Titanfall producer Drew McCoy talked about Virtual Reality at Pax East. He talked about Respawn's interest in Virtual Reality and his excitement about the idea of it. But he still admitted that a game like Titanfall couldn't be created for VR due to motion sickness to put it simply.
Motion sickness is a bigger problem than you would think because everyone
is subject to it and when you count in whiplash, it comes apparent that fast-paced shooter games don't have a place in VR and it might actually be a reason that gaming will not fully transition over as many (me) it will.
When it comes down to it, there aren't many genres VR can dive into. It's easier to just say what it can do: First Person Adventure/Action games,why first person? well Virtual Reailty is literally just an illusion that you actually exist in the game and you can't look at yourself as you go about your life can you? If VR were to have a third person game it wouldn't even be a VR and the same as the gaming we do now.
Some games try to escape this barrier like one I heard of one recently.
You're a person controlling this miniature swordsman as it fights another, which is being controlled by literally and figuratively the person you're sitting next to (co-op) you can even look over and see the character model for your friend. This is a rather interesting try but I fear that because people won't get the same type of games they're used to their going to reject Virtual Reality entirely.
Thanks for reading follow by email and share if you enjoy and want more article like this one, and before you go what game do you want transferred over to VR the most regardless of the restraints?
Well GameSpot put several MMO-based videos up recently (two) so of course I have to talk about them as well! But of course I love all of my fans and I can't deny a request when someone personally asks me so here we go (I'm telling you to send me thing you want covered).
Is Free to Play Really Free?
One of the most controversial subjects in the MMO community is if "Free to Play" games are really GOOD for the developers and community as a whole.
It's exactly as you picture it being, you can just randomly download and play without a snitch or a dollar for that point.
Free games, how is that bad? Well it very literally makes no sense for a well-made AAA big-budget game to be "Free". The world once again very literally runs on money so the game has to make money in one way or another.
and that one way or another part is really important due to the fact that the way money is taken away from the player is not always good.
The Bad
By this I mean something like the mobile game Star Trek: Trexels which not be an MMO or a free-to-play game but I feel it has several qualities that aid in making my point. Ok so you just bought a iphone or ipad and is excitied when you download your first game star trek themed too. you have fun for awhile you pay a dollar or two but you don't feel like they were wasted, and right before you go to the second set of planets they ask you rate the game and of course you give it a good rating. After that you see the gigantic pay wall or galaxy I guess. What do I mean by this? Well all of the planets take a ridiculous amount of resources to "unlock" a timer from which you have to wait out for one bit of info and these resources take 6+ hours to gather without spending a dime. Of course it can be averted with a few "crystals" and if you don't want to pay these crystals just go and get one of these crystals literally spending hours within a mini game.
This also transfers over into First Person Shooter games when the weapons that are paid for with real money reign supreme over the starter weapons you are given.
The Good
Now I believe the "proper" or most popular way that money is taken and still leaves a good taste in the payer's mouth, is special equipment and or change of your character's appearance and has no long bearing on combat or some godly advantage over other players.
My Opinion
I love MMOs. I do, but I really don't know why. Most of the time their mind-numbingly boring with the occasional boss fight. Maybe it's the fact that i'm not good at socilizing and don't like my general appearance and in MMOs I can be who I want to be. Or maybe it was just me glad I had something to play because i'm not like of other who buy multiplayer (Like COD) games and play that one game for years. I could and alot of people do that with MMO games infact it's completely cut off from all other genres of gaming. I personally know mainstream gamers who just simply don't like to play MMO games after the first few hours if even that. And I know almost all MMO players wouldn't touch mainstream games with a 100-foot long stick.
But it's gets insanely repetitive after countless hours due to MMOs being designed so you never beat it. but the point i'm trying to get to is that "Free" does not mean "Good" no matter which one of the methods of payment above is used. I confused two words and I know many others do as well and when it comes down to it MMOs are just gigantic games and because they're so big they have lower quality than other AAA titles and noting ever truly comes free in the world we live in so if we can just accept that and see the game as it truly is just another game than whatever problem we have with the game is actually with the game itself.
