General gaming

General gaming

PODCAST: Tune in for More Narrative in Gaming

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 10:55 PM PDT

We gave you guys a ton of written content on story in games this week, but we still wanted to do a bit more outside of the written word. So, to cap off our Cover Story on Narrative in Gaming, we have an especially amazing episode of Games, Dammit!

OP-ED: Hoping for a Positive Outcome From EA's Lawsuit Against Zynga

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 03:40 PM PDT

The Sims Social

Two of the industry's biggest companies are set to square off in court as Electronic Arts has filed a lawsuit alleging that Zynga's Facebook title The Ville has "copied and misappropriated" elements of EA-published Facebook game The Sims Social. Since its initial reveal, The Ville has been summed up by many as Zynga's version of The Sims; whether that is an oversimplification will be a matter for the courts to decide. For now, we get to ponder the implications of two of the most maligned companies in the industry -- Zynga is often derided for copying others' games and failing to innovate, among other things, while EA's business tactics landed it the unofficial distinction of being America's worst company earlier this year -- facing off against each other.

To say Zynga has been having some issues as of late would be an understatement. Its stock has been in decline for most of the year and was subjected to another nosedive just over a week ago; this came on the heels of a poor quarter that resulted in COO John Schappert being replaced as head of game development. And with the company doing so poorly on the stock market, it is now facing a class action lawsuit which alleges executives knew of an impending crash that prompted them to sell in excess of $500 million in stock earlier this year.

Unclear Destiny: The Future of Shenmue 3

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 01:04 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 30 | NARRATIVE IN GAMES

Unclear Destiny: The Future of the Shenmue 3

Cover Story: 1UP Staff and friends weigh in on the uncertain fate of Yu Suzuki's ambitious open world series.

D

o you believe in miracles? The people behind the Twitter accounts Team Yu, Shenmue 500k, and Shenmue UK apparently do, as they've recently made it their goal to return control of Dreamcast classic Shenmue to its rightful owner -- creator Yu Suzuki. Today, they're encouraging fans of the series to tweet out with the hash tag #GiveYuTheShenmueLicense in an attempt to let Sega know that Suzuki's epic tale deserves a finale more fitting than wallowing in social game limbo. Regardless of the movement's success, TeamYu has made us all start thinking about Shenmue again, which should be counted as some kind of progress. With the slim possibility of Shenmue 3 in the future, we decided to ask friends of 1UP and staffers alike where they'd like to see the series go next -- if it goes anywhere, that is.

If Shenmue 3 were to become a real thing, as trailblazing as the original game was, I would hope that [assuming it's] Suzuki-san would put the script in the hands of 1) a genuine script-writer or author, in the way that Sega's Yakuza series (which owes SO much to Shenmue) did with their franchise, and 2) puts the localization in equally capable hands. Awkward translation and tepid pacing may have worked when we were still amazed by open worlds and cutting edge graphics, but those days are long gone. Games have now reached Hollywood-level cinematic quality and anything less for a game like Shenmue 3 simply won't cut it. Shenmue 3 would also need to focus on the storyline and the pacing, big time. It was barely interesting to perform menial tasks like forklift driving and dusting off books back in the day, but we play games to escape the doldrums of real life.

What Happened to the Action RPG?

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 12:10 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 30 | NARRATIVE IN GAMES

What Happened to the Action RPG?

Cover Story: Is Diablo III the last bastion of the genre that once married action and storytelling?

Y

eah, I know. You think Diablo III is the worst game of the year; maybe the worst game ever. A complete insult. Now that you've sunk 120 hours into the game and completed Inferno mode with three different character classes, you can say with confidence that the game is a complete disgrace, and as soon you finish bringing a fourth character to level 60 and beating the highest difficulty level again, you'll never touch the game again, probably.

But let's look beyond the inadequacies of Diablo III's loot drop tables and consider the series as a whole. I think it's fair to characterize the original Diablo as a revolution in game design. Detractors may sneer about all the clicking you do, but the act of clicking directly on targets to perform actions brought something new to the table for PC RPGs: Action. Its classes and gear and loot brought something new to PC action games: RPG mechanics. Together, they combined into a single addictive Skinner box that made PC gamers stop and realize that maybe, just maybe, an RPG didn't need to operate entirely through indirect menus in order to contain legitimate depth.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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