Online Gaming: The Art of Humiliation

Reading Brayn's post about online play encouraged me to reflect on my own experiences with online play. I have actually had many negative and positive experiences with playing online, so I figure it's best to spread them out over several posts. I'll discuss my experience with MMOs in the next one.

I wasn't a real big gamer until college. My senior year of high school I had been introduced to the Tony Hawk series by one of my friends. I played Tony Hawk 2 with him several times, and I really enjoyed it. After a year away from the franchise, I purchased a PS2 my sophomore year of college. It was a no brainer that I would buy Tony Hawk 3 (which is still by far the best in the series). At first I was diligent in my studies, only finding time for Tony Hawk on weekends or when I had a break. As time passed, however, I found myself playing the game more and more, neglecting school, sleep, and food. Okay, so maybe I didn't neglect food, but you get the point.

Anyway, I'd challenge my friends from time to time, but I was just too experienced in the game, and even with all handicaps turned on, I'd still slaughter them every single time. It got to the point where they just weren't having fun anymore, and I found myself playing alone more often than not. Every single time I played people for the first time, they'd start trash-talking me about how good they were until they saw the score. No matter who I played, I would always destroy them. I distinctly remember one time in which a self described "Hawk-pro" watched in awe as I got over 100 million points AFTER the timer had run out on the Airport level.

Flashforward six years. In 2007 I purchased an Xbox 360, and soon after that I got Tony Hawk's Project 8. I noticed the game had online play, so I thought it might be fun to play with some players who might be able to challenge me. After signing up for Xbox live, I signed in and got my ass handed to me in a most embarrassing fashion. Sure, there were several players in there that I beat (there were 10 total), but for the most part I looked no good. In fact, one player had several hundred million points more than I did.

That day two things happened: First, I was humbled. Second, I wondered how many hours upon hours (years upon years?) those players played to get so good. That bewilderment will be a recurring theme in my posts about online gaming.

Pot of Gold

Hello readers. I have a special request for anyone that follows or reads this blog. Please click here and help keep my fiancee golden (vacations are expensive, so help us try and win one!).

I'll be sure to post some new game postings soon. Work is a bit crazy today and life's been busy. I hope all our readers are having a great week!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, she's the beautiful woman on the left :-P

Gran Turismo PSP - Review

As a HUGE racing game fan I naturally picked up a copy of Gran Turismo (GT) PSP in the past couple of weeks and I'd like to give my 2 cents on this game.

For starters, any fan of this particular racing franchise will be horrified to find there's no real career mode. That being said, there are lots of sim racing objectives, tests, and LOTS of cars to unlock. I'll get all the negative stuff out of the way first. A) no career mode (surprising, but doesn't ruin the game), 2) 800 cars is really more like 500 due to repeats (some cars are identical with the exception of being sold under a different name in different countries), C) the graphics aren't as smooth as I expected (lots of white lines connecting track sections, mainly noticeable on tarmac venues).

Now on to the good and great stuff. First the good stuff. The track selection is good and the number of cars is also very good. While 800 cars is a bit of a fib, each one is rendered beautifully and they all sound very authentic. (I'll have to go outside and check my Nissan Skyline, just to be sure :-P) I like that the track count is 35, and you can run either forward or backward, which really makes the count 70 (impressive for a hand held). This game rapidly becomes a car collecting extravaganza once you power through all the license tests and objectives. While attaining gold will keep you (and me) coming back for LONG stretches, there is a short life span to the objective driven portion of this game.

To me, the saving grace of this game is also one of the things most players complain about in online forums. Car manufacturers aren't just available any time for you to go shopping. While this does result in frustration when Ferrari shows up once every 70 "days" (no joke) it also forces the player to think and plan which cars they want to buy, and forces you to save your money. While I'd love to have the freedom to buy any car at any time, for a hand held this does a great job of keeping me playing, to reach that next day when I can buy the car I desire.

