Mind of a Gaming Addict

Highschool of the Dead

2010-08-30T09:25:00.000+01:00

The other week I came across something so awesome that I am now addicted. That awesomeness if none other than Highschool of the Dead! What’s this got to do with gaming? Well not a great deal but I don’t care; there are references so that will do. It has zombies, yes zombies, does it need anything else? Press the magic button and we shall continue this inside [pops kettle on].

Aside from my big gaming obsession, I am also (like a lot of gamers) a fan of Japanese manga and anime. A few weeks ago I watched the very first episode of an anime called Highschool of the Dead, which I had never heard anything about before that day. To cut a long story short, it starts in a highschool, and follows some of the students as they escape from a Zombie outbreak that has not only infected Japan, but every country in the world.

Following the six main characters as they try to escape the mayhem, the carnage and all the death, they attempt to leave the city, thinking that maybe there is somewhere isn’t infected. Sadly, although they don’t know it yet, nowhere is safe. Along the way they do meet other people; some good and in need of help, and others that should be left to die.

My first impression was the animation was very graphic, this has been designed for the adult audience and they are not censoring and bloodshed. The first couple of episodes show the new team come together and form a bond as they escape the school and the remainder as they try to survive.

The more episodes that you watch, the more you will see elements of games like Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising and Resident Evil. One of the characters played a lot of FPS games; he is slightly disturbed with a strong bloodlust, and a thing for guns, possibly added intentionally just to mock the ‘violence in video games’ debate. There are other videogame references in there too, but it’s fun to find them as you’re watching.

Like most anime these days, there is a fanservice presence, it’s not over the top or anything but it is there. There is also a sexual tension between one of the male characters and the four women of the group. The storytelling is brilliant and the animation is some of the best I have seen this year. All in all, without any real spoilers, you all should watch this. Especially any Zombie fan or fans of films like 28 days later.

Waiting...

2010-08-26T11:03:00.000+01:00

Don't you just hate it when you know that something is making its way proudly to you and you are sat at the door waiting like a small boy waiting for a new toy?

That’s exactly what I am currently doing! It doesn’t matter that I am getting Mafia 2 free, courtesy of 2K Games. I want the game now; it should have been here yesterday! It doesn’t matter that it was only sent out yesterday either. It should have been here immediately.

Look, see, no bleeding postman

Now my strange attitude will probably explain why people go out and buy games in a shop without thinking about getting things cheaper. I can say that I have been guilty of this in the past. Now I like to shop about more, get more for my money.

What’s even more amusing is that I am sat near the window with the blinds open practically looking down the street for sight of a man that probably won’t have the bleeding thing in the first place.

I keep thinking that if I didn’t know it was coming then I wouldn’t be doing this, then I keep thinking that I would just find some other excuse to wait impatiently by the window, waiting to give the postman a piece of my mind, even though he comes at the same time (1pm) every day.

Do you guys do this? Do you sit waiting just in case you have to sign?

Twisted, Open Storytelling of Alan Wake

2010-08-24T09:35:00.002+01:00

Last week was a good week as I finally got to play Alan Wake, which I had wanted to play since it came out. Having a rental account has its perks and when Lovefilm decided that they would send me it, I was happy as a pig in muck. Sticking in the game I started to play and throughout the entire game, it got me thinking. Is this game pure genius? Or is it a tragic waste of five years?

I will give you fair warning, there are some spoilers.

Wake uses chapter based storytelling much like in a book, although this makes the game very linear. At the beginning of the game I felt like I was playing three openings. The first opening thrust me in the deep end of the game, instantly being chased. The second had me taking my time during the day to have a creepy end. The third was Alan wake-ing (sorry had to do it) in a car dangling over a cliff, wondering what the hell had happened, where he was and what had happened to his wife. This is where the real beginning was and then you begin to follow the story. Is this a genius way to start a story? Or is this just bad writing? I personally think that its genius, mainly because it makes you wonder what the hell is going on, for it to be then slowly explained throughout the chapter.

The next thing that Wake made me wonder about was what is actually going on. After spending entire day thinking about it, I came up with only four plausible answers in the very beginning.

1) Alan is in a coma or having a dream where he has to face both his own demons and his own fears whilst trying to wake up.
2) Alan is narrating a new book that he is writing, where he has added himself as the main character in a twisted horror story.
3) Everything is real, it’s really happening and his wife really is missing. The shadow people are really attacking him and Alan is now the protector of the world!
4) Alan is suffering from some sort of post traumatic stress disorder after the death of his wife. He has gone crazy and nothing he sees is real. Thinking the world is out to get him he plunges further into depression, seeing only what he wants to see.

In my mind all these answers are all plausible. This is also why I think the story is genius. It makes you think that there is more to the story, more to the game. You can look at it from multiple angles and still see different answers to what is going on. It also sets an atmospheric macabre tone that keeps you gripped while all the time unravelling more details to what is going on.

This theme continues throughout the remainder of the game too. It keeps you guessing and with every twist, you come up with another plausible idea of what is going on.

Towards the end of the game the storytelling becomes even more fantastic and really opens up what you think. Changing the smallest details of what your chosen scenario is. I only wish the storytelling was so open in other games.

I think overall the time was wasted while making the game although they were right to concentrate on the story, its one redeeming feature. I’m not saying it’s a bad game, it really isn’t. Its gameplay is solid, inventive and well executed, but still lacking something. In a world where people demand more variety, those five years were wasted.

That all said and the story still has me wondering, making me want to go back to the game. Making me want to play it one more time, if only to confirm or deny what I already believe is the intention of the story.

Borderlands: What I’d like in a sequel

2010-08-23T07:25:00.000+01:00

One of the best games to come out of 2009 was Gearbox Software's Borderlands. This game has everything. It has class, it has replay value and it has so many different varieties of weapons that you can easily see why millions of people have been playing it all over the world. It’s been nearly a year since I bought two copies of the game for me and my girlfriend and set out on the epic mission of killing everything that dared to attack us as we traversed the world of Pandora. After several conversations with Andy C, we started to pull apart this masterpiece, not only praising Gearbox for successfully mashing together various different elements into the game, but finding ways that if we were the developers, we would improve it for the next game.

At this point I figured what the hell; maybe I should write this stuff down and see what the rest of the world thinks.

The first thing on the list is the guns. One thing both Andy and I noticed was that both of us tended to keep the same sets of guns for a long period of time. There may be millions of guns but that didn’t stop us from constantly using the same ones. The hardest part for both of us was swapping a gun that you had been using for the last fifty missions for one that was a little bit better. It was was like replacing your child with another child that looks the same but is slightly stronger and has the ability to fart fire. The new child has a few perks, but its not the same child that you're used to and have come to love as your own.

One thing we agreed on was that it would have been a better idea to have had millions of gun parts which you could swap and change, like Tuko does in the Good the Bad and the Ugly. He sees a standard stock that he likes then changes the parts to suit him. This idea would mean that you could still have loads of guns, but you could also upgrade them as you saw fit. So you get yourself one of the standard stock weapons and decide that you want to pull off the barrel from one of the other weapons. The magazine is extended and maybe you decide that you want to add an elemental mod into the mix for a bit. Before you know it, you have created your own custom masterpiece that you have stuck together with super glue and cable ties and hair grease. This would mean that people would still run around and collect stuff but would also always be adding stuff to their guns. You could also have some sort of trading system where people could barter for the parts. Find something cool and powerful but not quite what you’re looking for? Borderlands style eBay isn't far away. If you really think about it, not only would you have the five million plus standard guns, you would be extending that ten-fold by allowing players to swap the parts about or harvest the gun parts. You would get the best of both worlds; all the guns and the ability to upgrade them.

Another thing that could be added is some additional storage. Many times throughout the game, I have found weapons that I couldn’t use, or didn’t need at the time and wanted somewhere to store them without having to sell them every time I ran out of space. Having a place to put some of your surplus would have been great as you could store guns for when you need them without having to just get rid for the sake of it. Having your own personal weapons room would be cool. Imagine the decor something like a futuristic version of Hit Girls room in Kick-Ass, with every wall nicely decorated with everything you would need to start an army. This could also double as a base of operations, maybe a big house with four rooms in it. You have one room and your co-op partners stuff would be loaded up in another room (in single player you would only be able to enter your own room). You could go around and look at what they have and then add stuff to your wish list. If your co-op partner agrees, then you can take the gun from their room to loan or you can bid on certain guns to keep. Also housed in the room could be trophies from all your boss kills. Now before you start giving me grief because you can purchase a storage bank in the Mad Moxxi DLC, it wasn't quite what I hoped for. Having an extra 39 slots is good if it’s added to your character, but having to jump to the arena every time you want to empty your load isn’t the way to go. One simple additional option of “send to storage/home” would be good, saving the hassle of running around or back to your base unless you really have to.

While we’re still on the subject of storage, another thing that could be added is a way to get rid of all those guns you don’t want, really fast. For example a check box style system that locks the guns in your storage, then an option to sell all, with one press of a button. Rather than having to sort through the ones you don’t want then accidently losing a gun that you wanted to keep for later because you got a bit confused (we have all done it, there is no shame).

My next little idea is attached to the missions; let’s face it, every mission was pretty much the same. Now, I’m not complaining in the slightest, I loved the missions (seriously, I'm not going to lie) but I did feel that a bit of variety wouldn’t have gone a miss. Everything was “kill this enemy”, or “collect fifty of these”, and I don’t mean to be a kill joy, but would it have hurt to add a bit more depth to it?! Mixing it up with a few “capture the flag” and team orientated missions would have been worthy additions. It’s okay being on the offensive all the time but there's nothing wrong with being on the defensive either with some “defend said area” missions too. Adding some racing missions would be great too, you could mix it up by expressly allowing the use of big guns to help with the competition (although some could be without too). You would still have your standard "shoot the shit out of anything that bleeds" missions too, just adding some things that allow you to have a break from that would be fantastic additions. You could also incorporate something similar to what Left 4 Dead has, where by each time you replay a mission it plays a slightly different way. If anything it would add to the replay value.

Something that a few people have mentioned is the lack of people in towns and places that you visit. I think the whole of Pandora is inhabited by claptraps and around ten people that you can associate with. Another thing that I noticed was once you had done all the missions you couldn’t really have a chat with them or hear any quick witted comments or piss takes. I think for the next game there should be a bit more life; people walking around, a few random people that don’t want to blow your head off, a couple of traders and campsites here and there. Sound good?

Having one car is all well and good, then adding three more with the DLC but not allowing you to use any of them anywhere else and restricting them to areas isn’t fun. I had this notion that you could upgrade your cars similar to the way I want to upgrade the guns. Destroy enemy vehicles and steal some of the unwanted parts, swap them about in scooters new and improved garage. It could be like a Mad Max version of Banjo Kazooie’s car maker. Select the parts you want and build a real monster. You could even have an aesthetics engine in there to help decorate and paint awesome designs to your cars. People could trade parts and schematics like you can on Forza.

One thing I would have liked to see is some team VS team play for the multiplayer. Having four player co-op is one thing but mixing it up with a team orientated battle against three or four other teams could be awesome. Having the matches like your general free for all, team battle and capture the flag. You could then do vehicle versions of the same game modes on a larger arena. At the end of the battle, the winning team or the winner of the free for all could win some special weapons that they could use in game. You could also have some scavenge style modes too where you go looking for a set amount of weapon parts. Once a team has a set amount of parts a special weapon is launched killing off the rest of the opposition and crowning your team as the winner.

My final thought of an addition to the game is with the characters and the way you upgrade, this is possibly the longest thought that I have for the game, so I thought I would leave the best till last.

When you start the game you could choose your character or have a character builder, then you could choose what class you want them. Rather than have a series of perks that are specific to that character class, why not have it so you have mix and match perks? Before you think I have totally lost the plot, there is more. So say that you start off as Mordecai and rather than being restricted to his class, the first few missions help you decide the class that you want to be. You level up and you get a skill point and now you can pick what class you want to be. You go into the menu and you see that you have all the skill trees for all classes. Now you pick what class you want. So for example, you decide that you want to be a Soldier Class character (rather than the standard Hunter) because you get the turret and not a bloodwing. So you level up some more and you get to pick a few perks that are relevant to the soldier class. You then decide that you want a perk that the Siren has because you like using elemental based weaponry. Rather than starting again and changing the class to Siren, you could be able to purchase a perk for one of the other classes.

Why should you be restricted on the weaponry that you use? You shouldn’t. The main character perks like the upgrading of the special at the bottom of the skill tree would stay intact but you would be allowed to pick what additional perks you would want. This would mean that each character would be unique to the player and their play style and weapons choices. If you extend the level cap to 101 (purely because the level cap on most RPG’s is 99 and not out of a Fallout reference) the possibilities would be endless especially if you increase the amount of perks one could attain. You could keep the “reset the skill point” option in the fast travel, allowing people to try a bit of everything within the same play or allow them to reset when starting playthrough two so they can be someone else. Another addition could be to alter the look of your character a bit. Why not allow the players to purchase clothing like in Fable where you can mix and match up an outfit?

Well, it’s been a long ride and although I have plenty more ideas for directions I'd like to see Borderlands take, I don’t want to complicate matters, as I felt that these ideas were my best or outlandish ones. With all classics there is always room for further improvement, so long as you don’t change too much so that it spoils what made the original game great. I look forward to seeing what Gearbox has to offer when they show us more of what’s to come from the Borderlands franchise.

I hope you all add your thoughts in the comments.

Review: Nier

2010-08-15T11:38:00.000+01:00

I must say, when I got Nier through the post, I hadn’t really heard a great deal about it. All I knew was that it had been developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix, which wasn’t a great deal of information. I had heard things from people saying it was a one button affair and that it didn’t look anything special, but it didn’t put me off, after all, I have to formulate my own opinion don't I?

After putting the game in the tray I was greeted by an audio only monologue from a woman that seemed to be talking to a character called Weiss. I say talking. I mean shouting abuse and profanity at him in a comical yet erm… enthusiastic way. This was before I had even started the game. Hell, I hadn't even pressed start and new game, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the rest of the story was going to be as colourful. That said, I got the show on the road to find out if this game was worth shelling out for.

