GameSpotting Alpha Force

This tactical episode of GameSpotting sees our crack team of video game journalists sneaking behind enemy lines to recover valuable information about a top secret project known only as "E3." You can tell by the chatter among the troops that our editors are starting to get worked up about the biggest video game convention on God's green earth. So stay frosty soldier, and if you have your own status report to file, our forums or a GuestSpotting column are as good a place as any to do it.

Three E's Is the Sound of Someone Screaming
Greg Kasavin/Executive Editor
"This is big business now. It's ruthless and cutthroat. It doesn't sleep, it doesn't eat, and it has no mercy."

GameSpot & E3: A Winning Combination
Jeff Gerstmann/Senior Editor
"I am--officially--totally excited about E3."

Feedback
Andrew Park/Senior Editor
"So who can provide the kind of detailed feedback that developers can use to make their games more attractive, more engaging, and ultimately more successful?"

Perception Problems
Bob Colayco/Features Editor
"Despite the fact that games have made inroads into popular culture, there still exists a disconnect with most people in recognizing games as a valid form of entertainment."

Joining the Ranks of the Handheld Club
Jason Ocampo/Associate Editor
"It's sometimes tough being a PC guy at GameSpot. Like back when Brad was reviewing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and everyone brought in their Game Boy Advances to help him test multiplay. That is, everyone but me."

What Did I Do This Weekend?
Justin Calvert/Associate Editor
"Went to the cantina, walked the sludge panther, rode my swoop, shopped for a new weapon. You know, the usual stuff."

Time Flies When E3 Comes
Dave Toole/Senior Producer, GameSpot Live
"It's hard to believe that it's already been almost a year since last E3. I guess the old saying is true: 'Time flies, and the older you get, the faster it goes.'"

The Low, Low Bar of Being As Good As Television
Jeff Urciuoli/GuestSpotter
"As a complete novice who knows next to nothing about how games are produced, it seems to me that most of the writing in games is being done by programmers."

The Long-Term Effects of Dig Dug
Ben Kerns/Video Game Documentarian
Do you have a hilarious/poignant/touching story involving video games? Well stop being a selfish dork, and share it with the world in this very forum! Read our GuestSpotting FAQ for details on submitting your own column.

Three E's Is the Sound of Someone Screaming

You may be aware that the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo is imminent. It's less than a month away. Tension already hangs thick in the air. Publishers need to get their booths and their builds together. They need to figure out what to show. They need to decide what to emphasize. They want theirs to be the most memorable games of the show. Victory is the only option. This 10th E3 is going to be a day of reckoning. Winners and losers will emerge. Fortunes will consequently be made and lost. This is big business now. It's ruthless and cutthroat. It doesn't sleep, it doesn't eat, and it has no mercy.

I absolutely cannot wait. This is my natural habitat. E3 is probably the single most important event of the year in gaming, and while the show supposedly only lasts from May 12 to May 14, in reality, the effects of E3 reverberate for weeks. You've got weeks of preshow coverage. You've got concentrated mayhem during the days of the show. You've got E3 awards just days after the show is over. And the conversations about who won and who lost go on for weeks or months later. I love this show. It's terrifying and exhausting and thrilling. I don't skydive. I don't scuba dive. I don't skateboard. But I've gone to E3 every year. And I wouldn't trade the experience for much of anything.

What's it like preparing for E3? It's like preparing to get hit by a tidal wave. There's only so much you can do. Brief anecdote: On the northern beaches of Maui, an unimaginably huge wave appeared before me when I was (coincidentally) 10 years old, playing in the surf. My memory of the event has probably embellished what truly happened, but to me, it seemed like this wave must have been 50 feet tall. And there was no way I was going to escape it. So I knew that the best way to avoid getting thrashed, let alone drowning, would be to take a counterintuitive approach. You don't turn your back on the ocean--you just dive right in. And dive right on through. Long story short, I'm still here.

This year's show will have a different feel to it than ever before. Again, the business is getting more serious. Publishers know they can't get away with mere flash. Substance is the name of the game now. Half-Life 2. Doom 3. Halo 2. Metal Gear Solid 3. Games like these we're excited about. We're excited to play them. We must play them.

