The PC Centric Extravaganza 9th September 2008

Posted by Chris Evans on 09.09.2008

A Football Manager packed Extravaganza along with some MMO goodies and much more besides.

The PC Centric Extravaganza 9th September 2008

Hello and welcome to another edition of The PC Centric Extravaganza where we take a long hard look (well a look at least) at what we will be seeing in Football Manager 2009 as well as the next part of my life as manager of Thornhill F.C. from Football Manager 2008.

This may be lacking a bit as I have had to write this a day earlier than normal, my girlfriend's birthday was yesterday for those who read this so all the writing is based on what I have seen up until Sunday. I am off for a few days later this week so unfortunately the column next week may be a bit light too.
Anyway lets get on with this shindig.

Warhammer Online Boss Makes Wild Claims

I am not a big fan of MMORPGs and I am certainly not a fan of World of Warcraft, however I don't dislike it so much that I will go claiming that Warhammer Online has to be a success against it for the good of the games industry. However one man has made that claim, that man is Mythic Entertainment's studio VP Mark Jacobs.

In this MTV Multiplayer interview he claims that if Warhammer Online fails to succeed with the support of EA and the Warhammer IP then it will show that the audience is only willing to play WoW.

"If we don't succeed with EA behind us, the ‘Warhammer' IP behind us, with one of the most experienced teams in the industry, that's not going to be good for the industry. We need to show the world that it's not just Blizzard who can make a great game, and that the audience is absolutely willing to try new things and to play a game other than ‘WoW.'"

That just stinks of a jealousy of what WoW has achieved, I am of the belief that the western MMO market can't support two 10 million plus subscriber games without an expansion into the consoles. I get the feeling that companies are starting to churn out MMO after MMO in an attempt to capture the success that we can see with WoW. The problem is that they are all going after a very similar audience, The Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are all at their base fantasy MMOs.

In a world where WoW totally dominates the fantasy MMO market then developers and publishers are going to have to create the ultimate game to have a chance of fighting with WoW. They are much better off targeting a different audience who are willing to take the leap into that of the MMO world.

Really I am just annoyed that someone thinks that the industry is so reliant on WoW that if no other game can capture the same level of success then the industry will fail as it shows that people aren't willing to try new things. The developers should learn to try new things and form their own direction, not copy that of Blizzard.

You can read some very interesting comments about this on my blog here.

"The Combine Interview"

I originally saw this video on the halflife2.net forums and it gave me the chills at how utterly closely matched it is to the world of Half-Life 2. It is an interview with a person purporting to be a member of the Combine, he explains why he does what he does and his views on the human race in the Half-Life world. The interview is interspersed with mock acting out of some rebel and Combine fighting. A great fan made video.



Piracy Overblown?

The editor for patching service GameShadow, Tom Jubert has blogged on Edge Online about how Cevat Yerli claims that Crysis was pirated at a ratio of 1 genuine copy to 15 illegal copies are overblown.

Jubert looks at GameShadow figures show that in the UK the ratio of legal to illegal copies is closer to 7:3 while in the US the figure is around 5:1. While Jubert admits that while in places in Asia and the CIS may see higher levels of piracy than in Western regions, those who pirate these games are unlikely to actually buy the games anyway.

This is an interesting an insightful piece, check it out here.

500,000 Sins

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has revealed on Gamastura that Sins of a Solar Empire has now sold 500,000 units with 400,000 sold at retail and 100,000 sold via digital distribution. This is a great success for a relatively low-key game which has been able to generate a strong following over the months since it was released.

Wardell feels that the success of the game can be put down in part to the low system requirements that Sins has.

"Sins of a Solar Empire was explicitly designed to work on a wide variety of machines, It will run on a four-year-old video card, and it looks great."

"You make those kinds of design decisions, and you greatly increase the number of people who can play your game. You lose out on some piddly super-mega effect, but you get those units. The results come in sales."

Wardell was talking about the decision that was made to stop ship turrets moving in-game. In a world where games like Crysis are demanding the latest in computer technology to play well it is a delight to see Sins playable on older hardware. A smart design decision by Stardock and Ironclad Games.

Football Manager 2009 – First Information

The massive Football Manager 2009 reveal videos have gone up on the SI Games YouTube page and they show off a bunch of new features for both the handheld and PC/Mac versions of the game. First things first, the new game will be released on the 14th November with a demo coming out a few weeks before launch. The features announced in the following videos are not the full list of new features and improvements, just a handful. More will be revealed over the coming couple of months via blogs, news posts and the Football Manager podcast. Two parts to the video totally near on 20 minutes.





