It's Ludogistical, Stupid!

The Marvel Universe Can Just Lick Mah Nine!

2010-07-09T09:39:00.001-04:00

marvel the punisher
Originally uploaded by greg11373

Merry Summer times, and a heat stroke upon your enemies.

T'is that time of the year once again, when I display remorse at not updating this goddamn thing of a blog more often, and when I offer an oath of writting something every week, or every month.

Let's just forget about all that and skip the formalities, shall we?

It's summer, yes indeed. Over here, we are feeling a blistering amount of radio waves crashing upon our little patch of land called Montreal. Some Wise Old Owl might tell you that it's not the heat, but the humidity. The same Minervian Bird will also tell you that it,s not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom.

I'll tell you something else that can kill you : The Punisher.

And he'll especially kill you if you are some spandex-wearing, mutation-created, gadget-using, Super-hero type from the Marvel Universe.

Enter The Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/punisher-marvel-universe-100707.html

This is technically the second time around that Frank Castle goes up against the Marvel U. Cast. The first event , called Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, was written by Garth Ennis and illustarted by Doug Braithwaite. This time, Jonathan Maberry is on writting detail (an author that deals primarily with Supernatural novels); and my second-favorite Punisher Artist, Goran Parlov, is in charge of making the whole massacre look good.

What does that have to do with game science, ludology and such? Nothing really. Except that fact that Marvel enjoys playing around with their franchise properties and their characters, and I like pointing out that Comics exist for exactly that reason : having fun.

Away from all those serious X-Men storylines, Jeff Loeb and the Marvel drama, there is a place for all those silly ideas: turning the taciturn and spartan Vigilante into a rampaging lunatic, running free in the Big Game Preserve that is the Marvel Universe.

Stay Ludogistical this summer, and read up on marvel getting their Ass kicked by The Big Nothing.

To Boldly Pew Pew Pew!!!

2010-05-04T13:47:00.001-04:00

Star Trek Online screenshot
Originally uploaded by lower72

Been playing Star Trek Online for a few days now. And even though it clearly needs debugging and balancing, I enjoy it immensely.

The more time spend on MMORPGs, the more you understand the intricatcies of game play. And I certainly plan on spending time on this one. Not splurging whole days on end, mind you; just the occcasionnal late night or lazy week-end afternoon. Which is perfect, really : Star Trek was a show best watched on late nights and relaxing Sundays.

I fondly remember sitting in the living room with my father and listening to McCoy's ranting, Kirk's boasting, Scotty's nay-saying and Spock's quantifying. It seemed the perfect show for nothing-to-do moments.

Now, STO could be the perfect game for those exact moments.

I'll keep playing. For how long? Who knows. Perhaps until it gets fixed...Or perhaps until The Old Republic comes out.

Until then, I'm sticking with my Phasers on stun.

Beautiful Bullet Ballet

2010-04-19T13:29:00.001-04:00

Resonance of Fate screenshot
Originally uploaded by SEGA Europe

Well, if yoou have played, or have seen combat footage of Resonance of Fate ( End of Eternity in Japan), you know that Tri-Ace's game is about high-flying, side-stepping, bullet-dodging, pirouetting, slow-moving, guns-ablazing, combat.

You may also know that it is difficult as hell...

We've been playing it quite regularly at the house for the past few weeks, and advancing through the story quite nicely I think. I spend perhaps a bit much on grinding, but I enjoy the fights so much that I don't mind.

This past week-end, I began to better grasp the concept of tri-attacks, and it has made my life in Basel easier. Chapter 6, here I come! And fuck you Giant Mass of Skin and Oil-stuff!

...Persona 2, Dragon Age and Infinite Space keep getting in the way though. I guess I just like to keep variety at hand when it comes to video games. I spend at least five hours on Sunday playing Persona 2. It's been a while, and this one's one my «Must Finish» list.

But, back to Resonance of fate, if you will. Bullet Ballet does define the combat, of course. But Virtual Dollhouse could also complement this ludoware quite well. Playing dress-up and then sending your party of three into gun fights is part of the appeal. It's not silly in any way. Not at all, it's not.

...Stop looking at me like that.

So, SEGA has brought to our shores a tough little game, made by a beloved developper (Responsible for the Star Ocean franchise, and The Valkyrie Profile games), and I think it's kicking ass. Try it out when you finish (or throw away in angsty anger) Final Fantasy XIII.

And if you die during random low-level fights, remember that it's not the game that's cheap : you just need to get better. Where there,s a Will, there's a Way. And Where there's SEGA, there's...no marketing :(

Video Game Addiction: the long road to recovery

2010-03-19T08:39:00.001-04:00

Video Game Addiction: the long road to recovery
Originally uploaded by Now and Here

Well, once again summer is about to start and there are games out there that need playing.

Too many games, would be the proper turn of phrase here.

So, a Must-Have or Must-Play list is building up right now, and it includes such titles as :

-Resonance of Fate
-Infinite Space
-Final Fantasy XIII
-Heavy Rain
-God of War 3

But, I still have other games i am currently playing, like Torchlight, Dragon Age, Borderlands DLC, and more.

And eventually, when the stars are aligned, and august comes rolling on by, Star Trek Online will make it's debut on my computer...and shall be played with friends.

But until I can afford the newest games, time-wise and money-wise, I shall concentrate on the ones I do have.

After all, I have all the Extra Lives I need...

Lego Noir - Crime Scene

2010-02-02T13:00:00.001-05:00

Lego Noir - Crime Scene
Originally uploaded by Gnerk

Lego Rock Band, Lego Batman, Lego indiana Jones and Lego Star Wars. What we are missing is Lego Crime Noir. Something to the tune of Grand Theft Auto, but with your favorite colored blocks...well monochrome in this case.

I don't have any trouble imagining a jack Nicholson Lego figure floating in a pool, or a blocky, fat and stubby Peter Lorre running from alley to alley, and your character hot on his tail.

...then again maybe not.