It may seem ironic that these are all last year's games, but, really, it's no surprise. It's actually quite common for the biggest games of E3 to show up for one or two more shows in subsequent years. That's because many of the pretty pictures put on display at the show happen to be technically impressive but are in no way representative of a product approaching completion.

Last year, like many other people, I was misled into believing that Half-Life 2 would ship on September 30, 2003. It was largely for this reason that I was so incredibly excited for the game--it would be the first next-generation shooter. But Half-Life 2 is still nowhere to be found, whereas I'm already happily playing games like Far Cry, Painkiller, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Battlefield Vietnam--games that, when you compare them directly to the amazing Half-Life 2 footage shown last year, are actually every bit as impressive, and yet they're real. Perhaps I'll eat these words. Maybe Half-Life 2 will floor me once again. Any event is fine, really. Above all, I'm curious.

I don't mean to single out Half-Life 2, because like I said, the big games of E3 are often the ones that don't quite pan out as expected. Freelancer made a huge splash when it debuted at E3 years and years before the game finally shipped. Star Wars Galaxies absolutely floored everyone but released later than expected and to decidedly mixed reactions. The biggest games of E3 invariably bear a heavy burden: They must live up to completely unrealistic expectations.

This year at the show, I resolve to be more skeptical than ever before, yet without letting my skepticism turn into cynicism. I will reserve the right to simply disbelieve anything I'm told about any given game. I will reserve the right to look past the content I'm being shown and carefully examine what's not being shown for any given game. I will always explicitly point out when my impressions of the games at the show are based on actual time spent playing versus time spent watching a fancy demonstration.

A lot of gamers dream of going to E3, and it's a dream I think they should pursue if they feel strongly enough about it. I was absolutely amazed when I arrived at my first E3 10 years ago, and each year, I'm still absolutely amazed. I realize I'm very fortunate in this, because it seems to be the case that E3 is becoming a bigger and bigger source of stress and anxiety to the gaming industry as time goes by. For you, the reader, it should be like a spectacular horror movie. It's going to be an incredible bloodbath. You'll emerge from it shaking and satisfied.

GameSpot & E3: A Winning Combination

It just happened a couple of days ago. Usually, it doesn't hit me until much closer to the event, but something about this year just feels different. I am--officially--totally excited about E3.

It's exciting every year, really. But this year's show has that sort of "anything can happen" feel to it. We'll finally hear some real detail on the new handheld systems from Sony and Nintendo. By "detail," of course, I mean "games." Will the PSP and DS be playable? Yeah, probably. I can't wait to see what the two systems are all about. With all the insane rumor-talk that's been flying back and forth (What? The DS doubles as a strawberry jelly dispenser? Rad!), it's anyone's guess as to what these two systems will and won't do.

But this is also sounding like it might be the last pure Christmas for this generation. Is the Xbox 2 really going to come out near the end of 2005? Some developers seem to think so. I doubt that we'll hear anything solid out of anyone regarding Microsoft's next console, though. Microsoft has to "live in the now," so to speak, to get everyone ready for Halo 2. Showing Halo 2 and then saying "Oh, and get our new system next year too." kills sales of the current Xbox.

But hey, at this point, the 2005 date probably isn't even set in stone. Development kits for the system are starting to trickle out, and people are just getting started. So we'll have to wait and see what happens on that front.

So while the behind-the-scenes talk may lean toward the next generation of console hardware, on the surface, this year's E3 is very much about the games. Or, if you want to get specific, it's about the sequels: Gran Turismo 4, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Ratchet & Clank III, Sly 2, Spider-Man 2, GTA: San Andreas, Jak III, Metroid Prime 2, and Mortal Kombat: Deception.

But that's not to say that the whole show is just one sequel after another. Thankfully, the game business still takes a chance here and there, and some developers are hard at work building new franchises. There's stuff like God of War, Shadow of Rome, and Nanobreaker. On the licensed front, there's stuff like X-Men Legends, which I thought looked pretty rad last year. Now that it's got another year of development to it, hopefully it'll be even cooler.