Conclusion
I'm sorry I haven't made any posts in awhile! I just wasn't inspired but as soon I start pressing keys I really can't stop, and this was a product of that.
I'm going to make one or two more posts concerning MMOs dealing with it's affect on the social life, the good, the bad, and the real AKA my opinion
I don't want to report news I want to talk about topics so if anyone wants me to talk about something i'll make it a field day but I find there no need to me report news that everyone already hear from all the YouTube commentators and other gaming sites
and finally share this post and the blog if you liked and follow by email if you desire these opinion pieces I do
Now if you accuse me time to go play some DC Universe Online and hopefully manage to work some sleep in there somehow
Phil Spencer has said some interesting things in his latest Microsoft powered interview. And thankfully it was that Xbox was actually going to be about gaming first entertainment second. Why is this good you ask, it's because Xbox One has lost the next-gen race with news like the realization that Xbox One and the PS4 resolution and FPS (sometimes) gap won't just disappear (If you read my last post you would know how it might change in the future) and that PlayStation is winning by 1.6 million units worldwide probably because it's actually released in the countries where most of the people buy them.
But it seems that Microsoft has learned from their mistake of letting people forget they spent a billion so 15
titles can be released on the Xbox One/360 8 of which are new series. Phil is work hard at "work" surfing the web to find new ways to improve Xbox One and Xbox Live. It's good to know that he's actually listening to the feedback we take time out of our lives to give.
And it's also good that Microsoft as a whole is actually focusing on Xbox. If you didn't notice both Sony and Microsoft are two gigantic companies and they can't survive on console sales alone.
While Sony HAS to put more effort in their other tech and first-party games because their not really doing so well to the point that a well-known business analyst said that there is a high-chance that Sony won't be around in a year or two. Microsoft isn't doing that bad but i'm glad that they aren't stubborn enough to realize that if Xbox tanks the whole company will be in a financial disaster.
Comment below what you think about Phil's ambitions and with the insanely likely chance that he will read your comment include something Xbox should improve on and or a new feature they can add
The video to the right showcases Microsoft's ambition and belief in Cloud computing being used to aid Gaming on the Xbox One. I was interested in this even while not understanding what Cloud Gaming actually was so I used the almighty Google to bring to you State of Cloud Gaming.
And to find this we need to find the original source of
The Cloud
To put it simply, a interconnection of information between devices and infinite supply of digital resources, for example the Titanfall servers mentioned in the video but more on that later.
Cloud is in essence thee "Internet" everything on the Internet "Interconnects" into one big hub. I can feel i'm losing some of y'all so let me say it in a different way, this webpage and any other you have ever visited was stored in one big "Building" and web addresses, like real addresses, gives you access to one particular apartment but the building encompasses much more than that one apartment, that's how you can go from one YouTube video to another like as if you're going from one door to the next.
Cloud Gaming
Ok so does everyone get it now? Close enough, so how does all this connect to gaming you ask? Well, let's use good old Titanfall as an example. It's Xbox One version is more limited than the PC one as you might be aware of. And that is purely because of cheaper hardware,and if you read my earlier article on my blog Consoles Wont Ever Be Strong Enough to Match PCs (In which I covered the power of the next-gen console's hardware and why it's hard to achieve 1080p and why it's weaker than PCs) you would know why. So to compensate they used the Cloud to create a infinite number of servers (because their digital, they had no real limit) and that's very good because, the less programs/items (players,bots,maps,menus) on a single server the better that server runs which makes the entire game run smoother.
TheCloud's Weakness
"Oh ok cool the Cloud gives us a better experience, why hasn't this been used more?" Sadly, Cloud is not some super computing program something Rich from Reviewtechusa covered, our internet speeds, especially the U.S, just isn't up to par enough for The Cloud. For The Cloud to be used efficiently it needs fast Internet speeds, something that is too rare for it to be used to it's full potential...yet.
