Zerg deep below me
The Protoss way above me
Glad to be back home

Related posts:

1. Haiku Impressions: Picross 3D
2. Extended Haiku Impressions: Picross 3D
3. Haiku Impressions: Red Dead Redemption Outlaws to The End DLC

While life has been very busy as of late for your resident old fart and insulter of morons, one bit of gaming news that kept my attention recently was the Evo fighting game tournament in Las Vegas. Thanks to Nukezilla staffer, and all round sexy beast, Justin, we were all able to vicariously enjoy some highlights from what was by all accounts a great tournament and a really well run event. In the main event final Daigo “The Beast” Umehara repeated as Champion in the Street Fighter IV tournament.

A news story that broke later in the week following the tournament also caught my eye. In the piece on Kotaku “What is Daigo’s Day Job?” we discover that life away from game tournaments involves a lot of menial, unskilled work for one of the best videogamers in the world. It got me thinking. I know that my tone is going to come across as elitist, but this feature is usually about the impressions an older gamer gets from following the gaming community and I couldn’t shake the notion that this very talented young man is essentially wasting his life. Is he one of the best in the world at what he does? Clearly, but who cares? If Daigo spent maybe a fraction of his gametime on university or a trade, then he might be able to accomplish more in life than simply wiping old people’s bums for a living.

Try to remember here that I’m not writing as a gamer, I’m writing as a parent. When I sat down and really considered the significance of the piece on Kotaku I really started to wonder about the effect that competitive online gaming has on a segment of the market. If I’m being a dick, frankly part of me is glad that being phenomenal at videogames requires so much work and talent. It will keep me comfortably in reasonably priced house-cleaners, fast food attendants, and personal support workers, should I ever succumb to Alzheimers. I do acknowledge how much of a nasty ageing troll I’m being here, but I defy anyone out there of parenting age to disagree with me about whether they want their children to be great at games at the cost of being great at life.

Is Daigo happy? I don’t know, I’ve never met him. I assume that he is a very happy young man, who is content to do something that he absolutely loves while nobly working in a nursing home for the aged. You might then ask who am I to judge him? The world is filled with aspiring actors, football players, and *ahem* writers, who are likely never going to become successful or rich from their endeavours. Where do I get off questioning the way in which complete strangers spend their time or how they choose to live their lives?

As I said above I’m a parent, and if we are being completely honest I want my children to accomplish more with their lives than sacrificing personal success for the mere acknowledgement of other videogamers. This would be different if becoming the best at your given game or genre meant that you could hang out with Lebron James, or Ronaldo. It doesn’t. The corporate support for professional gaming is not sufficient to adequately reward the elite. Wiping asses and mopping floors can be as rewarding as anything else, especially when they involve assisting the aged and the infirm. However, I want my children doing more with their lives than that. If they have the potential to be the best at a videogame, then they clearly have the skill-set to be great other more lucrative endeavours. Videogames need to be kept in perspective and I think that is getting lost in the discussions about videogame culture in the name of marketing.

Like many others around here I’ve seen the pieces on X-Play that MLG superstar T-Squared does and it seems like he is doing all right financially. However, some less gracious scribes out there might imply that MLG has less to do with elite competitive gaming, and more to do with promoting Microsoft products. Maybe Capcom might want to help Daigo Umehara out a bit? Maybe? Don’t get me wrong I am not anti marketing or games publishers. I do not hate Activision of EA for trying to make more and more money. Money makes this industry flow, period. On the flip-side though, I can get frustrated with publishers for manipulating the stupid into not keeping them accountable, but I certainly don’t begrudge anyone making money.

There are obviously a lot of maybes in this discussion. Maybe Daigo is saving his money from tournaments and professional gaming as a launch pad to bigger and better things? Maybe I’m literally getting too old to be relevant in any discussion about videogames, careers and culture? But maybe, just maybe, when it comes right down to it in the discussions about whether games can be art, whether competitive e-sports can be successful on a mass market scale, or whether gaming journalists are in fact journalists, we have lost track of the fact that videogames are simply leisure and recreational pursuits? That there is a reality to being successful at videogames and that reality is that it involves incredible personal sacrifice with little potential for personal gain. Simply put, the personal economics of professional gaming rarely translates to success, rather it translates to lives wasted in pursuit of meaningless accolades.

In the end, I hope that I can play videogames with my children for decades to come. When I look at what I hope for them, it doesn’t involve specific professions or definitive financial success, it does involve the power to choose one’s own way. Hopefully I can convey to them the perspective that is necessary to really enjoy videogames for what they are.

Related posts:

1. Adventures in Middle-Aged Gaming: I Would Support Monthly Fees For Shooters if…
2. Adventures in Middle Aged Gaming: Why Don’t I Play Counter-Strike More?
3. Adventures in Middle-Aged Gaming: Screw 3D in Killzone 3, Tell me Why Rico is Such a Cocksucker

What is the decision making process for choosing to add a multiplayer component to a videogame? I presume the publisher has an influence over this process, suggesting the addition to help boost market appeal; if a game has both solo and co-operative play the game is marketable to more people. But if a game doesn’t need multiplayer, why doesn’t the developer avoid the inclusion of this and focus purely on the single player experience.

This week’s piece conflicts a little with my videogame buying ethos: when buying a game, I expect the multiplayer mode(s) to provide quality, longevity and above all value for money. I feel like my money could have been better spent when a multiplayer lacks any of these aspects and the game experience is short-lived. A multiplayer component whether fundamental to the game or not is rendered useless if there are little or no players online to play with (unless the multiplayer has a very niche audience which leaves a handful of players meeting up to play regularly).

