In which N'Gai and Stephen continue their Very Special face-to-face edition of Vs. Mode: N'Gai with his restrained praise of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and Stephen with his crisis of faith over the series' failure to regain its innovative heights.

In Round 1 of our Vs. Mode discussion with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo (also featured on his blog Multiplayer), we offered up a theory--Linear Gamers Vs. Circular Gamers--to explain why even brilliantly-controlling games like The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass don't float our boat. Totilo, meanwhile, said that he was being to feel a bit run down by Zelda Fatigue, 12 games into the series. In Round 2, we collectively did what Totilo wished Nintendo would do and switched up our own formula. We met face-to-face in order to a) correct Level Up's own ignorance of the Zelda series with a crash course on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask; and b) talk about how much the series has progressed, if at all, since those twin high water marks. In today's Round 3, we serve up a wide-ranging discussion about the pros and cons of long-running franchises--for both developers and gamers. An excerpt:

Stephen Totilo: What would you like to see Aonuma and his team do next? Take the controls that they were able to sort of build atop the Zelda foundation and then to go and make a better Zelda? Or would you like them to take the controls that they built atop the Zelda foundation and now move those controls into some brand new game experiences?

N'Gai Croal: Well, again resisting the fiction as I do, selfishly I'd say, "Try your hand at another fiction." But I think the question you're asking is a bit deeper than that, which is what should incredibly talented artists and teams, you know, what does it mean when they either are forced to--we don't know that for a fact--or by choice restrict themselves to working on a single series.

I mean it's interesting to contrast that to the team that did Ico and Shadow of the Colossus because Shadow of the Colossus didn't turn into the game that people thought it was. People loved it anyway, but people thought, when they first saw it--with the horse and the bow and arrow--they thought that this was going to be Zelda for the PS2, And it turned out not to be that. It was a very sort of pure, stripped down ,focused game design, but coming off of Ico--for the, say, 500,000 people worldwide who bought that game and loved it--a lot of us would've been happy with Ico 2, but that team, Ueda-san and his team, they didn't make that game.

Totilo: Right, Nico as it was rumored for a while--

Croal: Exactly. He didn't play that game and so what I'm hearing from you is a desire for Nintendo to rethink how they're doing, dealing with the Zelda franchise and maybe walk away from it for a while, let us miss it, maybe remake some of the other ones, which have exemplary game design and spif it up for a new generation. And then have Eiji Aonuma's team to do something different.

Totilo: Yeah, and I guess to wrap this up I just need to go and ask you one more time to help me figure this out: to what extent do you think that the feeling that I'm having is the byproduct of having played so many more, so many of these games already? And is my fatigue of Zelda and my disappointment with the new ones something that people are going to have when Gran Turismo hits its 15th iteration? Is it a feeling that you suspect Final Fantasy fans might be having at some point soon? Or is this something that you think is unique to Zelda?

To read Round 3 of our exchange in its entirety, click on the link below.

Skateboarder Tony Hawk and graphic designer David Carson

At Newsweek HQ, most of our colleagues are either boomers in name or boomers in spirit, which means there haven't been many serious gamers among our ranks. But from the increasing number of game-related conversations we've had with our office mates, it's clear that this is starting to change. Our de facto Xbox 360 correspondent Rolf Ebeling, who in his day job is the creative director for Newsweek.com, posted here back in September about getting a new post-Red Ring of Death Xbox 360 just in time for the Halo 3 launch, followed by a postcard showing off his very first kill in Halo 3 multiplayer. In today's entry, Electronic Arts' Skate serves as a jumping off point for his boyhood memories of the birthplace of modern American skateboarding.

I have some news. You might want to sit down--I've been playing a game that isn't Halo 3.

Given my almost exclusive interest in multiplayer FPS chaos, you would have thought I'd barely be able to dress myself and hold down a job after midnight on September 25th (for non-believers, that was the release day for the Master Chief's final chapter). Yes, I have been spending nearly all of the Xbox Live time I can scrape together sticking people with spiked grenades, but EA has managed to divert my attention for an hour or two with a game about plywood, polyurethane and the police: Skate.

Knowing that I grew up north of San Diego in the 70s and 80s--and if you could hear me speak, you'd detect the slight So Cal accent in my voice--you might assume I spent a fair amount of my youth loitering in front of the local 7-Eleven on a skateboard. Truth is, I could barely go twenty feet on the street without wobbling off the board and watching it sail out into the intersection. Yet, however painfully unskilled I was in the actual act, I've never lost an interest in culture and aesthetics of skateboarding; it was part of the air I breathed. Shamelessly, I've even stood in line on opening day for both "Jackass" movies.

1. EGO...trip: William Safire of pronunciation tackles "N'Gai Croal"; kids rejoice
2. EGO...trip: Level Up Must Break You? Yes, says David Jaffe
3. RED...Xbox 360 failure rates prompt Gamestop to halt extended warranties
4. REX...Turok developer gets cold-blooded to reboot franchise
5. RND...Racy Halloween outfits for tween girls give parents agita

In which N'Gai and Stephen resume their epic battle--not in their customary epistolary form of email, but rather in a face-to-face conversation--and compare The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS to its Nintendo 64 predecessors Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

Over the past couple of months, there has been a small but influential handful of voices who have called for a Vs. Mode podcast: a smattering of developers, publishers, fellow journalists, forum posters and readers alike. But as the staff of Level Up and our sparring partner--MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo--explore our multimedia options, we've seized upon the opportunity afforded by our own ignorance of Zelda gameplay to bring you the next best thing: A Very Special Vs. Mode.

Last Saturday, the Level Up team made the trek to Totilo's Brooklyn apartment--not far from where the Notorious B.I.G. grew up--where Totilo guided us through some key moments in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, then handed us the controller to play the first section of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Immediately following the playthrough, we recorded our discussion of the the Zelda series, which we present to you today and tomorrow as Round 2 and Round 3 of our Vs. Mode exchange. An excerpt:

N'Gai Croal: Did Majora's Mask feel like a radically different Zelda when it came out?

Stephen Totilo: It felt like they had put enough aside and done enough that was new that at the time I thought, "Well, this is a worthwhile and different enough experience. We’re going from a game where it’s primarily about explore the territory at age 7 and then age 14, I can sort of see the distinctions." So taking that idea and warping it so that it’s this 72-hour repeated cycle, and then adding the whole mask system in--which was a whole new way to interact with the world--seemed like a significant addition to the formula. At the time there had only been a handful of Zeldas before it. Since that Majora's Mask game there have been two Gamecube Zeldas; a Game Boy Advance Zelda; two Game Boy color Zeldas; and a Wii Zelda so there have been six Zeldas since then and that’s part of where--at the time the world could’ve still used more high quality Zeldas--but they’ve knocked it out of the park enough times that that’s where I’m feeling like, "Maybe they don’t need to make any more."

Croal: Well, it’s an interesting design choice, looking at the mask system and the 72-hour system repeated. Because I wonder if any game developers making games now--you look at this whole thing of shorter games; some people were complaining that Heavenly Hours is just six hours and--

Totilo: Heavenly Sword. Certainly not Heavenly Hours.

Croal: [Laughs.] Heavenly Sword is only six hours and Gears of War is only nine or ten hours. What you get out of designing a game [like Majora's Mask] in that way--and it would be interesting to sort of go back and talk to the people who worked on the game to see if that was something they thought about--is you get density of game play as opposed to scope of gameplay. The world itself doesn’t need to be as massive to give you that rich gameplay experience. You can use a more limited amount of architecture, levels and dungeons, but make it denser because the mask system brings those areas of the world to life in new ways once you've accessed a new mask.

To read Round 2 of our exchange in its entirety, click on the link below.

1. Wii...Super Smash Bros. Brawl forges ahead with new features
2. MTV...News shows off the motion capture for MTV Games' Rock Band
3. RIP...When the music's over: is the indie era of Xbox Live Arcade finished?
4. BAD...to worse: losses in Sony's Playstation division continue to widen
5. RND...A tale of two malcontents: Why Kobe is preferable to A-Rod

  

In which N'Gai reflects on the experience of playing his first Zelda game, and Stephen wonders whether this may be his last.

Heading into the sixth Vs. Mode exchange, it occurs to us that we've never focused an entire Vs. Mode on a Japan-developed game. So what better way to rectify this oversight than by tackling the newest entry in Nintendo's longstanding Zelda franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS? In Round 1 of our exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, we try to articulate why, despite the game's breakthrough control scheme, we aren't having an unreservedly good time playing it. For his part, Totilo scrutinizes Zelda's rich past and diagnoses the series as suffering from a crippling case of sequelitis. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: I've been struggling to figure out why I'm not digging this game more. Allow me to offer up a half-formed theory. There are two types of action-adventure gamers: those who like to move in a straight line, and those who like to move in circles. By that, I mean that when I'm playing an action-adventure game, I like to move from point A to point B. I don't mind exploring--in fact, I rather enjoy it--but generally speaking, I only like exploration if it propels me forward. I don't like to backtrack, as you well know. I don't like fetch quests, but I can tolerate them in small doses. And I don't like venturing out from a central location to which I always return. Hence, the action-adventure games I tend to enjoy the most are games like Devil May Cry, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Halo and, with a few dispensations, BioShock. Clear, hold, move on, and above all, never look back: that's my motto.

Stephen Totilo: If I may, I would like to blame Nintendo. I would like to blame them for not finding a way to get their wing of the gaming industry in step with the book, music and movie industry. George Lucas doesn't keep making new "Star Wars" movies for me year after year. I haven't seen 12 of them. He made three back in the day and made them well enough. Then he made a few more and even that might have been stretching the concept. After that he just drilled down on selling me new copies of those same movies again and again. I can't begrudge him that. The movies were good enough that they deserve not to be swamped by six more sequels. Nintendo got Zelda just right a few times already. More than a few times. Can't they just keep re-releasing the really good ones, polishing them up for new platforms, and make some newer non-Zelda stuff? I've heard all the arguments about limited development resources, but I'm unconvinced that remaking Ocarina wouldn't net Nintendo more money and do a better job of solidifying what is great about the series than routinely iterating sequels. The era of Zelda-as-rough-draft is past.

