I really enjoy playing old games. This will come as no surprise to readers that keep up with our Friday Old Games series. But when I do get in the retro mood, I almost always do it on the real console. ROMs, collections, and downloadable releases just don’t feel the same as hooking up an NES (or whatever other system) and playing the game with the setup it was intended for, controller and all.

Lately, this has got me thinking. 20 years from now, will we still be able to experience this current generation of games? And if so, to what capacity?

While this isn’t the first generation of consoles to have online functionality, it has made the biggest leap into online integration by far. Achievements/Trophies, leaderboards, patches, DLC, digitally distributed games, online multiplayer with no options for local; these are all common aspects of gaming on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Achievements and Trophies pose arguably the smallest problem. By the time support for hosting your gamerscore is finally pulled, I doubt many will care. By then we’ll have some new type of point value to feed our narcissism and, after all, who cares about the points anyway if nobody else is actively looking at them?

The lack of local multiplayer is a bigger issue. At some point, this generation of games’ online multiplayer functionality will cease to function. Games such as Halo 2, which is only one generation behind, have already had their servers shut down. While shutting down Halo is a less of an issue due to it’s robust local multiplayer options, what about a game like MAG?

MAG is an online-only game. When the servers go down, the game can no longer be played. While this is a more extreme example, think of games based on user-generated content like Little Big Planet. Sure, we’ll still be able to play the developer-made levels and even create our own, but arguably one of the biggest draws of the game is playing a seemingly infinite number of levels from the online community.

Games are being patched more than ever before. Some of these patches tweak aspects of the game to make them more enjoyable while others fix game-crashing bugs. If one day, a console generation or two from now, I pick up an old game from this generation, it’s likely that I’ll be at the mercy of whatever the developers managed to get on the disc. The “we can just patch that problem later” mentality could end up with some repercussions in the future of retro gaming.

Digitally distributed games are something I can only hope console makers are thinking actively about. I sincerely hope the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 will be able to play the PSN and XBLA games you’ve purchased, but at this point it’s hard to say what exactly will happen. If those storefronts close, it’s a sad thought to think of games like Geometry Wars 2 having no way to be purchased.

My biggest concern, though, is the systems working at all. Remember the ApocalyPS3? An internal clock-issue caused all kinds of havoc for a short time, regardless of whether you were trying to connect online. The point is not that I think this exact same issue will happen again. But what about similar issues? Who is going to care to fix a system breaking issue on a system that is two console generations old? If console makers don’t support backwards compatibility with the next consoles, emulation might end up being the only way to continue playing these games.

While a bit grim to think about, we can always hope for the best. I suppose we can’t hold onto the past forever, but a man can dream.

There are a few new things on the horizon for WingDamage. One of these is HD video. Above, you’ll find a montage of gameplay footage recorded from one of my play sessions of the Lost Planet 2 multiplayer beta. This video is a bit of a guinea pig for video capturing, editing, and processing, so expect quality to increase with future videos.

At the beginning, you can see the basis of the weapon customization system. There are five categories to customize. The weapons dropped on the stage from your point of view will be based on those selections. For example, you might see a short range weapon drop. Depending on your settings, this will give you either a shotgun or a revolver. It’s a really interesting system that I look forward to seeing expanded on in the full game.

The grappling hook is back. It’s a bit short range to keep things balanced, but it’s still satisfying to be able to pull yourself up to a ledge and surprise the enemy. You can also slowly lower yourself from a high ledge with the grappling hook. You can even shoot guys while hanging from it which is nice.

I wasn’t able to get in any of the mechs (other players kept stealing them), but I did manage to pull off one of their gatling guns and give it a test run. As expected, they’re high powered, but you can’t move while firing them. The five different grenade types really keep things interesting. Disc grenades (essentially exploding Frisbees) are my personal favorite.

While there was a standard deathmatch in the beta, every open game chose the other available mode. In this mode, the objective is to capture data posts. It plays similar to the Battlefield series. When you die, you can spawn at any of the data posts in your control. An interesting twist is that your mini-map is entirely dependent on your data posts. If you have no posts, you have no map. They also create a shockwave of the color of the team now in control when one is taken over, indicating to nearby enemies where a post has been compromised.

