After dozens of hours in the province of Skyrim, I’ve done a lot. I’ve plundered tombs, slain dragons. I’ve picked a point in the landscape and gone there, full of manly purpose. I’ve listened to many personal stories and stuck my mailed fist of intervention into more then a few faces. Though my adventuring might someday come to an end, it will never truly find a conclusion. Yet, through all of it, I have reached one conclusion:

I like Fallout: New Vegas better.

It’s not a beautiful beast. New Vegas is a cluttered game, mechanically and aesthetically. It’s not just diverse, but outright unfocused at times. The interface, as broken as anything compromised for a controller can be, breaks under the weight of the added survival and crafting modes. Nor is the ham-fisted way the intro exposition is handled a compelling start. Sometimes it can be an outright ugly game.

At the heart of New Vegas is something that you’ll never see in an Elder Scrolls game: a real, dynamic plot. A score of forces all compete for the heart of The Strip. The NCR, the Legion, the Brotherhood, Mr. House, maybe even you. Each faction is well developed and thought provoking. The NCR isn’t the shining beacon of democracy and freedom you’d expect, nor is the Legion pure evil (well, they are, but have very good reason for being so).

Playing through the main storyline involves picking winners and losers, shaping the political dynamics to your liking. The wasteland is not for the weak. Eventually, you’ll have to step on some toes and anger (or outright kill) factions you’d rather not. Make the choice. If you don’t, someone will. In the end, you cut a swath through the wasteland, reshaping it in your own image. It’s this blending of stories that elevates it above Fallout 3, which polarized its players into Paragon or Villain story branches.

Perhaps we can forgive Skyrim for its failures in plotting; Elder Scrolls has always focused more on world-building than story. Yet, I can’t help but find its world boring. It’s far away from the bland European realm of Oblivion, but I can’t help but feel that I’ve done it all before.

Skyrim’s bandits are typical thieves and murderers, while the enemies in Fallout are shaped and broken by the nuclear-charred world in which they live. Murder and theft are necessary actions to survive, be you bandit or homesteader. Why plunder identical ancestral tombs when you can explore ancient nuclear vaults and uncover tales of experiments gone wrong? Why adventure with Illia when you can choose Lily?

I’m not ready to say that New Vegas is a better game then Skyrim. Elder Scrolls V offers far more coherent aesthetics and sensible mechanics, but New Vegas just clicked better for me. I’ve never given Obsidian much credit, but I think that they might’ve bested Bethesda by creating a huge RPG that has a sandbox and thought-provoking plot developments. I’m 30 hours into Skyrim, yet I’m already hunting down more mods to toss into New Vegas for yet another playthrough. After all, when the forgotten realms are quite explored, why not dose up and go to Gamma World?

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments

Ed wrote a wonderful review of Skyrim for the Xbox recently. I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I thought I would chime in on how the game feels on PC.

First, let me just say that I agree with Ed’s overall assessment of the game. It certainly merits the Seal of Excellence from Adrenaline Vault. And let me also indicate that I think Skyrim balances the demands of gamers for an open-ended experience with the needs of others for a CRPG with real structure. Skyrim is pretty darn open-ended; if you don’t even begin the major narrative arc, it’s like there isn’t even a threat of dragons at all. You can immerse yourself in the Byzantine politics of the region, pursue wealth and riches, or even become a hated villain who murders people for fun and profit (with all the attendant consequences). In fact, your actions outside of the main narrative of dragons attacking Skyrim still have a large impact on the world around you. The game is not only open-ended, but you can change the status quo while not pursuing your destiny as the Dragonborn. (I’d say more, but I don’t want to spoil anything related to certain quest-lines or stories.)

But the main narrative is also gripping in its own way. It embraces moral ambiguity over black-white moral decisions (just because you are trying to save Skyrim does not mean you or your allies are the good guys). It has a logical progression and plays down the busy work of fetch and carry quests. The voice acting is top notch all around, and it doesn’t ever get in the way. And thanks to the way the journal and maps work, there should never be a moment when you are confused about what actions to take or how to achieve certain goals. Everything that was right with Oblivion’s fast travel system has been carried over.

I also have to give Bethesda credit for revamping the game’s skill and character rules in such a way as to eliminate the pitfalls and exploits of the old system from Oblivion. Character classes are gone and it is no longer really possible to game the system by under-leveling, or to screw up your game by over-leveling. In fact, since there are no attributes (like strength and so on) anymore, skills and perks are the only things that really matter. There is no race to raise certain attributes by incrementing stupid skills you don’t really want to use. Instead, you simply increase skills by using them, regardless of other considerations. There’s no point in spamming pointless skills that you don’t use anymore. Even better, the perks system ensures that specialization is still possible while retaining a character development procedure that emphasizes freedom of action. It is way too complicated to explain here, but let me just say that the tool tips and explanatory information on the character and skill sheets make everything very transparent. Those who love to plan their characters methodically will not be disappointed, while those that just want to focus on doing things will never find themselves leveled badly.

I am also pleased that alchemy is no longer the skill to rule them all. In Oblivion and Morrowind, alchemy was so profitable that anyone who wanted to make lots of money legitimately in the game would just buy out entire shops worth of alchemy ingredients and process them into potions, which you sold to make money to buy more ingredients. Now, alchemy is just plain more difficult because food items are used in cooking and can’t be made into potions (no more cheap stamina potions from bread). Furthermore, while you can make money with alchemy, you have to have both a high skill AND invest your perks in alchemy in order to make it financially worth your while. Since perks are a finite commodity, abusing alchemy for cash means giving up on better combat skills or magical spells. Along those lines, Skyrim has included several methods of crafting. You can make your own armor, weapons, food, potions, and enchant your own items. Since enchanting is now a skill, you can’t just grab grand soul gems and make awesome equipment. Like everything else in Skyrim, making your own awesome magical equipment requires perks that involve sacrificing some other ability your character might have. So, while I have a character with a full set of awesome Daedric armor and weapons he made himself, enchanted in just the way he likes, he’s just not super great at certain combat tasks like another character would be. Another character would have taken all those perks invested in smithing and enchantment and put them in weapon skills, making his attacks much more deadly in certain ways.

About the only complaint I have is that the menus are clearly designed for a console. This wouldn’t be a big deal, except that they interact poorly with a three-button mouse. It is a common occurrence that in dialogue, I will point the mouse at one option, and the game will register another choice, because the mouse wheel was used to scroll between all the choices, while the keyboard controls have another option selected entirely. I end up using the keyboard to scroll through dialogue choices to prevent infinite loops, but I find this to be a bizarre issue. Also, in case anyone does not already know, the game requires Steam activation, even if you bought it on disk. I don’t find this to be a big problem, as Steam can be offline while playing Skyrim, but those with an axe to grind against Steam might find themselves disappointed.

Aside from these minor problems, I can say that Skyrim is worth every penny I paid for it. I was initially skeptical about certain features, but after playing through with different characters and choosing to do radically different things in the game, I have to say Bethesda hit a home run. Christmas came early for PC gamers!

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments

How do you say good-bye to someone who has been an integral part of Avault since before you can remember? You could do a sappy retrospective of their body of work, add an orchestral soundtrack, and bring a tear to the eye of everyone reading. You could write a brief farewell and announcement of their departure for their fans. Or you could say nothing and quietly hope that no one notices the change in the masthead.

But what if the body of their work can be summed up with an acronym and a word? “DRM bad!” What if they have no fans and only adversaries? What if the sudden rantless silence is too much to go unnoticed? Yes, the rumors are true. Doug Lombardi’s Valve has swooped in and captured the one and only (thank the gods) Tsar Alaric Teplitsky.

And while we honestly wish Alaric nothing but the best, he’s stirred up too much controversy over the years to simply let him go with a handshake and cheery good-bye. Instead, we wanted to allow each writer a free shot at him, right out here on the front page. Unfortunately, only one was brave enough to let me actually see what they intend ahead of time, but the rest have vowed to chime in below in the comments (which I hope I’m fast enough to moderate).

