Yesterday, Daniel Benmergui released Today I Die. Today, I spent a few minutes (okay, maybe a few hours) swimming around in his simple yet beautiful little world, trying to find all of the hidden secrets.

At first glance, it’s a rather depressing scene, marked by an equally depressing poem. But much like the real world, Benmergui’s little ocean in Today I Die is changeable, and capable of finding beauty.

The game’s biggest strength is its simplistic design and curiosity-provoking interface. There isn’t too much going on at any given moment, but that’s a good thing, because you can play around with what’s in front of you, and learn how the funny little world works.

Today I Die also wins points for being beautiful, in that artsy, abstract sort of way. The game art is so simple that it’s undistracting (and, let’s be honest, I have a weak spot for pixelated art), and the piano soundtrack is just plain lovely.

It’s worth multiple playthroughs just to see how the ending changes, and once you’ve got the hang of things, the game only takes a few minutes to complete. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say that both endings (that I’ve found, at least…is there a third?) are very satisfying, albeit in completely different ways. The story is very dreamlike and fanciful, and watching how it evolves is a treat — especially because it’s up to the player to determine the progression of the poem.

Seems pretty fabulous, right? It is, but there’s one major feature that poses a gigantic roadblock for players with limited patience: there aren’t any directions. If you’re curious by nature, that’s not a problem, but a design like this has the potential to be incredibly frustrating. Frankly, if I weren’t so stubborn, I might have closed the window without getting past the first iteration of the poem, and that would have been sad.

There are also some definite timesinks, perhaps intentionally placed, that do not contribute at all to the story’s progression. I spent quite a lot of time feeding jellyfish to the piranhas before I realized that they would just keep spawning, and that I was focused on the wrong thing.

I haven’t decided whether this is truly a negative point, but it’s something that sticks out to me: I have not yet figured out how to “lose” the game. Despite the title, it appears that the girl does not ever actually die, and that lovely piano soundtrack will just keep looping until one figures out how to complete the game or gives up in frustration.

Moral of the story: art is sometimes confusing, and the world doesn’t always come with directions, but despite all of this, it’s an interesting ride.

Play Today I Die here. At the moment, it’s hosted ad-free, thanks to a generous donor (unusual individual, as the site claims).

On a recent trip up to Chicago, I attended an event called “A Girlfriend’s Guide to Gaming” — a sweet little cocktail soirée aimed at twentysomething women and introducing them to the Nintendo brand.

Champagne + snacks + Wii + DS sounds like a fabulous time for me, but many of the other ladies in attendance (1) weren’t familiar with the Nintendo brand and (2) weren’t interested in gaming. And some of them still weren’t at the end of the night.

Obviously, the disconnect between girls and gaming is something that marketing people have been studying for quite some time, but I wonder what’s so different between gamer girls and our non-gaming peers?

Let’s break things down into the fundamental reasons women might say they’re “just not that into” games. I snagged these basic categories from the marketing types at that event, although this list is by no means a complete profile of non-gamer girls. I’ll throw my initial responses in, but I’d love to see where this goes in the comments.

Don’t have time.
Gaming can be time-consuming. It’s extraordinarily easy to lose track of five or six hours while you level grind/build a franchise/work your way through a story. And who are we to tell anyone how to spend their time?

Okay, so maybe some of us spend more hours every week playing games than we do sleeping, but shopaholics spend tons of time in their favorite stores, and foodies devote many hours to tasty treats — people make time for things that are important to them.

It’s a given that gaming isn’t going to be a priority activity for everyone. But what about those minutes and hours when there’s nothing to do? Like train commutes, bus rides, long lines, waiting rooms? Perfect gaming opportunities. Handheld and mobile games are still real games, after all. Bonus: you can play video games on the train or in waiting rooms; you can’t shop or eat.

Aren’t familiar with gaming systems/games.
Shocking as it may be to those of us who grew up with a controller fused to our hands, there are plenty of women who do not have a clue what FPS and RPG stand for. They can’t tell the difference between a PSP and a DS (is that a portable DVD player?), and Halo is an accessory for angels.

Something drew us into gaming. I’m sure it was something different for all of us — maybe we grew up alongside the industry and had consoles during every generation, maybe we played pen and paper games and video games were a natural next step, maybe we had boyfriends who were really into World of Warcraft — but there was some thing that brought us into gaming culture, and there was a reason we stayed.

Guitar Hero, Wii Fit, and the like are definitely a great step towards bringing more women into the market. They truly invite participation in a way that many other console and PC games aren’t able to do. Casual games like Bejeweled and TextTwist are doing a great job of capturing women’s attention, even if they’re not as “hardcore” as most retail games. There’s still room for growth, but I think it’s key that women can find at least one game that resonates with them. After all, the girl who tries out Mario Kart might decide to check out Wii Sports. And after that? Maybe she’ll be picking up a copy of Madden.

Don’t think it’s fun.
Shooters, sports, and sci-fi/fantasy (and action/adventure, strategy, sim, etc.) really deliver on fun for hardcore gamers, but they’re not necessarily interesting or fun to girls who aren’t already into gaming. And besides that, there’s still a very present “nerd culture” that surrounds games.

Breaking the “fun” barrier is tough, because you really just can’t educate someone in regards to what they will or will not enjoy. It’s doubly difficult if they have preconceived ideas that something will not be fun. I think the solution here is similar to what I said above regarding casual games and music games. In order to dispel the “games are for nerds” idea, girls have to encounter a game that they enjoy. Maybe they have to play a game without realizing – per se – that they’re gaming, to break that stigma.

