Since Mrs. Liquid Architecture got me a Kindle for Christmas, I’ve been on a bit of a magazine article bender renaissance. In case you missed them, be sure to check out this chilling article on Marvin Harrison’s gun rap from GQ of all places, along with their entertaining take on EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour series, post… whatever you want to call Tiger’s whole thing.
He does a good job showing how EA’s crown jewel series has shaped this generation of NFL players, but I’m surprised Suellentrop didn’t explore how Madden’s impacted the game itself, and the fan experience of how NFL football is covered.
Digital 1st down lines make the game more accessible to casual fans
For example, every NFL game (and most college football games) I’ve seen since the lat 90’s make use of a digital line to highlight the distance for a first down. It’s become so commonplace, hardly anyone even talks about it anymore. When the “virtual line” tech first debuted way back in 1998, I can even recall people saying how it was “just like in a video game.” Would those handy little markers even exist without Madden?
Skycam apes Madden to show viewers the QB's options
SkyCam (and it’s other branded cousin, CableCam) more recently revolutionized coverage of the game. It first debuted in the XFL (just like HeHateMe!), giving viewers a floating vantage point above the quarterback. For the first time in a real live game, we got to clearly see the passing lanes and defensive set at the line of scrimmage, just like in (say it with me now) Madden! Of course, the makers of SkyCam deserve a lot of credit for their ingenious system of reels, pulleys and cables that make SkyCam work. But I have to believe the genesis for their entire operation was Madden’s primary camera, and aping that as close as possible in a living, breathing 3D space.
Of course, long time readers (all 3 of you) will remember yours truly covered how ESPN more overtly incorporated Maddeninto their NFL highlights show. So Madden imitates life imitates Madden.
In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to leave day-to-day things like reviews and previews to the big guys – listed conveniently in the blog roll for you. Servicey! The fact is, the Kotakus and Joystiqs of the world do a much better job of breaking news and round-the-clock updates than I ever could, and their staffers just plain play more games than me. A lot more. I’ve also avoided the “Game of the Year” trope for many of the same reasons. From a critic’s perspective, when you haven’t played everything (or even everything good) in a given year, how can you really say one game is The Best?
Games of Our Liveswas my more personal attempt at naming a game to define a year. Those picks have more to do with me, and what was going on in my life when I played each game, than what’s in the box.
This past year might just represent a new low watermark for my time spent playing games. Getting a puppy and having a baby in the same year will do that to you. But as a result, I feel like I’ve spent a much higher percentage of my play time enjoying games than ever before. I didn’t slog through any games “just to stay on top of things” this year. And I can’t think of any game I stuck it out with this year just so I could feel like whatever time I had already invested was well spent. Got that, MLB ‘09: The Show?! As such, I think I actually have a better feel for what made this year’s crop of games fun than I’ve had in recent years, and am open to a lot more types of games – casual, hardcore, multiplayer, story-driven, PC, console, iPhone – it was all fair game for me this year.
Of course, this being the end of the 00’s, every big games publication and site spent the last few weeks rounding up the highlights of the last 10 years. Having written Games of Our Lives already, and the big guns all poring over a decade’s worth of history, it seemed way less intimidating to focus on the best game of this year. And considering how the changes in my personal life affected my perspective on games, I may actually have different (perhaps even useful?) reasons for my choice. So without further ado, the nominees are (in alpha order):
Batman, Arkham Asylum – Batman finally got the game he deserved this year, thanks to some ingenious use of the Unreal engine and a superb story from Paul Dini delivered pitch-perfect by quite a few cast members from Batman: The Animated Series. The Metroidvania emphasis on exploration and detective skills was such a natural fit for the Caped Crusader, it’s hard to believe it took this long for someone to make the match.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – Mario’s been to distant galaxies, race tracks, and even his some old Smash Brothers stomping grounds since the Wii was released, but Nintendo finally put him back where he feels most at home this year. So much was written about this game’s chaotic 4-player simultaneous free-for-all’s that the sometimes brutal, sometime charming, always well thought-out level design got shoved out of the headlines.
