Halo Killer

Ever since Halo 2 achieved dominance on the Xbox Live landscape, gamers and critics have been looking for the eventual Halo Killer, the game that would dethrone Bungie Studios and the Halo franchise from the Xbox Live pinnacle.

Some thought Gears of War would be the game. After all, it was a gritty first person shooter with tons of action and a great storyline. Gears of War might have pulled it off had they put a little more thought into their multiplayer game design. The fact of the matter is that Bungie got it right the first time around with Halo 2. The whole party system coupled with their matchmaking system made multiplayer Halo 2 enjoyable for hours upon hours of gaming.

Some critics actually thought that a non-FPS game could be the eventual title to push the Chief off the precipice. Games like Guitar Hero 2 & 3 and Rock Band made a good push, but the details come down to the fact that the demographic of gamers for those games and the Halo franchise were totally different. Sure, those games had great followings, but it was going to take a truly great game to take over as top dog.

When Infinity Ward moved past it's fetish with the World War II genre they positioned themselves for a title shot with the champ. Call of Duty 4 was released a mere 2 months after the blockbuster Bungie title Halo 3. While gamers were finding the matchmaking playlists of Halo 3 lacking, there was a brand new shiny title waiting for them in Call of Duty 4. The game had the gritty graphics famous in the Call of Duty franchise, but also brought a modern aspect to the table that previous Call of Duty games lacked. In the final months of 2007, Call of Duty actually managed to surpass all other games as the best selling game of 2007. Considering what it was up against, that was a tremendous accomplishment.

This week marks now the fourth week in a row that Call of Duty 4 has maintained the top spot on Xbox Live usage. While I'm still sure that the numbers are pretty close, the fact that Halo 3 hasn't made a comeback, even with their map pack release, tells me that Call of Duty 4 can now be crowned with the title of Halo Killer without reservations. Congratulations Infinity Ward.

Xbox Live Activity for week of 2/18/08
Xbox Live Activity for week of 2/11/08
Xbox Live Activity for week of 2/4/08
Xbox Live Activity for week of 1/28/08

Consolation Points

A recent study was done by students at Helsingin Yliopisto (University of Helsinki) about the emotional effects violent video games have. The students wanted to look not at the long term effects or even just averaged effects, but rather to look at the instantaneous effect certain in game events had. The results turned out to be counter intuitive.
Apparently when your character in the first-person shooter (FPS) game scores a kill, it illicits a response close to anger and anxiety. The counter event, when your character is killed, illicited a positive emotional response.
One key point I noticed while reading the article was that they played the game on a 56" screen while sitting only 78" away from it. To me that alone can skew the study. I'm not sure what the research is, but I was always told growing up not to sit too close to the TV because it would rot my brain. I'm pretty sure the action packed graphics and lights of a video game when viewed that close can cause some emotional responses.
Another blogger noticed the conclusion that possibly the pleasure response to dying is a result of finally getting a break from all the intense action. This may be true, in the sense that during gameplay your focus is on the game and your muscles are tense, ready to react to the slightest movement on the screen. When your character dies, you can take your hands off the controller for a second and you get a chance to look away from the screen. Personally I think the pleasure response when dying is more of a shear physical response to being allowed to drop your focus for the moment.
I have to wonder what the results would be if the study had taken multiplayer gaming into account, where your opponent isn't just another computer generated artificial intelligence controlled graphic, but rather a representation of another actual human being. Another thing I wonder is what it would be if that opponent were actually in the same room with you. Multiplayer games, in my opinion, have brought out much stronger emotions and tension while playing than those when playing in a single player campaign mode against the computer.
At least now I know I'm not the only one who enjoys watching my dead body float down a river in Halo 3 after I die...
VideoGameStudy.pdf

Farewell Dez1013

Dez1013 (Jan 4, 2006 - Feb 17, 2008)
With a single ebay posting, our friend Dez1013 has passed on. From his humble start in Halo: Combat Evolved, Dez grew to be an avid gamer. He pwned at LAN parties and then learned to game into the late hours of the night with Halo 2 on Xbox Live. From there he came to join our ranks in Real Custom Games. He was an integral part of the initial group formation, being a valued Core Member. Many have memories of Dez owning them during gamedays and ladder matches. Sometimes RCG members would freely offer themselves up to Dez for ownage. Other clans learned to fear Dez1013 when they faced RCG in clan matches.

