You can also download the HD trailer, get details about the game, etc from all the big gaming sites as well as speciality GTA sites like GTA4.net.
I've been quite anticipating this day and I have to say, the trailer doesn't disappoint. It's more atmospheric and serious than I was expecting, but I don't think that necessarily signals a big shift in tone for the actual game. Mostly I'm relieved that this is going to be the GTA that I know and love, not some crazy thing in an exotic locale.
Seeing Liberty City again is like coming home, to be all overly melodramatic about it. I've spent hundreds of hours there and look forward to seeing its next-gen incarnation. Actually I still hold out hope that GTA IV is going to be more than just an improved version of the same geography from the "Universe III" incarnation, that like GTA: San Andreas it will include some surrounding countryside and another city (or two). But even if it doesn't I now know that "Universe IV" is going to be someplace I'm very, very interested in visiting.
One of my favorite sayings about programming is that it is easier to write code than it is to read it. I've generally found this principle to be behind a number of common problems in game (well, generally software) development. The most straightforward impact is that it causes a lot of code to be rewritten rather than refactored. There are literally books and books on this subject out there, but I tend to fall into the "refactor whenever possible" camp. While rewriting may in fact be justified on some occasions, it is in my experience more often used as a crutch -- because understanding the existing code at a deep level is an awful, lot of painstaking and complex work. Even though the net time invested is much higher, rewriting a system from scratch (and then debugging it over months and years) is "fun" work while tediously poring over thousands of lines of cryptic code is not. Certainly job satisfaction is an important aspect of this sort of technical decision, but it's always important to not put personal motivations ahead of the right decisions for the project.
Another problem is that it can lead to "not invented here" syndrome. Understanding the pros and cons of an externally provided piece of software is virtually nothing but reading code. You typically can't ask the person who wrote it for help in any meaningful fashion, but instead must go the full "archaeological" route, divining secrets by poring over the papyrus scrolls that contain the source. Even if you're lucky enough to have good documentation, it is only occasionally relevant to helping you correct errors that are inevitable in using such code.
Ironically, I actually spend a lot of my time reading code as part of my day to day work. Fortunately reading changes in a codebase one is intimately familiar with is much, much easier than deciphering code "cold". As the lead programmer I feel it's my responsibility to be up to speed on everything happening in the codebase, and doing a quick scan through every change that gets checked in is a very useful tool towards that end. It is no substitute for good communication, of course, but it is a great jumping off point to recognize a particularly clever solution being built or identify architectural conflicts before they become wide spread.
Some days, like today, it's all I can do to keep up with code being checked in -- our team has really been on fire the past few days and has been cranking out some great stuff. Combine that with a day full of meetings for me and it becomes a race between the Perforce changelist and my Outlook inbox as to which will overflow first. I'm not complaining though, as that level of activity indicates a whole lot of good game development going on which is really the point of the exercise.
My "Kane Edition" copy of Command & Conquer 3 arrived today, and as soon as the kids were down I fired it up and took it for a spin. Command & Conquer was probably the first RTS I got seriously into (though Dune 2 was certainly in there as well), and I have very fond memories of the franchise. The cheezy full motion video sequences are a big plus for me, and C&C 3 doesn't disappoint in that category so far. Sure, you won't be seeing King Lear but they perfectly capture the C&C vibe.
The game is quite attractive, and the core gameplay is frenetic. They have some very nice touches, like an in-game database and some nice unit control & queueing UI conventions. I did try my hand at one multiplayer game only to realize how badly out of practice I am... but I look forward to a lot more evenings with C&C 3. In fact, the only thing that might stop me is trying to leave some content untouched for when the 360 version comes out...
Because I am a little bit obsessive, I wound up getting both the DS and PSP versions of Puzzle Quest. Now I have characters in the low teens on each, because I just can't decide which is the proper "canonical" version.
On the surface, it would certainly appear to be the PSP version. Much cleaner, brighter, and well laid out display. By comparison the DS version feels cramped and poorly thought out. Furthermore the DS (for reasons that are unclear to me) only allows touch input, rather than the much more precise and comfortable d-pad entry, which would be entirely suitable for a game like this.
But then, there are the bugs. The PSP version is plagued with them, most notably that one entire game feature (Companions) simply doesn't work. At all. Much to my sadness, that's not the only problem, the real showstopped I'm having is that it hard-hangs the PSP when I scroll down through my list of abilities once it grows in size, and this is more or less a necessary UI feature.
I thought the point of fixed hardware platforms like this was that they can be QA'ed much more thoroughly. I guess someone forgot to tell Vicious Cycle and Infinite Interactive. So it looks like the DS version will be the winner in the end.
No matter which version you get though, I highly recommend this game. Penny Arcade's comic today is not far off the mark:
So I finished up the pre-expansion content in Titan Quest tonight. Unfortunately, it suffers from the all too common problem of a very weak ending. The area leading up to the final boss isn't too bad (especially in comparison to some real painful RPG grind pre-final levels like in FF12). But the final fight itself is pure tedium. It invalidates most of the useful interesting mechanics of the game so far (like pets, and melee combat) and replaces it with an incredibly boring fight with a brutal boss who can more or less 1 or 2 shot you no matter your resistances. So the only way to fight him is to "kite" him around the arena, whittling away at him with a safe ranged attack (in my case, as a Dream / Nature character, using the "teleport up to someone and whack them" ability then instantly running away). Effective but quite boring.
Kiting being a well-established MMO term ... the first time I recall hearing it was for Everquest 1 back in 1999 or so. I prefer the older Star Fleet Battles term for the same sort of thing, the "Kaufman Retrograde". But no one has any idea what I mean when I use that one, so "kiting" it is...
