The main premise of Spyro is that the aforementioned dragon is both small and heroic, helping others in need and vanquishing evil. In Spyro 2 a comical cheetah, professor and faun summon Spyro to help deal with the tyrannical Ripto, who they also summoned…by accident. During the course of the game you utilize many of Spyro’s abilities such as fire breath and gliding to advance and defeat Ripto and his minions.

Yeah, he has henchmen ten times his size, but Ripto’s all talk.

One innovative and fascinating thing about Spyro was how his health is displayed. A little firefly by name of Sparx displays his dragon buddy’s health by changing his colour. There was no health bar at the top or bottom corner or intrusive screen effects; it was a simple and brilliant way to make use of a character as a HUD element. Back then I didn’t appreciate this but now I definitely notice how awesome this feature was.

Portal Here, Portal There, Portal Where?

Portals were everywhere, each with a new surprise at the other end.

As I remember Spyro visits many places in the world he is summoned to. Portals to different places were everywhere, each with a new surprise at the other end. From being underwater to in the sky, Spyro got around. Not only was the vast selection of environments intriguing, there was also fun and witty humour, fit for a child such as me. I routinely remember Spyro complaining and having bouts of banter with his little firefly friend, there was plenty of life and awesomeness in this game; awesomeness that I am proud to say was a big part of my budding hobby for video gaming.

You’ll soon learn that Moneybags here is the true villain of Spyro 2.

It took years for me to eventually finish everything in Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage. I like to redo games over again, once I get to a certain point or get bored of my character I like to move on. Thinking back I was no different as a child and went back to the start after completing it, getting better every time and eventually 100% completing it, unlocking infinite super fire breath! The game turned sandbox once I had this overpowered ability, no sheep or troll could stop Spyro and his new reign of terror! Getting the reward and that feeling of ultimate success was a reason I loved Spyro. The journey to the end was tough but brilliant and every step of the way the game kept me entertained.

A game like this remade for current gen consoles would be awesome but sadly we haven’t seen much of the little dragon outside of Skylanders. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go find a PlayStation and Spyro 2!

Pixels. We can expect Pixels.

The premise of this pseudo classic games throwback is a familiar one. Sandler plays Sam Brenner, a down on his luck AV technician who missed his big opportunity of becoming a champion gamer in his youth. Brenner’s childhood friend Will Cooper – played by Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, King of Queens) – managed to do a lot better for himself by ascending the political ladder and becoming the President of the United States. I’ll say that again – Kevin James plays the President of the USA. President Cooper keeps Brenner on his speed dial as a confidant and unofficial adviser, which comes in handy after a mysterious attack befalls a US military base.

Sandler and co. show the Centipede who’s boss, one pixel at a time.

Back in the early ’80s when young Brenner was the star of his local arcade, NASA sent video clippings of Western pop culture inside a space probe bound for beyond our solar system, the “message in a bottle” that would show – if it ever encountered extra terrestrial life – examples of culture on planet Earth. Those clippings included footage from a World Championship video game tournament where Brenner faced off against defending champ arrogant Eddie Plant, played by Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) in a high stakes game of Donkey Kong. The aliens perceive the gameplay footage as a declaration of war and 30 years later return to Earth with their own version of giant video game villains.

Let the Nerds Take Over

Another average attempt at glorifying gamers that ends up alienating them yet again.

It’s been a long time since I’ve made the effort to go see an Adam Sandler movie and in the first 30 minutes of Pixels I did have a few moments where I enjoyed his sarcastic line deliveries. But the early entrance of Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Mission Impossible III) as the love interest soon turns the story down the familiar Hollywood path of flourishing romance through adversity. There’s a bit more excitement as the human race prepares for another round of fisticuffs with the pixelated invaders in the settings of a giant Centipede bombardment in London’s Hyde Park and Pac-Man rampaging through the streets of New York City, but these brief scenes of eye candy don’t succeed in carrying the film from what it is – another average attempt at glorifying gamers that ends up alienating them yet again. Referring to the champion gamer team as “nerds” would have been acceptable 20 years ago, but in 2015 it’s a well-worn and exhausted term that will have the audience rolling their eyes, whether they are gamers or not.