And those are just the ones we know about--filtered through my own personal memory of upcoming games. Since E3 is the place to announce a game, there will certainly be plenty of games making their debuts either at or just prior to the show.

The games are exciting, and I'm excited to get the chance to be there to cover the show for all of you. We've got some cool things planned for this year's show. Combine that with all of the great games that we'll be able to show you, and...well...you might just want to call in sick during mid-May so that you can stay tuned to GameSpot to watch the sparks fly.

Feedback

Far be it from me to tell game developers and publishers how to do their jobs. They've been doing what they do for years--since long before I got here--and they'll probably be at it long after I'm gone. (I hope.) Since I'm supposed to be an impartial reporter, it's not my place to tell developers and publishers every last, little detail they need to change and fix to make a better game (or to get a higher review score). Otherwise, I wouldn't be an impartial reporter anymore. I'd be a developer (with questionable ethics, at that). So who can provide the kind of detailed feedback that developers can use to make their games more attractive, more engaging, and ultimately more successful? How about the players themselves?

If you've bought a game before, you're familiar with the kind of feedback that game publishers already solicit from players like you. There's that little, white postcard that comes in the box that no one ever fills out. You know, the one that asks you for your general age group, where you heard about the game, and whether you'd recommend it to a friend. I don't have any numbers sitting in front of me relating exactly how effective these survey cards are, but I can tell you that I have personally never ever filled out one of these postcards in my entire life, and I don't plan to start anytime soon.

Is there a way for developers to solicit more-meaningful feedback on games without turning the process into a huge pain for their customers? Maybe. For example, it would not be a good idea to embed a feedback form at the very end of a game. So you've finally finished an epic 30-hour game, and your ultimate "reward" is a two-page survey? No thanks. Could developers instead post easy-to-use, fast online surveys that deal with the particulars of a game--such as its length, its combat systems, its replay value, and other highly specific details that players themselves would care about? Maybe. Of course, why would players go out of their ways to visit a Web site to tell developers what they should already know? Developers should, namely, know how to make a game they've completed even better in a subsequent patch, expansion pack, or sequel. Maybe developers or publishers could add extra incentive by holding T-shirt giveaways or by holding contests that would grant winners guest appearances in sequels, free games, or other prizes. Of course, it'd be best to give players notice of these giveaways before shipping the game, so they're ready for them. Just a thought.

Is there a way for developers to solicit feedback on a game in advance of ship? Yes, many studios have been holding closed beta tests for their upcoming games...for years. While these beta tests are traditionally reserved for massively multiplayer games or games with an online multiplayer component, they can be a great way for developers to solicit targeted, specific feedback on game features. Most developers even post and support beta-only message board forums for players to discuss whatever issues they find.

Naturally, the most obvious issue with allowing potential players into beta tests is the fact that you're essentially tipping your hand to them. As a result, players might see all there is to see, so they might not wish to buy the game afterward, or, more importantly, they may see imperfections in the prerelease game and tell all their friends not to buy the game afterward. That's why with most of these tests, developers often select only a small number of applicants (except in the case of a server stress test for a massively multiplayer game). Furthermore, the actual testers must usually submit to a nondisclosure agreement, which restricts them from publicly discussing the beta and its prerelease issues. The developers are also usually smart enough to password-protect these message boards to prevent information leaks. It's not a perfect system, but it can work a lot better than developing and shipping a game in a vacuum, waiting for the reviews and early customer feedback, and then being taken completely by surprise when critics and players end up not liking this or that particular feature.

So, is it possible to cull feedback about a game from players before release? Sure. Is it possible to cull feedback about a game from players after release? Sure. Are these methods some kind of magic silver bullet that will protect your game from any and all scathing reviews and angry rants from fans? Not at all. But they're a start. Just a thought.

Perception Problems

Readers who follow GameSpotting regularly may remember a recent column where I wrote about a couple of bills in the California State Legislature that threatened to change the way games are distributed and displayed in stores. For those of you who haven't been following, here's a quick recap: California Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) wrote two bills in order to "protect children" from violent games. One would have made it a crime for a retailer to sell children any games that "depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel." The penalties for furnishing such a game to a minor would have been stiffer than for providing alcohol or tobacco to that same child, including fines and possible jail sentencing. The other bill would have required game retailers to stock M-rated games on shelves at least five feet above the ground.

