Archive for March 18th, 2010

Screenwriters Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Dath had a bone to pick in court with Sony and "God of War" designer David Jaffe. The pair alleged that movie treatments they had produced contained story elements that were appropriated for Sony's game. Ultimately, the judge in the case disagreed with them, though, and Sony has been given a green light to carry on with their business, and the court's decision reads a little like a game review.

"While violence is not absent from plaintiffs' works, it lacks the thematic centrality and intensity seen in 'God of War,'" Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote in her decision, posted by The Hollywood Report. For instance, plaintiffs' protagonist refuses to kill such an 'amazing animal' as the rampaging Nemean Lion and instead transforms the beast into his 'tamed pet.'"

She also called the plot details in question too basic and explained why that was the case in her verdict.

"No one can own the basic idea for a story," Patel stated. "General plot ideas are not protected by copyright law; they remain forever the common property of artistic mankind."

Considering the story is rooted in the events that according to legend led to the first Olympic Games being established, it seems like it must have been a bit of a long shot to lay claim such details anyway. It'll be interesting to see if Bissoon-Dath and Dath's movie treatment ever gets produced, though, so that we can all find out how similar they are for ourselves.

Do you think the judge in the case made the right decision? Would you be bummed Sony had to quit making "God of War" games? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

"Final Fantasy XIII" sacrificed some of the free roaming that its predecessors enjoyed, but Square Enix will restore a little of that freedom in "Final Fantasy Versus XIII." Asked how far along his game was coming, director Tetsuya Nomura described its status in terms of world maps and airships, which may not say a whole lot in and of themselves, but their existence alone may come as a welcome addition to "Final Fantasy" traditionalists.

"Things are not connected yet, every part is moving along separately," Nomura said in a Twitter interview translated on FinalFantasyVersusXIII.net. "However, we have gotten airships working over the world map."

For those who didn't take to the linear gameplay in "FFXIII," airship functionality could be the perfect cure, but the details out in the wild about "Versus XIII" are pretty scant right now, so it's hard to gage what the Enix folks will be shooting for. The game will form a trilogy with "FFXIII" and the PSP-only "Final Fantasy Agito XIII," though I'm still a little unclear on how they're connected.

I'm all for airships, though, so here's hoping "Versus XIII" delivers.

What did you think of "Final Fantasy XIII"? What improvements would you like to see in "Versus XIII? Share your suggestions in the comment section below.

Review by Kyle Anderson

Don't be fooled by the somewhat generic-looking cover art for "Metro 2033." This is no cheap thrills shooter. In fact, it's impressively deep, refreshingly dark and seriously complicated. Also, it's hard. Really, really hard. Like "Ninja Gaiden" hard.

The Basics

In the not-too-distant-future, a vague apocalyptic event has turned the Earth into a wasteland but has especially destroyed Moscow (perhaps the events in "Dr. Strangelove" finally came to be). What was left of humanity was driven underground to live in subway tunnels. You play a character named Artyom, who isn't much of an ass-kicker but makes up for it with cunning and a reasonable control of a firearm. Can he successfully blend together FPS and RPG elements to fight off the horrible mutants living on the surface to save the last humans on Earth? Yeah, probably.

The Highs

The Story is the Thing
"Metro 2033" has got narrative in spades, and though some people may find its relatively linear nature a little narrow in a world where the "BioShock" games exist, the story is enough to keep interest up. Artyom goes into his mission relatively blind, and the mysteries surrounding the initial cataclysm (as well as what went on in the two decades that have passed since) keep unfolding in a natural, unique way. The best part is that it never throws too much at you at once, though as the game moves on, the gaps between revelations come at greater intervals (sort of like watching "Lost").

Rattle and Hum
I'm a bit spoiled because I played this thing with a surround sound system (which has most recently been wasted on "Mega Man 10"), but the sound design of "Metro 2033" is pretty incredible. Stealth is a big part of the game, and the landscape is littered with garbage, glass and bits of body parts. Stepping on anything can expose your position and completely mess up your program. The creepy score floats in and out in between growls from distant mutants and the occasional burst of silence (which is absolutely terrifying). You can tell the developers spent a lot of time on freaking players out with the sound of rats skittering across the speakers, and it totally pays off.

