The end is near (for PC gaming)

Got myself a PS3. Going to a console feels a bit like a betrayal of my PC gaming past, but it was unavoidable. It was just a matter of time...

Since the release of the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii, the PC gaming scene has been visibly affected. There are so many signs: games that come very late to PC (e.g.: GTA) or never do, multi-platform games that come out solid on the consoles but with severe quality issues on the PC (Flatout, Call Of Duty), Top 10 sales almost exclusively made of console titles, stores dominated by all the console titles with a little corner for the PC games, etc.

I wish it wasn't so. Console gaming is great (I'm very happy with my purchase), but it is not perfect. For example, I think it is ridiculous to play a First Person Shooter without a mouse. Also, where the PC joined gamers, the consoles divide them. I can't play with all my gamer friends--I am restricted to play with those on the PS3 (sorry, Francisco, Matthew, and others!)

In summary, the PS3 is awesome, but a PC used to be better...

Magic has arrived to XBox Live

And not a moment too soon. It's been a long time since I wished to get Magic: The Gathering onto XBox live. It seemed like a perfect game to be part of the Arcade collection. Should not require a huge download, could be sold for a pretty low price and, more importantly, could be one of the most addictive games on the platform. Like I am not already addicted to Magic: The Gathering... I've been playing the game, both physical and electronic for quite sometime now. ;-)

So how does Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers fare? Well... the developers of the title had their job made hard by the fact that there is already an excellent title out there for the PC. Magic Online has already been around for quite sometime and it's hard, if not impossible, not to draw comparisons between the two. So this review will make several of those. So let's get this thing going, usual like/dislike format:

Liked

• Magic! 'nough said! This is *the* card game you should try. The developers were able to get this working pretty well with the title. Nice to have the console do all the rule enforcing for you.
• Graphics are pretty nice (although this is also a downside, see below). Cards look pretty decent, liked the zoom in feature to read card details.

Did not like

• Animations can get old. There are controls to speed up some flow of the game but often I wish I could speed them up even more.
• Inspecting the cards on the board can be a challenge. The most immediate are easy to zoom in and read but if you want to read your opponent's cards on the board that becomes a bit harder, harder to select and zoom in.
  
• First and foremost, Magic is about building your own deck. The game mechanics is fun and there are a ton of nuances that make it a surprising and involving game but the majority of the fun is to get to build the "killer deck" the one you know by heart, the one you balance to do just exactly what you want it to do. And with that is also a lot of picking the right deck for the right opponent. This XBox version provides an extremely limited deck editing capability and that, more than anything else, makes what could be an excellent game into an ok game. The game limits your deck tweaking to adding or not cards you won in each match to your other, unchangeable cards. You end up, in essence, playing with canned decks. That's a disappointment. The PC version is superior in every way as far as deck editing is concerned presenting all the freedom to combine your cards in every way, shape or form. Strike one.
  
• Marketplace. In my perspective the greatest lost opportunity ever. Everyone that has ever played Magic knows that to build your perfect deck you buy more decks and combine the cards. XBox Marketplace could be a great platform to allow you to buy more decks (and make a nice profit in the process for the developer and MS). Nope. Not here, at least not for now...again, hope they add that soon. Another point in favor of the PC version I'm afraid. You can buy decks online, even the more recent editions, and integrate them into your collection. Strike two.
  
• Trading. Another pretty important part of the game. Trade your cards with others. Get the *exact ones* you want that way. Not a sniff of that on the XBox version, have my doubts it will ever get to be there. The PC version has even a parallel currency for that. Competition tickets. You can effectively get all the cards you want if you take the time to look for them. Strike three.

So what is the final verdict? It seems to me that this is a huge missed opportunity for much more. I still like the game (since I do love Magic: The Gathering) and I bought it in a heartbeat but I do think that if you're to play Magic you are much better off with the PC version. I sincerely hope this is a success for XBox live and that developers and MS start aiming a bit higher and adding the missing features. I will, for one, surely be willing to pay for them.

