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Witness 'The Metagame' in action, thanks to MTV
It ran at GDC 2007; we reported on it, but you didn't get to see it. Now, MTV has hosted a special edition of The Metagame game show, as part of their "Gamer's Week" Coverage, and Stephen Totilo has posted the highlights for mass consumption.The Metagame, designed and hosted by Frank Lantz of area/code and Eric Zimmerman of Gamelab, pits two teams against each other in a battle of video game smarts. Each round, teams move pieces on the game board to form comparative statements between two games (such as "Halo would make a better movie than Half-Life," or "Virtua Fighter is sexier than Super Mario 64."), and argue these statements to earn points. Vying for victory this time are MTV's Stephen Totilo and Tim Kash, versus Newsweeks' N'Gai Croal, and fellow journalist Heather Chaplin, author of Smart Bomb.The debate is heated, hilarious, and only the slightest bit pretentious. We'd definitely enjoy watching more designers, developers, and press-members argue the semantics and specifics of the industry's most influential games. Any chance of picking up the show full-time, MTV?Update: Due to silly legal restrictions, the video posted above is not viewable in the UK or Canada. Apologies for any confusion or irritation this might cause.
NPD to withhold hardware sales numbers from media
Over at Newsweek's Level Up blog, N'Gai Croal is reporting that the NPD will start withholding more info this month from those who aren't paying (read: the media). Most crushingly, the group says it will no longer release monthly console sales numbers and will only release the top five in software, rather than the top 10 we're used to. These numbers will eventually be available on a quarterly and annual basis. Console makers can still release the data themselves (and you can bet they will if it makes them look good) but that's not a guarantee.It's bad news for both journalists like us who like to pass that information on to you and those who follow the numbers like they were sports scores. Now listen, forum kids and comments flamers, we know we've had a rocky relationship in the past, but we're going to need each other to get through this. Come, let your tears fall on our shoulders.
Newsweek's Croal chimes in on 'video games as art' debate
Film critic Roger Ebert, who originally sparked a blaze of discussion in late 2005 by labeling video games inferior to art like film and theater, reignited talks last week when he "clarified," so to speak, that games could be art but not "high art." Our own Ludwig Kietzmann chimed in on the debate, but the ferocity of his diction is marginal compared to the exhaustive rebuttal laid out by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal.Taking Ebert to task paragraph by paragraph, Croal criticizes and calls the film critic out on his apparent ignorance to the subject that he is chastising, much in the way Ebert did himself when he pulled quotes from a Hollywood & Games panel with Clive Barker. Croal's vitriolic and eloquent response warrants notice and discussion, if only for the sheer detail of his counterargument. If we are going to debate whether one medium has the potential to achieve an artistic maturity now in comparison to one more than three times its senior, this is how we should do it.Here's a scenario regarding Ebert's opinion giving players a "smorgasbord of choices" proves detrimental to its emotional impact: imagine a situation where a player's task is to save someone he loves, yet no matter what action he or she takes, that person cannot be saved. In that situation, wouldn't giving an audience multiple choices actually be more emotional as it emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation?
Spielberg spells new projects with Newsweek
Two of filmmaker Steven Spielberg's three projects with Electronic Arts have been shown to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. Brought to you by the letters L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, and S.In an article dated July 16 (published a bit too early?), Croal talks about his projects codenamed LMNO (Xbox 360 and PS3) and PQRS (for the Wii). The latter title is reportedly a physics-based action puzzler simulator "that neatly blends the creativity of the building-blocks game Jenga with the charm of a Saturday-morning cartoon," he said. Blocks are manipulated using motion gestures via the Wii remote.Project LMNO is described as North by Northwest meets E.T. and has you playing as an ex-secret agent alongside an AI-controlled woman. "The challenge is," said Spielberg, "can the game have an emotional impact on players while they are actively manipulating the world?"We know Spielberg has one other project in the works. Is it ABC, DEFG, HIJK, TUVW, or XYZ? And what happens when he runs out of letters? Hiragana? No news on release dates, but the Wii title was previously mentioned in an EA financial report as coming out before April 2008.[Update: revised unannounced project suggestions]
Totilo and Croal argue about Halo 3
For the most part, MTV's Stephen Totilo and N'Gai Croal of Newsweek don't seem to like Halo 3. In a new series of back-and-forth journalism called Vs., these two are debating the merits of Halo 3"s multiplayer. There have been two parts to the article so far, and right now the consensus is essentially that Halo 3 is too hard. Specifically, learning Halo 3 can be unforgiving. Unfortunately, for many Halo players, this is completely true. There are no training modes, unless you count the campaign. Most people aren't concerned with teaching others how to play either. This leaves the uninitiated to absorb weapon strategies, map layouts, and gametypes by themselves, which can be a daunting task. Then again, Croal and Totilo also have yet to figure out how to initiate team speak (hint: press any direction on the D-pad, fellas).We have to point out, though, that the Halo 3 multiplayer beta really isn't the best arena to judge Halo 3's multiplayer. That may sound strange, given that it is a multiplayer beta after all, but it's true. Right now, the Halo 3 beta is crowded with a relatively small sample of Halo fanatics (several million short of the projected pre-order numbers). These are people who live and breathe Halo, people who went through the Rule of Three, people who spent $60 on Crackdown just to play the beta. Naturally, you're going to be running into lots of people who are better than you. This smaller sampling also limits the effectiveness of the ranking system, as there are fewer people with smaller amounts of skill disparity. Also, and this is important considering N'Gai's misty-eyed memories of LAN parties gone by, there are no custom games in the beta (not officially anyway). Given that N'Gai is vocal about his displeasure at playing with strangers, custom games with friends sound like just what the doctor ordered.If Stephen or N'Gai is reading this, we'd be happy to show you both some friendly matches of Halo. The rest of you can read parts 1 and 2 of the series below.[Via HBO]Read part 1Read part 2
Newsweek dissects what's wrong with the 360
In what looks to be a three part series detailing what's wrong with each new gen console, Newsweek's dreadlocked game journalist, N'Gai Croal has penned an article dismantling the apparent success of the Xbox 360. The article centers around a theory that Xbox afficionados will be familar with, the Xbox 360 can't seem to nab the mass market demographic. As evidence, the article points out that the Xbox 360 has managed to have hit games month after month, yet hardware sales have remained relatively sluggish. This seems to illustrate that the Xbox 360's demographic (much like the original Xbox) is centered around hardcore gamers that buy more games than casual gamers. In other words, these hit games aren't driving casual gamers to purchase an Xbox 360.
