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Video Game Industry Thread: February part II is done, go to the next thread
On a somewhat related tangent, I have long missed the "We're Right Awards" comics that Gabe and Tycho used to do at the end of the year. It was always cool to see what they thought of the games from that particular year and also see outlandish stuff like "Best, uh . . . who the fuck are we kidding, this game is absolute shit" getting thrown in there.
There should have been something of a "Most Improved Student Award" so that Sonic Generations could have gotten some recognition. That would kind of be an interesting category in general too.
Would it apply to studios or a series? I guess the former would make more sense. But it's a great idea!
Heh, I guess that being applied to a studio would make more sense. TSR posting just made me think about that as I'm also happy to be playing good Sonic games once again.
Yeah, the thing is, a series can be handled by other studios. But video games are matured enough to a point where we can have a category for "Most Redeemed Series" perhaps. But the Most Improved Student idea fucking rules for studios / developers.
Sonic Generations should be the model for any series that wishes to redeem itself from being crap. It just feels so... right compared to the original games, yet is so massively improved and modern.
Just talking about it makes me want to go back for some time trials.
How quickly we forget Mortal Kombat. In any case, 2011 was a great year for franchises looking to redeem themselves to the general public. I felt like I was back in elementary school, expecting a killer Mortal Kombat and a killer Sonic game in the same year.
1) In the wake of the "Japanese games suck" hubbub, seeing El Shaddai, Dark Souls, SM3DLand, and Skyward Sword on there is somewhat nice. Then again, the ratio is definitely skewed.
2) Lumping the mobile stuff with the handheld stuff and not expanding out the Downloadable games. There has got to be a better way of spacing these categories, as a game that could appear on a handheld device could also be downloadable.
Nintendo Network ID: V-Faction | XBL: V Faction | Steam | 3DS: 3136 - 6603 - 1330 PokemonWhite Friend Code: 0046-2121-0723/White2 Friend Code: 0519-5126-2990
"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
0
The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
you can make interesting points while being funny without being a miserable cunt, and even in that's the 'character' he's still insufferable
who responds in earnest to internet trolls? other trolls
I think Jim Sterling makes some very interesting points in his opinion pieces. What most people can't seem to get past is he is playing a character.
Also, Spaniard, you really, really need to get past your issues with the guy. Whenever he comes up you lose your mind.
Well the guy fully admits to trolling his readers for hate hits and money, and has been caught in lies, as well as reviewing games he hasn't even played. Why shouldn't I dislike a guy that makes good money, in an industry that already has problems with integrity and moral bankruptcy, for what is essentially journalistic malfeasance. When I've spent nearly 10 years in the same industry, working for various major and minor companies, doing my absolute best to forward it in a respectable fashion, and have nothing to show for it.
I guess I fall exactly within his target demographic, people that work themselves into an absolute froth at the mention of his name. Like some people who have worked themselves half to death in this industry, only to see him shit all over it, and its fans, and then get paid for it, while other far more deserving people struggle. I know exactly what he's doing, and I know I'm reacting exactly how he wants to, but that doesn't make him any less aggravating, and if I can turn just one person away from him from time to time, then I'll be in orgasmic bliss. Sometimes he's just trolling, and often times, he's just stupid, but he's always a repugnant cancer on this industry. One of my major issues with him, is that he's just smart enough to not troll too hard, by occasionally making a cogent point (that any one of us really could have), and then people go, "See he knows what he's talking about, he said something that makes sense, he can't be all that bad!" That's exactly his game! Making a sandwich layered with carefully measured out portions of shit and smart.
Though it's important to consider that I don't take it to the point that I have created anti Sterling sites, and go searching the internet for any opportunity I can to hate him more, and wear a "FUCK JIM STERLING!!!1" shirt. Just whenever his name, or something he has done, comes up, I take it as an opportunity to get my mad on a little bit and then move on. I absolutely have a hate boner for the guy, but like a real boner, it isn't around 24/7 and I enjoy stroking it when it occasionally pops up. Finally for the record, in this situation I did nothing more than ask for a link to a video, I didn't inject my opinion of the guy into the post.
