Day 28: Call of Duty 4

I know, I know. The game has been out forever. But as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been saving Call of Duty 4 for a rainy day.

As expected from previous posts, it delivered an awesome user experience right from moment one. It's clear that the team spent a lot of time defining what the first 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and hour of game play would be like for players of all ability levels.

Well, all ability levels except for players who have never played a console FPS before. I talked more deeply about this issue in some of my writings about Portal. I'm left to wonder: When does it make sense for game developers to design for complete newbies to a genre. In the case of Portal, it saddened me that my wife (then fiancee) who loves puzzle games could not play the game because the intro was calibrated for folks who'd played FPS before. There were no stepping-stones tutorials for players who were unfamiliar with console controllers and who had a tough time right thumbing between camera controls and face button actions.

In some ways, as a sequel (in this case, the 3rd sequel) I guess having a "complete newbie" tutorial doesn't make much sense. Why provide additional content given that most people who can't already play console FPS are already so scared of the genre that they hadn't tried the first 3 iterations.

I guess I wish there were some in-between games that introduced FPS type game mechanics and controls to people fearful of the genre so that they could learn and practice the basics of moving, looking, moving while looking, and then performing actions while moving and looking.

All that said, I guess it's also possible that some folks simply don't like the idea or feeling of interacting via a controller in a 3d space -- and simply making them more comfortable with the controls won't make them interested in this kind of game play. But I find this somewhat hard to accept given some of the work I did on Rise of Nations in which we brought in non-gamers (folks who had never even right-clicked a mouse before) and built learn-to-play tutorials around their strenghts and weaknesses. With a lot of work we were able to get these folks up to speed and able to play and enjoy the game. Of course, we never found out whether these folks would ever *buy* a game like Rise of Nations for themselves.

Back to COD 4.

As I mentioned in my previous brief posting about the game, I felt that the learn-to-play component of the game pretty much took the bar from the original Halo experience and raised it higher. The behavioral self-assessment of difficulty level was great, the prompts were subtle and well placed, and this was all done in an entertaining manner within the fiction of the game.

One of the best things, from a user experience perspective, that this game does is recognize that in the chaos of combat it is difficult to figure out what's going on, remember what my goals are, and figure out what to do next. Accordingly, the game has a number of feedback systems designed to propel the player along through game play.

• Feedback is given to the player via various modalities. There are briefings between missions that foreshadow what the player should expect (these are short, well paced, and skippable). Current objective text appears on the HUD. Weapon fire (by friendlies and enemies) is very noticeable and helps point the player in the right direction. Weapon fire intensity/deadliness is exaggerated so that players can quickly determine choke points. Friendly units reinforce this learning by calling out key threats "Look out for the RPG on the 2nd floor". Player deaths are treated as teaching devices: The player "sees" the enemy who shot him, or the player gets an explanation of how to detect and avoid grenades and exploding vehicles.
• Feedback modality is governed by whether the game is in full-on chaos mode or in the middle of a break in the action. In the heat of combat there is no time to read objective text or listen to long helpful suggestions. Chatter is brief and to the point. Generally speaking chatter is also concrete and specific: There is less "beware of RPG fire, it's dangerous" and more "RPG on the second floor" followed by a streak of smoke and explosion that illustrates the point. Pauses in the action are used for more exposition and to set expectations for the upcoming action.
• Feedback is responsive to current obstacles and player success or failure in overcoming those obstacles. Feedback is most useful when it is concrete and specific to what is currently happening in the game and how successful your current actions are (or are not). The game is determined to help the player succeed by providing constant engaging, immersive, understandable, actionable, and predictable feedback.

Worst case scenario? The "Start" button pauses the game and lists current completed and open objectives. The game recognizes that when players pause the action they're often trying to get their bearings and figure out "what next?"

There's obviously a lot more going on with COD 4 than just the quality of feedback, but really this is the element that stands out the most to me so far. Without engaging, understandable, actionable, and predictable feedback systems it would be impossible to have such a fun and immersive learn-as-you-play experience. No heavy handed prompts or text billboards are needed.

All this writing about COD 4 makes me want to put down the keyboard and resume my campaign. At least until Batman: Arkham Asylum arrives.

15,000 Gamer Points

Woohoo!

Just hit my next Gamer Point milestone. I was getting close and feeling a little burned out. I had been saving Call of Duty 4 for just such an occasion. I knew it would be good based on it's pretty awesome initial experience and some fun multiplayer.

I was not disappointed.

More thoughts on it tomorrow before Batman: Arkham Asylum shows up.

Ouch... It's been far too long.

Between some very fun client work, my wedding, and the "mini moon" I haven't been doing too much gaming lately. Hence not much in the way of blogging about gaming.

