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| Retro Column: Boss Battles |
| Thursday 31 July 2008 |
 Well after chatting this weekend while playing on some retro games, goaferboy and I decided on our first proper retro column and we decided to start off with something light and fun. To that end, we will now list some of our favourite boss battles, in no particular order:
 Bowser (Super Mario Bros. NES): Now this may not be the best boss battle you will ever see, but it definately is the one thats stuck in my mind over all these years. Just simply running under, jumping over him to get to that axe so I could destroy the bridge and kill him (although he always came back!!!
Throughout the worlds he got progressively harder but the solution was always the same.
 Mr X (Streets Of Rage 2. MegaDrive): You have been battling your way throughout the entire game and you finally get to the big boss! Now of course you have to battle him, his thugs while at the same time dodging his shots firing from his Tommy Gun. Now the Streets of Rage games have always been great fun, especially in co-op but it was very satisfying to make it to the end and take out the guy whos been causing you all this trouble!
 Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII. PS1): Now here is a boss which you really wanted to kill! You'd seen him every now and again all the way through FFVII and eventually he is responsible for one of the most famous deaths in RPG history. The final fight in this game was definately about revenge.
 First Colossus (Shadow Of The Colossus. PS2): No other game has managed to create massive bosses with the same sense of scale for me as Shadow of the Colossus. The later bosses may be more impressive and harder to defeat, but nothing can beat the first time you see one moving.
 The Great and Mighty Poo (Conkers Bad Fur Day. N64, Xbox): A giant opera singing poo that feasts on sweetcorn and despises toilet roll. The actual combat might not be award winning, but I doubt you could find a single person who hasn't heard of the Great Mighy Poo. Foul mouthed toilet humour at its best. Be sure to play the N64 version for the uncut song!
 Giant LeChuck (Escape From Monkey Island. PC): Having spent ages perfecting your monkey kombat and defeating the monkey king, you then have to turn your kombat skills onto a giant stone LeChuck. The cries of "Eek Ack Oop!" still stick in my mind.
Right then thats it, hopefully you will come on the forum to talk about this or comment below anyway. Otherwise we'll have our Vectorman feature up next week so give that a read!Labels: Boss Battles, Features, Retro
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posted by Happenstance @ 11:00  |
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| Review: Rock Band Hardware |
| Wednesday 30 July 2008 |
 Right the big contender to the Guitar Hero crown is here! Under the name of Rock Band, it offers everything Guitar Hero has up to this point offered but with the additional two band members being added into the fray with a possible 4th.
In my possession is the PS3 version of the package which comes with a wireless guitar, wired drum set and a wired USB base microphone. The key differences between this and the XBOX360 package which not many people will know is that you do not get a wireless guitar with their package unlike the PS3. On the upside the 360 version does come with a USB hub included so you can have enough USB ports to plug everything up and still have room for other things. The first niggle about the PS3 version is that it does NOT come with a USB hub so for anyone who owns a 40GB PS3 like me then you would not have enough USB ports to have all three peripherals plugged in at the same time.
Right so onto the instruments...
Rock Band Guitar
The first thing you noticed that is different is that the guitar as pictured though despite being a clarified toy does not look too much like one (unlike the guitar hero ones with the big coloured buttons for all to see).
The head of the guitar comes with plastic knobs which resemble the tuning cogs in a real guitar; this adds a lot of realism to this little guitar where in the case of guitar hero it is slightly bumped using the same colour as the head so it is barely noticeable.
As mentioned previously before you cannot see coloured buttons but upon closer inspection you see that the edges of the neck are coloured. This allows the player to see the colour of the button without it spoiling the illusion that you are playing a “real” guitar to anyone else watching you. At the base of the neck there is another five buttons which are identical in colour but small in terms of the width. These buttons are used for certain sections of the song which requires a solo. It provides a physical and visual impression that you are actually hammering on and hitting the high notes which many solos are so fond of having.
One comment I have to make about the buttons after logging in excess of fifty ish hours on both the guitar hero wii and rock band guitar is that the rock band buttons do feel more “sticky” in the sense that it takes longer to pop back up. This is more of an observational thing rather than a thing which affects game play.
The strummer bar has be vastly improved over their guitar hero counterpart, where the guitar hero version would give me a massive click on a strum up or down the rock band one is silenced and without actually opening up I would not know how it works but trust me its near silent compared to the former.
With both guitars there is the presence of a whammy bar which provides you and your friends with hilarious “wah wah wah wah” sounds during the longer notes but that is where the similarity ends. The Rock Band guitar has a flicker switch which allows you to switch the effect star powers, it includes echo, none, wah wah and two other ones I cant remember. This allows you to add effects which make the song sounds better during star power which was often a problem with guitar hero where I would find one of my friends refusing to use the whammy bar because it “ruins the song”. At least here we can match it.
One final note with the guitar is that the buttons placed next to the bar is poorly done so. I have often found whilst using the bar that it would go back into the guitar to the point where my fingers would hit the start button by accident but if you are careful and not OTT it shouldn’t happen.
