QuakeCon was…well, like I said, fun, but with some painful bits.  It had its fair share of good times, but there was also more than enough hooting, drunkeness, and a surprising number of “bros”.  It didn’t help much that our group had little or no preparation beforehand, and the facilities made operating Steam a pain.  The worlds biggest lan-party: great.  Being stuck there without a bed to sleep in at will, a place to hide when it all becomes too much, and not being entirely sure when or where from your next meal will come.  Maybe not as much fun.

Also, read an awesome article about sex in video games, or more specifically how most games rely on what is already a shitty, outdated, and soul-crushing system of sexuality in real life: Women aren’t Vending Machines.

Or basically: instead of being the result of a good relationship and something that happens between two equally interested partners,  sex in games is really fairly often presented as “push button receive bacon”; basically something you trade and barter for one way or another.  Which is, again, shitty in real life and equally shitty in games.  In a lot of instances, I suppose this is a combination of a byproduct of societal “that’s just the way it is” statements combined with the fundamentals of give-and-take game design.  But the funny, and extreme, example in question is the upcoming Alpha Protocol.  Which apparently features a James Bond type main character that can reportedly have sex with every woman in the game.  Which is dodgy in the first place.  There’s no married women?  No lesbians?  No women who just, I don’t know, are full-fledged human beings with feelings and preferences that might, say, exclude Mr. psuedo-Bond from their list?  Nope.  In Alpha Protocol, women exist to have sex with.  That’s just great.

Oh, wait!  I forgot to mention that there’s an achievement for sleeping with every lady in the game.
And I really don’t know what else to say about that.  The level of shit therein is practically self explanatory.

First con ever of any sort for me.  Though this is debatably more a huge LAN party than a con, but hey!  It’s equal parts wondrous and terribly frightening, to be honest.

Carried a bunch of stuff?  Check.  Stood in a line?  Check.  Stood in a line again because I’m an idiot? Cheeeck.

Well, so far really I’d classify it as the gathering and personafication of all the best and worst of our community.  There’s a lot of goodwill here and really an interesting sense of…community.  But at the same time, it’s hard to deny the presence of all your typical internet vices and psuedo-masculine nerdisms.  I hope I can take in s’more of the crowd, maybe even do some…networking?  And give more of an impression here!

Note:  I hit Save Draft instead of Publish before walking around the show floor like a zombie, so here’s a two-day-late post about QuakeCon!

So the rundown goes:

10:30pm-arrive at quake-con

Midnight- gain entrance to the BYOC (bring your own computer)

1:30am- finish setting up my stuff.

4am- leave to go to sleep

8:30am- alarm fails to go off…

12:30pm- wake up

1pm-go to the Brink show…

So I arrive at the brink show feeling a little groggy and in need of a shower, but the guys at Splash Damage managed to wake me up with an impressive display of their game. I love the class based structure of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and brink uses that general structure and throws in customization elements to make you feel like your character is an individual fighting a guerrilla war in the future. The mission objective system looked dynamic pulling you from place to place by enticing you to help your team. While it was a pre-alpha build many parts looked polished. The only thing I want to see more of is the Mirror’s Edge style free-running button that allows you to traverse obstacles with ease, if the level design works with this feature it could be the first time that the nimble infiltrator class actually gets to be nimble.

Keep posted as we continue to muse about whatever the hell it is we are doing here at quake-con, I’m going to find a real place to sleep for the night.

Thats right, your friends at the Other Castle are here live at the Gaylord hotel in Dallas Texas ready to soak up all the super-LAN goodness. We just got set up and yours truly just finished with a very successful round of Team Fortress 2, and while a wait for a few files to finish downloading I’m going to run into a Left 4 Dead game.

Keep up with us for any col updates we can think of and random musings about the biggest LAN from the biggest contiguous state (Alaska shouldn’t count anyway).

The comedy doesn’t seem to stop there, though.

See, it’s not unusual to see terrible ads for browser games on gaming sites.  Usually, of course, they’re along the lines of vague features that may (possibly!) be something resembling elements of a game.  PVP!  Space Combat!  Panda Breeding!  Well, whatever.  These guys have nothing on Evony‘s advertising might:

So is it about strategy or heavy petting? I'm confused.