Quality vs. quantity: time-frames and release dates mean that developers don’t have the freedom to produce the best possible single player component and work on a long-lasting multiplayer addition, unless the game being developed is multiplayer-only or primarily a multiplayer experience or the developer has a vast and/or experienced team and money available to produce more content within a time-frame.

When a game is released, if a multiplayer feels tacked on within a few weeks the number of players dries up and the single player mode is left to try and justify the price-point. Take Bioshock 2 for example: I felt the game didn’t need a multiplayer mode since the single player was strong enough to play multiple times much like the first Bioshock. 2K Marin added an unnecessary multiplayer mode and even though the mode offered a little originality and intrigue in the form of your underwater hotel room ‘lobby’, it lacked the same atmosphere and suspense intensity the single player offers – this led to the feeling of needlessness, which reduced the amount of players fast.

I feel this reflects badly on the game because the single player is excellent but the multiplayer unfortunately not so – since Bioshock as a concept doesn’t naturally suit co-operative play participating in the multiplayer is a somewhat forced decision on your half. A game like Uncharted 2 which lies in a similar position of being a naturally single player experience with a perhaps needless multiplayer mode managed to provide a decent enough multiplayer that kept the player count suitably high and had genuine longevity.

The decision whether to include multiplayer or not probably rests with developers making games for the likes of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, since PC games have a higher tendency to offer multiplayer components, increased multiplayer longevity and the ability to heavily customise the experience which greatly boosts the time you can spend online. I found the game Star Wars Jedi Knights: Jedi Academy had a far greater life-span on the PC than on the original Xbox; I played multiplayer on both but the PC offered more servers, more mods and patches and more players. Both versions had the insufficient and wholly average single player campaign, so the game’s enjoyment life-span & entertainment value rested pretty much entirely on the multiplayer’s more than sturdy shoulders.

A game like Modern Warfare 2 has a big reliance on multiplayer too; sure, the single player has had some care and attention but if Infinity Ward were truly focused on delivering a story mode that provided its own value for money separate to that which the multiplayer inherently provides, the slight hike in retail price would have been made more justifiable. You could argue that the six-hour Hollywood story was a short but sweet diversion from the main attraction but I felt the story lacked the quality and sustenance which the game’s prequel definitely had.

The story-telling and replayability factors were considerably better in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare than in the sequel but this may have been due to Infinity Ward not knowing how much of a success the multiplayer would be way back when. A bit of arrogance showed in the more developed and improved multiplayer component two years later but a less impactful and enjoyable single player campaign in Modern Warfare 2 was also present - Treyarch’s World at War oddly had a better and more rewarding single player than multi-player even though the online part still provided an abundance of playtime.

I expect a developer to make an educated decision when choosing to add multiplayer to their game: if there is definitive justification for including a multiplayer component then by all means go ahead. But if the game would benefit more from a more memorable single-player at the cost of being solely a sole experience, the game is best left alone as it is. I’m currently playing Singularity which includes a multiplayer mode but since the game is remarkably like Bioshock and Timeshift in appearance & gameplay I imagine the multiplayer will be incredibly short-lived. I wonder whether Activision convinced Raven to add the multiplayer in?

Related posts:

1. You’re Doing It Wrong: If I Could Turn Back Time…
2. You’re Doing it Wrong: Microsoft, Come On Down
3. You’re Doing It Wrong: The Difficulty With Blur

The problem is that Street Racing, along with every other Zynga title, has a pay option, where you can spend money on bigger and better elements for your characters in their respective games (why anyone would want to spend money on anything Zynga offers is beyond me, however). Thus, if Zynga shuts down a game, say goodbye to all of the cash you ponied up for whatever special element you wanted. That’s just what is happening here, with Zynga giving nothing to Street Racing users in return for their wasted money.

This has rightfully enraged many Street Racing users. On top of Zynga not apologizing for the shutdown, or offering some sort of compensation to those who spent money, they’ve tried to peddle a different kind of game to them. It’s amazing what a company will do to keep customers while at the same time shitting all over them. In retaliation, some Street Racing patrons took it upon themselves to start a boycott of the company on its forums. They’ve also taken to the comments section of an older Develop article (about a lawsuit against Zynga) to vent their frustrations. I can’t decide who has more egg on their face in this story; the users who wasted their money, or the greedy, heartless developer who will do anything for a dollar.

Related posts:

1. 7-Eleven and Zynga Pair to Load Slurpees With Game Codes
2. Facebook and Zynga Kiss And Make Up With Five Year Deal
3. Rebellion Not Paying Out Redundancy to Closed Derby Studio?

The JRPG shop has long been a constant in most people’s mind. Typically, you always buy the same items, for the same price, and that’s just how they work in that relatively underdeveloped genre. Recettear, an independent Japanese title by Easy Game Station has been (wonderfully) localized by Carpe Fulgur recently, and the demo came out last week.

Recettear is what you’d get if the shopkeeper from almost any JRPG killed the hero and said “HEY, MAKE A GAME ABOUT ME!”. Instead of combating monsters and evildoers, you combat poverty by buying low at the market and from customers that want to sell you things, and then sell your goods to unsuspecting customers at slightly higher than the base price. You also contract adventurers to go into dungeons and bring back goods for you, which I’ll come back to later.

In the demo, there are several tutorials explaining how the game works. They work in with the narrative, Recette being a vessel for the player who’s also unfamiliar with how a shop works. You don’t feel exceptionally stupid going through each one, as you’re learning how the mechanics of the game work. After you get to about the third day, you’re almost done with the basic tutorials and you’ll only receive a short one every time you level up and get a new ability. These include buying items from customers and checking your stock when a customer asks if you have any more items.

