.. and is now updated here:
http://agoners.wordpress.com/
Thanks! :)
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Friday, 1 February 2008
Review of the Orange Box (for Remy)
Since Remy was procrastinating about whether or not to buy the Orange Box I've decided to give a review of the whole zesty package. To do this properly I'd really have to review this compilation of 3 games (Half-life and episodes being counted as one) separately. So here's my crash-course review.
Half Life 2
Starting with the least compelling game in the box, Half-life 2 (including episodes): Calling this the least compelling goes to show what is in store in this little box of joy. As a ground breaking first person shooting (FPS), back in the mists of time when Half-life 1 first came out (circa 1542BC), it was a dream come true. As an FPS it was fairly standard with pretty graphics, but the story line was emersive and gripping.
HL2 follows on from this with more of the same. Which therefore means not-groundbreaking although the storyline is pretty good. But the physics are ace to play with. The most entertaining thing to come out of it would be this: Concerned: The Half-life and Death of Gordon Frohman . Since I'm a PC Fanboy I'm not sure how it ports to console but I imagine some of what makes HL2 special gets a bit lost as the ease of manipulating the environs would be a pain with a controller.
If it was more free-roaming rather than how strictly on-rails it is, would have made this a much better game. I frequently got bored of running from one encounter to another and would amuse myself with trying to copy the Concerned comic and seeing how far I could fling Mr Freeman with a pile of exploding barrels and a bathtub.
Fun Factor - Medium
Opportunity to kill Freeman in ever increasingly ingenius ways - Very High
Replayability - None
Team Fortress 2
The 2nd Box Item in the list is the long awaited (although isn't everything from Valve?) Team Fortress 2. A crazy, whizzbanger of an online shooter that is very entertaining but which should be funnier than it actually is. Bad thing first: it suffers from the Halolz factor. I.e. it's full of prepubescent dimwits who only now how to cast aspersions on your sexuality in a stream of creative spelling errors. Bearing this in mind it does give a great sense of superiority when you play and bring a smattering of intelligence to the fight. Such as when playing as an engineer and using well placed gun turrets and spending your time kepping them maintained. Or actually healing people as a medic instead of trying to take on the entirety of the enemy team in a misguided attempt of proving Darwins theory by spectacularly removing the stupid genes from our gene pool by smearing your own genes all over the level.
Fun Factor - High
Sense of Superiority - Very High
Chance of Surviving More than 45 Seconds - Very Low
Portal
The most innovative FPS game with the exception of Wolfenstein 3D. More of a puzzle as there is isn't actually any shooting to be had. So I am now going to coin the phrase: First Person Puzzler (at least the first person to claim coining the term anyway...Well, first person this year to do so).
See this video for what the game entails:
After the first fiew brain twisting levels you'll find that as the migrain clears your use of portals becomes second nature.
My only criticism is that it's far too short a game. I completed the standard levels in a couple of hours. It becomes more interesting when it came to the advanced levels and challenges. Trying to complete levels using the minimum number of portals I found particularly fun. I'm still trying to untwist my brain and control the insanely strong desire to own a portal gun because of all the cool stuff you could do with it.
Brain Twistiness - High
Fun Factor - Very High
Variety of Weapons - 1
Cake References - Mucho
Pie References - Not Enough (is there ever?)
Remy: There's just one problem with all of this for me, but it's a significant one... I clearly am coming from a very different perspective on this to Nathan - or almost any reviewer of any FPS these days. I played the original HL more or less when it first game out, and it was far from any dream come true - I utterly loathed it! The moment I am dropped into an FPS environment, I have such a strong natural dislike for it, despite playing many many games and trying my best to get into it for years, that everything immediately feels 'wrong'. The game needs to do something awesome to even jar me to a state of neutrality... HL never did this for me for a moment. The other trouble with the storyline is that I played the demo of HL2 on the 360, and you were just dropped completely in the middle of it, and I had absolutely no clue whatsoever what was going on in the story- and as such had no care or association with it whatsoever. Now whether that demo is a fair representation of the game or not I don't know, but it has given me huge cause for doubt regarding story issues. It can take quite a lot to even get me to care about the storyline in a game anyway.
