Triple threat

Yesterday, one of the creative directors of Halo 4 spoke to Kotaku about his departure from 343 Industries blaming a lack of interest in the project. Ryan Payton, who previously worked on the amazing Metal Gear Solid 4, joined Microsoft’s purpose built Halo studio to work on the fiction and story development for the new trilogy of games, starting with Halo 4. However, instead of thriving on the potential storytelling opportunities in the universe of Halo, Payton grew bored of what he was apart of. But he isn’t bitter:

“I had a great run at Microsoft. I don’t regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn’t creatively excited about the project anymore.”

Does that mean Halo 4 won’t be any good? Of course not. No one can be sure of how it will play beyond the fact it’ll be a first-person shooter but from the sounds of it, Payton wanted to make a Halo game unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don’t think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through.”

Payton’s time at 343 Industries was spent as a narrative director working closely alongside Frank O’Conner and the rest of the creative team focussing on the story. His work at Kojima Productions on MGS4 gave him what he calls “a crash course on AAA game development,” readying him for the big budget world of Halo. It transpired that such a world just wasn’t for Payton and when watching his buddy Jake Kazdal work on the upcoming Skulls of the Shogun, he began to question whether or not triple-A games are right for him. So rather than continue with his position at 343 Industries, Payton has left to form his own studio, Camouflaj, and is in the process of designing two games.

The breaking of this story came on the same day as Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades told GamesIndustry.biz that triple-A games are fundamentally bad for the industry and unhealthy for future development.

“If you’re paying that much [to develop a game], you don’t want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun.”

With budget spiralling out of control and millions upon millions poured into a project, the pressure is on to make something that will sell exceptionally well. That means, as Antoniades points out, the risk and experimentation plays second fiddle to, say, building an online multiplayer component with perks. That’s why indie games and smaller titles are pushing the boundaries of video game entertainment and if it works well enough for them, triple-A studios have a reason to follow. But it must be crushing for any creative to work down a check-list of features and giving precedence to a tired mechanic over innovation. What is a little ironic is the actual gameplay elements of Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, two Ninja Theory games, weren’t amazingly innovative and felt as if they were produced under committee. The story and digital acting were however but you did have to fight in order to get to the best bits. At the moment, the studio is hard at work on a reboot for Devil May Cry and have already gathered a fair amount of controversy by challenging the pre-conceived idea of how its lead, Dante, should look. I wonder if similar risks will be seen in-game too.

So what’s going on with triple-A games? They used to be the epitome of game design and what many aspired to be a part of. Sales of said games still range in the millions and profits are good but talk of them being a safe bet and subsequently uninspired is becoming louder and louder. Both Payton and Antondiades may be less than happy with the triple-A development scene but Take-Two and Ubisoft are believe that anything less just isn’t profitable and therefore not worth the time to make. And it’s comments like these which drive the idea of big budget games being little more than a milking of a market, not the furthering of an industry. But the reality is, it really might just be too expensive to make a game and for it not to attempt to sit in the triple-A category gathering triple-A sales. At least not for disc-based console releases as the Limbos, Angry Birds and Minecrafts of the world are doing just fine in the relatively low cost area of digital downloadables.

GTAV’s possible paedo

The internet is rife with rumours for games with even the slightest whiff of a story sparking numerous articles and opinions. But some of those rumours are more than mere whiffs, carrying more of a stink with them. According to the latest news about a fifth Grand Theft Auto game, Take-Two are on the look out for actors and actresses for voice work, one of which is a paedophile.

The publisher put out a request over at the talent database Actors Pages (via Eurogamer) where they’re seeking five vocal talents, four of which are the usual sort of GTA personalities; a liberal male concerned with government conspiracies, a creepy dude who hates all technology, a party-going celeb-wannabe sex-addict girl and a boy fighting for the right for his peers to drink and have sex. The fifth is a James Pedeaston, described as a mid 40s man-boy love activist who has just been released from an Indonesian prison. Why people believe this is linked to GTAV is down to Take-Two being maker of video games so the possibility they’re staffing up anything else is almost non existent and that the name James Pedeaston appeared as a radio DJ in GTAIV who was on the run for molestation charges in Malaysia. So putting two and two together, it does point to a rather filthy four.

I’d expect as soon as the outside media gets hold of this, there’ll be a whole storm of controversy much like there was with GTA: San Andreas‘ Hot Coffee incident or the public condemning of Bully due to the misinformation that the game is little more than a bullying simulator. Not to mention its homosexual references. Personally, I’m in two minds as to how the inclusion of a child sex offender will play out. Rockstar have proven themselves in the past to be able to handle mature storylines and situations with great effect. Both GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption had some powerful and piteous moments but as if to contrast this, they equally had elements of childishness still tugging on that prepubescent mentality in all of us. If the call is to do with a fifth Grand Theft Auto and the intention is to include a paedophile I’d be very interested to see which side of the developers’ brain he comes from, the mature or comically juvenile, as I’m sure the rest of the industry is too. It’s worth mentioning the strides taken with L.A. Noire however and how there appears to be considerable changes to the company’s ethos so it’s also possible that something like a GTAV will follow suit.