To read Round 1 of our exchange in its entirety, click on the link below.

We apologize for our absence from the comments section last week. Rest assured, we do read each and every one of your remarks, but time simply got away from us over the past several days. In today's edition of "It Came From the Comments," we ponder what StolenName said last week in response to our post titled "The Clive Barker Interview, Part III." He wrote:

I'm 22 at the moment and when I read these interviews I actually feel younger than I am, call it lack of experience, but from what I can glean from your interviews with Barker and the media at large, it seems like critics, whether of art, film or novel, are close minded or myopic. Couldn't their rejection of media like games and music be partly because they have no way of understanding the mixed media, as games are a marriage of visual, audio, writing and player interaction, and actually finding a way to understand that within their on learned discourse?

And also, N'Gai, do you believe that as younger gamers grow older and begin to move into the industry (as I'm trying!) and the older critics move on, that the perception of games as art / not art or for adults (as well as children) will shift? Or is there something about games in particular that forces them to remain an under-appreciated artistic medium by the general public?

To which we replied:

StolenName, every critic has assumptions, biases, prejudices, dogmas and blind spots, all of which add up to what some might call myopia and others might call personal taste. The challenge is for we critics to recognize the baggage that we bring to the table and to constantly engage it--publicly, whenever possible--so that our readers can see us working through our thought processes.

As you correctly point out, games present a particular challenge to older critics because while many older media only require the intended audience to have eyes and/or ears, videogames add a mechanical component that necessitates varying degrees of skill. I'm fond of saying that we "see" games with our hands; unfortunately, this means that a number of people who sit in positions of influence and authority over videogames--parents, politicians, protesters, even some publishers--are for all intents and purposes blind to the medium.

As for whether or not demographics alone can solve the art/not art conundrum surrounding videogames, I don't believe that that alone will be sufficient. First, there are many people who make videogames who don't believe that games are art--Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Konami's Hideo Kojima among them--and the same is true of a lot of people who play games. Second, those of us who do believe that videogames are art are still struggling to understand and articulate the nature of that artistry. If I had to predict, I would say that the process by which videogames may become widely accepted as art will be both long and incremental, and its success is not guaranteed.

Halo 3 multiplayer in action

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

It's been a little bit over a month since Halo 3 shipped to generally overwhelming acclaim and record-breaking sales. So it's a good time to look back at what we said in the May 29th-31st edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo on the multiplayer beta for Halo 3. Back then, not having played much in the way of competitive or cooperative multiplayer shooters, we bemoaned the lack of a friendly introduction to the various online game modes in the Halo series. Today's excerpt focuses on some of the suggestions we made as to how Bungie could make Halo 3 multiplayer more accessible to newbs like ourselves.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

Clive Barker

Note: This Q&A with writer-director-painter-game creator Clive Barker originally ran on Level Up in four separate installments, from October 22nd-25th 2007. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

1. MGS...Metal Gear theme stolen derived from Russian composer?
2. WOW...Would you consider playing this game?
3. HMM...Is circulation the be-all, end-all of videogame mags?
4. RPG...Like Justice Powell, do you just know it when you see it?
5. Wii...Is it really the only next-generation videogame console?
6. RND...Who will stop the nationwide scourge of the fashion bully?

1. CAP...com defends Wii port of Okami from shovelware charges
2. MOM...Mothers weigh in with their thoughts on videogames
3. HL2...Nasty surprise for Orange Box buyers trying to save a buck?
4. NOA...snags Yahoo! veteran to serve as head of marketing
5. WHO...'s the mack? In Cimmeria, it's Conan the Barbarian
6. RND...Are social networks like Facebook a viable advertising medium?

Clive Barker's Jericho, developed by Mercury Steam and published by Codemasters

In Part III of our Q&A with Clive Barker, whose videogame Jericho is now in stores, we spoke at length about the past, present and future of the horror movie. In today's final entry, Barker explains why he's so optimistic about the future of videogames, and offers some advice--as one cultural outlaw speaking to another--to the folks at Rockstar Games in the wake of the British Board of Film Classification's ban of Manhunt 2.

I'm guessing that most of your peer group doesn't play videogames?

Yes, that's true with this--not proviso, but with this addition: when they do it's always the unlikeliest ones.

Okay. So why were you so drawn to videogames? And why are you so optimistic about where the medium can go in the future?

I think it's a damn fool artist who doesn't walk in all the media that are available to him or her and see whether there's something they can contribute to the process. And for me it's also a way of-[Jericho] would not make a good novel. It's way too complex for a movie, in terms of the intricacies of it: how do you really get five civilizations into a picture? You can't do it. It's out of the question. Though I don't think we're very far off the point when you'll be able to do it. With cinema driven by CGI pushing in one direction and games pushed by a hunger for reality in another, eventually then they're going to meet.

In the next five years it's going to be impossible to tell which is which. It's like the scene at the end of "Animal Farm":  They looked from man to pig and pig to man, and couldn't tell one from the other. It's going to be the same. We are going to be have such visually sophisticated games and movies that are so dependent upon a spectacle that only CGI can supply.

To see a larger version of this image, click here.

To see a larger version of this image, click here.

1. K12...Could Grand Theft Auto be used as a teaching tool? Yes, says author
2. SAD...Midway San Diego evacuates due to fires; ditto Sony San Diego
3. DIS...Capcom's revival of Bionic Commando, eviscerated
4. RND...Level Up's years-in-the-making master plan, revealed

Jericho creator Clive Barker

In Part II of our four-part Q&A with writer-director-painter-game creator Clive Barker, a question about Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 being censored in the U.K. led to a discussion about Barker's own run-ins with the British Board of Film Classification and the Motion Picture Association of America. In today's Part III, a seemingly innocuous question about which horror games Barker enjoys prompts an extensive, wide-ranging conversation about the past, present and future of horror movies. Read on.

Which horror games from other companies do you like, and what do you see as being the future of horror in videogames?

I don't think you can separate the future of horror from horrorful stuff. And I think something is going to give very soon. I mean, when Fangoria, which is a magazine I've loved for many years now, on the cover--maybe in relation to "Hostel 2," and I'm not sure--has the headline, "Has Horror Gone Too Far?" From Fangoria magazine?

I mean this is--hello. This is outrageous, an outrageous thing for Fangoria to be asking. But I believe it's asking for a legitimate reason because what I'm gonna call horror porn, which is what I think some of these torture pictures are, the "Hostels" for instance--

"Saw."

And "Saw." This is stuff which presents--you're there to see one thing and one thing only, just as you are when you see a porn movie. Don't tell me you're there for the story, mate, 'cause I ain't believing you. [Laughs.]

I saw "Hostel 2" and I've seen the first "Hostel" as well. And there were definitely people in the audience that you could tell from the sounds they were making--not sexual sounds--but you could tell from their response that that was what they were--

What they were there for.

--and possibly not even in a way that the filmmaker intended. Am I wrong?

No.

I'm not saying that--clearly that's part of the response that is intended. But for some of these people it was the sole response. Like getting off in a way on how the people are being killed.

Yeah, but--and I don't know ["Hostel 2" director] Eli Roth either. But back making "Hellraiser" 20 years ago I came in for an incredible beating in England and then here too had terrible fights with [then-president of the Motion Picture Association of America Jack] Valenti to get the material in, because the whole thesis of pain being pleasure was anathema to him. I mean, it was exactly the reverse of what any message you ever want to have sent out, you know?

1. Wii...waggling better than good old buttons and analog sicks? Nay.
2. REW...Blast from the past: the Johnny Mnemonic CD-Rom game
3. DOA...How seriously should videogames treat the subject of death?
4. RND...GOP candidate Romney struggles to distinguish "B" and "S"

Clive Barker's Jericho, developed by Mercury Steam and published by Codemasters

In Part I of our four-part Q&A with quadruple-threat Clive Barker--he writes novels! he directs movies! he paints! he designs videogames!--we discussed the sources of inspiration for his just-released videogame Jericho and the "bigotry" of certain critical attitudes towards the medium. Today, in Part II of our interview, Barker explains which aspects of the horror novel can't make the leap to horror games; recounts his own dealings with the British Board of Film Classification (which recently upheld its ban of Manhunt 2) and the Motion Picture Association of America; and his experiences working in multiple media.

Looking at the medium that you're most known for--the novel, the horror novel--and the values that typify your work in the medium: mood, pacing, you have access to interiority and things like that. You can give the reader a sense of multiple characters. And it's an older medium so there are many more models that you can follow.

Yeah.

How much of that do you find useful to bring across to games, where the nature of interaction, the nature of what the audience of players experiencing is much more direct? They're conditioned to want more action. There are obviously strong horror elements throughout Jericho. But at its base, it's a shooter. So which of those values that you've developed for years in the novel and brought over to other media that are in some ways more like the novel--like comic books and the movies--which of those values transfer over to games and which do you say, "You know what, I have to get rid of that, or translate it into something else entirely?"

Well, the first big thing is the interior life. I mean, it just goes out the window. Again, games don't deal with that yet. Will they? Yes, I think they will. I think we'll find ways to design the screen. It may be that we eventually will end-up playing on three screens simultaneously, but there will be history being played out that is directly related to--who's got a pen in their hands?

Female publicist: I do.

Just--would you just write--

Female publicist: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I just had a good thought. Real good. [Dictating to publicist.] So, yeah...use....game as...history...of characters--I'll know what that means; just make sure I get it.

