Gadzooki

Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2: Good Or Bad?

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Tomonobu Itagaki has been accused of inappropriate behaviour recently. This is the man who brought us Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball – along with developing numerous lady models etc. He’s one of the most flamboyant games studio staffers (especially of such a high profile, even if he’s no longer with Tecmo) out there, but if this accusation is true, obviously his behaviour leaves a lot to be desired. Do, however, his games?

Dead Or Alive (since 3 at least) has had a strong focus on the ladies. No other beat-em-up (Rumble Roses excepted, pictured below) has as many female playable characters. The models have invariably looked good too. What about the notorious age system and physics though? Whilst there are some spurious hentai games out there in the Far East, only DOA really offers scintillating ladies with their own gravity generating bosoms… that can be changed via the age rating. Crank it up to 99 and you’ll see something rather strange happen to their décolletage. What does this say about games?

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Well, games are a new media. They are as a form of entertainment less than a third of the age of celluloid. So movies are now over 100, TV about 60ish and radio is older than that. Nonetheless, I’d suggest games matured remarkably quickly. The first sign of that coming of age was Sony making sure gaming became mass-market. Say what you like fanboys, this was a very powerful move – the business effects can still be felt today. This includes the way in which games have interfaced into popular culture and of course the strength of the Sony brand.

Another sign of maturity of the industry is branching out, franchising and technological development. Whilst the two former statements may sound contradictory, they aren’t. Think of it as organic process finding, answering questions like ‘what works?‘ and ‘what do people want?‘. Creative industries have growing pains. Is DOA a sign of this? I don’t think so. Much like any other product, it is serving a need – playing on our desires (sex being one of our most basic). Sex sells – though this doesn’t change the understated gameplay. Whilst I can’t see this product changing greatly in the future, perhaps we could see more of a focus on gameplay than on a skin-flick.

Essentially though, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 falls down simply because it is just okay; ultimately falling down as it falls short of what it is aspiring to. It still worries me that the games industry is still modelling itself on Hollywood for some reason, but that’s an analysis for another time. Learn from the mistakes guys and gals and make the industry into something even greater than it already is.

The Next Generation Is Here, But I’m Disappointed

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Nintendo has officially hailed the Wii as a success, reports the BBC, as figures suggest that more than 600,000 consoles have been sold. Red Steel remains the most popular game pick, with Zelda not far behind. So, this means plenty of people (in the US at least) are playing on next gen machines. The PS3 sold out, as did the Wii. The 360 is still going reasonably well one year in. What now?

Well, as I have highlighted recently, not a single game on any of the next gen machines has been a ‘must buy’. Gears of War and Resistance: Fall of Man were hugely hyped, but just didn’t hit the buttons when they arrived. Zelda has had oddly mixed reviews, from the lows of 8.5 from Gamespot to the highs of 10/10 from everyone at 1Up.com. So, with some disappointments in mind, lets take a look at a couple of games for each format to see where our gaming hopes lie (for the purists you’ll see I have tried to avoid 3rd party multi-format games):

Xbox 360

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Fable 2
This is the biggie from Lionhead Studios, now of course owned by Microsoft. Once again, much RPG action is promised, though unusually for Molyneux he’s kept his lips sealed. Mostly. Expect to see it around – 2007.

Halo 3
Given the popularity of Halo on the Xbox (and how it has actually moved into general culture) there’s no surprise that this has been announced, developed, and should be released in the ‘Fall’ of 2007.

PS3

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Tekken 6
Tekken is one of the key franchises for the Playstation brand, having been released on every iteration. Therefore, no surprise that Tekken is heading for the PS3 relatively soon. If you ask me, it’s pretty much become the Streetfighter of this generation. Anyway, you’ll see some awesome beat-em-up action in 2007.

Devil May Cry 4
Devil May Cry has been one of the ‘cool’ franchises from the PS2, which naturally will be on the PS3. Essentially you have a hero guy with a sword/gun combo, in the original you have a ‘devil trigger’ too. Good stuff – so one to watch. Devil May Cry will arrive in 2007.

Wii

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Super Mario Galaxy
This new Mario is shaping up to be excellent – simply because it has some of the elements from Mario 64. Look at the visuals on Gamespot, they’re wonderfully stylish. Once again, sometime in 2007.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Look here. You can make the motion of opening a door and the door opens. Incredible! Seriously though, Metroid Prime 3 is trying to take the interaction of the Wii to the next level – whether it succeeds or not remains to be seen but both Metroid games on the GC are of a high quality.

Overall
So there you have it, some truly excellent (we hope), rich, absorbing gameplay experiences coming our way soon(ish). Obviously we can’t know till closer to the time, but I’m hoping next year will be the year of games, if this year was the year of console releases (barring the PS3 over here in the UK). It’s a good time to be a gamer – possibly.

5 Ways The Next Generation Could Fail Us

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So here we are in the first year of the so-called next generation (a contextually relative term, if ever there was one). We’ve all gotten the chance to see XBox 360. Pretty graphics. Some nice online play. But also some disappointment. More often than not, gameplay has been sacrificed for graphics…and we all know how that turns out.

