I recently read an article by one of my favorite games journalists. Someone whose writing I have been following for around a decade. Tom Francis, who writes for PC Gamer, has always struck me as the kind of person that seems to eloquently (and often hilariously) verbalize exactly how I feel about games and the games industry in general. This last piece however, had me feeling extremely defensive. You see, Mr Francis hates CoD Black Ops.
And as much as I hate Activision’s way of doing business, I thoroughly enjoyed it. No, that’s not true. I freakin loved it.

Over the last few years, it’s become fashionable to hate the CoD franchise. I have frequently been critical of it myself. But, it seems to me that this hate is now beginning to take an almost fanatical bent. What bothers me the most is how many self-proclaimed “real” gamers use it as a badge of honor. As if hating everything Activision does automatically grants them entry into the “Intelligent Gamers Club”. And though I’ll be the first to admit that the CoD franchise hasn’t done anything to revolutionize the FPS genre in a while, I shouldn’t have to defend my enjoyment of the franchise in any way.
Was Black Ops a corridor shooter? Yes. Just like all corridor shooters. Did it have a lot of scripted events? Yes. Just like 90 percent of all shooters in the market today. Did it frequently try to make it seem like you were in an interactive movie rather than a pure “game”. Yes, yes, yes. Did I enjoy it in spite of all this? Absolutely.  And here’s why:

I knew EXACTLY what to expect when I pre-ordered it.

I wasn’t looking for the FPS genre’s second coming. I wasn’t expecting a Pulitzer winning plot (though I would argue it’s the best plot in the franchise) and I sure as hell wasn’t expecting a campaign that would last more than 10 hours. For some strange reason, the second I mention how much I enjoyed the game, it immediately makes these PC elitist wannabe assholes bracket me as a “console noob”, a 12 year old prepubescent brat or my personal fave “the reason why games have been ruined”. So let’s set the record straight shall we? The only thing I hate more than Activision, is consoles. I will be turning 30 in a couple of months. My favorite games include Deus Ex, Baldur’s Gate, Jagged Alliance and Planescape Torment. All of which I frequently go back to. Does that make me a gaming connoisseur? No more than liking Black Ops or any other corridor shooter makes me a pre-pubescent console lover.

The fact of the matter is this: the market isn’t what it was 10 years ago. Today, it costs millions of dollars to get a game out in the hands of a gamer. It just makes plain economic sense to bet on a winning horse. The CoD franchise is worth more than all of its competitors put together. Black Ops alone generated a BILLION dollars in revenue. And the reason it did is simple. People enjoyed it. If I was to invest in a game tomorrow, I would be smart to invest it in Cod 49 than I would in Jagged Alliance 3. One could argue about which is a better game (no contest JA hands down) till the cows come home. But the fact remains. The FPS genre hasn’t seen anything innovative since Half Life 2. Everything out there is a variation of a pissed off man with a gun. Everything. To single out one series in the midst of all that is just plain stupid.

Why is it, I wonder, that the gaming community went so easy on Mafia 2? To my mind, it was nothing like the first. The prequel was a true PC title, in spite of all its flaws it was a gem. The only good thing about Mafia 2 was its story (which btw, is excellent). The graphics were unremarkable, the driving was annoying and it had more quick time events than any CoD game I can think of. Yet it hardly comes up in any conversation that bemoans how games have been “dumbed down” (and yes, I agree they have). There a lot of other games I could add to that list but what’s the point? Haters gonna hate right?

I’m not against playing something a little more cerebral. Hell, I’m just sick and tired of waiting for it to happen. All the games I have enjoyed the most over the last couple of years have been sequels. Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2, L4D2, Civ 5. It’s no different from the crap Hollywood shoves my way (cough, cough Transformers 2 cough, cough)

There are developers that will inadvertently try and break the mold. But more often than not, their efforts will culminate in either outright failure, or at best, lukewarm success. If you don’t believe that, wait till the sales figures of Witcher 2 and Red Orchestra 2 come out. I don’t need to be psychic to tell you right now that both those titles combined won’t have anywhere near the numbers Modern Warfare 2 had.

If great games like Deus Ex and Planescape are the gaming world’s equivalent of a six course gourmet meal, then the CoD series is a cheeseburger. Guess which one is going to see more consumers? Indulging in one culinary experience over the other is a matter of preference (and budget). In a perfect world, I’d go for the gourmet option every time.

But dammit Tom, sometimes that ol cheeseburger sure can hit the spot.

Day three begins with me making some drastic changes. Every forum I read over the course of the weekend had confirmed that my character build was flawed from the very beginning. A sorcery- melee build will always be an uphill battle. I could focus on damage dealing and be fine in PvE but with power points being a rare commodity in the game, my role as healer would be unviable. This means the chances of me performing well in a raid or instance would be negatively affected. With a heavy heart, I decided to axe Shadeheart.

Time for a second character then. This time around I have a good idea of what I want my role to be. So I choose “Fire” as my power of choice and “Martial arts” as combat style. I’m keeping acrobatics as movement style as I love moving with the aid of a grapple gun. I am sticking with Batman as a mentor. Just for kicks, I choose a PvE server called “Brave New World” to house the new hero. As much as I like PvE, the long wait times on a heavily populated server are not something I’m willing to put up with. The creation process is a lot quicker as I know exactly what to do. In a few minutes, Dreadknight is born.