Rogue RPGs Under a New Torchlight

2010-01-26T22:38:00.001-05:00

Torchlight Character - Vanquisher II,
originally uploaded by Raquel´.

Well, it seems we do not have long to wait before the next Diablo game : it's actually already out.

It's called Torchlight, and it's developed by Runic Games, lead in part by Max and Erich Schaefer, both co-founders of Blizzard North.

Looks like they couldn't wait for Diablo 3 either and decided to just give us a great Rogue-like RPG before the cobwebs and the dustbunnies invaded the part of our brains relishing click-click-click action.

Perhaps a little unbalanced, and perhaps a little easy for some, Torchlight still ignites the fires of grinding within all PC RPG nerds. It's art style is endearing and soft on the eyes...a veritable World of Warcraft in Single Player format. Loot is aplenty and dungeons are filled with the nastiest, sometimes funniest, beasties this side of Tristram.

PC gamers needed this. After all, Blizzard is not promising a release date on their next dungeon-romp opus, and the last time a Diablo-Clone popped up was in 2006, where Iron Lore Entertainment's Titan Quest surprised quite a few. Speaking of which, the people behind the now defunct developer are back with a new company, Crate Entertainment, and a new game : Grim Dawn.

I will perhaps be speaking more about the latter game in the next post.

Until then, buy Torchlight on Steam (Save the plastic trees!!!) and kill yourself some demonspawn.

Click-Click-Click

The Year's Best Top Ten Game List Countdown of DOOM

2009-12-27T10:10:00.017-05:00

Everybody is doing it...

A Year in Review. This Year's Ten Best. A "Must Play" list.

I must admit, I deeply enjoy lists and countdowns to "Best this", and "Worst that". Lists are very satisfying, especially when you can look at one and exclaim "done this!", or "got that!".

Someone once said that lists are fun because you get to cross out stuff from them. I find myself in agreement with that statement, although it all depends on how much stuff is on the list vis-a-vis what you did, or can, cross out. Like a jar of pickles that you empty out over a certain period : you can't really eat all the pickles in one sitting, and you can't let it sit there for a whole year. So you better not pick up a jar that's too big, or you won't be able to finish it before it goes to waste; and you can't get a jar that's too small because you'll quickly end up with nothing in it, and no snack.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you better choose jar of pickles carefully...euh I mean your list carefully. What's a good list for you? What is palatable to you, and won't get stuck in your gullet? I personally like dill...

Let's face it. Sometimes lists make things a bit murky and depress the hell out of you. Ahhh man, look at this...I still haven't finished my backlog of games, and I still haven't accomplished my life-long goal of being an astronaut. Like a New Year's resolution, you have to pick your battles carefully.

But it's still fun to make. So why not make one? Perhaps a list of games I would like to finish this year? But how to build one?

All the "Game of the Years lists" are probably out now. I haven't checked a lot of them. I know which games I liked, and which I consider this year's best. I don't really need someone else to tell me the what and the who of the year 2009. And I especially don't need help choosing which games I should play in 2010, since I'll probably be playing whatever the hell I want. And since upcoming games always "look good" from afar, once they hit those store shelves they may very well be the worst of the year.

Although, since this is a new decennium, the majority of the blogs and gaming industry websites are doing "Best of the Decade" lists, as well as this Year's Best Awards. Sure, it's important to illustrate how the last decade was pivotal in the establishement of the gaming industry as it currently is (our first ever episode of the Multi-Joueur Radio Show talked about the end of the 90s, the turn of the 21st century, and how games have become a powerful cultural phenomenon), but it feels like they want to create an era, and tag it with an sticker. Oh look! 2000-2009 were the Game Years, the Next-Gen Years, the Bush Years, etc. And if I look at all the stuff from the past decade I have not played/finished, I'm probably going to be crawling under my bed, weeping for two lustrums.

So whether you make a list based on the top games of 2009, the top upcoming games of 2010, or the best of the decade, remember one thing : a pickle indigestion is never fun.

Booger T and the MDs

The Bones Brigade Versus Giant Shark : Or How To Run A Franchise To The Ground

2009-12-02T20:08:00.007-05:00

A curious little chart made it's way from GameSpy to the larger intertubes of the Net this morning :

To "Jump the Shark", for those who may not know, is the precise moment within the lifespan of an entertainment franchise when it just becomes so ridiculous, it loses its value and starts its decline.

Well, here it is, brilliantly illustrated by GameSpy with the help of GameRankings of every title in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Tony Hawk jumped the shark riiiiiight between Underground 2 and it's first step into the current-generation market, American Wasteland, where it dipped below the 80% marker.

Why is this important, and why would I mention it?

First, it's funny. No, trust me my friends, it is. The expression has been used appropriately so little in these past years that it had almost lost its meaning. We receive now, as the Holy Bread, a promise of renewal for this precious meme from 60s Television. Jumping the shark has again a sense of purpose. It's funny 'cause it's true.

Plus, the whole Tony Hawk doing a grab over the Shark...I mean, look at him : he's ACTUALLY leaping over the selachimorpha. A bounce that has no other avenue but down.

And secondly, the recent wretched release of Tony Hawk : Ride just makes for a good lesson in economics. For a while, the world economy seemed quite like the graphical analysis found above. The gaming industry, relating to companies, started trimming down on the fat. Jobs were lost, projects were canned and release dates were pushed back. Lean times indeed. Yet Activision and Neversoft continued production on a franchise release with an expensive gimmick peripheral attached to it, and persisted in focusing on the "Tony Hawk" experience.

Fanned by the success of accessory-filled Guitar and DJ Heroes, the Midas-touched corporation deemed the product a fair trade, where your hard-earned money would transmutate into some "real life" virtual skating within your living room. But having customers pay for a controller that works rather badly, and has no multi-player value, is a bad idea in this rather sober holiday period. One may point out the almost 200$ Prestige edition for Modern Warfare 2, but may I remind you that this game is also available in its normal, skeletal form of 69.99 bones?

The price tag of the game may be as much responsible for the low rating of this game as is the poor conception of the device itself. After jumping the shark, Tony kinda just fell and ended up crippled it seems.