3 stars and a hope for more to come.

iPhone and John Carmack

Here's an interesting interview with John Carmack. He talks about the various Doom and Quake games and how they may work on the various versions of iPhone hardware.

Rock Band: Pearl Jam

Man, it's getting hard to keep track of all this "new" music games ... I mean, there are gazillions of bands out there ... this should keep Activision and Harmonix busy for quite a while ;-)
So Pearl Jam (remember them?) decided to get a piece of the action by teaming up with Harmonix to have their own version of Rock Band. In an effort to try to be original, they're letting people vote on the songs that'll be in the game. I'm sure this makes the American Idol crowd happy :-)

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Now, answer this question if you can: which game has more expansions, The Sims or Guitar Hero? :-)
Can you spell m-i-l-k-t-h-e-f-r-a-n-c-h-i-s-e? Hey, Activision, we're still waiting for GH: Resistência! LOL
Oh, BTW Guitar Hero 5.0 and other music-based games were also announced.

iFighter full version is out

Quick update: if you enjoyed iFighter Lite, you can now pick up the full version at the App Store.

Cuboid Crazy...

I have been checking a few of the inexpensive games out on the playstation network, such as pain, and magic ball, both of which are awesome... I recently checked out cuboid, and found myself addicted to the simple puzzle game, the graphics are great, and it is a simple game to learn. I think it is a great game for the $10. In fact, I think it is a must have for the $10. I think all 3 games I mentioned are $10 each, so if you have a ps3, log onto the PSN, and purchase some great cheap games...

iFighter: interview with James Hui

iFighter Lite is currently one of the top free games at the App Store and is getting great reviews around the Web. We were fortunate to reach iFighter's lead programmer Mr. James Hui and to score an interview with him.

In this interview we learn about his journey from Apple ][ to iPhone OS 3.0, the pitfalls of cross-continent software development, how the App Store could be improved, and much more.

Q: How did EpicForce get started, where is the company located, and how big is it?

It all started with a game called CubicMan that I did for the 1.1.4 jailbroken iPhones by using the SDK toolchain. We later formed a hobbyist group to bring that to the official SDK. The artist from that group, a good friend of mine, and I then founded EpicForce to make it our full time career! Officially there are only 2 of us. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and my partner is in Hong Kong. Another friend will join us next month and the company will be incorporated in Hong Kong. We are expanding and will start recruiting extra helping hands!

Q: How did you, personally, get started in software in general and in game programming in particular?

I learned programming in order to make games back in the Apple ][ days! It was always a dream of mine to be a game developer, but I didn't join the game industry straightaway after graduation. It was a "dream come true" for me when I joined my previous employer Firemint (Flight Control!!! and Real Racing, etc...) few years ago. Lots of talented people there, especially the owner Mr. Rob Murray! I learned lots of tricks from them :)

Q: Outside of work what are some of your main interests? Do you have any free time for your own gaming? What is your favorite non-iPhone game at this time?

I spend most my spare time with my the family, when not coding. I'm married with two boys and that's good enough to keep me busy after work! I only have time for casual games nowadays and my favorites at the moment are World of Goo and a Flash game called Samorost 2.

Q: What aspect of game development appeals to you the most?

I believe it's the creative side of it that's most appealing, and the satisfaction to see other people playing your creations! As gamers ourselves, we just try to make games that we would like to play and experience. We don't have a particular guideline to follow.

Q: What attracted you to the iPhone as a gaming platform?

Firstly, the App Store! I have to thank Apple to make the App Store so approachable for everyone, even for a small developer like us!

The iPhone SDK is also nice! It's just superb when comparing to other mobile platforms, such as the Symbian SDK. Of course, iPhone and iPod Touch themselves are very attractive too. So cool to have them and to show off to friends ;)

Q: EpicForce's first iPhone game, ChocChocPop, was very well received, with top positions at the store and award nominations. In business terms, how successful was ChocChocPop?