You're too Nier
The game is an action role playing game that puts you in the roll of a man called Nier who is searching for a cure to a curse that his daughter has. After his daughter falls in her ill state, she (his daughter) goes looking for a rare flower that can ease her suffering, only to be attacked by enemies called shades. In the process of rescuing her Nier makes a pact with a floating, talking book called Grimoire Weiss. Utilising Weiss’s powers of magic, Nier sets off on a quest to not only find a cure but to help Weiss to defeat the other Grimoire (Noir) that has supposedly cursed her in the first place.

So Nier, yet so far
While playing the game, you control Nier in the third person while exploring the world like you would in most adventure games. Combat is similar to what you would find in any western RPG but in a simplified adaptation, although it’s not quite a one button affair. You have a melee attack that you control with one button, and you have a variety of spells which can be assigned to any of the shoulder buttons, along with the block and evade. You also have a special attack but this varies on the type of weapon that you’re using (one handed sword, two handed sword and staffed weapons). Ranged attacks are done through magic which you unlock as you progress through the game. You can combine both magic attacks and weaponry, although combos only register when you do the physical attacks, which is pretty disappointing.

Nier employs a simple levelling system that automatically makes you stronger the higher the level. After you gain enough experience you automatically level up increasing your strength, health and magic. Levelling up can be tiresome at times but luckily you don’t really need to do it to beat the more powerful enemies.

Throughout the game you will come across various villagers in the different areas that require your help. Unfortunately you receive no experience from completing them, although you do receive various amounts of much needed money for completing them. Because you don’t gain money from defeated enemies, it is essential that you complete some for upgrades, potions and items that you'll need throughout.

Both melee and magic attacks can be upgraded by using words. These words you can attach to your chosen weapon and your magic attacks with a maximum of two words. The words offer a variety of different abilities, such as greater magic or attack damage. Words are collected at random by defeating enemies; some are best suited to magic and some to weapons. Your weapons can also be upgraded by collecting various items and parts as you defeat enemies, but for the most part the ones you need are situated in the same area. After you have collected the items you can visit the one and only weapon smith in the game and he can upgrade your weapons. Finding the right parts can be a nightmare but you do see the benefits once you do upgrade them. You don’t need to search for the weapon smith due to being directed toward him during a story mission.

For the most part of the game you have to travel around defeating enemies in pointless “fetch” style missions. The gameplay does change slightly at given times by switching to a birdseye camera view and the combat changes slightly along with it. The style is similar to what you would find in games like Alien Breed, and although you can still use melee attacks the majority the emphasis is on magic. Another variation of the gameplay is at a certain part of the main storyline you are given what is basically a text based game, just like old adventure books. The aim is to listen to a story and then you are asked some questions based on the story you have just listened to. It’s not such a simple affair; the questions are always the same but the answers differ each time you get to one of these segments. When you mess up and answer incorrectly, however, you have to start the whole story again due to the answers changing. Paying attention is paramount, it may sound boring but it’s a breath of fresh air to have something different (even if a little annoying when you mess up the answers). There is also a simplistic fishing mechanic opened up later on, but only really used when accomplishing certain missions in one of the towns. Luckily these parts of the game are few and far between and don’t seem intrusive of the core gameplay.

The different areas that you explore aren’t always bursting full of life. Most of the areas have enemies in them and the further through the game you get, the more enemies there are (and more often than not, more powerful ones). In the towns there also isn’t a lot of life and most seem desolate. You can buy several weapons and items in the shops in the towns and you can also pick up the mundane items like vegetables and other food products, which are not really needed for anything other than completing side quests. Even then, you can pretty much collect the items without spending any of your hard earned cash. Overall the towns seem like they are spread out too much, with loads of space with nothing really to do. There is the odd villager to talk to, sometimes with a side quest, but it seems pretty pointless using up so much space and not really having anything in it. The same could be said for the open field area between the towns, there are (to begin with) some enemies dotted about and some livestock that you can hunt. This means it can get a little boring traversing the world till later on in the game when you can skip the running about part by either riding a boar (which you get through a side quest) or utilising the boats (much later in the game). When you enter most buildings your view changes to a cutout, side-scrolling version without any real reason to do so.

Enemies start off as pretty small and easy to defeat, the bosses, however, tend to be quite big and then get bigger. Some have specific weak points that you have to target and others you just hit the hell out of them till they die. Later in the game you find some of the standard enemies have a resistance to magic where as some can have a resistance to physical attacks. Further into the game some of the enemies get armour making them more difficult to kill, yet they are still equally as fast as they were without. Often you find yourself running for your life because you have been severely ganged up on. Getting knocked down is great if you get the chance to fight a bit more, but sometimes the enemy is relentless and before you know it, you’re dead. Now this isn’t an overly bad thing as it makes you have to think a bit more before jumping into a group of enemies. Luckily most of the time your AI partners come and help you out.

As I just mentioned, you do get some AI partners, and for a change they aren’t as useless as you may think. The first one you come across is Kaine and as colourful with her language and as creative with her outfit (practically wearing nothing) as she is handy. Utilising both magic and melee attacks she tends to jump straight into battle when allowed to roam free. The second character you come across is a young boy called Emil, who for half the game is blindfolded as he can turn enemies to stone by looking at them. Later in the game Emil unlocks his true power and transforms into something more. Using mainly magic attacks he is more of a ranged partner. At stages of the game only one of the characters will accompany you, but later on both will come to your aid. Once you have a partner in crime you can open up your menu and direct what you want them to do. It’s nothing too special, though, and very basic to operate (pretty much all-out attack, defensive and stand there twiddling thumbs).

Looks like it's getting Nier
About now is generally the part when I tell you how great the graphics are,l but I would be lying if I did. The main character models are well designed but the insignificant characters (like the villagers) have no real detail. One of the Main characters is a woman (Kaine) who spends the whole game running around in her underwear, and although the outfit would look awesome on my missus, I really didn’t see the point.

Most of the enemies tend to look the same and the only real difference would be size. There are some variations but mainly with the bosses. I supposed it doesn’t matter too much, but when you look at the likes of Final Fantasy then you see how little variety there actually is.

The landscape, although initially doesn't look too bad, is quite the opposite the more you explore. Grass looks like various shades of green paper against lino, and houses and buildings tend to look very blocky in some areas. Some rocky areas look very angular and the presentation seems hardly like a big deal in a current gen title. Now, I’m not saying it’s horrid game to look at or anything, but a bit more polish wouldn't have gone a miss. Cut-scenes are all run by the in-game graphics engine and really aren’t anything special.

Hear rhymes with Nier
As far as the voice acting goes the only two characters that really made an impact on me were Kaine and Weiss, who both seem to have real depth (foul mouthed Kaine being my favourite). The remainder of the voice acting is okay, but those two stand out far more. The strange thing about how the voice-overs are done is that little of the dialogue in the game is actually covered. What’s stranger is that you will be presented by written dialogue, and then half way through the voices cut in which is pretty pointless.

Because a lot of the game isn’t voiced you are only left with the musical score to keep you company. As you explore the music takes over which is well composed with a mix of classic piano and vocals. This theme continues throughout the game and not only draws you into the story more but is relaxing and not over repetitive. It’s typical of Japanese composing and each area pretty much has its own theme. Some of the styles even reminded me of the music found in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

I'm Niering the end and running out of puns...
Now, I know that I have spent the entire review picking on the faults of Nier, but I did quite enjoy the game. I have to admit that it does warm on you after a while and even though it’s slow to start, the hours just start to drift by. Even though it’s not the same standard as most other JRPG’s, the game still holds its own. It may not be anything special but the story is compelling, and the gameplay is fun enough to keep you interested until the end. This game would be a must buy for RPG collectors like myself, but for the rest of the world I suggest you try before you buy.

How We Review Games

My gaming dry spell

2010-08-15T11:36:00.000+01:00

It happens to every gamer and some point in time. Sometimes more than just the once. It's what I like to call the 'dry spell', where you pop a game in the console, start to play and promptly turn it right back off again. The will to play any game has completely disappeared and it doesn't matter what game is in the console, it could even be the newest game on the market that you have been waiting since forever for, it's like eating a really nice looking meal but one that tastes of nothing but sawdust.

The other week I had the chance to play a game that I had been awaiting since Eurogamer Expo last year in Aliens vs. Predator. It may not be a game of the year candidate but it was still one I wanted to play. Into the console I popped the disc and within ten minutes I wanted to play something else. I popped in another game and the same thing happened. Twenty two titles later it dawned on me, I hit a dry spell.

If this has happened to you before then you will know where I'm coming from, if not then you best expect one at some point in your gaming life. Either way, I suggest you read on.

I, like many people have been a gamer for most of my if, in my case around twenty three years. As soon as I could pick up a joystick (back in the 80's) I was hooked and for me it was my way out of reality. My first gaming experience was on the Spectrum Sinclair ZX81 and from then on I have never looked back. Over the last twenty plus years I have seen games evolve from nothing more than pixelated representations of people, to what we get now with this current generation of games. With each technological advance I have played some brilliant games, both online and offline and generally I go through phases of either playing completely online or solely on the single player modes.

Just recently, for the second time in my life, I hit a dry spell where I just didn't feel like playing games at all. There were loads of games I wanted to play, but when it came down to it I felt like I was forcing myself to play. It wasn't that I had no interest in the game; it was more because my gaming appetite had completely vanished. I tried several games and nothing seemed to make me want to stick with it for more than ten minutes at a time.

Gaming is my life (well not all of it, but you get the idea) and I decided that I needed to sort something out, as the frustration was killing me. The first time this happened I was in full blown meltdown and I didn't want to do anything. It took me over two years to pick up the pad again (no good if you write about games) but this time I thought I would strive on. I owed it to myself to regain my enthusiasm for gaming as well as for my readers, after all, if I didn't play games how could I write about gaming?!

Picking up the pad was very difficult for me as I had loads of additional things plaguing my mind, with no way to vent them. My gaming collection isn't the biggest in the world and not having much variety in genre to play probably didn't help. My collection mainly consists of JRPG's with a couple of shooters and a racer. This lack of variety wasn't helping my anxiety, so I decided to borrow some games from a friend to quench my thirst. This still didn't help and the only thing I accomplished was angry gaming (playing games to relax and ended up getting more worked up). Frustration really took over when I played Alien vs. Predator. It wasn't because the game was bad or anything, it was mainly because I really wanted to play it but just couldn't muster one single ounce of motivation at all. I decided that enough was enough and I promptly put the pad down and decided to send the game back to play at a later date.

Giving up on your hobby is a hard thing to do, in my case, though, it wouldn't be for long and so I had to find something else to do in the meantime. I found salvation in watching a variety of TV shows, some you may like and some you probably won't. The menu for the next few weeks consisted of True Blood, CSI (all ten seasons) and Leverage, which I hadn't heard of before but took a chance and enjoyed. I also started reading again (don't tell the Mrs, who thinks I still haven't read the books she got me for my birthday last year) although reading two books at the same time probably isn't a good idea for some people. I spent more time concentrating on the little things like running the house, sorting washing out, cooking and baking with my son. This continued for several weeks until I finally I got my motivation back gradually. I started playing for the odd fifteen minutes here and there, and continuing some games that I had in my collection.

Picking up the pad again was a real boost in confidence and I felt like I had some harmony back in my life. All throughout my gaming slump I hated gaming, and I hated myself for it. Gaming has always been my safe zone, the place I can go off and hide in. It's always been my salvation from worry or heartache and somewhere my mind can wander off to. When gaming wasn't there, I felt empty like I had lost my best friend.

Getting back into playing games wasn't too hard. I knew that I needed to get some games that would give my brain some stories to play though. I borrowed Red Dead Redemption (because I hadn't played it) and Fable 2 (because I hadn't finished it) off my friend (Guess who! - Andy). Fable was the first game to be finished and it took me all of two days to complete all of the story missions and most of the side quests. Red Dead I'm enjoying way too much to rush through it so that's one game that has really brought back my enthusiasm. I think the main reason I started to hate gaming was because I wasn't taking time away and every game I was playing just seemed to merge into one. On a subconscious level my life was lacking something, albeit the variety of gaming but also the variety of life. The lesson had been learned and although I still very much like to shy away and have a life of fantasy, I need to keep some sort of normality so that I don't get bored again.

So there we have it, my dry spell. I know some of you out there have had the same thing happen to you, it would be good to hear how you got over it.

Review: Earthworm Jim HD

2010-08-15T11:33:00.000+01:00

1994 was a bad year. Fred West's house was excavated, Kurt Cobain killed himself and Ayrton Senna was killed during an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix. In fact if you look at all of that year you will see that there was probably little to celebrate. Saying that, one thing that was definitely worth celebrating about was the release of Shiny Entertainment's Earthworm Jim. This side-scrolling platform game had everything; class, charm and style and was well received around the world.

Some of you reading this will probably think I have gone mad, and want to know what's so interesting about an earthworm. Well the simple answer is this, Earthworm Jim raised the bar in games. It was praised heavily upon release, with Gamesmaster magazine gave it a whopping score of 100% (it was the first time they had awarded a game 100%) and one of the few classics that has been remade several times over the years. Speaking of remakes, the latest incarnation has been brought forward to XBLA and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. After all, what could be better than playing a classic in HD.

Grooooovy!
Jim (a very ordinary earthworm) is just minding his business, when out of nowhere a special spacesuit made by Professor Monkey-for-a-Head is dropped from space by a rebel spaceship pilot who is being chased by Psy-Crow. After a stroke of luck Jim lands in the collar of the spacesuit which in turn mutates him into a large intelligent earthworm. The Ultra-High-Tech-Indestructable-Super-Space-Cyber-Suit had been commissioned by Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-For-a-Butt (seriously that's her name, I couldn't make this stuff up) so she could conquer the galaxy.

After hearing Psy-Crow talking to Queen Slug-for-a-butt about plans for her sister Princess Whats-Her-Name (honestly, I have not dropped LSD), Jim sets off in the spacesuit to rescue the Princess and bring an end to the Queens awful reign.

I just launched a cow!
Earthwork Jim is a 2D side-scrolling platform game. Just to patronise you, I get to tell you that the aim of the game is navigate through the levels killing enemies with an assortment of weapons and abilities. Jim has quite a number of abilities at his disposal, which the sheer number of was totally original in '94. These were totally unique too, such as using Jim's worm body as a whip to swing across hooks or making his head spin to glide across large gaps. There are some great power-ups to compliment Jim's trusty blaster, which really help against some of the harder enemies. His health is managed by a percentage meter, and it's highly important that you keep collecting the health orbs scattered all over the levels, otherwise you'll find yourself worm-food (sorry!) in no time.

