Category Archives: Commentary

Hate to say I told you so: Why “always online DRM” will fail

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In the past days there has been a lot of buzz around the new SimCity game. Sadly, the buzz is less about the game itself (although there seem to be some other issues as well) but more about the awful always online DRM the game introduces. After a rough start in the US due to problems with the server availability, similar problems occurred during the European launch, although Electronic Arts promised they would be better prepared in this case.

And Electronic Arts is not the first publisher who incorporated always online DRM in their games. Three years ago, I wrote a blog article on basically the same topic, but with another protagonist: Ubisoft. They introduced their always online DRM with the Settlers VII and Assassin’s Creed 2 – and guess what happened? They fell flat on their face and stopped the DRM, which – until then – was one huge user experience failure for the honest customers.

Back then, I wrote down some thoughts why always-online DRM / copy protection will fail. Turns out they still apply today:

1.) Not everyone is always online. Most hardcore gamers / heavy users have flatrates and are permanently online during play. But believe me: There are still (casual) gamers out there who play games on systems without a permanent online access. Suprisingly, they might even want to play on a laptop system while travelling.

2.) Wireless LAN is great fun if it works fine but due to the increasing growth of inner city networks and number of access points there is a real wireless network smog around. Depending on your hardware and the density of networks around your home it is not unlikely to lose your wireless lan connection for a few seconds until your signal is found again. These might be short breaks of only a few seconds but I cannot imagine some better killers of immersion and flow during gameplay than a pop-up message of the copy protection telling you that you lost your connection.

3.) Server accessibility. Well, even the best servers go down some time. Or your local provider has some connection issues. The consequence will be the same: You cannot access your singleplayer savegames. You cannot start your game. It`s already a bad issue if that happens to a game which is free to play. But it`s an epic fail if people pay 50 bucks for a game and cannot play the singleplayer campaign (!) because somewhere a server went down. I already experienced a Steam server downtime during a launch day. No fun at all, believe me.

4.) Longtime server availability. What happens if it turns out the game doesn`t sell well? Or people will stop playing it? Servers get shut down after a while and your game won`t be playable anymore. Of course, the publisher might fix this via patch – but there are enough cases of games which were abandoned completly.

5.) Legal customers are the ones who will suffer. It`s a general problem of every error-prone copy protection system: It`s the people who legally buy the game who will face the problems. It might be the software pirates hacking the copy protection who will be the ones facing less problems than the legal customers. It happened in the past and it might happen to Ubisoft`s system, too. If it does, it`s hard to explain to the legal customers.

I sincerely hope that Electronic Arts will abandon the always-online DRM sooner than later. Until then, I won’t buy a game with the DRM and strongly recommend to all other gamers to do the same.

GUI Wars 2 vs. World of Tooltips: The tutorials

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Although I have little time at the moment I spent a few hours this week in Guild Wars 2 and the new World of Warcraft add-on Mists of Pandaria. There were only a few hours between playing a fresh-faced Pandarian monk and a Norn necromancer and I was really surprised how different both tutorials worked for me. Before I start going into details I must admit that I played a lot of WoW in the early years but dropped it due to a lack of time, so haven’t been around Azeroth for a long time. And I never played Guild Wars 1, so I definitely have it easier to get back into WoW, than start learning a new game.

Nevertheless, when I got back into WoW a lot of things changed when it comes to the skill system, the quest help and some smaller interface functions. The WoW tutorials are very linear with a pre-defined line of quests one should follow. The interface and in-game interactions are very well described and pop-up in the moment you need them. As a veteran player it might sometimes be annoying with all the offered help you do not need, but then again, you can easily skip all tooltips and hints. I was even more impressed when I stopped running through the Pandarian starting zone and reactivated my old paladin back from the days. The new skill system was easy to pick-up due to unobstrusive but helpful tooltips how to distribute the skill points.

