What's On Weekend - Evening Chronicle entertainment blog

Look ahead: Gaming in 2013

2012-12-31T12:00:00Z

IF 2012 felt like a bit of a let-down due to the number of insipid, idea-light sequels, 2013 is hopefully shaping up to be a veritable rebirth for many a recognised name.

BioShock Infinite, DmC: Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Tomb Raider and even Sim City should all be here with their franchise reboots before spring is out.

While the fruits of Kickstarter's crowd-sourced funding should begin to bear fruition with the return of fan favourites in the form of Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse and Carmageddon: Reincarnation.

Of course, sequels will play their part too, but the prospect of games like Grand Theft Auto V and Crysis 3 seem to offer more promise than yet another Call of Duty.

All of that is before you even consider what newcomer could stake its claim for a place among the established elite ... or that by next Christmas there may be Xbox 720s or PS4s sitting proudly in living rooms.

Yes, it's that time of year for unbridled optimism, and with so much potential on the horizon we look at the pick of what's coming over the next 12 months.

THE REBOOTS

Tomb Raider: Controversy hit the game after suggestions by one of its producers - later denied - that it contains an "attempted rape" scene, but look beyond that an the game promises an open world environment, complete with side quests, in which to explore the origins of one of gaming's biggest heroines.
DmC: Devil May Cry: Capcom's blond- haired hack-and-slash hero Dante goes all emo in this return to console as, waking up from a hangover, he must fight his way out of a seemingly sentient town. Expect the usual blend of button-mashing combo action when it arrives in about a fortnight's time.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance: Ignoring the stupid title, this looks like a new direction for the Metal Gear series. Set four years after Guns of the Patriots, you play as Raiden, trying to stop a terrorist military organisation one slice of your katana at a time. With so much action and much less stealth, quite whether this will work remains to be seen.
BioShock Infinite: Is it a sequel or is it a reboot? Either way it looks a cracker. Swapping the underwater city of Rapture for the airborn Columbia, it tells a completely new story, set in the early 20th Century. If you have not seen the brooding Close-Encounters- meets-horror-movie first five minutes that's online, you should go and seek it out now.

SimCity: It's been a while since the age- old life-sapping god Sim was on screens, but it's good to have it back. New 3D graphics and multi-player are among the improvements.

THE SEQUELS

GTA V: It's been four years since a proper Grand Theft Auto instalment on console and in that time Rockstar has learnt a few new tricks.
This time around there's three main characters to play as they go in pursuit of "the almighty American dollar," and expect some of the lessons garnered from Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire to feed into the usual un-PC criminal mayhem.

Metro: Last Light: The sequel to 2010's unfortunately ignored survival horror, action, first-person shooter, Metro: 2033, Last Light has been building buzz, with a live-action trailer receiving more than 3.7m views online. We can't wait to step back into the Russian tunnels and start fighting ghouls of both the supernatural and human variety - though as the release date has already slipped from last summer to March 2013, we're not going to hold our breath.

Crysis 3: If there was a prize for "dystopia of the year developer" Crytek would be first in line. The game sees protagonist Prophet return to New York only to find the city encased in a giant dome a-la The Simpsons Movie and turned into a giant rainforest.

THE NEWCOMER

Watch Dogs: An open-world game from the team behind Far Cry and Assassin's Creed would be interesting enough even before you throw in an unusual hacking and surveillance mechanic that brings back memories of Deus Ex or Enter the Matrix. Following the dearth of originality from the big studios in 2012 it's welcome to see Ubisoft try something new.

THE BEST OF THE REST

Dead Space 3; Aliens: Colonial Marines; God of War: Ascension; Dead Island: Riptide; Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2; The Eldar Scrolls Online; Lost Planet 3; Pikmin 3; Splinter Cell: Blacklist; Total War.

Look back: Gaming in 2012

2012-12-24T12:00:00Z

IT'S been a difficult year for the games industry.

For the first time, as the Xbox 360 and PS3 are approaching the end of their lifespans, there has been something of a recession in Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo's virtual kingdoms.

Studios have been closed, merged or sold, with some high-profile casualties, and it's fair to say developers have pretty much hit the limits of the current generation hardware, with the Wii U and PS Vita hardly pushing the envelope.

Indeed, while games like Halo 4 looked sumptuous, considering how far technology has moved on, things are beginning to look a little dated.

And with no more graphical improvements to make, focus has turned more to gameplay and story, which has caused problems for some of the major game franchises.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II may have sold by the truckload and its multiplayer was as polished as ever, but the single player seemed a tired retread of ideas and set pieces we've all seen before interspersed with scenes of sadistic violence that added little but evoke controversy.

