OrtizGames

When Reuters says something, it tends to be rather serious, so in this article they just released on MGS4 I had to bite my lip a little. I promised I would write about M.U.L.E., but I really haven’t have that much time recently so I’d rather mention this current issue briefly.

Reuters suggests MGS4, along with a lot of other upcoming exclusives for the PS3 (and Wii and presumably Xbox 360, if in fact it’s getting any?) are among the last of the fading breed of console exclusives. Now, they may have a point that if games continue to become more and more pricey in their development, they’ll eventually be unable to sell their product enough to get a product, but there are several things that Reuters is not taking into account, and I say this in the humblest manner possible.

It is my opinion that exclusives will forever be a major part of console’s selling points, because each console has such a unique personality. It would be impossible, for example, to design a Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the Wii and maintain the attitude, grandeur and power of the PS3 version. We see what happened wih COD3 on the Wii. And the same goes the other way–I can’t imagine third party developers being too keen on developing a game based on motion-sensing technology and have to put it on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (though in some cases I guess the game could be ported to the PS3, too).

When we continue to hear things like the console war is still heated and rolling, it makes me think that exclusives must continue to play a huge part in the future of this industry, like a checks-and-balances political system; you release a Zelda, we release a Halo, they release a Final Fantasy.

Also, there’s the matter of the rising trend of online purchases. Through things like Xbox Live, The Wii Channel and the Playstation Store (I’m putting my money on it becoming integrated into PSHome pretty soon) players will have all sorts of unlockable/buyable, downloadable content. Costumes, add-ons, weapons, features can all be sold by the same developers for their exclusives and they can make a much larger cash influx (sort of how Blizzard just keeps making money off the same stuff). Because developers won’t have to go through stores and distributors (though I’m not sure how much they have to pay to put their work on each console’s online portal) they’ll be able to make a lot more profit off each feature sold.

Finally, to address the issue of MGS4′s looming deadline, I have a feeling well over 33% of Playstation 3s sold were bought by people who wanted Metal Gear Solid 4. After all, look at all those rumors (and another) spread around by Xbox 360 fanboys that MGS4 is cming out on Xbox 360, when Hideo Kojima already confirmed the bloody thing for PS3.

I remember reading at some point that Kojima replied, when asked why so many rumors kept popping up about MGS4 for the Xbox 360, “Well, because obviously people want it on the Xbox 360.” I lost the source, so I can’t really cite it, but when I read it I thought that was such a concise and clever answer.

So if this many people want it out, even those that don’t have a PS3, I don’t think MGS4 has anything to worry about.

And I believe firmly, despite the negativity I’ve heard around me, that it will be an excellent game.

Here’s to hoping.

P.S. WordPress somehow deleted this post which I put up earlier today… I seem to have had a draft saved so I could rewrite the end, but man, that was irritating and frightening.

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They’re actually making a Wii game I want to buy.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/japanese-chocobos-dungeon-trailer-delights-328710.php

Fancy that. I wish it were on PS3.

But hey, my brother has a Wii. I guess that works. For now.

I can’t resist Chocobos.

P.S. “Wark” sounds nothing like the sound effects chosen for chocobos… I have no idea where they get it.

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http://www.gamesradar.com/us/wii/game/news/article.jsp?sectionId=1006&articleId=2007112814148236064&releaseId=20070510171759869096

I kept telling everyone it wasn’t accurate.

Thank you, Nintendo.

Will this work for all games?

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Here’s a quick blurb on he news:

So there’s all this news this morning about various interesting things. We popped out of the dark ages of waiting for Rock Band, it seems. Anyway, Brenda Brathwaite already beat me to the punch for writing about a report put out by the University of Michigan. Only I read it on Gamasutra, so I feel special, and here it is.

As I have nothing more interesting to say on the subject than what has been said (by Brenda), let’s look at what Nintendo says about Western development and how they’re not planning on increasing it. As a Western-based game designer, this sucks for me. There’s a lot of untapped resources in the West, too–plenty of able and capable designers that can be just as effective as those found in Japan. It’s a little painful to see Nintendo limiting its resources and letting third-party games handle targeting the western market. Especially when you look at the top Wii sales, and see what developer is behind each game…

1		Wii Sports	Nintendo	53	421,419	6,695,293
	Super Mario Galaxy

Nintendo 2 417,301 1,106,571

Wii Play Nintendo 41 155,795 3,037,050

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Activision 4 110,685 549,276

Mario Party 8 Nintendo 26 71,749 1,458,651

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Nintendo 3 70,403 210,904

Link’s Crossbow Training Nintendo 1 66,758 66,758

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Capcom 2 65,078 183,187

Soul Calibur: Legends Namco 1 48,761 48,761

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Ubisoft 2 44,921 94,015(http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php?date=39411&console=Wii&maker=&boxartz=1)

I’d like to point out, slots 1-7 excluding Guitar Hero III which is a console of its own (what with that guitar) are all made up of Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo.

