Initial impressions? Great music. Excellent graphics. Decent voice acting. Intriguing story. But is it all good? The more I played, the more I found myself raising my brow.

Heroes VI makes a number of dramatic changes to the series’ core mechanics to streamline the interface and speed up gameplay. The most noticeable change is the reduction of resources from 7 to 4. Sulfur, mercury, gems, and crystals have been condensed into a single rare resource called Dragon Blood Crystals. The developers claim that the change makes the game more strategic because every faction must fight for the same resources. I’m not so sure. But in the grand scheme of things, the reduction of resources is a minor quibble.

Far more intriguing is the new hero skill system, which enables players to manage ever step of their heroes’ advancement. Previously, when a hero gained a level, players would have to choose between two skills. It added an element of randomness to the gameplay that (depending on who you asked) was either terribly unbalanced or fiendishly exciting. By giving players control over their heroes, the developers remove the uncertainty that defined the previous skill system. On one hand, it’s now less frustrating for veteran players to develop specialized heroes such as resource gatherers, explorers, field generals, etc. On the other hand, an important strategic layer has been lost: the need for players to improvise when dealt a bad hand.

The most devastating change to the game is the introduction of ‘areas of control.’ Basically, regions of the map are now tied to specific nodes (i.e. forts and cities). When a player captures a node, all mines and creature dwellings within its area of control automatically shift their allegiance. How does this change the game? It pushes every player to constantly ignore mines and immediately rush opponents’ forts and cities. In theory, this change speeds up gameplay. In practice, it reduces the number of strategic options available for a weaker player to regain his or her advantage on the overworld map.

If you keep your city unguarded, an enemy can instantly take over the city along with 3-5 mines nearby in one fell swoop. A powerful player will take over one node after the next, systematically denying the other side of reinforcing their heroes. Victory and defeat is now determined solely on the battlefield, not resource-denying tactics. If you lose a few nodes, the domino effect begins and you’ve lost the game.

In Heroes VI, you not only take over a city but also convert it to your faction. For example, if you are playing as the Haven faction, you can covert an enemy stronghold, necropolis, sanctuary, or inferno into a haven.

I hate the fact that towns can be immediately converted with the click of a button. It’s too easy!

The game would be a lot more interesting if players were required to wait a few turns to convert a town. It would reduce the benefits of town conversion and force players to choose between prioritizing the short term or long term. Do I hire non-faction units to bolster my defenses or risk a few turns of town conversion to gain the ability to hire faction units in the long term? These types of dilemmas add depth to kingdom management, an aspect that is sorely lacking.

The other benefit to implementing a delay in town conversion is it allows players to recapture their cities mid-transformation. Players no longer need to wait until day 6 to capture a town. How would this work? The more advanced a city is, the longer turn penalty it’d impose on a player attempting to convert it. A level 1 town would fully convert in 1 turn, a level 2 town would require 2 turns, etc.

Taking the idea a step further, a delay could be added to flagged mines reverting to an owner. Currently, if a player captures a mine in an opponent’s territory, the mine immediately returns to the opponent’s control when the hero steps away. Thus, the game removes all incentive to capture mines as an offensive strategy. By adding a delay, it means heroes will benefit from capturing enemy mines (but only for a few turns). Opponents will be able to respond in two ways: send heroes to recapture lost mines or wait a few days for the mines to automatically return to their control.

Heroes VI in its current form (aside from combat) simply feels repetitive and one-dimensional. The multi-faceted kingdom management game has been replaced by a tactical war game.

I’m sure the developers discussed each new gameplay mechanic in detail. I also appreciate the fact that the developers are trying to move the Heroes series forward by experimenting with new ideas. However, looking back at the series, I know that each patch and expansion adds enormous complexities to the game that enhance the player’s experience. So while I’m not completely pleased with Heroes VI at the moment, I know that the best is yet to come.

Boom! E3 completed! Mission accomplished! Checkboxes checked! Parties attended! Booth babes photographed! Games played!

Going to the convention center for the last three years has been an enormously satisfying experience for me. As a kid, I poured over game magazines like EGM and Gamepro, trying to soak up every last drop of game industry information to train for an imaginary job as a games journalist. It was this dedication that allowed me to position myself as a games industry specialist at Google.

