Re-Rapture?

Going through Rapture, meeting Andrew Ryan, and monkey wrenching hordes of splices were experiences in videogaming that was truly in a level of its own. The plot itself was worth a read if it came out as a novel. The political and social philosophies that can randomly be uncovered within the underwater city are intensely deep and absorbing. Bioshock is a true classic, one of the best games ever produced. Ever.

And yes, a sequel will be out sometime in 2009 -- Take Two and Irrational Games wants it out by then, it is a franchise born out of the genius, and some say demented, Kevin Levine -- of course they want to milk the franchise for all its worth, even heard a movie's in the works.

One minor gripe: What else is there to explore within the Art-Deco architecture inspired city? What more can Rapture offer? Andrew Ryan’s dead, history of the city has been explained thoroughly through audio journals. How else would Irrational expand the gaming universe?

Recently breezed through an article recommending the whole setting to be moved to a new location, and a new timeline -- a feasible option. Perhaps in a more futuristic setting on a space station? Has too much of a System Shock-ish feel to it though.

What would sound better -- is to continue directly the plot from the first Bioshock right after the ‘evil’ alternate ending where the splicers controlled the submarine and the nuclear missiles.

Start off the story where the missile launched from the sub, assuming the splicers activated the launch, was intercepted by F15 US fighter jets and NSA/CIA sends out a recon team to investigate the sub and the area around it.

The players would take control the captain of the five-man recon team. And instead of settling with just one area to explore, the player would return to Rapture (note: new locations within the city) only to find out that Andrew Ryan was revived through some sort of a newly developed plasmid and has regained control of Rapture once again by killing off the player from the previous game. To add some spice to the plot -- the player later uncovers various locations of multiple Rapture like cities scattered around the world that are on the brink of imploding.

In the end though, it would be up to take Take Two to make damn sure that the Bioshock sequel trumps its predecessor. Its highly anticipated, the air of hype surrounds it -- it has a lot to live up to and a lot of expectations to fulfill.

The Mist

Has anyone seen The Mist? Its a movie based on a Stephen King novel. One of the best movies I’ve seen in recent memory and can’t help but think the whole plot, setting and atmosphere were built for a game...

Imagine, the mind blowing graphics using Unreal Engine 3.5 where it can render the retail market and environments in an unmatched detail, the conversation branches presented within Mass Effect -- all presented in first person glory. And no, it won’t be an FPS rather a fusion of genres in a first person perspective, think Bioshock but with stronger focus on plot progression and non-player character interaction. Most of all, consistently pushing gamers to make choices -- the hard ethical ones or more commonly known as moral deadlocks.

This game would match anything in the next-gen lineup, it’ll be a classic in the purest sense. I see this game’s length round 5 to 6 hours, since the setting is simply within a town and later on concentrates on two key areas -- the retail store and pharmacy, plus a bit of driving in the latter part. And the game would retail for around $40, charging consumers $60 for a game with that length of play time? Insane. So I recommend the sweet spot for gamers, $40 should do.

Add in some arcade machines within the retail supermarket area and tons of mini games and you’ve got a shenmue-ish kind of gameplay.

Watch the movie, amazing. As for the game -- it won’t come out anytime soon.

Free Service = Crap.

Xbox Live as of late has been cannon fodder for pissed off and irate online gamers. Its service has been inconsistent recently with a highly publicized Live server issue a few months back making its customers wonder why are they paying $50 for a crappy service when they could get a similar service for no cost at all on the Wii and PS3 -- Giving an on the spot onus to Microsoft to justify to its customers the Xbox Live membership fee they charge every year.

I undertstand and even sympathize for the cry of the majority for Microsoft to create a free service that Sony and Nintendo pushes for, but what the majority don’t see is the holistic quality of service Live has when its pitted against its online rivals. Where does that $50 dollars go to - well, it pays for the quality and experience. What’s in the experience? Intuitive interface, vast amount of content, stable performance -- true, service bogged down, but there was a reason and there was a resolution.

