Infinity and Beyond

Google threw up this article on my Gmail news ticker–Frogger, anyone?  Old-school gamers revel in nostalgia.  I thought it was a pretty sweet idea to turn a garage or spare room into an old-school style arcade.  I remembered a site I came across when I was trying to get into physical computing which sold a ton of sweet arcade buttons and joysticks for creating your own stand-up arcade boxes.  The site even has templates and layouts for your reference.

This makes me want to get back into physical computing projects.  The board I’ve used in the past is the Arduino board, which is pretty cheap and has an easy USB connection (no painful USB-serial converters necessary).  A good reference book that I’ve got is Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, by Tom Igoe and Dan O’Sullivan.  It’s a little outdated, but the basic concepts are all covered, and there are a lot of code examples which can easily be adapted to the Arduino.  They cover basic tools needed, soldering, all the various kinds of components you’re likely to use, explain how to read diagrams, and much more.

But, physical computing projects aside, this brings up the point that I tend to agree with the assessment that most gaming companies these days seemed driven to provide only the best visual gaming experience, while they often seem to ignore the actual gameplay itself.  Which is perhaps why the Wii does so well–the games don’t look the absolute best, but many are geared to have a quick learning curve and are focused on fun.  Wii Tennis for instance is arguably an awful looking game when compared to the graphics of nearly any Xbox 360 game.  But that doesn’t matter, because the gameplay is super easy to learn and you can start having fun immediately.  This has always been one of Nintendo’s strong points.

Thinking about this makes me want to build a stand-up arcade and put on some of the classic Nintendo and Atari games.  Maybe some Super Mario Bros, Frogger, Pac Man, Lolo…perhaps even some Super NES games like F-Zero…or better yet, a 4-player arcade version of the original Mario Kart.

Now all I need is a crappy TV, the Nintendo from the closet in my mom’s house, and a spot to put it.

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Figures just in from last week report that “Grand Theft Auto IV” has surged past “Halo 3″ and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” to set the record for the biggest opening week of any entertainment product.”

Selling over six million units in the first week to gross over $500 million, ‘IV’ surpasses ‘Halo 3′ by $200 million. $310 million of it’s total gross came from the 3.6 million units sold on its opening day alone. It also helped that ‘IV’ was released on multiple platforms and not just Xbox 360 like ‘Halo 3′. While it’s hard to compare video game sales to the multiple windowed film format, it is easy to say that ‘POTC: AWE’ grossed a worldwide b.o. total of $960 million over a period of 19 weeks and ‘IV’ grossed over half that in one week.

I’m a big fan of the ‘Halo’ franchise as well as ‘Pirates’ but the GTA series is just not one I’ve been able to get excited about. Aside from the mature content, the style of game just isn’t my style. I don’t think Take-Two is really bothered by my lack of interest but it is interesting to see what content has brought about the ‘biggest opening week of any entertainment product’ ever.

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Saying a no go Disney plans to cut their longtime ties with THQ Inc. in order to develop the new Toy Story 3 game in house. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on this general trend that Hollywood studios are taking. They are slowly planning to stop outsourcing video game production to companies like EA. Disney will be increasing its budget for interactive entertainment to more than $180 million for this year and an additional $350 million annually within five years. With box office receipts slowly rising and dvd sales sinking the only growth is found in interactive media.

Obviously with this trend Disney isn’t the only one bringing it home. Both Viacom and Time Warner are setting aside $500 million for future developments. The failures of the past still linger though as names like Atari and Midway Games Inc. haunt the companies decisions today after years of recovering from failed ventures.

By the end of 2010 Disney plans to self-publish 80-90% of its games. Only time will tell if this decision will be a successful one. Even though I’m not much of a gambling man I think that with the support of Pixar’s John Lasseter that even if it does fail it won’t be for lack of trying.

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According to a statement by Don Mattrick, Senior VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business unit at Microsoft, Halo 3–which went on sale at 12:01AM, September 25th at more than 10,000 stores across the US–became the biggest entertainment launch in US history:

“Beating all expectations, Halo 3 became the biggest launch in the history of entertainment in the US, grossing more than $170 million dollars on Day One alone. In a year filled with blockbuster sequels, Halo 3 still stood out, passing both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ($166 million) and Spiderman 3 ($151 million).”

I picked up my copy from the company store for a nice discount, and spent a bit of time with it Tuesday night and last night.

<SWEET PICTURE WOULD APPEAR HERE>

I’d have a great picture of the pallets full of discs and employees lined up at the registers, but my Windows Mobile powered device froze after I took the picture and it seems to have gotten lost…

So far I’m personally not blown away by any one thing in particular, and am having to get used to the slight changes in controller configuration. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t a fanatic and never did play Halo or Halo 2 all the way through. And I haven’t spent hours upon hours immersed in this next installment.

