Archive for August, 2006
Session Time: About 3 hours spread out over Saturday and Sunday.
So, a quick story before we get started here, no? Went to go pick up Madden ‘07 (Our motto: more pancake tackles with less of the batter. Get it? Batter? In a football game? I kill me sometimes) at what I thought at the time was the nearest store, a Best Buy. I’m not a big fan of Best Buy, but hey, it’s a muggy Saturday morning in Pittsburgh, might as well make the drive as short as possible. So I pull in to this Best Buy and meander over to the PC software and games section. The sports rack is hardly deserving of that title, only a few copies of Madden ‘06 and a copy of NFL Coach. So, for the first time in human history, a male video gamer asked a store clerk for help at Best Buy. “Excuse me, you have any PC copies of Madden ‘07?”
The ‘customer representative’ or what ever the hell they’re calling the work floor drones these days gives me this blank stare like I just harshed his buzz. He’s got surfer bleached blond hair in short, curly, faux dreads. “Sorry, no, they, um, er, uh, you know, sometimes the PC games come out a few months after the consoles.” With that, I was spared having to spend money at Best Buy. I motor home, think about it, do some searching on the Interwebs, and find out it’s released. A drive to an EBGames I found is much closer ten minutes later nets me the game. For PC. Today.
So the case it comes in is about the size of two or three DVD cases. I’m expecting a large manual to help give me some hints with the scary army of controls that’s bound to be in the package. Turns out the booklet is maybe 20 pages. The only controls is a two page table that says in this situation (Passing, Running, Blocking, Defense, etc) pressing these buttons will generate that move. Not really that helpful in the long run. Also, there’s no information about the Franchise Mode or the Superstar Mode. What’s that, I hear you ask aloud to your LCD or CRT screens, what’s Franchise Mode and Superstar Mode? (Go ahead, say it out loud right now. No one’s looking, no, not even that hot chick over on the other side of the computer lab. She’s probably a hot undergrad Psych student. If you start talking to yourself or your screen, that might grab her attention. We here at Unbelievers do our best to help our readers score dates with Psych undergrads). They are two totally different and apparently divergent ways to experience the full frontal assault on the NFL portion of your gamer brain that is Madden ‘07. (Our motto: free night in jail if you play as the Bengals)
Franchise Mode lets you take on the role of the owner of the team. Not only do you get to play games, but you have to worry about how much the coaches are being paid, the price of food in the stadium, and so one and so forth. This, I believe, is the mode I’ll be playing for the majority of my Unbelievers time.
Superstar Mode lets you take on the role of a new draftee onto a random NFL team. You run mini camps, drills, are drafted, do interviews, take the freaking NFL IQ test, and apparently spend the majority of your time as a nickel back used only in 3rd and long situations. Now, this is an admittedly unique approach on the football simulation idea. When you’re on the field, you don’t control the entire team, rather, just your man in your position. You start off with your father’s and mother’s stats. Random data that you can resubmit over and over that determines your base IQ and your position. I ended generating a few sets of parents until I got my cornerback. (Note for those not hip on football lingo. First, hi, how’s the weather in the UK today? Rainy I assume. Second, cornerbacks are the guys who play defense and play deep off the line, protecting against the pass and being a safety valve if any rusher gets through the front seven. If I knew something your futball, I’d say something comparing the two. Just assume I had, please)
The good thing about Superstar Mode is before the NFL draft, you have to run practices. These are just little drills custom fit for your position. As a CB, I had to run tackling drills and drills where I batted down passes and made interceptions. At first I was horrible, but after only a few reps, I understood the controls. And when I say controls, I mean some of what I used to think was the tricky things like ‘batting down passes’ or ‘diving for the tackler’ or ’stripping the ball’. Slicing down the super-mega-ultrazord controls like this really made it easier to learn them.
However, that was the only good thing about Superstar Mode. Since you only really play an active role when your avatar is on the field, if you have someone who isn’t in on every defensive or offensive play, you sit there and watch the play progress without your interaction. Also, the training drills can be found in some of the other modes, so it is not like these things are Superstar specific either.
