N-Bits Volume 4
There was a time in my life where I was a run-of-the-mill telemarketer. To make some extra coin one summer I began working for a company that sold magazine subscriptions to anyone who would answer their phone. This sales approach is also called cold calling. When my job first began, the idea seemed simple enough. People could pay five dollars a week to receive 5 different popular magazines on their doorstep. At least this is how my boss explained it to me when he was sitting back in his leather armchair. All was well in my mind as the theory seemed sound and straight forward. Have people commit a couple bucks a week so that they can get more magazines.So off I went to sell my magazine subscriptions with great determination. To be honest, I was quite good at my job. I sold more subscriptions than all the veteran employees combined on my first week of work. One time in particular I sold the magazine subscriptions to a Chinese immigrant who couldnt even read English (let alone speak it). This was a time where I felt proud of my accomplishments. And then the blinding truth hit me like a nail through the forehead.
The whole thing was a scam. People who signed their John Hancock on the dotted line were treated with bills for upwards of 300 dollars a month for the entire first year. Sure it came down to an average of five dollars a week, but the company royally screwed the clients by taking huge lumps of cash from them in the first months. An expectation that the customer is completely unaware of, and of course, an expectation that we the seller were unaware of as well. Then I thought back to the poor Chinese man who would be receiving his Macleans magazine that he cant even read followed by a whopping bill for 300 dollars. My heart sank followed by my pride.
The following week I didnt sell a single subscription. Even though I knew I was being paid, I just didnt care. People would sound like they were on the fence and I wouldnt chase them for the sale. My job, as a telemarketer, was over.
This is the feeling that I just got recently with the gaming industry oddly enough. For a while, I didnt even want to approach my word processor. I didnt want to read forum posts, read news, or engage in any game-related discussions. In the last couple of days I finally realized why this is: More often than not, I dont like gamers. Many of them represent that which I fight against, which is why I never even felt inclined to take an active role in the community lately. In general, I find gamers are a finicky bunch that lack taste, are overly pessimistic, negative, and self-conscious. Yet I am a gamer myself. How odd is that? I simply just stopped believing for a while in this industry and the consumers that are supposed to support it.
But I will not give up hope on gamers. I have decided that there are people out there who still look forward to seeing what kind of artistic qualities they can look for in games, and I have to be there to show them what I see through my eyes. This was also my intent with the Jasons List article. The last thing I want is for people to just accept a class C hamburger when a t-bone steak is awaiting them, and at the same price no less. So what I would like to do starting today is begin a sort of book club with me choosing the titles that you play. I will hopefully give you the skinny on upcoming and current titles and will send you out to play them. Once you get a chance to play the game you can come back and tell me what you thought of it. Basically Im trying to support good games attempting to rally against bad games entirely. If there is a game that you arent sure about just yet, dont buy it! E-mail myself or one of my colleagues and well let you know if its a safe enough bet. Obviously everyone has their own opinions though, which is why I promote feedback that will be open for discussion. For instance, after seeing Skies of Arcadia: Legends at the number one spot on Jasons List, did you play it? Did you agree with my thoughts?
This will all begin today, as I am going to give you a short rundown of games you should be excited about, but may not be yet. Then I will tell you about games you can play right now that I would like you to try out. But first I would like to gover a couple of other recent thoughts Ive had.
Delays: Good, Whining: Bad
These recent delays have me extremely happy. Let me tell you why delays are a great thing for everyone this year. First and foremost, there is the volume of releases to deal with. Were already getting an abundance of titles this year to choose from. If all the games were expected to release right on schedule, we would have been put in the poor house. Many people will now have a chance to space out their purchases to one or two a month instead of four or five as per the previous schedule.
The next reason this is good is for impact. When games release too close together they cannibalize each others sales. F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2 are perfect examples. They essentially released at the same time, and although they are both excellent games, we could barely spare any of our thoughts for F-Zero. Not that GX is a mediocre game in any way, shape, or form though. Its just bad timing. So many gamers purchased one of the two games instead of both. If they had been spaced out a little, F-Zero GX would have seen more play time in the cube.