I don't have much time to write tonight, but here's a list of things I would like to write about when I get a chance:

• The ubiquitous Plants vs. Zombies. Short review: It lives up to its incredible hype. Mucho enjoyment and I've still got lots of game play left (I've been playing it mostly on long plane flights). Great learn-as-you-play; the motif and art direction is entertaining enough to keep me motivated during some of the less-challenging mid game (which was probably plenty challenging enough for non RTS gamers); and there's a ton of fun unlockable content that allows you to "play your mood" (e.g., I want challenge I try one mode; I want pleasant time wasting I try a different mode).
• Educational games at the Monterey Aquarium. I didn't play much of these (or watch kids play them too much) but it's worth thinking a bit more about how teaching/academics approach game development.
• The And Yet It Moves demo. Like Braid, it's a lot more hard core than you'd think but also contains some fun "eureka" moments. Unlike Braid, there are some usability quirks with the control scheme that merit further examination. Most specifically: Why do I always (always) rotate the camera the opposite direction I intend to. Always.
• I've also got to update my "games to play" list. I'm sitting on a couple of Gamefly games, there are a ton of demos, and I'm just way, way, way behind on my gaming. Perhaps more frustratingly, I haven't been looking ahead and am having a tough time answering folks who ask me "what are you looking forward to playing?" It's hard for me to keep saying Call of Duty 4 when World at War has already been out for months. Sigh.

One more week of travel, then E3 the following week. Then, I swear, I'm going to just dedicate a week to playing games.

Housekeeping (and more Dead Space)

I took some time this evening to clean up my game queues a bit. I need to get organized as I'm falling behind and 'tis the season for decent new releases...

Dead Space is getting most of my console gaming attention. I have 2 friends who are playing Warhammer (the MMO) with some regularity, so I want to keep active with that. My Facebook gaming has slacked off a bit, but I still feed my D&D:Tiny Adventures addiction, play Wordscraper and Scramble with a couple of dedicated friends, and achieve the top achievement (cyborg) on Word Challenge once a week so I can impress my friends.

I really want to dig back into Midnight Club: Los Angeles because I love the game and it was starting to get to the really fun parts (cooler special abilities; cooler ways to pimp my cars). But, I'm backlogged on games I need to play for research purposes:

• No More Heroes, Alone in the Dark for a Wii game.
• Fable 2, Fallout 3 for an RPG.

And then there's Gears of War 2, which I don't really care much about -- except for the fact that everyone I know is going to play MP, and I do enjoy going through the co-op campaign on "insane" with friends.

I'm having a feeling I'm going to need to give up on playing through more of Half-life 2 (episodes), the Portal DLC, and GTA IV (which I was really starting to like).

I still need to play Call of Duty 4 and I just updated my "on my radar" section by replacing NHL 2008 with NHL 2009. Woof.

As far as Dead Space goes, I'm definitely starting to enjoy it more and feel like finishing it. It took too long to really get into the game -- and it wasn't until I basically decided to specialize in two weapons and just power them up that combat became fun. The game really doesn't support experimentation with different weapons because you die too quickly before you can figure out how to use them. The game also doesn't support pick-up-and-play because the controller scheme is so hard to remember -- and there's no in-game controller screen to remind you. 

Although I do wonder whether my main motivation to complete the game right now is because I'm over the half way mark, I think that the environmental and combat puzzles have gotten interesting enough to keep going. I do like the world, even though I haven't really been following the story. The zero-g portions of the game are pretty interesting and fun. It feels like it captures what combat in a true 3-d space would be like without being unduly frustrating. 

I've also started having more fun with the "grav gun" which can be very rewarding both in terms of item acquisition (grabbing far away things) and combat (firing explosive tubes or sharp body parts at enemies).

I still feel that the econ and upgrade system is clunky. Moreover, the progression curve is unsatisfying because instead of being exposed to cool new items and upgrades as part of the adventure (e.g., 1 hour in have the pistol; 2 hours shotgun; 3 hours machine gun) I just end up unlocking the ability to purchase these weapons without really trying them out first and seeing them in their best light. When my choice is between the unknown (which, when I first try it I fail at miserably) and upgrading something I'm already familiar with, I tend to go with the familiar.

Unlike other games that structure the experience around the acquisition of a new item (give me a rock, then surround me with scissors) this game presumes that you can decide which weapon you need based on a vague 2 sentence description. Then, after you buy the weapon, you don't have much chance to use it in a carefree way. The game is stingy about ammo drops and there are no sandbox areas where enemies (and items / money) constantly respawn.

Games like Ratchet & Clank do a great job of layering on new gadgets and weapons as part of the core progression path. They are integrated into the story and into level and enemy design. There's an economy backend that supports upgrades and non-critical path items, but resources are so plentiful that you're not really screwed if you end up buying something you don't like.

