On Cycles

Flower - a PS3 game that's been upgraded for PS4

I got my Playstation 4 the other day and it was just a little over seven years ago that the Playstation 3 came out. At the time I was a junior in college and had snagged a reservation by camping out in front of my local Gamestop with about 5 or 6 other people, including two of my college suitemates. It was a fun experience but definitely not something I plan on doing again, especially since I did the same for the Wii two days later. I had a lot of trouble staying awake the day after camping out for the Wii.

Thinking back on who/where I was at that time and all that's happened since then has been really interesting. It's easy for me to think of the PS3 launch as having been "not long ago" but when I think of everything that's happened it starts to seem more like "really long ago". I've graduated twice, had 5/6 different jobs, lived in 7 different places, gotten married, moved across the country, been to Blizzcon 3 times, and so much more. Seven years ago I had never played WoW, my parents were still thinking they'd retire to the retire to the country, and I'd never had a cat. And despite being "liberal", I was completely ignorant about social justice issues (which I hear is pretty typical).

This is all probably not surprising since it was over 25% of my life ago, but it's really easy to forget how much can happen in a period of time that seems so short.

It's kind of weird to only be thinking about this because a new video game console came out but I think it totally makes sense. As a gamer, these consoles and the experiences I have on them are not only significant to me but they also form the background of my life experiences. When I think about a game or a console I don't just remember the things that happened in the game but also the who and where I was and the what was happening in my life at the time I was playing. For example if I think about Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy X I think about talking with my friend in the high school parking lot. If I think about Metal Gear Solid 4 or Mega Man 9 I remember living in my parent's house after college and in the first couple months on grad school. Journey wan't just a fantastic gaming experience but I also remember having the front door open to the house we were renting at the time and waiting for Sarah to get home from work. With an MMO it's possible to have distinct attachments to expansions because of the real life experiences that were happening during each of them.

I think this is why we can get nostalgic for old games even if they aren't good, even if newer games in that series are "better". By starting up that game and playing it you can transport yourself back in time to when you were first playing it. Sonic games will always be tied to when my brother and I shared a room when we were very young, before he moved out into his own room and we began to drift apart. SSX reminds me of the Christmas when we had an ice storm in Arkansas and we had to stay with a family friend until the power came back.

It's said that smell is the sense that has the strongest tie to memory. Have you ever smelled a food and just been transported back to some great childhood memory of eating something tasty? Perhaps this is because smell is often used to identify things that might be poisonous or otherwise bad for us if we were to try and eat them. But wouldn't it make sense that action has a stronger tie to memory. Playing an old game can not only be fun but it has the ability to take you back in time.

This console launch has me remembering who I was in college, and thinking about everything that's happened in the interim. Much has happened and I've really grown a lot as a person in the mean time. I've met a lot of people and done a lot of great things. A console cycle can sometimes feel short, but a lot can actually happened. I can't help but wonder what's going to happen between now and the next generation of consoles.

Lumines and Super Stardust Delta Impressions

Click for full size w/ double the vertical and horizontal resolution.

Super Stardust Delta
Super Stardust Delta is the followup to one of my personal PSN favorites, Super Stardust HD. Super Stardust (of both varieties) is a twin-stick shooter like the immensely popular Geometry Wars but instead of being played in a bounded rectangular area it is instead played on a sphere, meaning that the player (and the enemies) cannot get trapped in a corner. Super Stardust HD featured three main weapons as well as a bomb and boost capability. Super Stardust Delta has brought that down to two main weapons and has added the Black Hole and the Missile Strike which are activated by touching either the touch screen or the rear touch panel.

One of my major problems with Super Stardust HD was the lackluster boss battles. When the bosses for the later levels were two of earlier bosses, you know you have a problem. SSD has really stepped up the boss battles to be interesting, fun, and different. Furthermore, reducing the number of weapons to two (Gold Melter and Ice Splitter; now called 'fire' and 'ice') was a great decision because Rock Crusher and Ice Splitter were basically the same thing. Ice Splitter just had a narrower spread and a longer range.
I haven't had a great opportunity yet to try out the new special weapons, Black Hole and Missile Strike, but I'm definitely finding an increased usefulness for boost, especially since it doesn't consume your special moves anymore.

