Economy of Effort

2005 is nearly over, and as such, it’s time for reflection. Even though “best of” lists are usually best done around February the following year or so (to catch up on all those late releases or other titles you’ve missed along the way), there is something about the finality of the end of the year that compels one to draw up such a list now. As such, I’ve made a list of the 10 games that I consider to be the “must-play” games of 2005. (I didn’t intentionally make it 10, it just came out that way). I also included 6 games at the end that are titles I expect might be worthy of making the list, but that I haven’t gotten to yet.

The Must-Play Games of 2005:

God of War (PS2) – God of War is fast, brutal, and incredibly fun to play. It’s fairly short, and one run-through is all you’ll ever need to play, but it sets the new high mark for pure action games.

Wipeout Pure (PSP) – This is the game that made me buy a PSP. Wipeout XL for the PlayStation was one of the most fantastic racing games ever, but the Wipeout games that followed it never lived up to that pedigree. For Pure, the game went right back to its XL roots, so much so that it was originally believed to be a remake of that game. Instead, it turned out to be an all-new game that takes the old Wipeout XL gameplay and gives it some oh-so-subtle tweaks and improvements.

Psychonauts (Xbox) – I’m sorry, Tim Schafer, for not believing. When I saw screenshots and read previews of Psychonauts, I didn’t think your quirky, humorous style from the old LucasArts point-and-click adventures would thrive in a 3D platformer. I was wrong. Very wrong. You took the 3D platformer genre (one of the more boring genres of 3D games, IMO) and made it an absolute joy to play.

Civilization IV (PC) – For many people, Civ4 isn’t just “strategy game of the year”, it’s “strategy game of every year until another Civ comes along”. And it’s really hard to argue against that. Not many video or PC games have a shelf life even half as long as a Civilization game. People will be playing this – online and off – very frequently until another Civ game gets released. And for the first time ever, I will be in that group.

Lumines (PSP) – It might not ultimately endure the way Tetris does, but Lumines is one of those few puzzle games that really captured the hearts of gamers. The mixing of music and a neat twist on the “falling blocks” gameplay mechanics made this game a hypnotizing joy. Though many peoples’ addictions were ultimately short-lived, the game still must be played – and if you can keep yourself from overdoing it early and getting burned out on it, it makes a great game to pick up and play anytime.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Xbox) – I like-a de Splinter Cell. Though the games are coming out with sports-like frequency, the tag-team developer approach gives each game longer than 1 year in development, and the quality has not fallen off yet. Chaos Theory is easily the best Splinter Cell game to date, despite the loss of Dennis Haysbert in the role of Lambert. The single-player campaign was the most flexible one yet, and the online play thrived with not only adversarial play, but a great new co-op mode with a whole co-op only campaign. Here’s hoping the 4th game (coming up soon) continues to raise the bar. Metal Gear Solid is being made irrelevant in the genre.

Indigo Prophecy (Xbox) – Named “Fahrenheit” in its original European market, the game’s name was changed to avoid any potential unwanted association or confusion with Fahrenheit 9/11 (ok then, so why not just call the game “Celsius”?). Indigo Prophecy is, or at least should be, a single-handed revival of the adventure genre. Gone is pointing and clicking, replaced instead with a control system much more this decade. The game strips the item-gathering, inventory-managing tedium out of the genre, and pairs it down to reasonably-logical puzzles and brief button-response action sequences, similar to Shenmue’s “Quick Timer Events”. Unfortunately for us US gamers, the nudity and sex scenes from the European game are stripped out. Never thought I’d be disappointed over such a thing, but that Detective Carla Valenti is one finely rendered set of polygons.

NHL 2K6 (Xbox) – In some ways, this game was a disappointment. The presentation was a big step down from last year, where they had the benefit of the ESPN license. Also, some silly bugs (like in the online lobbies) just annoy and give the game that “not quite a polished product” feeling, AGAIN. But once again, there is one place where 2K rules, and that is the action on the ice. While EA’s NHL game is just a terrible product in terms of actual gameplay, NHL2K6 is the best simulation of hockey in a video game yet. I would be happy with next year’s game if they did almost nothing to the on-ice product, and just spent the time getting the off-the-ice parts of the game up to snuff.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (Xbox 360) – Must-play games don’t have to come on little silver discs or cost $20-50. This one costs $5 and is a direct download over Xbox Live Marketplace, and it should be purchased for every Xbox 360. It’s a simple, hypnotic game that harkens back to the old ’80s arcade experience – but the updated presentation makes all the difference.

