What the hell, EA? (Part Deux)

Wow, EA Sports. Consider me impressed by FIFA 08. The game feels amazing, a lot better than FIFA 07. Finally a FIFA game that exceeds my expectations, and comes on par, if not better than PES. The "Be-A-Pro" mode is an interesting, yet addictive way to play the game.

Aside from that, the game doesn't make it easy to get started, be aware there are some additional setup actions to sign in to EA Nation. After you've done that, the game will award you EA Achievements, for Credits. Im not 100% sure what they're meant to be used for though.

Overall, a great game. This is everything FIFA 07 should have been. Finally, QPR are in a next-gen FIFA.

Go hoops!

What the hell, EA?

Skate. Skate was a game I was really looking forward to, and the demo was a nice gauge at the Flickit controls, and to an extent, they work really well. However, the game itself is far too hard to grasp, with infuriating goals. It takes almost 20 times longer to make a gap and combo than it would in Tony Hawk because: the Flickit controls get CONFUSING when you're in the middle of a grind/manual/grind/air sequence, AND the fact that it takes almost a full 10 seconds if you bail and want to start over. The idea for not having your character reset, or an easier way of getting back to the starting position is based in reality, that you cant just warp back to the start point if you fuck it up, but it gets to the downright stupid point when the spot you WANT to nail is up some stairs, with a 2 minute skate around to get back up there. Why can I not just GET OFF THE DAMN BOARD AND WALK UP THE STAIRS? Like I would if i was doing it in real life! I'm not in a race to beat this game, but the lack of a simple and easy way to get back to the starting position is very demeaning in my honest opinion.

Secondly, when you start a challenge, WHY are you pointed in (sometimes) the COMPLETE OPPOSITE DIRECTION to the gap you need to hit? I can understand needing to tweak the run-up to the jump, but a full 180 degree turn? No thank you!

Third, Points on the challenges are ALWAYS the thing to catch you out. I have nailed a gap that was particularly hard, and could only do it once out of the 20 times I tried it, only to be told I didn't have enough points to complete the task.

Fourth, the lack of information for the challenges. Its all well and good for the superstars of the game to lend there voice to say "Hi, I'm a famous skater" but when they lend their voice for a challenge I'd EXPECT them to describe the task at hand, or at least demo it so I can get a feeling for the timing, at LEAST 10 or so attempts at the jump first time round could have been prevented.

I'm not saying "Hey, Skate is shit because it's too hard", I'm saying Skate is going to make you angry as all hell, and after MANY years of the THPS controls, I'm kinda used to it, and I'm kinda used to the feel and the plain fun that you get out of THPS. This game is something else. This is a SIM game. This needs serious hours of attention, and MANY attempts and possibly a lot of controller throws (thank god our new controllers are wireless, eh?). Overall, this game isn't for me, many will love it, many will hate it. EA did a good job, but not enough to stop Tony Hawk, Not by a longshot.

Wii Crash

Playing Super Paper Mario. I explored all the rooms before talking to the character, and the game froze. Lucky I saved right before it.

Wii wasnt hot, running normal, Tried to replicate but nothing worked. After a forced reboot, all is well. How curious.

As far as I can see this "Flatlining" Wii fault is rare to see. Especially on a first party game.

Games for Windows Live is a sham!

Im sorry, but Games for Windows Live is beyond a joke right now. Noone is using it except for Microsoft. Whatever happened to this grand vision of an entirely new brand for PC gaming to simultaneously launch alongside Windows Vista? I think I have seen 4 games under the branding, and only 2 that have LIVE support. I own both these games, because I was excited at the prospect of what Xbox Live and Windows could make of itself. Now Halo 2 is decent enough, got a nice fanbase, and a good online experience. But Shadowrun... Shadowrun is bad. I mean BAD. It takes me about an HOUR to set up LIVE.

My question is, why cant LIVE be out-of-the-box with Vista? Be a part of the Operating System? Even integrating Gamertags with Windows Live Messenger will be a good idea. Keeping in touch with your friends, wether they be at work, or play. the 360 offers the WLM support, so why not the other way round?

That's the simple answer to the problem. The more interesting and something that would REALLY put a staple into Vista's Next-Generation Computing and the Games for Windows brand, is to actually BUILD LIVE into the OS. Make it so that the guide can come up at any point. This is where things get interesting. How cool would it be to video chat with someone in the US on an Xbox with the Vision cam, and on Windows over here in the UK with a generic Logitech camera? This will extend that usage by a longshot. I mean take the situation, I, myself have family across the pond in the US, and one day we tried having a linked Christmas celebration, and we had to bring an entire PC rig downstairs (noone had a laptop at this point in time) and connect it all up. Theoretically if one of the parties had an Xbox in their living room with a Vision camera, you could just dial them on Vista LIVE and instantly see them. No mess. No fuss.

I came up with a short idea of what the idle state for LIVE might look like. If you have Vista, I'm sure you're familiar with the Sidebar.

