James Wynn

Granted I’m not a huge fan of football video games, but this one really stinks. I’m not the type of person that would go out of his way to play one of these, much less spend money on one. I only have it because EA gave it to me for free.

As a video game itself, it falls short. The input is laggy, the menus are convoluted, and the gameplay could use some work. The only things that really seemed polished are the character animation and sound, but even some of the sounds seem out of place. If this is really the result of about 8 years/iterations of these games, I’m really quite puzzled by both the fact that it continues to sell and the fact that EA managed to get exclusive rights with it.

On a scale of 1 to 10, including gameplay and polish, I would give this game perhaps a Suck minus.

So, I attended the Game Developer’s Conference 2007 in San Fransisco. Was a rather good time. Hanging out with tons of people who love making games, playing games, and drinking. It hadn’t occurred to me that game developers would be notorious binge drinkers, but it really makes since after some thinking. After all the sessions ended, if everyone didn’t go to an after-party to get smashed on free booze, we just wandered around the expo center and pillaged the free beer from the studios/vendors.  A good time was had by all.

I shook the hand of the man who invented Tetris, saw Shigeru Miyamoto talk about Mario, and Eiji Aonuma talk about Zelda (both of these talks were nothing less than spectacular), and met the directors/developers of many studios who make some of my favorite games.  Most of the vendors/studios were giving out tons of swag; picked up numerous t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc.  One of the things I got was a free copy of Madden 2007, which I will rant about later.

After talking to many recruiters and other developers I’m feeling much more marketable now.  Not necessarily in comparison to them, but in comparison to what they are looking for.  It really puts the industry in to a slightly more friendly and tractable perspective.

In short, the conference was an absolute blast. Will definitely have to make it a habit.

It seems recent times are abound with interesting turns.  I’ve just been hired by my university to work on a educational games, and they said that if I stay for graduate school it will count as a graduate assistanceship and thus provide a tuition waiver.  I had all but decided to put graduate school off for a couple of years, or at least until I found a program that suited my interests, but now if they are going to pay me to do it the prospect seems much more tractable.  I don’t officially start until next week, but the project sounds quite intriguing; its something about mobile educational online games.

As I recall there is also a program in its infancy for combining fine arts and the sciences, with one obvious application being video game studies.  If this program gets off the ground I may bind myself to Oklahoma for another few semesters to get an extra piece of paper.  I’m rather curious if a graduate degree will really help me find employment, or whether it will instead just provide a higher cap to move up to later.
In other news I finally bought my plane ticket to D.C.!!!  I’ve never been to the capitol before, and I haven’t seen the gorgeous girl who lives there in far too long.  Only six days now…

Everything I’ve seen lately about Nintendo’s new Wii and all the new games they are putting out for both it and the DS are getting me totally pumped. At first I wasn’t a big fan of the Revolution’s new name, Wii, but it has already grown on me. Though it does make for some grammatically awkward sentences, “Wii Rocks,” “I Love Wii.” And of course thats aside from the bathroom humor.

So lets recap some of the features of the Wii we already know. Revolutionary (not ment as a pun) new motion senseing controller, wireless connectivity (pretty standard at this point), ability to play a huge selection of old Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafix games along with lots of downloadable content.

Features recently reveiled include the WiiConnect24 service which allows the console to be connected to the internet and serve up content along with allow other people to interact with you EVEN WHEN THE CONSOLE IS TURNED OFF. They also released information about a more conventional controller which works along side the original that plugs in similarly as the joystick ‘nanchaku’, presumably for retro games. A new Light-gun has also been shown, but little has been said about it. Shigeru suggested a lot of very interesting ideas that Nintendo is working on for making the Wii and DS play together and also that the Wii’s controller will have allow for customized experiences based on who is using it, that each member of the household could have their own personal controller.

As for games, a total of 16 Wii games have been announced and around half of them already have trailers available. There ones I’m anticipating the most are: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metal Slug Anthology, Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and of course Smash Bros. Brawl. These games are so awesome, I dont feel I have to give them much description as the titles pretty much speak for themselves. And it is my understanding that most of these games will be using the new controller in new innovative ways too.

The DS has a long list of awesome games that are either out, or will soon be out, some of which I have already seen on the shelf here in Kyoto. The New Super Mario is absolutely fantastic looking and is now the guarantee that I will buy one very soon. Nintendo’s dedication to pulling new gamers into the arena can definitely be seen here in Japan. There are a number of new ‘brain games’ that can be found, from learning English, to studying math and playing intellectual games like Sudoku. If they had a Kanji game I would buy it in a heart beat.

Nintendo may have its critics, but I think they will come out on top in the current console war. It’s not a question of faster processors, and flashier graphics; it’s a question of playability and enjoyability.