Entering Guild Wars 2. I rolled a Norn necromancer because I liked the style. The interface looks pretty familiar if you already played an MMORPG and some of the in-game information visualization is pretty standard as well (quest hosts, map highlights). Regarding the tutorial, Guild Wars 2 does a lot of things wrong. There are pop-up messages pointing at different GUI elements or some which introduce key shortcuts. From my first hours of play, it seems that these messages pop-up randomly or at least not necessarily at the time you need a description of the respective mechanic (or much later after plenty of time already using the mechanic). I missed also tooltips for items or equipment slots, because I did not know how to use them or what effect they would have if I use them. In addition, the quest system is designed very flexible right from the start, so you receive additional quests for events around you, but they come and go very fast, which might ask a bit too much from beginners.

In my opinion the lack of linearity in the beginning is not the biggest issue of Guild Wars 2, but it is how the tooltips do (not) adapt to the player’s actions. Of course it is easier for the tutorial designers to provide the right information at the right time when the first minutes or hours of play move along a linear path. Guild Wars 2 should focus on the basic actions and goals of the game and save some of the complexity for later on. Techniques like phasing allow different players in the same game area to see different things according to their status, which could serve a tutorial very well.

That being said, I enjoyed Guild Wars 2 more than the return to World of Warcraft, because of the more flexible way of questing and leveling and the impressive visuals of Tyria. Then again, I only had a few hours of time, which is far away from sufficient to rate an MMORPG.

Why the Wii U faces a rough start

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Although I have always been a huge supporter of Nintendo and their way to push gaming’s boundaries, I must admit that since the announcement of the Wii U my skepticism grew if this console would be the right move. After seeing last week’s Wii U press event and gathering all the tiny bits of information from different sources, I came up with five reasons, why I fear that the Wii U won’t see a glorious start into the next generation of gaming like the Wii did.

1.) Pricing: You can argue that the console is not as expensive as other consoles at release but for Nintendo’s standards the pricing is higher than the previous generations. That might not scare off the core gamer crowd, but for the casual gamer who bought a Wii, it might be too expensive. A real bummer is the high price for a second controller with around $150. Although none of the games of the start line-up supports a second controller, it is a very high price point to get another player into the game later on.

2.) Online functionality: We’ve seen some of the in-game social connectivity features of games, but there has been no overall vision presented by Nintendo regarding the online store, user profiles or a (in-game) message system. Will the awful “friends code” system of the Wii return? How is online functionality integrated into the main console menu? How do you purchase digital content? So many questions, which have to be answered prior to launch.

3.) Media center: Yay, there will be Netflix and Hulu in the US. What about Europe? Are there any video streaming services? What about the TVii functionality beyond Japan and the US? Futhermore, the Wii was not able to play DVDs so the question is if the Wii U will be able to serve as a kind of media center platform for playing DVDs, Blu-Rays and providing access to further streaming services.

4.) Target group: The main success of the Wii was the enlarged customer base. A lot of people who never owned a game console before bought a Wii and a handful of games. I think that most of these people won’t be in need of a new console soon, so we won’t see so many casual gamers buying a Wii U. In my opinion it is up to the hardcore gamer crowd – they have to be convinced to buy the console and spread the word. I know a lot of core gamers who bought a Wii, which now collects dust since a months or years. Most of the early excitement for the motion controls is gone now. After all those Wii, PS Move and Kinect casual games people will be more skeptical about new input technology than at the start of the current console generation.

5.) The games: From the ‘release window line-up’ of around 50 games, which will be released until March 2013, a lot of the games we will see are versions of already published games with extra content. Nice for someone who has not played Batman: Arkham City or Mass Effect 3 yet, but to be honest – most core gamers, who are interested in these games already own them. And if not, they will be much cheaper on the PS3 and XBox360 the time the Wii U arrives.

So, what about the original games for Wii U? The New Super Mario Bros. U game looks great as all Mario games do, but it seems not to make use of the new controller in a convincing way. Nintendo Land seems to be the Wii Sports of this generation – lots of mini games to show off the controller’s possibilities. It looks very family-friendly – so I think the appeal to core gamers will be limited. The only game at release day with potential appeal for the core gamer crowd is ZombiU by Ubisoft, which uses the controller very well and introduces some interesting and new gameplay aspects. Some of the other exclusive games like Pikmin 3, Bayonetta 2 (who would have thought…) or The Wonderful 101 seem to miss the launch window until March 2013. Of course, there are some forthcoming multi-platform titles, which will be also available for the Wii U, but there is little reason to buy a new console for these if you already own a PS3 or XBox360.

