Got my "Blueful" postcard. Now that I've seen both endings*, I strongly prefer my choice. I can't see the mindset behind the other. Of course, maybe that's the point.

Now I really need to get around to playing the game.

(No idea what I'm talking about? It's a short story, told online in a strange way that meshes well with the story itself. I really enjoyed it. Start here. The story is self-contained and satisfying, but for people wanting more it continues with an interactive fiction (text adventure) game.)

* I picked one, my wife the other. I feel a touch guilty about this, but donated a bit to the cause to assuage my guilt.

Every once in a while a few game reviewers get a bug up their ass about review scores. They're frustrated that people are just looking at the scores instead of their carefully thought out reviews, missing important nuance. People are overlooking good games because the score is low even though the full review would sell them on it. They're frustrated that some idiots on the internet view a low score of their favorite game as a personal insult, without even reading the details. So, be rid of the wretched things, and be elevated to a better place!

Hogwash.

There are a lot of games. Piles of them. I don't have time to read every possible review. While a score is a very crude tool, it is a useful tool. A game I'm really excited about that I was considering buying without reading a review? A low Metacritic score or a score from a reviewer I trust is a clue that I need to dig deeper. Similarly, a high score can cause me to look at a game and full read the review where I might otherwise have not read it. Want a game, but nothing has lept out in the last batch of reviews you've read? Not sure where to start with the pile of reviews? A high score list will miss lots of good stuff and give you a bunch of trash, sure. But it's a starting point to keep you from going insane.

Review scores are a useful tool. That some people misuse them is irrelevant. Let the stupid people limit themselves. If they miss some great gaming, it's a shame. But if you drop the scores you're not going to enlighten them. They're just going to follow reviewers who will give them scores. You won't have helped the idiots, but you will have hurt the people who appreciate how to use scores.

Scores are good. Give them.

Anti-video game lawyer, media whore, and general nutjob Jack Thompson has been disbarred for life by the Florida Supreme Court.

I'm unable to verify, but it looks like the Florida Bar is a private organization, like many Bars are. I'm deeply uncomfortable with a private organization being involved so intimately with our judicial system. Indeed, the general idea that you need to be certified to practice law is worrisome. However, I'm not so mature that I can't appreciate having this nutjob lose a bit of credibility.

(Via Slashdot.)

I love The Princess Bride. I first saw the movie as a kid and loved it's simple, magical story. It's aged well and I still enjoy watching it every few years. As an adult I found the novel, a grimmer tale wrapped in a decidedly dark framing story. I loved it too. So I was excited to hear that a video game was coming out. The game is now out. And it's utter garbage.

Demos of three of the five minigames are available online. What do we get? The exciting adventure in the Fire Swap has been turned into a mediocre platformer. Having tiny versions of Buttercup and Westley jump around on platforms doesn't really seem to capture anything about the movie. Matching wits with Vizzini is a trivia game about the movie. Who knew that Vizzini's keen mind turned to asking questions about what metal a crown is made of. For bonus points, there are ambigious questions. "If two people are holding a clock, how many hands are on the clock." It's possible that the two people are each contributing one hand each, plus the two on the clock face, for a total of four. Or maybe two hands each plus a second hand for seven. Sorry, the right answer is 6. The visit to Miracle Max mixes a hidden image search with a potion mixing game. The image search is like all image searches: boring and pointless. The potion mixing shows promise, but after several levels of play and failing to be challenged in the slightest, I'm unimpressed.

The reviews page is borderline fraud. Many of the entries aren't reviews in any way shape or form. The Time "review" just mentions that it's coming. The same goes for the quote from Game|Life at Wired, the quote from Joystiq, and the quote from Gamespot. For the USA Today quote, they've taken the image caption! The remaining reviews? There is an anonymous web comment, short mentions, and a bunch of sites not known for video game reviews.

It's a damn shame. Someone took the brilliance of The Princess Bride and crapped out some of the worst license shovelware I've seen since Enter the Matrix. I hope the developers are ashamed of themselves.

