Jack Nilssen is

THE
HEALTHY
GAMER

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

• Publisher:  Ubisoft, 2003
• Lead Designer:  Jordan Michener
• System:  XBOX
• Genre:  Action/Puzzle

Synopsis

You, a prince, mess up and cause a huge catastrophe that only you can set to rights.

Nice dagger, Larry, but does it alter the flow of time itself?  Didn’t think so.

Features

• Robust combat system
• The ability to play with time itself
• Puzzles
• Gorgeous environments and music

No, no, not the god-king of Persia, we want the Prince.
Complaints

• The camera sometimes doesn’t point exactly where you want it
• The NPC audio often faded badly, making it hard to follow some of the storyline
• Boring combat and enemies that get in the way of the puzzles

Prepare to repeat this while waiting for the next puzzle to happen.
Praise

• Excellent story, with a satisfying ending

Control Command

• Moderately intuitive

Curse Factor

• Longshoreman

Cinematic Experience

• David Fincher

Time to Complete

•  8 hours, 6 minutes

Jack Says

Pretty nice little game.  As a puzzle fanatic, this one tickled my brain just enough to keep me going.  During these extended sessions that led to the game’s actual completion, I was reminded why I put it down, unfinished, back in ’96: the combat.

While the animations, movements, and variety of attacks are nice, the enemies are not.  They come in spawn waves of 3 to 4, and there are times when I had to defend a computer-controlled (read: stupid) character.  Prior to learning a little tricky workaround, I was constantly dying during the combat phases, or my little computer friend got her ass kicked.  There was one movement that I found that could kill 95% of the enemies, and once I mastered this the rest of the battles were a breeze.

If the game had an option where the opening cataclysm had simply killed all the temple inhabitants and left me alone to puzzle my way through the environment, I would have chosen it.

PoP has its moments, though, like when you fly off a wall and nail a monster, then back-flip over to finished off another baddie.  It’s pure cinematic action, and something that many action games since have tried to emulate.

The sense of satisfaction I felt at the end was palpable.  The story concludes very nicely, and a host of value-added videos and pictures unlocks.

I wonder if Ubisoft was trying to get more female gamers attracted by this title.  If you’ve played through more than 25% of the game, you’ll see what I mean as the Prince’s costume changes.

I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for an enjoyable “Arabian Nights” experience, and it scores well on my “Cinematic Experience” scale.

Video games to make tons of cash this year. That is all.

Gamespot reports NPD results of game and game-related sales for August 2007 approaching 1 billion US dollars, and forecasts 18 billion US dollars of game-industry lucre for 2007.

Halo 2

• Developer: Bungie
• Lead Designer: Jason Jones
• System: XBOX
• Genre: First-person Shooter

Synopsis

The Master Chief returns to earth for the medals and well-deserved R&R when all hell breaks loose.

Features

• Play both sides of the conflict
• Dual-wield weapons
• Same tight control scheme of Halo: CE

Complaints

• It’s the Matrix: Reloaded of the Halo series

What do these three things have in common?

Praise

• Excellent cinematics
• Amazing art design
• Gripping high science fiction story
• Improved everything that was good in Halo: CE

Control Command

• Played Halo: CE or any other post-Halo FPS? Just like coming home
• Never played an FPS? Might as well cut your teeth on this one

Curse Factor

• Choirboy

Cinematic Experience

• The Wachowski Brothers with a dash of Spielburg

Time to Complete

• 10+ hours

Jack Says

Oh great. Another Halo? I do seem to remember them saying something about there being a galactic-spanning weapons system from the first game.

Oh crap, Earth is being invaded?

Two guns? Double the fun!

Uh, was that the ending? I wasn’t done!

As with the previous Halo, I found myself running past hordes of enemies in pursuit of the next cut-scene cinematic. The team at Bungie seems to have spent a bit more time working the cameras and animations, and the result is an even more satisfying show.

Gameplay? Run, gun, sometimes get into a vehicle and gun some more. There are a few interesting variations on the weapons, and no real problems with using them.

The artistic direction in this second show was a marked improvement on the first one. I complained about the bland and repetitive hallways of Halo: CE in my review, and those complaints immediately ceased upon starting my run through Halo 2.

Sure, there were a few obvious cut-and-paste levels here, but they made much more sense this time around, and were minor filler between sprawling, gorgeous, and wide-open environments.

The thing with the first two Halo games is that the campaigns are linear. I simply ran in a straight line from one cut-scene to the next. Occasionally I’d be locked in an area until I killed all the enemies, but these speed-bumps were few and far between.

I liken these games to “movies you can play”. The story redeems the somewhat mindless shooting and button pressing that makes up the missions, and I wasn’t totally disappointed at the ending.