I really enjoyed the shop portion of the game. Running back and forth from the Merchant’s Guild and the Market to get some items to throw up in my store, then selling them (always at about 130% of the original price, though people get mad if you haggle for too long/too high) to customers. Eventually though, you need more money — capitalism, ho! — to eventually pay of your seemingly endless debt to Tear’s loan company. That’s where the adventurers come in.

The dungeon portions of the game were a little frustrating for me. There’s no block button, despite the adventurer’s sprite having a shield drawn on it. There’s also no dodge or anything similar, so you’re limited to the four directional buttons, a light attack, and a spin attack that uses skill points (replenished by leveling up and items). It’s kind of clunky and the enemies are very difficult to avoid — maybe it’s just because I haven’t played a game like this in a long time, but it seems much harder than it should be. You also can’t escape the dungeons (or go back to previous floors) without dying, reaching the end or by using a door-portal that you’re supposed to find every five levels or so.

The demo ended up being an enjoyable experience. I’d like to get into it more, but I don’t think I’m economically savvy enough to be able to run my own store in a JRPG. It’s a lot of trial and error, and by the time the first payment deadline comes around I’m usually 4k pix (the currency of the game) short of the amount. I really like the idea though, and hope that the I can eventually figure out what I’m doing wrong and get past that blasted first payment deadline.

Related posts:

1. Demo Impressions: Crackdown 2
2. Demo Impressions: Split/Second (Xbox 360)
3. Demo Impressions: ModNation Racers (PSP)

Many homebrew gamers had insisted that using custom made games did not constitute piracy, although the cards were used by pirates to download hundreds of free games. The cards were readily available off of Amazon for a few of quid and finding the dodgy games isn’t at all hard.

Nintendo said that they “[foster] game development and creativity, and strongly [support] the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative applications”. Developers will also take this as a victory and will hope the banning of the cards will stop more people from pirating their games. Nintendo claims that 100,000 game copying devices were seized in 2009.

Related posts:

1. Japan Doesn’t Even Pirate Things Like the Rest of the World
2. 3DS Games to be More Expensive, Probably, Says Pachter
3. Piracy Complete With Added Waggle as Sid Meier Heads to Wii

As videogame titles go, Avatar Racedrome is one of the more self-explanatory. With their Xbox Live Avatar in the driving seat, the player can compete in a series of races against AI or human opponents. Competition can take place either on a split screen or against seven other opponents over Xbox Live. Although Avatar Racedrome has a less than realistic driving model, giving the handling a kart-racer feel, it foregoes the power-up combat that its genre stablemates often include. Races take place in the titular racedrome, a concrete race track surrounding by a huge stadium. The game features 16 tracks and the option to play either single races or multi-race championships.

Any evaluation of a racing game boils down to two factors: how the cars handle and the tracks available to race around. In both areas, Avatar Racedrome comes up short. I found the handling to have a slippy, disconnected feel as if the cars tyres weren’t in contact with the track. Cornering felt imprecise and I didn’t feel as if I could swing into a powerslide with any regularity. In general, I just didn’t enjoy driving Avatar Racedrome’s cars. The lack of any vehicular variety doesn’t help matters. The only options available to the player are the colour of their car and the flag printed on to it. As enjoyable as the occasional burst of patriotism can be, it’s not enough to compensate for the absence of meaningful choice.

Though 16 tracks is certainly a healthy level of variety, the tracks themselves lack inspiration. Each track is a plain, concrete path at the centre of the same stadium. Avatar Racedrome’s tracks are workmanlike at best and flat-out boring at their worst. The tracks lack character to the point where regardless of their layout, I felt as if I was navigating the same track during each race. I find it difficult to blame the designer, it can’t be easy trying to match the pace and style of big-budget racing games with the meagre resources of an XNA developer. Nevertheless, there’s very little fun to be had on Avatar Racedrome’s tracks.

This leads me to my ultimate criticism of Indie racing games such as Avatar Racedrome, they just can’t stack up to the competition. I’m not a rich man but between various rental services and trading in old games, I have access to plenty of racing games. My points of comparison for Avatar Racedrome include DiRT2, Mario Kart Wii, Forza Motorsport 3, Split/Second, Blur, Wipeout HD and Burnout Paradise. Why make such a seemingly self-evident point? Well, there are Indie Games out there, in contrast to Avatar Racedrome,  that only bite off as much as they can chew. Shoot ‘em-ups, puzzle games and sidescrollers don’t need a vast development budget to be good, that isn’t the nature of the genre. When your points of comparison are Mega Man and Robotron, you don’t need to be bombarded with polygons and flashy effects to be impressed. Though there are numerous problems with what Avatar Racedrome is, the real problem is what it isn’t.

(What does this score mean?)

Disclaimer: Rendercode Games sent us a review copy of this game.

Related posts:

1. Nukezilla Review: Pew Pew Pod (Xbox Live Indie Games)
2. Nukezilla Review: MotorHEAT (Xbox Live Indie Games)
3. Nukezilla Review: PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain (Xbox Live Indie Games)

Continuing its move into the videogame space, the Disney Corporation has purchased social gaming company Playdom. The deal amounts to $563.2 million for Playdom shareholders as well as a undisclosed “performance-linked earn-out of up to $200 million” according to the company’s press release.