It’s my theory Nintendo titles will continue to sell the Wii–and Western talent at NOA will never get a chance to develop for that audience.

Also, Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe the best yet? It sounds like a refined FFXII, which I approve of. I think FFXII could have used a lot of work.

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I was going to post about M.U.L.E. by Dani Berry today, but I suddenly uncovered this, and thought it was much more entertaining. M.U.L.E. shall be pushed back to next post.

Apparently IGN reviewers found reason to be disgruntled recently when Gabriel (scroll down) from Penny Arcade decided he didn’t like reviewers’ opinions of Assassin’s Creed. He pointed out he’d read a lot of reviews that placed Assassin’s Creed at a 7, and he thought those were misguided and perhaps a result of people not getting to see all the game has to offer. Now, I haven’t played the game so I won’t side on whether the game is good or not (I hear it’s not pleasant from my best friend, so until I play it I am fearing impending doom) but the situation is like this: IGN reviewers Greg, Jeff and Ryan (I’m tempted into renaming them into something spiteful for comedic purposes) set ablaze their Podcast recently, pointing out that Penny Arcade’s Gabriel is no reviewer, and people shouldn’t listen to him because he “just do[es] things and write[s] things as a freaking comic artist.“.

The “funny” thing is in all this is that Gabe (Gabriel) wasn’t referring to IGN’s review, but rather 1up’s. So what were Greg, Jeff and Ryan blowing steam about? I guess nothing.

I know I’ve made the same mistake–hear a negative comment, and somehow assume it’s about me and get defensive about it. It’s a natural human emotion, brought upon by humans having doubts and fears about their ability and becoming upset when others show similar concerns. It’s just something people need to work on. But when something like this comes into play, and something this huge, I start to wonder how professional reviewers are being.

I know I’ll defend my own opinions of games somewhat unjustly. Earthbound is my favorite RPG of all time because its design is so flawlessly perfected with its main theme and message that I become giddy just thinking about it. People will argue with me that that doesn’t make it the best RPG ever, and some seem to think that Mother 3 (Earthbound 2) is better than Earthbound, but of course I will disagree and roar at them for hours about it. But I’m not a professional reviewer–I don’t consider myself one, nor do I think I ever really want to be one. I can be professional, but that’s the thing: I don’t want to. I want my opinion and not an aesthetic, formulated professional one. I can adopt either, but as a person I prefer my own.

So when I look at professionals, I think, “You’ve relieved yourself of your own biased opinion. You’ve agreed to become a reviewer and look at games from a complete design perspective, thinking about elements, principles, mechanics and aesthetics with an utterly methodical mind. Why are you defending your review like a petulant child and removing all sense of professionalism from it?”

I don’t mind defending like a petulant child. I am not a professional. I’m a lover of games. And yes, I’m a designer. But that doesn’t mean I have to behave like one. I don’t need anyone’s respect when it comes to what games I think are good.

A reviewer, however, does.

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I came across an odd little contraption in the Wal-Mart toys aisle the other day, and I simply couldn’t get my mind off it. It was called Tilt Baseball, and the reason it had me so fascinated was that it was modeled exactly after the Wiimote. The buttons were all in the same place. The control pad, the B button, the A button, the Plus, Minus and Home buttons–it was all exactly the same! And you played it by swinging the damn thing–that’s why it was called “Tilt” Baseball. The only visible difference (other than function, I suppose, and a few minor aesthetic principles) was that the Tilt Baseball device had a small screen at the very end where the tiny bit-graphics display was transmitted.

Finding this similarity somewhat unusual, I continued to browse through the toy aisles in Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penney and other such stores in order to see what they had in stock. I came across a treasure trove of designs that I captured with my tiny cellphone camera, only to find that my cellphone is not newfangled enough to get images onto my computer and that these same products are not actually found on the Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us sites. This is unlucky for anyone reading because they don’t get to see. This is unlucky for me because now I don’t have visible proof.

