Geeking Out in NYC - Part 2

Now for the exciting part: one of the most impressive arcades is waiting for you in the belly of Chinatown.

Personal Gaming Metrics

Being a recent MBA graduate and working in corporate America, statistics are what I do. Most employers like meaurable objectives, customers love them. It is our ability to display progress that can mean the life or death of a project. With this in mind, I was always curious what trends exist in my gaming habits and whether or not it was something I could "easily" measure.

As luck would have it, there's an app for that, if you have an iPhone. Developed by Hooked in Motion, titled "My Games", the app helps you categorize your video game collection. You can input all the information in manually, or you can use the camera and scan the barcode (much easier). Sure some data still needs to be filled in manually, but it is an easy way collect all that data. Afterwhich you can back up the data to a text file, import it into Excel, text to columns, and wa la! Columns and columns of data regarding my gaming collection habits. For more information about the app, go here. For more information about my addiction to games, hit the jump!

Is it sad that I only have beaten half of the 102 games in my collection? >_<

iPhone Games I Played While on Vacation

While I was overseas, I couldn't game in front of a TV for various reasons. The largest being I was on vacation! Since I still needed my fix, so here are 10 of my favorite games on iPhone from my last week. Check 'em out!

Zenonia
Peggle
Bookworm
Canabalt
Paper Toss
Street Fighter 4
Flight Control
Plants Vs. Zombies
Down4Count
Puzzle Quest

Hitting it off: Puzzle Quest iPhone

Though not a Co-op game, Lauren and I have been playing this game side by side for the past few months. Therefore, it seemed like a good subject for our usual posts.

S: So, Lauren and I have become addicted to the Puzzle Quest craze, having both picked up the iPhone version of Chapters 1&2. I myself am not the biggest fan of the Puzzle Game genre, but my recent infatuation with Pop Cap games, combined with an obsession for RPGs; it seemed like a great idea. Sure enough, Puzzle Quest and I, we’re a match made in heaven.

L: Haha, I wouldn’t take that to heart D3 (Puzzle Quest Publisher), he tells me the same thing every time I make him chicken parmesan! All kidding aside, I’m personally a huge fan of puzzle games and Pop Cap. In my opinion, D3 has perfected the model for this genre – short, sweet, easy to pick up, and wonderfully obsessive. I would describe it as Bejeweled meets Baulder’s Gate. I don’t see you as a big Bejeweled fan babe, what made you pick this up so quickly?

S: Honestly, it was all the podcasts and rave reviews the game received. Initially, it was tough going trying to understand the complexities behind causing damage, gaining money and XP, and using your spells to control the board and land a “heroic effort”. But after gaining a few levels and maintaining that sweet sense of victory, I could not be stopped. I spent the first twenty levels building up my citadel and razing other cities to generate income. Eventually, settling on a Griffin as my mount, because let’s face it, they’re BADASS! Also, I chose a knight as my class, so most of my spells utilized the Purple Stars. What was your specialization again?

L: C’mon baby, you know my affinity for all things magical. Definitely picked the wizard and focused on fire mastery. Initially, I paid little attention to all attributes other than leveling up when prompted. The first few battles were a little confusing. After all, in Bejeweled you are trying to max out a score before running out of moves, not kill an opponent. Once I started to understand the battle system it became much more addictive. A big component of the game is to understand your enemies. Is it better just to unleash on them and get them out of the way as quickly as possible? Or do they have mana-based attacks that can be devastating to your character? Both require much different strategies. My only complaint about this game was the level cap at 40. I wasn’t even close to beating it, but felt disengaged after hitting it.

S: Yeah, me too. I plan on revisiting the game with a new class, maybe bumping up the difficulty a little bit to make the levels last longer, but man was I disappointed to see I had capped out about halfway through the game. My issue was probably also related to the massive amount of experience I was getting, since purple stars equal XP and that was the objects I destroyed the most on the board. Also, leveling the mounts was a little unbalanced. In order to level, you must fight your mount in a timed battle, but as they get higher the time is shorter. So much so that by level 15, you only had 3 sec to make a move!

L: I was able to get my mount up to level 20, but at that point my opponents were not killing me, I was killing myself (5 damage done to self for turns > 3 seconds). It got a little out of hand. While you do cap out at 40, you can still use gold to buy skills in your Citadel. I may continue to play and see how high I can max out my wizard. There is also the challenge of capturing more mounts and learning additional spells. I think this was a neat addition to the game, especially when I received Stomp – one that would randomly push down the board, usually having devastating effects on opponents.

S: That had to be the part which added the most replay value. The Citadel allowed not only the capturing and leveling of mounts, but also the capturing of enemies and leveling of individual skills via money. Combined with a weapon creation system, equally as diverse, it does seem like there is potential for your character to become truly powerful. I would highly recommend this game to any iPhone owner and if you are not one, maybe check out Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PSP or your PC. Would you agree?

L: Definitely!

