Halo 4

Halo 4, 343i’s first venture into Microsoft’s wildly successful, billion-dollar franchise, came out a week after Assassin’s Creed III, and it could not have come sooner.  I was more than willing to take a break from the glitch-ridden and nonsensical monotony that was most of Assassin’s Creed III to happily welcome Halo 4 into my home.

I was worried with the direction Halo games were going.  Halo: Reach, Halo creator/developer Bungie’s final contribution to the franchise, was just that: a reach.  The game lacked the sense of wonder and mystery that other Halo games had done so well.  It had canon problems as well, going against previously written novels that outlined this particular part of Halo lore.  And the gameplay, while doing some things well, just didn’t quite feel right.

Let me preface what comes next with this:  I am a huge Halo fan.  I try not to let any sort of favorable bias I may have towards one of my favorite franchises cloud my objective judgment when picking apart the issues.

With that said, Halo 4 blew me away.

As soon as I was controlling Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, I knew they’d done it.  Everything looked and sounded amazing.  Graphics were stunning.  The sound effects quite remarkable – they’d totally revisited how everything should sound in the Halo universe.

But even beyond that, it felt amazing.  I couldn’t describe it any other way – no game I had ever played felt so authentic.

I had read in reviews how it really felt like you were controlling a bio-modified super-soldier in a hulking suit of armor, but I didn’t realize how much it felt like it until playing. 

Images and even video do no justice to the authentic feel you get
as you play Halo 4.

The story, too, was clearly a big focal point in 343i’s development.  Microsoft has done well to extend this transmedia story through two new novel trilogies, both which point directly to this game.  It’s no small wonder that this, unlike Reach, would have to be right on point as far as story goes.

And it was well done, fleshing out Master Chief and Cortana like we had never seen before (in one of the games). 

My only serious campaign story gripe (aside from the number of missions, which has been in steady decline since Halo 2's peak) requires I look at the game through someone else’s eyes.  Having read all the books, the background for many of the things happening in this game were clear to me.  Had I not read them though, I can see ample cause for confusion.  Many things were not explained well enough for someone who may only play the Halo games and not read any of the novels.

Multiplayer gets a big gold star from me as well.  I wasn’t a huge fan of Reach’s multiplayer.  I liked some of the game modes, but for some reason, it never felt as good as Halo 2 or Halo 3 felt. This feels again like I’m playing a Halo game.  So much of it feels like Halo 3 to me.

But the unlockable abilities and weapons had me worried.  In Reach, everything you earned was purely cosmetic.  I liked how they still wanted to keep multiplayer on a level playing field.  I have always championed that Halo multiplayer differed from others in that it’s so much more balanced, and doesn’t reward players by providing additional skills or weapons because they play more.  I was skeptical of Halo 4’s unlockable abilities and weapons, but they did not take much at all to unlock, meaning there is still no serious gap between newcomers and veterans, so that skill is once again the deciding factor.

Multiplayer feels so right again, especially on Ragnarok,
the remake of Halo 3's Valhalla map.

What did bother me about unlockables, though, was the emblems.  As far back as Halo 2, I’ve used a unique emblem as an identifier.  Now, all emblems are not available immediately – they have to be unlocked.  What results is a constant changing of emblems, which to me just looks like a brand always changing itself.   Then again, we don’t see them immediately on the battlefield like we used to, so it’s not like they’re as conspicuous as before when they were used to identify our teammates.  The unfortunate replacement for battlefield recognition has become the callsign, which has unfortunately regressed to half of my team going by YOLO and the other half as NOOB.

Spartan Ops, a new episodic game mode, was a bit of a let down for me.  If you’re playing alone, it’s not really worth it.  These are designed to be co-op, and you really feel like you miss something if you play it alone.  The story that’s connecting all of the episodes, and connecting it back to the main story, just doesn’t have the same draw to me as the single player did, especially as the missions all start to feel somewhat the same.  I believe the plan is for 343i to start charging for additional episodes as they’re produced, so we’ll see how much people will pay for more, or if they’re content with co-op fun and don’t care about where the story goes.

Bring your friends for Spartan Ops.  Otherwise it's just not really worth it.

With all of these, though, Halo 4 can be exceedingly frustrating.  But that’s not a bad thing here.  Most of my frustration came with how difficult the game could be at times, especially on Legendary difficulty.  It’s the right kind of frustration – the challenge.  The challenge made it so much better once you finally made it through that awful stretch that had made you feel as if you were in your own personal version of Groundhog Day.

It’s not to say Halo 4 is not without its faults and blunders.  For all its splendor, there are a couple serious polish issues. 

Vehicle explosions really get me.  I love seeing all the bits and pieces go flying.  Except they’re not there in this game.   In one particular scene where a ship blows up (let’s not discuss how convenient it was that disabling its power core meant it would drift slowly away until you’re out of the explosion’s radius), it’s as if they copied George Lucas’s approach to the Death Star explosion – HUGE explosion, nothing left.  Just lost that authenticity feel for a few moments when this happened.  Same thing when you blow up any Phantom.

Lip syncing seemed to be a terrible issue, and I’m assuming they just couldn’t get it right and eventually gave up on it.  Which is too bad, because the facial animations and mouth animations are incredible.  Some scenes it seemed spot on, and look amazing with how the mouths fit the words, and then suddenly in others it was so terribly off that the fourth wall was broken.  I suddenly remembered that this is a coded piece of software I’m interacting with, and there are problems.

Incredible cut scenes.  The facial animations were amazing.  Unfortunate issues every now and then with the sound syncing to the visuals.

Maybe some of the cosmetic issues are a sign of the Xbox 360’s age – it can’t handle the full scope of these games coming out seven years after it was created.  Some things may have to be sacrificed, and it’s possibly some of the smaller cosmetic things that get pulled first.

