Difficulty in games

I read David Jaffe's comments about difficulty in games : http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2007/11/aaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd-scene.html
and how he hates it when designers make a game difficult.

He says he doesnt want to be challenged when he plays games, he hates difficulty curves in games and how games should be all easy to go through and fun...

I'm really with him on this point, cuz I'm usually playing on Easy mode at some games if they're too difficult since I'm playing a game to have fun and forget about my bad days (or whatever) not be frustrated at the tv. I'm playing hardcore games when I need to, but ...

It's just weird hearing it from mr. Jaffe though ... who produced God Of War ... who had the most difficult and frustrating level in a game ever!!! I just hated that walking on the edge thing and going up that chopping moving column, anyways ...

Some games make it hard just to make it hard because some designers thought it had to be hard to be fun ... thats why we have difficulty settings for those "hardcore" gamers who want it hard in life and enjoy a big challenge (i.e. COD 4 on veteran setting).

Like I said before in my posts about this issue ... I want to have fun and I dont have enough time to play over and over the same areas because its just too hard !!!

So you are right mr. jaffe! (but you dont have to use those CAPS) ;)

All those games ...

So many games came out lately ... Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Rock Band and Mario Galaxy (which I didnt have time to play yet)... luckily I had 4 days to play them during Thanksgiving (U.S.) YES!

And these are like some of the best games that came out this year...

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Rock Band
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Rock Band comes from the guys (Harmonix) who did the first 2 Guitar Heros... but with drums and a microphone included (anyways you guys know this right ...)

This game is soooo good and I only played the guitar solo campaign so far.

Why is it sooo goood (even if I played the guitar only) ?

It feels just right (and a lot better than Guitar Hero 3... A LOT).
I'm playing at medium and I dont fail the songs and I enjoy them a lot.
I like the new presentation, I like the new way the power ups are shown(bar that fills up and you can use the whammy bar to get more bonuses, I like the second set of buttons on the guitar that you can press during solos and u dont have to strum during them, I love the new guitar (even though mine is broken ...have to return it ).

The drum part is really hard...even easy mode is hard.

The songs they have on there are really good (compared to GH3) even though they have 13 songs from unknown bands that kinda suck anyways ... you can download more songs :)

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Call of Duty 4
-------------------

This game has (one of) the best endings in video games ever ... I loved that last section which is soooo different than the rest of the game. And at that moment (youll know) ... it happened :)
(I heard there was an hidden level after the credits ... what?!?)

The game looks so good ... all those details the team had the time to put in ... wow !

There are a lot of good scripted scenes, the dialogues make the game, the story is actually good.

The weapons are good to play with and they feel right, I like to play the night scenes with the goggles, I like the missions with some urgency timer type of thing and I loved the ending.

I felt that there were a lot of spawning dudes if you would just sit there and try to kill them all, but would stop if you'd move forward faster instead.

I like the fact that its short.

The multiplayer rocks, I love it even if I'm not that good, but I like to upgrade and get more perks and weapons!

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Mass Effect
---------------

I really enjoy the story in this one.

I love the dialogue trees and I like to be a Renegade :)

The indoor environments look good, I wish we could visit more planets even though there are a lot of galaxies around, the buggy is well okay... I dont really enjoy "exploring" the planets cuz you're really only going to 3 points on each planet ... right ?! oh well that gets old fast.

I like the fact that I can do a lot of sub missions or the story path and still act the way I want, but that gets me in trouble sometimes.

Being a combat dude only in the game, I feel I'm missing some electronic capacity to open safe or get information from computers even though my "helpers" have those skills, but I cant send them to do it ... kinda sucks!

The combat is okay for me cuz I'm a combat character, but I hear its horrible for other types of people ... ouch ! The combat still feels bad for me even though I have all of the weapons.

I'm still going to play further but I enjoyed the story so far and piss off other soldiers :)

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Assassin's Creed (might contain spoilers)
------------------

I hear a lot of people hate this game, but I sure am not one of those guys ... I just love this game.

I love the story and I want to know more and whats going to happen next. I know I'm being used ... everybody is kinda telling me that I am, but ... I just want to go in the future world also and see what I can do there!

I really like the way they set up the cities, how you can climb all buildings and that looks soooo good ... the animations are incredible.

I dont like how people always suspect you when you're on the ground and you have to blend in and walk slowly, but then you can just climb up and be "free".

I like the ways I can kill somebody with my little hidden blade ... that feels soooo good when it works... I feel great after ;)

I like the spying elements you have to achieve before doing an assassination (except pickpocketing which is not fun) and the informer "sub missions" are a good change also from normal spying, but I like listening to what characters say.

I like to defend citizen and I love their rewards... it's soooo great to blend in using the scholars and they drive your character around without any inputs.

But the combat is not so great ... how they are all waiting in a queue to hit you, but the killing is still better than I expected, cuz when I was watching other people combat ... I though it was the worse ever ... I guess they were bad playing it ;)

*********
update
*********
i completed the game...the end is quite a big letdown ... why can't you finish your game better we listened to so many cinematics during the game and at the end ... nothing!?!? geez

The last couple of Assassinations and the way to the last level was so bad...why cant I hit the guy while he's on the ground while everywhere else in the game I could do it ?

So many soldiers to kill for the last battles it was no fun and on the way to the last level...so many guys spawning out of nowhere and right in my face, kinda clumsy.

like i said before i still loved the missions before the assassinations, i dont mind it that much that its all of the same even though more variety would have been welcomed.