I would say ChocChocPop was doing just OK. It generated just enough income for us to survive in the past few months for the development of iFighter.

Q: In the sense of a technical "post mortem", what was the major learning experience with ChocChocPop?

It was during the development of ChocChocPop that we put together our programming framework which was based on OpenGL ES. The major advantage of our framework was that it's kind of cross platform. We can make a Windows build from the same source and give it to people who have no iPhone to play-test the game, but of course they can't experience the accelerometer control ;)

And now we built iFighter on top of that framework.

Q: You must be very proud of iFighter. Congratulations on the million downloads of the Lite version. Where did the idea for iFighter come from? Why did you want to develop a WWII-themed shooter for the iPhone?

Thank you! We all like to play old school shoot'em ups and we thought it'd be nice to make one for the iPhone. My partner is the artist + game designer and he came up with the idea of WWII theme, which was similar to the background of the classic 1942.

Q: Roughly, how big is the iFighter project when you add up programming, art, testing, etc?

We have spent almost 6 months on it, 1 artist, 1 full-time programmer + 1 part-time programmer. Since we're not working in the same office, we wasted some time with bad communication. If we were in one office, we would have done it in 4 months.

Q: Every review (including ours) praises the use of the accelerator in the game. Did you develop any special sensor-related routines or algorithms?

We don't have any special algorithms. Maybe it's just the fine tuning magic numbers that we put in that make it works well.

Q: Do you have any tips or tricks to share with iFighter players out there trying to beat their own best scores?

I personally prefer to use the accelerometer control with finger tapping to make it firing a little faster than the default auto-firing rate.

Q: Both ChocChocPop and iFighter Lite have a very polished look and feel to it. This is expected from the big companies, but not frequent in smaller companies. How do you explain the level of quality in your games? What would be your advice for others trying to accomplish the same?

Yes, our goal is to make the best quality games as best we can. Our artist is a perfectionist and we love to pay attention to the details. I've learned the magic word from my 4 years+ experience at Firemint: "polish!" This is what you need to make your games stand out from others.

Q: After writing ChocChocPop and iFighter, if you could ask Apple to improve one thing in the SDK, hardware, store, or other, what would it be?

The SDK is great, especially the upcoming 3.0, lots of promising new features.

As far as the App Store goes, there is just too much stuff out there. I think Apple needs to have some sort of filtering system to get this situation under control. People can just write a 'Hello World' app and sell it for $0.99.

Q: Have you started planning your next iPhone title? Can you tell us what gaming genre it will be or reveal anything else?

Yes, we have a few ideas floating around and we haven't decided exactly what will be the next one yet. And also, since we are getting some extra people next month, we may have more than one project going at the same time. Personally, I'd like to make another action title myself.

Thank you very much, Mr. James Hui. We look forward to the new missions in the full version of iFighter!

The latest games on my iPod Touch

Every day new games arrive at the App Store. Here I review the latest ones I have downloaded to my iPod: Zen Bound Lite, Edge Lite, Wolfenstein 3D, and iFighter Lite.

I picked these to download because of the good reviews they are getting. However, as you will see below, I didn't like them all equally.

(As the name "Lite" indicates, I tried the free versions when available. This doesn't affect my reviews because I am not commenting on length of game, or variety of maps, or progressively increasing levels of complexity, or anything like that.)

Zen Bound Lite

Putting rope around this carved dog, I feel myself enlightened already...

I like original games, but this one is just silly. The objective of the game is to wrap objects with rope... I don't know why some people love this game so much. I do like the name "Zen Bound", though.

Edge Lite

I'm currently stuck on this spot...

Like Zen Bound, this is also one of those games that exploits the visceral experience of direct manipulation of a virtual world (through touch or through balance). Playing this simple game with keys, mouse, or gamepad wouldn't be half as fun.

The objective of this game is to make a cube tumble along a series of geometric and animated obstacles.

