Revisiting the Metal Gear Solid Saga

Call it foolish or some version of vain anticipation for the Hideo Kojima announcement at this year's E3, but I've made a lofty decision that might be too big for me.

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If you’re a gamer that wasn’t excited for June 12, 2008, then you weren’t a devoted fan of "Metal Gear". It can easily be said that for those who moved on from the series this day in video game history was of little significance, but for the rest of us it was special. This was the day, where everything, in the sometimes loopy fiction of Metal Gear to finally be answered. After all the teasers, the promotional materials, and the great Kojima Productions podcast series that the fans were finally ready for a grand opus.

Indeed, "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" was glorious (depending on your perspective) and then it ended up stuffed in the game corner of my shelf with the rest of my personal collection.

This was my experience almost immediately after conquering the army of Outer Haven, after thwarting Liquid Ocelot’s nefarious plan, and after finally bearing witness to love blooming on a battlefield. The finale to MGS4 was so big that after it all settled I immediately sought a ‘much needed’ retirement from the world of tactical stealth espionage. The ending to MGS4 brought a satisfying conclusion to all the unanswered questions that the series had conjured, even if the long-form self-indulgent cut scenes were a bit pretentious. But immediately placing this game back on the shelf did something major for me. It broke an unspoken (and somewhat sacred) tradition I had with the franchise - much like movies, this is a game series that just gets better the second time through.

Only after a second play-through could I really see the wind from the trees and offer a clearer take on what MGS4 is. And rightly so. Your perspective is clearer tackling a game like this much later. The hype machine has past, and coming back to a Metal Gear the second time is a great opportunity to hunt for easter eggs, a notable series tradition that traces back to the original Metal Gear Solid.


Aside from the usual second-time-through-for-the-story approach, a greater appreciation sets in for me this time: this one focusing on advancements over the prior games in this stealth series. This is when the bigger picture comes to play (at least, for people like me it does). This playthrough becomes the a pivotal moment for feature sets, trying additional controls, or just trying the wacky shit you were too scared to try the first time through.

In this regard, MGS4 truly holds ups as the most replayable Metal Gear - the biggest proponent for this argument being the reworked control scheme. After all, there was enough evidence in MGS3: Snake Eater that the complex web of added functions and improvements to the controls needed some rethinking, a fact made evident by revisiting the older games. Only then can you witness the seemingly ridiculous system of old. Take, for example, the separate attack functions - physical attacks and CQC mapped to circle while all weapon attacks mapped to square. It’s only by looking back at a series a a whole that we can appreciate these things. It's then a wonder how we ever finished the prior Metal Gear games, or how miraculously carpal-tunnel syndrome never set in. But I've decided to use this second play through as something more than typical comparisons.

So for the past few weeks (thanks, in part because of the awesome Kojima keynote at GDC 2009), I've been replaying all the Metal Gear Solid games for the purpose of just admiring the series as a whole. Hell, I’m even considering going back even further to the original MSX "<b>Metal Gear</b>" and "<i>Metal Gear: Solid Snake</i>", simply to have a better perspective of the entire saga. The amount of discoveries factored in with the huge amount of in-game man-hours interspersed within these games should make this series replay totally worth it, right?

The Resident Evil Versus Conundrum

(A while back, I promised more posts on Resident Evil 5 and then life happened. I'm happy to say I've finished the game three time and I'm currently working on the fourth. But there's always more to coverage than you expected. Below you'll find my take on the Versus multiplayer mode that hit XBL and PSN last week. The original post appeared over on Systemic.)

We sat down this weekend to spend some time with the new versus mode in Resident Evil 5 and present you with our take.

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It's a bit of an overstatement at this point but prior to the release of a new Versus mode for "Resident Evil 5", there has already been plenty of talk regarding Capcom's first RE DLC. Anger was the initial response from the fans, but then controversy transitioned to outrage over the possibility of that this content already existed on the retail disc. At this point its feels like, regardless of Capcom's intentions, its all spun utterly out of control (and this time race has nothing to do with matter), with most people having already chosen sides.