So, gamer girls: what are your thoughts on the disconnect? Non-gamer girls: is there something I’m missing, or do you have a different take on why you’re  just not that into games?

Public Service Announcement for my fellow gamer girls:

You love games. You love thinking about games. You love talking about games. And maybe you also love learning about how they’re designed. There’s a fabulous opportunity for you to get a taste of the game design process, via Ian Schreiber’s Game Design Concepts class.

It’s free, open to all, and participation can be as involved (or un-involved) as you like. There’s a required textbook that’ll set you back $25, but that’s worlds cheaper than anything I’ve ever bought for a university course.

From the blog:

This class runs from Monday, June 29 through Sunday, September 6. Posts appear on the blog Mondays and Thursdays each week at noon GMT. Discussions and sharing of ideas happen on a continual basis.

I’m signed up, and eagerly awaiting the course. Fellow G&G’ers, if you decide to register or follow along, let me know via the comments here. Click over to this post for more details on how to register.

I’m a civilization/strategy game junkie. The kind that picked up the Settlers of Catan card game just to see if it was even close to the genius of the original board game. It’s quite possible that I have unlimited patience, because I will unblinkingly devote hours and hours to resource gathering and construction, even if I know I’ll never see the fruits of battle. So while I was waiting for the beta of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War to download, I decided to give A Kingdom For Keflings a shot. I might have spent the next 6 hours on the game and forgotten about my download, but that’s not the point.

NinjaBee didn’t exactly make the game to end all games here, but it is good for a wee bit of fun (pun totally intended).

It’s an 800-point download on the XBOX Live Arcade. That means it’ll set you back 10 bucks — not too shabby.

Bonus throwback moment: it occurred to me that A Kingdom For Keflings is like a shiny new version of a game I played until the disc didn’t work anymore called Serf City: Life is Feudal. There’s just something very satisfying about lording over a village of wee, medieval-ish people who like to build stuff.

Remember that XBOX Live avatar you made when NXE debuted? You get to use it in this game, in Gulliver form. I’m a fan, because while I enjoy lording over my strategy-game minions as an unseen omnipotent force, it’s even cooler when it’s me lording over my minions. In a sundress and yellow heels.

Standard sim/civ protocol follows — collect resources, use resources to make buildings, get upgrades, lather, rinse, repeat. Oh yeah, and you can punt the Keflings.

Cutesy medieval strategy games have evolved since the days of Serf City, and the little Keflings are fairly advanced. Well, for minions, at least. Not only do they happily harvest wood, rocks, crystals, and wool, but they can be trained to transport it to the location of your choosing. In addition to gathering and transporting, the Keflings can be educated and trained to do a variety of jobs. One lucky dude gets to be the Mayor/Lord/King (appropriately enough, he gets the job before the school is built, so the Keflings’ representative leader is the least educated of the entire population).

Keflings themselves are the scarcest resource. Once you start to slot them into artisan jobs, you’ll notice that your supply of human capital is dwindling fast. In order to breed more peons, you need to find the elusive Love. How a propos.

Obviously, there are buildings. The game follows a pretty standard system of requiring certain basic structures before upgrades appear (I mean, really, would you invest that much time in a game where you could build the Big Important Castle at the beginning?). Resources are used to make these buildings, sometimes in simple raw form (logs, rocks, crystals, wool), and later in advanced (wood planks, cut stone, magic gems, cloth) and civilized (carved wood, brick, magic dust, silk) forms.

There’s a blueprint to unlock for every building in the game. Each building is comprised of several components, which may or may not be made in the same workshop (hint: keep your workshops easily accessible), and isn’t finished until all of the pieces are laid out according to the blueprint. Fair enough.

Whew! So there’s a lot going on for a simple, cartoony XLA game. Let’s break it down:

Obviously, I’m a fan of the integration of the XBOX Live avatar. The devs figured out how to make use of that thing without it being too cheesy. Plus, it’s kinda cute that the avatar is a giant.

The blueprint building system adds a second process beyond just gathering the right number of resources and clicking “go.” I like this, it keeps me interested and makes me pay attention instead of just mindlessly clicking. This is probably 75% of the reason I got sucked into the game.

Bonus for the architecturally-challenged: once you’ve laid down the first building tile, a little blue box shows up to tell you where the next piece goes.

Plus, there’s a little something for the world-creation geeks: the game actually encourages you to be creative with construction. Once you’ve played it once-through to unlock all of the blueprints (or given up before that, whatever), have a little fun with your kingdom layout. I’m a little bit in love with the game devs for suggesting things like making a maze for the Keflings or a football field.

The Keflings aren’t rocket scientists, they’re just minions, so if you don’t choose a location for resource drop-off or allocate the Keflings to new jobs, they’ll pull a Sorcerer’s Apprentice on you and just. keep. going. Check back later, and you’ll notice a pile of 300+ crystals in the middle of a field…great.

I haven’t run into any situations where I depleted any of the resources yet, but that’s just wasteful. I totally get that part of the strategy is to effectively manage the human (Kefling) capital, but I would love the ability to set limits on how much each Kefling mines.