Bioshock has unacceptable DRM. If the publisher ever folds, or decides to stop supporting the authentication servers, the game will lock up and never legally work again. They promised they would eventually remove it. They have now admitted that they lied. The authentication system will be in place forever. They now claim that if they stop supporting Bioshock, they'll remove it. Riiight. They're going to stop supporting and making money on a game, but they'll spend a bit more to unlock it?

As is usually the case, if you pay for a legal copy of something with DRM, you get crippled functionality. If you download an illegal copy, you get full functionality.

Go play Chronotron!

It's a cool platformer/puzzle hybrid where you control a time traveling robot. All of the levels require traveling back in time, sometimes repeatedly, to work with yourself to retrieve the missing part for your time ship.

Video walkthroughs are available. It doesn't look like all of the levels have walkthroughs yet, but I expect he'll be adding more.

Disclosure: The creator is a friend of mine, and I helped playtest it. But it's still a cool game and I highly recommend it.

(2008-05-07 edit: spelling.)

Duke Nukem Forever was announced on April 28th, 1997. It was due out in the middle of 1998. It's still in development. In the meanwhile Final Fantasy VII through XII has been published. The entire Grand Theft Auto game series, including the original top-down view game, was published. The entire Harry Potter series of novels has been published. Even more accomplishments that took less time than DNF.

(Via August Pollak's Some Guy With a Website.)

Updated NPD numbers.

Sony continues to trail in current generation systems.

I tried graphing the data, but it's not terribly enlightening.

I'd love to add more data for more systems and for earlier dates, but finding t NPD data is a giant nuisance. Anyone know of a good source?

So my Wii has problems connecting to my WiFi. It passes the test, but gives error 32004 when I try to download updates. Odd, since I've had a number of PC and Mac laptops and a Palm TX connect without problems.

Well, off to support.nintendo.com.

On the front page is "getting a 5 digit error code while downloading". Great. Off to that.

"Slow?" "Interference?" I find that unlikely. The Wii is four feet away from the router. Laptops in the apartment work just fine.

Oooh, off to an error code lookup tool. Perfect.

I'll just plug in 32004 and get...

No Results found. (I originally drafted this several weeks ago. At the time no results were found. Since then they've apparently fixed the problem.)

The hell??

Fine. Let's ask Google.

Congrats, Nintendo on your inability to implement a simple search.

On to the page Google found.

So, what's the problem? No idea, Nintendo doesn't want to tell me. Is my connection "too slow"? Is it dropping connections? Give me a clue so I can debug this, please!

Okay, I humor them. I change WiFi channels without benefit.

I'm offered a link to the "slow" page. Been there, thanks. Didn't help.

I don't have a Netgear.

Ooooh, "If you are still receiving this error code, please click here for assistance." Clickity!

A generic page. Riiiight, that's helpful. The only promising links take me back to the slow page, or the useless error lookup page.

How strong is my signal? No idea, at least until I get around to trying automatic configuration on long shot. 3 out of 3 bars. "Slow" my ass.

The Wii has a strong signal. My WiFi router works fine with PCs, Macs, and PDAs. How can a cutting edge piece of consumer electronics screw this up so badly? I ended up giving up and buying an ethernet adapter. The only other person I know who has a Wii (because of the shortages) had to do the same thing. There is a lot to like about the Wii, but this is just shameful.

One of my co-workers got an ad about this from a hardware providers. It solves the three-fold problem of 1. having too much money, 2. writing software for normal computers is too easy, and 3. lots of sad PS3s sitting on store shelves unloved.

The abbreviated version:

6 Node PS3 Cluster

A light weight but powerful cluster, ideal for the development of parallel, Cell optimized code. Seamless code migration to a Mercury Cell blade, 1U, or CAB product offers a smart, powerful upgrade path. This cluster offers a theoretical performance of greater than 1 TFlop

• IBM p5 185 head node: dual-core 2.5GHz 970, 2GB RAM, dual 74GB drives.
• 6 60GB PLAYSTATION 3s.
• HP Procurve 24 port gigabit ethernet switch.
• Yellow Dog Linux pre-installed.
• ...

6 Node PS3 Cluster: $18325.00

From here.

