John Zeitler

So it’s time for me to start making preparations for a few big events… one later this week, and one closer to the end of next month.

This is going to be one busy summer, boys and girls.

The less said about the past three days, the better. I was indisposed most of Friday, and Saturday was spent dealing with the small matter of getting my car inspected and registered for the year (something which I always assume is going to be expensive, and always underestimate how expensive it’s going to be).

Today I spent getting some housework done and getting about half of the Imperial Guard sprues I have left to assemble primed up. I’m going a bit lighter on this initial primer, because the first batch of figures I did for the Guard were over-coated and look a little chunky. Still, with the drying line I made, I can have a lot more sprues painted each session than before, when I was just laying them down on another piece of cardboard.

Tomorrow, I return to something approaching a normal schedule, and that means peace. For now.

At 3:13p, I defeated Material-S, final boss of Nanoha’s Story Mode route in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s Portable: The Battle of Aces for the Sony PSP. This is the twelfth game cleared in 2010. Thirty-eight games remain for the 50/2010 challenge.

So…. WordPress 3.0. Spiffy so far, though my exposure to it at this point is limited to, uh… typing this post.

Sue me, I read through an entire webcomic this evening to de-stress.

I spent last night discovering that I was almost out of white spray paint for priming the Imperial Guard army. That said, however, I also found that the IG infantry sprues are easier to pre-prime before assembly than the Space Marines were; I’m going to guess that the same will hold for the Orks once I get around to putting those together.

Tonight is a night for Rock Band.

For a while now, I’ve felt like there just weren’t many games coming out that I was looking forward to… this was, oddly enough, a relief, as it meant I could scale back the new purchases to a certain degree and play through some of the Collection already acquired.

That changed today, and it’s a wonderful and terrifying thing. I’m still going to scale back, there’s no denying that– but there are already at least four day-one purchases on my list, and this was just the first day of E3.

As per my usual idiom, I rolled a d20 to determine what game I should focus on finishing to get the next Clear.

As per my usual luck, I rolled a 1, signifying a game I hadn’t even started yet. Hopefully Tales of the Abyss is short…

So now we come to my third-party wish list for E3, and it’s… noticeably shorter than the last time I did something like this. Probably because, due to mergers and other shakeups, there seem to be fewer big third-parties in the mix nowadays. Anyway, here goes:

Square-Enix: Due to mergers, this now includes Taito and Eidos… meaning really, anything goes here. Obviously we’re going to see Final Fantasy XIV (the new MMO) in a movie form, and likely playable as well (albeit probably not in English yet). Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded is making the jump from DoCoMo– that is, mobile phones– to (I think) DS, and the biggest rumor is that a formal announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3 is in the cards. Eidos is probably looking to have Batman Arkham Asylum 2 playable, and from Taito I think we’re going to just see Space Invaders Infinity Gene DS/PSP and that’s about it. FF Four Heroes of Light is set for an October release in NA, so that’s going to be on the floor… really, though, what I’d like to see is Square going back to a couple of series they’ve dropped in the past and giving them another go-around. The Mana series can and should recover from the physics-wreck that was Dawn of Mana; and, with a decent number of Western studios on board, I think it’s about time we got a Saga game that didn’t suck. Oh, and aren’t we due for some more Chocobo Tales games?

Electronic Arts: I mentioned Rock Band 3 back with Microsoft, since RB and the XB are so closely associated in a lot of folks’ minds, but it’d be nice to see how Rock Band Green Day was received. Beyond that, a Mass Effect 3 preview, the next Burnout, and the standard Madden/NBA/(maybe the) NHL set, not much else is really “known”. I’d like to see an early build of Mirror’s Edge 2, perhaps, and if at all possible a continuance of Dead Space Extraction to serve as a companion to that upcoming game. What I would really love to see, though, would be how EA pushes integration between their Pogo online service and the casual games they release. Say what you will, but I liked Trivial Pursuit on the 360, and if it wasn’t so bloody expensive I’d have picked Scrabble over Words with Friends for my current iPhone time-sink game; if there was an incentive to keep playing, like an achievement or communal wagering-points pool (like, say, credits that you could use in Pogo Poker or whatever), it would make the games that much “stickier”.

