Some bad news for Xbox 360 users, Microsoft will raise current Xbox 360 subscription by 1st November 2010. The new price for 1 year subscription is $60, $10 more than previous $50. Monthly rates raises from $8 to $10 and Quarterly rates will be $25 from previous $20.
Like it or not, this bound to happen. Microsoft is a smart company and they probably has researched and realized that current core customer won't be abandoning ship for just $10. Yes, $10 might not be much for some people, but given current economic and competition, it hardly the right time for a price increase. PS3 offers free online play as well as PC. Sure, PSN might not be as robust as Xbox LIVE, but again.. its free.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep won't be available on PSPgo
PSPgo owners is officially become PSP"gownerz" with the news that Kingdom Hearts :Birth by Sleep won't be coming at all to Playstation network, or at least Sony said that there is no plan currently. In other words, PSPgo won't be getting their Kingdom Hearts at all.
Its just the way of saying that Sony and developers are giving up on their "experimental" download only PSPgo. Such a big title like Kingdom Hearts should definitely be available across all PSP platform.
I don't understand whats the fuss for Square Enix not going to make the game available through PSN? The game is finished, and all they got to do is to upload into PSN. Even though PSPgo population is relatively small, it should sell at least couple of thousands downloads for sure.
Well.. Maybe we will never know the reasons, but for time being, just forget your PSPgo will be an ultimate gaming machine, more like ultimate piece of overprice junk.
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Its just the way of saying that Sony and developers are giving up on their "experimental" download only PSPgo. Such a big title like Kingdom Hearts should definitely be available across all PSP platform.
I don't understand whats the fuss for Square Enix not going to make the game available through PSN? The game is finished, and all they got to do is to upload into PSN. Even though PSPgo population is relatively small, it should sell at least couple of thousands downloads for sure.
Well.. Maybe we will never know the reasons, but for time being, just forget your PSPgo will be an ultimate gaming machine, more like ultimate piece of overprice junk.
Read more...
Friday, August 20, 2010
Kane & Lynch 2's story mode is 4 hours long? Is that laziness?
What is your reaction when you learned that Kane & Lynch 2's story mode is only 4 hours long? The word lazy, ridiculous, bad value for money may come across your mind.
Games used to offer much more hours especially JRPG which guarantee you 40+ hours of gameplay. But today's games are much much shorter. I remember when I played Call of Duty 4 single player for the first time. I was surprised that the story only lasted around 10 - 12 hours, but I can accept that CoD 4 multiplayer kept me for a long time. Soon all other games seems to follow through, and it seems its getting shorter and shorter. Splinter Cell: Conviction is only 6 hours long by the way and that is kind of ridiculous.
Shorter gameplay might give a better story telling, good pacing, climax, anti climax and everything. But 4 hours is pushing too hard. I can understand that developer might want to have a better return. Development cost nowadays is much more expensive than it used to be because a game might have a single player part and multiplayer part. Getting a AAA rating games might take couple years. But in the end, customer too should feel the value of money cause game is not cheap also. If developer cannot meet the customer expectation, they won't buy it. developer didn't have a good return, no sequel, and in the end everybody going to lose.
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
Google in quest to beef up its gaming department to compete with Apple
Recently, Google is buying quite a few casual game developers such as Zynga, Playdom, Slide and the latest Ngmoco. It is a no brainer that Google want to push its gaming department like a boy on steroid.
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Comparing to Apple, Android is the closest OS that can beat Apple's OS at the moment. With open platform, Android is gaining market share through other phone brands like Samsung, LG, Motorola, etc. I think Android is so good that phone maker shouldn't be bothered to develop its own OS anymore.
Then Apple App store is great, no doubt about it, but in gaming department, quantity usually exceed quality. Apple itself doesn't develop games internally and rely on third party. With Google buying the top casual games developers, Apple should at least take a look to its gaming department, because gaming can make a difference. You can also see from recent Sony PSP ad that mocks Apple's iPhone gaming. The message is clear, "Sure.. iPhone is a gaming device, but when it comes to game, PSP is still on top of Apple."
Whether gaming is on top of Apple's priority list, it remains to be seen. But the stride of Google is no joke. Zynga, Playdom especially, has been successful in developing games for facebook which attracts a lot of casual players and able to generate some cash from their games. They are quite reputable and doing a good business. By acquiring them, Google is in good position to dive into the gaming market and compete with Apple through its Android market.
