E3 Games I Forgot To List

Wow, there were a couple omissions of games on that E3 list I threw together that I wanted to mention. No idea how I just missed mentioning these games, but I'm a little ashamed, I'll admit!

Mass Effect 2 - I really enjoyed the story and feel of the original Mass Effect. The cookie-cutter secondary missions I could have lived without. Mass Effect did a good job at times at making me consider what type of player I was trying to be and make choices wisely. The combat was decent, but not great. If they can fix that stuff, and keep the great epic feel (and get rid of the atrocious load-time elevators) the game will be a big win. It's "Looking Good".

The Last Guardian - Fumito Ueda is quickly becoming one of the best game director's in the business. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are two of the most beautiful, emotionally impactful, and fun games I've ever played. The Last Guardian looks to keep it up, with the same feeling of isolation and probable redemption. I've still never cried while playing a game, but I feel like this game could do me in with its beautiful looking gryphon-like creature. This is an absolute, must-have game. I don't know how I left this game off the original list - it is literally the game I am probably looking forward too the most.

No More Heroes 2 - This game was amazingly subversive on the Wii and I enjoyed it a great deal, for the most part. I loved the style, the humor, the commentary on games and America's fascination on Japanese culture. I did not enjoy the poorly implemented sandbox elements of the game, however. I've read some interpretations as that being part of the subversion of the game, standing the genre on its head and making people take a look at it - but the game was genuinely poor at these moments, so I think maybe the message was either overstated or a poor choice if that's the case. In any event, I think No More Heroes 2 will be fantastic and it's definitely also "Looking Good".

I think those were my only major omissions. Not sure how I feel about Splinter Cell: Conviction yet - though it does have potential.

E3 Is The Place To Be

Two weeks ago, E3 returned (with a vengeance) after two years of being a much smaller and more intimate event (or, as many dubbed it, "teh suck"). I didn't attend the expo itself (In fact, I've never been to E3), but as I'm sure all of you did, I followed coverage of E3 all over the place. I just wanted to throw together some thoughts on things I'm excited about or surprised me at E3 that I am looking forward to (and some things I'm not looking forward to).

Surprises
Project Natal - Possibly the biggest news that came out of E3 was Microsoft's full-body motion sensor Project Natal. The possibilities for this thing are huge! I had heard rumors about Microsoft doing a motion controller, but I never imagined it would be something this ambitious. At the same time, the developer in me is not excited to use this as a platform to make games on... yet. I need to see and try it with my own hands before I can become super excited about this product.

Tales of Monkey Island - Yes! Yes! Yes! Monkey Island is one of the greatest adventure series of all time, and having Telltale work on new episodic games in the series is really exciting. I had no idea anyone was considering re-launching the Monkey Island series, so this came out of left field. Thank you LucasArts and Telltale!

Metroid: Other M - I expected another Metroid game, but not from Team Ninja at Tecmo. I wondered what they would do next with Tomonobu Itagaki leaving the company after Ninja Gaiden 2. The game looks very cool. Confession time: I haven't played a single Metroid Prime game, but I plan on it when the re-releases hit Wii later this year.

Must-Have Games
Modern Warfare 2 - Yeah, Infinity Ward is pretty much the king of FPS games. The climbing the ice wall, the snowmobile section, the explosions, the custom animations and unique breaks in combat. Sign me up. Game is so awesome looking, no wonder it doesn't need the Call of Duty franchise tag on it.

God of War III - The massive scale, Kratos looking like even more of a bad-ass than before, the over-the-top violence. There's not much not to love about this game. Really crazy how the series has had three different Creative Directors and seemed to keep the same feel and core gameplay that make it special.

Brütal Legend - I heart Tim Schafer and Double Fine. Could this game look any cooler? Awesome visual style, looks to be hilarious, tons of metal. I want this game now.

Alan Wake - This game has been on vaporware lists for a while now, but it really blew the socks off me. I love the concept and creep factor that it seems to have. Using light as a signficant weapon and part of the game is interesting and puts a slight twist on the horror genre. It looks to be worth the long wait.

Wolfenstein - Yeah that's right, I'm whoring myself out. August 4th people - pick it up for the 360, PS3, or PC. Nazis, Particle Cannons, occult, sci-fi, upgrade systems, tons of gameplay. Pretty much guaranteed to be the best game of 2009 (named Wolfenstein).

Looking Good
BioShock 2 - Not sure about the multiplayer side, but the single player looks to be right on-track for what I expect (and really I don't want BioShock for multiplayer anyway). I like the idea of being the original Big Daddy. Wish I saw more coverage and new stuff from the single player portion of the game, but I either missed the coverage or there wasn't much new shown that wasn't multiplayer.

