There’s nothing quite like a long hiatus for a small, largely unread, gaming column. After a year-long sabbatical for gaming and some relatively major life events now feels like a good a time as any to get back onto the horse. Well, not literally of course. Odds are the equines are probably sick and tired of having random people jump on their backs just because they’re too lazy to do away with a tired cliché.

The strange this is, this is a weird time of the year to pony up (it’s a theme, sorry) and write something interesting again about gaming. There has been a noticeable lack of great games so far in 2009. Sure, Killzone 2 has gotten some buzz. The big budget games this year so far, Guitar Hero: Metallica and Resident Evil 5, just haven’t created the splash that publishers and gamers alike were hoping for. It is not that I haven’t enjoyed either of these games, but neither offered anything different that made people say “Wow!”

A year ago I would tell you that the unprecedented success of the Wii was the cause for this. The predominantly casual nature of the Wii is bring gaming back to the family. Most of the mature and dedicated gamers that exist today probably have fond memories of gaming with the Atari 2600. I would argue both the 2600 and the Wii are very similar to each other, to the point that the Wii can be called the 2600 of the current decade. In terms of development time was there anything back in the 2600 days that could compare with GTA IV?

My point is not to compare consoles this time, but rather to look at what gaming means to people today. America’s first major down-cycle in the economy causes people to take a closer look at budget gaming. We can’t realistically expect an expanding or even steady market for $60 games and $300 consoles with so much less money to spend.

Gaming to me will always be about escaping from the normal world doing something that brings me happiness. Whether a game is the creation of a drug-induced hallucination or a satirical mocking of what I’m trying to get away from the job still gets done. Based on the reports you see of the video game market being somewhat recession-proof and sales numbers still going strong you probably wonder what the point I’m driving at is.

Let me tell you. Sooner or later gamers want something new, something interesting. We’re still in an interesting time for gaming because the initial generation of gamers are still indentured servants of the industry. We are still a long ways a way from being forced off the gaming reservation, but sooner or later you need fresh blood, and it’s difficult to do that with high console prices and an increasing development costs.

Yes, okay, there are plenty of great older games you can get, and some fresh games that are quite cheap. We are on the bleeding edge of an industry that provides opportunities for independent people to download development kits and create their own games. But, still, I have to wonder how much room is there still in the industry for a rash of games in the GTA ilk?

I realize that it is difficult to figure out what demographics will eat up certain games, and that if some game like KOTOR came out in 1986 then I may have never given games like Tecmo Bowl or Tetris a chance. I wonder if such a simple game like Tecmo Bowl could even be created today and have it be a game that so many people reminisce about 10 or more years from now.

Here’s what I do know. In an era where we’re relatively close to having a really high penetration point in HD TV’s that there is a place for the monster-budget game titles. But don’t we need to consider how we rope in the 6 and 7 year old potential gamers? Don’t we need to sell the idea of video games to them with simpler titles than to toss Gran Turismo or Call of Duty in front of them and expect them to enjoy it as much as possible?

I realize that’s pretty much zeroing in on a question that Nintendo has already answered for us, but there were 3 versions of Mario out for the NES, and at least two of them are etched into video game lore. No offense, but Super Mario Galaxy is not going to be enough to hook them for life. Quality titles take time to make and you don’t want to sully a great franchise (that list is gigantic, so let me utter one word, perhaps “Sonic”, and move on), but sooner or later you need to look at what Galaxy was and realize that you just don’t need a game half that big to tantalize a kids’ brain to have them swoon over the next Mario title.

As someone who’s currently neck-deep in an MMO I cannot really tell you about the enormous amount of options out there that could hook the next generation of gamers at a dirt cheap price. One big title from Nintendo a year isn’t going to cut it. Pokemon has more than run its course (three times over). Wii Sports, let’s face it, was never meant to do more than to get the console through the front door. $10 budget titles via DLC are not as widely known of to get mass appeal.

Maybe we’ll get something in the next 2-3 years and maybe we won’t. What I don’t want is to tell someone to download an old game from 5 years ago as a starting point for why people should pick up gaming now. What bothers me is, right now that seems like the best option.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

Promises are promises, and, this amazing revelation aside, I figure if there is a week to talk about GTA this would be the week to do it. There are very few stories in gaming news this week that do not involve this game, and rightfully so. Considering the sales numbers this game is putting up (6 million copies sold in week one) it would be rather silly to ignore this landmark game.

That was far more than just a play on words relating to the number of NYC landmarks in the GTA IV version of Liberty City. This is one of the few games I have ever seen released where every major gaming publication and review site is giving this game near perfect marks. I am not saying this should drive you to your nearest store and pick the game up, but so few games are ever given a high score, let alone from everyone. After taking a week off from work to plow through this game, something which I had planned since the beginning of the year, I find it very difficult to disagree with the notion that this game isn’t as close to perfect as a game can get.

There are many things this game does that its predecessors have done. All the basic gameplay elements that you love (or hate) about the game are back, the satire is still present, the detail in the city environment is amazing, the story is engrossing, and the characters and dialogue are movie-level quality. These are all things I expect from GTA. Games that step up to this level are almost always highly praised, including last year’s icon in this department – BioShock.

Where GTA has stopped before, IV has kept going. Let us start with what is in the forefront – the graphics. The work Rockstar has put into Liberty City has definitely raised the bar in the realm of the free-roaming environment. Combine the graphical power of Crysis with the city detail that went into Assassin’s Creed and what you get is Liberty City. Downtown is littered with gigantic signs that make you feel like you’re on the strip in Vegas. Seeing the city skyline light up at night is just like looking out of a hotel window. Those are the big visuals. The details – like movie posters and other ads inside buildings, the geysers of water that shoot up when you knock out fire hydrants, the debris that gets caught in a cyclone when a helicopter is flying nearby, being able to hear your car radio while outside the car – all of these experiences make you feel like you are inside a real city.