Capcom: Here’s an interesting case. The company clearly is in dire straits after a handful of big bets went south; Dark Void and Bionic Commando bombed badly, and their only real breadwinners of late have been sequels (Resident Evil 5, Monster Hunter Tri), remakes (Super Street Fighter 4, Mega Man Zero Collection), and licensed games (Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom). That said, it’s hard to feel too bad for them when they have a license to print money on the way, one named Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. The thing is, what are they going to do after that? For that matter, what do they have lined up until that hits? Lost Planet 2 just came out to admittedly underwhelming response, and Dead Rising 2 is in the wings, so we’ll see all of those on the floor. Beyond that, this is a wild card. All I’m asking for– since you won’t give me Mega Man Legends 3 (come ON! The Wii is the PERFECT machine for it: low costs, strong install base, and it’s quirky enough that it’d fit just fine on the console!)– is a couple of surprises that aren’t of the “surprise, we’re cancelling yet another interesting and original IP in favor of another crap-ass Mega Man Star Force .EXE whatever game that nobody gives two rats’ asses about” variety. (But seriously, MML3 on the Wii. Search your feelings, you know you want to.)

Konami: If the rumored Pop’n Music redemption game shown on Bemanistyle is true, and you build enough of them to get one within 50 miles of me, all is forgiven. This really is your last chance vis-a-vis Bemani, as I’m tired of being strung along and stung again. Make it right and I’ll drop my grudge. As for your other series of interest, Metal Gear Rising had better be more than just a teaser trailer now. Beyond that, I couldn’t honestly care less about what you bring to the table.

Activision: See above, except without the “you have a chance to get back in my good graces” bit. I’m only keeping DJ Hero around because of the whole collector’s aspect. Once DJ Hero 17: Now With Music Someone Might Actually Want To Play comes out, I might put the first one back in the 360.

Namco Bandai: Okay, guys, seriously. You were joking about the whole “we’re blaming our poor performance on piracy and other people’s shovelware” thing, right? You have to have been. I mean, you could easily make up for lost money by, oh, I don’t know, bringing out Tales games in North America (Europe is close, really, but you’re still on the wrong side of the Atlantic), or maybe not licensing off anything that might sell worth half a crap (it’s called “outsourcing the localization and then publishing it yourself”, guys, you might wanna look into it– ask Sony about it w/r/t Wild ARMs 3). Really, anything at this point would be a blessing. By the by, I still haven’t forgotten how subtly you announced that Xenosaga 3 was coming, back in 2006. That’s about the only thing keeping you off my hit list… that, and you didn’t mess up Klonoa. Impress me again, guys. Please.

Atlus: Okay, so full disclosure blah blah Super Robot Taisen site blah blah they paid me once. That was four years ago and I haven’t seen a dime since, mostly because they haven’t owed me one. I’ll wager, though, that I’ve paid them back in full since then with all the good games they’ve brought out, so I’m excited to see what they bring to the tables besides Trauma Team, a few quirky niche games, and maybe, just maybe, The Lord of Elemental. Okay, so really all I want to see is The Lord of Elemental, so make it happen.

The Niches: We’re not likely to see big booths from these guys but they can still announce stuff now, so here goes:
XSEED: After a fantastic job with Ragnarok DS, how about you follow it up with Maple Story DS? Hell, it doesn’t really matter, anything you guys pick up turns to gold anyway.
Aksys: You’re the second coming of Working Designs, and I love you for it. Good on you for following Capcom’s lead for BlazBlue Continuum Shift, by the way… now how about some more downloadable titles?
NIS America: Just that we got Disgaea Infinite was a pretty gutsy move, so that’s good to have. I am curious though if you’ll formally announce Prinny 2 for NA– if you do, you totally have to call it “Dawn of the Great Underwar”. Because… yeah.
Disney/Buena Vista Games: Please, PLEASE patch Split/Second. Oh, and more stuff from Tetsuya Mizuguchi, please.