As Joystiq notes the company has only been around for two years and has launched several successful games which you probably won’t have played unless you’re a 15 year old girl. It’s cited as one of the most popular developers on Facebook with titles such as Social City, Sorority Life. Nope, me neither.

Related posts:

1. Disney Acquires iPhone Dev Tapulous
2. Daily Mail Says Its “100 million” Dollar Figure For Red Dead Redemption Was Speculation
3. Zynga Pulls Plug on Game; Paying Customers Pissed

Related posts:

1. Record of Agarest War Special Edition is Too Suggestive For Gamestop
2. Disney Acquires iPhone Dev Tapulous
3. Assassin’s Creed Teaser Site Has Trailers, Weapons And Mysterious Countdown

This week we’re not only going old school, not even pre-school, but we’re taking it pre-natal with a game that was released before I was even born. The game is SimCity for MS DOS which can be downloaded for free here. The goal for the Battledrome is to have the highest population by January 1910 (ten in-game years, about 15-20 minutes depending on your speed setting).

The settings are easy difficulty, with disasters disabled (when the game has begun, click on the ‘disasters’ button and select ‘disable’.

Post your population in the comments of this post and the most impressive city populations will be compared on the next NZCast.

“What the hell is MS DOS?”

If you’re familiar with DOS games and how to use DOSBox ignore the rest of this post and get playing!

MS DOS is the operating system that SimCity ran on. You won’t be able to play SimCity on a modern computer without the help of software like DOSBox, which emulates the OS. It’s free to download and can be found here. Download and run the .exe file and you should see a window that looks like this:

Now we need to tell DOSBox where the game files are located. We do this by ‘mounting’ the drive location containing the files you extracted. I extracted mine to the desktop, so I use the command shown below in the screenshot. Be sure to amend yours to reflect the location of your files. We then navigate to the drive by typing its name and hitting return (in my case it is simply c:). To run the game just type the name of the executable, hit return, and the game will start!

Related posts:

1. Wardrox VS Halfleft Battledrome Round 16: Frets on Fire
2. Battledrome Round 1: Winterbells
3. Battledrome Round 3: Ikaruga (Part 3)

Pixeled out head shots?
Shooting is loose, walking too
It’s just kind of “meh”

Related posts:

1. Demo Impressions: Split/Second (Xbox 360)
2. Demo Impressions: Recettear (PC)
3. Demo Impressions: Crackdown 2

While the thinking behind the prediction is reasonably sound, expect a torrent of gaming websites and blogs to run with scaremongering headlines of “NINTENDO TO DEMAND INTERNAL ORGANS FOR 3DS CARTS” in the next few days, like the similarly baseless Call of Duty subscription debacle last week. Of course it would be entirely justified for the price of 3DS titles to raise to meet increased production and development costs, but let’s just remember that “we believe Nintendo will” does not mean “Nintendo will”.

Related posts:

1. Piracy is Due to Games Being Too Expensive, Says Veteran Dev
2. Namco Bandai: Games Should be Cheaper, we Need New Business Models
3. Dreamcast Games Coming to XBLA And PSN

Once again Offcers Pete “Good Cop” Surplus and Jon “Bad Cop” Pendelton have hauled in Sam and Max for questioning over their latest episode, The Alley of The Dolls. But is it jail-time for the duo or will they get away with it once more?

Pendelton: Back again I see? I’m not surprised; we just can’t keep to keep you boys away from the station. Now we’ve got episode four, The Alley of The Dolls, to look at. Rather than taking away key elements from you two (as with the previous episode), you’ve given us more Sams than we know what to do with. You’ve also given us some new psychic powers and returning characters who we haven’t seen in a pretty fuckin’ long time. You think that’s gonna be enough to keep you off our shit-list? We’ll see, but I’m letting you know right now; I’m not gonna be as easy on ya as I was before…

Surplus: I guess this is becoming sorta routine for you guys, right? We drag you in here, decide you’re pretty decent-if-slightly-twisted guys and send you back out on the streets for another month. Well this time my buddy here’s got a few things to say, and you might not necessarily like all of them. Take it away, partner.

Pendelton: You’ve shocked me, gentlemen. I never ever thought that your shtick would annoy me, but you managed to do just that in this episode. The Alley of The Dolls involves Sam clones running amok through the streets of New York. In almost every major discussion between characters, you boys argue over what to call the clones: Samulacra or dogglegangers. I’ll admit, it’s a funny gag…at first. The 50th damn time you make it, though, it’s thoroughly tired and played.

Surplus: Hey, now. I’m not sure it’s completely fair to focus so much on that gag. Sure, it’s a bit overused, but in the context of the whole episode I was sort of surprised that the clones were less important than they initially seemed. The actual plot that emerges is much more interesting, although it does take its sweet time.

Pendelton: This episode showed me a different side of the Sam and Max world; the horribly grotesque one. I don’t know how you boys get your kicks, but I don’t like it. First we witnessed the demented, soul-shrieking horror that is Yog Soggoth. Then I had to sit back and watch as a waitress and cockroach played tonsil hockey. Finally, the demonic acessories unleashed upon The Statue of Liberty and Max himself were enough to give anyone the friggin’ willies. This might be your most disturbing episode yet, and for some reason I just couldn’t get into that. I enjoy you guys when you’re carefree and cartoony, not unsettling and creepy.

Surplus: Personally I wouldn’t be so harsh on the final segment of the game, I thought it was the one thing that helped lift the episode up and saved it from mediocrity. Which I guess brings me to the main reason I agreed to bring you back in for questioning: I just felt the whole thing was a bit light on story. Sure, there’s the whole thing with the clones, but that just seems like a delaying tactic; it isn’t really fully explored, just acting as an excuse to have a bunch of puzzles until the real story kicks in at the end. It’s the same beef I had with Chapter Four of Tales of Monkey Island, but at least in that game I had a major mid-episode twist to enjoy.