Rock Band Drums
Right here is the defining aspect in the music simulator experience; the drums! Consisting of 4 pads and a bass pedal where he three left most pads are various drums and the right most one is the cymbal. Between the two centre drums is a D-pad and button configuration which various based on what system you get it for. As the self-appointed drummer in the experience I have had a lot of play time with the set and what I have found as noteworthy point number one is that when you hit the pads they are extremely LOUD! Hit at medium strength it gives you large CLUNK sound due to the vibration of the wooden included drums sticks and the plastic hollow esque drum pad.
This problem IMO ruins the experience of rock band where the other players of the game would not be able to enjoy the song and get immersed into their own parts because they are constantly being haunted by the clunking of the drummer in the back. Whilst it could be quickly solved by putting a bath tower over it, it isn’t a long lasting fix as it found that the tower falls off whilst playing the hectic songs. This problem can be solved easily by say buying quietening pads from ebay for like a tenner but in my situation I just cut up some free mouse mats and stuck it on with some double sided tape (at least till the rubber gum pads I order arrive).
The next point is the bass pedal which goes on the bottom of the set. During play it is extremely responsive especially for double or triple bass notes but the entire pedal structure is extremely light and when you release the pedal really fast it sort of launches itself up.
Now here is the major gripe when it comes to the pedal... THE INFAMOUS SNAPPED PEDAL!
I have experienced that problem recently today and kit has happened to countless other people where even with normal play the pedal would snap. The problem is the way to play real drums is to press the pedal down with the ball of your foot, the way the rock band pedal is build is so that it does NOT support pressure that far up the pedal.
To be honest harmonix should have seen this happening, it is really begger’s belief that it had not been picked up by any of the testers of the game.
Rock Band Microphone
Nothing special just a normal standard USB microphone with plenty of cable and a weighty base. Can be a bit quiet on some songs though.
To summarise, Bass pedal = :(, Guitar Strumming = quieter, Drums = too loud but overall very good implementation harmonix .Labels: Music game, Reviews, Rock Band
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| posted by AeroScap @ 22:54 |
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| Reviews Policy; What does it all mean?! |
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 Ok so whilst we have posted about this in the past it is now time to explain the scores a bit more indepth and their relation to one another.
Ok so we have a very unique scoring system based on the UK University System, whilst it is very specific an article on the blog has been posted previously it merely explained why we had picked a different system not why what each socre meant. With a 10/10 scoring system it is fairly simple what each score means, although the definition of average has definitily become altered in recent years. We feel our scoring system demonstrates enough range in scores to work well and clearly detail what is excellent, average and what is sub-standard. The title of 1st Class Honours for a great game is a very grand title for it to hold, just as Fail is an awful title to be used for a game. Here is a basic breakdown of each of the scores;
1st Class; Exceptional, not perfect, but excels in many areas and in what it aims to achieve.
2:1; A fantastic title that just falls short of excellence, perhaps for notable flaws such as camera system, but these can only be notable flaws not game breaking flaws.
2:2 Above Average, a grade given to a game that succeeds on many levels and has perhaps some potentially gamebreaking flaws, but no real major flaws, but is also devoid of enough merits for it to achieve the higher rankings.
3rd Class Average, a perfectly playable game, that does little to offend whilst at the time doing nothing to demonstrate it is anything more or anything less than average. May have noticeable flaws.
Pass A title that is below average but is not without its merits as a game.
Fail For a title to be described a fail, it has to be so bad, it should have been abandoned long ago in the infancy of its development cycle.
So there it is laid bare the basic criteria by which we mark our games. We of course do have plenty of other ways we differentiate good from bad and certain policies we bare in mind when reviewing, but for now these shall shall remain closely guarded. In truth they should be the sort of thing that reveals itself through the writing as we champion certain gaming traits.
Finally we will soon be updating our reviews with new graphics showing each of the scores next to each other with a graphic displaying the exact score the game recieved. This is to help give the scores context to new readers not familar to the system as well as remind those who may have forgotten.
Here's a little demo of what we mean;
In the very near future a more snazzy and robust version of this graphic with highlighted scores will be showing on the bottom of every review.Labels: Policies, Reviews
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| posted by flameboy @ 12:18 |
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| The Risks of Modern Games Development |
| Tuesday 29 July 2008 |
 Long gone are the days where any geeky bedroom techy could programme a game within days and ship some tapes to their local store. With budgets exceeding Hollywood and the development phase enduring upwards of two years, publishers need to be certain that they make sufficient profit to keep themselves afloat in the choppy waters of 21st century video game production.
Take, if you will, Atari. Their recent attempt at reviving the classic-horror Alone in The Dark series did not become the saving grace they had hoped for. In the end, it was a a simple case of quality affecting sales, and now they are the ones who have paid the price of misjudging the sway of the consumers. We're at a stage now where some companies have no choice but to throw all their resources at a game to try and keep the hype train chugging along while they desperately get it translated for that last Eastern European country. But even if you know you're game is good or bad, you have to take risks.