To sum it up, I think the Wii U will face a rough start – maybe similar to the one of the 3DS. With the PS4 and XBox720 around the corner, I think most gamers will wait until they know what’s coming next year and afterwards make a decision about their future investment.

My 1st week with Playstation Move

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Since last week`s release of Playstation Move in Europe I had some quality time with the new hardware and games and want to share some of my first impressions. The hardware is robust and the button placement is well-considered. It reminds me a lot of the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck but both the main controller (with the light bulb) and the smaller navigation controller (without the lightbulb) feel a bit more advanced than the Wii hardware in terms of button placement, power supply and the blu-tooth connection. Some of the games I tested have some delay issues but as this is only a problem of some games it should be mainly a software issue. But fast movement, e.g. in close combat games where you wield a sword, seem to cause more delays and wrong pattern recognition so it will be interesting to see in future games if this is also a software problem or an hardware issue which cannot be fixed easily.

A lot of the reviews criticize the calibration process but I experienced it not as an annoying activity. More annoying is the fact that most games want to see you standing in front of your tv set instead of staying seated. For sport games with a lot of body movement it feels right but for some other games I prefer staying seated. In most cases you can accomplish the calibration process sitting on your couch but it may cause some problems if you are too far away for the camera tracking or changing your seating position during the course of the game.

Now to the most important part: The line-up of games. As already mentioned in my last article on PS Move and Kinect I think that both start line-ups are very disappointing. I bought the Sports Championship game and played a lot of demos of the disk provided by the starterset and the PSN but there is no outstanding game to sell the hardware. Of course there are some updates coming up for games like Resident Evil 5 or Heavy Rain but – hey – I played through both of them and both seem to work pretty well without PS Move. In my opinion, the best PS Move  game at the moment is Flight Control HD. It`s an extended version of the iPhone game and puts the player in charge of the flight control of an airport with several airstrips and heliports in order to draw for each plane and helicopter a line to the best landing position.

The problem of the other games is that most of them lack some sort of gameplay innovation for the new hardware. Tumble is Boom Blox in HD, Sports Championship is basically Wii Sports in HD and I could continue the list further. There are some small highlights like the EyePet controls or the R.U.S.E. control scheme for PS Move but I presume that it will be not enough to make people want to buy PS Move right now. Of course Sony and the game developers around have a much easier transition from the Wii controls to PS Move than to Kinect but it would be very sad for the gamers out there if this leads to HD-clones of Wii games only. Hopefully Sony and some third-party developers find ways to use this hardware in challenging new ways and build good games around it – if they fail, it will be also the failure of the PS Move hardware.

Why Kinect and PS Move will fail

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Playstation Move versus Microsoft Kinect

Some days ago at gamescom Cologne I was able to spend some quality time with both Microsoft Kinect and Playstation Move. Both hardware add-ons shall broaden Microsoft`s and Sony`s audience in the casual market and extend the console cycles of both the Xbox360 and the Playstation 3. Here are some thoughts why I think these hardware add-ons won`t sell well:

1.) Technical limitations. Before testing Kinect at the Microsoft booth at gamescom I really thought this might be the best tech update for the consoles coming up next. Sadly, I must admit that after testing it I am a lot more sceptical that Kinect will improve the gaming experience a lot. Why? There is an input lag of a half or quarter second. Every user I talked to realized it during play and I think this will limit the games using the Kinect technology a lot. And there are other limitations (lower body point resolution, only two players simultaneously, bad recognition while sitting) mostly due to cost reduction of the hardware. So what we saw in the Natal demos won`t automatically work with Kinect…

Playstation Move feels pretty the same as the Wii Motion+. The hardware really looks robust and stylish and the cable connection of the Wii Nunchuck is gone. But why should I spend some money on an interface that`s pretty similar to the Wii one? Only for HD graphics? Because some old games get a PS Move update? Colour me unimpressed.