Almost immediately I can see how combat is going to be a lot easier. Leveling up is a breeze as this guy is just devastating in battle. The downside is having no self-heals. This is a temporary situation as I can see some powers further down the chain that do provide healing. As I’ve already done these quests before, it takes a much shorter period of time to go through them. I know exactly where to go and what to do. At this point I realize that one of the advantages of being on a PvE server is not having to scan the area for possible threats. I can just concentrate on getting to my objective without having to take longer and possibly safer routes. Before I know it, I’m already battling Scarecrow and compared to the last time, I handily whoop his scrawny ass. Oh yes, Dreadknight’s future looks very promising indeed.

At level 10 I also have the option of choosing an additional weapon style. I’m tempted to give dual pistols a shot but the martial arts tree is proving to be a lot of fun. The combos seem easier to pull off and the animation is excellent. Besides, even though there is nothing to stop me from picking all the available weapons; it is worth focusing on one. At higher levels, weapons skills can give you innate stat bonuses. Martial art for instance, has good critical damage skills that can be further improved with more points.

A note about skills, it turns out gaining skill and power points have little to do with levels. The deciding factor is “feats” or in game achievements. In the beginning, these come hard and fast so you will find yourself gaining points easily. But soon enough, the process slows down. The game has a level cap of 30, which by most MMO standards is pretty low. Hitting this cap should not take long, but what makes a character truly powerful will be the amount of skill /power points one has. Hitting the cap for skill points (I believe it is 80) is not going to be easy. But those feats are going to be critical if you want to handle the end game raids. Speaking of which, I should probably keep my eyes open for a good “league” (DCUO’s term for guilds). So far I have not had to team up with anyone for any of the missions but then, I’m only about a third of the way through.

At level 9 Dreadknight is also eligible for “Alerts” which are essentially repeatable dungeons. Queuing up for one of these is easy. It’s just a matter of clicking a tab and the game automatically puts you in a team of four. As I understand it, this is the standard team size. Only the end game raids allow for a team of eight. At level 30, a player becomes eligible for “Duos”. As the name suggests, these are two man teams for smaller dungeons. It will take a while before little Dread has a go at one of them. In the meantime, something interesting has happed. Oracle informs me that I’ve been invited to the “Watchtower” or in other words, the JLA headquarters! The Alert can wait, this, I HAVE to see.
To anyone that in not familiar with DC comics lore, this would look like any other generic space station, albeit, a huge one. But to a comic nerd like me, this is big deal. The HQ looks fabulous and once again I’m amazed at how the devs have made judicious use of the Unreal 3 engine. This is by far, the prettiest MMO in the market. I spend more than a few minutes just looking around the place and getting lost in the process. Impressive as this place is, it is a little confusing to get from one part of it to the next. I later realize that the HQ also acts as “bridge” of sorts, allowing players to move from Gotham to Metropolis.

My curiosity sated, I head back to Gotham. My primary focus is now getting to level 30 asap. So far, I must say leveling certainly feels a lot quicker than any other MMO that I can think of. This makes the quests seem less of a grind than they should be because honestly speaking, there is not a lot of variety here. The boss battles are a highlight for sure but the rest of the quests are not much different from anything else in the MMO sphere. Nonetheless, I did jump into a couple of the alerts and these were decidedly fun. The battles do need some amount of team work but since these are starter level dungeons, I expect them to be easy. One thing that did stand out was the way party wipes are handled. If an entire team does get knocked out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the instance needs to be repeated. There are several respawn points across a level and so long as even one person is standing, team members can join in an ongoing battle. In some cases, a party wipe will mean having to do a small part of the alert again (usually the bosses)and even then not the entire level. This to me, is an excellent design decision.

One last thing I did before logging off for the day was try my hand at some PvP. DCUO has a unique mode in which players can battle each other in simulated arenas as famous characters in the DC universe. If you want to fight as Batman and faceoff against a human controlled Joker, this would be the place to go. At the moment, the only character I have access to is Robin. I did not spend too much time in this mode so my impressions will have to wait. It certainly is a cool idea though.
By the end of the day I have hit level 17 and feel a lot more confident in my abilities. More alerts have been unlocked and I cannot wait to see more of what the game has to offer.

Compared to day 1, the next couple of days were a mixed bag. For starters, I had to look at this as I tried to log in:

In a way its good news, people are obviously playing the game and there should be no dearth of players to team up with. A healthy player base is what defines how successful an MMO will be in the long run.

Once I do get in however, I get right into the business of being awesome. I had already picked up a few quests yesterday and it was time to get cracking. It did not take long to see that the quests are pretty standard fare. What makes it tolerable though is that respawn time for mobs and essential quest drops is pretty fast. This makes going through quests relatively quick. Teaming up with players is easy and instant and even if you don’t want to create a group, getting a few hits on a foe is enough to net you XP. This is a huge help as there is no unnecessary pressure to be the one to “tag” an enemy first or land the killing blow for that matter. As long as you made a worthy effort in the fight you get your reward/loot. There is also the added benefit of not having to run back to the quest giver for every single quest. Just clicking on the “done” button in the log is enough to get whatever reward is due. Even collecting loot is as simple as holding down the control key. No repetitive clicking on corpses here. Even if one has to look for an NPC, it’s a short trip from wherever the action is. Besides, as I mentioned earlier, travelling around is fun. The world does a good job of looking huge without actually being very expansive. At the moment, as a low level character, I am sticking to Gotham but it will be interesting to see how different Metropolis looks.

A bunch of quests later, I’ve gained enough levels to take a serious look at the skill tree. This where I realize there is one part of the game that does need to improve. The skills and powers on display lack any kind of concrete info to make an intelligent decision. For me to shed more light on this, I shall have to explain character development and combat in more detail.