The First Rule: Duck!
The stealth elements of "Metro 2033" are pretty intense, and players more skilled then myself will be able to most avoid conflict with baddies (which is a good thing for reasons we'll get to in "The Lows"). But unlike the "Splinter Cell" or "Metal Gear Solid" series', "Metro 2033" is far more forgiving if you happen to accidentally walk into an old stack of tires (which I seemed to do constantly). Evading and playing defense is still difficult, but you can still totally survive if your stealth skills fail you.

The Lows

Is the Safety On?
There's nothing particularly complicated about the mechanics of the gameplay of "Metro 2033," but let's just say they obviously focused on story first. For a game that is theoretically meant to primarily be a first-person shooter, the control elements (especially during battle) don't seem particularly refined. The things that really need to work well do (everything related to stealth movement), but the battle stuff can be pretty rough.

Half of a Good Thing
It's difficult to gripe about the level design, because clearly a lot of love and thought went into the details of the environments (well, some of the environments). But the underground stages, while intriguing, are sometimes punishingly dark, which wouldn't be a problem if the flashlight didn't seem so wonky. Once you emerge from the underground tunnels, the landscape is sort of generically barren. While it may be accurate to what Moscow would actually look like if a nuclear blast leveled everything, it falls short of other similar titles like "Fallout."

The Verdict

Despite those minor protests, "Metro 2033" is an incredibly difficult but rewarding, moody game. There aren't any large-scale action set pieces to really hang its hat on; just consistent storytelling and a pretty cool look. Also, did I mention it's really, really hard? Mutants kept eating my face off, but I was sort of fine with it.

Sega decided to scale back on M-rated Wii releases earlier this year, but they have no problem looking ahead to casual games for the PlayStation Move and Project Natal. In fact, their first unveiling for Natal could happen as soon as E3 this summer, and the company already has a working prototype — even if they won't say what it is just yet.

"We asked our Japanese studio to create something for [Natal] which we'll show off at E3," Sega West president Mike Hayes told CVG. "They had a brilliant prototype up and running within six weeks. I mean a genuinely entertaining prototype you could just play."

Sega plans on developing for both of the new controller systems, though, and Hayes predicted more announcements in the coming year as Sony and Microsoft get their motion sensors out on the shelves for the holidays.

"I think Natal and the Sony Motion Controller allow us to do things that are more about multi, party gaming," Hayes said. "We'll certainly be supporting both. We have several games on both [Move] and Natal that you will see from around the end of this year and into 2011."

Now that we've got publishers putting out motion games across three systems, it's going to be really interesting to see how many of them end up as exclusives and how many of them end up as multi-platform titles. Thinking about Sega's plans, for instance, you have to wonder how far they'll spread themselves out if they're simultaneously developing different titles for these systems and what the key differences are going to be between Natal games and Move games.

What do you think Sega's first announcement for Natal will be? Which control system has impress you the most so far, Natal or Move? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

In anticipation of March 22nd's WiiWare release of "Cave Story," Nintendo sent over some awesome artwork from indie artist Cole Harrington, which depicts the game's hero kicking the ass of a beastie.

Along with the package was a very nice letter from the game's original creator, Daisuke Amaya, talking about the work he put into "Cave Story" and how excited he is to see its release on WiiWare.

I think it's a sign the games industry may be growing up a bit when swag goes from illegal weapons to classy artwork. Or wait, Nintendo sent me a plastic fish a few weeks ago. Yeah, we're still all kids at heart.

Anyway, here's super high rez shot of Cole's work, since my iPhone camera really doesn't do it justice.