Plants vs. Zombies – PopCap is an unapologetically casual studio, but the truth is more hardcore players completely dig their games than would ever admit it to their squadmates. These guys are just razor sharp when it comes to figuring out where a few bells and whistles can turn a smooth playing, bite-sized game into an all consuming force of addictive wonderment. PvZ’s sense of humor, learning curve, and seeding of truly awesome minigames coaxed me into installing a game on my PC for the first time since college. Can’t wait for the iPhone port this year!
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – The secret lovechild of Lara Croft and Han Solo, Nathan Drake, returns in a globetrotting adventure that tweaks and finesses Gears of War’s combat system, then drops the whole thing into a story that you actually WANT TO FOLLOW full of characters that you really do care about. I know it sounds fundamental and very basic, but the attention to detail and commitment to characters really pulled this game over the top.
…aaand the winner is:
New Super Mario Brothers Wii
At the end of the day, I’m a total sucker for a new Mario game. I loved Galaxy and Mario 64 as much as anyone else, but everyone’s favorite skilled tradesperson just plain feels better when he’s zipping along at full speed, cracking heads and gobbling up coins in that seminal console genre, the sidescroller. It’s not just that the big N got Mario and Luigi back into their 2D stomping grounds – the charm of this game is that they put together such an outstanding collection of level designs and worlds to ensure they came back in style.
Considering the audience Nintendo is focused on these days, it’s no surprise that simultaneous multiplayer came first in marketing New SMB Wii. But throwing 3 more players onto the screen doesn’t just add allies. It completely changes the pace of the game, and the focus of the players. The result is a party game that feels much more like a session with Rock Band than a traditional platformer. It’s a blast to play with more than one player, and I’m honestly a little bit surprised we didn’t see an official hardware bundle this holiday featuring the Wii, the game, and 4 remotes.
Other times, a real juggernaut hits retail, and it makes more sense for a publisher to hold back a release until it can find more room in headlines and on shelves. Modern Warfare 2 and New Super Mario Brothers Wii in particular sucked all the air out of the room this year.
It’s been fascinating to watch what Capcom’s community team and developer Airtight Games have been doing with the extra time until the release of their delayed title, Dark Void. Of course, they’ve checked all the necessary boxes: a fan site, a Facebook page, and a Twitter feed. Their Twitter community manager is really committed to speaking as the character of a survivor from within the Void, and ties in the game’s fiction nicely with even routine things like giveaway contests.
And this is where it gets really cool. Last week Capcom announced Dark Void Zero, an 8-bit “prequel” to their soon-to-be-released current gen game. Retro lightning already struck twice for Capcom, with Mega Man 9 and the outstanding Bionic Commando: Rearmed, so why not try for a third? But Mega Man and Bionic Commando really are established, well-loved franchises with all the history and nostalgia that entails.
Dark Void’s a completely new IP. And it’s been hard out there for a pimp new property lately. Just ask EA! On top of developing an impressive fiction to serve the current-gen Dark Void game and the fan community, AND developing a fun 8-bit game to expand that universe and generate buzz, big C also developed a suitable backstory for the 8-bit game, as if the property had existed during that era.
All this attention to detail in the pre-release period has elevated Dark Void from a title I was merely interested in to pretty much a must-buy on day 1. I’ll probably download Dark Void Zero to boot. Well played, Capcom.
It's never too early, or too late, in the year to talk about baseball games. Right?
If you haven’t been reading Kotaku’s awesome weekend sports series, Stick Jockey, do yourself a favor and head over there immediately. These weekly thinkpieces are consistently fascinating, especially considering that 99% of the sports game coverage out there is a very paint-by-numbers affair.
This week’s is no exception, as columnist Owen Good really shows his sports business chops examining the 2005 semi-exclusivity deal between 2K Sports and MLB. Good does a much better job than I ever could in breaking down the how’s and why’s of the deal, but what I found to be really fascinating here is just how off the mark otherwise savvy companies like 2K and Major League Baseball could be in striking a deal, and how ultimately iffy a property MLB has become for a video game license.