Now for the great parts of this game. I LOVE some of the car choices Polyphony Digital has included. They've brought back cars from GT1, 2 and 3. It's a lot of fun trying to earn money towards that one car I LOVED that was only in GT2 (R32 Calsonic Skyline). The audio is also spectacular for this game. I can't get enough of playing with my head phones and being lost in the engine sounds and squealing tires. My last major selling point of this game is the effective way in which you earn credits. The difficulty is correctly set for each track, and you unlock progressively harder competition the more races you win. And accordingly, the better your competition, the more money you earn per race. My absolute favorite mode is drift mode, set to open track. Here you can slide all over any course and earn drift points. 1 drift point equals $2 in the game. This means you can earn HUGE sums of money is a reasonable time frame (minutes, not hours). This is great because some cars are VERY expensive (over 5 million credits/dollars).

All in all GT PSP is exactly what it should be. A good game for fans of the franchise, and an easy to pick up hand held game for fans of racing in general. If you're a need for speed person this game is probably too simulation for you, but you can always use drift mode, or put super grippy racing tires on your car to help you deal with handling issues. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes racing, and it's a must have for hardcore racers like me.

User Error

It's been a long week for the Game Nerds. This writer has been working hard at my normal job in addition to lots of personal things going on outside the office. In one of my spare moments I was talking with a friend via email about gaming, and recent online gaming experiences. My prior post about adventures in wireless has left me feeling good about my gaming situation, but I can't say the same for my associate.

He described to me a recent poor bout of online gaming, mainly first person shooters (FPS) such as CounterStrike (pictured) and Team Fortress (CS and TF, respectively). While wireless wasn't his problem, other users were. This is a component of online gaming I often neglect. I forget that when you play online you face a world of either highly skilled players, or newbies who tend to be VERY vocal about their gaming misfortunes. My associate spoke of players who complained over voice chat incessantly during the entire course of a one hour hosted game. I can absolutely see this as a reason for "mute" being an option. But this is sad, because being able to communicate with teammates is highly critical in games like CS and TF.

I can recall playing Halo 3 online with some friends and being ABSOLUTELY annoyed by younger gamers who whine, swear or even sing during a game. This is horribly distracting, in addition to being annoying. It's times like those that I am glad developers created "team only" chat. The issues of maturity level between gamers makes me wonder why an age filter hasn't been added to certain games. This would both reduce annoyance and all same aged gamers to interact. Just an idea...

My first foray into online gaming was with CS. I was AWFUL. While I didn't openly complain, the steep difference in gamer experience turned me off to it. Luckily since then (2000) developers have tried to create better filter systems to pair gamers of like skill. But even if that isn't the case, shouldn't fellow gamers be able to get along online with becoming irate, or horrible obnoxious during the course of play? I would like to think so. But then again I like to give the benefit of the doubt. And if you've ever looked at The People of Wal-Mart, benefit of the doubt isn't something that everyone deserves...

Adventures in wireless

Recently my wireless service at home has been interrupted. I also recently obtained a copy of Gran Turismo PSP, which came with a free download-able car (the Veyron Bugatti). Of course, this car can only be downloaded if you're connected to the Playstation network. This left me in a bind. I can't fix my wireless at home, but I can't get my free car.

What to do?? Well, of course I turned to the interweb. From a friend's computer I looked up as much information as possible about free wifi hotspots in my area, how the PSP connects to open networks, etc. What I ended up finding was quite intriguing. First, there are lots of businesses that give free wireless (very cool). HOWEVER, most of them run "g" band wireless, which is not accessible to the PSP (or my Nintendo DS, as it turns out). This was, of course, a depressing development. After several evenings of searching the web (on a wired computer, if only I knew someone with compatible wireless!) I realized I would have to look up all the local wifi places and see if anyone offered "b" band wireless.