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Part of EA Games now

I was part of Ubisoft when EA threatened to buy Ubisoft. They ended up buying only a portion of Ubi's actions. People were scared of all the repercussions that this buyout would entail.
People were afraid of EA's reputation for putting out sequels after sequels, long crunch weeks and bad working conditions. People didn't want to lose their "freedom" to create new and exciting games.

Now I'm part of EA Games after they bought us (Pandemic).

People had the same kind of fear and questions about EA's ways to do business. We met with EA's president and EA Games' director who answered all our questions as best as they could. It helped us understand what they wanted to do with us and how we would be an integral part inside EA.

Over the last year, EA has changed a lot, I believe. EA is making new IP an integral part of their projects throughout all of their developpers. Yes we will still have the nth iteration of Need for Speed and sports game, but people want them anyways. They have resolved issues with crunches or are trying to (EA spouse), they are doing new games (Army of Two, Boogie, ...) and they delay games that need it instead of pushing out unfinished games.

I'm hopeful that EA will bring something good for Pandemic (worldwide publisher, experience, ...), but we will see the repercussions in the next year.

Until then check out previews of Saboteur ;)

Braid : using time in new ways

I discovered the game Braid yesterday while I was reading some other blogs.

I really liked Jonathan Blow's lecture at the FreePlay conference.

The main topics were "how (to do a great game) ? " and "why?". He talked about prototyping gameplay before implementing anything else (ok most designers do that now ...but some studios just wont allow any time for that).

Before taking the decision to pursue the game development further you should always make sure the prototype was really awesome by itself and that there isnt any other idea that you could think of that would make a better game.

At this point you should finish the game you started not matter what (most games in developement dont even come out).

Anyway the point of this post was about Braid so lets talk about it.

That game, http://braid-game.com/news/, looks awesome when he demoed it on screen.
It uses Time as its main gameplay feature set in different kind of worlds (a la Mario Bros.) where Time and objects act differently than before.

So unlike POP:Sands of Time you can rewind time or fastforward it for any amount of time. if you have played for an hour...you can rewind time until minute zero and everything will be placed as it all started.
So you cant die in this game, but the point of the game is more about how to find a way to finish the level using Time as the main element of play. So you have to manipulate Time to get through the different puzzles depending of the world in which you are.

I really liked the ideas used in the game and i'll play that when its out in Q1 2008 on XBL.

check it out!

BIOSHOCK!!!!!

this game is simply awesome!

I cant stop playing it...at night until the wee hours and in the morning before going to work.

This is the first game in a very long time makes me want to play it that bad and curse when i have to stop and go to sleep.

The atmosphere is so dark, immersive and keeps you into the game. I jumped a couple of times out of my sofa due to some events in the game.

the story is really interesting and you just want to hear the next radio transmission or audio recorder that you find in Rapture.

there are so many rooms to explore which makes the experience seem less linear since you can explore if you want and get rewards for it.

there are so many choices in the game to be made : do I save the little sisters, which powers to equip and which upgrade should I use, how do I kill this next guy, etc...

GAME OF THE YEAR I say!!!!

there are some minor annoyances like the hacking of the safes (which are so ridiculously hard sometimes) and the fact that you never die but respawn around the location you die and come back with enemies as you left them; makes the use of first aid kit useless in some fights (against the Big Daddy).

anyways I just love that game!

update----------------------------------------------------

"SPOILER here"

I played the game twice to see how different the game is when you kill all little sisters or save them all...

well it sucks pretty bad... I mean the only difference is the ending cinematic and 2 lines of dialogue from the little sisters in their hideout!

For a game that says it's about player choices well the game doesnt provide those other outcome... if I kill all the sisters why am I still not buddy with Ryan or Fontaine !?!

So my second walkthrough has been a disapointment...unfortunately :(

kinda cool that if you dont kill the artist dude you'll see him later in the game ... kinda cool ;)

really liked the theater area for all the little moments we dont usually get in games or in shooters!
----------------------------------------------

Bioshock is coming

Yeah ... Bioshock is coming in less than a week!!!

After playing the demo ... i want it soooo badly!!!

it looks awesome :)

Dead Rising

Played Dead Rising this week-end finally... i bought it one month ago at EB Games.

I like it...i enjoy killing zombies with different types of weapons, i dont really like to take pictures but it helps for upgrades so i'll do it anyways, i like the skills you get and the stats upgrade is great and I like the fact that you can save and replay the game but keeping your stats makes it less painful to start from scratch.

the bosses are really hard to deal with since sometimes you have no weapons, they're too hard sometimes ... i beat the clown because I had the two japanese with me shooting at him while I was going for the close attacks. anyways it was too hard otherwise...

the fact that my game that EB Games sold me was all scratched so some areas are not accessible for me since the game crashes...damn company cant sell games that work!!

so i couldn't experience the story so much since i needed to get somewhere i cant access...

hopefully i'll be able to play sooner or later

i'm not gonna buy any EB Games games anymore

update ---------------------------------------------------------------

So I finally got another copy and finished the game.

Liked the fact that there were multiple endings depending of how you played the game.

Really didn't like the military portion of the game cuz they kept respawning in the mall after I beat them which was already difficult and long...