The bills died in committee this past Tuesday, before they could reach the Assembly as a whole for a vote. This despite the Assemblyman's attempts to sway the committee with carefully edited video to show only the most "heinous and atrocious" parts of the industry's most violent games. While it's gratifying to most fans of the industry that the bills were aborted so quickly, it disturbed me that some of the panel members who voted against the bills seemed to pick the wrong reasons for doing so. Rebecca Cohn (D-Saratoga) was on the right track, telling Yee, "You are biting around the edges of the First Amendment, which we need to protect." But comments from Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) tell me that video games still have a way to go in terms of winning the battle of perception with the general public and, perhaps more importantly, with policy makers. Despite voting the bill down, Strickland noted, "No one should play this video game. I commend the author for bringing the issue forward. But I think what we need is for people not to buy these types of games, and then the industry won't market them." Would Strickland have made the same remarks about a film or book with similar content? Somehow I doubt it.

Of course all of this feeds into the points that Greg and Josh made last week. On the one hand, the industry sometimes brings trouble upon itself for making grossly sensational games that openly court controversy. And it doesn't help that most games on shelves seem to mockingly alienate half the population. On the other hand, it seems a little unfair that games seem to be held to a different standard than those used for other forms of media like television and film.

Despite the fact that games have made inroads into popular culture, with behind-the-games specials for Madden and NBA Ballers on MTV, and video game awards shows on SpikeTV, there still exists a disconnect with most people in recognizing games as a valid form of entertainment. Tim Tracy mentioned to me the other day that his own niece still thinks he "works at the mall" (presumably at a retailer) because he told her he works with video games for a living. Not that there's anything wrong with working retail; the issue is that she can't get her head around the idea that a publication could exist that covers games in much the same way music or literature is reviewed. And like Alex, I find that it's still not a simple thing for me to explain to the "lay person" what exactly it is I do for a living.

At the end of the day, it is simply going to take more time before the greater public begins to have the same understanding of games that we do and the flurry of legislation to restrict and ban them dies down to an occasional gust. In the meantime, the industry could expedite the process by being more thoughtful about the games that are made and how they are marketed.

Joining the Ranks of the Handheld Club

It's sometimes tough being a PC guy at GameSpot. Like back when Brad was reviewing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and everyone brought in their Game Boy Advances to help him test multiplay. That is, everyone but me, the guy who doesn't own a handheld of any kind. Unless you count my cell phone, which is five years old and has a game where a crab catches objects falling from the sky. It's fun for about 30 seconds.

Things have changed recently. My friend bought one of those fancy new Tapwave Zodiacs at the Game Developers Conference and couldn't stop talking about it. The Zodiac is a combination handheld gaming device and Palm OS-powered PDA, so he can play games and organize his life on it. His new Zodiac reminded me of when I used to have a PDA. A few years ago, a buddy of mine loaned me a first-generation Pocket PC, and it was quite simply the greatest electronics gadget ever. The day I had to return it was a sad day indeed.

So I bit the bullet last week and bought myself a fancy new Pocket PC, the HP iPAQ 4155. I don't want to turn this into a product review, but let's just say that the amount of technology that HP packs into this sleek and sexy little handheld is shocking. It's got a 400MHz processor, 64MB RAM and 32MB ROM, a vibrant color screen, and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. In only a few days, my PDA has become almost indispensable. I can surf the Web, track my finances, check my e-mail, listen to my favorite tunes, and (with the help of a third-party program and a hefty-sized memory card) even watch full-length movies on it.

