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Five for Friday: 11/21

GTA IV Movie Making Madness

Grand Theft Auto IV is coming out on the PC in early December, but in the mean time they've given gamers a sneak peek at the game's video editor feature.

Players will be able to use in-game footage, edit them (including effects and music) and then export them to .wmv files.  As if that wasn't enough, they have a website in place to host user-created movies so that gamers can share their masterpieces with the world.  Kudos Rockstar!

Commodore War

My first PC was a Commodore Vic-20.  It had the little tape-deck drive, and I had a blast playing games and tweaking the programs in basic.  You can imagine my delight when I found out that Commodore makes high-end gaming PCs - I had no idea!  Now they are offering PCs with Intel's spankin' new i7 processor.  I just might have to invest in one of these, just for old-time's sake.

Desktop Tower Defense

The guys responsible for Desktop Tower Defense (and for taking a ton of my free time) have formed The Casual Collective.  Along with their shiny new site, they have upgraded Desktop Tower Defense to version 1.9, including a new look and...wait for it...MULTIPLAYER!  So many games...so little time...

 

 

World at War Mod Pack

I think modding is a huge feather in PC gaming's cap.  The fact that there's a huge community of dedicated modders out there churning out all sorts of original content, just to keep our games fresh - that's pretty awesome.  Treyarch released modding tools this week for their recently released Call of Duty: World at War.  If you're ambitious enough, download the tools and get modding!

Chuck Norris Invades Fallout 3

I think the Chuck Norris fad was pretty inexplicable, but I had to chuckle (a-thankyou) at this one:

Have a great weekend!

World of Warcraft

My hometown of Bakersfield, California has about 3.7 million people living there.  Not a huge town, but not a tiny one either.  The reason I bring this up is because Blizzard announced today that their latest expansion for World of Warcraft (Wrath of the Lich King for those of you in caves) sold 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release!!!11  So either Blizzard has brainwashed 76% of my beloved Bakersfieldians, or they have a huge hit on their hands...

Since WoW has about 11 million subscribers, that means about a quarter of their user base bought it on day 1.  I wonder how many of them will end up buying it (actually, I wonder about the WoW players that aren't going to buy it, but that's just me) - at any rate, it's impressive that an expansion for a game has done so well.  Is this what the future holds for our hobby?  What do you think?

Congrats to Blizzard!

So which is it guys?

I don't know what I hear more of these days - claims that PC gaming is about to die, or claims that it's doing awesomely... Today Edge reported that research group JPR claims that the PC gaming market is bigger than the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 all put together.  Eh?

JPR says that the PC gaming market is worth over $20 billion and will rise to $34 billion by 2012.  They go on to say that about 196 million PC gaming machines were sold from '05 to '08.  They have three classifications for gaming machine, and they say that 10 million of the 196 million machines fell into the highest class - the "mainstream enthusiast class," which includes high-end desktop PCs.

This sounds great, but what about game sales?  No too long ago, we were hearing that PC game sales accounted for only 14% of total game sales in '07, although NPD admits that this number does not take into account sales from digital distribution.  Until we have a more complete picture of game sales, I think it's tough to make the call either way.  Regardless of how many PCs are out there, if games aren't being purchased the PC gaming market is still at risk.

I'd like to know more about what JPR considers to be a "PC Game Machine" and what are the major markets for these sales.  I'd also like to compare this data with some reliable game sales data.  Geeze, I might as well ask for an ivory back-scratcher while I'm at it :D

My gut tells me that when two sides disagree, reality usually lies somewhere in the middle.

BASH #86

Last Sunday I was a guest on Bashandslash's webcast, and as promised I'm posting the link.  The guys were really kind, especially considering the fact that I tend to talk a lot.  A lot a lot.

Anywho, give it a listen and tell me what you think!

Bejeweled Twist & Popcap Day

Last Thursday I had the extreme pleasure of visiting the Popcap Games offices - they have really come a long way!  I remember checking them out a few years ago when they had offices on one floor of their building, and now they have expanded to three floors.  It's great to see them reaping the rewards of the fine work they do.

I was met by QA lead Michael Guillory, and the office mascot Noni the Dachshund.  We were quickly joined by Popcap co-founder Brian Fiete (and one of the game's designers), lead programmer Kurt Pfeifer and programmer Chris Hargrove.  It was pretty clear early on that these guys were Twist fanatics - it's a true testament to a game's addictability when the guys who have done nothing but work on a game for the past eighteen months still play the it with such fervor.

Bash and Slash!

I just wanted to give a shout out to Jock Yitch over at Bashandslash - he runs a streaming webcast there every sunday night, and was nice enough to allow me to be a guest on it tonight.  The guys were great, and graciously listened to me ramble on about PC gaming.  I'll post a link when the webcast is on his site.  In the mean time, if Call of Duty is your thing, and you haven't been to bashandslash yet, drop down and give me 20.  Or just go to the website...

Thanks Jim, Jax, Joker & Jock!

Five for Friday: 11/14

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Games for Windows - Live Forums

The Games for Windows team has launched the forums at www.gamesforwindows.com - it's the best place to go for help on GFW titles, the Live service, or to chat with other gamers.  If you have feedback, it's where us Microsoft types are looking for it, so please head over and make your opinions known!

 

 

 

The Lich King Cometh!