What follows comes from the fingers of Matthew Booth…

When I first started writing reviews for The Adrenaline Vault, I couldn’t stand Alaric. Now, almost a year later, he still finds a way to upset me on a regular basis. I’m not sure if it’s the smug, professionally done portrait on his Avault posts, his overwhelming hatred for practically everything, or the popularity of his posts that upsets me most. I suspect my uneasiness with his work is a combination of all three of these things. Regarding his negativity, Alaric hates more games than the number of games I’ve played in my lifetime. In fact, Alaric hates games he doesn’t even know exist.

To keep things fair, I might not relate to his bottomless negativity, but darn it, I respect the man. Alaric is passionate about what he does and I think a lot of his criticisms stem from him having higher expectations than a majority of the population. When it comes to gaming, I don’t expect much so I’m rarely angered by a game. Whereas Alaric, my polar opposite in most things, hasn’t lost his desire to hold everything to a nearly impossible standard. He reminds me that keeping my expectations low reduces my disappointment in the gaming industry.

Alaric, we may disagree on most things, but I appreciate you having a hand in bringing me back to PC gaming, and always being there to tell me I’m wrong (even when I’m right). I hope Valve is ready to step their game up if for no other reason than to avoid one of your infamous rants. Don’t let us West Coast hippies turn you soft!

In the end, Alaric may be a royal pain in the donkey, but you can’t help but love him. He makes sure to keep me on my toes regardless of the hour, and is always willing to plead his point or toss out ideas at 1am. (Make what you will of that regarding his alleged social life.) He’s also not afraid of hard work, and has proven more than once an ability to make the impossible happen. I’m going to miss our late night chats, our arguments, but thankfully not our friendship (I threatened him with grievous bodily harm should he fail to drop by now and then).

Fair winds and following seas, my noble adversary. You will be missed.

Now, do I send Doug a thank-you note or a sympathy card?

© Michele White for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments

A curious thing happened recently. I was reading the magnificent RPS, and learned about a very cool indie game called Legend Of Grimrock. It is a first-person dungeon-crawling game, which is essentially a remake of the old classics such as Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore. Much like that other bearded game critic John Walker, I look fondly upon those games and yet find them unplayable for reasons such as lack of modern controls, graphics, and having to run them either in DOSBox or on a virtual machine of some sort. It makes me happy that someone is remaking (or almost remaking) these almost forgotten games. It also makes me wonder why this isn’t happening on any significant scale.

Why does nobody remake old games?

It’s quite strange really. We all know games from years ago that are still every kind of awesome (even correcting for nostalgia) but didn’t age well. We think about them, talk about them, sometimes rant about them on forums. Hell, we still play them, warts and all. The Eloi amongst us buy them from gog.com, while the Morlocks just download them from somewhere. Some of the most anticipated games at any given moment are sequels, prequels, and all other manner of quels. That’s reasonable. Obviously we enjoyed the originals and want to re-live the experience. Why is it then, that no developer, publisher or some other rights-holder thought to invest into faithful recreations of these games? Was it at some point deemed too difficult or unprofitable? Did someone decide that “it just won’t work” and abandoned the idea?

It really cannot be all that difficult. Certainly not anymore difficult than making a brand new game. After all, most of the work has already been done. Let’s take Betrayal at Krondor – my favorite RPG of all time. If I was to guess, I’d say that recreating it in some amazing modern engine would be about as complicated as creating levels for any new game. In fact it would be easier because there is no need to design them. Sure, certain things would have to be added, but maps, game mechanics, characters, and dialogue already exist. And the sales are pretty much guaranteed. I know I’ll gladly pay $50 for a good remake. Why, I’ll re-purchase all of my favorite games! If other media are any indication, people love paying for remakes. Bach hasn’t gone out of style for the past 260 years and people keep buying those records. His music is now played (recreated if you will) by metal bands, ensembles of traditional Chinese instruments, street drummers and just about anyone else. Great stuff is great.

Outside of Legend Of Grimrock there have been few attempts at remaking a few iconic games. Sure, ADG Interactive has been doing a magnificent job with the King’s Quest games, but their goal has always been to bring old Sierra’s titles to VGA, which in and of itself is a wee bit dated by now. OK, terribly, colossally, unimaginably dated. The Secret of Monkey Island had also been remade recently. It wasn’t all that well done, but I guess it’s the thought that counts. Most fan-made projects have rarely made much progress past the initial motivated push. Not many people are willing to dedicate their lives to remaking a game, even a very important one. This is why those who are in the business of making games should be the ones spearheading the effort. With the weight of a major publisher (or even an indie studio) behind such a project, a lot of good old games can become good new games.

P.S. – Any persons suggesting that I misspelled “Murlocks” will be re-educated through labor.

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 21 comments

Well, that seems to be the impression Patrick Bach, executive producer of Battlefield 3, has. When questioned by a competition winner from Rock, Paper, Shotgun he remarked, “If you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side – because people think it’s cool to be naughty, they won’t be caught… In a game where it’s more authentic, when you have a gun in your hand and a child in front of you what would happen? Well the player would probably shoot that child.” As a subsequence Battlefield 3 is not going to be keen on letting you strafe any civilian life you encounter. Personally I think his comments are a little naive and at best uncharitable to us gamers.

One of my research students has recently interviewed some adolescent gamers (15-17 year olds) on this very issue, exploring the roll of morals and ethics in young gamers. What was her most interesting finding? That it’s fine to shoot other players and NPC’s who might impede your game progress but it’s not the done thing to liquidate neutrals, women or children just for the fun of it. In fact these adolescents went as far as saying such things are frowned upon in their gaming circles. Now I’m not saying there won’t be some players somewhere out there who enjoy such things but I’m arguing the majority of us would try to avoid them if they were not central to progressing the plot line.

I have played hours upon hours of Red Dead Redemption and can only remember shooting three NPCs that I didn’t have to. One NPC wondered aimlessly into my line of fire. The two others were shot on purpose – not motivated by pure inherent gamer evil, but by the need to meet a game challenge, which involved staying alive and becoming ‘most wanted.’ In fact, in the same game, whilst online, I have actually heard other players chiding co-players for shooting civilians, only for them to argue that they hadn’t meant to, etc.

My point is that I don’t believe players always adhere to the evil stereotype. I do think games allow us to experiment with the environment, in a kind of “what would happen if I did this?” way. Surely, this is simple curiosity. It’s the same as if I sat you all down in front of a desk with a large glowing red button on it – how many of you would want to push it or wonder what happens if you did press it? That’s one of the big draws of video games; they allow us to experiment with curiosity in a fun and safe environment. How many of you, if you encountered a real dragon on your way home from work, would strap on a shield, grab the nearest sword, and advance confidently on it? Not me. My car would be in reverse all the way. Gamers know that what they are playing isn’t real – even the majority of seven year-olds fully understand that what they can do in a game they couldn’t or shouldn’t do in reality. So do you really need to be banned from shooting civilians to save yourself from your own evilness or should game developers just give you the choice and hope you’ll do the right thing?

© Simon Moore for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments

This is not, strictly speaking, a review. We don’t currently have an Android games section (although we might in the future), but that doesn’t mean we don’t play them. I, for one, was an early adopter of the Android platform. I still have my G1 laying around somewhere, and right now my non-PC time is split between my G2 and my Asus Eee Pad Transformer. The latter has replaced my old laptop in terms of reading books, browsing the web and other similar tasks. Of course I also play games on it; in fact earlier you might have seen my tutorial on how to get DOS games to run on Android.