Every character has a health bar and a power bar; the latter can for all intents and purposes be considered a mana bar. In combat, all skills and special abilities use power. Causing damage will replenish this. This makes pulling off combos and causing high levels of damage critical. Every character has 8 slots at the bottom of the UI, 6 of these can used for skills, 1 for a consumable item and 1 for a trinket. This means than any character “build” will rely heavily on those 6 skills. So far, so good. The trouble begins when it’s time to actually pick a skill and realizing it tells you very little. For instance “Inferno” will cause set enemies on fire and cause widespread destruction while replenishing health. Sure, it sounds cool but it does not tell to the details, ie, it has a terrible casting period, is easily interrupted and will heal you for a pitiful amount. Oh, and good luck guessing what the power cost is. What happens of course is that the player ends up spending a hard earned power point on something useless. And the only way to learn this at the moment is the hard way. (Edit: I found out much later that there is a way to re-spec your character but it costs 500 bucks each time you do this. Not an option for newbies.)

Well actually, you could ask for aid. This is an MMO after all. With servers running full, it’s not that hard to find someone who would be willing to help. This is where the game’s biggest and most annoying failing comes to light. The chat system is TERRIBLE. There is no other way to say it. It’s a terrible, terrible mess. In fact, the whole UI is. The launch may have been smooth and stable, but the games console focus really grates on my last nerve when it comes to the UI.

Now before this sets off any unnecessary alarms in your head, let me make it clear it isn’t bad enough to make me stop playing the game. But it is annoying as hell.

However, there are bigger concerns right now. Scarecrow is loose and Batman himself is looking to me for help. This is another example of how my inner fanboy is willing to let certain faults slide. It is becoming obvious that a showdown with the psycho is imminent. It’s a good time too, I have just unlocked a summoning power that allows me to call forth a minion.  It’s hard to say how much of a help it really is, there’s no kind of feedback to tell me how much damage it does or how much health it has. If nothing else, it does give the baddies another target other than me. I have also managed to unlock a skill that allows me to rocket glide (essentially fly) at will. Moving around the city is now even more fun.

Before I can get to scarecrow however, I get another rude shock. A level 30 (that’s the level cap btw) player decided to make my life miserable and promptly attacked me. As a level 6 I obviously had no chances of putting up a fight. That’s fine; I knew the dangers of a PvP server before I got in. What made it frustrating was that he was camping out in an area where he knew newbies had to go. After getting my ass handed to me by this punk four times in a row, I finally put out a call for help using the bullshit chat system. Here is where the advantage of being in a busy server paid off. Within a few minutes I had a bunch of guys to come help me out. It was payback time. There were five of us, a mix of low to mid-level players with no level 30s but it was enough to send the evil doer packing. The only tragedy here was that I forgot to take a screenshot. Doh!

Anyway, after this little incident I headed straight into scarecrows hideout. Compared to all the quests I was doing so far, this one was a lot tougher. I got knocked out (there is no “dying” in DCUO) a few times before realizing I had to take things a lot slower. Timing my attacks and pulling off combos was absolutely essential now. The experienced gamer in me began to see how choosing a melee healer might not be such a good idea after all. It took a while but I finally made it to Dr Crane himself. For my first boss fight, it was exciting stuff. I got to kick Scarecrows butt while saving Batwoman’s. All in all, a pretty good day for this newbie hero I’d say.

Finishing this quest has also bumped me up to level 7. This prompts a visit by a funny dude called “Ambush Bug” who hands me a ticket of some sort. Using this ticket sends me to an area called “Joker’s house of fun”. At first I nearly crapped myself as I had just finished a hard quest and was not looking for any more action before repairing my equipment. However, I quickly realized this was actually a “Vault”, a repeatable instance where you go in to essentially play a game of chance. There are no enemies or missions, only random present boxes to break open. Doing so nets you some free cash and if you are lucky, some rare items. Usually though, it’s just “style” pieces. Speaking of which, one cool feature I nearly forgot to mention is how equipping new gear that is different in style from what you have currently donned need not make you look like an idiot. The equipment screen can be “locked”. So, if you really like the new cloak that gives you some stat bonuses but hate its look, you can wear it without the change showing. It’s a brilliant little trick and one that I’m sure I will appreciate even more as the game goes along.

I am certainly enjoying my time with the game, but still can’t shake off the feeling that this dual wielding sorcerer might not be the best combination for me. The next few days should clear this up sharpish.

When DC Universe Online was first announced my first thoughts were anything but positive. The very idea of being a spandex wearing peon grinding through dull urban environments was enough to make me gag. Besides, I don’t really like MMOs to begin with. With the sole exception of Guild Wars, my attempts at trying to get into anything else (WoW, EVE Online, Champions online etc) failed miserably. After a point, every one of these “games” starting feeling too much like “work”. The exercise of “grind till you level” is pretty much the opposite of fun in book. As an added headache, having to pay a monthly fee made me feel like I HAD to play the damn things even if I didn’t feel like it at all. This is part of the reason why Guild Wars grabbed me. There was no feeling of obligation plus no grinding of any kind.

However, seeing as how there was suddenly a huge amount of positive press around DCUO right before launch, I must confess I was more than a little intrigued. And let’s not forget Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has had some good titles in the past. Everquest was THE game to play before WoW came along.

Arguably, reviewing an MMO is almost pointless. The very nature of the product means it is constantly evolving. The game that is reviewed today may be completely different six months from now. EVE would be the best example. At this point, even WoW may as well be a different game altogether.  So keeping that in mind, I am not posting this as a review. It will simply be a dairy of sorts, a record of my experiences in the DC universe as it were. Hopefully it will give most readers a good idea of what to expect from what is still essentially, an MMO.