Pac-Man and his ghost nemeses in the form of modified Mini Coopers

There is some pleasant nostalgia in the film which will no doubt resonate with old school arcade gamers who can now take their own children to see giant video game characters destroying human values with Lego-like block destruction. I had more fun watching this than I thought I would, mainly from Sandler’s occasional wit and Dinklage’s one-liners. It was also fun to see original Super Mario skipping through the street and Q*bert joining the “Arcaders” as an unlikely sidekick. But ultimately it falls short of anything close to that of Tron (the 1982 original, not the awful Legacy remake), The Last Starfighter or even Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph.

Hollywood, you can do better.

Please Take Mii Seriously

Apparently something project lead Masahiro Sakurai wanted to implement into Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Wii U and 3DS versions of the Nintendo scrapper allows one to turn their Mii into a fist-fighting Brawler, a dexterous Sword Fighter or a nimble Gunner. Each type has their own moveset, strengths, weaknesses and so on. As a huge fan of customising characters, my favourite aspect of the Mii integration in Smash is the ability to change clothing and hats from quite a nice selection. The Mii integration was so well received that Nintendo eventually decided to sell costumes as paid DLC. Well, fair enough; I mean, it’s not like the costumes are that expensive. They’re nicely designed and help frequent players stand out online. Then again, we were cheated out of being able to play as an Inkling from Splatoon…

They certainly look nice, but are these Mii costumes really a lazy excuse?

Now in their third wave of downloadable costumes, however, Nintendo have begun to take the mick. How? By including costumes based on characters that were highly requested by fans to be, you know, actual characters in the game. We did see a bit of this with the costumes released alongside Roy, Lucas and Ryu; Akira Yuki and Jacky Bryant from Virtua Fighter, and Heihachi from Tekken, among others, got the Mii costume treatment. Now I don’t think these characters were overtly requested to be playable in Smash, but I know of a few in the third wave that certainly were…

Are You Kidding Mii?!

If you’ve browsed Miiverse’s Smash Bros. community you probably came across more than a few messages asking for Donkey Kong’s big bad, King K. Rool, to become a playable fighter. Trawl through forums such as Smashboards and other Smash related forums (hell, anywhere on the internet with even a passing interest in Nintendo games), there’s been a strong calling for Donkey’s reptilian rival making the cut. Well good news; he has! Sort of. As a Mii costume, of all things. Honestly? His Mii costume doesn’t even look that great.

Remember that time Nicolas Cage dressed up as a bear?

For fans of Fire Emblem: Awakening, we now have Chrom. In Mii form, of course. Granted, Chrom does make an appearance during Lucina’s Final Smash, but we’re also talking about a game where eight Sonics can yell “you’re too slow” at one another. As a side note, I must admit it is a nice surprise seeing some of these characters at least get some recognition in the game. A nice little nod of acknowledgement from the developers is a cool touch where most other developers wouldn’t chance a shrug. But this optimism (for me at least) slowly turns to crushing cynicism when you realise: “These characters aren’t gonna be playable, are they?”

Which is no more apparent than the Lloyd Irving costume. As one of my favourite games of all time, the mere utterance of Tales of Symphonia sends chills of excitement through my body. It may not be the best or most polished RPG out there, but good gravy is that game special. So when you flash Super Smash Bros. x Tales of Symphonia in your Mii costume trailer, my feelings couldn’t be more mixed. On the one hand, I’m elated that my favourite Namco RPG is being represented in Smash. On the other, it twists the knife even more knowing Lloyd could quite possibly have been considered as a playable fighter, but was instead relegated to a costume for the Mii Sword Fighter.

Insert Lazy Mii Pun Here

We even got Ryu as well! Mr. Fitegames himself!