It takes a little bit to get used to cube-physics, but, once you get the mechanics of the movement figured out, you can appreciate how rich and varied the maps are. This game has that "let's try it again" quality that you see in classics like Tetris or Pac-Man. Speaking of classics...

Wolfenstein 3D

"Pressing" those touch buttons on the lower corners is cumbersome.

I was able to grab a couple of screen shots before getting too low on health.

When I saw this game announced (thanks, Pedro!), I knew I had to buy it and try it. Who can forget?... It was 1992, games were being release for MS-DOS, and not all PC's had a sound card...

Unfortunately, nostalgia is the main selling point in this iPod Touch port of the game. Even though there are many possible configurations for the controls, mixing the inertia sensors and touch sensors in various way, it never really stops feeling awkward. To play a first person shooter, nothing beats a mouse.

Still, if you want to relive the first moment you got surprised by a digital attack dog coming out of nowhere and jumping at you, you really can't go wrong here.

iFighter Lite

Pressing the "bomb" button brings in the big plane (B-17?) on the left.

This unpretentious game gets everything right: it's smooth, looks great, it's easy to control, and it provides immediate gratification.

iFighter is a conventional vertical shooter reminiscent of so many arcade games of the '80s. From your top-down perspective, you move your fighter plane left, right, up, and down, shoot other planes and ground-based forces, call in a bomber to wipe out many targets at once, all while the ground scrolls down under you.

Everything is very polished: control, graphics, sound, animations, interface, etc. It is one demo that will make you want to buy the full game.

Any other games I should try on my iPod?

Essential games for your iPhone

Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Do I need to say more? Here's some project background, as well as design and programming notes from id's CTO John Carmack himself. Happy fragging!

A Rube Goldberg machine with 'Crayon Physics'

The player of Crayon Physics in the video below did a great job. For starters, he created a super elaborate solution for this puzzle, way beyond what was needed to solve it. But then, he also put together a great video that does more than just showing his final solution.


Crayon Physics.... One possible solution from Highway6 on Vimeo.

Obviously, the PC version and a mouse was used for the above solution. That level of detail would be harder (but not impossible) to achieve with the iPhone / iPod Touch and a fat finger.

Review of "Asphalt 4: Elite Racing" for the iPhone / iPod Touch

Right now, the top 4 road racing games on the Apple AppStore are Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, Moto Chaser, Cro-Mag Rally, and Asphalt 4: Elite Racing.

I am very happy with Moto Chaser and have finished it some time ago. I have not been interested in buying Nitro Kart 3D or Cro-Mag Rally because they look too cartoonish (just personal preference). I have recently bought Asphalt 4 ($5.99) and these are my impressions about it.

Likes:

• A cool-looking intro movie.
  
• It loads quickly (just skip the movie!).
  
• Very complete racing game with several game modes: regular race, cop chase, etc.
  
• Good graphics, fast pace, smooth scenery rendering.
  
• Night and day racing. Weather effects such as snow.
  
• Option of racing either cars or motorcycles. In your garage you can pick from many licensed models (BMW, Aston Martin, Kawasaki, etc.)
  
• Three alternative control modes that explore the touch screen and inertia sensors in different ways.
  
• You can play either in landscape mode or in portrait mode.
  
• Lots of garage options to tune (pimp?) your ride.
  
• Multi-player over Wi-fi (but I haven't been able to try it yet).
  

Dislikes:

• The graphics of the intro movie may set your expectations too high compared to the graphics of the actual game.
  
• As far as physics realism goes, Asphalt 4 is all the way to the "arcade" side of the arcade-to-simulator spectrum.
  
• The car-tuning options are pointless given the low level of physics realism in the simulation.
  
• [Edited] There is something wrong with the steering or with the visual feedback of the steering. It is either lack of smoothness or linearity or maybe a problem of delay. This can be seen with any of the three control methods.
  
• The inclusion of "pit girls" is sophomoric.
  