*note: all images are the result of a Google image search

Play it Now!: Plants vs Zombies

by Lauren Doster

I would probably rate PopCap’s “Plants vs Zombies” as the cutest, most creative, and addictive tower defense game to date. The gameplay is built on a simple grid format, where Zombies move horizontally across the screen towards your rows of defense. If your lines of defense are not sufficient, the zombies will enter your house and the dreaded “ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS” flashes on the screen.

The key to long-term success in this game is twofold: your ability to collect sunlight quickly, and your ability to assess which plants to add to your arsenal at which time. Sunlight is key for financing more plants. I would highly suggest you purchase the double sunflowers as soon as Crazy Dave offers them up for sale in his shop. When selecting your arsenal, I always try to incorporate a walnut (this slows a zombies approach to your home, while you continue to attack him) and an “oh shit” plant for those zombies that do sneak by (Squash, Red Pepper will do just fine). Couple these with your traditional Pea Shooter, Sunflower, etc. As you progress, more seed packets will become available to spruce up your zombie-killing arsenal. I would highly suggest buying more seed slots as soon as you can raise the cash. This will come in especially handy as you take on nighttime games, where you receive no free sunlight.

Nighttime Survival Mode

That being said, the biggest hook of this game goes beyond the normal adventure mode. Puzzle mode, survival mode, and various mini-games including maintaining your own “Zen Garden”. I was trying to explain to Sean the importance of saving up capital to purchase Stinky the Snail to continue to collect gold coins in my Zen Garden while I was away. He’ll understand, someday. Another great mini-game consists of playing as the zombies, attacking plants and trying to eat brains. It’s a great way to learn how to resist zombies in the normal adventure mode.

Stinky the Snail – kickin’ ass and taking names.

Overall, I give this game a 9/10! I have completed the adventure mode and most of the puzzle/mini-games. I think PopCap balanced the “cute” aspect perfectly with genuine strategy required to be successful. This will appeal to both light gamers and their hardcore counterparts. Just be prepared for your girlfriend to utter “the zombies….are coming” for a few weeks!

*Note: Photos are a result of Steam and Google image search

State of the Industry: “Snack-Sized” Gaming

Listening to a recent episode of Rebel FM podcast, a listener posed the question regarding a saturation in game development and whether or not it is hindering innovation. While the debate for whether or not the video games industry is beginning to reach a point of saturation is just starting to brew, I think it is important to see how the landscape of game development is expanding. Due to this generation’s hardware becoming more externalized thanks to the internet, video games have truly become a part of main stream culture more than ever (much of this is also do to the Nintendo Wii). Moms are becoming the target of many publishers, your grandparents may soon be proud owners of the latest Nintendo portable and our pets can even have their own gamertag. While that last one may be a myopic point, game development is becoming more and more competitive, because there are so many markets to produce for. Publishers and Studios have undergone a lot of changes over the past year, due mostly to the state of the economy and frankly some bad decisions, changing the landscape indefinitely. Looking into how games are being published and developed today, as compared to say 5 years ago and we are starting to see a few emerging trends.


Small Developers, Big Ideas 

Indie Games have seen their share of failure over the past couple of years, but some have found great success on the platforms available to them. If you look at the metrics provided by Simon Carless at this years Independent Games Festival, PSN and Xbox Live have allotted 20% of independent games published the critical acclaim they deserved. Some examples of these include Castle Crashers, Shatter, Flow, Braid, Splosion Man, and Noby Noby Boy. The other 80% leaves a 50/50 chance to either succeed or fall flat. The Wii does not carry as much strength in this scene and once you carry over into the iPhone and PC market, it becomes highly competitive due to the developer base.

Looking at the studio behind the hit Castle Crashers, The Behemoth, it started out as two guys (Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin) making a flash game, Alien Hominid. Less than a year after the games stellar reception on PC, they were approached with an offer to port Alien Hominid to consoles. This would create the studio, bring in 2 more people and lead to the creation of Castle Crashers, one of the highest downloaded Xbox Live titles of all time. Braid is another fantastic example of a small studio, with big ideas. A brain child of Programmer Jonathan Blow, who without any art design, won the "Innovation in Game Design" award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival based on mechanics alone. Then he would contact David Hellman to bring a sense of style to Braid, where it would go on to find critical success on Xbox Live, PC and very soon the PS3. All of this might have been possible on PC 5 years ago, but for consoles, getting games like these pressed onto disc would have been a very expensive process. Some of the hallmarks of this genre are deserving of such a thing, but before their grand reception, it would have been a much more difficult process without digital distribution. This cannot always be a good thing, because with freedom from publishing costs, with each good idea there is comparable number of bad idea, but with respect to opportunity, it is ultimately good for the industry in my opinion.