Controversial too, though for much different reasons, was Mass Effect 3. Yes, the ending annoyed a lot of people but, gripes about that aside, Bioware's conclusion to their grand space opera was a very good game - and for any sci-fi, action or RPG fan who's not played the trilogy, it would be a great last minute gift to find under the tree come Christmas morning.

Dishonored too deserves mention, as in a year of so few new ideas from the big publishers, Bethesda weren't afraid to let some of the creatives behind classics like Deus Ex and Half Life 2 try their hand at producing a Thief-type assassination-em-up for the modern age.

And though I am slightly ashamed of myself for saying it, Saints Row: The Third was ludicrously enjoyable - thanks to being just plain ludicrous. With a storyline that seemed one part damning satire of the cult of celebrity to three parts driving down a road naked in a tank, it wasn't exactly one for the kids.

Yet despite all the "proper games", 2012 will probably be best remembered for being a year in which downloadable games really came into their own and a collaboration between a gamesmaker and toy firm paid off in spades.

Of course, the likes of Limbo had made inroads before now but this year brought games like Journey, available on the Playstation Network for PS3, a stirring, affecting, wordless trek across a desolate landscape that proved how powerful the most basic of storytelling can be, and Telltale's episodic The Walking Dead, which forced players to make difficult moral choices.

Independent games also saw a boost with more and more projects finding funding through the Kickstarter website, though the fruits of such crowd-sourced investment are still months or even years away.

But the great success story has to be Activision and Toys for Bob's Skylanders series.

As an idea it seemed a slightly cynical one - we even said so in our initial review - to market a game to kids that required parents to buy extra toys in order to unlock all of its content.

And if both Spyro's Adventure and Giants had been just another bland kids' game then it probably would have been, but sitting down as a family to play them you realise their simple platforming is well designed, well scripted and remarkably addictive and most of all fun.

It seems to have had more love lavished on it than most other kids titles - with the possible exception of this years Lego Batman 2 and Lego Lord of the Rings, which both deserve honorable mentions - enough so that adding one or two more characters to your set, especially when they are tangible, robust models that children can play with independent of the game, doesn't seem too exorbitant.

But while Skylanders Giants may be our Game of the Year, we'll admit that it's not the game we've returned to time and time again. For that, you have to look to another collaboration ... Star Wars Angry Birds.

Rovio's leap into a galaxy far, far away is as maddeningly, infuriating and enjoyable as our first experiences of the franchise. And for 69p it has to go down as a stellar buy.

Review: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

2012-12-17T12:00:00Z

SONY'S PLAYSTATION has a long and distinguished heritage that deserves to be celebrated as much as that of rival Nintendo.

Through three generations of consoles, families have welcomed the likes of Lara Croft, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and a myriad of Final Fantasy characters into their lives. So the idea of a Super Smash Bros Brawl type retrospective, though hardly original, would seem a welcome one.

But what you end up with in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is perhaps not quite what you'd expect - not least because it omits icons of the Playstation generation.

The roster of 20 is undoubtedly the first thing you'll notice and it's nice to see PaRappa the Rapper and MediEvil's Sir Daniel making an appearance alongside memorable modern-day characters like Kratos from God of War and Sackboy from Little Big Planet.

But many of the rest are dull - Uncharted's Nathan Drake is after all just a man with a gun, while Metal Gear's Raiden is hardly the most charismatic - to the obscure likes of Fat Princess and Toro, and downright plugs for forthcoming games - Yes, new emo Dante from Devil May Cry and Big Daddy from Bioshock: Infinite, we're looking at you.

You can appreciate the licensing issues that probably prevented the inclusion of established names, but their absence is a shame.

Still, developer SuperBot Entertainment have made the most of the hand they've been dealt and, for better or worse, managed to make a game that stands on it's own.

Each character, with the exception of Cole and Evil Cole from Infamous, play differently and the range of attacks is far closer to a traditional fighter than you might expect.

However, the decision to make it so that only "super attacks" - which charge up as you deal damage - can knock out an opponent will be a Marmite moment, not least because if you fail to land your killer blow it feels like the previous few minutes pummelling was all for nothing.

PASBR is a fighting game let down by it's line-up and it's super attacks mechanic that, while undoubtedly differentiating it from the likes of Smash Bros, will alienate players.

In the end its attempt to blend more traditional fighting elements leaves it a neither as nuanced as a "proper" fighter, nor as accessible as it's main rival.

Worth a look if you are a fan of the characters involved but perhaps a case of jack of all trades, master of none.