This is not Photoshopped, people.  This is on the internet.

Call me crazy, but these honestly leave me feeling just a little bit…well, insulted.  Bah!  Me and my junk have no use for browser games about war or pets or fashion boutiques.  But bring the boobies and it is on like donkey kong.

Of course, Plants Vs. Zombies is not one to be outdone by the likes of Evony, no sir!  It was with a great big smile that I was greeted with upon checking up on my beloved Penny Arcade:

I'd hit that play now button.

Oh man.  Oh man oh man.  It’s like one of those teen movie moments.  Someone cue “There She Goes“.

This is probably the best response I could’ve hoped for to a terrible ad campaign like Evony’s.  Plants Vs. Zombies is a fantastic “defense” style game available from Steam, Popcap’s website, and other fine sources.  They even have a free demo available, and a Mac version.  And zombie cleavage!

Transformations

To the blog-mobile!

Racing down the grapevine!  Nippon Ichi, (cult-favorite strategy RPG developers behind the Disgaea series and more) recently released a teaser flyer for what looks to be a new PSP Strategy RPG supposedly under work by their Disgaea team.

Official reactions have been, thus far, as follows:

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY”, Me.

In all seriousness, NIS has always had something of a flirting relationship with sentai heroes and masked heroes in general.  If the focus herein is on said goofy heroes entirely, I’m expecting a wholly good time.  It’s also nice to see an expansion on a transformation mechanic.  They’ve tried things like this in the past, I just always felt like they never quite panned out.

But with the news that Fat Princess is also hitting this week coming to me today, I’m sure as hell having a good day!

I picked up this story from the awesome GameSetWatch, who previously heard it from PSPHyper.  Spread the love!

Sure, the visuals keep getting pumped, the soundtracks keep getting grander, and now we can fight people anywhere on the globe at the drop of a hat, but what about the rest of the game?  What about the gameplay, the accessibility of it, and how we learn it?  What about story, our favorite characters, and synergizing all that with the actual game we’re playing?

Of course, it seems the guiding mantra of developers when it comes to the core of fighting games is largely “If it ain’t broke,” and that’s worked well enough up until now.  And while this is a logical thing to think, and hardly a bad attitude to have with game design, the fact remains that it could be done a lot better.  In its current state, most core fighting gameplay is catered to one demographic; fighting game fans.  Which is, again, a business strategy that surely “ain’t broke”, but why should developers settle there?

Ask a gamer with no fighting game experience to do a quarter-circle-punch or a dragon punch motion: Sure, they’ll be able to pull it off after a lengthy practice session, but they’ll still have likely days to go before they can pull them off at will during an intense match, which is practically the bare minimum level of technique required to really participate in a game like Street Fighter.  Don’t even get me started on how tough it is for some non-gamers to even grasp the concept of a quarter circle.

Let’s ignore the baying of some players out there about the “dumbing down” of the genre for now; streamlining a product for accessibility does not necessarily make it any less rewarding or stupider at high level play, but someone somewhere will always make these sorts of statements, period.  As noted in an article I read recently, for the developer it’s all a matter of discerning intent in user feedback: how many players saying these things actually have some sort of actual factual basis to go off of (surely some of them do) and how many players are just entertaining delusions of grandeur wherein they’re smarter and all around better people than the filthy, stupid, and overall “sheeple”-like general population because they’re good at an overly complex fighting game.

The solutions, in my mind, are clear:  Either lower initial investment so that players can enjoy all of the best features of a fighting game as soon as possible (like the fantastic Smash Bros. series, in which most all character functions can be understood by newcomers very quickly and yet the game still provides room to grow in mastery even after years of playing) or someone, please, get around to finally making a tutorial that actually teaches people how to play your freakishly complex game.  I’m not talking a simple “input these commands!” setup, as much as I did appreciate such a layout in Street Fighter 4, but an actual tutorial/story mode treated with the rigors of true game design:  Introduce what your players can do and then drill it into them.  Chart out how players usually learn your game despite so little support on your end, and then rebuild that educational theory part for part inside your game.