In a few years maybe but due to bandwidth limits, (basically the amount of data you can use, for downloads video streaming, and webs surfing, in a specific set of time) quality of our Internet providers, and overall make-up of our Internet, utilizing The Cloud's potential is still a distant memory hiding in the future.
The Gaming World's Cloud Investment
Microsoft wasn't the only one to bet a big chip on The Cloud, in fact many other big names in the gaming world has dared to venture into the skies even while the likes of Nintendo disputed Cloud Gaming as being "The future". At 2013's E3 not only did Microsoft flaunt their Cloud Gaming, Sony announced the Playstation Now service which is the pure definition of Cloud Gaming. Everyone had already known that Sony was out to define the term when they purchased Gaikai, a cloud streaming technology-based company. But later that year Gamespot proved that if you reach too high you run the risk of getting burned down by the sun. They had also made a purchase of Spawn Labs (a company similar to Gaikai) to ensure they keep their high position in the Cloud revolution but they ended up having to shut it down due to the consumer's non-interest and complete lack of faith or knowledge concerning Cloud Gaming.
Conclusion
I wrote this article for that the same reason that Gamespot had to close Spawn Labs and the reason Microsoft released that Cloud/Titanfall trailer video, the general consumer (you) is not educated and aware of The Cloud and therefore does not take advantage and or appreciate the Cloud services given to them. So please share this article with as many people as you can, friends or family anyone that plays games should read this, The Cloud is a very important tool and it will someday be used for great feats but if we don't let the developers know that The Cloud is useful and that we want it to be applied to our games, It will not have any place in the future of gaming, after all you have all the power in your hands developers don't decide anything you do.
And that is a goodbye ladies and gents I strangely had fun writing this article so I hoped you're taking something away from it! And if you'd like, comment below on what you think The Cloud could be used for in future games (be as specific as need be!) you can find me again at colemantimes.blogspot.com for informative posts like this, opinion pieces, video game/ tech reviews, and numerous discounts,giveaways,and contests.
Hello all and welcome to the first edition of The Waiting Room of video games, with the gaming world never
letting us take a rest without thinking about the next upcoming game with the teaser that wouldn't stop teasing your brain.
Today's topic is an adaption of a retro game with a similar name Castle Wolfenstein where you attempted to escape a German/Nazi fort as an American captive. This game got a sequel and even a 3D adaption in a short while but it's been dead since the beginning of the new millennium.
So one would ask a question of why to reanimate the corpse now? (pun intended) and most of whom I asked the question answered "To bring back the old FPS genre" and when I thought about it, I ended up agreeing. I would never have guessed the design and gameplay before it was shown to us and that is most likely because I've never seen something like it, the shooters I grew up playing was battlefield, medal of honor, and of course COD.
But with game like the Metro series and Bioshock (I seriously thought this game was a fusion of the two when I was viewing gameplay) popping up I see a new line of FPS games appearing, one with an increase of story and shooting actually taking a back-seat to story and exploring, something battlefield and COD fans been asking for for a long time purely because the mainstream shooter games lack them. And that what I think this game will be a product of this new kind of shooter. But make no mistake the shooting is just as satisfying as any other games with the big gritty metallic gun selection your bound to have fun destroying your enemies as you rush through them like 80-90s action movie.
You're bound to have lots of interesting enemies with on par if not better level design. With you playing a man who fell into a coma in the middle a of World War 2 and woke up in 1960 to a Nazi-ruled world with almost any resistance laid to rest by the classic robotic super-soldiers (Big Daddy prototypes) backing up Germany. With beautiful Bioshock-centric (I'm done) art and a soundtrack composed of classics and German songs that's bound to get a rise out of you negative or positive, Wolfenstein is definitely going to be a good time which is only going to make this Waiting Room harder to sit through.
If you want some tension lifted follow and share colemantimes.blogspot.com for more editions of The Waiting Room and if you want a old game to come back comment below I'll love to see some probably-never coming game just to make fun of those in the waiting room.
