It has ninjas and big swords, so it must be cool. Right?

At least, that’s what From Software is hoping. Trying to come up with a list of “must have” games for the 360 in 2009, I came across the platform exclusive Ninja Blade. In concept, it sounded great: standard hack ‘n slash action starring a ninja, and it’s by the same team that brought us the Otogi series for the original Xbox. When the demo was posted on Live a couple of weeks ago, I was pretty excited to give it a try.

Until Ninja Blade revealed its first Quick Time Event (QTE) mere seconds into the game. After hearing some kind of pep talk from the leader of a group of sky-diving ninja, you jump out of plane and are immediately asked to “Press X to attack!”

What are you attacking? It’s not really obvious until after you see the animation of the winged demon-creature crumbling to molten ash under the stinging blade of your sword. At this point my hopes for the game suffered the exact same fate.

I imagine it was what I felt after being presented with the “dodge a boulder!” scene from the beginning of Resident Evil 4. Though Capcom had the audacity to mix up the buttons on each attempt, at least. And I think that’s what bothered me about Ninja Blade’s approach to QTEs. There’s always a second chance. In fact, there are unlimited chances: Ninja Blade will reset the scene and you can try it as many times as necessary to get it right. No dropping back to the previous checkpoint and having to repeat entire sections of game to get better at it. It just lets you try again.

Quick time events should be abolished. They do not belong in video games, especially as a core mechanic for an action game. Instead of skill to complete a sequence of moves, it requires you to obey what is shown on the screen and possess a meager collection of electrical signals shooting from your brain to that thumb on the X button. All of a sudden some complicated animation is shown and the gamer is happy. Look what I did!

None of this feels natural, because the player is no longer in control of the action. There are inherently limits in video games; there have to be rules to limit the scope of any game. But with QTEs, you are directly at the mercy of the game’s pacing, and are effectively being told how to play the game.

This is particularly prounounced in the fight against the giant spider Boss. Some video games still adhere to the conventions of boss fights. There is often an attack that must be dodged by recognizing the boss’s “tell” that he going to launch it. Or learning an attack pattern to find the weak spot and exploit it. It will take many tries to get this right, and then ultimately defeat them. But not in Ninja Blade. Not only did it focus on the target areas in a brief cutscene before the fight, they were the only areas that were accessible to hit. It may as well be another scripted event; it leaves no decision making on the part of the player. Just keep whacking that hot spot, you’ll defeat him eventually.

Ninja Blade isn’t completely uninspired, however. There are sequences where you can go wild with a katana or that big stone sword. It provides a sequence where you fly down the side of a skyscraper to get from one combat area to the next. The sense of scale and speed were perfect through this part of the demo.

But the enemies are far too generic, and while they’re some kind of infected horde they might as well be the burlap sack creatures from Devil May Cry 4. They feel too random, like a pack of wandering skinbags for you to slice up. Not an unstoppable force bent on your destruction. The enemies in Ninja Gaiden II (2008) are varied, and always on the attack whenever you appeared. The game was relentless. It presents bottleneck after bottleneck where you are the only obstacle in their way. Why do I feel like I have a choice to fight the creatures in Ninja Blade?

Nevertheless, the action in Ninja Blade is well scripted and fun to watch. The fight with the giant spider contained some action events involving a wrecking ball on top of a skyscraper. I’ll readily admit it elicited a “holy shit” from me. However, reading the limited number of reviews on the Japanese import, this is pretty representative of what the rest of the game has to offer. But I don’t want to watch a video game. I want to play it¹.

I really had this game built up in my mind (reawakened ninja obsession?), but after experiencing it I couldn’t figure out what this game was selling me. There was nothing there. Like Afro Samurai, it takes a winning concept (extremely violent swordplay) and panders to an audience that doesn’t want this type of game. If anything, Ninja Blade taught me to appreciate the stubbornness of Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja to stick to classic video game design. It provides challenge in its purest form, and certainly a more entertaining experience than waiting for my turn to press the button.

Ninja Blade represents a corruption at the heart of video games. It is not part of a new genre, but an actual path forward for those that think games are too difficult, too long, or do not provide an easily digestible story (and for those that are keeping track, Ninja Blade has no story worth pursuing). It’s slowly happening, so those that think this is a legitimate entry into the action genre will accept it and move on to the next one, not even realizing they have been pressing the “Next” button in a slideshow.