Hated the fact that I had to wait 12 hours before the helicopter came in at the end of the game and the thing I hated the most ... the fact that I had to capture 10 Queens to get the medicine ... damn this took me soooooo long and it's really not fun at all to go back and try to kill so many zombies just to get 1 Queen so imagine 10! damn ... Konami could have ended my experience of the game in a more fun way.

Also, the fact that I had to restart my xbox everytime the military captured me otherwise I would be brought back in the world with no weapons etc ( like GTA ) ... who really wants to continue these games without the great weapons you collected before?!

anyways ... i played the game from start to finish once (with many restarts ) and I wont touch it ever again... I had some fun with my SMG and bosses but couldnt really save people and do the real missions at the same time

Gears of War

I just played through (im at the last boss battle) the game.

I really enjoyed it.

I liked the graphics : character models are great, the environment is well done (good covers and fits the architecture), the setting felt great. But I felt that sometimes they put a little too much gloss on some walls -> water on walls was too flashy i think.

the game is not only about graphics like some people have said...
- the cover system is great : it feels great and believable, all the options you have to move
to other cover spots or run or jump over obstacles.
- the protect your friend with the light gameplay is enjoyable yet not used for long (1 min)

-the diversity of enemies (even though sometimes they look like your friends when far
away)

-the different paths that you can take might give us a reason to go back to try out other
sections.

But... sometimes the AI is dumb : I hated Dom when he kept standing in front of the Berserker and kept dying over and over. I had to ask someone to play as Dom for that scene!!

I liked the game ... needs more huge bosses other than the spider thing.

:)

Far Cry 2 announced!

Finally Ubisoft announced Far Cry 2.

This game will be awesome!

I saw parts of it since I worked a couple of months on this game...and it will be great!

Cant say much, I guess, for now ...

http://www.farcrygame.com/

Assassin's Creed

I just saw Assassin's Creed gameplay footage at the E3...wow!

I want to play it now :)

I like how you jump from ledges to ledges sooo easily
I like how the animations are so fluid when going up on buildings and how the character goes from one ledge to another so easily while climbing sides of building.
I like how you can see so far from tops of buildings.
I like the different coounters you can perform in combat.

I don't like how the combat rolls out ... enemies waiting...it looks stupid!!!
I don't like the effect on characters (lighting thingy)

anyways...i hope its gonna be fun to play it.

More than meets the eyes!

I was wrong!!! Transformers was a great movie after all.

A lot of explosions, good jokes, a lot of action, cheesy romance, and our favorite Transformers(well some of them anyways)!

Michael Bay actually did a good movie.

I didn't like the whole movie cuz some scenes could have been better.
The story was good except some "why would he do that" scenes.

The transformations were great, well made, almost believable ;)

go see it if you ever liked the transformers

Movie : Ratatouille

Ratatouille : This movie is about a rat who doesn't like garbage food and wants to find good food for him and his family ; and Linguini a young man who was sent by his mother to get a job at the great Gusteau's restaurant.

There is only one way to describe the movie : Simply the best!!!

I think Ratatouille is simply the best movie Pixar has made so far ... the assets are really beautiful, the facial animations of all characters give the impression that they have emotions (we know exactly what they feel), the dialogues are really funny and they use a lot of humour through animations.

Theres always some comedic elements on screen in a corner of the screen even when there are long dialogues you'll laugh at whats going on around them.

people applauded at the end of the presentation!!

a lot better than the last Shrek!!

I loved it and hopefully a lot of people will go see it.

Transformers are invading!

A Mighty Heart

This is the movie that tells the story of Marianne and Daniel Pearl, the american journalist that was kidnapped in Pakistan.

We follow Marianne, Daniel, american agents and Pakistan police agents who try to find the kidnappers. Throughout the movie we are shown flashbacks of Marianne and Daniel life outside Pakistan, how they met and their overall life story. We are shown flashbacks of Daniel's meetings with his collaborators during the actual investigation so we know what really happened and if the police officers are the right path.

There are a lot of things that we don't know so we are on the same page as the police officers since we don't know who did what and how it all happened.

The scenes are actionned packed and everything is going so fast hence we are "involved" in the movie and it keeps you on your toes.

Angelina Jolie is good in the role of Marianne Pearl. Most of the actors offer good and believable performances.

The movie gives some insights of Pakistan fights against violent groups and its relationships with country around and the US.

I went to see the movie yesterday night. I really enjoyed it!

Go see it if you like movie that matters.

It's not a cheap way to cash out on a true story.

People leaving Ubi for ... Eidos

And it continues ... people are leaving ubisoft mtl for other companies but this time Eidos seems to attract a lot of talent!!

its a known fact that in the recent months/year a lot of employees left ubisoft montreal to go explore the market which consisted of A2M and EA.

Ubi bosses didn't seem to care and wouldn't try to give any incentive to keep the best talent around...they only assumed that people would come back some day.

But now with the market expanding : Eidos is now in montreal and a lot of rumours mentionned other companies that could settle in; what will happen to ubisoft and its desire to have 3000 employees before 2010 ?

Eidos seems a good new option in Montreal given the fact that this company has a lot of new IPs coming in the close future and a lot of really good IPs out there (Hitman, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc...), they will attract talented people and it has started already!

Some of the best are leaving now!

All these companies give developpers a lot of opportunities to find a place they like and can relate to without leaving this beautiful city :)

Random stuff

Sony vs Church : Wow this is scary ... if we can't use churches, historic monuments and known places in our games what will it look like ?

