Gaming Corner

Dead Space - Déjà Tue

2008-12-18T12:30:00.002Z

Given the riot at the première of Shostakovich's The Rite of Spring - such was the shock of all those new disharmonies, apparently - you can't help imagining the projectile vomiting that would have greeted the likes of Dead Space (or maybe that's just me). Either way, if these days we need visceral horror to jolt us out of our complacency, Dead Space is here to plaster our stunted little gamer brains with lashings of screaming gore.

Which, needless to add, we get by the bucket-load. Unlike The Rite of Spring, however, it's neither particularly shocking nor the least bit new. Playing an engineer called Isaac Clarke, you crash-land on the mining vessel Ishimura to discover that its crew has turned into - whodathunkit - screaming, homicidal zombie-alien-mutants.

So far, so what. In the same spirit, here's a potted summary of what you get next:

First, a hero whom you glimpse only once before he becomes the Man in the Iron Welding Mask, controlled from an over-the-right-shoulder view as he braves flickering lights, clank-skreeaak sound-effects and blood-spattered rooms designed by artists whose screenwriter equivalents get paid Actual Money to type this sort of thing:

JOHN Q. REDSHIRT
I got a bad feeling about this...

Your weapons are a kind of space-age welding kit, which entertainingly enough breaches every imaginable health and safety regulation by shooting knives of light some twenty feet through the air. You also get a time-slowing effect called "stasis" and - despite everything else on the boat being absolutely fubar - a fully-functioning network of guns'n'ammo vending machines.

Isaac is guided through this Tartarean mess by his surviving crew "mates", who continually yelp things like, "The emergency-security-access-override-systems are offline! Hey, Isaac, would you kindly go down that very dark corridor - the one with all the screaming and the blood - and get the key?" And so on, through level after bloody level, to the point that it's quite satisfying when they start getting shredded. (And if you couldn't see that coming, you don't deserve to have thumbs.)

Much has been made of Dead Space's source material - Doom 3, Event Horizon, Solaris - and yes, it really is that derivative. But its various knowing winks seem like an attempt at intertextual chic, as if to say: look, because we know it's derivative, that makes it all, like, postmodern. But it's doesn't; unfortunately it's still just unoriginal crap, so devoid of new ideas it could have been a JRPG.

(And so much, then, for CEO John Riccitiello's remarks last year about how EA were going to - don't laugh - innovate.)

As for Dead Space, its own much-touted novelty - its USP, perhaps - is what its creators call "strategic dismemberment". In the real world, that sounds like a Beltway euphemism for what the Pentagon does to third-world countries; in the game, this means... wait for it... you shoot off their limbs.

Wow. God help their share price if that's the best they can come up with.

To try something more radical with the story, they've thrown in a cultish religion called Unitology - but that's as far as any satire goes; everything else is caricature, even to the extent that one villain has both a Middle-Eastern appearance and accent (why didn't they just make him French?). The narrative itself is by turns amateurish, boring, predictable and ultimately a complete mess; any surprises come from monsters, not the plot.

But the game's real hollow core is Isaac himself. The various Half Lifes worked in spite of the mute protagonist, not because of him - and even that jolly green gruntosaurus Master Chief had more charisma than this pie-faced dullard. Unresponsive and unreactive, his catatonia even extends to the physical: apparently, if you're clodhopping around in a glorified Victorian diver's suit, space-men can't jump. As if to emphasise this, there's even a mini-game in a basketball court.

And so Arthur C. Asimov - sorry, Isaac the Terrible - goes stomping on around the Ishimura (which is presumably Japanese for "pastiche"), fetching yet more keys and dismembering yet more zombie-alien-mutants. Bleh.

But even if it sucks as a piece of art, it can still work as a game, right?

Well, strangely... it does. For ten whole minutes. Because as you're flung straight into the bowels of hell, it serves up some decent shocks: necromorphs come slashing out of nowhere, the music screams at you, you're all alone(ish), and armed with a puny weapon. Hoorah.

One of the best things about what follows is not the shock-horror, nor the minimal HUD, nor even the zero-G stuff (which is fine, if unspectacular) - but rather the inventory system, which forces you to make vital tactical decisions about what to carry: an extra air-tank or that stasis pack? The circular saw weapon, or the flame-thrower? Ammo is rare, and hoarding items becomes compulsive. Combined with the weapons upgrade system, this keeps things interesting long after everything else has turned to meh.

Because, far too soon - around the eleventh minute, in fact - the creatures become just as predictable as the story. Even the most bad-ass monsters eventually hold no fear; body parts bounce around like they're made of rubber, the effect of which is unintentionally comical. In a survival horror, which depends for its effectiveness on making you jump, this is fatal.

Which is a shame. There's nothing inherently wrong with the levels and puzzles (which are possessed of a certain baroque elegance); it's just that they're old hat, there are too many of them, and they're all the same. Likewise, the story is bonkers, confused and unoriginal, but so is Event Horizon. It goes on too long, but so does Solaris. The otherwise decent score is so unrelenting that you zone it out like a car alarm, the more so when you realise it's all been nicked from Bernard Hermann. The monsters become repetitive and predictable, just like in Doom 3. So... are you seeing a pattern yet?

With all that and not much replay value too, Dead Space isn't exactly enticing for forty quid. But it's certainly rentable, so if you have a weekend to spare, you like survival horror, and you have no cultural frame of reference whatsoever, go right ahead.

Just don't expect it to be Doom 4.

Virtual Morality

2008-12-09T12:10:00.003Z

As technology advances and drags us into different spheres of reality we must re-examine the choices we make as virtual actors. Where does morality stand in these brave new worlds?

Games like Second Life and Grand Theft Auto allow players to experience virtual life with no lasting consequence. Anything goes. In Grand Theft Auto morally dubious things you can do include sex with prostitutes, killing civilians, killing cops, stealing cars and generally spreading fear and destruction. But why stop there - what is the difference between virtual murder and virtual rape? What makes one right and another so taboo? Of course if this was included in the game there would likely be mass public outrage but explaining exactly why virtual sex and murder are acceptable, and virtual rape isn't, is not easy.

There is the usual concern that violent games lead to violent actions - we've seen this most recently with the media's reaction to both the Columbine and Virginia Tech. massacres. Personally I think this argument is dull as it seems much more likely that instead of violent games inspiring violence in people that in fact violent people are drawn to violent games. Much more interesting, with games becoming more detailed and allowing for greater immersion, is the question: am I free to do anything, or are some things inherently wrong?

In the 2002 film Minority Report we are shown a virtual brothel of sorts where customers purchase fantasies ranging from murdering your boss to infidelity. The latter of which must require clarification by individuals and religious groups. When does infidelity become infidelity? Another more difficult question to answer is: what kinds of fantasies should be condoned?

Recently this question has been debated in relation to Second Life. It was found that certain members created child avatars and proceeded to engage in sexual acts with adult characters. This might have been allowed to carry on if it were not for actually child pornographic material being uploaded. When Linden Labs issued a warning that such actions would not be tolerated they came to loggerheads with some of the participants who argued that Linden Labs had no business in the activities that consenting adults participate in. This is a key challenge between people who see no moral boundaries in virtual worlds and those that do.

Religion takes a different view on morality from the model which governs society. As part of society we are part of a social contract. Simply put, this contract is there to prevent harm. Where state morality condemns harm against others, religious morality is mostly concerned with what offends God. You are not to wrong your neighbour because not only does it harm your neighbour, but because you anger God. This is clearly shown in that the first five commandments of the Decalogue are concerned not with the mistreatment of one's neighbour (e.g. lying, stealing, committing adultery), but with man's approach to God (e.g. creating idols, taking the Lord's name in vain, keeping the Sabbath holy). With Jesus there is a radical shift in interpreting moral codes, most easily shown through adultery. The sin is transferred from the physical realm to the virtual realm of the mind. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus says, "You have heard the commandment that says, 'You must not commit adultery.' But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Where as the humanist or secular view is concerned with the act, religious morality is concerned not only with what we do but what we think.

The question of morality in virtual worlds has been largely ignored due to only recent advances in technology allowing such choices to be made. As use of virtual worlds grow the issue of morality, right and wrong, will become more and more important. How we act in these worlds will ultimately stem from our understanding of the source of morality. Either we will have to concede that as long as no one is harmed people are free to do as they please, or we will conclude that morality does have a place in virtual worlds.

Adapted from 'Virtual Morality', Adbusters #80.

Review - Football Manager Handheld 09

2008-12-02T19:45:00.001Z

The Football Manager series on PC has evolved from its Championship Manager roots and become the premier football title. On the PSP there hasn't been much in the way of serious competition but that hasn't stopped them from trying something different and innovating with this years iteration.

Football Manager Handheld 09 comes with a series of refinements and improvements. For the first time the game features a 2D match engine along with the feature to hop between different countries rather than being limited to the run nation. Both of these new headline features aren't without their fair share of problems though. There is also improved transfer code which helps make selling those unwanted players easier. The game also has two new skins, the dark skin in particular is gorgeous and very pleasing to the eye.

The 2D match engine shares none of the same code as the PC version and as such starts from scratch, with this in mind it will come as no surprise that the match experience has its fair share of glitches. Strange sights such a defender running at the keeper one on one and then laying it back half the length of the pitch rather than shooting are common place and using the pitch for tactical analysis can be very hard. Instead much more can be garnered from the brilliant text that gives plenty of hints and tips at where players are being beaten or how attacks break down. Some decisions have clearly been made with the format in mind as well, only goals or near misses are shown and even then it is only the smallest of glimpses. This helps to keep the action going quick and fast and means that games don't drag on, the option for full match highlights would be welcome. SI have had a fair stab at improving the match day experience and should be praised for their efforts and as a starting point the engine looks to have a solid enough framework to build on.

The database problems arise from the hardware only being able to handle X number of players existing in the game at any one time. Things are fine when running one nation with every team having their full first team, high profile reserves and a smattering of exciting youngsters, teams abroad have a decent selection to pick from. When running with extra nations though the game has to spread its players thinly across all of the leagues running meaning that not all teams have their full complements of players and some even having very noticeable first team absences. There seems no solution though unless SI can push that bit more out of the PSP. It is a shame that their is no way to install the database in full on a Memory Card and run them off this faster solid state rather than streaming off the UMD, whether this is even possible or simply pie in the sky is another matter.

There are many other aspects that people would argue mean the handheld version is a poor relation to the its PC brother. This is however not the case as the developers have taken all the key features and distilled them down to their most common form. Take the media involvement, whilst the PC version has taken things a step further and created media conferences. Rather than offering a ream of time consuming options all of which are either positive, negative or no comment related Handheld simply offers these three simple offers. This is by no means a bad thing however has is helps keep the pace to that more suitable to a handheld game where you may just be catching five minutes here or there. It strikes the right mix between just enough whilst not being to much.

If you are looking for a game that can both fill a quick five minutes and offer hours and hours of gameplay this is the one for you. The game has the usual 30 season limit plus all the unlockables fans have come to expect. A bigger database adds to the experience as well offering more players than ever.

As always finding the right tactics is key to success

The game has improved with each passing year and this is no exception yes there are a few niggling faults, but this doesn't detract from a core experience that will see you spends hours and hours pouring over it's simple text based interface. It may not be the flashiest most graphically intensive PSP game out there but it certainly tests the systems' durability as you will find yourself putting in the hours - time to think about picking up a spare battery for those long distance journeys.

Feature - 10 Working Days

2008-11-24T15:00:00.002Z

It's happened again. I must be the unluckiest person in the world... Okay, I have clean water, fresh food and a roof over my head... Lets just say I'm just really sodding annoyed. My PlayStation 3 has decided to stop reading Blu-rays. This is the second time this has happened. This PlayStation is only two months old.

So I go through the routine. I call up Sony, more annoyed this time, and they arrange to pick up my PS3. Instead of swapping my PS3 on my doorstep like last time, I had a working PS3 four days after my contact with Sony which I was impressed with, they are going to take it away to check what went wrong. Only because this PlayStation 3 is just two months old. Only because Sony sent me a replacement console that lasted just over a quarter of the time as the one I bought seven months ago from Piccadilly Circus. Only because of Sony's denseness, I now have to wait up to 10 working days after they pick it up for them to return it. Obviously before this I'm going to have to back up my HDD, then swap out my 320Gb HDD and go find the original HDD that came with the console - God knows where that is. I then look forward to the prospect of re-downloading all the PSN games I've bought, let me just remind you I already did this once when it broke two months ago, and I've bought a lot of games. Then I'm going to have to call Sony up a one final time, I pray, to get the rights transferred from the old console to the new one so then I can then re-download all my SingStar songs...again.

I'm not really sure what to think. Currently my Xbox 360 is leading the battle for build quality; the PS3 is leading with 2 deaths to my 360's paltry 1. I'm not really sure what to think because every time one of Sony's or Microsoft's machines break I'm left with the arduous task of transferring and reorganising everything which is so frustrating I want to scream at the closest small animal or child. Was this part of the deal when I bought my consoles? It seems like a lot of work that I've paid for. I've fulfilled my part of the deal, handing over precious money for my material goods. I've been a faithful customer, buying a lot of games both disk based and downloadable. I want to have some kind of reward for going through this and remaining a loyal customer. Is it too much to ask for a free PSN game or something? In short, yes; because Sony don't have to. They know now I've bought their bastard console I'm in it for the long run. This is capitalism at its most efficient, I'm not going to be able to put up much resistance.

Of course this is aimed more at the PlayStation since, for once, the 360's detachable drive is a blessing. By the time Microsoft had the console back with me they'd transferred all the rights and registered the new console. All I had to do was slot the HDD back on, put some ear plugs in and I was merrily on my way again. By contrast replacing a PS3 is a nightmare - one I'm going to have to go through again.

By Daft

Impressions - New Xbox Experience

2008-11-23T22:02:00.009Z

360 on, signed into XBL, prompted with the update. A blink later and the thing had downloaded and installed. I'm a little bit shocked at the speed. It's always good to start on a high, so far so good.

Now to create my Mii, sorry, avatar. It's all pretty standard really. You're Dr. Frankenstein for Generation Z. You can make your creation slim, although as much as I tried not skeletal, or plump them up a bit without actually making them fat. So there you have it, political correctness personified. There are other limitations in that unlike Nintendo's Mii's you can't choose to move facial features around. This pretty much limits you to making everyone look human, so you wont be seeing any Chewbaccas or Hitlers running around any time soon. Ginger people of the world rejoice, you are accepted by Microsoft unlike nasty cruel Nintendo.

Look at Mii!

One nice little feature that Miis have decided to do away with in their utopian dream is the ability to change clothes. Being the savvy consumers we are, not only can we have a mini version of ourselves but we can have a mini version of our capitalist materialistic habits. It's good to learn this stuff early in life; money equals happiness after all. Needless to say, the clothes selection is relatively limited. I give it a week before the micro transactions start offering themselves on the marketplace.

Once you've impressed yourself onto your profile you'll notice your friends list has mutated into a lively avatar line-up. It looks pretty sleek, a nice touch being the avatars grouping together when they are partied up playing Gears of War 2 and the like. There is also the option to use your avatar as a gamerpic. It is disappointing that Microsoft have basically kicked old gamerpics to the curb, a feature where they were transferred onto the front of a plain white t-shirt for your avatar to wear would have been great. Themes have been jazzed up and suit the sleek new look. Aesthetically NXE is gorgeous. If Tricia Helfer was a user interface, she'd probably look like this.

The next feature, my most anticipated, was the ability to scupper my 360's attempt to either deafen me or escape by launching itself, using its jet engine disk drive, through the closest open window. I decided to install Fable II, largely to see if I could make the painfully slow pause menu any smoother. It took it's sweet time to install but as a one off, and being a PS3 owner, it is an absolutely minuscule inconvenience. I started up the game and there was a noticeable difference. The menus were much quicker. I used to dread going into the menus but now it's silky smooth. Area load times are improved and in general the game moves at a much slicker pace. The guide is similarly as smooth and is a great improvement over the juttering blade system from before.

I'm impressed with the update. It puts Microsoft in a very good light. They have completely overhauled an interface which, even though it had some slight niggles, really didn't scream for change. Sony have made massive strides with their Playstation updates recently and comparatively the XMB was a joy to use due to its speed and ease of use. Although I personally prefer the ad free, slightly more Spartan and much more freely customisable XMB, that is all it is; a personal preference. The New Xbox Experience is a great update and just makes you wonder how we lived with the old blade system.

And the noise is gone. I'm so happy.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - Nook's Town - Part Two

2008-11-02T16:30:00.003Z

Fanning the Flames - Metacritic proves the public can't be trusted.

2008-10-27T11:59:00.002Z

After a brief absence Fanning the Flames is back! We take a look at the recent fanboy bashing of games on Metacritic and how it proves that the public just aren't ready to be critics.

The world of blogging has lead to an uprise in the number of average Joe gamers having a crack at games journalism. The fact of the matter is though whilst blogging may have entered the mainstream (The Daily Mail's glossy pull out had a feature on it just the other week) they have not held in the regard required to become considered bona fide journalists. We here at Gaming Corner are bloggers and despite trying at all times to remain as professional as we can, but there is no escaping the fact that we are bloggers.

There would of course be those who argue that various gaming news/reviews networks don't deserve to be held in high regard as their integrity gets called into question following questionable review scores. The recent Metacritic debacle only helps to back this view.

For those not in the know this all started when 360 fanboys started giving Sony's new mascot Sackboy's Little Big Planet awful scores. This led to the games score plummeting, Sony fanboys hit back and did the same with Gears of War 2 before it became 2-1 to 360 fanboys as Resistance 2 became the latest to get stung. Fable II looks like it's the next hit as it's score slowly tumbles with it currently at 6.1.

This led to the sites Games Editor Marc Doyle making the following statement;

"My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there's not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won't happen. We'll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game's release. As always, thanks for using the site."

Marc Doyle did the right thing here. whilst he admitted that the site is a community he also admitted it does have it's failings and that this is something it is going to address. With all this in mind what exactly did fanboys hope to achieve? No discerning gamer is going to look at the critics score and dismiss it out of hand and instead take the user votes as gospel. Metacritic have been clever in the wording here, with critics having scores and reviews and users votes and comments. This shows even though under normal circumstances the user votes have their place there is still an acknowledgement that they are not reviews and whilst still valid should be held as such.

However is this phenomena new though or just an evolution of what has always stood? Let's not forget Sega's famous "Genesis does what Nintendon't" bashing of their rivals consoles capablitlies. This sort of advertising used to cause countless arguments in the school playground. Companies have in recent years become more professional and more concerned with self preservation than slamming the opposition. However they don't ever try to quash the fanboy wars and happily let them rumble on knowing that it does help to promote their products in a unique way that no amount of marketing will account for.

So what can we take from this? If you want to see a true reflection of a games worth, stick to the critic reviews, if you want to see fanboys getting themselves all round up, read the user comments.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - Nook's Town - Part One

2008-10-26T15:39:00.002Z

Top 10 - First Person Shooters

2008-10-22T09:06:00.005+01:00

Well then here we go, another week and another Top 10 article. This week we will be running down the Top 10 First Person Shooters, so once again enjoy and if you disagree then leave a comment or join up to our forums.

10 - Wolfenstein 3D

Its hard to remember but I think this could have been the very first FPS that I ever played. Killing everyone in a room then sliding along walls looking for secrets never seemed so much fun. Oh and who doesn't love being able to kill Hitler!

9 - Duke Nukem 3D

I remember playing through this game when I was pretty young and I just loved everything about it. The blood, the violence, the sex, the swearing... It was just a fun game, one I am now thinking about getting on XBLA after I finish writing this. Who would have thought writing a Top 10 article for a blog would cost me money!

8 - Quake II

Another game I played when I was younger. The first Quake was good but I think Quake II really took it to the next level. The mod scene was brilliant for it as well, anyone ever play Action Quake?

7 - Goldeneye

I will confess that I am not the biggest Goldeneye fan out there but I couldn't really leave it off this list could I? Even if I didn't play it much myself I was in no way blind enough to notice just how popular it was with nearly every gamer I speak to.

6 - Halo

Its such a shame that the original Halo didn't have online multiplayer for the xbox but that didn't stop the original Halo from being a great game. Sure some of the levels were so repetitive that you wanted to rip your eyes out but you still seemed to carry on. Playing Halo on co-op was some brilliant gaming for me.

5 - Team Fortress Classic

I'm sure a lot of you reading this would have chosen Counterstrike in the place of TFC but not me, I just could not get into it. Team Fortress Classic however was a brilliant multiplayer game. that I think allowed people from all skill levels to jump right in and just have some fun (That's right, I am not the best online gamer you will ever see!).

4 - Doom

Well, what can I say really? I mean its Doom, I am sure you've heard it all before.

3 - Call Of Duty 4

I was actually very run down with the COD games before 4 came out, I think the WWII era has been used to death. Then came along this fresh and new setting and I just loved it. The multiplayer as well was brilliant, I had been burnt out on online FPS before this came along.

2 - Half Life 2

This game is just near perfect, everything about it I just love. The characters, the enemies, the physics, the world, the story. Plus playing with the gravity gun was just fun :P

1 - Half Life

Some would probably say that Half Life 2 was better than the original and I guess they might be right, but not for me. Once again we get nearly all of the things that made Half Life 2 so great but I was doing it all for the first time and that definitely sticks in my mind more than the sequel.

.......Oh, and anyone wondering where Portal was in this Top 10, don't worry. I love it as well but I wanted only proper shooters on the list.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - An Inconvenient Evil

2008-10-17T06:48:00.004+01:00

Top 10 - Nintendo DS Games

2008-10-15T09:20:00.006+01:00

With our Staff Roundtable on the newly announced Nintendo DSi I decided to do this weeks Top 10 features on my favourite DS games.
Enjoy......

10 - Sonic Rush

Being a big fan of the old 2D Sonic games on my MegaDrive this was going to be a no brainer buy for me. Similar to the Sonic Advance games on the GBA, Sonic Rush made good use of the top screen and was just pure fun.

9 - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

I think there are unjustified complaints against Pokemon that it is somehow kiddy (Most likely due to the cartoon) but they are definitely some brilliant and easy to get into RPGs. I have been playing the Pokemon series since I first got Pokemon Blue and I plan to continue playing it hopefully for many years to come.

8 - Animal Crossing: Wild World

I absolutely loved Animal Crossing on the GameCube. Wild World was pretty much just more of the same but that definitely isn't a bad thing. Its not a game that you will spend hours at a time on but you will feel the urge to go back to your town everyday to make sure things are OK. I just wish they had left the real world holidays in this version.

7 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village

It took a while for this game to even come onto my gaming radar. It has some brilliant anime cut scenes, good voice work (OK the accents make me laugh but that can only be a good thing) and the puzzles are very fun to work through.

6 - Elite Beat Agents

A quirky music game where you use the stylus to hit the DS touch screen at the correct moments. The best bits however are just watching the characters on screen going through their stories.

5 - Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time

Another Mario & Luigi game and another success I would say. These games are just filled with great moments and humour, I love playing them.

4 - Brain Training

Now a few years ago I would never have seen myself putting an educational game onto a "Best of" list but here we are. Brain Training is very addictive, especially when you play with the rest of your family/friends, then it becomes a challenge to see who is the smartest. It also managed to open up gaming to a whole new market and is definitely one of the biggest reasons the DS has done as well as it has to date.

3 - Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Hotel Dusk is basically a noir detective story set in...yes you guessed it, a hotel. You go around talking to people and collecting clues. This may sound similar to other games in the genre but the amazing design in this game really puts it above all of them.

2 - New Super Mario Bros

What can I say. This game has kept me playing since launch, up until today and I'm sure for a long time to come. Its classic Mario Bros and so much fun!