I know I sound bitter about this. Perhaps it’s not that big of a deal, especially not in the long run. But I suspect Sakurai and his team are growing, well, a bit lazy when it comes to Smash. Don’t get me wrong, the amount of love, effort and care even in the base game goes above and beyond most AAA releases of today. There’s a borderline silly amount of content in both the Wii U and 3DS versions. But seriously, we have Mewtwo, Roy and Lucas returning as downloadable characters after we were certain we’d never see them in a Smash game again. On top of that we got Ryu as well! Mr. Fitegames himself! Imagine if we had the likes of King K. Rool and Lloyd “gotta know when to go” Irving on top of that.

What I’m saying is Sakurai should not be content with releasing lazy Mii costumes for a cheap shoutout. These characters and series could’ve been better represented as actual fighters on the roster, or even as alternate costumes for some of the existing fighters. Perhaps Nintendo aren’t so keen on updating their roster of Amiibo, especially given the continuing pressure to supply them the world over. Or maybe Sora have already moved on to future projects; it’s a fair bet Sakurai’s been tasked with developing a Smash Bros.  or perhaps a new Kid Icarus for the NX. Only time will tell, but at the end of the day I do feel these costumes are a bittersweet reminder of what could have been.

The Full Story

So what is Her Story anyway (mediocre pun intended)? Helmed by British developer, Sam Barlow (best known for his combat free re-imagining of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), Her Story styles itself as an interactive narrative experience, a gaming cliché you’d understandably be a little tired of by this point. Her Story is a video game, however, in the loosest sense of the word; there are no characters to control here, no quick-time-events to manoeuvre. In an industry of rich open worlds and complex character customisation, Her Story’s premise is perhaps alarmingly straightforward.

The objective of the ‘game’ boils down to one simple choice, but it’s not an arbitrary decision like “destroy the village for money or save the village for supplies.” Instead gamers just have to decide whether or not Hannah Smith, the woman on whom Her Story focuses, is implicated in the disappearance of her husband. To help them form their opinions, players have access to a fake police database containing seven interviews, which they can navigate by searching for terms just as they would on their personal computers. Sounds pretty straightforward so far… right?

Reading Between the Lines

That the game has grown to such viral acclaim is due in no small part to Viva Seifert, the actress whose performance as Hannah managed to captivate and confound so many gamers across the community. Trawling through hours of footage in the police database, players are tasked with putting together ‘her story,’ a narrative that stretches well beyond the disappearance of her husband, and is both shocking and compelling in equal measure. To focus just on Hannah’s words, however, is to do the game, and Seifert’s performance, a huge injustice. Her Story is very much an exercise in non-verbal communication, and never fails to remind players that there’s much more being said than the words literally being spoken.

Ah, the old ‘fake being asleep’ trick – we’re on to you.

Players agonise over Hannah’s physical appearance, and indeed her every movement; what does it mean when she chews on her fingernails? Is looking to the left a signifier of dishonesty? Can we tell if she’s lying when she casually taps her fingers on her arm? All of these levels of conscious and subconscious communication, bluffing and double bluffing, come to subvert players’ expectations; our decision isn’t a simple answer of “yes and no” anymore. It’s the startlingly human nature of Seifert’s acting that gives the simple choice at the heart of Her Story so much more weight than the cataclysmic conundrums we’re used to dealing with in conventional titles.

“The YouTube Jury”

But to judge the game solely on these interviews is to ignore its core mechanics, its entire user interface. The police database that players navigate is just as crucial a part of Her Story as Seifert’s performance itself. Set in varying colour tones from navy blue to garish turquoise, and garnished with pixilated logos and animations, Her Story’s software both extends and completes the game’s narrative experience. For all intents and purposes, booting up the game’s software transforms players’ PCs or tablet devices into an archaic operating system, one that will probably resonate heavily with fans of clichéd 1990’s police dramas like The Bill.

As ancient as it is, the user interface is still better than Windows 8.

Describing today’s “YouTube Jury,” Barlow looks at our relationship with information and news.