Multiplayer gameplay is…kind of blah. There aren’t many built-in features to make this mode easier, and there just aren’t many multiplayer-specific features in general. One thing I was totally wishing for was a set of already-unlocked blueprints –  is it really necessary to rebuild an entire kingdom from scratch during a casual game? It’s also super easy for malicious players to enter games, vandalize a bunch of buildings, and disappear.

Not-so-bonus for the spatially-challenged: if you put important buildings (like workshops) in awkward places (like right near a sheep farm), you will have a world of trouble getting things done. In some games, city planning is not such a big deal, but in this one, it really is. Fortunately, you can demolish and relocate badly-placed structures, but it’s a terrible habit to get into.

Moral of the (admittedly, way long) story: It’s a light, cutesy game that still satisfies as a civilization/sim game. Absolutely worth the 10 bucks, and without a doubt my favorite of the XBOX Live Arcade offerings. And did I mention that you get an achievement for punting the Keflings?

Kloonigames released the PC version of their creative (and cute!) Crayon Physics Deluxe yesterday.

There’s definitely a reason this game won the 2008 IGF Grand Prize. It’s innovative, easy to play, and fun. I mean, come on…it’s crayons!

I’ve been playing non-stop since I downloaded the demo. Usually, I’m well enough satisfied with the demo levels, but this game absolutely warranted a full download.

It’s cute. There’s just something about paper and crayons that’s positively smile-inducing. I like sniping enemies and sacking quarterbacks just as much as anyone, but I found the childlike simplicity of this game to be charming.

Crayon Physics Deluxe is damn clever, too. Don’t be fooled by the crayons — the whimsical little levels actually make you think. Every line and shape scribbled into the game follows the laws of physics. Draw a ramp, and the ball will roll down it. If your ramp is too short, it will fall into an abyss. Draw a pendulum and it will swing. If it’s not balanced well, it’ll swing in a funky way. Draw a box, and it will drop. If you drop it onto a lever, it’ll catapult something into the air (if it’s big enough, that is).

The folks at Kloonigames also included my favorite feature ever: a custom level editor. You can bet your face that I’ll be making all of the Rube Goldberg machines I’ve ever dreamed up…in crayon.

Go to their website (http://www.crayonphysics.com/) to download a demo…or the full game!

I’m in the middle of packing up my life and moving to a new city, which means that my consoles and gaming PC are packed away on a moving truck somewhere in Midwestern USA.

There will be no gaming hiatus. I’m just switching to handheld.

For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be making friends with a pretty pink Nintendo DS Lite. So far, my random collection of games includes the following: Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy V*, WordJong, Brain Age 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the Opera Browser. Okay, maybe that last one isn’t a game, but I’ve been using it to check email and whatnot at various wi-fi hotspots, and it’s pretty spiffy.

So, gamers, help me out: Which DS game should I try out next?

* Some of the games are actually GBA games. Hooray for backwards-compatibility!

Remember that time I was optimistic about the Max Payne movie? And how I was strongly considering seeing it the night it opened?

Yeah, that didn’t happen. I dragged myself to a matinée showing on the day it got pulled from theaters. And you know what? It’s better that way.

Chalk this up as the film industry screaming quite loudly that They Do Not Play Video Games.

It’s not Marky Mark’s fault. It’s really not. For what it’s worth, his Max Payne was pretty decent, and probably the only really okay acting in the film. And he’s handy with a pump-action shotgun, too.

The real problem is that the filmmakers decided to take a perfectly nice video game and butcher it into a low-rate action film. This shouldn’t be a surprise, but I had hope.

I must admit, the gunfight scenes looked awesome. Despite projecting the impression throughout the film that the filmmakers had never actually played Max Payne, the fight scenes looked spot-on. Same bleak industrial scenery, same flurries of bullets. Not quite worthy of phantom button-mashing, but very true to the game.

But where was Bullet Time? You’d think the filmmakers would want to feature the most stand-out aspect of gameplay, but there were maybe two scenes (total screen time: about 9 seconds) of anything even remotely resembling Bullet Time. This was the biggest disappointment for me; the game was inspired by John Woo films, and then the movie goes ahead and ignores this entirely.

The script was a….creative interpretation. I understand that it’s not the easiest task to transfer the storyline of a video game into a screenplay, but the first hour of the film dragged on without actually revealing the plot in a clear manner. I found myself missing the game’s original story, because the corners cut (and interesting character changes…where were the Punchinellos?) didn’t do anything to tell the story in a concise or interesting way. It ended up being a confusing, boring start to a confusing (yet strangely predictable) action plot. For a Harry Potter film? Sure, make some character and plot cuts to fit the film into a watchable length. But here? The changes were totally useless. Major minus points for this.

And Holy Special Effects, Batman! I have no idea why the filmmakers decided to prioritize the CGI’ed Valkyr junkies’ hallucinations, but it’s very clear that they spent more time on this than on the actual story.

In short? Don’t waste your time. Go find a copy of the game instead – it’s much more enjoyable.

A funny thing happened to me this weekend. I did something, in real life, not because I particularly wanted to do it, but for the “achievement points.” Yep. I ran 26.2 miles just to say I ran a marathon.

Some people might think that’s crazy. And yet, we do it in games all the time…

So what is it that drives some gamers to be such achievement whores?