“Snack-Sized” Gaming

As an adult gamer (I use this term loosely when describing myself), time is scarce to game. Work, school, and personal responsibility; all eat into my free time for gaming and sometimes I can't find enough time in the day to play a Dragon Age or Final Fantasy. Developers recognize this and with platforms like the iPhone, DSi and PSP, they are trying to develop games that are less immersive. A game where you could pick it up for 15 minutes, kill a few bad guys and go back to reality, doing whatever it is you do. John Davison, back on an old episode of the 1up podcasts referred to this style of games as "Snack-Sized", implying that it keeps that hunger we have to game at bay, while we are too busy for a 3 hour grind. It is a small snack for our insatiable appetite to game. The genius behind this is the way portable gaming is pushing the industry in new directions. The iPhone especially has started to affect the common price point of a downloadable title. At first, $10 doesn't seem like alot of money for a few hours of content. Going to a movie costs the same amount of money and 9 times out of 10 the most you will get is 120 minutes, including the commercials. (WTF is up with movie theaters and all the commercials now? Nevermind, not going to rant on that). With so much competition, price is being driven lower and lower. Some games will even hold specials on the iTunes store, dropping the price to $.99 for a limited time. You better believe people flock to that. Steam on PC does the same thing and has also found results.

Now, PSP has begun selling "Minis", "Snack-Sized" games which are targeting the exact same market as the iPhone. In fact, some of the games are direct ports of iPhone games and Sony has received some harsh feedback for selling them at prices much higher than a person can currently get on the iPhone. Casual gamers tend to be the main audience, since immersion is not the reason many of these people game. Instead, it is more of a time suck, a way to make the space between personal events or activities seem shorter. With the iPhone, Apple has the advantage. Most people will already have the phone on them for various reasons and whether your hoping on a quick flight or riding the train to work, "Snack-Sized" gaming will be there to help the time fly. But, as time goes on, the PSPgo is a much better piece of hardware for developing games, so in the right hands, Sony should be able to find a place with that audience. They just have to drop the price of the hardware.

Digital Distribution for Every Console

I have talked about this many times in previous posts, but I think that digital distribution is finally getting full support across all platforms. PSPgo is the latest piece of hardware to utilize it and Sony has decided that this platform will be exclusively digital distribution. Truly, for gaming this is a first for our generation. iPhone may have been the catalyst, but lets face it, that piece of hardware is a phone first and everything else second. But the PSPgo is all about the games. Although its launch was floundered by a poor price point and other issues, it will pioneer a future where digital distribution may become the primary method of delivering video games. I would go into how the Internet and Flash started the entire idea of video gaming in snack size, but my primary concentration was on consoles and how they have changed. Certainly, all games have roots in the personal computer.

*all pictures are a result of Google Image Search

Weekend Warriors

Borderlands came out this week! First game I have ever contributed to in some form or fashion. Although, when the credits roll, I am sure to only find a quick blurb thanking all Focus Testers, instead of individuals. Despite that, I retain a sense of satisfaction, knowing that I played this game back in its alpha form and now, will be playing it on my couch all weekend. What are you playing this weekend?

-- Posted from my iPhone

Gaming Outdoors: Borderlands Release Party

Free Drinks, Mix Master Mike and Little People were all present at tonight's Borderlands Extravasplosion release party. Lucky enough to get on the invite list, a friend and I headed down to the Granada Theater on Greenville Avenue (Dallas). After a few vodka tonics and light conversation, we decided to play some co-op. Lines were pretty good for only having 4 machines going, and everybody was having a great time. Mix Master Mike was on point laying down phat beats and Randy Pitchford gave an inspired speech, as a psycho midget roamed the stage. Check out some pics below and play Borderlands when it is out this Tuesday.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Weekend Warriors

It's FRIDAY! And I am gonna play Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend until my face Melts! How about you?


-- Posted from my iPhone

Weekend Warriors

It's Friday, so what are you gaming this weekend? I myself am off to my brother's, to play some ODST. Later, my girlfriend and I will also be playing through more Deadspace: Extraction. Warming up to the coming week, as Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend will be out on Tuesday! Get EXCITED!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Jack Thompson Debate

Going to be running a live blog of the Jack Thompson debate. I guess I will use Twitter and then post it here after the fact. Get excited!

Update 6:15 PM CT: EPIC FAIL! Should have not thought I could do this with twitter. Cannot get it to import in blogger and the timestamps disappear after the hour (doh!) But for the un edited live blog you can go to http://twitter.com/speedracerUNT. It will probably be up for a little while, because I honestly don't tweet too often.
-- Post From My iPhone

Gaming Outdoors: Final Fantasy in Dallas

The girlfriend and I went to the Myerson for an evening of drinks, music and best of all Final Fantasy. Having played almost all of the games at one time or another I am a huge fan. And the music by Nobuo Uematsu has to be some of the most prolific for our medium. It was nothing short of fantastic hits across all generations, a sneak peek of FF14 (same as E3) and a video message from Nobuo-san; mostly in regards to his love of ping pong. All in all the night was a success and I hope the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will do it again. For the future shows, we need more cosplay.


-- Post From My iPhone

FTW!

-- Post From My iPhone

iPhone 3G S

Just pre-ordered mine last night and it should be delivered on June 19th. I bought the 16 GB White. Lots of new games to play. Anyone else gonna jump on the band wagon?



image courtesy of:

http://images.macnn.com/macnn/news/0906/iphone3gs.jpg