OrtizGames

Instead of posting anything about recent news over the past couple of weeks I have been busy avoiding all contact with the outside world, since I have simply needed a break. However, I can’t continue running forever and sooner or later I would have to come on and talk about the recent explosion that has happened this summer in the form of So Much Cool.

The first stage of So Much Cool came when I got my hands on Monster Hunter 2 Freedom for the PSP, which I will be reviewing promptly–as soon as I can stop playing World of Warcraft again, since I could not resist the grind and already have a new Warrior up to level like, 15. MH2F is an amazing game. I have been geeking out over it for the past two weeks. If playing online wasn’t such an ordeal (especially with my absolutely shoddy connection down here in Mexico where I get 4,000 ping in World of Warcraft–I mean, come on) I would be giving this game Grade A points. But I’ll talk about MH2F later this week.

Part 2 of So Much Cool was the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of the Patriots. I have never seen the Internet this excited. Well, I have, but over a game, never. Post after post on blog after blog is about MGS4 and IGN’s perfect score rating for it. I, unfortunately, am not one of those lucky enough to have a copy of the game since launch date, but my good buddy Squall assures me after having beaten the game last night that it is spectacular. His only worry is that it is a great deal of servicing the fans, and he wonders whether a non-fan would appreciate the game in the same way.
Luckily, I’m not a hardcore MGS fan–I’m absolutely awful at sneaking and I have never owned the games–though I did try to play Squall’s MGS1 copy on my computer only to have it fail epically. I do know the entire storyline after having analyzed and researched the whole thing along with Squall, but I’m pretty sure there’s things I don’t know and I’m definitely sure it’s not the same as playing the game. So depending on how I react, we can make some safe assumptions about how accurate 10/10 may be.
I’ll be getting the game sometime in the last days of June, so we’ll wait and see.

The last stage of So Much Cool has been the release of the SPORE Creature Editor and the upcoming demo release on June 17. Details:

I don’t want to be an advertisment here, but download the demo on June 17, for your own sake. The Creature Creator is a ten dollar buy and it’s just indescribably awesome, but considering the demo is released in two days you might as well wait for something free, especially since you can already preorder the game from EA’s Online Store. Launch date for SPORE: September 7, 2008.
The game works on my computer–and not only works, but works on a decent resolution with pretty stellar graphics and I was able to make a lovely number of different creatures. I am just thrilled. I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to play the game on my computer. But Will Wright loves me, I keep forgetting, and would never let me suffer that way.

This is such an action-packed summer, and already up ahead are the release of the In-Game XMB for PS3, Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, SPORE for PC and Final Fantasy XIII and XIII Versus.
Slap Gran Turismo, GTAIV and Metal Gear at the beginning of that, and this is my favorite year ever.

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So yes, I still read Penny-Arcade. Why? Because while their humor has trailed away from that once gloriously sadistic and satirical jest that I so admired, they’re sometimes still very funny. Even if only I think so.

But they have recently let me know that Bioshock will be available on PS3, finally, while I lose myself in the drudge of final exams and not writing any posts for weeks because my brain just can’t take the pressure (The school year is almost over; bear with me and final exams will be done and I will have NOTHING TO DO save write articles for you saps).

This concludes yet another Xbox game that loses its 360 exclusivity. While I’m not implying the 360 has ever had a guise of an exclusives-strong console, it’s still a little sad to see. I’m just waiting for Mass Effect on PS3 now, and the journey will be complete. There will simply be zero reason left for me ever to buy that thing.

I’m almost kind of diappointed.

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Peter Molyneux is like my “aww” developer. Sometimes he’s so silly he makes me laugh and sometimes he says something serious and I grow more fond of him. I think it may have something to do with how much I enjoy Fable.

Recently on Gamasutra, Peter (Molyneux) talked about how the game design industry has failed in being able to open up gaming for everyone. We’ve made huge leaps, he says, but we’ve gotten stuck here. He uses a controller as an example–how hard it is for the average person to wrap his or her head around the idea of a controller. While it’s true that a ridiculous amount–how many people? There’s statistics–of people play video games, games nowhere close to matching, for example, the number of televisions in the world. The number of computers. How many consoles have we sold? Millions. But how many televisions have been sold? The average American household is bound to have at least 2.73, and 2.55 people [source]. That’s over 300 million televisions. Molyneux refers back to a time when Clive Sinclair boasted people would play the Spectrum instead of watch television in every home in Britain.

We haven’t achieved that–I don’t think the Wii will achieve it either. It may be motion-sensing technology, but it’s still a controller. We’re still making high-technological-knowledge games for the Average Joe.