I am a little saddened by the prospect that I might not attend E3 in 2012. I’m going to be leaving my job in order to get my MBA at the Haas School of Business. While I’ll certainly continue to be involved as an advocate for the games industry, I’ll most certainly lose the ability to automatically renew my Google industry pass. Unless I score a summer internship with a game company at Haas, the chance that I’ll be in Los Angeles next June is slim.

I flew from San Jose to LAX on Tuesday with my coworkers. We stayed at the Westin Bonaventure in Downtown LA, which is of course the hotel where Arnold Schwarzenegger rides a horse up an elevator in True Lies.

It sure seems that every year, THQ goes out of its way to make a strong first impression for attendees coming in from their hotel shuttles. Last year, the company reserved a parking lot and turned it into a North Korean military compound (with free government subsidized parking) to promote the military shooter Homefront.

The first thing I saw as my shuttle pulled up to the convention center this year was THQ’s Saints Row: The Third bikini car wash. Classy.

This year’s showroom felt more cramped. The booths were smaller in size and seemed more claustrophobic. Part of the problem was that the walls of every booth grew taller. The reps I spoke to explained that the changes were made to improve acoustics. However, the cynic in me felt it was actually designed to block their competition.

Two years ago, I could look down the aisle from one end of the South Hall and wave at a coworker standing on the other end. This year, traveling from booth to booth felt like squeezing through narrow alleyways in London, chased by Jack the Ripper.

Of all the booths I visited, Sony had the most creative layout hands down. Of course, Sony has been reusing the same booth layout for the last two years. So this wasn’t a surprise. I especially liked the glass rooms that made attendees feel like VIPs. The entire area felt open and inviting. Kudos to Sony for not adopting the ‘high wall’ philosophy of their competitors.

The two most interesting games I saw at the show were Ubisoft’s Rocksmith and THQ’s Warhammer 40K: Kill Team.

Rocksmith proved to be a souped up version of Guitar Hero that allows players to plug in a real electric guitar and play real music. It’s billed as the ultimate guitar training software. Instead of pushing buttons and strumming a plastic knob, players have to actually pluck the correct strings. I love the premise!

Kill Team, on the other hand, is a download-only title for Xbox 360 that got almost zero coverage from the media. It’s basically a co-op shooting game similar to Gauntlet. Players can choose between several different types of space marines (flamethrower, sword, machine gun, etc.) and mow down waves of enemy orks. Ryan and I spent a good 30 minutes blowing shit up. As I get older, I’ve discovered that I no longer have any patience for self-important faux-dramatic bullshit in games. I just want to kill things in games. Kill Team lets me do just that.

Street Fighter X Tekken gets an honorable mention from me mostly because it I was impressed by how fluid the game played. On Thursday morning, I was able to explore the West Hall and kick some ass. *pats self on back*

Paul, Kristen, Ryan, and I tested out the new Driver game that lets players cruise around San Francisco. Not surprisingly, the city depicted in the game looked nothing like the real San Francisco. Where were the cable cars?

Dishonorable mention goes to Ninja Gaiden 3 in the Tecmo Koei booth. I played the demo for about 15 minutes on Wednesday and literally facepalmed at the end. The game is simply a mess. I hate the fact that the game’s utilizes seizure-inducing camera angles and quick cuts whenever Ryu Hayabusa kills an enemy. I hate the inclusion of random explosions for no reason. I hate the fact that you can’t tell what’s going on ever!

Of course, the holy mecca of E3 was once again Nintendo’s booth. Thanks to the announcement of the Wii U, people had to wait 45 minutes just to enter the booth. I talked to several clients about the Wii U and many of them seemed to think the idea was silly. “Why would you look at the small screen when you can look at the big screen?”

Personally, I think the Wii U has promise. The problem with the Wii U demos at E3 was that Nintendo didn’t showcase any games that were actually designed with the WiiPad’s unique capabilities in mind. All of the games basically used the WiiPad as a giant WiiRemote. As a result, the WiiPad came across as bulky and superfluous.

I believe future Wii U titles will take advantage of the WiiPad’s touch screen in ways that improve gameplay. Imagine a Madden game that allows you to call plays from a playbook projected on a player’s WiiPad! Alternatively, think about an RPG that doesn’t utilize an on-screen HUD because all of the necessary stats appear on the WiiPad!