Review: Halo 4

2012-11-06T12:00:00Z

By Douglas Young

When we last saw super soldier Master Chief he was left frozen aboard the UNSC spaceship Forward Unto Dawn waiting for a time when he was once again needed. Well he's in for a very rude awakening.

Once more the universe's fate rest upon the shoulder of humanity's super Spartan. This time he's got more to do then just wipe out the Covenant waves of soldiers, but you wouldn't guess it from the first two hours of the game.

Halo 4 starts out with master chief being woken from his frozen slumber by his panicked A.I. companion Cortana. Believe it or not this is the first clue as to the real story of Halo 4.

This time it's not about the Master Chief, it's about his A.I. Cortana and she's starting to suffer from rampancy, a condition where an A.I.'s knowledge base expand beyond capacity after seven years and they 'think themselves to death'.

Of course this gradually plays out as fight your way through, what I have to say is, the best thought out campaign and story in the Halo universe to date. Not to say that it's without it's flaws but more of that later.

From the moment you start to wander through the wreckage of the Forward Unto Dawn you'll realise just how far the graphics, animations and lighting in Halo have come, it's really quite awe inspiring.

Your ship's under attack and it's not to much of a spoiler say you find yourself crash landing on a Forerunner planet.

Unlike other 'modern shooters' Halo tends to be more open in it's approach. Giving the player objectives and a set out route, but allowing players to fight in more open environments. Allowing more weapon choice and pretty much saying 'have fun!'

Of course it is still scripted and you still get funneled to exactly the same place but it's often a hell of a lot fun getting there. As usual for a Halo game there are vehicles lying around the landscape, just begging to be used and I have to say that if there a chance to jump in a Banshee, Wraith, Ghost or Warthog then I'm going to take it.

But the nicest thing about halo it the new enemy and the weapons they bring. The Promethean's crop up fairly early on and bring with them a whole new subset of weapons to play with. As you pick up the first gun and watch it literally build itself in you hands you can't help but smile. Ok they're still clones of the other two race's guns with a new look but they're beautiful to watch in action.

Another beefed up thing in Halo 4 is the enemy A.I. Expect all the levels to be one step higher than before, i.e. Normal the new Heroic, Heroic the new Legendary and Legendary the 'almost impossibly hard'.

One of the things new developer 343 Industries have nailed is mixing up the gameplay. Just as you start to tire of shooting you'll get the next beautiful cutscene story moment, given a mission driving a Scorpion or riding on the impossibly huge mammoth. It's clear that Microsoft opened their wallet and developer spent that money very well indeed.

My only annoyance it the oldest of all Halo cliches. Fight-drive to a point, press a button, fight-drive to a point, insert Cortana in a computer, fight-drive to a point, press a button. There has to be something else they could do but maybe we'll see that in the next game on the inevitable new console.

As for multiplayer well not Halo game is complete without it and Halo 4 is no exception. I'll admit that as of the time of writing this review I've not been able to fully explore the multiplayer side of the game as there's no one with the game yet to play. But what I have played of the new story led Spartan Ops locally and glimpses of the multiplayer I've seen, it looks as complete if not greater than all of it's predecessors.

I have to admit that Halo 3 left me a little cold to the franchise. I felt that the Gears of Wars series had stolen it's thunder as the must have game for Xbox players. Halo 4 changes that, this is without doubt the finest most beautiful game to ever hit the Xbox and a must have if you a fan of the series or just shooters in general.

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Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: 343 Industries
Format: Xbox 360

Rating: Five out of five

Interview: Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson talks NUFC and FM2013

2012-11-05T12:35:00Z

As Football Manager 2013 arrives on PC, the man behind the "glorified spreadsheet," Miles Jacobson, chats about 20 years in the digital dugout, Graham Carr's uncanny knack for unearthing new Newcastle United stars and who he thinks the next generation of Magpies talent will be.

MUCH of Newcastle United's recent success has been put down to the seemingly incredible knowledge of chief scout Graham Carr.

But while many have questioned how he keeps unearthing such cheap and wonderful talents, fans of Sports Interactive's Football Manager series think they may have an idea.

While Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Cisse and co may all have seemed like leftfield signings, their skills were clear to the legions of armchair bosses from as long as a decade ago.

"With Newcastle, we're still not sure whether Graham Carr just has similar scouts to us in France or if he keeps buying a copy of the game because a lot of the players the club keep signing are already well-known to people who've been playing Football Manager," said Miles Jacobson, the passionate Watford fan and managing director of the studio which celebrates its 20th year with today's release of Football Manager 2013.

