We're into our second week of our current crunch push, and while it is a bit disruptive to one's usual schedule it is just immensely satisfying to see how much stuff is going into the game and the level of polish that it reaches.  During crunch we meet every evening after dinner to go over the latest build and share comments, etc.  There was a very tangible moment for me watching tonight's build where I just couldn't stop thinking "wow, I can't wait to be sitting down and really playing this game".  Very exciting.  We'll be tying it off soon though -- we really try to limit our crunch bursts to no more than two weeks if possible, beyond that you really start to lose the boost in productivity.

So the footage of our E3 Halo Wars demo is officially out now:  http://www.halowars.com/ and also I believe on Xbox Live Marketplace soon if not already.  Check it out, I'm very excited by how this game is turning out and I think it will really "crack the code" of introducing all that is good about Ensemble's style of RTS gaming to a much wider new audience.

In general I'm finding that the ability to download demos is really transforming how word of mouth can build.  Sure, they've been in the PC space before but something about the ease of integration, coupled with the much faster spread of word of mouth in the internet age, really has the demo taking center stage.  Would games like Dead Rising, Crackdown, and Bioshock have anywhere near the kind of success they had without their demos?  I don't think so -- none really had big marketing pushes and all had demos that were very effective in communicating the quality of the experience.

This is an incredibly good trend, IMO.  It is one step closer to the hypothetic utopia where a game's commercial success is more a function of the game itself and less a function of the marketing surrounding it.  Right now that is largely the reverse, and I see that changing.  That's not to say marketing is evil or the like, quite the reverse -- it is absolutely essential.  I'd just like to see the games themselves become a bigger piece of marketing, and letting the games with a really strong voice get that out through all the noise.

Whew, long week.  A very very productive week of crunch, but a long week nevertheless.  Of course, it didn't help that I would squeeze in whatever hours of Bioshock I could after coming home...

We have a weekly team meeting at the end of the week and today we looked back (again) at the latest version of the game.  It was very satisfying to see such huge forward movement.  Man, I can't wait until I can talk about it more. 

My late night game-playing-after-crunch isn't going to get any easier next week with Blue Dragon, Stuntman Ignition, and of course Metroid Prime 3 either...

If you are reading this and haven't gotten Bioshock yet, what are you waiting for?  I'm amazed I took a break long enough to come over to the PC and post this.

I had a heated debate with a fellow Ensemble-ite today about the aspect ratio "issue" in Bioshock.  Basically the horizontal field of view is the same in widescreen and 4:3, which is sort of a no-no in standard optics terms.  I'm not quite sure why they made the decision to have a fixed FOV, but the crux of my argument was that just because you can technically see extra pixels in the 4:3 version (since it is taller, and the width of the view is fixed between the aspect ratios), that doesn't mean it is inherently better.  If they designed the game for the widescreen FOV, then the 4:3 aspect ratio is wrong, even if it shows you more along the top & bottom.

So you can argue the FOV in Bioshock widescreen is too small, but IMO you can't use the 4:3 rendering as evidence of that.  Alas, to no avail -- I was completely unable to convince my counterpart in this discussion of that point of view... the "extra" pixels in the 4:3 were just too much for him to get past. 

Oh, and here's a picture of my new Big Daddy figure valiantly guarding my switchbox at work:

Well, I was going to prowl the local Wal-mart at midnight to see if there were any copies of Bioshock to be had but then, well, I got lame and decided I would be too tired to enjoy it as much as I'd like.  Anyways, my reserved Collector's Edition is in theory waiting for me at 9 AM tomorrow.  It is unforutnate that we're back in crunch at work so I won't really be able to delve into it until the weekend, but hopefully I can at least dabble some tomorrow evening...

Ok, so I broke down and finally played the Bioshock demo.  I couldn't resist it anymore.  Suddently the days between now and the 21st are seeming longer and longer.  I was at the Gamestop today to upgrade my reserve order to the collector's edition, and they told me they actually had them in back.  It was all I could do not to try and leap over the counter and force my way in.

