Nana's Paradox

Major site upgrade on the way.

2009-10-08T10:13:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the lack of articles in the last week or so, but I've been hard at work on giving Nana's Paradox a pretty major overhaul. The site is rapidly outgrowing Blogger and so I'm doing something about it now rather than wait until a point where it's beyond managing.

You can check out the WIP at the new domain www.nanasparadox.com and please do let me know what you think so far.

I'm also very interested in getting some other interested writers on board for the new site so if you have an interest in games and writing drop me a line.

Left 4 Dead 2 has new 'Versus' game mode.

2009-10-08T09:12:00.004+01:00

Last night Valve unveiled a new Versus mode called 'Scavenge' which will be included in the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2. The new mode has been designed to provide "quicker, even more frantic game play" than Left 4 Dead's current vanilla Versus mode according to Valve.

The new mode still pits a team of survivors against a team of infected, but in this mode the survivors need to acquire 16 cans of gasoline which are dotted around the maps to power up a generator. The opposing team of infected have to stop the survivors and/or destroy the cans of gasoline.

The game mode lasts for 3 rounds and the winners are the team who collected the most cans of gasoline. In the event of a tie, the winner is the team which acquired the cans in the quickest time. Each round is timed and collecting a gasoline can adds 20 seconds onto the clock.

Dispensing a can of gasoline into a generator takes about the same amount of time that it takes to heal a team mate and early reports indicate that generators camping by the infected team is a sound (perhaps frustrating?) tactic. The new Spitter infected is also highly valuable on this map as he can make gasoline cans explode in a Survivors arms with a well timed shot.

Survivors can also shoot gas cans but this isn't a total disaster as they do respawn if destroyed.

So far the mode seems to offer extremely quick and frantic game play which requires quite a different kind of strategy to the current Versus offering and I'm very much looking forward to trying this mode come November.

(Xbox 360) Cave to test overseas interest - Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 will be region free.

2009-10-01T09:41:00.008+01:00

Japanese manic shooter specialist Cave has announced that their upcoming shooter Mushihime-sama Futari Version 1.5 will be released region free on the Xbox 360.

The move follows extensive requests from Cave fans globally who miss out on many of Caves conversions due to the titles being region locked and a lack of publishers outside of Japan interested in localizing the games.

The game will be released in Japan on November 26th and you can pre-order your copy from Play Asia right now.

If enough people pre-order the game, there’s a good chance Cave may re-consider their region locking policy permanently (ESPGaluda II anyone?) and it’s even possible we may also see region free re-releases of games such as Death Smiles and DDP DOJ.

Alongside the regular release there will also be a limited edition which will include the OST and you will also be able to buy a limited edition Arcade Stick if you’re feeling particularly flush!

Review: Zombie Apocalypse (360/PS3).

2009-09-30T14:36:00.004+01:00

Zombie Apocalypse is a twin stock shooter similar in play to the classic arcade game Smash TV; except instead of a game show you are stuck in the middle of gaming’s latest love affair: a zombie outbreak.

Indeed if you’d never seen the game before but imagined Smash TV with a Left 4 Dead style, you’d pretty much nail exactly what Konami’s Zombie Apocalypse is about and looks like in one foul swoop.

The game can be played solo or co-operatively with up to 4 players (either locally or over your respective network), although be warned that its wise to pick and choose your networked games carefully if you are not the host; lag is very noticeable and ultimately deadly in the fast paced world of Zombie Apocalypse.

You start the day by picking one of 4 characters; Zoey, Bill, Francis or Louis. Ok, ok that’s not quite true but it could be as the 4 characters and much of the games style are clearly influenced by Valves brilliant FPS.

The basic premise of the game is to survive through 55 nights of the Zombie Apocalypse. The 55 nights take place in 7 different locations; each filled with a variety of hazards which can be used to despatch the undead horde in conjunction with your 11 weapon pick ups.

The hazards vary from garbage shredders to helicopter blades and fireworks shops; and all of them reduce the zombies to even larger piles of bloody mess than your standard weapon load out. The only downside to these attractions is that the action is so fast and frantic you rarely get time to really appreciate the carnage they cause.

As you progress through the game you will eventually open up an additional 7 game modes to put your zombie killing skills to the test. My favourite of these modes was Turbo (which unsurprisingly speeds up the action somewhat) and 7 Days of Hell which essentially just continuously throws thousands of zombies at you until you either kill them all or your thumbs bleed.

Zombie Apocalypse is a fun game and well worth the cost (800 MS points and £7.99 on PSN) if you are a fan of arcade shooters and provided you accept that what’s on offer is nothing new.

There are better twin stick shooters and for some people the amount of zombie games is becoming a bit tiring. Me? I’m still not quite done with the undead just yet and I’m thoroughly enjoying Konami’s zombie blaster despite its unoriginality.

7/10.

Crash Course suffers Crash Landing.

2009-09-30T09:22:00.005+01:00

Left 4 Dead’s latest update Crash Course arrived yesterday, but despite Valve’s best efforts it seems to have plagued the game with numerous issues.

Servers went missing, many users were reporting pings in excess of 500 and the achievements don’t seem to be working very well either, with many either not activating or disappearing after they have been earnt. The map itself also has its fair share of bugs.

Valve also decided eradicate the server variable mp_gamemode and replace it with sv_gametype. This change alone managed to break a fair few servers (including our own 22g servers – the change managed to completely bork our campaign menu).

All this is a real shame because at its core the Crash Course campaign is a great piece of mapping and does provide an ideal 30 minute Versus environment.

Still I’m sure Valve is working on it and I’m looking forward to playing with some more once the various issues are ironed out.

And don’t forget until October the 2nd you can grab the PC edition of Left 4 Dead from Steam for half the normal price (£12.49), or even grab four copies for £37.49 if your mates need a bit of encouragement to join you!

Sex, Women and Video Games: what does it all say about us?

2009-09-29T15:34:00.018+01:00

I’ve just driven recklessly through the city streets with the Police hot on my tail, but finally it seems I’ve lost them. I can no longer hear the wail of their sirens and in the top of my screen I can see the stars flashing as my wanted level disappears.

My health is low but I’ve no need to panic; the street I’m now cruising down is known for its prostitutes and my ride is certainly hot enough to attract them over.

A minute later and I’m parked under a large billboard in one of the darker areas of the neighbourhood. The working woman clambers out from her seat and over to mine. She begins to pleasure my character and once she’s finished I pay her; albeit automatically and represented only by my on screen funds depleting.

Her work done, she gets out of the car and starts to walk off in search of more custom. But I don’t want to pay for my health boost. I pull out my gun and shoot her before picking up my money from her blood stained corpse.

The game is of course Grand Theft Auto IV and it certainly stands up as one of the most interesting examples of how both sex and women can be treated in the digital world of video games.

What’s particularly interesting about this scenario is I don’t have the option to not pay the working girl for her services and I can’t rob her either; the only way I can get my money back from her is to violently murder her.

Prostitutes first appeared in the GTA series of games in 2001 when the series made its transition to 3 dimensions. The game was deservedly a smash hit but came under intense criticism from many (primarily non-gamer) institutions because of its violent content. By far the number one compliant was the ability empowered to the player to kill prostitutes.

You are not required to kill the prostitutes and indeed nothing in the game prompts you too either. But whilst the game may not deliberately draw your attention to this kind of behaviour, you are rewarded for this action.

I do find it rather disturbing at the sheer volume of videos and articles you can find about prostitute killing in the GTA games.

Try Googling about the subject and then take a quick look at some of the links available:

“GTA IV prostitutes: How do you kill yours?”

“Where can I kill prostitutes in GTA IV?”

Clearly there are a demographic out there who not only want to participate in the act but find it so entertaining that they spend significant additional time finding new and improved ways to kill them. And of course, make videos to broadcast their achievements.

This raises many interesting questions, not least of which is whether there is, or even can be, morality in this completely virtual environment? It’s is after all a game; no actual person is harmed in any way, unless of course you want to factor in the potential mind of the gamer who is playing.

Now I’m not writing here to condemn; but I am interested in what this type of action says about us as gamers. Picture for a moment the following scenario:

You’re playing GTA IV as per my opening example. Except this time you are giving a detailed, no holds barred running commentary to your Mother. Would you feel comfortable? And do you think she would feel negatively about you or indifferent?

Sex and violence in video games is nothing new although it is an area which (at least in terms of the combination of the two) is touched upon very rarely. One of the earliest and perhaps most well known examples occurs in the Atari 2600 game Custer’s Revenge.

The Cover Art for Custer's Revenge.

Released in 1982 by Mystique, Custer’s Revenge places you in control of a Wild West era General wearing only a hat, bandana and boots. Custer has an oversized appendage which is visibly erect and his goal is to avoid incoming arrows and make it across the screen to where a naked Native American woman (named ‘Revenge’) is tied to a crude wooden pole.

Once there successfully, the General proceeds to rape her and the action starts all over again only with increased difficulty. At its release and to this present day, the game was universally panned both for being poor and for the nature of its content (and rightly so), but is this crude depiction of the rape of a woman actually any worse than the murder of one that sells sex?

The graphics are not as crude as the gameplay premise.

Within the world of GTA IV, the act of sex and violence is not the primary feature of the game playing experience, unlike a game like Custer’s Revenge. But at the same time would we accept GTA IV had we been given the option not to pay the working girl? Is her murder really considered more acceptable than taking the health boost by force? It seems in this instance at least, gamers are saying yes.

Sex within games is not always portrayed violently; but the manner in which it’s commonly used is perhaps questionable. We all know the common term ‘sex sells’ and there’s no doubt this is true, but within the world video games (and more so I would suggest than any other medium) it should perhaps be changed to ‘scantily clad women sell games’.

This is partly based on the long held assumption that most gamers are male despite the fact that recent statistics show that round 30% of all gamers are now female. I suspect it is also due to the high proportion of male developers in the industry but that is somewhat speculative on my part.

My first memories of sex being used to sell games came at quite a young age when I first saw the advert for a game called Barbarian (known as Death Sword in the USA). The game was a one on one fighting game where players fought with swords and despite a lack of rating or any content warning, you could also decapitate the enemy player.

The cover and advertising for the game used well known Page 3 and adult magazine star Maria Whittaker dressed in an extremely skimpy bikini. I’d be lying if I said at the time the advertising alone didn’t make me want the game! Thankfully it was for its time a rather fine game despite the controversy.

Maria Whittaker stars on the cover of Barbarian.

I was not so lucky with my second experience however. Dinamic’s Game Over was a shooter released for a number of 8-bit computers by Imagine. The cover art was by Oliver Frey (well known for his superb artwork that adorned magazines of the day such as Zzap! 64 and Crash) and featured a scantily clad woman whose nipple was exposed.

The game wasn’t that great but the controversy surrounding it however made me want it. This rather tame image (at least by today’s standards) caused so much of an uproar that Frey had to redo the image to remove the offending nipple and even then some retailers placed stickers over that area on the box.

Game Over's controversial nipple.

Back then gaming probably was dominated far more by those of the male gender but despite the increase in female gamers, the portrayal of scantily clad women has risen significantly and not just in the advertising.

Female games characters are now commonly portrayed in scant clothing, with visible knickers and large bouncing busts; Tecmo’s Dead or Alive games perhaps the perfect example.

Indeed their upcoming Playstation 3 game Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 features a female player controlled character where you can shake the SIXAXIS controller to move her breasts and the video advertising released for the game showcases this feature prominently.

Shake, shake - shake, shake it baby!