A lot of games are trying to make believable environments where the players will be immersed in something he knows or recognizes which makes the game (sometimes) that much more fun.

So what if every time a developper uses a known area there is someone who sues... what will happen to GTA for example ?

I think some people should focus on more important matters than that...

Ocean Thirteen : I enjoyed the movie it has some funny moments. It's always interesting to see so many talented actors in the same movie, but I think it's more of the same though... hopefully we won't have an Ocean Fourteen movie ... do something else guys.

Transformers - The video game : This game seems a lot better than the movie thats coming out soon...well okay its not that hard to be better than a Michael Bay movie...oups I said that! Unlike the movie that focuses a lot on humans (which the original Transformers didn't care to much about), the game actually give you control of a lot of our favorite Transformers and new ones and you'll fight against the other faction of Transformers. You can choose between Decepticons or Autobots and all of the Transformers have their own abilities + the transformation seems well done. At least it looks better than the last Transformers game... Also the designers brought back the real Megatron and Optimus Prime's voices unlike the movie which is good for the old fans. :)

Mr.Brooks: I really enjoyed this movie. I like how they presented Mr.Brooks personalities by using two different actors to provide a different view point of what they think. Great action and thriller sequences. You're always on the edge of your seat!

Pirates 3 : I liked the introduction scene, some of the fights were spectacular, Jack's personalities and how the movie present them and I like Johnny Depp's performance in this role. He's a really great actor and he's good in any role he plays in. I didn't like a lot of story elements in this new script, I didn't like the ending and how some scenes are "oh well yet again..." or " yeah right ..."

Xbox 360 : Finally I got an xbox 360 ... I played condemned and it has good moments where I'm actually afraid of what's next...but it has some "where do I go now" situation where I feel like I want to stop playing. The investigation gameplay is kinda too easy and doesn't bring that much more to the table. Anyways, the xbox hasn't failed yet ... hopefully its gonna stay that way.

Chulip (ps2) : I have to try this weird japanese game soon. In this game, the main objective is to kiss as many people as you can and mostly the sad people to bring joy and hapiness to your city. This is kinda weird but ill try soon :) The characters are so cute ... the graphics arent that great though and gamespot gave a 6.0 we'll see ...

Jade Raymond...and ubisoft's assassin

For those who don't know who Jade Raymond is ... she's the producer of the fabulous game being developped by Ubisoft Montreal : Assassins Creed.

The game looks amazing and hopefully for ubi and gamers it will be fun...we'll see soon.

I never worked with Jade, but I've heard a lot about her in the newspapers and in discussions between developpers.

Everytime I say I worked at Ubi Montreal, guys ask me if I ever worked with Jade or if I know her personnally this is strange. People in the industry (mostly guys) totally flip out when they see her in interviews and pictures...they don't care about the discussions they watch and analyse her.

I think thats crazy... but is it really? Is Ubi using her appeal to promote Assassins Creed ?

I really hope ubisoft and Jade aren't using her image to attract people around the game. I heard that a lot of newspaper articles in Canada are focusing on Jade and how "the sexy and hot Jade Raymond is producing a game called Assassins Creed".

Journalists should really focus on the games ... we don't need to celebrate the fact that she might be (or not) a beautiful producer over the quality of a game.
I don't see how these articles help women become men's equal or help women get the respect they deserve to be where they are at.
Jade is one of the few women in the game industry and yet we focus on her face and body! I'm ashamed ... really!! When I hear people around me talking about her like that (in the industry), I feel bad.

I hope ubisoft will not promote Assassins Creed as a game made by the "hot" Jade Raymond, but on the fact that this game is revolutionary with new gameplay elements using crowds and etc...

Ubisoft as started a casual games department and I think the Jade thing is a totally opposite mentality than what they are trying to do...trying to attract people who don't play into the gaming industry.

The Sims : The movie

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171544.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;1

Wow ... what can I say ... a movie about nothing!!!

How can they make an interesting movie out of a game with no plot, where users (how can I say players) make members of their created family go to the toilet, then lets them burn the house trying to cook something and finally gets rid of the pool's ladder so that its character drowns!

Is Hollywood already out of ideas ? Is that why Uwe Bowl wants to do games now ?!?!

yeah okay... its original for them to make a movie adaptation of such an open game.

Movie: "Paris, je t'aime"

Just seen this movie and I enjoyed it a lot.

It contains 12-15 5 minutes short movies created by famous movie directors and the common theme is Paris and love.

All the "action" occurs in different parts of Paris played by a lot of well known actors who play small roles but bring some good acting to the table.

All the movies resolve around the actors loving someone, something in Paris.

The movies are all quite different and using different aspects of film making.

Some movies are funny, others dramatic and 1 violent/funny cartoony movie.

anyway I liked it :)

EA buying Ubi ... (continues)

http://kotaku.com/gaming/borg-it-up/ubisoft-still-on-eas-menu-263772.php

Just read part of the interview with EA's CCO Bing Gordon and it seems that EA might still be interested in buying Ubi...

"I think everybody is for sale. I think in general, successful intellectual properties
in all media are undervalued, especially in our media. There's been a lot of
acquisitions, but the thing about acquisitions is that the only time it works is if
you've got an intellectual property that can succeed without the people, or if the
people have a ten-year career path that they're interested in at EA."

I hope it won't happen (ok this topic as been discussed a lot in the past), I hope Ubi will stay as it is and not be controlled by EA...the companies offer different kind of products and have a different perspective on how to make games.