The third reason is that people need to realize how franchises mean crap vis-a-vis success. And crap sometimes mean redundancy. And redundancy means crap. And crap means...well, you get the idea. We are all tired of series that ante up without really throwing enough chips in. You can't always make a new game and just change the freaking number next to it, never mind the freaking subtitle tweak.

Tony Hawk? Please stop. EA's Skate is already taking over your territory. Just go teach kids how to do ollies and stuff, ok? And please, leave Rodney Mullen out of any crap you sponsor for Activision. He doesn't need to go down with a tchotchke peddler the likes of you.

I Like Footnotes

Mickey?

2009-10-28T20:59:00.004-04:00

Months ago, Warren Spector spoke of a Disney Game he was working on within Junction Point Studios. There was talk of something grand, something unique; perhaps even dipping into the fantasy realm of Steam-punk.

On the second week of October, Epic Mickey was revealed...on the Nintendo Wii.

And now this.

Truly, I feel troubled that something epic may find its way exclusively on this console. Especially in light that the original plan was to make it, as it is said in circles dark and deep withing the industry, "Current Gen". Already, Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom have found a home solely on the Big N's platform, and this seems to be happening for financial reasons. The Wii has been the number one console on the market for a while now (besides Nintendo's other cashcow, the DS), and it is a sound business plan on the part of developpers and Nintendo to keep some titles exclusive. Yeah, I can roll with that.

But why go from one vision on Xbox 360, PC and PS3, for a total design change on Wii? A design which Spector originally said impossible on the latter.

Money talks, and Nintendo have the big stick of the industry.

However, with the information now flooding the gates, the fiction behind the game may be one of the most original game concept for a Disney game ever. Let alone a Disney product! If Kingdom Hearts made Disney edgy and cool with the game crowd, this Epic Mickey may produce some sombre and more sinister plotlines.

Still I am not convinced. Spector may be a great idealist, an extra-ordinary game theorist, but some of the more recent projects he has worked on have not been at the forefront of revolution in gaming. Whatever our opinion is of Deus Ex and the follow up, and Thief Deadly Shadows, they have not shown the full impact of his brilliance. Perhaps Epic Mickey can be as revolutionary as he sees it, or perhaps this will end up like most other Disney games...in the 20$ bin.

Heroes and Villains: Who Would Rather Win

2009-10-17T16:57:00.007-04:00

I've just realized Heroes don't really wish to win. They are not in it for the glory or for the First place prize. I'm talking about real heroes here. Superman and Batman type stuff. The guys and girls that don't take a bow after saving a kid, and the kind of people that feel even villains should have their little piece of paradise.

That rather small epiphany comes as I am trying to write next week's radio show. We already did one about villains, in which Jim, Schmoo and I discussed how great bad guys make games worth playing; and how they have evolved over the years, becoming more complex and allowing game narrative to grow into Novel-league size. The natural thing was to proceed to the other end of the spectrum. Although don't take this literally...villains and heroes are RARELY at the ultimate opposing end of one simple spectrum: the grey zone is where awesomeness in "Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys" relationship really lives.

All of this has very little to do with game systems and such, but complex storylines and storyarchs are now so important in gaming that it can not be neglected. The whole discourse of Video-Games-As-Art is pretty much done with and has transformed into an affirmation: Yes, games are artistic. Storytelling has done a lot to help games become more than just bleeps and bloops. Evolution of technology has a lot to do with the freedoms developers now have, and the paintbrush they wield is almost imbued with the power of dieties. Narrative and imagery, game play and mechanics meld together to birth an interactive medium that keeps growing with every year. Heroes and Villains are perhaps one slight part of the whole primordial ooze seeping through the cracks, but they've help forge countless memorable moments for players. From Link fighting off Ganon, to Mario quite literally pulling the rug under Bowser's feet, to Chris and Sheva ripping Wesker a new one: The Good and the Bad make for very pretty stories.

And so, as I sit here thinking about how heroes don't really want to win and how they prefer to "fix everything" that is wrong with the world, it hits me: a hero is so very close to becoming a really great villain (which is someone who wants to make the world better, but just goes about it in a demented way).

...I fear what a real Superman might do.

We will be discussing this and more on the next show. The guys have a lot to say about protagonists and heroes in game, and my only fear is that we won't have time to go through everything we wish to say. Perhaps this would be a great opportunity to have a two-part show then?

Rocket boots do not yet exist. Why?

The Time of Your Life...

2009-09-30T23:15:00.006-04:00

Hiya folks,

Welcome to this deserted landscape, where blog posts are like tumbleweeds: rare and pretty much without fanfare.

It may very soon change however, seeing I'm spending more time writing now than I ever did in the last 6 months. Changes are good, and so is the end of the Summer Game Crunch (well, for me and my team anyway...). More time can be devoted to chatter of this kind right here. Of course, I also have to help keep other things running, so there might not be a slew of new logs coming in every week, but at least there will be some.

Most of my close friends know that I am a big fan of Penny-Arcade, and especially of Jerry Holkins. His writings have been at some point instrumental, if not orchestral, in the evolution of my jive. And everybody knows that there is no jive without the much needed horn section!

Say that I mimic, say that I am unoriginal. I don't really care, for I am within the part of the blogosphere that is furthest from the Sun and closest to the Void. Betwixt the Whatnot and the Whereto, the Ludogistic Blog is found. If you are here, then you may have reached the End of the Internets.

So in all, expect updates but perhaps very unoriginal ones; or even some based on things you have read that are so 2 weeks ago.

Thanks for reading and have fun playing.

My ramblings are quite the twine.

The End of the Year

2009-09-25T21:51:00.001-04:00

The last stretch before rocking the Holiday season is upon us, and the game industry is feeling the rush. To make sure all those pretty and expensive games come out on time to make money, and benefit from the American Thanksgiving sales boost, production and support are being run to the ground with overtime, fatty foods and soda.