Of course, I should probably talk about games. Naturally, since my Pocket PC uses a Microsoft OS it comes with a version of solitaire, the biggest time waster in the history of time wasters, built in. But it also comes with an insanely addictive puzzle game called Jawbreaker. I find myself obsessed with it lately, trying to squeeze in games whenever I have a few minutes to spare. The game is simple: The screen is packed with dozens of brightly colored circles, or jawbreakers, and you have to align similar-color jawbreakers into blocks before breaking them. The larger the block, the more points you receive when you break them. It's deceptively easy to learn, but wickedly difficult to master. And as much as I enjoy the complexity of flight simulations and wargames, there's something to be said about the seductive simplicity of puzzle games.

There are hundreds of other games available for purchase, as well. Most of these are relatively simple puzzle-type games, but there are also role-playing, strategy, action, and racing games. You can even buy a mobile version of Age of Empires Gold, with virtually all the content from the original PC version intact, and a pocket version of EverQuest. And earlier this month, a Russian developer announced plans to develop a Pocket PC version of X-Com, which is one of my personal top five games of all time. Needless to say, I can't wait. The next things I plan to experiment with are DOS emulators; with a little work, it's possible to get some of the classic games from the age of the C:\ prompt running on a Pocket PC.

It's said that mobile gaming is the next big thing; witness the rush for Sony to get into the marketplace with the PSP. Then there's Nintendo's next-generation handheld, the DS. Games for cell phones are also another potentially huge market; companies want games to lure consumers to sign up for wireless contracts and to rack up billable air time. However, the PDA market has actually shrunk during the past couple of years, probably because consumers are opting for feature-rich cell phones instead.

Intel, Nvidia, and ATI are all working on mobile chips designed for cell phones and handhelds, and it won't be long before you start seeing 3D-accelerated graphics on mobile devices. And I predict that the PDA will make a comeback once the devices increase to sufficient computing power; imagine having the equivalent of a desktop or laptop in your pocket. Until then, I'm going to have fun with my Pocket PC. It may not be a Game Boy Advance, but for a PC geek like me, it's everything I want in a handheld.

What Did I Do This Weekend?

Despite the fact that many of my friends enjoy playing games almost as much as I do, none of them have yet discovered the pleasures of an all-consuming massively multiplayer online role-playing game. They still go out drinking every Friday night. They leave the house on weekends. They even leave the chair in front of their PC to go and eat their dinner in a completely different room. I still talk to and meet up with them, of course, but when they ask me what I've been up to recently, I often feel the need to distort the truth a little. It doesn't bother me that I'm spending a great deal of my spare time sitting in front of Star Wars Galaxies nowadays, you understand. It's just that I never understood the appeal of massively multiplayer games until I tried one, and I'm sure my friends won't either. So, when I'm asked what I've been up to recently, these are the kinds of things I come out with...

Went for a ride on my bike
Translation: I actually don't even own a bike, since my last one was stolen. I have a swoop bike in Star Wars Galaxies, though, and since it's a lot faster than my pet bantha, and I don't enjoy waiting for shuttles, I use it to go pretty much everywhere. There's a good chance I also had to repair my swoop at some point, but there's an equally good chance that after I paid to repair it legitimately at a garage some bug made it revert to being damaged. So, reluctantly, I parked it outside a starport, bought a ticket to another planet, and then used a well-known exploit to repair the damage for free.

Took the dog for a walk
Translation: I don't have a dog. I don't have any pets in real life, actually. But in Star Wars Galaxies I'm training to be a master creature handler, and I currently have 14 different pets. The closest thing I have to a dog would probably be my level-28 huurton huntress. I'm more of a cat person, you see. I don't take them for walks, either, although my greater sludge panthers, my razor cats, my grand wrix, and my graul do make excellent hunting companions.

Went to the pub for a drink with friends
Translation: I didn't leave the house this weekend, and actually I don't make a habit of drinking. I went to the local Star Wars Galaxies cantina, though, and while I was there I bumped into some other people from my guild. We didn't drink anything, although I did buy myself a crate of Vasarian brandy and a few glasses of blue milk so that I don't fall victim to an enemy's mind shot the next time I'm in a battle. The rest of the time we just watched the entertainers to relieve our battle fatigue and to get some mind buffs. A good time was had by all.