Spaniard, you made me aware of Sterling and his shittery years ago, so here, have an orgasm
His AC2 review sealed the deal for me that the guy is basically a shitlord
But man, the first thing he says in that video, I was just like "Man this guy knows what's up"
EDIT: Funnily enough, watching the video further disproved even that as he was saying it in sarcasm and then said Skyward Sword looked "objectively good" when I personally think it looks like a poopstorm
So I was thinking of picking up one of these ipad whoosie-whatsis to play some of dem mo-beel games, and given the new ipad or ipad 3 or whatever was announced, I figured this would be a good time to get started on the research.
Originally I was going to grab the highest end model, but I didn't expect them to go all the way to $830! Given that I'm rarely without some kind of WiFi, I don't think I can justify the extra $130 + $30/month just to be able to browse the web on the bus, and I can't think of any reason to go with 4g, aside from PAX, but that's only for 3 days and will probably have shitty reception anyway.
Anywho, my game related question is this: I have my eye on a few games (Ascension iOS, Infinity Blade) but are there any other MUST HAVES I should know about? And is there a good site that reviews the 20 quadrillion games in the appstore? Besides the store itself (User reviews.. ewww..)
every sonic and/or sega fan knows who jim sterling is and hates His guts. if you ever need a good laugh at his expense, look up the ways sega has trolled the shit out of jim sterling.
My top game recommendations would probably be dungeon raid, king of dragons pass, drop7, and one of the kairosoft games (they're all pretty similar). If you don't have it on DS, scribblenauts is also not bad, also phoenix wright and/or ghost trick for that matter. And as much flack as this thread gives them, the popular games really aren't bad for short bursts, eg angry birds, tiny wings, where's my water and the like
Also, ishop games go on sale almost as frequently as steam steam sales, so put all the games you're remotely interested in on appshopper and wait for a sale.
So I was thinking of picking up one of these ipad whoosie-whatsis to play some of dem mo-beel games, and given the new ipad or ipad 3 or whatever was announced, I figured this would be a good time to get started on the research.
Originally I was going to grab the highest end model, but I didn't expect them to go all the way to $830! Given that I'm rarely without some kind of WiFi, I don't think I can justify the extra $130 + $30/month just to be able to browse the web on the bus, and I can't think of any reason to go with 4g, aside from PAX, but that's only for 3 days and will probably have shitty reception anyway.
Anywho, my game related question is this: I have my eye on a few games (Ascension iOS, Infinity Blade) but are there any other MUST HAVES I should know about? And is there a good site that reviews the 20 quadrillion games in the appstore? Besides the store itself (User reviews.. ewww..)
Jetpack Joyride is fantastic
0
The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
every sonic and/or sega fan knows who jim sterling is and hates His guts. if you ever need a good laugh at his expense, look up the ways sega has trolled the shit out of jim sterling.
I think Jim Sterling makes some very interesting points in his opinion pieces. What most people can't seem to get past is he is playing a character.
Also, Spaniard, you really, really need to get past your issues with the guy. Whenever he comes up you lose your mind.
Well the guy fully admits to trolling his readers for hate hits and money, and has been caught in lies, as well as reviewing games he hasn't even played. Why shouldn't I dislike a guy that makes good money, in an industry that already has problems with integrity and moral bankruptcy, for what is essentially journalistic malfeasance. When I've spent nearly 10 years in the same industry, working for various major and minor companies, doing my absolute best to forward it in a respectable fashion, and have nothing to show for it.
I guess I fall exactly within his target demographic, people that work themselves into an absolute froth at the mention of his name. Like some people who have worked themselves half to death in this industry, only to see him shit all over it, and its fans, and then get paid for it, while other far more deserving people struggle. I know exactly what he's doing, and I know I'm reacting exactly how he wants to, but that doesn't make him any less aggravating, and if I can turn just one person away from him from time to time, then I'll be in orgasmic bliss. Sometimes he's just trolling, and often times, he's just stupid, but he's always a repugnant cancer on this industry. One of my major issues with him, is that he's just smart enough to not troll too hard, by occasionally making a cogent point (that any one of us really could have), and then people go, "See he knows what he's talking about, he said something that makes sense, he can't be all that bad!" That's exactly his game! Making a sandwich layered with carefully measured out portions of shit and smart.
Though it's important to consider that I don't take it to the point that I have created anti Sterling sites, and go searching the internet for any opportunity I can to hate him more, and wear a "FUCK JIM STERLING!!!1" shirt. Just whenever his name, or something he has done, comes up, I take it as an opportunity to get my mad on a little bit and then move on. I absolutely have a hate boner for the guy, but like a real boner, it isn't around 24/7 and I enjoy stroking it when it occasionally pops up. Finally for the record, in this situation I did nothing more than ask for a link to a video, I didn't inject my opinion of the guy into the post.
