Last night I had an amusing experience -- I jumped into a group of dudes on Age of Booty who were all were speaking Spanish. My first inclination was to leave because communicating is so key in Age of Booty, but I threw caution to the wind to see just how that might play out.
In the lobby before the first game you could hear them laughing -- maybe it's my insecurities talking here, but I'm sure it was about me being the only NON Spanish speaker and how in the hell could we play together.
But then we won the first game, and then the second. Soon, I could pick out one or two words I understood, one of which was Gringo. Then the next game I took the winning town just seconds before the other team did and my teammates started laughing and yelling "Gringo, Gringo!"
Anyone else have any other interesting experiences, or am I the only Age of Booty Ambassador rollin' fools out there?
Has Age of Booty Found the Holy Grail of XBLA Order?
An interesting thing happened last night -- I fired up Age of Booty, played a few games, and players were remarkably... civil? People using their headsets, people laughing, people teaming up, working together. It was amazing.
Stunned, I headed over to the NEO GAF Age of Booty launch thread to see if they had the same experience, and it seems some of them did.
So it made me wonder: have you had the same great experience that we did? If so, why do you think 'civil' gamers are attracted to Age of Booty? Is it the genre, is it the team work? Is it the kick ass name?
Here I am doing the last thing I'd ever expect on the Capcom blog: gushing over a EA Sports game.
I grew up on Madden, learned a bunch about football from Madden, even interned at EA and worked on Madden '95 Genesis / SNES.. But when the series went to 360 / PS3 and got the exclusive license it just lost something for me. This year, it got it back.
With the addition of Online Leagues and really cool recordable plays (and improved gameplay), the franchise has taken on a whole new life for me. As a result, a bunch of us at Capcom have piled into a league, with each post game recapped with a email flurry, chock full of replay links like this one, where I got revenge on fellow Capcom employee Dean Borgus with a last minute touchdown pass with 0:00 on the clock:
The thing that makes me even happier is that Age of Booty and Flock are going to be chock full of their own flavor of community features (so official sounding, isn't it?), most of which are about as hearty as downloadable games get; Map Editors, Map Servers, Party-based multiplayer... we love this stuff and we're going to continue to pile in features that help our players talk to each other in different ways as we continue to get more and more steam..
Until those come out, I'll try to get a couple more Madden victories on Morgan Gray. Right now my Packers are up on his San Diego Chargers 3 games to 2.
So what does it for you? What are some of your favorite community like features that you think really make a great game even better?
Ikaruga in the middle of administering a nice face punching.
I love shooters. Really, really do. Einhander, UN Squadron, Xevious, Galaga, 1942, Heavy Barrel, Tiger Heli.. you name it, I'll be happy blowing it up.
But my love / hate with them is that at a certain point I hit a wall. At some Boss somewhere, at some bullet minefield, at some crazy area that only some idiot savant can get through, I give up. And I must confess that that wall comes much earlier as I get older.
I want to see that next crazy boss, but I also want to be challenged -- to a point.
It's such a tough line for a game to walk, and I see some of these challenges reflected in the reviews I see particularly in 1942 and other shooters on XBLA / PSN. The other interesting thing is that XBLA and PSN are supposed to be a more casual forum... which is exactly what shooters are not. They're hardcore. They kick you in the nuts. Over and over. (Ikaruga or Metal Slug, anyone?)
I even see reviewers struggle to come to a consensus on the subject. Some mention how easy 1942 is "..it is seriously short, very, VERY easy.." writes Jason Nimer at Gamers' Temple, while long-time pro Andy Eddy writes from Team Xbox seems a bit frustrated: "1942: Joint Strike is a button-masher's dream...though perhaps your nightmare. There are lots of casual games on XBLA, but this isn't one of them." Ikaruga maintains a lofty 87.2% on GameRankings, but every shooter fan I talk to can only get halfway through the game on their best day.
So what is your idea of the difficulty of a perfect shooter? Do you have a specific game that encompasses the best ramping of difficulty? Can this love / hate relationship with these games be solved? It's like an abusive relationship that has to be addressed.