1 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

God damn it I love Phoenix Wright games! Whenever I start to feel a bit bored with the gaming industry I can just stick one of these on and everything will be better again! Even though the court room scenes and evidence gathering are great, my favourite part is simply the stories and characters. They are all very likable and you really get pulled into the stories with all the twists and turns.

Staff Roundtable - Nintendo DSi

2008-10-13T19:09:00.003+01:00

Right then, here it is. Our brand new feature will be a staff roundtable, this will have a set topic for discussion. Something that has come up recently that we would all like to express our opinions on. There wont be a set date for this feature, it will just come out when something interesting as happened in the industry, there has been a big announcement or when there is just something we feel like chatting about.

Nintendo DSi

ReZourceman - Most of us have a phone. A lot of us have an MP3 player. Most phones have MP3 players and cameras built in. Does this make the DSi a useless hardware rehash? In my opinion it kind of does. To me personally it simply isn't appealing. Im gaining camera, memory slot, smaller design and other basic technological functionality, and Im losing the ability to play GBA games. For me this isn't a worthy trade off. As Ive said, I can get and have access to these other functions, in more specified devices. Devices that have been around for a while and adapted with demand and changing times....although we havn't seen quite how the functions are incorporated its likely that the ease of use for these features will pale in comparison to the tailored machines.

That said....its a tempting proposition. The addition of music, media and camera useage on a DS is certainly not a bad thing, it just may not be necessary or hugely useful considering their fairly accesible on other gadgets. Perhaps the best thing about the DSi is the potential for more new and innovative games (either exclusive to the system) or for both DSi and DS'. It could add a level customability to games - having your own head on a Mario Kart driver for example, or for DSi exclusive games (maybe as the announced Wario Ware DSi?) the camera could be an intergral part of the gameplay, like Sonys Eye Toy.

not_so_tiny - Since I didn't upgrade to a DS Lite the prospect of the DSi is very exciting for me, but whether I buy one or not is going to boil down to the DSi software and how they use the SD slot. They have already announced a Warioware game which I am very interested in, but would like to know how it will differ to the other versions. DSiWare is also a very exciting prospect in the same way WiiWare is, but not much is known about the games we will be getting and if Nintendo offer a Virtual Console of old portable games then the DSi is a must by for me.

So far the DSi looks promising but so little is known about it I really can't decide whether I will get one, I think its a good idea in theory, let's just hope Nintendo can do something amazing with the system.

Happenstance - I still have my original Nintendo DS which I imported from Canada as soon as I got the chance and I still play on it a lot to this day. It is probably time I upgraded soon though, especially since my sister got a DS Lite and I could see just how much better the screen was.

The launch of the Nintendo DSi would be a perfect opportunity for my upgrade and I am sure (money permitting) that I will be getting one. My reasons though are simply for wanting a newer model and not really about the fancy new features Nintendo have added.

The bigger screens will be nice but I cant say I have ever complained at my current DS' screen size. Better sound quality will also be a plus but once again its not something I noticed too much beforehand (that could be because I play a lot of my games muted though!). If the camera really is only 0.3 Megapixels then im not sure how well thats even going to work, I spoke to goaferboy about this the other night and found myself trying to defend Nintendo and saying they must know what they are doing......not so sure anymore.

The features I am interested in though are the SD Slot and in-built browser as this will open up the window for the planned DSiWare and if that is handled well, we could get some interesting games/apps through it.

As I said my purchase of the DSi will be mostly based on wanting an upgrade and not the pull of the new features themselves. I think to get people to buy one that already have the DS Lite, Nintendo will have to make more of an effort to show how they plan to use these new components than they have over the past few years.

goaferboy - I already have an all singing all dancing digital camera and mp3 player, why would I want some inferior ones? My phone already has inferior versions built in and I can guarantee I take that more places than I would ever take a DSi. Sure it would give me the potential to watch movies on a slightly bigger screen than my iPod, but watching movies on busses makes me feel sick and watching them in other public places makes me a prime target for a happy slapping.

I imagine I'll get one eventually since I have a habit of collecting consoles once they hit bargain bin prices. But for now it doesn't really spark an interest, especially since handheld gaming doesn't really do it for me. Plus I have a "chunky" DS anyway that never gets used. Every time a person plays a handheld, their unused TV cries a little.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - Where are they now? - Billy Hatcher

2008-10-10T19:17:00.005+01:00

Review- Final Fantasy IV DS

2008-10-10T13:10:00.001+01:00

Remakes. They seem to be everywhere these days with companies looking to draw on their rich heritage and bring their old classics to the new generation. Or, taking a more cynical view, remakes are seen as companies being low on inspiration and looking to make some quick cash by repackaging their old material. Final Fantasy IV is undoubtedly a classic game and where better than the DS, with its booming RPG market, to unleash the game once more upon us.

Even with a passing interest in gaming you will have at least heard of the Final Fantasy series. The series was always known by gamers worldwide, but were something of a rarity in the west due to some games in the series not making it out of Japan. Back in the day, FF IV was in fact known as FF II in the west but since the release of FF VII, the numbering of the games became standardised worldwide. Now, if that has made you are unsure whether you played FF IV before or not this should clear it up for you: it’s the one with Cecil and Golbez. Fans of Final Fantasy often highlight this fourth entry as being the best of them all- it blew peoples minds back when it first released on the Snes, so is it all just nostalgia, or is FF IV worthy of this remake?

The game opens with some gorgeous (though not perfectly compressed) FMV with music that will tug at your heartstrings if you are an FF IV veteran. Beginning a new game, you play as Cecil the Dark Knight of Baron. Cecil has always been the most loyal of servants to his king, however recently he has began to question the king’s motives more and more. I won’t go into the details of the story, but as you can guess, things spiral out of control leaving the fate of the county and world in your hands. The adventure is a lengthy one, however it plays out deceptively rapidly as the story is well segmented and always driving you forward. You always know where to go next whether you have played FF IV in the past or not.

Unlike FF III, there is no job system. Each character has their own specialities and areas of expertise meaning your party will always be diverse, leaving you to worry about little more than levelling them up- which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As in FF III you would have spent a hefty amount of time levelling up each character as well as each individual job, meaning the game became a huge grind. In comparison, FF IV is much more focused. You have Cecil who will be your “tank” and others who will be your white mage, black mage, etc, which allows each character to have their own role and play their very deliberate parts in the story. In battle you line up with a maximum of five party members (split between being front and backline) and rather than being strictly turn based, battles are played out in the groundbreaking and acclaimed ATB system. With active time battle, everyone has their own bars that fill up before they can take their turn, making for something that’s more engaging than your standard turn based affair. To add extra spice to proceedings, FF IV is an RPG that is less about power levelling and more about utilising good tactics in battle- a lot of the time, if a boss beats you, the answer is not simply to spend time grinding but to adjust your approach to the battle.

So with FF IV already being available on GBA, is there any point to pick up the DS one? Well, yes I would have to say there is. The DS game has sufficient additions to warrant your time and money and I’d even go as far as to say it’s the ultimate version off FF IV on the market. Sadly, the extra content added to the end of the GBA port is missing, but FF IV includes Augments, an all new (and incredibly charming!) Namingway sidequest, an auto battle feature as well as possibly one of the best New Game + features in any game yet.

Augments are one-time abilities that you receive when characters leave the party or can be found in certain locations. They are difficult to find and as for the ones you do uncover, seeing as when equipped they cannot be removed, you will find it rather daunting as to whether you should actually assign them or not. Through the augments you will gain such abilities as counter, darkness and a variety of others. They allow for some extra customisation and are fun to play around with, but it would be nice if you could remove them if you do find a particular ability would be better suited to someone else.

Auto-battle allows you to give each character a preset move which they will continually use when you enable auto-battle, which can be turned on or off with a press of the X button. Auto-battle is most useful for random battling where you would normally just be attacking your way through with little need to think, if you just sit back and allow auto-battle to take you through the boss fights then you will be decimated. It’s a good feature, which will save you from hammering the A button as you slash your way through random battles in the field.

The New Game + feature encourages you to play through the game three times in order to get the most out of it. You carry your Augments over allowing you to have certain abilities from the get-go. Even if you normally find yourself playing through your games once and then shelving them, Final Fantasy IV on DS will genuinely coax you back for more.

What is a letdown is that while Square-Enix said there was a lot of the game left on the cutting room floor back in the nineties, the additional story content in this remake is negligible. You will notice some scenes here and there that are new, but on the whole this is basically the same FF IV as it always was. On the plus side, the story while not being as impacting as it was on the Snes, it is still good enough to make you want to keep playing. New players will find it clichéd, but you should keep in mind that FF IV was one of the games that set the standards for how a strong story could be delivered in games. At key junctures, the major scenes are played out as voice acted cutscenes. The voice acting is in general of a fine standard- however Kain’s voice is a lot deeper than personally I ever imagined it to be.

Musically, the title is also top notch. The stars were truly in alignment when FF IV originally came out because Nubuo Uematsu’s soundtrack is one of the most recognisable in the whole FF series, with Theme of Love even becoming part of the Japanese curriculum.

When all is said and done, FF IV is worth playing by everyone. Veterans will simply adore this trip down memory lane, and will enjoy toying with the Augments as well as spotting new scenes. Newbies will also find a lot to enjoy with this remake. It may seem fairly archaic if you have been brought up on more recent RPGs, but with a 3D make over, the game can be enjoyed by today’s DS playing generation. Heck, its even worth trying FF IV out if you have played and dislike proper turnbased RPGs- the ATB system keeps things more interactive, so its worth having a go before you dismiss FF IV as just another boring RPG.

Retro Column - Bargain Hunting

2008-10-09T11:00:00.004+01:00

All games go through a "bargain bin" phase. Some games however, manage to fight their way out of the bin and go on the become ludicrously expensive. Whilst there isn't much room to make massive profits in the same way as antiques since games don't generally increase in value a massive amount, there is potential to feel smug knowing you only payed a small fraction of what the game is worth. Gaming Corner takes a look at what makes a game gold dust and how to make the most of it.

First things first, this article is mainly aimed at the PAL market. I have tried to add the US equivelants where I can but all prices are in pounds and rarity of titles may vary between regions. £1 is about $1.7 at the time of writing.

Step 1: Knowing which games are worth a lot now

Firstly it's important to know which games are worth a lot now. This way if you see a "hens teeth" game for sale at a bargain price you know to snatch it up now before some other shrewd gamer buys it. Here is a brief list of a few gems that could pop up for bargain prices:

Secret of Mana (SNES £40-£80)
Chrono Trigger (SNES £50-£150)
Harvest Moon (SNES £50-£100)

Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Mega Drive £70-£100)
Daze Before Xmas (Mega Drive £50-£60)
Shining Force II (Mega Drive £30-£50)

Suikoden II (PS1 £40-£80)
Final Fantasy 7 (PS1 £20-£40)

Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn £75-£125)
Burning Rangers (Saturn £30-£50)
Shining Force 3 (Saturn £40-£50)
House of the Dead (Saturn £30-£50)
Guardian Heroes (Saturn £30-£50)

Mario Party 3 (N64 £30-£50)
Conkers Bad Fur Day (N64 £40-£60)
Paper Mario (N64 £40-£80)

Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike (Dreamcast £30-£50)
Shenmue II (Dreamcast £30-£40)

Step 2: Identifying potential

The general trend indicates that games released towards the end of a consoles life span are the ones that tend to command higher prices. This is mainly due to the fact that later games are released in smaller quantities due to small demand. These games however, tend to be better than earlier games due to the makers having had more experience with the console. This combination of low quantity and high quality makes these games more desirable and therefore more valuable. Not all games released towards the end of a consoles life span are valuable though, be sure to look for games that scored high in reviews.

Special editions are often worth more when it comes to selling them on. This isn't so much the case with current generations as every game under the sun seems to have a special edition nowadays. Previous generation special editions are worth a look if the price is right. Be sure to keep an eye out for special editions that come with something interesting rather than just a load of extras on a seperate CD. Music CDs, figures/models and limited edition peripherals are a few accessories that could be worth more in time.

Another reason why a game could end up being more valuable is that it didn't sell well originally despite being a good game. These can be hard to predict since what isn't selling now might stay that way and is not guaranteed to be worth anything in the future. Wait until it hits rock bottom prices before you try your luck and again, check review scores first.

Step 3: Knowing where to look

So you now know what is worth loads now and what could be worth loads in the future. Now all you need to know is where to look. Here is a few places that I have found worthwhile:

Gamestation
Gamestation has been a bit of a treasure trove. Recently they have apparently decided to get rid of all its retro stock. I say apparently because out of the 3 stores I visit, all of them still seem to get new retro stock in. That hasn't stopped them from selling some silly bargains though. So far I have managed to nab a PS1 with 200 games (£20) and Steel Battalion, expansion pack and giant controller (£30) and I have also seen Various Mega Drive, Saturn, Neo Geo Pocket and Wonderswan bundles for silly prices. Definately worth checking their front window and cabinets once in a while, especially if your visiting a different branch to your local.

Car Boot/Garage Sales and Charity Shops/Thrift Stores
There comes a time in everyones life when they must fly the nest and leave home. It's a wondrous time where the precious child truly becomes an adult. It's also a wondrous time for gamers since the parents, sick of all the crap the son/daughter has left behind, decides to either give it away or sell it dirt cheap. This is where gamers can really bag a bargain. At a car boot sale I recently managed to bag a boxed Playstation 1 with 2 controllers and all the leads for £3.

Ebay
Not always the best place to look since most people who know how to use ebay also know how to check prices before they list their items. There is the occasional bargain to be had however. Check regularly and keep an eye on auctions with no bids. It might stay that way and you could have a bargain for 99p.

Hopefully this article will help you find some bargains. And remember, just because a game isn't worth a tonne of money, doesn't mean it wasn't a bargain. Some games will remain dirt cheap but will still provide hours of entertainment.

Fanning the Flames - Still Paying to Own?

2008-10-06T13:00:00.005+01:00

Gamers are used to going into a shop and buying games and that game nestling on their shelves and it belonging to them for good. However a worrying trend is perhaps developing where gamers no longer own the games they think they are buying..

Two recent cases have made the news and caused ructions and confusion as to the nature of ownership with regards to downloadable distribution. Whilst the likes of Live Marketplace, the Wii Shop Channel, Playstation Store and Steam have shown off how successful downloadable titles can be it is but it could come at a cost to the gamer.

Rock Band 2 was recently released and many a gamer wondered what would happen to the content off the original Rock Band disc. Would they just lose it forever or be forced to buy it all over again as a download? The truth was neither of these, instead gamers had to pay a nominal fee to buy the license to use the songs in Rock Band 2. Whilst the fee was a relatively small amount it is still slightly worrying to find that whilst gamers now still own the songs on the Rock Band disc they only own the right to play the songs in Rock Band. It does draw into question whether purchases being made as DLC for the game are actually owned by the purchaser? Or whether they are simply buying the right to play the songs for as long as Harmonix either sees it fit or for as long as their agreements with record companies last.

The most worrying recent case is to do with Sony's (relatively) new video download service. Video's be it TV or Films can either be downloaded as a rental or bought out right as yours to own. However it does not seem the own option is quite what it would suggest. When renting a video you have X amount of time to watch the movie. When buying you would think the video is yours to buy and keep no matter what and redownload onto your machine as many time as you want. It is after all yours much like when you go to a shop and buy a DVD or Blu Ray? Wrong. Whilst when you run out of space for DVDs the solution can be as simple as rearranging your shelves or at a push buying a new one. With the world of downloadables the solution should be even simpler download the desired film/tv show, watch it and either keep on your HDD or if your short of space delete it and simply download it the next time you want to watch it. Not so, Sony only allows you to redownload each title once. Whilst people who have the bigger capacity models or have upgraded their system themselves this may not be a problem, but for people with the smaller models and lack of technical know how this could be a common problem. Apparently a call to Sony will get you a one time cutosy download but thats not really a solution for the masses and Sony has clearly not thought out the process or are indeed well aware of the notion that gamers are not paying for the title outright.

If this is indeed the case how can companies justify charging prices so close to full retail? It just seems madness to expect people to accept that once a title is deleted they are not perhaps entitled to expect it to be there for them to access again at a later date.

Perhaps it is too much to expect that companies will store our purchasing history for the entire duration of our downloading life? Is it really visible for all the millions of the transactions ever to be stored on servers around the world? If you read forums gamers do expect everything and they expect companies to provide such services and at the moment they do but when will this end?

As the amount of money spent on digital downloads continues to rocket up it will only take the downturn in solid media formats sales for companies to start thinking about how to continually perpetuate the money they make from the customers' downloads. One way to do this would be to simply license the games to the players and charge readily when this deal expires or the gamer wishes to redownload.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - Blox of Doom

2008-10-03T08:31:00.009+01:00

Top 10 - Comedy Gaming Moments

2008-10-01T11:00:00.002+01:00

Computer games manage to share a lot of genres with films. Action, adventure, sci-fi and fantasy are the strongest. The one genre which doesn't translate well into computer games as a dedicated genre is comedy. Humour in computer games doesn't work in the same way as in films. A film can rely purely on its jokes to sell whereas a computer game needs to be entertaining and uses humour as a backdrop for the main action. Gaming Corner takes a look at gamings funniest moments, intentional or not.

10: Max Paynes Face

A strange cross between constipation and disgust, Man Paynes face is unintentional comedy gold. Strange, considering the rest of the game was well polished and thought out.

9: Manx TT Sheep

During the Saturn era, Segas arcade team had a strange, short lived obsession with adding animals to its racing games. But they seemed to get mixed up somewhere, having the horse in Daytona USA riderless and adding a rider the the sheep in Manx TT. Add in some comedy trotting noise and wacky soundtrack and you have the funniest moment in a racing game ever.

8: Fallout 3 Trailer

"Our American way of life. Isn't it grand? Peace, freedom and bacon and eggs!" The highlight of the video comes when the giant grinned, odd man who presents the video describes how the daughter of the family "might meet that special someone" and repopulate the earth after the holocaust, all in front of a slightly disturbed looking father. All of the family manage to stay obliviously happy through his description of nuclear war.

7: Flatout Launch

Whilst the novelty eventually wears off, launching the unfortunate driver though the windscreen is definately funny the first hundred or so times. It's even better when the game adds giant dart boards, high jumps and various other targets to bounce the poor man off of.

6: Fable Chicken Kicken

You've just been reunited with your long lost sister you thought was dead. What's the first thing you do? Thats right, hoof an unsuspecting chicken half way across Oakvale. Lionshead studio definately knew what the player would want to do as soon as they laid eyes on the feathered inhabitants of Albion. It's just a shame you couldn't do the same to the kids...

5: Wind Waker Link Cannon

Links face is priceless. He goes through shock, fear, anger and acceptance before being instantly wanged at the stronghold. The simple nature of the graphics and the "WAAAAAHHH!" help to add to the slapstick humour of the scene.

4: GTA4 Standup Comedy

Rockstar took a bit of shortcut with this one. Not content with humour in the storyline, they added a comedy club where the player could relax between missions by watching 2 great stand up comedians. And their routines aren't just half assed material thrown together for the game, it's all taken from their recent tours.

3: Shenmue Sex Face

When Ryo isn't desperately looking for sailors, there is nothing he enjoys more than a nice refreshing can of his favourite beverage. So much so that he even releases a "ooah!" and pulls his best sex face after seemingly downing it in one gulp. Presumably, he then goes to find Goro to ask where the best place to take a leak is. He seems awfully proud of his toilet finding skills.

2: Conker Great Mighty Poo

Spouting such memorable and melodic lines such as "I am the great mighty poo and im going to throw my shit at you" and "how about some scat you little twat?", the Great Mighty Poo is the funniest end boss around. Conkers Bad Fur Day really takes toilet humour literally.

1: Portal Still Alive

Whilst the phrase "the cake is a lie" has become overused, the first time "Still Alive" started up was a classic comedy moment. Having just finished one of the most innovative games ever, players would be forgiven for thinking that the best was over. Valve continued the creative theme of the game by not settling for a standard end credits and included a hilarious song sung by the end boss herself. The most memorable line has to be

"Maybe you'll find someone else to help you.
Maybe Black Mesa -
That was a joke. Haha. Fat chance.
Anyway, this cake is great:
It's so delicious and moist."

New Layout

2008-09-29T20:41:00.004+01:00

Well here it is, the new layout. I hope you all like it, I definitely think that it makes Gaming Corner look a lot more professional and less.....bloggy.

Thanks to Rezourceman for the banner. The site may go through a bit more tweaking over the next few weeks/months while I see what works and what doesn't. Maybe I will be able to add a few fancy features, we'll see.

Anyway, enjoy the new layout!

Review- Mega Man 9

2008-09-29T19:34:00.000+01:00

Retro remakes are all the rage at the moment. With the recent Bionic Commando; Rearmed setting a very high standard for a retooled NES game can Mega Man 9 deliver in the same fashion?

The Mega Man franchise has in recent years become more famous for the way Capcom have milked the series over the years. Many old school fans of the series have become disillusioned as numerous spin offs have been born and the story has become more and more convoluted. Each of these new additions to the series seem to have added another layer or take on gameplay that simply wasn't needed. This however is a return to the principles the series built itself upon and is more like a direct sequel to Mega Man 2. It shares everything with it right down the same graphics, gloriously reimagined for todays consoles. No HD visuals, no hand drawn art style just plain old good 8 bit NES graphics. It would be incredible if someone could find a way to dump a ROM of this onto a NES cart and play it on the machine. (not that Gaming Corner condones piracy, this kind of experiment would purely be for fun!)

It can't be helped that there is this niggling feeling that this game could have used the kind of face lift that we recently saw in Bionic Commando. That helped the game to come kicking and screaming into the 21st Century world of HD. Purists will love the retro throwback whilst people will find the looks jarring and it may even make the game unplayable for those who don't wish to return to the days of old.

It is not only graphically where this title could be accused of coming up short. Whilst the music is fantastically retro and 8 bit it is not as memorable as the tunes from both Mega Man 1 and 2. There is something missing and none of the tracks are quite as catchy. Retro remixes of the old tunes may have been more preferable but would not have been in fitting with the graphics.

This all sounds very negative so far, but where the title really excels is the core gameplay. The basic premise is the same, work your way through 8 levels and beat the bosses. The clever part this system is you can tackle the bosses in order you wish, reach the end of their level and beat them and you will be rewarded with a power up that will help your adventure. Certain power ups help beat certain bosses, working out this order is an important part of the game. The platforming is as sweet as ever and those looking for a challenge will certainly be pleased. The level design is definitly up there as some of the best out there and is leagues above the most recent Mega Man games. The normal game is also supplemented with a smattering of current gen features such as in game achievements which help to increase the longevity of the title.

So which is the best version? Well purists would say that the Wii version is the best as it uses the classic patented D-Pad design that was present back in the NES days. Microsoft fans would argue that the inclusion of Xbox Achievements sets their version a cut above the rest, however the 360 controller does have D-Pad issues. Whereas the PS3 version with its own direction pad perhaps offers the best controlling HD smoothed version. Whatever the case if you are old school Mega Man fan you will find that whatever version you get this game will satisfy your need. There is set to be DLC for the game but so far it has only 100% been confirmed for Wii.

Mega Man is a NES game through and through it comes with a smattering of modern features yet it is clearly a product of the original era that the franchise was born during. Fans of the series will welcome the return a simplier day whereas casual gamers will be turned off by the decidedly ancient looking visuals and the difficult gameplay. One things for sure Mega Man has returned and is back to his best.

