Gaming Links and Notes
Next Generation has a detailed Fallout 3 story with plenty of information about the game. It will make you even more sorry that the game isn't coming out until next year, and you can read it here.Oh, and if you haven't seen the most perfect piece promotional merchandise ever for a game, then take a look at the Fallout 3 lunchbox here.
Gamasutra has an excellent feature about the history of Zork. Read it here.
After reading quite a few NCAA 08 previews and not finding much useful information, Madden Matrix put up an excellent story with their impressions of the game from the June 12 EA Community Day. I found more useful details in this article than everything else I've read combined, and you can read it here.
Here's a new trailer for APF2K8, and it's the first time I've seen footage that made my anticipation go up instead of down. Watch it here.
I played The Bigs for a few hours yesterday (thanks Gamefly), and it's better than I expected. The game does a nice job of exaggerating the gameplay of baseball while still retaining some of the essence.
One design decision is a killer, though. There are a huge number of batted balls that deflect off fielders, and it's annoying as hell. It happens so often that it's incredibly distracting.
It's very surprising, though, that it does some things better than 2K7. For one, animations run at the proper speed in relation to each other, which 2K7 has a serious problem with. Actually, the animation in general (even though much of it is exaggerated, given the nature of the game) is better than 2K7. Far better framerates, too.
Post-patch, 2K7 is a much better play with the pole fielding camera. But they should look at every single animation speed and every transitional animation, because it doesn't work to have two almost-perfect animations joined awkwardly.
Plus, they need to focus on the pitcher's camera. It's great to have the catcher call the game, and it would be tremendous to play that way, but the animation of the ball in that camera view is absolutely terrible--the ball comes out of the pitcher's hand very awkwardly, and the ball has no "weight" whatsoever as it travels toward the plate. Having a ball travel in the correct arc is what establishes the animation as "real," and it's so poor from behind the pitcher in MLB2k7 that it feels like it came from Hardball II.
The view from behind the batter is much, much better. It's just that when your team is in the field, it's far more fun to play from that view.
I have high hopes for next year. I always do.
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