Pendelton: I will concede that there were parts I loved. Bringing back Bluster Blaster, my favorite C.O.P.S. member, was a great idea. The plot was pretty revealing, giving us insights into parts of the story we’ve been wondering about since episode one. And, as usual, I was amused by the various game references including a Team Fortress 2 Blue Team dispenser (!) randomly finding its way into Mama Bosco’s underground facility.

Surplus: I had no worries about whether you were going to continue to produce quality adventuring with this fourth episode and let’s not lose sight of the fact that you’ve succeeded again. The ending was genuinely exciting and I can’t wait to see what the closing episode brings. It’s just that this time the episode seems more workman-like: it does the job but just isn’t as memorable as the previous ones. By now, we’re looking for a little more than workman-like from you, fellas.

Now it’s crunch time, gentlemen. You’ve given us four pretty damn good episodes of adventures, and it’d be a shame to ruin the whole thing with a terrible fifth act. Sure, you have the ability to bring this series to an awesome close. But we gotta tell you, there have been some parts from the last few episodes that worry us. We’ll only have to call you into the station for one last talking to, so be sure to bring your A game for The City That Dares Not Sleep. We don’t want things to get ugly around here now, do we?

(What does this score mean?)

Disclaimer: Telltale Games provided review copies of the game.

Related posts:

1. Good Cop/Bad Cop Review: Sam and Max: They Stole Max’s Brain!
2. Good Cop/Bad Cop Review: Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak
3. Nukezilla Review: Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent (PC)

As Gavin was all like “blah blah can you do the show post?” and I was all like “like, ok, like” here is me doing the show post. Gavin is rubbish. On this week’s NZCast we talk about:

• The difference between the Daily Star and bloggers
• What it means when Gavin’s tiny import unicorn gets larger
• How Ikaruga is rubbish

And some other things along the way. As always if you enjoy the show tell everybody about it. If you do, Gavin will absolve you of your sins.

MP3, iTunes (review us here), Zune, Any other RSS, Subscribe by Email

Related posts:

1. NZCast 2.05: New Moon
2. NZCast 2.02: We Don’t Talk About E3
3. NZCast 2.06: Congradulations

Bioware and EA have announced two new pieces of Mass Effect 2 DLC are on the way. Coming first is a two weapon pack, blah, blah, blah. More importantly the second DLC pack, Lair of the Shadow Broker, will continue the story of Liara T’soni and her plot of revenge against the galaxy’s most famous bogeyman.

I’ll probably pick up the second pack on release day because I’m pathetic and still have a soft spot for Dr. T’soni. She was my first blue skinned tentacle haired space conquest before Mass Effect 2 made me into a non-monogamous bastard.

Truth be told, I lost my Mass Effect 1 save that served as a record of this tumultuous relationship. Does that mean it never officially happened? I thought she was giving me dirty looks when I met up with her in ME2, but maybe that’s because I hooked up with the space-racist Ashley and the space-slut with a heart of gold, Jack. I know one thing for sure, I’m lucky to have a wife in the real world.

No release dates or prices were given for either of these packs, but you can assume they’ll be dropping in the next few months and (based on the previous packs) should be 160 and 560 Microsoft points, respectively.

Related posts:

1. Paid Red Dead DLC Bringing Zombies, Multiplayer Poker
2. New Bioshock 2 DLC Punishes Previous Customers
3. Red Dead Redemption Getting Free Co-op DLC in June

I, for one, think this is going to make the reviews for the game much more interesting to follow. Everyone is getting access to the game at the same time, so the suspicious “exclusive” review won’t exist. Instead you’ll be left with such wonderful questions like, “Did Website X really complete the campaign and give the multiplayer a fair shake before stamping a 10 out of 10?” If we were a massive site with an unlimited budget (ahem!) would we assign the review to our most dedicated staffer; a person who would be willing to sacrifice 48+ sleepless hours just to get our review out first?

Thankfully, writing for Nukezilla is a labour of love. In our case the StarCraft II review will be placed in the most steady and capable hands of our very own Mark “Junglistgamer” Steward. Mark and I have been playing SCII during the beta and as NZ‘s new Reviews Editor I can promise you our review won’t be rushed out the door. Mark and staff have been waiting 11 years for this. If Blizzard’s latest is a masterpiece, a massive disappointment or something in between, we’ll be sure to give it a thorough spin around the block.

Please continue to follow our coverage of SCII. We’ll post our Battle.net IDs on the forums so the NZ community can jump into the fray with us online and squash what’s left of our meager pride. My life for Auir!

Related posts:

1. StarCraft II Release Date Announced
2. Study Says Reviews Alter Perception And Sales of Games
3. Haiku Impressions: Starcraft 2

The Netflix Instant Watch service on the PS3 finally got a search function added sometime today. This allows users to perform a basic search of all available Instant Watch titles. Users have been clamoring for this ability since the service started in November of last year. Before today, Netflix subscribers have only had access to a random assortment of newly-added Instant Watch titles, along with whatever films/TV shows they chose for their Instant Watch queue.

I’m incredibly excited about this news, since not a day goes by that I don’t use my Xbox 360 to watch a few episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life or MST3K. Unfortunately, only the PS3 users have search functionality…for now. 360 users will get the ability to search some time in November, according to Joystiq. At least the 360 users can still gloat over the fact that you need a disc to run Netflix on the PS3.

