The Gamer’s Quagmire #38: Start Baiting Your Breath
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
It may have taken a couple months to catch on, but I think people are starting to find their way over to my camp on the new Nintendo console. It is entirely possible that Nintendo is going to land a haymaker on Sony and Microsoft this time around, but if it is going to happen it better start happening soon. Launch lists are always a telling sign as to what is happening with a console. Right now the only one that looks to be getting games that I am eager to play is the 360, which not so coincidentally is thriving right now (in no small part thanks to Gears of War). This situation will only improve once Halo 3 hits the market.Things are not as one-sided, however. The Wii had a phenomenal launch and continues to sell very well. Sure, the install base for it is quite impressive, but that is hardly the stat you want to point to for success of a console. It is a great way to kick things off, but you never win a war by winning the initial skirmish. You may want to ask Dreamcast fans how that one turned out (especially the bitter ones, it’s very entertaining). Still, even someone as turned off by the Wii as I am, admittedly I am thinking about picking one up to test out Zelda because a person who loves puzzle and adventure games can only hide from the franchise for so long. In some respects I feel like a caveman just thawing out from an ice chamber.
As a Nintendo fan you need to move past this initial victory. Sony is still gaining profit as a company and the PS3 is anything but dead (it is best to ignore people who think the PS3 is already dead because these people may be more deranged than the people who think NASA faked the moon landing). The 360 now has PGR3, Oblivion, and Gears of War under its belt as major gaming titles that have produced huge sales figures. Twilight Princess has done very well indeed, but looking at the Wii launch list you can’t help but wonder when the next game is coming out that will compete with these figures.
Despite my apprehension towards giving Microsoft more money, it looks like we are in the throws of the Xbox becoming the new hot console for this generation. It is the only console that is generating new franchise names without completely killing them off. Nintendo had Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon. Incidentally, I would have included Viewtiful Joe in with the household franchises had it not been whored out beyond belief on the Gamecube. I have no problem with turning successful games into franchises, but inventing a new side-scroller in this era of gaming is dumb because the staying power simply is not there anymore. Side-scrollers officially died when Castlevania, a franchise whose success is completely dependent upon 2D, switched over to 3D (Castlevania now exclusively resides in the realm of handheld gaming, the only place side-scrollers have any remaining clout).
If the death of the side-scroller bothers you at all you should be upset that there was never a ceremony to bury the icons of the genre. Contra, Gradius, Mega Man, and Castlevania each deserve a fond farewell. Mega Man transitioned into the Battle Network series that is now more overplayed than the Macarena. Castlevania was able to find a home on the handhelds. Contra III was the last memorable installment and the two soldiers were put out to pasture. Gradius and the rest of the space shooters, let’s face it, as popular as the once briefly were, just met natural selection.
All this is not to say I hate the Wii. This is far from the truth. I may hate the name. I may hate the naming scheme that generated for the Wii’s peripherals. I may hate the Nintendo fanbots more than anyone else. The problem is that it is hard to ignore generations of really enjoyable gameplay and the new controllers are relatively intriguing. What is preventing me from jumping in, aside from a heavy and potentially lethal World of Warcraft addiction, is that past Zelda I cannot see myself playing any of these games. Maybe the new major Mario title would be worth checking out. I say this because after having a lot of fun with Mario Brothers 1, 2, 3, Super Mario World, and Mario 64 seeing the new Mario adventure game with a fresh control scheme would be entertaining. The only problem is that two games does not make buying a console worthwhile. We have a term for where that purchase makes sense, and it’s called a garage sale.
Not knowing any people firsthand who own a Wii I am forced to rely on everything I can find online to formulate an opinion on why people love this console (or any console or game for that matter). Filtering out all of the expected posturing, warped logic, bandwagoning, and straw men I am left with a pretty good idea as to why Nintendo is doing so well. And so you know, it has nothing whatsoever to do with why the PS3 is doing so poorly (that reason, in case you’re confused, is cost). There is more than one reason at play here, so this will not be quick. The primary reason is the innovation in the control scheme. Right now I do want this to succeed because controllers may be the next part of gaming whose development truly evolves even past the Wii controller. The graphics capabilities are going to level off very soon, so controls seem like the next logical step with the possible exception of AI.
