Quick Thoughts on Recent Games

It's been a while since I've had time to look at demos and the like, but I finally made time this weekend to do so. A few thoughts:

• There's no doubt the technology behind the Killzone 2 demo is very impressive indeed, as befits a game developed for more than $50 million. It's a great showcase for the PS3's power, but I just don't see how this can shift many units for Sony. It will more than satisfy PS3 owners who play FPS games, and doubtless spark many Killzone 2 vs Halo 3 arguments, but I don't see the undecided players or the Microsoft faithful being swayed by a by-the-numbers FPS, no matter how impressive the tech. Marketing is spending a fortune plugging the game, though.
• I was rather more impressed personally with the Afro Samurai demo, which was impossibly stylish, making me wonder what Namco-Bandai stumped up to make it... A very bloody and violent game, I can't imagine buying it for myself, but I will certainly play the demo again. One of the nicest constructed demos I've seen.
• Last week I bought thatgamecompany's newest creation Flower (a PS3 exclusive), but I didn't get to play it until this week. I was really impressed with the beauty and ease of play of the game, and agree with Patrick Dugan's comment that it could be more profitable than Gears of War (bearing in mind, of course, that profitability is a ratio in respect of the development cost). Still, I'm sad because this game means making my own similar project Eden is now a complete waste of time! However, Jenova and his team have done more with Flower than I ever could have done with my own project - bravo!
• And at a completely different end of the developmental budget scale, I loved Mory Buckman's newest "artlet" entitled The Perfect Color. You can read the notification concerning the game at Mory's blog, or download the game for PC, which is free. I'm reluctant to say anything as it's a strange and wonderful thing that had me both bamboozled and entertained in equal measure (the little people are great fun to mess with!). If you enjoy "art house" games, you should definitely check this out.
• And I'm being told I must check out Miner Dig Deep, an XNA community game on the Xbox 360, so I will do that as soon as I have a moment. Update: I had a look at this last night, and was thoroughly entertained by its simple, yet compelling play. Wish this was available for my iphone!

Off to the States for a month on Friday, so this week should be the last blogging week until April. See you in the comments!

Comments

[chico]

Can you tell us more about Eden?

Take care!

[Chris]

Hi Chico! Tell you what, I'll have someone post the concept document on ihobo in the Samples section so you can see what it was about.

Thanks for taking an interest. :)