Fusion Genesis and Ambiguous English

[09:28] Ross Adams: Ha, I just started writing about it's ambition as a positive
[09:28] Ross Adams: but then what I wrote turned out to be negative
[09:28] Ross Adams: so now it's that
[09:28] Emessai Zeal: P'fahaha.
[09:28] Ross Adams: I realised as I was writing, for all the ambition it pretty much fails
[09:29] Emessai Zeal: Yeah. XBLA games really do need to be focused.
[09:29] Ross Adams: For its persistent online world NOTHING players do influences the world, so what's the point
[09:29] Ross Adams: hehe, Steve Haberman has just given a copy away and is saying it's a good game :X
[09:30] Ross Adams: but he's also pimping us saying we're great, WHAT TO BELIEVE
[09:31] Emessai Zeal: Haha!
[09:31] Emessai Zeal: We can be great without sharing opinins.
[09:32] Emessai Zeal: With. Steve. That is.
[09:33] Emessai Zeal: We must share... opinions... but perhaps our opinions... won't be shared in that they're congruent... I love English.
[09:33] Ross Adams: You crazy

Bus Ride Thoughts #1 - Multiplayer on XBLA

I'm a huge XBLA guy. I'm sure most people who know me know that. But this is a blog so I have to explain myself.

I love reinvention. I love innovation. I love when games break established norms with design wide open, or when they find a way to refine and add to an existing mentality. And so for the most part retail is no friend of mine in that regard as publishers are afraid to spend so much money on risky ideas for big budget retail titles, but on downloadable markets is a lot more feasible for them. And I love my xbox, thus XBLA. It's also why I write for www.xblafans.com.

The only problem with downloadable market games, namely XBLA (because that's what I'm familiar with, not because PSN etc. don't have similar problems) is that multiplayer experiences are hamstringed by the smaller player base and inconsistent match availability.

It's really unfortunate that games like Modern Warfare 3 (because call of duty is just the name attached to it to keep the brand together) overshadow some truly magnificent XBLA experiences because it's so core and bottom line that most people can play it forever despite being very bland and straightforward from a design perspective. But perhaps as people become less interested in those games due to how similar they are they'll try more XBLA beyond just Castle Crashers, magnificent though that game is.

This has been the first installment in hopefully a long series of posts done from my phone while on the bus. Hope you enjoyed it.

Gone so soon?

No no, I'm still here. I've been crunching out level guides for Orcs Must Die! which comes out tomorrow (10/5) and we're not too done with the guide. My partner really slacked it up, and my Mom took the 360 today to play Dark Souls, which inevitably served to distract me as well. On top of that, I had math class, Sociology class, homework for both, and I have a Linguistics test in the morning tomorrow for which I'm not prepared.

Sure, it's all my fault, but the point is that I'm still here to post! I'll talk at length about Orcs Must Die! in the coming week.

Adventures in Worms: Ultimate Mayhem

I'm playing some WUM (wumwumwum) online against some players and it's amazing to see just how consistent these games are, and their players as well. We're playing a match with a gametype created by one of the players where-in all weapons are available (I think, at least several of them are) and many of them are infinite, along with infinite utilities. So the first thing that happens is everyone jetpacks as high as they can and places sentries and whenever possible, jetpacks/walks to the nearest worm to kill them with dynamite or a dragon punch, nobody has the balls (I don't think Worms have balls...) to aim anything.

It's pretty embarassing. It's not the game's fault at all, I just wish the players were a bit more adventurous.

Rotastic's demo is awful; game isn't

I'm really glad sites like www.xblafans.com exist to review obscure XBLA titles like Rotastic because the demo for the multiplayer is pretty lackluster. I can understand that fear of showing off too much of your game in the demo, but showing off boring maps is a bad idea.

Rotastic is a simple game and it does what it wants to very well. Hold A to grapple onto anchor points and swing around them (in perfect circles) and use momentum to go to different points. Different multiplayer modes exist in the game but the only two that can be played are the one for collecting jewels and one for getting points (which is essentially the same thing except points are also awarded for tricks and kills). Speaking of kills, the game has a deathmatch mode but there's no deathmatch maps playable in the demo, despite it being the best part of the game other than its simplicity. Cutting enemies ropes while they're rotating at the right angle can send them rocketing towards the floor, it's pretty hilarious!

Check out Rotastic and my buddy's review for it as it is a great couchy sort of multiplayer game. And the single player isn't horrible either.

Interview with Skulls of the Shogun Lead Designer

XBLAFancast – Skulls of the Shogun Interview Special

This was an awesome interview, really. It started off a bit rocky with some technical issues but those were edited out (I hope). Jake Kazdal, awesome guy, founder of Haunted Temple Studios and lead designer and art director on Skulls of the Shogun, was my special guest on this podcast and he was super excited. I love indie XBLA devs because they love their games so much. The first five minutes or so, questions or not, Jake was goin' on about how everyone has loved the game so far and how it's surprised people and I couldn't help but smile and imagine how awesome that must be.

Skulls of the Shogun definitely speaks to me, Band of Bugs was a nice start at the whole XBLA turn based strategy but it really wasn't very enjoyable, even though the mechanics were solid. Then there was Vandall Hearts, I believe, and that game was awful. Dry and bland and full of crappy everything regarding narrative/character, which, if not at least tried at, should be completely removed from one's game. No point in making a crappy story. There's such a thing as a shallow story that still has its place, but for instance a game like Bomberman would have a very difficult time adding in relevant story that doesn't suck, so in that case it's foregone. Makes sense to me.

Anyways. The point is that it seems to have some pretty solid mechanics. At first I was worried it was just a sort of throw your units at the enemy affair, but the "spirit wall" mechanic, which allows linked units to block incoming aerial attacks and generally be a moving wall, adds a lot of depth. Beyond that, the whole collision system is awesome, especially the caster he mentioned, the Crow, which can push and pull enemies and allies. That has me very excited.

I'm looking forward to this one early 2012, shouldn't be too tough to convince my XBL buddies to pick it up either.