All in all, it was a good E3. Three days of business meetings and two parties later, I am dead tired. If this ends up being my last E3 for a while, I would have to say that the last three years have been incredibly rewarding. So long, Los Angeles!

You can see the rest of my E3 pictures, including pictures from the two Nexon parties, in this Picasa album.

On a happier note, I’ve started a new side-blog called Blogging Heroes: Revisiting Heroes of Might and Magic III. The theme of the blog is exactly what it sounds like. I’ll be playing through Heroes III again and writing down my thoughts in a wacky, gonzo, stream-of-consciousness style. Go check it out!

Notice anything different about the cover of the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12? EA has shifted its focus on the Masters tournament rather than the controversial golfer.

When news broke of Tiger Woods’ infidelity, many companies smartly chose to end their endorsement deal with the golfer. However, EA Sports very publicly stood by their man, figuring that his private life couldn’t possibly affect his status as a golf wunderkind. Unfortunately, many additional women came forward to claim that they had been with Tiger. It became rather comical. I wonder if EA regretted their decision.

Let’s look at the design of the cover a bit closer. In the past, EA relied solely on Tiger’s face to sell games. People associated Tiger’s face with his golfing ability and this added value to the EA brand.

After the scandal, Tiger’s face became synonymous with infidelity because in every store checkout stand, there are 3-4 different tabloids with Tiger’s face next to giant bold text saying things like ‘INFIDELITY’ and ‘CHEATER’ and ‘MISTRESS.’

By minimizing Tiger’s presence on the cover, EA is relying instead on the EA Sports logo and the prestige of the Masters tournament to sell their game. Certainly, the lack of Tiger means the game will be less identifiable on store shelves. However, that’s what EA is banking on. For all intents and purposes, this is a classic case of damage control. The lack of Tiger will hurt the game’s sales, but not as much as if they keep his around.

I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t the name of the game still Tiger Woods? Yes, but the Tiger brand has been relegated to the very bottom of the box art. When displayed on store shelves, game boxes are stacked in such a way that the bottom of every cover is obscured by the row of games directly below. Essentially, the Tiger Woods brand is obscured. EA probably has to keep the name around for contractual purposes.

Augusta is the new sexy beast in town. Look at that sexy yellow flag. I’m not even sure if that’s Tiger’s silhouette in the distance.

ABOVE: Tiger in the tabloids

I get that the point of ads is not to recreate the gaming experience with accuracy, but to suggest that playing games will leave you happy and fulfilled. But honestly, when was the last time you invited three attractive friends from your multi-ethnic cadre to play Wii in your expensive, IKEA-furnished penthouse?

The Asian guy just farted. The black dude is trying to flip through some channels because Glee is on. The blonde is trying really hard to force a grin. (Check out the bulging vein on her forehead.) Finally, the pretty brunette has apparently been mangled by Photoshop. Either that or she’s a hobbit.

This picture is even sillier. Once again, we have an IKEA furnished apartment with a bunch of non-threatening 20-somethings. The guy on the left is obviously playing some kind of tennis or fencing game. The blonde girl appears to be skateboarding. I didn’t know there were any skateboarding tennis games for Wii. I especially love the knowing look that the Asian girl gives the camera. It’s like she just wants her money so she can put this whole episode behind her. Thank you, Jim from The Office.

We are totally not dorks. Trust us. To prove it, here are two beautiful women.

This picture is precious because of the man’s impish smirk and the random painting in the background. The girl appears to be playing a game where she’s inserting her ATM card into a machine. The man is about to beat her with a baseball bat and steal her wallet.

Dad: Hey kids. I don’t think the TV is on.

Are you ready to play Microsoft’s Kinect in your impossibly pristine penthouse apartment while sitting on modern minimalist furniture? Also, I love that these parents have nothing better to do than dress in business casual attire and sit on a couch. Finally, why is the lamp on? You have natural sunlight coming through your giant window!

If the goal of this image is to demonstrate the Wii’s appeal to all ages, it’s probably not a good idea to make grandpa look like he’s about to have a heart attack.

More pretty pretentious people playing the Wii.

Hey… any single ladies looking to play some Call of Duty and get totally pwned?