We need to make the things people know how to use–their hands, their fingers, their eyes–the controllers for the worlds they wish to interact with.  In that sense, I think the Wii a step–if only one step–in the right direction.

“But Andres,” I hear you say, “you’ve always expressed your distaste for the Nintendo Wii! Surely you’re not an utter hypocrite?” I am, in a way, because I think that the Wii’s innovative pointing system is a nice idea. However, I do think visual graphics play a huge part in the advancement of interactivity and mainstream acceptance. Not everyone can identify equally with creativity and imagination. I come from a town where the majority of boys play soccer when they’re kids–not with Legos and action figures. In a way they could certainly imagine themselves as soccer stars, but all this requires very vivid imagery as seen on television and in magazines. Unless those kids, now older, can get a good visual representation of what it is they’d like to be, they’ll have a very hard time suspending their disbelief and enjoying the game because it’s just not what they actually want to do. It’s not an experience. It’s still just a game. I think that gap needs to be bridged, just as much as the innovative controls need to be.

Going back to the Wii, if you’ll notice, I never say anything bad about the Nintendo DS. This is because I have one, and I think it’s an absolutely great console. I love its touchpad and dualscreen technology. But the thing that separates it from the Wii is that it has far more visual capacity than the Game Boy Advance. The Nintendo Wii isn’t capable of a lot more than the Gamecube is. I give a nod of approval any time I see something improving the capacity for visual quality–hence why I’m so enamoured with the PS3. Sure, the Wii can have nice graphics, and we all saw Mario Galaxy and how effectively good looking that was using Nintendo’s secret recipe that nobody else seems to have. But when you compare the difference between an Advance and a DS and you try to match that up from Gamecube to Wii you fall incredibly short. As for the Wii versus the PS3, the Wii doesn’t even come close, while the Nintendo DS comes rather close to the PSP. And while the PSP has nicer graphics, it’s more of a luxurious gadget, and I didn’t get a PSP until relatively recently because I knew Sony had had no experience making portable games. They’ve started getting some rather decent and exciting titles (instead of PS2 ports), however, and that’s certainly pushing their market out.

In the end, Peter is right. We haven’t reached enough people. There’s so much more we could do. If only we could get our technology far enough to where it’s not only stunning but incredibly simple to handle.

Then we’ll be in business.

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Quantic Dream released video to go with those screenshots it released of its new and improved, dermatologist-approved, motion capturing, Uncanny-Valley-bridging graphical engine for Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, its upcoming [PS3 Exclusive?] next-gen title.

My eyes almost popped out of my head as I watched hers dart around the room.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oK8ZSfHW-E]

I’m really excited about what Quantic’s going to do with this game. I’ve had people talk to me irritably about the PS3′s expense versus the quality of games that were coming out for it. Well, the wait is almost over, my skeptical friends. You know how Dark Cloud is such lousy graphical quality compared to Final Fantasy XII? Yeah. That’s kind of what like Heavy Rain will be in comparison to Resistance: Fall of Man.

This is on a whole other scope of visuals. This is universes away from what we’re used to. Resistance 2 may not even achieve this level of sheer visual near-photorealism.

In other news, new Ico 3 artwork has been released. There’s only one image, but that one image indicates that “Codename Ico 3″ is actually going to happen, which is exciting–especially after Shadow of the Colossus. There’s a lot of people who have mixed feelings about that game, so I’m glad Team ICO gets another chance to prove their worth.

Source: Thank you, PS3 Fanboy

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Prediction Number Two has been fulfilled.

PS3 Fanboy has shown some amazing accuracy in predicting the movements of the market so far. I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for Predictions Three and Four (which we’re getting hints of already), and once the end of 2008 comes around, we’ll know the full extend of their clairvoyant powers.

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This may have just be Michael Bay rambling, and I don’t exactly trust Michael Bay. But it seems like there were various sources suggesting earlier this year that Microsoft wants to fight Blu-Ray with HD DVD just so they can drive both formats down. It seems that Microsoft’s ulterior motive was to keep the format war at a standstill so they could work on and release their Direct 2 Drive purchase system. So Microsoft’s support really hasn’t been about movies all this time–sorry, moviegoers, but this is actually closely tied in to the videogame industry.

I know it’s relatively old news, but I mention it now because 1) I really felt a need to talk about this, 2) I’ve had it on the backburner for a month now and haven’t gotten to it and 3) we has reached a general consensus the Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD war is more or less over. Blu-Ray wins.