Franchise Mode, however, seems to be the basic “Play a season and try to get into the playoffs” mode that I remember even back to my Super Tecmo Bowl days. Sure, in this one I can charge six bucks for coffee in my home stadium as well, but seriously, I’m here to play some football (27 years of being asked if I was ready for it every Monday night, yes, yes I am). Now, when I first started the game, it asked me what my default team was. I of course made the choice of my loveless Bills. The main menu screen is Bills themed in background, and all my default choices for games are Bills. If you’re a fan of a specific team, I will admit this is a nice touch. Heck, I even had the option to change how my fans look. Maybe a bit overboard in terms of customablity, but if my Bills cheering section should all have the foam Number 1 fingers, I can make it so.
I started up franchise mode and started the preseason, playing a game against the Carolina Panthers. Here I got the first full audio of Al Michaels (Who really is a great announcer, I have to admit, and his inclusion into the Madden games is nice) and the big man himself, Madden. I don’t know if it’s my imagination or what, but Madden’s comments seem to be lessened then from what I’ve seen in earlier games. He only spouts his tough acting brand of football strategy during long yardage plays, touchdowns, or turnovers. In fact, I hear more of his voice when I use the ‘have Madden select a play’ option on defense than any where else. In other words, I don’t mind the illusionary football commentary as much as I thought I would, because it seems this iteration of the game is less about his voice and more about the actual game.
The game mechanics, even with some drills from Superstar mode under my belt, were, and are, still a challenge to me. Every passing play I have to hold down the 8 button (The right shoulder button on my controller, translate that to R2 if you’re a PS2 person) to see not only which of my receivers are going to be where, but which number I have to press on my controller to pass it to them. I was able to bust out some long balls in my game, but a lot of the time while I was paying attention to the routes I didn’t realize I was running backwards with my QB and that he was about to get sacked. Three different times I was sacked for greater than fifteen yards. I know it’s a skill I need to learn, pay attention to my receivers and who’s in my pocket, but it’s still frustrating to learn.
My controller doesn’t have an analog stick, which I believe controls where my QB is looking during a pass. I don’t know for sure what that narrow white cone that beams out of my QB’s head is, I just have to assume it’s his field of vision. The booklet is not very helpful on telling me what that is, and neither is the in game help. Not even the training drills I’ve done have told me what this is or how to control it. If it become important later on in the season, I may need to get another controller to better mimic the PS2 setup, or figure out the mouse and keyboard system that is it’s PC equivalent.
And as good as my passing is, my running, it ain’t so good. This may be again because of the new blocking feature in Madden ‘07, which I have to assume is done with the analog stick or its PC version, and thus I’m just not doing it. When I select a running play, I try to follow the route that the play is supposed to go, but I rarely hit the holes and get a gain over two yards. This is frustrating, cause I end up passing almost all the time and to me, that just seems cheap. I mean, I’m a Bills fan, not a Colts or St. Louis fan, I like runs every now and then again. The rushing drills I’ve done tell me my pad and/or my skills don’t lend themselves well to rushing. After I hike the ball, I need to alter how I manipulate the controller with my right hand. Before the snap, it’s in the normal four fingers behind the controller, firmly in the palm, thumb having free reign over the buttons. After the snap, I have to flip my hand over and put my middle finger on the 2 button (Triangle if it were PS2), with my pointer on the 3 buttoner, or PS2 X button. 2 is the sprint, 3 is the spin. 5 and 6, which would be above the Triangle and Circle buttons on a PS2 controller (The controller has 6 buttons where the PS2 has 4) do the dekes left and right, and my ring and pinky fingers camp out on those. For sucessful running plays, it seems you need to rapidly hit the spin and deke and stiff arm buttons (The last which I don’t even use, those are the shoulder buttons), while holding down the sprint button. Even with all that, I’m only able to gain one or two yards a carry before I’m tackled. Maybe some use of the rushing drills will improve, but I don’t know.
The crux of all this is that I lost my first preseason game, but only by 4 points. Even with all this chaos, all this lack of control, when the game was close, it was a rush to play. The lead switched back and forth, and like any real good NFL game to watch, it went down to the last play. Now, I decided to take control of a defenseman for the last play and moved up instead of down, which allowed the receiver to get wide open and score the game winning touchdown as time expired. In other words, if I had just sat idly by, I, and by ‘I’ I mean my team, would have won. Yet I decided to be the playmaker for the game winning tackle, and the action of taking control from the PC ended up losing the game from me. Because of this, I’m more likely to play it safe and let the PC make more decisions for me in crunch time than trust my feeble skills.