However, I uncovered everything from Xbox controllers you plug directly into the television to Guitar Hero-style toy guitars that generate more of a racket than harmony if you ask me. There’s hundreds of tiny little electronic toys and devices that step the line of something I like to call “Design Infringement”.

Here’s my theory as to why these little electronic games actually exist–which, I might add, I’m not entirely sure why game companies haven’t done anything about: Toy companies have identified and jumped into a market made up of mostly small children who watch their elder siblings/cousins/siblings’ friends/television actors playing popular console video games. Parents either A) see their children as too young to comprehend the console or see the games available on it as far too unhealthy/unproductive/violent, and so they get their children something that looks and plays almost exactly like what they’ve seen in order to placate them, or B) decide the console is much too expensive to purchase and, coming across an inexpensive duplicate, decide to try to compromise with their kids in this manner.

While I’m not exactly condemning this idea, because we all know the annoying little design mantra “Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal,” I have to stop and question the difference between stealing a technique and a gimmick and stealing a design. Games copy off each other all the time–we’re still doing the Shenmue Simon Says Action-Button Time Pressing Thing, but you don’t see a game called Shen-moo about a Japanese dude whose father is killed.

It’s a risky business, but it seems to be a growing trend. Understandably, too, because God knows electronic handheld games number so many because nobody can corner the market anymore; it seems to have disappeared for them, stolen by the portable consoles.

I may be entirely mistaken and console companies could be receiving hefty royalties for the handhelds produced that take on the Wiimote look and feel. If they’re not, though, I wonder what their strategy behind ignoring this rising tide. Do they think it will drain off by itself? Or is it part of a kind of guerrilla ideal, that the more their design is incorporated into the market, the more their brand will grow in fame and desirability?

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My brother recently acquired Mario Galaxy for Wii (and by acquired I mean my mother has purchased it for him) and I got the opportunity to sit down at his console and give the game a whirl. What I experience was the strangest sensation I’ve had playing a game in a long time. While most of the time I can tell you exactly how I feel while playing something (case in point, I can tell you Final Fantasy XII has me exhausted and jaded beyond belief and yet I play it stubbornly with the intent of seeing the story through all the way) I simply can’t pinpoint what I feel about Super Mario Galaxy.

It’s a pleasant, clean-looking game with graphics so colorful and bright I become somewhat disoriented during cutscenes. It’s got an intuitive control system I didn’t have to read the manual to figure out. Mario can ground-pound. Mario can triple jump. The camera ricochets from insane angle to insane angle, giving me an intense feeling of vertigo which I can only blame on the fact that I simply am not used to walking upside-down. All in all, the game really has no tender flaws or anything that turns me off from it (except, perhaps, Peach’s voice, which made me wonder why Mario would ever dedicate his life to saving her).

But as I’m playing, I come to realize that, while I’m engaged, and while I’m interested, and while I want to pick the controller up again and play the next level right after I write this blog, I can’t for the life of me say that I am having fun.

Of course, fun is relative, but in this instance the entire experience is bewildering. My brother expresses the same confusion. We like to play it, yes. It’s not a bad game, no. We haven’t gotten tired of it or frustrated with it. We haven’t been bored while playing. But we honestly can’t say with sincerity that the game is any fun. We can’t even say it’s not fun. It just… is, in some quasi-existential sort of way.

I will look up some reviews later, when I have time, to see if this reaction is a recurring phenomena, and not simply something that my family alone is suceptible to.

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http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/sony-expecting-great-deal-of-momentum-with-ps3/18568/?ncid=AOLGAM000500000000016

 There’s much good news coming from Sony recently. I’m usually excited to hear good news about the PS3, since I’m such an avid supporter of its higher performance technology. Honestly, I would have one right now if I could afford it. I’m hoping the upcoming price cut (rumored $299 USD with the release of Haze–source unavailable, but there was a video, even, so I’m convinced) will allow me to finally be able to purchase one of my own. I’d prefer an original 60gig, with the integrated backwards compatability, but if I have to settle for a cheaper 40gig version I may very well do so. I’ve wanted a PS3 for well over two years now.