I would also talk about Forge mode, but there's not much to say.  It's very much like it was in Reach.  The only issue I have with it is the size of the open maps to build on - they're much smaller than the Forge world was in Reach.  However, I get the feeling this is an Xbox limitation again, so I can't put too much fault here, especially since 343i seemed to manage it pretty well.

Score: 1 Flying Controller

Yes, I gave it only one controller.  Yes, I’m a Halo fan.  But this game did everything it sought to accomplish, and did it well.  The harder difficulties in campaign mode are the right kind of frustrating, multiplayer doesn’t have any maddening imbalance to it, and Spartan Ops is a fun third option to pass the time with friends.  When the only really frustrating things are some minor cosmetic issues that take a nitpicking, critical eye to really find fault in, then you’ve done it right.

Well done, 343i, on your first Halo game.  I'm looking forward to more.

(The one controller is really for the lack of background provided at many key moments in the story.  And for the time I threw my controller for the RIGHT reasons.  If a game truly has so little to frustrate you that it deserves zero controllers, it probably wasn't trying to do much to begin with, and more than likely doesn't merit much play time or conversation.)

Assassin's Creed III

I want it back.  The money would be nice, but I’d prefer the time.  However, it seems Ubisoft can’t spare any, as they somehow, as it is so painstakingly clear, need to spend more time on a game they spent nearly three years developing.

It feels rushed.  It feels lazy.  It feels…poorly planned.  It’s as if they didn’t have time to get everything right, didn’t necessarily want to get everything right (perhaps due to being rushed), and didn’t have a cohesive plan to make it all fit together.

Much like I did for NCAA 13, I started out making a list of every cringe-worthy fault I came across in this game.

I eventually gave up.  The list became too long.

But let me say I applaud Ubisoft for its ambition.  Assassin’s Creed III is, in my humble opinion, one of the most ambitious games to date.  It does so much, and much of it was done quite well.

The presentation is great.  From the opening, we get the sense that this is a spectacularly epic story, grand in scale.  Through the use of the Animus, a technology in the game that allows users to relive the memories of their ancestors (the science in the game’s lore postures that memories are hereditary and passed down through DNA), we get to see the American Revolution, and all its key players, up close.  How exciting!  And, finally, we’re about to reach the conclusion of this story arc that’s been playing across three five games (and a thousand years almost), prophesying the end-of-the-world scenario that we’re racing to uncover the secrets to stop it.

Getting into the gameplay, there have been some major changes.  Combat at first was a bit tricky to grasp, but after a couple minutes of screwing it up in the opening missions, I was glad to have these changes.  It’s more fluid.  Counter moves are more seamless and fluid, and can even be interrupted (to which you can counter the interruptions if you’re quick enough).  Free running was generally better, especially with the added addition of running through the trees in the Frontier.  The rope dart? Great addition, just wished it had better combo kills while using in combat.

Every time I used the rope dart, I wanted to channel Scorpion and yell "Get over here!"

There were many small things, showing some incredible attention to detail, that I had to applaud when I came across them.  The ability to pet a dog or play with a cat when you came across it.  The shadows moving with the sun and the moon, even while playing a mini game such as checkers or fanorona.  Deep foot prints/tracks in heavy snow as you wade through it up to your knees (and a change in your stride to match).  Small things like this made me say, “I’m glad someone thought to add that in.”

And the Desmond missions, I must say, were definitely the highlight of the game.  A nice change of pace, bringing you back to the present, where you got to utilize the skills you’d acquired through the bleeding effect (we’ll just forget, though, that this was a cause for concern in AC2, and now it’s not) against Abstergo guards and agents.

Desmond missions were possibly my favorite.
No Animus HUD gives a real immersion quality.

But then I started playing it more, and more seems to be the general problem with this game.

There’s so much in this game, so incredibly much, that I have, in just over a month, put in a little over 50 hours of game time, and am about 94% “synced,” meaning I’ve done just about everything, and a couple things will need to be re-done in order to meet optional objectives.

But most of it does not make sense.  From courier missions, to the Frontiersmen, to the Brawlers, to the Hunting Society, to delivery requests, to trading convoys, it’s all there without any context whatsoever.

Why am I suddenly the mailman? I’m not sure.  But I have these markers on my map that show I’m supposed to deliver mail to these people.

Who are these guys talking about strange sightings?  That’s cool if I stop and listen, but based on what they said, I suddenly know exactly where to find Bigfoot or a UFO, with them giving no clues.

Hunting? Hunting was actually a really cool addition to the game.  Too bad it wasn’t new – Red Dead Redemption did it amazingly well already, and much less frustrating.  I get wanting me to use bait and a snare to catch an animal, but only having it count if I did it in a location obscured by overgrowth or bushes? Ludicrous.

Hunting was great, except it wasn't revolutionary.
Really felt like I was John Marston again, right down
to skinning the animal.

Building the homestead offered a nice little side story to the main story, and allowed us to really get that “slice of life” of the common man during the revolution, but again, no context for most of these missions.  Just suddenly KNEW that this person would be perfect for the homestead.

And building the homestead and upgrading the facilities allowed you to unlock more ingredients and recipes.

Ingredients and recipes for what? For a trading system that made almost no sense.  Unlocking these allowed you to craft items that, aside from a small number of upgrades that were useful (twin holster, pouch upgrades), were entirely worthless.  Trading them via a convoy was a waste of time – you get hardly any money (even after doing all the liberation, fort, and naval missions to bring down risk and taxes).  Some items were just decoration, such as the “rewards” for collecting all of the almanac pages.  “Congrats on running around and collecting all of these floating pages! Now here’s a recipe that you’ll need to unlock the ingredients for so you can craft it and just have it sit as a worthless piece of junk in a room at your house.”  You could craft new weapons with some recipes, but they didn’t affect combat in any noticeable way.  “But hey,” you say, “you can now craft some of the items needed for those delivery requests!”  Great!  So let me spend a few hundred pounds to craft these items for a reward of a few hundred pounds and the chance to now check this utterly useless item off my utterly long to-do list that is this game.