Before I start however, I must make this very clear: your enjoyment of DCUO will be directly proportional to how much of a comic nerd you are. I frequently found myself giving the game a lot of benefit of doubt purely because it caters to my inner fanboy. If you couldn’t care less about Batman and company, your mileage will vary significantly. That being said, let’s get to it.

After a hefty install, the first thing I had to do was choose a version of the client to run, ie, US or EU. I chose US as in my experience; the 12 hr time difference is actually less awkward than the 5-7 hrs in Europe. It makes putting a group together a lot easier. Secondly, I had to decide what kind of server I wanted, PvE (player vs environment) or PvP (player vs player). I chose “Death and Glory”, a PVP server. To the uninitiated, the difference between the two is significant. In a PvP server, any player of the opposite faction can essentially battle with you regardless of whether you want to or not. It’s not uncommon to find a bunch of high level players ganging up on some poor newbies just to mess up their day. If you have had bad experiences at the hands of a bully during childhood, you might want to stick to PvE, where any player on player combat is allowed only under specific areas. The advantage of a PvP server should be obvious; it’s a lot more interesting.

The character creation came next. The options at hand are not as robust as seen in Champions online but is still enough to keep one busy for a fairly long time. I spend 40 minutes creating “Shadeheart”. The key things here are choosing a mentor (Batman in my case), a weapon style (dual wielding), power (sorcery) and ofcourse movement method (acrobatic). This should be an interesting experiment as the “Sorcery” line is tagged as “Healer”. Anywhere else the idea of a dual wielding healer running into combat would be suicide.

Oh, I should mention that the game does have a feasible story. I won’t spoil it, but if you are even remotely interested, you should check out the intro video here. Trust me, it’s pretty awesome.

For what is essentially a tutorial level, the first few minutes of the game are impressive. I seem to be held prisoner on one of Brainiac’s ships. Time to bust out then. With a little help from Oracle of cource. This is also the point where I recalled something Sony was making a huge deal about, ie, the game is fully voiced. There are no lines of boring text to read in order to get a quest. NPCs will literally tell you what needs to be done. How this holds up throughout the game remains to be seen.

It doesn’t take long to realize that the real star here is not Shadeheart but the combat system of DCUO. The game plays like a third person console brawler like God of War or Darksiders etc. I haven’t seen anything like this in any other MMO and it is obviously going to take me a while to get used to. I mean it’s got “combos”! This should prove to be very interesting indeed.

Alright, so I’m a few mobs in, the battles aren’t as tricky as I thought they would be. It certainly looks spectacular and has me feeling like a bad ass. This dual wielding sorcerer thing might just work. I’ve also gained a couple of levels real quick. There are skill points and power points to distribute and it’s way too early to decide how to progress. The summoning line looks like fun though.

A few minutes (and some weak mobs) later I run into Superman! The tutorial ends with a mega free for all with Mr Krypton giving me a hand. If there’s more of these “fight alongside your fave heroes” scenarios on offer I shall be most pleased. For now though, it’s time to get off this ship and head to: Gotham City baby!

Well a Gotham City Police Station to be more precise. This is obviously a safe house of some sort. The MMO equivalent of a friendly city where one can gear up, check e mails and collect quests etc. After taking a quick look around its time to go out and beat up some bad guys. And who better to send me on my way than the Dark Knight himself. Voice acted to perfection by Kevin Conroy himself no less. My inner child smiles.

At this point the movement system really comes in its own. Running up buildings and gliding off them is a lot more fun than I expected. I end up spending the next five minutes just jumping around.

As expected, the first few quests are easy. It’s typical “go there beat up ten of those or collect five of them things” fare and after the impressive tutorial, it is mildly disappointing. The only draw here (apart from the combat of course) is the fact that Batman wants me to do this stuff. It seems silly, but having his voice tell me that the Scarecrow needs to be stopped brings a sense of urgency that would otherwise not exist.

Right before I log off for the day I realize that in my first few hours with the game, there hasn’t been a single typical launch day hiccup. No crashes, bugs or glitches at all. This is without a doubt the smoothest MMO launch I have seen or even heard about. Even more amazing is the fact that there is no discernable lag of any kind. Excellent job devs. I can’t wait to jump back in tomorrow.

2010 was a great year for the PC. We were treated to some truly splendid titles and now that 2011 is finally here, I can give some thought to what I think was the year’s best. It goes without saying that this post will be a little redundant for those of you that have been looking at various other gaming sites or blogs, everyone seems to have picked their Game of the year almost a good month ago but I’m putting my two cents out there anyway. Besides, I’ve had a few emails requesting to do this. So without further ado, here are the nominees for (my) Game of the Year 2010.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

For what was essentially a console port, Bad Company 2 did impress me tremendously. The single player campaign tried hard to match Infinity Ward’s magic with the Modern Warfare series but never quite gets there. The multiplayer aspect however, was a revelation.

Mass Effect 2

Bioware has always been at the helm of crafting high quality RPGs and ME2 is its finest moment yet. An original IP that impressed me when it first came out for the PC in 2008 it was undoubtedly an excellent RPG. The sequel pretty much blew me away. This one was a no brainer.

