That means I can’t really report on the new Squig Herder changes, first impressions of the Blackguard, whether or not we can finally push for a T4 zone in oRvR, or client performance. Sorry!

I did read an interesting post over on WHA by one of my guildies this morning, entitled: “Making meaningful RvR should have been easy…”

His first line reads:

It’s extremely aggravating to see a game you followed with excitement for years meet not even your lowest of expectations. >_<

Despite the very negative impression he has of WAR right now, his post is actually full of thought-provoking ideas you may or may not agree with to help fix RvR. Give it a look and share your comments either there or here. I think what finally put him over the edge was that the 1.06 patch broke a number of abilities on his Shaman. According to him:

• every non-instant spell has a 0.5 second delay now..
• our shield which is only usable on group mates bugs out when you target a group mate, saying “Only usable on group mates”
• casting one heal spell then switching to another while having no target bugs out and says “Invalid Target” rather then healing yourself
• casting one heal spell then switching to another with someone targeted will silently fail if its too close to the gcd
• the api for switching targets that many addons (squared) use seems more broken, it does not switch correctly in many cases now
• our instant heal morale now heals at the end of its animation, making it take about 1.5 seconds to happen
• .. blah blah .. its just brutal

Just passing along what I heard!

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Guild Wars is kicking off the holiday season with its Wintersday Art Contest 2008. Players are invited to express their love of Guild Wars in any creative outlet they choose.

Contestants submit a scanned or photographed JPGS of their illustrations, costumes, or even ice sculptures which would be particularly appropriate for the season. It’s legal to use any and all screenshots, renders, concept art, icons, photographs, or any other Guild Wars images as part of your creation. Winners will be featured on the Guild Wars Community website.

Here comes the incentive:

• Grand Prize Winner (1 awarded): Grand Prize Winner (1 awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; one VisionTek Radeon HD3650 graphics card, a full set of four Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Prints; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print (Approximate total retail value of package: $450.00 US.)
• Second Place Winner (1 Awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; a full set of four Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Prints; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print    (Approximate total retail value of package: $250.00 US.)
• Third Place Winner (1 Awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; one randomly selected Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Print; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $130.00 US.)
• Fourth Place Winners (7 Awarded): One randomly selected Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Print; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $60.00 US.)
• Honorable Mentions (10 awarded): One randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $20 US.)

You have until 12:00 Noon PST on Monday, January 5, 2009 to get your entry in so get those ideas flowing. For complete contest rules and submission instructions visit the Guild Wars Community website.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest 2007 Winners
• Guild Wars Hosts Halloween Art Contest 2007
• ArenaNet Talks Guild Wars Art & Animation
• Guild Wars Marks its Second Anniversary
• Guild Wars Gear at Penny Arcade Store

Charliesdad asked: Wondering how you addressed the balance issues from earlier entries in the series. For example, Sands of Time was amazing, but going back to it recently the combat wore thin after a while (especially in the first big group fight) to be followed by long stretches of almost no combat. Does the new game fall on one side or the other or is there a middle ground that you all shot for and hit? And Demo tomorrow? Maybe?

First, one of our main goals in combat was to make every fight grandiose and meaningful, to make every encounter feel more epic. Thus, we decided to make the new combat system a duel mode in which every enemy has special attributes, a unique personality, cool moves, and his strengths and weaknesses. Having one enemy to fight at one time gave us much more possibility to push this encounter to the limit. Every enemy is as strong as the Prince and will seize his chance to use the environment, his corrupted abilities to counter every mistake the player makes. Every enemy has a background and their own personal objectives that will help push the story forward. Also, there are multiple combat moves and these will take some time to figure them all out and access the most spectacular combos. Using your glove, Elika, your sword and acrobatics, players will be able to combine those to create some breathtaking moves. This new combat system is not meant to be button mashed, but instead requires timing, strategy and the right combo depending on the situation. Also, many quick real-time mini-games where the player has a little fraction of time to react will keep the tension high. The battle system uses some dramatic camera shots that make every fight feel even more epic. Battles will take place usually before saving a fertile ground and pushing away the Corruption. There are different challenges before healing a fertile ground, one might be an acrobatic challenge, a puzzle, a fight and a lot of them are mixes of them all.
Sorry, there are no demo plans at this time.