There have been a few bright spots here and there (RBI on the NES, World Series on the Genesis, and Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB on the SNES come to mind), but baseball has had the must lackluster games library of all major US pro leagues, hands down. The recently released Madden NFL Arcade and another tremendous annual installment of NHL, both from EA, remind me just how broken baseball games are.
So is the answer as simple as “wait till EA can do another MLB game?” Possibly. After all, the Triple Play series was becoming very good just before 2K locked up the exclusivity deal, and MLB2K has a lot of flaws that just wouldn’t make it through EA’s very polished sports game development process. But Sony’s first party series MLB: The Show suffers for reasons wholly different from 2K’s product – an unforgiving difficulty curve and an engine that emphasizes photorealistic stadiums over responsive controls and a smooth play experience.
With baseball’s annual winter meetings just concluded, the countdown is on for next year’s outings. They’ll likely be tweaked versions of last year’s games, built upon the same engines that 2K and Sony already introduced this console generation. 2K’s in particular seem to be showing its age.
It’d be great to see one of these license holders tear the whole thing down and start fresh. Perhaps EA’s 7 year absence from our nation’s pastime will end up benefitting them AND us in 2012, for the simple reason that they haven’t had a baseball game on any current-gen system, and will have to field a whole new team and start fresh.
2K’s pricey misadventure makes it unlikely that anyone, be it EA, 2K, or another player, will be in a hurry to buy up exclusive licensing rights when they become available again for the 2012 season. But if someone opens the checkbook, I hope MLB Digital Media takes a close look at the plan, the team, and at least asks to see a preview build this time around. In all fairness, that office wasn’t yet created for the 2005 deal. Who knows how many fans they’ve turned off or missed out with lackluster branded games since then?
While this year’s Black Friday sales numbers should be trickling in over the next few hours, I just had to point out First Party, the new clothes-for-professional-nerds venture from the Penny Arcade guys. They won’t win Cyber Monday or anything (thanks to teenage girls, anything that doesn’t involve vampires is at a huge disadvantage this year), but every well dressed gamer should have the launch polo on their wish list.
I first heard about the concept for First Party over a year ago in Wired’spiece on Jerry and Mike. Just like Child’s Play and PAX, it’s a natural fit for the community and it’s a wonder no one stepped up years ago. I’m excited to see what their line looks like a year from now, once they’ve diversified beyond essential polos. One of these may just find a home next to the rainbow of Lacoste basics in my closet. As an added bonus, they’re available for Xbox LIVE avatars too!
Great big apologies for the long delay since my last post. Longtime readers will recall that this type of gap usually follows something very, very big (for me at least) in the world outside of the ol’ blog. And this one’s no exception.
Mrs. Liquid Architecture and our beautiful new daughter are doing fine, and we couldn’t be happier. This isn’t turning into a Daddy blog just yet, so expect plenty of smart-assed video game observations to come. And we’ll get to see what the lack of sleep does to my writing!
It must be marketing week around here. Only a few hours after I hit “publish” on my developers-are-the-best-marketers post, Sony announced a completely on-target concept: including the God of War III demo on the District 9 Blu-Ray movie disc.
I’ve seen a few fairly lame attempts to market games via home video, and vice versa. Usually, it’s just a trailer for a licensed game in front of the exact DVD movie upon which the game is based, e.g., a non-interactive trailer for the Kung Fu Panda video game on the DVD movie release of Kung Fu Panda. Isn’t that a wasted effort? Are there really that many Kung Fu Panda fans out there that have no idea a video game exists?
What I like about Sony’s bundling is it demonstrates an understanding of the audience for both properties, and simply makes the introduction. I didn’t see D9 in theaters, but some pretty smart cats I know thought it was a good, cerebral sci-fi movie. Similarly, the God of War series has always appealed to a more sophisticated audience than your average brawler, with its operatic story of betrayal and redemption set against a faithfully presented backdrop of Greek myth. It stands to reason that some D9 fans love Kratos’ exploits, whether they know it or not.