Female publicist: Okay.

It occurred to me as I was saying that to you that to actually make a game with a strong metaphysical shape or nature like this one, dependent upon an understanding of character's history--which you would then have to sort of jump back in time to understand--would bring you much closer to the state of a novel. And that interior life we were talking of would simply become history.

You could take the members of this squad and next time we do this we spend the first part of the game choosing the squad, so you then spend time dealing with pivotal episodes in each squaddie's life. And then I think we'd be much closer to what we can conventionally think of as the strengths of the novel. It's about people who are doing things in the now, but when we need to know about the then, all the authorial voice has to do is shift a little. It's not quite so easy here, but that isn't to say that it can't be done.

1. EGO...trip: "Flight of the Killer B's" post keeps on buzzing
2. SAD...The day the music died: No online play for Band World Tour in Rock Band
3. BOO...The dreaded See You Next Year virus strikes THQ, Electronic Arts
4. HMM...An ex-Marine reflects on videogames, cultural acceptance and aggresion
5. PS3...If you're confused as to which model to buy, help has arrived
6. OLD...and grumpy: Pong creator calls today's games "pure, unadulterated trash"
7. RND...The face of human compassion, as broadcast by CNN

Author, director painter and game designer Clive Barker

In July, we sat opposite writer-director-painter-game designer Clive Barker in a midtown Manhattan hotel suite for an interview. What began as a discussion of his horror-themed first-person shooter Jericho—developed by Mercury Steam and published by Codemasters for release Tuesday October 23rd on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows—quickly evolved into a wide-ranging hour-long conversation about art, censorship, his love of working in multiple media and the current state of horror movies. Today, in Part I of our four-part Q&A with Barker, he talks about the explorer who inspired Jericho, his plans for games in the series, and his thoughts about Roger Ebert's critique of videogames.

Where did the idea for Jericho come from? Where did it begin?

From two sources. A long time ago I found some books by a guy called Wilfred Thesiger, an Englishman, who was the first man—the first white man—to cross the Rub' al Khali [part of the Arabian Desert]. The word means "the Empty Quarter"; the emptiest place on the planet. Thesiger crossed in the '20s and then again in the '30s, and it was thought to be basically impossible. Even the Bedouin, who obviously were very familiar with it—this was their country, their land—went only in extremis. If they really, really had to, they crossed it.

[Aside to another man in the hotel suite.] Thank you, baby. This is my husband, David.

It's a pleasure to meet you, David.

And just a little aside on the Thesiger thing: I decided I wanted to use this image of emptiness and I used it first in a book called "Weaveworld," which I wrote back in the '80s. And maybe five or six years later, I was going through HarperCollins—which has these big, old offices which they've had since the 19th century in London—and I saw this incredibly old man hidden by piles of books, just pulling them down slowly and very, very, very carefully inscribing them. Nobody was with him and I thought, "I know who that guy is—that's Wilfred Thesiger. I swear that's Wilfred Thesiger." I went in and it was, and he signed a book for me and it was great. I had always wanted to go back there. I thought it was a very—it was just deserts, eerie places, and after the success of "Weaveworld," I wanted to go back to that and put something really villainous into the Empty Quarter.

The Halo 3 Steaktacular! Medal

In hindsight, this bet was doomed almost from the beginning. Just one day after we announced our wager with Microsoft games platform strategist Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud about whether or not Sony would announce a $399 PS3 SKU before Thanksgiving--he said yes, we said no--we got a call from one of our best non-Sony sources. Our source informed us that the Playstation group had placed an order for a large number of 40 gigabyte hard drives, making it very likely that a $399 SKU would ship in advance of Black Friday. Whoops.

Our gleeful anticipation of that succulent steak dinner--made even more theoretically delicious by the thought of winning yet another bet with a Microsoft employee--was instantly transformed. First into the bitter taste of hubris, then, over the weeks that followed--each bringing with it more and more signs that Vrignaud would ultimately be proven correct--a multi-course meal that we'll refer to as The Five Stages of Grief. Now that we are far enough into the final stage--acceptance--we can finally say publicly and without reservation: Andre, you were right and we were wrong.

Furthermore, there's no need to for you to launch a Steak Watch count-up clock on your blog; having carefully studied the psychology of welching, we'd rather avoid the mental damage that can ensue from proceeding down that path. So at the earliest mutually convenient occasion, we will sit, and tasty cuts of gloriously charred beef will be consumed in honor of both the $399 PS3 and your superior foresight and wisdom. And please, don't even think about reaching for the check. This one's on us.

 

Note: This Q&A with Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe originally ran on Level Up in three separate installments, from October 16th-18th 2007. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

1. EGO...trip: "Genius" tag freshly applied, Level Up ponders sending resume to Kyoto
2. MMO...deathmatch: World of Warcraft vs. EVE Online. Round 1--fight!
3. CAN...videogames be important, asks the professor? The answer? Maybe?
4. HEH...EA's team of ninja satirists takes aim at videogame blog Kotaku
5. THE...thorny issue of game industry swag and freebies, considered
6. RND...Soapgate scandal threatens to consume the 2008 presidential election
   

1. EGO...trip: Level Up's vocabulary, scrutinized, excoriated, extolled
2. OMG...What do we want? Rock Band! When do we want it? Now!
3. BUT...Guitar Hero III ain't playing: Target gets dual-guitar bundle
4. Wii...games don't need no stinking marketing! Really?
5. OKA...mi, Capcom's acclaimed PS2 game, coming to Wii
6. BIZ...A look at the economics of Flash-based games
7. ALL...you need is love--and a personal computer to code on
8. RND...What is the statute of limitations on spoilers?

Q-Games and Sony Computer Entertainment America's PixelJunk Monsters

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

While reading the newest issue of Game Informer (the one with Double Fine's Brutal Legend on the cover), we came across a story on upcoming downloadable titles published by Sony for its Playstation Network service. One of the featured games was PixelJunk Monsters, a tower defense-style game from Q-Games, the studio behind the already-released slot-racing game PixelJunk Racers. What caught our eye, however, was the following sentence from the preview: "The game holds true to the studio's goal of making titles that fit on one screen; there is no scrolling around to different key points on the map, and all of the action is always visible." That's one of the pluses offered by certain 2-D perspective games, and reminded us of an exchange from the September 17th-20th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, wherein we talked about the games BioShock and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. During our email conversation, our back-and-forth over the merits of the 2-D Metroid titles vs. the 3-D Metroid Prime series led us to discuss the topic of what was lost in the transition from 2-D gaming to 3-D gaming. Read on, then share your thoughts these issues in the comments section below.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

From Washington, D.C. to Foster City, California, the word of the day is, apparently, "relevant." An embattled President Bush used the R-word yesterday morning during a press conference to explain why he decided to veto a children's health insurance bill supported by both Republicans and Democrats. That's why it echoed in our minds during a conversation yesterday afternoon with Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton, wherein he used the word "relevant" ten times in just 12 minutes while referring to the similarly besieged Playstation 3 and its predecessor. Was this a confident recitation of the facts or merely a wishful talking point? We'll let you be the judge. But based on what our sources are telling us, if the PS3 had a power animal, the September sales gap between the Sony's flagship console and those of its two competitors would see the PS3 represented by a duck—one as lame as the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Nevertheless, the purpose of Tretton's call was to give us an advance briefing about two bits of news intended to finally make the PS3, um, relevant. First, the 40 gigabyte Playstation 3 that had been announced two weeks ago in Europe will be available in North America on November 2nd, bundled with a free "Spider-Man 3" Blu-Ray disc, for $399. Second, effective immediately, the price of the existing 80 gigabyte model will drop from $599 to $499. Having already received a draft version of the press release, we cut to the chase and asked Tretton a series of questions about how and why Sony decided to remove PS2 backwards compatibility entirely from the new $399 model, a decision that we strongly criticized in a recent post. We also inquired about the current state of various unfinished aspects of the PS3 platform, as well as Tretton's thoughts about the PS3's prospects going forward. Here's what he had to say.

When was the decision made to remove backwards compatibility entirely and why?

Well, I think we have long consternated over the issue of bringing tremendous technology to the consumer, something that's really going to be ahead of its time and carry this industry for the next decade, and the challenge that presented in terms of the retail price point we had to offer. So the goal was trying to reduce the price point of the Playstation 3, but keep all the features that we thought were incredibly relevant to the future going forward. We feel like we've been able to accomplish both at $399. We've got a price point that I think can finally attract the masses, and we've kept all of the features that we think are incredibly relevant to the Playstation 3 in there.

Does Sony plan to keep manufacturing the 80 gigabyte version of the PS3 that has the combination of software and hardware backwards compatibility?

In this industry long-term plans are six months out, but we intend to keep the Playstation 3 80 gigabyte model actively available and incredibly relevant for the North American consumer for the foreseeable future.

You only sort of answered the question. Are you saying that you've manufactured a lot of the 80 gigabyte models, and you're going to sell them as long as there's demand, or is it in fact still being manufactured?

Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe during his Sony days

In Part I of our three-part interview with Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe, conducted in July, he revealed the thought process that led to his departure from Sony. In Part II, he discussed his concerns about how people who create but do not own original IP are compensated by the publishers who employ. In today's third and final installment, Jaffe shares the lessons he learned while developing the Playstation Network download title Calling All Cars, his ambitions to create downloadable games that can compete with their $60 brethren, and explains why we shouldn't hold our collective breath waiting for him to make epic games again—even on the PSP. Read on.

What were the main lessons you learned from working on Calling All Cars that you're bringing to the new company?

Well, a couple of really good ones. I wouldn't say the biggest, but one of the biggest ones—I'm actually doing a post-mortem on my blog next week about this, because I've really been thinking about "What did I learn from that experience?" And one of the things I learned was that you have to design your game—and that includes mechanics and thematic—to speak to the audience that owns the system. I had made this assumption, which was an incorrect assumption, that because the game was $10 people would be like, "Ah, it's cartoony. I usually buy military hardcore stuff, but you know what? I'm going to give it a try. It's just ten bucks." It would be an impulse buy.