I like diversity.

What would happen to EA Montreal...seriously if Ubi is bought by EA ... they won't need those two in the same city.

Competition is good! Many companies around just means better opportunities, better options and better benefits ;)

American McGee vs Ubi Shanghai !

http://www.americanmcgee.com/wordpress/?p=235#comments

This blog post from American McGee is quite funny I believe.

His new studio in Shanghai,Spicy Horse, is looking for people to hire ... and since Ubisoft is the biggest game development studio in Shanghai he's trying to get ubi employees.

It seems that ubi doesn't want to release his people "Ubi doesn’t necessarily *like* the idea of seeding outside development teams", so ubi responses to those "attacks".

"Several recent Ubi employees we’ve tried to lure away have reported a significant increase in benefits, salary, and position within the company. Ubi really doesn’t want to let people go…"

I think this is quite amusing that ubisoft is willing to give a lot away to keep his people... in Shanghai (!!!) at any price!

The thing is American McGee offers everyone, who wishes to join his company, an offer letter so the employees will get their raise from ubi, but he asks for a % of the amount received... lol!

This is his new business model he calls "Spicy Horse Salary Inflation Service"

found it funny ;)

Pan's Labyrinth

I just watched Pan's Labyrinth on Dvd.

It was a good movie.

I liked the concept of the Spanish revolution taking place while the little girl lives her fantasy.
So we can see a huge contrast between the "real" life of military officers fighting the revolution and a child's way to see the world and escape it ... to another kind of life where she rules the world and nobody dies. This life is exciting without the risk of military and where the danger is not to pursue what you believe in.

Mixing fairy tales, brutal violence acts and horror movie elements was a great experience for me. It incorporates elements taken from Alice in Wonderland and Disney movies which I usually like so much.

I found the movie didn't go far enough in the fantasy elements which we don't experiment long enough in the movie compared to the revolution.

I wished the movie would last longer and some characters could have been used in more depth like the creature with eyes in his hands. It would have created more suspense and enabled the viewers to really appreciate all of them.

I loved it for the story, the many different messages of hope and the fantasy elements.

Vision doesn't sell copies ?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/96/19

After reading this article from Escapist magazine, I'm a little disapointed in the way they reflected on the subject. In fact, they only seem to say that people don't care about good reviews for new products, but will only buy old licenses that they know of.

I believe that it's an awful way to see the issue!

It's true that most mainstream gamers or people who play casually won't go on ign,gamespot and such websites to see the reviews...most people don't care about those. These websites are more addressed to hardcore gamers and geeks ( sorry but that's kinda true ).

Do you really think parents will go on these sites before buying a game ?

I believe that great games with new creative visions will appeal to a lot of people rather than an old license that sold x number of copies , for example Splinter Cell will sell mostly to hardcore gamers or people who have played all previous games of the series. Why ? Because new players will be afraid to play this complex game which evolved since the first one. So the number of copies sold will diminish after each iteration since some of those players will want something new.

Then, why doesn't great vision sell copies ?

I believe it's the way the publishers/developpers advertise their game. Usually developpers will present a trailer of their game to show off the potential, but the problem... it's shown on a website again, gametrailers, which is only seen by a bunch of hardcore gamers.

The games will also be advertised in specialized gaming magazines which is only bought by hardcore gamers!

We should take a look at how the movie industry advertise their movies. Movie trailers are shown on TV, in a movie theater in front of hundreds of people at each showing and in most talk shows! So the trailers are seen by a lot of different kinds of people that wouldn't have known about horror movie x, for example, if they don't usually care about those, but now they know that the movie is coming out and can talk about it to other people!

Nintendo took this approach for their new Wii console and it worked ... everybody buys the console even non-gamers. They show the Wii play commercial on all tv channels, in movie theaters before all the best movies between two movie trailers and they talk about it everywhere.

So the main issue for the videogame industry, I believe, is that marketing department should rethink the way they advertised our games. They should put more money and time on the games that bring something new than older licenses that will sell anyway because they are advertised with trailers on specialized websites.

Let's think about it before saying that vision doesn't sell! Let's hope the industry can find new ways to present the games that we really care about :)

Escapist article : Westernization by Zombification

I just read last week's Escapist article "Westernization by Zombification"

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/96/09

The article talks about the game Dead Rising and how the developpers see the western "civilisation".

The article starts by explaining the history of monsters and why we invent them ..."Fiction is a mirror. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, it reveals the truth that reality obscures. Horror fiction in particular, for through its fictional terrors, we begin to see glimpses of what truly frightens us, the fears we'd prefer to hide."

The analysis goes really deep into sharing with us how japanese people see Americans and what they fear about them.

The game focuses on their fears : The danger of the American scientist who tries to change the environment and it results in a catastrophe that could destroy all of humanity, they see American's gluttony as one of the main problems of globalization, the menace of the guns that Americans carry everywhere they go and etc...

They created the main bosses in the game from American stereotypes gone mad... the clown with no children to entertain, the cop with no one to arrest, the hunters with nothing to hunt, ... they turn against the player and society at the same time.

"By fighting zombies, in other words, we're actually fighting ourselves."

"If the apocalypse is a revelation, Dead Rising's apocalypse reveals an America
immediately identifiable, but through a distorted mirror."

Interesting Article, I might say, in which we get a glimpse of how other culture see "us".

