKU (in the US anyway), which makes it much easier for consumers. Well, it would if you could actually find them in stores, anyway! Sure, they may have re-designed the DS but, like I said, it's expected for console makers to revise their systems at some point in their lives; it only sucks when they do it every few months, and have multiple versions on shelves at the same time.

So what this all comes down to is: I've always liked console gaming over computer gaming because of it's simplicity. You buy the system, and you're all set for the next five-or-so years, until the next generation is released. If console makers are going to start arbitrarily upgrading their machines every few months, not only will it be really confusing for the customers, but it will surely make any major hardware announcements seem less important, as we will all have become used to our machines being constantly improved anyway. It also makes it tough for those who may want to buy a new system, never knowing if a slightly better one is just around the corner. I really hope that this SKU juggling is just a trend, and that one day soon I may be able to walk in to store, ask for a PS3, and simply get handed one, as I did for the PS2, PS1, and every console before them.

Throw me a bone

This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee brings us a review of Soul Calibur IV (or is it Soulcalibur IV?). It seems that just about everyone is playing this game right now; every podcast I listen to has people comparing how far they got in the Tower mode (whatever that is), and complaining about the fact that a character they loved has been totally gimped, or at the very least toned down. I, however, am not playing Soul Calibur IV. I just don't really like fighting games (or one-on-one beat-em-ups, as I would rather call them), and even the prospect of re-creating my own gorgeous physique in the character creator doesn't entice me.

It seems that Yahtzee isn't impressed either, although there's one thing I'm afraid I have to fault him on in his review: He seems to have approached it from a single-player perspective, where as we all know that these types of games are only really fun against other people. This was something he acknowledged for his Smash Bros review (not that it made much difference there though), but doesn't even mention for SCIV. I mean, I have lots of fond memories of wailing on my chums in Street Fighter 2, but I can barely even remember playing alone, even though I did that a lot as well, back in the day. Oh well, it's not really that big of a deal, like I said, I don't even really like these types of games (SF2 not included), so I don't care one way or the other if he liked Soul Calibur IV. You might wonder how I could be so nonchalant about a title featuring Darth Vader, but if you are, I have four words for you: Masters of Teras Kasi. Still wondering?

Here's the review. As always it contains plenty of strong language and is definitely NSFW.

Check out the rest of his reviews here.

Hats off to Henry

Gaming life is great isn't it? The holiday season games have barely started being released, and already I'm excited about a title that isn't even coming out until sometime next year. In this case, it's a new DS game, developed by Tiburon, called Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. Now, you may be thinking the exact same thing as I was when I heard the title: That it sounds like a very unimaginative rip-off of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. However, once you see the game, you'll realize that the similarities are in name alone.

Henry Hatsworth is part 2D platformer, and part falling-block puzzle game. As you defeat enemies on the top screen, they turn into blocks on the bottom screen. You build up time, which can be used to re-arrange the blocks to form them into lines of three, making them disappear. If you let the bottom screen build up too much, then the enemies will re-appear on the top screen, and you'll have to fight them again. There are also power-up blocks; making them disappear will give Henry powers like weapon upgrades, or the ability to freeze enemies. As you re-arrange the puzzle you also fill up a bar; fill it all the way, and you can upgrade Henry into a powerful fighter, or even a giant robot!

Overall, it looks like a nice cross between a classic platformer, and a bejeweled-style puzzler, following in the vain of other recent hybrid games, such as Patapon, and Puzzle Quest. I really like developers trying out new ideas, and mixing genres, and the DS seems to be the perfect place for these unique titles. Unfortunately, there isn't much more info out regarding this game, as it was only recently announced. However, I will continue to follow the news up until it's release, which is currently slated for sometime next year. For now, check out Kotaku's screenshots of it, so you can start getting excited yourself.

Fit happens - week two

Oh dear, I feel kind of lazy. As you may realize, it's been two weeks since I started my Wii Fit regiment, but this last week I haven't exactly kept to a daily schedule. Here's the deal: I've been working more than usual, and whenever I have a little free time in the afternoon to play games, it's tough to voluntarily spend it doing push-ups and sit-ups, when I could be rocking out to my favorite songs, or smearing virtual hookers' brains on the sidewalk.