Whilst even at 33 I’m as partial to sexy characters as the next man; I’m not really sure I want my partner watching me play a game where I can move the females breasts with my joypad. I mean, what image of myself would I be portraying by engaging in such a pointless act? Are male gamers and developers really that sexually frustrated? And if they are, wouldn’t pornography be more fulfilling?

These days there are a fair few games which feature female heroines; a situation predominantly inspired by the commercial success of Core Design’s Tomb Raider.

Originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and then shortly afterwards for the Sony Playstation and PC; Tomb Raider was a 3D adventure game starring female adventurer Lara Croft.

Lara Croft is best described as the female equivalent of Indiana Jones. Strong, agile and beautiful, Lara is a character who was originally designed to appeal to both male and female gamers alike. During Tomb Raiders final design, Lara’s assets (ok, ok, her breasts) were due to be enhanced by 150% to emphasise her femininity. Apparently a ‘slip of the mouse’ occurred and this figure increased to 250%, something that the original designer Toby Gard later expressed some disdain.

Tomb Raider was a great game and huge hit and Lara with her ‘extended’ assets became a cultural icon. Numerous sequels followed, two movies were made and Lara even had her own official models. The most famous of these models was Nell McAndrew who was famously sacked after posing naked in Playboy magazine as Lara without the permission of Eidos.

Despite Lara’s appeal to some female gamers as a strong female character; many felt that her breasts were just too big and finally in 2005 the developers reduced the size from DD cup to a rather more modest C.

Such was the impact of Lara in popular culture, the story made The Times newspaper and the whole issue still managed to upset some female groups. “It doesn’t make it easier to be a girl in today’s culture,” Deanne Jade, principal of The National Centre of Eating Disorders, said. “Why don’t they make her podgy?”

At the time Matt Gorman (brand manager for Tomb Raider) was quoted as saying “The days of selling Lara as boobs and guns are over.” Somehow though I doubt that’s completely true; perhaps what he really meant is that they will start to try and make decent Tomb Raider games again (which to be fair, I guess they did).

Whilst few, there are some examples of developers trying to maturely portray sex within video games. Take for example Mass Effect, which features a consensual sex scene as part of the main characters development. It’s handled maturely and integrated perfectly into the story rather than simply being a rather degenerate sideshow like the one which can be found in Sony’s God of War.

Despite its mature handling, the scene in Mass Effect still caused an absolute flood of media uproar. This was largely due to the significant distortion of the facts being reported on popular news channels and these themselves were caused largely by Kevin McCullough’s accusations that the game allowed virtual rape with people and species of all genders.

It makes you wonder why games developers even bother trying to tackle sex within games at all given this kind of negative press although in a rather bizarre twist, noted game hater Jack Thompson actually ended up defending Mass Effect at the time. Tis' truly a funny world.

Are the majority of these reactions are caused by gaming’s prior offerings, be it the infamous Hot Coffee mod for Vice City or the prostitute killing in GTA IV? Or is it more how these offerings are presented to us; after all I don’t recall much outrage when Leisure Suit Larry first released despite the highly sexual content. Maybe games simply need to be more upfront about the content.

Would Hot Coffee have been more universally acceptable if it wasn't sneaked in?

Whilst gaming as a media format is now advanced enough to tackle sex in a mature manner; it is perhaps us the gamers that hinder its development.

Scantily clad women with large breasts do seem to make many of us more likely to buy games as does any mention of something controversial; and whilst this trend continues I believe it will always be difficult for developers to get a more realistic design and approach to sex and sexual themes accepted by the majority.

Using Lesbians to sell a game? Not according to the developer; these are just two women who chose to become lovers. Erm...

What worries me is the message we also send out about ourselves and our hobby due to the nature of some of this content. Where exactly are the boundaries? Why are we happy to kill a sex worker but not to display an act of love in an intimate fashion?

Heavy Rain will be the next big hitter to try and tackle sex in an adult manner but whilst I wish it luck I can’t help but think it’s doomed to fail in this respect, at least where the non-gamer is concerned.

Ultimately games need more sex and less sexual violence; but in a pastime that thrives on competition and destruction perhaps there really isn’t really any room for love.

Review: Halo 3 ODST (360).

2009-09-25T12:27:00.005+01:00

Bungie’s latest offering from the Halo universe is finally with us; dropping in it seems to a tidal wave of both hype and criticism. Any new Halo game is bound to cause a commotion amongst the fans but this time the critics are also making their voices heard, pointing primarily towards the high price and relatively short campaign on offer. So what’s the truth behind Halo 3: ODST and is it worth the full price Microsoft is asking?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, I’m sure you’re well aware of the basic premise of ODST. Originally planned as an expansion pack for Halo 3 (called Recon), ODST follows the story of a squad of Orbital Shock Drop Troopers who are deployed on a mission to assault a Covenant Assault Carrier which is attacking New Mombasa.

The troopers unfortunately make their combat drop just as the Covenant carrier jumps into slipspace (during events which also occurred in Halo 2 where the Master Chief and Keyes follow the Covenant carrier into slipspace aboard the In Amber Clad) and the resulting shockwave scatters the ODST’s pods all over New Mombasa.

You initially control The Rookie approximately six hours after the failed drop. Having obviously been unconscious and trapped in your pod for some time, you set about trying to track down your ODST squad mates.

The city in which the Rookie finds himself searching essentially acts as a kind of hub world to the main levels which are are based around actions already undertaken by the other ODST’s in the previous 6 hours (whom you play in the retelling of these events).

Having been used to the extremely linear worlds of the previous Halo games; I initially found the city hub somewhat off putting, but once I got used to the concept and to using the map (another Halo first) downloaded to your visor, it actually proved to be a great way to deliver this story and shows just how willing Bungie are to try new things even though they already had a winning formula.

It’s interesting how you grow increasing empathy towards the Rookie too, as you realise that so much has occurred during the 6 hours he’s been out of it.

His story is deliberately pitched in such a way that you’ll feel more and more isolated playing the Rookie the more you progress; its as though the battles have already been fought and now your left here alone, wandering the streets at night trying to avoid the Covenant and stay alive. This is an extremely powerful story telling mechanic and is one of the things I liked best about the game.

Of course the biggest revelation originally about this game was the lack of any appearence by Master Chief himself. You are no longer cast as the all powerful super Spartan but are instead very much human, albeit a highly trained one. From the players perspective this changes several game play traits; you can’t jump as high, you no longer have a rechargeable shield and you can no longer dual wield.

These changes essentially mean you are much frailer than the Master Chief and a more restrained approach has to be taken when in combat. Charge in to a pack of Covenant on your own and the chances are you won’t be returning victorious. Instead you need to think about your approach; evaluate each situation independently and decide either the best way to take out your foes or perhaps even sneak around them.

Again this style of play is quite a departure from the previous Halo games, and yet whilst it is slightly different it still retains the essence of the Halo experience. In some ways this is Bungies greatest triumph; because this transfer of responsibility not only shows us as players just how much more there is to this world than the Chief himself, but also how flexible this universe they have created can be.

The graphics have not improved a great deal since Halo 3 and the facial details in particular stand out as dated; particularly ‘Dare’ who I’m sure must have been modelled on Rene Russo having a bad make up day. The skyscapes have improved however and certainly the night time vistas add some weighty ambience.

Clocking in at around 6 hours ODST’s campaign is a lot of fun from start to finish, and fans of the Halo universe will only be disappointed when it ends.

ODST also ships with two other key game modes; the traditional Halo multiplayer (which comes on a separate disc and as well as few new maps also includes all of the previous Halo 3 DLC) and Firefight.

The majority of you will already know what to expect from the traditional multiplayer and in truth there is little new here worth evaluating. What is new however is Firefight, a new co-operative game mode similar to the Horde mode in Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead's Survival mode.

Firefight places you and 3 other players against ever increasing numbers of Covenant. Players share a stock of lives and each round introduces new challenges as the enemy waves become bigger and gain advantages through the activation of various skulls. The Firefight levels are large and offer a pure Halo combat experience; with four friends this mode is an absolute blast!

Firefight's biggest downfall is its lack of online matchmaking; and if you lack a large online friends list or often game at different times to all your mates then grabbing a game may be difficult which is shame as the mode is such good fun.

Its very hard to rate Halo: ODST; the score in many ways depends greatly on several factors, but specifically how big a Halo fan you are, how many of your friends are available when you play Firefight (or even if you intend to play multiplayer at all) and of course the price you paid for the game (there are however stores online where you can secure up to a 25% discount on the RRP).

With a retail of £39.99 here in the UK ($60 USA), ODST commands the price of a full price game when in reality it doesn’t offer the hours you’d expect from a title priced in this bracket, especially if you are only buying for the single player experience. There’s no doubting the quality of the overall package; what’s here is highly playable and genuinely adds to the Halo universe rather than damaging it.

But I just can’t justify the price; ODST needs to retail for about £10 less to make it anywhere near good value. Bungie have not helped themselves by originally announcing this title as an expansion pack because in essence they’ve told us exactly what ODST is before trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

And that’s a great shame because Halo 3: OSDT deserves to shine for its great game play and the brave new direction Bungie have taken the Halo franchise too, but I can’t help but feeling too many people will feel bitter about the pricing and this is reflected in the score.

7/10.

What happens when games characters come to life?

2009-09-21T10:27:00.008+01:00

The latest movie from Seakitten Collective (who also made the superb LittleBigRevenge) explores what would happen if video games characters come to life in Cloverfield style.

Featuring some stunning video editing and a roster of characters from games such as Left 4 Dead and Smash Brawl, this really is a must watch movie for all gaming fans. Enjoy!

Hit the jump for part 2.

Left 4 Dead scary? It is now!

2009-09-21T09:34:00.003+01:00

This latest Left 4 Dead mod is almost too brilliant for words. Thanks to modder flameknight7, the Teletubbies have invaded Left 4 Dead and believe me; no zombie will make you jump as much as one of these rabid monsters!

You can grab the mod over at l4dmaps.com; just make sure you avoid CBeebies afterwards!

Health risks in adults linked to Gaming.

2009-09-18T11:06:00.004+01:00

The October 2009 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has published an article which claims tests have shown that there are "measurable correlations" between playing video games and increased health risks.

Participants from the Seattle–Tacoma area (claimed to be the 13th biggest media market in the USA and the nation’s largest user of the internet) provided details to the researchers on their gaming and lifestyle habits which included “self-assessments of depression, personality, health status, physical and mental health, body mass index (BMI), and poor quality of life.”

45.1% of those that took part in the study were gamers. According to the research, female gamers were more likely to be depressed than those that did not participate in the hobby. Male gamers were reported to have a higher BMI than those that did not play games. Both sexes of gamers also reported a higher reliance on the internet for social support.

Dr. James B Weaver III (PhD, MPH, National Center for Health Marketing, CDC, Atlanta) stated in the article:

“As hypothesized, health-risk factors – specifically, a higher BMI and a greater number of poor mental-health days – differentiated adult video-game players from non-players. Video-game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns.

Internet community support and time spent online distinguished adult video-game players from non-players, a finding consistent with prior research pointing to the willingness of adult video-game enthusiasts to sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games. The data illustrate the need for further research among adults to clarify how to use digital opportunities more effectively to promote health and prevent disease."

You can read more about the study at Science Daily but the question remains; are we all really harming ourselves by participating in our hobby? Let me know your thoughts; in the meantime I’m off to discuss this with my friends on Facebook…

Konami's Zombie Apocalypse lands on XBLA and PSN next week.

2009-09-18T09:15:00.007+01:00

If there are two things we like here at Paradox; its shooters and Zombies! So the news that Konami's twin stick shooter Zombie Apocalypse hits both PSN and XBLA next week (September 23rd) has left us scurrying for our wallets in anticipation of yet more undead extermination.