Related posts:

1. Insomniac Games No Longer Sony Exclusive
2. E3 10: Microsoft Presentation Round-up
3. PSN Buckles as Users Try to… Erm, Use it

I’ve often heard the argument that interactivity is a problem for games as an art form. The idea is that by introducing interaction, the player’s actions and whatever meaning the art is trying to convey can too-easily fall into conflict. You might be in the most serious piece of story exposition ever, but that is completely undermined if the player can be running around jumping on peoples’ heads all the while. The only way to guard against this would be to remove from the scene the thing that separates games from other art forms: the interaction. Today I want to argue briefly against the idea I set out above but mainly something that is less talked about: the unique ways in which interactivity can convey artistic ideas.

The reason that I don’t worry about interaction allowing the player to spoil the artistic intention of the game is simply that this problem can arise in all art forms. If I’m reading The Catcher In The Rye and I want to imagine that Holden Caulfield sounds like Elmer Fudd or only pay attention to every other paragraph or other such nonsense, that’s well within my power. Sure, the difference with games is that I am directly using the game itself to inflict my sabotage but what I am doing is essentially the same sort of act: I am refusing to engage with the book just as I am with the game.

A deeper problem for games might be ‘accidental’ sabotage, where the player is trying to engage with the game but it is not responding appropriately. For example, a player might make one choice earlier on, and a different choice later, and there might be a conflict between these two choices that the game doesn’t acknowledge. But that seems to me to be a problem with the game, not the interactivity, similar to how a plot hole in a film might spoil things for people who notice it. Player choice adds a layer of complexity which makes it more likely for these cracks to appear but that is a problem for designers to solve.

I’m forced to conclude that the problems that interactivity brings are either functionally similar to the problems experienced in other non-interactive media, or they are such that they could be fixed through better design. As for the sorts of rewards that interactivity can bring, that’s a whole box of tricks that is really only now starting to be properly explored. The examples I am about to give are just a couple of the ways that games designers are starting to understand how interactivity can be used uniquely to its advantage as a medium.

Would You Kindly

Towards the end of the game Bioshock, it is skilfully revealed that ‘would you kindly’ is a hypnotic trigger phrase that compels the main character to do whatever follows. The game shows brief flashes of all the times that the character was asked if they would kindly do something, and this moment is made all the more striking because the player was in control of the character while these hidden commands were being given. The point is made all the clearer by the artful (but brief) removal of interactivity for a short moment afterwards.

This raises all sorts of interesting ideas, such as how feeling as if one is acting under free will may or may not equivalent to actually having free will. This idea is brought forward with emotional force thanks the use of interactivity, because the player certainly felt like they were in control at the time and yet now is forced to look back on how they unthinkingly did whatever they were told. If they play the game again, they will get a different but complementary experience – aware that they are a puppet due to knowledge of the ending, but still helpless to do anything but play along if they wish the story to progress.

Empty Space

When I heard that a film of Shadow of the Colossus was being planned, one of my first thoughts was that the titular colossi could come across very well, cinematically. My next was that one of the things that film would struggle to convey in the same way that a game can is just how much space there is in the way it is paced. There are long sections of that game where nothing is happening except for a man riding a horse, occasionally checking a sword that he uses as a sort of compass.

In film, this would no doubt be shorthanded or they’d try to find ways to fill the space like adding dramatic obstacles or characters, and some of the loneliness that the game so powerfully evokes would be lost as a result. This is not to say, of course, that films have no methods they can use to convey such loneliness; I’m sure that many films do so excellently. However I would argue that because of their interactivity, that tether that connects the player to what is happening, games have a natural advantage in being able to maintain lots of different sorts of pacing. A more recent example of this would be Limbo, a game whose pacing helps to present a particular brand of oppressive, menacing solitude that I do not think could be properly translated to other media without compromise.

–

What I’ve described here barely scratches the surface, not only of what is currently being done with interactivity but what could possibly be done in the future. The most artistic uses are no doubt those which I haven’t even thought of, those that will take me by surprise and make me wish I’d thought of it first. So let’s stop thinking of interactivity as a handicap, an obstacle that designers must step around in order to convey their ideas clearly and instead embrace it as the most important expressive tool that can be used to make games relevant as an art form.

Related posts:

1. Unconvinced Pete: The Gamer’s Guide to Cognitive Bias (Part 1)
2. Unconvinced Pete: Are Game Soundtracks Being Neglected?
3. Unconvinced Pete: In Praise of Optimism

In this episode of the Communicast, myself and my two co-hosts show you what it really means to be an unqualified parent as we discuss:

• The Lost and The Damned
• Joss Whedon
• California’s pending legislature on M-rated games
• Kevin never shutting his electronics off

And while you’re listening to this weeks episode, head over to the Communicast sub-forum and ask us some more questions! Preferably not related to masturbation, as hard as that might be.

You can grab the Mp3 here, and the RSS feed here.

Related posts:

1. Communicast 2.02: Huffin’ MP3s
2. Communicast 2.01: The Triumphant Return
3. Communicast Ep 7: The Rilley Hate Train

Here’s a link to Chelsea’s review and here’s the Reddit comment I make reference too. This is an interesting topic, and one I’m sure you’ve got an opinion on.

Related posts:

1. The Nukezilla Sunday Supplement – July 25th 2010
2. Wardrox’s Vlog 11th July: Having a Nap
3. Wardrox’s Vlog 18th July: Meta Ranting BS Edition

Every Sunday we’re going to post links to articles we think are interesting from the last week. Sundays are usually very quiet around here, so this seems like the best day to do it. We’re going to link to articles on range of subjects, including videogames, technology, movies, geek culture and much, much more.