So, the whole check-list of “missions” to do, seemingly unconnected except that they’re all involved in earning ingredients and recipes for things that need these items so you can just check them off, is a huge part of the side missions, and doesn’t make much sense.  There’s also naval combat, which, on its own, was a delightfully refreshing game mode to play.  But it does not belong in this game.  It’s one of those super-convenient things you come across in a story that makes you groan.  “Oh, OF COURSE he also has a ship.”  But then there are suddenly all these naval missions, which most of them are to help your trade routes for the items you can craft from the ingredients and recipes you can unlock.  The trade routes aren’t worth the money.  So why do these missions? To check them off.  And they’re completely unconnected and have no effect on the main story at hand.  So completely unconnected that I didn’t do a single one until after the main story was finished and didn’t feel like I had missed out on a single thing.  But, as one dev probably said, “This is a really cool game mode.  Let’s add it in.”

Naval missions were a fun distraction, but didn't really fit in the game,
and got you nothing of value.

Hell, even the Assassin missions you send your recruits on were pretty much an afterthought.  You get additional items for selling or crafting and some XP for your recruit.

If you are able to get past the seemingly jumbled, incohesive mash of mini-quests and game modes stuck together to constitute the rest of the game outside of the main story, showing no true overarching direction for this game, then the little things will really start to bug you.

Glitches happen.  But I’ve never had THIS MANY in one game.  Especially THIS MANY that are widely reported across the web and have not been patched within a month after release.  Issues with quests not recognizing optional objectives being met.  Quests not recognizing main objectives being met.  Some missions showing up on your map and then disappearing.  Missions not triggering when you click B to start it.   Always having a “Citizen Mission Item” notification pop up, despite there not being a new one.  Fast travel points not showing up on the map, thereby rendering them useless.

How about frozen animals?  Walking through walls/walls disappearing?  Raining inside?  Animations not syncing up?  Guns stuck to my arms?  How about the terrible, god-awful attempt at lip-syncing, both for cut scenes and in environment.  The list goes on and on.  Just feels like such a rushed game.

Half Connor, half deer.

Or a misprioritized one.  One where too much time was spent on putting in game modes that don’t connect or even add anything to the game except busy work.

The enemy AI could have used some real help.  You’d think three years after AC2 came out, we’d have some significant improvements.  Nope.  Nothing of the like.  I can kill a guard at a heavily-defended fort, where guards are on high alert, but when another guard discovers the body, nothing changes.  It’s as if it didn’t happen.  Nobody’s more suspicious.  Guard routes don’t modify to a changed scenario.  Meanwhile I’m hanging out two feet from this guard, watching this, and he doesn’t bother to look over the edge of the dock.  If I do happen to pop up and alert everyone, well, I can just run away, and they’ll go back to normal, not expecting that I might come back.

Or, when attacking a convoy, if I sit back and pull the last guy back with a rope dart, the rest of the convoy will stop and sit there, waiting for me to finish the rope dart maneuver, but then will continue on as if nothing happened.

It was terribly easy to play through, knowing how the AI would respond to things.    In fact, boringly easy.  You can just wait them out if you messed up.  Or just kill everyone in an all out melee, which didn’t feel as “Assassiny.”  (And let’s not get into the issue that your enemies are now using guns, missing you most of the time, but still occasionally hitting you, yet providing no serious damage at all.) Either way, the AI was never going to be an issue, because your capabilities from a player’s perspective have improved, but the AI’s have not.

Other things that made me sigh or left me so frustrated with the game I wanted to throw my controller below.  This list is not so much exhaustive as just ones that I had started making the list before I got tired of making it.

-       Lack of explanation/unclear explanation on many objectives, especially optional ones, made it extremely tough to figure out many of them.  Sometimes they didn’t really present themselves before you failed them.

-       Limiting the number of something, say it’s limiting allied deaths to two, should mean that no more than two can die, not no more than one can die.

-       Cut scenes not fitting the time of day.  If you’re going to integreate time of day to guard changes and the like, then don’t have missions available except certain times of day if you’re not going to allow the cut scenes to fit appropriately.

-       Disappearing NPCs.  Yep, they would just disappear as you approached.  Enemies and non-combatants alike.  Other times they would just appear right in front of you as well.

-       Terrible draw distance.  The limits of this game and this console were really being pushed here.  Or it may have just been the engine, because I felt Skyrim had a much better draw distance, with graphics not far off from it.

-       THE ORPHANED KIDS! SHUT UP! (And the animation models basically had them looking like smaller adults, not actual kids.)

-       Dying your outfits.  1) You got no preview of what it would look like before you spent your money.  2) Cut scenes would not reflect these changes, though they would reflect changes if you had on a completely different outfit.

-       The menus are horribly laid out, confusing, and impossible to do anything quickly, whether it be messages in the wrong order (should be newest first), the crafting menu in possibly the least efficient way of doing that,  or the Assassins menu within a menu to get to the missions.

-       Cool to have doors and windows open that I can run through in a chase, but why, when I’m not running or being chased, does it make me automatically running through those?

-       Hunting quick time events.

-       If you completel your objective, but you’re in the middle of fighting 10 guys, it doesn’t matter.  Those 10 guys will just disappear.
-   Viewpoints.  Connor stands on practically nothing.  Al-tair and Ezio tended to have a bit more to stand on when surveying the land.  This is ridiculous.