When a representative contacted us with a review request, I felt it was a good idea to take their game for a spin and do a write-up. The game in question is called My Country and it is of the city-building genre. At first glance is it reminiscent of the SimCity games, and I remember thinking that it would make more sense if it was named “My City” instead. I haven’t played that series in a while, but I have a soft spot in my heart for SimCity 2000, which I played growing up. Because of that I found myself pretty eager to dive in and enjoy the experience.

The game is free, and although there are many free offerings in the Android Marketplace – most of them are decidedly sub-par. My Country therefore has the benefit of a pleasant first impression. Naturally, the purpose of the game is to build a large and profitable metropolis, which you try to achieve by placing residential and commercial buildings, roads, parks, et cetera. All of the above costs Game Dollars, and you start off with a substantial amount. A tutorial gets you going and before you know it you are the proud mayor of a few apartment buildings, a business center and a taxi company.

This is where things get different. Each building has multiple levels of upgrades, which cause it to bring in more money. When you purchase a building, it doesn’t immediately appear. Construction takes time (sometimes hours) and may happen in multiple stages. At the end of each stage your input is required in order to begin the next one. Business buildings, such as banks and factories, require professionals to be hired in order to operate. These men and women demand you collect certain items in order for them to work for you. A teacher, for example, needs a Book, some Chalk and an Attache Case. These objects, as well as myriad others, are dropped on a semi-random basis during completion of building upgrades or when you collect profit.

That’s right, collecting profits is a manual task. Apartment buildings bring little money, even when fully upgraded. Businesses can bring a ton of money, but require contracts, which in turn cost Game Dollars. Depending on how far you’ve upgraded any given building you can sign either a short term, a standard, or a long term contract. The length of the contract determines the cost, the money it brings in, and how long it will take to complete. Once a building produces a profit, you have to tap the profit icon, then tap the money icon to collect the money and the XP icon to collect experience, then tap the contract icon to renew the contract, and finally tap an item if one happened to drop. If you neglect to collect the earnings, they will just sit there while the building performs no useful function.

There is also another currency called Country Bucks. It is earned at very slow rate and is realistically meant to be purchased with real money. The purpose of it is to make things easy for you. You can buy items or hire workers, cause a contract to finish immediately, build and/or upgrade instantly, and collect all of the rewards at once.

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments

DRM, Internet connections, and digital downloads for games and content are always controversial. My own colleagues here at Avault have very strong feelings about these subjects. Mentioning Steam as a service can raise the specter of a flame war between those who like Steam and those who hate it. But even as people flame each other, we can all generally agree that DRM does not really work to deter the piracy of games and digital downloads can be convenient, even if download services can get rid of the content later.

That said, it should be no surprise that Blizzard is forcing PC gamers to play Diablo III with a live connection to the Net. Blizzard wants to protect its investment, and DRM that does not involve a connection to the Net is shockingly easy to bypass. By the same token, connecting to the Net enables plenty of functions that both PC and console gamers enjoy. Achievements, chat, and an auction house that allows for both in-game currency and RMT for in-game content, are some of these goodies. While we may argue about the value of these services, I can understand why Blizzard would feel that an always-on Net connection would be in their best interests. If I were in their shoes, I would be sorely tempted to make the same choice. After all, Blizzard does not exist just to entertain us, but to make money while doing so.

However, that does not mean that I approve of their decision. My reasons are, perhaps, a bit different than most gamers.

First, to clear the air, it seems that Blizzard feels piracy considerations are not that important. Robert Birdenbecker has said, “Internally I don’t think [always-on DRM] ever actually came up when we talked about how we want connections to operate. Things that came up were always around the feature-set, the sanctity of the actual game systems like your characters. You’re guaranteeing that there are no hacks, no dupes. All of these things were points of discussion, but the whole copy protection, piracy thing, that’s not really entering into why we want to do it.” That actually makes sense, considering that there are plenty of ways to modify games that require servers to function. While I am skeptical that the topic of always-on DRM didn’t come up at all, I do believe Robert when he says that there are other considerations. Whatever else this is about, piracy is not that important. But Birdenbecker’s statement reveals what is important to Blizzard. When he says “…no hacks, no dupes…” and you combine his statement with the knowledge that there will be real money transactions at the Auction House that comes with the game, and that Blizzard gets a small cut of those RMTs, then the real reason is quite clear. Blizzard wants to make additional money off their players, and they are embracing an MMO-lite gaming model in order to do so.

This is where I start to worry. Not because I begrudge Blizzard making money (make good games, and I will wish you healthy quarterly profits), but because I think the model they are using is flawed. MMOs are themselves a healthy model for gaming. I’ve talked at some length about MMOs as a successful model, especially Turbine’s “legalizing” of gold farmers’ services. It is a model that makes good money and provides an experience that many gamers enjoy. But Diablo III is not an MMO. Instead, what Blizzard is doing here is making a single-player game that has just enough MMO elements to generate extra revenue without actually being a real MMO.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 27 comments

I have a lock on the door to my house. If someone really wanted to get in, however, that lock wouldn’t necessarily stop them. They could shoot the door down with a missile launcher or even bypass the door completely and break the window with a brick. I could worry about time traveling robot ninjas with energy swords that can cut through any material that my house is built out of, but I don’t (mainly because I do not have anything of value in my home). Most people would not buy a house or even rent an apartment that doesn’t have some form of lock on their door. People have the right to protect their property and that includes video game companies.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that video game companies make games to make money. I know this might be a shock for many, but the video game industry is a business. I may not have a Doctorate in business, but I would assume that one of the most important aspects of running a business is protecting your property. In this industry most game companies, if not all, have some method of protecting the products they sell.

Digital rights management (DRM) has been around for a while and will now forever be a part of the industry. It is a way for companies to control access to a particular game, in an effort to protect their property. It is not because evil executives sit around all day thinking of ways to take over the world one game DRM at a time! If I steal a game, I would have to worry about the DRM in order to play it. If I legally purchase a game I will never have to worry about the “evil” DRM. Some companies have a form of DRM that requires a continuous Internet connection to play a game. Companies who use this method will always tell you beforehand. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it!

No one is forcing anyone to buy a video game they don’t want to buy. No one is forcing anyone to play a video game they don’t want to play. You can always say no and you can say no to the terms of use for the game. I have never once been at the checkout line, with a video game that I wanted to purchase in hand, when suddenly the store clerk put a gun to my head and angrily yelled at me to put that game down and buy a different one. (If that ever did happen, however, I would begin to cry and quickly agree to buy the game forced upon me.)

Game companies that use DRM as a way to protect their property are not the enemy. People who pirate or buy/play pirated video games are the enemy. The industry is a business and companies need to protect their product. The only people who are greedy in this equation are the pirates. I will support any company that uses DRM to protect their property. I will never worry about any form of DRM because I always obtain my games legally, and I have the right to not play or buy them. Companies who limit the number of times you can install it on your computer, do so because it is their choice. You also have a choice of whether to buy and play it. You don’t have a choice on the method a company chooses to protect their property. When the day comes when you don’t have any choice at all on what games to buy or play then we really have to start to panic.

© Patrick Watts for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 11 comments

Written by: Mark Turcotte

Every fall we gamers get the gift of new AAA games delivered to us just before the holidays. These titles usually start arriving in late September, and continue right through to the year’s end. It seems I always find myself thinking that that year has the best fall release schedule ever, as each year comes and seems to top the last. This upcoming autumn is no exception, and has a November release schedule that I think is second to none. The number of AAA titles arriving over a span of mere weeks is staggering. It has left me stumped as to why these games would be released in such close proximity, and has me putting money aside as I prepare to buy them all.

First up on November 1 is the follow up to one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, Uncharted 3. If you have never played a game in the Uncharted series, then you are missing out on a franchise that has the perfect blend of great story-telling and high intensity action. The main character, Nathan Drake, has become a household name after only 2 outings, and it is often said that he has out “Lara’d” Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series. The cinematic flare that these games bring not only keeps you pushing through to the story’s end, but has you on the edge of your seat as you experience an over-the-top adventure through Drake’s eyes. From what Sony has shown so far (Did you see their E3 Press Conference Demo?), Uncharted 3 will be a must have and will once again push story telling forward in the action genre.

