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Gaming – 2010 Preview

January 21, 2010 — Leave a comment

For the most part, companies are done releasing video games for 2009. It’s been a pretty good year with some pretty notable titles. Daily Toreador Tech Critic Tim Poon and I already spent some time discussing our favorite games of the year during our first “Level Up” podcast, available on DailyToreador.com and our gaming blog at www.dtexperiencepoints.wordpress.com.

We also came up with a holiday gift guide that can be found in our second episode of “Level Up,” or in text on the blog, so I won’t waste time repeating myself here.

Instead, I’m going to look forward. A lot of exciting games are set to be released next year (some having been pushed back from their original 2009 releases), not to mention the fact that both Sony and Microsoft intend to release motion controllers for their systems (hoping to capitalize on some of the Wii’s success). It might be best to start preparing now, lest you get overwhelmed.

“Mass Effect 2” – The RPG masterminds at Bioware blew me away with the fantasy epic “Dragon Age: Origins,” and that has me extremely excited to dive back into their science-fiction universe. “Mass Effect 2” promises to make vast gameplay improvements over the previous installment while continuing the epic story that they began.

“StarCraft” 2 – It may finally happen. Blizzard may finally release “StarCraft 2” after much speculation and many delays. As the original “StarCraft” is still being played today despite its age, there’s a lot of reason to get excited about this real-time strategy sequel.

“World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” – I confess, I don’t play “World of Warcraft,” but a very large number of you do. In this third expansion to the insanely popular online game, areas have been entirely redesigned to be, well, cataclysmic. “Cataclysm” also adds two new races, raises the level cap to 85, adds new race/class combinations and more. If you play “WoW,” there’s no reason not to be excited.

“God of War III” – For PlayStation fans, the “God of War” franchise has been the coup de grace of action gaming. Kratos is back and ready to dismember monsters in yet another gory entry of this Greek mythology inspired series.

“Splinter Cell: Conviction” – It’s been awhile since we’ve seen special agent Sam Fisher and his night vision goggles. In “Conviction,” Ubisoft has teased a much rougher, tougher agent who will go to any lengths to get the job done. This could mean less being sneaky and more acting like Jack Bauer.

“Final Fantasy XIII” – While Japanese gamers will get their “Final Fantasy” fix by the end of 2009, English-speaking territories won’t experience the fantasy adventure until 2010. The game promises to be long and very story-driven, which is exactly what fans want.

“Halo: Reach” – Another year, another “Halo” game. Not much is known about this spin-off – a trailer will debut at Spike’s Video Game Awards on December 12th – but the safe assumption is that it concerns the fall of Reach, the last planet that stands between the Covenant and Earth. I’m hoping for some significant changes to the “Halo” formula (maybe something like squad gameplay?), but most people will probably be satisfied with more of the same.

“Bioshock 2” – The original “Bioshock” blew gamers away with a deep, philosophical story that featured a plot twist that people still talk about. It’s certainly not an easy game to follow up with a sequel, so many people are watching this with as much apprehension as excitement. If the folks at 2K can do this game right, though, it could be one of the best games of the year.

“Dead Rising 2” – Zombies have been big lately. Heck, this year marked the first annual Texas Tech “Zombie Walk.” If you would rather mow down zombies than walk with them, though, the sequel to “Dead Rising” aims to satisfy, putting a ridiculous number of undead enemies on-screen at once for you to slaughter in a huge variety of ways with many different weapons.

“Castlevania: Lords of Shadow” – 3D “Castlevania” games don’t exactly have a history of being stellar. They’ve never lived up to the high standards that their two dimensional brethren have set. However, for “Lords of Shadow,” Konami has put Hideo Kojima, creator of “Metal Gear Solid,” on the project. They’ve also secured the voices of Patrick Stuart, Jason Isaacs and other big names to help tell a story that looks both dark and interesting. This game could shape up to be an extremely successful reboot of the franchise, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

“Heavy Rain” – This PlayStation 3 exclusive is looking to take storytelling in video games to a whole new level, and it may actually succeed. An adventure game from the developers of “Indigo Prophecy,” “Heavy Rain” is all about the characters. They claim that members of the ensemble case live and die entirely based on your actions, and the story will continue regardless. Definitely one to watch.

“Alan Wake” – The original studio behind “Max Payne,” Remedy Entertainment, has been cooking up this new psychological action thriller for a long time. Reportedly inspired by the works of Steven King, and the television shows “Twin Peaks” and “Lost,” the story in this third person shooter could end up being quite the mind trip.

“Red Dead Redemption” – It doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting “Grand Theft Auto V” in 2010, but “Rockstar” is at least continuing its open-world western franchcise, which will hopefully make the wait for a new “GTA” easier. Like those games, “Red Dead Redemption” features sandbox style gameplay, only you get around on horses rather than stolen vehicles. Fans of westerns or open-world gameplay should definitely keep their eye on this game.