This may seem like a radical digress, but bare with me and take a different example: Factor 5. These guys jumped on board with Sony when they realised they'd be joining the team in the lead in the hardware arms race. Here we had a developer that could make a truly great game with sheer power alone. The Rogue Squadron games remain both fan favourites and also the best looking games of last gen. Simply by adding so much atmosphere into the action, Factor 5 could make a masterpiece by fully utilizing the best hardware that was available. The plan was to do the same with Lair.
Upon it's announcement, people could see that Factor 5 were in their zone with PS3. They had the best hardware up their sleeves, and looked set to imitate their Rogue Squadron glory. Upon release, Lair failed miserable, both commercially and critically. Why? Because they let people play it.
For some cases, this sounds harsh, but for others, it's a case that seems too good to be true for the gamer, but the initial critical reaction of your game is pivotal to the long-term outcome. Factor 5 misjudged that state of the industry. They couldn't foresee the phenomenon that was the Wii Remote. They didn't expect the glut of near-photo realistic games to appear on Xbox 360. They thought the road would be easy; that they could get away with ragged edges due to the prettiness of the game. When journos first got their hands on it, they needed to be impressed. At the time, some of them had just got back from being blown away by Gears of War, others had been wowed by Wii Sports. Would Lair give the PS3 a similar killer app?
It wasn't to be. Bluntly, the consoles of the last gen were arguably clones: you could get away with more because people couldn't imagine things being much different. Factor 5 couldn't imagine anything being able to hold a candle to Lair, but with hindsight, they'd be lucky if the flame was still warm.
To reflect their mistakes, CEO Julian Eggebrecht was forced to admit that the reason they signed on for Lair was that the company needed money, and Sony seemed to be the one to provide. They were obviously wrong, and are now putting a new Wii game into production because frankly: that's where the money lies. Many forsee the long-rumoured Kid Icarus revival to come from the company. Others suggest a return for Thornado - the spiritual continuation of fan-favourite Turrican. Whatever it will be though, you can gurantee it will take full advantage of the console's hardware, because while they may have lost some face with Lair, they certainly haven't lost their passion.
Alas, if you have the God-given power to predict the industry (which all these analysts DON'T), then it can become a harmonious loop, but if you continue to misjudge the flow of the fickle consumer, then it can be the most vicious of circles, and eventually ending up like the the house of Nolan Bushnell.
Labels: Features, Industry
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| posted by D_prOdigy @ 15:52 |
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| Fancy a Chat? |
| Monday 28 July 2008 |
| Then why not take off your shoes, hang up your coat and come and have a good old natter within our forum community. Click the link to the left.
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| posted by flameboy @ 21:56 |
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| Space Invaders Extreme Review |
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If you are an old school Space Invaders fan (who for some crazy reason doesn't already own this game) and have been waiting for the franchise to be brought kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, then close this window, log off and rush to your nearest gaming emporium. Honestly just go, you don't need to need this review and nothing that is said here will mean a jot of difference. This is the game for you period.
Still here?! Very well then. Space Invaders has appeared in many many guises down the years and on over 22 platforms, but has never quite managed to recapture the magic of the original. Some have even seemingly done their best to try and tarnish the franchises good name. Take Space Raiders (no not the popular corn based crisps) for the PS2 and Gamecube a 3D version where you run through urban areas as characters such as street teen Justin and fashionista Ashley. It was so far removed from what made Space Invaders great it was a total train wreck and not worth any ones time and effort; Space Invaders fan or not.
One crucially important feature of the original Space Invaders was the music. The MIDI music was perfect in its execution, it heightened the tension of the game and gave a sense of impending doom as the aliens got closer and closer. Space Invaders Extreme takes this premise and turns it on its head by incorporating a very modern obsession in todays gaming; rhythm game mechanics. This helps to bring the game up to a modern standpoint from an audio perspective and helps to make it relevant in the current gaming climate. Any game can add sounds here and there in an attempt to give it rhythm, but to get it right is another thing all together. Space Invaders Extreme adds blips, beeps and pings all over the place which all fit in with the games soundtracks. There is nothing more satisfying than entering fever mode and hearing the sound rush out of your headphones (arguably the best way to play).
Space Invaders Extreme also benefits from simple refinement of the classic formula. Players engage the aliens through increasingly difficult wave after wave before fighting a boss battle to progress onto the next stage. Bonuses are given for killing aliens of the same colour, wiping out an entire row, getting a combo without missing. The bonuses take both the form of extra points and strongers weapons depending on the colour of the enemy killed. Hitting UFO's is interesting as they both provide high points and the enjoyable bonus rounds. These take the form of little mini rounds whereby the player has to complete a certain take for example wipe out ten UFO's in 30 seconds. Completing this results in fever time which is abound with bonuses that get the higher scores and higher ranks.