The game also includes several minigames to play around with the features of the system. The first game I tried had waves of asteroids fall and in order to break them up, one must press on both the front and rear touch screen to squeeze them to pieces. This was a simple enough minigame and was fairly neat.

The second minigame had me using the front touch screen to move around a blue disc. The object was to avoid being hit with red enemies while killing the blue enemies. The large problem with this is that having my finger over the screen obscured my vision, which is all too critical for a game Super Stardust, especially when you are red/green colorblind. There are more minigames of varying quality, but the real fun is with the main game.

The music tracks are remixed versions of the Super Stardust HD tracks and that's a good thing. They've retained their high quality and addictiveness in the transition to the Vita. The game allows you to play each level individually or back-to-back in the main mode, it also has three difficulties and allows you to play the game in a "Pure" style, as in without the Missile Strike or the Black Hole abilities. All in all, Super Stardust Delta is a much better game than Super Stardust HD and any Vita owner who enjoyed the original or who just enjoys shooting things should definitely give this newer installment a try.

Note: I highly recommend going into the menu and remapping the controls so that the back touch screen doesn't do anything. You will thank me when you don't get hand cramps from trying to avoid touching the back screen. Normally this isn't a problem but since the action in the game lasts so long and is constant, it becomes quite the issue.

Click for full size.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony
Ah, Lumines. Lumines was the game that caused me to want an original PSP, and was the only game that I bought for it at launch. That little game and I have spent so much good time together. From the moment I started it and "Shinin'" by Mondo Grosso started playing I knew that I was in love. Fighting, making my way to the end so that I could hear "Lights" was a journey, and a difficult one at that. I've also enjoyed Lumines II and Lumines Supernova.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony is another entry in the Lumines stable of games . There are a few things that it does differently. To begin, the special chain block doesn't require the formation of a square to activate, it just needs an adjacent square of the same color. This makes it easier to use, but it will often be used at times when you're rather save it. There is also a new shuffle block that when it lands will randomize the color of each block that is connected to it. I haven't been in a 'late-game' situation yet where I've had too many block on the screen. However, I imagine that if I get into one, this block will greatly help me bring that down.

Another interesting addition to the game is the introduciton of avatar abilities. In the past, Lumines has allowed you to select an avatar to represent yourself. However, the avatar has been purely cosmetic. However, in this installment, each avatar has a special ability that can be used when it is charged up. The abilities charges depending upon your performance. The standard avatar ability makes the next piece have a chain in one of its blocks. I haven't actually played around with other avatars yet, but I definitely look forward to seeing what the other ones can do. Avatar abilities are activated by using the touch screen to tap the picture of your avatar and they differ between single- and multi-player modes, for balance.

The other important component to Lumines is the music. In past games, I've found that the best skins are the ones were based on licensed songs. Lumines: Electronic Symphony seems to have realized this and has included a wide assortment of licensed music to base skins on. As such, the music in L:ES is very good. It tends to be more in the foreground than in previous games, but I consider that a good thing. Past music in the games sometimes just felt like a collection of sound effects that were triggered by your actions. Now every song has a good driving theme supported by great effects.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony  is a great game that I wholeheartedly recommend if you own a PlayStation Vita.

If only this song were in it:

Asymmetric Multiplayer

In my WiiU piece, I talked about how the new controller will allow for hidden information and asymmetric multiplayer opportunities. This has actually an idea that I've had on my mind for quite some time. Way back before the PS3 came out and and Starcraft: Ghost was actually still in development, I had an idea for a mixed mode RTS/FPS game where one player, using a PSP that was connected to the PS3 would control the RTS elements of play and the PS3 players would each take individual control of a unit on the battle field. Granted my idea was sloppy, but someone else has actually come up with a similar idea that should work out much better.

