The Blog that Noone Reads

Yesterday, at Microsoft’s E3 media briefing, they announced a completely new interface for the XBox 360. It’s a bit disappointing to me, actually. It seems a whole lot like the kind of unoriginal, “me too” crap I’d come to expect from Microsoft, but not Microsoft Games division. First of all, they’ve dropped the “blades” interface which I rather liked. They’ve also dropped the gamer image in favor of an “avatar.” The first thing that comes to mind is “what happens to the skins and gamer pictures that users have payed real money for?”

The new “avatars” feature sure seems a whole lot like Nintendo’s Mii functionality. The major difference is that Microsoft’s version seems to be much less flexible. It looks like you’ll be buying new outfits to customize your characters. So, the gamer pictures you just purchased are now unusable, but Microsoft is generously providing new worthless content for you to buy. I never actually spent money on this content, but it’s very upsetting to see Microsoft just nuke paid content without providing the user with any options.

The one feature I’m happy to see as part of the new update is integration with Netflix. It will be nice to have an easy way to use the Netflix streaming functionality on my TV.

Over the weekend, my brother brought over the new Metal Gear Solid in the 4th and final (so we’re told) attempt to get me to appreciate the franchise. It worked. I really have not been able to enjoy any of the previous games. Something about sneaking games tends to just frustrate rather than entertain me. After a few rounds of sneak, get caught, fight, reset… I just lose it and start shooting up the place. The problem has been that it was completely impossible to make progress in many sneaking games with this method. In MGS4, you could theoretically blast your way though it all. This freedom actually makes the sneaking components much more compelling to me. So much so, in fact, that I am actually enjoying the sneaking component.

I’m at the beginning of the third act of the game now, and it’s calling to me. I really wish I had another day of weekend to just plant myself in front of the thing and complete the game. The level of polish and the pure breadth of the possibilities is totally compelling.

I can’t give the game a completely positive review, though. The online component, particularly the process involved in getting into a game, is horrid. Let me explain:

• Launch the game
• Select “Metal Gear Online”
• Wait for yet another install process
• Find out I need to install a patch to the system software
• Exit the game
• Launch system updater
• Wait for download
• Click through several pages of crap
• Wait for install process
• Wait for system reboot
• Launch the game
• Select “Metal Gear Online”
• Wait for game to update itself
• Exit the game
• Launch the game
• Select “Metal Gear Online”
• Read through horrible description of the grueling process of creating a user account
• Fill out registration form using an embedded web browser including:
  • Two different usernames with different naming rules
  • Two different passwords with different rules, each entered twice
  • Email address (entered twice)
  • Basic name, number, and address info
• Close embedded browser
• Enter username and password (don’t forget which ones)
• Suffer through “tips” on every page of the character setup process (these are necessary because you would otherwise have no fucking clue how to use this interface)
• Create your character. Don’t mess up. You can only create one without paying money.
• Recreate your friends list, as this game doesn’t use the system wide friends lists
• Dig through several menus to find your friends and find the game they’re in on the games list
• Attempt to join the game, and hope it works
• Play, if you’re not too tired

This appears to be basically par for the course on the PS3. I have to say, it’s pretty appalling, especially compared to its competitor. Most of my online play happens on my XBox 360, where the friends list is pervasive across every game and even voice chat works seamlessly across titles. One the XBox, I can accept a game invite from anywhere on the system, including other games or DVDs. The system will actually ask for the correct disc and then, upon insertion, take me directly to the game lobby where my friend is.

The experience of trying to play online severely detracts from my enjoyment of it. Once you’re in a game, it’s fun and seems to suffer little from lag. The surprising lack of polish in the online experience is bafflingly contrasting to the glossy sheen of the single player experience. Based on the merit of the single player content alone I highly recommend anyone who owns a Planet Earth player give this game a test drive. Even if you aren’t a fan of the series, you may find something to like in this game. The online component is interesting if you can get to the meat of it, but you have to really want it.

Ralph Koster wrote a guest post for today’s Penny Arcade. It’s way interesting:

Games are made out of smaller games – turtles all the way down, until you hit the game that is so trivial and stupid it isn’t deserving of the name. In an MMO, we nest games pretty deep, because some games are short-term and some are long-term. In something like WoW, the smallest games are things like “hit Heal on time.” Then you get ‘kill the foozle,” and above that “kill a hell of a lot of foozles” and above that “make yourself stronger by picking the right gear” and in some cases “make your guild stronger” and so on.

Halo 3 dropped last night at midnight. I went to sleep straight after work so I could stay up and play it and not be too tired. So far, I’m really enjoying the game. It looks fantastic on my screen. The new weapons and vehicles are good and seem well balanced. The grav hammer is way fun. I want to go home and play it. Stupid job.

Major Nelson just announced some new content for Crackdown. This game is already a prime example of just how great the XBox 360 and Xbox Live are. Over the last year, Microsoft has been trying to create a space where additional game content has value. They went though some bumpy times, releasing some basically worthless stuff at outrageous prices, but they seem to be reaching a place where they know what is reasonable to charge for and what is not. What they’re doing with Crackdown is giving out some real, valuable new content and some general game enhancements for free. At the same time, they’re releasing a some premium content that includes new weapons, vehicles, and, more importantly, game play modes and multi-player friendly mini-games.

What better, if you play with someone who has payed for the premium content, it’s enabled for you while you’re in the game. This is a great idea for everyone. It’s a great way to sell the content, since players are more likely to purchase the content if they’ve enjoyed playing it with a friend. At the same time, as the user, if (when) I purchase this content, I’ll be able to enjoy it with my friends who are less likely to shell out for it. This is of great importance to me because the content has little to no value otherwise, since I only play this game in multi-player mode, and only with people who don’t tend to purchase additional content.

From the Bungie website:

The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6 th at 11:59 PM PDT. That means that folks who purchased specially marked copies of Crackdown, or won a spot in the Beta through the “Rule of Three” or other regional promotions, will be able to log into their Xbox Live Gold accounts, download and play the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta and enjoy an early peek at the multiplayer aspect of the game.

I just watched the new trailer. It’s all very exciting. The graphics improvements are massive, though, that’s not really what interests me. To me, graphics are like frosting. They’re worthless unless the product itself is delicious. There are so many interesting new features. I can’t wait to try it out.