Overall, I think this is going to be a pretty good E3. Given how quiet every company’s been of late, it’s certain to be full of surprises, and even though it might give me grief, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Some days, folks, it feels really good to just not accomplish much of anything productive. I spent most of the day giving the OSX version of Team Fortress 2 a run for its money (the verdict: Valve still half-assed the port but at least it runs without crashing), did some model construction for my Imperial Guard army, and got to thinking about E3 a bit more in-depth. In years past, I’d made up a list of the companies I followed and what I wanted to see out of them. This year, of course, is no different.

Microsoft: Obviously Project Natal’s full reveal is the big push from MS this year, but at the same time I’m pretty sure they’re not the kind of company to ignore the non-Natal aspects of the Xbox 360. More to the point, though, Xbox Live has been set up for some sweeping changes in the past few months, now that Xbox 1 support was killed off. I’d anticipate hearing about a “Late Summer Update” that will offer a huge amount of advanced functionality such as clans/guilds, tighter integration with online utilities like Youtube and Hulu, and the reveal of the first fully-integrated 360/Games for Windows/Windows Mobile title. In terms of games, MS hasn’t been too shy about its reveals, so there’s not much to guess about besides Halo Wars 2, timed exclusivity for Rock Band 3, and two or three new Xbox Live Primetime games to debut this fall alongside Season 2 of 1 vs 100. If I had to ask for one out-of-the-blue thing, though, I’d love to see some of the niche bullet-hell shooters come to North America via Games On Demand, but the odds of that happening are so low as to not be worth mentioning.

Nintendo: Hoo boy, this one’s tricky. Of late Nintendo has kept absolute silence about their upcoming releases until they’re all but ready to be put on sale, so literally there’s no spoiled surprises or leaks. The premature revelation of the 3DS was, though, a leak, and I’m still unclear as to why and how that happened. Even then, the device is still a nearly opaque mystery, and as a result it’s hard to gauge what’s going to be done with it on the show floor. We’ll probably hear a NA release date of early 2011, if not (the fantastically unlikely) holiday 2010. The Big N always has a good showing for its games, and we’re likely to see final trailers for Metroid Other M and… uh… I did say this was going to be tricky. Golden Sun 3 is probably going to be playable; I’d be surprised if a classic IP didn’t make a debut this year being handled by a North American studio (the perennial favorite has always been Kid Icarus, but my money’s on Battleclash or Startropics); and a gleaming Master Ball says there’s going to be an English-language release date for Pokemon Black and White as well as at least two other spinoff games to get us by in the meantime (three, technically, since one of those “games” is going to be a new Mystery Dungeon matched pair). I continue to hold out hope that there’s going to have been some breakthrough to let Mother 3 come out, but to no avail; instead I’m going to root for a new (as in, not-a-remake) Fire Emblem game.

Sony: This also is tricky, but not because of obscurity– quite the contrary, Sony has blasted out everything they can as soon as they can, so there’s nothing left really to reveal. I have to admit to a bit more interest in them lately after how much I genuinely did like LittleBigPlanet, and how many of the classic, hard-to-find RPGs have made it onto the PSN service of late. Then again, the shenanigans they’ve pulled with the PSP Go, the removal of features from the PS3, and their stubborn refusal to let the PS2 finally die still remind me that this is the ever pragmatic-to-the-point-of-shortsightedness Sony we’re dealing with. Playstation Move is their big push to counter MS’s Project Natal and the Wii’s… well, the Wii; to be unusually witty, it doesn’t move me in the slightest. The PSN is likely to go into a tiered paid-or-non-paid setup similar to Xbox Live, but multiplayer play will be free on most games– that is, ones that are older than six months; players without the paid option will instead get a fixed number of online hours a month in those games. There’ll be a timed exclusivity on the next Guitar Hero game(s); the video store will offer movie downloads from Sony Pictures day-and-date with the DVD/Blu-Ray release; and the first hintings of the next Playstation console will be grumbled late in the show (but quietly so as to not look like giant flaming hypocrites in the face of their “ten-year” claim for the PS3). As for games, your guess is as good as mine; the only one I really care about right now is LittleBigPlanet 2, and that’s a confirmed go. If we could get more than one PS1 Classic every couple weeks, though, that’d be nice. I might even keep the machine in its standby mode then instead of all but unplugged.