"It's scary to think how good Hatem Ben Arfa could become if he lived up to the potential we saw in him."

Twenty-five-year-old Ben Arfa first appeared in the game when he was 16, but it's not just in their mid-teens when the FM scouts take an interest in clubs' junior players.

Miles said that while child protection laws prevent any real-life under 16s from appearing in the game, by the time they do it is possible they could already have been scouted for the best part of five years.

"We'd scouted players like Ben Arfa well before that, just like we knew about Lionel Messi when he joined Barcelona aged 12," he said.

"But we have to do that. If we want people to believe in the game and that they are in a real-world simulation then there is no point having players made up at those ages."

Chatting to Miles, you see that two decades on he has the same passion for the series, and for football, that he had as a young 20-something back in the early 90s. Anticipating the launch of the new game, he jokes that if it flops he'll have to go and get a "real job", though seeing as the Football Manager series - still affectionately called Champ Man by those who remember the days before Sports Interactive fell out with then publisher Eidos - has repeatedly broken sales records on PC, he's unlikely to be spotted at a job centre any time soon.

In fact, with 1,000 scouts in 51 countries compiling information on around 530,000 players and staff, he's probably as much a part of football as a pie and a pint at half-time and pretty much has a job for life.

Clubs even come to him for help to find their next players - and that's not including the ones who are quietly buying the game and sneakily scouting players on the sly.

Miles said the company officially license the game's database to Everton to aid their search for players, as well as a number of other clubs who prefer to remain anonymous.

"I'd have thought anyone in football who doesn't have a copy is missing out as if a club looks to sign a player they'll check stats books on them and information on the internet, so why not have the resources of an extra 1,000 scouts?" he said.

Miles even said these days the old accusations of an Everton bias - which certainly existed in the early days of Championship Manager when Toffees fans Paul and Oliver Collyer were coding the game - could be put to rest as so many people now worked on the games, but occasionally their assessments could still prove prescient.

"Paul and Oliver aren't allowed near that part of the database, just as I'm not allowed near the Watford stats. And any bias is just not there any more.

"Though last season we were actually accused of having a Newcastle bias and look how that turned out on the pitch. Newcastle are very good on paper and in Alan Pardew have a manager who can really motivate."

Miles said if Newcastle fans are looking for the next generation of stars they need only look across the channel to Belgium.

The country has produced phenomenal talent including Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Manchester City's Vincent Kompany - and all eyes are now on upcoming youngsters there.

As for his own team, he's just happy to finally have a sense of financial stability.

"This is probably the first time in 10 years I'm not worried about Watford going bust," he said.

"The new Italian owners have brought financial stability and have a good track record with other clubs. As a fan that gives you confidence - as I'm sure Newcastle fans have now they're back in the black."

Miles backed moves toward the greater commercialisation of football - including deals like the Toon's Wonga shirt sponsorship - if it helps keep things affordable for supporters.

"I don't think being more commercial is that bad, but you've got to reach out and find the right products to partner with. It's all about creating value for money for fans - something we try to do with Football Manager.

"People are having to graft increasingly hard just to earn a living, so if something can be done to keep prices down it should be encouraged.

"On average, people played Football Manager 2012 for 129 hours, which seems pretty good value to me."

This year's FM sees biggest changes in years, with the introduction of a Classic Mode, created Miles said, after staff at Sports Interactive realised their family lives meant they no longer had as much time to play.

And he hoped even casual players may be tempted to discover what they're missing and find the next generation of stars - fuelling plenty of pub debates along the way.

Review: Football Manager 2013

2012-11-05T12:30:00Z

"SOME people believe football is a matter of life and death," said Liverpool's legendary manager Bill Shankly. "I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

For players of Sports Interactive's "glorified spreadsheet" you could easily add the word "manager" to that first sentence as yes, with another autumn here again so too comes the obligatory update to the game affectionately still called "Champ Man".

Except to somehow lump Football Manager 2013 in with the likes of Fifa and Pro Evo's yearly innovation-light annual rehashes would seem to do it a disservice, as what can easily be one of the most time-sapping experiences has in its 20th year, if you'll pardon the cliche, become a game of two halves and all the more accessible for it.

The first half if you will, "Sim Mode", should be familiar to anyone who has managed to keep up with the increasingly complex series of late. Take over a club, buy and sell players, hire and fire a small army of staff, design detailed training and tactical regimes to prepare your squad, and try to keep the dressing room together while attending press conferences, staff meetings and being summoned by the board.

