360 Rant Rave Forums

Introduction:
The Xbox 360 arcade has given us plenty in the way of great, reworked classics, but finding a good original arcade title, with a few rare exceptions, has been a real challenge. Well, say hello to The Maw, winner of the 2008 PAX 10 Audience Choice award. The Maw is a cute purple blob with one eye and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Despite being only an arcade title, The Maw, the first original title from Twisted Pixel, has very high production values and resembles a full retail game – albeit a somewhat short one.

Gameplay:
You are Frank – a diminutive alien trapped on a spaceship. After a crash-landing, you team up with The Maw to explore a strange world and find a way to escape. You cannot control Maw directly. Instead, you control Frank and lead Maw around with an energy beam/leash device you find near the crash site. You can also call Maw to come to you when he’s off the leash. 

Starting out rather small, all Maw can eat at first are little pink puff balls called Yums. After eating just a few however, Maw begins to grow. The more Maw eats, the more he grows – and grow he will! As Maw eats his appetite becomes more varied, and the larger he gets the more diverse his diet will become.

Using some basic platforming skills and some light puzzle-solving, you and Maw must find your way around eight bright and colorful levels. Each level’s design is unique and helps to add some variety to the gameplay to keep things interesting. In addition, Maw will also take on some of the properties of the creatures he consumes. This gives Maw various abilities, such as belching fire, puffing up like a floating balloon, growing a horn to ram objects and enemies and even the ability to fire lasers. Each of Maw’s new abilities are well suited to the particular level you are playing, but Maw only gets to have one ability at a time.

Rated E 10+, The Maw is intended as a relaxing game and it certainly is. In fact, you can’t even die. You will encounter various obstacles and have some enemies to take out along the way, but these enemies are only minor annoyances. They are not lethal. Some gamers may not like that you can’t die, but the overall simplicity of the gameplay keeps things moving at a nice pace and helps the gameplay and puzzles from getting monotonous.

Visually stunning, you may have to remind yourself that The Maw is an arcade title. With crisp and colorful graphics and unique and entertainingly animated characters, The Maw looks top notch. Sound in The Maw is equally impressive – especially the original music. It’s whimsical and well varied, and lends just the right feel to each level of the game. Frank and Maw don’t really speak (though Frank does yell out “Maw” when he’s off the leash and you call to him), but their sounds and reactions give them each a unique and fun personality.

Extras:
The Maw is a single-player only game, and does not feature play on Xbox Live. However, Twisted Pixel is already hard at work on three new levels. There’s no release date for the DLC yet, but let’s hope it’s sooner than later. There isn’t a lot of replay value to The Maw, though I have played through the game twice already and still find it enjoyable. It may also take you a few plays through to find everything and solve every puzzle.

Conclusion:
In a gaming world filled with kill/death ratios, online leaderboards and intense competition, it’s nice to have a fun, relaxing game like The Maw when you need a little break from the madness. The only real drawback is the game’s short length, but then it is only a small arcade title and the first DLC is on the way. With its high production values, excellent graphics and sound and memorable characters that make the gameplay fun, The Maw is a great game for your 800 marketplace points.

Score: 8.8

Enter the simulation pod and embark on one of the greatest military campaigns of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. Experience harrowing winter combat using Fallout 3’s patented V.A.T.S. targeting system, and employ powerful new equipment like the Gauss Rifle, Chinese Stealth Armor, Winterized T-51b Power Armor, and more. Enlist today, soldier!

Download it here for 800 MS Points.  More screen shots here.

Twisted Pixel Games, working in conjunction with the Galactic Council, mistakenly let The Maw escape from his quarantine early Monday afternoon. Scientists predict the destruction of all life in the galaxy “probably by next Wednesday.” Twisted Pixel’s CEO Michael Wilford responds: “Real sorry about that. That’s totally my bad.” Twisted Pixel refused further questions, instead announcing the award-winning game’s release date, price point, and website location. The Maw is the company’s first original IP, a product of monumental effort by a passionate and loving team, and also their first venture into galacticide.

The Maw is coming on January 21st to Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade. The game will be localized for a wide range of languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Traditional Chinese. Pleas for help in any of these languages have all gone ignored by this one-eyed purple beast of the apocalypse, currently measuring the size of a basketball.

The Maw will be available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10 USD). “We set out from the very beginning to create the most content-rich and impressive game that we could for ten bucks and 150 megabytes,” said CCO and Director Josh Bear. “There are over 900 animations, 1000 sound effects, 25 music tracks,  200 visual effects, and 150 models, making this an incredible value for your $10… in the time that we have left.” Bear then wept bitterly.

