General gaming

Looking at the Future of Video Games
How to Handle the Internet's Worst Trolls
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Loses Cross-Platform Play
Square Enix Localization Looks to the Future
Street Fighter X Tekken Review: A Fun Fighting Crossover Held Back by Corporate Greed
OP-ED: With Mass Effect 3, BioWare Snuggles up to Inclusivity

Posted: 06 Mar 2012 03:27 PM PST

The 2012 Game Developers Conference is in full swing this week, sprawling across all three buildings of San Francisco's Moscone Center. While lots of interesting things happen each year at GDC, we realize they're often very dry and technical GDC is an swap meet where the people who make the games you love trade ideas, not a convention like PAX or a trade show like E3. In other words, you shouldn't expect many huge announcements or in-depth hands-on with hot upcoming titles this week.

How to Handle the Internet's Worst Trolls

Posted: 06 Mar 2012 03:13 PM PST

The deplorable behavior of a vocal minority has given Xbox Live a well-deserved reputation. Fans know to keep their headsets off it they don't want to listen to an endless stream of ignorant slurs. Other online game communities maintain equally poor reputations -- ever been a new player in a game of League of Legends or DOTA? As players, we have the luxury of taking our attention elsewhere -- either to single-player or to other games entirely. The developers of these games don't have that option, the community picks the game, not the other way around. Bound to serve their game's fans, regardless of how poor, game makers must learn to handle their native populations' trolls and anti-social behavior.

Mike Drach, Producer on the popular ForumWarz game, learned through a long process of trial and error, how to manage the one of the most unruly communities, and shared the lessons he's learned in a presentation at the Game Developers Conference. With communities becoming more important to the industry, Drach explained how to cope and make the most of the fan base you're given.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Loses Cross-Platform Play

Posted: 06 Mar 2012 12:03 PM PST

Among the biggest additions in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, at least on the surface, was support for cross-platform play. As revealed a few weeks after the game's initial announcement last August, players on PC, Mac, and PlayStation 3 were to be able to play online against each other. That is no longer the case, with Valve making the call to ditch cross-platform play.

Believe it or not, the rationale for doing this is not because PS3 players would be at a disadvantage against keyboard-and-mouse-wielding computer players. (This advantage was to be downplayed slightly through support for both PlayStation Move and keyboard and mouse control setups on PS3, in addition to DualShock/Sixaxis.) Instead the decision was driven by a desire to be able to deliver updates for the game as often as Valve would like, and on consoles those simply cannot happen as rapidly as on computers.

Square Enix Localization Looks to the Future

Posted: 06 Mar 2012 11:40 AM PST

Few companies know the ins and outs of game localization (adapting a game from its native region into something that sounds natural and appropriate in other languages) better than Square Enix. The English localization of Square's games has gone from laughable -- see the barely-comprehensible English script for Final Fantasy II circa 1991 -- to some of the best around. Much of the credit can be traced back to Richard Honeywood, who spoke at GDC five years ago on his work to take Square's localization department from two people to a full team during the PlayStation era.

Street Fighter X Tekken Review: A Fun Fighting Crossover Held Back by Corporate Greed

Posted: 06 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PST

From the moment you press start for the first time, Street Fighter X Tekken is ready and willing to help you to become a better fighting game player. That's a bold goal, for sure; and one that the developers at Capcom have struggled to implement for casual players in their past fighting games. Understandably, this is something a lot of developers struggle with: How do you open the flood gates so everyone can enjoy your game and still keep the hardcore happy at the same time? The first entry in the crossover series between Street Fighter and Tekken takes baby steps towards leveling the playing field to favor both casual and hardcore, but fumbles a few interesting ideas along the way. The best parts of SFXT manage to shine through though, even if part of it feels like a starter pack for more content down the road.

SFXT's biggest asset is its art style, and nothing here steals the show quite like it. By borrowing from the exaggerated and inky trappings of Street Fighter 4, SFXT sports a familiar look but manages to improve on it through darker/richer colors and a more diverse cast. Arguably, Street Fighter has seen its share of blond-haired warriors and martial arts dudes who scream while wearing Karate gis, so understandably the new additions to the roster shouldn't feel that fresh. But, somehow, they still do. The Tekken fighters add a layer of visible flair that complements the existing Street Fighter roster quite well, and simultaneously introduce new play styles for players to learn. With 38 combatants to mix and match, there's plenty to discover here.