Fanning the Flames - The Future of Gaming Corner

2008-09-29T15:50:00.003+01:00

Since we first started up Gaming Corner the site has already been through very much. We have kept to our mandate of providing regular features each and everyday. So when each gamer takes time away from their Gaming Corner they know what features to expect.

At all times we try our best to ensure our features are diverse and interesting so that every week there is something for everyone We are currently hard at work trying to increase the number of reviews we get up on the site and hopefully the fruits of this increased input will start to flourish soon.

So what's coming in the future? We are currently hard at work beavering on a new look site that will help us move along to the next stage. We are putting the finishing touches to it which includes an exciting new logo which at the moment seems to have through a ton of revamps and revisits before we finally found one were happy with. In the mean time why not treat yourself to a tshirt made by staff member goaferboy? The shirt features the current old school style logo;

Gaming Corner Clothing Goodies!

Gaming Corner does not make any profits off this and they are at the standard Cafe Press prices.

Anyway hope you enjoy this weeks content and a proper Fanning the Flames will be back next week!

Retro Column - Good Old Games (GOG.com)

2008-09-25T09:00:00.003+01:00

After thinking for quite a while what to write this weeks Retro Column about I was directed to the "Good Old Games" website at http://www.gog.com

As my love for old PC games has been reignited lately after playing Diablo II on single player and over LAN with goaferboy this website came as a happy suprise, its nice to see that the old classics are still paid attention to.

Here are some of the questions they have posted on their site which can explain about them:

Who Are You Guys?

"Everyone at GOG.com is a gamer, just like you. We’ve combined our real-life love for classic games with the amazing virtual world of the intarnets to bring some of our favorite games to your PC, with nothing – except maybe our budget – holding us back from conquering the world through gaming."

Why do you sell old games? Are you stupid or something?

"Well, it looks like you haven't played the PC classics much. Maybe it's some sentimental attachment or maybe the games back then were different? Maybe a little bit of both; regardless, the truth is that the all-time classics never go out of style and we know that. So don't criticize; play the game like it's 1995."

GOG will be offering retro pc games to buy at either $5.99 or $9.99 DRM free. Once you have paid you will be able to download and redownload them as much as you like and play them without having to be on the internet. They have also had programmers working on these games so they will be playable on both Windows XP and Vista, great news for people with these Operating Systems who sometimes have trouble with the older games.
There will also be extras available after you have purchased your game, this includes wallpapers, walkthroughs, MP3 soundtracks, map editors and add ons just for starters.

They are currently in their "Early Access Beta" which apparently thousands of gamers have already signed up for.

I look forward to the full service going live as I can see myself using it regularly (once my internet connection is fixed so I can download at proper speeds!).

This is the first part of my article on GOG.com, I will write the next part once the site is up and running properly.

Preview: Fallout 3

2008-09-23T23:00:00.000+01:00

Fallout 3 has caused controversy amongst its fanbase by changing the classic top down, isometric viewpoint to a first/third person perspective. Fortunately, the changeover is being handled by Bethesda Softworks, the people that have already established themselves in the first person RPG genre with the Elder Scrolls series. Gaming Corner takes a look at why Fallout 3 is still a game to look forward to despite the radical change.

It's still the same eerie retro bleak future.

"War....War never changes" The tone of Ron Perlmans voice captures the essence of Fallouts depressing setting. Set after a nuclear world war that has completely wiped the planet clean apart from those lucky enough to find shelter in giant underground vaults, the player explores the wasteland searching for his/her father. The world is littered with objects from the world before the war, a world fueled entirely from nuclear power. Retro, Monopoly style graphics litter the wasteland which gives Fallout 3 the same retro-future feel as the classic games.

Perks

Perks have always been a feature of Fallout games and allow players to pick a special ability once they have leveled up a set amount of levels. Each perk grants a player enhanced stats in a certain area or a special ability depending on circumstance and has an accompanying story to explain why the player has that perk, for example the "Little Leaguer" perk has the following explanation: "Years as the Vault little league MVP have honed your hitting and throwing. With every rank, you gain 5 points of melee weapons skill and 5 points of explosives skill". Each skill also has its own "Vault Boy" icon adding to its usually comic nature.

V.A.T.S (Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System)

In previous Fallout games it was possible to target and disable specific body parts. Bethesda have developed the V.A.T.S system to carry this over into Fallout 3. By pausing the gameplay, the player can target specific areas of the enemy and stack up actions. For example, on a humanoid character the player could choose to hit 7 different points: head, left arm, right arm, torso, left leg, right leg and held weapon. On mutated opponents the different areas vary. The number of actions the player can stack is determined by their characters action points (AP). Once the player has picked their actions, the character carries out the shots in a short action scene normally resulting in a lot of gore as the selected body parts react to the hits.

Custom made weapons

Players are able to create and customize weapons by using items found in the wasteland. The example used in the gameplay trailers was the bottlecap mine. This is made by filling a tin lunchbox (the same design as the one that comes with the special edition) with bottlecaps and explosives. Once detonated the makeshift bomb sends bottlecaps flying, damaging enemies in a similar way to a ball bearing bomb.

It's looking pretty

Exploring a wasteland full of rad-scorpions, super mutants and other freaks is bound to be a terrifying experience and Fallout 3 looks like it will be able to recreate the tension and atmosphere with its visuals. Shanty towns look rusty and make-shift, mutants look horrible disfigured and the nuclear blast in the gameplay trailers looks absolutely stunning. Bethesda have also improved on the friendly NPCs of Oblivion, making them look more lifelike and less like the warmed up corpses of their previous offerings.

All in all, Fallout 3 is shaping up to be a promising addtion that the series needs after the mediocre Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Fans of the series will no doubt complain about the change of genre, but as a game Fallout 3 will more than likely not disappoint.

Best and Worst Reused Game Mechanics

2008-09-23T18:14:00.007+01:00

It has now become common place if one game introduces some new kind of mechanic a rash of titles will follow suit and add the same feature to their upcoming titles. However some become so rehashed and tired that they quickly become old hat. We take a look both at the best mechanics that have stood the test of time and truly innovated as well as the ones that have been overused and used far to much.

BEST

Geo-Mod

The Geo-Mod technology first rose to prominence when Red Faction hit Playstation 2. The technology in the game allowed for destructable environments. Whilst it was not the game that first demonstrated such ideas it was the first to use it as a central gameplay mechanic. Whilst the technology was by no means flawless as it severly restricted what you could and couldn't destory it is definitly a worthy forefather to a new generation of games that employ similar tech to their engines. Call of Duty World at War for example will include such destructive environments with huts able to knocked down and such like, their implementation looks like it will open all kinds of possibilities for both single and multi player modes.

Cover Systems

The recent trend for cover systems has revolutionised the shooter genre. Gears of War on the Xbox 360 showed the way with its cover mechanics which allowed for its Even games such as Uncharted and GTA IV which don't quite nail the perfection of GoW but still benefit from the cover system which allows for a newer and more innovative style of play. It helps shoot outs feel more cinematic (especially in GTA) and stops shooters from merely being run and gun.

WORST

Bullet Time

Ok granted it is a good feature when well used but it has been overused. Introduced by The Matrix the concept quickly caught on and when Max Payne made the feature an intricate feature of the game it showed how games could use the tech. Since then title after title has been inspired by both and it has become one of gamings most common features. Almost every shooter of a certain vine uses some kind of slowing down time mechanism. Recent examples include Resistances Sniper Rifle. So why is it one of the worst? Simply put it has crept into so many titles and even into genres it has no real place in. Whilst the mechanics may not be exactly the same there can be little doubt they were inspired by this single idea and its a bit wierd to find such things now cropping up where they should have been. It earns its place in the worst section simply for being overused.

QTE's

Or Quick Time Events to give them their full title. When used at their worst they make action scenes interesting and offer a diversity in play that would otherwise be replaced by with hours of cutscenes. They first famously featured in Sega's epic Shenmue which had QTE's as one of its major gameplay mechanics. However their over use and poor implementation has led to them becoming the buck of many a joke. At their worst they show off skills and movements that the player can't otherwise carry out and they only highlight major flaws in a game. They can be exciting at times, but for example in the recent Star Wars; Force Unleashed game there are examples of it used to finish off bosses with moves that are well beyond the games bland move set.

Fanning the Flames - The Great DLC Con!

2008-09-22T19:51:00.001+01:00

Almost every developer is looking to get that bit extra of your hard earned cash. We take a look at the value for money the customer is getting and whether companies are exploiting the current market trend towards downloadable extras.

There can be no denying that in the right hands DLC can be a great way of adding value to a game. But it can also used for companies to get you to pour out even more on a title to get the most of it.

Burnout Paradise has been a joy from the word go, not only did the game move the franchise in a new and exciting direction but it has got DLC spot on. Free game altering updates that are coming thick and fast and helping the title to enjoy a much longer popularity window than it may otherwise have done. Unfortunately this is not the norm and is only possible because of the huge financial backing of EA. It's DLC at it's best. Other notable examples are Epic getting the Discovery Channel to sponsor Gears of War DLC meaning they could recoup the lost revenue. Bungie also have nailed it with Halo 3 offering the maps at a price for those hardcore players who must have them, whilst giving them away to the gamers who hang on and wait.

At it's worst DLC consists of features that simply put should be on the disc. Sonic the Hedgehog on Xbox 360 and PS3 aside from being a terrible game also has surely the most criminal example of DLC. Being offered the chance to pay to download additional difficultly settings is not on, when these options are included on almost every game under the sun. Square Enix are a company very guilty of overcharging for DLC. Space Invaders Get Even is a prime example with the game costing just 500 Wii Points for is essentially a glorified demo, it isn't until that part of the title is completed that you find the true points cost to gain the full experience. Also another gripe is games that offer the chance to purchase DLC only for the download files to be tiny and the downloaded file nothing more than an unlock key for content already on the disc.

Whilst there are success stories as far as DLC is concerned it is still a worry that companies seem to take for granted that gamers will cough up for content which could well have fitted on the disc. Companies bring out DLC the day or just a week after some releases, this means the extra content was developed as part of the regular games production cycle so why should gamers be forced to pay up for this? A trend also seems to becoming the norm for developers to announce DLC before a game has even been released. How about you wait and see if the game is a success and whether the market is there for expanding the remit of the title? No instead they would assume that they have enough power to make us need the DLC.

Unfortunately there is no real answer to these problems as there is no way to govern this. Neither is there really any justification to tightly control what publishers can offer as extra content and indeed what they charge. Microsoft are perhaps the company most at work with regards to this as they attempt to say what content can and can't go up on XBL and also to some degree dictate the price. This has of course caused runctions, most famously with Epic over Gears of War DLC. Sony seem to favour free downloads (Warhawk being a prime example, features adding patches are free whilst resources adding updates are charged for) and Microsoft seems to favour charging for everything, although both forms of DLC exist on both stores. This perhaps helps to demonstrate the best status quo as the two exist in harmony with players simple deciding whether they want to be taken for ride, snap up the value for money DLC or stick to the freebie add ons that publishers offer.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - I Fought the Force and the Force Won

2008-09-20T20:07:00.004+01:00

New comic to celebrate the release of The Force Unleashed. I'm always mostly pleased with the way my comics turn out, but I don't think I've ever been more happy than I am with this one, everything just seems to work.
There won't be any more for two weeks as I'm off on holiday to Africa. So enjoy.

Top Ten Reasons Nintendo Suck

2008-09-16T19:50:00.009+01:00

Put your tongue in your cheek and come in and read the reasons why Nintendo sucks as much as they do.

GameCube 1.5
That’s right, Wii graphics don’t match up to those on PS3 and Xbox 360 and neither do the DS graphical capabilities match up to the PSP. Gamers are a fickle bunch, if a game isn’t made on a blockbuster budget and doesn’t have impeccable photo realistic graphics then its automatically rubbish. When did we all become so shallow? There’s still plenty of power that can be squeezed out of the Wii and DS humble power, and far be it for me to say that games should try to be cartoony and creative. Who wants that, eh?

Waggle
Motion control? No you’re wrong there, that’s waggle you mean to say. Admittedly, shaking the Wii remote is used too much in games when pressing the A button would work just as well. That doesn’t mean to say that every kind of motion control in all Wii games is as boring as sitting and shaking the Wiimote. The remote has been intelligently used in plenty of games already; just because every single game isn’t revolutionary it doesn’t mean they all aren’t. Check out Zack and Wiki and see how varied the capabilities of the Wii are.

No DVD Playback

In this day and age, with the Xbox 360 pushing HD DVD and the PS3 pushing Bluray, you’d think that the Wii would at least side with one or the other- or even plain old DVD. But alas, no. In this day and age you would also expect that DVD players have been around long enough for anyone who wants one to have one already, but alas, no. Sure it might be nice for that extra bit of functionality, but this isn’t last generation anymore where the PS2 was popular as a cheap DVD player. The Wii doesn’t need to play DVD or anything other than games, and its doing fine as it is. Anyway, you’re bound to have a DVD player in your house or a computer that plays them.

Not Hardcore

Did you realise that just because your mum and sisters now actually fancy playing some video games with you, it means you are no longer hardcore? Uh oh, scramble! Move that Wii up to your bedroom, get the curtains closed, the lights out and play some Wii Sports alone. Yeah, now you’re hardcore again. How dare you play games socially- that’s so casual!

WiiConnect24…?

Friend codes, no voice chat, wait; does the Wii even allow you to play games online? Of course it does, and the system in place isn’t as bad as most would have you believe. So you can’t chat, so you have to trade friend codes, so it’s not Xbox Live, do we ever stop whinging? It seems not. Its all too easy to overlook Nintendo’s fatherly nature in that they always want to shield us from the big bad world, just because we have to input a friend code to add people to our friend rosters it automatically means playing the likes of Mario Kart online is boring. Just type in the code then play the games, I assure you they are fun. Go on, try it out.

No First Party Games

I said "first party games" not party games because we know fine well the Wii has its fair share of them. So then where are the games from Nintendo's big franchises? Well, take a look buddy- they are already released. Zelda, Metroid, Mario, all available and all damn good. But what’s next? Just Wii Music and Animal Crossing you say? I see your point now. Why would they announce games that are due out soon rather than tell us about other games that are still a year or more down the pipeline? I understand the mass panic now: we don’t care about what’s coming out in the short term but we’d rather sit and wait for what’s coming out this time next year. My mistake, carry on.

The Fridge!

They didn’t include a terabyte of internal memory with the Wii, how dare they. Actually this is the most valid argument on this list. The system of deleting data in order to make space to download new games is a bit of an obtuse decision. We do like to hoard our games and collect them all, so why can’t we do the same with our virtually bought ones? I just don’t know. But believe me when I say it is possible to make do with clearing out your fridge when need be- once you begin with it, you develop a ruthless streak that makes it easier to remove things from the fridge every time you need to do it.

Rare

Nintendo and Rare parted ways during the GC days and we still feel like we’re waiting for that space to be filled. During the N64 days Nintendo and Rare complimented each other perfectly and basically carried the machine through its lifespan, imagine that dream team at work on the Wii. Well atleast we can console ourselves with the fact that Rare have hardly set the world alight with their Xbox and Xbox 360 showings, but that isn’t to say that things would be so mundane if they were developing for the Wii. The Wiimote + Perfect Dark would blow anything out of the water (including Metroid Prime) and we would even get GoldenEye on the VC.

Too Much Success

The sudden turn of fortunes for Nintendo has caused them to rest on their laurels and just let the cash roll in. It’s a thought that lurks in the back of even the staunchest fanboy’s mind. So is it true? Well it’s true that Nintendo have changed, whether that’s for the better or worse is yet to be conclusively judged. In the meantime we should enjoy this new brand of gaming, if nothing else, the Wii has refreshed and reinvigorated gaming and has shown us that its really not just about upping the power of the consoles.

Nintendo Suck because it’s Cool to Hate Them

Just as it was cool to hate the N64 and GC for being kiddy, its also the cool thing to hate the Wii- if you are a “hardcore gamer.” Now that the Wii is the leading console and everyone and their grandmother is playing it, the machine can in no way be accepted by the gaming community. Rally the troops! We must change to supporting the PS360 and whatnot! Haven’t you heard, Wii Sports isn’t what real gamers play, you’re better sticking with the old ways of playing games, yeah, its all about the button mashing like it has been forever. Its cool to have to install your games, its cool to have to go through several SKU’s to find the one you think suits you best, its cool to own a machine which is guaranteed to break down on you rather than being guaranteed to last you long-term. If the Wii is apparently going to be outlasted by the other consoles predicted longer lifespans, then why is it that the Wii is the one that’s most reliable and most likely to last you a decade without breaking down? Ironic.

Best and Worst of Sonic

2008-09-16T11:00:00.003+01:00

The Sonic the Hedgehog games have always been a mixed bunch. The dizzying highs, the shameful lows and everything inbetween. Sonic may not have had as much success as Mario in breaking into new genres and mediums but that doesn't mean the worryingly blue 'hog hasn't tried. Gamingcorner takes a look at which games have been a success and which ones should never have left the Sonic Teams office.

The Best

2D: Sonic and Knuckles (Mega Drive)

Not only was it a good game in itself, it also allowed you to use Knuckles in the first 2 Sonic games on the Mega Drive. This essentially meant that you got 3 completely new games for the price of one. Plus the novelty of slotting a cartridge into another one was a novelty in itself.

3D: Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast/Game Cube)

Sonic has always seemed to struggle when it comes to making the transition into 3D. The strange thing is that one of the first attempts actually got it right whereas most 3D Sonic games since have been dodgy at best. The 1998 game features multiple playable characters that are unlocked when they are met in the story. All characters stories run parallel with the other characters and reveal what happens when the characters are seperated. The game also adds RPG elements in its adventure fields by having items (some hidden) that unlock new abilities for each character.

Merchandise: Sonic Adventure Gamebooks

The Sonic Adventure Gamebooks (no connection to the DC game) were released between 1993 and 1996 and were an interactive book. The player started at the beginning of the book and is given options at the end of the paragraph. For each choice there is a page number and the results of the choice are shown on the relevent page.

Cartoon: Sonic SATAM

This cartoon got the nickname "SATAM" since it was originally shown on Satrday morning TV. The story was quite dark compared to other Sonic stories. Robotnik had established an empire and Sonic and chums were the last "freedom fighters". The characters ranged from an annoying cowardly French coyote to a Redneck half-robotic rabbit. Most episodes feature Sonic running around in Robotniks robo-city generally kicking arse and looking for his captured uncle. The awesome cartoon is made all the better by literally having the sun shine out of Sonics arse at the end of the intro.

Character: Super Sonic

Everyone knew that some serious arse kicking was about to go down when Sonic went all shiny and yellow. Normally Super Sonic makes an appearance when all other characters stories have been completed and its time for the ultimate boss battle. Although in earlier games Super Sonic was available when Sonic collected all the Chaos Emaralds and gathered 50 rings. Players could then switch to him (which drained rings) to play through the normal Sonic levels.

The Worst

2D: Sonic (Game Gear)

It's quite hard to pick a worst 2D Sonic game since they are all generally good. The Game Gear version is let down by flickery graphics and questionable gameplay elements. The main one being that Sonic is protected from pretty much everything if he rolls up into a ball. This doesn't work for real hedgehogs and it shouldn't work for falling spikes on the game.

3D: Sonic Labyrinth (Game Gear)

Another Game Gear blunder was Sonic Labyrinth. Featuring slow gameplay and sluggish controls Sonic Labyrinth recieved poor reception upon its release in 1995. Dr Robotnik has stolen Sonics famous red sneakers and replaced them with the "slow-down boots". This raises 2 questions: firstly if Robotnik has manged to sneak into Sonics house, why doesn't he just stab him or something? Secondly, why doesn't Sonic just take the shoes off? These shoes prevent Sonic from running fast and jumping leaving only the spin dash to harm enemies. This makes for excrutiatingly dull gameplay.

Merchandise: Sonic Ketchup

Back in 1991 when Sonic was huge, Daddies Ketchup got the licence to make a Sonic the Hedgehog ketchup. Featuring a horribly deformed Sonic on the label, people unforunate enough to use this stuff were forced to squeeze red paste from a funny looking blue hedghogs head. Not the most apatizing image in the world.

Cartoon: The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

About as funny as a knife wound and badly drawn to boot. The story revolved around Robotnik and his lackys Scratch and Grounder trying to capture the elusive blue hedgehog and his twin tailed friend. Naturally "comical" hijinx ensues. Sonic and Tails also seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with chilli "dawgs" and the phrase "lets speed keed". Awful.

Character: Big the Cat

Some sort of giant retarded purple cat thing with no real part to play in anything. Big first popped up in Sonic Adventure. His story centres around him trying to find his frog friend who seems to have done a runner since he has swallowed a chaos emerald. Not only was his story a little boring, his levels were as well. All his levels involved fishing. No running fast in an adrenaline fuelled race to the end of the level, just fishing. No one goes to a racetrack to watch people walk around it. Likewise no one buys a Sonic game to kick back and enjoy a peaceful spot of fishing. And dull fishing at that. There's only so many times you can watch the "special" purple git lose a frog and catch him again. His end boss was a bit clever though but it was too little, too late.

Oppinions? Feel free to discuss it in our Forums.

Another 'Videogame' Comic - Unleash the Beast

2008-09-12T06:34:00.010+01:00

You might want to check out the two links below before you read today's comic..... yeah it's a 'thing'.

Link 1
Link 2

Retro Column - Penny Arcades

2008-09-11T11:00:00.009+01:00

I had the pleasure of visiting Weston Super-Mare a few weeks back. The reason for the trip was to take pictures of the spectacularly burnt pier. Although all that went out the window once I had found a goldmine of classic mechanical arcade machines. Also known as a Penny Arcade.

The arcade in question doesn't just belong to any old pikey convention, but Carters Steam Fair. A professional group who tour the south of England with their immaculate classic vehicles, rides and attractions. They tour for 7 months of the year and then spend the remaining 5 obsessively restoring the rides and vehicles back to mint condition ready for the next years tour. To quote their website: "Some of the family have even been known to wander into the shed on Christmas Day just to finish some work off!!!"

Of course the main attraction for any retro gamer was the arcade. From the moment you set foot in the trailer-come-arcade the atmosphere was distinctly retro. Apart form the obvious classic machines there was retro sign writing on the walls and a quiet rock and roll soundtrack playing in the background. Other than the rocking sounds of classics such as "Tequila" and "Yakety Yak", the arcade was almost silent. No noisy arcade cabinets desperately trying to lure you in, just silence.

The machines still required an old skool penny and luckily there was a lovely lady in a booth who would exchange 4 penny shaped tokens for a pound. Now anyone expecting an epic storyline or complicated levels will be sadly disappointed since both of those things are beyond the capabilities of a humble ball bearing and various metal shapes. What the games do feature is more difficulty than Mega Man and Contra combined.

The games came with various goals. The first type required the player to use a flipper to hurl a ball round a loop and add just enough oomph to get it to drop into a hole. This requires a high level of judgement since the holes are quite small and the flipper is quite powerful for something that's older than most peoples dads. And at 4 goes for a pound, you won't get many attempts without spending a fortune. The second type of game requires the player to guide a ball bearing through a course by tilting the display. The player normally starts at the top and has to guide the bearing to a hole at the bottom whilst avoiding either falling off the track or falling into the wrong hole. The third type of game was more mechanically advanced than the rest. These normally involved shooting objects with a pellet gun or operating a crane of some sort. These games varied in their goals but were always pretty straight forward.

The games were all very difficult and have no "extra lives" or second chances. One coin, one try. I honestly don't know what happens when you manage to get the ball bearings in the right hole as I never actually managed it! If anyone has ever won a Penny Arcade game let me know what happens. Do you get your coin back or just the smug satisfaction that you have completed a "real game like what your granddad played"?

