If you play Splinter Cell on Live, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Finding a good couple of guys to play with is like finding a pearl in your Captain Crunch. It's fucking rare. Once you do find these mythical opponents, there are long pauses between rounds so that "J. R. R. Tokin'" can maintain his state of mind. Nine times out of ten, not an exaggeration, your enemies will disconnect before the game is even over - let alone before each team gets a chance to play both sides, which again almost never happens. For pure chicanery and/or mischief, your average Live player ranks very near Leprechauns.
My friend (and virtuous foe of evil) the DocBot3000 came by on Monday and showed me the ropes in City of Heroes, and it is a hell of a lot better than I knew. Screenshots didn't do much for me, filled as they were with other people's heroes, and like many others I was interested in creating villains with underworld cartels as opposed to righteous servants of justice. I had seen a very good number of banal characters produced with the much touted character creation tools, but let me make clear that you can get out what you put into that thing. The likelihood is very high that the do-gooder in your mind's eye can be coaxed into existence.
Screenshots also don't communicate the animations and special effects, and believe me when I say that in a game where a single screen can hold a hundred superheroes one does tend to see an effect or two. You'll also see, though it might depend on your machine, tons of ambient characters crossing plazas and filling sidewalks - presumably, these are the consumers of your heroism. The city is broken up into different neighborhoods with their own feel, and while running, flying, or floating to your next mission you might see some young punks trying to cut an old lady. These essentially amount to random encounters you can take or not take, though looking on while someone's grandmother is brutalized isn't particularly heroic. They can reward you with "influence" which is called "money" in any other game.
After creating a character that combines the Natural origin with the Blaster archetype - essentially, a gun expert a la The Punisher - I ran my character Imprimatur through their perfectly sensible tutorial section. It was here I found that the crime infested buildings in the game represent instanced dungeons - that is to say, upon entering one alone or in a group, a "shard" of it is spun off for your exclusive use. You never see higher level heroes in there camping the Kingpin or his carefully distinguished equivalent. As you fight and defeat jackholes, if an enemy has a powerup - either an "Inspiration," the equivalent of a temporary stat increase, or an "Enhancement," which can improve your powers in any number of ways - there is no need to go pick it up off the body. That's right, no kneeling down, no stopping or waiting. This game is absolutely, completely, and entirely about kicking guys, or frying them, or controlling their minds or whatever. If something gets in the way of that, I have a feeling that the developer did everything they could to remove it.
Which is, oddly, where my problem comes in. I wouldn't say that the game lacks depth, as laying your enemies low is the thrust of virtually every MMO, and indeed most videogames. No, it is almost as though the game lacks width. Compared to other games of the genre, outside of conflict with enemies there isn't anything to do. I mean it, there's nothing. Some people write in and they say that's perfectly fine with them, and others - perhaps ones that have spent a fair amount of time in other Massive worlds - come away expecting other in-game activities like crafting or canasta. Certainly, though, if jolting thugs with your arm cannon strikes you as a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, you might want to leave one free. There is an endless supply of criminals so stupid as to commit crimes in broad daylight, in a city with seven superheroes per square foot, all for a purse that contains some gum and a bottle of multivitamins the label takes great pains to establish are only appropriate for senior citizens.
(CW)TB out.
karaoke with the yesteryear stars
The article in OPM covers quite a bit of territory, from the unique graphics engine and level design to the enemy and NPC A.I. It's certainly more information than I've seen to date and it comes after what sounds like a very lengthy play test. Each new screen shot I see for Killzone totally mystifies me. I remember when the first shots came out I actually didn't believe they were real. I figured it was one of those cases were the screenshots for a game get worse and worse the closer it gets to the games actual launch. I figured what I was seeing was some kind of pre-rendered mock up of what they hoped to accomplish. Then they released that trailer a few months back and it looked liked they had really pulled it off. The shit they're doing with the PS2 had to have cost someone at Guerrilla their soul.
I'd say the magazine is probably worth picking up just for the Killzone article but as I thumbed through the rest of it I found some really good stuff. There is a nice little interview with Craig Sullivan (Lead Designer at Criterion) about their upcoming first person shooter, Black. These are the guys responsible for the highly acclaimed Burnout games and they seem to have a really interesting take on the FPS genre. He has a great quote in the article that I'll just post for you here. He says: "In Black, the guns are the characters, and the dialogue starts when you pull the trigger." Craig talks about how in an FPS game all you really see is the gun so they need to become the stars of the show. It's a good read and certainly has me interested to see more of the game.
Then there is a little preview of Second Sight from Free Radical. These are the guys that gave us Time Splitters and TS 2. I still have a special place in my heart for TS2. I think it's one of the best FPS games ever made for any platform. You can imagine how excited I was to discover that they are working on a new FPS. Second Sight looks to be much more serious than the TS games but at this point I'm willing to follow them wherever they want to go.
I also read a page long article on a game called Siren that I discovered afterwards was actually an advertisement. It's a big two page spread that is laid out and designed so that it looks just like a feature written by the magazine. In really small letters at the top it says "Advertorial" but I didn't see that until I read the entire thing. On one had I was sort of pissed and felt like I had been tricked. On the other hand I have to give them some credit. I had never even heard of the game before I read the ad and when I was done I actually thought to myself "hmmm, that sounds kind of interesting." Of course that's before I found out it was written by a copywriter instead of a game journalist.
I forgot a couple of Splinter Cell tips in my recent posts and I wanted to share them with you.
Mercs
-If your teammate gets laid out by gas you can walk over to him and press "A" to kick him and wake him up.
Spys
-You can grab a merc in a choke hold and then drag him to a security door. The door will open as you approach with the merc and then you can snap his neck once you're inside.
-Gabe out
(CW)TB
(CW)TB
(CW)TB
I implied a distinction between copywriters and game journalists in my post above. Tons of you wrote in today and told me they are actually the same thing and many of you pointed me towards sites like IGN and Gamespy. It’s funny, in my original post the word “copywriter” was actually a direct link to IGN. I took it out though because I figured people might be tired of all the IGN bashing that goes on around here. Judging by all the mail I received today that isn’t the case. That’s good to know.
-Gabe out