Another thing that Earthworm Jim was famed for, was great variety on gameplay. For example; at one point you have to navigate an underwater area in a glass bowl submarine (not as easy as it sounds) taking care to not knock the glass too many times so you don't drown. You also have to take on an enemy several times in an extreme bungee jumping competition. Throughout the levels you will also be attacked by some truly original bosses. These can vary in difficulty and you usually have to work out a particular trick to defeat them. After each level you enter into a mini-game set in a 2.5D environment you have to race Psy-Crow. If you win you go on to the next level, and if you lose you have to fight Psi-Crow in a one on one battle; a set-up similar to the sonic 3D bonus rounds.

Not everything about this classic platformer has passed the test of time. While most of the game mechanics seem to still work fine (how could they not?), little things, such as the game registering when your whip hits a hook can be fairly finicky and can lead to some very frustrating moments. That was the theme of the game back in the day. It was devilishly difficult and frustrating as hell when you got stuck, but fun as hell once you knew how to approach things. Thankfully, to make the game a little more accessible to everyone there are a variety of difficulty settings, the hardest seemingly called 'Original', which should give some of the young whipper-snappers an idea of how difficult games used to be back in the day...

The level design is quite frankly, nuts. This isn't s simple case of going from left to right, but you'll be traversing in all manner of directions to reach the end of an area. Included in this HD version are a number of totally new bonus levels, which all fit in to the Earthworm Jim ethos pretty much effortlessly.

What a random place for a moose.
It's hard to make a game that was originally released over a decade and a half ago to look better, but Earthworm Jim has been redrawn totally in high definition, and as such, looks very sweet. I mean, it was never ugly back in '94. It was pretty much way ahead of its time visually, but the redesign gives the game a nice sheen over what is obviously now a retro look, and the finished article looks very nice, in a Super Street Fighter HD Remix kinda way. The characters are very cartoon-like, with the entire game looking like it was ripped right out of a comic book, however, the designs are detailed and the backdrops are equally as nice. It's a very busy game visually, with something constantly going on somewhere on the screen, no matter what you happen to be doing.

Oh yeah!
Earthworm Jim has some of the craziest sound effects that have ever graced a game, and I have to say that it really works. The game is totally wacky and the sound effects reflect that very well, from Jim's voice screaming 'woah nelly!' when riding a guinea pig to the sound of a cow being launched across the landscape. The music doesn't get boring either, projecting retro awesomeness at every turn, and it makes a nice change to actually enjoy what is actually a very cheesy score.

An entire can of worms!
Multiplayer on Earthworm Jim was a bit of a surprise, combining both competitive and co-operative gameplay in one mode. The first thing to mention is that you are competing against your team mates for power-ups and orbs. This doesn't make the game too competitive, though, as at certain points in the levels you will have to work together to progress. Things like pulling a switch allowing another player to go through a section to then return the favour helps keep everything friendly. All in all, the multiplayer is spot on and works really well, though the main issue is actually getting a game. Several times I attempted to connect and there was just a lack of players. The alternative way would be to play locally where the same rules apply as online, it works exactly the same. All players will be on the screen at the same time, and as such there is no split screen, and to be honest, it's not really needed.

Is that a blaster in your spacesuit or just glad to see me?
Earthworm Jim HD is a great game that would have been a brilliant release on XBLA exactly as it was back in 1994. However, this release exceeds those expectations with it being redrawn gorgeously, and made even better with added replay value, especially if you have some mates that also have it. It's a simple game to play with even simpler rules, but it's a true representation of a classic title that stood out in an over-saturated platformer market. That said, even thought I've raved about it, because of its random humour that can be a little too random, and the harsh difficulty curve, the Earthworm Jim experience may not appeal to everyone, especially the younger gamer amongst us. Still, it's definitely worth giving it a try, I can't see many being disappointed.

How We Review Games

Sex in games: Where to draw the line

2010-08-15T11:32:00.000+01:00

Sex in video games has always been taboo. It starts with a developer adding something to a game that people deem inappropriate, like a having sex with a prostitute in GTA, to being something more risqué like a topless character in Heavy Rain. Nine times out of ten these scenes or gameplay extras never usually make the final cut of the game due to the classification board not allowing them to be kept in.

Not so long ago, a major uproar occurred with a game called Rapelay, this game not only glorified sex, but glorified rape and incest, in what the majority of the world deemed socially unacceptable. Rape is something that has affected millions of women and men, and content like this can offend a lot of people. Jumping on the band wagon of hatred against the game news-desks around the world reported on the issue, only serving to further publicise the game. As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as bad press!

Before I go on, I do want to say that from my own moral principles, I find rape a horrible act committed against both men and women. I really do feel for the people that this affects across the world. I don’t in anyway condone the acts of rapists and the purpose of this article is not to offend anyone. - Simon

Each country has what it will allow as acceptable content and some are more relaxed than others. Japan is one place where sex fantasies are big business but it’s also not the only place. Anyone who has watched the TV series Sin Cities with Ashley Hames will be well aware of the shear volume of debauchery that happens around the world.

In Japanese culture some things are less taboo than others for example; in Japanese porn the lower private parts of a woman are slightly censored and generally so are penetrative sex scenes. The same can be said for some animé too. Prostitution, however, is a successful business for many, but technically illegal and has been since 1956. The only reason it exists is because there are loop holes to be exploited in the law. Image Clubs are places where your desires can be enacted in cosplay or roleplaying if that’s what you are in to.

The same attitude towards sex is transported to comics or manga and to video games. Practically every conceivable act of sex, fantasy and violence is publicised, it’s also not uncommon for some magazines to include incest as the subject of choice. You would think with it being so widely publicised across Japan that the acts would be quite high in comparison to other countries, surprisingly it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that rape or murder doesn’t happen in Japan, it’s just a less frequent occurrence than in places like America or Great Britain. I’m also not saying that sex magazines and sex in comics are just segregated to Japan either. Top Cow comics published the Wanted series, in the first couple of issues the main character rapes random women and he also partakes in ritual murders; these images may have been lass graphic but it was still glorifying the act to some degree.

Several American news stations publicised their outrage at Rapelay, a game released in 2006, yet America has the highest rape statistics in the world; it’s twenty times higher than Japan. What was strange about the whole situation was that Rapelay had been released and in circulation in Japan for three years. It wasn’t a new game on the market and it was only released in its country of origin, in accordance with the laws of Japan. When it comes to gaming classifications it’s dependent on the country that the product is being distributed in. Every game that is produced today is catered to a specific audience and when it comes to sex games they are catered to adults alone.

It’s not uncommon for two participating adults to roleplay rape, I have even heard of these fantasies being enacted all over the world, not just in brothels in Tokyo. I think the argument is towards consenting sex acts is “what happens behind closed doors is their business”, if that’s the case then what a person chooses to play is their business too. I do like to play a variety of games, some with graphic scenes violence and others with none at all. Sex is a normal part of life so when I see that a game has scenes of a sexual nature they don’t bother me so much, as its generally unrealistic and not really a sex scene. I believe that showing kids in school sex education paraphernalia is more damaging than an animated character seemingly embrace another character. My daughter when she was just seven told me about the birds and the bees from just what she had learned around the playground.

Before writing this editorial I had never thought about playing a game entirely about sex or sexual simulation. I can understand the appeal of a sex simulation game, but a rape simulation game, I thought, was way past those boundaries of normality. Some people would say that it’s all about domination and therefore no different than playing a bondage game and it's not like anybody is getting hurt in the process. Other people will take it as offensive and speak out against it but in doing so only create intrigue, curiosity and hysteria. People hearing about it want to know more about the game and want to find out why it's so shocking. In America today you can freely buy rape-related porn movies, I know it’s not the same, but isn’t it giving the same message? It’s not just America that does these types of movies either; they are common in other parts of the world too. The other thing to consider is that games like this are very rare. Most sex based games are a lot tamer and are more like interactive stories than interactive porn in comparison to the likes of Rapelay. There are some sex simulation games out there, but they generally stick to having sex and not glorifying sexual abuse.

For the purpose of this editorial I did take a look at RapeLay and I must say I really don’t see the point of the game. The game's aim is for you the player to successfully rape a family of three women. Starting with one of the daughters; then moving on to the Mother and other daughter. The game, from a moral ground, is disturbing; you start off by groping each family member on a train then you move on to penetrative forced sex. Everything is animated and the female avatars are handcuffed and resist your efforts to fornicate with them. After you have successfully been through the story mode (the fact it has a story mode is equally as disturbing) the game turns more into a sex simulation game. The only real difference is that you can force things upon the female character even though technically they are not resisting. Once the game is completed there are actually has two endings and in both they are bad for the rapist. All in all, I don’t think that the game's negative notoriety would be as widespread as it is today if it hadn’t been branded on news-feeds all over the world. It's human nature to be curious, after all.

The main reason I played the game was to try to understand why someone would want to play the game, and to be honest I have no clue. I didn’t feel empowered and I gained no sexual gratification from the game at all. None of the character models looked like real people, they just looked like disproportioned animated dolls with private parts rubbing together. The entire experience was more laughable than anything else. The fact that you can make the female characters orgasm says it all. Rape is about power and dominance and the victim doesn’t usually get any gratification out of it. I have to say that clicking a button that says "slide knickers to one side" isn’t a powerful action, nor is "lift up top", that's generally something that happens in sex. If you were to take out the rape portion of the game (which isn't expansive and practically nothing in the grand scheme of things) all you are left with is simulated sex acts that you can control. Nothing is in anyway, shape or form realistic or anatomically correct.

I can understand people getting offended by a game like this, after all if you have been a victim then this sort of thing shouldn’t be glorified, however the same could be said about rape porn movies too. If the game had focussed less on sex and more on the victim then I believe that it could have had a different outcome when being received by the world.

A big question that we should be asking is where to draw the line? Some people would say it’s based on your own moral compass. Sex is publicised in schools and all over the internet, porn is so easy to get to, only a click away and quite a lot of it is free. For a lot of games you have to prove you’re an adult before buying them so I ask myself which is the lesser evil? I myself believe that if it’s something that’s important to or furthers the storyline, it should be allowed, even if it offends some people. I don’t think we should shield people from atrocities, whether it’s taking over an airport and assassinating civilians as a terrorist or the main character in a story being abused either physically or sexually, after all; it does happen and is already portrayed in other media. One thing I’m glad I haven’t seen is sexual abuse of children, even though it has been the focus in some novels and films; this focus hasn’t been transported into a game. I think if these subjects are handled tastefully but used as canon in a storyline, then some games produced could send out a powerful message.

Games often portray the bright side of life, very few, the darker sides; I’m not saying they should be allowed but I am saying there are two sides to the spectrum. I think that's the reason that more and more games are being produced with options to choose your morality. Maybe in some twisted way, these games can serve lessons to individuals as to what is morally wrong. I don’t know if it could apply to something like a rape simulator but I definitely think that it applies to games containing scenes of graphic violence. I think if a person is appalled by seeing a scene that they don’t agree with, then the message has been well received. I personally was shocked by events in the Rapelay game even though I found the whole look of the game amusing. The shock value of it wasn’t even in the scenes of rape, it was simply the premise behind the game and the audio that accompanied it. I also believe that it could have been far worse; introducing violence (something that is common to most rapes) could have given a far worse impression. Roleplaying fantasy games can be good but when you couple a controversial subject with something like sex you are asking for trouble, especially if the entire game is about making someone suffer.

Gaming gets its fair share of blame for violent acts, mainly from people who feel that we are so easily influenced by games. Their belief is that whatever we see in a game, we must go out and do immediately. Most of the time these people don’t have the balls to actually find out what it is they are slagging off; politicians are the worst offenders for that. We all know the average gamer is in their thirties, you would think by that age we are well aware of what is right and wrong. The biggest problem in the world is people trying to wrapping us up in cotton wool (not literally!) and not allowing people to decide for themselves. It's socially acceptable to go to the cinema and watch a movie that has a sex scene but not okay to have a similarly detailed sex scene in games like Mass Effect series; which is more realistic?

In reality, a game is just a game; there is nothing real and if you can’t determine the difference between reality and fantasy, then you really shouldn’t be playing them in the first place. A game can’t harm anyone; only a person can do that!

Motion control, losing control

2010-08-15T11:29:00.000+01:00

As a gamer I like to sit back, relax while playing a game and make as little movement as possible! It’s not that I’m lazy or anything like that, but to me gaming is supposed to be a time for me to wind down, not getting wound up at frustrating controls or waving my arms around like a retarded chicken. Maybe with an attitude like that you may think I weigh in at a weight of twenty stone and counting with every slice of pizza, cream cake and beer that I consume. You couldn’t be more wrong, I would say I look athletic, but I don’t think you can classify an eleven stone empty wetsuit as athletic.

Why are console developers intent on trying to get us off our backsides by providing us with the bad idea that is motion control? Why are the big three always trying to make the “supposed” best gaming experience possible one where their only actual aim is to compete with the other manufacturers. Why do we have to complicate gaming even more than it already is? Is this something that we are as gamers are pushing for or are we being manipulated by the egos of our console manufacturer?

Now I know what you’re thinking; what could be possibly wrong with motion control in gaming?

Motion control isn't a new thing, but is something that is more widely being implemented on consoles. The first to make it really popular was Nintendo with the Wii, combining tried and tested technology and optical sensors within the console, with accelerometers and infra-red within the controller. This combination keeps the stability of the console but adds something unique and fresh to gaming. One thing I like about the Wii is that it’s always good for a laugh but not in the way you’re thinking. I love watching people wave their arms and shake the controller like they are masturbating furiously only to find out they have nothing but wankers cramp with no orgasm in sight. It gets even better when they loosen their grip and smack themselves in the face; you can’t beat laughing your head off at the idiot as he is dancing around the living room with a swollen nose, two black eyes and a deflated ego. Those are just the problems that we have now, the waggle without benefits, the injuries, seriously is it really worth it? Gaming is supposed to be a pastime isn’t it? It’s supposed to be fun and relaxing, or at least that’s what I thought.

