MTV Multiplayer › Totilo Game Diary

Whoops! Still no more "Fallout 3" last night.

Instead I played two multiplayer games.

First, I played a pair of online "Gears of War 2" matches with Soulja Boy and friends. No, this was not our rematch. And, no, I haven't improved yet. I had one kill in two first-to-five-team matches. I have a plan to train and improve, but the problem I face is that my Internet connection is not good in my home. So... I'm going to need to start playing "Gears" online at work. Fun!

After the "Gears" match, I switched to the PS3 to continue my renewed obsession with tower defense game "PixelJunk Monsters." I didn't mention yesterday that my wife has gotten into the game. Some of my Sunday time "Monsters" was spent playing it co-op with her. We're getting pretty good at it and played through another of the game's medium levels last night. Succeeding in the game leaves less of a hollow feeling than failing, that's for sure.

Next: It's a Tuesday, so I won't be playing much. At this rate, I don't think I'm going to get to "Fallout 3" again until after my Christmas vacation.

I thought this past weekend would be a weekend of "Fallout 3."

Nope. It was half a weekend of finishing "Prince of Persia" and half a weekend of losing myself for the first time in months to the PlayStation 3 tower-defense game "PixelJunk Monsters."

That second half left me with a hollow feeling.

Great game. But a hollow feeling. Wait. Does that feeling make "PixelJunk" not a great game? I don't think it does, because I believe many good games can leave one feeling empty, like the hours we've played of them have been wasted.

Good games sucking your day away and leaving you hollow: you have experienced this feeling, haven't you?

One, two, five hours of your life spent not making much progress on some strategy or puzzle game. Hours spent surely having fun -- why else could I not stop playing? -- but when those hours have passed, what have I learned? What beauty have I absorbed? Have I gotten smarter or stronger? What if, as I did with "PixelJunk" on Sunday, I just failed and failed some more.

Two hours in the morning and two more hours smack in the middle of the day and I think I cleared just two levels and kept failing at a third.

Where did the day go? When did the sun set? Why don't I feel the energy I felt after I finished the magnificently constructed "Prince of Persia"? Why do I feel hollow? But why do I want to stop writing this and play some more?

What is it that some good games do to us? Do to our lives? What do they take? And what do we get back?

Next: I will play "Fallout" tonight. I will.

There was one thing I had to do before I wrote this Diary today. One thing that was needed so I could hold my head high today.

I turned on my Xbox 360. I downloaded the full version of "Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix." I figured out how the buttons were mapped. (I had no idea that the fierce attacks were on the bumpers!)

And... I... threw...a...fireball!

Down. Right. Fierce.

It was like going back in time a decade and a half.

So, yes, everyone out there on the Internet. I can throw a fireball. I also now understand why so many "Street Fighter" players hate the Xbox 360 controller's d-pad. Wow, that thing is uncomfortable.

I played some "Chrono Trigger" on my DS last night too, but I was replaying a part that I'd lost progress in when my battery had died. So I have nothing interesting to say about that.

Next: This weekend I will try to finish "Prnce of Persia" and maybe play more of "Fallout 3," a game that I think I may be playing wrong. I declined to take the pistol from the girl who offered it to me in the Vault. I've saved Megaton from the bomb. But now I'm wandering the wasteland with nothing more than a BB gun. That seems dangerous. And wrong. Suggestions, anyone? Did I waste my upgrade points by putting them into energy weapons?

I forgot to charge my DS yesterday, so I didn't get any more time with "Chrono Trigger."

I watched some Lost Season 4 extras with my wife last night, so I didn't play any games on my console.

All the talk around yesterday's "Prince of Persia" Diary entry did remind me of a point I had wanted to make: one of the odder elements of Ubisoft's game is that the designers sometimes require you to kill your character.

These mandatory deaths are a necessary part of the game's collection process. After clearing a level of its Corruption plague, you are expected to traverse back through the level to collect orbs of light. Some orbs arrayed along the level's main path, some of it newly cleared by the dissipated corruption. Reaching other orbs requires some special thinking and acrobatics.

The collection of just a few orbs requires suicide dives. I was surprised by this. I can't remember any other game that has required me to plunge my character to his doom so that he could collect something needed for completion of the game. Your character doesn't really -- or even virtually -- die when you don't land a jump, of course. If you fail any jump in the game, the Prince's companion, Elika, flies over, extends her hand and pulls him back to safe footing. She even does that during these foolhardy jumps. By aiming your jump toward the light orb hanging in one of these chasms, you'll get the orb before she pulls you back. What would have been catastrophe instead nets you a reward.

Some games are designed for the player to fail a lot. If you play a "Sonic" game or "Mirror's Edge," you will learn to progress only through constant failure and restart. But not until playing "Prince of Persia" have I seen a game whose designers rewrite the rules of video game failure and turn bottomless pits from hazards into, in just a few cases, a cul-de-sac of reward. Good thing Elika is there to save your skin.

Next: My DS is charging. So, finally, I'm getting back to "Chrono Trigger."

Pressed for time this morning and a bit compromised about what I can write about given that we're not revealing the Soulja Boy results for a few more hours (gotta get the video of it done).

But I wanted to throw out one idea to my fellow "Prince of Persia" players out there:

Are you with me in thinking that this last major game of 2008 is a strong contender for being the best game of the year? I know, I know. There were a lot of really good games this year. And maybe I'm just getting biased by the fact that "PoP" is so fresh in my mind. But at about 50% progress into it, I'm repeatedly being floored by the grace of the controls, the beauty of the levels and the best-of-'08 level design that somehow combines some of the best gameplay virtues of "Mario" (grand acrobatics) and "Sonic" (speedy flow) into one superb mix.