I think my problem may be with the way I'm approaching Wii Fit though. Rather than think of it as a game, I should really think of it as a fitness product; this way I may be able to squeeze it into my daily routine, without feeling as though I'm wasting valuable gaming time. Of course, by doing this, I'm sort of admitting that Wii Fit isn't actually fun, and all I'm using it for is the end-result, but this isn't far from the truth. Sure, the balance games are kind of amusing, but they all lose some of their charm when you start playing them every day.

I have another problem with it too: Since my weight and BMI haven't changed much, I'm still being told that I'm underweight. In fact, this time it even told me what my ideal weight would be, which is a good 20lbs more than it actually is. Since my body mass has barely changed in the last 10-13 years of my life, it would take serious effort, and a well planned out diet for me to put on so much (if I even can). So, after telling me to put on weight, what is Wii Fit's suggestion for how I do it? Well, it doesn't really have any. It doesn't tell me which games to play, nor what kind of foods I should be eating; it simply informs me of my weight-issue, then drops me right back in the games menu. So hang on. If I'm trying to put on weight, but I'm playing the exact same games as people who are trying to lose weight, then how the hell does that work? It's kind of weird really; I wish they gave you a few more suggestions as to what your focus should be, depending on your goals.

Anyway, all that aside, I'm going to make a little more effort to squeeze some training into my daily routine. I'm not sure if my results this week should be analyzed too much; like I said, I haven't really used it that often since last Monday. It's too early right now to determine if it has any positive effects, but hopefully that will start to become apparent at some time in the near-future.

Wii Fit week two: BMI 18.44, weight 108lbs, Wii Fit Age 25.

Oh, my teeth are going to rot.....

We've had a couple of exciting new updates regarding Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise for the 360, and Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise for the DS, which I just can't help but share with you all.
First off, we have some details about Trouble in Paradise's 4-player online co-op mode that leaked earlier this week: According to Rare, it will be pretty much everything one could hope for; the host invites friends into his or her garden, and everyone has full and total control over everything they would in single player. This could make for some great team efforts in rapid pinata breeding, but of course you must be sure to only invite people you trust into your game. I would hate to think of the carnage some of the kids on Xbox Live could do if let loose in my garden.

The second piece of news is sort of good, and sort of bad. We finally have a solid release date for Pocket Paradise on the DS; it will be arriving in stores on September 2nd in the US, and September 5th in Europe. Some of you may already see the bad part of this announcement, but for those who don't, it's coming out on the same day as the 360 game! I was at least hoping for a little time between the two, as I think that playing two titles from the same franchise, at the same time, could get rather confusing.

Thankfully, I think I have a solution to this dilemma. Since my girlfriend is, no doubt, just as eager as me to play the 360 game, I'll play the DS one in the meantime, then we can trade off after a month or so. I realize though, that I may be enticed by it's online play, achievements, and Vision Cam support, but I'll soon have plenty of other games to distract me, so I should be okay. I guess we'll find out in just over 2 weeks, when the titles are shipped to stores. Oh yeah, and while I'm waiting, I should really book a visit to the dentist.........

You'll find it in the Amazon

I'm sure there are some of you out there who are still searching for a Nintendo Wii, having been unable to find any stores that have them in stock. Well, it looks as though your prayers have finally been answered; What They Play recently gave details on a computer program that could bring an end to your fruitless searching.

The program is called AmazonWatcher, and is available free of charge. After installing it, you simply type in the "ASIN" number of the product you're looking for, and it will inform you the second it either become available, or drops below a certain price, depending on how you set it. You can even get it to automatically order the product for you, although this service comes with a $25 a month charge, which is still a good deal when compared to the cost you may incur if purchasing a Wii from eBay. If you only want it to tell you when it's available though, then it doesn't cost anything. The ASIN number for the Wii is B0009VXBAQ, so if you're looking for one, simply enter this into the program and you're good to go.

Although I think it's ridiculous that people still have to go through these extreme measures to get hold of a system that's been out for going on 2 years, it's good to know that there's an easy way to do it now. Of course, if everyone starts using the program, then it sort of defeats the purpose (which I why I'm totally safe posting it here!), so get it now before everyone else catches on. You can download it from awatcher.net.

50 inches? Try 50 feet!

