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A Crazy Week in Gaming

By JJWeatherman January 27, 2011 11 Comments

It seems that a lot has happened this week. Between receiving more info about the 3DS, the PSP NGP announcement, and some big-budget demos being released, there's a lot to get excited about this week. Not to mention the reminder of how many awesome games are going to be shipping this year courtesy of Ahmad_Metallic. Maybe this is a bad idea, but I thought I'd just condense everything into a single blog. Ya know, save the e-trees.

3DS vs. PSP NGP

Sony's NGP announcement is the biggest story of the week, and for good reason. New console/handheld announcements always give me that tingly feeling. It's a sudden combination of my gamer excitement and my tech enthusiast excitement that can't be simply described. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about though. So yeah, the next PSP was revealed, and you can get all the juicy details by reading either Jeff's Giant Bomb article, or the more tech-heavy Tested article by Matt Braga. I recommend checking out Braga's article.

In one word: slick

One of the more controversial additions to the NGP is it's dual analog sticks. Some people think it's going to finally give them proper gaming on a handheld, while others think that so called "proper gaming" has no place on a handheld, and dual analog sticks are a waste of time. I'm personally excited about them. The lack of dual analog was seemingly the most criticized aspect of the initial PSP design. The way I see it, this will finally allow handheld games to play in a way in which we consider "right". I know that the argument is that people don't want to play console games on a handheld when they could play them on a 50" LCD TV. That's a valid point, but there are counters to that argument too; the biggest one being that you aren't always at home. Playing console-style games between classes, on a road-trip, or on an airplane seems perfectly plausible. I guess my point is that I'm not going to be caught up in the crowd that has grown to be very opposed to the notion of more traditional gaming on the go. This is the first time a handheld appears to have provided the tools to make this a possibility, and that's very exciting.

Color me skeptical when it comes to the second touch surface

Another stand-out feature of the NGP is the dual touch screens on both the front and back of the system. Is that not crazy? Both are capacitive which are unquestionably of higher quality than the resistive screen the 3DS will sport. Not to mention the front screen will display double the resolution of the first PSP models. That right there is pretty exciting. My biggest question mark is how they will end up using that rear touch surface. You're supposed to be able to make gestures to climb vines in Uncharted? Seems extremely sketchy to me. If nothing else though, having two capacitive touch screens is very interesting from a tech perspective. I'm not sure that's ever been done before.

Wireless N capabilities, GPS, and 3G connectivity are certainly nice features to be packing as well. Then there's the motion control tech. Throw in a quad-core GPU capable of producing graphics near the level of a PS3, and my mouth is officially watering. There's a hell of a lot of technology packed into such a small package; it's really incredible. A tweet from friendly neighborhood Gary Whitta said it best when it comes to today's technology:

People like to say "where's my jetpack?" It's your smartphone. 10 years ago just the idea of a device that capable would've blown your mind.

It's so true. People take current technology for granted. From purely a tech perspective, the PSP NGP is one of the most exciting devices I've seen in a long time.

Two hundred and forty-nine U.S. dollars you say?

On the other side of the fence is Nintendo's offering, the 3DS. Recently a bunch of new info was made public. All of that can be read about via your favorite Italian's article on the subject, here. Since the 3DS has been a known quantity for quite some time, I'm sure you all know the ins and outs of it by now. If there is one particular feature that excites me on the 3DS though, it's virtual reality stuff that the gang brought up on the Bombcast. That stuff seems extremely unique and definitely is something I want to try. The addition of a single analog stick should allow for greater control, but still not to the level of a PSP NGP. I'm sure the proven stylus controls will make a difference here though. Everyone knows that the 3DS looks very cool already, and at the recently announced price of $250, it's looking like a bargain compared to the speculated prices of the PSP NGP.

These are very different devices. One will release in a couple of months, while the other may not even be out until 2012 outside of Japan. They are targeting different audiences, and really couldn't be much different from each other. For these reasons, I'm not sure there can ever be a winner and a loser. One may fail, and one may succeed, but they're such different products with such different ideas. At the moment, I plan on owning them both.

Bulletstorm Demo

Ohai, Cliffy. I didn't see you there. I'm... not feelin' your game.