Moreover, the game delivers a fractured narrative experience that only continues to challenge gamers and their conclusions on Hannah Smith. You can’t sit and watch the interviews in chronological order; instead you have to search by terms, i.e. “marriage” or “Simon” for example, and view all the clips related to them. Speaking on the game’s website, publisher Barlow proclaims this to be a deliberate stylistic choice with stark foundations in today’s digital culture. Describing today’s “YouTube Jury,” Barlow looks at our relationship with information and news; how we consume news stories in today’s culture and make judgements based on what we see. Looking at any high profile criminal trial in the advent of video-sharing sites (British courts excluded of course), real life audiences now have an unprecedented level of access to these intimate legal proceedings, and a global platform on which to share their opinions. Her Story, then, isn’t so much a new video gaming concept, as it is a practice we see performed by millions of digital audiences across the world translated into a fictional format.

This Isn’t A Game

For all intents and purposes, then, this isn’t a game; or, at least, it’s nothing that I recognise as one. Her Story instead is a truly narrative-driven experience, one that so closely resembles our real life habits as to form a disturbing picture of today’s online culture. It’s difficult to properly describe it as a video game because ultimately it’s so grounded in real-life, in our everyday practices. Much like the question that sparked this article, and those loathsome GCSE English exams, Her Story’s plot and genre defy definition on principal, making it a difficult pill to swallow for a large proportion of today’s crowd. For those that persevere, however, there’s a rich, multi-layered narrative that I’ve barely scratched the surface of just waiting to be uncovered, one search term at a time. Perhaps Her Story’s real achievement, however, is neither its compelling plot, nor its mirroring of today’s culture, but its attempt to challenge what we know and take for granted as a video game in 2015.

Pixelbomb Games are planning on putting plenty of Easter Egg moments in their upcoming mech shooter Beyond Flesh and Blood, and they want gamers to help them think of some.

Regardless of whether they’re funny, smart, surprising or just downright weird, the dev team is encouraging all ideas, with one condition – all suggestions must somehow be linked back to Manchester, the city in which the game will start.

Gamers can provide suggestions on Twitter with the hashtag #bfbeggs.

Beyond Flesh and Blood challenges players to blast through multiple levels of hostile scavenger forces and mutating enemy threats on a mission to help reclaim the surface of Earth – starting with dystopian Manchester – using advanced multi-ability Tactical Combat Frames, or mechs.

The game will be released for PC this September and Xbox One in 2016.

Recently a friend of mine came home after another hard day’s work, itching to point-blank shotgun some zombies in Resident Evil Revelations 2 with his usual buddy (me) watching his back. Much to our displeasure and after numerous party chat interruptions we were forced to go our separate ways and solo the hordes of monsters and undead.

Normally I’d say things like this are expected and we as gamers shouldn’t think too much about it but as technology advances it is assumed services become more reliable. The main reason Sony’s frequent network outages incite frustration is because of their competition Microsoft. Xbox Live has drastically reduced network issues and aside from updates and seemingly occasional maintenance, it stays active the majority of the time. Both Sony and Microsoft are big companies, that’s no secret so why does Sony have trouble? I could speculate all day, it could be management, frequent attacks, a lack of training or equipment, the real question Sony needs to ask themselves is what they are going to do about it.

I’m Entitled To This, This and This…    

Have you ever read the PSN terms and conditions for signing up? Me neither! In the terms of conditions is does explicitly say, ‘SNEI does not warrant that the service and content will be uninterrupted, error-free or without delays.’ Basically, it’s saying PSN is going to go off now and then and we said we were cool with it by agreeing. I’m not going to get into morals or anything like that; this is merely a statement of how the situation is.

According to Sony’s terms, we should be totally okay with this.

As a gamer we are entitled to enjoy the video games and services that we pay for and that’s pretty much it, the problem lies with the latter. So what can we do to avoid this downtime crisis or avoid the depression of solo gaming?

Developers, service providers and publishers listen to us but it’s a one way communication, we don’t know what happens behind the scenes and maybe it’s for the best. My point is we don’t know how to help solve Sony’s service downtime issue, how could we with non-existent communication. I’m not saying they need to advertise a managerial or security position like ‘Urgent: security manager needed, data at risk!’ because that wouldn’t be helpful. Individuals can anonymously approach the proper channels like serious forums such as tech support to get help on issues, it doesn’t damage the company and you are guaranteed relevant advice.