AND HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET THE DATE WRONG FOR THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE!?!?!?!?!?

No, really, how?
That date is when Washington was made commander in chief of the Continental Army,
something that happened in an earlier segment of the game.

And if you, somehow, can make it through this game without being so frustrated at all of these smaller oversights that clearly point to a lack of time, money, or pride in worksmanship, or you felt you had to overlook it because you needed to see where this story goes, and you’re willing to deal with a Connor character that isn’t nearly as likeable as Ezio was, well, you make it to the end.

An anticlimactic end.

For a game so ambitious, it tried to do too much and fell short, unable to fit all of the disparate pieces together.

Score: 4.5 Flying Controllers

I give Assassin’s Creed 4.5 flying controllers.  Do not get into this game if you haven’t played the series from the beginning.  And only play it for the main story – no need to waste your time on the rest, as it adds nothing, and most of it is extremely frustrating and keeps you asking "why?" constantly.  I still want my time back.

Borderlands 2

Hurricane Sandy’s prevented me from getting my hands on my preordered copy of Assassin’s Creed 3, but it hasn’t kept me from playing anything else.  I’ve been meaning to do a critique of Borderlands 2 since my roommate picked up a copy of it earlier this month.

I’ll start off by saying this is not my first foray into the series.  I tried playing the original Borderlands before.  I didn’t beat it, but I gave it a good bit of time to see if I really enjoyed it.  I enjoy the RPG elements combined with a FPS, but I couldn't get into the story or the world that was created.  I could only go so far.  I felt like I was doing missions for missions' sake, and there was no real reason to my shenanigans.  But I decided to give the sequel a fair shot.

Starting off, I was playing co-op.  After playing co-op for a while, on split screen, and then trying it out single-player, there are some noticeable differences.

First, the co-op experience really makes it hard to understand what’s going on in the game.  I had a problem with that in the previous game, where it seemed like you never really knew what was going on, as the story just kept going along and dragging you with it.  Same thing here.  Except on co-op, you sometimes have no idea AT ALL why you’re doing something.  You just do it, because, well, your next objective is to do it.  Sometimes audio doesn’t seem to play to at least give you a hint.

But how do you know you’re supposed to do it? Because in your little menu, it’s listed there.  On split-screen, this really poses a problem.  It seems no good design or thinking went into what a split-screen experience would be like.  This menu doesn’t change size to fit your screen, so it’s very, very hard to manage all of the different things you need to do, such as changing your loadout, managing skill progression, choosing current objectives, assigning badass ranks (their words, not mine), and even finding out where you are on your map.

Try doing all of this with only half your screen.

It doesn't resize or reconfigure to fit if you're playing split screen.

If you can get past the feeling of cluelessness because you’re constantly wondering why you’re supposed to be doing whatever it is you’re doing, with a plotline that seemingly just drags you along for the ride (unfortunately a very normal aspect of many games that don’t put a premium on the writing), it can actually be a mindlessly entertaining game.

There’s a lot of action.  The game can really be a challenge if you don’t approach enemies the right way.  The different classes really help provide different gameplay experiences.  It can be a bit of a thrill to take on a hoard of enemies and come out on top, hanging on by the skin of your teeth.  And then to plunder nearby chests and...BEHOLD!  THE WEAPON OF WEAPONS!  Of course, in a few minutes, you'll find an EVEN BETTER weapon.  But it's fun as you keep finding more powerful ways to take out Badass Marauders, Shotgun Midgets, and Suicide Psychos.

Borderlands 2 again offers a very unique visual aesthetic.
Just bring friends, and then let the destruction begin!

Co-op, when not hindered by audio and visual issues, really adds to it.  It really helps to have a buddy when you take too much damage – they can help revive you.  Otherwise, you’re stuck on your own, fighting for that second wind that likely is too far off on more boss-level enemies.

Just don’t try to get too invested in the story.  The writers didn’t.  Take the game for what it is and it is likely to be an enjoyable experience with little needless frustration.  (You’ll still get frustrated when you can’t beat a boss after multiple tries…still haven’t taken care of Dr. Zed’s nemesis).

Score: 2 Flying Controllers

I give this game a solid two flying controllers, and that’s really it.  A couple things that Master P would approve of (make em say uhhhhh), but that’s it.  Actually a good score, as it's not terribly frustrating save for a few issues.  Entertaining so long as you know what to expect going in.

Tending to the Tedious in FIFA

As promised before, BoFC is working to use the time in between new games to offer up ideas for ways to improve games, instead of just tearing them down for everything wrong with them.

As such, and with FIFA 13 coming out, I want to take a look back at something in FIFA 12.  I cannot confirm this, but I doubt it’s something that’s been added yet, given EA’s level of commitment to innovation.

One of the great things EA has done with sports titles over the years is look for ways to expand game modes by offering a greater level of immersion, extending the game beyond the on-the-field action.  I remember how great it was playing through an entire season in a game, and then the new modes that allowed you to continue on to the next season, as if it was a full coaching career.

FIFA’s done this really well for multiple years.  However, there are some seriously tedious parts to the career mode, especially if you tend to take a more realistic approach to your managing style and don’t look to buy every single expensive player on the market (I picked my local team, the NY Red Bulls). 

One of my big issues is player development.  You’ve got a youth squad for which you recruit youth players, and then when they “mature” (at age 16), you can call them up to the big show or sell them.

Some of these guys have great potential, though, and you don’t want to sell them, because in a few years they’re going to be amazing, and you want to be getting that virtual pat on the back from the virtual team owners recognizing how great of a find this kid was.

Youth scouting in Brazil.

