This fits well with my experience with Killzone 1 on the PS. It's fairly standard and unremarkable in most respects, but the developers have managed to create a sense of inertia, weight and body that few others have. It really adds to the gameplay and makes other games feel flimsy in comparison. Eg. COD4 on the 360 - it feels like you move a massless camera instead of a full kitted soldier.
Good ideas are quickly copied, let's hope other FPS games can copy KZ2 in this respect.
Piracy can't really be defended - yes, the industry has done a lot of strange and stupid move to counteract piracy, but odd countermeasures is not an invite to steal. I suspect that as long as piracy is easy, it will persist. It's usually far easier to find and download from piratebay than finding an online reseller, so it's really morals, no practicalities that makes users go legal.
The big irony is that a pc user can easily spend $500 on graphics card, but chooses to steal the $50 game that makes it shine.
I think you're being a bit unfair on the award. It's an award for interactive innovation, not necessarily for the most inspiring game. So you could argue that there should be an award for the best/most inspiring game, but this time the focus was in interactivity.
The technology and use of it in art angle is very interesting. I agree that the tool is but a tool, it's the artwork or game as an experience that counts. But with new media, the technological development and the art created with it tends to follow closely in the first phase of development. If we look at movies, much of the techniques and technology has been developed to create a certain artistic effect, or a new development has inspired a new way of storytelling. Eg. the use of steady-cam in The Shining, Kubric could have long, flowing takes that were impossible with dolly tracks. Most viewer probably didn't reflect on it, but it gave the movie a unique and new look.
It's much the same with games. Higher resolution textures and higher polygon count is of little interest until someone utilises them. But without technological development we wouldn't have games at all, and certainly not narrative pieces of genius like BioShock and GTV IV.
EDGE is spot on - Halo's online experience is exceptionally good. I find myself wondering why Bungie's competitors haven't just copied Halo effortless multi-player functionality. There are still none that compares a year after Halo3 release in terms of match making, lag handling, keeping friends together. Eg. Bad Company which at it's best offers a brilliant experience, but if often marred by lag, unbalanced teams and an inability to keep the squad you created together.
It's true that Halo3 doesn't offer anything conceptually new to the genre, it's still very much like Doom - connect and shoot other players. But that would be like saying that there hasn't been any innovation in the car industry since Daimler put a petrol engine on a cart. Innovation is just about making small steps forward, building on previous efforts, as it is to revolutionize. Eg., lag - for the player, there is little difference between Doom and Halo in terms of network communication - except when it fails. But I suspect that there is a tremendous amount man-hours and innovation behind Halo3 arguably rock solid networking model.
Kudos to Bungie!
I see your point. And to a degree, Mattrick just does his job making the 360 shine. And it is the interviewer job to ask questions and get answers.
But this isn't about being a fanboy - I love my 360. But even a marketing guy from microsoft could give straighter answers than this - bland answers leads to uninteresting interviews and uninterested reader. Hardly ideal for PR.
The biggest misstep has to be concerning pulling Bungie from the E3 keynote. It's hard to say who right and what's really happened, but there something amiss when Mattrick says something like "Bungie just laughed" and Bungie says "We were very disappointed".
Tomb Raider Underworld producer Eric Lindstrom talks about Lara Croft’s essential personality traits, and why they’ve helped her survive all these years.
Network now...
Torbjorn.Caspersen's Comments
This fits well with my experience with Killzone 1 on the PS. It's fairly standard and unremarkable in most respects, but the developers have managed to create a sense of inertia, weight and body that few others have. It really adds to the gameplay and makes other games feel flimsy in comparison. Eg. COD4 on the 360 - it feels like you move a massless camera instead of a full kitted soldier.
Good ideas are quickly copied, let's hope other FPS games can copy KZ2 in this respect.
Piracy can't really be defended - yes, the industry has done a lot of strange and stupid move to counteract piracy, but odd countermeasures is not an invite to steal. I suspect that as long as piracy is easy, it will persist. It's usually far easier to find and download from piratebay than finding an online reseller, so it's really morals, no practicalities that makes users go legal.
The big irony is that a pc user can easily spend $500 on graphics card, but chooses to steal the $50 game that makes it shine.
I think you're being a bit unfair on the award. It's an award for interactive innovation, not necessarily for the most inspiring game. So you could argue that there should be an award for the best/most inspiring game, but this time the focus was in interactivity.
The technology and use of it in art angle is very interesting. I agree that the tool is but a tool, it's the artwork or game as an experience that counts. But with new media, the technological development and the art created with it tends to follow closely in the first phase of development. If we look at movies, much of the techniques and technology has been developed to create a certain artistic effect, or a new development has inspired a new way of storytelling. Eg. the use of steady-cam in The Shining, Kubric could have long, flowing takes that were impossible with dolly tracks. Most viewer probably didn't reflect on it, but it gave the movie a unique and new look.
It's much the same with games. Higher resolution textures and higher polygon count is of little interest until someone utilises them. But without technological development we wouldn't have games at all, and certainly not narrative pieces of genius like BioShock and GTV IV.
EDGE is spot on - Halo's online experience is exceptionally good. I find myself wondering why Bungie's competitors haven't just copied Halo effortless multi-player functionality. There are still none that compares a year after Halo3 release in terms of match making, lag handling, keeping friends together. Eg. Bad Company which at it's best offers a brilliant experience, but if often marred by lag, unbalanced teams and an inability to keep the squad you created together.
It's true that Halo3 doesn't offer anything conceptually new to the genre, it's still very much like Doom - connect and shoot other players. But that would be like saying that there hasn't been any innovation in the car industry since Daimler put a petrol engine on a cart. Innovation is just about making small steps forward, building on previous efforts, as it is to revolutionize. Eg., lag - for the player, there is little difference between Doom and Halo in terms of network communication - except when it fails. But I suspect that there is a tremendous amount man-hours and innovation behind Halo3 arguably rock solid networking model.
Kudos to Bungie!
I see your point. And to a degree, Mattrick just does his job making the 360 shine. And it is the interviewer job to ask questions and get answers.
But this isn't about being a fanboy - I love my 360. But even a marketing guy from microsoft could give straighter answers than this - bland answers leads to uninteresting interviews and uninterested reader. Hardly ideal for PR.
The biggest misstep has to be concerning pulling Bungie from the E3 keynote. It's hard to say who right and what's really happened, but there something amiss when Mattrick says something like "Bungie just laughed" and Bungie says "We were very disappointed".
All Torbjorn.Caspersen's Comments