Licensed titles and their significance to the gaming world

Imagine if us Kiwis were to play EA Sports’ Rugby games or Sidhe Interactive’s Rugby League titles without getting the chance to don the jersey of an All Black or a Warrior. What about playing Smackdown vs Raw but you lace the boots of Triple B not Triple H? There is no doubt having an authentic license can help make or break a game in terms of its popularity and sales.

Hence, the stronger license is obvious chances are that the accompanying game will be just as popular. In the realm of Pro – Wrestling, no other organisation reigns supreme then the WWE. The Smackdown series showcases exactly how popular WWE has become and over ten years since the first game was released in 1999 the franchise has shipped over 37 million copies worldwide. In direct contrast with the WWE is TNA wrestling which released its own game last year called TNA Impact. However, since TNA does not garner as many viewers as the WWE (TNA programming is not even on NZ screens) sales of the game were lower than what both companies were expecting and both Midway and TNA agreed there will not be a sequel.

Something that always seems to thrive however is people’s fascination with sport. No other jersey is more recognizable to us Kiwis than the All Black jersey brandishing the national logo of the silver fern. Thankfully EA’s Rugby titles are fully licensed with every team and player having the correct names and jerseys. Criminally, Zinzan’s World Championship Rugby released in 2003 only had the official license for the England team while the All Blacks were not called the All Blacks they known as plain old New Zealand. As for the players they all had different names but at least they resembled the All Black team back in 2003. Even though the game was still enjoyable, Rugby 2004 and its many follow ups still outsold the title solely because of the lack of official licenses in the game.

Evidently, this is the same case in the U.K as for several years FIFA goes head-to-head with the Pro Evolution soccer series leading up to the busy Christmas season. Unfortunately, for Konami Pro Evolution Soccer has never beaten FIFA in terms of overall sales and popularity. Likewise when EA knew how profitable it would be if Madden became the only licensed NFL title in the market and in 2005 they did just that and Madden is consistently number one in the US video game charts.

Speaking of being number one, many box office movies also have licensed video games to tie-in with all the hype surrounded with it. X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out earlier this year and while the movie may not have lived up to expectations the tie-in game was surprisingly very playable and many say the game is actually better than the movie it’s originally based upon. A far cry from the old stereotype that games based on movies is always appalling, X-Men Origins: Wolverine shows that a good game can come out of a movie.

Crossover titles of game and other licensed media has also proved to be a winning formula. Kingdom Hearts was a mix of both Disney and Final Fantasy characters and was released to both commercial and critical acclaim in 2002. The game went on to sell an impressive 5.5 million copies even outselling Final Fantasy XII. The follow up featured even more Disney and Final Fantasy favourites and even though it failed to outsell its predecessor it was arguably a better game.

Last year Midway teamed up with DC comics to release Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. Considering the massive success that was The Dark Knight it was a smart move on Midway’s part to heavily promote that Batman is a playable character in the game. The heavy promotion of Batman paid off for Midway as the title went on to ship a respectable 1.8 million copies. Ed Boon (creator of Mortal Kombat) was happy for the game’s success he is already starting early work on a new Mortal Kombat title.

Whether a license truly makes a game more playable is still debatable however, you cannot deny the commercial success associated with many licensed games and the more people who will be attracted to the gaming industry the better it is for all of us – as this will mean there will be more games for us to play.

Damian Seeto

Ways to change the face of gaming in the next decade

With the end of the decade coming very soon its time now to dwell into the future and see what is in store for us in the realm of video gaming. It could be said that currently we are living in a generation where there is no failing game console available in the market. Even though the Nintendo Wii is leading the pack in terms of overall sales worldwide the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are far from giving up while both the Nintendo DS and PSP still sell a healthy number of consoles.

With the Nintendo Wii outselling its more powerful cousins it seems the world of video gaming has now changed with everyone gearing towards a more social gaming experience over a solitary one. You do not need to memorise complex button combinations anymore thanks to the use of motion sensors. So how can the next generation of consoles capitalize on the use of motion sensors and take them a step further?