Scribblenauts - This may be the game that actually forces me to get a DS. It pretty much lets you input any word and drops it into the world. The possibilities are endless and I love the cute style and look of it.

Assassin's Creed 2 - For all of its flaws (repetition, weak combat system, poor assassination system), I really enjoyed the first Assassin's Creed game. This game looks like it's fixing a lot of the core problems that existed and may fully realize the potential of the game. I love the new setting and the fact that your character is apparently friends with DaVinci in the game, who builds you gadgets like the flying machine. Awesome.

Mafia II - Before GTA3 hit, there was Mafia and it really did a lot for the open-world genre. The original Mafia is one of the most memorable games I have ever played (At least on PC - ignore the poor console ports of the game). The sequel looks like it's updating everything into a time-period that is really interesting when you start talking about organized crime.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Classic 2D with co-op. Sold! Way more interesting than Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - I need to actually play the original (only played the demo, but I enjoyed it). This game got huge buzz at the show and looks very cool and stylish. Really like the variety of locations it looks like you play in. Naughty Dog has really shown they get how to do more mature stories, which is surprising if you only knew them from their Jax & Daxter and Crash Bandicoot days.

Cautiously Optimistic
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Relic has done a fantastic job with the RTS genre, and the idea for a 3rd person action game in the Warhammer universe is great. A little concerned that they won't live up to expectations, but I'm keeping an eye out.

Aliens vs. Predator - Rebellion is back at the helm, which could be a good or bad thing (They haven't done anything spectacular since their did AvP a number of years ago). Still, I like where they are going with it and I think it has got a shot of being a really fun game. Hopefully this time you can save the game more than 3 times.

Heavy Rain - This game is starting to look like a Dragon's Lair QTE fest. I think there is more to the game than that, but I'm starting to become skeptical. The storytelling, acting, and narrative look to be top-notch. Hopefully the gameplay matches all the hype that the story has been getting.

Let-Downs
PSP Go - Yawn. Expensive, no touchscreen... not a surprising move, but it doesn't excite me at all (and I own a PSP).

Halo: Reach - Mostly just because I tire of game announcements that tease and show nothing. We all knew Bungie wasn't done with Halo after ODST. Good for the hardcore fans of the series, but I just want more when you deliver "earth-shattering" news like this.

No Console Price Cuts - I suppose I should expect price-cuts in August, but part of me thought Sony may try to get an early start and price-cut now. Guess not.

No Shows
Blizzard - I didn't see anything on Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2. Surprising that Blizzard just skipped the event all together, but maybe they are saving everything for their own con. Still skeptical on if Starcraft 2 comes out this year.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 - The teaser from a while back got me really excited and I was hoping to get some more on this game. Instead I get nothing. Sigh - come on UbiSoft don't you know some of us are crazy to know the details of this game?

Half-Life 2: Episode 3 - It's been said a million times, but it bears repeating. These are not episodes.

Anyway that's enough random commentary on games. What games did I miss on this list that got you excited (or really let you down)?

Designing Ethical Dilemmas - Slides and Audio Available

Update: The audio should be all fixed up on the slides - sorry for any inconvenience. Please let me know if you have any issues with the presentation. Here is a download of the slides directly too if anyone is interested.

Well, I'm back from the conference (Actually, I never left since the conference was in Madison, but I'm back mentally). My talk at GLS 5.0 went very well, I thought. The talk was on "Designing Ethical Dilemmas" and I've embedded the slides below as well as included synced up audio so you can listen and get the full experience of the talk (The slides are idiotic out-of-context, and probably just plain stupid in-context).

The talk is about 6 minutes and 40 seconds (20 slides for 20 seconds each) and is fast paced. I've also uploaded my notes I used for the talk if you prefer to read those notes instead of listen to me speak. The actual talk starts with the second slide, as the first slide is just a title slide.

I have to apologize for the sub-standard audio quality - the only microphone I own is attached to a rather crappy Logitech headset I use for gaming, so the quality isn't all that fantastic. The conference will also be making their video and audio of me speaking available in the near future.

Next, I'm going to work on expanding this talk to be about 20 minutes for the Madison Chapter IGDA Meeting next month. So, if you have comments or criticisms concerning this talk, please let me know. I obviously want to improve and start expanding upon the ideas that I included and I welcome any input.

Thanks to everyone at GLS and everyone who showed up.

Enjoy!

Designing Ethical Dilemmas

View more OpenOffice presentations from Manveer Heir.