Dez1013 went on to grow into an Xbox 360 gamer with the consoles release. With that advancement he was then able to demonstrate his dominance in such games as Gears of War and Crackdown. The 360 gave Dez the opportunity to own others in arcade games such as UNO and Aegis Wing. Crackdown opened Dez's gaming world to the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta. That preview made others shudder in fear at the 1337ness that is Dez1013. For the next few months Dez continued to dominate in 1337 fashion in games such as Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. He thoroughly explored and conquered RPG games such as Oblivion and Mass Effect. His latest conquest was sheer perfection on the drums in Rock Band. Truly, Dez, you will be missed.

On an early Sunday in February Dez1013's gaming life game to a sudden and abrupt end. The reality, that is life, finally caught up with him. Sometime in the future maybe Dez1013 will return to us in a reincarnated form. But for now we as gamers mourn the loss of one of our great brethren.

Guitar Hero 3 - Legends of Rock Review

This is my first plunge into the music gaming genre. The main reason I bought this game was to get the guitar controller. From reviews I've read and advice from friends and in-store staff, the GH3 controller was by far the most well designed and resilient controller for guitar games. My first impression was that this was very different from normal Xbox 360 gaming. The first song I attempted to play resulted in me getting booed off the stage because I was playing so poorly. After a few more attempts I was finally able to get through the song. The bad news was that I only hit 80% of the notes in the song. And this was on easy difficulty...

After getting a grasp on how the game works, it's not so bad. Using the guitar controller takes some getting used to. I still am no where close to calling myself adept at using it. Easy difficulty requires the use of 3-4 of the buttons on the guitar neck. Each difficulty increases both the number of buttons required and the speed and number of notes in the songs. So far I've completed roughly 10-12 songs in the game, on easy. Each song requires hitting 90% or better on the notes to complete it.

I was really impressed with the music selection. They did a good job in getting a wide variety of rock music to play. Since this is the third installment of the game, and my first music game, I'm not aware of what music was used in previous games, but I really would like to have been able to play those songs as well in this game. The downloadable songs available was a pretty nice collection. They even had the Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix included, which for a FPS gamer coming into this genre, that was a very good thing. Overall I think this is a game that many do and will enjoy. I'm planning on playing it more and looking forward to trying out new games in this genre.

Call of Duty 4 - on a roll

For the second week in a row, Call of Duty 4 has held the top spot as most played game on Xbox Live. Sorry Halo 3, but it looks like you're on the decline. Again, who would've thought that the Halo franchise would lose the top spot a mere six months after Halo 3's release...

Spore!

It looks like Maxis is going to finally give Mac gamers (is there such a thing?) a fairly decent game.

Maxis announced that Will Wright's (of Sim City fame) new game, Spore, will release on September 7th, 2008 for PC, Mac, & Nintendo DS.

I've looked at previews for the game and it looks to be pretty interesting. You basically get to control how your civilization forms, starting from a cell level organism all the way to planet wide domination. With online play you'll even be able to travel to see other people's worlds. I was kind of disappointed that it's not releasing on the Xbox 360, as Xbox Live is probably the easiest to use and more popular gaming network. At least a 360 version is in development.

Gaming Demographics

Recently I read an article in the New York Times about the gaming industry. While the article as a whole isn't that bad, I did take issue with a few points made in it.