I'm basically sticking with the pistol (Plasma Cutter) and shotgun (Force Beam) and upgrading them and my armor. I don't even think I use the alt-fire on my Force Beam (I can't even remember what it is). I noticed that one of the achievements is to complete the game with just the Plasma Cutter. I actually don't think it would be that hard to do so.

I'll keep plugging away and hopefully finish it this weekend.

Super Mario Galaxy arrived...

After a beautiful long weekend in Tahoe I was dumped back into the world of games.

Sadly my work schedule over the last two days meant actually working on games I can't talk about on my blog, though.

That said, Super Mario Galaxy arrived (from my Gamefly account). I'm looking forward to playing a Wii title as it's been a while. Hopefully over the next few days I should have some posts about SMG and some other games I have kicking around (God of War 2, Call of Duty 4, and maybe some more Xbox demos).

I also hope to get some board gaming in.

Scramble & Housekeeping

I haven't had as much time for console gaming lately. Luckily a couple of competitive Scrabulous players have started playing their turns more often. We're quite evenly matched and I hope that they keep their commitment up.

I've also been giving Scramble a chance. It's another Facebook application "in the spirit of" Boggle. It's no Bogglific for several reasons, but it possibly has some legs. A couple of the design decisions I question:

• Why are default games with friends multi-round events (5 boards)? Seems like this drags out games for longer than they need to go -- especially if one player falls behind and feels the lead is insurmountable (and thus loses interest and lets the game stall). Boggle is meant to be a series of rapid games where you're tallying wins vs. losses, not an epic struggle like Scrabble.
• Why is the online matchmaking done via lobbies? That's so 1990s and is really far too intimidating an experience. I don't want to choose the wrong lobby and sit around and chat. I want quick matches like in Bogglific. Sure, jumping in was scary at first. But even after a disheartening loss, you've really only blown a minute of your life and can quickly jump back into another game.
  
• I ended up joining a lobby for rapid games (with very short breaks in between). The flow was much like Griddle, which I wrote about a while ago. Very addictive. However you never really feel like you're playing other players because there simply isn't enough time for socializing (even a quick "gg") and it's not focused on the winner (another person) but how you ranked in the game, so it just doesn't feel like an interpersonal competition.
• The game also doesn't feel as strategic as Bogglific because there are no penalties for fake words. This means that often the best strategy is simply to hammer keys as fast as possible without caring whether you'll take a 2 point deduction. Moreover, because common words aren't canceled, there are no real incentives to scour for unique words -- it's all about quantity.
• There is no rating system (so you can matchmake with equivalent players) and the leader board seems to be restricted to your friends with no overall rankings.
• Finally, I'm pretty sure I don't like the credit system. You can apparently buy words for credits. You get credits by inviting friends to install and play the application. Basically this incents poor players to cheese out wins by spamming their friends with invites, which doesn't seem cool.
  

I'm curious to see where Scramble goes from here. Numbers seem a little low and I wonder whether they can up the player totals by moving closer to the Bogglific model. To me, Scramble seems much more like a feature-laden Griddle which means that while it is a good supply of crack, it doesn't have the same legs as a competitive game as Bogglific has (er... had before it shut down).

Other housekeeping notes:

• Tidied up my "Currently Playing" list. I'm trying to decide whether my next game will be Darkness or Call of Duty 4.
• Tidied up my "Want to play, but not enough time" list. I'll definitely play some more Gears of War if Brian and I are online at the same time. Sadly our east-west timezone differences make this hard to do. I finished off my Carcasonne single player achievements, so it's time to move on to some other XBLA fare. Maybe a return to Puzzle Quest or maybe on to some new games on my radar.
  

More housekeeping...

In preparation for a weekend of rotting and gaming, I have decided to do a little housekeeping in the right column. Mostly I just shifted around a few entries to make sure they were in the right bucket and removed a couple of duplicates.

Next up: Deciding what the menu of gaming will look like for the weekend.

• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: I know nothing about it other than it has been highly reviewed and will give me a reason to dust off the PS3. It should arrive today from Gamefly.com.
• Arkadian Warriors: Hopefully I can convince a friend or two to try some co-op.
• Call of Duty 4: It is going to be insanely fun. I'm just holding off for now for a lull in the action. I also need to review its initial experience again because it has a behavior-based system of helping the user decided on the best difficulty level.
• Darkness, Puzzlequest, and miscellaneous XBLA and trial versions sitting on my 360 hard drive.
• And, possibly, some board gaming if I have a desire to be social.
  

Game Over: No Happy Ending for Me

Well, I'm done with Blue Dragon. 50+ hours into it and I'm through playing it.

Did I mention that I didn't finish it? That I stopped playing at the final boss battle?