The Good: The Bills don’t suck as much when I’m in control. The sound isn’t as horrible as I thought it would be, though it’s new, and I reserve the right to throw a brick through the wall when Madden breaks the tenants of logic when he speaks. (Note to my landlord: The Wall in question is not in your building)
The Bad: Still don’t know how I’m controlling anything at times. Things move too fast, which is realistic, but when you’re playing Unreal Tournament, you don’t want the bullets shooting you to be realistic. Superstar mode was 90 minutes of my life I want back. I fear I am wasting my time and the reader’s by not having an analog stick, though it means there’s one less set of controls I have to learn.
Opinion Change: I’ve been starved for football for six months now. Madden ‘07 is fine during the real life pre season when things don’t count, and it’s new. Opinion change to the better a bit, but right now it’s the only game in town. Be interested to see how well it holds my attention when the real NFL season starts in less than two weeks; if that will enhance my urge to play or it will appear to be ‘just a game.’
August 28th, 2006
[EDIT: Big thanks to Grey for getting the Blog of the Day award for Games for August 27, 2006!
— JZ]
A number of years back there was a game that consistently drew me to arcades around the country. It was called “Punchmania”, and as you might guess it involved punching the arcade machine. It had a story and stages to it based on the anime “Fist of the North Star” (aka Hokuto no Ken) and you could play as Kenshiro, Rei, or even on the hardest difficulty Roah (where you would in the end have to beat the good guy Ken). You had to punch six pads as they emerged from the machine – the trick was to hit them at exactly the right moment when the light came on, and not to use too much force. At the end of each stage you had to perform some special Hokuto or Nanto move to finish off the opponent – usually something like punching the pads 100 times in 5 seconds. It was highly fun and very addictive, and I probably spent a lot of money on it overall. After extensive playing I began to find that I would see lit up pads when I closed my eyes, imagining the timing of when to hit them.
After 3 weeks of extensive playing of Stepmania - which has become a lot more concentrated lately as I try harder to better myself - I find that I’m suffering something similar. When I close my eyes I see arrows. Multi-coloured arrows float up through my head and I imagine the steps I would have to make to them. And it’s a lot worse than it was with Punchmania – happening much more frequently, especially first thing in the morning or going to bed at night. When half asleep is the worst time – I end up trying to do steps and waking myself up (as documented previously).
Playing Stepmania has made me realise a few things about my other gaming interests. Firstly, I don’t think I’ll ever again play a single game as much as I’m playing this right now – it’s simply unhealthy, and I’m not in any way comfortable with how my mind is becoming obsessed with the game. Secondly, the reason I liked Punchmania yet mock DDR games was mostly due to its theme – I would never have played it if it wasn’t based on Fist of the North Star. The game itself was fun, but not as fun as the anime behind it which generated a real love for the game. Thirdly, and most importantly for me, I’ve realised the reason I enjoy RPGs so much. It’s that sense of continuous progression, constantly improving your character with higher levels and new skills, stats, equipment etc, making you more able to face greater challenges. That joy I’m experiencing somewhat with Stepmania, and the character I’m improving is of course me.
But it can’t last forever. There will come a point where I can do no better, and it’s not like I can just start again from level one. This satisfaction from improvement is ultimately doomed to disappear, and without any story or entertaining theme to the game there will no longer be a reason to play. For me the game has only that one major drawing point, and it’s short-lived. Even now I find there are many songs I like that I don’t dance to any more, because they only have low level difficulty settings. Now that I’m beyond them what’s the point?
I do have a competitive streak in me, so if I had people around me who played as well then I would be tempted to keep playing in competition with them, rising myself to even greater heights. Like this guy here has, or even more impressively this other guy. Looking at those videos has made me realise just how poor a player I am in comparison with the masters.