XBOX Live, it’s all your fault
Maybe it’s the existence of the gamerscore that motivates us to add to our list of sometimes-useless achievements. Rewards are a powerful motivator, after all. Part of the reason games even have scoring mechanisms is so we can track our progress and bask in the glory of getting to a certain milestone – a high score, a new level, a better score than an opponent. Every one of those (sometimes thousands of) points is one more thing that you have accomplished, so why shouldn’t you brag a little?
The gamerscore plays right into that, and unlocking more achievements than your friends elevates your geek cred. Or, you know, seals your status as an achievement whore.

If a tree falls in the woods…
Ponder this: If you unlock an XBOX Live achievement and nobody notices that your gamerscore went up, does it still count?

Giving it 110%
Or maybe it’s a desire to complete every last playable minute of a game. The game’s developers created that content for us – we should experience all of it! There are Easter eggs, dammit. There are hidden items, there are secret bonuses, there are wicked cool combos out there. And we will find them all!
Besides, how else can we be sure that we’ve truly played the game to its fullest, but via unlocking every achievement built into the game?

110%? I don’t even like that game!
Then, of course, there’s the mark of a true achievement whore: playing a game solely for the boost in gamerscore. You know them - the RPG’ers who pick up a copy of Tiger Woods, the FPS fans who rent Viva Piñata – and, let’s not lie, which of us hasn’t played Bejeweled or Uno on the XBOX Live Arcade just for a few quick achievements?
So why play a game if it’s not something you’re really into? Easy points, of course!

As for the real-life achievement whoring like that marathon? Well….I don’t really have an explanation for that

So, gamers: why do you achievement-whore?

There’s a Max Payne movie coming out next month. Mark Wahlberg is playing Max Payne.

Yep. Marky Mark.

I’m not sure what to think about this, but one thing I can say for certain is that I will be seeing the movie in theaters. Even if it’s just to confirm my suspicion that the film industry really needs to hire people who play video games before making movies based on them.

Last year, we had the Hitman movie. Having thoroughly enjoyed the series of games that the film was based on, I went in with low expectations. Know what, though? While I’d call it a classic case of the-book-was-better-than-the-movie (substituting game for book, naturally), I can’t say I hated it. Given what he had to work with (read: a story that didn’t do the games justice), Timothy Olyphant played a solid Agent 47. The question is…can Marky Mark do Max Payne justice?

He’s certainly not my first choice (personally, I’d like to see Clive Owen in the role), but I’m not going to judge until I see the film. My biggest concern, if it’s true: IMDB’s trivia page for the movie mentions that Marky Mark reportedly never played the video game as he didn’t want to become addicted, and felt the script connected him to the story enough. WHAT?! If he’s a terrible Max Payne, this is why. If he’s awesome, well, Marky Mark will just go up in my estimation.

I’m also a little bit concerned about the story, given the film industry’s history of taking popular games and mangling them so that everything that was great about a game’s story is either out of context, poorly written, or missing entirely. Remember the Super Mario Bros. movie? Or Street Fighter? Those were a couple hours of my life that I’ll never get back. I’m crossing my fingers that the writers don’t make too many “creative” changes to Max Payne, because it’s pretty solid as-is.

One thing I’m definitely excited about: bullet time. Provided that the filmmakers keep with the John Woo style that permeated the games, this could be visually stunning in ways that the game wasn’t capable of supporting.

Max Payne hits theaters on October 17th. Which means I’ll be reviewing it here on the 18th

Silly rabbit, Brett Favre doesn’t play for Green Bay anymore!

Jokes. I’m downloading the updates, too. He’ll be a Jet just like in real life.

I’ve had my copy of Madden ‘09 for a few days now, and it’s still continuing to wow me in terms of realism and what I like to call the “pretty factor.” If it weren’t for the obvious video game screen elements (like play selection screens), I could probably walk by my tv and mistake it for an actual football game. In HD. I’ll spare you my poetic musings about how nice the field turf looks, but I’m ready to slap a giant “exceeds expectations” sticker on this game.

The commentary – while a little bit cheesy – is completely tolerable in this edition of the game. I’m actually not inclined to shut it off yet.

I really, really like the adaptive difficulty. I also thoroughly enjoy watching my Madden IQ go up a little bit after each game.

What I really, really don’t like is the Madden Test. It’s just plain awkward. There’s almost no direction whatsoever, and it took me a couple of tries to even figure out which dude I was controlling on the Pass Defense portion of the test. On the plus side, since I did so miserably on that section, I am improving vastly in that area after some actual games.

I’m also not a huge fan of the frequent use of the right analog stick. It. Is. So. Awkward. Pretty much everything that the right stick controls could be covered by another button, and I can’t wrap my head around why the designers assigned certain actions to it.

I haven’t delved into the online league play yet, but I’m pretty sure that’s on the agenda for tonight. Hopefully my opponents on XBOX Live won’t slaughter me quite as mercilessly as my boyfriend does, or I’ll make last year’s Dolphins look like rockstars. So, uh…who was it on here that said they’re miserable at football games? Doll? How about you join my league?

Also, I’m happy to report that the Cleveland Browns are looking most excellent this year. Maybe they’ll (finally) get to see what a Super Bowl is like.

Favre on the cover art.
Adaptive gameplay.
A decent Cleveland Browns roster.
A multi-platform release that includes portable systems.

Oh yes, I’m excited for Madden ‘09.

