PAY TO SLAY
A recent article in Sports Illustrated mentioned how gamer Tsquared has an online company that teaches gamers how to play. He said he’ll personally show you how to play Halo 2 for $155/hour — and that people are paying.
    Two thoughts on this: (1) What idiots would pay more than twice the cost of the game and a guidebook just to be shown how to play (and for only an hour)? The fun of the game is to figure it out yourself and improve as you play. That’s worse than using cheats or reading a walkthrough. (2) This guy’s a genius!
— Henry

We say: Playing the piano requires skill. Playing tennis requires skill. And while it’s not often given the proper credit, playing videogames requires skill. Skills have to be learned, whether you teach yourself or someone teaches you. So just as a budding musician might hire a piano teacher to learn how to tickle those ivories, or an athlete in need of a powerful backhand might seek out a personal tennis coach, gamers may desire expert advice from a private tutor. After all, you get better only with practice; private lessons simply accelerate and focus that practice, be it with music or sports or gaming. And if Tsquared can make a buck while teaching other people how to snipe a Spartan’s head clean off, who are we to judge?

SHHHHHH
Why’s the Xbox 360 so loud? It seems odd considering how the PS3 and the Wii are both so silent. It sometimes takes me out of the game, and makes me want to play original-Xbox titles or Xbox Live Arcade games (which have less background noise, though the system’s still loud). Will Microsoft do anything about this issue in future versions of the 360?
— Samuel Stafford

We say: What? We couldn’t hear you over our 360s. The console’s triple-core processor and custom ATI graphics chip both generate a lot of heat, and the only way the developers could keep the console from melting itself was to install a giant metal heatsink over the chips and put two high-speed fans in the back of the unit. The fans — which constantly suck away damaging heat — are the main source of the noise, although the DVD drive spinning up and down shares the blame.
    There is hope for the future, however: As chip sizes decrease, so does the heat they generate. A future version of the 360 could have fewer fans or a completely different exhaust solution altogether. The 360 was originally supposed to be water-cooled, à la a high-end PC; maybe that’s still in the works for a magical someday.

KILL ME…PLEASE!
I have a question about Prey: How do you LOSE? I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t do it! After I got Death Walk (like 15 minutes into the game, playing on Hard), I found it totally impossible to get a “Game Over.” Seriously, I let enemies kill me, I suicided, I jumped into outer space, I leapt off mile-high ledges, I blew myself up, and I even tried to end the game by killing plot-essential characters — but to no avail. I didn’t even lose my guns or ammo.
I think it takes a lot of the fun out of a game when it’s physically impossible to lose and you’re completely invincible. If you wanted to take the time, you could kill half the enemies in Prey using a friggin’ wrench. Prey may be an impressively innovative game, but it poses no real challenge for even a casual gamer. WTF is up with that?
— Chris Demos

We say: Okay, this is just creepy. When we moved into our new offices last year we found a cryptic prophecy right behind the coffee machine. It read, “The Arrival of Demos shall Signify the Death of Death Itself.” Naturally, we thought it had something to do with our monthly disc, or perhaps a cool Xbox Live Marketplace download that would make us immortal or something — but now we see it was about you all along. We die every time we play Prey, so there’s no other way to say it, Chris: You may be a god.
    An alternate theory: Maybe Prey was designed to remove some of the frustration of traditional shooters and turn a frustrating negative into a gameplay-filled positive —
one that fits the game’s theme of Native American spirituality. Besides, you’re going to hit the button to restart anyway; why not shoot things in the afterlife to make that inevitable renewal more fun?
    Nah, that’s crazy talk. We’re sticking with the prophecy.


WAYS OF WAR
I have a question about etiquette when playing Gears of War in Execution mode. When a teammate downs an opponent, when is it okay to kill him? I’m constantly blamed for “stealing” people’s kills, yet when I try to wait and give it to them, often the enemy gets back up and kills us all.
I don’t kill anyone when someone is standing right over them or really close to them — I’m not a jerk or anything. (I’ve run into those players as well, who dive in to take your kill when you’re two feet away.) I don’t care if a teammate kills someone that I downed from 30 feet away: If they’re closer, be done with that enemy and move on to the next. Saves me a trip so I can be checking behind me.
    I’m starting to think that the desire for rankings and Achievements has severely affected games like Gears of War that are based on real teamwork. Teammates still fight teammates for more kills, higher Gamerscores, and so on. I prefer to play as a real team, where survival of the group and death of the enemy are the main goals. I’d rather be last on the winning team and have contributed (even if it’s just damage points) than first on the losing team because I screwed over my teammates.
— Jonathan Walker