Developed by Nihilistic, the overhead twin stick shooter (yes, another one!) promises plenty of frantic action in what looks to be Left 4 Dead meets Smash TV, and lets face it, how can that be anything other than great!

The game will be priced at 800 MS points and £7.99 on PSN ($9.99 for US customers) and can be played by up to four players.

Left 4 Dead: Counter Strike favourite Dust 2 arrives in some style.

2009-09-17T09:23:00.011+01:00

Counter Strike map favourite Dust 2 has now been ported over to Left for Dead by talented community mapper Sin. Other mapper's have already tried to port Dust 2 over to Left 4 Dead, but none have been as successful as this stunning effort.

The map is currently at beta 4.1 but it’s fully playable and is designed for Survival mode although a Versus release is also in the works.

You can download the map by heading over to L4Dmaps.com. Sin has also released a conversion of Aztec following a large number of community requests.

More pictures after the jump.

PS3's new motion controller will make Wii ports possible.

2009-09-17T08:32:00.007+01:00

According to Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi, developers in Japan are extremely impressed with Sony's new motion controller; so much so that they feel it will be quite easy to port over existing titles from Nintendo's Wii.

This could mean that come the launch of the new controller, we will see an influx of Wii ports to the PS3. Of course this could be a double edged sword for Sony; on the one hand they will gain an extended software library and be able to boast that there’s no longer anything unique about the Wii.

However does Sony really want a load of ports from the Wii which potentially could have sub-standard graphics even if they are spruced up? And is there really anything that good on the Wii (motion control wise) that doesn't come from Nintendo itself?

Has the Wii doomed Nintendo’s next console to failure?

2009-09-16T13:47:00.005+01:00

At the time of writing there is little doubt that the Nintendo Wii leads the current generation of home consoles in terms of hardware sales by some margin.

The console sits comfortably in its lofty throne; peering down on the ongoing tit for tat battle between Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3, its competitors almost dismissive of its success and perhaps already resigned to achieving no more than second place.

But whilst Nintendo’s current position on the console summit may have originally been unexpected and somewhat unprecedented; have the company scored an own goal in the long term? Could the success of the Wii actually doom its future successor to obscurity?

The Wii launched to a flurry of publicity; not just from the gaming press as you would normally expect, but from virtually every major news outlet. Nintendo’s simplistic design concept combined with the ‘innovation’ of motion control with the Wiimote captured everybody’s attention, not just seasoned gamers.

The coup de grace was of course Wii Sports, a game which perfectly demonstrated what the system was about in a way everyone (and most importantly non-gamers) could understand. Even Grandma could understand the concept of “It’s Tennis and I just swing the wand thing like a racket to play” and suddenly Nintendo had overcome the daunting prospect of getting to grips with a foreign looking controller full of buttons with devastating effect.

The Wii became more than just a console; it became a lifestyle accessory in the same manner as Apple’s ever successful iPod. Surely with such success, such a high profile image, any successor should stand a high chance of success?

However things may not be as clear cut as they seem.

The consoles attach rate (the average amount of games purchased per console owned) has been lower than that of the Xbox 360 (which has a lower installed user base) for some time, and has recently also been overtaken by the PS3 (whose user base is also currently lower).

There could be many reasons for this; for example, could it be that the Wii’s assumed large casual gamer user base simply does not like to game as often as the more traditional console buyer? Or is it something else? Does in fact the novelty factor of the Wii wear off?

Consider for a moment the people you immediately know:

The seasoned gamers – these are the people who most likely own both a Wii and another platform; whether it’s the 360 or PS3 or perhaps even a gaming capable PC. How often do they use their Wii? Do they use it as much as their other system?

The casual/new gamers (delete as applicable) – these are the people who in the past have not really been into games, typically a family and they perhaps owned a Playstation once. How often is their Wii used?

You see in my experience, the majority of people simply do not use their Wii, or at least they don’t use it very much. It sits there stylishly on display by the TV, its white exterior stealthily hiding the dust that’s gathering. It comes out to play when guests visit and typically its Wii Sports that spinning in its drive whilst the guests ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ at how clever it is.

These people buy a few games here and there but find little, if anything, that truly recaptures that feeling of playing Wii Sports for the first time. This unfortunate path is not helped by the sheer volume of titles available on the Wii; far too much of it shovel ware that hides the few gems.

Even the true gamers I know rarely play their Wii; sure they will play the traditional classics such as Super Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda but for the most part their too busy playing Call of Duty 4, Halo or GTA online on their other platform of choice.

Wii Fit in many ways echoes everything that’s good and bad about the Wii. A great lifestyle idea which captured the attention of masses; again brilliantly marketed and with the sales figures to match. But yet again few people I know ever use it, it’s become a thing of novelty which people love to talk about but simply don’t use.

And this is where the problem lies for the Wii’s eventual successor. How do you get people to pay for a ‘novelty’ twice? Will people really see a future Nintendo console as innovative and a must have machine or the follow up to that smart little machine under the TV that we hardly ever use?

Will the kids who’ve grown up with the Wii want more of the same now their older or will they want to progress away from ‘My First Console’ onto something perceived as more gamer orientated like the Playstation and Xbox?

The Wii may dominate now but its future successor’s fate is far from assured. The very image that Nintendo has created and gained so much success for with the Wii may very well be the reason that any successor will be doomed to obscurity.

Mario invades Left 4 Dead in Mushroom Massacre.

2009-09-15T16:45:00.005+01:00

I guess it was inevitable given the various amount of Mario styled maps fans already make for other games; but somehow seeing Valve's undead horde wandering through the Mushroom Kingdom (Super Mario 64) is rather unsettling!

Currently 25% complete, you can follow the progress of Mushroom Massacre on l4dmaps.com. The first part of the campaign is already there for you to download along with full installation instructions.

Playing the greatest adventure of all.

2009-09-14T13:57:00.006+01:00

It’s late Sunday morning. The better half is at work on a training day, the dog has been fed and is now lazily mooching round the garden looking for sticks and bugs to eat. I’ve successfully handled the kids breakfast without incident and the youngest (Lily, who’s just over a year old) has been changed and dressed.

The eldest of the two children who are here today (there can be up to 4 some weekends!) is unbelievably sitting quietly and playing with her sibling. The madness that is the morning is over and the television is unusually free.

As I sit down in the armchair I quickly do a final scan of the room; it’s still calm, the jobs really are done and the TV really is available. Opportunities like this don’t come along often so I pick up the SIXAXIS pad and turn on our Playstation 3.

Half an hour later and I’m standing up, SIXAXIS in hand and Super Stardust HD on pause. I ‘save’ Lily from the precipice that is the edge of the sofa from which she is about to dive off head first. Had Epyx still been around, she’d be in their next game! The lights of her all singing all flashing walker catch her attention and off she toddles.

I un-pause the game and narrowly avoid the incoming enemy I had forgotten about in the meantime. Games like Stardust don’t allow you much time to readjust but somehow I’m still alive; and after a frantic few seconds re-acquainting myself with my environment I’m in my rhythm again.

Hundreds of rocks are exploding from my barrage of fire and the enemies, although increasing in number are not faring any better.

Somehow I manage to keep it going, half of my brain managing to direct my fire with delicate accuracy whilst all the time the other half uses part of my vision and aural capabilities to monitor Lily’s playtime.

Having failed to base jump from the sofa and then destroy the walker, Lily converts to Solid Snake mode and makes here way over to the chest of drawers. She thinks I don’t notice; failing to realise she lacks a cardboard box and that I have deliberately positioned myself where I can see both the television and the entirety of the room.

As she approaches the drawers I hit boost in an effort to find some clear space among the ever increasing field of debris and get ready to hit pause for the 6th time.

But she gets there quicker than I anticipated. Perhaps realising a guard lay in wait, her speed increases and before I know it she’s there and the drawer begins to open. There’s nothing dangerous in there of course but like most parents I worry about the possibility of trapped fingers and the household documents that are about to be shredded or hidden by this master infiltrator.

I leap to my right and my rescue attempt is successful but unfortunately my reactions are not so quick this time with the pause button. A split second is all some enemies need; and this one has used the split second respite from my onslaught to smash my ship into a million virtual particles of light whilst I save the Princess in my other ‘game’.

One spare ship remains. But as my third sight pauses to evaluate what turns out to be another non-danger event, that comfort zone erodes and The Last Starfighter enters battle.

The unexpected timing of his predecessors fates combined with my own style of play means that this last warrior has a rather ample stock of smart bombs. I’ve racked up a fair score by my own standards and whilst I’ll never challenge for the top spot on the global leaderboards; the top spot from my friends list is within reach.

The last fighter is good,very good. With the kind of determination and luck only a last fighter seems to possess, he’s laying waste to all in his path with a devastating efficiency. The bombs are not only still intact, they’ve been added to whilst the score is rapidly rising.

A swarm of homing type enemies surrounds the ship, confident in the number of their ranks. The circle they have formed quickly tightens; slowly strangling the limited space my fighter has to manoeuvre. But I’m ready for this, in fact I’d been waiting for it, and my finger hovers over the right trigger ready to unleash the most devastating item in my arsenal – the smart bomb.

I’m calm and in sync with the game despite my permanent observations elsewhere. I don’t panic, but instead let the enemy draw closer so I can ensure the imminent detonation takes down as many of the enemy as possible. Just a little closer and…

” Are you one, are you two, are you three, are you four?”

“Are you five, six, seven, or maybe more?”

“CBeebies wishes you a happy birthday with lots of birthday cards through your door.”

“Happy Birthday!”

It takes a moment for the reality to sink in and when it does I laugh out loud as I see Lily sitting next to me with the remote, a big grin etched on her face! I give her a kiss and laugh even more when I realise she’s switched the TV’s source input with the cable remote, something no one in the household even knows how to do (we all use the actual TV remote).

I flick the source back over but of course I know the outcome already; the Princess has destroyed him, his fearsome arsenal no match for the power of Cbeebies.

Ands that’s what it’s like when you get older. Some say your hand eye co-ordination goes but I retaliate with the fruit that is experience, experience born in real arcades and eventually nurtured at home. Ultimately it’s really all about time.

When you’re older you have less time to play, less time to practice and too many games to fill into too few slots. You ultimately become a digital whore; pimping yourself out to many whilst committing to none.

But I don’t envy those who look down on me from the height of the global scoreboards. My points may be less but in many ways they were harder to achieve and required a skill they have yet to need or learn.

Everyday I play and I fight and I strive to be the best Dad I can be. I’ve rescued the Princess more than them and I’ve unlocked far better achievements. Because every time my kids smile or laugh and every time I pick them back up I know I’m in the best adventure of them all.

Red Mesa: Half Life style Crysis Mod.

2009-09-14T09:27:00.007+01:00

You can now download and play Red Mesa; a Half Life inspired level for Crysis.

FPSBanana are now hosting it so what are you waiting for, grab your download here! You can also see some more screenshots by hitting read more below.

Team Fortress 2 Beta Update Leaked on You Tube

2009-09-14T09:06:00.005+01:00

One of Valve's beta testers has recently released footage of a beta update on You Tube. Guess that's the NDA broken then. Perhaps a Spy really is sapping Valve's sentry!

!

10 years of Dreamcast; the 10 best games.

2009-09-11T12:59:00.019+01:00

Sega’s Dreamcast celebrated its 10th Birthday recently so this would seem the perfect time to take a look at ten of the Dreamcast’s best games.

The Dreamcast has always been something of a paradox; a superb gaming machine with great games that was somehow never truly loved until it was dead.