KingBroly asked: What’s the framerate like on the PS3 version? I’ve heard this game employs the same engine as Assassin’s Creed, and the framerate on the PS3 version of that…not so good.

Fluidity of control and animation quality are hallmarks of Prince Of Persia games. We would never ship a POP title unless we were confident the player could fully appreciate the movement of the Prince in acrobatics and combat and – simply put – framerate hiccups get in the way of that. They break the

We have some of the most talented PS3 engineers at Ubisoft working for us on POP (and Ubisoft has now made quite a few PS3 titles) and I can assure you the performance on the PS3 is the same as the 360 – a solid 30fps throughout the game.

narde15 asked: are their any trophies?

POP does indeed ship with trophies from day one.

FeaturePreacher asked: Will the prince be able to use different weapons besides the sword that is seen in gameplay videos?
AND
Will the prince be able to level up his combat abilities? I hope the prince has a long list of combat combinations. Does he?

We want the player to feel like the Prince is an adventurer with a lot of experience already – he is an acrobatic warrior who has already been through and seen a lot. As such it made sense to us that he start out this adventure with all his abilities unlocked. Elika, on the other hand, evolves in her abilities as the game progresses, unlocking new magical abilities. What is important to us is that the player still feels a sense of progression and development because the « duo » of the Prince and Elika are certainly evolving as you play.

Finally, simply because the Prince has access to all of his abilities from the beginning of the game, doesn’t mean the players will know how to use them all. If it is your first time playing POP, don’t expect to be able to pull off the 14 hit combos and complete long uninterrupted strings of acrobatics without pausing - you’ll evolve towards that in time as you get more comfortable with the game systems.

SantanaClaus89 asked: Ever since The Sands of Time this series has been in a downward spiral. What if anything has been done to take the series “back to its roots” so to speak?

In POP Sands of Time trilogy, the innovation was the Sands of Time. We felt the need to find a new innovation for this new chapter:
• Open-ended structure
• New combat system
• New artistic direction
• Role of the secondary character, Elika

But you can also rest assured we’ve also kept the core fundamentals of what made the Sands of Time trilogy great.

• The balanced mix of acrobatics and combat
• Excellent visuals
• Highly detailed character and story
• Highly responsive controls
• 1001 night’s universe / fantasy elements

As you read this some reviews will have already hit online (IGN scored PoP 9.3, for example). One of the best compliments that any reviewer has given us so far is that we’ve recaptured the magic and mystery that made the original Sands Of Time so great.

narde15 asked: are you working on a prince of persia, playstation home space? will you consider one in the future?

We are not currently working on a Prince of Persia home space but we might consider it for future games.

DeforMAKulizer asked: What made you guys ditch the realistic style followed in AC and trying out for the new water color style? And which game was hard to code for… AC with its realistic graphics? Or maintaining the water color feel in PoP?
Thanks! Can’t wait to go back to the PoP series =D

We wanted to embrace the fantasy nature that defines every Prince of Persia game. The ‘Photorealistic’ artistic direction that is seen in so many games right now did not fit in well with the magical world we were exploring with this game. We wanted to try something new and the “Illustrative” art style really represents our vision in this game – to make it feel like a storybook.

chaosatom333 asked: I am disappointed that U guys didn’t include any time-shifting powers.
They were awesome. Why did u guys do that?

That mechanic started to feel old to us – it had been copied in many other games and had lost some of its uniqueness. Elika is our new sands of time and I think she more than makes up for their absence.

chaosatom333 asked: How long in production have u guys been?

Three years, start to finish.

chaosatom333 asked: How long is the game relatively speaking? like 12-16 or less. Something like that. How much platforming is there? The more the better imo.
Fights are nice too.

An average player will probably take around 12-15 hours to finish the game if they do the bare minimum needed to complete it. If you take the time to learn all of the backstory of the characters (through our ODD system) and collect all of the lightseeds (to get all of the trophies) I think you can certainly expect more in the range of 18-20 hours.