Regarding Portal: Are you sure about it becoming second nature? I watched this video and it's done more to put me off Portal than anything else before it. It looks incredibly annoying and frustrating to me. I mean, I love the idea - but being forced to do this through the horrific interface and perspective of an FPS game looks like it will drive me insane. Heh.. I suppose this all ups the intrigue count though. ;)
Nathan: I won't mention FPS again in the presence of Rik as the bile created is in danger of flooding Agoners HQ. Well the FPS platform is PC...not for stump-fingered Console-Utilising-Non-Technical-Simians
Half Life 2
Starting with the least compelling game in the box, Half-life 2 (including episodes): Calling this the least compelling goes to show what is in store in this little box of joy. As a ground breaking first person shooting (FPS), back in the mists of time when Half-life 1 first came out (circa 1542BC), it was a dream come true. As an FPS it was fairly standard with pretty graphics, but the story line was emersive and gripping.
HL2 follows on from this with more of the same. Which therefore means not-groundbreaking although the storyline is pretty good. But the physics are ace to play with. The most entertaining thing to come out of it would be this: Concerned: The Half-life and Death of Gordon Frohman . Since I'm a PC Fanboy I'm not sure how it ports to console but I imagine some of what makes HL2 special gets a bit lost as the ease of manipulating the environs would be a pain with a controller.
If it was more free-roaming rather than how strictly on-rails it is, would have made this a much better game. I frequently got bored of running from one encounter to another and would amuse myself with trying to copy the Concerned comic and seeing how far I could fling Mr Freeman with a pile of exploding barrels and a bathtub.
Fun Factor - Medium
Opportunity to kill Freeman in ever increasingly ingenius ways - Very High
Replayability - None
Team Fortress 2
The 2nd Box Item in the list is the long awaited (although isn't everything from Valve?) Team Fortress 2. A crazy, whizzbanger of an online shooter that is very entertaining but which should be funnier than it actually is. Bad thing first: it suffers from the Halolz factor. I.e. it's full of prepubescent dimwits who only now how to cast aspersions on your sexuality in a stream of creative spelling errors. Bearing this in mind it does give a great sense of superiority when you play and bring a smattering of intelligence to the fight. Such as when playing as an engineer and using well placed gun turrets and spending your time kepping them maintained. Or actually healing people as a medic instead of trying to take on the entirety of the enemy team in a misguided attempt of proving Darwins theory by spectacularly removing the stupid genes from our gene pool by smearing your own genes all over the level.
Fun Factor - High
Sense of Superiority - Very High
Chance of Surviving More than 45 Seconds - Very Low
Portal
The most innovative FPS game with the exception of Wolfenstein 3D. More of a puzzle as there is isn't actually any shooting to be had. So I am now going to coin the phrase: First Person Puzzler (at least the first person to claim coining the term anyway...Well, first person this year to do so).
See this video for what the game entails:
After the first fiew brain twisting levels you'll find that as the migrain clears your use of portals becomes second nature.
My only criticism is that it's far too short a game. I completed the standard levels in a couple of hours. It becomes more interesting when it came to the advanced levels and challenges. Trying to complete levels using the minimum number of portals I found particularly fun. I'm still trying to untwist my brain and control the insanely strong desire to own a portal gun because of all the cool stuff you could do with it.
Brain Twistiness - High
Fun Factor - Very High
Variety of Weapons - 1
Cake References - Mucho
Pie References - Not Enough (is there ever?)
Remy: There's just one problem with all of this for me, but it's a significant one... I clearly am coming from a very different perspective on this to Nathan - or almost any reviewer of any FPS these days. I played the original HL more or less when it first game out, and it was far from any dream come true - I utterly loathed it! The moment I am dropped into an FPS environment, I have such a strong natural dislike for it, despite playing many many games and trying my best to get into it for years, that everything immediately feels 'wrong'. The game needs to do something awesome to even jar me to a state of neutrality... HL never did this for me for a moment. The other trouble with the storyline is that I played the demo of HL2 on the 360, and you were just dropped completely in the middle of it, and I had absolutely no clue whatsoever what was going on in the story- and as such had no care or association with it whatsoever. Now whether that demo is a fair representation of the game or not I don't know, but it has given me huge cause for doubt regarding story issues. It can take quite a lot to even get me to care about the storyline in a game anyway.
