The Bottom Line:
This game is a mess. You have load screen overkill - so bad that the game only really seems playable if installed on the hard drive. This game took me a while to beat as i got stuck and quit (Ludope). However i restarted it and finally beat the boss (not the super boss). Without the technical problems (and frequent loading) this would probably be a little better than a middle of the road SRPG. Basically, this game is more along the lines of a turn-based strategy RPG. You set up parties (unions) and then fight groups of monsters. i like generally like the combat, but sometimes you will face waves of boss type monsters with no opportunity to save in between.
For some unknown reason the number of people total you can use is capped - and the leaders are capped at 6 active (a really strange number considering that there seem to be so many in the game). It is kind of strange that they have spots for 5 unions of 5, but you cannot use that many forces. There is a quasi leveling system - where you gain skills by using similar skills, but some people strongly suggest that you avoid almost every fight possible). i know the game may be cheap now, but i would really recommend the PC version (which i have never played). This is 2 discs on the Xbox 360.
Grade: D
What to Expect:
* Load screens, lots of load screens
* Guilds that have tasks (like collect items, beat really rare monster, etc)
* Side quests - there are a bunch. It seems to me that every unique leader should have had at least one of their own (after you get them). There is one on the second disk that is a nightmare (called "The Fallen"
* Turn Based battles against groups of enemies (there is a critical trigger, but you can set it to auto like i did). These are supposed to feel like larger scale battles (and some really are)
* Some really annoying fights if you are under leveled (whatever it means in this game)
* Skills - gain by using repeatedly, you gain: HP, Strength, etc at seemingly random times. Apparently better if you are fighting stronger monsters.
* Wondering if this title was really finished
* Occasionally questioning design decisions - like limited troops/leaders/etc. Why is there no New Game + (where you could use some of the later arriving leaders). Also, questioning impacts of Battle Chains and Battle Rank.
* Game Length: decent, i think i spent 100+ hours on it. However, the story kind of feels like a throw-away.
The Achievements:
Let's put it this way, i don't like it when i don't get an achievement for beating the game or any bosses. None of the 22 achievements for this game are actually story related. You will probably accomplish a few playing through the story, and a few more with side quests. i got 290/1,000 on this play through. In fact, 4 of the 22 somehow involve the Fallen side quest (which is only available for a limited time). 570/1,000 points are somehow associated with that:
(1) Complete all side quests
(2) Make certain item - i'm not including supposed DLC monster that supposedly drops the part
(3) Defeat Fallen (which is a side quest)
(4) Defeat Mega Boss (need all side quests achievement)
Friday, May 13, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Game Room Leaderboard Predictions Up to E3 2011
i know i said that last week's leaderboard check was my last - but it wasn't. Game Room stat gathering, i can't quit you (great, a reference to a movie i never have seen and don't want to).
i decided to do my monthly leaderboard increase estimates. So, here is what my bad numbers tell me should increase before E3 (ends June 9, 2011). My numbers are based off of release to date averages. So, the numbers do kind of lie. K is thousand (ex. Battlezone is striving for the 5,000 leaderboard mark). For current estimates, see my other recent Game Room post on estimates. i am also going to update my Game Room at Year One DLC post to include the newest "irr method" total sales estimates (as the end point of the range).
Sales are definitely showing decreases in rate of increases, but that is to be expected with more and more 1,000 leaderboard games - and the current state of Game Room (and its future being unknown).
Probable (according to numbers):
* Battlezone - to 5K
* Beamrider - to 600
* Cosmic Commuter - to 500
* Demons to Diamonds - to 900
* Jungler - to 10K
* Millipede (2600) - to 9K
* Missile Command - to 5K
* Rack 'em Up - to 5K
* Scramble - to 10K
* Space Armada - to 8K
* Star Strike - to 100
* Submarine Commander - to 90
* Super Breakout - to 10 K
* Time Pilot - to 7K
* Tower of Doom - to 800
* Tutankham - to 8K
* Vectron - to 60
* Yar's Revenge - to 10K
Possible:
* Asteroids Deluxe - to 30K
* Circus Atari - to 900
* Finalizer - to 30K
* Gravitar - to 3K
* River Raid - to 6K
* Road Fighter - to 30K
* Shao-lin's Road - to 30K
i decided to do my monthly leaderboard increase estimates. So, here is what my bad numbers tell me should increase before E3 (ends June 9, 2011). My numbers are based off of release to date averages. So, the numbers do kind of lie. K is thousand (ex. Battlezone is striving for the 5,000 leaderboard mark). For current estimates, see my other recent Game Room post on estimates. i am also going to update my Game Room at Year One DLC post to include the newest "irr method" total sales estimates (as the end point of the range).
