Video Games: May 2005 Archives

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I was drawn to buying Forza Motorsport, but I wasn’t sure if it was the game for me. I love racing games, but I’ve never been very good at Gran Turismo. I found the gold standard PS2 game way too realistic for my tastes and quickly sold it. I was further in doubt when trying out a demo disc and watched in despair as my car repeatedly slid off the track and crashed into barriers.

However, I did take the plunge and bought Forza, and I have loved every minute of playing it. The graphics on the game are outstanding for the XBox, combining the best of Project Gotham Racing 2 with some of the graphical tricks you’ve seen on Rallisport Challenge 2. The backgrounds are all rendered inside the engine and you can have fun watching the replays, especially scenes in Times Square where you look at the various neon signs. Damage modeling is another graphical feature, and it makes screwing up or losing races more fun. The gameplay is more realistic, like Gran Turismo, but Microsoft gave newbies several ways to enjoy the game. There are several assists built in: Stability Management, Traction Control, Anti-Lock Braking, as well as Automatic transmission. In addition, there is a “suggested driving line” feature that is incredibly helpful: it not only shows you the best driving path on the track, but turns green when you need to step on the gas, yellow when you need to take the foot off the gas pedal, and red when you need to break. This line became my point of entry to this type of game—it’s not about driving like a maniac, it’s about breaking at the right point and accelerating out of a turn.

In comparison to games like Midnight Club 3 and Need For Speed Underground 2, Forza offers a rich set of car customizations and upgrade packages. But unlike these other games, Forza’s has car classes: D (lowest), C, B, A, R, and S. Within each class, you have levels 1-4. You can easily take a D class car and buy various upgrades to turn into a B class vehicle, but you would be missing the point. The races are centered on having the same class of vehicles competing against each other. The point of the game is to take say, a D4 class car, upgrade and tune up to the limit of D1, so you can beat the pants of other D class cars. This is especially important when you go online (more on that later). It’s in this area of car tuning and upgrading that I need the most help: going online and searching various Forza forums for tuning tricks is an option. You can also look into purchasing the Forza : Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides) which has some useful tips. Ultimately, this is the one factor that makes Forza not a casual game to play—it requires a bit of study, some tinkering, and a commitment of time. (Mrs. Warlock says it’s all a waste of time and I should be driving her to the mall instead of driving on Laguna Seca in a Saleen S7.)

This title is somewhat of a joke. Look at Gran Turismo 4 and then look at almost any other PS2 game, you'll see the difference. One set of game developers chose to fully utilize the hardware and others did not. Ditto for XBox: look at Doom3, Forza, Halo 2, then look at most third party ports, they suck. Now reading John Davison's blog at 1up.com, I see that Alex Ward from Criterion (Burnout series) confirms this to Davison: "You'll never, ever see what the Xbox is really capable of," he confessed. "No-one's anywhere near tapping into the power of the thing, and it's being replaced already. We're pushing the PS2 at about 60% with our stuff, and I bet we're not close to that with Xbox." Davison himself noticed this when looking at a 360 title and seeing that it's not much different than the forthcoming Burnout Revenge. Yep, you're gonna have to pay big bucks for a 360 because game companies don't want to spend the time pushing the current hardware. Nuff said.

The tsunami of E3 2005 is finally over. What a week, with Sith and E3, it’s hard to keep up with everything. I’ve already written about the hardware wars, but it all comes down to the games. Looking at the games scheduled for the rest of 2005 (which means no PS3 games at all), here’s what most excites me from the preview coverage.

Xbox 360
Project Gotham Racing 3: I loved PGR2. It had the perfect set of Xbox live integration which has become the standard for all other XBL titles. They’ve only released one movie for this third iteration but it looks shweet.

Tiger Woods PGA 2006: I’m a Tiger addict; I’ve bought it every year for the past four years. The screenshots on the 360 version make the grass look real and they say there are several different kinds modelled. I read on IGN that they will only have six courses which is a bummer, because the current gen Tiger has many more.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted: Another sequel, but it combines the best of the Underground features (customization) with classic NFS modes (cops and hot pursuit).