It's been a long time coming, but finally gamers have a change to play their favorite form of entertainment in a manner that makes your new Bravia's screen look about as big as my iPod's.
As reported on Canada's CBC News, Cineplex Entertainment will be renting out it's movie theater screens to play Xbox 360 games on. A 2-hour session will set you back $179 (Canadian), and can accommodate up to a dozen people. Rather than having to cancel any of their shows, they will only be renting them during theater downtime, which is mostly in the morning. Right now they have about 12-24 hours a week available, but this may increase after September when the summer movie schedule is over, and school goes back in. They will even make special arrangements for those who wish to book extended sessions, or ones later on at night. The theater will provide Xbox 360s and a selection of titles to play, but patrons are welcome to bring whatever games they want.

Now, having worked in various movie theaters over the years, I can tell you that this concept has been discussed by myself, and I'm sure many others, on plenty of occasions. I've even worked somewhere where they had digital projectors, although only for the 20-minute pre-show, not for the actual movies. These projectors did have component inputs on them though, which is what started the whole discussion to begin with. Although I only ever talked about it, I know people who actually tried it out, and told me that, sure enough, it worked fine. We even discussed possible pricing schemes, coming to the conclusion that it would only really be worth it if you had a bunch of people sharing the cost. This is basically what Cineplex are doing as well; if you came with 11 other people, you would only need to pay about $15 each, which isn't much more than if you wanted to watch a movie, and at 2-hours, it would be a comparable amount of time too.

Basically, I think this is a long-overdue idea that I'm glad someone has finally caught on to, and I'm sure other theaters will start similar programs once they see how popular it is. Now we only have to hope that theaters outside of Canada also pick up on the concept, so we can all play. Of course, I really hope they provide access to Xbox Live, because if I'm gaming on a 50 foot screen, then some serious trash-talking may be in order!

There goes the neighborhood!

Soon, PS3 gamers the world over will be able to design their very own virtual home, then open their doors to allow friends and family to come and visit. One thing they won't be able to do is let people of a different nationality in.

According to PS3 Fanboy, the beta of Home, Sony's new Second-Life-style virtual world, comes with some interesting region locking. It seems as though users are restricted to servers that match their console's native region. Rather than use the same method as the PSN Store, which allows users to access foreign content if they sign up for multiple accounts (though I'm sure Sony doesn't like this exploit), Home will instead check the region encoding of the actual system itself. This means that if you imported your PS3 from overseas, you'll be stuck playing with people from whichever country it came from. It also means that you won't be able to invite your foreign friends to come and visit; international play is out of the question.

So why would they do such a thing? PS3 Fanboy bring up an interesting point when they say it probably has to do with advertising. Since Home could generate quite a large revenue stream, Sony wants to make sure that the ads are being targeted at the appropriate audiences; after all, there's no point having banners up in the game for things you can't even buy in your country.

The reason why I'm writing about this is because I still plan on buying a PS3, at some point. As I've mentioned before, I enjoy playing Xbox 360 games both with people inside and outside the US. Since I have buddies in England with a PS3, I always imagined that they would be the first people on my friends list if/when I finally got one, and if Home is going to be as big as some people are speculating, then I definitely want to be able to enjoy it with them. It's a shame that Sony clearly see this as just another way of making money, instead of a way of bringing gamers together. Maybe if other people also show their displeasure, they'll add in some kind of international functionality before the final product goes live.

July NPD - Nintendomination

Well, it looks as though July's hardware and software figures are in, courtesy of NPD Group. It's kind of a boring month really; Nintendo continue to sell more units than their competitors can even dream about, while everyone else languishes in the summer slump.
Something that's definitely worth mentioning is the fact that all the consoles saw a significant drop-off from last month, the only exception being the Xbox 360. However, once you consider that June's figures were based on a 5-week sales cycle, where as July's are only based on 4, the numbers begin to make a bit more sense.

Here's are July's sales:
Nintendo DS - 608,400
Wii - 555,000
PlayStation 3 - 224,900
PSP - 221,700
Xbox 360 - 204,800
PlayStation 2 - 155,500

As far as software goes, the usual suspects all make their appearance: Wii Fit, Wii Play, Rock Band etc...... Newcomers include Soulcalibur IV, Civilization Revolution and, of course, EA's latest iteration of their college football franchise, which tops the list. Surprisingly, Guitar Hero: On Tour manages to keep itself fairly high on the charts. It's not like it's a bad game, or anything; I just didn't think that many people were interested in on-the-go-rocking.

