It’s been a while since the first time I’ve heard of Naughty Dog’s PS3 exclusive, The Last of Us. If you’ve read some of my earlier stuff then you already know that I’m a huge zombie fan. I’m probably the only person in the world who says “Oh great, another zombie game/movie/comic” unironically. Come to think of it, I’m the only one who does a lot of things unironically. But anyway, I was a little surprised when I saw the gameplay trailer and seemed to lose all interest in the game. Let me show you:

I’m not sure why I felt so uninterested about the game. Maybe it’s the style the game is. It reminds me of the first Uncharted game, where it has a big and beautiful environment, yet a single  linear path to traverse it. It just seems like I would end up spending a lot of time trying to find where I’m supposed to go. This was only reinforced by the way that the gameplay demo is so scripted. It was as if I were watching a cutscene trailer, not footage of someone playing. It was as if the game wasn’t even being played by a human. But I suppose after a 169-hour energy drink and candy fueled workweek, the part of the programmer that makes him a person has died a long time ago. But I digress.

The story trailer from the Spike VGAs got me a little bit more excited. Just a little bit, though. Originally, it appeared that it was just the two main characters trying to make it through the world months if not years after the breakdown of society has disintegrated into “shoot first, don’t give a crap about asking questions later”. But now it seems that there are some elements of  a post apocalyptic community. This reminds me of The Walking Dead‘s Woodbury. Oh, and for a game that’s called “The Last of Us”, there seems to be a lot of people running around. Will someone please tell Naughty Dog that Steve from Marketing needs to be let go? Anyway, this new information on the story is kind of cool, but for some reason I just can’t get into this game. Maybe it’s my instincts warning me that beyond all logic this game is going to suck. Don’t quote me on that, though.

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I’ve talked about Halo before. Halo 2 was my first FPS and even today the more popular franchises like Battlefield and Call of Duty are boring in comparison. There’s a reason that Halo was the defining franchise for the Xbox. It is the only FPS to have such varied gameplay while having a rich story and universe. It is the only thing that makes me want an Xbox is the upcoming Halo 4. Sure having an Xbox means I can play with my friends online, but if it weren’t for Halo there wouldn’t be any multiplayer game I would want to play. Since Microsoft refuses to play nice and make Halo cross platform or port to PC (a platform they own), those of us with a PS3 are missing out. If any of you have a mind for marketing you’ve noticed something very important. For those of you who don’t, I’ll fill you in. There is a market for an original franchise.

For as long as the Playstation 3 has been out, no one has taken the Halo formula and used it to make a game. Now when I say “Halo formula” I don’t mean I want a Halo clone. I want something original that does right what Halo does right. The way I see it, the Halo formula is as follows:

• Protagonist that the player can project themselves into
• Medium-sized assortment of weapons, each with their own distinct specified purpose, pros and cons
• Quick and easy use of vehicles in single-player and multiplayer
• Rich story and universe that makes room for well-written novels, comics, movies and sequels
• Unique and easily distinguishable enemy classes
• Story mode that makes the game satisfying even if you never touch the multiplayer mode

This is what makes Halo so unique and it’s so simple. You’ll notice that the COD franchise has none of these. Just six bullet points and you have the guidelines to make a great game. This is coming from a guy who isn’t paid to come up with ideas for games. Why hasn’t anyone caught on? Are developers too scared to try to come up with something great? I just don’t understand why that in the last 10 years since Combat Evolved we haven’t had anything pop up that could rival it. Maybe Dust 514 will fill these shoes, but I doubt it. I might as well give up and buy the cheapest Xbox 360 I can find and huddle up with every Halo game I’ve missed. If you don’t hear from me until spring, that’s probably what I’ve done.

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No thanks, mom. I couldn’t take another bite of that “sun” thing you were talking about.

I know since school let out you haven’t been keeping up with the dates, so I’ll remind you that today is June 24. Your summer has only began, and for those of you grown up enough for summer to become meaningless, I laugh at you. For those of us whose folks legally have to let us live with them, we finally have time to relax thanks to school letting out. Sure, I’m using some of this free time to do stuff like learn to code and get myself in shape, but what I was really looking forward to was the chance to finish my games. At the beginning of the year I made a schedule to complete all my unfinished video games. Six months later, and I’ve beaten a grand total of… 1 game. It was Uncharted. I think we should all take the summer as an opportunity to give our favorite hobby some much given attention. The last week I’ve been very happy to be piling on hours for Infamous 2 and .hack//Outbreak.

.hack is very fulfilling.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like leaving games unfinished. I know the characters are just programs, but I just hate leaving them hanging in some dungeon or swamp while I play something else. What games are you looking to finish this summer?

Well another E3 has come and gone, and I have to be honest: I didn’t really care. The majority of the news flooding my Google Reader were about sequels that we either knew were coming by tradition (“Durr, they’re making another Call of Duty game? I had no idea!) or more sequels that have been getting exposure for years (the Tomb Raider reboot, Halo 4, Batman Arkham City). This is the first time since learning about E3 that I’m really disappointed in it. I could go on about the state of creativity in AAA game development, but that’s not what this article is about. I’m sure that next year will have better games, so I want to talk about the future: getting a bigger piece of the E3 experience at home.

Let me give you a quick rundown on what E3 is. It is a huge, three day video game convention where publishers and developers unveil their upcoming products and projects. It is open to the public as well as the media, but seeing as it’s always held in California and the staggering amount of basement dwellers who play video games, a lot of people miss out. Sure, you can watch the press conferences and gameplay previews online, but it’s so far away from actually being there. You’re not interacting, you’re being communicated to. I think that people will get a lot more excited about E3 if they could feel like they’re at the convention from the comfort of their own homes. What if all the major consoles, plus PC, could see conferences live? What if we could get to play some of the demos that only the media and some lucky conventioneers get to play? Think of panels with an exclusively online audience. All of this with chat rooms dedicated to discussing this live.

It’s a beautiful thought. I wonder if other people are having the same idea right now. Nah, they’re probably busy stewing over the Wii U. I know I am.

Oh you sure are, ladies. Yes you are.

Earlier this week, Square Enix released the above E3 teaser photo, hinting at some kind of multiplayer mode in their upcoming game, Hitman: Absolution. Disappointingly it was later revealed to be a teaser for a new trailer in which Agent 47 is attacked by assassins disguised as nuns. But this got me thinking: isn’t it about time Hitman had a multiplayer mode? Yes. Yes it is.

The multiplayer mode will have two players compete against each other to carry out an assignment. Each player will have the same target(s) in each round, plus the other player as an optional target. For every target you eliminate you get points, your opponent being worth double. You have to be extra careful about being conspicuous, as to not reveal your identity to the other player (each player will appear as a random NPC to the other). The player who escapes with the most points wins. Killing the other player before all other targets are eliminated results in no points earned. It makes it even more risky to engage the other person because hostile NPCs will come to take down both of you. Which ones that are sent depends on the seriousness of the fight. Just a knife fight may result in a couple of security guards, whereas a firefight with automatic assault rifles will bring in a SWAT team clad in body armor and riot shields. Let me remind you, in order to win, you must escape alive.

There could be different modes to give it some variety. One could be a race to massacre every NPC on the board. Another could be who could complete the round with the least shots fired. There are over a dozen different kinds of games that could be made from this. It’s even possible that we get something similar to Left 4 Dead 2′s “Mutation” mode, where an experimental game mode is given to the community every week or so.

Now I will watch this trailer over and over while I await my job offer from IO Interactive.