The demo rolls out in two days, and the real deal hits shelves in just about two weeks. If Madden ‘09 delivers even half of what EA is promising, it’s going to monopolize my life until Madden ‘10 comes out. Since we’re primarily XBOX fangirls here, let’s break down some of the important features of Madden ‘09 for the 360:

Online League Play
This season, the Cleveland Browns are going to do what the Patriots couldn’t do last year. Okay, maybe not, but I’m psyched for some fantasy football (of a completely different variety than your office pool) on XBOX Live. The PS3 version also features online play, for those who prefer that system. Plus, my boyfriend is just too good at football games, so it’ll be nice to maybe win a game or two against some strangers. Girls & Gaming League, anyone?

Adaptive Difficulty
It’s entirely irrelevant whether you’re an all-star who should be out there coaching the next Super Bowl winners, or a total novice who wonders what a shotgun has to do with football. If the Adaptive Difficulty Engine does what it’s supposed to, the game will help you be better at playing it, whether that means throwing you some serious challenges or helping you get a better grasp on formations.

Oh Yeah, It’s Pretty, Too
I’m a sucker for realism in sports games. I do care that not all of the stadiums look identical, that games in the rain don’t look the same as fair weather games, and that I can tell the difference between field turf and grass.

Did I Mention Favre on the Cover?
Okay, so this was really a selling point for me before all of that nonsense about reinstatement happened. Still, it’s nice to see one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history on the cover of the 20th anniversary edition.

Keep your eyes on these guys…big things are coming:

With a logo like that, would you expect any less?

Tuesday night, I attended Robomodo’s presentation of “How to Start a Game Studio (or, Holy Crap, I just lost my job… now what?)” at a Chicago IGDA meeting. While they weren’t legally allowed to mention the title they’re working on*, Robomodo is currently partnered with Activision Blizzard (anyone else think it’s strange to see those two names together already?) and working on a next-gen title. Pretty spiffy for a team of about 30 guys who, around this time last year, were getting the news that their jobs at EA were vanishing right along with the Chicago offices.

They’re the new kids on the Chicago gaming scene – their website still consists of a single page with a call for talented designers and a vague hint at their current project – but expect big things from Robomodo. Despite the casual-sounding title of the lecture I just attended, these aren’t just some amateurs who threw together a studio because they couldn’t snag entry-level jobs; the team at Robomodo boasts an average of 10+ years industry experience, and most of the guys worked together at EA, Midway, and Studio Gigante.

Extensive networking, professional packaging, and a solid and experienced team (along with a super proactive attitude) landed Robomodo a project with Activision less than six months after they formed. After that game ships, the guys are heading full-speed toward production on their own original IP. As a Chicagoan and an aspiring game dev, I’m excited to see what’s on the horizon.

* Internet speculation suggests that it’s the next installment of Tony Hawk

Part of the appeal of open-world games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Crackdown is the option for the player to deviate from the principal story or mission and explore on her own. Creativity is a pretty sweet thing. Undoubtedly, these games were designed with some non-linearity in mind, but I can’t help but reminisce to another game where going against the main storyline was more fun than playing to the end.

That’s right…Oregon Trail!

I have fond, fond memories of playing this game in second grade computer class. I’m pretty sure I only  escorted my party safely to Oregon twice, maybe three times, ever. Much more fun than actually completing the game was the mildly-sadistic practice of creating a party (usually comprised of the silliest names imaginable, or – even better – of myself and my best friends) and sending them to their doom via poorly-chosen attempts at fording a deep river, or antiquated diseases like typhoid and cholera. Pretty cruel, but my friends and I erupted in giggles whenever the screen declared, “You have died of dysentery.” (apparently, we weren’t the only ones)

Even more cruel? Despite being an animal-lover, I had loads of fun stocking up my party’s wagon with nothing but guns and ammo, and singlehandedly contributing to the buffalo’s status as an endangered species (come on, was it ever really necessary to shoot more than one when you could only take 200 lb of meat back to the wagons?).

Oregon Trail shenanigans aside, this got me thinking about game structure and what makes people deviate from the rules. At the risk of getting a little bit too theoretical…I wonder where the line is between desired order in games (missions and structure and goals, oh my!) and fun sandbox play. After all, outside of video games, how much fun was it to make up your own play as a child? Who didn’t enjoy playing with sticks and rocks and sand just as much as they enjoyed playing with a soccer ball?

Ladies (and gents, of course), weigh in: how do you like your games? Structured, with a side of rule-breaking, or totally free-for-all?

In an interview with Tim Ingham of CasualGaming.biz, James Scalpello of THQ Wireless suggests that mobile games tailored for girls might be a lost cause.

He says (quoted from article):

“You have hardcore gamers that are girls, that don’t need to be patronised, and you have games that come with a phone – which girls will always play. But not in a million years would most girls connect to a mobile portal to download a game,” he added.

“It’s much higher up the list of priorities for guys. To put it bluntly, girls [believe they have] better things to do.”

While the subject of the interview was casual games for mobile phones, I’m a little bit curious how this extends beyond casual gaming. Naturally, I want to poll the ladies of this blog.

First: Ladies, is this true? I know that the writers of this blog tend to lean toward the ‘hardcore gamer’ type, so what’s your take on mobile games? Would you download games beyond those that come with your phone? And do you feel that this has anything to do with your gender?

Second: Hardcore gamer girls and casual gamer girls are bound to have different opinions on games, we know this. Is Mr. Scalpello correct in his assertion that hardcore gamer girls feel patronised by girly games?