That being said, the graphics are certainly gorgeous, and the environment seems significantly richer than the last version. The textures are rich and detailed, water looks amazing, and the lighting effects are spectacular. Also little things I’ve found that are cool so far are things like pre-loading certain parts of levels while you’re setting up games and what appears to be significantly decreased load times in general. That’s definitely a great improvement.

But, like I said, I haven’t been blown away yet (except by some hard-to-hit sniper creature things and things with giant war hammers). Also, having played a lot of Gears of War, I kind of miss the cover feature. However, it’s still early…

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With the delay of Take-Two’s highly anticipated new game ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ the Xbox and the Wii are set to take center stage this holiday season. Citing “technological problems” the game under whelmed at the E3 Convention last month and has been put on hold until early 2008.

This means that once all the platforms debut ‘Madden NFL ‘08′ in the next week all eyes will be on Microsoft and Nintendo (who share intimate quarters in Redmond). This was going to be the underperforming PS3’s first break into the reliable world of video game sequels. The PS3 has yet to see any of the standards that made the PS2 such a giant success. No, ‘Final Fantasy’ games, no ‘Metal Gear’ and now a delay of GTA.

While GTA is being delayed for the Xbox as well (even though the delay in release is caused solely due to the PS3), I’m sure Microsoft doesn’t mind as come this September the highly anticipated ‘Halo 3′ makes its debut in a home near you. Microsoft isn’t the only one relying heavily on proven content. Nintendo will finally give the people what they want with ‘Super Smash Bros. Brawl’ and in a move to get those after Christmas returns ‘Mario Kart’ will be released for the New Year.

Both Sony and Nintendo took a gamble on their new devices. While Sony opted for brilliant graphics and seamless game-play with blu-ray capabilities Nintendo did what they do best and revolutionized the gaming industry. Both companies relied heavily on new technology but it’s how you use technology that remains key. While the lack of content might be hurting the PS3 the Wii, with a similarly small selection of remedial mini-games, has excelled both nationally and overseas, outselling the PS3 3-1 in Japan (Headquarters to both Sony and Nintendo). Content remains the dividing factor. Even if the Wii and the PS3 had the exact same library the game-play allowed by the Wii offers a new way to experience that content, which is when technology is at its best. When we take the ordinary and smash it all to Hell. Well, at least that’s what I plan on doing once ‘Smash Bros. Brawl’ comes out.

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ZDNet has an nice detailed article on the repair woes some Xbox 360 owners are experiencing.  Knock on wood, my console so far has been doing okay.  I even risk my 30-hour frag sessions without the use of that external cooling fan system (!!).  I mean, I’ve had my share of annoyances with the system–I spent an hour trying to figure out how to upgrade my Core system to play Halo…burning CDs with software patches since we didn’t have a long enough wire, etc. etc., only to find out that while their website indicates you can use the base system to play old Xbox games…you really can’t.   I had to take the damn thing back and get the upgraded version, but ohh well.  And it is annoying that my Wii, which cost half as much, has built in Wi-Fi and wireless controllers, which are extra features on the Xbox–and don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to watch the green bars dance around the X logo while you wonder if and when your controller is actually going to sync with the system.

But I’m glad I’m not having to deal with the issues that these customers are going through.  It sucks to have to spend and hour on the phone with tech support convincing them you need a repair when you know your machine is messed up.  Then you have to wait for the mailer to arrive, and the package your system up, take it down to the post office or wherever, and hope it makes it to the repair center.  Ideally you have some kind of tracking and notification that lets you know things are happening.  And then when you finally get your stuff back you hope that the problem has actually been resolved.

I must say that’s one of the real advantages of the Genius Bar at Apple Stores–it’s pretty nice to bring your equipment right in to the tech and have them make a diagnosis on-the-spot.  And while I can’t say how good Microsoft’s tracking system is or is not, Apple’s system gives you updates on when your unit has been checked in for repairs, gives you status updates, and notifications of return shipping.  It’s also nice that Apple can make a lot of repairs in-house on their machines–it’s definitely nice to have your expensive gadget back in just a few days as opposed to weeks or months.

I’m already foreseeing lots of complaints with iPhone customers who are going to have similar experiences when they have to send off their phones.  While missing your Xbox for a few weeks isn’t the end of the world, not having your mobile phone could be a big problem for a lot of people.  I wonder if they’ll give service credit for the days you’re without your phone, much like they do for those with Xbox live accounts…I’d never thought about the fact that you could actually be losing money waiting for the repair of your gaming console.

I’m hoping that my system will be fine, and in the event I have to send it back I’m hoping I get it back in a relatively short amount of time.  Maybe now is the time for me to go try and hone my skills at Halo on Xbox Live…there has to be less competition out there at the moment…

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