But one fundamental question remains: is the mode worth it?

"Resident Evil 5" did ship with one mode we've sunk a bunch of time into as of this writing: Co-op. Working with our partner we panicked, nefariously planned, and executed the destruction of countless enemy Majini's and other freakishly contorted creatures. The move to co-op in "Resident Evil" made sense overall, even if it slightly subtracted from the traditional atmosphere of the series, known more for it's tension filled environments and lonely corridors. But part of that very tension was produced because you played the game alone. No AI partner or human buddy could jump in to save you. Yet, it seems Capcom is looking for more ways to extend that buddy experience.

So versus is a new thing for the series. One that veterans, like me, seem to smirk at, ultimately unsure if it makes any sense. Sure, we've spent countless hours fragging Spartans and Elites, or blew away plenty of other iconic heroes and villains in competitive online multiplayer, but how does this mode work in "Resident Evil"? And, more importantly, should we care?

Playing it made slightly more sense of the new versus mode, and its really keen for people looking to get more playtime out of "Resident Evil 5". Or at least, more game for $5. Think of it as an extension of Mercenaries, except now you can shoot other humans, too. In Slayers, player's build a high score by defeating the most enemies possible within an allotted time frame. Chaining Majini and other boss kills for higher combos is the best way to get the highest score, but you can also defeat rival players as well to slow down their score. Survivors is more slayers, but this time dropping rival players is the only way to score. And each time a player is beaten in Survivors they drop a random item from their inventory, so don't get too attached to that machine gun. Every player begins survivor mode with a pistol and then finds upgrades as they play through each level - all of them based on locations from the main game.

As with any standard multiplayer these days, the matches in RE5 Versus come in two varieties: ranked and player matches, team based or free-for all, and almost obligatory leaderboard support.

The one bonus of this versus mode that seems designed to entice players to keep playing is that they use their points earned in the this mode and main campaign to unlock other playable RE5 characters. Players can unlock multiple versions of Chris, Sheva, Jill, or Albert Wesker - complete with a very deadly Magnum and triple barreled Hydra shotgun combo. Wesker sports an almost unfair combination that slightly detracts from the competitive experience found in Slayers. His powerful arsenal makes him a mainstay for any Slayer match (we've seen at least two of him in every game of versus we've played) and this seems like a foolish design choice if the designers intended to balance the game.

In fact, the balancing here in versus mode feels partly neglected. For example, the default versions of Chris and Sheva have weapons ill suited to taking out Wesker up close. He's not unbeatable, it just means that to take him down you have to use a different set of tactics. It's possibly more frustrating than the developer's may have predicted. The game does grant you other weapon drops (like the occasional magnum drop) immediately after defeating a boss character, so you have a fighting chance but the situation seems unbalanced to begin with. Basically if you're not picking Wesker and someone else did, prepare for an uphill battle since his weapons will kill Majini's (and you) a lot faster than yours.

Tactics are still present here in RE5 Versus. Plant a mine before you're retired in Team Surviors and leave a nasty surprise for careless opponents, or lead other characters into a nasty partner ambush. Better still, sneak up carefully to rivals and flank them while they're distracted by Majini's. Anyway you look at it, it can still be sort of fun in it's own I-can't-shoot-and-move-at-the-same-time sort of way, but if you're considering this DLC as a purchase that's probably a non-issue.