I think the article is kinda right in a lot of respect. I understand the fear that people can have towards guns being carried everywhere, I am too! There is so much violence out there, but I guess it's in the Constitution ... so it must be right ;)

(there's another interesting article in the Escapist : "Vision Doesn't sell copies, The short life of Clover Studio")

Eidos Montreal...

Really big news coming from Eidos Montreal (new studio)

the studio will be operational starting in September with 30-40 people on staff.

The news : they're gonna make the sequel to the serie DEUS EX!!!!!!

Thats soooo cool!!

I'd be glad to work on that ... some day ...

:)

To end all "Rumours" there is the video of the interview : http://www.musiqueplus.com/modules/smartmedia/clip.php?categoryid=9&folderid=45&clipid=1595

Movie : Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz is a really good movie : it's funny with great jokes, gruesome murders or "accidents", and a lot of action.

The movie is a mix between "Shaun of the Dead" and cops movies. It's written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright who wrote "Shaun of the Dead" who are back again. Simon Pegg reprises his role (kind of) of the last movie, but this time he fights real people instead of Zombies.

Nicholas Angel(Simon Pegg) is a police officer who's transfered from London where he's too good for the local police to a supposedly crime-free town, Sandford, until he arrives in town to become the new sheriff. "Accidents" happen in the city and Nicholas tries to investigate to he's reassigned to other tasks with another officer,Danny Butterman(Nick Frost), who's gonna become his best friend. They'll work together to fight crime!

This is great entertainment from start to finish and needs to be seen.

People in the movie theatre actually applauded at the end!

Go see it ... a lot of blood!!!

Xbox : Psychonauts

Finally, I got to play Psychonauts for the first time ... again... the first time I went so far as to finish the basic training then I got lost and couldn't find the second part training.

This time around I really wanted to play it through. I got lost again, but this time I punched everything I could until something happened ... wow this wasn't so easy to find...something opened at some point and the story unfolded.

Finally I could start the real psychonauts and not just the camp area of the game where we almost never go to for the rest of the game.

It's been a while that I wanted to play this game that seemed so strange and never done before.

During the game you get new psychonauts powers by collecting different items. They are mostly all well used and necessary for the player to advance in the game. You get to collect many gadgets also to use like in an adventure game.

Also, if you get stuck in a puzzle you get to use your bacon item to get some information from the crazy scientist which is cool for average players.

So for the main game now : You need to travel between different minds to save those people from their own past. Each character has a mind of its own, gameplay of its own and bosses really different from each other all with a great story behind their tie.

The experience you get each time you enter a mind is really interesting and cool to play.
Its new and refreshing!

The part I liked the most was the Cops mind (looking for the milkman!) ... this was a twisted mind and this is the part where you really need to find gadgets to get through the whole level since people need those "gang" member gadgets to let you through.
Also I really like the bull fighting mind where you need to avoid the bull, fight wrestlers and fight the bull.

But the game is frustrating in some areas. It is frustrating to die over and over again in the fish level because you just don't know where to go and the air bubble moves too slow sometimes.
Also, it's really frustrating to fall 5 stories in the brain collecting level where rats run at you and explode in confusing gaz effect where you lose health because more come at you while you have no control of your character. This level is quite confusing since you don't see where to go ... fortunately sometimes there is a catlike character that appears to let you know that there might be a way there.

The last level is way too hard compared to the rest of the game with the boss shooting at you with fire arrows while you need to run fast since you'll drown fast ... so you need to really hurry up which never happened in previous levels and the bosses are just tough and bah!

The game as taken me something like 14 hours to complete which is a good length for such a game.

Try it ... its good :)

Film : Ne le dis a personne

Film incroyable de Guillaume Canet

Synopsis : Huit ans après la mort de son épouse, un pédiatre reçoit un courriel anonyme contenant des images vidéo récentes montrant la jeune femme bien vivante. Le médecin obéit alors à son mystérieux correspondant, qui lui a fixé un rendez- vous avec la «défunte».

Ce film policier est vraiment un des meilleurs que j'ai vu depuis longtemps. L'intrigue est assez complexe et découvrir toutes les enigmes de l'histoire avant la fin est presque impossible.

Le réalisateur nous fait découvrir les multiples facettes des personnages ainsi que leurs interactions afin de nous faire vivre l'histoire. L'intrigue lie tous les personnages d'une maniere impressionnante et le spectateur doit trouver, parmis les quelques indices laissés, la vérité de toute cette histoire.

Le film comporte plusieurs rebondissements ainsi que beaucoup d'action afin qu'il n'y est aucun moment ennuyant. Le film passe tres rapidemment et il est tres pognant.

Allez le voir !

Marie-Josée Croze y joue nue encore une fois ...

Fracture - Lucasarts

Well I've seen the trailer.

I guess I understand what they wanted to do : A game where players will be able to really interact with the environment and do whatever they want with it.

So everytime you play will be different and everyone will have a different experience.

Which is one of the things next-gen games will need to incorporate...but is this the good way?!?

Will this game be fun from start to finish or will it be only a gimmick that players won't use after 20 minutes of play ?

I can't say it's such a bad idea since Red Faction was a good game where you could destroy almost all walls to make your own way...but it felt ok after a while or unnecessary to do so.

They say you'll need the different types of grenades to solve puzzles...so I guess we'll have to use them to finish the game hence the gameplay will be throwing grenades for 8 hours?!?

The tornado effect seems interesting, but the big mesh/boulder coming out of the land seems...weird to say the least.