Next to the basic gameplay elements that make GTA what it is, the satire embedded in this game is easily the most enjoyable aspect of this. This is not anything new, but being able to see this in the form of television and the web are brand new experiences. One day I spent hours just watching TV in one of my safehouses. Is there any point in doing this? You don’t get missions or any real information on backstory in the game, but it sure is entertaining.

The only complaint I have is that the character movement is still a ways away from smooth. Running around, moving through crowds of people, breaking into cars or just hopping in them all have very natural movements. Jumping, however, is still atrocious. Trying to get Niko to jump between ledges, onto or off of a boat, or in between rooftops is still an ordeal. Jumping in wide open spaces is not nearly as frustrating as cramped spaces (I got stuck once under a staircase which forced me to reload because crouching and walking wasn’t working right), but jumping in a straight line can be a major ordeal at times. One mission I failed because I tried getting onto a dirtbike from behind it, only to walk in circles for over 10 seconds before my target escaped.

If those problems were not present in the game I would easily be able to state with conviction that this game is perfect. When I say a game is perfect, that means that while the game can still be improved to do things in different ways, there is nothing that I feel the game is lacking. For example, the cover combat system could be a little easier to use for getting in and out of cover or sprinting between cover spots, but it didn’t really cause any problems. The combat system was still much better than anything that has been in GTA games to date, so I cannot state with a straight face that the combat was difficult or frustrating.

There is one thing I should make a special note on. There is a mission that involves a bank job in this game. I thought this was going to be as annoying as the Vice City mission was, but it turned out to be the best mission in any GTA game I have played to date. The tedious parts of the robbery – securing the bank, subduing employees and customers, busting open the vault, were all scripted. The entire mission revolved around the escape from the bank. The adrenaline rush in running through the streets taking out cop after cop, running through the subway, avoiding helicopters, and the final escape back to the house provided more adrenaline and energy than I could ask for. I would need 3 Red Bulls back-to-back to recreate that sensation. This mission was the defining moment for the game.

Coming up with something different to say about this game is tough. You know it all and you’ve probably seen it all. The highlights of this game were the graphics, fighting system, environment detail, voice acting, character animations, story, dialogue, satire, and length. The driving, movement, and missions were good but could all have been improved. The multiplayer was new and fun, but still could be so much more. Every one of the highlights were near perfect if not perfect, which means that GTA IV probably didn’t exceed many people’s expectations, but it matched what most people were expecting from Rockstar. If that doesn’t say something about what the value of the GTA franchise is, then nothing really does.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

We have all been witnesses to the recent acquisition of Blizzard and the attempted acquisition of Take Two. Both of these companies are rumored to be in the development stages of a new online game, and these speculations have largely revolved around Starcraft and KOTOR. Whether you believe these rumors or not is your decision, but a new rumor popped up recently which has caused me to recall an article I wrote back in 2003 about the very same subject – a GTA MMO.

I went back and re-read my old article and discovered two things. First, my sense of humor in these rants of mine has changed a lot in even as little as two years. Second, the points I attempt to drive home now are a lot more coherent. That’s the price you pay for being a writer who is a lot more raw than polished. There were, however, some interesting points I made four years ago about what a GTA MMO would be like. Now that I have a lot of experience in playing in the genre it’s time for me to spruce up some old ideas and figure out how this game could work.

I know what you are thinking – come on, not another GTA article!? This topic is repeated a lot, but, to be completely honest, it gave me an opportunity to spruce up an old idea that, frankly, needed some polishing. It also allowed me to put a lot less time into putting together a solid article this week. Sometimes being lazy can pay off, and a retrospective on my old musings has been enjoyable (at least, for me it has). At this point let me make a solemn promise not to write anything more about this franchise until the last week of April, when GTA IV hits the ground running.

While I believe that the GTA MMO concept is probably not in development or even in beginning discussion stages, I believe that the primary reason people are drooling over this, aside from an overwhelming love of the MMO genre and GTA, is the very noticeable lack of a multiplayer capability in the franchise since GTA 2. Anyone who played these games on the PC knows how much fun deathmatches, cannonball races, and killing ice cream men can be. Who would be odd enough not to enjoy that type of good-natured fun? The good people at Rockstar North finally figured this out, and now people are salivating over the inclusion of multiplayer in the impending GTA IV release.

And while I do not have a problem with the ice cream man, or Van Halen, I have had a bit of a problem thinking about GTA as an MMO. My initial thought was along the lines of finding the person so I could test out my brand new nightstick, but after a couple seconds I decided I would be remiss to dismiss some idea like this (who knew I had the capacity to put together a hip-hop album?). I put away my nightstick and began thinking about how such an idea could be brought to fruition.

The types of character classes and opposing factions are pretty much the most important aspect of making an online game deeply immersive. Playing as the traditional thug is the obvious choice, but there are other interesting ones too. There should be the ability to play as cops, major and minor gang leaders, business owners, pimps, or other low-level thugs. All of these jobs could build off each other in working to build an impressive – how would Fat Tony put it – mafia crime syndicate.

In terms of what could be done as part of the general level grind I expect a lot of the standard stuff you see in most MMO’s. There would almost certainly have to be some generic NPC gang activity like there was in City of Heroes, but there does need to be a GTA spin on it. I came up with a couple minor things to consider, but I think they begin to set the tone for a larger GTA universe. Imagine holding up a jewelry store only to have the clerk pull out a Colt Python as soon as you turn your back to leave. Imagine an ambulance driver slashing you with a katana when trying to hijack his vehicle. Better still – imagine some psychotic soldier driving around in a Hummer running people over at will.