Here are the numbers:
01. NCAA Football 09 (Xbox 360) - 397,600
02. Wii Fit (Wii) - 369,600
03. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) - 309,700
04. Wii Play (Wii) - 284,000
05. NCAA Football 09 (PS3) - 242,500
06. Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360) - 218,900
07. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 174,500
08. Rock Band Special Edition (Wii) - 165,800
09. Soulcalibur IV (PS3) - 155,800
10. Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360) - 147,600

With the release of Madden 09 this month, I'm sure August's charts will also have a football game at number 1. After that, the holiday season blockbusters should provide for some slightly more interesting figures in the upcoming months.

A heavier dose of DLC

This week in Rock Band, metalheads rejoice as you are treated to another helping of your favorite music. I could have sworn we only just got a metal DLC pack, but if that's what the fans want, then that's what they'll provide. As an interesting note, all songs this week will be half-price for the first month, retailing for only $1 a piece ($6 for the whole pack), instead of the usual $2 each ($10 for the whole pack). It's a nice way of promoting them, and may encourage people to pick them up while they can get them cheap.
This weeks tracks are:

Airbourne - Runnin' Wild
DevilDriver - Clouds over California
Dream Theater - Constant Motion
Killswitch Engage - My Curse
Machine Head - Aesthetics of Hate
Megadeth - Sleepwalker
Note: Click on any song for expert drum videos.

So I probably don't need to tell you this but, once again, I skipped all the tracks. I think it's pretty clear that they've delivered all the A-list stuff that we're going to see until the release of Rock Band 2. There wasn't any other Rock Band news this week either, so this is going to be a short post. I guess it's okay that I haven't bough any songs for a while though; after all, all musicians get a break between tours, and I need my rest in preparation for all the rocking that will commence sometime in the next month.

Potential virtual pile of shame

You're all familiar with the concept of a pile of shame, right? It's the games you own that you haven't gotten around to playing yet, but have every intention of doing so. Well, I've bought most of the major releases that I've wanted in the last year; I may not have spent as much time as I would have liked actually playing them (damn you Rock Band!), but at least I gave them a go.
However, Ive managed to miss a bunch of Xbox Live Arcade titles that I really want to try, some of which came out months ago. That's why this is a virtual pile of shame, as I don't have a physical stack of them. The reason why it's a potential virtual pile of shame, is because I haven't even purchased any of them yet, but as they're relatively cheap, I could potentially do so at any time.
So here it is; the top 5 XBLA titles that I swear I'm going to play at some point:

Rez HD
A re-release of the Dreamcast classic, this title is a cross between an on-rails shooter and a rhythm game. Taking elements from old titles like Panzer Dragoon and Space Harrier, this one mixes them up by incorporating trance music into the gameplay, where shooting enemies adds to the background track, and you can even plug in extra controllers to act as "Trance Vibrators".

Ikaruga
Another re-release, this time from the arcades (and also Dreamcast). This is a traditional scrolling shooter with one unique gameplay element: All enemies and projectiles are either black or white and, at the press of a button, your ship can change between the two, allowing you to absorb enemy bullets, or deal maximum damage to bosses by choosing the opposite color.

Geometry Wars 2
The sequel to the XBLA launch game, this two-stick shooter adds in many new gameplay modes, all of which have their own leaderboards. It's clearly influenced by the classic Asteroids, but turns it right up to 11, with constant waves of enemies bearing down on your ship. The original was highly addictive and, from what I hear, the second one is even more so!

Braid
This game appears, at first, to be a standard 2D platformer with puzzle elements. However, the unique mechanic in this title is the ability to rewind time, even after you die. This isn't the only way you affect time, and every level has new rules to learn as you search for a kidnapped princess. The game also pays homage to a lot of classic titles, incorporating familiar elements into many of the stages.

Bionic Commando Rearmed
This game was just released yesterday, and inspired me to write the list you're now reading. A remake of the arcade/NES classic, this platformer gives your character a bionic arm which allows you to traverse the levels, grab enemies, defect bullets, and block attacks. With no jump button, you must use the arm to get yourself everywhere, in stages chocked-full of dangerous bad guys.