Perhaps:  Introduce the player to basic mechanics and simple, one button inputs.  Test them on them, drill the proper use into the player (make sure they understand on reflex that, say, you counter a high block with a Strong Sweep) and then throw them into something simulating a normal battle where they’re forced to use said theory.  Then move on to your special moves, going one at a time, training their possible uses and setting up battles wherein players have to use them to effect at will to succeed.  Basically, why can’t we use the exact same sort of game design theory we would for any style of single player action game?  For every powerup you obtain in an action game, there’s sure to be an adversary or situation that requires you to use it and an opportunity to learn how to implement your new strength throughout the entire game through said interaction.

What about the characters, though?  And (don’t laugh!) the story?  Fighting games are known for their entertaining, sometimes goofy rosters, and where would they be without them?  It’s hardly irregular for players to become ensnared purely by the charm of one character or another over their flat mechanical capabilities.  But why are these stories, at best, mediocre?  Yeah, people don’t play fighting games for fantastic narrative, but would it really hurt to try and save some budget to get a great scribe to pen up something for you?  After all, if there’s anything that’ll endear your players to your game (and sequels!) beyond sheer gameplay, it’s creating characters that they’ll want to come back and fight as again and again.

Not to lie, though.  I know how utterly and completely ancillary story is to a game about beating the snot out of your friends.  But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to try, and it doesn’t mean that there isn’t massive potential:

Have you ever played an RPG and, filled with rage or sorrow after some pivotal storyline event, sat through the turn based battle ahead of you, knuckles white with the drive to mete out justice, revenge, or lord knows what?  (Well, alright, I’ll admit I haven’t done this since I was a youngster with hormones to spare, but)  Imagine this type of story driven motivation coming down to, say, a huge boss fight in the most visceral, reflex flowing genre out there?  Narrative has a documented effect on how we play, and fighting games are so direct with us that they’re fantastic at bringing out emotions even without meaning to.  So why not let the two walk hand in hand?

Love it or loathe it, this means one thing and one thing alone for the fan community at large:

Loads and loads of speculation.

We already know Final Fantasy XIV has races returning from XI, and it’s fair to assume those won’t be the only similarities; the development team behind the new game is the same one from XI, and even in the brief trailer we have in our hands it’s clear things are already looking rather similar.  To this effect, discussions on what will and won’t be returning are seemingly highly relevant.

Of Manthras and Girlkas

One of the hot topics burning up message boards is on playable races new and old.  The old, in particular, being Mithra and Galka in this case:  It’s already been revealed that races from Final Fantasy XI will be returning, just for familiarity’s sake, but there’s some rumbling from players that these races should be due for a change.

The reason being that in Final Fantasy XI these races were gender limited: the path of the graceful cat was reserved for women, and the way of the bulky, bull-like Galka was solely for the men in the crowd.  While this provided personality for the game, many players also felt like they’d been robbed of choices.  Where were the man-cats?  Where were the strong women?

Of Manthras

It’s assumed by many players at this junction that male Mithras are a complete shoe-in, and that their playability in XIV is practically assured already.  And why shouldn’t they assume so?  Ever since Final Fantasy XI’s cat-girls hit the scene, guys (and cross-playing girls) have been saying “Me too!” and these Mithra are easily one of the most popular things to come out of the game.

There’s also startlingly little actually barring the possibility: none of the defining “cat-like” features of the existing Mithra are really so based on predefined gender stereotype to prevent their migration.  And none of that pesky racial backstory from Final Fantasy XI (that clearly stated that male Mithra simply were simply not feasible for adventurin’) is going to find its way to XIV, either.

Male Mithra have, in any case, been seen in Final Fantasy XI.  Simply not in a playable capacity.  The single demonstrative character, one Lehko Habhoka, was fairly feminine, to boot.  Which brings about the question: in the event that character creation isn’t flexible enough to allow all of the above (and that’s not a world I want to be in, understand), would playable manthras be a similar build to their male human comrades?  Would they be lion-inspired powerhouses?  Or would they shake things up and be, like Lehko, more befitting of the traditional “bishounen” label?