More information on Carters Steam Fair can be found at their website. To share your experiences of Penny Arcades visit the forums.

Top 10 - Best Console Add Ons/Accessories

2008-09-10T08:59:00.001+01:00

This is a continuation from last weeks Top 10, The Worst Console Add Ons. I decided that if the worst ones were getting talked about, then the best ones should as well. Enjoy!

10 - Gameboy Player

Being able to play your Gameboy games on your television through the Gamecube was brilliant. Some people found it a bit pointless, arguing that you could just play them on the handheld but sometimes you just want to play games on a big screen.

9 - Headsets

I remember when I first used my Xbox headset, damn did I feel like an idiot! Still, it seemed like such a big leap from having to stop and type something to people while playing online or having preset things to say like I used to use in Phantasy Star Online. I'm not a big online gaming fan but with headsets and the ability to actually talk to team mates it definitely amped up the fun and team work.

8 - Steel Battalion Controller

I have to admit, I never actually used this controller because I just couldn't afford it! It was amazing seeing people pay £130 for a game and controller but I still wanted it for myself. Just the sheer amount of buttons and controls you could immerse yourself in the game more than most others.

7 - Dance Mats

I am not choosing a specific Dance Mat here as, to be honest I would not know which one to mention specifically. They started off a new craze with people, at home and in the arcades. Watching people play these games though, it is amazing what passes for dancing these days. I would love to see someone busting out some Dance Dance Revolution moves in a club to impress someone!

6 - Wii Fit Board

I may not use Wii Fit as much as I originally intended to when I first bought it but there is no denying that the Wii Fit board is very impressive. I am glad to see now that it is not just being kept with the Wii Fit franchise but branching out into new games. I look forward to trying the new Skate game on it. Hopefully I wont fall over as much as I did when I tried proper skateboarding!

5 - N64 Rumble Pack

Adding rumble to control pads was a stroke of genius. Now you could actually feel when you were shooting, getting hurt or generally interacting with the environment. These days I barely notice rumbles in the controller but back then it added so much to gameplay.

4 - NES Zapper

I could not tell you if the NES Zapper was the first lightgun on the market, I really do believe that it is the most important one. Shooting those damn ducks on Duck Hunt and furiously firing the Zapper in an attempt to kill the dog are burned into my memory.

3 - Instruments

I couldn't decide if I was going to include the Guitar Hero controller or the Rock Band instruments as this entry so as its my top 10 I decided to merge them together. I will admit I was very wary of playing these (worried I would look stupid!) and it actually took me until Guitar Hero III to play. They are just so fun, messing about with your friends in a totally different way than we had done before.

2 - Nintendo Wavebird

Once again, I could not say if this was the first wireless control pad but I think it was the first one to do it right. Finally getting rid of wires was a massive step for consoles, no longer having to worry about tidying them away, tripping over them or if they will reach to where you are sitting from the console.

1 - Sony Eye Toy

I never actually owned one but I used to go into Dixons with a group of friends and we would spend quite a while playing through the various games that came with the original Eye Toy. It was the first time you were properly added into the game and could interact with things on the screen. Brilliant fun.

Fanning the Flames - Do Fanboys Have a Place?

2008-09-07T15:01:00.011+01:00

As each company carves their own direction this generation, we take a look at the fans that helped put the companies where they are and whether there is a place for them in the current gaming climate.

This is perhaps my most personal Fanning the Flames yet. I have now written three pieces and covered various topics. Two in particular would be very easy to read and awesome I am a fanboy of either company X or company Y, I have even been accused of such in the comments. It seems that by praising any one company in a manner which others don't agree with means you must be a fanboy simply for presenting something in a light that either is disagreed with or not a common view.

The most hardcore fanboy will defend their chosen company to the death almost. Throwing insults at each other on forums without a thought towards each others feelings. Whilst most dismiss this as idle banter it can very messy very quickly, just look at the case studies of Denis Dyack and Luc Bernard. They all think their consoles are the best, have the best games and deserving of that much coveted worldwide majority share.

It could be argued that fanboy's of each of the big three have reasons to secretly feel aggrieved. Sony fans will definitely feel that the depth and diversity they have become accustomed to is currently absent. Nintendo fans will deride the casual direction of the company when their last console the Gamecube was clearly a game machine for them, none of this paradigm shifting, if anything Microsoft fans must be the most relaxed. They get the most exclusives, biggest library, best online service but even some of them may skeptical at the companies desperation to capture the market.

So does the average fanboy have a place in today's climate? Surely if you want to witness all the delights this generation has to offer you cannot afford to be so fiercely loyal to one side? Can you really afford to deride each other for the decisions made by companies just out to make money. Whilst they do prey on this loyalty (look at Nintendo's exploitation of their fans by slowly iterating on their franchises) They do also reward fans patience by eventually giving them what they want, Nintendo with Smash Brothers, Microsoft can always be relied on to provide more Halo games and Sony are slowly bringing their popular franchises to PS3. So it's not all bad there are some rewards.

However can these rewards be off set by the advantages of looking at the industry with an open mind? This isn't something that would fit well with most, changing loyalties to platform holder for many would be akin to changing which football team you have. However viewing the industry with no bias can be a great feeling and a refreshing change. If you ever find your loyalty tested you should perhaps try it out.

So back to why this is personal, its worth mentioning that I am a long time Nintendo fanboy who feels he is not getting what he used to from his childhood heroes. What is Miyamoto playing at? He is the man whose ever word I lingered on and now he's stood up on stage playing his pretend saxophone. I now find myself having bought a Playstation 3 whilst previously I wouldn't touch a Dualshock controller and I am now actually considering picking up a 360. Where does this leave my Wii, with an inch thick layer of dust on it that is only going to get thicker as the winter nights draw in.

Review- Premier Manager 09

2008-09-07T11:28:00.003+01:00

As the new English Premiership season starts to get going the inevitable deluge of footballing titles look set to hit every format out there. Premier Manager 09 is one of the first to hit the market, we grab our sheepskin coat and prepare for a long hard season in the dug out.

Allow me to make a slight personal digression before we start this review properly. I am an old school Premier Manager fan, many years ago I went to some game exhibition in London and picked up a number of games. One being a light gun pack with a clay pigeon shooting game (the trigger for that gun broke within a few months) but it was Premier Manager on the Amiga 500 Plus that kept my attention for hour upon hour. I remember with fond memories working my way up from the conference (which the game required you to do) up to being Liverpool manager and winning the title five out of seven seasons including three trebles a feat I am never likely to emulate in any other management game. There are also plenty of other great features the game had; using a telephone to ring staff members for example. I played Premier Manager 2 and 3 and the Amiga but neither captured the magic of the original. After those three I moved onto the Championship Manager series and then the Football Manager series but I still remember with much fondness my Premier Manager careers of yesteryear.

As Football Manager and Championship Manager continue to add feature upon feature and make the stats increasingly more in depth, Premier Manager has sent itself in a different direction. The other two titles are released later in the season and at full retail, whilst Premier Manager is clearly targeted at the masses released as the season kick offs and at a cheaper budget price. This has lead to title having a far more casual feel to it and it does pay off. Other management games are always finding themselves compared to glorified spreadsheets as people simple don't get them. Premier Manager however has a chunky easy to use graphics centric interface, where everything has it's own icon with text prompts also available. The Hub screen really shows off this design principal as it shows all the information in one single place with a ton of options for your next decision.

The casual side to the game also changes the way many players of the genre may be used to buying and selling players and interacting with your staff. Instead taking the form of drop down menu systems the game has a conversation tree system. Anyone familiar with RPG or point and click games will be right at home with this system and it helps keep things really simple. A typical transfer will involve you clicking on the player making your interest known and then talking to their chairman agreeing a price, before sitting down with the man himself and negotiating terms. All your choices are context sensitive so what will you pick will have a definite bearing on the answer you receive. Whilst in principal the practice is the same the execution is very different and makes for a more fluent easy to use system. One great feature not seen any football Sim before is the press conferences feature, you can be approached by journalists and asked questions or can call them in yourself and set your own agenda, this is a great feature and really shows off the possibilities of the conversation tree system.

One place the game really falls down is in on match days. Whilst it would perhaps be too much to expect the depth and diversity of the Football Manager 2D match engine or the Prozone power of Championship Manager, a competent means of viewing the action is a must. Bearing in mind the casual audience the game is aimed at it seems obvious to put a lot into a match engine as it is where your hard effort is rewarded and a great looking system will help keep gamers gripped. Premier Manager has a 2D match engine that is plane awful. Whilst it looks fine in screenshots (see below) as soon things start moving it jitters all over the place and it can be near on impossible to keep track of the action unless you play matches at the mind numbing slowest speed. Another problem highlighted when running in slow motion is the games inadequate AI as players seem to stroll around at leisure and break formation with regular abandon.

This however is not the only problem there is no text based commentary either. As mentioned already this is a casual game so there aren't the mounds of stats to pour over. With all this in mind it can be very hard to work out why you are actually losing matches, other than the fact your team perhaps had less shots and less possession and of course less goals. There is for example no way of telling if you defenders keep getting beaten in the air or are just off the pace. Would it have been that hard to include even the most simple of text commentaries? Just to give some indication of what is happening other than a poor 2D engine or the other option a simple symbols based system. It unfortunately makes the match experience boring and lacking in the suspense one would expect. LMA Manager on consoles which was also a more casual experience got it spot on with its match engine and made much better efforts at keeping players interested.

One final blight on this games resume is the transfer system. Whilst it is easy enough to buy and sell players they are woefully inaccurate when compared to real life. Lauren of Portsmouth going to Chelsea for £8 million anyone? Fancy seeing David Beckham play at Fratton Park? David Nugent to German giants Bayern Munich? Emile Heskey back to Liverpool for £10 million? Manchester United seemingly spending all their transfer budget on 3 ageing left backs? DONE. Other management have prided themselves on depicting real life transfers before they happen and having a realistic sytem based on the current climate. It's hard to say the same about Premier Manager as it just all feels so random.

All in all this is not a terrible game but it's not great either, younger gamers may find it fun but the casual gamer with an interest in football will perhaps find it that bit too frustrating to deal with the lack of feedback from matches. With Football Manager, Championship Manager and FIFA Manager all looming large on the horizon it is hard to recommend as each of them has tutorials and various options to make the gameplaying experience more streamlined and beginner friendly.

If it was a Premiership team it would be Middlesborough, plenty of potential but never gonna break into the higher echelons whilst being solid enough to only briefly flirt with the idea of relegation. (Blimey that's the most praise you will ever see me giving Gareth Southgate, I still remember THAT miss in Euro 96)

NWTD- Leaked Screenshots

2008-09-06T15:04:00.016+01:00

Leaked screenshots have emerged of a cancelled game to tie in with the Paralympics. Mario and Sonic at the Paralympic Games was set to be released alongside the actual Games but was cancelled do to neither Sega nor Nintendo wanting to portray their flagship characters as disabled.

Top 10 - Worst Console Add On's!

2008-09-04T18:55:00.004+01:00

It's Top 10 again as we take a look at the worst add on's to grace our beloved consoles.

Add On's have long been a much maligned feature of consoles. At their best they can add to a gaming experience. They can at their worst splinter the userbase and without the right support leave consumers feeling short changed.

1. 32X

A regular in lists such as these, after the relative failure of Mega CD, rather than try and justify it to the fans Sega instead choose to include yet another under used add on! Mega CD at least had 100's of games (how many were good is another thing) the 32X however saw only 34 games released. They were not without their merits however with the brilliant Star Wars Arcade. Despite some good games though there will be little resistance to the notion that the 32X was a poor mans entry into the next generation and one that came at great expense to the customer. It could be argued that by continually adding bits to the Megadrive, Sega set themselves on the slippery road that lead to their demise as a platform holder.

2. Wii Zapper

Simply put the zapper is here for just being a lump of plastic that offers very little to the gaming experience. In same cases where the nunchuk is used extensively it can actually restrict the player and make the controls stiffer. The wiimote and nunchuk combo helps deliver a great amount of freedom of movement the zapper eradicates all of this.

3. Power Glove

Shown off in the feature length Nintendo advert The Wizard, the Power Glove was unveiled as the ultimate way to control games. This was misleading as the games struggled to recognize what fingers motions you were making, resulting for example in Mario running when you wanted him to jump. As you can imagine this causes great amounts of frustration and can lead to you wanting to throw the Power Glove out of the window.

4. R.O.B

Ok so yes at the time it was cool...but look back at it, really? If Microsoft announced a new bundle with a clunky looking plastic robot that interacts with the console. Short for Robot Operating Buddy, R.O.B was a decidedly toy like add on for the console and shows Nintendo's roots off. Only two games were created for it both involved R.O.B slowly stacking stuff.

5. Menacer

As Nintendo released the sublime Duck Hunt and created the fantastic light gun that went with it. Every console seemed to have one afterwards, whilst Nintendo released the Super Scope with the SNES, Sega released the Menacer. More akin to a bazooka than a light gun, the Menacer was well a menace to use, it wasn't easy to use with its unwieldy design. Whilst light games often suffer from poor support the Menacer was particularly noticeable for its total lack of good games.

6. Gamecube Broadband Adaptor

Whilst there is nothing technically wrong with the add on it is also worth looking at what value for money a customer would get for their investment. Just three games supported online play and two of them were Phantasy Star Online games. Nintendo's lack of support for true online games (a few games did offer LAN support) is an annoyance and makes the add on a waste of money for those looking for a long term catalogue of online games.

7. 64DD

Nintendo had relatively high levels of success with the Famicom Disk System and seemed to want to replicate that success with the 64 Disk Drive. This particular piece of hardware was a chunky disc drive that sat underneath the N64 and plugged in via an expansion port on the consoles underbelly. The main problem with 64DD was that by the time it came out it was outdated and irelevant. By then the Playstation with its CD based media and memory card combo largely made the advantages of the Disk based system largely obsolete. The system never saw release outside of Japan and whilst some of the games that were released such as the F-Zero track editor and various Talent titles were good there were just not enough releases.

8. Auro Interactor

Compatiable with the Sega Megadrive/Genesis and SNES this rumble vest was lame by modern standards as it just appeared to rumble not in tune with the actions on screen as game back then didn't have any sort of force feedback mechanicisms. It instead reacted to button presses which just doesn't work right. To further show off this devices lameness you looked like a prat when wearing it.

9. Laser Scope

Konami wanted a bit of the light gun action after Nintendo brought their own to the NES. However this was no where near as cool as Nintendo's effort, taking the form of a large clunky head set headset with a microphone and crosshair that covered one year. Playing with it was a mixture of moving your head to try and line up the crosshair which was no mean feat as it seemed to just not work. Then add in the fact that you had to shout "fire!" (obviously with the explanation mark) and the resulting delay meant whatever you were shooting at had long gone. Tests have shown that any words can be shouted with the same results, may I suggest crap, pants and lame? The headset was designed with a Konami game Laser Invasion in mind, but neither were met which much positivity and flopped!

10. Numerous Plastic Wii Accessories.

Every store is jam packed full of them, crappy pieces of plastic that make little or in the most part no impact on gameplay. Well actuallly thats a lie, plenty of them make the otherwise egonomically designed and very desirable wiimote into a lumbersome piece of junk.

Retro Column: Toy Commander

2008-09-04T11:00:00.001+01:00

Every man knows that one of the best things about having children is the fact that it gives you an excuse to play with toys again. Especially ones that have to potential to create a living room war. Luckily game developers No Cliché realised that grown men want to play with toys without all the messy business of actually having a child. So they created Toy Commander on the Dreamcast.

The game is centred around a child called Guthy (or Andy outside of Europe), nicknamed the Toy Commander. Guthy gets some new army themed toys and stops playing with his childhood ones. This doesn't go down too well with his old teddy Huggy Bear. Huggy recruits Guthys old toys and declares war on the new guys. General madness ensues with missions ranging from taking down a giant Godzilla style monster to boiling an egg (a common wartime practice I'm told). Players can take control of planes, helicopters and land vehicles to complete these missions. Each type of vehicle has a number of variants although they fall into 2 catagories: armed and transport.

The games graphics still hold up quite well by todays standards due to its simple graphics style. Vehicles and characters look smooth and cartoony. Some of the games textures are a bit basic but this is to be expected of a game that is almost a decade old. There is almost no slowdown either, with missions running smoothly throughout.

Level design is the real star of the show with each group of levels being set in a certain room of the house. Once the player has cleared all the levels in a room they can then take on the boss. Once defeated, this boss joins your side to face Huggy Bear. Each level features a number of goals that must be completed in order to advance. The game manages to stay fresh by creating a wide variety of missions. These can be anything from saving a princess in a castle patrolled by soldiers to a standard race with toy cars. The levels themselves are very well made and have a realistic layout whilst still managing to be fun to roam around. To make the levels even more intersting, there are half pipe style ramps that allow ground based vehicles to drive on the walls. This adds a tactical element to the ground vehicles since they don't have as much versatiliy as the aircraft, but they can hide on almost any surface.

The multiplayer is fun but the levels are too big for just 4 people. Most of the matches are normally taken up by trying to find the other player. This can unfortunately lead to very boring multiplayer matches. This is a real shame since the multiplater matches manage to run incredibly smoothly with no noticable changes to the draw distance or framerate.

The controls are simple and functional although the ground based vehicle can feel a little restricted. This is due to only being able to aim vertically with the horizontal aim being limited to the direction your vehicle is facing.

All in all, Toy Commander is a massively varied game that manages to stay fresh throughout. It is only let down by its sparse multiplayer and slightly restricted ground based vehicle controls. Definately worth a buy if you own a Dreamcast.

Another 'Video Game' Comic - The Rejects

2008-09-01T21:07:00.006+01:00

I would just like to start by saying thank you to Flameboy who asked me to contribute a webcomic to this website. It's a great honour to be approached and I hope you enjoy it.

I've been doing my webcomic for a while so you can check my previous comics out at notsotiny.blogspot.com

Fanning the Flames- Sony King of the Casuals?

2008-08-31T10:33:00.020+01:00

Whilst Nintendo revel in their paradigm shifts and Microsoft desperately try to pander to the casual, are Sony secretly the real kings of the casual of market? We take a little look at the evidence.

Much has been made of the so called Casual Market and how new it is to gaming. The truth is they have existed for a long time and it is not a wonderful new phenomenon. Granted there are new people playing games that may not have bothered previously but there is nothing new about this, it happens every generation brings as something new is offered that appeals to different types of consumers.

Nintendo may offer the likes of Wii Fit and Wii Sports but in terms of real casual gaming experiences there is very little else and the motivation for buying both of these games is more "hey let's get fit without leaving the house" rather than for primarily playing games. They have also seemingly abandoned the hardcore gamers that have been their customers through the years. Microsoft meanwhile have tried desperately to get the casual interested in their previously hardcore console. Their efforts almost smack of desperation however as they borrow ideas from everyone else in an effort to pander to a new market they want a part of. Who can forget their top executives prancing around on stage at E3 demonstrating At the Movies, Lips and Scene It. Sony however almost seem to capture the casual with very little effort. Their E3 conference showed plenty of hardcore offering but very little in the casual arena. However Leipzig showed Sony's duality in catering to both markets. This is what truly makes Sony the King of the Casuals as they do not do so whilst dismissing and jeopardizing the other customers.

Sony's love affair with the casual is not a new thing and became particularly prevalent during the PS2 era. First the decision to launch with a DVD player as standard and integral part of the console. DVD players at the time had not hit the mass market and were not apart of everyone's TV set up like they are now. This coupled with the already popular branding of both Sony and Playstation plus a competitive price compared to other DVD players on the market. Sony have boldly followed on from this strategy with the Blu Ray drive being at the forefront of their PS3 plans. But most importantly it was in the software and the games they offered.

Casual Gamers can be many things, not just the typical image that companies like Ubisoft keep making countless Imagine games for. Casual can mean somebody who typically plays games casually, this is something Sony realized when they wrapped up timed exclusivity on titles such as Pro Evolution Soccer and Grand Theft Auto. These are titles that captured the imagination of a wealth of different types of people, Pro Evo overtook FIFA as the premier football title and GTA has become a cultural focal point of its own thanks to its huge sales and violent gameplay.

However lets not under estimate the importance of their more casual games, that did appear to the more traditional games as well as this new breed of casual games. Singstar and Buzz were two such titles which appeal to both sets. Buzz in particular succeeds as this, in particular new PS3 iteration Buzz Quiz TV which has everything you expect from a TV quiz show with its slick TV style presentation and quick fire questions format.

The new version has included online play where some very hardcore high level play can be found as well as the possibility of an infinite number of questions as MyBuzz allows users to create their own questions. The game offers plenty for the casual whilst also including enough for the more advanced user to sink their teeth into. Singstar is another such example (my PSN friends list is full of people playing it. I am far to reserved to sing) with each version offering a great variety of songs and a wealth of features. Something crucial to both of these games is they come bundled with attractive looking peripherals that are more than just attachable pieces of plastic, Nintendo take note.

However Sony are not prepared to rest of their laurels. First we have Little Big Planet a title that is going to enrapture everyone who witnesses its creative genius. There have been many column inches devoted to it already and it is eagerly anticipated by press and public alike. However let us instead talk about the delightful looking Eye Pet. Eye Toy is another of the PS2's triumphs with a a number of titles available that proved to be successful. It's younger brother Playstation Eye for the PS3 has not seen quite as many titles so far, but that is all set to change with Eye Pet. This newly unveiled title allows you to interact with a cute adorable animal friend by using the camera. This can be as simple as reaching out your hand to give him a stroke to far more complex actions. The game features image recognition software so you can draw 2D objects on a piece of paper point them at the camera which will take a snap shot and then render that object in 3D for the pet to play with. The demo shows a simple car outline transformed into a fully render wooden toy car that can race around with you pet when controlled by the Sixaxis/DualShock 3. What really impresses is the way Sony do not make is seem like the only part of their conferences but offer it as an alternative this is something the other platform holders seem to fail to notice. Yes Microsoft did devote plenty of time to hardcore games at E3 but in unveiled new titles they failed, preferring to pretend to run around wearing clown trousers than show off what Bungie are working on. The less said about Nintendo and hardcore gamers the better at this stage.

Home deserves a little mention as its avatar and environment based system makes actions such as connecting to online games simpler and more enjoyable than your usual menu driven mechanics. It also draws heavily on social gaming which is a rapidly expanding and wide branching genre. It is clear that Sony have a clear idea about where they want to be with PS3 (and PSP to a certain extent, although that's another blog post all together) and that they intend to include all types of games along for the ride with them.

NWTD: Mario in "not Italian" shocker

2008-08-29T11:00:00.001+01:00

The people of Italy have finally received copies of the NES game Mario and they are furious. Due to an administrative error, the entire country have been without the legendary computer game and all it sequels. The Italian government spokesman Giovanni Italioni issued called a press conferance to express its disgust.

"We are-a furious with-a the game in-a question. We-a feel that it is-a an offensive stereotype of-a the Italian people. Furthermore, we are-a also furious that-a he is-a a plumber. We-a Italians would-a never resort to-a plumbing. We-a have no plumbers in-a Italy. The fact that-a he is-a a plumber means-a that he is-a not Italian"

We approached Shigeru Miyamoto and asked him about his error in making an Italian plumber:

"In hindsight, its obvious that there is no such thing as a plumber in Italy, I mean just look at Venice. Any city where you have to take a canoe to work clearly has no plumbers. I'll admit that I had never been to Italy before I made Mario but I had a rough idea of what the Italians were like due to seeing a few Italian people on the television. I apologise to the Italian people unreservedly and hope that there is no hard feelings."