So maybe you put them on loan.  That’s great, but they don’t always progress that well.  Sometimes the best way is to have them play in the game.

But they might not be that good, so you won’t play them all the time.  You’ve got starters who are better.  So, invariably, you’ll end up before each game having to go through and switch up your lineup.  Again, not terrible, but sometimes you just wish the lineup could be automated.  You’ve got assistant coaches you can delegate this stuff to.  Especially if you’re looking to simulate a few games. 

Maybe you’ve reached a point in your career where the excitement of the game isn’t there, but you still love developing talent.  Many players like to simulate through many games without ever actually sitting down to play one.  Going in and setting your lineup each game to ensure you’ve got some young talent playing takes away from the pace. 

In fact, it’s quite tedious.

And this extends beyond player development.  You’ve also got to worry about fatigued players, injured players, suspended players, and unhappy players.  Every single game.

Had to take this picture of the squad setup screen with my phone because
there's no easy way to take a screengrab on Xbox.

As a simple add on, there should be a way to automate your lineup changes, based on your preferences.  Right now, if a guy is hurt or suspended, it will automatically take him out and put someone else in his place if you haven’t done that.  But that’s it. 

Give the player the ability to delegate.   A player could say hey, I want to ensure we have the best on the field, so always play the best guys, no matter how tired.  Or you could want to promote growth, so set it to play younger players with high potentials often.  Me, I’d like a good mix: make sure nobody’s tired, and of who’s not, put in a good mix of high-potential young players with my starters, so I might win, but it’s ok if I don’t.  And it’s something I can change for the next game. 

Maybe use some sliders that show how the lineup changes in real time, so you’re happy with the squad you’ve got set.  I haven’t tried coding anything, but I’m sure there’s some sort of formula or algorithm to work out that could weight each value on each player in your roster and put together the ideal squad.  Need a faster lineup? Prioritize speed.  Just need to keep them from scoring? Prioritize defensive abilities.

This is still something you may want to check each game, but it doesn’t mean you have to keep going through each player and moving him around on the roster.  By selecting a certain preference, you immediately see the ideal squad based on those priorities – all the tedious moves have been handled for you.

This will save minutes of a tedious task for more enjoyable playtime, whether you play every game or simulate on through.

A Much-Needed Addition to Next-Gen Consoles

In 2007, the coming launch of Halo 3 prompted me to buy an Xbox 360.  I'd already been considering it, and the looming launch of the next installment in one of my favorite franchises helped cement it for me.

The 360 has gone through multiple changes since 2007, and five years later, its offering as an entertainment console has redefined what many thought a machine for playing video games could be.

One of the smaller improvements I've enjoyed since the latest OS update is the integration with Facebook and Twitter to share achievements.  Microsoft has really made it a point to give people the chance to share what they enjoy, with social media integration being a great addition to the Xbox offering.

Sharing an achievement on Facebook.  Image via Xbox forums.

But there's so much more we can, and want to, share.

It may not have been the first game to do it (or maybe it was), but Halo 3 was the first game for me where I had the ability to go back, watch what I've played, and take pictures and videos of the action to upload and share on Bungie's dedicated Halo network.  (You might have been able to do this with Halo 2 as well, but I didn't have Xbox live until I got Halo 3, so I can't confirm this.)  This has spawned countless machinima series - one of the many creative outlets created by users when given tools like this.

Image via The Married Gamers, a screenshot of the Halo 3 file share portal

I loved this feature, as I could go back and relive that awesome double kill with a Spartan laser, and share visual confirmation of said pwnage with other users.  What bugged me, though, is that you could only share this with other players, as the only way to see the videos and images was to download them to your 360.  You could see them right there on your computer if you were a paying member of Bungie's website, but that didn't help me if I wanted to share things with non-players.

EA Sports eventually caught the UGC bug, and for the last few years, users have been able to save replays and screenshots to upload to EA's servers, where you can watch them online.  I've never felt the controls are as great as Halo's theater mode, which has made the creation of dynamic replays that are fun to watch a bit difficult, and the clips can't be that long, but it's nevertheless rewarding to be able to share that awesome bicycle kick you just scored in FIFA.  And even better, once you find your video online (which isn't always easy or immediate, and in fact, as I write this, it's become almost impossible to find any of the content I've uploaded on EA's site), you can share that link with anyone.  It's even more rewarding when someone you WANT to share the video with can enjoy it.

I'd put a video of this hilarious clip from a game of FIFA I played, but EA doesn't give the option to embed the video anywhere.  So here's a link.  It's better than the NCAA videos because at least it gives you sound, if not full commentary.

But all of these ways of sharing your gaming experience currently exist in-game only.  It requires you to go back and look at what you played, pick out parts, and then share them.  And it's not always the easiest way to share it with the real people you want to see it.  And not every game has the ability to view replays.

"But BoFC, how do people share videos of Mass Effect?  It doesn't have a replay mode."  Well, those are either recorded on the PC version of the game, or someone has bought extra hardware to send the Xbox (or PS3) AV stream to a PC in order to record it.

There's no need to buy extra hardware if it can be built into the operating system.  This is my proposal for next-gen systems.

Allow users, at the click of a button, to take a photo or record a video as they are playing.  Then, allow the user to share the video or image directly to any of their social networks.

All the pieces are in place, just not connected.  Microsoft has made parts of Xbox integrated with Facebook and Twitter.  Take it further.  Video and photo uploading is there.  Why not just let it go directly to the platforms that people already use?  No extra steps seeking out your uploaded content on low-quality servers to share with the people you want.

It could be as simple as an additional button on next-gen controllers.  Click it once, it takes a picture while you're playing.  Hold it for a second, it will start recording video.  Click again to stop.  All of these are saved to your hard drive, where you can then pick through the ones you want to upload directly to whichever platform you wish.

