Dear Esther fosters and hinders exploration in the same chord

Dear Esther is not a game. I don’t say that to sound elitist or demeaning, but it doesn’t share the same qualities that you might think of in a game. The narrative is scarce, there are no puzzles to solve, movement feels rigid, there is little interaction from the player, and no clear goal of what you must do. Instead, it presents a landscape that looks beautiful and illustrates the thoughts of a man as he reflects and accepts the troubles of his past.

Choosing your fate and the non-consequences of Amalur

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a game all about fate. Having died once and being the first person resurrected by a device known as the Well of Souls, you fulfilled your destiny and are no longer bound to it. This means you can change the fate of the world and those around you, except you don’t.

All those Vita advertisements

With the February 22 launch of Sony’s brand new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, you’d think there would be more advertisements for it. With less than two weeks, I’ve yet to see a single TV, radio, magazine, or internet ad for it. In fact, the only advertisement I have seen is the Taco Bell promotion that gives away a free PlayStation Vita every 15 minutes (they aren’t).

In an interview with the New York Times, John Koller, senior director for Sony’s handheld consoles, said the company is spending $50 million on commercials, billboard, retail details, online banners, and social media including a Twitter campaign themed, “Never Stop Playing,” with the hashtag #gamechanger. Koller says the campaign is focused on brining “the largest platform launch in terms of marketing investment we’ve ever hand.

That would sound great, if their demographic wasn’t so niche. According to Koller, the target audience for the Vita is men in their 20s who play video games eight hours a week for more and own a PlayStation 3 console. The challenge that lies ahead for Sony is to overlap that market with those who already own other mobile or handheld devices, such as the iPhone or Nintendo 3DS, and pull them towards the PlayStation brand.

Mass Effect 3 Featuring Jessica Chobot

BioWare released a new trailer for Mass Effect 3 this morning highlighting the new and returning voice actors of the game. Jennifer Hale returns as female Commander Shepard, Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, Keith David as Admiral Anderson, Seth Green as Joker, Tricia Helfer as EDI, and newcomer Freddie Prinze Jr. as James Vega.

No BlizzCon for 2012

Blizzard announced today that its annual convention for all things Blizzard will not occur this year at the Anaheim Convention Center like it normally does, nor anywhere else. In a post on their BlizzCon site, Blizzard noted that due to its numerous current development, including Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and World of WarCraft: Mists of Panderia, BlizzCon would be held off until next year in 2013.

BlizzCon has been an annual event since 2007, with each year announcing a new product or feature. It could be with all of their current projects, they have nothing new to announce. It could also be a financial decision, with Blizzard stating several times that BlizzCon is a loss for them in terms of profit, and held purely as a gesture of goodwill for the fans.

It’s interesting to note that 2012 was the year that Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime mentioned would be the first news of their upcoming next-gen MMO project, Titan. With BlizzCon 2012 off the plate, it’s doubtful that we’ll hear anything about this project until next year.

In the same post, Blizzard announced the 2012 Battle.net World Championship, bringing in the world’s best StarCraft II and World of WarCraft arena teams to compete in Asia at the end of this year.

I’m ready to step into the Kingdoms of Amalur

Last week the demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. This game wasn’t on my radar until I sat down for a presentation of it at E3 2011. I have a feeling this is the RPG many non-RPG fans have been waiting for.

Reckoning is the first game to be released from the developer 38 Studios founded by pitcher Curt Schilling. However, Schilling isn’t the only big name behind the game. Famed fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore wrote a 10,000-year history for the game as well as the upcoming MMO project codenamed Copernicus. Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, worked as art director on the game, and the lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Ken Rolston, served as executive director for Reckoning.

Looking at the game, it could be labeled it as a derivative fantasy RPG. It’s based in a fantasy setting with elves, gnomes, magic, and swords. But the feature that stands out above the rest is its combat. It’s been described as someone putting the God of War combat system in an Elder Scrolls game. After playing the demo, it plays more like Darksiders meets a hybrid of Fable and the Elder Scrolls. Combat is fast, fluid, and dynamic. I can’t think of another RPG that allows you to sneak attack an enemy, juggle him up in the air, fire several arrows at him while still in the air, and slam him down to the ground with a giant two-handed mace.

Reckoning also takes a cue from Skyrim, as there are no classes in the game. Instead, it uses a destiny system that effectively lets you choose your class at the end of the game, rather than the beginning. During the game, you can freely switch weapons on the fly to create hybrid combos. Feel like mixing the sneak attack of daggers with the burst damage of magic? The destiny system allows you to shape your character to how you want to play, whether it’s with a two-handed sword or with a bow. The fun part comes from experimenting with these different combinations and unlocking different destinies to see which playstyle fits you best.

I have to commend EA, 38 Studios, and Big Huge Games for putting out an exceptional demo, especially on PC. It’s refreshing to play a demo again; the last quality demo I can remember was the Bulletstorm demo released in 2010. Even after finishing the tutorial, and outside areas of the demo, you’re given an extra 45 minutes to explore and experiment, whether that’s following up on the quests or stalking and killing NPCs in town.

The demo is free and available on both Origin and Steam for PC, as well as the Xbox Marketplace and PlayStation Store. You’ll also unlock items for Mass Effect 3 when you play the demo as part of a cross-promotion. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on February 7.

Welcome to the Future (Present?)

You may have wondered where I’ve been lately. Maybe you haven’t. In either case, I can tell you it’s been enjoying the hell out of Star Wars: The Old Republic (as evidenced by my Ratpr page). But before that, during beta, it was a different story.

After receiving my beta key in late October and downloading the client, I fired up the game to see how well it would work on my system. The game promptly greeted me with a critical error. It confirmed my fears; the computer I built in 2005 would not run this game I planned on playing for the next several years.

2011 VGA Picks

The Spike Video Game Awards will air tomorrow on Spike TV, and while they may not be as prestigious as the Oscars, they do hold a certain weight to the game industry. Last year I wrote up my picks for the awards, and here are my picks for 2011. This year was an amazing year for games, especially in the latter half. I’m excited to see what 2012 holds in addition to the great titles releasing in the early part of next year.

Below is a list of nomination for each category. I will put my pick in bold with a small description of why I think so below it, along with any omissions I think should have been included. These aren’t predictions of who I think will win, but whom I would vote to win.

Steam passwords and credit card information compromised

The hack occurred as a result of an attack on the Steam forums this past Sunday, resulting in unauthorized access of user names, passwords, game purchase history, email and billing addresses, and encrypted credit card information.

In a message sent out this afternoon, Vavle’s co-founder Gabe Newell addressed the status of the attack, and that he believes no encrypted information was successfully accessed.

“Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don't have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe.”

As with any compromised information, it’s best to be alert and responsive. Changing your Steam password, as well as your Steam forum password, and watching your credit card statements for any usual activity is strongly advised. You can change your Steam password in the Settings option in the Steam menu within the actual client.

Five things players should know about Call of Duty Elite for Modern Warfare 3

As players lined up last night to pick-up the eighth game in the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, another Call of Duty product was launched in tandem. Call of Duty Elite, developed by Beachhead Studios and unveiled in full at Call of Duty XP earlier this year, is launching as a platform for Call of Duty players to find new friends and new ways to play. Here are just some of the ways players can use Call of Duty Elite to improve their game.