Posts Tagged ‘Capcom’

No sooner said than done, the site is back on track and so is the DoFuss Show as Darren and I return once again with our own inimitable brand of game coverage.

With summer upon us, and the traditional lull in game releases, this episode is a tad shorter than usual. This ended up being a fact that I was grateful for as Skype spent the entire recording disconnecting us at every opportunity, leading to an editing process akin to solving a M.C Escher jigsaw puzzle. I would have been happier about this situation had it not been for the fact that as I toiled to put ever piece of the show in place I knew Darren was on holiday, sunning himself and sipping his girly drink of choice.

Much like editing the show, this gives me a headache.

Bitterness aside this show is an interesting one as we roll into a self indulgent Devon and Wells section, before hitting up the nominal number of games we have been playing. We then flow into the usual news segment (where we focus on our lack of Star Craft 2 knowledge, Zynga and some Capcom announcements) before a feature that focuses on my (fairly) recent, and social awkward, trip to the Famitsu Vol.1 chip-tune event here in Osaka.

Enjoy the show, and now DoFuss is back in full production check back soon for a complete write up of the Famitsu event later in the week. As always if you have any feedback/suggestions/questions please contact us or leave a comment on the show post.

 The DoFuss Show – The Patchwork Quilt of Podcasts [42:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Video games have always influenced each other. Growing from a few seeds the industry has evolved. Occasionally a single shoot is split, forming a new branch in the evolution. Some of these are dead ends, while others flourish. Even more rarely branches come together and make something new.

Not all previously divergent paths join with the same success. As I play more of these titles that attempt to blend separate evolutions together it is becoming clear that Japanese trees in this laboured metaphor are struggling to assimilate Western genetics.

I guess Japanese design ideas are dominant alleles.

Japanese developers soberness runs through all of their business structures. A rigid adherence to rules and bureaucracy that makes them slow to adapt. As a nation they have produced ingenious devices and innovations but as solutions to problems, rather than pure innovation.

Some realise this problem, with Capcom’s Jun Takeuchi acknowledging the issue of Japanese developer’s stagnation and the need for change if they are to survive. But even Capcom, one of the most internationally minded Japanese developers struggles working with Western teams and concepts, choosing poor properties or failing to understand the reasons behind gameplay mechanics, focusing on bullet points.

At a time when games need to reach an ever-widening audience to justify their development costs, it is an issue set to get worse. Though I hold a small fear that such shared ideals could lead to the homogenisation of games, I take heart in the fact the most unique elements of nature come from cross pollination and mutation.

Sometimes you need to reset the bar. As an informed gamer I find more and more that my definition of what constitutes average is slowly creeping upwards. Then Capcom’s Dark Void was thrust into my lap, and I found my equilibrium.

Conceptually Dark Void looked like a solid game. It threw me into a dramatic story, set in a beautiful world with interesting opponents. Add to this cover based combat with the ability to take flight at any time, courtesy of a jetpack, and developer Airtight Games should have been on to a winner. But these elements all combined to make and experience that define the term pedestrian.

See it looks fun, but the soul is missing.

Strangely nothing in the execution of Dark Void is wrong. There are no technical problems, mechanically or graphically, but it contains none of the magic that I seem to have begun taking for granted in my games.

I look to games with similar third person combat, such as Gears of War, and feel none of the spark that made them special. Like a gifted young musician copying their idol, the performance of Dark Void is solid in its execution, but lacks any of the soul that makes the original feel special.

Dark Void looked so promising in previews, but all the final product did for me was establish that good games really do possess a spark that raise them above the masses; a spark that no amount of technical talent or focus testing can substitute for.

Read more about Dark Void here.

Welcome one and all to your fortnightly bit of gaming audio delight from the DoFuss (Darren and I). With the stale whiff of the weekend’s alcohol still lingering on our breath Darren and myself embark on a quick foray into the world of gaming news and issues to see what we can find.

Gaming news and talk of what we have been playing sits as ever at the front of the show, but this time the feature topping our metaphorical cake is whether playing online games could make us better people. This is an idea put forward by Jane McGonigal, a designer at the Institute for the Future, during her talk at TED in February. While it may seem like a bizarre idea, much of what she said got me thinking that there maybe something to it, as did looking at her online games (including Evoke, pictured) that have been designed to harness the power of the game playing public for good.

Regular listeners may notice the lack of Darren’s Old Games, feel free to let him know your displeasure in the comments below (he does promise it will be back next time).

Enjoy the show!

 The DoFuss Show – Productively Doing Nothing. [63:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download