Very soon, we'll be able to taste all that semi-servitude by playing the latest and bested ludo-softwares of the year. The cream of the crop. The top of heap. The multi-million dollar projects. The big companies are all lining up their sled with the most precious jewels of the interactive entertainment world. And they're all for you...for the right price, of course.

What will you be playing come November? Modern Warfare 2, perhaps? Forza 3? Borderlands? Assassins 2?

But this holiday season, think of ther little guys too, won't you? Think about Double Fine Studio and Brutal Legend; make some place in your heart for Alpha Protocol and Tropico 3. Ok sure, Brutal Legend is distributed by the #2 Mother of All Big Companies, Electronic Arts, but it is a small matter. It's still Tim Schafer, and it's still Jack Black and a World entirely built from the essence of Heavy Metal.

So get your big titles, and play your sports games like NHL 10 and Multiplayer shoot-fest like Left 4 Dead 2. But don't forget to also save your money for what comes after the big ball falls down flat on Broadway; for after the calender swings a liner down into 2010. From Dante's Inferno, to Mass Effect 2, by way of Alan Wake and Elemental: War of Magic; from No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, to A Golden Sun remake on DS and FEZ on XBLA: it's going to be another expensive year.

So keep in mind all those people working to make so many beautiful games, and choose wisely. I'm not saying buy only indie games...I'm just asking you to make the best choices, for you and the industry you support.

Play safe.

The Summer Rush

2009-07-01T12:51:00.002-04:00

It has once again started : the dreaded production rush of the summer.

We need to get these games out for October and November. A late release in the video games industry often means 50% less sales. It's imperative. Overtime and lots of pressure on the horizon.

And so here we are (and here I am), with very little time to play, and very little time to blog. There has been a drought here at the Ludogistic page, and its about to get worst. First off, I have very little to talk about, and I usually save all my stuff for the Multi-Joueurs Radio show. It's just like that, you know?

Then again, there's World of Warcraft. Yes it's good. Yes, it's accessible. Yes, it's addictive. Just getting started, by the way, and already I'm feeling it's heavy pull. Like back when we were kids and we would say ''Yeah, just one more hour of gaming...I'll go to bed right after, promise.'' Personnaly, the game has the same attractiveness all my old school RPGs had. But it's way more than that.

All and all, less time to talk about games and game systems. Less time to spend on trying to convince others that Mass Effect is FUCKAWESOME!. I'd rather play games right now than write about them.

What am I doing then? Am I not just writing this blog right now?

...

Oh well. Back to my games.

Too Much Info

2009-06-03T19:59:00.002-04:00

There is literally too much going on this week to even mention the gems among the abject, turbulent noise of the E3 circus. If you want to know what's cool, and what's not, go check out the conferences, the Info-blogs like Joystiq and Kotaku, and watch the next episode of CO-OP. I just don't have the time to give you an account of things to come.

It still is an awesome week. There are things showing up on radar now that just make gaming so much worth the time we put in it. Although the Console maker's keynotes were more often than not weak and embarrassing, this year's E3 has created memorable memes and great expectations.

Alright...I have games to play now. You know? Current games that are actually OUT, like InFamous. So, stop waiting and stop reading. Go play something, will ya?

The Madness of King June

2009-06-01T17:13:00.003-04:00

Yeah, it's that time of the year again. E3.

The gaming giants are about to reveal their big steaming pile of marketing fecal matter onto the unsuspecting gaming community. Let the bullshit begin! The trumpets are a-flaring and the standards are in the wind. Can you smell what Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are cooking? Well, it certainly ain't ratatouille.

Am I being too harsh and virulent without justifiable reason? Perhaps. After many years as gamer, this writer has become somewhat jaded, and very much cynical in his expectations. Why hope when you can despair and spread negativity within the community? It's just fun and games after all. Nothing serious. Right? I know this kind of post would actually look at its place amongst the lowest of the dirtiest forum pits, where flame wars are started because of more trivial matters, but this is just me venting of some of the rancid steam that's been filling up the pipes outo an unsuspecting populace; like Smilex on Gotham City.

A few hours ago, Microsoft got its time on the soap box, spewing yet again a slew of fantastical imagery and technophile-friendly peripherals and add-on services of the future. As the executives on stage were spinning their tall tale, I had a vague impression of deja vu. I was half expecting someone to talk about the Lucid Dream...and jacking into the Matrix. Seems I'm not really the audience for the sort of product the Big Microsoft wants to sell.

Netflix? I don't need it. Last.fm? I can listen to my fucking Internet Radio, since I'm at fucking home.

I won't go into any deep analysis of what I saw and heard today, since I'm still trying to re-establish myself within Microsoft's target market, and I have to admit I'm a bit lost. Let's just say that the whole Project Natal feels like a boondoggle. Note however that my first reaction to the device was possibly influenced somewhat by its association with Kudo Tsuneda. I just don't like the guy. I thought that was Mitch Hedberg for a second, but then I realized : "Oh Shit! It's the dude from Fight Night". And sure, Kudo: I've always wondered what the bottom of an Avatar's shoe looked like...

Not only does the concept not agree with my gamer bones, but the whole presentation was weak, dialed-in and total marketing bull. I have seen sample ladies with better selling skills than that. Oh the Milo sequence is total crock. I don't care what Peter Molineux says about inviting a select few to a private booth so they can really see that's it's not fake or scripted: select few and private booth usually go hand in hand with Non-Disclosure Agreements, and it will be 6 months before anyone who DID see it for real are allowed to say it was shit.

The whole last half of the Microsoft Conference was therefore sad, pathetic, and just pitiful. And if those three adjective mean the same thing, then I can't wait until the Xbox 360 comes equiped with access to a fucking thesaurus.

I will say that Alan Wake looks great. It's way possible that an upcoming Multi-Joueurs show will focuse on this year's E3. Expect rage, bile and the occasional pat on the back.

