Xbox 360
Project Natal
Here’s a trailer for Project Natal – the full motion capture controller thing for the Xbox 360. It’s an obvious attempt to get to the casual/family gamer element – wii buyers who are apparently put off by the Xbox’s ‘hardcore’ reputation.
Colour me deeply sceptical – if it works like it says it will on the video (which would be amazing) I’m still not sure that a) programmers will figure out how to use it (the wii and the PS3 motion sensors haven’t done a great deal for game design) and b) gamers will like feeling like idiots as they jump around their living rooms.
I’m particularly sceptical of voice activation (what if I’m talking with my wife while playing?) and the video is a real play for the family element and I’m just not sure that most families actually want to sit around playing video games together.
Links? Me?
I’m still trying to get a game together over here so I don’t have any RPG writing to do, but in the meantime – here’s some links!
- The RZA talks about being a geek – comics, technology and letting his kids play videogames for 4 hours a day.
- The webcomic XKCD gets animated.
In other nerdy news, I now have an HD TV and boy does my 360 look good!
Crap – console versions of Dragon Age lack isometric view (plus RPG info)
Well something had to ruin the party. According to Kotaku (and all over) only the PC version of Dragon Age will have the classic CRPG isometric view. And my PC won’t run the game! There’s rumours of other issues as well, including smaller battles.
Not sure exactly what I’ll do here – I’m planning on getting a new PC but it probably won’t be until next year and I don’t want to wait for Dragon Age. Stink!
In other DA news, there’s some details of the pen and paper RPG in a new podcast at the Green Ronin site. I haven’t listened but there’s details in this RPG.net thread. It sounds interesting actually – simple but with a stunt die sort of system called a ‘Dragon Die’.
1st DragonAge review
By Game Informer. It’s of the PC version when Soph and I will both likely get the 360 version, but it’s very good! 70 hours sounds like quite the time sink… As far as I can tell this is the first review, but there will be more!
Some video game links
I’ve been collecting links but had no time to post them. So here you go!
- Regular readers know that Sophie and I are pretty excited about upcoming PC/console RPG Dragon Age and may have even picked up that we’re both planning on playing it on the Xbox 360. Good news for us then because the Kotaku writers have had some time with the 360 version and say the controls work fine!
- There was also an interesting interview with video game designer Tim Schafer about the need for games to expand their subject matter beyond sci-fi and fantasy if the medium is going to grow larger. I could give a fuck about it getting bigger, but he’s probably not wrong.
- Finally, magicians Penn & Teller have dedicated an episode of their show Bullshit! to violent video games – pretty funny stuff.
I need to read a video game blog other than Kotaku. Any suggestions?
I guess I’ll be getting Dragon Age for Xbox then…
Because the PC specs are out and I don’t meet them!
Whoa, it’s been busy – but I finished some games!
There’s been lots of stuff to blog about recently, but very little time! This post is the first to attempt to catch up on my blogging, links and the like.
Partly the lack of time is because I’ve finished two Xbox games this week – at last. Both Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV fell under my controllers mighty … yeah. GTA also marks another step towards getting one of my 2009 resolutions down - so now I just have to finish one of Rainbow 6: Vegas, Bioshock, Mass Effect or Call of Duty 4.
GTA 4 was a fantastic game – it only took me this long to finish because I kept dying in the final mission. I’ve written about it before here and my thoughts haven’t changed really. It’s probably the best realised storytelling experience in the history of video games. I started the DLC pack The Lost & The Damned today as well so I hope that lives up to the expectations of the full game.
Fallout 3 was excellent as well, although no where near the accomplishment of GTA IV. Bethesda did capture the Fallout feel, even if they didn’t manage the humour so well, but I’ll play a Fallout 4 from them, and I’ll definitely take a look at New Vegas when that comes out. I’m glad they resurected the series.
The main achievement was the size of the world I think – it felt both empty and full at the same time and walking though the wasteland was a genuinely scary experience at lower levels. I do wonder who the raiders raided all the time, but I guess the answer is ‘each other’. That said, the story began to lose momentum towards the end and the final few episodes are a bit of a railroad. The actual ending sucks as well – a total anticlimax. I’m told that’s changing with the Broken Steel DLC that came out yesterday.
I think both of these games have shown it’s possible to have genuinely deep gaming experiences on the console, even if the controls aren’t as complex and the inventory not as limitless (although Fallout has a pretty good inventory system).
Rock Band – or how I was proven wrong
Some months ago, on one of my regular gaming nights, the GM never showed. After sitting around for awhile it was suggested that we play a little Rock Band. To say I was skeptical would be an understatement. However not wanting to be the Grouch in this particular group I decided to take up the drums and see what this whole Rock Band thing was about.
Up until this point my only experience with this kind of game was being woken by druken singing by some ex-flat mate’s and another of my ex-flat mate’s attempts to sing in tune to Singstar. Suffice to say that these off key attempts (if any of said ex-flat mate is reading this, no offence!) didn’t give me warm fuzzy feelings towards the idea of thses games.
Any way as I was saying, I sat down at the drums and while the first couple of songs weren’t overly skillful they certainly were fun. I’m now a little hooked and any chance I get (usually after bugging friends who actually own the game when regular gaming doesn’t quite happen) I pull out those colourful drums and pretend I’m some highly skilled rocker chick. The delusion is half the fun I think.
Alpha Protocol – Looks interesting…
While reading up more about Fallout: New Vagas I noticed another game which might make it’s way onto my Xbox when is released. It’s called Alpha Protocol ans is also being developed by Obsidian and being published by Sega (I wasn’t even aware they still existed!).
It’s going to be one of those action/rpgs that seem so popular these days and looking at the various videos and trailers avalible it will no doubt be quite pretty. However it was this section of a First Impressions post over at Game Spot that got me really interested (emphasis added by me)
The guiding principle of the game is to make you feel like one of the three J.B.’s:Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne, and James Bond. To do this, Obsidian has the services of writer Chris Avellone, who wrote the acclaimed Planescape Torment, to create the people who inhabit this world. The team is trying to eschew the notions of clear right and wrong and keep the excitement high by giving each character a specific set of interests.
Planescape Torment?? Awesome! That game is widely considered to have some of the best dialogue ever, so fingers crossed he delivers again. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
More Fallout
Sophie beat me to the punch with her Fallout post, but here’s a bit more.
Shacknews interview with Bethesda’s marketing vice-president about Fallout: New Vegas.
Also, the next lot of DLC for Fallout 3 comes out on May 5. Kotaku has a whole bunch of info on it.
I still haven’t finished Fallout 3 but have decided to get back on the main quest so expect some more reactions soon! Once I finish the main game then I’m planning to get all three DLC packs as well.