Those of you who manage to stop by Contraptica in the past few months have no doubt wondered why we so abruptly stopped posting regularly. The answer is simple: World of Warcraft has completely sucked away just about all of my active interest in console gaming.

Ok maybe not all of it. I still will pop onto some Gears of War or Halo periodically, and I still keep my DS with me at all times, but the truth of the matter is, World of Warcraft is the most epic and consuming computer game I’ve ever encountered. The sheer scale of it is jaw dropping, the community aspect has allowed me to become closer to some friends and family who play the game (the teamwork, communication and planning that are required to succeed foster this sense of community), and the breathtaking lore form it into an experience that is second to none.

I had never really played an MMO for any real length of time, apart from a brief stint with Star Wars Galaxies, but knew the mechanics well enough from growing up on MUDs, Final Fantasy and DnD. But nothing prepared me for the experience gained from an epic raid on an opposing city, nor the thrill of taking down a tough boss with the help of your real life friends, even if you’re separated by a great distance.

It remains important to keep up your life outside of the game though. An incredible MMO can easily encompass your social life, and taking the time to just get out and do something different is very important. I now think I can understand how difficult these games can be to a person’s work and social life if they allow it to take over. Playing along with my girlfriend and other real life friends makes the experience even more special though, and it has almost become a communication tool along the lines of AIM, with just a slightly more engrossing interface.

Contraptica is here to stay though, and we’ll see if we can get it back in business as a nice comentary on gaming and technology, even while I turn into an MMO head.

In a response from the Microsoft run Gamerscore Blog regarding the recent news that Toshiba will be abandoning the HD-DVD format, the company writes:

We do not believe the recent reports about HD DVD will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace.  As we’ve long stated, we believe it is games that sell consoles and Xbox 360 continues to have the largest next-gen games library with the most exclusives and best selling games in the industry.  We will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player.  HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.

I believe Microsoft is in an extremely vulnerable position right now, and is simply trying to deflect attention from the situation while it readies a response.  The demise of HD-DVD came along extremely quickly.  In early January Warner Bros. announced they would be phasing out HD-DVD in favor of Blu-ray, followed by several other similar announcements by Netflix, Best Buy and, last week, Walmart.  In just about a month and a half, the situation went from about neutral, to a full collapse for HD-DVD.

Microsoft had long been in the HD-DVD camp, supporting it directly through the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360.  However, they had stated numerous times that if Blu-ray turned out to be the winning format, they would have a solution for it.  This was likely something that Microsoft hoped to avoid, but that time has come.

With HD-DVD dead in the water, the next generation movie format has officially been determined.  Now consumers can finally make a purchasing decision without worrying about choosing the losing format.  However, where will those consumers turn?  Their choices are to get a standalone Blu-ray player (currently the lowest price one is $399) or for the same price pick up a Playstation 3 that can play both Blu-ray movies and PS3 games.  The choice seems obvious.  Suddenly Microsoft, with their Xbox 360 is left on the outside looking in.  Until they come out with a Blu-ray solution, they are extremely vulnerable.

Rumors are flying that Microsoft will have a Blu-ray addon available by May/June.   These next three months could turn the tide in the console race.

In a move that is sure to disappoint many sports gamers, EA and the NFL have agreed to extend their exclusive deal to make NFL licensed games till 2012. EA’s Peter Moore assures gamedaily that it was the NFL who sought this deal, not EA.

The NFL lives in a world where it feels above the common ideals of competition and innovation. As a monopoly itself, it is exempt from many of the rules and regulations that the rest of corporate America must adhere to with congressional oversight supposedly keeping it in line. Somewhere in all of this, however, the NFL decided that having competition in the video game market, where several publishers would have to seriously innovate in order to succeed, was less important than raking in a huge amount of cash up front.

In the end, the consumer pays the price for these actions. The NFL and EA both get paid, while the sports fan consumer is relegated to pay $60 for what ends up being a roster refresh. Without innovation, the Madden franchise has stagnated, and true sports fans are stuck.

2007 has been an amazing year for gamers around the world. Not only have we been inundated with hit after hit, but the next gen consoles have finally hit their stride. Choosing the very best game of the year is like being a kid in a candy store. Several titles could easily vie for the honor, but this year’s game stood out as a testament to solid gameplay, and that’s why we play, isn’t it?

The 2007 Contraptica Game of the Year goes to: Halo 3.

Despite the amazing single player experience of Bioshock, and the complete package of Orange Box or Call of Duty, the multiplayer of Halo 3 and the sheer amount of fun it is capable of producing make it this years Game of the Year. Halo has not gotten a lot of love from much of the press, with Bioshock taking most of the limelight. However groundbreaking that game was, it simply did not give you the same amount of fun as our Game of the Year. Once you’ve played through the campaign, you have just one more option: play through it again. Halo delivered not only a pretty compelling campaign (especially if you’ve followed along with the story through the previous games and books), but one of the greatest online systems we’ve ever seen. Even the seemingly simple fact that you can use saves and replays on a console to archive your greatest moments makes Halo’s experience legendary. And simply put, I found the most enjoyment this year playing through the campaign in Halo 3 on co-op. This is not an option on Bioshock or Orange Box, and makes it difficult for me to put those games ahead of Bungie’s new classic.

So there you have it folks, congratulations to Bungie and Microsoft Games Studios for winning the inaugural Contraptica Game of the Year for 2007!

The AP has released a list of what it deems are some of the best games of 2007, with Bioshock taking the top honor.  The credibility of the author has to come into serious question with his proclamation that Bioshock is available for Playstation 3, but he really begins treading on peoples’ toes with his statement that Halo 3 was the most overrated game of the year.  Check out the list for yourself over at ABC news.  Do you agree with it?