On the flip side, GoW is an established series with legions of fans, and their desire to play a level or two from the long awaited series finale (before it’s available for download) might just lead them to a purchase of the District 9 Blu-Ray, even if they missed it in theaters. So, win-win for Sony, as D9 is a product of their Pictures division and GoW is an exclusive franchise that moved plenty of hardware last generation.
I’d really like to see this type of partnership explored further, especially with some less obvious (but perhaps more effective) pairings among multiple companies. How about a demo disc for Batman: Arkham Asylum with every adult size superhero costume sold at Halloween USA stores this time of year? Of course, physical media should be a non-issue here. I’m willing to bet EA Sports and Stubhub would probably hit it off, so that way everyone that prints out their ticket to an NHL game could also get a download code for the NHL 10 demo on their system of choice. The possibilities are pretty much endless here.
Industry Gamers ran an interview snippet (via MCV) that as a brand marketer, gamer, and marketer of game brands really caught my eye. In the runup toModern Warfare 2’s release, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling talks about how developers need to be as hands-on as possible with marketing their game.
Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling
It makes complete sense, and I’m sure it’s a “duh” concept for anyone that works with food and beverage, CPG’s, etc. in a marketing capacity. But the sad fact of the matter is, this kind of thing hardly ever happens in the games industry.
Somewhere along the line we appropriated Hollywood’s shitty confusing approach to marketing, where the people most directly involved in the creation of a game are usually the ones least involved in marketing it. It’s tough to say how exactly this got started. After all, in the bedroom coding commodore 64 and Amiga days, pre-retail, the developers WERE the marketers, as well as the QA testers, instruction manual copywriters… all of it. Of course, “marketing” was more or less a matter of taking out an ad in the back of an enthusiast magazine and attending the odd trade show.
At any rate, big kudos to Bowling and Infinity Ward for taking the reigns themselves. I’m sure Activision would be more than happy to just line up the troops, cut a check and send them off marching in whatever direction they chose. But having the IW guys at the top of that chain has kept the promotional machine for this juggernaut of a game focused and coordinated. Most importantly, they understand the Modern Warfare audience on a much deeper level than the sum whole of any team from any agency they retain – even a videogame specialty practice.
Bowling started using Twitter to get minute details about MW2 directly to passionate fans
I can’t even begin to count how many interviews I’ve seen where a developer, hyping his newest game, blames the failure of his last one squarely on marketing, and how the team responsible either didn’t get the game, didn’t get the audience, or both. Hopefully Infinity Ward’s attitude takes hold with other AAA developers, so that excuse can finally be put to rest.
ODST's won the day, but was September a turning point for Sony in the war?
The NPD Group’s US Video Game Report for September just hit my inbox last night, and it may be an early indicator of the exciting fourth quarter predicted by somepretty smart cats. We saw increases across most categories from September ’08’s numbers, but not enough to pull the year-on-year numbers out of their recession doldrums. However, Sony’s got several reasons to smile, in spite of Halo 3: ODST nabbing the top spot on this month’s Software Top 10:
Rank
Title
Platform
Units
1
HALO 3:ODST
360
1.52M
2
WII SPORTS RESORT
WII
442.9K
3
MADDEN NFL 10
360
289.6K
4
MARIO & LUIGI:BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY
DS
258.1K
5
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND
360
254.0K
6
MADDEN NFL 10
PS3
246.5K
7
MARVEL:ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2
360
236.0K
8
BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUM
PS3
212.5K
9
GUITAR HERO 5
360
210.8K
10
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND
WII
208.6K
Yes, there are only two PS3 titles in the top 10 this month, but looking at this list, you can practically see the purchase behavior! Madden and Arkham Asylum both shipped to decent numbers on the PS3 in August, but not enough to overtake their respective Xbox 360 counterparts. These particular games’ second month in the Top 10, despite the PS3’s much smaller installed base, is a clear indicator of a positive trend in hardware sales for Sony. More casual gamers that only buy one or two pieces of software a year religiously get Madden, and strong word of mouth among hardcore gamers (not to mention a pretty good ad campaign) for Arkham Asylum has made that a must-have title for anyone just purchasing a current gen system. So gamers that were holding out for a price drop seem to be gravitating towards the PS3, and they’ve essentially created their own hardware bundle in the process.