Third: What’s your take on “girly” games in general? Do you feel that they’re useless, and that you enjoy the same games that guys enjoy, or do you appreciate that some games are made with the double-X chromosome in mind? Would you like to see more games marketed towards women?

So ladies, what’s the deal with girly games? Gentlemen, feel free to weigh in as well.

Tequila bombs, Unreal 3, and next-gen game development, oh my.

I was definitely impressed by my first IGDA meeting. There was a very decent turnout, and the ladies on this blog will be happy to know that there were plenty of female devs and students present.

First, a little bit about Stranglehold, since that was the focus of the meeting:

The specs: John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Genre: third-person shooter/cinematic style action-adventure
Platform: XBOX 360, PC, PS3
Release Date(s): 9-5-07 (360), 9-30-07 (PC), 10-28-07 (PS3)
ESRB Rating: M (Mature) for Blood, Drug References, and Intense Violence
Players: single player story mode, with multiplayer available online via XBOX Live
Downloadable content: yes
Publisher/Developer: Midway Games, in conjunction with Tiger Hill Entertainment
Development cycle: 34 months
Development team: between 20-150 at various stages of development, plus small-scale art and music outsourcing
Engine: heavily-customized Unreal 3 with Havok physics

Super-quick summary version of Stranglehold: you control (from 3rd-person perspective) Inspector “Tequila” Yuen, the tough-as-nails Hong Kong detective played by Chow Yun-Fat in the 1992 John Woo film, Hard Boiled. You fight the bad guys, mostly angry Triad gangsters, using an assortment of guns and environment-interactive combos, and you can make the detective slow down into Matrix-like “Tequila Time” for some fancy, theatrical shooting. I initially thought, “Wow, that’s just like Bullet Time in Max Payne!” but a quick Google search revealed that Tequila Time is actually drawn from the films, and that Max Payne was inspired by John Woo cinematics – which means that Stranglehold is more like Max Payne’s little brother than a derivative work. The game plays out very much like an interactive version of an action movie (which was kinda the point).

Without further ado, here’s what I learned:

Highlights

• Stranglehold was the first next-gen game for Midway, and the first for anyone on the development team. It’s also the first game Midway put out using (a heavily modified version of) the Unreal 3 engine.
• Lead designer Brian Eddy (who ran the meeting) was proud of how well the team was able to bring the John Woo experience to gaming. “Tequila bombs,” the special moves which range from choreographed sprays of bullets to precision aiming, along with Mexican standoffs and intense gunfighting, make for a pretty good game adaptation of what John Woo does with films.
• This game was among the first to participate in Midway’s big sharing initiative. Subsequent Midway development teams will have access to all sorts of elements from Stranglehold - from art to audio to code – to adopt and modify for use in future games. While it meant lots of work for this team, it’ll cut down some of the workload for other games, especially with things like environmental art.
• Development-wise, one of the strengths of this project was the use of “strike teams” – groups composed of people from every department (programmers, artists, sound people, designers, etc.) who focused on specific game features.
• One of my friends asked me the other day how much outsourcing goes on within the game industry. I couldn’t really give him an answer, but I got a bit of insight during this presentation. For Stranglehold, there was very limited, controlled outsourcing – mostly in the areas of art and music, and specifically on low-risk assets. Any work that wasn’t done in-house was carefully managed by Midway’s production people, and strict deadlines and a demanding feedback cycle kept things running smoothly. I’m not sure how it works in the rest of the industry, but it was pretty cool to hear about how Midway does things.
• Unreal 3 wasn’t 100% ready when development began, so the team prototyped the gameplay on the Psi-Ops engine in order to share ideas before porting to Unreal 3.

Lowlights

• Big promises are hard to live up to – because this was the studio’s first game on the 360/PS3, there were a lot of gaps between what Microsoft and Sony promised (in terms of console capabilities) and what was ultimately available. Needless to say, both consoles were hyped up beyond their true potential (good to know this also happens on the dev side, not just the consumer end!). Of note: Microsoft is better at communicating than Sony is.
• Midway wasn’t originally aiming for a split-ship, but it was one of the unfortunate side effects that came along with a first next-gen game.
• The Unreal 3 engine wasn’t complete when work on Stranglehold began, so there were some excruciating code-merges (done by hand – yikes!) that happened mid-cycle.
• Integrating all of the middleware with the unfinished Unreal 3 made for some difficult situations.
• Laying all the groundwork for the shared content initiative meant more work for the Stranglehold team, and the benefits won’t really kick in until other games are made.
• Time. Always an issue, no matter what company or game you’re talking about. Eventually, hard deadlines had to be applied, because extensions can make a dev cycle seem unending and lead to too many non-crucial features. On the opposite end, there were definitely some crunches – downloadable content management was one of them (since it’s a no-no to make a feature like that into a patch).

Unreal 3.0

• Interesting fact: Midway put out a game using the Unreal 3 engine before Epic did.
• The version of Unreal 3 that was used in Stranglehold is so customized that it doesn’t really compare side-by-side to unmodified Unreal 3. Notable differences include Havok physics, AI.implant, and other middleware integrated by the Midway team.