“Super Mario Galaxy 2” – Originally intended to be “Mario Galaxy Plus,” merely adding in some levels that didn’t quite make it into the original game, Nintendo is now giving us a full-fledged sequel. The first “Galaxy” was fantastic and a serious Game of the Year contender. Hopefully the sequel will follow suit.

“Metroid: Other M” – Now that the “Metroid Prime” trilogy of first-person adventures is done (at least for now), Nintendo has teamed up with Tecmo, the developers behind the “Ninja Gaiden” games, to help them create the next science-fiction action masterpiece. It will be extremely interesting to see how the collaboration pans out, but there is a lot of talent at those two studios.

“Max Payne 3” – While the “Max Payne” creators at Remedy and original writer Sam Lake aren’t involved, people are still excited to see what Rockstar does with “Max Payne 3.” Set twelve years after “Max Payne 2,” Max is supposedly more “world-weary and cynical than ever,” but I’m sure he’ll still be able to slow down time, “Matrix” style.

“Dark Void” – This upcoming game from Capcom mixes ground combat with jetpack fueled air combat. The story – involving the Bermuda Triangle and Nikola Tesla and aliens – has already caught the eye of Brad Pitt and his production company, Plan B Entertainment, who have purchased the film rights and intend to bring it to the big screen. Hopefully the video game will deserve such a treatment.

There are a ton more games I could talk about here, including “MAG,” “No More Heroes 2,” “Bayonetta,” “Dante’s Inferno,” “Lost Planet 2,” “Red Steel 2,” “Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker,” “Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands” and “Star Wars: The Old Republic.”

And that’s not even taking into account any surprise releases that may be announced in the near future. 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for gamers. Start saving money now.

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Column – Stop putting two spaces after periods

January 18, 2010 — Leave a comment

Originally published in The Daily Toreador.

When I joined the editorial board of this newspaper, I expected to deal with an occasional misspelling. An occasional grammatical error. The far-too-often disregard for AP style. What I didn’t expect to be infuriated so much by was double spacing.

Farhad Manjoo over at Slate.com published a pretty good and well-researched piece recently on why putting two spaces after a sentence is always and completely wrong. You should look it up if you’re interested. I’m not going to spend my time here talking about how typographers have supported single spacing for a long time now, nor am I going to try to cite scientific studies that prove that I’m right and you’re oh-so-very wrong. Instead, I want to speak from my heart for a moment and share my personal testimony on how double-spacing ruins lives.

OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but it is a problem. I’ve dabbled in several areas of publishing now — from newspapers to fiction to screenplays to the Internet — and in all of them, one space after a period is the rule, not just a preference. It’s not a matter of, “We’d like you to use only one space, but do whatever feels right to you.” It’s a matter of, “Don’t use two spaces or our copy editor will hunt you down and gut you like a fish.”

In the case of newspapers it can be especially crucial. We’re given a limited (and diminishing) amount of space as it is, and while we work pretty hard to make sure the paper is aesthetically pleasing to you and words don’t look cramped or clustered when you read them, we do want to give you more quality content. Every unneeded space takes away room for potentially good writing.

Yes, personal aesthetic preferences do play at least a small role in this argument. When I’m editing a column or a letter to the editor and I see that it makes use of double spacing, part of my soul dies simply because I hate the way double spacing looks. But it also makes my job just a little more frustrating at times, seeing as how I’m the one who has to remove all the redundant spaces before the piece goes to print.

“But master,” you say, “with modern technology’s ‘find and replace’ tools, fixing that mistake only takes a couple of clicks.” You’re right; fixing the problem isn’t typically a huge ordeal. However, those few clicks are a few clicks I could have spent on Facebook instead of editing, and really, which clicks are more valuable when it comes to that?

Plus, there’s always the issue of spacing typos. Occasionally a single spacer will accidently put two spaces after a period. That’s fine, it happens. But when a double spacer similarly slips up, you end up with the dreaded three spaces after a sentence, and that just makes kittens cry. I’ve even dealt with a few instances of four spaces after a period, and I think there’s a verse in the Bible somewhere about God considering that an affront to His glorious creation.

Some people try to defend their ugly habits by saying it doesn’t matter with today’s fonts, as two spaces in Times New Roman isn’t as gargantuan as two spaces on a typewriter. But that’s just an addict’s lie. I can tell if you’re high, and I can tell if you used more than one space.

Look, I can typically let the older typists out there slide on this thing. They learned to type back when Moses was mass-producing copies of the Ten Commandments, and old habits die hard. What frustrates me is that schools are still teaching children that putting two spaces after a period is the right thing to do. It hasn’t been right since the time of typewriters.