P.s, I appreciate the irony in beginning the article about perpetuating rumours and then doing so myself…

Home is where the cash is

Despite middling review scores and criticisms for having a short single player mode, THQ’s Homefront has been very successful shipping 2.4 million units which equates to 1 million sold to the consumer since its release two weeks ago. To put that in perspective, some games don’t even sell or ship point four of a million within years so Homefront‘s sales are indeed something to shout about.

And shout THQ have because it was the mediocre Metacritic score which left the publisher a fifth less valuable after its stocks fell 20% when the game first shipped. Contrasting that, Homefront actually sold 375,000 copies in the US on day one, the same time as shareholders were receiving the bad news about their stock. But it’s apparent how the mainstream gamer, to whom the shooter clearly appeals to, cares little about an aggregate score with the rampant marketing for Homefront clearly paying off.

When a game that started off having reviews which praised its gameplay then was hit with a wall of critics displeased at the performance but crediting the multiplayer, all kinds of theories involving dirty dealing begin to surface. But I’m not going there, that just leads into a depressing cul-de-sac and instead am interested in how it managed to sell a further 600+ thousand units after the consensus claims the game is good but not great and how such an achievement is a slap in the face to Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two. He said: “Making good games just isn’t good enough. I believe good is the new bad. … Games need to be great,” adding the importance of sites like Metacritic who have the power to effect game sales.

Homefront didn’t fall into the ‘great’ catagory nor does it have a high Metacritic ranking but still managed to reign in the cash for THQ and crash multiplayer servers which couldn’t cope with the hordes of gamers eager to play online. Maybe these gamers haven’t even touched the single player component, the part that lowers the game’s overall score, instead diving straight into the online squirmishes. If so, then Homefront is deserving of much higher praise. Or maybe it’s the aforementioned marketing that has been its saving grace seeing as you can’t watch TV without one of the high-octane adverts playing out before you. EEDAR analyst Jess Divnich told IGN how reviews aren’t the be all and end all of a game: “Review scores are simply a weight, not an absolute. The impact of review scores on video game title sales are determined by the potential size of the market, direct and retail promotional spend, competition at launch, overall level of interest in the title before release and more. This helps to explain why titles such as Demon’s Souls can achieve 90+ reviews, but produce lower revenues, and why a game such as Medal of Honor from Electronic Arts can get an aggregated review score in the 70’s and surpass nearly 5 million units in sales worldwide.”

Whatever the case, Homefont is selling well and a sequel is highly probable giving the opportunity to address the first game’s issues, potentially becoming a real contender to the might of Call of Duty.

Good is the new bad. Apparently.

Take-Two were once a publisher who fought to keep its head above water in between Grand Theft Auto releases. Now they’ve achieved an ironic independence to one of their own titles, able to turn a profit year upon year with games and franchises like BioShock and Red Dead Redemption. In 2010, Take-Two had the best overall ranking of any publisher on Metacritic.com, an infamous aggregation site of reviews for all forms of media. CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, is positively chuffed to bits and that excitement has seemingly lead him to summerise the video games industry in an incredibly sad but all too familiar way: “Making good games just isn’t good enough. I believe good is the new bad. … Games need to be great.”

The statement was given to Wedbush Morgan Securities Technology, Media & Telecommunications Management Access Conference recently (via Gamasutra) and is that kind of thinking which is leading many gamers astray, filling forums with disgruntled posts about the state of the industry. On its own, a comment like that is quite inspirational. No one wants to make a crappy game or even ‘just’ a good one but there are a hell of a lot of games that never go beyond the label of good yet are still fun to play. If not then we might as well do away with any form of rating system that doesn’t consist of three levels: Bad, Great, Awesome and we all have those cherished games that wouldn’t fit within those categories.

Zelnick backed up his comment with a reference to Metacritic which is why a once aspirational quote quickly turned into something altogether more ugly. He said how a site like that can be very influential on a game’s sales figures and Take-Two’s “ability to have high scores over and over and over again is a huge competitive advantage, and that advantage drives sales, it reduces risk and creates profits.” Again, there’s nothing wrong with wanting your game to score highly with critics as it does show your title has a level of quality important to gamers but when a company focuses on only making ‘great’ games that sit within the 90-100% Metacritic bracket, the longevity of said quality begins to come into question as does the legitimacy of the score. The problem with aggregate sites like Metacritic is the lack of consistency. Not every game has the same amount of reviews so it’s unfair to suggest that all games are treated as equals.