In terms of the breakdown between acrobatics and combat, it is hard to say for sure due to the open structure of our world. Certainly, though, there is the potential for you to spend a lot more of your time doing acrobatics then combat.

narde15 asked: how big is the world of prince of persia? will their be side quests?

It’s quite big. It will take you some time to travel from one end to another. Also, It depends of the path you take to make your way around. Additionally our world features a lot of vertical gameplay, taking you up to some dizzying heights to survey the world down below you as you progress through your quest. The size and height of our world certainly gives it a massive sense of scope.

Munkeh111 asked: What percentage of the game is combat? I am hoping for a high percentage of platforming!

It’s hard to say for the exact percentage but you will spend more time platforming than fighting that’s for sure. Collecting all the light seeds will definitely make you spend hours exploring the world, platforming and using your head to figure out how to get to that light seed! There are many combats as well.

lifeRPGs asked: What are Ubisoft’s plans for the after-PoP?

I’d be drawn and quartered if I gave away those secrets. Just a few days ago I saw an advanced prototype of an incredibly top-secret game and was floored with how cool it looked and felt. While I watched it being demoed I was furiously taking notes for ideas to draw inspiration from on my next game.

CrimsonFox13 asked: Beautiful art style. I’ve never played a Prince Of Persia game before, although I’ve always been interested. The beauty of this game captivated me. The game reminds me of Team ICO games. There’s a beautiful landscape with platforming involved, like the Team ICO games, and you’re traveling with a woman, just like in ICO. Did you draw any inspiration from either or both of the Team ICO games?

Team ICO is definitely an inspiration for us and both Shadow Of The Colossus as well as ICO were games we played extensively during the development of POP. Team ICO consistently proves that videogames can be so much more then “just” a form of entertainment – they can enlighten, teach, and make us feel. I welcome any and all comparisons to the incredible development talent of that studio.

It was very important to us, though, that our game be incredible accessible and action packed, too. We were not creating a game just for those players who like “art” in their games. We have spectacular acrobatics, incredible combat and a rich story. In many ways we consider games like Burnout influential as well in their immediate accessibility – you pick up the controller, press a few buttons, and right away spectacularly rewarding things occur. This was very important to us in the development of POP.

farmer_steve asked: For somebody who has never played a Prince of Persia game, how would you explain the experience? And what do you think is the main draw to it?

The first Prince of Persia game was created in the late 80s by Jordan Mechner and has become one of gaming’s most well-known franchises. Prince of Persia is a game with a balanced mix of acrobatics, combat and puzzle solving set in a fantastic Persian world where you control The Prince, the most agile warrior of all time as he Runs, Jumps, Flips and Fights his way towards saving the world. All the games are inspired by the 1001 night’s universe and feature an epic storyline with strong character development.

luckettx asked: How many language tracks have been recorded for the Blu Ray release of this game in Europe?

English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. There are other localized versions (one Dutch, another Polish, another Russian) but the main version will have those five languages on it.

Yuriki93 asked: Does this game have anything story-related to the previous games?

No, nothing that will affect the main narrative. We put in a few tongue and cheek references (hint: pay attention to the ODD system) but just as a ‘nod and a wink’ to the hardcore fans. We are telling a new story within the “Book” of Prince of Persia.

SomethingClever asked: From where did you draw inspiration from (games or other) in this iteration of PoP Some of the big reactions to date have been about the voice of the Prince. What led your team to choose such an American sounding voice actor, and was there any concern over people associating that voice to Nathan Drake?

The choice of Nolan North (Nathan Drake) as the voice of the Prince is entirely intentional. When we were designing the character of The Prince and trying to identify his personality, the two characters we returned to most often were Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Both, of course, played by Harrison Ford. Nolan North showed in his characterization of Nathan Drake an uncanny resemblance to Indiana Jones both in terms of tone and delivery. We thought it particularly appropriate given the heavy influence of these characters in the writing of The Prince that the voice actor we use be one who manages to capture the essence of the influencing characters deeply.

zombiefriend asked: oh also i just remembered is PoP going to have subtitles? i rly hope so b/c i have hearing loss and i wasnt able to fully appreciate ACs story like i wanted to

Prince Of Persia, like all Ubisoft games now, is subtitled in all languages.