If you’ve got cool links to share with fellow NZers, please do chuck them in the comments below!

Technology

Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview – Engadget. A really in-depth preview of Windows Phone 7, with some good analysis and videos of the UI. Engadget concludes that while things look promising, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown – Wired. A fascinating look at the politics between AT&T and Apple and the conflict that’s occurred over iPhone connection issues. A nice insight.

Videogames

Games Coverage is Terrible — Here’s How I’d Fix it. – Bitmob. A great Bitmob article which looks at the state of videogames journalism, something we’ve talked a lot about here.

Internet

True friendship is a plant of slow growth … but you could always rent – The Guardian. Err, OK? An American site, Rent a Friend, has opened its doors to Britain this week. The service, which costs $25 a month includes a list of 200,000 “friends” who can hire to hand out with. Apparently it’s only for platonic relationships. Sure.

The Economics of Privacy Pricing – The New York Times. This looks at a study which is gauging the value of your private information and how “when you have privacy, you value it more.” With the internet, and people’s information, quickly expanding at what cost are you willing to sell your privacy?

Few neutrals in debate over “third way” net neutrality plan – Ars Technica. The questions of US net nuetriality are huge, but there’s steep positions on both sides. This article looks at the classification of broadband companies; whether they’re information providers or merely the pipes that information travels on.

Policing the Web’s Lurid Precincts – The New York Times. These people spend all day approving images on for websites. They see the most depraved, violent and illegal content on the internet, and some of them find it hard to cope.

In a World of Online News, Burnout Starts Younger – The New York Times. This article looks at the increasingly long hours and demanding post count that online writers and journalists have to adhere to. It’s all about page views and paying by the traffic for some.

The Web Means the End of Forgetting – The New York Times. “The Web allows for unprecedented voyeurism, exhibitionism and inadvertent indiscretion, ” but all of that is stuck there forever. This article examines how we’ll been judged by our Twitter updates.

Cool Stuff

I’m trying another drawing… – TwainMarco. This article examines the drawings of a man on LSD in an experiment undertaken in the 1950s. See how is drawings change and evolve as the effect of the drug peaks and then begins to drop.

If Mars Attacks … – Slate. A look at what would happen if aliens turned up at Earth, which asked “Do we have an alien-contact contingency plan?” Some interesting conclusions, especially if the aliens were hostile.

What Took You So Long? – Slate. This looks at the “quiet hell” of writing a novel. It certainly cements my desire to never, ever write a book.

Wildlife frozen in time – The Guardian. Some stunning photographs of animals and nature.

Now get posting links in the comments! See something that should be in next week’s edition? Email Tips@Nukezilla.com with a link.

Related posts:

1. The Nukezilla Sunday Supplement – July 18th 2010
2. The Nukezilla Sunday Supplement – July 11th 2010
3. The Nukezilla Sunday Paper – July 4th 2010

PLATFORMANCE: Castle Pain is (you guessed it) a platformer recently released by Magiko Gaming. Drawing on simple game mechanics and the nostalgia of 8-bit graphics and music, the overall feel hearkens to the Super Nintendo era. You, the heavily armored knight, must navigate pixelated pits, poop and pointy objects to rescue the imprisoned princess. Can you escape the maze of deathly horrors that await you in Castle Pain?

Probably. But it may take longer than you think.

Before I get into the details of how the game works, one thing you will need to understand about this game is you will die. A lot. Due to carefully placed walls, ceilings and other obstacles, don’t be too surprised if it takes you more than one attempt in each area to reach a checkpoint. While under normal circumstances this type of game would drive me crazy, liberally-placed checkpoints make this whole process less frustrating than it could be.

While there is no stop watch timer on this game, quite early in the castle you activate a large and rather goofy looking ghost who slowly trails behind you as you travel through the castle. The speed of the ghost depends on what difficulty setting you’ve chosen. Easy mode gives you roughly half an hour to complete the castle labyrinth, while hardcore…well, I haven’t gotten far enough to find out. If the ghost touches you, it’s a game over — you won’t respawn at your last checkpoint and you’ll have to start from the beginning.

The game takes the typical platforming genre and gives it a bit of a twist: three different levels of zoom. These allow you, most obviously, to see the entire level as it winds its way through the walls of Castle Pain. Each level of zoom (full screen, medium, and close-up) is necessary to navigate different areas. Full screen zoom-out also allows you to see how much space lies between you and the tissue-shaped ghost of death.

One of the main annoyances I felt within the game was the physics. There’s a little bit more slide in landings than I like to feel in a platformer. Many areas of the castle require perching on rather tiny platforms, and too much extra slide will find you plummeting to your death. Jumping over rows of spike-covered flooring also will sometimes end with our hero exploding into a pile of blood after slipping a few pixels too far.

Jumping on special items also has its quirks. Magic smoke can carry you higher but only if you press A while floating in a specific spot. It’s not impossible or even difficult, but whether or not you hit the smoke correctly feels a little too inconsistent. Jumping on the yellow springboards feels just as random: no matter how hard I try to correctly time hitting A with landing on the spring, whether or not I actually jump higher seems arbitrary.

My other big complaint is that I wish there were more than one level to play through; I’d gladly pay 240 points for three castles. While the difficulty settings change up what (and how many) obstacles lie within the castle, it still can feel a bit repetitive after a few rounds. It’s both a good and a bad thing: I love the art so much in this game that I feel disappointed there isn’t more for me to look at.