This idea has actually come to light in the form of Dust 514, a PS3 shooter that takes place in the persistent EVE Online universe. EVE players take control of the RTS elements and the Dust 514 players take control of individual soldiers.

At Nintendo's conference they showed a tech demo called Chase Mii where one player, using the tablet controller, is chased by the players that are using the Wii Remote. Because they are using the tablet controller, the location of the chased player can't be spotted by the other players. This solves 'screen looking.'

Up until now the significant majority of multiplayer games, both cooperative and competitive, have been symmetric, where each player plays the same way, has access to the same things, etc. So what are some ways that this new multiplayer paradigm can be leveraged?

How the next generation should shape up.

Nintendo has shown part of their hand. You could definitely argue that it's probably the most important part of their hand, but it's definitely not all of it. We now know what the new controller gimmick is going to be for the WiiU and we know that it's graphical power will be comparable to the PS3 and the Xbox 360. So how are Sony and Microsoft going to respond? This post will be an analysis of how I think they should respond and how I think the next generation should shape up.

Online
We know nothing about what, if any, improvements will be made to the WiiU's online functionality. The Wii has the worst online functionality of the three systems and the Xbox 360 is far and ahead in the lead. I firmly believe that both Sony and Nintendo need to make the social aspects of their systems more robust and more prominent. Every console's online system needs bio's, status updates, now playing status, and a more robust messaging system.

One of the limiting factors for Sony is the XMB. The XMB interface is minimalistic, too minimalistic. The design doesn't lend itself to the amount of information that needs to be displayed for the social aspects of the console's online functionality.

Nintendo's online functionality just needs more. And no more friend codes. I want to be able add someone by their username and be given a list of people that I have recently played list so that they're easy to find and add to my friends list.

Controllers
Every controller for current generation systems needs to work for next generation systems. Nintendo has already confirmed that Wii Remotes will work with the WiiU. The PS3 and XBox 360 standard controllers need to work with their respective followup systems and the Kinect and Move also need to work with the followup systems. The standard gaming controller has reached it's pinnacle, it's not getting better. The motion controllers need to carry over to the next systems because they have yet to be fully utilized.

Power
The next generation from Sony and Microsoft could once again be the humongous leap in visuals that the current generation was over the last, but I don't think that it should be. I think it would be great if the next generation was a more conservative step forward. This will help keep the price of the console's lower and it will help keep the price of game development lower. It will also let the consoles be smaller.

I think that it would be perfectly possible for Sony and Microsoft's next series of consoles to be enough of a step forward that they distinguish themselves graphically from the WiiU, but close enough that making a three-platform game isn't so hard that is makes the WiiU version not worth the cost of development.

Price
I started to mention this in the last section, but the next series of consoles needs to be cheaper. The XBox 360 was somewhat expensive and the PS3 was far too expensive. You can tell that Sony learned their lesson with the PS3 from their Vita price announcement. There's a reason that the PS2 and the Wii were such successes and the software was only part of it.

E3 Impressions: The Vita/NGP/PSV

First of all, let me say that I am very excited about everything that I've seen at E3 so far. As someone who loves their PSP, I am super excited about the Vita.

Things that I'm excited about:

• Graphics quality
• Front multi-touch screen
• Rear touch panel
• Two thumb sticks

Things that I worry about:

• Third-party software support
• Lack of support for my current PSP disc games

The second issue there isn't too much of a big one, since I will deal with that just by keeping my current PSP. 

I've done a look around the internet to do the obvious comparison against the 3DS. It appears to me that, in it's favor, the Vita has better graphics quality, two thumb sticks, the rear touch panel, multitouch, GPS, Bluetooth, and optional 3G support. The 3DS has, in it's favor, 2 screens, 3D, the virtual console, and Nintendo franchises. I firmly believe that the Vita stands a much better chance at fighting the 3DS than the PSP had against the DS. I'm definitely not saying that it's going to be better. The virtual console and Nintendo franchises are HUGE factors in the 3DS's favor.