Deceitful marketing

The British have taken a stance against the deceitful marketing of videogames. According to Edge Online: "After receiving complaints claiming Call of Duty 2 and Big Red One television adverts intentionally portrayed scenes 'superior to that of the game itself,' the Advertising Standards Authority has ordered that Activision pull the ads from air."

I find this questionable. As one of the commenters on the Edge site implies, everybody knows you can't trust marketing. People don't actually believe that the new shampoo would make them look like supermodels. They just like to link themselves emotionally to that idea of a supermodel. It's the same with games, I think. Of course it could be that those unfamiliar with the state of current graphics engines just might think that they would get the level of visual experience that's in the ads that have now been banned, but I do maintain that it's meant to be about the feel of the scene portrayed, not the quality of graphics. I was thrilled by the ad, knowing full well that the game wouldn't be of the same quality visually.

There was a recent Battlefield 2 ad, also shot in first person. It was live footage, using real actors. As the line continues to blur between reality and CGI imagery, when does it become objectionable to use real people to portray a game world in an ad?

Most gamers seem to think it's wrong to use CGI footage in place of in-game footage when displaying a game for demonstration purposes or advertising. How come it's any worse when it's shown from the same angle as the actual game? Once again I'm inclined to think that non-gamers just don't understand the field well enough to make rulings on the things that matter to us.

Not that the hardcore would ever admit that game advertising has any effect on them.

EA leads the way

According to the industry business site Next Generation, Electronic Arts is slashing the prices of highly anticipated current-gen titles by a considerable 20% in an attempt to fight dwindling software sales. That means a drop to $39 USD from the common $50 USD. This is great news, I think, and about high time, too.

While I am something of a videogame enthusiast, I really can't afford to pay 50-60€ ($58-70 USD) per title, which is what the retailers are asking around here. Which means I buy almost all of my games secondhand or from sales. In the case of secondhand titles, the publisher is getting nothing from my purchase. In the case of sales, the retailer is losing out. Then there is online shopping, which is almost guaranteed to be cheaper, but I really, really like to browse the games and buy them personally.

Now, if the $40 USD would translate to 33€ in Europe, I actually would buy games brand new. Not all the time, but a lot more often. (It's more likely we'll see these new EA titles at around 40-45€, though.) As it stands, I think I've only bought Baten Kaitos, Animal Crossing, Burnout 3 and Morrowind at full price, out of several dozen console games.

Many would think it surprising that EA is coming up with this price drop. It's certainly getting the attention. A while back, Take 2 dropped the price of its 2K Sports line to well below (29€) the EA standard to get a slice of the pie. I don't know how that worked out, but since they've been doing it for some time now, I guess it did the trick.

We'll see how this turns out. EA must believe in this since they're subjecting their heaviest current-gen hitters to this treatment, but don't forget that their next-gen titles are still carrying the hefty $60 USD (64€) price tag.

Update: Play.com seems to carry Black for the usual 49€. Not much improvement there, then.

Doom 3

I very rarely play new games. Most of the time I hunt for bargains (which is also much more exciting than buying new games). Which is why I bought Doom 3 for the Xbox only last night, at an agreeable 15€. There were quite a few other cheap games on the "preowned" shelf, too, but Doom 3's been intriguing me ever since it was announced.

I haven't played the game on the PC, simply because my PC setup is no gaming rig. (Hell, it's barely a Windows rig.) But the game does feel at home on the Xbox. With the lights down, headphone volume up and gaze fixated on the big TV screen, I began a very scary trip to Mars.

I'm no Doom-phile. I've played the original a lot way back when it was released, even completed the shareware Doom on the N-Gage, and I liked the movie adaptation rather a lot. But I had no expectations going in, apart from being entertained.

After the mediocre intro sequence, I was almost floored by the actual in-game graphics. I had no idea the Xbox was capable of sights such as these (no, I haven't played Riddick). The lighting in itself is so much more than in any other game I've seen. In Splinter Cell and Thief, the lighting can be very cool and it's factored strongly into the gameplay, but it doesn't feel real the way it does in Doom. It's like the environment is sculpted from light and shadow. The flashlight feels like your very personal friend, something you're extremely hesitant to ever put down. And then there's something running at you in the pitch-black, only illuminated by your firearm's muzzle flash. Simply because of fearing the dark, I spent roughly half of my game-time standing with my back to the wall, steeling my resolve to approach a T-junction, listening very carefully for any approaching footsteps. I haven't been this scared since System Shock 2.

Apart from lighting, the models all feel solid and convincing. They may not be super-detailed, but they've got polygons where it counts. I haven't seen any illusion-shattering clipping problems or tearing. Much of the setting's weight is gained from the superb way it's bump-mapped. The same technique was used in Thief: Deadly Shadows and Deus Ex: Invisible War, for instance, but it felt really tacked-on in those titles. In Doom, it just works, adding immeasurably to the overall effect.