Why shy away from a design that demands mastery of the controls and the core mechanics? This is what we grew up with, what we lived for. This reduction of player investment is not a noble pursuit. It is regression to a new mean.

1. Once again, I refer you to my review of Resident Evil 4. To this day I still cannot get over the praise heaped upon the game that effectively broke the franchise.

My first exposure to Gears of War was a commercial that aired in late 2006 featuring Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World”. It was an awkward insertion of a popular song for what appeared to be a grungy, blood spattered action game for emotionally stunted adult males. If I heard that song in, say, a Final Fantasy commercial, that would have been entirely justifiable – predictable even – for the series’ melodramatic tendencies. But watching these juiced-up football players bedecked in pock-marked bulky armor fight off what appeared to be zombies, or insects, or insect-zombies to such a mopey tune was a jarring spectacle. What message was the advertisement sending me? Was I supposed to feel sorry for these battle-weary soldiers pressing on in some city decimated by war to defend the human race? Were these men actually sensitive to the death and destruction around them? My first response was that it was merely a ruse to get me to think this game would be something different. It wouldn’t be about killing endless waves of the faceless alien invader; rather, it would explore the human condition and man’s response to being thrown into a war he didn’t want to fight, but was damn well expected to end.

After about two solid hours of playing the game, I stopped thinking so hard about this. Gears of War is not a statement about the atrocities of war in modern times. The arrangement between Gears of War and its player is much simpler. The game inscribes upon the player the desire to fire a gun – repeatedly and with extreme prejudice. It encourages hooting and hollering and much chest-thumping after each challenging firefight. It revels in the act of shooting a weapon so much that it becomes the only reason you come back to the game. And the game leaves you no other choice but to love it in return.

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Updated February 22, 2009 with some new thoughts on weapon durability and the game environment.

Now that the existence of Dead Rising 2 has officially been confirmed, the masses can begin speculating on its contents from the few screenshots that accompanied the announcement.

As rumored last year, Capcom is working closely with Vancouver’s Blue Castle Games to develop the sequel, which in their anticipation will result in “a even better game”. In order to maintain the design intent of the original game, key team members from Dead Rising at Capcom Japan are meeting with the designers at Blue Castle at least once a week through video conference, which in the opinion of Capcom’s Keiji Inafune is just the first steps in Capcom’s “Global Design” initiative. I have to admit I was a little curious why such a successful IP was farmed out, but it’s reassuring to know that the project is being guided by its original creators.

At this point, the only confirmable detail is the game’s environment: a casino. Whether this is modeled after downtown Las Vegas, Atlantic City or simply another enclosed complex like the Willamette shopping mall remains to be revealed. The setting alone has me pretty excited about Dead Rising 2’s potential. An “adult playground” as Inafune puts it, where roulette wheels become weapons of mass destruction.

I love the original Dead Rising; I’ve said before this was always a game I wished I had been able to play upon release. Now that I’ve experienced the full version, the sequel is one of my most anticipated games of the coming year. I plan on writing a full review of Dead Rising at some point, but I find this to be an excellent opportunity to sketch out my main complaints with the original game and label them as expectations for the sequel, instead of cluttering my analysis with a wish list of improved features.

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For the last three weeks, I have been completely absorbed by an XBox 360-induced euphoria. Getting this console was both the best and worst decision I made in 2008.

As if my current playlist wasn’t big enough, I now have at least five more titles to make my way through in the months ahead. Finding time for these new adventures and keeping up with my writing was a challenge, especially when the novelty phase was still underway. After many late night binges, I think I’ve finally flushed it out. I have regained my original focus and want to get back to posting regularly. Except now I’ll have even more to write about.