While the controls are still a bit clunky as they were in the first game, they are manageable enough to get by. Right now, Lost Planet 2 is looking like it has some great potential, though admittedly it’s the campaign I’m most looking forward to.

EA and Dice’s new third-person-shooter / MMOG, “Battlefield Heroes”, has finally opened to the public. It takes the basics of the Battlefield series and boils it down to a much more simplified version of the game.

Once you get past EA’s overblown login system, it is a simple matter of making a character and hopping into a random game.

They have stripped down to only three classes: The Soldier, The Gunner and The Commando.

Each class has their own unique play style. The soldier is the most balanced, with medium armaments and the ability to throw grenades, the gunner is slow, but has a high defense and a shield ability, and the commando has a sniper rifle, a knife, and the ability to cloak.

I highly recommend making one of each character so you can find a play style suited to you. Personally, I chose the gunner. I love getting “all up ons” in the middle of a battle.

The basic game mechanic will be very familiar if you have played other Battlefield games. You and your team try to capture locations on the map by holding the area for a certain amount of time. The more of your squad on the flag, the faster you will take it over.

"Teamwork is key"

Each team starts with a number of points which slowly decreases based on the number of bases the enemy has captured. The more you have captured, the faster the enemy team’s number drops to zero. It’s a pretty simple mechanic that forces you not only to press forward, but to continually watch your back.

As your character progresses, points are earned that can be spent on new costumes for your characters, as well as some new weapons and gadgets. There isn’t a lot in there yet, but EA plans to add more in the coming months. There are only two extra long range, two extra short range, and one extra big explosive weapon per class. There are also bandages (for slowly restoring health) and wrenches (for repairing vehicles) that can be purchased. These all have a limited number of uses.

There are already a decent number of options for costume changes. However, only a few of these can be bought with the in-game points. Most of them require spending real money. You can buy points from the main site which can be used in-game.

"Costumes range from stylish, to practical, to just plain silly"

You will also unlock special “hero points” which can be spent on abilities. With my gunner being naturally slower than the other classes, I was able to unlock an ability that lets me sprint for a short amount of time. That is just one example of the type of class-specific upgrade that can be unlocked. This system adds that little addictive touch of role playing games that I love so much.

The vehicles are a lot of fun to use. The tank is a great way to cause some havoc without it being an instant win machine. While it is powerful, everyone has, at the very least, sticky dynamite that they can take you down with. However, you are able to run over enemy players and take them down with your cannon. You can also have a second player riding in the top of the cannon as a backup.

The jeep is extremely fast, but leaves you open to attack. You cannot use any of your weapons while you are the driver. You can, however, take two passengers who can fire with a limited range.

The plane is, by far, the hardest to control. If you can manage to control it, the machine guns built into them can take out tanks and soldiers very quickly. You can even take along passengers on the wings.

"I can see your impending doom from here!"

Another good point is that it is highly scalable. The cartoony graphical style lends itself very well to playing even on low-end machines. That is a must in getting a big audience with a free to play game.

I have been having a blast playing “Battlefield Heroes”. Even though it is fairly limited right now with only the three classes and four maps, the simplicity of the game mechanics allows for a balanced experience. If you are there for some cartoony, over the top, shooting fun, then you should definitely check it out. Just try not to take things too seriously. Oh, and did I mention to work as a team? Trust me, you’ll have more fun that way.

You can play right now, for free, on the official site.

The Internet is credited and accused of many things, almost all of which are true. The flow of information has become almost instantaneous among the more developed nations allowing soldiers in Iraq to talk to loved ones at home, businessmen to converse between Turkey and Hawaii, and news to be spread and accessed by millions of people before it can even be verified. For the generation that came after the Baby Boomers and who grew up with computers being fairly commonplace by the time most of them were old enough to care, the Internet has arguably done more to shape the world as they understand it than any other singular entity.