2.) The casual games bubble. I think the whole hype in the casual game market is a bubble which will explode sooner or later. Yes, the Wii sold pretty well but the majority of Wii games does not. The game attach rate for the Wii is lower than the ones for the 360 or PS3 which means that there must be some Wii owners out there who own just a handful of games or less. And now Microsoft and Sony want to convince the casual gamers who already bought a Wii to spend even more money for another console plus hardware add-ons plus games? And as a casual gamer you get a lot of free games at the moment. You have a huge amount of Free2Play-MMOGs, you have free browser and social games and a lot of free extra content for some games you already bought. Why invest money?

3.) Lean back versus stand up. I remember myself being extremely hyped after the first Wii trailers. Currently I am playing Monster Hunter Tri on my Wii (with the classic gamepad, not the remote) – but before this the console was not running for months. For core gamers the Wii is nearly dead – and even good core games like Red Steel 2 have very bad sales numbers. Motion control works pretty well for party games with friends but I know only a very few people who like to play core games for hours and hours with the Wii remote and nunchuck.

4.) Games sell hardware. I think the biggest mistake of Microsoft and Sony is to copy games that were successful on the Wii. In my opinion both casual and core gamers are unimpressed by the starting line-up for Kinect and PS Move. More party games? Another sport games collection? A light-gun shooter? Oh, a virtual pet? No, thanks. Sony has a small advantage with some core games like Heavy Rain receiving an update or Killzone 3 coming from start with the option to use Move. But both games can be played very well without PS Move – so why invest 150 bucks for something that is not absolutely needed to play the cool games? Kinect provides a new experience but the focus is on games for kids (Kinectimals) or casual gamers (Kinect Sports, Kinect Joyride). All the cool demo stuff from the early videos (beat`em up game, godzilla game and racing game) that hyped me is gone.

5.) The extension of the console life time. I think both Microsoft and Sony fear the next console generation and the dangers of a new console. Betting on the wrong horse (BluRay vs. HD-DVD, anyone?) can cost you a lot of money and both companies seem to prefer to extend the current console life time as much as they can. Microsoft`s 360 is now about 5 years old and Kinect already shows the limitations of the console hardware by being downsized from what Natal was before – of course they could have done Natal but at a much higher price point than Kinect. With the 360 being on the market with less than 200 bucks you cannot convince people to buy an add-on that costs more than the basic console. That`s why they downsized Natal.

Sony has a more comfortable situation with their hardware being more powerful on the long run but they also will try to extend the console cycle as much as they can. They are pretty straight forward in copying the Wii tech and making it slightly better but I don`t think that this will turn out to be the best idea. Sony`s main target group for their consoles has always been the core gamer (except the karaoke fans buying their Playstation just for Singstar). With Microsoft making a move into the casual game direction with a more sophisticated hardware approach, why does not Sony take the chance to strengthen the area they are good at? Sony probably would convince more new customers to buy a PS3 by strenghtening the keyboard and mouse support for future games (especially MMOGs and shooters).

In the end it does not matter which games are the ones that sell a system or hardware add-on, or if casual or core gamers buy the hardware. But I think a lot of people have some Wii remotes and a balance board at home which are not used that often. At the price point of 150+ bucks people will make up their mind if it`s worth to buy the add-ons and come to the conclusion that it`s not worth the money at the moment because there are no system-seller games out there. No hype. Both companies were very quick in building their own motion control to compete with Nintendo. It`s just a bit sad that they forgot to develop the right games for the hardware.

Picture by www.videogameszone.de

Ubisoft`s Always-Online Copy Protection = User Experience Fail?

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You remember how panda bears entered the dark future? Or the anti-usability award 2008? In case you`re not: It was all about the copy protection methods of publishers trying to get rid off the software piracy. We all know that it didn`t turn out the way it was intended: E.g., a lot of people who honestly bought games with the SecuRom copy protection could not play their games because some hardware or software issues came in between (remember the GTAIV PC version?!). Well, some publishers learned their lesson and now advertise their games with features like “Mass Effect 2 uses no SecuRom technology” (Source: Amazon.de).