The presentation, overall, is very slick, down to menu design and ambient audio. There are very fews breaks to the experience and the loading times are short. The game just doesn't let you go. Yes, the PDA (inventory and log) screen does take you away from the action, but even then there's the option to put the PDA down and listen to the audio logs you find while exploring the setting. Even the sound is mixed so that it feels like it's playing from a PDA you're carrying at your side, as opposed to the basic stereo mix of the PDA view playback!

And the details are so rich. The way the monsters throw you around with their physical attacks, the way your flashlight sways a little, the manner in which your aim is thrown off by every shot you fire... it all adds to the experience.

I've only played the game for a couple of hours up to now, but I'm eager to continue as long as I don't play very late at night. I suspect it's a disposable ride, but with rides like this, I'm not complaining.

The one thing that grates me are the lousy weapon sounds. It really doesn't sound at all like you're unleashing destruction at your mortal enemies. Which is kind of odd considering that the rest of the audio design is top-notch.

Update: Whereas the regular weapons have unsatisfactory audio, the plasma gun is pretty much spoiled by weak effects. The visual thrill just isn't there, and it sounds like you're using a kids' toy gun. Weak! Then again, the "Mach 2" chaingun is very cool, as is the obligatory franchise crowd-pleaser, the chainsaw.

Also, the outdoor sections on the surface of Mars are tres neat.

Sports

It's a shame Neversoft can't make the Tony Hawk's series single player experience anywhere near as fun as the good old "Horse" two-player gamemode. If you're unfamiliar with Horse, it's played by taking turns. The first one up sets a benchmark with a single trick (or more likely, a combo), then the second player tries to beat it. The loser gets a letter, the first one to spell "horse" loses. I played Horse with my brother last evening, it was good fun as always. I was beaten once my challenger learned his way around the Gamecube pad.

Another cool two-player event is the Amped 2 mode in which you claim trick spots (jumps, rails) by landing the best trick on them. The ride is short, the spots are plentiful and you've got time to claim them over and over again.

Speaking of Amped 2, I finally (after over a year of grinding) secured my primary avatar the coveted top-eight position in the game's fake leaderboard. After an hour more fo riding, it's only four more spots to go and I have beaten the game. There was a time I thought I'd never get to top ten, so steep was the challenge after around the 20th position. What's the deal with the blind, 100-meter drops to a two meters wide target area, huh? Regardless, I've played three characters to the mid-20s. It's a really cool game, shame that the sequel on the Xbox 360 doesn't sound like it'd appeal to me.

Recent gaming

I've been at the bongos every now and then, seeking those gold crests and the very elusive platinum ones. Jungle Beat is simply a good ame, even if it does get to your stamina very quickly. I hope the bosses don't get much harder than Karate Kong. My arms were cramping from the desperate clapping.

Ikaruga is still not completed. I can get to the last boss on "easy", though, and most of it doesn't feel so difficult anymore. I'm tempted to move on to "normal" once I can clear the game, but maybe it would be a better idea to hone my skills until I can complete it with just one credit on "easy".

Yesterday I played some Metroid Prime after a long while. I'd been stuck in the game for the first time. Turns out I just hadn't thought of clearing the ice in a tunnel in the Phendrana Drifts with missiles... I got the Wave beam, which should open up quite a few doors all over the play area. I remain puzzled about my completion rate, which is merely 19%, while I think I've seen quite a bit more of the game up to now. I believe there are some items I haven't noticed, just waiting to be grabbed up (Spiderball, where art thou). The game remains one of the best designed ones in my library, and one of the best-looking.

Once again I thank Gamefaqs.com. The game would've likely been abandoned at this point without a FAQ to consult.

Then there's been PBEM (play by email) Space Empires IV (yes, a PC game). We're playing SEIV among four friends and a bunch of computer-controlled empires. It's one of those games where you're certain that you're making huge mistakes all the time, but you won't know it until a challenger comes kicking in your door, probably two months down the line in real-time.

One quick go

I've noticed lately that I rarely find the time or energy to sit down with a game for hours on end. Baten Kaitos must've been the latest game to get that treatment and since the wife hogged it, I haven't found time to continue it, despite being very enthusiastic about it.

I am very much into Ikaruga, OutRun 2 and beat 'em ups (Soul Calibur II foremost). I think this is because I can play a meaningful game in just ten minutes. A successful OutRun run takes just under five minutes, as do a couple of rounds of Soul Calibur. Donkey Konga you can only play for five minutes at a time - I was about to give up because of physical exhaustion when first fighting Karate Kong.

Another cool thing about these quick games is that you don't have to think about them. When playing an RPG or strategy game, you need to keep the game in your mind, merely put on shelf while you're not playing. That can be tiring.