Regarding Portal: Are you sure about it becoming second nature? I watched this video and it's done more to put me off Portal than anything else before it. It looks incredibly annoying and frustrating to me. I mean, I love the idea - but being forced to do this through the horrific interface and perspective of an FPS game looks like it will drive me insane. Heh.. I suppose this all ups the intrigue count though. ;)
Nathan: I won't mention FPS again in the presence of Rik as the bile created is in danger of flooding Agoners HQ. Well the FPS platform is PC...not for stump-fingered Console-Utilising-Non-Technical-Simians
Friday, 18 January 2008
Street Fighter gameplay communication across time, space & dimensions
Who needs a headset mic to communicate?
Last night I had a spare hour or so and started my "battle for justice" on SF2' Hyper Fighting on XBox Live.. the full details of which are another story! ;)
Anyway, I played a bunch of matches, some great, some really poor, but I got really into it and addicted.. During the night I got matched up against a guy I'd played only a few minutes earlier, which is pretty unusual. He was low rated and I'd beaten him easily the time before - I think he'd played Chun Li. Of course I selected Guile, in blue, as always! But this time he went for Dhalsim. We began to fight, and obviously he didn't really know what he was doing with Dhalsim either.. so it was obvious from a few moves in it would be an easy win for me. But a strange thing happened in the 2nd round when he was low on health and was about to lose, and had hardly damaged me. I thought I'd try for a 'comedy' upside-down-kick move with Guile (close & fwd/back and HK.. or 'Roundhouse' if you prefer!), which is a very cool looking move, but unfortunately reasonably useless other than in tricks and mindgames - I moved in and could close on him without much danger as he was such a novice. But as Guile flipped upside down to 'float' in the air in that special way that he does during this move.. he went for a crouching punch with Dhalsim - but of course his arms extended and went underneath me. So both our moves whiffed in a very silly-looking fashion. Standing right next to each other, here was Guile, floating upside down sending his leg & foot over the top of Dhalsim's head, while Dhalsim ducked down and sent his arm through Guile's outsretched arm, without any contact being registered by the game whatsoever. I think I paused for a moment - although I can't be sure I really did pause, as a moment can feel like an eternity when you are really focused in a Street Fight. Then I did the move again... and to my huge amusement - so did he! Perfect timing from both of us to get the "double whiff" once again.
We had no voice comms on, nothing was said or heard, but you could just 'see' the communication as we both mentally changed the game - and it was "on". We both of course, did the moves again, and again. I think we must have been done this silly 'whiff' dance at least 8-10 times over before one of us got the timing wrong and his character was hit and KO'd. It really brought a smile to my face and made me chuckle - and got me to think about how we just 'communicated' on this strange level of humour, instead of actually fighting, in the midst of this fighting game, purely through the medium of the gameplay. It is something that would naturally occur with someone sitting next to you in the room playing - in fact it felt a lot like that was what had happened. I checked his gamercard of course, and it turns out he is from Portugal - I've sent the guy a friend request. :)
I had a ton of really good and memorable matches last night, but I think this actually turned out to be the most memorable and fun bit perhaps of the night!
