Achievement Unlocked 11.26.09: Playing The Game

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 11.26.2009

Should games be playing themselves for us, or does Microsoft have the right idea with an in-game GameFAQs? 411's Rod Oracheski looks at the advent of in-game help functions in this week's Achievement Unlocked.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Am I playing, or is the computer?

Die enough times playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii (available on the Wii, naturally) and a green block will appear and give you the option to let Luigi finish the level for you. That's right - the game will play itself to get you past whatever part you're stuck on.

It doesn't play the game very well, mind you. It'll get through the level, but it's not going to collect coins or do anything other than simply get to Point B so you can take over once again.

The idea has been ridiculed by the hardcore gamers as being too much, and perhaps they're right. Taking control completely out of the hands of gamers and playing it for them seems at odds with the point of playing games to begin with - or at least what the point of them used to be. Take the original Super Mario Bros., for example. There were parts that required careful, if not pinpoint, jumping to pass through. Gamers got stuck on a part, then practiced and prevailed.

There's no willingness to get better these days, though. Most gamers, stuck on a tough section, are more likely to simply move along to something else. Perhaps the hardcore crowd is still up for that kind of challenge, but it's an increasingly slim part of the overall market.

But a 'do it for me' option? That seems like too much of a crutch. Why not simply have Luigi demonstrate how it's done, then put it back in the hands of the player to actually do it?

That might be the solution that Microsoft is working on, revealed in a patent filed by Microsoft's Andrew Vrignaud, Director of Games Platform Strategy. The patent filing shows a sequence that has a player, stuck in an encounter challenge, using a 'service access guide' to select help options.

Halo 3

Making this system-wide? Sounds awesome.

What help options, though? The patent makes mention of authoring tools (presumably available to everyone) that include screenshots and video clips - along with the ability to add annotations to them. Stuck looking for a hidden object? Someone might have taken a screenshot of the location. Can't figure out how to get to it? Maybe there's a video clip showing how to get there.

There's little here that's not already available to gamers via YouTube walkthroughs or GameFAQs, information storehouses that even hardcore gamers have shown they're willing to use in the past - the difference is integration. If all this can be accessed simply by hitting the Guide button, it could make those difficult moments a whole lot easier to bear in future games.

Making it a system-wide feature would also mean it's supported (and supports) all games released on the system, something Microsoft has been good about doing since launching the Xbox 360 just over four years ago. If community authoring is in place, which the patent seems to indicate, there'll no doubt be some 'labour of love' games that get a surprisingly deep pool of information added immediately. Earth Defense Force 2017, for example?

Plus the update would also seem to add in screenshot and video capture as system-level features, supported once again by all games. Universal video capture (more accurately, game replay support - it's unlikely it would actually be capturing video) was rumoured not long ago, and this patent seems to add some credibility to that anonymous rumour.

The idea of gamers leaving hints and tips ingame isn't new, PS3 title Demon's Souls had the ability to leave short messages on the floor, cobbled together from pre-selected strings of text. You could warn of an ambush ahead, or advise on protections required in an upcoming battle. Though the system could work at times, the game highlighted one well-known issue with 'community content' use - moderation of that content.

Spammed messages made the floor-bound tip system less useful than it could have been, especially those begging for a rating (rating a message gave the person who left it a shot of health) or repeating already 'posted' advice. Microsoft will need some sort of system to ensure their guide system doesn't become filled with incorrect advice or - worse yet - random spam and garbage.

With nothing but a patent to make guesses from, it's unclear what exactly Microsoft intends to do with their version of the 'Super Guide' or even when they'll unveil it, but if the anonymous source is correct we should be seeing it debut on the Xbox 360 - not its eventual successor.



Xbox Live being used to notify gamers of disasters, Pandemic's surviving franchise needs to avoid a disaster next time out, and a legal disaster waiting to happen - this week in The Business.

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Xbox Live Used For Public Alert Broadcasts

New York state officials are going to use Xbox Live as a conduit for information in the event of terrorist attacks or other emergency situations, according to a story on Information Week. The plan is seen as a way to get information out to younger residents quickly.

The plan seems reasonable. After all, a great deal of people - including myself - found out the first details of the 9/11 attacks while playing online games like Everquest or Asheron's Call.

Credit: Information Week

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Pandemic Dead, But Mercenaries Lives On

The closing down of Pandemic Studios won't mean the end of the Mercenaries franchise, according to EA. The software giant confirmed a new installment in the series is in the pipleline, with that announcement following a leaked trailer showing a focus on multiplayer that looked early, but interesting.

It's good to see EA isn't going to abandon the series, but after a problem-filled last outing this new game will have to be good if they want to woo fans back.

Credit: Eurogamer

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Video Game Studies Are Up

Legal nuisance Erik Estavillo is back at it, suing Blizzard this time for making players move slowly while walking or running. Estavillo claims this is a deliberate move to force people to play the game longer, leading to more subscription revenue.

Estavillo has also sued Sony, after being banned from the PlayStation Network, as well as Microsoft (over a RRoD) and Nintendo (for disabling his homebrew channel with an update) and appears to be nothing but a legal-minded pest.

He's going to learn the term "vexatious litigator" soon enough. Then maybe he can go get a life.

Credit: Game Politics

Viking: Battle for Asgard

He's got the look

With a commitment to my friends to hold off on Left 4 Dead 2 until early 2010, and a recent exploit (infinite air drops) making Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer just a little less special, I tried to get through some of my backlog this week - popping in a game that I liked, but left behind...Viking: Battle for Asgard.

The gameplay itself isn't much to write home about - some basic hack and slash, mixed with a scattered assortment of special moves to buy and the ability to add elemental damage and effects to your weapon. It's made a little more special by the scale of battles, with literally hundreds of enemies and allies on screen at times, but that's also a negative.

You see your guy just doesn't stand out all that well in the huge sea of humanity, so it becomes pretty much just a button masher during those huge fights - and he doesn't live long in those situations. What you need to do is avoid the huge battles, sticking to the outside and working your way to the objective. Kind of defeats the purpose of having those hundreds of guys, doesn't it?

The game looks great though. The characters remind me a bit of those super-deformed wrestling figures, with bulky muscles and almost too chiseled features, and they animate well. The run is a little janky, but it's made up for (and perhaps caused by) the way feet will fit to the terrain. There's no 'floating foot' syndrome on hills here, a problem that really hurts the look of other games. Characters stand naturally on the terrain, even putting a foot up on the back of a downed enemy if you decide to stand that way.

The environments are gorgeous though, with detailed trees and an abundance of grass and bushes. Environmental effects like fog are used to add to the ambience, not hide pop-in (though perhaps it does that as well) and the game has just a fantastic overall look.

After having to start again (somehow I lost my save from the first time playing) I think I've figured out why I quit in the first place - repetitive missions. You can approach the missions in different ways, but you're basically doing the same few things over and over - invade this place, kill this patrol, wipe out two shamans in a giant battle, etc...

Still, Viking: Battle for Asgard offers up a fun little experience from a game that has to be available pretty cheap by now. The gory kills (especially taking out a commander, even if it's a QTE - a simple one, but a QTE nonetheless) are snicker-worth, but make this one not a great fit for kids.


Nothing this week - I'll try to get some Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer videos up over the weekend. If there are any maps you'd like to see highlighted, let me know.

If you have any questions or want to request any videos, leave a comment below. Until next week, I'm out.