PlasmaGlory asked: I know that your philosophy with Elika was to make someone that would never hold you back, so what’s to stop someone from just hiding in a corner and mashing the “Elika Button”?

It wouldn’t help much to just tap the Elika button in a corner. The game requires you to use all of the Prince’s abilities combined with Elika in order to be effective. Whenever you need Elika’s Help, she is there to do so, but only if you are doing something as well (ie: fighting, in the middle of a jump, etc).

Standing in a corner and mashing the Elika button will just summons a compass power over and over again – not much help in defeating the guardians of Ahriman.

jazzyrider asked: what additional items are packaged with the limited edition versus the normal package?

• Collectible Limited Edition packaging
• An exclusive look at the making of Prince of Persia
• A Prima digital mini-strategy guide full of developer’s secrets
• A digital art book
• The original soundtrack scored by master composer Inon Zur

sainraja asked: I am looking forward to this but how similar is this to Sands of Time?
Sands of Time was magical! I loved every minute of it. I thought the story was put together very well. It was the Uncharted of last generation! I can’t to try this out but I am hoping it will give me the same feeling that Sands of Time did.

We consider POP to be the spiritual successor of Sands Of Time. We invested a lot of time and energy into trying to ensure that the sense of magic, wonder and mystery that was so special and unique in SOT was reproduced in this new POP adventure while still bringing some strong visual and gameplay innovations to the series.

In terms of your passion for Uncharted, let me simply say I share your enthusiasm. Uncharted for me was an incredible game because it was so much more than the sum of its parts. I have a hard time putting my finger on the one feature of Uncharted that stood out as my favorite while I was playing, but as soon as I finished I wanted to start over from the beginning and play through again. It is easily one of my favorite PS3 games to date.

Dark_Vincent asked: Will there be different difficulty levels?

The game has just one difficulty level, but the challenge certainly progresses as you play and (hopefully) get more comfortable with the mechanics. New traps are released, more corruption infects the world, and the enemies unlock new abilities and combos.

TripOpt55 asked: Hey, I can’t wait for this game. Here’s my questions: Does the game autosave (or how does it save)? Can you create multiple save files?

POP features a ‘save anywhere’ system. No matter what you are doing, you can create a save (new save or overwrite – there is space for 10 save game slots). We don’t save the exact location, though (ie: if you are in the middle of the air and save, when you load you won’t fall to your death) but rather the last stable platform you were on. Don’t worry, though, these are never very far apart.

Zankantou asked: What motivated your team to take the franchise into a radically new direction artistically?
How did you guys come to the conclusion that this new installment should be not, or loosely, related to the previous trilogy in the last generation of consoles?
Is your team considering using this new artistic engine for future games as well?

In terms of the art direction, we wanted to do something new, something unique. Most of our favorite games – the ones that stand out in our minds years after playing them – had unique visual styles that did not try to emulate reality. Additionally, as I said above, we felt a more fantastic artistic direction would mesh well with our fantasy universe and story. Finally, we wanted to take the incredible concept art and illustrations that our teams created as reference material and do them justice by creating the tools and technology needed to make our game look like the illustrations – a highly detailed painting brought to life.

In terms of why we left behind the old trilogy, we felt the story of the Sands Of Time had been told and it was time to move on. We had never planned to continue to tell the story of the Sands of Time Prince forever, and the universe of Prince of Persia has so much potential for other themes to explore. By creating a new Prince, on a new adventure, we’ve added a wealth of material to the Prince of Persia universe to potentially explore in future games.

Finally, I believe very strongly in the artistic choices we took for POP and sincerely hope that this Illustrative style is used again at Ubisoft moving forward. Of course I don’t have any specific details, but I think it safe to say that the response has been positive enough that we’ll likely be returning to this stylistic choice in the future.