I think there is another driving force at play that people seem to be ignoring. This ties in with a lot of the negative press video games have been getting and the swarm of anti-gaming legislation that a plethora of state legislatures are looking to pass. Nobody is ever going to accuse Nintendo of producing a violent game or one that sparks enormous controversy (or not in the foreseeable future at least). No, I don’t think that gamers are really worried about that part of it. Swarms of people talk about the fact that over the Christmas holiday season, something that all consoles look to capitalize on, they were playing the Wii with their parents, relatives, girl friends, and friends who would put about just as much stock into gaming as they would Euro Disney.
What I am struggling with is why would I even care about that? When have I ever purchased a game so that my family would want to play games with me? Call me crazy, but when my parents were purchasing games for me I had no troubles playing with them. I was also under 10 at the time so it also helped that the games that appealed to me then were the much simpler ones. They bought at least two games every year that we all could play and have fun with, but the number of people that purchase consoles so that they can play games with their relatives is miniscule. I’ll be honest, having party games like Wii Sports is a good thing and party games are, for the most part, underrated. When you have several friends over the party game is almost always a great option. However, if you’re going to venture out onto a limb with that as a reason to buy the console you are going to plummet to your untimely demise.
A console with family entertainment is a market, but it is hardly, at this point in time, the dominating or sustainable market. Maybe these games will catch on and maybe the controller will too. Right now it is just a fad with a bunch of people making excuses. If you think a company like Sony would not get raked over the coals for making a controller whose wrist strap kept breaking thusly causing the controllers to be winged across the room then you are in complete denial. Maybe the games will become more appealing for someone like me. Anything’s possible.
As a closing thought, I will state that I was in this exact position around a year and a half ago with the DS and the PSP. The DS felt more innovative and the PSP had more potential. The only difference was that the DS had the game library because of the GBA cartridge input. Now, if anything, the PS3 will eventually have the games advantage. Both handhelds basically failed in terms of promise. Despite the overwhelming sales advantage for the DS the stylus simply isn’t going to take off as a good gaming peripheral. When I can read my own writing at the supermarket checkout with a stylus then, maybe, I’ll believe it is a good thing for gaming. In the meantime, enjoy the next several months as we will get a crystal clear view of which consoles are going to deliver the gaming experiences we hope to enjoy.
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January 22, 2007
The Gamer’s Quagmire #37: 2007 Gaming Sabbatical - Part I
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Adventurer’s Perfectionist Disorder, it’s back! The 2007 year kicked off with one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. Being a gamer at heart I know that if I had it my way I’d be out in California as a game tester and all of my money would go towards an apartment and my entertainment system. It’s an interesting experience to be at work year-round and then take almost two weeks of your life and just sit on a couch and play video games. It honestly feels like a vacation.Sure, you can travel, learn some history, go to an amusement park, visit relatives, go camping, live it up on beach, enjoy a cruise, or whatever suits your fancy. Any real vacation should only be about one thing- avoiding everything about your normal life and just doing something you want to do. I’m always amazed by people that bring laptops on trips and make sure they don’t fall out of the loop while they are away from the office. The last time I had the opportunity I forced someone to leave the laptop at home by convincing them it was in the car when it really was back at the apartment. I’m a good friend that way.
What does any of this have to do with APD? Allow me to bring you on that journey. The last two weeks of 2006 were a vacation from the office for World of Warcraft where I was making leaps and bounds leveling my new character. It’s rough being in a guild where the only way to keep up with the top players is to not have a job, but I still enjoy it immensely. After another week and a half my gaming sabbatical took place in Seattle, something which I hope turns into an annual tradition. During this sabbatical the perfect mix of gaming past and present took place.