Man I wish we could still lime things. Sterling isn't merely "pretending", he's just intelligent enough of a troll to know how not to get called on it outright.
There should have been something of a "Most Improved Student Award" so that Sonic Generations could have gotten some recognition. That would kind of be an interesting category in general too.
Would it apply to studios or a series? I guess the former would make more sense. But it's a great idea!
Heh, I guess that being applied to a studio would make more sense. TSR posting just made me think about that as I'm also happy to be playing good Sonic games once again.
Yeah, the thing is, a series can be handled by other studios. But video games are matured enough to a point where we can have a category for "Most Redeemed Series" perhaps. But the Most Improved Student idea fucking rules for studios / developers.
Sonic Generations should be the model for any series that wishes to redeem itself from being crap. It just feels so... right compared to the original games, yet is so massively improved and modern.
Just talking about it makes me want to go back for some time trials.
How quickly we forget Mortal Kombat. In any case, 2011 was a great year for franchises looking to redeem themselves to the general public. I felt like I was back in elementary school, expecting a killer Mortal Kombat and a killer Sonic game in the same year.
You know a studio I think should be praised? Insomniac games for Resistance 3. Caution, this is a massive game design blurb incoming.
I'm not going to talk about any other aspects of the game for a second, but there is one crucial, CRUCIAL thing they did which I think shows them to be more thoughtful than most devs that make FPS's: They removed health regen, and went with a static health model.
Health regen being shoved into every freaking game is a MASSIVE pet peeve of mine, and people have been doing it since Halo. Because they are completely mistaken in thinking it's a "modern" mechanic and de-facto standard, and have taken completely the wrong lessons from Halo and how it implemented health regen in context.
There's a few core reasons that Health regen works in Halo, Halo was DESIGNED AROUND this mechanic, it wasn't just thrown in. The most important one is that its AI is actually super aggressive (especially on harder difficulties), and will use its numbers and power to PRESS you on your regenerating shield, pressure you when it's down to try and make sure you don't get the time and space for it to reset. The other reason is that a lot of its key enemies (Elites) also have their own regening shields, and they KNOW how to use them (or they have other general immunities (jackals) or otherwise require a different approach (vehicles / turrets)). Both of these also work in conjunction with the fact that Halo is a game where enemies take a fair amount of hits to take down. So simply trying to subject the enemy to a "death by 1000 cuts" by occasionally ducking in and out of cover over the next ten years to ping some more damage, before retreating to regen and repeat, doesn't really work, at least not over the course of large engagements. They will attempt to charge and annihilate you before you can try. The way these gameplay elements work together there is an ebb-and-flow to the combat, and a tension between attacking with force to break their defences, and actively defending from their counter-attack.
The way most shooters work today, AI is barely passable, turning into games of "shoot the pop up target". In that context, health regen adds nothing to the gameplay, and actively detracts from any tension or pressure there used to be. Games are all about "Cover" now, and chest high walls, and all you end up doing is very literally taking damage until you're in the "near death" zone ( borders around the screen turn blood red etc.). At which point you duck behind your chest high wall and suck your thumb whilst waiting for the pain to go away. Then you repeat. The notion of a cover system only works if there's risk involved in popping your head out of cover at the wrong time, but there isn't any. Most of the time the way the gameplay is designed you have to pop out of cover at the same time as the enemy anyway or else you won't get a shot (a side issue to this is that because of ultra-linear level design, there's usually even much less scope for effective flanking). So you get shot up all at the same time whilst trading blows, but unlike the enemy you have super heals so it's never a confrontation you're at risk of losing unless you act stupid and stick your head out for too long.
Basically what I'm saying is, there's a difference between having an ebb-and-flow to the gameplay, and actively bringing the gameplay to a stop for a few seconds whilst WAITING for the regen to kick in. The vast majority of shooters in their implementation of health regen, do the latter.
So yeah, it's a simple thing, but it's something I'll praise Insomniac for. They made a deliberate design decision not to go with health regen, and that shows a developer that is very thoughtful as to how its mechanics are supposed to work for its gameplay. In a counter-example, the introduction of health regen into FEAR 3 (because it's standard!) is something that I feel drastically undercut its core gameplay and that it was made all the worse for. And you know what, this is something the devs of FEAR 2 actually TALKED ABOUT themselves.