I also thought about basic skills and professions, and San Andreas started to tap into those ideas. When Rockstar talked about the RPG elements in that game they referred to your stats (swimming, running, muscles, etc.). I don’t see why those couldn’t be basic skills that several classes in a GTA MMO have access to, but there are plenty of ideas there. The professions are what interests me more, and you can have varying weapons specialists, drivers, brawlers, and grenadiers for all fighting classes. Gang leaders could specialize in recruiting, entrepreneurship, and negotiations. It’s all very doable.

Car theft is a major element in the basic game, so I’m betting that cars, along with people, would have to have a pretty good respawn rate. While that part is not that interesting I will state that watching many people get into ugly PvP battles over stealing a single car could be a boatload of fun. Contributing to overall mayhem in battles against cops could also be fantastic.

Using a PvP angle along with building your syndicate’s influence, the battle over various businesses would be great. This is a concept that Mythic Entertainment calls RvR (Realm vs. Realm) battles and has placed this into the core of Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online. I would argue that this dynamic would be perfect for an online GTA game. Instead of just businesses, however, you could also control another form of ownable property – the gang hideout. All of these buildings could constantly be fought over by competing factions to shift overall control of a city. Keeping control over these buildings may be trickier than getting someone to laugh while watching A Night at the Roxbury, but it would be very competitive and entertaining PvP.

Going back to four years ago I didn’t think that there was a reasonable way to put together a GTA MMO, but today I am starting to believe that there is something to this idea. While these ideas are a bit scattered and light, they should make any eager readers think that the overall game concept could theoretically work.  Years of experience playing the genre do wonders for being able to put together ideas like this. With enough effort and innovation this could be a very popular game. With all the innovations the franchise has already brought to the table this move might be the last great innovation Rockstar can bring to the table with their primary cash cow. Even if that meant the end of the GTA franchise as we know that would be just fine with me – so long as it was still a lot of fun to play.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

Last week was a special time for me. It wasn’t because that Burnout was an excellent game. It wasn’t because I managed to find myself in the middle of a Guitar Hero party where I was the only one able to show off my skills in Expert mode. It wasn’t even because I was blessed with seeing GTA IV’s April 2008 release date. The media finally managed to embarrass itself beyond belief with what might go down as the stupidest video game debate since the original panic surrounding the Pac Man obsession in the mid 80’s.

Those of you into video game news are not new to this information at all. In fact, you are probably wondering why you should continue reading when you’ve seen so many different video game experts sound off on this issue, including X-Play and Penny Arcade. I’d offer forthcoming pictures of boobs, but this is a family-oriented site. Instead, what I can offer is more cheap laughs at the expense of the “news” corporation that started this discussion.

The reason I take such exception to the Fox News debate last week goes far beyond the egregious lies that were flying around the debate like flies at a fall baseball game in Cleveland. Mass Effect had an enormous impact on me. It was easily one of my favorite games from the past five years. Whatever your impressions of that game were, you understand that when a massive amount of lies swarms around one of your favorite games you become enraged. It took a long time to figure out exactly how I wanted to respond to the Fox segment on Mass Effect. Once I realized that it has been ages since I did a line item breakdown of something that has gotten under my skin the internal debate was resolved.

It is time to kick back, relax, and watch the snowball of rage come rolling down the hill.

The event begins as the tag line on the bottom of the screen serves as the basis for the topic du jour. According to the always accurate bottom-of-the-screen banner, Mass Effect features “Full Digital Nudity” and “Graphic Sex.” I realize that the news shows on the channel are generally pretty right-wing, but what is most striking is that this is the same network that has brought us a litany of shows revolving around sex and edgy cartoons. How can the same network that reruns the Side-boob Hour with Peter Griffin also get freaked out about a side-boob in a video game? That and a small portion of a posterior is the racy sex scene that these people are talking about.

Before the interview comes in play, an interesting comment on marketing was thrown in. Admittedly I do not watch a lot of TV, but did you know that the game, which is clearly rated ‘M’ (i.e. ages 17+), is being marketed to kids *and* teenagers? Sometimes it is difficult to tell when people make up lies used by other people in an attempt to sound poignant, but this felt like one of those templated arguments that is used by so many people when they attack video games.

Anyway, the interview came next between a psychological expert of some sort (I refuse to put the name in because I don’t want to leave any hints that I am lending any credence to the person) and a video game columnist (in other words, someone far more professional than myself). I got a really good laugh when every single opinion made by the psychologist was shot down like the Luftwaffe over England when she admitted to never playing the game. I always find it annoying that people can make by informed decisions about a game without ever sitting down in front of it. It’s easy to make snide remarks about anything without being truly informed, but you cannot call yourself a professional without doing actual first-hand research. This is bad science at its very core.

• Studies prove adolescents play games more than kids – I don’t know about you, but every report I have ever read about gaming studies shows that most gamers are men somewhere in the realm of ages 27-34. To quote a famous rock band – “this is my generation, baby.” Pretty much the only thing worse than an expert that doesn’t do their own research is one that lies about the research they have (or have not) seen. On the plus side, the comedy continued because the expert then went on to claim that they had to side with the research they, supposedly, read instead of listening to someone who actually played the game.
• Women are only there for their sexuality – Ignoring that you can pick the lead to be a female, this comment is still quite the impressive broad stroke. Coming from someone who claims never to have played the game this is not a surprising comment, because you cannot know about the internal struggles all three female party members have throughout the game if you never played it.
• The man is deciding how many women he wants to be with – Technically this is a true statement, in that you can choose to be with 0 or 1 other female. Oh yes, you can make a truly stupid remark in the game to see if there’s a way you can get both female love interests to go with you. I don’t think I need to elaborate on how that choice winds up not working for you. Still, if you insist on taking the stance that the dialog option merely being present in the game is enough to be revolting, I should warn you that only someone who wants to string to women along and then make a piggish response is going to make that happen. This is the player’s choice, and I refuse to blame a video game developer or publisher for a choice that players make in a game. If this sounds familiar, this is the a rehash of one of the many attacks against GTA.
• Boys cannot tell the difference between what happens in the game and real world – I don’t doubt this for a second. I find it difficult to blame this on a video game that has arrived during the sixth console generation. I don’t know about you, but the day when people realized that raising children takes true diligence is going to be a welcome one.