I don't think it will become as legendary in my mind as the time I won a match by using a Dan taunt, but it could be close. :)
Last night I had a spare hour or so and started my "battle for justice" on SF2' Hyper Fighting on XBox Live.. the full details of which are another story! ;)
Anyway, I played a bunch of matches, some great, some really poor, but I got really into it and addicted.. During the night I got matched up against a guy I'd played only a few minutes earlier, which is pretty unusual. He was low rated and I'd beaten him easily the time before - I think he'd played Chun Li. Of course I selected Guile, in blue, as always! But this time he went for Dhalsim. We began to fight, and obviously he didn't really know what he was doing with Dhalsim either.. so it was obvious from a few moves in it would be an easy win for me. But a strange thing happened in the 2nd round when he was low on health and was about to lose, and had hardly damaged me. I thought I'd try for a 'comedy' upside-down-kick move with Guile (close & fwd/back and HK.. or 'Roundhouse' if you prefer!), which is a very cool looking move, but unfortunately reasonably useless other than in tricks and mindgames - I moved in and could close on him without much danger as he was such a novice. But as Guile flipped upside down to 'float' in the air in that special way that he does during this move.. he went for a crouching punch with Dhalsim - but of course his arms extended and went underneath me. So both our moves whiffed in a very silly-looking fashion. Standing right next to each other, here was Guile, floating upside down sending his leg & foot over the top of Dhalsim's head, while Dhalsim ducked down and sent his arm through Guile's outsretched arm, without any contact being registered by the game whatsoever. I think I paused for a moment - although I can't be sure I really did pause, as a moment can feel like an eternity when you are really focused in a Street Fight. Then I did the move again... and to my huge amusement - so did he! Perfect timing from both of us to get the "double whiff" once again.
We had no voice comms on, nothing was said or heard, but you could just 'see' the communication as we both mentally changed the game - and it was "on". We both of course, did the moves again, and again. I think we must have been done this silly 'whiff' dance at least 8-10 times over before one of us got the timing wrong and his character was hit and KO'd. It really brought a smile to my face and made me chuckle - and got me to think about how we just 'communicated' on this strange level of humour, instead of actually fighting, in the midst of this fighting game, purely through the medium of the gameplay. It is something that would naturally occur with someone sitting next to you in the room playing - in fact it felt a lot like that was what had happened. I checked his gamercard of course, and it turns out he is from Portugal - I've sent the guy a friend request. :)
I had a ton of really good and memorable matches last night, but I think this actually turned out to be the most memorable and fun bit perhaps of the night!
I don't think it will become as legendary in my mind as the time I won a match by using a Dan taunt, but it could be close. :)
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Ultimate Online
Here's my biggest beef with today's MMOs:
I'm still not able to do half the stuff I did years and years ago in Ultima Online.
& the biggest culprit for this gameplay ineptitude wise, appears to be none other than my good enemy; 3d graphics. Another genre successfully killed! Cheers Sony, you w**kers.
Now don't get me wrong, UO had some enormous flaws. But at least my character had no goddamn LEVELS. I could easily group with anyone I wanted. I could customise my characters look a huge amount. Players could own real pieces of in-game permanence, such as houses and eventually whole towns...
The best things in UO experience were our guild meets, where they had EVERYTHING customised in guild colours - flags, carpets.. food & drink for all... it was just hilarious. I was a mere 'follower/lackey/noob' in terms of the overall guild. But it was still fun to be there and be part of something bigger and be able to do my bit even though I couldn't play much. Monster bashing, collecting shiney things, and skill grinding was much more fun with a bigger purpose to it! But on their own, they still don't do much for me.
Looking forward to how I'd like to see MMOs develop, well it's a lot about adding actual skill and depth to the gameplay. And also, a system so that as you (or your 'faction') get better, it actually gets harder. Yep I'm back to handicapping again. But I feel this is a key idea that is missing from so many games.
I have a bunch of ideas about MMO handicapping. The main one would be on a realm v realm level - like Horde vs Alliance in WoW. But actually allow one side to 'win' and take towns/land/NPCs etc. whatever the game 'resources' are. But the side with less resources (or even less actual players!) then gets handicapped more & more to help them out... so it would probably impossible for one side to ever 'win' the whole world... if the balance was right it could be really dynamic. Perhaps random server events could swing it about too. Expand this to many multiple realms rather than just 2, strictly only allow 1 game character per real player who can only be on one realm's 'side'.. balance sides by numbers of players / levels / time those players actually play as much as possible - a new player starting would automatically be put in the 'weakest' realm for example to help them...
Its kind of forcing a 'guild' structure on players, but making it an in-built part of the game so it can actually influence the game world in real terms (but not too much as to destroy the world), and you can't 'win' just by being the biggest guild either. Perhaps at some point you could allow a whole faction to really get beaten - and have to 'respawn' somehow!