Valve: I’m putting Valve here because, like it or not, they’re to the PC gaming world what MS or Nintendo are to their respective consoles. Despite my initial and ongoing misgivings, Steam’s transition to the Mac has been the checkmate move over MS’s Games for Windows Live initiative for control of the major PC market. Now, they need to go the extra mile. I expect we’ll see the Engineer Update for TF2 come in, preview movies of Portal 2 and Half-Life Episode 3, and a couple new campaigns for Left 4 Dead 2 (okay, that last one is probably going to just become Left 4 Dead 3, prompting bitching all over again). But the big news will be that Valve has struck a deal with Cydia or some other port house to greatly accelerate the parity of the Windows and Mac libraries, and will (again, counter to my expectations) maintain the “buy once, play anywhere” policy for games ported in this manner. It’s worked out well enough for them so far, judging by how many earbuds I’ve seen on characters in TF2 today. What will never ever happen, though, is that Valve, MS, and Apple struck a deal to get a version of the GFW Live client running native on OS X; I guess that means I’ll be dual-booting to get my Dawn of War II fix.

I’ll go over third-party developers tomorrow.

(Related, only tangentially: if you screamed “The Messiah!” upon seeing the title, you impress me.)

Locals know this, so they’re excused from the infodump, but in Pittsburgh, there are two major newspapers. One skews more conservative, and the other skews liberal. For my part, I can’t tell them apart; that’s probably more due to my inherent political-spectrum-blindness than any homogenization of the two parties prevalent in American politics today. However, the two newspapers do cover very different stories on their front pages; on the days warranting full attention to one topic or another, they both show their colors with their headlines, specifically the light in which they cast the action and actors.

Intrinsically this is nothing new. Where you have a human being, or a collective of them, reporting the news, you’re going to have biases and preferences that bleed through. I am by no means innocent of this, nor do I claim to be. However, I go the extra mile by saying that how you view my biases is completely up to you: I’m not going to say that I’m in the right here 100% of the time, and I’m also not going to defend a position that’s been provably, and reasonably, cut out from under me by solid, sound, logical, and factually correct arguments. If I present myself as an authority in anything other than my own affairs, then it insults your intelligence– after all, I’d be implying you’re dumb enough to need to be told how to read my work– and it proves a lack of faith in my own words– because I’d be trying to convince myself in front of you. I won’t do that. Not even in this post. What I am going to do, is ask a favor of you as we approach this coming week.

In the video game industry, few events are as big or as significant as E3, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition. It kicks off next week, and each of the major three video game console manufacturers (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) have planned “pre-show” or parallel keynote conferences to give full attention to their products. At E3, the industry and the public has the opportunity to see for themselves what games are to be released in the coming six to eight months, as the leadup to the holiday shopping season begins. The impact and the necessity of E3, as well as its grand importance in the age of continuous and instantaneous news, is still a matter of debate, but not the point of this post.

Despite the interest the general gaming public takes in E3, however, the public is not admitted to the show floor. It is a press-only event, and the definition of “press” has narrowed significantly since I was allowed in as part of Netjak back in 2006. The show’s organizers have toyed with various setups, including a scaled-back show in 2007 (which bombed), but no plans have ever been in place for a general-admission day, and it’s highly unlikely that one will be instituted.