It seems the full managerial experience, short of donning a tracksuit and heading out for a cold Tuesday on the training ground - so much so that Dumbarton chief executive Gilbert Lawrie recently bemoaned how 75% of the applications for his club's vacant managerial post came from FM players! It's great, but not that great.

This outing sees welcome changes to the matchday experience, with constant advice from your assistant manager popping up to tell you if things are going tactically awry rather than have to try and judge from the still glitchy 3D presentation. Other tweaks make touchline management feel as important as the between-game sections.

Perhaps less welcome is that scouting is now more complicated and the training system has been overhauled, requiring more input to see the best results.

But it seems wrong to complain about the depth of Sim Mode when there is the new Classic Mode alongside it.

Turning back the clock about 15 years, the new addition strips away much of the time-consuming frippery to try to appeal to new and lapsed players.

Again it's a welcome change, as it means you can actually play through a season in an afternoon rather than crawling along at a sub-Emile Heskey pace - and it recaptures a lot of the fun that has been lost as the series has striven for more and more realism.

But it's not just one new game mode that's arrived on the scene. The new Challenge Mode offers short, sharp, usually half-season bursts of Classic play, which you can easily blast through in the same time as it probably takes to play a Sim Mode pre-season.

Consider too the much improved multiplayer options and, for the first time, online leaderboards so you can test yourself against the best in the world, and once again Football Manager is the complete package for anyone with an interest in football.

Yes, if you're a trigger-happy so-and-so then FM is still the "glorified spreadsheet" it always was, but never has it looked so lovely or been so enthralling and accessible.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sports Interactive
Format: PC

Rating: Five out of five

Review: Nike+ Kinect Training

2012-11-05T12:00:00Z

LYING on the floor of your living room, breathless and dripping with sweat is not really gaming as we know it. But then again that's true of Nike+ Kinect Training in many ways.

As anyone who's ever thought it a good idea to trade in gym membership for a fitness game can attest, even the mighty Wii Fit is never a true substitute for exercise.

Wafting round with a PS Move controller, a Wiimote or frustratedly trying to get a Kinect to properly track your movements can see you hot and bothered, but probably not in any meaningful way.

This however is different. It's good. Really good. Nike have worked with Microsoft to rejig the Kinect's algorithms to make it more accurate and it shows.

Little nuances don't seem to get lost even when you're doing detailed floor work, which takes a lot of the frustration away, and then there's the actual meat of the game, which regardless of your fitness will likely beast you.

The concept is hardly original, placing a virtual personal trainer in your living room, but what is novel is how well it works.

Starting out, you pick whether you want a male or female trainer, opt for one of three goals - get strong, get toned or get lean - and plumb in a few vital statistics. You are then subjected to a series of diagnostic exercises designed to test your range of movement and overall fitness.

It's a pretty intense introduction, even for say someone who rows and runs half marathons, but it somehow gives you confidence that the game might actually do what it claims.

Following the assessment the game generates a personalised fitness programme based on when you think you will be free to bounce and stretch in front of your telly.

Even if you miss a scheduled session the game reshuffles the calendar automatically, so there's no excuse not to keep playing.

But, as usual with a Kinect game, the sensor wants you to be stood somewhere in the next county, and so constantly tells you to move back, which can irritate, and you'll likely need to also buy some form of fitness mat if you don't want to break your knees on a hard floor.

Yet both problems are solvable, and even coupled with the cost of the game, in total you're not looking at more than the price of probably two months gym membership.

With the dark cold nights closing in and for many people a winter fitness slump beckoning, it's hard not to recommend Nike+ Kinect Training.

So crack out your gym kit and get ready to feel the burn.

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Publisher: Microsoft
Format: Xbox 360 Kinect

Rating: Five out of five

Review: Sports Champions 2

2012-11-05T11:30:00Z

WII Sports is the best-selling video game of all time, shifting 79.6m copies. Putting that into context, that's more than the first three Halos, all three Gears of War, the Uncharted series, the last four Final Fantasies and the original Pokemon combined.

So naturally when Sony launched the Wiimote-like PS Move they wanted a sports game and that was Sports Champions. But like Wii Sports Resort, the game somewhat fell down in its choice of activities - disc golf and bocce ball were never really going to cut the mustard.

But now two years on, Sports Champions 2 is here to try again and, while not that inspiring, it does at least feel like a fitting successor to Nintendo's behemoth.

This time round boxing, golf, bowling, skiing, and tennis join the original's main success, archery, and it seems developer Zindagi have spent time listening to criticisms of the first game and making the most of each.

While Wii bowling and boxing could be a hit-or-miss experience due to the inaccuracy of their controls, here they feel more natural than ever - though whether that's a good thing or not may depend on your skill on the lanes. Archery too remains a joy.