On a LIVE enabled Vista Install, before setting up your LIVE connection, or just offline for whatever reason, the guide will look like this..

Bland, unobtrusive, yet still there, reminding you that LIVE is running, but not in use. Of course you should be able to set LIVE to off by default to save system resources. In that case no widget at all will appear.

Take the situatuion, you have set up LIVE, and have disabled auto-sign in. Want to connect? Just click the orb.

Bam! the Windows orb lights up in full colour. Note that it does have a ring of light around it, and we will see why in a second. This means your account is connected, and to every Xbox gamer on your list, they will see you as online. If you set to Away, or leave the PC idle, the orb will go green with an icon of a clock in the center (Sorry I havent made this diagram yet :-( )

What does this mean? Well. This means that you have connected a Wired or Wireless Xbox controller. and as such, can use the LIVE guide with the controller. If you want to access the guide with no controller, you can press CTRL+Home.

As with the ring of light on the Xbox 360, the ring will flash to alert you of any changes, such as recieving a message, or a game invite. If you recieve a non-cross-platform invite, you can not accept the invite, but an option will allow you to send back a preset text message to the other party, saying that you do want to accept, but that you are on Windows, and the other party should wait until you are signed in on the Xbox before sending another invite.

Identifying a cross-playform user should be as easy as looking at the alert that pops up in both Windows and Xbox. Xbox users have (of course) the Xbox logo, and Windows users should have the Windows logo (duh). So take this example, I have signed in on Windows, and a friend is on Xbox, this is what he should see on his HDTV.

Instantly he can see that I'm on Windows. Simple as that. It really doesnt need to be the fragmented, in-and-out system that it is today. I really think if this is implimented, Games for Windows LIVE can be seen as another defining mark in Windows gaming.

World Of Warcraft on the 360?

Could it be done? I think, given the right curcumstances, yes it definately can be. I dont play World of Warcraft a lot, but every time I do, I look at my Xbox controller and think "How can this control World of Warcraft?"

Please note, before telling me that WoW will never come to the Xbox or Playstation platforms, that WoW is only used as a basis for the control mechanism. A developer can still develop a console specific MMO with these controls.

I must admit, lately I have become very accustomed to the controller method of playing games. Keyboard/Mouse still rules for FPS, but action/adventure and RPG's could be done with the controller, for a better and more engaging experience. Controllers today (aside from the Wii controller) have a lot of flexibility when it comes to buttons. On both the Sixaxis and on the 360 Controller, there are 8 buttons that are useable, 2 analog triggers, 2 analog sticks, and a d-pad input. The flexibility is now a lot greater than what it once was.

The basic theory is this. A Pie. That's right I said a pie! Why a pie? Well... Ill start with the biggest challenge. Selecting an action. When you hold down the Right Trigger on the controller, a radial dial selection will appear on screen giving you 8 options to select from. All you have to do is move the right analog stick to the icon you wish to select, and the marker will confirm. Then as soon as you let go of the trigger, your character will peform the specified action. You can cycle sets of 8 spells by hitting the L and R Bumpers.

An issue that popped up during this, was the fact that WoW and many other games has multiple bag slots in its inventory. So in order to select your "Working bag", hold the Right Trigger and the dial will come up once again. Select your bag and the inventory wil come up. Using the D-Pad, select the item, and press A to use. To get back to the same bag quickly, press X and the same bag will open.

Interacting with NPC's

Another tricky task with a simple resolution. Pressing A will target the closest character to you, wether that be an enemy, an NPC or another character. Pressing A on an enemy after it is targeted will attack it. Pressing A on an NPC will allow you to interact with it.

Targeting

Following the auto-target system by a simple press of A. you can use the D-Pad to manually select your target. Just like what happens when you hover your mouse over an enemy in WoW, a Pre-Targer cursor will select your target, if you confirm this action by pressing A, you will target it. To drop a target selection, simply press B.

Character Options

This can be done one of two ways, one is quick and simple and allows quick changing of attire, the other gives more options.

Quick and Simple: Go into your Inventory (X) and select a garment. Pressing Y on the garment will equip it to the player. If anything is assigned in the slot you're assigning it to, you will see the garment swap.

More Options: In a ready state (out of any options menu or Inventory), Press Y and your character menu will appear. In this state, you can use the controller to assign different enchants or accessories to garments.

Text chatting: Now this is something that posed a few problems, If a game was being designed with consoles in mind, I'd HOPE it to have some sort of Voice utility, but for those without headsets, if you press the right analog stick in, a keyboard will appear. Of course the Chatpad accessory on the 360, or a USB Keyboard will allow you to just type, without a controller button press.

Of course pressing Start will bring up a systems options panel (Similar to Esc in WoW).

I think that covers the basis of my control mechanism. To me, this seems the most logical way of playing an MMO on a controller. Sorry for the long post, but I hope if a developer reads this, that it makes them think how their controller mechanism could work, because, frankly, Final Fantasy XI's was absolutely TERRIBLE.

If you have any thoughts on how it could be improved, please leave a comment. Thanks!