Now we get to the most important point of all though: the polish. So we have enough awesome games to play this year. Why not let some titles stay in the shop longer so that theyll be even better come next year! Pikmin 2 will be pushed back and will end up being the better game for it. Same goes for titles like Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Play the awesome games that make it out this year, and you will still have tons to play as we head into 2004. And not only will there be more games awaiting you, but theyll have that extra couple of months of polish behind them. You see, you cant rush this kind of thing if youre looking for a quality release. In fact you should be damn happy that somebody is out there looking out for you in the quality department. Be content that somebody thought these games were good but not good enough for you. Doesnt that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
Useless Manuals.
Recently I picked up a couple of games that I really enjoy. But much to my dismay, the manuals that accompany them have been tripe! For instance, I purchased Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour last month and at first was just trying to get a feel for it. Then I wanted to get more into the game and learn the system and characters. Heres where things turned for the worse. On the main character select screen you will find stats come up for every character that you highlight. The stats are impact, control, and spin, along with a colored in arrow and some sort of colored meter without a scale. No worries I thought as I whipped open the supplied manual. Yet I found no solace there, for there was nary a word or even hint about anything relating to those character stats. In fact, to this day I have only figured out by luck what some mean. How ridiculous is that?
Another one that really got me going was the manual for Product Number 03. There are stats that you have for your suit. One stat in particular is dubbed barrier. The description for the barrier stat in the manual loosely read raises your barrier energy. To tell you the truth, I wasnt sure if I should laugh or cry at how horribly sad this was. Imagine if you gave answers in grade school the way these manuals give you help.
Jason, explain what irony is.
Its when somebody or something is being ironic.
What a complete joke. To top it off, the manual was so brief that there were almost more pages for ads and descriptions on how to insert the disc into the cube than there was on how to play the game. Soul Calibur 2 was also bad, but narrowly escaped my wrath as it at least outlined some essential points about the game system.
Why cant more manuals be like the ones that Nintendo made for Pikmin, or even F-Zero GX? In fact, Pikmins manual had to be the best one I had ever seen (it even had a diagram in the back about how big a Pikmin would be in our world). F-Zero GX also had a great manual with lots of in-depth information including what happens with different car weights. So why in gods name do I have to go to an online FAQ to find out what the hell the stats actually mean on characters in a golf game? Or what the hell a barrier is in a game I just rented? Consider me pissed, and you should be too. We shouldnt have to buy a strategy guide to be told essential game system information.
Hot Games!
The following is a small list of games that I believe have been unjustly overlooked in the upcoming line-up. Everyone and their grandmother is going to want games like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! but I would like to show you other titles you can anticipate just as much.
Beyond Good and Evil
You are Jade, an action reporter from a small island in the world of Hyllis. The world as she knows it is being threatened by an alien race that is in the midst of an assault that will soon destroy everything the citizens hold dear. The Alpha Section defenses (the defense squad for Hyllis) is insisting that the war is being dealt with, but no action seems to be coming from them. Jade is soon hired by a rebel organization and is let in on many underground conspiracy secrets. As Jade, you will need to journey far to uncover the truth behind all the destruction.
Why should you be excited? This title is coming from same hands that brought the near-perfect Rayman 2: The Great Escape (not Rayman 3). The director of the titles, Michel Ancell, demonstrates finesse in game design that is truly Nintendo-esque. He knows how to balance a gameplay in such a way that youre always having fun and can still find challenge. From start to finish Rayman 2 was a blast to play and could almost be seen as a masterpiece. Now we zoom forward to the present day, where Michel and his team have much experience under the belts.
But although hearing Michels team was behind this game was enough, not surprisingly, the game looks good enough to sell itself. The large feature of the game is that it blends multiple game styles into one game but does them well. I had to emphasize that they were doing it well, because quite frankly most games that try too many things end up losing focus and die alongside their ambitions. But not only have they made a game that combines stealth, action, and adventure all in one package, theyve even provided the famous cutting-edge technology and art to go with it. The game is just oozing with style that is just so rare in todays games and all the while it is being helped by a new technology called the Jade engine. This technology essentially allows the team to bring their vision alive through large cities and worlds with tons of special effects.
Quite honestly, it would almost be criminal to overlook this title. It has quite arguably the best art direction of any title on the upcoming list (possibly even better than Viewtiful Joes), looks to have great gameplay, and is backed by a gifted development team. Hopefully the four to five years of development will have paid off in Beyond Good & Evil. This fall well find out, and we hope you take the plunge too.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Yet another Ubi-Soft property that looks killer. This title comes from Ubi-Soft Montreals studio (the same that handled Splinter Cell). The games story takes place before the rest of the series, so gamers can have a fresh start with the franchise. The idea is that a young prince led a Persian army to victory, at which time he comes across an ancient artifact (an hourglass) that he takes home as a trophy. Soon after the glass is somehow broken, and upon shattering it releases the sands of time - a curse on the people of the land. This curse turns every living thing into a monster like creature save for the prince himself. The sword which he wields protects him from the sands, which he will need to use in order to save his land.