On the other hand, there are still publishers who try to come up with a “better” DRM or copy protection method. One of these publishers is Ubisoft introducing their new always-online DRM for PC games with Assassin`s Creed 2 and The Settlers VII in the next weeks called Online Service Platform.

So what`s the deal? The idea behind the copy protection is easy: You have to be online to play. If you`re losing the online connection during play the game will pause automatically and only continue if you go back online. Even more, savegames will be stored online. Of course, there are some benefits like playing the game without disk or installing the game on every computer you want to. Sounds a lot like Valve`s Steam platform but Ubisoft is going a bit further with the need to be always online and not only at the start of the game.

From an user experience perspective this system might lead to some problems. Here are some of my thoughts:

1.) Not everyone is always online. Most hardcore gamers / heavy users have flatrates and are permanently online during play. But believe me: There are still (casual) gamers out there who play games on systems without a permanent online access. Suprisingly, they might even want to play on a laptop system while travelling.

2.) Wireless LAN is great fun if it works fine but due to the increasing growth of inner city networks and number of access points there is a real wireless network smog around. Depending on your hardware and the density of networks around your home it is not unlikely to lose your wireless lan connection for a few seconds until your signal is  found again. These might be short breaks of only a few seconds but I cannot imagine some better killer of immersion and flow during gameplay than a pop-up message of the copy protection telling you that you lost your connection.

3.) Server accessibility. Well, even the best servers go down some time. Or your local provider has some connection issues. The consequence will be the same: You cannot access your singleplayer savegames. You cannot start your game. It`s already a bad issue if that happens to a game which is free to play. But it`s an epic fail if people pay 50 bucks for a game and cannot play the singleplayer campaign (!) because somewhere a server went down. I already experienced a Steam server downtime during a launch day. No fun at all, believe me.

4.) Longtime server availability. What happens if it turns out the game doesn`t sell well? Or people will stop playing it? Servers get shut down after a while and your game won`t be playable anymore. Of course, the publisher might fix this via patch – but there are enough cases of games which were abandoned completly.

5.) Legal customers are the ones who will suffer. It`s a general problem of every error-prone copy protection system: It`s the people who legally buy the game who will face the problems. It might be the software pirates hacking the copy protection who will be the ones facing less problems than the legal customers. It happened in the past and it might happen to Ubisoft`s system, too. If it does, it`s hard to explain to the legal customers.

Personally, as a former developer I am well aware of the  software piracy problem on the PC gaming market and see the need for a copy protection system. What I don`t understand is to build a system based completly on the idea of being always online. Everyone`s personal internet connection is something neither the users nor Ubisoft can control and that`s why my guess is that this system won`t last long.

E3 2009 Wrap-Up

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The E3 is back – after a smaller show and lots of criticism in the last year, last week`s Electronic Entertainment Expo was an overwhelming success. Of course, there were tons of games but I am not going to repeat everything that you already heard on all the gaming news pages. As usual, my focus will be on the game interfaces and usability topics of E3. Here we go:

Microsoft`s “Project Natal”
Months before E3 a lot of rumors occured surrounding the news that Microsoft had a deal with 3DV, a small company located in Israel which works on 3D-cameras which will be featured in a new XBox360 addon. Well, these rumors turned out to be true as Microsoft presented the motion-sensing camera technology in their keynote last week. The system is capable of tracking not only the body movement but also the depth of the position of different body parts, enabling the software to use the whole body as an input device. I really like the idea but not being able to test it myself I am still a bit skeptical how precise the input will work and if there are any latencies due to the lack of a haptic input device. I have no doubt that all the sport and mini games will work properly BUT games with the need for very precise and direct inputs (e.g. the demoed racing game) will be a challenge for the technology in my opinion. From what I have seen I expect a similar precision the Wii controls have (what already will be a great success).