Santa Monica, CA - December 01, 2008 - Activision announced today the Monsters vs. Aliens movie tie-in. The game will offer gamers a chance to play all monsters from the film while a two player co-op mode will let gamers join another player as Dr. Cockroach. Below is the product description for the game along the first two screenshots taken from the Xbox 360 version of the game:

Based on the upcoming DreamWorks Animation 3D feature film, the Monsters vs. Aliens video game puts the fate of the planet in players’ hands as they lead a dynamic team of five misfit monsters on a mission to save the world…as only they can. The game allows fans to experience the movie’s action and humor while playing as The Missing Link, the macho half-ape, half-fish; the gelatinous, indestructible and always hungry B.O.B.; and Ginormica, the 49-foot-11-inch tall woman and Insectosaurus, the 350-foot tall grub. Players utilize each character’s distinct strengths, sizes and abilities to battle giant alien robots that are wreaking havoc on earth. Friends or family members can join in the excitement at anytime as the world’s most brilliant scientist, Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D., in the unique co-op multiplayer mode.

(more…)

If you've been to a shopping mall lately, you might be able to relate to Frank in this gameplay video of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. Sure, a zombie-infested shopping mall is worse than Black Friday, but only slightly.

This new video gives us a really good look at what we can expect from gameplay. There may not be as many zombies, but it still looks like a lot of fun. I will say that I can already tell that I'll hate that clown fight. Waggle to duck? Something tells me that it's not going to work how I'd expect it to. 

One thing that concerns me happens about fifty seconds into the video. It seems that most of the zombies are performing the same scratching/twitching animation. What is this, a Michael Jackson video?

Brash goes out with a fascinating bang originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the most unsavory terms that gamers fling at each other during heated online arguments is "graphics whore", referring to a gamer who prides visuals above all else.

Certainly there has been no shortage of games over the years that have attempted to use flashy graphics to hide gameplay deficiencies, particularly after the introduction of optical storage media (think Rebel Assault, Microcosm, Rise of the Robots, Heart of Darkness...)

But while it's hard to imagine many people who are actually willing to spend money on games purely to show off fancy graphics or the capabilities of new hardware, there is little doubt that high-end visuals can help provide a much more immersive and enjoyable experience.

Today regular Screen Play contributor James "DexX" Dominguez provides a follow-up to another recent Your Turn article that explored the relationship between "gameplay and "eye candy"". Click below for his piece, and let us know what you think.

In defence of eye-candy

Keith Fung's recent Your Turn article "Gameplay over eye candy" covered a range of topics, but I would like to address the point alluded to in the title: the idea that high quality gameplay and impressive visuals are opposing forces, fighting for dominance.

Conventional wisdom suggests that a poor game will often feature dazzling graphics to mask substandard gameplay, and that a classic game that plays like a dream does not need to be tarted up with cutting edge graphics in order to impress. I feel that this is an extension of the ancient rivalry between art and science, which also expresses itself in the frequently-expressed opinion that poor films cover up their shortcomings with expensive special effects.

My core argument is that, when both are done well, good graphics and good game design are not rivals, struggling for a greater share of development resources. Rather, they are complementary.

Many modern games work because they create a convincing artificial world. These digital surroundings and characters attempt to elicit emotional responses from the player, such as excitement, tension, fear, sympathy, laughter, anger, or sadness. I argue that evoking such emotions works best when the world is as real as current technology allows it to be.

An interesting example to look at is Quantic Dream's long-promised and recently teased Heavy Rain. This game will live or die depending upon the believability of its characters. If they fail to emote, but instead plunge screaming into the depths of the uncanny valley, one of the game's primary aims will have failed.

In the case of Heavy Rain, advanced graphical technology can only enhance the gameplay, which consists essentially of an interactive film - part drama, part thriller. The more real the characters look, with detailed skin shaders, painstaking animation, and fine control of the many virtual facial muscles to create emotive expressions and convincing speech, the more the player will care about them and the more the game will succeed in its goal of emotional immersion.

A similar example of a graphically groundbreaking game - and, as it happens, critically lauded for its gameplay - is Half-Life 2, released a little over four years ago. Again, character animation played a significant role, especially in the realisation of your artificial companion, Alyx Vance. Half-Life 2's Source engine allowed unprecedented realism in the facial expressions of real-time digital characters. Alyx was beautifully-rendered, but rather than being simple eye candy the technology lent her a lifelike quality never before seen in a game, which made her feel more real and more important to the player.