Starcraft 2

Another “2” at the end of a title. Anyone else seeing a trend emerge here? If there is one thing any developer can learn from Blizzard, it’s how to polish a game. Right form the word go, StarCraft 2 screams “polish”. Hardcore fans were always going to judge the game by its multiplayer but the single player was surprisingly refreshing for a game that still sticks to mechanics that are over a decade old. Blizzard, you have done it again.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Yes, Activision pretty much gave PC gamers the finger with Modern Warfare 2 but he way I see it, it only set the groundwork for Treyarch to fill the void. An astonishingly compelling single player campaign with a story that actually made sense this time, Black Ops makes it as a nominee primarily due to its multiplayer aspect, which is quite simply; the best the series has to offer.

Fallout: New Vegas

Obsidian’s treatment of the Fallout universe makes for a more reverent experience that’s stays true (or rather “truer”) to the original isometric games of the 90s. The wastelands are still as dangerous as ever and New Vegas is bursting with adventure. A rock solid RPG that plays to the developers strengths and is all the richer for it.

And the winner is (cue drum roll):

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is quite frankly, Bioware’s magnum opus. An action RPG with an epic story, fantastic characters and spectacular atmosphere, it is full of moments that made me get out of my seat in excitement. The music is phenomenal and complements the game perfectly. The writing and presentation is better than that of most movies I’ve seen this year.  Coming up with a new IP is always tricky, but with the Mass Effect universe, Bioware have conjured something truly special. Where games like Black Ops try to make things cinematic by taking control away from the player, ME2 does it by a combination of everything, ie, backdrop, characters, music, occasional set pieces etc. It also has one of the best endings in any game EVER. If you managed to bring your whole team back from the suicide mission, I dare you not to feel a feel a sense of pride during the last cut scene. Take a bow Bioware. And hurry up with Mass Effect 3 please.

I hate consoles. I really, really do. The “whys” are way too many to list. Suffice to say that the core reason is what consoles have done to games in general (read dumb them waaaay down). Well that and Deus Ex 2. I will never forgive the X box for blasphemy like that. But what I hate more than consoles is Macs. Don’t get me wrong now, I’ve got nothing against Mac users or all of Apple’s devices (I’m currently on my 4^th iPod), but I do hate the whole “we are the best and anyone who disagrees is a moron so fuck you” attitude. Hence, I was a little taken aback at Valve’s decision to support the Mac with their new Steam (beta) client. The state of PC gaming being what it is, i.e., vibrant but not as economically viable as a platform, I saw the decision as negative. Why you ask? After all, since all Macs are essentially PCs now, it should be seen as positive step for the PC games industry. Sure. There is just one little problem.

Macs are CONSOLES!!!

Think about it, once you buy a Mac, you have a piece of hardware that you can NEVER upgrade (Sorry Mac fanboys, upping the RAM or HDD isn’t much to shout about).  Just like consoles. You can add tons of peripherals, but never upgrade. Again, just like consoles. But once the nerd rage played itself out, I realized something; Valves decision is actually going to be a good thing. My hatred for consoles notwithstanding, there are some genuine reasons as to why they dictate the direction of the games industry. It’s a lot easier to code for a platform that is “locked”. The hardware stays unchanged, the core OS is the same, the same tools are used over and over again till developers become very efficient with them. On the consumer end, it’s a lot simpler to hook up a PS3 to a TV than it is to keep track of which driver is compatible with a game on whatever version of windows. And plopping in a DVD and playing is always better than having to wait for 10 gigs of data to be installed on a hard drive. If anything, its always boggled my mind that the Mac has never taken advantage of its unique position. The power of a PC along with the convenience of a console? That’s got to be a win right there.

The point is I don’t care what platform I’m playing on. The games are all that matter. I want to be able to actually use my skills and headshot an opponent than have the stupid program “assist” me. I like having the option of binding any of a keyboard’s 104 keys to any in-game action. I expect any game I purchase to take full advantage of modern tech rather than be hampered by the limitations of 5 yr old hardware. I demand that the game have some semblance of AI rather than shit like this.

As long as developers are not forced to gimp their titles because of hardware, I’ll be happy.

Ubisoft: Hi there! Welcome to Ubisoft.

Me: Thanks.

Ubisoft: What can we help you with today?

Me: Well, I purchased this game from you today called “Assassin’s Creed 2”…

Ubisoft: Ah yes, isn’t that a fine game?

Me: I wouldn’t know, I haven’t been able to play it yet. And actually, I don’t think I want to either. In fact, I want my money back.

Ubisoft: What?! Why?

Me: Well, after all this crap about your stupid DRM hit the internet, I’ve sorta changed my mind. I can live with having to authenticate my game online once while installing it or hell, even once before I start playing, but this whole “you gotta be online at all times to play the game” thing sucks ass. I’m sorry but my internet connection cannot be relied upon 24/7 and to be taken to a grey screen midway through a game is not my idea of fun. And what happens if your servers are down? Nope, this isn’t what I paid for.

Ubisoft: Sir, we understand your concern but we do have an obligation towards our employees and shareholders to protect our intellectual properties from piracy. How would you feel if someone stole from you?

Me: I understand. May I ask you a question?

Ubisoft: Of course sir.

Me: Did I steal from you? Coz I clearly remember forking over 50 bucks.

Ubisoft: No, obviously you are a valuable customer. But, you have to understand that…

Me: Piracy, yeah, I know. And I understand, really, I do. But lemme ask you this “Are your hands clean?”

Ubisoft: I’m afraid I do not understand.

Me: Coz if you must insist on grabbing me by my balls, the least you could do is clean your hands.

Ubisoft: Sir there is really no need to…

Me: BEEEEP! Wrong again asshole. There is a DEFINITE fucking need to get this point across. DRM should not screw with a paying customer. It should screw with a pirate sure, but, not someone who paid you for your precious intellectual property. You aren’t alone in this; I will grant you that much, but that doesn’t make this shit slide. This “I’ll fuck you till you love me” routine may be good for Mike Tyson or prison. It’s not good for me.