  

 

Sony`s Motion-Sensing Tech Demo
Sony showed a tech demo of their motion-sensing controller without giving it a codename. It is, in comparison to Microsoft`s camera-only approach, a combination of camera tracking and controller input. It looks like a Wii Remote with a light bulb on top, working single and double-handed. I was impressed by the very precise movement during the sword fight demo: The presenter was able to manoveur the sword under the chin of a skeleton puppet – a level of accurany the Wii certainly cannot reach – even not with the Motion Plus addon (see the video of the tech demo). According to Sony the first versions of the new nameless interface are already in the hands of third-party developers.

  

Another new piece of hardware is Sony`s PSP Go, the successor of the PSP 3000 which will skip the UMD drive and for this reason will focus on digital distribution. A lot of people hoped to see a second analog stick but Sony stays consistent to the older PSP models with just one of them. 

Wii Motion Plus and Vitality Sensor
Nintendo had no surprising news because they are only a few days away from the launch of the Wii Motion Plus addon. This little addon can be plugged onto the Wii Remote and will provide a more precise detection of movement and alignment of the Remote. Some sad news were that several games which use the Motion Plus turn out to show no considerable improvement according to journalist reports. E.g. first reports from people playing Red Steel 2 sounded a bit disappointing so it is possible that not every developer gets the best out of it or it is no significant improvement over the old Remote.

In addition to the Wii Motion Plus, Nintendo showed also a small piece of hardware called “Vitality Sensor”. It is a small box where you can put a finger into and everyone was sure that this will add up to the sports and fitness games Nintendo is doing pretty well with. 

Summary

To sum it up, it is interesting to see that all big console manufacturers now have their own motion-sensing input devices (which is no big surprise after the success of the Wii and its new control scheme). In the end, the games make the difference and both Microsoft and Sony have to prove that they are able to create great games with their new technologies.

Madworld: Wii have a camera problem

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Here is my newest ‘game usability problem’: In the last days I played ‘Madworld’ which has really great production values and makes good use of the wii motion controls BUT even after some hours of play I still have problems with the camera control. You run around in a third-person perspective (which is pretty close on Jack, the protagonist) and the camera perspective tends to change sometimes depending on the combo moves and the level design. Hitting a nunchuck button will set the cam straight forward again (see video for some gameplay impressions).

But what I miss is a precise camera control or at least a quick turn-around (like Resident Evil uses) in some situations. Shortly before facing the boss of the first epsiode named ‘Little Eddie’ you encounter a smaller boss mob looking like a footballer with bull-head and a huuuge chainsaw. I faced him at a train platform which creates a long level tube you can run up and down. To get out of his chainsaw range I ran around but I had no indicator how close he was behind me. Trying to use the typical combo stuff like garbage cans at the platform, turned out to be really frustrating cause you never know when the bull is going to hit you from behind. I stopped trying to use combo stuff and ran down the train platform to its end, turning around and waited two seconds till the bull arrived to bring my own chainsaw into play. Well, you can win easily doing so, but I really missed the chance to use the whole combo stuff on him which is an important part of the game.

My first thought: Give me a 2nd analog stick to take a look around while running. But wait – there are already 3rd person games on the Wii where I had no problems with the standard cam. Mario Galaxy pulls the camera very far away from Mario, giving the player enough time to react if something appears in behind. The boost ball sequences of Metroid Prime work very well, too. But I still wonder if the lack of good 3rd person games on the Wii is in consideration of the fact that the console has not enough cpu power to show a rich world in combination with a lot of character animations OR if it is difficult to develop a proper control scheme on Wii Mote and Nunchuck…

I think the problem with the Madworld cam is a result of the combination of several design decisions:

  1. The camera is pretty close on Jack. 
  2. There are several narrow level tubes which often challenge the cam.
  3. Combo moves sometimes change the camera perspective.

As already mentioned, Madworld does a lot of things right but the camera really flaws some moments of the game. Not as bad as the crazy camera in some narrow levels of ‘The Force Unleashed’, but I think both issues are related. I assume that some changes in the level designs could lead to less cam problems but hey, we all know that train stations with spiked trains running through cannot be substituted. 

 

 

 

How Panda Bears entered the dark future…

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After one and a half hour I am THERE. I made it through the crashing Steam platform, several language changes in the options menu and multiple downloads of the same patch. Guess what? It works! My new PC game, Dawn of War II is finally starting. I see the intro! YAY!