The Italian government has yet to issue a response.

Lowdown on the Download- PSN Update 29/08/08

2008-08-29T10:58:00.004+01:00

This week on the Playstation store has the Last Guy roaming the streets rescuing hostages as well as seeing Buzz getting a fun update for kids.

PS3 Games:

-The Last Guy (GBP 4.99)
-The Last Guy Demo (Free)
-NHL 09 Demo (Free)

Add-ons:

-Buzz! Junior Jungle Party (GBP 3.49)
-Warhawk Operation Fall Star (GBP 3.99)

Videos:

-Far Cry 2 trailers
-HAWX trailer
-The Last Guy launch trailer
-PS3 Platinum trailer

Misc:

-The Last Guy wallpaper
-Graffiti theme

This weeks biggest release is The Last Guy. This is game is played from a top down view with the games levels being created using satellite images of the worlds' major cities. Your mission is to run around avoiding various enemies and picking up hostages to lead them to the safe haven of the escape zones.

This week also gives us the release of Buzz Junior Jungle Party, a more kiddy mini game orientated version of the popular quiz game. Another Warhawk pack comes that adds to the trophy laden 1.5 patch update that recently hit.

Oddly the store has the Graffiti theme as new content, when it has in fact been on the store before. Finally those in the know will realise that eagerly anticipated Linger in the Shadows will have to wait as it has been delayed till next week.

Retro Column - Multiplayer

2008-08-28T09:00:00.000+01:00

As a lot of the multiplayer gaming is taken up these days by playing online, I was missing the experience of simply getting a group of friends around and playing a game all in the same room for hours at a time. You see I am not a big fan of online gaming, I do not like talking on the mic and I feel the experience is extremely lacking without the other people there with you. A lot of the time I feel like I may aswell just be playing against bots.

To that end I thought I would go through some of my personal favourite multiplaying experiences I had growing up. I'll go through these by the consoles I owned at the time.

NES

Super Mario Bros 1+3 - These two I didnt really play multiplayer as such, but they were always a joint effort. I dont really remember playing them on my own as I always had someone over my shoulder watching. This would be a recurring theme on the NES as you will see.

A Boy and His Blob - Hopefully if you read my feature of this game you'll know how much I liked it. What I didnt mention was that my mum and I were the ones who kept trying to complete it. I would play through the game and she would list all the effects of various jelly beans and try and help me through the levels.

McDonaldland - This was another game where my mum seemed to love it just as much as me. We would play for hours trying to get the 'M' cards and working our way through the levels. This time though we did play 2 player. Being able to take turns after each level.

MegaDrive

Streets of Rage 2 - This for me has got to be the best beat'em up I have ever played. I always played as Skate and my friend has Axel (bastard never let me try him!). We'd fight our way through to Mr X having a great time doing it. Then within a few weeks of completing it, we'd be right back to playing through again. We never seemed to get bored of it.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie - Yes, I realise this is basically just a copy of Streets Of Rage which I mentioned directly above, but its part of my multiplaying history so I am adding it damn it! Being a big Power Rangers fan this was a no brainer to be honest, I was pretty much always going to love it but I think it actually stood out quite well on its own by adding the normal fights then using megazords at the end of some levels to mix things up a bit.

Street Racer - While other people played Super Mario Kart on their Super Nintendo's I was playing Street Racer with my friends. I may be in a minority here but I still prefer it to Nintendo's giant to this day.

Playstation

Vigilante 8 - Such a brilliant driving game, my favourite of the car combat games. Got very frustrating though for one member of my group of friends....I think thats just because he wasnt very good at it though!

WWF Smackdown 2 - Before Smackdown 2 most of my wrestling games were on the N64 but this one just seemed to get everything write. The controls, graphics, storymode, create a wrestler and multiplayer seemed perfect at the time.

Final Fantasy VII - Before you all start yelling at me, I know FFVII didnt have a multiplayer mode but it was another one of those games we played as if it was both of us controlling Cloud. We had rules that we would not play the game unless the other person was present and thats how it actually went, to my amazement.

Nintendo 64

Perfect Dark - For a lot of people, Goldeneye was their multiplayer choice for the N64. Not for me, infact I didnt like the multiplayer in it much at all. Perfect Dark however managed to keep my interest, probably because the weapons were so interesting. I would love to set up the laptop gun or sit camping somewhere with the amazingly over-powered farsight gun and just shoot people through the walls!

Im sorry to say I didnt play the N64 when it was originally out as I would have liked to so I cant really add anymore to this list from that console. Except of course a Track and Field game but thinking about it now I cannot remember what its name was.

I'll stop here as from what I remember, my multiplaying started to lessen after I took more of an interest in single player games.

Dont forget, this is just a list of my own personal multiplaying history so the reason I left out some obvious games and even consoles was that I just didnt play them until later on.

Top 10 - What were they thinking?

2008-08-27T11:00:00.005+01:00

Some games start off as a good idea and are let down somewhere between the initial idea and the final product. This can be down to a number of things: gameplay, controls, graphics etc. But some games however, were always doomed to failure due to clearly having someone drunk at the helm in the design process. Here are the top 10 ideas that should never have left the drawing board.

10. Gunstar Heroes: The board game level

I can imagine the scene now at the board room. "What would be a really good idea for an action packed run and gun game?" "Erm.....a board game level?" "Yeah that'll do, lets get some coffee." Why would anyone break up the otherwise action packed game with a slow, boring board game? If we wanted to play a board game we would raid the cupboard for Monopoly. Or at least buy one of the many Monopoly computer games.

9. Sonic Riders: Sonic on a board

Sonic is the fastest thing alive. It says so in the Sonic SATAM cartoon. Why would he need an airboard thing to win a race? Why would he even enter an airboard thing race? He can run faster than he airboards for Christ sake. Stupid.

8. Burnout Paradise: No restart

This one is kind of a double barrel stupid idea. First the creators decided to omit the option of restarting a race. There was a reason for it. The creators felt that it would interrupt the flow of the game. Which was fair I suppose. But what if you really wanted to come first in a specific race? Surely it would be best to allow the player the option of restarting the race and let them decide how the flow of the game should work? People complained a lot after playing the beta demo. Enter their second crap idea. Tell everyone who had played the demo and complained that they were, in fact, wrong. Good marketing idea there. Tell everyone that their opinions are wrong and that the game is actually awesome.

7. Fahrenheit: Dead guy sex scene

After commenting on how the main character doesn't seem to be breathing, the lovely lead female character proceeds to have sex with him. JUST. PLAIN. WRONG.

6. Phantasy Star Universe: Early Grinding

The weapons in the game were upgradeable by a process known as "grinding". The upgrade process is down to luck and during the early days if the grinding failed you lose your weapon. No second chance, no booby prize, just gone. This was eventually fixed but imagine spending ages finding enough money for a certain weapon only to lost it instantly. Many new swear words were invented due to that game.

5. Soul Calibur 4: Yoda

The creators decided not to allow players to change their custom characters height due to the possibility of creating characters short enough to duck under normal attacks. Yoda on the other hand cannot be hit by normal height attacks at all. The player has to crouch to hit the green git. This leads to massively unbalanced online and offline fights.

4. Army of Two: Suicide bombers

Suicide bombers are a touchy subject at the best of times. Some people can get a bit wound up with the thought of someone blowing themselves up. But that's not what makes the inclusion of suicide bombers stupid. What does make this a ridiculous idea is at least 10 people packing dynamite running at 2 guys. Surely even the most lacking of terrorist isn't stupid enough to sacrifice 10 men to kill 2?

3. GTA:IV: Liberty City minute achievement

GTA:IV has always been known as a game to enjoy at your own pace. Exploring the giant cities and making your own events have always been the highlight of the series. So for some reason Rockstar decided to include an achievement encouraging the player to rush through the game in 30 hours. This leaves little time to do any side missions during the main story, meaning you have to play the game in a linear fashion in order to get the achievement.

2. Mario: The Princess is in the other castle

If I were venturing forth through monster infested areas to rescue a fair maiden from the clutches of a giant evil dinosaur thing deep within a castle, I would sure as hell make sure I got the right castle. I'd hate to break into Warwick castle only to discover that she was actually being held in Edinborough castle. I would be livid. I would be even more suspicious if my nemesis was also in the castle. If he was also in the wrong castle, I would have had a clear shot at the princess if I had gone to the right one first. And why didn't that smug mushroom bastard find a way of letting me know sooner?

Ready for number 1? It's positively offensive.

1. Super Columbine Massacre RPG

Now this is a homebrew game, but it is such a stupid idea that I had to feature it. Take the most notorious example of the most notorious type of killings and make a game where you play the role of the killers! Genius! Some people should never have been allowed to leave the birthing shed.

Agree/disagree? Feel free to stop off at the discussion forum to add your own opinions.

Fight the Hype - Resistance: Fall of Man

2008-08-26T12:30:00.007+01:00

In this feature we will take another look at the games of yesteryear as we attempt to smash those rose tinted glasses and cast off the shackles of hype. For our first feature, Resistance: Fall of Man will be under the spotlight.

With Resistance 2 racing towards us I decided to dip back into the first iteration of the series. First off, I’ll give you a bit of background. Not about the game but how the game and I crossed paths.

The Playstation 3 launched and with it came Resistance. I can’t really remember what I thought of it, needless to say, that fact alone shows just how much an impression it had on me. However fate insisted I get to grips with the game.

And so it was, 3402 miles and a couple of awful in-flight movies later, I find myself more than slightly bored in Dubai airport. I hadn’t slept for a good 20 hours by this point so I did what any sane person would do - I looked for a Starbucks. Having struck insomniac gold I wondered through duty free half dazed, definitely confused and more than a little jacked up on caffeine. I stumble across a PS3 demo booth with none other than Resistance: Fall of Man on show. As my hyperactive twitching abates, I proceed to play.

Now, my first impression of the game has stuck with me. It is brown. Very brown. I can’t escape this fact. Even now I keep expecting a honky-tonk piano to start playing with the occasional intertitle displaying a boot-eating objective to stave off starvation.

The next impression that I remember was that the enemy design was pretty bland, pretty generic. Having played it again recently, I’ve come to appreciate the Chimera a bit more. Okay, they're thick and predictable and if you just add a bit more muscle to their spindly legs, put the forgotten love child of an assault rifle and a chainsaw in their hands, they would look like them lot from Gears of War… except with more eyes... and traffic cones on their backs. That is a bit unfair though as there are other enemies that spice up the mix, my personal favorite being the little worker aliens that shuffle towards with a view to a chunk of your neck. They make crazy grumbling noises when you hit them for that added incentive.

Brown. Very Brown.

Another thing that sticks out is the ability to strafe faster than a speeding bullet. It’s almost like playing Space Invaders at times. It’s bizarre.

It sounds like I have major problems with this game but really these are quite minor when it comes down to it. I know it should all bug me but it doesn’t because at its core the game is solid fun. I even found that posh woman who narrates the pretty involving, yet uneventful and obvious, story perfect in keeping with the whole “chosen one” complex.

The level design is varied but the outdoor environments are definitely more enjoyable than the indoor corridor-fests. The graphics, although brown, are clean but they lack detail in some parts and so the game feels dated. The controls… well you can reassign them like I did, more games should do this. Finally the inclusion of co-op is great, I’ve always felt it can make any game a lot more enjoyable and Resistance is no exception.

Resistance, as a whole, has aged pretty well but maybe that’s because there is nothing new about it, it is the most vanilla sci-fi shooter around. A solid and fun game, but stuck in the past.

6/10

Playstation Home Is Where The Heart Is

2008-08-25T11:30:00.006+01:00

I'll be stepping in this week while Fanning the Flames takes a week off. I’m going to talk about something Sony love reminding us of in regards to the Playstation 3, potential. Home’s potential is massive. Some wonder what benefit it might hold for gaming, others might think it is a novelty. We’ll only really find out what Home will do when it is finally released but for the moment, we can speculate.

What Home does provide is a platform for games to seamlessly integrate themselves into the Playstation experience. We’ve already seen early indications of how Motorstorm: Pacific Rift will work in tandem with Home and it’s nothing mind blowing. It is basically used as a virtual lobby. More potential was seen with Warhawk, with the use of pre-match war rooms for discussing stratagem. Yet again, not amazing but it does appear to at least compliment the game. Overall it lacks imagination on Sony’s part but I doubt that is really the limit of their vision when it comes to Home. I would be surprised if Sony weren't keeping more functionality under wraps, but again, only time will tell.

Another way games work with Home is through offering extra content, from turning Resistance’s levels into 'The Alternate Imperial War Museum' to being able to play a specially made arcade game, for example in the Uncharted hub. We can see the ability to effortlessly offer extra content through this platform. Considering how interactive the medium of games is it is a shame to see bonus content relegated to promotional 'limited edition' packs and the like, which is something Home could rectify.

I’ve mentioned a few known examples so lets casts our minds over to more mainstream casual games. What might we expect from Sony’s fairly diverse and undeniably popular casual titles? These could provide an opportunity to hook the less avid gamers and tune them into Home. Imagine it…

Deep breath,

Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time…

As the song kicks off the crowd start cheering. With their applause, a real time ratings system, the player grows in confidence. No longer is the faithful SingStar community restricted to 30-second highlights, live performances, live open mic nights become a reality. If you don’t like the idea of singing in front of a bunch of strangers just book a private room and invite your friends. You could be standing at the front of a crowded room, maybe with the Playstation Eye streaming a live feed of you onto a wall behind your avatar, belting Queen out – Maybe this is what Sony want Home to be.

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball.

Another potentially very exciting area is the part smaller applications could play in Home. Take the newly shown EyePet. Personally I think its implementation of the Playstation Eye is very impressive, but when it comes down to it, EyePet is just a virtual pet and not even a portable one at that. This is where a problem arises, when exactly are you going to decide to play with your EyePet over a PSN game or what ever game you have in the machine? Home integration with the EyePet could help with this problem. You load up Home, preparing to cause some online carnage in Burnout, but just before you leave the house your EyePet, yes wearing a fez and a little red waistcoat, runs up to you begging for attention. Suddenly your interaction through the Playstation Eye with the tiny creature takes on another level; there is now more incentive to play EyePet. Through EyePet the player enters the monkey-cat-thing’s space, Home allows the pet to interact with you on an equal spacing. How far this level of integration goes is up to Sony to decide. Could I take my pet for a walk or have him perch on my shoulder like I captain my own pirate ship? Would it interact with other pets it came across, maybe even having its own pet friends list? If not, why not?

The key for Home is its integration. If games become an invisible gateway to this central hub, so that players simply find themselves flying between Home and a game without hesitation, then Sony will be onto something. If it becomes that easy then what is not to say that the SingStar and Buzz players of the world won't get pulled into Home? It is inevitable that comparisons are going to be made with Second Life but Home already has a massive advantage over it. First of all, as Home comes as a free download for the PS3 the user base will easily outstrip that of Second Life which, as of March 2008, has approximately 13 million accounts – as to how many are active accounts is anyone’s guess, but I doubt it is anything close to that number. Second, Home has a fairly defined infrastructure. There is no need to build a house or get a virtual job of any kind but the customisation is there for those who want it, from what your avatar looks like to the interior to your house. Finally, Home has a purpose; it is there predominantly for games but also for other media. Depending on how far Sony pushes the integration of Home everyone could be using it to varying degrees, either dipping in to pre-game lobbies, or exploring the different game hubs to swinging by the theater with friends to catch the latest movie.

The ball is on Sony’s side of the court. Home could become essential or it could fade away into some kind of sideshow. There is a lot of potential, not to mention a myriad of 'if's, and although we don't have long to wait, Home will take time to develop. This could be living.

Lowdown on the Download- Wii Shop Update 22/08/08

2008-08-23T09:03:00.003+01:00

This week sees Mario making one very unlikely appearance on these shores! It's that time again, here's our preview of the weeks Virtual Console and Wiiware releases.

Virtual Console

-Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES) (900 points)
-Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (NES) (600 points)

WiiWare

Nothing!

European based Nintendo fans will be jumping for joy this weekend as they finally get the chance to sit down and play the SNES classic Super Mario RPG. The game was released 12 years ago in America and Japan but never made it to any other territories. This game was co-developed by Nintendo and Square and was Mario's last appearance on the SNES. The game was a light hearted RPG that is just as refreshing now as it was the day it was released and comes highly recommended as one of the best SNES games ever. If you have ever played the Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi games then this is a must buy as many of the ideas in both originated from this game, including the wicked sense of humour.

This week also sees the re-release of Super Mario: The Lost Levels which was previously only available for a limited period during the Virtual Console Hanabi Festival, but now is here to stay. If you want to play Super Mario Bros 2 the way it was intended rather than the westernized version now here is your chance.

Gaming Corner NEEDS YOU!

2008-08-22T14:33:00.006+01:00

As part of our continuing commitment to evolving and expanding as a gaming blog, that is dedicated to top quality content we are currently recruiting. We are looking for both reviewers and previewers to join our team.

If you wish to let your interest known to us, pop into the forums, more specifically the reader submissions section found here;

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Gaming_Corner/index.php?showforum=2

Once in here just introduce yourself and write a quick sample of you work this can be anything from a brief preview to a full blown review. We look forward to hearing from you!

Preview - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

2008-08-22T12:03:00.024+01:00

Star Wars games have been very much a hit and miss affair of late. But with a new title in the franchise comes a New Hope. We look at the latest Star Wars spin off where the force is well and truly unleashed.

Games based on licenses are usually rushed jobs in order to fit in with the movie or DVD release of the said franchise. However there is certainly a good amount of sense in letting a game have a usual development cycle and releasing it as and when it is ready. Star Wars Force Unleashed is one such example. It could have been rushed out to hit this summer to tie in with Star Wars Clone Wars but instead it will hit worldwide in mid-September.

The demo of this game recently hit on Playstation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace and gives gamers the chance to let rip. Players take the role of Starkiller (interestingly the original name of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars film) fresh from his advertising orientated cameo in Soul Calibur IV, who is also the secret apprentice of Sith Lord Darth Vader. The game takes place between Episodes III and IV and follows the story of Starkiller as he aides Darth Vader in eradicating all the remaining Jedi, whilst remaining unknown to the tyrannic Emperor.

The game is a third person action game, a genre explored before by Lucasarts but very rarely one they have succeeded in. Force Unleashed seems about to change all of that. First lets discuss what really matters to everyone; the lightsaber play. Force Unleashed takes a style that has become typical to the genre since God of War was released. With a simple move set that can be used by the more casual gamer and still be enjoyable on the easier difficulty settings as well as having enough depth to create a wealth of combos for the more seasoned gamer. Each of the lightsaber moves can also be used in combination with a mixture of jumps and force powers. In the demo only Push, Grip and Lightning are made available, however the trailer at the end of the 15 minutes of gameplay reveal many more powers. One that is certain about this Starkiller is a Sith at the peak of his use of the Force and whoever is stupid enough to stand in your way is in for a beating. Both Lightsaber and Force mechanics work well alone and in tandem and there is immense satisfaction to be had in the use of both.

The demo level takes place on board an Imperial Shipyard. This environment provides a surprising wealth of locations and ways in which to use the Force mechanics. There is little better experience than flinging around Stormtroopers or even better realising the Force Push can be charged and send hangar doors flying open rather than just the edging it open with a quick press. The demo ends with a great boss battle (that we won't wreck for you) which helps show the depth of the combat system as well as reveals some Quick Time Events thrown in for good measure. As long as the game keeps up this variety of play and does not rely on the same environmental gimmicks but instead throws up new ones, it will prove to an entertaining action adventure romp. Finally lets give the graphics a quick mention, they look as really good with the bigger areas in the ship yard looking fantastic, this game will not disappoint when it comes to looks.

Star Wars Force Unleashed is released 16th September in North America, 17th September in Asia and the Pacific with Europe seeing the game hit its shore on 19th September. Be sure to check back for our full review of the game upon its release.

Daft's Opinion:

I was looking forward to this and I was disappointed. For starters the character model of Starkiller is pretty dire compared to his appearance in Soul Calibur IV. Yes, it is a pretty minor gripe and is only really noticeable in the opening cutscene of the demo but it's a bit strange that Namco have a better looking character model considering he is the central character in Unleashed.

Next up, the controls. Altogether they are solid and accessible but I felt slightly disjointed with the Force. Aiming objects with force grip tends to rely fairly heavily on auto-targeting, which itself isn't great, meaning throwing things isn't always as useful as you want it to be.

Finally, the fighting. Why exactly a sith, who throws TIE fighters about like matchsticks and can levitate in mid-air while charging up a force push with the view of quite literally wiping the floor with a squad of stormtroopers, is unable to move while blocking is beyond me. Similarly when swinging your lightsaber you are pretty much rooted to the spot which, in my humble opinion, leads to some stuttered fighting. Also the sudden occurrence of a quick time event, and I'm usually a fan of these, when facing off against the AT-ST wasn't particularly welcome since it's appearance seemed slightly random, but that could just be my unfamiliarity with the game.

However, some of these issues are probably symptomatic of the fact that this is a demo. Force powers get leveled up, hopefully improving their effect and efficiency. The level on offer was relatively barren, especially when held up against the other levels seen in Unleashed, but the interactivity shown in it was promising. The demo never manages to reach a high, it seems to stutter along. With all this in mind I still think The Force Unleashed has a lot of promise – I'm just hoping the demo is only hinting at what we can expect from the full game.

NWTD: Geldof blasts Nintendo

2008-08-22T11:00:00.003+01:00

Sir Bob Geldof has gone off on a sweary, crazed rant again. Although this time it isn't about third world poverty, it's about a brutal underground animal fighting syndicate held by Nintendo employees. Geldof, 56, held a conference today at his bungalow in Slough.

Geldof was visibly angry as he described how Nintendo employees went out into the wild to search for animals for their sick game. "The animals normally hide in long grass to avoid detection by humans" said Sir Bob. "Once the employee has found an appropriate animal, he captures it in a small red and white trap." He then goes on to describe the trap. "It's the size of your fockin fist!" Said Geldof, holding up one of the traps "Some of these animals are as big as a car! That's just fockin cruel, not to mention physically ludicrous." yelled Geldof

Geldof then went on to describe what happens once the poor animals are brought back to the Nintendo offices. "The poor things are then only released to fight each other until one faints. At which point it is returned to its trap and taken to the vets. The little fockers aren't even allowed out of their traps when they're being treated, the doctors just heal them while they're in there and send them out to fight again" Sir Bob described how brutal the fights can be, including lightning and fire attacks leaving many animals permanently scarred and traumatised.

And the worst part is the people responsible aren't even content with capturing a few animals. The motto for the group is "gotta catch 'em all", implying that they won't stop until they have every breed of animal captured in their tiny cages. Geldof named the person responsible for researching the creatures as "Professor Oak". "The worst part is, only this Oak chap really knows about the creatures. Most people don't even know they fockin exist!"

Gamingcorner approached Nintendo bosses but they have been advised not to talk to the press by their lawyers. More on this story as we get it.

Retro Column: A Boy and His Blob

2008-08-21T08:45:00.001+01:00

This weeks featured Retro Game as I announced two weeks ago is A Boy and His Blob. It is a game I played quite a bit when I was a kid and could never quite complete. Only once did I manage to make it all the way through the tunnels below the town but then I hit a wall. I couldn't figure out how to get past a sewer cover. Now 18-19 years later I have finally managed to do it. Yes I know, it takes me a while to complete games. You'll have to wait for the Super Mario Bros feature for me to tell you how long it took me to complete World 8 on that!