Ok, so I do understand there is a market for this sort of thing. Let’s face it; the Wii is the most popular console in the market. It’s targeted at the casual user but primarily used at family functions involving large groups of morons drinking alcohol and pretending they’re Tiger Woods. I have to admit, playing a party game when you have a lot of people around your house is brilliant idea, what’s not brilliant is giving us what are essentially weapons, and telling us to play games. I do get that it’s not a prerequisite to consume copious amounts of alcohol, but let’s face it, what fun is a party without it? I also see the benefits of the balance board and Wii fit game; it’s like paying for a permanent aerobics class.

Nintendo have always set trends and it was a pretty sure-fire assumption that Sony and Microsoft would eventually cash in on motion control too. After all where is the fun in letting Nintendo take all the credit? Sony are giving us the “move”, which is apparently going to revolutionise gaming and Microsoft is giving us what is currently names Project Natal. Both companies are trying to market their own version of motion control as the best thing to be hitting the gaming market but in reality it seems to be nothing more than a dick waving contest.

The Playstation Move comes packed with the “Navigation Controller” and uses a combination of accelerometers and the Eye Toy to focus on depth perception (Basically it’s a Wii remote combined with a lit orb and uses the camera to check distance and some movement). It’s not the most original idea; in reality is similar technology that is used in motion capture within movies, it’s just scaled down and simplified.

Natal works on a similar idea, but rather than using a focal point it assimilates information based on gestures of the human body. Once again this isn’t the first time this technology has been used, hell, how do you think you’re in the movies works? The only difference is that the majority of the technology is not in the software but is incorporated into the camera itself to allow a wider application.

It’s a safe bet to say that both devices will be popular to a certain clientèle but in respects of the core user it’s too much and too fast, and definitely a little too late. This isn’t the first time that gaming has been subject to change but when we moved from keyboards and joysticks to controllers, it was something that would benefit gaming and allowed people to adapt without change really being forced upon them. It’s bad enough that people are still injuring themselves with motion control technology that’s readily available, but soon we will be tripling the chances. Both companies will be making more and more reasons to not want to be anywhere near the person playing the game. Safety isn’t the only reason that this type of technology is bad, it’s the fact that they are trying to change the way we play games. Making us “move” (sorry Sony but thanks for stating the obvious) is insinuating that either we are lazy gamers or that we want more interactivity. The point that I’m trying to make is that there is far better ways of doing that.

How many of you know this following scenario. You get home from a long day at work and there is nothing on TV. You decide that you want to relax by playing a game and chill out a bit. Last time I checked, chilling out didn’t mean you pretended you have a real sword in your hand. The argument could be that it’s an extension of the gaming experience; if that’s the case then games shouldn't solely rely on it; people should have a choice to game how they see fit.

I have no doubt that eventually this will benefit the gaming experience but it’s been a rash decision by Sony and Microsoft to impose this on us for nothing more than an ego trip. At least with the Nintendo Wii we have the choice to not buy the console, soon with the way that Sony and Microsoft are implementing the technology, in order to play certain games properly, we will have no choice but to buy a motion controller. I'm not claiming that it doesn’t work either, but what I am saying is that the gaming experience shouldn’t just rely on it. Sony and Microsoft should impose restrictions on the developers to make sure that gamers get to game how they want to not how they are told to.

At the moment the only games that benefit from motion control are sports games like golf, baseball or bowling. You can’t very well kick a football with your hands so trying to use motion control for a footie game would be idiotic, it’s not like you would want to tie it to you foot (although I do get the feeling that someone will try that). Natal could be used in this manner but application will still be limited to simplistic games.

First Person Shooters can be fun with motion controls but the controls are usually clumsy. If you tried to make a motion controlled game for the Xbox or the PS3, it would be nothing more than a basic shooter with no real playability. Anything requiring any fast response or accuracy will be out the window, so games like Halo or Killzone would lose all appeal if they were to incorporate full motion control. Using the Wii as an example, to turn your character you move the cursor to the edge of the screen until you turn where you want to then move back to the centre, then take aim at your enemy and shoot. Shooting enemies in front of you is ok but if you have to turn in another direction to kill another enemy or in several directions to kill multiple enemies, it’s gonna get frustrating. Just in case you were wondering, I’m not saying that it doesn't or can't work; I’m just saying it’s not very good. Red Steel was an okay game but the controls were the only thing that made it interesting; if it was recreated on the 360 or the PS3 it would have been in the bargain bucket two days after release. It’s safe to say that the only shooters that should get to use motion control should be on-rails shooters.

Beat-em-up’s can be fun too, but due to simplifying the gameplay down to work with what a person can realistically do it would be nothing more than an arm waving competition. Even with Natal I can still see issues due to what people can physically do, it would be a good way to exercise or be fun for practising if you’re a martial arts nut, but it wouldn’t be for everyone. Boxing games on the other hand would definitely be a plausible type of game, maybe the next Fight Night could incorporate that?

Real Time Strategy games could be improved by using motion control, now that could be fun and even work well. Imagine using your controller like a floating mouse. That approach would benefit the likes of Command and Conquer maybe even improve the gameplay making it easier to control troops, it could even be a decent alternative to mouse controls. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not comparing it to a mouse at all, mainly due to the way you would interact with the controller. I don’t see this working well with Natal unless you have something that would act as a focal point with buttons to press. Gesture control really wouldn’t work and be highly frustrating.

Now with my favourite genre, RPGs, I’m a little on the fence with mainly due to how long you could realistically play. They could work with PS Move but Natal would not work as a standalone. Swinging your sword around as an alternative to pressing a button would be a nice feature, but it will suffer when you eventually can’t be bothered swinging your arms around any more. Most RPGs tend to be played for long periods of time, I myself often get wrapped up for seven or eight hours at a time but I couldn’t do that if I was swinging my arms around killing enemies every two minutes. Natal could work as an addition by having the odd gesture to control certain actions as short-cuts or attack-like spells. Anything more complicated than that would fail big time.

Racing games are brilliant when you use a steering wheel or a pad and to some extent I can see motion control as a worthy addition as it already is with Mario Kart. I can already see the PS Move getting its own attachments like the Wii remotes already have. It’s a fact that using accelerometers to steer is brilliant control system on both Mario Kart and on the iPhone racing games. Natal and racing I really don’t get. It may look cool to pretend you have something in your hand and press your imaginary peddle either stood up or in your arm chair but could you realistically control a car for several laps at a time? I think not. It may be accurate but you can’t simply scratch your nose or that itch between your legs. You can’t even pause the game mid-lap if you need a toilet break, so what good is it? There would be benefits to subtle implementation in addition to the pad, perhaps tilting your head or turning it slightly to change the direction of the camera. Maybe even add a gesture for nitro or to make your car jump up and down like a pimp-mobile.

Now, I know I have treated Natal as nothing but gesture control, but in all honesty it’s the only thing I can see it being good for. It’s not that I think that gesture control will be the only application for it; I just feel that it will be limited due to having nothing in your hands. Your every move, regardless of how small, is evidently measured and it would be a good idea if it’s combined with a controller of some description. It’s also not like you need a depth sensor for gesture control either; most cameras will do that if the right software is in place. The only other application I can see it being good for is (yes, I dare say it) sex games. Feeling a virtual breast or spanking an on-screen character may not be mine or your idea of fun but I can assure you that someone somewhere is already thinking about it. There already are interactive pornos, and Natal could give more pleasure to the people that use them or allow them to fulfil deeper fantasies.

I hope developers stop and think before making games, and I hope for the sake of the future of gaming that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft stop this childish competition of having the best console with the best gadgets. There is no way to stop this motion control fad. I just hope for the sake of the people that buy these stupid contraptions, that support will continue and well-thought out games will be produced. The way I see it, if I do get motion control, it will be a pretty cheap add on, and one that I will begrudge paying.

Cliffy B, we love you, but...

2010-08-15T11:26:00.000+01:00

In a recent interview on IGN, Cliff Bleszinski talked about the future of gaming and the Gears of War franchise. In the interview he expressed his support for motion controllers like ‘Project Natal’ stating that he was preferring that over the other motion controllers, purely because you don’t need to hold anything in your hands. Cliffy B also talked about how he wanted Gears 2 to be a better experience when it was released, and that the issues with the online matchmaking was the single biggest disappointment for him and when it gets brought up it breaks his heart. He also stated that when he reads posts on online forums it hurt him how people identify with the big, buff characters and how there is a lot to be said for the background of the world he'd created.

One of the biggest statements that he made was that he has a Google alert for anything with ‘Gears of War’ in it and that he and the team read as much as they can so they call get the feedback, this includes forums posts too. What better way to test this statement by giving the TIMJ view on what should be considered next for Gears of War.

Ok, so this may be a long shot but here is hoping the powers the be make this article pop up on Cliffy B’s alert box so he can become a friend of TIMJ, and possibly comment on my thoughts.

The first thing that I would like to comment on is the co-op. After the first game, we (as fans) asked for 'Gears' to allow us four player co-op. Instead we got ‘Horde’ to play, which allowed up to five players to work together, to fight against waves upon waves of the locust horde. This game mode was excellent for a while but I thought needed some variation between levels, possibly some rotation between the different settings to allow more flexibility. A good idea to could be to add specific mission objectives into the mix, key areas that that players have to take, or tasks to complete during each level.

The second point here, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we would like to see actual four player co-op throughout the story mode. It’s all well and good allowing us to play just as Marcus and Dom, but it would be nice to play as some of the other main characters too. What could be even better is to give players the choice of who they'd like to play as throughout the campaign, maybe using a selection screen like you would see in Left 4 Dead, allowing the player to pick their own character to play through the story, adding extra replay value.

The story is something that is well presented but needs a lot more character depth. Exploration into Marcus and Anya’s relationship would be good, there is obviously some sexual tension between them, possibly showing some potential vulnerability. It would also be nice to have a section of the story that delves into Marcus’s past maybe witnessing him storming his father’s house to rescue him.

Further investigation into what the locust are doing with the humans is clearly the next step, and finding out where the creatures originated from soon is key. The plot at this moment seems to point towards them being genetically created, it would be good to clarify that. Ty was a character that I personally liked, and in the Gears 2 narrative I really wanted to see what made him take his own life, what horrors he saw. A flashback moment, or maybe introducing a new character would explain this; one that survives the torture and is rescued, then you can delve into that a bit more by allowing him to tell his story.

The weapon and armour on Gears have always suited the mythology and the characters themselves, however the one thing that would be nice would be to have a little more variety with them. One way to achieve this could be character classes and have more than just one type of each weapon. There is also nothing preventing upgradable weapons and armour to be more effective against your enemies. I personally (surprise surprise - Andy) see no reason why an RPG element can’t be added into gameplay, and the above would be one way to achieve that. Also, that silly button bashing mini-game needs to go. It's okay the first couple of times, but with no variety it’s a little boring.

The level design is something I have always liked but why not remove some of that linearity, give us room to explore or make difficult choices. I'm not saying make it an open world game, but even that could make an interesting concept or spin-off (hint hint). Allowing the player to take on missions in their own time and in any order would be a nice twist on an old format. Being able to explore Sera, above and below ground, would be brilliant. You could even have it so that you travel the world and enter 'dungeons' (linear levels) tying in both types of gameplay.

Finally the multiplayer, which turned out to be a bit of a game breaker with GOW2. It's an untouchable experience when it works, however I think the next game cannot be released in the state GOW2 was. The online infrastructure needs to be 100% bedded down before it's release to Joe Public. I know it's a hard ask but nobody likes continuous title updates, look at what happened with not only GOW2, but what's also happening currently with Modern Warfare 2; people won't wait around forever.

So, Cliff, I hope you're reading this and that you take some of these suggestions on board. I think you guys do a good job but there is nothing stopping you from improving that award winning formula. I'm also sure that some of our readers and other staff have some suggestions too, or maybe they just want to disagree with my selection of changes that I'd make.

We love you, but please for the love of god, give us a Gears of War that works properly and will make us want to play through that storyline more than the once, and not feel unsatisfied and demoralised by the end of it. For a free, no obligation consultation, tweet me up on @zerocool3397 or just email me. I promise it’s for the good of the COG's.

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

Review: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-07-21T19:42:00.000+01:00

Way back in 1997 a game was released that would forever be heralded as one of the best games of all time. It had an epic storyline, one that is still gripping people to this day. The game was Final Fantasy VII. Now, I know that the seventh game in the series wasn’t the starting point for the franchise, but it was easily the most recognised throughout the world, especially in the Western market. Previous titles had really only appealed to the Japanese market and Final Fantasy VII was the turning point. Since that time, people have always anticipated the next Final Fantasy game, hoping for another character that would capture them like Cloud Strife did all those years ago.

Back in 2006 Square Enix gave us a teaser of the next game they were working on, this was to be Final Fantasy XIII (13). Before long, a few snippets of information were released, but what caused more of a stir with the fans was that it was to be released on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. This bit of news made some fans happy while the remainder felt alienated and let down by Square, due to them thinking that it had always been a Sony exclusive (it really wasn’t). Fast forward a little more and finally fans can get their copies and experience the game that they have awaited so long for, to see if it lived up to the hype. Across the board there has been mixed opinions, some good, some bad but the question still remains for some: Is Final Fantasy XIII a good game?

Ok, so maybe it's not that final!
Set in a world called Pulse and focusing on a large conspiracy, the main protagonist, Lightening takes up the battle against the government of the floating city of Cocoon. After being cursed by a Fal’cie (a mechanical god) whilst trying to rescue her sister, she and the other members of the main cast become L’cie (magic users). As a L’cie she and the other characters have a focus, a goal that they must complete or be forever damned as a monster. The only glimpse they are given is a hazy vision with no explanation to their actual goal.

Exiled from Cocoon and running for their lives, the band of warriors must utilise both skills, old and new in an effort to finish their charged task, before it’s too late and turns them into Cie’th (monsters). With only a few people they can trust and a lot of people determined to see them dead, the fate of Cocoon rests in their hands.

The storyline doesn't really start at the very beginning of gameplay and only just starts to get going around the midway point. In these early parts the game fills in some of the gaps with flashbacks to earlier times, explaining a little about each characters past. You also don’t just play as one character all the way through either, instead following the story from the point of view of all of the playable characters at some point for the first half of the game, until they all come together, at which point you'll decide which you want to control. The story is easy to understand and even though a little confusing to begin with, it’s well written and well told. Each character has their own personality and although heavily clichéd (much like every JRPG character) this is probably the strongest character line-up a Final Fantasy game has had in a while.