The price drop and slim hardware proved to be exactly the 1-2 punch Sony needed. Take it away, NPD analyst Anita Frazier!
“Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year’s sales. This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month. This is the first month that the PS3 has captured the top spot in console hardware sales.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft rolls out a new hardware bundle or retailer discount for the holiday. This very well could be the PS3’s year.
In other news, this month’s NPD report saw Wii Fit fall out of the Top 10 for the first time since its introduction 15 months ago. Of course, it was immediately replaced in the Top 10 by Wii sports Resort. But for a $90 game to spend 15 months in the Top 10, where even a soft month has the floor somewhere around 200K units, is impressive. Just like the home crowd standing up for their starter during his 7th inning exit, I’ve got to salute Nintendo on this one. Well done.
Last week, yours truly was called upon to protect the city and county of New York from the forces of evil. Luckily, jurors get a whopping 2 hours for lunch and my local Hall of Justice is a few shorts blocks away from one of NYC’s truly hidden gems – Chinatown Fair. Once famous for its dancing, tic-tac-toe playing chicken, Chinatown Fair is the city’s last bastion of the smoke filled, dimly lit arcade scene that bore nerd havens in malls and boardwalks around the country throughout the 80s and mid 90s.
I had last been in a proper arcade sometime in college (Pinball Pete’s represent!), but arcades had begun a quick and steady descent into obsolescence in this country some years before that. Starting with the earliest consoles, each generation inched closer and closer to delivering a true arcade experience.
The Playstation/Saturn era finally delivered parity, but the home experience still came up short in perhaps the most critical area: competition. This generation’s online matchmaking took care of that, and now just about the closest thing you can find to an arcade in the States is some kind “Chuck E. Cheese for adults” nightmare with lots of bad food and fairly lame out-of-home-attraction type games.
CF's networked SFIV cabinets - the only ones in NYC?
Chinatown Fair is unapologetic in its lineup and old-school decor. The place is lined wall-to-wall with Capcom, SNK and Namco fighters. A few big cabinet driving games, light-gun shooters, shmups and the obligatory Dance Dance Revolution machines round out the collection.
The latest additions to CF are all imports, as the scene’s still vibrant across the Pacific. It was a good opportunity for me to see how arcade companies are adapting their hardware to suit more casual play styles, just like in console games.
A few driving and rhythm games at CF feature a proprietary card system that tracks players’ progress, much like a players’ club card in a casino. So after a one-time nominal purchase on the actual game cabinet – for example, a racer based on the anime Initial D – the player can insert their card into any Initial D cabinet they encounter in any arcade in the world, and they’ll be able to use the car they’ve customized on the tracks they’ve unlocked progressing through the game. It’s like having a savegame file that’s always with you, or an Xbox LIVE account that works in the arcade.
I thoroughly dug my visit to Chinatown Fair. It feels like one of the divier spots from my time in Japan. And I mean that as a huge compliment. I can understand how the arcade business model got phased out, but it’s kind of a shame that there are so few of them left for younger gamers to experience. If you happen to know of a particular good spot in your town, be sure and leave it in the comments.
It must be marketing week around here. Only a few hours after I hit “publish” on my developers-are-the-best-marketers post, Sony announced a 
ust lead them to a purchase of the District 9 Blu-Ray, even if they missed it in theaters. So, win-win for Sony, as D9 is a product of their Pictures division and GoW is an exclusive franchise that moved plenty of hardware last generation.
Last week, yours truly was called upon to protect the city and county of New York from the forces of evil. Luckily, jurors get a whopping 2 hours for lunch and my local Hall of Justice is a few shorts blocks away from one of NYC’s truly hidden gems – 