Now that all three next gen consoles have debuted at E3 2005, the press is collectively reeling from all the announcements. I think Sony surprised everyone with the strength of the Playstation 3 hardware and made a strong showing with various game demos. Sony not only showed that the returning franchises were going to look great, they showed some brand new titles. The demos for Motor Storm (a down and dirty racing game), Warhawk, Killzone 2, Insomniac's dark first person shooter I-8 (goodbye fuzzy animals), and Unreal Engine 3 were totally hot. Now there is some question as to whether these demos were done with the PS3 hardware or if they were animated using separate movie-making tools, but it seems like the PS3 has the power to make these movie-quality animations. Sony made smart moves by concentrating on these games at their announcement, plus the power of the hardware and all it can do. The NVidia graphics chips would cost more than $2000 alone on the PC. There is a report from Japan that the Playstation 3 will cost just under $500.

Microsoft, on the other hand, seemed more superficial. They concentrated on the Xbox lifestyle and how they were going to hook everyone from your Mom to your kid sister on the console. It seemed like it was the pitch that J. Allard and company used at a company meeting for Bill Gates rather than E3 consumers. They showed a commercial of young adults gathered around a virtual living room holding the Xbox 360 controller and dancing. No, J., if they are into dancing they won’t be sitting at home on Saturday night with the 360. It was a bit of a misfire. The games they showed at the Microsoft announcement didn’t seem to get anyone hot and bothered. Dead or Alive 4 didn’t look that much different than the current Xbox title, even though you can see a few more details and moving objects, it’s not that impressive. Project Gotham Racing 3 is a game that might get Xbox geeks to buy the 360, but it’s not a console pusher like a Mario or Halo game. Microsoft made a big deal out of Perfect Dark: Zero as the shooter for the 360 launch in their MTV special, yet reports are that it’s not on the floor at E3. If any title could see the Xbox 360 at launch it just might be Quake 4, and in this preview and interview with Todd Hollenshead, you can see for yourself. It’s unclear if this will be a launch title.

As for Nintendo, I just can't excited about the Revolution. Yeah, they will have wireless controllers, an Internet connection, and the ability to download games from their old library, but who cares? A Nintendo console just means new iterations of Mario Cart, Zelda, and Metroid. At least Microsoft and Sony are trying new things and pushing the envelope a little. Nintendo's always in a recursive loop and their call stack has overflowed with me.

I'll bet those Australian gamers can't wait to get their hands on this new shiny PS3 controller. It looks a mite big to me, maybe my girly hands can't wield it as well as a lumberjack. Today the floodgates were opened on the Playstation 3's hardware specs, games in development, and launch window--Spring 2006? Let's see if that date sticks. You can check out the exact list of specs on the PS3 vs the XBox 360 here, and the PS3 does nudge out the XBox in a few areas. The 360 has 3 core processors while the PS3 has seven SPEs on the Cell processor. I'm still not sure if this really means that the PS3 is more horsepower or not; can it do 7-10 parallel computations? The other specs seem comparably to the 360, I'm glad to see the wireless 802.11g support. The 1080 progressive scan output being a standard is a bold move. I'd say the systems are fairly close and it comes down to which company is going to get the third party developers all wet and lathered up to make next gen games.

Of course, the success of any game system really depends on the software. We've seen developers do amazing things on the current XBox (Doom3) and PS2 (Gran Turismo 4) and I suspect more could have been done if they were motivated. I think any improvements on those old consoles are gone--take a look at IGN's great preview and trailer of Gran Turismo 5. This is way too early to talk about, since GT4 just came out in Feb 2005, I'd have to believe a GT5 will take at least until 2007 to complete. IGN has impressive trailers for Warhawk (check out those shadows and ohhh that flock of ships) and Killzone 2 (Helghast are back and badder than ever baby). There was proof positive that Unreal Engine 3 also runs on the XBox so if you want to frag on UT 2007, you'll be able to do it on probably either next gen system. Another cool and kind of frightening trailer was for the EYEdentify game where a geek uses the EyeToy attachment to flirt and work with virtual spy babes. Jeez louise, pretty soon Riker will be calling me to come out of the holodeck.

Today’s the big day of the Xbox 360 announcement. It’s a monster of a machine with 3 3.2 ghz PowerPC CPUs, 512 mb of memory, ATI custom built graphics chip running at 500 mhz (10mb embedded DRAM), a 12x dual layer DVD drive, a 20 gb detachable hard drive, and a wireless controller. No word yet on how much all of this will cost at launch time. Other components include cameras, memory cards, and remote control for the DVD player. Modders are gonna love the detachable faceplates. Xbox Live has a basic free tier of service, but if you want to frag your friends, you still need to pay, and it’s not clear if this is an additional XBL account from your current one. The box is HD ready from the get-go and Microsoft is mandating that all games work on 16:9 widescreen format, 720p and 1080i HD resolutions. I predict consoles like this are going to drive adoption of HD TVs and monitors in greater rates after 2005.