Quick Update - Twitter, GLS, E3 and Release Dates

Haven't updated in a while so I wanted to throw a few quick notes out. First, I've joined the Twitter revolution, so those of you who are on Twitter please feel free to follow me @manveerheir. I'm going to try to keep the vast majority of my tweets to do with video gaming in some way. For those of you not on Twitter, why aren't you?

Second, I'm giving a talk on Designing Ethical Dilemmas at GLS 5.0 tomorrow. It's a fast-paced 6 minute 40 second Pecha Kucha style presentation. It's my first full game design talk and I'm really excited to be giving it. If everything goes well, I'll get a version of the talk up online. I'm also going to be expanding the talk a little and giving it at the Madison Chapter IGDA Meeting next month.

Third, I have some thoughts on E3 that I'm going to throw your way in the next couple days so stay tuned. You should hopefully start seeing a lot more blog posting from me very soon in general (I feel like I said that before). Why?

That brings me to my fourth and final point. Wolfenstein has an announced release date of August 4th, 2009. I'm really excited to let you play the game I've been working on the past four years with the guys and gals at Raven. We're finishing everything up now and soon it'll be in your hands for you to enjoy and criticize. Obviously, Wolfenstein is what's been taking up most my time lately, so almost being done is going to free up a lot of time.

Mea Culpa - The Black and White World of DRM

IMPORTANT NOTE: I originally wrote a rant about DRM and how Demigod and Stardock's failure to include a CD-Key in the game was unethical and irresponsible. Thing is... the game has a CD-Key. I had bad information, and it's my fault for not fact-checking it. So, my sincere apologies to any who read the original post (it wasn't up long) and to Stardock and Brad Wardell for calling them out when I was just straight up wrong. I will strive to do a better job in the future about getting my facts straight before writing blog posts. I've include the original post below so you can mock me and because I believe in owning up to one's mistakes. Again, apologies. Also, DRM apparently doesn't include technologies such as CD-Keys so I've also stretched the definition of DRM. Yeah, that makes me 2-for-2 in making a fool of myself.

Original Post
When you ask most people about Digital Rights Management (DRM), they usually treat the issue as black and white. Some feel like the image on the left - DRM exists only to screw you. Others say DRM is necessary to combat piracy and is the only way companies can stay afloat.

Take Brad Wardell. Wardell is the CEO of Stardock, the publisher responsible for games such as Sins of a Solar Empire, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, and the recently released Demigod. Wardell is also stuanchly against DRM. He feels he can run his company and still make plenty of money without having to use DRM to protect himself from pirates. In fact, last year he announced the Gamer's Bill of Rights. The list included the following rights that seemed aimed directly at DRM:

6) Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
8) Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9) Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10) Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

Now, I agree in principle with these items - they make sense. However, when I find out a game like the recently released Demigod had over 100,000 pirated copies in use compared to 18,000 legit copies during peak hours at launch, I get very angry at Wardell. Yes, I get angry at Wardell, not the pirates. Why?

Demigod is a primarily multiplayer game. Its single player mode is just playing multiplayer against the computer. There is no campaign. There are no tutorials even. The game is intended to be played online. Yet, this online game doesn't even have a CD-Key system. A SIMPLE CD-KEY system that have existed since CD-ROMs became standard in PCs. The only explanation as to why, is because CD-Keys are a form of DRM and Wardell is above that.

You've got to be kidding me! CD-Keys don't solve the piracy problem, but they stop an awful lot of casual pirates. The game connects to Stardock servers - it puts Wardell in control of shutting people off from his game who aren't legitimate users. Which one of his rights does a CD-Key violate? Typing in a CD-Key one time at install does not treat me like a criminal anymore than typing in my user name and password when I sign into Amazon.com does.

I am not naive enough to think that every pirate would go out and buy the game. Hell, I don't know if even 1% of those pirates would go buy the game. However, I'm 100% positive that at least one person who would have pirated the game will buy it. I'm confident in stating that. There is at least one person out there who would have bought Demigod if their attempt to pirate it failed.

So why am I so angry about this? Because, by being an eternal optimist (or making a strategic business move that may very well fail for this product) he is hurting the industry. Gas Powered Games, the developer of Demigod, is still independent and recently had layoffs. Any lost revenue due to piracy hurts GPG more than Stardock. Stardock is diversified enough amongst enough products to keep their heads afloat through a few bad products. Developers, especially independent ones, are not.

The companies with the most money that are independent are diversified in product range: Epic Games has the Unreal Engine. Valve has Steam. Gas Powered Games and other developers for publishers have the advances given to them in their contract as well as the hope for future royalties if their game is a substantial hit. Often, the success of a developer is directly tied to a single game's success (See Hellgate: London and Flagship Studios if you don't believe me).