Despite its short life, the Dreamcast is blessed with a fine catalogue of games so picking ten is not going to easy! I’m sure your list may well differ from mine so please do let us know what you think.

10.
Space Channel 5 (Sega/United Game Artists).
Space Channel 5 is a music rhythm game similar in many ways to Parappa the Rapper. Primarily taking control of the sexy Ulala (Space Channel 5’s reporter), you must dance and blast your way through the game in an attempt to beat the Morolians; an alien race forcing everyone to dance against their will.

Packed full of style and humor, the game very much has Mizuguchi’s (Rez/Lumines) style throughout and even Michael Jackson manages to cameo!

9.
Samba De Amigo (Sega/Sonic Team).
Sonic Teams rhythm action game was in many ways the first sign of things to come in the shape of Nintendo’s Wii and it’s no coincidence that the game has also appeared on that platform.

The game came bundled with two hand held maracas which connected to a special sensor bar that plugged into the Dreamcast. Sensors in the bar and on the cords of the maracas could determine the exact position of the maracas when the player held them so if you were instructed to shake the maracas above your head, the software could tell if you doing so.

Samba is great fun to play (I still prefer the Dreamcast version to the Wii’s) and has loads of charm and character as you’d expect from a Sonic Team title. A great family/party game that was rarely put away in our household. It’s just a shame that obtaining the original game with Sega’s maracas is such an expensive affair these days.

8.
Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Capcom).
Capcom’s conversion of their arcade hit is not only one of the Dreamcast's best fighting games; it’s also one of the best Street Fighter games ever. In fact many people still put this game up as THE best Street Fighter game. The Dreamcast played host to the first home version of the game and it is wonderful to play in every respect.

7.
Crazy Taxi (Sega/Hitmaker)
The Dreamcast played host to many of Sega’s arcade game conversions, and Crazy Taxi was one of these which I simply could not put down.

The style, the music (by The Offspring and Bad Religion), the frantic game play (which involves tearing round a city transporting passengers to their destinations), everything about Crazy Taxi just screamed play me.

In many ways time hasn’t been kind to Crazy Taxi as a franchise due to lame ports and sequels, but the Dreamcast's original is still a joy to play and it suits the controls of the Dreamcast’s joypad perfectly.

6.
Skies of Arcadia (Sega/Overworks).
RPG’s were never in great supply on the Dreamcast, especially in the West where the only other RPG release of note was Grandia II.

Despite this lack of content for RPG fans, Sega still managed to deliver this superbly fresh RPG based on Sky Pirates. Using your airship to travel between islands which floated in the air, Skies of Arcadia was a supremely crafted adventure that managed to distinguish itself from its contemporaries and still feels fresh today.

5.
Ikaruga (Treasure).
Only ever released in Japan on the Dreamcast; Ikaruga was Treasures spiritual sequel to its seminal ST-V arcade and Saturn shooter, Radiant Silvergun.

Ported over from the Dreamcast based Sega Naomi arcade hardware, Ikaruga blended manic shooting action with an almost puzzle like quality as players attempted to chain enemies of different colours by changing the polarity of the main craft.

Featuring beautiful graphics and masterful game play, Ikaruga quickly became one of the Dreamcast’s most imported games. Whilst both the later Gamecube and XBLA conversions are very good, many will argue (myself included) that the best home experience of Ikaruga remains on Dreamcast.

4.
Shenmue (Sega/AM2).
Produced and directed by Sega legend Yu Suzuki (Out Run/Virtua Fighter), Shenmue was probably Sega’s most ambitious Dreamcast game.

The game aimed to give the player total interactivity set in a world that tried to mimic real life as much as possible with its simulation of time, weather and interactivity. It’s not an easy game to get into but its worth the effort as the player is rewarded with a world quite like any other produced at the time and graphics that really did push the Dreamcast.

Shenmue’s budget and ambition was huge and this is reflected in every aspect of the game. A classic.

3.
Jet Set Radio (Sega/Smilebit).
In many ways the Dreamcast showcased Sega at its creative best. Much like Shenmue, Jet Set Radio showcased Sega’s creative talent at its very best.

The game pioneered cel-shaded graphics and its style was completely unique at the time. The games premise centre’s around roller blading graffiti gangs in Tokyo; the player skating round avoiding trouble, racing and tagging various objects.

On paper Jet Set Radio shouldn’t be my type of game and yet it is an utter joy to play and still unique in its blend of style and game play. It also spawned a superb sequel called Jet Set Radio Future (one of my favorite games of all time) which was released on Microsoft’s Xbox console and both games feature superb soundtracks (the soundtrack to JSRF is the only game soundtrack I have ever brought!).

2.
Soul Calibur (Namco).
To this day I’ll never understand why Soul Calibur, a launch title for the Dreamcast, never propelled sales of the console into the stratosphere. Was it the poor marketing by Sega? Perhaps people never really saw it promoted? Whatever it was, this game should have shown the masses what the Dreamcast was truly capable of.

At the time, Soul Calibur looked simply amazing (and to be fair it still does) and it played beautifully. Had this been put next to a Playstation running Tekken in stores up and down the country, the Dreamcast may have had a different fate

The game came with a VGA option and using this option produced mind blowingly sharp visuals. So good that I still play this today Soul Calibur is a masterful piece of programming by Namco.

1.
Rez (Sega/United Game Artists).
Ok, ok – this is a biased choice! Rez is one of my favorite games ever and I’ll play Mizuguchi’s hypnotic masterpiece as long as I’m still a gamer. Probably beyond that if it’s possible!

At its most basic Rez is simply an on-rails shooter; you move the firing reticule around the screen and shoot enemies. You can collect upgrades that allow your character (essentially a hacker avatar) to evolve (take more hits) and power ups that temporarily take out all the enemies for you, kind of like an auto pilot. And that’s it, that's literally is all you do.

But of course Rez is so much more. The sound effects (for example when an enemy is destroyed) are essentially portions of electronic music; string together a few kills and your ears will be greeted by the sounds of drums and trills which blend in with the games ever evolving beat.

The visuals are striking and unique, somewhat a cross between a game and a music visualizer. Each part of Rez, the visuals, the music, the sound; blends in together to form part of a truly hypnotic and mesmerizing experience.

It’s not an easy game to describe, and at its core it is simplistic. But sit yourself in a darkened room, turn up the volume and let your mind immerse itself in its vibrant world and you’ll find a gaming experience quite like any other.

Left 4 Dead modder to fly Gabe to Australia?

2009-09-11T09:47:00.004+01:00

Further to yesterday’s news about Valve flying two Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters to their offices in Seattle, it’s nice to see some fun amongst the chaos!

A modder working on a campaign for the original Left 4 Dead sent Gabe an email asking why he hadn’t been invited to Valve so that they could preview his work. Gabe’s reply?

“We are boycotting your campaign.”

The modder in question then asks if he has to fly Gabe to where he lives in Australia to which Gabe replies “me and Erik”.

Good to see despite all the lunacy Gabe has to endure; he still retains his sharp sense of humour!

It doesn’t end there though. Following Gabe’s reply, the modder Joe has now started a fund in an effort to bring Gabe to his house to check out the campaign. You can find the details here.

The fund currently stands at $469.73 with $100 of that total having been donated by Valve’s very own Robin Walker who left the following message:

This is Robin Walker, from Valve. The rest of us at Valve would sure appreciate a couple of days without Erik around, so thanks for organising this!

Quick question though: if I donated more, would you buy a one-way ticket for him?

Robin.

I think I may just love Valve again! Anyone with such thick skin and such a great sense of humour deserves your support; roll on November!

Valve rewards childish boycotters.

2009-09-10T09:25:00.007+01:00

As a keen Steam user and Left 4 Dead player, I have to say the latest actions undertaken by Valve have really ticked me off.

Most of you will be aware of the ridiculous uproar from certain members of the Steam community when Valve released news that they were working on Left 4 Dead 2.

Accusations of abandoning the original game and ripping people off flew around from the more childish members of the community (despite the fact most L4D players have clocked up 100’s of hours in a truly great game) and a boycott group was formed.

Valves response? Fly two of the group out to their offices, all expenses paid, to play Left 4 Dead 2.

Here we have a group of people who have spent their time slamming Valve on what is for most gamers a non-issue; and Valve rewards their moronic behaviour with what for many gamers would be the trip of a lifetime.

Nice one Valve. Most of your true fans appreciate the great game that Left 4 Dead is; have never been unhappy with the hundreds of hour's entertainment it’s provided because that is superb value for money. Most are happy we are getting a sequel to a great game sooner rather than (Episode 3) later.

So why does it now feel like you’ve just kicked all your loyal fans right where it hurts?

Dreamcast Lives!

2009-09-09T15:21:00.005+01:00

Just in time for the 10th Birthday of Sega’s brilliant Dreamcast console (at least if your American), comes news of another new game for the system - Rush Rush Rally Racing by Senile Team (developer of Beats of Rage).

The game is a top down racer (think Micro Machines /Super Cars) that can be played by up to 4 players in split screen mode. Its due out in October and you can grab it direct from the publishers, redspotgames.

Finally the Sonic game we have been waiting for?

2009-09-09T09:13:00.007+01:00

Sega have just announced that they are at last developing a Sonic game which will go back to the series 2D roots.

After years of fans complaining about Sonic’s pretty dire 3D adventures, it seems as though Sega have finally listened.

The game, currently known as Project Needlemouse, will be built entirely from the ground up and be in HD which suggests to me at least that it will be hosted on 360 or PS3 and possibly even be a download release on XBLA and PSN.

Just in case you don't get the reference, the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game was initially codenamed "Mr Needlemouse" whilst in development. No other details are known at this point so for now just enjoy the teaser trailer and dream!

Review: Batman Arkham Asylum (360/PS3/PC).

2009-09-08T14:09:00.006+01:00

Generally I don’t spend too much time with many licensed video games these days. Second only to movie tie-in’s, games based on comic book characters are always on my ‘it’s bound to be crap, best avoid’ list.

However the latest Batman game from Eidos has hit with quite a bang (sorry I guess that should read Kapow!) and it’s certainly causing quite a stir within the gaming community. It’s topped the charts in my homeland UK and virtually every publication this side of Heat magazine is heaping praise upon this latest attempt to bring the Dark Knight to the gaming masses.

Game of the Year is continuously being touted and amazingly the Guinness Book of Records (Gamers Edition) has recently announced in a press release that Batman: Arkham Asylum has been given the award for “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever" based on its average Metacritic score. And no, I’m not making that up.

So is it as good as the hype?

Well, kinda. If I’m being totally honest I’ve deliberately held out on writing this review. Literally every publication has for the last week or so raved on about how amazing this game is, it’s been compared to modern classics such as Bioshock and as I mentioned above put up numerous times as a game of the year contender; yet if I’m honest I don’t entirely agree.

The game starts off with a short intro depicting Batman escorting a captured Joker to Arkham Asylum. The Dark Knight is deeply suspicious of the Joker due to the ease with which he captured his old adversary; and these suspicions prove well founded as the Joker promptly escapes and takes over the majority of the Arkham Island complex. Its then up to Bats to track the Joker down and restore control.

The game takes the form of a 3D action adventure (think Tomb Raider) and clearly cleverly draws its game play elements from many classic titles such as Metal Gear (stealth), Metroid (exploration/upgrades) and Bionic Commando (grappling hook).

These elements are fused together remarkably well, and you certainly will not feel as though you are playing a copy of any of the aforementioned games. Arkham has its own hybrid style of play which despite the obvious influences feels perfectly adapted to the world Rocksteady have fashioned for the Dark Knight’s adventures.