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Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sony Ericsson rumored to make Playstation phone based on Android
PlayStation branded phone will be based on the Android 3.0 platform, sport a 3.7 to 4.1 inch WVGA or better resolution screen, (possibly) a 5MP camera and a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU.For controls, the device is said to feature the PlayStation standard d-pad and face buttons, plus a “long touch pad” for analogue controls. Hardware-wise, Engadget describes it as “a cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go”No doubt that current PSP is near the end of its lifetime, and it seems that it is a no brainer to introduce the next PSP. By combining gaming and phone much like the highly successful iPhone, I feel that this is the right move for Sony, because one of the biggest success of gaming in iPhone is the fact that it is always stays within reach of the users to provide instant gaming.
Now the Google's Android platform. I saw Samsung Galaxy S with Android the other day, and I was pretty impressed by it. I think the closest competitor to iPhone's OS is Google's Android. Major phone manufacturer has tried to build their own OS such as Nokia's Symbian or even Blackberry, doesn't even come close when compared to iPhone's software robustness and its successful app store.
Choosing Android as its platform may give Sony a shortcut for their phone OS technology and because Android is an open platform, I might actually see that it will have speedy growth in the near future.
I was let down by PSP go, maybe this time Sony can actually make amendments.
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Friday, August 6, 2010
Casual gamers and games by Gezegond
I decide to post up comment from Gezegond because what he said has some truth.
"Casual Games" like all other things has its ups and downs. Ups, as you mentioned above is that less skilled players can easily play them, and it opens a way for independent developers to sell their games.
However the downs of it, is what scares me. You see, in these times, when casual game's sales are high, they become an illusion.
why? because people start to think: "casual games are cheaper to develop, and sell more. so why even bother a developing a hardcore game?"
That's obviously bad, because casual gamers can learn to play more satisfying, more complex games in time. However, hardcore gamers, who have tasted the joy of hardcore games, can't go back and play casual games. At least not as their main games. To me, casual games are just a relaxing break after a tense hardcore gaming experience.
So right now, casual games are a designer's best bet. We hardcore gamers take one or two of the best games out there (World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Halo, Battlefield, etc.) and practice on those, therefore we won't care about less valuable games. These games are bought by people who have less experience and skills, and therefore won't care about the game's different aspects that much. These people won't really care about the amount of time and money spent when the game is being developed, as long as the game can entertain them for some time.
These people are called casual gamers, and games designed specifically for these people are called casual games. So casual games, are games that are easy and cheap to develop, yet they can entertain people for quite a time.
So what's bad about these "casual games"? Since they're cheap to develop, yet sell a lot, they become a designer's first priority. NDS becomes full of simple games, Wii is built specifically for casual gamers, apple believes that iphone is the best handheld console, since it has so many casual games, simple facebook games are played more than million dollar budget games, PSP creates a section dedicated to casual games called "Minis", and most recently we have Natal and Move, both aimed at casual gamers. (Move is less casual oriented though)
Now let's fast forward some years later, your 10 year old niece have been playing facebook games for a couple of years, now he has become a "skilled player" at these games, he knows everything about them, and he's itching to play a game that's a little more complex. He has now become a "hardcore gamer". However all developer's care about is simple casual games, because in these times, they have proven to be more profitable. What is happening is that these casual gamers are becoming less and less, because no hardcore gamer will ever become a casual gamer. suddenly people will get tired of these "casual games". they want something more complex to do, suddenly casual games stop to sell, so will the casual hardware, and all that money and attention that is put into the casual games will go to waste, and guess what? the video game industry will crash.
Why am I so sure that this will happen? because it has happened before, in the only other generation besides this generation that lasted more that five year, the second generation of video games. Just replace "Atari 2600 cartridges" with "casual games", and you'll find out that this situation has been happened before. And what do they say? History repeats itself.
More Info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
So what is the answer here? I believe it's simple, yet for some reason forgotten.
The answer is: quality level design, plus balanced difficulty levels.
In a game like "Half-Life", player can choose the difficulty in the beginning, so casual gamers can easily choose "beginner skill levels", while skilled players can choose harder difficulties.
Now if the level design is done well, even a player with no previous experience can learn to play the game, and in time, become skilled at it.
As an example, in Half-Life 2, when you first receive your first handgun, the very first opponent you'll see is at an obvious disadvantage, he won't shoot you a lot, and won't move a lot. so the player gets to learn "how to aim". that's an easy task. next opponents are much farther and they move a lot. so the player now needs to learn to "aim better". In time, the non-experienced player will become experienced, just like how you become more skilled the more you play a specific sport.
If a game excels at these, it can be played by both the "hardcore gamers", AND the "casual gamers". These games sell really well (Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are 5th and 6th top selling games on PC), and push the video game industry farther (instead of holding it, like casual games do).
Developers should focus on creating quality games that are easily played by everyone, instead of focusing on a specific group of gamers.
Read more...