By not including the most basic form of DRM, a CD-Key, Wardell and Stardock have robbed Gas Powered Games of at least one sale for no good reason. What if the studio shut down because of Demigod's sales (there is no indication that's actually going to happen, I'm just presenting a hypothetical)? It doesn't mean things would be better if there was a CD-Key. But they wouldn't be any worse. At the very least, the legitimate customers wouldn't have had so many connectivity issues the launch weekend, primarily due to pirates.

Publishers like Stardock have an ethical obligation to do everything in their power to make sure their developers succeed. That includes basic forms of piracy protection. Failure for a developer is a failure for the community - it robs us all of the next potential game, the next potential hit.

DRM isn't the Anti-Christ. We are allowed to protect our products with at least basic features such as CD-Keys and user accounts. Sure, we don't need crazy activation and de-authorization schemes, but sometimes the debate isn't just black and white. There are shades of gray to consider. I hope Wardell is able to come to grips with that for future products. I would hate to see a game or a company fail because of piracy when a publisher doesn't even attempt to stop it. It strikes me of being disrespectful to the developer and the community as a whole. Or maybe I'm just the eternal pessimist.

I'm On A Podcast

Michael Abbott of The Brainy Gamer was kind enough to invite me back onto his podcast for some GDC wrap-up thoughts. I've been meaning to write-up some thoughts post-GDC (this was my second year attending) and I haven't had a chance just yet, so this should do for now. My co-guest is the esteemed N'Gai Croal, formerly of Newsweek and the Level Up blog, and we had a facinating talk about GDC, what was said, and what wasn't said (hint: if you listened to the last podcast I was on, you have an idea of one of the topics we talk about for a bit).

There are two volumes of podcasts out there, with a ton of guests that you should go listen to. Lots of riveting conversation abound. Special thanks to Michael for having me back on and N'Gai for being so interesting to talk with.

Play is Everywhere

On my way back from GDC in San Francisco last week, I had a layover in the Minneapolis airport. Walking through the terminal to find my new gate, I came across something I hadn't seen before. It was an advertisement installation from the Traveler's Group that was interactive. I found video of the installation on YouTube, which you can watch here. This should save me from having to explain how the installation works.

What amazed me was what I saw people doing with the advertisement. They were playing. They were running across the screens to change the shape. They were hooting and hollering and laughing. Not children mind you, but rather grown-ups. Some would play as they walked by, waving their hands to break up the image but never stopping or slowing down, as if they had only a moment for play in their busy day of flying to wherever their destination was. Others would stop and try different things, such as trying to destroy the entire umbrella in one swoop, inventing games from the play. They would try to break the rules of the system, as if something so simple would break easily. Others would try to figure out how it all worked. Even those who walked past unwittingly were participants of play. They caused the image to change for others, causing laughter or excitement. Who would think something so simple could be so interesting and entertaining?

This made me think about the nature of play and how it really is ingrained in us as humans and how we can find play anywhere. It's easy when you are engulfed in video games at all moments of your life to forget about play. It's what we did when we were kids, chasing each other in the park. It's how Calvinball was invented. It's why tag was created and how I scraped my knee countless times as a child. Play exists without video games; video games do not exist without play.

Play is around you right now. There are things on your desk you can play with. There are toys in your garage you can play with. There are sticks outside you can play with. We need to never forget this. Play is what teaches us about new parts of ourselves. Play is what helps bring out our inner-child and keep us youthful. Play is beautiful and inspiring, and it rarely lets you down because play is whatever you make of it.

It was nice to have that put in perspective this past weekend. Sometimes I forget that. Sometimes I forget that there was this world of play and games long before computers came along. I shall not forget about play anytime soon, however. Play will always remind me about itself, even if I forget. There is one simple reason for this.

Play is everywhere.

Wolfenstein Re-Revealed

There's a lot of press kicking up for Wolfenstein lately, which is pretty much what I am up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's really exciting to have this press out there and let everyone see what we've been up to lately at Raven, especially after having had the game under wraps for so long.

First, Spike TV aired a half-hour show, GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley, on Wolfenstein Friday night. That entire show is now available on GameTrailers.com if you missed it (It did air at 1 AM, so I am sure most people missed it). There is an exclusive trailer near the top of the show, an exclusive cinematic that shows one of the more horrific creatures we have in the game, a number of interviews with developers, and tons of in-game footage. Geoff got a chance to play the game himself and he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, so it's good to know we're doing the right things. If you just want to see the new trailer, it's available here.