The major criticism though is simply that to truly get the most out of the game requires two PS Move controllers, and considering the dearth of titles that make decent use of the technology requiring such an investment seems a little shameless on Sony's part.

Does Sports Champions 2 do enough to carve a name for itself despite its all-conquering forbear? Well, perhaps pensioners won't be rushing out to buy PS3s just yet.

But if you already own a PS Move, then Sports Champions 2 is probably about the best reason for having it.

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Publisher: Sony
Format: PS3

Rating: Three out of five.

Review: Silent Hill Downpour & HD Collection

2012-03-30T19:00:00Z

HAUNTED houses tap into a primal fear - by their very nature a home should be a safe and welcoming environment, but add a few ghosts and ghouls and even the most hardy quickly quiver under a blanket.

And unlike the Resident Evils, Silent Hill has always understood that throwing a relatively helpless everyman into the eponymous town packed with nightmares that exist often in the players own mind is a far more effective scare tactic than trained killers taking on the virus-mutated undead.

Unfortunately, it seems that someone forgot to tell this to Czech developers Vatra Games, whose efforts to introduce more combat in the series latest outing, Downpour, unsettle the traditional "flight over fight" dynamic.

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In fairness to the rookie developer you can kind of see what they were thinking - people like shooters and beating enemies to a bloody pulp and so you give them the option to take up arms against the creatures from beneath your bed.

Alas the combat turns out to be a frustratingly mediocre affair, with weapons degenerating at a ridiculously rapid rate - often breaking in the middle of a fight - and the whole affair feeling rather unwieldy.

Perhaps the hope was by making the fights so little fun it would force people to run away, but that's hardly a logic anyone should endorse.

However that is not to say there aren't some sparks of what fans would be hoping for and indeed when the game sticks more closely to the established formula it does quite well. Probably the most praiseworthy aspect, and the one which makes it stand out from the other three games released since Silent Hill one to four's developer Team Silent went, well, silent, is that it treats the town as some form of malevolent entity in its own right, rather than just a scary backdrop where a guy with a pyramid for a head jumps out and says "Boo!".

Ultimately the Silent Hill series is much like film star Eddie Murphy - fans long for a return to the days of 48hrs and Beverley Hills Cop but keep getting Pluto Nash, or in the case of Downpour, perhaps a Dreamgirls.

All of which does beg the question why anyone would buy Downpour, when at the same time Konami are releasing a new HD version of Silent Hill 2 and 3.

The series second outing really was it's finest hour with James Sunderland drawn to the town by a letter from his dead wife.

Little of what made the game great in the first place has changed, though now it's augmented by better graphics and voice acting that's no longer laughable. The tension and fear it generates barely let up throughout, and it's cerebral horrors leave you conjuring most of the jump scares yourself.

But a lack of evolution is also a double-edged sword, with obtuse puzzles and objectives, as well as unwieldy controls possibly proving a barrier for non- nostalgics. Including Silent Hill 3 is really just the icing on an already impressive cake.

Slower and initially less focussed than its predecessor, it still, if you give it a chance, delivers all the foreboding music, dark atmosphere and memorable characters enduring shocking scenes you'd expect.

As psychological horrors go you'll have some way to go to beat Silent Hill HD Collection - Downpour shows just how far the series still has to go to recapture it's glory days.

Tuesday Top 3 - Scariest levels

2012-03-20T12:00:00Z

NEXT week sees the return of gaming horror stalwart Silent Hill, but it'll have to go some way to beat the scares conjured up by the best horror levels ever.

]]> CRADLE(Thief 3)

The penultimate level of 2004's Thief 3 is undoubtedly gaming's greatest haunted house. As the titular bandit Garret comments the old Shalebridge orphanage-cum-insane asylum is a "house with bad dreams" and as you wander it's corridors you're immersed in a world full of the spirits of restless madmen, deranged doctors and abandoned children.

The fact it turns up in a game that's not even strictly horror makes it all the more memorable and anyone who's played it looks back on it with a shiver.

RAVENHOLM(Half Life 2)

"We don't go there anymore" is the ominous warning as you pass the entrance to the former mining town in Valve's excellent Half Life 2.

But forced into it's darkened streets Gordon Freeman must contend with zombies, headcrabs and the devious traps of lunatic priest Father Grigori as he "tends to his flock".

HOTEL HALLOWBROOK (Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines)

The game may have been more than a bug or two short of greatness but Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines does lay claim to a beautifully creepy and atmospheric level in Hell at the Hallowbrook Hotel.