My favorite feature is the wireless controller. Finally, Microsoft has taken the extra step and given us this feature right in the basic package. It will force Nintendo and Sony to do the same. If nothing else, this advances console gaming another step. And even better: the console has a special button to allow you to power on the console without leaving your sofa! There is a special “ring of light” on the console and the controller that will flash if a friend is online and wants to challenge you to a deathmatch. Hmmm, time to buy that barcalounger with the built in refrigerator and cabinets for beer and chips! Call the doctor and tell him I’m putting on an extra 20 pounds after November 2005!

If you missed the MTV special where Frodo spilled the beans, there’s plenty of coverage online, where the game sites have unleashed a torrent of news about the console. Probably the most thorough coverage I’ve seen is over Team X-Box: start here for a great overview of the system with links to the detailed specs. Gamespot also has some excellent in-depth coverage with a special section called XBox 360 Inside and Out, that's chock full of articles, videos, and interviews with various Microsoft bigwigs. XBox360.ign.com has a lot of the same information, but what I find really amazing is the preview and screenshots for Test Drive Unlimited. Those cars look photo realistic!

I have to get the XBox 360. If I don't pre-order I'll just froth at the mouth. Nuff said

Game Informer's website has some interesting speculation about what to expect from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo at E3 2005 next week. These are pure rumors, not facts, but some of them sound plausible. Here are the items that caught my interest...

Microsoft XBox 360 rumors:
 Microsoft won't initially release a price for the console, says GI.
 Halo 3 won’t be shown at this show at all.
 Microsoft will announce that current Xbox Live accounts won’t work with 360, forcing current gen gamers to buy a new XBL account.
 Microsoft won’t address the 360’s backward compatibility with current Xbox games.

Sony Playstation rumors:
 Sony will announce the PS3, show videos of games running on it, but won’t show the actual hardware at all, even behind closed doors.
 No release date or price point for PS3 will be announced…2006 then, perhaps?
 Lots of PSP games and features will be announced, including Gran Turismo, Jak, Ratchet, etc.
 Sony will drop the PS2 to $99 and introduce new colors.

Nintendo rumors:
 Zelda will make a big splash for the current Gamecube console.
 New portable DS features will be announced, including Internet connectivity.
 The new Revolution console won’t show up.

It’s pretty shocking that Sony and Nintendo will cede an entire year to Microsoft’s new gaming console. They must be hoping that it will be another Dreamcast, which launched ahead of Sony’s console, but still failed. Sony must be thinking that dropping the PS2 to $99 is going to keep their customer base growing at a rate enough to sustain profits. As for Microsoft, their first party games on the 360 look strong, but what will happen with cross-console ports? So far, most of them look like PS2 games with a few minor enhancements. I can’t imagine that SSX4 or the new Burnout:Revenge game is going to look superior on the 360 compared to the PS2 or current Xbox.

If the rumor about Xbox Live accounts is true, what a bummer that will be. I can see that happening, though, because when I bought a new Xbox Halo Edition, I had to call Microsoft to get my XBL account migrated over. They really would not want thousands of people calling them on launch day, would they?

Links:
Game Informer Microsoft Rumors
Game Informer Sony Rumors
Game Informer Nintendo Rumors

It can be said the gaming consoles are like candles: sometimes their light burns more brightly just before they expire. So it is with Microsoft’s Xbox console, as we are just days away from the announcement of Xbox 360 on MTV (May 12, 2005 at 9:30pm PST) as well as a flood of information coming up next week at E3 2005. Yet in the past few months, Microsoft has had a number of must have titles appear exclusively on their platform: Halo 2, Fable, Jade Empire, Unreal Championship 2, and now Doom 3.

When Doom3 first appeared on the PC in 2004, it was notoriously known for its stringent requirements: an NVidia or ATI graphics card from the past year or so, 512 mb of memory, and at least a Pentium 4 running at 2 ghz. Sure, the box requirements were less, but everyone knew to really enjoy the game, you needed more.

When ID announced that Doom3 would be ported to the Xbox, I assumed this was a quick and dirty port to make some quick cash. After all, the Xbox has a Pentium 3 at 733mhz, 64 mb of RAM, and a custom designed NVidia chip that is 3-4 years old at this point. How the hell (pardon the pun) could Doom3 ever work on this platform?