I'm going to give TQ a bit of a rest before finishing the expansion, especially with STALKER sucking up more of my PC time and C&C 3 on the way. However, I've been having a lot of fun playing it with my 6 yr old son, Xavier -- he knows all the hotkeys to summon my pets and how many of each I should have, and autonomously handles summoning them all up for me from the comfort of my lap.
Also, it was my younger son Alexander's birthday this past week and we had the birthday party today. Basically a chaotic mob of 3 to 6 yr olds descending up Little Gym and running around like madmen. Good times. :)
This spot ran on the FX network in the wee hours yesterday. I think Rockstar's approach here of using TV even at this early stage makes a lot of sense given the wide target audience of the game. Having a countdown via off-hour TV spots is pretty intriguing and may lead some people to the web based version of the same (which is all the information reallly in the ad).
But the levels of recursion here are pretty astounding... this is promotion (TV) for the promotion (web) for the promotion (trailer) of a game. Of course, I found out about this through a fansite which adds a fourth level... then I guess this is sort of promotion of that, so now it's a fifth level...
We had some excellent meetings with the leadership on our art team today -- making sure we were still all on the same page about the artistic vision of the game and talking proactively about how to keep team involvement high while keeping the individual artists having a sense of ownership. The last thing we want is design by committee, and in such a communication-heavy envrionment as Ensemble it is easy to let things slide in that direction. Overall it was a great discussion, and I'm reminded how incredible it is to have a creative team that is really capable of not just amazing art generation, but also pursuing very high level vision and organizational goals.
While game development from a programmer's point of view is largely a technical challenge, at the end of the day we often live or die by our creative choices. When we're in the middle of refactoring a large class hierarchy or sorting through a tricky shader problem it can be easy to lose sight of that.
The original Warlords computer game was a pivotal game in my misspent youth, getting me addicted to wargaming (and fantasy wargaming in particular). Er, I'm referring to the 1990 DOS game, not the also-excellent 1981 Atari 2600 game. While the series has waned a bit over time (though I never really gave Warlords 4 it's due) and spawned a decent RTS side series, it is now coming to what I think is the least expected format possible -- a Bejeweled-style puzzler. Yep, "Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords".
There's a PC demo at that link, though as far as I can tell no actual PC version to buy, instead it is out for the DS and PSP. Well, out in a hypothetical sense -- all the release calendars, etc list today as the release date but I can't find it anywhere. In fact, for the past several months the computers at Gamestop wouldn't even let me place a preorder on it. Amazon was willing to take a preorder on it, only now that it comes the day of shipping, their website mysteriously updates to show a 4-6 week delay. Grrr, that's definitely not playing fair.
I find it weird that I'm so excited about a handheld puzzler, but try the demo out and you'll see the appeal. The core "match 3" mechanic is fairly simple, but the many layers of RPG progress that they put on top of it gives it far longer legs that I would have expected. I'm quite excited to play it... if only I could find a copy.
So last night I finally found myself with a clear evening and sleeping kids to play some God of War 2! I was quite stoked -- the game has been getting rave reviews on the web and from pretty much everyone at Ensemble. The opening didn't disappoint and I was back in amazing over the top world of Kratos...
... then I got stuck on like the third room of the game. Embarassing. Maybe I'm turning into an old man, doomed to watch my kids run circles around me in any video game we play. My shame was complete when I consulted GameFAQs for literally, a puzzle that happens about 10 minutes into the game.
Interestingly, the thing I got stuck on is exactly the same kind of thing I've gotten stuck on in many games before. Some unusual element X is introduced to the scene (in this case, a ballista on which Kratos can shoot himself at the giant enemy). I fixate on how to use element X to solve the problem since, clearly it wouldn't have been introduced if it weren't relevant. I may try a few other things when that doesn't work but the existence of this thing is usually enough to keep distracting me -- am I not using it right? Maybe there is some key combo or timing I need to use it correctly? In this case, nope... I use it later in the sequence and need to do something altogether more mundane first. Sigh.
While I'm demonstrating some minimal level of self-awareness here, the other "classic" self-trap I fall into is when I attempt the correct solution on a problem, fail at executing it (but don't realize it), and then write off that solution path altogether. Because I never make the connection that it was, I write off that part of solution space as "explored" and move on, more or less never to return. This particular trap got me numerous times in Zelda: Ocarina of Time -- I vividly remember being astonished that jumping through the web from the top of the tree worked after I'd tried it 4-5 times unsuccessfully.
Of course each of those problems is a useful heuristic in other parts of my life (and even in most game solving). The trick is realizing when I'm in a pattern like this and being self-aware enough to question my assumptions...
From NeoGAF... Feb NPD hardware numbers show that the Wii sold 335k units, the Xbox 360 did 228k, and the PS3 came in with 127k. Fascinating to watch how this console war is shaping up. Now that the PS3 is out of being supply constrained, to only move 127k has got to be pretty terrifying to the Powers That Be at Sony. I mean, it's not exactly rocket science -- their amazing brand strength is apparently not quite strong enough to overcome a $600 price tag, a lack of differentiating features, weak online features, and a severe lack of superior games.
Nintendo, on the other hand, is seeing the kind of numbers I would expect a fresh out of the gate console to be moving. While I have my doubts about the Wii's performance in the long term (and on how directly it is really competing with the other 2 "next gen" consoles), they have undeniably had a very strong opening salvo. Heck, I was just playing Zelda on it with the whole family this evening (we're in the Goron Mines).
It is really unclear to me what on the horizon is going to turn around Sony's trend... I don't think Home and Little Big Planet are going to do it, and they're many months off at best.