Halo is regarded by its fans as a sacred treasure among first-person shooters, and the tight controls, varied weaponry, and open environments are fair testament to their faith.

Now bring on Halo 3 and let me finish the fight.

The most profitable things come in threes…

I Wish They All Could Be California Gamers

The ongoing debate surrounding violent content in video games and the legislation thereof got a bit louder this week in the United States.

Governor California Arnold Schwarzenegger has submitted an appeal to the decision to strike down a law that would have criminalized the sale of M-rated games to minors.

I agree that there needs to be a system in place to protect children from the wicked contents of evil games.  I think the argument comparing violent games and violent books grows ever-thinner as the realism factor of gaming rises.  The fact of the matter is that games are an active entertainment medium, rather than passive, and that the viewer participates in and manipulates the source material, rather than just absorbing it.

Video games can be considered training devices.  While there are other extenuating factors that contribute to a user’s instability and susceptibility to the effects of them, the point is that there needs to be a barrier to entry, and possibly not only for children, but for unstable individuals as well.

A five-day evaluation period to buy a violent video game, much like the cool-down system for buying a handgun in the United States?  Just one of several possible futures members of the games industry have to consider.

The Entertainment Software Association would like Arnold to foot the bill for their legal costs in fighting the flawed proposed law.

Fight Night Round 3

• Publisher: EA Sports 2006
• Lead Designer: EA Sports
• System: XBOX 360
• Genre: Sport Violence

Synopsis

Go boxing in one of the most realistic boxing games ever made.

Can you tell the difference?

Features

• Unique control design that takes full advantage of dual analogue sticks
• Create a personalized boxer with a mid-level model editor and then further customize with in-game purchases like gloves and trunks
• Fight historic champions
• Play a full career mode, right up to retirement

Of course, you don’t have to retire…

Complaints

• Burger King? Dodge? Get your product placements out of my game!
• Since when can’t Ali dodge a punch?
• Why is my career “rival” the biggest glass jaw in all of boxingdom?
• Could these training games be any easier/harder?
• The controls couldn’t have been less intuitive (after playing twice)
• Where the hell are my belts?

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Praise

• Graphics may induce sudden and violent visual orgasms
• Hot, tattooed, and realistically endowed ring girls
• The controls couldn’t have been more intuitive (after finishing the career grind)

Control Command

• Training Required

Curse Factor

• Elementary School Playground

Cinematic Experience

• Made-for-TV

Time to Complete

• 15+ hours

Jack Says

“Holy crap, I just smacked the yellow off of that guy’s teeth, and I could actually see the yellow hit the canvas and splatter!”

I hadn’t really played a boxing game since the classic Mike Tyson’s Super Punch-Out for the old Nintendo system, so this was pretty much an acid-bath to the eyes and central nervous system.

The graphics are phenomenal. It’s real. The physics models are not so. Sometimes I’d land a knockout punch that looked like it broke the opponent’s neck, and often they hit the canvas a little too ragdollish, but usually that was exactly what I needed after a hard day of work.

The gameplay itself has decent balance: once I learned the controls well I could honestly feel like I was “floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee”. It was very satisfying to put together combos off of weaves and ducks, and to see the opponents weakening and finally dropping their guards enough for me to batter them into submission.

However, the AI didn’t really have any distinctive variety to it. Beat one, I’d pretty much beaten them all. And there was never a single knockdown KO, no matter how badly I mauled the opponent before sending him to the canvas. I could bank on them getting up at least twice before going away permanently.

I played a full career mode, ending up with a record one win greater than the greatest of all time’s, so that was satisfying. Nothing special unlocks in the game, unless I can call extra useless trunks and shoes “special”.

The game actually made me sweat, as it was often hard work to stay focused enough to box an opponent into submission.

Overall, FNR3 offers the best boxing experience in a video game I’ve had, but this would be one best taken in light and short doses over a long period of time.

Momma said “knock you out“!

Manhunt 2, follow-up to Rockstar’s 2003 brutal and violent Manhunt, has been downgraded from an Adults Only (AO) rating to a Mature rating, and will see release across multiple gaming platforms.

As it stood with an AO rating, it was the equivalent of toxic waste to the major publishers: they simply wouldn’t touch it. Some countries went as far as banning the game.

I believe this was a very clever marketing ploy by Rockstar, who didn’t have to pay a cent for the free press-storm the game received during the fallout of the ESRB’s AO rating’s announcement.

Software is inherently modular: a designer can insert and delete things at will. The ratings board system (much like that for movies) is also flexible: they set guidelines, which allows the designers to produce content that either push, surpass, or fall under these guidelines.

So from a business perspective, it makes perfect sense to create a version of software that exceeds the standards, submit to the ratings board, wait for the inevitable media frenzy, then resubmit a version without the envelope-pushing content.

