36. Another Day in Albion - Part 1

Being gamers, Maranda and I have spent an awful lot of time lately talking about which games are on the must-buy list this holiday season.  Our lists differ a little, but I thought I’d take a moment to talk about my A and B tier games and why they’re on their particular list.  Let’s start with the “A” list (games that I consider to be “must buy” on release):

• Fable 2
• Fallout 3
• Gears of War 2

Fable 2 wins top spot as my most anticipated game this year.  A lot of people call me crazy, but I really did love the first game.  I hadn’t heard any of the hype associated with this game except for that it was supposed to be really good and to this day it remains the only RPG that I’ve played through more than twice.  If Peter Moleneux and his team say this one is better than I’m inclined to believe them.  And, luckily, I’ve already had some playtime with this one last August at X08.  I enjoyed what I played and October 21st can’t get here soon enough!

Speaking of RPGs, I really did try to get through Oblivion more than twice.  Hell, even more than once would have been a significant accomplishment.  Oh, don’t get me wrong… I tried to get through it again several times after I had completed the game but Tamriel is just so damn big that I never got very far!  Bethesda’s follow up game has been described to me as Oblivion with guns and, let me tell you, that sounds freaking amazing.

For me, Gears of War 2 really represents the phenomenal season closer.  Maranda and I played through the first game split-screen and had a fantastic time.  You can tell that Cliff and the crowd over at Epic really knew what they were doing when they put that one together.  Everything just makes sense.  The next game is supposed to have a better story (which is good because I had to watch the ending of the last game twice before I could understand what happened), and better graphics (I’ve seen them in person, they’re pretty slick but you really have to look for the changes).

Hit the jump for more…

33. Too Human, Eh

This is it!  The third and final thing I want to talk about this week.  What’s on the menu? Well, a new comic of course!  Too Human is a game I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time.  Every time I hear Denis Dyack from Silicon Knights talk about it my skin starts to tingle.  Action RPG with elements from all my favourite games of old?  Sign me the hell up!  A fresh take on Norse mythology?  Um, yes please. Tons of cool armour customization? You had me at “Hello”.

Unfortunately, I can’t deliver any early impressions on this one.  I won’t be getting any play time with it until probably a few days after it’s release.  If I have an opportunity, I’ll see what I can write up early next week.

Another reason why I’ve been following Too Human is because for the past while before the game went gold they were using assets from my XNA Button Pack #1.  Then, for reasons that I’m not entirely clear about, they decided to create their own buttons which (in my ever-so-humble opinion) aren’t as good as mine.  If you’re reading this SK, remember that they’re free for commercial use!

Actually, I take that back.  Don’t use them.  Glass looking buttons, both the ones found in the game and mine don’t match your cool aesthetic.  I’ll whip up something new that actually fits in with your game.  How about this?

Awesome Too Human Inspired Buttons

Do you like them Denis?  Email me, we’ll talk.

I’ve had some time to let everything we saw yesterday sink in and I’m ready to make my comments.  Read on for my humble thoughts and opinions.

Dashboard 2.0: The New Experience
On the Xbox 360′s launch day when I first turned on my console, I remember thinking very clearly to myself that the Dashboard was going to be inadequate as time moved on.  Being the professional designer that I am (you did know that, right?) I had concocted several solutions in my head that could potentially solve the problems that I foresaw.

Never in my wildest dreams did I image that they’d implement an entirely different front end interface!

I can’t say that I necessarily love it, but we really don’t know a lot about it yet.  I know that significantly more information is coming and I’m fully intent on reserving judgment until then.  Primarily, I want to know how it’s going to benefit the gamer enthusiast in me beyond 8 person partying in the dashboard.  While neat, I can’t see myself using this very often (if ever).

What we really need to see is how this system will make getting around easier.  I’ll tell you, from my limited exposure to it so far I would imagine it would make navigating your content harder.  But, like I said, we really don’t know anything about it yet and we’ll have to wait for Microsoft to reveal more in greater detail.

Avatars
Cool? I guess?  Can I dress him up in COG armour from Gears of War?  I don’t know.  This is obviously aimed at making the console more mainstream friendly and, while I’m on board with that, I hope they take the opportunity to expand the experience well beyond the horribly realized Miis.

Another important question that I’m curious to have answered is how these new Avatars will be monetized.  Obviously paying for new shirts and whatnot is the equivalent of paying for gamerpics so I guess we’ll see that.  But will they take it further.

Here’s another question.  What’s going to happen to gamercards on Xbox.com and the rest of the internet?  If gamerpics are going optional, will there be a backend system to essentially convert avatars into gamerpics.  I guess only time will tell.

NetFlix, NBC, Universal
I’m pretty sure none of these apply to Canada so I’m not really getting worked up over them.  The Canadian video marketplace is the equivelent of a bad joke (a very expensive one at that) which I’ve pretty much ignored up to this point.  What I really want to see is the price reduced and the content signifiacntly expanded.

Games
This is what it all comes down to for me.  Everything they showed was pretty much on my must-buy list.  Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Rock Band 2 and (of course) Final Fantasy XIII.  There was lots of news and lots of new features announced.  They’re all great and fantastic and I’ll be sure they’ll add to the experience.

A few of the more casual or mainstream games announced will also more than likely find their way into my living room.  Maranda and I have quite a few non-gamer friends and games like Scene It have been a hit in the past.

Game Over
Now that we’re all said and done I think it’s safe to say that Microsoft is delivering a little something for everyone.  Will the new mainstream focused dashboard deliver a better experience for the core gamer?  That’s still up in the air.  Regardless of whether it’s a hit or miss, at least we’ll have some fantastic games to play.