We say: We’re with you 100 percent, Jonathan. We like playing as a unit rather than pumping up individual rankings, and we rarely accuse someone of stealing a kill. When people play only for Achievements (you get them for obtaining 100 kills with each weapon in Ranked games, so some folks are focused solely on that), they tend not to play smart or like a team. Once the score whores have collected their glittering prizes and left town, we’ll hopefully see players settle down and start to think more about group strategy than glory. New objective-based game modes would certainly help…


BIG IN JAPAN?
I found Geoff Keighley’s article “The Japan Problem” (Holiday 2006 issue) both interesting and insightful. But I have to ask: Is it really a problem? It’s nice to see that games are being developed on the Xbox 360 for the Japanese market, but I see this battle as unwinnable. The “Big Two” (Nintendo and Sony) are so entrenched in Japan, Microsoft may never get a decent foothold. Obviously, market share equals real dollars — or yen, in this case — but I think if the 360 continues to do well in the U.S. and Europe, Japanese game designers will have to develop games for those markets. This upshot benefits the U.S. gamer with titles such as Dead Rising.
    It sounds like this may be more of an ego battle than an actual “problem.” My only question for you is, If this was any company other than Microsoft (with such lofty goals and expectations), could it survive? Personally, I don’t think it could. I’m just glad I have my 360 and games like Gears of War and Call of Duty 3!
— Darin Minton
 
We say: If gaming is a global business, then Microsoft wants to see success in every territory possible — especially with a continent-spanning trick like Xbox Live up its sleeve. Microsoft is certainly better equipped to fight this battle than any other American company, and after the cool response in the past (and hey, that’s putting it kindly), we don’t think Microsoft would keep plugging away unless there was a serious upside beyond pride.
    Meanwhile, Eastern developers will surely continue to make games with Western appeal, but what about those Western customers who like Eastern games? The RPG audience is vocal and will follow the platform with the hardcore, high-profile quests that interest them. Microsoft wants the 360 to be that platform, and the best way to do it is to get popular support in the country that produces those RPGs.


“STOP” TIME
THANK YOU! Not only did your recent “Stop It!” feature (January 2007 issue) hit the nail on the head in telling game developers what not to do, but it also offered constructive examples of games that didn’t contain these same mistakes.
    I think it’s really important for developers to understand what makes gamers cringe when we pick up a controller. Designated save-points were my biggest problem when I was younger and couldn’t easily get past certain spots. The other issue that really stuck out was Death By Camera: the early Resident Evil and (to a lesser extent) Silent Hill games were horrible at this.
— Alex Kloft

I really enjoyed your “Stop It!” article, but I think you left out one of 360 developers’ most egregious practices: not allowing customization of game controls. Why wouldn’t a game let me choose to bind any button to any available action? This idea has been around on the PC since time immemorial. Doing it on the Xbox 360 can’t be that difficult, and it can have a huge impact on a game’s playability.
— Jim Hunter Jr.

Thinking along the lines of your “Stop It!” feature, I’d say Gears of War overused its physics engine a bit. I know Epic really wanted to give Marcus a sense of weight, but nothing else in the game seems to follow suit. In fact, everything feels weightless. Look at the Locusts, for instance: These guys can drill through concrete with their bare hands, yet when they die they fly through the air and suddenly become little white marshmallow puffs that you can walk through like cotton. And when you drive a vehicle, you’re going about 3 miles per hour, but when you slam into a roadblock made of huge concrete blocks and abandoned vehicles, you send them careening into the night sky. I don’t get it.
— Stephen Ray

We say: We were pleasantly surprised at the large number of positive responses to “Stop It!”— clearly, it touched a nerve. Nobody’s going to give up gaming as a hobby due to a lousy camera or too much bloom lighting, but 360 gamers clearly know what they like when they see it, and they know what they never want to see again as well. And if OXM’s readers know it, developers do, too. As for the marshmallow locusts, perhaps Sera has a helium-rich atmosphere?

