PAX Prime 2011 - Seattle, WA

I was fortunate to attend PAX this past weekend and had a great time in the short few hours I was on the floor.   There is so much to write about from what I experienced, I hope I can get it all done and w/ the enthusiasm I had when I was seeing things up close!

To start off, my overall impression of PAX this year was that is felt much much bigger.  The booths that were created were enormous and extremely impressive.   Compared to last year it was leaps and bounds bigger and more flashy.   It also felt like the more companies were represented this year as well.  Last year there were some empty booth spots from companies who did not show up, there was also more space allocated to card and table game companies, whereas this year, they were pushed together tightly in a small transition space between the main exhibition hall spaces.   Some people I spoke to on the floor said if PAX Prime gets any larger it may have to shift to another city like Vegas.  If that is the case the expo may end up rivaling another event such as E3.

There were so many people and lines form up quickly at events like this.  Knowing my patience and excitement, I needed to find a trade off.   I settled for over the shoulder observations of most live demo’s.   The lines were just too long for the most of the popular games I knew of.  What was awesome to see though, is that my little world of games is nothing compared to the rest of the content coming out, or available now.   There were so many other games w/ huge booths that I’d not ever heard of nor paid attention to, it was eye opening and exciting.

So, for time sake I will run through the impressions I had for games that have caught my eye lately.

1) Battlefield 3:  I snuck in to the show early Sunday and was able to skip the line for the PS3 coop demo.   Jumping into the game, it was a bit odd getting used to PS3 controls.  The sensitivity was up high, and I’m not sure if that is normal, but I coped fairly well with it.   I was playing with another single gentleman in line so we teamed up and tried our best.   We actually failed the mission fairly quickly after the 1st stage, but the booth workers were not policing us, so we started another round.   We played this one much further in, but…I’m not sure when the level ends as it seemed we cleaned up all the enemies, but the game did not progress.  Next thing we know I’m loaded in a Humvee and an RPG cleans the whole thing off the map.  Game over!   

The game felt as you would expect from past games.  One interesting thing though was that during the street fight sequences using the thermal scope I could see enemies and would line them up, fire and then not get kills.   I’m not sure what the difficulty setting was, but either my bullets were not on target or the enemies were very strong.   I assume the game design has the added variability in bullet direction and spray.  It was not an arcade style shooter where you’re guaranteed a kill just b/c you lined up the enemy down the sites.  I definitely need more time to give a good review of what I played in the coop.

I stuck around in the afternoon and waited in line to try the Team Death Match freeplay on PC later that day.   It was a painfully fun experience since I’m not experience in PC gaming for FPS.  I got worked every way from Tuesday and hobbled around the map as best I could.   This gameplay though was extremely exciting and EVERYTHING I could have expected in a BF game.  It did feel and play like TDM from COD, but totally perfected w/ DICE’s immersion features.   I can’t wait to play the real thing in my own element.  

2)  Skyrim:  I went to check out the demo play area for this game.  Besides the game, Bethesda LOVES to go all out in its expo booths. I love visiting their areas.   Skyrim looks amazing.  I do have this game on pre-order, BUT….to be honest it looks like it plays just like Fallout games.  The interactions, the animations and some other components just seem like a new skin on an old game engine.   I will play this and I hope I get some good satisfaction out of it.  

3)  Rage:  This game really surprised me.  I had not paid this game any attention until I walked over to check it out, since it’s also from Bethesda.   This game looks like a crossover between Fallout, Borderlands, and a couple of other post-apocalyptic game types.  The gameplay was very smooth and the animations were great to watch.  The graphics were far superior to Fallout games and Borderlands.  I’d even go as far to say that the game looked a bit more polished overall than Skyrim

4)  Blacklight Retribution: this game is a new Free 2 play coming out on PC only later this year.  If you know the previous release – Blacklight TangoDown, this is just like that, but souped up w/ more action and some cool new features.  The action was fast and intense, and w/ the HRV feature it is neat to see through walls temporarily to line up enemies from a distance.  The inclusion of the mechgamepad users!

5)  Super Monday Night Combat. This is another free 2 play game coming out on PC only this holiday season.  It will come to the consoles at some stage, but for now they are releasing it to the core audience who can jump right in, PC gamers.  This game will be just like its predecessor, Monday Night Combat, but will include new characters, new specialties, maps, and other game features.   The original MNC is/was awesome, I really loved the tower defense mode “Blitz”

6)  Batman Arkham City:  I did not preview any of this game b/c I already know it will be worth buying and playing.  Sorry, I didn’t want to spend time on waiting around on that one.

7)  Assassin’s Creed Revelations:  This is another game I will be playing at some point, but I skipped the demo..  I assume this is just built on top of Brotherhood, and that was excellent in itself.  The campaigns are always fun, and from the reports of the upcoming changes to the multiplayer this should rock.  