In conclusion and on balance, Asphalt 4 is, for me, still an improvement over Moto Chaser and is worth the six dollars. However, I hope this game is not indicative of the best the iPhone / iPod Touch hardware can support in terms of racing simulation realism. I have faith that this amazing gaming platform can offer something even better in the future.

If you think you're good at Guitar Hero ...

You may wanna try this. 'Cause real guitars have strings, not keys like pianos ;-) Too bad is expensive :-(

Games for Windows Live is now Free!

No more excuses! The Live experience is now free for Games for Windows players...We just need to find a decent game that works properly across platforms to finally have a Gamer Connect gang online challenge! :-)

For details on this, see the About Live post.

Oops...except for the ones among us that are PS3 bound.... ;-)

Super Monkey Ball and Moonlight Mahjong Lite

One week after the 2.0 firmware update, the iPhone is the new gaming platform everyone is talking about. Many of the news coming out of E3 are about it, for example.

Since the opening of the App Store, I have tried a few of the free and of the paid games available and am very pleased. The graphics, the sound, and the touch and/or accelerometer controls all work very well. I downloaded also a couple of other free games that managed to find a spot in the top 25 in the early days but were really just proof-of-concept kind of demos. I have quickly deleted those from my iPod and from my iTunes. Below is a screenshot with the games I have on my iPhone.



For me, the paid game that better illustrates the capabilities of the platform is Super Monkey Ball from Sega. It's a game at the level of something you would find on a Wii system. Carefully tilting the iPhone or iPod you guide a ball through several obstacles trying not to fall off the platform. It reminded me a lot of Rub a Dub (PS3), a game we like a lot here at GamerConnect.




As for free games, I am having the most fun with Moonlight Mahjong Lite:



90% of the fun comes from the Mahjong game itself, a game I first saw on the PC sometime in the late eighties. 10% comes from the touch controls. This is the application I have seen on the iPod with the most "multi-touch gesture" interactions. Besides tap to pick tiles, no less than four different gestures are available to position the board on the screen: "single finger drag" (moves in the XY plane), "two finger drag" (rotates on the X and Y axes), "two finger twist" (rotates in the Z axis), and "two finger pinch or expand" (zoom in and out).



If I wanted to get really fancy, the only thing I would add to Moonlight Mahjong Lite is the ability to reshuffle the board by shaking my iPod...

Just a few days old, the iPhone as a gaming platform is already fulfilling pretty much all the expectations and predictions of those who were waiting for it. I am, however, still kind of waiting for a Pac-man controlled by accelerometer. For some reason, the two Namco titles on the App Store seem to have preferred the use of a virtual touch D-pad.

Race Driver: GRID

Here I am racing a Ford Mustang, a Formula 1000 car, and a Subaru Impreza.



For a racing simulator, the game gets everything right: many cars and tracks, realistic physics, great graphics and sound, support for multiplayer, etc. If you only care for jumps and crashes, stick to Flatout, but if you like to race, you can't go wrong with GRID.

Spore Creature Creator

Can you think of any other game where the character-creation functionality was released before the actual game as a mini game of its own?

That's how awesome Spore is going to be: just the creature editor by itself is enough fun to exist as a standalone download and to jump to number one on the sales charts.

1Up Show: GTA IV

Best episode ever. Smart discussion of GTA IV.

Cross-platform play for Call of Duty 5?

One can only wish... If/when you have any information, add it to the comments.

Call of Duty 5 (thanks Danny for the heads-up).

Cross-platform play.

Call of Duty 5 cross-platform play (no relevant hits on Google).

I Hate you Rockstar!