I mean personally I feel FEAR 2 (and even FEAR 1) might've been better without so many personal health-packs (or at least a different and more time consuming mechanic to implement them so there's tension in doing so), but aside from that, they literally point out the problem I've been talking about: Sitting behind cover doing nothing except waiting for the regen before attacking again. And they removed it because it's not fun gameplay, it brings gameplay to a stop.
TL;DR: Health regen mechanics. If you're going to use them, think about WHY and HOW they work in the wider context of the gameplay.
subedii on
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The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
There are plenty of heroes at GDC; the 24-hour news hounds, the unflappable convention centre staff, the noble bacon chefs in Denny's... but none match the courage of the homeless man who secured an interview with Suda 51.
Click to view larger image Publisher Warner Bros. held a plush Lollipop Chainsaw press party in a San Francisco night club last night, complete with zombie models and a giant school bus outside.
A senior informant tells CVG the bus was the setting where the No More Heroes creator, renowned as one of gaming's most eccentric creators, spent a rare moment lost for words...
"Suda was conducting interviews with press for most of the night," our deepthroat reports. "Later on in the evening a journalist from Edge arrived for what he thought was an exclusive one-on-one interview, but a second man checked in with him.
"There were plenty of drinks flowing at the event so nobody took much notice that this second 'journalist' was heavily soaked in beer. Warner thought the guy was with Suda's people and the journalist seemed to assume he was with Warner.
"He managed about 10 minutes seated with Suda, mostly stroking his chin and nodding his head.
"Eventually it became quite clear he wasn't a journalist - he was in fact a homeless guy that managed to blag himself all the way to the interview. PR staff quietly ushered him away and Suda seemed pretty speechless about it."
Surely this man is the champion of GDC. If only all journalists shared his fearless attitude.
Lollipop Chainsaw hits Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on June 12 and Europe (and presumably Australia) on June 15.
you are a homeless man who must blend in at various events for as long as possible. Blending in for longer amounts of time unlock more locations, opportunities and score more points.
For example, dressed in your typical homeless man garb you can blend just fine at a video game conference, where most hipsters look like homeless men. Blend well enough, and be mistaken for a journalist.
Continue blending, and board the bus with the other journalists back to the hotel. Keep it up, and get yourself into a room.
You beat the game when you blend long enough to somehow replace Bobby Kotick.
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
you are a homeless man who must blend in at various events for as long as possible. Blending in for longer amounts of time unlock more locations, opportunities and score more points.
For example, dressed in your typical homeless man garb you can blend just fine at a video game conference, where most hipsters look like homeless men. Blend well enough, and be mistaken for a journalist.
Continue blending, and board the bus with the other journalists back to the hotel. Keep it up, and get yourself into a room.
You beat the game when you blend long enough to somehow replace Bobby Kotick.
Kickstart this, I will gladly give you hundreds of my american dollars.
More than 10m units of Sony's motion controller have made their way to retail since it launched.
The platform holder's field developer support engineer Gabe Ahn revealed this milestone to GameInformer during this week's Game Developers Conference in 2012.
While Ahn did not give a specific sales number, he did say that PlayStation Move has been "successful" for Sony and that the device remains important to the company's.
PlayStation Move first launched in the UK in September 2010.
Ubisoft has axed leading members of the Montreal development team behind its upcoming Rainbow 6 Patriots game, it has been revealed.
As reported by Game Informer, the publisher has confirmed that creative director David Sears, narrative head Richard Rouse III, lead designer Philippe Therien and animation director Brent George have all been removed from the project.
The game, announced last year, was set to take a darker tone for the series by throwing a number of ethical considerations at the player.
Ubisoft however appears to have abandoned the game’s previous direction with the shakeup, although the game is still scheduled for a tentative 2013 release for Xbox 360, PS3 an d PC.
For more on this story visit Develop.
So more dudebroishness? This doesn't bode well for the game.
The UK games retail market suffered yet another poor month in February, with unit sales down 29 per cent compared with the same period last year.
According to GfK Chart-Track, 2,314,424 games were sold last month, generating £55m for stores. In value, that’s almost 25 per cent down compared with February 2011.
The UK retail games market is suffering severe economic challenges, worsened by a lack of stock in key specialists GAME and Gamestation.