You could say the use of controllers altogether will be gone by the next decade with games now requiring you to use your whole body as seen earlier with Sony’s Eyetoy. No longer will you have to push a joystick to move a character, gamers will now have to physically run on the spot like on a treadmill to get around. The use of actually ducking was implemented in an old Konami produced light gun game called Police 24/7. Why not bring that gimmick back so we can play Gears of War in that style? Sure, it will be tiring but in the long run it will make gamers all over more fit and healthy.

Arguably, the graphics seen in games like Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy XIII are so good you wonder how the next generation could look any better. At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas there was talk of HD going 3D. Sony’s display of Gran Turismo 5, WipEout HD and Motorstorm Pacific Rift were running seamlessly in 3D with the aid of polarised glasses that is. Even though Sony denied any plans of going 3D in the future the prospect is still creating quite a buzz especially with the release of Dreamwork’s Monsters vs Aliens movie which was screened in 3D in select IMAX cinemas. Both critics and movie goers lauded the visuals of the movie so it’s only a matter of time hopefully if Sony wants to incorporate this technology for the eventual release of the Playstation 4.

One such trend that is currently in the business today is that consoles today are more than just a piece of technology to play electronic games, no, they are multimedia entertainment machines. The Playstation 3 leads in the way of technology by offering gamers a built in Blu Ray drive so they can watch all their favourite movies all in glorious High Definition. But both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 gives gamers the opportunity to do lots more things such as browse the internet, download TV shows and music videos and allows you to store all your favourite pictures and photos on their hard drives.

If the next generation of consoles wants to go one better than that then they should replace PC’s altogether by offering their own versions of Word and Excel. It may seem a bit far-fetched now but with computers easily being susceptible to many viruses it may not be a bad idea. So far consoles do have their fair share of problems as does every piece of technology but so far they have been immune to any viruses. Since Microsoft is the pioneer in computing they can be the first to implement this on the successor to the Xbox 360.

The future of gaming draws near and whether these prospects come true they will truly change the face of gaming consoles forever. For now, we should all enjoy the present and see what new innovations are still yet to be seen in this generation of gaming.

Damian Seeto

Fundamental differences between NZ Gamers and Gamers Overseas

In the last generation of console gaming, Nintendo was struggling with its lackluster Gamecube. Dominating this period was the titanic battle between Microsoft’s Xbox and the almighty Sony PlayStation 2. Fast forward to the present and the ongoing struggle between Microsoft and Sony is still in place; however, the one console ruling the world in this generation is the Nintendo Wii.

Some of you might be saying, “What? When did that happen?” But it’s true – almost unbeknown to Kiwi gamers, the Nintendo Wii is the highest selling console so far - even for the Aussies. The gaming environment, however, is different with us Kiwis. The Wii is still popular in NZ but the Nintendo brand as a whole was never embraced by the more mature tastes of the average Kiwi gamer: we prefer action-packed titles like Gears of War or Killzone 2.

This was evident a few years back at the Auckland Armageddon event, where Nintendo displayed a whole floor of their latest Wii titles. Sure, there were a couple of people interested in them, but the main attractions were the playable Xbox 360 and PS3 games on the floor above. They even had an R18 tent, which I believe was more crowded than the Nintendo area. This trend is still continuing – last Christmas more people bought PS3 bundles than any other console, with the Xbox 360 being the second most popular. Nintendo, with its lack of appealing games in comparison to its competitors, trailed at a distant third.

Speaking of competition, online gaming has become popular the world over, but no online game has had more of an impact in New Zealand than Counter Strike. If you took a walk in a New Zealand suburb a few years ago, you would see every cyber café flooded with gamers. Most of these gamers would be school children who would rush after class to play Counter Strike, the most popular and addictive online game of the day. Nowadays consoles are just as popular as the PC for online gaming, and New Zealanders still love guns and violence. This fascination for action and gore is evident from the increasing popularity of games such as Xbox’s Halo franchise and Gears of War, which are fast becoming the most played games amongst Kiwi gamers. Comparing NZ to overseas, the preference of game genre in the Asian market differs slightly from Kiwi gamers’ tastes due in part to the lack of Xbox 360’s that are sold in that region. They are more into MMORPG’s than shoot-em-ups, while in Europe fierce online competitions are waged with the two major soccer titles in FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer.

