Interview with Peccaui of The New Gamer (Part 3)

Thursday, July 22nd, 2004
by Chris Short

Interview with Peccaui of The New Gamer (Part 1) discussed the Nintendo Gamecube and the decision to purchase one as well as some of the software and hardware available for the Gamecube.

Interview with Peccaui of The New Gamer (Part 2) discussed some of the hardware available for the Nintendo Gamecube as well as some of the video games available for the Gamecube.

Part 3, the final part of this interview, is a discussion of Peccaui’s opinion of gaming consoles and the future of the gaming industry.

Chris: So overall which is the better console; Xbox, PS2, or Gamecube?

Peccaui: Depends on what you’re looking for in a
console.

Chris: Okay. What’s your overall opinion? Which console do you enjoy the most might be a better question.

Peccaui: A few months ago, I’d have said the
Gamecube just because it has more unique and original games, it’s a better playing experience. However, there’s practically nothing coming out for it until the holiday season. So for the upcoming months, I’ll pretty much just be playing on my Xbox.

But before that, the PlayStation 2 was tops because it had the most unique software available. *shrug*

Chris: So as far as best game selection, would you say the PS2 is the best in that department?

Peccaui: It has the most diverse collection. I wouldn’t say it has the best.

Chris: So which console, in your opinion, takes “best”?

Peccaui: *shrug* I don’t really know. I’ve had the
best experience with the Nintendo Gamecube and I think in the end, it will have the most solid, highest quality games for my tastes.

Chris: Your tastes being what exactly?

Peccaui: I prefer games that are more unique, that
strive to do something different than refine what is already out there. Stuff like Animal Crossing and Viewtiful Joe are definitely different, and try out new areas of game design. I’d much rather play something like that rather than yet-another-FPS

Chris: Like Halo, any of the Medal of Honor games, or the soon to be released Doom 3?

Peccaui: Yeah, Halo and MoH did nothing for me.
Doom 3 looks like it’s trying to make a change with FPS’s by focusing more on atmosphere, having a more claustrophobic environment that requires more patience than buckets of ammo.

Chris: Nice. So what blockbusters are you seeing on the horizon? Which of those blockbusters are you most intrigued by?

Peccaui: Fable. That’s pretty much why I bought an
Xbox, well it was the final straw.

Chris: What’s Fable about?

Peccaui: It’s the latest in ‘emergent gameplay’ -
it’s an open-ended RPG that allows you to pretty much do whatever you want. It places an emphasis on morality, in a much more ambiguous sense than say, Knights of the Old Republic.

Chris: Emergent gameplay being what in your opinion?

Peccaui: Emergent gameplay is essentially a focus
on unscripted interaction with your environment.

In other words, “The underlying idea in emergent gameplay is that, given a rich set of rules for object interactions in the game world, high level behaviors do not have to be scripted.”

Chris: So a game with the potential of multiple ways to finish it?

Peccaui: Not necessarily. Multiple ways of playing it, ways that the developer may not have initially visualized but is still within the defined ruleset of the game.

It’s supposed to be The Next Big Thing, an extension of the ’sandbox’ kind of game design that Grand Theft Auto 3 has heralded in.

Chris: Well, I’d like to see more FPS games with that type of gameplay.

Peccaui: That’s hopefully what Half-Life 2 will be like.

Chris: Yea! That’d be great.

Peccaui: If it ever comes out!

Chris: That’s a big problem I’m seeing with games these days.

Peccaui: Delays?

Chris: Doom 3 has been delayed forever, HL2, and Halo 2.

Peccaui: Doom 3 never actually had a release date.

Chris: Even better.

Peccaui: I wouldn’t necessarily call it a problem.
Good games take time to develop, and with the sheer amount of work that it takes to create a quality game, it’s no big surprise that development cycles are becoming longer and longer. Fable has been in development for I think around four years now for instance. There are ways around it, like using middleware but that’s not necessarily the best option.

Chris: Good point.

Peccaui: Like an id game using Renderware (the
middleware behind games like Grand Theft Auto and Sonic Heroes) just wouldn’t be an id game - it just wouldn’t be the same, look the same, feel the same.

I’d like to thank Peccaui for his time and I’d also like to invite everyone to go to Peccaui’s site, The New Gamer.

If you’d like to receive an e-mail whenever a new article is published on chrisshort.net just type your e-mail address in to the Subscribe box located on the home page and hit enter.

One Comment

Our Life

July 22nd, 2004
at 2:44pm

Aubree’s First Video Game Console

Carri and I bought Aubree a Nintendo Gamecube Console - Limited Edition Platinum this weekend. We came to the decision to do this because Aubree has been asking to play video games with us and we just don’t have any…