Ubisoft: Sir I really think…

Me: Shut the fuck up, I’m not done yet. You know what you have effectively done here? Do you? You are basically telling me that by paying you 50 dollars like a good little boy, all I have done is look forward to is a substandard experience. Had I pirated this thing, I wouldn’t have to deal with this shit. I could have saved my game like a normal person. AND I could have done it for free. Hell, I think that exactly what I’ll do from now on. So fuck you too.

Ubisoft: What?! Filthy pirate! You are the reason PC gaming is dying etc etc…

—

Somethings not quite right with this picture.

Pissed as I am at Ubisoft’s choice of DRM, I do see their point. Piracy is and always will be a huge issue. What I can’t understand is why paying customers have to be at the receiving end. The fact of the matter is that Ubi could have their DRM coded by the goddamned Borg and it would STILL be broken in a week. Publishers need to stop looking at every downloaded copy of a game as a lost sale. There never WAS a sale. These guys were never going to pay for your product even if you priced it on the cheap. A thief wouldn’t think twice about jacking a car if it was cheaper. He just sees an opportunity for ill gotten gain. Asking the legitimate owner of the vehicle to check in with the manufacturer via radio every mile while driving is not a solution. The same applies here.

I do not expect publishers to ship games without any DRM. But I do not want to be screwed with either. It should not be that hard a nut to crack.

The following isn’t really a blog post. It’s an excerpt from an email conversation I had with some like-minded folk about the state and direction of gaming in the Indian context. Credit for this goes to NT Balanarayan. He is the one that got the ball rolling on this one. Some of the questions asked were :

What’s holding back India as a market to develop games? What can we do to popularise professional gaming in the country?

Here is the guilty party:

Anand Ramachandran, blogs at bossfight.in is a columnist for The New Indian Express

Chirantan Patnaik, blogs at neuralchaos.com. He set a record by playing GTA for 40 hours straight!

NT Balanarayan, blogs at gamebashing.com and writes for DNA.

Bharat Joshi, yours truly.

BHARAT:

“What’s holding India back as a viable game development destination? There are many factors to be honest.

1) The way I see it, our education system is structured to create a professional army of drones. Essentially, we create some of the best software coders and IT specialists that are great on a technical level but crap from a creative standpoint. Game design is a lot more than just writing stable code. Hell, coding isn’t really a part of the creative process till much later. The concept is key, everything else follows. Unfortunately, in India’s quest to create a professional workforce, creativity is the first thing that is killed off in a student. If you want more proof, ask yourself when was the last time you played a decent mod created by an Indian for any game. (Mods NOT maps)

2) Gaming has yet to become accepted as “normal” in this part of the world. In Korea, if you claim to be a person who does not game in anyway, people look at you funny (trust me on this one; I’ve been there about a dozen times). It does not matter that the average US gamer’s age today is 33. Here, an adult that confesses to being a hardcore CS player is seen as being brain damaged or, at the very least, “immature”. Can you gauge the reaction of a standard parent when their kid walks in and says “I’ve really thought about it Dad, I’ve decided I do not want to be an engineer. Instead, I want to create the next Duke Nukem.”? Nuff said.

3) Lack of funding. This ties in closely to the lack of any professional talent. There isn’t a single game developer in India worth mentioning. I hasten to add here that I am not including flash/browser based games. Even if there are some brave souls with the balls to put their careers on the line to back up their idea, their budget would be slim indeed. The average title costs a few million dollars to develop, not counting marketing etc. I’m pretty sure Ghajini “the game” didn’t cost that much.

4) Piracy. Most of the leaked code you find tends to get through during the cloning process, i.e., it’s when DVDs are being manufactured that some asshole nicks a copy to sell to pirates (usually a factory worker). India is notorious for not having a legal system in place to protect intellectual property. Why the hell would anyone set up shop here?

I could go into further detail but these are the biggies.”

ANAND:

“The Indian gaming industry grew out of IT roots, not entertainment roots. These typically value processes over people, numbers over creativity. Our development studios simply don’t have the DNA to build competent entertainment content – just look at animation for a parallel.

Things will change as the kids take over – but it’s not going to happen in a hurry. I met several young development studios at NASSCOM this year, they’re all making okay games. But not ONE of them, in my opinion, has the capability to create decent, contemporary game – even something like Machinarium or Plants vs. Zombies for instance, leave alone high end stuff.

I think it will be at least three to five years before we see world class casual games, and ten before we see a top-end title from India (complete – not outsourcing based)”

NT:

“Interesting, meanwhile there’s this talk of prices of EA games for consoles going up by Rs. 800, do you think it’ll have an impact on gaming in India?”

ANAND:

“In the short run – probably yes – it will prevent growth. The numbers we do are so small anyway, that there’s probably no major impact in terms of revenue. But it certainly will reduce / limit the number of games people will buy, for sure. That’s Economics 101. But in the long run, not really. Once the recession is truly behind us, and companies start thinking long-term again, they will not be able to ignore India as a market (it’s the largest untapped gaming market in the world) and will do whatever is needed to boost sales.”

CHIRANTAN:

“Bharat had an intriguing point of view on seeing games through a ‘normal’ perspective. In fact, most of the issues raised around cost and maturity of development are directly proportional to the fact that video games are still considered a geek’s sanctuary and domain. This definitely has to change. Development woes and lack of creative talent in the Indian gaming industry is often blamed for intriguing titles. Before I talk about the year that went by, I’d like to stick my neck out and say this: Consoles may yet be the closet thing to an answer for the lack of interest/market.

