A response to the article 2010 – The Death of Gaming

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.  No, it’s not the new season of 24 – though OMG.  I’m talking about the gaming industry in 2010, and how, I believe, it is on the crest of a new wave of video gaming.

Now, this is an opinion piece, and I’ll admit my homework amounts to nothing more than being plugged into the gaming media 18/7 – I work part-time –  but I’m educated enough, and gamed enough, to know when something big is coming.

Let’s get down to it, shall we?  Motion control and 3-D (the abbreviation of ‘3D’, is dependent on where you look – the hyphenated version seems to relate specifically to certain television technologies allowing the domestic consumption of the format), the most significant advances in interactive entertainment – let’s call it Input – in the last ten years.  Forget chasing after the Magic Dragon of Photorealism, it’s a mirage; instead, look at the Nintendo Wii, at what that product has done to people’s perception of gaming.

Before this generation, in which I will include the Wii, though its hardware is largely (excepting the Wiimote) last generation, videogames were not something you’d share with your girlfriend/mother/grandma/sister.*

*Ok, yes, there are always going to be exceptions to this rule, but please don’t feel the need to remind me of who you are.  We’re all special, after all.

Today, a close proximity to Wii Fit enhances your social appeal.  It’s officially ‘in’, a ‘fad’, and a topic of conversation that doesn’t end in mild embarrassment.  All this, when I can still remember cultivating an attachment to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on the Gamecube (Nintendo’s previous console); a game, about which, my girlfriend and I are unlikely to develop a bond; a game that has nothing but unhealthy connotations, from serious sci-fi addiction to the sofa-bound control scheme.

And it’s not at all to do with appealing to women.  Heck no.  That would be a short-sighted conclusion, considering the large amount of female gamers there are and always have been.  No, it’s the uncanny ability of an oblong of plastic to encourage entire generations to treat videogames as a viable casual pastime.  But why?

Nintendo's Wii - appealing to women, attractive to men

First of all, the Wiimote has changed people’s perceptions of how people play games.  The image of an overweight, spotty teenager, slouched over a control pad has been replaced by an attractive 20-something woman in revealing sports gear, working up a sweat playing virtual volleyball.  It’s genius, and it’s not just for perverts either.  Granddad has the promise of a good, old fashioned game of golf in the safety of his own home.  Where are the Grand Theft Auto hoodlums now?  Challenging Auntie Madge to another round of Wii bowling, that’s where.  Motion control has brought the family unit into gaming.  How many of us played Wii with our nearest and dearest this Christmas?

This might well constitute a revolution in itself, however, I did not set out to write about the Wii’s success.  By itself, Nintendo’s motion control gimmick – as some call it – can’t redefine the videogames we play today, simply because of their console’s hardware limitations.  Don’t see that as an insult.  Understand that, in terms of computing power, the Wii is about seven years old.  It can’t handle the cutting edge game engines that power most of the HD consoles’ (PS3 and 360) AAA games.  If you’re a Wii owner holding out for a sudden revelation in pixel pushing prowess akin to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, please consider this your wake up call: it’s never going to happen.  And here in lies the problem.

The games favoured by the so called hardcore of gaming (at least, console hardcore – a separate species from their PC cousins), are all about graphical and networking innovation.  Textures, lighting, and the number of players in an online battle take supremacy over ingenious interfacing.  In fact, many PS3/360 will tell you they like the simplicity of an old-fashioned control pad – there’s a pleasant levelling factor in control pads, in that, no matter how capable you are at physical activity, twiddling your thumbs is relatively straightforward (though there must be a few of us who, sadly, may have issues with this control method as well).  And, of course, some of us will continue to swear by the keyboard and mouse as if they were rare, high-levelled loot in a game of Diablo.

But this adherence to a convention of controllers, like the Wii’s inferior power, has been counter-productive to the evolution of gaming.  Computer games have reached an impasse.  And while graphics have been improved and online gaming has been brought into the living room (by PS3/360), and whilst the concept of motion control has been proved popular (by the Wii), gamers have yet to see the benefit of these technologies working in tandem.

That’s where 2010 comes in.  Sony’s Motion Controller and Microsoft’s Project Natal have been scheduled to release this autumn/fall, and, with them, the next generation of motion controlled games.  Yes, Sony and Microsoft will have their own equivalents of Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit; it would idiotic of them not too, given the potential for such titles to win over the casual crowd, but both companies are well aware that they have an established base of hardcore gamers.  I predict that, before the year is out, we will see hardcore games, FPSs, RTSs and RPGs, adopting this technology in novel and surprising ways.