Apparently the good folks over at IBM have patented a method in which movie rentals can be made cheaper by inserting 2-3 unskippable commercials into the disc. Now.. inform me if I’m wrong but isn’t the reason for buying or renting movies at home to watch them uninterrupted? So for a buck or two less you can have your movie but be subjected to interruptions by advertisements for products we could care less about. It stinks, I think it’s terrible idea as I myself find myself wanted to chew on glass trying to watch a movie on Sci-Fi channel where they show the same 4 commercials over and over again, sometimes more time is spent on commercials then the film they heavily edited. Fun stuff, particularly if the “fine” people who make Extenze or Girls Gone Wild get on the bandwagon… I think I’ll stick with paying $3.99 for an uninterrupted movie experience. Lets just hope this is entirely optional and not forced down our throats.

[Via Ars Technica]

Chess has long been a favorite game of mine.  I will be the first to admit I suck hard at it, but I still enjoy playing it now and then.  It has been one of the most popular board games in the world for a long time, and will likely continue to grow.

Online chess is also nothing new.  The Internet Chess Server, and the Free Internet Chess Server  have allowed gamers to play against each other and against computer opponents since the 80’s.

We’ve seen Chess appear on consoles in various forms.  Ubisoft’s venerable Chessmaster series has appeared in some way on most platforms, including the original Xbox and Playstation 2, focusing on the recreational player, while Chessbase gives power-users on PC even more control, with more powerful engines such as Fritz, Shredder, Hiarcs and the ability to use 3rd party engines like Rybka.

Xbox 360 has been home to many classic games.  We already have Hardwood Spades and Hardwood Hearts, Poker, Solitaire, and even Settlers of Catan, all available as a download over Xbox Live Arcade.  But still, Chess, the royal game, is noticeably absent.  Chess seems well suited to Xbox Live Arcade.

So why hasn’t it appeared yet?  I have a couple theories.  An Xbox Live Arcade chess engine will be probably 800 points, and use up the entire 150MB filesize limit.  However, if Ubisoft wanted to release Chessmaster on disk, it would have a hard time moving units when faced with this competition.  I doubt Ubisoft would push Chessmaster to Live Arcade.  The filesize limitation is unacceptable for a strong chess program. While the engine can be fit on something as tiny as a few K (as we see on cell phone chess implementations), strong modern chess applications use tablebases to enable a strong endgame.  These lists of moves essentially tell a computer exactly the correct move to play in certain endgame scenarios, and they take up a lot of space.  A 150mb size limit would severely limit a chess program’s strength in this area.

So if Microsoft won’t publish a chess arcade title, why is Ubisoft waiting on Chessmaster?  Here’s my conspiracy theory:  Ubisoft wants to  allow cross-platform chess play, running on their own servers.  Xbox 360 users pipe in through Live.  PC, Mobile, PS3 and Wii users pipe in their own respective ways.  And anybody who wants to can play against anybody else, regardless of platform.  It’s CHESS, for crying out loud, not Shadowrun.  It shouldn’t be hard to implement, technically.  Bureaucratically, however, it may be extremely difficult.

It’s wishful thinking.  But a big cross platform network for chess could put Chessmaster into the forefront of internet Chess in the world.

[PS- To any publisher out there that makes a chess game on 360.. do NOT make achievements based on winning games online.  This is just going to lead to everybody having their PC calculate moves for them (which is going to happen anyway).   Just let it stay fun.]

Ever since the release of Chex Quest (a Chex themed total conversion on the Doom Engine) in boxes of cereal, corporate promotions and gaming have been an interesting mix. The prospect of free games with only having to put up with shameless plugs is an interesting idea. Toyota is said to be releasing a FREE XBLA game this summer, no exact release date but who doesn’t like free things?

The most recent approch to this were the not so free but extremely cheap Burger King games. I myself really enjoyed this somewhat creative approach to advertising a product, hell Scott Topic might not share my sentiment but Sneak King was hilarious. As long as there is an incentive to put the money into such promotions we may see even more “Advertainment” games and the relatively easy avenues of digital distribution make it a viable source for delivering them. The negative aspect of this would be the relative quality of these games; what I don’t want to see is “Unlock this Achievement and win a free ring tone!” What they need to make is a FPS where I can totally destroy people with a Automatic French Fry Cannon, what could be funnier? You listening BK games?

EmOneGarand: If you’re a part of the Xbox scene as we are you no doubtly seen or heard about The Darkness, a game about a cop with demonic powers. I’ve seen some of the stuff you can do to the NPC’s in the game and I have to say it’s going WAY over the top. In one picture it shows one of the demon characters sawing a mans head off while he screams, some may say “cool” but those who are trying to find a way to shut down the video game industry will find this game to be some nice fuel for their fire.

Some great shots of this game (including the forementioned shot) can be found at IGN

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scott topic: Developers need to have the freedom to push the envelope in terms of violence, horror, shock, etc. If a part of their artistic vision in creating a game is to give realistic gore to terrify the player, they should be allowed to work without any confines to their creativity. It is the market that decides what is acceptable. Moralists decry Grand Theft Auto as being too violent, but the markets disagree, making it a top seller. If players find the experience unacceptable, they will not buy the game. It is soley up to the individual consumer to decide whether the offering of a developer is too violent.
Is The Darkness “over the top?” My grandparents wouldn’t play it, but the same guys who would sit around and watch a tree attack a woman or a guy walk through a crowd holding a lawnmower would certainly find some “over the top” violence to be entertaining.