If you follow the history of console video games, it has generally followed this (very) rough progression: Low resolution 2D games of the Atari and Commodore era Rich, colorful 2D experiences with Nintendo, Sega Genesis, etc. Early 3D with the N64 3D for ever and ever from then on, with increasing graphical detail But, we can add to the long list of disruptive changes made by iPhones and similar devices the title of “2D revamped.” We’ve seen iphone hits like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds make more money than some 3D console games that cost many times more to make. Most console shooters, like Call of Duty, cost above the 30 million mark to produce, and that game is the exception; most don’t recoup their budgets. We could go into a whole conversation about the market’s shift from console games to mobile devices, but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax. Today, let’s talk about some of the great aspects of 2D games, and why they persist and even thrive nowadays. Unmatched for jumping and platforming The best way to approach this is to consider some remakes of 2D games that were made 3D. For example, Bionic Commando. This game came out at about the same time as a visual refresh of the original Ninendo game. When the smoke cleared, people really liked the refresh in 2D, but were disappointed by the new shiny 3D version. Think about it. You have a game that’s based on grappling and swinging, then try to add 3D? By adding that 3rd dimension, there is the added complexity of aiming in the right direction to grapple. The second disadvantage of 3D here is visibility and obstruction. Even in a 3rd person 3D game (where you see the...

It’s Memorial Day weekend and not only does this mark the unofficial start of summer, it also marks my third SEASON PREMIERE! This blogumn officially kicks off my third year on F & N. Since we’re 93 blogumns in (plus 5 filling in for Ryan Dixon’s Fierce Anticipation), it’s time to update some of the great things we’ve talked about over the past two years. MOUNTAIN DEWMOCRACY May 7, 2010 [FIERCE ANTICIPATION: THE JERSEY JOE EDITION III] In my third blogumn filling in for Ryan, PepsiCo, the bottlers of Mountain Dew released three test flavors for the summer of 2010, allowing fans to vote on which they liked best to join the line permanently. They had tried this experiment in 2008 and it was a huge success. Mountain Dew White Out was the winner and went on sale on October 4th and is still on sale now.  For a brief time, Wal-Mart Supercenters also sold 2 liter bottles of Mountain Dew: Typhoon, one of the losing flavors.  In addition Mountain Dew: Game Fuel Cherry Citrus and Mountain Dew: Game Fuel Tropical were also on sale last summer to tie into the video game release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.  They were discontinued in December. PepsiCo has hinted that it has no plans to test more flavors, but a few new releases have gone on sale.  Mountain Dew Xtreme (grape flavored) in available in Saudi Arabia and Mountain Dew Grape is currently on sale in Japan. For summer 2012, a new flavor will appear in stores: Mountain Dew: Dark Berry as a promotion for the movie The Dark Night Rises.  It will have a mixed berry flavor and the cans will change color when chilled.  It goes on sale June 18th. THE SMURFS MOVIE May...

So what we’re gonna talk about today is, the eternal question of “Why don’t game awards carry the weight of the Oscars?” I’m gonna delve mostly into the content of the games, rather than the peripheral questions like the history of the Oscars, the budget of each show, etc. First of all, let’s get all the nit-picking out of the way. This is a column and not a 30 page dissertation. So in fairness to you, let’s assume these things: What are the Oscars: The Oscars aren’t perfect, and what we define as a “good” movie award show also differs from person to person. Some people think they’re too commercialized, some think the opposite. So let’s assume the most neutral point of view: The Oscars reward their industry as a whole in various categories, and their top awards are for commercialized movies that have what the industry considers great artistic achievement. Which game Awards Most game awards honor the same group of games, and I personally like the Developers Choice Awards the best, but we are gonna examine the Video Game Awards because they are by far the most widely-known. This year’s Game of the Year Game of the year this year, as listed by Spike: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Batman: Arkham City The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Portal 2 Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception What do we see here?  All blockbusters, in the biggest most blockbusting sense of the word. I’ve worked on blockbusters from time to time, and most of my friends do (if you read my column, you saw my earlier interview of Red Dead designer Danny Bulla). So before we get into the details, how about this next part… I love the Fast and the Furious Yes I just...

First of all, what is a First Person Shooter? It is a game in first person (as in, you are the camera, like in a movie where you see a shot of someone running through the forest from their POV), and it involves them shooting. So you have a camera POV and usually a gun is in that view somewhere. Oh and one more thing: Because the core audience of FPS games are young boys who grow up to make more games for their childhood selves, the top sellers are almost always about aliens and/or space marines. Some day we will look back nostalgically at the alien/space marine era of subject matter in the way film people look back at the day when you went to the theatre to see a train coming at the screen. But we’re not at that day yet. You may see a flying car first. That being said, at our current level of technology, FPS’s are a very fun, proven game type that we’ve gotten really good at making. That is tempting to a lot of game designers to want to join the fray. But I’m about to rant a little bit about why you may not want to do that, if you want to succeed. So here we go…Take my mostly unresearched stats with a grain of salt. Your 1.0 can’t compete with their 3.1 A lot of us game developers have worked at studios that had goals of competing with Halo and beating it. Here’s why this is a bad idea: 1.  Game schedules are notoriously unrealistic, even if you had a crap load of money. The only way you can compete with the polish, the fun, and the scope of a Call of Duty or Halo,...

While Xbox Live might’ve termed it ‘The Most Anticipated Game of 2011’, that might be a bit of a stretch, I’d certainly been looking forward to it.  I very much enjoyed the first Gears of War and the follow up with the introduction of ‘Horde Mode’. The insistence on not straying too far from what worked kept the series close to my heart.  So how does the 3rd and ‘final’ entry in the series fair?  Read on. *Warning: Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers for Gears of War 1, 2, and 3* Tons of trilogies in history have been a crap shoot. You’ve usually got a solid first entry and the 2nd and 3rd are anyone’s guess. So where does Gears 3 fall?  Is it Matrix Revolutions or Return of the Jedi? Honestly, it’s somewhere in between. Gears 1 was all about eradicating the locust horde in their home after detonating a light mass bomb and the sequel continued that competently with the locust retaliation through the sinking of human cities.  Gears 3 begins with a throwback dream sequence wherein Marcus is once again trying to save his father. While it certainly bridges the gap with its nostalgia, it also felt a bit tacked on somehow.  It’s one thing to tastefully reference a past battle for the fans to connect with and another to ask them to play through the same thing AGAIN. Thankfully it’s a brief sequence and the rest of the story progresses at a solid pace, as Marcus and Dom (noticeably more grizzled than their last outing) begin the battle once more, trying to unify the remaining and disparate colonies humanity has left. While the story might dip in a few spots, the action is still as solid as ever.  Inclusion...