There are some games which absolutely require more than an hour of gametime. With these games, I essentially need to arrange a date with the game, plan the session in advance, informing my wife that this evening I'm going to play a game and nothing else. While I feel this is somewhat silly, it does lend a nice air of... expectation to the event.

Games which require this treatment are Madden NFL, the Metal Gear Solid series and, say, Morrowind (if only for the loading times). But of course, in practice you do this kind of thing pretty rarely, no more than once a week, with the possible exception of weekends.

I don't know if this is a good thing or not. On the one hand I miss really delving into a game and burning away hours upon hours in a game world, but on the other hand I like the way these less time-consuming games don't take over my life. Although having played games all my life, I highly suspect this is merely a phase and a time will come when I'm exclusively into more demanding games, again... like King Of Dragon Pass, which I haven't still tried out, or I-War 2, which I really want to get into, but haven't found the time or energy yet.

Edit: quickie games aren't the sole property of the consoles, of course. On the PC I fancy Mutant Storm, Parsec47, MAME and the zany Typing Of The Dead, which is only made more hilarious by its awkward technical merits.

Blood Bowl

Last year I played Games Workshop's Blood Bowl with a group. I had a lousy Lizardman team in this fantasy take on American football. The group's interest waned and we stopped playing some time ago. However, I was still interested in the game, so I was keen to try out a Java application that enabled me to play Blood Bowl with my friends over the Internet. You can find a link here.

The game is delightfully fast and easy. I imagine it might be a tad confusing for a newcomer, but we had a blast. I don't know whether we'll actually start to keep records on team experience and match results and everything all over again, but the actual play is fun. Recommended to all old fans of the game. You can find leagues online.

I've played a handful of matches via the Java version now, losing all of them. My orcs really keep getting pushed around by the elves. I've always hated the elf teams, they seem to have no weaknesses. It does feel very good to stomp on them when they're down, though. The game works very well, we haven't encountered any bugs. If only the team upkeep could be automated, too, without having to resort to the manual at all.

Bookshelf: And The Ass Saw The Angel

Over my holiday I read a book by Nick Cave which I got for Christmas from a friend. I had seen it on another friend's bookshelf, but never got around to loan it. Which is just as well, I hate returning (good) books to their owners. I read the Finnish edition, Kun aasintamma näki Herran enkelin.

Cave's writing is very fluid. The story drags in mud and ugly (very ugly) things, but the writing rolls on independent of its subject matter. I wouldn't recommend this to everybody, but it's very much worth checking out. It feels good to read, even if the portrayed proceedings make you feel ill. It's all about one setting and one overall feeling to it, which pull the novel together much in the way of some of my other favorites, like James Ellroy's American Tabloid. It's more about the way it's told than the story itself.

Luxor, Egypt

I was away on a two-week vacation to Luxor, Egypt. It was my first actual paid vacation. I'm 27, so I guess I'm a bit late to that train, but it did feel good and did the recharging trick pretty well. It's the middle of the winter and very dark in Finland. It was good to get some sun in and be really away from the day to day.

I did miss videogames out there. I played some Dweller on the phone, but nothing more. Once I got sick and had to stay in for a couple of days, in the very cold apartment (+14 centigrade), I was longing for some multiplayer Soul Calibur II or Dead Or Alive 3. Something relaxing to take the mind off the boredom and the cold. I read the books I had along before craving for videogames, though, so I guess I'm not that hopeless. But I sure hope I had brought some card games along! Like Mythos, Pokémon and INWO - I was quite a bit into the collectible card game thing back when they were new.

Our group was mostly students of Egyptology. We didn't have a paid guide, but the trip was organized by a former guide. We got to know some interesting people over there and two weeks of free time is quite enough to get to know a small city like Luxor (150K inhabitants). Some culture shock did set in, in the end, but I got to like the atmosphere a lot before that.

When I came back, I played some Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, but that's been about it. Too much quality TV occupying the free time right now: backlogs of Shield, Survivor and Desperate Housewives. Deadwood and Galactica open this week in Finland, too, so lots of tube time heading my way.

Bookshelf: Century Rain

I picked up Alastair Reynold's novel Century Rain at the airport. I quite like the author; I'm still going through his earlier effort, Absolution Gap. (And haven't read the latest, Pushing Ice.)

Century Rain doesn't take place in the same Revelation Space continuum as the body of his work does. It is much simpler in terms of plot complexity and characters than his space opera outings are.

The book was a good holiday read, easily digested. It didn't always feel convincing, though: it seemed to lack a character or two and there was a bit of running on empty. The portrayal of Paris in the 1950s didn't really hold, either. I felt the author was dropping French names to sound authoritative, without success. The future stuff held some crunchy bits, but overall I was a little underwhelmed. Not a bad effort, but I was expecting more. In the end, it feels like the author needed a break.