As it finally turned out, Barnes and Noble in my town does. In fact, B&N offers both "g" AND "b" at this particular location. I logged in, downloaded my $2,000,000 car and I was set. This whole experience has taught me a few things though. For anyone looking to use free wireless for games there's important info you need. 1) Some places provide free wireless, but they don't support the "b" band, ergo gaming isn't possible. B) Wifi locator websites aren't always accurate, and 3) it's best to just have a router at home that works, that way you don't get into a mess like I did.

I was very surprised in my wireless search to find very little info about what locations offer wireless that does or dosen't support gaming. Here are places I found that DO NOT support games on their wireless: my local library, McDonald's, 3 local coffee shops (all small mom and pop places), Safeway, just about ANY major airport (Frankfurt supported my DS shockingly) and my local Starbucks. So gamers beware: if you want to play wireless on the town, maybe check out Barnes and Noble and your own Safeway (they're supposed to offer b & g wifi, but my city's does not). But don't get your heart set on playing online, cuz you may come up short in that area. Now you know, and knowing is half the....the....something or other.

Take the shot!!

Hello fellow gamers. This is going to be the first review that is posted on this blog. My last post before the weekend was about Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010, and this will be the initial review of the game.

First off, the Wii version peripheral (Top Shot rifle) is AWESOME. It's 25 inches long, made of sturdy plastic and fits the Wii remote and nunchuck perfectly. It was easy to assemble and even easier to use. Once I had the control scheme configured it was go time.

The game has a career mode and also several shooting galleries. To work on my shooting skills I loaded the shooting galleries first. What a great way to kill some time (get it?!?). I did two basic duck hunting galleries and one rabbit shooting showcase. All in all it was a great deal of fun. The targeting is simple and very forgiving with long distance marks. I had a great time playing each round several times with the only real drag being the need to reload during the timed shooting round.

As for career mode it had a really good start. The first mission is very basic with shooting deer, pronghorn, more deer and finally a MOUNTAIN LION. That's right, a cougar. Stalking the deer and shooting them from cover was a lot of fun. The one drawback of this game is that if you shoot a target and you fail to kill it, they run away and you are forced to start the mission over from the last check point.

There are several other interesting control quirks to this game other than just the giant rifle. To track animals you have to twist the rifle 180 degrees, which doesn't sound hard but can cause a case of the spins if done carelessly. Your character can sprint, and crouch. But using a Wii remote, these controls get tricky as the small number of buttons requires interesting button pressing combos to perform these simple functions. Once all the sneaking and tracking is done and you can finally see your targets, it's big time fun. The game shows you vital internal organs when you find a target and you can take your time (if you're hidden well) and line up your shot. My favorite part of this game series has always been the bullet's eye view you get as the animal goes down. This new game is no different. It's a lot of fun to watch as your bullet sails over trees and rocks and takes down a giant mule deer. It's less fun when your shots sail wildly astray and you then watch the target run off (this MAY have happened 5 or 6 times for me, who can remember?).

The big nugget at the end of the first level is the mountain lion hunt. You track the cougar down and then it attacks you and you have to fight it off. I found myself laughing as I wildly fired rifle shots trying to hit a target 1 meter in front of me. Once I finally realized I could switch to a shotgun the hunt ended quickly. But for those 20 seconds of random firings it was pretty intense. This seems like a great interactive game for groups of people. The shooting galleries add tons of replay value, and the career mode is both tactical and hilarious. I absolutely recommend this for Wii owners. And if you have a GameStop close by the game w/ gun bundle is on sale for $39.99 this week (10/18/09-10/24/09), at least in California that's the case...

Add-ons Equal Big Fun

Peripheral toys for gaming consoles have always added a little "something extra" to the gaming experience. Whether it was the PowerGlove, ROB the robot, or the newest peripheral that I own, a giant orange rifle for my Wii. It came with Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010 (see above).