A Game of Unbridled MAGnitude

2009-04-29T19:57:00.013-04:00

We've heard of MAG, of course, long before any game play was shown. Discussions have flared up and subsided, as anything does on this Internet of ours. The flavor of the month and whatnot, you know? Well, Zipper Interactive and SONY have brought it back to the forefront this week, and have made damn sure that we remember about the 256 players engaged in modern warfare simultaneously.

An impressive number, as far as multiplayer shooter numbers go. Two hundred and fifty-six feels well rounded, especially in the savvy tech world of computing. A number we have, in days of old, associated with the number of kilobytes or megabytes found in gaming machines, such as the Tandy 1000, with its 256 KB of RAM; or the 256 color modes able to display with VGA hardware. Now, this number comes back to bite us in the ass (a pun, if such a thing is permitted, was absolutely intended here).

But outside the technical marvel of such a value lie questions, and mysteries that may only find answers with the consumption and later digestion of the product here advertised. What I would like to ask first is this : if within 16 players engaged in virtual combat, one finds nearly half to be either inadequate partners who knife their own team mates for a laugh and frivolous man-children screaming to their moms about PB sandwiches and Mountain Dew refills, how much will 256 bring about? Map vetos are probably going to become metagames at this point.

Sure, I'm most possibly not seeing the bigger picture here. The whole concept of deathmatch and team deathmatch will now consist of more than just two factions, and the bipolarity of competitive gaming will be thorn asunder, making place for a new world order. Two hundred and fifty-six could very well be divided in 64 teams of 4 people, or vice-versa. Eight teams of 32 players? Why not. It doesn't matter how you divide this whole mess, since you still have the shocking total of a big two-five-six running around a map teabagging each other. To the casual observer, MAG will probably look like a virtual version of Gangbang 32, starring Ashley Blue.

Okay, maybe I'm taking this reflection a bit too far. I should perhaps keep this within the spirit of the Grand Ol' Design of Gaming them. Team Deathmatch, then. It has been a fixture in competitive and casual gaming for a while now. And the reason it has proved itself so fulfilling and undeniably addictive is because the individual player can, and will, become the hero. One player can turn the tide in these proxy wars and rise himself above the fold. Inside a group of 16 combatants, it is much easier to become a Lil' Poison or Thresh and to prove yourself worthy of attention. The multiplayer community, especially when it comes to FPS, thrives on this feeling of singularity; it is the opportunity to show your peers that you have what it takes, to give 'em a beatdown and, in the immortal (yet now ambiguous) words of John Romero, have 'em suck it down.

How will you become the One, when 255 other jocks are getting busy with the shotgun and your face? Pardon the analogy.

Maybe MAG is after all a cooperation thing. Perhaps this game will bring people together in teamwork, bridging the divide between the different generations and factions of the ludo-community. The individual will transend the self, the id, and in symmetry with the rest of the world "he" or "she" will become "we". Gamerscores and trophies will dissapear to make way for a universal chant, of voices so clear and loud that the skies will open new horizons. Aliens will hear the unity of our hearts and offer guidance and technology, and an era of space travel will confirm humankind as bearer of the flame of knowledge. It will be glorious.

Or just 256 guys humping each other's face...

A Cavalcade of Game Ads

2009-04-18T13:45:00.025-04:00

So it was decided that we would do a radio show on advertisement and publicity within the world of video games. We were aware that using such a limited media to talk about a very visual subject was a bit of a problem, and so it was decided to create a sort of "Companion Sheet" with what we thought were some of the more interesting ads for games. Interesting for us because they are either funny, stupid, make no sense, or are total failures.

Of course, we are not the first to explore the relationship between publicity and games. A few years ago, 1UP.com started doing a series on the Best Worst Ads that ever came out in print back in the days of the Electronic Gaming Monthly. You'll find a link to those very articles (written by Scott Sharkey) somewhere below, amongst the cornucopia of videos embedded.

The radio show itself will not be exclusively centered on commercials and print ads, but it will also feature a discussion about the current and future presence of publicity WITHIN games. But let's get on with a few videos...

Japan is perhaps the most bewitching example of ads gone completely nuts. Culturally, Japan is believed to be bland and very respectful to standards and propriety. However, when it comes to hatching commercials, the Kingdom of SEGA and Nintendo are anything but standard. The best representation of this has to be the Segata Sanshiro series of ads for the SEGA Saturn System between 1997 and 1998. We have access to these beautiful episodes thanks to the liberal exchange forum that is the Internet. Here is a sample :

Ouch!

A full playlist of these ads can be found here.

Funny and extravagant is not necessarily a japanese thing however. This one for the N64's Super Smash Brothers, starring the voice of the great late Don Lafontaine, should not be sampled while operating heavy machinery :

There are obviously the ones that take a jab at the competition, either by name-dropping some technical marvel exclusive to a game or system, or just by being cheeky. Oh, Blast Processing...what would we have done without you?

And yet, taking a stab at the competition doesn't always have the desired effect. Especially if you go for the all-too standard tag-line-jingle number, like this one for SEGA Genesis, circa 1989-1990 :

Of course, the whole 16-bit war spilled onto the other System generations, and when the SEGA CD arrived, it was the MTV model that worked : flashing images, messages with attitude and a bit of overbearing pride. The following one is a classic :

This is like the Maxell Cassette Tape commercial, on crack.

Then SONY entered the conflict, and needed to establish itself as better than the Big N or SEGA. So a mascot was needed :

The MTV model worked, and games were of course aimed at immature men-boys. And according to the marketing teams in charge of spreading the message, the average gamer was a young adult male who couldn't care less about relationships :

I have to admit, that one was kind of funny. So was this one :

Talking about the MTV model above, we cannot omit the first Playstation commercial ever to air in North America : flashing images, cryptic messages, dominatrix sex and SONY telling the viewer that they were not ready...

This earlier one was rather fun though (and it also has an allusion to dominatrix sex) :

There are older commercials, of course. There have always been TV ads for everything. This is a consumer's market after all. But if we had made a list of older ads, they would have looked pretty much all like this :

Well, it's the Shat, teaching you that you don't need Intellivision or Atari. Of course I'm going to buy a VIC-20, Bill!