Of Girlkas

Galka, unfortunately, don’t have their journey so clear cut.  The outcry for female versions of these powerhouses is expectedly much less so than the “manthra” alternative.  The fact that Galka weren’t exactly the most popular race of choice certainy does help; but moreso the fact that demand for the option for strong female characters is definitely on the low side.

Which is, frankly, a shame.  A fun, surprising shake up for Final Fantasy XIV like this would certainly give the game an added kick.  And it’s hardly a secret that gaming as a whole is short on physically strong women that are taken seriously.

The biggest (and most ridiculous) problem among speculating fans is the belief that girlkas would be nothing more than Galkas in makeup and a push-up bra.  Or, to put that funny image aside, the belief of the larger public that anything that combines a female with some amount of musculature is disgusting.

Luckily, neither of those things are true, and there’s no reason a female Galka couldn’t take on a number of different forms.  An athletically lean, tall beauty?  Perhaps a simple role switch that emphasizes a curved waist and long, powerful legs instead of upper body strength.  If Square was feeling pretty lazy, they could even simply be regular women with a Galka-tinted skin color and slightly more defined features.  One of the greatest comparisons I can think of in terms of gender differences in games is the Gerudo of Ocarina of Time: Gannondorf, the sole male, was a brute with sharp features, whereas the female representatives were the very definition of curvy, yet still strong-willed with those same sharp, but well balanced, features.

Artist Fred Perry’s even got some sketches on the concept.  He paints a picture of a well toned and muscled girlka that also features curves and strong hips.  It’s certainly not a possibility I’d mind having in-game.

In any case, even though the streets aren’t boiling with demand for female Galka, I sincerely hope we get the variety; we certainly need it.

(It’s worth noting that part of the Galka lore of Final Fantasy XI was their relative “androgyny”.  Again, though, this lore will not be returning in Final Fantasy XIV to the best of our knowledge, and it can hardly be denied that Galka were masculine in identity, even if they were not so physically.)

Of Gender Exclusive Races

So, with all the mutterings about the state of these two, it makes me wonder:  What’s the role of gender exclusive races?  Why do they exist, and should they continue to, at least in MMO-like environments?

Of course, they are a point of personality for a world, and Final Fantasy XI was all about personality.  They successfully build on existing, strong archetypes.  The graceful, capricious woman who adopts the identity of the feline more than the human.  The strong-willed and stoic brute, with a strong back to match.  In this way, our characters and the world built around them adopt some fairly traditional, strong flavors.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re without negatives.  While features like this may work well as a backdrop for a world, when put in a players hand they can easily become more limitations than flavor.  There are no strong women here, no capricious, cat-like men.  For players who have these flavors in mind and are yet denied, the world and backdrop becomes even more limited.  Not to mention it can be hard to connect to a character who is simply your “second choice”, and character-player connection is one of the strongest driving forces of any MMORPG.

Not to mention the reinforcement of tired gender stereotypes (not that I want to talk about this much on a gaming blog on the internet, but).  As far as players are concerned, in Vana’Diel aloof, graceful men are not allowed; the same with stoic and strong-willed, able bodied women.

To finalize:  As much as I appreciate the history that features like these bring light to, it’s hard to shake that maybe they’d be better off simply as backstory and not so much something imposed on players, who often have a hard enough time connecting with their characters as is.

Nintendo did show off the right games in their show this year: a very good mix of the “core gamer” hits like Metroid and Mario. There were a bunch of Mario games this year (some have accused them of being a one note), but all the games are very different. First you have Mario Galaxy 2, the first time two proper “Mario games” have been on the same system since the NES (I’m not counting Yoshi’s Island and Luigi’s Mansion which just play too different from the base mechanic). If you didn’t play the first Mario Galaxy, you missed true magic. It captured the fun of exploring beautiful worlds with everyone’s favorite plumber. Mario Galaxy 2 will be adding new game mechanics like new suits and Yoshis; Nintendo will hopefully recapture the magic that made the first such a hit (and a personal favorite) for their system.