Why should you be excited? Like Beyond Good & Evil, this title has all the makings of a modern classic. Although I wasnt the biggest fan of Ubi-Soft Montreals Splinter Cell, I have to admit this game looks to be ace. The graphics push the GameCube to its limits, the controls are designed to be sharp, and the world drips with polish. As per usual, the prince is made to do his famous acrobatic tricks in order to overcome his giant task. The impressive part is the polish given to every aspect of the games design. For instance, the prince can swing on flag poles to launch himself forward. In doing so, the flagpole will actually wiggle with realistic physics (along with proper cloth physics for the flag), and our hero will even bend and animate realistically as he tries to gain momentum. The result is a rush through giving you control of the princes more extreme actions.
Adding to the games excellent setup is the idea of using sands to control time. You must use the Sands of Time to rewind (if you fall in a pit, say) and even to fast forward. You can slow down time in a way that resembles something out of the matrix, and will give you time to figure out your battle plan. The prince even busts out moves like being able to run on walls then jumping over an enemy and taking them out from behind.
Once again, it would be a shame for anyone to miss out on this game upon its release. Quality control has been a key aspect in this games development and it is instantly apparent once you finally get to see the game in motion. Its time to get excited about the princes return!
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Originally released on the original Playstation, Metal Gear Solid (MGS) is a roller coaster of an adventure. Now the game is being re-created by the series director Hideo Kojima alongside Nintendo and Silicon Knights.
On its surface, Metal Gear Solid kicks some serious butt. Action and cinemas explode on screen in a way that really grips you and subsequently makes for an immersive experience. But underneath this glossy skin is a deep story and thoughtful script. MGS is a story about honor, identity, and yes, even love amongst other things.
Why should you be excited? Ill get the obvious one out of the way: it is a collaboration between the samurai of the east and the knights of the west. Nintendo, Konami, and Silicon Knights have all come together to re-create a classic. Nintendo second party Silicon Knights made a name for themselves when they released Eternal Darkness, last summers epic thriller, on the GameCube. The team at SK showed the world that they were masterful story-tellers. The script and voice acting in Eternal Darkness essentially set the bar for a true mature title. So coming from there, it is exciting that the industrys powerhouses for story-driven games are coming together with Nintendo at their side. Both Hideo Kojima and Denis Dyacks team are masters at what they do, which is reason enough to pick this game up. On top of having the industrys best storytellers working together, you have Nintendo inputting their almost infinite gameplay knowledge to make the game as polished and fun as possible.
And once again, the game can sell itself without even having the big names behind it. In this game you sneak around as Solid Snake in a facility in Alaska. Here you are given the freedom to knock out guards or to use you weapon at the sacrifice of your concealment. The game unfolds in such a way that you are always being driven by the intense story. The cinemas are even being re-directed by movie director Ryuhei Kitamura (the director of Versus) to have the most cinematic experience of any game to date. And to make a great game even better, the teams are implementing gameplay improvements from Metal Gear Solid 2 into this title. That means you can hang off ledges, stuff soldiers into lockers, and even shoot from a first-person perspective to name a few examples.
This title should be on every GameCube owners purchase list. If you havent played through the first title, dont even continue reading; just march down to the local video game store and plunk your cash down on a pre-order. A story and game like this one comes along maybe once in a decade, and with an all-star roster of development teams behind it, this game is guaranteed AAA quality material. Buy now; do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.
Game to play right now. If you havent played a Soul Calibur game before and you're going to have buddies over, I want you to pick Soul Calibur 2 up (rent or buy, youre safe either way.) The game is unmistakably a masterpiece of a fighting game. If you have played a Soul Calibur game before, or dont have friends to play multiplayer with, pick up either F-Zero GX or Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising for GameBoy Advance. Both games are excellent titles. Dont forget to e-mail myself to let me know what you thought of the games.
Next week well cover another three titles, and hopefully tackle some more recent issues. Until then, send the love my way in form of e-mail, and play on!
Jason Nuyens