So I've been rather busy with interesting stuff this week, and it was Friday before I knew it. Insanely, I've been working so hard that I have not played a single video game in an entire week. This has to be a new record, as you may recall I tried and failed at that objective rather publicly in the heyday of the Aberrant Gamer column.
Actually, I guess this stint doesn't quite count - I played De Blob when I visited THQ's press junket yesterday. Had a bunch of other things demoed to me, too - full coverage is here.
I've read a few articles before that ask the question: Why are game "impressions" or "previews" posts so consistently positive? I write reviews frequently, but haven't done too many previews myself, but I think I solidified an answer yesterday in the Royalton Hotel penthouse where I saw THQ's lineup. It was the cold cajun shrimp, the best shrimp I've had in ages.
Totally kidding. Actually, it's because previews rarely offer enough information for a writer to produce an actual concrete judgment. Just as we wouldn't review a game after five or 10 minutes of playtime, nor would we be able to tell you right off whether the game is good or not. Most of the stuff I saw was early code, to boot, which means I couldn't even actually play it; I could just tell you how it looked. Can you imagine if we wrote reviews of games we'd only looked at, and not played? What's the point, really, of an opinion on that?
So, I tried to write my preview posts highlighting what piqued my interest and what didn't, and what I thought the audience would be interested to hear about (is SpongeBob Edition of Drawn to Life more polished than its predecessor in the platforming department? Short answer -prolly not).
So, "first impressions" are exactly that - wholly subjective, based on whether watching the game made me feel like trying it or not. Simple, right?
Characteristically cocksure Strauss Zelnick was a bit chatty during last night's call on Take-Two's financial results, too - not only did we get the rundown of the company's GTA IV-bolstered quarter (plus how much it's been costing them to fend off EA), but we also learned when we'd see the first episode of Xbox 360 downloadable content for GTA IV (not as soon as you thought, maybe), and when we'd see the BioShock flick (when Bioshock 3 comes out, most likely. Wow). By the way, he also wants you to know that tons of people are interested in buying Take-Two besides EA, he's talking to all kinds of folks.
Zelnick has good strategic reasons to let the future hints roll - right now, his job is to convince shareholders that EA's underselling the company's long-term potential by a lot .
From Games For Change on Tuesday, my personal highlight was the talk given by Jim Gasperini and Chris Crawford -the latter informally founded the event that would eventually become GDC by holding a salon in his living room. Both of them made social-message games before it was ever chic to do so, and I loved hearing what EA founder Trip Hawkins had thought of the idea. Incidentally, Crawford and Gasperini think our industry is "creatively dead."
Another big highlight - I met a Quebecois Bungie expat who'd worked on Halo 3, and left the core industry behind to do socially-focused, educational games. Not something you'd expect to hear every day.
I have to say, last year I was a bit underwhelmed by the Games For Change event. And while I still am hesitant to value too highly excellent ideas when the concrete execution is not yet in place, it was heartening to see that the event was almost twice the size, in terms of attendees, and more polished than last year's. This year, even former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is backing games for education and social causes.
Honestly, I feel a little alarmed when I'm introduced to someone who tells me they want to make a game - and then tells me they have never read nor even heard of Gamasutra (they're out of touch with development) nor Kotaku (they're out of touch with the audience). So I'd like to see the philanthropic community get up to speed a bit better on the execution, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the concept. And not everyone is lagging -- just look at these finalist student concepts made with Microsoft's XNA.
And, just today we learned LucasArts fired a big fistful of people, citing the old "development cycles" chestnut - had a lengthy chat with super-analyst Michael Pachter on what he thinks the real reasons behind the layoffs are. Hint: Liberal EA namechecking ensues.
Finally, a little while ago we learned that a member of the game development community had passed on (fairly young, too). I worked together with his colleagues to prepare a small article in his memory. Very sad stuff. One of the things that's important to me now that I'm a consumer journalist is to help the community to realize that game companies consist of staffs of human beings, and every one is worthy of note in life and death whenever possible.
And, that was my week. Sorry for the "link roundup," but I think you can see I've had little time for the thoughtful treatises on underage video game boobs which you've all come to expect from me. I imagine that many of you have been playing a great deal more actual games than I have. What am I missing?