Whereas soccer is huge in Europe, no other sports are more synonymous in NZ than Rugby (Union or League) and Cricket. Overseas gamers are spoilt with yearly iterations of all their favourite sports – the US has Madden, Europe loves FIFA – but poor old New Zealanders are left out in the cold when it comes to frequently updated games of our national sports. The only NZ sport available to current generation consoles is Ricky Ponting Cricket 2007, released back in late 2006 for the Xbox 360! 2008 only saw the release of an updated version of 2005’s Rugby League 2, dubbed “World Cup Edition”. Sadly, it was only available for the PS2. Sidhe Interactive is still yet to confirm whether there will even be a Rugby League 3, but given how well New Zealand did in Rugby League last year (winning the World Cup and reaching the semis in the NRL), I’m sure the Wellington-based lads will not disappoint their avid fans.

Sports are a good example that video gaming is not all about violence, nor is the demographic always targeted towards young males. The Nintendo Wii is also a great example as it has established its huge user base around the world by aiming for a more social gaming experience. The Xbox 360 caters for the more hardcore gamer, while the PlayStation brand is a mix of both. However, as I have previously mentioned, Kiwis have never liked Nintendo’s almost child-like approach even when it comes to social games like Wii Sports. The two biggest party games in NZ are the Buzz and Singstar franchises, attracting more Kiwis than any other titles. 175,000 Singstar microphones now occupy NZ homes!

It’s safe to say that Kiwi gamers differ from the rest of the world. This shows in the type of sports and genres of games that we are into. Rugby is a tough man’s sport compared to soccer whereas Killzone 2 could also be called a real man’s game. In conclusion I believe it’s safe to say that we are indeed a PlayStation Nation, and every Christmas gamers, all over the country are getting their PlayStation tan.

Damian Seeto

Three ways you could improve the quality of movies based on videogames

It’s almost common knowledge that movies based upon movies always well…suck. Some of these factors include a lot of things. It could be the clichéd “take over the world” storyline, the poor special effects or the meagre acting. If video games movies are to be taken seriously they need to be critically and commercially revered. Comic book movies did just that with the release of The Dark Knight so it’s possible a video game movie could do it too - but it hasn’t happened yet! Here are three ways that could improve the quality of movies based on video games.

1) Get Better Directors

The quality of any movie heavy relies on good direction. One of the many reasons why video games movies are so bad is because most of them have been directed by Uwe Boll. The man is responsible for many travesties including House of the Dead, Bloodrayne and Alone in the Dark just to name a few. The man has one more Razzie awards than any other person in history. If you don’t know what a Razzie is, it’s the complete opposite of what an Academy Award represents. Better still, if you don’t know who Uwe Boll is or never heard of his movies you’re not alone. All of his movies were Box Office flops and many countries decided not to release them in cinemas including NZ. Ouch! The movie studios should know by now that he exudes poor quality. They should replace him for the likes of Christopher Nolan, James Cameron or Peter Jackson. I’m sure they could deliver the first great video game movie.

2) Quality Actors

There’s no doubt some video game movies actually did feature some quality actors. Obviously, everyone remembers Angelina Joile’s performance as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider films – too bad everything else wasn’t of that standard. Most of the time, the choice of actors are very questionable. Who could forget Jean Claude Vann Damme and his brutal portrayal of Guile in the Street Fighter movie? However, my biggest disappointment is the two actors who played Ryu and Ken. They looked nothing like Ryu and Ken! The acting is just as wooden in the Mortal Kombat films as well as the Dead or Alive movie. If only the characters were portrayed by credible actors only then will the standard be reached.