The fact it manages to create such apprehension when, as a creature of the night, you yourself are something that goes bump in the night, is a testament to it's effectiveness.

Review: Twisted Metal

2012-03-16T12:00:00Z

COULROPHOBICS may want to look away now as after four years psychotic clown Sweet Tooth and the rest of the Twisted Metal misfits are back.
Fans of the series (not the clown-phobic) will be pleased to know that despite the jump to PS3 gameplay has survived pretty much exactly as it was in the series PS One days.
But for everyone else - which, it's safe to say probably won't be families with young children looking for an alternative to Mario Kart - despite the giddy abandon of vehicular mayhem that brings - that may seem rather like damning with faint praise.

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Like past outings Twisted Metal revolves around a deadly competition in which the worst of humanity enter a car combat contest to win a single wish.

This time around that only sees three characters - serial killer Sweet Tooth, violent criminal Mr Grimm and disfigured catwalk model Dollface joining up, with short, carnage-filled story arcs for each.

The game's origin as a download-only, multi-player-only offering are unfortunately clear as the single-player mode is incredibly lightweight and graphics that might only really be acceptable in a £5 PSN timewaster.

Physics too seem to have been ripped direct from the 1990s, with cars bouncing into the air for seemingly random reasons and while time and attention has clearly been spent on the destructive side of the game the driving aspects are overly simplistic and a tad frustrating particularly on the, thankfully few, race levels.

But, having got past the idea of skull motorcycles and a hearse that launches exploding coffins, to so easily dismiss Twisted Metal on such factors is to kind of miss its point.

Stepping online, or into a multi-player battle with your friends, the game comes into it's own. Supporting up to 16 players and even sporting two and four-way split-screen action, Twisted Metal really is the only game in town for those who enjoy widespread virtual vehicular homicide.

The levels and 13 or so cars are varied enough and allow virtually any style of play, and game modes range from the traditional free-for-all and team death matches to new addition, nuke, which sees teams capturing their opposition leader, dragging him back and launching him in a missile!

All in all Twisted Metal is quite a strange proposition ... not meaty enough in its single player, nor adept enough as a driving game to truly satisfy, but get a few mates together and, in a dirty, retro way you'll have a blast.

You just might feel the need to shower afterwards.

Top 3: Game stories

2012-03-13T12:00:00Z

AFTER last week's release of Mass Effect 3 concluded one of the greatest stories in gaming, we look at other titles that put plot before pixels.

]]> Deus Ex

"Civilisation is on the verge of collapse, the world economy is in chaos and terrorism runs rampant," screamed the oddly prophetic box blurb for Ion Storm's 2000 cyberpunk shooter.

Throwing you into the role of cyborg UN agent JC Denton, the globetrotting tale referenced everything from alien conspiracies to Greek mythology and was a true PC classic. Subsequent console sequels never lived up to the original's Matrix-esque levels of cool.

Grim Fandango

The last of LucasArts' great adventure games, the film noir take on Aztec beliefs on the afterlife hoovered up game of the year awards like they were going out of fashion. Written by gaming god Tim Schafer, the story spanned Manny Calavera's four-year trek across the Land of the Dead and featured many a memorable moment.

Portal/Portal 2

At it's heart just a physics puzzle - like a Rolex is just a watch - the Portal titles benefit primarily from having one of gaming's best, and most memorable, villains - GLaDOS.

Her constant abusing of protagonist Chell was genuinely funny, while the final song is simply the icing on a very impressive cake.

Disagree? Tell us your favourites in the comment section below

Review: Mass Effect 3

2012-03-09T12:00:00Z

FEW games arrive with the sort of hype which surrounds Bioware's concluding part of their grand sci-fi opus and even fewer actually deserve it.
And after the magnificent Mass Effect and the even better Mass Effect 2 - arguably two of the greatest games ever made - the bar has been set astronomically high.

]]> But while not perfect the return of Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy is a truly incredible feat that builds its predecessors and rounds out the story with aplomb.

The Reapers, an ancient race of machines hell bent on destroying all organic life in the galaxy, are back and after a devastating opening in which they blitz the Earth, the heroes are dispatched to draw together the myriad of alien races who all face extinction unless they pull together.

While sounding a simple premise, anyone who knows the series can attest to the fact that no Mass Effect ever skimps on the story and for the 40hours or so it might take to complete in its entirety the game immerses you in a tale that is the equal or better of the best efforts on page or screen.