This can be a sensitive topic for many gamers.  Ever since the PS3/360 motion controllers were announced early last year, a large amount of comment/talkback time has been dedicated to the theory that Sony and Microsoft will abandon their core audience in favour of our grandmas.  This paranoia is symptomatic of a generation of gamers that believe the golden age of gaming is over and that we – those of us who can still remember playing the original Half-Life - have been left to fight over the scraps thrown down to us from the Sony/Microsoft table, in the form of platform exclusives released about every six months.  But the truth is that the golden age of gaming has not yet arrived, and, if there is one, it might well begin in 2010.

Microsoft’s Natal, the Sony ‘wand’ (a non-official name), and the advances in home 3-D technology, represent an opportunity for developers to reacquaint themselves with one of the fundamental concepts of Virtual Reality: immersion.  After all, how we interface with our virtual entertainment is about a lot more than overcoming the inconvenience of not being in direct physical contact with the worlds we play in.

A good interface should be invisible (as small and neat as possible), intuitive and natural, causing no sense of disorientation between the real and the virtual.  Such an interface allows for a sense of immersion in the entertainment.  Both the 360 controller and the Dual Shock 3 do a decent job at being invisible, and, if the controls are laid out well, intuitive, but they are not natural.  They do not mimic or recreate natural motion, which is exactly why Wii tennis, though it bares little visual resemblance to the real game, definitely feels more like playing tennis.

However, if Natal and the ‘wand’ can match or better the accuracy and speed of the Wiimote, then it is possible to imagine 360 and PS3 games with much more visceral, much more natural and much more immersive gameplay.  The tech demos for both devices have hinted at mind-boggling possibilities: speech recognition in character interaction, melee combat that actually involves wielding a virtual sword and shield with your own hands, as well as speed and precision when moving, placing and selecting objects in the virtual world.

There will be those that say, ‘We’ve had the Wii for years now, and no one has succeeded in making a single hardcore game that plays better with motion controls, than on consoles or the PC.’

Well, that may be the case.  But remember, the Wii is too slow to deliver the definitive experience in any of today’s games.  No matter what happens with the next Zelda, it will still not be as advanced as TES: Oblivion.  The Wii wasn’t designed to be a machine for ambitious blockbusters.  The deepest experiences on the console are Nintendo’s trademark IPs (Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), and, while each makes liberal use of the Wiimote, motion control has not been at the heart of any of these games (apart, perhaps, for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption – the best implementation of a motion controller in a FPS-Platformer to date.)  Let’s face it; we shouldn’t be looking to the Wii for experiences like Demon’s Souls or Bioshock.  Long may it continue to be the no.1 console for bowling titles.

It is reasonable, however, to expect these advanced experiences on the 360 and PS3. And, in this case, I think motion control gaming is going where it belongs – to the cutting edge.

Honestly, I will not hesitate to get my hands on the PS3 ‘wand’, when the inevitable sword and sorcery epic is released – be it Hack and Slash or RPG.  And I’m thrilled at the prospect of what the ‘wand’ can do for online shooters.  In my mind, if it really works at 60fps, it may elevate the biggest disadvantage about FPS gaming on a console – the fact that no analogue stick on earth will ever require as much precision and skill as a mouse.  Who knows, we could see the end of ‘Aim Assist.’  Consoles could become the place for competitive online gaming.  Similarly, RTSs may finally become playable with the precision of a fast pointer.

How to talk about Natal?  It’s hard to make any judgments before we’ve seen what the technology can do, but I’ve got a few ideas.  For the hardcore gamer, there are a number of benefits motion-tracking can offer, though they do not resemble what we’ve come to expect from the controller based systems (Wii, PS3).  The first is that of speech recognition in RPG games or adventure games, where interacting with NPCs is a large part of the gameplay.  If you’ve seen the ‘Milo Demo’, introduced by Peter Molyneux at E3 2009, you will know what I’m talking about here.  Sure, the demo is a set-up – there’s a script.  But if Microsoft can actually come close to the vision of that demo then we’ll have something special on our hands – or not on our hands, as the case may be.