We'll never know what directly lead to this mode's existence, if it's already on the disc, or what Capcom's intentions were, but we do know this: You're basically looking on a tacked on mode built competitive types that enjoyed mercenaries and don't feel shackled by RE5's control set up. The focus here is on teamwork using tried-and-true RE 5 cooperative gameplay mechanics. Overall, it's a take it or leave it thing where the barrier to entry is $5.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Hands-On Preview

Originally featured on systemic.gamehelper.com

The one thing every comic book fan I've ever met can agree on is the villainous rogue gallery of the Batman comics contains some of the darkest, most sinister enemies of any comic universe. These are mad men with hidden and not-so-hidden agendas, each one a twisted souls looking for more than wealth as they inflict pain and suffering on the citizens of Gotham. If there is one thing that Batman games have taught me, its that gamers can completely identify with Gothamites. We've been put through the wringer by the last trio of Batman games, each one under-delivering on the promise of playing a game featuring the Dark Knight Detective. And it's hard to undo the collective amnesia that we all seem to undergo the second a new game set in the franchise is announced.

It's with this mindset that I walked over to a demo session of "Batman: Arkham Asylum", and got a closer look at the game during the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.

Three Pillars of Game Design
The developers of "Batman: Dark Asylum" were quick to inform me of the game's three pillars design philosophy (think concentration areas). These three areas of focus were: Investigation, Free Flow Combat, and Predatory Combat (think stealth). Interestingly, my reaction to this design credo was surprise because I'd never actually thought deeply on what the core essences of the character were. But when I did, I saw a lot of value to this list - they're the most important elements of his masked persona distilled to it's purest and basic idea. To showcase the three pillars concepts in action, I was given a demonstration in the Riddler's Challenge rooms.

The Riddler Challenges
The Riddler challenges are a set of rooms that are designed as an incentive for players to unlock bonus art and character profile info (the game will ship with over 200 of these). The first challenge room I'm shown showcases the game's Free Flow Combat System. Controlling Batman, I'm able to ping-pong around the room engaging different opponents quickly using strikes and kicks. Of course, combat in real-life (or comics for that matter) is rarely ever focused between two people trading blows in gentlemanly fashion and a third person enters the fray. As said goon makes his move I get a moment to try a cool feature that the developers call, a re-direct.

Re-directs in "Batman: Arkham Asylum" are used as a way to redirect Batman's attention to a separate incoming attack. Whenever the Caped Crusader's attention is diverted and an opponent is attacking from his blind side, a lighting bolt appears over the incoming attackers head. This is your prompt as the player to hit the re-direct button to intercept the attack (and look super cool) and then counter the move. Players can either redirect or dodge which leaves the system open and not feel too automatic, and if a prompt makes you feel like the sequence is too quick-time-ish, it shouldn't. Ultimately, it contributes to keeping Batman aggressive in these one-versus-many brawls, and it's satisfying when you nail them into consecutive combos (which for challenge rooms, can be recorded and then uploaded to online leaderboards).

Predatory Instincts
The second series of challenge rooms show off the predatory combat pillar of the game's design. As Batman, players are tossed into a much larger room with the goal of taking out all the goons, only now they are encouraged to use more stealthy means. Batman can crouch walk to silence his steps to sneak up behind foes, or use his grappling hook to observe his prey from above and put together a rough combat plan.

I scale to the top of the room using my grappling hook and check out the Caped Crusaders wonderful toys in "Batman: Arkham Asylum". My first assessment tool is called investigation, and by tapping a button I get a wire-frame looking heads up display that informs me of enemy positions. Using the right trigger, I can crouch walk and sneak up behind someone for a stealth take-down, one of the best ways to dispatch an opponent silently, or I can look for marked surfaces to use my explosive gel. Tagging a marked surface, you can remote detonate the get and take out an enemy using the opposite of a stealth take-down, but its still very satisfying. Two more great tools for the Dark Knight are the Bat Claw and fan favorite Batarangs. The Bat Claw pulls enemies across the room over to Batman (think Scorpion's claw from Moral Kombat), or over rails, taking them out in the process. And Batarangs are like ninja stars except shaped like .... bats.