Spending time with this console over the past few weeks has resulted in the following (occasionally startling) revelations:

• I should have purchased an XBox 360 sooner. Like, in 2006.
• I can see why former PC-exclusive gamers have no problems making the 360 their primary game platform. Avoiding the hassles with hardware upgrades, compatibility, the process of installation and DRM are the obvious examples, but a lot of what the XBox 360 does can be compared to a media center PC. By including these features in one package, it can be considered an entire replacement for a the average PC dedicated to entertainment.
• I used to think FPS on the XBox 360 was impossible, especially for a person coming from a formerly PC-exclusive background. After playing the F.E.A.R. 2 demo, I am now thinking about getting Far Cry 2 for the 360 instead of sitting here wondering if I have to turn down all the settings for it to run on my laptop. I would have considered these thoughts forbidden a couple of years ago. It’s testament to the design of this controller, though I suppose only a few developers of this genre have been able to truly master it.
• XBox Live, while convenient as a method of online distribution and matchmaking, is still just a ruse intended to rob the consumer blind. There is no need for a tiered subscription system. Why I should pay extra to do something that the entire XBox Live system was originally intended for (and what I can do on the PC for free) seems like an insult. Even Sony has gotten wise with the PS3. I don’t care about Achievements and Gamer Points and a free online profile. I want to play my games online. Also, by separating “Microsoft Points” from actual money and creating denominational “Points Packages”, people think they aren’t spending as much as they actually are.
• XBox Live is also the reason why many indie and community game developers have reached a much wider audience, by making it incredibly easy to access and experience their work. This was a real eye-opener for me, as aside from the critically acclaimed titles of the past couple of years, I never would have thought to look any further into this entirely different, self-sustaining gaming universe. There is enough content on Live Arcade that you would never have to purchase a single packaged product for your 360 if you didn’t want to.
• I find it extremely disturbing that the release-then-patch process is in full effect on this console. It seems that every new Arcade game, demo or new physical media I introduce to my 360, there is a patch waiting for me. The attitude previously held by PC game publishers and devlopers has now made its way into this realm, and it’s extremely disappointing. What if someone never puts their XBox online? Not everyone has a network connection easily accessed near their TV, or are willing to drop $100 CDN on an overpriced Wi-Fi adapter. For some casual users, this will certainly be true. Will they be missing out on essential after-market support? It’s an interesting problem that was never encountered by the PC gaming industry, which was safe to assume any PC had some form of connection to the internet.
• I would rather download a demo on XBox Live than on my PC. It is a painless procedure that ensures that I will have a preview of a product in my hands that will simply work. The large selection of demos available out of the box and Microsoft’s commitment to getting early exclusives is also making rentals seem unnecessary. Like on the PC, most of the demos I tried gave a solid impression of what is contained in the full version of the game in order to make the decision to pursue it further or move on.
• The new XBox Dashboard puts Apple TV – and frankly any media playing aspects of Mac OS X – to shame. It is clean looking, organized, and seamless in the way it integrates other media on a home network with the standard features of the game console. Microsoft’s partnership with Netflix was also a brilliant move. I have used my 360 enough for music and movies now that I can’t see how we lived without it.
• I used to think the whole Achievements and Gamer Points framework was a ridiculous concept. Now that I’ve experienced it first-hand, I think it’s a brilliant strategy for building a game-centric community and providing significant replay value to existing titles. Though some games certainly do a better job of using Achievements than others. I don’t think we will see anything else come close to this system. Steam has tried, but they don’t have the same reach.

And just like that the XBox 360 has suddenly become an essential part of my gaming repertoire.

I took advantage of the Boxing Day shopping frenzy over the weekend and picked up an XBox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle at a discount that was hard to ignore. This is a purchase I had been deeply considering since my life-altering experience with Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. My familiarity with the console was mostly limited to some time with it shortly after launch, so I’ve been relatively out of touch with what has been released for the console since then. I was also a bit disappointed at the lack of hardware upgrades: the Elite is still hoarding the 120 GB hard drive, and there is still no Wi-Fi out of the box even after three years. Though I guess I should be thankful that the power supply hasn’t burst into flame yet.

Since getting back into gaming this past summer, I’ve tried to keep myself aware of the titles capturing the most buzz on all of the next generation consoles. Over the past few days I familiarized myself with the new XBox dashboard and downloaded a grab-bag of demos: the critically acclaimed and a few others that I was interested in. I’m still looking for a good RPG other than the obvious selections of Mass Effect, Fable 2, or Fallout 3. Feel free to add any other recommendations in the comments; this is my second leap into the console world since the Gamecube in 2003.

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