Wicked cool tidbits

• Stranglehold was initially going to be a free-roaming, GTA-style game. It also featured vehicles at one point. Both ideas were scrapped early in development.
• This was the first game licensed by Tiger Hill Entertainment. Neither John Woo nor Chow Yun-Fat are big gamers, but they might convert.
• Eddy didn’t get to meet Chow Yun-Fat himself, but said that the team members who did get to meet him were impressed by how cool he was to work with. Apparently, he had fun with some of the more tedious aspects of having a video-game likeness of himself created, including the photo session where he had to pose for lots of awkward facial-expression photos.
• The devs got to use custom build dual and quad core PC’s equipped with 3-4GB of RAM, 200-400+ GB hard drives, ATI X1900, and NVidia 8800 GPU’s, as well as XBOX 360 and PS3 dev and debug units. I’m jealous. In conjunction with this wicked hardware, the team used Havok, AI.implant, Perforce, Maya, Max, Motion Builder, Zbrush, Photoshop, Bink, and Devtrack.
• Eddy said that there is “absolutely a possibility that there will be more John Woo games made in the future,” and made a few other cryptic references to Midway projects. I love how nobody in this industry is ever allowed to make a definitive statement.
• For the aspiring game-devs out there: Midway’s interns got to work on this game. Plus, some of the design team’s interns were handpicked from the QA group, so there’s hope out there for game testers who want to break into design (Eddy’s hint for making the cut: be really passionnate about games, and make your own sample game that shows you know what you’re doing, even if it’s a mod or uses an already-available engine). Another tip? Join IGDA as a student member and show up to chapter meetings – they’re a great networking opportunity.

Admittedly, I’d only played about 45 minutes of Stranglehold before the meeting. Now that I know a little bit more about what went into the creation of the game, I’m probably going to give it some more of my time.

The post title might be a little bit misleading. This isn’t a review of Stranglehold, although I’ve recently picked up a copy of the John Woo third-person shooter.

Next week, I’ll be going to my first IGDA chapter meeting, and Stranglehold is the primary focus. I’m psyched, to say the least. Here’s what’s on the agenda (and you can expect a full report when I get back!)…

Veteran game developer Brian Eddy will share all the juicy details on what went into the making of Stranglehold. He will talk about what worked and what didn’t when faced with the challenges of creating Midway’s first next generation game on new hardware platforms, creating a highly modified version of the Unreal engine, developing a new I.P. with unique gameplay, working with world famous director John Woo and bigger than life actor Chow Yun Fat, heralding a large companywide sharing initiative and how the team did all of this at the same time. [quoted from the IGDA announcement]

I’m excited about this meeting, and I’m hoping it lives up to my expectations.

Guess what game I’ll be playing all weekend?

Here’s a question for those who are in relationships: How does your significant other feel about your gaming?

My boyfriend’s bio on his XBOX Live profile reads: I am not a nerd like you. I actually play sports in real life. Lucky for me, I’m aware that he’s kidding – he’s logged countless hours playing NCAA Football, Hitman, and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALS - so I won’t be sending him over to this site to commiserate. He’s very quick to tell people “my girlfriend plays more video games than I do,” but I know that he’s okay with that (especially when he wants to play one more SOCOM mission before we go out – he knows I can relate!). We don’t always fall in love with the same games – he has no interest in playing GTA4, and I don’t understand how he can still be playing Tiger Woods ‘05 – but it makes me happy that he at least plays something. I know he’d probably laugh at me for saying this, but one of the most romantic things he’s ever done was hunt down a (pink) second controller after I bought my 360 so we could play together.

Does your significant other game with you, or have you turned them into a game widow(er)? If you’re both gamers, do you share the same/similar tastes in games?

For the single folks out there: is gaming an important factor in your choice of future mate? Would you date a non-gamer, or do you feel that gaming is something you need to have in common?

Worth. The. Hype.

It’s been a little over a week. I’m not even halfway through the game yet (I was busy running a marathon. And a girl needs to sleep, too!) but I’m already very impressed with what I’ve seen. IGN’s 10/10 rating might be a little bit lofty (Oscar-caliber drama? Really?), but I am glad that I pre-ordered. I even convinced my roommate – a non-gamer, who previously did not know how to turn on the 360 – to use the free XBOX Live Gold trial that came with it and start running amok in Liberty City. Cars, hookers, guns, and Vladivostok Radio are a powerful combo.

Highlights (why this game gets a big gold star sticker from me)

