Not enough time for good and why Kaos studios closed

I have been doing this blog now since February (sorry for the recent infrequence of posting.... will resume 4 to 6 posts a week very soon as my schedule clears a bit) and in easily 66% of my posts I talk about the hard fact that the average gamer is not the 12 year old boy with negligent parents, or the college frat kid wasting $50k a year to get drunk and make bad decisions, but rather the average age of a gamer is 34. (Side Note: I link to that report so often but it is relevant in most every point I try and haphazardly make!)

Here is the thing though with people who are all grown up; they have outside obligations. Most of us have jobs, lives, etc and we don't have the 40 hours a week to game like many of us used to. Problem is with the lack of free time, the leisure activities we do engage in need to be as worthwhile as possible. Getting to my point....

Publisher THQ recently shut down Kaos Studios. Despite decent sales, the poor precieved quality of recently released FPS Homefront ended up being the final release from the New York based studio.

How did everyone not see this coming?

Saying the FPS market is saturated right now is like saying there are a few polygons in the models for Crysis 2. Thing is that the core demographic for these games, the "34 year old's", don't have enough time to play every FPS that comes out. We are going to only get the best titles that all of our friends are getting. We want new ideas that make the interactive medium more enticing. You can't just say "well we have an awesome story!" That only works in books and movies; it takes more to carry a game (see this post).

Right now the FPS war is dominated by the Battlefields, the Call of Duties, and the Halo's. Unless you are willing to spend millions of dollars and throw as much top notch talent as you got, you can not compete with a standard FPS. If you are clever you can try something completely different (upcoming post on why Left 4 Dead is the best FPS series in the last 4 years), but ultimately AAA publishers are not willing to put enough eggs in one basket and really take a risk on a product.

The video game industry needs to realize that the business model of good makes more money than great will not propel them to profitability. What I am really trying to say is that if I can only play one new game every couple months it's not going to be good. It's not even going to be great. I, and the core demographic whom I represent, only have time for the best.

How many layoff's from Valve have we ever read about? Even Blizzard?

I don't have time tonight but I really want to expand on this idea with my thoughts on publisher Kalypso, with whom I am very torn.

Portal 2 Sorta Review Part 1

There is so much to discuss. From the Potato Sack to the ARG to the actual game, we have a lot of ground to cover that will come in a few posts. I took yesterday (Tuesday) off from work with the express purpose of being able to finish Portal 2 this morning. I am happy to report that after 6.9 hours of some of the most amazing game play and storytelling I have finished my first run through and it is the only one of three brandy new games I have purchased this year that I have actually finished.

Now in the almost 3 months I have been doing this blog I have never really write a "review" and I really don't intend on talking just about the game and assigning it a numerical value. There are a lot of other avenues to go for reviews and I am under no delusion that I can compete with professional game critics. What I am going to do is hit you with a wall of text containing my thoughts about the game and what it represents. I am going to go in to this assuming that you are familiar with the first Portal and that you have little to no knowledge beyond the marketing of the second. If you aren't sure if you should buy the game do it and thank me later. Anyways here we go!

Portal 2 is exactly what we would expect from a developer that so clearly understands what makes video games different and special as a medium. While it certainly acknowledges what people liked and what made the first Portal as brilliant as it was, Portal 2 is certainly a sequel in every sense of the word. It effectively expands on the mythology, takes the game in exciting new directions, and takes the high's higher and the lows, well, there really aren't many.

My biggest beef with this game is probably the source engine. While the game looks on par with current gen graphics, there are loading screens about every 5 minutes. The loading goes by pretty quick, but then again I played on a reasonably beefy gaming PC. There is nothing more immersion breaking than "please hold while we load the next smidge of game play." Seriously though, at least give us a little more variety with the loading screens. There are 4 based on where you are in the progression of the game and none are all that different. Come on Valve! You polish every other corner of this game to a mirror shine! At least remind me that the space bar is to jump, or that Aperture science says something silly.

With that said this game is as close to perfection as our medium sits right now. In the just under 7 hours it took me to play through the single player campaign it never once felt like there was any padding, or that an area or sequence was added to pad out the game play length. Every single second, every texture, and every corner of the level design is so meticulously well planned out and perfectly timed that it should set a new standard for production values in AAA studios. Valve hasn't been above said padding in the past, but every single second of the game is chock full of the amazing dialogue we have grown to expect from the budding franchise.

I would definitely compare the single player campaign a lot to the single player campaign of the first CODMW. It is incredibly well polished and thought out and the apex of what linear FP gameplay should be. It is atmospheric, the voice acting is really top notch, and it takes the quality over quantity approach.