The Maw will weigh in at a slender 150MB due to the superpowers of Granny 3D and its stupefying 85:1 compression ratio for animation data. Without it, The Maw would require more than 2GB of space, a size more attributable to retail titles. “I don’t think we could have done it without Granny,” says CTO Frank Wilson.  “The simplicity of integrating the technology into our engine, the artist-friendly tools, and the brilliance of their compression algorithms are unbeatable.”

The Maw will offer the rare opportunity for players to win a free premium theme as an in-game unlockable.  The only way to get the theme (and free gamerpics too) is to play The Maw and find them.

So get ready – The Maw is coming.

Game on!

Microsoft and Ensemble gave Halo and strategy game fans a reason to celebrate yesterday as Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, confirmed during his CES keynote presentation that the “Halo Wars” demo will launch Feb. 5 via Xbox LIVE. Additional details about the “Halo Wars” demo will be provided shortly.

Halo Wars will be available at retail as follows:

• Japan and Asia Pacific: Feb. 26
• Europe: Feb. 27
• US, Canada, Mexico and South America: March 3

Electronic Arts Inc. and Paramount Digital Entertainment today announced that The Godfather(r) II videogame will be shipping on February 24th in North America and on February 27th in Europe. The Godfather II allows players to both act like a mobster and think like a Don, by immersing them in a 1960′s organized crime world. As a Don, players can build a crew and grow their family in an effort to become the most powerful mob syndicate in America. Players will be able to choose how and when to use their Made men, either by commanding them directly in battle as part of their crew, or by sending them to do a job in another part of the world – bombing rival family rackets, attacking their businesses, or defending your own.

Players who pre-order The Godfather II at participating retailers worldwide will receive an exclusive crew member, named Tommy Cipolla, to hire into their family. While the other soldiers at the start of the game come equipped with one specialty and level-one firearms, Tommy will be the only crew member to possess two specialties – arsonist and medic – as well as carry a level-two double-barreled shotgun. With Tommy in your family, players will have a strategic advantage in the game, using his advanced skills either directly in battle, or sending him to take over and defend rackets on his own.

The Godfather II takes the open-world genre in an entirely new direction. Part of the fascination with The Godfather fiction is the feeling of power that comes with being the Don of an organized crime family – and The Godfather II game puts the control in your hands. While at its heart The Godfather II remains an action game, it also features deep new strategic gameplay mechanics never before seen in an open-world game. The strategic elements to the game allow you to extend the fantasy of building and running your own organized crime family. This means that you have to build and invest in your family, manage your businesses, and reach out to corrupt officials – all of which is done through the revolutionary Don’s View. The Don’s View is a 3D representation of your criminal empire in all three cities; it allows you to coordinate your strategy, plan hits on rival Made men, attack enemy rackets, and much more. The Godfather II delivers the ultimate organized crime experience by allowing you to call the shots.

Developed at the EA Redwood Stores studio, The Godfather II will be coming to the Xbox 360(r) videogame and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION(r)3 computer entertainment system, and PC. The Godfather II has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB and 18+ for PEGI.

Game on!

Black Box, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio announced today that the Skate 2 demo will hit Xbox Live Marketplace on January 8th and the PlayStation Network on January 15, 2009. The demo introduces players to the city of New San Vanelona where they can skate with style and individuality via access to the enhanced character customization tools.  Gamers will get a first glimpse of the deep single-player story and exciting challenges in all-new locations. The Skate 2 demo will also feature two of the game’s online Party Play modes: Thrasher’s Hall of Meat and Spot Battle.

Skate 2 ups the ante in delivering all the grit, creativity and culture of skateboarding. Equipped with double the bag of tricks, players are tasked to rebuild their career and revive the skate scene. Now with the ability to get off-board and move objects, gamers can create their own epic spots and challenges, which can then be uploaded, shared and experienced by others around the world.

Skate 2 hits retailers in North America on January 21st, and worldwide on January 23, 2009 – making it one of the first must-have games of 2009. Skate 2 is developed by Black Box, a studio of Electronic Arts in Vancouver, British Columbia and will be available on the Xbox 360(r) video game and entertainment system and the PLAYSTATION(r)3 computer entertainment system. The game is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB and is rated 16+ by PEGI.

Game on!

Each console generation brings with it fierce competition between the consoles/companies.  While it’s undisputable that Nintendo did what was necessary this generation to securely capture the casual gaming market (as Wii sales clearly indicate), the battle for the attention of the more hardcore gaming crowd was, again, between Microsoft and Sony.   

Could it be that simply making it to market first is the reason Microsoft is faring better than Sony this console generation?  It very well could be – and if that’s the case, it’s all due to some smart business decisions by Microsoft, and a bit of embarrassing oversight by Sony.