I have been a PC gamer throughout and have only in the recent 2 years or so started playing on consoles. I wanted something that I can immediately switch on and play on a big TV instead of having to constantly upgrade my PC and install arcane system drivers.

The experience of pick-up & play is really what the console industry is pushing for. It is via this medium that most of the casual consumers can reach out to some of the blockbuster AAA titles that next-gen gaming has produced. I can’t be bothered to keep up with every damn NVIDIA card that comes up.

So there: More penetration in the homes of people, would directly impact gaming sales in the region as well as pique interest amongst smaller developers to make interesting home-grown content.

As far as the year that was, I totally loved it, and hated it. Indian games that came out were lacking in almost every department. A franchise like ‘Hanuman’ could’ve been totally mind blowing had it been made with an iota of interest and storyline. Why does a game only have to involve punching and firing guns? Plot out some radical RPG elements into the franchise, and we might as well be exporting these games like Japan has been doing since the past 10-12 years.

I still believe that most of the development in India is stymied by the belief that a creatively led game would only appeal to the niche. Let’s face it, we are a very ‘mass-market’ oriented culture. From political strategies, marketing plans of companies to bollywood; everyone aims for the ‘lowest common denominator’. However, I refuse to believe that individual and creative content does not get into the mainstream. Take a look at some of the movies that have done well despite having interesting stories and shoe string budgets. The same can be said of games, make something truly creative and engaging and you are bound to get noticed.

How about a well structured RTS game based on the Mahabharata? Or perhaps a dark yet tactical FPS located in the streets on Mumbai. This is obviously an oversimplification but hope you get the drift. What do you guys think ?”

BHARAT:

“I agree with consoles being a lot more convenient. The plug and play aspect is something the PC cannot compete with (at least in the short term). Also, from a strictly cultural standpoint, it would be much easier to get a family huddled around the home TV rather than the PC in Dad’s den. As Anand rightly surmised “India is the largest untapped gaming market in the world”.

That being said, from a purely Indian perspective, ask yourself this, “How many PCs are sold for every Xbox?” Furthermore, console games are a lot more expensive. Even the “plug and play” nature of consoles is changing. Mods are becoming common; games have to be installed on built in hard drives etc. Besides, PC penetration here is ridiculously high; I live a few miles from the biggest IT hardware market in Asia (Nehru Place, Delhi). Just take a look at how many “Farmville” players are from this country. This is where I think things are going to start turning.
The interest generated around browser-based games is pretty much impossible to ignore. The span is global and it’s instant. Compare that to the supposed 25 million dollars Valve spent on promoting Left 4 Dead 2. How many posters or ads on TV did you see for the game in this part of the world? Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest selling IP in the history of entertainment. THE HISTORY OF ENTERTAINMENT for crying out loud!! The PC version of the game is STILL not available in India. I want to be optimistic, I really do, but the fact remains that there is something very, very wrong here.
(Totally on board with the Mahabharata RTS though. That would be awesome. As would a Ramayan MMO)”

ANAND:

“Small nit-pick – but it’s simply the biggest launch, in terms of revenue, not units sold. Consider a movie ticket as a unit, which costs about $10, as opposed to a game, which costs $50 or more. The numbers here don’t always tell the complete story.

Harry potter / Star Wars are still by far the largest selling entertainment IPs – sellling books, comics, games, toys, clothing, merchandise and more. MW2 still has a loooooooong way to go

Also – completely agree with Bharat on PC / Mobile and other high-penetration devices for growing gaming in India. With consoles, the entry barrier is simply too high for a mass-market penetration in the near future.

It’s simple – in mature markets, games do the numbers they do because of one reason – the general middle-class can afford and buy them. In India, this will only be possible if we broaden the ambit of what we see as ‘games’ and a ‘gaming market’. Facebook and Farmville is a good example of where to begin.

Having said that, we aren’t even tapping into a decent percentage of those who CAN afford them. This can surely be done with better pricing and smarter marketing.”

The musclebound psycho has no idea that I’m right above him. From the shadows, I watch with a smug expression as two of his gun toting buddies walk right towards the motion sensitive trap I set for them. BOOM! The explosion sends one of the idiots flying over the railings in a spectacular show of rag doll physics, the other hits a wall and is knocked out. The target under me is scared out of his wits. I revel in the moment; I’m drinking deep from his terror and savouring the hunt. A split second later I swoop down, the cape surrounding my prey within its embracing shadows. In one smooth motion he is strung up from the gargoyle I was perched on. Level complete. This Dark Knight’s job is done. For the umpteenth time I’m left in awe with the game’s (Batman: Arkham Asylum) brilliance.

And then it all goes to shit.

A small whirling icon in the corner of the screen tells me that the game is auto saving. No probs, it’s done it a few dozen times already. This time however, the screen goes black. My heart stops for a second. As a PC gamer, I have seen this happen before. Computers can crash due to a million reasons. Usually it’s no more than a minor annoyance.

Saving regularly is something you learn fairly early on this format. A corrupted save just means you lose a few minutes of progress. You still have a bunch of other saves from not too long ago (at least, you should). But what if the game does not give you the option at all? Batman is a perfect example. There is just one save slot. One. That’s it. And the game saves automatically. I frantically start the game again, hoping against hope that the worst isn’t true. No such luck, the save file is corrupted. I was 12 hours into the campaign. Now I have to start from scratch. (If the game wasn’t as awesome as it is, I wouldn’t even bother.)