The reality of it is—and I know that this happened with a number of people who bought the game—but nowhere near as many people were able to get over the thematic hump being unappealing to them, because they're looking for games that are testosterone-fueled. The number of people who got over the hump because the price was so low was significantly lower than the number of people who responded to that game in exact same way they would if it had been a $60 game, which was "Thematically this just doesn't appeal to me."

That was a really big lesson that we're carrying forward. Even though we're in the less expensive game space from a development and a selling standpoint, we have to continue to be very respectful of who our main audience just like we've been on the $60 titles. We did that from a gameplay standpoint on Calling All Cars, but from a thematic standpoint we definitely did not. The other lesson from a gameplay standpoint was that $10 is still a lot of money. You're not forgiven for the fact that it's only $10. There are expectations even if you do a lot of things really right. Anything you put out there, even though it's $10, gets judged like it's $60.

Got it.

1. TKO...Skate better than Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, asserted
2. ESC...apist's Zero Punctuation tackles The Orange Box, profanely 
3. MP3...Lessons of the music industry's collapse, considered
4. WIN...The UK Games Media Awards, critiqued, drunkenly
5. CAN...adian game development study released, eh?
6. Wii...Nintendo's Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, eviscerated
7. Wii...Mario & Sonic at the Olympics PR blasts, rejected
8. MTV...Games' upcoming Rock Band drum kit, assembled
9. RED...Ring of Death condolence cards, hand-crafted
10. RND...Journalist bullied by Rush Limbaugh, exposed?

Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe 

In Part I of our three-part Q&A with David Jaffe, he talked about the reasons behind his departure from Sony--where he created such blockbuster franchises as Twisted Metal and God of War--to co-found Eat Sleep Play with former Incognito boss Scott Campbell. In today's installment, Jaffe explains the challenge some top developers face in being fairly compensated for their work relative to the revenues they bring in, discusses his hopes to eventually cash out of Eat Sleep Play for a big windfall, and talks about his desire to work on experimental games once he's gotten truly paid.

You're very connected in the industry, you've worked with a number of people and you've met a number of people over the years. Do you get a sense that the concerns that you had about the remuneration to people in your position relative to the remuneration to the publishers is a growing concern among creative people in the industry?

Gee, here's the good news--and I hope it comes through in your writing how honest I am--I could either stall you while I look up "remuneration" or I could just ask you what the hell it means, because I have no clue.

Well, it just means "payment." You know, like the money coming back to you.

Okay, so ask me again.

So the question is, do you get the sense from talking to other developers that they feel like creative people relative to the businesspeople are not getting a fair share of the revenues they could both in industry itself and then relative to other media?

Well, in the industry itself, I mean certainly. I've only talked to Lorne [Lanning, co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants] a couple of times, I don't know him that well, but when we've talked that certainly was a point of frustration with Lorne. The thing to remember is if you look at a lot of the games, if you look at why games make money, there's a number of reasons.

1. HOW...the ESRB rates the videogames that you play 
2. SAD...Electronic Arts' MySims missed the boat in Japan
3. OLE...Spanish-language version of Madden for PS2, 360
4. PS3...$399 model appears to coming at the end of October
5. SML...A look at the world of niche videogame publishers
6. UGH...The thirty worst gaming tattoos, for your amusement
7. RND...Our Blogfather's employer takes a licking, keeps on ticking

Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe

Straight, no chaser, with a dash of profanity: that's the best way to describe a conversation with noted videogame designer David Jaffe. This summer, having previously stated a desire to produce "pop songs" (shorter, more arcade-y games like Calling All Cars) instead of the "operas" (big AAA franchises like Twisted Metal and God of War) that he'd been known for, Jaffe announced his departure from Sony Computer Entertainment to start up a new company called Eat Sleep Play with former Incognito boss Scott Campbell. As with Bungie and Microsoft, ties remain between Eat Sleep Play and Sony, in the form of an agreement for Jaffe's new shop to produce three games for Playstation platforms; separately, he also plans to make short session games for the PC.

Back in July, on his last day as a Sony employee, we spoke with Jaffe over the phone in what would prove to be a wide-ranging discussion covering why he felt he had to leave Sony; how developers are currently compensated; and what he hopes to accomplish at Eat Sleep Play. In Part I of our three-part Q&A with Jaffe, he explains the circumstances that led to his departure from Sony to co-found Eat Sleep Play, why both money and creative freedom matter to him tremendously—but not necessarily in that order—and why he wishes that he could be as beloved as Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Epic Games' Cliff "Cliffyb" Bleszinski. Read on.

You were just telling me that you're walking into your soon-to-be old office. How does it feel to be leaving Sony?

Let's see. It's weird because in so many ways not a lot is changing. I mean, I'm still working with the same team, in the same capacity. I've worked with those guys at Incognito; we're just in the same company now. Me and Scott [Campbell], the co-presidents of Eat Sleep Play, are still reporting to Allen Becker who runs Santa Monica, so the day-to-day operations of our new business don't really change. So I don't think that part feels any different.

When I first told my boss that we were leaving, there was a little bit of nostalgia; not sadness because we're totally excited to do this and there's never been a question of should we do it. Once we made the decision to do it about eight months ago, we've never been like, "Yeah, let's rethink that." But I do remember driving from, Santa Monica back to San Diego and I had, downloaded the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack—it was kind of big at the time and I don't know if you've seen the movie, but there's this song they sing that on their farewell tour and that was playing right as I was driving away from Sony after I told my boss, "Okay, we're leaving." And I got a little misty eyed. What the hell was that song called?

We're pleased as punch to have comments finally working here on Level Up, and we intend to dip into the boards occasionally to mix it up with our vocal minority. But sometimes, as you'll see in a moment, a poster's statement or our response may warrant being elevated to post status so that it can be shared with a broader audience. This we will do under the new rubric "It Came From the Comments."

In response to yesterday's post titled "Objection! A Look at Far Cry 2 Creative Director Clint Hocking's Critique of BioShock," poster harrison25 praised BioShock for its graphics and its style, but decried its linearity and lack of meaningful challenge, saying in part:

it's hard to be immersed in a world when you constantly feel forced in different directions... ultimately no matter what the player wants to do, the player is forced to continue killing every living creature in every environment with the possible exceptions of the little sisters.

And:

I realize the goal was to create a living, breathing ecosystem that kept on existing even if you died, (fantastic) without some kind of penalty the entire game becomes trivial...

To which we replied:

harrison25, I hear your complaints. I think 2K Boston/Australia did a fairly convincing job of establishing the reasons why Rapture is so hostile. But you're correct to question why fight or flight is still our only option in such a well-realized world. As disappointing as it may be, the fact is that 3-D action-adventure games remain, for the most part, not very good at providing a broad array of options besides fight or flight. Like you, I found myself wondering what it would have been like to play a citizen of Rapture as it was on the brink of collapse, rather than an outsider who comes in after it's already fallen apart. We'll never know, but I see BioShock's enemy ecosystem and its handling of the Little Sister Dilemma as a pretty big baby step towards the kind of complexity that you're looking for.

As for the way that the game handled player death, I too had mixed feelings about it, but I ultimately backed the developers' decision because it made it possible for me to finish the game without devoting another 10+ hours to getting past any particularly tough spots. That said, I think they should have offered the option to turn off the Vita-Chambers and switch to checkpoint saves for gamers like you who wanted a tougher experience. Halo 3, with its Easter egg "skulls" that allow you to adjust the difficulty in interesting ways beyond its four standard settings (Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary), points the way towards a future in which players will be able to tailor any videogame to deliver precisely the kind of challenge they're looking to experience.

How do other readers feel about game difficulty and save systems? Are videogames becoming too easy? Or do you welcome developers who structure their games in such a way that you're more likely to complete them rather than get irrevocably stuck? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

1. EGO...trip: Talk of Killer B's generates swarm of responses, aka buzz
2. MGS...Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton expounds on Metal Gear Solid 4
3. HMM...Sony Corp CEO Howard Stringer's Playstation Network ambitions
4. YAY...Capcom's Bionic Commando rises from the ashes for consoles, PC
5. RND...The creator of "The Wire," aka the best show on TV, profiled

 

Three is a trend, or so the saying goes among journalists. So what are we to make of the steady exodus of highly acclaimed developers from the warm embrace of Microsoft Game Studios into the arms of others? Last Thursday's news that Electronic Arts had acquired BioWare Pandemic from Elevation Partners for nearly $800 million marked the third time in just three weeks that a top developer of multiple Xbox games has jumped ship. First, on September 26th, Activision announced that it would be purchasing the previously-independent U.K. studio Bizarre Creations, which made four Project Gotham Racing games for MGS between 2001 and 2006. A week later, rumors began to mount that Bungie—the brightest light in the MGS firmament by virtue of its three best-selling Halo games and the only one of the three Killer B's actually owned by Microsoft—had repurchased its independence from the Redmond giant. The rumors proved true, and by the end of the week, both parties released statements attesting to that fact. When EA made its announcement not even a week later, that BioWare—makers of the MGS titles Jade Empire and the forthcoming Mass Effect—and Pandemic would be joining its Murderer's Row, much of the focus was on whether or not EA overpaid (we'll tackle that in a subsequent post) and was it good or bad that EA's already formidable power was spreading unchecked throughout the industry like the baleful Eye of Sauron. Left relatively unexamined, with the exception of a few message boards, fansites and podcasts, was this: what does it say about Microsoft Game Studios that three of the industry's most renowned developers have slipped through its fingers in less than a month's time?