On to the future then. SONY had various problems within the last 3 years, trying to promote the Playstation 3. A lot of gamers have complained that the Mega Corporation became out of touch with the players. Nothing proved this more than the publicity for the new machine. One set of ads, earlier before launch of the system, became a "WTF" moment for many, exemplified by the following :

I have NO idea what they are trying to sell. A telekinesis training device perhaps.

But Sony did not stop there. Oh no. They decided to go all philosophical on our ass (well on European ass, at least) :

Yeah, lived in your mom's basement probably.

And then, why not go the weird-movie-no-one-is-meant-to-understand way? Is that David Lynchian or Brian DePalma-ish?

Well this one here below IS from David Lynch :

Others too draw inspiration from Hollywood. In the case of game ads, sometimes a cinematic approach is the best one. This TV ad for the original Gears of War somehow changed how a lot of us saw game marketing :

A Tears for Fears song, made cult-favorite by the movie Donnie Darko, seemed to make this war game, this shooter, a bittersweet affair.

And you know you made an impact in the gaming business when you get parodied :

The wonderful world of the printed magazine also saw some of the most horrible representations of gaming ever. Many marketing executives died to bring us the following information (well, I surely hope they did).

Best Worst Ads part 1

Best Worst Ads part 2

Best Worst Ads part 3

Best Worst Ads part 4

This is all I have for you at this time. I hope you enjoyed the trip into the dark and insidious world of game marketing as much as I did.

Coop Vs. Multi-Joueurs...and something about the Hulk?

2009-04-04T22:49:00.004-04:00

The folks from the 1UP Show (now part of a group called Area5) are back for keeps now, thanks to Revision3 Internet Television and various other sponsors. The weekly program, COOP, features the same brand of humor and the same level of relevance as the old one, and the conversations remain fresh and eye-opening.

A couple of friends and I have a radio show called Multi-Joueurs, which kind of feels very symmetric to what COOP is : a show by friends who have everyday conversations about games and the industry in general.

I do not believe we own the same degree of insightfullness as the guys from Area5, but this would be normal since we do not have the same level of entry within the game industry. We work FOR this industry, while they work at REPORTING about it. Hence, their field of vision is much wider, and their minds opened to the woes and wows of all developpers, all game genres and news. I try to keep in touch with this technology-savvy world, but I find it harder each day to balance working for the industry and knowing the industry.

Knowledge is something I respect tremensly, and it is a point of pride. I do enjoy sharing what I know, and I do bask in the feeling of superiority it gives me. Like a fire only I can give others access to, knowledge is a domain I carefully guard but I frivolously spread whilst saying "Look at me! I know stuff!" Unfortunately for me, and to the benefit of all others, I have slowly begun to neglect my crusade for constant enlightenment. Rarely now do I scour the wastes of the vast network of tubage of the Information Super Highway, or wade through the endless volumes of data contained in the Great Libraries of the Wikis and Blogs.

Am I getting too old for this? Am I not relevant anymore? Or am I just in the wrong line of work? Where is my place of relevance in this industry? Should I be satisfied with a technical job, or would I be better off elsewhere? Maybe as an industry insider, like the Perez Hilton of Gaming...

A set of questions that can only be answered with time, of course, and for which a cheat-sheet does not exist.

In the meantime, I'll continue writting and doing the radio show with my friends, and will let COOP irradiate their knowledge onto me. Like Gamma rays, they shall reveal the beast within so I can someday make it big.

Resident Disappointment

2009-03-14T11:08:00.007-04:00

Chris Redfield is back to fight the good fight. He's going to kick ass. T-Virus, G-Virus, or Las Plagas : it doesn't matter. Chris will burn 'em out, and make the world a better.

...that is if he and his partner Sheva could manage their inventory correctly.

You see? These two can't unstack shit. They can't, for the life of them, pick individual items out of a pile.

Let's use an everyday example :

Chris has a pack of gum, because he ate lots of garlic, and Sheva really likes gum. Sheva wants some gum, so Chris will throw her the whole package instead of giving her one or two pieces. Now Chris doesn't have any gum, since Sheva has the entirety of his stocks. Chris could request gum and get the package back, but Sheva might still need the gum, because she ate tons of garlic too.

Now, let's imagine the gum is "bullets", and the garlic is zombies, or Las Plagas. Do you see the problem therein? Other than me possibly having analogy issues, contained deep within my freudian childhood, that is...

Resident User-friendliness

Oh yeah, and when you decide to quit the game, because it's getting late and you have to go back to work, to bed, to play Puzzlequest Galactrix, or some big baddie has handed you the padding upon which you used to sit down on; just remember not to press the A Button (for the Xbox lover) or the X Button (for the PS3ist) WITHOUT reading the warning messages first. There are two, and the second one may end up leaving you distraught.

Would you really like to quit? Any Unsaved progress will be lost? A (X) for YES, B (O) for NO.

Next question...

Would you like to save your INVENTORY as it stands right now? A(X) for YES, B (O) for NO.

So that baddie really gave you trouble huh? Oh you spent all your bullets and first aid during the fight, but you didn't succeed? You say you got tired, or frustrated at it, so you decided to quit? And you were is so much of a hurry (like most players are), that you mashed on the A Button (X Button) when you decided to QUIT, huh?

What? You're saying that when you reloaded your game the next day, you had no bullets and no health items? Mmmmmmm. It seems that Capcom's QA never had that happen to them. It just happened to you because you DON'T READ warning messages. And everybody reads warning messages, right?

...right?

This is not a post about games...

2009-03-09T19:59:00.010-04:00

While making myself supper, I estimated, for the sake of argument, how many people the Punisher would have killed since he started his "business".

First, let's forgo any North Vietnamese he killed on his three Vietnam tours. That's a big number we can ignore.

He started in 1976 after his family's death, but really got into it only around 1978-79. So up to today, that will be 30 years of activity.

Let's give him a yearly average of one (1) low-life every other day (a drug dealer, a pimp, whatever). That's one-hundred and eighty-two (182).