I'm amazed at the positive buzz on this game, and it seems like for once the game might live up to it.  Certainly there is WAY more presence for Bioshock than there ever was for either of the System Shock games, or for any other Irrational title.  If anyone deserves a great hit like this, its Irrational.  By which I mean, 2K Boston / 2K Australia (sigh).

Initial reviews are so amazingly positive it looks to be on a path to being the highest rated game of all time according to aggregators like Metacritic.  Wow.

If you haven't, play the demo, and you'll see why.  If the rest of the game delivers to that level, maybe I'll even forget GTA IV for a while. 

Until then, I'm just replaying San Andreas for the 3rd time to kill the pain.

So apparently a few scattered Toys R Us stores have been selling Bioshock early.  When news of this hit, Paul (Bettner) and I immediately headed out for the nearest TRU.  Sadly, we were denied -- and apparently we weren't the first people to ask there, either.  I think this bodes incredibly well for Bioshock.  Neither of the System Shock games certainly had that kind of buzz, and I think this could be the first really big success for Irrational, well, "2K Boston" (choke).

Maybe it is because I have been re-reading all the Harry Potter books, but something about this whole affair really had a weird vibe for me.  Here we were, going to some particular place at a particular time on a hint of a rumor, none of which would make the slightest amount of sense to the  muggles from the normal world...

I have to admit, this generation is where portable gaming has really come of age.  Don't get me wrong, there were some great games in the GBA era, but for the first time I'm really finding myself just tempted to sit down and play games like Ouendan 2, Ratchet & Clank Size Matters, Puzzle Quest, and Etrian Odyssey. 

Most recently a game by the (seemingly randomly-generated) name of "Brave Story: New Traveler has taken up permanent residence in my PSP.  Honestly it's just an all around better RPG than many of the full-fledged console RPGs I've played in the past 3-4 years.  Fast paced, very attractive, clean & well explained mechanics.  Sure, it maybe isn't going to give FF-X a run for the money, but it is a great RPG package I find myself turning to rather than the console RPGs I was in the middle of (Grandia 3, Baten Kaitos).

Sadly I've seen some rather dismal NPD numbers for PSP games released in the past year.  While there may be market space for two "real" consoles it looks like handhelds only have room for one serious contender, and there is no question that the DS is dominant.  But with games like Brave Story and the upcoming Jeanne D'Arc, my PSP has a little life in it yet...

PS. Still resisted the Bioshock demo though I feel it calling to me... so far I've just been too busy to have a nice block of time to play so we'll see if I can keep making saving throws...

The Bioshock demo sits there on my 360 in the next room over, lurking, quietly tempting me with it's FPS-horror-RPG-Irrational delights.  My will to resist and go into the full game as unspoiled as possible is slowly ebbing away...

I'm really excited about the upcoming release of Bioshock, as you might imagine given my past relationship to Irrational Games and to the "inspiration source material" of the System Shock games.  For a game like this that I know is just going to fire on all cylinders for me, I actively try to avoid spoilers.  It's getting hard -- I'm hearing some great reviews on the game from a number of sources and friends keep sending me preview video links that I'm sorely tempted to watch.  Of course, a certain amount of spoiler-corruption is inevitable... I know a bit about some game mechanics and enemies just from basic promotional materials.  Now I only have another two weeks to hold out so hopefully I can stay spoiler free.

I find it an interesting contrast to GTA IV, where I want to know every scrap of data I can.  I'm not quite sure how to explain the difference in my mind -- I think it is for the same reasons that I so enjoy replaying the GTA games.  At its best GTA for me is about a sense of space, so learning about the world ahead of time just makes that space resonate more strongly when I'm really exploring it in 3d.  There is so much explorational content in the game that the promotional materials don't even touch.  Actually experiencing it is so different than watching trailers or delving through interactive websites that the "spoiler" factor is quite low.