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII-2 was the biggest seller, beating Konami’s Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection. As a result, both firms entered the Top 10 publisher ranking.
However, EA?and Ubisoft were the top publishers once again. EA has three games in the Top 10, including FIFA 12, Battlefield 3 and new release Kingdoms of Amalur.
The data takes in game sales between January 29th and February 25th, so includes the first monthly Vita data. Vita games accounted for over four per cent of the market last month, with Uncharted the biggest seller, reaching No.14.
If the UK is any indication, this is going to be a shit year.
every sonic and/or sega fan knows who jim sterling is and hates His guts. if you ever need a good laugh at his expense, look up the ways sega has trolled the shit out of jim sterling.
I think Jim Sterling makes some very interesting points in his opinion pieces. What most people can't seem to get past is he is playing a character.
If he is, it's a very, very, very annoying character. The reason "Stephen Colbert" works is because the actual Stephen Colbert is a nice guy, so his character comes across as ridiculous rather than an ass.
Couple of tweeted GDC items from Chris Kohler of Wired:
Skylanders talk: "We didn't realize kids didn't just want to buy one [figure]. Manchildren bought 30. Bless them, every one."
"Please don't write that the new Mario game will be Pro-Skater Mario with smashing cockroaches. We might all get in trouble." - Hayashida
Why the crap did I ever make my original name "cloudeagle?"
I liked Jim Sterling for about 20 minutes when I saw his 10/10 for Deadly Premonition to combat IGN's pure ignorant 2/10. Having never heard of the guy, I looked at it as a bold move to counteract the stupid reliance on Metacritic most companies have, and to even out the score of a game that CLEARLY by no measure deserved a 2/10. It didn't deserve a 10/10 either, but I felt he was making a statement that Metacritic needed to look at stupidly low scores and remove them just like it does stupidly high ones.
...then I came to realize he was just trolling and missed his chance to start a great discussion about metacritic and journalism.
is there impact on choices, like you can be a dark side hobo or a light side hobo?
Hobo Health replenishes when you have done enough to be accepted into your situation. Once people believe youre a game journalist, health replenishes and you can now do things like go to press events and eat the food there.
And we should have moral choices. Maybe mid-game, when you've faked your way into middle management, you catch a hobo that used to hang out with you, doing the same thing and trying to fake his way in. Do you turn him in and boost your "health", making it more believable that you're not a hobo? Or do you let him in, and risk him eventually blowing you in for his own gains?
But all hobos are dark side hobos, according to Condemned.
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
* The Bridge
* Dust
* The Floor Is Jelly
* Nous
* One and One Story
* Pixi
* The Snowfield * Way
Technical Excellence
* Antichamber (Demruth)
* Fez (Polytron)
* Prom Week (Expressive Intelligence Studio, UC Santa Cruz)
* Realm of the Mad God (Wild Shadow Studios & Spry Fox)
* Spelunky (Mossmouth)
Excellence In Design
* Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games)
* English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle)
* Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
* Gunpoint (Tom Francis, John Roberts and Fabian van Dommelen) * Spelunky (Mossmouth)
Posts
How quickly we forget Mortal Kombat. In any case, 2011 was a great year for franchises looking to redeem themselves to the general public. I felt like I was back in elementary school, expecting a killer Mortal Kombat and a killer Sonic game in the same year.
Two comments on the GDC Awards:
1) In the wake of the "Japanese games suck" hubbub, seeing El Shaddai, Dark Souls, SM3DLand, and Skyward Sword on there is somewhat nice. Then again, the ratio is definitely skewed.
2) Lumping the mobile stuff with the handheld stuff and not expanding out the Downloadable games. There has got to be a better way of spacing these categories, as a game that could appear on a handheld device could also be downloadable.
Pokemon White Friend Code: 0046-2121-0723/White 2 Friend Code: 0519-5126-2990
"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
Also, Spaniard, you really, really need to get past your issues with the guy. Whenever he comes up you lose your mind.
who responds in earnest to internet trolls? other trolls
I like the cut of his jib
I guess I fall exactly within his target demographic, people that work themselves into an absolute froth at the mention of his name. Like some people who have worked themselves half to death in this industry, only to see him shit all over it, and its fans, and then get paid for it, while other far more deserving people struggle. I know exactly what he's doing, and I know I'm reacting exactly how he wants to, but that doesn't make him any less aggravating, and if I can turn just one person away from him from time to time, then I'll be in orgasmic bliss. Sometimes he's just trolling, and often times, he's just stupid, but he's always a repugnant cancer on this industry. One of my major issues with him, is that he's just smart enough to not troll too hard, by occasionally making a cogent point (that any one of us really could have), and then people go, "See he knows what he's talking about, he said something that makes sense, he can't be all that bad!" That's exactly his game! Making a sandwich layered with carefully measured out portions of shit and smart.