I’ve said goodbye to 4 and 5-foot now – I only use them for warm-ups at the start of a session. I thought they were hard before, but trying out 6-foot difficulty songs has been a whole new level of intensity. As I said before, 4 and 5 foot songs use a lot more in the way of half-beat steps and diagonal jumps. 6-foot goes beyond that by making most of the steps either jumps or half-beats or some other difficult manoeuvres, all whilst vastly increasing the speed and density of arrows. This basically means you’re pretty much constantly moving both feet, as opposed to having little rests for one or more feet every so often on the easier levels. Dancing can get frantic and desperate as you try to keep twisting your body round to quickly hit the steps. There’s no more time for thought and planning – you need to react instantly to everything you see.
So how have I been doing at this new difficulty level I’m forcing myself into? Well, mixed results overall. The easier ones I can get As and Bs on, the harder ones Es and Fails. To be honest I’m simply awful at timing the half-steps, and I get the diagonal jumps wrong a lot. My proudest performance has been getting a B in “No Limit”, which is apparently from one of the actual DDR mixes. I’ve found it to be very hard, but kept pushing myself to get a good result. When I got that B I actually felt like I was dancing in the same way as the guy in the first video above, with my feet constantly flowing between the buttons at high speed.
One thing I’ve been trying to figure out is the five variables of Stream, Voltage, Air, Freeze and Chaos. Every song has different maximums for these at different difficulty levels, and your performance at the song determines how well you do in each category. Air seems to be for jumps, which I usually do well enough in, and Freeze seems to refer to holding steps, which I’m often perfect at. The other 3 I’m normally okay with, apart from Voltage which I’m sometimes awful at, but I can’t figure out what they mean. In one song on which I hit every step I got Voltage to maximum, so it could maybe have something to do with combos. What’s interesting about these ratings is that the maximum values for each seem to be determined by the game itself, so it’s a way of telling how hard the song really is, irrespective of how the step-chart maker has set the difficulty rating.
I’m now into the last week of my 30 day trial of Stepmania, and I feel I have come very far. Dancing to “No Limit” has forced me to play in a different way – something more chaotic; far faster with less time to think, and both feet constantly moving. I need to improve my timing with this style of play, but it’s putting me on the path to mastering the higher difficulty levels. I’m a completely different type of player than I was 22 days ago when I first got my feet on a dance mat. And so now I feel I’m ready to face the machine. That’s right, tomorrow I will be going to an arcade to find an actual DDR machine (or one of its clones) to test my feet and my skills against the might of the real Dance Dance Revolution.
Positives: My computer isn’t good enough to run Stepmania whilst also recording a video of it – quite a handy excuse not to put up embarrassing clips for now. Oh, you want to know something positive about the game? Well, er… let me get back to you on that one…
Negatives: The arrows, the arrows! They’re all around me, make them stop!! For the love of god please stop!!!
Overall so far: Expert DDR players are scary. But even scarier is the feeling that I don’t think it would take me that long to actually get up to that level of play. But that would involve more arrows invading my head, and they scare me even more…
August 27th, 2006
Session Time: 90 minutes. Two days ago. Job hunting sucks. ahem Progressed Shalalah to level 10, cleared out a couple of quests, and managed to still have rest left over.
As stated, job hunting sucks. That’s been the key thing preventing me from playing; after eight hours searching Monster and HotJobs fending off people who think I’m perfect for this wonderful over-the-road trucking position in East Buttcramp, Wyoming, or (my personal favorite) the guy trying to get me into a check-fraud plot, saying, “C’mon, they can’t all be scams!”, I’ve very little desire to sit in front of a computer and grinding away at something even more demeaning and less rewarding. Still, in between doing loads of laundry Wednesday morning, I did manage to get an hour and a half of play in.
I will admit to one important thing, though: the game is growing on me. I’m finding it a lot easier to slip into the world as soon as I log in. Probably the most telling fact is that, after grinding out 20 kills for a quest, I actually smiled. Yes, I enjoyed it. I had fun, dammit, and that scares me.
There was a sense of satisfaction about surviving a battle with two or three wolves by the most narrow of margins. It’s a sort of a cheap thrill as I’d accidentally gimped myself (I left my Earth Totem in the bank before realizing that I need it to cast Earth Totem spells– who’da thunkit?). Still. There’s nothing that was done that couldn’t have been done in any other RPG– hell, you don’t even need an MMO to do seat-of-the-pants escapes (just play the original Final Fantasy). So what exactly is it?