Here I am. In the dark future of 40K where humanity faces its final hour. Brutal Orcs, mysterious Eldar and blood-thirsty Tyranids threaten the human empire. There stands my force commander in the darkness of the jungle, surrounded by fog, ready to drain his chainsword in the blood of his enemies in order to defend mankind. I just have to click on the iron-faced campaign button to enter the battlefield. But wait…. first I have to login into the…. Games For Windows Live account…anyway… here i go…

*bling*

In front of the the screen of the dark future opens up a white and shiny pop-up window which tells me I have to create a little Windows Live-something account before I can start… Now a browser window opens to create it. Choose your icon! Would you like to be represented by a cute little panda bear or a sweet little baby duck? Type in your mail address and choose a password. You really wanna take the cute panda? Fiiiine – here you go, back to your dark universe…and, hey, have fun!

*bling out*

dawnofwar_GFW

Eh, yes. Did anyone at Microsoft hear something about immersion? Or usability and consistency? Ok, if I have to create this account so why don`t they use the graphical user interface of Dawn of War instead of this shiny, tiny, whity menu thing? Why don`t they use GUI skins? My Winamp player had GUI skins ten years ago! Why can`t this account creation have these, too?

Let me put this in straight words. It took me 1,5 hours to install this game due to the strange combination of the authentification process via Steam and Games For Windows and several patches. Now, I am in the game and want to play the OFFline campaign and I have to log into a Windows Live account? Now, serious: Am I supposed to have fun?

Listen PC game developers. At my console I have to create an online account once in a lifetime. When I buy a game I throw in the disc. I press play. And I am in the game. Now, tell me again what are you trying to achieve with this funny process for the future of PC gaming?

Btw: Dawn of War II is great fun. But beware: The installation is not.

2009 Outlook

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As mentioned before, last year had a lot of beautiful games. Looking forward, it seems this will not change in 2009. Here is what I am totally looking forward in 2009:

Fat Princess (PS3)

This will be THE Playstation Network game in 2009. Two groups fight each other and try to kidnap the pricess of the enemy. The trick: The teams can feed their princesses. The more the teams feed, the fatter the princesses get. And kidnapping a fat princess is much more difficult and time-consuming than kidnapping a light one. Keeping this in mind, every team has to balance between fighting the enemy and feeding their princess. It looks like animal crossing with blood (IGN) and reminds me of the Warcraft III-Mod “Defense of the Ancients” (DotA) in terms of gameplay.

Street Fighter 4 (Multi)

Beautiful art style. Great characters. Well-defined controls. Nothing more, nothing less. I played it at last year`s game convention in Leipzig and it is an example for a very well-done revival of an old series.

Starcraft II (PC)

Blizzard is well-known for polishing a product till it`s perfect and that`s what everyone is expecting from Starcraft II: A well-balanced RTS-game with some new units and small but elaborated gameplay changes. The only question is: When will it be out? I hope this year.

Heavy Rain (PS3)

Heavy Rain is the successor of Fahrenheit. Both games arrange between interactive movie and an adventure with action sequences. But what I am really looking forward to are the story and the characters of this game.

Dawn of War II (PC)

I am totally into the Warhammer universe and Relic really did a great job of transfering the atmosphere of the universe into Dawn of War I. So what do I expect? Exciting skirmishes, beautiful animations and more varied settings. The possibility of equipping your heroes will provide an additional RPG-touch and the game series will feature Tyranids for the first time. Great :)

God of War III (PS3)

Yeah, I loved the style and gameplay of both precedessors so my expectations for part 3 are really, really high. And I am really interested what the team will do with the PS3, after sucking the very last bit out of the PS2.

Madworld (Wii)

When I saw the first screenshots of the game I just couldn`t believe that this will be shipping for the Wii – and only for the Wii. It looks like Sin City with even more splatter scenes and black humor. Madworld definetly appeals to a mature core gamer audience who owns a Wii (Hopefully this target group is large enough to get the game off the shelves). With all this party and casual games stuff around for the Wii, it is really time to give harcore gamers a thing to play with on their Wii.