Would it be even rational to say that Nintendo and Sony would maintain the same degree of service for something they’re not compensated for directly? They may have other business models but if those don’t work, what’s next? Leave the whole service unchecked?

I’m talking about a centralized approach to which gaming experience is standardized and objectified. Folks, thats what Live offers. It offers you a complete package, rich in service and quality. Making each activity/transaction as smooth and as simple as possible.

Perhaps if majority of consumers see it in a broader perspective, the value Live offers becomes apparent.

Physical vs Digital storage

Recently, a piece featured Virgin Media will be implementing significant upgrade in speed for broadband consumers (50mb), estimating HD downloads within Xbox Live to decrease from 4
hours in a matter of 15mins.

Having this speed available for consumers, utilizing Microsoft's online service for movie rentals and purchases seem to get more tempting. Rather than go to the local retail shop and purchase a Blu-ray movie, that is - assuming if you have a PS3 or a blu-ray player, wouldn't you rather stay home and simply download the film?

The First Move Factor

During the latter part of last year, after the holiday season was nearing its close -- Xbox Live bogged down, disabling the normal day to day activities of X360 owners. The LIVE team quickly handled the issue, and with regular updates through their head honcho, strangely acting as their impromptu PR guy, to calm damn the millions of pissed off gamers -- it was later on resolved but with a few lawsuits here and there which were dismissed by the courts.

Enter January, pieces from various blogs and gaming sites began to spawn rumors and predictions for the year ahead. All had a consistent theme - Microsoft’s demise. Left and right, writers, analysts, and Sony fanboys alike strongly believed (and still believes) that this is the year of Sony’s Playstation 3 and X360’s downfall, majority proudly claimed the latter has peaked and sales will slow down drastically.

But stop right there. These predictions -- are merely predictions, educated guesses at best. True, NPD came out with Jan and Feb figures, Microsoft’s camp is trailing due to a supposed supply constraint -- which they proved later on by having to sign up a second manufacturer from China in able to curtail and chances of having hardware shortages in preparation for Grand Theft Auto 4’s release next month.

Xbox 360 isn’t dead simply due to two obvious factors:

First, It’s still got a powerful lineup versus Sony’s. No one can’t deny the immense power content has, Sony does have a more well seasoned release schedule for the year, however, Microsoft still has tons of possible ways to curb the momentum through the release of Gears of War 2 and some other first party exclusives. And with the help of Microsoft’s marketing arm, who’ve mastered the art of attracting consumers through mainstream media -- Halo 3’s monster marketing made them gods in this craft, their exclusives may well sell in the millions each.

Second, price. Microsoft recently cut their prices in Europe which saw a surge of nearly 40% in sales for the first weekend, and school holidays is right around the corner, plus GTA4 will be released in a less than a month. They have the opportunity to spur momentum that would run through the slow summer season and early third quarter of this year before the Holiday season goes into full gear.

Being much cheaper than PS3 for the X360 pro and Wii for the Arcade SKU, the system has truly gone mainstream(in Europe at least), this is the time for Microsoft to leverage its first year head start, and that is through price cuts and value deals that would surely attract consumers - the obvious luxury of being first in the market. Seriously, Sony right now, with its price and games are targeting to convince the same old hardcore market which Microsoft has dominated for the past two years and Microsoft is ready to move on to the casual market that would help them achieve significant increase in sales.

In fact, Microsoft hasn’t even given in to the idea of slashing the prices in the US market. Most probably they’ll do it a week or so prior to the release of GTA4, which would hurt Sony’s chances of securing that ‘momentum’ to which they so arrogantly proclaim.

Microsoft’s system is the most flexible amongst the current gen offerings. It can tap to numerous competencies to create the perfect mix to entice both the hardcore and casual market. The Console wars is all about the value each console manufacturer offers to consumers, and Microsoft has the upper hand.