But what the hell with the Boulder Gun??? What!?

Character design...we've seen that before haven't we?

We'll see in a year what the game looks like and I'm gonna try it then.

Leaving Ubisoft

I'm leaving ubisoft next week.

The last 3 years have been really great for me at Ubisoft. I met so many people with a lot of potential and talent.

I learned a great deal from everyone I've worked with from juniors to seniors they all had an impact on what kind of designer I've become.

Ubisoft gave me my first opportunity to work in the video game industry. I got to learn everything I needed to become a good level designer.

I'm leaving ubisoft to try some new things I've always wanted to do.

I've got ideas on my own that I'll try to develop in the next few years.

It's with a certain sadness that I'm leaving many friends who will be missed, but I am happy to go experience something new and totally different...and travel !

see ya guys ;)

Game Ramblings : Checkpoints

Just a little rant about checkpoints in games to temporary save the status of players... I think it's great to have checkpoints in games.

Why ?

1- Because I don't feel like doing a 1-hour level all over again because I missed one jump at
the end and died.

2- Because I don't have time to do levels over and over again just because the designer
didn't care if I was a bad player ... and frankly maybe I'm not that good at some games
but I still play them because I like it ... but doing missions over and over again and hear
always the same dialogues and unskippable cinematics...that I can't take!!

3- Because I don't have so much time to play because I have other responsibilities hence I
can't redo missions over and over.

4- Because it's frustrating to have to redo challenges that I had finally passed, but then I fail
the next one and have to redo everything ... man this is painful ...

I understand that some games might have too many checkpoints in them which makes the game really easier since you only start back 2 feet away from where you died every time, but maybe developpers could implement some sort of mechanism where they would know that a certain player dies a lot in a certain area and would enable a checkpoint near this area so the player would only have to start from around this area and not from the start of the level or use difficulty settings to enable or not checkpoints so at the hardest difficulty there would be no checkpoints where as in the easiest settings there would be checkpoints everywhere.

Just my thought on this issue.

Game Ramblings : Game Overs...

Lately I've heard a lot of people say that they liked to die in games or that they miss the old Game Overs in their games because they felt today's games were too easy and they wanted to do levels all over again.

Well I'm a strong believer that Game Over screens are of the past. The game industry has evolved since the 80's and this should be the first step towards that evolution...getting rid of those screens and all that "put another coin in the arcade please" mentality. The Game Over "feature" was used in the arcade to provide arcade game developpers to make money out of kids, but now it's useless to do so.

I've played a game recently that had those Game Over screens : Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles; and I just wanted to put the controller down and never come back to it because this is really want it seems to me that the designers wanted to tell me ... I've bought this game so please don't give me the option to let your game down...

I believe the game developpers must use other strategies to keep players playing their games. Instead of a Game Over screen let the player know they failed,but let them go back to the mission they were doing by using story elements or a different set of animation that lets the player know that they'll come back stronger later ... As an example, in Naruto, I'm fighting against Sasuke and I get beaten because I didn't hit the health button soon enough...so I get a Game Over screen right away...in less than a second...that's not fair for the player since he can't even know what just happened there...let Sasuke talk to Naruto (laugh at him, taunt him, etc...) or use a cinematic where naruto gets taken back to the village and at the hospital until he can recuperate.

I think we have enough ressources to put that kind of elements in our games and find ingenious ways for the players to feel we care about them and we have put the effort into the game he bought. It's not by letting the players down that the game industry will bring in more players that have never played before.

Critique : La vie des autres

Petite critique du film "La Vie des Autres"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ce film Allemand a été bien recu par les Oscars cette année et apprécié par la critique.

J'ai bien aimé le film qui discute principalement de la RDA (de l'Allemagne de l'Est) ainsi que la suspicion que les membres du gouvernement ont sur tous leurs sujets dans les quelques années avant la destruction du mur de Berlin.

tout au long du film nous suivons l'histoire d'un membre de la police secrete allemande, la Stasis, qui espionnera un auteur important de l'Est qui semble blanc comme neige, mais dont le gouvernement suspecte, car selon eux personne ne peut etre aussi "propre".

Ainsi la Stasis installera des micros et cameras dans l'appartement et l'immeuble de l'auteur afin d'obtenir les renseignements necessaires afin de l'inculper de trahison si possible.

Le membre de la Stasis écouteras et completera son rapport pour ses patrons.

Ce qui est interessant dans le film cest qu'on en apprend énormément sur les rapports entre les 2 cotés de l'Allemagne, des problemes internes ainsi que de la mentalités des Allemands qui essaient de sen sortir ainsi que de vivre le plus incognito possible afin de ne pas se faire prendre.

En plus, tout au long du film, on voit les personnages changer selon ce qu'il decouvre les uns des autres, il y a une recherche philosophique sur la nature de leur vie et des vrais raisons pour lesquelles ils vivent ainsi.

Le film est en Allemand et sous-titré dans la langue choisie ce qui donne vraiment un cachet authentique.

J'ai bien aimé le film et je le conseille a tout le monde qui en a marre des films americains et qui veut voir un film dans lequel on apprend quelque chose et qui nous fait jaser.

Match Nul entre l'Angleterre et l'Israel 0-0

wow ... que de déception pour les fans de l'équipe anglaise de soccer... les Anglais se sont contentés bien malgré eux d'une nulle contre l'équipe d'Israel en qualifications pour l'Euro 2008.