Sales are definitely showing decreases in rate of increases, but that is to be expected with more and more 1,000 leaderboard games - and the current state of Game Room (and its future being unknown).
Probable (according to numbers):
* Battlezone - to 5K
* Beamrider - to 600
* Cosmic Commuter - to 500
* Demons to Diamonds - to 900
* Jungler - to 10K
* Millipede (2600) - to 9K
* Missile Command - to 5K
* Rack 'em Up - to 5K
* Scramble - to 10K
* Space Armada - to 8K
* Star Strike - to 100
* Submarine Commander - to 90
* Super Breakout - to 10 K
* Time Pilot - to 7K
* Tower of Doom - to 800
* Tutankham - to 8K
* Vectron - to 60
* Yar's Revenge - to 10K
Possible:
* Asteroids Deluxe - to 30K
* Circus Atari - to 900
* Finalizer - to 30K
* Gravitar - to 3K
* River Raid - to 6K
* Road Fighter - to 30K
* Shao-lin's Road - to 30K
Game Room At Year One: Part 3: The Estimates.01
This is a continuation of my last Game Room post (sort of)... i decided to post my current "irr" method estimates on actual leaderboard numbers. As i rely heavily on a running average, my numbers are subject to frequent change. Some numbers are high, some are low (mostly due to when i took data) and some could be right on. High initial sales really throws off estimates for some games. Sales estimates are 87.5% of my "irr method" number.
If anyone with real numbers want to scoff at me openly - go for it. If anyone with the real numbers want to share them (and will allow me to share the real numbers and allow me to share them that would be awesome) - kind of a 3rd party post-mortem for an awesome service. i guess the three most interesting numbers to me are: total unit sales, max sales per release (it is Centipede, but how many copies?), and the number of pay per plays. Too bad, i didn't think so...
i would like to use a better method, but data collection (and inexact leaderboards) has kind of rendered that kind of useless. i would love numbers for new games.
Well, i tried to use Google Docs to save a table as a .PNG file, that didn't exactly work. So here is the link for the data i was playing with (it should be the right sheet). To bad i can't customize the table more - there is far too much empty space.
If anyone with real numbers want to scoff at me openly - go for it. If anyone with the real numbers want to share them (and will allow me to share the real numbers and allow me to share them that would be awesome) - kind of a 3rd party post-mortem for an awesome service. i guess the three most interesting numbers to me are: total unit sales, max sales per release (it is Centipede, but how many copies?), and the number of pay per plays. Too bad, i didn't think so...
i would like to use a better method, but data collection (and inexact leaderboards) has kind of rendered that kind of useless. i would love numbers for new games.
Well, i tried to use Google Docs to save a table as a .PNG file, that didn't exactly work. So here is the link for the data i was playing with (it should be the right sheet). To bad i can't customize the table more - there is far too much empty space.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Video Games: The Role of the Female Character
So, a lot of posts have come up over the years deriding the way that women are portrayed in the video game milieu. So, i guess i might as well chime in.
Many of the more recent articles of the subject of gender roles in video games i've seen recently have been more than a little wrong. In some ways they seem to be pandering to the ever so polite politically correct movement. i am not going to do that. Maybe i am just too sick and twisted. Or maybe i oversimplified things.
In many ways, gender roles reflected in video games are those in real life. The caricatures of women may be a little off (and many of them are going to have serious back pain in the future), but the gender roles are fairly solid. The problem here is that real life gender role discussions are kind of wrong. In the real world you have the ever confusing abstraction of reality to fit within the current context. One of these forces is feminism. Personally, i see feminism as an evolutionarily disingenuous. So what are the roles of females in real life? Sex objects. The role of females is to have and raise offspring - that is not a choice, that is for the survival of the species. i know that the modern sensitive male doesn't want to acknowledge this, but there is a strong sexual undercurrent to almost everything in life. Video games are still gingerly tackling (somewhat awkwardly, human sexuality). i have absolutely no problem with sex and nudity in video games. For story telling - that is the next level (in story based games, anyway).