As I systematically took out each goon in the challenge room one by one, I had another epiphany - this could be the best Batman game so far. The predatory combat felt right for the license, but the thing that sealed the deal were the enemy A.I. and there reactions. If I was too loud, all the thugs would come running to see what happened - a plus in my book. One of my favorite moments played out when I used one of the game's vertical take-downs - If an enemy passes under Batman's perch in a level, he can grapple down, scoop up the enemy, and tie him to the post while he screams for help. After I hog-tied my prey, he scream out and all the goons leveled their machine guns to fire at me. Using the grapple I was able to evade the bullets and seek a better spot while the enemies bickered amongst each other wondering where I went. This was a Batman moment and it convinced me that the game is on the right track.

There's still much to discuss when it comes to "Batman: Arkham Asylum". The game takes place over the course of one night, and with a pretty familiar comic book plot: Batman apprehends the Joker. Joker escapes and then sets all the lunatics of Arkham loose on everyone's favorite Dark Knight (all according to plan, I might add). So, while the outcome to the story could feel obvious, we're fairly excited to see how it all plays out for Batman this time. Clearly the three pillars philosophy as a key design decision means that Rocksteady Studios understands the Dark Knight, better than the developers that came before. Yet its to early to tell if this is the game that vindicates the Batman license and lifts it out of the dredge of 'bad licensed games'.

Solid Advice: Shut Off Your Phone

“Please shut off your cell phone before the show begins.”

This was the robotic message that blared through the South Hall of the Moscone Center just moments before Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Japan, took the stage for his keynote session on developing games for an emerging market. This was just one of two big headline keynotes taking place this week during the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.

I probably had the same dismissive reaction to this announcement as the countless others that were filing into the large hall for Iwata’s session.

“Shut off my phone?” I thought to myself. “Yeah, right.”

But midway through the keynote, I would come to regret this decision, after all the unthinkable always happens. In fact, this accident was something that I programmed to happen every day at 9:30 a.m.

It was my alarm clock. And at 9:30 a.m., it sounded off in the middle of Iwata’s session programmed with the same high pitched sound as the Codec noise used in the Metal Gear Solid games.

See, this alarm is usually important because it signals the end of my first period class. But today wasn’t one of those regular days.

And as I sat in the press section surrounded by high profile members of the gaming press - Stephen Totilo and Tracey John of MTV Multiplayer to my right, Seth Schiesel of the New York Times sitting in front of Stephen, and Brian Crecente and Mark McWhertor of Kotaku both sitting side-by-side in front of me, I reached into my pocket and silenced my cellphone, feeling very foolish the entire time.

Kellee Santiago Speaks on Managing Creative Talent Within Indie Studios

Kellee Santiago, of thatgamecompany, hosted a lecture today emphasizing the importance of managing creative talent within Indie studios at the Independent Games Festival, part of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The core team of her studio started with 3 people and steadily grew to 7 over the last three years. But despite constantly dealing with contract workers during her studio's game projects, the important piece of her discussion today was aimed towards managing full-timecreatives of an Indie studio instead.

"The focus here will be on your full-time employees, who are probably slash some of your best friends right now," Santiago said, a nudge of sorts toward a key issue for Indie teams, as they transition from creative relationships based off of their early friendships to a more organized format required for business.

Santiago went into specifics by sharing the personal growth and experience at thatgamecompany, and pointed to the creative arguments that began occurring regularly within the group at a very critical moment for the studio last year.

Following the fantastic response from critics to the first showing of their last game, "Flower" at E3 2008, and an offer from Sony aimed at giving them more time and money towards the development of the game, the team was suffering from an all-time low morale within the company and some severe growing pains.

To help the attendees understand her company's situation, Santiago gave a pop quiz to the audience with questions that switched between topics of trust, to then conflict, commitment, and lack of accountability; a laundry list of problems that were contributing to issues at her studio. As one of the the co-founders of her company, Santiago admitted to struggling with knowing when to get involved in the arguments, knowing that on many times when she did it was from being over protective of her staff.