The first assumption made by the author of the article is that gaming has traditionally been activity enjoyed alone. "The image of the antisocial, sunlight-deprived game geek is enshrined in the popular consciousness as deeply as any stereotype of recent decades." I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been playing multiplayer games since before I was old enough to attend school. Ever since I got my Atari 2600 I've been playing games against my siblings, friends, or anyone else who would play. As I grew up I would often go to friends houses and play the NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, etc. Even with PC games friends and I would enjoy the games together, even if the game was single player. We would often take turns playing different levels of games like Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, Doom, etc.

The author seems to think that online gaming and multiplayer features are a new invention. Ever since the dawn of the internet there has been online gaming (even before that with modem direct connections). The only real recent innovation is the online features being available in console games. Previously this was pretty much relegated to PC only games like Starcraft, Diablo, and others. While the observation that multiplayer games are becoming ever increasingly popular is pretty obviously correct, the distinction made that hardcore gamers and gamers who enjoy multiplayer games are distinct, separate groups is blatantly false. If anything, the hardcore gamers have propagated the advancement of online multiplayer games and are the main players of them. Multiplayer games are how hardcore gamers measure their ego. Without multiplayer games, how does a hardcore gamer know how good he/she is?

While I do agree that video games are reaching an ever widening demographic, I don't agree with the authors assessment as to the reasons behind that. What I see happening is that hardcore gamers are pushing for more different types of games. They are pushing for games that they can play with family and friends. As a gamer I obviously enjoy my video games. Because of that enjoyment, I want to share it with others. While my wife may not be into the first-person shooters I am, I'm willing to try new games that may interest her. We may even eventually purchase a Wii. But the reason behind the push towards more family friendly video games comes from gamers themselves I think more than from non-gamers. I see many first generation gamers growing up and now having children of their own. They want their kids to experience gaming as they did, but at the same time, they want to participate as well.

I also don't agree in the authors assessment that video game players and video gamer reviewers are of the same mindset. More often than not I read video game reviews that are obviously written by someone who only sat down and played a game for a few minutes. A lot of game reviewers are also reviewing pre-release versions of games that may or may not be different from the retail release version. With the short time that reviewers spend actually playing the game, many fail to grasp how real gamers will accept the games. The author in the article uses Bioshock as his example. I'll use the same game to point how reviewers and gamers may disagree on a game. Most gamers will play a game for upwards of 50-100 hours before moving on to other games. I'd be surprised if game reviewers spent more than 2 hours on a game before writing their review.

But overall, I have to disagree with the assessment that older demographics will increase in the gaming industry to the point where they dominate. The increase in family friendly games is showing now with the release of the Wii. Those same families that purchased Wii consoles I really doubt will continue to purchase new games the way hardcore gamers do with their consoles. Hardcore gamers will buy new games roughly 1-2 times a month, if not more often. I don't see most families purchasing new games on that type of a schedule. The fact is that most of the money in the gaming industry comes from game purchases, not console purchases.

Xbox Live Game Bandwidth Usage Study

I've had an idea brewing for a bit but I need some help in order to complete it. My idea is to use my laptop computer to measure the bandwidth used by Xbox 360 games, on a per game basis. I figure that since my internet connection bandwidth is more than enough to be sure that it won't be a bottleneck that I might actually be able to pull this off and be fairly accurate about it.

My idea is to use my laptop with internet connection sharing to connect my Xbox 360 to Xbox Live. I have a USB to Ethernet port and the built in ethernet port on my laptop. I would just need some software that will allow me to track the individual bandwidth usage of a single ethernet port. The best I've found is AnalogX Netstat Live, but it lacks the ability to track over a specific time period and the ability to export more specific stats. I would be welcome to any ideas on a software tool to use to do this.

Update Post Link

Activision Confirms Sequels

Activision Publishing CEO Mark Griffiths announced in a conference call to investors that sequels in the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises were in development.

"New titles will be coming in the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises, along with additional downloadable content for the current titles Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."

"Although there was no word on whether the next Call of Duty would be once again set in the modern day or taking the game back to its roots, Activision did confirm that a new sequel in the franchise was coming, and that it would also be coming to the PlayStation 2 and the Wii this time round."