There really is so much announced just in those two videos that it would take me ages to go through in detail the new and improved features. The first most obvious one is the introduction of a 3D match engine which has been in the works for a few years now. SI have received help from a Japanese company in the creation of the engine. Most importantly the text based highlights and 2D match engine are remaining. That is good for me as I live with the text commentary.

You can now chose to become a feemale manager if you so wish, this required almost all the language in the game to be given a female alternative. That would've taken a load of work to do.

Board and fan confidence has been reworked to provide much more detailed feedback and details. The Assistant Managers have also been looked at, the most striking improvement mentioned regarding them is their new found involvement during a match where they will give you tips on what to do to win the game.

The final point that got my attention the most was the media system. FM09 will see the introduction of proper press conferences where you will be able to have a much greater level of interaction with the journalists. In the videos Miles Jacobson reveals that individual journalists and papers will be involved and you will be able to build up something of a rapport with them depending on your actions.

Early information sounds very promising, I am eagerly awaiting more details on what is sure to be a big hit. A handful of early screenshots can be found here.

Thornhill F.C – It Gets Worse

At the end of my last update from my job as manager of Thornhill F.C. I was struggling to find a new right back to cover for my injured youngster known as Nick Jackson. Unfortunately I failed to sign anyone before my next friendly, away to Hemel Hempstead. I don't know what a team of the majesty of Thornhill F.C. is doing visiting this slum in a pre-season friendly, but what I do know is that my team can't play football for shit.



We lost 8-0 and what was more shocking was the fact that none of my players got a rating over 5. Bear in mind the average rating for a player is 6. My personal creation Evo got a rating of 5 as did my 15 year old centre back Ricky Clark.



My first attempt at solving the current club crisis was to alter the tactics, obviously the team aren't good enough to play to my adventurous 4-1-2-1-2 formation that Steve McLaren should have used if he wanted England to qualify for that competition that failed to qualify for. Anway I fear that my fancy formation is a bit too much for these lads who know nothing about life in the real world what with them all being 16 or younger. Surely this is akin to being thrown down the pits, they may get better paid at my club but soon enough the fans are going to be trying kill them for their crap performances.

Anyway I decide that reverting to a plain and simple 4-4-2 may better suit the players, I am already starting to think that I will be lucky to survive the first month as manager of Thornhill F.C. With another three friendlies before the season proper starts I will have to hope that I can sign some decent enough players to give us a fighting chance of staying in this league.



Before the disaster that was Hemel Hempstead I scoured the market for any free agents. I came accross a Richard Smith, an 18 year old from Scotland I get the impression he is a relative of Agent Smith from the Matrix movies. He is earning £25 a week and probably is no better than my current crop of players. Well at least he is another player to throw to the fans before they can get to me. I also sign an ex-Liverpool trainee and someone who used to be a youth player for Mansfield. I really don't expect any good to come from these new signings. At least they are over 16 though, and hell one of them was 18! He can join me and the coaches for a few drinks after the matches. I get the feeling he will be needing a few to keep the will to live.

My next match is against Bedford, with my flat 4-4-2 and a team selected by the AssMan I am hoping for a slightly better match than the last one. Evo is my star striker and the new signings have slotted into position.



I go 3-0 down after only 17 minutes, somehow we claw our way back to earn a 5-1 defeat. We got a goal courtesy of Lee Westwood my new signing who used to be a Liverpool player. There were some decent performances, though Evo disappointed with a rating of only 5 for the game. I am starting to think that my star man needs some other star players to have any hope of getting anywhere for my team.

Looking at the wider world Arsenal have signed Adrian Mutu while Shaun Wright-Phillips has gone back to Man City in a move which is exactly the same as what happened this summer. I am disappointed to see that neither Cardiff City nor Manchester United have made any new signings.

5000-1

The odds for the new season of the Blue Square South division have come in thanks to a bunch of random bookies. Havant and Waterloo are joint favourites with Braintree to win promotion from the division, meanwhile I have been given odds of 5000-1. What can I say, in an imaginery press conference following the revelation of the bookies prices I make a comment.



"Gentlemen and your dogs, here today at the Pen Dragon (a local pub) I am a tad disappointed to reveal that the bookies have priced us at 5000-1 for promotion. Seeing as we bribed every official in the country and signed a bunch of spotty youngsters from the local area I think these are pretty good odds. At least we aren't being priced at 10,000-1."

I was promptly kicked out of the pub by angry supporters who clearly feel that they have thrown away a couple hundred quid on a season ticket at Thornhill Park. The pre-season games come to an end with a two goal defeat to League 2 side Macclesfield at home. Everyone played much better, for those who were old enough I treated them to a beer at the local, the youngsters made do with orange juice.



Tally Ho!

That is all for now, see you all next week.