Though it's important to consider that I don't take it to the point that I have created anti Sterling sites, and go searching the internet for any opportunity I can to hate him more, and wear a "FUCK JIM STERLING!!!1" shirt. Just whenever his name, or something he has done, comes up, I take it as an opportunity to get my mad on a little bit and then move on. I absolutely have a hate boner for the guy, but like a real boner, it isn't around 24/7 and I enjoy stroking it when it occasionally pops up. Finally for the record, in this situation I did nothing more than ask for a link to a video, I didn't inject my opinion of the guy into the post.
His AC2 review sealed the deal for me that the guy is basically a shitlord
But man, the first thing he says in that video, I was just like "Man this guy knows what's up"
EDIT: Funnily enough, watching the video further disproved even that as he was saying it in sarcasm and then said Skyward Sword looked "objectively good" when I personally think it looks like a poopstorm
Originally I was going to grab the highest end model, but I didn't expect them to go all the way to $830! Given that I'm rarely without some kind of WiFi, I don't think I can justify the extra $130 + $30/month just to be able to browse the web on the bus, and I can't think of any reason to go with 4g, aside from PAX, but that's only for 3 days and will probably have shitty reception anyway.
Anywho, my game related question is this: I have my eye on a few games (Ascension iOS, Infinity Blade) but are there any other MUST HAVES I should know about? And is there a good site that reviews the 20 quadrillion games in the appstore? Besides the store itself (User reviews.. ewww..)
My top game recommendations would probably be dungeon raid, king of dragons pass, drop7, and one of the kairosoft games (they're all pretty similar). If you don't have it on DS, scribblenauts is also not bad, also phoenix wright and/or ghost trick for that matter. And as much flack as this thread gives them, the popular games really aren't bad for short bursts, eg angry birds, tiny wings, where's my water and the like
Also, ishop games go on sale almost as frequently as steam steam sales, so put all the games you're remotely interested in on appshopper and wait for a sale.
Jetpack Joyride is fantastic
He's a professional journalist and can only manage 14,000 hits?
meh
Man I wish we could still lime things. Sterling isn't merely "pretending", he's just intelligent enough of a troll to know how not to get called on it outright.
You know a studio I think should be praised? Insomniac games for Resistance 3. Caution, this is a massive game design blurb incoming.
I'm not going to talk about any other aspects of the game for a second, but there is one crucial, CRUCIAL thing they did which I think shows them to be more thoughtful than most devs that make FPS's: They removed health regen, and went with a static health model.
Health regen being shoved into every freaking game is a MASSIVE pet peeve of mine, and people have been doing it since Halo. Because they are completely mistaken in thinking it's a "modern" mechanic and de-facto standard, and have taken completely the wrong lessons from Halo and how it implemented health regen in context.
There's a few core reasons that Health regen works in Halo, Halo was DESIGNED AROUND this mechanic, it wasn't just thrown in. The most important one is that its AI is actually super aggressive (especially on harder difficulties), and will use its numbers and power to PRESS you on your regenerating shield, pressure you when it's down to try and make sure you don't get the time and space for it to reset. The other reason is that a lot of its key enemies (Elites) also have their own regening shields, and they KNOW how to use them (or they have other general immunities (jackals) or otherwise require a different approach (vehicles / turrets)). Both of these also work in conjunction with the fact that Halo is a game where enemies take a fair amount of hits to take down. So simply trying to subject the enemy to a "death by 1000 cuts" by occasionally ducking in and out of cover over the next ten years to ping some more damage, before retreating to regen and repeat, doesn't really work, at least not over the course of large engagements. They will attempt to charge and annihilate you before you can try. The way these gameplay elements work together there is an ebb-and-flow to the combat, and a tension between attacking with force to break their defences, and actively defending from their counter-attack.