The graphics are crisp and for the most part simple and faithful to the series, whilst still appealing to the Geometry Wars/Lumines generation. One problem some people may have are the graphically intense backgrounds on the PSP version. Whilst they are a good fit for the game and tie in nicely with the music they can be distracting, this however is not a problem as they can simply be turned off.
Controls on both versions are as tight and reliable as you would expect. On PSP the analogue nub works just as well as the D-Pad on both systems. The DS version however does have one great touch that nudges it up a notch with the inclusion of support for an optional paddle controller (compatible with Arkanoid also) that plugs into the GBA slot on the bottom of the DS. This provides a truly old school control system and helps make the controls and experience feel even closer to the arcade classic.
If you are a fan of the franchise, don't already own it and still havn't been convinced by this review, then seriously what's going on? If your are newcomer to the franchise, give it a go. The series is brought up to modern standards and thrives, without losing what made it a classic back in 1978. Space Invaders Extreme will offer some of the most addictive handheld gameplay you will find on either platform and can be regarded as an essential purchase for all.
 Labels: DS, PSP, Reviews, Space Invaders, Taito
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| posted by flameboy @ 21:52 |
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| Through the Looking Glass - Halo: Emotion Evolved |
| Sunday 27 July 2008 |
 Before I start, I would just like to point out that this article isn't a comment on what I think of Halo as a game. To be completely honest, I like Halo but I'm not fanatical about it. This feature is for examining subtexts or looking at alternate readings of games and I hope you enjoy reading it.
In the cold hard depths of space, suspended forever in a moment, a halo floats at the centre of a war. We are on the Pillar of Autumn and a recently awakened Master Chief arrives on the bridge, humanity’s last hope, it’s captain and hero. With the ship’s main cannon offline Cortana is vulnerable and her capture is unacceptable. This is where the Chief comes in, time for a hard transfer. If they capture her they'll learn everything: force deployment, weapons research…Earth. With the transfer complete, Cortana and Master Chief are now one. “Your architecture isn't much different from the Autumn's.” and so this is how they begin, a whisper in a bang.
“We're gonna make it aren't we, sir? I don't wanna die out here.” One of the marines on the lifepod asks. He doesn’t get an answer and he never will as only moments later, Master Chief emerges, a lone figure, from the flaming wreckage that had rescued them from the Autumn. This isn’t the last time the Chief and Cortana will survive in the face of spine shattering odds, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Cortana is Master Chief’s voice. She is as commanding as the Chief is brutal. Ripping through the enemy lines, united they claw together more fortunate marines from other crash sites. The Chief is on a combat high, Cortana is working, thinking, plotting. Things are close to desperate but looking up. Time to save Keyes. The Chief and Cortana complete each other. She thinks, he does. She has power over this blunt weapon, this “demon” and as they travel on the gravity lift into the heart of a Covenant ship, they are becoming closer, anticipating each other, beating as one. The momentum is with them.
Later on, Keyes is safe, they find themselves in Halo’s central control room. “You all right?” the Chief asks. “Never been better! You can't imagine the wealth of information; the knowledge! So much so fast. Its glorious!” comes the response. Unlike Master Chief’s control on the battlefield, Cortana’s dark desire for information and power shows who is the real demon. The Chief feels this bubbling malice, Cortana snaps, “This ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarian.” However, Cortana becomes aware of a new threat, something beyond her conception and control.
Cortana: The Covenant found something buried in this ring; something horrible. And now they're afraid.
Master Chief: Something buried? Where?
Cortana: The captain! We've got to stop the captain!
Master Chief: Keyes? What do we...?
Cortana: The weapons cache he's looking for is not really... We can't let him get inside!
Master Chief: I don't understa...?
Cortana: There's no time! Get out of here, find Keyes stop him before it's too late!
The Flood are coming, remaining hooked to the halo’s computers she sends Master Chief off, alone, to stop Keyes. She has abandoned the Chief.
We now find ourselves in Installation 04 and 343 Guilty Spark, an A.I. construct of Forerunner origin, shows Master Chief the way, “We must collect the index before we can activate the installation.” They only find death and destruction in this place - and the precious ‘index’. Keyes and his squad are dead and the Flood have been unleashed. Time to escape back to the control room.
Cortana, absorbed in Halo’s fountain of knowledge, has lost focus and with it command of the Chief and the situation in general. She has let Guilty Spark use Master Chief to achieve its own calculated ends and, as hers was before, his loss is now unacceptable.
Cortana: I've spent the last twelve hours cooped up in here watching you toady about helping that thing get set to slit our throats.
Master Chief: Hold on now. He's a friend.
Cortana: Oh! I didn't realise. He's your pal, is he? Your chum? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?