Next up on the list is Activision’s Modern Warfare 3 on November 8. Okay, yes, I heard the groan across the Internet as you read the title but let’s be honest. These games are fun to play. Say what you will about the set piece moments and what seems to be endless waves of enemies coming at you as you fight through areas that appear open but actually aren’t, but the bottom line for any Call of Duty game is that the campaign be exhilarating, over-the-top, and when it’s all said and done you have to catch your breath. On top of that, throw in the addicting multiplayer that the series is known for, and this is another must have title. The wildcard for this game is that Battlefield 3 actually releases days before Uncharted 3 on October 25. Despite its early release, Battlefield 3 needs to mentioned because it is a AAA title that many people plan on purchasing. Some say they’re picking up Battlefield 3 and not Modern Warfare 3 but, I gotta admit I’m getting them both.

On November 11, Bethesda is releasing the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I try not to let the fanboy in me come out that often, but I can not help but get excited for this game. Skyrim looks beautiful, will have an engaging story, and will once again allow players to fine tune their character to their style of play. Like the previous games in the series, it will contain hours upon hours of gameplay and a massive landscape to explore and interact with. The demo that I saw at E3 showed off improvements to the interface, and displayed the new battle system that allows for numerous combinations of weapons and spells while appearing both intuitive and streamlined. When I think of this game, I find myself wondering just how many hours I will invest into it. It’s awe inspiring just how much content will be included, hence my undying need to see it all.

Finally on the list is Assassin’s Creed: Revelations which Ubisoft is releasing on November 15. The game will see the end of the Ezio and Altair story arcs. If you have not jumped into this franchise, yet, then you are missing out on one of the coolest and most engrossing series of this generation of consoles. The Assassin’s Creed series has one of the most in-depth stories, and some of the most engaging action gameplay available. With Revelations wrapping up the Ezio arc, however, I can’t help but feel some sadness. Ezio is a character that I have grown to know and have a connection to, and seeing him in this final act will be hard. The E3 demo looked a little bit more of the same, but with the promise of the continued story I’m sold. Add on top of that the inventive and original multiplayer that Brotherhood introduced, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will be a game that can’t be missed.

So what’s a gamer to do? Here are four top-notch, AAA, must have titles all releasing in a matter of weeks in the same month. Not to mention Battlefield 3 which misses the month by just days, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which shares Ezio’s November 15. This month is going to be one for the history books. I wonder how the sales of each of these titles will affect the other. Additionally, many gamers often say that too many sequels are being made, and all of those titles mentioned above is a sequel. Is this really a bad thing? From the track record of the previous installments in each of these series, these new games will not only build on what the previous title did but will also add some new and inventive mechanics that make it better. What’s your plan for this November?

© Michele White for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Crysis 2 was pulled from Steam a short while ago. That’s right, if you haven’t yet purchsed it, you are out of luck, at least when it comes to Valve’s download service, now. What happened? Well, the people over at EA decided to take yet another shot at launching their own store. Their original EA Store sucked, so they dropped it in favor of their new Origin service. Origin is basically EA’s own Steam knock-off.

What this means for you is that for a period of time, there will be a new online gaming store that’s backed up by the weight and wallet of a major publisher. In a bid for your money, they are certain to institute protectionist policies, making their games unavailable for sale elsewhere. BioWare’s Old Republic MMO is confirmed as an Origin exclusive (at least at launch), and Battlefield 3 will be available at other download services, but not via Steam.

I, for one, was looking forward to Battlefield 3, provided there was no idiotic DRM or registration requirements (like those in Dragon Age 2). My fear at this point is that we might be forced to create an Origin account regardless of where we buy the game. That, at least to me, means no sale. To be fair, this is not a new problem, as others have done it as well. Dawn of War II, for example, forced me to play its single player campaign via both Steam and GFWL, even though I really didn’t want to deal with either. Make no mistake though, new or old – this is a problem.

Unlike many angry people on the Internet, I don’t believe that Origin is somehow more evil than Steam. The way I see it, both services install annoying software on my computer. Both are run by companies that have no qualms about locking people out of their collections for real or imaginary violations. Both are effectively DRM. Neither offers much to compensate for the inconvenience, nor any recourse or compensation when their services go down, so once they disappear all your games will be lost.

Oh and if you for some reason think that either Steam or Origin are forever…you might be delusional. No company is eternal. And yes, someone once said something about letting people download their games if Steam ever closes down. The thing is, companies go out of business all the time, and running such a service is expensive. Not to mention that DRM will need to be removed from the entire catalog, which once again will cost time and money. Basically, unless you have seen it in legally binding writing that there is an escrow account set up for this very purpose, you are just lying to yourself.

With that said, I trust that Steam will outlast Origin by a long shot. EA is notorious for discontinuing game servers for even relatively new games. If Origin doesn’t become popular immediately and doesn’t prove to be financially viable, they will shut it down. They’ve done it before. They’ve also once attempted to charge for “a service” that granted you the two-year ability to re-download the game you already bought. If Origin is not successful, you will almost certainly lose your games.

Why would it not be successful? Well, the aforementioned protectionist policy is not going to win EA any friends. (Valve does the same thing by the way, but Valve has the advantage of having been there first.) Many people, such as myself, will be unwilling to switch from Steam because they’ve used it for a long time and have their entire collections there. Many people don’t want to deal with yet another service, another account, and another installation. The biggest issue with Origin, however, is that EA is just not very good at this type of thing. All of their initiatives of this sort, if memory serves, have failed.

Most of the above is speculation, of course. Anything can happen that does not violate the laws of thermodynamics. Still, somehow I don’t see these recent developments as positive. Time will tell, but for the time being I am going to prepare myself for the possibility that I’ll just have to pass on Battlefield 3. Unpleasant as it may be.

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments

A brief response to Alaric’s rant against BioWare, to Jim Redner’s PR goof, to Michele’s assertion that our reputation is not for sale, and to Angel’s commitment to stay out of the mainstream.

Recently, Alaric vented his anger at BioWare. I wanted to respond at the time, but my response was really too long to fit as a comment. Since I can just write an editorial blog anytime I want, I figured I could respond in a more lengthy and thoughtful way from my own soapbox.

First of all, let me just say that I have had some of the same feelings as Alaric. While I don’t bear the same kind of malice against BioWare that he apparently does, I completely understand his frustration. In my case, one of the last straws was NWN2. While NWN itself suffered from some problems, the writing and characterization of NPCs got much better in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion. The plot involved making some real choices, and had some interesting characters with compelling dialogue. (Whoever wrote Deekin’s dialog during the final encounter with Mephistopheles gets a gold star.) But by the time we get to NWN2, most of that wonderful writing is gone. NWN2 had so much potential that went unused because most of the NPCs were uncompelling and the plot had a kind of recycled feeling to it. The antagonists were named something different, but the ancient evil from the past schtick was something we had covered before in NWN. (One of the things that made Hordes of the Underdark so interesting was its unique plot construction when compared to the original NWN.) The game also suffered from a buggy release and unjustifiably high system requirements for the kind of graphics it had. The best NPC was Bishop, but you only got to see his full characterization if you made certain choices towards evil. (Bishop’s refusal to help Garius towards the end and his scathing commentary was pretty good. Just because Bishop was evil did not mean he had to just do what the bad guy said to do.)