Your first introduced to Batman’s combat system; a simple system involving 3 primary buttons: attack, counter and stun. Rather self explanatory, attack starts Batman attacking his foes (multiple presses unleashes a fury of different attacks), counter is used for when an enemy attacks (highlighted by a symbol above their head), and stun is used against armed (non-firearm) enemies to give Bats an opening to take them down. It’s extremely simple and so intuitive that you’ll be unleashing combos and taking down multiple enemies confidently within a minute.

Enemies armed with firearms require different tactics however; Batman is after all not super-human and this frailty is realised brilliantly in the game. Rush in with fists flying against a couple of gun toting henchmen and the chances are you’ll end up becoming a permanent addition to Arkham Asylum.

Against armed enemies you’ll need to be stealthy, and these stealth combat sections are arguably the best part of the game. Using both the environment and Batman’s enviable gadgets, you have to sneak your way to the enemy and silently take them down without alerting their comrades.

You can grapple between gargoyles, sneak through floor venting, duck round corners and hang from balconies to approach your victims and once close enough, and provided they have not been alerted to your presence, you get the option to silently take them down.

If you’re hanging from a balcony you can pull the adversary over it or you can simply silently sneak behind them to dispatch them, making sure you leave quickly before the other foes find the unconscious body (Batman characteristically does not set out to kill in the game).

The best of these moments if offered by the gargoyles which Batman swings between using his grappling hook. A quick press of a button allows Batman to hang upside down from them and then grab the enemy silently as they walk underneath; hanging them from the gargoyle by rope for the others to find. And as they find their downed colleagues they become more and more nervous.

These sections really are a joy to play; there’s such a great range of moves available and you’ll genuinely love gradually terrorising the remaining enemies. This is Arkham Asylum at its very best.

Throughout the game you’ll have to follow various trails as well as find and solve a variety of puzzles laid down by The Riddler. To do this you’ll need to enter ‘Detective Mode’.

Batman's Detective Mode in action.

Detective mode is a special vision mode which Batman uses to identify various clues and interactive objects in his environment. It also allows him to identify enemies (including through walls) and their type (unarmed or armed). The mode itself is superbly implemented graphically but it works a little bit too well and here lies one of my major issues with the game.

I love exploring my game environments and the challenges set down by the Riddler in every area certainly encourage this type of exploration, hence the comparison with games such as Super Metroid. The problem is that when you are in normal mode, many of the games interactive and hidden items are hard to spot. Combat too is far easier in Detective mode as it easily identifies enemy’s locations and again the interactive objects such as gargoyles that Batman can swing between.

Because of this the player has very little incentive to come out of Detective mode for fear of missing something and this in turn means that what the player does miss out on is the wondrously realised portrayal of Arkham Asylum. I found myself constantly reminding myself to turn Detective Mode off so as to appreciate the superb graphics that Arkham offers but within no time at all I’d have it back on through fear of missing something. Trying to constantly flick between the two in an attempt to get the best of both worlds I found rather nauseous.

The characters in the game are on the whole brilliantly portrayed and a special mention should be made of the Joker himself who is superbly voice acted by Mark Hamill. This is not camp Batman or Batman the Animated Series; the game is very much styled and influenced by the darker tone of the graphic novels and the recent Batman movies which is a great thing in my opinion. He’s not known as the Dark Knight for nothing and thankfully in recent years both movie producers and now games designers are starting to realise this.

Batman himself certainly looks the part although I can’t help but feel his character is rather flat, especially when compared to the villains, not least the Joker himself. Batman talks rather monotonously which stands out a mile from the Jokers hyperactive style, and when he’s not in motion he just seems so, well, dull.

Mark Hamill is brilliant as The Joker.

The boss battles are rather dull and generic although encounters with the Scarecrow do stand out, at least in style if not in actual game play terms. I won’t go into details as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but I’m sure the designers have watched their fair share of Nightmare on Elm Street!

As a game Batman is certainly stands upright on its own; but as a license it really does excel. The style is perfect and you really will feel like you’re playing Batman: The Game as opposed to Batman: The Money Spinner. There’s also no question in my mind that it is the best comic book licensed game in many years, a rare game where the license has been used with some respect and not just as a revenue generator.

What it isn’t though is completely flawless. Detective mode arguably takes as much away from the game as it gives; generic guard models spoil the sense of immersion in the world and too often Arkham Asylum tries to blend too many game styles together without perfecting any.

The combat is basic and does become repetitive and even the brilliant stealth sections are not perfect; partially ruined by the guard’s inability to look up and some rather inconsistent detection patterns.

But don’t let me put you off, Batman is worthy of your time and cash, it is a great game – it’s just not quite as good as much of the media hype would have you believe.

8/10.

Star Wars: Galactic Warfare (COD4 Mod).

2009-09-08T08:45:00.008+01:00

If you’re a Call of Duty 4 fan but secretly longing for battle in a galaxy far, far away then German modders blackMonkeys may have the answer.

Their upcoming mod Star Wars: Galactic Warfare is a total conversion of Call of Duty 4 and it's already looking rather tasty. Hopefully LucasArts won't notice just how good this looks, especially given the obvious comparisons to the Battlefront games.

Superb Halo 3: ODST live action trailer.

2009-09-07T09:55:00.003+01:00

Microsoft has just released a live action trailer to help promote the upcoming launch of Halo 3: ODST.

Directed by Rupert Sanders (who also did the Believe advert), the advert is absolutely stunning; so much so that it's hard to believe the movie studios are still passing over Halo for the big screen treatment.

Anyway hope you enjoy the ad; a longer version will be released a bit closer the games launch. Can't wait!

Left 4 Dead 2: Baseball bat pre-order 'bonus'.

2009-09-07T08:57:00.008+01:00

The rather annoying in-game pre-order bonus fashion continues, this time courtesy of Valve.

Pre-order Left 4 Dead 2 on either PC or Xbox 360 and you'll get the exclusive melee weapon the Baseball Bat available in your game. It's not just a re-skin of another weapon either; the baseball bat will have its own handling and damage characteristics.

Interestingly if you don't have the bat but join a game with someone who does, the weapon will be available to you for the duration of the game. How thoughtful!

I've already posted about how I don't like this new in-game bonus trend and I have to say I'm rather disappointed in Valve for jumping on this bandwagon of bullshit.

As a big fan of Valve and Left 4 Dead this news certainly won't stop me buying the game; I just thought they were above this kind of stunt. Guess we all better pre-order Half Life 2: Episode 3 if we want the crowbar eh?

The best Left 4 Dead review on the net?

2009-09-04T10:36:00.005+01:00

Awesome Left 4 Dead video review, you know, that zombie game by Vulva.

Now this is progress: SIXAXIS controlled breasts...

2009-09-04T08:52:00.005+01:00

Tecmo (as ever the pioneer in gaming breast innovations) have just announced that its upcoming Ninja Gaiden Sigma II for the Playstation 3 will feature SIXAXIS controlled breasts.

Give your SIXAXIS a quick wiggle and your characters breasts will respond in kind!

I'm not sure this is quite what Sony had in mind when it came up with the SIXAXIS motion controls but let’s face it, up to now it’s not really been much more than a gimmick in games.

Player controlled boobs though? The future I assure you. Sony should get behind this and use it to market the PS3. They'd be number one by the end of the week...

10 reasons not to get a gaming tattoo...

2009-09-03T14:58:00.011+01:00

For many dedicated gamers it seems, the idea of having a tattoo dedicated to their favourite game is the ultimate show of dedication and I must confess at a few points in time I have also considered some kind of body art gaming homage.

Thankfully though it appears I may have perhaps avoided one of those 'why did I do that' moments!

Here's a great post I stumbled across at Comedy.com which highlights why this particular form of fandom may not always be the best...

Design and colouring in by Tom, aged 4.

Is this what is meant by shoulder buttons?

Pac Man is always worth a crack.

Hair today, Pac tomorow.

Is it just me or is Inky having a good look?

To see the rest (if your sides can take it without splitting!), go to this post at Comedy.com.

Stop the pre-order bonus madness.

2009-09-03T14:22:00.006+01:00

Pre-order bonuses are video games publishers’ latest fad; free items in exchange for your commitment to buying their products early.

Whether you’re in the high street or online, browse through the upcoming games release lists and I guarantee you’ll come across numerous offers promising you a variety of goodies in exchange for a small deposit and your phone number (if only other areas of life were so generous!).

In the past the bonuses tended to be some kind of game related trinket, a key ring perhaps or maybe a little figure, and this was both fair and more than enough incentive for most ardent fans to commit to a purchase before a games release.

Now though things have become rather more complicated with the introduction of pre-order in-game bonuses, and to be quite frank, I’ve had enough.

In-game pre-order bonuses suck. Not the most eloquent line I’ve ever written for sure but it is simple and to the point. Buying games these days however, is certainly not so simple.

I now have to decide before a game is launched whether I actually want to purchase it because if I don’t I won’t have access to the game in its entirety. Want to play as Sergeant Johnson in Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight mode? Sure no problem. But only if you pre-order the game.

Even then you may not get your exclusive content; last time I checked (02/09) Shopto.net had run out of codes for their ODST pre-order’s! Yes you read that right, they run out of a code for a virtual bonus item. How frakking daft is that?

You’re not supposed to, you know, actually go out and buy the game on launch day without pre-ordering. And don’t even think about buying the game after it launches because if you do, you will be punished – they will take parts of the game away from you. That part of your game is only for their loyal customers who pre-order you see, not for you, the regular consumer.

You’d think that would be bad enough but it gets even more complex. Do you often shop around? Well you may now have to but not for the best price like you used to. No, now you may have to shop around to find out which store offers you the best bits of the game you want to buy because hey, nobody buys a complete game these days! That’s just sooooooo last gen.

As an example, let’s say I decide I want to buy Forza Motorsport 3. I best pre-order to get the full game so let’s find the best price. Wait though, what’s this? If I buy the game (sorry, pre-order) from Amazon I get the Audi R8 V10 in my game but if I buy from GAME I’ll get the BMW M3 E92. Decisions, decisions!

Assassins Creed II – buy it from GAME for the 360 and I’ll get an exclusive in-game bonus quest. Buy it from Gamestation (who are owned by GAME) and I get…. nothing. I mean seriously, what the frak is this nonsense?

My money and my custom is worth less to them a week after release? Its worth more depending on which damn store I order with? Why the frak can’t I just have the FULL game as intended? Am I not worthy if I don’t pre-order?

Giving physical trinket gifts as a bonus for pre-ordering is great but don’t take away content from the game we pay for just because we can’t commit to it early. Not everyone can always afford to buy a game on launch day; not everyone can commit to a purchase in advance and they shouldn’t be punished by having part of their game taken away.

I mean what’s next? Will they launch a 2 disc game and we buy disc one from Amazon and disc 2 from GAME? If we don’t buy the next iteration of the Nintendo DS on launch day, will they take out the stylus?

The crazy thing is most gamers would be more than happy with their token trinkets for pre-ordering; these are the people who are going to buy the game anyway; the people who’ll probably love a nice related book and figure to put on the shelf of their gaming nests.

The people the publishers need to work on are those who buy after launch, because typically they are the ones who are undecided – they are the ones who may not make the purchase. And taking part of their game away isn’t going to be a great persuasion technique.

Limited edition games are almost as bad with their exclusive content add-ins (cut outs for the majority of standard consumers). Gone are the days of just a bonus booklet, poster and plastic figurine.

Buy the Forza 3 Limited Edition and you’ll get extra vehicles not available to those who purchase the regular edition, even though I’m sure sales wise the regular would far outstrip the limited in terms of units sold. Halo Wars was guilty of this with the Honor Guard Wraith only available to its Limited Edition customers.