Two important introductory concepts in Human Geography are “interdependency” and “globalization”. There are some who believe that with the rapid pace of globalization linking people in manners beyond physical connections, political boundaries will become less important to the point of making the very concept of a “nation-state” obsolete. Nothing will be analyzed on the scale of community or national level; everything will be global.

Perhaps one of the strongest examples of this phenomena is the online gaming community. Community, by definition, is simply a collection of individuals with common interests or attributes, which can refer to something as small as a neighborhood or as far reaching as a region (or a collection of nation-states, such as Western Europe or South-East Asia). Here, it can be illustrated how individuals are capable of relating and self-identifying more strongly with other individuals whom they have never interacted with outside of a digital environment than with their physical neighbors; furthermore, they may place the interests and attributes that define their virtual community higher than a political allegiance. An example of such a community revolves around the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft (frequently shortened to WoW). Like any other MMO, players pay a monthly fee for the right to log and interact not only with the game itself, but with other players from all over the world. At this point, WoW boasts 11.5 Million monthly subscribers from over 30 countries, speaking dozens of languages. This has numerous sociological and geographical implications.

For instance, although someone in the United States would not be able to access a server intended for someone in Japan (and thus could not converse with him/her), both could hear a reference (in their respective languages) to the same game item (an enemy, an item, a quest, etc) and have an identical concept of it. Likewise, countless people from Europe discuss in-game news with those from the United States, knowing they will never meet them off-line. The ramifications of this is that it is less important to the individuals where someone is from as opposed to how well they play the game. The politics of the real world rarely penetrate this digital fortress because of the tacit agreement between the players that it is simply unimportant. Some argue that this is due to the demographic of players (implying that these are children to young adults with no stake in politics), but because people of all ages and levels of activism play, this is an extremely flimsy argument.

Similarly, though this virtual world is separate from the “Real World”, it is not wholly isolated, and what happens in the Real World affects the game, much the same way that global politics affect community life and the actions of individuals can change the global community. For example, though there are many kinds of creatures and animals a player may fight, one he/she will never come across is referred to as a “Panderian” within the Lore (the backstory of the game). Subscribers who have played Warcraft I-III (which WoW is based on) are familiar with the animal, but because it strongly resembles a Panda (giving it its name), it cannot be coded into the MMO. This is due to the fact that in China, it is illegal to have any game demonstrating, encouraging, and/or requiring the death or harm of a Panda. The company that owns World of Warcraft would lose a large percentage of subscribers because of a national-scale consideration they have to take into account. On a slightly more positive note, many references are coded into the game that go back to Real World topics and cultural icons.

The World of Warcraft can affect the World of Reality as well, giving them a dynamic relationship. Certain countries in Asia have a significant portion of their economy based on WoW and games like it, the loss of which would provide some serious financial problems. Yet most players do not think about forces like this. What they are interested in is the true core of this online community, that is, the attributes they share with each other and the interactions they face on a day-to-day basis. There is almost definitely more people (especially more Americans) who could point to and name every region in Azeroth (the world that WoW takes place in) than could find Wisconsin, Sweden, or Yugoslavia. Such people can recite the history of the Dwarves, the Night Elves, the Forsaken and the Trolls, but could not name the 12th President of the United States or answer when the Cold War ended. They are well-versed in all the latest abilities and make certain they are aware of even the slightest shift in gameplay, story, or tactics, but have no interest in the workings of the United Nations, the European Union, or NATO. Becoming indignant when someone says that a Paladin is far superior to a Warrior, these individuals probably couldn’t care less about the workings of the Taliban. It is not that they are irresponsible, apathetic, or are merely trying to escape. Instead, it is a matter of priorities and identification. They see themselves more as Krognar, Blood Elf Rogue of Silvermoon City than as a student, a worker or a citizen of the United States.

Though at initial glance, there appears few positive consequences of this, it is important to remember that this is merely the manifestation of a changing global community and a reflection of a world based less on borders, race and economic status, and more on a spirit of cooperation, competition, and self-identification within the confines of a digital world defined by shared interests and common attributes.