What is perhaps more troubling to me, though, is that brief flashes of good writing like Bishop pop up in other works. While most players thought The Sith Lords was inferior to the original Knights of the Old Republic, I found that some of the characters were compelling. I was also very pleased by the way that game handled the standard ethical choices of Star Wars. Not only could you fall to the Dark Side or pursue a path of virtue via the Light Side, but your companions could be influenced in their ethics as well. All of your companions had their own starting ethics, but several characters could be convinced to see the world your way thanks to the influence system. While convincing Visas Marr to accept salvation and embrace the Light Side and abandon her devotion to her Sith training and moral outlook was fairly easy, convincing Brianna, the Handmaiden, to fall to the Dark Side was much more difficult. In fact, one of the chief satisfactions of playing The Sith Lords were these interactions with your companions. I played through multiple times just to see who I could convince to do what. Also, HK’s dialog, while probably not quite as good as the original Knights of the Old Republic, was still a lot of fun. His lecture on how to kill Jedi, and his complete disgust for people who try to shoot Jedi with blasters, was almost worth the price of admission.

Yet, these encounters with great characters and gameplay mechanics tend to underscore Alaric’s complaints. Even when BioWare has had a real winner on its hands, something has caused it to move into the land of “meh.” Smart players have looked into the files of The Sith Lords and discovered all kinds of content that would have made the plot make a lot more sense. The best thing they discovered was content related to the place where HK was made (tying up a loose end regarding the number and mission of HK assassin droids). This kind of thing points to something other than a lack of creativity. BioWare has had some good writers, but it seems like somewhere in the production process, interesting things got cut.

Of course, I am talking about games that are several years old. I have not really spent time with more recent BioWare titles for two reasons. One, since I am on staff here at Avault, I tend to spend time reviewing games; I can’t go out and spend billions of hours playing through Mass Effect and its sequels without compromising my employment, my review schedule, or my time spent with cats. Second, since I have to budget my time accordingly, I have to pick and choose games that I play outside of my capacity as a reviewer very carefully so that I don’t waste time on something I won’t like. While BioWare products continue to get good press from some quarters, nothing I have read makes me want to run out and pick up a copy of any of these recent titles. And that’s with our very own Michael giving some very high praise to these titles.

Wait a second now…Michael Smith of our own staff gave those games good reviews? I thought reviewers were part of a hive mind that reached a Borg-like consensus on what every game was worth. What in the Hell is going on here?

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments

I’ve already detailed my intimidating experience on my first day of E3 so for Day Two, I think I’ll take a different approach. You saw me at my most anxious and stressed on Day One, but Day Two was a totally different experience. After seeing how well (and calmly) my colleagues at The Adrenaline Vault handled their E3 responsibilities, I decided to shadow them on Day Two. I would leverage some of Turks’s connections and experience the VIP treatment. I even walked away with a few VIP badges, which may or may not have needed to be returned, but they’ll look good on my wall. The main difference in my approach to Day Two was a focus on the experience and better time management (i.e. a lot less walking between halls).

When I woke up I knew the day would be entirely different that what I had experienced on my first day. My first meeting was at the EA booth for a hands-on preview of the upcoming Star Wars MMO, Old Republic. On Day One, the podcast crew and I had a behind-the-scenes look at some cinematics and recorded gameplay for the game, and although I really like Star Wars, I walked into the hands-on meeting with a sizeable amount of skepticism. While I’m not an authority on the MMORPG genre, I’ve played several and have a general knowledge of the mechanics involved. When I heard the sound effect for my dual lightsabers turning on, however, my heart rate spiked. Something about seeing my Sith Warrior flying through the air, lightsabers blurring as they spun, sent shivers down my spine. Surprisingly, the game has more strengths than possessing the Star Wars branding. The ability to interact with NPCs using KOTOR-styled dialogue wheels is an interesting addition. Not only will your dialogue discussions affect your light/dark side morality rating, your choices can permanently alter the storyline.

Patrick Watts and I were grouped together and when a dialogue cinematic popped up, we both were presented the dialogue wheel and made a choice. The game rolls to see whose choice wins and then the story is continued based on the winning player’s dialogue choice. Watts only chose dark side dialogue, so when he won, his dark side meter would increase and the story would follow a darker route. Fortunately, his bad decisions had no effect on my pursuit of the light side of the force. I don’t know if his negative decisions would permanently alter my storyline if I continued to play without Watts. I’m hoping it does as that could have a profound impact on grouping dynamics. I left the hands-on preview with a changed opinion of the game. It’s going to be an awesome MMO, maybe not genre-changing like EA promises, but it will be getting my subscription dollars.

After our rendezvous with Old Republic greatness, I followed the podcast crew over to EA’s VIP line for a Mass Effect 3 preview. I can’t be considered a fan of the series (I’ve only played 50% of the first ME), but what I played was enjoyable and I’ve heard the sequel only got better. Honestly, I wasn’t anticipating anything as we went behind closed doors to see the cinematics and live gameplay. I was only sure that the game would be good and have excellent production value. When we exited the room, I was pretty upset. Not because the game was a let down, on the contrary it looks amazing. I was upset due to something that happened in the last cinematic we saw. Without mentioning a spoiler, I’ll just say that the story is superb and the Reaper invasion will have some heart-wrenching consequences. The game mechanics have been upgraded, retooled and expanded for some interesting twists on the mechanics of the previous two games. In short, you’ll have better weapon customization, more level verticality, a wider range of combat tactics (stealth vs. run-and-gun), and the involvement of your entire party will be more integral to the storyline and gameplay. After sitting through the preview, I’ll definitely be purchasing the title for my PC.

I then separated from the podcast crew to attend a meeting with Perfect World for some hands-on time with their upcoming free-to-play title Blacklight: Retribution. The game’s producer, Zombie Studios, had released Blacklight: Tango Down as an Xbox Live Arcade title last year, but their new project would be developed for the PC using the Unreal 3 Engine and DirectX 11. Tango Down was fun, but lacked both polish and sales. I assume this was the reason the company decided to switch to the free-to-play model for the PC. I sat there locked in a multiplayer battle with my media peers, and was impressed at how good the game not only looked but played. Aside from being free (at least until you want some cooler gear), Retribution will offer a high level of character customization. Instead of basing everything off of pre-defined classes, Zombie Studios has given players the ability to make their own class. If you like sniping but want to whip out some better close-range rifles, you’ll be able to develop your character to have strengths in those areas. As a fan of the free-to-play model I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product and logging some hours in-game.

I won’t detail every single thing I did or game I played on Day Two, so I’ll close with my next meeting. When I left the Perfect World appointment, I walked over to the South Hall on the opposite end of the convention center for an appointment with Heather Becker of Digital Legends. Heather has supplied me with quite a few promo codes for my iPhone reviews and I was anxious to sit down and get some face-to-face time with her. The only problem was that I couldn’t I find the booth. I knew it was somewhere behind the Square Enix booth but I wandered around for a decent amount of time without spotting her location. Then I saw her sitting at a table, with her laptop, next to the food court behind Square’s booth. I don’t mention this to embarrass her or the company in any way. In fact, I have a higher level of respect for these types of companies than I do for the EA’s of the industry. Heather gets her job done guerilla style and it shows in how well Digital Legends’ games rank on the iTunes charts. Their game Ice Breaker is #8 and Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior is #5 in Japan’s iTunes store. I appreciated the ability to just sit with Heather and talk about Digital Legend’s games and some idle chitchat. I felt valued, as opposed to my “VIP” meetings where I was some nameless face staring at their screen for the tenth time that day.

My second and final day at E3 was a blast. I walked away with some awesome swag and I learned some valuable lessons as an amateur game reviewer with a media pass. My meeting with Heather helped me realize that there was no need for the disappointment I felt on my first day. I may not be getting “invitation only” requests from EA and Activision, but I get to review some cool games, and work directly with industry professionals that I know and that know me. I guess the only thing to do is keep on doing what I’ve been doing and see where this all goes. Hopefully, one day I can transition my experience as a web designer and developer into a position in the gaming industry, but if I just stay at this level and get to go to E3 every year, I imagine I could still be content with that.