+ Personality. Every character in this game has it. Okay, Michelle is kind of a wet blanket, but maybe that’s what Rockstar was going for? Niko is interesting, and I like the banter that goes on between him and his cousin, Roman. Even the random NPC pedestrians have their own little schtick.
+ Story. Sure, I haven’t completed all of the missions, but I’m happy to know that there are well-developed reasons why I’m sending Niko out into the streets. It makes the missions feel less repetitive, which is super important in a game where the primary tasks are, well, a little bit repetitive. Niko’s backstory is pretty cool, and it’s good to see that the folks at Rockstar aren’t just changing Tommy’ or CJ’s look and location.
+ XBOX Live Achievements. I’m a fan of this game’s list. The “One Man Army” achievement (survive 5 minutes on 6 star wanted level) is pretty much how I roll in sandbox mode. I’m totally shifting into achievement-hunter mode, now. I wonder how often the Rockstar devs play? I want the “Let Sleeping Rockstars Lie” achievement, stat.
+ Minigames. The pool, bowling, and dart minigames are awesome, and I’m looking forward to playing the rest. I love how Rockstar put so much into the minigames, when they’re just peripheral action. Thorough, my friends. Thorough.
+ The ability to ignore phone calls. Yeah, I lied when I said I was going to play through the entire game before sandboxing it. It’s nice to know that I can take a break from Niko’s drama to run around and explore, and that my mission will be hanging out, waiting for me, when I’m done padding my wallet with illicit cash and my trusty baseball bat. [Check back soon for a post listing my favorite unofficial game missions.]
+ Liberty City is detailed. I remember playing Road Rash on the Sega Genesis as a kid, and being seriously bitter that when I fell off the bike, I couldn’t walk into any of the backdrop buildings. Yeah, I know, Road Rash is a racing game, and that’s not supposed to be important, but ever since then, I’ve been a huge fan of games that have fully explorable levels. If I can walk into a building instead of just walking past it, I’m a fan. Even better? GTA4 doesn’t fit squarely into the racing game genre, but it definitely borrows some elements, so I feel like it fills that void for me. In GTA4, Niko can fall off a bike and then walk into Comrades Bar. I enjoy that.
+ Satire. The game is full of it, from the snarky talk radio to the conversations you overhear on the street to the Statue of Happiness. And “Warm Coffee?” Love it. The more I play, the more humor I discover. Good job, Rockstar.

Lowlights (why it’s not quite as flawless as a 10/10 might make you think)

- Multiplayer is online-only. I was hoping there would be a split-screen mode, or even a same-screen co-op so my friends and I could play together on the same console. I have more than one controller for a reason (okay, maybe that reason is Madden, but still)!
- The bleeping phone. While I enjoy the cell phone interface, I enjoy even more that I can ignore phone calls. Roman and Michelle are borderline clingy, they call so often. My real-life friends aren’t that persistent. This is really only a minor complaint, but I’d feel better if Michelle didn’t want to go on so many dates. Does she realize how many hookers Niko has to beat down to take her out?
- Much like in real life, I’m an awful driver in this game. This isn’t the game’s fault, but it’s taking me longer than I like to get used to cornering at high speeds. It took me a couple of tries to complete the Bleed Out mission because I kept totaling Roman’s car during the chase.

One week in, that’s what I’ve got. This game is fun, and it’s quickly monopolizing all of my free time. I’m going to give it a pre-emptive 9.4/10 (subject to change once I’ve finished the game and once I’ve decided whether I like a 10-point rating scale).

There’s a nice little field guide to the many multiplayer modes of GTA4 over at Kotaku. I’ll be exploring the multiplayer side of the game this week. Any readers up for some Cops ‘n Crooks? Add me to your XBOX Live friends list and we’ll have a go at it.

Not exactly shocking, but still exciting - Blizzard is almost certainly* in the process of developing the third installment of the Diablo series: DiabloFans.com (formerly Diablo3.com) confirmed yesterday that the Diablo3.com domain has officially been acquired by Blizzard.

[Yes, this is yesterday's news, but I was busy playing Grand Theft Auto IV.] 

I got all giddy over the StarCraft II announcement last year. This? This isn’t even an official announcement, but it’s still amazing. Blizzard has that whole “master of suspense” thing working out pretty well for them, and they’re totally able to pull it off because plenty of gamers (self included) will lose their minds in anticipation over the release before the game is even in development. I can’t even say that I’m annoyed that there’s a 10+ year wait between titles in the StarCraft series (and for the next installment in the Diablo series, if there’s any truth to the speculation**) because the games are just that solid.

Of course it’s WAY in the future. Good thing I have GTA4 to keep me busy at the moment…

*Okay, they haven’t actually announced it yet, but it definitely looks like groundwork is being laid. The domain name being purchased? All of those “Top Secret” postings on Blizzards job page? Come on! Makes me wish I didn’t still have two years left on my degree…I would be the happiest kid on the planet if I got to work on that team!

**Which there almost certainly is. Back in ‘06 (pre-StarCraft II announcement), Paul Sams told IGN, “As you probably already know, there is no doubt that we will continue the StarCraft and Diablo franchise, and trust me, I will be the happiest person in the world when we announce StarCraft 2.” (emphasis added)

A New York Times review of Grand Theft Auto IV says that “[GTA4] calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts.” GTA4 hits shelves tomorrow, and I’d be a liar if I said I couldn’t wait to check out the shiny, new Liberty City.

I might even follow the rules this time.

My introduction to the Grand Theft Auto series happened during my senior year of high school, when I discovered GTA3 on the Playstation 2. I actually worked my way through most of the missions. I was entirely content to play along with the prescribed structure of the game, and it wasn’t until a friend of mine went off on a “let’s see how high of an alert level I can trigger!” spree that I discovered the bizarre sociological carnival that is sandbox mode. From that moment, official game missions were abandoned in favor of better missions, like “how far can I get in this game using only a baseball bat?” or “Bad Samaritan: running over pedestrians and then stealing an ambulance and taking them to the hospital to cash in on the reward money.” By the time I found Vice City and San Andreas, game missions went out the window, and it was all about causing as much havoc as possible in the sandbox.

This time, though? It might be worth it to check out the game as it’s intended to be played. Early reviews have praised the rich storyline and integrated gameplay, and I think I’m going to give Niko’s story a shot. I’m running a marathon next weekend, and the subsequent days of not wanting to move at all are probably going to result in a great deal of car theft, drug running, and maybe the occasional baseball-bat spree.