Nintendo has chosen to emphasize gameplay over graphics with the Wii. But the question still remains: will the Wiimote be just another gimmick or will it truly enhance gameplay? Time will tell.

Sony seems to have chosen to define a new home entertainment niche with their forthcoming PS3 system. Not priced to sell, the system hopes to eventually rule your entire home.

Really, what we have are three different approaches to the next-gen with different degrees of overlap between systems. What this article will aim to do is identify five areas of “promise” that the next-gen systems bring along with them, but also 5 areas of potential failure.

1. Lack of leverage of online capabilities

To put matters bluntly, we need systems that allow games to be updated after purchase. Madden 2007. Take the Philadelphia Eagles. Jabar Gaffney is a starting wide receiver. Dante Stallworth is still on the Saints. This should be fixed with transparent roster updates the moment you log your system on to the net.

But that’s just the beginning. Gamers should be able to buy and download their games online. Games should be made with brand new tasks defined on a daily basis. The possibilities are limitless.

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How To Save $1000 Per Video Game System

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Some of the readers of Gadzooki are probably a young as I once was. In other words, some of the readers of Gadzooki are yunguns.

I’m only in my 20’s now, but really, I’ve gained some wisdom…especially when it comes to handling the excitement of a new video game system like the Wii or PS3 or Xbox360.

I used to be just like you. I used to line up at midnight on the night of release, waiting hours to buy the brand new system. I just couldn’t wait. I salivated for months (nah, years!) reading daily about all the rumors about the upcoming system. And then bang. The minute it was available, I bought it. Just like you.

But over the years I’ve become a video game veteran. And I’ve realized something important about the video game cycle. The key is to realize that the cycle depends on YOU. That’s right. And when you realize that you can create your very own video game cycle, you’ll have found that you can save over $1000 per system generation.

Here’s how to do it. You ready? You think you can handle the truth?

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What Does Your Gamerscore Say About You?

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Keith Stuart (of The Guardian – a broadsheet newspaper over here in the UK and of the Gamesblog) recently covered, in his article, the strange ways in which people become attached to their Gamerscore on Xbox Live. Gamerscores are a way in which to build up ‘cred’ on the 360 scene – namely the higher your score then theoretically you are a better gamer than the guy/gal with less points. Certain actions in a game lead to points, such as completing a level or finding a hidden section.

As Mr Stuart points out, for some this has become much more than a way to check out your opponent, but has in fact become an obsession for some. You’ll find there’s a certain way to get a huge number of points in Geometry Wars, but to do so you have to spend hours perfecting the technique, and even then there’s a good dose of luck involved there to crack it.

This site takes the Gamerscore one step further – actually listing how you managed to rack up your points. Bear in mind that some games award them very easily and others do not. Suddenly, rather than just flaming your opponent (something I’d never be an advocate of) you can actually laugh at how he’s obsessively played Fifa 2007 to get his points. This suddenly turns a batch of numbers into something far more interesting – a game history, or even a story behind the story as it were.

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Why Has Sony Delayed the PS3?

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Well it’s clear now that Sony has officially delayed the PS3 for Europe (and Africa etc). I can’t quite believe that this has happened, given how huge the UK games industry is alone, never mind the other territories. Anyway, here we are looking at a Christmas that is going to be fought over by only Nintendo and Microsoft. Regardless, even if Sony were in the UK for the festive season, it doesn’t look like there’d be enough to go around my street, let alone the country.
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I guess the title of this article is a little misleading, at least partially because I’m not that interested in the PS3. Frankly the price point seems far too high for a console, and then on top of that I haven’t seen anything yet that can’t be accomplished by the 360 – and who knows – perhaps the Wii too. What I’m really interested in is what is going to be happening come Christmas in the UK.

It should be huge battle between the 360 and the Wii – but something tells me it won’t be. I don’t know, maybe I’m just feeling dramatic, but I can’t help but be despondent about this whole situation. At one point, I was absolutely sure I was going to buy a Nintendo Wii – especially after seeing it in action. Now however, I’m swinging toward the 360. I never had any intention of buying a PS3 you see.

Anyway, back to Christmas. The 360 has been out for coming up to a year now, and it sits there comfortably. I played Perfect Dark Zero the other day – it was fun, but I prefer Dead Rising (which is finally out in the UK) and even PGR3. I don’t know what the hot tips are for this year, possibly because I’ve been sucked into the world of Cyrodil (i.e. Oblivion). I can’t help but feel Nintendo has let us down with the name of choice, never mind the no-doubt day-glo characters and somewhat underwhelming gameplay.

I’m never the voice of despondency, I don’t think it suits what it meant to be an entertainment industry after all, but this year has seen Jack Thompson, Bully dragging us once again into the harsh light of criticism, and then finally to top this we have a lack of the PS3 for ‘my’ territory. Well, how can I round this off? I don’t know if I can. Instead, I’ll retreat back to Oblivion for a while – I might pop out for my birthday in a month to pick up a Xbox360 though…

What to do? What to do? A developer’s conundrum.