To elaborate on why I support the PS3′s high-power approach to gaming:

Someone once mentioned to me that “console gaming shouldn’t end up so focused on performance and visuals and hardware, because a good console will never match up to a PC.” While I agree a great PC will be able to run Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion far better than the PS3 or Xbox 360 ever could, I have to argue that from an industry perspective this can’t possibly be true. PC games, we’re assuming, will always improve graphically, as our technology is growing exponentially at a steady rate (it was technology doubling in potency every 8 months or so, no?) so consoles, if they want to be able to host those games (ex. Bioshock, Oblivion, CoD4 and SPORE) need to raise their hardware bar every so often to keep up. PC developers want consoles to host their games. They pay a lot of money for it, and often those games that are successful on the PC (and Mac) will be successful on consoles (imagine WoW on PS3). But why would PC developers care about consoles?

Because PC gamers often download their games illegally. And most of the time, a software developer is guaranteed that if their game is released on a console, it is infinately more likely that gamers will actually buy the real copy of the game and not download or purchase a free/cheaper pirated version.

So if gaming graphics continue to increase on PC and not on consoles, trust me, the balance will tip and the scales will fall. Unless people plan on holding back on the processing power of PCs (trust me, they won’t) games will continue to grow more and more complex and detailed, and consoles will have to keep updating. They can’t afford to sit still and experiment with the same old technology (and by this I mean infra-red).

And trust me, even if I have to buy a new Playstation every seven years because of the technology increase, I won’t mind. I’d rather have that than the gaming industry crackle and break like a twig under the strain of a rapidly evolving digital world.

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Working with the future of the industry is just as equally rewarding as working with the figureheads of the industry, in its own way. I’ve been exposed to some of the most innovative thinking I’ve ever heard–project ideas so exciting and well thought out that I’m not even allowed to mention them, in case they’re someday developed. I’ve been recruited into several rising star projects for next year, and I have to say, I’m excited.

But that’s more talk for next year. This year, it’s time to focus on what I can done as I return to my home country of Mexico.

I’ve got an interview with Xibalba Studios which, according to GameDevMap, is the first registered Game Developer studio in Mexico. I know from talking to Mauricio Lozano, one of the impulsory forces behind Collective Minds/Digital Minds (an initiative to establish digital media and art as an industry in this country) that several graduate students are taking the knowledge they obtain from studying game design programs in places like Full Sail and Digipen University and bringing it back in order to try and establish a home base. I feel lucky to be witnessing the beginning of what I hope may be something huge for boosting Mexico’s economic and industrial presence on the creative side of the spectrum.

My portfolio lacks in-depth work with modeling and programming, but I have yet to see if it will land me a position (if only as an intern) for the winter break, and set me on good terms with the growing community of game developers and rich media designers here in my hometown of Monterrey. All indicators seem to point to the idea that this is the heart of the technological revolution that will bring Mexico’s culture into the digital domain–ironically enough, this town being one of the least culturally oriented in the entire Mexican republic.

There’s still plenty of time to grow as a designer, even if I don’t manage to work with Xibalba Studios, but, as it stands, some actual experience in the industry would be more than invaluable. What I do have going for me is that most of Xibalba’s team seems to be Digipen graduates and computer programmers; as someone with an art background, I wonder how my ideas and attitudes will differ from the rest of the development scene here in Monterrey.

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Over ten years ago, Japan’s greatest developers gathered together at Squaresoft’s home base and collaborated on what has arguably been one of if not the greatest RPG of all time. The name of this game was “Chrono Trigger.”

I find it hard nowadays to find any gamer who hasn’t heard of Chrono Trigger–though that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It is a lot harder, however, to find a gamer who hasn’t heard of Final Fantasy VII–and all the games of the same name that come after the fearsome 7. So why is it that a game that was supposed to be the ultimate RPG has been outshined by other RPGs which some would argue are not as excellent? While Chrono Trigger was far from a sleeper title, other games seem to be considered on a higher tier.

I’m not going to pretend I don’t believe Final Fantasy VII is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that it is my second favorite RPG, trumping Chrono Trigger (my favorite is Earthbound, and I have my reasons). But I think Chrono Trigger deserves just as much credit as any Final Fantasy.

Brenda Brathwaite mentioned to one of my classmates about a week ago that he should start up a blog and write about how Chrono Trigger is under-appreciated compared to many other RPGs (particularly the Final Fantasies). So, of course, I decided to do it instead. I hope she’s impressed by my initiative to steal other people’s opportunities.