One has to wonder, however, about the biggest issue with Natal, and how it can be resolved.  You can’t move your character in the virtual world: it’s a tracking system, not a control system.  Is there a solution?  Yes.  Will it be used?  Almost certainly.  What is it?  Simple, the 360 Wireless Controller isn’t going anywhere.  For 50% of all Natal games, 90% of all hardcore games, I am prepared to bet that you will control most of your in-game movement the same way you’ve always done it, with the analogue sticks and the ABXY buttons.  And, while this is not a bad thing, it reveals the limitation of Natal’s technology for the hardcore gamer.

What remains is something that’s been around on the PC for a few years, and something that the PS3’s Eye Toy can also do:  head tracking.  Good news is that this is a damn cool feature which is excellent for action gaming.  Basically, the camera tracks your head movements and makes them correspond to where you’re looking in-game – aiming can then be handled separately by the analogue stick.  This means you can look in one direction, while pointing your gun in another.  It’s tactically realistic, immersive, and very, very useful.  Of course, with the advanced nature of Natal, you might also get the chance to duck and lean and jump, if you can be bothered, and don’t mind looking like an ass in front of your friends.

In conclusion, I must mention 3-D.  We won’t all have it in our homes this year, but there’s a fair chance that most of us will in 3-5 years.  Its benefits for gaming are self-explanatory, but it’s safe to say it can only enhance the immersion we have in our videogames.  Combined, as it must be, with motion technology it could literally add another dimension to the experience.

So, with 3-D TVs, motion trackers and motion controllers becoming commonplace in our living rooms, the notion of ‘Full Immersion VR’, for everyone is easier to imagine than ever before.  Are you ready to embrace these technologies, and be the first to score a headshot with a virtual gun you had to physically aim?  Or will you rail against them, clamouring for the good-old-days when games were simple, and when GTA’s hookers didn’t meet your eye in defiance when you beat them to death with a baseball bat?

One thing’s for sure: we live in exciting times for interactive entertainment.  The games of the future are being born today.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

VISUAL PRESENTATION:

Art direction:

The world of MAG is built around threes: three factions (Valour, Raven and S.V.E.R) fighting across three continents (North America, South America and Europe), with a different look and feel for each.

The factions had to be separated somehow, and the developers have gone for the three military classics: high-tech Scandinavian supermen, low-tech guerrilla warriors from the Czech Republic, and, of course, the balanced, rugged, US military grunts with real-world tech.

Loosely, this means you’ve got Raven, dressed in – guess what – black, spec-ops armour, S.V.E.R, in rusty, piecemeal, fatigues, and Valour in the earthy greens and blues of bog-standard military uniforms.  On the whole, this works very well.  It’s meant to be a realistic scenario and not Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (2007), after all.  Even though I’ve only seen things from Valour perspective, I’ve been able to scavenge enemy weapons and it seems that each faction has been given just enough ‘character’, to make you feel like part of a group (or Guild, as this attempts to be an MMO) with an individual set of ideals and their own cultural identity.  The self-customisation of your own player-character has a lot to do with this feeling of belonging – and I’ll come back to it.

The main area of difference between the factions, and the one your most likely to see – given they’re always right in front of you – is the weapons.  Now, I’ve only seen a fraction of Valour’s arsenal, but I can tell you that it’s your typical Assault Rifle (M4A1, and SCAR-type), submachine guns (MP5), machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles and pistols.  In some ways, it might actually be more interesting to join Raven or S.V.E.R as they have a slightly more unique set of weapons, instead of the Tom Clancy special collector’s set, which has been the norm since Counter-Strike 1.6 (2003).

As each faction has an HQ in a different part of the world, each landscape naturally has its own characteristics.  VALOUR, the faction I joined (being proud of the British armed forces, rah, rah) has its base in the Alaskan wilderness, and so it’s no surprise that the beta map for this location is an abandoned logging complex in the middle of the mountains.  Pine trees, patchy grass, dry mud, and dilapidated wooden buildings create a varied and convincing environment.

Then there’s Raven’s South American base (pictured in the gallery), where you fight in the ruins of ancient Incan pyramids, surrounded by thick vegetation, a river, and palm trees (perhaps the best palms since Crysis (2007)).  My only complaint here is that the colour scheme seems a bit too muddy in this environment, making it very hard to see.