Chances are all the whining at always-online-services is coming from children or children in adult bodies, education and patience is required on both our end and where your money is going.

I Can’t Play Online, Now What!

So games like Destiny and Final Fantasy XIV are out of bounds as is any form of online play. Bitching about how much this fact enrages you in forums isn’t an option either right. Unfortunately the majority of games today are online whether we like it or not, even if it’s not directly online sometimes subtle connections can screw everything up. I remember the good old days of Gears of War 2 and 3, if I was offline my rank was spontaneously reset and all DLC I owned disappeared from my system… fun times.

Invite friends round to do some old school split-screen, you can complain together and have fun, two birds with one stone.

Despite all the online games there have been some pretty awesome offline single player games to play over last year. Bloodborne is enhanced by online play but it’s not mandatory or necessary in the slightest. The Witcher 3 is an epic game nobody should miss; service downtime could be the perfect opportunity to get sucked back into these beautiful yet dark worlds. Is fun video gaming time limited to the latest generation of console? Of course not! Providing you’ve kept your relics now is as good time as any to slide down that nostalgia ride. Can’t play with friends over PSN or Xbox Live, invite them round to do some old school split-screen if you can, you can complain together and have fun, two birds with one stone.

The message here is obvious; there are other things to do and other ways to enjoy your well-earned time. Is service downtime acceptable? Probably not but we’re in no position to judge this fact. If we set an example as a responsible community then it forces companies and service providers to step up their game, and if they don’t we can do the smart thing and move onto greener pastures.

Turns out all existing versions of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD aren’t quite what the team originally wanted.

Square Enix has today announced that the game will be getting a PC version that will be closer to what the director “originally envisioned”.

“Developing Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for Steam gave us the opportunity to fully realize our original vision of the game in an enhanced and refined experience exclusively for PC players,” said Director Hajime Tabata.

This bold new vision for the game will include such revolutionary overhauls as an improved in-game battle camera, full Steam achievements and trading cards, scalable motion blur settings and a customizable dynamic screen shot mode. The PC release will also offer full controller support, and for high end PCs – upgraded graphics resolution options. Other additions include increased blood levels and new character speed boosts.

The game will be available on Steam from August 18^th 2015.

Square Enix has officially has announced a new Dragon Quest game, which will be coming to the PS4, 3DS and Nintendo NX.

The PS4 version of Dragon Quest XI will be built on Unreal Engine 4, while the Nintendo 3DS version is being developed in collaboration with a third-party studio.

Specifics on the game have not yet been announced, although Square Enix is expected to reveal more details soon.

The studio also announced that Dragon Quest X, a massively multiplayer online RPG entry in the series, will be released for PS4. It has previously been confirmed for Wii U, 3DS and PC so it’s interesting to hear that a version will now be made available for Sony’s console.

Square Enix has announced what we all suspected – Rise of the Tomb Raider is NOT an Xbox One and Microsoft exclusive.

The game will be available for Windows 10 and Steam in early 2016. A timed exclusive will also release on Xbox One and Xbox 360 before coming to PS4 in Holiday 2016.

The game sees Lara Croft exploring the most treacherous and remote regions of Siberia to find the secret of immortality before a ruthless organization known as Trinity gets their hands on it. Lara must use her wits and survival skills, form new alliances, and ultimately embrace her destiny as the Tomb Raider.

Rise of the Tomb Raider will be released on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on November 10, 2015.

Square Enix and DONTNOD Entertainment have announced that Life is Strange: Episode 4 – Darkroom will be released on July 28.

Coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, episode 4 of the 5 part series sees Max pushing the investigation surrounding the disappearance of Rachel Amber and the strange happenings in Arcadia Bay into unexplored and daunting territory. As the End of the World party approaches, Max must use her powers to put all the pieces of the puzzle in place.

You can check out a trailer for the episode below.

In other news, the small dev team have announced that the Life is Strange series has reached 1 million sales.