Got into a fight
Translation: My own fault really. I usually play Star Wars Galaxies as a covert Rebel, and I forgot that I'd declared and gone overt to have a go at the new Corellian Corvette missions. So, as I was strolling through Coronet on my way to the bazaar I was jumped by two overt Imperial players. The bounty hunter and the teras kasi master, who were both buffed, made short work of yours truly and almost certainly would have done so even if I'd had a couple of my pets guarding me and been buffed myself. No harm done though. The Imperials in question were actually kind of cool and complimented me on the masterful way in which I'd had them chasing me all over the city as they conversed with my corpse. That's the last time I go overt when I'm not defending my guild's Rebel base. Ever.

Cleaned the house
Translation: I'm a pretty tidy person actually, but cleaning the house isn't something I do that often. Not full-on cleaning anyway. What I actually did was rearrange the items in my large Corellian house to make room for some items I had looted on missions and bought from people recently. I built some shelves by stacking tables on top of each other. I put some of my smaller and more desirable items on the shelves. I put lights in each room. I even got around to picking up all of the old armor, weapons, clothing, and resources that were making the place look untidy, and then I advertised them for sale on my vendor.

Went shopping
Translation: I enjoy shopping, but I can rarely afford to buy even half of the stuff I want. That's not the case in Star Wars Galaxies, though, where three months of missions and some shrewd trading have put me in a relatively strong position as far as my bank balance is concerned. I already have all of the armor, clothing, and furniture that I'm ever likely to need, but I do enjoy window-shopping for more powerful weapons on occasion. Just recently I bought myself a T21 rifle, which I'm hoping will prove to be an adequate replacement for the light lightning cannon I can no longer use since I dropped all of my bounty hunter skills.

Went to a wedding
Translation: Nobody I know in real life got married this weekend. I haven't been to a wedding for about a year. On Sunday, though, two of my fellow guild members in Star Wars Galaxies decided to "declare unity" and celebrated with a wedding-style ceremony. There were vows at the local theater, a reception at the cantina, and then a large fireworks show outside once it got dark. A good time was had by all, although a particularly irritating bug in the game caused the outfit I'd bought for the occasion to vanish from my inventory en route to the ceremony, forcing me to choose between showing up in my boxer shorts or logging out for 20 minutes in the hopes that it would reappear. I chose the latter, missed most of the ceremony, and then got told that the robe I was wearing for the first time looked like a dress. Next time there's a wedding I'll turn up in my armor like most of the other people did.

So there you have it. I'm hopelessly addicted to Star Wars Galaxies. The game has its fair share of problems, but the people who play it make it great. Unfortunately, many of those people are, I suspect, planning to switch to World of Warcraft when it's released later this year, and maybe I'll join them. I guess the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies space expansion really has its work cut out.

Time Flies When E3 Comes

Reality check: E3 is almost here already? It really is hard to believe that it's already been almost a year since last E3. I guess the old saying is true: "Time flies, and the older you get, the faster it goes." Because, I swear, it seems to come at me faster every year. This will be the seventh E3 I've attended, and it might just be the one I've been most excited about since my first E3 back in 1998.

I'm a bit of a tech geek and am always eager to see where technology will take us--not just in terms of games, but in the world at large, too. As much as I love seeing next Christmas' smash-hit games at E3, the possibility of getting a sneak peek at future consoles and handhelds really gets me going. This E3 promises the possibility of a sneak peek at up to five new platforms, and I cannot wait for the whole thing to kick off with Microsoft's Xbox press conference on May 10.

There was a little bit of gossip going concerning a small chance that Microsoft would give people a little peek at Xbox Next at the recent Game Developers Conference, but it was not to be. It was only gossip, and after this long in the game business, I ought to know better, but I still got my hopes up. In fact, I have a little hope that Microsoft will give us a taste at E3. You never know what to expect when it comes to Microsoft--especially at E3.

You can bet on Sony showing off its PSP handheld and strongly focusing on it during the show. I expect we'll see quite a few third-party games for it at the show as well. I'm quite interested in seeing a game that shows off the power that developers have claimed the PSP is capable of, because, quite frankly, Death, Jr. doesn't look too hot. And after all of the flip-flopping on Sony's behalf, I'm also very excited to see what peripheral features the PSP will actually have.