I think the lesson here is that humans and vampires are united by their mutual love for the Sony PSP. This is especially true when one of the vampires was once a crazy gypsy chick.

Playing the Wii will save your marriage. Trust us. *snuggle snuggle snuggle*

Ugh… that zebra print.

I’m a fan of the Android platform and the proud owner of a Nexus One handset. But for some reason, I’ve never quite warmed up to Verizon’s “Droid Does” marketing campaign. The commercials make me want to watch a science fiction movie rather than purchase a phone.

While reading an article today on 1UP.com titled: Twenty Years Ago In Advertisements, I noticed a familiar ad for the Sega Genesis.

When Sega brought the Genesis to North America in 1989, most gamers had an 8-bit NES. Sega couldn’t compete on the strength of its titles because Nintendo’s library was too massive. So they decided to emphasize Genesis’ powerful 16-bit processor. Guess what slogan they used?

Genesis Does What Nintendon’t.

No, I’m not kidding. You can watch this classic Genesis Does commercial on YouTube.

Well, we all know what happened in the end. Two years later, Nintendo released the SNES and dealt Sega a blow from which it never quite recovered. Today, the Nintendo Wii is the best selling console in the world. Meanwhile, Sega has merged with Sammy and publishes games. They haven’t released a new console since 1999.

Verizon’s marketing team appears to have retooled Sega’s campaign. The similarities are eerie. In both cases, a company with big marketing dollars (Sega/Verizon) with a new and fairly unknown platform (Genesis/Android) attempts to dethrone a market leader (NES/iPhone), that possesses a very strong library of games and apps. Both Sega and Verizon have chosen to emphasize their platform’s hardware superiority. Sega constantly reiterated in its commercials that Genesis had 16-bits, twice the number of bits as the NES. Similarly, Droid commercials emphasized the fast processor, open architecture, and multitasking ability over the iPhone’s offerings.

They say history tends to repeat itself. Considering what happened to Sega in the console wars, Verizon may wish to consider a different approach to marketing Droid.

I was told the process would take about 7-10 days. But after a few weeks, I still didn’t receive my package. I checked with UPS. According to their tracking system, the package was ‘delivered.’ So where was it?

It turns out the Nintendo service guys shipped my system to the wrong address (typo) and also to the wrong person. Some guy named Jeremy from a ‘pharmacy’ signed for it. Another funny thing I discovered was that instead of addressing the package to Kevin Sung, they shipped it to John Sung. Where they got the name ‘John’ from remains a mystery since the name on the check and service order both said Kevin.

I called Nintendo’s customer service yesterday and told them my situation. The CSR responded that it would take 3-4 days to run a trace and do a full investigation. “Oh great,” I thought. “Time to get the run-around from terrible customer service again.”

But to my surprise, Nintendo called me back a few hours later and informed me they would be sending me a brand new DS. “We want you to know that no matter who’s at fault here, we want to make sure you’re happy and you have a system in hand.”

Interesting.

I can’t say I’m too happy about the mix-up. But Nintendo’s quick response puts a smile on my face.

I criticized the original US cover for trying to be too ‘badass’ and creating false expectations about the game’s content to people unfamiliar with the series. I’m sure a lot of other gamers felt the same way because Ubisoft made subtle changes to the cover art.

The original cover looked gritty and desaturated, like the opening battle of Fellowship of the Ring or Gladiator. The cover was split down the middle, showcasing the kingdom management on the left and the military strategy on the right. But because the original cover looked gray all around, it compromised the artist’s message. Both sides looked angry and ready for war. The man on the left had short, military-style haircut. The man on the right was decked in armor. If I didn’t know anything about The Settlers, I might think the game was about a rebel army fighting against an evil empire.

The new cover does a much better job make the two halves distinct. The most obvious way they emphasized the contrast was by adding color. On the left, the town looks cheerful under blue skies. On the right, the military stands ready, flanked by a fiery red backdrop. Secondly, the man on the left was altered with long, unkempt peasant hair. Although he’s still exhibiting an intense scowl, he no longer looks like the leader of a rebellion, ready to pick up a sword and bash some imperial skulls.