Moving past this segment we get to the panel discussion portion of the program. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this segment after the interview melted my brain, but on some level I expected to see a balanced discussion. Naturally this is the trap that is laid out in front of everyone. It is a relatively clever one as it will catch almost everyone who is highly ignorant of video games.

Anyway, I’d love to give you some deep insight on the discussion the panel laid out and the differing sides of the debate, but they all landed on the “we hate Mass Effect” side of the table. In case I missed something in my years on a debate team, group discussions were always the most informative when people had differing opinions.

Here is a quick breakdown of all the comments made during this evil segment:

• Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas – It’s hard to say exactly what this means, other than somehow a game has gone one graphic sex scene to multiple sex scenes. The lie is worsened by the clear fact that nobody on the panel has played the game because the story is one of the most compelling in an RPG that I’ve seen in a while. BioWare understands storytelling better than most, and it always annoys me when people are turned away from incredible stories based solely on disinformation and a differing taste. As a side note, I find it amusing that anyone who is unfamiliar with the original movie from 1978 is going to look it up and become more educated on a subject that the panelists clearly view as vile and disgusting.
• Why didn’t it get the AO rating? – This alone ranks a 10.0 on the Asinine Comments Meter. Pot shots aside, the AO rating is not some horrid rating that only the vilest games get. The AO rating is a direct equivalent to the movie NC-17 rating, although with movies like Saw IV being given an R rating I honestly have to wonder how a game like Mass Effect could ever possibly be given a rating similar to what you would see on current R movies. If Mass Effect were a movie it would unquestionably be a PG-13 movie. The AO comment in this case is nothing more than a buzzword used way out of context to try and make a point (or, more accurately, beat it to death).
• What happened to Atari, pinball, and Pac-Man? – The same thing that happened to Gone with the Wind – the medium grew up. I know, I know. These are turbulent times and we must all shy away from the vile video game industry. Seriously though, how can broad comments like this be made during the time of what can only be described as the Wii generation? As little interest as I have in playing it I don’t know that I could argue with anyone who claimed that Wii Sports is the most played console game in the world right now. If you want to know what happened to Pac-Man, Wii Sports is the answer to your question.
• It’s up to the parents to censor what kids see… unfortunately – Apparently the day of parental responsibility I’m pining for is a long way away. I am genuinely interested in finding out if anyone on the panel has children of their own, because that would go a long way to explaining this comment. I know only one person said it, but nobody reacted negatively to this at all. On top of all the lies tossed around in the small segment, I find it difficult to take the opinion of anyone seriously who publicly refuses to pay attention to their own children.

What frightens me is that I could keep going with this article, but I am way past the length I like to write for my weekly articles. I’m happy to discuss this further with anyone who cares to post in the forums, but in the meantime let me close by saying that I always knew there was a reason I refused to watch network TV news segments. Even if you strongly disagree with that, at least I have proof of doing firsthand research on the matter.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

You need forgive the embedded juvenile humor for the lead-in question of the week: how do you know when it is okay to play in the sandbox? Several reviewers have felt the need to pound Assassin’s Creed for reasons that flew over my head. It is true that I am nowhere near an established or astute reviewer that many paid professionals are, but sometimes it takes the wit of a strung out English major (they’re always useful for needlessly comparing totally unassociated ideas) to critique design choices in a game that have no direct impact on the overall quality of a game.

It was not all that difficult to find several scathing reviews of Assassin’s Creed and to create a set of flaws that people had with the game. The universal opinion of the game seems to be that while it was drawn out and somewhat laborious the game was a lot of fun. Many reviews are more polarized than that, but I feel that this was a fairly common sentiment amongst most reviewers. There all always exceptions (and no, they never “prove” the rule… by definition), and in this case the most glaring are the ones that stipulate that it was a horrible design choice to make Assassin’s Creed a sandbox game.

What is that exactly? Sandbox games refer to games where the player is given overall objectives to complete but is given free reign on how to do it. GTA is a popular example when describing this style of game for obvious reasons. You’re almost never told what route to take to a specific place, which weapons to bring, which car to drive, what steps to take once you get there, or anything like that. The order in which you complete several objectives isn’t necessarily important either. Metal Gear is another game like that, only exercising stealth is encouraged.

Consider the popularity of these two franchises for a moment. There are contributing factors like story and graphics that makes these games what they are, but giving players free roaming capability is the highlight of the game. Combining that with the dark side of what you can do in GTA is what makes that franchise the powerhouse that it is right now. A free roaming environment is one of the many major draws of the larger RPG’s for many people. Giving gamers the ability to do what they want when they want in a game is, in my opinion, the best way to make games. The short version of this reads as follows: constraints are bad.

Upon reading multiple articles talking about the recent rash of games attempting to emulate a sandbox environment I began to wonder which games were being talked about besides Assassin’s Creed. Have there been any? I sure haven’t played any, and I don’t recall any popular ones that people have been talking about. Saint’s Row is the only other franchise that comes to mind, and that’s much more of a GTA clone than just another sandbox game.

I submit to you that Assassin’s Creed, if you look at it as a GTA clone, it, for the most part, succeeds. Grabbing all of the flags is basically just like grabbing all the hidden packages. Doing all of the extra missions (saving the citizens) is a lot like completing all of the now defunct rampages. Completing all basic mission objectives gives you free reign to recklessly roam the city, causing as much havoc as you deem appropriate, before completing them is a direct parallel. Whether I’m performing acrobatic face plants into alleyways or crashing a sports car into a pawn shop I’m having fun. That’s they key to a good game isn’t it? Fun?