But, take a few days off to make it a big round number, and to take into account droughts that may occur (the Rudolph Juliani years in NYC, for example, or just seasonal droughts provoked after a good "spring cleanup"). So within a year, he's got a batting average of one-hundred and fifty (150) scumbags and creeps. The guy's job really doesn't call for week-ends, but a few days off are sure to help him at the very least reload his guns...

Sometimes, he gets big orders : gangs, the Russian mob, and mafia families. Now, with surveillance and stakeouts, he can't be bagging slews of them every night, but still, we'll give him something around fifteen (15) goons and goombas bi-monthly. That's ninety (90) soldiers and Tony-Montana-Wannabes yearly.

Of course, as mentioned above, the Punisher goes into spring cleaning mode once in a while. And the man knows how to keep a tidy house, so we'll allocate a cluster of thirty (30) rotten pieces of shit, yearly again; to just, you know, get rid of the extra slack.

Of perverts and slavers, may they be child pornographers, rapists or "Eastern-bloc entrepreneurs", we'll estimate at least twenty (20) a year.

Considering all these numbers, we must remember that 30 years have past. The Punisher wasn't always this active, and spent some time out of Country, and in hideaway. It would be best to slash off 5 years from that. So we are left with a career of 25 years (and going!).

The final rundown?

25 years X (150 + 90 + 30 + 20) = 7250 criminals.

That's a small rural town.

It would be fair to say that the only Marvel character to have a bigger body count all to himself is GALACTUS.

I had never put it in numbers before, but it confirms my thoughts about Frank Castle : he's insane, especially if you consider the definition of insanity to be "repeating something and expecting a different result every time".

But then again, he knows it's a losers battle...

Holy Shimole!

2009-03-02T17:50:00.004-05:00

You might have heard about this.

Mass Effect 2 will be mostly developed in Montreal. Oh joy. When can I start?

Whoa! Grab hold of th'reigns, partner, and slow them horses of yours. The team comes from the other studio, and EA Montreal already have staff aplenty, so they probably won't need anybody else. Not to mention that my chops ain't fit for work on something like this...

But this sudden proximity to the project probably means the Montreal Game Community will be privy to some juicy details. Not to mention that the city's IGDA chapter will most likely get the chance for meetings and talks with the members of the team.

A very exiting time indeed, my friends.

I know I'm just reporting news that you are going to see most everywhere, and it doesn't make for great blog blah blah. But this is an opportunity for me to display my Mass Effect-tattooed heart. I loved that game, with all its flaws and weaknesses.

However, this ain't some lamer with a crush on Bioware speaking. I have no Baldur's Gate Stigmata forcing me to praise the products of this Edmonton-based developer, even though I spent months and months on the first and second BG and KOTOR games. I genuinely believe that the software coming out of this Cold Place is brewed with such commitment and passion that the sweet result can only be compared to the Godly Mead of Ol'times.

Perhaps that was a bit much of an metaphore. Well, you get my drift : ME HEART BIOWARE.

Of Sore Thumbs and Humble Pies

2009-02-20T19:04:00.009-05:00

For over half a year now, the gaming community has been going crazy with the news of Street Fighter IV, and it's eventual release on next-generation consoles. Fans have devoured every tender morsel of information emancipated from the clutches of Capcom with a vigor most likely fueled by hunger a decade old.

It has finally been unleashed this week, and the beasts have started gnawing and chomping at it without remorse. The famished hordes who did not have the luxury of inhabiting Arcade-implanted citadels are now being served.

And it appears that the feast has just begun.

For the record : I never was much of a street fighter. Competitive gaming was not, and still is not my thing. I have however, from season to season, dabbled in fighting games of all makes and genres. My youth was spent in part around local arcade machines of Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters; some of these games were played at friend's houses, on SNES machines I did not wish to own myself (being too much of a SEGA fanboy...). The genre never obsessed me enough to forge the proper reflexes to compete, and beat my opponents with celerity and grace.

Inexperience is a flaw developped in time. And I do suffer greatly of that flaw. But it did not deter me from purchasing Street Fighter IV. Eighty Canadian Dollars for a game that will probably kick my ass and serve me my pancreas as appetizer, you say? An impulse buy, you suggest? Perhaps. Perhaps my sudden interest in the game is only the product of well-crafted marketing strategies. I must admit the pretty-looking 3D revamp did something to tickle my fancy, althought I'm sure the whole world is suddenly feeling quite ticklish. How can a game that looks so magnificent and easy to play, be too hard for a greenhorn like me?

Yesterday, I popped the Blu-Ray into the purring engine of the onyx obelisk wasting on my desk, and hoped for the best. Story Mode on Medium difficulty looked rather «casual», and so it was selected...and a double-serving of humble pie was freshly presented to me. I dug in, grumbling slightly, knowing very well that it was my «just desserts».

Of course, I was half-expecting the proverbial crap to be beaten out of me, but not during the second fucking fight in Ken's Story Mode! It looks like sore thumbs are on the horizon for this poor fella, because I don't plan on quitting this game. It will hurt, but I'll get better. Defeats are, after all, only attempts at success.

I'll see you online, or on a couch near you. Fight the Good Fight.

New York City Comic Con!

2009-02-08T14:25:00.002-05:00

Oh hell!

Friends and I went to the Comic Con last year and had a blast. But this year, the Comic Con featured freakin' Dragon Age on demo, a Penny-Arcade booth and a panel with Ken Levine (Bioshock) and Todd Howard (Fallout 3).

Did we go the wrong year? Are we being punished for a deed so dark that we are being denied Dragon Age?

Oh well, I guess we'll have to settle with a little video demo then...

The Video Podcast that Never Was

2009-02-06T22:16:00.014-05:00

Coming back from a very satisfying workday, I find myself sitting in the bus when Mogwa i slowly creeps into my ears. The orange glow of the street lights strobe, as the public transport speeds onto the highway, and I lose myself in a dream...

I wake up when my stop is in view.