Grinding isn't the future
Before I explain how the game works I would just like to say, it may sound complicated when explained but it really isn’t in action.

For anyone that has played a Final Fantasy game before, you will probably be all too aware that this is a turn based affair. Battles can take place one of two ways, the first way would be to use the auto-battle button, which automatically selects what actions your character will take. This is based on the class your character is at that time. The alternative way to play is to go to abilities and select which actions you want to take (also dependent on the class your character is). You can change the cursor default to start on abilities rather than auto-battle from the options, and doing this is the better way to play. After each battle your health recovers and any members of your party are revived if they are incapacitated.

Over the course or the game you control several of the characters at different points. Sometimes you are alone in your fight and at other times you are in a team of either two or three. When in a team you'll only ever decide the exact actions of the group leader, the remaining team members are controlled by the AI. With the press of a button you can change the roles of each of your team members depending on what classes you have unlocked and this can be done anytime during a battle. These roles are called ‘Paradigms’ of which there are six different roles; Commando (attacker), Ravager (offensive magic), Sentinel (defender), Medic (healer), Synergist (defensive magic) and Saboteur (status attacks enemies). Each of these roles allows the characters to perform different tasks depending on which exact role they're assigned in the paradigm. Each character starts off with only one role and the remainder are unlocked over time. Each of these individual roles, have their own skill trees with new abilities and attacks that you unlock as you gain experience. When not in battle you can create a series of set paradigm role defaults (up to six). When changed in battle, a tap of the shoulder buttons offers a menu where you can choose the required paradigm. For example, you may have one Commando, a Ravager, and a Medic in one paradigm to allow you to attack and heal, however in another you may have all Commandos; the combinations are a plenty and having the right paradigms is the difference between success and failure for a lot of the bigger fights.

Each ability used depletes a different amount of ATB (active time battle) but if you have opened up enough of these ATB slots, you can queue up and chain attacks together perfectly. Some skills only use the one point, while others can use three or four. The ATB refills after each action and once it is full you it will perform whatever actions you have selected. Special attacks and skills can also be used, these are unlocked from the skill tree at different points dependent on the character. The special skills can be used from the “Techniques” tab and deplete your TP (technique points) bar. The maximum TP you can have at any one point is only as high as five, meaning you have to be careful selecting how and when to using these abilities. The TP bar recovers slowly as you chain together attacks in battle, and the rating you get at the end of each battle also increases how much TP you have, while there are also certain items and equipment that allow it to recover faster.

The stronger attacks and these special skills are all unlocked in the Crystarium (basically where you manage the skill trees I mentioned above). Rather than levelling up automatically how you might expect, after each battle you earn 'Crystal Points' (CP), and you can spend these points manually in the skill tree, allowing you to develop the characters how you please to a certain degree. All of the skill trees start off small in scope with a separate one of each of the roles the various characters can use, but the Crystarium quickly starts to expand as you progress through the chapters. The benefits of doing this range from simple acquiring a new normal attack to gaining more power in strength or magic for your character, however the more important aspect is that you'll unlock new techniques. The attacks gained also have a lot of variety, with some attacks only affecting one enemy, some dealing damage to a small radius. Where a particular skill unlocks is also in a different place for each character, so some unlock certain skills before others. Eventually each character can learn all of the six available roles, but to begin with you will only have the one, and two later on when you get to a certain chapter.

This wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game without summons, and this instalment is no different. Each character has a specific "Eidolon" (summoned creature) that they can unlock by battling them during the story. To unlock each characters Eidolon you will have to do certain things in battle against them to raise the "Gestalt bar", once raised you can press a button to take over the Eidolon. Once you have achieved this, during standard battle you can use TP to summon the main characters Eidolon to come and help you in battle. The Eidolon will replace your two other characters on the battle ground and attack the enemies without your direction. While the Eidolon is in the battle its SP bar will deplete slowly if it’s not taking damage, although it does speed up when it is attacked. Each time you hit an enemy or use some magic, you raise the Gestalt bar once again. At any time you can enter into Gestalt mode, where the Eidolon and your character combine to do some devastating attacks. The amount of attacks you can do is dependent on how high the Gestalt bar was before entering the mode. When you enter this stage the way you battle changes for a short period of time, the first difference being how you control the Eidolon, using a combination of the left analogue and the action button to perform the different moves. This also has an auto button if you want to allow the Eidolon to pick. The variety on how you battle (even if it is for a short period) is a refreshing addition.

Later on in the game you unlock the ability to upgrade your weapons and accessories at the save point. By combining your chosen weapons/accessories with items that you have collected you can create more powerful versions of the equipment. Eventually you will hit a plateau, where you can’t upgrade that weapon/accessory type anymore. At this point you can use a transformation item to transform your weapon into an entirely new piece. When you do this you do lose a little bit of your bonus but you can then continue to upgrade it again. There are ways to get bonuses to upgrade faster so trying different combinations of items is a must.

Rather than have loads of towns with shops that sell different things, you purchase items at any save point, which has been a serious point of contention amongst some of the hardcore fans. At first you are restricted to what items and what shops you can purchase from but more items, accessories, weapons, and also shops are unlocked the further you progress through the game. The game is split up into thirteen individual chapters making it easy to track your progress, and a lot of things I've mentioned above are unlocked in certain chapters, which is another new for a Final Fantasy title. For example, the first two chapters you do earn some CP but you can’t use it until you become a L’cie, and this is justified in the plot as normal humans can’t use magic.

Rather than resorting the age old mechanic of random battles, when running around the different areas you will see the enemies on the screen and for the most part, as long as you move faster you can avoid them if you wish. Some of the bigger enemies are far too dangerous to attack early on so knowing your limits is a must. If you do want to see if you can beat the more powerful enemies (it's not impossible don’t worry, just takes time) then you can run into them to initiate the battle. If you happen to die, you don’t get blasted back to your last save point, instead you can chose to retry or exit. If you chose retry you go back to the moment before your last battle, this is handy if you haven’t saved in a while. For around the first twenty-thirty hours the game is quite linear and in that sense that there is very little exploration, this can be looked at one of two ways. The first way would be to say that it’s a bad thing with the reasoning that you really have nothing to do but follow the rail until you hit the area of Pulse, which is a free roaming area. The second way is to look at it as a good thing, this being that it allows you to follow the story without getting sidetracked and forgetting what you were doing then have the freedom later in the game to explore and grind till your heart’s content.

Later on in the game you have the chance to do some side missions that that are completely optional. By doing these "Cie’th" missions you can get rewards such as powerful accessories and big CP bonuses (depending on the mission). Don't worry if you've given these a miss, once you have completed the game you can return to Grand Pulse and continue the side missions, but unfortunately there is no "New Game +" option as I and many others would have liked. By doing these missions however, you have the chance to unlock a Chocobo (a big yellow bird) which is capable of getting you from one place to another really fast. Chocobo’s are also able to dig up treasures and rare items hidden underground, which can provide some much needed money. You can’t fight while riding a Chocobo and if you run into too many enemies the Chocobo will kick you off and run away so take care not to run too close.

I did notice in that in certain areas the game did suffer from invisible wall syndrome, this is due to its linearity more than anything. I also noticed a couple of optimisation issues but nothing major, just a light stuttering in a couple sections of the game, but this isn’t a deal breaker. There also seems to be a lack of money too, although it’s not really needed for anything other than upgrades. Gone are the rewards of gil, experience and items at the end of a battle and items can be rare.

Pretty as a picture
The graphics are gorgeous, the environments are lush and each character is perfectly modelled and lifelike. Every cut-scene is beautifully rendered making this easily one of the best looking games of 2010. There is a real sense of detail in each of the areas, and you get a real feeling of distance as you wander around. The sheer amount of detail that resides in the game is overwhelming and lip-syncing during the cut-scenes is as near to perfect as you can get. There is a real sense of depth and it feels like you can literally reach out and touch it, even if you actually can’t. Also scale is something that is executed well too, especially looking at something far away. Pulse is even more impressive than any other area in the game and really feels like a diverse world with lots to see. That said, it's true that unfortunately the PS3 version is slightly better looking than the Xbox version particularly in the quality of the cut-scenes, but even so, the Xbox version still carries itself very well.

One thing I did notice is that there is barely any overlap with the enemy design like you would find in other Final Fantasy games, although the same enemy classes keep making an appearance, their design is different. Each character looks unique and the same can be said for the enemies, which have also been rendered to a high quality. This could be the new standard for Final Fantasy games with more originality and less reuse of familiar enemies.

Can you hear that? It sounds big!
There is only one thing I can say about the audio and that is “its epic”. The score changes depending on location and is rich and beautifully composed. The surprising mix of musical styles is something new in a JRPG, including jazz, dance and rock, along with your normal Final Fantasy operatic theme. There is at least one familiar track in there, which is an updated version of the Chocobo music, and adds some much needed nostalgia to the game.

The character voice acting is well put together and the actors and actresses really bring the characters to life, each with their own personality. This is highlighted when traversing the environment and suddenly one of them will pipe up with a relevant comment to do with you current situation or surroundings. Great attention has been paid to the sound effects all round and even enemies each make their own individual sounds depending on their actions.

Is it worthy of the name?
After playing for over seventy hours just doing the main storyline and twenty eight of the side quests, I have to say that with no preconceptions and no comparisons to any other Final Fantasy game, I thoroughly enjoyed it. In my opinion the game is no more linear than any other JRPG on the market today and can present a challenge from start to finish. It also allows people new to the series to enjoy it too; as it’s far less complicated than previous Final Fantasy titles, or titles of the same class. Concentrating heavily on the storytelling and bringing to us probably the best combat system of any of the Final Fantasy games, this instalment stands on its own. There is also little need for grinding either so people who just want to blast through the story without having to invest hours of their lives running around the same area will still find some enjoyment. The story is pretty easy to follow and warms up to a climactic ending, one of which you will not expect. With an intriguing story and plenty of hours of gameplay, Final Fantasy XIII is definitely worth your money.

I can’t deny a large focus on both visual and audio, but the gameplay is still a lot of fun and what Square have done really is spectacular if looked at in the right light. Even if people take offence at its linearity and its few other downsides, it is still a fantastic game worthy of the Final Fantasy brand. If you haven’t played a JRPG before then I recommend this to you as your first, and if you have, get it anyway and you won’t be disappointed.

How We Review Games

Review: Borderlands

2010-07-21T19:35:00.000+01:00

Anyone who has been reading my twitter updates probably has a good idea how this review is going to go. Three years ago Gearbox Software gave us a teaser of a new game they were working on.

The video depicted a woman talking to you (the player). At certain points as the camera panned around, you had flashes of some human enemies dubbed ’the locals’, then of some of the animal enemies referred to as ’the wildlife’. One of the flashes tells you you’re going to need guns, lots of guns, showing you a room full of weapons. Finally the camera panned further so that you can see her face; this woman was heavily scarred down one half of her face. She then tells you she knows why you’re there and that you’re looking for the vault (cue a reverse plot of Fallout 3), she finally adds that you won't find it because it doesn’t exist.

The game has seen a massive transformation in style since that teaser was released, now re-branded as an 'RPS' (Role playing shooter), the consistent selling point for me at the time was the huge number of guns the game was boasting, which more often than not something that is restricted in games. Borderlands is finally here with claims that it features ‘87 bazillion guns’. Maybe that’s a slight over-exaggeration but one would find it hard not to be intrigued with a game that has more than 17.6 million of the things.

Welcome to Pandora; it's fun and full of violence
Borderlands is set on a planet called Pandora, a desolate wasteland where the law doesn’t exist and you pretty much live and die by the gun. Bandits, mercenaries and pretty much every lowlife known to mankind roam the landscape all looking for treasure and more importantly, the vault, which is said to contain a vast treasure and riches. Once you pick your character (of which there is four to choose from) and after a brief chat with a mysterious lady that only appears only to you, you embark on your quest to find the vault, undertaking many missions along the way to gain the trust of the locals.

In terms of plot, the story isn't over complicated. You have just enough to get you started and the rest you find out through doing the missions. The rest is pure action, possibly going back to gaming roots, where stories were nothing but an objective.

I have found me a gun, now for my next trick... someone will explode!
There is essentially two ways to play the game. The first would be on your own (for all the socially inept people out there) or alternatively you can play co-op with up to four of your mates. The four characters to choose from all will eventually gain different special moves and abilities. After a brief tutorial you can set off to explore the world of Pandora.

The game is at first glance is primarily an FPS however it's far deeper than that. In terms of the FPS mechanics it's a pretty solid shooter. However when looking down the iron sights of the different weaponry, the way you aim is dependent on the gun you’re using. Some guns for example don’t have any scopes, so aiming down the basic iron sites can be quite difficult as you only have the reticule when in a relaxed aim. The guns individual stats can also have an affect on your aim and effectiveness, and regularly swapping and upgrading your weaponry plays a major part in the game. On the HUD you have a compass which acts as your guide to the general direction of your current mission. Not having a mini-map can take some getting used to if you haven’t played the likes of fallout, but overall this adds to the exploration side of the game. You also have your health bar indicting how many health points you have and once you acquire a shield it will also display that too. There are also some help guides that pop up on the screen from time to time, but these can be disabled in the menu.

Pandora itself is one of the biggest things in the game. The maps are quite large so there is lots to see. The different areas are sectioned off and using the travel system you can move from one area to another. This involves a brief loading period and only happens when moving to the different areas. It's not as free roaming as the likes of Oblivion or Fallout, but that isn't a bad thing. The main maps are massive and there are two main areas to explore, each with other areas that you can investigate.

Just like games such as the afore mentioned Fallout, the game is very much mission orientated. The more missions you undertake, the more additional missions open up. Once you have accepted each quest you can chop and change as you wish, giving flexibility. For example if you are doing a mission in a particular area and you know that there is more missions in that area to do, you can go into your menu and change the active mission. This is handy as it means that you can complete most of the missions in an area without constant and unnecessary backtracking. In addition you can do half of a mission and go back to it later on without having to take on the whole list of objectives again. Rewards generally come in the form of experience points and money, although on some missions you can gain new guns or equipment on top of that. Some of the missions require that you to beat a boss; these generally are a lot more difficult that the regular enemies you will have battled up to that point. To help you level up suitably before biting more than you can chew, each mission has its own rating dependent on your skill level. It tells you how hard the selected mission is, so that you can chose the easier missions first or if you really must, do one of the harder missions for more of a challenge. As in typical RPG format, the more you level up though, the easier the missions will be. Some of the additional missions are character specific, this adds more depth to the gameplay and a reason to play through more than once.