We put that question and several others directly to Microsoft immediately following the announcement of Bungie's departure, which resulted in the following exchange:

With FASA being shut down, Bizarre being acquired by Activision and Bungie going independent, what does this turmoil say about the current state of Microsoft Game Studios?

MGS is in a great position. At MGS, our charter is to cultivate the best individual development relationships and to nurture creative freedom for each of our developers. In terms of Bizarre Creations, they have been a great partner for MGS. They've built an amazing franchise in PGR for Xbox and they continue to work on downloadable content for PGR 4.

Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now"

I've done questionable things.
--Roy Batty to Eldon Tyrell in "Blade Runner"

You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill.
--Col. Kurtz to Capt. Willard in "Apocalypse Now"

Towards the end of our workday, as we scan the contents of our RSS newsreader for the next day's High Score, we make sure that from time to time we read the latest post on Clint Hocking's blog Click Nothing. Hocking, a creative director at Ubisoft, is among a growing number of developers who have taken to this medium in order to express their thoughts about videogames. Between a mainstream media which generally ignores games and an enthusiast press still largely stuck in the preview-feature-review model, the best developer blogs are carving out a space that can enrich our understanding of interactive entertainment and help establish a shared vocabulary for further discussion. It's not easy, because as Hocking rightfully says, "With the 'language of games' being as limited as it is, understanding what I am 'reading' is hard, and trying to articulate it back to people in a useful way is a full order of magnitude harder." So whenever someone steps up to the plate as Hocking is doing on a frequent basis, we are both grateful and thrilled.

Hocking's October 7th post, "Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock: The problem of what the game is about," caught our eye, and not just because of its lengthy Level Up-esque title. In it, Hocking takes a close look at the tension between BioShock's story ("an examination and a criticism of Randian Objectivism") and its gameplay ("seek power and you will progress"), then concludes:

To cut straight to the heart of it, Bioshock seems to suffer from a powerful dissonance between what it is about as a game, and what it is about as a story. By throwing the narrative and ludic elements of the work into opposition, the game seems to openly mock the player for having believed in the fiction of the game at all. The leveraging of the game's narrative structure against its ludic structure all but destroys the player's ability to feel connected to either, forcing the player to either abandon the game in protest (which I almost did) or simply accept that the game cannot be enjoyed as both a game and a story, and to then finish it for the mere sake of finishing it.

The source of Hocking's ire is his belief that while BioShock's gameplay mechanics are perfectly aligned with the theme of Randian objectivism...

1. SS2...Edge looks back at the classic System Shock 2
2. WHO...is that mysterious Surfer Girl, asks GameSetWatch
3. HMM...Innovation in casual games, and the lack thereof, considered
4. BLU...etoothless: Dongle needed for Guitar Hero III and Rock Band on PS3
5. UMM...A whiter shade of pale, put to interesting use
6. GeF...orce: An unfettered visit to NVIDIA's offices
7. RND...World War II-era interrogators on why torture is unnecessary

The one year anniversary of Level Up took place on September 25th. We meant to celebrate the occasion, much as we did our 100th posting, but truth be told, we were too busy bringing you the latest and greatest to waste time sending up fireworks or making it rain. Now that Newsweek.com is relaunching, however, we'll take a modest bow (thank you, thank you) before letting you know what features have been added to our humble blog.

The first and most important feature is comments. We had them at launch; unfortunately, when we switched to a new publishing tool, we lost them. Now they're back like the ghosts in "Poltergeist II: The Other Side," they're here to stay, and they should go a long way towards energizing what we hope will become a vibrant Level Up community. We welcome your opinions, questions and concerns; consider the comments your space to share your thoughts on videogames with us and the world at large. You'll have to register to comment, but it's a quick and painless process, so please take a moment to do so.

Beneath our other picture in the upper left-hand corner, you'll find a link to our email address. If there's something you'd like to say directly to us, go right ahead and do so. We love hot tips on as-yet-unbroken news, but you don't have to come bearing scoops in order to drop us a note--we want to hear from you. Looking at individual posts, you may notice that the categories no longer appear on top. We'd been using tags as rubrics for our stories, but we've temporarily lost that feature, as tags now only appear at the bottom of a post after you've clicked on it. We're told that this feature will be restored in a future iteration.

In the right-most column, beneath the big square advertisement, you'll see "Featured Postings." Here you can quickly access the three most recent Level Up posts we believe you won't want to miss. Finally, if you click on a post and scroll to the bottom, you'll see several handy features. You can adjust a slider bar to increase or decrease the size of the fonts on our blog. Also, at the click of a button, you can email print our posts; email them to friends, family and colleagues; add them to your RSS newsreader; or recommend them to social networks like Facebook, Digg, Sphere, Newsvine and Del.ico.us. It's been a long time coming, but we'd like to thank the folks at Newsweek.com and their partners for all of their hard work on the relaunch. As for you, our dear readers, we thank you for your support over the past 12 months, and we heartily welcome you aboard for the next 12 months and more.

1. ZIP...less: what casual sex can teach casual games
2. SEX...advice from videogame designers
3. HL2...Valve canoodles Wii, gives PS3 a wedgie
4. GT5...Racing maestro on next game, competition
5. WWJ...F: Who Would Jesus frag hits TV
6. FEZ...or Super Paper EchoCrush, explained
7. PSN...Behind the Music: Everyday Shooter
8. RND...In which we play matchmaker

A few hours ago, Electronic Arts announced that it had purchased VG Holdings, the holding company for two of the largest remaining independent developers, BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. What's interesting is that VG Holdings had been the property of Elevation Partners, in which Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello had been a managing director until his return to EA earlier this year. Based on the enthusiasm that Riccitiello expressed for the work of BioWare and Pandemic during our three-part Q&A with him last year while he was still at Elevation--click on the following links for Part I, Part II and Part III--we suspected that he would seek to reacquire BioWare Pandemic upon his return to EA. Similarly, we believed that following the announcement of his departure in February, Elevation Partners would look to get out of the game business given that the chief architect of that strategy had fled the coop.

At the time, Riccitiello's replacement at VG Holdings, Greg Richardson, rebuffed our suggestion in the following exchanges:

Should people read anything into the fact that a deal was announced for EA Partners to publish Mercenaries 2 not long before Riccitiello's return to EA was made public?

[Laughs] No. We've been joking around a little bit about that, that part of the deal was that we were going to trade John for the relationship [with EA.] But no, not in the least. We think that EA is a great partner for us on Mercenaries 2, and we're excited about working with them on the launch. We have some other wonderful publishing partners: Microsoft on Mass Effect; Take-Two is working with us on Jade Empire--it launches on the PC later this month--and we've got several other relationships we haven't announced with other publishers not named Electronic Arts.

In the next couple of months, we're going to be looking for publishers for Dragon Age, a game that we've announced that's the absolute spiritual successor to what BioWare's built in the fantasy role-playing game space, just taken to a whole different level. And then another game we haven't announced yet from Pandemic, and we'll be looking for partners there as well. While EA will be one of them we'll consider, they're just going to be one of what we think is going to be a lot of parties interested in working with us....

Apart from the purchases of BioWare and Pandemic, I haven't seen much announced on the mergers and acquisitions front from Elevation Partners despite its initial $2 billion in capital. How much of an appetite is there for buying more companies now that Riccitiello has left?

So let's separate that question into two pieces. There's a question there in relationship to Elevation's investment strategy that would be a great thing for you to talk to one of the partners there. Although in addition to investing in us, they've also invested in Move.com, which is one of the leading real estate Web portals. If you're looking to buy or sell a house, that's where you usually end up. They also have an investment in Forbes, which is both an online content deliverer and a magazine that's obviously been around for a long time, a great brand. So they've made other investments, and they'll continue to make other investments. But again, that's a great question for you to follow up directly with those guys on.

In terms of BioWare/Pandemic and the videogame space, look, we're growing like gangbusters. We've added close to 150 people in the last 18 months. We've opened a new studio in Austin, Texas. We've expanded our studio presences in Edmonton, L.A. and Australia. We've got a lot of opportunities that we continue to look at, and maybe some exciting announcements to look forward to in the next coming months. So our ambition and our sense of the opportunity that we have with this unique approach that we're taking remains exactly the same, and I think people will be excited to see how it evolves.

Smoke, meet fire.

BioWare is best known for its work on franchises like Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Microsoft will be publishing BioWare's forthcoming Mass Effect in November, but EA has indicated that since the IP had belonged to VG Holdings/BioWare, EA know owns the property. Pandemic is recognized for its work on such titles as Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans, and EA had already struck a deal to publish Pandemic's Mercenaries 2. According to EA, ten properties are underway between BioWare and Pandemic, several of which have not been named or officially announced; among them, a massively multiplayer game being developed by BioWare in Austin, Texas.

Click on the link below for EA's press release announcing the deal.

Queasy Games and Sony Computer Entertainment's Everyday Shooter

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

Since Jonathan Mak's excellent Everyday Shooter is finally being released on the Playstation Network for PS3, we thought it might be a good idea to recap our earlier coverage of the title. During the July E3 Media and Business Summit, we broke the news that Sony had snagged the game for PSN and shared details of our world exclusive hands-on experience with EDS on a Sixaxis controller, which you can read here. We promptly followed that up with an interview with Mak, in which he discussed how he and his business partner struck a deal with Sony, shared his inspiration for the game and explained why he was able to get EDS up and running on the PS3 (check out our Q&A here)

As for today's "Things You May Have Missed" extract, it comes from the August 13th-20th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, wherein we discussed a variety of short session games. During our email conversation, we started daydreaming about the possible directions that an Everyday Shooter sequel might take.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

Manhunt 2 Wii box art

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

As Rockstar Games continues its appeal of the British Board of Film Classification's refusal to approve Manhunt 2 for commercial release, we bring you another sampling from the June 25th-27th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo based on our exclusive six level playthrough of the game. In previous excerpts this week, we focused on issues surrounding the game, such as our prediction that the BBFC would be hard pressed to approve the game even after changes were made and whether it was censorious for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to bar Adults Only-rated games from their machines.