There wasn't anything memorable about the dream. It came and went, like a breeze. I don't remember what it was about, nor do I care about looking for the memory in that jumble of a brain of mine.

...I was watching Miami Vice recently, so maybe that was just it.

The Game That Dropped The Ball

Sometimes, we come across things that annoy us so badly, so damned much, that we throw away water, baby, bath and all. A little thingy can become a monstrous aberration. A pebble grows to a boulder. Take walking for example...

Or more to the point, Skate 2. Hell of a great looking game, from what I've seen; Heavenly controls, from what I've tried. But something hides, dark and sinister, beneath that polish, and it was uncovered by strange geek arts tonight. I was invited to grab a beer with friends at Polytron some hours ago, and a chat soon became a very well spiced series of rants about how great games do stupid little things that grow to boulders. Skate 2 suddenly became the unsuspecting victim of this onslaught of beer-fulled tantrums.

A Short, Yet Well Illustrated Account Of an Evening's Conversing Fracas

One of the major complaints aimed at the first game was the lack of perambulation : one couldn't walk to save his or her life while navigating through San Vanelona. When it came down to Skate 2, EA blistered out of the gate with legwork plainly advertised. NOW YOU CAN WALK, the title seemed to scream as it marched down Advertisement Avenue. The people rejoiced at the sight of their once-crowned Prince now endowed with the power of the almighty stroll. And then, the other shoe dropped, so to speak.

Walk, Spaceman, Walk!

Hoofing it in Skate 2 seems more like goofing it, to be quite frank. The trudge of the character feels like moon walking underwater. Attempts at navigating stairs or move objects become a curious study in human gait abnormality. I think Phil Fish expressed it best when he worked in a very skillfully planned mimic, which I cannot describe here : I guess you had to be there.

The game itself is a prize-winning mustang among mules (well, one very old mule named Tony). A fast-travel system that needs little effort, a great camera angle; skating physics that match reality in visual, feel and sound : these are only a few of the many medals the game wears proudly. But shit, «They dropped the ball», bluntly exclaimed Dean. All this awesome bling, and it gets tainted, sullied by this annoying spacewalk, making the game so much less than the sum of its parts. Dropping the ball, scoring in your own net; whatever sports analogy you can muster, it blows the experience away and destroys it's chances at true greatness.

One of us did not totally agree, so we ganged up on him. But the savage beating didn't last long, for an absurd demon and a fiery Adam Sessler soon better attracted our attentions. Oh and more beers was had. We should have recorded all of this, cuz it would 'a been Off the Hook y'all!

...Damn, I think I got a pebble in my shoe...

Multi-Player Radio Show

2009-01-30T20:47:00.003-05:00

Well, it all started very roughly. Our first edition of "Multi-joueurs" (french only) was recorded, on the fly almost, using a tiny digital recorder which we had previously used at last year's New York City Comic-con. Unfortunately this time it really wasn't up to the task at hand. And so the first show, about 1997-1998 in gaming, will forever be remembered as a trek through the Mines of Moria.

Blast off to Wednesday, January 28 : the second show. Recorded live at CHOQ.FM, I beleive it was a relative success. Sure, I have things to learn about radio broadcasting, but I guess we all do. This time we discussed narrative in games, old and new. It quickly became a "quick and dirty" series of reviews about the games we loved and hated in 2007-2008, however, since we are very touchy when it comes to stories and how they are communicated in an interactive adventure.

Still, fun was had. And there is sure a lot more fun at the source, which we still haven't reached in our as-of-yet short journey.

Next show, February 4th, will be about how reviews, critics and scoring systems, influence us in our spending habits and in our general opinion of games.

I'm thinking of eventually doing something about the awesome indy game industry here in Montreal, and I'll bring it up with the guys, Pascal and Jim. There is also the next GAMMA to think about. I know it's a long ways off (around November, probably), but we need to get hyped now I believe. Maybe Phil Fish from Polytron wouldn't mind coming in for a quick interview...

Speaking of Kokoromi, I just learned that Heather Kelley will be Guest Speaker at StudioXX, as part of the Digital Ludology Workshop on February the 14th (yes, Valentine's Day). In case you were wondering, as was I, StudioXX is "(...) a bilingual feminist digital art centre for technological exploration, creation and critique." And well, Heather is a great choice as guest speaker. The entry fee is a bit high, but financing such organizations is kind of hard in Quebec.

And remember kids, there is no Spoon...just the pile of games in front of you, begging to be played.

Big Rocks, Little Rocks...

2009-01-22T22:22:00.003-05:00

Today was an interesting one.

I learned how to manage time by considering it as a resource. Paid for by the good folks that sign my paycheck, it was a 7 hour event, where the motivational speaker narrated the tale of rocks in glass pots and explained to us the best way to say no when you in fact mean no, not a chance, nada, never in a million years.

I never thought myself to be so negligent about my time, and I never knew how easy it is to waste it; and from what I came to realize, if your life IS time, then I suck at life. I really do.

I'm currently looking to my right, and I see the pile of games that have not yet been fully digested. Nevermind chewed. It is like a pyre, upon which the pious completists will burn my corpse once they finish stoning it to death. And be sure that they WILL finish stoning it. These completists are never fully satisfied until the task at hand is done. But I have a slim chance at life : I can use what I have learned today to reduce that mountainous heap to rubble. It is very well within my grasp to use the techniques that are now mine and plan my whole year with gaming "rocks".

You see, the rocks represent the thing that you care about, and these big fellas must be placed carefully in order to become priorities, since they represent the stuff that you care about and...

Alright, I won't bore you with this stuff. Let's just say that said rocks are fucking big and heavy and you can hide behind them when those bastards start getting all paleolithic on your ass.

Anyway, the idea is to make sure I devote specific chunks of time, in advance, to certain titles and finaly be done with them. Using an agenda for the purpose of efficient gaming. I'll probably apply these new weirding ways on this remunerated labor of mine as well, but let's just say that work isn't one of the "bigger rocks" in the garden of Roger...

Now it's time to play!