It's not perfect. The combat's a bit off. It's sometimes too unforgiving, sometimes too easy. The backtracking is a little excessive, though tolerable because of how quickly you can flip and run through levels. Overall, though, I'm stunned by this game which has caught me very much by surprise.

Anyone else as pleasantly shocked by it as me?

Next: More "PoP" tonight. And, if I can ever remember to recharge my DS, more "Chrono Trigger" on my subway ride home.

My match against Soulja Boy is happening soon and he's named his game of choice. So, last night, I enlisted some friends to help me improve my "Gears of War 2" multiplayer skills.

As I've mentioned before, despite this blog being called Multiplayer, I'm not that good at multiplayer games. I don't play them frequently enough to get good at them. And, sadly, playing through the single-player campaigns of games -- which I do all the time -- barely provides you enough skills to win any points or score any kills in even a mildly competitive online match.

What I can thank Soulja Boy for is that he's at least got me re-thinking my stance on multiplayer gaming. I enjoyed playing a lot of "Halo 3" multiplayer this weekend. Last night, I had fun playing both with and against friends in "Gears."

Multiplayer gaming might be for me, after all.

That may not seem like much of a revelation to many readers, but I was surprised at how alien it felt for me to try something new with my games. I was pleased with how much fun it could be.

I wonder what other comfort zones I occupy in gaming and which aspects of games I should stop neglecting. Maybe I'd have a ton of fun learning to play sports games? I've barely touched the genre in a decade. Maybe I should find a racing game and master it? I haven't done that ever.

So, thanks, Soulja Boy, for reminding me about a great part of gaming I've been neglecting. Now go easy on the chainsaws and watch out for my "Geometry Wars" skills. I think they're good enough for you.

Next: I've been missing "Prince of Persia," which went from having really easy combat to having some strangely hard battles. Not sure if I'm missing some key moves in my arsenal or something. I plan to get back to it tonight.

I was training for Soulja Boy this weekend.

Sure, I played some "Far Cry 2" and some "Prince of Persia." Mostly, though, I was brushing up my skills on "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2" and trying to get decent at "Gears of War 2" and "Halo 3."

I had a miserable time matchmaking through "Gears of War 2." Most of the time, I couldn't even get connected to a full squad of players for any team competitions. The best I could manage were two-man Wingman bouts against players much better than me or Horde matches that pitted me and strangers against much easier artificial intelligence. So I'm not sure if I got any better at "Gears."

I had a much easier time matchmaking with "Halo 3" and played a few dozen ranked matches. The good news is that I got a lot of practice. The bad news is that I'm barely racking up .5 kills per death. You can see my stats linked to my StephenMTV Gamertag here (Microsoft log-in required). You can compare them to Soulja Boy's stats.

He's better.

So how am I going to fare? If we play "Gears" or "Halo," it's not looking good. I need more training. And some vitamins.

Next: More training. Vitamins.

I'm a popular woman... in PlayStation Home.

Last night I played no games, but I was able to log into the open beta of PlayStation Home.

In the open beta I retained the avatar that I controlled in the closed beta: a lovely woman with dark skin, short hair and a striking red-and-black striped top. This is the first time I've ever gender-bent in a multiplayer experience and -- wouldn't you know it -- what people have told me is true:

If you play as a woman, people won't leave you alone!

Other Home users keep walking up to me in Home to chat with me. Just this morning I logged on to Home to take a picture of my avatar. I was online for maybe two minutes. In that time, two male avatars approached me. Each wanted to know either my name or where I was from.

I can't take all this attention! I'm going to switch to being a guy so people leave me be.

Next: I am going into Soulja Boy Training Mode this weekend. Lots of "Gears of War 2" and "Halo 3." Plus some brushing up on "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2." Send training tips to Gamertag StephenMTV.

I feel confident calling "Flower" the first must-play game of 2009 because...

I've now played what I think is about half of it...

because it's different and fun -- and differently fun -- from the other 2009 games I've had early trials with...

and because it's not being sold in a box, so I don't have to worry that its creators will slap such cliched praise on the back of a Blu-Ray case.

Yesterday, Sony provided gaming reporters downloadable copies of development studio that game company's early 2009 PlayStation Network PS3 game "Flower." Playing it last night, I was reminded why I nominated the game for best graphics of E3 and why I'm so excited to play the finished thing. Read More...

I'm short on time today, so this entry's got to be brief.

Yesterday I started "Prince of Persia" DS but didn't get far enough into it to see what the hook is to this apparently touch-screen-only side-scroller.

I played more of "Flower" for the PS3's PlayStation Network at a press event and fell even harder for what may prove to be the best motion-controlled game of this generation. Like I've described before, it's like a playable IMAX nature movie, all swoops and dives through valleys and across plains of tall grass.

Lastly, I went to "Dance Dance Revolution" The Musical. Probably not an authorized production. Very camp. Only vaguely related to the game. In the year 2068, dance is illegal, but a bisexual alien man named Moonbeam Funk flies to earth to assemble a crew of dance renegades to oppose the local police. And they dance to a "DDR" Donald Duck song at one point. Ridiculous.

Next: Tonight, I'm going back into "Far Cry 2," I think.