Anyway, back to Chrono Trigger. The game was a unique blend of RPG battles placed all throughout the game walk map, so throughout the entire game it seemed as if the transition between exploration and battle was seamless. This was further put forth by the fact that every character set (graciously designed by the great Akira Toriyama, creator of the beloved Dragon Ball series and lead artist for the Dragon Quest series) not only had individual animations for running, walking, laughing, jumping, crouching, thinking, and being shocked (among other unique artistic details), but also animations for drawing their weapons and attacking. So, as opposed to Final Fantasy VI in which Cecil’s battle character set is much more lush and richly detailed than his walking set, the characters are constantly presented to you in the exact same level of detail and quality. I appreciate this as both a gamer and a designer–I’m sure I’m not the only person who experienced the double-take syndrome in Final Fantasy X when the main character, Tidus, looked completely different in his walking and battle animation from what he looked like in his close-up, detailed facial animations, and even further removed from what he looked like in the game’s highly detailed FMV scenes.

Chrono Trigger had an immersive, beautiful storyline that rivals that of any other great role-playing game, with moments that touch most any player that’s taken the time to invest him or her self in these characters. There’s time travel, changing the past to change the future, secrets, hidden dungeons and sidequests. It’s an RPG in spirit and execution–so why isn’t it as huge?

One of the major contributors to the dismissal of Chrono Trigger is the fact that this game was released in August of 1995, a year prior to the release of the Nintendo 64, and a mere two years before the epic release of Final Fantasy VII in 1997. It was a game created once the full potential of the SNES was established, and that is mostly the reason the game in itself was so successful–the best of the best were working on a console they were extremely comfortable with.

The ironic thing is that even when the same Chrono Trigger team moved to make yet another game and this time went for the power of PlayStation, their game was still miraculous yet underappreciated. Named Chrono Cross, the game seemed to have no correlation with the first of the series at first until you started finding the ties between them. The way the games are set up, they are each a unique experience that can be played completely by themselves, and yet when played together they provide for a much richer and more exciting, mindblowing universe.

Between Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger was the curiously named Radical Dreamers for the Super Famicom (SNES) which I affectionately refer to as “Chrono Cross 0.1″. The game is pretty much an interactive novel with a few images thrown into the mix–something wholly uncommon on any console. It’s not very long, but when played and related to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, people’s minds tend to turn inside out from shock of how the stories intertwine. The unfortunate fact behind Radical Dreamers is that, despite its exciting premise and innovative design, it wasn’t released in North America (my suspicions being that the Japanese developers believed gamers in North America wouldn’t want to play a game where you have to read). The end result is that most North American gamers who want to play Radical Dreamers will be unable to actually get their hands on a legal copy of the game they can interact with, as most North American gamers cannot read Japanese. Most of these gamers end up downloading an illegal ROM of the game and using a patch to translate it to English, under the premise that, “Well, Square isn’t going to make any money off Radical Dreamers anyway.” This is one of the points that lead people to want to classify Radical Dreamers as abandonware, and therefore technically legal to download.

How does this story end? Well, Squaresoft purchased the title “Chrono Break” in December of 2001, bringing things full circle with the promise of a trilogy for the Chrono series. Die hard fans of the game rejoiced, but the excitement was short-lived as no further development of the game ever came, and the project seems to have been shut down. Square Enix (Squaresoft’s new frowny face) has inherited the title, but no comments have been made on plans for the game, leading most people (myself included) to believe that Square simply is not going to give us what we actually want. Much like the FF7 remake idea which Square Enix seems to have no plans to go through with–and which, I may add, would guarantee them an easy surplus of revenue when considering the original sold over 5 million units within the first year (in PlayStation One days!), and a modern remake would likely end selling just as well–Square Enix is focused on things other than what fans are asking for.

I think that’s kind of a shame, really. If there’s a demand out there for something that’s as large as Chrono Break or Final Fantasy VII, why aren’t game developers working to try to meet it with gusto? This is, after all, an industry, and supply and demand make up a large part of its systematic function.

In the end, Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross stand out bright in the RPG world, but due to circumstances beyond the developers’ control, it seems they’ve been outshone by others that now dominate the genre like giants. Final Fantasy XII, which has been mostly agreed upon to be a rather tedious game, has sold over 2 million copies now, and no-one needs to ask whether the fact that the title reads “Final Fantasy” has anything to do with it. Albeit, I am one of those two million people and I bought Final Fantasy X-2. I think I can’t talk when it comes to favoritism.

In the end, though, I think the Chrono series deserved more than it got. Maybe if Square Enix decides to actually go forward and make Chrono Break, we’d see some justice served for Trigger and Cross. Maybe Square would even go so far as to release an anthology. The future’s still open for possibility, Square. We’re hoping.

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