The games publishers need to step back and take a look at the message their sending out. They are delivering incomplete product; splitting a games audience into the haves and have not’s based on (essentially) money rather than anything skill related. I want to earn my in-game bonuses through play not the size of my wallet.

And to be quite honest I like trinket trash. Stuff a figure in your Ltd Edition and I’ll probably buy it. Give it to me a pre-order bonus? Great my moneys down. Chop my game up? You can keep it.

Update (03/09): Interestingly the Shopto.net has changed today the way its listing Halo 3: ODST today. The listing for it now states if you don’t get the unlock code on launch they’ll credit you £3 to your account. Given yesterdays run out comment, why does the cynical side of me think that they don’t want to lose pre-orders and so have been a bit clever with the truth?

Star Wars: Han Solo Adventures.

2009-09-02T10:26:00.007+01:00

The LucasArts of old was renowned for its brilliant point and click adventure games which used its famous SCUMM scripting language. Originally designed to power the game Maniac Mansion, SCUMM (in it's various guises) powered some of the best adventure games of yesteryear such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

Despite Lucasarts (or Lucasfilm Games as they were known) access to the single biggest IP around (that little series known as Star Wars!), a Star Wars SCUMM adventure surprisingly never saw the light of day. Given the amount of potential revenue that could have been generated this was always a bit of a mystery and a disappointment for fans.

However thanks to Stacy Davidson all that is about to change with Han Solo Adventures.

Han Solo Adventures is a fan made Star Wars adventure game being made using one of the earlier versions of SCUMM. According to Stacy "the stories will be fairly original, loosely based on available background information on Han and his early exploits" and "you can expect game play similar to classic LucasArts titles."

No word on release date yet but you can follow the progress on the website. And fingers crossed that LucasArts don't get all legal about the game before its release.

Getting out of the game.

2009-08-28T13:54:00.006+01:00

It’s that time of year again. The time when I leave gaming and the family behind for the weekend and head off to the green slopes of a small mountain boarding centre near Hereford. The event? The annual 22nd Global Gaming Clan meet part IV: The Search for Carlsberg!

I first became serious (or perhaps I should more accurately say dedicated) to online gaming around 3 or 4 years ago. I had at that time acquired, for the first time in many years, a rather shiny and supercharged new gaming PC.

The PC purchase had been ‘inspired’ by the imminent release of Doom 3 which had been branded in my mind as an absolute must have because of my love for its prequels. Needless to say my high hopes were dashed a fair bit when I eventually did play the game, but the Half Life 2 release around the same time ensured that the new PC didn’t go to waste.

Much like its excellent predecessor I played Half Life 2 to death and loved every fragging minute. But once it had offered all it could, I nervously ventured online to play Half Life 2: Deathmatch. This was in hindsight an action that would very much have a large impact on my life.

My first steps in the online world of HL2DM were not pretty. Every time I spawned, I died before I could really work out what the heck was going on and I was constantly the victim of more insults than I care to recall. ‘Noob’ was certainly the most common but it usually came after a harsher expletive!

For a while I gave up, I hadn’t enjoyed my online experience that much after all, but my love of the Half Life world eventually drew me back a few weeks later. This time though, I vowed to do things differently.

Before I went back to play, I ventured over to Valve’s very own Steam forums (itself not always the friendliest of places), and started asking questions about the game. HL2DM has never been the most popular of online pursuits (and certainly the game and community can be fairly regarded as rather niche, even back then), but I found a few friendly souls, one of whom pointed me in the direction of 22g.

22g as it turned out was a clan who primarily played HL2DM but did not play the game in a competitive (i.e.: league) manner. That’s not to say they didn’t have good players, far from it, but they were not actually bothered about how good or bad your game was. Far more important to them was your attitude and having a laugh together. Finally it seemed, I had found a place I was safe.

And safe I was. I quickly became a regular on the servers and forums and discovered to my delight that the regulars there enjoyed all forms of video games and not just HL2DM. The clan was strictly invite only so I never asked about joining although I’d be fibbing if I said I hadn’t wanted to. Not long later, my game improved enough so I could hold my own a bit on the servers and I was also lucky enough to be invited into the clan.

From that point in time I eventually graduated from ‘stupid noob’ to ‘f#*king hacker’ and played the game almost non-stop bar the inevitable need for sleep. I wrote guides on the game and helped out other players, always remembering how bad my first experience online was. I dreamt about the map layouts in my sleep. I daydreamed at work about new ways to take my opponents down. But most importantly, I made new friends.

The funny thing with online game play is that you never really know who you’re talking too. We all create our online name/persona, wear proudly our affiliation tags and quite often behave in a manner which does not reflect how we are outside of this specialist virtual world.

I’ve often wondered if this change is brought about by the fact you are around fellow enthusiasts. Perhaps here, around ‘our own’ so to speak, is where we can be our natural selves, where our passion for games doesn’t have to be hidden for fear of being labelled a geek or simply not being taken seriously at work. In this environment we can let it all out with people who understand, with people who care as much as we do.

Of course online gaming also brings out peoples worst sides to, the insults that are free (mostly) from recrimination, the one-up-manships (or should that be 1 up’s!) that you couldn’t possibly use in most areas of your offline life. Specifically, it’s pretty easy to be an arse if you choose too with little come back.

You are after all just this digital persona, someone that can act how they please with little affect on anything that’ll land you in serious trouble; something that can be changed and somewhere you can come back anew.

And it’s here (finally!) where we come full circle to the point of this post.

Because tomorrow, for my 3rd time, I’m off to actually meet my gaming comrades. And I don’t just mean in Second Life! We are actually meeting in the flesh; flesh which not long after will be hurtling down Herefords finest grass hills on little more than a piece of wood with wheels on. This time though it’ll hurt when we fall, we won’t just feel a small electrically powered rumble, screw up our multiplier and lose a tiny bit off our health bar.

And what a motley crew we’ll be. Because when you’re online, you don’t see the person – you see the persona. And what shocked me when I did this meet the first time was just how utterly diverse the whole group is.

The age range alone is fairly large; our backgrounds all for the most part completely different; personality, looks, size, views – everything. This is a group of people that you realise would never normally be put together because they are just so damn different.

And that is what makes this meet so bloody great! I couldn’t even begin to imagine meeting these people through any other means, that’s not to insult in any way who they are but just to re-emphasise how different we all are. And yet meeting with these people, my good friends, is one of the highlights of my year.

Enjoy your gaming, be passionate about it (but be nice to) and get involved. There’s so much more to it than meets the eye. But be bold too. If your part of a clan, go meet them. A group of enthusiasts? Get together.

Because sometimes the best thing you’ll ever do in this hobby is get out of the game.

Happy Fragging,
[22g] Nana
http://www.22g.co.uk/forum/

Serious Sam HD: The best game trailer ever?

2009-08-28T11:27:00.004+01:00

Regardless of whether you have any interest in the game itself, you really must watch this new trailer for the game. This is probably the best game trailer I've ever seen, it's like totally Digital Awesome!

Concept Art: Left 4 Dead 2.

2009-08-28T09:34:00.005+01:00

Kotaku have posted up some great Left 4 Dead 2 concept artwork they have acquired from Valve.

There are 11 images in total; 5 covering the new characters and 6 covering the proposed locations from the game (these are definitely the pick of the bunch).

If you hit the full size option, you'll be treated to the images in all their massive glory (and they really are HUGE), ideal for your desktop or for framing.

Gaming Art: Orioto.

2009-08-26T10:04:00.008+01:00

Orioto is a gaming enthusiast artist I accidentally discovered whilst randomly surfing some time ago and he remains one of the best (in fact he probably is the best!) authors of gaming art that I have ever come across.

Make you sure you pay a visit to his gaming artwork gallery hosted over at deviantART; there are some truly stunning pieces there and I often use them as wallpaper on my gaming PC.

His fantastic work covers various games that includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Gunstar Heroes, Street Fighter II, Castlevania, Zelda, and Super Metroid to name just a few.

His gallery is well worth visiting as his images there are in a much larger resolution (ideal for your desktop) and there a far more images than I could possibly put here.

Here are a few more examples which may tempt you to pay a visit:

Whitehall blunder means it's legal to sell adult games to kids.

2009-08-25T15:09:00.011+01:00

By strange coincidence given my post topic earlier today, it has just come to light via The Times that the Act governing the sale and classification of video games in the UK (as well as DVD's and videos) was never enacted!

This effectively means that the authorities are unable to legally stop anybody from selling 18 classified games and movies to children until the loophole is closed by emergency legislation.

It is also possible they will now also have to review (and probably revoke) any convictions that have occurred over the past 25 years. After all, can you convict someone of a crime that does not 'exist'?

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has stated that it had received legal advice that people who had previously been prosecuted and convicted would be unable to overturn their convictions or seek compensation but whether this will hold up in court if put to the test is another matter, particularly if the European courts get involved.

Given my own views on video game classification and minors (I hate hearing kids talking about playing games like Grand Theft Auto; even worse are the staff from high street stores such as GAME whom often sell them such titles), I find this lapse quite disturbing although in effect, the fact that no one actually realised this has no doubt prevented any major problems. That said it will be interesting to see if anybody flouts the loophole before its rectified now that it has been publicised.

So there you go; if you’re German you can't see blood even if the game is adult rated because the young need to be protected (even though they couldn't buy it anyway). In the UK we'll sell them anything...

Electronic Arts condemns German 'censorship'.

2009-08-25T11:00:00.009+01:00

Gerhard Florin (Electronic Arts executive VP) has publically requested that Germany ditch it’s current USK rating system and adopt the more widely used European standard PEGI.

"What we're doing here is censorship," stated Florin. "And nobody complains. When we talk about games here it's about violence or their alleged addictiveness, and not about their cultural status. The few good studios are asking themselves why they should stay here anyway."

Marek Brunner who heads up Germany’s USK disagrees and states that there are no plans for to move to a PEGI system. It's hard when half-truths are being used," said Brunner. "They say the USK does this wrong, the USK does that bad and why doesn't this get a rating?"

So who’s right? One thing is for sure, the poor Germans certainly get a raw deal when it comes to their choice of games because of their rating system and the rulings of the BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien - the German government's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons).

Even if the game isn’t rated (which essentially means it’s banned from sale), it may still suffer from omissions to enable it to be sold in the German market. Both Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 and Valve’s more recent Left 4 Dead had to be heavily edited so they could be offered for sale. More often than not, it is the depiction of blood that has to be removed.

Recent titles the Germans have missed out on completely include Dead Rising, Gears of War and Ninja Gaiden 2 although the more savvy German gamer can import the titles to play without fear of penalty as the law there only prohibits the sale of such games not their ownership. Many gamers also import the titles which have been subject to edits so they can play and view the games as they were intended.

Such is the impact of the German rating system that a quick scan of Google reveals quite a few specific job roles for German localization. Note the text in the example; “ensuring each piece is followed through with relevant checks and edits.” Interestingly Microsoft simply refuses point blank to edit any title rejected by the USK, hence why titles such as Gears of War are not available at all.

The debate on video game violence and its effects on the young in particular have been ongoing for some time (particularly since the widespread use of 3D graphics) and this is perhaps an issue I will touch upon in greater detail in the future.

In brief however, I do personally believe parents and retailer’s ignorance towards ratings causes the majority of the problems as opposed to the actual content contained within video games.

Compared to film, the violence currently in video games is relatively tame although I appreciate the interactivity offered doesn’t make them completely comparable. It should also be noted that films within Germany are subject to stricter guidelines than those in the majority of other European countries.