Now then, onto the basic premise of the game. You play as the boy and you travel with your blob friend (Real name Blobert, no....really!). The game is split into two sections, Earth and Blobert's home planet, Blobonia. On Earth you have to travel around some catacombs that are conveniently located right below the boys house. You go through these collecting treasure until you can make your way back out to set off to Blobonia. Once there its then a case of making it through to defeat the evil emperor.

For a game with basically only two sections, I found A Boy and His Blob suprisingly deep when I went back to it. It wasnt just collecting the treasure that I remembered from my childhood but actually quite a puzzle game. As the boy you have to feed the blob jellybeans to get him changing into different items. For example the Strawberry bean will turn him into a bridge. With this you had to choose the correct beans for each situation. Sometimes you may have to make it past a cliff, survive rocks falling at you etc.

The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. The backgrounds seem good enough for a NES game but the characters themselves are a bit weak. The boy himself is very pixelated. The soundtrack brings back a lot of memories for me. Id say thats a sign that its done its job.

In 1990 there was a sequel released on the GameBoy titled "The Rescue of Princess Blobette", unfortunately I never played this. Only actually realising it existed after doing research for this very feature! There was another title announced for the Nintendo DS but unfortunately nothing ever came from it.

The game certainly hasnt aged well in some areas rather than others but as a whole I still see "A Boy and His Blob" as a nice game to sit with for a while and work your way through. Yes its not the greatest graphics but as you get to know me more you'll realise I place very little on how good graphics are in a game. I found with the game as long as you have patients its not too difficult. When I was a kid however I would just run off cliffs without thinking or get bored waiting for the correct time to pass a monster.

I dont think A Boy and His Blob will be for everyone but if you are a fan of old NES games and have some spare time then I definately recommend giving it a play.

Second Opinion - goaferboy

I certainly agree that a boy and his blob isn't for everyone. I personally don't get the appeal at all. A lot of it is just trial and error, especially when moving to the next screen. One example is where there is weird bouncing enemies. Run onto that screen too fast and you can't stop the boy from running into them for love nor money. Also I know the NES was limited graphically, but there are certain screens of the level which feature no enemies or obstacles, just a flat walkway. All in all there are far worse games out there and its certainly a good idea for a game, but I really can't see the appeal. Sorry Happenstance!

The next game we plan to feature on the retro column will be Toy Commander on the DC. Please comment on this article or join up to the forums so we can get some good conversations on these games!

Site News: Twitter Feed Now Live!

2008-08-20T21:06:00.003+01:00

I am pleased to announce that Gaming Corner is now a part of the social networking wonder that is Twitter, look to your left and you will see our new feed which we will be using for random musings as well as providing news content. If you see a news headline that interests why not pop into the forums sign up and discuss it in there?

Top 10 - Games to keep you sane...

2008-08-20T09:30:00.013+01:00

I've taken the liberty of kicking off the 'Top 10' feature with games to take your frustration out on, and generally keep you sane after being stamped on by the boot of life every day. Please feel free to add in the comments any game think deserves to be added to the list.

1. Crackdown

We've all got to the point where we just want to go all Incredible Hulk after being pushed a bit too far. You just want to pick up the desk you're at, hurl it through the wall. Let rip an epic roar, dousing the offending antagonist with saliva, and jump through the ceiling landing a mile or so away on an unsuspecting car with the intention of throwing the closest pedestrian into the rapidly approaching police vehicles.

Okay, that might just be me but Crackdown allows you to do things to this effect – while, I might add, allowing the player to keep the moral high ground. Crackdown is the ultimate in stress relief. None of this 'story' rubbish, no invisible walls or need to reserve ammo.You do what you want and your reward is that you get better at... whatever it is you were doing. If along the way you want to takeout a few mobsters, that's your choice. As long as things are burning, or are about to burn, you're playing the game right. It's more fun than working in a trampoline factory, getting paid by the bounce.

2. Project Gotham Racing

I've been with the PGR series ever since Metropolis Street Racer. "It's not how fast you drive, it's how you drive fast." That's one of the joys of the game; the controls are tight letting you swing your fantastically expensive cars round the narrowest bends with the perfect balance of ease and necessary technique. Also, in the same way X-Box 360 gamers have a Pavlovian response to the sound of an achievement popping up, the sound of 'Kudos' racking up is a heavenly sound, especially when accompanied by tire squealing. If you're lucky enough, or unlucky depending on whether you like these places, to live in one of the in-game cities you'll appreciate the deserted roads...something you'll never see in London. For the ultimate in stress relief, I recommend playing Cat'n'Mouse online. As a racing game, you're meant to race, not collide or put you opponent off in any way. Cat'n'Mouse, however, is about crashing into the other team, and not just that, you are actually meant to bully their weakest car. It sounds brutal... and it is.

3. Burnout: Paradise

You've had a long day at work, you're stuck in traffic on the bus or in your car, you're probably going to get angry, rattled, frustrated - not too unlike a caged animal. It isn't how anyone should end his or her day really, step forward Burnout: Paradise. If PGR was about how you drive fast Burnout:Paradise is basically about how much rampant destruction you can cause while driving fast.

Opponent getting on your nerves? Introduce them to a wall. It's the kind of instantly satisfying justice that you wish you could deal out in real life when say, babies are crying on public transport, or when someone sends you grammatically incorrect texts to save time. Burning rubber, high speeds, twisted metal, solid walls; it's the ingredients for one hell of a time. Remember kids, speed doesn't kill you, it's the sudden lack of it, that's the real killer.

4. Eledees

No one likes living in a messy house but it is undeniably fun making a mess. Eledees gives you a gravity gun and doesn't care much for the whole cleaning up thing. With the use of the WiiMote your job is to smash things around the place looking for little critters to trap and enslave, giving you more power to throw around bigger things. It's a wonderful cycle of destruction and mayhem. Combine that with the little screams of fear that the Eledees emit while you hunt them down, and you can be your own little family friendly dictator.

5. SingStar

Not much to point out here. Scream as loud as you can and pretend you can actually sing, don't worry, you can't. Then get rated on how you did by the most generous and easy to trick scoring ever conceived. Might not sound like much fun but it is. If that still doesn't sound appealing, something you can apply to life as a whole to vastly improve it, just as alcohol.

6. Earth Defence Force 2017

"EDF!! EDF!!", music to my ears. Earth Defence Force is a thing of beauty. It knows it is rubbish, you know it is rubbish - I know it is absolute rubbish. However unlike most games, that is half of the fun. In the same kind of way as Crackdown, mass killing equals bigger mass killing. The more you play, the more health you get, the bigger weapons you are rewarded with. You'll be pretty pleased when you get the Tortoise, a slow moving, homing tactical nuke. You'll be even more pleased when you find out that later on you'll get weapons that make the Tortoise look like a pea-shooter.

There really is nothing like seeing the horizon of a ruined Tokyo city at sun down fill up with giant ants as you fire off your Prominence MA. As you turn to face the next wave, and your missile crashes into the alien hordes, you won't fail to smile at the ants' death screams and their lifeless corpses as they blot out the sun. Play this in co-op and prepare to lose hours to it. I dare you not to smile.

7. Tori-Emaki

Okay, so a theme that might be emerging here is that violence means stress relief (Yes, I'm including the abuse of music in SingStar) so I thought I would have a bit of variation and that comes in the form of Tori-Emaki. Tori-Emaki isn't really a game though. It's more of a Playstation Eye based flash game. By imitating a Thunderbird puppet on an LSD induced trip you can manoeuvre a flock of crows around a traditional Japanese wood block print style landscape, accompanied with suitably breezy and relaxing music. It sounds stupid but don't underestimate the power of acting like at total inbred moron.

8. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

A game where you can suplex a zombie, making it's head explode. Where you can cap someone in the knees and then round-house kick them in the face. A game where one of the bad guys is an evil midget. It has everything.

9. Assassin's Creed

Love it or hate it - I don't care. There's no better way to utilise your pent up frustration than becoming a 12th century parkour enabled assassin stalking the holy land. One of the key reasons there is so much enjoyment to get out of the game is because Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, or Altaïr for short, has a real physical presence within the game world. If a beggar woman is annoying you, "Please sir, can I have some money?", don't settle for what you'd do in most other games and just kill her, do the humane thing, chuck her down some stairs and watch her roll. If that sound bite, "No you don't understand, I have nothing!", is really getting on your nerves and you have a brick wall at hand, smack her into it before she can shriek her last syllable. Just before people get up in arms about me being sexist, you can apply exactly the same method to the lepers - it's just they don't annoy me as much by repeating the same ear shattering sound bite at me for the nth time.

Swords and hordes are also on the menu as the enemy guards will actively stand by as you slaughter them one by one. It's a pretty rhythmic fighting system which I think suits the game. You can't beat the feeling when your sword connects perfectly and are rewarded with a bloody neck exploding execution.

Now picking the final game has caused me a few problems. Do I go with Portal and the energy contained within its gameplay, Mario Galaxy where I can bound planets or a thousand other different games that should really get a mention? Like I said earlier, feel free to tell me in the comments of games you would add to the list.

Finally, my number 10 goes to...

10. Super Stardust HD

I love this game. I loved it when it first came up and I loved it even more when trophy support was added. A game that fits in that wonderful bracket of easy to learn, difficult to master. I'll try and get my lyrical waxing out of the way quickly. The game looks phenomenal in all its 1080p glory. There is so much going on that certain tasks, like surviving for 7 minutes without dying in Endless Mode, are incredibly daunting but the game is so easy to get into, and so inviting to learn, that most will find it a joy to attempt such challenges.

There were two things that convinced me to put SSHD in my list. First, setting off nukes, sending a shock wave around the planet ripping to pieces anything in it comes into contact with, is awesome. Second, my experience of trying to get the 'Late Boomer' trophy. For this trophy you try and recoup 15 bombs on a rapidly busier planet where your only form of defense is swift dodging and bombs, the latter of which you really need to hold onto if you want the trophy. I managed to get 14 bombs and then those masochistic red triangles of death started to land and I though I was about to be annihilated again. I manage to swerve out the way for about 10 seconds missing rocks by only a pixel's width. Desperation sets in, my heart is pumping. Suddenly I see the supply ship carrying two bombs halfway across the planet. I boost. I detonate. As two magic bomb tokens hover in infinity, so close yet so far, the universe is coming for me. The massive gold asteroids want me, the myriad of rocky debris want me and the red triangles of death are coming for me, building in number. In blind hope I swoop. 13. 14. 15.

I've done it.

Shock, joy, relief. I've f*cking done it.

As the Trophy message acknowledges my achievement, I am blinked out of existence by the force of the universe. And that, dear readers, is the last time I will ever play the 'Bomber' mode on SSHD.

There we have it, 10 games to keep you sane.

Best and Worst of Steam

2008-08-19T19:13:00.029+01:00

Following on from yesterday's Fanning the Flames, we take a look at the best and worst of Steam. Eternity's Child has hit Steam and you can now decide for yourself whether it deserved that infamous 1/10. In the meantime we look at the rest of the indie and casual games out.

BEST

Steam has proved itself to be the premier digital distribution for PC and has been littered with a wealth of great titles. Below are our top picks.

Audiosurf

Audiosurf was a revalation back when it was released back in February this year. In Audiosurf players control an anti gravity ship similar to those found in the likes of Wipeout, F-Zero and Fatal Inertia. The aim of the game however is unlike the aforementioned games, instead you navigate the game's tracks collecting coloured blocks known as cars. The innovative part is where the blocks are generated from. Any DRM free music can be imported into the game and played along to, along with this are some tracks that come included in the package notably the Orange Box soundtrack and songs by independent artists. The game has an almost mesmerising feel to it and playing it can make listening to your prized music collection even more of a joy. This game truly has to be played to be believed.

Everyday Shooter

Created in just a few months by Jonathon Mak, this game is a twin stick shooter with a difference. Like Audiosurf it is inventive in it's use of music, each level has its unique own song playing in the background. Each song is created specifically for the game and as a whole they all feel a part of the same package. Mak himself has compared his work to an album and the common traits and themes they seem to share help back up this view. Everyday Shooter also has a gorgeous hand drawn look to it, with each level having a truly special look to it.

Sam and Max

Before Sam and Max came along the point and click adventure genre was as good as on its knees. However Telltale Games revived the genre with their episodic Sam and Max games. Now on its 3rd Season the franchise has proven to be a hit with its wicked sense of humour, cheap cost per episode/season along with a cracking plot and interesting and varied gameplay.

WORST

Every "platform" has its fair share of awful games not worth your time, Steam is no different.

Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

An unimaginative TV cash in that has little in the way of redeeming features. It's based on the TV show of the same name that has been sold in various formats across the world. Is not in the least bit fun and suffers even further in comparison when compared to the likes of Buzz and Scene It. When you also consider where both of these franchises are heading with Buzz Quiz TV and the sequel to the original Scene It this game falls even further off the grade.

Ninja Reflex

Also released on Wii this PC port suffers by comparison as much of the appear of the game is in the motion controls. The game is somewhat limited with just 6 different modes of play repeated over and over again and it is hard to justify purchasing when there are far more comprehensive mini game collections out there.

So does Eternity's Child deserve a place on this list? At this point with the final version of the game having been launched and the general consensus seeming to be that it does deserve the poor scores it recieved means it will indeed appear on countless worst games ever lists. Look out for our upcoming review to see what what we think

Fanning the Flames: Luc Bernard, victim or raving idiot?

2008-08-18T13:00:00.020+01:00

What has now become known as simply Bernard Gate will go down as an infamous moment in the minds of many hardcore gaming forum members across the world. But was he simply a victim of the current state of gaming communities? Or did he perhaps leave himself open to this kinda of treatment as a result of the way he put himself in the public eye?

Popular gaming blog Destructoid recently posted a shall we say less than positive review of Eternity's Child. They gave it 1/10 and derided the game as worthless and not worth your time or effort in playing. The review did raise some interesting points namely in the introduction, highlighting how Eternity's Child had come to enter the limelight; "Talk about the game's creator, Luc Bernard, whose skill at self-promotion has put his work firmly in the public eye for one reason or another?"

To be fair the backlash from the review was far more from to do with the comments and it is really easy to lay the blame firmly at the feet of Anthony Burch and Conrad Zimmerman for their analysis in their article. Listening to the recent Podtoid does make the site shine in a far more distinct light as they defended their honest objectivity that is present in their reviews. If a game is bad you can trust them to tell you. They took the slant that Luc Bernard should not have gone and argued in their comments system and it is hard to not agree with this viewpoint. One thing they said is hard to justify was about his drinking, if this debacle has indeed led to Luc seeking refuge in alcohol it is surely not something to laugh about?

I recently spoke to Luc on MSN during the calm after the storm. It is clear to see Luc has taken all these comments very personally when he told me "You see when you get a certain number of comments on your blog telling you to kill yourself well erm lol you think and you're like ok if I continue I will end up like Uwe Boll". Uwe Boll of course the much hated movie director who seems intent on giving us videogame movies that are well to be frank awful. Whilst critizing a game is one thing there is no way you can justify personally targetting one and Luc has found both his personal blog inundated with insults and threats as well as his private email address. How is this in anyway fair? Certainly sending insults via email is an invasion of privacy and the arguement that he has entered into the public so is therefore fair game does not wash at all.

There can be little doubt that trolls have become the bain of the internet. Luc summarized it "forum and trolls are destroying everything", whilst this is a very broad statement and becomes a bit gloomy there is plenty of truth behind it. Trolls are a problem and if a reaction by them to a game like this can bring somebody to quit the Internet. This is something developers need to roll with and evolve to accept it. This new found culture of people going to extreme lengths to deliver their point of view isn't going to go away as new blogs and forums spawn every day of the week. It isn't going to go away, this kind of game conversation which would never have taken place on press sites prior to the up rise of the Blog. Bloggers aren't bound by the policies and integrity of the mainstream press and as such aren't held in high regard. Despite perhaps this lack of professional regard Blogs do create incredible reactions, controversial posts on popular Blogs seem to make the headlines as much as actual gaming news these days. Should developers enter the blogosphere though? Is it worth the hassle?

It does seem that whenever a developer goes into the public arena it only ends up ending in a less than favourable way. It is usually self preservation unfortunately Luc decided to compare himself with the ultimate forum whipping boy Denis Dyack.

Trying to compare himself to Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights was perhaps not the best thing to do. It's like George Bush trying to defend his war policies and comparing himself to Genghis Kahn. First up he went on 1up Yours and opened a whole can of worms by saying he did not approve of people previewing games, this of course had nothing to do with the poorly constructed demo of Too Human that made it onto the E3 showfloor, hey Denis don't want your games previewing? Then don't show them simple as. However Dyack didn't stop here, he has recently been running amok on NeoGAF and now alienating the very people who he is relying to buy the game. Luc Bernard on the other hand until this debacle has proven to be a very likable fella, with appearances on the Radio Ninty and N-Europe Show podcasts to name just a couple helping to reaffirm this belief.

As mentioned before I have had the pleasure of speaking to Luc on MSN and he does have an air of a very nice man, who is enthusiastic about what he does and has a lot of passion for the job. He was very passionate in his defence of himself. He explained his reasons for entering into the comments section of reviews and battling them head on, it was simply a case of fighting fire with fire. He felt his back was up against the wall and it would seem this is the only way he knew how to fightback.

Also of course Dyack has the advantage that of the six games published today he has managed to secure big publishers for those titles; Nintendo, Konami and Crystal Dynamics to name a few. Luc has not had this advantage he is an indie developer and any deals he has in place will likely mean he needs to hit a lot of downloads to make money from it. In conversation with him it is clear to see he thinks that this review from Destructoid has killed the game before gamers even had the chance to download it and therefore feels he faces a dire financial future if he relies on Eternity's Child as his main source of income.

Just for the record I have played an early demo of Eternity's Child and yes it did have glitches. However the potential was there, I think it had the hallmarks of good level design the sort of none linear mechanics that have been praised in games such as Castlevania and Metroid. It is worth noting the also the art style is gorgeous (something Destructoid's review did mention, see it wasn't all bad!) and Luc Bernard's admission that he will perhaps continue his stories through graphic novels will see this work survive in a different form at least.

In balance the truth likely lays somewhere between the two. What right do trolls have to publicly hurl personal slurs and taunts at a guy who is just trying to make a living? Comparing himself to Denis Dyack really hasn't helped in anyway, Denis is a different beast all together. Luc Bernard is a very friendly, likable, passionate and eccentric man; all traits which have unfortunately helped contribute to him being an easy target. One thing is clear though Luc Bernard will not be the last man to fall victim to the Internet forums of the gaming community. As the way we consume games evolves we also find the way we discuss games changes and everyone becomes a critic when they set up an account on any number of sites, its up to games developers to learn to use it to their advantage rather than let themselves get defeated by it.

Review: Toki Tori (Wiiware)

2008-08-17T15:34:00.005+01:00

Toki Tori by developer Two Tribes is a simple premise- you are plonked in a 2D level and there is a number of eggs you must collect. That's it. Well there are a few other things that spice it up- items like bridges, teleportation device, freeze-o-matic and hoover amongst others, as well as baddies to avoid. It might not be a huge list, but things can get pretty complicated and taxing nonetheless.

Sound like fun? Well probably not from that description. The thing is, Toki Tori has an addictive edge where, even on the most difficult of levels, you always think you are on the verge of success so you want another go... and another... until you eventually perfect your approach and complete the level. Its made difficult because you only have so many uses of each item in each level- meaning you have to plot things out and make sure you use the items in the right places and not waste them, lest you be looking at that last egg and have no means to reach it. Even the baddies need to be used to your advantage. Each and every level has a very deliberate layout, which you will realise the deeper you get into the game- each single gap, platform, ladder, baddie... everything must be given consideration as you formulate the winning strategy for each stage.

In the early levels everything is straightforward as you are eased into proceedings but its not that long before you will be scratching your head. When stuck you will find yourself staring at the screen, working through how to reach the eggs in your head. Waiting for that moment of enlightenment, that elusive eureka moment when it all becomes clear to you. On completing a particularly tough level you realise how logical - and oft-times obvious - the solution was. You wonder how you could be so stupid when the solution was staring you in the face all the time. You'll jump straight into the next level to prove to yourself that you aren't that thick, but 15-20 minutes later, you will be stuck once more.

The game is made up of four worlds with ten initial levels each and then a selection of hard levels for each world after that, which takes the number up to seventy. There is next to no story, but that doesn't matter. As you play, Toki Tori will leave you messages on the Wii message board, keeping you up to date with his adventure, which is a nice touch. Graphically, its all good. The only glitch I came across was in the sound department- when you zoom the camera out to look at the level, some sound effects will continue even though the game is, in effect, paused. For example, if you zoom out when Toki Tori is flapping down off a ledge, the sound of his flapping wings will continue.

If you are worried about what control methods are available, then there's nothing to be afraid of. The game supports Wii remote (you can play it purely with the IR pointer, a la Zack & Wiki), Wii remote + nunchuck and the classic controller. If you use the remote at all, then it can be fun to switch between items as you have the choice of pressing left and right on the d-pad, or flicking the remote left and right.

What it all boils down to is that if you are looking for a game to appeal to the side of you that enjoyed games like Zack & Wiki and the Lost Vikings, then get Toki Tori because playing as a chicken has never been so good. It may seem pricey at 900 Wii Points, but its genuinely worth it.

Review: No More Heroes

2008-08-17T15:16:00.023+01:00

It’s not too brash to say there just isn’t enough unpredictability in modern gaming. Sure, there’s enough variety of genres covered across the board, but nothing that quite flicks the Vs to the majority and runs around the field with its testicles showing. Legendary oddball Goichi “Suda 51” is clearly annoyed at this state of cosmopolitanism, and with No More Heroes, he has created one of the most unique games of this generation.

Of course, coming from the man who brought the world Killer7 and promotional toilet roll, it probably isn’t surprising to learn that No More Heroes isn’t exactly what you would call a genre game. If it is to be classified as anything, it would probably be best described as an arcadey-style action game, with sandbox adventure elements and several death-dealing mini-games with a nitrogen-powered motorbike thrown in the recipe for good measure. The story isn’t exactly sober, either.

No More Heroes starts with the main protagonist (well…) of the game, Travis Touchdown succeeding in auctioning for a “beam katana” lightsabre weapon on the internet, but then unintentionally being flung into a league of the country’s top assassins, and the name of the game is that you have to kill to survive. The basic gameplay thread that ensues sees you progressing up the league by taking out all the killers above you. This obviously comes free with the exhilarating opportunity to slice through dozens of personalityless suited goons in the main levels.

It should be noted that before all this even begins, the first thing you notice about No More Heroes is its how gorgeous it all is. Taking a leaf out of Killer7’s book, the whole game has a seamless cel-shaded visual direction. Married with the over-the-top violence and frankly unnecessary amount of f-bombs, it isn’t hard to look at this as a colourful variant of Sin City. However, unlike Frank Miller’s knack at creating interesting characters and engaging set pieces, Suda 51 much prefers to parody the inspirations it borrows from, from the instantly hateable dialect of Travis to villains that would make a Bond movie cast blush. However, not all these parodies are as harmless as these.

For example, the streets of the overworld are full of amusingly brain-dead civilians and blocky vehicles have laughably disproportionate collision boxes. Of course, while these “flaws” may be intentional, they’re still evident. It soon becomes a chore to navigate around the sterile Santa Destroy, and the mundane but financially necessary side missions just make the game outside the missions seem like a hub that you’ll come to dread. But mark our words: for the main missions – it’s more than worth it.