Sony's 20 games and 36 publishers on board for the PlayStation Move launch look like a good start. The new hardware will face a significant challenge in the Motion Controller Wars of 2010, though, as it defines its strengths against Project Natal and the Wii. Sony thinks the Move's interaction with the PS Eye will give it an edge in the marketplace, however, particularly where augmented reality games are concerned.

"When you're talking about a game that was demoed like 'Table Tennis' out there, you might be able to play that on another system, but I think we showed very well that you can get that top spin or slice in there and it really feels like you're playing a 'Table Tennis' game," Sony Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rohde told Industry Gamers. "Also, because of the camera, the PS Eye, we add that whole element of augmented reality. And I think that's a big advantage we have over what the Wii has done to date."

Personally, I'm not all that convinced that the Wii and the PlayStation 3 are destined to be bitter rivals. Nintendo's game library has always kept a different flavor than its PS3 and 360 neighbors on the shelves, and I think the real competition is going to be between the Move and Natal. Nintendo has put decades into establishing its brand, and call me crazy, but I don't see the Move redefining how consumers understand Sony based on the titles they've shown off thus far. Feel free to disagree below.

Do you think augmented reality will give the Move an advantage over the Wii with gamers? Do you plan on putting away your Wii Remotes when it launches this fall? Share your predictions in the comment section.

"Star Wars: The Old Republic" could include sex, but if it really does turn out to be the most expensive game that EA has ever produced, it's going to need a massive subscriber base as well. They may not pass the 11 million mark that "World of Warcraft" did back in 2008, but they may be shooting for a cool 2 million.

One million subscribers will be necessary for "The Old Republic" to break even, and even though "earnings are somewhat depressed due to ongoing expenses of the Star Wars MMO, management has high hopes for this and believes 2M+ subs is possible," industry analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee said after meeting with EA, according to Industry Gamers.

How they price the game may play an important role in achieving that, but neither EA nor BioWare has been completely candid about whether or not they'll follow industry norms with a $15/month rate.

"With 'Star Wars: The Old Republic,' we haven't announced anything yet," BioWare general manager Ray Muzyka told Kotaku. "But what we're striving to do, to clarify what I said earlier, is to make sure the fans and the audience that we're trying to reach feel they are getting something they understand and feel that it is a good value for their money — and feel that there is a way they actually want to engage in the experience, both in how they play it and how they pay for it. That's our high-level goal."

That phrase "how they pay for it" sounds like BioWare may have some surprises up their sleeves for when "The Old Republic" launches in 2011. You can bet Star Wars fans will be doing lots of wallet inventory when they do — maybe even 2 million of them.

Do you think BioWare should stick with a $15/month model for "The Old Republic"? Do you expect the game to draw 2 million subscribers? Share your predictions in the comment section below.

Last night on "South Park," fans of EA Sports got an early glimpse of "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011." Funny, when I saw this at GDC there was no mention of a spurned wife mini-game. According to Cartman, "EA Sports really outdid themselves this time!" You can check out the semi-NSFW clip after the break.

Speaking with Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president of Nintendo of America, I was wondering just how much of a priority it is to have mature games on the Wii and DS. Apparently it's very important, but Nintendo's gonna leave the responsibility of mature games to third party devs, since, according to Reggie, "Our developers don't particularly enjoy making that content."

Here's his full quote:

"It's a priority for us bringing a range of entertainment. It's a priority for us to have a range of third party licensees see success on the platform. It's a priority for us to make sure that every consumer has content that they're going to enjoy.

"Now, the challenge for us is that we, ourselves, Nintendo, don't create that type of content. We're not experts at it. Our developers don't particularly enjoy making that content. They probably could make stellar content, if they chose to. We choose to do something else. So it really is up to the third party developer to create that great content and bring it to life on the platform."

At the end of the clip, Reggie mentions his disappointment regarding certain mature releases, like "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" and "The Conduit," being ignored by consumers, and that he'd like to encourage more consumers to support those sorts of titles if, indeed, that's what they want to see on a Nintendo platform.

Two players face off in a Baseball game in Wii Sports on the Nintendo Wii.