Space Opera

Pre-order bonuses are a recently (at least here in North America) thought out idea for video game marketing that I have come to love. For five dollars down, you too can pick up your own personal bit of video game swag. Most of the swag is worth the five dollars by itself!

Lately I have found myself broke once again (so all those loans we took out for the wedding have to be repaid? I see...) and unable to pick up some of the more stellar games out there. One of those games happens to be Xenosaga 2.

It is no big secret that the original Xenogears is my favorite game of all time, and while Episode 1 of Xenosaga had its flaws, it still endeared itself to my heart. One of the problems with a game series as robust as the Xeno series is that in order to truly remember all of the subtle nuances of the game, you must either have a photographic memory, replay the game before the next one's release, or pre-order the game at EB thereby scoring yourself a free update DVD!

Not just any DVD either. The DVD I received for the pre-order is packed with four and a half hours of cut-scenes that play out exactly like a movie. I brought it out yesterday before me and Dianne fell asleep and even Dianne was captivated by what is essentially a collection of video game cut-scenes.

That is what I love so much about the Xeno series. They are truly attempting to blur the lines between movie and game, enticing us with a brilliant storyline and then padding it out with a well put-together game. Now I know Xenosaga has its faults, but the combination of intertwined, mysterious plot, haunting yet exciting music, and RPG goodness has really garnered my interest.

With that being said, I have a few conclusions. One, I really am enjoying the direction that Xenosaga is taking the RPG genre and I hope other developers follow suite. Second, Namco, you are my hero; it is rare to find a company that truly seems to care about what their fans want. Last, I don't care what it takes (recycling old bottles and cans, scraping out the car ashtray, pillaging the couch cushions), I will somehow find the means to play Xenosaga 2.

Screens (Courtesy of RPGamer)

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 2.23.2005

Video Game Websites

I am not sure exactly how forthcoming I have been regarding my current career, but should you not already know I am a degree certified web programmer. Basically I sit around all day turning one designer's madness, or a client's dream into code that can be easily read by a web browser such as the one you are currently using.

Being that a good 8 hours (at least!) of my day revolve around working on the Internet, I find myself becoming more and more of a web coniseour. Where one might find a certain website to be intriguing and well laid out, there is a good chance that I find it cluttered and poorly put together.

It is not really my fault, I have simply worked so hard to perfect my abilities and worked with so many amazing professionals that these days nothing short of amazing will impress me on the Internet.

Now, gaming truly lends itself to the web. Let's face it, a good majority of gamers find themselves fairly web savvy. PR people know this and therefore abuse the web for its mass marketing appeal. It has reached the point where individual game websites (I am talking actual corporate game websites, not sites devoted to games) have reached the point where they surpass even movie websites in terms of cool functionality and stunning visuals.

Sadly, where one might succeed, too many others fail. With this in mind, I would like to present a developer's opinion on what makes or breaks a good game website these days (once again, I am talking corporate sites, not fan or news sites).

"Do" List (What to do to make your site succeed)

• First and foremost, DO add in cool extras to the web browser. I myself visit corporate sites almost exclusively for this reason, I love a good quality wallpaper or some nice screenshots.
• Do include some trailer footage for your game. Let's face it, game commercials tend to showcase all of the FMV a game might contain and go very lightly on actualy gameplay. I want to see the game in action, hook me up!
• Include some cool features. Some of the most amazing sites I have seen of late (mentioned below) have had mini-games embedded within the site itself. Progressing further into the game gets you downloadable extras. Awesome!
• Do support your fan's needs to build their own fan based websites. Supply a package containing some hi-res artwork and screenshots for your fans (Namco is GREAT with this), they will love you for it!
• Make your site as seach capable as possible. I don't know how many times I have searched for the official website of a game, only to be bombarded by fan sites. Put a little effort into carefully setting up the verbiage contained within your site and you should do fine.
• Do run contests! I love winning stuff, and I am not the only one...