Next, this month's Official Xbox Magazine (April 2009) has Wolfenstein on the cover with the first hands-on. It should be on newsstands now, so go pick it up if you want to read up more on Wolfenstein. If you live outside of the United States, we are also on the cover of the UK OXM as well as a number of other magazine covers. We had an entire international media day in February, and got a chance to show off the game first hand to members of the press. It was really awesome to see their reactions and now their subsequent write-ups of what they saw.

Also, the official website launched and there is some media up there you can check out. Additionally id Software is twittering about Wolfenstein, so you can follow their tweets (Or whatever Stephen Colbert likes to call them) if you enjoy that sort of thing.

So now you know why I've been so busy lately. I hope you enjoy all the new Wolfenstein press and get a chance to check it out. Feel free to leave your impressions or thoughts (positive or negative) on this post. You won't hurt my feelings - I read Kotaku comments. I'm used to it!

I'm ReAnimated!

Remember how I said I would post more after New Years? Yeah, I'm doing a fantastic job about that. The truth of the matter is, I've played about 2 hours of video games in the past two months due to work, unfortunately, but I have a few blog post ideas in the pipe and hope to get at least one of them up and out there later this week. It's hard to post about games when you don't play them. It's an issue I am trying hard to resolve shortly.

In the mean time, however, I was invited to join the ReAnimators on their podcast. We discussed race and ethnicity in games, which is a topic I feel strongly about. I hope you get a chance to check out the podcast - it was an interesting discussion and I hopefully I didn't ramble too much.

Check out the ReAnimators Podcast here. Thanks to Mike, Ryan, and Rick for having me on.

Why I Love the Worst Game Ever

Recently I came across the Worst Game Ever. That's the game's actual name, not some description I've decided to bestow upon it. Available at adultswim.com, Worst Game Ever is an Aqua Teen Hunger Force themed flash game. Before I go into detail on the game, I'd like to invite you to go and play it for a few minutes. You don't have to beat it, but play it for a good two to four minutes - it takes a little bit of play to truly get the game. It's crazy how many things this game does well in order to make it feel like the Worst Game Ever.

The game starts off with it's main screen proclaiming in all caps "Go Right!!". Towards the bottom of the screen it says "Finish the game to see an exclusive clip from the movie". So immediately, the game has told me what my goal as a player is and what my reward is for finishing the game. Great job of motivating the player (assuming they are an Aqua Teen fan and would want to see an exclusive clip).

The screen is fairly basic during actual play. There are the characters of Master Shake and Meatwad on the screen, who you control. There is the ground you walk on. There is an empty bar labeled "progress", the number of lives you have, a score, and a counter for the number of exclusive clips viewed. That's about it.

As you move right in the game, your score increases and the progress bar slowly fills. What you may immediately notice is that you can't move left. There is no going back - you must keep moving towards the goal at all times. To cure the boredom of just moving, you may try hitting space bar to jump and make the game a little more entertaining. Don't. You don't get points when you jump.

You may try to put something heavy on the right arrow so you can leave the computer. Don't. While in the beginning of the game there is only a couple meatballs to jump over that will block you, eventually you come across a pit and even an enemy you must attack to continue. Leaving your computer with something heavy on the right arrow and coming back 30 minutes later is a sure way to have wasted time (though, playing this game properly is a sure way to waste time).

The game is literally trying to punish you for attempting to do anything that may alleviate you of the boredom of just moving right the entire time. It forces you to stay at your computer, much like the Desert Bus mini-game on the Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors game for the SegaCD (the game was never actually released, but you can find it out on the internet if you search). It lasts around 30 minutes (yes I played through the whole thing). It even mocks you!

There is a voice that spouts different things during the game. One time it said "It sure would be mean if there were no exclusive clip at the end of the game. Not saying there isn't. Just want to plant the seeds of doubt". Another time the voice said, "You ever play Gears of War? I bet it's pretty good! Better than this." The voice asks you if you are playing at work (how did it know?) and warns you to look out for your supervisor. It mocks you. It reminds you of the exclusive clips. It varies itself enough to just keep you barely entertained enough to sit there and play through the whole game.

This is why I love this game. It's delightfully subversive. Everything in its game mechanics is there to make you miserable and bored. To succeed at the game, you must pay attention and hold down right the entire time. The game makes fun of you for playing it. It punishes you for trying to entertain yourself within the game space. It eventually delivers an exclusive clip that underwhelms. But it gives you a score and lets you see other people's high scores. Clearly, that is all the motivation some people need to play a game.

This is why I love the Worst Game Ever. This is why I will never play it again.