The flaws that exist in Assassin’s Creed are the battle system (which is mindlessly repetitive) and the later missions not offering anything that new. Those are very gaping flaws that prevent the game from being as epic as Ubisoft wanted it to be. The only thing that prevents the game from being a total rinse and repeat is the moving story, but any good reviewer sees past that when discussing the game as a whole. Any competent critic, or common sense enthusiast, also figures out that a lack of mission variety and rewards has nothing to do with a gameplay mechanism.

Yes, a lot of the extras you get by exploring the world don’t provide you with a whole lot. However, I liked climbing insanely tall buildings and swan diving in conveniently placed haystacks. I loved finding perches and gazing on the horizons. Did exploring the ends of the Earth net me anything interesting in terms of rewards, story, or abilities? No, but that’s a problem that can be easily resolved without nuking the environment. I did expect a fuller story by finding all those extra flags and saving all of those citizens. My DNA sequence was more complete as a result- why didn’t that amount to anything? The lack of reward was frustrating, but it didn’t stop me from continuing to hunt for everything.

It’s basic logic- if you don’t enjoy exploring areas or already know it’s going to be tedious then don’t complain after you do it. It was painfully obvious going in that the size of the world Ubisoft created for the game was gigantic (even though all of the major cities were remarkably close to each other) and I knew I was going to hate saving all the citizens, hunting down all the flags, and killing and endless amount of guards. I did it anyway knowing that is largely unnecessary, and if it weren’t for a free-roaming environment I would have been in those annoying areas where the places the game developers didn’t want me to go were blocked with invisible walls. I would also have been forced down a path instead of running across rooftops while dodging arrows in whatever direction I felt like.

Call me insane, but I know what I prefer.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

Part of the massive drama that surrounds these columns, including the built-in in drama of wondering when the next article might actually arrive, involves waiting several paragraphs before even seeing the beginnings of what the whole point of the article really is. Part of the joy for me is figuring out ways to delay it as long as possible. It pains me to say that, as I did devote any time to putting together a massive segway, this installment is going to be the first of two installments involving my Thanksgiving Week Gaming Marathon. It was never intended to be an incredibly interesting week, but the mere fact of being able to save all of my vacation this year for multiple gaming marathons is nothing short of scheduling genius. Peeking at gaming release schedules months in advance does have its payoffs, and with a plethora of high budget video games being released recently I had time to sit down for over 7 days of straight gaming with two games that I pegged a long time ago as the potentially most intriguing for the year.

This week I feel that it would be time well spent to discuss Assassin’s Creed, a project that was a huge undertaking for Ubisoft. I cannot speak to being a big fan of theirs, but with of their talk about research and ideas they were throwing into the game this game felt like a good idea to invest a decent piece of time into. They also still have major credits left over from Sands of Time despite the pathetic milking of the franchise soon after its impressive success. I’m not sure exactly how pathetic this was, but unwanted images of Tom Green popped into my head when analyzing the unfortunate progression of Prince of Persia.

It is import to confess up front that taking control of an assassin was a primal urge that I could not resist. This entirely could have been some resonant effect of impatiently waiting for GTA IV’s release. I never spent a lot of time with Metal Gear or Splinter Cell either (with no real good reason unless you are willing to consider laziness or a disturbing urge not to bow before all the major titles), so convincing myself that playing a stealthy assassin felt like a fresh idea.

Right away it was easy to see the eerily similar style of gameplay to Sands of Time (yes, there was a sinister reason behind mentioning this game earlier). It may sound that way, but this is far from being a bad thing. Those of us who were introduced to the sport of free-running with the latest James Bond movie quickly picked up on the vision that the developers had with the overly crowded streets and building layout which can only be described as “busy.” After spending only a few minutes exploring the city streets of Jerusalem the controls made a lot of sense. Once you see how the buildings are laid out running from one end of a city to another entirely on rooftops quickly turned into the most interesting challenge in the game.

It did pain me a lot to write the last sentence. The premise behind the game was fantastic. The adaptive controls (the 4 main buttons being mapped to head, left hand, right hand, and legs) proved to be quite intuitive and were close to perfect. The character animations were as close to flawless for every element of the game (casually moving through crowded streets, slinging your way through shops and corridors on the streets, running and jumping between rooftops, and climbing all of architecturally convenient buildings). Once you see the dynamic of how the assassination missions are carried out the gameplay, unfortunately, becomes incredibly monotonous. Eavesdropping on conversations, pickpocketing carriers, and beating up informants are all very entertaining. Even saving civilians from corrupt guards is a lot of fun. After a couple runs they merely become boring. Thankfully they’re wholly unnecessary.

What’s depressing is that once you see how to do one of these missions, seeing how to approach and eliminate a target becomes far too simple. The information the people give out is also mind-numbingly obvious. You’re told to wait for an event to happen to strike, but the only way to ever get the main target to appear is to trigger the event. You’re always told about the large number of guards, but you’re always on the lookout for them anyway. Luckily you only need to endure all of this advice if you want to unlock every last thing in the game.

The rest of the game becomes a laborious task just to move the story. You cease caring about the gameplay and your only drive is to see the overall story of the game to its end. As always, there’s some horrid corruption going on with a company and its guards and your job is to eliminate the top officials to bring about some form of justice. The only reason this story is made interesting is because the main character of the game is really someone in the present who is being interrogated to find some buried treasure that one of his ancestors, the assassin you play for most of the game, has hidden.

It probably sounds like I dislike this game intensely, but in reality this is a refreshing game. Exploring the landscape does provide you with breathtaking experience. Climbing up high to various perches really shows off the detail that went into designing the different villages and cities that were put together. Riding on horseback around the world is a lot of fun as you can decide to be a pleasant individual or go bowling for peasants and guards.