SOCOM III: US Navy SEALs (PS2) – Boy, the PS2 hardware is getting looong in the tooth. But when it comes down to it, all the prettier military combat games don’t have the same brilliant level design or neat gameplay modes that SOCOM does. Why games like Ghost Recon haven’t ripped off the Breach game mode, I do not know. As it is, SOCOM still has the ugliest visuals but the best map design and game modes of any online military combat game. Respawn games like Battlefield and Ghost Recon certainly are attractive to the more casual shooter, but the tension of no-respawn gameplay like SOCOM is unmatched.

Honorary Mentions (or: Games That Might Make The List Later, Once I Play Them):

Guitar Hero (PS2) – I am very much looking forward to playing this game. I loved Harmonix’s earlier music-based games (Frequency and Amplitude), and this one looks to be even better.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) – It’s sitting in the living room in Logan’s PS2. After I finish the game I’m currently playing, I’m jumping right into this one. I adored Ico, and after watching Logan play this a bit, I know I will be all over this one.

Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) – I’ve only played the first few minutes of this. It’s on everyone’s best-of lists, and it looked neat given the small part that I played. The controls weren’t exactly intuitive, but I imagine they’ll be just fine once I start climbing the learning curve.

Condemned: Criminal Origins (Xbox 360) – Survival forensic horror? Something like that. Given what I’ve read about this game, I am looking very forward to playing it on my nice new 360.

Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) – I don’t play many Japanese RPGs anymore. They used to be my favorite type of game. Androgynous anime men with big swords seemed cool when I was 14. Unfortunately, Japanese RPGs largely seem stuck in that teenage mindset. That said, I will still be giving Dragon Quest VIII a shot. Please, don’t let the story be stupid.

Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS) – I’ll be getting a DS soon, and this is one of the major reasons why. I bashed Nintendo for not bringing Mario Kart online on the GameCube. Now they do bring Mario Kart online, and it’s on a handheld. Well, it’s a start.

My parents were going to buy me an Xbox 360 for Christmas. But with the 360 supply problems, they weren’t able to acquire one, so they threw in a catch: I could get a picture of a 360 for Christmas and get the real thing when they are finally in stores for longer than 5 seconds… or I could get the money put into my account and I go acquire it myself.

Normally, I’m not in a rush for these sort of things. The last system I got at “launch” (I define that as within a month of release, not necessarily the DAY of launch) was the Sega Dreamcast. But you see, I have a precious few weeks of free time following these last two back-breaking semesters and before the next one. So, I wanted a damn 360 to play for these few weeks while I don’t have the pressure of work piling up.

So, it was leaked online weeks ago that Best Buy was going to build up stock and resupply their stores on December 18th – this past Sunday. The internal Best Buy circular was scanned and posted online. So, I knew 360s were coming, and just a couple of days after the end of finals. I was going to be a zombie anyway, might as well be a zombie sitting outside Best Buy, right? I got my little brother Logan involved, and we got my dad’s heavy-duty camping gear and prepared to camp out.

I had figured that lines wouldn’t start to form until Best Buy closed Saturday night. Logan and I went to lunch Saturday afternoon, and then we swung by Best Buy to see what their hours for the day were. Well, when we got there, about 20 people were already standing in line. So I pushed Logan out the door, drove home, and got all of our gear while he established our spot. The camping began, for us, at 1:00pm.

We ended up next to a German gentleman named Hendrik. He was quiet and reserved, but nice. It wasn’t until his wife sat in for him for a while that I learned he is a composer. The wife, by the way, was beautiful. I admit that I was slightly smitten, in a harmless way. They were in their late 30s, I’d guess. Very pronounced German accents, which are of course attractive from women. The magazine he was reading covered people like Brian Eno, so that scored more points with me. Great people, very nice to have them next to us instead of some ADHD crackbaby kids or hardcore supernerds or anything.

I brought along my whiteboard, which is usually found hanging next to my desk with data structures and stuff scribbled across it. In line, though, I wrote little sign slogans to amuse myself and the people walking by. One sign read, “If I Don’t Get an XBOX 360, The Terrorists Have Won!”. Another said, “Camping for WORLD PEACE, Will Settle For An XBOX 360″. I heard people laughing and muttering the phrases amonst themselves as they walked by throughout the day/night. Later, all of the local TV stations sent news crews to shoot footage of the line, and each of them made sure to take a separate shot of my signs. One crew even interviewed Logan on camera, though they didn’t use the footage in the news. Too bad. It was neat to get the attention, though.

Everything was fun and relaxing… until the rain began. And kept going. All through the night. Then the reading of books and playing PSP games ended, and the cowering in sleeping bags began. Logan had the thick canvas weather-proof bag, while my bag was somewhat less weather-proof. So at 2:00am, Logan just sent my ass to the car and he built a little shelter out of our chairs, to cover his head (as the canvas bag took care of the rest). When the Best Buy people came outside to do a count, he called my cell and I hopped out of the car and back into my spot. Nobody cared, and I wasn’t the only person taking shelter in cars. As long as someone was holding your position, it was cool.

The rain never stopped, though as the morning came, it at least lightened up. It came to a near-stop right when the store was opening to let people in. All of us close enough to the front of the line hand numbered vouchers, and were let in 5 at a time. Logan and I were #24 and #25. Best Buy only committed to carrying 20, but the managers let us know that they expected to have 40-50… they just weren’t allowed to actually say so in definite terms. When I got to the stock room where they were handing them out, I saw the stack, and they weren’t lying. It was about 50, keeping in mind how many were already gone from the people in front of me. The line stretched well beyond 50 people, so a lot of dudes walked away disappointed, no doubt.

And that was that. I’ve already taken the system out of the box and played with it – after the misery of the rain, there was no way I was waiting until the 25th. I don’t have any retail games for it yet, but I’ve tried a couple of backwards compatible games (Splinter Cell is tres bien) and some Marketplace games (hooray Gauntlet and Geometry Wars). I also love the fact that demos are downloadable. Who needs those OXM demo DVDs anymore? Not anyone on Xbox Live. I’ve played the Kameo and Madden demos – they take a while to download (each is about 1GB) but the convenience of on-demand demo downloads is a much more awesome feature than I had anticipated. I hope that most retail-released games end up having demos on Live.

That’s it for now. More impressions when I have some actual game discs to drop into it.

I have, in recent months, become very interested in the world of indie game development. Though I am expecting to soon embark on a career in professional game development, I am intrigued by those that have found a way to make some money in independent game development. The advent of the Xbox Live Marketplace on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console has put indie games in the living room overnight. While the ever-popular Geometry Wars might not be an indie title per se, it certainly plays like one, and fits in alongside the other true indie games on the Marketplace. Games seen in the Independent Games Festival are starting to show up on Marketplace – 2005′s grand prize winner (Wik and the Fable of Souls) is now available, and hopefully a flood of other IGF finalist games start coming.

I’ve made it a point to begin checking out IGF finalist games before they hit Marketplace. Yesterday, I downloaded a demo of Professor Fizzwizzle, one of the finalists for the upcoming 2006 festival. First impression: being available on Linux as well as Mac OS X and Windows is good. Second impression: the game is a neat cartoony puzzle game. The premise is simple – navigate the Professor from a starting point to a finishing point. The game can be incredibly simple, or extremely challenging. A neat feature is the different “paths” through the game – you can follow a path of “advanced levels”, or there are “kid levels” for children to play. The game has some neat ideas and it would seem like one of those games that would be great to play with a son or daughter (yes, parents, video games are for daughters too).

It will be interesting to see if the game shows up on Marketplace eventually. This game costs $20 for a full version, like many indie games. $20 is probably too much. When they end up on Marketplace, they become $5 impulse purchases. I would definitely buy this on Marketplace for $5. I’ll buy any IGF finalist game for $5, if for nothing else than to support independent game development. Hopefully indie games start to move even further beyond the “one screen” style of game.