© Matthew Booth for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments

I never aspired to become a game reviewer, it just sort of happened. My journey began with the casual podcast download, progressed to writing iOS game reviews and has escalated beyond my expectations with my inaugural E3 experience. Attending E3 with a media pass has its perks, but if you’re not prepared, there are some pitfalls awaiting the unsuspecting noob. What started out as a nightmare, however, eventually became something that I will value the rest of my life. I’m already preparing myself for next year’s E3, but nothing will be quite as intimidating, yet ultimately transcendent, as my first time.

When I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center, I thought I was adequately prepared for the long day ahead of me. My calm quickly unraveled while I walked through the parking structure. The sign near the entrance read “$50/day maximum for event parking.” E3 definitely qualifies for an event, but surely I wouldn’t be charged $50 for leaving my car in this garage for the day, right? Nope, I parked in the garage for L.A. Live and parking there was considerably more expensive that the convention center parking. Rather than search out another parking garage, I decided to finish my first appointment to preview Dead Island, and then scope out more affordable parking solutions afterward.

I entered the “media” section for the West Hall and took my place in line, staring in disbelief at the hundreds of other E3 attendees who were there to do the same exact thing I was. I knew the game industry was large, but being a nameless face in a sea of fellow game reviewers and journalists had an unsettling affect on my sense of accomplishment. Wearing my media pass didn’t feel as cool when I was surrounded by all my fellows, with the same pass on the same Zelda lanyard. As we anxiously awaited the opening of the West Hall doors, the room’s temperature rose to an uncomfortable level. The foreheads of the more portly reviewers glistened with a perspiration that was punctuated by the intermittent wafting of unknown odors. As the day wore on, the sweat, smells and anxiety would only increase.

After shuffling through the entrance, I bee-lined it to my appointment for Dead Island, which I had been anticipating since receiving my email confirmation. When I arrived at the booth I found my PR contact, Angela, and said, “Hi, I’m Matthew Booth from the Adrenaline Vault, I’m here to see Dead Island.” When the look of confusion left her face she politely let me know that the booth was for UTV Ignition Games which, as I already knew, was not the developer of the title I came to see. I thought back to the original email and realized that while the subject line had said, “Dead Island Inquiry,” the content of the email was for a different developer with non-zombie-centric characters. So I squeezed this lemon into some lemonade and spoke at length with the project developer and marketing manager for three surprisingly interesting titles: Faxion, Sky Legends, and Plant Crashers.

Within a 2-hour time frame I had set the pace for a borderline nervous breakdown. The ingredients of which were poor planning and unrealistic expectations. My thoughts returned to my parking dilemma, so I exited the building, paid my $5 parking fee (apparently parking is cheap unless you need it for the day), and spent 30 minutes trying to find a parking lot that took a debit card. Los Angeles doesn’t have free parking, and Los Angles prefers cash. I found a parking structure a half mile away, and then proceeded to speed walk back to the convention center. I entered the West Hall sweatier and more unglued than I had 2.5 hours earlier. I pulled out my notepad and noted the location of my next appointment. It was in the South Hall. The distance between the two halls is considerable, yet manageable. Throw in several thousand nerds, geeks, corporate suits and exhibition booths, however, and the perceived distance triples in length.

© Matthew Booth for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 17 comments

If I ever go to E3 again, I will not book an early flight for Monday. I learned my lesson well on this trip. I left for the airport to take the first flight my preferred airline had (which means it was early as all hell), after having slept for about thirty minutes the night before because I was up all night thinking about E3. Then you add a full day of press conferences and free drinks at the Transformers MMO party on top of the no sleep, and you wind up with an interesting mix. Somehow, however, I was victorious, and with bags under the eyes still managed to survive the first two days of my E3 adventure.

OK, enough of my sad tale about no sleep, an early flight, and too many free drinks. Let me get to the games that you want to hear about. Many of the titles I saw during the press conferences (though with limited actual gameplay) were filled with fantastic-looking cut scenes. I did have some hands-on time and private viewings of a few, and while you really can’t tell how the final product will be, I can still throw my thoughts out there on my first impressions.

The top three games that I saw that I know are going to be best-sellers and superior in every way are Mass Effect 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Battlefield 3. I know those are not underdogs of the industry, but what I actually saw and experienced of these titles was gaming gold. I left The Old Republic out of the above list because it resides on an entirely different plane, and calls for its own separate thought collective. You’ll get to read that story tomorrow.

Mass Effect 3 takes place after the second installment and continues the story. You can’t not like this one if you enjoy a good story. Unless, of course, you hate the company and have preconceived negative thoughts about every game they put out. Either way, Mass Effect 3 continues Shepard’s story, and he has to fight off the Reaper invasion on Earth. Tell me how bad ass that is!

The second game that I know a lot of people are waiting for is Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 3. It continues the story and multiplayer greatness from the second game, and the opening sequence of the level they showed in the private meeting room was amazing! If someone would had told me that the guy showing off the first level was playing on a console and not a powerful PC, I would have slapped their face and recommended metal help. Luckily, I saw it with my own eyes. The game just looked fantastic and you can expect everything you loved from the second game to be in the third.

The last of the top three games of the near future I saw is Battlefield 3. I have only had limited experience with the previous titles of the series (mostly Battlefield: 2142), but, the gameplay they showed during the EA press conference was unique. The gameplay was flawless, looked incredible, and I already felt like I was in the middle of a war, even though I was only just sitting in a theatre drooling. The tank battalion advancing to the fight looked godly. I know a lot of people love to say that playing this game on the PC would be better than on the console, and in that I would agree, it just looked amazing.

So far…so good. My E3 experience has been wonderful, and the only thing that awaits is my hands on with The Old Republic. In that hands-on I will be screaming, sweating, and shaking with excitement.

© Patrick Watts for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | One comment

Here at Avault, we tend to only review games and related hardware accessories. Yet, every once in awhile, I feel the need to comment on something hardware related that has little to do with games. I’ve complained before about the lousy product performance of NetGear wireless products, but today I am compelled to write something much more positive.

For the past few months, I have been the proud owner for a 2011 Ford Fiesta (a good car, by the way). What is relevant to the technologically savvy crowd is Ford’s Sync system, an option available on most new models. Now, I admit, I was a bit skeptical when I read some advertising on Sync’s capabilities; after all, what could be more pretentious than driving a smart car that requires regular updates from the Internet? However, after a test drive, purchase, and five months of ownership, I feel confident saying that Sync is a wonderful piece of automotive engineering, even though it doesn’t utilize any cutting edge, science fiction technology.

Sync is a computerized automobile system, courtesy of Microsoft, no less, that integrates media, vehicle diagnostics, Bluetooth technology, and GPS/Roadside assistance services all in one voice-controlled piece of hardware. Utilizing a microphone centrally and unobtrusively mounted in the car’s ceiling and a voice actuator switch on the turn signal stalk, Sync allows the driver to control various important functions of the vehicle by voice. You can tell Sync to change the source of media, order the car to diagnose itself and send the report to Ford, demand that the car bring up a list of Italian restaurants within a few miles, or call someone with your cellphone. Advanced cellphones can even have Sync read text messages to you while you drive, although my phone in this case is less advanced than Sync (thus, I still don’t drive and text). Sync even acts as a GPS, utilizing Sync services ($60 a year, but the first 3 years are free with purchase of a new vehicle) to get directions, as well as grab news and weather reports. All of these features are just a few voice commands away.

Sync also has two different dedicated points that allow access to media devices. Whatever you like to keep your music on, just plug it in and you can use Sync’s voice system to select playlists, individual tracks, folders, and even play by artist, genre, and album. However, that is not really what I consider to be the coolest aspect of playing music with Sync. Sync’s USB port also supports flash drives. Just put your favorite music on the flash drive, plug it into the USB port, and just leave it there. It recognizes multiple playlist formats (I use Winamp playlists just because I’ve been using Winamp for years), as well as recognizes all the same tags on your mp3s that your portable media player recognizes. And since flash drives are really cheap compared to iPods, I just put all of my music on a cheap drive and keep it in the car. No one is breaking into my front seat to steal a flash drive. For satellite radio aficionados, Sync also works well with satellite radio, although I did not get that option since any radio, satellite or local, is anathema to my musical interests. Satellite radio competes with Radio Jason (all Jason music, all Jason talk, all the time) and since even cheap flash drives can hold a few hours of music, I find radio quite unnecessary. (I’m sure Sync would let me program and voice control dozens of local radio stations as well, but I haven’t bothered with all of that, and you shouldn’t either.)