Video game characters are basically super id. Think of them as basically being blockbuster movie characters. The men will typically be your alpha male manly man. One of the points of being an alpha male is the opportunity to mate - alpha males don't need to cuddle or share their feelings. As for other female stock roles... What is so wrong with male characters re-affirming their manhood by having to rescue the damsel in distress (that used to be seen as gallant)? Just don't have the masculine hero share his feelings - yuck. Females in the real world wield sex as a weapon quite frequently. Really strong female characters are somewhat of a threat to the alpha male's manhood. So, even the really strong female character needs to be somewhat sexualized - to soften the character. Even the female protagonist characters are largely re-skinned males (not really that feminine - other than phsically).
This is somewhat selling to the target demographic - how boring would a video game be if your female love interest made you mow the lawn or do other yard work (or mundane tasks). The point is that people really don't want confusing realism in their chosen forms of escapism.
One of the reasons video games are needed is that the world has become increasingly abstract. Part of the appeal of video games is to be a different persona - one that is not available to you in real life. Characters like Duke Nukem are surprisingly simple - big on violence and lust. In many ways this is more honest than many people are about themselves. This is in stark contrast (thankfully) to the modern world where nothing is a simple as in video games. So, in some ways, video games feel the void for how people wish they could act in real life - without the ever present double standards and threat of lawsuits.
i consider dating to be one of the deeper levels of hell. So for me, video games offer something i couldn't get in the real world. Everything is so confusing - do you hold the door, who pays, etc. i wish for a greater sense of traditionalism - and video game depictions of relationships actually seem more traditional. i found in the real world, if i spend significant time with a female that i start to have more physical thoughts about them, why shouldn't my video game character? i mean, isn't the struggle for the fate of the universe (world) kind of sexy - and to paraphrase Armageddon isn't that really what your virtual self is fighting for (in many games). Also relationships vary drastically in terms of honesty. You really cannot broach the subject of relationships without associating it with sex (that is kind of why relationships exists). There is something strangely appealing about a game where i can form virtual relationships - even if they are that well fleshed out. For some reason, i find Fable 2 and 3 to be strangely attractive - you can get married and have children. i spend way too much time when i was playing those games with the black screen and background noise - and there was something oddly appealing to being told my character was going to be a dad.
Many of the more recent articles of the subject of gender roles in video games i've seen recently have been more than a little wrong. In some ways they seem to be pandering to the ever so polite politically correct movement. i am not going to do that. Maybe i am just too sick and twisted. Or maybe i oversimplified things.
In many ways, gender roles reflected in video games are those in real life. The caricatures of women may be a little off (and many of them are going to have serious back pain in the future), but the gender roles are fairly solid. The problem here is that real life gender role discussions are kind of wrong. In the real world you have the ever confusing abstraction of reality to fit within the current context. One of these forces is feminism. Personally, i see feminism as an evolutionarily disingenuous. So what are the roles of females in real life? Sex objects. The role of females is to have and raise offspring - that is not a choice, that is for the survival of the species. i know that the modern sensitive male doesn't want to acknowledge this, but there is a strong sexual undercurrent to almost everything in life. Video games are still gingerly tackling (somewhat awkwardly, human sexuality). i have absolutely no problem with sex and nudity in video games. For story telling - that is the next level (in story based games, anyway).
Video game characters are basically super id. Think of them as basically being blockbuster movie characters. The men will typically be your alpha male manly man. One of the points of being an alpha male is the opportunity to mate - alpha males don't need to cuddle or share their feelings. As for other female stock roles... What is so wrong with male characters re-affirming their manhood by having to rescue the damsel in distress (that used to be seen as gallant)? Just don't have the masculine hero share his feelings - yuck. Females in the real world wield sex as a weapon quite frequently. Really strong female characters are somewhat of a threat to the alpha male's manhood. So, even the really strong female character needs to be somewhat sexualized - to soften the character. Even the female protagonist characters are largely re-skinned males (not really that feminine - other than phsically).
This is somewhat selling to the target demographic - how boring would a video game be if your female love interest made you mow the lawn or do other yard work (or mundane tasks). The point is that people really don't want confusing realism in their chosen forms of escapism.
