Bungies Started to Go Viral

Looks like Bungie has started their viral marketing or whatever you want to call it. Their home page has been converted into a error or warning screen with a clock that seems to be counting down to Friday. Once you click statistical processing continues it takes you to the normal Bungie site, but it's not completely normal.

It looks like Bungie removed the news section from the front. You can still find the news by digging through the links. The rumors on the forums are pretty weak as to what the big changes will be to Halo 3 online. Some speculate rank resets, which honestly is only a big deal to the hardcore players. Others believe there will be some changes to the Battle Rifle, while others hope that they have some new hosting and network code (maybe dedicated servers as one person suggest).

We won't know, it seems, until Friday though. I guess this is the change that Luke was referring to in the podcast. Hopefully when he uses the words "Major changes to the Halo 3 online experience" he's not exaggerating and it just turns out to be some new armor colors. Then again Luke Smith did talk up Halo 3 to be this insanely great game and it wasn't.

Opinion: When Multiplayer Fails

I'm playing The Club on the Xbox 360 right now. It was released in February 2008 so it's less than 4 months old. There are 15 multiplayer achievements totaling 310 gamerpoints. Ten of these achievements are in Ranked games only. The problem? Nobody is playing online.

Honestly, I can understand. The game is not that engaging. Even in single player, it pretends to have a story, but it really doesn't. But my post isn't actually about The Club. What happens to people who buy these games that expect a big multiplayer community and that community doesn't show up?

This is one of the reason I prefer games that concentrate on the single player, sometimes even abandoning the multiplayer altogether. If I buy/rent/borrow a single player game months or even years after its release, I don't have to worry about it. The game will still be the same. But if that game has a big multiplayer component, I have to worry.

Are there still gamers playing the game? Even if it's good, is it good enough that people are still playing it so long after release? This is a reason I disagree with some current developers who are starting to concentrate primarily on multiplayer. Yes, multiplayer is fun. But only when there are actually other people to play with!

Atari Shifting Away from Single Player

Under the leadership of Phil Harrison, Atari(and Infogrames) looks like they will be shifting away from big budget single player games. Harrison has always championed social online gaming, and it appears his new job at Atari is allowing him to pursue this goal. Harrison has stated in a recent interview that the upcoming Alone in the Dark(for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, and PS3) could be the last of Atari's "huge-budget, single-player games."

I think this is a mistake. More and more companies are trying to shift to the multiplayer at the expense of the single player. Now I may just be an old gamer and I understand that gaming is more socially accepted these days, but most of the "great games" in my experience are single player games.

Now, I love playing online with my friends. I've had great times with Halo 3, GTA IV, COD4, etc. online. But my friends have lives. They're not always available for gaming. And I've had some horrible times playing online with strangers. Many of the people online are social miscreants who apparently have no friends and take it out on the others they play with. I hate when a game forces me to play with strangers.

Prototype Drops Multiplayer

Developers at Sierra have revealed that there will be no multiplayer gameplay in their upcoming release Prototype for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. They have scrapped plans for multiplayer so they can concentrate on the single player game.

Honestly, I think this is probably a good idea. I prefer a kickass single player game to a mediocre single and multiplayer game. Prototype looks like it could be a good game and hopefully it will bring Sierra back some of its former gaming glory. Also, this will mean that it will eliminate or reduce any delays for the game. Multiplayer is usually where you find the biggest glitches, bugs and problems in a game.