NEW TERRITORY
This letter is aimed at BioWare, and it’s a bit belated, but you might understand why I took so long to finally write.
    I want to thank the developer for making Jade Empire. Not simply for the game being good, or for the combat, graphics, or story. Well, maybe the story: the one where I was allowed to craft a character most symbolizing how I would have been in the said universe — a story where I could take part in a romantic relationship I can see myself having, with someone of the same gender as me.
    We, homosexuals, are not well-represented as characters in videogames. The stereotypes exemplified are often embarrassing and sometimes even hurtful. Creators never give us a veritable love story to follow through, even with today’s supposedly deeper, smarter, more immersive videogame narratives and A.I.
BioWare, on the other hand, enabled players like me to partake in a love story (albeit fictional) that developed from a well-founded basis into a worthwhile and carefully realized intimacy between same-sex companions. And for that, I thank them with sincere gratitude.
— Cisa Noire

We say: Thanks for the letter, Cisa; your point is one that some gamers probably never even think about. If you like your narratives to be as universal and gamer-accommodating as possible, Jade Empire’s a good start, and we wonder what other developers may be planning after seeing that step. We also feel the need to cite Maxis and The Sims for allowing any character to fall in love with anybody else, regardless of gender. It’s your virtual life, after all. Why not live it the way you want to live it?


CANNED LAUGHTER
While I personally didn’t find this Easter egg, I would still like to share it with everyone at OXM. Set up a multiplayer Gears of War match on the “Rooftops” map and make your way over to the darker spawn area (the reddish, stormy side). Go to the entrance of the small house that contains the Hammer of Dawn and turn around so you’re facing a building with two broken windows. Throw a smoke grenade — or better yet, fire the boomshot, if you have it enabled on the map — through the broken windows to see the silhouette of a dead man sitting on a toilet. (He also bleeds if you shoot him.) Just thought you guys would get a kick out of this little secret.
— Kholdstare

We say: Combine a death joke with some possibility for scatological humor and we’re definitely going to get a kick out of it. Great find, and thanks for letting us know. What else have people found lurking in Gears of War? Let’s hear your most interesting bits.


SHIFTING SECTORS
Ever since the first article popped up about Dark Sector being the first next-gen game, I was enthralled by everything about it — from its sci-fi setting and graphics to its downright wicked-cool “morphing” stuff in-game. Now, reading the preview in your Holiday 2006 issue, it seems the game has been totally changed into something that no longer stands out.
    The cool morphing aspect is still there, but the sci-fi element is gone; it seems like the stealth element is, too. And to make things worse, Hayden now looks like every other game character. He’s no longer a sleek, interesting assassin; he’s Sam Fisher or Snake with a fancy overdetailed suit and hairy face. The new Dark Sector looks like every other game that has its own little standout gameplay feature.
    I think with these big changes, a lot of fans of the game’s original vision are going to leave it. I know I am.
— Matt

What the hell happened? In the video that came out before 360s hit store shelves, Dark Sector was one of the most eye-catching games I had seen in a long time. The sci-fi space-age look was hot. Big enemies, sneaky half-man, half-robot guy — all mysterious. It looked really good. And then about a year later, I start reading about Dark Sector, the game with the odd Western-y metal-arm disc-throwing guy. Lame.
    The new game with the old name looks like dusty Western poop to me. I’m not even the slightest bit interested. I hope some company takes the ideas that were showcased for the original game and does something with them. Maybe it’s just me, but I like my next-gen games to be truly next-gen.
— Zacharia Archuleta-Nicola

We say: We asked your opinions, and boy, did we hear them — pretty much everyone in the mailbag who wrote in about Dark Sector’s change agreed with Matt and Zacharia. Of course, the changes could be for the better. After all, none of us played Dark Sector before; what if it sucked in its original form? So there’s us playing devil’s advocate — the ultimate proof will be in the playing, and Dark Sector won’t show up in stores until this fall.


THE CASE OF THE BROKEN CASE
Is there any way to order spare Xbox 360 game cases? I have a few that are broken, and putting the games in regular DVD cases just isn’t the same. The clear-green plastic cases look a lot better, but I don’t know if Microsoft will sell spares.
— Derek Castello

We say: Only Microsoft seems to have the line on the exact translucent green DVD cases for 360 games, and right now, those aren’t sold separately (but you do get one free with every copy of Gears of War!). Meanwhile, seek ye online wholesalers. What you want are Amaray DVD cases with a 14mm spine; the translucent green part is the tricky bit. You might have to buy them in bulk, like packs of 25, but split the order with some friends and keep some spares on hand for the future. Take a peek at www.inetdvd.com/store/tmp_product_new2003.asp?id=5490 for one option, but shop around and ask before you buy, just to make sure it’s exactly what you want.