Playing through the game on easy (depending on your skill level) could take anywhere from 10 minutes to maybe 45. As I personally am horrible at these type of games, my best time getting through the castle was roughly 20 minutes… after 4 or 5 “game over” screens. You get “awards” after completing the game based on how many times you died. I must say, I couldn’t help but laugh when I viewed the end screen: Bronze Medal, 85 deaths. Try dying less than 30 times.

Castle Pain, while punishing and frustrating, manages to also be charming and addictive. The price point (80 Microsoft Points) is reasonable; even inexpensive considering the time commitment to beating the game on each difficulty (plus the rewards system for perfectionists). While some of the physics might add some unnecessary frustration, it isn’t enough to mar the experience. It’s well-polished and cleverly designed, two attributes that don’t often describe Indie Games at this price point.

(What does this score mean?)

Disclaimer: Magiko Gaming gave us a free copy of the game.

Related posts:

1. Nukezilla Review: Pew Pew Pod (Xbox Live Indie Games)
2. Nukezilla Review: Dr. Mazing in Infinite Energy Crisis (Xbox Live Indie Games)
3. Nukezilla Review: MotorHEAT (Xbox Live Indie Games)

[Welcome to our new feature/column The Best Of The Forum. It'll be a recap of sorts covering what's been going on this week in our lovely forums. To avoid claims of editorial censorship of the Half Left & Wardrox slash fiction threads, these articles will be written by handsome and well groomed NZ community member nahsuda04. This first post is sort of a general introduction to the forums, for those who may be unfamiliar.]

So, how’re you all doing? Is “how’re” a word? No matter. I’m not a journalist. I’m not a blogger. I’m not even an amateur writer trying to make my way up the corporate ladder, desperately sending articles to every site I can find. I am instead a Nukezilla fanboy. I wanted to capitalise that but it would’ve been tacky. Recently I had an idea: Why not recap the activity on the forums into “The Best of The Forums” post? So I did.

• Have no friends? Well thus far 74 people have posted their gamertags, and some newcomers introduced themselves. So now you no longer have to be alone! Excitement awaits you.
• Tired of all the hate for PlayStation Plus? Well this link is for you. Go tell everyone why it’s better than Xbox Live. Lie if you need to.
• Post E3 game-drooling can be found here. We want hear your gaming desires. You’ve got to have some comments on Limbo, which coincidently has a mini-review up by Ace Flibble.
• Nozart rants about how cut-scenes are not rendered realtime, go disagree with him! Make him cringe by naming games which use the game engine to render cutscenes. He can’t get away with this! He wins if you don’t outpost him!
• Huh? An argument breaks out about haikus and Evony? Only on Nukezilla. If you don’t see it then you won’t be a part of the biggest thing to hit poetry since Shakespeare.
• Love hearing people squirm awkwardly? Then ask the NZCast or Communicast questions. I’ve heard that they will answer anything. Annnnything. Even the meaning of life.
• For those of you who can message Wardrox what’s broken with Nukezilla, you could win a prize! You probably won’t, but stranger things have happened.
• If you just wanna chill out and really discover what goes on in the temporal lobes of Nukezilla readers, then go check out this cool music thread by Nintendoll. Some even posted up Last.fm profiles and YouTube links, so go discover something other than games.
• A kind-hearted soul posts up some stats of Nukezilla. If you’re curious how many countries read the site, you’re gonna have to check out the thread.
• What are the 86 degrees of separation between Dinosaurs and Sexy? Go see GP Turtle’s Word Association thread.

They’re all good. Like Nukezilla.

Related posts:

1. Battle.net Forums to Force Use of Your Real Name in the Future
2. Blizzard Backs Down, Decides to Not Force Real Names in The Forums
3. PSA: Portal Free Until May 24th

For a while we had a working mobile phone version of Nukezilla. Then the dohicky was updated which clashed with the thing, and the other thing was all like “waa waa waaa” so the jobby was turned off and the mobile version kind of broke. But now, mostly thanks to some very kind phone loans from our very own Brett “I owe him several beers” Parsons, Nukezilla has its own, new — and most importantly — working mobile version, again.

Obviously the mobile site doesn’t have as many of the main site’s features, but it does let you follow and read Nukezilla from the toilet without the impracticality of moving your PC.

Related posts:

1. Kieron Gillen on “Nukezilla”
2. Nukezilla Presents Wire
3. And The Winner of The Nukezilla ARG Prize is…

ABOVE: Is it fair to hold the Daily Star up to the high standards we subject blogs to?

On 22 July we published an article claiming that the journalist Jerry Lawton was planning to release a version of the popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Jerry Lawton”.

We also published what we claimed was a screen shot of a terrible article, solicited comments from a real journalist impacted by the recent incident and claimed a full investigation was under way.

We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Jerry Lawton prior to publishing. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed journalist would choose to base one of their articles on a combination of fiction and horrifying real crime events.

It is now accepted that Lawton never had enough credibility to warrant the publishing of our satirical outburst. We apologise for publishing the story mocking Lawton and the Daily Star, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a fellow writer.

We unreservedly apologise to Lawton and the Daily Star and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed not to roll over in the night and take all of the blanket, and we will be very quiet when working in the garage when the Daily Star‘s mother is round.

Related posts:

1. Jerry Lawton: Video Game, Film And Book Plans Cause Fury
2. Daily Mail Says Its “100 million” Dollar Figure For Red Dead Redemption Was Speculation
3. Do Any of These People Actually Know What The Daily Sport is?