"Do Not" List (How to really piss off your fan base)

• Do not create sites with really huge, beautiful images and then host them on a super slow server and not optimize them. Images can ALWAYS be optimized to make them faster and a fast server is a no-brainer. Nothing annoys me more than a slow loading site, and I have high-speed Internet!
• Do not bog down the site with boring information I do not need. I have a super short attention span on the web, summarize everything I need to know; and do it quickly.
• If you are going to create games and such for your site, please do not make the Flash so top heavy that every time I press a button it takes me 30 seconds to load. Chances are by the time it finishes, I will be gone.
• If you are going to provide music on the website, then please default it to "Off". And if you must default it to "On", then MAKE SURE you give me the option to turn it off. I browse a lot of sites at work, and if I forget to turn off my speakers, well, the boss hates the music to Suikoden IV...
• Do not make any mini-games available through the site too difficult or too long. I don't have a lot of time to check out the entire site, if the game cannot be finished in 5 - 10 minutes, I never will finish it. Same thing for difficulty. I don't want to have to think very hard to earn that last wallpaper...

So now that I have finished compiling what I believe works and does not work, here are some examples of existing sites.

Site Analysis

Xenosaga 2

The Xenosaga 2 site does many things right with a few major annoyances. This is a very nice looking site with a cool mini-game and tons of nice wallpapers and extras to collect. It is also very nicely populated with excellent information that is summarized beautifully. On the negative side however, it contains flash work that takes forever in between pages and contains a mini-game that I was unable to finish in a short amount of time.

Suikoden IV

This site drives me nuts. First off, it immediately hits me with some pretty loud music. My boss was not impressed. I managed to turn it off, but sadly was still confronted by sound effects every time I click a link. NOT work friendly. The next thing that bugs me is the complete lack of wallpapers or cool downloads; something that should be a necessity. Thankfully it does contain some pretty neat navigation, so it is not a total loss...

Metroid Prime 2

The Metroid Prime 2 site rocks. Nintendo has some FANTASTIC developers in their employ. This site has it all, cool graphics, fun mini-games, great rewards; the entire package is here. Highly recommended.

Wario Ware

Another amazing site filled with mini-games galore and tons of fun downloads. I am going to quit now with the Nintendo sites, because they mostly all rock. They serve as a pinnacle of what websites can achieve.

Star Ocean 3

Not a bad site really, but the whole uber long loading flash and too much music kind of turns me off. Nice looking site though with some good, if not great, extras.

To Conclude

I could really go on and one with examples, but I think I have sort of made my point. As gaming continues to evolve, so to will the websites associated with said games. Developers and PR people alike need to remember that the better they treat their fans, the more we will support them.

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 2.23.2005

Hardware

Well, after 5 years of fantastic gaming, my first generation PS2 has finally given up the ghost. It's not like I did not see the inevitable coming. I have been encountering disc read errors for quite some time now, probably just over a year. The system gradually started hating on certain games. Xenosaga, with its dual layered DVD format, was the first to go followed closely by Star Ocean 3. It had recently made something of a comeback with Phantom Brave but finally keeled over in anguish over attempting to load Suikoden IV.

Now the fact that my PS2 is finally destroyed is quite frustrating, but not altogether unexpected. Sony has a terrible hardware track record and I knew that eventually I would have to upgrade. The part about the whole experience that pisses me off however, is that the PS2 did not make it until the next generation which is likely to be backwards compatible. My original PSX is pretty much thrashed, but it made it, kicking and screaming, all the way until the PS2 came out. Sadly, Sony has truly let me down this time...

The ironic part of this whole experience is that I now have to skip out on getting a PSP on launch day due to several reasons. First off, I now have to shell out $180 (Canadian) to pick up the new slim (and sexy) PS2; that money was originally reserved for my PSP on launch day. Secondly, I am truly disheartened about buying a Sony product on launch day. Not only are there no games I am at all interested in for the launch, there aren't even any on the close horizon! Gran Tourismo should be neat, but I am an RPG gamer, I demand my anime goodness. Until Tales of Eternia is released I have no need for a PSP...

Not only is the intial line-up looking kind of sad, I think I will truly benefit from waiting. I have heard rumors of Sony saying that they will upgrade parts of the PSP such as the battery over time to make it more functional. So those who buy in first get screwed? I find it interesting that even though the launch systems in Japan are spitting discs like ninja stars, there will still very likely be a shortage of PSPs at launch. Why do people line-up to get a swift kick in the ass?

What happened to Sony? They generally create high profile hardware. I am shopping for a TV for my bedroom right now and the only brands me and Dianne will even consider are Sony and Toshiba. What does that tell you? Obviously Sony possesses the necessary skills to put together a quality product, so why do they obviously create a below par piece of hardware for the gamers out there? Is it because our PSPs will all be breaking down right around the time they create a slightly better version of the PSP, right near the product life cycle, thus forcing us to buy another system? I for one am not amused...

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 2.9.2005

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