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| Dead Space - Déjà Tue |
| Thursday, 18 December 2008 |
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.
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posted by Daft @ 12:30  |
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| Virtual Morality |
| Tuesday, 9 December 2008 |
 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. Labels: Daft, Through the Looking Glass
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| posted by Daft @ 12:10 |
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| Review - Football Manager Handheld 09 |
| Tuesday, 2 December 2008 |
 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.
 Labels: flameboy, Football Manager Handheld, PSP, Reviews
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| posted by flameboy @ 19:45 |
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| Feature - 10 Working Days |
| Monday, 24 November 2008 |
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
Labels: Daft, Features
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| posted by flameboy @ 15:00 |
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| Impressions - New Xbox Experience |
| Sunday, 23 November 2008 |
 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.
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| posted by flameboy @ 22:02 |
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| Another 'Videogame' Comic - Nook's Town - Part Two |
| Sunday, 2 November 2008 |
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| posted by not_so_tiny @ 16:30 |
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| Fanning the Flames - Metacritic proves the public can't be trusted. |
| Monday, 27 October 2008 |
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.
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| posted by flameboy @ 11:59 |
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| Another 'Videogame' Comic - Nook's Town - Part One |
| Sunday, 26 October 2008 |
Labels: Comic
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| posted by not_so_tiny @ 15:39 |
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| Top 10 - First Person Shooters |
| Wednesday, 22 October 2008 |
 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.Labels: Features, Top 10
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| posted by Happenstance @ 09:06 |
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| Another 'Videogame' Comic - An Inconvenient Evil |
| Friday, 17 October 2008 |
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| posted by not_so_tiny @ 06:48 |
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