One of the reasons I was so excited to go to the Popcap offices this week was to see some of my old friends.  By some odd twist of fate, a bunch of my old co-workers at Sabertooth games ended up at Popcap.  Well, many of them weren't there yesterday, and the reason was WoW: Wrath of the Lich King.  It's quite a testament to a game's popularity when friends schedule days off for it! 

 

Achievement Unlocked: Endcredititis

I beat Fallout 3 this week, thus curing the massive case of endcredititis I've been suffering since that game released.  I'm sure I'm late to the party compared to many of you, but what a ride!!  I'm not going to spoil anything here, but I am still finding myself playing - now that I've reached level 20 and gotten the "Explorer" perk, I'm checking out all the locations I hadn't found before, and finishing up any side quests I can find.  My hat's off to you Bethesda, you have a masterpiece on your hands!!

 

The Walking Dead #54

I've been reading The Walking Dead for a while now - it's the only comic book I read.  Let me tell you, the story has a way of keeping you hooked from issue 1.  If you're a fan of zombie fiction (Left 4 Dead players, I'm lookin' at you!) then do yourself a favor and pick up some of the trade paperbacks and get started on this amazing book.  On my way back from shooting a viral video today I stopped by my local comic book store and picked up the latest issue, #54, and the series is as strong as ever! 

 

Alienwarehouse

Alienware released the Area-51 750i this week,  starting at a relatively inexpensive $1,049.  I was a bit suspicious, but after checking the base specs, it's a pretty impressive machine.  A GeForce 9800 GT, 3 ghz Intel core 2 duo, 250 gigs on the hard drive, 2 gb RAM and an nVidia Nforce motherboard - not too shabby.  Of course, if you've got the chinks you can customize this thing into the stratosphere.  I'm already sending Santa an email about this one...

Random Thoughts on Game Design

I took a field trip out to the Popcap Games offices today (something I'll write-up fully on Monday) and one of the things I asked about was their design process.  Popcap is known for some of the best casual games around - if you haven't checked out Peggle or Bejeweled, you are missing out! 

A standard PC game design process goes something like this:  A designer comes up with an idea, writes an extensive game design document, then hands it off to some programmers to prototype.  The prototype is then played to test the assumptions made in the game design to see if they are fun, playable and marketable.  Since most games take some serious time to prototype, the designer has to make a ton of game design assumptions without being able to test them for a while.  If the game isn't fun, playable or marketable, the company can either scrap the idea, or try to massage it into something usable.  Many companies, having already spent a sizable chunk on the game already, are loathe to just scrap it. 

I think this is why we see so many games that copy other games.  If a game design copies an established game, then there are a whole list of assumptions that have already been proven.  I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, as that's why we have genres.  It does tend to limit innovation, and lead to poor games making it to market.

I spent a lot of time designing "paper" games, like card, board and miniatures games.  These have a huge advantage in this department, since you can usually prototype in about a day.  I can't tell you how many times I had the next great idea for a game, only to prototype it and find out that it completely sucked.  The cost was pretty low for me - I just scrapped the idea, or kept the good parts and tweaked the rest.  When the prototyping process takes months and costs thousands, it's a completely different story.

It was quite refreshing, then, to hang out with the guys at Popcap.  Since the games they produce tend to be easier to prototype (mainly because they don't rely on 3D) they can have several ideas in various stages going all at once, then pick the best to move forward to the production stage.  I think this is why they come up with such fun and unique games - they are able to test their assumptions earlier in the process.  It seemed like an experience closer to what I was used to with paper games - you throw some pasta on the wall, and hope that some of it sticks.

Shiny New Games for Windows - Live Interface

The folks over at Games for Windows - Live have been working nonstop on a more PC-friendly version of the service, and the next step in the process launched today!

When I first signed up for the Live service, it wasn't the best experience I've ever had.  When I got this job, I made my opinions clear to the team - of course they were already working on most of my concerns, but it does help to get stuff off of your chest.

One of my major complaints was that it was clear to me that the interface was cut and pasted straight from the Xbox.  This was obviously done for simplicity's sake, but it made me feel like it wasn't for PC gamers.  With today's update, that's just no longer the case!  Live has a great new interface, one that was made just for the PC. 

Here's the new dashboard, much smaller and tailored to the PC.  Clicking on any of the boxes will take you to that section.  The only thing that I found slightly confusing was how to exit - I was worried that if I clicked the red X, I would be signed out of Live.  Turns out that'll just take you back to the game. 

 

 

Here's my gamercard section.  As you can see, it's easier to navigate, and more intuitive than the Xbox interface.

It's just the beginning really - in early December they'll be adding the Marketplace, which will give you access to new content for existing games, demos and trailers. 

So while you may have not used it in the past, or maybe you did and it wasn't for you, I'd encourage you to give it a try.  The gang at Games for Windows - Live are working hard, and it looks like they've been listening.  Let me know what you think!

Holy Hardware, Batman!

I was browsing my usual websites today when I came across this article on techradar - nVidia is releasing a $3500 video card!  I gotta say, for that kind of scratch the card had better come with a British butler to bring you tea while you play. 

I'm not too concerned however, since it looks like they are marketing it to geophysicists, scientists, designers and the like - maybe NASA can afford this baby!  I'm sure there will be some hardcore gamers who will pick this up, but YIKES.