I absolutely loved the puzzles. This time around there is little emphasis on twitch, timing based execution and a lot more focus on thinking your way through almost every situation. The puzzles are just hard enough to give one pause for thought, but not too hard where it will make you rage quit. It is always satisfying to finally find the solution, even though there is generally one right way to solve a problem.

I made the mistake at glancing at the Metacritic user review scores after about an hour in and there were three main complaints I read that I would like to address.

First: The game is an expansion pack. This is plain ol' silly. Yes it is still in the source engine, but there is no doubt in my mind that this game is a sequel. We are not looking at Left 4 Dead to Left 4 Dead 2 here, we are looking at a brilliant script, an amazing arc, a new feel and tone, and a greatly expanded universe. This isn't a map pack.

Second: *SPOILER WARNING SORT OF BUT NOT REALLY* it had a stupid cliffhanger ending that clearly just paves the way for another sequel. Without wanting to talk about the ending I really have to disagree with this statement completely. While we weren't exactly treated to a crazy plot twist, it really wasn't much of a cliffhanger. What the ending did do to perfection is achieve that artistic expression that I find so appealing; once again I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.Thirdly there is the DLC issue. Valve, at least on the PC version, has implemented an in game store where you can purchase new gestures and visual mod's for your robot avatars for the cooperative campaign (I will hopefully be tackling that with a friend this weekend). Every "mod" is approximately $2.49 for simply a small visual update to the game. This is absolutely ridiculous and a little offensive. In Valve's Team Fortress 2 the whole hat thing doesn't bother me because the game itself, despite being essentially being priced incredibly reasonably has seen years of continued expansions, free maps, game play upgrades, and support. The way I see the hats and DLC in TF2 is that it is asking for optional donations for the continued support and development. Nothing wrong with that. For day one with a game that is AAA with AAA pricing; it is a little insulting.

Bottom line what Portal 2 achieves is absolutely amazing. It is an extremely polished AAA puzzle game that is not focused on violence in any meaningful way. While there are turrets that shoot bullets at you, the shooting is an obstacle ad not a core mechanic. If Portal 2 can prove to other major publishers that you can take a risk and a new subject matter and build a successful AAA franchise around NOT killing people it is an absolute win.

For science.

Portal 2 is Coming in 2 weeks!

In 2 weeks we will finally receive the highly anticipated sequel to the most important game to come out in the last 4 years. That game of course is Portal 2. I don't think a single, rational person had a bad thing to say about Portal. It was to the point, it was brilliantly written, and, in my opinion, is the first video game in history to reach that artistic emotional impact where I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the end. Any video game (or any artistic meidum) that can be that emotionally confusing and impactful is absolutely brilliant. Portal is the shinning epitome of how to take a cool, unique concept and make it so god damned effective that years later we are all still running around proclaiming that the cake is a lie and humming still alive.

Being the internet troll that I am I feel obligated to mention that there is certainly a lot that could go wrong with Portal 2. One of the most important elements of the first was its brevity; the game never felt padded or wore out it's welcome. Because of it's short length every single inch of every level was perfect, every line of, well, monologue was so meticulously well written, and the ebb and flow of the game was so well paced and thought out that there was never a single point that felt like filler (for instance Highway 17). With Portal 2 there is now 2 full length campains (8 hours each) and the biggest question I have is can they fill 16 hours with as much brilliant writing, pacing, and mechanics as they could just 3?

There have been a lot of game play demo videos, ads, and other media released for Portal 2 and from it all the game looks absolutely spectacular. It really goes to show what Valve does better than anyone; use the meidum of video games to tell stories that would not work as movies, books, musical theater, etc.

I love BioWare, and as I have ranted about frequently in this blog, I am even loving the clearly rushed and half-assed Dragon Age 2. They are a great developer, but they are not the best because their games would work almost as well as movies. Dialogue is a big mechanic and common theme throughout BioWare games and, while immensly fun to watch and navigate the conversation pie, we are not as immersed as we are in, say, Left 4 Dead. In Left 4 Dead there is very little "dialogue" and the story is told soley through brilliant level design. It is why Left 4 Dead would be a lousy movie, but works VERY well as a video game.

I'm getting a little rambly here, but bottom line is Valve is really the only AAA company that is really pushing the boundaries of the FPS. Crysis 2 may look brilliant, but it is still soldiers running around shooting soldiers. Homefront may have sold very well, but it is still soldiers running around shooting soldiers. Halo, CODBLOPS, etc.... Soldiers running around shooting other soldiers. Same base mechanics. Only Valve really shows that fantastic (and profitable) AAA games can be made if you take risks and push the boundries of the genre.