Sync’s voice recognition system is pretty good. It learns your voice as you use it, which means that its ability to recognize my very fast idiomatic speech has improved over the past few months. Because of the way the microphone is mounted in the car, it has a hard time recognizing voice commands when your head is turned towards the left (like when you are looking over your shoulder to merge or turn left), and if you are in the middle of traffic, Sync sometimes gets confused when you say something like “Play list OMFG that #%^(*$# just cut me off!” When Sync does not understand a command, it patiently asks you to repeat it or, if it thinks it knows what you might have meant, it will ask if you meant X. Sync also cannot understand voice commands when twelve people are talking at the same time (much like a human being), and you really can’t use it while driving with the windows down. The ambient noise is just too great. Also, there are three voice commands that I think Ford should have included in Sync’s database:

1. Raise shields.
2. Fire photon torpedoes!
3. Intensify forward firepower; I don’t want anything to get through.
(This last command really confuses Sync. I think Sync was installed on the Super Star Destroyer, which just goes to show that Ford products are reliable, but they cannot be made to serve evil.)

All joking aside, I have been impressed and pleased with the way Sync works in my car. Sync is not really as smart as KITT, nor is it quite as psychotic and condescending as KARR, but I consider it more or less indispensible now. The closest thing to a complaint I have is that I cannot change the voice set. I really wanted Douglas Rain to reprise his role as HAL and do the voice menus for Sync. This would match well with the HAL quotes from 2001 I use for my sound events in Windows. Still, while we don’t have commercially available flying cars, personal jetpacks, or space travel, it is nice to know that I can have a driving experience that is in some ways more advanced than Knightrider, with the added bonus that the Hoff is not required.

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments

In light of the PC vs. Console debates and flame wars I’ve participated in this past year, I owe all of the PC gamers I’ve argued with an apology. As much as the words “I’m sorry, I was wrong” sting my lips like lemon juice on an open wound…PC gamers: “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” While I’ve never advocated console titles as being on par with the technology behind PC games, I’ve argued that the gaming experience and immersion of the two can be equal. Unlike a lot of gamers I’ve come across, I generally don’t care what system a game is on if I enjoy the experience. I thoroughly enjoyed Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox 360, but I’ll only play Left 4 Dead and Battlefield Bad Company 2 on my PC. I’m even considering buying a used Game Cube so I can revisit some GC games that I miss (unless I buy a Wii and download the titles). In my analysis, any preference of systems was either a symptom of fanboy-ism or a case of elitist syndrome.

Last week, two unexpected events occurred that rearranged all of my gaming priorities. The first event was the upgrading of my CPU from an AMD x2 6400 to an AMD Phenom 965. The second event was the modding of my installation of Fallout 3, via fallout3nexus.com. I had been using an outdated processor since I built my PC 3 years ago, and while the Phenom isn’t exactly current-gen technology, it is an improvement on my system’s processing power. Regarding modding games, I realize that this is old news to most PC gamers, but I hadn’t taken the time to research the possibilities. I was unaware of the impact a few well-developed mods could have on gameplay.

Prior to last week’s revelation I was bored, depressed and sick of gaming altogether. I had even considered giving up my invitation to E3 and going on a hiatus from writing for The Adrenaline Vault. We’re all adults here, so I’ll explain why. In the last month I lost my grandmother unexpectedly, my wife’s grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, and I was working 12+ hour days. I’m exhausted, depressed, and having a hard time sorting through my feelings. Some of you may understand how I feel, and also understand how gaming can cease to matter during these traumatic life experiences. I don’t deal with emotions very well, so I become this ticking time bomb; ready to detonate the next time life decides to kick me in the head. This story isn’t all doom and gloom however, as here’s where Fallout 3 appeared with unexpected consequences.

I had been jonesing to play Fallout 3 again, as I missed the open world environment and the desolate landscape. It’s the perfect game for when you want to be thrown into an isolating environment and forget about the real world for a while. In addition to missing the stellar gameplay and RPG mechanics, I missed the story (and walking around post-apocalyptic America listening to music from the 30s and 40s). I already knew that I couldn’t play this game on a console. The controls would drive me mad. I was going to have to reinstall the game on my PC, but I still didn’t care enough about gaming to actually install it and wander the wasteland. The last game I had played was Blur and that was only because Dan Amrich was having a One of Swords gaming night on Xbox Live. I had wanted to participate in a Playing with Swords event, so I pushed my emotions aside and got my butt handed to me in every race – I still had a good time though. Other than a few hours with Blur, my Xbox remained a glorified DVD player and my PC kept its role as a workstation.

One of my freelance projects during this month’s workapalooza was editing and rendering a video for a dental trade show. If you’ve used After Effects (or a majority of the Adobe products) you already know that they can make a lesser computer scream in pain. Now I never heard my computer scream, but when the 1-minute video wanted 16+ hours to render, I knew I was asking too much from my dual-core AMD. Fortunately, my friend (who I was working for) offered to buy me a new processor. Once I installed my new AMD Phenom 965 and flashed my BIOS, my rendering time dropped to just under 6 hours. I still need to upgrade to a 64-bit OS, buy a new motherboard and some DDR3 RAM, but the performance increase from swapping out just the processor was a small victory.

Having a new processor got me thinking about PC gaming again. In the past I experienced performance issues with Left 4 Dead (which is processor intensive), but despite having dedicated 500+ hours to L4D multiplayer, I wasn’t in the mood for testing my quad-core with my favorite Valve title. However, I still wanted to know how the 965 would improve my PC gaming experience. After buying Bad Company 2 and experiencing horrible system related performance issues, I had pretty much given up on my PC and switched to console gaming. I hoped that my new processor would improve my experience enough to allow me to game on my PC again. So I put the Fallout 3 disk in, filtered out the real world with my headset, and began my escape from Vault 101.

I had put a few hours into my standard edition (non-patched) version of FO3 when I was convinced to install my first mod. One of my favorite things to do is argue with fellow Adrenaline Vault writer Alaric Teplitsky, OK, maybe not a favorite, but I still enjoy the heck out of it. On May 19 I read one of his Facebook posts recounting his negative experience with installing The Witcher 2 on his PC, so I trolled his post by exuding the virtues of console gaming and its lack of installation/updating/driver issues. Bob Ivins immediately chimed in, as he is wont to do, by reminding me that the less powerful and more childish consoles are incapable of game modding. The “discussion” resulted in me reading a PC Gamer article titled 10 essential Fallout 3 mods, which convinced me that gaming on a PC offered an unrivaled gaming experience. This was no small feat.

A week has passed since I installed the Fallout Mod Manager, which allows me to finely tune my Fallout 3 gaming experience, and I can confidently say that I haven’t been this excited about gaming since 2011 began. And I have Alaric, Bob and the Fallout 3 nexus to thank. I’m not giving up on console gaming, but when the option is there, I’m buying the PC version. A medium to high-end gaming computer, a higher than 1080p resolution monitor and audiophile-grade headphones are all I really need for gaming now. When I experienced what modding could do to Fallout 3, my thoughts spun out of control when I thought about the options modding opened up for the other PC games I love. I’ll admit, given what’s happened this month, that I’m still depressed and not every day brings with it a desire to play, but it feels good to be excited about gaming again. It’s encouraging to believe the industry has a positive future, and it’s exciting to be a PC gamer again!