So that's my list. I know exactly why I haven't bought any of them yet: The games are all single player. Well, actually Ikaruga does have multiplayer (though apparently very confusing) and so does Geometry Wars 2 (though not online), but for the most part these are all solo affairs, and I usually buy XBLA games to play with my friends. That's why I know I will purchase the upcoming Uno: Rush, and Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball as soon as they are available. However, I have every intention of playing every one of the games on this list at some point; they just may have to wait until after the holiday season.

Three princes

This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee takes a look back at the Prince of Persia series, in anticipation of the new game. He's mentioned it before, but makes it really clear this time that he totally loves the series. Yeah, you heard me right: He does actually like some games from time to time. I can't say I'm too surprised, after all, The Sands of Time was not only a brilliant re-start to the franchise, but essentially took over where the Tomb Raider games left off. The rewind-time mechanic was such a simple yet wonderful inclusion that took the frustration out of even the most fiddly platforming sections, and the princes agility wouldn't have looked out of place in the Matrix. Although I didn't play much of the sequels, I can fully understand why Yahtzee is so fond of this particular series.
Oh yeah, my absolute favorite thing in Pop:SoT, that isn't mentioned in this review: As the entire game takes place in the past, and the Prince is narrating what he did, when you fall to your death he sometimes tells you "No, wait, that never happened". Genius.

As a quick aside, Yahtzee has once again backed up a point I just made. In this case, it was the piece I wrote yesterday about realism in games making the flaws stand out more. Not only does he point out that the better a game gets, the more glaringly obvious the errors are, but he even uses the words "uncanny valley", which was the whole point of my post to begin with. Thanks Yahtzee, I appreciate you backing me up, even it is purely coincidental. Or is it?.........

Here's the video. As always, it contains plenty of strong language and is definitely NSFW.

Check out the rest of his reviews here.

Why, that's uncanny!

The uncanny valley: The phenomenon whereby graphical representations of humans begin to look creepy the more realistic they get. Basically, the idea is, the more real something looks, the more we see it's flaws. Graphics are getting very believable these days, but programmers are still having trouble with things like human eyes, so characters can end up looking dead, or at least very strange.

Hang on a minute! Didn't I already write this story? Well, yes, I wrote about graphics, and how they're getting to the stage where some games (and animated movies) are getting a little unnerving, due to the almost real look of the characters. It's become clear to me though, that the uncanny valley applies to more than just the look of people; it's starting to become a factor in all aspects of video game design.

As I was playing GTA4 the other day (yes, I'm still playing it), I began to notice certain things. These weren't things that I hadn't noticed before, I just never really thought about them until now. With GTA4, Rockstar have gone in a different direction than the other Grand Theft Auto games; doing away with some of the sillier and more over-the-top aspects, this installment goes for a grittier, more realistic feel. The developers have gone to great lengths adding in plenty of attention to detail, such as character reactions, and TV and radio stations, that help flesh out the world of Liberty City. This is where the problem begins though. Every time I get sucked into the world, something happens that sharply reminds me that none of this is real, in the same way you can tell a CG model by their freaky-looking eyes.

For example, the game has you going on dates with other characters. When you call someone to ask them out, you'll get reactions depending on the time of day, how long since you last called them, and how well your last date went. When you pick them up, they'll respond to the car you're driving, and the clothes you're wearing. All of these reactions help build up the image of a fully fleshed-out character, and make the game feel more realistic.
After you pick them up though, if you go barreling around a corner and straight into an old woman, how do they respond? Often, they don't say anything. Hang on! They'll talk about all number of trivial things, but when something important happens they remain mute. It's not like I expect them to mention every little thing I do, but if they're going to notice all the small things, you think they'd notice the big ones too, right?

Building up relationships in the game highlight another aspect that really stands out to me: The lack of places to bring your date. At first, it all seems kind of cool; you get a call from a friend asking if you want to hang out, and you have options as to where you want to go. You could go to a bar, a strip club, a show, take them bowling, to a pool hall, or simply out for a meal. However, once you've gone on about half-a-dozen dates, it becomes painfully clear that there are less than 10 places in the entire city that you can visit. This wouldn't be a problem if you only had to go to them every now and then but, in an effort to make things more realistic, you are constantly getting calls from friends asking if you want to do something.