In their new book, “The Race For A New Game Machine,” David Shippy and Mickie Philips (two people direclty involved in the development of the Cell processor chip), shed some light on the intense battle to bring the Xbox 360 and the PS3 to market. 

From a Wall Street Journal article on the book:

All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would eventually sell the Cell to other clients. But it does not seem to have occurred to Sony that IBM would sell key parts of the Cell before it was complete and to Sony’s primary videogame-console competitor.The result was that Sony’s R&D money was spent creating a component for Microsoft to use against it.

Some might see this as IBM being deceitful but most of us are well aware that, in business, money is the bottom line – and Microsoft had made quite a generous offer to IBM for the technology. 

From the book’s prologue:

Akrout told me that over a billion dollars (from Microsoft) was involved, spanning the entire spectrum from development to chip manufacturing.

In addition, as pointed out above, Sony neglected to make sure their agreement to not sell the cell technology until later covered individual components of the chip instead of only the completed processor.  So IBM was on firm legal ground. 

Both chips, the Sony version and the MS version, were on the same design timeline for IBM, but one key decision made my Microsoft and not by Sony is a big part of what allowed Microsoft to beat Sony to market.

Both designs were delivered on time to IBM’s manufacturing division, but there was a problem with the first chip run. Microsoft had had the foresight to order backup manufacturing capacity from a third party. Sony did not and had to wait another six weeks to get their first chips.

So Microsoft actually got the chip that Sony helped design before Sony did. In the end, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 hit its target launch in November 2005, becoming its own success. Because of various delays, the Playstation 3 was pushed back a full year.

Most of the other delays the PS3 suffered in getting to market were related to manufacturing difficulties and shortages for components of the blu-ray drive (a big risk by Sony at the time, since the format war had not yet been decided).  However, the delay in getting the manufactured chips meant a delay in Sony getting development kits to the game developers.  This may not seem like a big deal, but it had a major impact on the first few batches of PS3 game titles to hit the market.

The early, non-exclusive titles that appeared on the PS3 all suffered from one unfortunate criticism: they all looked worse than their Xbox 360 counterparts. 

PlayStation loyalists worldwide didn’t understand.  How could this be?  Sony had been touting the PS3 as a far more powerful system (part of their justification for the PS3′s initial price tag of $499/$599), yet the games were looking better and sharper on the Xbox 360. What was going on here? 

Let’s take a moment to think back a generation.  Technologically, it was quite clear last generation that the Xbox was superior to the PlayStation 2.  However, for the first year or more of the Xbox’s life cycle, every non-exclusive title that came out looked better on the technologically inferior PlayStation 2. 

The reason has to do with typical game development practices.  Designing a game concurrently for two different platforms from scratch is a lot of work, and far more clostly than developing for a single platform and then ‘porting’ to others. 

This is what happened last gen.  Since the PlayStation 2 came out first, it was the development platform of choice for the majority of game developers.  A game would be developed for the PS2 and then simply ported to the Xbox without any enhancements to take advantage of the Xbox’s more powerful processor and additional memory. 

This generation, the opposite occurred.  Since the Xbox 360 arrived first (and Microsoft provided excellent developer tools to game designers), the Xbox 360 became the development platform of choice for most game developers.  This meant that, for the first year or more of the PS3′s life cycle, it’s games were developed on the Xbox 360 and then simply ported to the PS3. 

Since the Xbox 360 and the PS3 use such similar technology, however, even if the developers had spent the extra time and money to develop those early titles for the PS3 seperately, from scratch, the PS3 versions wouldn’t have looked any better than their Xbox 360 counterparts – just as good perhaps but not better. 

The only percieved advantage the PlayStation 3 has over the Xbox 360 is the inclusion of a blu-ray drive.  Once blu-ray won the format war against HD-DVD, this became an ever greater advantage for PS3 owners.  However, deciding to include the blu-ray drive was a major reason for the delays in bringing the PS3 to market, and gave it an initial price tag that put off a lot of gamers (many of which felt that Sony was ‘using’ them to further blu-ray’s position in the movie format war). 

Is the PS3 a good gaming machine?  Yes – witout question.  However, it appears Sony may have helped themselves lose the battle this console generation due to some unfortunate business decisions along the way.  The delays those decisions caused are the main reason Sony is struggling this generation.  If not for the stellar sales of the Wii to the casual gaming crowd, Microsoft would surely have taken the crown this generation. 

Game on!

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been a bit slack on posting this past month.  Well, it’s been a busy holiday season for me, but now that the horrible year of 2008 is behind us, we can all focus on making 2009 the best year ever. 

Watch for more gaming news, more articles, and my own personal progress towards getting my Microsoft certification and hopefully heading my career in a new direction. 

Keep working.  Keep playing.  And, of course, game on!