This operates over all functions on the console, so it can be used whenever.  And of course it can be disabled to prevent recording on Netflix, Zune (does anyone use that?), etc.

An extra button wouldn't be too much, as evidenced by this concept from Dave's Geeky Ideas that has Kinect functionality built in.

This will add a lot to all those games without replay modes where you couldn't share what you had just done because you had no option to.  For the games that do have great replay modes, it doesn't add much except the ability to upload directly to Facebook, Twitter, etc. (which I would love instead of having to hunt through EA's site to find my stuff and then share it).

And why wouldn't a console manufacturer want to include this?  It's not adding any data that needs to be stored on its own servers - everything is stored either on the user's hard drive or is uploaded to existing platforms.  Upload a video directly to Facebook - it's on their servers now.  Same with a photo to Twitpic.

And it's free advertising.  We know of the power of word of mouth, and how that's become amplified through social media.  If your friend shows you how enjoyable something is, you might be more inclined to check it out.

I'm not saying that me just showing a clip of fighting a dragon in Skyrim is going to convince someone to buy a new Xbox.  What's most likely is it would convince someone who already owns the system to consider the game.  It's a lot to say that this is going to get new console purchases.

But, if you were like me in 2007, perhaps all you needed was just that little push, inspired by a game, to get a new console.  And the console manufacturers wouldn't want to miss out on that.

Refining our Purpose

Sometimes, when the controllers aren't flying, we can find time to reflect on ways to make things better.  There are a lot of things that could be done to improve the experience, either with specific games or with universal changes across the industry.

Like a boss

BoFC is going to use the time in between rage reviews to give back to the world.  New ideas.  New thinking.  New optimism.

Other people have probably thought of some of these ideas, but we still want to point out where a little extra thought and investment can change the entire experience.

Maybe channelling all of this anger into smart, well thought-out explanations of these ideas will be a force for change in the industry.  Maybe.

Here's to new ideas, and the awesome mustaches and crazy hair that might accompany them!

NCAA Football 13 - Final Take

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of my "review."

Overall, after a few days of playing this, I stand by my decision to not buy it new.  Until EA can show it's ready to put some time, and more importantly, thought, into development, I'm not going to reward them with my money for this franchise - I'll buy it used again.

Score: 4 Flying Controllers

Lots of things to frustrate me, but there's enough here that I won't stop playing.

NCAA Football 13 (Part 2) - Dynasty Mode and a few other things

This is Part 2 of my "review" of NCAA Football 13.  For part 1, go here.

Played through one season on Dynasty mode.  A couple shining stars, but in all reality, it's glitter on a turd made up of a bunch of small things that really take away from a good experience.  Small things, that with a little thought, would really give this game a chance to be played without distraction.  Just some shining examples of laziness and lack of innovation.  This list kept getting longer as I went on:

• Building my coach - these guys still look incredibly unnatural and weird.  Can't EA pull non-football body figures and animations from something else?  Faces should be customizable as well.

• Coach philosophy is still confusing.  Never sure which side to put the slider depending on if I want to run or pass more.  If I slide it towards pass offense, I think it actually makes run offense larger.  And once I get into my dynasty and want to change it, the sliders are different, adding to the confusion.

• Conference realignment.  If I want to dissolve a conference, I should be able to.  Such as the WAC pretty much dissolving after this year.  And EA should have a patch to allow for automatic conference realignment with the moves we know are happening in the future (Boise St and co to Big East, Syracuse and Pitt to ACC).  I tried so hard to get it accurate, but small things like this will not allow me to do it (Sorry San Jose St. and Utah St. - you're still stuck in the WAC).  And it should adopt the playoff beginning in 2014.  Why, when we know how the rules will change in the future, we allow a game to play into the future without making these changes is beyond me.

• On that note, for things we know: If a team is going to be on probation and ineligible for postseason play, build that in.  Make it an option you can set to any team.  In fact, BRING BACK DISCIPLINARY PROBLEMS FOR PLAYERS AND PROBATION FOR SCHOOLS.  This was in previous games!

• Small thing.  When picking your team at the beginning, you can see a team's overall, offense, and defense ratings when they're not selected, but once you highlight it, it only shows you its prestige level, making it a nuisance to have to move it over to the side if you want to see the ratings. Just another UI issue.

• Somehow, without me selecting to, my saved roster with all names was saved over by the default roster, yet still with the save name of my specific roster.  Grrrrr.  At least I realized it very early before even selecting a team in Dynasty mode.

• More UI issues.  Been this way for a few years.  Looking at a roster, the trigger buttons SHOULD switch between positions, but only the right one does.  If you want to go back, you have to hold it down and scroll up.  Used to be you'd just hit the left one.  Instead, the left one is for switching through teams in the same bass-ackward manner.  The shoulder buttons aren't even used here and could be used for switching between teams.  Simple things like this - no thought whatsoever.

• On the schedule when picking games - let me see the date!

• **LOOKS LIKE MARKED IMPROVEMENT ON THE RECRUITING PITCH RATING SYSTEM.  YOUR SCHOOL'S RATINGS MAY ACTUALLY CHANGE BASED ON PERFORMANCE.  EXCITED TO SEE HOW THIS PLAYS OUT.  +1, EA.  +1.**

• And following that, of course, is the coach stability pitch.  Why does every single coach start at 0 years at the school? That's not the case at all!  If you have a problem putting this info in, EA, allow us to change this stat about each coach.  Most of us will given the chance.  Couldn't we change a coach's prestige last year? Doesn't seem like we can this year - and I don't agree w/ some of them.