Hopefully this means that the patch for Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360 will be coming out relatively soon. I know they have the map design contest going on and hopefully they can get those out soon too, so long as it isn't more generic bombed out middle eastern cities...

Call of Duty 4 on top again

Once again Call of Duty 4 has taken over the title of top game played on Xbox Live, just beating out Halo 3. What surprises me is that Gears of War is still beating Rock Band on the list.

We all knew some game would eventually come along to knock the Halo franchise off the top, but who really expected it to happen in less than six months after the Halo 3 release?

Mass Effect DLC Announced

To date, over 1.6 million gamers have explored the engaging sci-fi universe of Mass Effect. Beginning on March 10, fans everywhere will be able to expand the “Mass Effect” experience with the release of the first ever downloadable content for the award-winning saga.

The Bring Down the Sky downloadable content pack will be released to Xbox LIVE Marketplace on Monday, March 10 at 2 a.m. PST, and will be available for 400 MS points. This is the first in a series of planned downloadable content that further expands the Mass Effect universe and continues the adventures of Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew.

Bring Down the Sky includes a new uncharted world that introduces the notorious and feared alien race of the Batarians. A Batarian extremist group has hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova. Only Commander Shepard can save the millions of innocent civilians before the asteroid completes its deadly descent.

Bring Down the Sky contains approximately 90 minutes of heart-pounding action and a new Achievement worth 50 Gamerscore points.

Mass Effect is exclusively available on Xbox 360 and is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

Mana

Just when I thought I'd seen it all....

Gamers have always been associated with caffeine. All the late night gaming leaves one in desperate need of energy. This is usually provided by late night pizza delivery and caffeinated drinks. Those drinks have included Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, Bawls, Red Bull, Jolt, Full Throttle, Vault, and a host of others too many to list. When Mountain Dew had their Game Fuel, I thought it had reached the limit of direct advertising to gamers. Oh, how wrong I was...

Anyone who has ever played a fantasy role playing game should be familiar with the concept of mana. Mana is the mystical, spritual, or emotional energy your characters had. Without it you were basically toast. Now a new drink has hit the market. Presenting...

Mana Energy Potions - "Mana Energy Potion is the premium energy shot made by gamers, for gamers. It's for long nights of gaming, partying, and the longer mornings that follow. It has lots of vitamins, no sugar, and no aftercrash."
Effect:
+160 to mana (real world humans have about 100 mana, by the way). It's 5-8 hours of smooth, jitter-free energy. When it comes to caffeine content, this potent shot is equivalent to about two 8-ounce Red Bulls® or four cups of crappy office coffee.
Serving suggestions:
Straight from the bottle. If you want the energy to ramp up more slowly but still last as long, have a bottle after a meal. Don't be afraid to only take half a bottle, this is a high-level potion, so you should be careful with it. Another tip: try it chilled.
Taste:
It's a citrusy formula that goes down easy and smooth.
Magical-ish ingredients: click here
The Color of Mana:
Are you a beautiful and unique snowflake? Well, at least every Mana Potion is. Vitamin B-12 changes color with oxidation and because every potion bottle is a little different, so is the amount of change. Your potion is just as tasty and powerful regardless of the color.


wow...

Google - Use it

I'm not all for big internet companies in general, but Google has changed my mind, at least with respect to them. I used to have a Yahoo email account, one that I signed up for back in the early 90's. After a while of using that I figured out how to use PoP3 to check your email using a windows application. Then Yahoo discontinued that service (unless you paid for it). So, I dropped Yahoo.

Then I got myself a hotmail account. I thought it was pretty good. I could use it for email as well as instant messaging. The only real downside to it was the fact that your email could only be accessed via HTTP. That got old pretty quick. After we dropped our dial-up internet service (which required an MSN username), I told myself no more online email systems.

I then registered my own domain name and paid for web hosting. This enabled me to setup my own email addresses at my own domain name. I still use them to this day. The downside is that I have to have an email client to access it or go through a painful login process to get to their hosted email clients.