It was May the 9th when I bid "The Orange Box" and "Frontlines Fuel of War" farewell, hopped into the car and drove to the game store....While I felt bad about "The Orange Box", I did not shed a tear for "Frontlines Fuel of War" (theme for other reviews I guess) but, you see, filled with guilt of wanting to go get another game, I usually rationalize it by doing a trade...Either way I either get a "free" game in exchange for games I am no longer playing or at the very least I get a very cheap one...I had (almost) promised myself *not* to get GTA IV. The advertised violence and mature content actually turned off my appetite for the game and, to be honest, the game theme did not seem very enticing to me...I actually was convinced I would not like the game that much...probably would find it even boring...oh boy, was I setting myself up for a surprise...I gave in...I went into the store, traded in, ran out of the store (kind of like Niko Belic running free after a hit). Kept it on the shelve unopened for a day still trying to resist...and then... I hate you Rockstar....The moment I popped it into the XBox 360 tray, I got hooked....badly.

GTA IV is an amazing game...and worth every 5 stars review it has been getting!
Let me go into the details. Usual GammerConnect style. Likes and dislikes:
Disclaimers: To set the record straight, my experiences are on the XBox 360 version of the game, I have been playing single player only and have about 26% game completion...

Liked:

• It's all about detail, and wow, does GTA IV has detail!
  
• Besides supporting a whole slew of vehicle radio stations, filled with music and talk shows in some cases (!), the integration between the game and the outside world is really, really cool and innovative. The fact that you can call ZIT-555-0100 to get a message with the title of the song that is currently playing, and get that music information sent to Rockstar's Social Club is cool...that fact that the social club is also integrated into Amazon to allow you to easily buy the musics you called in online in DRM free MP3s is even cooler! Way cool! When games start to have this in-game, real world integration, I get fascinated...Halo 3 (see here)and Tiger Woods 08 (see here) already started doing that, GTA IV takes it to next level!
• TV shows: just turn on your in-game TV and start watching the shows...these guys actually put some funny content in there! Detail, detail, detail...
• Go to the cabaret and watch the shows...again...pretty cool!
• On internet cafes, you can actually browse, get/send emails, read newspapers, cool...
• On GTA IV, you can drive anything: cars, bikes, helis, trash trucks! Driving *is* fun! Each vehicle has it's driving characteristics and it actually makes a difference if you're driving a top-of-the-line super powered car or a little compact car! It really does...even the GPS in the cars are different...top of the line actually talk to you, give you heads-up info...amazing...and then there's taxis...and police cars with on-board computers...and other cars going out of their way to let you through when you turn on the police lights....All damage to your car is clearly visible....from bullet holes in your hood to scratches in the paint to pieces of the car just plain falling apart...nice.
• This is one of those sandbox games where you can go anywhere...and they do it really nice...Even the initially locked islands are actually accessible...you *can* go there by jumping through the police barriers....you'll have the whole police force after you though...And it *is* fun just to drive/fly around and watch the details...in a last gamerconnect game night, we spent easily 4 hours just watching each other play, noticing the details and pretty much wreaking havoc throughout the city...it's that kind of game where it is just as fun to play it as to watch it being played!
• People can actually be interacted with...Just try stealing a car from some characters and they will fight back...just go postal and start shooting anyone and you can actually do damage to everyone...and get a response by the police force for that matter...they will get called and will show up!
• The story is actually interesting enough to make me want to play some more to learn what is going to happen!
• The fighting mechanics are actually pretty good...from the covering system and blind fire (that were so popular in Gears of War), to some decent auto aiming, or free aiming, pretty varied weapon choices, all with different effects.

Disliked:

• Cutscenes characters authenticity...After seeing Mass Effect, the characters in GTA IV seem a bit too rag doll like for my taste...On the other hand the voice acting is really nice.
• GTA IV does have some collision issues. You often see your character running through walls.
• Too addictive! ;-) (even stopped playing CoD 4 for this!).

Bottom line: Wow....I will not be surprised to see this be the game of the year....And I have not even started to explore all aspects of the single player game let alone the multiplayer.

Like I mentioned before in passing, the gamerconnect group got together recently and we spent a good amount of time playing GTA IV...It definitely passed the "group play" test...

5 stars on all fronts!