Since so few people have had the opportunity to play the game, today's excerpt focuses squarely on our thoughts about the gameplay in Manhunt 2 and its predecessor. As a result, it's significantly longer than our regular installments of "Things You May Have Missed." We apologize for that, but if you're interested in an in-depth examination of the Manhunt 2 experience before it lands in North American stores on October 29th, this is exactly what you're looking for.

1. PS3...loses yet another exclusive
2. Doc...tor Wii-vil: Iwata's scheme exposed?
3. Wii...Ware titles finally announced
4. BUT...Super Smash Bros moved to 2008
5. BYE...Epic's art director jumps to movies
6. SAY...it loud: Wii to harness fan hype
7. RND...Van Halen, Kris Kross, Doug Liman

Danny Ledonne's Super Columbine Massacre RPG!

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

Yesterday, we wrote about our appearance of last week on CNN's "American Morning" to discuss Rockstar Games' forthcoming Manhunt 2. In that post, we discussed the host's repeated invocation of the word "kids" as part of an inadvertent but nonetheless pernicious assumption that all videogames are toys aimed at children rather than entertainment for a wide range of different audiences, of which children are simply one of many. Today, we revisit our Q&A with Game Developers Conference executive director Jamil Moledina, in which we discussed the Slamdance Film Festival's decision to pull Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from its videogame competition, and more specifically, the idea held my many gamers and non-gamers alike, that videogames are ultimately toys for tots.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

For comic book fans, movie buffs and videogame lovers, there are few things as exciting or as risky as the team-up. From Marvel Team-Up to World's Finest, Freddie Vs. Jason to Aliens Vs. Predator, Marvel Vs. Capcom to Rise of the Imperfects (dare we add Vs. Mode and Monday Morning Quarterback to the roll call?), the team-up has had a rich history. To that list, you can add the back pages of Edge, where the Western world's most respected videogame magazine is now featuring a monthly column penned by the staff of this humble blog.

A few explanations are in order. There's no interesting backstory as to how this came about: we were asked to contribute; we secured permission from our editors; we accepted the assignment. The column itself is named "Playing in the Dark," after the title of Toni Morrison's 1993 collection of essays on "Whiteness and the Literary Imagination"; as for the subtitle "...because people refuse to see," we took that from the prologue to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." The more we push ourselves to write critically about games, the more we realize that we still don't know, or have trouble articulating, about how games work. Our column's title and subtitle both reflect this confusion and signal our intention to keep grappling with the challenge of making sense of this developing medium; to answer not the question of "Are videogames art?" but rather "What kind of art are videogames?"

We can't help but point out the post-colonial irony in our appointment to the U.K. publication, seeing as our parents hail from Guyana and we ourselves from Canada, both former British subjects. And while England's imperial ambitions, thankfully, are not what they once were, this stateside addition to the magazine's roster should mean that the sun will never set on Edge's empire. We thank editor Tony Mott for the opportunity, and we hope that you'll take a look at what we've got to say in the pages of his magazine.

1. EGO...trip: the sincerest form of flattery 
2. NOA...Nintendo's U.S. CEO wins recognition
3. TF2...The Demoman shares his plight
4. HEH...Microsoft v. Bungie divorce, pictured
5. WoW..."I am the LAW-GIVER!"
6. PSP...online store rumors proliferate
7. SAD...Legal woes mount for anti-game gadfly
8. IGF...Independent Games Festival submissions

N'Gai Croal on CNN's "American Morning" discussing Manhunt 2

Last week, we made an appearance on CNN's "American Morning" to discuss Rockstar Games' forthcoming Manhunt 2. Our friend Mike Snider had quoted us in his USA Today story about Manhunt 2 and Nintendo's Wii, which prompted a couple of national TV news programs to get in touch with Newsweek's PR department to speak with us about the game. One news org decided to keep its powder dry until the game's release at the end of October, but CNN decided to tackle it immediately. Which is how we ended up in NYC's Time Warner Center on the set of "American Morning," seated across from co-anchor Kiran Chetry, explaining Manhunt 2 to thousands of Alpha moms across the nation.

The experience was pleasant, simple and short. Chetry didn't have an agenda or an ax to grind; she merely asked us a series of eminently reasonable questions about the kinds of things that curious viewers would want to know about the game. But inherent in some of her statements and questions was the assumption that Manhunt 2 was somehow intended for children. As we waited in the green room, we heard her tease our appearance by saying, "Well, there's something new from the Nintendo Wii, but some are saying it really allows players to act out a murder and just how dangerous it is that for the young kids that are playing these games? We're going to talk to one of the few people who had a chance to preview, to play this game. How violent is it? We're going to take a look ahead on 'American Morning.'" Later, when we were on the set, speaking directly with Chetry, we had the following exchange:

The new 40 gigabyte Playstation 3 

Last week, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced that on October 10th, it would release a new 40 gigabyte Playstation 3 for 399 euros. The company further said that it was cutting the price of its 60 gigabyte model from 599 euros to 499 euros. However, it's essential to read the fine print: the 40 gigabyte model will have no backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 games. Zip. Zero. Nada. (We asked a Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesperson for comment about the world's worst kept secret: whether we would have to buy Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud a steak dinner whether there were plans to release the 40 gigabyte model in North America; we were told that SCEA had nothing to announce at this time.)

While it is definitely in Sony's best interest to introduce a cheaper model to help spur sales and grow its installed base, we have to add in no uncertain terms that we are extremely disappointed by the company's elimination of backwards compatibility. We're not surprised—the cost of goods in the PS3 made it likely that critical components would at some point be excised; also, we were the first to report Sony's placement of an order for large quantities of 40 gigabyte hard drives—but we're nevertheless shocked at this retreat from Playstation founder Ken Kutaragi's vision for eliminating software obsolescence though continued hardware compatibility. While the idea that you could just take about any one of your PS1 or PS2 discs, pop them into your PS3 and play them wasn't central to the PS3's fortunes, it was seductive because of the way it made videogames just like other media: your CD player or DVD player may improve, but it still plays your older disc-based content. What's more, it was a talking point that Sony used to needle Microsoft during the run-up to the Xbox 360 launch and thereafter, because of the Redmond giant's much-discussed backwards compatibility woes.

An early Big Daddy sketch for BioShock by 2K Boston's Nate Wells

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

Since yesterday's entry on "What Makes A Great Boss?" got such a strong response, we've decided to double dip on that topic. As before, today's extract comes from the September 17th-20th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, wherein we discussed the games BioShock and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. During our email conversation, we raised the question of how both games handled boss battles, as well as the limits and possibilities of BioShock's morality system. This prompted us to suggest a new type of Big Daddy, the Redeemer, as a boss that would challenge the player not only tactically, but also morally. How?

To read our summary, click on the link below.

1. WWJ...F: Who Would Jesus Frag, cont'd
2. PS3...available for $399 next month?
3. Doc...tor Evil: Valve's high price for Mac port
4. RND...The way to a food blogger's heart

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and MTV News' Stephen Totilo at Rockstar Games' offices in New York City on June 22, 2007

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

In light of today's announcement that the British Board of Film Classification has once again refused to approve Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 for commercial release, we bring you an excerpt from the June 25th-27th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo. In it, we discussed our exclusive six level playthrough of Manhunt 2, which came shortly after the Entertainment Software Ratings Board had given the game an Adults Only rating, and the British Board of Film Classification and the Irish Film Censor's banned the game from release. Our email conversation--which Level Up dubbed "The Satanic Versus"--was wide ranging, discussing everything from whether Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft's blanket bans on AO-rated games were censorious to whether the Wii controls made the Manhunt 2 more immersive. Here's a small sampling of what we discussed back in June.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

In light of today's announcement that the British Board of Film Classification has once again refused to approve Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 for commercial release, we bring you an excerpt from the June 25th-27th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo. In it, we discussed our exclusive six level playthrough of Manhunt 2, which came shortly after the Entertainment Software Ratings Board had given the game an Adults Only rating, and the British Board of Film Classification and the Irish Film Censor's banned the game from release. During our email conversation, Level Up made several predictions about the likely fate of Manhunt after Rockstar revised the game. And while not all of our predictions have come true, we were correct in our belief that given while the ESRB's simple, clinical, circumspect verdict gave it plenty of room to reverse itself after Rockstar made some changes, the BBFC and IFCO's outraged, moralistic statements had backed themselves into a corner such that a U.K. and Irish release would be highly unlikely, even after making changes.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

WayForward and Warner Bros Interactive's Duck Amuck

It would be an exaggeration to say that we nearly died to bring you this Q&A on Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment's DS game Duck Amuck--but only slightly. It was the eve of the 2007 E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles, and we were having dinner with our debating nemesis Stephen Totilo and WBIE PR mastermind Remi Sklar, who had brought along a copy of the company's smartly original interactive cartoon Duck Amuck to show off. Perhaps overly attuned to the rapid pace of the blogosphere, the Level Up staff began to eat a bit too quickly, and a choking fit shortly ensued--one that repeated trips to the restroom failed to solve. As stubborn pride gave way to mounting panic, we alerted our dinner companions to our unresolved distress; thankfully, before L.A.'s emergency services were forced to join us at the upscale eatery, a hearty spasm cleared the obstruction without even the slightest mess. Whereupon we sat down, regained our composure, and resumed our preview of Duck Amuck.