There are lots of flaws here (like somehow allowing you to team up with your friends!), but at least this starts to make something of a real =game= of the world aspect. Which is exactly what I want! Also the 'combat' however it may be done (economic or whatever) would have to be, above all, FUN and skill based or strategic. Not just silly point&click-fests or just based on how many monsters you've bashed or how much time you'd spent 'mining' or 'crafting'. Maybe everytime you 'fight' another player, you actually have a strategic turn-based map battle with them - like a mini game of Civ 4 ;).. or the battle system in HOMMV, or the older Final Fantasy games (6 and earlier!).. or you have to play a few rounds of a highly skilled game like Street Fighter 2 - and whoever comes out on top wins the battle. Perhaps for trade routes you'd have some kind of stealth based missions where you could win lots of money for your faction by managing to get a trade based character right across to an enemy city - but this would need teamwork or cunning to do...
This is very much a brain dump of ideas for now & I know this doesn't sound much like a traditional MMO at all, or even necessarily still be an rpg, but I do think this is what would suit me in gameplay terms.
Then again, perhaps oddly, I am a huge fan of actual roleplaying too!
I'm still not able to do half the stuff I did years and years ago in Ultima Online.
& the biggest culprit for this gameplay ineptitude wise, appears to be none other than my good enemy; 3d graphics. Another genre successfully killed! Cheers Sony, you w**kers.
Now don't get me wrong, UO had some enormous flaws. But at least my character had no goddamn LEVELS. I could easily group with anyone I wanted. I could customise my characters look a huge amount. Players could own real pieces of in-game permanence, such as houses and eventually whole towns...
The best things in UO experience were our guild meets, where they had EVERYTHING customised in guild colours - flags, carpets.. food & drink for all... it was just hilarious. I was a mere 'follower/lackey/noob' in terms of the overall guild. But it was still fun to be there and be part of something bigger and be able to do my bit even though I couldn't play much. Monster bashing, collecting shiney things, and skill grinding was much more fun with a bigger purpose to it! But on their own, they still don't do much for me.
Looking forward to how I'd like to see MMOs develop, well it's a lot about adding actual skill and depth to the gameplay. And also, a system so that as you (or your 'faction') get better, it actually gets harder. Yep I'm back to handicapping again. But I feel this is a key idea that is missing from so many games.
I have a bunch of ideas about MMO handicapping. The main one would be on a realm v realm level - like Horde vs Alliance in WoW. But actually allow one side to 'win' and take towns/land/NPCs etc. whatever the game 'resources' are. But the side with less resources (or even less actual players!) then gets handicapped more & more to help them out... so it would probably impossible for one side to ever 'win' the whole world... if the balance was right it could be really dynamic. Perhaps random server events could swing it about too. Expand this to many multiple realms rather than just 2, strictly only allow 1 game character per real player who can only be on one realm's 'side'.. balance sides by numbers of players / levels / time those players actually play as much as possible - a new player starting would automatically be put in the 'weakest' realm for example to help them...
Its kind of forcing a 'guild' structure on players, but making it an in-built part of the game so it can actually influence the game world in real terms (but not too much as to destroy the world), and you can't 'win' just by being the biggest guild either. Perhaps at some point you could allow a whole faction to really get beaten - and have to 'respawn' somehow!
There are lots of flaws here (like somehow allowing you to team up with your friends!), but at least this starts to make something of a real =game= of the world aspect. Which is exactly what I want! Also the 'combat' however it may be done (economic or whatever) would have to be, above all, FUN and skill based or strategic. Not just silly point&click-fests or just based on how many monsters you've bashed or how much time you'd spent 'mining' or 'crafting'. Maybe everytime you 'fight' another player, you actually have a strategic turn-based map battle with them - like a mini game of Civ 4 ;).. or the battle system in HOMMV, or the older Final Fantasy games (6 and earlier!).. or you have to play a few rounds of a highly skilled game like Street Fighter 2 - and whoever comes out on top wins the battle. Perhaps for trade routes you'd have some kind of stealth based missions where you could win lots of money for your faction by managing to get a trade based character right across to an enemy city - but this would need teamwork or cunning to do...