When you die (and it will happen) you will re-spawn at one of the 'New You' points, which costs you money and gets more expensive each time you die. Also at the 'New You' point you can change your characters name and colours, or later on in the game, unlock the transport system that allows you to travel over long distances quicker.

The levelling system is split into three parts, adding depth to the development of your chosen character. Whenever you kill an enemy you gain experience; when you hit the bracket you level up. The number of experience points also depends on the level of your enemies; weaker enemies giving less than the more powerful enemies. You also gain experience from completing missions, and these bonuses can be quite large. The second part to the levelling system are skill points. Once you hit level five you earn a special ability, which this opens up the skill trees. Every subsequent level after that you will gain a skill point that you can spend on whichever skill you wish. Finally there is the weapon proficiency. Depending on what weapon you use the most, once you have killed so many enemies you gain a proficiency rank.

The higher the level you are works in two parts; it gives you a longer health bar and also means you can use the stronger weapons that are scattered about. Each character has a different special ability and skill tree, because each one is better with different weapons. This doesn't mean that you are restricted to those types of weapons; just that you will get bigger bonuses on them. When attacking an enemy you have the chance for a critical shot, these do more damage so that you can kill the enemies more quickly. The game is very fast paced and it's pretty easy to level up with the hordes of enemies that attack you often. On one play-through I was just attacked by the normal types of enemies, though when I was playing co-op and did the same mission, some of the enemies attacking me were elemental based. This also means that no two play-through's will ever be the same.

Because of the program that Gearbox wrote that randomly generates weaponry, offering millions of possibilities, the weapons in the game vary drastically in design, power, accuracy and fire rate. Two people may never get the same weapons in their individual play-through's. Some of the guns also have additional bonuses or elemental effects. These effects are corrosive, incendiary, explosive and electrical and do different types of damage. For example electrical elemental guns are good to get around shields and have a chance of stunning an enemy, incendiary weapons are more likely to burn an enemy or set him on fire, corrosive can melt an enemy and explosive says it all. There are several types of weapons; repeater handguns, revolvers, shotguns, SMG, assault rifles, sniper rifles, alien weapons and grenades. They each use their own type of ammo and can be found after you kill enemies or purchased from a vending machine. Most of the guns can be found after you have killed an enemy or in one of the weapons crates that are all scattered around the world. There are some that can be purchased from a weapons vending machine but for the most part, the ones you find can be far more powerful. Health packs and shields can be purchased from a dedicated medical vender. Every weapon can be very different in either power or appearance. For example you can get a sniper rifle that has the loading system of a revolver, but the cocking mechanism of a shotgun. It's quite surprising what the game comes up with and sometimes you can find some really ridiculously powerful guns. Also depending on what 'make' the gun is, can affect the quality of the gun too. The same rules apply for the shields and they each have different bonuses and defensive properties.

Several upgrades can be acquired as you play These include upgrading the amount of ammo that you can carry, grenade upgrades, class upgrades giving you better character bonuses, special ability upgrades adding a status effect to the ability, and finally you can upgrade the amount of weapons you can carry by helping the ‘claptraps’ (little robots) around the world. Whether buying weapons, ammo, shields, health, or upgrades, you will do so from one of the aforementioned vending machines scattered about the levels, normally at the beginning of an area or in a main town (think Bioshock).

Sometimes it’s a bit easier if you travel around the world by getting a vehicle. Anyone that has played Halo will automatically be familiar with the driving controls. It isn’t a major part of the game and about the only changeable variable is the colour and the attached weapon. In single player you can control the turret/rocket launcher from the driving position or in co-op one of you can get in the turret and operate it while the other person drives.

The only real issue I have with the gameplay is the enemy A.I. that seems like it only knows one way to fight you. This would be to gang up on you and hope you die. It seems to be the same tactic over and over, with some of the enemies hanging back and others rushing in. The only real change is what weapon the enemy attacks you with. Generally if they drop the weapon after expiring, it tends to be not that high in level, yet they seem to be able to inflict more damage to you than you can to them if you were holding the same weapon. Occasionally though they do drop weapons that are far more powerful than the ones you have, but the bulk of these are found in the weapons crates.

I'm BATMAN! Oh wrong game!
The graphical style of the game is a type of cell-shading labelled as 'concept art style' by Gearbox. Although it seems a very simplistic effect it's actually helped create an extremely detailed world. The comic-book style is in everything from the characters to the scenery, and is all very detailed and very high resolution. It gives a very strange feel, with everything looking like its been rough drawn. This is far different from the original style of the game, but adds something different and makes the game unique in a world of grey's and browns.

Each weapon looks conceivable and you can instantly tell what different parts are included in your latest acquisition. Explosions look spectacular and maintain that comic book feel to them, this also makes you want to blow stuff up if just to admire them. Watching an enemy explode is awesome and you can shoot off different appendages spilling some well deserved blood. The only thing in the world that doesn’t look like it's straight out of a comic are the water effects; it looks real. The only criticism is that, that’s all it does, there is no mechanic with ripples if you walk through the water and it always looks still.

I can hear your gun, but where the hell are you?!
If you have any preconceptions about how Borderlands is supposed to sound you will find that you will be pretty spot on. Each weapon (depending on the components) has its own individual sound. You'll hear the bullets hit the dirt and whiz past your head and the only thing sounding more realistic than an explosion than in the game is an actual explosion. Atmosphere is well created with a mixture of rising ambient and techno music playing in the background. The game has a pretty decent soundtrack, with a high point for me being the opening track 'Ain't no rest for the wicked' by Cage the Elephant. There is some decent, if under-used, voice talent in the game which makes the characters some much needed personality. There is nothing more satisfying for your character to give out a sick, twisted, and evil sounding laugh as he/she blows something/someone to bits.

Can I borrow you for a minute? I'm stuck!
There are two parts to the multiplayer. The first would be the co-op (online or local) which uses a 'drop in-drop out' system. If at any point in your game you are having some trouble and need a bit of help, you can invite your mate (or up to three if you have that many) and they can give you a hand. If they get to the point that they have to go or you no longer need them they can just drop out of your game. While in co-op you all receive experience from each other so if one person kills an enemy you all get the experience from it. The same occurs with money too; if you pick some up the rest get the same as well. If you’re in the game you can also issue challenges to any of your friends by walking up to them and using melee, if they return the melee you start a duel where its you versus the other person. Until you activate the ‘duel’ you can't inflict any damage to your chosen partner, which means you don’t need to worry about killing the wrong person. The second part of the multiplayer is essentially a game inside the game. In certain areas there is an arena for you all to battle it out in both 'player vs player' matches and team battles.

The maximum force of the future (or was that Mad Max?!)
If you take XIII and combine it with Fallout 3, Call of Duty, and the Multiplayer system and intensity of Left 4 Dead you will get something that looks like Borderlands. It's quite clear from the off that Mad Max is a large influence of the game and combining all the above elements you get a truly spectacular game. All of the game modes have been brilliantly designed, and the extremely well thought-out 'drop in-drop out' system works really smartly. Anyone who is a fan of the above mentioned games should automatically enjoy this game, and even if you aren’t then the chances are you will enjoy the game just as much. It can get a little hard in parts but that’s all part of the fun of it and if you press on you will enjoy the intensity of it. The over the top comical violence and dark humour serve to make this a brilliant gaming experience.

For some gamers not into loot drops or RPG's, it might become tedious. If you enjoy the relaxed wandering like you'd find in Fallout and Oblivion, where you really only get enemies in certain areas, then the fast pacing of Borderlands maybe isn’t for you.

Gearbox have set a new bar for both gameplay and co-op functionality and it wouldn't be fair not to commend them for it. When they say that its probably the best game they have made, I have to agree with them. Pushing the boundaries for Western RPG's in some respects, Borderlands is definitely a clear runner for the game of the year. The usual issues are there but if you look beyond them you find that the world of Pandora is rich and fruitful and a lot of fun can be had.

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

OnLive: The next big thing?

2010-07-21T19:31:00.000+01:00

New technology is always being researched; even as you’re reading this new developments have probably been made. At the GDC earlier this year an apparent technological breakthrough was announced for not only developers but for the consumer too. Stripping the boundaries of what we know as a conventional games console, OnLive has hit the gaming community like a whirlwind. Not only does it not have a disc drive or need any digital media, it also needs no storage at all. Why? I hear you all ask! This gaming platform is not like any other. Needing only the internet games can be streamed directly to your TV in HD... That’s right, in HD. Oh and I did say streamed!

One thing that has plagued developers for many years when it comes to creating games is storage space. Pushing the boundaries of either graphics or a games lifespan always takes its toll. You either have to do without one or the other, make a compromise or you can extend the amount of disks that the game is distributed on. This more often than not can have its own issues but for the most part works ok, but plagues 360 developers. The problem with modern technology is that it only goes so far before it hits a wall and then you have to wait for the next technological breakthrough, such as HD-DVD, which hit the limits of storage before Blu-Ray surpassed it, only to still have some issues at the moment. For example on the PS3; reading the information off the disc quickly enough was a big problem and it's not one that has yet been rectified. Until the drive speeds match that of DVD players, you find yourself having to install a portion of the game on the hard-drive just to even run the software. The second thing to take in to consideration is how limited you are on development due to being constraints of the console. We all know that if you buy a PC game that needs a beast of a PC with a decent graphics card inside it, and yours doesn’t have one, it’s not going to work.

Now you may be wondering what all this got to do with OnLive? Well its quite simple! If you strip away the hard-drive and the graphics card and all the components that you would generally find inside a PS3 or an Xbox 360 you are pretty much left with nothing but an empty shell and this is where the genius of the system comes into play. OnLive will be subscription-based gaming on demand console without the need for processors or graphics cards. All the media is stored online and everything runs from a server and you simply rent or buy the games you want to play. No disc or storage is needed and you can just switch on the receiver, currently being labelled a micro-console, and click on the game you want. Alternatively you can use your existing PC or laptop (spec won't even come into it) and all you need to do is install a browser plug-in. The last thing required is the controller, which looks like your standard Xbox360 controller, and away you go.

For it to work all you really need is a minimum of 1.5MB broadband connection. The downside to this is that the speed of your broadband will determines the quality of the picture you receive. If you have at least a 5MB connection you will receive HD resolution, anything below that would only give you SD. Balance it with the plus points however, and it becomes an attractive proposition once again. With no digital storage required this means that games could be as big and lavish as the developer wanted, and because there are no parts like a graphics card, processor or memory inside your receiver, you would never need to upgrade as the technical constraints are removed. Put simply; if the game-server receives a game with higher resolution graphics and your TV is capable of showing them you would automatically receive the benefits without the need to upgrade the console to see the difference. The micro-console, joypad and the subscription have also been touted as being a fraction of the cost of the cheapest console on the market on the market today.

As promising as it sounds, there are some major issues. When it comes to purchases, I like to be able to have things I can own and physically hold in my hand. Downloading games is convenient but where does this leave retail? Normally you go to a shop to purchase a game but what happens when you take away the digital media? Game stores, and other stores for that matter, could suffer dramatically with the introduction of this type of device because there is effectively nothing to sell, and we know the likes of Game make most of their money from selling software, not hardware. Retailers won't be the only companies to be hurt by this as publishers will also be hit too without the need for discs, cases and manuals. I know some people will be sad to lose the option of picking up special editions, which give you little bonuses such as additional content or statues to place on your mantle.

More importantly, what happens if you buy a game and you don’t like it? It’s not like you can trade in the offending game. You do have the option to rent the game but if you rent often this can become expensive. There is also an option of a demo but let's face it; it's not like a demo is always a true reflection on what the actual game is going to be like. Finally you can watch people play the game live too but it's not the same as playing it yourself.

I know we are a long way off before other companies take on board this technology, before this new wave of console gets to the top of the gaming food chain. I’m hoping that in the future there will still be an opportunity to leave the house, wander around your local game suppliers, and still be able to own something that you can physically hold. I do think that the OnLive model could be revolutionary, but I also think that it needs way more thought put into it. OnLive is currently in the beta-testing over in America and it would be good to hear what real users have to say about the service. Here's hoping that it will be affordable and worthwhile for the people that will be using it.

Here is the full press conference from the GDC earlier this year

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

2010-07-21T19:28:00.000+01:00

‘It's the car, right? Chicks love the car’. Ok well it’s probably one of the best lines in one of the worst Batman movies, but it still remains a fact that we all want the car, but we won't get it in this review. Batman has been around since 1939, which makes him pretty god-damn old and he is still kicking arse today. Having spawned a hell of a lot of comics, books, films and those all important cartoons, Batman has also had a few games over the years but nothing memorable. Deep in the basement areas of the Batcave (AKA Rocksteady Studies) Batman: Arkham Asylum has been developed by people who on the basis of the game are massive fans of the character. When Andy looked at the demo, you may remember that he had concerns over the ease of the combat, linearity and whether the game would become too repetitive, thankfully these fears are all now moot as Rocksteady have truly delivered.

'Riddle me this riddle me that, who’s afraid of the big black bat?!'
At the beginning of the game you learn that The Joker has attacked Gotham City Mayor’s Office. Batman defeats him with little fuss and we pick-up where Bat's is marching him back to Arkham Asylum. Arkham seems to be over capacity due to a fire (conveniently on the same night) at Blackgate Prison. Troubled by the lack of fight that Joker has presented at the mayor’s office and the night’s events, Batman decides to escort him personally to his cell, on the way there however, Joker escapes aided by Harley Quinn and takes over the facility. Soon the inmates from both prisons are running amok and Joker starts to deal his hand. Setting up a deadly game of cat and mouse between himself and Batman, Bat's must think fast to bring order back to Arkham. Batman is pitted against not only the Joker and Harley Quinn but also Scarecrow, Mr Zsasz, Bane, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Jokers gang, and the hundreds of inmates and lunatics currently residing in Arkham. The Jokers real motive and plan is yet to be discovered but rest-assured that Batman is in this for the long haul.