I simply can't believe that PS3s, devices designed for gaming, is a cost effective way of assembling computing cycles.

Update 2007-05-22: Updated numbers through April 2007.

An update to my previous post on video game console sales.

Units sold by system

Units sold by manufacturer

Units sold by manufacturer, current generation only

PlayStation 3s are readily available, but the Wii is still sold out in most of the US. (Regrettably I only have anecdotal evidence for the later claim. Presumably Wiis would have sold even more if they were available.

From this I draw two conclusions: Sony fanboys predicting the imminent demise of Nintendo continue to be delusional. And Sony shot themselves in the foot; it's going to take a surprise like a radical price drop for Sony to catch up.

Shamus Young hits the nail on the head about linear games that have no cheat codes. Go read it, it's short.

Why do so many highly linear console games lack cheat codes? All too frequently I hit walls I can't beat in such games. Because there are no cheat codes to get through, I simply give up and am left frustrated by the game.

A followup to my previous ranting on Slamdance President Peter Baxter's poorly considered decision to kick Super Columbine Massacre RPG from the competition.

Slamdance has finally put up an official statement. It mirrors Baxter's original statement. Again there is the general claim of "moral obligations to consider", but no details on exactly which obligations those are. Baxter's statement that they "hope a choice like it will never have to be made again" is repeated. I see no way to interpret that other than, "I hope we don't get any more controversial content." Cowards. For bonus points they try to spin it with "The Super Columbine Massacre RPG game has been withdrawn from Slamdance '07," suggesting that this was a decision made by the creators to withdraw. Later in the statement they are more honest when they say, "we decided to pull this game."

The competition had 14 finalists. As groups have withdrawn protest the list has shrunk. As of the evening of January 9th, they're down to eight. The competition is looking less and less legitimate. Baxter brought this on himself and his organizatin. I applaud those creators who have chosen to withdraw:

• Braid's withdrawal (Jan 6)
• flOw's withdrawal (Jan 8)
• Everyday Shooter's withdrawal (Jan 8)
• Toblo's withdrawal (Unknown, probably Jan 8 or 9) (January 16th: Re-added against their will by DigiPen.)
• Once Upon a Time's withdrawal (Jan 9)
• Book and Volume (Jan 9).

(Jan 9) The Univerisity of Southern California's Interactive Media Division has withdrawn from being a sponsor.

(Jan 10) Cultivation will stay in. I believe his arguments can be summarized: 1. It's better to work within the system, and 2. It's important to keep the Slamdance Games competition alive.

((Jan 17) Most updates via Water Cooler Games' "Updates on Slamdance Controversy.")

Slamdance President Peter Baxter is a coward. There is nothing else for it. Supposedly the Slamdance festival exists because Sundance became too mainstream, too cautious. Now Baxter, when confronted with something really risky, chickens out.

We're specifically talking about the Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition, and we're talking about the video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (SCMRPG). For those not familiar with it, SCMRPG is a video game that looks like a late 1980's console RPG. It in your portray Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as they plant bombs, and go on a shooting spree. Unsurprisingly this offends a great many people.

Maybe it's a terrible game. Maybe it fails miserably as art. It doesn't really matter. But whatever you think, the game is striving to be meaningful art in a way that very few video games do. As anyone who has actually played the game can attest, it's not about glorifying the violence. It's more complex than that. Greg Costikyan's "Super Columbine Massacre: Artwork or Menace?" is a good summary of the case for SCMRPG as a very important game.

So SCMRPG was nominated for the Slamdance competition. Apparently the jury decided it was important enough to make it a finalist.

Then Slamdance President Peter Baxter had it removed.

Problem 1: Apparently Baxter doesn't trust his finalist screening jury. What's the point of an independent jury if he's going run roughshod over their inclusion decisions?

Problem 2: Apparently Baxter doesn't trust the people who will make the final judgment decisions. (I'm not clear on exactly who this is, and their website isn't making it clear.) If SCMRPG is really so terrible, surely the judges will rate it at the bottom.