There are plenty of other aspects in GTA4 that stand out against all the realism, such as police reactions (or should I say non-reactions) when you pass by them at 200 miles-per-hour, the wrong way down a one-way street. This isn't just about GTA4 though, the phenomenon is happening in all sorts of game these days.
Oblivion has some other good examples. This game has set itself such a mammoth world to fill that certain things begin to really stand out, such as the lack of variety when it comes to voices. They may have crafted a world with miles of countryside, and plenty of small towns and ruins to discover, but talk to more than 3 people in this massive place and you'll quickly realize that everyone sounds exactly the same. Again, this probably wouldn't be as big of a deal if they hadn't set their sights on something so big and real-feeling.

I suppose I should cut Oblivion some slack though; after all, it's a fantasy game so if they ever needed to explain why every character has the same voice, well, they could just say that it's the result of a spell cast by a dark wizard, or something like that. For games that are set in our world though, it's harder to explain these kind of things away. War games are a good example, such as the Call of Duty series. The developers have decided to use the regenerating-health system found in games such as Halo, whereby simply getting out of gunfire for a few seconds will allow your health to recharge back to full. Now, in a series all about the realism of war, this really stands out to me. It's fine in Halo, as that's a sci-fi game where any kind of future weapons and gadgets can be available, but I'm pretty sure there was no mjolnir armor back in WWII. It's tough though; I mean, no-one wants to play a war game where you always die from a single gunshot wound, but if you're going for realism, couldn't you think of another way to handle the whole health-bar thing?

Health has always been a problem in games that are trying to feel real. After all, we all know that no medi-kit can save you from a shotgun blast directly to the head, but this is what we're constantly lead to believe. I suppose back in the day, when we were chasing low-definition demons around hell, we didn't really question the the medi-kit system as much. These days however, it's really becoming clear that this is something developers are going to have to figure out a solution to, if they wish to make games that feel more like real-life.

Physics can provide other slaps-in-the-face with reality. Okay, bad physics aren't really intentional gameplay decisions, but can really stand out in certain games. Gears of War has this problem. Using the Unreal Engine 3, Epic have crafted the most realistic-looking character models ever in a console game. The attention to detail is stunning, on friendly and enemy characters. This is why it really stands out to me when you kill an enemy, only to have their body become a weightless balloon that can easily be kicked around without effort.
Bioshock has some similar physics issues. The game is really all about atmosphere; being chased by a Big Daddy in a dark corridor is genuinely scary. However, when you finally manage to kill the Big Daddy, only to have their corpse wave at you from the ground (or sometimes something even funnier than that!) it totally breaks the atmosphere, and reminds you that this is only a game after all.
As I said before though, physics glitches aren't intentional, unlike other aspects of gameplay. That's why I'm going to give the developers a break on this one even though, to be fair, they shouldn't allow bugs like these to slip through if they're going for a realistic-looking game.

So what exactly is my point then? Am I saying that all games should be 100% real all the time? Of course not, that would be ridiculous; there are plenty of titles out there that don't need to worry about these issues. In a game such as Okami, or Shadow of the Colossus I never questioned any of less-realistic aspects, as the games never pretended to be realistic. It's only in modern games that are going for the most life-like feel that these things really stand out. I know it's tough for studios these days, what with production values skyrocketing to almost the cost of Hollywood movies, but these little details are the next thing developers are going to have to focus on if they want to draw me in to their games even more. Much in the same way that they still need to do plenty of work before they can create photo-realistic character models, they need to spend time figuring out how they can make those characters act realistic too.

I feel like I've only really scratched the surface of this topic. As it's an issue in many games these days, there are probably plenty of other, better examples that would put my point across much more clearly. I know that I'll continue to notice these things, and will almost certainly think of something later on today that I wish I'd mentioned, but if I were to list every single instance of this in every title I've played, this post would be rather long. Of course, if there's any big aspect that stands out to any of you, feel free to leave a comment talking about it. Maybe if developers realize that we notice these things, they can work on improving them over time and, one day, we may finally get some titles that can truly be called realistic.