One of the reasons video games are needed is that the world has become increasingly abstract. Part of the appeal of video games is to be a different persona - one that is not available to you in real life. Characters like Duke Nukem are surprisingly simple - big on violence and lust. In many ways this is more honest than many people are about themselves. This is in stark contrast (thankfully) to the modern world where nothing is a simple as in video games. So, in some ways, video games feel the void for how people wish they could act in real life - without the ever present double standards and threat of lawsuits.
i consider dating to be one of the deeper levels of hell. So for me, video games offer something i couldn't get in the real world. Everything is so confusing - do you hold the door, who pays, etc. i wish for a greater sense of traditionalism - and video game depictions of relationships actually seem more traditional. i found in the real world, if i spend significant time with a female that i start to have more physical thoughts about them, why shouldn't my video game character? i mean, isn't the struggle for the fate of the universe (world) kind of sexy - and to paraphrase Armageddon isn't that really what your virtual self is fighting for (in many games). Also relationships vary drastically in terms of honesty. You really cannot broach the subject of relationships without associating it with sex (that is kind of why relationships exists). There is something strangely appealing about a game where i can form virtual relationships - even if they are that well fleshed out. For some reason, i find Fable 2 and 3 to be strangely attractive - you can get married and have children. i spend way too much time when i was playing those games with the black screen and background noise - and there was something oddly appealing to being told my character was going to be a dad.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Game Room At Year One: Part 2: DLC
Earlier, i did a post on Game Room at year one - from the release date. i decided to try and do a post changing the time frame to coincide with the start of weekly content releases - which, for the most part, usually happened. The first non-launch game pack was released on May 5, 2010 (so i'm a little early). i decided to leave the outlier launch game packs (pack 1 and 2) mostly out of the discussion.
Updated Total Information: Estimated Ranked Sales (87.5% of leaderboard) as of May 3, 2011 - 327,714 Ranked Games. i'm only using the bottom range of estimates as i don't feel like using irr. So, it is a pretty safe bet gross revenue exceeds $1 million. Centipede is the first game to cross the 30K leaderboard barrier (might have been helped a little by Windows Phone 7 version sales, but minimally). Using my "irr method" (used to badly estimate leaderboard levels), the upper end of the range is now 432,513 unit sales.
Estimated Aggregate Unit Sales (through May 10, 2011): 327,968 - 432,513
New Metric Alert:
Like most stats i use, this one is fairly simple. What i wanted to find out was the average ranked game sales per game pack (truncated). i'll give you the pack 1&2 also for reference - but it won't be in the chart. Sorry i messed up some of the charts by forgetting to label them.
* GP 01: 9,704 / GP 02: 10,694 / GP 03: 3,791 / GP 04: 2,131 / GP 05: 1,438 / GP 06: 1,136 / GP 07: 1,408 / GP 08: 481 / GP 09: 987 / GP 10: 391 / GP 11: 1,079 / GP 12: 986 / GP 13: 678
Now, because everyone has been clamoring for it... Game Room launch packs vs Weekly Release packs in chart form. Game Room sales are somewhat front loaded - if you break out the content by release date only.
Updated Total Information: Estimated Ranked Sales (87.5% of leaderboard) as of May 3, 2011 - 327,714 Ranked Games. i'm only using the bottom range of estimates as i don't feel like using irr. So, it is a pretty safe bet gross revenue exceeds $1 million. Centipede is the first game to cross the 30K leaderboard barrier (might have been helped a little by Windows Phone 7 version sales, but minimally). Using my "irr method" (used to badly estimate leaderboard levels), the upper end of the range is now 432,513 unit sales.
Estimated Aggregate Unit Sales (through May 10, 2011): 327,968 - 432,513
New Metric Alert:
Like most stats i use, this one is fairly simple. What i wanted to find out was the average ranked game sales per game pack (truncated). i'll give you the pack 1&2 also for reference - but it won't be in the chart. Sorry i messed up some of the charts by forgetting to label them.
* GP 01: 9,704 / GP 02: 10,694 / GP 03: 3,791 / GP 04: 2,131 / GP 05: 1,438 / GP 06: 1,136 / GP 07: 1,408 / GP 08: 481 / GP 09: 987 / GP 10: 391 / GP 11: 1,079 / GP 12: 986 / GP 13: 678Now, because everyone has been clamoring for it... Game Room launch packs vs Weekly Release packs in chart form. Game Room sales are somewhat front loaded - if you break out the content by release date only.