How many times this would work is debatable, and Rockstar already enjoys a high-profile for being a controversial producer.

Let’s see how the actual sales pan out, as that should be a fair indication of the success of their “marketing strategy”.

Gamasutra’s announcement regarding the downgrade (as Rockstar’s news site is Flash based and doesn’t allow direct links to news items).

1up.com’s take on the same story.

Gamespot follows up on a related story of the Netherlands allowing the release of the uncut version of Manhunt 2.

Halo: Combat Evolved

• Developer: Bungie, 2001
• Lead Designer: Jason Jones
• System: XBOX
• Genre: First-person Shooter

Synopsis

Space marines investigate ancient space device during intergalactic conflict, mayhem ensues.

Not this marine…

Features

• The first First-Person Shooter (FPS) to effectively use a console control scheme (mostly due to the expanded buttons and dual stick system of the XBOX)
• First console game with local area network play
• Well-implemented weapons system
• 2-player co-operative play
• Vehicular combat

… nor these ones…

Complaints

• Repetitive level design
• Repetitive level design
• Repetitive level design

“Sir, it’s another featureless corridor!”

Praise

• Fantastic sci-fi story
• Visceral combat with a variety of reasonably intelligent opponents
• Gorgeous graphics
• Nice implementation of the combat system, both the run-and-gun and the vehicular-based action

Control Command

• 2007: Easy
• 2001: WTF I’ve never done anything like this before

Curse Factor

• A Bit of Blasphemy

Cinematic Experience

• Stanley Kubrik with a dash of Ridley Scott

Time to Complete

• 6 hours

Jack Says

“Wait, I’ve run through this corridor before. Like, 9 times before. And there’s going to be, yep, an enemy right here. That I can run past. Okay, on to the next section. Oh, another bland corridor? Surprise, surprise.  Just show me the damn cinematic already.”

That pretty much sums up Halo for me. I abandoned this game after only a few plays back in 2001 because the control scheme was not worth learning. I ran back to my PC and it’s glorious mouse/keyboard control and didn’t look back for years. Little did I know that the HALO controls would become de facto industry standard for all console shooters.

Now that I’ve had the time and space to develop my console FPS skills to the point that I can at least properly aim and walk at the same time, I’ve found a bit of appreciation for this old classic.

There’s a story in between these long, bland hallway runs, in much the same way that there’s a story in the old Wild West films, despite the fact that they rode past the same cactus 10 times on the way to Dodge City. I found that the story alone was enough to keep me running and gunning for the hours it took to complete the whole cycle, and the final run down the last hallway, with the concluding cinematic, made it all worthwhile.

I don’t recommend playing this now for the shooting, or the levels, which have been far surpassed by modern equivalents. But the story is superb, and well-worth the boredom-inducing marathon runs through obviously cut-and-pasted sections of mundane hallways and corridors.

I suppose I could have just read the novels, but at least now I can say, “yeah, I’ve beaten Halo”.

No, you are… The Master Chief! I think I would’ve rather been Hicks…

Shock, the ‘Shock

The big news this week has been the release of Ken Levine’s spiritual successor to 1999’s System Shock 2: Bioshock.

I’ve only played the demonstration version for XBOX 360, so I have no real comments at this time other than this game is almost everything I want from an adventure game.

I say almost because while the world that Mr. Levine has created may be open-ended, drop-dead gorgeous, and filled with gut-wrenching atmosphere, the player is still forced to take a role, rather than build one. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing at all wrong with this, it’s just that I’ve done it so many times now I’m a bit tired of it.

But the Big Game Story is not about my opinion, it’s about everyone else’s:

MSNBC asks if Bioshock is the best game of 2007.

Gamespot calls Bioshock (for XBOX 360) “an amazing game you’ll want to explore… but a little too easy.”

The Evil Avatar community say “OMFG”, in both negative and positive ways. (Warning, this link may contain spoilers, trolls, and honest opinions.)

Printing Money

Wizards of the Coast has finally gone around and announced the impending release of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition.

Planning… something Wizards may not quite have down.

A publishing company needs to make money, particularly one stuck in the dying world of print publishing, and especially one publishing Role-Playing Game (RPG) manuals.

I really hope this works well for Wizards, and I’m sure they’ll continue to produce high-quality texts and related products. However, it does still come across as, “everything you know is wrong, and you spent all your money on broken stuff, but we’re producing fixed stuff that you can buy at a premium price.”

The announcement caused such a stir in the online community that the Wizards site shut down for a while. I suppose this could have been due to the sudden excitement of the announcement, but the cynic in me knows that there was probably a higher volume of rage than joy in that reaction.

Wizards developers talk about 4th Edition on the official podcast.

The most telling, and disappointing (for me), reality about 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.