The
GameGuy: The “Back in the Saddle” Edition

By
Mark H. Walker

My readers
(all four of them) may have noticed that it has been six months
since the last GameGuy. The emails have poured in. All you okay?
What are you up to? We need more GameGuy. Actually, not quite.
But to answer the unwritten (and perhaps unasked) question, I’ve
been very busy —designing games (www.locknloadgame.com) and writing
books (Games That Sell). Too busy to write this column that
at least I ¯if no one else but my four readers¯ love.

Conventionally
Speaking

I didn’t
make E3 this year and never missed it. On the other hand, I did
make the two biggest retail game conventions in North America: GenCon
and Origins. Neither is a haven for computer/video gaming, although
GenCon did have quite a few heavy hitters (EA, Atari) in the lineup,
but both are an electric experience.

Jordan
K. Weisman is truly turning the world upside down. You may remember
the guy; he designed a game called BattleTech, and founded FASA.
Well FASA is yesterday’s news, but Weisman’s new company (Whiz Kids)
is turning the gaming world on its ear with their combat dial, collectable
miniatures games: HeroClix, MageKnight, and MechWarrior
Dark Ages. They’re cool, they’re tactile, and they’re simple
enough to teach my eight-year old in fifteen minutes.

Also
cool is the new line of Milton Bradley games. I own two: Star
Wars: Epic Duels and Battle Ball. Epic Duels is
a tactical combat game with pre-painted miniatures, while Battle
Ball is Blood Bowl lite. Both take about ten minutes
to learn and another five to teach your kids. These companies so
get it. Gone are the times when I could spend hours at the gaming
table or in front of my monitor playing games. Doing so now garners
hard stares from the spouse and sexless nights. It just ain’t worth
it.

It’s
Weird…

Games
and gaming are a sick hobby.

Really.

Okay,
not really, but the hobby certainly breeds some strange press. Just
browsing a gaming newsletter when I come to a section titled, “Cure
Your Summer Blahs with a Computer Upgrade.” Summer Blahs? Excuse
me. I just spent six months enduring the cold, snow, sleet, and
rain, and I’m supposed to feel blue because the summer slow game
releases? Puhlease folks, get a life.

Different
topic, but just as strange… back page of a gaming magazine makes
a semi-humorous stab at folks trying to break into the journalistic
side of the gaming industry. It lists some requirements such as
championing obscure games, ‘dissing popular games, and grammatical
ignorance. Unfortunately, there is a bit too much truth in the humor
for comfort. In an industry with way more applicants than jobs,
it seems like many reviewers worry more about making a name for
themselves than reviewing games. I guess that’s cool… if you don’t
mind trashing a development team’s two years of blood, sweat, and
tears just to bag another pocket-change review. 

Extremely
Tight Takes and the Final Word

Recently
played a few games that need comment. Codemaster’s IndyCar Series
is close, but no cigar. Perhaps a PC version with a nice wheel would
pull it off, but on my PS2 the cars are just way too squirrelly.
It’s easy to make a difficult racing game; the challenge is to make
a fun one.

Vietcong… not a bad effort. I love the music, and the ambiance is great. Unfortunately,
the VC are pretty damn stupid. Granted they were just militia, but
when a Vietcong’s foot protrudes from a corner, I shoot it, I hit
it, and the VC does nothing, you have some AI problems.

Sorry,
I’m not trying to be different, but I like Dreamcatcher’s Emergency
Fire Response. The thought of a tactical, real-time strategy
game in which you save —rather than destroy— is just too cool. Game
looks good too. Monte Cristo designs it; so I hope the missions
are not quite as tedious as those in their game, Platoon.

Finally,
the IDSA says that PC/Video games earned billions of dollars in
2002. Do you think they could take some of that money and make a
game wrapper that doesn’t take a Swiss army knife and thirty nimble
fingers to unwrap? Out.

©
Mark H. Walker, LLC 2003
Mark H. Walker is a veteran interactive entertainment journalist
who has written over 40 books – including the recently published
‘Games That Sell’ – and designs games including his just released
board game Lock ‘n Load.