And just why sex is so shunned within our industry? Show so much as a pair of breasts and your asking for trouble, and that’s a fairly universal trait, not one just reserved for the poor Germans. Given that I can chainsaw a man in two within some virtual environments (well outside of Germany anyway!), it seems bizarre that games developers are frightened to include an act essential to the survival of our species and largely associated with love.

However, these are issues that I will cover in greater detail in future, in the meantime spare a thought for our fellow gamers from Germany; forced into playing the gaming equivalent of edited for TV movies.

Digital distribution to kill future classics?

2009-08-24T11:36:00.004+01:00

Digitally downloading your games is a convenient and often cheaper method of building your games collection. The games are usually automatically patched, the ’stores’ never close and they can deliver your chosen game (more or less) there and then.

The lack of packaging probably helps the environment and certainly saves on shelf space; if my house is anything close to normal for a gamer then for many of us there is a constant battle on the shelves between games, movies and music who do not wish their physical selves to be re-located to the darkness that is the bottom drawer.
The major bonus of digital downloads for me though, is that it has allowed a whole series of smaller titles to rise; games that would have struggled within the normal channels are thriving as digital only releases. These titles are spanning everything from traditional bedroom coded projects, publisher back catalogue revamps, right up to the bigger budget exclusives such as the recently released Shadow Complex. Arguably we’ve never had it so good!

But the digital distribution model does concern me a great deal. Because as much as I’m enjoying the benefits, I can’t help but worry about the future pitfalls.

Some of my favourite games recently (Shadow Complex and Rez HD immediately spring to mind) have been exclusively available via the download model. These are games which, if they had of existed on physical media would have taken up the ‘premium space’ on my shelves and relegated a couple of lesser titles to the tomb which is the drawer.

They are both games that I will return to regularly and both are titles I could see myself revisiting in years to come (perhaps more so with Rez HD because of the games nature). The question that irks me though is will I always be able to return to them?

Because the media is digital I am very much reliant on the continued support (in this example) of Microsoft and it’s Xbox Live Arcade service.

If my game corrupts or if I change my console, it’s easy enough to re-download my games. If I run out of space on my HDD I can temporarily delete a few games and re-download them later. But what happens when that service is no longer there?

Console life cycles vary, but on average a system tends to remain current for around 6 years before it begins to fade into obscurity. Sure some systems last longer (PS2) and some shorter (Dreamcast/Xbox) but eventually they will naturally die in terms of availability. And when that happens the support of both the manufacturer and the various publishers dies too.

With physical media, your game is for the most part safe. It does not die when the support dies, at least not it it’s well looked after. Many gamers continue to play their classic games from the very dawn of gaming’s short history.

Dead consoles can be replaced via 2nd hand sources such as eBay or the local boot sale as can any poorly looked after games that have become damaged. Ultimately, if you loved a game from yesteryear, it’s simple enough on the whole to play it today.

The same principles however do not apply to the download era. Once Xbox 720 and PS4 launch, the services provided to PS3 and 360 owners will gradually decline and eventually cease. Suddenly the security of the re-download feature will become redundant. Will this mean that your much loved games are simply living on borrowed time?

From a personal view, this uncertainty bothers me because I can’t imagine the possibility of some of my favourite games being permanently resigned to fond memories. I want to be able to play these games for as long as I’m a gamer, I want to introduce these future classics to the next generation.

We are a completely different model to other media types; games are always based on specific hardware formats, and this is where gaming digital content differs so much from other types of entertainment such as movies and music.

So what happens? Emulation is one answer but it is far from ideal. There’s no doubt we are spoilt with the excellent emulators that already exist but as systems become more complex, can we really expect these part time non profit coders to keep up?

Even today, there isn’t a 100% perfect emulator for the Dreamcast despite the fact the system is over 10 years old and ‘died’ young. Sega themselves couldn’t emulate the Saturn and so eventually acquired the Giri Giri emulator, itself not perfect and now ironically abandoned. And besides, if you ‘own’ the game, you surely will want to play it on its original hardware where possible.

In some cases it may be possible to back up the games to DVD/CD, and certainly it is possible with the 360 to do this but it does require a fair amount of know how. On top of that your games are tied to your Live account, and of course there’s no guarantee that in future these accounts will operate in the same manner or for that matter, exist at all.

So are we doomed to losing our favourites? It’s certainly going to be an interesting time when the new consoles hit; I just hope that it doesn’t prove to be some kind of Digital D-Day.

In the meantime all eyes are firmly on the PSP Go’s download only model. Just don’t get too attached to your games eh?

Gaming Art: Advance Wars.

2009-08-21T15:07:00.008+01:00

As many of my friends will know I'm a great fan of the Advance Wars series of games and a keen follower of fan made gaming art. So imagine my delight when I found some great Advance Wars artwork over at Deviant Art!

The author's profile/galley page is here and is well worth checking out.

Review: Shadow Complex (XBLA).

2009-08-21T11:54:00.008+01:00

Unless you missed the multitude of adverts on Live, you may very well be aware that Shadow Complex (the collaboration between Epic Games and Chair Entertainment) was released on XBLA yesterday.

Shadow Complex has been billed by Microsoft as the “height of old-school side-scrolling design combined with modern, cutting-edge gameplay” and early previews have all suggested that it was set to be a stellar title. So is it?

In a word, yes. In fact Shadow Complex may very well change the expectations of what consumers on XBLA expect in future as it raises the bar some distance in terms of graphics, gameplay and production values.

Essentially Shadow Complex is a 2D side scrolling adventure shooter set in a rich 3D environment (which is powered by Unreal Engine 3) and harks back to the days of greats such as Super Metroid, Flashback and Castlevania SOTN.

Based on Orson Scott Card’s Empire series of novels (the second of which is launched this December), Shadow Complex casts you in the role of Jason Fleming, a fairly unassuming guy who stumbles across a secret base run by Progressive Restoration. Having kidnapped his lady friend Fleming (voiced by Nolan North who also voices Nathan Drake in Uncharted) takes off in hot pursuit and so begins the start of your adventure as you enter the base.

In all honesty despite the collaboration with one of sci-fi’s most interesting writers, the plot of Shadow Complex is rather thin and for the most part very much part of the background.

That said, you probably will not notice or care that much because the game itself is just so playable; you’ll be far more interested in what’s in the next room ahead or seeking out hidden entrances (more on this in a moment) which lead to a variety of collectables and upgrades.

The weapons and items of Shadow Complex are introduced gradually starting off with your Torch; the use of which is essential if you want to find all of the many hidden routes.

This is not because of an over use of darkness but because the torch beam will reveal the entrances through the use of a colour system which changes the colour of an item (such as a vent hatch) to show the player what item is needed to pass (in most cases a weapon). It may sound complicated but it is in fact a very simple system that is completely intuitive to use.

In terms of weapon control, you aim with the right stick and in some instances you can fire into both the background and foreground. This system makes the world feel much more vast and alive as although the game essentially plays in 2D, you will feel very much part of a 3D environment.

Fleming jumps and climbs around his environment with ease and this is many ways reminiscent of the recent Drakes Fortune (but thankfully no where near as frustrating!) and Shadow Complex certainly rewards thorough exploration.

Along your travels you’ll encounter numerous enemies ranging from the basic cannon fodder grunts to the large boss enemies which are often large mech type contraptions. You’ll earn XP as you go which boosts your abilities and this rather nicely carries across different games which is handy for when the difficulty ramps up and for gaining the level 50 achievement.

The game also has leader boards which up date as you are in game and this provides an extra and welcome competitive element.

Shadow Complex is in many ways a hard game to criticise. It has the production values of a full price game and yet it’s cheap to purchase, it’s immensely fun to play and exploring its vast environment is a genuine joy.

The aiming mechanic can at times feel a little loose and the story is certainly not very apparent in many ways despite the writing heritage but to be frank you won’t care, there’s simply too much enjoyment on offer here for these things to really grab your attention.

I could quite easily write a lot more about this game, but for now I will hold fire, Shadow Complex is a title which you need to experience for yourself and discover the joys it has to offer.

You certainly won’t find a better way to spend around a tenner this year and in many ways Shadow Complex puts the vast majority of its full price brethren to shame. Grab yourself some points and buy it, you won’t regret it.

9/10.

Plants Vs Zombies coming to XBLA.

2009-08-21T09:47:00.010+01:00

Popcap have announced that they are bringing their rather excellent tower defence style game Plants Vs Zombies to Xbox Live Arcade! An iPhone version has also been reported as in the works.

No release date has been confirmed yet but this is great news for 360 owners. Here’s hoping they also sort out a PSN release so the PS3 crowd don't miss out on some Zombie mayhem!

Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics now available on Steam.

2009-08-20T14:17:00.006+01:00

Good news for RPG fans - the classic Fallout series of games are now available to purchase on Steam; either individually or together as part of the Fallout collection.

The only major downside is the price. Each game costs £6.99 with the complete pack selling for £15.99 which is over double what you could pick the set up for in your local games store.

Interplay has also made available Sacrifice and Kingpin from their back catalogue.

PS3 Slim won't support Linux.

2009-08-20T11:25:00.005+01:00

Sony’s soon to be released PS3 Slim will be losing it’s older brothers ability for users to install their own custom operating system.

This is a pity as installing Linux on the PS3 can really expand it's functionality as a living room computer/media centre. I'm also rather disappointed in that one of the things I've always applauded Sony for with the PS3 was this forward thinking option.

No doubt there will be ways found around it but even so its sad news for what otherwise looks to be a good machine.

PS3 isn’t the best games machine, but it is a great piece of kit.

2009-08-19T14:38:00.016+01:00

The current generation of consoles marked something of a departure for me. At any other time in my gaming life I have always brought all the new consoles at the point of (or very close to) their release dates. This time around however I’ve only just now completed the ‘set’ with our recent acquisition of an 80GB Playstation 3.

When the machine launched it was extremely expensive and given the lack of any real decent exclusive titles I decided to wait until there were some titles on the system I wanted to actually play.

Since then the PS3 has hardly set the world on fire with its games and thus I never really got round to making the purchase. A console should live and breathe in the quality of its games library and to date the PS3 has offered very little that isn’t already being done better on Microsoft’s winter heater.

Multi-format titles have on the whole been better on the 360 (The Orange Box debacle instantly springs to mind as does the more recent Ghostbusters ‘admission’ by Terminal Reality) and to date the exclusives generally have been more appealing (Halo series, Gears of War, PGR, GTA IV exclusive DLC).

Some developers such as Haze’s Free Radical have voiced complaints over the PS3 being difficult to code for, whilst heavy hitter Valve have gone one step further and simply refused full stop to code for the system. This decision alone means that PS3 owners may never get to experience the brilliance that is Left 4 Dead and potentially the up and coming (soon I hope!) Half Life 2: Episode 3.

I must admit that Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Little Big Planet have both nearly persuaded me to part with my cash previously but unusually the sensible family man overruled the impulsive gamer’s heart.

It’s also worth noting that although I do not consider myself a ‘fan boy’, I do at times tend to think of Sony more negatively than the other two big hitters. This is mainly due to the impact Sony has had on Sega over the years; they are after all responsible for Sega’s exit from the hardware market, they killed the Dreamcast right? Well no, Sega unfortunately managed that all by themselves.

Sega failed to recognise the importance of 3D with the Saturn, produced a machine for the ‘hardcore’ (I prefer the term old skool mind you) and missed out on a whole new generation of ‘clubbing’ gamers.

They then produced the brilliant and pioneering Dreamcast, failed to market it so anyone really knew what it was and again produced old skool games. Now that’s great for someone like me but was hardly likely to entertain the newer (and by now much larger) gaming demographic.