Quickly... to the Bat Cave
Unexpectedly Arkham Asylum is set-up almost as an open world. The various locations are designed very well with their own personalities and lots of hidden areas and places to explore. The bulk of the missions and tasks are undertaken inside the various departments of the institute and in the catacombs below. Outside and inside you have to explore; the path isn’t always straight forward and you have to work your way around blocked and locked doors. You can bring up a map of the island at any time to not only see your location but also so you can see your objective(s) that are usually clearly marked.

The gameplay can be split into three different categories; combat, stealth, and detective work and puzzles. These are all seamlessly assembled together and are not complicated last-minute additions or gimmicks, but well thought out pieces that have been slotted together with precision.

Combat is the first thing that you are thrust into and at times feels very much like you are watching a movie. While using the ‘freeflow’ combat system you only use three buttons and produce the following actions; attack, stun and counter. When an enemy attacks an indicator shows above their head and if you press the counter button quick enough, Batman counters unleashing some pain on his foe. Using the attack button and aiming Batman at different enemies as well as countering, you can produce some cinematic quality fights that almost look choreographed. Even in close quarters they still look brilliant and work well, with no limbs magically going through walls. With it being basically a three-button combat system, you would be forgiven for thinking that the fights might lack depth; this is really not the case. While it's easy to pummel a load of guys into the ground, to get the best of out of the game you must learn the rhythm and flow to effectively take everyone down.

The stealth element of the gameplay is very simplistic but cleverly thought out. At certain points in the game there are times when you have to stay hidden and tactically think about how to get behind the enemy and defeat them. Some enemies have guns and if taken on directly you will be presented with the short and swift execution of Batman. Using gargoyles to hide up high and sneaking around is sometimes the best way, and unlike in most stealth games you aren’t hidden in shadows. You will be using many tactics to take your foes down, including climbing through vents, keeping hidden behind walls and making use of Batman’s equipment like the Batarang to stun enemies and grapple to get from place to place. Once an enemy is stunned or you are behind him you can silently take him down. Later in the game you have enemies with ‘suicide collars’ which activate an alarm bringing more guards with them. If you are on a gargoyle then you can learn the ability to string an enemy up by his legs, but this tactic leaves the opponent awake and alerts others, so once you have grabbed your unsuspecting enemy it's always best to get out of the area before the others come.

Whilst getting into fights and sneaking around Arkham there comes a time when Bats has to use his head, for example such cases may include looking for a clue to locate someone or something, or solving one of the Riddler’s puzzles. Using detective mode changes the HUD, and everything of importance becomes highlighted. If you’re looking for a clue however, you will need to keep your eyes peeled then scan the evidence. This involves looking for traces of a person so that you may track where they have gone or where they have been, then continuing to use the detective mode you can follow their trail. Detective mode is also a good way to see where your nearby enemies are and whether or not they have weapons.

Arkham Asylum also incorporates light RPG elements too. As you battle and solve puzzles you gain experience points and after passing the threshold you are able to upgrade your equipment and learn new combat moves. This isn’t a major part of the game but allows you to gain new abilities armour and more health. You can also as upgrade your equipment, such as getting access to a remote controlled batarang, or turning your explosive gel into a proximity based weapon. Once the main story is finished, you can still explore the asylum and solve all the puzzles and collect all the character profiles and trophies, giving you even more experience.

Joker has something up his sleeve and I’m gonna stop him!
The Unreal Engine is famed for having issues with optimisation (such as textures not loading immediately) but thankfully this isn’t the case in Batman. Each character is brilliantly rendered and they really come to life on the screen. All the buildings and areas all look amazing and miraculously it still manages to keep its comic book feel throughout. There is consistency and the developers have tried and have succeeded in keeping this high level of detail throughout the game. The cut-scenes all use in-engine graphics for most part, and this is by no means a bad thing. There are some really cool ideas put into practice here, one of the most notable being the damage to Batman's costume the longer the night goes on.

Would you dance with the devil on the pale moonlight!
If you have ever watched one of the Batman Cartoons you will automatically recognise the voices of the characters. Rather than get a new cast of actors Rocksteady have opted for the better option in bringing back some of the actors that have been playing these characters for years. Batman is once again skilfully portrayed by Kevin Conroy and really brings to life the Dark Knight, and Jokers creepy laugh and sick demeanour is thanks to none other than Mark Hamill, finally Arleen Sorkin is playing the Jokers female counterpart Harley Quinn. The other NPC's dialogue is also well done, and it's rare you'll hear the same bit of speech in the same five minutes. The music has a very high production value, with some parts of the score almost sounding similar to that of 'The Dark Knight'. Sound effects are second to none and all these factors bring the world to life.

The Dark Knight Emerges
For a long time, gamers and Batman fans around the world have waited for a title to do the character justice and incorporate everything we know and love about the universe. But harping on about this being a good comic book game does Rocksteady a huge disservice, as based on a comic book or not this is just a great game that anyone would enjoy. Arkham Asylum has gone beyond the ties of a movie or a previous storyline and created its own legacy. With a brilliant story, a lot of fan service, and enjoyable gameplay mechanics that are seamlessly tied together, something special and fresh has been produced. Even if you’re not a fan of Batman, you probably soon will be and Arkham Asylum should definitely be in your collection. As soon as you play it you'll realise that games like this don't come around too often.

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

Review: Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

2010-07-21T19:25:00.000+01:00

Wanna be in a movie?! If you were asked that question what would you say?! Me personally, I would say hell yeah! That’s not why we’re here though. We’re here to talk about games but luckily the game we’re talking about takes you into the movies. Rather than sitting on the back row with a cute, sexy, beautiful woman groping your manhood (or if you’re a woman think sleazy man groping your entire body), you’re entering the world of movie making and debauchery. Where the big breasted women wear bikinis, have an IQ the equivalent to that of a peanut, and have sex with average guys like me and you because they think its a cure for cancer.

Once upon a time in a porn studio near you!
Let’s meet Larry Lovage, a wayward teen and star of the game Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. While being a lazy good for nothing bum living in a caravan he is approached by his uncle, Larry Laffer (the original star of the Leisure Suit Larry games). Uncle Larry is CEO of Laffer studios and requests Larry to come and work for him. He needs help to uncover a mole from a rival studio that is sabotaging productions and making the studio lose their investors. If this continues, the rival studio can move in for a hostile takeover. Larry agrees and starts off his new career in the janitor's office and has to work his way up the ladder doing odd jobs for people in a series of mini games and little adventures, to uncover the culprit. The story is very tongue in cheek and there is a lot of swearing and sexual innuendo.

Ok what am I supposed to do here?! Is it in?
The movie studio is very open world and your job is to complete the various objectives around the studio while looking for the mole. As you complete each task you do you unlock more missions to do. Some of the mini-games include photographing scantily clad big breasted babes doing various acts, solving puzzles in a platforming fashion and racing. There are also some directorial mini-games where you have to call the shots on a movie set. In some missions you have to choose your words carefully to progress as you get to pick what you are going to say to certain people. There are also some light shooting elements and fist fights too. There is some variety with the tasks, but these can become quite repetitive. For the most part you will be running or driving around the studio going to various sets to get to your next mission and this can become tedious at times. There also is a lot of "go fetch" missions that are either driving from point to point or platform based. You can choose whichever missions you want to do in whatever order you wish once you open up a few. There are a variety of collectables too. You can collect some outfits by completing parts of the story and there are some Larry shaped golden Oscars to find scattered about the sets as well.

The HUD is similar to that of GTA and Saints Row and a mini-map shows you where your next objective will be. Your health is displayed as a heart and it is possible to kill yourself. The control system is very basic, with some actions like the action button mapped to two different buttons.

The camera for the most part works ok but occasionally has the habit to whiz off to an angle that’s not appropriate. For most part of the game it's free-moving but occasionally it’s fixed in one position, especially during the platforming mini-games. It can become annoying though as it is sometimes hard to tell which way to go and not being able to look can hinder you somewhat.

Wow, that bra looks huge! Can I wear it on my head?!
The graphics are not the best in the world, and to be frank, they are mediocre at the best of times. Occasionally they look poorly rendered and broken but overall they are do a job. This is mainly down to the poor optimization issues with the unreal engine. All the characters that are female tend to all look like Dolly Parton lookalikes with the big lips, big chest and they all pretty much look the same in body and face but not in hairstyle (pretty much a cartoon characters wet dream). As for the male characters, there is variety in all the main ones. The remainder of the characters are your generic types that you find as you're wandering around.

The majority of the world is pretty well rendered but feels under-designed, more attention seems to have been paid to the porn references scattered about and female masturbation toys in various rooms and locations. The graphical glitches are often noticed and it feels like this world has been super-glued together with 100 year old contact adhesive. There is also a lack of nudity and the game seems to want to tease more than anything else (not that you really want to see a naked computer game character, unless you're Andy).

I love to make a girl scream!
The usual sound effects are present for jumping, shooting, and driving but the music seems to be lacking somewhat. The ambient background music is present for part of the game and is dependent on the scenario, so if the theme is Wild West then you get Wild West music at times. Some of the time though there is no music and you just have to make do with the jumping effects.

The voice-acting is well done but becomes repetitive with the comments from Larry. For example if you jump in water he will say ‘this is colder than a witches tit in a brass bra’, which is funny the first time but grating every other time he says it. Elsewhere, depending on what he is doing he will comment accordingly. The excessive use of sexual innuendo can be witty for a time but like the rest of the game, it gets boring and you just stop listening. Surprisingly there is some star power here, with celebrities such as Carmen Electra, Nikki Cox, Shannon Elizabeth, Jane Lynch and Tom Arnold making an appearance, but this isn't enough to keep it interesting.

Wanna go back to mine and have some fun? I have Scrabble!
If you want to enter the dysfunctional world of movie-making, full of sex, sex and more sex, chat up movie stars and sleep with secretaries in this cross between a Jenna Jameson movie (without nudity) and Scene It, then you may like this game. Sad fact is that it's let down by a whole host of issues; poor storyline, optimisation and lack of imagination with the mini-quests. You probably would be hard pushed to finish the game too, as it does get very boring, and although it does have its moments but they are very short-lived. Unfortunately this game should be left in the shop, but if bought treated like your mum’s knicker drawer... never opened!

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

Review: X-men Origins: Wolverine

2010-07-18T13:52:00.000+01:00

Each year we see our fair share of games based on movies, and this year is has been no exception. With the success of the previous three X-Men films, a prequel to the trilogy was added and kick-started the summer blockbuster season. This time the movie focused on the origin of one character, and you should all know by now that it was 'cleverly' titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which the film took a look at our favourite claw wielding mutant. As usual with these big budget films, you expect the dreaded movie tie-in. Rather than being the bog standard drivel that you would usually expect, something slightly different came along. Developed by Raven Software (of Marvel Ultimate Alliance fame) and published by Activision, this game had a lot to live up to.

Who am I?
Throughout the course of the game you play as James Howlett (AKA Logan and obviously more commonly known as Wolverine). The game follows the plot of the film fairly well, but expands a little without hindering the plot too much, although as with most movie games some of the plot is changed to suit the gameplay. The story tells us how Logan not only got his adamantium claws but also about his time in the US military special ops. It also allows you to be a part of the epic battle between Logan and Victor Creed (AKA Sabretooth, who according to the film plot is Logan’s brother) and allows you to tear him a new one. The story is told in a series of flashbacks starting in the African jungle, before skipping forward to later events in Logan’s life. If you’re a fan of the comics then you will see that there are some differences in the storyline that have been embellished a little by Hollywood, but the basic storyline from the original comics is pretty much intact.

Lost in the jungle!
The game plays like your average hack and slash, but with your claws as the weapon of choice. The levels are very linear but there are some simplistic puzzle elements to them. The game is objective based despite that linearity, but on your way from point A to B there a lots of mini-missions along the way. At the end each level there is a boss to defeat too, along with some mini-bosses to defeat at other various points too. Some of the bosses can take little time to beat but on the flipside, others can take a good while.

There is little chance for standing around as the enemies come in hordes at times, getting in your way and slowing you down. They start off quite easy and get more powerful as you progress. There are a variety of brutal ways to kill enemies, and they are all great fun; you can simply lay into them and beat and slash them to death, or in some areas use your environment to your advantage. Using the feral instincts you can instantly see the different areas in which you can instantly kill your foes. Some of the enemies have to be defeated a specific way and this helps mix the battles up a bit. As is the case with hack and slashers, the combat can get a little tiresome here and there, but it does enough to hold interest all the way to the conclusion. It's worth mentioning that this game is incredibly bloody, and a surprising yet satisfying move despite the movie being suitable for youngsters.

For each enemy you kill you receive experience points, and levelling up gains you points for unlocking extra powers and attacks. This typical RPG-lite approach helps the pacing and always rewards you something new for mutilating your attackers. In those attacks you can also unlock various combos too, and although they are slightly over the top they are a pleasure to watch. There are however some small optimisation and refresh rate issues, but this doesn’t hurt the game at all. There are also various collectables too that unlock bonus missions that are accessed from the main menu. After completing the bonus battles you can unlock costumes and there are 3 to collect. There is also a battle arena that you can try your luck at incorporating everything that you learn within the story mode.

Why can I see my insides?!
The graphics look nice without really pushing your given consoles power. Characters are nicely rendered and so are the environments even which look deceivingly bigger than they actually are. Particular attention has been paid to Logan as when you are injured, whether shot or slashed, the impact damage is clearly visible on his body. Even when burned, it is clear to all what type of damage has been dealt.

Being Wolverine, with his mutant regeneration ability, his body regenerates any damage that has been inflicted. Impressively, a really nice touch is that any damage that tears you up, your clothing remains in tatters throughout the remainder of the level. Take enough damage and it is possible to see Logan’s insides and it never gets boring to watch his body repair itself. The cut-scenes are mostly in-game engine, although there are a few that have been fully rendered and they are brilliant to watch.

Hear me roar... RAWR!
It's not just about the awesome 'sknit' sound effect when Wolverine unleashes his claws of death that Raven have mastered to perfection. The sound effects are mostly absolutely delectable, from the general ambience to the awesome sound of flesh being ripped to shreds. Unfortunately there is a distinct lack of voice talent, with only Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber and Will i Am appearing from the movie, and it definitely hurts the experience a little.