Now for the DLC game pack estimated sales (using 87.5% of leaderboard) by format.
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Generic Disclaimer 003: i am in no way affiliated with Microsoft Game Studios, Krome, Game Room, or basically anything else (ever). i'm just a hominid with way too much time on his hands and a desire to play around with numbers (occasionally). i just do this for fun. Due to the nature of data collection method (and available numbers), my numbers may be off significantly. If you want to use this "information" do so at your own peril. If the powers that be would want to give me real numbers, that would be awesome.
Game Room - My Last Weekly Leaderboard Check
So, this is part of my wrap up on the weekly leaderboard checks i have been doing on Game Room since they were introduced in late August 2010. i decided that i will no longer do weekly checks of the leaderboards*. Monthly checks - probably on the first week of a month. i have the data, now i just have to make 1-2 more Game Room posts in the next week or so. If i knew emoticons, i would use a sad face.
Apparently, the Windows Phone 7 versions of Game Room games have so far had little to no impact on my observed leaderboard levels (maybe Centipede, but that would likely be under 3K)
* Unless Game Room relaunches with new content and i can afford to buy all new ranked games. So probalby not.
Basically, i have been checking the leaderboards weekly and writing down in a notebook what titles increased - those that stay the same, i put a check mark next to. i started with the first look on August 20th (the 22nd week of Game Room). The only week between then and now i missed (week 35) was because my Xbox had to be sent in for repairs. i switched to checking the results mostly on my PC. My results have not always been great. i used to check on Thursdays and Fridays, not great when new releases come out on Wednesdays. i think it is time to update my Game Room spreadsheet (actually all of them).
i figure that i should probably add a Game Room label on this blog - to link together all of the posts.
Apparently, the Windows Phone 7 versions of Game Room games have so far had little to no impact on my observed leaderboard levels (maybe Centipede, but that would likely be under 3K)
* Unless Game Room relaunches with new content and i can afford to buy all new ranked games. So probalby not.
Basically, i have been checking the leaderboards weekly and writing down in a notebook what titles increased - those that stay the same, i put a check mark next to. i started with the first look on August 20th (the 22nd week of Game Room). The only week between then and now i missed (week 35) was because my Xbox had to be sent in for repairs. i switched to checking the results mostly on my PC. My results have not always been great. i used to check on Thursdays and Fridays, not great when new releases come out on Wednesdays. i think it is time to update my Game Room spreadsheet (actually all of them).
i figure that i should probably add a Game Room label on this blog - to link together all of the posts.
Monday, May 2, 2011
E3 2011 - Games That Will Not Be Announced Xbox 360
Apparently E3 is next month (early June i think). That got me thinking... maybe i should have my own prediction thread. However, i decided to go with the null arguments list - games that will not be announced. Why won't these games be announced? Because i would like them to - so if it might make me happy it will never happen.
On to the list of games MSFT will not (unfortunately) be announcing as this year's E3 (in no particular order).
On to the list of games MSFT will not (unfortunately) be announcing as this year's E3 (in no particular order).
- Azurik 2
- Brute Force Kinect
- Brute Force - Hawk spin-off game
- Fable Origins (a prequel)
- BC
- Infinite Undiscovery 2
- Kameo 2 (or Kinect)
- Lips Kinect - probably the most likely on my list
- Lost Odyssey 2
- Sudeki 2
- Viva Pinata Kinect
- Voodoo Vince Kinect
- Lunar - prequel (play as Dyne or Ghalleon)
- Too Human 2
- Age Of Mythology Kinect - Norse
- Nightcaster Kinect
- N.U.D.E. Kinect
- Banjo- Kazooie Kinect - a Kinect platformer
- Working Designs Games on XBLA (Lunar, Lunar 2, Vay, etc)
- Phantasy Star 5 - in real RPG form (not this online stuff)
- Kinect Adventures 2
- Game Room 2.0 (too bad the name "Retrocade" seems to be in use)
Now for the "joke" game portion:
* Halo Dance Central 80s pop edition (Dance Central is not bad, but the song selection really sucks)
* Alpenhorn Hero
* SingStar Kinect
* SingStar Kinect
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