The way most shooters work today, AI is barely passable, turning into games of "shoot the pop up target". In that context, health regen adds nothing to the gameplay, and actively detracts from any tension or pressure there used to be. Games are all about "Cover" now, and chest high walls, and all you end up doing is very literally taking damage until you're in the "near death" zone ( borders around the screen turn blood red etc.). At which point you duck behind your chest high wall and suck your thumb whilst waiting for the pain to go away. Then you repeat. The notion of a cover system only works if there's risk involved in popping your head out of cover at the wrong time, but there isn't any. Most of the time the way the gameplay is designed you have to pop out of cover at the same time as the enemy anyway or else you won't get a shot (a side issue to this is that because of ultra-linear level design, there's usually even much less scope for effective flanking). So you get shot up all at the same time whilst trading blows, but unlike the enemy you have super heals so it's never a confrontation you're at risk of losing unless you act stupid and stick your head out for too long.
Basically what I'm saying is, there's a difference between having an ebb-and-flow to the gameplay, and actively bringing the gameplay to a stop for a few seconds whilst WAITING for the regen to kick in. The vast majority of shooters in their implementation of health regen, do the latter.
So yeah, it's a simple thing, but it's something I'll praise Insomniac for. They made a deliberate design decision not to go with health regen, and that shows a developer that is very thoughtful as to how its mechanics are supposed to work for its gameplay. In a counter-example, the introduction of health regen into FEAR 3 (because it's standard!) is something that I feel drastically undercut its core gameplay and that it was made all the worse for. And you know what, this is something the devs of FEAR 2 actually TALKED ABOUT themselves.
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/43989/Why-Health-Regen-Got-Axed-in-F-E-A-R-2
I mean personally I feel FEAR 2 (and even FEAR 1) might've been better without so many personal health-packs (or at least a different and more time consuming mechanic to implement them so there's tension in doing so), but aside from that, they literally point out the problem I've been talking about: Sitting behind cover doing nothing except waiting for the regen before attacking again. And they removed it because it's not fun gameplay, it brings gameplay to a stop.
TL;DR: Health regen mechanics. If you're going to use them, think about WHY and HOW they work in the wider context of the gameplay.
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you are a homeless man who must blend in at various events for as long as possible. Blending in for longer amounts of time unlock more locations, opportunities and score more points.
For example, dressed in your typical homeless man garb you can blend just fine at a video game conference, where most hipsters look like homeless men. Blend well enough, and be mistaken for a journalist.
Continue blending, and board the bus with the other journalists back to the hotel. Keep it up, and get yourself into a room.
You beat the game when you blend long enough to somehow replace Bobby Kotick.
Kickstart this, I will gladly give you hundreds of my american dollars.
chocobolicious is already playing the game
is there impact on choices, like you can be a dark side hobo or a light side hobo?
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/rainbow-6-s-lead-devs-axed-by-ubisoft/092465 So more dudebroishness? This doesn't bode well for the game.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/final-fantasy-xiii-2-on-top-in-dreary-february/092466 If the UK is any indication, this is going to be a shit year.
Make that 2. I've never heard of him until your speech up there and now I never will hear him.
Oh god I remember that lolol
http://www.destructoid.com/this-is-how-sega-sees-destructoid-s-reviews-editor-187658.phtml
The man once acted like a damn child over facebook because his free review copy for a game didn't arrive when he thought it would.
If he is, it's a very, very, very annoying character. The reason "Stephen Colbert" works is because the actual Stephen Colbert is a nice guy, so his character comes across as ridiculous rather than an ass.
Couple of tweeted GDC items from Chris Kohler of Wired:
...then I came to realize he was just trolling and missed his chance to start a great discussion about metacritic and journalism.
Hobo Health replenishes when you have done enough to be accepted into your situation. Once people believe youre a game journalist, health replenishes and you can now do things like go to press events and eat the food there.
And we should have moral choices. Maybe mid-game, when you've faked your way into middle management, you catch a hobo that used to hang out with you, doing the same thing and trying to fake his way in. Do you turn him in and boost your "health", making it more believable that you're not a hobo? Or do you let him in, and risk him eventually blowing you in for his own gains?
But all hobos are dark side hobos, according to Condemned.
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/3/7/2853545/here-are-your-winners-of-the-2012-independent-games-festival
Think I got that right. Pleased to see Antichamer getting something, looks like an awesome game and the guy making it is really cool.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Hobos don't have cell phones!
Use your Hobo blending skills to procure said cell phone. Then take pics of Olivia Munn.
See? Fix'd
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433