Not much to talk about this week. As you can guess, I've been spending most of my time playing Halo 3.
One of the things about Halo 3 which I've spent a lot of time on without realising it is the detailed stats that are being kept on www.bungie.net. You see, on the bungie website, you can pull up your gamertag (or anyone elses) and check out how they are doing. Basically, it keeps a record of all my games (both multiplayer and campaign) and how many times I've died, how many kills I have and which weapons I used etc. Its actually quite impressive.
Unfortunately, the stats are also currently down as Bungie are making some upgrades to their system. My guess is that the success of Halo 3 was unprecedented (even the cinema's are blaming Halo 3 for a drop in attendance - how awesome is that!) and hence, their servers weren't really ready for the load. In fact, during the last month, there have been lots of complaints about records not being updated promptly or in some cases, not being updated at all.
Anyway, as I said, the stats page is currently down. The funny thing is that I never realised how much time I spent on that page until it was missing. I just got so used to checking my stats after each play session. I wonder what my kill/death ratio is at the moment?
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
The EA Strikes Back!
As you may (or may not) know, BioWare is my favourite RPG developer. Starting with their original Baldurs Gate, which rejuvenated the RPG genre on the PC, all the way through their console RPGs, they have always released quality games. In fact, their next release (Mass Effect) is probably my most anticipated game this year.
All of which makes me extremely worried to hear that BioWare are now a part of EA. Yup - thats right - EA are now the owners of BioWare.
As you can imagine, the forums are ablaze with hate mail directed at EA - check out this forum thread (on the 4th thread and rising rapidly!). Now granted, I don't hate EA with the passion that others seem to. In my opinion, EA have some good games and they have some poor games - just like any other publisher.
However, I am extremely concerned about the history of EA. Put simply, BioWare aren't the first popular RPG developer acquired by EA. If you are wondering why you haven't heard of any good EA RPGs before, its because those popular RPG developers no longer exist. Worryingly often, after acquisition by EA, the quality of games dropped and those studios then get closed down (granted, I have no idea of how much EA was involved in the development of those games - all I know is that those developers were able to develop good games before they were acquired by EA but not after).
The best case scenario is that EA will give funding to BioWare but leave them alone to create the kind of games which BioWare is famous for. I am desperately hoping that this will be the case. Unfortunately, the reality will likely be that EA will try to exert some influence. In any event, here's hoping that BioWare are still around in 5 years.
At least Mass Effect is so far along the development cycle that it won't be affected by any of this.
All of which makes me extremely worried to hear that BioWare are now a part of EA. Yup - thats right - EA are now the owners of BioWare.
As you can imagine, the forums are ablaze with hate mail directed at EA - check out this forum thread (on the 4th thread and rising rapidly!). Now granted, I don't hate EA with the passion that others seem to. In my opinion, EA have some good games and they have some poor games - just like any other publisher.
However, I am extremely concerned about the history of EA. Put simply, BioWare aren't the first popular RPG developer acquired by EA. If you are wondering why you haven't heard of any good EA RPGs before, its because those popular RPG developers no longer exist. Worryingly often, after acquisition by EA, the quality of games dropped and those studios then get closed down (granted, I have no idea of how much EA was involved in the development of those games - all I know is that those developers were able to develop good games before they were acquired by EA but not after).
The best case scenario is that EA will give funding to BioWare but leave them alone to create the kind of games which BioWare is famous for. I am desperately hoping that this will be the case. Unfortunately, the reality will likely be that EA will try to exert some influence. In any event, here's hoping that BioWare are still around in 5 years.
At least Mass Effect is so far along the development cycle that it won't be affected by any of this.
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