A quick Google search will bring up Internet posts from people who say they’re still being taught to double space, even today. A quick poll of my friends and columnists confirms this. Teachers are still teaching the practice because that’s how they were taught, and it’s a cycle they don’t plan on ending.

The problem is, that’s like teaching students the earth is flat just because that’s what we’ve taught them for years and we don’t want to invest in better textbooks or risk confusing people. We need to fix this.

If nothing else, the Twitter generation should realize that using two spaces means you have fewer characters with which to tell people how much you love/hate “Twilight.” Consider that.

Putting two spaces after a period is wrong. The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can all recover from this unhealthy addiction. If you’re currently struggling with double spacing, my advice to you is to seek help and to stop now while you’re still young and can make something of yourself. It will only get harder to quit the longer you continue to do it.

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Review – Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

January 18, 2010 — Leave a comment

Originally published in The Daily Toreador.

The family-friendly Wii isn’t usually a system people turn to for deep storylines and truly unsettling horror settings. However, leave it to a big name like “Silent Hill” to change that with a game that’s mature in all the right ways.

“Silent Hill: Shattered Memories” is a sort of re-imagining of the original “Silent Hill,” released on the original PlayStation back in 1999. It is wrong to call it a remake, as the story and gameplay is entirely new. Like the original, you play as Harry Mason, who after a car crash is searching for his daughter in the creepy town of Silent Hill. But from there, any similarities with the first game end.

The developers as Climax have taken the prestigious franchise in an exciting new direction, which was undoubtedly a smart move considering the last game in the series, “Silent Hill: Homecoming” received a lukewarm reception at best. The staples of the survival horror genre were starting to wear thin, so Climax literally went back to the beginning.

The result is a game that feels fresh, original, smart and yet still terrifying.

The most obvious change is the complete lack of combat. Not once in “Shattered Memories” do you fight an enemy. You never fire a gun or swing a blunt object.

That’s not to say that enemies are non-existent, however. As in previous games, you will often find yourself confronted by monsters that are not at all normal, and are fairly disturbing in a variety of ways. The difference here is that you don’t try to fight off the nightmares. You do what I think most of us would honestly do in that sort of situation: You run.

That may sound like a disappointment to fans of action, but the resulting chase sequences can at times be more tense and frightening than any combat sequence would. Getting lost while frantically trying to race from point A to point B, all the while too scared to take out your map lest you be murdered, is more fun than might be expected.

But even though this change is successful and fun, it is far from the focus of the experience. Much of the game isn’t actually spent running from monsters, but rather exploring Silent Hill in an effort to reveal its sinister secrets. Flashlight in hand, you spend most of your time looking for clues in the surprisingly desolate town.

But the most exciting feature is by far the way the game reacts to how you play it. Upon booting up the game, you are treated to a “psychological warning,” letting you know that the game is going to be watching your actions and changing itself to fit them. Amazingly, this isn’t a lie.

Many segments of the game – including the opening scene – take place in a psychologist’s office, where the player is often asked questions about their life. This might come in the form of a questionnaire, asking things like, “Have you ever cheated on a partner?” or whether or not you would rather spend time with family or friends. The game also monitors what objects in the game world you spend more time interacting with. Did your gaze linger on the calendar with the woman in a bikini on it? If so, the game kept track of it.

All of this information is compiled and the game changes as a result. Characters will appear differently, different areas of Silent Hill will be blocked off or inaccessible, the main character will respond differently to situations. Everything can change based on how you play. Immediately after finishing the game, I started over and started making different choices, just to see what would happen.

The game uses the features of the Wii surprisingly well. You look around with your flashlight by pointing the Wii remote. Sure, you could achieve the same function through the use of an analog stick, but using the remote feels really natural.

Even the remote’s horrible speaker is put to very good use. Throughout the course of the game you will often get mysterious voicemails and calls on your in-game cell phone. To hear them, though, you have to physically put the remote to your ear as if you were really holding a cell phone. It sounds foolish and gimmicky, but it is actually pretty immersive. The poor quality of the remote’s speaker simulates the poor speaker of a cell phone pretty well.

Primarily, though, “Shattered Memories” should be noted and praised for being “mature” rather than “adult.” It’s not a game filled with gory imagery in an effort to get cheap scares. Sure, the story deals a fair amount with sex and other subject matter that would be inappropriate for younger audiences, but it does it in an extremely smart way and provides one of my favorite video game stories in recent memories. The story twists in some pretty great ways.

While the game was released on the Wii in late 2009, it is also coming to the PlayStation 2 and PSP early this year. That said, I can’t imagine those versions being better, as many cool Wii-specific features will have to be lost.

All told, I have to recommend this new “Silent Hill” to any mature Wii owner, particularly fans of psychological horror. It’s a ride that I’m not likely to forget soon.

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