Game engine:

I’m disappointed by most game engines.  But then, it’s not the fault of most developers.  They have to cut corners for the sake of fps, or scale, or time.  And yet, I still find myself wishing that most developers had gone just a little bit out of their way to make their games what I will call a cohesive graphical experience.  By that I mean, all of the models, textures, shader-effects and geometry are of a consistent quality – there is no weak link that brings you out of the gameplay experience.  Recently, games such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(2009), and Assassin’s Creed II (2009), have excelled in this area.  However, it has to be said that popular titles such as Modern Warfare 2 (2009) can get away without this level of overall detail because they are fast moving, action games that put an emphasis on competitive play, rather than immersion.

So then, how does Sony Exclusive MAG fare?  It faces tough competition from other Sony exclusives such as Killzone 2
(2009), and Resistance 2 (2008), and, unlike both of these examples, attempts to put an unprecedented number (256-128-64) of players into huge gameplay environments.  Is it a case of, great scale, poor graphics?

Thankfully, no.  The MAG team, no doubt with the help of a significant amount of optimisation time, have managed to create a decent, while not exceptional, graphical experience.  There is a good amount of variation in the textures and the up-close detail (on wooden and metallic surfaces) is supported by a number of shader-effects like those seen in the Unreal 3 engine.  In fact, I’d say the overall look falls somewhere between Resistance 2 and Modern Warfare 2.  I must also praise the lighting, as it offers dynamic shadowing, diffused fog, and HDR effects that really help bring out the atmosphere and texture work in the levels, never making anything look bland or flat.  Character and gun models are also highly detailed and benefit from specular maps (body lighting), and detailed normal mapping.

Interface:

The menu system can make or break a smooth gaming experience, especially when that game includes RPG elements or an online mode.  MAG does both, and luckily its menu system is not broken.  It’s not good looking, but the design is a straight forward system of windows with options that can be navigated by L1 and R2 as well as the stick.  If there’s a frustration, it’s that there are, as always, too many ‘log-on’ screens.  You go through about five before you can get in a game.  Also, you have to bring up several windows and navigate onto a game-type, just to start queuing for a match.  Having said this, they are quick steps, and it doesn’t take long to wiz through them.  Moreover, the war-room menu – or game lobby – is a large map of the world with all the current locations that can be fought over displayed.  This screen has all the information you could ever want about MAG on it, from the number of players, to your friends and, of course, who’s winning the war.  I don’t really care, at this point, about how many contracts my team has secured.  I don’t even know why I should.  But it’s a nice persistent element, which is the main reason the game can be compared to an MMO, other than the character creation system.

The menus for updating and maintaining your character are similarly filled with options and information, however, it’s all intuitive if you’ve ever played an RPG before, and I’m sure even players from Modern Warfare won’t spend too long scratching their primordially sloped brows, before they figure out how to equip all their items, change the colour of their camouflage, and add the aviator sunglasses to make their character look hardcore.  To be honest, you can spend too long trying to make a pretend solider look hardcore or even badass.  When there’s 100s of players on screen all throwing grenades at you, it doesn’t matter what you look like, you will run like a Teletubby at tubby-toast time.

And so to the HUD, which is nothing new.  The radar can show you enemies that have been spotted as red dots, and where you are on the map in relation to your team-mates (blue dots) – wow.  Your health is displayed as a numerical value, which makes the process of using your health-injector-thingy, simpler I suppose, as it is less vague and frustrating than a fade to black and white, which has become something of a fad these days, or health-bar.  Bullets and other useless information are also given as numbers in true MMO fashion, unforgiving to those who have a Magic Maths Shield.  The crosshair is actually a white cross – retro – with a dot in the middle and everything.  Indeed, the whole thing has a real PC vibe; made me think of CS and Battlefield 2 and older games, if there are any.  It expands and contracts to show your recoil, and turns red when you have hit an enemy (though there is a small amount of blood, it’s not easily seen).

So, it’s not a casual interface.  It encourages thought and strategy.  Although, in a slight nod to the non staff-wielding players among us, there is an ‘enemy fire sensor’, taking the form of little white semi-circles that tell you the direction of close by enemy gunfire, similar to the way red semi-circles tell you where you are being shot from.  Given the scale of the maps and the number of players, this ensures you never actually miss the battle.

Options:

There are various settings available in the MAG menu system, from clan-tags to volume and gamma settings.  As this is a beta, suffice to say there appear to be no noticeable absences.

Check back soon for some gameplay videos showing MAG in action, and hopefully not too much of me noobing it up.

Meanwhile, enjoy the gallery.