Then I was introduced to Gmail, Google's email service. I signed up for a gmail account way back when it was in beta and the only way to get one was if someone who had one sent you an invite. At the time the only people who had that were the über geeks aka computer science and engineering students at the university I was at. This email service has grown to exceed any of my expectations. After a while of using it they added IMAP access. Now they have PoP3 access, enabling me to download all my email to an offline backup. The filtering system is amazing. I now have all my email addresses (as of right now--8 distinct email addresses) forwarded to my gmail account, allowing me convenient access to everything. They even have a decent mobile application that lets me check my email on my cell phone.

After a while of using Gmail I started to branch off and try other Google services. Now I have my homepage on my web browser set to iGoogle, a Google search page with other nifty little tools you can place on their, such as RSS feeds, games and interfaces to other Google services (calendar, notebook, etc). iGoogle also gives convenient links at the top to other Google services I use a lot like Google Documents (online word processor and spreadsheets), Google Maps (also available in a mobile application), Google Video (aka YouTube now), Google News (aggregated news feeds from tons of sources), and Google Calendar (good scheduling calendar, highly useful in remembering birthdays, anniversaries, etc).

Just recently I discovered Google's Blogs aka Blogger. Apparently, as a computer science student, I totally missed the ball on this one. It turns out tons of my friends already have blogs (and have had them for years). In fact, this blog is run by Blogger. It's very convenient to be able to post to the blog without the annoying admin interface such as in WordPress. Blogger also makes it very easy to have multiple contributors to a blog. After blogging for a bit I wondered how would be the easiest way to keep track of all my friends blogs and how to find out when someone posted something new. At first I was putting all the feeds on my iGoogle page, but that started getting crowded real quick. Then I found out about Google Reader, an RSS feed aggregator that shows multiple feeds together in one nice little widget on my iGoogle page. This tool makes keeping track of news, blogs, online comics, or anything else with an RSS feed very simple and easy to do. I think it's safe to say that I'm a Google convert...

Gaming Dark Ages

Many who know me know that I like to play video games (if it wasn't already apparent by this blog). I've been playing video games since I was about 4 years old. We had a Commodore 64 and an Atari 2600 at the time. I see so many other kids getting into gaming at that young age nowadays. What I'm not seeing is kids taking a break from gaming as they get older. While I do enjoy video games and think anyone can enjoy them, I still feel that kids growing up need to have a break from gaming, to have their gaming life go into a sort of Dark Ages. When I meet people who took a break from gaming and those who didn't, the difference is very apparent. I went through my own kind of Dark Ages of Gaming.

As I said, I've been playing games since before I started school. I played on the Commodore 64, Atari 2600, the NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and PC either at home or at friends' houses. As I got older and moved out of elementary school into junior high, I kind of weened myself off of gaming. Sure, I still played the occasional PC game, but for the most part I stopped gaming and started participating in other social activities. I played basketball, performed in theater, did scouting and various other activities. When I moved back to the U.S. I participated in football and track & field in addition to basketball. I dated and hung out with friends. In general, I had a social life that was not the online variety. I didn't really get back into gaming until my junior year in college when I was studying computer science. Whether it is your own decision or parents prodding, taking a break from gaming during adolescence, I feel, is good for any kid growing up. Sure, video games are fun, but they shouldn't prevent you from experiencing life. So, I write this in hopes that all those who read it will evaluate whether or not gaming is preventing them from experiencing other key elements of life, and if so, decide to set gaming aside. After all, you can always pick it up again later...

Call of Duty 4 Longest Streak

Today I played some Call of Duty 4 and noticed something odd when I got another Longest Streak. Every time I've hit that, I've been playing with TheTofudabeast in my party, and him only. The first time I got my streak was in the first game I played online, which happened to be with him. Today I played some games with friends and after a while it was just him and me. The first game with just us two is where I broke my streak record again. I guess Tofu is just my own personal good luck charm when we go into Team Deathmatch games...