High Noon in the Virtual World

Time for some game talk. Video games that is. I took a lil bit of hiatus for a bit, and didn't play very much. But the last few weeks I've been revisiting my Xbox collection. Some COD and Halo with a mix of Gears of War and various other shooters for the most part. And it got me thinking, what's the best shooter?

It's a tough choice really as there have been a plethora over the years. And I'm not talking the scroll and shoot platformers like Commando and Contra. I'm talking 1st person shooter. The first real experience for this, outside of arcades, was with the NES and Sega Master System for those who had the light guns. Most everyone of the NES generation, myself included, remember Duck Hunt with bitter sweet memories. Sweet for all the duck we massacred, and bitter for every time that stupid dog laughed at us. After 30 years, I'm sure most of us would still like to shoot that mutt. I know I would.

For those with computers, Wolfenstein and Doom are what really set off the 1st person shooters. To further the phenomenon, the ports to SNES and Genesis helped them to reach even more people. For me Doom was really the number one spot, and held that spot for years. Then came a new arcade boom. Real people were used for a number of shooters like Mad Dog McCree and Crime Patrol, where short but engaging. There was nothing like standing in an arcade front of a big screen at high noon, or taking down the drug lords. For me it was a little bit of a thrill when I played Crime Patrol because it was filmed in Albuquerque, the place I now call home. The only way you got to see these gems was if you were fortunate enough to have a 3DO. A system way ahead of its time. Fortunately you got to see some arcade hits like Terminator and Revolution X, on SNES and Genesis but it wasn't the same. You really had to have a few quarters to pump into the old machines to truly get the full experience with them. The Atari Jaguar was another rare gem, of which my favorite game coincidentally was a shooter as well, Aliens Vs Predator.

There were a few others here and there, but really you had to fast forward a little bit to get to the era of shooters. We're really in the middle of it right now. We've seen various incarnations of Doom, and Wolfenstein. But it really started to take off with Halo, and it's just escalated since then. It's one of the series I've been playing as of late. Those who play multiplayer games online can spot a Halo fan virtually immediately, as they're the ones that are always jumping around. Which can be fun, as you hear the hardcore Call of Duty fans complain about it all the time. Yet another series I've been playing. Aliens Vs Predator and Aliens Colonial Marines offer a little something different, but fall just short of the full experience. Gears of War has a decent story as well, but is still missing that little something for me as well. To me it feels like a revised version of Doom with the characters on steroids, and guns inspired by Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi. The new incarnation of Ghostbusters is great, but doesn't offer anything outside of the story line. Sad, because it could be so much more than it is. The latest Duke Nukem offers a blast from the past, but concentrates too much on the mini-games, and feels like it ends too soon. Multiplayer here suffers too.

Let's not forget the lovely world of mobile tech either. You have Metroid Prime Hunters, Unit 13, and a number of other compact shooters for your fix with the portables. But you can't forget your tablets, smartphones, mp3 players, etc. NOVA, and Modern Combat are easily at the top of the list and make for great alternatives to Halo and Call of Duty. But they still suffer from poor controls that still have a long way to come, and limited multiplayer abilities.

So when it comes down to it, what is the best shooter? I think it varies for everyone. For me, it goes back and forth depending on my mood. Sometimes I want to shoot aliens hell bent on wiping out human kind. Other times I might go "camping" on Call of Duty just to upset some kid who's keeps trying to run into the same building. Other times I'll say it's not enough, let get out a sports game. Whatever it is though, it better have a good online multiplayer capability if it wants me to keep coming back. What do you prefer?

Gaming in the Cloud

Time for a piece on technology. I'm not talking about driving around airborne cars, or our sneakers lacing themselves, but we're working on it. What I am talking about it something that those that are gamer's would understand. Especially those who are heavily vested in their cellphones. Game developers you are on notice as of now.

A little history first.

So once upon a time ago, you weren't saving anything. The arcade era was in full swing, and you played to beat the game in a single sitting. Even the original tough guys Atari and Intellivision were no different. But then came the next evolution when Sega and Nintendo came through the door. You could continue from save points in some games. Others just needed a password. And boom, you no longer had to start at the beginning. Which in some cases was a REALLY good thing, because many of us lost countless hours to the likes of the various Mario Bros, Zelda, Metroid, and then some. And in case you're wondering, yes, I still know the Konami code.Things stayed this way for a while, as the games themselves would evolve in graphics instead of storage.

Then came the dark times. New systems that had incredible graphics and new ways to save came out But they were so over priced, you were cutting grass for more than a summer to save up. Systems like the 3DO, CD-i, and Sega Saturn took advantage of having real actors, on real sets pushing the story of the game. Mad Dog McCree, Wing Commander 3, The Daedelus Encounter, and Night Trap to name a few. The systems were way ahead of their time. You could save your place in the systems memory itself, and play music CD's. Man, I killed a lot of Kilrathi back in those days. My first taste of the awesomeness that is playing video games in full surround sound.

But like all hardships, things turned around. Sega launched it's final system, Playstation and Xbox were born, and we were now saving our games to memory cards. And memory cards brings me to where I wanted to be today.

Today, we have a hand full of quality portable gaming options. And with them advanced gaming. For many of us, the bulk of those games are on our cellphones and tablets. And this is where developers have taken a step back. Sure, many games will save progress at certain points. Most have you set up a login to track your stats and keep your friends. But what happens when you upgrade your phone? What happens when you go from your phone to your tablet? What happens if, (gasp) something happened to you phone like damage, or even losing it? Well, quit simply you're out of luck. Only parts of games are backed up on to memory cards, but you usually end up having to wipe and start from scratch again. And save points in games just aren't there on the cards. Being that we are in a world of cloud computing (oh no, he's going to make sense again) why don't developers not only bring back the ability to save to a memory card, but into the could itself?

It's not just annoying sometimes, but down right aggravating when you've finally gotten to a great point and then are looking at losing your game. Because lets face it, nobody really wants to go back and forth between a current phone and an old one. And let's look at that cloud save, customers would be able to switch out devices without worry! Just upgraded your phone? No problem. Just activated a replacement phone? No problem. Gave your old Xperia Play to your kid who loves that old Spiderman game? No problem.

Not long ago +Alexander Maxham made a great point about mobile device storage in general. Some people want to stay with cheap devices with an SD card, but others would prefer to have a solid device with cloud storage. (Alex, thanks for that by the way.) Mobile gaming would be able to expand that further, bridge the gap, and lead the industry in a new direction by opening that cloud storage. I know for sure Microsoft has at least looked at this with the Xbox 360 some, so I'm sure the likes of Sony and Nintendo have at least eyeballed it as well. So not only would our mobile gaming be better, but our consoles would be looking at going in the same direction as well. Better gaming all around! Those people who stay away from mobile gaming, for fear of not having an agreeable way to save their session would probably be a lot more likely to reconsider and ..... wait for it.... spend some money on a game for their phone. But no, the game industry couldn't possibly want that. What's a few million bucks from happy customers, new and old alike?

But to quote Dennis Miller, "That's just my opinion, I could be wrong."