The more I look at this new cover, the more I like it. While the design is still somewhat misleading about the game’s actual art style, it has a clearer message about the player’s role in the game as both kingdom overseer and military commander. Plus, the purpose of the cover is to get people to pick up the box. What actually sells the game is the back cover, which remains largely the same regardless of region.

Times have certainly changed!  Perception of Sony in the console wars has changed from underdog innovator to arrogant superpower. The PlayStation 3, while technically superior to both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360, suffered numerous PR mishaps. This included but was not limited to, an unusually high launch price, loss of backwards compatibility, lack of vibration controls, and crippling bugs. Leap year PS3 shutdown, anyone?

Looking back at the last decade, the PS2 really earned its place as the king of the consoles. Its game library remains diverse and developer support unparalleled. To think that Sony could have fallen from first to last place in the course of a single generation is a testament to the high bar set by the PS2.

For me, the PS2 remains my favorite console as it provided great companionship during the college years. I have distinct memories of every single game I purchased.

Writing the post below has been a real trip down memory lane for me and I hope it’ll inspire you to remember all the good times you’ve had with your old games. Read on!

Final Fantasy X
This was the first PS2 game I purchased. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play it for two whole months! I bought the console during the great memory card shortage of 2002. The game itself was nice, though I didn’t think it was the ‘greatest RPG ever’ (as my friends claimed). I had a lot more free time back then, so I managed to complete the Calm Lands Chocobo seagull time challenge as well as dodge lightning 200 times in a row.

Metal Gear Solid 2
My second game. By the time I played this, all of my friends had spoiled the Snake/Raiden switcheroo. I never hated Raiden as a character, personality flaws notwithstanding. The dull boss fights and environments in the Big Shell were a far bigger disappointment.

Dead or Alive 2
High school friends Zac and Juan both owned this game and were good at it, so I bought it too. Yay, peer pressure!

Marvel vs. Capcom 2
A terrible port of the arcade game. The sound is all muffled and the disc loading times are atrocious.

Silent Hill 2
Still my favorite horror adventure game on the PS2. James’ despair as he descends into dilapidated and claustrophobic environments still unnerves me. I have completed this game at least 10 times and achieved every ending, even the one with the cute Shiba Inu.

Devil May Cry
I bought this game at GameStop after reading an excellent review from PSM, expecting to play a Resident Evil clone. The difficulty floored me, but I loved every minute of it.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Boring, repetitive rooms. Characters lacked depth. An utterly stupid origin for the Vampire Killer whip. Overall, a total disappointment after DMC.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
This was on sale at Costco. When I first played the game, I couldn’t force myself to play more than a few hours every month. The difficult was so grueling that it took me 3 years to finish. After revisiting the game last year and falling in love with its multi-dimensional combat system, my view of the game has become more positive. Someone at Capcom had balls.

Final Fantasy X-2
The whole Yuna meets Charlie’s Angels angle turned me off. But my RA in college had a copy and he convinced me the game wasn’t that bad. I played a little bit and actually liked the humor and battle system. However, I think what actually made me buy a copy was the fact that I was a Squaresoft fanboy at the time and felt empty without the game on my shelf.

Xenosaga Episode I
I freaked out about Xenosaga because it came on a dual-layer DVD and gamers reported old PS2 models locking up during cut-scenes. Mine never did. But every so often, the cut-scenes would freeze for a few seconds and my poor console would make clicking noises. The game itself (if you can call it that) was pretty terrible and severely misused Yasunori Mitsuda’s music. But the heart-pounding tension as to whether my PS2 would sputter and die kept me on my toes. I never played Episode II or III but I hear KOS-MOS ends up being the Virgin Mary or something like that.

Soul Calibur II
I waited months for this game to be released and spent an entire summer perfecting my Kilik combos against some distant cousins.

Virtual Fighter 4 Evolution
Everybody on the Internet told me this was the best fighting game from a technical standpoint. I bought it, played it for a few days, and got bored. Apparently, the game is only good if you spend hours playing against pros. When you sit alone at home and face the CPU for hours, it’s kind of lame.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
My friend Zac told me to get this game because “Atlus doesn’t run many copies and they often appear on eBay years later with heavily inflated prices.” The next day, I went to Best Buy in Riverside and bought their last remaining copy. I trained my Laharl as an axe master and reached level 1500.