That’s the major problem that faces E3, and it’s the root of the complaints about “booth babes”, rushing demos to have something playable on the game floor, and most every other objection raised against the show. In the end, E3 is never attended by “the public”, no matter how many liveblogs or web-simulcasts or what have you go on. The public never, and I mean never, sees the whole story for themselves.

I listened, via streaming audio, to the 2004 Nintendo keynote that introduced the world to Reggie Fils-Aime and the DS. Through this, I was able to hear exactly what was being said, as it was said, directly from Reggie, and possibly most importantly, to judge for myself whether or not what was said was cool or not. To the best of my knowledge, no news outlet, blog, or other source is going to present streaming audio of the show’s major news conferences; there are only rumors that some of the big three are going to put video of their conferences on their respective online promotional channels, and if it does happen, it will be some hours after the event. An acceptable option if it exists, but it leaves out one important thing: the people who are most likely to watch something like that are far more likely to get the news instantaneously through a news or blog covering the event live, and that’s where the disconnect lies.

If you think, for even a second, that there is such a thing as an unbiased video game reporter, blogger, or copy-writer, think again. While a blog isn’t yet held to the same journalistic standards as a real news source, the two most well-known video game blogs– Joystiq and Kotaku– are all but accepted as such by the gaming community. Both of those, and countless other game blogs, are comprised of multiple writers; the days of a one-man affair like DMG Ice are long gone. And each of those writers has a diverse set of predilections and biases which show up in their writing.

If it sounds like I’m being alarmist or sensationalistic, I apologize; that’s not my intent. I also don’t want to even give the slightest implication that either Joystiq or Kotaku would knowingly, willfully, and deliberately post false information (outside of April 1st, when it’s expected and oftentimes funny). I’m merely saying that their writers and reviewers are human, just like everyone else, and that they have their flaws and biases.

That fanboyism exists in the gaming community is, sadly, a fact that I and many others have learned to live with. That certainly does not make it right by any stretch of the imagination, but its presence and relative immutability make it equal parts obstacle and reference point. If you know, say, that Bobby McWriterson slants his posts heavily anti-Nintendo or praises JRPGs without exception, you can then take his work into consideration from that frame of reference. Where things get murky is when a blog intentionally obfuscates its biases, either for the sake of a joke or to avoid alienating readers. These benign purposes grow malignant once people start believing the falsely-presented biases, and when the truth comes out– as it inevitably does– a reader can feel betrayed or that the blog is completely untrustworthy, degrading its reputation. Done enough times, a blog can erode its entire reader base through the best of intentions.

What I’d like you to do this week, as you read the news of the wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) games that await us in the bottom of ’10, is to be aware of the biases presented by your sources. If at all possible, disbelieve everything unless it’s been reported by more than one source. For that matter, read multiple sources, and take each report and story in broad strokes. One writer not caring for a game you were interested in shouldn’t damn it entirely, unless you’re aware of that writer’s preferences and prejudices ahead of time. Don’t judge until it’s all said and done, or sometimes not even until you’ve got the demo or game in your hands. What you see and read this week– all of it, to the letter– can deceive you.

Probably just as important is to not trust the “mob”. Blog comments and forum posts are intended to be the barometer of the public’s responses, but they invariably wind up being representative only of the vocal minority. Never, ever believe anything sourced to a blog comment or forum post unless it’s corroborated by at least a couple reputable news sources. If at all possible, I’d recommend finding a way to turn off comments entirely from your view until the week is over, just to filter out some of the crap that you’d otherwise have to wade through.

Anyway, my little lecture is over now… I’m sure that this week’s revelations are going to be amazing, and that we have a lot of surprises to look forward to once the week’s out. Tomorrow I’ll go over my wish lists for what I want to see out of the show and its presenters, and Sunday… who knows? But I’m back in the daily groove now, folks, and it is good to be back.