8)  Mass Effect 3:  This game had the biggest line of them all I think.  4 hours to get in for the demo?  No thanks.  I have other things to do.  I’ve played the first two, there is no reason not to try this game when it comes out.  I heard the action sequences are much smoother now, they play almost like Gears of War, in terms of shooting, aiming and taking cover.   Bioware had some serious booth stuff going on!

9)  Borderlands 2:  People were blowing up over this game, but alas another closed booth that I did not want to wait in line for.  Sadly, if you did wait and go through, it seems they were offering copies of the game for free at the end. You could even choose the platform you want it on. I played the first game, but I didn’t really get into it.  Maybe if I jump into this one early w/ friends I will find it more fun!

10)  COD: MW3:  These guys didn’t show up or have any marketing content to handout.  Boooooo!   Activision, what’s up?

11)  Firefall.  This is an free to play MMO on PC, I believe.  This game company may have had the biggest dedicated booth on the floor.  It was enormous.  The game looked great and felt like it would play well. However, b/c I’m mainly a console gamer I didn’t spend any time with it.    As the Free 2 play market grows, I think I will start to learn PC controls so I can at least be a functional member

12)  League of Legends:  What is there to say about this game.   This thing is already popular enough…and if you don’t know about it, you’re likely not in their target audience anyway.  This is another Free 2 play that is extremely popular.  I’ve played it…but…I played solo rather than online so I didn’t get into as much as everyone else.  I should give it another shot if I had friends to play with.

13)  Torchlight II: this was out for PC gaming demo.  I’m not sure if a console port was in the works.  The maps looked more open and fun than the original game always taking place in the dark dank dungeons.  I liked Torchlight, but…it was starting to get overly repetitive so I’ve not touched it in a while.  I’m hardly ½ way through it.

Sorry if that was not enough info for anyone.  Hit me up directly or ask questions in the comments if you like and I will see what I can get back to you with.   Honestly….if you’re a gamer how can you not have at least 1 game to look forward to this holiday season, if not 10 games.    The industry is taking off…but now that there are so many options it will dilute our time among games and I wonder how, or if gamers, will react.   I love summer, but all PAX did was make me want fall/winter here NOW!

Your Gamer Profile and it's Online Rating

This topic has been on my mind for a while.  I want to say I'm a bit sensitive to how people view me in online gaming, and personally, I don't try to be mean or pick to anyone.  I don't do it in real life, and I really try NOT to be that kind of gamer online.

My first real online gaming experience was Halo 3 back when it launched in 2007.  I had dabbled in online games on other people's PC or consoles, but Halo 3 was my first jump into online gaming under my own tag (Sincap).   Playing online was intimidating at the time, and still can be for anyone who plays Halo.  The game following is so deep, you can bet 20% of players in any match are likely experts, or pro, standings in terms of their gameplay effort, and knowledge of maps, objectives etc.   As I played in the early stages I would get frustrated and verbally vent.   I think after a month or so of this I happened to be navigating in the Xbox dashboard to update my profile and I saw the section about "view your rep."  Checking this information I was pleasantly surprised to see my rating was fairly high w/ a high acceptance record of players who prefer to play with me.   I did have some negative marks against me for unsporting conduct and other feedback, I assume likely tied to my online yelling and bitching. Yes, I admit I was harsh at times and called out specific players for it.

I'm conscious, or try to be, of my online behavior and besides verbal antics, I don't TRY to pick on players. I hardly boost where it affects others' gameplay, and I definitely do not cheat.   However, I noticed as I've been playing Bad Company 2 over the past year, when I go to check in on my rep, it has fallen, FAR, and continues to decline.   My current rep shows that 46% of players prefer me and 56% avoid me.

Part of me is unhappy my online personal is in this state.  My rep has no affect on my online experience and it's not like Microsoft has come knocking on my door to ask for a change in behavior. I would like to think anyone could play w/ me and like me.  On the other hand, some of my online friends say they would like a negative rating, b/c in their mind it means they are really good, and therefore the lower the rating, the better they are doing. People hate good players on the opposition? Sporting? Odd way to look at it, but it makes me assume that people act like jerks online just for this effect.

So, back to my original reason to bring this up.  My rating is low, and I'm sensitive to it.  I can't blame a game for my rating, but I do wonder what is going on that people down rate me like this.  I've reached max rank in BC2 and I've noticed the longer I've been at this rank and continued to play online, the faster my approval rating dropped.  People have messaged me accusing me of cheating, but I'm not sure why or how they thought I did so.   I've had hate messages from people accusing me of things I know I did not do...it was someone else in game (aka circle strafing), but I guess since I finished that match at top score and show as level 50, people assume it was me?