But from thinking on HD-DVD’s “downfall”, I start to wonder whether Microsoft was really aiming towards competing. My theory is that, if anything, they were hoping just to slow Blu-Ray down, and never planned to even give HD-DVD a chance–which is rather uncool, in my perspective–it’s kind of on the same moral standing as Wal-Mart coming into third world countries and lowering their prices to dirt cheap in order to bankrupt all local businesses, and then raising their prices back to normal when they hold monopoly.

Thing is, I think this strategem was doomed from the start. You can’t really remove the physical element from game ownership–people don’t have the internet infrastructure necessary to download whole games that work in Hi-Def, so Microsoft would have had to sell physical copies anyway. And then there’s the issue with space–where are Xbox 360 owners going to save all those games? Their minute yet extremely lunky Hard Drives that are shipped with their consoles? PS3 at least gives owners the option of purchasing a computer hard drive and installing it in place of their standard drive on their computer. Microsoft holds exclusive market over the manufacture of their 120GB drives. 120GB aren’t going to cut it in this day and age. Computer hard drives are rapidly approaching massive space range–I can get a 500GB hard drive for 500 bucks at Best Buy.

In the end, PS3 would have been able to compete with Direct 2 Drive par on par. Especially since PSN downloads are so simple and straightforward.

So, we give you a send off, HD-DVD. I’m sorry you were just a tool. We’ll bury you near to all your fellow dead formats, like Beta.

(The following video is NSFW due to language and the fact that they’ve chosen Hitler to represent HD-DVD, which is somewhat mortifying.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ]

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And indeed, there are more FFXIII screenshots available.

I have to say, this game has me the worst kind of excited. The kind of excited where you’re so excited you barely feel it any more and any more news is just adding to the load of anxiety you have because you want to be satisfied so badly. But as it is, it doesn’t come out till December. Until then, I’ll be suffering from my Final Fantasy blueballs and losing myself in Assassin’s Creed.

Here’s a recent hi-quality scan of a couple of pages of the mag–the rest can be found by following the link. It’s exciting!

Final Fantasy XIII Magazine Scan – Click for Full Size

PS

I beat Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Honestly, it was such an awesome, fun experience. I recommend it to everyone who’s bought a PS3–no matter what genre you like. That game is solid.

Now I need to get all the achievements.

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One of my friends recently told me today (after having read my People Hate the PS3 post) that while I had hit many of the key points as to why PS3 was getting such bad rep right now, the reason he personally “hate[ed] the PS3 with a passion” was because it was just too expensive. He also said the games coming out for the PS3 weren’t interesting to him, though I was intrigued as to how he liked Perfect Dark Zero and PGR3 over Resistance and Motorstorm.

After listening more and more, I came to the conclusion that, in all honesty, he was just a casual gamer. He pointed out that none of the games PS3 had come out with were easy to get into or had really fun split screen. I thought about it, and realized the games he plays on his Xbox (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Halo 3) are all just glorified party games, and not really all that hardcore at all. Wait, Halo 3, a casual game? Halo, I concluded after a while, could really just be called casual. It’s pointedly simple, quick and requires very little strategic learning or improvement. Most people I know are good at Halo because–just that–they’re good at Halo. They didn’t practice, they didn’t get better–they’re just good at it because they are. This is from a biased perspective, of course, but I suspect it’s more or less the issue. People CAN get better–there’s the whole Rock Band and Guitar Hero progressive improvement based on difficulty level, same for Legendary Mode–but really, I can do voice on Expert at Rock Band, and I barely struggle. I was just GOOD at it… and I know there’s plenty of people that were good at Uncharted and Gears of War, but those games were bound to provide a real challenge to complete.

So that’s just it–what IS casual? What is hardcore? Where can you find them? It seems my friend would rather play games on his Nintendo Wii, so maybe that’s a more “casual” console? He bought the 360 because it’s cheaper than the PS3, but in all honesty does he like it more? Is it “more casual” or “less casual”? He says he’s neutral towards the 360 while hating the PS3, but I’m thinking if the PS3 were to release a few more on-console multiplayer games (like Killzone 2 or LittleBigPlanet, for example) and he had waited until then to make a decision between Xbox and PS3, he wouldn’t know which to buy. He’d go for the cheaper one, I’m suspecting–and the PS3 is lowering in price, now that production costs are at 400$ per console (Sony actually is making money off sales now). So what would happen in that instance?

In the end, I’m not sure. I’ve figured that the real competitive showdown in the industry is between those games that are deemed casual and those games that are deemed hardcore. Who’s the bigger audience? Casual. Who’s more likely to take to a game? Hardcore. How do you balance these out?