This is very much a brain dump of ideas for now & I know this doesn't sound much like a traditional MMO at all, or even necessarily still be an rpg, but I do think this is what would suit me in gameplay terms.
Then again, perhaps oddly, I am a huge fan of actual roleplaying too!
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Smoke me an FPS, I'll be back for breakfast
Right.
I think I've decided.
I got Halolz 3 simply to own a game all my XBL mates would also own... (and cos I played Halo and Halo 2 anyway).
But due to the sheer amount of FPS's on the 360, I decided I would buy ONE more.
I think I've decided I'm going for The Orange Box unless anyone can convince me otherwise. :) Eurogamer's http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=89793&page=3 (and everyone else's) touting of Portal has finally swayed me.. but it's really the multiplayer that I want too, and it appears it has a decent MP game as well in it.
Well - I am hoping so. We'll see! ;)
I think I've decided.
I got Halolz 3 simply to own a game all my XBL mates would also own... (and cos I played Halo and Halo 2 anyway).
But due to the sheer amount of FPS's on the 360, I decided I would buy ONE more.
I think I've decided I'm going for The Orange Box unless anyone can convince me otherwise. :) Eurogamer's http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=89793&page=3 (and everyone else's) touting of Portal has finally swayed me.. but it's really the multiplayer that I want too, and it appears it has a decent MP game as well in it.
Well - I am hoping so. We'll see! ;)
Street Fighter IV and the Casual Gaming Privy of Gold
Like Remy I'm very excited by the news and videos that are appearing around the production of Street Fighter 4. But this has been covered more eloquently by Rik than I could and since he's the Street Fighter series guru around here (in this case meaning "slavering fundamentalist and twitch-demon from hell" (in this case meaning he kicked my ass in about 3 seconds last time we sparred in SF2)) there's not much I could add to his insights into this game at this stage.
Except of course for a couple of off-hand comments that I'm seeing as a worrying trend in more and more games. All of these comments revolving around the term "Casual Gaming." Which in itself is a harmless, great big, warm and fluffy market of gamers who like to dip into a game for a while and leave it at that. Which isn't a problem, except for the fact that the population of said market is HUGE! Also known as the "Long-tail" in marketing terms, this is where the money is at and therefore is where all the game studios and publishers want to be. ...understandably. The problem for us "Non-casual" gamers is that we get a market full of harmless, warm and fluffy games.
Take any MMO that has appeared in the last year. All of them have taken on the idea of consensual PvP or instanced PvP. Which has ruled out every one of them for me and for a lot of gamers like me who want the chance to lie in wait for an unsuspecting victim to ambush, rob blind and then squat up and down suggestively on their dead corpses. Or alternatively get revenge on somebody who had already subjected me to that treatment (one of the best experiences in gaming that I have come across!)
This is not limited to PvP. Nearly all forms of competition are removed from such "casual" games. A large part of competition is the ability to gain something when you win, or to be punished if you lose. Just knowing that I won or lost isn't enough to forge that emotional connection with a gaming experience. I want to have a reason to win or to not lose!
So the jury is still out for me on what SF4 is going to bring. The fact that they already have started mentioning that it will appeal to the "casual" gamer has filled me with dread and makes me want to go dragon-punch all those house-wives sat at home playing Sims, thereby shafting any fantastic game concepts and resigning them to a fate of warm, steaming fluffiness.
Except of course for a couple of off-hand comments that I'm seeing as a worrying trend in more and more games. All of these comments revolving around the term "Casual Gaming." Which in itself is a harmless, great big, warm and fluffy market of gamers who like to dip into a game for a while and leave it at that. Which isn't a problem, except for the fact that the population of said market is HUGE! Also known as the "Long-tail" in marketing terms, this is where the money is at and therefore is where all the game studios and publishers want to be. ...understandably. The problem for us "Non-casual" gamers is that we get a market full of harmless, warm and fluffy games.