/Rant

A nonsensical rant about pro Starcraft 2 and eSports

I absolutely love watching pro Starcraft 2 matches online. I'm starting to become a more hardcore fan and working up to live casts of international tournaments, but right now I watch a lot of my favorite Sc2 casters on youtube. Watching a well cast, well played Sc2 match is a ton of fun and reminds me a lot of why I am a huge sports fan.

Outside of gaming I love to watch Baseball, Basketball, and Football in that order. I live in New England, so fortunately for me all of my teams generally are in their selective playoffs and I always get to catch a few live games every year. Working in downtown Boston no matter where you look there are always RedSox, Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots (our sports teams for my international viewers) clothes adorning every other pedestrian. Will eSports ever be a part of our national pastimes? Will we ever see pro gaming team jerseys? What would eSports need to do to really rise to prominence?

First off let's look at what makes sports fun to watch and what keeps people from getting bored. First off sports are fun for the same reason that Call of Duty or Left 4 Dead is fun; competition. Since the Greeks started the Olympics many years ago history has acknowledged it is really engaging to watch people who are the best at what they do being the best at what the do. When you watch a pitcher in a baseball match throw so many precision pitches, so many different pitches, all from 90 feet away and most landing with in a 2 squarish meter window with other athletes just getting confused at how to hit the pitches it is really exciting. It is also exciting to see one of those hitters get a good read on an amazing pitches and smash that ball so hard with a bat it flies out of the park. Superb and skilled athletic displays are brilliant to watch and translate into fun.

Watching a pro Sc2 match can have that same effect. When you watch someone who is so good at balancing micro and macro and adapting their play to get the right unit combination with the right positioning, or you watch a brilliant Protoss player hold off a zergling rush, or a Terran do a double drop at two different expansions and cut their opponents economy in half in about 20 seconds it can also get really exciting because it takes skill.


There is a great sense in hometown pride rooting for your favorite sports teams. We have over 100 years of history in Boston with the RedSoxand the team here is larger than life. Games are sold out months ahead of time. On TV games get some of the highest ratings. We love our hometown team and it is always more emotional and connecting when you have a hometown team to root for.

This is a big gap that eSports would really need to step it up. It is very difficult to rally people together and build awareness enough to establish a profesional, local club. There would also have to be enough talent and money to be able to band together the necessary clubs to be able to organize a national or semi-national league. The logistics would be really tough and take a decently funded organization to put together. There won't be a lot of funding until there is awareness. There won't be awareness until there is a league or organization to be aware of. There won't be a league until there is funding. There won't be funding until.....

It is so magical to see a live sporting event. I always try and catch 5 or so RedSox games a year because, despite it being significantly more expensive than watching the game on tv, there is such an incredible energy when you enter a stadium with 40,000 fans cheering together, laughing together, drinking together, booing together, and generally sharing an emotional connection to what is happening on the field.

This is the magic I think eSports can really capture slowly but surely. If you could go to a bar on a night with 100ish other people and watch 2 or 3 great Sc2 matches with people cheering or oo-ing at baneling busts, or calling out mistakes, or cheering big skirmishes, that would be really exciting. If we could find live events that would really capture the shared emotional experience of a common interest and you could have talented players that could really put on a great show
with a charismatic caster calling the games, it could really be special.

I plan on starting to try and put together an Eastern Massachusetts Starcraft 2 league. I could definitely get nights in some bars in Boston, Worcester, and places in between, so really it would be about securing a couple sponsers, creating awareness and getting an interested crowd, and finding enough local talent to make it happen. I really love eSports and Starcraft 2 in paticular and I hope that we can start seeing it rise to fame in North America in the next 10 to 15 years.

MLG is a great start, but I really think local effort are where we will really see pro gaming and eSports grow here in North America. We all need to be able to go see a match or event after work on a Wednesday. It will take the nerdy guy dragging his girlfriend to a match, it will take fans inviting non fans, it will take patience and lots of explanations of builds and units (just like me trying to pick up rugby), but we can and will get there (I hope).

Dead on Arival Island?

How do you get one of the most amazing game trailers (or trailers in general) ever produced to be bad for your product? Just ask Techland with their amazing piece of film that, evidently, doesn't represent their game in anything except in setting.

Like just about every nerd ever I had an amazing nerdgasm over the Dead Island cinematic released a month and a half ago and was really eager to see the Walking Dead of video games. It really looked that instead of being a bland, Left 4 Dead knockoff it would be a drama with the setting being zombie apocalypse. Report after report is telling us that isn't the case at all. Even the producer of the game is likening it to Borderlands in the way it keeps players hooked.