“Sod off!” Cortana barks in a rage as Guilty Spark notices in disgust this new alien A.I.. Master Chief is wavering, “The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defenses we can wipe them out.” Guilty Spark reminds him. The Chief is an unknown, a volatile weapon, a blunt tool vulnerable, needing instruction and now at the mercy of the universe’s most powerful artificial intelligences. However, Cortana is more than just a calculating construct. She has grown to know the Chief, as he has her. She returns, humbled, to her familiar self, a creation of logic growing beyond her preconceived parameters. She tries to regain control of the spiraling situation “You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood - it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever; we're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death and that's exactly what Halo is designed to do - wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him!” And so she sparks doubt in Master Chief’s mind, “Is it true?” he asks Guilty Spark. “More or less.” comes the response.
Cortana has wandered through the horrors of the shade but has finally emerged bloody, but unbowed. Ignoring Guilty Spark’s blathering Cortana and the Chief are working as one again, “Get us out of here.” With everything to lose, the halo must be destroyed; the only way is to detonate the crashed Pillar of Autumn.
The Maw - the Autumn is enveloped in rot. Just like the previous two chapters Master Chief and Cortana are alone. They have evolved together and we can see the culmination of their interaction almost explicitly expressed as they approach the Autumn:
Cortana: This thing is falling apart!
Master Chief: It'll hold.
Cortana: We're not going to make it!
Master Chief: We'll make it.
Computers, A.I.s, machines are definably inhuman through their inability to look beyond reason. To borrow from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which captures this idea perfectly, “There are things that machines will never do. They cannot possess faith - they cannot commune with God... They cannot appreciate beauty - they cannot create art. If they ever learn these things, they won't have to destroy us. They'll be us.” The Chief has led Cortana to this epiphany and she presents us with the most human of characteristics - faith. It isn’t an illusion or an attempt at replicating an idea; it is genuine faith. Neither solely logical nor abandoned to emotion she now places her trust, not to mention her life, in Master Chief’s hands against her own judgment (and considering her intelligence, her judgment might as well be law). As Master Chief put his trust in her before, it is time for her to return the favor.
 Together, not only do they complete each other, they are holistic. With the job done, the halo destroyed, they escape into the dust and echoes. “We're all that's left. We did what we had to do - for Earth.” Together, adrift in space, the threat to humanity is extinguished; there is nothing more for them to do. “Halo - it's finished.” remarks Cortana. Master Chief: No. I think we're just getting started. And there we have it, Halo: Combat Evolved, at least, is over – job done, boy meets girl, boy and girl blow up universe destroying alien artifact. In part two we’ll see what happens when their bond is put to the ultimate test – the ride is definitely just getting started. Labels: Daft, Features, Halo, Through the Looking Glass, Xbox 360
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| posted by Daft @ 00:31 |
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| Review: Beijing 2008 |
| Saturday 26 July 2008 |
 Ive always been a fan of Athletics games (although not the actual sport for some reason). I used to play one a lot on the N64 with friends, although for the life of me I can't remember which one. Anyway, this is why I was quite happy to hear an official Olympics game was coming out and I decided to rent it.
Ive got mixed feelings about this game, hopefully you'll understand why as I carry on with this review.
One nice feature of the game is that its Xbox Live leaderboards are linked directly into the game, so the World Records you see on the screen are the records that people have set from all over the world. Now while this is a great feature, its already proven to be very flawed. One of the first events I tried out was the Pole Vault. Looking at the World Record I was shocked to see that it was over 600m! I'm sure some people may find it hilarious to have scores this high, I didn't. I think it actually takes a lot of the fun out of it. This is a game in which the basic premise is to compete against other people to get the highest score/time possible. Now with these new ridiculous scores (brought about by cheating or glitches I don't know which) then fun for me is taken out. I know now that I will never be able to gain a World Record by normal means so why bother at all?
Still, I don't want to complain too much as it is still an enjoyable game. There are a wide variety of events. All the ones you would expect are there. Some of my favourites so far have been the diving, where you choose the type of dive you want and then use the two thumbsticks to line up the dive correctly. Archery is another good one, having to account for the wind and the feeling when you get a ten. High Jump I found every interesting, instead of with all the other athletics games Ive played where you just button mash to get up speed then jump at the correct time, here you actually have to press buttons at the correct time in the run up, almost turning it into a quick time event.
The rest of the events are pretty similar to those you would have seen before, either mashing the correct buttons to gain speed or wiggling the thumbsticks. Another change though is the starting of races, gone are the instances of just button mashing as soon as the gun shoots. Now instead you hold one of the shoulder buttons down and a bar starts to fill up, the speed of this depends on how hard you hold the button. Now when this bar gets to the red section you have to run, the trick in this is to time it perfectly so that you hit the red just as the gun sounds, otherwise you get some pretty slow starts. I'll admit that I haven't quite gotten used to this yet so my starts tend to be pretty poor!
I have been impressed with the graphics in Beijing 2008. The character models seem top notch to me, with expressive features and definitely looking more human than the older Olympic games I played before this! Unfortunately the crowd can be a bit repetitive, watching 50% of them all tilt their heads in the same direction and style every now and again can get a bit distracting.
