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• John’s Games of 2008: Year of the Character

  Next time you start telling somebody about a game you were playing — not a puzzle game or anything equally abstract — pay attention to how you refer to what you were doing in the game. Are you saying, “Then I jumped on the goomba!” or are you saying, “Then my guy jumped on the goomba!” Is it you finding the boomerang or is it Link? Are you driving the car, making the basket, managing the farm? Or is it your proxy, that little character walking about when you push a button to the right, that window meant to be a human being’s field of vision? As much as I thought about open worlds in 2008, I spent just as much time wondering what role character plays in great game design. A great game character doesn’t need to be one specific thing. It can be you, a literal representation of how you see yourself physically and even spiritually. It can also be a suit for you to put on, a fiction that you can inhabit, a doorway into story that isn’t just different from your daily life, but quite literally impossible. There was no shortage of astounding games in 2008, but there were a handful that, for me, were wholly defined by how they let you inhabit their characters, and characters made both for and by the player. In my first look back at ’08, I mentioned how it was character that ultimately kept me from getting the most out of Grand Theft Auto IV. There was just too much dissonance in how Niko Bellic was represented. There were three Nikos. There was the Niko you see speaking in cutscenes, a haunted, practical man of honor, making a new life for himself in a new country by hunting down the demons of his past. There was the Niko you guided through the game’s structured missions, a ruthless, opportunistic murderer who would destroy anything and anyone for a buck. And, finally, the Niko that you played, the blank slate who could do anything in Liberty City, whether it was enjoying a nice walk on the beach or assaulting an international airport with nothing more than a motorcycle and a baseball bat. At no point in GTAIV did these three Nikos meld into a single character, and the constant contradictions between them made it impossible for me to enjoy the game after a certain point. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Yakuza 2 (my absolute favorite game of 2008) were two of last year’s greatest achievements precisely because they didn’t fall prey to GTAIV’s representational failures. Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 06:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, the world ends with you, grand theft auto iv, playstation 3, nintendo ds, xbox 360, top ten, gta, playstation 2, mario, soul calibur, peter molyneux, yakuza, yakuza 2, best of 2008, soulcalibur iv, fable ii, kazuma kiriyu, old snake, goomba, solid snake

• Whatcha Playing: Persona, Fallout, and the Trans-Pacific RPG Ideal

  Somewhere, probably not too far from Hawaii, the perfect role-playing game is waiting to be discovered. A volatile, volcanic outcropping boiling over with an expert blend of relatable, colorful characters, deep, directed narrative, and open, exploration-rich adventuring, alongside intimidatingly deep avatar customization. Its game world is both fantastic and hyper-real, vast yet structured enough to inexplicitly guide the player along scaling challenges. Alright, I’m kidding. I know this game isn’t real. Of course it isn’t. But after the past couple of weeks, I sincerely wish it was. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, star wars, fallout 3, bioware, peter molyneux, mass effect, fable, jrpg, quest for glory ii, persona 4, wrpg, knights of the old republic, fable ii, quest for glory III

• My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Fable 2

  It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite. And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal over the next several excruciating days! Please enjoy. One of the major reasons Fable II surprised me with its greatness is that Lionhead's medieval sequel was completely off of my radar until I needed something to play in October.  Before that, the last time I had flirted with any of Peter Molyneux's creations was 1999's Dungeon Keeper II--and many would've agreed that was the perfect place to leave the ambitious developer behind.  But Fable II was a redemption for Molyneux, and one he desperately needed, at that; after nearly an entire decade of disappointments, gamers were getting less and less interested in the shit he'd been shoveling.  Thankfully, Fable II is remarkably less fecal than his 00 output--it's actually damned good. Read More... Posted Dec 15 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: xbox 360, fable 2, peter molyneux, bob mackey, top 10, top 10 of 2008

• Populous: Text Based Tutorials Need to Die In A Fire

  Like every other Peter Molyneux game outside of Fable and its sequel, Populous escaped my attention the first time around. I remember sitting in my buddy Mike McBride’s house in the early ‘90s watching his brother play the game for hours and thinking, “I have absolutely no freaking idea what is going on! Why is nothing jumping or shooting?” XSEED, being the swell cats they are, sent us a copy of the new DS version of Molyneux’s classic, so I’m finally spending some time with the man’s much loved debut. I have absolutely no freaking idea what is going on. This is because Populous DS is frontloaded with that most dreaded of barriers between player and actual play: the text-based tutorial. Read More... Posted Nov 25 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, fable 2, peter molyneux, fable, xseed, populous

• Molyneux's Redemption?