Unlike Mass Effect 2, this time Shepard's mission is far less personal but far more epic as every action and moral choice has far reaching consequences for the galaxy. By helping individuals, armies, governments and entire races, Shepard collects War Assets and slowly builds a higher and higher level of galactic readiness, which all feeds into the final fight to rid the universe of the mechanical menace.

Of course, with save games and all the choices you made importable from game one to two to three the experience is all the richer if you are willing to go back to the beginning and play through from the start but even tackling this third instalment on its own the sheer depth of character and plot is astounding. Add to that almost universally great voice acting and a beautifully orchestrated score and the game is the icing on a very impressive cake.

Few games deserve their hype and fewer still meet expectations but Mass Effect 3 does all of that and more. It may not be the best game ever - but that's an argument that will rage for some time to come.

REVIEW: UFC Undisputed 3

2012-02-17T12:00:00Z

FORGET your Street Fighters and Soul Calibers, when it comes to brawling there's just something more satisfying about real grown men pummelling each other.
That's true be it pay per view boxing or the increasingly popular world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and it's largest exponents, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

And over recent years the UFC Undisputed series has undoubtedly been a credit to the sport it digitally replicates.

But after a rather mediocre outing following THQ's attempts to push the franchise to a more profitable Fifa-esque yearly update, many fans have been left wondering what this latest effort would bring.

]]>

Straight out the gate it is clear that a step back from annual releases has proved a good move.

While last time we found ourselves in the Octagon the controls were fiddly, the learning curve cliff-like and the overall experience less than satisfying, developer Yuke's seems to have looked hard at what people were actually enjoying, thrown out the rest and rebuilt.

The choice of amateur or pro controls is a welcome concession to beginners or those more casually acquainted with the sport, who have neither the time or desire to learn the complexities of old.

But while simplifying some aspects UFC never feels dumbed down, with a more than comprehensive roster of well over 100 fighters across seven weight divisions to choose from, and features coming out of it's bloody and probably ringing ears.

The inclusion of the defunct Japanese MMA Pride league, complete with its own rules and fighters is a great diversion.

And the introduction of training minigames to determine stats is a definite improvement over what they had before.

If there is any criticism it could be that beyond working your way up to become heavyweight champion there is no particularly compelling story to proceedings, but that will hardly matter if you get a group of UFC fans together on a sofa, or head online, to prove your steel against one another.

You may not know the sport, it's certainly not the more family friendly cartoon violence of a Marvel vs Capcom, but for anyone who enjoys a good beat 'em up it's then you'll be hard pushed to find a better one.

Review: Field Music, The Cluny

2012-02-13T11:14:22Z

Field Music packed out the 300-capacity Cluny twice this weekend, as they become further established as favourites in the North East music scene and acclaim grows for their meticulous and unmistakable music.

]]> Last night's show was on the eve of the release of a fourth album, Plumb. It follows on musically from the last, Measure, but where on this double-album they allowed some of the songs to spread out a little bit, their newest returns to cramming a huge number of ideas into a small space: 15 tracks fly past in 35 minutes. The tunes and beats are if anything even more off-the-wall ("counterintuitive" is a good word used in a couple of the reviews), but a feeling of regret and sadness is still present in the middle of all the unbounded inventiveness.

On the evidence of last night the new material matches the old, with the two singles I Keep Thinking (About A New Thing) and A New Town popular. These are among the most accessible, with the first a fairly straightforward guitar-led rock song and the second held together by a funky, though skewed, guitar line. Though I might wonder about how a song with multiple time signatures is made and hangs together, it's a relief to hear a settled 4/4 beat sometimes. Just Like Everyone Else just about fits in this category and it is my favourite at the moment, an insistent rhythm holding down floating chords and sad melody.

The set dipped into the three previous albums and David Brewis' album released under the name School of Language, with the Brewis brothers swapping around on drums and lead guitar or piano, longstanding member Kevin Dosdale on keys and guitar and new band member Andrew Lowther on bass. The only thing was that the sound didn't seem quite right to me, with the bass coming through very strong and a couple of guitar bits (especially the brilliant solo at the end of Share the Words) getting slightly lost.

Three of the early Field Music singles you might have anticipated hearing, If Only the Moon Were Up, A House Is Not A Home and You Can Decide, were left out as there was a surprise planned for the encore. Former piano player Andy Moore (who left at the end of 2007) came onstage so they could play things from the first two albums "properly". They seemed to really enjoy revisiting these as a five and it was a great way to end.

Field Music definitely craft unique and innovative songs, and for all it is unpredictable it is always pop music and gives you some kind of hook to hold onto. After last night I was thinking perhaps a Mercury Prize nomination might be a fitting reward...