Then there's the small possibility of Sony giving us a very early look at what we can expect on the PlayStation 3. I know the chances of seeing anything substantial are slim, but you never know--especially at E3. Sony did shock everyone last year with the announcement of the PSP at the end of its press conference. I'm hoping for another surprise.

The hardware that probably has me the most curious is Nintendo's dual-screened handheld. Don't confuse curiosity for enthusiasm, though--I'm just hoping to know what the heck Nintendo is thinking. I'm really interested in finding out just what Nintendo will do with the two screens and what market the handheld is intended for, since Nintendo has stated it's not the next-generation Game Boy. I'm also curious to see what type of support the DS has picked up from third-party developers.

Lastly, let's not forget about the possibility of Nintendo revealing its next-generation console. Nintendo was the first one to release information on the current-generation hardware when it unveiled the specs of the GameCube, codenamed "Dolphin," during E3 1999. That was cool, except no one really cared that much until Nintendo fully unveiled the GameCube at Space World 2001 in Tokyo. With Nintendo posturing like it won't let Sony get a head start with its next-generation hardware, anything can happen--especially at E3. So, with the possibility of so much new hardware to be seen at E3, I can't wait. I really hope the big three are up to showing everyone a glimpse of the future.

The Low, Low Bar of Being As Good As Television

The best television shows, the best movies, and the best books are always praised for the quality of their dialogue, storylines, and characterization--whether it be hyperrealistic, like a Mario Puzo novel, or over-the-top cool, like a Tarantino movie. Despite these established benchmarks, game after game comes out with a story and dialogue written by someone who has another job title that "writer" was hyphenated onto. As a complete novice who knows next to nothing about how games are produced, it seems to me that most of the writing in games is being done by programmers. The grammar, where there is grammar, is inevitably poor, and the word choice is high-schoolish, thus representing a stiff pantomime of "coolness," at best.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a great example of this. Vice City arguably has the best voice talent of any game to date--and it unquestionably has the most star-studded. Yet everything that everyone says and does is executed in the most amateurish, least-cool way possible. Lance's insecurity and Diaz's insane temper were both well-conceived ideas that were poorly executed. One can't help but think that if Rockstar North had more respect for the writing, what was "only" an amazing game could have also had an entertaining--and even engaging--story.

Drug kingpins--again, I speak as a complete amateur here--seem like they'd have a lot of good reasons to be paranoid and consumed by rage. They'd probably also have a lot of opportunities to express it genuinely, without having to resort to flipping out at random and shooting their VCRs. Pablo Escobar, the infamous cocaine kingpin, was notoriously violent and dangerous, but he was almost certainly capable of making it through entire weeks without shooting his own house. (In all fairness, Elvis supposedly shot his all the time.) Similarly, the way Diaz kept calling everyone "d***heads" wasn't as cool in practice as it probably sounded to a roundtable of nerds at two in the morning. To top that off, the way he uses it isn't quite right grammatically, if such a thing can be said about the word d***head. It doesn't sound right to the ear, and you can tell by his delivery that Luis Guzmán, the talented actor voicing the part, knows it. You can hear a similar disengagement from Ray Liotta throughout the game as well.

Contrast Vice City's dialogue and voice acting with that found in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which stands as one of the rare exceptions of a game with a legitimately well-crafted story and characterization. The difference is that the actors in KOTOR are given fully fleshed-out characters to work with and believable dialogue, all wrapped in a complex and engaging storyline. You can hear their commitment to it when they read their lines, even when plot twists necessitate two different versions of the same dialogue--one "virtuous" version and one not-so-much-so. It's no surprise that people who have played KOTOR have reported having a genuine emotional reaction to some of the choices they were asked to make.

It has long been considered the Holy Grail of game development to evoke such an emotional reaction from the player. This has been achieved by games like Resident Evil to some degree, but if designers want to elicit a more subtle reaction, they're going to have to learn to do what Bioware did in KOTOR. That is, they must respect both the art of storytelling and the artists who spend their entire lives practicing and refining it--the writers.