Games don’t have to be considered great nor should they be part of the elite hobnobbing in the 90%+ section for them to be worthy of attention. Striving to produce quality titles is a healthy attitude for developers and publishers but one man’s great is another man’s okay so the combined opinions of an ever changing aggregation system shouldn’t be part of that attitude. To give credit to Zelnick, he also said how Take-Two franchises aren’t tied to annual releases and therefore do not have the suffocating development schedules or potential series fatigue for gamers. Lets have more of that kind of thinking please!

Pre-orders no moire

Last week, Rockstar revealed a number of pre-order goodies available for L.A. Noire via differing retailers. It caused a bit of a stink because the bonuses sounded like they could be substantial pieces of content with whole missions being restricted depending on where you choose to buy the game from. To remedy the negativity surrounding what should be a pleasant announcement, Rockstar have confirmed that all the pre-order bonuses will be available as paid for DLC after L.A. Noire has launched on May 20th. The official website states (via TVG): “All of the L.A. Noire pre-order content will be made available for purchase as DLC at some point after the game comes out.” And as if to prove there was never any foul play at hand, it continues with: “We have long planned to do this for all digital pre-order items.”

Does this sway your decision to buy L.A. Noire from the participating retailers offering the pre-order content? I read quite a few comments from disgruntled gamers who claimed they’d be purchasing the game from supermarkets in an attempt to boycott the promotional deal. Now that the content will definitely be available for all, is it any less offensive? I’m hoping to pick up L.A. Noire regardless and will probably go for the deal that includes the most bonuses. I would imagine there will be a number of others now thinking the same thing.

L.A More

One man’s bonus is another man’s loss, particularly when it comes to video games. This generation has gone from nurturing the previously blossoming idea of awarding retail loyalty with a small treat to frankly abusing the concept. Warner Bros’ Mortal Kombat isn’t doing wonders with their pre-order campaign, separating the retro finishing moves and attire of the Ninja’s between three different US stores. When a game is based on nostalgic promises, denying players content isn’t the best way to win over the masses.

Last night, the pre-order bonuses were announced for L.A. Noire and again, the audience will be divided by who they choose to purchase the game from. GAME are offering the Naked City case which sees Detective Phelps try and solve the mysterious death of a fashion model and the Badge Pursuit Challenge has you searching the city for 20 badges, earning extra experience points as you do resulting in a suit that provides extra ammo. Amazon has the Broderick Detective Suit to boost fighting power and defence while Play is adding the Slip of the Tongue case, an investigation into a car theft that ends in a huge auto-fraud operation. Lastly, Zavvi has the Sharpshooter Detective Suit and as the name suggests, aids gunfire and aiming.

Giving away suits seems fine, they’re suits and only marginally affect the experience but when whole missions are at stake, things begin to get a little unfair. I know, life isn’t fair and Rockstar are a business doing what a lot of other publishers are guilty of so shouldn’t be singled out but I’ve been so excited for L.A. Noire that missing out on content simply because of my choice of shop is a bummer. Sometimes, pre-order bonuses end up as DLC down the line so it’s possible these will do the same but DLC timings are tricky to get right. Too soon and the allurement to pre-order from certain retailers is gone. Too late and the interest in a game can disappear.

The hope lies on Rockstar’s past and how it’s doubtful that a company like theirs would section off some truly great missions in order to please retailers. The likelihood is that the cases on offer are more of an incentive to buy the game at launch rather than wait for a preowned copy so fairly insignificant to the overall experience. That I find easier to understand. Making games is an incredibly expensive business both financially and mentally so the reward to go to the those who created it not those who re-sell it. Then again, rewards for being an early adopter should be for all who purchase not just the people who go to the right store.

Borderlands brings joy to over two million

Despite predictions from Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter about how Take-Two had sent Boderlands “out to die”, the publisher couldn’t be more happy with the game. His comments were about how Take-Two where foolish to release anything remotely like a FPS or RPG so close to Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. However, it seems the reluctance from other publishers to release titles and a great pick-up-and-play mechanic has made Borderlands a big success. Videogamer reports that the game’s sold over two million copies worldwide and is now considered a key franchise for Take-Two. It even led the companies Q4 sales. You know what that means? Borderlands 2 is already in development. I best go finish the first one – and its DLC then. Cool!

No GTAV next year

Take Two have dashed the hopes of GTA fans with confirmation that the series will be having a rest in 2010. In a recent investor report (via MCVUK) the company state Grand Theft Auto is strong enough as a franchise not to need an annual sequel especially since this year has received two game-extending DLC releases. Considering GTAIV came 4 years after GTA: San Andreas, the news should come as no surprise. Games rarely benefit from a yearly release and when they do get one, it’s even rarer that they come with major changes. There are more than enough open-world adventures to be had in this generation so it’s not like we need another one so soon!