Rather then being just an AI, Alyx became our friend. I remember on my first play through being genuinely concerned for Alyx when she got into dangerous situations.

In one of the subsequently released episodic follow-ups to Half-Life 2, a major character is unexpectedly killed. I was surprised at the depth of feeling this evoked in me. Put simply, I wanted revenge. I wanted to avenge that character's death by punishing the killer.

While unusually high-quality voice acting and solid scriptwriting were also components in my immersive concern for these artificial people, I suspect I would not have been drawn in to such a degree if the graphical grunt of the engine had not allowed them to be rendered so convincingly.

Beyond interactions with other characters, impressive graphics can enhance the game-playing experience in many other ways. A good example is the lighting model in Doom 3. Graphics technology has progressed so quickly that it is easy to forget just how astonishing Doom 3 looked the first time we saw it. The engine could render complex real-time shadows from multiple light sources, a first in game technology.

Doom 3's amazing lighting model and ability to render extremely complex environments allowed it to be, in a word, scary. There had been scary games before, but Doom 3's ability to hide monsters in shadowed corners and to have them burst unexpectedly through destructible scenery made it terrifying on my first play-through. Sadly, the level design for Doom 3 was very samey, and the effectiveness of the scares decreased as the game edged dangerously close to becoming boring, but the power of that graphics engine to scare the player was impressive.

Another underappreciated ability of a good game engine is the "wow" factor. Few games sum this up as well as the God of War series on PS2 and PSP, especially the opening battle against the colossal animated statue in the opening sequence of God of War 2.

Even though I had read online about the general theme of this extended action sequence, nothing could have prepared me for how breathtaking it was. As I controlled a crazed Spartan warrior, making him dodge out of the way of a massive bronze fist the size of a double-decker bus, I remember thinking, "This is what video games are all about."

That impression stuck with me. That entire game series consistently created a sense of incredible scale, with beautifully rendered combat arenas the size of sports stadiums, prolonged battles with awe-inspiring bosses, ranging in size from elephants to sky scrapers, and intensely satisfying (and graphically impressive) magical spell effects - lightning, volcanic eruptions, and rampaging ghostly warriors, among others.

The God of War series has very tight design - the games play very well, and apart from a few wonky camera moments and sudden difficulty spikes, they are simply great fun. I argue, though, that the God of War experience would have been very different had the developers not pushed the ageing PS2 hardware to its absolute limits to bring us the best-looking game they possibly could. I doubt that God of War would have really been God of War without those graphics-driven "wow" moments.

In summary, I think that good design in gameplay is only assisted by added grunt in the graphical architecture, and I do not think it can ever detract from the quality of a gameplay. Critics have a valid complaint when a development team has obviously spent too much time on visuals and not enough on gameplay, but I find that this is not as common a phenomenon as you may think.

In my experience, a poor game tends to be poor across the board. If the development team has neglected one of the many facets of good design, then it is more likely that they will also have neglected others.

For this reason, I think that impressive graphics tend to be more common in high quality games, and poor visuals are more likely to be found in unsatisfying products. The disappointing Too Human is an excellent example: most reviewers found it to be a flat and repetitive playing experience, and most also concluded that the visuals were unsatisfactorily behind the curve compared to its current generation siblings.

There are exceptions, of course. The movie tie-in game Wall-E is flat and uninspired, a real chore to play, but it took visual assets directly from Pixar's film production, so on current generation platforms it is quite impressive. Naturally, games that do not strive to create an truly immersive world are also exempt, such as puzzle games and more stylised, artistic games. I could not count the number of hours I have sunk into Puzzle Quest, but nobody is ever going to give it awards for stunning graphics.

Generally, though, I have found that evident poor quality in any important element of a modern game is a strong indicator that the complete package is likely to be unsatisfying.

What do you think, Screen Play readers? Have you played any hideous classics or beautiful duds?