Playing this game was always going to be best on multiplayer. I tried it out with goaferboy and we had some fun trying to beat each others times and going head to head in certain events. I have not had the chance yet to try it with more people but I thinks its safe to assume the multiplayer would be great fun with a full four people playing.
Overall I would say Beijing 2008 is a good athletics game, although a lot harder than previous athletics games I think this does spur you on a bit to work harder. As I mentioned before, the World Ranking problems really have made it hard for me to want to event attempt going for records and that's why currently this game wont get a higher score than I would have given it just from the normal play through. I can only hope that a patch might be released at some point to fix this. If not then I wont be playing it on single player a whole lot after the initial career.
Oh, and one more thing to note...............MY THUMBS ARE KILLING ME FROM ALL THE BUTTON MASHING!
 Labels: Reviews, Xbox 360
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| posted by Happenstance @ 11:39 |
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| E3; Round Up Part 2 |
| Friday 25 July 2008 |
Following on from Nintendo we take at the Microsoft Press Conference at this years E3, where there were not many surprises but all mighty twist at the end.
What is evident from Microsoft's conference is that they feel that they no longer to chase the hardcore and can keep them happy pretty easily and without effort. Their conference included demonstrations of Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 all games that had been previously announced and given hands on time with the press. Crucially two of these are also multiplatform. Whilst they did all look fantastic and offer plenty of surprises (surely few expected Fable 2 to actually be finished and Resident Evil 5 to have such a great co-op mode) it is hard not to feel disappointed that these were given so much time when they are sequels that have already been revealed. With regards to giving time to certain games it seems baffling that Microsoft omitted Bungie's big announcement because of time constraints, yet they managed to find the time to have Duffy up on stage sining a long to Lips, their new Singstar clone.
Cloning was a actually a good way to sum up this conference as feature after feature was revealed that has been seen else where. Whilst it is easy to jump on Microsoft's back for this there is reasoning behind it. Sony recently updated their firmware and are slowly but surely getting a service resembling Xbox Live, Microsoft needed to add features to justify their continued charging for Gold Membership.
Arguably the biggest 1st Party announcement wasn't even a game, it was the revealing of how they plan to reinvent the system through software, the heavily rumoured Dashboard update is coming in Autumn/Fall this year. Instead of a total revelation it takes the best features from a number of other game/media devices; it has a XMB/Wii Channels/ IPod Cover Flow navigation system and has their versions of the Mii system, the "imaginatively" titled Avatars. Despite a lot of people's misgivings about this new look there can be little denying its impact. The menu system does everything the old blades system did plus extra. Think of it as a menu driven version of Sony's Home service (still yet to be given a date), with gaming parties being created and then following each other where ever they go.
The middle section of the conference is probably best left unmentioned. Microsoft showed off Lips and In the Movies, a mixture of age old Eyetoy style games with admittedly neat movie creation. If the editing tools are flexible enough then this could prove to be a hit, but it didn't make for good conference viewing. Nintendo executives have made an event of their on stage tom-fooley at E3, their Microsoft equivalents just simply looked embarassing.
Live Arcade wasn't left out with a reveal of the new Galaga game, touted as the first true sequel being created by the team that did Pacman Championship Edition, as well as the four player Geometry Wars 2. Also present was the announcement of Portal; Still Alive which if rumours are to be believed is an expansion pack, what is known is that it will be XBL exclusive.
Of course it seems natural to end with the well the end. After the conference was seeming over, a movie came on to reveal that Final Fantasy XIII will be launching on Xbox 360 at the same time as PS3 in the US. This is a big slap in the face to Sony in the US and is blatantly obvious not a move to get more people buying their console but instead prevent fans of the series picking up a PS3 as well. It's a good move on Microsoft's part and has ensured renewed vigour in the endless fanboy wars.
Thats it for now, check back for our final round up of Sony's Conference.Labels: E3, Features, Microsoft, Xbox 360
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| posted by flameboy @ 19:06 |
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| Review: Hail to the Chimp |
| Thursday 24 July 2008 |
It would be easy to dismiss Hail to the Chimp at nothing more than just another party game. If you were to do that you would miss out on some of the funniest presidential banter you are ever likely to see in a game.
It is of course worth bearing in mind very few other video games have ever aimed in delivering this particular brand of comedy. Satire is the comedic flavour being used with the colourful animals providing witty remarks and a walrus doing his best impression of Ron Burgundy prsenting the news on GRR News. The news reels and advertisements throughout the game provide the political flavoured laughs and do in fact cover a very extensive range of issues. However you will find yourself occasionally groaning at some of the more terrible and cheesy jokes. It could be argued that Hail to the Chimp has few highlights as game bar this humourous look at the USA's election system.
The game uses a very unique and funky art style with a paper grain effect used in abundance. Each character is bright and vibrant and can have a variety of accessories plastered on them to make them look truly garish. The levels fit in with this ton using bright colours and sharp contrasts to make areas stand out, it can still be hard to keep a track of things.