I only ever down rate players if they message me w/ harassing comments, or if they were cheating in game.  Cheating is very hard to do over Xbox Live, but if someone is exploiting game bugs, and doing it to create an unfair match, yes I will down vote a player on that. Cheating ruins the experience.   I've had to do this quite a few times and I encourage it for anyone else to hopefully help deter people from doing it in the future.

A good thing w/ online ratings is that they are anonymous.  This can lead to people just feeling bothered and then doing anything they can to destroy another person's online rating b/c they were upset.   However, if you consider that it's a small effort to rate someone, then only those who are serious about really putting in that feedback will be going through the effort.

As a gamer, have you checked your rep?  Do you care?   If it was high or low, would you change anything you do or just dismiss it and carry on business as usual?

Just as a side note, I read an excellent book called "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez.  For anyone who loves gaming, and is a tech enthusiast, this 2 book series is a great read.   One of the concepts in the story is around the creation of a 3 dimensional network that only people wearing special LCD glasses can view information and manipulate.  The interesting point to me was that wearers of the glasses are part of the network and carry a gamertag and player rating w/ them.  The individual wearing the glasses can ID other people in the network b/c they will show their gamertag and rating over their head, almost like you would see in an avatar world.   The neat part to me is that if this were applied in real life for everyone, then as you interact w/ your daily routine, you can see which people are 5 star nice, vs 1 star dickheads.  Imagine life like this.  It could be neat, and disastrous, many people in so many ways.

Playing Civ World on Facebook

If you're familiar w/ any of the past civilization games, I want to recommend Civ World (beta) on Facebook.  The games is really well done using the social aspects in current play 4 free games on Facebook.   I have even spent some money in this game, $5, total which gave me quite a few bonuses to use in game.    I've completed at least 3 games on it now and I find it very satisfying and  a great game to spend time on.

So, to try this on the right foot, I want to note that I went into Civ World expecting to play just like past civilization games.   This is not the case.  Yes, you get to build up a civilization, but the game parameters have changed.   You can try to take on the world by yourself, like the retail games, but I really do not think it's a possibility.   You and a few hundred people can join the same game.  If each of us just had our own civilization and fought for domination, it might just be chaos.   It would be fun to try once, but after that I'm sure people would get fed up.  The game is created such that you create your own civilization, tailor it any way you like w/ the tech, tools, and money you have or generate, but the social aspect comes into play where you are encouraged to join an organized civilization.    Civ World does not have global locations like it would in a retail game.  Here you have a virtual mini civ and you can join any available organized civilization to become an influential body in that group's world dominance.   

Once I joined a civilization I started to realize that you can earn ranks which lead to higher roles in the group.  People who make top  level  move into ministry positions where you gain increased influence and power to help others in your group.    The fun parts to me are the mini games.   These games exist whether you are joined up or not, but you will feel, or see the benefits of joining a group because your success in completing the games helps progress your civilization.  

The mini game I enjoy are related to your civ's progression in specific topics.  Each civilization can work to enhance and master its status in Technology, Culture, and wealth.    There is a puzzle game to grow your culture, you can complete mazes for technology and there is a mini road building obstacle course to generate gold.  Sounds simple enough, but the games only allow you to make moves in each mini game based on the resources available.   Your resources come from your workers in your mini civ.    If you have a population of 8 people and everyone is spread out in different roles, you will only realize small gains in each component, thus you won't have many moves to use in the mini games, unless you're a master of patience.   If you were to, for example, make your mini civ focused solely on technology development, then you would see tons of moves available in the mini games, but likely little to no moves in the other games.  

Battles are quite hands off in comparison to the retail versions of this game.  If you invade, or get invaded, the battle screen is like a game of Magic the Gathering or some table game w/ cards.  Your warriors have a listed battle strength, so you either want to get the most powerful ones you can, or collect a large number of warriors to hopefully outlast your opponent.   These wars are run like typical RPG games.  The stronger your attacker the more chance of laying waste before it is completely spent or beaten.    Some battles in the retail games can be stressful and seem to last forever.  In this game mode, you just set up your cards and then let them battle automatically.  You can watch, but there is not much satisfaction to it.  

When you join a group civ, you want to be aware of what the group needs as a whole.  You can visit anyone's mini civ to see how their town is growing and what their people are working on.  If you notice that the group is doing well in technology and wealth procurement, then maybe  its best if you focus on culture growth.   You can always check for requirements for what is needed to win an era or the game as a whole.

There is so much to this game, but its too much to blog about.  Like all past Civ games, there is a civilopedia to help players understand what is going on and how best to achieve success.  I can say, this Facebook game drove me to go and buy Civ V.    Luckily I got it on sale, but have been loving it.   If you enjoy "builder" games, as my friend calls them, then Civ World is a great intro or light game to peruse.   Otherwise, if you find this game fun but want a more expansive experience, check for a copy of any past civilization game.  They are incredibly addicting.