3) A Proper Story and coherent script

In most video game films the villains strive to do two things. They either want to rule the world or they seek to destroy it – if not the world then it’s the universe. If only there’s someone out there who could adapt a screenplay based on the Grand Theft Auto or Metal Gear Solid series. Only then will we see a proper storyline. The script also has to make sense for viewers too. I remember in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation they mentioned an “Animality” without explaining to the audience what it was. How are people supposed to know an Animality is when you can turn into an animal to finish off your opponent? The previously mentioned sentence sounded pretty stupid itself but at least explain what it means within the script.

There are probably many other ways and examples out there that would improve the quality of video game movies but there’s too many for me to put down. It seems many movie studios have given up gambling their budgets on video game franchises. The Halo movie has yet to come into fruition and problems have halted the production of movies based on Bioshock and Lost Planet due to over-blown budgets.

Hope is not all lost however lost if the Prince of Persia movie can prove to be a success. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jake Gyllenhall as the “Prince” - this promises to be a hit. Then again, chances are it will be yet another horrendous videogame-to-movie adaptation. All our questions will be answered when the movie hits cinemas mid 2010. As for now I’d advise you not to watch any videogame movies and stick to just playing the games themselves instead. You’ll be much happier that way…

Damian Seeto

A Journey through Final Fantasy

Japanese style RPGs can be quite a journey. You literally have to invest a lot of your free time in order to be strong enough to beat the many bosses within these games. That’s why I was never a fan of the Final Fantasy games when I was younger. I was too impatient to wade through hordes of random battles in order to level up. The infectious gameplay of Crash Bandicoot 2 and Tekken 2 were my favourite games in 1997 and NOT Final Fantasy VII.

Fast-forward to the year 2005. This is when I have been playing video games for a while now. Something in my mind told me that I had become a more “patient” gamer. I decided to give Final Fantasy another go - eight years after my initial aversion to Final Fantasy VII in 1997. The only Final Fantasy game available at the time in my local video store was Final Fantasy X-2, so I decided to hire it out and give it a go.

Within minutes of witnessing its gorgeous cutscenes mixed with beautiful music, I became immediately hooked. Sure, there were still lots of random battles to go through, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was getting to the end. Funnily enough, four weeks later I did just that. “What a cool game,” I thought to myself.

This prompted me to buy Final Fantasy X just a few months later. I was lucky enough to score a pre-owned copy for only $18 – it even came with a bonus disc! What I didn’t realise was that Final Fantasy X is a much longer and harder game than Final Fantasy X-2. Within six months of purchase I found myself facing the final boss. Unfortunately, my characters were weak and did not have the required stats to beat him. I was annoyed by this and didn’t touch the game again for nearly three years.

Even though I was annoyed that I was stuck on the final boss, I was still somewhat a fan of Final Fantasy after watching the 3-D animated movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Hypocrite that I was, I decided to backtrack and pick up Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX just to see what I was missing all those years. It soon became clear that all Final Fantasy games (and all RPG games for that matter) were hard and I was stuck on all those games too!

My brother came home one day with Final Fantasy XII. But this time I had the official strategy guide with me. Dare I put myself through the torture again? However, after following the guide and a mammoth play-through of 100 plus hours, I’m proud to say I completed the game.

This inspired me play Final Fantasy X again – only this time I levelled up my characters properly. To my amazement, after nearly three and a half years of purchasing the game, I was able to beat the final boss! It was all because I now knew what Japanese RPGs are all about after playing through Final Fantasy XII. It’s important to invest a lot of your free time into the game and every random battle is important. If you don’t take this into consideration, you’ll get stuck like I did.

That said, I’m still struggling to finish the PS1 Final Fantasy games. But that’s no biggie; I’ll try to complete them another time. Currently I’m enjoying Crisis Core and Dissidia: Final Fantasy on PSP. As for next year, bring on Final Fantasy XIII, especially now that I know what it takes to complete a Final Fantasy game.

Damian Seeto