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There’s a couple of articles from earlier this week that make related points about the current situation in the game industry. The first is a report in financial site The Street about the possible fallout if Nintendo strikes gold when they release the Wii sometime this fall, as seems increasingly likely since their big splash at E3. Apparently, if Nintendo does well, it will be bad, or at least not good, for most 3rd party developers, who, up until E3, had written off Nintendo and were putting all their eggs in the Microsoft and Sony baskets. From the report:

“No one’s going to make money on the software except Ubisoft,” whose Red Steel title Nintendo showcased at E3, says one hedge fund manager, who is short shares of THQ (THQI – commentary – Cramer’s Take) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO – commentary – Cramer’s Take). “Everyone got caught flat-footed.”

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Memorial Day Catch Up – Tech In Review – 5/30/06

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America drops the web over Memorial Day weekend. There is no question about that. Anyone who owns a website need only check her logs. Sharp drop-off. The biggest since the Christmas season.

Gadzooki took something of a break too. Barbecue, beer. Tuna Steak. Yep, that’s right. I ate Tuna Steak grilled in one of those massive grill smokers. Pleasantly surprising. Not like fish at all. Two thumbs up. Just make sure you marinade it right.

My Grill

The lazy weekend is over. Back to work. Back to Tech. Let’s do a review in tech back to last Friday.

We’ve been covering motion sensing technology for a while now, and when new functionality becomes hot in tech, adoption comes quick. All of us computer geeks don’t have to rely on Wii for our motion sensitive fix. Taiwanese company Industrial Technology Research Institute has announced what it is calling the wireless flying mouse, which straps to your wrist and allows 3d motion control. Speaking of motion control: how about an alarm clock that requires you to play Simon before it shuts off. Nothing will get the late risers moving like a quick game of “repeat after me”. Or maybe it’ll be the other way around: maybe Simon will find himself in motion, crashing into the bedroom wall. For our Mac friends who are feeling motion detection envy, try out this Magic Wand Mouse for OSX.

Our Wii fascination never ends, and it now appears that one of the best new games out in years could be headed Nintendo’s way. You heard that riff right: Guitar Hero maybe headed to Wii. Woohoo. Now we can jam for 1/3 the price. But Nintendo can’t have all the glory. Microsoft’s XBox Live platform is now the number one platform for High Definition, On Demand Content. I’ve thought for a while that the first console system to nail it’s online platform would win the 2005-2009 console war. XBox certainly has the huge headstart, Sony doesn’t have a clue, and Nintendo will be playing comeback kid. Or maybe not. Looks like the preferred system for the 2005-2009 season is the XBox 360 + Nintendo Wii Combo.

Hey, want some cheap storage room for your MP3 files? Big storage, tiny form. Check out this nifty KINGMAX Super Stick 1GB Pen Drive – USB. Or maybe you’d like to pay the price of a new desktop computer for your very own Sprint Treo 700p. That’s with a 2 year agreement! Sprint, Verizon, Cingular and others might need to wise up. It turns out that most consumers are looking for nothing but a simple cellphone that’s easy to use.

Oh, before I’m done, here’s one piece of advice for all you tech-geeks / scientists / inventors. You wanna be productive? Then don’t get married.

Nintendo Wii: Evidence of Future Success?

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No one can deny the huge response that the Nintendo Wii got from e3 2006. There was no doubt that the Ntendo boys and girls cast a huge shadow over MSoft and Sony. Whether it was the motion sensing controller, new game mechanics, a new version of Duck Hunt or the Wii’s built in microphone, the response from the e3 crowd was huge and perfectly tracked the geek crowd over at Digg.

But the lingering question is whether the early adopter, geekman, fanboy enthusiasm will translate into console dominance. Well, we all know that Sony didn’t help its current place on the console throne by declaring a $500 and $600 price point for the Playstation 3. That alone gives Nintendo some room to maneuver.

Now, there is some evidence that enthusiasm for the Wii is trickling down into the masses. Famitsu magazine recently released a poll of Japanese gamers indicating that 73% believe that the Wii will win the console wars. Further, 70% of the readers are looking the most forward to the Wii… and we all know how wishing for a system is 90% of the sale (oh, how many hours have we all wasted drooling over the latest rumors, screenshots, specs for upcoming systems!).

Now, these numbers only tell us so much. They don’t tell us how Nintendo will manage in a comeback effort against the XBox 360 in America. But what they do tell us is that the gamers are in love with Wii and mad as hell at Sony. This can only be good news for Nintendo.

Wireless XBox 360 controller on your PC via USB

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That’s right. Gizmodo is reporting the following:

A USB wireless receiver for all Xbox 360 wireless peripherals. So yes, you can finally use the wireless controller, the upcoming wireless force feedback steering wheel and even the wireless headset with USB goodness.

Nice gadget Microsoft. Pretty soon we may have to actually give MSoft some props for innovation and cool, useful gadgetry