"Casual Games" like all other things has its ups and downs. Ups, as you mentioned above is that less skilled players can easily play them, and it opens a way for independent developers to sell their games.
However the downs of it, is what scares me. You see, in these times, when casual game's sales are high, they become an illusion.
why? because people start to think: "casual games are cheaper to develop, and sell more. so why even bother a developing a hardcore game?"
That's obviously bad, because casual gamers can learn to play more satisfying, more complex games in time. However, hardcore gamers, who have tasted the joy of hardcore games, can't go back and play casual games. At least not as their main games. To me, casual games are just a relaxing break after a tense hardcore gaming experience.
So right now, casual games are a designer's best bet. We hardcore gamers take one or two of the best games out there (World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Halo, Battlefield, etc.) and practice on those, therefore we won't care about less valuable games. These games are bought by people who have less experience and skills, and therefore won't care about the game's different aspects that much. These people won't really care about the amount of time and money spent when the game is being developed, as long as the game can entertain them for some time.
These people are called casual gamers, and games designed specifically for these people are called casual games. So casual games, are games that are easy and cheap to develop, yet they can entertain people for quite a time.
So what's bad about these "casual games"? Since they're cheap to develop, yet sell a lot, they become a designer's first priority. NDS becomes full of simple games, Wii is built specifically for casual gamers, apple believes that iphone is the best handheld console, since it has so many casual games, simple facebook games are played more than million dollar budget games, PSP creates a section dedicated to casual games called "Minis", and most recently we have Natal and Move, both aimed at casual gamers. (Move is less casual oriented though)
Now let's fast forward some years later, your 10 year old niece have been playing facebook games for a couple of years, now he has become a "skilled player" at these games, he knows everything about them, and he's itching to play a game that's a little more complex. He has now become a "hardcore gamer". However all developer's care about is simple casual games, because in these times, they have proven to be more profitable. What is happening is that these casual gamers are becoming less and less, because no hardcore gamer will ever become a casual gamer. suddenly people will get tired of these "casual games". they want something more complex to do, suddenly casual games stop to sell, so will the casual hardware, and all that money and attention that is put into the casual games will go to waste, and guess what? the video game industry will crash.
Why am I so sure that this will happen? because it has happened before, in the only other generation besides this generation that lasted more that five year, the second generation of video games. Just replace "Atari 2600 cartridges" with "casual games", and you'll find out that this situation has been happened before. And what do they say? History repeats itself.
More Info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
So what is the answer here? I believe it's simple, yet for some reason forgotten.
The answer is: quality level design, plus balanced difficulty levels.
In a game like "Half-Life", player can choose the difficulty in the beginning, so casual gamers can easily choose "beginner skill levels", while skilled players can choose harder difficulties.
Now if the level design is done well, even a player with no previous experience can learn to play the game, and in time, become skilled at it.
As an example, in Half-Life 2, when you first receive your first handgun, the very first opponent you'll see is at an obvious disadvantage, he won't shoot you a lot, and won't move a lot. so the player gets to learn "how to aim". that's an easy task. next opponents are much farther and they move a lot. so the player now needs to learn to "aim better". In time, the non-experienced player will become experienced, just like how you become more skilled the more you play a specific sport.
If a game excels at these, it can be played by both the "hardcore gamers", AND the "casual gamers". These games sell really well (Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are 5th and 6th top selling games on PC), and push the video game industry farther (instead of holding it, like casual games do).
Developers should focus on creating quality games that are easily played by everyone, instead of focusing on a specific group of gamers.
Read more...
Smart EA lets you play a semi NBA Jam with purchase of NBA Live 11
Good news, NBA Jam, a resurrection of a classic will be coming to PS3 and Xbox 360. The bad news is, it won't be a complete retail game or a downloadable one. To play NBA Jam, you can simply buy NBA Live 11 where you can obtain a code to redeem the game. So this is actually a good thing right? Hold on a moment, the NBA Jam that is offered in PS3 and Xbox 360 is not the complete version. The complete version is still the Wii's.
When asked to EA why they did such thing, they responded that they feel by doing this, people will beforced tempted to try NBA Live 11 and see what kind of change do they made with the new series. Not bad EA, actually it is quite a smart move. NBA Jam cost nothing on PS3 and Xbox 360 because the development cost is covered while doing the Wii's version. By limiting the game from its full version, Wii's can maintain superiority over the PS3's and Xbox 360's. Not to mention forcing NBA Jam lovers to try NBA Live 11.
Bravo EA, not bad. Though I still think its a cheap move, but again.. bravo!!
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When asked to EA why they did such thing, they responded that they feel by doing this, people will be
Bravo EA, not bad. Though I still think its a cheap move, but again.. bravo!!
Read more...
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