Problem 3: Baxter has failed to say why the game was pulled. "Moral obligations?" What moral obligations? How about your moral obligation to include a game that three months ago was specifically invited? What about your moral obligation to support an independent work, not matter how risky?

Baxter didn't elaborate because he can't. There is no rational moral grounds to reject the game. Instead there is only a gut reaction, a feeling that it must be bad in some ill-defined way. Actually spelling out the moral basis would reveal the fundamental flaws in his claims. If there were real moral obligations Baxter could spell them out, let others critique them, and make them a core part of the rules. You'll notice there is no press release explaining the situation and defining the moral obligations. I'm not expecting one because such a release would need to justify the unjustifiable.

Problem 4: Baxter forgot Slamdance's stated mission. "...Slamdance's stated mission [is to] to nurture, support and showcase truly independent works...." SCMRPG was a truly independent work, a game that's out of the mainstream, highly risky, would never succeed commercially, and has earned critical praise. But Baxter pulled the game, in part, because of "the impact it could have on the Slamdance organization and its community." He's afraid Slamdance is going to get bad press and maybe lose sponsors because of SCMRPG. Suddenly it's all about kowtowing to the media and the sponsors. Goodbye independence. How can anyone take Slamdance's stated mission seriously in light of this?

Ultimately it's Baxter's ball and he can go home with it. But in the process he's sullied his own name and that of Slamdance.

I applaud the decisions of two finalists to withdraw: the creators of flOw and the creator of Braid. They're potentially costing themselves publicity, but refusing to support Slamdance's terrible decision. I hope more finalists will withdraw. (Water Cooler Games appears to be staying on top of the story if you're interested in updates on who withdraws.)

(2007-01-09: Followup.)

Update 2007-05-22: Updated numbers through April 2007.

Update 2007-02-22: Updated numbers through January.

For all the claims that Nintendo is in third place in the console wars, the numbers (from November 2006, as taken from Joystiq):

Units sold by system:

Units sold by manufacturer:

To be fair, the Wii and PS3 had less than half of the month to make gains while the Xbox 360 is pretty far into its life cycle. But the DS is even further into its life cycle and remains the top seller. Maybe when things pan out Nintendo will be in third place, but they're hardly a has-been.

(This is a draft that will eventually join my video game reviews. As it's a draft I may update it repeatedly without notice.)

I've found some absolute gems in the $5 bargin bin at Menards. Indeed, thanks to Menards I actually own a copy of the universally mocked Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing.

Several days ago I scored a copy of Enter the Matrix. I remember the reviews being pretty bad, but surely it's got $5 of entertainment in it.

So far, not so good. The camera jumps around unpredictably. When in close combat you'll sometimes end up facing away from an enemy, unable to turn the camera around or successfully do any attacks to your rear. First person mode is too slow for real gun combat. Third person mode is okay, but the main character shots scatter embarrassingly randomly about the screen. Filling the air with bullets might be okay if you didn't spend so much time short on ammo. The character animation is massively awkward. When running without weapons the characters look like a stereotypical geek running in gym class, his arms flailing about. When climbing up clain link your character slides across the surface like its buttered.

The controls are weirdly twitchy. At the default setting when you move into first person mode the motion is too twitchy to aim effectively. If you lower the mouse sensitivity it becomes too slow in third person mode.

The twitchyness continues inside the menu system. Clicks tend to turn into double clicks, meaning you answer questions before seeing them. You can use the keyboard to click effectively, but you can't select items in the menu because a quick tap of the keyboard jumps several menu selections.

You have lots of options, like the ability to climb up things, but it's randomly disabled to force you into the designed level path. This leaves you bouncing against relatively short walls looking stupid while the game refuses to let your character grab on and pull themselves up.

Finally, I reach the climactic battle at the end of the first level, I'm doing pretty well then- CRASH!

The level design is dull. A post office. An airport. Yawn. The levels were also designed without any consideration for practicality. Apparently to get between some terminals in the airport is to cut through the bathrooms.

Dennis Zhidkov: You're an asshole. You apparently hate freedom of speech. And StarForce remains anti-copying malware, no matter how much you wish it wasn't.