- James "DexX" Dominguez

Screen Play readers can submit articles or ideas for consideration in Your Turn using the email address screenplayblog@gmail.com. The best blog post published on Screen Play between December 1, 2008 and January 30, 2009 as judged by Jason Hill will win a PlayStation 3 console from Sony Computer Entertainment worth $699. The next Your Turn prize winner will be announced on January 30. Only Australian residents are eligible and the judge's decision is final.

They completely removed the health bar and the ammo/weapon management. There are no maze elements to navigating the levels and the game purposefully doesn’t let you back-track so that players don’t get lost and frustrated. They loaded the game with tons of auto-checkpoints that neatly separate the action into distinct battles so there is almost never any forced replay. They also loaded the game with variety (the visuals, enemies, weapons, and combat change quite a bit throughout the game) to eliminate complaints of repetition.

All of these changes were made very purposefully and probably came from extensive user feedback studies and focus group testing. The problem is that all of these changes really dumbed down the experience. I felt more like I was passively moving through a scripted semi-interactive tech demo than actually playing a game.

Resistance 2 was still a lot of fun, the giant fire fights didn’t have this overly scripted feel to them (they’re still linear, but they felt very interactive), and this game isn’t the only one with this problem. Call of Duty 4 (single player), for example, was worse. It felt every bit as blatantly scripted and forced and linear, but lacked many of the cool highlights of Resistance 2. (BTW, I feel more comfortable criticizing Insomniac’s games, because I’ve been such a big fan, where CoD4, I didn’t want to rain on everyone else’s parade.)

Also, Uncharted, Bioshock, Ratchet & Clank, Dead Space, God of War, Manhunt (only mentioning PS2/PS3 titles): these are some of my favorite games from the past few years, but they all fall into this category: heavily scripted, produced, and completely linear experiences. Even as the developers are getting better and better of making this style of game, and as much as I love the mentioned games, and admire the work that went into them, I feel like the general structure and formula is really wearing thin.

So what else should games do? From the little I’ve played of Far Cry 2, that’s a good example of what I don’t want: the same linear game play with a repetitive quest/hub/navigation system thrown on top of it. Games need to develop new hooks: something that makes them fun and addicting beyond merely shooting/dodging and clearing gorgeous levels.

So what do you think? Are you fine with bigger and better versions of games like Uncharted and God Of War or are you getting a little tired of that formula (or a little of both)? Do you think this type of game has passed it’s peak?

When the New Xbox Experience was released unto the gaming world on November 19th, after watching a short animation of the weird exploding penis thing it politely coerced you into creating a Mii-esque avatar. Unless you popped in a disc to cleverly circumvent your way around it, there is now a virtual you lounging lazily around your dashboard, perhaps even burping various tunes if you are especially talented. While many of you designed something meant to resemble yourself, I thought it would be fun to travel to the opposite end of the spectrum so it’s now officially time for The Fugliest NXE Avatar Contest. The winner will be the proud new owner of a pair of their choice of red or blue Rock Band Illuminated Drum Sticks so hit the jump for prize and contest specifics then get to creating the fugliest avatar ever!

Contest Specifics

• Submit your entry by sending me your exact gamertag (along with the text, “The Fugliest NXE Avatar Contest”) via the contact form after your submission is officially completed. You must keep your submission as your avatar until the contest closes (Friday, December 5th at 11:59 pm PST). That allows me to grab the image directly from Xbox.com to ensure entries are not altered in any way beyond what the Avatar Creation Tool allows.
• Entries for The Fugliest NXE Avatar Contest will be accepted until Friday, December 5th at 11:59 pm PST. As always with my contests, there are no region restrictions.
• The top entries (as determined by a select group of people) will be posted on Saturday for open voting which will commence over the entirety of the weekend (December 6th-7th).
• The submission that receives the highest number of votes will be the winner.
• One entry per gamertag please.

Prize Specifics

Features

• LED-illumination - strike-activated whole body LED illumination will give your friend a dramatic light show
• Comfort grip - the handle area is designed for comfort and for better grip
• Durable construction - the drum stick has larger diameter than regular drum stick and is made of durable transparent polycarbonate material