I’m good at what I do, but what I do isn’t nice!
I had a lot of fun with Wolverine and enjoyed the entire play-through a lot, however it’s the type of game you will complete once and never look at ever again. Without any real replay value other than playing again on a higher difficultly, it becomes difficult to recommend a purchase at full price. Rent it or pick it up for cheap, you won’t be disappointed for giving the game a look; however it’s certainly not a game that will help define your collection.

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

Review: Tales of Vesperia

2010-07-18T08:15:00.000+01:00

Namco Bandai are well known for the Tekken and Soul Calibur games, along with some all time classics such as Pac Man, Galaga and Dig Dug, however these aren’t their only accomplishments. As with any good Japanese developer, they have their own stake in the RPG genre. The ‘Tales’ series of games are Japanese-RPG's that ooze style and class. They have always taken their biggest influences from anime and manga and also use popular artists to design the characters and produce the animated cut-scenes within the game. Tale of Vesperia is no different; it’s the 10th mother-ship title in the series, incorporating everything that has been done well in the previous titles, making it even better and wrapping it in a design that is beyond stunning.

Once upon a time there was a...
At the beginning of the game you meet Yuri, a guy always trying to help those around him, but this attitude tends to get him in to trouble. When an artefact called a 'blastia' is stolen from the poorer area of town that he lives in, he chases down the culprit only to be imprisoned in the castle himself. Deciding that he needs to continue to chase down the thief he escapes from the prison running into Estellise, a noble trying to get to Yuri’s friend who is in danger. The pair continue their escape from the castle while being chased by the Imperial Knights and embark on an adventure bigger than they initially realise. After meeting up with Yuri’s friend Flynn, who is a captain in the Imperial Knights, the plot thickens. The fate of the world is put into play and the only person that can stop it all from being destroyed is the cocky criminal.

Enter a large new world!
Once escaping the city at the beginning you are put into a free-roaming environment, although some areas have to be unlocked through the story before they can be entered. As you travel you unlock skits between the characters which vary on depending on the situation. Some of them tell you about the back-story of the characters and their thoughts as they travel together, others are general chit-chat. These are optional to watch but they serve for the character development aspect of the game and give some additional insight to the story.

‘Tales’ also has three difficulty settings, so if you're finding the enemies too hard you can take it down a notch on the game options without the need to start again. You can also choose how you control your player in battle, this really only affects the targeting and the special moves. If you choose the ‘auto’ setup then your moves will be picked at random and you will always run to the enemy and attack without having to navigate towards your targeted opponent. Semi-auto also makes you run to the enemy when attacking but you get to map your special attacks. Manual mode is the hardest to use; you map your moves like in semi-auto but if you just hit the attack button you won’t run to your enemy and you have to navigate yourself; you have full control over all movement. Depending on how you set up you will get a bonus at the end of each battle, this is accumulated throughout the game but is used for unlocking your moves and weapons once you finish the game and start again.

The battle system is very simple to get to grips with, you have one button for standard attacks and another for special attacks. Depending on what direction the left analogue is facing also determines the type of action. Later on in the game you can also map special attacks to your right analogue, and there are special moves that can be done in the rush mode (rush accumulates through the damage you deal to enemies and can be released when full) and single-hit finishers that can be unleashed with a timed tap of the right trigger. Your HUD displays the health and MP of each of your characters and your special moves (called ‘artes’) use up your MP. This is recharged either by using potions or accumulated through battling without using artes. The battles endings also change (unlike a lot of J-RPG's) and are all light-hearted and mildly amusing. More battle endings are unlocked as you gain more characters and it’s also dependent on your four-man party.

As you collect items throughout the game you can go to a shop and synthesize a variety of items; weapons, armour, as well as additional special items. The special items are specific to certain characters and bear no battle bonuses. You can also collect character titles by doing certain things or talking to certain NPC's. You can also unlock these by completing side missions, and some of which unlock new costumes for your characters. If you change your sword or secondary weapon your character also changes his/her appearance to suit, so there is some flexibility on what you look like throughout the game.

The remainder of the game involves you wandering about the world, towns and the different landmarks, making your way through the story and talking to the various characters. There are tons of things to collect and unlock if you like that sort of thing.

Check out the ‘animation’ on her!
The graphical style is that of an anime, all the FMV cut-scenes have been well produced and are done in 2D animation. The remainder of the cut-scenes and the gameplay are rendered in 3D, but almost looks 2D due to the thin black outline around all of the characters, giving a sweet cell-shaded look that at certain times looks just as good as the FMV. The merging between the animations and gameplay is noticeable at first but becomes less obvious the more you play. As you explore you find that the entire world has been artistically designed and there is an air of consistency all the way throughout; everything looks beautifully executed. All the characters have also been well designed and the attention to detail is clearly visible in both the gameplay and the animations.

Can you hear me... am I coming through?!
The score is what you would expect from a typical J-RPG and changes depending on your locations and vibe of the situation. There are a whole host of music styles within that accompany the game really well. Each town and city has its own personality and theme which blends the game nicely. The characters are voiced fantastically, and the skits are no different and help bring the characters to life. The whole game isn’t voiced, and sometimes you will have to do some reading but nearly all the major story points are voice acted.

What are the scores Marjorie Dawes?
This game is full of excitement and you can tell that a very dedicated team of people have put it together. Being only the one disk I would have expected the game time to be around 35 hours long, but by just mostly doing the story I was pretty much at 55 hours upon completion, without doing most of the side missions. The story is gripping and the game is just bright and beautiful. There is a lot more to do than meets the eye and even when you complete the game there is still more that you can do including a whole host of side quests and extras. The price is a small one to pay for so much quality and I guarantee that you will have a lot of fun playing this. If you have never played one of the previous titles this is a good starting point.

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

Review: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

2010-07-18T07:55:00.000+01:00

As you may know from our podcasts, Japanese RPGs have always been an obsession of mine so when I heard that the next Star Ocean was coming to the Xbox 360 as an exclusive, the title was immediately placed on pre-order. Having played a couple of the previous titles I was hoping that this prequel would live up to the name. For the next 65 hours I was to battle enemies across the ‘star ocean’ and save the earth from certain destruction. With this being the third title that Square Enix has brought to the Xbox 360 and being a 360 exclusive, this game has a lot to live up to with the various technical failings of Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant. The biggest question would be: 'Is this game worthy to enter your collection? Or is it destined to stay at the store?'

Venture off to the stars
Star Ocean is set in space after a 3rd world war. The human race is venturing off into to space after a nuclear war has left planet Earth devastated, destroying a lot of the population. A cease-fire is negotiated between the warring parties and humans are now trying to survive living underground. Technology advances and a new group is formed, as part of the SRF (Space Reconnaissance Force) you follow the life of a few individuals as they embark on a new mission; to find a new home for the human race by travelling to new worlds and meeting new races, forming friendships across the galaxy. The main protagonists are Edge Maverick and Reimi Saionji and as part of the SRF they initially set out to find that potential new planet for humans, but as always; things don’t quite go according to plan.

Get your sword in your hand... lets play!
The controls are very simple to get to grips with but there is a slightly over the top lengthy tutorial at the beginning if you need it. The battles are not strictly turn-based like you would expect from this type of genre but more of a cross between that and an active battle system with the ability to stop the flow of time to give commands to the other characters. You can control any of the characters at any point during the fights and switching between the characters is just a quick push of the RB or LB buttons. You can only have four characters in your main party but at any point in the game you can switch a character from your main party into your battle party. As you battle you have basic attacks and are free to move about the battle ground and attack any enemy. You can dodge from enemy attacks like you would see in a hack and slash game, making you switch between offensive and defensive modes and making each battle a tactical event. You can learn special moves and powerful combo attacks the higher you level up. There is also a ‘rush mode’ that you can activate when the rush bar hits 100%, which makes it impossible for your character to get knocked down. You can combine this rush mode with a special attack unleashing a devastating array of combos in a quick-time style event making battles fluid, especially against bosses. Each character has battle trophies that you can collect by doing certain things in each battle.

Unlike most J-RPGs random encounters are not a factor and monsters appear on the map as you run around so you can pick and choose your battles. Bosses normally come after a cutscene and this would be where tactics come in. If you try to hit the hell out of a boss you will lose very quickly, a tactical approach is key to finding out their weaknesses. The areas that you travel around are well designed and varied, the lavish scenery makes you want to explore a lot more but at times some of the maps can feel a little linear. This isn’t a bad thing though as the maps are really big so there is plenty to do.

The remainder of the gameplay is what you would expect from any game in this genre; lots of side quests and a lot exploration. If you ever get lost all you do is talk to the any of the characters nearby and help will be given. There is always something to do and places to explore.

There are 3 ways of levelling up and you earn experience not only for battling but also for opening chests and completing missions. Your characters level up automatically as normal but you also earn xp for special moves. You can upgrade these moves separately and choose what you want to upgrade to the next level. Finally there is ‘BEAT’ (fighting style) this also levels up automatically but provides you with bonuses in battles and there are 3 ‘BEAT’ modes to choose from providing you with different battle bonuses. There are several difficulty levels that you can unlock upon each completion so there is always a bigger challenge on your next play through.

The only downside to the gameplay is when you get near the end; if you want to go back to one of the other planets to do some grinding or have a go at the arena then you have to change disks. It’s really not a big hassle but disk swapping is a must in order to do some of those side quests you missed.

Hey good looking!
One area that Star Ocean excels at is graphically, with each of the characters rendered to perfection. The scenery is beautiful and the towns are full of life, although in some places you just wish that there was more as most of the NPCs seem to be nailed on the spot. You can tell that the time has been taken to create an immersive world, and visually all areas are very well polished. The cutscenes are all in-engine so there is graphical consistency throughout, with the only letdown being that some of them are a little lengthy (at one point my pad switched off twice).

If she says ‘kay!’ one more time I will kill her!
The score on offer is your typical J-RPG affair and changes upon location and situation. The fighting sound effects are spot on, although as is the case in these games it is quite repetitive. Some of the characters voices seem a little wooden and two of them are more annoying than Cooke and Mack from Lost Odyssey but aside from that they are mostly well voiced and will keep you entertained rather than annoyed.

Should I get it?!
Aside from the few niggles the game has a lot to offer and is definitely value for money. Just the sheer volume of content spanning those three dvds makes this a worthy addition to the collection. With well over the 65 hours that I put in, it should keep you occupied for quite a while. If you’re a fan of J-RPG’s then this is a bonus and you will have a lot of fun, if you’re not then it shouldn’t make too much of a difference as the game is very fast-paced and action orientated, so you should find something in there for you.

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com

How to create a gamer

2010-07-18T07:40:00.000+01:00

Like a lot of people around the world, gaming has always been a hobby, an interest and most importantly an escape. After a year of being with my current partner I introduced an addition to our relationship; my gaming obsession. What started off as a rocky beginning passed onto something that was not expected. I did the impossible; I turned a nice, normal woman into a gamer and here is how I did it.

1. Play loads of games
Pretty self explanatory. If you’re going to be a gamer you need to play games all the time. Gone are the days of television and watching movies. The only channel to be on is the one where the gorgeous graphics of your console pop onto the screen. No more sitting through another helping of ‘Dirty Dancing’ or episode of ‘Ghost Whisperer’. Fire up a game and make your partner sit through the eight hour solid stretch of game playing (HDTV optional but recommended for best results). The games played need to be varied to show that they aren’t all mindless ‘kill everything that moves and has a digital pulse’ and if you want to throw in a curve ball try something child friendly like Viva Piñata or any of the Lego series.

2. Talk about games
This sounds really simple but it’s not as easy as you think (brainwashing is a hard task). You need to talk about everything, whether it be the bizarre sexual tension between Ken and Ryu (BLASPHEMY! - Andy) or the Master Chief killing half the universe while never changing his clothes. Fact and fiction need to be intertwined so that your partner’s concept of the real world is so warped and twisted, she believes that crazy homeless people are hunting her, to which she fends them off with a with a gumball machine she found in an abandoned bowling alley, even though she owns a gun.

3. Offer to let them have a go
This is going to be the biggest test to any relationship, letting her have her wicked way with your… erm… controller. Now what started as a good idea turns into a rental of your equipment while you want to use it. This is good in certain circumstances but in this case can be catastrophic if she decides that she wants to smash Piñata for the next four hours before sending Lara off a cliff for the 353,000th time in five minutes. This step should be approached with caution and all annoying games need to be destroyed or hidden in a safe at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

4. Play co-op with them
To regain control of your console (second pad is required) you need to pick a game with a co-op mode, preferably one that you want to play and play it all the way through. One of two things will happen, the first being you will kill everything as your partner runs around looking at the scenery or running from enemies like OJ from the police, or the second being that she will kill everything and make you look like an idiot (in the event that the second happens never touch a console again and flog yourself in embarrassment). Either scenario will bring about a good time and quick completion of the game at which point you need to buy another game to secure your place as king for the next millennia and securing world domination. It may also be a good idea to pit your new partner in crime against a horde of real people in an online mode to regain your superiority. Caution should once again be taken as this provides a different level of gaming and could result in several “I can’t do it” and a few million “I’ve been got”.

5. Buy them their own console because they keep borrowing yours
This is essential when you come home to find your partner in a love affair with your once prized possession. No longer will you be the centre of attention for either your partner or your console so drastic measures need to be taken or you may be forgotten by both. To stop your console being passed around like a dancer in a strip club, spend the money so your partner has her own toy to play with (additional screen is a must). Create her a profile, lock her in a room, and go back to your daily sessions of weapons training and military tactics while awaiting the next apocalypse (additional copies of games with multiplayer will be required as she will want to play all the same games as you).

If you have taken the time to follow the above instructions you will find that you have turned your partner into not only a gamer but an addict. The hours of comparing online stats and achievements will be essential to your daily routine and playing ‘who’s the better killer’ is a fun way to add extra enjoyment to your relationship. The above guide will only be useful if your partner has opposable thumbs (imaginary girlfriends can’t hold game pads).

Subject to what you may have read, Kirsty, my partner, is actually quite the gamer. No longer scared of online gaming and is something of a mean shot on Call of Duty. What started as a way to bring her into my world gave her a deeper understanding about my passions. Unfortunately she is now having sniper training for real for the times when I really annoy her (all the time).

Editors Note: This article originally appeared on www.thisismyjoystick.com