It is easy to see the attention to detail that went into designing a world that could be explored for hours on end. It is depressing that this is easily lost as the game unfolds. Still, at the end of the day if you enjoy games where the goal is to largely remain unnoticed and murder lots of people at your discretion then this game will deliver a pleasing experience. I spent two days exploring this game and do not regret it in the slightest. As the replay value for this game is not that high, I would say that this is a game that is definitely worth renting and plowing through.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

Sometimes all you need is a little motivation. Even when your job is completely draining you and you have no mental energy when you get home to do anything but stare at the wall sometimes some slight motivation is all you need to do something you have been meaning to do for months. Don’t get me wrong, staring at a wall is a lot of fun and soothing and everyone should do it every day. The fact that I have not been in the mood to even look at video games at all in over 3 weeks has been consternation and I have been struggling to understand why. Wrestling with your conscience sucks.Okay, the fact that I have not written anything in 3 weeks because of a severe lack in downtime is also a motivator. In case you were wondering why I felt compelled to release an article in the middle of a week, there’s why.

In all fairness I know exactly what the problem is and have been unwilling to admit it for several months now. Like any addict in need of help it is time to face the problem head on. World of Warcraft has completely drained my willingness to play games. It’s a lot of fun to play, collecting gear, killing stuff- everything an RPG fan wants for online play (outside of a coherent universe). I regret none of the time I have spent playing this game. The problem is that after playing it for close to 2 years I really have to question what I am still logging in for. I’ve got multiple level 70 characters, a couple more in the 60’s, and have been into and through mostly every dungeon. Finding the motivation to play more is quite a struggle.

When I wrote about Gaming Connoisseur Detachment Syndrome and Adventurer’s Perfectionist Disorder I apparently knew more than I realized at the time. APD kept me playing World of Warcraft for such a long time that the tightly wound ball of perfection that kept me playing for so long finally unraveled. I want to keep playing as there are still plenty of different challenges left uncompleted (the APD side of the equation), but caring enough to complete them has not happened. The problem, once again, is motivation. It is comforting to finally know what my own breaking point is for such games.

Misguided or aimless motivation is much worse than no motivation, however. After discussing the intricacies of the gamer points systems for the current generation of gaming consoles there was one question that currently remains unanswered- what do these points really buy you? Can you use achievement points to retrieve prizes or are these points nothing more than a way for gamers to measure their egos? Do 20,000 online points make you a good gamer or does it simply mean you are a mindless points zombie? Granted, it is very comforting to know that Microsoft managed to create a system where people mutually started an arms race for points which has turned into nothing more than an inflated revenue stream for gaming rental outlets.

This point, by the way, needs to be the lynchpin for anyone who wants to write a gaming industry doomsday article. I’m not saying this just because I miss reading these silly articles either. The internet and housing bubbles have burst and there is a pattern to it. I’m not one of those people that looks to blame the worlds’ ills on Microsoft (the unbearable console hard drive is enough for now), but you cannot dismiss the effect gaming points have on rentals.

Incidentally, the virtual king of the mountain is an exciting event to witness. Honestly I am having trouble believing this is anything but a virtual Cuban Missile Crisis game. People are stockpiling points that, as of this point in time, they will never use. It’s not like you can unlock content or download special items if you have an obscene amount of points. I have about 2,000 and I’m already completely disinterested in collecting any more. Granted, there is no impending doom or worst-case scenario of massive fallout or a nuclear winter with online gaming points, but when gamers force themselves to play games of the Fusion Frenzy 2 variant. Note the word choice- this points race is viral and you need to understand that. Anything less than accepting this is… unacceptable.

Is there a challenge out there that is worth chasing? I have fun playing many different games, but when you feel like you are simply biding time until the release of a couple games for the PC can there really be any motivation to play what is currently available? This poses a major motivation threat to online games. You see the ticker on the clock for when you know you will stop playing the game, so is there a real point to running yourself into the ground when, after you leave, you know you aren’t coming back? Sure, online game developers have the great ability to add new levels of content to appease the hardcore player, but there’s only so much you can do to distract a gaming connoisseur before he realizes there are about 30 different games he needs to catch up on.

What the sickening part of the online points system is that I have been looking for ways to lay down may gaming credentials against everyone else. I’ve had a knack for racing games for a long time, and while both Gran Turismo and Gotham City Racing provide good challenges, GTR provides a great online challenge system up to a point. When the toughest challenges in a game boil down to can you keep your car in a skid for 5 minutes you are forced to ask yourself why you would be proud of being the best at driving like a complete moron. This is a challenge I’ve convinced myself that people in Rochester have an ongoing competition for (with the current winner being someone driving around half a mile in reverse on the highway in the middle lane because they missed an exit), but that doesn’t mean I want to enter my name in the running. Believe it or not, not all challenges need to be faced. This lesson is usually learned by the time you inflict massive amounts of damage during a psychotic bicycling or skating stunt or you realize afterwards you really shouldn’t have attempted. With any luck you stopped during the dares to eat certain spoiled foods… something those on Fear Factor never quite figured out.

But I digress. Yes, the game also has the multiplayer race challenges which do provide the exact challenge I’m looking for and I’ve done very well in those, but that challenge is quite old. It is very easy to find challenges in games when you look for them. I really need to ask myself what the happy medium is for me. I’m stuck with no motivation but fear the arms race of achievement points. What do I do?

The most troubling act is that I have locked myself into waiting for Hellgate: London, Spore (which forces me to consider making a one-time exemption to give EA money), and GTA IV. In the meantime I’ve reverted back to playing Sims 2 on the PC and Final Fantasy VI on the GBA. While I will defend those games to the bitter end as 2 of the top 20 all time games I still have games like several games on the bench with unresolved challenges. This includes completing Civilization IV and The Movies on the hardest levels (although I haven’t unlocked everything in The Movies on the lower levels), San Andreas (when the only open mission is gaining favor with a dominatrix to get into a bank vault- the quintessential example of no motivation), Final Fantasy XII (I have no explanation for why I don’t plug this game back in), NBA 2K7 (my franchise hasn’t run long enough to get my player into the Hall of Fame), PGR 3 (I don’t have all of Platinum Medals in the true racing challenges), and Crackdown (collecting all of the orbs can be an infuriating task).