You might think the following Q&A would be anticlimactic after this introduction, but honestly, we're just getting started. Last month, we spoke over the phone with two members of Duck Amuck's development team--lead designer Rob Buchanan and producer Jeff Pomegranate--to discuss their intriguing DS title. The project was inspired by the classic 1953 Chuck Jones cartoon in which Daffy Duck is tormented by an unseen animator, and the game cleverly allows players to do the same with the DS stylus, causing Daffy to break the fourth wall and protest his fate directly to the player, much as he did to the invisible animator all those years ago. In our interview, Buchanan and Pomegranate explain how traditional animation processes informed their workflow for Duck Amuck; discuss the future prospects of interactive cartoons; and reveal why they had to scrap their plans to parody the famous Nintendo light gun game Duck Hunt.

How did you guys get involved with Duck Amuck?

Rob Buchanan: It actually went back quite a ways. We actually pitched it to Warner Brothers probably about a year and a half before they actually gave us the green light to go ahead with it. It just seemed like with, the edge was brand new out on the market, the Nintendo DS, and it just occurred to us that what a perfect system to have a game like Duck Amuck on.

So you came up with the idea? They didn't approach you?

Buchanan: Right, right.

There's a lot of things going on in the game. Players are manipulating and engaging with a character via touch, which is reminiscent of Nintendogs in some ways. But then there's the whole idea of breaking the fourth wall. What inspired you? Where did those ideas come from?

Buchanan: This is Rob. Basically we really wanted to treat it like a Daffy sim, similar to Nintendogs, I suppose. But we really wanted to make it as much like an interactive cartoon as possible. So we didn't want to have Daffy just running around and jumping on platforms. We wanted him to be alive and allow Daffy to be Daffy.

Jeff Pomegranate: Basically most of the inspiration came from the original cartoon.

Buchanan: We were trying to channel Chuck Jones the whole time.

What did you draw on from the cartoon?

The End from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

Today's entry comes from the September 17th-20th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, wherein we discussed the games BioShock and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. During our email conversation, we raised the question of how both games handled boss battles, and why more developers need to study Metal Gear Solid 3 to learn how to reinvent boss fights for the modern era.

To read our summary, click on the link below.

During last week's deafening gossip that Bungie and Microsoft were breaking up, we asked a high-ranking official at another company, "What do you make of all of the Bungie-Microsoft rumors? Seems as though there's enough smoke here to indicate the presence of fire." To which the person replied, "Flames! And sparks!" Last Friday, the speculation that had been burning up the Internet turned out to be four-alarm blaze of truth. Bungie, which Microsoft purchased in 2000, announced that it had regained its independence, but would continue to work closely with Microsoft and remain exclusive to Xbox 360, at least in the immediate future. Despite what our sources were telling us, it all seemed amicable-except for this explanatory note on Bungie.net, in which the use of words like "stifle" and "unleash" seemed to hint that all had not gone well during the finishing of the fight. Here's an excerpt of what the note, written by Bungie's Frank O'Connor, stated:

Bungie has long been built on creativity, originality and the freedom to pursue ideas. Microsoft agreed, and rather than stifle our imagination, they decided it was in both our best interests to unleash it. We'll continue to make Xbox 360 games, and we'll continue to make amazing games for MGS. In that regard, nothing has changed. All that has changed is that now Bungie Studios is once again, the property of the folks of Bungie Studios. Microsoft is and will continue to be, a brilliant, inventive and creatively collaborative publishing partner. Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won't see much, if any difference, for a  while unless you come to work for us, that is--we're hiring at http://www.bungie.net/inside/jobs.aspx

Rather than stifle our curiosity, we decide that it was in both yours and our best interests to unleash it. We sent several questions to Microsoft and Bungie, separately, via email. Here's what an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson wrote back:

Discussions began about a year ago. This change is a natural evolution of our partnership, and we both believe this will result in a stronger and more powerful partnership.

What prompted these discussions in the first place? What wasn't working about the then-current relationship between the two companies?

Microsoft and Bungie had and still have a great working relationship. The developers at Bungie wanted to return to their roots as independent developers and both groups agreed early on that this was a mutually beneficial evolution of the relationship. Now that the Halo trilogy is complete, this is a natural time for our two companies to evolve our relationship in order to tackle our next projects together.

How did Microsoft "stifle" Bungie's creativity and originality?

 

During last week's deafening gossip that Bungie and Microsoft were breaking up, we asked a high-ranking official at another company, "What do you make of all of the Bungie-Microsoft rumors? Seems as though there's enough smoke here to indicate the presence of fire." To which the person replied, "Flames! And sparks!" Last Friday, the speculation that had been burning up the Internet turned out to be four-alarm blaze of truth. Bungie, which Microsoft purchased in 2000, announced that it had regained its independence, but would continue to work closely with Microsoft and remain exclusive to Xbox 360, at least in the immediate future. Despite what our sources were telling us, it all seemed amicable-except for this explanatory note on Bungie.net, in which the use of words like "stifle" and "unleash" seemed to hint that all had not gone well during the finishing of the fight. Here's an excerpt of what the note, written by Bungie's Frank O'Connor, stated:

Bungie has long been built on creativity, originality and the freedom to pursue ideas. Microsoft agreed, and rather than stifle our imagination, they decided it was in both our best interests to unleash it. We'll continue to make Xbox 360 games, and we'll continue to make amazing games for MGS. In that regard, nothing has changed. All that has changed is that now Bungie Studios is once again, the property of the folks of Bungie Studios. Microsoft is and will continue to be, a brilliant, inventive and creatively collaborative publishing partner. Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won't see much, if any difference, for a  while unless you come to work for us, that is--we're hiring at http://www.bungie.net/inside/jobs.aspx

Rather than stifle our curiosity, we decide that it was in both yours and our best interests to unleash it. We sent several questions to Microsoft and Bungie, separately, via email. Here's what Bungie's Frank O'Connor wrote back--including the exclusive announcement that Pimps at Sea remains the property of the newly-independent studio:

When did Bungie and Microsoft begin discussions to split apart? Who initiated these talks?

Discussions about the technical independence began about a year ago, but Bungie has always, with Microsoft's blessing, maintained an independent spirit and attitude.

What prompted these discussions in the first place? What wasn't working about the then-current relationship between the two companies?

The discussions were borne of our need for greater agility and flexibility and Microsoft's recognition that it would be in both our best interests for Bungie to grow and prosper. We're still dedicated to the 360 platform and Microsoft--and hopefully our fans--will benefit from our future endeavors.

How did Microsoft "stifle" Bungie's creativity and originality? Why did Bungie need to leave Microsoft in order to "unleash" its freedom to pursue ideas?

1. EGO...trip: we like hearing ourselves talk
2. WWJ...F: Who would Jesus frag?
3. WWJ...S: Who would Jesus sue? 
4. TOO...Human trailer hits the Internet
5. VSM...Free Radical on PC vs. console
6. RND...This is the remix

1. EGO...trip: Halo guest essay makes waves 
2. DEC...laration of Indie-pendence
3. HUH...What is "Inverse Forensics"?
   
4. RND...Roxanne Shante in full effect
5. RND...Porn leads to comedy, tragedy
   

1. EGO...trip: Made it, Ma--top of the world II!
2. EGO...trip: Our Wiimote redesign draws notice
   
3. SOM...ething of a phenomenon: grenade toss
4. RND...Sony to bring OLED TVs to market

Halo 3 cinematics storyboard

Microsoft, Bungie and Halo 3. As we all wait with baited breath to find out what will become of the once happy couple and their offspring--will the parents go the way of George and Martha, or are we talking Britney and K-Fed?--we've been wondering whether the Biggest Entertainment Day In History is enough to jumpstart progress on the stalled feature film adaptation of Halo. To answer that question, we turned to former Eidos Interactive president Keith Boesky, an agent whose Boesky & Company client list--includes The Robert Ludlum Estate, Clive Barker, Spark Unlimited, Liquid Entertainment and GDH--sits at the nexus of Hollywood and videogames. We met Boesky at the DICE conference earlier this year, and were impressed by his thoughtful fluency in a wide variety of media. Here's what he had to say about Halo's prospects as a movie.

Videogames are in the mainstream news again. Thankfully, this time the coverage is positive. Stories, ranging from the E Channel to the New York Times correctly identify the launch of Halo 3 as the largest, single day, financial event in entertainment history. This is absolutely true. But the articles fail to address how much larger. The retail vs. box office numbers show revenue for first day sales of Halo was about 13 percent higher than "Spider-Man 3," this year's biggest movie opening weekend. This is pretty cool. However, when you compare the bottom lines, it is beyond pretty cool. It is really f'ing cool and cannot even be touched by the movie business. When you consider the nearly 50 percent audience growth over Halo 2 despite a nearly 50 percent smaller installed console base, it is even more incredible. Even Steve Jobs has to be eyeing those margins.

Thanks to the evolution of entertainment industry reporting, we all know the size of weekend box office for every major film released. We know that "Spider-Man 3" had an opening weekend of $151,116,516 and a total gross of $336,530,303. Considering the average price of $6.58 for the film, roughly 23 million tickets were sold opening weekend, or, roughly 5 and a half times the number of Halo 3 purchasers. This would render Halo very uninteresting if the Halo consumer didn't spend a little more than 9 times as much on the product.

Despite all our knowledge, studio receipts are rarely, if ever reported. This is because receipts are not predetermined or set in stone. After each opening weekend, the studios negotiate their split of the revenue with the exhibitors. Usually, the studio gets a very large percentage of the opening weekend revenue, and the percentage declines over the life of the run. By the time the theaters' cut rivals the studios, the audience is small, and the studio replaces the film with a new one, once again securing the larger percentage.

We can assume Sony received 90 percent of the rental from the opening weekend for "Spider-Man 3." This would equate to return of $136,004,864. Relative to the gross national product of many countries that is a lot of money, but relative to the $270 million production cost (that's if we accept Sony's number; some say it is well over $300 million) and $100 million plus of marketing, they have a long way to go before the investment is recouped. It is even longer when you consider the first-dollar gross participants who get a piece of the revenue even before the studio recoups. Sure, this is the launch of a 20 + year equity, and sure there are trailing revenue streams, but those revenue streams are now factored in to support the production cost. These ancillary revenue streams are no longer a windfall.