Sadly, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. I really, really loved Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Metroid Zero Mission, and even Banjo Kazooie (GBA). But in each case I quit the game at the final boss. I almost even gave up on the original Half-life. What is it with games where the final boss is so ridiculously difficult to beat based on your normal progression through the game?

True, if I bothered to rack, and rack, and rack some more I could probably have beaten Paper Mario and Blue Dragon. Metroid & Banjo simply required too much manual dexterity and reflex action to complete.

In each of these cases I could have kept going and racking and practicing long after the content was basically complete, all in hopes of defeating the final boss. But, I chose not to. It just doesn't fit my game play needs. Does it leave me with a bad taste in my mouth? Yep. Terrible. But when you're just trying to complete the story so that you can move on and get the next experience (and you can see from my list on the right that I've got some gems in store) it's hard to justify spending an extra 5, 10, or even 20 hours to finish a game -- when with the same time investment I could have started and likely completed a new game.

In the old days you could hope for cheats. I guess you can still do this these days -- with the advent of the internet, if they're out there you can find 'em. These days you can just watch the final gameplay moments and movies on Youtube. It's sad, though, that these high quality and well reviewed games can't afford a player like me a satisfying ending.

I'll return the DVDs to Gamefly tomorrow and start plowing through the rest of the list.

Thank goodness for short casual games (XBLA, Facebook, etc), my Gamefly Q, and my personal copies of Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4 that I have stacked beside my projector.

Today's Lucky Numbers: 2, 16, 1333, 1543

How these numbers break down:

• 2: I just made it to disc #2 in Blue Dragon. I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I like this game given that I have Mass Effect and CoD 4 on deck (and Puzzle Quest and Arkadian Warriors ready for some XBLA action).
• 16: The # of points the Titans scored today. It was enough to beat the Colts and propel us into the playoffs. We'll undoubtedly lose next week (against the Chargers) but it's been a fun run.
• 1333: My Bogglific rating. I'm 24-17.
  
• 1543: My Scrabulous rating. I'm 36-3.
  

Blue Dragon: Will I complete it?

I'm enjoying Blue Dragon. It has several annoyances that I've detailed separately, but it has enough going for it that it keeps me plugging away.

That said, I will probably stop playing the game well before I reach the 3rd DVD of content (I'm still on DVD #1). Here are some of the key reasons why:

• I've been thinking more about the wandering monster minigame and while it showed initial promise that orchestrating complex monster fights would be cool, the game is not delivering on that promise. What I'm finding is that the interaction between camera behavior/controls and level design is conspiring against me.
  
• Dungeon environments, where a majority of combat occurs, require constant camera manipulations because the lower camera angle (over the shoulder) makes it harder to judge enemy bounding boxes and the cramped quarters mean that you're more likely to bump into things by mistake. This would be manageable to an action-adventure gamer who was comfortable using either of the 2 supported camera control schemes. However, if you are more of a casual gamer, are used to turn based games where no camera adjustment is required, or (like me) require a camera control setting that is not supported by the game (please, please allow me to adjust X and Y axis inversion orthogonally) this task becomes very frustrating.
  
• Note that this issue mostly goes away when I'm wandering around the world map. This is because the camera is zoomed out (it's like a 3d isometric view instead of an over the shoulder view) and I'm really only required to control the X axis of the camera. Also, the environments are larger and less cluttered, meaning less frequent bumping into enemies by mistake.
• The game is too long. I've been playing close to 20 hours and I'm still not finished with the first DVD (there are 3). This just doesn't support my play habits whereby I need to complete a story based game in a week (e.g., a typical single player RPG or action adventure game) or the game needs to have a core mechanic that you can put down and then pick up and play at some later date without being penalized due to lack of practice or forgetting where you are and what you need to do next (e.g., puzzle games).
  
• The Achievement curve is way too shallow. After 20 hours of gameplay I only have 10 gamer points. Moreover, scrolling the Achievements list leaves me no reason to believe that I'm destined for any more in the near future.
  

When I stack all of these concerns against the accumulating list of games in my queue, I'm not sure whether the next disc I insert will be Blue Dragon DVD #2 or another game like Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4, or Beautiful Katamari. It's really too bad because I am enjoying the game.

Call of Duty 4: Finally a chance to play the movie "Final Option"

Wow.

Polish, personified. What an awesome first hour of gameplay - from a great tutorial (that helped you self-assess what difficulty level to play on) to a dramatic opening sequence that was well written and completely sucked me in.

I can't wait to play some more -- most likely in the new year after I've had a chance to digest more Blue Dragon and Mass Effect. I knew it was going to be good (I loved the previous 3 versions) and I have no reason to doubt it any more.

The tutorial and difficulty setting self-assessment (which reminded me of one of my favorite guilty-pleasure movies, The Final Option) is worth studying and discussing in further detail. I will do this in a future post.