• Also, the playing style pitch.  Great in theory, but if you play 5-minute quarters (default setting), you'll never get the kind of stats to make you competitive.  Even if your team is in the top 10, you might still find yourself at the bottom of these stats.  And some of the stats are very unclear as to what they actually represent - might be nice to have a little explanation, EA.

• In game, same as with RTG - if I'm a coordinator, let me watch the part of the game I'm not controlling uninterrupted!  Going to a different screen and having to hit a button to watch each play separately really disrupts the flow.

• What I do like is the addition of the studio updates.  Just found out about some big upsets happening on the first Saturday of the season.  However, Rece Davis's lines sound so canned and robotic that even Siri sounds more human and natural.  Also, like I mentioned before, it would be great if it could show video highlights.  All of these simulated games DO have stats, so detailed as to say when certain scores happened.  Why not just show what the play would have been?

• Just tried running the option.  Good thing it was against a terrible team - I meant to pitch it.  Years of muscle memory have taught me to hit a certain button to pitch it.  However, that easily accessible button is changed to accommodate the Heisman/RTG mode's slow-down-time feature.  Who makes a button only usable for one specific game mode?  Missed tackle resulted in a TD.  Lucky me.

• Video freeze/framerate issues at the beginning of each game.  This isn't major - could actually just be my xbox.  But it wasn't like this with previous versions.  If this is widespread, does a developer see this happening but say, "Hey, maybe nobody will notice? Or if they do, they'll let it slide?"  

• Instant replay review.  Ref's mouth still doesn't even remotely sync with what he says.  He continues moving his mouth a few seconds after finishing what he's saying.  Also, during the replay, everyone was running pretty much on their ankles - the grass doesn't correspond too well with where the actual player models interact with the ground, so their feet are running on something below the top of the grass.  Just like with the above, how is this ok? I remember going to a movie when I was young - a DuckTales movie - and the audio was all messed up and couldn't sync to the video.  Everyone was pissed, and the theater gave everyone a rain check.  Never ended up going back and seeing the movie, though - I think my parents probably used the raincheck for a date night.  Why can't we all get pissed when a game isn't up to par?  It's a small part of the game, yes, but a distracting one.

• Just a thought: if you're a head coach in dynasty mode, maybe at some point you should be able to vote in the coaches' poll.  Would be a fun little thing to add.

• Coaching carousel:  let me see ALL jobs that are opening up instead of just a couple at a time.  I may be holding out for a specific job (Florida), but get other offers before it.  I'd like to know if it will actually be opening up (sadly due to a firing because UF gets no love in this game this season).  Really, it's annoying to get offered a job, and you take it, but then you find out another one opened up that you more than likely would have been offered that you would have preferred more.

• More coaching carousel.  When I'm offered a contract, and I can see the roster, don't show me players that won't be there when I take the job.  Those seniors are graduating.  Don't try and lure me with players that won't be there.  Also, let me see the school's grades on things.  No coach would should walk into a job without knowing the full situation.

• Coaches who aren't hired after being fired should be retained in a pool for future years (depending on age).  See: Mike Leach, Terry Bowden.  These generic coaches that start popping up are just meh.  Also, it should be able to have old players turn into coaches - ones that maybe didn't get drafted can become an OC or DC after a few years.

• Coaches with different styles shouldn't be that common like it is here.  I run more of a pro-style offense.  I utilize a lot of running to set up the pass.  Don't offer me the OC job for an air-raid offense head coach.  We will not mesh.

• In game, I'm seeing some terrible coaching decisions with clock management.  If I'm working to run out the clock, the opponent has no timeouts, and now the AI is in charge of special teams on the punt, why did it snap the ball with 25 seconds still on the play clock? That could have cost us the game!

• Off season, it shows when players get drafted now.  That's cool, especially because it affects your Pro Potential grade.  Same problem with playing style, and with having any players eligible for awards: it's based on stats.  This means, if you play all the games, and don't do full 15 minute quarters (who has time for that?!?), you won't get anyone drafted high (or at all...).  Example: I just had an 87 OVR QB at ULL.  We went 11-1.  He set the record for QB rating (195 or so).  But his total number of passing yards, completions, TDs, etc - far less than anyone else at his position.  So my playing style for a passing QB is still a D.  And he went undrafted.  Will Blaine Gautier actually go undrafted?  We shall see - perhaps he is one of those college QBs that could never pass muster in the NFL.

• Whoops!  When setting up an on-campus visit, everything's all nice and color coded to help you choose the right activities.  During the off season, when you're setting up in-home visits, it doesn't match this year's style - still has last year's layout.  LAZY!!

Seriously - that's a lot of things that could be better.  Maybe some aren't feasible - but I think if someone just put in a little extra thought, they could plan for these things when putting in new features.  A lot of new stuff gets added, but it doesn't make it much better when things still don't make a lot of sense.

NCAA Football 13 - First Take

I've been faithfully buying the NCAA Football franchise since probably around 99 or 2000 (though I didn't buy 2005 for some reason).  I've said before that NCAA 2006 was the best in the franchise.  And after NCAA 12 came out, I stuck by that, and said I would not give EA any more money towards the NCAA Football franchise.

So I bought NCAA 2013 used.  Waited a few weeks.  Didn't preorder, so I wasn't awarded with extra Heisman players to use in the Heisman Mode.  Oh no.

Glad I waited.  Glad EA did not get my money.

As I play, I'll keep a running, updated log below of all the issues I encounter.  Things that are broken, things that make no sense, and things that I think would make things better.