L'Angleterre est donc encore a égalité avec Israel au 3e rang de leur groupe de l'Euro 2008...

Il est incompréhensible qu'une telle équipe ne puisse compter contre un pays qui n'a rien fait sur la scene mondiale dans les dernieres années!!

Que font les Rooney, Owen, Gerrard et Lampard dans cette équipe ? Les attaquants ne font rien et en plus il y a Crouch avec qui les Anglais sont damnés ... que peut faire Bambi avec cette équipe ? Beckham n'étant plus la pour lui servir le ballon sur le front... il devra toucher le ballon avec ses pieds...ouf ca n'ira pas loin ca!

Justement, est-ce que l'entraineur McLaren va enfin rappeler le prodige Beckham afin de se qualifier a l'Euro ? jespere que oui sinon...

Critique : God of War 2

Petite critique préliminaire de God of War 2 (PS2)
----------------------------------------------------

Je n'ai pas terminé le jeu encore, mais c'est un de ces jeux qu'on se doit de terminer parce qu'il est tellement "addictive" qu'on ne peut pas s'arreter... en l'écrivant je veux continuer a jouer!!

Tout d'abord vous commencez avec tous les pouvoirs des Dieux ... Kratos (personnage principal) est tout puissant et affronte une statue énorme qui est maintenant "en vie", et pendant le combat, le joueur se doit de s'enlever lui-meme ces pouvoirs afin de pouvoir le détruire.

Cet effet est vraiment tres hot parce que le joueur a pu expérimenter tous les pouvoirs possibles dans les premieres minutes du jeu et en les perdant il voit vraiment qu'il était tres fort...apres ceci c'est certain que le joueur veut continuer le jeu et ravoir ces pouvoirs afin de battre les Dieux!

Tout au long du jeu, contrairement au premier de la série, il y aura de nombreux "bosses" a battre qui demanderont aux joueurs de trouver une nouvelle stratégie a chaque fois afin de trouver la faille dans les Dieux ou fameux monstres qui ont chacun 3 étapes de combat.

Le jeu nous permet grace a des "orbs" que l'on doit ramasser d'ameliorer les pouvoirs de Kratos autant la magie que les Dieux ont donnés au personnage que les capacités des armes. Pour ma part, je n'utilise que les chaines parce qu'ils ont des pouvoirs puissants, mais je manque a cause de ca probablement de nombreux autres avantages, mais bon...

Les differentes enigmes dans le jeu sont intéressantes bien que parfois assez dégueulasses comme dans le premier god of war en utilisant différents soldats en les decapitants afin de progresser dans le jeu ce qui nous demontre dans le fond le caractere de Kratos qui a beaucoup de compassion envers son peuple mais n'hésite pas trop a tuer afin de pouvoir progresser et de redevenir un Dieu et se venger.

Les combats sont encore tres interessants avec tous ces effets visuels qui epattent, les monstres aussi surprenants les uns que les autres me donnent beaucoup de tord pour avancer (ces maudites chauves souris qui lancent du jeu!!), les boss fights nombreux, difficiles mais ca donne tellement un bon sens de l'accomplissement lorsque battu font en sorte que les combats épattent.

L'histoire, les cinematiques tres bien faites, les emotions de Kratos, les enigmes, les combats et les pouvoirs font que God Of War 2 surpasse le premier.

Allez jouer ... moi j'y retourne!

Exposition de Disney

Je suis allé a l'exposition de Disney au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montreal avec une amie.

Pendant plus de 3 heures nous avons pu approfondir nos connaissances sur Walt Disney, ses films et ses associés.

J'ai appris beaucoup de détails très intéressants sur chaque individu qui a participé a l'oeuvre de Disney par leur efforts, dessins ou idées qui ont pu faire en sorte que les films de cette compagnie sont aussi populaires à notre époque.

L'exposition comporte donc la biographie de tous les collaborateurs plus importants de Walt Disney, les dessins ou premières esquisses de scenes de tous les films les plus connus, certains extraits de films et explications de ceux-ci. De plus, l'exposition nous offre la chance de connaitre les diverses inspirations de Walt Disney en nous montrons autant en film, qu'en toile ou extraits de contes d'où Disney a pris l'inspiration necessaire afin de les adapter au public auquel il voulait s'adresser et afin que les Nord-Américains puissent connaitre ces grandes oeuvres.

Evidemment, les films comme Fantasia et quelques films de Mickey (noir et blanc) sont comparés à des extraits des films d'où Disney s'est inpiré.

J'avais vraiment pas connaissance que les films de Disney étaient autant inspirés d'oeuvres "connus" dans le monde...les vieux courts metrages de Mickey sont, en effet, vraiment inspirés presque tel quel a des films comme King Kong ou Frankenstein.

Cette exposition a été pour moi très inspirante et j'ai maintenant le gout de voir ou revoir les vieux Mickey Mouse dont je n'ai pratiquement aucun souvenir.

D'ailleurs, j'ai regardé la collection de Donald Duck et les films pendant la guerre étaient tres droles.

Allez voir l'exposition si vous aimez Disney ... pour 15$ par adulte ... ca vaut la peine d'aller au Musée.

Premier Message

Bonjour a tous.

Eh oui c mon premier blog... je vais essayer de le maintenir le plus possible.

J'vais parler de tout ce qui m'interesse en passant par la musique, les jeux, le soccer et les arts.

J'espere que vous apprecierez ;)