Take any MMO that has appeared in the last year. All of them have taken on the idea of consensual PvP or instanced PvP. Which has ruled out every one of them for me and for a lot of gamers like me who want the chance to lie in wait for an unsuspecting victim to ambush, rob blind and then squat up and down suggestively on their dead corpses. Or alternatively get revenge on somebody who had already subjected me to that treatment (one of the best experiences in gaming that I have come across!)
This is not limited to PvP. Nearly all forms of competition are removed from such "casual" games. A large part of competition is the ability to gain something when you win, or to be punished if you lose. Just knowing that I won or lost isn't enough to forge that emotional connection with a gaming experience. I want to have a reason to win or to not lose!
So the jury is still out for me on what SF4 is going to bring. The fact that they already have started mentioning that it will appeal to the "casual" gamer has filled me with dread and makes me want to go dragon-punch all those house-wives sat at home playing Sims, thereby shafting any fantastic game concepts and resigning them to a fate of warm, steaming fluffiness.
Four-sight! ...Street Fighter IV
FOUR! Kuru na!
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165170
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/16819
etc.
I'm still very VERY excited about this in general. But I'm going to keep it tempered by some realism too ;) Especially now we've seen a few things.
As always, We ask the questions: Are these graphics anything like finished? I am still really liking the overall style and art direction.. however.. from the movies out so far, I am really worried about the resolution. It's simply too low res and looks blocky and awful. :( Now, understand that I am a staunch 2d graphics fan, but I have no problem with 3d graphics - as long as they are REALLY good and do something better than what you could've done with 2d. About the only points that this has for being 3d so far is the camera rotations and some of the lighting/texturing effects. These are both minimal frills and that is not enough. Bear in mind, that to me, no 3d fighting game was worth being made in 3d until Virtua Fighter 3 came out (arcade!) ... until that point, every 3d game I saw I thought was hideous compared to their 2d brethren. To give you another example - I also think every single game with 3d graphics on the PS1 looked putrid and wasn't worth making in 3d. But it's not that SF4 looks that bad thankfully, it's just, well, I'm used to looking at Virtua Fighter 5 these days... and this looks like Playstation graphics in equivalent. I love the fact it really has it's own style, but this still definitely needs to be fresh & cleaned and nicely spruced up if I am going to be impressed with the final result. The facial animations are looking really good. I've not seen as good expressionary reactions since All-Pro Football 2k8
But one huge problem for me with the faces - the eyes. They look completely unreal & lifeless... as has been a common difficulty with CGI eyes for years, but others have managed to solve it now. Time to steal some solutions Capcom.
Can you super-cancel out of a nice relaxing poo? - it sounds like the revenge/super system and 'saving' defensive techniques are going to be very interesting... as long as it doesn't end up as some kind of DOA like weighted rock-paper-scissors... a concern if they get too drastic.
Is the fighting area still walled off? The impression I get from the trailer is that it is free roaming... uh-oh. This is a significant part of the area-control game that Street Fighter is really all about, and I am personally hoping they preserve that dynamic. But with the camera rotating throws... maybe? Maybe not?
No SF3 characters? - well it's not really in any question now, but it is a shame. No Remy then... ah well, it wasn't ever really going to happen. But futility is my game anyway ;)
The "newbie vs experienced" balancing system. Well Nathan asked me about this one, and although they have said something about this, but I suspect it is all waffle. It's really nothing new though, SF home versions since the SNES have usually had usable damage handicap systems, and indeed I used to use them when playing most of my more casual SF playing friends. But of course they make very little difference really unless you are close enough in skill that the other guy had a fighting chance anyway - which if you did.. you arguably would be better off to play without the handicap.
What would be nice to see for me would be some kind of online ranked 'handicapped' mode, where your relative rating with each individual character actually innately handicapped you vs a lower ranked opponent. Now that would be a much better way to do a 'matching' system than most of the stuff on XBL. Of course you'd still want the 'pure' mode & I am not sure how popular this one would be. But the sheer amount you can do with this brings a ton of design ideas to my mind... perhaps another time!
I wanna have a pure time, so I hope the right noble minds are working on this one.
Overall though.. still really high hopes for this one. Especially the online aspects. But I'm possibly still more excited about HD Remix!
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