Now this wasn't a purchase that I feel is going to change the way I play games. In fact, the only reason I bought this game is because shooting animals IN THE FACE is far more hilarious than PETA would have you believe. I do not hunt in real life. In fact I'm hardly fire arms proficient (though I have tried). That being said there is something inherently fun about a game that is more focused on the strategy of sneaking up on a target and then watching from a bullet's eye view as your perfect shot takes them down.

The first time I played a hunting game was for my original Xbox, back in 2006. There were rifles and bows, and also knives. Now obviously a real man would use just the knife, right? Here's my personal best from hunting with a knife: I took on a polar bear, a POLAR BEAR, man-o a bear-o on the side of a highway and I won!!! While realism isn't in the cards for this gaming franchise, it's remarkably entertaining simply for comic value. I would suggest trying a Wii shooting game with a gun peripheral. It takes the gaming experience to another level and makes the action more engrossing. As for me, the giant rifle is nice, but I can't wait to try and take on another bear with my bare hands (and REALLY big knife)...

Trade in value

So today at lunch I went and purchased a few new games. Before heading to the store I decided to read some user reviews. One user made a very good point that references a previous post on this blog. If you download a game you don't have a physical item to return to a store if you are dissatisfied, nor can you trade in a downloaded game to a place like GameStop.

Color me crazy, but I had not considered this. For all the great things downloadable games bring to gaming (ease, less packaging, cheaper, etc) I forgot to take this trade in idea into account. I trade in a majority of my games when I'm done with them. And I almost always buy used (cheaper and friendlier to the environment). This idea does add a wrinkle into my argument for the existence of gaming stores.

In the same vein, of used games, I found out Game Crazy is shutting down a majority of its locations here in the Bay Area. This means I had to use up old gift cards. When I visited a local store they had already been pillaged by fellow gamers. Very few good used games were left. If chains that specialize in used games disappear then it's back to the good old days of eBay to find used games and accessories. While this isn't the end of the world, I do hate paying shipping charges. Especially unregulated ones that sellers can inflate to make up the profit margin on their sales. Just another thing to think about with the future of gaming...

A printed video game review?

So I saw something you don't normally see every day. Well, at least I don't. I read a newspaper review of Wolfenstein for the Xbox 360. This calls to mind so many questions. 1) Why is the San Jose Mercury news filling space with this? B) Aren't there enough reviews on the web to negate the need for a printed one?, 3) Does a newspaper reviewer know enough about games to give an opinion?

The first two questions are things that only mother nature, a psychic or possibly God could answer, so we'll leave those alone. But the last one brings up a good point. When I read this review I thought: what would a newspaper employee know about video games? Certainly not enough to review them. Then I realized, what makes "squeakybot356" any more qualified to review the same game (in an online forum or blog)? It's funny how being young and slightly tech savy leads you to believe that anyone archaic enough to work for a newspaper wouldn't know jack about video games.

So what does make a good review? My fellow blogger CoreGamesJonathan and I discussed this recently. He said that as a developer sometimes your game gets reviewed by someone who hates your genre of game. Why do that to a developer? Why have someone who hates puzzle games review a puzzle game. Or why have someone who hates football games play Madden 2010? In the end I've been asked to do that later recently. And while I get more frustrated than I care to admit playing football games, it was a good exercise in finding the beauty within.

Even if you hate a game, could you find its strong points? For me, even though I suck at being a quarterback, I can appreciate an in depth training mode that hones your skills and helps teach you how to play. How many games have you picked up and played, only to be so horrified by the game play that you cast them aside like a single sock, never to be worn/used again? I guess the point of this post is to encourage all gamers to look for bright spots in games; that and be careful who you trust writing your game reviews. Just cuz a game is hard to play, or isn't your cup of tea, try and see if you can find a glimmer of hope. Maybe a cool menu feature, or maybe a cool user interface.

Then again, there are some things in life that just aren't very practical. Kind of like the giant tooth growing out of a narwhal's face (see above). Sometimes innovation just isn't all that practical...