I mentioned this a little while ago, but the Taurens are the ’spiritual’ members of the Horde. A Tauren takes harmony with nature seriously; the land is something to be respected, not exploited. The world is made of what is material and what is immaterial, and harmony between the two sides of the world is of the greatest importance. We have been charged by the spirits who watch over us to safeguard the land for our children and our children’s children. It’s not just our sacred duty, it’s the meaning of our existence. The Tauren is the steward of Azeroth.
And I got all of this knowledge just from playing through the quests and accomplishing the tasks. Not even paying too much attention to the in-game text. Just the general feel of the quests. That’s saying something.
It’s often been asked, “Why play through an MMO at all? It’s just grinding.” And yeah, for the most part, an MMO is based solely around killing things and optionally selling their loot. But what keeps a player interested is the story, the content, the trappings surrounding the grind. Can you get a good story from other places? Of course; they have these things called ‘books’, I don’t know if you’ve heard of them. Can you get the story of Azeroth from a book? Wait, bad example…
I’ve always held that the greatest role-playing game in the world will be the one where the players’ actions directly dictate the way the overall story plays out. No individual quests that everyone gets, no mindless grinding. Everyone has a task, and every task serves a purpose to advance a story. When the players accomplish a task or fail to do so, the development team puts out content for their next move. I want to see a ginormous, developer-DMed game of Dungeons and Dragons where nobody feels insignificant for even a single second.
Of course, that means PvP combat. Which is what I’m planning on doing very soon now…
The Good: The story is starting to pick up. I’m getting ready to leave Mulgore and head out into the Barrens for the first time. Cross-server PvP sounds interesting.
The Bad: It’s not entirely clear what was changed in the latest patch that directly affects me, but apparently it was important. I still feel extremely lonely.
Opinion Change: Improved, but this may just be a case of “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. I suppose the game could work well as a casual pursuit, but for my part I intend to go hardcore this weekend. Namely because no placement agencies work on Saturday.
August 25th, 2006
Just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome our newest writer, Mike “PsychoPez” Hasko. He’ll be covering Madden NFL ‘07 for the PC for us. And believe me when I say nobody has more hatred for John Madden than Mike Hasko. Please check out the opening shots.
We’re also nearing the end of our first projects, and we thank you for bearing with us during the slight hiccups we were dealing with. I can assure you we’re back in business. Incidentally, so is the other site I write for, Netjak. (That’s also what I’ve been busy with.) So go there, too.
Now, then, let’s get back to the invective.
August 24th, 2006
It’s late at night and I’m lying in my bed, drifting towards the bliss of sleep. My thoughts are blurred and random, but through them comes the sound of music – a steady rhythm and the high-pitched vocals of the Gibb brothers. “Listen to the ground,” they tell me. “There is movement all around. There is something going down, and I can feel it. On the waves of the air, there is dancin’ out there. If it’s somethin’ we can share, we can steal it.” My mind floats around the tune, absorbing its funky beat, feeling every note and every lyric. I’m soaring high into the sky, twisting and turning with my arms outstretched. “Here I am, prayin’ for this moment to last, livin’ on the music so fine, borne on the wind, makin’ it mine.” The landscape flies past beneath me, a myriad of scintillating colours and flashing lights that sends my senses elevating further. I see arrows floating up from below me, marching forward in a summons to the music! Pointing in the four directions of the compass they approach in a steady line, advancing relentlessly towards my feet. I know what must be done… “^Night >Fever, ^Night >Fe>ver, <We know ^how to >do it… Gimme that ^Night <Fever, ^Night <Fe<ver, >We know vhow to <show it.” Suddenly I feel a jolt through my body, and with a gasp of breath I’m jerked from my dream. My foot had just twitched, trying to step on one of the arrows and waking me up. “Bloody Stepmania!” I mutter, before turning over and trying to get back to sleep.