Now you may well assume given so much negativity on my part and the minor bias towards all things blue and spiky that I’m simply writing here to bash Sony and its black monolith. But to my own surprise I’m actually writing to say how impressed with it I really am.

Whilst many will no doubt disagree, it’s not in this writer’s opinion the best out and out system for games, something I have covered enough above. It’s expensive (although at the time of writing there are numerous price cuts around due to the imminent arrival of the PS3 Slim) and very surprisingly the word Playstation is no longer synonymous to many with the phrase games console. Owning a Playstation isn’t the cool thing it was in the past.

Bizarrely we actually never really ‘paid’ for our PS3, it came ‘free’ with my partners new mobile phone contract (I’m holding off on renewing mine for the launch of the PSP Go!).

Our sole reason at the time for picking the PS3 as our freebie was that due to various circumstances we no longer had a DVD player in the main living room. Since the PS3 is both a DVD and Blu-ray player it seemed the obvious choice for us despite its gaming shortcomings.

What we never realised at the time was just how good the PS3 is at serving as our complete family entertainment centre. And it’s here that the PS3 really excels, it is because of this the PS3 sees use in our household every day and by several occupants.

We have our DVD and Blu-ray player for our films. We have a music centre which streams music from our PC effortlessly along with our photo and video collection. Then there’s Vidzone, essentially a free music video channel where you pick what plays. And of course there’s the games, finally Uncharted and Little Big Planet are getting my well deserved attention (Uncharted being the first game in ages that I’ve actually bothered to complete). Heck we can even surf the net with it during the television ad breaks.

Of course the 360 also has some media features of its own but they simply are not as well implemented.

The DVD player is DVD only and it’s intrusively noisy for a front room. The media streaming works to a point but it’s not as easy or as smooth as on the PS3. The music videos on Live are limited and have to be paid for. It can’t surf the internet and unless you own an Elite model the HDD is woefully small. And also, somehow, the 360 just doesn’t look like an entertainment centre. It looks like a games console; it looks out of place under my main TV.

My partner has never really touched a non-handheld games console before and yet with the PS3 she presents our photos to friends and family, pops music on in the morning to keep the kids quiet (our 1 year old daughter dives across her pen when the PS3 power button beeps because she loves to dance away to the videos) and even watches the odd film.

And so, it’s only now that I’ve come to realise that the old skool gamer in me has blinded me into ignoring this great machine.

No it’s not the best games console, the 360 is currently the choice here with its vast library and it’s excellent (though still annoyingly chargeable) Xbox Live. But it is a great all rounder, it serves the purpose Sony always said they wanted to serve, the central family hub of entertainment, the unseen box of tricks that quietly delivers all of your living room needs without you even realising it. And for that Sony should be applauded.

Playfire - Facebook for Gamers.

2009-08-17T11:47:00.014+01:00

I have to say it, Playfire has certainly impressed me!

It was quite odd how I found the site in many ways; we had a thread active on my clan forum over at 22g discussing things we would like to see in the future of gaming.One of the things that came up was the idea of a website that collected all of your player data across all of your formats (XBL, PSN, Steam etc) and then lo and behold we discover Playfire!

Hopefully the Steam integration will get better (achievements, direct link to profile etc) and to this end I have already used the feedback option to suggest this and been informed that they have added this to their 'to do' list. I have to say as well it was nice that one of the co-founders of the site got back to me regarding my suggestion so quickly.

For those who have yet to check it out, Playfire is a Facebook type social space designed especially for gamers. Within your Playfire profile you can display both the games you have played and owned (with ratings/mini-reviews), microblog and link up to your PSN and XBL accounts. Instant chat, user made groups, game forums and much more are also present so be sure to check it out.

For those wondering about the Steam Community Network I recently founded on Playfire, it is simply an effort to bring those Steam users on Playfire together. I noted that there was no Steam related group on there so rather than sit back and wait I got a bit pro-active and made one! Hopefully it will take off and people will enjoy taking part. Thanks to all those who have joined so far.

Taking a Gaming Holiday (or why some things were better in the past).

2009-08-14T14:56:00.012+01:00

Firstly I should probably point out that this post is not about the ultimate gaming holiday for most seasoned Western gamers – Akihabara in Japan. I’ve always wanted to go but the long flight puts me off. One day maybe!

Rather this post is about going on my normal family holiday; how gaming came with us and how much it’s changed since I was a boy.

Confused? Let me explain.

You see we recently packed up for our annual holiday which this year was a trip up North to North Wales. My whole family are avid gamers (naturally!) and so to a large extent gaming does not get left behind when we head off on our annual trip.

The obligatory handhelds (3 X Nintendo DS Lite’s) were placed in the car for the journey and we already knew the caravan we were staying in (rented from family) housed a flat screen LCD TV complete with a modded Xbox. I also put out our small Asus netbook (and promptly forgot it).

In hindsight forgetting the netbook was probably a good thing. Although underpowered, its more than enough to run Steam for playing the original Counter Strike and Half Life which would have been more than enough to have Dad off hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots!

Anyway, off we went. Dad drove the 250 odd miles there whilst listening to the radio and the incessant sounds of Mario collecting his riches (just how big must his pockets be with all those coins!). When we finally got there the DS Lite’s went promptly on charge and the first trip to the camp shop was for a set of AA batteries for the Xbox wireless controllers. 250 miles and it seems nothing has changed.

But holidays have changed. And I should know because at 33 years of age I remember.
You see when I was younger, more often than not a family holiday involved a trip to a caravan located somewhere in the British Isles. So far so similar. But back then we didn’t have flat screen TV’s in caravans (or for that matter at home). You might have had a TV if you were lucky (or paid extra) but these were inevitably crap, sometimes black and white, and would never in a million years contained a gaming console or home computer.

In the early days we had no true handhelds either, there were no Gameboy’s and the best we had was either a Nintendo Game and Watch or a somewhat battered, always out of batteries Astro Wars tabletop with a knackered fire button. And the Nintendo batteries would die and nowhere would sell the specialist watch type batteries.

So my kids today are laughing! A Nintendo DS in their pocket and an Xbox in the ‘van’ takes care of their gaming needs; technological progress has ensured that their ‘gaming holiday’ would be far better than mine ever were. Wouldn’t it?

It was only later I realised just how lucky as a kid I actually was. And it was not until the evening I remembered when we ditched our day shorts and donned the night jeans for the nightly trip to the camps club.

The entertainment was as crap as ever, poor cabaret acts alongside a couple of poor bastards trying to keep a mountain of kids entertained whilst dressed as some mascot rabbit. You don’t care though, the adults drink and the kids run round causing mayhem for a while. Later the kids creep back, hands out stretched and begging for change for the arcades.

Arcades! Dad finishes his pint rather sharpish, and runs off with the kids to get in some gamage! It was then I realised just how lucky I was.

We got to the ‘arcade’ and all around lights fluttered and the sounds of coins dropping could be heard. My kids abandoned me in their quest for entertainment and I promptly grabbed some change for myself having already been mugged by the wee ones.

15 minutes later and my change pocket remained untouched. This wasn’t the arcade I had in mind. The fruit machines were there as they were years ago, flashier and more expensive but essentially the same. But now as then, they were of no interest to me.

Then there were the cranes, surrounded by kids who couldn’t understand why despite the most acute alignment, that small teddy toy could never be rescued from his glass tomb. The coin topplers were present fooling everyone into thinking they were winning complete with the ever present oppurtunistic mob strolling round looking for those machines which randomly drop a few pence when no one is playing them.

And then there were the games. Or at least there should have been. That’s how these things were in my memory.

The games were there of course but in far fewer numbers than the arcades of old. I approached several but at a £1 a go I never found anything that justified the cost for a few minutes entertainment. Even all the kids in the arcade seemed pretty non-fussed. These games were expensive, limited in choice and there were superior versions either waiting at home or in the various visitors caravans. I sighed and went back into the main club for another beer.

As I sat down with my fresh pint I shut my eyes and remembered the excitement of going on holiday as a kid. It didn’t matter that the Game and Watch had died or the Astro Wars didn’t work. For back then I had a pocket full of ten pence pieces and I was surrounded by the dark and smoky atmosphere of a real arcade.

Spaceships were being destroyed, barrels were being jumped, Death Stars were exploding. Joysticks were being bent out of shape by the more heavy handed fighter players and new friends were made when the 4th player slot was being filled by a gamer looking to explore some dungeons whilst Elf shot the food. A few pounds that wouldn’t last 5 minutes today could keep me entertained for hours.

Progress in gaming has always been mostly a good thing. Better graphics, better sound, better games. More ways to play, more ways to interact.

But sometimes, in an occasional moment of disappointment and clarity, sometimes you realise gaming was better in the past.

Next-Gen? Really? Then sort the damn controllers out!

2009-08-14T13:35:00.009+01:00

Last night I fired up Ikaruga on XBL Arcade. I’ve played the game to death before on both the Dreamcast and the Cube/Wii but I felt like a blast and grabbing a couple of achievements too. Big mistake.

20 minutes later and I am swearing at the screen, wondering if it would survive a Nana Shoryuken. For real.

You see I didn’t get my achievements. First time round I barely cleared stage 1. And why? Because of the bloody 360 controller.

Analogue sticks just don’t cut it for careful placement of your ship in Ikaruga, it’s just not precise enough. When I tap left I want to move left a tad, not jolt miles left and a bit down.

No problem, use the D-Pad I thought. After all, D-Pads and old skool style games usually go well together. Right? No! Because the D-Pad on the 360 pad would make you think that we’ve gone backwards since the days of the SNES and the Mega Drive. To put it bluntly, it’s crap.

Now I know that in an ideal world I’d have an Arcade Stick plugged in the 360 and none of the above issues would matter. I’d be happy blasting, satisfied that when my craft explodes it’s because I screwed up. And probably because my reflexes and hand/eye co-ordination are not quite as good as they used to be.

Problem is I don’t have an Arcade Stick for the 360. I have a few dotting around for various systems but in the case of the 360 they are only going to be useful for pretending to play in attract mode.

Ironically if I could have used the PS3 pad I’d have probably been ok since the D-Pad on it isn’t too bad. With that it’s just the sticks and triggers that suck (although some aftermarket add on trigger extensions have helped with one of the issues I have with that pad). But of course, despite the fact it has a USB lead, I can’t plug it into my 360.

And here lies my issue. Games consoles have come a long way since the days of the SNES, Mega Drive et all. The 360 that survives (just!) under my desk can stream things from my PC, play online, and has USB ports. The PS3 in my living room can take keyboards and USB sticks because it too has USB ports. But I can’t interchange my pads to my liking. Even if I buy a third party 360 Arcade Stick, chances are it won’t work on the PS3 and I’ll be damned if I’ll buy a stick for each console. I've done that too many times in the past as it is.

Thing is, now that modern consoles support and use USB, why the bloody hell can’t we have a standardised controller format? Why can’t the consumer just buy one style of specialist controller instead of having to potentially buy two or three?

If I want to use the FPS superior 360 pad on the PS3, let me! What’s the problem if I want the PS3 D-Pad on my old skool style XBL Arcade games? Why cant’ I have an Arcade Stick for SF IV that works on both machines? Would it really hurt that much?

I’m not saying each machine shouldn’t have its own controller design, but seriously the basic functions are the same, let me choose whose I want to buy, stop forcing me to compromise my gameplay or have more controllers clogging my living space up than I have games!

Because ultimately that’s the choice you get – compromised gameplay or spending more money than is reasonable on suitable control equipment. And that’s not Next Gen, its last gen ideas from companies that still can’t think outside the box.