Let me present to you my experience of the Playstation 3- it matches what the X-Box 360 brings to the table with the exception of the online play system. I realize that expecting Sony to match Live with their first go at an online delivery system is just insane so that’s okay, but there is a problem. Considering the cost of a fully loaded console with hi-def playback, the 360 is noticeably cheaper than the PS3. I have yet to characterize why. The cosmetic issue of the 360 requiring a peripheral for their HD-DVD drive pushes the aesthetics trophy over to the PS3, but that that can’t be everything can it? If the 360 could handle HD-DVD at launch then the 360’s look would be the best of any of the consoles. The PS3’s design is average at best, same for Nintendo.
Microsoft does not nearly get the beating they deserve for their HD-DVD peripheral. A console having an attachment is inexcusable, reprehensible, sacrilegious, nauseating, and unforgivable. In the age of hi-def entertainment this type of lunacy just shouldn’t happen. It’d be like serving ice cream in a bowl and then bringing along a cone 10 minutes later (you know, because that is what you really wanted and refuse to admit it). That’s not even why they deserve a flogging or two. They announced that the 360 was not about hi-def entertainment, that consoles don’t need it, and Sony was doing too much with their console which is why their launch was delayed so much. Hypocrisy is a major irritant, and this statement reeked of it.
Anyway, the pricing issue is the primary reason why the PS3 is getting crushed right now in the console wars. The 360 is established (for those of you keeping score at home, you need to now admit that the early launch was a good idea) and the Wii offers something that nobody else has. Of course the Wii’s success is based on a gimmick. Zelda is the only game with any good depth to it and the console will not survive on titles like Wii Sports, whose popularity will diminish quicker than the Macarena. Trust me when I tell you that unless a host of good games come out for Nintendo the console will crumble and fall. If the PS3 gets a couple good games out for it then people will eventually flock over to it once the inevitable price cut occurs.
What scares me about my gaming sabbatical was that despite playing good titles on the PS3 and 360 the highlight of the trip involved one of the old classics- Final Fantasy VII. Okay, perhaps it was destiny that picking to play through this game one more time after writing how that was the defining game of the PS2 era for me that VII would once again highlight a gaming weekend. For what was perhaps one last time, our small little group from Gettysburg which set out on the Final Fantasy VII voyage together took the vessel out for once last spin.
As you would expect, simply walking through the game would not be enough. Goals were to capture everything we possibly could before the final dungeon ending in the showdown with Sephiroth. We captured the Gold Chocobo during the final hours of the trip. This felt like the proper ending, but something was wholly unsatisfying about the achievement. Do not misunderstand my apprehension to call it a success. Three people obtaining Knights of the Round in 4 days while playing other games at the same time was a remarkable achievement. What bugs me was that due to a wireless controller issue North Corel was not saved from the train wreck. The blue Huge Materia was not rescued from the spaceship despite me somehow recalling that circle-square-x-x was the password (seriously, I entered the password and picked it up… it was weird). The scales required to put out the fires in the Wutai mountains were missed. Several key Enemy Skills were not uncovered. The Mime materia was not located. The Earth Harp remained a complete mystery. The Battle Square was not conquered.
I’ll be honest with you, as a gamer I was impressed that I remembered certain things about the game. Remembering the song for the piano in Tifa’s house and the spaceship combination was quite prolific (for whatever reason checking my mail every day is still something I forget to do). The fact that so many important items were missed along the journey may making one more last run through the game necessary despite still having my perfect save on a memory card that still remains in my possession. This is a direct effect of a severe case of APD. I should be able to let something like this go. The game has been defeated multiple times with precision, but because my previous run failed spectacularly, in my eyes, it warrants another potential run.
All of this ignores the fact that I still have not made my way through Final Fantasy XII, a game which I claim may be the new champion of the franchise. Vaan, it’s nothing personal. Cloud is a much more compelling hero. Sephiroth is the quintessential villain, something that Vayne cannot claim. It’s not that I think VII is a better game, it’s just that the story in the game is perhaps the best of them all and the Materia system has its place etched in gaming history. Also, not being able to cope with missing several key spells and abilities is eating away at my conscience. Not even Full Cure will ease the pain- only completing the game one more time will. If you have ever played through one game multiple times then you understand my pain. You also understand that there will be one more inevitable article about Final Fantasy VII.
After all, Aeris does deserve a proper burial.
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