Being 10 bosses above you, there are 10 main levels to progress. Each one is totally different from the last in terms of design, gameplay mechanics, types of enemies and even one-off gimmicks. One level saw you simulate Travis’ dream about a 2D shoot’em up; so you were actually playing a vertically scrolling shooter for that part of the game. Suda 51’s own personal tastes shine through in No More Heroes, and they’re executed sublimely. It’s the boss battles themselves, though, that are really the game’s forte. A hugely diverse range of characters with mad settings and even madder, over-sized weapons – you’ll be biting at the bit to knuckle down and get scrapping. The fast pace and ridiculous difficulty ensures you’ll forget about the relatively simplistic controls (it’s essentially one button to swing your sword).

No More Heroes certainly isn’t a short game; clocking in at around 13 hours, with no room for multiplayer. The manic fights you’ll have will guarantee at least one replay, and there’s a wide range of collectable clothes for dedicated finishers. But it will always be the first time you play through it that you’ll remember. From the shocks and scares to the surprising and downright weird - with No More Heroes, Grasshopper has succeeded in making one of the most creative and diverse games so far this year. It’s an experience that truly needs to be experienced.

NWTD: Mario and Sonic NOT at the olympic games

2008-08-15T11:00:00.006+01:00

Mario, Sonic and friends refused to show up to the Olympic Games this year to protest the appalling way that China treats its citizens. The Chinese government has warned that "any member of the group caught speaking to the press, be it world famous plumber, weird blue mutant hedgehog or otherwise, will well get beatings". We speak to a member of the group about why they're refusing to take part. The name of the person has been changed and any pictures have been pixellated to protect the interviewee.

goaferboy: Welcome to Gamingcorner. I wish it was under better circumstances. Rest assured that your identity will remain secret to avoid any unwanted attention from the Chinese government.

Gary O: Thank you, I don't want to endanger myself unnecessarily but people need to know about the terrible things going on in China.

goaferboy: The press has been covering this for the time leading up to the Olympic games, have you experienced anything yourself that has yet to be covered?

Gary O: Yes, my brother, "Larry O", and I were just getting off of the plane at Beijing airport and I heard the security guards whispering to each other "Hey, let's give that fat foreigner and his lanky friend a bit of hassle". Next thing we know, we're in an office with our boiler suits round out ankles with sniffer dogs barking at us. No one told us why we were there and what they were looking for. "Larry O" even began crying, but that just made them laugh more.

goaferboy: That's horrendous! Surely you reported the security staff to the police?

Gary O: We went straight to the police station after we were finally released from airport security. They made us wait in the police station waiting room for 3 hours. When someone finally came out to see us all they said was "I've got your complaint form right here", stuck their finger up at us and laughed us out of the building.

goaferboy: That's no way to treat a guest, especially one who has done as many amazing things as you. Did anyone show any sympathy towards you? Did anyone help?

Gary O: Yes, the other guys that featured in "Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games". They all had similar experiences. "Andrew" got called a "fat ginger ****" by a passing police officer. They then started juggling his man boobs around and tugging on his moustache. He's not like his character in the games, he's actually quite sensitive. "Rodney" tried to defend "Andrew" but the police officer shot him. No warning, just shot him! Luckily he was carrying a few rings or he'd have been a dead man.

goaferboy: Christ, I couldn't imagine a world without "Rodney". How is "Andrew" feeling now?

Gary O: Not good. He's refusing to eat and keeps talking about dying his hair black. We're really worried about him.

goaferboy: I can imagine. Thank you for your time "Gary O", we hope your message gets across. Send our best wishes to the rest of the guys.

Gary O: Thanks, I'll pass on the message.

Gaming Corner is going places, join us NOW!

2008-08-15T10:27:00.002+01:00

The Staff here at Gaming Corner are delighted with how our exciting new site is shaping up. Why not pop into the forums sign up and join in the good times with us? Link to the left in the navigation bar.

Lowdown on the Download- Wii Shop Update 15/08/08

2008-08-15T09:35:00.003+01:00

It's Friday it's European Wiiware and Virtual Console update day!

Wiiware

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People- 1000 points
My Aquarium- 500 points

Virtual Console

Nothing!

So it's a bit disappointing to see no Virtual Console games today, but we do get Telltale Games' latest point and click adventure. With the episodic Sam and Max almost single handedly reviving the point and click genre it is nice to see them lend their hand to something different. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is again a licensed game based on the flash shenanigans over at www.homestarrunner.com (which includes some flash games designed with the Wii in mind) There are tons of cultural references in the Free Country USA universe they have created as well as smatterings of in jokes. It is worth visiting the site and watching some of the hilarious flash movies to get yourself into the vibe of the world and it will help you appreciate the game's humour. Aside from the script and comedy the game is a very playable point and click with plenty of variety in the puzzles and situations thrown up. This download is the first in a series of downloadable episodes that will be hitting the Wii every month.

My Aquarium is a simple virtual pet game whereby you look after various species of fish. You required to tender to their every need and making sure you keep them fit and healthy. Oddly the game uses the Wii Weather Channel to give season weather despite most real world aquariums being unaffected owing to them being indoors. Their is little to do with this game besides looking after and acquiring different species, but at just 500 points it is unlikely to offend.

...now watch this drive: Intro

2008-08-14T18:47:00.008+01:00

"...now watch this drive", or "We've had all the facts and the informative stuff, now watch this drive" to give it its full name, is supposed to be a bit of a wind down to the week with a bit of general sillyness. Posted every Friday, this section will include random, more than likely fictional stories from the gaming world. And before anyone points it out, yes I am aware that the picture in the title is taken on the green and therefore has nothing to do with a drive, but I'm being abstract.

Casual Gaming; Just a different way to play?

2008-08-14T14:13:00.006+01:00

We let one of our forum members run amok on the blog, the results of which can be found here!

The days where the casual gamer was seen as the second class citizen might be over, and it could be time to rethink the whole concept... Since reading the quote from Laurent Fischer, Nintendo Europe's senior marketing director, who proclaimed “For me, you are a gamer or non-gamer ... There is no casual gaming. There is just a different way to play.” I have been thinking.

There were times, on various forums, where the debate about casual gamers has been instigated. Are they a good thing? Have they reduced the quality of games, making them into quick fixes and throw away titles? Or do they open the market to a whole new audience and encourage a hobby we all love to become more widely accepted? I do not remember ever debating the existence of the concept though. We were all happy to agree that there were gamers, and there were casual gamers. Like comparing Hagen Daz with Mr Whippy, it’s all ice cream, but there is a significant difference. It was a clear cut thing.

Just because you don't get the depth of Final Fantasy does it makes you any less of a gamer?

So has that changed? With games which are easy to pick up, accessible in short sharp bursts, targeting a different audience in some cases, and using new methods of control, did Nintendo make a new split in the gaming community? If you are playing a game like Brain Training or Nintendogs, Wii Fit or Wii Sports, for 30 minutes a day, are you a casual gamer? You may never appreciate the depth of the storyline in the Final Fantasy series, you may never unlock all of the trophies in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and you may never know what I am talking about when I say “I just did a Leroy Jenkins in WoW” but are you any less of a gamer? There are a new breed of gamers out there who are taking advantage of a new way to play. I think to brand these people as casual gamers might be doing them a disservice. I will share a personal example.

Why is playing the DS as a hobby not considered hardcore?

My brother was someone I would have classed as a casual gamer, he would buy the odd title, usually something based on the latest Hollywood release and play it for a couple of hours before tiring of it and giving up. He then got a DS, he now spends more time playing games than I do, even though I’m the one who takes these things relatively seriously. The kinds of titles which have him hooked are akin to the flash games you get online, they are deceptively time consuming and really quite addictive if you let them under your skin. He would never get serious about his gaming, but he does invest time and money in it all the same. Do I still think of him as a casual gamer..? I do not think I can.

Dawn Causon

Lowdown on the Download - PSN Update - 14/8/08

2008-08-14T13:40:00.009+01:00

Time for this weeks PSN update.

PS3 store

Game

Sheep (PS1 Classic) - £3.49
Driver (PS1 Classic) - £3.49

Demo

Facebreaker - FREE
Monster Madness - FREE
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 - FREE

Packs

Nascar 09 - Car Skin Pack 1 - £1.99
Nascar 09 - Car Skin Pack 2 - £1.99
Nascar 09 - Car Skin Pack 3 - £1.99
Nascar 09 - Montreal - £2.99

Videos

E3 - In conversation with Shuhei Yoshida - FREE
Fatal Inertia Ex Trailer 1 - FREE

PC store

Game

Sheep (PS one Classic) - £3.49
Driver (PS one Classic) - £3.49

Videos

Buzz!™: Master Quiz Trailer - FREE

In Game

Nucleus Updated Full Game file - £4.99
Nucleus Updated In-game upgrade file - £4.99

---

We get a couple of solid demos, I'll be trying out Monster Madness, but as usual there is nothing to write home about. Sony have promised us The Last Guy and Ratchet and Clank for this month so I'm not going to show my rage.

There is an interview with Shuhei Yoshida from E3. If you don't know who Shuhei Yoshida is, thank you google, he is Phil Harrison's successor (No, I didn't have to google him). It might be interesting, but somehow I doubt it.

Actually I lied before, I am going to show my rage. Lets just log into the American PSN for a second. After my eyes adjust to the divine light of PSN nirvana where there is new content aplenty and the store is organised, nay, easy to navigate, I stumble across Bionic Commando: Rearmed ($9.99) and Street Fighter Alpha ($4.99). So Europe isn't deemed good enough for either of these titles... or 1942: Joint Strike from last week... or any kind of a hint at a Resistance 2 Beta... fantastic. I normally have a go at SCEE, because it's more fun to think that they are bumbling morons who entertain themselves by rolling corks across the floor while singing the lyrics to 'Hit me Baby One More Time' backwards in a ritualistic bid to keep the flying monkeys away, but in actual fact it is Sony Computer Entertainment, Incorporated's fault for not forcing studios to submit global submissions like Microsoft does. Bad Sony!!

Also this week sees the introduction, by SCEE, of a brand new feature that will revolutionise gaming as we know it and bring an end to world hunger, yes people, items will now be viewable in an A-Z order.

Mr Trill, Sony's European Community Manager writes:

In support of our continued improvements to the PlayStation ® Store we will be implementing a Search By A-Z category within the Store. Featuring within our store update this Thursday the 14th August, the All Games section will now include sections sorting our game content into A-Z listings by letter. Therefore, if you’re looking for a specific game, demo or game add-on content by name, you can use this handy new feature to speed up your search.

Still no demo section I see...

Retro Column: Style

2008-08-14T11:00:00.011+01:00

Some games stand out for their immersive storylines, others for their jaw dropping graphics. Some games, however, feature nothing ground breaking at all and yet stand out for reasons that are hard do put into words. These games claim a spot in the gaming hall of fame by offering something else, a unique sense of style. Either by using a tried and tested technique in a new way, or by creating new techniques or their own. I take a look at what it takes to be stylish and which games succeed at it.

Style can be a tricky thing to define. Everyone has an opinion on what makes things stylish. Some people, particularly westerners, see style as over the top explosions/deaths/injuries mixed with witty one liners, ludicrous feats of general awesomeness and a devil may care attitude. Generally the more of each, the better. Whilst this can sometimes lead to a stylish game, the vast majority of games tend to overdo it. Nothing kills a games style better than trying too hard to be cool. In order to create stylish main characters, a game needs to find the perfect balance between "awesomeness" and modesty. They need to be able to bust out all the cool moves, but at the same time need to be oblivious to their awesomeness. Here is a few games that have managed to become stylish by finding the perfect balance:

Devil May Cry:

The Devil May Cry series features all the over the top acrobatics and arrogance you'd expect, but manages to avoid giving the impression that they are trying too hard by giving Dante (and later Nero) a slightly quieter confidence than other "cool" heroes such as Duke Nukem. Some scenes in the game do seem a little too over the top (the scene where Nero stands on an enemy and rides it like a scooter springs to mind), but overall the Devil May Cry series manages to pull of a near perfect balance.

Metal Gear Solid:

First things first. Snake Plissken. The name itself is totally badass. Add the fact that he was named after the badass from Escape from New York/LA who was played by the badass Kurt Russell into the equasion and you get possibly the epitome of badassism. Now this would normally set the "trying too hard" alarm bells ringing, but the games manage to avoid this by having the main character focus on his objectives rather than taking time to make witty one liners or enjoy his coolness. The games also manage to avoid taking themselves too seriously by adding a number of easter eggs. These include catching ladies with their trousers down and "interesting" conversations between enemies.

Another way in which a game can become stylish is by using all its elements (graphics, sound, music, level design and presentation) to make a truly unique gaming environment. This can be done either by using existing technology in a fresh new way or by creating its own technology to make its own unique style.

Comix Zone:

Comix Zone manages to find a unique sense of style by setting all its levels within the pages of a comic. Each level is set within a page of the comic and the player goes through each level cell by cell. Once a section is complete, the player then chooses which adjoining cell to move onto. The game adds to this comic book feel by having each character talk through speech bubbles and adds narrative blocks of text within certain cells. Some sections of the comic merely require the player to defeat the enemies within the cell, but others require players to actually tear the lines between each cell by throwing either enemies or objects through them. This really gives a sense of being trapped inside an actual comic.

Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in America):

Most people remember the original JSR for being one of the first games to use cell shading to create a unique game world, but the game also used its level design and soundtrack to create a futuristic, almost manga-esque scenario. The soundtrack manages to compliment the bright, exaggerated visuals and chaotic environments by using loud, energetic tracks provided by Hideki Naganumas original soundtrack and licensed tracks such as Cibo Mattos "Birthday Cake".

The last way that a game can be stylish is by allowing the player to control the style of the characters and either encourage or force them to pull out some slick moves. These games rely on smooth, responsive controls and require the player to have quick reflexes. A lot of things can cause a game to fail at this type of style, overly complex controls and difficult camera angles are a few examples of what can ruin this type of stylish game.

Prince of Persia:

The Prince of Persia games manage to create a fluid sense of style with its acrobatic fighting and free running elements. Switching from wall running, leaping to a beam before making a death defying leap to a nearby platform in the 3d games gives the player a real sense of style. Even in the earlier 2d games, the sense of style is still there with the Prince showing a certain grace through the levels. This has always been helped by a smooth control system and a level design which doesn't always make it obvious which way to go. This allows the player to explore their surroundings and find their way rather than constantly being told which way to go.

Metropolis Street Racer:

"It's not about how fast you drive, it's about how you drive fast". MSR was the first game to reward players for driving with a certain sense of panache. The game used a Kudos system to award points for drifting and other stylish manoeuvres. These points could then be used to unlock the next level or car. The game managed to use a mix between arcade and simulation type handling to allow the players to control the cars with ease but also used realistic (for the time) graphics to make the player feel like they were controlling real cars and add to the sense of style. The illusion of realism is also helped by the life like radio stations and the accurately mapped real life cities. These cities also used the Dreamcasts internal clock to create real time cycles, for example if it was night time in Japan in real life, it would be night time in Japan in the game.

One important thing to remember with style is that everyones opinion will be different on what makes a stylish game. This article was just my take on what gives a game style and what I feel are the best examples of each. There may have been games I missed, probably even better examples that the ones I gave, but just because they aren't there doesn't mean I don't think they're stylish. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the articles section of the forum.

Nintendo's Current Direction

2008-08-13T17:42:00.005+01:00

Now I don't want this article to come across as me going on a long rant about Nintendo because I am still quite a big fan of theres. The problem is that I rarely plan out what I am going to write ahead of time and some anger that I have about Nintendo's direction in gaming may bubble to the surface in here.

I just wanted to write down my feelings about how Nintendo have approached this generation, with the Wii and to a lesser extent the DS.

I guess my main problem at the moment would be the same as a lot of people. Nintendo seem to be focusing more and more on the casual gaming market. Now for them this is an approach that has paid off, their profits have been very good. Especially considering how poorly the GameCube did for them. Unfortunately for those of us who have been with Nintendo for a long time, we are starting to feel left out and un-catered for. Yes, Nintendo made a point of releasing some big names early in the Wii's life but this just isn't good enough, not when its competitors are getting big name exclusives.

Nintendo's view on graphics and power for consoles would be my next complaint. They have stated time and time again that you don't need a powerful console to make good games. Now I may agree with this to a point (If you read my retro posts you will know I prefer older games anyway) but because of the Wii's lack of power we are missing out on multiformat games that could bring more credibility to the console. Graphical power is unfortunately a big draw in the current gaming world. I know a lot of people who consider the Wii a kids console because of its more cartoony graphics. Once again I do not agree with this personally but the way things are going at the moment, games are taken less seriously by certain people if their graphics are not top notch.

The lack of third party interest in the console would be another worry. I mean the sheer amount of party games released for it is terrible. I think there are several reasons for third parties shying away from the console. They are still not sure yet what to do with this new control scheme. I have read interviews from many developers praising Nintendo in taking this step but how many of them have actually used them well? I think the power and graphics points I made earlier will be more problems for developers. They will know that creating more complicated games will make them more profit on the other two consoles so the Wii will once again be relegated to easier, more casual games. Finally I believe Nintendo's example is influencing developers. They will see Nintendo releasing brilliant games like Super Mario Galaxy or Resident Evil 4 (Wii Edition) but then for every one of these games they will release a load of party games.

Taking a quick look at the Amazon.co.uk Best Sellers List for Wii here are the top 10 games:

Wii Fit
Guitar Hero III
Wii Play
Mario Kart
Carnival: Fun Fair Games
Mario & Sonic At The Olympics
Big Beach Sports
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Family Ski
Big Brain Academy

Now I would say roughly half of those are worth playing and possibly the best on the list (SSBB) is near the bottom.

Considering how well Xbox Live has done you would think that Nintendo would have finally caught on to creating a proper online gaming community. Once again though, not so much. Instead we have overly complicated Wii Console Numbers and we get a weather channel, something im sure a lot of gamers were just gagging for!
Now yes I think the Virtual Console is good and WiiWare is coming along. But it also just seems so small compared to the Xbox Live Arcade or the PSN. I may not be the biggest fan of online gaming but I have had hours of fun playing Call Of Duty 4 online. I cannot say the same for the Wii. I really do hope Nintendo take a hard look at online gaming for their next console, they need to build a proper community which is easy to access.

Now, onto the control system. I was extremely sceptical when it was first announced but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. When the Wii was released I spent months trying to get hold of one. Once I did, I enjoyed playing Zelda and Wii Sports. But soon all that started to change, I began feeling like the controls were losing their appeal and feeling almost gimmicky (a word I usually hate being attributed to Nintendo). I actually sold my first Wii, I was missing the more simple controls I was used to, being able to sit anywhere instead of in front of a bar on top of my television so that everything registered properly.
I think with the controls that Nintendo possibly tried to do too much too fast. As I mentioned earlier, developers just haven't done much with these new controls but I think if they had been introduced gradually this may have led to some games using them a lot better.

Now I did mention the DS at the start of the article but I think it has fared a lot better than the Wii when it comes to a good selection of games for all interests. We still have all the casual and party games that I have been complaining about but there is also some brilliant games on there, in a wide range of genres. This is how Nintendo need to start working on the Wii, they need to make sure all their audiences are happy instead of just throwing the more loyal Nintendo fans a Mario game every now and again.

Well, reading back on that I realise that it does in fact come across as very anti-Nintendo. But I guess that's the way I am feeling about them currently and theres no point trying to change that.

I think this years E3 would be the obvious thing to mention for Nintendo's current direction. They seem to think that showing the more hardcore of the fans a new Animal Crossing game will appease them and then filling the rest of the conference with a snowboarding game and the new Wii Sports title.

A change is definitely needed in Nintendo, unfortunately though I don't see it coming anytime soon. They are making the money they want and unless these new markets they have opened up are a temporary thing then they will keep making that money.

If you want to talk about this article you can either post a comment on the blog or join the forum as there will be a thread in the "Articles" section.

The Best and Worst of Mario

2008-08-11T12:00:00.002+01:00

Hot on the heels of our latest Fanning the Flames feature we take a look at the best and worst of the Mario titles, the games Nintendo should be taking forward with them and the games best left in the past and consigned to the scrapheap.

3D Platformers

Best - Mario 64 (N64)
What can be said about SM64 that hasn’t been said before? Mario’s first 3D outing is given the honour of defining the 3D platformers. Every one of them owes a debt in one way or another to Mario whether it’s the perfect analogue stick controls, the faultless camera controls or the idea of platforming collection based missions outside of the usual A to B premise. (Donkey Kong 64 however famously took collection far too far). The title was jam packed full of little nuances, stand out levels and inspiring moments of brilliance which many games since have failed to come close to matching. There have been games since that have come close to its brilliance and those that have even built upon and surpassed various elements of the game but it will always be remembered as the definitive 3D platformer. Yes the recent Super Mario Galaxy was sublime but Mario 64 has to be remember for everything it did for 3D platforming and for shaping the direction the genre has taken ever since.

Worst - Mario Clash (VB)
Mario Clash was a Virtual Boy game that was headache inducing (usual for the console) though also because of the migraine-inducing gameplay. It was basically a 3D update of the original Mario Bros game and involved clearing a stage of it’s enemies. This entails a boring and dreary mechanic of getting koopa shells and throwing them either into or away from the screens and trying to hit other enemies and knock them into the pit. Where it all comes tumbling down is that Mario cannot aim for love nor money, resulting in what looks like a prefect throw go hurtling past an enemy. The game had 40 levels although oddly no save system meaning you could pick to start on whatever level you choose to. The graphics, despite their red nature, aren’t actually that bad - with Mario’s model being relatively well detailed and some of the levels platforms showing good attention to detail. However none of this helps to make up for a 2D game that never should have strayed into the 3D world of the Virtual Boy.

2D Platformers

Best - Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES)
There are so many games that perhaps could lay claim to this title; the original Super Mario Bros. for the way it defined the 2D platformer, or perhaps Super Mario World for being the ultimate refinement of 2D Mario, or how about Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, with it’s gorgeous canyon drawn backgrounds? Despite all these titles’ claims to the title. There can be only one best 2D platformer; Super Mario Brothers 3. After the slight sidestep that was the Doku Doku Panic remake Super Mario Brothers 2, the world was introduced to this beauty. Nintendo decided to go back to purity of the original and build upon those mechanics. Adding an overworld map added depth, as players planned their route hoping not to bump into Hammer Bros or even worse Koopa’s airship. In the levels themselves the innovations continued, with the new power ups in the form of suits. The frog and tanooki were awesome - but the most incredible and gaming changing was the racoon suit. It opened a whole new level of movement around the levels and coupled with the new scrolling system (which allowed the player to go backwards, up, and diagonally beyond the usual flat plain) gave an entirely new sense of freedom, which was needed to discover some of the well hidden secrets the game had to offer. SMB3 was perhaps the biggest cultural phenomenon in gaming at the time, resulting in more merchandise being released than you could shake a Goomba at; lunch boxes, clothing and of course the Super Mario Bros 3 cartoon. Although it had dreadful voice acting, it helped to retell the Mario story via other media and was perhaps the only TV show that kept kids away from their NES.

Worst - Hotel Mario (CDi)
Actually more like a Puzzle game, but it’s original conception as a sequel to the sublime Super Mario World and its own position as perhaps the worst Mario game of all time means it simply has to be included in this list. Nintendo famously allowed two of its key franchises - Mario and Zelda - to appear on Phillips’ CDi machine. This ended up leading to some of the most derided games in both franchises' history. One of the first titles planned was Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds, intended as a game set in the real world which would use and improve upon the superb mechanics of Super Mario World. However this proved to not be possible with the CDi hardware so the games assets and resources were transferred over to Hotel Mario... and what a mistake that proved to be. The title did actually have a similar structure to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, though instead of visiting the Koopa Kids’ castles, the mission was to bring down their hotel empire. The story was presented by poorly animated cartoons with awful voice acting. Once these were over, the game was simple puzzle solving, with a littering of Mario universe characters coming out of their hotel rooms to cause trouble and prevent Mario from reaching the elevator to the rooftop boss battles. These battles were not even close to the worst boss battles from previous Mario games. These were uniquely bad. Never before has "steaming turd" so aptly described a video game.