Oh, Bulletstorm. I knew what I was getting into before I got into you. Somehow though, I expected to like you a lot more than I did. I may sound like the anti-gamer for what I'm about to say, but so be it. I really don't like games that pit the player against clocks and score systems as a primary means of fun and excitement. Scores are great, I love scores, but when they become the blatant focus of every mission in a video game, I get really turned off. I'm not sure how many of you played The Club, but that is exactly what I'm talking about. The game (from what I could gather via the demo) revolves around you running from the beginning of a level to the end racking up score by shooting guys in the head and doing rolls and maneuvers to keep a long combo. That was one of the most disappointing demos I had ever played since I had no idea that this system was the crux of the game. I had the same feeling after playing the Bulletstorm demo. Though I admittedly wasn't quite as disappointed since the art style and design is top-notch in Bulletstorm. The shooting feels OK too, but if the whole concept of the game is focused squarely on racking up score, then I'm not down with that at all. I can't be the only one that feels this way, can I? I like games like Prince of Persia (2008) where you just roam this beautifully designed world and explore. I like RPGs like Dragon age, or Mass Effect. I love me some sports games, especially NBA games. I even love rhythm games, like Rock Band, to death. Rock Band has a fairly heavy emphasis on score, but the main draw is the feeling of playing the music itself (at least for me). I'm getting rambly here, but my point is that score-centric games turn me off like no other. It feels weird saying that since so many early video games depended so heavily on scores, but that's just not what I enjoy about video games anymore.

The attempted humor of the game is the other huge turn-off for me. It can be amusing at times, but it just feels way too childish about 90% of the time. It's not the type of humor that I'm into at all. I'm sure other people will like it; my cousin I'm sure will love it. The guys on the Quick Look seemed to like it as well. It's just not my thing though, and I accept that. I don't want to talk about this game any longer. :P

Crysis 2 Demo

Crysis 2 seems to have substance backing up its looks

My experience with Crysis as a series is fairly slim. I played probably an hour of the original on a friends capable gaming PC. Yo, that game looks gooood. The obvious aside, it seemed really neat. The suit powers were a bit overwhelming as I just jumped into a save game. Everything about it seemed really intense though. It had a much different feel from something like Halo. It felt... less contained. It's hard to describe, really. I liked it though. The only problem was that I've never owned a capable gaming PC in my entire life. I've always been just behind the curve. For that reason, I never got to spend any proper time with Crysis or Crysis Warhead. I was understandably excited then when I heard the game was coming to consoles. Knowing the reputation of the first games and how much horsepower they took to run, I wasn't sure how that would translate. That is until the demo was released a couple of days ago now. In short: I really like it. There are freezing issues, but I think it's safe to assume that problem will be fixed when a retail product ships.

The action seems to hit my pleasure spot perfectly. As mentioned in the Quick Look, it has a lot of similarities with the recent Call of Duty games. As everyone knows though, those are great games. I've been a bit burned out of the style lately, but Crysis 2 twists that style just a little bit, and I like how it turned out. It works on the gamepad by limiting your options, but that just makes it feel more manageable. In a multiplayer setting, more manageable is key. I love all of the over the top moves you can pull off such as the slide move and the boosted jumps. It all just gives me kind of a "Halo meets CoD" vibe. I'm sure part of my enthusiasm comes from the fact that I've put these games on the back-burner as of late, but it really seems like the kind of fast-paced, crazy shooter that I could really get into.

Brad brought up in the Quick Look how he was cautiously optimistic about the game due to him not knowing how the single player would be handled. I think this is an important point as well. I didn't play enough of the first Crysis games to really get a feel for the way the story was handled, but from what Brad was saying it seemed much more free and open. That sounds compelling. If it is just another Call of Duty style level-based progression system, then I would find that to be maybe a bit bland. This demo definitely did what was meant to do though. I'm now very interested in Crysis 2, and I'll be playing quite a bit more of the demo.

The Year In Games

As previously mentioned, Ahmad_Metallic has created a list of a ton of notable releases this year. It's fun to look over the list and figure out how many games you won't be able to afford this year. I've already made a nice little wishlist in the accompanying Wishlist Thread. You can check out which games I plan to buy this year, or sometime down the road, over in that thread. I'll give you a sneak-peak: Yo I'm gonna buy some BioWare games.

If you would like to explain to me why I'm wrong about any of these topics (or why I'm right!), please do. I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

<3
--JJWeatherman

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