Although I’ve obviously known about the DDR craze for years, I first found out about Stepmania last June from a friend online who liked to use it as a form of regular aerobic exercise. After a few weeks of intense dancing I’ve managed to drag myself up to the same level as he, so we had a little song-swap a few nights ago. Previously I wasn’t willing to accept any direct assistance with the game, but since I’m now more practised I figure there’s no harm in enhancing my experience with some extra songs from a trustworthy source. I also wanted to know what he thought of the songs I’d been trying, in case they were all easy as pie and I was a pansy for having any difficulty with them.
What he gave me was mostly a mix of anime and video game themes, and I had to swallow my pride and bias to dance to what were essentially J-pop songs. His choice of music was based on what he uses for an aerobic workout – with extra emphasis on the “aero” it seems. These songs involved a lot more jumping about than I’m familiar with, and that took some getting used to. But I did rather well overall, I’d like to think – got As and Bs on almost all 4 and 5-foot songs. I was significantly better at the Final Fantasy tunes that I recognised well (getting close to AA on some but not quite making the cut). My biggest surprise came today when I decided to try out the 6-foot difficulty on One Winged Angel. My first couple of attempts resulted in Cs, but I was determined that I could do better, and on my third go I pulled off an A. Further tries got me better and better, and I think with enough practice I can achieve an AA on this song.
My confidence was boosted by this, and so I decided I was ready to master other 6-foot songs, but my delusions were quickly shattered by pathetic fails in other tunes. Evidently this version of One Winged Angel is extremely easy for the 6-foot level. Still, I have some comfort from the fact that my friend considered the songs I found hard to be challenging too, and he thinks I have now managed to exceed him on skill at the game. I’m not sure I agree with that, but it’s nice to know that after a few weeks I can at least be on a similar level to someone who has been playing a lot longer. I should stress though that he uses the game purely as regular light exercise, with little interest in game ratings, whilst for me it’s all about challenge, and throughout I’ve been pushing myself to do better and better.
And better I shall get. I have asked around a bit and from what I can tell the level I’m at can be considered “decent”. But that’s not good enough for me. My next session will be centred around pushing myself into the 6-foot difficulties, and I’m determined not to stop there.
Some have said that my pad may not be good enough for the higher difficulty levels, but for now it’s holding up. However, once I showed someone a picture of my mat they came to the conclusion that it was potentially the source of all my hatred for the genre and my inability to fully enjoy the game. Not for any technical aspect to it, but due to its atrocious colour scheme – what I have previously described as “clown vomit” and “the results of a paint factory explosion”. You may find here a picture of its full glory:
http://www.geocities.com/darrenjohngrey/dancemat.jpg
For those interested in the DIY amendments I have made to improve the pad, you may observe the base of the pad thus:
http://www.geocities.com/darrenjohngrey/dancemat2.jpg
The polystyrene squares under the left and right arrows are taped on, and have worn down quite a bit through heavy usage. On the top and bottom are an old art pad and some physics magazines, giving firm support to the ever treacherous up and down arrows. Lately I’ve been doing without the latter since I find I can play well enough au natural, and my padding on the top and bottom tends to slip a bit at times.
This pad cost me £5 (roughly $8), and for that price I think it’s done pretty darn well. However, those interested in serious long-term play are probably much better off investing in a foam-filled pad that won’t slip as much, whilst also being considerably less unsightly.
Positives: I’m not crap! Well, not too crap at least. I have more songs I like now, for which the step-charts are well-timed to the music and at a nice level of challenge. Having fresh songs helps take away the tedium, though obviously that only works in the short-term.
Negatives: Disturbing my sleep has got to be one of the worst things a game can do to me (asides from having a bulky cartridge stuck up an uncomfortable area – or even worse, a Superscope). Basically I went to bed thinking about how I’d like a step pattern to go to the classic Bee Gees song, and as I was drifting off my feet twitched to the steps I was imagining, waking myself up. This is simply infuriating!
Overall so far: Meh. Can’t say I’m hating it, can’t say I’m loving it. The challenge is still the only real motivation to keep playing. I’m perhaps not as negative about the genre as a whole now, and not as biased against the players either, but I do still find the concept worthy of ridicule, especially the idea of playing alone. I’d perhaps be tempted to keep playing if I knew others who played and could compete directly with them – I can certainly see an attraction there. That’s notably more of an attraction than I had 3 weeks ago.
August 24th, 2006
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