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The Week Ending February 8, 2000

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Independent Hearts 3D?
Last week the Independent Games Festival announced the finalists for this year's competition, which will take place at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose on March 10-12. Savvy gamers may remember that last year the Gathering of Developers sponsored the first IGF competition. Last year's winner, a 3D RTS named Fire and Darkness, built by a group of high school seniors, seems to have dropped off the face of the planet after much hype suggesting the developers would be signed to a big game deal with Acclaim. I guess this 'independent' is a little different than Blair Witch coming out of Sundance to make $130 million at the box office!
This year's finalists hope to fare better than last year's winner, and after a brief look at the finalists (you can check them out here), it looks like there are some interesting games in competition, including an early favorite with potential, the Canadian-developed Treadmarks, which plays like a much under appreciated 1999 game, Zipper Interactive's Recoil. (You can check game demo here). Although demos aren't available for most of the other games, I'm particularly interested in Moonshine Runners from a Russian developer, and The Rift, a 3D outer-space action game.

However, I just have to shake my head in amazement at some of the games selected for this competition including one title named Hardwood Hearts, which is the classic game of hearts in 3D. Just like last year, the IGF is trying to represent all segments of the market, but in doing so they are unfairly putting a card game up against a fast-paced 3D action game with stunning visuals. Is that competition really fair? Even if I built the most amazing 3D hearts game (isn't that an oxymoron?), I wouldn't be able to compete with the other games in the festival. In the future I hope the IGF will attempt to separate the competition into a few distinct categories. Otherwise, some of the games in the competition don't stand a fighting chance when juxtaposed to these high-tech 3D titles.

A Golden Alien
It always irks me when game publishers and developers constantly charge consumers huge premiums for upgraded versions of games they already own, with the worst culprits being sports game publishers. That's why I have to admit to being impressed that Fox Interactive is going to offer existing owners of Aliens vs. Predator a special US $9.95 upgrade to the Millennium Add-on Pack for the game. Although one might claim the add-on pack is actually a game patch in disguise (witness the new "feature" of being able to save your game while progressing through a level), it seems to me there are enough new levels and weapons to warrant the add-on pack certification. Although I can't profess to believe Aliens vs. Predator is a particularly stunning piece of entertainment, I do like the principle behind offering the upgrade to existing owners.
Next, read about the new Blair Witch games, and a cancelled multiplayer game show >>>