• I'll be brief on visuals.  Nothing has improved in years.  Crowds still look terrible and repetitive.  Sidelines look even worse.  Populate the sidelines more.  You know what?  Why not have your actual teammates on the sideline instead of just random players in uniform.  They show up in the nice little cut scenes, but that's it.  Any nobody reacts to a player or ball coming to the sideline, or into the endzone.  It all looks great from the blimp view, but once we get down to field level, it feels so cheap.  How many players are on a football team?  I feel like just enough for maybe the first string by watching everyone run out at the beginning.  It's like a History Channel reenactment of some epic battle using only 20 people.  You know what it's SUPPOSED to be like, but this comes up incredibly short.

• Ok, not so brief, as there are more things I keep thinking of.  The fields still look terrible.  So you added grass last year.  Great.  The art in Road to Glory high school games, and I'm assuming it does the same for Create-a-School, looks terrible.  Might as well have put those letters on an 8-bit machine or into a pixel editor in ResEdit (c. 1994).

• The lighting on the score at the end of a game is way off.  Can barely see any of it.  Did you spend all your time on animations for the Nissan and Sparq logos flying in and out that you didn't do this?

• Speaking of Sparq - it's just thrown into RTG with no real effect on anything it seems.  Here's your number based on how you've done, but that's all.  But were' still going to leave a big Sparq thing in the drop down menu as one of the options to click...oh wait, you can't click it.  It's just there.  Highlight it as you go through the menu, but there's nothing to do with it.  I feel like Officer Barbrady should show up when you highlight it saying "Nothing to see here.  Move along people."  There are a few other menu items like this as well.  WHY?!

• We've had the same zombie-looking players for how many years now?  The face models need updating.  Emotion looks forced if it's there at all.  Nobody looks like they're trying.  Why can't we just customize a face instead of scrolling through 50 of them?

• Is a visor supposed to fit onto a Schutt Ion4D helment like that?  Just wondering - it looks odd.  There's a gap on the side between the end of the visor and the beginning of the helmet.  Part of your peripheral vision would not get the benefit of the visor - probably pretty distracting.

• The physics engine is nowhere near better.  Tackling players still seem to latch on from irrecoverable distances.  As a running back, you'll get stuck on a lead blocker and not be able to go anywhere.  The slightest bump may knock you over.

• Running the ball just doesn't work right.  Want to run it to the outside with no lead blocker?  Great, so long as your goal is to be bumrushed by an OLB or DB who never falls for a fake or misdirection.  Want to run up the middle? Better not get your knee caught on the butt of your OL - you won't go anywhere, and a DL will suddenly pounce on you like a cougar from Red Dead Redemption.  The animation looks the same.  Scenery is better in RDR though.

• The option still doesn't work.  It's hyped as one of the "improved" features this year, too.  The AI has no idea how to run it, so if you're a RB in Road to Glory or Heisman mode, you're SOL.  Expect losses almost every time.  And if you're the QB in this situation, the pitches still don't always work right.  And none of it looks natural at all.

• In Road to Glory, why auto-generate names for everyone if I've already got a roster full of names?  Now I'm playing in an alternate universe with the same teams but everyone has names I've never heard of.  So much for getting me prepared for the season.  Probably won't play RTG much longer just because of this, unless the game mode is really that enjoyable.

• On this subject, a few more RTG thoughts.  If I want to watch a play, let me continue to watch the whole time while I'm not on the field instead of having to pick to watch EACH play separately.  If I'm the player sitting on the sideline, show it from THAT view.  Make it really feel like I'm at the game.  At least, as far as I can tell, the right playbooks are used when you go to a college team now.  But man, the playbooks in the high school level are quite monotonous.  Maybe that's how they should be?

• Speaking of cameras in RTG, what about when you're actually playing?  If I'm running a route one direction, and the ball is thrown the other, I NEVER get to see what happened.
• Why can we not get video of a simulated play, yet? If you watch it, you can see it.  But if you simulate it, that play is lost to history.  If this is the case, is it actually that the outcomes are different from each other depending on which method you used?  I've done a fair bit of simulating and watching in the past - I feel like this is indeed the case.  Offenses seem to fare better when you simulate - meaning the gameplay doesn't allow the offense to work that well, even controlled by the AI.  Too bad.  I'd love to be able to get highlights from a specific game that was simulated during my season, or if I simulated a specific play, and it turns out someone returned a kick 97 yards, I'd like to go back and watch that.

• Why, when I've become the starting RB, am I still on the field goal block team?  Why am I still returning kicks?  You really don't give real coaches any credit.

• Position battle.  Cool idea.  Except it was not a battle at all.  Once I got 700 arbitrary points, I had the position.  I should be able to see how my competition does.  Go play for play.  I bet he would have beaten me - he's got a higher OVR.  I don't deserve to start after 3 games as a freshman RB at a 6-star caliber school.

• Why should I be punished in practice or games because of a bad play call or a great defensive play?  I lose 7 arbitrary coach trust points because I lost yards.  What was the play call? A screen pass that was busted as soon as I caught it.  Or an option play that tossed me the ball when someone was right next to me.  Or just really good defense stuffing me a yard behind the line.  If I were a coach, I'd lose confidence in my runner if he didn't run straight at that line of scrimmage and try to barrel through them.  Maybe if he was continually ineffective I might lose confidence, but not if on one play he lost a yard.

• I was a 5-star recruit.  I got the achievement for it.  Didn't get the reward for being a 5-star recruit in my Legend Score.  I've come to expect things like that to happen.  Like in Mass Effect 3 when I got the achievement for helping the colonists on Eden Prime, but not the in-game recognition.  

Controller hasn't flown from my hand yet, but it could happen soon.  Briefly popped up at one point, but wasn't a projectile.

More to come as I play.  I only started playing last night, and have only done one exhibition game and a bit on Road to Glory.  Dynasty mode will be a bigger test.  Lots of things that I've had issues with in the past, but there seem to be a lot of improvements EA is touting.