Sports

Best - Mario Tennis (N64)
Now this was a tough call. Camelot bring a lot of class and pedigree to their Mario Golf series, meaning their two entries in that series were both in contention. However the slow paced nature of these meant that multiplayer could sometimes become tiresome with four players. Whereas the fast paced tennis gameplay made four player sessions an incredible, long lasting and highly enjoyable experience. The sheer pace and exhilaration of a match clenching rally is something only a select few tennis game have ever managed. Nintendo attempted to build on this game with the GameCube sequel Mario Power Tennis, however the overpowering nature of the power ups meant the game never hit the same level of portraying one of the worlds greatest sports.

Worst - Mario’s Tennis (VB)
The second Virtual Boy title to feature as a “Worst” nominee and (the also second of only two Mario games that hit the system). For everything that Mario Tennis did right, Mario’s Tennis did wrong. It had too few gameplay modes and what you did play wasn’t up to much; Awful animation, awful AI... just plain, well, awful. There was a two player mode via linking up two Virtual Boys, but the link cable never saw a release making the option some what redundant. As usual with Virtual Boy games it was also headache inducing. The game was also too slow and had none of the excitement needed in a tennis match making this game one of the worst sports simulations ever.

Karting

Best - Mario Kart DS
Karting could technically fall into the sports section, but such has been the influence of the series that we consider it more than deserving of its own category. Mario Kart DS is arguably the best in the series. It dumped all of the GameCube versions' unnecessary features and added some of its own. Mario Kart DS added a wealth of new tracks as well as including some classics. One feature taken from Double Dash!! however was the option to use different karts, each with its own unique shape and stats, with drivers free to pick any vehicle they have unlocked. The greatest addition to this title however has to be addictive wifi multiplayer, which surely has to be one of the most played games on the DS’ online service. Great graphics and tight, responsive controls help to polish off a fantastic title and a must-have for every DS owner.

Worst - Mario Kart: Double Dash (GC)
While by no means terrible, the two passengers idea didn’t really work out. Chuck in a load of unbalanced character specific items and the game felt a lot more random and a lot less skill based. Undeniably one of the better looking Mario Kart, with great character animations in the karts and varied and colourful, and a smattering of well designed levels means, this game isn't without its redeeming features.

Handheld Games

Best - Super Mario Land (GB)
Before this title was released much was made of whether the murky green screen of the Game Boy could really do Mario justice. Gunpei Yokei's title proved all its doubters wrong arguably providing one of the best Mario platformers out there. Cracking level design with some original new enemies and situations helped this game along as did the iconic opening music (which was unfortunately remixed into a song that hit the UK music charts). The title also added shooting levels which have not really caught on with the rest of the series (though Super Paper Mario had one level that included space based shooting) despite actually being highly playable and a welcome addition to break up the main platforming levels. Hopefully the rumours of a Virtual Console service for the DS will ring true and see a reintroduction of this title to a new generation.

Worst - Wario Master of Disguise (DS)
Not technically a Mario handheld title, but it's still in the universe and unfortunately is remembered more for what it got wrong than what it got right. Wario’s first DS outing abandoned the gameplay mechanics that had served him so well in the previous Wario Land titles. Instead drawing on the premise of Wario taking various disguises but this fulls down owing to the awful symbol recognition used to switch between the various guises. Unfortunately a little too often it will for recognize your drawing wrongly, resulting in annoyances such as facing a boss dressed in the ineffective artist costume. Couple this with some generic and just plain boring platforming and you are left with a title that leaves a lot to be desired.

Miscellaneous

Best - Mario Paint (SNES)
Mario Paint is at its heart just a simple version of Paint. However add in a delightful mixture of Mario inspired features and a bundled in mouse helped round off a nice package. It had all the basic paint feature but also the ability to create various stamps (Nintendo Power in America helped users to do this) as well as the option to create animations, however a lack of being to distribute these movies (other than record them to VHS) meant a lot of fantastic creations have likely never been see. Following on from the animations option Mario Paint also contains perhaps one of the best and easy to use music editors ever; go on Youtube and watch “Mario Paint Halo” if you’re in any doubt as to what can be achieved on it. The mouse helped make it a joy to control and edit everything and also meant the inclusion of the mini game Gnat Attack to show off the precision that mouse control could offer.

Worst - Mario Teaches Typing (DOS/Windows)
As an alternative to this title perhaps consider buying a stopwatch and opening Word, timing yourself and using word count to help calculate your WPM (Words per Minute). Imagine a kid’s excitement on Christmas Day and unwrapping a Mario game only to say “What... I have to type words on a keyboard to make him break blocks and kill Goombas? There’s no joypad?” The characters jumped and squashed enemies just like you expect, but all the fun was taken out of the game by the fact that you had to type out words like APPLE and ELEPHANT to get Mario, Peach or Toad to go through the levels. Nintendo didn’t actually create this, instead licensing out the Mario rights, which just makes the game reek like the cynical cash-in it is.

There are of course plenty of other honourable mentions that didn’t fit into these categories; Luigi’s Mansion for its unique and fun Ghostbusters style (and also for the fact it righted the wrongs of Luigi’s first solo effort, the awful education history title Mario’s Missing). It's a crime, but we didn't manage to squeeze in any of the RPGs, though Super Mario RPG on the SNES was a major contender for the Misc category (though it’s lack of release across the world ruled it out). The Paper Mario titles definitely deserve a mention for its fantastic fan humour that litters each of the games. Finally, Wrecking Crew for NES needs to get a bit of screen space for it’s destructive mayhem - plus the semi-introduction of Wario in the form of Construction Foreman Spike and for its great level designer which was relatively unheard of at the time.

Fanning the Flames; Little Big Mario

2008-08-10T15:39:00.007+01:00

Nintendo have been held in high regard for so many modern innovations in today's modern gaming climate. There is a little sub genre currently being created in Guildford, England that the Japanese gaming giants should have thought of long ago...Welcome to world of Little Big Mario.

Nintendo are undoubtedly the King when it comes to 2D platformers. Whilst it would be pointless to deny that there have been other great 2D games down the years few can match the long term consistency of the Mario's adventures. It's a genre that Nintendo created, but arguably they are close to losing their crown to the guys over at Media Molecule who have created the much critically praised Little Big Planet.

You cannot help but look at Little Big Planet and think it should be a Nintendo product. The Sackboy characters are as cute as kittens as well as being a merchandiser's dream. The Nintendo like appeal doesn't end there though. The levels we have seen from the single player (that needs to be unlocked to access different materials), have all so far proven to have the type of tight level design one would expect from teams such as Nintendo. Media Molecule have had to come with this all on their own though and whilst yes there are levels and mechanics that bear resemble to common platform stables there can be little doubt that there is mountains of originality tucked away. Nintendo have so many titles just in the platforming genre to draw on and use, imagine being able to draw on all the mechanics and power ups and different level designs from the Mario games of yesteryear. Being able to draw on such a rich heritage is something only really open to Nintendo as a developer.

With such a wealth of titles, each with their own gameplay ideas, the possibilities are endless.

Along with the great level design, variety of play and fantastic mechanics demonstrated in the pre-made levels of Little Big Planet there is of course the innovative level designer where Nintendo have seemingly dropped the ball. Popit is the system used to create levels, it used to drag, drop and plonk stuff into your levels with such ease you can chuck together working levels with reckless abandon. There is no scripting or coding to be done, it is all done in game either alone or brilliantly cooperatively with other players. The Popit system is just crying out for the unique control inputs of the Wii and DS, pointer and touch screen, respectively. It looks easy to use and intuitive.

So that's why it feels like it should be a Nintendo product. Let's look at the reason why it isn't. It's not like Nintendo haven't ever included level editors in their games. Wrecking Crew had a level editor that unfortunately didn't allow for its levels to be saved outside of Japan owing to it originally being developed for the Famicom Data Recorder. Even the recent Mario VS Donkey Kong handheld series is helped by the inclusion of a level editor. However there is a theme here, why has no mainstream Super Mario Bros game contained a level editor?

It's simple Nintendo want to protect themselves, why bother giving users the opportunity to develop levels themselves when you can instead drip feed them iteration after iteration. New Super Mario Bros has sold a phenomenal amount of copies and is selling in its millions, over two years after it was originally released. Why would Nintendo want to potentially harm these sales when they release a inevitable New Super Mario Bros 2 hits the shelves? It is a shame as going on Youtube reveals plenty of imaginative people illegally using ROMS to make their own versions and twists on levels as well as totally unique efforts. Nintendo has always taken a tough stance against piracy and ROMS etc...what better incentive to give would be game designers to invest in a product that offers them more tools to play with than they will ever find by other means

Ultimately Nintendo has missed stepping up to the line with this feature as Media Molecule looks set to win critical praise for their innovative and supremely well designed 2D level editing platforming adventure.

Just one of many possibilties.

It is not just in level editing and user generated content that Little Big Planet trounces Nintendo. Character Customisation is another buzz bullet point used to sell games, its something Nintendo has experimented with in Animal Crossing and more recently with the Mii Channel. However there is this over riding feeling that it just isn't enough. A Character Creator rich in options is always going to popular just look at the recent Soul Calibur IV to see the efforts people will take to make their favourite characters from other franchises. Nintendo have only made limited forays into this area the Mii system whilst fun to use is limited and has had no updates since the Wii's launch. The Sackboy's of Little Big Planet can however be customised till your hearts content with tons of custom options, including specific items from other franchise. Nintendo have dabbled in this with Animal Crossing, but the fact that the new City Folks Wii version only offers colour changing of sleeves as an extra option shows their lack of drive to offer true customizing.

Nintendo unfortunately seem to a company who despite their huge market lead and the success of both Wii and DS are missing one opportunity after another. You have to wonder quite how many more times they can miss stuff and still stay at the top. If we are to look at E3 briefly there were numerous examples of this. With WiiMotion Plus came the unveiling of the impressive looking Wii Sports Resort, yet this kind of peripheral is very much something the hardcore want the chance to finally replicate true 1:1 motion, so where was the hardcore game that will use it?

The moral of this first Fanning the Flames then? Nintendo you have the lead don't go blow it by shafting the hardcore, you can't rely on the casual to constantly keep the pouring in the money in that Nintendo Loyalists have down the years. Give them something that truly resembles true fan service and innovates at the same time. It's not all bad though we did after all have the stellar Super Mario Galaxy last year that showed Nintendo still have that magic.

Coming Soon; Fanning the Flames

2008-08-08T15:35:00.005+01:00

Yep thats right, from next Monday we will be running a regular Editorial Feature called Fanning the Flames. The purpose of this feature will be to air points of view that may not otherwise have a place in reviews and in our other industry features. These articles will not purely sling mud out in public and criticise people left, right and centre, but will also attempt to be informative and well researched at all times. Check back next week to see the first in this exciting new addition to the site.

Retro Column: Vectorman

2008-08-07T11:00:00.006+01:00

In 1994 Nintendo revived one of its classic characters Donkey Kong. Featuring pre-rendered 3D graphics, it boasted smooth animations and detailed characters and backgrounds. Not wanting to be left behind, Sega set about making their own platform game with pre-rendered 3D graphics. In 1995, Sega released Vectorman. Over a decade later it has now been re-released on the Virtual Console (800 points).

The year is 2049 and Earth has been become a mess due to excessive waste and pollution. Enter the Orbots, a bunch of robots left behind to clean up the humans mess whilst they are off gallivanting around the universe, colonising other planets and such. Raster, a high ranking Orbot, watches over the cleanup operation via a planet wide computer network. A lower level Orbot accidentally attaches a functioning warhead to Raster (these things happen) and he goes insane, becoming the evil dictator Warhead. Warhead manages to take control of the Orbots via the network. Vectorman meanwhile is making one of his routine trips to the sun to dispose of some of the collected waste and returns to find the whole planet under the control of Warhead. Naturally this interferes with his cleanup orders so he sets about setting everything straight with his hand cannon. Quite why a cleanup robot needs a hand cannon I'll never know.

The first thing that stikes you about Vectorman is the graphics. The characters and backgrounds are incredibly detailed and every animation, from the first step to the Nixon-esque end of level pose, is consistantly smooth. The only slowdown is experienced on a couple of boss battles, but this is understandable considering the fact that Vectorman looks better than some early Playstation titles.

Aesthetically, the levels are mainly gloomy and depressing but unfortunately some levels (especially levels 1 and 10) look far too similar. Luckily level design is varied, with some levels ditching the 2D platform style for a top down perspective. These top down levels center around destroying a particular enemy. Generally the goal of each platform level is the standard affair of find your way from left to right, although some levels involve heading in the opposite direction or take large detours vertically in order to progress further. This manages to keep each level fresh despite the games repetitive visuals.

The controls are smooth and responsive, allowing players to get around the levels fairly easily. The only niggle with the game is that when running up or down a slope, the aim of Vectormans gun isn't adjusted accordingly. This means that players have to crouch to fire in line with the scenery if they are facing uphill, or just deal with it if they are running down. Luckily there aren't many slopes in the game so it doesn't pop up much, but it's annoying when it does.

All in all, Vectorman is an above average run and gun title and definately worth checking out on either the Mega Drive or Virtual console.

Second Opinion - Happenstance

I have to admit, when playing this game through with goaferboy I remembered it being a lot better than it was. Now im not saying its a bad game but it did get a bit repetetive. As goaferboy mentioned it earlier, a lot of the levels felt very similar. As for the story, I dont know if I just didnt pay attention but I have no idea why Vectorman is running around shooting things (along with what look like spinning tvs for some reason!).

I dont want to be too down on it though, for a quick fire shooting game its good and the graphics felt very ahead of their time when it was released. Definately worth a play.

Anyway, onto the next game to be featured. This time it will be my choice so I am going to go with a game that I played for hours at a time, never quite completing it actually until I was a teenager:

Review: Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)

2008-08-03T20:13:00.016+01:00

We’re more familiar with the roguelike subgenre nowadays through entries in the “Mystery Dungeon” series such as the well-known Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. Due to the Pokémon theme, it has somewhat helped to bring the Mystery Dungeon series to the masses. However, it’s Shiren the Wanderer who leads by example in being Chunsoft’s original core series. So its here, questing with Shiren and Koppa that the true Mystery Dungeon experience can be found. How good can a game that relies on being randomly generated ultimately be?

Shiren the Wanderer isn’t a new game at all; it is in fact a 1995 SNES game that has been re-released on DS. The premise is a simple and linear one: basically, you are aiming to complete the main dungeon by making it from your starting location right the way to the goal, the lair of the Golden Condor. What sets Shiren apart from other RPGs is this roguelike tag we all associate with it and other games of its ilk. What this means is that unlike most other videogames, death is a very real threat. Sure you die in other games, but it’s easy enough to restart and not lose a lot of your progress. In Shiren the Wanderer when you die, that’s it. You go back to the inn at Canyon Hamlet, the first village and lose all your items, experience as well as any companions you may have picked up along the way. Its every bit as brutal and sadistic as you would imagine it to be, but this is where the true art of Shiren lies. Very rarely will you find that you are killed cheaply. Each time you die, you will learn something new about how to play the game and you will be wiser for your next run through. Its best to think of it in terms of Super Mario Bros., whereby your aim is to get from world 1-1 all the way to Bowser’s Castle in one go. A game over in Mario is the equivalent of death in Shiren- if you get a game over at Bowser’s Castle then you have to start over from 1-1, no power ups, no extra lives, no nothing. All you have is the knowledge of how to play and get to Bowser’s Castle, and you will know why you died and be ready for it on subsequent attempts at rescuing that pesky princess. Obviously in Mario you can learn the layout of levels but due to the fact that each floor in Shiren is randomly generated, it’s a different challenge. Nevertheless what you learn is techniques for best defeating bad guys, what to do when certain situations arise and when its best to use items you pick up. It’s the thinking mans game.

Gameplay is grid-like and highly strategic. You have the illusion of walking around freely, but in effect each step you take and each action you make constitutes one turn. Baddies and townspeople will only move when you move, meaning you can take as long as you need to think out your strategy for each situation you find yourself in- you are never rushed, and you play at your own pace. You may be put off by the prospect of the randomly generated dungeon floors, but when you get into the adventure, it’s this very feature that keeps things fresh. No two play-throughs are the same, meaning you never get settled into a gameplay rhythm and you always have to think out your approach to clearing each floor as its never the same as last time.

Graphically, Shiren the Wanderer is nothing special if you are expecting modern day visuals. However the graphics are charming and do the job adequately, harking back to the 16-bit days of gaming. Locations are all varied, with towns, forests, cliff sides and caves helping to differentiate between each section of the journey. Where Shiren the Wanderer is found lacking is in the special effects department. When you use items and staves, there is a small animation but no flamboyant effects that we are accustomed to in other RPGs. On the other hand this doesn’t hurt the gameplay, and means the action isn’t broken up as you wait for Shiren to swing a stave or read a scroll. The dual screens of the DS are put to good use, giving you the option to customise what each screen displays- using one screen for displaying gameplay and the other for the map is the set up of choice.

The music is by Koichi Sugiyama and whilst some would argue that the music is a weak point in Shiren the Wanderer, they are wrong because when you listen to it and get into the game, everything blends together seamlessly. The music isn’t in your face or overpowering but it complements the eastern themed atmosphere of Shiren’s adventure perfectly and so it’s difficult to criticise it.

An unexpected aspect to Shiren the Wanderer is that it encourages players to join together and help each other out. On a play through, you are allowed to be revived three times, and all kinds of options are available so as to give you the best opportunity possible of being rescued. You can send or receive your rescue request via local DS communication, via Nintendo WFC where friends or random adventurers can rescue you and failing that, you can have a password generated that you can give to others so they can come and revive you. This community aspect is greatly encouraged, and makes you realise you are not alone in the quest to reach the Golden Condor.

All in all, do not allow yourself to be put off by Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderers harsh exterior. You are going to die, so accept it and open yourself to this alternative style of play because when you get into it, Shiren provides one of the best experiences available on DS. There are workarounds to the setback of losing all your items upon dying- you can store your gear at various warehouses along the way meaning you can leave things to pick up on subsequent play-throughs. There is a lot more to this adventure than the main dungeon that will lead you to the Golden Condor. After completing the main quest you will open up new dungeons to test yourself in. As well as this there are side quests to get involved in, sidekicks to befriend and recruit and if you so decide you can take the time to upgrade your weapon and shield- but don’t get too attached, because its certain you will die and lose them sooner or later.

There is a lot to sink your teeth into with Shiren the Wanderer, so cast off your doubts and preconceptions about how RPGs are supposed to work and embrace Shiren, the roguelike Wanderer with an open mind.

Second Opinion
Aaron "D_prOdigy" Clegg

The meat and bones of Shiren certainly does sound like a pretty acquired taste… and that very much is the case. If you don’t like “hardcore” games that see you dying and starting from the drawing board several times a play-through, you’d be forgiven for being rather put off by Shiren. But if you’re willing to have an open mind, and are interested in knowing what it’s like to be challenged by a video game, you won’t find a better tool to test you. It’s going to make you angry at the world, but Mystery Dungeon games have never been interested in holding your hand, and the beast gets its kicks from baffling you by radically changing the over-world every time you perish. That’s not to say the world of Shiren never feels familiar. You’ll find yourself stumbling across friendly NPCs time after time, who acknowledge you as a warrior, and always remember you. It’s this sort of design choice that makes Shiren feel constantly new, without totally changing things every hour.

On a personal note, I must highly recommend Shiren to these snobbish gamers who consider themselves “hardcore”. After playing this extensively, I think it’s safe to say that no-one can consider themselves to be anything but mere mortals until they’ve mastered Chunsoft’s 1995 epic. It may be a 13 year old relic, but in this day of 7-hour shooter-fests, it’s the freshest game I’ve played all year.

Review: Defend Your Castle

2008-08-03T10:53:00.007+01:00

Wiiware so far is a service that has shown a wide variety of gaming experiences can be offered at affordable prices. Whilst the likes of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles; My Life as a King have the challenge of proving themselves worthy of the higher end prices, it as the bottom of the scale that things can be far more interesting.

Some of the games priced at the lowest current price point 500 points have the challenge of justifying the purchase whilst also admitting that the title is unlikely to be as fully fleshed out as the bigger titles. The advent of browser based gaming becoming a more prominent part of PC Gaming has led to simplistic free games becoming more readily available. Defend Your Castle is one such game that this very much applies to considering its origins. XGen Studios originally released the game on their website as freely available Flash game on in your web browser. The game has built up a very big fan base and avid following as well as leading to a flood of clones. So with all all this in mind the big question is whether this game is worth 500 points?

The basic premise of the game is exactly what the title says; Defend Your Castle. You have to defend your kingdom by fighting off an onslaught of enemies. Things are a bit laid back at first as you effortlessly fling away from the stickmen, but once you reach about Level 20 things step up and notch and the game really starts to become a challenge. As the games ups the ante a variety of different enemies begin to appear, stickmen armed with lolly pop, bigger bottle top headed grunts and so on. As your progress through the game points can be spent on improving the castle which will in turn help to make defending it that tiny bit easier. The first upgrade is the pit of conversion which allows you to throw in stickmen and add them to your ranks, they can then be allocated to each of the castles various departments. The most simplistic of these is the Archery, whereby allocating more converts results in a higher rate of fire. The best is by far the Mage turret which allows for wealth of spells to be unleashed on the unsuspecting enemies. The first of these is an eraser which rubs out the stickmen's drawn bodies as their button heads tumble to fall, the more you allocate to this the turret the better the spells.

The game is made infinitely more fun and intuitive by the inclusion of motion controls. There is no better feeling than flinging stick men up in the air with a flick of the wiimote, it feels much more involving than mouse driven controls ever could. Aside from the throwing of enemies the game also uses the standard pointer based controls we have come to expect from Wii titles. It makes defending out your troops between the various stations easy and seamless. Finally the D-pad is used to unleash your magic attacks on the unsuspecting enemy.

Defend Your Castle on Wii along with the unique control system also comes with a radically new and improved artistic style. Whilst the flash version had simplistic stickmen and quick drawings for the rest, this iteration offers far more. Everything is presented using real world objects; the stickmen are drawn in felt tip pen and have buttons for heads who occasionally charge the castle with lolly pop sticks, the castle is made up of a series of paper cut outs, the pit of conversion is a paint bucket and finally the clouds are made from the cheap see through toilet paper you used to have at primary school and are carried across the screen by blue pieces of string! All of these make for a truly fantastic looking and unique looking game, there is a special magic to found in the sense of glee experienced when discovering another real world object being used to feel the invaders. With this in mind its perhaps best to leave a few surprises and not wreck them all!

Unfortunately there is very little in the way of diversity and options in the single player. There is just defending you castle from level one upwards. However where this game really comes into its own is in multiplayer. It adds a whole new element to the gameplay as you fight towards the common goal of wiping out all the enemies whilst at the same time competing for the points to be crowned King of the Castle. Up to four players can indulge in the fun and with the maximum number of competitors things can become very manic and disorientating but that's all par for the course and part of the fun.

This is a perfect example of old school basic game design enhanced by the Wii's motion based controls which helps to offer an experience you won't get anywhere else. So back to the question is this worth 500 points? The answer is yes, it offers enough and is presented in such a great way that its brought up and above the flash version and if you find yourself wanting a cheap title to pass the time then there are few better than this on Wiiware the moment.