© Matthew Booth for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments

I never knew Playstation had an online community, I really didn’t. Call me ignorant, but I thought the only rabid and active online world was located on the Xbox 360. I never saw myself writing this kind of article. So what if the PSN is down for a few days? Aren’t the only games worth playing on that console single-player games?

Well, it was only when I saw the hundreds of comments online and the complaints from all those PSN users that my view on this changed. My allegiance, as you all know, is with Microsoft, but this past month I have enjoyed the extra media features PSN has to offer. Features that the 360 doesn’t have. So yes, I have also been hurling expletives at my PS3.

“Error code 8002A203” was the dreaded message that PS3 users saw over the Easter weekend. No matter how many times we tried to sign in, we were faced with this error code. At first, it was thought this was a temporary maintenance issue that would last a day. Then that day turned into days, and those days turned into uncertainty. Sony released their statement blaming the Anonymous group, they denied it, and the hours with no PSN continued to flow. Apart from the obvious frustration of the service going down, I want to look at the real effects this problem will have. These come two-fold, one being security, and the other, competition.

There has been talk of credit-card information being compromised by this external intrusion, which could be a major problem with a capital M. Let’s take the worst case scenario: millions of users lose money to an unknown person(s), as well as having other personal details compromised. The result would be lawsuits the size of Kilimanjaro, and Sony’s image being crucified. Not a good look.

There is also the trust issue. Those who forked out the cash to buy their PS3 and took full part in their online service will feel betrayed. After all, they chose Playstation instead of that other money-hungry machine. At the very least, they expected a high level of security from a large and respected company such as Sony.

The second issue is competition. Secretly, Microsoft are jumping up and down with joy with two fists raised. They acted quickly when this happened. After spewing their “sadness” for what happened to Sony, they offered their free Gold membership weekend. A chance for PSN users to try Live and see what their money buys. Xbox Live costs money. It is not free. That’s the reason Playstation users keep hurling at me as to why PSN is superior. Well, the age-old view is, you get what you pay for. If Xbox Live was a security risk, then people would get angry and ask for their money back. With Playstation, because it’s free, all users can do is get frustrated. They can’t ask for their money back or expect Sony to provide a flawless online service. Again, it is free.

That trump card of the service being free gets nullified when personal details are no longer safe and the server proves to be fragile. PSN users have to wonder if this might happen again, and how many times. It did happen to Xbox, way back in 2007 when the machine was still finding its feet. No such problem has occurred recently. Security is very important, and I already know people have taken their details off the PSN and are considering getting an Xbox.

To end this little analysis, I want to talk about the real future of gaming. I, like most gamers, love my GTA, Mass Effect and other single-player adventures. They are great and will always have their place. But when you put on your headset and compete against your friends or others in the online world, it’s a whole other level of gaming. It’s a gaming experience that promotes communication, teamwork and lots of fun. Unlike a single-player game, it has no end. That, my friends, is an argument for Xbox Live and why PSN users should really think about switching. Don’t fool me, fellow Playstationers. I know you love your online gaming, and that error code is killing you. Hackers have their eye on Sony’s server, and I won’t be surprised if this becomes a regular occurrence.

Xbox Live is one payment a year for a service that has proven to be secure and functional. I say it’s time to put petty rivalry aside, jump ship, and join good old Microsoft.

© Benjy Ikimi for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments

Sony. Sony Sony Sony Sony Sony. What happened? You’re making it increasingly difficult to defend you.

I want to start off by saying that I’m a big fan. In my life I’ve had two PSones, two PS2s, a PSP and a launch PS3. (That’s the one that was selling for $599.) Hell, I even have a PSP Go. I’ve been a loyal customer since I was 11 years old.

When your network went down last week, I was mildly inconvenienced, but not angry. Not having access to Hulu Plus or the PSN store was annoying, sure, and I was no longer able to play Mortal Kombat with my friends, but the service is free, so I didn’t complain. Now that you’ve opened up about why the service went down, I feel it’s, in fact, time to complain. And complain I shall.

Yesterday I had to cancel my credit card because of your “network intrusion.” I found an errant charge on my account mere minutes after I read that you were worried that personal information might’ve been taken. I spoke to a friend of mine that same hour, and he had been informed by his bank that someone was trying to use his credit-card number in England. Both of us spent a large part of last night talking with our banks and changing all of our passwords. No longer is this network downtime mildly inconvenient. As of yesterday, it downright sucks.

I’d like to believe you’re doing everything in your power to prevent this from happening again. Regardless of whatever super security measures you put in when the network comes back, I will never be putting my credit-card number in your hands again. All of my PSN and Xbox Live purchases will be done using pre-paid point cards from now on.

You have a chance to make this up to your customers when the network comes back. I’m not going to sit here and demand something for my trouble, but it would be nice if you took care of us. Why not let us know you’re sorry and buy our love back with a free PSN game (not a Mini.) How about some cross-game voice-chat? An HD release of the original Jet Moto, perhaps?

I look forward to the future, when all of this unpleasantness is behind us. Do your best to make things right.

TriangleXSquareO

Jason

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments

On Earth Day everyone is encouraged to work towards helping the environment. People can spend the day recycling, carpooling, or even switching out old light bulbs for environmentally friendly ones, among other things. The main focus of the day is to “go green” in hopes that you’ll stay green all year.

While the Earth Day events may seem like enough for some people, one group of gamers thinks they can do more. Gamers Go Green, a high school gaming team from Whitney M Young High School in Chicago, is partnering with Evil Controllers to host a Game Hour on April 23rd, the day after Earth Day. During this Game Hour, gamers are encouraged to shut off everything in their house and spend one hour with their friends and family playing a game.

I will be spending my hour playing a candlelit game of Monopoly with my wife. I’m hoping the lack of lighting will make cheating easier, because I’m tired of losing to her. She gloats in a Yoda voice every time she wins anything, and it drives me crazy.

Will you participate? What will you spend your hour doing?

More information can be found at the event’s FaceBook page.

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

There is a very interesting (and at times heated) argument going on in the comments section of the Gaming revenue falls again article. Although mostly formed around the Console vs. PC argument, some points were raised that address the overall state of gaming. In particular, one of the explanations offered for the decline in sales is that the games of today are not particularly good. I was going to bring this up in the comments, but then decided that it is such an important topic that it should be explored outside of the current flame-war.

I’ll tell you straight out, I actually don’t think that games today are worse than they were 20 years ago. Or 10 years ago. Or 5. As Solo4114 pointed out, we are getting older. It means we have more money and less time, but it also means that we are more and more prone to fondly reminisce about “the good old days”.

Difficult as it may be to admit, the grass wasn’t greener and the children weren’t more respectful. The games weren’t better either. In fact, they were worse. While it is true that we had some excellent games as kids, the majority of what was available was still garbage. Just like today. The reason we have so many pleasant memories is because we were kids at the time. These recollections aren’t of games in and of themselves; they are of something larger – our childhood. For most of us it was a good time, and so in our minds the things that we associate with it are embellished and romanticized.

The truth is, today we have it better than ever, and there are more games overall. Sure, this means that there are more garbage games, but there are also more good games. 1991 had perhaps a couple of dozen games released. Of those, maybe two or three were good. In contrast, 2011 will see the release of hundreds of games, and a few dozen of them will be good ones. Moreover, the good games of today are better on average than the good games of 1991. Why? For the simple reason that both the art and science of gaming have moved forward. For the past 20 years people have been building a better mousetrap year after year. There were leaps, there were gradual improvements, and there were new things entirely. We benefited from all of them.

What we really need to do is stop seeing things in terms of “before the fall” and “after the fall.” There was no fall! This fall we speak of is in our aging heads, all of it. Come on, guys, we are gamers! Our minds are trained in this stuff; we can think in the abstract and solve mind-boggling puzzles. This is just a trick biology is playing on us. We don’t have to fall for it.

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments