POV - A Producer's Point of View

Top Five Mistakes Made by Game Industry Job Seekers

I know that a percentage of those who visit this site are interested in breaking into the game industry.  Whether a student, someone looking to change careers, or someone already in QA looking to move up it does seem from the recent volume of e-mail I receive on the subject that the interest in getting involved with the interactive industry is at an all-time high.

I've offered some tips for people getting noticed in QA way back in 2004 but I've never posted my thoughts here on getting through the interview process successfully.  I'd put it in my own words, but Justin Stark over at Digital Artist Management just wrote an article on the subject so succinctly that I don't think I could have said it all better myself. 

For those of you looking to break into games feel free to take Justin's advice as gospel from both his perspective as a long time recruitment executive and from my own as a hiring manager.  What he says here makes sense.

Without further ado, a link to the DAM web site...

TOP FIVE MISTAKES MADE BY JOB SEEKERS

Nice work Justin.

The Softer Side of Grand Theft Auto 4

Pre-Ordered Grand Theft Auto 4

So with the recent news that GTA IV has gone gold I went ahead and pre-ordered the game this morning.

To be honest I don't really pre-order too many games these days, but I figure you don't really get much more of an "event" type launch anymore that can top a new version of GTA.  Used to be Mario and Halo would fit into this category for me, but their recent offerings just haven't been as exciting and really I can't imagine being much more excited for a product release than GTA outside of maybe a new expansion for World of Warcraft.  GTA's actually the only thing I can imagine right now that would tear me away from Burning Crusade for any amount of time.

Ordered from Gamestop.com and it looks like they're offering a guarantee of delivery on the 29th - the same day as the game will be available in stores.  I went whole hog and got the mega-super-bonus-collectorsedition-nifty version of GTA.

$89.99  GTA IV Special Edition
$11.49  FedEx Overnight Shipping
$9.99  Gamestop Additional Handling Fee
$9.19  Tax

The grand total of the order is $120.66 which is probably money really well spent for the amount of enjoyment this game should bring.  If nothing else, I love the mere rumor of additional content downloads in the form of new cities in the future.

Feels like Gamestop is totally fucking consumers with the "additional handling fee" but who knows, the extra charge may be because of the extra stuff the CE version of the game ships with.  I don't have a lot of goodwill for Gamestop however after all the bullshit they pull with screwing consumers with forced bundles when new console hardware is released and I kind of doubt this is anything but an opportunistic money grab on their part riding on the coattails of the biggest release of 2008.  Call me cynical.

Anyhow, really looking forward to this game.  Should be an amazing release week for Rockstar and and amazing game for their fans. 

11 days left before GTA hits my desk.

WoW: Burning Crusade ~ 231 Hours of Gameplay and Counting

As a regular reader of this site I know you’re probably looking at my lack of World of Warcraft posts one of two ways.

One:  You may be wondering why I’m not posting like crazy about my recent WoW experiences given my passion for the game in 2006 and my then frequent posts detailing why I feel it’s the greatest video game ever released.

Two:  You’re thankful that I’ve been keeping my mouth shut about the experience and are pleased that I haven’t bored you all to tears with my raving about the game.  Note that most people from Archer to my wife fall into this category, but I warn you, telling me to shut up about WoW only increases the chances I’ll talk about multiboxing instances like BFD (video) or about how my recent trip to Big Bear Mountain reminded me of Winterspring.

The third option of course is that you forgot I was playing again altogether.

In any of those events, I am still playing Burning Crusade and it has consumed my life in much the same way the game did the first time I played – I’ve just been more quiet about it all on the blog this time around.

I haven’t seen a DVD in months, my 360 has been mainly dormant thus far in 2008, and I find myself playing WoW for a couple hours almost every day.

A new post is in order, mainly because I did pass level 60 a couple weeks back with my new main and I wanted to post my total time played to level 60:

9 days, 15 hours, 4 minutes, and 43 seconds.

Otherwise broken down as:

231 hours, 4 minutes and 43 seconds

This does represent a substantial savings over the first time I leveled a character from 0 to 60.  Overall it took me 280 hours LESS this time around to level to 60, and while my experience with the game certainly plays a part of that it really must be attributed to Blizzard’s more forgiving level progression since Burning Crusade was introduced.

Of course this also means I've spent a combined total of 740+ hours playing WoW since 2006.  [shiver]

I’m currently level 62 and figured I’d post some interesting (or not so) points about the recent play through:

• I had been reticent this time through to join a random guild since the first one I joined didn’t really have much to offer in 2006. With Burning Crusade it seemed a bright idea to join the Beenox Bloody Blades which is a guild run by one of the developers I work with, Beenox. Seemed a bright idea. Only after transferring my character to their server did I realize that though I speak with all the Beenox guys in English when I visit their studio in Quebec Canada, French is their preferred language, and lets just say that trying to run a raid with a bunch of guys speaking another language is less than optimal. Alt-tabbing to Alta Vista Babelfish really doesn’t get it done.

• I was on a PvP server as Creative Director extraordinaire Christian Busic has been telling me it’s the only honorable way to play the game (love his blog [rolls eyes]). When I joined the Beenox guild I noticed that they play on an RP server which means no player versus player. Christian would again describe this as a Care Bear server, but I do have to say I prefer it over PvP now. So refreshing to level a character and not have to worry about getting ganked constantly in Stranglethorn Vale!

• People tell me the Druid is uber now, but I do think my Warlock is a lot more fun to play than the Druid I leveled first time around. A great class for solo leveling.

• I’ll go ahead and say it with confidence; I am the Donald Trump of the WoW auction house. Truly, I don’t think I’d enjoy the game nearly as much if it wasn’t for the time I spend in the AH. Playing through the game this second time I really haven’t had to worry about gold at all given my speculation on the WoW market and the help that the Auctioneer add-on has provided. When I started the game around Christmas time it seems everyone wanted to make holiday cookies with small eggs and I absolutely cornered the market selling the damn things which were in ample supply around the Blood Elf starting area. I probably made a couple hundred gold on eggs alone before moving on to earn some serious bank on Morrowgrain and unique items I bought from vendors and flipped for a hugh profit at the AH. I spec’ed with skinning and herbalism this time around and that seems to provide all the coin I need to keep my character in excellent gear. Though of course my gear rarely matches and I look like an absolute clown most of the time.

• Nice thing about being on an older server is that there are a ton of L70 characters out there totally bored to tears. Interesting thing about WoW is that the community proves to be filled with genuinely pleasant people time and time again. I’ve asked for help on a number of occasions and I’m always impressed with how much people are willing to pitch in and help out with a tough quest or the like – much more so than you’d ever experience out here in the real world.

• The Burning Crusade expansion really is a blast to play. The locales are a bit too “other worldly” for my taste, but the backgrounds are nicely done and the new gear drops are really excellent compared to the gear from the original game. Nice to see some interesting new touches from Bombing Run missions on flying mounts to herb drops off mobs too to keep things fresh and interesting.

• As a testament to my love of the game, I upgraded my standard 17" LCD to a nice new 22" widescreen LCD.  For those playing the game I have to say that playing in 16:9 view is really the only way to play.  I was also surprised that upgrading from a standard VGA cable to DVI actually made a visible difference in the graphics quality.  What's another $325 bucks to support the WoW habit?

That’s all for now.  I’ll save more commentary for final impressions when I hit Level 70 in the next month or so.

Miscellaneous Ramblings ~ Have an Interesting Weekend?

So, did you do anything interesting this past weekend?

It's moments like this one that make me second guess the trip to Target as being a highlight of my Sunday afternoon...

This last weekend the producer I work with on Bond spent his time playing a thrash metal concert in Germany for 2,000 rabid fans.

He's the guitarist on the right playing with one of his bands, Heathen.  Guitar Hero indeed.

Production 101 ~ Follow-Up

One of the things I want to do in 2008 is renew focus on the Production 101 posts on this site.  Seems I lost interest in the category at some point while waiting for some brilliant visions to strike me that I could somehow impart on you, my dear readers.  Lately I’ve realized that there are quite a few tips I could offer to new producers (and reminders to the veterans) that may hold some value even though they’re not radical new ideas.  I do have some associate producers and production coordinators that work with me here at Activision who frequent the site, so who knows?  At the least maybe they’ll get a better idea of what makes me tick.  I have about 30 ideas I’ve documented for new posts so I figure if I get something new out semi-regularly I may even have some consistent posts for the next 52 weeks or so.

So, first topic?  Let’s start with “Follow-Up.”

One of the things I’ve really appreciated in my career from the producers I work with and has earned me accolades from those I report to is the impetus to simply follow-up from time-to-time.  Examples of good follow-up might be as follows.

Let’s say you’re a producer who needs to send a FedEx out to one of your developers or external partners.  Most producers will go to the shipping department and send the package out.  Typically this arrives in the mailroom about five minutes after the daily shipping cutoff which then leaves your recipient wondering the next day about where the package is, triggering them to then type up an e-mail asking about the status.  A pro-active producer in this same situation would have copied down the tracking number when the shipping forms were completed, headed back to their desk, and e-mailed the recipient letting them know that a package was on the way complete with tracking number and even a hyper-link to the FedEx tracking web site.  In the latter example, the pro-active follow-up only took about five extra minutes of effort but provided the recipient all the information they need to not only understand the current status but also the ability to quickly follow-up on their own via the handy hyper-link.  Seems like a small detail, I know, but it’s these sorts of small details that separate a good producer from a great one.

As another example, let’s say you are a producer charged by your boss with handling the outsourcing of a component of your game.  The typical producer may take this assignment on and be hard at work each day tracking issues and pushing things forward while offering little visibility into the progress to those around them.  You can bet that at some point the Executive Producer, Art Director, or some other VIP will spend the time typing an e-mail to ask for an update.  A pro-active producer in the same situation would engage in regular follow-up.  Doing all the things previously mentioned, the pro-active producer will follow-up with regular, yet still brief, weekly status update e-mails to his boss and perhaps even his boss’ supervisor to keep everyone appraised of the progress.  By offering management regular visibility into the status of the assignment they not only keep everyone in the loop, thus ensuring greater peace of mind, but they oftentimes even get a reputation for being one of the producers who is detail oriented and on-the-ball.  It’s the small things like this that add up to promotions.

Here’s a final example, and a really small one that goes a long way.  I like to respond to all my e-mail in 24 hours (others don’t and I’ll harangue them in a later post).  Oftentimes I can get to the issue in that 24 hour window, but other times I cannot.  What to do?  A simple e-mail to the original sender after the initial 24 hour window has elapsed simply stating that you haven’t forgotten about the issue and will get back to them by the end of the week communicates that you’re received the mail, processed it mentally, will be addressing it soon, and even offers guidance on when they can expect you to follow-up thereby giving them permission to harass you later if they haven’t heard back.  A simple response, even if it doesn’t necessarily solve an issue is always appreciated if nothing else to let people know you’re not ignoring them.

Follow-up in all areas of production is a powerful tool, and one that I believe goes a long way in establishing yourself as a buttoned-up sort of individual with upper-management written all over you! 

Not to mention it’s the right thing to do.

Final Impressions ~ God of War: Chains of Olympus

The past couple weeks I’ve had a bit of travel around the U.S. and Canada which can mean only one thing – time for some handheld gaming!

Great news was that on these past couple trips is I’ve actually had a killer app to keep me busy.  I’m a casual handheld gamer at best so it’s not often these titles come along for me.  Between the DS and the PSP (even more so the PSP) the great games can be few and far between.  In this case I’ve had the highly anticipated God of War on the PSP sitting on the shelf waiting for just such an occasion.  Did the game and its parent studio Ready at Dawn disappoint?

An emphatic, No.

I’ve been so looking forward to this game after the very competent Daxter from the Ready at Dawn guys and the game is very special in it’s own right, not just on the PSP but in terms of all the games I’ve played so far this year.

Truly the game is expertly executed on a number of levels and I often found myself comparing the game to its big brothers on the PS2.  I wasn’t a rabid fan of the first God of War, especially as the game got increasingly difficult toward the end and after the advent of next-gen consoles the sequel just didn’t capture me.  This one fires on all cylinders however, and it’s the first GOW game I’ve completed.

So why all the fuss?

The most obvious thing to make note of is the amazing tech the game is based on.  It’s difficult to believe that the Ready at Dawn guys were able to squeeze as much as they did out of the PSP platform.  The levels are vast in scope, draw distances are grand, the textures look sharp and detailed and the modelers didn’t seem to have to make any sacrifices in executing their vision.  It looks at least as good as a PS2 game, and dare I say even better?  Further on the art side, the animation is flawlessly executed leading to a completely immersive experience.

The audio is quite good for a handheld title and between the cut-scenes and the main gameplay the audio really compliments (or perhaps more accurately completes) the experience.

I saved design for last.  The story is very well done and captured me more completely than the first two games did.  Just like the amazing Bioshock of 2007 the story kept drawing me farther into the game as much as the character progression system did.  The gameplay mechanics are all tight and the level design never misses.  The game has plenty of memorable moments (SPOILER: the scene where you have to slam the buttons to push your daughter away in the final act is masterful – creating some real emotion) and delivers in the same vein of the best GOW titles from its massive enemy encounters to one off events.  Perhaps one of the most understated achievements of the design team, but one I’ll give them credit for, is their complete realization of what makes a God of War game great.  Another team may have been tempted to go far off in their own direction or miss the special things that made the first games a critical and commercial hit but the Ready at Dawn guys really nailed everything from the signature opening GOW chapter, to the pacing, to the upgrade tree, the combo system, and especially the expertly implemented signature GOW button press sequences to take down tougher enemies and bosses.

I realize I’m gushing here but it’s so difficult to find a good PSP game nowadays that I mainly end up playing Hot Shots still on my PSP (Sony, when do we get a PSP sequel for God’s sake?!  You do realize that Hot Shots is one of the top five killer apps on your little system, don’t you?). 

With all the praise here surely there must be some problems with the title.  Well, yes.  But not major ones.

My main complaints with the game really present themselves in two areas.  The first is that the level design got a bit confusing for me at times and I found myself completely lost and frustrated on three occasions, two of which appeared in the same chapter where you’re trying to free the Sun God’s horses.  Bad camera and cryptic level design contributed to the problems and while this is excusable to some degree, I haven’t been “stuck” in a game for quite some time so being lost on multiple occasions is noteworthy.  The second flaw with the title is that I found the game to be a rather short affair.  It’s not the worst thing to be left wanting more of a good thing but in this case I was left with very little replay value after I completed the main story campaign in about five hours.  There is a challenge mode but it didn’t capture my interest fully and I would have really appreciated some sort of mode to encourage me to play through the game again – perhaps inline with what you might see in a Ratchet and Clank game.

Small quibbles perhaps, but the replayability is a difficult flaw for me especially given this is a handheld title and one that I would have liked to take along with me on more trips in the future.

Still, a very well executed title that the still relatively new Ready at Dawn studios deserves credit for.  This has ended up being not only the best handheld title for me in 2008 but perhaps even one of my early contenders for Game of the Year overall given both it’s excellence overall and perhaps to a much less degree the serious lack of quality next-gen console offerings I’ve experience so far this year.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Been a while since my last post.  A couple notes on industry happenings while I work up the energy for a more substantial offering.

DICE Summit 2008
A few weeks back I attended the annual DICE summit, and after a previous post where I expressed my disappointment in the 2006 affair, I must say I was really pleasantly surprised this time out.  The Activision bosses gave me a choice of attending once conference this year between GDC and DICE and given my new focus on external development, GDC didn’t seem the natural choice.  Ended up being a good decision as this year’s DICE summit strikes me as their best yet. 

In case one of the DICE bigwigs surfs to the site, here are some of the highlights in my humble opinion:

The conference was held in Las Vegas again (great choice) at the Red Rocks Hotel and Casino versus the Green River in years past, and I have to say, the facility was really nice.  If you didn’t tell me the name of the place I’d swear it was almost like a W Hotel which is a favorite of mine.  Young and trendy décor, big standard rooms with nice amenities, good restaurants, the casino was nice, and the conference facilities were well suited for us.  Only downside of the hotel is it’s pretty far off the Strip so it’s a $50 cab ride each way if you want to go and play downtown.  Which we did – and then some…  I think Archer is still recovering from his near concussion when he took on a taxi in the Venetian valet area.

The lectures were for the most part pretty engaging.  Sure, there were at least 30-40% I wasn’t interested in, but the ones I anticipated didn’t disappoint.

• Gore Verbinsky presented a keynote this year, and anytime you have a Hollywood type coming in to offer a gaming keynote you’re prepared for the whole thing to be eye-roll worthy.  To his credit, I think Gore had some good points, tying his session in nicely between Hollywood and gaming and offered some stark opinions about the trends in the game industry with warnings about ending up in the same spot the film business is in.  Some interesting viewpoints on how creative types battle the studio in Hollywood and games and I was pleased to see Gore take some brave positions in what might have been a pretty vanilla or pointless keynote.
• Shane Kim runs Microsoft Game Studios and I was really entertained and informed by and interview between he and Seth Schiesel of New York Times fame.  One of the guys next to me leaned over before the session started and said, “This ought to be good, Seth doesn’t pull any punches.”  True to form, Seth did ask some hard hitting questions, from why Microsoft seems to be losing first-party development talent to whether the 360 will have a decent line-up of content in 2008.  Shane squirmed a bit here and there but handled himself really well.  Props to Mr. Kim for surviving the barrage of sensitive questions with grace.
• Activision’s Executive Vice President Robin Kaminsky had an informative session on marketing the biggest games in our industry which I found to be enlightening even for someone who already works with her here at Activision.
• John Riccitiello presented a great session explaining in part how EA has made some mis-steps (appreciate his honesty) and their plans for success in their future.  The session revolved quite a bit about how EA is moving to a new independent development studio model which isn’t very foreign to Activision, but still interesting to hear his take on why that will prove to be successful for EA.

Unlike all the previous conferences I attended, I really did enjoy all the hosted parties at this year’s conference.  On one of the first nights in town we expected to only briefly stop by the welcome party but ended up staying for quite a while.  It was a great networking opportunity and event to catch up with old friends and the show organizers did a great job keeping everyone happy with a hosted bar and premium food.  The other nights in town we were treated to a great pre-party at Club Cherry courtesy of Comcast and Game Invasion, again with great food and drink before the AIAS Awards show and a really fun after party at the Red Rock bowling alley with free bowling, booze and fried foods courtesy of Cox Communications.  Overall I thought the show organizers and sponsors did a great job with what would normally be weak parties.

Speaking of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards show, this one was the best yet.  The show was professionally organized, had a more interesting table setup this year with servers applying liberal amounts of booze, and once again a great host in Jay Mohr who always does a fantastically irreverent job.  Check out the video of the show HERE.

Overall it was a great experience and I do think I’ll head out again next year.  A really nice networking event for those of us in external production, if nothing else.

Phil Harrison Leaves Sony, Joins Infogrames
For some reason this strikes me as really odd, but potentially really big news.  So Phil Harrison has been on the scene at Sony since 1992 which is a major chunk of time.  I don’t know Phil personally, but from seeing keynote addresses and the like at GDC over the years where Phil represented Sony I understand he was a pretty big fish there, and by accounts, a positive influence within the company.  Well Phil somewhat quietly resigned a week or so back at the conclusion of GDC and now comes word that Phil is going to be joining forces with Infogrames.  Infogrames?  Infogrames.  Such a strange decision to me.  Why you go from one of the top companies in the industry to what I personally view as one of the worst is somewhat beyond me.  Mountains of money thrown at him I guess?  I looked to the stories on the web today for some enlightenment, but I still can’t see the reasoning behind this move.  Harrison commented, "This is the perfect time to join Infogrames and help shape the future of Atari -- one of the industry’s legendary brands."  OK, I guess that’s a way of looking at things.  What better time to shape the future of a company but when it’s one foot in the grave (both feet in this case?).  Well, good luck Phil.  I’m sure there is some method to your madness here and this appears quite the coup for Infogrames.  If Phil can’t help turn things around I’m not sure who could.  I particularly enjoyed one gamers contribution to the forums who summed up Phil’s move as follows, which isn’t perfectly apt, but entertaining nonetheless. 

On Phil’s transition from Sony to Infogrames:  “That's like transporting from the Death Star to Alderaan right before it fired.”

Drake’s Fortune ~ Final Impressions
I’ve been meaning to type up a proper post as this is one of the first great titles of 2008 for me, but I just haven’t had the time to put something together.  Suffice to say I really, really enjoyed Drake’s fortune.  Had great production quality, very cinematic narrative presentation, and compelling gameplay presented with a nice sense of pacing.  There are some small quibbles I could make about the title, but it seems almost unfair in deference to the title’s overall greatness.  I had someone come into my office for instance when I was playing one day (at lunch, of course) and start nitpicking the cutscene quality.  For those that haven’t played the game I’ll tell you that the cutscenes are really well put together and I had to jump in and argue that most games would be lucky if their cinematics looked “that bad.”  Not quite as stellar as the also recently released PS3 exclusive Ratchet and Clank in my opinion, but a very solid effort that the guys at Naughty Dog should be proud of.  The second best exclusive game for the PS3 in my opinion.

Still No PS3

I’m still in the market for a PS3.  With the introduction of Ratchet and Clank and Drake’s Fortune I have some renewed hope for the system and have been frustrated of late as I’ve only been able to play Drake’s Fortune over my lunch breaks on my work PS3.  I thought about taking the system home over the weekend on occasion but the pure weight of the console has quashed any of those thoughts – my gameplay enjoyment trumped by the inconvenience of the whole prospect.

$499 is still too expensive for me to consider buying a system for home and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when the system is dropped to a more reasonable $299 (one can dream, right).  Funny that $299 seems like a bargain to me, but given the current PS3 pricing I guess this feels like a cheap deal.

There have been some interesting articles online of late suggesting that Sony has figured out how to produce the hardware cheaper which could lead to a lower consumer price point.  But so far these rumors of cheaper Blu-Ray lasers and such seems to be unsubstantiated.  Tough to say when a price drop might even be announced.  Used to be you could use E3 in May as a good indicator of big announcements mid year but with that gone it seems unlikely the console manufacturers would drop big news at the likes of GDC or DICE.  Leipzig perhaps?

As a consumer I have to say I am even more confused by Sony when it comes to their whole SKU structure for the hardware.  We’ve had 40gb versions of the PS3 as well as 60gb and 80gb varieties.  Recently news has been spreading that the 80gb console is being discontinued with no real announcement of what might replace that.  So here I am looking to buy a PS3 and I have no fucking clue what version is right for me.  It would be one thing if the hardware differences were as simple as hard drive size, but it seems there is other functionality added and dropped seemingly willy nilly.  Backward compatibility seems to come standard on some models and not others.  Not a big deal to me really, but still it adds to the aforementioned confusion.  So what am I expecting after the 80gb goes away?  A 120gb version of the console I suppose, but does this mean that will be $499 again with the lesser console counterparts being blown out a budget prices?  I know I want the top of the line PS3 when I can scrape together enough coin to pick one up – and this raises the next problem.

When I pay good money for a piece of game console hardware I expect the investment to last three to five years.  With Sony’s shell game of introducing new PS3 flavors on a regular basis and phasing out previous ones I hesitate to purchase at all.  I wonder if when I do plunk the cash down for a PS3 if it will be relatively obsolete in 6-12 months.  As a point of comparison, I’m a motor head and as much as I respect the Mercedes brand I’ll never buy one of their cars.  Why?  Because when you drop $80-150k on one of their sleds you can all but guarantee they’ll change the body style and other major components in one to two years.  They actually introduce new models far too quickly and it keeps me from wanting to own one of their cars.  Why drop that kind of money if in such a short relative time you’ll be driving the “old” model.  Not when I can buy a BMW or the like that has a longer shelf life.  So Sony feels the same to me right now, I’m hesitant to buy a PS3 for fear my model will be the “old” model with more limited functionality before I know it.

Sooner or later I’ll buy a PS3, but for now, they still have a big problem in that a shortage of compelling exclusive software exists (still).  With Ratchet and Drake’s Sony had a prime opportunity to sell me hardware, but that opportunity was missed due to the still sky high price point and there’s no telling when a game as good as these two will arrive again which might urge me to pick up a console.  By the time it does, I may be picking up the 500gb PS3.

2007 ~ The Games in Review

Wow, it’s already 2008 and that means only one thing – the annual year in review wrap up!

As in my wrap-ups of 2004, 2005, and 2006 I’ll only be commenting on games that I played for at least two hours each.  Anything I played less than that and I figure I didn’t really give the game a proper chance.

Looking back at the past couple years I’m amazed at the great year in gaming I experienced.  I completed WAY more games this year than any of the previous ones even with Forza 2 and Burning Crusade monopolizing a good chunk of my time. 

By comparison, here’s how 2007 stacked up:

2007
Completed Games – 21
Played in Total – 73

2006
Completed Games – 11
Played in Total – 39

2005
Completed Games – 5
Played in Total – 46

2004
Completed Games – 13
Played in Total – 66

Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. 

After a rather disappointing 2006 it was great to see a wave of really great games this year.  From one of the first I played, Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions, to the last, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, 2007 shaped up to be a blast.  It looks like the PS3 is finally coming into its own with Ratchet and Uncharted too, so who knows, 2008 may be even better.

Blah, blah… Without further ado, my picks of 2007.

OVERALL 2007 GAME OF THE YEAR
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
I think I probably summed up my feelings on this title pretty well in a previous post.  Ratchet has been a bridesmaid for GOTY for the past couple years and I’m glad that I’m finally able to award this my top pick for 2007.  The game really is so flawless in so many ways that it’s the type of title all developers should be looking at to dictate what level of quality they should be hitting in their future endeavors.

Runner Up:  World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)

XBOX 360 GAME OF THE YEAR
Bioshock (360)
There were so many great games on the 360 in 2007 that it’s tough to narrow this one down to just one title.  Using my past criteria that a console GOTY winner shouldn’t be available on any other console, I think Bioshock was my favorite of the year as a 360 exclusive.  Great gameplay, memorable moments, fun mini-games, and stunning visual direction made this one a real crowd pleaser.  A great game, one of the most memorable of 2007.

Runner Up: Forza 2 (360)

PLAYSTATION 3 GAME OF THE YEAR
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
Let’s be honest, the first couple killer apps on the PS3 weren’t anything to write home about.  From Motorstorm to Heavenly Sword I wasn’t blown away with many of the first generation titles after all the trash talk from Sony about how PS3 would make me its bitch.  After some arguably good games that just didn’t live up to the Sony hype came Ratchet, which to me signals the second generation of PS3 software, not just because this was Insomniac’s second offering in the platform lifecycle but because I finally felt some of the magic that the PS3 is rumored to be capable of.

Runner Up:  Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3)

WII GAME OF THE YEAR
Wii Sports (Wii)
It’s really too bad that I didn’t enjoy Mario Galaxy more as I would have expected that to lock this one up in 2007.  Still, it wasn’t a favorite of mine (more below) and thus I have to award the title to Wii Sports.  Not only have I played the game more than any other Wii title in 2007 but it can be argued that this one title alone is still the killer app on the system selling Wii consoles to soccer moms and retirement homes alike.

Runner Up:  Super Paper Mario (Wii)

HANDHELD GAME OF THE YEAR
Puzzle Quest (Nintendo DS)
Puzzle Quest caught me completely off guard and monopolized my time in airports and any other place I traveled with a handheld.  A great combination of RPG and casual gaming elements made this one a real winner for me on the DS and then again in XBox Live Arcade where I completed the game once again.  More from a previous post.

Runner Up:  Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (PSP)

PC GAME OF THE YEAR
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
What can I really say about World of Warcraft other than the fact that this version of digital crack cocaine is perhaps the greatest game ever released.  I can’t say enough great things about WoW and got hooked on it again recently when I started an alt in December. 

Runner Up:  [Scratches Head] Seriously, were there other PC titles in 2007?  I sure didn’t play many since everything is on the consoles now.

CONSOLE OF THE YEAR
XBox 360
I’ve been known as a PS3 hater and I’m sure this award won’t help the perception.  Truth is, I have been down on the PS3 for sometime mainly due to Sony’s lack of software, break-the-bank price point, executive bravado in the press, and god-awful advertising campaigns.  In fairness, I am warming up to the Sony Blu-ray player… erm, gaming platform with recent releases though.  Enough about the loser in this category though.  Why does Microsoft win?  Simply because the 360 is still dominant in my household due to a deep software library and the simply wonderful XBox Live.  How dominant?  Consider that I played 52 of 73 games this year on the 360.  And still no red ring of death, how lucky can a guy be?

Runner Up:  PS3

MOST SURPRISINGLY GOOD GAME
Cars (360)
As detailed in a previous post I picked this one up after I saw someone on my friends list playing it and I became seriously surprised at what a fun game it was.  Not a deep racing game, but after enjoying the movie this one really complimented the experience and was one of the first kids games I finished in years, let alone played!  This title single handedly pushed me to try other family titles in 2007 which I went on to enjoy and finish as well.

Runner Up:  Surf’s Up (360)

GAME THE CRITICS TELL ME I SHOULD LOVE, YET I DON’T
Mario Galaxy (Wii)
It’s a highly rated experience to be sure (97% GameRankings.com), but I just expected so much more out of this title.  Is it good?  Yeah, I guess.  I just never warmed up to it in the same way I did Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine.  I truly expected this to be Game of the Year for me and I can’t even really recommend it as a killer app on the Wii.  Perhaps I just couldn’t connect with the environments due to the small world format.  Perhaps I got tired of craning my neck to try and follow Mario run this way and that, right side up and upside down.  Like most people I can only take this game in small doses.  Once I get a star or two in a given evening I’m ready to turn my attention to something else.  This was a real disappointment.

Runner Up:  God of War 2 (PS2)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DISAPPOINTING ME
Assassin’s Creed (360)
This is similar in many ways to the above category, especially as this seemed to be a critical darling as well (83% GameRankings.com).  I did want to find a way to make mention of this game as one I was really anticipating and yet was letdown by once I got my hands on it.  I appreciated the ease of free running on rooftops but didn’t care for the repetitive mini-quest design.  In the end, I guess I just don’t get this one.  I even asked one of the other guys in the office what the overall objective or hook was with the game and he kind of shrugged his shoulders too.  A bland series of assassinations otherwise filled with repetitive pick pocketing and slow paced sneaking around just didn’t do it for me.  Don’t get me wrong, a well executed game, but this failed me in the design I suppose.

BEST COMEBACK
Medal of Honor: Airborne (360)
I was ready for this game to suck.  Really suck.  Not only did I hate the previous iterations but then there were the rumors of engine swaps and other such development trouble.  Neil Young’s pimping of the title on the speaking circuit looked impressive, but I was waiting for EA to bomb on this one horribly.  Imagine my surprise when I booted this game up and ended up really enjoying it.  I played it start to finish three separate times as a matter of fact and became a believer in the Medal of Honor brand again.  While it doesn’t stack up to COD4 I think it’s important for people to judge this game on its own merits and against the legacy MOH titles it managed to improve upon. 

BEST RACING TITLE
Forza 2 (360)
It really is a tough call in this category between Forza and PGR4.  Both are great racers even though they can be argued as different games.  Forza makes no apologies for being a racing sim while PGR4 earns respect for the fact that it just drips with character; positioning itself as a street racer.  As much as I enjoyed both, the tie must be broken by that title I played the most – and that was Forza 2.  A great racer, a great competitive interface over Live, nice implementation of steering wheel functionality, and a nice paint editor made this one of my 2007 favorites.  I probably put in more time with Forza than any other game in 2007 outside of World of Warcraft.  A solid achievement (pun intended) for Microsoft.

Runner Up:  Project Gotham Racing 4 (360)
Honorable Mention: Dirt (360)

WORST WASTE OF A GREAT LICENSE I HOPE I HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A MUCH BETTER GAME OUT OF SOMEDAY
The Red Star (PS2)
Gawd.  From the moment I started reading The Red Star I thought it would be one of those great comic licenses that was just begging to be made into a videogame (along with Crimson but I never could figure out how to make that work).  This didn’t get awful reviews, but still, it seemed such a terrible waste of a license with such potential to make a bland isometric/topdown/sidescroller type beat ‘em up out of.  Wonder if I can get The Red Star license for cheap now?

BEST MULTIPLAYER GAME
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
First off, I have to discount World of Warcraft.  It’s the best multi-player game ever conceived so it doesn’t really seem fair to judge any other title against it.  Instead, I recognize COD4 for being not only the best multiplayer game of 2007 but also one of the biggest surprises.  I was fortunate enough to be part of the closed Beta test and I really warmed up to the masterful mission design paired with the genius perk system.  This was a truly memorable MP game in 2007 and it’s no surprise to me that many reviews call the also compelling COD4 single player out as a mere compliment to the masterful MP implementation.

HOTTEST GAME DESIGN TREND, HELPING THE PLAYER
One of the things I really enjoyed in 2007 was the development community trending toward helping players out during gameplay.  In past years we had some tough games such as Ninja Gaiden that were merciless on players trying to enjoy the game play experience.  This past year I see some real welcome moves to engage casual and recreational gamers.  Examples?  I really liked the simple control interface for navigating the rooftops in Assassin’s Creed with a single button.  I really liked Drake’s Fortune offering the user to option to toggle subtitles with an in-game button press during the opening cinematic.  I really liked Bee Movie where if you were failing a God of War style button press puzzle multiple times the on-screen prompts changed to “press any key” to get the casual gamer through the sequence.

MOST TIRED GAME DESIGN TREND, GOD OF WAR BUTTON SEQUENCES
OK, so the God of War style interactive sequences are now officially out of date.  Not only has this become over utilized in most games of late, but it’s interesting to consider how few games after GoW actually implemented this style of game play properly.  I can’t even count the number of games that have shipped with poor implementation since few designers really account for the significant amount of tuning that went into games that nailed this mechanic.

WORST USE OF ACHIEVEMENTS
Avatar: The Burning Earth (360)
There have been a couple games in 2007 I’ll admit to picking up to farm some achievements.  Those who look down upon this practice should know however that most games still take some investment in to earn 1000 points even if you are simply out to cheese the game.  I do have to call Avatar out for a flagrant foul however for allowing the player to earn 1000 points in about two minutes by simply pressing B.  Note that much of that time is spent skipping cinematics.  Shameless, Avatar team – simply shameless abuse of the achievement point system.  How Microsoft allowed this one to ship this way, I don’t know.

BEST ART DIRECTION
Bioshock (360)
I actually heard an art director rip on this game because stylistically the game wasn’t steampunk consistently enough for him throughout the game.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Seriously though, this game was masterfully art directed with a unique and cohesive visual style I don’t believe was matched in 2007.  From the opening plane crash to the creepy underwater city populated by crazy characters, this one was a real winner.  Even the animation related to saving or sacrificing the little girls was mesmerizing (of course I saved them all as did most people that played the game, mind you).  As a side note, Bioshock also totally deserves to win awards for best story, but knowing the game award shows they’ll probably have Jenna Jamison and Samuel L Jackson give that to Portal, or other such nonsense.

GRAPHICAL EXCELLENCE
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
As noted in a previous post, R&C was amazingly well executed by both the art and programming teams.  To go a step further from those comments I will say that this game single-handedly made me a believer in the potential of the PS3 platform.

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN AWARD
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (360)
OK, so I just couldn’t find room in this post otherwise for one of my favorite titles of 2007.  Aside from having great mech designs (conceptually as well as in game play design), a fun multi-player mode, and a compelling storyline, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition had the best use of snow I’ve seen in a videogame since snow levels and mine cart levels were required fare in platformers.  Seriously, the snow effects and the animations of the main character trudging through it was a key marketing hook for the title and also set this title apart from “me too” action games of ’07.  All joking aside I’m hoping for a sequel to this solid action adventure.