Despite earlier saying this game should not be dismissed as just another party game, unfortunately the gameplay does fall into the genre's stereotypes. All of the games humorous content is delivered outside of the actual game which means it is largely devoid of laughs. To simply sum it up, the game suffers from very shallow gameplay and simplistic mechanics.
 There are a choice of different stages each with their own unique twists as you would expect, all of the games different modes can also be played on each of these stages. All of the varying types of games don't be differ too much to be honest and it actually three other candidates collecting clams which represent votes, there are different game types but they only vary in the way which the game collates the clams into votes. This can be handy if you are better at dashing and grabbing clams for the ballot for example, than keeping hold of the most clams for 2 minutes. It could be seen as a way of representing the multi-faceted of the presidential election system and can be used to tactically try and win your favourite stages, demonstrating how not every state has to be won. Clams can be acquired by simply running into them and picking them up as they appear on the stage, or more aggresively fight for them. It is shame however that the combat mechanics descend into button mashing. This gives little risk-reward balance to fight as it feels so random and unfair, coupled with it feeling boring, only helps to add to the games full repetitive structure.
The game offers little variety in multiplayer just giving you chance to play each of the battles with friends instead of the AI. The computer controlled characters deserve a mention if only for how extremely unbalanced they are. They either kick your ass, beating you into submission or you do exactly the same and serve that up to them. There is no such thing as a close battle at the AI seems either too easy or too hard. So with this in mind it is hard to recommend this game if you are only going to play it solo and without mates!
Whilst the game is indeed funny there is little to keep you coming back once all the jokes have been seen and this happens far too quickly. Some of the jokes do stand up to repeat viewings but not the vast majority and they in fact start to grate and it become increasingly frustrating. It's a problem the game as a whole suffers as there is simply not enough to keep your attention. It would have perhaps benefited from being a cheaper downloadable title to make up for its shortcomings, instead its a budget price disc game that is barely worth it and suffers from severe longevity problems.
Labels: Playstation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360
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| posted by flameboy @ 16:13 |
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| Retro Column |
| Wednesday 23 July 2008 |
 Right, here it is. The Retro Column we have been going on about. Well an introduction to it anyway.
The column will basically be split into two parts. In the first week we will be doing a general retro feature. This will be about whatever has taken our fancy that week. The second week will be a featured retro title. We will talk about the history of the game, how it was received in its day and how it holds up by today's standards. At the end of this we will announce the next title to be featured to allow ourselves and readers two weeks to play the game. We hope this will also spill over to the forum so you as readers can talk about the game as well. Read More!
Right, we will now list our top 5 games ever. Hopefully this will give you a bit of an insight into our gaming tastes. This will also introduce you to the font colours we plan to use when we work together, hopefully this will help you readers tell us apart.
In no particular order:
HAPPENSTANCE
 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (MD): I think this was the first game I ever got for my MegaDrive and damn did I play it a lot.
 Final Fantasy VII (PS1): I was a latecomer to RPGs, if I remember right this was the first one I ever played (yes I know I'm a late rpg bloomer!). Anyway I loved everything about it, it really drew me in.
 Animal Crossing (GC): I managed to import a copy of this from Australia when my interest in gaming was starting to dissipate. Lets just say it really brought my love of gaming back. Good old Tom Nook!
 Super Mario Bros (NES): What can I really say about this game that you don't already know? Genius!
 Shenmue (DC): I think it was the world of Shenmue that drew me to this game. Because you spent so much time with the people and town you really felt like you got to know them. I was genuinely sad to leave.
GOAFERBOY
 Skies Of Arcadia (DC): Something about flying pirate ships just floats my boat. That combined with the immersive game world, grand soundtrack and cinematic camera angles make this game my all time favourite RPG.
 Sonic Adventure (DC): Fast action, RPG elements, intertwining storylines and decent controls. For me, this is as good as Sonic games get. Shame it all went downhill after this...
 Sega Rally (SAT): For me, this is the best example of simple, arcade racing. Easy to pick up, difficult to master. Most of my younger years were spent handing out beat downs on this game. Still plays well by todays standards.
 Metropolis Street Racer (DC): Another brilliant racer. MSR introduced the world to the idea of stylish racing. As far as handling goes, few racers can get the balance between arcade fun and realism as right as this.
 Panzer Dragoon Saga (SAT): A unique combat system combined with an epic story line and a ruddy great big dragon make this another favourite RPG of mine. Shame about the current prices.
And finally we will announce the first retro title, this will be featured in 2 weeks time:
VECTORMAN
Labels: Features
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| posted by Happenstance @ 21:10 |
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| E3; Round Up |
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This years E3 despite what you may have read wasn’t without merit. There were three conferences each with their own style and each had some highlights and moments that should have perhaps stayed at the rehearsal. We analysis each of the platform holders offerings, first up is numero uno Nintendo.
Unfortunately Nintendo’s conference can for the second year running be described with just one word “casual” the current buzzword in gaming.