I’m thinking someone needs to come up with a symbiosis–something truly extraordinary, that will appeal to people all over. Games like SPORE (and maybe Rock Band?) come close to what I’m thinking, but nobody’s hit it on the nail yet–a merge between hardcore and casual, a game anyone can play but that feels just as epic as a game like Mass Effect. Something that appeals to everyone.

Portal? Maybe.

I don’t know. I’m just at a loss tonight.

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!![Edit: This article is so old but people keep reading it. For more new news on Heavy Rain, please check my recent posts, such as this one.]!!

A while ago, it was plastered all over my Netvibes that co-founder of Quantic Dream, Guillaume de Fondaumière, announced that the uncanny valley which had so plagued the game “Heavy Rain” when it was in technical demo stages (still magnificent stages, but understandably somewhat awkward and at times unappealing) is now no more.

To recap for you readers who aren’t huge on clicking my alluding links, the Uncanny Valley is a phenomenon, predicted by the roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, that occurs when a viewer becomes unsettled as they watch something attempt to be too human and fail. I’ve heard it being presented as a viewer interpreting something as being “too real,” but I’ve come to learn that this is a misnomer. Were game developers to make a game that looks absolutely and perfectly true to life, people would have no trouble enjoying it. The problem comes in when something is attempting to be real, and cannot attain the ultimate perfection. Humans will be thrown off by the tiniest hints–no blemishes, unnatural skin tone, perfect teeth… those things will hint to you that what you’re seeing isn’t real, and you will be not only discomforted but repulsed by it.

To illustrate, I present to you the original tech demo from way back in 2006.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9133667929405103814]

It’s beautiful, but a bit unnerving, right? The lip animations and almost too-perfect teeth and tongue are what throw people off when they watch this. The motion capture technology and the well-rendered eyes is what really makes the visuals so impressive. When the actress in the video isn’t speaking, and is simply making faces, I become entranced by how lively she looks, how full of personality. When she speaks, and her mouth and lips move irregularly, I becomes rather turned off by the visuals.

Well, French company Quantic Dream, the fellows behind a beautiful and key game dubbed Fahrenheit also known as the more-popular-titled The Indigo Prophecy, which I loved. Understandably, I was dying to see what de Fondaumière was talking about when he said that they had done what was previously expected to be, if not impossible, highly unlikely until at least two or three years have passed, but no more demos or revelations came, and I spent December in relative misery while I waited for further news on this much-anticipated game. Of course, good things come to those who wait: with the new year, we’ve received new screens.

There’s not a lot to gawk at, to be honest. There’s two close-up screenshots of a woman’s nose and eyes, with a bit of hair visible and a wonderful focus effect to the camera. Mostly what impresses me is the sheer amount of detail and realistic imperfection in the skin. I’ve always found it hilarious that many women worry so about their skin and wearing makeup in order to hide imperfections, when often those imperfections make them all the more interesting and alluring. Then again, I love skin details because I’m into game design and textures. I may just be a freak of nature.

Still, as it stands, these screenshots are frighteningly beautiful and I’m ecstatic to see in-game shots or a trailer. If Quantic Dream has indeed bridged the Uncanny Valley, Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer marks an entry into video games that had previously existed only in imagination: the perfect visual representation of life.

Virtual Reality to soon follow.

Also, this game has not yet been declared as to which consoles it will appear on. Most people seem to readily assume it’s a PS3 exclusive, as previously stated by Quantic when they released their tech demo. Later on, however, Quantic revealed they were considering releasing it for every console, including the Nintendo Wii. I’m not certain if that’s even possible, but let’s assume for now that Quantic has an idea of what they’re doing when it comes to consoles. My verdict: PS3 owners, I guarantee you this game. Xbox 360 owners, pray for ports. Wii owners, you’re getting a different game.

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And it’s not something wicked. Rather, it’s something really cool.

PS3 has a lot of things planned for this year, including a new XMB update that will finally give us the ability to play music, talk with friends and check downloads while in-game. The only thing we need to do is wait–the trouble with that is that most of us don’t want to. I want it all now.

Of course, I can’t afford it all. I still have Rock Band, UT3, NGS and Oblivion to buy, and then DMC4, GTA IV, Killzone 2 and Haze come out in the next few months. Couple that with the upcoming promise of MGS4 in June, LittleBigPlanet in September (not April as previously thought, sorry peeps) and both Final Fantasies in December… I am going to have one penniless year. But it’ll be well worth it.

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