With the help of consultants, the collective of thatgamecompany were able to sort out their issues by identifying the key problems, and then enabling solid management techniques within the company to help address them. They found that there was a growing fear of conflict or the avoidance of conflict between team members, hidden under the guise of thinking that "the game just needed to get done", Santiago said.

For any Indie studio today, Santiago's lecture could hopefully be viewed as solid advice, and she touched on a very human part of the game development process that is never talked about in the daily public relations cycles or information that is passed on to the gaming press.

Santiago closed her lecture by comparing her company's situation to a bad early relationship. "It took (us) a while to learn that its not going to get any better, and that we had to change something here," Santiago said. "But now that we are more mature agency, we can see the signs much more clearer. You can see them a mile away."

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The Night Before GDC 09'

So, how did I spend the day before the Game Developers Conference in San Francsico?

I spent the night before GDC playing (and finishing) Resident Evil 5 on my Xbox 360, and then grabbing a quick nap afterward because my eyes were almost bloodshot from playing most of the day.

But napping at 6 p.m. on the night before a big industry shindig like GDC can be a bad thing. Let me explain. First, i missed a huge kick-off party at a local bar downtown. Second, I woke up restless at 12 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So I spent the early part of this morning browsing more panel sessions and discussions and hoping that I'd make a breakthrough in cloning before 7 a.m.

Sadly, that breakthrough didn't happen, but GDC is still going on and I'll be there on Wednesday.

Maybe I'll get some sleep before then...

Fast Forward: Resident Evil 4 is Keeping Me Busier Than I Thought

If there's only one thing that's difficult about being a fan of gaming, its that keeping up with the annual release schedule is tough business. Or, at least playing through each game can be.

A friend of a friend of mine said it best one day. Well, both he and his wife did; They agreed that the initial investment a person puts into a game can quickly feel like more of a burden than a benefit. Especially with the longer games that dominate our playtime.

Consider what reviewers go through. These folk are paid to play as much as possible (given embargo and other circumstances) and then write a quick yet detailed review chronicling the experience. Of course, average Joe is blind to this part of the experience since no one is making him write a detailed analysis of the game, but he/she would agree that playing game after game and investing 10, 20, or even 50 hours of anyone's time in an experience is daunting all of the time. After all, we all have lives to consider.

Except if you're one of the lucky ones and the terms rent, mortgage, jobs and or social-life are devoid human abstracts of little value to you (very lucky for you indeed).

So, back in 2005 something came up that kept me from playing the somewhat-ubiquitous Game of that Year, "Resident Evil 4". Actually, I think I remember now - that was my first year teaching high school.

A January release was radically different for consumers then given the franchise's pedigree - a bold set of survival horror games set in plague filled middle-American town of Racoon City, but we all were prepared for the revolution that RE4 promised. The new camera, great precision and aiming controls were only some of the benefits, but the game also delieverd what many considered a deep and engrossing action adventure through the spanish part of Europe.

Come to think of it. Now, I really remember what took up most of my time that year: preparing for first batch of mid-term exams. It was a really difficult task, I can assure you.

Well, a little game called "Resident Evil 5" just came out last Friday and as excited as I am for it, I can't justify jumping into the zombie filled plague lands of Africa for a reunion with Chris Redfield just yet. At least, not until I complete the last game in the series that I severly neglected despite the hype. So then I've decided to jump back in and complete RE4 on the Wii.

So far playing RE4: Wii Edition has been great, even if the visual style of the game hasn't aged well. It just doesn't look so hot on an HDTV with VGA cables. But you can blame the manufacturer LG, who only put one set of component cables on the back of the unit. Also, feel free to blame the cost of said component cables for the Wii while you're at it.

I should be done with the game this week, and as of right now I'm on chapter 5-3. Hopefully, my commentary on RE4 for the next few days won't put any of you to sleep. And if so, that's fine. I'll just drone on anyway until I start RE5 right after.