The fact that it worked 99.99% of the time is not the point. I’m playing on a PC. And PCs are … mercurial. Things do go wrong. Hell it happens on consoles too. The point then, is simple: “I shouldn’t have to go through this crap”

More and more developers are turning to auto saves/checkpoint saves as a means of keeping the gaming experience uninterrupted. Not that auto saving is a new feature; it has been around for decades now. It’s the implementation of said feature that is becoming horribly flawed. Older generation consoles have had to deal with shitty save systems (checkpoints every 30 mins for instance) because of their hardware limitations. And regardless of how “next gen” a console gets, it will always be limited when compared to a gaming PC. Just because a title is developed as a cross platform release does not entitle the devs to shaft PC gamers with features that have no business being on their platform of choice.

Quite often, formats have nothing do to with it at all. In many cases, “difficulty” is stated as a convenient excuse. If anything, this is even more absurd. Giving limited saves within a game does not make it any harder. It only makes it a lot more annoying. If a player feels that a game is way too easy, there is nothing to stop him/her from NEVER saving at all. The rest of us need something that allows us to play for 10 mins before saving and going to answer the door.

Apart from the nightmare scenario that I went through, there is another reason as to why having a single save point is stupid. What if the player wanted to replay a certain level again? I do this frequently with my favourite games just as a way of reliving a good time. Good luck with that, you will have to start a new game and play through the entire thing again till you get to the part you really like.

I may not be a programmer, but when I see a game like Soldier of Fortune 2 come up with a perfect solution to this problem as early as 2007 (the game let you choose difficulty level and the number of saves available before each mission), it does make me wonder why something like this isn’t even an option any more.

Ultimately, developers need to realize that a game needs to make full use of the advantages inherent to every format it is to be released on. A half assed compromise is not just detrimental to the experience, its downright insulting to the community as a whole.

Real time strategy games (RTS’) have come a long way. There was something inherently addictive about old school RTS titles like Age of Empires and the ridiculously popular Starcraft. The mecahnics were simple enough.  Build a base, collect resources, build an army, go forth and pwn. This is obviously a gross over-simplification but it serves to prove the point that all RTS’ share certain core mechanics.

There is always a base.

There are always resources to manage.

There will always be different unit types that need to be employed to make an effective army. (Tank rushes do not count.)

There is always some sort of “tech tree” used to unlock better weapons and such.

Somewhere down the line, however, things began to change. Gamers began to see that once you removed the shiny new skin, every RTS was essentially EXACTLY the same. It did not matter if you were fighting cyborgs or elves. You were still going through the exact same motions. In short, it began to feel just a tad bit boring, and very, very dated. Some developers tried to shake things up now and then but the core experience did not deviate. Throughout most of the late 90′s all changes were essentially cosmetic. There were exceptions of course; Empire Earth and Warcraft 3 did bring some fresh ideas that were implemented well. But it was Relic Entertainment’s Warhammer 40,000 : Dawn of war (2004) that marked an important turning point in the evolution of the genre. Here was a game that put the emphasis on constant aggression. The player absolutely had to keep moving forward, constantly claiming “strategic points” to gain more “requisition” (one of only two resources to manage) and though there was a base of operations and the usual “gather-research-mobilize-rush” element to things, the focus was always on the action.

In my opinion, this was the first game in which the player’s attention was forced towards the next attack as opposed to building the base (turtling). Not that one couldn’t do it, but rather, it always felt like it was the wrong thing to do. The game didn’t revolutionize the genre per se, but, it did sow some very important seeds. The lessons learned from Dawn of War (DOW) came through in Relic’s own Company of Heroes (COH). A game that has pretty much raised the bar for RTS’. In many ways it was refinement of the DOW formula. If anything there was a marked shift towards focusing even more on tactics as opposed to strategy. The strict unit cap in COH meant that the player had to really think about keeping a good mix of units within his army. Tank rushes failed to work (that alone was a worthy enough achievement in itself). I was expecting pretty much the same thing from DOW2.

Before I continue, let me make it clear that I love the game. This post is far from criticism. In fact, I believe Relic deserves to be given credit for trying something very different from what the industry has seen so far. However, let’s look at how the game actually plays out:

There is no base whatsoever.

There are a handful of squads (anything between 1 to 5 guys per squad). No armies. At no point does the player control more than 4 squads total.

There are no resources to collect. Only strategic points that replenish fallen squad members.

There is a levelling system with generous amounts of loot drops. Wait…what?!

Yep, that’s right, sounds more like an RPG. Because that’s what it is in my opinion. Not a Real Time Strategy title but a Tactical Role Playing Game. The only “strategy” is deciding where and how to attack. Oh, and how to equip and outfit your motley crew of hard asses. The “Risk” type world map used in the DOW Dark crusade expansion makes a triumphant return but the strategic value of that in DOW2 is damn near zero. Throughout the entire game, I kept getting reminded of Fallout Tactics (FT). A brilliant little gem from the good old days. Like FT, the positioning of your troops and how they were levelled made all the difference in battle. Hell, the combat aspect is closer to Dragon Age more than the original DOW!

All this begs the question: is this a sign of things to come? Are all RTS’ from now on going to have a more “tactical” approach to game play? There haven’t been many RTS titles out to give a clear picture. The CnC universe is still sticking to its old school formula and it looks like Starcraft 2 will do the same. Regardless, I personally think that the present day gamer’s appetite has been whetted enough by Relic’s work to demand more action oriented RTS’. I only hope that it does not water down the genre permanently to the point where the mere idea of an old school RTS becomes economically unviable.