  If you asked me a few years ago, I never would've believed Fable 2 would be so highly-reviewed--or that I'd be having so much fun playing it.  Even the ruthless gang over at 1UP Yours likes Fable 2; in their latest podcast, they go so far as to recommend that you play it before the highly-anticipated Fallout 3--and that's saying something.  So, after a series of disappointments this decade, is Molyneux finally back in our good graces? Maybe; it's possible that he never left them.  Games like the original Black and White may be mocked and derided in the Disappointment Hall of Fame, but, if you do a simple Metacritic search, you'll notice that nearly all of Molyneux's 21st century games were highly regarded upon their release.  Hell, as of this writing, Fable 2 is pulling in the same Metacritic score as Black and White.  Metacritic isn't the best tool for judging the quality of a game, but something fishy's going on here. Read More... Posted Oct 27 2008, 10:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, fable 2, peter molyneux, fable, bob mackey, black and white

• Impressions: Fable 2

  So far, I've managed to avoid riding Peter Molyneux's 21st century disappointment train, as popular opinion alone has kept me away from his post-Bullfrog work. I was a big fan of his PC games throughout the 90s--and I'm still hoping for some sort of Dungeon Keeper revival--but his self-aggrandizing nature and the vicarious pain of others didn't exactly motivate me to check out anything from Lionhead Studios.  But I'm a weak man, and the years of hype for Fable 2 eventually got to me; would it be a good game?  Would Molyneux actually be able to live up to his promises? Color me surprised, because Fable 2 actually held my attention for nearly four hours last night--and my busy life makes it hard to fit in long periods of  prolonged motionlessness. Fable 2 may not be quite as stellar as Peter Molyneux would have you think, but it is a surprising mix of Zelda and The Sims. You heard right. Read More... Posted Oct 23 2008, 01:15 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, fable 2, peter molyneux, fable, bob mackey, impressions, lionhead studio

• Non-Gamers Reviewing Games: Wait, What?

  I don't know if it's intentional or not, but hallowed gamer webcomic Penny Arcade sometimes manages to deliver a perfect set-up and punchline in its first panel. Take, for example, this recent strip about Fable II and the reviewing thereof: Gabe: "Peter Molyneux is telling reviewers they should get people who don't play games to play his game." Tycho: "They don't play games, though." Gabe: "He never said it would be easy." Since the birth of the Wii, there's been an influx of "non-gamers" who are suddenly very interested in throwing around remotes. That's fine. In my opinion, that's great. I'm hoping that when established gamers are finished their pissing contests over "casual" versus "hardcore," we'll all realise the benefits of our elders having fun with consoles instead of cringing away from them like they're rabid animals. Then we'll be a big huggy family. At the same time, I'm not naive. My father hadn't touched a video game since Duck Hunt (for which he had his own pronunciation, with special emphasis on the second syllable: "ducKHUNT") when he asked to come over and, um, play with our Wii. He's a golfer, so he went straight into Wii Sports' Golf game. No surprise: golf is relevant to his interests, and the Wii remote puts non-gamers at ease because it's primarily motion-based. He took to it with no problem at all. On the other hand, when I tried to get him into Guitar Hero (he's also a guitarist), he didn't know what to make of the Fisher-Price guitar, the buttons, the menus, etc. Read More... Posted Oct 14 2008, 06:37 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, xbox 360, wii, fable 2, peter molyneux, nadia oxford, casual gaming, hardcore gaming

• Screen Test: Fable 2

  For all of the hate the original Fable got for not living up to Peter Molyneux’s wild claims about how the game’s role-playing would provide a nigh on life changing level of depth and complexity, I adored it. It was a perfectly paced little nugget of fun, about fifteen hours of content, satisfying combat, and some neat (for its time) character customization. Even if it didn’t quite let you live the full hero’s life it originally promised to, it still offered some impressive opportunity for moral choice in a game world, choices whose consequences are far more interesting than the ones found in similar games five years later. I’m still not too sure what to expect from Fable 2. I feel as though its been flying under the press radar since it was announced. Even though its all but done right now, no preview or interview has given a sense of what the full game experience is going to be like. Right now, it just sounds like Fable but bigger. These screens certainly bear that out. As always, Lionhead bangs out some pleasantly exaggerated human caricatures, homey looking fantasy villages and forests, and some nice and spooky enemies. Maybe that’s why Fable 2 is still flying under the radar. Instead of being billed as a paradigm-altering juggernaut, it’s being sold as what it looks like: videogame comfort food. Catch the rest after the jump. Read More... Posted Sep 15 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, microsoft, xbox 360, screen test, peter molyneux, fable

• Turning Japanese: Microsoft’s Latest Ditch Effort to Win the East

  Microsoft held a press conference yesterday in Tokyo to show off their upcoming slate of six Xbox 360 role-playing games. Aside from the Japanese edition of 2007’s Mass Effect and a look at Peter Molyneux’s Fable 2, Microsoft showed off four Japanese developed RPGs. Two of which are the latest in entries in Namco and Square-Enix’s long-running Tales and Star Ocean franchises. Microsoft’s also pulled a slight coup with the announcement that Square-Enix’s new IP Last Remnant, developed to appeal to both eastern and western audiences, will now release on Xbox 360 before Playstation 3. Since the Xbox 360’s release in 2005, Microsoft has been trying to woo Japanese audiences with high-profile role-playing games. Namco’s Trusty Bell: Chopin’s Dream and From Software’s Enchant Arms were the first J-RPGS to see release this console cycle. Microsoft also secured the exclusive rights to Mistwalker’s Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s first post-Square-Enix work. But in the past thirty months, both Trusty Bell and Enchant Arms failed to find a significant audience in Japan and have since been ported to the Playstation 3. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, despite being heavily promoted under Sakaguchi’s name, have also done poorly despite strong debuts. Microsoft’s RPG Premiere Event shows a commitment to a failed tactic. Read More... Posted Jun 10 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: microsoft, xbox 360, last remnant, infinite undiscovery, tales of vesperia, fable 2, peter molyneux, mass effect, star ocean