It makes me sad that I really feel that our hearts have been broken already. Maybe my hopes were naive, but I really felt we may be seeing a second fiddle studio really come in to it's own with a tour de force pet project. Then again that's not always a guaranteed success either.

If Techland actually made the game they represented in the trailer I would pre-order 2 copies (because your diety of choice knows I would need it for PC and Xbox). Unfortunately, it is being now represented as a second rate L4D. Dead Island, in my not so humble opinion, has been downgraded to the "must be crap until proven otherwise" catagory.

All I can say is the game better be pretty friggin' awesome.

Silent Hill MP? Just the thought is fail

There have been a few different websites reporting over the weekend that Konami, despite rulling out for the soon to be released next installment of the Silent Hill franchise, has discussed making a multi-player Silent Hill "chapter" be it part of another game or an XBLA or PSN title. Most people who actually follow and enjoy games, be them core or casual, can figure out this is a bad idea, but why is it terrible and why would Konami even think about it?

Silent Hill 2 is considered by many (including myself) to be one of the greatest games of all time because it is the zenith of how to use the medium for greatest effect. The game is great because of the way it uses the environment as the main means of communicating the story, uses the technology appropriately, and really uses the interactivity of the medium to create a feeling of loneliness and isolation without making it boring. Granted the game had some issues (terrible control scheme), but in all it was an incredible journey with great replay value that has aged well.

Multi-player mechanics would really go against everything that made this franchise great; the isolation and environmental story telling. The only real way I could envision it would be Left 4 Dead with monsters in leiu of zombies.

Konami see's Silent Hill as a franchise more than a tangible universe with a cohesive storyline. That is why we saw a mediocre at best movie, several sequels that received modest at best critical success, and the original developers jumping ship years ago. We've all seen the game jump around to multiple platforms. The game has changed from lonely and isolated horror game to a hollywood blockbuster Michael Bay mentality. The property has been streamlined.

The Call of Duty, Halo, and Madden franchises do incredibly well with multi-player console communities. We have seen a lot of different developers sacrifice quality, or shoehorn multi-player in to games because publishers seem to think robust multi-player equates fiscal success, but of course that isn't necessarily the case in reality. In the last 3 years Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age 1 and 2, Dead Space 1, Batman Arkham Asylum, Assasin's Creed 1 and 2(not brotherhood), and many other titles have achieved critical and financial success without multi-player, but the industry higher-ups don't seem to want to listen because all they see is the money CODBlops has made.

Of course it would probably cost little in comparison for Konami to develop and publish the title and there are enough people who would play it for the brand name alone, so I wouldn't be suprised if it does become a reality, but it makes me wish for a 5th Element mentality; if you make a work of art that stands alone on it's own very well, it doesn't really need a sequel (Bioshock comes to mind as well).

The Crysis 2 Demo Kicked my Ass (but not my Compy's)

I noticed on Steam last night that the Crysis 2 demo was available so I made the rookie mistake of taking that out for a spin. Before I get in to had badly I got pwned I have to say the game ran really well. Despite my compy being middle of the road at best the game had no graphical hiccups running at full 1920 by 1080 with medium settings. The graphics did look spectacular.

The mp itself plays very much like COD to me. You run around shooting people, raising your sights with the right mouse, getting knifed every 2 seconds. I suppose I can't blame my lack of skill on the developers, but I can say the game (and mp FPS's in general) are very forgiving to new players. I don't think I have, or will have the mental and testicular fortitude to really become average at the genre in general. It really makes me pine for the good ol' days of 1995 playing Quake on the WPI computer labs in my hometown of Worcester. I was actually competitive back then!

Also I am a reasonably strong L4D and TF2 player. I always tend to hold my own and be at least average (spy FTW), but those skills just seem lost in Crysis or COD.

Anyways the game did add the spin of both stealth and armor mode (pretty self explanatory). I can envision a leveled up player jumping around, raining death Crackdown style which would pretty pretty awesome actually. I just don't think I can develop the skills to get there. I'm sick enough as it is consistantly getting rocked in Starcraft 2 these days as it is.

On another note I was staring at my crappy, old XBOX 360, wondering why I could not get any adapter for HDMI for it when a thought came to me; why doesn't Microsoft and Sony sell XBOX and PS emulators? It seems like it would be easy money and a much higher profit margin for us PC master race. You can already use a 360 controller with a PC, why not take control of the market and let people play XBOX or PS discs too? I would definitely prefer that and it seems like it would be easy money.