Guilty Gear X2
Great music. Great hi-res sprites. Great battles against college mates. Funny story: the guys in my dorm liked to show off their mad skills at the UCLA campus arcade. They bought a copy of the game for PS2 along with expensive arcade sticks and practiced in their dorm for hours.

Phantom Brave
Disgaea was so great that it led me to mistakenly assume all NIS games were good. This is the reason I paid $40 for Phantom Brave. Instead of a whimsical adventure with an addictive item world, the game proved to be dull beyond belief. I’ve been trying to sell my copy for years but nobody will buy it.

Silent Hill 3
I chatted online with a girl named Sarah and our conversations constantly led to Silent Hill theories. I bought SH3 because of these chats. Also, Heather Beam!

Kingdom Hearts
I love Mickey, but he was not in this game. Boo.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Star Ocean: The Second Story was my favorite RPG on the PlayStation. So I was excited to play the game. Imagine my surprise when I noticed the game’s plot becoming worse and worse the farther I got, exploding in a totally ridiculous plot twist that makes no sense and undoes everything from the previous games. I tried to finish the game but just plain gave up before reaching Luther.

Disgaea 2
Better than Disgaea in every aspect except plot. However, I never bothered to grind as much the second time around.

Metal Gear Solid 3
I have a lot of great memories with this game. But I have to say I was a little pissed off that a few months after I bought the game, Konami released an updated version called Subsistence with a much better camera system.

Devil May Cry 3
Another game that was a day one purchase for me. The game was extremely difficult, but oh-so-satisfying to complete. The thing I liked most about the game versus to the original DMC is that you could return to completed missions to farm red orbs and unlock skills. Similar to MGS3, I was pretty unhappy when the publisher decided to release an updated version soon after featuring a brand new playable character, boss battles, and challenge rooms.

Kingdom Hearts 2
Organization XIII is stupid. That is all.

Final Fantasy XII
There’s a lot of fanboy hate for this game. But FFXII is one of my favorite entries in the series due to the mature storyline, excellent music, excellent localization, and expansive design of Ivalice.

Bully
Getting busted by school officials for being late to class when I’m trying to complete a mission gets annoying very quickly. Also, why was there so much controversy about this being a ‘Columbine simulator’ when the only gun in the game shoots potatoes?

Guitar Hero 2
Well, I bought this on Black Friday. I’m still not very good at expert difficulty.

Odin Sphere
Beautiful game. However, I hate the game’s slowdown during the battles in the underworld. Sadly, I have not completed the game. I’m stuck on the second to the last boss.

God of War
I bought this on sale at Target. What a thrill ride. I loved everything about this game except the damn rotating spike wall in the underworld.

God of War II
I bought this on sale along with the original. The boss battles were greatly improved the second time around. This is also my most recent and likely final PS2 game as my memory card is completely full and I have no intentions of buying another one.

The Settlers 7 showcases a different but equally common type of regional tinkering. Take a look at the comparison below.

The European cover on the left shows a jovial, colorful village with all three facets of the game (commerce, exploration, and conquest) represented. The North American cover on the right screams: ‘military, war, darkness, KILL!’

Clearly, for Americans, there is only one ‘path’ to a kingdom. And in case you haven’t realized the cover art’s subtle message, let me spell it out for you, Heavy Rain-style. You play as the angry guy with the intense stare. This is because you are a pissed-off, testosterone-filled, rageaholic. You command the armies because you are a badass mofo. You slaughter your enemies because you take no prisoners. Victory is yours. THIS. IS. SPARTA!

The latter cover isn’t bad from a technical standpoint, but it is extremely misleading. You see, the actual game is very colorful and cute, like Katamari and Civilization barfed up rainbows. Anyone itching to slaughter innocents and bathe in their blood will be quite surprised when they see a bunch of fat peasants going to church and planting crops.

The phenomenon of making a North American game cover more hardcore by adding anger and rage is nothing new. Just look at Kirby, who time after time finds himself frowning as he crosses the Pacific.

I’d really like to see the study that shows angry cover art translates to more sales in North America. Have any publishers actually done an A/B test? I can’t recall any examples. More likely, this is one of those ‘best practices’ invented by some lazy marketing specialist with no empirical data as backup whatsoever and repeated as a talking point ad infinitum.