I must be in need of sleep. I just tried to plus karma a wall post on Facebook, only to discover, well... you know.
For those of you who are as tired as I am and/or are not privy to the workings of Facebook, said website does
not have a karma system.
Maybe it's because some friends and I caught a late showing of
Hot Fuzz last night, which is an excellent film by the fellow behind the widely-acclaimed
Shaun of the Dead. What's more, Simon Pegg returns as the protagonist, so fans of him in
Shaun (or fans of
Shaun in general) will find much to love in
Hot Fuzz. And that's all I've got for now, fellow GAFers.
Sorry
MotorStorm fans, but it looks like said game will bear the brunt of my complaints again (yes, there was a
first time).
It's been rumored for a few weeks, but today saw the official confirmation of the
MotorStorm ver. 1.2 patch, to be released in May. Awesome, right? Let's take a look at the new features:
- Game List Improvement: 'Game Status' is now displayed with the game list in the online lobby making it easier to find a session where you'll be able to join and race promptly.
- Host Identification: Within the game lobby the host is now clearly identified by a 'host' icon visible to all players and updated during host migration.
- Boost Exploit: A bug involving the boost system that allowed a player to use boost in an exploitative manner has been resolved.
- Buddy List Size: This has been updated to support up to 50 friends.
- Text Cut-off: When playing in standard definition all messages will now display as intended.
- Improved Stability Online: Online gameplay stability has been improved.
- Audio issues: All known issues with 5.1 / 7.1 surround have been fixed. Audio issues within the front-end have been resolved.
- Player Ranking: Players were found to be ranked incorrectly due to a bug. Because of this all online rankings will be reset and the ranking system should now function correctly.
Evolution and
Sony apologize for this measure but it will result in a fairer and more stable ranking system for all players.
- Auto-Start: Races will be forced to start after a fixed countdown which should dramatically reduce the waiting times in lobbies. Hosts may delay this countdown up to three times.
- Save Data Corruption: When quitting the game using the PS button it was possible to corrupt the save game data. This will no longer occur.
- Lobby Information: Upcoming track and current lap details will be displayed in lobbies.
- Vehicle Damage: When restarting a single player race during a death camera the damage wasn't always reset at the start of the next race. This has now been resolved.
- Missing Audio: Audio effects were missing from the death camera, these have now been reinstated.
- Name Tags: Added ability to switch the player name tags on / off during online races using a single button press (L1).
*crickets*
Looks like us PS3 owners who were looking for actual content - like new tracks or vehicles - will have to wait. True, the minor streamlining (bigger buddy list, etc) is nice, but the majority of the update consists of bug fixes.
Another area of concern is that, as you just read in the list, Evolution and Sony apologized for... having to fix the rankings. They should be apologizing for almost
all of it, as those are issues with which the game should have never gone to print (save data corruption, anyone?).
Of course, the problem here is not actually the
MotorStorm patch. The real issue is that game patches are increasingly becoming acceptable in our industry, as well as growing in frequency. This is a trend that Sony, Microsoft, AND Nintendo have allowed/ embraced to various extents.
The patching trend traces its roots to PC gaming, where game patches have been all but expected for many years now. On the console side, it began in 2002 with Microsoft's Xbox Live service. At the time, Microsoft pledged to never allow bug patches, but you can guess what happened next (they did). Now that we're fully into the current generation of PS3, 360, and Wii, all three manufacturers and their devs have the opportunity to short-change consumers with unfinished products.
A highly important distinction must be made at this point - there is a difference between
bug patches and
content updates. The former are an unacceptable "band-aid" to fix problems that should have been addressed before the games' release. The latter are welcome additions, and a great way to give a little extra to loyal fans. While Microsoft shamefully brought bug patches to console gaming, we do have them to thank for popularizing content updates as well (yay new Halo maps!). Downloadable content is the noble twin brother of the detestable bug patch.
"But wait!" you say. "Bug patches are good too, and they show that the developer still cares!" When approached from a certain angle, they do look pretty nice, hmm? But this is a twisted lie. We have to remind ourselves that bug patches address issues that should never exist in the first place, like
MotorStorm's data corruption and myriad other problems. A caring developer would have fixed them before you ever got your hands on the game. Don't feed into the lie.
So where does all that leave us?
1) The increasing acceptability of bug patches has allowed developers to release inferior, broken, and unfinished products. Bug patches should be rare at best, and should be relegated to an "emergencies only" basis.
2) Downloadable content is one of the most underrated new advantages of this generation. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo should continue to foster and encourage downloadable content on their respective systems. For developers, add downloadable content when it is a natural fit for your games, and you'll see your fans' appreciation manifest itself in future purchases.
Lately, I've been playing the downloadable
MotorStorm demo on the PS3 a little bit. The game has received high marks across the board, and has the honor of being one of the finest looking PS3 games to date. Due to everything I'd heard and seen (did I mention
MotorStorm looks amazing?) I figured that it would surpass its off-road counterpart on the Wii,
Excite Truck. As some of you may know,
Excite Truck is a BIG personal favorite of mine, but even I felt like
MotorStorm would outclass it.
Man, was that an incorrect assumption.
Despite running circles around
Excite Truck graphically, MotorStorm simply lacks the level of energy and suspense found in Nintendo's racer. Or, as my roommate astutely observed, "
MotorStorm feels like an off-road
Gran Turismo." In other words, finely detailed but
slow. No offense to the
GT series, of course, as it's one that I really enjoy on occasion. But there's no question that the two games -
MotorStorm and
Gran Turismo - trade speed and arcade-style intensity for realism.
MotorStorm tries to have it both ways by injecting complex physics-driven crashes into the gameplay (which are fun to watch for a while), but it ends up falling short anyway.
I look forward to playing the full game soon so I can get a better feel for it, but the point is that
Excite Truck fully holds up next to the newcomer... and I didn't expect that at all. Realistic physics and graphics will bring games to a new level in the coming years, but sometimes good old fashioned game design wins at the end of the day.