Now take a look at Halo 3.

A character render of the "Bouncer" Big Daddy from BioShock

To our everlasting shame, the Level Up blog lacks working comments, an oversight that will be rectified with the impending relaunch of Newsweek.com. Nevertheless, we do occasionally get feedback from our readers. Nearly two weeks ago, we received an email from Adam Tierney, a director at the Valencia-based handheld developer WayForward, whose forthcoming games include the lavishly praised DS games Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck and Contra 4. He'd read our September 18th post "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See, Or, the Question of Whether Games Are Art, Revisited," in which we challenged certain assertions made about the art-ness of videogames made by our sister company's book columnist, Washington Post critic Michael Dirda, and wanted to share his own unique experience from having played the game. Upon reading Tierney's moving description of the relationship that he forged with one of the Big Daddy boss characters in BioShock, we promptly secured his permission to publish his email so that you could read it as well. Enjoy.

Like so much of the gaming world, I fell in love with Bioshock and haven't felt as emotionally pulled into a game since Tim Schafer's Grim Fandango on the PC. In regard to Michael Dirda's notion that games may approach art when they become able to depress their players, Bioshock depressed me deeply and in a way that I think many players might not have encountered.

As soon as I earned the Hypnotize Big Daddy Plasmid, I got into the habit of having a Big Daddy follow me around like a watchdog, in spite of the constant finger-numbing vibration. Each time the Big Daddy would lose the spell I placed on him, I'd re-Plasmid him and keep going. On one particular level, I had a Big Daddy who followed me endlessly, tearing through splicers and even other Big Daddies, always looking out for my character and defending me. I began to feel a real attachment to him. Over our adventures he became war-torn and began losing his health, especially after battling a Houdini splicer and getting charred from head to toe, but my Big Daddy still continued to truck on even after I thought he was as good as dead.

After 45-minutes of teamwork, we reached the level objective: the nitroglycerin behind the glass case. I looked over at my Big Daddy, smoking and leaking, looking like he only had about one hit point left in him, but still snapping to his ready stance every time I took a step. It broke my heart, so I lifted a shotgun to his head, deciding I'd rather take him out than have some cheap splicer do it. I realize this sounds silly and overly dramatic, as I did even then, but the pathos of the moment and what his character had become to me still pulled me into that emotional state.

I couldn't pull the trigger though. Instead, I just ran out of the room, preferring to leave my Big Daddy behind and fight the rest of the battle myself. I ended up in an area where a bunch of splicers began to attack me, and was on the verge of death, when I heard and felt a rumbling: it was my Big Daddy, charging into the scene and dispensing of the threat. I obviously know how games are made, so I realize the Big Daddy's delayed entrance was just a matter of him having more trouble navigating the level than I did, but in my mind and the context of the story (at least my game's story) he came to my rescue just when I needed him, in spite of being battered and nearly dead, and in spite of my having abandoned him. The developers couldn't have scripted a more heartfelt reunion.

My Big Daddy fought for me a short while longer, then died just before I reached Andrew Ryan. That Ryan’s final wave of attackers had killed my protector fueled my hatred for him, driving me to seek vengeance in a way that Atlus and his family’s plight never had.

To see a larger version of the image above, click here.

Braid, by Jonathan Blow

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Would it be juvenile of us to point out that a signpost along the way to a medium's maturization is the almost-but-not-entirely-silly battling over issues like authenticity, selling out, pretentiousness and the like? (The "are games art?" debate is part of this as well, but having expended many pixels on that subject, we'll leave that alone for now.) Think of Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris' duels over auteur theory. The Sundance-and-Miramax fueled mid-'80s to mid-90's boom of indie film calcifying into Indiewood and the cinematic equivalent of the well-made play. Nirvana and Pearl Jam, agonizing in their heyday over the prospect of selling out; later, 50 Cent out-gangsta-ing his spiritual progenitor, Ja Rule, into Billboard oblivion. And today, AAA games vs. casual games; real games vs. non-games; and mainstream games vs. indie games. These battles over definitions and canonology wax and wane, with motivated audiences chiming in as they see fit. And while much of it is merely sound and fury, we come to games in part from a comparative media perspective, so we nevertheless find these exchanges interesting.

One such exchange took place last week on the blog Sexy Videogameland. In a post titled "Indie is the New Popular," blogger Leigh Alexander expressed both her affection for and her confusion by certain independently created videogames, saying:

Indie games are great. Like in our sister industries, film, music and literature, a selection populated solely by mainstream blockbusters orchestrated by Death Star companies is a dull one indeed. Fortunately, console developers are acknowledging the tiny little art projects of independent developers and realizing them, giving us a new wave of the future in terms of selection and creativity on offer.

Perhaps predictably, there is, as with those other industries, a hipster sort of culture emerging around indie games--if you listen to bands no one's ever heard of, why not play games no one's ever heard of, too? Then, when those games finally get their booth at a big game show and the jaws of the media and the culture alike hang open at the simplicity, the beauty, the innovation on display, you can scoff, flip your hair, and proclaim you already played it, and now you're just so glad this tiny team--or, even better, this heroic one-man show -- is getting the recognition he or she deserves.

After all, some of these less heard-of games are damn good. But, at risk of showing my unsophistication here, I must admit some of them make me feel like the hayseed who wanders into MoMA and stares, perplexed, at the often odd experiments on exhibit. Like, I know that Jenova Chen's fl0w is great. But, you know, I didn't really get it.

Not everyone was amused.

Level Up's reimagined Wii remote. Note the placement of the "+" and "-" buttons

Does reading Level Up sometimes feel like drinking water from a fire hose? Or surfing a tsunami? Does it ever give you the sensation that you've been buried under an avalanche of words, words, words? Yes, we know that the dizzying length of certain Level Up posts can read more like a manifesto or a jeremiad than a blog entry. For you, we offer the occasional feature "Things You May Have Missed," which will cull compelling excerpts from our more voluminous posts.

Today's entry comes from the September 17th-20th edition of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, wherein we discussed the games BioShock and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. During our email conversation, Totilo asked us what we thought of the controls for the Wii-exclusive Metroid Prime 3. As part of our response, we suggested that Nintendo should have shipped the game with a remote built specifically for it, and could have also served as the optimal peripheral for all first-person shooters on the Wii. We've included above, for the first time, a depiction of our redesigned Wiimote to help illustrate the argument we made last month.

To read our summary, click on the link below. 

1. BUN...gie exiting Microsoft, says rumor mill 
2. HMM..Hentai games, explored by G4
3. BOO...Lazy journalism, excoriated
4. BUN...gie on level design and A.I.
5. OUT...sourcing's ethics, considered
6. LOC...o Roco dev explains new game
7. RND...The definitive "Blade Runner"

 

There's been a lot of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots coverage in the wake of the game's spectacular and dominant Tokyo Game Show appearance last month. We were particularly impressed by both the 1UP Yours podcast, which featured Kojima Productions' own Ryan Payton explaining various aspects of the games features and development; and MTV News Multiplayer's Q&A with the same Payton about the philosophy between the various trailers (nine, at last count) that the studio has released for MGS4. But the most intriguing piece of all was a seemingly unrelated story by a contributor to the Web site Ain't It Cool News who won an EBay auction for a previously unpublished and rejected draft of a script for the 1996 movie "Escape From L.A." from the screenplay's author, Coleman Luck.

Why is this interesting? Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has never hidden the fact that his game's hero, Solid Snake, was inspired by Snake Plissken, the hero played by Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's 1981 movie "Escape From New York." In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Kojima made the connection explicit by having the believed-to-be-dead Solid Snake give his name as "Plissken" to MGS2's second player character, Raiden. And in 2003, Namco announced that it had struck a deal with Carpenter and Russell to bring the comic book series "John Carpenter's The Snake Plissken Chronicles" to life as a videogame for holiday 2005. (The game, alas, is presumed dead, as Namco has never shown any playable code.) But like the twin strands of a double helix, the Ain't It Cool News story reveals that there may have been more connections between the two franchises--spiritually speaking--than we originally believed.

In the AICN post, contributor "RaulMonkey" uses an FAQ format to summarize the events of writer Coleman Luck's "Escape From L.A." screenplay, which was written as a prequel, not a sequel, as was the film that was ultimately released to theaters. After being dropped into L.A., Plissken runs into a series of soldiers from his former army unit, "Black Light," all of whom were believed to have been killed, and each of whom has been physically transformed by the horrors of war. RaulMonkey describes Plissken's first major opponent, Drummond, as follows:

Incognito and Sony Computer Entertainment's Warhawk

A Sony Computer Entertainment spokesperson has confirmed to Level Up that sometime later this month, retailers will begin selling a $39.99 SKU of Warhawk that does not include the Bluetooth headset. When the game went on sale in August, two versions were available: a download-only version sold through the Playstation Network for $39.99, and Blu-Ray disc version with a Jabra Bluetooth headset packed in, for $59.99. With this price reduction, the retail and digitally distributed versions of Warhawk now sell for the same price.

We first got wind of a possible stripped down retail SKU for Warhawk on Friday, when, in the course of reporting a separate story, we came across a listing for "Warhawk--Game Only" on GameStop's Web site. The listing says that the $39.99 version will be available on October 10th, but the Sony rep had not been able to confirm that with SCEA's sales department by press time. When asked whether this was indicative of Sony's strategy for future AAA games that are jointly released on PSN and Blu-Ray--i.e. an initial run with a pack-in for $59.99, followed by a standalone Blu-Ray version for $39.99--the rep only said that Sony had no new announcements to make at this time.

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