On the plus side every Diablo II challenge was completed several times over, so thankfully there’s no going back to some games. What I have to realize is where that line is for online games much sooner than I already have.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

What is going to be one of the biggest games for this year, assuming the launch date is accurate, is going to be Grand Theft Auto IV. No, I do not expect this game to blow me out of the water like Vice City did, but I expect big things. I am sure a lot of other people are too. Considering GTA III has remained in the limelight long after each of its incarnations have been released the impending release of this game is going to be larger than the gaming community (bank on the media playing a controversy angle). In fact, the odds are close to 100% that the lines for the game will be a lot longer just because people outside the gaming community continue to talk about it.

History keeps repeating itself this way. The best advertising is always free, so when people keep mentioning the game Rockstar can just sit back and count the cash coming in. Sure, they have to watch it go out to as their CEO and PR department have not exactly been the best thing for Rockstar. More accurately their PR department plays like a good blooper reel. In my head I see a department run by Krusty the Clown- because not only would it still be funny but it would be expected. Perhaps that is not a practical solution. Regardless, as long as they keep their games right it makes no difference.

Talking about a game this long before its release is dangerous, and so I write this with what is probably too much enthusiasm. I find it impossible to care if I am setting myself up for a big fall on this or not- in my lifetime Vice City is probably my defining game, so it is only natural that the next big leap in the franchise (San Andreas was a minor leap- but still a great one) is something I pay very close attention to. Will this be a good leap or a Pitfall leap?

Yeah, video game humor- you really have to love it.

Details on this game are obviously very sketchy right now. The only interesting rumor that is floating around is the backdrop for the game. Rockstar has been looking to do a GTA game that is outside the U.S. for a good amount of time and this definitely presents an opportunity. The setting has had a dramatic effect on how the game feels and plays with both Vice City and San Andreas. Any good game has this immersive quality about it. As such, the GTA IV setting may not be that pivotal for you it is quite so for me. If I feel like I am moving around in an actual city versus some artificial world it makes a big difference. If you don’t believe immersion is important consider this- could you really live in a world without the Degenatron?

(WARNING: previous joke aimed at GTA fans: if confused consult Wikipedia or, better still, play Vice City)

Looking back at all of the best parts of the GTA III series there are some noteworthy changes in the franchise. Before The Sims 2 came out I made a list of some changes I wanted in the game that would make the game a lot better without making it too complicated. Having a solid background in simulations (both for computer science experimentation and gaming) I came up with mostly everything that the game designers did- and this scared me. No, I am not an expert and I have no insider information. Still, it is always fun to guess. While I do not consider this guesswork I put together a small list of ideas that I want to see in the series. This was tough to put together mostly because the standard upgrades that games get I wanted to avoid just because they are not innovative anymore (the most obvious being more guns and vehicles).

1) We need better ways avoiding wanted level capture. I have never been a big fan of driving over the bribe icons, but if you are going to have rampages, health, armor, guns, and hidden packages then those are not a bad idea. It would paint a very interesting picture if bribing was different based on your wanted level. For instance, the bribe icons only work with local and state police. Once the FBI and army come in then you should have to do some very impressive tricks to get out of your predicament. Having a secret meeting with corrupt agents and paying a lot of money comes to mind. Oooh, maybe besides money you could even have access to special missions for assassinations when your meter is high enough. That’s just off the top of my head. This is definitely worth exploring.

2) Owning houses and businesses was just about where I would like it in Vice City. The balance was nice. Watching the criminals trying to steal over $20 million from my vault during the final mission was also quite hysterical. Okay, let me explain this one. Given that much money you would have about 6 hours at least to complete a mission that takes 5 minutes if you are tooling around. Overall there was enough variation in big purchases where the overall mass of what you could own was far from obscene (ignoring the adult film studio, mind you). I want to know why there’s no system in place yet for being a real pimp. If you can own a printing press and cab company then what’s stopping this? Building a city-wide ring that really rakes in the cash is far too appealing. You could even to do that in a multiplayer environment. Hmm, this leads me to…

3) Cooperative play. Yeah, everyone’s clamoring for it which makes this cherry-picking. I want more than just multiplayer- I want it to blow people away (at this point you have to know that pun was intended). There was a very small amount of it in San Andreas and it felt like a last-minute add. The multiplayer deathmatch and cannonball experience has been missing from the console games completely. This needs to be remedied now. Online play is far beyond established and we know that the 360 and PS3 can handle it. It is time to tap into some untapped potential.

For cooperative play I don’t want some lame situation where only certain missions are possible to have multiplayer. I want you to be able to “hire help” whenever possible. If San Andreas could handle a car doing a 4x drive-by then IV candle hiring a gang buddy for a fee. Hey, the more money you pay the more loaded the friend can be.

For competitive play there can be some great things. Deathmatch is a must, but there also need to be variations. I want a competition on who can do the most damage, who can blow up more civilian or law enforcement vehicles, who can run the most people over, who can do the most drive-bys, and so on. In the cannonball races I want a preset wanted rating, an option where my car blows up if I’m driving too slowly, or even a race between pizza delivery scooters (the equivalent of a slap only deathmatch).

4) I must admit I was against flying when it was brought in even though it led to interacting with James Woods. I was vehemently against swimming not causing death, but you cannot be resistant to change all of the time. It is now time to add something to those who love running around to avoid cops- climbing. The days of only stairs and jumping must pass. Even games like Tony Hawk have a mildly passable system now. If you can jump between planes, skydive, and scuba then we are far beyond ready for the ability to climb buildings. More ways to explore, more places to hide stuff, more ways to annoy cops- these are all good things.