Despite this though it is hard to see quite what gamers expected. E3 as an event has very much evolved; there are more members of the mainstream press than ever before, publications such as USA Today and mainstream entertainment magazines ran stories on the event and will likely cover many of the products when they launch. With this in mind Nintendo showed to this crowd the types of games that when reported in the mainstream press will get the casual audience interested.
Nintendo did not disappoint in this respect, delivering plenty to keep the casual gamer pleased. Wii Sports Resort whilst offering somewhat strange sports still looks like it will provide the same Wow-Wii moments that Wii Sports originally offered. Packaged with Wii Sports Resort will come the Wii MotionPlus, a little block that plugs into the wiimote and gives complete 1:1 motion sensing capabilities, something wanted by hardcore gamers across the world. Which is why it seems strange that Nintendo didn’t reveal a game that will use this 1:1 motion whilst appealing to the more hardcore gamer, instead just teasing with this whilst offering no real killer app for the device left everyone wanting more. The 1:1 movement was perfect however and was really shown off during the Frisbee throwing game and sword fighting, but to a lesser extent on the jet ski game, whilst no other sports were revealed it is hoped that we will see more mainstream competitive sports.
Whilst there can be little doubting that Wii MotionPlus is a fantastic innovation, Nintendo’s arrogance with regards to its release cannot be understated. There have been reports that the announcement actually took developers by surprise and some have even allegedly gone as far to say they feel “betrayed”. For Nintendo not to have given out dev kits for this new hardware or at the very least inform them shows the company of old under Yamauchi where they believed they could just do what they wanted and everyone would jump into line and follow them blindly. Whether we will see enough new games developed with this in mind remains to be seen.
Animal Crossing; City Folk was by far the biggest and most anticipated game that actually got announced. Whilst it’s easy to dismiss Animal Crossing as a purely casual game it does in fact have some very hardcore elements to it, at its heart if you distil it down to the lowest gaming denominator you will find a game not too dissimilar to the likes of Diablo, a game all based around loot. Whilst yes it does have a decidedly kiddy charming look to appeal to the masses it still has that collectathon loot aspect that will keep the hardcore trying to earn enough money and do enough jobs to get the gifts they deserve. It comes with just enough features to keep the fans happy, as Nintendo proves how good there are at iterating on their franchises offering nothing ground breaking but enough new stuff to avoid criticism. One major new feature and one the game has been crying out for since the forever is voice chat. Coinciding with the release of the game will come the Wii Speak microphone, not a head set but instead a more sociable tv mounted mic that will allow for inter family communication on a large scale.
The final game to be shown off was Wii Music. The stage went dark and the big build up of suspense was felt throughout the auditorium. Fanboys across the world were going “OMG Zelda” “OMG Kid Icarus” “OMG Punchout” and all were thinking WTF when a man was seen using the wiimote, nunchuk and balance board playing the drums and then Shigeru Miyamoto came out to play the saxophone doing little more than moving the wiimote up and down and pressing a few buttons. He revealed that this is not a hardcore music game like high level Guitar Hero and Rock Band play. It instead concentrates on being accessible. The music plays and you can alter pitch and such like by moving the wiimote and pressing buttons, but the basic tune still plays regardless of your performance, your music playing adds to it rather than makes it. The drum functionality does have some cool features offering a full drumming tutorial, how well these lessons could be transferred from Wii to drum kit remains to be seen. Whilst it may intrigue a lot of people this next game in the Wii franchise is not going to be the killer app Wii Sports and Wii Fit are and likely won’t sell any where near as many copies as Wii Play. It does however potentially offer the most socially orientated music game, it is easy to imagine families having a jam session on the drums and guitar and inviting Grandfather in to play one of the more relaxed instruments.
There was very little to get excited about with regards to DS, GTA; Chinatown Wars was announced but nothing bar the logo was shown. Nintendo seems to have faith in third parties to continue to sell the console whilst their older titles such as Brain Training and New Super Mario Brothers keep on racking up the sales to new adopters.
Where was Wiiware?! Nintendo’s service clearly has so much potential but we are yet to see much in the way of quality 1st Party support, there were heavy rumours suggesting a Wiiware Zelda title and it can only be assumed that these were either shown behind closed doors or will be revealed in future events. With no mention of it at all Nintendo clearly felt that E3 was not the place, whilst Microsoft and Sony showed off some impressive looking XBL and PSN games that have received much praise. This perhaps proves Nintendo have made a mistake in this respect.
Nintendo did reveal during a post conference roundtable something for the hardcore. Pikmin 3 is indeed in development and that the Zelda and Mario teams are indeed at work on something. It is clear that Nintendo Loyalists need to readjust their expectations about what they get from E3 and that the titles for them will either not be announced at all or in the case of Wario Land; Shake It for example, shown off in advance. Relying on the conference for the big franchise reveals now seems a thing of the past.
.Labels: E3, Features, Nintendo
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| posted by flameboy @ 15:31 |
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