The next Mario game is Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. I wish could explain the draw of this title, but you need to have played the previous games to understand why people love the silliness. Combine that with Golden Sun DS and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Wii, we see Nintendo showed some love to the RPG fans out there.

The last Mario game was the biggest in my mind: New Super Mario Bros Wii. Nintendo is hoping to remind people who the king of 2D platforming is after Little Big Planet made such a splash last year. The multi-player looks just as fun as Little Big Planet, even if Nintendo spokesperson Cammie Dunaway appeared to fail at playing.

Of course, the big surprise announcement was Metroid: Other M, getting the only hoots and hollers from the press attending (more on that in a sec). This game looks smoother than butter, and is being made by the famously hardcore Team Ninja. I enjoyed Metroid Prime but Other M looks to give me a brand new Metroid experience.

Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort made its second E3 appearance this year, and Nintendo showed how much better this little pack is compared to a lone remote. I thought the Motion Plus looked very accurate and showed Nintendo addressing the issue people have with their initial tech delivery. Sports Resort also looks like a fun addition to anyone’s game lineup; I just want to start swordfighting with my roommate over who takes out the trash. Nintendo also talked about their titles for casual gamers (I hate that term so much) but hey, if I didn’t talk about the Hannah Montana PSP bundle, I won’t bore you with the latest dress up game for the DS.

Nintendo showed off a ton of big titles, but I wasn’t as interested in their presser as I was in Sony’s. If I had to give one reason for that it is simply this: execution. Nintedo’s conference had plenty of substance, yet the style it was presented in was was atrocious. All the speakers droned on with little energy the entire time, and I think I know why. Last year, Nintendo’s speakers simply played games on stage and acted silly with Wii Music and Wii Resort. Afterwards the blogs all blew up with posts about how “Nintendo isn’t hardcore” and “Cammie Dunaway smiles like a mental patient.” Well bloggers, Nintendo does listen to us, and they seem to have overreacted a bit.  When even the ever popular Reggie Fils-Amie acts that boring, well … Nintendo, if your listening, I have a message for you …

Just be yourself. Your fans want you to make the games we like. That starts with being the company that has the carefree image that you’re associated with. You did go a little too far last year. We don’t want to see pictures of your kids because well, we don’t want to see pictures of anyone’s kids. Wii Music just looked too damn silly to do in front of others, and, well, that was your biggest story last year. You made this year about games, but it was like you didn’t want us to know that you have fun with them. Just next time, do what you do best, show us amazing games and be excited about them with us. Oh, and Ms. Dunaway, I would rather have a grinning, proud mom laughing about Mario then a stoic English teacher lecturing me about Mario, and you are way better at smiling and laughing then any of the other PR guys on that stage.

(P.S. That had to be the worst way to show the Vitality Sensor (which is an interesting tech piece to be sure). There was a reason that those two minutes that you spent talking about it overshadowed all the other awesome news in the minds of the press.)

(P.P.S. All those third party games look so sexy. Please give Vanillaware (Muramasa: The Demon Blade) and High Voltage (the Conduit and the Grinder) lots of money. I hear that several of your devices print it.)

(P.P.P.S. Can I have another Star Fox game please? A good one this time (maybe like the DS one, but with some of the classic gameplay too). Oh, and a Kirby game for the Wii too, and Earthbound, and Custom Robo, and … )

Intrepid chip-tuners Pterodactyl Squad describes their tribute album thusly:

“‘The 8-bit Album’ is a collection of Weezer tracks as interpreted by some of the brightest stars of the 8-bit music scene.”

As I’m too much of a noob to chiptunery to really say much about the artists, I’ll just say that, well, I love me some Weezer, and I love me some chiptunes.  And I’ll just let their teaser song for the upcoming album speak for itself.

I’ve listened to that damn thing at least 50 times by now.  Can’t wait to have it in WinAmp, as my clicking finger is getting tired of hitting play on the vid.  In any case, I just know I’m looking forward to Buddy Holly and Island in the Sun like a kid on Christmas.

Read all about the upcoming album, including a tracklist, at the “Weezer 8-bit Tribute” blog, and watch Pterodactyl Squad’s website for the actual release and more from the group!