Yes, the upgrade in graphics is going to be quite intense (if you care about such things) and may largely determine whether this game is accepted by the previous fan club. I don’t want the changes in the game to be disingenuous. I want solid innovations in this franchise to continue for a long time. We have a good litmus test coming for whether Rockstar is as good at innovation as I think they are. They proved it with III, Vice, Andreas, and Bully. I believe they can do it again.

by Jamison DeLorenzo

In the time honored tradition of the year-in-review articles that are being tossed around (‘tis the season, etc etc, blah blah, bah hum bug) I began avoiding such articles in a vain attempt to stick with something fresh this week. Lo and behold there was a very fascinating report this year that proved to be one of the most interesting reads of the year. NIMF, or the National Instititute of the Media and Family, has effectively been the Yin to my Yang in that they almost always take the opposite side of the violence and video game coin.When they recently sent out their report about their observations of the gaming industry for 2006 I greeted it with the usual apathy and continued on with playing Final Fantasy (one of the few holiday traditions worth savoring along with sleeping in, drinking egg nog, trying to avoid arguments over dinner, and whining about presents). As you would expect something about the article caught my eye- otherwise why bother writing about it? There were hints of the gaming industry being given good grades and the family being given bad grades.

Did I wake up in some fairy tale dream world? I checked to see if Gran Turismo 4 had online play. I looked for interesting PSP games. I scoured my basement for my SNES Final Fantasy cartridges. Sadly all of these awful aspects of my gaming life hadn’t changed, so maybe one of my biggest complaints about how society looks at video games might actually be changing without requiring me to sign over some more of my organs. I read their report and walked away feeling relatively good about what people see in the gaming industry and what some of the real problems surrounding video games might be.

For me the problem always boils down to education. Idiocy is borne out of ignorance no matter what subject we are talking about. I feel this is especially true with video games because this is a novel concept to most people older than my generation. Even though I played Atari 2600 games with my parents for several years an industry driven purely by technology has greatly surpassed them. I never played a golf video game with my dad before but I have played many a round with him for a long time. The last video game I played with him was Street Fighter II, so imagine the surprise showing him Tiger Woods 2007 for the first time.

Without the willingness to learn more about subjects we lose touch with what is going on the world. This is not meant to blame or accuse, but to make you think about how tough it is for people to look at video games without being scared because of how quickly the industry is changing. We all can’t be experts on everything and that’s okay, but once you start imposing laws based on ignorance, well, you start to annoy me.

And so I write.

The major point I took away from last year’s report was that the video game industry was incredibly irresponsible and needed to make severe changes. In the wake of what was going on with GTA it was marginally understandable why people believed that, but ignorance to this day still makes people blame Rockstar for that catastrophe. I confess that I never did read the entire report from last year, so I cannot speak of how things are different this time around, but what I can tell you is that if parents pay any attention at all to this report then good things are on the horizon.

Even before the report dives into the specifics of what NIMF observed this year they talk about parents being far too ignorant when it comes to what their kids are playing and how often they play. I had rules on video games back in my school days too, even when it came to studying for subjects I was already getting straight A’s in. It seemed unfair then and it seems unfair now, but when you are asked to study your material, especially during the high school years, you should do it.

Finding the proper amount of time to play video game is always tricky. The best example is that you really can’t eat as much as you did in high school 15 years later and still expect to stay in shape, especially when you are no longer playing basketball or tennis 6 days a week. I hardly think video games are the main cause of health issues in America (visit a casino and get back to me) so it’s hard to talk about that aspect of the report. I’ll leave you to your own devices in deciding what to think about health and video games (I won’t condone DDR, but it is something to think about).

The report focuses on the one aspect of gaming I have felt for a long time has been largely overlooked by many people- how parents monitor their gaming children and what they know about video games in general. I’ve been praying for other people to figure this out for a long time. Television commercials are the biggest giveaway as to what’s going on in this country. It is very hard to avoid ads dealing with talking to kids about sex, smoking or drugs. To me this is scary- parents should not need reminders to talk to their children. Just taking into account the number of ads on television it makes me think parents are watching television instead of spending time with their kids. Is it so unreasonable to think that kids spend too much time in front of a television because their parents are doing the same exact thing?

Continuing with the knowledge side of gaming, what parents know about the games their kids play is also something that is severely lacking. It pains me to say this but I spend enough time in video game stores to overhear multiple conversations between parents, clerk, and kids about potential video game purchases. While it does not appear to happen nearly as often as in the past, clerks are still willing to skew the truths about games to parents in order to make a sale. Having never worked in retail I do not know this, but if video game store clerks work on commission this needs to stop immediately.

It pains me to say this even more, but video game clerks need a brush up on their education as well. No, I don’t expect Rhodes scholars to be working at my local EB store, but the situation needs to improve dramatically. Just yesterday a clerk actually had to ask a superior if Rainbow Six: Las Vegas had been released. If you don’t even know what you’re selling how can you honestly have a job? I feel there should have been some payment for the half hour I spent in the store due to the number of questions I wound up answering for people. I already felt that parental education needed to improve when it came to gaming, but now I’m also forced to believe that the retailers need more knowledge about their own business.

In case you have noticed a common thread in these ramblings, namely education, then you know mostly everything you need to know about what I read. I don’t want to bore anyone to death here about everything that’s written, but if you want to know more about what people see in the video game world rummaging through the whole report is time well spent. A lot of different surveys and observations all point to two major themes- parents need more education about gaming and so do the retailers. The gaming industry is doing what it can, but until its customers became more enlightened then the media will keep attacking the gaming industry whenever it can. It’s as I said earlier- idiocy is borne out of ignorance.